"Are you ever going to calm down about McDougal, Sister?" A tinny voice came out of a large suit of armor with glowing red eyes, startling the golden blonde haired woman sitting next to it on the train.
Said woman scowled. "I am calm, Al. But you saw what I saw. That man so obviously had a Philosopher's Stone and the things he was spouting about the military…" The woman crossed her arms over her chest and looked out the window. "I was almost inclined to believe him. And the Fuhrer gives me the creeps more and more every time I see him." She sighed. "Our contract is up in a little over two years, Alphonse. I don't think I will be renewing it, whether we've found the stone or not."
The suit of armor turned to look down at her. "You can't just give up, Ed. We'll figure it out soon." It rested its metal gauntlet on her shoulder. "I promise we'll find it and get you your arm and leg back."
Edena let her lips slip into a small smile before she huffed and shrugged the armor off. She reached behind her to pull her long blonde braid over her shoulder so that she wasn't sitting on it anymore.
"How is your trip? We're still on track to meet up in Liore, correct?" She pulled a medical text out of her inner coat pocket to read.
Alphonse's happy voice coming through the suit of armor soothed her nerves.
"I helped a mining town out from under the thumb of a corrupt Lieutenant. All the people there were very nice and even packed me lunch for my train ride to meet you." Al continued on with his story, probably writing his report while he was recounting it to her.
Ed thought about how her brother was essentially able to be in two places at once.
"Our state alchemy renewal is coming up. What do you think we should do? We can't exactly show them our research for the Philosopher's Stone." Alphonse was panicking and he wasn't sure how his sister wasn't.
They were back in Resembool for once. Ed needed to get her automail worked on and Al had really wanted to see Winry.
Ed had teased him about having a crush on the gear head. Al very much denied it.
He had holed himself away in his father's study for the rest of the day when Ed came in with dinner as a peace offering. She was currently messing around with the suit of armor their father had kept in his study for some reason.
"It's going to be such a waste of time. We could be doing other things, like research for instance." She compared the size of the armor's hand to her own metal hand, seeming surprisingly childish for once, in Al's eyes. "It's too bad we can't be in two places at once."
Al sighed and hated to admit he was thinking the same thing. He pursed his lips and just watched his sister mess with the armor some more. And a few minutes later, as if they shared one mind, they started bouncing the same idea off of each other.
"The transmutation is technically of the human variety." Al started off.
"Yes, but if you shift the components of it and add a stabilizer, you can use it with qi instead of with the soul." Ed countered.
"It would need automatic commands. If the actual body isn't able to focus on the task of the bound body, then it will have to have its own personality. Also, it would run out of qi." Al pointed out.
Ed narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "True, but you could possibly make a storage array to hold and bounce the qi around to keep it going."
Al scoffed. "A storage array? That's science fiction, Sister."
Ed rolled her eyes. "Not necessarily. That's why I said hold and bounce. I wouldn't really call it a storage array, but more of a reactor of sorts. You charge a couple of circles with the function of bouncing energy from one to the other and when the main circle drops low enough on energy, it automatically steals the energy from the other two circles." She turned around to give her brother a look, asking for his opinion on the matter.
Al seemed to contemplate it for a long time. "You know… For someone who claims to be not better than me at alchemy, you sure come up with some of the wildest and best ideas." He started pulling out some blank paper from a drawer on Hohenheim's desk.
Ed smiled and moved to sit next to him. "I'm not better than you, but that doesn't mean I don't know a thing or two."
And that was how Winry found them the next day around lunch time. Apparently they had stayed up all night trying to figure out the correct transmutation circles to use and had even skipped breakfast.
Of course the young girl knocked them both over the head with her wrench before dragging them out of the study to take care of themselves.
At their recertification exhibition, they had presented together after some finagling from Colonel Mustang, and had impressed the proctors so much that they didn't even grumble about the joint showing too much.
Ed smiled and kept listening to her brother's recounting of his mission. She knew there was no way she was going to be able to always be with him, but they had found a way to make it happen. Al tended to be sent on missions that needed a gentler hand, and Ed got sent on missions that may end up in combat situations more often than not. Hence why she was almost always accompanied by the animated suit of armor.
It had even gotten to the point that, even though people heard stories about her description, they still asked Al's armor if he was the Fullmetal Alchemist. It annoyed Ed to no end and amused Alphonse far too much at his sister's expense.
Mustang was right when he said that she would be questioned at her every turn because she was a woman in the state alchemist program. A lot of people assumed it was her brother who did most of the work even though he was the younger one. But she didn't care.
They all changed their tune when she ended up kicking their asses anyway.
In the small desert town, Ed sat at a food stand and sipped on a drink. Alphonse's armor sat next to her while her actual brother was running around somewhere like this was a stealth mission.
"I've been talking to the townspeople. It's definitely here, Sister." Al's armor suddenly whispered to her. "Their priest has one. A Philosopher's Stone."
Ed couldn't help how her heart rate jumped in excitement before she had to place a hand on her chest to settle herself, just in case this was all a false hope.
"What are you two, some kind of circus act?" The guy who ran the stand asked.
Ed felt her brow twitch in annoyance. Al's armor stood up before his sister could start ranting at the man and he accidentally knocked the radio down that was broadcasting from the roof of the stand. He, of course, apologized and fixed it and Ed ended up in a philosophical debate with the townspeople about alchemy.
Not that she could talk though. She'd grown up for years believing she was the descendant of Gods. Then she met the Truth and realized that even though the beasts she derived her secondary form from were extraordinary and powerful, they weren't actually gods. Especially if the story of how they were locked away by alchemists was at all true.
They were just beings like the rest of the creatures who lived side by side in this land. There still was another who was higher than them. And it had shown her things she didn't think she'd ever wanted to know.
Could she completely dismiss these people's God? No. Could she be skeptical about it because she knew the science and the Truth? Absolutely.
Ed and Al's armor were led into the church by a young woman named Rose. They asked for an audience with Father Cornello, who was apparently leading this Letoism cult.
In no way were they expecting a warm reception, but having a gun pointed at them by Rose and Father Cornello telling her to shoot them was a bit of a surprise.
"I'm the one who is going to bring the man you love back to life, Rose. And as the emissary of God, I'm telling you to follow in his will and kill the Fullmetal Alchemist." The man's slimy voice had Ed narrowing her eyes. But she was even more annoyed by Rose pointing her gun at her brother's armor.
Al held up his hands. "Wait a minute now, I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist."
Ed huffed and rolled her eyes at her brother before waving a nonchalant hand. "Guilty."
Father Cornello and Rose looked surprised. "The Fullmetal Alchemist is a woman?" The man questioned. "Well, it's no bother. Shoot her anyway, Rose." He gave the woman's shoulder a pat.
Al's armor stepped in front of Ed just as the gun went off in Rose's hand by accident and it knocked his helmet off. Rose screamed and both she and Cornello looked surprised when Al's armor stood back up from its fall and showed them that he was empty on the inside.
It always amused Ed when people found out that Al's armor was empty. They gave the best reactions.
Getting a chimera sicced on them was not one of those best reactions though.
The lion headed, lizard tailed beast hesitated before attacking Ed. Her eerie golden eyes froze the monster in place upon its exit from the cage it was held in, only jumping at her when Cornello yelled for it to kill her.
Sharp claws swiped at her left leg, tearing into her leather pants and showing off the steel leg that hid underneath. Cornello yelled for it to eat her and Ed threw up her right arm into the beast's mouth, her coat and shirt sleeve tearing as well. A low growl bubbled up Ed's throat and the beast let out a whine right before she lifted her leg parallel to her body in a fierce kick, hitting it in the head and sending it flying back, unconscious.
Al's armor asked Cornello to hand over the Philosopher's Stone he had before anyone had to be hurt, but the man turned his cane into a gun with it instead and started shooting at them.
The armor scooped up Rose to protect her from the bullets, and all of them made a run for it away from Cornello. Ed clapped her hands once they reached a wall and created a door to get them away from the crazy man with the automatic weapon.
They encountered a lot of Cornello's followers in the halls they ended up in, but Ed was quick about taking them out to clear a path.
Once they were well hidden and had a moment to breathe, Ed and Al came up with a quick plan to expose Father Cornello and get the stone. The real Al was already making moves outside the church to make it happen. They asked Rose for directions to Cornello's office as Ed made an exit for the woman and her brother.
"Be careful, Sister." Al's armor whispered to her.
Ed gave him a two finger salute. "Always."
It didn't take long for Father Cornello to make his way to his office. He was very surprised to find Ed laying across his desk, looking bored.
Ed threatened to have the military send some troops out if he didn't tell her what she needed to know and Cornello was quick to try and bargain with her. He explained how his followers were just sheep in the revolution he was planning and how he would transmute her anything she wanted if she worked with him.
Ed smirked. "That's a nice deal and all, but your sheep probably don't like your plan." She held up his 'on air' switch for when he did his broadcasts, and pointed at the microphone she had hidden near him. "Also, why would I get you to transmute something for me, if you can just hand over the Philosopher's Stone now and we can be done with this?" She got up from his desk, tossing the switch aside.
"You little bitch!"
Ed had to move quickly and transmute a wall from the floor to protect her from the spray of bullets the man unleashed on her. But he ran out quickly and Ed clapped her hands and transmuted the fingers of her automail right arm into extremely sharp blades that looked like claws. She darted out from behind her wall to attack the man, but paused in her steps when she saw him trying to transmute the gun again, but something was obviously going wrong.
"A rebound?" The man screamed as the transmutation bound his arm to the weapon in a grotesque way before fully rebounding on him and turning him into some sort of giant being.
Ed let out a growl. She would need more space to fight.
Alphonse sighed as he could hear the explosions coming from the church. He had met up with his armor on the tallest tower of the church and even got to actually introduce himself to the pink haired woman named Rose.
"I'm the one who actually wanted to join the military, and my sister is the one who gets into all the fights." He rubbed his eyes. "Why can't she ever be subtle?"
Rose looked at the teenage boy as he recharged his armor.
"Is any of it true? Father Cornello said he would bring him back to life. He promised me he would." She ducked her head.
Al sighed and looked over at her with sad eyes. "I'm sorry, Rose. Bringing the dead back is impossible. Take it from a couple of kids who tried. Once the ones we love are gone, they stay that way. And if you ever try to play God to fix your hurt, you just end up more hurt in the process. Equivalent exchange… What could anyone give that's equivalent to a human soul?"
They were both quiet for a moment as Al finished charging the armor and they all started to make their way down the tower.
Ed once promised herself that she'd never turn into a dragon in an offensive situation. If she couldn't fight her battle in a human form, then she had no business being in the battle. She was plenty strong and knew how to handle herself. Being a dragon shouldn't change that.
But never in her life had she wanted to transform and eat a person, bones and all, more than she did in this moment.
She'd been blasted through a wall into the altar room of the church and she had to dodge punches left and right from the goblin man and it was annoying the hell out of her.
A giant fist came at her that she couldn't dodge, and she had to throw up her metal arm and brace it with her left to keep from being punched across the room. The delusional man started babbling about the hand of God and Ed had to roll her eyes before pushing his fist away and running over to the statue of Leto and transmuting the stone and the fist of the statue to shoot out and punch the man, sending him flying.
"There's your hand of God, you asshole!" She ran over to him to knock him out and retrieve the stone, but the red jewel sitting in the ring he wore popped out of place and fell to the floor, breaking against the stone.
Ed's heart dropped.
It was fake. All of this work they had just done for a fake Philosopher's Stone.
Her disappointed gaze turned into an angry one as she looked at Cornello. He begged for her to spare him, but she wasn't feeling so merciful.
And if he was hand delivered to the people he had tricked with a few extra bruises on his person, no one would say a thing.
"I think I'm going to have to replace the receiver on this thing. Looks like it's no good." A dark haired man with glasses sat at his desk with a pair of headphones on as he fiddled with the worn out radio in front of him.
But then there was a clap and a white gloved hand rested gently on the metal box and blue sparks danced around the box radio before it suddenly looked good as new, surprising the man. He glanced over at who the hand belonged to and smiled big.
"Edena and Alphonse! You both are back!" His voice drew the attention of the others who had been sitting in the office with him and then the voices of the rest of the military team echoed out 'welcome back' and 'hey there' to the siblings and the suit of armor that stood by their desks.
Al's smile was big and contagious while Ed just had a soft, motherly look on her face for the team. She may be younger than them, but over the years they slowly became a part of her hoard, whether they knew it or not, and her instincts took over and demanded she care for this little ragtag team. Even Hawkeye, though Ed was still intimidated by the woman's beauty and strength and a few other things.
She'd even gained a best friend from the years of being a part of this team. And he seemed to be her biggest fan, though there was nothing romantic there.
"She is beauty and grace! Her golden looks and outstanding body make all of the men swoon! Everyone in attendance of her presence must worship the ground she walks on! A true queen, I tell you!" Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc was out of his seat and bowing on his knees in front of Ed in a comical way, making her snicker. Al's happy face turned into one of annoyance and his armor bent to pick Havoc up by his collar, like a misbehaving kitten, and deposited the man back at his desk.
"Stop flirting with my sister, Second Lieutenant." The teenager growled, actually making the man sweat bullets.
"My bad, Chief. Won't happen again." Havoc gave Ed an exaggerated wink and the woman rolled her eyes.
"Don't you have work to do, Jean?" She walked over to give the man's shoulder a squeeze.
"I'm never too busy for you, my Queen." He took her gloved hand and gave the back of it a kiss. But he was immediately jumping back to work when the First Lieutenant cleared her throat.
"The Colonel has been expecting you two," Hawkeye informed them. "You can both head on into his office."
Ed nodded and made her way to Colonel Mustang's office door with her little brother on her heels.
Al gave a respectful knock on the door before his sister could just barge in. They both entered at the sound of Mustang's voice from the other side telling them to come in. The suit of armor Al was controlling made its way to the corner of the office and settled itself onto a stand that was made just for holding it and seemed to power down. Ed felt her brother subtly relax tense shoulders and they both settled onto the couch in front of the Colonel's desk.
Mustang looked up from the paperwork that was sitting on his desk to address two the alchemists.
"I hear a 'good job' is owed to the both of you for the work you did on the Liore mission." He leaned back in his chair.
Ed huffed and crossed her legs before leaning back in her seat as well and throwing an arm over the back of the couch. "We may be the dogs of the military, but we don't need to be praised and have our heads pat when a mission is done properly." Al elbowed his sister in the ribs at her disrespect.
Mustang sighed at his subordinate. "I like to tell my people when they've done their job well, Fullmetal. There's no need to get prickly on me." He gave her a smirk. "Put away your claws, little kitty."
Ed had only one word in mind. Murder.
Al had to wrap his arm around his sister's waist to keep her from lunging off the couch and across the Colonel's desk to maim the man.
"I wish you would both stop antagonizing each other." He hooked a leg over one of hers to keep her in place even more. Al was in no way stronger than his sister, but he knew she would never just blow him off for an attack. Especially when it came to dealing with Colonel Mustang. She may be all riled up, but she was actually pretty tame compared to what he knew she could be.
Mustang waved a dismissive hand at them.
"Whether or not you want it, I'm still telling you both that you did a good job." His face got serious. "I'm going to assume the lead on the stone was a bust though?"
Al and Ed both let out twin sighs.
"It turns out it was fake. I watched it break and turn to dust with my own eyes." Ed pulled her long braid from behind her back and twisted and twirled it around her hand in a fidgeting kind of way.
Al moved to sit on the couch normally. Even if his sister was quite the tactile person, she didn't like everyone knowing about it. "Even if it was fake, Father Cornello certainly used it like it was a true Philosopher's Stone. He'd had a chimera transmuted and ready for the attack. He also transmuted his cane into an automatic gun."
Ed nodded. "But it started to rebound on him in the end before finally breaking." She pulled at her hair a bit. "Just another false lead in the many years we've been searching." She felt like she was running out of time. And honestly, she was. There was only two and a half years left of their contract and she wasn't coming back to the military afterwards. But she knew that if her brother didn't succeed in what he wanted to accomplish, that he would continue on with this occupation. She would feel like she was abandoning him if she left before he did, though.
Ed didn't truly have any other life plans, but she knew she didn't want to remain where she currently was.
Mustang frowned at the gloomy mood the siblings fell into and let out a sigh himself. It was the year after they had joined his team that the two finally told him their reasons for joining the military.
Alphonse told him about how he'd grown up with his sister basically being his parent and his best friend and how he hated having to be separated from her so much because she had to start work so young to provide for them. He wanted to return the favor and be the one to make the money so that she could do what she wanted to do without worry. He wanted to be the man of the house where his father was absent. He'd also told Mustang about how his sister doesn't have the best time with her artificial limbs and how he's using his position in the military to try and find a way to restore her human arm and leg back to her. There were obviously parts of his story that he didn't trust the Colonel with, but Mustang was okay with that. Everyone had their secrets.
Ed's reasons, on the other hand, were so simple that it truly surprised him. Ed was in no way a simple young woman. So when she told him her reason for becoming a state alchemist was solely so that her brother wasn't alone in his ambitions, Mustang had given her a skeptical look that she chose to ignore. When he found out that Ed and Al really only spent their money on groceries, utilities, and books and had saved up the majority of their money into a nice little stockpile over the years, he wondered why Ed hadn't asked to be given less missions so that she could possibly seek a higher education. The woman was never at a shortage of medical texts, so much so that Mustang thought for sure she wanted to be a doctor. He'd even found out his subordinate volunteered at the main hospital here in East City, offering up her alkahestry to help save countless lives in the ER. He'd asked her all about her ambitions one day, even questioning why she hadn't tried to become a field medic alongside being an alchemist and her answer was, again, simple.
"I'm fine where I am." She had told him.
It just hadn't made any sense to him. If Alphonse was to be believed, Edena Elric was powerful and extremely intelligent and could probably do anything she wanted if she set her mind to it.
So why wasn't there anything that he knew of, besides helping her brother, that she set her mind towards? And why did it scare him that he didn't know anything about her really?
He must have been staring at them for too long. He felt those eerie golden eyes settle on him and it gave him a shiver. How was Havoc best friends with this young woman?
Alphonse was the first one to speak up after the moment of quiet they had.
"I wonder about the biochemistry involved in the alchemy of creating chimeras. Did Father Cornello have to know much about the animals he was fusing or did the stone simply do it seamlessly for him?" The teen tapped his chin in contemplation.
Ed pursed her lips. "It would be an alchemical subject to expand on for personal research purposes. It wouldn't hurt to know as well that if you were to create a missing limb with the Philosopher's Stone, would you have to know anything truly about the human body and all of its little aspects." Her eyes started to sparkle and Mustang and Al started to sweat. She may not have obvious ambitions, but her knowledge of the human body was very extensive, to a scary degree. Al obviously knew the reason why his sister was the way she was and it scared him, but Mustang didn't know the reason, which scared the other man even more. "We should head to the library to see if there's anything on biochemical alchemy that we can find."
"Maybe I can introduce you to someone who may know more about it, instead?" Mustang spoke up before his alchemists could run off. Al gave him a curious look, but Ed narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "There's a state alchemist here in East City by the name of Shou Tucker. He is the current leading biochemical alchemist, in that his research consists of the study and creation of chimeras. In fact, his code name is the Sewing Life Alchemist. I can introduce you both to him the day after tomorrow."
Al's eyes lit up, but Ed didn't seem all too pleased.
"What's the catch?" She asked as she folded her arms over her chest. "You're never this nice.
Al elbowed her again. "Sister!"
Mustang got a bit offended at her comment. "What are you talking about?! I'm plenty nice! And why can't I just want to repay you both for your good work in Liore?" He pouted. Ed could feel a blush forming on her face at the look of him and turned her head away in a huff.
"Whatever. We'll meet you here bright and early the day after tomorrow. Don't be late." She stood and exited the office quickly. Al just sighed at his sister.
"Sorry about her Colonel. She really does appreciate the opportunity to learn something new. We both do. I'm sure she's just tired and hungry. She wasn't in the best mood on the train ride back." He saluted his CO. "As always, if you need anything just tap on the armor."
Mustang nodded his dismissal of the younger Elric and thought on his words.
"I know you've got that weird crush on the Colonel, but you have to try and at least be civil with him. Your strange manner of flirting only makes him think that you hate him." Al really knew he shouldn't, but pressing his sister's buttons was a fun way to pass time for him.
They were currently walking back to their apartment, Ed leading the way, and he could see the red creep up the back of her neck and to her face. He couldn't stop himself from chuckling.
"First of all, little Brother," she was seething. "I do not have a crush on Colonel Asshat. Second of all, I'm not flirting with him." She glared at the road ahead of her and grumbled, "That's not even how I flirt."
Al rolled his eyes. "Then why do you have so much animosity towards him? He hasn't done anything to either of us. It's either you have a crush or you really do hate him, and I'm leaning towards the former." He crossed his arms over his chest.
Ed growled. "I do not have a crush on him! He's so pompous and aloof and a womanizer. And besides, he's so obviously spoken for. The First Lieutenant damn near has a collar around his throat." The young woman sighed and realized she couldn't hide anything from her brother. "It's just that… He's so handsome and my type and I'm just very frustrated. And lonely. But I don't have a crush! The only thing appealing about Roy Mustang is his looks, intellect and strength. But his personality throws that all out of the window. I'm sure he appeals to Hawkeye more because they've been around each other for forever, but the only thing he could currently be for me is a good lay and the occasional well thought out conversation. Nothing long term or too deep. Plus he's my CO and probably still thinks of me as a child even though I'm twenty-one."
Al had a flat look on his face. "I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that you think the Colonel would be a good lay." He stepped up next to his sister and bumped shoulders with her. "If you're lonely, why don't you try dating again?"
It was Ed's turn to give Al a flat look. "The last time I actually dated someone for more than a couple of dates, you and Jean ended up trying to kill him. And after that relationship ended, every time I let someone pick me up from home, you scrutinize the hell out of them. And I refuse to date someone who you don't approve of." Ed reached up to grab her braided ponytail. "Besides, I'm not that attractive, Alphonse. There aren't exactly a lot of people who want to date me. No matter how much Jean tries to talk me up, I know I'm not exactly Amestris's most popular bachelorette. Being a female state alchemist with a rank higher than a lot of soldiers intimidates a lot of men and they find any flaw they can about me as an excuse to not date me. It's part of the reason I stopped trying."
Alphonse scowled and knocked his sister's braid out of her hand, surprising her, before grabbing it and pulling her over to a group of what looked like University students on the street. Three young men and two women.
"Excuse me! Can I take a moment of your time?" He called out.
The students all turned with curious looks and gave them their attention.
"This is ridiculous, Al." Ed grumbled and tried to pull her hand away, but Al reaffirmed his grip on it.
Al gave them all a smile. "This is my sister, Edena Elric. She's a state alchemist, the Fullmetal Alchemist to be exact, and a Major in the military." He for sure had their attention now. One of the women in the group spoke up.
"The People's Alchemist? Oh wow! I never realized you were a woman!" Both women looked at her with stars in their eyes and the men gave her contemplative looks. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
Ed blushed a little at the attention, but wasn't being too antisocial about it. "I'm twenty-one."
This impressed them even more and the women looked like they were swooning.
"So young!" One guy pointed out. "And I've heard you've got wicked combat skills. My cousin, who is a Second Lieutenant, still talks about when you took your exam and took down a soldier by choking him out with your thighs." The man blushed a bit. "But I guess, um, looking at you now that it makes sense why he was very fixated on it." He looked Ed up and down.
Al inserted himself back into the conversation. "I actually dragged my sister over here for a reason, you see. A shameless need for compliments and boosting her ego." He started to whisper behind his hand to them, not very quietly at all, making Ed shake her head at him. "My sister doesn't think she's very attractive and says that her being a Major in the military intimidates people, which takes away from her attractiveness as well." He smiled at them. "I thought you all could help me prove her wrong."
The two women gasped and the men looked incredulous. And they were all suddenly talking at once.
"Young, powerful and beautiful? That's the best combination!"
"There's no way you aren't attractive! You're literally gold personified!"
"What I would give to have a figure like yours. And your hair is gorgeous!"
"Yes, you're intimidating, but if a guy lets that stop them from dating a hot girl who wears leather pants, then they're an idiot."
"I wish you'd wrap those thighs around my head. I-I mean, I heard you have a metal arm and that's totally badass!"
Ed was blushing, but that last comment sent her blinking in surprise and the guy blushed when even his friend's gave him contemplative looks. Ed gave a soft laugh.
"You all are very sweet. And I can tell they are your honest opinions, so I do thank you for your kind words. I also apologize that my brother asked you to do this." She bowed a bit in apology.
"Nonsense!" One girl yelled. "We got to meet the People's Alchemist. This is so cool!"
Ed grinned. "Well, if you think that my position as a state alchemist is impressive, then you'll love this!" She grabbed Al by the shoulders and pulled him in front of her. "This is my younger brother, Alphonse Elric, also known as the Swift Alchemist. He's the youngest state alchemist to take the exam and the youngest Major in the military."
The group's excitement seemed renewed.
"Is it true you broke a guy's throat during your exam?"
"Is it true you can draw a circle in less than a minute?"
"I heard you can do water alchemy!"
"How old were you when you took the test? How old are you now?"
Al gave a nervous laugh and answered all of their questions as Ed watched with a happy smile on her face.
When they finally made it back to their apartment and Al mentioned something about starting dinner, Ed grabbed his arm and pulled him into a surprise hug.
"Thank you, Alphonse." She hid her face in his hair.
Al smiled. "Any time, Sister. You deserve to know the truth about yourself." He rubbed her back. "And also, Havoc and I weren't going to kill your ex-boyfriend. We were just going to give him a stern talking to."
Ed laughed and pushed her brother away. "You asked Hawkeye for a gun, Al. You never use guns."
Al had a dark look on his face. "Yeah, well, he cheated on you, broke your heart, and then tried to make you think it was your fault. Havoc and I came to the mutual understanding that a bullet would teach him a lesson."
Ed just kept chuckling and ruffled his hair. "Whatever you say, little Brother. You knew I could have handled that situation myself."
Al grumbled. "I know, but Havoc and I didn't even get to handle it ourselves. First Lieutenant Hawkeye and the Colonel asked what I wanted to do with the gun and Havoc and I had to explain to them what had happened. We were basically babysat by Warrant Officer Falman as the two of them left the office and didn't come back until a few hours later. You never heard from the guy again, not because of us, but because of them." Al shrugged off his coat and hung it in the closet by the front door, then took off his shoes.
Ed was frozen in surprise though. Hawkeye and Mustang were the reasons she never had to deal with her first and only boyfriend after she had gone to his home and caught him cheating on her. When she got back to her own home, upset about it, he called her and yelled about how she was the reason he decided that he needed to see other women. She was always gone on missions and he couldn't break up with her properly, she was too clingy when she was home in East City, she never really put out enough to make their relationship worth while, and he couldn't have a woman who cared more about reading and her little brother than she did about possibly becoming a wife who could handle a home while he worked.
She had been young and naïve and had let all his criticisms go to her head and tear down her ego, but with the help of Jean, Al, Winry, Izumi, and even Gracia she was put back on track and realize that her ex's problems with her were his problems alone. She was mostly back to normal, besides the fact that her ego took just a little bit of a dive and hadn't truly recovered. And going on dates with men who just dropped her after a few dates, claiming she was too unmanageable, didn't really help to repair anything either.
But maybe she was wrong about Mustang. Maybe he did care more than she thought he did. Maybe she did owe it to him to be a little bit nicer to him. Her never talking to her asshole ex ever again really did help with her healing process.
Ed sighed before stripping off her outerwear and following her brother to the kitchen.
She could do it. She could be nice.
Mustang was a bit weirded out. Edena hadn't said one snide remark to him all morning, even when he had been a few minutes late. Of course, Hawkeye had been quite passive aggressive about it, but Ed had just given him a soft smile as she looked up from the paperwork she and Al were helping the team with.
He looked at Hawkeye with a bit of concern and confusion on his face and she just gave him a shrug.
Mustang let it go for now and went into his office to do a couple of quick things at his desk before the scheduled time he was to drive the siblings to the Tucker residence.
Ed and Al waited patiently for the Colonel to come out of his office, though Al would admit to being a little antsy. So much so that when Mustang finally came back into the outer office and called out to them, Al was up out of his seat in an instant and walked over to the door of the office to open it up for them. Ed and Havoc chuckled under their breath.
The drive was a bit informative for the sibling alchemists. Mustang explained how Tucker had gotten his state alchemist certification two years ago.
"He transmuted a chimera that could understand human speech." The Colonel told them.
Ed frowned and tilted her head in contemplation, but Al was the one who asked the question she was obviously thinking. "Do you mean it could understand human speech, as in it could talk?" He gripped the seat in front of them.
Mustang nodded his head. "Apparently it said only one thing. 'I want to die.' And then it stopped eating and got its wish not too long after."
Ed grit her teeth. "That's awful." Al nodded in agreement.
When they got to the Tucker residence, Mustang rang the doorbell and waited. Ed cocked a brow when a big white dog came barreling towards them from around from the corner yard and skid to a stop in front of her, ears back, but nose high as it sniffed her out. Al chuckled and Mustang looked confused. Ed just pulled the glove off her left hand and held it out for the dog to smell before giving the dog a little pet behind his ear, making him wag his tail.
"Daddy! There's people here!" The voice of a young child had all three of them turning to face the door and looking down to see a little girl with braided pigtails peeking out at them from the cracked door. "Alexander likes them!" Said dog let out a bark at hearing his name.
Suddenly, a tall older man with round framed glasses was at the door. "Nina, I told you to tie the dog up." He gave a weak smile at Mustang. "Hello, Colonel. I'm sorry if Alexander caused you all any trouble."
Ed waved him off. "He was perfectly fine. Animals always tend to be curious around me, for some reason. I don't mind his attention."
Tucker invited them all in, Nina taking Alexander to play elsewhere while the state alchemists talked. Tucker was happy to show them his notes if they told him why they wanted to read them. Ed explained she just was interested in the biochemistry aspect of his research and how it pertained to alchemy. Al explained how he was trying to get his sister her limbs back and about their search for the Philosopher's Stone. He wanted to make sure that once he had it that he was doing the alchemy correctly. Tucker asked to see Ed's automail. She hesitated, but shrugged off her jacket to expose the sleeveless blouse she was wearing that day. It seemed to impress Tucker that it was her entire arm. Ed frowned, getting weird vibes from the man.
Tucker finally relented to showing them his notes which turned out to be an entire library. Al was excited and rushed into the room to grab the first book he could. Ed was a bit more sedated and browsed a shelf to pick a title she may be interested in. They both immediately started reading, focused, and vaguely aware of Mustang calling out his departure to them.
What was probably hours passed and Ed tilted her head to the side a bit as she read, feeling a small tingle at the back of her mind.
"Is there something you need?" She called out to no one in particular. A small head of brown hair poked around the corner of a shelf, followed by the large white head of a dog.
"How did you know I was here?" Nina asked, surprise colored her tone.
Ed smiled, not looking up from her book. "I could feel your aura. Every living thing has an aura. You… Alexander. When you came into the room I could feel your aura. But it was when you set your thoughts on me that I really was able to focus on where you were." She closed the book she was reading, finished with it. "I'll ask again, is there something you needed?"
Nina shook her head at Ed, hesitant to get closer. "That's really cool that you can feel people." Ed huffed out a thank you. "Your hair is really pretty. Can I play with it?"
Ed blinked at how straightforward Nina was with her question. But it was not an unfamiliar request. Lieutenant Colonel Hughes's daughter, Elicia, also requested to play hairdresser with Ed's hair. Ed pulled her braid to the front of her to begin undoing it.
"You will have to go get your hair things." She commented.
Nina got excited and ran off quickly with Alexander to do just that. When she got back with all her brushes, combs and bows she could carry, she paused and gasped at the look of Ed's hair. Ed, of course, gave herself trims, but she hadn't actually cut her hair in many years. Her braid just went from low against her back to pulled into a high ponytail and then braided to make it seem like her hair wasn't too long. But when she let her hair out, it was quite wavy and went past her butt. Well in this case, since Ed was sitting, it was settled in a small pool on the floor behind her.
Nina ran over and ran a gentle hand through it. "It's so pretty! I wish I had hair like this!"
Ed smiled at the little girl over her shoulder. "Well, if you take care of your hair, when you get older it will be nice and long like this as well." Nina nodded dutifully. Ed gave a soft laugh and turned back to the new book she was reading. "Well, Nina, I'm trusting you to make my hair extra special. And I know it's very long, but I know you'll try your best." The little girl gave a firm confirmation and started to work on Ed's waterfall of golden hair.
It was only a few hours more until Havoc showed up to the Tucker residence to collect the siblings. When Mr. Tucker escorted him to the library, he let out a laugh when they found Ed, Al, Nina and Alexander all in a circle of books, flowers and hair care tools. Ed seemed to have gotten two uneven fishtail braids with some flowers added, and Al had a ring of flowers added to his hair as well.
"I like the new hairdos, Majors Elric. It really suits the both of you." Ed and Al glanced back at the man and he gave them a wink. "You both ready to go? I'm sure Mr. Tucker would like his library back."
Said man waved Havoc's concerns off. "It's no problem at all. And you can both come back tomorrow as well." Nina cheered in excitement and Al smiled up at the man.
"Thank you, Mr. Tucker. We'll be sure to clean up our mess tomorrow as well." He got up and started to follow Havoc to the door.
Ed stood up with a stretch before bending to pat Nina's head. "I'll teach you how to do more braids tomorrow."
Nina smiled and gave her a big hug. "Thank you, Big Sister Ed!"
Tucker gave Ed a kind smile as if to say thank you and Ed nodded back at him before following after her friend and brother. The aura Tucker gave off still had Ed on edge, but she was choosing to ignore it for his daughter's sake.
The siblings returned the next day like they said. Al brought his suit of armor this time and had it do some chores around the house. He remembered Tucker talking about how he wasn't much of a housekeeper and how his wife had left, so he thought it only fair that if the man was going to let them raid his library, that they could do a little bit more than explain their reasons for wanting the knowledge to help him out. Tucker seemed very grateful for the gesture.
Their lunch break was spent with Ed making a very simple dish with what she found in Tucker's refrigerator and her even making dinner for them to heat up later. Afterwards, she braided Nina's hair into a single French braid and let the little girl try it out on her own hair.
Tucker talked about how he was happy having them over because they made Nina happy and how he was afraid of failing his state alchemist recertification due to his research coming to a standstill.
"Why not just try and make another talking chimera again, Sir?" Alphonse suggested as they cleaned up the library for the day.
Ed frowned at the idea, but said nothing. She'd seen Tucker's chimeras that he kept in cages in his lab. She could feel how the blending of the bodies hurt the souls and she knew for a fact that this was one branch of alchemy she would never experiment in; or let her brother experiment in for that matter. Truth only knew how the man made a creature that could understand and speak human speech. Probably from finding animals that were close enough to humans and already showed knowledge of understanding humans. Like monkeys… Or dogs.
Ed's heart skipped a beat. Alexander!
She turned quickly to locate the large dog that followed Nina around like the faithful companion he was. Said dog was busy getting pets by Nina and Al at the other end of the library. Ed settled just a bit and turned her gaze towards Tucker who was watching them with a smile on his face. She didn't trust him. But she couldn't let her bias rule her.
This man wouldn't transmute his daughter's best friend and pet just because it was available to him…
Right?
Al had a bounce in his step even though the sky was quite overcast. His attention wasn't split for once because he left his armor back at Colonel Mustang's office. Andhe and his sister had a surprise for Nina.
"You make the best cookies sister! Chocolate chip and peanut butter. I bet Nina and Mr. Tucker will love them!" The teen held the package that contained the fresh baked cookies close to his chest.
Ed rolled her eyes at him. "Don't shake up the box so much, Al, or they'll only have crumbles to eat." She would never admit it, but she was pretty proud of her baking and couldn't wait for Nina to try the cookies. They were their mother's recipe and Ed spent years trying to perfect them. She was sure this was her best batch yet.
They got to the Tucker's estate and knocked on the door, but Al got a little ahead of himself and just pushed the door open, calling out for Nina. Ed only paused for a second before following after him. It wasn't unusual for the little girl and her dog to be running in and out of the house and leaving the door unlocked.
But when she stepped foot into the house, she could feel her dragon side's hackles rise. She reached out a hand and gripped Al's shoulder tight. Al gave his sister a look of confusion.
"Something is very wrong." Ed grit out. And Al could tell she was serious by the way her pupil's slowly went from human round to reptilian slits. Al took a minute to calm his mind and get a feel for the qi around him that Ed just felt all of the time.
Ed wasn't wrong. He could definitely feel Mr. Tucker was in a room far away in the house, probably his lab, but he couldn't feel Nina or Alexander. But the man wasn't alone. There was definitely something there with him.
Ed started to move ahead, footsteps becoming silent and Al bent down, putting down the box he carried and pulling a piece of chalk out of the pocket of his long coat. He drew a transmutation circle on the floor and created a bat from the hardwood, arming himself. He followed after his sister, knowing she would keep a feel out for anything more abnormal.
When they made it to Mr. Tucker's lab, they gave each other a look before Al decided to knock on the door.
"Mr. Tucker? Is everything okay?" Al called out as he slowly opened the door.'
For some reason the room was very dimly lit and Mr. Tucker was knelt in the middle of the floor next to, what the siblings thought was, Alexander. But something was wrong about him.
Ed felt her stomach start to turn. She hadn't wanted to be right.
Tucker smiled up at them while petting the dog that had a slouched posture and longer brown hair down its back.
"Look, Majors. I've done it again. I've created a talking chimera." He pointed his finger at Ed. "That's Edena and the other person is Alphonse. Say hello."
"Hel-lo." The creature said in a broken voice. "Ed-e-na. Al-phonse. Hel-lo."
Al looked a little heartbroken and Ed just shut her eyes in her fury.
"I-Is that Alexander?" Al asked the man. Ed could hear the sadness in his voice.
Mr. Tucker just shrugged. "Progress requires sacrifice." Al felt like he was going to throw up. But then the creature spoke up again and both Elrics felt their world fall around them.
"Al-phonse. Big Brother. Ed-e-na. Big Sister. Will you braid my hair?" The creature stood and made its way over to the two of them and Tucker cursed.
Al dropped the bat he was holding in his shock and looked down at the creature that approached them, tears streaming down his face. Ed wasn't breathing and she could feel her real hand shaking.
"Nina?" Al gasped out. The creature pushed its nose into Al's hand.
"Big Brother. Braid my hair?" It asked again.
Both Elrics turned their gaze to Mr. Tucker, looking at him in shock. Ed's eyes still looked slitted and feral.
"Like it said… Progress requires sacrifice." pushed his glasses up with a small frown on his face. "Nina understood that. Just like my wife understood two years ago."
Al didn't think anything, in this moment, could stop his sister from walking across the room and promptly beating the man half to death. So he didn't even try. He just stood there and watched as she basically flew over to the older man and wailed on him with her metal fist.
"I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt!" Ed screamed in his face. "I knew there was something wrong with you, but I chose to ignore it for your daughter's benefit!" She wrapped her real hand around his throat. "And then you go and do this to your own daughter!"
Tucker just smirked and looked at her with crazed eyes through his broken glasses. "It doesn't matter what you think. All that matters is that I've finished just in time for my recertification. I can continue my research and I won't ever have to go back to living the way I did before. Nina and Alexander helped me with—" Ed shut the man up by squeezing tighter on his throat.
"You are a despicable and disgusting man and you can take those thoughts of remaining a state alchemist and shove them right up your ass!" She screamed in his face.
The only thing that stopped Ed from choking the man to death was a gentle grip on her coat at the waist.
"Big Sister, you're hurting Daddy. Please stop."
Ed hesitated, listening to the warbled voice behind her, before slowly letting go of Tucker's neck and getting up to step away from the man as he choked and gasped for air. Nina stepped closer to her father to make sure he was okay and Ed had to turn and leave the room, grabbing her brother into a hold and dragging him with her to sit on a couch in the living room that was not too far from the lab.
Al was gasping for his own breath as he sobbed into his sister's neck as she held him. "How could he? Why?"
Ed rubbed circles on his back, trying to help him calm down. When he finally did enough, Ed wiped her brother's face and looked him in the eye. "I need to go call the Colonel. Will you be okay right here? You need to keep an ear out for them, okay?"
Al nodded, wiping his face and looking very defeated. Ed got up to go to the kitchen and use the phone Tucker has in there. She dialed the number to the office and waited to be connected.
"This is the office of Colonel Roy Mustang, First Lieutenant Hawkeye speaking."
Ed took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. "Lieutenant. It's Major Elric. I'm going to need a team of MPs over at the Tucker Estate and Colonel Mustang will want to be here as well."
Hawkeye actually sounded concerned. "Is everything okay, Ed?"
Ed shook her head and she could feel herself starting to break down. "No. Everything isn't okay. In order to pass his reinstatement exam, Shou Tucker transmuted his daughter and their dog into a chimera." She heard Hawkeye's gasp over the line. "So, that being said, if you do not get here soon with some MPs, you will not be coming to clean up this mess and lock him away. Instead you will be cleaning his dismembered body off the floor after I finish ripping him limb from limb. I suggest you hurry." She then hung up the phone to keep the Lieutenant from hearing the inhuman roar that escaped her throat.
Of all the times she had to be correct about her instincts, she hated that this was one of them.
"If ever there was an example of the Devil's work in this world, this case would be it." Lieutenant Hawkeye commented as she walked out of Eastern Command next to Colonel Mustang. She looked down at the Elric siblings who were a few steps down from them, sitting close together. Alphonse had his head on his sister's shoulder and Edena had taken her coat off to cover him. Not much help it was as the rain was pouring like the heavens were crying.
"The Devil, huh? A state alchemist must be willing to act. Able to take another's life when ordered to, without question. In some way, Mr. Tucker's actions and our own may not be all that far apart when it comes to interfering with other people's lives. And that's the way it is." Mustang stopped on the step next to them. "Right, Fullmetal? Swift?"
Neither Ed nor Al said anything in response to the man.
Mustang sighed. "You will more than likely come across cases like this again in the future. And you may have to end up getting your own hands dirty as well." Hawkeye kept quiet as she listened to the Colonel talk. She hadn't mentioned to him about Ed's claim that she would willingly kill Tucker. "You gonna shut down like this every time?"
No one moved or said anything for a moment, until Ed put an arm around her brother's shoulder and made him stand.
"We may be called dogs of the military, and we may even be cursed as devils, but it doesn't matter. We know we're not devils. And we know we're not gods. But it doesn't hurt any less to know that we didn't have the power to save one innocent little girl." She started leading her brother down the steps. "You have our verbal report, Colonel. We'll be here to give you our written ones tomorrow."
Ed walked away without being dismissed, needing to get her brother home.
Ed and Al came into the office the next day right around the time everyone should have been coming in, but it turned out that the only people still in the office were Fuery and Hawkeye. But the woman was just about to leave.
"Where is everyone?" Al asked the Lieutenant. "We wanted to ask the Colonel a question when we gave him our reports."
Hawkeye shrugged on a raincoat. "What's the question?"
Al looked back at his sister before turning a determined look on the Lieutenant. "We wanted to know what was going to happen to Nina? We may not know much about the creation of chimeras, but we have read a lot of Tucker's research notes and we wanted to help as much as we could."
Hawkeye sighed and started making her way out the door. "I'm sorry to tell you both this, but Shou and Nina Tucker are dead. They and the MPs guarding them were found dead early this morning. The team is actually already there now because we're lending investigations a hand."
Al felt cold. "How did this happen?" Ed placed a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder. She wasn't quite sure what to say about this news herself.
"That's what we're going to find out. You both went through a lot yesterday. Just stay here for now and we'll update you around lunch time." Hawkeye left them no choice in the matter as she turned to walk away, leaving them both standing there and not knowing what to do with themselves.
Al wrapped his arms around himself. "I think I want to be alone for a while."
Ed sighed and nodded. "I'm going to go find a private place to meditate. You should go relax at the library and we can meet back up later for lunch with Havoc if he's in the office." She wrapped her brother in a hug.
"You should take the armor with you, so we can keep in contact." Al mumbled before pulling away to go activate the suit. Ed waited for him out in the hall. When he came back, the suit clanked behind him, umbrella in hand. Al knocked shoulders with his sister when she gave him a look. "I know you. You'll sit outside in the rain for hours meditating if I'm not there to drag you off to a covered space. So it's best to just give him the umbrella and for you to use it when it starts raining again."
Ed rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. What can I say? I'm an overheated lizard that sometimes forgets that cold and rain is a thing." They walked each other outside before parting ways with a wave.
Al was on his way back to the office from his alone time at the library when he heard a familiar voice talking to Colonel Mustang around the corner.
"You should increase your escort lay low for a while. Nobody will blame you." Al turned the corner and saw the Colonel and Lieutenant out in the hall talking to two other people. He realized quickly that it was Major Armstrong and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. "Please. I'm asking as your friend. You and Tucker are the only state alchemists of note in this area, right?"
Suddenly, the Colonel looked very worried. "Oh no."
Al tilted his head to the side. "Hello everyone. Is everything okay? Why are you all out in the hall? It's good to see you again, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and Major Armstrong." He gave them a wave and chuckled internally about how they all jumped at the sound of his voice. He loved being able to surprise people.
But by the way they all looked at them, he got a bit worried.
"Alphonse? You and your sister are here in East City?" Hughes asked. And the teen nodded.
Mustang jumped up from his seat. "Where is your sister, Swift? Please tell me she's coming right behind you!"
Al blinked in surprise at the man. "Um… No. Sister went out earlier to find a quiet place to meditate. She has my armor with her though, so I can ask her to come back to the office if you'd like?" He looked between everyone in the hall. "Is everything okay?" He asked again.
Armstrong was the one to speak up and explain things. "There is a man here in East City who has been murdering state alchemists. He's the one who killed Shou Tucker last night. And he's killed nine other alchemists to date." Al looked horrified. His sister was out there! "He has an 'X' shaped scar on his face and wears sunglasses. Please inform your sister to be careful on her way back here."
Hughes shook his head. "It might be better for us to meet her half way just to be safe. We don't know where that man is lurking." He reached out to grab Al's arm and drag him along. "Lead us to your sister, Alphonse."
Out in a more wooded location in East City was an overlook with a small clock tower on it. Ed sat cross legged on the steps of the clock tower with her back straight, eyes closed, and gloved fists pressed together in her lap. Al's armor sat behind her holding the umbrella over her head as it rained.
The sound of the rain helped her zone out and focus more on her inner self, but it did nothing to help wash her sorrows away. She thought about everything she'd done up until this point and all of the things she's changed about herself after self reflection on all of her failures. And just like the last failure, she had to ask herself: had she actually grown and changed at all? Or was she the same little girl who grasped at the impossible in hopes of actually accomplishing it, but never succeeding?
With everything that happened in Liore and with Nina, she wasn't very sure of the answer.
Ed was suddenly pulled out of her meditation by the aura of someone who seemed to want to do her harm. He was quiet in his approach, despite the wet ground.
"You, woman. You're the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edena Elric, correct?" The man's voice was gruff. Apparently, he'd done his research.
Ed heard Al's armor tense beside her, ready to defend if need be. But she held up a hand to stop him and ducked her head out from under the umbrella to finally open her eyes and get a look at the man. She felt his aura shift from anger to mostly surprise when he finally got a good look at her.
Ed stood, the armor following suit, and she looked the man up and down "Is there something I've done to wrong you? Your intentions are full of malice."
The man hesitated in making a move. "You look like a Golden One. But that is not possible. They were just legends, even to the old. Even if they were real, none remain any longer."
Ed let out a soft chuckle. "Oh, where there is a will, there is a way." She mumbled before talking a bit louder. "And you look like an Ishvalan, but you are very far away from the slums your people were forced into after the war." Ed felt a bit of anger. "Which was absolutely ridiculous." The man blinked in surprise at her. Ed refocused. "I'll ask you again; is there something I've done to wrong you?"
The man's already present frown deepened. "Where there is a will, there is a way? Are you trying to say that you are actually one of the Golden Ones from the legend?"
Ed narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't admit to being that spectacular in looks, and there are a lot of blond Amestrians, but how many of them have blond hair as pure a gold as mine? And I've had many people comment on my eye color. Comment on how very unusual it is. With the pairing, I think it's very obvious where my lineage lies." She looked down at the ground with a sigh. "Am I one of the Golden Ones your legend speaks of? No." Ed tilted her head to the side. "But I am the daughter of one. And when I was younger he told me all about your people. The Red Eyed Wanderers."
The man was wholly surprised now.
"He said that it was decreed that the Red Eyed Wanderers were meant to be treated as guests to the desert and if they were ever lost—"
"If you ever go traveling in the desert and find yourself lost, the Golden Ones will always be there to help you back home." Ed gave him a soft smile. "How is that even possible? That legend is hundreds of years old."
Ed let out a frustrated sigh. "I do not even pretend to know all of my father's secrets." Her golden eyes narrowed on the man. "Do you purposefully choose to not answer my question? I can sense your intentions. And when you first appeared to us, you planned to harm me. I will only ask this one more time. Have I done something to wrong you?"
Suddenly, Al's armor tensed up. "This man, he's the one who murdered Nina and Mr. Tucker. Lieutenant Colonel Hughes says that he's been murdering state alchemists." The armor stepped in front of her, dropping the umbrella. "Please run away, Sister. I'll hold him off as long as I can."
Ed hesitated as both man and armor got into a fighting stance.
"As long as there are creators like you in this world, there must also be destroyers." Ed narrowed her eyes at the man's words.
"So that's what it is? Vengeance." She took a step back and knelt on one knee on the ground. "Doesn't your God abhor such acts?"
The man scowled. "You cannot use my God against me to stop me from my mission of killing state alchemists. You should give up on that front."
Ed looked up at the man, looking into his eyes to see if it were a lie. She found none. "I understand then. I truly do. What the military made state alchemists do in Ishval was a terrible thing. And don't tell me I don't understand. Ishval is right next to where I grew up. The war was damn near in our backyard. But even if I do understand your actions, that doesn't mean I condone what you're doing. Besides the fact that killing me just because of my title wouldn't be very just, due to me being too young to have harmed anyone in a war; all of this killing does nothing to solve the problem. It only continues on the wretched cycle of death and hatred. What do you think will happen when they find out you are an Ishvalan? You've killed too many people for them to just look away. They're going to start harassing your people more than ever to find you. Some may even be hurt or killed. And then your people will want their own revenge for being wrongfully targeted because of the actions of one man." The man did seem to be actually listening to her words. "The cycle has to end with you."
It was very quiet on the hill top for a moment. The only sounds were that of the rain. Ed also thought her racing heart might have been loud enough for everyone else to hear.
Finally, after what seemed like a few minutes, the man let out a huff. "If you are ever lost, the Golden Ones will lead you back home." He looked down at Ed's soaked form still kneeling on the ground. "I truly wish we had met at a different time in my life. When my mission wasn't the most important thing to me. I also wish that you had never chosen to become a state alchemist. You are so obviously meant for something greater." His eyes hardened and he was quick in his movements as he reached out for her.
Ed was quick to clap her hands together and slam them on the ground just as the man lunged at her and the armor. Alchemy sizzled around them as the concrete on the ground came up and trapped the man in a box.
"Come on. Let's get out of here before he escapes." Ed grabbed the armor's hand and they started running. Her prediction came true not even seconds after they hit the stairs as the box's wall exploded outwards and the man started chasing after them.
Al's eyes were zoned out in the car as he gave vague directions to Hughes to lead them to his sister.
"You got an update, Swift?" Mustang asked, pulling on his white ignition gloves.
Hazel eyes sharpened as they focused on the world around him. "He showed up before I was paying attention to what was going on with my armor. Sister had been talking to him about legends before I was able to warn her who he was."
Everyone in the car frowned. "Legends?" Hawkeye asked.
Al was hesitant about giving more details so he pointed Hughes in the right direction again. Mustang's team and the MPs that were on their tail had a bit of a hard time following the random directions their car was taking.
"Swift? What was Fullmetal talking about legends with a murderer for?" Mustang asked.
Al twitched his nose in frustration. "The man is Ishvalan." There were gasps and curses around the car. "And my sister greatly resembles a group of people from Ishvalan legends. That's what they were…" Al zoned out as he had to focus on what was going on with his armor. "She's leading him into the alleyways towards Eastern Command. She's keeping him off the streets and away from people. He's very fast." Suddenly, Al winced and was focused back on everyone in the car again. "He destroyed half my armor and is attacking Ed. Stop the car, Lieutenant Colonel!"
Hughes was surprised and eased on the breaks. He barely had the car stopped before Al was throwing the door open and making a run for it. Mustang, Armstrong and Hawkeye didn't hesitate as they got out of the car as well and took off after the young alchemist.
Mustang watched, frustratingly impressed, as Al paused for maybe a few seconds to whip out a piece of chalk and grab the lid of a trash can to draw a circle on it and turn it into two very sharp throwing knives before continuing on.
The others could tell they were close because they could hear the sounds of destruction from an alleyway a few blocks ahead of them.
Ed was very impressed with the speed of this dangerous man. She guessed he must have been an Ishvalan monk. If information was correct, they were the only ones of their people who were extremely well trained in combat.
She clapped her hands together and placed her left one over her right, shredding her glove and turning her metal hand into sharp claws.
"You have an automail arm and place your hands together in order to transmute. I will have to destroy that arm." He started to attack her again, but Ed was ready this time. She'd realized, while he was chasing after her, that he uses his right hand to do an incomplete form of alchemy. Instead of following through with the three stages of a transmutation, he only completed two and left it at that. Comprehension and deconstruction. It was actually a very creative and combative way to use alchemy if you had a way to get around having to draw transmutation circles. This monk must have them drawn on his arm or something.
Ed smirked. She just had to keep him from touching her with his right hand. Or she could try to damage his arm enough that it didn't matter.
The monk reached out to immobilize her right arm, but Ed twisted out of the way and tried to slash her claws up his arm, but he jumped back just in time. The match continued on and while Ed twisted and bent around him to avoid his hand, coming back with striking and heavy hits, the monk used his quick reflexes to do little jumps away from her just in the knick of time. They were pretty evenly matched.
"You are very well trained, Golden One. I commend you for that." He was breathing pretty heavily.
Ed's lips twitched up into a smirk. "You too, Monk. I'm very impressed by your speed." She changed up her stance into a low crouch, hoping to end this in a few swift moves. But the very thing she praised him for seemed to be her downfall.
"Thank you," the monk said as he surprised her by suddenly being in her face in two quick steps. Ed's eyes widened and she threw up her right arm in defense, but that's exactly what he wanted. He wrapped his hand around her bicep before she could pull away and Ed's body was thrown out of the alleyway they were fighting in from the explosion of her metal arm and the incomplete transmutation. Her back hit the ground and she felt her body roll further into the street.
Ed could vaguely hear her brother's voice call out to her.
She tried to push herself up into a sitting position, but the monk was already standing over top of her. He reached down and Ed flinched away, but he only pushed her hair out of her face and rubbed some blood off her cheek.
"I am very sorry, Golden One. In another time and if you weren't a state alchemist, I would have been more than happy to have met you and heard your very wise words." His hand trailed from her face to down her throat and Ed found herself unable to breathe as his large hand wrapped around it and squeezed. She reached out her only arm to do the same to him, knowing damn well she was strong enough to at least make it hurt. But the man was very forcefully tackled off of her by what appeared to be an angry little brother.
"How dare you touch my sister!" Alphonse growled out as he and the monk rolled together away from Ed who was coughing and dragging in deep breaths. They split and Al got into a defensive position with his knives.
"Your voice is the same one from the armor." The monk pointed out. "You are the Golden One's brother. The Swift Alchemist. I will have to kill you as well." He moved to attack Al, but the boy didn't even have to defend himself.
Major Armstrong dropped out of nowhere and started attacking the man himself. "You will not lay another hand on these young alchemists!" The Major pushed the man back. "Go help Miss Edena, Alphonse!"
Al didn't have to be told twice as he ran back to his sister, carefully lifting her upper body off the ground. She looked very disheveled and torn apart, especially with her arm missing. "Are you okay, Sister?" Al's voice was shaking. Hell, his whole body was shaking. He'd almost lost her. Havoc, being a field medic and Ed's best friend, was the first one running up to the two of them to check them over.
"Ed, tell me what hurts." He demanded.
Ed groaned and kept her eyes closed. "My head, my throat, and my back. But that's nothing some painkillers and a hot shower won't help."
Havoc scowled. "I'll be the judge of that." He was careful as he scooped her up out of Al's arms, ignoring the teen's protests. "We have to move her back away from any combat that's going on. Let's go." Havoc moved as quickly as he could without jostling her too much. Al followed closely behind him.
They passed by Mustang and Hawkeye who only gave them quick glances in their worry, but a nod from Havoc had them moving forward to help Major Armstrong.
Havoc brought her over to the car where Lieutenant Colonel Hughes stayed back to direct MPs in securing the scene. The man gave them a quick glance. "Status, Second Lieutenant, Majors."
Havoc placed Ed down against the car and pulled out a medical kit that he knew was in the trunk of every military vehicle. "Major Armstrong is engaging the man currently. Swift and I got Fullmetal out of there as quickly as we could. Colonel Mustang, I assume, will be handling the scene from here. I'm going to administer first aid on Fullmetal now, Sir." Havoc saluted the man before getting down on his knees to check Ed over.
Al gave his report just as quickly. "The Second Lieutenant is correct, Sir. I can add that I reached the fight just in time to tackle the man off of my sister. He had his hand wrapped around her throat. He realized immediately who I was, but before he could attack, Major Armstrong pushed him back and started to engage." Hughes nodded to Al.
"You did good, Swift." He directed some more MPs before kneeling down to give Ed a once over to make sure she was okay. Havoc had worked quickly when it came to patching up cuts and bruises. He winced at the look of white bandages wrapped around the young woman's throat, covering what was probably a quick forming bruise. He thought of these two siblings as his own children, so seeing one of them so damaged didn't sit right in his soul. "You doing okay, Ed?" He asked softly.
Ed just barely opened her eyes to look at him and give a soft smile. "It's good to see you, Hughes. I know I just saw you back in Central not that long ago, but being near you is always a delight." Her voice was very rough.
Hughes chuckled and gave the woman's remaining hand a squeeze. "So cheeky. You'll be just fine."
Everyone braced themselves and jumped in surprise when there was an explosion and the ground beneath them shook. Apparently, their suspect had escaped into the sewers. Hughes sighed and moved to start directing MPs in a search for the man.
The day had been long and the search was still going on, but all of Mustang's team, including Hughes and Armstrong, were finally back in the office.
Mustang, Hawkeye, Hughes, Armstrong and the Elric's had shut themselves into the inner office to talk about things while the rest of the team finished up last minute paperwork in the outer office.
"I can't say that I'm surprised the man was an Ishvalan. I guess it was only a matter of time." Mustang sighed and sat back in his chair.
Al and Ed had scowls on their faces. "Well that has to be one of the rudest things I've ever heard come out of your mouth." Ed spoke up in her raspy voice making everyone in the room flinch at how painful it sounded. "Before and after the war, the Ishvalans remained a peaceful people. Were there many casualties on both sides of this? Yes. Were the Ishvalans nearly wiped out because of state alchemists? Yes. But was it 'a matter of time' before one of them started killing state alchemists in revenge? Absolutely not." Al grabbed his sister's hand to calm her down as she glared at the Colonel. "Will you really condemn a group of people after a single man let his grief get the better of him?"
Mustang raised a brow at his subordinate. "And you would really defend their honor, and his it seems, even though he tried to kill you?"
Ed sighed and leaned back on the couch she was sitting on. She stared down at her and her brother's intertwined hands. "He said to me, 'if we had met in another time'. I do not condone what he is doing, this vengeance, but I understand how much of a misguided soul he is."
Major Armstrong was suddenly on his knees in front of her, tears streaming down his face. He scooped her and Al's hands up to cup in his large ones. "You are wise beyond your years, Miss Edena Elric. You have such a kind and forgiving heart and I can only aspire to be as good of a person as you."
Ed normally wasn't one for handling Armstrong's antics well, but this time she just gave the large man a soft smile and brought his hands up to hers to give his fingers a soft kiss, stunning everyone in the room at the uncharacteristic display of softness from the woman. "You are already a good man, Major Armstrong. I can feel it in your aura. Please don't ever change."
Said man blushed and dramatically swooned on the floor, tears still falling down his face. Al chuckled at both their antics.
Hughes cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention and claim back some control over the situation. "Do you maybe want to explain how you aren't dead, Edena." Everyone gave the man confused looks. "Well, he got close enough to wrap his hand around your throat and choke you, and I saw the damage he could do with alchemy just by touching something. So why didn't he kill another state alchemist when he had the opportunity? And what was that thing about Ishvalan legends, Al said you were talking to Scar about?"
Ed tilted her head to the side. "Scar?"
Hawkeye spoke up this time. "That is what he's been nicknamed because of the 'X' shaped scar on his face."
Ed nodded. "Oh. I guess that makes sense. I had taken to calling him 'Monk' though. I figured he was an Ishvalan monk. If my information is correct, then they were the only ones as well trained in combat as he is." Hughes pulled out a little notebook from his inner pocket of his jacket to write the information down. "And as for why he didn't just kill me with his alchemy, I don't know. He'd been fighting me with a heavy use of his right arm the entire time. I'm sure he's got some kind of transmutation circle tattooed on it to aid him. I didn't get a chance to look at it though. But after he destroyed my arm, he was standing over top of me and reached out with his left hand. I had flinched back, still cautious of whether he had the same abilities with the other arm, but he just…" She paused for a moment, not sure about telling them what happened. But she was sure Hughes would appreciate the truth. "He was gentle and he pushed my hair out of my face and wiped some blood off of my cheek and said to me 'if we had met in another time'. I-I honestly don't think he wanted to kill me."
Everyone was quiet and contemplative. Mustang and Hughes seemed to be more worried. They shared a look. A murderer who goes around killing state alchemists like it's no problem for him and he treats the one female one like he would regret having killed her? If there were at all a chance he would or had become fixated on her, that's just asking for trouble.
Hughes turned back to look at Ed. "And the part about the legend? Alphonse said you greatly resemble someone from an Ishvalan legend."
Ed raised a brow and turned to look at her brother. Said boy was sweating bullets and wouldn't look her in the eye. Ed rolled her eyes and turned back to smile at Hughes. "What makes you think I want to sit here and give you an Ishvalan history lesson? I'm an alchemist, not a professor."
Everyone's face went flat and Hughes let out a groan. "Edena, any information can help when it comes to taking down this man."
Ed shrugged. "Well, considering I'm one of the only people who looks like me, I don't think that helps you at all."
Hawkeye tilted her head to the side. "Well, you do have a very unique coloring for an Amestrian." Everyone turned their attention to the Lieutenant since Ed was obviously going to not give up more information. "Come now, Colonel. How many times have you heard Lieutenant Havoc call her a queen in reference to her golden looks?" Mustang's face morphed into one of realization. "I've noticed it plenty of times. Being a blonde, myself, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been quite jealous Edena's hair. Yes, she's blonde, but it's more of a gold." Ed blushed in surprise at hearing Hawkeye was jealous of something about her. "And her eyes as well. Gold is not a usual eye color. Even Alphonse doesn't share the same coloring as his sister." Hawkeye chose to say nothing about how Ed also tanned very easily during the summer and always sported a golden skin tone during the warmer seasons of the year.
Al let out a nervous chuckle when everyone turned their attention to him. "I, um, take more after our mother. Her eyes were green and her hair was brown. So my eyes ended up hazel and my hair this dirty blond. Our father has the same coloring as Sister, if the one photo we have of him is to be believed."
Ed frowned and laid her head on her brother's shoulder. "I spent many years of my early life with people telling me I look just like our father. I think the photo is to be believed." But then Ed started to pout. "Are you all saying that my brother and I look nothing alike?" They were definitely not far apart in shading as most thought they were, but if anyone were to look at a photo of their parents, they would see that, while they had features from each, Ed was for sure her father's daughter and Al, without a doubt, was his mother's twin.
Hughes now had a lot to think over. The murderer they'd been chasing around was Ishvalan and he'd almost killed Edena today, but not as quickly as he would have another state alchemist. And it possibly had something to do with her unusual looks. Would he have to ask the Fuhrer to put extra protection on the Fullmetal Alchemist? Or would Roy be doing that for him?
"So what are you both going to do now, Elrics?" Major Armstrong asked, pulling Hughes out of his thoughts.
Al smiled at the man. "We'll probably head home."
Ed nodded. "Back to Resembool. That's where my mechanic lives and I'm, obviously, going to need a new arm." She waved at her empty jacket sleeve.
Al smiled. "And Winry always has the best scrap metal that I can repair my armor with. Plus, it'll be nice being back in the countryside and seeing everyone. I miss the wide open fields."
Ed rolled her eyes. "You once got chased by a bull in those wide open fields. Are you sure you miss it?" Al narrowed his eyes at her and Ed just laughed. "It might be fun to go horseback riding on old man Williams's farm. That's always fun. Just like flying." Al just nodded his head, understanding what she was trying to say.
"Well, with that settled, I would like to talk to Fullmetal in private, if you all dont mind." Mustang spoke up and Ed looked at him with confusion written on her face.
What could she have possibly done to get a private audience with the Colonel?
Once the room was clear, said man got up from his desk and came over to sit on the coffee table in front of Ed, looking her up and down before settling on her eyes.
"Are you sure you're okay, Fullmetal? You almost died today." He asked, genuinely concerned.
Ed gave the man a one shouldered shrug. "I've almost died multiple times. I'm perfectly fine. There's no need for this uncharacteristic concern of yours."
Mustang rolled his eyes. "I know you, Fullmetal. You've never been in a life or death situation quite like this one. If your brother hadn't gotten there when he did, who's to say that man wouldn't have snapped your neck?" He placed a hand on her knee. "It's okay if you're not okay, Edena." They were both quiet for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes. Ed could feel her heartbeat becoming a bit erratic. His hand on her knee felt like fire and she was more annoyed with herself than him at the fact that the simple gesture was making her feel things. But he solved her problem for her by smacking the knee he held and giving her a glare. "My concern is not uncharacteristic." Mustang huffed. "I'm always concerned about you and your brother. You're my subordinates."
Ed remembered what Al had told her about Mustang solving her ex problem a few years, and she let out a sigh, deciding not to egg the man on. "I suppose, Colonel. I really am fine, though. Was it a scary incident? Of course. Am I going to lose sleep over it? Hell no."
Mustang stared her down for a few moments before giving her one of those damn handsome smirks and standing up. "That's very good. I'm glad to hear it." Ed rolled her eyes and stood up as well, stumbling a bit as she did. Mustang was quick as he caught her with an arm around her waist, pulling her up against him. "Fullmetal?"
Ed blushed and pulled away from the man quickly. "I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm just a bit off balance with the weight of my arm missing from my right side."
Mustang nodded, accepting the excuse. "I guess that makes sense. That's why I'm going to be sending Major Armstrong to Resembool with you and your brother."
Ed looked up at the man in shock. "What?! Why?! We don't need protection!"
The Colonel shook his head. "You're not changing my mind, Fullmetal. You're in no shape to fight and I don't want to put Swift into a situation where he has to try and protect you and himself. Major Armstrong will be escorting you to Resembool and back." He walked away from her to go sit back at his desk.
Ed growled, sending a chill up the Colonel's spine. It always sounded so animalistic when she did it and scared the hell out of him. The team even mentioned how scary she was and how she seemed to be feral when she was aggravated.
"Why can't Havoc go instead?" She demanded to know.
Mustang gave her the best glare he could muster. "Because the Second Lieutenant has work to do. And because Armstrong has a great deal more power when it comes to protecting you from men like Scar." Ed narrowed her eyes at the man, not letting the 'protecting you from men' part go unnoticed. Mustang must have read her mind to know that was what she was thinking, because he started to sweat bullets and powered on past the slip. "Please don't argue, Fullmetal. I've already decided. Major Armstrong will be with you until you return from Resembool."
Ed wanted to protest more, but she just let out a huff instead. "Whatever." She turned and walked out of the door, not even caring when the Colonel let out a weak 'dismissed' at her departure to get one last jab in at her.
What the Elric siblings thought was going to be a boring train ride with the Major, turned out to be a bit more eventful than planned.
They had a bit of a layover in a small town when Armstrong noticed a state alchemist named Doctor Tim Marcoh, who was a doctor during the war. They ended up getting off the train to find the man and ended up at his house where he was apparently hiding from the military and going under a different name to be an unassuming doctor to the townspeople.
The three learned the reason Dr. Marcoh had run away was because of his research on the Philosopher's Stone. He even had an incomplete one in his possession!
But when Al asked if he would share his research notes, the Doctor was very adamant in his refusal. He said that trying to create a stone would mean going through hell.
"With all due respect, Doctor, we've already been through hell." Ed spoke up, cryptically, confusing the doctor and Major Armstrong.
They left the man's house empty handed and returned to the train station. They were all in agreement that they'd never seen Doctor Marcoh this day and that this was just a simple stop on their trip.
But when the next train arrived for them to get to Resembool, the Doctor himself came running up to them and handed Ed a folded up note.
"I'm taking a chance by trusting you both with this information, but here is the location of my research notes. Maybe you can see the truth beyond the truth and see what needs to be done." He turned to leave with a wave. "Good luck in your travels."
Ed could have rung Winry's neck for the stunt she just pulled, and the teenaged girl knew it.
As soon as Ed caught the wrench that came flying at her head, just a few inches away from her face, Winry knew she was dead.
"You're supposed to call if you're gonna come in for repairs!" The blonde yelled out nervously from the second story balcony she stood on.
Ed glared up at her with narrowed golden eyes. "My apologies, how about I come call you right now with this wrench you may or may not be getting back?"
Winry gasped in horror. "Wait! No, Ed! I'm sorry!" She ran back inside to bolt down the stairs and save her wrench.
Granny Pinako stood on the front porch laughing at them. The short old woman took a puff of her long pipe. "It's good to see you both, again. Who is this young gentleman you've brought with you?"
Ed grumbled and approached the Rockbell house with Al and Major Armstrong following behind her. Major Armstrong placed down a very large crate that he was carrying. It contained all of the salvageable pieces of Al's armor and had a smaller box inside that contained the pieces of Ed's arm.
Al introduced him to Granny because Ed was still marching towards the house, probably on her way to teach Winry a lesson in manners.
"Granny Pinako, this is Major Alex Louis Armstrong. He was kind enough to be our escort home and back to Central when we leave." Major Armstrong shook hands.
"I'm Pinako Rockbell. Thank you for taking care of these two trouble makers. They both can be quite a handful." Granny teased. Al blushed in embarrassment. "You should have called to let us know you were coming, Alphonse. We would have gotten your house ready for you."
Al just rubbed the back of his neck. It's okay, Granny. Sister and I will get everything dusted off and go grab some food for a short while. I'm sure Sister can hunt us some game as well to stock up your freezer with."
Major Armstrong seemed surprised. "Miss Edena hunts? I didn't take her for one to work with guns very much. Where would she hunt though? It's all fields around here."
Al gave the Major a small smile. "Sister will sometimes borrow a horse from Farmer Williams and head over to the mountains not far from our house. And she doesn't use guns often, but she knows how to handle one. Even one handed." It was a bit of a lie, but the Major didn't need to know that. Ed would definitely sneak off at some point when it starts getting darker to shift and head over to the mountains to drag home some deer and rabbit. Al would probably go with her. He was happy they were back in Resembool. Ed hadn't had a chance to shift in a while and Al wanted to be there when she did. She couldn't use her wings like she wanted to until they were deeper in the mountains though, just in case anyone was still out and about and could see.
Once everyone was inside the Rockbell house, Ed and Al explained what happened back in East City and how the armor and Ed's arm got destroyed. Winry, of course, cried about the arm, but after Ed got a once over, it was determined that she would need a new arm and adjustments to her leg as well. Granny determined it would take three days. Al was very excited. Three days and they could head to the First Branch Library in Central City and look for Dr. Marcoh's notes that he had told them about.
Ed sighed and stood up on her borrowed prosthetic that Granny gave her while her custom leg was being adjusted. She turned to talk to Major Armstrong and only just noticed how flustered the man was looking at the moment.
"Are you okay, Major?" Ed asked, and Al glanced up at him in confusion.
Major Armstrong refused to look her way. He sat with his back to them and the only reason Ed knew something was wrong was because the back of his neck was red.
"Y-Your state of dress, Miss Edena. I did not want to make you uncomfortable or seem perverted." The man yelled.
Ed blinked and looked down at herself. She was wearing one of Winry's black tank tops that was a bit form fitting, and Granny had needed access to her leg, so she had pulled off her leather pants and was only in her underwear. Granted, they were a slight bit skimpy on her wider than average hips, but she was a bit desensitized to the human body due to being a masseuse that she hadn't even realized there was a problem. Al was a bit uncaring of her state of dress as well because he'd lived his entire life surrounded by women and he was a scientist at heart. The female body was nothing new to him. In fact, he studied many books on women, just like his sister did, just to be able to help the women in his life with any little problem they may need. Winry had made fun of him for it, but Al was definitely a more intelligent young man because of it.
"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Major. That wasn't my intention. I'm not as body shy as most women out there due to my former job and my automail limbs, so it doesn't ever come to mind that some people are a bit more uptight about naked bodies than I am. As long as you're not touching, I don't mind that you look. You're a very respectful man, Major. I think I can trust you in any state of dress." She gave him a smile that he probably didn't see.
The Major suddenly had streams of tears falling down his cheeks and he fell into a dramatic bow. "It is a great honor to be seen as this trustworthy to you, Miss Edena! I shall aspire to always be a respectful man that you can continue to trust!"
Ed waved him off with a laugh. "Of course, Major. Al and I are going to head out for a bit. Will you be okay here with the Rockbells until we come to retrieve you for dinner at our old home?" She walked back over to the couch where she had left her pants, and started to put them on one-handed. Al, absentmindedly grabbed onto one of her belt loops to help out.
Granny Pinako took a puff of her pipe and spoke up from her work table across the room. "The Major will be fine. I may put him to work, but not too much."
The Major stood and flexed his arms. "It will be my pleasure to help out around the house, Mrs. Rockbell! Just point me in the right direction!"
Ed and Al shook their heads at him and grabbed their jackets. "We'll be back later!" Al called as they walked out the door.
The siblings got a lot of work done in the limited daylight they had left before dinner. They went shopping for the next few days, visited their mother's grave, spoke with some of the townspeople, cleaned up their dusty home, and even made it over to Farmer Williams's farm to arrange for the horses long before sunup the next day. They decided that Ed would leave for the mountains in the middle of the night and Al would follow behind her with two horses for their return to town around midday.
It was just starting to get dark when Al made his way back to the Rockbells to scoop up Major Armstrong and bring him to their home. The man sang their praises the entire way for being so young and being able to survive without any true caregivers around besides Granny Pinako. Al just smiled as the man talked and led him through the front door when they finally reached the top of the hill the Elric house sat on.
Armstrong complimented their home and the smell of the food Ed was cooking up in the kitchen. He even got to work setting the table when Al started to pull out dishes, despite the teen's protests.
Dinner was a simple roasted chicken and vegetable stew over rice, which they all ate plenty of. And once everything was cleaned up and put away after the meal, Ed showed the Major where he would be sleeping and also showed him their library if he decided he wasn't quite ready for bed yet. She explained to him the rooms that she and Al would be sleeping in and informed him that they would be heading to bed early because they planned on leaving out early in the morning to go hunting. The man was concerned, Ed only having one arm and all, but he figured she would be fine with her brother out there with her.
All their plans went off without a hitch.
Ed was out of the bed around 2:00 am and gave Al a little shake to let him know she was headed out. Ed was only in her underwear as she walked out of the house and Al followed her sleepily and quietly outside and down the hill of their backyard. He woke up fully when he could feel the heat that accompanied his sister's transformation into a dragon.
Ed's body morphed slowly into a reptilian form before she started to grow in size and red and gold scales replaced her skin. Her hair turned into a mane that ran down her long neck like a horse's did, and leathery wings sprouted out of her shoulder blades before giving a few flaps. Her body was long and slim and ended with a tail that had a tuft of golden hair at the very tip. Her arm and legs had changed into powerful front and hind legs and her, now, toes were tipped with deadly sharp bone white claws. They weren't sure how the shifting really worked with giving her actual legs instead of metal limbs. They also weren't sure where said metal limbs and ports disappeared to when she shifted, but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. They just figured it was some form of transmutation and all agreed that it was best that this happened and that she went back to being a human with metal limbs with no problem, because it would have been hell trying to figure out how to make metal limbs for a dragon or if she had to get ports reinstalled every time she shifted back.
Al smiled and wrapped his arms around Ed's thick and scaly neck to give her a hug and gentle pets before stepping back to get a good look at her. She was about 8 meters long, but she did have her tail curled into her a bit so he couldn't tell if that was her full length. As always, her wings were huge with a span of more than double her length. He walked up to her head to give her narrow and long snout a pat, looking into her larger golden eyes that were slit like a reptile's.
"You seem to have gotten bigger. Soon it's going to be hard to hide you in just the mountains." Al told her.
Ed shook her head like a dog would and turned to point her nose towards the east. Because Al was her blood brother and part of her hoard, she could slightly communicate with him in this form with mental images that he got impressions of. She could do it with the rest of her hoard too, but it was weaker and she only did it with those who actually knew she was a dragon. Havoc was one of those people and she still liked to spook him every once in a while with the reminder by sending him images throughout the day when they were closer together. It was always mostly about food or how someone had annoyed her enough to want to maim them, but it was always funny to watch him jump and flinch at suggestive thoughts that weren't his own even after a year and a half of being in the know.
Al tilted his head to the side as he got the impression of desert sands and the hot sun. "The Eastern Desert, huh? I guess that could work. No one really crosses the desert much and the heat wouldn't bother you at all, really. Maybe we should go check it out soon." Ed gave him another impression that had him perking up with more interest. "You want to go see the ruins of Xerxes? This is definitely something we will have to do." Ed turned her head back towards her brother and nuzzled her rough cheek against his, giving him the impression of the stream that ran through a valley in the mountain. Al smiled. "I'll meet you there. I'll go grab all of the tools and some clothes for you before I go to grab the horses."
Ed nodded her head before turning away and taking off like a golden bullet across the valley towards the mountains. Al smiled as he watched her go for another minute before heading back into the house to follow through with the plans.
Ed had left Al three deer and a few rabbits, that he still wasn't sure how she managed to sneak up on with her large size, by the stream to get to work on breaking down by the time he arrived there with the horses. He smiled as he got closer to the forest and got her random impressions of gliding from one large tree to the next and having a happy time in her dragon form.
Al had been jealous for the longest time about how his sister could shift, but he couldn't. He wanted to feel the happiness she felt and wanted to fly with his own wings, but he learned quickly that Ed didn't always have the greatest time being a dragon. It was such a big secret to keep and she barely got to shift because of their job and where they lived. He saw how going long periods of time without shifting hurt her just as much, if not more, as shifting and having to deal with her aching ports afterwards.
No, Al wasn't jealous of his sister anymore. There was no need to be anyway. He understood she was unique and powerful and he respected her for it and couldn't remain jealous even if he wanted to. Besides, Ed always took him on flights, and flying was more fun when you didn't have to actually focus on where you were going yourself.
And speaking of flying, Ed must have some sixth sense to know when Al was done with the work of skinning, cleaning and breaking down the haul she had brought in, because she came gliding out of the woods, spooking the horses, and landing on the other side of the stream from them. Al got the impression of her back and the wind in her hair and he smiled.
"Okay! Let me just finish packing all of this up!" He quickly finished wrapping all of the meat and putting it into packs. He transmuted a small refrigerated dome to put it all in to keep it fresh and safe from other animals. After checking to make sure the horses were secure, Al ran across the river with a rope in hand, not caring about his shoes and pants getting wet, and he was quick to kneel down and draw a circle in the dirt by his sister's wings to transmute a reign out of the rope. He was confident Ed wouldn't let him fall and be injured, but he didn't want to take too much of a chance on it.
Ed accepted the reign over her snout with only the slightest impression of annoyance at him. Al just chuckled and climbed onto her back using one of her wings as a step. He settled onto Ed's shoulders, right above where her wings came out of her back, and didn't have much time to brace himself before they were already up in a large tree and gliding through the woods.
Ed gave him an impression about loving flying and being happy they got to do this together and Al couldn't help the huge smile that formed on his face and made his cheeks hurt.
There was too much love Al had for his sister to stay jealous of her. As long as they were together, he didn't need to be a dragon as well to be happy.
In the days that passed up until Ed got her armor back, Major Armstrong was sure to tell them many times how proud and impressed he was by the two siblings for all the hard work he heard about them doing when they were growing up, and all of the hard work they were still doing now when they didn't even have to anymore. He himself was stuck at the Rockbell house doing chores most of the time, but Alphonse would help him out and get it all done quicker so that they could follow Ed around to do certain jobs that people requested of her when they found out she was back home. Those people, of course, backed off when they realized she was only working with one arm, but Ed didn't let that simple fact stop her from helping. Armstrong had cried many tears over the few days, his emotions running wild.
When Winry finally finished Ed's arm, she and Granny Pinako attached both limbs at the same time, not wanting to burden the young woman with the pain of connecting her nerves to the limbs more than once. It hurt like hell, but Ed was quick to recover. Winry now had time to go through her scrap metal to find some pieces she didn't need that she could sell to Al to fix his armor.
Ed, on the other hand, was looking Major Armstrong up and down from her spot on the couch while he sat at the kitchen table. She seemed to be making the man nervous if his fidgeting was anything to go by.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Miss Edena?" He called out hesitantly. He didn't exactly want to look at the girl, afraid of being disrespectful again. While she wasn't in her underwear this time, her tank top was still quite tight and revealing and the shorts she wore were far too short for even the most respectable man to not want to stare. The countryside was truly where this young woman belonged if the healthy glow to her skin from being out in the sun constantly, and by how much happier she seemed was anything to go by. He knew the young woman almost never smiled while in the city. He'd heard Lieutenant Colonel Hughes whine constantly about how his pseudo daughter never so much as graced him with a smile when she'd been in Central last. He'd also heard the man call and bug Colonel Mustang in East City about his adoptive children when he could, asking if they were okay and happy. And by the disappointed looks on the man's face, either one or neither were given affirmative answers.
Ed gave Armstrong a wicked smile that sent chills down even the large and brave man's spine.
"Now that you ask, I've been wanting to get some sparring in. Sparring that my brother would whine about. I've been working on a new fighting style, you see, and you're just buff and strong enough that it would be a true test for the style." She tilted her head to the side in contemplation. "I would have used it in my fight with the monk, but he was aiming to kill and I hadn't really tested anything out for the new style before then, so it was best to stick with what I knew. But if it works out on you, then I can probably use it on him next time we just so happen to meet." Ed gave him another, but softer smile. If anything, it seemed a bit manipulative in nature. "The match comes accompanied with a free massage." The 'you'll need it' was not said, but definitely implied.
Armstrong stood from his seat and quickly whipped his shirt off to flex his muscles. "It would be my honor to help you with your new technique, Miss Edena! I must warn you that I will not take it easy on you because of your being a woman and your small stature!"
Ed's eye twitched in annoyance. "I am 165 centimeters. That is perfectly average for a woman." She didn't say anything about Gracia, Izumi or Hawkeye being taller than her still. She decided to wave a dismissive hand at the man. "I wouldn't want you to go easy on me anyway."
Ed led the man outside to the middle of the yard and started to do a few stretches as Armstrong heated up his muscles by doing a boxer's jump and shaking out his limbs. The Rockbell's dog, Den, lifted her head from her laying down position closer to the house to observe the two humans.
"Now, this fighting style is based on me being quick, so I'll have to work my way up to using it. Are you ready, Major?"
Armstrong nodded as he got into a defensive stance and Ed took up her own stance of holding her arms loosely with her palms facing each other and her hands in a half fist with her index finger's knuckle slightly higher than the others. She looked the man's body up and down one more time before suddenly lunging at him and figuring out how quick she needed to be in order to use her technique.
The Major was extremely quick for how large he was. He threw fierce jabs at Ed and barely gave her time to think as she twisted and ducked out of the way or used the back of her hands to divert his hits just past or over her head. But while he was moving, she kept her eyes sharp to seek out the perfect opportunity. This fighting style was obviously going to be one based off of a high defensive skill in the beginning of a fight and a bit of trial and error in the middle until she could seal the deal and end a match. It seemed like a bit of a waste of time and energy, but it actually expended less energy than her current acrobatics and "when you hit them, hit them hard enough that they don't get back up". She used a lot of energy keeping up a steady heavy hit every time she needed to land a punch. With this new fighting style, she was loose and letting them expend energy in the beginning.
Ed smirked. And then she made it harder for them to move, so they ended up wasting more energy, making them easy to take out in the end with a heavy hit.
When Ed finally started to put in hits, they didn't seem like much to Armstrong and he was very confused how this new technique of hers would be better than what he's seen from her.
But then the man slowly started to understand.
Ed hit him in awkward spots with her raised knuckle. Spots that made his muscles jump or cramp a bit. The cramping only lasted a few seconds, but it did throw him off a bit. And she was so twisty when she redirected his hits that she was able to get better angles at these awkward spots. At one point she used her right palm to slide against his arm as he threw a jab and redirect the hit far off to the side of her shoulder. Then Armstrong's eyes widened in surprise as she twisted her upper body to send three consecutive short, quick jabs of her own with both arms at different points up his arm, starting from his inner bicep and ending at his wrist. The man winced as he felt pain tingle up his arm and it dropped quickly to his side, useless. The pain lasted only a little longer than her other hits did, but it definitely gave her the opportunity she needed to get in a punch to his temple with her real arm.
The Major stumbled back, dizzy from the hit. He held up a hand of surrender with his good arm as he got his bearings back. Ed stood back, waiting for the man to be ready again.
"My, that was quite a lot. I've certainly never had a technique like that used on me before. You will have to explain it to me once our spar is over." Armstrong said as he stood back up straight and shook out his arm. "Let's continue!"
Ed smiled and nodded, getting back into the zone.
Granny was making dinner as Ed had the Major laid out over a cot in the living room. They had brought it down from the recovery room so that Ed and Armstrong could be with the rest of them as she gave the large man a massage to soothe out the aches in his muscles she had given him.
Al chuckled from his seat at the table as he watched the two of them. The Major was damn near melted into the bed and Ed's eyes were very focused as she worked. "Did you have to go so hard on him, Sister? I'm pretty sure we were supposed to return him to Central in the same condition we'd gotten him." Winry gave a snicker from the stove as she helped Granny.
Ed rolled her eyes. "Major Armstrong said he wasn't going to hold back, so why should I have? Plus, with my skillful hands, we're probably returning him in a better condition than he was before." She shot her brother a smirk.
Major Armstrong raised a weak thumbs up to give his confirmation that she was indeed telling the truth. Ed had, luckily, already done his front so that she didn't have to see his face anymore. It was a bit weird seeing the Major's blissed out face from having his muscles worked over.
"So you all are leaving tomorrow, huh?" Granny asked.
Al gave a sad smile. "Yes. It's best to get to Central as quickly as possible so we can get a look at Dr. Marcoh's notes. I sent my armor off to get train tickets right after I fixed it and recharged the array. We'll be sure to call before we head back this way at all. We promise."
Dinner that night was quiet. They all said their goodbyes right before it started to get dark and the three state alchemists headed back to Ed and Al's childhood home. Ed had plans to close up the house properly because they didn't know when they'd be back. Al helped out, packing up any perishable stuff from the refrigerator that could be brought with them, and putting anything else in the freezer. Armstrong tried to help, but Ed had sent him to bed early, not wanting to undo any work she had done with her massage. She covered up the furniture with sheets and closed up the shutters on the windows to lock them properly from the inside.
Al headed off to bed when he was done, calling out his goodnight to Ed. But Ed took a moment after she was finished to just look around the house and remember the things they had done here growing up. The good and the bad.
She walked over to the phone on the wall to call Izumi and update the woman on what had been going on. She got an earful about being sloppy while fighting the Ishvalan monk, but she also got to vent, herself, about everything that had happened since she last talked to the woman. With the promise of visiting soon, Ed told her mother figure goodnight and went off to sleep. They had an early trip in the morning and she didn't want to be tired and grumpy for it.
Now that they had a lead, things weren't looking so bad anymore. She didn't seem too rushed. They were finally getting what Al set out for and Ed would finally be free of these metal limbs and they both would be free of the military.
They both would be free to start their new lives.