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.

7. Chapter 7 (Hidden truth)

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Bold- What happens in the episodes

"Episode Title"

Narrative

Regular talking

---

Episode 7: Hidden Truths

"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.

Ed screamed. "Dr. Marcoh's research." The scene pulled back to show that the library was burned down. "It's all gone!"

"Well, that's just horrible luck." Brody said.

Dr. Marcoh frowned. "You said you decoded it. How did you get the notes if they were gone?"

Ed grinned, despite the answer in the notes being dark. "Wait and see."

"Fullmetal always finds a way." Mustang muttered, while Hughes grinned and looked at Sheska. So that was how the boys found his newest addition to his team. He was wondering how they met.

Eastern Command Centre was shown as Lust's voice said, "In the end, burning the entire place down was easier."

"Argh, of course it was them." Edward grumbled.

Al patted his brother's shoulder. "Don't worry, Brother. We got one up on them since we got the notes anyway."

Edward smirked. "Yeah, that will teach those stupid monsters that I won't lose to them."

"Oh, is that what you were doing in Central?" Gluttony asked as a tower was shown.

"Yes, the Fullmetal boy found out about Marcoh's research." Lust said as the two were shown on top of the tower. "Something had to be done about it."

"What is the big deal if he reads your notes?" Mustang asked confused.

Dr. Marcoh sighed. "Because of the dark secret that revolves around the\ Philosopher's Stone, those monsters don't want it revealed."

"So, they are involved with the stone." Edward said, frowning. Earlier he had been confused about that since Dr. Marcoh wasn't here yet. But now that he was, it seemed clear that all this had something to do with the stone. So, the stone was made of human lives, but what did that mean to these monsters? How were they involved with the stone?

Gluttony looked away from her and sniffed. "With that issue taken care of, I thought I would come to see how things are progressing in East City." Lust added. She looked at Gluttony. "Is he here?"

Gluttony stood up.

"Gluttony?"

"I smell him." Gluttony said, sniffing again. "I can smell him." The city was shown. "The scar faced Ishvalan. He's close. I can taste his stink."

"So, what does that mean?" Luke asked confused.

"It means he was able to locate me by his heightened sense of smell." Scar explained, frowning.

Ed raised a brow. "So, he is just like a tracker dog? That could be troublesome."

"Not as troublesome as the damn shape shifter." Mustang pointed out. The kid nodded. "Yeah, nothing could be more annoying than not knowing who the enemy is."

"Like blood. I still get to eat him, right?" Gluttony asked.

"Oh yes, down to the last strand of hair." Lust replied.

"Well, you made some dangerous enemies, Scar." Edward said, frowning.

"Yes, but it is your fault." Scar replied.

Ed twitched. "Not everything is my fault! I don't even know why they need me!" He glared at the Ishvalan. "Besides, you were the one who started killing State Alchemists, so you were the one who angered them and made them have to come after you."

"I hate to agree with Scar," Hughes said, frowning. "But you did something to get these monsters interested in you and that is why they are after you. If you didn't do that, they probably wouldn't be hunting down Scar."

A scowled marred Ed's face. "I think you all just like to find any reason to blame everything on me."

" Hidden Truths"

"Well, with a title like that, it must obviously be the truth is revealed." Dr. Marcoh said.

"That will make Colonel happy." Edward muttered. Just great. It was time for it all to be revealed.

The sewers were shown with Scar walking leisurely in them. Multiple rats ran past him, causing him to stop and glance over his shoulder where a pair of red eyes was shining in the darkness. It was Gluttony standing in the sewer water, grinning evilly. Scar turned around, shocked, before Gluttony charged at him.

Scar's hand tensed and he slammed it into Gluttony's head.

"Well, there he goes." Brody said.

'No, it's not that simple.' Scar thought, frowning. Those things were true monsters.

Gluttony grabbed Scar's side, causing Scar to move his attack to his arm, cutting it off. Gluttony screamed and Lust was shown coming up behind Scar. There was a loud explosion and the outside of the sewer was shown where the wall was destroyed, creating a big dust cloud.

"That explains what happened there." Mustang said.

"And it also tells us that we were looking for Scar's body for no reason."

Havoc muttered. "We should have known he wouldn't die that easily."

"Scar hasn't been sighted." Hawkeye's voice said. She was shown to be reading from a report. "Not once since that incident with the Elric brothers." Havoc leaned over a map that had red markings all over it. "Maybe he's not even in East City anymore."

"I hope you're wrong about that." Mustang said. He was shown sitting in his chair, looking out the window. "This case has obviously gotten to be too much for Central to handle. If I can close it quickly enough, I'll be golden."

"Clearly wants a stupid promotion." Edward mumbled.

"Of course, because unlike you, Fullmetal, that is the goal of all soldiers." Mustang said.

Ed snorted. "Funny. I thought the goal of soldiers was to protect this country and its people, not just get promotions and more power."

Mustang smirked and spun his chair around to face the two. "I've got a ladder to climb, and this is how it's done. I need every mark in my favour that I can get….at least until I've assumed the office of Fuhrer, that is."

"Argh, figures." Edward grumbled, pulling at his hair. "Of course, you would do this all just to obtain more power, and the position of Fuhrer, nonetheless."

"Ha! You as Fuhrer? As if, Mustang! That position is mine." General Armstrong said, glaring at the Colonel.

Mustang glared back. "While you are stuck up at your Briggs wall, I will make my way to Central and get the respect and promotions I need to get to the top."

General Armstrong smirked. "Sorry, but I already have a big head start on you. I'll reach it first."

"I climb the ranks fast. I'll surpass you soon enough." Mustang retorted.

General Armstrong frowned. There was a reason she disliked this man. He climbed the ranks too fast. She did not believe he should have gotten all those promotions he got. Ed slapped his forehead. "What the hell? Is it the dream of every high-ranking soldier to be the damn Fuhrer?"

"Of course. Why do you think they work so hard to get up there?" Miles said, smirking.

A groan escaped Edward. "Stupid power-crazy psychopaths. What the hell is so great about being Fuhrer?"

Mustang frowned. "The Fuhrer gets power, respect, and can run the country. Only the Fuhrer can make the changes that need to be made. I will reach the top and fix this country. Honestly, Fullmetal, perhaps you should start thinking about getting in the higher ups' good graces."

"HA!" Edward shouted, laughing. "As if, Colonel. The moment I get Al's body back, I'm gone. I have no reason to get in anyone's good graces, especially those stuck-up snobs in Central."

"You really are planning to leave?" Havoc asked, a bit sadly. They all knew Edward claimed he wasn't going to stay in the military long, but it would still be sad to see their friend leave.

"Of course."

"The people will be sad to see their hero leave." Mustang said.

"Tch," Ed scoffed. "They'll survive, like they did before I appeared."

"I hope not. The lives of the common people weren't the best before their hero of the people' appeared." Falman pointed out.

Ed sighed. "I mean, they'll live better, but they have to rely on themselves. It is not my sole duty in life to improve their lives."

"You may not want to display your ambitions quite so nakedly, sir,"

Hawkeye said as footsteps were shown slamming into the ground.

"Yeah." Mustang said, turning his chair back around. "I'll be sure to remember that in the future. "The office door was opened, allowing a soldier entry. The soldier saluted and said, "Reporting in, sir. We just received word of an explosion occurring on the Marl River."

Mustang looked around sharply. "What?"

The river was shown where a couple buildings, the road, and the sidewalk were all crumbled and destroyed.

"Was it a gas explosion?" A soldier asked.

"With everything else that's been going on around here, who knows."

Another soldier replied.

A piece of Scar's yellow jacket was shown with blood on it.

"You were injured?" Maria asked, frowning as she looked at him. "I don't see any injuries."

Scar nodded. "Yes, they disappeared when I was brought here."

"V.H.?" Mustang called, hoping to get to the bottom of this.

A golden flash of light appeared and a letter landed in Ed's laps.

"Why do they keep appearing to you?" Hughes asked.

"Because he's trying to annoy me!" Ed shouted at the ceiling before ripping the envelope open and pulling the letter out. "I healed his injuries as he was brought here as they would get in the way with how injured he was. V.H. Well, apparently that idiot man can do medical alchemy." [1]

Scar nodded.

Hawkeye held the jacket up. "There's no mistaking it. This was

definitely Scar's jacket."

Mustang turned to the side, looking at a soldier out of the corner of his eyes. "Have you found the body?" Havoc sighed and scratched his head. "Not yet, but we're still searching."

Hawkeye was shown to be looking at the jacket. "Either way, he can't be in good shape after losing this much blood."

Mustang put a hand to his chin. "Yeah, but we do this by the book. We need to find hard proof that he's dead. Alright." He looked at Havoc.

"Lieutenant Havoc."

"Yes sir?" Havoc asked.

"You and your men will work day and night to clear out this debris. I want his body found." The rubble was shown as the scene swept over it and to a bridge where a crowd of people was standing, looking at the accident. "Don't take so much as a coffee break until that's done. Do you understand?"

"I was right. You are a slave driver." Edward said.

"At least you understand our misery, Chief." Havoc said pitifully.

Mustang scoffed. "Slackers."

"I don't want to hear that from the man who puts his paperwork off unless Lieutenant Riza has her gun pointed at his head." Edward shouted at his superior.

General Armstrong raised a brow. That most certainly was not Hawkeye's duty. "How exactly did you get the promotion to Colonel?"

Mustang pointed at Ed. "I found him."

Ed raised his head. "What? This is all my fault."

"Fault? But you did nothing wrong, Fullmetal. What you did was a good thing." Mustang said, smiling.

"That, Colonel, is a matter of opinion." Edward retorted, a bit unnerved outby the smile.

"C'mon, Colonel, can't you cut us some slack? At this rate, you're gonna work us all to death." Havoc said as Lust and Gluttony were shown standing in the crowd.

"Ah, great, they were there." Havoc grumbled.

"Don't worry, Havoc. I understand your pain of being worked to death."

Edward said sympathetically.

Havoc laughed. "Yes, I know, Chief, but you see, unlike you, the rest of us can't fall asleep in the Colonel's office."

Ed blushed and ducked his head. "That was only a few times." He muttered.

"You slept in your superior's office?" Miles asked surprised. Now that was most certainly not regulated.

Ed scratched his head. "Well…"

"It was by my orders a few times that he slept there." Mustang intervened, shrugging. "The other times, I would just find him sleeping in there when I arrived back to my office for our meeting."

"Why would you order your subordinate to sleep on your couch?" Brody asked confused.

Mustang shrugged. "He looked dead on his feet sometimes, probably overworked himself."

"Because you work me dry!" Ed shouted.

Mustang waved him off. "You are a young, healthy boy with a lot of energy. You should be able to handle it."

"Even the best and strongest of us need a break!" Ed retorted.

"Shut up!" Mustang turned away from Havoc with an angry twitch. "I don't get to relax until I've seen his body, and that means you don't get to either."

Sighing, Havoc turned away from the Colonel. "Guess we'll get to work then."

Gluttony was shown with his finger in his mouth and a tear in his eye.

"Looks like he got away." Lust said.

"I didn't get my snack." Gluttony said.

"I found him to be one of the most disturbing of the monsters we've met so far." Avery muttered.

"Yes, I know. Maybe next time." Lust replied.

"Though, I think we can safely assume that Scar will be out of the game for a while. I suppose I'll be heading back to Central again. I need to report to Father about everything that's happened here."

She turned away from the accident and walked away.

"I wonder who this 'Father' person is." Breda said, frowning. "Must be some powerful person if they report directly to him."

"How worrying." Al said.

A burned book was shown.

Guess this mean we are back to Elric brothers.

Ed's hand-picked the book up and it fell to the ground in ashes. He stared at the part left in his hand, frowning. "There's nothing left here but ashes." The ashes in his hand crumbled and fell to the ground.

"Everything's gone."

Edward stood up as a voice behind the three said, "Major Armstrong."

They turned around to see Denny Brosh and Maria Ross standing there, saluting. "Oh, Second Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh," Armstrong said, looking at them. The two stopped saluting. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"You have been ordered to report back to the Command Centre, sir." Maria said.

"We'll be taking over supervision of Edward Elric and his brother effectively immediately." Denny said.

"And I get sacked with more escorts." Edward moaned. "What a waste of time, especially since we now know it was a waste of time since Scar is off being injured somewhere."

"And once again, you show your problem of accepting help." Maria sighed.

Armstrong sparkled and smiled. "Hmm, very well. He's yours." Edward was shown, rubbing furiously at his hair while Al just stared.

"What is this? Just when I think I'm home free, they saddle me with more bodyguards? This is getting old!" He complained.

"They just want to protect you." Sig pointed out.

"Yeah, what makes me so special? I don't see any other State Alchemists having to deal with this." Edward grumbled.

"They're older, have more experience, and are stronger in some cases." Izumi said, sighing. "Honestly, just accept the help, Edward."

Mustang nodded. "Izumi is right, but it is also because you are so well-known and famous." When Ed looked at him confused, he sighed. "It means the civilians will be very angry if we let their favourite State Alchemist get killed, and some of the officials in the military wouldn't be too happy if something happened to their prodigy."

Edward groaned. "Annoying."

"Normal people would find it flattering." Kain pointed out. "Well, I'm not normal." Edward retorted.

"Not surprising considering you're a genius." Brody said.

"There is something strange about all geniuses." Havoc agreed with a grin.

A car tire was shown, then the car itself while Maria said, "All might not be lost. There's a woman who's well acquainted with the materials in the first branch." Ed, Al, Denny, and Maria were shown sitting in the car as

she continued. "Unfortunately, she wasn't working there anymore." Edward crossed his arms as an annoyed looked passed over his face.

"That sounds incredibly helpful."

Denny was staring intently at Al, who tilted his head slightly.

"Something wrong?" Al asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." Denny said. "Although if you don't mind me asking, why are you wearing a suit of Armor?"

Ed and Al looked at each other nervously, sweat pouring down their faces.

"You just had to ask." Edward groaned.

"Can't wait to heat what your excuse for it is this time." Mustang said, smirking.

Al groaned. "Brother, we really have to start working on our excuses for this matter."

"I don't have time for such things!" Ed shouted.

Hughes sweat dropped. "You seem to not have time for many things, like visiting me when you're in Central!"

"I told you I was busy!" Ed mumbled. "Don't want to see a happy family obsessed man anyway. "Hughes raised a brow. "What was that?"

"Al don't say such things." Ed scolded nervously.

Al growled jokingly. "Don't get me involved in your affairs!"

"I thought we were in this together from here on?" Ed said.

"Not in this." Al replied. "Everything else, maybe, but I want no part of this one."

Ed groaned. "How can you abandon your brother in such a cold-hearted manner?"

"Easily." Al said.

"Traitor."

"It's quite fun."

"Betrayer."

"Like you've never done it."

"It's a hobby." They said together nervously.

The soldiers laughed.

"A hobby? Really?" Mustang asked.

"As we said, we don't plan this in advanced!" Edward said. "No one should ask!"

"But it's so strange. We can't help but ask." Havoc replied.

Brody smirked. "What did they tell you when you asked about it?"

Havoc snickered. "The Chief yelled something on the lines of, 'Got a problem with my brother wearing a suit of Armor? What's so strange about it? If that's what he wants to do, that's what he going to do. Don't ask about it!' I think he almost busted my eardrums with that one."

Kain groaned. "I couldn't hear properly for days."

"Really, Brother?" Al sighed.

"Ah, that." Ed grinned. "That was fun."

"Only you'd consider destroying eardrums fun." Havoc muttered.

Maria and Denny turned to each other, covering their mouths. "A hobby? What kind of freaky hobby is that, Lieutenant?" Denny asked. "Who are these boys anyway?" Maria asked. Ed and Al were both shown looking out their windows. "Soo, what do you say, Al?" Edward asked, still sweating. "It's a lovely view, isn't it?" Al, also still sweating, replied, "Ah, yeah, yeah, it's gorgeous."

Maria and Denny turned to each other, covering their mouths. "A hobby? What kind of freaky hobby is that, Lieutenant?" Denny asked.

"Who are these boys anyway?" Maria asked. Ed and Al were both shown looking out their windows.

"Soo, what do you say, Al?" Edward asked, still sweating.

"It's a lovely view, isn't it?" Al, also still sweating, replied, "Ah, yeah, yeah, it's gorgeous."

"Your voice was a bit too high pitched, Al." Izumi said amused.

"So, we can't lie." Al muttered to himself.

"How you two haven't gotten discovered and arrested yet is still an unknown miracle to me." Mustang said to himself.

"To be fair, it seems that most people they meet who discover the truth simply wish for them to get their bodies back." Dr. Marcoh pointed out.

"And those that don't," Havoc said, frowning. "Well, they don't seem to last long."

"It's almost like fate is protecting them." Sheska said, smiling softly at the boys.

"Great, now fate is screwing with us. The moment it gets bored with us, we're done." Ed groaned. "Life will be over. Everything will be discovered. The end is here!"

"Did you ever have a desire to be an actor, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked amused.

"Theatrics are fun." Ed replied simply.

"Perhaps that is where his rants come from." Falman mused.

The car was shown stopped outside an apartment building. Ed had one of the doors open, and the group was all staring in shock at the mountains of books inside.

"Wow, there's got to be millions of them." Ed said.

"Damn, that is more than even Chief reads." Breda said shocked. "Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Edward does read that much." Izumi replied.

"He just travels all the time and has nowhere to store the books so he doesn't buy them." Mustang nodded. "I can believe that."

"It's like a crime to like reading." Sheska muttered, much to the amusement of the Elric brothers.

Denny was shown walking sideways in front of the bookshelves. "Is there really someone living in this place?" Maria came next.

"Miss Sheska?"

Many looks of disbelief were shot at Sheska. "What is with all the books?" Myers asked.

"Well," Sheska started, but was cut off by Ed. "Don't bother, Sheska. It will be explained in another minute or two." Edward said.

"Are you here? Miss Sheska?" Maria asked. "Is someone there?" Sheska yelled as Ed was shown walking normally through the mess.

"I'm not surprised you're not struggling to get around with how small you are." Brody commented.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Edward screeched.

Al reached up and pulled his brother back down by his shirt. "Brother, please don't attempt to kill your comrades."

"Al," Ed said patiently. "I never try to kill anyone." Fire suddenly lit up in his eyes. "I just send them on a burning, painful trip to hell!"

"Well, it seems Fullmetal has lost it again." Mustang commented.

"Lost it?" Edward asked, eyes gleaming with an evil tint as he looked at his commanding officer. "I have lost nothing, Mustang! I have everything perfectly under strict control in my noggin!"

Mustang blinked and looked at Al. "Care to explain?"

"I think he's hungry." Al shrugged. "Sometimes he gets like this when he is hungry and hasn't eaten in a long time. I think the last time he ate was yesterday."

"Perhaps we should eat after this episode?" Riza suggested.

"Is there food here?" Al asked.

There was a flash of golden light and a letter appeared to Al this time.

Surprised, he opened it. "Since Ed has lost it, I'll send this to you, Al. There Isa cafeteria nearby with ingredients. Have fun. V.H."

"I'm telling you I'm perfectly clear in the head!" Ed said, but was grinning.

"But food sounds goods. No one say anything. We need to get through this quickly." And he sat down again like he didn't almost seem like a madman.

Al followed his brother, walking like the soldiers.

"Please, help me!" Sheska said.

Al glanced through some of the bookcases when he heard the voice and saw a hand with glasses hanging off the fingers sticking out from a pile of books.

"Um," Al said, pointing at the hand. The hand was shown closer.

"Brother, there's somebody under there!"

"You were buried under your own books?" Karin asked incredulously.

"ARGH!" Edward shouted. "That wasn't even a minute!" He jumped to his feet and walked away.

Luke blinked. "Um, where is he going?"

Al shook his head. "Don't ask. He'll be back before you know it."

All four members of the group screamed and started throwing the books all over the place. "Dig! Dig! Dig this place up!" The outside of the building was shown. "Hang in there!"

"Never a peaceful day when Fullmetal is around." Mustang said, smirking in amusement.

Edward appeared on the screen, breathing heavily with a book on his head while Al was behind him, dizzy.

Maria stood to the side with her arms full of books while Sheska was kneeling in front of the boys, bowing. "Thank you! I'm so sorry!" She turned to Maria and bowed. "I got myself trapped under a whole mountain of books." She put her glassed back on. "I thought I was going to suffocate under there. Thank you so much."

Edward removed the book from his head and closed it. "So, uh, are you Sheska?"

"Yes." Sheska breathed.

"And you worked at the library?" Edward asked.

Sheska flinched. "Oh, the library?" She said happily with sparkles around her. "The word itself is so beautiful."

"You remind me of Winry when she talks about automail." Al said. Sheska chuckled. "We've all got things we love greatly."

The library was shown in the background. "I've loved books my whole entire life. Ever since I first learned to read as a girl. That job was heaven." Ed and Al watched with deadpanned expressions.

"We really should be used to eccentric people by now." Al commented.

"I don't think I'll ever be used to it, seeing as how everyone is eccentric in their own unique way." Edward replied as he returned with a plate that had a sandwich and an apple on it. In his other hand was a glass of juice.

"Really? You couldn't wait?" Mustang asked.

"You guys never shut up." Edward snapped as he sat down with his meal.

"And this is what happens when Brother gets desperate for food." Al said.

"I don't get desperate for food ever!" Ed said.

If he could have, Al would have given his brother a look of disbelief. "You ate ants." Ed blinked. "Yeah, when I was nine!"

"Ants?" Brody asked shocked. "Why did you eat ants?"

Ed waved him off. "You don't need to know." He said and picked up his sandwich to eat it.

"But I forgot that I was supposed to be working, and all I ever did was read so they fired me."

Al sweat dropped.

"If I don't find another job, I'll never be able to move my poor, elderly mother into a better hospital," Sheska cried. "But I'm hopeless. The only thing I can do well is read." Ed gave a deadpanned thought to himself.

"I'll never find another job as long as I live." She suddenly started crying loudly, frightening the brothers. "I'm a useless good-for-nothing.

I'm scum."

Ed half raised his hand. "Excuse me. There was one thing we wanted to ask you."

Sheska pointed at herself. "Yes?"

"Do you remember seeing any research belonging to Tim Marcoh?" Ed asked.

"Let's see…Tim Marcoh…Where do I know that name?" Sheska suddenly clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, yes, of course, I remember now!"

"Really?!" Ed asked, leaning forward.

"Oh, yes, I'm absolutely positive. There were some handwritten notes stuffed into a bookcase where they didn't belong." Sheska explained.

"The notes really were there after all." Ed said, grinning, before he and Al both became severely depressed with the burned down library in the

background. "Which means they burned up along with everything else in the library."

"Did you want to read them? Is that why you're asking?" Sheska asked.

Ed, now on his feet, began to leave. "Yeah," Al stood up to follow his brother. "But it's too late now. They're nothing but ashes."

"Sorry to bother you." Al said.

Sheska stood up and pointed to herself. "I remember everything that was in them. Would that help at all?"

Ed and Al froze in their steps.

"That's how you got my notes?" Dr. Marcoh said surprised. "I think you two rely too much on luck." Buccaneer added, laughing.

The grin in Al's voice could easily be detected as he said, "We don't rely on it at all, but it seems to always find us when we need it most."

The brothers spun, staring shocked at Sheska, who leaned back in surprise. "Huh?!" Both of them said.

"It's just how I am." Sheska held up a finger. "I'm able to remember the content of any book I ever read."

"Are you serious?!" Ed and Al pretty much screamed together. "It will take a while, but I could write them out for you." Sheska said.

Ed grabbed her hands. "Thank you, bookworm!" He said, causing her to laugh. "You're my hero."

"I don't think you call the person who is helping you a bookworm." Buccaneer said

"It was a term of endearment at the time." Edward mumbled. Al chuckled. "Well, that's Brother's excuse."

"You're welcome?" Sheska said unsurely. Sheska put a stack of papers down on a table.

"Here you are," she said, gesturing to all the piles of paper on the table.

"Those aren't all for you, are they?" Havoc said shocked. Ed blinked.

"Of course, they are. Who else would they be for?" "But there is so much!" Avery moaned. "And you can't just read it. You have to read them a bunch of times until you fully understand them."

"That would take forever." Luke groaned. The idea of having to read alchemy notes just made his head hurt. Like Havoc, he was more street smart then anything. Ed snorted. "I can't believe how weak minded you all are!"

Ed snorted. "I can't believe how weak minded you all are!"

" Complete copies of all Tim Marcoh's notes." Sheska said, to the amazement of the soldiers and brothers with how much there was. "Sorry. I know five days is a long time to wait," Ed picked up one of the packets. "But there was quite a lot to write down."

"Five days?" Hughes said horrified, glaring at the brothers. "Five days, Ed, Al! And you couldn't find a moment in all of that doing nothing for five days to pay me a visit?"

"Who's to say we weren't busy?" Ed retorted, inching away from the man and closer to his brother. He lowered his voice so only his brother could hear him. "Avoid the family man. He is a dangerous guy."

Al chuckled. "Brother, he's just teasing you."

"No, he's dangerous." Ed muttered and turned to his escorts. "Lieutenant Ross, Sergeant Brosh, a little help?"

"Al and Major Elric went around the city during those five days just relaxing." Brosh told Hughes.

"NO!" Ed shouted and jumped to the other side of his brother to use as shield to get away from Hughes's glare that suddenly appeared.

"Were you two ignoring me?" Hughes asked, mostly joking around.

Ed glared at Brosh. "That's not what I wanted."

"I can't lie to him." Denny said, shrugging.

Scowling, Ed turned back to Hughes. "I told you before. I want nothing to do with the obsessive family man."

"Aww, how cruel." Hughes whined.

"Brother, please don't use me as a shield." Al muttered, pulling his brother away from him.

"But Hughes is an evil slave driver." Ed said, turning to Sheska as he did. "Right, Sheska? You've been working for him for about a week, right?"

Hughes jumped off the couch and knocked Ed gently in the back of the head. "Don't turn my employees against me."

"You work for him?" Mustang asked, looking from Sheska to Hughes.

"Thanks to Edward and Alphonse." Sheska said.

Mustang looked at the boys with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "She helps you and you repay her by handing her over to Hughes?"

"It's not like I know him that well. I didn't even know he was a kidnapper until he dragged poor, poor Sheska away." Edward mumbled, much to the amusement of those who knew Hughes.

" Unbelievable." Al said as his brother flipped through the packet he opened. "There are some amazing people in this word."

" These are really Dr. Marcoh's research notes?" Edward asked as Al moved forward to look at the papers. " There sure are. Come and take a look at them." Sheska said. "Written by Tim Marcoh, 1,000 Easy Recipes." Denny, Maria, and Al all looked shocked by what she said, while Ed didn't bother to glance up from the packet he was reading. "Huh?"

"A cookbook?" Falman, Brody, and Luke echoed.

"How is a cookbook going to help?" Havoc asked confused. He turned to Sheska with a frown. "Did you get it wrong?"

Ed sighed, shaking his head. "Alchemists hide all their research in codes. Otherwise, anyone could get to their notes and use it for their own needs or claim it as theirs."

Al nodded. "Dr. Marcoh's research is hidden in a cookbook and Brother codes his research in the form of a travelogue. It would take a very skilled alchemist to be able to decode, but they also have to know where the research is hidden. If I didn't know Brother's research was a travelogue, for example, I would assume he was just writing about our travels and not try to decode it."

"Try?" Breda asked.

Al bowed his head dejected. "I can't even get the first paragraph of it decoded. It is impossible."

Ed stared at his brother. "You tried to decode my research?"

"For two years I've been trying!" Al said frustrated. "I travel with you everywhere, and yet, I can't get it decoded!"

"I accept that challenge." Mustang said and leaned forward, confusing the brothers as he snapped his finger at Ed. "Fullmetal, give me your travelogue."

"What?" Edward snapped his head around to glare at his superior. "No way! Why do you even want it?"

"I will decode it." Mustang declared.

Ed snorted. "If Al can't decode it, there's no way you can."

"Then could I, have it?" Dr. Marcoh asked intrigued.

Groaning, Ed rubbed his eyes. "None of you will take my notes!"

"But Dr. Marcoh gave you, his notes. Shouldn't you give him yours? Equivalent exchange?" Mustang asked.

"Look, Colonel, you are not getting my notes. You can't decipher them." Edward said.

Mustang nodded. "Maybe not alone, but there are five alchemical geniuses here. I'm sure we can get it decoded.

Al blinked and looked around. "Colonel, there's six alchemists here."

"Fullmetal doesn't count. They are his notes so it would be quite pointless for him to join in." Mustang explained.

Ed's eyes narrowed. "You are not touching my research, ever!"

" Six cups of rice, one carrot, two onions, salt," Maria read from the packet she was holding with a look of disbelief while Ed and Al stood at the table behind the adults looking at the packets. "Oh, great. Does this mean we came all this way for a cookbook?"

Brosh looked up from the packet he was holding, pointing at it. "Miss, which part of this made you think it was an important document?"

" Is it not what you're looking for?" Sheska asked worriedly. "All I did was copy down what I remembered."

Brosh scratched his head. "Wonderful, so this was just a wild goose chase."

" Sheska," Ed asked. "Are you absolutely sure this is a flawless reproduction of the notes?"

" Oh, yes, I'm one hundred percent certain." Sheska replied enthusiastically.

Edward turned around with papers in his hand and wearing a smirk. "Then thank you very much. You're incredible."

"Now that is what you should have said to her before." Mustang said.

"Well, I didn't know if she could really do it or not." Edward replied. "I had to wait until I got proof, she could do it before I gave a proper compliment."

" Alright," Ed said, picking up a stack of the packets. "Let's get these back to the library."

" Hmm." Al said as he picked up some stacks and handed them to Brosh. "They should have related materials there." He turned around and picked up a stack for himself to carry.

" Mm-hmm." Ed replied.

" Oh." Ed stopped leaving and turned around. "I almost forgot Sheska's fee." He took out a book and wrote something down on a page before ripping it out and handing it to Maria with his pocket watch. "Lieutenant, here. This is my registration number and the pocket watch for ID. Withdraw that amount out of my annual research grant, and make sure Sheska gets it. Okay?" And without bothering for a reply, he turned back around.

"You do realize that Lieutenant Ross is with you as an escort, right? It's not really here duty to go collect Sheska's fee." Hughes said.

Ed waved him off. "Well, someone had to do it, and Lieutenant Ross didn't seem to mind."

"You could have done it." Havoc said.

"I was busy." Ed said.

"You hadn't even started you deciphering yet." Brody pointed out.

"Exactly!" Ed shouted. "And that's why I had to leave. I was already behind by over a week. I wasn't putting it off any more." He frowned. "This is so stupid. This was days ago. We are not arguing about this."

" Right. I'll get on that right away, sir," Maria said to his back. "I assume I can just take this note down to the State Alchemist office?"

" That should work!" Edward called back. He leaned back in the door with Al and Denny standing behind him. "Well, Sheska, you're a lifesaver." He waved. "Bye!" Sheska waved back.

Maria looked down at the note with Sheska as the door closed. "From his research grants, huh."

Both females yelled.

" Aah! Did he miss a decimal point somewhere?" Sheska shouted. "Wow!"

"Damn, Fullmetal, how much did you pay her?" Mustang asked.

"A fair amount. Nothing that was terribly a lot that it would put a noticeable dent in my grant." Edward replied.

"Seriously?" Sheska asked shocked. "But it was so much, and it wouldn't even be noticeable to you?"

Ed shrugged. "I get a lot of money."

Edward was shown leading his brother and Brosh down the hall, all of them carrying packets of paper. Maria's voice said, "How does a boy like that have this kind of money to throw around?"

"And that amount means nothing to you." Maria said blandly.

"Was the amount really that surprising to you?" Edward asked.

"YES!" Maria and Sheska shouted to a surprised Ed.

The main branch of the library was shown with birds chirping around before a hallway of the place was shown with Brosh saying, "I-I don't understand." The inside of the room was shown with Ed sitting at a table, Al at the bookcase, and Brosh facing Ed. "These are cookbooks. What could they possibly have to do with alchemy?"

Ed, not looking up from his packet of papers, replied, "Alchemy's a powerful art. It can be incredibly dangerous if misused. In order to prevent that," He turned the packet he was reading to face Brosh, pushing his fingers on it. "Alchemic research is always encrypted." A man working at a desk was shown with words overlapping over him. "These are designed to look like recipes to the average person, but they're actually advanced alchemical notes." A book appeared on the screen. "Only the alchemist who originally wrote them can understand."

The scene went back to Ed and Brosh. "If they're so heavily encrypted, then how are you going to be able to decipher them?"

Edward turned the packet back towards him. "It's not going to be easy. We'll have to use all our alchemical knowledge."

Brosh scratched his head. "Wow, sir, that sounds really complicated."

"Agreed." Many of the normal soldiers said.

Ed gasped and looked at Al. "Al, there's a section in here on green tea."

Al turned around to look at his brother. "Green tea. Are you thinking what I am?"

" Uh-huh. It might refer to the Green Lion, the philosopher's month."

"I'm lost already." Havoc said.

"Me too." Brody said.

Ed smirked. "Never attempt alchemy then."

" Do we have copies available of Flamel's Codes or Lamb spring's Concerning the Philosopher's Stone?" Ed asked.

Al put a stack of books down on the table. "Of course."

" All right. Take a look at this here." Ed said, pointing at something in the package. Al leaned over to look at it.

" Mm-hmm."

" And here too." Ed said. "You see." He glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eye.

" Yeah, you're right." Al pointed at something in the notes. "Maybe here too."

" Great," Ed said as Denny was shown to be watching them. "We've got a place to start." Denny shut his eyes and smiled. "Let's do this."

"I was so lost." Denny said.

"We don't blame you." Darius said. "They went all over our heads." "Well, except for the fellow alchemists here." Heinkel corrected.

A dark aura had its rein around both Ed and Al, who had their heads lying on the table. "Why does this encryption have to be so damn hard to figure out?" Ed asked as Al was shown with the spike on his helmet sticking in the table.

"Having some difficulty?" Mustang asked amused.

"I want to see you try to figure it out!" Edward retorted.

"Give me your notes and I'll show you how good I am." Mustang said. Ed glared at him. "I already told you. You're not getting my notes!"

"I have to hand it to you, Dr. Marcoh." Al said, ignoring his brother and Mustang. "You are a really good alchemist. I don't know many alchemists who can stump my brother like that."

Dr. Marcoh smiled. "Thank you, Alphonse, but it seems I am not that good yet since you two still managed to crack it."

"Your brother needs to fail at something." Izumi said.

"What was that?" Edward asked, breaking his glaring contest with Mustang. "I fail all the time."

"Perhaps not enough as you are still very prideful." Armstrong told him.

Ed twitched. "I don't like what you people are saying. I feel like it is me against everyone else."

" Brother," Al said. "Maybe we should ask Dr. Marcoh about this directly."

Al's words caused a look of anger to pass Ed's face and his grip on his papers tightened. "No way. That'd be admitting defeat." He said as Al lifted his head.

"Prideful." Maria, Denny, Darius, Havoc, Heinkel, and Brody chorused. "I just like to do these things on my own." Edward objected. Miles raised a brow. "So, you like testing yourself to see if you can do something?"

"Yes!" Ed exclaimed. "At least someone gets it." Buccaneer snickered. "It doesn't change the fact that you are still a prideful boy."

"In this case, it was good. I would not have been able to help you since I have been placed under house arrest." Marcoh said. Ed nodded. "Yeah, it might have been more dangerous to go back to you after those monsters found you.

" So, this is a contest now?" Al asked.

"Al, it is always a contest with your brother." Izumi said.

Al sighed. "I know. I always hope he'll stop though."

Ed's eyes narrowed. "I'm beginning to think you were never on my side, Al." "I'm just speaking the truth, Brother." Al replied.

" Excuse me." Sheska said, causing Ed and Al to look at the door where she was standing.

" Sheska," Ed said and the woman bowed.

Brosh and Maria were shown to be sitting in chairs outside the room as Sheska said, "Thanks to the money you gave me, Edward," The inside of the room was shown. "I was able to move my mother into a better hospital."

"Just how much money did you give her?" Havoc demanded. Ed shrugged. "You should be able to get a rough estimate from what she just said."

"Don't you think you might have overpaid her?" Kain asked.

"I believe it was a fair amount for getting me the research I need and getting all of that written in just five days." Edward replied.

Sheska bowed again. "I really appreciate it."

" Ah, it was no big deal, really." Edward replied, waving her thanks off.

" Have you had any luck deciphering it so far?" Sheska asked, only to create a dark aura around the boys once more.

" Ugh."

" Have you found another job yet?" Al asked her. This time it was Sheska with the depressed aura.

" Anyway," Sheska said, pulling herself out of it. "You two made me feel better. It was nice to know that even a pathetic mess like me can help out sometimes." She bowed to the brothers again. "So, thanks for that as well."

" You're not a pathetic mess." Al objected. "I think that the kind of dedication you show to reading is a talent all on its own, and besides that, your memory is incredible. You should have more faith in yourself."

Sheska smiled a little bit. "Thank you, Al."

"At least one of the brothers is good with words." Havoc said.

"And what does that mean, Havoc?" Ed growled dangerously.

"I don't deem it necessary to answer that as it should be obvious what I mean." Havoc replied, smirking at his young friend, whose eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits.

Brosh was shown to be yawning outside of the room when he paused at the sound of footsteps and stood up, shocked.

" Yo!" A hand was held up in greeting, causing Sheska to look over her shoulder.

" Lieutenant Colonel Hughes." Edward said, surprised. Hughes walked farther into the room, hand still held up as Ross and Denny continued saluting behind him. "Major Armstrong told me you two were here." Hughes slammed his hands on the table the boys were at and leaned forward. "What gives, Ed? I told you to give me a shout the next time you were made it to Central."

Ed scratched the back of his head. "Oh, er, something urgent came up, Sorry."

"Lies! You had five free days!" Hughes grumbled, much to the amusement of the brothers and Mustang and his crew.

"Well, who cares now?" Edward asked. "Honestly, your little surprise visit was nice. It gave us time to take a longer break and rest our fried brains."

" It's just as well. I've been busy too, and haven't been able to get away from the court-martial office." Hughes replied.

" They talk to Colonel Hughes like he's an old friend." Denny said.

" Just how high up are these boys?" Maria asked.

"You two just love to gossip behind our backs." Edward said slyly.

"We must be very good gossip." Al chuckled.

Mustang snorted. "Understatement, Alphonse. You're the Elric brothers. Every single thing you do and about you is a very interesting topic. Do you have any idea of how many rumours about you two are flying around? There are still soldiers in the east wondering why you wear Armor, Al, and you, Edward, they are still curious on how exactly your limbs were lost. They aren't satisfied with it simply happening in the war."

"Especially considering it was a lie." Breda said.

"But no one knew it was a lie." Edward pointed out.

"Still, there is never a boring day with you two around. I don't think you guys understand what a quiet, relaxing day is." Havoc said.

Maria nodded. "I can believe that."

Hughes smirked. "What happened during the five days you were waiting for the research to be rewritten by Sheska?"

Both of Ed's guards looked at Hughes with pained looks.

"What did you do to my men, Edward Elric?" Armstrong demanded.

Ed waved his hands frantically in front of him. "Nothing! Nothing! They are just overreacting."

"So, what did you do?" Izumi asked curiously.

Al shrugged. "We just wandered around the city."

"Yes, the first day of 'wandering around' led us the dark part of Central where the two led us to a brothel. A brothel." Maria stressed. Silence fell over the room while all the soldiers looked at the brothers. Brothers who were only teenagers and one didn't even have a body. Not to mention the fact that they shouldn't even be allowed in them with their ages.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING IN A BROTHEL?!" Izumi demanded, breaking the silence. Ed slapped a hand to his forehead. "Nothing like that! We weren't there for anything sexual!"

"Then why were you there?" Mustang demanded.

Ed sighed. "Look, one night when I was thirteen…"

"Thirteen?" Havoc yelped shocked.

"How the hell did you get in the door at thirteen?" Brody demanded.

"I'm getting there." Ed snapped. "Look, Al and I were in Central at the military dorm. We got in a fight, destroyed part of the room, and we both left, going our separate ways. It was midnight, I was tired, lost, and just wanted a place to rest when I came across the brothel. I just thought it was a regular inn. It made sense the next morning why the room was so expensive looking. I showed them my pocket watch and they were more than willing to let me in the place."

"So why did you go back?" Havoc asked.

Ed shrugged. "The girls there are really nice. Al likes talking to them while I sleep. And plus, they always make me dinner and breakfast when I stay there. They are really good at cooking."

Brosh snickered. "They even have a picture of Major Elric on the wall to prove that the famed Fullmetal Alchemist has been there."

"Is the food really that good, Brother?" Al asked curiously.

Ed nodded. "We should go back there sometime when you have your body back to try the food." A thoughtful look came over his face. "The beds are really soft too, much better than the ones in the dorms."

"Really, Mustang?" General Armstrong asked the man. "You should really stop this child from entering establishments when he is not the proper age."

Mustang smacked his forehead. Why? Why did he get saddled with the child? He may have been the one to find him, but still…. "Fullmetal, you don't happen to enter any other places you shouldn't be in at your age, do you"

Ed's eyes narrowed. "Well, we've been to some bars and clubs before."

Mustang groaned.

"Don't worry, Colonel. We never go there to socialize, or drink in Brother's case. Brother uses his watch to get in so we can gather some information. It's all for the missions." Al told the Colonel, to his relief, before Al continued. "Though there was that one time he drank when we were in Youswell."

Ed blinked. "Did I really? Wait, wasn't that where that Yoki fellow was?" He scratched his head. "Maybe that's why I don't remember him." He looked at his brother with a smirk. "So, what's your reason for forgetting him?"

"Why were you drinking?" Riza demanded. She had always thought the boy more responsible than that.

"How do I answer since I can't remember that night?" Ed grumbled.

Al sighed and turned to the Lieutenant to cover for his brother. "They pushed the alcohol onto Brother. He told them not to give alcohol to a minor, but he ended up drinking a little bit anyway with his food."

"Oh, yeah," Ed looked at the ceiling in thought. "Was there something like a party going on?"

"Yes, Brother. You kicked Yoki out of the town and freed the town from his corrupt ways." Al said patiently. "I told you this before after you woke up."

"I had a hangover. Most of what you said didn't process and I just wrote it down for the report as if in a trance." Edward replied.

"So, I've realized." Al muttered.

Ed grinned at him, then looked at Mustang. "So only bars, clubs, and brothels. I've never done anything else inappropriate for my age."

"What about the car?" Al asked.

"Car?" Havoc asked while Ed looked from Al to Mustang nervously. "Nothing!" Ed yelped in a panic. "There is nothing about a car that needs to be discussed." He looked at his brother with a scowl and said quietly, "Never mention the car incident."

Mustang groaned. "Half of me wants to know, but the other half is telling me that if I don't know, then the military doesn't know, and it is probably for the best."

Ed sighed in relief. "Other than the brothel, we just wandered around Central during those five days." He said to get back on topic.

"You say that, but we ran into five thieves, you got into a fight with a gang, you and Al destroyed the training grounds with your sparring…." Maria said frowning.

Ed held up a hand. "We don't need to go any farther. And it's not like I was looking for those thieves. They ran into me. And that gang was tormenting those two girls. I couldn't just overlook that. Besides Al was backing me up."

"You don't need to take down a whole gang to save two girls from five members of said gang." Maria said distressed.

Al shrugged. "It gave us a way to spend the five days of waiting."

"You took the gang, leader, members, and the base, down in one day." Denny argued.

"They weren't even that big of a gang." Ed replied, scratching his head.

"Never a dull day with the Elric brothers." Mustang laughed.

Hughes, on the other hand, frowned, "Is that why there was a flood of people being transported to the prison and why there was now a destroyed warehouse? It had my men so busy that day when we were already extremely busy because of the library being burned down."

"Okay, to be fair," Edward said. "It was not my aim to destroy the warehouse. One of the support beams got destroyed in the fight so it all came down, and I thought the police would handle it since it was a small-time gang, not your men."

"Ed, it was a major drug dealing gang that we have been trying to locate!" Hughes yelped.

Ed laughed. "Really? That would explain all the crates full of that strange white powder. I guess we really should have asked what their gang did when we stopped them from terrorizing those girls."

"How did you find their base?" Havoc asked.

"Oh," Ed smirked. "Just knocked around those ones that were terrorizing the girls for a while. They were really eager to talk after that."

"Note to self, never give Fullmetal time off." Mustang muttered. "He just causes us more work when we are already swamped."

"Just because I don't like being idle." Edward grumbled to himself.

Hughes scratched is head. "We've had a lot of cases to deal with lately, and we're still working on getting the Tucker Chimera situation settled." He paused when he saw the distressed look Ed was wearing. "Sorry. I guess that brings up some unpleasant memories, huh?" He pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. "Anyway, as if things weren't bad enough for us already, the First Branch had to burn down in the middle of all this."

" That's been a problem, huh?" Ed asked.

" A big one. All our case records were stored in the stacks at that location, and trying to work without them hasn't been a picnic, let me tell you." Hughes told them.

Ed and Al stared at him.

" Uh, what?" Hughes asked.

Both boys turned to look at Sheska as the same time, causing Hughes to look at her too.

Sheska blinked and pointed at herself.

Ed leaned forward on his arm. "Hey Lieutenant Colonel, I think I've got exactly the person you guys are looking for."

" Well, I have read the military's criminal case records, and I do remember them all." Sheska said.

Hughes smirked. "That's all I needed to hear, lady. You're hired. My office pays well so don't worry."

"That was too quick." Mustang said deadpanned. "You should check her background at least."

Hughes waved him off. "No way. I was already so behind. I don't have time for such things. If she was with the brothers and friends with them, she is a good person. I trust their judge of character."

" Oh, uh, you're saying you want me?" Sheska said before looking at the brothers. "Oh, thanks so much! I'll have faith just like you told me to." Hughes grabbed the back of her shirt and started dragging her away. "Thank you. Thank you."

"Kidnapper." Al and Ed said together.

"At least we never had to endure that." Al whispered to his brother. Ed shook his head. "Don't say that, Al. You're going to jinx us."

Ross and Brosh saluted again as Hughes dragged Sheska away. "Come on now. Right to work." Hughes said.

Ed and Al were shown waving as they left. Ed was smirking with a pen in his mouth. "Who is this guy? A kidnapper?" He asked.

"Yes, he is." Mustang said.

"Have you endured it to, Colonel?" Edward asked amused.

"More than once." Mustang answered, sighing. How he ever became friends with such a cheerful fellow he still didn't understand.

Al chuckled. "Someone should teach him some manners."

Al and Ed laughed as they put their hands down and a cheerful tune started playing.

Edward dropped his head to the table. "How did you put it again, Al? 'I think dedication is a talent all on its own?'" Edward played with the pen in his mouth. "Very smooth, little brother, very smooth."

Al looked at his brother. "Well, it's something I always think whenever I see a certain someone I know."

Edward threw the pen up in the air using his teeth. It spun a few times before it was caught by the boy.

"You threw a pen like that with your teeth?" Brody asked, raising a brow. "Freak."

Ed glared at him. "How is it strange?"

"Most people can't do strange things like that." Luke said, chuckling.

"Guess I'm just abnormal." Edward said.

"We already knew that." Hughes teased, then glanced at Al. "The Elrics are just weird people."

The brothers glanced at each other with Ed grinning. "And proud of it!" They said together.

Edward was shown to be sitting up straight again. "In that case, a certain someone should hurry and get back to work, or you're gonna have to come up with a new motivational phrase!"

The table was shown to be covered in books, papers, and scrunched up papers. Edward came next as he wrote something down, then the table was shown again. Al put some more books down on the table when Ed suddenly stood up, slammed one foot onto his chair and screamed, throwing papers all over the place causing his little brother to jump up straight and scream in surprise.

Chuckling, Mustang turned to the boy. "Going crazy, Fullmetal?"

Ed ignored him and looked at Marcoh. "Your notes were so damn difficult to crack."

"Not hard enough it seems." Dr. Marcoh replied, chuckling.

"Oh, there were plenty hard, Dr. Marcoh. Please don't try to make them any more difficult." Al said, almost sounding as if he was pleading. "I think we really would have gone insane if they were harder than they already were."

"You seem pretty sane, Al." Izumi said, smirking. "After trying so hard to crack Edward's notes for three years, I would have imagined you'd have lost it by now."

Al laughed. "Well, there were a few times I was contemplating hitting Brother while he slept for making his code so damn difficult."

"What?" Edward said, a bit scared. "While I was defenceless? How cruel, little brother!"

"I really want those notes now." Mustang said, frowning. "If they can almost convert Al to wanting to hit his precious older brother then I have to see them."

Edward twitched. "If my notes can cause Al to want to hit me, I don't even want to see what they might cause you to do to me!"

"He might just make you into fried shrimp." General Armstrong said, smirking at the boy, who paled a bit.

"Never, never let Colonel get the notes." Edward mumbled to himself as he picked up his apple. "Never. Remember, Al. Never. Not even after I'm died. He'll find a way to get to me after death or maybe he'll fry my corpse. Never let him, Al."

Al blinked. He had thought his brother was talking to himself, but then he went and mentioned him. If it was going to make his brother insane, maybe he should keep the notes away from Mustang.

Next, Al was shown to be working while Ed had his head resting on the back of the chair, snoozing away."

That won't be good for the neck." Brosh said.

Ed rubbed his neck. "Nope, it definitely didn't feel good when I woke up."

Packets of Dr. Marcoh's notes was shown with a few more being casually tossed on top of them. Then Ed was shown to be writing some more things down, eyes determined. Al was shown turning the pages of a book he was looking through.

"How many days do we have to go through?" Havoc asked.

"Be lucky you are only being shown brief views of those days." Brosh told him. "We had to actually sit outside that room all day since they didn't leave that room."

"Hey, I left to go to the bathroom." Ed objected. "And to get food."

"Half the time. The other half either I or your brother went to get the food since you were determined not to leave until you finished the portion of notes you were working on." Brosh retorted.

Ed nodded. "Fair enough, but we did leave the room at times."

"And for sleeping?" Havoc asked.

"Oh, we left for that." Ed said. "Forgot it since it seemed obvious."

"You left the minute it closed and arrived right when it opened the next day. That didn't really leave a lot of time for sleep." Maria said, frowning. "Especially since you stayed up half the night to continue working on the notes in your room."

"None of us got much sleep." Brosh muttered.

Ed raised a brow. "How do you guys guard us at night?"

"When a guard has to be placed, sleeping arrangements are made so one soldier sleeps while the other guards for half the night then they switch." Mustang explained.

"Oh," Ed mumbled. "Sounds horrible."

Breda snorted. "Considering how much you sleep; you probably wouldn't be able to do it."

"Ha, I bet I could. I could stay up if I had to." Edward retorted.

"If you had the determination," Al said. "If it isn't something you care about, you would just let yourself fall asleep."

Ed grinned, unashamed. "Yep, I would."

More packets of papers were shown to be tossed on top of some other packets. Next came Ed's determined face as he continued to write some stuff down.

And the music came to an end as a bell tower was shown with the bell ringing.

Brosh woke up to the bell. "I'm awake." He said.

Maria stood up. "The library is closing."

Brosh stood up. "They've been at it for ten days now." He said as he approached his partner.

"Finally!" Brosh said. "It's present time."

"Well, moving into the future time in a few seconds." Maria corrected.

Dr. Marcoh's eyes widened. If the future was coming and the boys said they already decoded the notes… "You decoded my notes in ten days? That is quite impressive. I thought it would take you longer than that."

"You are dealing with prodigies. Did you count that in?" Izumi asked, quite proud of her ex-students.

"I did, but I guess I really did not realize just how smart these boys were." Dr. Marcoh replied.

Riza nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes, they do manage to still find ways to shock us all."

" I'm impressed they're still going after all this time." Brosh said before turning to the doors and grabbing the handles.

As he grabbed the handles, though, Edward screamed, "To hell with it!" And there was the sound of books and papers flying and slamming into ground, surprising the two soldiers outside the room.

"Oh, the boys are upset now." Riza sighed. "Did you have to make a mess of the place?"

Ed snorted. "We were upset. It's just a habit when you learn something this disturbing."

"And at last, the rest of us will know what makes this research so dark." Mustang said, ears ready to hear just what has happened. If he knew Edward, he would tell these soldiers just to get it out. It was surprising that he and Al managed to keep it to themselves for so long.

Dark music entered the scene as the soldiers looked at each other with frowns. They opened the doors a bit and looked inside. Books and papers were all over the ground. One of the chairs was knocked over and sitting on the floor in the middle of the mess were the brothers. Al was holding the side of his helmet with one of his hands while Ed had his back to the door.

" What did you guys do to this place?" Brosh asked as he walked in with Maria.

" Don't get angry because you can't crack it. Throwing things won't help." Maria said.

" We did crack it." Al said, surprising the soldiers as Al was shown next. "We cracked the code and decrypted the notes."

" Really? You did, but that's a good thing, isn't it?" Brosh asked excitedly.

Edward's right hand slammed into the ground. "There's nothing good about this, damn it. This is the devil's research. It should've been destroyed." He lifted his hand off the ground and covered his face with it. "Dr. Marcoh was right. It's evil."

" What's so evil about it?" Brosh asked.

Ed's face was shown, half covered by his hand. "The main ingredient for a Philosopher's Stone…" The books and papers covering the ground were shown. "…is human life."

"Human life?" Mustang asked quietly as he was absolutely shocked.

Anger seeped into every pore of Scar's body. That despicable stone was made using humans lives and Ishval may have been attacked on purpose by those monsters. This was becoming more and more distasteful. Alchemy was even more horrible then he ever realized. It practically ruled this country and the reason why it was so strong. How many humans were truly used as simple tools for their horrible ambition and greed?

"Human life?" General Armstrong growled, staring unwaveringly at the young alchemists. "Are you telling me that our country made Philosopher's Stones with innocent lives?"

Edward, face half covered with one of his hands to hide his despair, half nodded. "They had to have been. To make a Philosopher's Stone that would even work properly would require hundreds of lives."

"Hundreds?" Maria said horror stricken. How could their country, the one they swore to protect, make such things?

It wasn't just Maria who was in shock by this. Most of the soldiers had gone extremely pale. They had joined the military to help and protect their country, but how could they do anything properly if this was what their country was aiming for?

"I-is that really possible?" Havoc asked, frowning. "I mean, we would notice if hundreds of people were just suddenly gone, right?"

"Which means no one could have created one." Brody said, creating a bit of hope in the room.

"Is that what you think?" Al asked, getting ready to break that hope which was something his brother usual did and not something he was used to doing. "Dr. Marcoh had an incomplete Philosopher's Stone. How do you think he came about that? It didn't just magical appear in his possession."

"And since you are the only one with knowledge on it, you must have made it, correct?" Izumi demanded, one of the few not shocked by the sudden revelation. She was disgusted and horrified that anyone would make such a thing and to sacrifice so many lives to do it, but there was no shock in her system. She couldn't be shocked. She had to be ready for anything.

"Yes," Dr. Marcoh admitted shamefully, catching everyone's attention as they wanted to learn more, to try to understand this. Creating that vile stone was his biggest regret in life. So many died pointless deaths because of that stone. "Countless lives were loss in the research and making of the vile stone. They were such pointless deaths. It should have never happened."

"How?" Ed whispered hoarsely. "How did you come across the truth that human lives were needed?"

Dr. Marcoh hesitated for a brief moment before saying, "Those monsters told me." Everything was going to be revealed, he might as well just reveal some of it now. "They work in the shadows of the military and informed me how the stone was made, and then continued to provide me with the humans to use for the research done on the stone."

"And you went through with it?" Edward screamed, looking at the doctor angrily. "You went through with it even after learning the truth from those horrible monsters?"

"I worked on that stone in the lab for years, hating every part of the research, but I never left. I continued with it for a long while, soiling my hands so much more with each imperfect stone I made." Dr. Marcoh said darkly, staring down at his hands. His eyes decided to play tricks on him and show him that they were covered in burning blood. "I finally ran after a few years, hiding my materials and taking the stones I did make."

"And why didn't you inform someone? Tell them what the hell was going on in the shadows of the military to stop them?" Izumi growled.

"I didn't know who I could trust with this information, who wouldn't turn me in or agree with the side of those monsters." Dr. Marcoh said.

"Bullshit." Edward snarled angrily. "You trusted Armstrong when we appeared in that little town of yours. Hiding out in that little town of yours, healing as many people as you can is a nice goal in life, but it will make up for nothing you did. You should be out there, finding comrades you can trust with your life that you can tell so you can stop these monsters." His golden eyes lifted to show an infuriated, but determined glare. "You want to make up for the hell you have put those innocent people through? Then help stop these damn monsters and make sure another stone is never created. Stand up and help save this country! You were in the military and you ran instead of searching for comrades that could actually help you." He lowered his voice a notch. "Keeping all the information about the stone and the fact that this country has monsters working in its shadows is just putting us all in more danger. You ran because you were too scared!"

Dr. Marcoh was shocked into silence and all he could do was stare at this fifteen-year-old boy, a boy that shouldn't know the horrors of this country or going through hell like he had. He should be in school, hanging with his friends, but instead, here he was, ready to face the hells of this world. And yet, he, an adult and a State Alchemist, ran because he didn't want to face it anymore, not after everything he had done.

A proud look crossed Izumi's face as she heard Edward's words. She looked at her husband to see that he was just as proud as she was of Edward. The boy might have made a lot of mistakes in his short life, but those mistakes were what helped him to grow into the man he was today. He was still a child and got scared, but he would never show it. Instead, he would stand tall with his comrades to save all those who needed saved because of these monsters. He was an amazing boy.

Al would have smiled if he could have. Despite the harshness of how his brother had said it, his intentions were good. He wanted to help Dr. Marcoh find the way to make up for what he did. He wanted to help the man to find some way to alleviate some of the guilt he was feeling. The guilt would never fully disappear, but he could help lessen it and make the doctor feel a bit better about himself. He would never find that by spending the rest of his life saving lives as a doctor. If he could help, even just a bit to save this country, the man would feel better. The lives of these people would be saved.

Hughes and Mustang shared looks of pride. Both knew where the boy was coming from when he said that. He may not be a fully trained soldier, but he understood his role as a State Alchemist. It was for the people. He was meant to help the people of this country. And that would be what he did, but his speech was also saying that he knew he couldn't do it alone. The soldiers were horrified at the truth that was revealed and these strange monsters, but they knew what they had to do. They were to stand up and fight for this country.

"Nicely said, boy." General Armstrong said quite impressed and breaking the silence that had taken over the room at Ed's speech. "As soldiers, it is our duty to stand up and stop those monsters that are controlling this country from the shadows. Those that are too scared should leave the military. This is no place for wusses."

Dr. Marcoh sighed. "Yes, you are right, Edward. I was a coward. I was scared of those monsters. I was scared of what I had done, and all I've ever wanted to do these past years was make up for it all, but I was too terrified to go back to the military where it all began."

The anger in Ed's eyes dissipated a bit to be replaced by understanding and kindness. "There is no reason to be afraid when you have comrades by your side. A true loyal comrade would never abandon you in a fight so there is never a reason to be afraid knowing that person has your back." He looked at his brother, smiling faintly.

General Armstrong smirked again. This boy just got more and more impressive the more he opened his mouth when the situation was serious. He sure was very insightful and smart.

"That was very wise of you, Edward." Hughes commented, smiling at the boy.

Ed nodded briefly at him. "It's been known to happen." He said smartly.

Dr. Marcoh looked down, frowning slightly. Comrades, huh? He had a team of researchers, but he left them all behind when he decided to run. Did that make him not loyal to his comrades? His hands clenched tightly on his knees.

No, that was then. As young Edward said, if he wanted to make amends, then he would have to stand up and do what he could. He may not be able to fight like the young people could, but he had knowledge that surpassed a lot of them. Perhaps he could find something to do that could help them all.

Maria and Brosh were shown with faces of horror and shock before the scene went back to Edward, who was now covering his mouth, eyes hardened as he looked at the ground. "In order to manufacture even a single stone, you have to make multiple human sacrifices."

" How could the military authorize research into something so horrible?" Brosh asked.

"It makes sense now that we know the truth." Brosh said darkly.

" I can't believe it. How awful." Maria said.

" Do us a favour. Don't speak to anyone about this." Ed said.

Brosh kneeled on the ground. "But, sir."

" Please." Edward said. "Just pretend you never heard any of it."

"You just told me not to hide it, and now you are?" Dr. Marcoh asked perplexed.

"Course, because at that time, I wouldn't fully understand anything. I knew nothing about these monsters or what they did in Liore. I barely understand anything. It's best that nothing gets out yet." Edward replied.

A part of Central was shown at night-time. The outside of a military hotel was shown.

" What's this now?" Armstrong's voice asked. The lobby of the hotel was shown where Armstrong was facing Maria and Brosh. "The Elric brothers are holed up in their room again tonight?"

" Yes," Maria replied. "They haven't been eating either."

Izumi sighed. "Not eating isn't going to change anything. The truth of that stone will still be the truth."

"Okay, can I just point out that this is now the future so anything that Al and I happen to do, we should not be scolded for as we have not done anything yet." Edward told her.

"No, I think we're still scold you two." Mustang replied.

"Why?" Al asked.

Hughes sighed. "So, you two will learn your lesson without actually having to go through whatever it is you two are going to do."

Ed raised a brow. "And what if we do nothing?"

Izumi, Sig, Dr. Marcoh, and all the soldiers, even the Briggs soldiers who haven't met the brothers outside of this room, gave the brothers looks of complete disbelief.

"It's you two." Havoc said. "You two can't stay out of trouble for five minutes.

"Hey, brother may not be able to, but I certainly can." Al objected.

Ed glared at his brother. "Traitor." He hissed. "What happened to being in on this together?"

"I'm beginning to think it just might be better to have it every man for himself." Al teased.

Armstrong turned around, putting a hand to his chin. "Hmm, the fatigue must be catching up to them. They seem to have devoted all their energy to these notes." He said as Maria and Brosh turned around to whisper to each other behind his back.

" They worked so hard to decipher those notes, only to find out that." Maria said.

" It disturbs me too, just thinking about it. I bet I'd act the same way." Brosh replied as Armstrong turned back around to face them.

" What was that?" Armstrong asked, surprising them.

The two soldiers turned around, throwing their hands up nervously.

"Oh, it was nothing, sir!" They said together.

Armstrong towered over them, scaring the two soldiers. "Your behaviour is most suspicious."

"They're going to cave and tell him what is going on." Al grumbled.

Ed sighed. "Don't give into that!"

"Why don't you try facing up to that?" Brosh retorted.

"Oh, I would love to, then I could show you how it is done when you are told to keep a secret." Edward responded, smirking at the soldier.

"We don't even know if they cave or not since this is the future!" Brody intervened.

The brothers and Brosh gave him deadpanned looks.

A bedroom window was shown with a creaking fan being heard then shown. Edward was shown to be lying on the couch with his arms resting under his head, coats abandoned, while Al sat behind the couch.

" Brother," Al said. "You should really get something to eat."

" No thanks." Ed replied as he continued to just watch the fan.

"Really, you boys can be so troublesome sometimes." Sig said, sighing.

"Oh, great, even Sig is reprimanding us." Edward grumbled.

Al chuckled. "Actually, Brother, only you are being reprimanded as I do not require food with this body."

"Continues to betray me at every turn." Edward mumbled to himself.

" Pretty awful, huh?" Ed asked.

" Mm-hmm." Al replied.

There was a clinking noise as Ed stretched his automail arm towards the ceiling. "You know, Al, it's like we try so hard to grasp the truth," He moved his hand a bit before curling his fingers into a fist. "But it always slips away. And now that we finally have caught it, it turns out the truth is too dangerous to hold." He covered his eyes with his automail arm, smirking at the irony. "I'm starting to think this is God's special way of torturing people who committed taboos."

"I thought you didn't believe in God." Hughes said.

Ed smirked, but it was a pained smirk. "I don't."

"Brother has a habit of referring to God in private." Al explained.

"Not that it's any of their business." Edward said annoyed. Sheesh, how much of their private lives was going to be displayed for them all to see?

"Well, it was a nice speech, even if it was dark and sad." Maria said.

"And here I thought you weren't good with words." Brosh added.

Ed's eyes narrowed at him. "Not good with words?" He mumbled. "I'm a damn prodigy. There would be a hell of a lot of problems if I had problems with words."

"Surprisingly, despite his short temper and rants, Fullmetal is quite good with reports, oral and written, and knows what to say when it needs to be said." Mustang said.

Ed's annoyed eyes turned to the Colonel. "I don't like how you said 'surprisingly.'"

"Well, it is a surprise, not something that would be expected from someone like you." General Armstrong said.

"Someone like me?" Edward mouthed to himself, confused. Damn soldiers.

Ed's arm moved to cover his eyes completely as he now frowned. "I wonder," He started as Al was shown on the screen. "If it will be like this all our lives." The screen changed to look down at the boys from the ceiling. "You know, Al, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while," Al tilted his helmet up a bit. "But I guess I've been too afraid to say it."

Edward's eyes narrowed as his skin went pale. Now, this was definitely no one damn's business. "Shut the hell up future me!" He shouted.

Al looked at his brother in surprise. "What do you want to say?"

Golden eyes snapped to him then back to the screen. "It doesn't matter. Just forget it."

"How can we when we are going to hear it in a second?" Mustang asked.

Ed growled softly. "Damn future me, shut up. Don't ask."

Al turned his head to look at his brother. "What?"

Ed was shown, still shadowing his eyes with his arm. "I–"

A hand slammed onto the bedroom door.

"Yes! Thank you for the interruption!" Ed cheered.

"Brother, what was it you wanted to say?" Al asked.

Ed shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

"No, it does." Al argued. "But, as Future Ed just said, you are just scared to say it. Brother, please just tell me what is wrong."

The young State Alchemist looked at his little brother with a little frown. He wanted to desperately ask his brother, had wanted to do so for years, but just could never find it in himself to bring it out in the open. It was easier if he didn't know the truth, the truth that his precious baby brother truly hated him for what he did to him. If he didn't know that he was hated, he could move forward more easily. To know the truth would just be like a heavy weight on his heart dragging him down farther and farther into the dark abyss

"It's nothing." Edward replied after a moment, looking away from his brother.

Alphonse stared at his brother, feeling hurt. He and Ed were so close that they could tell when the other was lying, and it was so plainly obvious this time that even the most oblivious person could notice he was lying. That wasn't really the problem though. The real problem was that it hurt Al deeply that his brother couldn't trust him enough to just tell him what was going on. "Brother," he said softly with the hurt in his voice masked.

"Al," Izumi interrupted, leaning forward and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps you should wait until later to talk about this. I believe it is a private matter."

Al wanted to refuse, to demand to know why his brother was upset and hiding things, but the rational part of him knew that Izumi was right. And even though he didn't want to let it go until he got his answer, he nodded and backed down, much to Ed's relief.

"You should know, Edward," Riza said, surprising the boy. "The longer you keep something hidden, the more likely that a misunderstanding will occur."

Ed shook his head. There was no way this could be misunderstood. It was so obvious…

The hand slammed on the door again. "Elric brothers, I know you're in there." Armstrong's voice shouted through the door, causing Edward to sit up and stare at the door. "Open up!"

Edward was shown sitting on the couch, one arm resting on the back of the couch as he stared at the door while the other leaned on the couch to hold him up. Al sweat dropped as he stared at the door.

" This is the Major."

Darius snorted. "You don't have to announce that it's you. I believe it is pretty obvious who's voice that is."

"It would be quite rude to not inform them of who it was knocking." Armstrong said.

Heinkel sweat dropped. "It was pretty obvious, and you were pounding, not knocking."

" What do we do?" Al asked as the pounding at the door continued.

" We ignore him, that's what."

"Well, that is quite rude." Dr. Marcoh said.

"It's not like we are up for visitors at the moment." Edward muttered.

Edward said as the door handle suddenly came flying forward with Armstrong's hand on it as the door was destroyed.

"And that is even ruder!" Edward screamed before saying pitifully, "My door. Why does everything have to get destroyed?"

"Isn't it you who usually destroys everything?" Zampano asked.

Ed glared at him. "Stupid soldiers. No one asked you."

Armstrong was shown, sparkling, as Maria and Brosh stood behind him with tears cascading down their faces. "I know what it said, Edward Elric."

"We were right." Ed, Al, and Brosh said.

Edward and Alphonse screamed.

" How tragic!" Armstrong cried. "To think the legend of the Philosopher's Stone is such a terrible secret."

Ed glared at Brosh and Maria, who held her hands up in defence. "W-we're really sorry." She said, looking away from the boy.

" It's hard to stay quiet when someone like him asks you." Brosh added.

" Imagine the military being behind something like that." Armstrong said as Ed scowled behind him. "Often the truth is crueller than we bargain for."

Ed's eyes widened.

"I must have remembered your note." Edward said.

"In your despair, you forgot?" Dr. Marcoh asked.

Why do you think I was moping in my room?" Edward countered.

" The truth?" Ed asked.

" What is it, Brother?" Al asked.

" Do you remember what Dr. Marcoh said at the station?"

" Huh?" Al said.

Dr. Marcoh standing in front of Ed at the station appeared on the screen as music began to play in the background. "Look closely. Maybe you'll find the truth hidden within the truth." Dr. Marcoh said. The scene went back to Ed who put a thumb to the side of his mouth. "I didn't have a clue of what he was talking about then, but now, it's the same as with alchemical notes. What you can see on the surface is only a portion of the truth. There's still more to find here. There has to be."

The lights in the room were now on as the soldiers and the brothers looked at a map of Central. Ed and Armstrong were sitting down while the other three stood. "Currently there are four operational alchemy laboratories in Central that have connections to the government. We can narrow it down even farther. Marcoh worked in the 3rd laboratory. We should start with that one. It's the most suspect." Armstrong pointed at the lab on the map

" Hmm. Al and I have been to all the laboratories in the city." Edward said, eyes scanning the map. "None were doing any remarkable research–" His eyes stopped on a section of the map. He pointed at a lab that was 'x' out in red. "Here. What's this building used for?" He turned to look at Maria for the answer.

" It was designed for the fifth laboratory, but it isn't currently in use."

Maria explained. "The building isn't structural sound so it's been classified off-limits."

"Well, that just reeks of suspicions." Mustang said.

" It's there." Edward said.

Brosh leaned forward, looking at the map. "Huh? How can you be so sure that's it?"

Ed's finger moved to the building next to the lab. "There's a prison right next door."

"You can't be serious?" Riza said horrified.

"What?" Kain asked confused.

"They're using prisoners for experiments." Havoc muttered, feeling sick. "Just how messed up is this whole thing?"

" Okay." Brosh said confused. "So?"

" What was the main ingredient for a Philosopher's Stone?" Edward asked.

Brosh stood up straight, putting a hand to his chin. "You said it needed live humans." A horrified look passed over his face.

A rope was shown, ready to hang someone. "They'd be plenty of condemned criminals in the prison. Officially they'd be recorded as executed," Al and Brosh were shown, watching Ed followed by Armstrong, then a disturbed looking Maria.

" They're using the prisoners to make the stone." Maria said.

Edward held his hands up. "Don't look at me like that. I don't like talking about this anymore than you do." He leaned back on the couch.

" Prisoners from other jurisdictions could be used to. I wonder if the government is involved." Al said.

A horrified Maria and Brosh were shown. "Why do I have the feeling that we're getting involved in something really dangerous?" The former asked.

" That's why we told you to pretend you never heard anything." Al said frantically. Armstrong rolled the map up and stood up, walking over to the door. Before leaving he turned around to face the four other occupants. "This has the potential of becoming a political nightmare before long. I'll look into what we talked about tonight." He said before looking at the two soldiers. "In the meantime, officers, speak of this to no one."

" Sir." Brosh and Maria replied, saluting.

Armstrong turned to the boys. "And you Elric brothers, behave yourselves!"

Al and Ed jumped, screaming.

Armstrong twitched and towered over the boys. "I know you two boys. You were thinking about sneaking into this building and taking a look around, weren't you? Admit it!"

"They were." Mustang, Hughes, Izumi, and Mustang's crew all answered.

Al and Ed held their hands up, shaking their hands as they frantically said, "We weren't, we weren't. We promise."

"Lies!" Havoc accused loudly.

Ed and Al glanced at each other warily. Their stupid future selves were going to get them into a lot of trouble at this rate.

The crescent moon was shown.

" Yeah, sure we weren't." Ed's voice said as the screen moved down to show Ed and Al running through the night streets with a tone playing in the background.

"You damn brats!" Maria screamed, wanting to strangle the both of them.

Ed and Al yelped. "We haven't done anything yet!" They yelled.

"How the hell are we supposed to protect you when you do things like this?" Maria scolded.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye, make a note. When giving guards to Fullmetal, make sure there are multiple guards posted outside his door and below all the windows of his room." Mustang growled.

Ed snarled. "That is making it sound like a prison, Colonel."

Mustang's eyes lit up. "Great idea, Fullmetal. We'll lock you in in a prison cell when we have to guard you for some reason."

"You will do no such thing!" Ed shouted before lowering his voice. "Never again."

"'Again?' Havoc asked confused.

Ed blushed and scratched the back of his head. "There was this incident…"

"You mean the one where the Colonel told some officers to arrest you?" Al asked.

"You did what?" Riza growled at her boss.

Mustang held up his hands. "Now to be fair, it was for the mission we were on. It wasn't done as a prank."

"Sometimes I wonder about that." Edward grumbled to himself.

Breda snorted. "It's a wonder you never got sent to a Juvenile Detention Centre."

"Do you guys think that lowly of me?" Edward asked blankly and a bit offended. He may be a bit reckless, but it always to get the job done…. unless someone calls him short. Then it is just plain personal.

"Forget that!" Izumi growled. "What do you two think you are doing going to a laboratory in the middle of the night by yourself? Do you have any idea of how dangerous this is, and how reckless you are being?"

"Honestly, we expected better of you, Al." Hughes said.

Ed smirked. "I don't have to convince him to do as many of my reckless endeavours as you believe I do."

"Traitor." Al grumbled, now understanding how his brother felt when he did it to him.

"Why must you boys do this?" Izumi growled. "We have no idea of what is there. You could get yourselves killed!"

Ed winced under his former Teacher's harsh glare. "We haven't done it yet."

"And you never are going to, correct?" Armstrong demanded.

"We won't! We won't!" Ed and Al cried together, cowering under the intense glares of Izumi and Armstrong.

"They are more reckless than I first thought." General Armstrong muttered.

The gate of the fifth laboratory was shown with a soldier standing in front of it. A keep out sign was shown.

" Hmm, a guard posted at an unused building. Interesting." Ed's voice said as the guard stretched his arms above his head.

Ed and Al were shown hiding behind one of the walls that surrounded the lab, watching the guard.

"At least you two do know to be inconspicuous." Mustang said.

"Why do you think Future me isn't wearing my red coat?" Ed asked, rolling his eyes. "We know how to be covert. It's just that we usually don't do it since it isn't needed, but of course, here it is, especially since it is the military we are investigating."

"I'm not sure if I should be relieved or upset that you are good at being covert." Hughes sighed.

Al stared at his friend. "Why would you be upset?"

"Because you're good at it, it means the guard won't catch you and stop you from sneaking in." Hughes explained, frowning.

"Considering it is a single guard, there wasn't much chance of them getting caught anyway." Mustang sighed.

"They're not even in the lab yet." Jerso pointed out.

Havoc smirked; despite the dangerous situation the boys have put themselves in. "It is the Elric brothers. They always find a way in."

"Unfortunately." Breda muttered.

" That is suspicious." Al agreed.

They moved farther behind the wall.

" How do we get in?" Al's voice asked as the top of the walls surrounding the building were shown to have barbed wire on them.

" We could make our own entrance." Edward said as the screen moved slowly down.

" They'd notice the light from the transmute reaction." Al replied as the boy appeared on the screen. Edward was looking up at the top of the wall.

" Well, in that case." Ed said.

Al's hands were cupped together and Ed put one of his feet in them, allowing Al to throw him into the air. "And up." Al said. Ed landed on his automail leg on the barbed wire.

"You guys actually do things like this?" Brody asked shocked.

Ed laughed. "Yeah, the first few times we did that," He cut himself off and shuddered. He'd never admit it, but the first few times he let Al throw him like that, he had been scared, but trusted Al to catch him if he messed his part up. Doesn't change the fact that it was scary though.

"It did take a while to get it just right." Al murmured.

"You guys must really trust each other to do that." Avery said. Just seeing Al throw his older brother like that caused a slight shudder in his body. That was never something soldiers were trained to deal with. None of them would ever have to deal with being thrown in the air like that. And for that, he was glad.

"Considering the variety of the assignments Colonel sends me on, we had to get our skills improved to get the jobs completed." Ed replied, shrugging. "We had to spend hours working on some of the skills before we could actually do some of the job without getting caught."

General Armstrong looked at Mustang. "Was that how you got the boy trained in some areas he needed to?"

Mustang shrugged. "In a way. In fact, I am amazed at how much this reckless punk actually spent on getting ready for his missions."

Ed scowled. "I don't believe I am all that great. I know I need more training before I can be great."

"As long as you know that, then you will be able to grow." Izumi said, a bit proud of her ex-student.

Ed's automail hand grabbed the wire and started to pull it as his gloved cover flesh handled it down to Al.

"Automail is really useful at times." Ed muttered, opening and closing his automail hand a few times.

"And yet you are working so hard to get rid of it." Luke said.

Ed rolled his eyes. "I'm working so hard to get Al his body back. I don't care whether or not I get my limbs back. If I do get them back, it is just an added benefit."

"Brother," Al said. "If we're going to get my body back, we have to get your limbs back."

Ed nodded a bit, but didn't reply. Right now, he was at a loss of how to get Al's body back. There was no way they could use a Philosopher's Stone now that they knew the truth of it. So where would they go now? He had no idea of what to do now. He needed help, as much as he didn't want to admit it, but he would look for it because Al had been trapped in that Armor prison for long enough. That meant that he would look for all other options and do whatever he had to. Al would get his body back. That was all that matter. He, Ed, had a body and could sleep, eat, feel, smell, and all those other human senses. His automail, no matter how much it hurt him, meant nothing compared to the pain living in his heart about his brother. Like Al forgetting his brother's warmth, Ed has forgotten Al's warmth and he missed it. Al was all that was important right now.

Al grabbed the bard wire and used it to climb up the wall.

"Of course, you can do that." Brody muttered. "Just what are you boys doing to train?"

Ed and Al chuckled. The former pointed at Izumi. "She taught us a lot, then told us to go train on our own after a few months."

"I expected you boys to return for more training after a while." Izumi replied, frowning. "What I never expected was for you to try Human Transmutation, then to join the military."

"Really?" Al asked excited before deflating as he remembered they were expelled. "I wish we knew that. I would have liked to train with you more."

"They want to continue to train under such a scary lady?" Havoc asked his comrades quietly.

Kain shuddered. "If they can handle her, they should be able to handle military training easily."

Ed jumped from the wall and landed on a crouch on the other side of it with Al following him a moment later while Edward looked around to make sure it was clear. They ran across the grass to get to the building, stopping in front of a boarded-up door.

" They're not taking any chances, are they?" Edward asked, putting a hand to his chin in thought. He looked around until his eyes spotted a vent. He took the gate off the vent before handing it to Al, who's shoulder he was kneeling on.

"Argh, see? They always find a way in." Mustang groaned. "Actually, I think I'm going alone." Ed pointed out. "No way Al can fit in there."

Al looked at his brother in worry. "I hate it when we have to split up like this." Ed nodded. They would worry for each other a lot when they split up, but always trusted the other to be alright until they met up. "Yeah, but we just have to believe each other is alive and we'll always find each other."

"No turning back." Al said.

"So, you trust each other not to get killed?" Jackson asked.

"Yep." Al and Ed replied.

The brothers glanced at each with Ed grinning. "I'll never forgive Al if he gets killed."

"Same here." Al replied.

" Al, you need to wait here." Ed said before turning to the vent.

" You're fine on your own?" Al asked as Ed pulled the upper part of his body through the vent.

Ed looked over his shoulder towards the opening so his voice reached Al. "Whether I'm fine on my own or not isn't the issue here. You're too big to get through here."

"So, you know the danger is there?" Darius asked, frowning. "And you still go by yourself anyway."

Ed shrugged. "We don't know the type of danger, and there is no time to be afraid. Besides, I know adults. They have a habit of keeping information from me."

Mustang twitched.

"Because you are still just children." Riza said, sighing. Why couldn't these boys just sit still and let the adults handle it?

Ed started to army crawl through the vent while Al was shown sitting on the ground, dejected. "It's not like I asked to get this big."

Ed laughed, tapping his brother's arm. "Sorry, little bro. You usually take the jokes well."

"Jokes?" Zampano asked.

"Brother and I tend to joke about our bodies to keep our spirits up and remind us of what we are aiming for." Al explained. [2]

"After everything that happened, you still joke about something so horrible?" Hughes asked shocked. "It's because we know we'll get our bodies back someday." Edward said determined.

The inside of the lab was shown with the sound of steam hissing.

" 66," A voice said.

" What is it, 48?" 66 replied.

Two suits of Armor's were shown. "It looks as if we've got guests."

" Hahaha," 66 laughed. "Some daredevil idiots came to visit, did they?" As he finished, Ed's determined face was shown.

"You guys are going to get attacked." Hughes groaned in worry.

"Looks like it." Al muttered. "Why is there always someone waiting to attack us?"

"It's our horrible luck." Ed replied, sighing. Just great. How was this going to turn out?

" Damn," Ed said, putting a hand to his forehead as he looked ahead. "It's even tighter in here than I thought. I couldn't get through this far if I was regular sized. Lucky, I got a small body."

"WHAT THE HELL, FUTURE ME?!" Edward screamed. He could not believe that he just insulted himself.

While everyone else just laughed.

"So, you finally started to accept the truth?" Mustang asked through his laughs.

"There is nothing to accept as I am not short!" Edward retorted, furious with himself in the future. How the hell could he possibly make that mistake?

"It's about time we heard it from your own mouth." Havoc said, getting his laughter under control, but he couldn't wipe the grin from his face.

Ed growled. "It was a mistake. Future me is just exhausted from getting very little sleep and it accidentally slipped into his mind."

"And now you're trying to defend future you?" Brody asked amused.

"All against me." Ed grumbled to himself. "'M not short. Everyone else is just freakishly tall. Stupid jerks. Stupid future me for letting his mouth run. No one understands."

Al sweat dropped when he heard his brother's mumbling. Perhaps the teasing was getting a bit much if it was making his brother go crazy and start talking to himself.

" OH NO! I JUST CALLED MYSELF A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!" Edward yelled, twisting around in the vent and pulling at his hair.

Riza chuckled. "You even rant at yourself?"

"It's only fair." Ed grumbled. "I did call myself s-s-small." He fell into a dejected state, much to everyone's amusement.

Ed kicked the gate of another vent entrance off and jumped through it to land in a crouch in the hallway. He looked around to see the lights that lined the walls were on. "There are lights on." He said as he stood up. "'Not currently in use.' Who are they trying to fool?" He wiped his chin with a smirk appearing on his face when he removed the hand. "This is it alright."

Al was shown standing outside with his arms crossed. "Ed's taking a long time."

"Hey, crawling through those small vents is difficult." Ed protested.

"You're the only one here who would know that." Mustang pointed out.

"ARGH!" Ed screamed. He heard the subtle insult in there. Damn, he should have just kept quiet.

The screen changed to an angle that looked up at Al so that the edge of the roof was seen. A suit of Armor appeared on the edge, staring down at Al with his glowing red eyes and a meat cleaver in his hand.

"Damn it." Mustang growled.

"Al should be fine. I mean as long as this freak doesn't get to his blood seal." Edward said. That was what he always said to convince himself that Al was fine. Al would be fine as long as his enemy never got to his blood seal.

Al nodded. "It's Brother we've got to worry about."

"Hey, I'll be fine." Ed said.

"I think he means since you're flesh and bone, unlike him, you're in more danger." Luke explained.

Ed scratched the back of his head. "This could be troublesome."

"This is why I told you to stay away." Armstrong said, frowning.

His cleaver clinked, alerting Al to a presence and he turned around in time to see 66 jumps from the building and swinging his meat cleaver at him. There was a sound of metal clinking together, but it was not seen what happened as the screen went dark.

"That's where it's ending?" Riza growled.

"Looks like it." Edward said, frowning, but he trusted his brother to be safe. That looked like a weak attack, for Al at least. Shrugging, he stood up, grabbing his plate as he did. "Time for dinner."

"What?" Quite a few voices shouted.

Ed stared at them blankly. "We said we were going to eat after this episode."

"That was before we realized you and your brother were going to run into danger." Hughes growled. "Now sit down. We are continuing on until we make sure you two are safe."

Ed scratched the back of his head, agitated. "Look, I'm sure we'll be just fine. We get into messes like this all the time. You just have to have patience, isn't that what you guys tell me? Whether we watch the next part now or not won't change the outcome. Besides, I trust Al and myself to get out of this like we always do. We may not be in one piece by the end, but we'll be fine. Now seriously, we're going to take a break. You guys are too stressed about this." And with that, he walked away towards the kitchen.

"Or maybe he's not stressed enough." Mustang growled.

"No, Brother is pretty stressed with everything that is going on, but it calms his nerves to take a break and eat. It might do you all some good as well." Al added to the soldiers.

"He could have just said that." Myers said.

Al shrugged. "Then you would know how he was feeling."

"In any case," Izumi said, pushing herself to her feet. "I agree with Edward. We need to take a break, clear our minds, and eat. I trust my boys to make it out of this mess that they got themselves in. I'll go help Ed with dinner.

Anyone with any skill in cooking come too. With this many people to cook for, we'll need all the help we can get."

As some of the soldiers and Sig followed Izumi to the kitchen, Mustang turned to Al. "Can't you cook?"

"I can cook a bit, but not in this body. Since I can't smell or taste the food, I might mess something up." Al explained.

"Oh."

"I don't care what any of you say, the tension in my body will not drop until I see you two get away from that lab." Hughes said, staring at the screen, wishing they could just move on.

Al tilted his head slightly, but turned to the Colonel. "You'll finally see why Brother tends to get injured a lot sometimes, I think. He isn't as reckless in fights as you think. It's just that we fight against some skilled people."

"Al," Hughes groaned.

Al shrugged. "I believe Brother will be fine, as will I."

"You trust each other a lot." Dr. Marcoh said, smiling a bit faintly.

"If we didn't, we would never leave each other's side and we would get nowhere in anything we do." Al replied.

Sighing, Hughes pushed his glasses up. "So, about Winry."

"Huh?"

A smirk crossed Hughes's features. "Your brother must really love her."

Al sweat dropped, but was also feeling a bit mischievous. "You could say that. Why else would he let her hit him all the time?"

"He's so strange." Mustang chuckled. "The best way to get a girl to forgive him would be to buy her a gift. She wouldn't hit him so much then."

"But we did a few times when Brother first joined the military." Al replied, surprising the soldiers. "Those earrings she wears. Brother bought them for her to keep her from hitting him."

Brody frowned. "Why doesn't he do that anymore? It might just save his brain cells."

"Every time we bought her new pair, she would pierce her ears again so she could wear them without taking the other ones out." Al groaned. "We stopped buying them so she would stop putting holes in her body."

Brody sweat dropped. "That was probably a good idea."

"What about other jewelry then?" Miles asked.

"It gets in the way of her work." Al replied, shaking his helmet.

"Some more tools then." Buccaneer suggested.

Al shook his helmet again. "Brother said she'll just use them to hit him some more."

"He could take her on a romantic date." Hughes said excitedly.

Al wanted to hit his head. "Brother will beat you to a pulp if he heard that suggestion."

"Heard what?" Edward asked as he walked into the main room covered in flour.

"Nothing." Mustang said, staring at the flour. "So, what happened to you? Was there a flour bomb in there?"

"Huh?" Ed glanced at his clothes. A flour bombs? There wasn't that much flour on him. "It doesn't matter. Al," He looked at his brother with a grimace. "Teacher said to get your ass in there and help with dinner. Even if you can't cook the food, you can at least help with the preparation part."

"Alright," Al replied with a sigh and stood up. He should have known that this was coming from Teacher.

When Ed went to follow his brother back to the kitchen, there was a flash of gold light and a letter slowly floated in the air to the ground. He caught it before it could hit the ground and took the letter out, reading it to himself. There is a room for you and Al separately. It is filled with clothes. You should take shower and change clothes later. V.H.

Ed scowled at the initials, but those weren't really his concern at the moment. Did he really look that filthy? There wasn't even that much flour on him! He pushed the letter into his pocket and returned to the kitchen before Izumi came to find him and beat him up for slacking with helping making dinner.

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A/N: [1] Okay, honestly, I wasn't sure when Scar got injured by the Homunculi, so obviously I made a mistake here. So, this is just my excuse to make up for it.

[2] I sometimes use references from the first series of FMA because I love how close the brothers are. This time I am referring to the spar Ed and Al had before Ed became a State Alchemist. Ed and Al mock each other's body before the spar. I really liked that scene.

Can someone answer me this? I know from trivia that Al can't decode Ed's notes. Was that said anywhere in the manga or extras? I never fully read the manga. In fact, I have just glanced at it a bit so I was curious.

Please Review! Follow and favorite the story.

Have a nice day.