Chapter 4: The Waiting Alchemist

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of FMA. All I do own is any new characters that may make appearances.

Ed stood in the shower, the water charging down his face as it sped out from the showerhead. Bringing his hands up he runs it through his hair. Mud splashed onto the ground. "Dammit…." He grunts, then leans forward and puts his hands against the wall the showerhead was connected to. Ed looks down at the foam-covered floor. All the soap and water were mixed with mud that had gotten in his boots, on his head, and neck. He couldn't even remember paying much attention to Al's exam. Sighing, he lifts his head up a little. The water was pounding all over the back of his body now that he had leaned forward toward the wall. He had used a whole bottle of soap to get the mud off of his body, since he had scrubbed frantically, he was almost full of scratches.

Standing outside the bathroom door, Alphonse listens to see if he could hear his brother breathing. "B-Brother..." he calls sounding a little worried. Ed looks at the door curiously. "Um…you're not trying to drown yourself in the bathtub because you're upset about earlier…" Al asks hoping that he isn't trying to commit suicide since he was so angry about being left in the mud by him.

His right eye twitches as he responds to his younger brother's question, "W-What…" He exclaimed, his eye slowing it's shaking. "ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I'M SMALL ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY DROWN IN A TUB?" He exclaims angrily at his brother. Even though he had mentally forgiven him for being left in the forest in pain, and covered in mud.

"N-No…I didn't mean it like that brother!" Alphonse replies quickly waving his hands in front of himself frantically. He walks away from the bathroom door and into his bedroom, sitting in a chair by the window quietly. Placing his hands over his face he sighs and looks down at the ground, hands on his knees now.

Ed walks into the room, dressed now. "I'm sorry about yelling at you Al…" He says, apologizing to his younger brother. Grinning now, he walks to Alphonse and sits in a chair across from him. "What were you really going to ask me?" He questions softly trying to catch Al's eye. "I know you didn't just want to know if I was drowning myself." Laughing as he says this Al looks up and across the room at him.

Smiling at his older brother, he nods slightly. "Yeah…I was wondering…" he began slowly. "Do you think I passed the exam?" Al asks him curiously, sounding a little anxious at the same time.

Standing up now, Ed walks to Al, and puts his hands on his shoulder. "They said they were gonna send the letter right? With the name you'll be give… Obviously you passed it." He grins then laughs, leaving his brother alone in the bedroom. His hair was loose so he puts it into the ponytail that he had kept for such a long time when he was away from his time period.

He leaves the apartment and goes for a walk down the sidewalk. He ended up shouting at about nine people that were lower, ranking wise, State Alchemists. Quickly afterward, everyone left him alone. Entering the cafeteria he grins seeing Roy and Riza. Stopping in front of them he looks up a little at Colonel Mustang. "Hey there Colonel…" He says trying to sound happy. "Did you have fun with humiliating me?" Ed questions sounding a little angered now.

Roy shakes his head and says, "Yes I did." Some alchemists in the café chuckled a little, stifling back the hysteria that they wanted to let loose. Ed's eye twitches. He couldn't find how shaking your head meaning 'no' and then saying 'yes' could make any possible sense. "Look…. Hagaren No Chibi…" he clears his throat quickly seeing Ed become infuriated. "Ahem…I mean Edward… It was just some fun. You should know me by now, I would've let your brother take the test no matter what." Roy waves his hand a little and laughs slightly. "It was just a little joke."

"YOU JERK!" He goes to swing his fist but Riza holds him back.

She sighs. "Ed…. striking Colonel Mustang could get you stripped of your State Alchemist certification. You'd be considered as a lower ranking alchemist, assaulting a harmless higher ranked member of the state." Riza whispers to him, and he wriggles out of her grasp and stands still. "Good Baka…"

He grunts and runs out of the building after having only a short conflict with Roy. Spotting something amazing, his eyes had noticed that they were rested on the miraculously finished, new and improved library. Shesca apparently was able to remember every file, record, and book held there to the 't'. Rushing towards it, he stops in front of a guard. He flashes his pocket watch, and runs past him, and into the library. It was a little furnished this time. A couple sofas here and there, but there weren't any racks of books or cabinets of files. Obviously it was set up the same way. There was a front desk to the left and you'd have to check with the main government officials and get permission to read the most secretive files. Glancing around the library frantically, he sees a box of yet to be filed papers. Running to it he grabs it, and takes the papers, not being aware of what they were, he stuffs them into the inner pockets of his jacket. Just as he had finished, someone had tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around and lets out a deep sigh of relief. "Hey Shesca!" He says trying to sound enthusiastic.

Smiling at him, she waves a little. "Haven't seen you in these parts for a while, Edward." Shesca says, her voice extremely soft as if she believed talking too loud would disturb people that were to come later that day, as they were the only two people there at the moment. "Where have you been? I mean, hasn't Roy told you about the extreme disappearances?" She now sounded fairly surprised. Grabbing his hand, she runs to the door and opens it, revealing to her and Ed the continuous shelves of books, and mountains of cabinets. "We have all of it recorded. Matter of fact, where you were standing, we had some top-secret papers. Something about a better thing then the mythological Philosopher's stone." She whispers to him softly so that her co-workers wouldn't hear what they were talking about.

Ed smiles hearing Shesca add the word 'mythological' before Philosopher's stone. Clearly she had no clue that he had actually forged an actual stone. Then it shot at him, like he had felt a bullet hit the back of his head. He had taken those top-secret papers. They were now in his possession. He could find a way to possibly revive those people that he loved. The ones that he and others lost. That list consisted of: Trisha Elric, Maes Hughes, Winry's parents, and Nina Tucker. Most of those incidents, attacks, or 'experiments' had occurred such a long time ago. But the memory of those people still stayed glued to his thoughts. He wasn't too sure about bringing back Winry's parents; he knew it'd take a lot. But, he knew it was such a hard thing that had hit Winry when it happened.

Shesca waves in front of Ed's face a little. "You okay Ed?" She asks quietly. He merely shakes his head and runs out of the room quickly, without saying anything. "I guess…he's feeling sick. I really wanted to show and tell him about the disappearances. He has to be careful." Sighing she gets back to work.

Ed was running down the street frantically, his arms wrapped around his waist to keep the papers from fluttering out of his pockets. He skids to a stop at the front of the apartment building. He basically charges in and takes the elevator up to their floor. After walking down the hall at a quick pace, he opens the door and steps in, bolting it locked behind him. Pulling the papers from his jacket it scatters them across the kitchen table, which he made sure was clean before doing so. His eyes scanned up and down each of the ten, full, front and back pages of writing. He didn't really pick up on anything but he was just trying to see if any words popped out at him.

Out of nowhere, he is tapped on the shoulder again. He shakes and spins around, jumping on to the table to cover the papers, so that unwanted viewers couldn't see. Though, it turned out to be just an over excited Al, who was holding a paper in his hand. Sliding off the table he looks at his brother, seeming a little confused. It was late at night and usually Al has a hard time keeping his eyes open. (Author's Note: Yes…time flies very quickly…) But tonight, he seemed so happy, and wide-awake.

Seeing the papers he begins to try and look around Ed, who seemed to be desperately blocking his view. "Al, whatcha gotta tell me?" He asks trying to change the subject.

Al seems to snap out of the 'what's those papers' trance and smiles widely at Ed. "I got the letter brother!" he exclaims.

"What'd it say!" Ed was now looking almost as excited as Al. He was very proud of him now, he nearly forgot all about the papers and how to revive people without any consequence. Or…at least something that is presumably better then the stone. "Come on, out with it Al!" He urges him on, the excitement brewing through him.

He looks around shyly, and then at Ed. "I haven't opened it yet…" Ed's jaw dropped hearing this. Waving his arms around in a way of motioning 'open it'. Al nods gradually and then tears the top of the envelope, which was addressed to him, open. Slowly, he pulled out the folded letter on the inside, and tossed the torn envelope to the side. He unfolds the letter and reads it over three times before reading it aloud to Ed.

To the hand of Alphonse Elric,

Congratulations on passing your State Alchemist exam. In order to show you

More recognition, we dub you with your new

State Alchemist name. This is what you will be called by fellow Alchemists of the state, and what you will be called when you are summoned for missions, on short notice or in advance. This will be like your calling card. You are now called:

The Producing Life Alchemist.

You have earned this name for your ability to produce plants, moving statues,

And your strengthening ability to one day possibly

Produce more then plant life.

Report to the Main Government building just East of the newly

redone Library in Central.

We will proudly present you with your State Alchemist Pocket Watch to amplify your

Alchemic abilities a bit, as well as let you into the

Library in Central.

See you tomorrow at exactly 3:30 P.M.

Approved, and written by:

General Haruko

Lt. Colonel Roy Mustang

First Lt. Jean Havoc

First Lt. Riza Hawkeye

Ed grabs the paper and reads over the exact words Al had just read out loud to him. "It looks like a damn declaration of some kind of independence thing!" He exclaims seeing the signatures. Al laughs a little and grabs the paper, looking at the name he was given. It was neatly printed on the paper. Okay, it wasn't completely neat, as it looked a little like kiddy handwriting, but it was the name he was given and he seemed to cherish it.

Meanwhile, as Al treated the letter like gold, Ed was going on and on about how most of the signatures looked like 'crap'. "Is that General Haruko? Is that what it says?" He says mockingly, peering over Al's shoulder, pointing at the first name. "And Mustang's is so non-unique. Lt. Havoc's handwriting is pretty cool. The best one is definitely Lt. Hawkeye's." He groans and waves his hands around. "They really should work on their writing style." Ed says softly, popping back over to the table.

Ed walks out of the room after congratulating him hundreds of times. He made sure he took the secret papers with him. Something about it made him unsure about telling Al yet. He had to read the papers through over and over again and decide if he should go through with what the instructions are or whatever it says, then share it with his brother.

Entering his separate bedroom, he locks the door. Pulling the papers out from under his shirt he spreads them across the bed in the order they were in when he grabbed them from the box. Ed felt a little bad about stealing it from them, but… he felt he had the right to know what it had written on them. He grabs the first paper and reads it. "Introduction to the Beginning of Time," he mumbles under his breath reading the title of the first page. "Introduction of time? What kind of crap is this…" he questions the papers and the people who wrote it in annoyance. He skims through it, not really paying attention to most of the things typed on it. The second page was titled, 'The Philosopher's Stones' Faults'. Ed grins and agrees that using the stone definitely has its faults. The next two pages were instructions on three complete, useable, different ways to create the Philosopher's stone. Then he reached the part that must have been the most informative of them all. 'Elixiring Life'. He pauses and reads the title once more. "Elixir? Wouldn't that be…like a way to continue life or something?" Ed mutters softly. He reads on slowly and his eyes grow wide. Drawing a circle on the ground of his room, it turned out unlike anything he'd ever seen. It wasn't like the transmutation circles he was used to seeing. As this one, was almost as complex as the Human Transmutation circle. But he couldn't quite figure out what it was. The instructions said to place two candles in the center. He did as instructed. Placing his hands on the outer lines of the circle, he closes his eyes. "Please…. do what it says you'll do."

The room glows a dark, opalescent blue and sudden gusts of wind flow into the room, even though the window in his room was tightly shut. He opens his eyes and his hair was flying around from the flowing, rough, breeze. His bed sheets were thrashed about and suddenly, he feels his body slam against his bedroom door. Rubbing his head, he stares into the center of the circle. At first he was completely confused so he crawls to the object cautiously. "Wha…" he mumbles, not even able to finish the word.

To Be Continued in Chapter 5!

R/R

Thanks to those of you who do review this FMAfic. Enjoy reading the reviews. So keep them coming. I wrote this chapter at 2:00 A.M on 7/28 (it was Friday by then…cause…well …it was past midnight…so yeah.) I'm dead tired right now…but I'm sure I'll begin the next chapters of both my fanfics. I'm a little annoyed that the signatures didn't come out the way I wanted them to. Had used different types of script font to make it look 'unique' as Ed so puts it

Lucia: I'm glad you enjoyed the previous chapters. But...this is where the little summary begins. Atleast...I think...lol.