Thankfully the feeling passed quickly enough and Natalie was able to get Edward back to his feet. “That was the weirdest thing I think I’ve ever seen,” Edward said. “But at least we know we found the right place.”
Natalie nodded. “Yeah, but that scared the crap of me Ed.”
“Scared the crap out of you? Scared the crap out of ME… I wasn’t expecting that to happen and right after we showed up no less. Though hopefully it’ll help us find them faster.”
“Maybe, what else did you see besides Alphonse? Did you see any landmarks or signs?”
Edward closed his eyes and tried to think. “Al was sitting at a table; it looked like he was talking to someone. If I had to guess it was probably the other Edward. It was definitely outside.”
Natalie had an idea, she pulled out her card. “You wait here, I don’t want to risk anyone here seeing you, and it might get confusing especially if they know the other Edward. We can keep in touch with this,” she said holding up her card, “and if you have another one of those vision things let me know.”
“Where are you going?” Edward knew better than to argue with her about going with her. She was right anyway, the last thing they wanted to do was make this more complicated than they had to.
“I’m going to see if there’s an open air café around here. If that happened to you right after getting here I’m figuring we have to be at least close. I won’t wander far without coming back to get you, promise.”
Edward nodded. “Alright, just be careful. If he’s as much like me as I think he is, he might not trust you right away.”
“I know, I’m ready for that,” she said as she gave him a kiss. “Besides, I wasn’t planning to say anything to him right away; I just want to find him so we can follow him. When they’re somewhere it’s safe to talk then we’ll talk to them together.”
Edward sat down on a crate that was in the alley while Natalie walked out of the alley and on to the main street. What part of the city were they in anyway? She cursed herself for not paying more attention in school. Oh well, she figured they couldn’t be anywhere too bad, at least she hoped they weren’t. She walked past little shops in the first floors of what looked to be apartment buildings. Most of the shop keepers who saw her smiled at her as she walked by. They were certainly friendlier than she’d expected them to be.
She walked for awhile, covering about one block in every direction and was just about to give up and go back and get Edward when she saw a little deli with tables outside. Natalie kept her distance and tried to scan the tables. She hoped she hadn’t taken too long to find this place and lost them. She didn’t even know if she had the right place to begin with but she was in luck. She took out her card and closed her eyes.
“Ed, I found them… but they look like they’re getting ready to leave.”
“Then teleport me to you and we can follow them.”
Natalie looked for somewhere she could hide and open the circle to bring him to her. She found what looked like an open garage door and slipped inside. Closing her eyes she activated the card and a circle appeared in front if her, a moment later Edward was standing there.
“That feels even weirder than the portal I swear.”
“Yeah well it works right?”
Before he could answer her he closed his eyes and held his head. “It’s happening again…”
“Go with it for now. I have a feeling fighting it might make it worse.”
“Easy for you to say… they’re getting up…” Edward trying to focus on what he was seeing. “It sounds like Alphonse said something about an apartment and that I don’t look well…” And just as quickly as it had started it stopped. Edward looked at Natalie, “Come on, we have to hurry or we’ll lose them.”
They hurried back out onto the street in time to see the other Edward and Alphonse leave the table and head towards them. They ducked back into the room until Edward and Alphonse had gone by and then they followed them for about two blocks to an apartment building. There were a few times Natalie noticed Edward look back, she hoped they weren’t on to them. There were so many people on the street, how could they be right?
Natalie and Edward stayed outside, sitting on a bench that was on the opposite side of the street from the building Edward and Alphonse went into.
“Are we going to go in there?” Edward asked.
Natalie shook her head. “Not yet, I want to see if they’re going to be sticking around or not. There’s no sence going up there if they’re only going to be leaving again.”
“Good point…” he said just before another vision hit him. It seemed more intense this time. He could hear Alphonse clearly this time.
“Brother, are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah Al, it’s just a headache. Just came out of nowhere though.”
“Shouldn’t you go lay down?”
“No, I know someone was following us earlier… I want to know who they were.”
Natalie looked Edward. “What are you seeing?”
He waved her off; he needed to concentrate on what the other Edward was saying.
Alphonse got up and went to the window. Natalie saw him there. “Damn it Ed, Al’s looking out here, we have to go something…” she did the only thing she could think of and flipped his hood over his head so Alphonse wouldn’t recognize him. She tried to sit there like she was just enjoying the afternoon air.
“The other Edward knows we were following them,” Edward said to Natalie. “He’s trying to convince Alphonse that he’s not just being paranoid.”
Natalie sighed heavily. “Damn, I thought he might have been on to us. I noticed him look back a few times on the way here. There’s no help for it I guess, let’s head up there and say hello then.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I’m gonna tell ya, being closer to him has made these things I’m seeing more intense, I don’t know if being in the same room would be a good idea.”
“You want me to go up there alone? I can if that’s what you want…”
Edward shook his head. “No, I don’t want you to go alone though I’m pretty sure neither of them would hurt you, it’s just going to be a lot harder to explain things to them without me there.”
“That’s a true but then it might complicate things… you know, let’s go up there but keep your face hidden for now. I don’t want to freak them out until we have to.”
Edward nodded. “To get to the one they’re in we’ll have to go the top of the stairs and knock on the last door on the right side.”
“Got it, come on, let’s go.”
They got up and went into the building. Natalie went to were Edward had said and looked at the door, 103. She couldn’t help but see the irony of them being in this room. “This is it right?” she asked.
“Yup, Alphonse is the only one up. He managed to convince the other Edward to go lay down. Seems he gets a headache whenever I’m seeing through his eyes.”
“So you’re not connected right now?”
“I don’t think so; I’m only seeing what I see with my own eyes.”
“Good…” she said as she knocked on the door. Natalie took a deep breath, she had knocked but she had no idea what she was going to say to Alphonse. Edward saw the look on her face and took down his hood, changing his mind about their plan. “What are you doing?!”
“I have an idea, let me handle this,” he said stepping up to the door and staying in front of Natalie.
A moment later the door opened and Alphonse was standing there. “Can I help…” his voice cut off the instant he saw Edward. “Who are you?” he asked his face going pale and looking like he might faint.
Edward took a deep breath. “Well let’s just say we’re friends of a Ms. Winry Rockbell…” he said as he took off his jacket to show Alphonse the symbol on the back. “We’ve come here from Resembool.”
Alphonse eyed him suspiciously. “Ed… you might want to come out here…” he called to his brother.
A moment later the other Edward was standing behind Alphonse looking over his shoulder. He instantly noticed the jacket and looked into his own eyes. “What the hell is going on here? Who are you and why do you have my face?”
Natalie put her hand on Edward’s shoulder. “Let me handle this one… it’s pretty simple actually but I think it would be best if we didn’t talk about it out here where anyone could hear us. You have my word though that we didn’t come here to hurt you.”
Alphonse looked back at the other Edward who nodded. The other Edward went and sat down at the table and Alphonse moved out of the way letting Natalie and Edward in then closing the door behind him.
The other Edward looked at them trying to figure this one out. “Sit down you two…” he said sternly. Natalie didn’t hesitate to do as he asked but Edward did. He was starting to feel light headed and it wasn’t like earlier when he was having the visions. Once he was able to clear his head he sat down as well.
“OK, first things first, who are you?” the other Edward asked.
Natalie took a deep breath and rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “Well my name is Natalie Simon and this is going to be a bit difficult to understand but his name is Edward Elric, same as yours. He’s actually another you, from an Amestris that is parallel to the one you and Alphonse came from.”
“How is that possible?” Alphonse asked.
“Simple actually, we’re dimensional travelers. I have a very unique gift that lets me go where I’d like no matter what world the place exists in. We actually just came from your Amestris. I’m sure you understand the possibility of other worlds existing and that in those worlds there could be people that look like other people you know. I know you saw that when you first came over to this side Edward. Hughs, Gracia, even that film maker that looked like Bradley…”
“How do you know about that?” the other Edward asked.
“I told you, we’re travelers from other worlds too. The fact that this Ed is sitting here, he’s real just like you are. Remember when you first saw this world Edward? Didn’t you see the world through a different Edward’s eyes until the zeppelin crashed and killed him? And the Alphonse that was originally from this world, you stayed with him until the trouble with the Nazis and wanting to destroy your world. Wasn’t it because of him that you were able to go back and see your own brother Alphonse again? You can’t tell me you don’t believe any of this is possible.”
“But how did you open the gate and come here? We destroyed it three years ago,” Alphonse said.
“We didn’t come through that way. Like I said, I have the ability on my own and Ed and I came here to get you two. Winry needs you guys, she’s alone there now.”
The look on the Edward’s face turned sad. “We can’t…”
“Why not? I can take you back, safe and sound. You don’t belong here, either of you and you have people back in Amestris that love you and miss you. Why won’t you go back?” Natalie insisted.
Even Alphonse looked at his brother. “She’s right Brother, if it’s safe why can’t we go back?”
He didn’t answer. Natalie saw the look in his eyes, she knew that look. It was guilt. She got up and went over to him. When he looked up at her, she punching him square in the jaw. “You idiot! Stop feeling like you can’t go back there because of what happened! Winry needs you and you have a chance to go back to her! Damn it! Stop making her cry you dumb ass!”
Alphonse and her Edward’s eyes both went wide. He leaned over to Alphonse. “Scary when she’s mad isn’t she?” he said with a laugh.
Alphonse nodded. “Just like Winry… no wonder you two get along so well.”
They let Natalie and the other Edward hash this out and talked a bit. Edward was actually thankful to be able to talk to Alphonse again even if it wasn’t exactly his little brother.
The other Edward got up and got into Natalie’s face. He was taller than her but she didn’t back away from him, didn’t even give him an inch. “Damn it! What did you do that for?!” he exclaimed rubbing his jaw where she’d clocked him.
“Someone had to you stubborn ass. What’s so important here that you can’t leave it and go home? Tell me that Edward Elric.” Natalie stared intensely into his eyes.
He couldn’t help but notice the look in her crimson eyes looked a lot like Scar’s had once upon a time when he’d seen him in Lior and he’d been determined to sacrifice the lives of all of them to create the stone. It frightened him a little but he wasn’t going to let that on to her. He couldn’t come up with an answer though because she had been right, he didn’t want to go back because he felt guilty for leaving Winry again.
Alphonse went over to his brother. “Brother, I think we should believe them. They took a big risk coming here I mean look…” he pointed at Edward. “He came here knowing full well that you were here and that something bad might happen to him… and he trusts this girl completely so… well if another version of you trusts in her, why shouldn’t we?”
“But how do we know he’s really another version of me?”
Edward took a deep breath getting frustrated. Now he knew how everyone else must have felt dealing with him all the time. “Look, I’ll show you something…” He lifted up his pants leg to show him his automail leg. “Look at the work… first you of all people should know you can’t get anything like this here and second you should recognize the workmanship…”
The other Edward lifted up his pants leg and compared the two. They were nearly identical. “Winry…”
Edward nodded. “Yeah, Winry made mine too and your Winry just fixed it for me. I know we can be stubborn assholes but come on Ed… this is even too much for me to take…”
Natalie and Alphonse looked at each other. Neither one could believe that had just come out of Edward’s mouth. It was almost as epic as him admitting he was short.
The other Edward sighed heavily. “Damn it.”
“Come on, I can tell you don’t…” he paused mid sentence and closed his eyes. All of the sudden he didn’t feel right.
“Ed? Ed, everything OK?” Natalie said going over to him. She had no sooner gotten there than he collapsed into her. “Ed!”
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