"Gateways through time?" Mustang said.
"Yep, that's the gist of it," Ed answered. "I don't know where this one took us, but it's probably some point in the future, given the technology here."
"For some reason, Fullmetal, I'm inclined to believe you."
"Well, it's not much weirder than getting transported to another world, is it?"
"I suppose not."
"My question, Mei, is why you were at the castle. I thought you were gonna wait at the fair."
"Well, you were taking so long that I thought I'd check that everything was alright," Mei said.
"Yeah, I guess that's fair," Ed said. He stood up from the floor where they'd been sitting. "Let's get going. It's no use just sitting around here all day."
"You'd think someone would have come through here by now," Mustang said, as he and Mei followed Ed down the hallway.
"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe this building just isn't very bu—" he stopped as they made it outside.
Everything looked dead. The earth was cracked and barren, with craters of various sizes littering the landscape. The sun was nowhere to be seen, obscured by an even cloud cover that seemed to extend forever. The wind was blowing thick dust through the air, and every once in a while, a bolt of lightning struck. In the distance behind them, there was a ruined city, composed of buildings taller than any of those found in Amestris, while on the horizon ahead of them, a strange dome-like structure stood. The building they'd just emerged from was similar. Both seemed damaged, but not completely ruined like the city.
"What... happened here?" Mei whimpered.
"That dome over there," Mustang said, pointing. "There might be people there. The one we just came from was somewhat safe, after all."
"Yeah... Let's hope so," Ed said.
It took roughly an hour for them to reach the other dome, which was larger than the one they'd appeared in, and had smaller domes and structures attached to it. There was a single main entrance in the front.
They walked inside, coming into a large, dimly lit room. The floor was made up of metal plates connected by stairs and grates, which sat above a matrix of pipes and other machines in the small space beneath them. There were six people spread across the room, five men and one woman. They were all unkempt, with matted hair, wore rags that were dirty and damaged, and had sunken, hopeless faces. The furthest one was standing next to a strange pod-like machine large enough to fit a person inside, as well as another door with a golden lion's head. They looked up as the newcomers entered, but said nothing.
"Um, hello?" Ed said.
One of them gave a slow, weak wave.
Hesitantly, the three of them walked further in. As they passed the man closest to them, he said, "Got any cash?"
"Uh, what for?" Ed responded.
The man shrugged. "If I just keep saving up money, someday it'll come in handy. That's what I tell myself anyway."
"Okay..." Ed said. He went on to where most of the people were gathered.
"If you're looking for food, you won't find any here," another of the men said.
"Where is 'here', exactly?" Mustang interjected.
"Trann Dome," said another man.
"There should still be some food at Arris Dome to the northeast, if you can get through Site 16 alive," a third said.
"Site 16?" Ed asked.
The man nodded. "The specters that haunt that place can't be harmed by weapons, like guns or blades."
"Um," Mei said, sounding meek, "if there's no food, how do you survive?"
They pointed at the pod-like machine that one of the men was standing against. "What is that?" Ed asked.
"It's an enertron," the man leaning on it said. "It's like getting a full night's sleep in a few seconds, but it doesn't do anything for your hunger."
"Really? Can I try?" Ed said.
The man shrugged.
Ed approached the machine, which had a split door in the front, and climbed inside, closing the doors on himself. It was a bit like a cage, so he could still see the outside. He looked for some kind of switch, and was about to ask for help, when he heard a few clicks, and a sound like pressure releasing. There was no visual cue, but he almost instantly felt energized. He opened the doors and stepped back out.
"How was it?" Mustang asked.
"Great! It's really refreshing," Ed said
"We should probably use it too," Mustang said. He and Mei both took a turn in the enertron.
"So, what now?" Ed asked.
"We obviously need to find another gate," Mustang said.
"Right, but we don't even have a place to start looking," Ed said.
"Mei, how far can you sense a gate from?" Mustang asked.
"Not far... I think I might be able to feel them from farther if this corruption weren't so prevalent," Mei answered.
"Damn."
"Maybe we could get some info from the people in Arris Dome," Ed suggested. "It's a long shot, but it's better than nothing. We might be able to bring some food back here too."
Mustang nodded. "I guess you're right. No point in delaying, then."
They thanked the people in the dome—who didn't seem to care—for letting them use the enertron, asked for directions, then went back outside. They made their way back to the Dome they'd appeared in, but kept going toward Site 16, the ruined city they'd seen when they first left. It spread as far as the eye could see, so there seemed to be no getting around it.
The city was full of rubble and junk, along with the occasional car or other surviving relics. At first, the only life seemed to be the giant rats that darted back and forth, but as they went further in, the things they saw got stranger and stranger. Some creatures looked like small walking volcanoes, and they attacked if they were touched, spewing red-hot rocks through the air. Another kind of creature looked like a stout blue octopus, and they worked with giant mutant flowers in battle, attacking on sight. None of them were particularly threatening, but it was exhausting repeatedly encountering them throughout the city. Everything seemed aggressive and territorial.
As they came around a particular corner, they saw a beat-up car with what looked like two globs of blue ooze on top of it, with another on the nearby rubble. They paid them no mind at first, but as they neared, the ooze pulled itself toward them and animated into masses with arms and humanoid faces, though they had strange smiles that never faded. Ed quickly used his alchemy to transform his arm into a blade and attacked one, while Mei threw a knife at another. Both attacks went straight through with almost no resistance, leaving the monsters unbothered. The one near Ed opened its mouth disturbingly large and attempted to bite him.
"The hell? It didn't work!" Ed said, jumping back.
"These must be the specters they warned us about," Mustang said. "Get back."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Ed jumped out of the way of another specter's attack, then did a series of hand-springs back to his allies.
Once he was out of the way, Mustang held his hand out and snapped his fingers, creating an explosion of flames centered on the specters, which burned them to ashes while sending a wave of heat toward Ed, Mei, and himself.
"Ah!" Mei yelped.
"Yeah, they don't call him the Flame Alchemist for nothing," Ed said. Mustang grinned at that.
As they continued, they encountered more specters, as well as huge red creatures with bird-like feet and bodies shaped like gourds. After almost a full day of walking—which left them tired and hungry—they came out the other side of the city and saw another dome, larger than either of the previous ones, not far in the distance.
When they made it inside, they found another room full of survivors, these more diverse. There were 4 men, 2 women, 3 small girls, and a single old man with a white mustache and a cane. As Ed and the others navigated the strange layout of the floor panels to reach where they were gathered, the old man stepped forward. "You there, where have you come from?" he asked.
"We just went through Site 16," Ed answered.
"Wh-what did you say?" the old man said. He turned to the rest of the room's inhabitants. "Hey, we've got people who crossed the ruins!"
"What?" one of the women said, standing.
"Are you serious?" one of the men asked, also standing.
"Yeah, do you mind if we use your enertron real quick?" Ed asked.
"Of course not!" the old man said. "Go right ahead."
The three of them practically piled into the strange machine, too exhausted to care. They came out rejuvenated, but with their stomachs rumbling.
They returned to the old man. "Pardon me, I didn't even tell you my name," he said. "I'm Doan, a descendant of the former director of this information center—in the days when it still was one."
"The people across the ruins said there might be food here," Mei said.
Doan closed his eyes, nodded, and pointed his cane at the center of the room, where there was a ladder leading down a circular shaft. "There is a supercomputer and a food storage facility in this dome's substructure, but the robot guards are still active and will not let us through."
"What's a computer?" Ed asked.
Doan blinked. "Well, I suppose that nowadays, people may not know these things. It is essentially a machine that stores information and makes calculations."
"Well, I can't really see that being useful in this situation," Mustang said.
Doan nodded. "It goes without saying, but the food is what is truly important. Ironic, is it not? We starve atop our own stores of food."
One of the women, who was standing next to one of the girls, stepped forward. "My husband went down there. We haven't seen him since."
"Daddy's gonna be back with some food soon," the girl said. Her mother looked at her with pity.
"Alright, we'll go down there," Ed said.
"Right, we'll see what we can find," Mustang added.
"Really? I thought for sure you'd be against it," Ed said.
"Just because I'm cautious doesn't mean I'm heartless, you know."
"We've made many attempts ourselves, and they've all ended in failure," Doan said. "But perhaps people strong enough to make it through the ruins will be able to."
"I guess we'll see, huh?" said Ed.
"Hmm. It's nice to see such spirited young people for a change," Doan said. "Careful, then, and come back alive."
They climbed down the ladder into a smaller room, where there were two strange fixtures. They looked like metal desks, but they had buttons and glass panels set into the top. Some of the buttons had letters on them. There was another ladder back up to the left, and a door on the wall to the right, which was inaccessible because of a pit between it and the platform they were standing on.
"I could always make us a bridge across there, but why don't we go that way first?" Ed said, pointing to the ladder.
"Sure," Mustang said.
They climbed up the second ladder, which led to a set of rafters above a much larger room. The room itself had almost no platforms like the previous ones, but there seemed to be another door on the other side of the rafters.
"I hope you guys are okay with heights," Ed said.
They made it across the rafters to the door, and came into another relatively small room, though it was still bigger than most of the rooms in any Amestrian building. It was empty, and had only one other doorway, directly opposite to them. As they moved toward it, however, they heard a thunk from above.
"Look out!" Mei shouted. The three of them dived away just before a huge machine came falling from the ceiling, suspended by two cables. It was a strange, somewhat organic shape, with what looked like a single large eye in its center, above a round "leg" that stabilized it by making contact with the ground.
"Initiating command sequence..." the machine said, in an unsettling, monotone voice.
"Command sequence? The hell does that mean?!" Ed shouted, shooting to his feet. He clapped his hands together, and extended a blade from his prosthetic's forearm.
"Must be the robot guard Doan told us about," Mustang said. "I'll take care of it." He snapped his fingers, engulfing the machine in a huge cyclone of flame that made the whole room swelteringly hot. The robot, however, came out unscathed.
"It's made of metal, you idiot!" Ed shouted.
"Oh, shut up! I'd like to see you do better!" As they shouted, two cylindrical drones descended on either side of the robot.
"Ask and ye shall receive," Ed said. He clapped his hands together and touched the floor, causing the metal to deform into a massive spike that shot straight toward the robot. Just as it was about to reach its target, however, a plane of red light shaped like a triangle formed, with one point in the eye and one in each drone, slicing the spike's top off and vaporizing the rest as it passed through.
"What were you saying, Fullmetal?"
"I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," Ed said, ignoring Mustang. He ran across the room, dodging lasers from the drones as he met up with the other two."Looks like we need to take out those drones first, and they aren't giving me time to use my alchemy."
"They might be small enough for me to overheat," Mustang said.
"I should be able to hit one with my knives," said Mei.
"Well, then what are you waiting for? Go!" Ed said.
"Right!" the other two said. Mei went left, and Mustang right. In between dodging lasers, Mei threw her knives, but the drone's erratic movement made it hard to hit. Mustang on the other hand, was precise enough to hit his target every time, but hitting it enough to fry its circuits was a slow process. Soon enough, though, they each managed to down their respective drone, sending them crashing to the floor. As soon as it happened, Ed tried his spike attack again. This time, it wasn't stopped, impaling the robot straight through the center. The sound of its motors whirring slowly died out.
"I guess that's that," Ed said. They went around the now-dead machine, and through the doorway.
In the next room, they were immediately struck by the reeking smell of decay. There were rows of metal crates, but they were all broken in places, their contents having long since rotted away as water dripped slowly from above. A dead body of a man, relatively recent judging by the lack of decomposition, was leaning against the opposite wall.
"That must be that woman's husband," Mustang said.
"The food... It's all gone..." Mei muttered.
Slowly, Ed walked over to inspect the body. A single seed fell out of his hand.
Ed picked it up. "Is this all that's left?" he asked.
Mustang sighed. "We'd better go tell the people in the dome."
"Yeah... I guess you're right," Ed said. He pocketed the seed.
They went back, across the rafters, and as they were about to go back down the ladder, they heard an echoey, metallic version of a young boy's voice. "Doan said they'd be down here. I hope they're alright," it said.
Ed quickly jumped down the ladder, landing hard on the metal floor. He looked up to see a huge suit of blue, spiked armor with glowing red eyes standing in the room. "Al!" he exclaimed.
"Brother!" said Alphonse, Edward's younger brother.
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