FicWad

Warped Mirrors
mirror Three





Edward sprawled out on the grass, taking deep breaths of the clean air and never being so grateful to see dawn in all of his life. The sky was clear, with some rose-tinted clouds rolling gently on the horizon. They were somewhere on the side of the mountain, and really, he didn't care where they had ended up. They were out of that wretched mineshaft-turned-crypt and that was all that mattered.

It had taken them a long time to get out. Transmuting through the stone was time-consuming. At least they never had to actually stop ... one of them would lead for a while, the they'd switch positions to let someone else take over the primary transmuting for a while.

That had been interesting. There was next to no maneuvering room in their escape tunnel, so Edward had been stepped several times, kicked in the head by one of the armor-bound Elrics (he had no idea who, and really he didn't want to know), and managed to get his face into Alphonse's crotch.

Of course, the others had faired just as poorly. Edana had punched Alphonse in the face because at some point in climbing over the other two he accidentally groped her. Edward wasn't quite sure how Alphonse had managed to grope her, but really he didn't want to know.

Edward closed his eyes. They were out of the mine shaft. They were out of their escape tunnel. They were free. Even laying out in the open like this, Edward could still feel some cloying claustrophobia tugging at the edges of his consciousness. He had managed to push that aside before, but now that they were free it seemed ridiculous to let it have power over him now.

"'Niisan? Are you all right?" Alphonse ... his Alphonse ... loomed over him. Edward opened his eyes, staring up at the armor that remained so emotionless and yet still managed to convey so much emotion.

"I'm fine, Al," he said. "That was just a close call, closer than most-" As he was speaking, Edward stretched his arms and lolled to the left as he did so. There he solidly cracked heads with Edana, who was doing the exact same thing, only in the opposite direction. "OW! DAMMIT!"

Edana rolled away, clutching her head between her arms and swearing right back at him colorfully.

The other Alphonse was less than a few arm lengths away from Edana. He sat up and rolled his eyes at them both. Then he turned his gaze to the suits of armor. He glanced from one to the other, then frowned. "There's no way to tell who is who," he said.

"What?!" Alanza sounded indignant. She was seated not far from where Alphonse was. "I don't look a thing like those two!"

The other two sets of armor glanced at each other, and then at Alanza. All three suits of armor were identical, down to the color of the apron. "But..." Edward started to say, then stopped and shook his head.

"Okay, so there's one way to tell who is who," Alphonse corrected himself dryly. "But, there's no way visually to distinguish each one of you from the other."

Edward's Alphonse shrugged. "What does it matter?"

Alphonse frowned at the armor-bound version of himself. "Doesn't it bother you that you could be easily mistaken for someone else?"
Edward laughed from behind Alphonse. "Al, you need to understand something. After being stuck like this," Edward rapped his chest, the hollow sound unmistakable, "for so long, it's actually a change to have someone to be confused with."

"Do we have to worry about this right this instant?" Edward asked, his head now throbbing at twice the speed it was before. Out of curiosity, he ran his fingers over the goose-egg he had gotten before ... it had gone down in size, but cracking heads with Edana had given him a new lump to worry about.

"I want a shower," Edana announced, wriggling in the grass a bit. She lifted her right arm in the air and twisted it around a few times, before frowning and sitting up.

"What's wrong, 'neesan?" Alanza asked.

Edana had shrugged off her red coat, leaving it in a puddle around her in the grass. "There's something off," she said, rotating her arm experimentally.

Edward propped himself up on his elbows, now curious. It hadn't occurred to him that the female version of himself would have automail, though it made sense. He just hadn't thought about it ... he glanced over at Alphonse, realizing that the flesh version of his little brother was undoubtedly similarly scarred. Edana was rolling up the arm of her black jacket to frown at her automail when she noticed Edward staring in her direction. "What?"

"What?" Edward responded, jerking guiltily.

"Why are you staring at me? Are you some kind of pervert?"

Edward flushed angrily at the accusation. "I am NOT a pervert," he snarled at her, crossing his arms and flopping back down. "Stupid..." he muttered, deciding that the sky was more interesting than the actions of his skewed doubles.

The other Alphonse rolled his eyes again. "I think I know where we are," he said, making an attempt to steer the course of the conversation away from any confrontation. "We're on the side of the mineshaft we went in on, which means we can't be too far from the main road."

"We could probably make it back to Resembool before lunch, then," Alanza said. "It would also be the easiest way to find out whose world we're in."

Now there was a thought that hadn't yet occurred to Edward. There was an extraordinarily strong chance that they weren't in their own world anymore. He and Alphonse could just as easily have woken up in Edana's world, or the other Alphonse's.

It was a terrifying notion.

"We should head back to Resembool," the other Edward said, standing up and clanking nosily as he did so. "It's a good idea. Winry and Pinako-barchan's would be the safest place for us to figure out our next course of action."

Edana sat up. "...Winry?" she repeated distractedly, before a light clicked over in her head and she snickered. "OH."

"What?" Edward's Alphonse asked.

Edana waved her hand for a second while she regained her composure. "Sorry. It makes sense and all, since everything is reversed for you guys. I guess your Winry is our Winston."

"...Winston?" Edward repeated, then snorted himself. Trying to imagine Winry as the opposite gender just... didn't work.

"We call him Winnie," Alanza supplied helpfully. "He used to like it a lot, but now anymore he thinks it's undignified."

"So I call him Winnie all the more frequently," Edana snickered.

"Well, whoever we end up seeing, they can undoubtedly fine-tune Edana's automail," the flesh-and-blood Alphonse said. He got slowly to his feet, then stretched his arms over his head. The wind caught the hem of his long red coat and played with it, tugging it towards the morning horizon. "Let's get moving, before we burn anymore daylight."

Edward bounded to his feet, scowling at Alphonse. "Who said you were in charge, Al?" He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black slacks, glaring at the facsimile of his younger brother.

Alphonse shrugged. "Didn't seem like anyone had taken charge-" he started to say, when Edana clambered to her feet, her coat in one hand. She glowered at both Edward and Alphonse. "Who died and said that either of you took lead?"

Alphonse stepped into the slowly closing triangle of glares, desperately trying to play peacemaker. "NO ONE'S in charge yet," the suit of armor soothed. "We all know where we're going, so let's just get there in one piece. When we find out whose world we're in, then whoever is native is in charge."

"That sounds fair to me," Alanza said. Edana grumbled something under her breath and turned away, tugging on her red jacket with the Flamel clearly visible on the back. "'Neesan, stop stomping around. You're tired, anyway."

Oh, this was going to be a long trip.



End mirror Three