Chapter 4

A/N: Hellloooo lovies, I'm so sorry this takes so long, college sucks. Why oh why do I feel compelled to be a teacher? Meh. Sorry for being whiny, I just feel really bad when I need to prioritize things ahead of updates, but my grades depend on that so it is what it is. Anyway, I hope you all are doing swell, I've been watching Soul Eater lately, as well as my epic rewatch of Naruto, and keeping up with RWBY and Legend of Korra. It's exhausting.

Infinite Katalyst: Reed is, well you know Reed. XD We've talked about this and him and how glorious things are when he's involved. And I like the idea of Scar seeing the twins and just being like "I know EXACTLY who you and your doofus parents are."

isidipi: Well, I really cannot reveal this at such a time, lol. And Elizabeth is 15.

GummyDrive: Yeah, like I said to Infinite Katalyst, I adore the idea of Scar instantly recognizing Jade and Opal because he knew Al and especially Mei way back when.

Alaina Kuski: Agreed! XD And that's if Mei and Al don't get to them first!

xo-skyla: Elizabeth and Reed will have an interesting relationship for sure based on how their fathers are! And as for the relationship between Mei and Scar, I agree I thought it was kinda cute that he just sorta took her in, even before he realized she was a little killing machine!

This chapter re/introduces:

•Elicia Hughes → born 1911 (aged 24)

•Selim Bradley → born ? (aged 22)

•Scarlett Mustang → born 1923 (aged 12)

"Will! Betty! Come this way!" the young man named Reed called, leading them down a hallway in Central's military headquarters. Amestris was now less militaristically inclined, but there was still a presence in order to ensure enemies would not attack the country in their complacent times.

"It's Wesley and ELIZABETH," the Elric girl practically screamed, drawing the attention of military personnel in the area.

"El, calm down," Wes whispered, looking down at her disapprovingly, a silent reminder of where they were.

"It's like he's intentionally getting our names wrong!" she whisper-hissed, defending herself.

"Yeah, because it gets you so worked up!"

The Mustang boy stopped, eyeing them sharply. "You know I can hear you right, Betty?"

"I hope so, then you'll know you're going to get your ass kicked."

The little spat was interrupted by a young woman with light brown hair and green eyes placing her hand on Reed's shoulder. Instead of uniform pants, a skirt was worn with her jacket to show her civilian status.

"Reed, what's the commotion all about? You know your mother won't be pleased if someone complains about it."

"Ohh, Elicia, what are you doing down here? Don't you have papers to file or something?" Reed asked, clearly getting nervous by the woman's presence. She brushed her ponytail behind her indignantly, and hefted some books on her hip.

"Your father sent me to fetch some books for him from the records room. Why you acting so suspicious, kiddo, is that your girlfriend over there?" Elicia replied, whispering the last part conspiratorily with a wink.

"No!" he huffed, crossing his arms. "I caught these two vagabonds trying to intrude in one of the libraries and I'm bringing them to Dad!"

"Vagabonds? They really don't look it..." the assistant to the Fuhrer replied, looking over the Elrics. "Actually, they look kind of familiar."

"Children of Edward Elric, pleasure to meet you!" Elizabeth piped in with a hand extended, crossing her fingers that it would mean something to the woman.

"Edward Elric? That means your mom is Winry! I love her, she was so nice to me growing up!" Elicia squealed, growing excited. "Oh my goodness, you must be Elizabeth, you look just like her!"

Reed rolled his eyes. Elicia Hughes was like a surrogate older sister to him, but she certainly had some excitable tendencies. "Can we see Dad or what, Elicia?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure!"

Thus the ponytailed woman led the trio of teens upstairs to the office of the Fuhrer, Roy Mustang. Elizabeth looked to see Wesley fiddling with his fingers nervously, and touched his arm, giving a reassuring smile.

"Hey, Elicia. Got those books for the Fuhrer?" a dark haired young man, asked, standing gaurd in front of the office.

"Yep, also Reed has some friends he wants his dad to meet."

"They're not my friends, Elicia!"

"Oh, whatever! You're so dramatic!" she retorted, pinching his cheek and looking back to the gaurd. "I'll come back out to talk to you in a minute, Selim. Lemme just drop these off first.

Selim nodded and opened the door to the office with a smile, allowing the group to enter the large office. A sitting area seemed to be in place in front of the desk, and the Fuhrer himself there telling a story, his wife and daughter seated by him.

"And so I said, 'I'll just incinerate you all, how about that?'"

Wes and El exchanged a look at the nonchalant story, and heard Reed clear his throat. Elicia placed the stack of books down on the coffee table, patted the head of the young girl and stepped out of the office happily, never saying a single word.

"Dad, I have some people I'd like you to meet. They were trying to sneak into the National Library, and claim to be-"

"Fullmetal's children?" Roy asked, looking at the two blonde teenagers interestedly. His wife, Riza, seemed to agree, giving a nod of her head.

"How did you...?" Reed started to ask, his voice trailing off in confusion.

"Well the boy looks just like him for starters, and the girl looks like his wife, and also Fullmetal shows me their pictures whenever he's in town, probably to annoy me on purpose," the older Mustang replied with a shrug, standing from the couch and observing them some more.

"Nice to meet you, Fuhrer Mustang," Elizabeth said, putting her hand out for a shake. Roy looked at her hand, before raising an eyebrow.

"Elric doesn't know you're here does he?" the man asked, eliciting a gasp from Elizabeth. Wes merely facepalmed, before shooting his sister a side-eyed glance.

"Clearly not, otherwise he'd be here as well and they wouldn't have attempted to sneak into the National Library," Riza said, standing next to her husband with a wry smile.

"Well, I.." the Elric girl began, a little surprised at the transparency of the situation. Reed looked back and forth between his parents and the two teens, wondering what his father would do.

"You'll have to tell us what you're doing here over dinner tonight," Roy stated, his dark eyes flickering to meet Riza's. "So I can determine whether or not it's necessary to put a call in for your father to come get you."

"Scarlett, you don't mind sharing your room with Elizabeth, do you?" Riza asked, looking to the twelve year old girl who remained on the couch, a book in her hands. She light brown hair, dark eyes, and an uninterested expression, but shrugged in response to her mother's question.

"I suppose not."

Reed looked to his parents, flabbergasted. "Are you seriously going to have them stay with us?!"

"Oh Reed, calm down," Roy said, clapping a hand on his son's head. "They're sort of family friends."

Jade finished running the brush borrowed from Amina through Opal's hair, and began to braid it for bed. Scar had suggested that the twins stay with the girl for the night, so that they could have time to figure out what to do in the interim. The older girl was very kind, making some dinner, and even letting them bathe, as they were not used to all the sand.

"Hey, Opal. Remember when Mom was 12 and she crossed the desert all the way from Xing so she could try to find the Philosopher's Stone? She was all by herself, except for Xiao Mei, and Scar helped her. Then she met Dad."

Opal nodded, the braid complete, before turning to help Jade with her hair. It was a nightly routine for the twins, and sometimes they even helped each other in the morning. Both had inherited their mother's thick and pretty hair, and they loved to play with it, sometimes even practicing on Wesley.

"Yeah, she said that Dad was trying to find her because he thought alkahestry could help them against that bad guy."

"Yep, and she spent almost all her time here travelling with this Scar guy. I think we can trust him, so you don't have to be so scared ok?" Jade said in a reassuring tone, but keeping herself perfectly still as Opal did her hair.

"You can definitely trust Leader," Amina spoke, entering the room and giving a smile. "I'm an orphan, but Leader always made sure I was taken care of. He's like the father I've never had in some ways."

"Really?" Opal asked, her gold eyes meeting Amina's crimson ones. The white haired girl nodded, sitting on the bed with the twins.

"He cares for everyone in Ishval, and if he knew your parents, that's only more reason for you to trust him, I think."

"We'll have to thank him in the morning, Opal," Jade said, exchanging a look with her sister. "Thank you for letting us stay with you, Amina. We really appreciate it."

"Oh it's no problem, our elders say it is important to be kind. Now, I want you guys to sleep in here, ok? I'll be on a futon in the next room if you need anything, and tomorrow Leader may have figured out how to get you home."

The girls nodded wearily, and laid down, too exhausted to rekindle their earlier protest of Amina giving up her bed. Jade fell asleep quickly, and Opal soon did as well, first clasping her sister's hand for comfort.

"You WHAT?!"

Alphonse held the phone away from his ear, and exchanged a weary look with Mei, standing next to him on the dark train platform.

"Winry didn't take it well, I'm guessing?" Mei asked quietly, shifting a sleepy Henry in her arms. He was 6, and pretty heavy.

"Actually, it's Ed," her husband replied, referring to the ongoing shouting coming from the telephone receiver. "Brother, listen, I don't know where they are, all I know if that one by one they seemed to slip away and now our kids are nowhere to be found. We need a plan to try to find them before it's too late."

"Ugh, I'll get on the first train to East City, and I recommend you do the same," came Ed's voice into the receiver, a little hoarse from the shouting. "But who knows where they could be a this point?!"

"Alright, we can do that," Al said, relieved a plan was beginning to develop.

"Just be thankful that it's me coming and not Winry, or you'd be a dead man."

"I don't know that you're much better."

"I really don't think you're in a position to be giving me snark, Alphonse!"

With a sigh, Al wrapped up the conversation with his older brother, knowing his anger was merely masking his concern for the children. Waiting for a new train, the couple sat on a bench, awake with worry, their son asleep in their arms.

A/N: And there we have it, I finally got on update for you guys. I still feel pretty bad about the wait, but to be honest, an update a month is actually pretty normal for me.

As always, I hope you enjoyed it, and that you review, and also check out Infinite Katalyst oneshot Xingese Shenanigans because it's totally in the TGA-verse and is a sort of prequel kind of a little bit maybe?

Until next time!

MyHikari