It was the day the Gate had specified. Winry had forgiven Ed after he explained. Al had forgiven him the moment that Ling had yelled to the entire room that he and Mei were now engaged, screw what the royal advisors and matchmakers said. Al had vaguely registered it, but he had been rather preoccupied by the fact that Mei was kissing him, oh god Mei was kissing him…
All the extended family, adopted or by marriage, were there, and so were all the family friends. Ling had appeared with Lan Fan and Mei at the window, having abandoned the Emperor outfit for the black clothes Greed preferred— he was still Ling, but Greed was clearly awake. Everyone else trickled in over the morning, to be met by a black haired bundle of energy, and enthusiastic barking from Chaos. Ed had noticed that Colonel Bastard had his spark gloves on, Ling had a sword with him, and everybody else looked like they were expecting trouble at some point.
"Fullmetal, would your talking Gate happen to have told you when they're coming?"
"No." he returned his attention to the two chimera and Ling.
Roy pretended for his own sanity that there weren't disturbing giggles, coupled with smirks, coming from that corner, and hadn't been all day. Then Chaos managed to find a stick, and came bounding up, tail wagging, large stick in his mouth, and generally begging to play. So everyone went outside, and Ling vanished up the hedge to keep lookout, not that the others wouldn't be on the lookout as well. Say what you like about the Armstrong family, but they certainly had the best place to handle this with few repercussions. Even if repairs were needed after the fact, people would just put it down to Armstrongs being Armstrongs.
"Albus, I really would rather you told us what the plan is."
"Simple, my dear Minerva" he replied, making sure the slight glamour that caused a twinkle was in place. "Convince young Harry that it would be best to come to our school, and I'm sure he will enjoy his time at Hogwarts. Then we shall merely restore him to his rightful relatives each year and that will be that."
"Professor, how will we convince him? I mean if he's being raised by that Elric person, then he might not need training, after all, the kid did everything in those murals by the time he was fifteen, and the gossip says that he built that whole city in one day."
"Rubbish, Vance. The murals are most likely exaggerated bragging mixed in with legends, or real events embellished for fame and glory."
"Severus—" Albus began, but was interrupted by Alastor. "You're both right, he probably didn't do all the things in the mural, but we'd better be ready for someone who has. Constant Vigilance!"
"And even if he didn't, that woman whom we saw with Harry at the end, was also shown with power, and threw the second biggest of those immortal monsters across a room and onto a pillar of spikes she made." Remus pointed out. "And I gathered from what I overheard that she's Elric's teacher, and possibly Harry's adopted mother."
"Have you thought what might happen if these people don't want Harry going our school?"
"Perhaps if we told him about all the things alchemy doesn't seem to be able to do—" Vance started.
Albus cut her off, "I'm sure we can persuade him, Minerva." She and Vance looked dissatisfied, but said nothing more. He reviewed the strength of will needed for a mass oblivate, and portkey. Compulsion charms were also a possible asset, but he was wary of trying that, because they were usually slow to act, and he found legilmantic mind magic gave better results. Ahead Fawkes soared, banking to the left, and leading them towards a mansion.
What. A. Mansion.
It had a long winding drive before one made it to the gate, multiple lawns inside that gate, and towering above the grounds was the mansion. It looked large enough to hide an army in, and put Malfoy manor to shame. Malfoy manor would be sucking a thumb and crying about how it could never be this grand and elegant instead of opulent. On one of the lawns people were playing; laughter and the sound of barking echoed.
Snape sneered. "If Potter has been raised here, than he will obviously be as arrogant as his father."
An awesome bird swooped overhead, scarlet and gold were the best colors, and he would always hold to that. The Gate whispered, and Ed stiffened. "They're here." Ling dropped from the hedge next to him. "So you noticed too?"
"My freeloading parasite decided to be useful." He sent the Gate a mental scowl about the other thing it had said Truth wanted. Truth says. It hissed back, offering its equivalent of a shrug.
I am not happy about this, he responded. But I'll do it.
"Hey, Colonel Bastard! The Idiot Prince and I noticed Outsiders!"
"Then I shall go and greet them." Armstrong said gravely. Ling scrambled back up the hedge.
A very large man, nearly as big as Hagrid, loomed out of one of the hedged lawns. A single curl of blond hair arced from his otherwise bald head, echoed by a luxuriant mustache. Most striking of all was the cloud of pink sparkles that fluttered around his head. "Greetings Outsiders!" He boomed. "I am Alex Louis Armstrong, the Strong Arm Alchemist! You are the ones who have come for young Harry, eh?"
Much later Minerva would wonder, 'how had they known we were coming?' But at the time they were all too overwhelmed by this peculiar man's presence to wonder.
Inside the hedge, on the green lawn, people and dogs milled around. One figure, in a distinctive red coat, threw a last stick quite a ways, then turned. The black and white dog bounded after the stick, while the big black one ignored it and turned along with his master.
"So we meet again Slaver Bastard. How's that goin', still enslaving people by screwing with their heads?" He surveyed Dumbledore's companions. One, who reminded him a bit of Yoki, he dubbed Greasy, and then there was One-Eye, and the one he called Cat Lady, when he saw her in Slaver Bastards memory. There were two others as well, Shabby, and a nondescript woman.
"I see you brought your sycophants with you, or are they poor bastards you enslaved too?" Curious he added, "How long did it take them to get you out of the wall?" that had been some of his best work: stone, granite, silicate, wood from the desk and cabinets , silver, tin, copper, and lead, from those widget things, marble from that basin thing, as well, and high silicate from the glass vials in the desk, with the various organic compounds added into the bind, and the weird smoky stuff having just dissipated.
"Insolent brat." At this insult Chaos stalked toward Greasy, legs stiff, and growling the deep growl that was just a hair away from the ' if you don't want your throat torn out, Back Off ', growl that he and Al had run into on more than one occasion on their travels. Greasy looked nervous but continued, "How dare you refer to the headmaster with such disrespect."
Ed was pleased to note that Greasy looked nervous, and resolved to make sure Chaos ate steak in the near future. Shabby was giving the dog an odd look too, but kind of puzzled, not nervous.
"Easily. He hasn't treated me with any. Equivalent Exchange." Mustang was chewing his lip in the background, desperately trying to keep a straight face.
"Eh, don't feel bad, he still calls me Idiot Prince, and I'm Emperor."
A dark haired young man dropped off the hedge, leaving something of a dent in the ground, as the wizards tried to figure out who said that. None of them noticed that there was a sword on his back, or the black armor that covered his arms, as if part of the skin, complete with clawlike hands. Hayate came back, and sensing the changed mood, dropped the stick and took up position next to Hawkeye.
"Quiet Severus."
"Shut it, Snape."
"Slaver? I think you misunderstand what happened when we last met, my boy." Innocent crystal blue eyes twinkled. The wizards wondered how they had ever doubted him.
"First off, I am not your boy. Second, how exactly did I misunderstand you trying to first find out what I was thinking, and then lay a snare for me in my own mind, that would make me your loyal pet?" Dumbledore stirred, but Ed wasn't done.
"Are you really that desperate? Oh right, you're just an old man with a faked reputation from fifty years ago, and you coast on it. Of course you're desperate. " He would never, in a million years, admit to having learned how to drip scorn from his voice from Mustang.
"I only wished to ascertain that you were not loyal to one of my enemies." Dumbledore replied sharply.
Ed snorted. Dumbledore continued, "and I am very glad to see that young Harry is safe."
"So am I," fifteen voices chorused. Ed continued, "No thanks to you for sticking him with those Bastard Dursleys."
" I told you so Albus."
"You left him with Lily's sister?!" chorused Severus and Remus, for once united, glaring at Dumbledore. Remus continued "Lily said that if anything happened to her and James, the one place she didn't want him to go was her sister!" He turned to Ed, "Thank you for saving him, Mister Elric. Harry is the son of my oldest friends. I just came to see if he was safe, because I had had no news of him since they died, until I was told that you had taken him." he glared at Dumbledore.
"Young Harry needs to learn how to use his magic, and the best place for that is Hogwarts." Chaos was growling at Greasy, again, and Black Hayate was waiting eagerly for orders.
Dumbledore turned to Harry, who had scampered behind Ed when the wizards had arrived, not wanting to be kidnapped again. "It is where your parents learned to master their talent, my boy. I am head of the school, and every one of my companions can attest to the fact that it is peerless."
"Why would I want to go? I'm learning all sorts of things. Aunt Riza's going to teach me how to shoot this year." He came out a little ways, and brushed his hair(loose because the tie he uses to keep it in a braid like Ed does broke, leaving it shaggy and waist length, covering the faded scar as well) out of his eyes.
"Going there would bring you closer to your parents."
"Why? It would take me away from my family. And if you mean my birth parents, they're dead. Why would I go there, only to make myself upset over not knowing them? Ed and Al taught me that what's gone is forever lost, and all we can do is live with it. I have a family." He ducked back behind Ed. Every Amestrian, plus Ling and Mei, made various noises of approval at his speech. He poked his head out again. "And I'm not your boy!" he vanished.
"My son knows perfectly well how to use his power." Izumi growled.
"He's picking up alkahestry remarkably quickly." Mei chirped.
Dumbledore composed himself. "Even so—" he began. But was interrupted by something small darting at Mad-Eye, a split second before Alphonse Elric yelped.
Moody remembered the gossip they had heard about the Elric Brothers, and how the younger one had the elder wrapped around his thumb. So he had discreetly drawn his wand, and now he looked at Alphonse Elric, and whispered "Legilimens," under cover of the argument, hoping to influence the boy to be in favor of them taking the Potter boy. He found himself in a white void, his wand was no longer in his hand, and there was no discernable ground. His roving eye could see nothing but white, and before him, a pair of stone doors, roughhewn, hanging in the empty whiteness. He had seen these doors before, in the hall of murals in Xerxes. But these seemed more real than the ones there, as if the impressive Doors in Xerxes were an imitation of this.
"Hello,"
"Who are you?" He groped for his backup wand, which was absent from its holster.
"Oh, I'm so glad you asked. I am called by many names. I'm the world, I'm the universe, I'm Truth, I am all, I am one. And I am also, You. I'm the Truth of your arrogance, foolish Wizard.
Moody spluttered, but the white thing rolled on, "You have grown proud indeed, relying on that eye. You see everything material, as you choose, and yet you are blind. And now, you come here? Fool, the true knowledge cannot be falsified, and neither can the minds it resides in. As punishment, I'll begin with that eye of yours." It smiled, tombstone teeth the only clear feature on the negative image, "It will never be anything more than glass. And the rest will come to me in time.'' His sight from the glass eye winked out. The last thing he saw through it was the Doors opening. Then he was back in his body, and his wand was in his hand, but the eye was dormant.
A small black and white missile hit.
Xiao-Mei leaped, savaging his flesh leg, and then leaping out of the way as he fell: Achilles tendon severed. She cut to the right, grabbing onto his right wrist, and bit hard; his fingers slackened, and one paw ripped away his wand.
She bit through it.
Her mistress had readied five kunai, but before she could throw then, Alphonse Elric yelped, and clapped his hands, slamming them on the ground. Mad-Eye Moody, Hit Wizard to Dumbledore, was contained in ground which had melted and bound him. Mustang snapped, sparks jumping the gap to singe Dumbledore's beard. "You come here, asking to take one of our people—A child— away with you, and saying that you want peace, and then one of your backup attacks his brother, a celebrated hero?"
Xiao Mei scampered back to her master and mistress/sister, and spat the shattered pieces of Moody's wand at their feet in tribute.
"Don't forget future brother-in-law to the Emperor of Xing," said Emperor put in cheerfully. He opened his eyes.
Two things happened at once.
One of which was Snape caught Mustang's eyes, and attempted to gauge what the chances of grabbing the Potter brat and running were.
Stone doors with a jagged design on them, and whiteness greeted him. A white on white thing grinned.
"You trespass. You ignore the Law, and now you trespass here. The True Knowledge is not for you. Live, and remember your foolishness, and your luck in having come here with equivalence enough." The Doors opened, and an eye appeared in the black void beyond, as a myriad of black hands shot forth, wrapping around his right arm, and then pulling. There was a splitting pain, worse than the Cruciatus, centered on his Mark. "With all that you have attached to this, it is equivalent to your life, this toll. Never come here again." The Doors slammed shut.
Back in the world he heard a snap and suddenly he was engulfed in flame. "I restrained myself." Roy said. "It isn't nearly as bad as it feels. And from what Edward tells me, you people should be able to heal it when you leave." He calculated quickly, snapped again, and all the visible wands crumbled to ash. The two women and the worn looking man hadn't drawn theirs, and so escaped intact.
The second thing that happened was Dumbledore thinking that here was a high ranking person who could order the rest to send Harry to Hogwarts, and who was not an alchemist. So he attempted Legilimency.
Red was everywhere. A screaming cacophony of swirling red, and before him, a face? It was so large it was hard to tell. "Well, lookie here, a snooping wizard prying into what's mine. Ling! There's a wizard in our head!"
"I think Ed wants him alive, for his own vengeance. Just kick him out, Greed."
Dumbledore knew he would never forget the laughter that followed.
In the world again, he stumbled back weakly, raising his wand for a curse. He managed to get off two cutting curses— one a somewhat Dark spell that he would rather have not had to use— aimed at the throat of the monster that called itself an Emperor, before there was a snap, and it fell to ashes in his hand. One curse was nonchalantly batted back at him by the monster, taking three feet off the trailing end of his beard, as three knives thunked into his robe's sleeves, pinning his arms to the bindings Alphonse Elric had transmuted to pin Mad-Eye, even as the second curse, slower, but invisible found its mark. The ground surged up into the shape of a giant fist, securing him in its grip. The thumb of the stone fist covered his mouth. The monster fell, even if his curse hadn't managed to take of the creatures head, and he felt satisfaction, he had at least killed the monster that held their loyalty, now perhaps—
"My lord!?" cried a female voice, and to Dumbledore's horror the creature stood up, red sparks dancing across the wound, sealing it, and if not for the bloodstains on its throat, one would never know that it had been harmed.
"I'm fine Lan Fan, and no, don't kill him. Ed wants him."
Ed snarled at Dumbledore. "You come here, try to kidnap my little brother, waving your twigs, you try to kill the Emperor of the neighboring country, and you could've killed Ling, if he were mortal, and you ignore the Law."
"We have no reason to follow your laws in our own country." Severus hissed through his pain.
Ed smiled, and the other three alchemists who had been to the Gate paled. They knew that smile. That was—
"Not those laws. The Law of Equivalent Exchange." His voice had changed, with an indiscernible quality to it now, one that went with that smile, and was not Ed at all.
"Brother?"
He turned and the smile given to Al was so purely Ed, that it reassured everyone. Then he looked back at the wizards.
"You take your power for granted, and pay with nothing. You tamper with minds and souls, and attempt to bypass Equivalence, without even understanding what it is that you do. You use enough amplifiers that no Toll for what you do is paid by you. You harbor a rift to a false portal, and pass through with no Toll. I'm amazed you aren't all covered in blood, going through there," his voice was his own for a moment, and Ling winced at the memory of that hellish place.
"You force your way through the edges of my realm, dodging payment with your amplifiers. There'll come a time when every debt you owe must be paid in full because all you're doing is racking up debts with the Decider of Equivalence you harebrained morons!" Fawkes trilled in an exasperated fashion and flew over to him, settling on his right shoulder.
"Hm? Yes if you want, you can stay Goldie." he told the bird. All six wizards gasped. The phoenix trilled again. Ed gave Dumbledore a scornful look the match of the disgusted one from earlier. "I can hardly believe how stupid you are. She says you didn't even realize that she is a she, or understand her name. And you actually think she belongs to you." He scoffed. "Oh, and by the way, her name's Areal." He rounded on the three who had stayed out of things, trying to keep his mind in the here and now, and think about what he'd just experienced later. "Are you people going to be difficult too? Or will you actually be sensible?"
The second lady shook her head. "I know when I'm out matched, and I'm not much of a fighter anyway. If this is what Dumbledore meant by persuade, then I want no part of it. Just let me go home again, that's all I ask." Hmm… Sensible of her. Ed dubbed her Sensible Lady, and moved on.
"I have been getting more and more wary and suspicious of Albus for years now, beginning with his decision to leave Harry with the Dursleys, and when he refused to say why you had locked him in the wall, Mister Elric, when from what I had seen of you, you didn't seem the type to do anything like that without serious provocation. I highly doubt that there is anything that we could teach Harry, after what I have gathered of your people. And more and more now, I suspect that I have been under a compulsion to follow Albus, and believe in him, even in the face of his refusal to tell anyone the full story of his plans.* Why do you keep calling him Slaver?" Cat Lady said.
Ed explained. Everything Slaver Bastard had used to build up his power-base, he told them, and what the Slaver Bastard had been planning to do with Harry, and had tried to do to him.
By the time he was done the two women and the shabby man had gone past the point of cursing and into silent fury. Chaos had bounded up to the shabby one and was wagging his tail, and acting generally glad to meet him. As the dog had proven to be a very good judge of character in the past, this meant that he got a warmer reception then the rest, even if Heinkel and Darius were giving him odd looks.
"So you're saying…"
"Slaver Bastard and Arrogant Idiot had a plan to rule you people only Slaver Bastard wanted to be sneaky about it, and they had a squabble in which one of them hit Slaver Bastard's nutty sister and Slaver Bastard sulked around for a while as a teacher and decided he needed good publicity so he went and drugged Arrogant Idiot, made people thick there'd been a big fight, and used that good publicity to start ruling your world sneakily. Just look at his list of titles. Then he decided to poke around in my head to keep me as his pet alchemist, but he hit Truth, and owes a toll now. And I wound up with a copy of his memories and rescued Harry. "
"What Brother is trying to say is that Dumbledore, whom he calls Slaver Bastard was working with someone else, what was his name, Brother?"
"Who? The arrogant idiot?"
Al nodded.
"Jelly Grimwood."
The phoenix trilled.
"Fine." Ed grumbled sulkily. "Gellert Griddlewald."**
Shocked horror emanated from the three Outsiders. Muffled protests came from the stone prison for Slaver Bastard and One-Eye, but everyone ignored Slaver Bastard. Greasy seemed to have fainted.
"…and then Dumbledore and this Gridlewald had a falling out," Al continued, "and that they then went about their plan in their own ways, one by force and one by stealth, until Dumbledore decided he was tired of the competition and wanted a heroic reputation, so he drugged this Gellert person and told people that there had been a fight, and apparently ended up in charge of most branches of your government—
"What they have of one…"Ed muttered.
"Such shame, such horror, to have trusted this man so deeply and find your faith unjustified!" Armstrong boomed. Where had his shirt gone, and were those sparkles?! "Your plight touches my heart! That such a thing could happen in more than one place— how fortunate that Edward Elric would happen upon his villainy, and summarily thwart it as he does!"
Was he crying?! He was, his shirt had vanished, a waterfall of tears poured from his eyes, and pink sparkles fluttered around his head! For a moment they thought they saw a background of pink rose behind him but the disturbing mirage vanished quickly. Not quickly enough though. And most surreal of all was the fact that no one other than the wizards seemed even the least bit surprised. One or two were shaking their heads as if to say, oh well, that's Armstrong.
"And teaching your younger generation to believe he could do no wrong." Al finished.
"Kinda like how everyone thinks Wrath was a hero." Greed said, from where Ling was sitting on the stone covering Moody.
"If this is true then why did Fawkes stay with him for so long?" Cat Lady said.
There was a somehow melodic squawk from the bird in question, but it was the kind of melodic that came with someone slamming their hands down hard on piano keys.
"She says her name is Areal, get it right. She serves Truth, and Truth wanted her to keep Fumblemore from getting a rock, and that she was also supposed to try to get you people to quit it with the amplifiers and actually work for what you get."
The silence that followed was broken by Heinkel and Darius, who —out of nowhere— said to Remus "Our animal instincts are telling us that you're like us."
"So what are you, part dog?" Heinkel asked.
"I didn't know Outsiders could make chimera."
Every alchemist in earshot felt their ears perk up. Ed growled at the Gate. Which, of course, was laughing. 'Not quite,' it snickered, but close.'
"Outsiders can't make chimera." Ed answered.
Mei chimed in, "But he's something! Not like them, but not normal human either. I feel it."
"What are you?" Ling asked cheerily.
"I could ask you the same thing. From what I've heard about you, you are the immortal emperor, aren't you? But what are you?" Remus asked.
"If he answers, then you answer. Equivalent Exchange." Ed stated.
"I'm a homunculus." Ling said, still in that 'I know this tone grates on peoples nerves and makes them underestimate me', tone of his. "And your Dumbledore shouldn't have poked in my head either. I'd say he has about a day left."
Areal trilled.
"She agrees with you. He has a day or two left."
"I'm a werewolf." Remus said shortly.
"What does that mean? Heinkel asked.
"What's a were wolf?" Mei said.
"A werewolf is a human who, upon being bitten by a transformed werewolf, is given the infection, and becomes a werewolf themselves, undergoing a painful transformation at the full moon into a sort of hybrid between beast and man." Cat Lady said.
"It sounds like it is uncomfortable for you. I might be able to help with that, and possibly give you more control over it." Mei chirped.
Remus looked like he was trying desperately not to hope that she was right.
"What about me?!" Moody yelled from the abstract shape of transmuted rock, which he was stuck in, and Ling was sitting on.
"Stay there until we're ready to deal with you." Ed replied over his shoulder. "You two women and the werewolf can come in." he and Al shared a look.
"Mei, would you please heal the one with burns enough to be moved elsewhere? I think Colonel*** Armstrong would like to have the lawn back." Al asked.
Mei nodded.
* She was. Truth manifesting swamped it, and got rid of it. Truth didn't even mean to.
** Yes I know its supposed to be Grindlewald, but this is Ed.
*** He was a Major in the series, but I think everyone who was involved in the Promised Day got promoted.****
**** Except Ed who got put on military consultant status instead, but still has his title and privileges.
Everyone who guessed the phoenix give yourself a cookie. Everyone who guessed Flamel, good guess but you're wrong. Flamel is on Truths baad side for making a stone and ducking equivalence with it.
