Twelve Wishes

written by Shaun Garin

Fullmetal Alchemist is owned and copyright SquareEnix and Arakawa Hiromu the original manga-ka. The story of Aladdin and the Lamp is public domain but the character of Genie is copyright Disney somewhere around 1997 or 1995 or so. References to Disney's movie Hercules and the original legend of Herakles and the Greek Gods are both copyright Disney somewhere in the 1997 to 2000 timeframe and the original legend is public domain. This story takes place in the Manga timeline and as a result, differs from the Anime timeline.

Chapter 1 : The First Wish

"That was the biggest waste of time I have ever experienced in my life," muttered Edward Elric as he and Alphonse Elric, his younger brother, walked across the scorching sands separating the town of Liore and actual civilization. "I should have brought more food or at least some grass that I could transmute into bread."

"We had to leave Liore fairly quickly brother. I don't think they would have given us time to stock up on food before we left that place," pointed out Alphonse helpfully which only made Edward groan a bit louder as he shuffled along.

The pair walked in silence, trudging over sandy dunes that made Edward's boots sink deep into them. After a while, the sound of metal on rough sand ceased and then Edward looked behind him. A hand was sticking out, waving at him. "Aw geez Al," Edward groaned as he reached down and began to shovel his brother out of the sand.

After a long half an hour of agonizing manual labour, Edward panted while sitting on his suitcase. "I don't see how you manage to sink all the time!"

"I get full, I told you," responded Alphonse and Edward kicked him in the chestplate. The chestplate fell off Edward and with a loud FWOMP, the short Elric was buried in sand. Alphonse inched away, expecting a blow up. He was not disappointed as Edward burst from the sand and made to chase him when all of a sudden, a metal object bounced off Edward's head from where it had been lodged in Alphonse's armor. "Ow, the hell?"

Alphonse reached down and picked it up to examine the object as Edward nursed the forming bruise on his head. "It's an oil lamp," said Alphonse as he shook it. A faint swishing of oil could be heard from the inside and Alphonse examined the tarnished surface. "Made of brass."

"It's probably cheap junk that someone threw away," said Edward. "Put it away before it does me another injury."

"I think there's something written here," added Alphonse as he peered at the writing that adorned the bottom of the lamp, encircling the squat base. "Maybe it belonged to someone?"

"If it is, then the person who lost it must have passed by here a long time ago." Edward took the lamp from Alphonse and shook it to hear the swishing sound of oil. "See? There's barely any left. It's pretty covered in dirt anyhow, you can't even see the metal."

Placing his sleeve to the brass, Edward rubbed the red material over the dusty old lamp when it jumped in his hand. Edward dropped the lamp in surprise as it jumped and leapt on its own violation several more times. Sparks began to shoot out of it and exploding into sparkling fireworks as the Elric brothers simultaneously leapt behind a convenient dune. As the pair watched from behind the protective dune, smoke billowed out from the lamp and there was a low sound that grew to a fever pitch. It sounded something like this.

"YyyyyyyyeeaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH...! OI!" There was a loud crick like bones in a neck popping and the pair gazed up at the big giant blue... thing that was massaging his neck with a wince. "Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!"

Without warning, the blue thing yanked its head off and spun it around before slamming it back to rest on its shoulders. "Whoo! That felt better! Okay, so who was the lucky guy who woke me up, huh?"

"I think we did something wrong," whispered Alphonse and Edward made shushing motions as the blue thing gazed across the dune sea.

"Aw snap, something musta rubbed up against my lamp," said the thing as he looked about. Then, light conveniently glinted off Alphonse's armor and he exclaimed, "Ah HA!" while pointing directly at them. "THERE YOU ARE!"

There was a poignant silence and then Edward yelled "RUN!"

In a mad dash, the pair scrambled over dunes and skidded down valleys in the sand towards the general direction of humanity when a giant blue hand picked them up like they were little rag dolls. "Whoa hold on there little guys," said the blue thing, earning a loud retort from Edward.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A SHORT STACKED BEAN MIDGET THAT CAN'T EVEN GET OVER A DUNE HUH!"

The creature rubbed a finger into his ear and sighed. "Look kids, you're the first people to wake me up in nearly ten thousand years or so. Would you PLEASE stop running?"

"What are you?" asked Alphonse, looking upwards at the big blue thing.

The blue thing grinned widely as he set them down and proclaimed, "I am the Genie of the Lamp!"

"A Genie? There's no such things as Genies!" exclaimed Edward hotly.

The self proclaimed Genie of the Lamp folded his arms over his massive chest and retorted, "There is so!"

"Is not! You're just some kind of... freaky... chimera... thingy," said Edward, loosing his train of thought as the giant sized Genie glared at them. "Er... sorry?"

The Genie chuckled and in a movement accompanied with a sound of ZIP, became human sized as he leaned on Alphonse. "No problems kid, people keep disbelieving in this day and age. I am yours to command oh Master. You have three wishes."

Suddenly he split into three and held up his fingers. "Three," the copies chorused. "Uno dos tres." With that, he popped out of existence and another Genie walked past them, wearing glasses and he had a mustache and a cigar. "No substitutions, exchanges or refunds."

"Well I'm convinced," said Alphonse and Edward stared at him like he had gone mad. "Brother, there's a good chance that we're looking at real magic."

"Magic isn't real!" screamed Edward and the Genie fell over, holding up a flower and a headstone popped out behind his head. "And STOP THAT! I know that you can't kill a Genie like that, that's Fairies!"

Genie opened an eye and smirked. "And HOW do you know that huh?"

Edward slapped his hands over his mouth and Alphonse laughed. "He got you brother! You remember mothers stories!"

As the Fullmetal Alchemist went red in embarrassment, Genie tapped on Alphonse's forehead, earning a hollow clank in reply. "Hmm, you tried to bring someone back huh?" Alphonse and Edward jumped back in shock and Genie sighed. "Always the trick. Someone can't use magic to bring someone back, why not science?"

"You've seen something like this happen once before?" asked Alphonse and Genie nodded.

"Kid, people have been trying to bring back people for millennia. I should know; they constantly ask me for it and I keep telling people, I can't do it. Rule number three." Genie suddenly became hideous and a rotting green hue, dripping body parts. Edward immediately went sick and Alphonse would have gone pale if he could have. "I can't bring anyone back from the dead," he wheezed. "It's not a pretty picture. I DON'T LIKE DOING IT!"

With a poof of green smoke, Genie was back to his blue self as Edward recovered heaving his meal all over the sands. "So," said Edward weakly. "What CAN'T you do?"

"Well lets see," said Genie, tapping his fingers several times, more fingers coming out to accompany them. "You know Rule number three so I'll give you Rule one and two and the newly instated Rule four. Rule number ONE!" Alphonse and Edward jumped at the sudden yell as Genie sidled up to Al and leaned on him. "I can't kill anyone."

With a "BLAUGH!" he sliced his own head off and it landed into Alphonse's hands. "So don't ask," said the shoulderless Genie head and Alphonse plopped it back onto Genie's head. "RULE NUMBER TWO! I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone else."

And without warning, changed his head into a pair of lips and nearly sucked Edward's head off. "You little puddum!" exclaimed Genie, squeezing Edward's cheeks. Edward was too dazed to register the little part and merely nodded weakly.

"And the newly instated, Rule Number Four." Genie pulled a rulebook out of nowhere and flipped several pages. "No wishing for more wishes. Other than that, I'm yours." Genie slammed the book closed, waiting expectantly.

"If you can't bring someone back, can you restore what was lost? Like say..." Edward held his right arm up and the metal glinted. "Bodies?"

"Oooh, tricky, hold on." Genie whipped up a wireless phone, something that made Edward and Alphonse boggle as he punched in a number. There was a few audible rings and then someone on the other end picked up. "Hey hey, Hades! Yeah, it's me. Uh huh, well it's hard to visit you know. Yeah I know the mutt misses me but it's hard to get out of the lamp in this day and age. Yeah, can you put Seph on?"

Genie covered the phone and stage whispered, "Persepherone, Goddess of Rebirth. That was her husband Hades, Lord of the Dead." Then, he returned to the phone. "Hey hey! Seph! Yeah I know I never call, I never write, but I haven't gotten turned free yet! I know Al promised he was going to free me but the kid got himself whacked! Uh huh, tell him I miss him and Abu too. Anyhow, Seph, you mind opening the Doors of Truth for me? Yeah, thanks. I owe you one? Hey c'mon I sent you that nice cash and check deal right? All right, love you too. Say hi to the clod patrol and the drool factory for me. Later."

Clicking his cell phone off and banishing it somewhere else, Genie turned around and without warning, a giant set of doors appeared out of nowhere. Edward swore under his breath and Alphonse said, "Brother, that's..."

"The Doors of Truth," said Edward, nodding.

"Stand back, stand back people!" Ordered Genie. "If you get caught, you'll be paying more passage fee. So is this a proper wish then?"

"You mean we have to say I Wish and then it'll come true?" asked Alphonse and Genie nodded.

"It's HIS wish," said Genie, pointing to Edward. "One of three. So is it?"

"Well, this is what we've been wanting all this time," said Edward. "All right, lets see what you're made of. I wish for our bodies to be restored."

"All right!" Exclaimed Genie, turning into a suited man who pumped his arm around in the air making sounds that sounded like "HOO HOO HOO!". "Okay, lets get started!"

"Is... this... really... necessary?" puffed Edward as he pulled the chains that raised the platform with Alphonse laying on it upwards into the roof of the castle. The Fullmetal Alchemist was currently hunchbacked as he raised Alphonse up to the roof of the castle where a storm was raging.

Genie cackled. "Higher! Higher Igor!"

Edward made a face as he pulled Alphonse up higher. "Al! You okay up there?" he yelled.

"I'm okay!" called out the tiny voice from inside the armor.

Genie ran around the room, throwing switches. Electricity crackled and he laughed amidst the storm that was exploding around him. "More! More power Igor!"

Ed gave up and called out, "Yes master!" With a giant heave, he pulled a switch labeled "Throw Me".

Electrical power erupted all around them and there was a thunderous boom as lightning lanced downwards and crashed into Alphonse's body.

Just as soon as the storm had begun, it subsided as Edward lowered Alphonse to the ground. The body underneath the sheet moaned and a hand appeared from it, twitching.

Genie cackled and threw up his arms in triumph. "IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!"

"Al?" said Edward, reaching for the sheet. With a tug, he pulled it away to reveal the chocolate brown eyes of his younger brother who smiled.

"That was fun, can we do it again?" asked Alphonse and Edward practically tackled the bone-thin boy.

"AL! You're back to normal!" cried Edward and Alphonse hugged back. "And you're bone thin! And naked."

Abruptly the castle vanished and clothing wrapped around Alphonse's body as the young boy with long hair nearly stumbled. "Whoa there," said Genie as he handed him a drink. "Drink this. It'll restore your muscle tone and weight."

Alphonse did so and light poured from his body, restoring the lost weight from the hibernation his body undertook. Alphonse licked his lips and said, "Strawberry. I missed this taste."

Edward looked over at Genie who smiled. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem. Now lets get you back to normal too." Leading Edward towards the doors, Genie rapped on them and a being poked his head out.

"Yes?" asked the faceless being. It seemed to make a face and said, "Oh geez. Do I hafta?"

"A wish is a wish, and you don't want Seph bearing down on you, do you?" said Genie and the being muttered. Holding out his arm and a leg, Genie shot a burst of violet and silver light at Edward's arm and leg. The limbs burst with light and Ed pulled his sleeve back to see the automail flaking away and being replaced by flesh and blood. Even the scars vanished from his shoulder and leg, leaving clear healthy skin.

The Gate being glared at Genie. "A pox on Genies."

"Take it up with the union," replied Genie flippantly and the gate being seemed to make a rude gesture as the doors shut and vanished.

Edward rubbed his newly flesh and blood arm and remarked, "Why didn't you do this with Alphonse instead of all of that fanfare?"

"Well, if I did the Beauty and the Beast transformation sequence, I'd be looked at funny," said Genie, raising his eyebrows. Edward rolled his eyes as Alphonse walked over, giggling madly as he dragged his feet through the sand.

"People are going to wonder why we're flesh and blood again, brother," said Alphonse, taking another sip and more light poured through his body.

"He's right," said Edward.

Genie folded his arms and smirked. "You didn't think I'd leave you without access to those bodies, do you?"

"Huh?" chorused the boys and Genie rolled his eyes.

"Look kids, if you want to get those bodies back, I added something new in. As a little thank you for making such a selfless wish. I figured you'd need it since no one opens the Gates and then survives without having the old curse placed on them. May you live in interesting times. Anywho, I went ahead and chose your keywords. All you have to do Edward is clap your hands and say "Fullmetal". Alphonse, you need to slam both fists together and call out "Armor On"."

Edward's eyebrow twitched. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

Alphonse finished his drink and massaged his hands. "Well, let me see if I can give it a try."

Depositing his drink into a wastebin that Genie handily provided with a "no littering" sign emblazoned on it, Alphonse shook out his arms and then took a breath as he brought his fists together. "Armor On!"

Blue light crackled from the point of impact as Alphonse spread his arms to the side, his body vanishing in blue light, leaving a glow of white light where his eyes were once. Then, bringing the glowing outline of his fists together again, armor flowed over his body and the helmet snapped together where he posed against a black background and explosions erupted around him.

Edward stared in shock and his mouth moved in open mouthed surprise as Genie laughed and Alphonse exclaimed, "That was FUN!"

"That was EMBARRASING!" exclaimed Edward hotly. "No self respecting Alchemist goes around like some kind of manga hero!"

"Where's your sense of adventure, brother?" asked Alphonse and Edward noticed that his jaw moved like it was liquid metal when he spoke, giving the image of a real living suit of armor. Even the way his body moved seemed to indicate living metal, rather than a partially immobile suit of armor.

"FINE," grit out Edward as he slapped his hands together. "FULLMETAL!"

The same black background dropped as Edward's arm began to flake off as he held it upright in front of his face, blue light crackling along it to his shoulder. His leg also vanished in the same crackling light as he brought his hand down, trailing light to his arm and then moving his left arm up to his shoulder. Blue light crackled along where he drew an metal arm out of nowhere and his leg played along with the same light, forming a new metal leg. Edward spun and posed, his fist out and smirking as an explosion erupted behind him.

As the world returned to normal, Edward hung his head. "I feel silly."

"So why did we get these neat transformations?" asked Alphonse of Genie and suddenly, they were sitting in the middle of a classroom where Genie was dressed in a long black robe with a square hat on his head. Edward and Alphonse were sitting in desks tailored to them with Ed wearing a pointed 'Dunce' hat. The Fullmetal Alchemist ripped it off and threw it to the side, amidst snickers from Alphonse.

"When someone makes a wish such as this, they are usually known well in the bodies they currently inhabit." Genie pointed to a crude chibi drawing of Edward and Alphonse in armor and holding up an automail arm. "When the wish is completed, they're all flesh and blood."

The same pointer showed a picture of Edward and Alphonse in human form, jumping up and down and looking happy. "But there is usually some type of problem they'll need their old bodies for to survive." The pointer showed a chibi Scar with his hand out and blowing chibi Edward and Alphonse in armored mode away and an arrow drawn towards it with the words stating "This is a plot device".

"And then as a result, need it to survive the encounter." A picture of Chibi Edward and Alphonse celebrating and another being chased by Chibi Winry holding a wrench and a final diagram of Alphonse back to normal and Chibi Edward in a censored puddle as Chibi Winry fixes Edward's automail. Genie snapped his pointer to it's small shape and asked, "Any questions?"

"Question, who's the guy?" asked Edward, pointing to the Chibi drawing of Scar.

"No one you need to worry bout, I just drew him cause I thought it looked cool," answered Genie and Edward fell out of his desk chair in shock as the classroom vanished in a poof of magic. "So Master, that's one wish down, two wishes to go."

"I have a question," asked Alphonse. "How do we go back to our original flesh and blood bodies?"

"Just say Revert," said Genie. "And use the same motion that you used to transform."

"Revert!" In a flash of blue light, Alphonse stood there and he reached back to tie his long hair back. Edward followed suit and his left leg and right arm flashed.

"You know brother, now we don't need to search for the Philosopher's Stone," said Alphonse. His stomach gurgled and the boy made a face. "I'm still hungry."

"It's a long walk back to the nearest settlement and Liore chased us out," said Edward, grinning madly. "Welcome to humanhood little brother."

"I could get you to civilization pronto," said Genie and Edward shook his head.

"Naw, it's fine. I don't want to waste my next two wishes like that," said Edward.

"Hey Genie, question," said Alphonse as the train station came into view in the distance. "Do those metal bands on your wrists mean something?"

Genie looked at them and nodded. "Yeah kid, it does. I'm a slave to the lamp. All part and parcel of the whole Genie Gig." With warning, he became huge and tremendous, the comets flying, stars going supernova. "PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWERS!" he boomed and in an instant, he was staring out from the lid of the lamp, looking very cramped. "Itty bitty living space," he squeaked out.

"That's pretty sad," Edward said. "All that power and you can't do what you want with it."

"I know," said Genie, emerging from the lamp once more. "There was a kid, about twenty, maybe thirty thousand years ago. His name was Aladdin. He promised to wish me free but sadly, he got himself killed. Had a good thing going too but then Jafar got a hold of me and Agrabah fell in a night."

"What happened?" asked Alphonse.

"Heh. Al faced off against him, mostly to get me back and mostly to save this girl he liked, Princess Jasmine. But Jafar was undoubtedly cruel when he came up with a loophole of No Killing. He wished for Al to be sent to the four corners of the earth. What a mess that was. Afterwards, I managed to trick him into becoming a Genie himself and with the help of the Sultan, we buried him deep in the ruins of the Cave of Wonders." Genie's glow was soft and subdued at the memory. "He was a nice kid and promised to wish me free. I was too distraught, I was young and impetuous and thought no one could get past the three rules. Boy did that set me straight. Since then that's been one of the "No" wishes that we Genie's are able to say no to granting. He had one wish left as well." Sad sorrowful violin music was playing in the background by another Genie, dressed in violinists outfit.

"So the only way to get out of this Geniehood is to be wished out," said Edward. "Huh. How about we use a wish to set you free then?"

"You serious?" exclaimed Genie. "You'd do that for me?"

"Well sure," said Edward. "I have three, well two that I used one, and if I give the lamp to Al, then there's another three. So that's five wishes between the two of us. We CAN do that, right?"

Genie brought out his handbook and flipped through it. Then, with a triumphant shout, slammed it shut and the book vanished. "You CAN! It says here wishes are not transferable but ownership of the lamp can be whenever the owner of the lamp deems it. Thus the new owner, aka Al, will get a whole three wishes to himself!"

"I have no problems with it," said Alphonse. "I have what I wanted most of all, so two wishes can be spent frivolously, right?"

"That's the spirit, Al! Only use them when needed. We don't want Mustang or anyone else to know we have real magic," said Edward. "Speaking of which, Genie can you hide in the lamp for a while? We're coming up to civilization and I'd hate to see the chaos if you come strolling in."

"No problemo. I'm in the lamp and there awaiting your call." With a zipping sound, Genie vanished into the lamp.

"Geez Al you eat like a pig," said Edward as the boys shared a bag of sweet bread between them with the occasional bread being snuck under Alphonse's new jacket that the lamp had been secured beneath. It had been a couple of days since they had left the mining town of Youswell and Edward had subsequently conned the corrupt official out of the deed to the town with a pile of transmuted sludge into gold. From there, the Elrics had headed towards New Optain where they caught the train that was leaving for East City. "Slow down or you'll be sick."

"I can't help it, it's so good," said Alphonse in between bites and Edward sighed as a third bun was snuck out of the bag by Genie's outstretched hands. "The way you two eat, we'll be out of food before we reach East City."

Alphonse did not stop eating but slowed his pace from a less frantic one and chased it down with a sip of water. "Hey brother?" said Alphonse. "What do you think the Colonel will say?"

"Who cares what stupid old Mustang is gonna say," snapped Edward but his expression betrayed his thoughts on the issue. "We'll have to think of some way to break it to him."

"Yeah," said Alphonse, nodding. "Why don't you get some rest. You were up longer than I was."

"What about you?" asked Edward. "Aren't you going to get some sleep?"

"I will, once I finish," said Alphonse and he tore into the food. Edward sighed and stretched out across the bench. Within minutes, he was fast asleep. Alphonse finished his own food and leaned back to enjoy the ride.

After a while, Alphonse rose to notice a large man with a gun pointed at him. Alphonse blinked several times as the man glared down at Edward who was still sleeping soundly. "He's sleeping pretty carefree," said the man who looked displeased at having a non-terrified occupant of the seat. "Why don't you act more like a hostage you little shrimp!"

There was a terrible flurry of action as Edward launched himself out of his chair, right knee digging deep into the man's face where he fell with a pained groan. The second man brought up his gun to shoot Edward but Edward's fist impacted into his face and the man fell over, unconcious amidst a screaming of "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FLEA-SIZED SHRIMP?"

Alphonse drug Edward off the poor unconcious and bloodied man and Edward said, "Anyway, who are these guys anyhow?"

Alphonse had a moment of incredulous blinking as he sighed.

Several minutes later after confiscating their guns and transmuting rope to tie them up, the pair interrogated the captured man who spilled everything. "That it?" asked Edward, clenching his fist and the man whimpered.

"YES! That's everything! Ten more men, that's ALL!"

"Ten guys?" Al sighed. "No choice big brother, we'll have to settle this. Although we'd be all right if a certain SOMEONE didn't thrash these guys within an inch of their lives. Are you even wearing the automail?"

Edward chuckled and held up his right arm to show off pink skin. Alphonse clapped a hand over his face and dragged it down in exasperation. "ANYWAYS," shouted Edward, "We need to settle this. No sense getting others hurt, right?"

"Wait a minute, who are you people?" stammered out a man as Edward opened the window.

"Just two alchemists," said Edward but before he could clamber out the window, Alphonse grabbed his shirt. "Huh? What's wrong Al?"

"Brother are you forgetting something?" said Alphonse, tapping Edward's arm.

Edward made a face. "Fine fine. Stand back people. I need room."

The sound of hands clapping rang through the compartment and the announcement of "Fullmetal!" was accompanied by the crackling blue light and black background finishing with the explosion that strangely didn't damage anything and a pose. With his automail in place, Edward clambered out the window and was nearly sucked out by the wind pressure. With Alphonse's help, he got to the roof and the other boy shut the window.

"Some fancy light show you boys do," said another woman who had a little girl with her. "Will you be all right then?"

"Don't worry ma'am," said Alphonse as he brought his hands together. "Armor On!" In the same crackling blue light and black background, Alphonse stood in the middle of the train, his armor gleaming. "We're alchemists and we know what we're doing," he finished, cracking that smile that Edward termed as "human" even though he was now armor.

Picking up his things and Edward's as well, he handed the jacket where the lamp was wrapped in, he opened his chestplate out of view of everyone else and stuffed their things inside. Closing up his chestplate, Alphonse opened the door to the next car.

Two cars in, Alphonse was sighing to himself. HOW did people constantly injure themselves the same way over and over again? It was like stupidity was contagious or something. Alphonse's arrival into the next few cars had literally left a wake of injured men, all by their own bullets and the detrimental effect of ricochet. It was a relief that Genie had returned him to his armored body and kept everything the same except for the curious flexible metal that composed his body now. Alphonse was certain that he was nearly invulnerable to neigh everything but he wasn't prepared to test this theory.

Tapping on his chestplate and hearing that familiar clanking sound once more, Genie's head popped upwards and into his helmet. "Hey, what's with the racket?" asked the blue guy.

"We've got trouble," answered Alphonse as he opened another car door and the answering bullets greeted him, finishing with a reply of "ARRRRRRGH, IT HURTS IT HURTS!". "Brother is up top working on getting to the Engine room." A more foolhardy sort charged him and a swift metal-laden fist answered the man's approach. "We're dealing with the people here. Just thought I'd let you know in case a situation comes up and we need to wish our way out of it."

"Righto big fella," chirped Genie. "Just lemme know. Otherwise I'm gonna cadager your sweet buns." The sound of snacking could be heard inside the chestplate and Alphonse made a face. "Oooh, cream filled!"

Alphonse quickly knocked out a guy who had injured himself with his own bullets as he passed from one car to the next. From the other car, Alphonse could hear Edward's announcement from inside. Then, the sound of rushing water could be heard and Alphonse opened up the door. Three men stared up at him and he clanked his fists together menacingly. "Welcome to the brig," he intoned, making sure to look very scary as he did so.

Quickly, Alphonse knocked them down as he pushed into the cart where Edward was just driving the blade of his transmutated automail arm through the others gunarm automail. The other man moved to strike Edward but Alphonse drove a fist into his face where he fell over and stayed on the floor.

"Well that's that," said Edward, brushing his hands off. "Hey Alphonse, you okay?"

"Yeah, everything seems to be in one piece," said Alphonse. "Should we...?"

"No," said Edward and he made a gesture towards the General and his family who were picking up their soggy jackets and clothing. The train whistled twice, signifying the end of the line as it began to slow down. "Now, we deal with the Colonel."

If there was one thing that Edward Elric loved more, it was seeing Colonel Roy Mustang squirm. The older man kept throwing his rank around and it was getting harder each day to make the Flame Alchemist bend to his will. Edward also briefly toyed with the idea of getting Genie to find some blackmail on Roy also added to his mindset but Edward decided very reluctantly to withhold that wish for later. "I suppose you want to restore your bodies, am I right?" said Roy, finally giving up the chance to try and get one over Edward. "Well, I suppose there is someone who might help."

Roy got to his feet and picked out a file from his shelves. Thumbing through it, he read it over. "Shou Tucker is here in East City. He wrote the book on bringing things to life via chimera synthesis."

"Shou Tucker huh?" said Edward and the boys shared a look. With their bodies restored magically without Roy knowing it would look suspicious if they refused a chance at restoring their bodies through alchemy. "All right, where does he live?"

The ride to Shou Tucker's home was a little quiet for the most part, Edward dwelling on the fact that Tucker had apparently made a talking chimera. Such skill was unheard of but for the most part, he wanted to ask Genie about it.

During the last two or three days of Genie's company when Edward and Alphonse were alone, they asked him about a lot of stuff. Short of wishing for an accurate history of alchemy and all of its uses bound into a single volume, Genie was a venerable wellspring of information. He was old, very old and had seen things when the world was still very young. For the most part, long sleepless nights when Edward and Alphonse couldn't rest were spent asking for stories of times long past.

The jangling at the door bell called up Edward's attention to the very large house. Edward had seen few mansions in his time along with Alphonse, and the sheer size of it made his eyes grow large.

"I guess everything's large here," remarked Alphonse and without warning, a huge shape loomed up over Edward.