"Fullmetal, you okay?" Major Armstrong asked, seeing the odd glint in Ed's eyes.
"This is my last day, you know," Ed said in a dark voice. "I'm only twelve hours away from total freedom."
"Yes, that could be true," Armstrong replied warily, "But don't be surprised if you're not free for long."
"Major, nothing can keep me here once that whistle goes off. I'll be a free man. So just get ready to hand me that gun, cause it's the last time you'll ever do it."
"All right, Fullmetal. Just don't say I didn't warn you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
The end of shift whistle blew and Ed took his gun from Major Armstrong without complaint.
Al sighed dreamily. He had been counting days to the end of Ed's stint more closely than Ed himself was.
Al had caught up on all of the books Ed had read and he hadn't, and had also checked new material out from the local library, but he couldn't find any more clues pertaining to the Philosopher's Stone.
On top of needing help looking for the Stone, on top of being bored, Al was lonely. He'd written Winrey often, but she hadn't replied to his last letter. He couldn't think of why. He didn't think he'd accidentally upset her, and that lead him to believe something had to be wrong, and then he began worrying.
"Al, get ready to go," Ed said grimly as he walked in the door.
"Brother! You're home early!"
"Yeah, Mustang caught me during our break. We have to go to a city in the west, we have to do an investigation."
"What's wrong, Brother?" Al asked, noting his brother's expression.
"He thinks someone there knows about our father."
"Brother, is this the kind of investigation we're allowed to perform?"
"He said he knows our father isn't there, but...we're only arresting the people who have something to do with him."
"How does the Colonel know he's not there? If he'd already gone then wouldn't he have made the arrests?"
"He didn't have time. He gave me a list. It's short."
"Alright, Brother. Let's go now."
"Christopher, state alchemists are coming. I want you to know that when they get here, I'll die. Hide all of my money for me, and hide this note. When Vanessa returns, give all of it to her. If you're asked any questions at all, tell them Vanessa died from an illness seven years ago, understand?" Vanessa's mother Melinda instructed a neighbor, handing him every asset she had.
"I understand, Melinda. I'll make sure everything is taken care of after your death. I won't let anything happen to your daughter, either."
"Thank you, Christopher. You're an angel," Melinda said, turning out of his back door. "By the way, make sure if you're interrogated, it's perfectly clear that you hated me."
"I will, Lindy. You're the bravest woman I've ever met."
"Well then you obviously haven't met my daughter!" She replied haughtily and went back to work in at the smithy.
"Central Station now un-boarding, Central Station, now un-boarding," a soft female voice announced over the trains P.A.
"Well, that's us," Winrey said cheerfully, pulling down her bag from the luggage rack.
"Yeah, I guess so," Vanessa replied, also reaching for her bag.
"What's it like knowing you're about to be finished with your mission?" Winrey inquired.
"I don't really know yet. It hasn't quite sunk in that I don't have to go around asking, 'Have you seen Edward Elric lately?' anymore."
Vanessa and Winrey laughed together and exited the train.
"Colonel Mustang, it's me, Winrey Rockbell, Ed and Al's friend?"
"Are you looking for Fullmetal?" He asked without looking up from his paperwork.
"Yeah, Al said Ed was busy here but we can't find either of them."
"We?" Roy looked up and saw a boy standing next to Winrey. He narrowed his eyes carefully. "Boy, are you Ishbalan?"
"My mother was, but she's not with us anymore. I don't have anything against alchemists, if that's what you're wondering. I'm just trying to find the Elric brothers, so please tell me they're under our noses."
"Afraid not. I sent Ed on an emergency mission in the west, that's all I can tell you. I'm sure Al went with him. They left a few hours ago."
"Victor? You okay?" Winrey asked, turning to her companion. "Victor, are you...crying?"
"No I'm not! I'm laughing at my own damn luck! ARGH!"
"You'd better go make sure your friend there doesn't jump off of a building or something," Mustang said humorlessly and turned back to his work.
"Our luck, Al, our luck. A four-day train trip. I hate trains. Something always gets screwed up when we travel by train," Ed complained loudly to Al.
"Take it easy, Brother. We don't want to cause any trouble."
"Yeah, you midget ape! Keep your cool, why don't you?"
"Who...are you calling SHORT!" Ed fumed at the man across the isle from him and went into a tirade about his height.
"Well, how are we supposed to find them now?" Winrey asked Vanessa, who was banging her head backwards against the wall.
"You're asking me?"
"You do seem to be the resident expert on tracking them down."
"Expert? Expert! If I were an expert, would we be here? No. No!"
"But whining about it isn't going to help any."
"Yeah, you're right. Tell me, is the train station we just came from the only one in Central?"
"Yes, it is."
"Then that makes it a lot easier, especially with you around!"
"Me?"
"Sure! How could I describe two people I've never met?"
"I guess so! So are we going back to the station now?"
"Yes, we are."
"Okay, mon Capitan!"
"You're so weird, Winrey. In a good way."
"Melinda Worshel, My name is Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. I'm with the state; I'd like to ask you a few questions," Ed said, knocking on the blacksmith's door.
"Ask anything you want," Melinda replied with the kind of tone that implied, 'but you won't get much of an answer'.
"Did you ever come into contact with one...Hohenheim Elric?"
"I did," she said indignantly.
"And what were the circumstances of this meeting?"
"He was supposed to kill me."
"Why didn't he do it?"
"Because your father was a good man, boys. I never did anything wrong."
"What is your relationship with Hohenheim Elric?" Ed continued stoically.
"I kept him safe, right under everyone's noses."
"What do you mean, 'kept him safe'?"
"The officials above him were going to kill him for saving people he was supposed to kill, like me. He ran away from home to protect his family from getting hurt when the military came after him."
"That's a lie!" Ed shouted viciously.
"Brother," Al warned gently.
"Hohenheim wrote letters to you boys. I said I'd mailed them, but never did. I couldn't be too careful. But this is it, boys, this stack right here. This is your father's legacy."
Melinda held out a box of carefully stacked envelopes to Ed. Al was the one who took it.
"Don't you have a daughter? Where is she?"
"Vanessa died seven years ago."
"Melinda Worshel, you're under arrest by the State for sheltering a runaway."
"I had a feeling you'd let it go down this way, boys. I'm sorry you have to see this, but I simply can't be taken."
She pulled a handgun from one of the thick leather pockets of her apron, put it in her mouth, and pulled the trigger. She was dead before she hit the ground.
"Don't look, Al. She's dead. Let's hope we have a little more luck with the neighbors."
"Brother...we just killed her."
"That was her decision. She would have been killed anyway. Just don't think about it too much, or it'll start to hurt."
"Alright," Al said. He sounded somewhat monotonic.
"Christopher Nichols?"
"That's me," Melinda's friend replied guardedly. "What's your problem?"
"Did you ever come into contact with Hohenheim Elric?"
"Name's not familiar, but I'm sure I did if you're talking about that guy the blacksmith hid."
"Where is he now?"
"He's six feet under, kid. He killed himself after his wife died."
"Don't call me a kid. What was your involvement with him?"
"I didn't have any. I saw him twice; once the day he came in to kill that bitch of a blacksmith and the second when he went to her house for protection."
"Thank you for your cooperation."
"Sure thing, kid."
"Eustace Mill?"
"Yes, son?" asked the old man who had actually hidden Hohenheim.
"What was your involvement with Hohenheim Elric?"
"I only saw him twice. Once when he went after Melinda, and the second when he came to hide in her basement."
"Thank you for your cooperation."
Every person they visited had the same thing to say: They had seen him two times; Melinda had hidden him. The only variance was the various degrees of dislike for Melinda. Melinda was the only suspect, and she was dead.
"This is my...my...this is where my mother lives. She ran the same type of shop here in Buket while Pa and I had the one in the village where he was born, but I came here pretty often," Vanessa covered, to explain anyone she knew to Winrey. Keeping a companion was definitely on her 'Dumb things I did' list.
"So your parents are divorced?" Winrey asked interestedly.
"Yes," Vanessa replied bitterly. Divorce was perhaps less cruel thn the truth.
"I'm sorry to hear that. It's good you got to see them both."
"Yeah. Hey, something's not right."
"What is it?"
"The billows are out. No smoke."
Vanessa ran to the shop and looked inside and found only darkness. She threw the door open.
"Mom?" She shouted, looking around desperately.
There was a splash under her foot, she looked down, and saw blood.
"Oh my god...Winrey, follow me."
"Where's your mom? What's going on?"
"Just hush up and follow me."
Vanessa grabbed Winrey's arm and ran through the street and up to Christopher's apartment.
"Christopher! It's me, Victor! Open up!" she shouted loudly, out of anxiety but also so everyone would know what to call her.
"Victor, bad news," Christopher said sadly, opening the door wide. "You'd better come in."
"Fullmetal Alchemist? He killed her?" Vanessa questioned after hearing Christopher's recount of the morning's events.
"I don't know exactly what happened. She said state alchemists would be by, and she would die when they were. She didn't want anyone to know anything about anyone else."
"Who are you two talking about? Is there something I should know, Victor?"
"Winrey, maybe you should wait for me outside," Vanessa suggested uneasily.
"I guess..." Winrey got up and stood outside, but she left the door cracked open enough to hear the conversation inside.
"Vanessa, your mother gave me some things to give to you. She left you everything, but some things she wanted to make sure you got immediately."
"Chris, do we have to do this now?"
"Vanessa, listen to yourself! You've got to get out of your body and look at this the right way. They think her daughter died seven years ago, so how are you doing to explain yourself? How are you going to explain having Hohenheim's personal possessions? Think about all of that!"
"Right, sorry, it's just not often someone becomes an orphan, you know."
"I know. But you've gotta take it easy. Those boys blew out of town already. So take this letter and money from your mother and do what you have to do."
"Thanks, Chris. I'll be back, don't worry. They wouldn't do anything to me, not so long as I have that girl out there. She's an old friend of theirs."
"Can you trust her?"
"I...don't know. I haven't told her anything, but I've come close to some bad blunders."
"It'll turn out better if someone else knows the whole truth."
"I hope you're right. I don't want to die yet."
"Go easy, kid."
"You too, old timer."