This one was tricky, but I finally got it written out. Proud of me? You'd better be, because my muse is being evil. I'd better reel him in before he gets away again, hehe. I think I've got some pretty good ideas for this fanfic though, thanks to some joking around I did with AdventureAddict that actually turned into some serious plot points, haha. From insanity comes genius, after all.

And speaking of AdventureAddict, for those of you who didn't know, the two of us are writing a joint fic called "The Inner Nature of Alphonse". It's on her account, which is why most of you haven't seen it, but it's getting really good and it's the one I've been spending most of my time on lately because we're updating it pretty regularly. If you need further motivation to go check it out, need I say that I wouldn't be co-authoring it if it wasn't in the spirit of what I write? Hahaha...yep, more magic, mythology, and mayhem awaits, as usual. Hmmm...that should be my slogan.

Disclaimer: There one was a boy named Ed,
Who always seemed to wind up dead.
I looked at him
His face seemed quite grim
And he said "You don't own me, now quit writing this stupid limerick and quit killing me or I'll call the fanfiction police!" Geez, I didn't know such things existed. Oh well.

The mergirl clutched either side of the basin tightly with her hands and started deep into its depths. A single bubble of air rested in it, undulating and rippling as though it were liquid, somehow held down through some sort of magic to keep it from floating away. She shifted her gaze so that it was running past the bubble, almost as though looking through it. Before long, images started appearing to her, maybe they were on the bubble, maybe they were in her mind. She wasn't sure, and she didn't care. What mattered was that she was seeing them at all.

"Ed...Al..." said the girl sadly as a tear pricked at her eye and was then washed away by the river currents. The figures played before her a drama of their life, growth, and now their current struggle with survival. Sobs began to wrack the girl's body, but she continued to try and sustain the image for as long as possible. The image changed so that the two boys were alone and crying, hoping that nobody else would see, but she saw, and she joined them with her tears.

"I'm so sorry," she choked out, "I'll make this right somehow, I promise." She then closed her eyes and the image vanished.

"I have a proposition to make with you, young man," said the big man as he casually strolled up to where Alphonse was standing. He had been waiting a long time to speak with the boss, but no one had known where he had disappeared to, and he had only just shown up. Al suddenly snapped his attention to the man and held his back erect, fully alert now. Hopefully he'd be able to get some food and leave, since his brother was no doubt getting impatiently hungry by now. He had the tendency to do that.

The man smiled, though the smile made Al a bit nervous and he unconsciously took a step back. "Work for me, and you can have all the food you want."

Al blinked a couple times, trying to make sure that he had heard the man right. Work? No way, he couldn't be tied down to anything what with him and his brother trying to get out of the country. Al shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm just passing through, but me and my brother really need some food. Is there anything I can do to just get you to give us a single meal?"

The big man crossed his arms and smirked. "The condition of getting the food is that you work. Is it a deal or is it not?"

Al sighed. There seemed to be no reasoning with this man. He turned away and said, "Sorry, but I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. We're just passing through and can't stay here, but I wouldn't really want to work in a freak circus even if we could."

The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Really?" he said, and then turned around himself and headed back the way he had come. "And here I was going to put you in charge of the new guy. I would have thought you'd have liked that."

Al stopped and cautiously turned around. He wasn't interested in working still, but he had remembered the three-armed guy saying that the boss had had a dry run this time around, so where did he find a new freak? The big man turned his head just enough to see Al curiously looking at him, so he chuckled and walked up to a large box-like structure that was covered with a cloth. He placed his hand on the cloth, but before removing it, he said, "You don't look much like a freak, but I think you'd be the best one to tend to this one, since you know more about him than I do."

Al held his breath as the man tugged at the cloth and dropped it on the ground. Underneath it had been a glass enclosure filled almost entirely with water. down on the floor of it, and unmistakable lump was laying, looking almost dead, but most likely merely unconscious.

Al whimpered as he looked first at the figure on the floor of the tank and then back up at the man standing beside it. He slowly began to clench his hands into fists and grit his teeth as the blood rose to his head. Tears began to prick at his eyes, but they refused to surface just yet, satisfied with causing him pain in his vision. "What...did you...do?" he said under his breath.

"I just collected your brother here for my show. He's in good company here with a lot of people who will understand him, so you don't need to look at me like that." The man looked up at Al, grinned his annoying dominating grin again, and then looked back down at unconscious Ed at the bottom of the tank and patted the glass possessively. "If you still don't want to work for me, you're free to go, but I'm sure your brother will miss you."

The words Al wanted to say caught in his mouth, and he couldn't articulate himself properly, though he knew how he was feeling right then. Angry, even moreso, furious, at having been betrayed by this man. But was it betrayal when they hadn't really ever met this man before? All the same, he was still trying to use them, and Al was not happy.

"You!...How could you...You have no right...!"

"He would have died if left in that muddy river, and you know it," said the man, patting the tank some more, "Besides, he's clearly not meant for freshwater. I put some salt in the water in his tank, and the color is starting to return to his tail. You should be thanking me for saving his life."

Al still couldn't bring himself to say anything, and his eyes burned. Even when a tear finally escaped, it didn't lessen the pain. He just closed his eyes and felt his throat constrict from unreleased screams. He was starting to get dizzy, possibly from anger and possibly from dehydration resulting from the anger, and most likely a combination of both.

"Here," said the man, throwing something small so that it landed just a few inches from Al's feet. Al opened his eyes and saw a couple of keys on a ring lying in the dirt in front of him. "Those keys will allow you access to the food and supplies you both need to survive. You'll stand a much better chance with me than with trying to make it out there on your own." Without another word, the man turned around and left.

All the strength finally ran out of Al's legs, and he dropped down to his knees and started sobbing. "Brother," he said, a few tears now running down his cheek as he finally gave in to his emotions, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Winry clenched her fists and teeth together and let out a muffled form of a scream. Roy looked up at her with a startled expression on his face. He had kept trying to leave the car and leave her alone to think, but something just kept bringing him back to talk with her some more about the situation, and it look almost as though he was being rewarded for his persistence, since her emotions were finally breaking through.

"What seems to be the trouble?" said Roy, steepling his fingers once again and tapping them together a few times to look almost nonchalant.

Winry shook her head a few times and closed her eyes as a few tears rolled down her face. "I hate that man!"

Roy raised an eyebrow and regarded the girl curiously. He rarely ever heard Winry talk this way. "You hate who?"

Winry finally opened her eyes and looked into Roy's face. She didn't respond directly to his question, but just sniffed in silence for a few moments, as though unsure of what her answer was in the first place. Roy sat patiently while the girl gathered her thoughts together, which seemed to be taking awhile, as she was still crying out tears on occasion.

When she had finally calmed down, Roy finally ventured to repeat his former question. "What was that all about?"

Winry shook her head. "I'm not really sure."

"But who was the man you were referring to?" he continued to ask.

"What man?"

"The one you said you hated."

"I don't recall saying that."

"All the same, you did."

Winry pursed her lips together, obviously disturbed and deep in thought. There had to be an explanation for her bizarre behavior, but Roy couldn't think of what it might be, or even if it was relevant, but he couldn't afford to rule anything out in this already bizarre case. If those boys were half fish, then who knew how many other odd things he was going to stumble upon as time went by.

Roy looked down briefly and was about to chuckle to himself at a sudden thought he had had, but quickly disguised it as clearing his throat so as not to offend Winry, though she looked up at him curiously despite his efforts. He nervously smiled at her and held up a finger to have her wait until he was finished with his 'cough'. Once he was done, he looked at her and smiled, and then politely revealed what he'd been thinking.

"Is there any chance that you're emotionally connected with those brothers?"

Winry sniffed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you don't even know what you were talking about back there. Are you sure that anger you were feeling was even your own?"

"You don't mean," said Winry, placing a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp as she tried to keep up with the Colonel's train of thought, "You don't mean that you think I'm picking up Ed's emotions, do you?"

"Or Al's. He's been known to get angry too, so we can't really be sure who's sending, supposing I'm right."

"But," said Winry as she shook her head again in obvious denial, "What you're saying is crazy!"

Roy shrugged. "Maybe it is, but think: has anything like this ever happened before, withany strong emotion?"

Winry slumped down into her see and looked down at her lap. Naturally, Roy's hypothesis seemed bizarre, but it had been worth suggesting, since everything else going on seemed pretty crazy as well. The girl finally looked back up at Roy and said, "You know, I think it has in a way. I sometimes cry when they're too stressed to cry themselves."

"I thought so," said Roy.

"But!" Winry said, waving her hand around frantically and interrupting him once again, "Isn't that just because I'm being empathetic towards them? That isn't some strange connection, is it?"

Roy chuckled and leaned closer to the girl so that she was forced to pay attention to him. "Do you even realize what being empathetic means?" Winry apparently hadn't expected her words to be turned on her, so she just remained silent and waited for Roy to continue his explanation. "An empath is someone who picks up on the feelings of others and experiences them as their own. Not many people can pick up everyone's feelings, but some people can pick up strong emotions from those they really care about."

Winry blushed and hung her head. "So do you think I'm picking up Ed's or Al's anger?"

Roy shook his head. "I honestly don't know."

Winry snapped her head up again and glared at the man. "Then why did you-"

"I'm just searching for a lead," said Roy, "We seem to be a bit lost, and could use a little outside guidance."

"Al, how could you have allowed this to happen?" Ed called irritably over the top of the tank he was being kept in. He had woken up with a bad headache and found himself at the bottom of this small enclosure, and had panicked when he had seen Al's concerned face peering at him through the glass. It hadn't taken long for Al to pour out the whole story to him, and Ed's anger had just escalated from there.

"I didn't intend for it to happen, Brother!" Al shouted back, "In case you're forgetting, you're the one who sent me out looking for food. Didn't I tell you something was going to happen?"

"But anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't have wandered into a freak circus knowing that they'd love to add a couple new freaks to their lineup," said Ed, bitterly.

"How was I supposed to know what this place was?" Al said as he threw up his hands in frustration. "You wanted food, I got you food. Are you happy? I could've just left you there to die, but noooo, I have to care too much and go against my better judgment and listen to you. But is it good enough for you? Does nothing I do satisfy you, Brother?" With that, he spun around and began to march off, clearly done with the argument.

Ed stretched his hand out in Al's direction, but it wasn't nearly long enough to reach Al, and he couldn't get out of the tank. He could have used alchemy to break the glass, but that would release the water, and he needed that to survive, he knew that much, even though he hated to admit it. "But...Al, wait!" Al paid no heed, and just continued his little march as though he was completely deaf. "Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" Still, Al paid no attention, and continued walking until he was out of Ed's sight.

Ed sighed and rested his chin on the edge of the glass. "Idiot," he muttered, "Why do you have to run off at a time when I can't chase after you?" He choked back a sob, and then let go of the side of the glass and sunk to the bottom.

Okay, phew! That's done...now, if you want to review, feel free to. If you don't want to, don't worry about it, I won't murder you and I won't hold off the chapters because of a lack of them, hehe. I only do that for "Al Talks Too Much" because that one depends on reviews, but none of the rest of my stories do, heh. Feel free to give suggestions or ask questions though if you have them. They do help me find and fix plotholes, a whole lot, hehe.

Regardless, see you soon in the next chapter. Wish me luck with keeping my muse on a tether!