XIII Truce

Ed groaned as he climbed out of the pile a while later. The truth was he had blackout for a few minutes, and when he finally woke up and climbed out the Akuma was long gone. He coughed a few times from the dust, then leaned against the wall for support. Nothing seemed to be broken like he thought, he just ached all over. He reached into his pocket and checked his watch: It was still pretty late, he had plenty of time before the sun started to rise. He sighed, then headed towards the gate.

"That was still a stupid thing to do FullMetal"

"Yeah yeah give it a rest already"

He had successfully made it through the gate once again without anyone seeing him, then he tracked down Mustang and told him what happened. The good news was that Mustang and his team had covered for him. There had been a big battle shortly after he left, so Mustang pulled some strings and got him listed as MIA instead of him being accused of desertion. The bad side was that he couldn't let any other Amestrian soldiers see him otherwise he'd be shoved back into battle, but he was used to sneaking around by now.

"So you're going to try and track down the exorcists?"

"Yeah. I need to tell them what's really going on with this war"

He was going to have to act fast too.

"Do you think they'll trust you?"

"I really don't know, but Allen will stand up for me if they don't"

"Alright, just be careful out there. And don't-

"Don't die, I know."

Finding where the exorcists were was the hard part. He had no idea where any of them were, he wasn't even sure if Allen knew himself and caught up to them. He just hoped nothing bad had happened to him on the way. As he wondered around in the night he heard footsteps, and he instantly flattened himself against a wall in case it was a soldier. He couldn't believe his luck, it was actually a finder. He seemed to be headed somewhere quietly and occasionally would stop and look around for any Amestrian soldiers, and after Ed had watched him for a minute he decided his best choice was to follow him.

So he trailed a few feet behind the finder staying close to the shadow and walls just in case he needed to hide from him quickly, and he was sure he stayed in his sight. After a few blocks they came to a church, and the finder quickly went inside. Ed hesitated, but still continued to follow him. He opened the door quietly and peaked in, only to see the finder go through some kind of portal. He blinked, then looked around. No one else seemed to be around, so he went inside and walked up to the portal. Was it like the gate? Curious he stuck his hand through, then pulled it out. It seemed safe, but he still wasn't sure about this.

Guess there's no turning back.

He took a deep breath, then stepped through.

Allen had gotten there safely through one of the gates with the arc, but he hadn't received the happy welcoming from everyone like he thought he would. Sure his friends like Lavi and Lenalee were glad to see him and that he was alright, and Kanda had been his usual silent self, but apparently Link had saw him being carried by Ed after he knocked him out, and he had been labeled as a traitor to the Amestrians. He had defended himself of course and told Levvier what really happened (except for a few things like the gate) but he didn't seem to believe him.

So now here he was stuck in his room with his left arm bound tightly like the last time he was allowed to talk with Cross. Link was still watching over him, but keeping a very close eye on him. He was pretty used to it by now, but since they had been on the run from the Amestrians and gotten separated he had gotten some privacy, and now he really missed that privacy. He sighed as he leaned his head against the wall and wondered how Ed was doing right now. Then he heard a lot of sudden commotion going on outside and he sat up.

His eye didn't detect any Akuma in the area, which meant it was something else. Had the Amestrians found them again? He paled at that thought, after all if that was the case then many more of them would die, and he would get blamed for ratting them out. He had to see what was going on, and Link was nice enough to let him leave to check it out. There was a bit of a crowd around where the ark was, and he heard many people shouting at once. He was only able to make a few things out as he gently wormed his way up to the front to see what was going on.

"HE'S AMESTRIAN!" said one.

"HE BETRAYED US!" said another.

That's when he got close enough to see what was going on, and froze when he saw that it was Ed that everyone was yelling at. He didn't protest against what they said or struggle against the people who had grabbed him to restrain him; his eyes were dim and full of guilt. Then Levvier showed up and the crowd parted for him. He glared at Ed, then spotted Allen and roughly grabbed him by his shirt.

"You! You DID betray us! You gave away out location to an Amestrian soldier!"

"Allen had nothing to do with this!" Ed spoke up now enraged.

"I found a portal leading me here on my own by chance, that's all"

Levvier glared at Allen, but released him and walked over to Ed.

"What is it that you want?" he asked coldly.

"I just want to talk. I know something about this war you should all know, and then we can end it without anymore massive violence"

That caused many people to start whispering to each other, and Kamui spoke up:

"Inspector, I think we should here him out"

And so they did, in a more private place of course. Ed was released, and all the exorcists plus Kamui, Bak, Link, Levvier, and a few others heard him out in Bak's office.

"So you're saying that Lulubell started this war with Amestris on purpose?"

"Yes. I barely managed to escape from her and that Akuma"

"Well it does make sense, after all the Noah family does want us all dead"

"And that means Ed didn't betray us after all" Lavi pointed out.

"What?" Ed asked now interested.

"Yeah, she attacked our old headquarters before the war started"

THAT BITCH! She was just playing with me! Oh when I get my hands on her...

Now Ed really wanted to kill her.

"I obviously can't take her on again alone" he said controlling his anger.

"If some of you would be willing to help me it would help a lot"

"And how do we know that this isn't a trap?" asked Levvier.

"How do we know you won't betray us as soon as they're in Amestris?"

"Ed wouldn't so that!" Allen defended him.

"But how would we sneak through the Gate? Isn't it guarded?" asked Lavi.

"I could make a new gate using the ark" Allen suggested.

"I believe we should trust what Ed has told us and go through with this" Kamui told Levvier.

"I agree" said Bak.

Several people in the room nodded in agreement. Levvier wasn't happy with this at all, but it looked like everyone disagreed with him on this.

"Fine. Link, you go with them"

Link nodded, and Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee all decided to go with Ed. Using the ark was successful, and they ended up in the bedroom of Ed's apartment in Central. However shortly afterword they heard someone else walking around.

Damn! It's probably the military or something.

"You guys stay here, I'll check it out" Ed told them.

He quietly clapped his hands together and transmuted his automail blade before he walked out into the hall staying as close to the walls as possible. He heard two pairs of footsteps, and when one of them was about to turn the corner and spot him and spun around and pointed his blade at their throat.

"Whoa! Brother it's me!"

Ed blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things before he lowered his blade.

"Al?"

What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Dublinth with Izumi, and why was Wrath with him?

"He's ok now brother, I promise" Al said catching Ed's glare at him.

"But what are you doing here?"

"I came to lecture you actually" he said firmly as he shoved yesterday's Central paper in his face.

The big headline on the first page read "FUHRER HAKURO ATTACKED!" and hada big black and white picture of the ruined part of his mansion from the outside.

"I figured you had to have something to do with this. You're always running off and doing stupid things when I'm not around"

Ed laughed nervously as he transmuted his automail back to normal, but Al wasn't done.

"And making a deal with teacher to break me out of prison? Really Ed?"

Ed rolled his eyes at that one.

"Oh sure don't thank me for that or anything." he said sarcastically.

The two brothers were silent for a moment, then Ed suddenly pulled Al into a hug.

"It'd good to see you Al."

It had been months after all.

"They didn't hurt you did they?"

"No brother, I'm fine"

Then he caught the sight of the others sticking their heads out the room and watching.

"Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

So Ed had to go through what he found out about Hakuro/Lulubell, and all that other blah that he was getting tired of explaining. Al kept noticing that Ed would glance over at Wrath every now in then, so he explained that after he had gotten his automail from Winry he wandered around for a while, then went to live with Izumi and Sig. He wasn't evil anymore, and they had decided to raise him as their own. He still had his hair really long, but it was neater now, and he was wearing more sensible clothes: Khaki pants and a blue T shirt. His automail was exposed, and he seemed to like walking around barefoot all the time. He basically was like when they first found him, except that he couldn't use his alchemy anymore because he lost Ed's limbs, and he wasn't all crying and winy (No one was complaining about it though).

When he saw the paper he told Izumi that he wanted to check on Ed. She agreed after a little while, but sent Wrath with him in case the military found them.

"I wanna fight with you"

Ed frowned at that.

"You know I can defend myself and help you guys brother so-

"I know you can Al, but you're not in the Armor anymore; you can get seriously hurt."

"But-

"I'd feel a lot better if I knew you were safe back here."

"BUT-

"PLEASE Al" he begged.

Al felt guilty after seeing the look of worry on Ed's face, so he gave in.

"Alright..." he said softly.

"So do we have a plan?" Lavi asked him.

"Not really. We still have surprise on our side, and I mainly need you guys to deal with any Akuma she has while I take care of her"

"Taking a Noah on all by yourself? Are you sure that's a good idea Ed?"

"I've fought and killed Homunculi before, and Noah are still human. Besides, once you guys destroy that Akuma you're free to help me out if I need it"

"This is how I got in last time" he said as he transmuted another tunnel outside the Fuhrer's mansion.

One by one they crawled in, and all ended up safely inside. That's when Allen's eye activated, and he could easily tell that it was a level four. As soon as he saw the condition the soul was in he looked away and tried his best to ignore it, but it was hard.

"We better be careful, it's a level four" he told them.

"Great" Lavi said sarcastically.

No wonder why I had such a hard time against it. Thought Ed.

After all he had only faced up to level two, and he knew they got stronger each time.

"Is it the only one?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"Good" Ed and Lavi chorused.

"Alright then. You guys go with Allen, I'll track down Lulubell"

They nodded, and went their separate ways. Ed transmuted his automail blade before he started sneaking around upstairs, and everyone else activated their innocence when they got closer to the Akuma. They all found their targets, and they both took them by surprise.

Ed saw her coming around a corner facing away from him, so he quickly and quietly clapped his hands together and transmuted spikes from the floor heading towards her from behind. Unfortunately she noticed at the last moment and jumped away to dodge them. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was Ed.

"Surprised to see me alive?"

Her expression hardened and she glared at him.

"You really are foolish thinking you can come back a second time and take me on"

"You're still human, and that little Akuma of yours is being taken care of so I wouldn't count on him to save your ass or anything" he said as he took his fighting stance.

"You'd kill your own kind?"

"We're nothing alike!" he said with a glare.

"That look, so you've killed before."

"Enough of this talk" he said.

"LET'S JUST END THIS!"

Even with three exorcists all focusing on the same target it was still hard to destroy the level four. However with all of them working together rather well they were able to get it done. They all were exhausted by the end of the fight of course, so they rested against the wall for a few minutes before looking for Ed. They found him passed out against a wall on the second floor hallway, covered in blood.

"ED!"

They all ran over to him to make sure it was ok, but he was just passed out from exhaustion, and it wasn't even his blood that had stained his clothes either. That's when they noticed the state of Lulubell, and Lenalee quickly looked away not wishing to see it again.

"What did he do to her?"

It was a long hard fight, and in the end Ed saw that they only way to kill her was to act like a murderer, so he deconstructed her using the knowledge he knew of the human body.

"Well at least it's over now"

When Ed woke up he was back at the apartment in his bed, and Al was leaning over him.

"Brother! You're awake!"

He had to blink a few times to adjust to the morning sunlight, then he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"What happened? How long was I asleep?"

"A few days actually, you were exhausted. How do you feel?"

"Hungry"

Al chuckled at that knowing it was something only Ed would say, so he told him what happened over a nice big breakfast. After Lulubell was killed Mustang had assumed the role of Fuhrer since he was next in line, and immediately declared a cease fire and proposed a treaty to England. Everything was signed quickly as expected, and the Amestrian troops began to withdraw. Allen and the others went back to their world, but stayed close by. They wanted to say goodbye to Ed before all connections with the two worlds were closed permanently.

"Hey brother" Al began.

"If this is about a cat the answer is still no" Ed told him flatly.

"Actually, it's about the other side"

"What is it?" Ed asked now curious and hoping it wasn't something bad.

"You told me about all the doppelgangers and stuff work, and I sort of have theory on that..."

"Well then spit it out already!"

He was now really curious and getting impatient.

"Do you think it's possible that Allen is your doppelganger?"

Ed blinked and realized he might actually be right. They had a lot in common, and they really did look alike when both of them had long hair. He just couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before.

~FIN~

Author's Notes

Sorry for the wait, but it was long like I said, and I've been pretty busy with school, and literally just moving today. Sorry for the lack of some epic action scenes, but I'm just not good at writing them...At all. So yes that is the end of this, BUT if you guys want it I can do a sequel. Please tell me what you think in a review, and even if you don't want a sequel vote on my new profile poll so I know. Like I said I'm gonna slow down on my writing here since school a pain in the ass these days, but I'm still gonna write stuff (just won't post it until it's all written). So, please review!