A/N: Warning, this story contains spoilers for the ending of Brotherhood. This story takes place a few months after the final battle.

Protector and the Powerless

The evening air had grown chilly, causing the two brothers to start to shiver. Ed held his arms together to keep himself warm. Looking at his watch, he could see it was nearly nine o'clock. The last train would leave in two hours, and judging by the map, they had at least five miles to go. Normally that wouldn't be an issue. Sure, his leg was starting to wear on him from walking so long, but that wasn't anything a good night's sleep on the train couldn't fix.

However, it wasn't his own body he was worried about.

He could hear his brother's breath growing weaker; Al's pace had grown slower the past couple hours, Ed having to slow his own steps to nearly a crawl so he wouldn't get ahead of Al. Ed knew that Al was keeping up the best he could, and that Al wouldn't admit that he needed to stop soon.

"Hey Al, what do you think about us stopping here for the night, we can head on back to central in the morning?" Ed suggested, thinking if it was his idea, Al wouldn't feel so guilty about needing the rest.

"Don't you think the colonel will be mad at us taking so long?"

"Nah, he won't care. We'll just say it took longer than we thought to get out of Western Command. Besides, the major is staying there for a few more days, so it doesn't really matter."

"I can keep going though," Al said running to catch up to Ed who had gotten a few yards ahead without realizing it. But Ed could see the exhaustion in Al's body, his chest rapidly expanding and contracting taking in the oxygen he needed just to walk.

"Come on Al, you just got your body back three months ago. I can't fix it with alchemy if it breaks again either."

The exhaustion and the many aches of Al's body relished in Ed's suggestion for rest. He had regained some of his strength in the past months, but it took quite a bit to get used to not having a body of armor that never grew tired or needed rest. Pain wasn't a pleasant experience, but it told him he was alive. More than a soul in a body, now he was alive in flesh and blood. "All right," he said, imagining the warmth of a bed taking him into the wonderful world of sleep. He never thought sleep would be something he'd welcome back so much, he'd gotten used to the lonely nights while he watched over Ed, still awake, but the natural cycle of rest and work filled him with joy now that he could experience it again. "So where's the inn in this town?"

It suddenly occurred to Ed that he hadn't taken everything into account. He pulled a map from his bag and stared at it, the dim light making it hard to read. "Give me a second…" Looking over the roads, he traced the path they had taken alongside the river, as they came into to the small town. The map had some markers of the region they were in, though not in great detail.

"Brother, there's a sign right there," Al said pointing up to a street corner that had signs pointing both to an inn along with some government buildings that at this time the brothers had no interest in.

"Right, let's go," Ed said putting his map away before taking off running, though stopped after a few seconds when he realized Al couldn't keep up, though he was trying to. "Sorry," he said.

"We're almost there at least," Al said with a gentle smile, that never blamed Ed for the pain.

…

Once the two of them made it to the inn, and Al restrained Ed when the innkeeper made a comment wondering how someone so small could be traveling without any parents, the two of them made their way upstairs to an empty room.

"Well, at least they didn't think you were the younger brother this time," Al said.

"Don't remind me," Ed said as laid down on the bed and kicked his shoes off. "And don't say anything about drinking my milk to grow taller."

"Don't worry," Al said, thinking back to those many times Ed would argue about that with many people who would tell Ed he needed to drink it to grow taller. "Besides, I think you've gotten taller since I got my body back."

"Really, you think so?"

"A little bit at least," Al said, enjoying how joyed Ed felt to hear that. While Al wasn't sure of it himself, he noticed himself growing, even just slightly, and thought that Ed must be too.

"Anyway, let's get some rest so we could try leaving early in the morning."

"All right, brother."

Even though Al's body was drained, and he could tell Ed had already fallen asleep, he had trouble sleeping. It seemed strange, he wanted to sleep, rest, but even after the months had passed, he wanted to keep watch over Ed, to make sure he could wake them should something happen and they had to run. While lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, he clapped his hands together, feeling the familiar forces of alchemy flowing through him. He knew that he didn't have anything to worry about. This was a quiet town, the uprisings had ended a while ago, and the fragments of war had died down. After quite a bit of time trying to get in a comfortable position he closed his eyes, letting himself fade away into his dreams.

…

When a person crosses from dreams into reality, they find themselves unable to tell the difference. The voices of reality are filtered through the imagination into something that any waking person would dismiss as illogical. But as Al rolled in his sleep, the voices from downstairs found their way into his dreams. A crashing sound coming from down stairs forced him back to reality.

Bolting up in his bed, he saw the clock said it was 4 in the morning. Looking across the room, he noticed Ed was still sleeping, so whatever the noise was hadn't awoken him. He thought about asking Ed if he heard anything, but didn't want to wake his brother now, not if this really wasn't anything, which it probably wasn't.

However, upon hearing some screams coming from somewhere not so far away, he couldn't just go back to sleep. Getting out of bed, Al slowly walked across the room, deciding to investigate what was going on, while being as quiet as he could as to not wake Ed. While Ed's body may have been stronger than his, he needed rest too, and Al knew how hard Ed could push himself sometimes.

Quietly opening and closing the door behind him, Al was overlooking the first floor the inn seeing several people there with swords and guns. An innkeeper, appeared to be trying to appease them, but Al was too far away to hear much. Still, he gritted his teeth, the inn keeper an old lady and one that didn't deserve to be hurt by these thugs. He thought about leaping down there, but wasn't sure his body could take that much of a fall. He wondered for a moment if he could really fight them in his condition. Sure, he had his alchemy, and in his old body he wouldn't have had a doubt in his mind that he'd win, but now?

He looked back to his room, thinking that it might be a good idea to wake Ed up to what was going on. Then maybe he could help stop these guys. Though beyond his automail leg, Ed was just a normal person, and these guys had weapons. Maybe they should just find a way to leave the inn before anything happened to them. But he'd hate to just run now, not when so many innocents were in danger here.

He wanted to fight.

He wanted to protect the weak.

Even if his body wouldn't let him.

He could walk now, without his walking stick. He could still transmute.

But to take on an enemy?

He saw the burglars split up, one of them running toward the stairs that led to the floor Al and Ed were staying on. So were they now going after the guests?

Al rushed back to the room, running inside and locking the door behind him. He couldn't let them hurt Ed, if that was the only one he could protect, that's what he'd choose. The lock wouldn't do much if they truly wanted in though. But it might give them some time. Al walked over to his bag, trying to find something he could transmute into a weapon. His clothes wouldn't be much good for that. He found some documents from Western command, and then uncovered an old metal sword sheaf they had been given for some kind of historic display in Central. While it wasn't the best thing to be transmuted into a weapon, it would give him something to fight with.

"Al, is that you?"

"Yeah. Don't worry brother, everything will be all right." As much as he wanted to reassure Ed, he knew he was the more nervous one right now.

They heard someone trying to open the door by jiggling the door knob, and when that didn't work, a heavy knock filled the room.

"What's going on?" Ed asked sitting up as he started to wake up.

"Some burglars have gotten into the hotel."

This finished waking Ed up; him quickly jumping out of bed.

"I locked the door, but I don't know if that will hold them." The knocking grew louder, more powerful. It sounded like someone had started kicking it too.

"Any idea what they're after?" Ed asked, to which Al just shook his head. With each knock and shaking of the door hinges, the brothers hoped these burglars would leave them alone, give up and find an easier target, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. Before they could come up with a plan of action, the door flew off its hinges landing a couple feet in front of Al.

"What do you want?" Al asked, trying not to be afraid, but couldn't ignore the fact that he was starting to shake.

"We heard that some state alchemist was here and has a philosopher's stone," the burglar said pointing his sword toward Al.

"A philosopher's stone?" Ed asked.

"You know anything about them?"

"You could say that," Ed started walking closer to them. "What I want to know is what a couple of low-lives like you want to do with them."

"Someone as small as you is calling me a low life?"

For once, Al didn't do anything to stop Ed's anger at being called short.

Ed leapt at the burglar, who tried to raise his sword to stop Ed. Ed spun, kicking with his auto-mail leg, knocking the sword away before punching the guy in the face sending him rolling along the ground.

The burglar spun on the ground, reaching for his weapon. "You're going to pay for that you little-"

Slamming his foot down on the burglar's back, Ed knocked the breath out of his foe. "Call me little one more time…"

Seeing he was beat, the burglar stopped resisting. However, Ed wasn't out of danger quite yet. "Brother, look out!" Al yelled, and Ed turned to the door seeing two other thieves, one with a gun pointing straight at Ed. Going on instinct forged from a thousand battles, Al clapped his hands together and then slammed them into the floor, the powers of alchemy tearing the floor apart to create a shield between Ed and the gunman, stopping the bullet that had been fired. However, using the material of the floor to create the shield had weakened the structure of the floor so much it couldn't handle all the weight on it, so it fell apart, sending the five of them plummeting downward.

The force of the impact through Al off his feet, and among the smoke and various debris, he stood, trying to see just what had happened. He hoped that no one was below them, and felt bad about all the damage he had caused. "Brother, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," Ed said getting up a couple feet away from Al. Ed appeared to be a bit bruised and was bleeding a little bit in a couple places, but didn't appear to be in much pain, much to Al's relief.

"That was alchemy, wasn't it?" the gunman said throwing a piece of wood off his back. "You must be the ones."

"No, you got it all wrong," Al said. "We don't have a philosopher's stone."

"You use alchemy without a transmutation circle, and expect us to believe that?"

Al didn't know how to respond. It would take too long to tell them about the portal of truth, even if that was something that he wanted to do. Not to mention no one would believe them after something like that.

"That's none of your business," Ed said standing forward. "Now I suggest you get out of here before I show you our true power."

"Ed?" Al asked, knowing neither of them had any big secret to threaten these guys with. But with a soft nod, Al got the message. Sometimes the best way to win a battle was to not fight it at all. Force may be able to knock doors down but a simple key could open it without anyone getting hurt or anything getting destroyed.

"What do we think we should do?" the one with a sword asked the gunmen.

"Knock them out, take them with us," he said pointing a gun at Al. "Now you two will do what we say unless you want someone to get hurt."

"All right, you got us," Ed said holding his hands up while slowly walking over to them.

"Brother?" Al asked.

"We don't want anyone to get hurt do we?" Ed said calmly, too calmly for Al to be comfortable. "We're not here to fight."

Al closed his eyes, trying to think of a way out. He saw what Ed was doing, wanting to stop a fight to protect him. But that wasn't right. He didn't want to be so weak as to need protecting. Now he missed his old body, the one that could take a bullet without flinching and shield those who couldn't fight.

"You too," the gunman said indicating to Al.

He'd have to do something.

Fight.

He didn't any element of surprise on his side this one, and if he didn't take out the gunman fast, one of them could easily be shot.

Slowly walking forward, he realized the fall had hurt his leg, making it hard to walk. Which would mean it would be impossible to run.

"What's taking so long."

"That fall threw my leg out," Al said limping forward. He struggled forward, Ed rushing to him to help hold him up. Letting his weight fall on his brother, Al saw just how powerless he was again. At the mercy of those who he didn't seem to care anything about the cost of the stones, he could only follow along. "Thank you brother," he said taking a few steps forward.

"I can't have you hurting yourself, can I?"

Despite the fact much of the blame of so much rested on Al's shoulders, Ed always seemed to be the one to take the burden of the guilt. It didn't seem to ever occur to him that Al was just as guilty.

"We'll take you back to boss," the gunmen said leading the two of them out into the lobby where the brothers could see the many terrified guests, some of them hurt. They were out of the way, in corners. Al saw a husband trying to tend to his wife's injuries. A young girl cried while a somewhat older brother held her trying to calm her down.

And at this, Al's heart broke.

"Brother," he said, knowing what he had to do. "Keep moving forward." Clapping his hands together, he broke away from his brother, slamming his hands into the ground and brining up earth which wrapped around two of the burglars, constricting them.

The other one turned back and fired his gun at Al, however, Ed stepped in to block the bullet that hit his leg.

Which harmlessly bounced off it. Despite the shock, the burglar fired again as Ed ran at him, the bullet barely missing the older brother. Al tried to stand back up, but his leg was too weak too, so he could only watch as Ed fought the gunman.

The burglar tried putting his distance between them, Ed kicked his auto-mail leg up at the weapon, knocking it into the air, but the gunman grabbed it again, and seeing his chanced, turned and fired it.

At Al again.

Using as much power as he could, Al transmuted a wall of earth to block the bullet. He heard the projectile collide harmlessly against the earth, and while his shield was still up, then heard the cries of pain of the burglar. Lowering the wall, Al could see that Ed had him pinned, the gun knocked harmlessly away.

With the three burglars unable to move, the town's police were easily able to apprehend the three, though the Elric brothers found themselves asked a number of questions, both by the police and by the citizens of the town making them lose any chance they had at getting much rest that night.

…

After the chaos of the night, the two brothers were glad to be on the train to head back to central. With both of them having enough fighting to fill a lifetime over the past year, they looked to put any ties to the military behind them. But for some, rest from battle doesn't come so easily.

"I think after this, we should head back to Winrey's and eat about a dozen apple pies," Ed said looking out the window as the train went through the endless plains and farmland.

"That does sound good," Al said through a yawn. "I'm worried about what those guys were saying though, if they were after a philosopher's stone, what could that mean?"

"I don't know," Ed rested his chin in his hand while looking out of the window watching the world pass by. Part of him wanted to say that this was behind him, that he wasn't an alchemist anymore, so he shouldn't have to worry about the world of alchemy. But even so, he knew the pain that the philosopher's stones caused, the lives they took, and he wanted to stop them from ever being created again.

He knew the secrets behind them. The ones he wished he never laid eyes upon. He knew the wars, the sacrifices. He even was forced to use their power once.

"I guess pass it on to Central and see what they wants to do," he said turning back to Al. However, he saw that Al had his head resting against the window and had his eyes closed. After a couple seconds of no response, Ed decided that was enough for such gloomy topics. He knew he could only do so much. And sometimes, the best thing to do, was to rest. The burden wasn't his alone.

…

A/N: This story didn't quite go where I wanted it to. I had wanted to show a story with Al protecting Ed since the first one was the other way around. My plan was, and still is for this to just be a one-shot, though it's still open to being continued. I also had some trouble getting the story to go where I wanted it too and worry that I may have written the brothers OOC here, but hopefully I got them close. Anyway, tell me what you think about this. I've already started a multi-chapter story focusing on Selem (is that how you spell his name)