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Chapter 6: Strangers Abound

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He crouched by the hole as his ears rang with her tale, her parting words like grenades lobbed into the air. Behind him, the sound of receding footsteps shattered the ringing silence, which was then further punctured by the frantic opening and closing of cupboards in the kitchen. Exhaling through the nose, he slowly straightened up from his position and stared wide-eyed in Roy's direction as one huge realization slammed against his chest.

Mustang was a stranger.

I had only met the guy this morning, Maes had to keep reminding himself. Even if Mustang somehow managed to procure all the proof in the world of their previous friendship, Maes suspected that whatever they once had could never be replicated.

Bile threatened to crawl up his throat. God, he felt robbed.

But then, there were the other far more alarming matters. Like the other side of his murder story being told by the woman who had stayed in his safe house, for example.

He pressed his lips together, replayed the earlier heated conversation in his head, took note of how Ross denied her involvement with his other self's death, but most importantly, of how Roy did not contradict her accusation of him killing her. And it seemed to be in a particular manner too, what with the snapping of fingers and Ross' reaction to the method.

The snapping, in particular, was rather familiar. He had heard of it being utilized in some form of alchemy, he was sure.

He filed that thought away for later and began tossing around some of the names of people that Ross had mentioned, namely a young subordinate and a Second Lieutenant Breda. As far as he knew, he hadn't met any Bredas in Central. However, he'd have to ask about the 'youngest subordinate', because even he could tell that there was a deeper story there from the way Ross had picked out that particular adjective to describe the guy, brandishing that detail as a jab against Mustang.

One had to ask: how young?

Steeling himself, he went to the kitchen, only to arrive at the strange scene of Roy swearing as he rummaged under the cupboards. "What are you doing?"

"Where do you keep your alcohol?" his new housemate demanded without looking up.

Astonishing, really. Did his other self keep liquor in his safe houses too? "Over there," he said, pointing at the bottle patiently waiting to be noticed on the countertop.

He watched as the man grabbed the bottle, popped the lid open, and took a swig straight from it.

"This absolutely tastes cheap and disgusting," Roy proclaimed with a growl, before proceeding to empty its contents into the sink.

Maes did not dignify the insult with a comment. Instead, he dragged a chair back so he could take a seat and fold his arms while he waited for the other man to settle down.

"So." He scratched his chin and averted his gaze to the dinner plate Ross had left on the table. "You haven't told me what happened during the period between my death and your signing of the contract, huh?"

He snuck a glance at Roy when he failed to respond, and seeing that the man still had no intention of doing so, Maes attempted to approach the matter from another angle. "Care to tell me about the people she was referring to?"

"I'd rather not talk about them right now." His voice was weary, with a hint of self-loathing, as if he desired nothing more than to disappear. "Perhaps tomorrow. I just need time to…to think about something else. Please."

Maes shrugged and let the subject go for now, but he had to distract the guy somehow. "Alright. Let's talk about Maria Ross."

"Hughes—"

"I mean not really, specifically about her," he corrected quickly, aware of how delicate the subject was. "Her circumstance. Her parents. About them already having their own daughter. Two Marias in one world. Don't you find it…weird? I find it weird." He blinked at the ceiling, and then he hit his right palm with the side of his left fist. "That's why she seemed a bit familiar. I've seen her face around headquarters!"

Roy closed his eyes and pinched the skin above his nose. After a few moments, he appeared resigned to his fate of participating in the conversation, leaning back, gaze trained on the edge of the tabletop. "Two Rosses. One from my world and then from here, both existing simultaneously on the same plane of existence." He snorted, as if finding the mere notion of it funny. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I am dead and this is hell."

An idea wriggled into Maes' mind. "Wait, Roy, I would like to speculate."

"Oh?" he encouraged, though his face betrayed his true feelings otherwise.

"As of now, there are a pair of non-twins running around the Central of my world," Maes ventured. "Now imagine…just imagine: a pair of non-twins running around in yours."

At this, Roy sat up, the slackness of his expression giving way to the excitement of finding a lead. "You mean…"

"That Deal might have 'borrowed' a different version of her from here? Yeah."

"That implies that your world existed before my reality. Remember, all of this…" he gestured vaguely at their surroundings, "…only came to being because I signed a contract that erased my existence."

Maes—

—barely suppressed a flinch at Roy's unintended implication.

At least he thought it was unintended. Did the man realize what he just said? That he was borderline suggesting that Maes couldn't have been his own person before the contract? That the presence of the world Maes lived in hinged on a signature and nothing more?

He sniffed as he took off his glasses and started polishing them with the hem of his coat. "All this talk of worlds! Look, I don't know much about alchemy but can Deal really alchemize an alternate timeline of this scale?"

"The term is 'transmute'—"

"Sure. And then what about the…the Equivalent Exchange thing?" He replaced his glasses and sighed. "For goodness' sake, Roy. I don't profess to any religion but I'm pretty sure it would take the powers of a metaphorical God, or whatever, to create a whole other world with a different set-up."

Roy was rendered silent at that, giving Maes the impression that he was thinking things through. Then he cleared his throat. "You're submitting that Deal did not create this world, but rather, that it already exists. Perhaps simultaneously with mine?"

Maybe that implication was unintentional, perhaps even imagined. Maes shrugged, feeling secretly relieved. "Hey. It's possible."

"Then you're implying," Roy enunciated carefully, and the temperature dropped down a few degrees, "that you're not my best friend…but a copy?"

Maes shut his mouth, eyes trained on the other man's face. Roy was clenching his jaw, he saw, tensely waiting for his answer to that. He should really continue on this line of thought because yes, that was exactly what he was implying. He reasoned that the guy couldn't keep up his illusions forever: Mustang was a stranger and Maes was a stranger to him.

Instead, Maes found his lips moving and neglecting his instructions. "It was just a speculation," he said placatingly. "It doesn't have to be real."

The tension in Roy's expression smoothed away a smidge.

"You have a point. On the parallel worlds, I-I mean." He took a deep breath. "But that would also complicate a few more matters. If it exists simultaneously, why did the 'now' of this world begin one week before the day I would have signed the contract?"

"I don't know," he admitted, trying to keep the tone of his voice lighthearted. "I could just call Nicolas in to straighten matters for us. You know, that alchemy friend I've been telling you about? From what I know of him, he's spent a few years going around, interviewing people about their transactions with Vertrag. One thing's for sure: You've got the weirdest exchange of all."

"Is he trustworthy?"

"Hey, I would hope so. But then again, the last time I answered that which was, oh just a moment ago… turned out to be an answer that you didn't really agree with. But anyway…" Maes stretched his back, rolled his head from side-to-side. "We're already considering the possibility that my world co-exists with yours, my friend. Which means that my theory about the 'non-twins' can now hold water?"

To his surprise, Roy barked out a laugh at that. When he appeared to be capable of coherent speech again, Roy told him, "You should've told me that that was what you were getting at. All right, fine. Let's go with the Two Rosses theory. And then what?" he challenged, attempting to poke more holes into the argument before Maes could rebut. "The second Ross just allied with Vertrag?"

"No clue. But it would explain why she might be innocent. You were barking up the wrong Maria."

"That's fair." The other man raised a pointer finger. "But say your world's Ross had agreed to kill you in the original timeline." The pointer finger morphed into a finger gun as he mimed a gunshot to Maes' chest. "As of now, we do not know her motivation, so let us consider this point instead: a Maria Ross would still have had allied with Vertrag to conspire against us."

"Fair point, fair point. But what if her parents were hostages?"

"Her true parents would've been kept safe here I reckon. I mean, even I doubt that Vertrag would waste a huge amount of energy and exchange material—wherever he's getting it from—hopping from world to world in order to keep Ross in line. Unless, of course, he managed to find an unlimited source of power, which is frightening to say the least. Anyway…" Roy rubbed his upper lip. "If we factor in the possibility that Ross cares about any version of her parents, then there's our dilemma."

"Which also means that you think that any one of them has to be the murderer. Am I right?"

"I saw the face, and there's no doubt that it's a Maria Ross, Hughes." His voice sounded taut. "We should interrogate the second one. Find out her true motives aside from the one we just came up with—"

Amazing. Amazing how quick the guy shooed away the notion of Maes being another version of his best friend. But when it came to Ross again—

Maes slapped a hand on the table, splayed it as he leaned his entire body forward. "Roy," he said forcefully, ignoring his friend's flinch. "I think you're forgetting what you're supposed to be doing right now."

At Roy's questioning look, Maes prayed for patience and decided to spell it out for him. "You're supposed to be finding a way to destroy your contract with Deal. You're not here just to hunt down Ross—a Maria Ross— and avenge me again. Have you learned nothing?!"

The man stared at him for a few long seconds before he bowed his head, probably to examine the weave of his cavalry skirt. "You're the one who insisted talking about her—"

"To open up the possibility that any one of them could be innocent too, yeah."

"Wasn't she prowling around suspiciously when she ran into you?"

"I found her," Maes reminded.

"Conveniently. In an alley."

"I wasn't taking my usual route home." Maes walked around the table until he was beside his friend. "In fact, her initial surprise at seeing me makes sense now. But whatever intent to kill she may have had was absent. She didn't even want to come willingly at first, only agreeing once I offered her something to eat. When she was staying here and kept going out, I followed her thrice to see where she goes." He seized the back of Roy's chair and tilted it back, making the man yelp as Maes leaned until they were almost nose-to-nose. "Always by the alley near the same old house. She wasn't doing anything bad, wasn't carrying around weapons, so I didn't look too much into it."

Seeing Roy processing this new information, Maes let the chair fall into its proper position with a bang. "I really think she's telling the truth," he confessed. "I trust that you had my safety in mind all the way, but now you've got to trust me on this, Roy. Something is off. Something big."

Roy exhaled shakily. It seemed like a lengthy period of time had lapsed before he spoke again. "I have stood by my statement against her," he began in a tone that reminded Maes of a hardened veteran suppressing a sob. "I fought against my closest confidants because I believed it to be true. I invalidated their concerns one-by-one, those made by my team and a few of my closest allies." Roy's widened eyes met his, looking glazed with moisture. "Now that you're here, alive and well, the entire picture had begun to shed its disguise…I—I am afraid that all I will feel is regret because of some misplaced anger.

"What if…" He gulped and looked away, but Maes continued to watch his stricken expression. "What if I've just wrecked another innocent woman's life in the end? Caused tragedy after tragedy by doing so? Mistake after mistake?"

Maes squeezed his friend's shoulders, heart shattering at seeing him act so vulnerable. "We'll get to the bottom of all this, okay? I'm," he paused, "…I'm not gonna die on you this time."

A broken laugh escaped Roy. "I'll hold you onto that."

"Right. For now, you've got to promise me not to harm her in anyway, verbally or physically, the next time we see her."

Roy nodded after a bit of hesitation, and Maes squeezed his shoulders one last time before he stood up and let go.

"It's not like she's coming back anyway," Roy muttered after a moment. Now that the source of his stress was gone, fatigue seemed to settle into his bones. Sweat trickled from his forehead, and he massaged his skull like he was attempting to break in and free his brain from the barbed wire that was wrapped around it.

"Oh? I think she will." He went and poured cold water into two glasses, set one down in front of Roy. "It's been a long day for you I bet. You should rest. There's a bed upstairs. Get a full morning's sleep."

"Hngh," was Roy's eloquent response before he doused his face with the water.

"Why would you do that?!" Maes groaned tiredly as he got a small towel from the drawer. "That was for drinking."

The towel was snatched from his hands. "We have to make allies fast." Cloth muffled Roy's voice, but even it couldn't muffle the determination that powered the guy's words. When he finished, Roy set it aside and donned a confident smirk; one that Maes hoped wasn't a mask. "I'm going to a bar."

Clearly, some context was missing yet again. "To get drunk?"

His friend unhelpfully did not answer that. "Do you happen to have good clothes upstairs? I—" Roy stopped as his eyes roamed over his blue uniform, from his epaulets to his sleeves to his pants. "I'll have to get rid of this."

With that, Roy removed his upper jacket, hung it at the back of his chair, and waited. Maes was about to ask why but he soon found his answer in the form of a disappearing discarded uniform.

"Oh shit" was all he said pertaining to what he had just witnessed. "Yeah, I think there's something that would fit you from the closet. But I'd probably have to run home and get you more." He stepped back. "Also, I should buy food. And…call Nicolas."

"As long as you trust him." Roy brushed past him and took a step toward the stairs.

"Of course. See you later." Maes rushed to the exit and was about to go when he heard Roy call his name.

He turned. "Yeah?"

"Maes," Roy repeated resolutely. "Regarding Ross. You said she was prone to speaking her mind, right?"

Though unsure where his friend was going with this, Maes nevertheless nodded.

"Something's been bothering me." The man's face remained carefully blank. "You see, after all she's done, I wanted Ross to accidentally incriminate herself in front of you. So earlier, during the interrogation, I lied exactly once. Lied about a fact she was so damn proud of….

"—The very morning following that night, you confessed to your crimes by detailing—with utter jubilation, I might add— how you carried out his assassination. You even mimicked the voice of his daughter to mess with his mind—!"

"It was the voice of your wife that she imitated," Roy said, turning away from him. "Not your daughter's."

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—"So…why didn't she correct me, Hughes?"—

As he trudged through the streets of Central, Maes emitted a long deep exhale that informed the entire world exactly what sort of pains he'd crawled through the last twelve hours. He massaged his temple, surprised that he managed to survive all of the info dumps so far.

I have time. I have time. I have time to unpack it all later, he thought, his hands tugging on a coat that he had asked Roy to fetch for him from upstairs. But that last question was at least…rhetorical.

"Yo, Nicolas," he greeted out loud in a phone booth, which was located near the marketplace already bustling with morning people. "I'd like to order a few kilograms of your finest beef tenderloin from your teacher's butcher shop. Could you please personally deliver it, if you don't mind?" He lowered his voice. "So a funny thing happened to me yesterday evening. Yeah, you'll want to hear this. It's connected to Vertrag…"

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Dawn found Maria standing in front of her parents' door. Left with indecision, all she could do was gaze at the door's blue painted surface, which upon closer look was bedecked with knuckle imprints.

She raised a fist, comparing.

And then her nails lightly scratched at the door as her limp fingers slipped downward. The door felt cool against her forehead.

"Goodbye," she rasped. She would not cry.

Central was stirring awake, so Maria quietly slipped into the shadows of the alleyways. By the little amount of light that dared shine through the narrow slit of sky, she saw rats as big as kittens scampering around. On that alley to her right there was a garbage can of broken beer bottles. If she looked up, dangling clotheslines would obscure her view. To her left was a wall of eroded bricks, and before her was darkness.

She had picked what was already in front of her before she felt the remaining wisps of her energy drain.

When she collapsed, her head did not hit the floor. The grip around her shoulders was firm and it set her body down gently, hand supporting the back of her head. A voice above her called for a "Brother!"

Her eyelids opened a fraction at the sound. The last thing she saw was a glint of red behind a pair of glasses.

Burn scars everywhere.

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Author's note: Another player appears!

Announcement: Starting from this point in time, all theories regarding the identity of Maes' alchemist friend will NOT be counted. Those who got the correct answer for Theory Time will be listed in the next chapter. ;) For others, keep those theories coming in! Also, if I haven't listed your name yet in case a theory was correct, it doesn't mean I forgot you. It just means that it's not yet the time to confirm. Thank you for your patience!

Anyway, whew, this chapter was difficult to write since Roy and Maes have a lot of issues. I hope I'm not butchering their personalities haha. Everyone's a little stressed right now.

I'm kind of excited to finish writing the next chapter, which will be titled "The Chase." We haven't had action in a while. :D

PS. I can't wait to introduce Nicolas. If you haven't guessed yet, you might find that you might know him very well.

Follow me on Tumblr at manalfedz for more updates. Thank you very much to all who left a follow, a favorite, or a review. Your kind words and encouragement renew my love for this fic every time.