Once the spare leg had been attached to Winry’s satisfaction, she took his and started working on it. Edward got dressed again and was going to put on his jacket when Natalie stopped him.
“You better not, that red jacket will be likely to draw attention and we don’t want that. If you want a jacket take mine,” she said taking hers off and handing it to him. “It’s probably better anyway. I can walk around here and not be noticed but you, well without the hood someone might recognize you like Winry did. We can’t risk that if you insist on going out.”
Edward sighed but he knew she was right. He took her jacket and put it on, pulling the hood up over his head. Once he was all set and sure that he’d be alright walking they said good-bye to Winry for now and left.
As they walked down the road, Edward couldn’t help but to notice how much this Resembool was like his.
“So where are we going?” Natalie asked him.
“To the cemetery, I want to see something.”
“If Pinako is there?”
Edward nodded. “Yeah…”
As they walked Edward looked up to where the old house had been. His eyes couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the charred remains of a house and a tree. It was exactly the same. Without thinking he went up towards it, Natalie following after him.
He stopped where the front door once was and just looked. Natalie came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. “The Ed and Al from this world did the same thing as you did after getting your State Alchemist’s Certification. Their journey started a lot like yours did.”
“So Mom died here too and they tried to bring her back just like we did…” he said sadly.
“Yeah, doesn’t seem to matter what world you live in sometimes. There are just things that are meant to happen no matter what,” she said as she hugged him. “Come on, we should go…”
It took him a minute to get moving but finally they left. When they got to the cemetery they split up to look around. Natalie found Trisha’s grave and stopped for a moment. She was actually glad she found it instead of Edward. She knelt down and put her hand on the marker stone, a tear running down her cheek. “I’ll bring them back…” she said softly then got up to keep looking around.
“Natalie! Over here!” she heard Edward call. When she joined him she found that he was standing at the graves of Winry’s parents and beside them was another stone. “Damn it Granny Pinako… why did you leave her alone?” he asked, his fists clenched in anger. He then looked at Natalie. “This isn’t right. I know she’s not the Winry I knew but I can’t just let this stand this way. There’s got to be something we can do, it kills me to see her look that lonely.”
“I was one step ahead of you Ed,” she said softly. “That’s what I was thinking about earlier when we were back at the house. I was thinking of a way to go to the other world and get Edward and Alphonse and bring them back without putting you in danger. I want to make this right because I don’t like seeing her like that either.”
“Did you come up with anything more?”
Natalie shook her head. “No, but then I don’t know I’d even be able to find them without your help. I know what world I have to go to but I don’t know where in it they are.”
“How could I help with that?”
Natalie took a minute to think about this, she knew she was going to word it wrong and it was going to sound cold and she didn’t want to do that. Finally she just gave up though and spit it out the way she was thinking about it. “Well since you’re the same person, just from a different place, a different version, your soul might be linked to his somehow. If it is and you help me open the portal, it might just take us right to them.”
“But how do you know that Alphonse will be with him?”
“Why do you even doubt that he will be? They’re in a world that’s not theirs, and they’re as close as you and your brother are, maybe more so. Alphonse will be with him, I’m sure of it.”
“Well that still leaves the problem of what could happen to me if I’m in the same place as my other self…”
“It does. It’s a huge gamble and I don’t want to risk something happening to you because you’re together.”
Edward closed his eyes and thought about this. He played it over and over in his head. “Well no matter what I think of it still involves my having to be around him at some point or another. Like you said, you’ll have better luck finding them if I’m with you.” He looked up at the clouds passing overhead and took a deep breath. This was a lot to deal with but they had to do the right thing and bring them back. “Don’t be mad at me Natalie but I’m willing to take the risk and go get them for her. I know something bad might happen to me but I can’t just leave this and not try. I know that I would never want to know what your face would look like being alone like she is.”
“But doing this could very well make that happen,” she said softly trying not to cry. “But I know what you mean. Plus, this was my idea to begin with but…”
Edward hugged her tight, which made her lose it and start crying. “All we can do is try. If for a second we think things are going to go bad we leave OK? Neither one of us is going to accept this until we see if we can do it or not.”
She buried her face in his chest. “You’re right but promise me that if you feel even the least bit like something isn’t right and I can’t see it you’ll tell me.”
“I promise.”
Taking a few deep breaths, Natalie regained her composure. “Alright then, we’ll give this a try and see what happens.”
“So it’s settled, once the repairs are done on my automail then we’ll get going.”
Natalie nodded. There was a part of her that had a bad feeling about this but she had never liked nor agreed with this story ending the way it had. It didn’t help seeing Winry the way she was either which convinced her she had to change the ending and bring this world’s Edward and Alphonse back. She just wished that she didn’t have to put her own Edward at risk to pull it off.
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