Travelers

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...and your thoughts will soon be wanderin', the way they always do, when you're ridin' sixteen hours and there's nothin' much to do and you don't feel much like ridin', you just wish the trip was through...--Turn the page, Bob Seiger
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Everyone stopped.

“What the?” Russel asked, blinking, an eyebrow cocked. “How the hell did he do that?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Alphonse added, looking at his brother for some sort of explanation.

“Alfons…?”

Heidrich stood up with the strangest look on his face. “That was about the scariest I’ve ever seen. Where are we?” He did a double-take at Crane, face mutilated. “What happened?” He paused. Everyone was staring at him as if he were a ghost. “What…?”

“Alfons!” Noa jumped up, a smile lighting up her face.

Alfons looked quickly between all of them. “What happened?”

“Uh. You died.” Russel said, looking at him sidelong.

Alfons blinked. “What?” He looked at Edward. “Huh?”

Edward laughed a little, shaking his head. “All right. C’mere, Alfons.”

Alfons looked bewildered but walked over to him, suddenly glancing around. “Where are we—your leg!”

“Yeah, it smashed up when we landed. You’re in my world now, Alfons. The Philosopher’s Stone allows alchemy and bypasses the law of Equivalent Trade. When we landed, you started coughing up a ton of blood and stuff.”

Alfons was nodding. “I remember and then your brother and…Mister Trigham did something and I passed out. And then I woke up…,” suddenly he put a hand on his chest and breathed in very, very deeply. He smiled a little. “It’s gone…”

“Wait,” Russel said. “So the Stone worked? You’re not sick.”

Alfons looked up. “It doesn’t feel the same…”

“Well what the hell?”

Edward was looking at the ground, thinking. “I guess…I mean, you don’t have to speak when you use the Stone. It knows what you want. Maybe it knew that we wanted to heal Alfons…so during the crossing…it quit for a little and allowed the Gate to take something so we would have enough left…”

Al crooked an eyebrow. “I…guess that would be the most logical explanation.”

“Alfons, are you sure you feel all right?”

But Alfons was staring around the place. “It looks just like…haha…my world.”

“You wanna see something that ain’t from your world?” Russel asked, laughing a little.

“Alchemy?”

Russel looked at him.

“I told him about it,” Ed put in. “Go on, show him some.”

“I seriously don’t have to draw Circles anymore?”

Edward shook his head.

Russel shrugged. “All right.” He looked at them, looked at his hands and clapped them together. He set them on the ground and blinked at the blue Circle that winked into life below him and he brought up his hand, bringing up a young tree.

“Wow!” Alfons hurried over to study it. “It’s real…” He examined every part of it, amazed.

Fletcher was standing up. “Who’s that?”

Beside him, Edward heard Winry laugh a tiny bit. He looked down at her.

She was watching Alfons, smiling. Ed cocked an eyebrow. She seemed to feel his gaze and looked up, laughed a little again and nodded to the boy from the land of Munich. “I know we all realized it when he came in but…I can still hardly believe it. His resemblance to Al. Al is going to look just like him, won’t he?”

Ed nodded. “Probably…what do you think of that, Al?” He looked to his brother.

Al nodded a bit to himself. “I already knew that. I’ve had dreams of him.”

“What?” Ed blinked at him.

“I’ve dreamed of him but I never saw you or felt any sort of presence or anything…probably because I couldn’t remember you at the time. Well that and there was no way I could have known you were living with him and I knew he looked just like me but I didn’t know who he was.”

“FULL METAL!”

Ed stared forward for a split second before trying to turn. He knew that voice—!

“Roy!” Winry yelled, waving. She was smiling.

Roy Mustang strode over to them, looking half-irritated, half-fighting a smile. “You. I knew you weren’t dead.”

Ed shook his head to himself. “What happened to your eye?”

“There was a fight after you left.”

“It’s a terrible look for you.”

At that, Roy did allow a crooked smiled. “What happened?” He looked at Al and Winry, then Russel. Then he blinked. “Who’re they?”

“Alfons Heidrich and Noa—they’re from the other side of the Gate.”

Edward didn’t think he’d ever seen complete surprise or shock on Roy Mustang’s face before. He savored the moment. “What?”

“Other side…” He whipped his gaze up to the darker-skinned young women and a blond-haired boy who—“He looks just like Alphonse!”

Ed smiled a little and nodded. “Funny, ‘cause his name is Alfons.”

Roy gave him a glare. “You already told me that.”

“Well it looked as though you’d missed it.”

Behind him, Riza was looking down, fighting the urge to smile. Just like before.

“I’ll explain it later.”

“You’re damn right you are, if I had to come all the way out here I expect a full report!”

Edward gave him an incredulous look. “You expect me to report to you?!”

“Of course. You’ve been gone for over a year and a half. You never turned in your watch—“

“It was destroyed!”

“You still didn’t hand it in.”

Beside him, Winry was laughing and Al was trying not to.

Roy gave Edward an imperial sneer. “As soon as your leg is fixed, as I see you’ve managed to destroy it again, I expect a full report.” Then he looked at Winry, his features softened a bit. “Looks as though you found more then you expected.”

Winry suddenly had a tear in her eye again, which she quickly scrubbed away. Everyone pretended not to notice. She nodded, smiling.

Roy’s gaze flashed back to Edward, glaring. “See the trouble you cause?”

“Pssht.” Edward rolled his eyes.

“Havoc and the others will probably be returning to your house soon, Winry. I radioed them when I arrived and then again when I saw the lights. I told them to go back.”

“Could you help me get Edward back there. I can refit his automail. I’ve…had some prepared.” She didn’t look at Edward, rubbing at a warm cheek.

“Winry…I’ve grown.”

“Tch. Who do you think I am?” She retorted, giving him a look.

“I’d be happy to get Full Metal back to your house. Even if we have to carry him.”

Edward snapped a disgusted look at him. “What?!”

“Well it doesn’t look like you can walk, Full Metal. And you all look tired from your journey—“

“I am Not. Being. Carried.”

“Here Winry, let me,” said Roy with a mocking sincerity. He grabbed Edward and picked him up like a child.

“I am not a kid!”

“Coulda fooled me,” Roy said, dryly.

“Put me down, you bastard! Colonel shit.”

“That’s more like it, Full Metal.”

Alfons was still standing with Russel. He chuckled. “Were they always like that?”

Russel nodded. “Always.”

“It’ll take us quite some time to return to Winry’s house, sir,” Riza spoke up.

“Oh yeah,” Roy paused and then smirked down at Edward, who gave him a murderous glare.

“If Russel will help me, we can get back quicker.” Alphonse said. “Alchemy.”

Russel nodded. “Now that we know where the hell we’re going.”

Roy gave them a curious look.

“Last time she,” Russel nodded back at Ranen, who was just watching, still sitting on her knees. “brought us here with her sand.”

Roy suddenly seemed to see Ranen for the first time. He looked at Winry. “Would you still like us to kill her?”

Winry looked back at the sleepy-eyed girl, who looked away. Alfons and Noa looked back and forth between them.

“No…I suppose I’ll have to fit her out with some automail anyway.”

Ranen whipped her gaze back and blinked at her. Winry looked back at the Colonel. “Let’s go.”

Ranen got to her feet, still squeezing her wrist, following behind them. I don’t deserve it…thank you, Winry…

Alfons and Noa both paused. “Will you be all right?”

Ranen bit the inside of her cheek at Alfons. She nodded and then dropped her gaze, walking passed them. “Better hurry.”

So they all went down to the main road and Russel crouched into the dirt, nature being a strong point, after all. When Fletcher came up next to him there was a brief spat about who should and shouldn’t be doing alchemy and who might be more tired but in the end, Russel relented and let Fletcher help him and Al. They left Fletcher draw a Circle first and activate it, then the other two clapped their hands and they were all moving then. The ground skating them along the road.

Alfons and Noa rode along, both of them had their mouths half-open.

“This is amazing…”

Edward, even though he knew he must look completely ridiculous and vowing revenge because he knew Roy knew it, looked over. He smiled at Alfons.

Alfons gave him a look. “I know, I know.”

Edward smiled softly and laughed.

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Thank you, as always, Wild Seven. Your reviews are always encoraging. I really appreciate the attention you pay to my writing. It really is flattering. Thank you so much. *hughughug and chocolate* And the same for you TS. Thank you so much.