The Alchemist, The Plant, and The Detective
Epilogue: One Year Later – I Will Remember
A Fullmetal Alchemist/Batman Crossover
By: Legato Deathscythe
Amestris
It had taken them almost a year to really transcribe and distribute all the knowledge the Fullmetal Alchemist had brought to this world. The automail engineers of Rush Valley had almost rioted when the designs and schematics he brought back had been released. Rockbell Automail had gotten first look at all the designs. It was one of the many things Fullmetal had brought back to the people.
The farmers of Resembool and Xenotine all made use of the knowledge of plant hybrids and advanced botany he gave them. The Triggums were more then helpful getting things together for the newest crops. The academics were still sequestered as they considered the theoretical sciences that had been given to the greatest of Amestris minds to wonder over. Einstein's relativity theory had more then stumped several of them.
Alphonse Elric had returned to Resembool after the reconstruction of Central had been completed. He planned to learn more about Alchemy and help the people of his own town as he could. Several said his temperament would be best for a career in medicine. Al wasn't certain, all he knew was he wanted the small town life, and rebuilt the house he and Edward had burnt to the ground.
Winry had stayed in Central to fit Elysia with an automail left arm. It was the best she could make, taking what she had learned from Edward's designs and schematics. The materials were all based on the specs Fullmetal brought back, ensuring Elysia had the best, lightest, strongest arm Winry had ever made. The little girl was only the second person Winry had met that recovered from surgery in a year. She stayed long enough to help get the little girl settled and recovered. She also returned to Resembool when her work in Central was done.
Col. Edward Elric however did stay in Central. He had gotten a house with a big backyard for him and Elysia. Edward had been determined to ensure her life was lived in safety, and that she would be able to follow her own path when the time came. He never went out, never got drunk, and even though some of his subordinates were concerned he never gave them a real reason to worry. He treated Elysia like his own, helped her adjust to the automail, and made sure she had a good warm bed to sleep in.
Major Roy Mustang had kept a good eye on Edward the entire year. There were times in the office he could see the young man just look out and become lost in thought. He finally had been issued a new watch by the state, but that one seemed to be forever hidden. He only kept it on him for the times he needed it to get something done. The watch he seemed to covet however was the only with the curtain of ivy etched into the cover.
He had worked things out with Hawkeye, getting her to watch over Elysia for the night. The others had left for the night, leaving only Roy and Edward. So far everything was going according to plan. Before Edward had reached the door Roy said, "Come on, how about I buy you a drink?"
"I really should get home, Roy. Elysia is going to expect dinner soon," Edward said.
Roy smirked, "Already taken care of. She's under the watchful care of our own Lt. Hawkeye. She'll be fine for one night without you."
Edward just let out a breath and pulled on his uniform jacked. He had stopped wearing his hair in a braid and had started just pulling it up into a high ponytail. He also seemed to have inherited his father's poor eye sight. The glasses he wore were similar to the ones Hoenheim had worn when Roy met the man. When asked about the change by Al Edward had simply told his younger brother, "I know why he did what he did now. I can't forgive him, but now I can at least understand why. I suppose this is my way of accepting what he did."
They went to the bar Mustang went sometimes with Riza. It was quiet, and they took a booth near the back for some added privacy. Roy figured if he was going to get Edward to open up about what might be bothering him then privacy was crucial. They ordered their drinks and after the barmaid delivered them and left Roy sips his. Edward idly sipped the wine he had ordered, and pulled his watch out. He opened it and looked at the womans picture within. He still hadn't told anyone who that was, or the significance of the date. Only Mustang had seen inside it since Edward had returned to them.
"Did you know I put a greenhouse in the back yard?" Edward said.
"No, I didn't even know you were interested in plants," Roy said.
"I wasn't when I ended up in Gotham. I had meant to read up on the subject but never got the chance while I was here. I spent the first six months there locked up in a ward for the criminally insane. I made the mistake of thinking that with all the advanced technology around me, that the people there would know about alternate worlds. Seemed they just thought I was delusional," Edward said.
He hadn't told anyone anything personal during the debriefings. He had kept it to the purely informative and professional the whole time, "Why would they lock you up with criminals?"
Edward smirked, "They had never seen a man with a metal arm and leg there. Since they thought I was crazy they locked me up with the people they thought were most dangerous. That's where I met her. I was reading a book on botany from the asylums library when she walked up to me," Edward said, his eyes growing distant as a wistful smile slide across his face.
Roy could see the change easily enough, "What was she in for?"
Edward laughed, "She was a criminal. Environmental terrorist, would go after business men who had through their dealings caused major harm to the plants of that world. I was so out of it at the time from the shrinks I didn't care. She sat down next to me, introduced herself, and we spent the next month during common hours just talking. Never about what we were in for, just about plants. Eventually I told her everything about Amestris, about my life here. She didn't hold anything back either. I don't think I've ever met someone who didn't hold something back from me before," Edward said. He sipped his drink slowly.
"What's her name?" Roy asked.
Edward smiled, "Dr. Pamela Isley, but to the world she was more commonly know as Poison Ivy. She had a habit of using poisoned lipstick to kill her targets. A last kiss she called it."
"Can't say it be a bad way to go, looking at that picture there," Roy said, a smirk on his face.
Edward smirked, "I think the only man she ever kissed without intent to kill was me. You, well I think I'd be arranging your funeral if she did."
Both men chuckled for a moment. Edward sipped his wine and continued, "I had figured Alchemy was impossible in that world. First time across the Gate it had been. Once I was in Arkham I just assumed it was the same deal. She got me to try again, and when it worked I broke us both out. She had her hideout on the sight of a toxic waste dump. Some idiot thought it be a good idea to put homes over it. The place was so contaminated she had to give me a shot. Holding back from my fear of needles was hard, but for her I did.
"I cleaned up the place myself that first week. It was easy really once I analyzed the makeup of what was in the ground. Just transmute out the heavy metals, condense them into usable form, then recombine the remaining chemicals into something safe and fertile. The morning she saw my work for the first time on the place, she kissed me without hesitation."
"I guess she liked it," Roy said, finishing his drink and ordering another for him and Edward.
"That's what I said. We got in contact with a local fence and information broker named Oswald Cobblepot. Everyone in Gotham knew him better as the Penguin. A legitimate business man if you ever asked him what he was. He got us as much as he could for all the metals I pulled out. I may have transmuted some of the lead into precious metals. There was more then enough lead, and well let's just say it was legal in Gotham City," Edward smirked.
Roy laughed a little at that, "I guess you needed the money, huh?"
"Boy did we. We set everything up, I bought the property under a dummy corporation and hired a horde of lawyers to get her free and clear," Edward said.
"An awful lot of work to go through for a criminal, Ed," Roy commented.
Edward nodded, "I know, but she was the only one I could really trust at the time. Even the local hero tried to get me to distance myself. I told you about the Batman and his crew. They decided to keep an eye on me. I was a wild card, and she was a known murderer. They were worried she was using me. She never did though. Three nights before she went back to Arkham so the lawyers could do their work she told me I had to reaffirm who I was. Even if that meant going out at night and doing what Batman was doing. But not before we spent the next three days in almost every part of the main greenhouse I had made our home in together," the way Edward said it had Mustang's right eyebrow raising.
"You two..." Roy said, a little envious of his younger comrades exploits.
Edward smirked, "Yea. Almost three days straight. When she went back in, I went out. I spent as much time as I could being coached into the perfect business man by Oswald. Had to keep my temper down when dealing with other business men. I suppose that will come in handy if I have have to negotiate a treaty or something.
"When I wasn't learning that, I was out serving the people in my own way. Amestris isn't the only place that knows the name Fullmetal anymore," Edward smirked at that.
He sipped at his second glass slowly, enjoying the taste of the wine and letting it loosen his tongue more then he normally would. "We stayed together that whole time. She gave up her previous life, and to me she was just Pamela. I don't know when it happened, but sometime over that four years I fell for her."
He handed Roy the watch and let the older man look at the picture. Roy saw the date engraved in it and asked, "What's the date mean?"
Edward smiled, "It was the day we first met in Arkham. She gave it to me on my twenty-first birthday. It was only a day or so later the Gate was opened."
Silence settled between them. Roy couldn't begin to think of how leaving that woman behind had hurt Ed. Then he asked him, "What happened to your issued watch?"
Ed sighed, "I transmuted the case to clear the old date off, had a photograph of the two of us together put in and the words "Don't Forget – I Love You" engraved on it. I left it there with a letter and my last will and testament for her."
"You miss her," Roy said.
"More then anything. It took everything I had in me to not fly back through the Gate to her. Some nights, even when I know the good I've done for Amestris I wish I had," Edward confessed.
"You want to go home to her," Roy said, it wasn't a question.
"More then anything, but I know I can't. The only way would be to risk the Gate opening again, and that's just too big a risk to take," Edward said. Roy handed him back his watch, which Edward closed and placed in the front pocket of his shirt.
"Have you told anyone else?"
He shook his head, "Al and Winry wouldn't understand. They still think I should resign, go back to Resembool, and live a quiet uneventful life out there. I can't do that, that's not me. I have to be involved in whatever world I'm in." A moment of silence fell between the two.
"If it's any consolation to you, I don't think you can really keep two people who are meant for each other apart forever. You of all people know that we are more then just flesh and blood, or steel. Someday, you will be reunited with her. Of that I have no doubt," Roy said. His voice was sympathetic, as if he were speaking to a younger brother and not his superior officer.
Edward smiled and honest grateful smile at Roy, "Thanks, that means a lot to me."
Roy nodded as Ed stood up, thanked him for the drink, and headed home for the night. Roy just finished his drink as he thought about just what Edward had given up for the people of Amestris.
"We all better be deserving of your sacrifices, Edward. I'd hate to think you gave up a chance at true happiness for nothing," Roy muttered to himself.
--
Gotham
For Pamela Isley, the year after Edward returned to Amestris had been one trial after another. She spent the entire pregnancy worried she would miscarry, that fate would deal her one more blow. But it didn't. With the help of her friends and colleagues she made it through to term. The day her son was born was probably the happiest day of her life. She named him Marcus Elric.
The first three months of his life she never left him alone, always keeping him close to her. The company had a generous maternity leave policy, thanks to Edward's personal respect for motherhood. She had entrusted day to day operations to Winnifred and Albert, so she wasn't worried about things getting out of hand.
She ran more tests on herself after the pregnancy. Her immune system was still as active as ever, keeping her young and unaffected by age. It was something that to her was a constant. Some day, she may have to figure something out in regards to that. Today however was not the day. She took Marcus all over the greenhouse, exposing him to the various plants and Nina. The combination of dog and girl just adored Marcus, it's deep halting voice calling him "Little Brother."
Pamela knew her next project would be to try to figure out a way to help Nina. During her pregnancy she had taken samples of the chimera and worked over several theories. She had even asked Batman for a sample of his anti-mutagen to see how it would counter act the effects of Nina's father's work. She was close, she could feel it. Maybe Marcus would have a playmate in human form sooner then she thought.
She was changing Marcus' diaper when Barbara Gordon walked in. The other woman had decided to put up her cape and go into the police force. Pamela didn't say anything on it, not wanting to get too involved in the secret lives of the bats these days. She was happy with her life for the time being.
"So how is he today?"
"Fussy, but he's always a little like that when he's hungry. He's so much like his father at times," Pamela said. Marcus just looked up at her with big golden innocent eyes.
"Well, he'll probably be just as smart as he was. He is the son of two genius scientists," Barb said.
"But will he be like his mother and follow a life of crime and villainy, or his father and a life of virtue as a hero. Such is the question that really keeps me up at nights," Pamela said.
Barbara placed a hand on her arm, "He'll be both. Feared by his enemies and loved by his friends. With the two of you as parents he can't not be a strong, confidant, and compassionate human being."
Pamela smiled as she picked him up. She held him against her and smiled as he cooed in his mothers arms. Barbara ran a hand down the babies back as his mother sat down in a rocker Alfred had brought over. She sat there with him, just rocking him back and forth and singing a soft melody. Barbara smiled, watching her one time enemy give herself over to being a caring nurturing mother. It seemed more then appropriate that someone who cared about the world enough to kill for it would be retired from that world by something as simple as a child.
"I still think about him, but I can do so without bursting into tears now. Sometimes I'll see something in a journal that would remind me of one of our discussions, or a glint of steel in the corner of my eye. Some nights I can even still feel him holding me as I go to sleep," Pamela said.
Barbara kept a soft smile on her face, "Even if he's gone, he's still with you. I wouldn't be surprised if one day he came back. After all, the unexpected happens all the time to people like us."
Pamela smiled back, "Yes it does. Doesn't it my little man?"
Maybe it was another trait from his father, but at the sound of the word little he seemed to get slightly more fussy. Pamela laughed and rocked him some more, soothing his temper. Barbara sat down as Pamela started telling the baby a story of the Fullmetal Alchemist. He couldn't understand it yet, but it helped Pamela to tell the baby about his father. When she was done she sat him down, and had dinner with Barbara in the small dining room.
They spoke about the way their lives had been going. It was friendly, and it made the two women feel a little better to have someone to talk to about the simple things in their lives. Their previous lives had them at each others throats, but now they could easily be considered friends after the last few years. The last year especially. The old rivalries had been forgiven, left behind for new lives for the the two women.
--
That night both of them watched the children they had under their care. The moonlight streaming in made both look like angels to the two. They left them to sleep in the night, never very far away. They walked out to their greenhouses, and took a good look at the plants. They pulled out their watches and looked at the pictures in them.
Edward slide a finger along the image of Pamela's cheek, at the same moment that she traced the line of his jaw in the picture she had. When they did, they both felt a ghostly caress where the other had touched the picture. In that moment they were alright.
Edward thought about what Roy had told him. Pamela thought about what she would tell their son one day about his father. Neither felt sad that night, or lonely. The pain in their hearts lessened for that moment. They both looked up at the moon and dreamed of the day they would be together again. Even if it weren't for a thousand years, they knew that someday they would be reunited.
When they went to bed that night, Pamela could feel Edward's arms around her, while Edward felt her pressed against his side.
The End
Authors Notes: This Epilogue is set to Amy Grant's "I Will Remember You" off the album "Heart in Motion."
Hope you liked it. There will be a sequel. I hope you like that one as well. I have the soundtrack to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on order. It should be here in the next week. When it gets here I'll post the OST. Every fic I write gets it's own soundtrack. I'll tack on some notes as well when it gets here.
Coming Soon - Beyond Fullmetal
Thanks to datdude and Ryan slicer.
