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Chapter Twenty-Eight - Searching Past and Present

Once the group had successfully escaped from the reiatsu deflecting barrier the decision was quickly made that they should attempt to track down Tucker. Of course it was Ed who demanded this course of action but there wasn't really anyone who argued with him over this desire.

It seemed that they were all pretty much in agreement over what should be done.

"The bastard can't have gotten that far," Ed growled, his golden eyes narrowed as he thought back to the man that had succeeded in capturing them in that damn barrier.

"Regardless of how far he may or may not have traveled we have to make an attempt to track him down," Hitsugaya said, refusing to allow the man to escape. He was still way beyond irritated over the fact that they had been trapped and was looking to redeem himself.

After all it was utterly disgraceful that he, a captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, had been captured in such a manner.

"Right," Ed agreed, nodding his head.

The group began moving forward, each searching for any signs of their enemy's presence. Hitsugaya took the lead, scanning for signs of anything out of the ordinary, while Ed remained in the back of the group. His tracking skills left much to be desired so he didn't really think that he'd prove very useful in this situation. His use would come when they actually found the bastards responsible for these traps and attacks. "I'll get them," he growled in a voice meant for no one in particular. It was more of a promise to himself.

As they walked through the Rukongai, Ed was only vaguely aware of their surroundings. His thoughts were otherwise occupied as he attempted to figure out exactly who he had angered enough that they would want vengeance this badly.

"This could take awhile," the blond youth mused to himself wryly, rubbing at the back of his head with one hand. "It's a pretty long list…"

During his stint in the military, although he had always tried to do things the right way, Ed had inevitably angered more than his share of people. The first group that came to mind were of course the Homunculi but he quickly shook off this idea as impossible. After all they were artificial humans without souls so they shouldn't even be able to end up in Soul Society in the first place. That narrowed down the list of possible suspects to a small degree but didn't diminish the fact that there were plenty of normal humans that Ed had upset during his rather brief life.

"Should have listened to Al when he told me to be nicer to people," he thought ruefully as he resumed his mental list.

"Nii-san…"

Ed was snapped out of his thoughts by the somewhat tentative voice of his younger brother. Turning his head he noticed that Al had a concerned expression on his face and out of habit he offered the younger boy a reassuring smile. "What is it Al?" he questioned, even though he was fairly certain that he already knew the answer to the question.

"Are you alright?" Al questioned, his gray eyes focused on the face of his older brother. He had always been adept at recognizing his brother's moods, even though Ed had always done his best to hide them from the rest of the world. "You seem somewhat distracted…"

Ed's first impulse was to deny this accusation but of course he knew that it was completely useless for him to do so. Al would see through the lie instantly so he merely shrugged his shoulders. "Just trying to figure out who could hate me enough to come up with such an elaborate plan for revenge…" He paused briefly at this point, chuckling to himself. Of course the laughter held no real humor in it. "It's a long list y'know."

"See?" Al said, attempting to lighten his brother's mood. He didn't like seeing him upset but was fairly certain that there wasn't anything that could be done for it at present. At least not until they got to the bottom of things and found out who exactly was pulling Tucker's strings. "You should have listened to me."

"Yea, yea," Ed grinned, waving his hand dismissively. "Enough with the 'I told you so's'. There are more important things to focus on right now."

"You're right," Al said, immediately growing serious. His brother was right, there were more important things to concentrate on right now. Top of the list being who was responsible for the creation of that barrier. "Do you really think that Tucker was smart enough to come up with that idea on his own?"

"I'm not sure," Ed mused, reaching up and touching his chin with his right hand. "He was smart, much as I hate him there's no denying that fact. But I'm not sure if his knowledge of alchemy would be enough… he'd also have to be fairly knowledgeable about this world because the barrier deflected reiatsu."

"So does that mean that his partner is someone from Soul Society?" Al questioned.

Ed thought about that question for a few minutes before responding. "They've more than likely been here longer than we have but I still think that it's someone from our life… because I'm fairly certain that I haven't angered anyone here enough to want to kill me."

"Well there is Tomori," Al reasoned, speaking of the member of Squad Five who seemed to have a grudge against the golden haired prodigy.

Ed shrugged off this suggestion. "There's no way that guy's smart enough to come up with something like this."

"For some reason I knew that you'd say something like that," Al said, noting the disdain that had appeared in his brother's voice when discussing his rival. "But aside from that I suppose that we really should concentrate on the people that we knew in life. They're the most likely suspects after all."

Ed nodded.

Al cracked a grin at this point. "If only there weren't so many of them."

Despite his current frustrations this comment caused a small smile to appear on Ed's face. "Alright now," he warned, pointing his index finger in his brother's direction. "That's about enough outta you."

The grin on Al's face merely widened. "If I didn't give you a hard time then you'd think that I was mad at you."

"Probably so," Ed conceded.

The younger of the two siblings grew serious at this point, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Have you thought about the possibility that Scar might be involved in all of this?"

"I have thought about that prospect," Ed admitted, thinking back to the man that he had fought on a number of occasions. Scar was an Ishbalan who had held a fierce hatred for the military in general and State Alchemists in particular. He had tried to kill Ed more than once and had succeeded in turning Al into a Philosopher's Stone before his death. "And at this point in the game he seems the one most likely to be behind this… but then again I have this nagging doubt. It's not really his style to sneak around and hide behind others. He's more the direct attack kind of guy."

"You have a point," Al said, gazing ahead in thought as he walked along beside his brother. "I suppose the only thing we can do is continue our search. That's really the only way to discover who's behind this."

Ed nodded.

"Hey!" a somewhat stern voice called out, interrupting the conversation between the two brothers. "Get a move on Fullmetal, you're falling behind. I don't want to have to come back and save your ass because you're not paying attention and get ambushed or something."

Rolling his eyes in the direction of his former commanding officer Ed none the less picked up the pace; Al immediately following suit. He and Al had fallen a fair distance behind the others while having their discussion and they had to almost sprint in order to catch back up to the others. "Like I'd ever allow that to happen," he quipped.

The young man was still thinking about who could be behind the series of attacks but in the end he realized that Al had a valid point. He could think about it all day long but the only way to truly find out who was behind it all was to continue their search and track down the bastard, or bastards as the case may be.

"I'm going to put an end to this," he vowed.

A/N - End of another chapter, hope that you enjoyed.