Author's notes-So this is the last chapter, its been a lot of fun to write and I hope everyone enjoyed it. Also by the way for those inquiring, the reason Ed can use Alkehestry is because it's not the same as Alchemy. At the end of Brotherhood they said he gave up his alchemy, but that didn't mean he couldn't learn alkehestry. And when they met Father for the first time their alchemy didn't work but alkehestry did. So that was the logic I was going with. Sorry if I made it confusing, that's also why he's such a clutz with it too.

Chapter Twenty-

The same voice that had recently been heard over the loudspeaker echoed off the walls, filling the silence with an unamused tone.

"Should have known you wouldn't cooperate." The man walked into the room, hands behind his back and a displeased look on his face. Ed narrowed his gaze when he realized it was the same guy they had been dealing with from the start. The man from Amestris.

"Well considering you're trying to sell us off, of course we're not going to cooperate with you."

"You just don't understand how important you. The two of you are the only link to the lost civilization of Xerses."

"We're not immortal though, and certainly not for anyone to make money off of." The older brother was obviously not going to go quietly as always. Especially when he had been set up like this for someone else's gain.

"It really doesn't matter what you have to say about any of this." The man gestured to his guards and they started to move in. Ed moved quickly, swinging his leg around and kicking the one directly behind him in the face. Alphonse ducked down, cupping his hands together.

"Ed!" Without having to say anything else, Edward turned and ran over, placing his foot in Al's hands. Alphonse hoisted him through the air and he landed hard on the two guards moving in on Mae. Despite how overpowered they were, they weren't about to go without a fight. Another guard went flying through the air as Darius started attacking anyone that came too close. Mae moved quickly, setting up her blades on the floor. The ground started glowing and suddenly shifted around them, knocking guards out left and right. One of the men managed to grab onto Al, yanking him up roughly. Letting out a gasp, he lifted his legs up before bringing them down fast, tossing the larger man overheard. Just as they were beginning to make some head way, more men entered the room, these ones were armed with swords.

"You see, there's no reason to fight. I have an army at my disposal. Besides, you're not helping anyone else out keeping immortality to yourself." Edward straightened some, still breathing hard and whipped the sweat out of his eyes.

"We're not immortal. I don't get why you think that but we're not."

"Well we didn't exactly have a lot of time with you but from the information we gathered from your brother, you both have very high immune factors in your blood which could ultimately cure several diseases in this country. Don't you think you're being selfish knowing that?"

"And you're not being selfish? Save the world or whatever you want to call it just so you can justify making a small profit from it. And you didn't ask us if we wanted to help anyone, you took us against our will. Somehow I seriously think you're motives aren't as pure as you claim them to be." Edward never did have a hard time expressing how he felt about these situations. Despite how heated he was becoming, the other man simply shook his head.

"As I said before, you're opinion is irrelevant in this situation. Even if you managed to get past my guards and get away from here, do you really think we'll leave you alone?"

"Then I guess we'd better make sure that you're not capable of following us," Darius threatened. Ed had forgotten how ruthless the two chimeras could be. Although he didn't see any solution to this problem, he didn't want anyone to get killed. Alphonse and he had been backed into a corner though. If they were able to excape what kind of life would they have? They would always be looking over their shoulder, wondering if this guy and his small army were closing in. Coming away from his thoughts, he realized that they might not even be able to get away as things were. By this point there had to be at least thirty men in the room against the six of them. There were just too many to fight off now.

"Well I think I've seen enough." It was the first time the stranger they'd picked up in the alley had said anything. He pulled his mask off and let out a sigh.

"L..Ling?" Ed was dumbfounded. "What are you doing here?" The emperor slouched at the blunt statement.

"Oh come on, can't I get a smallest amount of respect from you? I did come all this way to rescue you."

"But I thought you made it clear you weren't getting involved with this."

"Well I'm not suppose to actually." By this point Ed wanted to fall over, confused at what was going on. The other man from Amestris rubbed his chin also seeming confused with Ling's presence.

"So then why are you getting involved. I thought our agreement was clear." The statement practically caused Ed's blood to boil.

"You mean you did know about this? And you weren't going to do anything about it?" Mae let out a faint noise, trying not to get upset but her vision was already blurry with angry tears.

"I know it! You were okay with them taking Alphonse this whole time, weren't you?" She pointed an accusing finger at him. Al sighed heavily to himself.

"I'm sure it wasn't anything like that, you two," He mentioned but no one was listening tothe younger Elric. Ling placed his hands up defensively.

"Guys, I promise I had nothing against Al." The emperor glanced over at the other Amestrian in the room. "Mr. Cunningham over there threatened that if I did anything,that he would advise the leadership of Amestris to start a war with Xing." Ed arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"So you believe anyone from our country that threatens war? He doesn't even have any power."

"Yes he does and do you really think that I would just believe anyone? He works for your current Furer and the last one. You would know something like that if you haven't retired." Ling made it a point to match Ed's annoyed tone.

"Oh now it's my fault?"

"Well you came all this way and look where it got you? You ended up getting caught too."

"Because you didn't offer any help, that's why!" Edward let out an exasperated breath. It seemed that they had reached whatever quiet understanding and there was no point speaking of the matter any more. The silence was then broken by the master mind of this entire mess as he cleared his throat.

"Even with the emperor's presence here, it doesn't change anything." Ling glared at the man before shouting out an order in his own language. Every guard turned away from the intruders and seemed to corner Cunningham.

"We'll see how much you like being locked up," Ling couldn't help but smirk to himself.

"You mean you could have done that at any point," Ed grumbled under his breath. He was starting to realize that this entire situation was making him feel worn out.

"If you want, I could just let him go and see how long it is before he's after you again." Alphonse decided he needed to intervene before Edward said something stupid back.

"That's okay, you can keep him for as long as you want."

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

"Yah know we should have figured that the guy in black had something to do with all this," Darius mused as they walked down the back alley.

"Well he knew quite a bit for someone who just happened to show up at the right moment," Heinkel commented as well. Ling glanced back at them, disapprovingly. "And why'd you wait so long to get involved anyway? If you knew what was going on back when Al got captured why not help Mae out."

"I already explained it, I was being blackmailed."

"And I still say that you should have called his bluff. You really think the leader of our country is dumb enough to wage war on another country for no reason," Ed brought up.

"Well your last leader liked war, so who was I to question it. Besides, you two can take care of yourselves right?" Ed laughed at the observation.

"If Al get's caught then there's not much hope for me." Edward glanced back at his younger brother to notice he seemed awfully quiet even with Mae by his side. "Al, you okay?" He brought his eyes up as though thinking about the question.

"I just want a hot bath and something to eat." Mae wrapped her arms around his and moved in closer to him.

"I'll make you whatever you want, Alphonse." Mae looked over at Ed.

"So are you gonna keep practicing Alkehestry, Edward?" He slumped his shoulders just thinking about it.

"I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I don't think I'm very good at it. I'll stick to being boring." He sighed in response realizing that since things were more normal now, he wanted to head back home. He hadn't seen Winry in several months and watching Al with Mae reminded him how much he missed her. If Mae and the others hadn't found them, he might have never seen her again. Then again there had been several moments recently that he thought he wasn't going to see Al again in a deep breath, he slowed his pace letting Al and Mae pass him. Al noticed and turned back.

"Brother, you coming?"

"Yeah." Without another thought about how his entire world was almost completely destroyed, he moved forward to catch up.

The End Author's notes-hope everyone liked it, I'd love some final reviews if anyone wants to take the time to write one. :)