Title: To Find Shamballa

Pairing: Edward Elric x Alfons Heiderich

Side Pairings: Alphonse Elric x Winry Rockbell, Roy Mustang x Sheska, onesided Roy Mustang x Riza Hawkeye

Rating: G-NC-17

Note: This is the remake of the entire Movie arc, as I would do it. This is heavy DIVERGENCE. This is EXTREME DIVERGENCE. DIVERGENCE WITH A CAPITAL DIVERGENCE xD


Germany, 1921.

In the wake of the Great War, a great recession hit the country, unemployment hitting an all-new high…and inflation making things go from bad to worse faster than any of us could have dreamed it would. We had lost the war, so we were the ones who had to pay reparation with the Treaty of Versailles—the once-great Economy we once had was diminished to nothing…leaving some men to wander mad in the streets…others to sink in sorrow at the devastation our motherland had now become stuck in.

Myself…

My family had never known riches. My mother worked in the factories during the war, but before that she was a simple housewife…my brother left for God-knows-where during the war…I haven't seen him since. I don't know what happened to my father either…he went off to fight, but nobody's told me what has become of him. We've received no word if he was dead, but all I can do is hope for the best, even after my mother has passed on and my brother is gone.

As a scholar, with high test scores and a body too weak for fighting, I was kept away from the front lines…rather kept on the home front. I was 'too useful' to be wasted in battle, I guess.

My family was gone, but I remained.

So I traveled on…

Rocketry was my passion. Rocketry and mechanics…space flight. Imagine the sorts of things mankind could do if they could only go to those stars, and imagine what would happen if Germany was the country that received such knowledge first. Before the Americans, before the Russians. Before those haughty other countries that threw us down…mocked us.

Germans spearing babies, indeed.

So I traveled, catching word of a man in Transylvania…Herr Oberth, who had studied in the University of Munich, and was looking for apprentices, to further study his craft.

I had to meet him. It was almost a necessity…like breathing.

I went on…hopping from train to train…

Leaving home and country behind.

In pursuit of a greater goal. A greater purpose.

It's funny what a man does in pursuit of knowledge…and what one single action can do to change his life forever.