A little play-on titles with this chapter. If you remember the episode with this same title name, I'm sure you can predict who'll appear this time. X3

As always, enjoy~!

Chapter 14

Envoy From the East

"Back to work alreadyyyy?!" Teresa whined. Von, Edward, and Alfons were putting on their shoes and coats.

"'Fraid so. Sorry," Von said – though he didn't sound that sorry.

"I'll be left all alone here in the boring old house again now that Wolf's gone," she said, crossing her arms over her white night gown and pouting so her entire face frowned. "It's not even light outside yet," she went on. "Why do you have to get up this early?"

"I think if they cared about how early we woke up they wouldn't give us early shifts on top of late shifts on top of double shifts," Ed slurred, having trouble putting on his shoes when his eyelids drooped from sleep depravation.

"I agree," mumbled Alfons, much the same. (Through the months of early work listening to him moan, Ed knew Alfons was not a morning person – even if the Al in Shamballa definitely was.)

Von opened the front door. "See you when we get back," he said with something of a sigh.

"Fine."

Ed knew if he had to stay locked up in a house doing nothing all day he'd go insane; just waiting for Winry to complete the revamped model of his automail those three days in Resembool had made him squeamish. He couldn't imagine being detained for any moment longer than that.

"Bye, Terry." Ed gave her something of an empathetic smile and waved to her before he shut the door. She only looked at him.

Shoveling coal per usual two past noon with Alfons, the two of them got a rather abnormal request from above. A man wearing a suit, not one particle of ash on its flawlessly ironed surface, approached them near the burners. Round spectacles rested on his nose, the bottom half of his face concealed by his scarf so as not to breathe in any smoke. A bowlers' hat left a shadow over his brow, giant brown trench coat, and black leather gloves keeping him inscrutable. He held out a letter to both of them.

"The president of Thule requests you make an audience with the fellow addressed in this letter," he said. His voice sounded gruff – as though he'd worked in a coal mine himself in his younger years, his throat spotted with smoke and coal dust.

Ed took the letter from the man – who was nearly a full length taller than Ed. There was nothing on the back aside from the "Wilbers Inc." ingrain branded in the bottom right corner. On the front, the seal was green, a circular symbol, crossed in the middle, shining behind a dagger twined in ivy. "President of Thule...?" Ed mused. What type of person could the president of a coal company be? And why would they send him of all people a letter?

However, the reaction Alfons took was probably far closer to what the man in the bowlers' hat had anticipated. "Why would the president send us?!" He had dropped his shovel, pale blue eyes widening.

"'Tis none of my business," the man said respectively, shrugging. "My instructions also told me to encourage you to hurry – the addressed man could be departing at anytime." He turned his back from Ed and Al. "Cheerio."

Ed thought he'd said the "cheerio" with something of a laugh in his voice, and asked Alfons if he had the same feeling.

"We don't have time to think about that now," Al said, closing the burner and taking Ed's shovel from him to return it to the storage closet.

"Hey! We aren't gonna go to some address we don't even know where it is!" Ed protested. "Especially when the source of the order was so suspicious. We still have triple shifts to catch up on!"

"That doesn't matter now," Al said, pushing Ed toward the locker rooms to get their coats and wash up.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter now?!" Ed yelled shrilly, resisting Al's pushing – and grabbing the attention of some of the other workers. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be out here working until dawn only to have to stay for the next day with zero sleep! I VALUE MY SLEEP, AL –!"

"I SAID THAT DOESN'T MATTER NOW!" Alfons attested. "THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT THE PRESIDENT OF OUR JOB GAVE US AN ORDER AND WE HAVE TO FOLLOW IT! NO QUESTIONS ASKED!"

Ed stopped resisting.

"Do you swear to follow the commands of your superiors, down to the fine detail, without doubts, and fully and capably without opposition or question, setting aside all personal emotions and gains to better serve the country of Amestris?"

"I, Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist and dog of the Amestrian military pledge to do so until I no longer serve or injury or death take me in the line of duty."

It was the oath Ed was forced to take before joining the military. He was told to never doubt or question the word of a superior. So, they had the same types of boundaries here as well? It was nothing new.

That right there should have been a clue that something was out of place.

Ed and Al both took showers, got their coats, and hurried out of the warehouse before ten minutes had gone by, into the heart of Munich City.

"Well this is it," Al murmured. The building before them was far larger than the one they had just left; a warehouse stretching well over 500 meters long. Although their workplace contained a series of warehouses approximately 300 meters long, this one was enough to make jaws drop. The front entrance was one of those huge sliding doorways, and currently sealed closed. The doors had faded silver words written across it, the rest of the warehouse an unattractive, faded orangish-brown.

Ed pointed to the white door to the side of the giant one. "Let's go in."

"Sure."

At first they thought it was stuck – the door. But it only needed some force. And the first thing Ed and Al saw inside was a man-sized lizard, standing upright on its hind legs, staring them straight in the face, its rugged jaw agape. All of them stood there in silence until the lizard waved to them, in which Edward responded by slamming the door shut.

Ed turned to Al with a grin on his face, embarrassed as he rubbed his matted head of black hair – in the trademark Elric braid. "Heh, that was weird. I must be losing my mind," he joked. "I thought I just saw a lizard guy wave to us in there."

Al chuckled with him. "Really? So did I."

Ed kept chuckling, then abruptly stopped. Alfons realized what they'd said too.

"WAIT, WHAT?" they screamed in unison; the brothers-from-another-mother clambered to get ahold of the doorknob before the other, pushing and shoving until finally both caught hold and hurtled through, collapsing on the cement ground. They continued to push on each other, struggling to stand.

"My, my what do we have here?" The man-lizard bent down to their level, inch-long pearly whites just a hair away from Ed's face.

One look at those teeth and Ed sprang to his feet immediately, knocking Alfons fully onto the ground. "Don't worry," he said, "we were just leaving! There's no need to –"

A couple more lizards appeared behind the first as he put his clawed hands on either side of his neck, squeezing upward. Ed's and Alfons' expressions as they thought the horrifying thing was going to tear its own head off were comical to say it bluntly.

"Hahaha! There's no need to fear!" the first lizard bellowed. A human head rested upon the scaly alligator-like body. "I'm no real monster! Just pretending to be!" The group of dressed-up lizards behind him unveiled their true faces to Edward and Alfons, same as the first. They let out a sigh of relief.

"Your faces were priceless!" one in the back of the group hooted, embarrassing them further. The rest seemed to agree, all bursting into a chorus of laughter along with him.

"Hey, stop laughing!" Ed yelled heatedly, stomping one foot. "You can't blame us when you're all dressed like man-eating lizard monsters!"

Al, still on flat on his bum on the ground, couldn't help it. He began to laugh with them, clutching his sides while his eyes watered.

"Don't side with them, Al!" Ed's face reddened a little from their taunting laughter.

"I'm not siding with them!" Al said, standing with one hand over his mouth, his giggles continuing. "Just think if we'd been in their places! I'm sure it was hilarious! And they were just in costumes! HAHA!"

"Alright, I guess it is kinda funny," Ed admitted, growing redder.

Lizard #1 came up to them, the laughter having died down. The bustle of some grand production resumed behind him. "Anyway, what can I do for yah there?" he asked.

"We're looking for someone we were told would be here," Ed informed.

Lizard #1 nodded, his lizard head under one arm. "Ml'right. Who?"

"Uh –"

"We don't know," Al said. "The letter only said we'd find him here."

"I can talk just fine on my own, you know," Ed muttered to him, only to be ignored.

Lizard #1 laughed his booming laugh again. "HAHAHA! Well, there's a lot of people here working on the production – kinda pointless to come if you don't know which one you'd be meetin', ain't it?"

"Maybe you'd like to see the letter to help us figure it out?" Alfons suggested.

"He already said he didn't know," Ed said – although sure he'd be disregarded once more.

"The kid's right; how in the world would seeing the address of the very building we're in help me help you at all?" He grinned broadly at the two of them, almost happy to be causing them such an inconvenience.

Ed sighed. "See? What'd I –"

"No, I really think you ought to check the letter," Al insisted. He nearly jutted the envelope into Lizard #1's free hand. This received him a disdainful glance, but it got the message through, which was all Al had been aiming for.

The lizard man took on look at the green seal on the front of the envelope, then gave it back to Al. "I'll show you the way," he said, his merry demeanor expelled completely.

Al gave Ed a pointed look.

"I guess you know what you're talking about some of the time," Ed averred.

Lizard #1 led them past all the other lizards – each one a different color. Whatever "production" they were trying to pull off, it was bigger than anything Ed had ever seen. It didn't seem to be a military congregation of any sort, nor any type of social gathering. Then what was it?

Every type of prop imaginable was around somewhere: swords, bows, arrows, telescopes, nets, crates, wardrobes, etcetera. Each section of the warehouse seemed to be doing their own thing. One was an underwater set, women dressed in shimmery clothing of fluorescent blues, greens, and purples. Another, a rocky terrain with two men dueling with swords, wearing giant hats in vivid colors and a poofy feather on the top. Ed spotted a set that looked to be nowhere at all; a desolate area, almost like a desert, but not. The sky was black aside from the occasional yellow specks, the ground a strange grey and metallic color, boulders and craters painted in the background – outer space.

The last one Ed saw – and the one the costume lizard man halted at – was something else entirely: a fortress, except with many doorways, a bridge, and a courtyard, – reminding him of Central Command, – with a great beast in the center. This beast was much larger than a man, that's for sure, and was alike to the men in lizard costumes in design.

It was here a man sitting in a red chair that from the back read "Director" from the back overlooked the fortress set with the beast. Said beast stomped, swished its tail, and then made something of a yawn before going still again.

"That's great! We'll get the cameras rolling tomorrow!" the man in the Director chair yelled to a group of men tending to the giant beast's mechanism. "It'll work just perfectly!"

Wait a minute... that voice –

"Sir, I have a couple o' businessmen here to see you," Lizard #1 said as the Director stood from the chair.

"Businessmen?" He turned slowly to face Ed and Al. A push-broom mustache and monocle hid his smile – and his age. "They look more like messenger boys to me."

"King Bradley," Ed hissed at him, unable to keep it in. Or should I say Wrath? He's the one who murdered Greed and all the chimeras in the Devil's Nest. The one who murdered that snake chimera while she was still inside Alphonse... Ed's grimace toward the Führer look-alike grew deeper by the second.

Alfons elbowed him and cleared his throat – which snapped Ed out of it.

"Excuse us for interrupting your work. We're the Heiderich brothers. I'm Alfons Heiderich and this is Edmund. We were told to come meet with you to convene on a very important issue, however we weren't informed of what that issue was. Would you happen to know?"

Irritatingly, Lizard #1 still hadn't left to go be with the other lizards, – now piqued by who Edward and Alfons were, and what their business could be, – so he watched as a bystander. The set mechanics were too busy tweaking their machine-controlled beast to notice. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now," the Director Bradley said. He held out his hand in greeting. "Welcome to my production warehouse." Al shook his hand, then Ed. "Let me show you around." He stood from the Director chair, using a cane. "All right, Gerald. You'd better head back now. I can take it from here."

Uneasily, he asked, "You sure?"

The director nodded. "Quite."

The lizard man gave Ed and Al a last leery glance, then the three of them watched as the bowl-bellied alligator man toddled off.

"Anyhow," Director Bradley said, diverting their attention from him and facing the opposite way. "This is where I film most of the scenes of my various works – some are published, some aren't. But," He put one finger in the air, sensing a passive mood from them. "It doesn't really matter either way to me, just as long as I had fun while filming it. For example, over here we have –"

"Look, this is great and all, but we came here on official business for our job," Ed interjected, remembering the triple shifts he could be doing instead of listening to some old coot – who was identical to another detestable dictator, mind you, – go on about something called films?!

"Sir, you forgot to tell us your name," Al realized.

The Bradley look alike turned back to them, his cane clunking on the ground. "I see. Not even the adolescents have any interest in the unknown in these dark times anymore."

"Dark times?"

He smiled affably. "Why, the war, of course," said Director Bradley. "With tensions rising between countries, and skirmishes breaking out all over, we may get drafted sometime in the near future. But I guess your interests are no concern of mine," he decided. "What business are you here for?"

"Show him the letter, Al."

Al handed over the letter; nothing changed about his pleasant expression. He handed it back to Al. "Ah! I understand what you're here for!" He took them in a different direction, toward a corner of the warehouse – opposite from the entrance they'd arrived at. "I was told of your appearance earlier this week – sorry, must have forgotten. Let me show you the way."

When Director Bradley opened the door and motioned for them to go inside, Al stopped. "Sir, we still don't know your name," he said. Ed understood Al wondered if they could completely trust him, but then why would the president of their own job send them somewhere dangerous? Lizard #1, "Gerald's" reaction to the seal on the letter had been a little suspicious. Then again, so had Director Bradley's...

"Call me Mabuse," he said. Then went inside and shut the door behind him, leaving Ed and Alfons hanging.

"Eh –? Weren't we supposed to follow him?" Ed asked, shocked.

Al kept his eyes fixed on the door.

"Back!" Mabuse emerged with a stack of books in his arms. "I believe this is what you're looking for." He passed on the stack of books to Alfons before he could object, nearly flooring him.

"Damn! These are heavy!" he complained, his knees almost touching the ground. "Hurry, take some, Ed!" he implored, shunting half the pile at him.

"Wh-why are you giving us these?" Ed asked. His question remained unanswered, but he felt it to be unnecessary once he saw the title of the book under his chin: Mastering The Art of Scientific Magic: The Art of Alchemy. "Wh-where did you get these...?"

"Yeah, could you explain please, Mr. Mabuse?" Al asked exhaustedly.

"They were saved from the book collection of an old friend of mine," Mabuse stated, adjusting his monocle and planting his cane into a crevice in the concrete ground between his feet. "He was convinced they would come in handy to you, and asked that keep them as long as you like."

"Okay, but who're they from?" Al asked, annoyed – Alfons' temper was much shorter than Alphonse's.

"No need," Ed countered. He bowed to Mabuse. "Thank you very much. We'll be on our way." Ed took the path through the many sets, props, and actors to the entrance they had come.

"Huh?! Wait! What are they, Ed?" Al growled at Mabuse, then waddled after Ed.

The supervising director for each set were all packing up for the day, saying, "That's a wrap!" or something close to it as the people on the sets went backstage to clean themselves of their costumes and make-up. Through the few high windows of the warehouse, the light outside came in concentrated orange rays.

"Ed! Ed!" Al finally managed to catch up to him and turn him around. "Hey, what was that back there?! Do you know what these are for?"

"They're –" Hold on a minute. He'd almost forgotten. He couldn't spill to Al that he knew what alchemy was. That alchemy existed in some sort of dimension connected to this one.

"Seriously, look at this title." Al picked the top book off of his own pile and read: "'Alternate Universes and Their Connections to Earth.' And the one under that:" – he picked up the next book in his stack – "'Doppelgängers: Uncovered in the Blessed Kingdom of Shamballa.'" He plopped it on the stack again, as though he'd been beguiled of something far more important.

Ed didn't know what most of what he'd said meant, (Amestris as a kingdom? He'd like to see that. And what in the world was a doppelgänger?) but he'd heard three key words that made him even more giddy to return home and begin reading: alternate universe and Shamballa. How could he get Al off of his back without seeming suspicious himself?

"I dunno. I'm just really interested in this stuff," Ed said carefully.

Al almost laughed out loud. He would have if not for Ed's serious expression. "In this voodoo bogus?" he asked.

Way to be sensitive about it. "Yeah, I am."

Al sighed. "Alright, fine." He looked back at the packing film production. "I just wonder why the president of our work of all people would send us here."

"Me too," Ed said. "But there isn't much we can do about it. C'mon. We should go."

As they exited the massive warehouse, Ed felt a sudden melancholy envelope him. How he wished he could be honest with Al, and Terry, and everyone else for that matter. The only one who knew who he was and where he was from was Wolf, and now Wolf was back at Izumi's. As he should be, Ed thought, but that didn't help his loneliness. With Wolf, it'd been nice not to have to modify everything he said.

Three dark figures spied on Ed and Al from afar, premeditating all outcomes of any attack. The books in their arms would give them a slight advantage right from the start.

"When?" asked the most slender figure of the three, a white fox mask obscuring her face.

"Now, now, we aren't going to just attack them out of nowhere. Imagine how rude that'd be!" This one wore was a scarf over his mouth and a hood's shadow to cover his eyes. The one on his right wore the face of a red fox, gold streaks across the nose, forehead, and cheeks. He said nothing.

"Here they come."

The hooded figure hopped down from the top of the building they were perched. The other two pulled up their hoods, revealing small weapons in their sleeves.

"Hello there!"

Edward and Alfons stopped. Seeing the human obstruction in their only path forward, – having taken a shortcut through a center alley to get back to their work, (where many traveled, so it was seldom deserted and therefore usually very safe, but of course the three combatants had followed them to wait for when it was most logical to strike,) – they searched first for a backdoor to slip into, then wheeled back the way they came. However, it was then that the human obstruction's buddies jumped down from above, one beside the first, one the direction they wanted to go back. Their fox masks pored into them. All were covered in black, from head to toe. The blue shadow in the alley – both from the buildings on either side, and the sun which now almost touched the horizon, – made them harder to keep a good eye on.

"Hey, now. We're all friends here." The first figure came toward them and slipped his hood and scarf off his face. He held out one hand. "My name is Lin Yao."

Ling?! Then they must be –!

"What do you want?!" Al shouted hostilely. "If you're foreigners looking for money, you should know we don't have any on us. Sorry."

Lin laughed at them, hands on his hips. "Hahaha! Foreigners, yes. Looking for money, no. We would never be so petty as to steal from two boys walking by themselves in the dark."

"Just give Lin-sama what he wants, and we won't inconvenience you any further," said the one with the white fox mask, the one blocking the path behind them. Ed noticed her eyes in the holes of her mask, almost hidden by the shadow, though he could still see their glimmer: wild and pretentious. The red swirl on the forehead of her mask hovered like another eye.

There's no way that isn't Lan Fan's twin, Ed thought. He looked back to the other one. So that must be Fu. If she's working with Lin, then I might be able to defeat her the same way as back then in Rush Valley. And that was by insulting her prince."Oh yeah? And what does 'Lin-sama' want?" Ed asked, trying to come up with something witty to drive her over the edge with.

Lin grinned. "We need to meet with your father, Von Heiderich."

Al yelled, "Well, you can't!"

"Oh, I'm quite certain we can, and you're going to take us to him. And if not, my guardians Ran Fan and Fuu will attack you."

The alternate personas of Lan Fan and Fu moved a little closer as Lin said that.

There's no way out...! Ed thought hopelessly. Though how dangerous could one visit with Von be?! C'mon, Al! Why can't they meet him...?

Al cursed them something horrible, in which Lan Fan's alternate responded by rushing him with a forceful kick to the abdomen. His books cluttered onto the ground. "How dare you insult us!"

Ed threw his down his own to take the chance to return Ran Fan with something ten times as powerful and made of steel. She dodged the attack easily and smashed his chin against the ground with the heel of her foot.

"Ehahg!" Ed felt his chin split open and begin to bleed.

"Ran Fan! You're going overboard!" Lin chided, clicking his tongue.

Ran Fan bored her heel farther into Edward's skull, causing him to gasp in pain. "It's what they deserve!" she attested.

What was it with walking in abandoned places of the city and getting ambushed all the time? "This is so getting old," Ed grunted. He did a 360 spin kick to knock Ran Fan off of her feet. He didn't hit her, and instead was granted a kick to the chest, slamming him into the wall of a building. He lost his breath and coughed for air.

Insults definitely bother her, but she doesn't seem as respectful of Lin as the real Lan Fan, he thought, slumped and gasping to catch his breath. Alfons had stood but had little luck against the female kicker. She's more arrogant. Though she's also more powerful – able to channel her anger into the power of her attacks without disrupting her form. The real Lan Fan would have a run for her money. (That's a fight Ed would pay good money to see – the serene Lan Fan versus her hot-headed twin. Brains or brawn?)

As his vision, pounding head, and breath began to clear, Ed grasped his chin with his left hand, hating the feeling of hot blood rolling down his neck. Lin and Fuu hadn't done one thing the entire time, just stood there and watched as Ran Fan wreaked blow after devastating blow on the two of them. How can I get through to her...? Ed thought.

"The puny one still hasn't gotten up?" she questioned disappointedly, going over to him. "Such a waste."

Ed didn't care that it was reckless – he grabbed her by the shirt, and pulled her in so their noses were almost touching.

"WH-WHAT THE –?!"

Ed spit, "Don't... call me... small..."

She gave him a look of utter confusion. "Huh?!"

And then Ed did something even stupider. He threw her back onto the ground, eyes slanted in anger, clapped his hands and wished for something to happen with all his might, smashing them on the cobblestoned ground.

The split second before it did, Ed knew it was going to work. The ringing ting of charging power flowed through his head, chest, and arms, electrifying his rage into pure energy. The cobblestone moulded into an army of tiny fists, all racing at Ran Fan. He wasn't sure if he'd hit her, but he heard her scream amidst the thuds of each fist against the building across the way. Ed didn't pass up the chance; he clapped his hands again, the same army of fists going after Lin and Fuu to his cognizant favor. Occupied for the time being, Ed ran between the new cobblestone formations, grabbing Al by the coat as he went.

They dashed down the alley.

"Hey – what in the hell was that?!" Al yelled, getting his feet under him to run along with Ed.

"I have no idea," Ed lied. He looked behind them – their Asian assassins were catching up, the two fox masks bobbing in the chase.

The alley came to an end, making Ed and Al desperate for a place to hide – going back to their work from there would only lead Lin to where he wanted, where Von was.

"We'll have to just bust into somewhere!" Al said frantically. "We don't have a choice! They're coming!"

Now that they were stopped, Ed could see Ran Fan had done quite a number on him as well – his nose was bleeding, and he favored one foot. If they broke into someone's house the owners could call the police, and that'd be a nasty ordeal. (And it just reoccured to Ed that the last time Envy had been sighted, it'd been with the entire police force bullying some gypsies.)

He didn't know what to do. There was nowhere to go.

"Hop in," said a voice.

Ed spun around, seeing a sleek black car with a familiar blonde-headed girl in the open door.

"Are you deaf?!" Wendy yelled incredulously. "I said hop in!"

"Ed, c'mon!"

Rooted where he stood, Al yanked Edward inside, and the car took off before they even shut the door.

Yaahhh! I did it! I got a chapter out before the end of the month! Huzzah!

Sorry for making the Xingese trio kinda evil, especially Lan Fan of all of them. XD I thought it'd be interesting, though~ Hope you thought the same~

Side note: "Mabuse" is properly pronounced "MAH-boo-SEH" as it is German, and yes this was taken directly from the movie Conqueror of Shamballa, but this fanfic is basically a rewrite of that movie, so yeh.

Also, I thought you'd all like to know that I have actually drawn Teresa Heiderich! If you wanna check it out, go ahead on my profile, and click the link to my DeviantART! I drew it a couple months ago, so it won't be on my front page, but you should be able to find it easily. ^_^

Thanks so much for reading! Poor Ed, put through so much trauma! D; The story will take off much more from here; consider everything up until now the preamble, and now the real story begins.

I look forward to your comments~!