The Golden Sun: Chapter Seventeen: From Emunah
AN: Everyone's so happy about Al getting his cat! The number of people that wanted to see Roy's reaction to Ed's quick 'love you' is great.
Trisha's backstory is very interesting, and you might be hearing a bit more about it, who she was, who her family was ;). The boys will find out about her before they find out the truth about their dad, so there's that ;)
I was gonna wait on posting this chapter, but its FMA day, so here you are :)
Ed didn't think it would take nearly a week for them to get the house sorted, but here they were, Ed, Al, and a cat named Nitrogen. Al was calling it Nitro for short. No one could say that they weren't nerds, naming a cat after an element.
But Nitro made Al happy, ridiculously happy, happy in a way that Ed hadn't seen in such a long time. It was…nice to wake up to Al laughing about something the cat did, nice to wake up to not feeling like he was failing Al; he still was, but this didn't hurt quite so much.
Ed spooned his cereal into his mouth almost mournfully, already regretting his decision to accept the new rank.
Mustang and his team had been transferred to Central by now, but Ed hadn't seen his CO at all, though he had seen Hawkeye at the market.
"The Colonel stared off into space for about an hour after your call," she'd mentioned mildly and Ed didn't have the time to come up with an adequate response before deciding it was better to just turn around and walk home in a stupefied daze, leaving Hawkeye a bit amused.
He almost thought that Mustang was avoiding him, which, honestly, wouldn't be that surprising; what was the appropriate response to your subordinate telling you 'love you' before hanging up? Ed didn't really think there was one.
"If you love me, you'll kill me now," Ed told Al flatly.
"Oh, come on, Brother, I don't think its that bad," Al tried to assure him. "I actually think it's kinda sweet."
Ed pressed a hand to his face to hide his enflamed cheeks. "Says you! You're the touchy-feely one, not me!"
Al snorted and Nitro meowed, pawing at him. It was adorable, really. Ed didn't think he'd get used to the near constant giggling and laughing emanating from the suit of armor. It had taken exactly three hours for Nitro to completely warm up to Al, despite his armored body, and they'd barely been apart since.
Ed called him 'fluffball' and nothing else, earning him some rather mutinous meowing whenever he called Nitro by that name.
"I'm not the one that said 'love you' to Colonel Mustang," Al retorted and Ed flushed in embarrassment.
"It was a slip of the tongue!" he insisted.
"Sure, it was…"
Ed growled under his breath, swallowing some more cereal instead of responding to that.
Nitro meowed, pawing at Ed's leg, which only made Ed scowl viciously. Ed didn't mind cats, he actually liked them, but it wasn't really fair to Al to be able to pet the cat when Al really wanted to. Ed sighed, lifting the cat up and holding it out to Al.
"Brother…are you all right?" Al asked in concern, taking Nitro from him and giving him a few pats on the head. "You seem…drained."
"Its nothing," Ed said automatically with a sigh, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling. "I just had a dream about Mom, that's all."
"Was it a…good dream?" Al asked cautiously. One had to be when approaching Ed about the topic of their mother. Al had spent most of his nights at Ed's side for as long as he could remember, and since their failed transmutation, he knew that Ed was more often than not plagued with nightmares about the night they'd tried to bring Mom back. He'd heard Ed apologizing to her in his sleep and for once Al was very glad he wasn't able to dream or have nightmares. Those ones always ended badly, with Ed waking up to phantom pains.
This time Ed shrugged helplessly. "It was more about…Grandma Binah."
That gave Al pause. They didn't talk much about their grandparents -the ones they'd known about; Hohenheim never spoke about his side of the family, even back then- but neither had Mom. Grandma'd been pretty ill when Ed was born that she passed away a few months later; she'd never gotten the chance to meet Al before she died. "She was from a place called…Emunah, wasn't she?" It was in Amestris, that was all he could remember about his grandmother's birthplace.
"Yeah…" Ed's eyes had drifted off. Not that they could ever find a place called Emunah on a map. "I remember Mom saying something about Grandma Binah's people having a word for Hohenheim, zahav…she called him that a lot, remember?"
Al tilted his helmet in thought, trying to think back to the good old days, back when they were happy and whole. "I remember," he said, the memory fuzzy and hazy. "Is it important?"
Ed frowned again, his brow furrowing in thought. "I'm not sure…I think I heard the word somewhere else, though…it feels important." Ed pressed a hand to his brow before leaning back and staring up at the ceiling.
They'd hit a dead end with everything, on the Philosopher's Stone, on Xerxes, on the questions they had about Mom… it was like everything was a big mystery and Ed wasn't a fan of it.
"We'll figure it out," Al assured him, "we'll figure everything out."
Ed grunted.
"But I've got another idea!" Al said brightly.
Ed eyed his brother warily. Al's ideas were a reason to sleep with one eye open at night. He was sweet by nature, but his temper could turn icy with a flip of a switch. Their tempers were like fire and ice; they'd rage uncontrolled and unchecked if the other didn't quell the flames or melt the ice. "Am I going to like this idea?"
"Uh…maybe?" Al wheedled.
Ed arched an eyebrow.
"I was thinking about Xerxes." That didn't surprise Ed in the slightest, Xerxes was on both of their minds, especially if it held the secrets to regaining their bodies. "You know, how we thought it was suspicious that most people that knew about it seemed to end up dead?"
"Yeah…?" Ed arched an eyebrow in confusion. "I thought that was why we were keeping everything on the down low?"
"Yeah, but I was thinking about asking Teacher," Al explained. "We asked her about the Philosopher's Stone last time we saw her and she didn't know much, but maybe she knows more about Xerxes."
The idea made Ed uneasy, not just because it was Teacher; she still scared him and probably always would, but that wasn't it. Sure, it was strange that two people that knew anything about Xerxes and also knew about alchemy -Mom and Berthold Hawkeye- ended up dead, but they had no way of knowing if that was merely a coincidence or something a bit more sinister.
"Even if she doesn't know anything about it, she might know other alchemists that could," Al added quickly, seeing how Ed wasn't much of a fan of the idea.
"What if—?" Ed's throat closed before the rest of his words could leave his throat. What if we get Teacher killed too? He pressed a hand to his mouth, coughing to hide the fear that strangled him.
"I'll be careful," Al promised, "I'll keep it quiet."
Ed's eyes flicked towards Al. "You'll keep it quiet? You want to go to Dublith alone?"
"Well, yeah," Al's voice was almost sheepish, like he knew Ed wasn't going to like that. "You've got to work on the State Alchemist Exam, that's coming up in a week, and I've gone to Resembool on my own…I'll be fine."
"Resembool's one thing, everyone knows us in Resembool, Dublith is totally different," Ed insisted.
Their mother had no shortage of friends in Resembool, but she was a likeably person. Ed didn't even remember anyone not liking her, but the Ishvalans had gotten on the most with her and Hohenheim, probably something to do with her eyes, if not for her nature. Her eyes had been such a rich color, such a beautiful color that Ed had always wished he'd inherited that color in the stead of gold.
"Yeah, but its Teacher and Sig," Al stressed. "We promised we'd check in from time to time."
"We do!" The last time they'd checked in Teacher had threatened them bodily harm (threatened was such a mild term, Ed could still feel the bruises from when she'd kicked him in the face) before trying to hug the life out of them, only to vomit blood down her front. Teacher had had to spend most of her time during that visit in bed.
"Come on, Ed! Please!" Al clasped his fingers together doing the best impression of pleading puppy eyes. It was a good thing he didn't use that trick all the time or it would lose its effectiveness.
Predictably, Ed flaked.
"All right, fine," he said. "Just as long as you keep it on the down low and check in with me when you get there, all right?"
If Al could've rolled his eyes, Ed knew he would've, but Ed didn't care if he was being overprotective.
There was a knock on the door and Ed huffed, getting up and practically ripping the door open, too distracted by his pressing worries about Al to be anything less than annoyed with the person on the opposite side of the door. "What'd'ya want, Bastard Colonel?"
Mustang blinked in surprised at the sudden animosity. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, Fullmetal?"
Ed grunted, leaving the door open for Mustang to step inside. "All I'm saying Al is keep it quiet, okay? There's something about this whole mess that makes me suspicious."
"I will, I promise," Al said, bobbing his head agreeably before waving a gauntlet in Mustang's direction. "Good morning, Colonel!"
"Morning." Mustang arched an eyebrow at the sight of Al sitting with a small kitten pawing at his leg with interest. "I see you finally wore your brother down."
"I sure did!" Al couldn't have sounded any brighter. "This is Nitro, short for Nitroglycerin."
Mustang's laugh lodged in his throat and he quickly aborted it for a cough. "Interesting name."
He could hear Ed rummaging around upstairs, grumbling complaints to himself as he went. "What's up with him?"
"Probably annoyed about having to wear the uniform," Al said sagely before adding in, "probably also about me wanting to go to Dublith."
Mustang blinked, looking back towards Al. "You want to go to Dublith? Why?"
"Because Teacher's there and she's gonna kill us if one of us doesn't visit her soon," Al informed him brightly, completely unaffected by the potential murder. "Brother's staying here, obviously, since he's helping out with the State Alchemist Exam, but I'm going to head out there."
Mustang's brow furrowed briefly. "Be safe when you're out there, all right?"
Al made a scoffing sound that was uncannily like Ed's. "You and Brother are impossible! I'll be fine!"
Mustang chuckled as Al turned away to coo at the cat that had started mewing for more attention, his eyes falling to a framed photo on the small table next to the couch. It was the only picture in the house, from what Mustang could see.
Within it was Ed and Al far younger than Mustang remembered them being -they must've been three or four at the most-, both grinning as they hugged their mother. Mustang had never seen a picture of Trisha Elric, but he could see that even though Ed had inherited his father's coloring, the softness of his jaw and cheekbones were inherited from his mother. Trisha had thick dark brown hair restrained in a braid that was a bit more intricate than the one that Ed sported on the daily, skin lightly tanned from the sun, and…
Mustang almost dropped the picture as his heart fell into his stomach, fear gripping it tight. He almost felt like the world was swaying around him.
Trisha Elric's eyes were blood red.
"Hey, Al?" he called, straining to keep his voice level. "Where was your mother's family from?"
"Grandpa Miron was from Drachma, he immigrated over here when he turned eighteen, I think Mom said, he was a historian, he taught history at the university in North City…Grandma Binah was from a small town called Emunah here in Amestris, she was a seamstress…why?"
Emunah…the name turned to ash in Mustang's mouth. He remembered every Ishvalan town he'd decimated in the war, but, thankfully, Emunah wasn't on that list. No, that city had been reserved for Solf Kimblee, the Crimson Lotus Alchemist. Emunah wasn't the largest city in Ishval, but it was certainly the religious center, and the place where the wounded were taken to be treated -Mustang thought he remembered something about two Amestrian doctors helping the injured there, a general had muttered about the drain of resources, and then a few days later they were suspiciously dead and no one said a thing about it- and Kimblee had destroyed it. Mustang was already weighed down with his PTSD and self-hatred at that point, but when he'd heard what Kimblee'd done, he'd vomited onto the ground.
"Just curious," he said finally. "You boys never mentioned them."
"Mom was pretty quiet about them too," Al hummed in agreement, getting Nitro some food that the cat happily chowed down on. "Not too fast, Nitro…yeah, I think Grandma died a few months after Ed was born…Grandpa died when Mom was seventeen, I think, and she left school to get a job to help Grandma keep living at home."
So, they hadn't been in Ishval during the conflict. Mustang didn't know if he was relieved or horrified. Probably both.
Ed stomped down the stairs with a scowl firm on his face, hair pulled back into a braid, looking about as comfortable in the military uniform as he had been the first time he'd worn it and that certainly hadn't changed. He marched right past Mustang without looking at him once, taking the front seat of the car Hawkeye had driven Mustang in.
Al shrugged helplessly before following after his brother, and helpless was about what Mustang felt. Did the brothers even know that they were Ishvalan? It would seem impossible for them not to, but the Ishvalans in the city slums were dark-skinned and white-haired, neither of which their mother had been. It would probably be easy for them to write off the red eyes when they had other things to focus on.
But if they didn't know…how would they even react to knowing that Mustang had played a significant part in slaughtering their mother's people?
Mustang could feel the bile rising in his throat.
Al didn't really like traveling around without Ed, if he was going to be perfectly honest.
Ed was overprotective, sure, but at least Al had someone he trusted to back him up when things went sour -granted, Ed was usually the one causing everything to explode in their faces- but it was harder when he was alone.
Al didn't like being alone. He'd spent most of his nights alone. Ed slept with his door open so Al could look in to be sure that he was still there -sometimes sleeping calmly, sometimes in the throes of a nightmare; Ed's dreams were sporadic- and Nitro slept in Al's room, so it was better, but Al was hoping he'd get his body back soon; he could only endure so much.
Al wanted to sleep even if he had nightmares, he wanted to feel the sun even if it moved behind the clouds, he wanted to smile, he wanted to cry, he wanted to do all of it.
They were onto something with Xerxes, he just knew it, and he was sure that Teacher knew something. She had dozens upon dozens of books in her house on alchemy and Al was pretty sure he'd read the word 'Xerxes' at least once. And at least Teacher was still alive to ask questions; the same couldn't be said for Mom. But Mom was better at keeping secrets, Al thought.
Al looked out the window, watching the world fly by as the train moved over the tracks. The sun was shining down on the greenery and the blooming flowers and it all blurred together with the speed at which the train was moving. Ed always tended to sleep through all their train rides, and if Al wasn't reading, his attention was always directed outside the window, because at least every image was slightly different from the last.
And Al liked when things were different, though, he had to admit, that he probably should've called ahead to let Teacher know that he was coming.
But she would like this surprise, right?
"Sir, you've looked terrible since we picked up the Elric Brothers this morning…are you doing all right?" Hawkeye's eyes were colored with concern as she dropped off another batch of papers for him to fill out on his desk.
Roy felt like there was a band around his head that had been wound too tight, the tension building with each passing hour. His head, needless to say, was killing him.
The upside was that the source of his headache wasn't anywhere nearby. After Al had been dropped at the train station with a cheery wave goodbye, Ed had left Roy and Hawkeye as soon as they arrived at Central Command, vanishing off in the direction of the office in charge of the State Alchemist Exam. Roy had no idea what that entailed, and he was probably better off not knowing.
Knowing Ed, he was probably making the exam harder simply by finding the questions on it too easy.
"Did you know," Roy said finally, still rubbing at his brow hard enough to leave a mark, "that Ed and Al's mother had red eyes?"
Hawkeye stiffened suddenly, surprise flowing through her entire being. "Ishvalan?" she guessed.
"Their grandmother was from Emunah," Roy admitted hollowly and Hawkeye winced.
"Do they know about…?" The words didn't quite make it past Hawkeye's throat and Roy sighed.
"You know, I'm not entirely sure," he said finally, "I mean, from the picture, their mother looked barely Ishvalan, I suppose they could've overlooked it…I remember them mentioning that there are a lot of Ishvalans living in Resembool, they've been living there for as long as either of the boys can remember. Red eyes wouldn't be unusual to them, and they're easily distractible; why worry about eye colors when they're trying to get their bodies back?"
There was a bitterness to his own voice that he hadn't been expecting, and he didn't know exactly what he was bitter about, if it was that the brothers hadn't told him about their mother's Ishvalan blood (Why would they? The dark part of his mind countered. You killed Ishvalans, why would they tell the killer of their mother's people that their mother was Ishvalan?) or something else entirely.
"Sir?" Hawkeye's brow furrowed, taking note of his tone.
"Don't mind me, Lieutenant," Roy sighed, "I've just got a lot on my mind."
"Of course, sir…do you want me to tell Edward that you're in a meeting if he does show up?"
Roy felt ashamed at how relieved that idea made him. Trying to equate fiery golden-haired, golden-eyed Edward Elric with being Ishvalan was taking work, and Roy knew if his mind was being particularly difficult, he'd see a flash of light that would make Ed's hair seem white, or trick him into seeing red instead of gold for his eyes.
The bile was rising in his throat.
Better to avoid Ed entirely than draw him into a PTSD-induced episode, which was getting more and more likely by the second.
"Colonel." Hawkeye's -Riza's- voice echoed next to his ear, clear as everything around him turned yellow and fuzzy around the edges. He could feel her fingers tightening at his wrist. "Close your eyes and take a deep breath."
Roy leaned back in his chair, complying, leaving him in a world of darkness that he couldn't help but feel like he was drowning in.
"Take another breath, a deep one in through your nose and out through your mouth."
It was easy to follow orders like that and Roy slowly but surely felt his shoulders relaxing, the tension leaving them with his anxiety that had been steadily on the rise.
He opened his eyes and Hawkeye kneeling beside him, her hand still around his wrist. "Better?" she asked, a faint, soft smile on her lips.
The sun was pouring in through the window, hitting her eyes just right and Roy remembered the first time he'd seen that sherry color, narrowed in annoyance at her father's new (and only) apprentice, telling him not to get dirt on the floor. The color that had been so hollow under the heat of the Ishvalan sun was now so warm and soft.
"Better, thank you," he said finally, and she gave his wrist a lingering squeeze before standing once more.
"If that's all, Colonel?"
Roy admired her ability to snap back into the unshakable Lieutenant in less than a second. "Yes, thank you, Lieutenant."
"I'd get a head start on that paperwork," Hawkeye advised, striding towards the door, "or the next thing you know, you won't be able to see your desk, sir." The look she cast him was nothing less than sharp.
Roy felt the strong desire to salute her and just managed to stammer out a "Yes, of course" with just a faint amount of fear, but Hawkeye left satisfied, nonetheless, leaving Roy to slump in his chair.
Better paperwork than Edward, because at the moment, that was what he would prefer.
When General Kunio Hakuro had been told that Lieutenant Colonel Elric would be working with him on the State Alchemist Exam, he'd almost shit himself and requested a transfer back to North City even though he'd worked so hard to get transferred to Eastern Command after his wife became pregnant with their second child.
If Hakuro never had to deal with any Elric again, it would be too soon.
The Glacier Alchemist was still famous in North City, as famous as the Northern Wall of Briggs, which was telling, since they'd once known each other fairly well, in fact, Hakuro had often seen the women walking step in step with one another.
Trisha Elric had been a devastating force with twin gauntlets inscribed with alchemic arrays (there had been rumors that she'd had ones tattooed onto her palms as well, something Kimblee had used to his advantage during the Ishvalan War), sending spiky shards of ice up from where they collided with the snow.
Her temper was as cold as ice, and the rich red of her eyes had done nothing to warm that ice, and Hakuro remembered that gaze more than anything else; she and Major General Olivier Armstrong had it mastered.
But when he came into the room he couldn't see her tell-tale braid or her crimson eyes. Truth be told, he'd thought she'd retired some years ago.
"Where's Lieutenant Colonel Trisha Elric?" he asked to the room at large and one of the blue-clothed figures whipped around to force out a startled "What the fuck?!"
It was a boy, no more than fourteen or fifteen, with dark skin, golden hair and eyes, but there was something about him that reminded Hakuro of Trisha.
"What are you asking for my mother for?" Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, demanded, full of fire and gaping in astonishment.
AN: Trisha was the one in the military and was half-Ishvalan! Talk about a hard pill to swallow for Ed, huh? Red eyes are commonplace in Resembool so Ed and Al didn't notice them too much apart from liking the color, and their mom was pretty private about her parents.
As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
