A/N: For anyone who hasn't watched the FFVII 'Honest Trailers' on YouTube: "FFVII—the only game where you increase your skills by playing with your balls."

Also, Percia makes a comment in this chapter which is only really touched on. It will be explained in more detail in a coming chapter.

Priorities

Ed and Doriss had stopped crying and had just been commiserating about Derin and Riona when the others arrived, but it was already sunset by then, so the first thing everyone did was set up camp for the night. By then, everyone was so tired anything other than some name exchanges was set aside for morning. In the morning, Ed said they may as well reach the others before he answered questions so it could all be done at once and not have to be repeated. Because both Doriss and Rosso agreed they'd make it to the 'camp' the Gaians were staying at by suppertime (if not earlier), they agreed to keep moving, and they promptly broke camp and set out.

After hijacking him the previous day, Doriss left Ed with Rashad, but she stayed close as she swung from tree to tree with her grappling hook holsters, sometimes even taking the caravan children for rides and returning them to the wagon tops. All of them were quite happy with the rides, other than a couple very shy ones, and Shiro actually watched her for awhile before using his power—in the wind array bubble he'd used when fighting the Homunculi—to mimic her movements in the trees. Everyone watched the pair in bemused amusement, but said nothing as they flew through the trees.

Both had stopped their dance, or competition, or whatever it was, by the time the light from fires showed through the trees and the sounds of people moving around reached them. A couple of what were obviously SOLDIER guards met them and called greetings to Rosso and Doriss, walking with them into the camp, where they guided the caravan group through to the central area where the largest fire had been built. It was there, on logs around the large bonfire, where Ed began seeing familiar faces and grinned.

"We come bearing gifts!" Rosso shouted with a grin, drawing all eyes which weren't already on them. "And a little Ed!"

"Ed!" several others shouted, rushing forward to reach for him and hug him, much to everyone's amusement.

The one who got to him first was Kariya, who pulled him from the horse in front of Rashad and into his arms to hug him tightly. Most of the other Turks also reached out to hug him—Verde, Ansha, Sonna, Tseng, Rude, Cissnei, and Percia were the first ones to do so. Of course, he was so small that he was actually being handed around to everyone with ease, and by then, even Yukisa (though he was pretty sure almost everyone still just called her Yufi) and Shelke had joined them to hug him, even if they were both also giggling the entire time. Even Rufus managed to snatch him for a hug, teasing him about being so little and 'hugable'.

After them, it was people like Sephiroth, Genesis, Kunzel, and Zack who greeted him—and Zack really teased him about his new size. Ria suddenly landed on his shoulder, looking largely like a fire on one side and a forest on the other, and he reached up to hug her as she rubbed her head against his cheek and cuddled against him. Then, it was some of the Motos—Deneh especially—which caused him great amusement as they greeted him by knocking him down and licking his face. He was pretty sure the only reason they didn't get attacked by people like Roy and Shiro was because all the Gaians found it so amusing and were laughing about their behavior.

Finally, it was Aeris, Ifalna, and Nina who hugged him tightly—that really felt like coming home—and Nina then climbed onto Alexander's back (he had also greeted Ed, much the way he would have a five-year-old Nina), took Ed on him in front of her, and rode him over to Lady Shinra, who had stayed seated with Vincent and Verdot beside her the whole time. However, when Nina offered Ed to her, she smiled gratefully and reached up to take him in a hug as well.

When she finally let him go, she set him on his feet in front of her and held him at arm's length to look at him. "You really do look much healthier, Edward," she told him with a smile. "But your new age will take some getting used to. And I'm glad to have you back, regardless."

"You do know I still have my adult mind, right?" he asked in dry amusement. Then, his eyes turned worried as he saw pain lines in her face. "Were you injured somehow, or is it just strain hurting you right now?" he asked apprehensively.

She shook her head. "Mostly just the strain of the last...I guess we're between three and four days now. We've been doing what we can to set up a village of sorts, but several of us have been in a great deal of pain without proper beds, medicine, and supports. It could be much worse, so I won't complain, and things will get better. This is only a temporary state of affairs."

"Actually, maybe there's someone who can help ease it for you if the Cetra haven't been able to," he commented, though there was a question in his eyes.

"They've been just as tired as everyone else, and have had some injuries to heal for various reasons," she sighed faintly. "They do what they can for us, but it isn't the full effect until things improve here."

Nodding, Ed turned and called, "Al! Come over here and join us!"

"Yes!" the boy shouted ecstatically in reply.

"I'm coming, too!" Winry added.

Several alarmed shouts of, "Look out!" and "Be careful!" followed the words, followed by a great deal of both cursing and laughter, then two small shapes about the same size as Ed, and both also blond, slipped through the adults to Ed's sides, where they each wrapped an arm around each of Ed's.

"What did you need, Big Brother?" Al asked eagerly, and Rashad, Trisha, and Hohenheim pushed through the crowd to join them.

"You're not drained as a Healer yet, so could you help heal the people here who have permanent injuries?" he asked the boy. "Those would be old injuries or the results of aging, so they can't just be fixed, but healing them takes away the pain. Lady Shinra is one of the ones who needs it—but she's only one of them."

"And healing water doesn't work on it?" Al asked with a furrowed brow as Shiro, Sarah, and Yuri also managed to push through to join the group around Lady Shinra.

"Wait, healing water is even harder to produce than Great Gospel, and I don't know if any of our people can even produce any yet, even if some of us can use Great Gospel!" Ifalna gasped.

"Al can make it," Ed answered in amusement, looking up at the woman, whose eyes turned to the boy beside Ed in shock. He then looked at Al again and said, "It would be a painkiller, too, but I think drinking some might last longer than just casting spells? I don't think we've had a chance to try it to find out the duration."

"I'll try it, then," Al nodded. "It's easier than using energy—I make it once and it lasts for awhile. So I need a pail or something."

Several people sighed—the Amestrians and Rashad and Shiro—but it was Shiro who said, "I shall retrieve one from one of the wagons, then." Like he had done with Doriss earlier, he rose into the air and flew back to the wagons to get one, returning quickly to offer it to Al. "Will this be large enough?" he asked as he held it out. By then, Zahir, Nasima, Salim, and Halimah had joined them as well, followed by Roy, Riza, and Maes.

"It should be," Al agreed, looking into it. "And clean, so we're good." He then grinned, set it down in front of him, and focused on the energy he needed to create the water. As usual, he lit with light and water poured into the pail. Opening his eyes, he noted the full pail and grinned as he looked up at Lady Shinra. "So, now all you need is to drink a quarter of a cup each time you get really bad pain. It shouldn't ever not work, and it's not like medicine where you could take too much. Actually, it's the opposite."

"Really?" the woman blinked gaze impressed. "That's some very powerful healing, youngster." Her gaze moved to Ed as she asked, "Your younger brother, Edward?"

"Yes, he's Alphonse Elric. And that's only because we're back here, before everything got cut off the first time," he agreed. "And this is Winry Rockbell. Our parents and minders are all here now, too." He then introduced them to Lady Shinra as someone passed over a drinking cup which had recently been rinsed.

The woman took the cup to dip it in the water, which she eyed thoughtfully for a moment, then drank. Her eyes slid shut for a long moment as her body gradually relaxed, then she opened them again with a smile and said, "I don't think I've ever felt so—healthy, least of all since my injuries and the near-loss of my legs. Even if this relief is temporary, it's well worth it. Thank you, Alphonse." He beamed at her, and she turned to Vincent to ask, "Could you find the others who need pain relief and see them here to get some water as well, please, Vincent?"

He blinked, then sighed and said, "Only because you now shouldn't need a guard."

She chuckled and replied, "Verdot is still here, so I still have one."

Vincent rolled his eyes as Ed also chuckled at the words and Verdot gave him a nod, then the black haired Turk Director headed away to do as requested.

"So, you're Lady Shinra," Yuri suddenly commented as he eyed her, and she looked up in mild surprise, but inclined her head.

"Wait, why do you seem to know her?" Trisha asked in surprise.

"Ed needed our help while his blood was changing, so he told us about some of the people he'd known," Sarah told her in amusement, and Lady Shinra raised a brow at Ed.

"I did have to tell Aunt Sarah and Uncle Yuri—they're Doctors and had to take care of me. And to not tell the government about me, either," Ed told her with a shrug. "So yes, I told them about you because they asked. The more detail I could give on a moment's notice, the more likely it was to be true, and I needed to talk with someone, also because of my panic attacks."

The woman sighed faintly as she gazed at him sadly. "So you still have those. I had hoped that could also have been fixed, but I suppose that was a bit much to hope for. I guess we had just gotten very good at not triggering them, rather than that they had stopped happening."

"That's what Aunt Sarah and Uncle Yuri—and even Doctor Crescent—thought, too," Ed pointed out to the woman, and she gave him a faint smile and nod.

"That's very true," she agreed. "So, other than basic introductions, I think we need some actual idea of what's going on here and what we're walking into."

"Yeah, that," the boy agreed. "It's a mess. Let's just start with the fact that all of Gaia—the Planet—was about the same land and ocean space as the island nation of Japan, where Shiro's from. That means Gaia was tiny compared to Earth—this world." Many pairs of eyes widened at that information. "Also, it has six sentiences on it now, with Minerva, and Ishbala is just one of those. Shiro called one of the others Amaterasu, but she may have a different name in the other nations in those areas.

"The other three are two males and another female, but I don't really know anything about them other than that they're also observing and helping as needed in all of what's going on here. One immediate problem is a local one and probably won't destroy the world if it goes badly. I'm not so sure of that, because the being behind the problem wouldn't actually be able to stop destroying whole nations if it wants to keep its power up—the effect would end up being like what the Reactors were doing to Gaia, but running through a being with a human body."

Everyone's eyes widened again as Lady Shinra asked faintly, "But we aren't in danger here?"

"At the moment, no," he replied easily, meeting her gaze shrewdly. "Ishbal is between you and the being, who is based in Amestris. Since a large part of his army just got eliminated in a cleansing by Ishbala, he doesn't have what it takes to attack here just now. That doesn't mean he won't become a problem, he's just not right now. And for the record, Sephiroth or Genesis could probably down his 'children' in one or two hits with the sheer power they can put out. Genesis might even be able to down him using the same array he did on Nero to destroy him—it works on him, but he has a fast reaction time and got away from me when I tried."

That caused her head to tilt to the side in amazement as Verdot asked, "Does that mean the only actual danger is the number of enemies, not their strength?"

"The State Alchemists who are still working for the Führer are plenty strong, some of them close to Genesis' level and probably able to down people like him if they have the right skill set," Ed shrugged. "But two of the most dangerous are on our side, and one of those went home to tell his family the truth about what's going on. They're a very prominent family whose word carries a huge amount of weight in Amestris, so they'll be able to bolster the party working against the Führer, and our numbers would only add to them. And we'd have to take out the Homunculi and their 'Father'. Who, unfortunately, looks like my father." At the last, he motioned at Hohenheim, who just looked pained.

Everyone's gazes moved to Hohenheim for a minute before turning back to Ed, but it was Aeris who asked, "So do we need to even go there if we could, like, ask the Eidolons to intervene?"

"You do realize this guy and his 'children' know how to hide in plain sight, right?" Ed asked flatly in reply, making a lot of people blink. "Some of their energies might be a bit different—Envy is a shapeshifter, not a Homunculus' essence in a human body, so he may actually have an energy the Eidolons could trace. Two of them definitely don't, and one's in a massive underground tunnel somewhere between here and Fort Briggs, but there are no actual paths into it. I only know about it because, in my past life here, we accidentally blew out part of the tarmac there in a battle, and it opened up the cavern. We have to find them by my knowledge of them, not by getting higher help."

There was a collective sigh before Lady Shinra asked shrewdly, "So, if that's only one of the things we need to fix before we can fully settle in, what else is there?"

"The reason I was hijacked and brought back here, with all of you in toe, to begin with," Ed told them. "Someone, somehow, in some way, managed to do something which destroyed every variant—every dimension—of this world all at once. The sentiences and the intermediary at the Alchemist's Gate could only trace it as far as having originated in this dimension, but they couldn't trace it further. We're going to have to do that as work on the ground. We still have over ten years to work it out, though, because that's only going to happen after the date when I was sent to the Planet to start with, and I was sixteen then."

Her lips quirked in amusement, but she nodded and said, "Not a rush, then, but something to keep an eye out for all the same. That's fair. So, an immediate hunt for the leaders of a very destructive force, something to watch out for later...And what else?"

"Whatever comes up?" Ed blinked. "But the Führer is definitely after me in particular, thinking I'm, like, some holy child or something who is always protected from harm or death. Of course, that's partly my fault, especially when he saw me use Great Gospel to heal, revive, and protect Roy and Shiro. Oh, Roy actually managed to light Carbuncle's tail on fire."

There was a long moment of silence, then a round of laughter at the sudden insert, but then Percia surprised everyone by saying, "That's all well and good, but according to Minerva, we have an even more immediate problem than the leadership of Amestris."

"What's that?" Verdot asked in mild surprise.

"I don't know if anyone realizes this, but after that experiment Fuhito did on me, Ed ended up merging the shards of Zirconaide into me," the young woman said in a flat tone. "It resulted in my having clear communication with her, but without the meandering background babble Ed and the Cetra get from the Lifestream. I asked her if there was something we were missing about this meeting and our arrival here, and she said pointedly that the one unavoidable thing in an unknown environment is getting illnesses our bodies have no idea how to deal with—and we've just traded off pretty much every possible variant of everything with the locals. We need medicine."

"We need healing water," Al replied in a surprisingly flat tone for a recently five-year-old. "It makes you completely healthy and makes it so any illness is fixed. By the coding in the arrays that make it happen, it's teaching your body how to fix it on its own, and making it stronger so it'll work. So as we get sick, we're going to need lots of healing water."

"Al...Can you actually make enough of it all at once for this many people?" Ed asked him in a flat tone, and Al blinked and opened his mouth, but the older blond cut him off to say, "There's around a million people here, Al! Even on the battlefield there weren't so many." The younger boy's eyes widened at the realization of the actual number he'd need the water for—and it was too big for him to actually process. "One Cetra Healer can't take care of so many, and if you're the only one who can make it, there's no one who can spell you so you can rest.

"And actually, Minerva and Ishbala have been growing the plants which will fix most of those illnesses, so we'll fix everyone here, then the ones who are going to go back—and spread the illnesses with them—will be able to make them with the ones growing in Ishbal now. We just need the Ishbalans and the Cetra to find and prepare them with instructions they can be given, and give them to people as they get sick. If it looks like someone isn't going to recover naturally, then we can give them the healing water, which will probably work, though Minerva won't call it a one hundred percent guarantee. Thank you for the reminder, Percia."

A startled silence followed the words, then Aeris said, "I guess that means we should go herb hunting. That's going to be a bother with Jenny to carry around."

"I can carry stuff for you while you hunt," Zack volunteered with a grin. "I can carry Jenny all I like, then! And I'll carry your flowers, too. They're light!"

The Amestrians looked very stunned as Aeris giggled happily and replied, "That should work wonderfully, Zack! Especially since you volunteered so easily."

"Okay, then, it's decided!" he grinned. "Anyone who doesn't have another task can help the herb hunters carry things! At least, until every one of them has at least one helper. It looks like a fair number of the Ishbalans have children to mind, too, so it will be good if they have child minders."

"Why are you volunteering to help her?" one of the random Amestrian soldiers asked Zack in confusion.

"Why shouldn't I help my wife with our daughter and her livelihood?" Zack asked in reply with a cheerful grin. "I'd do it anyway, though, because we need the medicine she can help find and make, and she really can't do that if she has to try to carry a baby around. As such, there's absolutely nothing wrong with me helping to tend the children."

"But that's a woman's job," one of the Ishbalans protested.

Zack's brow actually furrowed into a glaring frown as he asked, "Did you really just say that? Like it's not your child, too, and you shouldn't be bothered to take care of it? Really? I love my wife and my daughter, and nothing is more important to me than being sure they're safe and happy and taken care of. That means I have to help take care of them, or they definitely won't be very happy or taken care of, even if they theoretically might be safe. It's both parents' job to take care of the child or children. So yeah...I'm going to help them."

Someone started to open their mouth in anger, and Ed realized Lady Shinra was actually angry—but before she could speak, Rashad said, "He has the right of it, even based on Ishbala's instruction to us. I would suggest that those of you with wives and children in the caravan actually go with them while you look for herbs. And I know most of you have been hearing Ishbala's voice now that he's not behind a wall, so you all know what I'm saying is true, as well. Regardless of how much you do or don't like the disruption to what you thought was an ordered life."

"But you don't take care of—" one Ishbalan began.

"Hello? Are you stupid?" Ed cut him off loudly in annoyance. "He's been raising me. On his own. Without help from a wife, and only occasional requests to his brother or his sister-in-law to watch over me because something he didn't anticipate came up. And since I'm still legitimately the 'Avatar of Ishbala', I really don't think you have the right to be saying something which isn't true—and you know it—just because you don't like it. Get over yourself."

That produced a great many upset and embarrassed men—in the whole area, from both worlds—and many highly amused women, including Lady Shinra, Sarah, and Trisha. It was Trisha who said, "Actually, if any of you have children old enough to not need full-time baby care, which is most of you, I could take them for awhile while you go collect what you need. It's only going to be until this immediate necessity is done, and I'm a housewife because I want to be. I don't mind taking care of children one bit."

For a long moment, everyone blinked at her—but the children gathered around her with grins as they babbled about what they could do while they waited for their parents. She crouched down to talk with them for a minute, then sent them all away on a scavenger hunt, including Al. Everyone also heard her tell them to stay where there are adults, no matter what—that's the one rule they have to follow. If there are no adults, anything they find is out-of-bounds and doesn't count towards the item she requested. They were general enough requests that several different items qualified, too.

"Well, since it looks like all the children have adopted you, I suppose we can leave them in your care for now, Trisha," one of the Ishbalan woman commented, her expression a cross between amused and grateful. "It's one less worry for us just now. Thank you." Trisha just smiled and nodded.

"All right, then you should probably work out with the Cetra what directions you're going to head in to collect the things you need," Lady Shinra commented wryly. "Ifalna, could you help organize the Cetra side?" she asked of the woman.

"I can do that," Ifalna agreed, then began gathering the Cetra in a clear space not too far away. The Ishbalans began gathering there, too, then everyone began splitting off in different directions in small groups.

As they were doing that and the children played a scavenger hunt, Ed sat down on the log beside Lady Shinra, in the spot Vincent would usually be in, wondering where Winry had disappeared to. She hadn't gone with the other children, he knew that. Ria and Carbuncle both ended up on him, too, but Carbuncle landed on his head and Ria made herself comfortable in his lap, one of her ears methodically rising and falling as she apparently ran a self-diagnostic.

Vincent led the people who needed the healing water over then, and they could all take a drink—which helped exponentially with their ills and aches. It didn't take long for them to finish and for some of the Ishbalans and Cetra to start returning to prepare the herbs. While all of the Doctors there watched the process, Sarah and Yuri learned it quickly and took over with unprecedented efficiency, showing the Gaian Doctors how to efficiently use what they called 'old-fashioned' tools.

Then, as he was looking around and picking out familiar faces, Ed caught sight of Winry sitting with Sonna as the girl peered curiously at the Turk's PHS.

He snorted in amusement, and the woman beside him asked, "What do you find so amusing, Edward?"

"Winry just got her hands on a PHS. If Sonna's not careful, Winry's going to dismantle it to figure out how it works," he replied, still highly amused.

"A five-year-old?" Lady Shinra asked in surprise. "One not like you, with a mind much older than your body?"

"Mechanics—or actually, engineering—is her thing," he answered, watching the girl pull out her tools with an intense look on her face. "Sonna!" he called across to her, and she looked up. "If you want your PHS to stay in one piece, you'd better take it away from Winry and find her a spare you don't care if she destroys!"

Sonna blinked as Winry glared at him with an annoyed, "Hey!"

The young woman then quickly stopped Winry from using her tools on it, saying, "If you really want to pull one apart, I know of a few people who have old spares you could ask to take apart?"

"Okay!" Winry grinned, readily jumping up to follow the woman.

Ed returned his gaze to Lady Shinra and said, "She made a prototype walkie-talkie last year from scratch with parts from old, discarded phones and radios. Actually, I think what she created ended up being more like a baby monitor with some walkie-talkie functions."

"Did she?" the woman asked in amazement. "That's truly rare skill to see in a child that age. Would you mind overly much if we trained her in engineering under someone like Reeve or Scarlet?"

"Either or," Ed shrugged, then paused. "Actually, I think Reeve is the better option. Her ultimate goal is to make prosthetic limbs we call auto-mail. It's the most advanced form of technology we have, and that's more advanced than your cybernetics. Everything else we have is about a hundred years behind you. And I'll thank you forever for giving women easier ways to do housework, like washing machines and dryers and dishwashers. Until I came back here after being on the Planet, I had no idea how much work Mom had to do or how much time it took her. Now, it's painful to watch."

Lady Shinra chuckled. "That's fair. As soon as we can re-establish ourselves and develop it ourselves, we can pass on things like that to the world at large. One step at a time."

"And pens, please! Ball points! With ink that pretty much doesn't dry!" he added. "We're still using fountain pens at best, or the ones you had to dip in an inkwell."

That just made the woman burst into laughter—as did nearly everyone else nearby.