Chapter Text
With a flash of light Greed woke up. He sat straight up, he wasn’t at the capital. He was- on a boat, judging by all the rocking. How the hell did he get on a boat? What happened?
‘Hey, kid?’ He tried to internally ask Ling, but there was no response. ‘Hey princey, where are we?’ Still no response, time to pull out the big guns. ‘I’ll get you food.’ … Still nothing, what the hell was going on?! Greed tried to get up from the wooden floor he was laying on, but a spike of pain ran through him. He grabbed his stomach and stumbled, looking down at his hand he saw- blood? That couldn’t be right-
“What the actual fuck?” He commented to himself. Greed braced himself before trying to get up again, a bit more successful this time, but it still hurt. And it felt like he was still bleeding? He didn’t worry too much, that’ll heal up in a second. His healing was a bit better than his- than the other homunculi. The homunculus leaned on a nearby wall, following it to try and find the way to- well, he wasn’t quite sure yet where to. But at least to people? He heard voices and people walking around, and followed it to find the deck of the ship, the crew milling around and doing their jobs. He tried to stay a little hidden, didn’t want them all ganging up on him for accidentally stowing away until he was more healed. Or, any healed at this rate, what was taking it so long?! He scoped out the crew, looked like mostly people from Amestris. Great, that really bodes well for how welcoming they’ll be to a homunculous. Greed winced again at the pain, having a bit more trouble standing. The rocking of the ship was not helping, they were out in the middle of an ocean, water as far as the eye can see, going pretty damn fast. Greed studied more of the crew when he saw a familiar looking head of golden hair.
“Short stack?!” Greed exclaimed before he could think. No way was that Ed, that guy was too tall to be Ed. Said guy whipped around to look at him, face full of fury until he met Greed’s eyes, and his expression shifted between surprise, relief, and confusion.
“Greed?! What the actual fuck?!” Ed exclaimed, walking over to Greed.
“Greed?!” The guy Ed was talking to exclaimed, following behind him.
“No way- it can’t be.” Greed commented, trying to walk closer to them, but stumbling again, having to lean back on the wall. Greed never actually got a look at what Al looked like, but that voice was pretty recognizable. Other than being a bit lower that is. The Elric brothers joined Greed in the doorway to the inside of the ship. Ed was taller, but still looked shorter than Greed when Greed was actually standing at his full height. Al had shorter golden hair than his brother, and he was walking with a cane. And, to Greed’s joy, Al was still taller than Ed. They both looked- older. Like a few years older. But that couldn’t be, Greed couldn’t have been out that long.
“Yeah! It’s me, Alphonse! Wow, how are you- I mean, you couldn’t have- but you’re here right now!” Al rambled, partially to himself.
“Yeah what’s going on, how are you here?” Ed asked, taking this all in.
“I have no clue, I kinda just- woke up here? Hey, you have any idea why the kid’s not answering me? I tried asking him what’s going on, but he’s silent.” Greed asked. The Elric brothers just shot each other looks before turning back to Greed.
“Why don’t we talk inside? Somewhere more- private.” Ed commented, moving past Greed to lead the group inside.
“I’ll grab a first aid kit.” Al added. Greed just followed the two along. They walked in quiet for the most part, Ed and Al just waving off any crew they ran into with a ‘we’ll explain later’, which Greed couldn’t blame them for. If any of this crew were military they knew of the homunculi, and might’ve recognized the oraboros- which was supposed to be covered, come on kid. It wasn’t very long until Ed opened the door to the captain’s quarters and gestured for the other two to head in, following after them and shutting the door. Al went to one of the shelves on either side of the room to grab the first aid kit.
“Greed do you mind sitting on the desk? I can’t crouch down very well.” Al asked him.
“Oh, yeah sure.” Greed responded, confused but going along with it. “You two are acting kinda weird, Ling too. What the hell’s going on? Did you three plan something?” Greed asked, looking between the brothers. Al pulled up one of the chairs to sit in front of Greed. Ed was just standing off to the side near one of the bookcases.
“Mind if I?” Al quietly asked, holding up some towels. Greed just nodded.
“When was the last time you talked to Ling?” Ed asked, getting straight to the point.
“I don’t know, the battle?” Greed offered.
“And what’s the last thing you remember from the battle?” Ed followed up.
“We were kicking ass.” Greed tried to remember. “Uh, Father got focused on me and the kid, we fought, I-” It call came rushing back to Greed. “I- shit- shit!” Greed exclaimed, realizing why they looked so confused.
“There it is.” Ed commented.
“Should I even- no no, he wouldn’t have killed me.” Greed tried to insist.
“Greed, he’s done it before.” Al gently pointed out, pausing what he was doing cleaning up Greed’s blood, to look up at him with a caring look in his eyes.
“Feels kinda weird being able to actually see your expressions.” Greed commented.
“Oh trust me, it took him a while to remember that we can all see them again.” Ed commented.
“I wasn’t that bad!” Al defended himself to Ed before turning back to helping clean up Greed.
“He obviously didn’t fully kill you if you’re right here.” Ed commented. “It just, took you a lot longer to come back this time I guess?” Greed looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything, who am I kidding yes I was,” Greed commented, “but you both look older.”
“And taller.” Ed proudly added, standing up straighter.
“Oh you are? I hadn’t noticed.” Greed smugly joked.
“You’re lucky I don’t throw you off this ship right now.” Ed fired back.
“Oh, so you do still have your temper.” Greed commented.
“He’s only gotten better at hiding it.” Al commented. “Had to now that he doesn’t have a title backing him up.” He teased.
“You don’t have your title?” Greed asked, surprised.
“I wasn’t stripped of it or anything, I gave it up. A lot of state alchemists did after everything came out.” Ed explained. “People trusted state alchemists even less after it came out that some hundreds of years old homunculus was pulling the strings.”
“A lot of alchemists either went quiet and live away from the public eye now, or they started working to try and make up for what Father did.” Al continued.
“And you two are doing the second?” Greed assumed.
“Yeah, I started traveling as soon as I could. Ed tried laying low, but he got antsy.” Al explained.
“Can you blame me? I spent a lot of my life traveling around as a state alchemist.” Ed commented.
“Wasn’t it only like 3 years?” Greed pointed out.
“It was closer to 6.” Ed corrected.
“That’s still like nothing.” Greed added.
“Says the guy who’s like 90.” Ed shot back.
Now it was Greed’s turn to correct Ed. “Closer to 250.” Both of the brothers just shot Greed a surprised look, Ed looked like his jaw was about to fall off and hit the floor, and Al looked like his eyebrows might just fly off.
“You’re 250?!” Ed finally said in shock.
“Yeah, if you count all of my reincarnations I’m somewhere around there.” Greed explained.
“Wait- how old did that make Wrath?” Ed asked.
“Well, Wrath is- was different. Before the kid, my physical body was made from a philosopher’s stone. But Wrath was originally human and given the philosopher’s stone.” Greed explained.
“So, like you and Ling?” Al asked.
“Kinda, except Wrath was fully ready to give into the stone for whatever power he got out of it. Ling might’ve willingly taken me, but he didn’t let me take over or let us blend and mix.” Greed explained more before he realized something. “Speaking of the kid, you guys still haven’t told me what’s up with him.” Ed and Al just shot each other looks again.
“Ed, do you still have that hand mirror in here?” Al asked his brother, not looking at Greed.
“Oh yeah, it’s in one of the drawers over here.” Ed responded, walking over to his desk.
“Why do I need a mirror?” Greed asked, a little concerned. How bad could it be that they won’t even say anything? This had to be a joke, or Ling went and did something stupid again, and that’s why he was hiding away.
“Just- look.” Ed responded, handing Greed the hand mirror. Greed raised an eyebrow at Ed as he took the mirror, but once he actually looked at his reflection- he got it. He understood why.
Greed was looking at his own face. Not the face he shared with Ling, his face.
“Oh holy shit.” Greed commented. “Been a while since I saw this handsome mug.” He turned his face a little from side to side, taking it all in. His teeth, his eyes, his hair- his face. To be honest, he didn’t think of how relieving it’d be to be able to look at his reflection and see this face again until now. But wait- if he was back in his own body, “What about Ling?” Greed finished the thought out loud.
“Well, after everything he went back to Xing.” Al started to explain. “From what Mei said he worked hard to try and unite as many of the families as he could so they wouldn’t all be trying to kill each other anymore.”
“What else did Mei say?” Ed teased.
“Brother!” Al yelled, throwing a roll of gauze from the first aid kit at Ed.
“Oh?” Greed asked, trying to sound innocent but come on, it’s Greed, anyone who knows him well enough knows that innocent is the last word to describe him.
“Someone’s been flirting with a certain Xingese royalty.” Ed teased.
“At least I’m talking to Mei! You and Ling have barely talked since everything happened.” Al teased right back.
“Really pip squeak?” Greed fired at Ed.
“What?!” Ed snapped back.
“I had to deal with you two borderline flirting and skirting around each other that whole time we traveled together, just for you two to barely talk for how long now?” Greed continued.
“He’s on track to becoming the emperor! He’s busy.” Ed tried to defend himself.
“You know Ling will take any excuse he can to not do work.” Greed pointed out.
“He does, it drives Lan Fan nuts.” Al nodded.
“You write to Lan Fan too?” Ed asked Al, shocked, and definitely not trying to change the topic.
“No, Mei just mentioned it a couple times.” Al explained.
“Wow, you and Mei really do talk a lot.” Greed pointed out, half teasing.
“We had to plan this trip somehow.” Al commented.
“Plan what trip?” Greed asked, realizing he never actually heard why they were on a ship in the middle of nowhere.
Honestly there were a lot of questions the three of them should be asking that they weren’t.
“Oh yeah, we’re headed to Xing!” Al excitedly responded.
“We’re visiting Ling and Mei.” Ed explained.
“And Lan Fan!” Al added.
“And Lan Fan.” Ed responded, less excited, before continuing. “And we’re going to learn about Alkahestry and what Hohenheim got up to.”
“Oh yeah, your old man got up to a lot in Xing, didn’t he?” Greed asked, vaguely remembering Ling talking some about a ‘Philosopher of the West’ who they later realized was Van Hohenheim.
“Yeah! It’s really interesting actually, Alkahestry and alchemy have some of the same basic properties, but they’re focused on such different results. Alkahestry is more focused on elixirs and medicine, while alchemy is more focused on what you can create and destroy.” Al rambled. “Mei’s been telling me a lot about it, I’ve been practicing some basic Alkahestry actually! I’m still not that great at it, it feels weird going against some of the basic skills for alchemy that come second nature for me.”
“If anyone’s gonna be able to master both alchemy and Alkahestry in their lifetime, it’s going to be you.” Ed commented.
“What about dad?” Al pointed out.
“He’s hundreds of years old, he doesn’t count.” Ed responded. “Speaking of hundreds of years old,” Ed commented, turning to Greed, “We kinda breezed past the fact that you’re back.”
“Oh yeah, how are you here?” Al asked.
“Honestly? No idea. I just woke up down the hall.” Greed responded.
“That it?” Ed asked bluntly.
“The hell you mean? Yeah, that’s it.” Greed answered, a little confused and annoyed because what did that even mean?
“You didn’t hear or see anything? Just opened your eyes and you’re in our ship?” Ed explained.
“There was a bright light I guess? But yeah, one second I was at the big fight, next second I’m here.” Greed answered.
“Well, what room was it?” Ed asked.
“I didn’t get that good a look at it, there was a couple boxes in it I guess?” Greed answered, trying to remember. The brothers tried to think this over.
“I can’t think of anything in the cargo that would have brought you back.” Al commented.
“Or in either of our quarters.” Ed added.
“You know,” Al started, “there was that box from Ling?”
“What box from Ling?” Greed asked, being reminded again that these two could practically communicate telepathically with each other.
“Ling asked us to hold onto a box of stuff for him when he left Amestris, but when he heard from Mei that we were coming to visit, he sent us a letter asking us to bring it over for him.” Ed explained.
“What’s in the box?” Greed asked, trying to think of what Ling would want to potentially hide from his family or the royal officials. Ed just shrugged.
“No idea, we never looked in it.” Ed responded.
“You’ve been holding onto this box for years, and you never looked in it?” Greed said in disbelief.
“I had to stop Ed from peaking a few times.” Al said, shooting Ed a look.
“I wasn’t that bad.” Ed tried to defend himself.
“Yeah you were.” Al teased.
“I would have looked the second Ling turned his back.” Greed commented.
“And that’s why he left it with us, and not you.” Ed teased.
“And because I was dead.” Greed joked.
“Not technically, since you’re here now.” Ed pointed out.
“Kid, I’m a homunculus, I can die and come back as many times as I need to as long as even a drop of my philosopher’s stone is intact.” Greed fired back.
“What would happen if you came back and your stone didn’t have many souls left?” Al asked, half thinking out loud.
“I’m not sure, Father usually refilled our stones when he brought us back.” Greed explained, thinking. “Well, I’d probably have a harder time with my, abilities, that I get from it? So my strength, my shield-”
“-Your regeneration.” Al interrupted, finishing Greed’s sentence.
“Yeah- oh shit, yeah.” Greed responded, realization hitting him. “In the battle, Father he- you don’t think that’s why my healing’s taking so long, do you?” Greed asked.
“Honestly, it would make sense.” Al responded. “You are still healing a bit faster than your average human, but this is definitely slow for you.” Al pointed out. Greed looked down at where he was bleeding from, it looked like the bleeding had mostly stopped, although it looked like it was scarring? Greed didn’t get scars.
“Huh, if you’re low on souls, that would explain you taking so long to come back, too. It probably took your stone a while to regain enough strength to make a physical body again.” Ed said, starting to pace. “You said there are ways for you to get more souls, but no way are we performing any rituals to get them.”
“I don’t think I can do them on my own anyways.” Greed shrugged.
“Does your shield still work?” Al asked. Greed held up one of his hands, activating his ultimate shield on it. It took a second, but it did appear, the usual crackling of his abilities quieter this time as the tough shield overtook his hand.
“Looks like it? But it was harder to summon than it should be.” Greed explained.
“Good thing we’re not in the middle of a war anymore.” Ed commented.
“So, we can’t exactly get you more souls through a ritual, would tracking down another philosopher’s stone work?” Al commented.
“Why would we need another philosopher’s stone?” Ed asked, giving Al a concerned look.
“I don’t like using them as much as you do, but if a stone’s already made, then the souls are already collected. It’d be a lot safer to use it to potentially keep Greed alive, than it would be risking someone like Kimblee getting their hands on it.” Al pointed out.
“‘Keep Greed alive’?!” Greed echoed. “It won’t come to that, right?”
“Oh! Oh no, I hope not. I just meant just in case, there’s still a few philosopher stones bouncing around out there, and Mustang and I were talking about what to do with them.” Al explained. "I don't want to use them, I hate that they even exist, it's just been on my mind lately."
“Mustang’s still working for the government?” Greed asked.
“More like it works for him.” Ed commented before getting an eyebrow raise from Greed and explaining more. “He took over after Wrath, he’s been trying to clean up the mess and fix everything.”
“Hm.” Greed thought about it for a second. “Honestly, he’s one of the people I trust most to do it.”
“Yeah, that’s what we said too.” Ed commented.
“He left it to a vote too.” Al added. “A few people tried to convince him to just take the position, but he insisted on it.”
“Of course he did.” Greed joked. “Did he have anything to do with you guys visiting Xing?”
“No, we decided to go on our own.” Al explained.
“Yeah we still have enough money saved up from when I worked as a state alchemist.” Ed explained before adding. “He did insist on making sure we’d make it there safely.”
“And he not so subtly hinted that he wants to hear about what we find when we get back.” Al added.
“Not like you two would listen anyways if he told you to.” Greed joked.
“Eh, I’d maybe listen to Mustang.” Ed commented.
“But you’d complain about it the whole time.” Al teased.
“I would not!” Ed tried to argue.
“Who are you kidding, pipsqueak, yeah you would.” Greed teased. Al laughed while Ed just grumbled.
“Can we throw him overboard yet?” Ed half joked.
“I thought you figured out already that you can’t get rid of me that easily.” Greed joked.
“You’re right, we’re too close to Xing, you’d just wash up on shore there.” Ed joked back.
“How close are we anyways?” Greed asked.
“Only a day out!” Al answered.
“Damn, I woke up at the right time.” Greed joked, turning to look out the window at the wide open ocean.