Mystic Design

Chapter 2

Leah's POV

"Why are you following us?" Ed was easily annoyed.

I sighed, "Are you deaf? I have been assigned to assist you." I followed closely behind Al, so far he was my favorite.

"But, I have told you! We don't need a babysitter-"

"Where are we going?" Ed's fury multiplied as I interrupted him. A smirk played on my lips, he was fun to make mad.

"We need to find our friend, Winry. She got mad at Ed because he cheated at an automail arm wrestling match." We all stopped walking as Ed turned to glare at Al.

"Oh wow Ed, not only are you rude but a cheater to?" My grin grew, going from ear to ear. Ed's gold daggers fell on me.

"I saved people from being conned! They were cheating first, with alchemy, so my cheat doesn't even count!" He was about to reach a boiling point. Can I and should I push him?

Gold daggers were met with purple as a silent were waged between me and Edward.

"Come on you two. No more fighting." Al stepped between us both. He may have stopped the battle but the war was far from over. "She is only following orders brother. We should respect that and try to get along." His words caused me to smile.

I clapped my hands together giggling, "Thank you Al!" I put a hand on his upper arm and slapped the metal a couple of times. "My new best buddy!" I regretted hitting the metal, my hand retreated stinging. I shook my hand and giggled once more and walked next to the suit of armor. Al and I led the way up and down the streets looking for Winry, as a sulking Ed followed behind.

All night...

We searched all night and still did not find Winry.

The sunrise did little to warm me, despite laying my arms across the top of the bench. My blonde hair wisped around my face as the breeze picked up. Ed sat to the left of me and Al sat to the right of me, both a bit down in spirits. I could understand why, they had no idea where Winry is. They were most definitely worried.

My eyes darted to Ed's hand. It was made of metal...I just realized that. I felt sort of slow, but oh well. Curiosity pricked me, I wanted to ask him how he lost his arm but I did not want to be rude. My sensitive side won.

"Jeez, where could she be?" Ed's whine ringed in my ears.

"I hope she is alright." It was difficult to tell Al's emotions, but it was not hard to tell he was upset.

Huffing a sigh, I stood up and brushed off my poncho. "Come on you two, your depression is contagious. Sitting here won't solve anything. It is morning now so she is probably searching for you."

Optimism is just as contagious as pessimism. They seemed to brighten up to my words.

"You are right, let's go look." Al stood up beside me and turned to his brother. "Come on brother."

"Yeah, yeah." A warm smile played on my lips. They did not need a whole lot to cheer up.

Winry made our job easy. After a few minutes of searching she found us. The bright blonde ran up to us with a tan girl beside her. Winry's big blue eyes darted towards me and stayed there.

Before she had a chance to say anything Ed said, "Where have you been?" The annoyed alchemist glowered at her.

"Sorry for going off the handle yesterday." Winry clapped her hands together in a pleading gesture and smiled.

"Oh, you were the girl from the wrestling match yesterday." Al's echoic voice was filled with surprise.

"Sup?" I looked at the girl closely, analyzing. She had an automail arm much like Ed's. Her camo pants covered her legs so I was not able to tell if those were automail or not as well.

"Her name is Paninya, she let me stay at her house last night."

"That's a relief to hear. We were worried you slept outside." Al was very kind.

"Ed could I please see your watch for a second?" I thought for sure Ed would say no but instead the young blonde grumbled and took out his watch. In a quick second it was snatched away by Paninya, the chain breaking as she ran with it.

Before anyone had a chance to react, she swiftly jumped onto a nearby roof, using carts and boxes as her leverage. Turning to face us all she held up the gleaming watch, "Thank you very much." that stirred Ed into action.

Before he could leap after her, Winry yelled getting his attention. "It is a test Ed. If you can make catch her before she makes it to the pawn shop you can have your precious watch back."

"Winry!" Ed had no time to give her a huge rant. Paninya began to run across the roof and Ed leapt after her.

I glanced back at Winry who was staring after Ed. "He needs to learn to appreciate good automail." My respect for this stranger grew, I could tell she deeply cared for this boy. I liked her a lot just from this performance, what I liked most about her was that she knew how to infuriate Ed.

A smirk played on my lips as I recalled Ed's shocked face as Paninya snatched his watch. My blissful moment of recalling the memory was soon over as a big explosion was set off not too far from here. Looking up I could see a big cloud of smoke that told me where the two were. Before Al or Winry could say a thing, I set off running down the street.

When I could find good enough leverage, I made my way onto of a roof top. Jumping from one roof to the next I scanned the scenery for them both. "Damnitt, I don't want to fail in protecting the little guy, but..." How I would love to see his face as his watch got pawned off. I could easily tell that this boy was going to be a lot more trouble than I had originally thought.

My eyes found their target and I jumped into action. As I finally reached the roof, Ed snatched the pocket watch from Paninya. I could hear his triumphant laugh from where I stood. "Good job Ed, you can handle yourself better than I thought." My praise came too soon as I noticed Paninya losing her balance. Before I could leap into action she fell backwards, her scream echoing.

Launching myself forward I was prepared to leap down off the roof to help her. Ed's next action stopped me dead in my tracks. He clapped his hands and pressed them down onto the roof. I could hear the transmutation and several grunts. A giant hand came out from the building and held Paninya up, halting her fall. Ed had saved Paninya, but I could not bring myself to smile.

I stared dumbfounded at the boys back. I now knew why he had an automail arm and why his brother had to wear that suit of armor. They had attempted the taboo, and made sacrifices of their own bodies. Ed had seen the Truth.