Snow Falling in the Algid North - Central
[Day 001; Ten fourteen AM]

- ALGERIME -

"Completely destroyed?" said the man in the blue uniform. His hair was as black as his boots, which were firmly planted on the ground in surprise. His hands sat neatly folded into each other on his desk. His eyes were wide.

"Desecrated. There were no survivors." The blonde sentry stood ready, trying to calm his nerves. This position, although small and somewhat unimportant, had him nervous. Or rather, the famous alchemist sitting across from him had him nervous. Lt. Colonel Mustang had questions, and he had no answers. He was just as perplexed as the man he was facing.

"…How big was this town, Beberi? I've never even heard of it before."

"Tiny. It used to be part of Algraupel, but broke off centuries ago."

"Yeah. Noooooooooooot interested…" said the second lieutenant sitting a few feet from the conversing men. He tossed a beanbag ball into the air repeatedly, masticating on the unlit cigarette in his mouth. "How many people died, like, fifteen?" he said, nonchalantly putting his feet up on his desk.

"Eighteen. Hundred." The messenger replied. If he were in a higher position, he would have rolled his eyes at Jean Havoc. Clearly someone didn't want to come to work today…

"Two thousand people is a lot to kill in a single night, Havoc." Mustang said, while still gazing sharply at Beberi the sentry. A pause from the following silence entered the room. Beberi exhaled and looked up, begging sweat not to form on his forehead. He had given Mustang the papers, what more was there he could say that the Lt. Colonel couldn't read for himself? He'd never even heard of this… this village. What good was it for him to stand there any longer?

"How?" Mustang continued. (He was a man of many words.)

Beberi swallowed and looked away. "There should be… sufficient information in the report generated for you, Lt. Colonel –"

"Or should I have perhaps asked, why are you telling me this, Beberi?"

The constant use of his name had the sentry mortified.

"That's… why I ca- why I was sent, sir. The town was destroyed in fire."

"So?" Havoc responded. Apparently some of this was still interesting to him.

"…With alchemy." Beberi finished.

Mustang's mouth opened slightly, his tongue hardening against the back of his teeth. "Huh…" he muttered. His eyes narrowed. Havoc slowly took his feet off his desk, placing his beanbag ball on it instead. He rearranged his legs so that his elbows sat upon them, his hands clasped like Mustang's. Now his eyes bore into the sentry as well. Oh no… Beberi thought. This was terrible.

"'Graupel, huh?" Mustang began. "That's a fairly large city, considering the location. Why did this town break off from it?"

"They probably don't even have electricity, if it really was so long ago…" Havoc added.

"They do not." Beberi replied. "I was not adequately briefed on its history… I'm informed that the few buildings in town would have been excellent at sustaining the fire, although it had burned out by the time officials reached the scene. The residents reported a large explosion ripping through the town before erupting into flames… the bell tower was one of the only remaining structures, perhaps because it was so tall…"

"I thought you said there weren't any survivors?" Mustang asked, a small smile forming at the corner of his mouth. Beberi's anxiety was somewhat amusing. Poor new guy.

"…There… Not anymore. They died in the hospital a few hours after being found."

"How many?"

"Two. Well, three. One was an infant and couldn't give testimony to the events of the destruction." Beberi wiped sweat from his brow. Damn it all.

"Geez man, calm down." Havoc said. Beberi looked like he was about to run away screaming or something. Mustang came close to chuckling.

"Your eloquence is unnecessary, Beberi. We all know the baby couldn't say anything. And you didn't really answer my question pertaining to the reason for the town's divorce from Al Graupel."

"I…"

"Oh yes, you were not adequately briefed on its history, I remember." He resumed, finally taking the papers that had been left on his desk by the sentry in question, shuffling them without much purpose. "Is that to say that your supervising officers are inadequate?"

"Hell yes, Norm Reeves doesn't do shit." Havoc interjected. Mustang ignored him.

"Heh heh…" Beberi laughed awkwardly. The Second Lieutenant's unprofessional behaviour was astounding, although slightly more comforting than the Colonel's stiff… stiffness.

Mustang continued. "Disregarding the accuracy of this strange man's statements, you can return to your commanding officer, Beberi –

"Strange? Excuse me?"

"Thank you for your time and efficiency in reporting this matter. You are dismissed." Mustang smiled. "And lighten up. I'm not going to eat you."

"Today." Havoc added. Roy had given up disciplining Jean when he was in one of his 'moods' a long time ago.

"Tha- thank you, sir. Good day." Beberi said as he departed, dropping his gloves in the process. Havoc stood up to close the door behind him.

"This report said the smoke could be seen for miles." The flame alchemist stated, grazing the documents in front of him. "Al-ger-ime? Aljereem? I don't know how to say it either. No wonder Beberi was confused," he pondered aloud.

"Sir…" Havoc started, sobering a bit. His hand was still on the doorknob. "What alchemist has the power to destroy an entire town in one night?"

Roy sighed. He could think of a few.

Edward Elric didn't even move the locks from his long, blonde hair out of the way as he shoved a sandwich into his mouth. Innocent bystanders would have thought he hadn't eaten in years – or perhaps have been even a little grossed out – but the giant suit of armour next to him knew better. Alphonse sighed. He missed stuffing exorbitant amounts of food into himself.

Glancing up, he saw none other than the Lt. Colonel approaching them. So that's why Ed brought them here so begrudgingly…

"Brother, your secret lover is here." Al said. "Wha?" Ed responded, mouth still full of pastrami and rye. Then he saw the Colonel.

Ed almost spit out his food.

"Nice to see you too, Elric." Mustang said, bemused. He secretly congratulated himself. How predictable. Edward loved the food from this sunny little market too much to stay away, and Mustang knew it. He always came here when he returned to Central, making it convenient for Mustang to barge in on his snacking excursions any time he wanted. Silly Elric.

"Whai ah yuu hur?" Ed said, trying not to choke. Al would so pay for that later.

"Hello Colonel Mustang, how are you?" Al said, possibly in a lame attempt to translate. Roy knew better.

"I need you. Now."

"I knew it!" Al chimed exuberantly.

"Oh be quiet." Ed said. "Damnit, what now? We just got back from dealing with some weirdo – "

Mustang tossed the papers in front of the sulking shrimp. "What's this?" Ed said, finally taking time to swallow. He scanned the page. "Drachma? Oh no. Please not Drachma."

"Yes, Drachma. Get your coat and gloves. I've been assigned quite the interesting endeavour here. You're coming along."

"Why, sir?" Alphonse responded. What did this have to do with anything?

"You'll see." Mustang responded stoically as Edward pushed copious amounts of sustenance in his face. Edward and Al stared blankly. Roy was seriously lacking an explanation here, although it was intriguing. Maybe he was finally losing it since Hawkeye was gone. Edward's extremely loud chewing was starting to agitate the Lt. Colonel. "Read the report. We're investigating Algerime." They continued to stare.

"Algerime?" Al repeated, trying to look away from Ed. Pieces of tomato were falling from his sandwich - his fifth sandwich, at this point - on the ground. Oh Edward.

"… Wheh vuh fuck ish dat?"

The clip bounced off the hard wood surface, its owner too tired to pick it up. She shook her golden hair softly, waiting for it to fall past her shoulders. This assignment was gruelingly boring and she was ready to go back to Central. She didn't quite understand why she and only some of Mustang's men had been sent here in the first place; probably some trick by the superiors to split them up. Did every one suspect them?

Sitting down, Riza placed her hand on what she assumed to be unnecessarily long affidavits for her current project. They were becoming painfully arduous to read.

Instead, her palm fell upon a short piece of paper – a telegram. Well that was unexpected. It read:

"SHE HAS RETURNED STOP"

Hawkeye's eyebrow's raised in shock.

Time to leave.

/end – algerime

word count: 1448
placement: Around / after episode 28 or something, basically, Ed didn't kill Greed
setting: Central. Oh ho ho it's at the top! Ha ha.
pairings: Manga canon, although it's anime based. El oh el.
rating: Um... R. Mostly for cursing, as you can see.

Author's note: Okay… I've had the idea for this story in my head for about three years now, and as such my knowledge of the series, anime-wise, has declined a little bit. I actually had to look up some information, which my pride was very irritated by. I hope it makes sense… if not, I'm open to criticism. It's also been so long since I've published fan fiction that I almost forgot how. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things sometime. I promise it will all makes sense in time, Mustang's not just… like… conveniently grabbing Ed so that he can be in the story. Really. Also, the names for things will be explained too, unless someone already speaks german or latin in which case you already have an idea what the town is. Wahoo.

Anyway. Comments are love, and I hope to respond to each and every one of them. Come on, comments! You know you want too...