.:Four:.

Genii and Alchemical Theory 101

.

It was dark by the time they left the small military building in Aquaroya. The last reminder of the sun was a dim purple strip to the west, and the air had quickly become cold in a reminder that fall was approaching. Roy had gruffly loaned his coat to the shirtless Ed, who accepted more gratefully that his commanding officer would have expected. Roy had thought that Ed would have complained during the long walk through Aquaroya's narrow streets to the car, but the blonde alchemist seemed remarkably content.

"I told him I was the Fullmetal Alchemist," Ed spoke suddenly, breaking into his superior officer's thoughts. "He should have believed me."

"Yeah, well, it's not every day that dead shrimp come back to life," Roy retorted almost casually. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hawkeye roll her eyes at her superior officer's immaturity.

Edward visibly struggled not to shout, but Roy thought he heard a word that sounded suspiciously like bastard. "I doubt he believed you anyway," he said aloud.

"He might have believed you if you'd actually answered his questions. Legally dead or not, as a state alchemist you should have helped with the problem in any way possible. Why didn't you?"

"Like hell I was going to tell that idiot. He probably wouldn't have even known what I was talking about," Ed scoffed, and Roy was suddenly reminded of the stubborn and arrogant alchemist he was used to. "Besides," Ed added after a moment's silence, "if he had believed me, it probably would have gotten me locked away somewhere in a lab or something."

Roy had noted that Ed still had at least one metal appendage. There was no sign that he'd lost anything else in the sacrifice for Al's body, which Roy didn't understand. "If you won't tell him, tell me. What did happen to you?"

Ed was silent for a few moments. The light was dim, but as they passed under a streetlight, Roy could see that his mouth was firmly closed. After a moment, Roy was about to begin pressing the question when Ed spoke.

"Where's Al?" Ed asked softly, and for the first time Roy caught an undertone of uncertainty and maybe even sadness in his tone. The Brigadier General was actually somewhat surprised; he had expected those words to be the first out of Ed's mouth. After glancing in the alchemist's direction to see Ed staring determinedly at the sky, braced as though expecting a damaging blow, Roy suddenly understood that he was afraid.

"He's fine," Hawkeye answered.

Ed's head shot to face her so quickly that the Brigadier-General thought he must have had whiplash. "Really?" The look on his face was almost desperate, and he was clutching at the jacket Roy had loaned him with white knuckles.

"Yes. We saw him this morning," Hawkeye said softly. "He's in Central right now, trying to help out wherever he can. He's fine. He's perfectly healthy, and I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

"He's a state alchemist?" Ed asked, and Roy couldn't decipher the tone of his voice.

"No. He's been researching ways to get you back, traveling all over the country in search of clues, living off the money you've saved and spending all of his time in the library. He does the same kinds of things he did when he was with you. He just checks in every now and then to say hello. When we called the office back just now, we told everyone—including Al—that we received some news and that they should hang around until we got back. He'll be at Central when we get there."

Edward had gone back to staring at the sky, but Roy was able to see a dim smile when one of the streetlights lit his face.

The walk back seemed farther than Roy remembered, and Edward was walking sluggishly with an odd look of contentment on his face that Roy could not understand. When the alchemist saw his superior looking at him with a questioning look on his face, the blond announced happily that he was very tired. Obviously whatever had happened recently had messed with his mind.

They reached the car a few moments later and clambered in wordlessly. Hawkeye started the engine with practiced ease and flicked the headlights on as she began the long drive home. Roy glanced at Edward in the back of the car.

"Now, would you mind explaining where you've been? If it's not too much for your little brain?"

"Would you stop—?" Ed began, but Hawkeye interrupted.

"Sir, I have to say that it would be great if you would try to be a little more mature than Edward."

The Fullmetal Alchemist couldn't help but crack a grin at the sullen expression on Roy's face. "I missed you, Hawkeye," he said with a laugh. The woman smiled into the rearview mirror. Ed paused, offering Roy a wry smile. "Hell, I was so bored I even missed you, Colonel Bastard."

"That's Brigadier-General Bastard to you."

"You got a promotion?"

Roy shot him a sour look before adding, "So did you. Posthumously. Though who knows what will happen when they find out you're alive."

"What rank am I?"

"Lieutenant Colonel. But you'd still be working under me, of course," Roy said.

The young alchemist opened his mouth to object, but his words turned into a yawn. Roy could hear him shifting for a few moments to get more comfortable in the lumpy seat. Dimly watching the scenery as it rushed past, Roy realized that he was unlikely to get any more answers out of the kid until they got to Central.

The road back was dark and quiet; every once in a while, a few lights poked their way through the black countryside. Roy wondered whether this was what people meant when they said "the calm before the storm." It seemed strange that the creatures should become so quiet at night, but perhaps they just explored in silence whenever there were no humans around to annoy.

The Brigadier-General's musings were interrupted by a slight noise from the backseat. Ed spoke. "How long has it been?"

Roy twisted in his seat to look at Ed. The teen had lay down in the back of the car with his entwined hands cradling his head. He was observing his commanding officer silently through half-closed golden eyes. "What do you mean?" Roy asked.

"Since I…left."

"A little over a year," Roy said, and Hawkeye nodded in confirmation.

"Oh," the alchemist said quietly.

A mile or so later, Roy asked, "Why?" but Edward had already fallen asleep.

.

As the car got closer to Central a little over an hour later, they became aware of more of the creatures. Perhaps it was because the things could see better in the lighted streets, or perhaps it was because the creatures themselves enjoyed being around people they could torment. Either way, Roy began to notice some of the creatures—mostly the little dark ones, whatever they were—raiding shops or homes, or playing with the streetlights. There were many more military men patrolling the streets than usual, and Roy assumed that Fuhrer Hakuro had ordered more protection for the city.

Roy felt Hawkeye tense beside him. "Sir? There's a…" She trailed off, obviously at a loss for words. He glanced in the direction of her stare and blinked, quickly fumbling to reach Ed in the backseat of the car.

"Fullmetal. Fullmetal. Wake up!"

"Wha…hmm?" Ed sat up groggily. He grinned suddenly. "I forgot to ask," he said through a yawn, "why you decided to become a pirate since we last met?"

Roy rolled his good eye and pointed toward the window. "I think it's time you explain what you know about the situation. And you can start by telling us what the hell that thing is."

The alchemist rubbed his eyes slowly as though not quite sure of what he was seeing. "S'okay," he said after a moment. "It's just a Howler."

"Just a what?"

The Beast in question was not "just" anything. It was roughly the size of a baby elephant, with thick grey fur and four clawed feet. At the moment, Roy couldn't make out any eyes or nose on the creature, presumably because it was asleep; it had curled into a ball against the side of a bakery, half into the street, and was snoring rather loudly. The major reason Roy was so worried—other than the fact that it was enormous and clawed—was that its mouth stretched to both sides of its head and was filled with a great deal of extremely large teeth that jutted out crookedly up and down. Its eyes, nose, and ears must have been tiny, because Roy couldn't even see them past the huge teeth.

"It looks pretty bad," Ed admitted, "but pretty much all they do is sleep. They'll get jumpy if you get too close to them, but otherwise they'll do their own thing."

Roy glared at Ed. "I'm sure it uses the teeth for something."

"Yeah, but it only eats Gatekeepers."

"What is a—"

"You know," Ed said tiredly as he lay back down, "those little black ones with big eyes and weird smiles. There are millions of them, at least in Aquaroya. You must have seen some here by now."

"Yes, but—"

"I assume it's called a Howler for obvious reasons?" Hawkeye interrupted.

"Yeah," Ed said, "they make this weird howling noise when they're angry, kind of like a cross between a wolf and a boat horn. Couldn't be bothered to think of a better name than that."

"You named it?"

"Course. There wasn't anyone else in the Gate, was there?"

"That's how you know so much about these things? Because you were in the Gate with them?" Roy interrupted.

"Obviously."

"And you survived?"

"No. I died."

"No need to be sarcastic."

"I wasn't being sarcastic," Ed murmured as his breathing began to even out again. Roy hadn't even noticed that Hawkeye had stopped the car to look at the sleeping creature—the Howler—until they began moving forward again; they made their way back to Central in relative silence. Roy noticed, however, that though Ed's breathing had slowed, his eyes were still half-open as he absentmindedly played with the edges of the coat as though to calm his nerves.

.

By the time they reached headquarters, Ed was sitting up in his seat, tapping softly on the window. Hawkeye barely had the chance to stop the car before he hopped out and slammed the door closed behind him. "This way," Mustang said as they walked through the main doors. "They changed the office location after we all got promoted to give us more room."

Ed nodded curtly and followed his commanding officer to the room; when they finally reached the door and were close enough to hear voices on the other side, Mustang paused with his hand on the knob.

"I'll tell him to come out so you can see him alone first," Mustang said gently.

"Thanks," Ed said with an anxious grin. Mustang opened the door and he and Hawkeye entered, leaving Edward to fidget outside, fingering the gold buttons on Mustang's jacket and shifting his weight nervously. A whole year had passed since he had seen Alphonse. A year. Who knew how his brother had changed? And what if there had been any side effects from bringing his body back? Was Al any different now? The seconds seemed to stretch on infinitely, until the door opened and—

"Brother?"

Al was staring at him, wide-eyed.

The Fullmetal Alchemist let out an undignified, strangled cry as he leapt forward, and Al threw out his arms to grab him. The pair of them seemed caught between laughing and crying. Al was shaking, though that might have had something to do with the fact that Ed was hugging him so hard he could barely breathe. They finally drew back, though neither seemed to be able to stop touching the other; they began to speak quickly, understanding each other through some connection that had never really faded, in the way that only close siblings can.

"I can't believe you're okay—!"

"—no idea how hard I've been looking for you!"

"—thought that the transmutation hadn't even worked!"

"I knew you were alive!"

Alphonse suddenly ran a hand—a flesh hand, Edward thought happily—down Ed's arm and frowned. "But—you still have automail."

"Its fine, Al. I can live with the automail," Edward said quietly, "and the last thing I want to do is mess with the Gate again." His brother let out a little sigh, and Ed thought it was the most wonderful sound in the world because it was not muffled by metal. What he said instead was, "You look so old."

Alphonse smiled. "It must be strange seeing me as a fifteen-year-old instead of a ten-year-old," he remarked. "I never got the time in between."

The pair of them settled into a contented hush. "I'm really glad you came back alright, Brother," Al declared softly.

Ed couldn't articulate everything he wanted to say in response to that, so he wrapped his brother in a fierce hug instead.

.

The reactions of Mustang's subordinates were somewhere between Mustang's cordiality and Al's enthusiasm. Once they moved past their initial shock (Havoc's mouth opened so far that his cigarette rolled out, and Fuery dropped the stack of papers he had been carrying), they welcomed Ed rowdily. Breda thumped him on the back so much that Ed thought he might have bruises, and Havoc caught him in a tight hug and then wouldn't stop ruffling his hair.

"Shit, Boss," Havoc said, grinning as Hawkeye glared at him for his language, "I had the feeling we'd see you back here again one day. If anyone could come back from the dead, it'd be you."

"And I've done that a number of times," Ed murmured dryly to himself.

"You never know," Mustang speculated, "maybe if other people offered themselves up to the Gate, they'd all have come back as well. Fullmetal is the only person stupid enough to have tried."

Breda and Havoc howled in laughter as Ed glared.

"So you ended up in the Gate?" Falman interjected, leaning back onto a desk. "How did you get out of it? It's not every day that people come back from the dead."

Breda picked up his trail of thought. "And you happened to do it on the exact same day that all these…these…"

"Beasts?" Ed supplied helpfully.

"—yes, Beasts, start appearing all over Amestris."

"All over the world," corrected Fuery.

"You had something to do with all of this, didn't you?" Havoc asked, with a sly grin.

"Of course he did," Mustang said through a smirk. "He couldn't have just gotten out; he had to do it in a way that would make trouble for everyone else."

"I did not!" Ed exclaimed indignantly. "I didn't even get out on my own. I just kind of…showed up." He said, waving his arms vaguely.

"Showed up?" Al asked. "Just like the monsters—Beasts—started showing up?"

"I guess so," the blond said, taking the liberty of sinking into Havoc's office chair. His brother settled on the desk beside him. "One second I was there and the next…I wasn't. I didn't even do anything to get out." The telephone in Mustang's office began to ring. The Brigadier-General shot it a glare, but it was otherwise ignored.

"What was it like?" Al murmured suddenly. "The Gate?"

Ed shifted uncomfortably, rolling his shoulders and leaning backwards in the chair. "At first," he began thoughtfully, "it was like a really bad dream. Things change there constantly. It's—one minute I would be walking in a field and the next I'd be in the bottom of the ocean. Or find out that I was surrounded by fire, or that I was in one of the Beasts territories. It was the worst thing, because just as I started feel safe in the damn place, it would change on me." He paused. "But then I got used to it. After a while, it got really boring."

"Boring? How could it have been boring?" Havoc asked.

"Were you ever attacked by the Beasts?" Breda interjected.

"All the time! If I ended up in their territory, I'd be eaten or attacked. I always had to watch out for different territories. Water was where the Anglers were, the Pyro lived in the fire fields, and there were these things in the storms as well…I got killed a lot," he said sheepishly.

"Killed?" Mustang asked with alarm, looking at Ed as though afraid for his mental health. Al's mouth slipped into an anxious frown.

"It's because the amount of alchemy within the Gate is regulated," Al realized suddenly, without taking his eyes off of his brother. Edward could practically hear the wheels turning in his head. All eyes were on him as his thoughts became focused. "The Gate is a closed or isolated system—with the exception of the energy flowing in and out due to equivalent exchange—so any energy inside of it stays inside of it, with the exception of alchemy we borrow to do transmutations in this world."

"Exactly," Ed leapt in as the other inhabitants in the room stared back and forth between the brothers. "Since I'm alive, I sort of…run on my own energy. So if I had died, the Gate would have lost some of the energy inside of it. So even if one of the Beasts killed me, I couldn't really die. It would have thrown the energy levels out of balance."

Havoc's mouth opened and closed a few times. "Geniuses," he muttered to himself.

"Genii," Alphonse and Edward corrected absently.

"Right."

"Anyway," Al said wearily, "I've been rereading a few theories about the Gate since this morning, and I think…since the Gate is based on an array, is it possible that some of the alchemic energy within the Gate has escaped because Gate itself has finally worn down? Like an old alchemy array?"

"An array?" Hawkeye asked. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, over time, they start weakening and even malfunctioning," Ed said vaguely.

Alphonse scratched the back of his head in a strange, familiar way. "I've been doing a lot of research on the Gate since you…disappeared," he said, fumbling slightly for the last word. "There are lots of legends from different areas about how the Gate was formed, but the one that is the most prevalent is the one that I think is most likely to be true."

He faced his brother pensively, both of them aware of the role reversal: Ed was usually more prone to research, facts, and theories, and Al was the one who listened patiently and offered corrections. Ed's lips quirked up as he nodded for his brother to continue. "The gist of it is that the Gate was manmade. A long time ago, probably more than a few thousand years ago, there was no Gate. Alchemy was wilder than it is now, and it existed all over the world. People could use it freely; there was no such thing as equivalent exchange—at least it wouldn't seem like it, at first—because nothing was taken in return for a gain. But in reality, something was taken. Before the Gate, most of the alchemic energy in the world existed inside of the people themselves."

Edward hesitated. "Then it sounds like all of the old fairy tales—the ones about magic and witches."

"No, not exactly. Although…it's possible that the fairy tales originated from this time period..." Al shook his head. "But that's for another time. Anyway, if it was like magic, the people could have used as much alchemic energy as they wanted. But they couldn't. It wasn't magic but a form of energy, or something more like a part of people's normal energy or strength. The person's own energy was converted into alchemic energy in a transmutation, and they could gain it back by resting and regaining strength just as they would if they had used normal energy.

"But there were other sources of alchemic energy as well, in different creatures," Alphonse glanced at Ed, "I mean Beasts. There are hundreds of legends of different monsters that no one credits today: sea monsters, giant birds, dragons, forest guardians, invisible spirits...they all seem like myths now, because there are no signs that they ever actually existed, and we have no animals today that are anything like them. But there are theories that these legends were real at the time the Gate was created."

"So what happened?" Havoc wondered. Breda looked a little lost, but Hawkeye was thoughtfully tapping the handle of her handgun. "Why did things change?"

"That's what we'll need to find out," Al said. "The general theory is that they were somehow able to create the Gate using some type of array, but the amount of energy needed for something like that…well, it seems nearly impossible, for one thing." He glanced at Ed. "We need to do more research—to figure out whythey created the Gate, and what type of array. I can't even imagine how they could have gotten the energy to create another plane, let alone figuring out how to do it."

"I think we've got the 'why,'" Mustang said wryly. "Having Beasts running wild across the country, destroying towns and cities on the way…well, it's not exactly pleasant."

"I kind of agree with their thinking," Havoc added.

Al nodded. "And then they would have needed to somehow regulate the exchange, to create an equivalent exchange."

Ed rested his head on the back of the chair, his limbs inexplicably heavy. "Well, the Gatekeepers do it now. Those black things. They're the ones that collect something in exchange for alchemy. Even if they have to take something by force," he added with a grimace.

"So it's completely subjective," Al said flatly.

"Right," Ed murmured.

"Anyway," Mustang interrupted, "that only means that there's not much we can do tonight. But the two of you will have to research as fast as possible. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to keep up with—this."

"We can figure this out, Brother. Just like old times," Al said, offering Ed a tentative smile. "I've been researching the Gate, and you've been insideit. Between the two of us, we'll come up with something to mend the array."

"Of course," Ed returned the smile, thinking back to all of the situations they'd gotten themselves out of. He almost added that they'd had it worse before, but his mouth grew wider and wider in a yawn. He shut it suddenly with an audible snap. "Sorry," he said wryly at the humor-filled glances directed at him. "Long day."

"And it's getting late," added Hawkeye, always the voice of reason. "None of us will be of any use if we're exhausted, not even you two. You should head back to the dorms. You can figure things out tomorrow." She glanced at Mustang, who nodded, unsurprisingly.

"You should all head home. I've talked to Brigadier-General Banton about setting up shifts so that we'll have teams on call overnight, but come in early tomorrow morning just the same. Get some rest. I have the feeling we'll need it soon."

The officers shuffled to gather their belongings, and Al dragged Ed from the chair. Ed stretched and stuffed his hands into his pockets as the pair of them headed for the door.

"Don't disappear on us again, Boss," Havoc said, almost seriously. Hawkeye and Breda both paused to offer him smiles.

Ed grinned. "'Course not," he said. "You're stuck with me. Besides, things are too interesting here to leave it all behind."

.

.

.

A/N: So sorry for the long delay—real life stepped in and handed me a paper that took much longer to write than anticipated. Thanks to all of my reviewers, in the meantime, especially the anonymous reviewers to whom I can't respond. You all make my day!

Anyway, my theory behind the Gate is probably a bit odd, so if you find something small that I overlooked, feel free to leave me a message. If you find a huge, gaping hole, be so kind as to look the other way, because I'm far too lazy to fix something like that. :D

Random things, in case you're interested:

1. You're probably thinking to yourself, "Wow. Beasts and Howlers and Anglers (oh my)…could she possibly have come up with worse names for the monsters?" Originally I planned on doing all sorts of really in-depth research, because I love naming things and finding names that mean certain things, but then I realized that Ed was naming the Beasts. And even if he'd had a million years in the Gate, he's not the type to care if they had cool names or not; he would just call them whatever came to mind. So I had to abandon my quest all for the sake of the stupid main character. Blame Ed, people.

2. Thanks to the anonymous reviewer who pointed out that Ed can't really zip his mouth closed while handcuffed to a desk! Wow…just wow. I blame tiredness for that little slip-up. The last chapter is edited.

3. Finally, (disclaimer) the geniuses/genii thing between Ed and Al in this chapter is something I couldn't help adding and comes from the Artemis Fowl series.

Thanks for reading! Please review.

~ket

Next Chapter: Must Be That Irresistible Mustang Charm