A/N: And the next chapter is out! Woo-hoo! I'm on a roll. Thank you to all the readers who have been supporting me so far :)
Disclaimer: FMA does not belong to me. OCs do.
The next day found Edward standing in front of Lieutenant-General Raveneye's office, shifting nervously between feet. Cobbler stood slightly behind him, looking smart in her military uniform.
"Aren't you going to knock?" she asked, amused at Ed's hesitance.
"I'm going to; just give me a second" he snapped, adjusting his jacket one last time. Then, trepidation evident in his quivering hand, he reached out and knocked gently on the aged wood.
"Enter."
Tara Raveneye's powerful voice rang out imperiously. Ed opened the door and peered in.
"Ah, Major Elric, please come in. Sergeant Cobbler, you too."
Cobbler gave a little start at hearing her name and cautiously followed Ed into the room.
"Please shut the door after you, thank you."
The Lieutenant-General stood behind her desk, hands clasped behind her back, staring out the window. At the sound of the door closing, she turned to face the pair, her unusual eyes examining them from head to toe.
"Thank you for joining me for lunch" she said, gesturing to a small table on the side, already set up for the meal. "Please, take a seat."
Gingerly, and awkwardly, Cobbler and Edward each grabbed a chair and sat, feeling uncomfortable under the Lieutenant-General's scrutinizing gaze. She joined them at the table and began to stack food onto her plate. Taking that as an invitation, Cobbler and Ed also began to tuck in. A good time into their meal, Lieutenant-General Raveneye restarted the conversation.
"Have you made any progress on your case, Major Elric?"
Ed quickly swallowed the food in his mouth and washed it down with some water. "Umm, not really. I've taken over Captain Broadstone's last assignment, so I have not really had time" Edward answered briskly.
"I see" Tara Raveneye mused, spearing a potato with her fork. "We have not been able to find the cab driver who had threatened you earlier. He seems to have fled."
"Oh…" Ed gazed quietly down into his plate.
"And how are you, Sergeant Cobbler? Has your transfer to Central been smooth?"
Cobbler almost dropped her teacup, so startled was she at being addressed. "Er, yes ma'am, I mean, sir. It's been, uh, very good!" Cobbler stuttered.
"That's good to hear. Mustang may be an insufferable flirt, but he cares for his own. Don't hesitate to ask either of us anything should you need aid." Tara Raveneye smiled slightly. Cobbler almost swooned on the spot.
"Now, let's get to business" the Lieutenant-General said, putting aside her utensils. "Major Elric, I know you're concerned by Captain Broadstone's death, but your priority while in Central is to find out who is threatening you and your family. I appreciate your fervor, but the deeper you go into this situation, the harder it will be to get out."
Ed looked into the Lieutenant-General's stunning orange eyes. She was serious.
"I think they're related" Cobbler stated abruptly.
Raveneye's gaze switched over to the younger woman. "You believe that Elric's threat letters and the Captain's murder are related?" the senior officer queried sharply.
Cobbler gulped and nodded firmly. Raveneye's stare softened and she made a quiet sound of approval.
"Explain."
"Well, I'm not sure of all the details, but the late Captain was in charge of looking after the kid, right?"
"Indeed" Raveneye confirmed, ignoring Ed's cries of outrage.
"And he was the officer in charge of supervising the gang activities within the city?"
Raveneye nodded.
"Plus, you suspect that some of the gangs have been questing for immortality using nefarious means?"
Raveneye nodded again.
"Well, if Broadstone had found out something about the gangs' plans concerning Ed and was planning to report it, wouldn't that that give them motive for his death?"
"True," the Lieutenant-General conceded, "your hypothesis does have merit. However, Broadstone was a cautious man. If he had truly suspected foul play, he would have reported it immediately. The fact that he did not could mean several things. First, he had a suspicion but no concrete evidence. In that case, he would have begun to investigate more thoroughly, and may have gotten in too deep. Second, the case is linked to the government or military. If so, it would not be safe to report through official means and he was waiting to meet with me or Mustang to tell us personally. Last, the two cases are not at all related and we are completely on the wrong track." Raveneye sighed. "However, I believe that they are linked."
"You do?" Cobbler sounded surprised.
"I do" Raveneye confirmed, smiling a little. "But my advice remains the same. Do not be involved any further than you need, Major Elric." Her stern face looked almost worried.
Edward nodded his acceptance reluctantly. If there was something stirring up trouble in Amestris, Ed had no doubt that he would be dragged into it again. Regardless of his wishes, he always had a knack of getting into trouble.
"Now, Fullmetal…"
Ed looked up at the Lieutenant-General, startled out of his thoughts.
"On a separate note, Charles said that you wanted to speak to me."
"Charles?" Ed's frazzled brain took some time to catch up to the conversation.
"Captain Broadstone. He said you had some questions for me with regards to my research. That man, for the first time in our long friendship, asked me for a favour." Raveneye smiled painfully at the memory. "It's the most I can do for him now, to honour his request."
Edward gaped at the Lieutenant-General, looking similar to a goldfish with memory loss.
"Edward?" Cobbler leaned forward to wave a hand in front of his face, concerning tingeing her voice. "You in there?"
"It's okay?" Ed croaked. "It's really okay to ask?"
"I will do my best to answer your questions" Raveneye confirmed with a nod.
"Oh wow…" Ed exclaimed breathlessly. "Ok, uh… my notes…"
Raveneye waited patiently as Ed dug through his coat pockets for his notebook. Ed gave a cry of triumph upon pulling out the brimming small pocket notebook in which he kept all of his alchemic research. He quickly, and impatiently, flipped through the pages until he found the one for which he was looking. Without further ado, Edward began questioning the Lieutenant-General in earnest.
"With respect to your theory that the soul can exist separately from the body…"
Cobbler sighed, leaning back in chair with a bored look on her face. Edward had been interrogating the Lieutenant-General continuously for more than an hour and showed no signs of slowing down. Lieutenant-General Raveneye answered all questions with patience and integrity. Watching this simple interaction, Cobbler could see how Raveneye had risen to the top of the military ranks, even under the homunculi rule. It was apparently also why President Fuhrer Grumman had decided to call her back into service. Her calm yet powerful presence contrasted well with Mustang's loud slightly rambunctious reputation; together they had combined the large majority of the military into a single powerful force. Cobbler felt a surge of pride for working under such charismatic leaders. However… her revelations did nothing to make her current situation any less boring. Cobbler heaved another heavy sigh, resting her head on shoulder, and closed her eyes. A short nap would not hurt…
It seemed to Cobbler that she had just closed her eyes when she was woken by a sharp rap on the door. She was instantly on alert, though she feigned grogginess and disorientation.
"Come in" Lieutenant-General Raveneye called out, her brow drawn in a slight frown.
"Oh, sorry…" Edward suddenly seemed to realize the time. "Did you have another appointment?"
"No." The Lieutenant-General sounded slightly puzzled. "I had booked my entire afternoon off."
Just as Raveneye had finished speaking, the door to her office tore off its hinges, flying straight into the room. A giant, scruffy bearded man burst into the room with a machine gun, roaring out his challenge loudly.
"Lieutenant-General Raveneye, your head is mi…!"
The sharp crack of a pistol interrupted the insurgent, and he dropped to the floor, howling in pain. A thin sharp throwing knife had pierced right through his right hand, forcing him to release his grip on the gun, and blood spread slowly from a bullet hole in his left knee.
"You bitches!" the bearded man gasped out through gritted teeth. "I'll kill you both."
Ed stared in shock at the two female officers in the room. Sergeant Cobbler had a second knife in hand and was busy trimming her nails, looking as calm as ever. Lieutenant-General Raveneye held a pistol in one hand, the barrel still hot, and her fierce orange eyes were trained coldly on the insurgent.
"Major Elric, restrain him" she commanded harshly. "Sergeant Cobbler, fetch a couple of Privates to escort this man to a detaining cell. I shall want to question him later."
"Right away, sir."
Sergeant Cobbler saluted and slipped her knife back into its sheath. She strolled briskly out of the room, grinning cheekily at the cursing insurgent, who swore even more colourfully as she left. Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the ground, giving the man his own personal earth cocoon. The man began to swear in earnest, the degree of his vocabulary dropping into the negatives. The Lieutenant-General did not look impressed.
"Major Elric, are you well-versed in medical alchemy?" she asked, wincing slightly as the man's voice began to take a fevered pitch.
"Not particularly. I know the basics" Edward admitted sheepishly. It had been on his to-do list after he had been impaled at Baschool Mine, but, after losing his alchemy, he had no longer thought it necessary.
"That is nothing to be ashamed of" the Lieutenant-General consoled. "But, for the time being, I had better prevent our prisoner from bleeding out." She walked over to the bearded man and knelt beside him.
"Could you expose only the wounded area?" she asked Ed, indicating the general area around the insurgent's knee.
Edward nodded and, with a flash of blue light, a small hole formed right above the prisoner's wounded knee. Carefully, almost reverently, the Lieutenant-General clapped her hands together and placed them on the bullet wound. Edward gaped as the blue light that signalled the start of an alchemic transmutation appeared, astounded by what he had just learnt. Sometime in the past, Lieutenant-General Tara Raveneye had also committed the ultimate taboo: she had attempted a human transmutation.
A/N: I feel kind of bad about all my chapter endings. I should maybe write less dramatic ones :P
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