The stupid niceties and the formalities take for fucking ever, and Ed does his level best to stay out of the way, but since he is suddenly the ranking officer in the city, that means his presence is required. He does manage to get lunch in before Heinkel totes him off—very politely but very firmly—to get changed into something more "appropriate." He strongly suspects Hawkeye's hand in there, but he'll be damned before he accuses her of anything. He'd love to get a shower before changing, but he knows that's not happening.
"I'm glad we had a uniform around that actually fit you, sir," Heinkel says.
"Ha. Ha. I thought I had broken you both of that stupid 'sir' nonsense," Ed says, irritated. The uniform is a decent fit, but it's not a great fit. A clap, and putting his hands to his chest fixes it and also makes it more breathable so he doesn't keel over from the sheer heat of the fucking thing.
"With due respect—" Darius cuts himself off, but Ed can hear the aborted sir in his hesitation. "It's a habit that's hard to break, and you haven't exactly been around to yell at us for it lately."
The uniform doesn't have the correct regalia on it, but it seems like Hawkeye thought ahead there too, because there's a little box of assorted scrap metal that he can use to at least put the right rank on his epaulets, adding the stripes, then transmuting the stars. Any other decorations he can do without; the rank on his shoulders is really the important, if annoying, part.
"All right, let's go make sure that Hawkeye hasn't caused an international incident with Ling yet," he says with a sigh, tapping his right toe on the ground, testing the fit of the boot on it. He can't decide if mass-produced shoes in the other world or the individually made shoes here are a better fit, but for the moment, it's not really bothering him. He'll tweak it if he needs to later.
It occurs to him that Darius and Heinkel are being suspiciously quiet. "What?" he demands.
They exchange looks, and apparently Heinkel draws the visual short straw, because he says, "I think you may be more likely to cause an international incident than Captain Hawkeye, sir."
Ed glares. "I'm so glad you're on my side," he says sarcastically. Though, if he were really honest, they're not exactly wrong.
"We're quite happy to have you on our side too, sir," Darius says with a wide grin, showing far too many teeth, reminding Ed of his gorilla face.
"Just… stop with the fucking 'sir.' You're not even in the fucking military anymore, right?"
"Yes, sir," Heinkel says, and this time Ed knows he's being fucked with.
"I reserve the right to murder Ling if he's too obnoxious," Ed says with a huff, and struts out the door.
.o0o.o0o.o0o.
JJ and Derek have been allowed to more or less sit-in on Hawkeye and Ling's discussion while they got lunch. Mei and Al are here too, as is Scar. The reason they've been allowed to be here becomes apparent almost immediately when they start talking about alchemy and alkahestry and locations that JJ has never heard of and doesn't even know if it belongs to Shing? Or Emestris? They talk about people that JJ and Derek can't possibly know about, and it's all in a language she can somehow understand but completely incomprehensible as far as she's concerned.
The doors open with a slam, and Ed stands there, somehow managing to look big despite being flanked by Heinkel and Darius's forms. JJ didn't think that seeing Ed in uniform would make that big of a difference, but somehow, it does. It somehow makes his shoulders seem broader, makes him stand a little straighter. She doubts he even realizes he does it, but he does, and it makes all the soldiers around them straighten up too.
"Ah, Lieutenant Colonel," Ling greets from where he's seated at a shaded table inside the palace with Hawkeye. "Nice of you to join us."
Ed manages not to roll his eyes, but judging from the way he twitches, it takes a serious act of willpower not to.
"As if either of you actually need me here," Ed says, pulling out a chair and flopping down next to Hawkeye. "But catch me up?"
They move quickly into technical talk about people and places that JJ can't follow, so she instead leans closer to Derek and says, "That's a little unexpected."
Derek hums under his breath in agreement. "Most soldiers carry it with them all the time, but Ed doesn't. I know he told us he was an officer, but I still just… didn't see it."
"You can definitely see it now," she remarks.
"The walls?" Ed asks, and she tunes back into the conversation. "What's wrong with them?"
"They're unstable in a lot of areas," Al explains.
"How unstable? Has anyone been hurt?" Ed asks.
Mei raises a hand in a placating gesture. "Not yet, no. Al and I have been working to set up arrays around the entirety of the wall, finding the instabilities to stabilize them until we can get around and do a full reformation."
Ed's face twists in confusion. "Why don't you just fix the instabilities you find?" Then he smacks his forehead like he's stupid and answers his own question. "Because you don't know how deep the instabilities go, and if you accidentally take from other parts of the wall, you might create additional instabilities there, and then you've just moved the problem, not solved it, and it might be an even bigger one."
"There's the brilliant Edward we all know and love," Ling says, not unlike someone might praise a particularly clever dog. It rubs JJ the wrong way, and judging by the flat look Ed shoots him, he's not amused either.
"Aside from the obvious risks of the walls being unstable, is there any particular reason the walls need to be reinforced?" Ed asks, apparently deciding to let it slide.
"There are some desert bandits who have been making raids on the city, trying to steal resources from us," Hawkeye admits. Her eyes shift in Scar's direction discretely for a moment, but Ed must see it, because he sighs again.
"Okay, so the walls being reinforced is important," he says, tilting his chair back until it's resting on two legs, folding his arms behind his head while he stares at the ceiling. "Al, how big is the city?"
JJ isn't sure she wants to know why he's asking, but Al dutifully answers. "It's a little under 260 square kilometers, but I know what you're thinking—"
"So that puts the circumference of the city at about thirty-five kilometers," Ed says, staring at the ceiling. "It's a perfect circle, right? For the array?"
This time Al sighs. "Yes, it is."
"And judging by the wall at the entrance, they're about four meters wide at the widest places—"
"Brother, really," Al says in that exasperated tone that JJ is pretty sure is universal to younger brothers trying to talk sense into older brothers.
Ed sets the chair down with a sharp bang that echoes through the room. "I've got it," he says, getting up.
"Oh?" Ling asks, sounding curious, but his eyes have gone curious and interested.
"It really isn't that big of a deal—" Al tries to say, but Scar stands.
"The bandits have been getting more aggressive the last few weeks," he says, and Al puts a hand over his face, shoulders slumping in defeat. Scar glances down at him, but continues, "They've been attacking in the southwest quadrant the most."
"Show me?" Ed asks. Scar inclines his head.
Ling stands as well. "I think I'd like to see this as well," he says.
"Your Majesty!" Mei snaps, then appears to check her tone. "We have other work to be doing."
He hums in consideration, then shrugs. "It can wait. It's more important that the city be safe for its new citizens, don't you agree?"
Mei looks like she'd very much like to disagree but can't quite bring herself to.
"Darius, Heinkel," Hawkeye says. "Can you please send the alert across the wall to have all the guards and lookouts down?"
They both salute and dash out the door before anyone can countermand the order. Ed looks at her. "They aren't in the military anymore," he says drolly.
"They were given a special dispensation that upon your return, they could be immediately reinstated under your command," she replies.
He blinks at her, then scoffs. "Why didn't they... Whatever. Let's go strengthen these walls."
"Don't you need actual materials?" Derek asks.
Ed flashes him a shit-eating grin. "We're in the desert," he says. "How much more material do you think I need?" Then he's out the door. He's not skipping exactly, but there's definitely some real pep in his step as he charges out the door. Al and Ling follow closely behind, though Scar follows at a more sedate pace.
Exchanging a look with Derek, they follow him, because, well, what else are they going to do? Izumi and Sig catch them getting ready to start jogging after Ed.
"What's got him in such a hurry?" Izumi asks, amused. JJ can actually track where Ed is going by how people are reacting in his wake, and she can't decide if it's amusing or slightly concerning.
"I think he's going to rebuild the walls of the city," JJ says, dreading the trek back out to the walls. It's already heading into afternoon, and the idea of dragging herself all the way there and back for the second time in a day doesn't appeal to her in the slightest.
Izumi's brow furrows. "Better make sure that idiot doesn't overdo it," she says.
"Can he really just… redo the walls?" Derek asks.
"If he were anyone other than Ed, I'd tell you no," Izumi says, rubbing at her forehead like she feels a headache coming on. "Al or I could do sections of the wall at a time, but it would probably take days or weeks to do the whole city that way."
"But Ed can really do it all at once?" JJ asks.
"If he thinks he can, he probably can do it," she says, but she doesn't sound happy about it.
JJ wishes Spencer were here to ask the right questions.
"So alchemy has a cost, right? It's got the equivalent exchange thing going?" Derek asks, apparently channeling some of his partner.
"That's correct," Izumi says.
"You need the materials, but doesn't it also have an energy cost of some kind? Is there some cost to the alchemist themselves?"
Izumi gives him a considering look. "That's a more observant question than a lot of alchemists think to ask," she says. "But no. The energy for the transmutation doesn't—or at least it shouldn't— come from the alchemist themselves. It does take concentration and mental energy to transmute, especially to do the kinds of complex transmutations that Ed favors. And if your concentration slips, you could lose control of the transmutation."
That's alarming. "How big of a risk is Ed doing this?" she asks.
The furrow between Izumi's brow deepens. "It's… Ed," she says after a long moment. "I don't like the word 'genius.' It's too often applied to people who are merely more educated than average rather than meant to identify people who really are able to comprehend and understand things that most people can't. So when I say that even before he passed through the Gate and messed with soul alchemy, Ed was a genius, please understand that he was unique." She sighs, as if irritated by the admission. "Al is probably a genius in his own right as well, but Ed… Ed has the ability to hold arrays in his mind that I can't even wrap my brain around. The only time I've ever known him to overestimate his own ability to complete a transmutation was when he committed the taboo."
The opinion of genius is one that echoes Spencer well enough that JJ simply files the information away. It's not like it's a surprise, even if she didn't understand fully the way in which he was. "But it's not going to cost him, like… physical energy to do this?" she asks, making sure she understands what Izumi is saying.
"In theory, an alchemist can transmute as long as they can concentrate enough to direct the reaction, so in theory, if you could design and direct an array complex enough to repair and rebuild the walls in one go, then yes, in theory, any alchemist could do this."
"In practice?" JJ asks.
"Rebound—backlash for a bad array or a loss of concentration—has probably killed more alchemists than all the other causes combined."
"Should we be worried?" Derek asks, and he definitely sounds worried.
"Probably not. It's not like we can make him stop once he's put his mind to something," she admits, and JJ finds that hard to argue with. "Rather than running after him, how about a bird's eye view?" she suggests.
"A bird's eye…?" JJ starts to ask when Izumi claps her hands together. The sound is becoming enough of a warning, that JJ tenses without meaning to, and Izumi slaps her hands to the ground. A huge platform rises up under their feet, pushing them much higher into the air than JJ is entirely comfortable with. Especially without any sort of handles or railing.
"Relax," Izumi says, looking at her with amusement. JJ isn't a particularly good judge of distance, but she's pretty sure they're easily thirty feet in the air top of a plinth.
"Was this really necessary?" Derek asks, and he doesn't sound much happier about it than JJ feels.
Izumi shrugs. "There's really no reason to chase him down. We can see what he's going to do from here better anyway."
"Ed did this too, you know," JJ says. "When we landed in the desert. Only he didn't make it rise up under us." Her tone is a little sharper than she intends it to be, but she's easily thirty feet up, and it's hard to keep her cool under the circumstances.
"Where do you think he learned it from?" Izumi asks, sitting at the edge as if a careless move couldn't pitch her to her death. "You might as well get comfy," she suggests, patting the ground next to her. "It's still five miles to the walls, and even running, it's going to take Ed a while to get there."
"I'm thinking I wish we'd gone on that jog," Derek says. He sits in the middle of the plinth, about as far from the edge as he can. Sig lumbers over next to Izumi and sits down with care next to her. She leans into him.
It's an almost comical contrast—Sig being a giant, intimidating man and Izumi looking frail in comparison. Yet people react to Izumi as the threat instead of her husband. Seeing what she can do with alchemy, that makes sense.
JJ carefully sits then scoots over to the edge, dropping her feet over the side. The view over the city is dazzling, even though it's hot up here. "How old is the city?" she asks.
"Over four hundred years," Izumi says. "Ed and Al are the last descendants of this place, you know? Hard to imagine a whole group of people like them."
Doing her best to smile, JJ says, "I don't think anyone is like Ed."
Pride and pleasure suffuse Izumi's face, as if JJ has just complimented her son, which, she supposes, remembering how proudly Izumi had claimed them, she has. "Damn straight," she says.
They sit in the sun in quiet, and while it's hot, there's a breeze that makes it slightly bearable. JJ is able to track Ed's progress through the city. She thinks of her own boys, misses them. She always, always at least sends a text if she doesn't get to facetime. Her phone is useless here, and she can't help but look at Ed and wonder if Henry will one day be a man like he is. Or maybe Mikey. Will she ever get home? Will they always mourn her?
The silence isn't heavy or loaded. It takes less time than she thinks it should for Ed to reach the wall, and they've been able to watch the word spread as lookouts have come down off the walls. Even from so far, Ed seems to stand out, the blue of his uniform a stark and bright color against all the washed-out yellows and golds of sand and structures made mostly of them.
"Can you make binoculars?" Derek asks.
Izumi snorts. "That kind of fine and fiddly work? No. Ed or maybe Al could, but that sort of detail work is beyond me."
Thinking back to watching Ed and Izumi fight earlier, she realizes that Izumi's transmutations were cruder, less refined, less intricate. Ed, even as an afterthought, put details and ornamentation on the things he transfigured. JJ hadn't considered that maybe those details took more effort or were more difficult to do, but it made sense that they were.
Before she can ask further, JJ would swear that she hears Ed's clap echo across the distance. And then the ground begins to shake. From their perch above, she watches the white-blue lightning, barely visible in the sun, race across the whole wall, watches it move out into the empty desert surrounding the city, watches it begin to take life and move. She watches the walls rebuild, watches as, even so far away, she can see the parapets and ramparts and other defensive features that she doesn't know the names for form. Towers form at regular intervals, and it's like watching a video of a candle melting, only played in reverse as things come together. The lightning dances further out among the sand, bringing more in from further out, avoiding creating ditches at the bottoms of the walls, she has to assume.
It's spellbinding. Ed keeps insisting this isn't magic, but JJ has no idea how he could see this, how he could do this and honestly believe that. She has no idea how long they watch, but when it's done, she feels shaken to her core. There are more than thirty kilometers of walls around the city.
"How does one person do this?" Derek asks softly behind her. He's closer than she expects, and it almost makes her jump. He puts a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"I don't know that any other alchemist could do this," Izumi says softly, and she sounds almost as awed as JJ feels. "Maybe his father. But Van Hoenheim was… something unto himself." She claps her hands softly and puts them to the plinth, and it begins a steady downward descent, stopping low enough for them to climb off before returning it to the ground.
Hawkeye greets them when they land. "How do the walls look from up there?" she asks.
Feet back on the ground, the memory of the sight is no longer magical, but terrifying. Feeling her very foundations shaken, JJ has to ask, "How is this normal to you? How do you—"
Derek takes her shoulders and squeezes, the move comforting, grounding, digging into where she tense along her shoulders. "JJ, this is their world," he says in his most calming tone.
"But that's not normal," JJ protests. "Not even for alchemists!"
Hawkeye's eyes are clear and direct when they meet JJ's. "I wasn't kidding when I said alchemists are the superartillery of the military," she says. Her brows soften just a hair, perhaps in sympathy, perhaps in pity, and she adds, "But once you've watched Edward Elric defeat a literal god, nothing else seems that impressive."
She remembers the Ishvalan man on the walls saying, "So that's the Fullmetal Alchemist. The man who defeated a false god."
It's the last thing she hears before the world goes black.
AN:Actual note!: Xerxes had a population of a little over 1M people, so I looked at cities today that have similar populations and looked at their population densities over areas to see how big the city needed to be. From pictures of the city, it looks densely populated and developed, so I erred on that side (also assumed from the flashbacks of the array being dug out that it included some of the surrounding area and not just the city within the wall proper), so the city itself is about 100 square miles in area, which gives it about an 11-mile diameter, so it's about 5 miles from the palace to the walls. (This all assumes I did my math right, and I used a bunch of internet calculators and conversions to do it, soooo… I hope I'm right?)