AN: Again, I have most of this story written, if you would like it more fluffed out, please engage and let me know what content you're craving from this story. Feedback really helps me write.

Chapter 10 - Mark of the Outsider

Maes was pissed.

So very pissed and he couldn't even be that mad because if Ed had gone through the proper channels, they might not have gotten to them. Or gotten there in time.

Which meant it wouldn't have been Ed in the hospital, it would be Nina. Or Nina in a morgue or imprisoned by scientists as tortured soul caught between two incorrect forms.

And Nina was as much Maes's child as Ed was which left him with everything to hate and nothing to direct it at but for a dead man.

As Gracia was Nina's legal godmother, there was at least no hassle with the adoption.

Roy came over with coffee, "How are you holding up?"

"I want to be angry at him."

"I'm sure he would understand."

Maes sighed, "Why was there so much screaming?"

"Tucker did human transmutation and traded his skin for it."

Just as Ed had traded his leg and arm.

Aloud, Maes asked, "You burned him alive?"

"I took my time."

"Good," Maes sighed.

"The doctors cleared him?"

"Yes. They say it's exhaustion from his use of alchemy. He overpowered a circle from the inside," Maes looked at him.

Roy nodded, "I would hedge that your bet is right.

Maes dropped his head.

"What happened to his hand?" Roy asked noticing the bandages, he hadn't noticed anything last night but then Edward's hands had been covered by gloves.

The gloves were the only sign that he did care at least to some extent about others seeing his amputation.

"It was branded by some kind of array, only there's no completed circle." Maes held up a picture he had likely taken of it, knowing his son would want to see all of the symbols. "What does this look like to you?"

Roy looked at the palm where there was a circle with a point and two flares.

But it was just a symbol for gold, an older one as the one in common use was simply a circular point within a circle.

From the ancient symbol on Edward's palm, there was a large dragon-esque form with closed jaws. Its wings were a complex weave that almost looked like a human transmutation circle, but the lines were too bold and there was no base circle, just loose loops that looked like feathers. It was frankly more realistic and organic looking than the forms alchemists used.

It reminded Roy fleetingly of an ouroboros symbol he had seen once but there was no connection. The spiral was unconnected.

A broken array.

Chaos.

Or perhaps, freedom.

The fact that the lines were made of white scar tissue, only standing out due to Edward's tanned skin, made it look ethereal.

Finally, Roy said, "I don't know what that is or what its purpose is."

"What's the symbol of the eye?"

Roy blinked, re-examining the dragon's face. There was a circle in the dragon's eye.

"Night," Roy said, surprised he had missed it. "The ancient form of it."

"Do you think Tucker did it to him?"

Roy shook his head, "No. I'm not sure I could brand anyone this cleanly. It's already healed, the skin is just new."

"I knew his joining the military would put him in danger but this is so much," Maes said. "It hasn't even been ninety days yet."

Roy squeezed his friend's shoulder. "He'll be okay. And to be fair to you, I think he would have done the same if he hadn't joined."

Maes sighed, "You're not wrong."

oOo

Some time passed and Maes was grateful Roy remained seated beside him, Gracia was still home, taking care of the girls.

Riza came in with three coffees and took a seat beside Roy.

"Thanks, Riza," Roy said, looking pleased and nervous while trying to conceal both.

Maes smirked, meeting Roy's gaze.

His pale cheeks turned pink.

"She always had you beat," Maes said.

Roy's flush deepened, "I don't—"

"The Luitentaint has joined us for coffee." Maes smiled. "Consider your relationship defined."

The Flame Alchemist's cheeks were flaming.

Maes exchanged a delighted look with Riza who smiled into her coffee.

oOo

Prince Ling Yao stood in the streets of his village, his every clansman —every man, woman, and child— lay motionless in the dirt.

He had gone with Fu and Lan Fan to train in the mountains, and in his absence, the unspeakable had fallen upon his people.

"Prince Yao," his oldest half-brother called. "Your clansmen were rather noble, they wouldn't tell us where you had gone."

Ling saw red.

The Xing Dynasty had a lot of faults, Ling had grown up without a father, every luxury at his disposal, his clan's adoration, and a near-constant threat on his life.

But the death threats were never supposed to extend to his people.

He was meant to be their hope, not their ruin.

"Hong," Ling hissed, pulling his blades.

"Young Lord," his old teacher and guard, Fu warned.

"There's no one left to live for, old man," Ling snarled. "All we have left is to see this bastard never sits the throne."

Lan Fan pulled her sword, and together the three of them avenged their clan.

Twenty against three.

Twenty ate dirt.

However, it was a pyrrhic victory.

One of Hong's mercenaries wasn't quite dead, and Fu joined the fallen.

Lan Fan fell to her knees beside her grandfather.

She didn't cry.

Ling gave her space as he searched for survivors.

He found none.

Ling had lived and strove all his life to become Emperor for his clan, but now that they were gone?

What was the point? What was the point of any of it!?

"My lord," Lan Fan called as Ling packed the few belongings he couldn't bare to leave behind.

He turned to her, seeing her swaying on her feet, blood covering her side.

"No!" Ling roared, kneeling to catch Lan Fan as she fell. "No, you can't leave me!"

She touched his cheek with bloodied fingertips, her dark gaze softening. "My prince, forgive me."

Tears spilled from Ling's eyes. "Don't leave me?" He begged for the first time in his life, he begged, "Please, please don't leave me."

"In the West," Lan Fan said, her hand falling away. "Amestris—" she coughed blood and Ling caught her hand. "Your grandfather brought your mother back home. She was beautiful and despite her marriage to the Amistrain, your grandfather had already sold her to the Emperor."

Ling frowned, he didn't have an abundance of memories of his mother. She had disgraced their clan by trying to cross the desert where she had died. Ling had been young.

But processing what Lan Fan was saying, he repeated, "She was married before…" He made the connection through the sluggish mind fog of grief. "Grandfather brought her back across the desert against her will?"

Bastard.

Ling's grandfather had been chief of their clan, his mother his only daughter, the only one eligible to become the Emperor's consort. But he could have chosen one of his nieces and let the clan continue without ripping away the life his daughter had made for herself.

Had died trying to return to.

Lan Fan took in a sharp breath as she fought not to surrender to the blood loss that Ling had no means of stemming. "I was told—" she coughed. "—Told, he widowed her and her son was saved by his aunt."

Ling flinched, he had loved his grandfather but learning this…

What had possessed his mother to flee the country, to begin with? And why was it necessary to kill her loved ones when he kidnapped her?

His mother's beautiful visage stirred in his memories.

He remembered her poems, her songs… songs that could break your heart and leave you grieving. Poems that could take you apart and leave you with hope in the end.

Ling caught Lan Fan's hand, "I have a brother —family— in Amestris?"

A half-brother who wasn't Xing.

Lan Fan smiled, her eyes falling shut, "Mustang."

"Lan Fan?" Ling asked. "Lan Fan, please—"

His breath caught on a sob as looked up at what had become of his home and his clan.

Blood and bodies were all he saw. The only life came from the descending ravens.

Ling had lost everything and for what? The Hong had managed to kill everyone save for the one person they had been targeting because succession in this country was a battle, a battle of blood between blood.

Fuck this.

Fuck this country and his broken dreams.

There was nothing keeping him here and if the last member of his clan was an Amestrian, then fuck it all.

Ling crossed Lan Fan's arms over her chest, placing her hands around her sword. He didn't have time to bury or burn her or the others. She had used her last breath to give him direction.

If he stayed, he would become nothing more than another body in a mass grave when their neighbours arrived.

They were all vultures and carrion crows in Xing, here was hoping the Amestrians would be kinder.

oOo

Ed snarled and threw his notebook against the wall across the hospital room.

Fuck Truth.

"I hope you like my gift! Ugh!"

If Edward could kill a godling, he might have.

Maes and Mustang came running into the room.

"What happened?" Maes demanded.

"The brand," he snarled, so angry, he could hardly see straight. He was even certain he could tattoo over it. It went from his hand to all around his arm, ending at his bicep.

"What about it?" Mustang asked as Maes picked up the notepad he had thrown.

"It translates to golden child of the night sky."

"That's pretty," Mustang said dryly.

"Fuck you," Ed snapped.

Mustang's brow twitched upwards, "Where did you get that translation from?"

"The gold symbol golden, and the dragon emerging from it, the child of, and the fact the dragon is flying upward, skyward, and its eye the symbol of the night."

"Why is that upsetting?" Maes asked.

"Because the name Hohenheim means child of the night sky. Truth just branded me with his name."

Maes's expression morphed with understanding, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Don't you dare," Ed warned him, pointing with his automail hand, his left arm feeling odd underneath the wraps. They had put some type of salve beneath the thick bandages.

But his father merely held up his hands in peace as he asked, "Does it hurt?"

Maes was amazing.

Ed let out a breath, but he couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his tone, "No."

"Who is Truth?"

Ed winced but he found himself unable to lie as Maes took his hand and reclaimed the seat he had likely sat vigil at all night.

There were enough lies between them, besides Tucker could take the fall for this.

Ed had already given the paired down report to Mustang for his incident report.

"When I took over the transmutation circle," Edward said. "I performed human transmutation, and opened my Gate."

"Gate?" Roy asked.

Ed nodded, "It's the thing that allows you to perform alchemy, to take energy through the world and into the physical. There's knowledge in the Gate, and a universe of understanding beyond what any one human could perceive. But there was always a cost."

"And what was your cost?" Maes asked.

"Before the Gate, stands this creature, I called him Truth because he doesn't lie and he seems to know everything from the Gate." Ed flushed, "And I had one of Marcoh's stones."

"You had what?" Mustang asked sharply.

Ed winced, "From Cornello in Loire."

"Hawkeye told me you destroyed it," Mustang said, unimpressed.

"Slight of hand," Ed said by way of explanation.

"Do you even know what they are?" Mustang asked.

"Do you?" Ed countered. "I know you used them in Ishval but do you know what they're made of?"

Mustang frowned at him, "Human blood."

"Wrong," Ed said flippantly. "But A for effort."

Mustang frowned at him, "And you know Marcoh's secrets?"

"I translated his cookbook on the way to Loire."

Ed could practically see the vein on the side of Mustang's head pulse, "And what possessed you to do that?"

"When I went back to Resembool, I went through Hohenheim's research. I would say he's a monster for having so many books on human transmutation but most of his book was about how to undo it. Maes told me about the war and the stones were mentioned in passing. They are the closest thing outside Hohenheim's research that I've heard of the philosopher's stones. So I went looking for Marcoh's research."

Mustang exchanged a look with Maes. "Alright, Fullmetal, I'll bite, what did Marcoh make his stones out of?"

Ed grimaced, realizing then that since Mustang had actually used the stones for mass execution, this might make him feel worse. He looked to his dad for permission.

Mustang must have recognised the look, because he said, "I don't need to be coddled, Fullmetal. There isn't anything you could say to make my actions in Ishval any worse."

"Never say that," Ed cautioned. "Everything can always be worse, because there is no such thing as worst. The human condition ensures that no matter how bad you think something is there is always something beyond imagination."

"Anybody ever tell you how morbid you are, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked.

Ed shrugged, "If you want me to be morbid, I'll give you morbid. I just survived my little sister thinking her mom abandoned her, only to find her father had turned his wife into a science experiment and was able to reverse said experiment because she took two bullets to the heart for me. Now I get to tell Nina that her mother is never coming back because she traded her life for mine."

Maes squeezed his hand, "Edward, none of this is your fault. Nina's mother died with dignity and you saved Nina from the same fate."

Ed nodded, swallowing his arguments. He should have known, should have guessed.

"What are the stones made out of?" Mustang asked, unrelenting.

Damnit.

Again, he looked to Maes.

His father sighed, "Tell him. He won't let it go and his imagination is rather good."

Ed winced, "I'm sorry."

"Tell me already," Mustang said.

Ed sighed, "Human souls, the stones, even the incomplete ones, are made of hundreds or thousands of souls. They get trapped in the stone and their life force is used to augment alchemic power."

Mustang and Maes looked horrified.

Mustang hid it first behind a wall of rage, "And what were you doing with the one you took from Cornello, Major?"

Ed wanted nothing more than to flip him off but said instead, "I wanted to find a way to free the souls. It was in my pocket when I was transmuted. I don't think I used it to overpower Tucker. From Hohenheim's notes, I think I understood the array better than he did and I had time to study it before Tucker got to me. All things being equivalent, I was able to redirect the energy to negate itself with my intention."

"Intention?" Mustang asked.

"Your sigil works in that regard, doesn't it?"

"It does, but you're talking about a taboo."

"Yeah, well Tucker learned that the hard way didn't he?"

"What was taken from you?" Mustang asked. "The stone?"

"Nothing, it took nothing because I very deliberately asked for nothing from the transmutation."

"But you stood before the Gate."

"So you've read about it?" Ed asked him.

"Yes," he said without elaboration.

"Truth told me I needed to ask him for something. And don't ask me the math, I don't know how value works at the Gate. I asked him —it— to free the souls in the stone. In exchange, he gave me a gift. I woke and Mrs. Tucker had been freed from Persephone. But part of me believes that was Shou. He wanted to save her life, and he might have worded it wrongly so he separated her from the chimaera and failed to bring her back. Or maybe he did bring her soul back but she still died anyway."

"You freed the souls?" Maes asked.

Ed nodded, "I'm not sure I would do it again though. It might take human transmutation to undo the stones and I don't want to go back there."

Mustang stared at him, "Do you always get into this much trouble?"

Ed smiled, "We get to tour Laboratory 5 this week. You really can't blame me if the government is certifying illegal alchemy."

Mustang sighed.

Maes looked sad.

Ed took his father's hand, "They probably emptied them out already."

Maes squeezed his hand, "I'll need to go over some reports with you tomorrow."

Ed smiled, his dad might hate the amount of danger he was putting himself in, but Maes would never hold him back.

oOo

AN: Look, another Friday, another chapter; please review on the chapter?