Edward Elric knew that enlightenment was possible.
He knew that knowledge for knowledge's sake was an attainable goal.
He came to this conclusion in the milliseconds after The Truth released him from the gate but before It took his little brother from him forever.
Edward looked over to see that where his little brother had been standing now lay a shirt, a pair of shorts, and one glittering incisor.
Ed looked to the center with a sense of dread.
There, where he knew it was too good to be true, was a silhouette clouded by smoke and the dust that was once his dear younger brother.
"M-mom..."
A sound between a cough and a scream emitted from the silhouette as the smoke parted to reveal a disfigured body that could under no circumstances be called human.
Five years later
Sitting in a bar off the busiest street in the business district of Central sat a young man with long braided hair and sunglasses.
He wouldn't have stood out from the crowd had he not been surveying the place since he'd arrived.
Outside in the lot was a group carefully observing the blond man from the safety of a military surveillance van.
One individual in the van, looking to be anywhere from between his late twenties or early thirties with disheveled black hair and black eyes, was watching as his team fiddled about with knobs and dials.
"We have our mission and we know this is the right guy, so all we have to do is pin him. Do we have our plant?"
"We just sent him in," a blonde woman with sharp eyes responded coolly.
Meanwhile, a man with auburn hair and broad shoulders walked into the bar purposefully, a grey metal suitcase slung over his left shoulder.
The blond man in sunglasses took note of his arrival and left through the back entrance.
They met in the back alley behind the bar, Auburn arriving five minutes after the blond holding a tall glass.
The blond man led the other into another building's backroom before locking the door behind them.
Two men, significantly taller than either of the aforementioned men, were clearly waiting for them as they grabbed Auburn by the shoulders and roughly forced him into a metal chair at a metal table.
"Who do you work for?" The blond demanded.
"No one, man! I just brought the stuff you asked for!"
The sound of footsteps came from outside the door leading from the room and one of the large men perked up and stared to the door.
BANG! BANG!
"THIS IS THE CENTRAL CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT! WE HAVE THE BUILDING SURROUNDED! EXIT CALMLY AND WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
"Zampano, go five doors down the hall and turn left. Dial the numbers 56289735 into the keypad. Leave through the roof. We'll meet up at the regular place. Darius, take care of the ginger."
One of the taller men, presumably Zampano, ran down the hall while the other, Darius, turned to the captive, raising a small metal bat.
The blond exited the room as a short scream was stifled behind him as he climbed a ladder followed by Darius who was carrying something heavy over his shoulder.
Back in the van chaos was erupting
"Goddamnit, Riza where is Havoc," The Black haired man asked the blonde woman from earlier.
"I don't know sir we lost the signal, but he should be coming back soon, we've got the building surrounded and-
BANG
The roof of the van caved in as something heavy landed on it.
The sound of a helicopter taking off filled the air as well as the sound of cement splintering and screams.