A/N: Glad so many of you liked the moderately happy ending to the last chapter. I very rarely write happy characters, but I had fun with it, so here. And sorry about the late update. I wanted to post yesterday, but my beta decided that going to see Twelfth Night with his friends was more important than playing editor. :-P Also, my manager said I could blame him because there was this thing about bringing my computer to work so I could type on my brakes. So, its Jeremy's and Cameron's fault that its late.
Normal is Subjective
Chapter 7
Edward ran toward Roy's offices, sheer joy on his face. He'd forgotten what it was like to practice alchemy just to practice alchemy. He'd been on a mission, had a specific purpose for so long, it was nice to learn as he had when he and Al were living with their mother. To have nothing weighing on his mind; well, nothing so dire as reviving their mother or returning Alphonse's soul to his body. Maybe the colonel would allow him to finish his stint in the military as a simple researcher?
Well, simple was perhaps an understatement.
"Colonel!" He yelled as the door to the office slammed against the wall, startling everyone, with the exception of Hawkeye. Ed wasn't sure anything could faze that woman.
"There's no need to yell, Edward," the first lieutenant said calmly.
Edward had fully intended to obey the softly spoken order, when Mustang tore out of his office, looking worried, his fingers poised to snap.
The colonel's eyes quickly surveyed the room before they fell on Edward. He looked confused for a moment before his face steeled. "I thought you had deserted, Fullmetal. You do know that you're supposed to inform your superior officer when you don't show up for three days."
Ed's smile fell. He was busy. "Sorry, but you have to see this! Me and Al have been working on something...well...just look!" He pulled the figurine out of his pocket. Everyone in the office gathered around.
"Hey," Havoc said, "isn't that what Al made?"
Alphonse charged in before Ed could answer. He was panting, trying to catch his breath. "Hey! No fair, brother! I told you I wanted to tell him. Its my project."
Ed had a large grin on his face, "Using my arrays and equations! Besides, you might be able to beat me in a fight, but I've always been faster than you. I won fair and square."
"Fair?! You transmuted my chalk into dust then turned the door into a wall as soon as you left! How is that fair?!"
"You had more chalk."
"What were you going to show him anyway? You need me to do it."
Ed hadn't thought of that. "Mustang noticed it before I did. I could explain what we were doing. Enough to get him to approve the budget."
"You can't just barge in, demanding funding without something."
"Theories are something!"
"Hey!" Mustang yelled over the playful argument.
"Well," Havoc laughed, "nice to see you two made up."
Ed laughed, he wrapped his flesh arm around Al's shoulders. He was slightly annoyed that he had to stretch to reach his taller, younger brother. "Just a stupid misunderstanding, right, Al?"
Al laughed nervously, "I'm sorry for just running in here. I told Ed we could just use our own money."
"No way! That's what my research budget is for. We need my salary money for stuff. Its not like you can wear my old clothes and I don't want to keep staying in the dorms."
Al sighed, repeating the arguments he'd had not ten minutes prior while they had been back in their room. "I'm not a State Alchemist, brother. You can't take from that money for my experiments."
Ed turned to the colonel, "But they're my theories, my arrays, my equations. What if we show you colonel? You can decide."
Mustang looked from Ed to Alphonse and back. "Good to see you two getting along. Alphonse is right, Edward. The research budget is for you. There are a million things you could study now that your work with the Philosopher's Stone is finished."
Mustang just hadn't seen what Al could do. That's why he didn't understand. "But this is my work. Show him, Al."
Al turned the figurine over in Ed's hands. An array was etched in the back. It resembled the blood seal, but only three of the triangles actually had the bottom line. The rest were left open; and the hook had changed, it now had a half circle on either side, making it resemble a fishing lure.
Al looked at Ed and nodded before activating the array; Ed knew what would happen. He was ready. Sure, he had panicked the first few times, but after doing it dozens and dozens of times over the last few days, he'd almost gotten use to it.
The others, even Mustang, gasped and rushed forward to help catch Alphonse as he bonelessly pitched forward, unconscious, into Edward's arms. Ed handed the figurine to the colonel so he could better hold his brother's body.
"Edward, what—" Hawkeye stopped. The figurine was waving at them, standing in the colonel's hand.
"We want some materials and use of the field," Edward explained as the they crowded in to poke and prod the tiny metal doll.
"Is that...Alphonse?" Fury asked.
The figurine nodded, and gave a soft metallic tink as as one arm was raised to behind it's helmet and it shook as it it were laughing, even though no sound came out. Ed knew all of Al's mannerisms, it made him laugh to see the tiny figurine have them.
"He can do this at will?" Mustang asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
That made Edward go on the defensive, "Yeah, why?"
"Do you know how dangerous this is? I can understand Alphonse doing it once, but I would have thought you would have stopped him!"
Of course Ed knew it was dangerous. They spent an entire day working on new arrays and calculations before he had allowed Alphonse to try it again. He'd been nervous, scared, terrified, really, but Al said that he knew how, and Ed understood that strange feeling of knowing something without being able to describe how you know. The Gate was strange that way. "You were the one who saw it first! The other night you let me go on and on without telling me. You don't know what we know. You can't understand what its like to know."
The figurine sat down on Roy's hand and then collapsed. Al took a deep breath and opened his eyes slowly. They'd found out rather early on that if Al didn't take his time "waking up" he would get violently ill. After a few more deep breaths, Al nodded, telling Ed that he could stand on his own. Al still looked slightly green, but it would fade quickly. "I thank you for worrying about us, colonel, but I can do this. Maybe if we can learn more about it, maybe..."
Alphonse had told Edward this idea. With Drachma and Xing as they were, and even how the government was itself, Alphonse thought that if he did enough research, could figure out exactly why he could do it, it would be something that could be taught, to save lives. To protect Ed.
"Al wants to see if we can modify it for other alchemists. To do that we need to know its limits. We can't do that in our room."
"Other alchemists?" Havoc sounded skeptical.
"Oh!" Fury said excitedly. "If we could have soldiers fighting, but have them actually be safely away, think of all the lives that could be saved."
"Alphonse," Colonel Mustang was very serious, "this is very dangerous. I understand what you're trying to do, and its very admirable, but this could kill you."
"No, it's not what you think. It isn't my soul...well, not all of it. I can still feel my body. I can know what's going going on around me...I can't really explain it, colonel. You helped us see how stupid we were being. I can do this. I know we're just kids, but we've been practicing alchemy for ten years. Let us prove to you what we can do."
Mustang sighed, "Fine. Hawkeye, find—"
"Requisition papers for exclusive use of the main field, sir." She handed him the forms. "It has an opening tomorrow afternoon, thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred."
"Can you get all of the materials by then?" Mustang didn't sound entirely happy or convinced.
"Plenty of time." Ed nodded.
"Will you come watch?" Alphonse asked. "To see what we can do?"
Mustang nodded, "Someone has to keep an eye on you two."
Ed and Al had gathered all of the materials and were setting everything up for the test. They had stayed up well past midnight working on new arrays and etching them into small metal plates. Alphonse thought that the plates would be easier than gloves because he would not need the time to change them, and faster than chalk because these arrays were so intricate. A small array on the corner of each plate would transmute it onto the puppet and hold it there, ensuring that the "seals" wouldn't be washed away. Al had made seven triangular plates, four had the same array that had been etched into the figurine, the last three each had slightly different array. Ed was about to transmute the scrap steel he had acquired into the suits of armor when he noticed Al slide a square etched plate into his pocket.
"I thought all the plates were triangles. What's that?"
Al gave him an innocent smile that seemed to morph into a Mustang-like smirk, "You'll see, brother." He turned to inspect the scrap metal. "Could you make two that look like my armor? One regular size, the other large, and maybe two that look different?"
"Yeah, I think we have enough for that."
"Wait," Al looked around, Mustang and his team were walking toward the edge of the fence around the field. "Let's really show them what we can do, brother. Let's spread them out. And leave me enough steel to make one."
"Mid-fight?! Are you sure?"
There was that Mustang-like smirk again; Ed would need to stop letting Al hang around the colonel so much. "Did you know that Colonel Mustang only let me take the State Alchemy Exam because he thought I'd fail?"
What?! "Alright." Mustang should be shown that Alphonse deserved more credit than that. "Let's finish setting up."
Alphonse nodded and they carried three of the steel plates across the yard, for Alphonse and spread the other three in different directions.
"Let's show 'em what we can do," Edward smiled.
"Warm-up first?"
"Sure."
And the fight began. Simple, easy sparring. Ed made sure that any move made with his automail was pulled, though he really didn't need to. Al could easily dodge or deflect any, but the thought of injuring his brother made Ed overly cautious.
Yet, just as he had found a few nights prior, Alphonse was still superior in fighting. Barely three minutes in, Edward was forced to stop "going easy" on Alphonse.
"C'mon, Ed!" Al laughed as he spun around, deflecting a kick from Ed. "You aren't even trying. This is a battle simulation! Throw in some Alchemy! Or at least try to beat me."
Okay, Ed hadn't been going that easy on Al. He smiled, "You want a real fight? Fine!" He clapped his hands together and pressed them against the ground. A large pipe with eyes and his trademark blond braid sprang up in the flash and a few dozen gallons of muddy water poured over Alphonse, covering him head to toe.
"Hey! Edward!" Alphonse growled. He quickly drew an array on his stomach in the mud and pressed his hands on it. The dirt and water were quickly transmuted away and he charged at Ed who was still laughing. Ed dodged two punches and a kick, backing away from each easily. Al threw another punch and Ed saw his opening. He leaned in to throw his own, but that was a mistake. Al was feigning the punch; instead Al grabbed Ed's automail arm, spun around, easily dropping the smaller, older brother to the ground and holding him there for a few moments.
Al then released Ed and rushed away, laughing. Ed tried to spring to his feet, to chase after his brother, but found his automail hand alchemically welded to the chest plate of one of the suits of armor. The palm was flat against the metal, a now smeared, mud drawn transmutation circle on the back of the hand. How was he supposed to clap? "Alphonse! Winry's gonna kill you!"
Winry, crap. He still hadn't called Aunt Pinako and Winry about Al getting his body back. He had been scared that if he had called them, they would either be angry at his mistake -- that he hadn't done the transmutation well enough, making Al weak and ill for so long -- or that Alphonse would talk to them and decide that he wanted to go back to Risembol. But the long talk they'd had the previous night convinced Ed that Alphonse didn't hate him, truly and honestly... and after Al had pinned Ed to the floor long enough for Ed to cede victory, he was convinced that Al was no longer that ill.
Right now though, that didn't matter. He pulled his metallic fingers up as far as they would go, slid the fingers of his flesh hand under and could barely pull them apart enough to tap them together. He freed his hand and stood, checking to be sure the automail was still functional. It was. The loud crashing of metal forced Ed to look up, just in time to dodge the giant gauntlet aimed for his head. He gasped as he jumped, "Whoa! Al, careful! Give me a little warning."
The suit of armor shrugged it's shoulders, wordlessly announcing, "Hey, this is supposed to be a life-or-death kind of fight."
Ed had not expected Al to create the armor and project himself into it so quickly. Al must have been practicing while Ed slept. Sneaky little...Ed dodged a kick and countered with a right hook. He didn't need to hold back now. The loud, hollow clang of metal slamming into metal reverberated around the empty space of the field.
Al had said he wanted to attempt to use alchemy while he was in the armor. After Al deflected a high kick, Ed asked, slightly winded, "You ready to try some alchemy?"
One quick nod, it was weird not having Al be able to speak. "Alright, Al." Ed ducked under a punch and swept his automail leg, trying to knock the armor to the ground. The armor did a backward handspring, dodging. "Try something simple!" Ed ducked under another punch, but wasn't fast enough to jump when an armor leg swept his own out from under him. He fell face down in the grass, the breath slightly knocked out of him. He heard the armor clanking as it retreated. He stood quickly, facing the section where Mustang and the team were standing. There were many more spectators now. Great, they could all watch as Ed got his ass kicked by his younger brother. Mustang must be loving this.
Ed turned to follow where the armor had run to, only to be covered in a spray of water and mud from his own transmuted pipe, which now had Al's mop of short, dark-blond hair rather than his braid. He flung his hands, throwing off some mud. Okay, now he understood why Al had gotten annoyed. He clapped his hands and touched them to his stomach, pocket of air between the mud and me, release the water as vapor, let the dirt fall away. Just as Al had done.
Al had one hand behind his head, soundlessly laughing. "Yeah, yeah," Ed feigned anger. Al was near another set of armor. Now that they had made sure Al could use alchemy, time for "Experiment Two." "Okay. Al. I'm gonna attack head-on. You got the plates?" Al nodded. "Try transferring to another armor."
Al dodged two punches, carefully making sure he led Ed where Al wanted. Al threw one and as Ed dodged, Al slammed a plate to the chest of the nearest armor.
Ed had expected the armor in front of him to collapse as the other stood. The first held its defensive stance as the second climbed to its feet, and took the same stance. "Whoa, Al! You're controlling both!" The armors looked to each other before turning back to Ed. Another wordless question, well, more of a challenge, really: "Think you can take both?"
Ed laughed and started throwing punches. Controlling two seemed much more difficult. The punches and kicks were slightly sloppy, but it didn't diminish the high advantage. Ed was having trouble keeping them both in front of him, where he could see them.
Suddenly, both suits froze and turned. Ed had expected his punch to be dodged, and hissed as his flesh hand connected with a metal breastplate. "Al, what...?' Both armors collapsed and beyond them, Ed saw a group of blue uniformed soldiers standing over Al's body. One was kneeling next to the prone form. Ed instantly started forward, terrified. They had walked onto a field during a battle simulation...they must have been after Al.
"Alphonse! NO!" Ed heard Mustang's frightened yell and realization hit him. He willed his legs faster.
Too late...
Alphonse's fist connected with the jaw of Fuhrer Bradly.
