Chapter 16: Déjà Vu

Winry let out a squeal of excitement as they sat at the breakfast table, where Winry and Pinako had learned of the brothers' plans. "I can't believe you guys are taking me to Rush Valley! I figured you'd be going back to Central now that you're all fixed."

Al chuckled. "Ed's avoiding General Mustang for as long as he can."

Ed sighed as he finished breakfast and stood. "You'd better be ready by the time I get back or else we'll leave you here." He said.

Al glanced at him curiously. "Where are you going, brother?"

"I'm going to go pay these vultures." Ed said as he winced at the large figure on the slip of paper again.

Winry and Pinako both let out squawks of irritation, which were ignored by Ed as he walked out of the house.

"Don't mind him; he didn't seem to sleep very well last night." Al said, glancing at the door in concern.

"Hmph. He was probably thinking about what General Mustang would have him do if he went back to Central right away." Winry said grumpily before storming up the stairs.

Al nodded absently. They hadn't told Winry or Pinako about the shadowy creature that had attacked Ed in Liore. He wondered why Ed suddenly decided to go to Rush Valley when they had agreed to keep Winry and Pinako in the dark until they knew more.

"Is something wrong, Alphonse?" Pinako asked worriedly.

Al shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong. I just wasn't expecting our next destination to be Rush Valley, the one place Ed probably fears above anywhere else in this State."

Pinako chuckled. "I know what you mean. Winry kept muttering about 'guilting somebody into a trip to Rush Valley' before you came back, but I don't think she intended for me to hear her. Ed will certainly be keeping his arm well covered. Rush Valley hasn't died down at all when it comes to automail enthusiasts."

Al nodded in agreement at Ed returned. He passed Pinako a sizeable amount of money, which she counted quickly and nodded.

"Thanks."

"Winry, hurry up or we'll leave you behind!" Ed yelled upstairs.

"Coming!" Winry yelled as Ed walked to the door.

"Come on, Al." He said, shaking his head.

Al nodded and followed. "See you, Aunt Pinako."

She chuckled. "Don't be strangers you two."

Ed made a silent backhanded wave while Al waved with a grin on his face.

Winry's loud footsteps were heard as she came down the steps and quickly hugged Pinako. "I'll be back, Granny!"

"I'll be here waiting, dear." Pinako said, giving Winry a slight push. "Hurry up or they will leave you behind."

Winry nodded as she ran out the door.

Winry grinned happily as she ran under the arch that announced they were now in Rush Valley. "I really appreciate this, guys. I haven't been back to Rush Valley in almost a year."

"You're welcome Winry." Al said as he glanced over at Ed, who was putting on a pair of black gloves to hide his automail.

"Don't worry about it, Ed. If you're with me, the other automail engineers won't try to touch you."

"Don't mind me, Winry. It's just a nervous habit after my last encounter here. I'll just keep wearing them until we leave."

Winry couldn't help but snicker at him before waving to some engineers.

The two brothers slipped back a ways as Winry was distracted by people she knew. "Why did you decide to come here, brother? I thought we had agreed to head straight for Central?" Al asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about it, Al. I just decided to get the trip to Rush Valley over with before Winry asked us about it at a later time."

"You're worried that if we go to Central, we won't be coming back to Risembool for a long time…" Al noted from Ed's expression.

Ed could only nod in response as they caught up to Winry.

"Is something wrong?" Winry asked worriedly.

Ed shook his head. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Winry eyed them suspiciously before walking away.

Ed sighed. "She knows us too well."

Al nodded with an amused smile. "Yes she does, brother…"

Suddenly, a dark skinned woman came out of nowhere and hugged Winry, almost knocking the two to the ground. "Winry! It's about time you came back!"

"Paninya! It's good to see you again!" The two women laughed and struck up a conversation, leaving Ed and Al behind.

Ed shook his head. "Why am I not surprised by this?"

"Because we've seen everything. It's hard to be surprised by something when you've seen it all." Al said with a bemused expression on his face.

Ed could only shake his head in response as they followed Winry and Paninya from a distance.

Some time later, Winry glanced at Ed and Al as they walked down the street after having checked into their hotel. "Why didn't you guys say anything? I'm sure Paninya would have loved to have seen you again."

Al shrugged. "You looked like you two were having such a good conversation; we didn't really want to interrupt it."

Winry smiled. "Thanks. It has been a while. We had a lot to catch up on."

"Don't mention it…" Ed trailed off as he saw a bunch of people gathered around, cheering and jeering at something. "You have gotta be kidding…" Ed muttered as Al and Winry followed him towards the crowd in confusion.

His suspicions were confirmed as soon as he was able to see the two con artists they had encountered on their first trip to Rush Valley. Sure enough, as they watched a few matches, it was obvious that they were up to their old trick of using alchemy to destroy the underside of the table.

"Didn't they learn their lesson last time…?" Ed grumbled as he took off his black jacket and gloves.

"What are you going to do, Ed?" Winry asked warily as Ed unconsciously handed Al his jacket and gloves.

"It depends on whether or not they'll recognize me…" He said as he pulled out his braid and made it into a simple ponytail.

"Aren't there any other challengers out there who are willing to take on our champion?" The referee con artist yelled to the crowd. They had amassed quite a fortune, which sat lumped beside the referee to prevent people in the crowd from stealing any of it.

"I will." Ed said coldly as he stepped out of the ring of people.

Winry and Al stood on the edge, watching them warily.

The referee and the champion looked at him warily, as though something about him seemed familiar, but they dismissed their worries as Ed rubbed his hands together before sitting with a hand resting casually on the table for a few moments. The champion's automail was different than the last time, but it was still large and clawed as it waited for Ed's automail to grab it so the match could begin.

"Are you ready to lose that arm, kid?" The champion sneered.

Ed simply stared coldly at him as the referee placed his hand on top of theirs.

"Now remember this is a clean game. I don't want to see any cheating!" He said loudly so that the crowd could hear him.

Ed fought the temptation to scoff at them.

"Fighters ready?" Ed and the champion nodded. "Begin!" The referee yelled as he took his hand off theirs.

Winry glanced at Al warily as Ed and the champion held each other at a standstill, or so it appeared. "Do you think Ed will use Alchemy again?"

Al blinked in surprise at the worry in Winry's voice. Al shook his head. "I don't think so. They'd know the trick and call him on it as soon as he does it. It'd be too risky to try the same move on them twice, even if they didn't recognize him."

Winry nodded in understanding and secretly hoped Ed could somehow counter their trick without doing something to compromise her hard work.

The champion began to break out in a sweat as Ed held him at bay with little effort. With a quick glance at each other, the referee tried to activate the transmutation circle on the underside of the table.

A bewildered expression was all Ed needed to begin using all of his force to send the champion's automail crashing through the table. The two con artists looked at him bewildered as he took the winnings and walked back to Winry and Al.

The crowd parted in surprise as they compared the flimsy arm-like automail to that of the combat-specific automail the champion had been using before flocking over to the former champion in hopes of getting his business.

"What did you do, Ed?" Al asked. He hadn't noticed any alchemic distortion to the con artist's arm, so he was stumped as to how Ed defeated them.

Winry walked behind them, so her scowl went unnoticed.

"All I did was change the composition of the table so they couldn't use their alchemy. The rest was all this." He said, holding his arm.

Winry hugged him hard from behind. "Thanks a lot, Ed!" She said happily, much to his confusion.

"Here, buy whatever you want with this. I've got no use for it." He said, handing Winry the winnings.

Winry smiled as she took the bag. "Thanks. I mean it. Come on, I promised Paninya that I'd meet her for some coffee!" She said before running slightly ahead.

"What was that all about, Al?" Ed asked in confusion.

Al snickered in amusement. "You still don't understand people, Ed. She's happy because you didn't cheat this time. Remember how she had Paninya take your watch last time? It was because she wanted you to appreciate your automail. You showed her that you appreciate it by using your automail instead of alchemy this time." He explained as Ed donned his black jacket and gloves again.

"I honestly don't understand her. I've always appreciated my automail… I guess I just haven't shown it enough."

"Considering how often you come back to her with busted automail, I think you make Winry doubt that appreciation."

"That's true…" Ed trailed off as Winry froze in fear. Ed and Al frowned as the con artists stood menacingly before Winry.

The ex-'champion' must have had his arm repaired as it gleamed menacingly in the sun, his clawed fingers flexing threateningly at Winry.

"Give us back the money and nobody will get hurt, missy." The 'referee' said.

"You two really don't learn your lessons do you?" Ed growled as he stood beside Winry.

The 'referee' paled as he finally recognised Ed. "You're the shrimp who cheated last time! What did you-" His inquiry was cut off as Ed's fist connected with his face.

From Ed's expression, it was apparent that the punch had been a subconscious reaction to the word 'shrimp'.

The ex-'champion' stared down at his partner in surprise as he lay unconscious. "That's it…!" He roared before raising his claws and aiming them at Winry.

Winry could only close her eyes as the claws came at her.

A sickening crunch caused her to open her eyes as Ed's automail stopped the claws dead in their tracks.

A dangerous expression flashed across Ed's face as he glared at the man. "Don't you dare touch her…" He growled.

Suddenly, the man's arm exploded and forced him onto the ground with his partner.

Al stared at Ed in surprise. He never expected his brother to use Scar's tactics against another human being.

The sound of the exploding automail woke the referee and he stared in horror at what remained of his partner's arm. The two quickly took off and Ed sighed in relief.

"I didn't want to do that, but at least now I think they'll stop conning people…"

Al shook his head. "That was pretty dangerous, brother."

"I knew what I was doing. You can thank Scar for that. I've only used that twice now. I would never use it on a human."

"Thanks for that, Ed. I thought I heard something in your automail though." She looked at his arm worriedly, checking everything thoroughly to hide how shaken up she was at what Ed had just done. "All right, your arm is clear. It must have been the other guys'. It had such bad workmanship." She shook her head. "Anyways, we'd better hurry or we'll be late for meeting Paninya."

Ed and Al nodded as she ran ahead to meet Paninya. "Come on, Al." Ed said simply as he followed.

Al shook his head. "I keep forgetting how scary Ed can be when it comes to our friends' lives being in danger… especially when it's Winry…" He muttered as he ran to catch up.

Winry and Paninya chatted away happily while drinking coffee as the brothers sat at a nearby table, out of Paninya's view.

"So Winry… the last few times you've been here, you haven't brought Ed with you. Did you two break up or something?"

Winry had been taking a drink when Paninya spoke, however the coffee didn't stay in her mouth very long. Thankfully, she made sure nobody was seated where the coffee sprayed from her mouth.

Ed had a hard time not following her lead as he swallowed carefully to avoid choking.

Paninya looked at Winry worriedly. "Did I say something wrong?" She asked.

Winry shook her head. "Not really. Ed and I were never a couple and well… he's right behind you." She said, glad that Paninya looked towards the table where the brothers were sitting so she could regain her composure and stop blushing.

Ed and Al waved at Paninya as she stared at them in surprise. "Well why have you two been sitting over there this entire time? Why didn't you join us?"

"Well, it's because we didn't want to disturb your conversation." Al said sheepishly.

"Plus, with everyone thinking I was dead, I didn't want to put up with any questions about my whereabouts these past three years."

Paninya chuckled at Ed. "I had heard some rumours, but in my opinion you're too stubborn to die young." She said, grinning.

Ed couldn't help but chuckle. "Thanks for that vote of confidence. Even people who know me better than you do thought I was dead. But you're right; I'm too damn stubborn to die young."

Paninya laughed and motioned for them to join the women, which they did gratefully.

The conversation wore on throughout the afternoon until the café owner said she was closing shop for the night.