The Frost Alchemist

Chapter 10: Negotiations

I stood in front of the entire Elric family, I had already proposed what Sara and Maes wanted to do and Trisha said she wanted to join too. "I'm not going to let my kids go with you," Edward said.

"You don't have a choice," Maes said. "We're old enough to make our own decisions, you went off when you were younger than us."

"And she shouldn't be going out there alone, you had Uncle Al, she'll be better off with another alchemist and a mechanic with her," Sara continued.

"Let's not forget me, alkahestry is sometimes more useful than alchemy and I'm the only kid who has mastered it," Trisha added.

"Seems like they made up their minds," May said. Edward seemed to be the only one who strongly opposed it, everyone else seemed to agree with the logic of our idea.

"Sara, I'll give you my tool kit, you'll need it with her," Winry said to her daughter and Edward looked appalled that Winry agreed with us.

"I'm not-" Edward began.

"Brother, we won't be able to stop them," Al interrupted before Edward could even begin to argue again. "Winry and Mustang could never stop us, what makes you think we could stop our kids?"

"Fine, good point. But Mustang won't let you investigate, he took you off," Edward conceded, but still argued.

"And you always listened to every order given to you?" I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest, already knowing the answer.

"This is different," he replied.

"How? Because I'm a girl? Because right now that's the only difference I see between us. I'm stronger than you were Edward, I've trained harder and longer. I couldn't care less about getting my body back to the way it was. So what the hell is the difference between us?" I asked with my hands on my hips. He opened his mouth to argue and then shut it again. "Edward, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weak. You should know that; look at who you married, your sister-in-law, Oliver, Riza, Maria Ross, your niece, your own daughter.

"I'm going after the man who killed Alexis, I need to do this Edward. You have to understand that," I stated.

"Revenge is never good, Levy. I wanted revenge on Scar and I would have done anything to do it, but I had to push my feelings aside for the good of everyone else. Mustang almost went insane when he found out who killed Hughes, Riza almost had to shoot him to get him to stop. Revenge is not good for you and it won't solve anything, it won't bring her back," Edward explained like I didn't know anything.

"You think I don't know that? Do you think I don't know getting revenge won't bring her back? But this is the only thing I can do," I replied.

"You can move on and live for her," he said, at this point he'd say anything for me to stop my "foolish" mission.

"But I'm already doing that, don't you remember? My sister? My mother? I'm living for them, I can't add another person to that list, so please don't make me. I need to do it Edward, he needs to pay for what he did, I'm not going to kill him or anything, but he needs to be brought to justice," I argued.

"Brother, you can't argue with her. No one would've been able to stop you and no one can stop her, she can make her own decisions," Al said trying to negotiate.

"She's so young," Edward said quietly.

"But older than you when you became a State Alchemist and she's been through just as much if not more than you did. When your mom died you had Al and me and Granny, but she had her sister who she had to take care of all on her own. And then her sister died, what would you have done if Al died that night you tried to bring your mom back? I can tell you, you wouldn't be as strong as she is now.

"I say let her go for it. You learned so much from the many, many, many mistakes you made, so she made one. She learned from it and won't make the same mistake again like you did sometimes. And now Maes, Sara, and Trisha will be with her. They're going to be fine," Winry argued. "They're smart kids, they're our kids."

"Fine," Edward grumbled. I walked over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders. 

"We're going to be okay, you'll see," I replied and gave him my best smile. 

"You have to check in once every week," he said.

"Every two at the most, we might not always be near a phone or a place we could send a letter," I countered.

"Fine, two, a phone call is preferred," he said.

"We'll call when we can," I replied.

"Leaving? Isn't the man here?" May asked.

"If he's smart, which he is, he would have left town by now," I explained, which means we're going to have to try to find him.

"Which means traveling," Sara said happily and her and Trisha high-fived, even Maes seemed happy about that prospect.

"The three of you should pack," May said.

"Pack light, it makes running away easier," Al recommended.

"Put all charges on Levy's account, Mustang will take care of it," Edward added.

"Now, go," Winry said and the three of them ran out.

"So how do you plan on tracking him down?" Edward asked.

"Listen for word of him, even the slightest, but in the mean time go where Mustang sends me," I replied. "like a good soldier does."

"If you can't get a hold of us, just contact a branch of the military, we'll get the message," Ed said.

"Kinda figured that'd be my alternate route," I replied. "And don't worry I'll take care of them, if I think it becomes too dangerous, I'll send them home. I'm not going to have more blood on my hands."