"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chapter Eighteen:
Forgiveness
Annora scowled as she sat out on the back step behind the tavern, an overly large white shirt draped around her thin frame as she tried unsuccessfully to towel her hair dry. Matt had come into the kitchen apologetically with one of his own shirts, saying that Emma, one of the other servers, didn't have a spare one for the teen to use.
"This… is just so… stupid!!" the sixteen-year old grumbled as she set the large white bar towel down in her lap and ran a hand through her tangled wet hair. "Why did he have to show up? Why?!"
With an annoyed sigh, Annora slouched down in her seat and buried her head in her hands as her thoughts whirled about dizzyingly in her mind. When Al had come in earlier, he had seemed worried, and then relieved when he had seen her. Had he and Ed been looking for her, and enlisting Russell and Fletcher's help in the process?
"Gah, why are things so damn complicated anymore?" the teenager muttered as she straightened up and looked up at the slowly fading afternoon sky before she reached back and pushed her soggy hair out of her face. "Life was so much easier when all I had to worry about was school, chores, and what to make for dinner. No damn alchemists, no military, no homunculi… and Ethan was still alive…"
A far-off expression entered Annora's eyes as she stared unseeingly ahead of her for a few moments before she gave a pained sigh. "I wish that I had never come here."
"Yeah, sometimes I wish that too," a familiar voice remarked grumpily from somewhere off to her right, and Annora immediately whipped around to look at the speaker before she scowled darkly in response.
"Oh, it's you."
Ed frowned as he crossed his arms over his chest, golden eyes narrowed as he fixed the taller girl with a dirty look. "I've been looking all over this damn town for you, half-expecting to find your corpse in an alley or river, and all you can say is 'oh, it's you'?! Dammit Annora, what the hell crawled up your ass and died?!"
"You did," was the flat response from the sixteen-year old as she went back to ignoring him. "Why are you even here right now anyways? I thought that you'd be ecstatic about the fact that you didn't have to baby-sit me anymore."
The teenage alchemist made a loud strangled noise of frustration as he glared daggers at Annora, who didn't even bother to look at him as she returned to toweling her hair dry.
"Will you just look at me for ten seconds and let me-!"
"No, I won't!!" Annora snapped as she looked up and gave the State Alchemist a venomous glare out of the corner of her eye, her expression one of glacial fury. "I am so sick and tired of you bossing me around, telling me what to do and believe, and shoving me away when I try to be your friend. Well guess what Ed; I'm not doing this anymore."
The boy stared at her incredulously before he opened his mouth and managed to make a strangled noise of protest "But-"
"But nothing!!" the sixteen-year old growled as she cut him off mercilessly. "I'm not going to just sit around on my butt and let everyone else make all of my decisions for me. I refuse to just let you keep treating me like I'm nothing more than a hindrance, especially when I try to be your friend."
"Dammit Annora, I wasn't trying to shove you away!!" Ed shot back as he fixed the taller girl with an annoyed glower. "I was trying to keep that bastard phony, Russell, away from you!"
Annora stiffened up unconsciously as she slowly fixed the teenage alchemist with an incredulous look, her chocolate eyes widening slightly in surprise. She opened her mouth and her lips moved wordlessly in shock before she finally managed to regain her voice.
"What?"
Ed scowled as he looked away from his friend and felt his cheeks heat up in obvious embarrassment, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to encourage his stubborn mouth to voice what he was thinking.
"Look, Russell is nothing more than a damn skirt-chaser and he'll go after anything that even smells female. The fact that you're traveling with me just makes you more of a challenge, and more interesting," the Fullmetal Alchemist admitted reluctantly, refusing to meet Annora's bewildered gaze as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck with his gloved right hand. "I wasn't trying to hurt you or anything. And if I did… well, I'm sorry."
Annora stared at him incredulously for several seconds before she gave a wry chuckle and shook her head as she stood up. "Did hell freeze over or something and someone forgot to tell me?"
"No!!" Ed bristled angrily at the comment as the girl arched a tawny eyebrow delicately before a small smile crossed her lips.
"I'm just messing with you, Ed, geez. I'm just surprised that you actually apologized for once. You've never struck me as the type to admit that they're wrong."
"Well don't get too used to it, 'cause it won't happen again."
Annora rolled her eyes upwards and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'boys' under her breath before she shook her head and headed towards the back door of the tavern. Ed noticed the direction that she was headed in and frowned, arching a golden eyebrow in obvious confusion.
"Hey, where are you going?" he called out, and Annora gave him a knowing grin over her shoulder as she opened the door.
"I'm going to get my stuff, dummy," she pointed out in an obvious tone. "I'm not running off to god knows where with you and Al in a skirt. Besides, I need to pack up a few things from the room I've been staying in before I leave. Give me about ten minutes and I'll meet you out front."
Before the shorter boy could say anything else, Annora disappeared back inside the tavern, leaving behind a bewildered State Alchemist.
"She's coming… back with us?" he muttered incredulously, his golden eyes wide as he stared numbly at the wooden back door in shock. "Just like that? I thought she would scream at me again… or start swearing at me… but she didn't do any of that. What the hell is going on here?!"
And thus Annora left Ed with the worst possible punishment that she could have ever inflicted upon the teenage alchemist; the uncertainty of not knowing when the other shoe was going to drop.
--
Al couldn't help but chuckle quietly at the bemused expression on Ed's face as his older brother came and flopped down next to him on the wooden steps leading up to the front door of the tavern. Never before had the fifteen-year old seen anything equal to the complete and total lack of comprehension on his brother's face, and he privately suspected that Annora had played a few mind games with the alchemist before she had agreed to come back with them.
"So, is Annora coming back with us?" the possessed suit of armor ventured, even though he already knew the answer. Ed remained silent for a few moments before he finally spoke, and when he did he sounded slightly dazed.
"Yeah."
"Brother, did you apologize?"
"Yeah, I did. She didn't even yell at me. I kept expecting her to blow up and call me a jerk and everything, but all she did was ask me to wait a bit while she got packed and changed."
"That's it?"
"That's it," Ed muttered solemnly before he fixed his younger sibling with a worried look. "She's probably going to get back at me in some horrific way, isn't she?"
"Probably, if she's anything like Winry when she's upset."
There was a long stretch of silence as the teenage alchemist turned an interesting shade of ashen gray at the mere thought of Annora's possible retribution before he swallowed loudly as he finally summoned up the nerve to speak.
"I'm doomed."
"More than likely. I don't think that Annora would hit you upside the head with a torque wrench though."
"Don't bet on that. Just let me know if she comes up behind us looking like a psychotic axe-murderer, that way I have enough time to run."
Just as the two siblings were about to voice further speculations on what their friend would do to the elder Elric as possible payback, Russell came around the corner with Fletcher in tow. The blonde arched an eyebrow as he gave Ed a speculative look before he smirked and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I take it that she hasn't killed you yet," he jeered slightly, and Ed gave the taller boy a dirty look before he responded with the one-fingered salute.
"Brother!!" Al gasped in shock as he hastily closed his gauntleted hand around his brother's automail one in an attempt to cover up the obscene gesture. "Don't be rude!"
"It's none of his damn business, Al!" the sixteen-year old protested as he struggled to wrench his hand from the possessed suit of armor's grasp. "He has no right to ask about this, and I was just telling him so!"
"Well then tell it to him verbally!!"
Neither of the two Elrics noticed the front door to the tavern open in the fading light as they proceeded to get into a loud scuffle on the front steps, nor did they notice someone step out and stare at them incredulously for several seconds.
"Umm… did I miss something here?"
The fight immediately ground to a halt as Ed looked up at Annora, who stood there on the front steps of the tavern clad in a t-shirt and jeans with her jacket thrown over one arm and a bewildered look on her face.
"I think the runt was just being an idiot, as usual," Russell commented smoothly as he dodged Ed's initial punch before Al chose to restrain him and sidled up alongside Annora with a wide grin. "You know, you're pretty cute. Maybe you should just ditch Ed and come with us. Unlike Fullmetal, I actually know how to treat a lady."
And then, in front of everyone, the older Tringham gently took Annora's right hand and kissed it as he bowed down low. There was a loud thump as the sixteen-year old lost her grip on her backpack strap and it slipped off of her shoulder before landing on the dusty ground, while Ed's jaw dropped several inches in shock as his entire body fell limp in Al's grasp. Annora stared at Russell in wide-eyed disbelief as Ed finally managed to squirm out of Al's grasp and forcefully placed himself in between the two, the expression in his golden gaze murderous as he made a low noise of disgust in the back of his throat.
"You had better think twice before you say those stupid things… or someone might send you flying through the roof!" he growled venomously as he glared up at the taller boy with his fist clenched meaningfully. Russell arched an eyebrow curiously at his actions before Annora immediately decided to break things up before they descended into the level of yet another fistfight in between the two boys.
"Okay, you know what, I think we need to break this up because we have a train to catch," she said brusquely, giving Al a pleading look as she physically held the two alchemists apart by placing her hands on their chests and pushing them away from her. The fifteen-year old immediately caught the girl's drift and grabbed a hold of the hood to Ed's trench coat, effectively restraining his brother for the moment.
"She's right, Brother," Al said as he attempted to drag Ed away from the scene. "We really should get going if we want to catch the next train."
Russell watched the proceedings with barely contained amusement for a few moments as Annora hastily slipped her backpack straps over her shoulders and slung the strap to her laptop case across her chest before she hurried over to where her two friends were. The elder Tringham waited a few seconds as the three teens walked away from him and Fletcher before he called out a taunt that caused Ed to go absolutely ballistic.
"So I was right; she is your girlfriend!"
Annora and Al were forced the restrain the Fullmetal Alchemist as he tried to whirl around and charge at Russell, fully intending on ending the taller boy's existence right at that precise moment by throttling the life out of him. Unfortunately, they could do nothing to prevent the continuous stream of expletives, coupled with several very painful-sounding death threats, that Edward hurled at the other alchemist as he struggled wildly in the crook of Al's arm.
"YOU STUPID, SLIMY BASTARD!! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS SO HARD THAT YOU HAVE TO SHIT OUT YOUR MOUTH!!"
Fortunately, at that point Al was able to clap a hand over Ed's mouth to keep him from saying anything else, even though the enraged muffled shrieks coming from the smaller sibling left very little to the imagination as to what he might possibly be saying.
Alphonse and Annora just looked at each other before they decided that it was probably best to just go to the train station, and get as far away from Russell as they possibly could. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the sport that he most enjoyed was pushing Ed's buttons. So, without further ado, the two promptly hauled the enraged alchemist away in the direction of the station, leaving Russell standing there in the street with Fletcher right behind him, chuckling slightly at the fact that he had successfully gotten under Ed's skin once again.
--
Central
--
Ethan let out a weary groan as he slid into his seat at his desk, pausing for one brief moment to glare at the small pile of paperwork that lay in his 'In' tray before he set his khaki satchel down on the ground next to his feet. He had been in Amestris for a week now, and all he had done was paperwork, and sleep in his military-issued dorm room in the barracks, as well as make a few small forays into town to get food and supplies, like normal clothing. So far, the only intelligence that he had been able to gather on this strange country was the fact that everyone in the small troop that he had been assigned to, including his superior officer, Mustang, was absolutely nuts.
Yesterday, it had been the incident with Hughes and his never-ending whirlwind of photos, and the day before that one of the men's toilets had somehow exploded, almost flooding the records room, and sending a sopping-wet Fuery running out like the hounds of Hell were after him.
"Please let today be somewhat sane, for just once," the twenty-year old prayed quietly as he settled into his wooden chair and pulled out a pen, starting on his paperwork immediately. Ethan made it to about his third sheet without major incident before anything actually happened, and by then everyone else in the office had already arrived, excluding Hawkeye, because she was always early.
When Lt. Colonel Hughes walked into the office area, Ethan immediately stiffened up and prepared to make a sudden trip outside of the work area for 'urgent business' in the men's room, only to be surprised when the older man pulled out a sheaf of papers from inside his jacket and leaned up against Havoc's desk.
"Have you all heard the news?" he asked calmly as he peered around the room at all of the assembled soldiers. Hawkeye arched a blonde eyebrow curiously as she gave her co-worker an odd look, her mouth slightly pursed.
"Why, what happened?"
The usually eccentric man gave a slight frown as he pushed his square-framed glasses up onto the bridge of his nose, his golden-green eyes unnaturally serious.
"One of the supply officers is getting sacked," he remarked, and immediately everyone's attention was focused on him. Mustang even came out of his office where he was pretending to do work and leaned up against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest as he listened intently to his friend's news.
"Maes, what brought this decision along?" the Colonel asked quietly, and Hughes gave a slight shrug as he shuffled half-heartedly through his papers.
"Apparently about a week ago an entire uniform went missing from the storeroom, boots and everything," the Investigations officer said slowly, and Ethan promptly felt his blood run cold as realization hit him. "The guy insists that nothing was gone when he went on break that day, but several of the higher-ups think that he's just trying to cover his ass. Personally, I think that someone stole the uniform just so that they could use it to get inside the military, probably as a spy of some kind. So you guys need to keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious characters, and any military members that you don't know who just seem to appear out of nowhere."
By this point, Ethan felt as though he were about to be violently ill, and it was all he could do to stay calm. If he hadn't known any better, he could have sworn that Hughes was talking to him. The older man may not have been looking at him when he had said this, but the twenty-year old had a sinking suspicion that the Lt. Colonel knew more than what he was letting on.
Somehow, Maes Hughes knew that he didn't belong there.
--
"Jesus, this is bad," Ethan groaned quietly as he held his head in his hands, even though he was on high alert for anyone who might have a sudden need to enter the men's bathroom. He was seated on the lid of one of the many toilets in the stalls, valiantly attempting to fight back the almost overwhelming wave of nausea that threatened to swamp him.
It had taken the Private about ten minutes to whip through the rest of his paperwork, and then leave the office area with the excuse that he had eaten some bad food last night and was having stomach problems.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," the twenty-year old groaned as he closed his eyes and prayed that he would be able to get a grip sometime soon. Why the hell was it that he could handle being cannon fodder for the past year, and shooting at terrorists, and yet a simple spy mission made him fall apart?
Maybe it was the small fact that if he got found out he'd be horribly tortured and interrogated before he was finally allowed to die.
Ethan muttered what sounded like a cuss word in Iraqi, and sighed, only to almost hit the ceiling as someone whose voice he immediately recognized spoke calmly from right outside his stall door.
"So, is that something from the language that they speak in wherever you're from? It didn't sound very polite."
The soldier fell off of his toilet seat in shock, swearing like a sailor as he hastily scrambled to his feet and wrenched the stall door open, only to find himself face to face with Maes Hughes. Automatically, Ethan snapped into a salute as he faced the older man with a neutral expression on his face, even though on the inside he was practically shitting his pants. Hughes frowned slightly as he indicated for the young man to drop the salute before he fixed him with a piercing look.
"Who are you really, Eric? I find it very odd that you just showed up out of the blue and enlisted a week ago, and without a scrap of identification," the Lt. Colonel remarked pointedly, and was rewarded with Ethan going a very nasty shade of white. "Not to mention the fact that your uniform is probably the one that's missing from the supply room, since I was unable to find any record of you actually receiving and signing out a uniform."
"Sir, when I went to get my uniform, no one was there," Ethan said nervously, lying through his teeth. "When I turned in my enlistment form, one of the other soldiers told me that if I didn't have my uniform on when I came in the next day I'd have my ass thrown in the brig for insubordination. I saw that no one was there… and well, I panicked. Not to mention that I didn't know I had to put down that I had received a uniform."
"Bullshit," Hughes stated simply with a frown, his eyes narrowed. "Eric, you've just enlisted, and yet you move like a man who's actually seen combat. There is no way that you're just a green recruit. So tell me now, where are you really from?"
The twenty-year old drew in a deep breath as he fixed the older man in front of him with a steely look, silently praying to any merciful divine being that might happen to be in the area that he would be able to keep his nerves in check.
"I'm from the outskirts of East City, Lieutenant Colonel, sir," he said seriously. Hughes merely arched an eyebrow before he spoke.
"Then what's the Amestris national anthem?" he asked. Ethan felt his heart drop straight down into the bottom of his shoes as a roaring sound filled his ears.
"W-what?" he managed to ask faintly, and silently cursed himself for the obvious stutter in his voice. "I can't… sing, sir. I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket if I tried."
"Then just say the words."
"I-I've forgotten them, sir."
Hughes looked slightly amused as he gave the younger man a thoughtful look before he pulled a familiar thin plastic card out of his pocket and held it up in the air in plain sight in between his index and middle finger. Ethan felt his nausea increase tenfold as he stared accusingly at the small plastic card, knowing exactly where the older man had gotten it and cursing himself for not being smart enough to keep his wallet on him.
"So, if you're an Amestranian citizen, then why would this-" Hughes paused for a second to flip the card around so he could read the small black lettering printed on it. "-'Arizona Driver's License' be in your wallet? That wasn't very bright of you, leaving something this incriminating in plain sight."
The Private stared speechless at the older man as he continued, his mouth hanging open slightly.
"And according to this little card here, your name is actually Ethan Thomas. Not very creative at creating an alias, are you, kid?"
"It's just something that some friends of mine cooked up as prank before I left to enlist," the twenty-year old offered weakly. "It's not supposed to mean anything."
Hughes made a small noise of disbelief as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin metal chain with two dog tags dangling from it, holding it in the same hand as Ethan's driver's license as he gave the younger man a skeptical look.
"Then what about these?" he asked quietly, his expression grim. "According to these dog tags, you're Private Ethan Alexander Thomas of the United States Army. You know, for a greenhorn soldier, these sure do look pretty beat up. So, how much combat experience have you actually had?"
"Shut up," the young man growled as he clenched his fists, fear coursing through him as he stared angrily at the Lt. Colonel. The older man ignored him as he proceeded to talk, knowing that he was getting underneath Ethan's skin.
"I've never heard of the United States before," Hughes mused thoughtfully as he cast a sideways glance at the shaking Private. "It must be a pretty small country if they're willing to send some inexperienced kid into the military of another country as a spy. I hate to tell you this, Ethan, but you've gotten yourself into some serious trouble for this little stunt. Not to mention that spying is punishable by death."
"Shut up!!" Ethan snapped as he shook himself out of his shocked stupor and reached for his gun, knowing that he was screwed beyond belief. Before he could even remove the firearm from the holster however, Hughes had a razor-sharp throwing knife positioned right above his jugular.
"Don't even think about it," he warned seriously. "I've been around a lot longer than you have, kid, and I've seen war. Don't think that I'm a pushover just because I have a desk job."
"I've seen war too," Ethan ground out as he fixed the older man in front of him with a venomous glare. "I've watched some of my best friends in my unit die because they got careless, or just plain unlucky. I saw my C.O. get blasted into a bloody red pulp by an incoming mortar, and I damn near died from an IED!" The twenty-year old frowned reflectively as he moved his hand away from his holster. "Actually, I still don't know how the hell I survived that one. I thought I was dead until I woke up in-" Ethan's eyes widened as he immediately snapped his mouth shut, knowing instinctively that he had said too much.
"Until you woke up where?" Hughes asked carefully as he looked at the younger man, who was currently a very nasty shade of white, but had a determined look on his face. The Lieutenant Colonel gave a sigh as he slowly removed his throwing knife from Ethan's throat and returned it to the sheath with the others at the back of his belt.
"You know what, I think I'm going to take a few risks here and give you a chance," the Investigations officer said casually as he looked over at Ethan, who had a bewildered look on his face. "Why don't I go and tell Roy that I'm going to borrow you for a couple hours to help me with sorting some misplaced records, and we can go someplace private and talk for a bit. How does that sound to you, kid?"
"Fine, I guess," the younger man admitted reluctantly as he ran a hand nervously through his sandy bangs. Immediately, Hughes was all smiles as he clapped Ethan hard on the back, almost sending the Private face-first into the floor.
"Good man! When we get there I'll show you some of the cutest pictures of my baby girl!!"
'I think I'd rather face a firing squad first.'
--
Annora frowned thoughtfully as she snapped her laptop open and booted it up, her brown eyes moving over towards where Ed was slouched down in a wooden chair at the small table in their sleeper room with Al, playing some kind of card game. Ever since her friend had shown up and apologized for his earlier actions, he had been oddly quiet.
The sixteen-year old gave a small sigh and a mental shrug as she opted to remember the three-word phrase that had always served her well in explaining the strange actions of the opposite gender, even with her dad and brother: Boys are weird.
If she kept this in mind, life would be a lot easier.
A sudden scuffle broke out over at the small table as Al caught Ed cheating at cards using alchemy, resulting in Annora rolling her eyes as she opened up her internet page. She was just about to log in and check her e-mail, only for her web-cam to send a notice that Katie was trying to talk to her. With a long-suffering sigh, the teenager plugged in her headphones and opened her web-cam, only to arch an eyebrow when she caught sight of who was with her friend.
"Alice?" she asked curiously as she shifted into a more comfortable position with her back against the wall on the top bunk and placed her computer in her lap. The blonde grinned evilly at her as she nodded, while Katie proceeded to squirm about excitedly in her seat.
"So, Annora, where are you?" Katie burst out. "Where are Ed and Al?"
"Right now, I'm on a train," the sixteen-year old said slowly, giving Katie a suspicious look as she eyeballed Alice nervously. The other girl was in her history class, and sat a few seats away from Katie, but other than that Annora didn't really know her. Except for the fact that she was a hardcore anime fan just like Katie, which was why the two of them got along so well.
"Katie said that you were in Amestris," Alice said suddenly, her ice-blue eyes shining with barely hidden excitement as she looked into the camera. "She told me that you were traveling with Edward and Alphonse Elric. Is that true?"
"No," Annora said bluntly as she shot her friend an extremely dirty look, a frown making its way across her face. "I'm in Colorado with some relatives right now, and we're taking the train to Silverton. I don't know what Katie told you Alice, but it's probably not true."
"What's going on?" Ed asked suddenly, and Annora wrenched off her headphones as she looked down at the blonde alchemist.
"Katie's on my web-cam again, and this time she brought a friend," she hissed urgently as she covered up her camera lens with her free hand. "As far as I know, she's just about as nutty as Katie is, so do me a favor and keep quiet for a bit while I try to distract them."
Ed paled slightly before he returned to his card game, a distinctly sour look on his face. "Great, another one."
Annora gave a weary sigh as she put her headphones on again and uncovered her camera, giving Katie a cheesy smile as she made a show of looking apologetic. "Sorry about that, one of my cousins was being a pest."
"Annora, I already told Alice where you are, so there's no need to pretend," Katie grumbled darkly as she frowned at her friend. "Just let us talk to Ed and Al for a little bit, okay? That's all we want to do."
The sixteen-year old bristled slightly at the demanding tone in her friend's voice, and her chocolate eyes hardened as she fixed Katie with a withering glare.
"Katie, this may just be nothing more than a damn game for you, but this is real for me," she growled, a threatening edge lacing her voice that neither of the two other girls had ever heard before. "Since I found myself here, I've been strangled, shot at, almost blown up, wrenched, thrown, kidnapped, shot at some more, put into a coma, woke up from said coma, and found out that someone I've looked up to my entire life was killed. I'm lucky that I haven't died yet. So, unless you want me to go absolutely ballistic on you, look at things from my perspective for a few seconds and not treat me like I'm just some sort of liaison for you two to go and obsess about a couple of teenage boys who can do alchemy."
There was dead silence from Katie and Alice for several seconds before the blonde girl finally ventured to ask a question. "Who died?"
"My older brother. He was killed by an IED over in Iraq."
"WHAT?!" Katie yelped incredulously as she immediately shoved Alice aside, her greenish-gold eyes wide in disbelief. "Ethan DIED?! When did this happen?!"
"A little over a week ago… well, at least here," Annora said quietly as she looked away from the camera, tears stinging unwillingly at the corners of her eyes. "I don't know how long it's been over there since I've left, but I've been in Amestris for a little over two months. One thing that I've noticed is that time seems to be a little screwy between here and Flagstaff."
Katie gaped at Annora uncomprehendingly, her odd-colored eyes wide before her expression softened into one of sympathy. "Oh God, Annora… I'm so sorry. Do… do your parents know yet?"
"I don't know," the sixteen-year old admitted reluctantly as she let out a sigh. "I think after this I'm going to contact one of Ethan's unit members… he's the one who told me what happened… and see what else I can find out. I know that I need to find a way home before they ship a mostly empty coffin to us… I can't put my parents through the pain of losing both of their children all at once. They're going to need me there… I just know it."
"How are you holding up?" Katie asked curiously as she looked her friend right in the eye, a slight frown hanging about her lips. "I know that Ed isn't exactly the master of being touchy-feely. Actually, I think he's just an expert at being painfully blunt and insensitive when it comes to other people's feelings. I mean, he told Rose to just get up and move-"
"Katie, I'm fine," Annora said as she rolled her eyes, interrupting her friend in mid-rant. "He and Al had to smack some sense into me a few days after I found out about Ethan because I was moping around, but I needed it, so it wasn't a problem."
"Edward Elric actually hit you?" Alice asked incredulously in a tone that signified that if such a thing were to happen to her she would never wash that part of her body ever again. Annora stared at the other girl as though she had taken leave of her senses as she pulled a face.
"Uh, no. He just talked to me. Al was the one who really took the time to make sure that I understood that all I was doing was hurting myself."
"He talked to you?"
"Duh. How else do you tell someone to pull their head out of their ass?"
"You know, just hearing your half of the conversation is creepy as hell," Ed remarked sardonically as he cast a glance over his shoulder, a golden eyebrow arched slightly. "I don't even want to know what your friend is saying."
"Its better that way, trust me."
Alice frowned at the fact that she was being ignored, and opened her mouth to say something before Katie beat her to the punch.
"Hey Annora, do you like Ed? Have you kissed him yet?" the bespectacled girl asked enthusiastically, and her friend froze before she stared at her, her jaw hanging open slightly in wordless disbelief. Alice just looked like Katie had spoken the worst of blasphemies.
"…"
"Am I right?! I am right, aren't I?!" Katie demanded triumphantly, and Annora finally regained the power of coherent thought as she directed a piercing glare at her friend.
"I was struck speechless at the sheer stupidity of what you just said," she growled as she wrinkled her nose at the thought. "Jesus Katie, where in the hell do you come up with this stuff? Are you smoking something, like cigaweed, or did you eat some hash brownies? 'Cause either way, you have to be high on something to come up with crap like that. Besides, I don't even like him like that."
"Yeah Katie," Alice jumped in as she looked over at the other girl as she pulled a piece of paper with a picture printed on it from her binder and held it up so that it filled up the entire computer screen. "There's no way that Ed would kiss her. This is what he likes."
It took Annora a few seconds for her brain to register just what exactly she was looking at before she instinctively jerked back away from her computer screen in stunned horror, her chocolate eyes wide in disbelief.
"Oh my GOD!!" she yelped as she hastily yanked her headphones out of the jack and shoved her laptop off of her crossed legs, scooting as far away as she could possibly get from the evil image that was now seared into her brain. Envy and Ed were… ewwww; all she knew was that boys were not supposed to kiss like that.
"Annora, what's wrong?" Ed asked as he poked his head up over the side of the top bunk and looked at the shaking teenager in obvious concern. "What's going on?"
Immediately the picture was removed from the camera lens and Alice's panicked expression became evident as she shook her head, mouthing 'no' frantically. The sixteen-year old ignored her as she managed to stammer out a few words.
"Envy… kissing…" she said weakly, and Ed arched an eyebrow at this.
"What the hell? Who was he kissing… and what does this have to do with anything?" he asked
"I'm… not at liberty to say," she muttered faintly, and then flinched as she tried to force what she had just seen out of her mind. At Ed's skeptical look, she finally gave a roundabout answer. "You remember that weird website that we found that one time, the one that we both vowed we would never visit again? Alice just showed me the same kind of stuff that we found on there… only it was a picture."
Dead silence.
"What?!"
"Uhh… what would you do?"
"Well, first off, I'd talk to your 'friend'," Ed growled dangerously as a murderous gleam entered his golden eyes before he added an afterthought. "With a baseball bat."
"That sounds like a good idea," Annora agreed weakly before she let out and anguished moan and buried her head in her hands. "Oh god, I'm never going to get that image out of my head now. I'm gonna have nightmares about that for the remainder of my life."
"Uh… I think we should go now," Katie said suddenly before she shut off her web-cam. "Bye!!"
"Coward," Ed grumbled, but didn't complain as Annora shut off her own camera before shutting down her laptop. The teenager frowned thoughtfully as she put her computer back in its carrying case and lowered it down to the floor of the sleeper by its black shoulder strap.
"You know what, I'm just going to go to bed and pray that I don't wake up screaming at some point in the middle of the night," she pointed out wryly. "I'll wait until tomorrow to talk to Ethan's friend."
"That's probably a good idea," Ed agreed before he gave his friend a thoughtful look, fully aware of the fact that Al was ignoring him as punishment for him cheating at cards. "You going to be okay?"
"Yeah. 'Night you guys, see ya in the morning."
Ed watched as the taller girl pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes, obviously intending on falling asleep fully clothed. He waited a few minutes for Annora to fall asleep before he kicked off his boots and did the same thing on the bottom bunk, turning off the light as he did so.
As the Fullmetal Alchemist lay there in the dark, staring up at the underside of the top bunk, he couldn't help but wonder who Annora had been talking about when she had said that she didn't like him that way.
--
"So, let me get this straight. You're a Private in the army for a large country called the United States, and you were fighting in a country called Iraq against terrorists, at least up until over a week ago," Hughes said seriously as he fixed Ethan with a stern look, and the younger man nodded as he gripped the mug of coffee he held in his hands firmly before he took another gulp. "The last thing that you remember before you were hit by an IED was walking out of the communications tent after talking to your younger sister, who is still stateside. Then, after that, you woke up in the Records room here with absolutely no idea as to how you got there. Is that about it?"
"Yes sir," the twenty-year old agreed as he looked up at the Lt. Colonel before he gave a weary shrug. "I don't expect you to believe me, sir, since I'm having a hard time believing it myself, but that's what happened. I swear on my life that I'm telling the truth."
Hughes let out a long-suffering sigh as he slumped down in his chair and took off his glasses before he slowly massaged the bridge of his nose, obviously having the beginnings of a headache. "I believe you, Ethan. Your story is just too damn crazy to not be real, no matter what way I look at it."
"Thank god," the younger man sighed in relief as he set his mug down on Hughes's desk. "You have no idea what it's been like, lying to everyone for the past week. At first, I enlisted here so I wouldn't draw attention and I could find out where the hell I was. After a few days here, and looking at all of the maps I could get my hands on of Amestris and all of the surrounding countries, I realized that none of these places even looked like any of the countries I know of, much less had any similar names."
"I'm just going to pretend that you never said that first part," the Lt. Colonel remarked pointedly, causing Ethan to flush slightly, before he continued. "You know, your story isn't the first one like this that I've heard, surprisingly. A little over two months ago, Roy brought in a girl who claimed to be from the United States as well. When we questioned her to see if we could get any information about her family so we could contact her parents, she said that she had an older brother in the military. I was the one who scoured the records for him, but there was no evidence that he even existed."
"What was her brother's name?"
"I don't remember. I'll have to pull up the file from when she was brought in."
"Where is she?" Ethan asked as he jerked upright in his seat, his hazel eyes wide with excitement. "If I can talk to her, maybe she can give me some idea as to how both of us got here and-"
"Whoa, slow down there," Hughes told the younger man as he held up a hand. "The thing is she's not even in Central right now. The Fullmetal Alchemist, one of our State Alchemists, and his younger brother were assigned to watch her until we could figure out how to get in touch with her parents, and he's currently somewhere in the East at the moment. Judging from your story though, I don't think that's exactly possible."
Ethan gave a sigh as he leaned back with a slight grin on his face. "So, when will this Fullmetal person be back?"
"I don't know. He just kind of wanders all over the place… and sometimes trouble seems to follow him. So, it could take a while before he actually shows up in Central again."
The Private pulled a face at this piece of information before he gave an annoyed groan and buried his head in his hands. "No, of course it wouldn't be that easy."
Hughes patiently waited until the younger man was paying attention to him once again before he proceeded with their conversation. "When you talked with your sister, did you talk about anything specific? You were awfully vague when you mentioned your conversation with her."
Ethan frowned thoughtfully as he stared at the dark brown depths of his coffee, his forehead furrowing in confusion. After a few seconds of silence, the twenty-year old made a low noise of obvious frustration before he reached up and began to massage his temples, apparently trying not to lose his temper.
"God damn it!" he growled, not noticing Hughes's curious look. "I don't remember!"
"What?"
"I don't remember!" the younger man snapped as he looked up at the Lt. Colonel, barely restrained panic evident in his eyes. "All I remember was that I was supposed to talk to her… but I don't think that I did. I know that one of my friends came up to me after I got off with her, and mentioned something that I looked up on the Internet… but I don't remember what that was either."
"The… Internet?" Hughes said slowly, testing out the unfamiliar word. "What in the world is that?"
"It's something that anyone can use to access information where I come from," Ethan said automatically as he let out an annoyed sigh. "But that's not the point. Why the hell can't I remember my conversation with my sister?"
The Investigations officer laced his fingers together thoughtfully in front of his mouth and stared at the younger man in front of him, giving him a scrutinizing look with his odd-colored eyes.
"What's your sister's name?" he asked suddenly, and Ethan frowned momentarily before a horrified expression came over his face, and he immediately went ashen gray. Immediately, Hughes straightened up and fixed the Private with a concerned look, ready to rush over in case he passed out. "Ethan, what's wrong?"
"My sister…" the twenty-year old said hoarsely as he rocked back in his chair, hazel eyes wide in disbelief. "I don't remember my own sister. I know that I have one and that she's younger than me, but I don't know how old she is… what she looks like or anything like that. Oh god, I've forgotten who she is!"
Sensing that Ethan was about to have an extreme emotional meltdown, the Lieutenant Colonel went over to the younger man and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing him on the shoulder to bring him out of his impending hysteria.
"Hey, just calm down for a few moments," he said encouragingly. "Your memory loss is probably only temporary. The reason you've forgotten your sister is probably because you were thinking about her when that IED hit, and your mind automatically blocked out everything concerning her just as a survival trick."
"Really?" the Private asked as he looked up at Hughes, who gave him a reassuring smile in response.
"Are you kidding? I've known people who've forgotten their own wives because of some of the experiences that they had in battle. Don't be too hard on yourself, and it will all come back eventually."
"But… that was over a week ago. Why am I just realizing this now?"
"Probably because you haven't thought about what happened very much since you woke up in Amestris," the older man pointed out seriously before he gave a weary sigh. "All the same though, we should probably look into getting you an official physical sometime soon just to make sure that you don't have any problems that might be causing this."
"Great, doctors," Ethan grumbled moodily as he ran a hand through his messy hair, his eyes narrowing slightly. "I hate doctors."
"I don't know anybody who likes them," Hughes said with a faint grin. "Although I have to admit, watching Roy with his last physical was absolutely hilarious."
"Why was that?"
"Because one of the doctors wanted to give him a colonoscopy… and Roy threatened to incinerate him if he even tried."
Ethan blinked at this little bit of information before he snickered slightly, his mind creating some very interesting images of his superior threatening a doctor with a flamethrower. He immediately sobered up though as another thought hit him, and a slight frown made its way across his face as he reached into his wallet and pulled out a photograph, placing it down on the table and pointing at it.
"Lieutenant Colonel, there's only one thing left that I want to ask about," he said seriously, drawing Hughes's attention to the picture. "Does anything look off to you in this photograph?"
Hughes arched an eyebrow at the Private's odd comment, but picked up the photo nonetheless. Immediately, he noticed a major flaw at what he was looking at. The young man in the picture was definitely Ethan, garbed in the full field military gear of the American Army that he served in, but with several major differences. The man had narrower eyes, and there was just this general sense of… offness in the picture. Hughes almost didn't know how to describe it, except for everything looking more… detailed and fuller, in some strange way.
"What exactly is this?" he asked as he handed the picture back to Ethan, who returned it to a pocket in his wallet. "That didn't look like any of the pictures I've seen here."
"This was a picture taken of me my first day in Iraq," the twenty-year old said quietly, a strange look in his hazel eyes as he frowned reflectively. "One of the things that I noticed when I looked into a mirror for the first time after I got here was that I'd… changed. I don't quite know how to describe it, only that it's unnerving. But that's how I looked before I came to Amestris."
"Unnerving is definitely the word for this," Hughes commented wryly. "I've never seen or heard of anything like this in my entire life."
"Join the club," Ethan muttered bitterly as he shook his head. "Things just seem to keep getting weirder and weirder. I just want to know what the hell is going on, but all I seem to do is find more questions than answers."
"We all have times like that," the Lt. Colonel pointed out as he stepped away from the younger man and stretched his arms over his head before looking over at the clock on his wall. "We really need to wrap this up though, because Roy will probably want you back sometime soon, and we have uniform registration paperwork that we need to get out of the way for you before anything else is done."
The Private wrinkled his nose in disgust as he stood up and followed Hughes towards his office door. "Great, more useless crap that needs my signature. If this is anything like when I enlisted and received my uniform, there will probably be about five or six papers that I need to sign."
"Try about four" Hughes quipped with a grin. "Don't worry though, it won't take that long since all I'll need you to do is sign the forms and I'll put last week's date on them before I file them in the appropriate places. We may need to get you an overcoat and a hat from the storeroom though, since you probably didn't think to grab one of those, did you?"
"No," Ethan muttered sourly. "I was kind of in a hurry."
"That's what I thought."
"… Sir?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to tell Colonel Mustang… the truth about me I mean?" the twenty-year old asked nervously, suddenly anxious for whatever reply he might receive. Hughes looked thoughtful for a few moments before he let out a reluctant sigh, a slight frown on his face.
"For now… I don't think so," the Lt. Colonel said as he ran a hand through his black hair. "Until we can get things figured out, I don't think that Roy really needs to know about this. If something happens though, I will tell him."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel, sir."
"Don't mention in it… Eric."
--
I want to thank the wonderful agent000 for helping me with this chapter, because I had a really hard time with figuring out how this chapter was going to work out, and she let me bounce some ideas off of her. Thank you so very much!!
For all of you who have watched the anime and the movie, you might recognize somewhat what happened to Ethan. The Gate requires some form of a toll for passing through it, and the toll it took from Ethan was his memories of Annora, since she was probably the person he cherished the most. Kind of like how it took Al's memories from the past five years when he was stuck inside the suit of armor and traveling all over Amestris with Ed. The thing is with Ethan though is that he knows that he has a younger sister, and has vague memories of interacting with her, but remembers nothing else about her, including what she looks like.
And thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers, who make my day with some of the very interesting and funny things that they come up with when they're telling me what they think of my stuff.
I'm sorry, but I won't be doing any review responses for this chapter, since it's currently one in the morning where I'm at right now, and I'm dead tired. I'll do them next chapter though, I promise.
Ed: Yeah right. You're just a bum.
Wandering Hitokiri: (Has Sano gag Ed) Shut up, otherwise I'll throw you to my dog.
For those of you who asked, Ed is the President of the 'I hate Hitokiri' club, Mustang is the Vice-President, and Envy is a new club member. Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha are both prominent members who both joined up after I stared my Naruto story 'Lost on the Road of Life'.
Anyways, until the next chapter!
Sayonara
Wandering Hitokiri
