Chapter 1: The Gate
Disclaimer: I only own the Solar Alchemist, the Elixir of Time, and the idea of the alternate dimension in the Full Metal Alchemist world. Everything else belongs to their respected owners. I, in no way, try to take credit for any Character, World, or logic stated outside of what is above.
I'll admit. I knew that the day would come when Molly, my very young apprentice, would come to me and ask that I show her the wondrous art of Alchemy. I didn't however expect that day to be today. Nor did I also expect her to be in my apartment bright and early on a Saturday morning. I looked at her from the small bed and had it not been for the small Starbucks cup in her hands I might mind you have given in to my more grumpier side and cast a wind spell to send her right back out the door. Instead I just sat up and took the cup from her. A quick glance at the Mickey Mouse clock on my all to warn out bedside table told me that it was still too early to truly be up on the one day I gave myself off. But let's face it. My last day off wasn't much better. Sipping at the warm continents, I sat in silence trying to fully wake my brain from its apparent slumber so that I might think through a very simple potion to let her try. I stood not really sure and decided it best to just ask Bob. A few moments later my lab, in it's already terribly kept state was full of vials and things you'd only expect to find in the house of a wizard. Though if not for my Warden job half of them I wouldn't even own. It had been two months since Murphy had asked for my help on a case and I'll be damned if it didn't take a toll on my standard of living.
I picked up the jar of gold dust I had gotten from a miner that had come down from Alaska looking for his lost wife and child, that being a helplessly romantic reunion, and looked at it. With gold prices going up, I could probably sell it and have enough money to fix little Chicago. After all it had helped me avoid having a blast spatter where my head would have been. I had thought about this a bit more before Bob, the bleached white skull on the table, said something.
"Harry, I know what you're thinking, but we need that. Once it's finished you may take it and go buy whatever it is that you believe you need to waste money on now."
I grumbled at this. It wasn't a waste if it could make my job easier but I didn't want to argue with the skull today and I set it down. After all, I do still need Bob and letting my anger get the best of me wasn't going to help anyone.
"Molly, is the water boiling yet?" The skull asked her seeming to try and look in the pot.
"um yeah…What's next?"
"That poor excuse for a shelf near the ladder. Third drawer down. Grab one of the smaller gears. Harry, I say, you really to have a habit of the warn and rugged look. Even in here."
"Bob," I said through clenched teeth, "now isn't the time for you to be insulting my taste in furniture."
The skull gave me a level look. "Harry, you have no taste. Unless Goodwill does home décor."
I set my jaw biting back a comment I thought would be rather witty, but in the current state of grogginess might just come out as a laughable attempt to beat the skull at his own game. So I just watched. Molly put the gear in and Bob gave her another few more things to get. A phoenix feather, one of the few things I had gotten myself and nearly got my hands roasted off, A bit of must, The chime of a bell, A touch of honey, with a bit of the gold dust and a rose bud fresh cut, each of which at the skulls words were collected and put into the pot.
"So what is she making?" I mumbled out after a moment. The skull looked at me.
"It's the Elixir of Time. A very well-known mixture when Alchemy first begun. I thought it fitting."
"Bob, the Laws of Magic!"
"It breaks none of them. Harry, give me some credit before you act like the mixture dropkicked a wounded kitten. "
"then What does it do?"
"turns back the clock on the person temporarily. It's the fountain of youth in a bottle, but like I said. It wears off." I wasn't very confident in his moral compass, but it had already been done. The White Council was going to have a field day with this. Bob's voice caught me again as he spoke to Molly. "be very careful not to get anything else in it. It has a rather nasty backlash."
"What does it…"
Before she could finish, it happened. A hair. My hair to be exact fell from her wrist landing in the potion. The mixture flared into a violent red as the hair hit. With a bright burst of light it exploded sending an energy shockwave to the hidden protection spells in my lab. The second explosion erupted even more violently than the first had sending sparks and a wall of energy to hit me hard in the chest. Molly's scream was the last thing I heard before everything went white.
When I awoke there was a door in front of me in a solid white room. Mind you it wasn't just white but the room seemed to almost glow as if it were made of lights. The door was a dark grey thing with statues of people twisted around in various places. In the center was a carved eye really setting the stage as even more creepy. In all honesty it looked like something I'd see at a Marilyn Manson concert rather than just randomly in a room of nothing but light. I turned starting to walk away when I heard a sound. I whipped back around to see the door had opened and there staring back at me was a giant purple eye. More eyes appeared and I thought a better description was a Tim Burton movie… Before I could think on what to do nearly a hundred or so hands reached out grabbing me. Everything went black as I was pulled through.
A sigh is heard from an office as the older officer fought to try and move his left hand. It had been nearly twenty years since he had been shot and had he not been born with his heart on the wrong side it might have ended deadly. The thought made the man cringe and then grin at the reminder of how he had cheated death. With his right hand, he moves his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose between both of his warn golden eyes. His daughter was getting married next week and Edward, a dear friend of his for years, had asked him to run the papers on a twelve year old case again.
"Hey! General Hughes." A voice called from his door making the older man jump slightly before glancing up at who called him.
"Oh, Edward." Meas seemed to calm a bit in his chair seeing the blonde that he had watched turn from a teen into a man. A smile played at his lips as he did.
"Aithne asked me to tell you she'd see you tomorrow to work on your arm again."
His smile widens forcing the slightly younger blonde to sigh as he remembered that face use to be (and sometimes still is) used when Hughes had a new picture of his daughter. "That little niece of yours is just so SWEET! When are you and Winry going to have a little one? Or even get married for that matter."
"When the time is right. Not rushing anything. But with how the new Fuhrer has been I don't think it's anytime soon."
"Though you never explained why you wanted this case reopened Edward."
"It's personal. I just…."
That sentence would be cut short with an officer running by rallying the troops shouting about an intruder in the courtyard. The old general being the first to his feet.
"Edward, go with the troops. I'll go to the Fuhrer."
