Faux Kidnapping

If Ed needed the help of the Ishbalans, he had to get to the front lines of the war. Not just that, but he had to find the ones who knew about alchemy. There weren't many, he was aware of that. The only thing he had to go on was Scar's arm, which he'd 'inherited' from his brother. By extension, it was pretty safe to say Scar's brother had been an alchemist. But, even knowing that in a time long before Scar had become Scar didn't help him—and meeting a man who looked like Scar (but without the scar) would just be chance. He had no idea who Scar had been before becoming Scar, so it wasn't like he could ask for him by name, anyway.

In his own dimension, they had taken years to reach his town, only getting there not too long before he and Al had left—and that was still three-ish years away. He suddenly didn't think waiting three more years was a good idea, so the same day Marcoh left to go back to Central (it was firmly spring and the roads could now be traveled properly), he went outside to the nearby trees and sat to try to form a bond with Ishbala to speak with him. Once again, it took activating arrays to form the bond, but as he felt a questioning sense from the entity, he immediately asked, :Do you know where this man is?: and showed Ishbala an image of Scar. Hey, that worked with Minerva, so why not Ishbala, too?

There was a pause as the image stayed between them, then a second image appeared beside the first as a questioning sense reached him. The second image showed a younger version of Scar, without the scar and wearing traditional Ishbalan clothes. It didn't escape his attention that the clothes were the same colors as when he'd known him—black pants, a white shirt, and a yellow 'cover.' In the 'older Scar' image, it was a jacket, but in the 'younger Scar' one, it was a warrior-priest's drape. The latter was also a richer color, so had hints of gold or orange in it. Still, he was sure it was the same man, so sent back an affirmative.

Another pause followed, then a puzzled, :Not far from you, with a caravan of many warriors.:

:Oh, that's bad. Or good, depending on how things go. Thank you, Ishbala.: Ed then cut the link, knowing asking for a name would probably not work—if the being was anything like Minerva, Ishbala probably had separate designations for them, different from the names they went by day-to-day.

"Not far..." Ed sighed tiredly, leaning back against a tree.

Night was coming soon, and they had attacked during the day last time. Would it be night this time? He didn't think it would be that night, though, so maybe he should go looking for them tomorrow? Almost all the snow was gone and everything was growing now, so if they were still in the various trees surrounding the town, it would be hard to find them, even in daylight. He knew some tracking, but wasn't an expert like Freyra had been...

The thought made him look skyward as he felt tears running down his cheeks. How long would it take them to finally get there? Even if some of them, like Freyra, were already dead, to have everyone else there would be a relief. Then again...now that he was only six years old, he'd probably have to re-establish all his relationships with them, and many of them would probably change. After all, what would a recently ten-year-old Nina think of him being six? What about Shelke and Yufi, who would be around fourteen? And the adults...The children would probably be delighted, but his age would end up making the adults all protective of him...

Would that be a bad thing? Probably not, and he still really wanted them there to be part of his family and help him fix things.

Shaking off that thought (it wasn't like it hadn't happened all through the winter, just not so strongly most of the time), he decided to start looking for the Ishbalans tomorrow. He'd probably need a few days to find traces, and his only benefit was the fact that he was in the body of a six-year-old. They didn't go out of their way to kill children, even if children were sometimes unavoidable collateral damage, so it was unlikely they would kill him for finding them. Kidnapping him was a lot more likely. He shivered at the thought, and had to pull himself back from a panic attack. Instead, he focused on the fact that he'd still be more likely to find the help he needed if they took him from the town, but if they'd hear him out, first, it may not need to be a kidnapping.

How best to make them listen, though?

Well, six-year-old Amestrians didn't even know Ishbala's name, so that would be a good start. Maybe an honest info-dump on them would be more useful than trying all that hard to pick and choose.

That as decided as it could be, he wiped his cheeks and returned to the house to get ready for bed. He also packed all his journals into a couple bags, then set them aside so he could deliver them to Roy's tomorrow on his way to search.

FoWD-HC

Al helped him carry the journals to Roy and Maes' boarding home the next morning, where a sleepy Roy dressed only in a pair of pants answered the knock on the bedroom door. Ed immediately noted a blond haired head resting on the pillow of his bed, but it was turned away from the door. He told the man he was done with the journals, so he could read them, and if he still had questions, he could ask whenever. He and Al then told him where they planned to be that day if anyone needed them, and the boys ran off to play as Ed mentally cackled at Roy and Riza having finally gotten into bed together.

Winry and a few other children joined them for some games, but while they were playing, Ed made sure to wander further away than the others, checking for traces of visitors. At that point, he couldn't go too far, though, so headed back to the others. Later, when they switched games and locations, he did the same thing again. That process repeated itself for the next three days, all without Ed finding traces of the Ishbalans. That made him ask what he was missing, something he mulled over for a good part of that night.

Suddenly, near dawn, Ed drew in a sharp breath and sat up abruptly as he realized what he'd been missing—literally, they wouldn't have been foolish enough to get so close children playing would have seen them. There was one particular direction the children also normally didn't go to play, even though it was still in the densely wooded area where they went all the time to play things like tag or hide-and-seek. And somehow, he also had a feeling he was nearly out of time, so got up, dressed, and left the house.

Quickly, he detoured around any houses where early risers might see him, heading for the area he now knew he needed to look, and moved out past the perimeter where the children played. From there, as dawn shifted to full morning, he began his search, heading further east than he usually went. From his memory of the Amestrian maps, he was also heading in the general direction of a well-known Ishbalan caravan and trade route, but it would take at least a day to get that far on a six-year-old's legs. Probably more like two days, actually...

More than once, he paused with a small frown as he suddenly thought someone was following him, but then he'd lose the sense and began to wonder if he was getting paranoid.

Finally, though, probably near noon, he walked right into the middle of an obviously temporary Ishbalan camp where over a dozen Ishbalan men turned to stare at him in shocked surprise. Including the man who looked like the younger Scar—one of the Warrior-Priests. Also, by his style of dress compared to the others', he was the only Warrior-Priest, and was probably their leader. But, this man wasn't the one he'd known as Scar yet, and it showed especially in his eyes, and in the sense of energy around him—he'd felt like prey caught by a predator in Scar's company, but in this man's, he almost felt...safe.

Like he did around Aeris, Nina, and Ifalna. This man...he was the same as a Cetra, and that likeness reached out to him, establishing him as family.

The men didn't move, so he walked over to the Warrior-Priest and told him bluntly, "If you attack the town, if you kill civilians and children, your people will be decimated. I'd rather not see that happen. Neither would Ishbala."

He heard all of the men draw in a collective sharp breath, but it was shock, not anger, he felt. He was nervous—if they took anything he said the wrong way, he would be in a lot of trouble, but he still had to try. That he wasn't getting immediate anger was a good start, and made it easier for him to stay calm. He wasn't sure if all of them either having short, white hair or being bald helped his state or made it worse, because too much similarity made it harder to pick out individuals and find the source of an actual danger.

But, because it was the Warrior-Priest he was facing, the man's intent, red eyes noted his fear and nervousness, he was sure of it. After a long moment, the Warrior-Priest asked slowly, "How is it you—an Amestrian child—think you can tell us what Ishbala would want?"

It was exactly the right kind of question Ed could use as an info-dump. "Because I can talk with Ishbala. It's not easy because someone put a barrier, like a wall, around Ishbala's essence, probably a long time ago, and made it to sever Ishbala's interactions with the world, and with you. If you want to actually win this war, it's going to be by taking down that wall so Ishbala can talk with all of you and help you again. And because I know how to get through the wall, all I need are other people who can use those skills, enough of them that I can trust. I won't find that many in Amestris, but your people—I think there are enough of them to do it. People like your brother."

The shift in the people around him was one of confusion and uncertainty, but the Warrior-Priest knelt slowly as he gazed at the boy in shock. "Why would you go so far out of your way to help us against your own people, child?" he finally asked, and the other men turned to him in surprise. Actually, Ed was surprised, too, because his first question should have been how the Amestrian boy would know he had a brother, let alone what he did for a living...Unless his direct reference to Ishbala had 'explained' that for the Warrior-Priest?

"Because this isn't about 'my people' or 'your people'," Ed answered quietly. "It's about what needs to be done to save the world, to keep it from being destroyed. Ishbala can't stay under that barrier any longer, and needs to be able to help save this world. There are other things which need to be done, too, but one of the first, just to have any hope of finding the actual cause of the problem, is to have Ishbala's active help again. And this stupid war is just a precursor to whatever's actually wrong, so getting it taken care of quickly will be one less problem. I don't even care who wins, as long as certain people don't get to keep trying to slaughter whole nations in the name of becoming a God."

For a moment, the Warrior-Priest's gaze looked pained, but then the man looked away from him for a minute before returning his gaze to the boy and asking, "What are you expecting from us, besides that we not attack your hometown?"

"Take me to your brother and the others studying with him," Ed said, hands clenched in apprehension. "Even though I know 'about' your brother, I don't know how to find him or get to him alone, and he's one of the few of your people who may even be able to help take that wall down. It's not a single-person project."

After a pause, the man asked, "Why is it you say you're talking with Ishbala? How do you know you aren't being tricked?"

That...was a shockingly good question. Ed blinked at him, wondering how he could answer something like that, then realized at this juncture that he should probably go for broke and give them something they couldn't deny. Reaching forward suddenly, he seized the man's dagger from its sheath on his belt, then sliced open his arm. Like he had known would happen, a couple drops of clear liquid welled up, and the wound vanished without a trace.

It was only when he looked up again that he realized the man had frozen mid-motion as he'd apparently tried to grab his dagger back, but his gaze was focused on the spot on Ed's arm where the wound should have been. Those shocked, wide eyes then focused on the blond boy's as he breathed, "That's not blood...How are you even still alive?"

"Because it's raw planetary power. Some of it is from Ishbala directly, and the other part is from another entity called Minerva. It means I can even talk with them more easily than most, but even for me, the wall is a problem. This—shouldn't be possible, but because raw planetary power is benign and healing in nature, if it's done right, it can take the place of blood, or just boost a person's system. I won't recommend what I have, though—it was done to me by...I guess a kind of intermediary between the energy level of beings like Ishbala and Minerva and people living in the physical world," Ed explained, and tensed a bit as the man first took his dagger back (and thankfully sheathed it), then took his arm and lifted it to examine it more closely.

"You're afraid. What of?" the Warrior-Priest asked at a soft murmur, eyes still on the place the wound should have been.

For several long moments, Ed just stared at him, then finally asked so softly only the man in front of him would hear it, "Would you believe me if I said I've been alive for over nine thousand years, and not all of it has been pleasant?"

The man's eyes lifted to his in shock again, but then the man said slowly, "...It would explain why you aren't behaving like a child, but...this is a lot to take in."

Ed squeezed his eyes shut with a nod, the hand on his arm making him feel trapped. Finally, the man sighed and released him, saying, "I've heard things before...both from the Priests and my brother. You couldn't just know those things without some kind of higher guidance. The state of your blood is another point I can't deny." He paused, then added, "If you're really sure you want to meet my brother, we'll take you to him."

"Thank you," the blond boy answered in relief, opening his eyes to look at the man gratefully.

And then, even Ed had to stare as Al and Winry suddenly jumped on him from the nearby bushes to grab his arms as they both announced, "You're not going anywhere to save the world without us!"

"You still have to finish teaching me those healing arrays!" Al added, and Winry nodded.

She then also threw in, "And I still need to pick your brain for other things I can make or fix before I get to automail!"

"And we can't just leave you alone in case you get sick again!" Al tagged on.

Ed's shoulders slumped in defeat as the Warrior-Priest asked, "...Healing arrays? Is he really just a child?"

"Al's actually just four, almost five, years old," Ed answered. "Winry is really just five years old. And they're really just as good as they say they are. Sorry, though—I had just wanted it to be me."

Both Al and Winry glared at him and Winry announced, "You're stupid if you thought you could get away with not sharing this with us! We want to help save the world, too! You can't do it all alone anyway."

"That's why I was going to get help from the Ishbalans..." Ed pointed out tiredly.

"Why not from Doctor Marcoh or Dad?" Al asked.

"First, our father is trying to counter the array around Amestris which will eventually kill everyone if it's not stopped, and Roy is helping him, and second, Doctor Marcoh works for the Amestrian military. Even if he, personally, would be safe, everyone else he works with can't be trusted, so this isn't the kind of thing I could ask him for help with. And those are just two people, or three with Roy, which wouldn't be enough to take the wall down," Ed explained, still just feeling tired.

"We're still helping!" Al answered. "Especially now that I can make healing water!"

That time, every one of the Ishbalan men sighed, and the Warrior-Priest rubbed his eyes as he said, "Well, I suppose we'll be inheriting three Amestrian children for the time being." He then looked at the three and said, "Though, you do realize it's unlikely you'll be home anytime soon, yes? You may not even see your families again."

Both Al and Winry glared at him and insisted, "We're staying with Ed!"

One of the other men asked his neighbor in a tired tone, "Why do I suddenly feel a headache coming on?" The question produced several amused snorts.

With a faintly amused smile, the Warrior-Priest said, "Fine, then we should get to 'kidnapping' you."

He reached out to lift Ed (which felt oddly comfortable, even more than it had felt when Roy had carried him) as he called to two other men to carry Al and Winry, and the whole group quickly moved away from there in the direction of the caravan route. On the way, they made sure the children got some jerky to tide them over for a bit, and returned to the caravan around mid-afternoon. At first, the three were put in one of the wagons, then the caravan moved at orders from the Warrior-Priest. Supper had been a quick, quiet stop, and even the other children in the caravan had just been staring at them silently in confused surprise.

Ed turned to look as one man burst out, "What would you have us do, murder children just so we wouldn't be found?" The woman he was talking to just stared at him, then glanced over at the three blond children.

The Warrior-Priest joined them as he said, loudly and clearly so the whole caravan could hear him, "We are not going to murder children in cold blood. We would be no better than the Amestrians that way. But in this case, these children are touched by Ishbala, and we are especially not going to kill them. Releasing them would mean our presence would have become known, making it better that they simply disappear from their people's view."

Everyone stared in surprise—all the women, children, and men who hadn't planned to attack Resembool—then turned their gazes to the three blond children. Both Al and Winry had looked up by then.

"How can they be touched by Ishbala?" one woman asked cautiously.

Ed looked at the Warrior-Priest's dagger, but he covered it with his hand, so Ed gave him a faint smile and asked, "Is anyone here sick right now? Any amount of illness?"

"Three with the caravan. Others in the capital," the Warrior-Priest answered, gaze puzzled.

"Have you got a clean pail? Al can make that healing water for you," Ed offered.

"Yeah! I can do that!" Al grinned in something Ed was sure approached ecstasy. Or as similar of a feeling a child could get to that.

"Healing water?" most of the camp asked.

"If you can love life and growth and you know the original and actual terms of healing, you can make water that heals anything wrong the moment you drink it," Al replied with a grin. "It doesn't bring the dead back to life or anything, but we tried it on our mom because she was sick with something the doctors couldn't fix. After she drank it, she was completely healthy—the doctors in town even checked. It shouldn't have been able to be cured, but my healing water did it! I can make some for you, too."

Everyone started trading looks, but one girl pulled over a pail from nearby and asked hopefully, "Will this do?"

Al took it and examined it for a minute before nodding and saying, "It should be great. Thanks!" He then placed it between his knees and held his hands close together above it, almost as though he was holding a ball.

"If you can fix Daddy, then I'll help any way I can," she answered, watching him intently.

With a small grin, Al agreed, "We're going to fix him," then closed his eyes and drew in several deep breaths. Between his hands, a ball of dense, glowing arrays appeared, all of them too tightly woven together to look like more than a fluctuating ball of energy to an untrained eye. Energy swirled around his hands, mostly blue hued with something like pale tan (that must have been Ishbala's influence because Minerva's version was white-green) and sparkling green, much the way Cure spells looked at their higher levels (though their sparkles were usually gold or silvery). From it, water dripped into the pail for a few moments, then suddenly poured like a dam had broken. In a few seconds, the pail had filled and the last few drops fell into it as the energy dissipated.

And everyone but Ed stared at Al in shocked awe as the white-blue energy around him and the white energy wings he'd sprouted while calling on the healing water faded out slowly.

Then, Al's eyes opened, he glanced down to the pail, and grinned. "There! Now you just need to take a little of this to him so he can drink it," the blond four-year-old said, looking up at her shocked expression happily. "A quarter of a cup is enough."

A moment later, the girl had scrambled for her cup, rinsed it quickly, and dipped it in the water in the pail. Once she'd scooped some of the water from it, she ran to one of the wagons and scrambled into the back, carefully keeping the hand with the healing water in it steady.

"Anyone else? There's enough for more than three people, obviously," Al grinned.

"And the girl? What can she do?" one man asked, sounding annoyed.

"Do you need something with moving parts fixed?" Ed asked in amusement. "Chances are, she can fix it."

"Yes! I'm going to be an automail engineer, so I'm working hard to make sure I know how all the parts work!" Winry grinned. "So, stuff! Anything! It makes things easier later when I have lots to practice with now!" She was practically sparkling as she announced that happily.

The Warrior-Priest leaned over her to offer a gun by its nozzle as he said, "It's jammed. We've tried everything we could to fix it, but sadly, we haven't been able to find the problem. Maybe you can try?"

"Priest Rashad (1)! Don't hand a child a weapon!" one woman glared.

"Doesn't matter to me, 'cause Roy, Maes, and Riza all have them," Winry answered as she took the gun and began fiddling with it. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is a dart gun, not a real bullet gun, so—that's usually to put the person to sleep, not kill them."

A long silence followed the words as she worked, then a different man asked, "I guess that covers the girl and the younger boy, but what about the older boy?"

The Warrior-Priest, who Ed now—finally!—knew was named Rashad, asked dryly in reply, "Haven't you noticed he's the one who's been controlling this discussion since it began? What five or six-year-old could typically do that?"

The man scowled, "Which just means he's a—what they call a genius, not that he's touched by Ishbala!"

Rashad sighed and asked Ed, "So, what do you want to show them for yourself?"

Al was watching Ed curiously while Winry just stayed focused on the gun, and Ed took a moment to ponder his best bet. If he was remembering all his studies on Gaia correctly, and how that would translate to his own world, the area they were in actually should have been greener, or even a forest (not essentially a wide open, arid plain), especially when they were still so close to Resembool. Making his decision, he rose and stepped a little away from everyone so the arrays he was about to call on wouldn't touch anyone. Also, he knew what he was about to do would be dangerous with the wall in the way, but it just might tell him what was wrong with the area—and it wasn't like he was going to die.

Closing his eyes, he spread his hands and called up the entire array grid he'd learned which would cause such a pull of Lifestream it could rejuvenate a large area of land. By influencing such a wide area, it often also showed flaws in the energy flows which would allow Healers to fix what was wrong—or, he could fix it, assuming his ability to interact with the Lifestream wasn't being blocked. However, the 'array grid' making such a power function was so extensive and overlaid that it generally resulted in a bubble of energy dense enough to not especially look like alchemic arrays—something the Ishbalans would handle better than if they could see full arrays.

As usual, he could sense the energy forming and spreading, felt it hit the wall and the process slow (and felt Ishbala watch him in curiosity, confusion, and apprehension), and finally, felt it opening up to the surrounding terrain as it was intended to. He realized right away that, for as much as the current energy was going to create the growth which should be there, it wouldn't last unless the twisted lines of energy focused there could be repaired, released, or removed from the area. Tracing them downward into the soil made him feel ill as he realized what had happened there—

And it wasn't the First Homunculus' doing, he was sure of it—it pre-dated Xerxes.

When he finished, he just stood there in shock for a moment, not seeing the mass amount of growth—a veritable lush, green forest—around them now as the Ishbalans, Al, and even Winry stared. After a moment, he swayed, and hands against his back held him up—large hands. Rashad's hands, by the fact that his own energy was reacting to Cetra energy in close proximity. No, not just 'Cetra energy', because his energy interactions with Mages, or Sentinels, had always felt different from his energy interactions with Healers. Rashad was a Healer. Okay, that was mind-boggling...

"How did that happen, and why are you so exhausted now?" Rashad asked quietly from behind him. In the silence, everyone heard the question.

"When I was trying to find out how this area all died in the first place, I reached into the ground, where the twisted energy lines went," Ed said, swallowing hard as tears ran down his cheeks. "This...We're standing on a mass grave. A mass grave of people murdered for someone's ritual—something harmful or selfish. This area can't stay green and growing unless those energies are removed..."

Once he'd passed on the message, though, he felt darkness descend around him as he passed out.

Notes:

(1) The name Rashad was actually a random name which finally attracted my attention (figuring out his actual name was a royal pain!), so I decided to go with it. I guess a few popular people have this name? Really, though, it's as good a name as any, and I thought it was also fitting by its meaning, "having good judgment." So, now Scar/Amal (readers of Salvation's Hands would know where this name came from) has been officially given the birth name Rashad. :P As for the woman calling him just 'Priest', even if a Warrior-Priest happens to be more in line with combat, he's still primarily a Priest, so she shortened the title to that function. Especially since he's effectively acting as a Priest in this situation, not a Warrior-Priest.