The sun is higher in the sky, and the toe cramp is no better in his left foot as he stands frozen in mid step. His muscles still refuse his mental commands, and Ed keeps his glare carefully aimed at the rather large stump as he hears the crunch of foot steps around him. If he could frown, he would have already, beginning soon after his stomach rumbled its displeasure near his rib cage. At the moment, the low growl of anger bubbling in his throat is nearly as loud.
Occasionally a pair of sandaled feet breaks his rather bland view of the world, and sometimes the body they belong to scrunches low to allow a curious face to float by. He ignores them all.
He runs the story relayed by that Shikamaru, that he somehow managed to destroy a building, (ok, ONLY half a building, big whoop), through his mind. He recalls many such buildings he destroyed in the course of performing his duties. Hutchinson's castle. What a blast that was. Laboratory 5. Not entirely his fault, that. Then there was that stupid church in Liore which he didn't technically destroy, per se, just half transmuted into a statue. So what. At the time he was righteously pissed.
Try as he might, he finds no memory of doing any such demolition in the place stupidly called "Sand".
Sure, he knows he's beaten people up in his sleep, but to have no recollection of doing it? Especially when he could only dismantle something that big with.. With..
...Alchemy?
He blinks, wondering at his mental tripping over the very word that is as familiar to him as his own heartbeat. With a mental shrug, he attributes the slip up to his overloaded mind.
..And of that Temari's promises! He is still fukken a prisoner. Or a slave. Like...
He feels his skin crawl in revulsion as he recalls the cold look that bastard poor excuse of a father, Hohemheim, gave him as the door closed on their lives together. He shoves the memory back where it belongs.
Ed wiped at his forehead as he sat on the log by the campfire, and looked blankly over at the slums the Ishvallans had built and settled in. Every wooden plank of the squashed together structures seemed to add to the fleeting hope of the place which gave them shelter for the night. He ignored the older blond looking at him for the time being, and flexed the joints of his false right hand as he seriously considered punching the bastard's face once more.
It wasn't as if it would hurt the immortal bastard.
Well not that much anyway.
Four hundred years. Ed thinks. So. The old bastard is a stone? From Xerxies. I'm fukken Xerxian?
And Al is Xerxian, too..?
He narrows his eyes at the awful features that his own face is beginning to resemble. The wide forehead. The prominent nose. The strong jaw line and that chin which supported a thick..
Wait. What happened to the bastard's freakken beard..? Come to think of it, the guy sitting there doesn't look a thing like the old bastard...
"Brother.."
AL!! He immediately screams in his mind. The sweet sound of that welcome voice would have his head swiveling for the source if he could move. Instead, he burns holes into the stupidly huge tree stump that suddenly reappears before him like a mirage. He lowers his brows, and vaguely wonders if he's feverish.
Well, it would certainly explain much. His eyes are certainly playing tricks on him lately. First those dancing arrays at the edges of his vision, and now this.
He squeezes his eyes shut as an unwelcome hand settles on the top of his head, and the world begins to twist off to the right.
Alchemy.
He sees through his pudgy fingers, and gazes at the millions of stars dancing through the void above his head.
He sees the broken bits of steel at his feet, and stares blankly at the shattered blood seal that once housed his precious brother's soul. His best friend is gone. His only family. May looks up at him with a tear streaked face, shoulders hitching with every breath.
"I'm sorry..!" She says brokenly as wipes her eyes.
"It wasn't your fault" he hears himself reply. "It was Al's choice."
He focuses his mind on grasping for a solution, eyes sweeping to the familiar and unfamiliar faces surrounding him in the rubble of Central. Never stop thinking, he thinks. He lingers his gaze on Hawkeye, who's hopeful face is huddled close to the ear of the blinded Colonel. She gives him an encouraging nod that the blind man can't see to give.
"Dammit, Fullmetal..status!" He hears the man call out. "Report to me now! What the hell is going on?"
He hears ecstatic cheers of "we won!" in the distance, but the faces on soldiers closest to him show at least some realize how very hallow the victory really is. Someone else will fill the blind bastard in, and he lingers his gaze on Hawkeye. She nods and speaks softly into the Colonel Bastard's ear as she helps him to stand.
"One life for another. That's equivalent trade." He hears Hohemheim say with a cracked voice. "I've been such a lousy father to you, that I owe you both that much.."
"No." Ed hears himself snap, "Don't. Listen. Al wouldn't want..."
One glance of Hohemheim's face, and on impulse, he slaps his palms together. At the same instant the bastard reaches out for the remains. He sees red lightening dance up Hohemheim's outstretched fingers as the great eye opens beneath them both, and he grimaces. He knows he just managed to match the old bastard's speed. He feels the tiny hairs on his arms rise in alarm as the tiny black hands rise up around them, and offers up no resistance as his body is taken apart molecule by molecule.
He hears someone cry out in pain. He sees a long blond ponytail flying high in the elderich wind just before his irises completely deconstruct and he leaves the world.
Instead of the timeless white, Ed feels quivering fingers in his scalp. He frowns as the hand on top of his head lifts, and opens his eyes to unexpected blackness. He jerks his shoulders, and feels his arms pinned to his sides.
There is no point in yelling out, so he scowls his displeasure instead.
"Well..?" Ed hears in muffled Gibberish somewhere behind him. It a few moments later that he recognizes the voice as Shikamaru's. He grits his teeth against several moments of clanking noises filling his ears. The sound is suspiciously like metal bits drilling their way into his skull.
"You alright? What happened, Inoichi?" Another says in Gibberish as a weighty something lifts the darkness from his eyes. Ed squints his eyes against the sheer brightness of the spacious, mostly empty room, and takes in a startled breath. His heart thunders in his chest as he renews his fruitless struggles to free his arms.
He is wedged in the very center of what could be mistaken as a rather large tree stump, and the round shape of it chills him to his core. What array could it be hiding? He thinks. In this room, he doesn't quite sense the subtle hum in his bones that an active array usually produces, but that doesn't mean that being in the possible center of one brings him any sort of comfort.
"Can you understand me?" Someone says in flawless Amestrain. Ed darts his eyes away from the contraption pinning his arms to his sides and stares at the man for several heartbeats. He then scowls and resumes jerking his upper back as much as he can to one side, which admittedly isn't all that much.
"Please stop struggling. You will only tear your own muscles."
Ed flares his nostrils. Being helpless and on display amongst complete strangers is nothing new, but he certainly refuses to put up with it for long.
"Fuck you." Ed growls in reply.
The man who spoke stands before him, holding what looks to be a flat topped helmet in his hands. Blue eyes squinched in pain, his hair is blond, and although the front is spiky, he has the back in a long flowing ponytail that reaches his lower back.
"I ran into something that broke the connection." The blond man says in Gibberish. As he rubs his fingertips at his temple, he closes his eyes. "I was at least able to breach his word bank, so simply speaking with him should be easier. At least for me."
Ed narrows his eyes and warily sweeps his gaze toward the older blond. The jaw line in particular looks far more familiar on the stranger than it should be. He recalls the flash of memory of Ishballan slums; specifically the strange image of the campfire.
His stomach performs a few unsetting back flips as he compares the unbearded companion he saw from moments ago, who had somehow stepped in the place of the old bastard: There is a strong resemblance to the older blond before him. In fact, the two could be twins.
He has no answers for how that can possibly be aside from a mental contusion. Perhaps he really is feverish. He swallows again, and abandons his obviously faulty recollections to grasp the more trustworthy information presented to him thus far in the room.
"You are Inoichi." Ed states in careful Gibberish.
"That's correct." Inoichi says in Amestrain. "Allow me to apologize. Under normal circumstances such extreme measures as this would not have been authorized much less implemented without first performing a simple interrogation."
Ed freezes a moment to chew on the phrase "extreme measures", then turns his head. He glimpses several more figures towering behind him, but not much else.
"Where am I?" Ed asks in Amestrian. "This doesn't look like that Sand village."
Inoichi squats down and rests his hands on the platform of the "stump". From that position, his steady gaze is comfortably eye level, but doesn't quite completely remind him just how small he is.
"That's because it's not. You are the guest of the Intelligence Division of the Allied Shinobi Forces."
"Prisoner more like." Ed snorts.
"Hardly." Inoichi says with a bit of a flinch.
"Some words translate real badly then." Ed drawls and tries to flex his fingers. He feels his fingernails scrape against his thighs, and remembers the small transmutation circle he scratched on his left. He decides the right will have to do now, as he can't remember if the thing completely faded from his skin or not.
"Fair enough." Inoichi says. "Now that we can communicate, I need you to agree to cooperate with us."
"What do I get if I do?"
"If you do not cooperate, we simply reseal you back in the scroll to deal with after the war."
Ed widens his eyes.
"Hold on. Stop right there. I was sealed? In a scroll?"
"Why is that so surprising? I saw that you are not entirely unfamiliar with such methods."
"Prove it." Ed interrupts. "Let me out of this thing, show me that, and I'll... I'll cooperate with you."
Inoichi's brows lower a fraction of a second as he frowns. For a moment Ed holds his breath, but he keeps his gaze on the blue orbs of the older blond.
"Equivalent exchange." Ed adds eagerly as the man's gaze wavers. "Do we have an agreement?"
A heartbeat later, Inoichi nods and directs his gaze to someone behind Ed. In Gibberish, he hears something like: "End the drag of a tree illusion while you're at it. It's giving me a headache."
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....
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