Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters which appear in Hiromu Arakawa's manga series Fullmetal Alchemist.
Note: This is my first fan-fiction ever. Please, don't be tolerant. A constructive, logically supported critique is what I will appreciate most. Despite that, Part 2 is coming whether you like the story or not. Ehm, that was supposed to be a joke.
Part 1
It is the year 1921. Edward Elric is a passionate man in the prime of life, who strives to be the father and husband which his wife, Winry, and his one-and-a-half-year old son, Maes, deserve. In spite of his sincere, unfeigned attempts, he wishes not to forlese his alchemical research since alchemy forms and has unmistakably always formed an irreplaceable part of his life. Both his worlds often collide one with another, making it hard for him to keep them in equilibrium; his scales' beam truly is a fragile one. Though he managed to find happiness and purpose in the world around him, he is not aware in the slightest that his discoveries shall bring about a collapse of the very base of his priceless scales.
"The dinner's on the table, Ed," he could hear Winry shout to him from the threshold of the kitchen door.
"Gimme a break, Winry! You know I've got a book to finish. You're just irritating me on purpose. It's the fourth time you called me because of a meal you don't even have prepared. You ain't just looking for excuses to start another conversation with my ignorance of the family affairs being the main topic, right? I've spent an entire day with you and Maes. Where the hell's the problem?! Now, lemme finish. It's an important research, dammit!" Ed shouted back in response. Yet, he'd already known before he finished his statement that it should backfire greatly.
"An important research, my ass!" Winry let out a reproachful shriek. "And Maes and I are not important to you, anymore? Eh? Then, why don't you just pack your divinely holy books and get out of the house, alchemy freak?!"
"For starters, it's my house. So, don't you order me around, mechanic freak!" yelled Edward, feeling his blood scalding in his veins.
"For finishers, it's our house. You forgot we were married, eh? Or doesn't your almighty alchemy have a term for that? Hey, now, I've got an idea. Why don't we just forget about all this? You can pretend I never existed and go on living while drawing your nonsense on any piece of paper you can find!" Winry fired back even more loudly.
"At least it's got something to do with science. Not just silly putting a screw next to another!"
"Don't get too cocky, Edward Elric! Guess you've forgotten thanks to what you can still walk! Maybe I should cool your head a little!"
While Edward was thinking up his next volley of direct insults to Winry, she – her face reddened with anger – returned to the kitchen, grabbed a vase that used to lie on a windowsill, spilled all the flowers – flowers given to her by Ed – out of it and onto the floor, not forgetting to trample on them until she was satisfied with the level of devastation, filled the vase again with fresh cold water and towards Ed's room she sped.
When she reached his door, Ed opened his mouth to pour a glassful of oil on the flames, but before he let out a single word, he'd been successfully quieted by sudden inrush of cold water onto his face. Not a second too soon did he overcome the shock just to dodge a rapidly flying vase which missed his forehead by inches and shattered to shards, having landed on the wall behind him.
Winry slammed the door shut with such force that she ripped off the handle. She clenched her fists, trembling with anger, cried: "Damn you, Edward!" and pushed the handle back to its place – yet again with uncontrolled force – strongly enough to dislodge the one on Ed's side as well.
Edward did not need much time to recover from the argument as he was already used to having these with Winry every so often. When he looked around at the disarray their fiery quarrel caused, he found to his horror that not only his face, clothes and half of the couch he was sitting at, but also his precious book, were soaked. He covered the temples on either side of his head in frustration and screamed, somehow unwillingly: "Now, look what you've done, crazy woman! Can you imagine how much time and effort it took to get one of these?!"
There lied other insults on the edge of his tongue – like 'Can't you learn to control yourself, already?' or 'Who do you think you are?' – but he successfully swallowed them. He wished to provoke his wife no more imagining her getting insane and throwing every small to medium-sized object in the house at him. He also started to feel a little remorse for what he had said.
Suddenly, something peculiar on the book caught his sight, having flushed all his other thoughts away. The inner side of the back cover began to slowly decompose uncovering an ancient painting which was skillfully glued underneath. The sheet of paper decomposed itself completely, not having left a single trace of its former existence. 'There's no way this was done with anything but alchemy,' Edward thought. He stood up, advanced to the door and blocked it as well as he could with surrounding furniture – he could not lock it since the handle was broken, just in case Winry wanted to make sure she would come out as a victor of their unfinished verbal match. Then, he slowly sat back on the dry part of the couch and began examining the painting.
It reflected a considerably large wooden room with a round table in its middle and thirteen chairs around. The room was very simply designed – everything painted dark brown; no decorations, whatsoever; only four torches enlightened one of its walls. Midst each pair there was a shape carved deep in the wood. Edward looked at each one of them thoroughly. His pupils abruptly narrowed and his irises widened. "No way," he whispered to himself, "It can't be."
His eyes now mirrored both terror and delight. He rushed to the door kicking the furniture that crossed his way and smashing the door open. Winry – bewildered, yet, still angry – yelled: "What the hell's gotten into you?!" as Ed was running upstairs to the bedroom. He ignored her completely, picked up the phone handle and dialed Al's number just upon entering the room.
"C'mon Al, pick it up! Al! Hey, Al! Answer the goddamn phone already!" he kept saying to himself while nervously tapping his automail foot and hitting his thigh with his free hand.
"Hello. Alphonse Elric on the phone. Who is it?"
"Al!" Edward cried so loudly that Al had to distance his ear from the phone.
"It's you, big bro? Don't shout! I can hear you well."
"Yeah, sure, sure." Edward replied unconsciously not lowering the volume of his voice by a single decibel. "Hey, you remember how we talked about how it's weird that there's no alchemy in Drachma?" he continued, but spoke so quickly that Al could hardly understand every third word.
Still, he somehow guessed the meaning and answered: "Yeah, what about it? You found something?"
"Something?" he let out a laugh of incredibility, "This is huge, man." Ed could not speak anymore as he started panting with utter excitement.
"C'mon, now, big bro. Calm down. Take it easy. I don't get what you're saying when you're in such a rush." Al advised him, partly to prevent his eardrum from exploding.
Ed did his best to cool his head and start thinking clearly. He dropped the handle on the bed and tried breathing slowly. He succeeded to a limited extent and after a short while he went on: "Well, I'm back."
"You okay, now?" Al asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess."
"Go ahead, then. What did you uncover?"
"Well, after our little discussion about the Drachma thing, I still believed that if there are no traces of alchemy now, there must have been there in the past at least. So, I had Mustang bring me some historical documents and translate them from ancient Drachman." Edward explained.
"Why didn't you look for them in the library?" inquired Alphonse.
"I could've, but I wanted as much material as I could get, and some of the books were army classified. I guess they contained some data of strategic value," Ed replied.
"And Mustang gave them to you just like that?" said Al teasingly, a little smirk formed on his face.
"Well, I still haven't lost my State Alchemist qualification and he knows the army still owes me something for the homunculi incident, although he doesn't say it aloud. Also, he made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone."
Al let out a short laugh at Ed's statement. "Why are you telling me, then?"
"Eh… You don't count as anyone, you know. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Besides… besides…" Edward blushed a little trying to justify his unjustifiable actions.
Al laughed again, quite more loudly this time.
Ed interrupted him in the middle: "Forget about it. Let me get to the point."
"Hmm," mumbled Al and nodded.
"I've just finished reading a book on 'Brotherhood of Creation', I think it was, when Winry splashed water on to my face." Ed could hear Al laughing again. He went on, pretending he had not noticed: "And then, when the book was all soaked through, a sheet of paper on the inner side of the back cover completely disappeared. I'm sure it was alchemically programmed to decompose when subjected to water."
"How can you be so sure? Perhaps it was just old," said Al quite critically, but his voice was filled with curiosity.
"No, it sure was alchemy. It just disappeared completely, as though it was converted to air," Ed argued.
"How could that be possible, brother? You can't just transmute paper into air. Are you really sure about what you're saying here?" Al began to rightfully doubt his brother's statement.
"I don't know, that's why I need to investigate this further. But, never mind that for now. There is something else in the book. Something far more unbelievable." Ed continued.
"Really? What is it?" asked Al again, his excitement gradually rising.
"Glued on the cover, there is a really super-old painting of a room, might be some meeting room or something, and there is a shape carved in a wall." Edward fell suddenly silent so as to set his brother ablaze from eagerness.
"What shape? C'mon, what shape?" inquired Al, not being able to hide his emotions anymore.
"A transmutation circle," Ed revealed the piece of information calmly.
"A transmutation circle? A transmutation circle?! Are you sure, bro?" said Al loudly, not quite wanting to believe it, yet.
"Yeah." Edward switched to a more serious tone now, much to Al's inconvenience. "And not just any transmutation circle. A philosopher's stone transmutation circle."
Both sides reverberated with silence.