A month had passed since the Elrics left East to follow whatever trail they felt like following. In the meanwhile, he was constantly tested in various ways. It was mostly by Mustang's crew, however Grumman's men also tested him, even if he was more likely to be mistaken for Edward. There was little secret about the strange thief who could use alchemy and could barely speak the language.

Mustang was waiting for something to happen before he felt it would be fine for Zidane to make the sacrifice, as Kuja referred to the human shape he was going to create, although he had no idea what it was. He once tried to spy on Miss Riza and Mustang, only to end up heading to the clinic to get his arm bandaged when Miss Riza shot a bit too close to just startle him. At least he managed to sneak out with a large bottle of cola syrup and hid it under the bed in his room. He could mix it with water to make his favorite non-alcoholic drink, or better yet, offer some to Edward.

He feared Ed would still take issue with him when he came back, but Zidane had a sure-fire plan to get Ed to like him before he left, other than just giving him some dilute cola syrup. If their tastes were that similar, it wouldn't be enough. Fuery even managed to pick up a bit of his native language.

"I'm good with communications," He said with a bit of embarrassment.

Zidane laughed. "They're pretty different, right?"

"Yes," Fuery said. "It's amazing how fluent you are for how little experience you have."

"Had to learn if I wanted to survive. Still not great."

"You've improved greatly from when you first came here."

"Is no longer passive," Zidane said. "People talk to me. Need to be understood to converse."

"You're doing fine, but we do not leave subjects out when we feel they are understood," Mustang said. "That is a lazy tactic."

"I am sorry," Zidane said. "It is much easier to do so. Are the Elrics back?"

Mustang stared at him. "I thought you only liked Al."

"I have come to terms with Edward. I have made him something to say sorry with."

"Knowing what we've given you, I fear for my safety."

"Miss Riza helped, sir. So, are they back?"

Roy looked at the papers in hand. "According to this, they'll be back on the evening train from central."

"Is great! I can surprise them even better with the light!" He gave a laugh and ran off, much to Roy's confusion


Ed stepped off the train relaxed. He managed to rest easily on the way back. Even better, he managed to have a much nicer seat than he usually had on his many train rides. Al did seem to drift off when he began chatting about it happily, though.

"There's Riza!" He said, pointing to the woman on the only slightly-crowded platform. It was far better than the mess of Central when he went there.

"I see her, Ed, but that person next to her…"

Ed looked around. "Which person, I don't see anything."

Al gestured in the direction of what he saw. When Ed looked, he understood why Al was nervous. Next to her was someone who very clearly didn't look like he belonged in this country, with his strong violet jacket and long, pale hair. Despite the feminine touch, something in the face gave away the fact the elegant figure was male. He seemed have a state of mind to match the outfit, humming gaily to himself, conducting an imaginary orchestra with music only he could here.

He chose to ignore the man and move to Riza.

"Hello Lieutenant," he said with a small nod. "What brings you here?"

"I should escort you to the station," She said, walking towards one of the cars. They followed, as did the man.

"What's with that guy?" Ed asked again.

"You seem to think I found an answer," Al replied.

"You don't remember me?" The man said. "We've met." He gave a wide smile as he narrowed his eyes.

Ed stared at him. "No, I don't think so. I'd remember someone dressed like that."

The man laughed. "Call me Kuja. Your little impostor was so upset you hated him that he just gave up. He has such problems with being rejected. I got his body, and with just me, it's adapted."

"Adapted..." Ed muttered to himself, trying to figure out what the man meant, then he realized the height difference. "Wait! There's no way you could have grown that much so quickly without marks showing it!"

"Tch," Kuja said, waving a pointer finger delicately in the air. "You seem to think I run by the same rules as you. Where we came from, Alchemy's inability to create or destroy new matter is what is out-of-place, not my magic."

Something in Ed's head clicked. "Wait… you can do magic?"

"What of it?" Kuja said haughtily.

Ed noticed Al's signs of joy. "Then maybe you could help us."

Kuja shook his head. "Most of my magic is destructive, they call me a black mage back home."

Al and Ed hung their heads. Another dead end.

Kuja started laughing a bit. Ed recognized it as the impostor's. Well, it was still his body.

"Got you, Edward," Kuja, no, the impostor said, pulling the white hair off his head, revealing the natural blond underneath. "You should have seen your face. Miss Riza, Kuja, and Fuery helped try to make me convincing."

"H-how did you…" Ed trailed off, unsure of exactly what to say.

"Make the costume?" Zidane asked. "Manage to look half a foot taller? Get Miss Riza to let me dress like this in public?"

Ed's eyes glinted with a murderous intent. "Manage to fool me, you blasted impostor!"

Zidane gave his idiotic laugh, kicking off the high boots he wore and running to the car.

Hawkeye gave a sigh. "Pick those up, Ed."

"I don't want to!"

"Mustang has given an order for any records we have obtained about him to be destroyed after he leaves. I'm not leaving any evidence."

Al quietly went over to the shoes and picked them up, following Hawkeye to the military-issued car.

"Guess I failed," He heard Zidane say, sitting in the front next to Riza. "I just wanted to make Edward laugh."

"It wasn't funny trying to do that!" Ed said.

Zidane spun around in his seat. "Don't worry, I can make it up to you."

"Somehow, I worry about how you can make it up."

"No, it's not something crazy, like this time. I just manage to make my favorite drink."

Hawkeye looked at Zidane briefly, causing him to return to sitting forward.

"Seriously, Edward," Zidane said. "I would much enjoy it if you humored me about this. It's not poison. I'll drink from the same cup if you don't believe me."

"Are you serious about that?"

"Yep! I promise you that."


True to his word, Zidane did take a sip of the drink he liked from the same glass as he poured for Ed when the two ate dinner.

"You didn't substitute any ingredients, did you?" Ed said nervously looking at the brown liquid in the cup. "Because I don't know if it would be safe just because it looked the same."

"It had the same name," Zidane said with a grin. "It works the same. What's that saying, again? If it looks like a Mu, acts like a Mu, and howls like a Mu, it probably is? I looked up what your cola is like and how it is made into syrup. Near identical to my cola syrup. And that was the hard part."

Ed shrugged and nervously took a sip of the strange drink. "It's somewhat bubbly," he said at first. "And sweet."

"You don't have a thing against sweet, do you? I've heard such things of male Burmecians. Sweet makes them feel weak."

Ed smiled, not understanding Zidane's ramblings on his home. "It's not that, im-Tri-Zidane," he said. "I just was pointing it out."

Zidane gave a smile. "Then you like it?"

Ed nodded. "I'm not fully willing to forgive you for the incident earlier today, but I say a truce is in order." He extended his hand across the table, which the off-worlder gladly accepted and started to shake wildly.


"Is there any extra work you need doing in East Command?" Ed asked Mustang the next day. Mustang gave a small look of shock.

"What? Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Ed smirked."I wouldn't be a good dog if I didn't stay when my master wanted me to."

Mustang gave his smirk which bothered Ed to no end. "I don't force you to stay Fullmetal, you can go where you please as long as you return whenever you discover something of interest."

"I want to stay, at least until Zi-Tribal can no longer ruin my name. Certainly you have something I can do for the time being."

"Fine, you can help sort my paperwork," Mustang said. Ed sighed in relief and turned to leave. "Although Fullmetal…"

Ed looked at him. "What is it?"

"Seems even you like Zidane now too."

Ed paused. "No, just tolerate." He walked out before Mustang could have the chance to lead him to it.


"What are we going to do about Zidane?" Riza said a few days later. It had certainly been much easier with Ed, Al, and even Zidane helping with the paperwork for Mustang's office.

Roy looked at her. "Send him home. We've got everything together, we just need to find a good time and place for him to transmute the sacrifice."

"I didn't mean about that. Fuhrer Bradley is coming today for his routine inspection. I don't know how you would be able to explain Zidane to him."

"You're right, Lieutenant."

"I hear my name?" Zidane said waltzing in.

Riza took a breath. "Zidane, someone is coming soon, and we don't think it is wise to give him any news on you. There's too many… irregularities about you that could get us in trouble."

"I want to see him."

"Did you just hear the Lieutenant?" Roy asked. "You can't be seen."

Zidane smiled. "Mustang, just because I can see him, doesn't mean he can see me. I was-am- a thief. A good one knows how to not be seen. I admit, I prefer playing with misdirection, but when I want to, I can disappear."

Roy stared intently. "Are you sure?"

"If you can succeed at the misdirection, I'll manage to disappear."


Unfortunately, it turned out that the place Roy put him was a high shelf of a closet which they had managed to clear out the paper of, putting it into neat file folders. He could barely see this man who commanded Roy and Riza around as if it were nothing.

He also wasn't very capable of understanding much of the conversation. They used terms which he hadn't bothered to acquaint himself with. However, the tall man with the eyepatch, the one they respected and followed, something about him bothered both Zidane and Kuja.

He has a craving for blood. Kuja offered. Even more than I ever did. I had my reasons, and not until the end did I wish for anything near this level.

Zidane barely nodded, nervous of making noise if it went too far. You even tried to kill us all painlessly in the end.

He felt a chuckle. Not painlessly, but definitely less pain than he wishes upon all the humans. Wait. Do you feel that?

Feel what?

Hide deeper, I don't know if he can be misdirected. Use the shadows.

Zidane followed the advice. The man headed to the built-in cabinet and looked around.

"Empty," The man said.

"Of course," Mustang said. "My crew is very efficient without it. I don't really keep much in there."

The man looked straight at Zidane, yet didn't seem to see him.

Zidane shuddered.

"Very well, Mustang," The man said. "You seem to have learned to not hide anything from me."

Roy gave a nervous laugh. "Of course. I've been working for the military since I was old enough."

There was something there. Zidane touched Kuja in his mind. It was human, but not human.

Artificial? Kuja asked.

In many ways. Not unnatural like us, but yet it is. There's something different about him and us.

He felt Kuja nod in his head. But I don't think Mustang would like for us to point it out. Who knows the danger.

Bingo.

Glad you agree with me Zidane.

That… wasn't me.


"We've got a confirmed connection between this world and Terra, and thus Gaia," Zidane said that evening, lapsing into his native language.

Indeed. Kuja added. What's more, it seems Garland lied to me about more than just my mortality.

"Really?"

You doubt me? Kuja said. Some of the books you own, they are far too similar to the books I read that Garland said was an ancient Terran dialect.

"He might not have been lying. This could have been another target of the invasion in the past."

Don't be ridiculous. How could I send you to the past? There are rules against doing that.

No such thing as no such thing. It came to him easily. He heard it before, but he couldn't remember where. And you have magic, didn't you say you found the workaround to the laws of the universe?

Well, yes, but…

I rest my case Kuja. This is the past. If only I could figure out how.


Only one chapter left! Huge amounts of new alerters helped give me inspiration to continue this story. Although my little contest I had is over. It seems that I was too obscure in my city-required worship of one of the many local megacorporations. (Strange, considering giving the search parameters gives like a bajillion identical videos of it on Youtube...)

I'd try to come up with something else, since I really don't like the name I gave to this character. Maybe you all could just throw names out there for me.

Next chapter: Spark starts off with a scene involving everyone's favorite other former Champions of Cosmos and then gives a dark depressing ending for the fic that might have the reviewers calling for blood. Until next time, I'm building my safety bunker.