Chapter One

Bah-duh…Bah-duh…Bah-duh…

Am I dying? Ed could fell the open wound that lay across his chest and feebly attempted to trap the blood inside his body. But even so, he knew that the blood draining out across the cobble stones was surely the equivalent of his last breath. The idea of death, however, is an abstract one and even in his current state, Ed could not fully grasp what was happening. Strange, he wondered. What's that noise?

… Bah-duh…Bah-duh…Bah-duh…

Oh… He realized. It's my heart. The idea was faintly amusing to him. Why is it beating so slow?

… Bah-duh…..Bah-duh……Bah-duh…

It is funny the think one thinks when they are in such a situation. Ed, for instance, was thinking of hypoxia. It's were you can't get enough oxygen to your brain or your heart of something… Man, that must suck. Everyone dies from hypoxia. Man, that must really suck. I wonder if that's what's happening to me. No. he smiled. I ain't dying yet. But even so, my heart…Bah-duh... is beating… Bah-duh…so…Bah-duh…slow…Bah…

Why is it so dark?

"Why the Hell is it so dark in here!"

Lt. Hawkeye strained her eyes, trying make out the form of her colonel against the black of the room. "It appears as thought the lights have gone out again, sir." Just then another boom of thunder roared across the night and was followed by the brief illumination of a lightening bolt.

"Always the observant one, Lieutenant." He sighed. "Please tell me we have a candle somewhere in this place." As if on cue, Maes burst through the door of Col. Roy Mustang's office, promptly tripped upon a box of paper work and fell flat on his face. Though, for his credit, he managed a quick recovery. Another roar of thunder shook the very foundation of head quarters.

"One hell of a storm huh, Colonel?" Maes said after a rather awkward silence. "Almost as bad as the last one." returned Roy. "And the one before that." interjected Lt. Hawkeye. Maes sighed. "It seems we've been getting an awful lot lately." He frowned. "I wonder if Gracia and Elicia are alright."

"I'm sue they are fine," Roy said impatiently. "But if your really so worried, your free to visit them after the worst of the storm has passed. In the mean time what are we going to do about light around this place?"

I"Well," said Maes. " I've got the electronic crew working on the back up generator but that should take an hour at the least since apparently it was damaged in the last storm."

"Why didn't they fix it before next storm as opposed to during it?" asked Lt. Hawkeye. Maes shrugged. "Dunno, ask them. But until then I brought some candles." He reached inside of his jacket and true to his word pulled out four long, white, wax candles." I was going to light them, but I figured I'd let you do that." He said in reference to the Colonel. Here Maes groped through the darkness until he found the desk and laid the candles there. There was a feint snap! and soon all the candles were alight.

The light from the candles the three were able to move to their usual positions: Maes in the chair in front of the desk, Roy in the one behind it and Riza, or course, standing to the side. The three sat in silence. The candles illuminated only so much and dark still crouched in the as if waiting for the most opportune Chance to strike. Boom! More thunder. Hesitantly, Maes reached into the same pocket from which he had drawn the candles, produced a sheet of paper and laid it on the desk in front of Roy.

"What's this?" asked Roy picking up the paper. "The latest on the Elric case." Maes answered simply. Roy nodded. "I wondered why you were here so late." Frowning, the colonel unfolded the paper and stared at the words. They were long curved things made erotic in the flickering candle light. Slowly he began to read. The note was thus:

To my Dearest and Most Irreverent Beings,

I am greatly displeased with the state of your conduct of late. But don't worry dear servants. The train is coming to get you. 

Your Merciful Lord

Roy looked up at Maes. "Well?" Maes sighed. "I know sir. I don't know how it happened-""Not that!" He yelled, shaking the paper in front of Maes' face." What the Hell is this and what does it have to do with the disappearance of Edward Elric!" Maes stared at him with a look of disbelief." You mean – you mean you don't know what this is?" Roy gave him a sarcastic look. "Should I?" It was Lt. Hawkeye who spoke next. "The schism sir. The Merciful Lord is what Iorek Herndonsan called himself." Silence filled the air and violated every crevice of the room.

The schism was taken place 500 years ago. The military had gained too much power in the eyes of the people and a small sect of "magicians" (for that is what they called themselves) had tried to remedy the situation by calling forth a demon of sorts. The people were greatly dismayed when they found not a fearsome beast but an old decrepit man. But this man was a demon of sorts. For he brought forth the creatures known as the homunculi. Armies of them. They had laid waste to the land killing everything that lay in their path. After years of this, some way was found of stopping these monstrosities but 50 years after it was recorded, the file was stolen. In order to preserve the prosperity of the military, and shred of evidence that suggested such an event took place had been long done away with and the only ones that knew the schism ever took place were a few select officers. All transcripts left that made any reference to the event were carefully stored in the Putnam file. The letter that Roy had in his hands was a letter that the 'Merciful Lord' had written to his commanders during the war.

Roy dropped the letter as if it was a death note. "Why is it here?" A visible shudder ran through Maes' body. "It's not the one from Putnam. It's a copy." "But how?" Riza asked." It's forbidden to copy anything stored in Putnam." Maes lifted his hands as a sign of his ignorance. "I don't know. Someone must have gotten to the file somehow." "But who is capable of such a thing?" asked Riza. Boom! Thunder again. Roy took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "Where did you find it?"

"Ifound it… on my doorstep." They stared at him in disbelief