Alphonse and the other Edward took him into their room to lie down. When they came back out Natalie rushed over to them. “How is he?”
Alphonse sighed. “He’s resting. What happened?”
Natalie took a deep breath. “I was afraid something like this might happen. He’s been in the same space with you,” she said looking at the other Edward, “too long. If we don’t do something soon he may vanish.”
Edward looked at her. “Vanish?”
“Yeah, it’s something that can happen when two of the same people are in the same space for too long. It’s sort of like a cosmic reconciling and since you’re the one most likely to be the one that belongs here it’s trying to reconcile him into you. We can’t let that happen…”
“What do we do about it though?” Alphonse asked.
“There’s only one thing I can do, get him away from you guys but there’s only two ways that can happen. Either you guys come with us back to Resembool now and then we leave from there as quickly as possible or we just leave, leaving you guys here. I really don’t want the latter though considering Ed risked himself to come here and help me find you two. It was because of him that I was even able to. Remember those headaches you were getting earlier Edward?”
He nodded. “Yeah but what’s that got to do with anything and how did you know about that?”
“Well that was Ed seeing through your eyes. That’s how we were able to follow you and find you here. For him it was like when you first came to this world Edward, when you were in the body of the Edward that belonged to this world. Remember how it felt being in that body that didn’t belong to you, that’s how it felt for Ed but he could do it from his own body because it was here too instead of just his soul being here.”
Edward closed his eyes shaking his head. “This is heavy stuff. I don’t want anything to happen to him but…”
“Damn it Edward! Not this again! Do I have to slug you again?”
“No! No, it’s just…”
Natalie shook her head. “Look Edward, I came from an alternate world of this one. This one is actually also the past to the world I came from and I’ll tell you something, nothing you do here will make any difference I can promise you that. If you go back you can at least make someone’s world a bit happier. Like I said before, Winry needs you and Alphonse too. She didn’t even get to say good-bye to you two before you left her, how fair is that?”
Edward and Alphonse both lowered their heads. They knew that Natalie had a point.
“Please you guys, let us help you set things right,” Natalie said softly. Hearing her own words she remembered that she never said good-bye to her own mom before coming on this journey, Amy and Katie too. After this maybe it would be good for her and Edward to go back to her world for a bit after this.
Edward looked to Alphonse who smiled and nodded to his brother. “Alright Natalie, we’ll go back with you.”
Natalie smiled. “Good, thank you. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to go as soon as I can get Ed back on his feet. I hope you understand.”
“That’s fine, there really aren’t any loose ends we have to deal with here anyway,” Edward replied.
“Alphonse, would you come with me to help me get Ed up? I have a feeling this might not be easy and I don’t think I should have both Edward’s that close together until I absolutely have to.”
Alphonse agrees and they went into the bedroom to get Edward. When they came in he was sleeping soundly, Natalie couldn’t help but to smile. Alphonse caught it. “You really care about him huh?”
“Yeah, seems everyone we meet notices,” she said with a chuckle.
“That’s a good thing. I’m actually glad he has someone like you. I know he’s not my brother but I can’t help but feel the same way about him as I do for Brother.”
“That’s understandable; he is your brother in a sense. Actually you and he are probably physically about the same age if I remember right. He may actually be younger.”
“Me older than Ed? Now that’s funny!” Alphonse said with a laugh.
Natalie couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Well he’s only 17…”
“Then he’s the same physical age as me though actually I’m 20. Those four years my body spent in the gate world were taken away when Brother saved me from there. I didn’t even get my memory of those years back until I came here with Brother three years ago. It’s all pretty confusing.”
Natalie just chuckled. “Yeah I can see how it would be.” She looked at Alphonse, “You know it’s actually thanks to you that he’s here with me at all, well his younger brother Alphonse. If he hadn’t pushed him he wouldn’t have come with me in the first place. His Winry wasn’t as patient as yours is and it nearly broke his heart completely when he lost her. His Alphonse pushed him to take a chance on me…”
“Both Eds are pretty stubborn and pig headed aren’t they?”
“Yeah they are,” she said looking over at him and smiling. That smile vanished quickly though because when she looked over it looked like she could see through Edward.
She rushed over and threw her arms around him, holding onto him tightly. The motion jolted him awake. “Hey! What was that for?” he asked confused.
Natalie didn’t say a word; she just continued to hold onto him for dear life, tears of panic running down her cheeks. Alphonse luckily had seen it too. “It looked like you were going to disappear…”
Edward’s eyes got wide and he held onto Natalie almost as tightly as she was holding onto him. He’d almost disappeared? He couldn’t do that, not now.
Alphonse walked over and put his hand on Edward’s shoulder. “I think we need to get you out of here as soon as possible. Brother and I have agreed to go back to Resembool with you guys and I think we should go get him and get out of here.”
Edward nodded. “I think you might right Alphonse…” he said, gently rubbing Natalie’s back trying to ease her panic. Alphonse took that as his cue to go get the other Edward.
Edward forced Natalie to let him go so he could look at her. “Come on Natalie, get it together. I’m fine, see I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere.”
“But I saw it, I could see right through you.”
“You can’t now though can you?” She shook her head. “Then see I’m fine now. Alphonse went to go get Ed and we’re going to leave. The sooner we them back the sooner we can move on too OK? Everything will be fine.”
“I was thinking of taking you to my world,” she said softly.
“I’d like that but first let’s make it through this alright? You ready to go?”
Natalie looked into his eyes and pulled him forward to kiss her. “Now I am,” she said with a smile.
Edward just chuckled and shook his head. “You’re hopeless.”
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