WARNING: CONTAINS FANGIRL TORTURE
From the Keyboard of Artemis Key:
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy the next chapter!
I hope this successfully builds up the plot.
I am sorry for a bit of what I've written, it killed me to write it.
(Also I didn't kill anyone! (yet) so with that knowledge, read the chapter!)
This Chapter:
Intro-Fearel
Sheska-Fearel
Edward Elric-Artemiskey
Disclaimer-We do not own FMA... But we do own the torture(;
Chapter 10 Aliens And Old Friends
The Gateway.
The ultimate medium of equivalent exchange.
Those who pass through it
May find themselves
in an alternate world to their own.
But in those days really believed that
the risks involved were just too high.
Sheska flopped back into the comfort of her desk chair. Why did she keep having weeks like this? Weeks so busy and so exhausting she barely had any time to read. In fact she had only been getting through a book every other day since the whole catastrophe started. It was an all-time low and she wished she could do something about it but first the invasion then the other invasion then the counterattack and two assassination attempts had kept her so busy that she hadn't even managed to visit Gracla and Alecia in nearly a month.
It was appalling absolutely appalling, after all when she decided to join the Senate she hadn't actually expected to have to work. Well, maybe she' d expected to do a bit of work but nothing strenuous and up to just under a month ago being a member of Senate had pretty much lived up to her expectations. Yeah all right there were bills to be passed in long boring hours of listening to people argue and the usual amount of speed reading and recitation of all the files that had formerly been in the 1st branch library even though she replace them all long since. Then about four weeks ago the aliens had shown up in Leor and ever since she had been so busy she could barely tell up from down any more.
A tab on her office door interrupted her thoughts. She sat up and attempted to look a little bit more dignified as the glass paneled door opened and the secretary from the research and reference room came in. "Excuse me ma'am the state alchemist recall forms have arrived." Sheska nodded and made a vague waving gesture that could have been beckoning the secretary to set the forms down on the desk or could have been shooing her out of the room. The secretary chose to take it as the former and after putting the forms down and walking halfway toward the door she looked back over her shoulder and added "Oh and ma'am Lieutenant General Hawkeye says she wants those forms in tomorrow's 6 AM mailing so you're to have them finished and taken over to the emergency Postal Service at least an hour beforehand." Shaeka groaned, great more paper work! As the door swung closed behind the secretary she made a mental note to vote in favor of Mustangs anti-paperwork bill whenever he next had a chance to bring it up before The Senate.
Then grudgingly she set to work filling out the forms. Each form have to be filled out with the state alchemist name, their title, the name of the officer or officers to whom they answered, their current position rank and duties, the name rank and current position of the person or persons if any who were going to be filling in for those duties while they were gone, the name rank position and relationship to the alchemist of the commanding officer or officers who were to be presented with the document and or informed of the leave as well as the previously stated information about the person or persons if any that were going to be filling in for the state alchemist during said absence and the probable return date if any of said alchemist, and they all had to be completed with the same message. "Due to the recent attacks by Drachman alchemists upon high-ranking military officials and the impersonation of state alchemists by said Drachman alchemist the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces General Roy Mustang is ordering all state alchemists to return to Central command immediately. There you are to proceed to engineering headquarters where you will be ID checked and then you will be required to hand over your state alchemist's pocket watch for engraving with your alchemist's name."
Finally she had to sign each document with her name and the title head of records and documentation and member of the governing Senate and of Amestris.
It was the sort of job that was normally assigned to a hole departments worth of secretaries and librarians but Mustang had decided to make it a rush job, Hawkeye had asserted that to get the research done that fast they would need to bring in secretaries from other departments who they could not trust, and that's when they had remembered Sheska. Now she was stuck doing all of it all by herself.
Yes, all right, she only had to fill them out for state alchemists not in Central, for those in Central had already bin order to submit their pocket watches, and yes she knew all the information but that didn't mean she could regurgitate it all in one long, and apparently sleepless, night. Not to mention after she'd finished all that she still had to make up a list of all State Alchemists who were active or had been active in the past five years alone with their current status.
It was to be copied and given to every guard and ranking officers throughout Amestris to keep the Drachman's from foiling their new security measures by simply engraving falls alchemists names, or the names of retired, fired, or dead state alchemists, hence the five-year margin, onto stolen or duplicated pocket watches. Once again it was Sheska and her memory that had been volunteered for this task. Come to think of it, it might actually make more sense to write the list up first so as to get my thoughts in order before proceeding to the forms. She decided to do that instead especially since it would allow her to put off the moment when she would have to delve into that pile of mind-numbing forms.
She pushed the whole stack to the back of her desk and began rummaging around for a clean piece of paper. After a few minutes she found a couple half crumpled sheets that she had crammed as a bookmark into a copy of Deglinda Eckhart's guide to Alien Spotting. She pulled them out and, after casting a longing glance at the now open book, stuffed one of the state alchemist forms into the book as a replacement bookmark.
Nowhere in her instructions had Sheska been told to alphabetize the list so she drew one of the clean, if crumpled, pieces of paper towards herself, picked up a pen began writing down in no particular order the names tittles and statuses of whichever alchemists came to her mind.
The Crimson Alchemist Dead (Killed by Scar in Leor in 1918)
Lieutenant Colonel Solf J. Kimbly Pocket-watch destroyed in Leor incident
The Iron Blood Alchemist Dead (Killed by Scar in village near Central
Brigadier General Basqua Grand in 1917) Pocket-watch barred with him
The Sowing Life Alchemist
Major Shou Tucker
Here she paused for a minute considering what to write. In the official version of things Tucker had been executed in 1914 for illegal experiments in human alchemy. Sheska was however one of the few who new that he had not in fact been killed but instead have been set to creating Cameras for the military in the supposedly abandoned lab five. Then again as he had later been reestablished as a state alchemist and put under Acting Coronel Archer's command during the whole Leor affair she supposed that a good many people had realized that he was in fact still alive. Then she remembered that almost all of the soldiers involved in the Leor debacle had been killed by the giant transmutation circle that had been set off in Leor, so she might as well just stick to the official story. On the other hand, that wasn't strictly true and if he would show up again he would be treated as a Drachman assassin and killed on site. Then again, as the experiments that had gotten him in trouble to begin with involved transmuting his own daughter into a Camera, he probably deserved being shot on sight. However, he had valuable knowledge of both the secrets of alchemy and the secrets of the Amestrian military so people ought to know he was alive and to be on the lookout for him in case he was persuaded into joining up with their enemies. Then, however, she might need to mark down the fact that he was now a Camera and, according to all Winry had told her, stark raving mad, but that sounded like putting in too much classified information. After another couple of minutes thought she decided to mark him down as:
The Sowing Life Alchemist Fate Unknown
Major Shou Tucker (mental condition unstable)
Then she continued with her list.
The Crystal Alchemist Fate Unknown (Deserter from Ishbal War;
Major Tim Marcoh taken into Furor's protection in 1917 and
not herd from since) Presumed Dead
The Strong Arm Alchemist Active: Commanding Officer of Leor (recalled
Coronel Alex Louis Armstrong to Central for deration of Drachman War)
The Silver Alchemist Dead (Killed in Drachman invasion of
Lieutenant Colonel Knightley West City) Pocket-watch Lost,
Presumed Captured By Drachma
The Ironclaw alchemist Dead (Killed in Drachman invasion of
Major Johnson West City) Pocket-watch Lost,
Presumed Captured By Drachma
The Sable Alchemist Active: Assigned to Western Command
Major Emily Jasper
The Lightning Alchemist Active: Assigned to Central Command
Major Aurora Blitzen (newest State Alchemist, conformed
two months ago position as yet unfixed)
The Flame Alchemist Active: Commander and Chief of All
General Roy Mustang Amestrean Armed Forces (for deration
of Drachman War only otherwise General
in charge of Central Command)
The Fullmettle Alchemist Fate Unknown (Vanished during the
Major Edward Elric over through of Bradley Administration
in 1918; Reappeared during the Battle of
The Alchemist's Return only to go down with
air ship; Pocket-watch vanished during Leor
conflict in 1918 but somehow reclaimed by
military) body unfound but Presumed Dead
What else could she say? She knew of course that Ed Elric wasn't dead but she
couldn't say that. If she said that then she would have to go into the whole subject of the Gateway thing (she still wasn't entirely sure about that herself), and if she did that then she would have to bring up the Homunculi and the Philosopher's Stone, and if those topics didn't go under the titles of highly confidential and classified then she didn't know what did.
As far as she knew, excluding the Elric brothers, there were only three living people besides herself who knew what had happened two years earlier on that wild and hectic day when Fuehrer King Bradley had been killed, the Fullmetal Alchemist had vanished, and his younger brother had turned up years younger than he had been and missing that same four years worth of memories. In total, as far as Sheska knew there had only ever been eight people who understood anything of what had happened, well seven people and a homunculus. Ed and Al of course, the General, Lieutenant General Hawkeye, herself, Winry, the homunculus Wrath, and the alchemist Izumi Curtis.
No, that was wrong she realized, there had been one other person. Even if he wasn't alive at the time of the Fuehrer's death, Brigadier General Hughes must also have known.
Nine people had known and now at least one third of that number was dead. As that fact sunk in a quote from a book she had read a few months previously came swimming to the forefront of her mind. "Three can keep a secret when two are the grave." The quote was from the book The Mists of Avalon and even though there were as yet more people living then dead who new the secret it still seems somehow to fit.
The whole idea chilled her so she cast around for something else to think about. She landed instead on to the book itself, The Mists of Avalon… She began to sink into a reminiscence of the book's finest moments when, with a thwack, her head, which had been nodding farther and farther forward with each passing minute, slammed nose first into the desk.
Sheska sat up blinking rapidly, rubbing her nose with one hand and fixing her glasses with the other. It was then that she caught sight of the huge stack of paperwork she still hadn't even started. She knew of course why she had started with the State Alchemist list, and that logic still made sense, but that mountain of untouched paperwork was depressing and Sheska figured she should at least make a start on it before tackling the list again. Her eyes roved down the list of the alchemist she had already written down, searching for a place to begin. It alighted, not however on the name of one of the absent Alchemists, but instead on that of the Flame Alchemist. Now that, She thought, was another catastrophe waiting to happen.
To most people of course it appeared as though everything was perfectly okay, or at least as okay as it could be after two assassination attempts and a battle. To Sheska, however, it was apparent that something much more fundamental was very wrong indeed. In the three days since he had left the hospital he had been more gruff, more snappish, and more abrupt than was normal even for him, and she didn't have to look far for the reason.
Between one thing and another Sheska had spent a good deal of time around Mustang, both previously and over the past three days, and she hadn't taken long to realize that there was something wrong between the General and Hawkeye. She still went with him to meetings and followed any of the orders he might give her without question but those orders had become few and far between. More often now he would send Havoc or one of the others to do the work that had previously been hers. Also, Sheska had seen Hawkeye walking around Central on her own far more often than had previously been the case. In earlier times, Hawkeye had often seemed to her like an extension of the General, a politer more tactful and more hard-working extension. It has been as though those two shared some special connection, she always anticipating his movements and doing what was needed to ensure his plans were successful, he relying on her to watch his back and to know without being told how she could best forward his plans.
Now however they didn't even seem to be able to look at each other let alone communicate. Now they each did their duty by the other but never seemed to speak unless it was absolutely necessary. It was as though the invisible link that connected them had been broken and outside of their team Sheska thought that she might very well be the only one to had noticed.
She felt as though shot to do something but she wasn't sure exactly what. Relationships were not specialty. She didn't even have the faintest idea what was wrong between the two Generals. Maybe she could… Ummm…
This time it was not her head hitting the desk that jerked Sheska out of her thoughts but rather sharp rap of gunfire. She leaped to her feet, knocking over her swivel chair in the process but she was only halfway to the door when she heard a cry of pain and a man's voice, obviously triumphant despite its strong Drachman accent. "This is the end of the line for you, Lieutenant General Hawkeye!" Even as she sprinted the rest of the way to the door, the words she had so recently quoted flashed unbidden to the forefront of her mind. "Three can keep a secret if two are in the grave." It seemed that the secret wasn't done with them yet.
Edward Elric was many things, but a murderer he was not. He would never let his brother do something as stupid as opening the gateway and possibly unleashing the horrors of this land into Amestris.
This horrible land. With its broken world, cloaked in war. So unsteady, like a large boulder, perched on a weak peak, always threatening to fall, crushing everything in it's wake.
He imagined what could have happened if that crazy Eckhart succeeded... Amestris would be destroyed, and this crazy cult would have complete and utter control.
Imagine if they found Alchemy.
They would become much more powerful- and dangerous.
"EDWARD ELRIC I AM CALLING YOU!" Ed heard with an angry emphasis.
He whipped his head around.
He saw Riza standing in the doorway, looking displeased.
"Sorry!" He smiled, reaching behind his head.
He walked over to her.
She quickly ushered him inside.
Mustang- "Roy" sat at the table.
"Listen kid," He said, clasping his hands together, "I need you to go to town with Noah and your Brother. We need you guys to pick up a few things." He tossed Ed a list.
"Hay bedding & chicken feed, gloves for Al..." Ed read, " Riza's veil?"
He looked up at his employer.
"What! She picked up the dress last week and they forgot the veil! So I need you to pick it up." Roy said in a very monitone- matter-a-fact-Mustang manor.
Ed glared at him and turned scarlet.
"Fine" he said through gritted teeth.
Roy threw him the car keys.
"You know how to drive that thing right?" he said smugly with a smirk.
Ed just glared in anger.
"Also, there are a few things you can trade at the supply. They're in the truck bed." he said, still smirking.
Ed exited the house and found Noah and Al waiting near the car.
"Okay, lets go." he grumbled, opening the car door and climbing into the driver's seat.
They had a peaceful journey to the town.
They passed a few gypsies, traveling either in carts or on foot, all in colorful clothes, trying to rake business in.
Ed pulled the car to a halt in front of the farming supplies store.
He threw a sideways glance while exiting the vehicle at Noah, who he could see at that angle, who was clinging onto her seat so hard that her fingertips were white.
He got out of the car with Noah.
Al got out behind them.
"Brother! Was the speeding necessary!" Al shouted at his brother
"At least I didn't crash." Ed said, he had driven automobiles before... never quite as successfully as today's ride.
Al quickly silenced himself.
"Al, I need you to go check with the Envies, if they have any information." Ed said, hopefully they had found something on the bomb.
Al nodded his head, then went down a street to go check with the Envies.
As Noah and Ed stepped through the door, a small bell chimed overhead.
The dark wooden shelves of the store were packed with farming products, and from one olive-green wall to the other olive- green wall, lay empty traps, used to catch rodents, and other animals causing trouble on a farm.
The packed shelves had old merchandise; some of the feed in the feed area was spoiled. You could tell that it had been awhile since the owner hadn't sold much.
Ed and Noah walked up to the dark wood counter and rang the little bell on top to alert the attendant further that they were there.
"I'm coming!" an old man's voice rang out from the back room.
As they waited, Ed noticed that the olive green wallpaper, was crumbling from the tobacco-stained white trim.
"How may I help you?" the man asked.
"Yes, hello. I'm here on behalf of my boss, and he told me to pick up a few things." Ed said.
"What did he ask you to get?"
"Hay bedding, chicken feed, horse feed, chicken wire and a pair of work gloves." Ed said to the man.
"The feeds are down that way," he said pointing down an isle of shelves, "Near the window. The bedding is near the door and the gloves are in that isle there," he continued, pointing to an isle far away from the previous one he pointed at.
"When you're done collecting that come back here," he said.
Ed and Noah walked down to the area with the feed, and selected the heavy bags.
Next, Ed had Noah get the gloves and he retrieved the chicken wire.
They lugged the sacks of feed to the front, along with the gloves and chicken wire.
"The Hay bedding is that way," the old man said.
Ed walked back with Noah and selected a few bales that appeared to still be good enough to use.
"So, how are you going to pay for it?" the old man asked.
"I have a few things from my employer."
"That'll do," the man said.
Noah went and retrieved the goods from the truck.
After paying the bill, they loaded the truck bed.
Ed and Noah climbed back into the truck.
He drove down the street to the tailor.
"Can you please go get it?" He asked Noah. He wouldn't embarrass himself like Mustang wanted.
She looked back at him.
She then climbed out of the car and picked up the veil, then they went to try and find Al.
Ed speeded down the streets. Noah was clinging to her seat for dear life.
The searched everywhere that was a common rondayvu point- but Al was nowhere to be found.
Ed pulled the car over next to the park.
"We should go search it." he said to Noah. It was the only spot that they hadn't checked.
They began to casually stroll through the park, so not to attract attention to themselves.
Ed's eyes searched frantically for his brother or the Envies.
He took in the pleasant site of the park. A large pond was on his right. Ducks glided on the surface and fish swam beneath the water. The water itself was greenish. It has Lilly pads floating on its placid glassy surface.
The trees stood tall and stern, their limbs climbing to the sky.
It was a pleasant day.
Few people walked past Ed and Noah as they ventured to the park's core.
When they arrived at the large fountain, the area was empty.
They had toured more than half the park, and there was no sign of Al.
"I don't think he's here Ed." Noah said.
Ed sat down in frustration on the side of the fountain.
"Then where is he!"
Noah looked down upon him, with her eyes filled with pity.
She sat down next to him.
" I don't know, but he'll come back and find you. He would never leave you." She said.
"Not like the way I left him." Ed said quietly.
Noah looked at him.
"When you cling to your past, you have no future." She said.
Ed stared at his gloved hands.
He thought he had let his past go a long time ago.
He and Al gave up on resurrecting their mother after it went wrong, and so to stop the memories of their mother and the regret of their failure, they left their home.
But Ed had never let go of Risenbool. It was his home after all. He never made contact because he did not want his memories returning and the reminder that he failed.
After everything he went through to restore his brother, he still lost because his brother had to resurrect him. And Ed had gone through the gateway to bring his brother back.
After he returned, he had left Amestris behind to save it, it was his only selfless deed that he had done.
Noah was right. He must put the past behind him. He lived in a different world now; he had to make the best of it.
"You're right. I cling to the past too much." he said.
"We all do." She said, "I've seen into the lives of so many people, and each of them carries a piece of the past, some of them more than others. Those who are trying to forget their past by hiding it, often have the strongest pieces of all."
He had been trying to hide his past. His world was not one he could return to. He had to stay here, alienated from his homeland, because that was the only thing saving it. Preserving it so that everyone can live happily.
It was equivalent exchange. He must stay here, alone, for his home to be spared.
But he had to let go. Why should he hold onto a world where he couldn't be?
To friends that he couldn't see? To a job he couldn't do?
To a science he couldn't use...
What use was it holding on?
What if Al was right?
It would just take a simple transmutation circle and some blood...
And they would be back!
But would the portal close?
Someone would need to close it... Noah maybe?
But what if she refuses? She wanted to come with him after all.
Who would close it then?
Ed took a moment to look down. He became overwhelmed with his thoughts.
He breathed in sharply, then gazed at the pavement for a moment.
He wondered what Amestris was like now.
It probably was living in peace... somewhat... His homeland was not the best at keeping peace.
He thought about the Cornel.
He probably was same as ever. Arrogant. Ambitious...
He wondered how Hawkeye and the rest of the guys were- he barely saw them while the battle was happening...
He would never admit it out loud, but he kinda missed being a "dog of the military"
It was decent pay, and he had a treasure trove of knowledge at his fingertips.
He paused.
He had to move on.
Leave it behind.
Let go of the emotions of the past.
He turned to Noah and kissed her.
First she seemed to exhibit shock, but then relaxed.
He moved away from her.
She stared at him.
"You're right. I do need to let go."
Before she could say anything, Al appeared and ran up.
"Ed! We found one of the members of the Thuel society!"
"What?!"
"He lives nearby. He owns a large house and is a contributing member of society. No one would ever think it was him... but we found him." The seemingly nice Envy said.
"Where it he?!" Ed shouted
"Come on!" Al pulled him down twists and turns of small side streets and little alleyways until they reached a large house surrounded by a shallow wall.
They stood in the park across the street.
"This is his house?" Ed asked.
"Yeah." The nicer one said.
"It's awfully fancy for a society that otherwise would like to be kept secret."
"Guys! Someone's coming out!" Noah said in a stage whisper.
The door cracked open and an old dog slipped out of the door.
It was white in the face and slow.
The next to exit was a young girl with light brown hair in a long braid down her back.
She couldn't be more than eleven.
She carried a sketchbook in one hand with a bushel of colored pencils in the other.
A pencil stood out from behind her ear.
Ed felt his body go numb.
In front of him was a ghost.
Two ghosts.
The girl in front of him had died years ago.
Killed by a man with white hair, red eyes and an incredibly noticeable X shaped scar on his face.
No. It can't be!
She's dead!
The bone chilling memory of her final words to him.
"Ed-ward? Fri-end?"
The horrible crime committed by a psycho- a mad man.
He used his dog... He used his daughter.
Nina
Next Time: Eye Of Hawk, Hand Of Death: "This is the end of the line for you, Lieutenant General Hawkeye!" not to mention Noah Nina and Tucker oh my! Ed has finely found a member of Thuel society but can eather he or Al do anything that might risk hurting a friend they have already failed to save once?
Artemiskey- I am in no way a NoahX Ed shipper- EdWin all the way. Just using it for dramatics
We are, unfortunately going to have to take another, this time seven week, hiatus after this chapter. NOT BECAUSE WE ARE OUT OF IDEAS (As a matter of fact I've just bin rewatching FMA wile showing it to my two little cosines and am therefor once again FULL of ideas) but because I (Fearel) am leaving for my sleep away camp the day after tomorrow and will be remaining there as a CIT for seven weeks and as they have only just discovered the wonderful invention that is indoor pluming, I dote they will discover internet access for at least a decade or three. That of corse means no more chapters until I return but look for an update soon after. Artemiskey however will be working at a local camp and therefor will be writing and messageable all summer.
So until next time, I hope you enjoyed and PLEASE REVIEW!