"'this'" is English (foreign to Amestris)

chapter 15: a journey home
summary: Ed, Al, and Alucard make their way to Resembool

He dropped into the chair with a grunt, massaging his leg and eyeing his little brother. Alphonse was curled up under a mound of blankets, for all appearances dead to the world. Ed wasn't fooled for a second. "Y'know, you really should be sleeping Al."

Amber peeked out at him, a slight smirk on the thin boy's lips. "I know. Sorry, brother."

Ed snorted as Al sat up, fully dressed. "Where are you going?"

"With you."

He paused in the methodical rubbing of his thigh. "And where do you think I'm going?"

"Resembool. Someone has to make sure Winry doesn't skin you alive for breaking another one of her legs."

Ed winced at the thought. "Yea, she's going to be pissed. And you know she'll never believe me when I tell her it wasn't my fault."

Al nodded, pulling his knees to his chest. "So what did Roy have to say?"

He rubbed a hand over his face. The colonel hadn't bothered with sugar coating anything in the debriefing he'd just returned from, and he couldn't help but wonder if Alucard had done something to make the man so…grave. "There's a good chance that anyone in Central could have been infected before the attack here. And even with the quarantine protocol they're going to put into place, it's likely only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. The Fuhrer won't shut down Central for fear of starting a nationwide panic, not without more proof."

"But what happens if it gets out? If it spreads to the other cities, to…" Al winced, clearly thinking of Resembool, just as Ed had when he'd first heard the news.

"If it doesn't, then we have thousands of hysterical people making our jobs harder." He scowled, not liking it at all. "Apparently it's better to keep people in the dark than to own up and let the threat be known. I get the point, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it."

"How are they going to implement a quarantine without letting the public know?"

"Some made up bullshit in the paper."

"And the attack on the hospital?"

"A cover story. Didn't say what, but I can only imagine it's going to be about as much bullshit as whatever they say to get people into quarantine."

"And Alucard?"

"Haven't seen him since….I haven't seen him since this morning." He didn't want to say it, didn't want to think about it, the death of Falman. And he certainly didn't want to think about Alucard's role in it, not when it made him want to break the monster's jaw and force him to swallow his own pointy teeth.

"He followed us, Roy and me, after…"

Ed frowned. "What'd he do?"

Al shrugged. "Nothing really. He didn't even really appear, just sort of…taunted us without actually speaking, then nothing." Al shifted as though uncomfortable. "He sort of scares me, brother. Not the things he says, the things he doesn't say. And that look he gets when he thinks no one's paying attention to him. And the fact that we aren't even safe inside our own heads from him."

"You noticed it to, huh?"

"That feeling like he can see you better than you see yourself, and the way he says stuff sometimes, when he's not even around but it sounds like he's standing right beside you except…not quite."

The look on his brother's face reminded him suddenly of the way Roy had looked when the not-god had been brought up, a little too pale, a little too hard and...haunted was the only way he could think to describe it.

"So when are we leaving?"

The alchemist relaxed muscles he didn't know he was tensing, glad for the change of subject. "Tonight. The sooner I get fixed up, the sooner I have one less thing to worry about."

"'Fleeing are we? Like birds before a storm?'"

Ed scowled at the empty space of the room. "If you're going to taunt us, at least do it so we can understand you. I'd like to know whether or not transmuting you to the top of a flagpole is too much or too little."

"You'd be best going to the most extreme from the beginning, boy, lest you find yourself wanting later."

Both Elrics jumped at the sudden apparition lounging at the foot of the bed. "Fucking hell, do you have to do that?!" Alucard didn't respond, simply smiling that eerie smile of his made all the more unnerving by the inability to see his eyes behind those damnable glasses. "What do you want now? Got bored of fucking with the others, or are you making rounds of it?"

"Something like that…"

"Brilliant. Well, what if we don't want any?"

The nosferatu chuckled. "Does it look like I'm selling cookies, boy?"

"Something like that." He tried (and probably failed miserably) to mimic the other's accent.

Al choked back the chuckle he couldn't stifle in time. "Brother you're awful." The younger boy turned his gaze to the red clad creature at the end of his bed, ignoring the scowl Ed threw at him. "Why are you here?"

"Curiosity." Ed's scowl deepened. He was getting incredibly tired of the one word answer that seemed to be the not-god's go to. The lenses of Alucard's glasses flashed as he turned minutely toward the elder Elric, smile growing nearly imperceptibly. "A little birdie told me you plan to leave the city before the day is done."

He snorted, highly doubting anyone had directly told the nosferatu anything. "Yea? So what if I am? This leg isn't going to fix itself, and I'm useless if I can't walk without hobbling around like an old man."

A strange look flitted across Alucard's face. "'you would be surprised, the things I have seen humans accomplish when they choose to carry on instead of giving up.'"

"Again, with the foreign language thing. If I don't know what the hell you're getting on about, I'm going to start assuming it's automatically something that demands I make you one with the wallpaper."

If he hadn't been studying the creature's face, he wouldn't have caught it, the slight twitch at the corners of the mouth as though he was fighting to keep the inane smile plastered on.

"So you are leaving the would-be king to clean up the mess while you take a holiday?" It was so sincere, so innocently put that the question garnered far less anger than it would have otherwise.

"If I can't fight I'm no good to him, to any of them. And there's no way I'm bringing Winry here, not with the risk of her being infected while she's here."

Alucard repeated the name, as though trying out the syllables to see how they fit in his mouth. "An understandable precaution to take with your loved one. So very human."

"We're not together!"

Alucard snickered. "I never suggested such a thing." The nosferatu's voice turned sly. "I merely said loved one, a title adequate of any number of relations. Sister, mother, aunt….It was you who took my words as such."

Al snickered and Ed swallowed his comments, ire worming in his gut and face just a little too warm. He'd become so accustomed to having the Winry-is-not-my-girlfriend argument that he'd taken to jumping the bit on it to get it over with. And now he'd managed to not only make an ass of himself, but put the thought in the creature's head, which was the last thing he needed.

"Why do you care anyway? It's not like you're a decent human being who cares about what happens to us or anyone else here."

Again the oh-so slight twitch at the corners of his mouth. "It has been….suggested to me that I accompany you."

Ed felt himself gape. "What? By who?"

Silence was his answer, which did nothing to help ease the sudden uncomfortable whirl of emotions stirring about his insides at the thought of taking that thing back home to see Winry and Pinako.

"Maybe it's not such a bad thing." Al spoke carefully, aware of his brother's ire and still attempting to convince himself. "He knows more about these things than we do, and with your leg and my…state, neither of us is really in any position to properly defend ourselves or Winry and Pinako if the worst should happen. Alchemy or no alchemy. These things…they're fast, and they look like us, brother. Like people we know. And the chimeras-"Al suppressed a shudder.

Ed dropped his face into his hands with a sigh, running his hands through his still messy hair. He hated, hated that Al was right, because it meant more than conceding check mate to the nosferatu, it meant owing him even more. More than Alphonse realized. And the amount of debt he was amassing to the thing lounging not three feet away was piling up quickly, to the point that he was slowly becoming more likely to drown in it then manage to stay atop it.

"I know, Al. You." He turned a steely gaze on the No Life King, heartened at least to see the manic smirk shifting to something at least a little more serious. "If you come with us, we need to get something clear. Harassing us is one thing, but you will not harass Winry, or Pinako. You will be civil to them, or you'll bite that forked tongue of yours and say nothing. Not because I'm afraid of you scarring them, but because I don't want to have to clean up the mess they make of you when you piss them off."

Alucard's grin returned, a dark curled thing that was more unnerving than the absent manic thing he normally wore. "'Oh how these human companions of yours sound, so fiery, so marvelous.' As you wish, Edward Elric."

Ed frowned, but accepted the response, despite how the way in which it was said made little warning bells ding in the back of his head. 'Suppose I should be more worried if something he said DIDN'T make me paranoid.'

"Our train leaves in two hours from Central Station. I don't suppose you happen to have a ticket as well?"

-Central Station-

The usual crush of people moving between trains was doing far more to grate on his patience than it usually did, something he could very easily link to the there-one-minute-gone-the-next presence that was Alucard. One moment the nosferatu would be alongside them, offering up the odd comment here, the next he would be gone, vanished into the crowd as though he'd never really existed in the first place. Which had resulted in more than a few occasions of Ed feeling like an ass when he turned to return a snarky comment only to find himself talking to air and receiving worried looks from those nearest him.

And at the moment, the red clad bane of his existence was nowhere to be seen; conveniently absent as they made their way to the train car and the uniformed man checking tickets. "Figures, sticks around long enough to make an ass of himself then disappears as soon as he'd have to prove he belongs here."

Al sighed at his brother's under the breath grumbling. "It's probably for the better, brother. We draw enough attention ourselves as it is, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not get thrown off the train. At least this way we can pretend we aren't with him if he does something stupid."

He glanced over at his little brother, quite pleased with his line of reasoning. "Good point, I didn't think of it like that."

They made it onto the train with little fanfare, the only sign that something was going on in Central the odd list of questions that had greeted them before they were allowed entry into the train car. Questions that, to an average person, would sound like precautions for the oncoming winter season. But to him and Al, it was clear that at least the possible threat of spreading the disease was being taken seriously.

"Brother, do you think anyone's going to get suspicious about why the ticket master is asking whether or not people have recent injuries, or have come into contact with anyone who appears sick?" Al kept his voice low, eyeing the other occupants of the seats in front of them.

"Maybe. You'd be stupid not to question it."

"Which is why many won't." Alucard slid onto the seat across from them, for all the world just looking like another business traveler. At some point between the last time they'd seen him and now, the nosferatu had abandoned his flashy crimson clothes and donned a dark three piece suit of a far more current cut and style.

"What, decided now of all times you don't want everyone to pay attention to you?" Ed indicated the sudden change of clothes. He really hoped there wasn't some poor bloke tied up in the train station in nothing but his birthday suit.

The now golden-orange glasses flashed as Alucard glanced over their rims at the two, eyes curiously a dark brown. "My Masters have always preferred I…blend in when in public places not overrun by the undead. It has become something of a habit." A coy, half smirk slid onto his face. "And no, I did not steal these clothes from some hapless human, so save yourself the brain cells otherwise burnt out worrying over it."

"Then where the hell-"

"Tickets, please." The uniformed man watched them boredly, clearly hoping they would hurry up so he could move on and be that much closer to having finished this portion of his job. When Alucard didn't move to comply, the man sighed. "That means you too, sir."

Alucard turned in that aggravatingly slow, elegant manner of a gentleman who just couldn't be bothered. "You don't need to see my ticket." His voice had dropped into a silken hypnotic tone, dark eyes gleaming as they caught and held the human's gaze.

"I…don't?" It was obvious that whatever Alucard was doing was having an effect, the man's voice faltering and uncertain and just a little bit too dreamy.

"No, you don't. I belong here, and you don't need to see my ticket."

"You belong here, and I don't need to see your ticket…" His gaze had become unfocused, his voice that of a man caught in a waking haze.

"Yes."

And as quickly as it had come, the ticket puncher's gaze snapped back into focus as whatever it was that had been fogging his mind disappeared. "Right, all good here. Thank you. Evening, gentlemen."

Ed gaped after the man, slowly turning his attention back to the smirking creature before him. "How did you-what did you do to him?"

"A bit of mental persuasion, nothing more."

"What?"

"I think he means he hypnotized him brother." Al's astonishment was just a little too praising for Ed's tastes.

"You can't just hypnotize people to get what you want-"

"Can't I?"

Ed hissed. "It's wrong, damn it. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should."

Alucard raised an elegant brow. "Oh? What if that man had been attempting to take you, or your brother, or a gaggle of children hostage? Would it be wrong then to convince him to do otherwise? Or would you prefer I instead use his mind to tint the windows of the carriage?"

"Damn it, don't turn this around on me! You know damn well that's not at all what I meant."

"Oh but I think it is. What do you expect would happen if he found me lacking in his precious ticket? Stop the train? Detain me? Throw me off before we got up to speed? All of these things would draw attention. Attention we would be most foolish to want. And what would you do, should I be ejected from your company and something goes wrong before we again meet? How would you handle a life or death situation in such closed quarters without the fully functioning bodies the two of you children currently lack?"

A warning hand on his shoulder from his brother kept Ed from angrily responding. "He's right, brother."

A ragged cough from somewhere near the front of the train car distracted them, even Alucard frowning and glancing to the side. Ed lowered his voice so he was just audible enough for Al to hear him, confident Alucard would hear regardless. "What're the odds there's at least one infected on this train right now? In this car?"

Alucard cast a thoughtful glance out the window, watching the last rays of the sun streak across the sky in brilliant hues of pink, orange, and gold. "Better than you think, worse than you'd like."

He felt the color drain from his face, heart beat oddly loud in his ears. "Alucard-"

"How long will it take to get to this 'Resembool' of yours?"

"Something tells me that if you have to ask, it's too long. How many?"

"Something tells me that if you have to ask, it's too many."

Ed ground his teeth together. "Hours. It's in the southeast near Ishval." He had no idea if Alucard knew what, or where Ishval was, but that wasn't his problem at the moment.

The vampire hummed thoughtfully, gaze still fixated outside. "In this car alone there are three that I am aware of; if there are any others, the condition has yet to reach a point of notice-ability."

"What do you mean notice-ability?"

"Progressing to the point of overcoming its carrier's immune system. Until that point, it is…hard for me to differentiate the infected from the uninfected. It will be even longer before your kind become aware that something is off, including those succumbing to the disease."

Ed swallowed the lump forming in his throat, sharing a worried look with Al. "How long before they…become a problem?"

"Each human is different. Minutes, hours…."

He cast a furtive glance around the car, though the most he could make out was a head here and there the way the seats were constructed higher for 'privacy' in the usually crowded area. A feature he normally enjoyed, but now seemed like the most asinine thing ever.

"What do we do?"

Ed met his brother's worried gaze. "I don't know what we can do but wait. If we demand they stop the train, we'll have to tell them why, and even if they believe us then we have to try to keep all these people calm-"

"What if waiting means someone not infected gets attacked? Ed, we can't just wait for them to turn and try to eat their neighbors! We have to at least warn the train workers!" Alphonse turned his gaze to Alucard, who was now observing them. "You can make sure they believe us."

The nosferatu flashed a toothy grin. "If that is your wish. Whatever course of action you choose, I suggest you do so soon. 'Tick tock'."

"Brother, you and Alucard should go. Between your being a state alchemist and his…powers of persuasion, you're more likely to get a quick response. I'll stay here and keep an eye on things."

He frowned. "Al-"

"Don't worry brother; I can take care of myself. And someone has to look out for these people."

The idea of leaving his brother alone sat ill in his gut, but he knew there wasn't much of a choice. Alucard was right, they were short on time and shit for options. A deep breath to steady himself, a nod and he was out of his seat motioning for the nosferatu to follow him.

"Good luck."

Ed waved over his shoulder with more confidence than he felt, aware of his brother's gaze following him all the way out of their car.

He kept his gait as calm as he could, observing the passengers they passed out of the corner of his eye to keep from raising suspicion. "How many?" He whispered as quietly as he could out of the corner of his mouth, not acknowledging he'd asked the towering figure behind him a question.

"Five." The soft purr of a reply came as though spoken from near his shoulder, though a quick glance confirmed the man hadn't moved to address him.

They made it to the next car, the final one before they made it to the small area reserved for the train workers between the passenger compartments and the engine car.

"Here?"

"Two."

Ten in the first three cars, and those only the noticeable cases. How many more had yet to reach the point where the disease began to win out? How many more in the cars behind their own? It was the vague kind of math that did more to inspire unease than give confidence in the ability to control the situation.

"Total?"

A hum that tickled his ear. "Twenty three spread across all cars."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier? Before we got on this tin can, for instance?"

"I assumed doing so would be pointless. You require quick transportation to your destination, and should you have deigned not to utilize it, you may not have gotten the chance to repair your limb."

"So you let us get on board with at least twenty three potential ghouls without feeling the need to warn us before hand."

"I did not foresee it being overly problematic. I still do not, although the count has gone up since when we first boarded."

"Let me guess, it's going to keep going up until we're swimming in them."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Even if being so far removed from my home didn't dampen my abilities of Sight, it would still be hard to put an exact number on the potential threats."

Now he did cast a glance back (and up) at his follower. "What do you mean?"

"I am not a human, so I do not see as one. My reach is somewhat limited in this place, removed as I am from my Master, my coffin, and that which binds the two to me."

For the first time, Ed found himself truly curious of the nosferatu's origins, and the so-called bond that kept him a slave to his master. He just wished it'd come at a better time. He hated having to wait to have his questions answered.

"Sirs, can I help you?"

Ed looked determinedly up at the uniformed man, squaring his shoulders and assuming the mantle of state alchemist and authority figure once more. "You better, or everyone on this train won't last the night."