Wow… I am a strange little 13-year-old girl. I have a question. Is everyone following the plot well enough? Cause if I have a plot hole somewhere tell me and I'll fill it.

I'm too lazy to reply to reviews right now so I'll do it next chapter.

Don't own FMA.

Beware this chapter is long.

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"Brother, are you sure we should be doing this?" Al asked as he and his brother boarded the train.

"The only way I'm going to figure out for sure what this is is to find Trafalga's book."

"But…wasn't it lost during the Ishbal war?"

"Well it's time it was found again. Next stop, Ishbal's old capital."

They entered the train and took their usual window seats. Edward sighed and took out a notebook with messily scratched on notes. He flipped it open.

"According to that book I found that last sighting of Gate was in Ishbal's Capital during the War. Since that place is practically a ghost town no trains go there," Edward flipped out a map and set it on his lap for Al to see, "If we take this route to Seegan," He said tracing a blue line, "And then switch trains to East Ember It should only take about a thirty mile walk from there to Reach the country of Ishbal. After that if we continue north it should only take half a day to reach… "

"Brother… Even though trains don't stop in Ishbal they do go through it. Wouldn't it be easier just to jump off the train when this train passes Ishbals capitol?" Ed face faulted.

"Well…I guess so."

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Ishbal's capitol was creepy. Edward could tell it had once been magnificent. Bright buildings, lively mosaics, busy streets full of merchants and people, fountains at every corner…now it seemed dead. The buildings were worn out and unkempt, some leveled completely, Mosaic tiles were cracked and broken, there was debris and trash everywhere, grime stuck desperately to the walls and fountains, the fountains and wells were dried up, and there were no people. What disturbed Edward the most was the color of the town. It was a deep rusty red, the color of dried blood.

The only inviting thing in the town was the star filled sky above them.

"Brother I don't like this place. Being here feels…Wrong."

"I know what you mean but I have to find that book." They looked on at the empty street. Where to begin… "The library."

The two walked until they came upon a large marble building. They walked slowly inside.

Books and scrolls were scattered everywhere. Most of them were burned or torn. Shelves and desks were over turned, and the same rusty red color was found on the walls and floors of the buildings. The two alchemists began to dig through the wreckage searching for Gate's lost book.

After an hour of searching Edward almost felt like giving up…had he not been incredibly stubborn he probably would but that wouldn't be Ed like now would it? Edward took a step forward on onto a throw rug…and fell through the floor. He didn't have much time to react, but he tried to catch himself by grabbing the rim of the rug. All that resulted in was dragging the rug and a few books down with him.

The fall wasn't that far. 20 feet at the most.

Edward coughed, trying to purge his of the dust that rose when he fell, "Al?" he called through the chasm. The only reply was his echoe. He dusted himself off and flipped on his flashlight.

"BROTHER!" Edward looked up to see Al through the hole above him.

"It's alright Al I'm fine! There was a hole under the carpet!"

"I can't fit through the hole! Hold on I'll try to get you out!"

"No wait! You just keep searching up there and I'll see what's down here. If I'm not back in three hours, that's when you can get help." He called up.

"Are you sure!"

"Yeah. I'll meet up with you later," Al reluctantly agreed.

Edward looked around to have learned he had fallen in a large stone chasm. It looked like it was carved out by hand almost. The floor was uneven and rough. Edward walked slowly through the tunnel.

The tunnel got smaller and smaller the father he traveled. At one point, Ed slammed his head into a low roof. Eventually he had to crawl in order to get through. The end of the tunnel was blocked with dirt and rocks that accumulated over the years.

"Please work." He said as he slammed his hand into the object blocking him. It disintegrated in a blue light. For once he was grateful for the destructive blue stone. Then again he wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the stone.

Edward used his hands to shimmy through the hole. He popped out landing non-to gracefully on the ground. He looked around to find he was in a giant stone room.

Scattered around the large stone room were papers, pieces of clothes, a ripped up teddy bare and some other dirt-covered objects. Edward started picking through the objects he found. He found something making him realize where he was.

It was a partially burnt photograph with a family on it. There was a man and woman and a small boy smiling brightly at him. They all had red eyes and tan skin.

"I'm in an Ishbal bunker," He looked around. People once fled here to escape the terrors of war. Edward could think of two things that happened. Either it was abandoned, or… it was found.

That's when he found it. On the farthest corner of the chamber lay a thick book.

It's red leather binding was old and faded. Its pages were yellowing with time and filled with dust. Edward opened it with anticipation. Only one thing was written on the first page.

"Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed…It is all just transformed into something else.

Gate Trafalga." Edward almost dropped the book. He found it! He eagerly began flipping through the pages.

"I Gate Trafalga, like many before me, have traveled into various realms and domains on my quest to know of a certainty what is the Philosophers' Stone, journeying through all parts of the world, found but false Philosophers and deceivers. Studying still, none the less, in the books of the Wise, and my doubts increasing, I discovered the truth: and yet, notwithstanding I had knowledge of the material, I erred two hundred times before finding the operation and practice of that true material.

However I came across something more magnificent then any bloodstone could be. Through my journeys by chance I stumbled upon an outstanding place. Though it was too beautiful for words I will describe it best I can. It was a cavern of stone covered entirely in ice and crystal I found by chance trying to escape a storm coming my way. Glowing icy stalagmite lit the room like thousands of little Christmas lights. Several pools of the beautiful, yet deadly silver liquid mercury were flowing in pools all around the cavern reflecting the various lights in many colors.

And that's when I saw it. A great tree with gnarled and crooked braches climbing up the wall. Above the tree was a hole in the ceiling that led to light. I climbed the tree to the outside world. That's when I first laid eyes on it.

It was lying on the ground. Around it were eight bubbling metallic pools. The closer I looked the more I realized those pools were liquid metal. Gold, tin, silver, iron, Mercury, Copper, Lead, and plutonium.

There were small shallow streams about a centimeter wide each flowing into a small concave dome in the ground no bigger then my fist. The streams of metal were mixing and being absorbed by a perfect round gem. It was a deep rich shade of cobalt. It shimmered beckonly to me I went up to it. I grasped the stone in my hand and felt it pulsate. Almost like a beating heart. It felt alive. And…holding it felt like power. Like I was holding the forces of nature in my palm. It flashed a brilliant blue light, and the next thing I knew the once stonewall before me was glass! It preformed alchemy with out a sigil!

This stone…it was created from the eight base metals representing the solar system and it feels alive. I will give it the name Surrion Ancalime. Which in the ancient Ishbal language means Tranquil Sea."

"Surrion Ancalime. Kind of anti climatic," Edward said to himself. He kept reading. He didn't know how long it was but his flashlight batteries began to dim.

"The stones power is incredible. Even someone who knows nothing of alchemy can perform it with the stone. However what the stone does is completely unpredictable…"

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Roy was going to kill Edward when he found him. For leaving with out permission while a murderer was around and for not given his long overdue assessment. He had his men pack up and get ready to leave. He had a vague idea where Edward had gone thanks to the open blue book on his desk.

"The last sighting of Gate Trafalga's work was in Ishbal's capital during the war…"

He'd also kill Ed for making him go back to Ishbal's. It wasn't exactly a place of happy memories for him.

Then he'd bring him back to life then kill him again for making him worried sick over him. He didn't want another…Case like last time.

"I don't understand. Why is colonel freaking out so much? Edward can handle himself right?" Fuery asked while collecting some of the military records they had brought along. Hughes and Hawkeye looked down.

"Look kid. You weren't in the military when this happened but during a small battle in the Ishbal revolution, before Roy really got his reputation and really started climbing ranks, he was given a small band of soldiers under his command for an info gathering mission." Havoc started lighting a cigarette to replace the one that just when out, "Hughes, Falman, Hawkeye and I were part of that group. So was someone else."

"His name was Neal Dauntless. Real young. Not nearly as young as Fullmetal but cutting it really close. Maybe 18 or 19 at least. He specialized in medical treatment and reconnaissance strategy. A good kid." Hughes continued.

"What happened to him?"

"He died. He got killed in accidental fire while trying to patch a soldier up. It really scarred Roy. That was the first person ever to die under his command. And it was a child at that. That's probably why Roy's freaking out. He doesn't want to lose another child. That's why he's so protective of Edward and Alphonse."

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With all his scrambling Roy ran straight into someone. At first he thought it was Hawkeye but then he looked up to see someone totally different.

In front of him was a woman. This woman was very pretty. He could tell she was at least in her thirties from the small lines by the corners of her eyes. She had long dark brown hair and she was relatively tall.

"I'm sorry miss I didn't see you there." He said helping her up.

"It's alright. Could you help me I dropped something…"

'Right," He looked around and saw a white cane. He handed it to her then something clicked. He looked at her. She had scarred light blue eyes. She was blind," Um, how can I help you." The woman's sightless eyes stared directly at him.

"Are you Roy Mustang?"

"Yes."

"My name is Kira-Kira. I heard you were doing an investigation on my daughters death."

"Your Emily's mother?"

"Yes…I want… I want to bring my daughters murder to justice so I'd like to help anyway I can."

"Yes. Could you come inside?"

Everyone was settled in the living room. Kira-Kira was sitting on the couch with a tense expression on her face.

"One of my men…Edward Elric has gotten a hold of this stone and is in danger."

"My daughter kept the stone hidden from me the first year she had it. However I knew there was something strange with her. Sometimes, when she touched something, she'd destroyed it. Almost the way alchemy can take things apart. I knew she didn't know alchemy because her father forbade her to learn it, and she never showed an interest for it anyways.

However not only did she destroy things, the weather in Blackwater changed drastically. Irregular high winds, abnormal lightning storms, heat lightning on cloudless days, and snow in spring. It was like the balance of nature went haywire. I confronted my daughter and she showed me the stone.

A few weeks before her death my daughter began to have dreams. Some were of natural catastrophes. Others were more surreal. The strangest one was she was walking down a pitch-black void. There were many strange circles, with symbols on them, made in different colors of light hovering around randomly. She spent hours recreating them on paper. I figured this was just a phase of dreams and they would pass. But then she said something that scared me…"

"What did she say?" Hughes asked.

"Its conscious is leaking into my mind." The woman pulled out a thick stack of papers from her bag and set them on the table ahead of her. Roy picked them up and looked at them.

"These are transmutation circles…" He said looking through them. Some were simple others complex. He even saw some he never heard of, "What else did your daughter say."

"She said it was hurting."

"She was in pain?"

"No…she said the stone was hurting inside."

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Edward stuck the book in the deep hood of his red jacket for safekeeping. He wanted to keep reading but he knew if he didn't get back soon, Al would send for a search party. Also his flashlight was dimming, and if it went out while he was down here, he would have no light.

He exited the chamber through the small hole in the wall and started down the tunnel.

For some reason Edward couldn't help but feel like there was something down here with him. He was at the point of the tunnel were he could stand.

"Hey Al are you there!"

"Brother!"

"I found the book! So could you get me out of here?" He heard the scratching noise of Al drawing a transmutation circle. He waited patiently.

However something came at him. A large boulder went hurling through the air toward him. He had enough sense to move luckily. His flashlight smashed against the rock floor splitting I different direction.

"Brother!" Al called hearing the destruction.

Edward landed on the ground face forward he looked up in horror at what he saw. The creature before him was taller and more ripped then Armstrong. His head was ox like and had curling horns framing its face. It had face armor that only revealed it's bulging blood shot red eyes. It had a lizard like tail whipping dangerously behind him and hove like feet. It was like staring at the devil but Edward new better.

"A chimera!" It charged. Edward could see a long rope appear from the hole. He grabbed onto it and Al yanked him up. When he reached the top of the hole he sighed heavily in relief. He was still shaken but he was relieved to see his brother.

"What was that down there?" AL asked.

"I'm not sure. It looked like a Chimera!" Both looked on in horror as the giant beast jumped and slammed itself through the hole. Splinters of wood showered everywhere. Edward said the most logical thing possible at the time.

"RUN!" He and his brother took off like mad. The quickly ran through the door of the library and slammed it shut behind them.

SLAM

Apparently the chimera ran into it. That didn't stop the two from running.

SMASH

The chimera broke through the door and let out an ear-piercing yell. From then it began to bound toward them like a bear.

"Brother! What are we going to do?" Al panicked. Edward thought hard for a plan to come up but none did.

"Sorry Al I've got nothing!" Crash! A large rock went hurling past them as fast as a bullet into a wall. They instantly jerked to the side into an ally with a dead end. The Chimera cornered them.

"It needs to die!" That shocked the both of them. The chimeras voice was low and inhuman but all the same he still spoke.

"DAMMIT!" Ed yelled as he clapped his two hands together and slammed them on the ground, hoping the stone in his hand would do something. A blast of wind and dust, caused from pressure building in an underground air pocket, erupted from the ground as a large crack formed through the ground.

The chimera could no longer see the two alchemists. In anger it jumped through the wall of dust to find both alchemists missing. The wall off dust stopped and the creature looked behind him to see Ed and al running the opposite direction. It howled and ran after them.

"Al! We have to split up! You need to go find help while I'll keep this thing busy!"

"No brother! I'm the Immortal Alchemist! I could out run it longer!"

"Yeah but you'd be able to find someone faster! No talk now, just go!" With all his might Edward slammed into his brother causing Al to fall into a shadowed hole. Edward sped up after that. The chimera didn't even see Al as it sprinted after Edward. Al took off in the opposite direction, against better judgment, hoping there was someone in this desolate city.

Meanwhile Edward was running for dear life while trying to come up with some kind of plan. He was luckily an extremely fast runner and had enough stamina to go on for an hour. Unfortunately he figured he didn't have an hour. If only he could use his alchemy.

CRASH

Another rock. He knew he couldn't run forever. Edward Elric was never known for taking many precautions and was known for doing stupid (yet clever) things. However this was dumb and not thought out well, even by his standards. He doubled back and ran straight for the chimera. At last minute before the creature was on him, he hit the ground and slid beneath the chimera's hoofed legs. As soon as he was behind the creature he stood up, jumped on its back and drove his metal knee into it's back right were the spine was.

It howled in pain and crashed to the ground. Edward tumbled off it slamming his head hard on the ground, and tried running again despite the warm liquid leaking from his head down into his eye and the throbbing pain in his head. However a clawed hand reached out and slashed at his side tripping Edward. Trickles of blood came from the new wound but he still got up and started running. To his dismay so did the chimera.

He was hoping he crippled it by sending a shock to its bulging spine. Edward started to notice his focus was off by some loss of blood. He tripped and quickly pulled himself through the crack off a wall next to him. At least he had something between him and the monster.

CRASH

Not anymore. The creature was looming over him.

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AL was running hoping he wasn't to late. He could here booms in the distance. They were a some-what relief because he knew everyone of those sounds meant Edward was alive. He looked ahead and almost cried in joy.

The familiar military vehicle was ahead of him. It stopped at him. Mustang jumped out.

"Al! Where's Edward!"

"We were looking for Trafalga's notes! We found them but a Chimera attacked us! Ed told me to get help but he's still facing that thing!" Al almost never called his brother by his name. He knew this was bad.

"You all look for him in the vehicle. I'll search on foot," With that he took off. Dark gray clouds loomed overhead.

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"So what now. You gonna kill me?" Ed let out small distressed chuckle.

"He said that thing made me the way I am," It said pointing at the stone, "It needs to be destroyed. It will only bring destruction and despair. The only way to kill it is to destroy the one who has it! That man promised me destroying it would change me back. I will be able to hug my son and wife once again!" He brought down a claw on Edward who rolled out of the way in time behind a fountain.

"Sorry but I have plans and they don't include dying." Edward, with all his strength, shoved the large fountain over. There was a metallic lurch as a large metal fountain toppled off of its stone perch onto the chimera. There was a sickening crack as the chimera collapsed under the weight.

Edward sighed in relief. At least until the chimera burst from underneath the wreckage.

"IT NEEDS TO DIE!" It yelled. Slobber flew from its sharp teeth. In fear Edward slammed his hand on the ground. The Surrion Ancalime activated. A small glowing blue transmutation circle appeared beneath Edward's hand. A larger form of the same transmutation circle appeared beneath the chimera. Edward watched in wonder as the symbols in the circle rearranged them selves, snapping together like a two dimensional puzzle. The chimera looked frozen in place.

"Why can't I move?" It cried desperately.

Edward's mind clicked into scientific genius mode as he tried to decipher the strange alchemic circle.

The circle was the key to most alchemy. In Euclidean geometry a circle is the set of all points in a plane at a fixed distance, called the radius, from a fixed point, called the centre.

In an x-y coordinate system the circle with centre (x0, y0) and radius r is the set of all points (x, y) such that

If the circle is centered at the origin (0, 0), then this formula can be simplified to

x2 + y2 r2

He looked at the small version of the circle. In alchemy there are eight basic symbols commonly used in combinations in the circles. These combinations caused different effects. The basic symbols were fire 1, fire 2, earth 1, earth 2, air, water, death and creation.

He noted the major symbols in the circle and there pattern. Earth, air, fire 2, creation, air, death… He gasped. It was just a big complex version of Roy's glove! Roy's gloves consisted of the symbols of fire1and an air.

"Wait. That means it's going too…" He didn't finish.

As the last symbol moved in the circle and clicked into place, the blue light changed a violent red. A torrent of flames erupted from the circle engulfing the chimera. It screamed in pain as the flames ate away at his skin and flesh. Suddenly the flame stopped. There was only a pile of ash were the chimera used to be. The circle faded and the ashes were swept away by the wind.

Edward was terrified, as realization of what happened hit him. He was terrified that he almost died. He was terrified at what the stone did, and he was terrified that he had killed living being.

Edward was bruised and bloody. He hadn't really realized how much blood he had lost until he noticed the crimson pool forming below him. He stumbled into a wall and climbed over the rubble of the destroyed wall. He walked a little before falling face first on the ground. The sky was clouded, threatening to pour at any moment. The same weather the day he found this damned stone.

He was tired. He looked to his side and wondered how many died where he was lying during the war, "Am I really going to die." He said hardly above a whisper. NO! He was Edward Elric! He had to fix his little brother before he died. It would be selfish to leave before he fulfilled his promise. Just then he went unconscious.

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That was the longest chapter yet…Awww. I hurt poor Edo. I'm so evil.

I GAVE IT A NAME! The whisper of alchemy has a title! I thought that would never happen. GO ME! Though I must admit the Surrion Ancalime is, as Edward said, kind of anti climatic. But who cares! It has a name!

Right. Neal dauntless was created at last moment for plot uses in the next chapter. Just because I'm on a ranting spree, I shall tell you a little pattern I discovered in the militaries names that helped me give Neal life (though it didn't last long. I got to stop killing off every character I create.). Hawkeye, Hughes, Hayate, Fuery, Mustang and Bradly were all aircrafts used in World War two. I decided to continue the pattern so I named Neal after the SBD-Dauntless, which was also an aircraft, used in world war two. I'm so clever (not really).

Next chapter there will be a stand off between the flame alchemist and an unwelcome guest.

I'm done ranting now.

Review please. Ideas and constructive criticism is praised, flames will be used to burn chimeras and I'll see ya next chapter.