Author's Note: I've written up to Chapter Twenty-Three of this story. I'm going to Post new batches of Chapters every Saturday night in honor of FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD airing on Cartoon Network on Saturday in 2010 and 2011. (If I can do it right, the following batches will begin showing up at 12:00 AM, when Season Two aired in 2011.)

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Author's Note Edit: In recent years, I've Edited my stories a lot, so if I Edit one Chapter or more, I'll write about it in an Author's Note at the beginning of the next Chapter I Post.

I dedicate the first story of mine that's been put up anywhere Online in years to the now Account Deleted Mirriem and Myaru, two of the best and truest friends a person could hope to have, whose friendship and writing are central reasons I'm the person and the writer I am today.

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Author's Note Edit 2: If anyone's impatient for new material (And if you're not, I'm fine with it. I don't write for attention.) I've made a number of small changes I consider to be important to Chapter Twenty-Four by now, including today. For those who can't find them (And if you can't, I don't blame you. They're small.) I'll identify the ones I can remember when I Post Chapter Twenty-Five.

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I hope you enjoy the story!

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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST:

TRANSMUTATION OF THE UNKNOWABLE

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CHAPTER 1:

FROST THAT MELTS IN THE HARSH LIGHT OF DAY

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The sound of a gunshot rang out, and fiery anguish ripped up Isaac McDougal's left leg. He staggered, suppressing a curse, and even with his years of experience moving quickly across ice and keeping his balance while he did, he was nearly unable to keep himself from slipping on the transmuted bridge of ice.

Clenching his teeth against the agony, Isaac transmuted the ice bridge behind him with the imperfect Philosopher's Stone in his stomach, and it shifted outwards and up into a wall of ice in currents of coursing red energies, removing him from the line of sight of Mustang and the soldiers with him.

Isaac partially staggered, partially ran the rest of the way across the ice bridge, silently swearing at his stupidity. With the exception of the soldiers stationed at the borders, most of the Amestrian military lacked the proper training and experience to effectively fight defensively, the result of Amestris' history of belligerence. The troops stationed at Central, who had seen little, if any, military action since they'd enlisted, were among the best examples of Amestrian soldiers who suffered from this weakness. He hadn't believed any of the soldiers who had confronted him with Mustang had the initiative to open fire on him unless ordered to.

He'd underestimated them. Not that much – a soldier stationed on the Aerugoian, Cretan, or Drachman front would have successfully shot him in the head – but he'd underestimated them all the same.

He reached the roof of the building on the opposite side of the ice bridge and used his Stone to transmute in more red light, reconstructing the portion of the bridge meeting the roof into a wall of ice surrounding its edges and sending the rest of the bridge collapsing between the buildings as ice pieces. That would keep any unusual Central soldiers from firing on him again, and anyone from following him.

Shielded by the wall of ice, he sat down and pulled up his left uniform leg, then felt his injury and looked at it. From the amount of blood flowing out of it and the pain tearing out of it as he felt it, the bullet appeared to have passed clean through it.

Good.

He pressed the transmutation circle on the palm of his left hand to the injury, and used his knowledge of medical alkahestry to stop the flow of blood and close the wound in crackling blue. That wouldn't be nearly enough to treat an injury like this, but it would have to do for now.

He got to his feet and headed for the stairwell as fast as he could without aggravating the injury and reopening it. The wound would slow him down a little, but he could afford to take a little more time now. He'd prefer not to, and he couldn't take much more time, as he was being hunted, but there was a slight less need to hurry now.

The Xingese citywide transmutation circle was complete. All he had to do was activate it, and the Fϋhrer and the other depraved bastards in High Command who had exploited the people of Amestris since the government had established itself would be dealt a blow they'd never recover from. The people inside Amestris would be saved from the destiny the government had determined for them when they'd founded the nation, and it would never cause another Ishval.

Isaac would finally be able to justify drawing another breath.

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Edward Elric sighed in relief when he turned into the alley and saw no one else in it. Good. This might make things easier.

He walked forward, and saw the transmutation circle he'd believed he'd find on the alley floor, partially concealed beneath rocks. He knelt and began lifting them away from it.

Shortly, Al ran up to the opposite mouth of the alley.

"The Freezer isn't here," Edward spoke. "Just what he was up to."

Al walked up to Edward, and when Edward cleared the rocks off the transmutation circle, he clapped his hands, touched the stone in front of the circle, and raised the stone the left part of the circle was on up into the air in a wash of blue light, breaking the circle.

He stood up, turned to Alphonse, and grinned. "So much for whatever rotten trick he had planned. Now, we wait for him to show himself, and beat the stuffing out of him."

Al took a position on the opposite side of the broken circle, looking at the mouth of the alley closest to him, and his brother kept his eyes on the other entrance of the alley.

They didn't have to wait longer than what Ed estimated had been a few minutes when they heard footsteps approaching rapidly.

The male who had once been called the Freezer Alchemist rounded the corner at a partially fast walk, favoring a bloodied left leg, then started and halted. "You have got to be kidding me," McDougal commented. "First a greenhorn, then the naïve child breaks one of the transmutation seals." Ed's eyebrow twitched. "How did you find that circle?"

"We wondered what you were up to here last night," Edward responded, smirking and concealing his anger. "The game is up, bastard. You might as well come quietly."

The Freezer laughed harshly. "Dream on, brat. Get away from that transmutation seal, or I'll remove you from it myself."

"Keep dreaming yourself, you jerk," Ed retorted. "I'm not going to let you perform whatever sick transmutation you intend to. Your murdering spree ends here."

"Dismount your white horse, you naïve idiot," McDougal rejoined. "Your righteous yapping is beginning to tire me. You're no knight in shining armor. You're one of the farthest things from it. You have no idea what's at stake. You're a sheltered Dog of the Military kept so tame you don't know you're feasting on live prey when you're deployed and not eating store food in your kennel. You're the murderer, a mass murderer of defenseless civilians," Al, standing to Ed's left now, gasped, and Ed's jaw dropped at McDougal's accusation, speech fleeing him, "And you don't even see the leash that drags you to the repast."

Edward couldn't respond. He could just bare his teeth and shake with fury.

The former State Alchemist laughed. "Yelp all you want, boy, you know nothing of the wild. I'm doing what has to be done. You don't have the faintest glimmer what shape this country's in. If you knew you'd be helping me as opposed to carrying corpses to your master's tables, or I hope you would."

Ordinarily Ed wouldn't have asked a murderer like McDougal what delusional justification he thought he had for killing people. But ordinarily no one had accused Ed of the mass slaughter of civilians. He wanted to know what McDougal's justification was, so Edward could rip it to shreds before he punched the jerk's lights out. Edward didn't know if he could get a trustworthy answer, but he wanted to make the effort.

Furthermore, he could afford to ask. He and Al had the advantage.

Ed clenched his teeth. "All right," he snarled. "What shape is this nation in?"

McDougal's eyes went wide.

Then he smiled slightly. "Well, well," he spoke. "There's hope you can see your leash after all. Very well. As an alchemist, you've heard of the Philosopher's Stone, correct?"

Edward's eyes widened, and an amount of his anger vanished. That was one of the last things he could have believed he'd hear.

He was extremely skeptical of McDougal's honestly, but his heart nevertheless pounded. Could what they'd been searching for for years have ended up coming to them? When they were on the verge of investigating another possible lead to the Stone?

"Of course," Ed replied, masking his excitement. "Why?"

"Think of what myths claim the Stone can do," McDougal responded. "It can break the Law of Equivalent Exchange, and can supposedly cure any sickness or injury and confer immortality. How, then, can a thing that can reconstruct the laws of life be transmuted into existence?"

Edward was no less skeptical now, but his excitement built. The former State Alchemist was asking that question as if he and Al should be able to figure out the answer without an incredible amount of trouble. Did that mean the Freezer knew how to create the Stone?

Edward's desire to tear up the Freezer's justification now felt incomparably less important.

He shared a look with Al, and Ed could tell from how his brother was standing Al felt the same ways Ed did.

"Why are you asking that as if we should be able to solve the mystery?" Edward queried. "Countless alchemists have spent their lives trying to discover how to transmute the Stone for centuries and failed. Why do you think we could arrive at the means with any less difficulty?"

"Because the countless alchemists who have pursued the Stone were all searching in the wrong direction," McDougal answered. "They all assumed transmuting the Stone requires components and a transmutation equation so brilliant it would take an unprecedented scientific breakthrough to discover how to make it. When, in truth, while the transmutation equation is far from basic, discovering the ingredient for the Stone is alchemy at its simplest."

Edward jolted violently, and his skepticism lessened, his heart rate picking up further. The concept was far too ludicrous for expression to encompass, but it also vouched for McDougal's honesty. Ed doubted the Freezer would have spoken of something so insane when he was attempting to bring them to his point of view; Ed doubted McDougal would risk the tactic of saying something crazy, so they'd fall for his deception because it didn't make sense for him to say it, to change their viewpoints. It had too much of a chance of backfiring and making them less inclined to believe him, and McDougal was pressed for time.

And that might mean McDougal genuinely did know how to transmute the Stone.

"Think about it," McDougal continued. "You know what One is All, All is One means, and you know how the Law of Equivalent Exchange works. What would provide sustenance to something that can alter the laws of life in the chain of the universe, and what would need to be sacrificed to fashion it?"

Ed saw the answer without even needing to think about it, and every last drop of blood drained from his face. Reality reeled and tilted, and Al gasped and began to shake violently.

Edward couldn't process what McDougal had been getting at. Nor was there any way it could be true. There was completely no way the Philosopher's Stone could be transmuted from living human souls! Edward knew well the horrors transcending speech alchemy could create, but alchemy could just fashion those horrors if you tried to break Equivalent Exchange and didn't accept how the flow of the One and the All worked! If what McDougal was saying was true, these horrors were brought about through following the Law of Equivalent Exchange and harnessing the flow of the world as alchemy was supposed to! Alchemy couldn't do, or produce, something that ghastly! Additionally, while alchemists could be amoral bastards, no alchemist would treat human life as a laboratory sample! No alchemist would perform a transmutation like that or transmute something like that!

And if it was true, it might mean there was no way for Ed to restore his brother to a body that could feel, and there was no way for them to get their bodies back.

It didn't matter if it was insane enough to be true. It was still ludicrous enough it couldn't be!

"You're… you're lying to us," Ed responded, voice extremely sick and strangled, and with those words his mind resumed processing reality to an extent. He became aware his heart was beating rapidly for an entirely different reason now, however, and breathing was harder than usual. He wished desperately he could reject the Freezer's words more greatly than he was, outwardly and internally, but Edward didn't have that option. He couldn't turn a blind eye when it was even just a possibility the military was trying to transmute souls into the Philosopher's Stone, or already had, and he couldn't transmute the Stone now to give Al back his body unless Edward was sure he wouldn't sacrifice anyone by doing so. If the Philosopher's Stone already existed, Ed didn't know if he could risk using the Stone. If McDougal was telling the truth, the souls comprising the Stone might still be aware, and it might be possible to return them to their bodies as it might be possible to return Al to his. Even if the souls weren't aware and couldn't be returned to their bodies, they might still be alive and human. Maybe the souls were dead, unaware, not truly aware, or couldn't be restored to their bodies if the Freezer was being honest, and that meant using an existing Stone might not be wrong even if the Stone was transmuted from human souls, but Edward was very unsure he could believe that. He couldn't reject McDougal's words more greatly when Ed's brother and who knew how many other people depended on him knowing if the Freezer was being honest.

Because of that, though Edward didn't want to admit it to himself, he was so terrified he couldn't describe it. That alchemy could genuinely do something as horrible as transmuting living humans or truly create something as horrific as what the Philosopher's Stone would be if it was formed from human souls, that alchemists would truly treat humans as laboratory samples and genuinely enact transmutations or transmute something that did, that the essential thing he had faith in genuinely possessed the ability to be terrible. In addition, he was terrified surmounting the word Al and he would be trapped in their current bodies for the rest of their lives.

"Or you think you're telling the truth but you're actually mistaken," Edward continued. "You're a slimeball who thinks he's discovered something no one else has in your arrogance. State Alchemists are human weapons, but alchemy and alchemists aren't capable of bringing about death that horribly!"

The former State Alchemist snorted. "A Dog of the Military who doesn't know how effectively alchemy can bring death. I never thought I'd encounter it. Alchemists don't need to transmute the Philosopher's Stone to commit mass murder. You must not know how the Ishvalan Civil War was won. Amestris defeated the Ishvalan rebels by deploying State Alchemists to virtually wipe the Ishvalan race from the face of the planet."

Yeah, right.

This claim was out there, but not as out there as the claim finding the ingredient for the Stone was rudimentary alchemy. The Freezer was lying. His words about Ishval weren't as unbelievable as his words about the Stone, so they were almost certainly false, and that revealed he was deceiving them. It was still possible McDougal was telling the truth because he'd spoken of something insane, but it was unlikely in light of his claim about Ishval. How Ed was taking this was absurd. As well, the Freezer was a murderer. He couldn't be trusted. Ed shouldn't be letting this get to him.

Reality stabilized, and he could fully process it.

But why would McDougal say something as crazy as that discovering the ingredient for the Stone was rudimentary alchemy if he was attempting to trick them?

"Do you honestly think I'll believe the military would do that?" Ed questioned. "I know the military isn't an upstanding institution, or alchemists wouldn't be considered stained if they work for it. But the military isn't an oppressor. If it was, it'd have been thrown down long ago."

But he knew that argument had no legs to stand on. Most Amestrians wouldn't care if a rebellion launched by an ethnic minority had been put down so brutally.

Could it be true? Could the military have genuinely committed unimaginable atrocities? Could Mustang and Hawkeye have committed genocide? Could these atrocities have been carried out by transmutations?

Could the Philosopher's Stone truly be composed of human souls?

Edward was terrified now in a way that had just been surpassed by the terror that wasn't terror he'd experienced the night of the failed human transmutation. He didn't care about shredding McDougal's justification any more at all now. He didn't want to hear this any longer.

But there was no choice in the matter. There was a possibility McDougal was telling the truth, so Ed had to continue this discussion. Al and an unknown number of other people were at stake. Ed had to hear more, and try to find out if McDougal was lying or not.

Further, Edward didn't want to even think about the mere possibility any of McDougal's revelations were genuine, but he knew he had to confront the truth. He was an alchemist, and alchemists pursued the truth. He didn't want to face possible truths like these, he wanted to incapacitate the Freezer quickly and turn him over to the military police or Central soldiers and then never go near him or talk to him again, but Edward couldn't practice alchemy if he was unwilling to hear possible truths.

He'd hear the Freezer further, and attempt to discover if McDougal was being honest, and Ed would ask Mustang what had happened in Ishval before they left for Liore. Even if that meant discovering the institution Edward worked for, and the people and friends he knew within it, had committed genocide; the alchemy he trusted in could be terrible; alchemy could create horrors through transmutations that didn't defy Equivalent Exchange or swim against the current of matter that circulated through reality; and he might not be able to give Al back a feeling body.

"I don't think you'll believe me without proof," McDougal responded, looking as if he'd thought something through and made a choice. "But I have proof."

Ed started.

To his shock, McDougal stuck his fingers into his mouth and gagged. When he removed them, he was holding a partially translucent red marble between his fingers.

Most of reality outside of himself, Al, the Freezer, and the red marble ceased to exist, and Edward had an even harder time breathing now, beginning to shake himself, violently. Al's shaking had been subsiding, but now it resumed.

Then powerful desire surged through Ed, and he suppressed it, completely disgusted with himself.

If this genuinely was an already existing Philosopher's Stone, if this meant the Freezer wasn't lying, Ed very possibly couldn't justify using a Stone that had already been transmuted from souls. Not when those souls might be aware, might be able to be restored, might be alive, and remained human. How could he want the Stone this badly now, when McDougal might really be telling the truth!?

Unable to think of what to say, transfixed, looking on with something akin to horrified fascination, Edward saw McDougal reach into his right uniform pants pocket with his right hand and take out a crumpled up piece of paper, flatten it well enough Ed and Alphonse would be able to see the front and back clearly, and show them both sides were blank and had no transmutation circles on them.

The Freezer threw him the paper, and, still unable to think of anything to say, Edward felt over it until he was certain it was nothing more than real paper without anything hidden inside it. Consciously inhaling and exhaling in a futile attempt to breathe close to regularly, his grip on the paper shaking badly, Edward handed the piece of paper to McDougal.

Red coursed out of the marble, over McDougal's body, and onto the piece of paper, and a large diamond grew out of the paper. McDougal threw the diamond and the undamaged paper to Ed, and Ed placed them on the alley floor. He clapped his hands, touched the paper, and transmuted it into an origami fist in currents of blue, transmuting the matter of the paper precisely enough to confirm it possessed the same constitution as regular paper. Then Ed clapped his hands and touched the diamond, transmuting it into a fist in crackling blue and confirming by his ability to transmute it at least part of it was made up of the same matter as regular diamond.

He stood up on a leg that didn't exist and turned to Al, Alphonse now shaking violently. "They're the real things," he said to his brother. "Additionally, McDougal didn't use up any of the matter in the paper to transmute the diamond."

"But that means…" Al breathed. Ed was certain he was going to throw up violently. He knew Al couldn't feel it, but Ed had to do something to try to support his brother, and he gripped Al's arm with his flesh hand, to attempt to give support and draw it from Alphonse.

It was all probably true. The ingredient for transmuting the Philosopher's Stone, and that the military, that friends and other people he knew and worked with, had inflicted genocide. McDougal probably wouldn't have revealed to his enemies he possessed an ace in the hole like the Philosopher's Stone if he wasn't genuinely trying to reach them. He probably would have kept it secret, fought them, and used it to catch them by surprise during the battle.

Please, no. Alchemists wouldn't do things like this. Alchemy couldn't do things like this.

This might mean there was no way to give Al his body back.

This couldn't be real.

But it probably was the truth. Alchemy probably could warp the lives, face to face with the probable existence of these atrocities, he was genuinely seeing as what they were for the first time in all their priceless capacity for happiness and fathomless ability to experience torture. Alchemists probably would alter these incomprehensibly alive people. He couldn't deny this reality.

No. Oh, please. No.

The Freezer gave them an amused look. "This shouldn't be difficult for you to accept, even though you weren't aware about Ishval. Alchemists warp human lives as though humans are no more than lab samples all the time. As a State Alchemist, you should know that better than most. Dogs of the Military are human weapons who kill when ordered to without speaking a whisper requesting their orders be retracted." Edward held Al's arm tighter. "Are you truly so naïve you've been thinking of their murders as something different than 'warping people's lives?'"

Edward had been, but he wasn't so clueless he couldn't see there was no other valid way to think of murder. That meant, even though it still wasn't wholly a sure thing McDougal was being honest, alchemists did treat human life as no more than a laboratory sample. That much was irrefutable. Nor was it just unique, incredibly unscrupulous alchemists who did. Common alchemists treated humans as lab samples.

Further, now that Ed could see how naïve he'd been, he could see he hadn't even genuinely comprehended what the amoral words and actions he'd been aware alchemists were willing to say and take had meant. Those words and actions, too, altered human life. He'd just never thought of it that way before.

Whether the Freezer was being honest or not, the reality Ed was now truly aware of wasn't what Ed had thought it was. It, and alchemy, and alchemists, were far more horrible than he could have dreamed of in his worst nightmares even after what he and Alphonse had been through and seen the night of the human transmutation.

Please. No.

"So you have been." McDougal shook his head. "Unbelievable.

"At any rate, the military gave me this," McDougal said, holding out the Philosopher's Stone, "As a weapon to amplify my Water Alchemy during the Ishvalan Civil War." Edward found himself unable to look away from the Freezer's Stone, even though seeing it now made his stomach heave violently. That thing was probably distilled people. "It's an experimental substance transmuted as a prototype Stone that could collapse at any time. But the military researchers who have transmuted them were able to confirm the real Philosopher's Stone is also created from human souls by studying this. The missing piece of the puzzle the Fϋhrer and High Command," this went all the way to the top? But Edward was having too much trouble taking in this new reality, horrible more than thought could convey, to be extremely shocked or anything else, "didn't give them is the proper equation, not the proper ingredient or proper ingredients.

"But the government already knows the proper equation. It's known it for centuries, since before it founded this nation." Now Ed did experience shock beyond shock, and he suppressed his impulse to tell McDougal he was lying again. The concept the government had been deceiving the people of Amestris since Amestris was born was even crazier than the concept discovering the ingredient for the Stone was rudimentary alchemy, but McDougal's revelation he possessed a prototype Stone made his honesty probable. "The researchers who transmuted these were put to work to create Philosopher's Stones for the military without being told their research was meant to supplement what the government already possessed, and is seeking to obtain. The government has transmuted thousands of true Philosopher's Stones."

Ed had to be dreaming. He could just be hearing this in a dream. There was utterly no way something that farfetched could be real.

But the cold metal of Al's armor shaking violently under his left hand proved this was no dream.

Maybe Edward was the insane one. Maybe that explained why he was hearing this.

Maybe that explained why he was buying this, because a sane mind shouldn't have been able to, no matter how much the former State Alchemist's revelation he had a prototype Stone vouched for his honesty.

But Ed knew better than that. The Freezer's revelation he possessed a prototype Stone made his honesty probable, so a sane mind could believe this. Edward wished he could believe he might be insane, but he was aware he wasn't able to.

"They've spread them underground as Amestris has expanded to partially inhibit the connection Amestrian alchemists have with the tectonic energy that powers their transmutations," McDougal was continuing. "I assume the legendary 'Western Sage' who taught Amestrians how to harness tectonic energy was in league with the founders of Amestris, and he or she taught the people who lived in what became Amestris to harness tectonic energy so the future citizens of Amestris would use a form of alchemy the government could control and keep from being wielded against them. I don't practice Amestrian alchemy any longer. I practice alkahestry, the alchemic techniques of the nation of Xing to the east, to keep the government from transmuting with the Stones to entirely block my connection to my power source.

"But the government's brutal suppression of the Ishvalan rebellion and their willingness to sacrifice human lives to control and oppress its people scratch the surface of how far they're willing to go. Amestris was founded, taught a field of alchemy that would make it prosperous and encourage people to emigrate to it, and expanded through conquest for a single purpose, and over the centuries since its inception the government has orchestrated massive bloodshed at specific locations, at the lost nation of Riviere and Fisk and Ishval and multiple other places, gradually accomplishing that purpose. It's a purpose Amestris is now on the verge of fulfilling. I don't know what they want it for, but the government founded Amestris to fashion an underground nationwide transmutation circle meant to convert its innumerable residents and visitors into components of a special, colossal Philosopher's Stone."

The rest of reality vanished.

On the farthest edges of his perception, Edward was aware Al had grabbed him around the back and was holding him up with a violently shaking arm, and Ed's violently shaking automail arm was partway around Al's back, attempting to further offer him support, but those things felt as if they were happening somewhere so far away the distance could never be measured or crossed, and they were distorted, and as if they were happening to two other people, not him and his brother.

This was part of the flow of the One and the All? This could happen within reality when the cause wasn't a natural disaster like the meteor strike that had wiped out the dinosaurs? Alchemists were willing to do this? Alchemy, the alchemy he believed in, could do this?

"That can't be." Horror had shrunk Al's voice down to something very small, and it was a voice that sounded like it wasn't aware anything whatsoever existed. "I can believe you about the prototype Stones and the regular real Stones, and about Ishval, but this… whatever you experienced in Ishval destroyed your ability to see people for what they are. You must be wrong about this. No one is capable of the kind of inhumanity you're talking about. People can be cruel and apathetic, but this… no one is that indifferent to suffering and death."

"Grow up, boy," McDougal answered, but there was sympathy in his voice now. "Humans can sink to depths of depravity you've never dreamed of in your sheltered world. Doctors in Ishval burnt countless Ishvalan prisoners, spread toxic chemicals on them, injected poisons into them, tortured them with instruments, and experimented on them in assorted other ways to test the effects of injury and pain on the human body, then dissected their corpses to study the human body further, and didn't hesitate once to do it." Edward felt his mind retreating further and further from reality as McDougal talked. "I've seen soldiers shoot elderly Ishvalans who can barely walk, women, children, and infants without batting an eye because they were ordered to. I'm not wrong. I know exactly what people are capable of. The world's not a kind and happy place like it's portrayed in a children's storybook. That's something you need to learn if you genuinely want to be an alchemist. If you're not willing to face the truth, you have no business studying alchemy."

Edward didn't want to face the truth any more. He wanted to wake up in his warm bed with the Sunlight streaming through the curtains and the smell of Mom's pancakes in the air and run into the kitchen and bury himself in her warm embrace and close his eyes, and stay there, safe and protected from a reality immeasurably more sadistic than the human mind, awake or asleep, should have been able to think of. Edward wanted to wake up to Al's heartbeat against his as Edward held his brother after he'd been driven into Ed's bed after a nightmare and discover that everything that had happened since Mom's collapse from illness had been nothing more than a delirious nightmare Edward's mind had conjured up in the midst of a fever, that Mom was alive and fully healthy and Al was warm and whole and Edward was completely intact and that was never going to change. He wanted to lose himself in an alchemy textbook opened in front of him on the floor with Al laying at his side reading the book too and Den's warm and furry body resting atop the backs of their legs, then argue with Al over whether all the parts of the hypothesis or theory or law they'd read made sense until Mom interrupted them and told them it was time to do their homework. Ed wanted to race outside to Winry's trying and failing to outpace the more athletic Al and run with Al and Winry with the soft green grass under his bare feet and cerulean skies above them with fluffy clouds drifting through it and the gentle breeze blowing on their faces, and laugh and roll through the grass with them as they immersed themselves in a three-way tickle fight.

He didn't want to confront this life any longer.

Even the failed human transmutation hadn't prepared him for this. It hadn't come the slightest bit close.

Death and suffering like this was part of the flow of matter in reality!? How could anyone face a reality like that!?

And why should he face the truth? The Philosopher's Stone really existed, but he might not be able to use it anyway. Everything might have all been for nothing. Joining the military, tainting his name, all the researching, all the traveling, all the missions he'd had to achieve to fulfill his duty as a soldier, all the times they'd chased the most unbelievable rumors, all of it. They might be condemned to live this way for the rest of their lives. What was the point of confronting the truth now, when Al–

No. That wasn't a question.

That was why he had to face the truth. As hard as it was for him to look at what McDougal had told him, although he couldn't accept it, his much kinder younger brother must be taking it much harder. That was why he had to face this life. He had to take care of Al.

That was all that mattered.

Reality returned, though it was endlessly darker and colder and more ghastly than thought could comprehend. Inexpressibly wishing he could reach the top of his brother's head, Ed placed his hand on Al's shoulder and rubbed it, trying to still his arm's shakes.

The Freezer's eyes widened.

"It's okay," Ed spoke gently to his brother. "If McDougal is telling the truth, we won't let any of this happen." Could he truly believe that? This was far too big for Edward to even wrap his mind around. Could he tackle something of this scale? But it didn't matter if he could. He couldn't walk away from an abomination that would kill Al, Winry, Granny, and Ed's friends if it was put in motion, or at the least trap Al's soul in a worse state than he was already in and rip Winry and Granny and all Ed's other friends from their bodies too. Limitations defying terror and terror of Al and Winry and Granny dying or all but dying, and of losing them as he'd lost his mother, consumed him completely. This time Al and Winry and Granny needed to be saved, so Edward had to tackle anything, no matter how large it was. Nor could he turn away from an atrocity this horrific, even more so because he was now aware of what the lives of people other than Al's and Winry's and Granny's truly were after what he'd found out about the Philosopher's Stone, Ishval, and the nationwide transmutation circle. He had to try. Furthermore, how big something was had never stopped him before, so it wasn't going to stop him now. "The military won't do what they did in Ishval again, and myself and Winry and Granny and you and the people in this nation won't be sacrificed to fashion a Stone."

Al didn't respond right away, but after a few seconds passed his shaking began to subside again. After a few more seconds he said, voice very unsteady but no longer small, "That's right. Nothing will happen to me or Winry or Granny or you. And we won't let any of it take place. Be assured of that, Brother."

Ed had nothing in him that could smile, but he forced himself to do it anyway at his brother's attempt to comfort him.

Ed anchored himself with the familiar coldness of Al's metal arm around his back and drew strength from that reassuring and familiar hardness and cold to settle a stomach that wanted to retch violently for eternity as best as he could; to banish the terror, and worse, for the danger he now knew Al and Winry and Granny and uncountable other people were in as best as Ed could; and to banish the terror of this new, abominable reality he now found himself in and everything else as best as he could.

Then he looked at the former State Alchemist.

"Believe me," Edward spoke. "We know all about facing the truth."

One corner of McDougal's mouth turned up slightly. "Perhaps you do. Teenagers no more extraordinary than ones with the inner strength to serve, or work with, the military wouldn't have recovered this quickly. And teenagers no more extraordinary than those would be doubled over throwing up." Edward winced, and as he had so many times before, he wondered who he would be now if he hadn't lost his innocence that night of blood and blinding pain and incomprehensible loss surmounting thought. "You must have already been through something horrible."

Ed grimaced. "You have no idea."

"So you'll help me?" McDougal asked. "Then stand aside and let me fix that seal."

The concept of even thinking of talking to someone who had probably helped commit genocide on cordial terms, never mind working with that person, caused Ed to feel uncomfortable, and the former State Alchemist was a murderer. But Edward knew thinking of the former State Alchemist as any more of a murderer than Mustang or most other soldiers were probably made no sense. McDougal was probably telling the truth, so he was probably no more or less guilty of killing than most other members of the military. Additionally, Ed wasn't going to stop being Hawkeye's and Armstrong's friend, and would still fight at their sides if they needed his help, even though they had probably assisted in the massacre of the Ishvalans. So as uncomfortable thinking of talking to, or working with, someone who had probably perpetrated exterminating a race made Edward, he couldn't let his discomfort affect whether or not he allied with the Freezer. Even more so with how incomprehensibly much was at stake.

But Ed crossed his arms, suppressing a surge of misgiving. He couldn't give up on his morals because he needed to deal with people incomparably more amoral than he could have believed it was possible for people to be, and immeasurably more was at stake than he could have believed it was possible for things to be. He couldn't let McDougal continue to murder. "No. I'm not going to let the Fϋhrer sacrifice the people in this nation, but I'm not going to let you sacrifice anyone to stop him either."

McDougal scowled. "This isn't the time for idealism, boy. I'm doing what I'm doing because humans are capable of this. The government just needs to orchestrate extensive bloodshed at two more points on the circle to finish powering it, and I'm sure they're done digging it or are close to finished digging it. The circle could be complete in a matter of months. I need to throw Bradley down without delay. Don't tell me to search for a better way. I can't risk millions of lives for a virtuous daydream."

"Dismount your white horse," Ed threw the Freezer's words back in his face. "You'll never convince me it's right to fight bloodshed with bloodshed. I am going to help you." Even though Edward knew he couldn't do something different, he still couldn't believe he was saying those words to someone who had probably assisted in carrying out genocide.

Nor, even though he was going to do it, could he believe he was going to continue to call people who had probably assisted in committing genocide friends, he cared about the welfare of all the people inside Amestris and the military's doings and goals, or he was standing in a narrow alley discussing high treason against the government of the nation he lived in with a rebel. How had his whole life been upended so completely in such a short amount of time?

"But I'll help you in a way no one gets killed in the process," Edward finished.

It would be a lot easier to thwart the Fϋhrer and High Command by warning the populace of what it was safe to reveal the government was doing. Many people wouldn't believe Ed and Al, but enough would the Fϋhrer would likely be cast down.

However, taking that path had a much greater chance of leading to bloodshed. Under other circumstances, Ed would have taken it and tried to keep it from causing death after warning the people. He wasn't going to let someone kill if he was in a position to make a difference and stop it, but, as much as he loathed doing it, he was willing to fight at the side of others who were willing to kill if he couldn't convince those people not to kill, knew his chances of doing so were unlikely, or couldn't otherwise prevent murder. He'd done it plenty of times since becoming a Dog of the Military, and he could do it again.

But if he took that road now, he'd have no alternatives to give McDougal that might truly avert bloodshed, and giving the Freezer such an alternative might be the only way Edward could convince him not to try to execute his plan, whatever it was. Not taking that trail meant Ed was being far more irresolute than he usually was, but Ed couldn't allow the Freezer to attempt to. Ed and Al couldn't solve this by alerting the public of the Fϋhrer's schemes.

McDougal laughed. "'No one' gets killed? What kind of a wool-headed naïve idealist are you? No matter what method I use, the Fϋhrer and High Command aren't going to meekly step down. I'll have to shed blood to save this country regardless of what path I take."

"Do you truly want to resign yourself to that when there's still time to search for alternatives and you have a State Alchemist on the inside willing to help you?" Edward responded.

Nor could he believe he was willing to remain a State Alchemist now that he knew what the military was probably striving to do. But he had to. If he didn't, they might not be able to overthrow the government without shedding blood.

"Or were you lying when you spoke of wanting to stop bloodshed in Amestris?" Edward asked.

McDougal's face became a mask, and Ed waited as the former State Alchemist thought.

At last he sighed heavily and replied, "You have a point. You're right. I don't want to resign myself to shedding blood if I can avoid it. If you have any ideas for how to save Amestris without shedding blood, I'll try to see them through."

Ed sighed in relief. Irrational as it was, he still wanted to beat the stuffing out of McDougal, but it was better they resolved this nonviolently.

He hoped this meant they had resolved this nonviolently. The former State Alchemist probably wasn't lying about Ishval and the Stone, but there was no guarantee he wasn't lying about his willingness not to shed blood in order to trick them into leaving the "transmutation seal" so he could return to it once they were gone.

But Ed had to trust McDougal was also telling the truth about this. There was too much at stake to do otherwise. Edward didn't involve other people in his and Al's problems unless there was no other choice he could make, but this was a time there was no other choice. This was too big for Ed to tackle with no one but Al assisting him. Ed needed McDougal's help, and that meant Ed had to trust the Freezer.

Edward hoped he was doing the right thing.

"But if you don't have any plans," McDougal went on, "Or your plans don't get us anywhere, I'm staying with or returning to my current method." His eyes challenged Edward to try and stop him if he did, and Ed met his gaze, challenging him back to try to pull it off again. "That's all I'll agree to." Edward wasn't disappointed. This was the reply he'd believed he'd get.

"Do you have any ideas?"

Edward did, but he wasn't sure the one he had was a good one. Asking Mustang for help had as much of a chance of getting people murdered as letting McDougal activate his transmutation seal did. But it was the only way Edward could think of he would even have a chance at saving Amestris without shedding blood.

Ed didn't want to talk about his idea, though. He had to involve other people this time, but Ed could think of just one other person he'd want to ask for help less than Mustang.

There was way too much at stake for this to be the time for Ed's issues with the Colonel, though, and although he didn't want to admit it to himself, now that he was thinking about it, he knew Mustang could be trusted. Hawkeye, too. There was far too much at stake for Edward to let his discomfort prevent him from speaking to Mustang and Hawkeye, as well.

"I'll talk to Mustang," Ed replied. McDougal frowned. "You can trust him. I've worked under him for years at the Eastern Command Center, and while he's a bastard, he has standards. He'd never be a knowing party to something like what you're talking about. We'll investigate the military's dirty dealings, find proof of their abuses of power, and expose what we can to the military at large without revealing anything about the Philosopher's Stone to them. Whatever orders they followed in Ishval, I doubt most of the soldiers in the military will willingly obey their superiors when they find out they're being ordered to slaughter the entire population of the nation." Edward was experiencing additional discomfort at the concept of working with many of the soldiers who had slaughtered the Ishvalans, but he wasn't letting his discomfort persuade him to alter his idea. "If their own military turns against them, High Command and the Fϋhrer will be at a disadvantage and might abdicate without it coming to a fight, in possession of Philosopher's Stones or not."

"That's hopelessly naïve," the Freezer returned, "And childish. But there's a small chance it will work.

"So what the heck?" The Freezer looked amused he was saying this. "Give it a shot, and I'll hope my pragmatism is proven unnecessary and your idea works."

Ed blinked. "You won't be helping us investigate?"

McDougal sighed in exasperation. "I can see you're a greenhorn too. You're skilled at fighting, but you have lousy operational sense. If we work together in each other's company, there's too much of a risk of you being seen with me and identified as traitors." Oh. Of course. How could Edward have missed that? "I'll give you the leads I'm aware of, but that's all I can do unless you're successful in getting enough of the military on your side they'll turn a blind eye to my presence. I'll find a place to lay low and record my studies of alkahestry in encoded tomes, then get them to you and Mustang, so the government can't prevent you from transmuting if things get ugly."

"Point taken," Ed spoke. "What are your leads?"

"I was given my fake Philosopher's Stone by the Celestial Catalyst Alchemist," McDougal responded, "Tim Marcoh. He and the researchers working under him transmuted Stones at the supposedly abandoned Laboratory Five here in Central by using prisoners condemned to death as the ingredients. Marcoh vanished at the end of the Ishvalan War of Extermination, however, and I don't know what's become of him. I can give you a list of the researchers working with him, though, in case any of them are still serving the military. Marcoh's the one who told me how the Stone was made. I was appalled at how much destruction it could wreck and returned it to him, but Marcoh said it was better off in my hands than in the hands of someone more amoral, and told me the reasons why were also because of how it was transmuted. Then he told me how to create it.

"I found out about the existence of the underground network of Philosopher's Stones from an Ishvalan alchemist when the war was almost over. I was ambushed by Ishvalans on a scouting mission, badly wounded, and left for dead, and the Ishvalan alchemist found me and used alkahestry to heal my injuries. He wore glasses and transmuted using tattoos covering his left and right arms. As gratitude for him saving my life, I let him know I intended to resign my commission after the war was over and try to overthrow the government, thus preventing Amestris from inflicting such atrocities on ethnic minorities again. The alchemist advised me not to use Amestrian alchemy to oppose them, and told me he'd discovered souls were gathered together like they were in a Philosopher's Stone under all Amestris, and what they were doing. The Ishvalans who survived the Extermination War are scattered all over Amestris now, but if he survived, maybe you'll be able to find him. But be prepared; the Ishvalan religion forbids alchemy, so the alchemist may be hiding his practice of it.

"Regretfully, I have no leads to offer you that might give you evidence Bradley is constructing a nationwide transmutation circle. I discovered it exists myself after I resigned as a State Alchemist. I didn't understand why the Fϋhrer had expended so many resources pacifying Ishval, too many for me to believe the reason was to discourage rebellion elsewhere with a show of overwhelming force, when there was no vitally important reason it be kept stable. I looked into the methods the government had used to suppress other revolts, seeking an answer, and it was then I saw all the most brutally suppressed revolts, including Ishval, had occurred at places that matched the points of the transmutation circle used to fashion the Philosopher's Stone in Laboratory Five. I researched what, if any, bloody incidents had occurred at the other points, and what I found confirmed my suspicions and revealed this had been happening since the beginning of Amestris.

"I can, however, tell you where the two places that have yet to see extensive bloodshed are. The town of Liore," Ed started, "In the northeast, and Fort Briggs, at the northern border with Drachma."

All-consuming desperate hope this was a lie took Edward. Perhaps McDougal had found out they'd been deployed to Liore before Mustang had assigned them to take down the Freezer, and had chosen this lie because he could fit Liore into it and cater to their existing beliefs something unusual might be going on there.

No. That still wouldn't give McDougal reason to prove to an enemy he possessed an imperfect Philosopher's Stone.

That Liore was being targeted by Bradley was probably nothing but an ironic coincidence.

"You're a naive greenhorn," the former State Alchemist spoke, "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Do you have any advice for me?"

Ed tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind, and that made him feel very uncomfortable. For the first time he became aware how truly far in over his head he was in this.

But that also hadn't stopped him before, so it wasn't about to stop him now, too.

"I'm sorry," Ed responded. "I don't have any idea what to say."

The Freezer snorted. "At least you're honest about it."

He looked around Edward at McDougal's broken transmutation seal, and Edward tensed. But the Freezer just sighed.

"There's no time like the present," he spoke. "I'd best pull out of Central."

He put his Stone in his mouth and swallowed it.

Edward wasn't sure whether or not he was irritated at the surge of concern he experienced. "Is that safe?" he asked. "If the Philosopher's Stone is transmuted from human souls, isn't making it a part of your body dangerous for your soul?"

"It's safe to my knowledge," McDougal replied. "Occasionally swallowing it transmutes my pupils from blue to red for the duration of its stay inside my body, and my body retches the Stone up every few days, but other than that, swallowing it does nothing to me I'm aware of."

Ed nodded.

McDougal bent and picked up the piece of paper and the diamond, then pocketed the diamond, took a pen out of his left uniform pants pocket, and wrote a number of names on the piece of paper.

"These are the names of the researchers who worked under Doctor Marcoh." He gave the paper to Edward and Ed took it and put it in his pocket. "I'll be in touch." He turned to walk off.

Disgusted with himself, Edward suppressed the urge to ask McDougal to let him keep the Stone. McDougal needed all the aces in the hole the Freezer could possess to defend himself, and if Ed could use a Stone to give Al his body back, Ed could find one underground easily enough. They no longer needed to search for the Philosopher's Stone. The question now was whether they could use it.

It was a question Edward extremely highly doubted he'd be able to answer any time in the near future with what else he'd learned tonight.

There had been thousands of Philosopher's Stones beneath his feet all this time. The knowledge staggered him.

McDougal walked out of the alley, and if Ed hadn't needed to support his brother, he would have fallen to his knees.

The Philosopher's Stone was composed of living humans. The military had founded Amestris, orchestrated massive bloodshed and a genocidal war, and enlarged the nation through wars, to turn its countless residents into a Philosopher's Stone, and if they were successful Al and Winry and Granny would be among them. Common alchemists warped humans as though they were laboratory samples. The alchemy he believed in could inflict horrors nothing in human history could even brush.

They might not be able to get their bodies back. It might all have been a wild goose chase after all.

Edward didn't know how much time passed, barely aware he was looking out at the alley, before Al queried, "Brother?" voice very unsteady and horrified and terrified and agonized and worried more than Edward could fathom. "What do we do now?"

How could he answer that? Besides saying the obvious, they couldn't walk away from everyone who was in danger so they had to try to overthrow Fϋhrer Bradley? "I don't know."

The familiar indefinable terror consumed him completely, and he could no longer take it. He had to question it.

"Al," he began. "There's something I've wanted to ask you for a long time, but I've never brought it up because I've been afraid of your reply."

"Why is that?" Al questioned.

"Because…" Edward's lungs stopped working, and he couldn't think. He couldn't talk about it, and he started to shake violently. He was an alchemist, but there were truths he couldn't face under every circumstance. If Al said he hated him, it would destroy everything that comprised Ed's existence, and Ed was in much less condition to go through that now than he would be if he hadn't just learned what he'd learned.

"Never mind," Edward finished.

He didn't know what to say, and he extremely highly doubted Al did, so there was almost certainly nothing to talk about now. He extricated himself from Al's hold.

"We don't have time now to worry about how" 'how,' not 'if,' "we're going to get our bodies back if we can't use the Philosopher's Stone," Ed spoke. "Let's find the Colonel."

.

Colonel Mustang was standing at the corner of two boulevards near the Central Command Center, Lieutenant Hawkeye and a group of soldiers clustered with him. The Flame Alchemist was drenched all over save for on the reactive gloves on his hands, had an aggravated frown on his face, and Lieutenant Hawkeye was holding a briefcase Ed assumed possessed spare reactive gloves with Flame Alchemy transmutation circles for Mustang to wear.

The Colonel had obviously encountered McDougal and paid for it.

If circumstances had been ordinary, to the extent that anything in Ed's life could have been termed "ordinary," Edward would have smirked, proceeded to give the Colonel as hard a time as he could, and savored every instant. It wasn't often the Colonel was inconvenienced this greatly.

But circumstances were so far from "ordinary" now no speech could encompass how much.

And just seeing Mustang and Hawkeye made Edward more uncomfortable in countless ways. He was trying to accept the knowledge the Colonel and Hawkeye had probably assisted in massacring the Ishvalans, and Edward was continuing to think of Hawkeye as a friend and Mustang as an acquaintance Ed could talk to, but it didn't prevent him from feeling this uncomfortable. Seeing McDougal was one thing. Ed didn't know the former State Alchemist, and Ed didn't need to continue to think of McDougal as a friend. But the Colonel and Hawkeye were people Ed knew, and he felt betrayed they had probably participated in exterminating an ethnic group. Further, Hawkeye was a friend.

Feeling betrayed was irrational. The Ishvalan Civil War had ended before Edward had met Mustang and the Lieutenant. Edward shouldn't feel betrayed by them for actions they'd probably taken before he'd met them. But he did all the same. Furthermore, feeling more uncomfortable seeing Hawkeye because he still thought of the Lieutenant as a friend was irrational as well. He wasn't just going to remain her friend, he knew her well enough to know she wasn't an apathetic or sadistic monster, and almost certainly wouldn't have murdered noncombatants.

But the Colonel and she had still probably aided and abetted a massacre. It was irrational, but Edward still felt further uncomfortable at the concept of speaking to them.

Hawkeye noticed him and Al first as they walked up to the gathering of soldiers, and if she was surprised at the look that must be on Ed's face, she didn't show it. "Edward," she greeted. "No luck finding him, huh?"

"I'll give you my report in private," Ed answered. "Can we talk somewhere away from these other soldiers?"

"And give McDougal the chance to sneak by me and humiliate me again?" Mustang responded. "Not happening."

Edward clenched his teeth.

"Throw your stupid ego in a ditch," Ed rejoined, and Mustang bristled. "This involves alchemical secrets regular people shouldn't know."

Mustang's demeanor became professional. "Is that so?" he asked. "Very well." He gestured at a darkened store with his head. "We'll talk in a back room in there." He looked at the other soldiers. "If any of you see McDougal or evidence he's nearby, alert me right away."

"Yes, sir," one of the soldiers replied, saluting.

.

Mustang stood in the aisle of the storage room, no hint of what he was feeling on his face. Lieutenant Hawkeye stood next to him, and her face was professional and even more unreadable.

Finally Mustang said, "I, too, wondered why so many resources had been expended stabilizing Ishval. But I never imagined the reason was something like this. To think we did more than exterminate a racial minority."

So that much of what McDougal had claimed was true beyond doubt. The Ishvalan Civil War had been won by massacring the Ishvalan race.

And Mustang and Hawkeye had participated in the genocide.

As opposed to growing, Ed's discomfort lessened extremely slightly, but he wasn't surprised. It was easier for him to deal with something when he knew the truth.

"To think we were helping our government exterminate the entire populace of the country," Mustang continued.

"So you believe McDougal is telling the truth?" Al queried.

"There's little doubt of it," the Colonel replied, and Ed bit down on his tongue hard to keep reality from vanishing or becoming unstable, reached up to Al's right shoulder, the one closest to him this time, and rubbed it. Edward tried to keep from shaking this time, and was partially successful, and Al put the right arm he was also clearly trying to keep from shaking around his brother's back. "Freezer was one of the most principled soldiers in the military. It's possible Ishval could have changed him before he resigned, but if he was going to lie to a State Alchemist to trick him or her into helping him succeed in a revolution, he would have done that in the first place."

That was true. His mind searched for a counterargument, but Ed knew he was in denial. He let almost all his remaining hope McDougal had been lying die away.

After numerous seconds, his shakes stopped, and several seconds later, Al's did too. Ed took a deep, shaking, shuddering breath, then dropped his hand from his brother's shoulder and walked out of Al's arm.

"Then are you going to help us stop them?" Al asked. "And avoid murdering anyone in the process?"

Mustang glared, and there was something else in his expression Edward couldn't identify. "Do you honestly believe I'd let the Fϋhrer destroy the nation I'm serving? Of course I'll topple Bradley and High Command.

"Nor am I going to take a course of action that might get the soldiers I serve with killed if I can avoid it. If I don't have any other choice, I'll take that road, but so long as I have other options, I'm not going to harm them."

Edward knew this was the best he could hope for, and sagged.

"But I'm ordering you two to leave this to me." Edward stiffened. "This mess is far too big for children to clean up. Give me your list of researchers, and then end your disloyalty to the military for the most part and search for another way to regain your bodies using military resources. Don't go near Liore, or Laboratory Five, or anywhere that might be connected to the government's scheme. Don't participate in any assignments you believe are advancing Bradley's plot, but otherwise be as loyal as you used to be. I'll unseat the Fϋhrer and High Command myself."

Ed glared himself. "Forget it."

"You'd defy a direct order from a superior officer?" Mustang questioned warningly.

"We're discussing an illegal operation taking place outside of the military's chain of command," Ed rejoined. "You have no authority over me when it comes to this."

The Colonel sighed heavily. "True." Concern showed briefly on his face, and Edward scowled. Mustang was one of the last people he wanted concerned for him. "Then take this as the advice of an adult far more familiar with the ways of the world than a child. You have no idea what you're getting into, or how to play a high-stakes game of intrigue. If you stick your head into this, it will be devoured. You're inexperienced, and your modus operandi makes you ill equipped to play this game as well. You're rash, reckless, impulsive, and bullheaded." Ed suppressed a rush of anger, surprised the Colonel could get to him at this time. "The leaders of this country have been hiding their schemes from the people since they founded it and are far better at using their brains than you are. They'll lure you into a trap and you and your brother will die. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not," Ed responded, trying to keep his voice composed. "But I'm an alchemist." He'd thought he'd learned the night of their failed human transmutation how intertwined practicing alchemy and responsibility were, but he now knew he had merely begun to understand. Only now was he truly aware how inextricably responsibility and alchemy were connected.

How ironic he'd learn that by discovering alchemy wasn't the panacea he'd believed it was most of his life.

"Alchemists are supposed to use their arts for the people for a reason; alchemy can be used for the betterment of others in ways…" He trailed off. Before tonight, he would have said "other arts can't do more than dream of," but alchemy had betrayed him now in one of the worst possible ways "…Nothing else can, so it needs to be. That means I need to. If I walked away from this and just continued to search for a way to get our bodies back, I'd be betraying my responsibilities in one of the worst ways. I have to involve myself in this. You have to understand that. You talked about serving your nation. It's my responsibility to serve other people."

Mustang's face became a mask for several seconds, and then he spoke, "True. I do understand."

Ed forced himself to grin slightly, and tried to savor his rare victory over the Colonel.

"But for once in your life," Mustang went on, "Please, listen to me. If you're going to work with me to overthrow puppeteers, you've got to stop approaching difficulties rashly. If you're rash, or reckless, in how you try to topple the government, you'll be a liability to us, and you'll get yourself and your brother killed. I know you see my point. You're a child prodigy. You became a State Alchemist at age twelve. You're a genius. You have a brain in there, so please, for once, use it for something other than studying alchemy. Do you honestly believe you can outwit people who have been stringing along a whole nation for over three hundred fifty years with the way you approach hardship?"

Edward had intended to remind Mustang of all the proof the Colonel had Ed did use his brain for things other than alchemy, and he wasn't as rash as Mustang was accusing him of being. But at Mustang's question, doubt rose. Edward didn't want to admit it, but that was a very good query. He wasn't as reckless as people often accused him of being, and he knew that, but he also knew he was reckless. It hadn't gotten him in the trouble people kept saying it was going to get him into, so he'd seen no reason to change it, but he knew he was reckless.

Did he believe he could outmaneuver puppeteers who had been deceiving millions of people for centuries if he kept being rash?

He was aware of the answer to that.

But his ego didn't like acknowledging Mustang was right. So he said, "Sorry, but I have no intention of turning into your tame hound. I won't run out until you're done saying everything you have to talk about again, but I won't guarantee I'll do things your way."

Mustang opened his lips over part of one side of his mouth and blew air out through the opening, but he appeared to be aware that was the best he was going to get from Edward, for the Colonel nodded.

"I'll have to be satisfied with that," Mustang spoke.

"Good," Ed replied.

He sighed. He didn't want to continue after what had just passed between them, but he knew he had to. He opened his mouth–

"What do you think Brother and I should do first?" Al queried.

Ed gave his brother a grateful smile.

"First," Mustang spoke back, "I'll tell the soldiers outside you two got into another fight with Freezer and he escaped using transmutations that are best kept secret. Then we wait for the search for Freezer to die down, freeing you two to move around more freely."

"We don't need to be able to move around more freely to sneak into Laboratory Five," Edward argued. "While we're waiting, Al and I will check the place out."

"That's a bad idea," Hawkeye put in. "If anyone sees you there that soon after you were assigned to deal with McDougal, the Fϋhrer will know the Freezer told you about him. Leave Laboratory Five to us. You should go to Liore as you were originally deployed to. You purchased train tickets for Liore before the Colonel assigned you to defeat the Freezer, and that purchase will be on your official State Alchemist account records, so if you do anything suspicious there, the government will have little reason to believe you're onto them and will probably think you're poking your noses into trouble like you usually do. The Lieutenant and I will bring Maes Hughes in on this," Edward experienced more discomfort, "And, among other things, ask him to investigate Laboratory Five."

Ed suppressed the urge to ask if Hughes could be trusted. Mustang and Hawkeye were no one's fools. They wouldn't have talked about involving him if they weren't certain it was safe.

"I'm fairly sure I know what Bradley's plans for Liore are," Mustang said. "The priest we've heard rumors about who can supposedly work miracles has likely been ordered or tricked into turning his believers into an army that will launch a revolt disguised as a holy war, giving the military cause to brutally suppress it. As the Lieutenant spoke of, you'll be more free to act in Liore. So once you're in Liore, I want you to find out whether the priest is an innocent dupe, an ambitious dupe intentionally misleading his followers, or is in on the plot. If he's an innocent pawn, I want you to warn him he's being used and convince him to stop spreading his religion."

The concept of revealing to others their essential beliefs were lies caused Ed's stomach to heave violently now that he knew what it was like for the essential things he trusted in to betray him, and this would be far worse. Alchemy had betrayed Ed, but he still knew beyond doubt its laws were the Truth. The essential things he trusted in had been proven to be illusions, but his core beliefs hadn't. The foundation of his life was no deception. This would be revealing to people the very basis of their lives were lies. He felt even sicker because he could now see what those lives were in everything that meant.

But there was no other choice he could make. He had to do it, whether it sickened him this badly or not.

More irony. If his trip to Liore hadn't been delayed and he'd encountered evidence the priest was a fraud and might genuinely have the Stone without knowing it was almost certain the Stone was real, he would have wanted to expose the priest if he had to to obtain the Philosopher's Stone, and wouldn't have cared as much about what he'd do to the townsfolk in the process. He'd have cared, but less, and he wouldn't have been as aware of who the people were he was hurting.

Now that he knew the Stone was real, exposing the priest and hurting the townsfolk was one of the last things he wanted to do. Yet another way his life had been turned upside down.

"If he's an ambitious pawn or in on the plot," the Flame Alchemist was going on, "I want him pulled from his pulpit, but make sure you don't give him reason to believe you're aware he's anything more than a regular criminal. Whatever his culpability, I want that priest exposed.

"Don't search for the underground circle while you're in Liore, however, or wreck the portion of it there if any of it is there. We don't know if it exists there yet, so there may be no point, and even if it does, I'm sure the Fϋhrer checks on its state regularly. If you damage it, that may alert the government what we're up to. Just expose the priest. Once he's exposed, report it in to Eastern Command.

"By then I should have returned to the Eastern Command Center. I'll dispatch troops from Eastern Command as soon as the priest is exposed to tell the citizens of Liore the priest was an alchemist who performed experiments that released dangerous toxins into the air, and to relocate the people to other locations in Amestris." Ed clenched his teeth. He didn't like the concept of saving people by lying to them, especially when they were victims of a deception, but here, too, there was no choice. "Then the troops will burn the town to the ground to discourage anyone from returning there or moving in. That won't prevent the location from becoming a bloodbath, but that will delay the bloodshed."

Edward was green, but even he could see that move would tip Bradley off if the Colonel didn't have a means of preventing it.

"Very well." Then Edward asked, "What's your plan for keeping that from alerting the Fϋhrer we're onto him?"

"When I receive word the Eastern soldiers have removed the people of Liore from the town," the Flame Alchemist answered, "I'll phone the Fϋhrer's office and request to speak with him. When I do, I'll inform him the Freezing Alchemist infiltrated Central to lure State Alchemists to hunt for him so he could meet with me, because I'm known as the Hero of Ishval." Edward suppressed the urge to cringe at hearing that. "The Ishvalan Civil War started when an Amestrian soldier accidentally shot an Ishvalan child, a shooting I now assume was purposeful. So I'll tell Bradley your meeting with me now was for the purpose of telling me where to find Freezer, and I'll tell Bradley Freezer informed us he'd resigned because he'd discovered evidence a traitor in High Command had ordered the child shot and the war started, probably so Aerugo, who the military knows supplied the Ishvalans with armaments during the war, could weaken Amestris by forcing it to fight a civil war. I'll say Freezer has spent the years since then working to identify who the traitor is. I'll say Freezer didn't think Bradley would believe him, hence why he lured us out. Freezer, I'll tell him, hasn't yet identified the traitor, but he had reason to believe the traitor was up to his old tricks in Liore, so he wanted to warn me to prevent another civil war.

"I'll apologize to the Fϋhrer for acting on my own initiative and not warning him sooner, and say I was afraid he would order me not to do anything about Liore if I'd warned him beforehand, so I'd waited until after I'd removed Liore from Amestris to ensure a civil war wouldn't break out to talk to him. I'll tell the Fϋhrer I'll turn myself in to the court martial office if he considers me guilty of treason, and I'll also say Freezer told me he was given an alchemic catalyst the military believed was the Philosopher's Stone during the war, but he doubts it's what the military thinks it is and believes the traitor in High Command fed the military false information on how to create it so they'd fashion a weapon that might escalate the war. I'll say Freezer told me this supposed Stone was transmuted in the allegedly abandoned Laboratory Five, and evidence of the General's treason might exist there.

"The combination of this story; my willingness to be put on trial; and me bringing up Laboratory Five, when if I knew the truth about it I wouldn't want to alert the Fϋhrer I was aware something shady might be going on at it; may give the Fϋhrer reason to believe it's possible we have no idea what's actually going on. He won't be sure, and he'll no doubt watch us closely from then on and destroy all evidence of his illegal operations save for the evidence it's absolutely necessary he retain, making it much harder for us to find evidence. But he may believe there's a large enough possibility I'm not a threat to him he won't try to arrest or assassinate State Alchemists as useful as myself and a child prodigy who can transmute without a circle. It's not a surefire way to ensure we won't need to run, and it will make things far more difficult for us, but it has a chance of keeping us from becoming fugitives, and we have to get everyone in Liore out of it and keep people away from the city. We have to prevent as many other Ishvals from occurring as we can."

"Indeed," Ed responded. "If Laboratory Five is levelled, maybe Hughes will have uncovered something there before it is."

"What about Fort Briggs?" Al asked.

"I'll bring Major Armstrong in on this too," the Colonel responded, and Edward felt further discomfort and suppressed the urge to ask if he could be trusted for the same reason he'd suppressed the urge to ask if Hughes could be. "His older sister is a Major General, and she's in charge of Fort Briggs. He'll be able to alert her through his family connections. Once he does, I'll leave keeping Fort Briggs from becoming a bloodbath up to her. She may be able to stop it from happening herself if she has forewarning. She's one of, if not the, most gifted military officer in Amestris."

"We have to leave it at this for now," the Lieutenant said. "We can't plan out what we'll do after we've delayed Liore's sacrifice until we see how the Fϋhrer responds."

Edward nodded, and uncertainty swirled within him, joining the terror and everything else he was experiencing. This was it, then. They were about to embark on a trail of treason against the nation he lived in. He and Al were about to dive into an ocean vaster and deeper than anything he'd believed he'd swim in during his life, an ocean they could drown in as surely as their search for a way to regain their bodies could drown them, and without them making the tiniest wave in it.

Additionally, by doing so, they would further decrease their chances of regaining their bodies, because they were risking being forced to become fugitives and losing access to the military's alchemic research.

Could Ed truly endanger his brother's salvation, especially when successfully saving his brother might be far more unlikely now than it had looked since Edward had left Resembool to save Al? Could Ed truly dive into an ocean this deep and vast? An ocean they might not be able to create a single wave in of any size?

He looked at Al, and even though his brother didn't have a human body, the way he was standing showed how uncertain he was, too.

But once again, just as becoming a Dog of the Military had been the only road Ed could have taken before, throwing away that life was the only trail he could take now. He didn't want to risk their chances of regaining their bodies, and this was far too big for him or Al, but Edward couldn't continue to serve a military that existed to sacrifice the people it was supposed to be protecting. Nor could he turn his back on this because of how big it was, or how large the possibility was they wouldn't be able to do anything about something of this scale. If he continued to serve the military, or turned away from this, he'd be so irresponsible no speech could qualify it.

As if reading his mind, the Colonel queried, voice unreadable and face a mask again, "Are you sure you want to do this, you two? You've spent all these years striving for your brother and yourself. There's no reason for you to stop now. The Lieutenant and I can save Amestris without you two. You don't belong in a world of blood and death, and you belong in one this horrible much less. Keep pursuing your dreams, and don't take on any hardships in addition to the ones already weighing you down, especially not ones this heavy."

"I'm not going to stop chasing my dreams," Ed replied. "But life is hardship. That's what Equivalent Exchange is. I can't restrict myself to just taking on the hardships Al or I will get something out of overcoming, or the ones that aren't too heavy. That would be callous. I'm sure I don't want to do this, but it's clear I have to. I can't ask other people to take on hardships I should carry in their place.

"I'm in this, and you're not going to convince me to walk out."

"I feel more or less how Brother does," Al spoke.

"I see," Mustang responded, voice and face still indecipherable. "Then let's get moving."

Ed took a deep, shuddering breath. He reached into his pocket, took out the list of researchers the Celestial Catalyst Alchemist had worked with, and handed the paper to Mustang.

Then Ed turned and walked out of the storage room, Al following.

.

"To make life you have to take life. Come on, this is basic alchemy here!"-Envy

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: Episode 22:

CREATED HUMAN