Sorry for making you wait, I had a writers block for awhile. But it's cleared now so enjoy the new chapter. Oh and thank you all for those reviews. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of it's characters.
Chapter 9
It's been a couple of days since we got back from East City. I mainly been talking to Hughes, telling him old stories about my brothers. I even had time to take my recertification test. My brothers were coming to Central today. We made plans to go to the library to find Marco's note, some guy Ed met on the way to Resembool. Hughes made me bring two other people because Scar was still around. The girl that had short black hair and a mole under her eye, was Maria Ross. The guy that had blond hair was denny Brosh. While we waited for Ed and Al,Brosh just kept complaining about his past girlfriends and how Maria doesn't pay attention to him. It was killing me listening to him, lucky the train came and saved me. As people came off I was looking for Ed's red coat and Al's armor. I found them right away, wow they really stick out like a sore thumb. " ED! SAVE ME!" I said as I jumped on his back. " Alisa get off of me and what am I saving you from." he asked "THAT!" I said while pointing to Brosh "Who is he and Why is he here?
"that Brosh and Hughes said he has to guard us because Scar still around."
" Great, that just perfect." he said as we walk over to them. "ALISA ELIZA! IT GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Armstrong said in his loud voice. " Nice to see you too?" I said hesitantly. I saw Maria and Brosh move to Al " It great to meet you, Fullmetal, sir!" Maria said " Wow you really do live up to your name." Brosh said. I was trying really hard not to laugh. " Umm.. I'm not Fullmetal, my brother is." Al said " Damn it! I'm fullmetal ! Me, not him!" Ed shouted then I couldn't hold it any more. " Alisa it's not funny." Ed said " You're right it's not, it's hilarious!" I said as Ed just pouted. " Anyways we don't need babysitters so you guys can leave." Ed told them " Sorry sir but we're order to protect you till Scar is dealt with." Brosh told him. " Alright whatever! Let just go to the library!" Maria and Brosh had a face that said that they know something, but don't know if they should say anything about.
We made it to the library or at least where it use to be. When we got there it was completely burnt down. " WHAT THE HELL HAPPEN HERE?" me and Ed screamed " You see scar was spotted here recently and when military came to arrest him. They said he was fighting someone and the place was in flames." Brosh said " This sucks" Ed complained " Ed you have the worst luck you know that?" I said " Yeah I know." We went to ask the people that use to work there if they knew if Marco's book was in the fire. They didn't, so much for their help, but they did tell us about an employee they had who was a huge bookworm named Sheska. we decided to pay her a visit.
We knock on the door a few time but no one answered. I twisted the doorknob and the door open. "hello?Is anyone home?" I called out " Alisa you don't just barge into someone house just causes it's open." Al scold me " Yeah who do you think you are just walking in a stranger's home?" Ed asked as he was already inside " Says the one that actually inside the house."
" Brother the same thing goes for you too!" Al yell as I laughed. I stopped when I thought I heard something "Hey guys be quiet for second, will ya?" so they did " h- he- hel- HELP!" said the voice " Crap let try and help them guys" I said " Yeah maybe it was a good thing you open the door." Ed said
" Now's not a good time to discuss that Ed!" I finally got a good look of the inside and there were books everywhere " How are going to find someone in this hell hole, there are books everywhere!" After looking around quickly for the voice that screamed help. We found a huge pile of books and we got to work on freeing sheska. we eventually got her out " Thank for getting me out " she said " Sure but I have to ask, how did you get bury under all those book?" I asked " I accidently knock them down and they all fell right on top of me. My friends alway said I would die by being buried by them but I didn't think they were serious." she has friend? " You're sheska right? The first branch library-" Ed said " THE FIRST BRANCH LIBRARY! How sweet the sound is. i always love books, ever since I was born. When I got a job there, I felt like I was in heaven. But I forgot that I was at work and I just read book the whole time, so I got fired T-T. I have to work to help move my sick mother to a better hospital. But I'm a clutz at everything except reading books. No matter where I go, I can't get a job. I'M A GOOD FOR NOTHING PERSON! I'M THE SCUM OF SOCIETY !" she told us we didn't ask for your life story " We like to ask you something Sheska." Ed said
" Yes?"
"Do you remember seeing any notes that belong to Tim Marco?"
" Tim Marco? Tim Marco? Tim Marco? Ah I remember!"
"Really?"
" The been hand written and they were also in the wrong section. I remember them well."
" So they really were there which means they were destroyed by the fire."
" Did you want to read his research notes?"
" Yeah but they're burned up." Ed said " Sorry to bother you." Al apologized " Bye bye" i said and good riddance " I remember everything that was in them." she said " Huh?!" Ed and Al yelled " I remember the context of any book I read. It will take me some time but do you want me to rewrite them?" she asked " THANKS BOOKWORM!" Ed shouted "Worm you say?" " Pleased don't take it the wrong way. It just if we didn't have those note we would be back at square one again." I told her " It ok, I guess"
After the notes were rewritten
Sheska put a bunch of piles of papers in front of use " Here are the reproduction of Tim Marco research notes. Sorry it took so long, there was a lot in it." she said " There are a lot of amazing people in this world, aren't there brother?" Al said " This really Tim Marco's? Ed asked " Yes, no doubt about it.1000 Type Menus For Today by Tim Marco " Sheska said " What menus?" Maria and Brosh asked " Yeah Alchemist tend to put there note in a code so others can't read them. You have to break the code, decode it and you have Tim Marco's notes." I told them " Thank a bunch Sheska lt. Ross take this and have this amount transferred to Sheska. Come on Al, Alisa let's take this to Central Library." Ed said " Coming" Al said while running after his brother. " WHAT KIND OF KID HAS THIS MUCH MONEY ?!" sheska yells "Alisa!" Ed yelled to me " Coming" I shouted back.
At Central Library
We were in a room in the back of the was looking at the note, Al was looking at the book in the room and I was just sitting at the table, waiting. Brosh asked "Are these cookbooks really Alchemy research notes?" " Yeah, Alchemist are very protective of their research and puts them in code so others can't read it." I answered " Plus if you think about it alchemy is like cooking." Ed added. I hate deciphering codes so I just lied and said I didn't know how it work and got out of it (:P). So I went to walk around the place and read a little. when I came back i found ed and al looking like their brain dead or something. " What happen in here?" I asked " This damn code is too hard."
"What you guys still haven't cracked it?"
" No! Like to see you try and do this!"
" No thank you! I hate code, they're nothing but a nightmare."
" What makes you say that. I never once saw you work on a code."
" It was before i met you guy. My teacher would make me decode some while she taught my brothers. They were long codes but alway something really stupid like ' Good job! Now come to me for the next one' or ' It's your turn to do the dishes tonight'"
" That does sound like a pain, was your teacher any good?"
" No... she was great! We would alway hear about her adventures in Briggs and she care for us a lot. Although sometimes she can be kind of scary"
"Sound like you like her alot"
" Yeah well, she was kind of like my second mom, I really love her."
" Alright time to get back to work!" Edward exclaimed. We heard a knock on the door. " Come in" Ed said as Sheska walked in the room. " Sheska what are you doing here?" I asked " I wanted to thank you Edward. Because of you I was able to move my mother into a better hospital." she said " It was nothing." he said.
" Have you made any progress with deciphering it?" she asked and they both went back to the gloomy mood. " Have you found a job yet?" Al asked then it was her turn to be a gloomy mood. " still, thanks to you two i was able to think that a person like me can help someone." " what do you Mean a person like you? Don't think for one second that you're useless." I said " Just being able to just try is proof enough that you aren't useless. Beside that memory of your is really something special. You should have more faith in yourself." " Thanks" she said with a smile on her face. "YO!" I hear by the door. " Lt. Colonel Hughes? What are you doing here?" Ed asked I heard from Armstrong that you guys were here. So what gives? I thought I told you guy to call whenever you're in you missy could've said something before you left the house."
"Sorry something important came up." Ed said " I didn't want to bug you anymore than I already have." I told him.
" Yeah well I been stuck in the court-martial office, I was really lucky just to get out of there right now." I bet he escape from there for a break -_-. " Lately, we have a lot of cases and what not. The Tucker chimera case hasn't even been settled yet. Sorry guess that bring up so bad memory. As if it wasn't bad enough the First Branch Library had to burned down, right when things are hectic."
" The First Branch?"
"Yeah, our case records and stuff were kept there. So now it making it harder to do things. Uh...what with that look on your faces." Ed and Al then turned to Sheska, and once she figure out what they were thinking she screamed in shock. " What do you say Hughes? She looking for a job." Ed said " Indeed I did look at the military's criminal records and remember them." Sheska said "Alright! We'll get you processed right away! My office pays well." hughes said " Um you mean...Thank you very much! I'll have faith in myself and work hard. Really thanks" she said as she was Hughes dragged her away. " Right to work we go!" Hughes said as we waved them off " Who is this guy, a kidnapper?" Ed asked " Sure does look like one." I said. " Now we have to get back to our work." Ed sighed " Have fun!" I said as I ran out of there.
A couple of days later
As they worked on the research the past couple of days I just either read or wander around. I saw Brosh napping in the chair outside of the room. "HEY WAKE UP!" I screamed "Ahh! Did you have to do that Alisa." Brosh asked
" Yes, anyway how are they doing?"
" Don't know wanna check?" we then heard " THE HELL WITH IT!" Ed? Brosh, Maria and I then peek into the room, that was now a mess, and saw a very frustrated edward Uh-oh that not good. " Hey you guy can't get depressed because you can't crack the code." Maria said " They aren't depressed they're frustrated. If I had to guess you guys crack the code and didn't like the results." I stated and saw him winch "Yeah you're right" he said " Well you crack the code that's a good thing." Brosh said "There's nothing good about it. The damn thing is made from humans." Ed told them. I already knew this from a friend " What do you mean?" Brosh asked " A philosopher's stone is made by sacrificing human lives. Just for one stone, you need multiple humans. Marco was right this is the devil's research. We should have never persuaded it." Ed said " How can the military carry out such an inhuman practice?" Maria asked " Would you mind not telling anyone about this?" Ed asked " But-" Brosh said "PLEASE! Just pretend you didn't hear anything." Ed asked. I felt sorry for them in a way, I kind of just left so they could think of what to do next.
Later that night
I was reading, when I suddenly heard a loud 'BANG!' like something broke. I ran to my brother's room, I saw Major Armstrong crying and Edward glaring at ross and brosh. " What happen in here?" I asked " These moron told Armstrong about the stone." Ed yelled " When someone as stuffy as he is closes in on you..." Brosh said "Imagine the military conducting something like that. The truth can be cruel sometimes." Armstrong said "The truth?!" Ed said " What is it brother?" Al asked " Marco said something about ' Finding the truth, within the truth.' It's the same with the research notes. What you see on the surface is only a portion of the truth. There's still more!" They then got a map of all the military's laboratories. "Currently, there are only four labs within Central, which have connections to the military. From among those Marco worked at lab three. That one is the most suspect." Armstrong told us " We went around to all the laboratories in the city, but there wasn't any remarkable research-" " Hey Ed?" I cut in " What?!" I said sounding agitated" What about this place? What is it?" I asked "It was the building for laboratory not currently in use. It in risk of collapsing so it off limits." she said " It's here then." I said " What makes you say that?" Brosh asked "Because there's a prison next door."
" What about it?"
" The ingredients for a philosopher's stone is live humans." "Of course, they would have condemned criminals in the prison. Officially they could say they were executed." Ed said " You don't mean that the prisoners were the ingredients?" Maria asked " Don't make that face, I don't want to think about it either. And if prisoner from other jurisdiction were involved... I wonder if the government is involved." he said " I kind of get the feeling that we stuck our noses into something terrible here."
" And that why they told you to forget about it." I said. Armstrong rolled up the map and walk to the door. " This could become a highly political issue. I shall look into this. Meanwhile you two don't talk to anyone about this." Armstrong told them with a quick 'yes sir' " And you kids behave yourselves." My brothers got a shock look on their faces. I swear Armstrong's head blew up ten times bigger as he said " Look you two,I don't want you to be sneaking into the lab and have miss Alisa here go and follow you." " WE WEREN'T! WE WEREN'T!" they claimed. With that Armstrong and the others left. " We're going there aren't we?" I asked " Yup! You know us so well."
" Sometimes I wish I didn't."
Done! That was a little harder than I thought. Well anyway please review. If not I'll set Armstrong on you.
