Truth revealed

by Lucifer swift

This story original belong to fallen crest Summary:- Some of the cast of FMAB were brought to a room to show the whole secret of the anestrus, the war of Ishwal And many more. But in exchange of the knowledge, they have to feel the suffer and pain of all the event, their past and future, to unravel the mystery which never has been revealed to the world.

5. Chapter 5 (Rain of sorrow)

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Bold- What happens in the episodes

"Episode Title"

Narrative

Regular talking

---

Episode 5: Rain of Sorrows

"Alchemy is the science of understanding, decomposing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art. It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be paid. This is the law of equivalent exchange, the basis of alchemy. Alchemists have a taboo, and it is human transmutation. It is that which no one must commit."

The opening song began once again.

"Are we going to have to go through this every single time?" Zampano grumbled.

"Don't be such a sour puss!" Havoc retorted. "I, for one, like the song. And it's a nice break from all the darkness in that we are seeing."

"The pictures in the song aren't exactly cheerful." Darius argued.

"No, they aren't." Havoc replied. "But the song is still nice. Just ignore the scenes shown."

"Any reason why you are so cheerful?" Edward asked, frowning. This did not seem like something to be cheerful about. Havoc grinned. "Well, we're going to be seeing the future. That means, we should be able to change what happens, right?" He then lifted a picture.

"Plus, I got these pictures of Eddie!"

"WHAT?" Ed screamed as he forgot about those. He jumped to his feet, slamming one onto the coffee table's top and held his hand out over it towards Havoc. "Give them to me!"

"No way." Havoc retorted. "And you don't have your alchemy to get them either." The young state alchemist narrowed his eyes and raised his automail fist. "No, I don't, but have you forgotten, I'm a martial artist with automail that can beat your ass into the ground?"

"Hmm." Havoc chewed on his cigarette. "Fair point, but," His hands disappeared behind his back and when they reappeared the pictures were gone. "I gave them away." Ed's eyes turned to slits and looked at Breda, on Havoc's left, and Miles, on Havoc's right.

"Who has them?" He snarled. Both soldiers raised their hands to show empty hands. "I passed them on." They both said. Miles wasn't one for games such as this, but he figured they should be some fun in the room. It would keep the mood from becoming too dark and tense, which would cause severe stress that none of them needed so he would join in a bit, if only for the amusing reactions he got from Fullmetal.

"Argh," Ed grumbled. "Fine, but," He glared at the soldiers. "This isn't over." And with that, he plopped back down next to his brother to lean against his arm again.

"Rain of Sorrows"

"Argh, it was raining the day Scar attacked us." Ed mumbled.

"Think this is it?" "It has to be." Al replied. "We didn't do anything else significant in the rain."

"Why are you assuming that it involves you?" Mustang asked. Ed rolled his eyes. "Because, so far, it has only been mainly our point of view since a certain Colonel is too lazy to do his own dirty work!"

"Now, now, Brother, if the Colonel is here, then that must mean he did something of importance." Al said, but his words just made the Colonel more agitated. It sounded like the boy was mocking him. Not. So, innocent!

The scene changed to the Elric's house in Resembool.

"Okay, why the hell are we back in Resembool?" Breda asked, frowning.

"Not another flashback, I hope. I don't think I could take another one." Hughes said.

"Any ideas, Brother?" Al asked, just as confused as the soldiers.

Ed frowned. "One, and if I'm right, I won't like it being shown."

Al looked at him, confused, but didn't question any farther when he saw the dark look in his brother's eyes that said don't-ask.

"Hey mom!" Ed's voice shouted. "Mom!"

Trisha appeared on the screen to be picking tomatoes when she heard her son. She turned around and smiled at the boy running towards here.

"What is it, Ed?"

Ed took his hands away from his chest to show a little metal dog. "A present. I transmuted it."

"You did, Ed? You're your father's son, all right." Trisha ran her hand over her son's hair, causing him to smile. "Thanks. You really are amazing, Ed, to be able to create something as neat as this."

"Your mother really is kind." Sheska said softly. She could understand why these boys went so far as to try to bring her back. It was more than they just wanted a parent back. Their mother was truly kind and gentle, always ready with a smile for them, even if it was sometimes fake.

"Yeah," Al replied quietly.

"But," Trisha continued as the tomatoes fell from her apron and smashed into the ground.

"Yep," Ed growled. "This is damn private!"

"What is it, Brother?" Al asked.

Ed scratched his head, annoyed. "A nightmare. Something which no one else has the right to see!"

"Well, it's in the episode so we can't do anything but watch it." Mustang said, causing Ed to glare at him.

"And no one will laugh at your horrors." Riza reassured the boy. "We've all had our share of horrors, or will at some point. We are soldiers, after all."

Izumi cracked her knuckles. "And if they do, well, I'll just beat the shit out of them."

Ed twitched, as did many of the guy soldiers. His former teacher was really, really scary. None of them wanted to get on her bad side, so they were going to wisely keep their mouths locked tightly shut.

Confused, Edward looked up at his mother's face to see it replaced by the horrible face of the creature that he made in his human transmutation.

"Ahhh," Kain shouted shocked. "That is not something that anyone would laugh over. That transmutation was scary enough, to actually have nightmares about it..." He cut himself off and shuddered.

"I agree." Havoc said, frowning. "I would probably be scared enough to have nightmares too." Al looked down at his brother, feeling sad, but not able to express it. Not being able to sleep, he noticed countless times when his brother had nightmares, but could do nothing to comfort him. Sometimes, if it was really bad, he woke him. Other times, he couldn't get his brother to wake up. And the other times, he just didn't notice it. He couldn't sleep, so he couldn't dream about that night and kept his mind busy with other things. But his brother didn't have that. He had to face their terrors even in his sleep. It just wasn't fair for his brother to have his sleep disrupted by all of this.

"If you can do that, why couldn't you make mommy better, Ed?" The creature said in a strange voice.

Ed took steps back in fear to show the scene had changed to a library.

"Big Brother."

The scene revolved to see horror-stricken eyes on Ed's face and Nina and Alexander standing behind him. Ed turned around to stare at them. The two morphed into a Chimera right in front of him.

"Let's play."

Ed's eyes snapped open. He was shown sitting half up in his bed. The window outside his room was shown as rain poured down.

"Brother, are you alright?" Al asked.

Ed leaned back a little more, looking away from his brother.

"You were having a nightmare."

Edward bowed his head, letting his bangs hide his face. He rested his forehead on his automail knee and pulled the leg closer to him so he could use it to hide his face as Al was shown sitting against the wall with a book in his hands, but not looking at it as he was watching his brother.

"So that's what your dream about?" Al mused sadly. His brother never told him about his nightmares, always brushing them off as if they were nothing.

"Yeah." Ed murmured, tugging at his braid. He didn't want to burden his brother with all his fears, so he just brushed the nightmares off. They were his fears that he had to face. No one else. "At least he doesn't have to add murder to his list of terrors." Hughes said to Mustang quietly. Mustang nodded.

"I can't imagine what it would be like to deal with a Fullmetal that had murdered."

"I can imagine, and I don't ever want to see it happen." Hughes said, before giving his friend a stern glare. "Make sure it doesn't happen. Don't take what's left of his innocence away." "I can only do so much to protect those boys." Mustang retorted. It was already so difficult on him being in charge of a kid. That is why that every time Fullmetal's name came up in his paperwork he had to read it extra carefully to make sure nothing was going to happen to the boy because of the higher ups. It was so annoying and bothersome to him. But, of course, he never told the kid. He didn't need to know that he was constantly called on and Mustang and his crew had to work extra hard to get those who were looking for the boy away from him.

Eastern Command Center was shown.

A gloved covered hand came next, getting ready to knock on a door, but stopping short as the screen was pulled back to show Ed and Al standing in front of the door. Al looked at his brother for a moment before the door was opened by Hawkeye, looking surprised to see them.

"What's the matter, you two?" She asked. "You're up awfully early."

"It makes sense now." Riza said quietly to herself. No one wanted to go to sleep after a nightmare. They were horrible, and once you've woken up, it was impossible to ease your mind enough to be able to go back to sleep because you were afraid t to fall back into that nightmare.

"We…" Ed trailed off, staring at the ground, instead of Hawkeye.

"What's going to happen to Tucker and Nina?"

Surprise filtered in Hawkeye's eyes before it disappeared and she was serious again. "Mr. Tucker was scheduled to be stripped of his certification and stand trial for what he did to Nina, but they're both dead."

"Dead?!" Al asked.

Ed was shown with a look of surprise and horror on his face. His mouth moved, but nothing came out.

"You'll find out anyway, so I might as well tell you." Hawkeye's footsteps sounded as she walked away, Ed's eyes following her. "They've been murdered."

"H-how? By who?!" Ed asked as Hawkeye was shown straightening the collar of the black jacket she just put on.

"We don't know." Hawkeye said as Ed followed after her. "I was just headed over to the scene myself."

"We're coming too." Al said.

"No." Hawkeye said.

"Why not?!" Ed demanded.

Hawkeye stopped and turned to give the boys a stare. "You don't need to see this."

"Much too soft on those boys." General Armstrong growled. She liked Hawkeye, but she was being too soft on these boys. The elder was a State Alchemist, a soldier for them. They shouldn't force his eyes away from a bloody scene. He would never toughen up if he didn't see it.

"I was hoping to spare Edward anymore nightmares." Riza replied. "Sadly, it seems to have been pointless."

Edward sighed. He knew what Hawkeye was doing at the time, but he really wished she hadn't. He needed to know the truth, of how such a thing had happened. He knew now, saw it happen, but before this, he didn't. It was gruesome and there was a lot of blood, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. The truth shouldn't be hidden from those with the strength to endure it.

The Tucker house was shown with Hughes and Armstrong standing in the room where Nina and Tucker were killed.

"He's still one step ahead of us, huh?" Hughes said.

"We have to catch up quickly. The way things are going…." Armstrong replied.

Mustang was shown staring as the tarps covering the bodies. "You sound as though you were expecting this to happen."

Hughes glanced up at his friend.

"What's going on?"

"God has given us a trial!" Cornello shouted.

"That wacko really is there!" Ed shouted. He hadn't wanted to believe the Eastern soldiers earlier, but the proof was right in front of him.

"So, maybe your thought of a shape-shifter is true." Al said.

Ed growled. "Not good. That really is not a good thought."

"Wicked heathens have been spreading false rumours to disrupt our faith, and the military is planning to oppress us. But we must not give in! Now is the time to rise up, with weapon in hand! In the name of the great god Leto!"

The civilian faces were shown with grins, which looked evil on some of them.

"Idiot faithful followers." Ed muttered. "If they want to follow a god, fine, be that way! But they shouldn't be completely blind and follow without thinking for themselves. Idiots!"

"Brother…"

"Why the hell do we even help people, Al?" Ed grumbled. "Mindless zombies. They are just letting themselves become mindless zombies. Who wants to spend their life as a mindless zombie anyway? Don't they want any free will?" Al sweat dropped, knowing his brother didn't mean it as he was just frustrated. "They probably think they have free will and are following this man by that free will." Izumi told the boy.

"They don't realize that they are being manipulated."

"Yeah! We have the god Leto on our side!"

"Down with the heathens!"

"Let's avoid Liore. I'd rather not get killed." Ed said.

"Brother, shouldn't we help them?" Al asked.

"Colonel Bastard and the east forces are handling it, right?" Ed asked.

"Besides, it's not like it's Ishval."

"Yes, the soldiers are there now." Mustang said before frowning. "Or, they were before we got dragged here."

Hughes glared at his friend. It was obviously going to be shown so why the hell didn't he say that it has turned into a full-blown revolt? All his lies were just going to make it hurt the boys worse when it was revealed.

"Think anyone noticed hundreds of soldiers disappeared?" Ed asked. "Shit!" Mustang said. "The east!"

"My Northern Wall." General Armstrong growled.

Ed blinked. "Guess no one realized this until now."

There was a flash of yellow light and a letter dropped into Ed's lap.

"Oooh, mail!" He said and picked up the envelope to tear it open. "Let's see…. Do not worry. Time outside this room has been frozen so your borders are safe and no one has realized you are missing. V.H."

"Well, that's good." Mustang got out before Ed screamed, which made a few people jump in surprise, and hurdled to their feet with theirs hands automatically going down to their empty gun holsters. They watched, wide eyed, as he tore the letter into little pieces.

"That bastard is watching us!" Edward yelled at the top of his lungs. "You get out here now, you bastard!"

"Eep!" Al said, surprised at how angry his brother sounded. "Brother, maybe you should calm down. So, what if this guy is watching us?"

Ed spun around to glare at his brother. "Oh, no, don't say you didn't recognize that handwriting, Alphonse! It is so clearly him!"

"I thought the handwriting looked familiar, but I couldn't place it." Al said.

"Then look at the initials!" Ed snarled. "It's him!"

"Who's 'him?'" Izumi asked confused.

"That no-good, idiotic, lousy, rotten bastard of a father!" Edward screamed.

"VAN HOHENHEIM GET THE HELL OUT HERE SO I CAN KNOCK YOUR LIGHTS OUT!"

Mustang blinked; a bit shocked at how angry the boy was. "Fullmetal, I think you should calm down. "Ed shot his eyes full of burning hatred at his superior. "Don't bother me, bastard. I'm busy."

Mustang sweat dropped as Ed went back to screaming at his dad to get out here.

"Mustang, get your damn subordinate to shut up." General Armstrong growled, wishing that she had her sword so she could cut the boy's vocal cords out. His screaming was really beginning to get on her nerves.

"I would love to." Mustang said. "But I don't have my gloves."

There was another flash of gold light and letter landed in front of Ed, who picked it up. He stared at it for a moment before screaming in frustration.

"You damn coward!"

Al snatched the letter from his brother curiously. "I'd rather not. V.H."

"I think it is more of his survival instincts kicking in then actual cowardice." Havoc quipped.

"Brother," Al sighed. "Please stop being so mad at Dad. I'm sure he had his reasons."

"Oh, Ho," Ed said sarcastically. "Reasons, eh? I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIS REASONS!"

Al glared at his brother. "You're so blinded by your anger and sadness about not having parents, that you won't even consider any other options in regards to this." He hissed.

"And you're so blinded by the fact that you want a parent back that you won't even think about the fact that he abandoned us!" Edward snarled.

"Oh no, not another Elric brother argument." Breda groaned, pushing a hand into his face. The first time they ever witnessed an Elric brother argument, it turned into an alchemy fight. It took weeks until the command centre and the grounds were fixed. After that fight, Mustang was furious at the brothers and sent them off on a mission to the west just to get them out of his hair for a bit while they fixed everything and everyone's fried nerves were better.

"I'm still recovering from the last time they got into a big fight." Kain muttered, shivering at that reminder.

Izumi growled. "Okay, no, Ed, Al!" She stood up, glaring at the two. "I've had enough of your arguments when I was training you. Now both of you are going to shut the hell up and forget the person who brought us here for now or I'll kick both of your asses."

The brothers shot her glare, both thinking she had no right since she was no longer their teacher, but were too afraid of her to say anything. So, instead, they turned their glares back to each other, but didn't say anymore, much to the relief of everyone who know what an Elric brothers' argument was like.

"Hey, don't be fooled!"

"At least not all of them have been fooled, right, Chief?" Havoc asked, trying to lighten the mood since it was obvious the brothers were still angry with each with the way they had put distance between them and were stubbornly not looking at each other. Though, it didn't seem to work as both boys ignored him.

"Those are just lying he's telling us!"

"Silence!"

"You guys are pawns of the heathens!"

"It's ironic since they are pawns themselves." Brody said.

An evil grin spread on a female's face. "Humans are so hopelessly foolish."

A rock was thrown through a glass window, then civilians were shown fighting each other. A little girl stood off to the side, crying.

"No way." Al said softly as he was in shock. This wasn't supposed to happen.

They had revealed the truth to all the people of Liore. In fact, it was Cornello that told them the truth. So why was this happening? Everything was supposed to be alright with Liore after what they did. He had thought they had gotten through to all of them. They should have stayed there longer to make sure everything would work out properly. If they had…. if they had…

"What?" Edward growled, whipping around to face his superior with narrowed eyes. He felt that something was wrong when Liore was shown again. It shouldn't have been. It was supposed to be fine after he went there.

So why the hell did it appear in front of them again? "What the hell is going on, Colonel?"

"You mean you never told the chief?" Havoc asked surprised.

Edward shot his glare at Havoc. "What is happening in Liore?" He demanded.

Hughes sighed, removing his glasses to rub his hand over his eyes. "The civilians are revolting against each other over this supposed Sun God Leto.

Because of this revolt, many lives have been lost. We had to send in a battalion to get things under control. In fact, we are still in the process of getting it under control. Those faithful servants of the Sun God refuse to back down and the others are pleased to have our help in getting the trouble down as it will save lives." He said, glossing over most of the details to make it seem not as bad as it was. To have those gold eyes glaring at him for answers, he now understood why Mustang couldn't tell this kid just what happened to a place he tried so hard to save.

But his words just seemed to further aggravate Edward, who turned his smouldering glare to Mustang. "And why the hell didn't you tell me this? Liore was my mission. It's my responsibility." He hissed, causing Al to glance at him. Earlier his brother had said he didn't want to go back there, but now that the truth was out about Liore, he seemed so furious about what had happened.

Why wouldn't he? It was their fault that this was happening.

"And that's exactly why." Mustang retorted. "You would just rush back, forgetting your promise to your brother to get his body back soon. The only thing you need to worry about is that. That is your goal. You cannot get distracted trying to help every single person you meet. You can't save everyone. My men can handle Liore."

"The same way you "handled" Ishval." Edward snapped angrily without thinking. He jerked his head at Charlie, Alexandre, Damiano, and Richard.

"The exact soldiers who were with you in Ishval."

A dark, anxious silence had its icy claws locked around the room. Even some of the Briggs soldiers were disturbed about the sparks flew between the two alchemists' eyes.

Al looked at his brother, then at the Colonel, then back at his brother, wincing a bit. He really wished his brother hadn't said that. They both felt horrible about Liore and hated that they weren't told, but his brother just had to have fiery temper and speak without thinking. That just caused a lot of problems for them.

As for Mustang's comrades from Ishval, they were rather uncomfortable and angry about the accusation. Yes, they were in Ishval. And yes, they've killed.

But Fullmetal did not need to point that out and throw it in their faces. They were doing what they had to so they could survive.

Mustang gritted his teeth, working very hard not to kill his subordinate for bringing up the nightmare of the Ishvalan massacre. "Fullmetal," he said through gritted teeth. "I apologize for not informing you, but I had my reasons. You may not like them, but I don't care. There are many things in life that we don't like, but have to live with. This is one of them."

Edward clenched his fists in anger, but turned away from the Colonel without another word. This argument would get them absolutely nowhere. They were trapped in this room and this revolt had already started. His boss didn't inform him of what he caused, and that infuriated him, but getting into a huge argument about it with screaming and insults wouldn't solve the problem in Liore.

"Don't you think so, Gluttony?"

"Argh, the Ouroboros gang again." Ed sighed. "Ouroboros?" Havoc asked confused, but glad that Edward had said something, even if the tense atmosphere didn't dissipate.

Ed shrugged. "They all have an Ouroboros tattoo and I have to call them something."

"Fools, fools." Gluttony agreed.

"Fools indeed. Sad, but true." 'Cornello' said as he walked up the stairs

of the tower.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Father." Lust said.

"Father." Gluttony said.

"Sorry to have to put you to all this trouble." Lust said.

"As soon as we have everything handled over here, I have my own responsibilities I have to get back to." Envy told them.

Lust smirked and turned her head to the side. "The Fullmetal boy's interference was irritating, but at least we were able to make it work in our favour. Looks like we'll finish up ahead of schedule."

The land was overlooked with the sun starting to sink. "Manipulate a little information and I whipped up the believers, and that's all it took to get this. Humans are such simpletons."

"Bloodshed gives way to more bloodshed, hatred breeds more hatred, until all the violence soaks into the land." Lust's tattoo was shown.

"Craving rivers of blood." Her face was shown as she continued. "And no matter how many times it happens, they never learn. The human race is made up of violent, miserable fools."

Edward clenched his fist, glancing at his brother out of the corner of his eye.

"That's what it means to be human. We are humans. We're not perfect. There is no possible way that we can do everything without fault. If we were perfect, then we wouldn't be human. If we were perfect, then we couldn't grow and learn from the mistakes that we make. We may make mistakes, but we are not miserable creatures."

"It is by our mistakes that we grow stronger." Mustang agreed to the amazement of his team. He and Edward never agreed on anything. It was doubly amazing that they agreed here after that almost, sort of, argument from earlier. "They teach us. They are the best teacher we have, and they make us stronger and more human. Our mistakes change us, for the better or the worst, that is for us to decide."

"If she is saying that then she must not be human." Scar said, frowning. The mistakes we make change us, huh? Then why does Amestris keep causing battles and killing more innocent people?

General Armstrong crossed her arms, glaring at the woman on the screen. "Then she had no idea of the hell of this world or how we humans' function."

"Who seem more than willing to play into our hands." 'Cornello' said, causing Lust to smirk.

"Are lots of people gonna to die again?" Gluttony asked.

"Yes, they will." Lust said.

"Can I eat all of them after they die?" Gluttony asked.

Lust petted Gluttony's head. "No, you can't." 'Cornello' was shown, smirking. "By the way, Envy, how long are you planning to look like that? It's grossing me out."

"Envy? Another deadly sin." Ed sighed. "No doubt an Ouroboros."

"Why do you say that?" Breda asked.

"Because it's a deadly sin name!" Ed growled frustrated. "It means something, but what?"

"Aw, I'm just in the moment." There was a flash of red light, and

'Cornello's' body began to change into another form. "But as long as I'm going to transform anyway, something young and cut would be better, huh?" He said as his body changed into another form.

"Ah, yep, damn, you were right, Fullmetal." Mustang said.

Ed frowned. "Not like I wish I was. This is really, really bad."

"But, if you are right, then we know one thing." Izumi said thoughtfully.

"They are only seven deadly sins, so they should only be seven of these people if we going off of that thought."

"And they each have a different ability." Breda added, frowning. How much of this was just hypothesis and how much of it was true?

A follower behind Envy gasped. Envy's leg was shown with an

Ouroboros tattoo while the follower said, "A-A monster!"

Envy looked over his shoulder at the man.

"What's going on here? The Father…where have the real Father Cornello gone?!"

"Well, he's dead." Ed said dryly.

"Why do you say that?" Al asked, forgetting his anger for a moment to ease

his curiosity.

"These people kill without mercy." Ed replied, sighing, not seeming to notice that he was talking to Al. "And he saw Envy transform. He saw these people in Liore. They won't let that get out."

"Do you think they are all better?" Kain asked hopefully, staring at the talking brothers with a hopeful smile.

Falman shook his head. "Not a chance. Last time they were angry with each other for a week and destroyed the training room and the grounds around Eastern Command again."

"Our only saving grace now is that their alchemy's been blocked." Breda said, sighing.

"What do we do?" Lust asked.

Envy sighed. "He called me a monster. That was rude, huh?"

"He is a monster!" Darius and Heinkel shouted together.

"Better not say that near them or you'll get killed." Liran said. "It's no joke." Ed growled, glaring at the three, efficiently getting them to shut up.

Gluttony appeared behind Envy, staring at the follower. "Can I eat him?"

Envy and Lust looked at him before the sounds of eating took place of the scene. While Gluttony ate him, Envy leaned against the railing of the balcony.

"That is a horrible way to die." Avery muttered. To actually be eaten alive…. he shuddered.

"Oh, hey, did you hear the news? Shou Tucker, that alchemist in East City, he's dead." Envy said.

"Tucker? Why should we care about a little nothing like him?" Lust asked.

"Because it was him responsible for the murder." Envy said.

"How the did he get this information so quickly?" Armstrong asked. "Better question, why do they care?" Mustang asked.

"Why should they care about a murderer killing State Alchemists when they are causing trouble like this in Liore?" "If they are going to all this trouble to cause bloodshed, then they obviously have a plan for something." Miles said, frowning. Mustang nodded. "Yes, but why care about State Alchemists?"

"Didn't you hear? They don't give a damn about Tucker." Hughes said, frowning, putting a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "They must be after something specific, but what?"

"Speaking of East City, isn't that where the Flame Colonel is staying right now?" Lust asked.

"Look, you made it on the monster-or as Ed likes to call them, Ouroboros'- radar." Hughes said. "That doesn't comfort me." Mustang said, frowning as he crossed his arms.

"Besides, it's just a passing comment."

"We can only hope so, sir. Otherwise, there is going to be a lot of trouble." Riza replied, also frowning darkly about this. Edward was certainly right about his comment from earlier. These beings were truly wicked demons.

"Yeah, and apparently, the Fullmetal brat is there too." Envy replied.

"Fullmetal?" Lust asked surprised. "As furious as I am that he interfered with our work here, we can't very well let him die. He's an important sacrifice."

Many eyes turned to Fullmetal, who was staring at the screen, quite confused.

Mustang rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Why am I not surprised that they are after you?"

"Maybe because Chief is always dragging danger towards him like he was a trouble magnet." Havoc said, though he wasn't amused. What could these monsters want with Ed? And as a sacrifice?

"What the hell do they mean by sacrifice?" Edward growled.

"Why do you always have to go getting yourself in trouble for?" Mustang

groaned. "Now I have to get involved so you don't get killed."

Ed snarled. "I don't need you to protect me. I can take care of myself."

"Yes, you really proved that when you decided to let Scar kill you." Mustang retorted. "If we weren't there, you'd be dead right now."

Ed scowled at him. "It's not like I wanted to die."

"Then why the hell did you give up the fight?" Mustang shouted, glaring at him.

The youngest State Alchemist threw his hands in front of him. "Look, I already argued with Al about this. I'm not feeling up to doing it again so drop it, Colonel. I don't want to fight. I just don't have the energy for it right now."

The boy's response surprised Mustang. In all the years he had known Fullmetal, he had never seen the boy once step back from a chance to fight or argue with someone. He always had the spirit to argue.

"He was going to let himself get killed?" Buccaneer asked shocked. The kid seemed too stubborn to him to even think about doing such a thing.

Havoc shrugged. "I don't think he was all that clear in the head at the time when he decided that."

"Brother is just a reckless idiot." Al supplied.

"Hey." Ed snapped, glaring at his brother.

Al shrugged. "Even you have to admit that some of the things you do are reckless." He looked back at the people on the screen. "I mean, you even got these monsters after you."

"We don't know what the hell they want." Ed muttered. "Can't be anything good, considering they are monsters and they said sacrifice."

"Back to Scar," Izumi growled, shooting the murderer a glare. "You gave up a fight?"

Ed groaned. Damn Mustang for bringing that up. "Let's just forget that."

Al shifted a bit closer to his brother to whisper, "You know it's probably going to come up soon, right?"

"I know, but by then, hopefully, I'll have an escape route." Ed muttered.

"From Teacher?" Al snorted. "Not likely. We could never escape from her."

"I know. We tried hundreds of times."

Gluttony stood up, covered in blood. "That was yummy." And then he started to lick the blood off.

"Argh, that's so gross." Rebecca said.

"All right. We'll deal with it somehow." Lust said. "So, what was his name, again?"

Eastern Command Center appeared on the screen again.

"Scar?" Mustang's voice said. He appeared on the screen. "Because of his face?"

The screen pulled back to reveal four soldiers in a hallway of the building. Mustang and Hughes were sitting on opposite benches while Armstrong and Hawkeye stood to the sides.

"Yeah," Hughes said. "We don't really know anything else about him so that's what we're calling him."

"Our target is both unidentified and elusive." Armstrong touched his forehead. "The only information we've been able to obtain about him is that he has a large scar on his forehead."

"Yes, I've heard stories about that man." Mustang replied. "That's who you're trying to hunt down?"

"By order of the military police command centre." Hughes said.

"Meanwhile all my other work is piling up. Eh, my head hurts."

"How come I never heard of him before this?" Ed asked. "It's actually surprising you didn't know about him." Hughes replied. "Since you travel so much, I would have thought the rumours would have reached your ears."

"It really is strange. Usually when they are any strange rumours going around, the Colonel always calls Ed in to see if he heard anything, and he always has some of the answers we are looking for." Havoc mused.

Breda nodded. "And yet for some reason, he was completely oblivious to a State Alchemist killer that is after him."

The housewife sighed. "It is because there was a chance this murderer would come after him that he was completely oblivious to it." She glared at the boy.

"What's that mean?" Ed retorted.

"If it's your own life in danger and no one else's, you miss it completely. If it is for the benefit of others, you hear about it and investigate it. Isn't that how you work? After all, everything you are doing in the military is for your brother, not you." Izumi pointed out, frowning. "I know I taught you to value your life more than that, but it seems my lesson did not sink into that head of yours."

"That sounds like him." Riza sighed. Honestly, it was like this boy couldn't take care of himself, no matter how much he shouted he could.

"There is no room for selfishness in this world. Being selfish just leads to more pain." Edward said quietly.

"Those aren't words that should be coming from a child." Karin said sadly.

"And it's also not how someone should live." Darius added. "It is okay to be a bit selfish and value the life you have."

"Someone should beat some sense into Fullmetal." Mustang said, and looked towards Izumi as did many other soldiers.

Izumi raised a brow. "Shouldn't it be his commanding officer?"

"But you are the only one he is afraid of. He'll listen to you." Mustang retorted.

"I do not believe it would be that easy to change his view on the world." Izumi said, shaking her head sadly as she focused her eyes on the brothers who were talking quietly to each other about something. "Besides, I did teach him as a child to value his life and live it to the fullest. He either ignored the lesson or has forgotten it."

While the adults conversed about Ed's bad outlook on life, the brothers fell into another discussion about a certain stone.

"What do you think the hidden truth could be?" Edward mused.

"Huh?" Al asked. "Are you still thinking about that? We'll probably see it soon, Brother."

Ed sighed. "I know, but I was hoping to figure it out before we got to see it."

"How do you plan to do that without any materials in front of you?" Al asked. Groaning, Ed dropped his head into his hands. "Why must you upset me so?"

Al chuckled. "Sorry, Brother. Let's go over what we know. The Philosopher's Stone main ingredient is human lives."

"Yes, and the military has been producing them for a while, or that is what we can assume by what Dr. Marcoh told us." Ed said before pausing. "I wonder why he isn't here. He has a big part with the Philosopher's Stone. You would think he would be here."

"Maybe this has nothing to do with the stone." Al pointed out. "After all, so far, the stone hasn't been mentioned by those monsters, so…"

"I guess that is a possibility." Edward replied, sighing. "I wish he was here though. He would be of really good help to figure this out."

"Ed? Al? What are you talking about?" Riza asked curiously. Ed and Al tensed, surprised at the sudden intrusion of their conversation.

"Nothing!" They shouted together.

"Suspicious." Maria said. "Does this have anything to do with the yelling we heard going on in the library before we were brought here?"

"AH, that is right. You and Sergeant Brosh are Fullmetal's guards while he is in Central." Armstrong said.

Ed groaned at the reminder. Why did they have to give him guards? And normal soldiers at that! He didn't doubt them, but he wasn't sure of how much help they would be against Scar. He fought with that man so he knew his speed was amazing. It was better he didn't have guards because then they wouldn't die protecting him.

"What do you mean by yelling?" Hughes asked confused. "I know they've been holed up in the library doing research the last ten days, but what were they doing exactly?"

"We were decoding notes." Edward said with a sigh. Stupid nosy soldiers.

Danny nodded. "Were you yelling because you couldn't get them decoded?"

Ed and Al glanced at each other with a dark frown crossing Ed's face. "It will come up in a little while."

Havoc scowled. "Why do you two always have to keep secrets? Do you not trust us to help you?"

Ed and Al refused to answer. The former just clenched his fists and stared at the ground, refusing eye contact with the soldiers.

"You don't!" Breda said shocked and a bit hurt at the lack of trust.

"It's not that we don't trust you. We do, but…." Ed trailed off, glancing at his brother.

"We don't want you guys to get involved in our problems." Al finished.

SLAM!

The brothers jumped in surprise and turned around to see Mustang's fist still on the coffee table he just hit. His eyes, which were directed at the boys, were filled to the brim with anger and determination. "You two are absolute idiots. You don't have to do everything by yourself. In fact, you can't do everything by yourself. It is impossible, and just by attempting to do it and not letting people help you, you'll just get yourselves killed. You are still just children, and as adults, it is our job to look after you. We want to help you, but to do so, you have to let us in on what you know."

Ed shook his head and turned back around. "It's not that easy." He murmured.

"What is so hard about it?" Havoc demanded.

Ed raised his automail fist and stared at it, letting the light reflect off it as Izumi removed his gloves and jacket earlier. This was the price of his sin. It hurt and he missed his real arm, but he never regretted the choice of giving it up to get his baby brother back. He pushed his fist into Al's chest. "We've only ever relied on each other. We don't know how to ask for help. Right, Al?"

"Well, it's time you learned before you get yourself killed." Maria growled.

She was not going to let these boys die. Before it was just her assigned duty to guard them, but over the couple weeks they've known each other, she's grown attached to the brothers. They were really smart and kind to those who needed help. They were strong, but still children. She could see why

Armstrong was protective of the boys.

"It's not that easy." Ed said quietly so only Al could hear him. "It's so dangerous that they might die if they get too close."

"I know, Brother." Al replied softly. Neither of them wanted anyone to die for them. They hated death, hated to see it ever since they lost their mother twice. They couldn't bear to see someone else die for them or because of them.

"He's killed five people in Central, all State Alchemists." Armstrong said. "His body count nationwide is up to ten."

"Five days ago, he took down old man Grand." Hughes added.

"The Brigadier General?" Mustang said shocked. "But he's an expert in weapons transmutation."

"That shows you how dangerous this guy is." Hughes said as the screen changed to Hawkeye's face. "You should increase your escort and lie low for a while. Nobody will blame you." Mustang's frowning face appeared next. "Please, I'm also asking you to do this as a close friend. You and

Tucker are the only State Alchemists of note in this area, right?" A look of horror passed over Mustang's face.

"Oh, no!"

"You should have told me sooner that Ed was around." Hughes growled.

They had cut it too close that time. There was no way that Ed could handle Scar on his own, no matter how strong the boy was. Scar had way more years of experience and was merciless.

"I didn't even know what was going on at the time." Mustang argued. "I still can't believe an Ishvalan would be so cold hearted as to go after a kid who had nothing to do with the Ishvalan War."

Scar scowled. "He joined the military. He knew what was coming by doing so. The moment he signed up as a State Alchemist, he gave all rights to childhood away."

"That doesn't make him an adult or guilty for what we adults did in that war. He was what, three? Three years old, not even knowing what alchemy was yet, when it started." Mustang argued.

"Can we not argue morals with a murderer? It doesn't really matter." Edward interrupted. "What's done is done. Moving on!"

Mustang glared at Ed, then at Scar.

Rolling his eyes, Ed looked over his shoulder at the Colonel. "you've said it a hundred time in the past three years. I gave up my childhood, so why are you arguing about it now?"

"Because Hughes looks ready to kill me for getting you in so much danger." Mustang said.

Ed glanced at Hughes, who was glaring at Mustang. Sweat dropping, he turned back to the screen. Overprotective freaks.

The scene changed to Ed and Al sitting outside in the rain.

"Are you trying to get sick?" Sheska asked worriedly.

"Wow, even Sheska is being sarcastic to me." Ed grumbled.

"I've been thinking about this for a long. We put all our trust in alchemy, but in the end, what is it?" Edward asked. "'Alchemy is the science of understanding the flow of matter and its laws, the process of comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction. The world flows to and it must also follow laws, everything circulates. Even death is a part of that circulation. You must accept the flow.' Teacher sure drummed that into our heads, didn't she?"

"I'm more impressed you remember it exactly word for word after six years." Izumi commented.

"As I said, you drummed it into our heads." Edward said.

"Obviously not hard enough since you still tried to bring the dead back." Izumi growled.

Edward flinched.

Edward's downcast eyes were shown. "I thought I understood it. But I didn't understand anything." There was a flashback of a bloody hand clawing at a human transmutation circle. "Mom proves that. And now, here I am again, trying desperately to figure out a way to do the impossible." Nina was shown laughing as her dog licked her face. Sad music began to play as the scene went back to the brothers. "I'm such a hopeless idiot. All this time, I haven't grown up one bit. I thought may be the rain would wash away some of this gloom that's following me. But right now, every drop that hits my face is even more depressing." He bowed his head, not bothering to look up again.

Al turned his helmet to the sky. "I don't even get that much. Without a body, I can't feel the rain hitting my face. That's something I miss all the time. I want to get my body back soon, Brother. I just want to be human again. Even if it means going against the flow of the world and trying to do the impossible." As Al finished talking, the screen pulled back away from the brothers to show Scar standing in front of them.

"That's how you ran into Scar?" Riza said shocked. They hadn't even noticed a murderer standing right in front of them. He could have killed Edward so easily right there.

"I wonder how long he was standing there." Edward said.

"About a minute." Scar answered, surprising Ed since he didn't expect an answer.

"You can't let everything get you down and cause you to forget your surroundings." General Armstrong growled. "That is how you get killed."

"Right, right. I'll be more careful so I don't die." Ed muttered.

"You, boy, you're the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric, correct?" Scar asked.

Edward glanced up with empty eyes, not realizing the threat that was in front of him as Scar raised his right hand.

"So, you dare to attack him?" Izumi yelled angrily, rising to her feet and cracking her knuckles threateningly.

Ed and Al glanced away from the screen to look at Izumi in fear. "U-uh, teacher." Ed said, hesitantly reaching out a hand towards her, but she ignored him as she slammed her foot into a surprised Scar's face that sent him flying over the couch. Edward's head just dropped without warning in a dejected manner. "And there she goes." He said weakly.

"It looks like Scar can hold his own." Al said, watching as Scar managed to dodge most of Izumi's attacks.

"At least neither of them has their alchemy. Can you imagine what a fight with alchemy between them would be like?" Edward asked, sighing at the thought.

"We'd all be dead." Al replied.

Mustang blinked at the fight, amazed at how skilled this woman was. It was simply amazing. Still, though…. he turned back to the brothers. "You two have quite a protective teacher."

Ed weakly waved his hand. "She isn't protective at all."

"Yeah, she'll probably kill us later." Al agreed.

SMASH!

"She is truly a magnificent fighter!" Armstrong cried jovially.

"I don't really think this is the time to be cheering on a fight." Edward said blandly.

General Armstrong raised a brow. "It's almost like you want us to save Scar."

Ed scowled. "I could care less about that man. My problem is Teacher." He glanced at his brother. "Remember what would happen if we trained with her too long?"

SLAM!

"Yes, but she and Scar have only been going at it for a few minutes." Al pointed.

"Doesn't matter. She went easy on us so she wouldn't kill us. She isn't going easy on Scar so…" Edward trailed off.

CRASH!

Al jerked his head back to their teacher. If she wasn't going easy, she would over-exert herself faster, which meant…...And there it was! Their teacher froze in her fight with Scar. She coughed and blood gushed out of her mouth.

Her hand came up to cover her mouth.

"Teacher." Edward jumped over the back of the couch to get to his ex-teacher. He glanced at Scar, scowling at him, but not blaming him. Izumi caused that fight all on her own so he couldn't blame him. "You can stop now, Scar."

Scar nodded and went back to his sit, nursing his left arm since Izumi had managed to bruise it really well. He wouldn't be surprised if his bone was bruised from that.

"What was that?" Riza demanded of the brothers.

"Teacher is sick." Al supplied while his brother helped Izumi. "Brother, do you need anything?"

Ed glanced up from Izumi and nodded. "Can you get a towel and damp it?"

"Of course." Al said before heading to one of the bedrooms.

"Teacher," Edward said, lowering his voice so no one else heard. "This is happening because of your insides that were taken, correct?"

"Y-yes," Izumi managed to get out before she started coughing up more blood again.

Clanging brought Edward's attention back to his surroundings and he glanced up when Al held a towel out to him. He nodded in thanks and helped his teacher clean up the blood on her.

"How are you feeling?" Al asked worriedly. "Stop with all that pointless worrying." Izumi growled. "I am in top condition!"

As she said this, she coughed up more blood which caused the boys to give her deadpanned stares. "Yeah, you look really great." Edward supplied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. And people said that he was stubborn.

"Boys?" Riza asked when they were done helping their teacher.

Sighing, Ed folded his hands behind his hand as he came back from the bedroom where he went to get rid of the towel. "Yes, Lieutenant?"

"What is wrong with Izumi?"

"Oh, that?" Ed asked, glancing at his teacher. "She is just sick with something. We don't really know what it is."

"SICK?" Izumi yelled, jumping up from the couch to slam her foot into Ed's chest, sending him flying back from where he came. "I am in perfect condition, you brat!"

"Ugh," Was all Ed could say in reply from where he laid on the ground.

Al blinked and scooted away from Izumi. "Perhaps you shouldn't do such things at the moment." He said meekly, though some might think it was reckless after what just happened to his brother. "You might make yourself worse."

Izumi spun around, grabbed Al's arm and threw him after his brother. Ed, who was in the process of getting up was hit full force by his brother and sent flying through the wall to one of the bedrooms. The only positive side is that he landed on one of the soft beds where he fell unconscious as Al landed on him and knocked all the air from his body. "How can I make myself worse when I am not even sick?"

Mustang and many other soldiers glanced through the hole in the wall at the unconscious Ed and Al, who climbed off his brother and the bed before looking down at his pale brother. "Is Fullmetal alive?" Mustang asked, glancing at Izumi then at the boys.

Damn, that was one scary lady.

"Brother?" Al asked, shaking his brother's shoulder. "Brother, wake up!"

"He passed out from that attack?" Izumi growled. "You two obviously need more training."

'Demon.' Many of the soldiers thought fearfully, while others thought they finally figured out where Ed's demon streak came from. Who wouldn't pass out when they were hit by a heavy suit of armor and sent flying through a wall? The only logical thing from that would be a severe head injury.

"Don't you think that was a little extreme?" Hughes asked worriedly.

"Never. If someone doesn't kick their asses, they'll never get stronger." Izumi growled.

"Argh, that seems unfair." Edward muttered, sitting up on the bed, rubbing his aching head.

"How so?" Izumi demanded.

Glaring at her, Edward jumped off the bed, ignoring his brother's frantic wave of his hands and shushing noises. "You expelled us! We're not your students anymore. You have no right to say you're going to kick our asses into shape when you don't even consider us your students anymore."

"Brother," Al groaned, catching the pain that flashed in Izumi's eyes.

"Expelled?" Maria asked confused, only to be ignored by Ed, who walked passed his former teacher over to his spot on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Teacher." Al murmured.

Izumi frowned at the younger brother. "Stop apologizing for your brother all the time. He has to learn to take responsibility for his actions. But, in this case, he is right about what he said." She said the last part softly as if was mostly to herself as if she needed to remind herself that she was not their master anymore. And quietly, she went back to her seat on the couch.

"Damn, this is awkward." Darius mumbled, glancing between the silent Ed and sad Izumi.

Al glanced between them as well, unsure how to handle this. His brother was right in what he said, but the way he said it was wrong. And why was he so mad about Teacher kicking him through a wall anyway? But Izumi had looked so sad after what Edward said. But why? She was the one who had expelled them.

Damn, he was sure that if he had his body, he would be feeling a headache coming on from all this. Why did they both have to be so confusing? Unsure as to what to do and not wanting to take a side, Al sat down next to the couch.

General Armstrong was on, just so he could avoid them both.

"There is too much drama in this room." General Armstrong growled in annoyance. "How typical of teenagers."

"Though, their drama is coming from things that one wouldn't see in normal teenagers." Miles said with a smirk that wasn't at all amused at this situation.

"What even caused all this in the first place?" Buccaneer asked once everyone had settled down.

"Scar attacked Edward." Hawkeye replied with a sigh as she glanced at the brothers and Izumi. They had spread themselves out to avoid each other.

What did the boys mean by expelled? And why were they expelled? If they knew that, then maybe they could help fix whatever was wrong.

"Right, let's continue between anything else happens." Mustang said, hoping to avoid more awkward situations.

"Brother!" Al shouted, shocking Ed out of his depressing thoughts as he pulled him away from the danger. At that same time, the clock tower rung. Ed watched in shock as Scar changed directions to face the boys again. He clapped his hands in time and slammed them on the ground to create a barrier.

"What the hell is going on?" Edward asked, sitting on the ground in surprise.

"Well, Fullmetal is back in the right state of mind finally." Mustang commented.

"More like confused as hell so I don't have time to even think about being depressed." Edward snarled angrily, causing his friends to wince. It seems the boy was more pissed off about everything that happened with Izumi then they thought.

There was a sound of alchemy and a wall in the box Ed created was blown apart, throwing rocks and dirt in the boys' faces. Scar stood in front of them causing a look of fear to cross Ed's face. Scar stepped out of the box.

'Who is this guy? What does he want? This is bad…this is really bad…' Scar's hand was shown tensing, ready for another attack. 'I have to move. Now!'

"So, you do have a sense of danger?" Havoc commented. "And here we all thought you fought everyone that came after you."

"Only when I know I can handle them." Ed grumbled. He didn't mean to sound rude to them, but he was still trying to get his emotions in check. Izumi expelled them, then she attacked them, saying she had to get them in shape.

And then there were times when she took care of him after his body went through that hell of the human transmutation and she did comfort him about the Nina incident. That was the problem; he didn't have a damn clue as to what she was playing at. He had no idea how to handle her now that he was expelled and she was being so kind and, dare he say it, motherly to him at times. It hurt. After all these years, he had someone acting like a mother to him after his own died, and he didn't know what to do or how to go about dealing with it, especially since it was coming from his former teacher.

"And a sense of fear." Mustang said. "You said earlier you didn't have time for such emotions." Edward growled, definitely not in the mood to deal with this when he had his own thoughts whirling around and giving him a headache. "Well, sorry, I was confused as hell because what he did seemed impossible at the time. I had no idea what was happening or why he was after me since you never tell me anything!"

"I didn't know he was in the east. If I did, I would have given you an escort."

Mustang retorted.

"That's not the problem. The problem is that you heard of Scar, but never told me about him." Ed retorted. "You want me to tell you what I know, well, why don't you do the same thing, Mustang?"

"Should have told him about Liore sooner." Hughes muttered to his friend, suspecting that was one of the things the boy was furious about.

Mustang glared at his friend, but didn't reply. Hughes has only known the boys for a short while. He's known them for four years. He didn't need someone else telling him how to handle them. He knew what to expect from them, and most of them time, they weren't things he wanted to deal with or see, so he kept quiet about some things. No one had the right to lecture him about how to advise those boys. Fullmetal was his subordinate and he would be the one in direct control of what military information reached his ears, no one else. That boy didn't need any more guilt or pain on his shoulders.

"Al! Run!" Ed shouted and climbed to his feet to run towards the stairs with Al following him.

Scar destroyed the wall above the stairs to land in front of them on the stairs, surprising the boys enough to stop them.

"No wonder I have so much paperwork when it involves you." Mustang

grumbled.

"That was not my fault!" Ed shouted. "Scar did it!" [1]

He couldn't help it. Even though Ed was in an angst and angry mood, Havoc just started chuckling. "Chief, that sounded like a little kid blaming someone else for breaking something."

Edward groaned when Havoc's statement caused other people to imagine the scene he was referring to and they started to laugh.

"I have someone trying to kill me, and you say things like that." Edward grumbled.

"This is in the past. We save you." Havoc said, waving Edward off.

"Though, he does seem particular more destructive when he is coming after you." Hughes commented with a frown. "Any particular reason?"

Scar frowned. "He's the only one who ever ran from me, instead of attempting to fight me."

"Which is why he was able to survive long enough for us to save him." Mustang said.

"Survival instincts." Al said.

"Yep, after training for so long under a murderous Teacher," Edward paused and sent an awkward and nervous glance at Izumi. "We picked up on murderous intent really easily." Edward continued.

"Murderous intent?" Miles asked, glancing at the boys' former teacher, who was now staring at Edward with a strange look on her face. This was just getting too bizarre, even for the Briggs soldier. Why would their teacher have murderous intent towards her students?

Al nodded when it was obvious his brother didn't want to go into any more as he was shifting uncomfortably on the ground and shooting another glance at Izumi. "I can't count the number of times she threw knives at us for no reason or because we pissed her off."

"Knives?!" Havoc shouted, staring at the boys' ex-teacher in absolute fear.

Who the hell threw knives at kids?

"Well, yeah, how do you think our reflexes got so good?" Edward asked confused, turning back to his friends, as if it was perfectly normal to have a teacher throw knives at him.

General Armstrong looked at the woman and smirked. Now here was someone who understood that training could not be soft if the students were to grow into strong people. Though, even she had to wonder, why did she expel them? It was obvious they were expelled from being her students, but why? She seemed to care about their well-being, but if she no longer taught them, then she couldn't help them get stronger.

"You're not getting away." Scar said, hand tensing again to destroy the stairs. The boys started to fall before Al grabbed a part of the stairs that weren't destroyed and caught his brother by his ankle.

"Brother!"

Edward swung upside down for a moment before he stopped. He gasped when he saw Scar touching the wall and destroying the rest of the stairs. The boys fell, screaming, to the next set of stairs.

"Destroying the whole city." Mustang groaned. "No wonder there was so much paperwork after this whole incident."

Scar started walking down the stairs when Ed glanced at him. To attempt to get away, Ed clapped his hands. "Al, grab on." He said as he put his hands on the stairs. The ground they were on shot out and away from Scar before he was able to destroy it.

The destruction of it caused the boys to flip off it and roll down the hilly road before they manage to get on their feet and run away.

"So, what is your plan at this point in time?" Walkers asked, having not been involved in the rescue of the Elric brothers.

"Get as far away as possible and hope the news of a fight that is destroying the city gets to someone's ears." Edward replied more calmly then he did earlier. If he didn't think about and stopped looking at his former teacher, maybe the air in the room would return to normal. "Actually, we were already on the move to find you before this. We then followed the path of destruction." Riza explained. "I saw the general direction you went when you left HQ earlier so we started there."

"Well, thank you for saving us." Al said. "Brother would be dead if it wasn't for you."

Ed groaned. "Let's just forget that part already."

"As long as you don't do it again." Armstrong said, frowning. "You had scared us all when we saw you give up."

Ed blinked, shock overwhelming the angst mood he was in. "Y-you…You were there at that point?! Why didn't you intervene sooner? You could have saved my arm!"

The Briggs soldiers were confused at the last statement, but didn't question it.

Soldiers from the east were just plain strange, and besides, they would probably discover the meaning of it later.

"We were still setting up our ambush. The plan was for you to fight back a bit more so we had more time, but when you gave up, we had to improvise." Mustang explained.

Edward groaned to himself. He couldn't believe he let his comrades see him just give up on life like that, especially since he always portrayed himself as a strong person to them.

"Damn it, what the hell is this guy's problem?" Edward asked. "Making enemies isn't something that I…." Ed paused and a frown crossed his face. "Well, I never really avoided it, but there's no reason someone should be trying to kill me!"

Riza sighed. Someone should really teach this boy to be more careful about who he angers. He was going to make a lot of enemies, if he hasn't already, that were going to come for his life.

"I can think of plenty of reasons why someone would try to kill you." Mustang said, smirking when Ed shot him a challenging glare.

"You've help get them arrested." Breda said.

Ed frowned. Great, now they were all in on it. "Well, that shouldn't mean they'll come after me. I mean, a lot of soldiers do that. It's just job."

"You've destroyed their attempts of terrorist attacks." Havoc said, remembering the train incident with Bald. Scowling, Ed stubbornly crossed his arms. "Well, they shouldn't do it while I'm around, especially when I am trying to sleep. Damn annoying terrorist can't do anything at the proper time."

Mustang frowned. "Fullmetal…."

"Argh, this is just like that time when we were on that train and you said to ignore the fact that terrorist took over the train." Al mumbled.

Mustang smacked his forehead. "Fullmetal, as a soldier, you are supposed to keep things like this from happening."

"Yeah, yeah. I took care of it in the end." Ed snapped, running his fingers through his hair in annoyance.

"Only because the terrorist in the car we were in saw your pocket watch and tried to shoot you after calling you short." Al argued. "You destroyed their evil cults bent on taking over the country."

"Nothing is ever peaceful with you around." Havoc muttered. "Why weren't you willing to handle it then?"

"My automail was broken." Ed grumbled. "By the time I was done with those stupid terrorists, it was completely destroyed."

"And you had a bullet in your leg." Al said sadly. He had agreed with his brother in not getting involved that time. Since his automail was malfunctioning, it was more dangerous that time for him to do so, but they had no choice when it was revealed who he was and the people in their car heard. They had to intervene then when the truth was out.

"You got shot?" Riza asked shocked and worried.

Ed shrugged. "Automail malfunctioning plus fighting a train full of terrorists is not a good idea."

Falman, thoughtfully and wanting to get away from the conversation about terrorists, said, "You beat them out for being a State Alchemist as a child."

"Ah," Havoc nodded. "Yes, that would make many people angry. Who would want to lose to a brat at being a State Alchemist?"

"You broke my rules." Izumi added in causing Edward to twitch. Yeah, he was more scared of his ex-teacher then any enemy he ever made.

Edward raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright. I've done plenty of things that someone would want to get revenge against me for."

"It might be a good idea to stop angering people." Walkers commented.

"Not possible if this jerk," Ed jerked his head at Mustang, "keeps sending me on these stupid missions."

Ed and Al ran down an alley with Scar chasing after them. Alchemical energy travelled along the wall ahead of them to destroy it to block their path.

"Yowww!" Edward shouted. Kneeling on the ground, he looked over at Scar with a frown. "Who are you? Why are you coming after us?"

"As long as they are 'creators' like you in the world, then they must also be 'destroyers.'" Scar replied.

"It looks like we're going to have to fight." Edward clapped his hands. As Al stood up, Ed put his hand on one of the broken pipes and changed it into a knife.

"Why did you use a knife anyway?" Havoc asked. "I thought you always used your automail."

"I only use my automail when I have to transmute while running and don't have a choice, when there is nothing else around, or when I have my jackets off." Edward replied.

"Again, with the clothes." Breda muttered.

"It's the only coat I have and it is getting stretched and ruined every time I have to transmute it to fix it." Edward grumbled.

Al chuckled. "That, and when he changes his automail too much, it messes with the designs and needs fixed."

"That seems like a better explanation then it's because of his clothes." Walkers said, chuckling.

When Ed raised his knife, Scar smirked. "Gutsy one, aren't you?"

Ed pushed off the ground and charged at Scar with Al following behind him.

Scar's hand tensed once more. "But."

Ed and Al attacked at the same time, but Scar was able to evade both of their attacks. "Too slow." Scar said and as he was passing them, his hand twisted around to attack Al's armor, blowing a giant hole in the side.

"Argh, there goes my body." Al groaned.

"At least you can't feel it." Ed replied. Damn, he couldn't imagine what Al would be going through right now if he could feel that.

Ed looked over his shoulder in shock. "Al!"

Al was shown lying on the ground, his whole right side in pieces.

"There's nothing inside." Scar thought. "You bastard!" Ed screamed, lunging at Scar, but his right arm was caught.

"Too slow." Scar said, trying to blast Ed's arm off, which resulted in Edward flying backwards, much to Scar's surprise.

Edward landed on his back and rolled over. He jumped to his feet, removing his coat. "Damn it." He growled.

"That automail arm? Then that explains why my attacks didn't do the damage I expected." Scar said as he came out of the alley.

Ed stared at him as he tossed his coat to the side and clapped his hands again. This time he changed his arm into a blade.

"Now that would be useful." Miles commented.

"Yeah, depends on how strong the opponent is though." Edward grumbled.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't count the number of times my arm has gotten busted because of people managing to mess it up one way or another." Ed mumbled.

Al blinked. "Isn't that because you go around revealing it so much? If they didn't know it was automail, they probably wouldn't screw it up so much."

"Wouldn't they just ruin his arm anyway even if they didn't realize it wasn't metal?" Havoc asked confused.

Al shook his head. "You'd be surprised at how many people we meet that are actually quite reluctant to do anything gory like ripping or cutting an arm off.

They become more vicious when they see he has automail because they can tear it off without have to see all the blood and bone."

"Tear off? You're speaking figuratively, right?" Maria asked.

"No, I really had a person tear off both my arm and leg. Because he actually tore them off, he left pieces jammed into the ports." Edward explained, rubbing his shoulder at the thought of that incident. That had been really painful.

"I remember that. Winry about killed you when she saw your automail." Al said, grimacing at the memory.

"But that wasn't your fault." Brosh pointed out.

Ed shrugged. "Yeah, but it will just scare her if we tell her everything that happens with us, so we just let her blame me for my broken automail."

"Seems dangerous to your health." Armstrong commented, remembering what happened when he took the boys to Resembool.

Edward waved him off. "I am actually quite used to her hitting me so it's not a problem."

"Think he's a masochist?" Zampano chuckled.

"That, or he's in love." Heinkel retorted, grinning. These Elric brothers were quite amusing. He could learn to like listening to all this banter.

"Brother, don't." Al said. "Just run away."

Ed threw his arm to his side. "You idiot!" Scar took over the screen as Ed continued. "I'm not going to leave you behind, Al."

"You press your hands together to make a ring, and then you perform transmutation." Scar raised his hand. "Now I see." He said as Ed charged at him.

Once again, Scar managed to dodge Ed's blade and caught his wrist. He put his right hand at Ed's shoulder. "I will have to start by destroying this abhorrent right arm of yours." There was the sound of alchemical energy followed by the clanging of metal before Ed's arm shattered and fell to the ground in hundreds of pieces.

Hanging his head, dejected, Ed mumbled, "And there goes my arm. We are now, officially, in pieces, Brother."

"So that's what he meant about his arm." Buccaneer said, frowning. This boy really didn't take good care of his automail like he should. Granted, this time wasn't his fault, but it was still maintained badly. Automail was a part of him, and if it wasn't properly taken care of it, it would break when he truly needed it.

Edward looked at the Colonel out of the corner of his eye. "How the hell did I miss you arriving there? I should have at least heard the cars."

Mustang shrugged. "Perhaps you were just having an off day. I can believe it by seeing the horrible fight you gave Scar. I thought you were a better fighter than this."

"Obviously he hasn't had nearly enough training as I thought he did." Izumi growled. "The only good thing I have seen from all your fights is that you don't rely solely on alchemy."

"Well," Ed mumbled. "You taught us to not use it so much. We need to train our bodies as well as our minds, right? All those brawls are a good way for me to focus on becoming a better fighter since I am not at Al's level yet."

"You're going to fully admit Al is a better martial artist?" Havoc said shocked, thinking that Ed's pride wouldn't let him do such a thing.

Ed shrugged. "Well, it's obvious. Thought everyone knew that."

"Brother is the better alchemist, while I am the better fighter." Al agreed.

"Isn't that because you can't transmute without a circle so you have to rely on martial arts in a fight while Fullmetal can transmute quickly to protect himself?" Mustang asked.

Ed scowled. "It doesn't matter how fast I transmute, there are still times I can't rely on alchemy, like when my opponent is fast and doesn't pause to allow me time to transmute like Scar just did in this fight."

"And in those times, you rely on Al to save you?" Izumi asked dangerously.

"Sometimes, but when he isn't around, I usually find another way to save myself or deceive my opponent." Edward replied, shrugging.

"Hmm, maybe we should assign you a gun." Mustang mused.

Edward frowned. He despised guns. They were used to kill, but, then again, so was alchemy. But at least with alchemy he could control what he did. His skill with a gun wasn't as good as his skill with alchemy.

"Brother!" Al shouted.

Edward's face appeared with shock written all over it as he fell to the ground. His destroyed arm was shown to be in pieces before Ed was shown sitting on the ground with Scar standing in front of him.

"It amazes me that there are still people standing there when there is a fight to the death going on in the street." Al said, staring at the civilians in the background.

"People rarely care for others." Ed said. "They're not the ones being attacked. They don't know what is going on. So, they will just stand there and watch or ignore it. That is how some humans are."

"Now you won't be able to use your alchemy." Scar said.

"Maybe I should start carrying chalk or a pocketknife on me." Edward grumbled. "I get the chalk, but why the pocketknife?" Havoc asked confused. "So, I can cut myself and use my blood to draw circles." Edward explained. "Isn't that a bit extreme?" Kain asked. Edward shook his head. "Never. In a life and death situation, nothing is too extreme." "Well, he understands some things at least." General Armstrong said.

Edward stared at Scar. His hair was falling messily into his face and wires were hanging out of his automail port. He gasped and put his hand on the ground behind him.

"Wow, Chief, you look like a horrible mess." Brody said, frowning, not noticing the nickname that slipped from his lips.

"Well, you know, having someone try to kill you does that to you." Edward retorted, running a hand through his bangs to straighten them out before glancing at the soldier. He really wasn't expecting any of his other comrades to start using his nickname.

When he tried to crawl back, he fell onto his side, pushing his face into the ground.

"Did that happen because you were unbalanced?" Breda asked.

"Yeah, it felt so strange missing an arm like that." Edward said, frowning.

Even when he was eleven, he never noticed the lack of balance he had with one limb. It was probably because he was evened out by missing a limb from both sides of his body at the time. "It caused Phantom Limbs to appear once more with it gone."

"Can you imagine what it would be been like if you lost two limbs on the same side of your body?" Avery asked.

Ed groaned. "Sounds horrible. I would be completely off balanced with how heavy these stupid things are."

"Better not let Winry hear you call her creations stupid." Al warned, chuckling when his brother twitched.

Mustang smirked. "Maybe that is why your growth is so stunted."

"ARE YOU CALLING ME SHORT?!" Edward screamed.

"What was your first clue?" Mustang asked. "The word growth or stunted?"

"I think he is just pointing out a logical reason to why you are short, Brother." Al tried to tell his brother to calm him down, not realizing he admitted to his brother being short.

CLANG!

Edward had slammed his bare automail foot into Al's chest, sending him flying over a couch, which had all the soldiers ducking for cover so they wouldn't lose their heads. "Even my own brother has betrayed me." From behind the couch, Al groaned. He hadn't meant it like that.

Edward was shown staring into the ground as Scar started walking towards him. "I will give you a moment to pray to God."

"Oh, you will?" Mustang asked, glaring at the murderer. "Well, I didn't see

you giving that chance to anyone else!"

"Why did you say that?" Edward asked curiously. "Everyone else was killed on the spot."

"Maybe he's just reluctant to kill a child who had nothing to do with the war, but will still do so since he is a State Alchemist." Hughes suggested. Izumi glared at the man. How dare this guy attacked one of her precious…. ex-students? But even though she wanted to kill him, she knew she couldn't, not here. And besides, she did notice one thing about him.

"Perhaps he is more of a compassionate man then anyone of us would like to think, but he is simply furious about what the military did to his people. Vengeance is all that is running him now. You have lost yourself, Scar."

Scar glared at the woman. He has lost himself, has he? What did she know? She knew nothing about him or his race that was killed because of that despicable and unwanted war. It was all this country's fault for everything that had happened. He could never forgive it or its people for taking away his home and his family.

Al pushed himself up to his arms. "Brother, run away." He shouted pleadingly. Ed was shown as Scar took the last few steps to him.

"Unfortunately," he said. "There isn't any God I'd like to pray to." His hand was shown with rain pelting down on it. "Am I the only one you're trying to kill today? Or are you going after my brother, Al, too?" Scar appeared on the screen with Al in the alley behind him.

"If he interferes, I will eliminate him. But, Fullmetal Alchemist, you are the only one who is receiving judgment."

"Judgment?" Izumi hissed. "He had nothing to do with the war in Ishval. He is completely innocent of those sins."

"But he is not innocent of the sin of breaking the taboo, human transmutation." Scar retorted. "No alchemist is truly innocent. They have all done something with their despicable alchemy."

"That may be," Izumi growled, flashes of her sin flashing in her mind. "But those sins are not yours to judge!"

"Oh, yeah?" Edward asked, hand tightening into a fist. He turned his head to stare at Scar. "In that case, I want your word. Promise me that you won't hurt my brother."

Izumi's eyes narrowed. "So, you really were going to let yourself get killed and leave your brother alone?" She hissed angrily.

Edward glared at the ground. How many times was he going to get reprimanded for this? "Yes, I got it. I made a mistake. I was foolish and stupid to give up then."

"And that fighting was horrible. You need more training." Izumi muttered.

"Can't just have an off day. No, must be insulted and have it said I need more training. Having an off day just isn't allowed apparently." Edward grumbled to himself, causing quite a few people, including his brother, to sweat drop.

"And it has to be the lady who kicked me out who says I need more training. Where does she get the right?"

Mustang raised a brow. "Fullmetal, will you stop mumbling to yourself? If you don't, I might just think you've gone insane and send you to a mental institute."

Edward looked up from his grumbling to glare at his superior, but did as he said and stopped talking. He had no doubt in his mind that his superior would actually lock him up in one of those places, even if it was just for a day or two.

Al gasped. "Brother…"

"I will keep that promise." Scar said.

"Would you have really kept it?" Edward asked.

"Yes, I am a man of my word." Scar said.

"That's good."

Mustang sighed. "Fullmetal, don't make it a habit of making promises with mass murderers."

Ed blinked.

"You're still such a child." Mustang said quietly.

"I don't." Ed said. "Whatever it takes to keep Al alive though."

"Even betraying your country?" Havoc asked curiously. Edward looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well," He drawled, causing quite a few soldiers to glare at him for even having to think about it. "I would probably betray the country, but act more like a double agent or try to. It would be kind of difficult since I probably couldn't very well get any help from anyone."

"Argh, that's it. When we get out of here, or maybe later when we take a break, I am teaching you codes and Morse codes." Mustang growled, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Just thinking of training that kid in codes was giving him a headache. "Why the hell I never did before is beyond me."

"There are many things you should have taught the brat sooner." General Armstrong growled. "Just because he is a kid doesn't mean you shouldn't teach him anything. That is the way that people get killed."

"Right, right, but I don't want you telling me how to handle my brat of a subordinate." Mustang said. "It is, after all, quite confusing and irritating when the subordinate is just a child."

"Stupid soldiers." Edward grumbled to himself. It's not like he even planned to be in the military for so long that he would need any of that stupid information.

Al leaned forward. "No. Brother, what are you trying to do?" Ed was shown, still lying with his face on the ground. "What are you thinking? Run!" Al was shown, staring at his brother. "Get up and run!" Scar's hand was shown slowly reaching for Ed. "Stop! Don't touch him!" His hand was a few inches from Ed's head. Al desperately reached a hand forward. "No, you can't! STOP IT!"

A gun was shown being fired into the air.

"That was really too close for comfort." Karin said, shuddering. She hadn't realized just how close to death the boy had been. She just remembered seeing him being brought to headquarters with a missing arm.

"Idiot boy. How dare you give up so easily?" Izumi growled. "Or even think about abandoning your brother like that? How would you have felt if that was Al in your position?"

"Weak, helpless, lost, scared, angry, desperate." Edward listed, frowning. "I always think about the chance of losing Al. I would be scared to death and angry about losing him. I would probably go mad with anger and kill the bastard who dared to touch my brother."

Al shook his head. "Brother, you know that isn't what I would want. Don't even think about something like that." He pleaded, reaching out for his brother's arm. Smirking, Ed raised his automail arm and knocked it against his brother's arm. "What are you worrying about? Mustang and the others would probably tie me down and hit me over the head a million times until they got it through my skull that it's not the right path."

"I'd probably lock him in a cell and take away his automail so he couldn't escape." Mustang said, shrugging.

"You could just shoot him in the leg to keep him down." Riza suggested.

"Or just send him to live with his teacher so she can take care of fixing his mind." Havoc proposed.

Edward shuddered. "Al never dies. I'd rather not have to deal with these cruel, cruel, sadistic people."

"In return, you're not allowed to die either, so no more trying to sacrifice yourself." Al scolded.

"Right, right. We're all we have left, so we have to look after each other." Edward said, smiling sadly. "My mistake. Won't happen again, Brother." And the two brothers bumped their fists.

"Ever seen brothers that close before?" Zampano asked. Jerso shook his head. "Those two will never abandon someone. They certainly are loyal ones."

The gunshot shocked Ed and Scar out of their trance.

"That's enough." Mustang's voice rang out. The scene rose to show Mustang, gun still raised in the air, with his soldiers and all their cars behind him with their guns pointed at Scar. "You won't be killing anybody else today, Scar. I'm taking you into custody, where you will answer for the murders of at least ten State Alchemists."

Scar stood up straight. "Alchemists are those who change things from their natural form into something grotesque. That is to say, they profane God, the Creator of all things. As an agent of God, I am he who hands down his judgment. If you interfere, I will eliminate you as well."

Mustang smirked. "Oh? Is that right?" He shoved his gun into Hawkeye's hands, surprising her. "You guys stay out of this."

"Colonel Mustang." Hawkeye said.

"You idiot!" General Armstrong growled. "Have you forgotten how useless you are in the rain?"

"He forgot." Breda, Havoc, and Darin, who was there at the time, chorused. Ed shook his head. "How could you forget something so vital?" "How could you forget something so vital as how your brother would feel with you sacrificing yourself?" Mustang retorted, causing Ed to scowl at him.

"Low blow." He hissed angrily.

"Colonel Mustang…" Scar said. "So, this is the Flame Alchemist." His hand tensed for a moment before the screen flashed to Edward, who was still lying on the ground with Scar standing over him. "Volunteering yourself to receive judgment." Scar stepped over Edward to charge at Mustang. "This is truly an auspicious day."

"So, you know who I am." Mustang said as he pulled his gloves on. "And you still want to challenge me. Bad decision."

Hawkeye ran after Mustang. As Mustang snapped his fingers, there was a puff of smoke and Hawkeye knocked his feet out from under him so Scar's hand missed his head. Scar stared down at a shocked Mustang. Hawkeye pulled her two guns out and fired them repeatedly after Scar, who jumped back and dodged the bullets.

"Truly a remarkable soldier," General Armstrong said before giving a side glance at Mustang. "Unlike someone."

"I can't tell if they hate each other or not." Ed commented to his brother, glancing at Mustang and General Armstrong.

"Don't ask me. I'm just as clueless." Al said.

Scar jumped behind a building for cover.

The scene went back to Hawkeye staring forward with Mustang still on the ground behind her. "Hey, Hawkeye. What'd the hell you do that for?"

Hawkeye raised her gun. "Colonel, you're useless on rainy days, so please, stay back."

Mustang hung his head, dejected, while Havoc looked up at the sky with a raised hand. "Oh, right. He can't make sparks when it's this soggy, huh?"

Scar leaned against the wall of the building he was hiding behind. "It is fortunate that you cannot create flames, State Alchemist." He came out from behind the building to face the soldiers, who were staring back at him. "For I will destroy all who interfere with my mission, right here and now."

Armstrong appeared behind Scar with his fist raised. "Just try it." He said and brought his fist down to the ground, destroying it as Scar jumped away to dodge it.

"A newcomer?" Scar said.

"You have to be quick to avoid my fist." Armstrong said as he pulled his fist from the ground. "Not bad. Not bad at all." The screen pulled back away from them. "You said you would destroy us all, right?" As he said this, soldiers' feet pounded on the ground to surround them before Ed appeared, still lying on the ground, watching them.

"Was the ground really that comfortable for you to lie there so long?" Mustang asked.

"Shut up. I was still in shock." Edward snapped.

"Then you can start by defeating me!" Armstrong declared as a couple of soldiers went to Ed with one of them kneeling down in front of him.

Armstrong appeared on the screen again. "We'll see how you fare against the Strong-Arm Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong!"

"Yet another State Alchemist." Scar said as music began in the background. "God is putting them in my path for me."

"If that was so, we would all be dead." Armstrong said.

"Not backing down?" Armstrong asked, bending down to the ground to pick up a piece of rubble. "In that case, your courage will earn you a demonstration." He raised his hand with the rubble in the air. "I'll show you the art of alchemy that has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations!"

Havoc raised a disorientated Edward off the ground, keeping him up and stable by keeping his hands on the kid's shoulders. They turned their attention back to the fight at hand.

The rubble flew from the sky. Before it could hit the ground, Armstrong hit with his gauntlet, transmuting it into a projectile that went flying at

Scar, who leaned to the side to dodge it.

Edward stared at the man. "Who is he?"

"The criminal who murdered Mr. Tucker." Havoc told him. Edward looked at him shocked before the scene went back to Scar who had stone spikes flying at him. Before they could hit him, he used his right hand to destroy them.

"It's him…?" Edward asked.

"Major, watch what you're doing!" Havoc yelled at him from his place next to Ed, who was now sitting up by himself with his hand covering his automail port. "We don't want to destroy the city, do we?"

"It's already destroyed though." Ed pointed out.

"We don't want to destroy it any more than it already is." Havoc clarified.

Armstrong turned his head to Havoc, sparkling for some reason. "What do you mean?" His hand was raised with sparkles all around him as the screen lowered to show his muscles. "Destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin! You must destroy to create! That is the law of the universe!"

"Did he have to strip?" Hawkeye asked as Havoc and the MPs around him stared deadpanned at him.

"Idiot." General Armstrong scoffed.

"Does she dislike her brother?" Ed asked his brother.

Al sighed. "Brother, stop asking me. I am just as much in the dark as you are."

"Are you surprised? He's clearly insane." Havoc said with no emotion.

Armstrong sparkled again. "Non-alchemists may fail to see the inherent truth of that statement, but we understand, don't we, Scar?"

"So, this killer is an alchemist too?" Mustang said.

"That's it." Edward said. "The stages of transmutation process are comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction. This guy must just stop at the deconstruction stage."

"But if Scar is an alchemist as well, doesn't that mean he's strayed from whatever his 'ways of God' are too?" Havoc asked.

Armstrong slammed his hand into the ground to create more spikes.

"But what would be his reasons for only targeting alchemists with state certification?" Mustang asked.

Scar destroyed those spikes as well. Armstrong charged at him, swinging his fists at him, which Scar dodged. At one point, Armstrong slammed his fist into the ground to create more spikes, which Scar destroyed again. Scar tried to aim from his face, but Armstrong pushed his hand out of the way.

Scar dodged back. "He's unusually coordinated for his size and his strength is almost superhuman. That combined with his alchemy, he won't be an easy one."

Scar was forced to stop as his back hit a wall.

"I have you cornered, Scar." Armstrong shouted; fists ready to come down on the man.

Scar turned back to face him. "But there's a moment when his swing is too wide." When he noticed Armstrong's swing was too wide, he took his chance to lung forward, but Armstrong jumped back just in time to avoid him.

"He's backing up?" Scar turned to face the soldiers again to see Hawkeye shoot her gun. She fired a few shots. One bullet hit the wall, while another hit his glasses, knocking them off. Scar slid a bit on the wet ground, blood splashing on the ground.

"You get him?" Mustang asked.

"He's too fast. I only grazed him with one shot." Hawkeye said, lowering her gun.

Scar's face was shown. There was blood on his forehead. He raised his head, revealing his blood red eyes as the blood drizzled down his face.

"Red eyes and brown skin!" Armstrong said. "That means he's…."

"Of course. He's an Ishvalan!" Mustang said.

Scar stared at the soldiers, all lined with their guns pointed at him.

"Perhaps there are too many."

"You might as well just give up. You're not getting away." Mustang said with his hand raised.

Scar ignored him as he put his hand on the ground, creating an alchemical light that surrounded the ground he was on. The whole part he was on was destroyed, creating a big smokescreen. The soldiers yelled in shocked at the trembles, it produced.

"That bastard is in the sewers." Havoc said.

"Stay put." Mustang said.

"Sure, you don't have to tell me twice." Havoc retorted.

"Sorry, Armstrong." Mustang said. "But thank you for buying us enough time to surround him."

Armstrong shook his head. "I was hardly buying time. It was all I could do to keep myself from being killed."

Hughes popped up behind them. "Oh, is it over?" He asked.

"Why exactly are you in the military if you are just going to hide like that?" Edward asked dryly.

"I'm not about to attempt to face off against you freaks. I like living." Hughes retorted.

"Doesn't everyone?" Edward asked.

Hughes smirked. "I'm not sure. That was a pretty stupid stunt you pulled."

"ARGH!" Ed screamed, pulling at his hair.

The soldiers turned to face him.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, where have you been this whole time?"

Armstrong demanded.

"I thought it best to lay low." Hughes replied. Mustang developed an angry twitch. "You didn't think about maybe backing us up?"

"Of course not!" Hughes retorted. "A person like me shouldn't get dragged into a freak show with you pack of pseudo-humans. It's bad for my health!" He turned to the other soldiers around. "Don't just stand there. We've got things to do." Edward was shown on the screen, staring ahead, as Hughes continued. "Deploy troops! Circulate his description!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Oh, no." Ed whispered. "Alphonse." He stood up from the ground and ran over to his brother, who was now leaning against the alley wall.

"Alphonse!" He ran passed the soldiers, who stared at him, and kneeled in front of his brother, putting a hand on the injured part of the armor.

"Al, talk to me. Are you alright?"

The screen changed to Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, and Armstrong watching the boys. "That suit of armor is Elric's younger brother, is it?"

"There's got to be a really long story behind this one." Havoc said.

"I was right." Havoc said, recalling the flashback. "Though, I should have added dark and sad to my description of the story."

"It's not like any one of us could have possibly predicted that." Brody said.

"None of us thought alchemy could do something so horrible."

"Come on, Al." Edward said. "Do you hear me?" Al's fist came up to punch his brother, shocking the soldiers.

"Why didn't you run away when I told you to? What kind of idiot are you?" Al shouted.

"No way. I'm not just going to run away and leave you behind." Edward argued.

"Which is exactly why you're an idiot." Al shouted before punching his brother again, shocking and horrifying the soldiers again.

"Why do you two always have to get violent when you fight?" Riza asked with a sigh.

Ed blinked. "It's how we sort things out."

"How does that sort anything out? All you're doing is punching each other." Maria said.

Shrugging, Ed leaned back on his hands. "Works for us, right, Al?"

Al nodded. "We were always fighting like this, even before we were trained."

"Yeah, I remember, we would fight and argue, then you would run off and sit in front of the river until I came to find you." Ed said.

"And you had a heartfelt talk or apology?" Karin asked.

Ed laughed. "No way in hell."

"Yep, Brother would always just stand behind me until I noticed and jumped to my feet to glare at him, ready for another fight. But Brother never raised a fist then. He would just say, 'come on, Al' and start walking away, leaving me to follow after him." Al said.

The woman, except Izumi and General Armstrong shook their heads, exasperated at the boys. It must be because they were so close that these boys understood each other well enough to know that it was just way of forgiving each other.

Ed leaned against the opposite alley wall, holding his cheek where he was hit. "What do you keep punching like that me for? If I had run away, you could have been killed; you know that?"

"And maybe I wouldn't have been." Al retorted. "Making the decision to die is something only an idiot does!"

An angry look passed Ed's face. He removed his hand from his face and put it on his knee. "Hey, easy on the idiot stuff. I'm still your older brother, got it?"

"I'll say is all I want to." Al shouted, causing a surprised look to pass over Ed's face. He reached out and grabbed his brother by his shirt to pull him up. "Survival is the only way, Ed. Live on. Learn more about alchemy. You could find a way to get our bodies back and help people like Nina. You can't do that by dying! I won't allow you to abandon the possibility of hope and choose a meaningless death." As he said the last part, pain and sadness filled his voice.

"Nice one, Chief. You really hurt your brother there." Havoc said.

"Oh, shut up! I got this already." Edward snapped, rubbing his hair in annoyance. "Sheesh, I won't die a stupid death."

"Be sure to remember that promise." Mustang commented idly. "You cause me enough paperwork as it is."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Can you forget your paperwork for once already? Sheesh, paperwork this, paperwork that. It's like you are having a love affair with all your stupid paperwork."

"What?" Mustang yelped.

Ed grinned slyly. "Oi, oi, what's this? Not protesting, Colonel?"

"I am not having an affair with paperwork, you damn brat." Mustang snarled. Two flesh fingers went up to Ed's forehead as a look of disbelief crossed his face. "Of course, what was I thinking? The Lieutenant would shoot you if you betrayed her." Those who knew Mustang started to snicker, except for

Hawkeye who was half-glaring and half-blushing at Edward, while silently wishing she had her gun back.

"I'll kill you." Mustang snarled.

Edward smirked in reply. "I think Chief won that one." Falman said.

"Mark it down in the record book." Havoc replied, smirking. They were bound to get quite a few Flame-Fullmetal arguments here. Of course, only the ones that weren't serious counted to them. The really serious ones were dangerous ground to trend on.

When Al was finished speaking, he pulled back slightly and his arm broke from his armor and fell to the ground. "Oh, great!" Ed stared at the arm for a moment before blinking and looking up at his brother sadly before hanging his head. "And now my arm's come off because my brother is a big, fat idiot!"

"How was that one my fault?" Ed demanded. "It was Scar who blew up your side! Why does everyone keep blaming me for his actions on this day?"

"It's usually your fault." Mustang said, shrugging. Ed growled low in his throat. "Can't I ever just be the victim without being blamed?"

"No." Many of the eastern soldiers said.

"Even when you get kidnapped, all you do is get mad, piss off your kidnappers, escape, beat the shit out of them, destroy the building they have you in, and come back to the Command Center covered in blood that's not even yours, dust, grime, and dirt." Mustang said, much to the amusement of the soldiers who were around to hear this story. Those kidnappers were practically begging the soldiers to save them after Ed got back. "I know they kidnapped you, but you still went a bit overboard."

"That was one time." Ed grumbled.

"Yes, because everyone else is too scared to attempt to kidnap the Fullmetal Alchemist again after that incident." Havoc teased.

General Armstrong smirked. She was liking this kid more and more. He didn't seem to take shit from anyone and was quite strong for someone his size and age. If he could get captured, and then escape on his own, he was an impressive brat. "Why did they kidnap you?"

Ed shrugged. "I never bothered to find out why. It was probably for some stupid reason that I didn't care about."

"They were hoping to draw the Colonel out to them so they could kill him." Riza explained as they did interrogate the people once they were arrested.

Well, a private interrogation away from military eyes where the Colonel could let his anger out on them for touching one of his subordinates. Snorting, Ed looked back at his superior. "Did they now?"

"Yes, but you showed up at Eastern Command Center two hours after we got a call from the kidnappers." Mustang shrugged. "Still have to wonder why they waited two days after they got you to call."

"Oh," Ed said. Two days, huh? Damn, he should have been able to escape faster than that. "I don't do well with being restrained."

"Clearly. You were so impatient." Breda said, smirking. Ed shrugged. "Well, as I said, it was a stupid reason."

"We're really falling apart, aren't we, Brother?" Edward asked. "We look like we belong in a junk yard."

"But we're still alive." Al replied.

"And that is all that really matters." Maria said, sighing in relief. "Injuries and being in pieces don't matter as long as you are alive and safe."

"Mm-hmm, we are." Ed said without raising his head.

Mustang and Hughes appeared on the screen, watching the boys. While Hughes was frowning, Mustang had a small smile.

"Why the hell are you smiling?" Ed demanded.

"Because we got there in time and saved you. Aren't we allowed to be happy about that?" Havoc asked. Ed blinked. He guesses he would be happy if he made it in time to save a friend too. "Oh."

"Good grief. I've stumbled into an extra kind of special freak show, huh?" Hughes asked.

"How rude, Hughes." Edward joked.

"I'm not wrong." Hughes teased.

"Yeah, sorry." Mustang said. Hughes shrugged. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone upstairs."

"You don't even know what is going on, and you're already making that promise?" Al asked surprised. Hughes shrugged.

"Well, it was obvious Roy already knew what was going on and he kept it quiet. He's my best friend and I know he has his reasons. I wouldn't betray his trust like that."

Hawkeye kneeled behind Ed and put her military jacket over his shoulders, surprising him enough to cause him to look up at her.

"If this got out, things would get complicated." Hughes said as a smiling Hawkeye was shown looking down at Ed.

"And that was the only time we will probably ever see Chief wearing at least part of the military uniform." Havoc said.

"Why doesn't he wear it?" Miles asked.

Mustang shrugged. "He is hardly ever around the office, and when he is, he is only there briefly so there is no point in him wearing it. If I made him wear it on missions, it would cause him to stick out and get him in trouble with the people who call him the 'hero of the people.' It would be like betraying them, which would get him in extra trouble, and cause me more paperwork.

Fullmetal would be mad about being forced to wear it. All in all, it would just cause me more headaches that aren't worth it."

"And here I thought it was just because you didn't want to put a kid in the uniform because it would be the final proof that he is no longer a kid." Breda commented.

"I like Breda's answer better." Charlie said, smirking at his old friend when he looked disgruntled at Breda.

The screen pulled back to show Armstrong kneeling next to Al and

Havoc standing next to them, scratching his head.

"Yeah. The older brother aside, I wouldn't even know how to explain the younger brother's body." Mustang said.

Hughes smiled before looking at his friend in a serious manger. "I don't envy you. This is one tough customer you're dealing with."

"And now we know he's Ishvalan." Mustang said.

The scene faded away to a crowd of Ishvalans. The Ishvalans were a race of people who lived to the east of us. They believed that their God, Ishvala, was the one absolute Creator.

The picture of the Ishvalans changed to a map with a red spot in the southeast part of it.

Even after they were annexed into the country, there were still conflicts between us and them.

The map changed to part of a staircase where a teddy bear was lying next to a hand that had blood trailing down it.

Then, 13 years ago, a military officer accidentally shot and killed an Ishvalan child.

"Tell me, Colonel. How do you accidentally shoot someone?" Edward asked.

"Things like this happen." Mustang said.

Ed scowled. "Three basics rules of gun safety that all soldiers are taught. One, don't put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. Two, always point the gun away from allies and towards enemies. Three, always assume the gun is load. That soldier had no reason to have his finger on the trigger, nor pointed at a child who was part of Ishval, which had been annexed into the country. And it was his own gun, so he knew it was loaded. So, you tell me, how the hell it was an accident?"

"W-what?" Mustang said, absolutely shocked when he saw the angry glare from his youngest subordinate. He wasn't the only one shocked. There were many people who hated what happened in Ishval, but they all accepted it.

"They were civilians. They picked up guns to defend themselves after a soldier shot one of their own. So, yes, you had to fire back to defend yourself and it caused a civil war. But, once again, was what happened to that child really an accident?" Edward demanded.

Hughes frowned and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Ed, you're making it sound like this whole thing was planned by someone."

"That, or this soldier just wanted to cause bloodshed like the Ouroboros gang we keep seeing." Alphonse said darkly.

Horror filled the soldiers, especially those that actually went to Ishval. Most of those people they fight were civilians with no prior training. They had killed them because they got mad after one of their children was killed by a soldier. That was the story and they accepted it. But, being soldiers for so long and fighting for their lives in Ishval, they had forgotten the three basic rules of gun safety.

"I don't like this." General Armstrong said. "You make it sound like our country is causing bloodshed on purpose."

"Not our country. The Ouroboros gang." Edward said, glancing at his brother sadly before he looked back at Scar. "What do you think, Scar? I know the soldier's side of Ishval, but what about an Isvhalan's point of view?"

"Fullmetal." Mustang said shocked.

"Be quiet, Colonel." Edward said, but didn't remove his eyes from the serial killer, who was looking at him in surprise. "You must agree with me. This isn't about discrimination or being enemies anymore. Scar may be evil and a serial killer, but he is an Ishvalan who was involved in that war. If Scar is here, then that must mean he changes and helps this country, right? I want his opinion on this matter."

To say the least, quite a few soldiers were shocked about this. Of all people to call out the discrimination that Ishvalans faced, it was a child who was shoving it all in their faces.

"What makes them so different?" Edward asked, shooting a brief glance at Miles, surprising the soldier, before his attention was back on Scar. Yes, he knew about Miles. He may have been out of it earlier, but he did see Miles eyes when his glasses slipped. He just never brought it up to the soldier, but he did recall the eyes when he got his brain back in working order after the pain left. "They may look different and have different beliefs, but everyone does. That is no reason to show hatred to them or make them live in the slums. We are all human, and we make mistakes."

Izumi smiled in pride for her ex-student. He may be reckless and a bit of a hothead, but it seems that he really has learned a lot. She always took the boys traveling when they were training under her so they could see the world and how it worked. And now it seems, from all his years in the military, he has grown even more and seen more of the world so he has learned lots. Like Izumi, General Armstrong was looking at the kid with pride that was really well hidden. She looked at Major Miles, who was surprised by what the boy said, but he was smiling a bit when he looked at General Armstrong, who smirked at him. That will teach that idiot that not everyone was going to give him pity, guilt, or hatred. There were those who would treat him like an equal. Despite his hatred of soldiers and State Alchemists, Scar was shocked by the kid who was staring at him, waiting for an answer. This kid that he just tried to kill was asking for his opinion on the matter of the Ishvalan Civil war, which was a dark time for them all.

"Come on, Scar. I know you have a deep hatred for this country, but I'm trying to figure this out. I'm tired of being ignorant." Edward said.

"An ignorant State Alchemist?" Miles asked. "Now that is something I have never heard."

Edward glanced at him then back at Scar. "I am fifteen. I was two when the Ishval Civil War began. There is much I don't understand or know about, but what I do know is that this is a dark story and is something that doesn't seem like it should have happened. Scar! Answer me!"

"Brother," Al said, hoping to calm his brother's thirst for answers. He was just as curious as his brother, but if he hadn't pointed out the rules of gun safety, he would have never thought it.

Scar frowned, but decided to oblige the boy. Everything that the boy was saying was correct. He had gone after this child who is ignorant to everything to do with the Ishvalan Civil War. "After we were annexed into the country, soldiers were stationed in Ishval. They claimed they were there as guards, but we all knew the truth. They were there to keep an eye on us so we couldn't rebel for being forced to accept. We were basically penned in the small area that we had left. After we were annexed, your government took most of our land and left us with very little."

"That's horrible." Al said sadly. From what he knew of Ishval, the area was a harsh land with very little farmable area and no significant resources. Then to have most of their land taken away from them, they must have had very little left after that. It must have been difficult for them to survive.

"I can't imagine your people were too willing to accept help from the Amestris government that stole from you." Edward said.

"Siding with Ishvalans now, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked. Ed shot him a glare. "Both sides are equally at fault here." He snarled.

"Amestris for stealing from them, then killing all those peoples and the Ishvalans for all the people they killed, as well as destroying my hometown. They brought the war farther into the country, killing civilians who had nothing to do with their war. You are all at fault."

The soldiers, Scar, and Miles were shocked into silence at Ed's declaration and glare. He really didn't beat around the bush when he had something to say.

"You are right," Scar said after some silence. "We had no desire to accept any help from the country that stole from us and kept us penned like animals in what they left us. Then, came that day when a soldier shot a child. There was no reason for it. I met some of my people who saw the child get shot. She was just standing there, looking at the soldier when he pulled his gun out and shot her."

Mustang closed his eyes with an agitated sigh. He didn't trust Scar, but if what he said was true, then it really was no accident. But there was also no proof that what he said was true. The Ishvalan who told him this could have been lying as well.

"There is something wrong with this country." Buccaneer growled.

"But what is it?" Armstrong asked, frowning. The Ishvalan war was a very hard time for him. He couldn't stay in Ishval, killing all those children, who couldn't even fight back. They were helpless, and they were ordered to kill them all. And if Ed was right, then it sounded like it was planned by someone.

"What if that soldier was one of the Ouroboros people, as you call them?"

Scar questioned, surprising everyone in the room since he actually continued after his explanation to the Elric brothers.

"What?" Riza demanded.

"We saw one that was able to change his appearance." Scar pointed out.

"What if he changed himself to look like a soldier? And then he shot a child to cause a war." Hughes said horrified.

"Which caused bloodshed." Brody finished shocked.

Mustang slammed his fist into his opened palm. "Just what the hell is going on here?"

"It doesn't mean that is what happened." Edward said, turning back to the screen. "This was just a hypothesis that I thought of because I can't see any way for someone to accidentally shoot a child. But, again, it does not mean that is what really happened. Right now, we should just continue. Maybe we'll get our answers soon."

And that led to full-blown civil war.

The scene changed to soldiers firing their guns at Ishvalans. A map on the screen appeared again with the red area around Ishval growing bigger.

One uprising led to another, and before long, the rebellion had spread to the whole eastern sector.

The scene changed to a Command Center with Bradley standing in front of it.

After seven wars of this, the order came down from the military high command…

The map of Ishval was shown again before it slowly faded as marching soldiers appeared. …to exterminate Ishval. Many State Alchemists were brought in to act as human weapons.

Grand was shown using his alchemy to kill scared Ishvalans. After him, Kimblee was shown with an explosion happening behind him. Next was Mustang snapping his finger, causing a huge fire that burned the civilians. Burned and bloody bodies were shown piled all over the ground. Needless to say, the State Alchemists produced striking results.

Mustang was shown, sitting behind his desk. "That man is an Ishvalan survivor. In a sense, his revenge is justified."

Scar blinked in surprise at Mustang's declaration. That certainly wasn't something he was expecting to hear from the "Hero of Ishval." But what did it mean? Did it mean he felt guilty for what happened to his people? Or did it mean he saw the whole Ishval war as a mistake?

Edward's face, shadowed by his bangs, appeared. "No way!" The scene pulled back to show Ed and Al were in the office with the Colonel, along with Mustang's team, Hughes, and Armstrong sitting or standing. "There's no justification for taking revenge on people who had nothing to do with it."

"Referring to yourself, Ed?" Maria asked.

"Hmm?" Ed said, glancing away from the screen. "Yeah. I don't really understand why he would come after me when I had no part in the war if it really is revenge, he is after."

"He's just dressing up his ugly lust for revenge by calling himself an agent of God and acting all arrogant." Edward finished.

"Still," Mustang said as he got a close up. "The fact is, he's coming at us with full force. We can't let ourselves be killed for his cause. Next time, there will be no more talk." The scene changed to show the room's occupants, who were watching their commander, except for Ed and Al, who were still staring at each other. "Got it?"

"Yes sir." The soldiers said.

Hughes turned to Ed. "Well, Ed, Alphonse, what are you two going to do now? What's the plan?"

This time, Ed got a close up. "We're going to keep moving. We can't just sit around, not as long as we're still alive. "Al looked at his brother. "Brother."

Ed smiled and put a hand on Al's shoulder. "Before we can make any headway on getting your body back, we have to get my arm back to normal."

Hughes was shown, smiling at the boys.

"After all, I'm the only one who knows how to bond you soul to the armor." Hawkeye and Mustang were shown, also watching the brothers with smiles.

"Uh-huh." Al said.

Ed sighed and closed his eyes. "We've got no choice." The Rock bell's house was shown at nighttime. "It's been a long time." Winry's back was shown as she worked on some automail. "We need to pay a visit to our mechanic."

The scene went dark.

"Were you in Resembool before you came to Central?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, why?" Ed asked.

"I'm just trying to get a sense of time. We should be hitting present time soon." Maria explained.

Ed nodded. "I guess you're right."

"So, we are going to meet Dr. Mar–" Al started, but was cut off as there were two bright flashes of gold light in the room.

"What?" Ed shouted, shocked, shielding his eyes so he didn't go blind. When the light died down, there were two more people in the room. Ed stared at them before shouting in shock, "Sig! Dr. Marcoh!"

"Marcoh?" Mustang echoed, looking at the doctor in shock. "Well, it's been a long time, Dr. Marcoh."

"Yes, it has. I haven't seen you since the war." Dr. Marcoh greeted stoically. The war was not a time he liked to remember.

"You ran after the war." Mustang said quietly. It wasn't an accusation, just a fact. They were many State Alchemists who quit the military after the war. But only Marcoh was a deserter. He never formally reassigned. He just disappeared one day.

"Honey!" Izumi cried, and jumped into her husband's arms.

Ed stared blankly at Sig and Izumi. He would never get over how different she acted with her husband at times.

"Ed, who's the man who caused a severe change in Izumi's personality?" Havoc whispered to the boy.

"Her husband." He replied blankly. "Is that how we appeared here?" There was a third flash of light as another letter dropped into Ed's lap. "Well, let's see what he has to say now." He tore open the envelope and pulled the letter out. "Dr. Marcoh and Sig Curtis help in saving this country so they have been brought here to join you. They were brought in after a while because I thought it best to wait for when Dr. Marcoh appears in front of Edward and Alphonse before arriving to this room. As for Sig Curtis, I believe it is best he is here to knock some sense into Ed and Al. V.H. Knock sense into us? What the hell does that mean?"

"Edward!" Sig greeted, ruffling Ed's hair in greeting. Ed gritted his teeth as his head was pushed down by a strong man.

"Nice to see you too," Edward replied.

"Uhm, you might not recognize me, but I'm Alphonse." Al said, pointing at himself, causing a few people to feel bad and frown. Ed had his normal body so he was easily recognized by those he met as a kid. But for Al, no one recognized him because he was just a suit of armor now. It must be horrible having to point out who he is all the time to people that should know him.

Sig blinked before smiling and rubbing Al's helmet. "It is nice to see you to, Alphonse."

Al felt warmth spread up his soul. Because he was a suit of armor and so tall because of that, no one really treated him like a kid or rubbed his head. It was really nice to have someone do that for him. It made him feel like a normal kid.

"Edward, Alphonse," Dr. Marcoh greeted the boys. "Did you find my notes?"

Edward looked away from Sig with a dark frown. He jumped to his feet. "I did!" He growled. "I decoded them to. Is that really true?"

"Yes," Marcoh said sadly.

"There are more truths that need to be discovered after that truth, right?" Edward demanded.

"Fullmetal, what are you talking about?" Mustang demanded.

Edward glanced at him before turning back to Marcoh. "They don't know. It is too dark and I didn't want to talk about it. Al and I only discovered the truth right before we were brought here." "And where is here?" Marcoh asked. Sighing, Ed dropped back to the ground and set about explaining what they were doing here to Sig and Marcoh and gave a brief explanation of what happened in the first five episodes.

"So, we are learning the truth of this country?" Marcoh said, sighing. "Is this really for the best?"

"What do you mean?" Mustang asked. "We are learning what is going to happen, so we can save it before it happens."

"But what if the country would be saved without us knowing all this? It is not a good idea to tamper with fate." Marcoh replied.

"Dr. Marcoh, you live in a small town now and plan to spend the rest of your life saving all the lives you can to make up for Ishval, correct?" Edward asked, and when he received a nod, he continued. "Isn't what we are seeing our way of seeing who dies and how so we can stop it and save all those people who don't deserve death? If you could see what would have happened to Ishval before it happened, would you not have stopped it?"

Marcoh frowned. The boy was very much right. Ishval was his biggest regret.

He would have done anything in his power to save all those people who didn't deserve to die.

"There is no point in arguing about this. We are already here. We can do nothing about it." Izumi said.

"Izumi," Sig asked, recalling how Ed mentioned it in his explanation. "Did you talk to the brothers about their human transmutation?"

"Yes, they were expelled." Izumi replied.

Sig was not surprised by her answer. She took her training of the brothers very seriously, and if they broke her rules, it was not surprising that she kicked them out.

"And I don't think they are taking it well." Riza said, sighing.

"What do you mean?" Sig asked.

"Edward yelled at Izumi earlier, saying she couldn't even talk about them being weak and kicking them through walls because she expelled them." Riza explained, frowning.

Sig looked over at the brothers, who sensing his gaze, turned to the big man, only to be met with a glare. "You idiots!" He shouted, shocking the brothers.

"What?" Ed mumbled.

"You two are so busy pouting about being expelled that you can't see what it means to no longer be her students." Sig said.

"Oh? And what does it mean?" Ed asked in slightly rude tone that was also filled with curiosity.

"Pouting?" Hughes mouthed to Mustang, who snickered.

"Who would have thought the great and strong Elric brothers were actually pouting and upset over being expelled?" Mustang said.

Havoc nodded. "I think I would be more than happy to escape that scary lady."

General Armstrong scoffed. "You guys are idiots. They may be scared of her, but they also respect her greatly. She is the one who trained them and helped them to be who they are today. It is not surprising that they would be upset over being kicked out."

"That you are now her equals." Sig said. "You can speak to her without fear and as her equals."

"Sheesh, and here we all thought you two were prodigies." Hughes teased.

"You should have realized that sooner."

Ed glared at him. "Oh, shut up."

Sighing, he looked back at Teacher, who had turned away from the boys and Sig to give them some form of privacy for this conversation. Did that mean Teacher was talking about fighting them because she just cared about their wellbeing as people and not just her students? And then, those two times when he needed help, she was the one to take him to a bed and help him and then she was the one who comforted him about Nina. It wasn't because he was her former student. It was because she just generally cared for him and Al. Why was he such an idiot? That hug he got from her, it was full of warmth, sorrow, and care. Something that he received from his own mother as a child. It was all because she loved and cared for the boys. So, they were equals now in the field of alchemy, but beyond that, they were a surrogate family. Man, was he blind or what? As for Al, he was just shocked. He had no idea that he and Brother could ever be considered equals to Teacher. She was just so smart and strong. They both still had a long way to go if they were ever to reach her level. And yet, Sig realized right away what them being expelled meant. He was right. He and Brother were both upset about being expelled so they decided to make themselves blind to the fact that Teacher was still talking with them, but her tone had changed just a bit. She still talked with them with that same care and love she did when they took breaks from training as kid. Man, they were both idiots.

Taking a deep breathe, Edward stood up from the ground and walked over to Izumi. Without an ounce of hesitation or embarrassment, he leaned forward and hugged the woman. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "For being such an idiot."

Though she was at first surprised by the action, Izumi returned the boy's hug. When Ed stepped back, Al took his place and did the same thing as his brother and apologized.

"Never thought I'd see the day when Fullmetal initiated a hug and apologized." Mustang teased.

Ed growled and slammed his foot on the coffee table again. "Shut up. Why must you tease me about everything?"

Mustang shrugged. "It is fun, and you always give good reactions."

"Argh." Ed grumbled and turned away from the man.

"You boys have nothing to be sorry for." Izumi said.

Ed glanced at her, frowning. "Do too. I yelled at you and hurt you because I was blind."

"You actually noticed what your actions did?" Al asked shocked.

"I always do. I just choose not to dwell on it." Edward retorted. "It just makes you feel worse if you do."

Zampano coughed. "Well, if you are all done, maybe we should continue on?"

---

A/N: I had Ed talk to Scar because I love Scar, but since everyone distrusts him since he is an enemy, it is difficult to include. To break a bit of tension, I had Ed talk to him. The whole Ishval thing was also to help the Briggs soldier have a bit more revelation about the brothers and learn to respect and trust them more as it would take too long if I waited until I got to Briggs.

[1] I couldn't help it! My little brother's first words were 'Clara did it.' How cruel my brother is to me? So Dr. Marcoh appeared…. For future reference, does Dr. Marcoh know what the Homunculi are or does of just know them as monsters? I can't recall. Have you ever noticed how good the Japanese voices of the FMA Brotherhood characters are? Especially at serious or sad times. I never watched the Japanese Version of Brotherhood so I never noticed, but They are amazing awesome.

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