A small child, barely a year old, cried, bawling loudly.
A young woman, early into adulthood, smiled softly in a motherly, cradling the child gently in her arms.
"Shh... it's alright. We'll take care of you."
Four.
A door slammed shut, enveloping the hallway into darkness.
"Your father will be back soon, it'll be alright."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Splash.
Three.
"Your father left me some money... Use it, and take care of each other... alright?"
A gentle, yet sad, smile.
Life fading away from her eyes.
"MOM!"
Farewell.
They were left behind.
Two.
"Al... you won't forget me... right?"
Gold eyes brimmed with tears as one escaped his eye.
A sad smile.
"If you're alive, somewhere in the world, I'll find you! I won't stop looking! Just wait for me!"
"I'll wait too..."
Goodbye.
One.
0o0
Amestris sat next to England on the train, his head pounding from the moment he had woken up. They had departed from the Curtis household a few hours ago, Izumi making Alphonse promise to visit. Moving back to the point, Amestris still had no idea why exactly his head hurt, though. It was just like it had been when he was younger. His head would hurt after a night of sleep, and England had told Amestris back then that he had been woken up by the smaller nation's violent nightmares. The funny thing, was that Amestris never remembered what he had dreamt about, with only the only the headache as proof he had indeed have another night terror.
England had speculated that those nightmares were not exactly normal night terrors, seeing as how Amestris remembered other nightmares, where no headaches were involved England supposed that they were memories that Amestris had tried to forget, but had been unable to do so completely, resulting in the memories resurfacing as nightmares or dreams. Unfortunately, the Brit had never been able to obtain enough of the needed evidence to support his theory, since they had died down soon after.
Amestris never did find out what triggered the nightmares. But now, they were back again for no apparent reason and now he seemed to remember bits and pieces, at the cost of a longer lasting and much more painful headache.
"Penny for your thoughts, Edward." England's voice cut into Amestris's thoughts, making the latter look up at his elder brother. There was no one else in the compartment, seeing as how the others were in the next compartment. Apparently, this train's compartments were kind of cramped, allowing only four people to sit comfortably in one. England just insisted it was just America taking up all the space. Moving on from that, England and Amestris moved to a new compartment, because England wanted some peace (And a break from France) while Amestris just tagged along with his brother. "You've been quieter than I've seen you in a while."
Amestris smiled cheerfully response. "Just thinking about stuff."
He changed the subject around then. "Mrs Curtis was nice, wasn't she?"
England nodded. "Yes, she was. Definitely better than others I've met over the years. Well, if you don't count her beating up of that gunman that is, but I'd hardly pity him at all." That beating Izumi delivered to the shooter was definitely something England wasn't going to forget in a hurry. He had never encountered a woman who could be so nice, and yet so terrifying. Talk about scary!
"Big brother, why did that man shoot at Al and I? We didn't do anything, did we?" Amestris suddenly asked, a sad look casting itself across his face. "He was one of mine, so why? What did I do wrong?"
Sensing his brother's emotional distress, England patted Amestris's back in a comforting manner. "You didn't do anything wrong," He assured him. "That man was... unstable. That's why he shot at yourself and America."
It probably wasn't a good thing to lie about this, but England really had no desire to worry Amestris any further. After all, he was just a child, even if he was supposed to be older in appearance and mentality. A nation of his age, was no more than a pre-teen in the eyes of older nations. What was a few hundred years, in the eyes of nations who were pushing over the age of a thousand?
Amestris smiled, before his eyes went large with what England could only describe as shock. He clutched his chest, whispering, "A nation was killed in my Capital."
0o0
"XING!" Ling saw the body of his nation crumple to the floor, blood splattering from the bullet hole in his chest. How had he not he not seen that bullet, or sensed the shooter before?
The nation of Xing lay stiffly on the ground, showing no signs of life. How was it possible that a nation could die? Were they not immortal?
Beside Ling, Lan Fan hissed in rage, before she disappeared into the shadows, most likely to hunt down the one responsible for Xing's death.
"Xing!" Ling knelt down beside the felled nation, searching for the Chi of his nation which would signify the country's survival. "Chen Jie!"
He concentrated, looking for the familiar Chi of his nation, before he finally breathed a sigh of relief as he came across it, albeit weak, but still there.
Ling needn't worry at all. He should have known that Xing couldn't have been killed with a mere bullet to the chest. What was it that the nation had once said?
"A mortal wound to a human is nothing more than a scratch to our kind."
That was right. Ling had even seen Xing rise from the dead once, when they had been crossing the desert since the train had once again broken down due to the lack of maintenance. It was little after Ling had been crowned the new Emperor of Xing. Back then, Xing had been run through with a sabre belonging to one of the bandits right through his stomach.
While he did get up once more about half a minute later, the front of Xing's clothing drenched in blood, it had been quite a sight to see, since the only other beings that Ling knew were capable of that were the Homunculi. However, unlike them, Xing's wound didn't heal in a crackle of red alchemic light. His healed by flesh rejoining and knitting themselves back together.
As it was here. The nation's wound healed as expected to, but Xing never got up. He simply laid there like a puppet with it's strings cut.
For the second time within three minutes, Ling feared for his friend's wellbeing.
0o0
Mustang looked up from his paperwork, glancing out into the darkness of the night from the window in his office.
He narrowed his eyes. Something foul was in the air, and even though he had no special abilities in sensing things, something told his gut that something was wrong.
It was almost like how he had felt on Hughes'a final phone call to him...
As if the timing couldn't be worse, the phone that rested on the corner of his desk chose that moment to ring loudly, startling Mustang out of his thoughts.
The Führer glared at the offending communication device, despite being secretly grateful for the distraction from his deceased best friend. Talk about déjà vu.
Lifting the answering part of the phone to his ear, but before he could get a word out, a voice spoke out from the other end.
"Oh, that's good! You're still in the office!" The Emperor of Xing breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought I might have to wait until tomorrow."
Mustang's brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, I'm currently in the hospital-"
"Why are you even in the hospital-"
"-since my advisor just got shot."
Ling paused for a moment on the other side of the phone, before he added. "Uh, he's the kind specifically assigned to every leader."
Mustang's eyes widened in recognition. Ling was talking about his country's personification. "Xing, was it? Is he alright?"
"Yes, him." Mustang could almost hear Ling frown from the other side of the phone. "And he hasn't woken up yet! Could you contact yours or his guardian and ask him if this is normal for their kind?"
Mustang started. While he wanted to know how Ling knew he had already met Amestris and England, he decided it would be the best to stay professional. "I don't have a way to contact him or England, unfortunately. I only know that both of them are somewhere in the South, last I heard."
Ling groaned on the other end. "When I need their assistance, they're nowhere to be found. How about America? France? Um... Canada?"
"Who?"
"Never mind, you probably haven't met them even though the above mentioned are in the country. Well, please call me back if you have any word from them."
Ling then hung up, leaving Mustang to listen to a dial tone. Bringing the phone any from his ear, he cursed, slamming the mentioned device back onto it's receiver.
Of course it had to be bad news. Why was he not surprised?
Just then, Hawkeye returned to the room, after having delivered the approve paperwork to the related departments.
"Sir? Is everything alright?" She asked.
"Yes, Hawkeye. Although I might need to get rid of the phone."
Needless to say, Hawkeye was confused by this sudden statement.
"Why so, sir?"
"It is nothing but bad news. The Emperor of Xing rang me up to inform me that his advisor's been shot." He informed his wife.
"Which one are we referring to?"
Confident that no one was listening in, since the office muffled most conversations taking place within the vicinity to eavesdroppers, Mustang replied. "The Nation adviser."
Recognition flickered in Hawkeye's eyes. Mustang had informed her of the situation after she had dug him out from under a pile of books and promptly questioned his reasons for digging through the archives.
She did, however, take it for better than he did, with her reasoning being that the events that had occurred sixteen years prior were too considered impossible, and yet it had occurred. Henceforth, there were little things that could surprise her anymore.
Non-Alchemists had it easy, was Mustang's first thought.
But now, Mustang had to ponder about the problem at hand. Why was Xing shot, and not Ling? The latter clearly had more power than the former did, so why?
Then again, these things never made any sense.
0o0
"Has enough evidence been collected yet?"
"No, I'm afraid not sir. But almost." The thin man meekly replied.
"Hurry it up, then." The other waved a hand to dismiss the thin man. "We have a plan to carry out, and the longer you take, the longer innocent citizens are under the oppression of those... creatures." He spat the last word out as if it left a disgusting taste in his mouth.
"Yes sir."
As the thin man scurried away, the other sat deep in thought, a smirk playing on his lips. The world would no longer be in the dark about the invisible hands that played with everyone like puppets on strings.
They would be free to choose their own fate as they wished, with no one manipulating them from behind the scenes.
Once the world knew, they would understand the evil that plagued the earth, causing wars left and right.
The Nations had nowhere to run, when the whole world was against them.
Check.
Checkmate.
[A/N Hey guys! So I'm a little later this time, since I got my exams back and my mom kinda freaked out cause I failed Chinese. Again. I don't even know why she's surprised anymore. So yeah, besides that and my undoubtedly late update, I set up a poll on two prequels on this story to be posted. One is detailing Amestris's early life to before Amestris becomes Edward Elric, and the other details one shots involving Amestris's time growing up with the FACE family. So yeah, go vote there and I'll choose the one with the highest votes. And I just realised this is like, Democracy! Woohoo. And I just got reminded of the Presidential Election in America. I think I better start building a nuclear shelter...Anyway, I won't be able to update for the whole of December because I'll be off somewhere in the UK. Yay, I'm going to go say hi to England and hope I don't die on British food, because if the Hetalia stereotypes tell me anything, I should be weary. And avoid scones. I didn't offend any Brits here, right?Bye guys!~ Gwntan12]
