For Her. For Him.

A/N: I don't know what took me so long with this, but I just couldn't focus on this chapter. I'd sit with it and get maybe a paragraph at a time. Yeah, we're at the Lior point of the story, but some things are going to go differently enough that I think I'll be straying from canon a bit soon, and since we're nearing end of series, end of my story, I have a better idea of where the next few chapters will take me. So let's see if I can maintain my daily updates from before. Oh, and to Anon, who reviewed my story early in the writing, I'm sorry I had to delete your review as a test. I was having problems viewing them, and had to sacrifice one review to see if I had gone over my limit for this story somehow. Turns out the problem was with my internet connection, but I want to apologize all the same.

Chapter 33

Journey's Beginning

Ed sat in the study with Winry and Raine, looking over pictures that Winry had brought with her from Risembool, originally to be a gift for Ed’s birthday, but had gotten lost in the shuffle before Elysia’s. Discovering them amidst a pile of unused balloons and streamers, Winry had brought them over to give to Ed. For a bit of comparison, Raine had several pictures of herself and Mustang in a photo album she had yet to show the blond.

“He was a shrimp!” Ed said, laughing.

“He was just under five foot in that picture. He had a growth spurt the next year, just enough that he was allowed into the academy when he turned sixteen. I wish he’d have stayed short.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine our parents having wanted him in the military.”

“He doesn’t talk much about his family,” Ed said.

“It doesn’t surprise me. Hell, it takes a lot just to get him to talk. After Isbal, I think the only person who really got to talk to my brother and not this military hero he’d created was Maes. I know that Pyro stopped being the person who called me every few weeks. Instead it was Major Mustang, or Lieutenant Colonel, then Colonel. It was never my brother.”

Ed rubbed Winry’s shoulder at the mention of Ishbal.

“You are related to those Rockbells?” Raine asked, having obviously noticed Ed’s movement. “The ones my br… well, the doctors?”

“They were my parents.” Winry looked at Raine. “Did Colonel Mustang tell you about them?”

“No. A doctor from the military, Tim Marcoh, sought me out when he went AWOL. Apparently, he’d heard my brother speak of me and thought I might be able to help him.” Those soft onyx eyes looked at Ed. “How did you think I knew about the transferal transmutation?” She shifted on the armrest of the sofa, glancing out the window at Al and Marta sparring.

Ed followed her gaze, noticing a dark, half-sick looking figure approaching, signaling the two combatants to go inside. “Something’s wrong. Roy’s home and he looks…” Pissed, sick, hurt, worried. The list could go on. All pleasant expressions and elated joy that had been on the older alchemist’s face when he’d left their bed that morning were gone. The back door opened, and Ed could only wait. He wasn’t exactly in a position to stand up at this point.

Roy entered the study, Al and Marta in tow. “Ed, tell me what you need to take with you. We have to go.”

“Go? Go where?”

“Away.” Roy glanced down at the photos spread out on the table, picking up one with Ed, Al and their mother. “The military is shipping us out, both of us…” He looked closely at the photo. “The bitch!”

“Excuse me!” Ed said, looking up at his fiance. “That’s my mother, asshole.”

“Yes, and her homunculus is the furher’s secretary.”

Ed could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “Are you sure?” He had been able to pretend that it wasn’t true, that there was no way that his mother had been turned into one of those monsters.

“I have seen this woman at least once a week in the halls or in his office, which means Shezka was right.”

“And that she is the one who killed Hughes…” Ed said. “Or at least was the reason he died.”

Roy closed his eyes and bowed his head. “Which is all the more reason we need to get you the hell out of Central. They are going to ship us off, and they want you to act as scout. I tried to get you out of it, but… I just don’t see an escape except to run.”

Ed rubbed his hands in circular patterns over his belly. “And where do we run to? Where can we honestly go that’s safe from them, Roy? If that really is my creation, then I need to take care of it, I need to destroy it. I deserted that thing, and it must hate me. It will try to find me.”

“And how do you suggest you go into battle like that?” Roy gestured to Ed’s stomach. “We can’t even hide it anymore.”

“I can help you,” Raine muttered.

“Help what?”

“I can coax the babies to shift positions. It will last for about a week. I usually do it to help mothers who are having trouble breathing because their baby is resting on their diaphragm, but I can move them into positions that hide their appearance.” Ed looked over at her, wanting to ask her why she hadn’t said something sooner. “It is rarely comfortable for the mother when I do it,” she said, “and that is when I am having them move someplace natural for them to rest. I could hurt you.”

“Will it hurt the babies?”

“No.”

“Then do it.” Ed moved his hands and looked up at the dark-haired woman expectantly.

“Brother!” Al said. “You should do as Colonel Mustang says. Run.”

“I don’t run very fast anymore.” Ed’s jaw was set in determination as he looked back at his brother and his lover. “And I’m not running from the thing I created. I will destroy it.”

Winry rubbed Ed’s back. “Don’t be stupid, Ed. You have Al and the colonel who will do it for you.”

“Winry, do you understand the kinds of things that these homunculi are? They are false humans, with no soul, no feelings, no emotion. They kill when they want, they destroy human life because to them, a human’s life is worthless. I unleashed one of those things onto the world. It’s my responsibility to take it out. And if I run and they catch Al, what will they do to him? Or you? I have too many people I care about they could hurt to hurt me. Because, Winry, if my homunculus is the fuhrer’s secretary, and there is another male homunculus in the military, who do you think it is?” The realization of that fact struck the rest in the room. “And if it isn’t, tell me, what kind of power do you think she… it has?”

He looked up at Roy, daring him to argue with him. “We had a really nice vacation from reality, Roy, but it is a simple fact that our country is in trouble. It ordered troops to massacre a people whose ways are those of peace, not violence. It has at least one homunculus in a high rank, and we knew there is a second within the military, even if we do not know his position. The vacation is over, whether these babies are here or not, and we can’t pretend we can have a normal life until we have stopped the homunculi and this Dante who that bastard thinks is leading them.”

Ed turned to Raine. “You said you can move the babies so that I can hide them. Please do it.” Ed lifted his shirt, revealing the stretched, enormous belly.

Raine rubbed her hands together, more in an effort to get them warm before placing them on Ed than having anything to do with the transmutation. “This could be painful.”

“Raine, I’ve had automail installed, ripped off me, reinstalled. I’ve had a butcher knife put to my shoulder, a wrench to my head,” Ed looked over at Winry. “fire shot at me,” His eyes went to Roy. “And to top it off, I have to deliver these babies naturally. I can handle pain.”

The older Mustang placed her hands on Ed’s cheeks. “It always amazes me how you military men can put up that veil of disaffection so quickly.” She lowered her hands to Ed’s stomach. “Okay, Baby, I’m going to start. I’m not in the business of causing pain, so I am sorry.” She looked around her. “Roy, you might want to hold his hand. I’d recommend the human one.” Winry stood and moved away so that the colonel could take her seat. “Al, why don’t you take the other hand?”

“Okay,” Al said as he tromped over. Ed looked to Raine. She wanted his brother and fiancé to hold his hands? It was really going to hurt that much?

The transmutation circles on Raine’s hands began to glow, and suddenly, it felt as though the two babies inside were crawling away from the center of Ed’s stomach, being shifted to the outside. At first, the feeling was just that of a pressure, but increasingly it grew worse until he was crying out, squeezing onto the hands at either side. He felt a gloved hand slip behind his back, while the other continued to hold his own tightly.

The pain stopped, leaving behind a terrible ache. Raine rubbed the belly. “That is the best I can do, and the babies are still okay.” She pulled up his pants and pulled the shirt down, while Roy kissed his forehead. Ed took a look down at his stomach. It was still enormous, but had taken on a less rounded shape. He could hide it like this.

“What do we do when they go back to their original position or if he starts to deliver?” Roy asked.

“I will be there,” Raine answered. Ed, in his pained state, half noticed the colonel starting to protest. “How do you think I got back into the country? The people of Xing are quite talented at the art of forgery, particularly that of military certificates and identification.”

“But…” Ed struggled to say, “the risk…”

“You gained a big sister, Baby, and you aren’t shaking me. I saw what happened when I tried to let my own brother handle things on his own.” She patted Roy’s arm. “Neither of you are getting rid of me.”

********

Later that night, Ed still seemed to be in pain, though he was putting up a brave front. Roy noticed the teen was having to use the bathroom even more frequently than before, and when he tried to eat, complained of heartburn worse than he had at any other point in the pregnancy. Still, there was no convincing him to allow Raine to shift the babies back.

Ed was now resting on the colonel’s chest, as they sat reclined on the sofa, as more and more military personnel continued to come to Roy’s house. As each had heard they were to be deployed, they also were informed that Fullmetal would be serving as scout. By the time even Maria Ross and Denny Broch had come into the colonel’s house, it seemed that every person in the military close to the colonel and his lover were within those walls.

With their friends surrounding them, it seemed pointless to continue hiding anything they knew from Ed’s pregnancy to those who hadn’t heard, or the truth of the homunculi and the philosopher’s stone for that matter. Roy could see how hard it was for his fiancé to trust those closest to him with all of this information. They pulled chairs from the library, kitchen and dining room to the study, Armstrong and Al, because of their enormous sizes deciding it was better to stand.

“So what do we do,” Havoc asked. “We know this, so what do we do with what we know?”

“We stop them,” Shezka replied as though Havoc’s question had been the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “We fight them.”

“But how?” Breda asked. “How do you stop something that is that hard to kill?”

“You get support, massive support,” Ross answered. “And you have it within the military. There are men and women who would fight and die for the colonel but would question the fuhrer. There are veterans who would gladly join the ranks of a military not led by King Bradley. They don’t talk about it often, but you hear them talking in hushed whispers, you see it on their faces.”

“And to be perfectly honest,” Fuery said, “with the fact that he is young, and is in the condition he is in, Ed would be followed by others, people with families, people he’s helped. Lieutenant Ross is right. I think, doing so quietly, carefully, we could get the support we’d need to fight back.”

“But,” Ross said, looking up at Roy, who had his arms wrapped around Ed’s shoulders, “we need a leader, one with the kind of rank and authority that will get others to follow.”

“Are you asking me to lead a military coup, something that could be treason if we are unsuccessful?” Roy asked, looking around the crowded room. “I suppose if it means a change for me and my children.” Ed looked up at him. “And Edward, then I have to do it.”

“You will need to go to Lior, garner support there, and Broch, Shezka and I will do what we can here in Central,” Ross said.

“Lior?” Ed said, looking back at Roy. “What is wrong in Lior? I got rid of Cornello. The people were finally free.”

“Cornello came back,” Havoc said. “It started a civil war that’s been going on for all that time.”

Roy could feel Ed pulling away from him. “I thought I’d helped. You never told me.”

“You thought you had been so successful there, and you were still young. I couldn’t break it to you. There was nothing you could have done differently.”

“I’m getting really tired of finding things out this way, Roy. Any other secrets you’d like to share? Some other skeleton you’re hiding in the closet that I might find out accidentally?”

“None that I can think of, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“We’re going to have a very long chat later,” Ed whispered, “you do realize that.”

Roy nodded, thinking how strange it was that he was about to be lectured by Fullmetal and not the other way around.

“So, I’m going to be the leader of a rebellion, Ed’s going to be, what a mother figure? And we’re all willing to risk death than serve a homunculus.”

“That all sounds about right, Chief,” Havoc said.

********

On the train platform, Havoc was saying goodbye to Gracia Hughes, who was handing him a box of cupcakes she’d baked for some of the troops.

“There are some vanilla ones in there because Ed doesn’t like those,” Gracia explained. “If you share with him in his condition, he’ll take all of the chocolate. This way you can at least get something.”

“Thanks.”

“Mr. Jean,” Elysia said, tugging on his pantleg. Gracia took the box of cakes back as he knelt down to Elysia’s level. “Will you be coming back?”

“Of course.” He looked into the little girl’s eyes, amazed by how much she was starting to resemble Maes. A little hand darted out, handing him a folded piece of paper. “For me?”

“And one for big brother Ed and big brother Al.”

Havoc opened up the paper, seeing a drawing of a very pregnant Ed and a tall suit of armor. A sweet picture on Elysia’s part, but one that could get Ed into trouble if it was seen. The second picture was of himself and Elysia playing in the park, well, he figured it was a picture of himself, since it had a cigarette sticking out of its mouth. If Gracia saw that one, it could get him in trouble since he’d been told that under no circumstances was he to smoke around the young girl.

“Thank you, Elysia.”

“Are big brothers on the train? They said they’d say goodbye to me.”

“I think I know where they are. Do you want to see?” The girl nodded. He looked to Gracia. “Sorry to make you hold that for so long.” Scooping the girl into his arms, Havoc walked the length of the train to the car with the colonel’s private compartment. Inside the train, the blond and the suit of armor spotted them, waving excitedly at the little girl, who returned it with the same enthusiasm.

Returning back to the girl’s mother, Jean set Elysia on the platform, taking the box from Gracia. As he did, he leaned to her ear, whispering, “Take care of yourself and get out of Central. For the sake of all of us who care about you and that little girl. Stay safe.”

He looked at her intently with his blue and green-mixed eyes, trying to ensure that she understood just how serious this was.

“I will take Black Hayate and Carlida with me.” She patted his hand on the box then took Elysia’s hand, smiling as though this serious moment had never happened.

Havoc left the two Hughes women and boarded the train, making his way first to Ed’s compartment. He saw the colonel exiting.

“Gracia?” Mustang asked as he looked at the box.

“Who else?”

“There chocolate in there?” Havoc nodded. “Good. Ed might need it. He’s not too happy. I have to ride with Archer. Topping it off, Lieutenant Colonel Kimblee is on board, though Marta doesn’t know, and can’t know or she will quite literally try to kill him.” The colonel pinched the bridge of his nose. “It is going to be a long train ride.”

“Good luck, Colonel. Don’t kill him unless you have to.”

Mustang made a half-hearted smile, then left down the aisle to the compartment at the end of the car.