Chapter 4 "The Deal"

"You're… You're not Edward", Winry whimpered and I my grin grew even wider. "Oo, clever girl", I took a hold of Winry's chin with Ed's automail, "that's right. But don't worry, next time you see this body, Elric will be the one in control." I turned her head to the left with a swift movement of Ed's hand. "But remember; If you mention about this to anybody, even Elric, I promise that the next time I'm in control I will slaughter you in front of everyone. And guess who will suffer from it?" I whispered to her ear touching it slightly and she shivered visibly, "Your precious Edward Elric." Tears were falling from her eyes now, and I let go of her chin. "Now go, and act like nothing has happened." Winry nodded and fled the scene, shutting the door behind her. I knew that what I had done was wrong, but I envied Winry so much. Just what did Ed see in her anyway?!

Suddenly my vision blurred and I felt like falling down a mountain with high speed, but I saw only motionless grey light.

'So you finally woke up?' Ed's warm voice invaded trough the fog and I tried to clear my thoughts when my vision came back again. Had it been a nightmare?

'Thank god it was only a nightmare…' Even though I would have enjoyed threatening and scaring the hell out of Winry, it was something I would eventually regret, especially when I knew that Ed would never approve it. The guilt seemed to make a knot in my chest and didn't let me breathe freely.

'Don't worry, it will cease after a while.'

'I hope so…'

We both were quiet the whole morning, deep in our thoughts. Ed was eating his breakfast mechanically and stared in front of him like there was something interesting in the table. Maybe he wasn't even seeing it.

'Ed.'

'Hmm.'

'I've been thinking.'

'What a coincidence, so have I', Ed remarked sarcastically and took a sip of his drink.

'You're not paying attention to me.'

'Yes I am.'

'No you're not; otherwise you would realize that you're drinking milk.'

'What…' Ed took the cup in his hand to look at it and started sweating. "… THE FUCK?!" Someone snickered behind him and Ed turned around to kill the stupid prankster with his glare of doom.

"Damn you, Al", Ed growled and threw the white liquid at the suit of armor.

"Aw brother, that was nasty", Al whined when Rose brought a towel to wipe it off.

"NOT AS NASTY AS THE TASTE!"

'Now calm down and listen to me.'

Ed rolled his eyes and stuffed the last piece of bread in his mouth, chewing it loudly.

'That's gross. But anyways. Do you still want to learn about rendanshu?'

'Of course I do! Oh yeah, that bean girl should be in here as well, right?'

"Hey Al, is that little girl and her weird cat somewhere in here?" Ed stood up to look at his little brother.

"Oh, no. She left to her country with Envy."

"With Envy?" Ed's eyes narrowed to tiny slits. "You're joking, right?"

"No! Marcoh destroyed Envy's stone and Scar gave Envy to her because Mei was looking for immortality in the first place and she shouldn't get tangled up with Amestris' affairs as well."

'SHIT.'

'What?'

'I forgot to tell you. She is heading back to Central with Envy, because Envy said something to her about the fact that she shouldn't betray you lot and if she took take him to Xing now, she would just get scolded for bringing a half dead homunculus.'

"Al, when did she leave?" Ed eyed his brother dangerously, shocked to know that May was in serious danger right know.

"Maybe 5 days ago, why?" Al didn't like how his brother reacted to the news. Had there still been something Ed wanted to discuss with Mei?

"YOU'RE ALL BUNCH OF IDIOTS! Mei is only a young ignorant girl and Envy someone who has manipulated people for decades! I wouldn't be surprised if she's heading back to Central now and when Envy gets a new stone, it's the end for her!" Ed slammed his left palm to the table and clenched it to a fist so his nails dug into his flesh, nearly drawing blood.

"No way!" Al and Winry cried out in unison and bowed their heads in guilt; they all knew that they couldn't catch her anymore.

'Is there anyone you could contact in Central? Someone who the homunculi don't know about? Sheska?'

'I don't know her number nor do I want to cause her problems.'

'Well… There is a way to get to Central before her. But is really risky, dangerous and you might lose your freedom.'

'Tell me.'

'Promise not to interrupt.'

'Okay okay, spit it out already!'

'The tunnel goes under Lior as well Briggs and the strongest homunculus "Pride" guards it. Pride can only move inside the tunnel and Central or he will die, which means that he can move quickly between Lior and Central if he senses that someone has entered the tunnel. He is actually Selim Bradley, so he will recognize you. AND because he is Selim Bradley, you can say that you want to talk to the Führer alias Wrath and he will take you there. And then you make this deal: You promise to stay in Central so you would be in their reach at all times and in exchange for that you can do whatever you please in Central.' I took a little break to gather my thoughts.

'Father is going to open the Gate, and couldn't you and Al get your original bodies back if you jump in? You will both gain from it; they need only to call you when they want to open the Gate and when you reunite with Al, you can get your bodies back.'

'But I don't think it'll be good to take Al with you; if you later realize that "jumping into the Gate" won't work, Al would still be out of their reach and they can't open the Gate without him.'

'Al will not let me go alone if I tell him.'

"Brother?"

Al and Winry eyed Ed with worried expressions, because Ed had grown awfully silent and stared at the ground, his fists shaking, for many minutes.

"There is nothing we can do, she is practically dead already", Ed said behind his bangs that hung in front of his face and turned away without looking at Winry or Al. He stormed back to his room and started gathering his things.

'You can always leave a message. Oh, and Rose knows what route your father used to get to the tunnel.'

'He has been there too?'

'Yes, and he knows about Pride. That is why you can't tell anybody that you're going there, except Rose. Luckily it will already be too late when she tells everybody.'

Ed searched the room for a piece of paper and wrote hastily a message:

I'm going to Central to save May and finish off Envy. Don't worry about me, THEY will not kill me. Do not try to follow or contact me, because I can't guarantee your safety. Al; do not come near Central before you get a message from me and keep your eyes open. THEY might be trying to kidnap you, because the Day is drawing nearer.

Stay safe,

Ed

He hid his bag under the bed and stuffed the letter into his pants' pocket. He made sure that his room didn't seem too clean; otherwise it would scream out the fact that he was leaving. His bed was still unmade and his jacket hung on the rack.

'I'll leave at the evening.'

'Why not help rebuilding the buildings while we are still in here? Hohenheim and Al are helping them.'

'Why not, indeed.'

We both knew how slowly the time would go by if we just waited for the evening to come, and if we could keep ourselves occupied while helping others, we would be more than happy to do so.

"So, what is this going to be?" Ed asked from a passing man who was carrying a heavy-looking steel bar and eyed the building under reconstruction. Even though the sun was burning, everyone was doing their best with smiling faces.

"Oh? A four-story residence. Some of us are still living in those wrecked buildings and we really want to make them a home with four walls instead of three." The man grinned and adjusted the bar better to his shoulder.

"Why won't you use alchemy?"

"That would be great, wouldn't it?" The man laughed. "But none of us is an alchemist and we want to rebuild this town ourselves. Alchemists are also expensive." He shrugged and was already turning his back to Ed when he noticed his wide grin.

"I agree to the fact that everybody needs a good home, so if you show me the blueprints and tell everyone to back off from the building, I think I could lend you a hand."

At first the man stared at Ed in disbelief, but then a grin spread to his face.

"Follow me." Ed did as he was told, but he forgot about the bar the man was carrying and got a direct hit to his head.

When Ed had got a bag of quickly melting ice (he had to transmute the water to ice by himself) to his head, he examined the blueprints thoroughly. It wasn't complex, as regular block of flats as it could be and it took only 20 minutes from Ed to remember it.

"Okay, call your men out."

"EVERYBODY OUT OF THE BUILDING!" The command ran through every builder's mouth and soon everybody had jogged out of it and questioned what was going on, because they wanted to continue their work.

"Shhh!"

Ed rolled his eyes and shut them to concentrate. The tension was touchable and some fidgeted with something as they watched the Fullmetal alchemist concentrate. The word had spread and soon every citizen of Lior was watching if the great Fullmetal alchemist would succeed to reconstruct a whole building with alchemy. A metallic clap echoed in the air and Ed hit his hands to the ground. The sudden surge of energy waved the ground and blue electric light cracked loudly as Ed slowly stood up and spread his arms. People gasped in wonder when the building seemed to start constructing itself, gathering all the surrounding material for walls, floor and roof. Slowly the blue light started shining purple and flashed a great red as Ed started using the stone's power to keep the transmutation going. He had never transmuted a same object for this long and it was slowly wearing him out.

'So, do you have an eye for decoration?'

'Better than you have. How long will you last?'

'Ten minutes.'

'Okay. First some balconies.' I imagined the terraces in my head and let Ed see it too.

'Chance the entrance like this.' I imagined two Greek columns on both sides of huge doors and a few steps to raise the pillars and doors above ground. The entrance hall widened and next to it appeared a free space for idling.

"Would you like a dining hall?!" Ed shouted through the cracking of electricity and Joey nodded.

'I'm on it.' I told Ed to transmute it to a place where the main street could be seen and with huge classy windows.

'That's it.'

Ed let the energy die and sighed in relief as his legs gave out and he sat down to catch his breath. At first people could only gape like fishes out of water, but when some of then started clapping their hands, everyone joined the applauding and cheered loudly.

"The Fullmetal alchemist did it again!"

"Whoa, just look at it!"

"He is the best!"

"Ed." A soft voice called behind and Ed turned his head to see who it was. Rose was smiling at him and offered a bottle of water. "It's wonderful." Ed took the bottle gratefully and drained it empty at once.

"As expected from you", Joey said and offered a hand to help Ed up.

"I'm glad to help. When Lior is again a bustling city, you can use it as a hotel."

"You're right. But then you forgot something. You created it; it should as well be named after you." Joey laughed and patted Ed's back friendly.

"Uh… Fullmetal Hotel sounds kind of lame, though…"

'How about Alchanum?'

'… Sounds cool. Where did you get that from?'

'An AMV I watched a long time ago.'

'AMV?'

"What about Alchanum?"

"A fine name, indeed! Alchanum it is! Do you think you can…?"

"Of course!" Ed clapped his hands and the static flashed again. Soon on top of the roof read a stylish sign:"Alchanum" and also above the front doors.

"It's ready. It still needs some fine-tuning from the inside and of course furniture, but…"

People just laughed, shook hands with him and praised his work. Slowly they started to scatter, most of the men went to discuss about the next projects and women to continue their household chores. The only ones who stayed longer were the kids, Al, Winry, Hohenheim and Rose. I could see what Rose and Winry were thinking, especially Winry.

'I never thought that he was that powerful, even though he is a state alchemist', was written all over their faces.

'Maybe you should rest for a while, it's going to be a long night for us.'

'You're right.' Ed had already started walking, when something grabbed a hold of his hand and hung there.

"Mr. alchemist!" A young girl's voice called out and Ed looked down in astonishment. Around 5-years old blond girl was tugging him down and blushed scarlet when their eyes locked to each other's.

'Aaw, I love little kids.'

'Want to handle this one?'

'Really? Could I?'

Slowly I started feeling the burning sun, the dry air in Ed's lungs and tiny hands clutching his hand. I smiled warmly to the kid and knelt down in front of her.

"What is your name?"

"Lucy", she said shyly and fingered her curly hair.

"Is there something you would like to say, Lucy?"

"My big sis says that you're sexy. What does it mean?" She looked at me with those blue, innocent eyes and waited eagerly for the answer.

"HEY! HANDS OFF OF MY LITTLE SISTER!" I saw something moving towards me out of the corner of my eye and out of pure reflex grabbed it before it collided with Ed's head. It was a broom, and the one holding it was a young blond woman with a very annoyed expression, but it died down when she recognized Ed's face. I stood up slowly so Ed's exhausted body wouldn't pass out and kept holding the broom even though she was tucking it.

"Lucy, is this your big sister you were talking about?"

"Mm-hmm." Lucy nodded with enthusiasm and giggled. "She looked so funny when she stopped sweeping to look at you and said that you were so sexy."

"Lucy!" The older blond screamed in embarrassment and tried to free the broom from the automail's grasp with more effort than before.

'If you try something stupid..!' Ed growled and I laughed.

'No, I promised, remember?'

"Whoa, easy there. You'll just get splinters in your hands." I released the broom and she grabbed Lucy's hand to guide her back where ever she had came from.

'And now some sleep…'

In the evening

I woke up when the lot started drinking and celebrating the newly built Alchanum.

'Ed, wake up!'

'Mmh..?'

'It's evening!'

He took automatically control and stretched his muscles before grabbing his jacket and pulling it on to protect him from the freezing night. He left the letter on his still unmade bed and hid his small back under his coat so he wouldn't give away his intentions.

'Let's go.'

Rose wasn't hard to spot, because she was the one serving the people drinks and food. People were so concentrated on listening to other's stories that they didn't pay attention to Ed, who walked casually past them, tapped Rose to the shoulder and motioned her to follow. When they were past the corner, Ed turned over.

"Could you show me the place where the old man went when he visited the church? I want to check it out as well."

"Oh? But your father said…"

"I can take care of myself. Please, Rose."

"Okay, follow me."

Ed lit a lamp when the moonlight didn't reach us anymore and it was becoming gradually darker the deeper to the church they went even though he had the lamp. It was as if something was eating the light away.

"It's here. The water is poisoned, and your dad used alchemy to get over it. Do you want me to wait?" Ed eyed the water suspiciously and smiled at Rose.

"Thank you, Rose. Take this so you can get back, don't wait for me", Ed handed Rose a torch and turned to face the water again.

"Oh, okay. Be careful."

"I will."

Ed had already made a path with alchemy and was walking along it when Rose turned around and headed back to the entrance as fast as possible.

'I wonder if she's afraid of dark', I thought and Ed shrugged.

'I thought every woman is?' I hissed as a warning and Ed shut his mouth.

It took a while before we saw ground again and Ed sighed in relief as he decomposed the path he had used.

'So, where… Ah.' Hohenheim had left traces of transmutation when he had closed the hole he had created and Ed reopened with ease.

'I have a request, Ed.'

'What?'

'Could I have the control? I want to make sure myself that my plan works.'

'Are you sure?'

'Please.'

'Don't make me regret this.'

I took the few necessary steps to enter the tunnel and tried to calm myself. It would do no good if I stuttered in front of Pride. I didn't need to wait for long when the "zuruzuru" voice was heard and Pride appeared in front of me.

"Good evening, Pride." I said with a steady voice, and stared straight to the homunculus' eyes. I hoped I looked convincing enough, because I felt like a pile of pudding in front of him.

"Fullmetal alchemist? Why are you here?"

"I want to discuss matters with the Führer, and this is the only way to get to him without being noticed."

"Oh? And what might you mean by 'discussing matters?'"

"You will know if you take me to him."

"Very well." The darkness drew nearer with monstrous speed and I felt something grab a hold of me when it became pitch black. The darkness didn't last for long, though. Pride let go of me and turned himself into Selim Bradley before leading me up long staircases.

"Father, I brought a visitor", Pride said in a cheery tone and Wrath told him to come in.

'Ed, do I need to salute or something?'

'No.'

It was comfortably warm in the Führer's office and normally I would have concentrated on taking in my surroundings, but I was in the same room with two deadly sins and I had to gather all of my willpower to keep myself from running away.

"Oh, isn't it the Fullmetal alchemist. Why might you be here?"

"He told me that he wanted to 'discuss matters' with you." Pride said, dropping the good child-act and eying me now and then. I nodded in agreement and Wrath made an 'oh' sound as he stood up from his seat.

"Please tell."

"I'm here to bargain." The Führer tilted his head to the side waiting for me to continue.

"I will promise to stay inside Central so you can always contact me and you will let me do whatever I please until the Day comes." Wrath and Pride stared at me and I thought they would just snicker and throw me in some jail of sort to wait for the Day, but then Wrath burst out laughing.

"Very well, Fullmetal alchemist. But let me add one thing: If you break this deal, you know what will happen to your dear friend Winry Rockbell and Resembool." I shrugged and made a pfft-sound, which made Wrath and Pride stare at me in disbelief.

"Well, it would be a bit of shame if something happens to her, she is such a good mechanic… It would be hard to find someone else who can match her skills. … Am I free to go?"

"Ah, yes. I will ask someone to take you to the military lodgings… But I doubt you will stay there for long, right?"

"That's right. I thought about finally spending my salary. I bet I've got some cash after four years of being a state alchemist." I grinned mischievously and walked to the door.

"Would you like a promotion?" I turned around and stared at the Führer in disbelief before regaining my grin. "I think I'm starting to like you." I saluted and took off down the stairs towards the front door. And as expected, there was a car waiting for me.

'So, what does that promotion make you now? A lieutenant colonel?'

'That's right. I'm surprised that you didn't screw up.'

'I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw Pride.' I admitted and Ed laughed.

'We need to go looking for Mei tomorrow.'

'Yeah.'

Yay, I finally posted this chappie here! It's been ready for ages, but I've been lazy... Sorry! Hope you enjoyed! Review?