Hello, World! We have made it to the end of Arc 1: Conquistador!
Warning: Murder
Chapter Song: Thistles & Weeds by Mumford & Sons
Enjoy!
When Bernard did not return to the house after three hours, Lori began to worry. He had only gone out to grab a couple pieces of warmer clothing. Drachma was cold, especially in the winter, which was only two months away.
After another thirty minutes, Lori set out. She knew it was not safe, seeing as she was a wanted woman, but she needed to make sure Bernard was not….
Injured?
Dead?
No. What Lori was worried about was that someone had touched what was hers. Had taken away something that she held dear. No one had found Kiev but Lori had never considered that the woman would continue on her deranged trail of vengeance.
Lori walked faster and faster until she was almost running through Lisbeth in search of her husband.
Reyna Kiev stood in the shadows of a tall building in Lisbeth. Her green eyes pierced the dark night, spying the older man attempting to sneak through the city.
"Found you."
Bernard was attempting to sneakily traipse through the city. He had already upset three trash cans, woke seven sleeping dogs and almost got ran over twice. But he was doing better now.
Bernard turned onto a dark side street. He was walking quickly, but froze when he heard a loud crash behind him. When he heard the woman's scream he turned, dropped the heavy winter coats he was carrying, and ran towards the clamor.
At the entrance of the dimly lit street a woman was crumpled. Bernard knelt down and started to help her up.
"Miss, are you alright?" he asked concerned.
The woman's long black hair and the shadows covered her face. "Yes, yes, I'm fine," she mumbled. She stumbled forward into the dark street. The petite woman would have fallen if Bernard had not caught her.
"You don't seem fine. You need-"
Bernard stopped speaking when he felt the blade enter his abdomen. The woman gave him push and he fell backwards into the wall. She stood up straight and pulled the knife out of his stomach.
"What-?" coughed Bernard as he held his stomach, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"Oh, don't worry. This has absolutely nothing to do with you," she said plunging the knife in again. She pulled it out and said, "But everything to do with your wife." Bernard tried to speak again, but she pressed a bloody finger to his lips and batted her eyes at him. "Shh. Don't speak. It might make me more angry than I already am. Your beloved Lori took everything from me. I'm just returning the favor."
With every sentence she pulled the knife in and out. In and out. Then she just stopped. Bernard could feel his blood soaking his clothes and pooling on the ground underneath him. He barely had the energy to lift his head to look her in the eyes. In those eyes he saw more fury than he had ever seen.
Bernard let out a gasp of breath and his heart stopped.
Lori ran through the streets of Lisbeth, tracing back the the path her husband would have taken back to the thrift store. She did not find him. She began to trace his path back to the house when she saw the footprints.
There were only a few. The person, a woman, Lori guessed, who had been making them had gone through a puddle and the heeled shoe prints quickly faded away. But what really interested her was that the earliest shoe prints came from the nearby alley and were made in blood.
Lori approached the alley slowly. She had to be cautious in case this was a trap or something. Lori turned the corner and what she saw nearly stopped her heart.
It was her husband.
Bernard.
Dead.
Blood soaked his shirt and pants. The red liquid pooled around his lifeless form.
And as Lori stood there, looking at the mutilated body of her husband, the one person she had ever cared about, the last vestiges of warmth in her heart froze over.
Ana was reading though Ed's journal. A lot of the information was new to Ana but very little had to do with her problem. One term that kept popping up however was the Promise Day.
Ana had heard Al speak of it once. When she was little he had told her the story of how he and Ed had saved the country from an evil alchemist who tried to steal everyone's souls. She knew it was real, but did not see its relevance to her own problem. It was worth looking into though.
Ana stood up and marched across the hall to Jack's room. She knocked loudly on the door and when he did not answer, she transmuted the lock and opened the door. She swiftly crossed the room and barged into Jack's bedroom where he was sleeping.
"Jack!" she shouted. "Wake up! We have things to do!"
Jack moaned and rolled over in this bed. Ana's face twisted in frustration.
"C'mon!" she said as she shook him awake.
Jack finally sat up. His hair was ruffled and all over the place. His wrinkled t-shirt rode up as he raised his arms above his head to stretch. He yawned and opened his blue eyes.
"What?" he asked grouchily.
"I need your help with something."
"Can't Naomi do it?" Jack whined.
"She's out of town. Remember?" said Ana.
Now that Jack's brain was moderately awake, he did recall the older girl mentioning that she was going to visit her family for the weekend. They lived about two hours away from Central by train. Naomi was not going to be back until late on Sunday.
"What about Savon?"
"He has alchemy practice of Fridays," Ana reminded him.
"Can it wait?" he groaned, still trying to get out of whatever it was Ana wanted him to do.
"No!" Ana said passionately. "Jack, this is about what that guy in the underground lab said."
That caught Jack's attention. He was still mildly worried about Ana's breakdown about the whole incident and now she was all in? It did not make much sense.
None the less, Jack hopped out of bed and started to get ready. "Give me 15 minutes," he said.
Ana left the room and went back to her own apartment. Jack took a quick shower and changed into a pair of khaki pants, a white undershirt, and a green button up. He slipped on his black working shoes.
It's still so weird to have such nice things, he thought.
Jack waltzed over to Ana's apartment. He found her surrounded by papers and notes. She was picking up some, discarding others, shoving the relevant ones into her back, and generally making a bigger mess of the place. Jack had never realized the extent Naomi had to go to keep Ana in line. He picked one up and was surprised to find a page from what looked like a diary.
"What's this?" he asked.
Ana looked up from the sheet she was looking at. "Oh, that," she shrugged. "It's probably just more notes on the Philosopher's Stone." Ana turned back to the floor. "Now where did I put that…." she murmured.
Jack looked at the paper in his hand again. It did not seem like notes if anything it was telling a story.
Ana looked up again, her eyes narrowed at the piece of paper in his hands. "Gimme that," she demanded. Jack quickly handed it over.
"Yep. This is it," she said, nodding her head. Ana stood up, shoved the paper into her large shoulder bag and headed toward the door. "C'mon Jack. Time to see Rackem."
Without any new information on the Alter's case, Rackem decided to send her own troops to the south. Neither she nor Jaroue truly liked the decision but without any new evidence, it was the best they had to go on.
Rackem herself stayed in Central. She was swamped with paperwork from her other cases and her conversation with Naomi kept playing over in her mind. It was not as if she had directly lied to the young woman, but she also had not told the entire truth.
Rackem was interrupted from her thoughts by her office door swinging open and crashing into the wall. Ana Edwards stepped in, followed by Slate, and Rackem's face quickly contorted into a frown.
"What do you want?" she sighed.
The girl appeared to be completely oblivious to Rackem's irritation. "Do you know where I can find the records room?"
Rackem was about to call for one of her officers to deal with the teens when she remembered they were all out on the Alter case.
"Central has hundreds of records. What are you looking for exactly?"
"An incident that happened about twenty- three years ago."
"What could you possibly want that happened back then?" Rackem asked, surprised.
"Alchemical research."
Rackem shook her head, but stood. "Follow me," she commanded.
Rackem lead them nearly across the Central Command Center to a wooden door that looked like all the others. There was nothing unique or special about the area. But there wouldn't be, Jack supposed, if they were trying to hide something.
Rackem opened the door and called out. "Sheska? You in here?"
A muffled call came from behind the second door. Rackem sighed. "She's probably trapped under a pile of books again."
Ana and Jack exchanged a look of confusion. Ana had, at least, heard that name before, but she was surprised that the woman still worked here after all this time.
Rackem walked forward, opened the second door and pulled a woman in her late forties out from underneath several stacks of paper. "Edwards, Slate. This is Sheska. She started working here around the time your "incident" would've happened. She's rather talkative, but can easily be ignored."
"Hey," complained Sheska.
Rackem barreled on, "But you should find the information you're looking for here. Now, I have work to do. Good day." With that Rackem left.
The three stood there in silence for a short while.
"Well, we should probably get started?" Jack suggested.
That was all Ana needed to refocus on the task at hand. "I need whatever you have on the Promise Day."
Sheska's eyes widened in shock. "I-I-I'm sorry, b-but that information is restricted."
"What? By whom?" Ana demanded. Sheska recoiled in slight fear.
"The F-Fuhrer."
Ana snarled in anger. Jack placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ana, calm down," he said gently. "You're scaring her."
Ana looked over at Sheska who was practically cowering in fear. Ana's face fell in apology as she attempted to remedy the situation. Sheska accepted Ana's apology.
"It's okay. Really," she said after Ana had apologized for the hundredth time. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."
Ana sighed in defeat. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure this out some other way."
The two teens turned to leave when Sheska called out.
"Uh, well, you could go to the Fuhrer and ask for the files," she suggested.
Ana's face broke into a mildly malicious grin. "Thanks. We'll do that."
Ana and Jack marched straight past Mustang's secretary and barged through the large oak doors into the Fuhrer's office.
"Fuhrer Mustang," Ana proclaimed loudly.
Mustang glared up from his desk at the interruption that was Iron Rose. Behind her stood Helios. The boy's face was flushed in embarrassment, probably more for Ana than for himself.
"Yes?" asked Mustang.
"I need the files concerning the Promise Day," Ana demanded.
Mustang frowned at the girl's directness. "Close the doors," he ordered. Once they were shut, he asked, "Why do you want to know about the Promise Day?"
Ana looked Mustang straight in the eyes as she replied, "I believe it may be connected to why I was targeted by that man."
Mustang's frown deepened. "What do you mean?"
"The man was talking about 'living Philosopher's Stones'. I, uh, found some research notes on the Philosopher's Stone and many of them mentioned the Promise Day," Ana explained.
"I see." Mustang's frown did not lessen as he shuffled through his desk drawers, searching for something. He finally found it and held up a silver key. "This unlocks room 214, where the records on the Promise Day are kept. I suggest you look at the reports of the Elric brothers, Izumi Curtis, Van Hohenheim, Ling Yao and May Chang. I would tell you to look at mine, but I don't think it'll be much help."
Ana nodded and left. Jack followed quickly after.
The two alchemists found room 214 quickly. Ana used the key to open the door. Inside, they found a space that obviously had not been disturbed in several years. Dust covered every surface. Jack pulled on the string that connected to the overhead light and the room instantly brightened.
Ana immediately started scanning the filing cabinets that lined the walls. She quickly found the one she was looking for.
"Here we are," she said, pulling open the drawer. "1915, April." Ana pulled out several files and handed them to Jack. "Start looking for the names Mustang mentioned or anything that mentions the Philosopher's Stone."
They were thirty minutes into their search when Jack finally found something.
"Ana," he called. "I found Chang's report."
Ana grinned. "Good. I bet Curtis is in there too. Once we find all the reports we can start looking through them."
The two alchemists quickly found the rest of the documents they were looking for. Ana found Hohenheim's and Yao's, while Jack found the Elrics and Curtis. They began to read.
It took them a good two hours to look through all the reports. The Elric, Curtis, Chang and Hohenheim reports were the most helpful but they were also the longest.
As it turned out Van Hohenheim was an actual living Philosopher's Stone. But it seemed that that was not what the doctor in the lab was trying to do. From what Ana could remember the doctor was not trying to attach other souls on to hers, just make her soul into a Philosopher's stone.
Edward's report was the most helpful however. It mentioned a strange occurrence during the final battle with a homunculus called "Father". The report said that the homunculus approached Ed, calling the young alchemist a Philosopher's Stone. This stood out because Hohenheim was a Philosopher's Stone, so why would the homunculus not target him? Ed was trapped but that was not enough reason to target him over Hohenheim.
It did not explain exactly why she was targeted by it helped ease her mind.
Jack on the other hand, was completely lost. "I don't get it. Looking at all this information on the Philosopher's Stone is great and all, but what does all this have to do with you?"
Ana blinked. That's right. He doesn't know that Fullmetal's my dad, she thought. "I'm not sure," she lied. "But I think we gathered everything we can get from this."
Jack immediately brightened. "We're leaving?"
"As soon as we put away all these files," Ana chuckled.
Jack quickly started cramming papers into random file folders.
"Jack!" Ana chided with a glare. "You can't just shove papers into any old folder."
The flame alchemist grimaced. "Fine." He started opening up the folders and picking out the different pages. As he was doing this, Jack noticed that some of the papers were newer than others.
"Hey, Ana?" Jack called over his shoulder. Ana's head popped up from where she was working. "Come check this out."
He handed her the pages. Ana peered at them curiously. Her nose scrunched up and her eyebrows furrowed.
"I don't get it."
"Look," said Jack pointing at each page in turn. "This one," he pointed to the Curtis report, "is whiter than the other. It's newer."
Ana's eyes widened as she realised what Jack was trying to tell her.
"These are forgeries," Ana said horror creeping into her voice. Then her face fell. "What if none of the information in there was right? What if…?" Ana growled and slammed the side of her fist into the wall.
Jack's face twisted into an expression of pity. His best friend, the person who rescued him, was lost and he did not know how to help her.
Ana closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again her expression was steeled. "Let's get his cleaned up."
Jack did not know what else to do, so he nodded and, once again, began to sort the papers.
When Rackem returned to her office, a file folder was laying on her desk. The tab was labeled Alter, Bernard.
She sat down swiftly and open the folder. Inside, several photos of a crime scene were paper clips to a few pieces of paper.
The photos were of Bernard Alter's dead body.
Rackem quickly scanned through the crime scene report. It detailed that Mr. Alter had been stabbed multiple times in the stomach and chest. In an alley in Lizbeth.
The colonel checked her map. She had sent her squad off in the wrong direction!
Rackem hissed in frustration. She checked the date, picked up her office phone, and dialed.
She heard the dial tone ring twice and then a soft, feminine voice picked up, "Hello. You have reached the Stevenson Hotel, {CITY} branch. This is Clara. How may I help you?"
"Hello. I am Colonel Rackem from Central Command. I need an immediate connection to a guest by the name of Blake Jaroue."
The receptionist quickly responded, "Of course, Colonel. He'll be with you in a moment." Rackem was put on hold while Jaroue was called to the front desk.
Soon her subordinate picked up. "Colonel, what's wrong?"
"The Alters went west, not south," stated Rackem.
"What?"
"Bernard Alter was murdered in Lizbeth last night. I just got the report."
"I'll take the squad up there then?" Jaroue queried.
He heard Rackem give a tired sigh over the phone. "No. Come back to Central. Lori has probably fled. We're back to square one."
"But Colonel-"
"No but's, Lieutenant," Rackem snapped.
Jaroue let out a dejected sigh. "Yes ma'am."
Three days later, Ana was called into the Fuhrer's office. She had no idea what for. Savon was not hurt. Jack had not been any sort of menace to society. And it could not be about Naomi. Naomi would never do anything bad enough to upset the Fuhrer. Naomi would a medal before that ever happened.
Ana pushed open the large doors to the Fuhrer's office and strode inside. Plopping herself into one of the plush chairs in front of the desk, she glared at Mustang as if daring him to speak.
Mustang completely ignored the act the young woman was putting on. "I'm sending you and your squad to Pitland Wood."
Ana sat up in surprise. "Where?"
"Pitland Wood. It's a small city close to the Amestris-Creta border. There have multiple sightings of slave caravans from Creta near the city and I want them gone. Do you think that you can accomplish that?"
Ana snorted. "Of course."
"Good. Your team will make a stop in West City on the way there and back. The West isn't the safest place for alchemists right now."
Ana rolled her eyes and nodded. "I got it, Mustang. Keep Savon not dead."
Mustang raised his eyebrows in annoyance. "It's Fuhrer, Iron Rose."
The young alchemist stood. "Whatever," said Ana flippantly. "I got break the news to my people." Once she was mostly out the door she called, "See ya 'round, Mustang."
The Fuhrer groaned.
IMPORTANT!
If you did not understand what theory behind the Living Philosopher's Stone, PLEASE check out my tumblr. I'm going to explain the theory there. It's very important that you understand that before we move forward.
My tumblr name is: ironrosealchemist
It will be at least two weeks before the next chapter comes out. See ya!
