"Amore," the blonde Frenchman said to Roderich and Antonio. "You two know why I've come, so why don't you just go ahead and hand them over?"

Roderich replied, "You're going to have to try a lot harder than that."

"Besides, we've got reinforcements from England coming to help us," Antonio told him. "France, you're not going to get the Vargas brothers, even if it's the last thing we ever do."

"Oh, let's just see how long you can hold up that promise," France replied.

"What do you mean?" Roderich asked, skeptical of his cool tone.

France smiled. "Well, it's just the simple fact that I've already sent out armies to keep England, ah, busy so he won't be able to help you."

"Well, we'll see how well it works," Antonio said, knowing England wasn't a pushover.

xxx

"Liore," Edward grumbled. "Why'd it have to be Liore?" He and Alphonse had already been there once, and ended up dethroning the false prophet Cornello.

Alphonse told him, "I really don't know, but at least we can see what Rose is doing."

"Yea, that's true," Edward replied. He stopped when he heard someone talking. He snuck over to the door that led to Lovino's and Feliciano's room.

"Why don't you learn how to worry about yourself?" Lovino was asking.

Feliciano replied, "But…but…Roderich and Antonio may really be hurt. Big Brother Francis isn't someone to take lightly."

"Isn't he the one that saved you from Holy Rome until that bastard took us?" Lovino grumbled.

"That's why I'm saying so," Feliciano replied. "Holy Rome and Big Brother Francis got into a fight over me before, I don't want to see either of them getting hurt over it again. I don't want to see Roderich or Ms. Elizabeta or Antonio hurt either."

"Let the bastards worry about themselves," Lovino told him. "They'll be fine, and soon we can go back home."

"Yea," Feliciano muttered. The Elric brothers heard one of them yawn before saying, "Night." and went to sleep.

"What do you think that was about?" Alphonse asked once they got to their room.

Edward shook his head. "I don't know, but it sounds like those two have a lot more on their minds than they let on…"

It was later that night that Alphonse heard the door open. One of the problems of not having a real body was not being able to sleep, so he was still awake in the early morning hours. He looked up and found Feliciano standing there, looking scared. "Something wrong?" Alphonse asked the little Italian.

"I had a bad dream," Feliciano said, walking over. Alphonse found that there were tears in her eyes, like she had been crying.

"Well, what was it? Sometimes telling others a bad dream will help it go away," Alphonse said.

Feliciano nodded, sitting down next to Alphonse. "I was back at home with everyone. We were sitting there listening to Mr. Roderich play some music on his piano. It was a nice melody that really calmed me, but suddenly the wall broke in and Big Brother Francis stood there with Big Brother Lovino and Antonio lying behind him…they looked like they were…they were…" Feliciano started crying again, and Alphonse rushed to comfort her.

"Don't worry, Lovino's here with us, and I'm sure Antonio's stronger than Francis, especially with Roderich on his side," Alphonse said quickly.

Feliciano looked up at Alphonse, nodding. "I just really hope they're safe."

"It sounds like you really care about them," Alphonse muttered, thinking about how he cared for Edward.

Feliciano nodded. "For a while, I lived with Grandpa Rome," Feliciano explained. "We had a great time with each other, he taught me art, music, and culture, but…there were so many wounds on him…he looked like he was in great pain with all those wounds. I never want to see that same thing happen to anyone else in my family."

Alphonse nodded, thinking he understood what Feliciano meant. "You were really close to your grandpa, weren't you?"

"Yea, he was the greatest," Feliciano said, perking up as she thought about her grandfather.

Alphonse would've smiled if he could, and he pat Feliciano's head. "Why don't you try to go get more sleep? You're going to need it. And just remember that everyone's fine, there's nothing to worry about."

"Ok," Feliciano said, hugging Alphonse before leaving the room.

Alphonse stared after her for a moment, wondering what it was her family had to live with. It was sounding more and more like Antonio and Roderich were the ones at fault for taking the Vargas siblings from their family, but they were supposed to be protecting the two from their own brother?

Alphonse shook his head, just getting even more confused. Neither of the two seemed upset to be taken from their family's, and it even sounded like they would choose Roderich and Antonio over their own brother.

By the time morning came, everything had been set for disaster…

/AN

Short chapter is short, and I was actually hoping for them to get to Liore by the end of it, but it didn't seem to work out. On another note, aren't cliffhangers awesome? 3 BTW: I'm still accepting submissions for kid countries to be entered. I've already got plans for England, America, and Canada to show up, and I'm currently working on Japan's showing as well.

R&R Please~!

AN/