Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or Blue Exorscist.

•••

As Yukio explained Rins' orgins, Ed mostly tuned him out. The young alchemist was more focused on the insane display of power he had seen. Originally, Ed had thought that this world without alchemy was weaker than his own.

He thought differently now. He slowly clenched his automail fist. The metal was somewhat dinged up, but it was all superficial damage that he could easily repair with simple alchemy.

The future exorcists decided to go to a Smith to fix the sword, and were about to move out when Bon turned to him.

"Well?" He asked, abruptly. "What about you?"

They all sat or stood in a hospital room. Konahamaru lay on a bed, his injured arm in a cast. At Bons words, they all turned to him.

"What are you talking about?" Ed replied.

"That weird thing you did, with the lightning and moving the ground!" Shima supplied.

"And all that crazy talk afterwards," Bon hissed.

Ed stood. He had been leaning against the wall from the floor, but now he needed every inch of his small stature.

"It's called Alchemy," he supplied. "I'm a State Alchemist as I said before. And as a member of the military, I am not allowed to disclose vital information."

"Dude," Shima made a face. "You're like, 14. You're not allowed to be in the military yet."

"I am where I'm from," Ed glared at him. "And I'm 17."

Yukio interrupted. "Whatever you do and whoever you are, you need to tell us the truth. Ms. Shura told me all about what you were saying as we were leaving the testing grounds. Don't lie."

Ed threw up his hands. "I'm not lying! And I've met the Truth, he's a real b*****d."

Ed tried to exit the room, but Bon stopped him. "There's something weird about you and we all know it. You'd better tell us before we turn you over to the Vatican."

Ed clapped and knelt, pressing his hands to the floor. Bands of what once was wood sprouted and bound Bons slippers to the floor.

"Nothing I've said in this room is a lie," Ed spat. "And I don't take kindly to people threatening me. I suggest you back off."

Yukio stood and blocked Eds way. "Please just tell us. There's something off about you."

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I did tell you," he replied quietly. "Anyway, I want to get off this stupid planet already."

There was a long pause.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Someone asked.

Ed shrugged Yukio off and shot them a glare. "Exactly what it sounds like. Now, let me go and nobody gets hurt."

The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Shiemi stood. The loud screeching sound as she pushed back the legs of her chair drew all eyes to her. "I want to thank you for helping us in the forest, and everything else before that."

Ed nodded.

"If there's something you're looking for, maybe we can help," she stepped towards him. "We do owe you that much."

He gritted his teeth. "YOU don't owe me anything. The only reason I was helping you out was because I was there and I owed YOU. That debt has been repaid, and I have to find some way to-"

Ed cut himself off abruptly. "Fine."

Shiemi's face lit up. "Really?!"

"But nobody asks any questions," Ed shot Bon and Yukio glares. "If I want to tell you something, I will."

"Allright," Yukio stepped back. "We won't pry."

"But-!" Bon exclaimed.

Ed opened the door and left, slamming it behind him.

"Wait!" Bon called after him. "I'm still stuck!"

•••

The group walked out of the door and into a totally new place. Ed stiffened instinctively.

"This is like teleportation," he muttered darkly.

"Have you ever teleported before?" Shiemi asked.

"Twice, no, three times now." Ed rubbed his arms. "And neither were very pleasant. Then again, it was by stripping down my molecules and atoms and rebuilding me from the ground up, so..."

"Oh," Shiemi tried not to think about how that would feel. "What's your home world like?"

Up ahead, the conversation lulled.  They were not so subtly listening in on what the two behind them were saying.

"Well, it's not as advanced as this one," Ed pulled his hands out of his pockets, gesturing. He continued. "To be honest, I don't even speak your language.

"We mostly move long distances on trains, and while we do have automobiles, They're nowhere near the type you have. We're almost always fighting, too; Amestres is a militaristic nation, and all the power lies with the Furor."

Ed found himself talking more and more to this girl. He told her about Alchemy and Fort Briggs, people he knew and had fought and wanted to fight (curse you, Mustang!!) And food and prosthesis and Winry and Al.

Shiemi seemed really interested in automail.

"That sounds so cool! We haven't even made any sort of prosthesis that can move at all!"

Ed place his hand on his right arm out of habit. "Good for fighting, too."

"Your arm is metal, isn't it," Bon abruptly interrupted.

Ed glared at him. "Maybe."

"C-can I see it?" Shiemi asked hesitatingly.

Ed considered. "Sure."

It wouldn't hurt, and it wasn't like he would be around for much longer. He pulled up his right sleeve a little and showed her his hand and about two inches of his arm.

"So cool," Shiemi poked it softly. It really was solid metal.

••••

The trip to the Smith had ended with another errand, weird statues that talked, and some temple nails. (Like you could call nails hammered into a temple wall any other thing.)

The smith, Yoshikuni, hammered the metal of the blade and the nails together. Ed watched, sweating slightly from the heat, as she struck again and again.

It made him think of Winry. Did she smith the pieces she used in his automail, or did she special order them?

He could almost imagine her, bent over an anvil as she took careful, measured strokes, beating the metal into shape.

Something to replace a piece of his arm he'd wrecked in a fight.

It made him homesick.

"There," the smith declared happily, dipping the sword into a huge tub of water. "It's done."

Yukio bowed as a thanks, and the group engaged in idle chat as the sword cooled. Ed was lost in thought.

The sword had been missing pieces, right?

•••

As they walked back to the house they'd come out of, Ed was totally silent, thinking hard.

He couldn't take the kid with him, but there had been pieces missing from that sword, right? Ones they replaced with the temple nails...

But just because it was missing, it didn't mean it was gone.

They climbed into the sedgeway and an idea struck him. Now that the sword was fixed and they no longer needed the pieces....

He sidled closer to the blonde girl.

"Hey, Shiemi," Ed muttered. "Could you meet me in the forest tonight? Around where your campsite was?"

She looked at him oddly. "I'll try."

"Thanks," Ed shot a glance at the group. They weren't paying him any attention. "And come alone."

•••

They searched through the scorched forest, sifting through the ashes of what had once been a beautiful, green forest.

Ed tried to remember that night, how it had appeared, the angle and trajectory.

He felt almost pulled to one specific area, like his gut was trying to tell him something. He told Shiemi to keep an eye out and scanned the underbrush with a ferocious gaze.

It would be getting dark soon. If it was hard to find in the day, then it would be impossible at night. Ed glared at the sunset and willed himself to look harder.

It wasn't him who spotted anything, though.

"I found something!" Shiemi called.

Ed ran over. She was kneeling in the dirt, holding a small, flinty piece of something that shined.

It was a miniscule fragment of the sword Rin held.

Ed took it from her, holding it gently, like a baby bird it something porcelain. "I think this is it!"

As if to cement his exclamation, the temperature suddenly dropped. Shiemi pulled back in fear as a huge gray eye opened up under Eds feet.

"Looks like it's time for me to go," Ed remarked. "Thank you for all your help, Shiemi."

He smiled at her. "It's been fun knowing you. Thank you for everything."

And then he was pulled apart by little black hands and the eye closed, taking him with it.

Shiemi stared at what once was a red coated teenager, but what was now simply leaf mulch and dirt.

"What?" She asked shakily.

•••

Bonus

Bon pried at the bands over his feet, but he wasn't in a very good position to start with, and would have fallen over of he pulled too hard.

Konekomaru looked over at him, trying to fight down the urge to laugh.

"Maybe you should take off the shoes," he suggested, mirth coloring his voice.

Bon hissed but slid his feet out of the house slippers. It took a lot of squishing and pulling, but he managed.

The shoes however, are stuck in their bonds to this day.

(Somebody called a construction worker or something after the shoes had tripped someone for the last time. They replaced the whole floor, which was actually pretty pricey.

Some people swore they heard an ethereal, demonic laugh as they were struggling with the wooden loops.

But that, of course, was just their imagination.

Right?)