Knowing More Than Recommended

Note: I'm sorry, Ed and Al don't appear again in this chapter. It's difficult to write a story with so many characters and it not be confusing, so I apologize. I'll get everyone in there eventually. Hopefully.

Honestly, thank you to everyone who has reviewed letting me know my flaws in this story. I will go back and correct it all when I have the patience and then the read will be better for readers to come! Edit 2-21-13: I have begun editing! Grammar and certain scenes will be updated, but nothing will change plot-wise.

Loyalty cannot be measured, but can be appreciated! So, thank you! Gracias! Danke! Arigato! Merci! (haha 5 languages from the top of my head.)

This chapter features: Episode 28 "All is One, One is All." To relearn what Izumi taught them when they first met, the boys are sentenced to a month on Yok Island. While recalling their childhood, a mysterious boy watches from the bushes…

-/-/-

Dusk washed over the southern landscape, and the two outsiders to the world of alchemy returned to Izumi's place to turn in. Winry greeted them when Brandon and Kelsey walked in with their newly acquired belongings. "Woah, why the sudden haircut?" Winry asked Brandon in pure shock.

The male ran his fingers through the shortened brown locks, and pondered his answer. He was still getting used to not having hair slowly taking over his face. "Change is good. Right?" he asked her hopefully.

The blonde picked up on the hint and complimented him. "Yes, looks very good. Very different, but good. I can see your face better."

They grinned at one another while Kelsey was amused by them both. But her mood quickly shifted into despair shortly after. When Brandon and Winry had stopped sheepishly flirting with one another long enough to walk away, Brandon came to her side.

"Keep on like that and you'll get wrinkles in between your eyes. What's up?"

"I'm not sure. I just... I don't know when Amy's coming back and that really bothers me. It's like, she just found us, y'know?"

Brandon set a hand on her shoulder. "Amy told us not to fret and figure out what we can while we're away from her. Why don't we go down to the library tomorrow morning?"

Kelsey nodded and offered Brandon a smile before he left the room. "I feel like we're being watched," she whispered under her breath. The girl glanced out of the window one last time, but only saw the open street and nothing out of the ordinary.

-/-/-

Amy walked nonchalantly down the hall in some silk pajamas she'd acquired from one of Greed's 'lady friends,' since none of them were ever going to need pajamas if they spent their nights with Greed. A yawn escaped her as she ran a hand through her wet hair, fresh from showering. She jumped slightly when Kimblee suddenly appeared, but her reflex for wanting to go into a defensive position had gone away by now with him. Instead of giving him the amusement he was looking for and kicking his ass, she walked by him. "Yes?" she asked.

"Gonna join me tonight?" He meant simply sleeping in his room, but what he implied signaled a slight anger in the woman.

Again, she reminded herself to stay calm. This was just typical Kimblee, trying to get a rise. Amy looked at the floor and thought rather intently on what she had earlier: would it be wise to mention Kimblee's intentions and then try to convince him to stay loyal to Greed? Or could it end up worse than it already would if she didn't say or do anything? "Actually, I was going to sleep in Marta's room tonight for some female time, but I'm free for an overnight poker game tomorrow if you want," she said while glancing back at him. For now, she'd avoid him entirely until she decided on something.

Kimblee tilted his head, golden eyes narrowing with a smirk on his lips. "Alright. I'm holding you to that offer."

-/-/-

Candlelight flames flickered as a body entered the tall room of Dante's mansion. The old woman that was Dante's current vessel sat quietly in a seat overlooking a desk. She sifted a small locket through her wrinkled fingers that held a piece of a crimson stone on the inside. Candles lined the table that held a newspaper article and Amy's Calculus book. The old woman seemed in deep concentration.

The body walked quietly behind her into the room, a small snickering came softly from his lips.

The aged eyes of the woman caught sight of his form. Her fingers stopped messing with the locket and it fell loosely back around her neck.

"Any reason you are here instead of where I've ordered you to be, Envy?"

Envy grinned mischievously and in a flash his thin form transformed to a taller more bodied person whom resembled Greed. "Oh, my name is Greed and 140 years ago I was sealed for going against your wishes. What makes you think I'll play by the rules now?"

"I made Greed, Envy, and helped with the creation of yourself. I know he never plans to cooperate with me and our goals with the philosopher's stone, but I'm curious to know what he plans to do this time. His death is inevitable and with time we will need to exterminate him and his followers for the sake of loyalty, just as last time, though I do hate to destroy my accomplishments."

Envy looked at his untouched right hand, then drew the oroborus tattoo there with his power. "And how soon will weak little Greed's death come?"

Dante did not give a direct answer. "If you wish to help with the extermination of your own, be a dear and go dig up the bones from the garden, will you Envy? All should be there except the skull."

Envy looked over at the calculus book and a newspaper article for Hughes' accident on the desk while Dante spoke, taking a note that those were people that needed to be found and kept eyes on or killed.

"Certainly, master," he replied afterward, taking the adorably thin form with green hair again on his way out.

-/-/-

The following morning in Dublith, Kelsey and Brandon arose early to make their way to the library near South headquarters. Kelsey had the pocket watch in her pocket as they walked, listening to Brandon explain to her what would happen in the FMA series if they changed nothing, since she hadn't seen all of the series.

"So, after Hughes died, this guy named Archer replaces him, who Amy says looks like a child molester. Armstrong tags along with him, trying to find the corruption of Sloth and Pride in the military. Archer is the one who offers Kimblee and Tucker re-instatement in the military which leads to Greed's betrayal and death, so I assume Amy wants to avoid that of course. Hopefully we've already avoided it because we saved Hughes, which means Archer won't be promoted, which means..."

There was a point in Brandon's rambling that Kelsey gave up on trying to understand. Their subject changed when they came to the library and started looking in the history books for any sign of old alchemy, witchcraft, this world's form of paganism... Anything.

"If we don't find anything here, I'd bet there'd be something in the Central library. It's probably a lot bigger than this one," Kelsey explained while skimming the pages in a history book.

Brandon flipped through a green-covered book before setting it back on the shelf. "I doubt it. I would bet every shard of useful information of the witch hunts and witchcraft were buried in the old Central, underground from the new Central."

Kelsey looked up at him. "Old Central?"

Brandon nodded. "Yeah. That's how Dante and Hohenhiem made the first philosopher's stone, they used the people sentenced to hang from the witch hunts and the people dieing from the plague. As a result, the entire city collapsed underground in a cavern and a new Central was built over top."

Kelsey stared wide-eyed at Brandon. "How terrible. That means witchcraft did exist at one time, though!" She watched as his eyes skimmed over the pages of another history book. A troubling idea popped into her head. "You still read the alchemy books, don't you?"

He glanced up at her, narrowing his eyes before continuing to read over the history. "Yes."

A new hypothesis formed in her head about Brandon and Amy's memory loss and she didn't want to test it. It needed to be done, though. She thought of something historical from their time to suddenly quiz Brandon, the history nerd, to see if he still remembered as much as he did yesterday. "Who was the first United States president?"

"George Washington," he answered simply, turning the page in the book. She glanced at the page he was on... it explained the history of the continent Amestris was on, and the nation's changing borders.

"What was the name of the land purchase made by Jefferson that approximately doubled the size of America?"

Brandon closed the book and looked at Kelsey with a stern look over his face. His pause was enough to give away he didn't know the answer. "Why are you asking me such useless things? We're looking for witchcraft stuff, not the history of America."

Kelsey frowned. His words were a little more sharp than usual. He grabbed another book from the shelf and began to separate himself from her. "The answer was the Louisiana Purchase, Brandon..." she whispered, looking worryingly over at his back. Normally, he would have answered such an easy definition question within a second, and added the year as well as who it was purchased from.

Something was definitely up with Brandon's memory. How serious could the damage be?

The rest of the search landed them nowhere. There was nothing in the books here. Kelsey felt crestfallen on the way back to Izumi's, but Brandon managed to cheer her up with one of his jokes. His coldness from earlier seemed to fade as if nothing had happened. "Can't wait till Amy comes back... We haven't spared in a long while. I might be losing my martial arts touch."

"You could always ask Izumi to spar."

Brandon snorted. "I'd rather not get my ass kicked. I'm not as good as her or Al, maybe Ed."

"You're not better than Amy, either. To this date, she's winning 24-10." Brandon stuck his tongue out at her. Kelsey smiled at his lighter mood, but when a dark vibe set on her senses, she looked over her shoulder several times while walking in the streets... to see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

-/-/-

"Congratulations on the promotion, Roy." Hughes offered to the man as Gracia poured a hot cup of tea for both Roy and Riza.

"Thank you," they offered as they sat on a couch adjacent to where Hughes was seating, arm still in a sling. "Working in Central with you will have its perks. Riza and I will be heading back tomorrow so we can be transferred. It'll be easier to communicate once we're working in Central with you and Armstrong, Maes."

Hughes thanked and complimented his wife with a large smile on his face before she left the room to go and check on Elicia. The smile faded with a chuckle from him as he looked at the glass of hot tea in front of him and then pulled a letter out of his shirt pocket.

"The final decision just came today," Hughes said. He lifted the envelope to show his audience before sticking his finger under the seal and tearing it open.

"Final decision?" Hawkeye asked, glancing at them both.

Roy smirked at her, forgetting that he hadn't mentioned the plan to her. "Hughes is pleading with memory loss and injury to be unable fulfill his investigative duties."

Riza still missed the reason to why Hughes would do something like that. The man took the official letter out of the envelope and read it silently. He smirked when receiving the verdict he wanted and handed the letter over to Roy. "The investigation of Lab Five was suspended days ago, but I have a feeling unless I'm incapable of investigating, I'll be at risk."

"And now that you're on official leave, you'll be temporarily replaced. You know that," Roy said to him, passing the letter to Hawkeye.

"Yeah, but I've already put every file I was investigating back where I got it and ordered Schezka to move her work to her home or quit. I don't want anyone else in the military involved besides you both and Armstrong. If anything else, like an accident, were to happen we'd know for sure the corruption is somewhere high in the ranks of the military."

"So we'll meet at a secure location in Central next week to discuss any new suspicions?" Hawkeye asked them both.

"Yes, after I've received any confirmation from the Major," Roy answered. He stood and bid his friend a good day, his blonde lieutenant following.

-/-/-

"Frowns don't suit you."

Amy looked up, stricken from her thoughts by Kimblee's voice taunting her mood.

When she tried to walk out to go visit Kelsey and Brandon today, Greed himself had stopped her and told her she wasn't going to leave. He told her she couldn't risk getting caught by the other homunculi and was going to stay cooped up in here until he thought it was okay for her to walk around freely. He even ordered the chimeras not to let her go outside. She tried to reason with him and request to go out with an escort, like Marta or Kimblee, but Greed shot her down and explained that Gluttony would be able to trace her scent anywhere she went. Including to her friends. So long as she stayed at the bar, she was surrounded by a fuck-ton of scents and hopefully wouldn't be noticed. That put a damper on her mood, and that's why she found herself sitting at the bar Kimblee was manning with her head on folded arms, though she wasn't in the mood to drink.

Kimblee realized this, but set a glass of bourbon in front of her anyway. "Something on your mind?" he asked, the tease still in his voice and on his smirking lips. She looked up at him but then away, and pushed the drink to the side to express her distaste for his choice of liquor. A moment later, it incinerated.

Amy shot a glare at him after watching the glass break and the liquid turn to smoke from the tiny explosion. "How dare you! And how do you change a damn liquid to an explosive?!" she asked angrily.

The only reason he set it there was because he knew she wouldn't drink it. "Years of practice."

"I bet," she replied sharply.

Kimblee glanced at the broken glass expectantly. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Can you use alchemy to fix it or not?"

Amy seemed surprised. She found she had the ability to perform alchemy shortly after coming through the gate. Because she had witnessed the truth, she could also perform without circles, (not that she would do that here) and caught on quickly thanks to the alchemy book she found in Kimblee's room. After taking a moment to think on it, she used pencil she had to draw a simple transmutation circle and fix the glass. She handed it back to him, which he took and inspected, but also grabbed her hand to keep her from running off.

"I asked you what's on your mind."

Amy struggled to claim her arm back, which was useless against his strength. "None of your damn business," she hissed under her breath, not wishing to start another scene. It was a lie of course, it was everything of Kimblee's business because she was thinking about what she wanted to ask him, but couldn't think of how to put it in a way he'd take her seriously.

"I'll tell you when I'm ready!" she spat finally, and he let go.