Fullmetal Alchemist

INVADERS OF GALLIA

Episode 10

MEMORIES part 2

Friends

Opening Theme: Melissa (Fullmetal Alchemist)

For a while, both Vine and Welkin stood in complete silence. Finally, Welkin spoke.

"You're right, it's been way to long. Where've you been?" he said happily walking over to the stunned Raging Blast Alchemist, "Alicia and I wanted to invite you to our wedding, but you didn't exactly say much before you left. What've you been up to all this time?"

"Uhhhh oh, I've been in Amestris since the end of the war. They stationed me up north, but I slipped away when I found out about the trouble Gallia's in," Vine replied, still acting strangely dumbfounded.

"Right, when you heard the trouble we were in. More like when you heard about the trouble Archduchess Cordelia's in, right?" Welkin asked as a wide grin crept over his face and he started elbowing Vine gently in the ribs, "come on buddy, you know you can't pull one over on me."

"Hey, come on, I've told you before I've known Cordelia since she was a baby. By the way, I was 11 at the time. That's an 11 year age difference between me and her. She's more like a kid sister to me then anything."

"Alicia and I are six years apart," Welkin replied.

"You're kidding right. The span between me and Cordelia is nearly double what it is between you and Alicia. That's not even close," Vine protested.

"I think the guy protests to much," Cosette whispered to herself, giggling just a little.

"Hey, what're you finding so funny back there?" Vine asked glancing back at her.

"Nothing, nothing at all," Cosette replied.

"Yeah, I'll bet," Vine declared, "is Welvar still not back with those flower seeds."

"Your planting flowers?" Welkin asked, "that's surprising."

"Yeah, guess I hung out with the nature geek to long. You're starting to rub off on me Welky. I even used that ridiculous box thing you taught me."

"Welkin, sorry I took so long, thanks for waiting for me. A woman with long brown hair that was tied in two pony tails under a red bandana walked out of the back of the store. She stopped short when she saw Vine.

"Oh boy," Vine groaned.

"You know Mrs. Alicia, too?" Cosette asked.

"Yep," Vine replied sounding a little worried as Alicia slowly walked over to him, "Alicia, you're looking lovely today, I see your still…" he was cut short as Alicia slapped him.

"What'd you do?" Cosette asked.

"All you need to know kid, is that I deserved that," Vine replied.

"Vine! I can't believe it! It really is you!" Alicia shouted throwing her arms around the Raging Blast Alchemist, causing him to freak out a bit.

"Alicia! Hey, cut that out!" he shouted frantically trying to shake her off.

"What's with you? You never used to get like that when I hugged you," Alicia said smiling.

"Yeah, you also never used to be married when you'd hug me like that," Vine replied.

"Oh, come on Vine. You and Welkin are like brothers, that basically makes you part of the family," Alicia replied cheerfully.

"That was a long time ago, Alicia," Vine said looking down at the floor.

"What, so I'm supposed to believe you two aren't still the best of friends. It's only been two years, what happened?" Alicia asked sounding a little scolding.

"Hey, you got me Alicia. I'm hearing all of this for the first time," Welkin replied.

"Wait... what about?" Vine asked still sounding incredibly confused. His confused expression quickly turned to a sad one though as he spoke again, "what about… Isara?" The room fell completely silent for several minutes, leaving Cosette to wonder who Isara was.

"Actually," Welkin said calmly but sadly after a while of silence, "thanks for reminding me. I'm glad I got to see you again," he said reaching behind him and grabbing a briefcase. He opened it up and pulled out a small doll. It looked like a young girl whose short dark hair was covered by a red bandana. A red shawl with the Darcsen symbols running across the bottom of it covered the body, while the little hands that poked out from it were covered with white gloves. Vine was surprised to discover that two small transmutation circles, that looked identical to the circles on his gloves.

"What's this?" he asked, a little surprised by the doll.

"What do you mean, 'what's this?'" Welkin replied, "it's a good luck doll. Isara spent hours working on it. She said she used to stay up late at night, long after you'd gone to bed, so she could get ahold of your Blast Alchemy gloves to draw the transmutation circles. She'd just finished it and was going to give it to you when… well… you know?" He dropped the doll, revealing a long string that had been attached to the doll like a necklace. "She asked me to give it to you in her place," he revealed handing the doll out to Vine.

"Welkin… I… I can't…" Vine said looking at the doll. He was surprised when Welkin reached out, grabbed his arm, and forced him to take the doll.

"You can, and you will," Welkin declared firmly, "that's what Is wanted. She wanted you to have this." Both friends remained silent for several minutes before Vine finally replied.

"Thank you Welkin. I'll take good care of it," he declared slipping the small doll over his neck so that it hung over his chest, 'well… how does it look?" he asked turning to Cosette.

"Oh, it looks so cute," Cosette replied smiling broadly.

"That reminds me, Vine. What happened to that red cape you always used to wear?" Alicia asked.

"Red cape? That old thing? I haven't seen that thing since the war. I think I lost it on the Marmota, though I'm not entirely sure," Vine replied.

"That's too bad. I always thought you looked so dashing in that cape," Alicia replied.

"You think so? Well, I guess it wouldn't be too much trouble to make a new one," Vine declared, "I mean, I used Alchemy to make the first one so…"

"Don't even think about it," Alicia declared firmly.

"Think about what?" Vine asked.

"Making a new cape," Alicia replied as though it had been obvious.

"Wait, but you just said…" Vine argued but she cut him off.

"Vine if you make a new cape, I'll never speak to you again, and I'm serious this time," Alicia declared sternly.

"Okay, okay I won't make a new cape," Vine replied.

"Here're the seed's you asked for," Welvar said coming out with a few bags of seeds, "I think that's everything."

"Great, Vine let's head back. I bet Avan and Ed found the other members of class G already," Cosette said excitedly.

"I'll come too. I want to see Vine's handiwork," Welkin said, "you want to come Alicia?"

"I'll see you later, Welkin. I have something to do at home," Alicia replied hurrying out the door.

"That's weird. I wonder what she's up to," Welkin said scratching his head in wonder.

"Don't look at me. I gave up trying to figure out your wife a long time ago," Vine replied.

….

"There you guys are what took you so long?" Ed called as Cosette, Vine, and Welkin approached them.

"Sorry, bumped into an old friend at the school store. This is Welkin Gunther. Welkin, Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist," Vine replied.

"You're a State Alchemist, huh?" Welkin said cheerfully, offering out his hand to shake, "pleased to meet you."

"Oh, this isn't gonna be good," Vine said, realizing that Welkin had offered his hand to Alphonse.

"Darn it! What's wrong with you people! He's not the Fullmetal Alchemist! I am! Me! Me!" Ed shouted angrily.

"Oh… I'm sorry. I promise, I didn't mean any disrespect," Welkin responded promptly, "so who are you then?"

"That's Alphonse Elric. He's Ed's not so little brother, right short stuff?" Vine replied looking over at Ed.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SHORT!"

"Maybe I should quit, but it's just so much fun," Vine said rubbing the back of his head a little guiltily.

"So, what's the deal? Avan said something about a flower garden," Joachim asked anxiously.

"Oh I do so love flowers. Did you really give us permission to plant our own Class G Flower garden, Mr. Vine?" Marion asked.

"Come on people, just Vine! Where the heck did this Mr. thing come from?" Vine moaned, "But yes, I did authorize it, Ms. Marion."

"Where'd you get the doll Vine?" Avan asked pointing at the doll on Vine's chest.

"This thing?" Vine replied taking the doll in his hand and looking at it, "it's a good luck charm that was made for me by someone who was very important to me, Avan. Now, I think we'd better get started here. I've got seeds for all of you. Just find a spot, plant your seed, and don't forget where it is. If you'd like, I can put a marking for you so you remember where your seeds are located. Every day, it will be the responsibility of one member of your class to ensure that all the flowers are watered. If they don't receive water a day, the person who's day it was will run 20 laps around the drill grounds, understood?"

"Uh sir, what do we use to water them?" a Class G armored tech named Morris asked.

"Good question, Morris, right?" Vine replied glancing over at Alphonse who quickly covered his head.

"Oh no, you're not using my head as a watering can again!" Alphonse shouted, "just forget it."

"That thought never crossed my mind, Alphonse," Vine declared though he didn't sound at all believable. Turning, Vine strode back over to the tree he'd used a branch from to make the box. "Excuse me, sorry to bother you again, Mr. Tree, but I was hoping to borrow just a bit more wood from you," Vine said pulling on his transmutation gloves.

"Avan, is he talking… to a tree?" Zeri asked.

"He's weird like that," Avan replied.

"My thanks to you Mr. Tree, you are truly the very epitome of generosity," Vine declared transmuting off another small branch which he then transmuted into a watering can, "alright kids, this is a watering can. There are many like it, but this one is yours."

"Uh, Colonel," Renee called out, "I don't think there're very many watering cans like that one."

"Why's that, Ms. Renee?" Vine asked.

"I don't think there're very many watering cans that are made using alchemy but some weird guy who likes to talk to trees," Renee said smiling which got a chuckle out of most of Class G.

"Not bad, Renee. I guess I set myself up for that one. However, don't ever let it be said that I am not a sore loser. For that little slam, the first week of watering duty is all yours," Vine declared tossing Renee the watering can.

"Ah come on, are you kidding?" Renee whined in protest.

"That depends entirely on how nice you are to me between now and when you all finish planting your seeds," Vine replied.

"Oh, right, of course. I'm so sorry, please forgive me Mr. Vine. I promise it won't happen again," Renee said as sweetly as she could.

"Two things, don't make promises you won't keep and don't call me Mr. Alright, get work," Vine ordered.

….

An hour later, Class G was sitting happily alongside their newly planted and watered flower garden. Alicia had come about 10 minutes earlier and dropped over a batch of fresh bread which the cadets and alchemists were now happily enjoying. Alphonse sat watching as his friends happily picked at the bread. He was surprised when Vine tapped him on the helmet.

"Relax big guy," he said comfortingly, "after you get your body back, I'll get Alicia to bake a whole batch of bread just for you. You really haven't lived 'til you've tried that woman's baking."

"I'm curious Vine, how do you know so much about us? My brother and I, I mean," Al asked.

"Trade secret, Al. Just know that I'm pretty good at finding out stuff on people," Vine replied.

"Okay, if you're good at finding out stuff, then do you know anything about the Philosopher's Stone."

"Wish I could help you, Al, I really do, but I'm afraid I don't know anything about the stone. As far as I can tell, it's nothing but a myth."

"Oh, I see," Al replied sounding sad.

"Don't let it get you down kid. Don't underestimate a myth. The Darcsen Calamities a myth to, and you can see what it does. I know it's a bad example, but still… myths are usually at least based on truth."

"There you are," Colonel Mustang's voice called from behind them. Vine stood up and faced the Colonel.

"What's going on Colonel?" Vine asked.

"Bad news. We just found out that a rebel squad is preparing to march on a Darcsen community in the Diebal Mountains and you'd be surprised at how unwilling many of the squads at Lanseal are to do anything for a Darcsen community," Mustang replied.

"Try me," Vine declared.

"The mission has fallen to Class G, and I want you to personally oversee it. You leave first thing in the morning, so you might want to get some rest. Hmmm, what do we have here?" Mustang asked glancing at the flower garden.

"Class G Flower Garden sir," Vine replied, "little extracurricular activity I authorized for Class G."

"Fair enough. I'll look forward to seeing it when the flowers bloom. Get started making your preparations immediately, Class G. You'll be leaving at first light tomorrow," Mustang replied walking away.

"Alright, guess our break just got cut short," Vine declared finishing off his loaf of bread, "you heard the man. Get ready to be able to leave a first light. I'll see you bright and early, cadets."

….

In the Squad G classroom, the class members were busily preparing for what would happen the next day. Among the chaos, Ed and Al sat with several members of Class G, including Avan, Zeri, and Cosette, inspecting a map of the Diebal Moutains while snacking on what was left of Alicia's bread.

"The Diebal Mountains," Zeri said looking over the map, "this place is rich with Darcsen history. It used to be the site of several ragnite mines before multiple Darcsen revolts over the terrible conditions in the mines drew attention from human rights movements. Even though the mines are shut down, most of the settlers who live in the mountains are the families of the Darcsen miners who worked in them. A prime target for one of the rebels Darcsen purges."

"Darn it, so they're just gonna wipe out all of the settlements in the mountains," Ed exclaimed, "that's just wrong."

"It's no secret that Darcsen's have long been a race of pacifists. Our kind will not take up arms, even as our own people our slaughtered. That is why the rebels are so willing to attack our settlements," Zeri replied, "they know they can do whatever they want to us."

"That's terrible. How can they be so cruel?" Alphonse asked.

"So, you're preparing for the Diebal mission, are you," an annoyingly familiar voice declared from the class G Ed and Al looked back to see Julianna Everheart standing in the classroom entrance. "It's fitting that this mission should fall to the likes of you. It suits you perfectly."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed asked coldly.

"The Darcsens burned and destroyed Europa. Only a fool would willingly put their life on the line to protect their kind," Julianna declared coldly.

"Your referring to the Darcsen Calamity," Zeri declared, "funny, I would have thought you smart enough not to believe in fairy tales, Julianna."

"Fairy tales? Hah, tell me, Darcsen, if the stories are nothing but fairy tales then why do your people not attempt to make the truth known? Why are they contempt to just lie down and accept the fate to which they've been condemned?" Julianna demanded. Zeri only stood silent at the accusation. "Nothing to say, Darcsen. I rest my case. Only a fool would risk their life for someone who unleashed such Hell upon our land."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Edward shouted which caused even the loudmouthed Julianna to fall silent. Then Ed surprised the entire group by removing his red coat to reveal his Automail arm, "what does a pampered little princess like you know about Hell, huh! You're supposed to be some kind of elite soldier? Don't make me laugh. All I've seen you do is talk about how much better you are than everyone else for one reason or another, and now you wanna talk to me about going through hell. You don't know anything about what it's like to have everything you care about torn away from you! What do you know about the pain and suffering all the Darcsens in Gallia are going through right now! How can you call yourself a soldier when you're willing to abandon the people of your country over something that happened thousands of years ago! You're no better than the rebels!"

"Enough, Fullmetal," a friendly voice ordered as a firm hand grabbed Ed by the shoulder. Ed looked up into Vine's stern face, "spoken like a true Everheart. Void of any concern or caring for your fellow human beings. It's disgusting to see, but it's not only a problem with Squad A," Vine declared turning his attention back to class G, "I can see it your eyes as well. The hatred boiling just beneath the surface whenever you look at a Darcsen like me, Helmutt, Marion, Randy, any of you care to tell me I'm wrong?" his challenge was met with only silent looks in any direction but at either of the two State Alchemists.

"I can see it even now. Many of you think Julianna's right. You think you must be fools for being willing to lay down your lives for Darcsen dogs. If that's how it is, then there's the door, and I suggest you use it. If you can't stomach helping human beings due to some worthless prejudice, then you're relieved of duty and you can sit this out. Tomorrow morning, Fullmetal, Alphonse, and myself are heading for Diebal to save the lives of human beings, not just because they're my fellow Darcsens, and not just because it's my job as a soldier, but because it's the right thing to do. Because they're my fellow Gallians, and some madman has the gall to consider them fit for extermination, and I'm going up there even if every one of you decides you want nothing to do with this, so if your with me, it's your choice. I'm not forcing anyone," Vine waited for a reply, but shook his head in disappointment when none came, "well, I've said my piece, sorry about that, don't mean to get all doom and gloom on ya, but just gotta sometimes. Just wanted to give you something to think about. If your with me, I'll see you in the morning, if not… then I guess I'll see you when I get back." With that, the Raging Blast Alchemist brushed past Julianna and left the room. The Fullmetal Alchemist nodded his agreement and left as well, brushing rather roughly against Julianna as he left, followed by Alphonse. All the cadets, both Class G and Class A, stood in stupefied silence, not one willing to say a thing.

….

It was bright and early when Vine, Ed, and Al arrived at the front gate. Colonel Mustang was already waiting for them.

"Well it's about time. Is the rest of the Squad on their way?" Mustang asked.

"I'd be lying if I said I knew Colonel," Vine replied which caused Colonel Mustang to raise a curious eyebrow.

"What're you talking about, Raging Blast?"

"Well sir… you see…" Vine replied rubbing his head nervously.

"What the Colonel's trying to say is, he wasn't certain how soon we'd get here, but we're here now," Avan's voice surprised Vine and he turned to see that all of Class G had gathered at the gate.

"Bout time. You guys're late," Ed said giving Avan a thumbs up which Avan returned energetically.

"Sorry about that. I kinda overslept."

"Nothing new there," Zeri declared.

"Hey!" Avan shouted which got a laugh out of all the members of Class G.

"You kids. Remind me to give you more credit next time," Vine ordered, "I'm sorry I doubted you."

"You were right to, Colonel," Marion declared stepping forward, "I hope you'll forgive me. You were right, I've been unreasonable due only to me silly prejudice. I promise, it won't happen again."

"Heh, you know, I actually believe you," Vine declared ruffling Marion's hair, "now where's our tank. We need to get moving."

"So sue me," Lavinia's voice suddenly blared as the Squad G tank rolled up to the gate, "how can I help it if I'm always the last one to know, oh and how come I didn't get to hear any of this amazing pep talk Marion was telling me about, Vine."

"Be grateful you didn't, Ms. Lavinia," Vine declared, "I had to get more than a little irate with these kids yesterday."

"I'd ask, but I'm not certain I even want to know. At any rate, you'd better get going. You've got to try and beat the rebel forces to the mountains and keep them. If you can't pull that off, then you'll have to drive them off of the mountain one at a time," Colonel Mustang ordered.

"Got it. Just leave it to us Mustang. We'll handle this," Vine declared.

"Vine! Wait!" a woman's voice called. Vine turned to see Alicia and Welkin running towards him, Alicia of whom was carrying a modest sized box.

"What're you two doing up at this hour, and what ya got in the box?" Vine asked.

"I heard you were heading on a mission today, so I was up all night finishing this," Alicia said handing him the box.

"Hurry and open it. You've gotta go soon, don't you?" Welkin ordered.

"Alright, keep your socks on," Vine replied opening the box. He gasped at the sight of a beautifully sewn red cape, "so this is why you didn't want me to make a new cape," Vine said pulling it out of the box.

"I think I got the measurements right. Try it on and let's see how it looks," Alicia ordered.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Vine declared pulling the red cape over his shoulders, "perfect. Thanks Alicia, I owe you one."

"I'll remember that, now go kick those rebels butt," Alicia ordered.

"Again, don't have to tell me twice," Vine declared, "Squad G, move out!"