In Times of Trouble
Chapter Nine
Calm Before the Storm
Xerxes Academy
Headmaster's Office
The weekly staff meeting had just end, and everyone was gathering their documents before Alphonse cleared his throat. The other twelve people sitting there resettled and waited for him to speak while Mei and Chen smiled encouragingly. "Originally, I was going to wait until my plans are set before announcing anything, however, Mei and Chen brought up good points." Al began as he smiled back at the princesses. "Sometime in the next few weeks, after our wedding at my insistence, I will be taking a leave of absence to pursue a personal project. Mei Chan and Chen Li will be in charge in my absence."
"Wait." Asked one of the lower professors, Ivy Numm, "What about new registers? That will begin in the next month. "
"I have full faith in the Princesses abilities to handle the new student lists." Alphonse said calmly.
"What could be so important that it can't wait until summer?" Ivy asked.
"As I said it is a private matter. It is not open to questioning." Alphonse said with more patience than he felt at this point. Since Ivy Numm had begun working her she had been an issue. She felt, and spoke loudly about, that a Headmaster should not be so young. Never mind that Al was one of the leading alchemists in the country, that this was his pet project, or that he was son of the fuhrer. It didn't matter to her, she still questioned him at every turn. "If it is ruly a problem for you Professor Numm, we can arrange a leave for you as well. Or a permanent one."
"I am fine where I am sir." She ground out before Al could make further threats.
"As I was saying, I do not have a set date of departure at this time, only that it will be after the wedding, and I will be gone several weeks. Possibly months depending on the situation, so I felt you should all be forewarned." Al said with a tired sigh.
"Does this have anything to do with the other matter?" Professor Lupin asked polity.
Al stared at him long enough to make him slightly uncomfortable before answering a simple yes. Lupin nodded in understanding. Of course, he though, the boy would go after whoever had been a threat to his father. It was likely Edward would be joining him since he was leaving his bride behind.
No one had anything further to add, so the meeting once again began to break up. Even if he hadn't promised to keep as much from the kids and innocent people as long as possible, he wouldn't be willing to share more information at this time.
Lupin hung back, wanting to speak with Alphonse privately when he could speak freely. Mei was still in the room, but everyone else had gone as Lupin finished packing up his notes. "Was there something else, Remus?" Al asked.
"Do you require assistance? On your trip I mean." Lupin asked. "I assume you are headed to Europe, I am familiar with most of the areas you are likely to find yourself…"
"That is a kind offer, and I will take it into consideration. However, I must ask. DO you know why I'm going? Really know?" Al asked.
"Roughly. I know you intend to go in search of whoever it was that cast the spell on Jones. You seem to know exactly who to look for, though Snape said he didn't get a clear answer on that." Lupin said. "I assume, since you are taking a leave this person has access to both continents and is a magic user, obviously, whereas you are not."
"Are you familiar with the name Nicolas Flamel?" Al asked as Mei moved to lock and seal the office.
"I have heard of him, yes. He reportedly is centuries old and an accomplished alchemist." Lupin said. "Wait." He dug through his briefcase until he found what he was looking for, a trading card that came with a chocolate frog. He kept it as an amusement and had intended to show Alphonse weeks ago. Flamel looked like an older version of Edward after all. Now he held out the card to point that out.
"I'm amazed he agreed to have his face put on these." Al said with a frown as he looked at the bemused face of his birth father. "I see you noticed the resemblance then?"
"Yes. I intended to show you a bit ago. I thought it was interesting he looked so similar to your brother. A bit like you as well, your eyes are a different shape, and your chin, but Edward looks exactly the same."
"I advise you to never point this out to my brother, it is a large point of contention for him." Al said with a sigh. "This will make this easier to explain however; Nicolas Flamel is an alias. No where in the world was Nicolas Flamel recorded as a birth at any point in history. His name, before he moved to Europe was Hohenhiem. He took the name Flamel when he married Perenelle to better blend into Europe, I believe it was France? If I remember correctly."
"I know this doesn't seem important, but it is, and he'll get to it in his own time, please be patient." Mei said as Lupin squirmed slightly, wondering at the history lesson.
Al stood and looked out of the window overlooking the ruins of the once grand city. They were rebuilding slowly, but vast stretches were still left untouched. "Four hundred years ago, Xerxes fell in a single hour. You've heard this before when we speak of the Academy. What isn't said, is there was one survivor. The man you know as Nicolas Flamel, Mei knows as Van Hohenhiem, and I know as my birth father."
"Your what?"
"He sired me and my brother, but that was all he ever did for us. Truthfully, I was an accident that he regretted greatly. My brother was the result of three hundred years of planning. Neither of us like to think of this. Roy Mustang is my Dad, my brother's Dad. Hohenhiem was a monster. And his wife is who we will be hunting."
"Your- wait. This is a lot to process. You're saying that you are the child of a four hundred year old monster pretending to be a man and you need to hunt down his wife, your mother?, to stop her from whatever she's plotting."
"She. is. not. my. Mother." Al said, turning on Lupin quickly enough to startle the man. "My mother was Trisha Elric. She was a wonderful loving person who was taken advantage of by this monster and left to die alone with two small children! She was a wonderful person, and as far as we can gather from the records, she was your cousin so I would hope you could be kind of her memory!"
"Alphonse, he meant no offense." Mei said, placing a hand of his arm, before turning to Lupin. "He and Edward agreed to give you this information at the end of term. The timeline has been sped up by Dante's actions."
"Dante?" Lupin asked cautiously, still trying to work through what he'd learned so far.
"Dante Hohenhiem, otherwise known as Perenelle Flamel." Al said in a flat voice. "His latest Perenelle. She has a vendetta against my brother for the way he looks, and against all of her husband's former lovers. Including Albus Dumbledore."
"Do you think this woman is going to go after Dumbledore? We need to warn him!" Lupin said.
"I think it's more likely she will attempt to use him to hurt Edward, actually, which in the end will hurt himself." Al said with a sigh. "You can't tell Dumbledore anything anyway. Hohenhiem is our father, Dante is his wife, therefore they are covered under your vow."
"Snape already knows about this doesn't he?" Lupin asked.
"He does. He cannot say anything about it." Al replied. "He did say to me that he warned Dumbledore to look further into his lover, but that was all the more he could say."
"Why does Dante want to hurt Edward, just because he looks like Flamel?" Lupin asked.
"In a nutshell." AL said with a sigh. "It is my belief that she wishes to destroy his legacy. She was behind Takeshi's attack in Xing. Now she was behind this attack on the Fuhrer. I hate to see what she plans next, but we need to find a way to stop her."
"How? The Flamels are immortal." Lupin said.
"Well, that is partly true." Al replied. "Hohenhiem was immortal, I can even explain how but I won't. Dante however, is not. She is just one of his many wives used to appear that he shared the secret of immortality with his wife, and her alone. In truth he's never shared it with anyone, nor would he be able to do so even if he wanted."
"Not even you and your brother?" Lupin asked.
"…We don't know. We don't think so, but we don't know for certain yet what he made us." Al said sadly.
"What can I do to help?" Lupin asked. "As I said, I am familiar with Europe."
"I will speak to my brother, and decide if we will need your help. Truthfully, we do not want to get anyone caught in the crossfire of this fight." Al said. "The reason I explained all of this to you, is so that you would understand our enemy here…and because we decided you had the right to know we are cousins."
Resembool
Elric-Mustang House
"I don't like this plan." Edward said as he sat feeding Maes his soup.
"I know you don't" Winry agreed from where she sat next to him nursing Trisha. Yuery and William were sitting between them, eating their own soup and ignoring their parents.
"I won't be him." Edward said with a frown.
"Ed, we've had this conversation." Winry said with a sigh. "We both knew there would be times you had to travel. It won't be long, and the children will be fine. I will be fine. I'll have your parents with me, so it's not like I'll be all alone."
"It feels too much like what he did." Ed said.
"No, it isn't. This is the first time you've traveled without us since Promised Day, Ed. You're coming back, and you're doing this to help us." Winry said.
"Which is probably what he told himself too."
"Edward Elric. Look at me." Winry said in the tone reserved for when he broke his automail, or said something really stupid. Ed looked at her instantly. "You would never abandon your family. Everything you do, is for these kids. You have lived your whole life for others and this trip is no different."
"You make me sound so selfless Win. I'm really not. I love you all, I can't imagine my life without you." Ed said. "I don't know if I can do this though. The few times I had to travel without him before Promised Day, I barely slept. This could take weeks, months to unravel. I can't be away that long."
"So get Snape to teach you how to do that instant travel crap he does, and come home in time for bed every night, go back in the morning if that's what it takes. You know it's for the best that you go Ed. You can't let Al do this alone."
"Al can't go alone! I agree." Ed said with a frown. He was torn between the options, nothing felt like the right choice. He knew his Dad was going to send them in search of Dante. He and Al had discussed it, and agreed that even if Dad didn't send them, someone had to go hunt her down before she could do anymore damage.
It didn't change how Edward felt about leaving the children here, with just their mother. It felt like he was doing what his birth father did all those years ago. Sure, he had no intention of being gone long, but he was going after a very dangerous person. He couldn't leave his children fatherless.
Winry understood what he was going through, and was doing her best to assure him that they would be alright, because she knew ass well as he did that he was going to have to do this to keep their family safe. She didn't want him to go anymore than he wanted to, but Dante wasn't going to just disappear and leave them alone.
If this woman's goal was to destroy these men, she was succeeding. Ed, Al, Roy, all of them were tearing themselves apart over this. It wasn't fair. They had already saved the world! They had already given so much of themselves. She couldn't break down over this though. Ed already felt guilty enough.
William and Yuery had noticed the tension between their parents, and were worried, asking what was wrong. Ed gave them an overbright smile as he assured them that everything was fine. William responded by climbing into Ed's lap while Yuery leaned against him. "We aren't doing this right away. We have time to work it out." Ed said to end the subject before it could upset the kids more. Winry agreed as she nodded.
AL had already said he wanted to have his wedding before they left, not wanting to risk it being pushed back. Ed had insisted that he wanted his family back in the Mansion before they left as well, so it would be at least a month before they left. Dante hadn't done anything since Jones so they assumed she was busy laying the groundwork for whatever she planned next, but that did give them the time to secure their family before they went anywhere.
Ed gathered the boys, and decided they were going for a walk. He suggested that Winry and Trisha take a nap while they were gone, promising to clean the lunch dishes when he returned. Winry agreed, so Ed headed out with the boys.
Winry wasn't surprised when Jean and Rebecca arrived a few minutes after that. They tried to drop by at least once a day to check on the young family. Winry suspected they were reporting back to Roy, so that he was assured they were alright without seeming overbearing. Not that Ed didn't call him. Ed was better at calling Roy than he used to be at calling Winry.
She tried to be understanding with that too. A lot of the reason Ed used to avoid talking to her was that he hated to worry her, and he hated to keep things from her. His travels had been dangerous. He often was thrown into situations he wasn't allowed to talk about, and that scared her. She knew that it was likely that when he went to Europe in a few weeks it was likely to be like that again.
Jean greeting her and Trisha, before apologizing if she had been about to lie down. She had been, but she waved off his concern. She was happy for the company. She served them some coffee an sat with them to let them hold the baby.
"So, we have no new leads. I know we aren't supposed to talk to you about it since you aren't military but I know Roy and Ed would tell you anyway." Jean said.
"I assumed." Winry said with a sigh. "Ed and Al are talking about heading out to look for her themselves. I don't know if they've actually talked to Roy yet. Ed's tearing himself up over it though."
"Because of the kids, right?" Jean asked. "He used to get down on himself whenever he had to leave Yuery with Mustang for a mission. Rushed more than one to get back quicker."
"Well, I don't want him doing that with this one. No rushing, I don't want him getting hurt." Winry said with a frown.
"Yeah, I heard Mustang get on him more than once over it too." Jean said, before Rebecca elbowed him in the side.
"I'm sure it's different now Winry." Rebecca said. "Edward's a lot older now, more mature."
"I don't know about that. I mean most of the time sure, but have you ever seen him around Al? They might as well be eight again." Winry said with a laugh.
"Well, he will be fine at any rate." Jean said. "He's amazing, and I don't think Europe has any alchemists from what I've heard."
"That's true. " Winry said. "They may not have to go after all, she could slip up somehow before it's time."
Ed and the boys came back inside at this point and he greeted the soldiers before heading to the kitchen to wash the lunch dishes. Yuery and William ran to get their books, and Maes came over to sit with Winry and Trisha.
"If you don't want to get roped into helping the boys with their studies you should probably go now." Winry said with a laugh. The other two make no move to leave, which was for the best as they already had the boys climbing up on the couch with them.
"Becca, I don't have a head for Yuery's studies, trade me." Jean said over the boys' heads.
"I would, but you've been chosen. I would hate to insult him." Rebecca said as she pulled William into her lap.
Jean sighed heavily but turned to the book Yuery was holding. He wasn't lying when he said he didn't understand any of what the boy was reading. Perhaps he should offer to do the dishes and send Ed in to help the kid.
Yuery already read at the same level as the book in question, and already knew a lot of what the book was saying because of his book before this one. Dad had assured him all alchemy research was like that, before telling Jean he could go and Ed would take over the lesson. The matter of the upcoming trip was dropped for now, neither of them wanted to think about it anymore today.