Death never pierces the heart so much
as when it takes someone we love;
cleaving the heart they held with their passing.
-Brandon M. Herbert
Amelia looked up at the estate as she came back with Armstrong, seeing Delilah and Dianna waiting for them at the front door. "I guess you still have some work to do," Amelia said since she guessed she was going to be escorted back to her room with the two maids there.
"Yes, there are a few things I need to do in regards to the Fifth Laboratory." Armstrong said, "And once I've finished, I'll return home."
"Alright, I won't go anywhere until tomorrow, I guess." She said, "But it was nice to get out for a while."
Armstrong came around to open the door, letting her out and bringing her over to the twins who met the pair with synchronized curtsies. Amelia went with them, walking through the halls to her bedroom, only to be redirected from it before she could turn to the door with the twins holding the bends of her arms and pulling her away, "This way, Miss Seymour." The twins said in sync.
"I thought I was going back to my room?" Amelia said questioningly.
"And in time, you will," Dianna said, "However, your presence has been requested."
"By who?"
"The young Miss Strongine, of course." Delilah said, "And Miss Catherine." Amelia could only imagine that Strongine wanted to see her for one reason.
Amelia came into the music room to see the familiar sight of Strongine's powerful and tall figure next to Catherine's petite and curvy one on the piano bench together, with Strongine directing her sister to play. It was a tune that Amelia didn't recognize, some happy, bouncy kind of song that was interrupted when the pair heard the door closing.
"Amelia!" Strongine beamed at the sight of her, "Glad you could join us. Come, sit!" She got up from her seat to make room for Amelia, who slowly came over to her, looking between the two sisters. She hadn't seen either of them for days, the only people she had seen since her security had been increased was her teacher and a few servants sent to keep an eye on her. She paused at the bench, looking at the piano keys and down at her wrists. Well, she supposed it would be safer in their eyes for her to keep them on…
"Oh, we should get those off of you." Catherine said, turning to the twins, "May we have the cuff keys, please?" Delilah produced a key ring with only one key on it, bringing it to Catherine who unlocked Amelia's handcuffs. She was glad for it, but still a bit confused. "There, that's better isn't it?"
"What's going on?" She asked, looking up at Strongine, "Why am I here?"
"Well, it's time for Catherine's lessons." Strongine said as if it were obvious, "She only practices once every few weeks on her schedule. She felt she learned a great deal from seeing you play the last time, so we invited you again."
"But…" Her brow furrowed a little, "I thought…" She hadn't seen them since she had gotten caught. She would have thought they weren't allowed to see her since she was at risk for escaping again or something, at least that's what she assumed when she didn't hear from any of the Armstrong sisters. "Aren't you scared?"
"Of what? You?" Strongine asked with a chuckle, "No offense meant, my dear, but you're hardly intimidating. I've seen how you would run around the courtyards with Alex." Amelia blushed at the mention, knowing she was the slowest of the group and she never looked her best doing it, either.
"You know what I mean!" She snapped at her, "I tried to escape! Aren't you afraid of getting in trouble with your brother or something?"
"Why would Alex get us in trouble?" Catherine asked innocently.
"Because you're not allowed to talk to me… or something… Right?" She looked between the two of them, wondering if her assumption had been wrong, "I haven't seen you guys since I got caught trying to take a map."
"Oh, that." Strongine waved dismissively, "We were just busy preparing for the upcoming reunion. We simply didn't have time to see you since Catherine, Amue, and I were in charge of writing and sealing up the invitations."
"Amue has the most beautiful calligraphy," Catherine said with a smile, "She was in charge of writing out the invitations, and Strongine was in charge of making sure all the invitations had the same message since she's an excellent orator. I was in charge of making sure the letters were sealed properly and sent to the right addresses. We didn't mean to make you feel like you were forbidden from seeing us." She reached out to touch Amelia's shoulder, "We were just caught up in party planning. I hope you can forgive us for making you feel like you were being punished."
Amelia did feel a little relief in knowing that she wasn't forbidden from seeing the Armstrong sisters. In comparison to their brother, they were a little more welcome since they never talked about alchemy or her training or anything related to it. It was a welcome reprieve from her teaching. "Well… no, it's fine, it's not like it's your fault. I was being punished." She said, "I didn't know you guys were…" She paused, "A reunion? Like a family reunion?"
"Oh, yes. It's one of the more fantastic parties in the Armstrong tradition. Held once every five years." Strongine said, "Our family will be hosting it on our estate this year. There will be plenty of dancing, and delicious food, and divine music."
"Sounds like a blast." Amelia couldn't really care less.
"Oh, you should attend!" Catherine said excitedly, "You live here with us, after all! And you can showcase your piano playing with a song!"
"What a wonderful idea!" Strongine said with a smile matching her little sister's. "You're such a wonderful piano player! I'm sure you know plenty of songs that we don't!"
"Why should I?" Amelia frowned a little at the idea, "I'm not an Armstrong, why would I go to an Armstrong family reunion?"
"Everyone is allowed to bring a guest if they want." Catherine said, "You can be mine! I don't have any suitors I'd like to bring, anyway."
"Catherine gets too many suitors and she always feels guilty about not inviting all of them." Strongine said, "She's too kind for it, so she never invites any of them."
"I don't know… don't you think it would be weird for me to showcase something at your family reunion? Shouldn't you guys be the ones showing off?" She asked, "I mean, they're your family, they care about you."
"Well, you don't have to-"
"Of course you should!" Strongine cut off her sister, "You're a magnificent player!"
Amelia frowned a little, "Okay when you try to encourage me like Alex does, that makes me want to play a hell of a lot less." Strongine was a little surprised at the comparison to her brother, but she soon came back to herself with a small sigh.
"Fine, you don't have to play unless you really want to." She said, sounding disappointed, "But you should still come. It's a great party regardless of whether or not you're performing."
"I'll… I'll think about it." She said. She wasn't a big fan of high society parties since she was too familiar with some of them that her own family had thrown and they were never really for her sake, even if it was something like her birthday. But she didn't want to outright refuse, maybe it would be different with the Armstrong family. "Can we just get to playing the piano?"
"Of course." Strongine said, "Do you have any compositions that we might play out?"
"Um… I don't know, I know a few from memory…" She said, starting to play out a couple tunes she could remember, mostly just because they were the ones that she liked playing the most. After a while, Catherine asked her to teach some of them, and she started to do just that. This went on for an hour or so, the three of them just playing together, and Amelia had to admit that she felt so comfortable with these two girls. She found herself playing with a little more enthusiasm as well - after all, since security measures had been taken, she hadn't touched a piano. She was glad to be back on that stool again, playing out the music she knew by heart, and learning the compositions that Strongine was teaching to Catherine.
"You know, you should write down some of these." Strongine said after Amelia finished another song she had known, "They're beautiful music. I would love to be able to practice them while you're out with Alex, or training or doing whatever it is that you do when you're not here."
"Oh… Well, I guess I could do that." She could read music well enough, and she could remember the notes of the keyboard as well. "I don't really have any paper or anything."
"I'll send for some sheet music for you to write it on." Strongine said with a smile, "Any song that you can write up for us would be wonderful. Do you know any compositions that accompany singing?"
"A couple of them. Hallelujah is my personal favorite." She said, starting to play out the tune for it. "When I get the composition down, I can write out the lyrics."
"You don't want to sing it?" Strongine asked, "If you could sing as well as play piano, that would make for quite a combination."
Amelia was a little surprised she would ask, "Well… Um, I don't know. I don't think I'm super good, but as far as I know, I'm not tone deaf." She said, still mostly focused on playing out the tune, "Don't you sing?" She asked, turning to Catherine.
"Oh, no, not me." She said, "I'm too soft-spoken. Mother says I can't project very well." Amelia looked up to Strongine, who shook her head.
"Not me, I'm a bit flat overall. Mother's tried to get me to sing better, but I'm simply not that good in comparison to Amue."
"Amue sings?"
"Oh, she sings beautifully!" Strongine praised her sister, "She's very operatic, but she can adjust herself to almost any genre of music. She even does folk music well." It made sense to Amelia, she remembered how high-pitched and feminine Amue's voice was in comparison to Strongine's deep one. "But we're getting a little off subject, aren't we? We can't sing it without knowing how the lyrics go." Amelia frowned a little as her fingers paused on the piano. "Will you sing it?" Strongine was a little concerned that she stopped, "Are you perhaps a little shy?"
"Um… I guess I can." She said, starting the song over, "Just… Don't laugh if I turn out to be tone-deaf, okay?" Strongine nodded as she promised not to do so, Catherine doing the same.
"I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Hallelujah, halle-"
"What does that mean?" Amelia paused at the question, her fingers stopping the piano keys.
"What?"
"That word, what does it mean?" Catherine asked innocently, "I've never heard it before."
"Hallelujah?" Catherine nodded, showing that was the word she meant, "Well, it means… um…" Amelia wasn't entirely sure of the definition, "It's like… It basically means 'Praise God' or something to that effect. Like, something good happens and you say, 'Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!'"
"Oh." Catherine smiled, "I guess that makes sense, I didn't realize your song was religious."
"It's not." Amelia frowned, "It's kind of a love song of sorts, bemoaning a lost love or something. It just compares the love the guy felt to the kind of… holiness that comes with God, I guess. I thought it was a powerful song." She looked down at the piano, "Maybe I can just write up the lyrics for you later or something. I don't really want to sing it." She felt a little discouraged and embarrassed after that interruption.
"Oh, no, please go on." Strongine said, "It sounded lovely."
"No, it's alright. I'm good." Amelia held her ground and Strongine frowned in disappointment, but she let them move on.
"Then perhaps we can teach you a new song." She said, pulling out a sheet of music to follow as they started the lessons once more.
Soon enough, the lessons came to an end and Amelia was returned to her room, though with an armful of sheet music paper to write up her songs on. She figured it would be a good way to pass time until the next time she had an alchemy lesson, or got out of her room, which she wasn't sure would be anytime soon. She got to work on composing what she could from memory for a little while, sitting in the quiet room and remembering the music, playing it over and over again in her head as she wrote it down, making sure she got it right and hoping that it would come out on the piano the same way it was coming out on paper.
She looked up when she heard knocking, pausing her writing as she said, "Come in!" to see the door open to Major Armstrong. She turned around to face him, and he had both of his hands behind his back. She wasn't used to seeing him stand like that, but she figured it was on purpose, "Yeah? Is it lesson time or something?"
"You have done much better today, given your past issues." Armstrong said, "So I went out to get you a small reward." He pulled his hands from behind his back, revealing a small bag. She reached for it, opening it up and pulling out what was inside. It was a necklace, a little oval-shaped locket. She opened it up and wasn't at all surprised to see Major Armstrong's picture in there.
"Wow. A locket with your picture. I don't know what to say." She said dryly, though the locket itself was rather nice, a good silver chain, and the design on the locket's face was nice, too. "It's pretty."
"Thank you, it was my first photograph taken for my military identification papers." Now that Amelia looked closely, she noticed something extremely odd and disturbing about the picture of him in there.
"Jesus Christ, you look fucked up without your mustache!" She said, her face cringing a little at the sight of a clean-shaven Armstrong. He looked exactly like his sisters Amue and Strongine, only without cosmetics. As a man, she supposed it was fine since he wasn't held to the same beauty standards, but he wasn't the friendliest face to look at that way. "You look like a bull that just ate its first lemon, you're so sour-faced!"
"Yes, in my younger years, I was quite intimidating." He said proudly, "But we were told not to smile for our portraits. A year after enlisting, I allowed myself to grow the glorious facial hair you see today." He gestured to his mustache and Amelia rolled her eyes a little bit. "But I am glad that you have been adjusting to this new standard of security, and I understand that it will be difficult to deal with for some time, but it means a great deal to me that you are trying."
"Careful, Major. If you come off as too sincere, I might just take advantage of that." She joked, and he smiled at her. "But… this is a nice locket. And the picture is… a good placeholder. If nothing else, it'll be a good way to start a conversation." She looked down at it, turning it over in her hands, "So… thanks."
"Would you like some help putting it on?" He asked, and Amelia shrugged, figuring there was no harm in letting him. She turned around and he put the locket around her neck. She wasn't sure his massive fingers could deal with such a tiny chain that well, but apparently they did fine and soon she wore her locket. She looked down at it with an approving hum, "You look lovely."
"Thank you," she said, turning back around to face him. "So… do I also get some lightened security measures since I was so good today?"
"No. It would take a lot more than one good day to convince me of that." Amelia frowned, but she understood. It was pretty reasonable after all, that he wouldn't be convinced after one day on the outside. "But it does tell me that I can keep an eye on you outside of the house. I am returning to the hospital tomorrow to speak with Edward Elric in detail about what happened to the Fifth Laboratory, as the sudden destruction of the building is very… coincidental."
"You mean because Ed started investigating it?" She asked, and the Major nodded.
"At the moment, we can't seem to find the source of the sudden explosion, and it's very concerning." He said, "Our investigation so far suggests that it was multiple bombs hidden throughout the building. If this was done under government watch, the idea that there was something in there that was worth destroying the building for is very concerning."
"Well, we already know some of your government was involved with people being made into stones." Amelia said, "Maybe those same guys didn't want to get caught. It's better to erase the evidence than hold onto it."
"But the question is why was the laboratory still standing to begin with if that was the case?" Armstrong said, "The building was shut down, it hadn't been in use for years, and the guards staffed there can attest that no one has gone in or out that they've seen or heard." Amelia's brow furrowed as she tried to think.
"It does seem odd that you'd keep it standing when there's damning evidence inside that could destroy your entire career in the military…" She paused as a thought came to her, "Unless you were still using it."
"That's the part I'm afraid of." Armstrong said, "If there were bodies to exhume of them, then I would have certainly done it by now. Unfortunately, the military requires that all prison executions are dealt with by cremation, and I cannot check to see if the corpses were falsely made."
"You can't check the ashes?" She asked, "See if there's any sign that it was a person that was burned? I know sometimes things like teeth and bones don't get burned all the way down. Maybe they just took ashes from a fire or something."
"The issue is finding a reason to investigate without arousing suspicion from whoever did this terrible thing." Armstrong said, "I am hoping that the Elric brothers can provide me with a better reason than what I can come up with, see if their experience in the Fifth Laboratory can give me probable cause to search the ashes of the executed."
"Sounds like a blast." She spoke in that same dry tone, "Well, tell Alphonse I said hi, at least. Did he seem kind of down to you?" He had sounded a little different than normal when she spoke to him, and he had seemed like he wanted to say something, but he didn't in the end. She doubted they were close enough for her to really help him that much, anyway.
"He did, which is why I'd like you to return with me when I speak to them tomorrow. He seemed a little less sullen when you appeared. And young Edward certainly gained a little more energy."
"Oh, yeah, sure. He got more energetic so he could rag on me." She rolled her eyes a little bit. But then again… "Well… I guess I could stand to go at it again. Maybe I can think of some better insults this time."
"I wish you wouldn't." The Major sighed, "I would rather you and Edward Elric be on better terms. He is a fine, upstanding young man."
"With a fuse shorter than my fingernail."
"Well, perhaps he has some anger issues, but he is in a unique position, it's natural that he would become stressed." The Major said, "This may not be the best outlet for it, perhaps, but you don't seem very hurt by his insults."
"Of course not, none of them have been that good, anyway." She said with an indifferent shrug, "But whatever. I'd like to get out of the house again if I get the chance."
"I'm sure the Elric brothers will be glad to see you." The Major said, "And you can speak to Lieutenant Colonel Hughes a little earlier to update him on your progress. I'm sure he'll be happy for the convenience of the trip." Amelia's expression fell into one of unease.
"Well, that's great…" She didn't exactly want to talk about why she had to leave the house in handcuffs, or how she got caught. She doubted that would go over well with whatever superior officer was reading the reports he gave.
The next day progressed as the new norm, but the exercise regimen was back at 5 AM. The Major apparently spoke to his sisters, who told him how Amelia had felt shunned, and felt guilty for it. Amelia cursed his good-natured generosity all through her run that morning, and she sat out for the rest of weight training as she relaxed with her phone and the music on it once more. Once that was finished, and she was dressed and ready for the day, she went with the Major to Central Headquarters to pick up Lieutenant Colonel Hughes so they could all go to the hospital together.
The car ride was a little… awkward, considering that Amelia sat next to the Lieutenant Colonel in the backseat.
"So… any reason you're in handcuffs?" He asked her, and Amelia wished she could shrink away in that moment. She found it difficult to answer, and she couldn't look him in the eye. When she didn't answer him, Hughes turned to Armstrong, "Major?"
"She was caught trying to steal a map from my quarters." The Major said, "We increased security measures as a result."
"I see." Hughes looked back at Amelia, who still wouldn't look him in the eye, "So you were trying to escape."
"I was not!" She turned to him, "I wanted to go to the fifth lab! I wasn't trying to violate the agreement I had with you guys!"
"How convenient that every escape attempt you have, it's always for a "good" reason." Hughes said doubtfully, "The last time, you were following Scar because you recognized his description as a criminal."
"That was the truth!" She snapped at him, "Why won't you just believe me?! I'm being honest about that map! I just wanted to go to the lab and see if they had something that could help me get home, that's all." Hughes didn't look like he believed her at all, and she scoffed, "Whatever. I'm already a prisoner at the Armstrong estate, you might as well write a report saying that I deserve to be one."
"Now, I didn't say I was doing that," Hughes replied, and Amelia said nothing in return. She didn't really want to talk to him that much. The rest of the car ride was Major Armstrong filling the space by telling the Lieutenant Colonel the results of his investigations thus far. Apparently, he had already been informed about the Philosopher's Stone being made in the Fifth Lab, and that Edward and Alphonse did some of their own investigations but did something to trigger the explosion of the building, or someone else did.
When they arrived at the hospital, they went to Edward's room. He was already there with Alphonse, and he greeted Armstrong and Hughes with a small wave and a, "Hey," though he didn't quite do the same for Amelia.
"Well, if it isn't the prisoner." He greeted her with a smug grin, and Amelia replied with a sneer of her own.
"I may be a prisoner, but at least I'm free to walk instead of being trapped in a hospital bed, and treated like a child." Edward scowled at her.
"I wouldn't be talking so big when you're still in handcuffs."
"Right, because I'm treated as a threat." She said, holding up said handcuffs to rub it in, "Like a grown-up." Edward's scowl only deepened and he glared at her.
"Edward," The Major redirected his attention to him, "The Lieutenant Colonel and I are currently doing investigations into the Fifth Laboratory, but we need to know what it was you saw in there. It may give us some hint about what else went on in there if anything did."
"Do you think you can tell us what happened in there?" The Lieutenant Colonel asked, and Edward nodded.
"Yeah, sure. Well, for starters, the place still seemed to be in use when I got there." Edward began his tale, speaking of how he met with a hollow suit of armor that was two souls bound together, a pair of brothers. One in the helmet, and another bonded to the body of the armor. Alphonse told his own story of meeting a similar character; apparently, all of them had been former prisoners sentenced to death but were instead made guards to the place. Edward described the fight he had with the brothers briefly, but Hughes interrupted him and asked for more details about the place. As far as Edward could tell, the place had still been in use, saying there had been blood on the floor of the transmutation circle in the main room where fought, "But I don't know how old it was. It looked like it had been there for a while." That was satisfactory enough for Hughes.
As the story went on, Edward described the odd people he met that ended up killing the brothers in their armor by destroying their blood seals. When he was asked to sketch them out, Hughes lent him his notebook to let him draw what he remembered. "They had Ouroboros tattoos. The woman had one on her chest and the… well, the other guy had one on his thigh." He drew out the tattoo, and Amelia looked at it with Armstrong and Hughes.
"What's an ouroboros?" She asked as she looked at the image, which seemed to be a kind of winged snake lying in a circle.
"It's the image of a snake eating its own tail." Edward explained it briefly, starting to draw out the circle he had seen in the laboratory as well, "The alchemy was a little odd, too. It was a polygonal transmutation circle, but it was almost completely blank save for a couple of things." He drew it out and gave it to Hughes, who looked over it carefully. Edward got to work, "Anyway, those two people kept saying something about a 'sacrifice' and how the brothers telling me everything was somehow putting me at risk because they would have to kill me for whatever that information was. The woman kind of looked like this." He held up a face that Amelia scrunched up her nose a little at. It was very childlike in comparison to his drawings of transmutation circles and the ouroboros, just a couple lines for the eyes and a weird pair of puckered lips, with wavy hair that almost looked like a tail.
"You suck at drawing people," Amelia said bluntly, and Edward scowled at her.
"I never really had to make that a priority!" He snapped at her, "You do better, then!"
"Can't." Amelia held up her cuffed hands as an excuse and Edward rolled his eyes.
"If you can't do it better, then don't complain about it." He said before he went back to drawing and made another character, "I don't remember any bombs going off, but the last thing I remember is this guy kicking me." He held up his new drawing, with the one of the woman crossed out with an X. It was really more of a doodle than anything, but it was apparently better than nothing as Hughes examined the images.
"It's odd that he let you live." Armstrong said, "What about this 'sacrifice' and these other armored souls?"
"Not to mention the Ouroboros tattoos and the transmutation circle," Hughes added. "And Doctor Marcoh claims that they were using the Philosopher's stone in Ishval…"
"Every clue we have to work with seems to lead to its own mystery," Armstrong said.
"Not much we can do about that, though." Hughes replied, "Any answers we might have found are under a ton of rubble back at the lab." The group of men all let out a sigh as they realized just how cut off from information they were in regards to everything that was happening. Amelia had to admit, it did seem pretty hopeless in regards to figuring out what was going on.
"I'll run a search and see if I can find some priors on anyone with an Ouroboros tattoo," Hughes said, picking up the image that Edward had drawn of it.
"Very good," Armstrong said, "And while you do that, I'll continue looking into the research team that was working with Doctor Marcoh in Ishval."
Someone knocked on the door to Edward's room, and Amelia looked back at it with everyone else. The door opened with the man saying, "Sorry to interrupt," as the door swung wider, they could see it was the Fuhrer himself coming in to greet them with a polite smile on his face, dressed in full uniform. The shock was completely tangible through the room as he made his sudden, unexpected appearance.
Immediately, Armstrong and Hughes stood at a salute.
"Fuhrer Bradley! Your Excellency!" Armstrong greeted him stiffly.
"Calm down, gentlemen," He dismissed the major's stiff greeting with a wave of his hand, "This is just an informal visit." They lowered their hands and gave a respectful bow in greeting, as did Alphonse.
"Yes, sir," Hughes said, "But may I please ask the occasion, sir?"
Hughes walked up to Edward, who quickly made his way out of bed to greet him on his feet. Amelia stayed a little behind Armstrong as she watched him come forward, looking at his eye patch in his profile. She had only met him once before, and she knew he was the reason she wasn't locked away in jail right at that moment. Still, it was kind of hard to be in his presence, knowing just who he was and what he was capable of doing.
"This young man," The Fuhrer looked to Edward, "Heard you're injured. I thought a nice melon might cheer you up." He held up a basket with a big, round, green melon inside, with a pink ribbon wrapped around the handle of the basket itself. It looked like a simple, but still a very nice, gift.
"I guess…" Edward accepted the melon, his eyes a little wide in shock at the simplicity. When he realized he'd been given a gift from the leader of his country, he jumped and spoke again, "Gah! Thank you, sir!"
"I understand you've been checking up on some of the senior staff. Is this true, Major Armstrong?" He asked. The Major grew a little more tense, looking over at the fuhrer nervously.
"Uh… Yes… sir. But, uh… how did you know I was-?"
"You should know that nothing gets past me, Major." The Fuhrer said, turning his head to meet Armstrong with his green eye, which seemed startlingly sharp in that moment to Amelia. He turned back to Edward, "And now you, my revered Fullmetal Alchemist." Edward gulped and stood a little stiffer, "Tell me what you know about the Philosopher's Stone." Edward's expression grew pale as he looked up at him, "And I hope for your sake that you don't know too much." He loomed over Edward, who looked tiny in comparison to Fuhrer King Bradley, and he felt like it, too. Tension filled the room and put everyone on edge. Amelia could feel her insides twisting in nervousness, everyone was silent for what felt like hours, even though it was only a couple of seconds.
The Fuhrer smiled, and then boisterously laughed, leaving everyone in the room a little confused, "I'm only kidding!" He said through his laughs, and he smiled at Edward, putting his hand on his shoulder, "There's no reason for you to be so uptight." Amelia begged to differ.
"Huh…?" Was the only response Edward could get out.
"I know there's been some suspicious activity within the military lately," The Fuhrer continued, pulling his hand back to his side, "And I believe it's necessary for something to be done about it." He turned to the table that bore all of Edward's drawings, as well as Armstrong's investigation notes that he had compiled of those who had worked in the Fifth Laboratory. It was the first thing the fuhrer reached for.
"Oh! Uh, that's just- uh…" The major wasn't sure what to say, fumbling over his words as the Fuhrer turned the pages of the compiled documents.
"A list of the research team assigned to study the Philosopher's Stone." Fuhrer Bradley finished his sentence for him as he looked over the names on the list, "Every person in this document has been reported missing." Armstrong couldn't help taking in a small gasp at the news, "They all vanished several days before the Fifth Laboratory collapsed. It seems the enemy is always one step ahead of us. Even with my vast network of informants, I have no way to determine how far our ranks have been infiltrated. The most we know about them is that they know a lot about us."
"In that case, this is proving much more dangerous than we imagined," Hughes said, starting to see more of this situation now that the Fuhrer had spoken of it.
Fuhrer Bradley hummed in thought as he put down the documents where he had found them, turning to Armstrong, "Major Armstrong," He faced Hughes, "Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," He turned to Edward and Alphonse, "Elric brothers, you've all proven yourselves to be men of a trustworthy character. From this point forward I'm giving you the direct order to forget this matter and all that it concerns." He spoke with a stern, serious expression, "At this time, suspicion is our strongest line of offense, and our only form of defense is discretion. Do not trust anyone. Keep this to yourselves at all costs." He smiled, "However when I deem the time is right to confront the enemy, I expect you to be prepared to join me in the effort."
"Sir!" Armstrong and Hughes saluted him, showing their support for his plan.
"And as for you, Miss Amelia," He said, turning to the girl in question, "I expect you understand there are consequences in place if you speak of this to anyone? You've been let in on some very dangerous information. It's in your best interest to stay as quiet as possible."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Amelia couldn't agree more with the idea that she stay as far out of it as she could. The Fuhrer looked at her, and noticed something.
"Is there a reason you're in handcuffs?" He asked, "I expected those to be removed once you were under Major Armstrong's custody."
"Oh, um…" She looked down at them, "They're just… security measures." She said, unsure of how to answer.
"Security measures against a young girl like yourself?" He let out a small chuckle at the idea, turning to the Major, "Go ahead and release her, Major. From what I understand, she's been a model student recently. I see no reason to keep her restrained."
"Uh, yes, sir." Armstrong couldn't deny a direct order from the leader of the country, turning to Amelia, he pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the wooden cuffs. Amelia rubbed her wrists, feeling a little relief now that her hands were freed.
"Where is he?!" A voice shouted from beyond the hospital door, "Has Fuhrer Bradley been through here?!"
At the sound, the Fuhrer quickly saluted the Major and Lieutenant Colonel before saying, "Gotta go!" He muttered under his breath as he walked towards the window of Edward's room, "Damn bodyguard thinks he's my shadow…" He opened it up and everyone watched as he climbed onto the windowsill, one foot out the other side. It wasn't dangerous for him, since Edward was on the first floor, just near a courtyard in the middle of hospital property. He turned back at them with a jovial smile, "You see, I've snuck away to get a few minutes of privacy. Well, farewell for now!" He gave them a brief wave before climbing out the window, the group moving a little closer to it as they watched him walk down the courtyard path with his hands casually behind his back as if there was nothing wrong.
The door opened once more, with Winry greeting them on the other side, "Hey, Ed-! What the…?" She stopped when she saw everyone looking shocked and a little tired as if a weight had been put on all their shoulders. "What's going on? Did I miss something?"
"Not really… Just a tornado passing by." Edward responded.
Winry didn't really know how to respond to that, so she brushed it off as she closed the door behind her, coming up to Edward with a pair of train tickets, "Well, I don't think there's anything I can do about that, but I did go and buy the train tickets you asked for." She said.
"Thanks, just in time," Edward said, taking them from her.
"You sure are a man on the move, aren't you?" Armstrong marveled, "Your wounds haven't even healed completely."
"Yeah, well two days of sick people and hospital food is enough for me, thanks," Edward said.
"Really? And here I thought you seemed right at home around here." Amelia said, and was met with a sharp glare from Edward, his fist clenching around the tickets that Winry had given him. Hughes, knowing that the station might not take them if they were too wrinkled, got him to let go and let him take a look at where the two brothers were headed.
"And where are you heading off to, this time?" He quirked his brow as he looked at them, "What's in Dublith?"
"Well, with the way things have gone lately," Edward came up behind his brother, his flesh hand knocking against the metal as he pat his back, "Al and I decided we should go back and visit our old teacher." Al's armor started to clink and shake, and everyone looked up from the noise.
"I think I'm too scared, brother…!" He said, turning around to face him, still trembling from his fear, "There's no way she's not gonna kill us!"
"Look, don't you chicken out on me now!" Edward said, his expression showing his anxiety towards the situation, grasping at his younger brother's hands in solidarity of their shared fear of their teacher, "I'm scared, too, okay?!"
"What exactly does this person teach…?" Winry asked, a little concerned at their extreme reactions.
"It appears you have a rather lengthy journey ahead of you." Armstrong said, "Dublith is quite a ways away."
"How far is Dublith?" Winry asked.
"Well… let's see…" Al went over to a wall, which had a framed map of Amestris. Amelia had seen it a lot in other hospital rooms, but she wasn't sure why. She guessed when people didn't have GPS, they always wanted to look at a map to see where they were going. "There it is." Alphonse pointed to a dot a ways south of Central, "All the way down here." Winry let out a hum as she took a closer look, seeing how many towns Alphonse and Edward were going to pass before something caught her eye. She let out a sudden gasp at the sight of it that shocked everyone in the room.
"W-What is it?" Edward asked, now concerned for her.
"That! Right there! Right before Dublith!" She said, pointing to the town above Dublith on the map, "It's the holy land of automail engineering! It's Rush Valley!" She turned to Edward with stars in her eyes and an excited smile, waving her hands in her excitement jumping up and down like a little kid, "We have to go! We have to go! We have to go! You have to take me!"
"Yeah, whatever. I don't have to take you anywhere." Edward brushed it off, immediately killing Winry's enthusiasm and she frowned, stepping up to him, leaning over him as she scowled at him.
"Well somebody has to pay for my travel fare!" She said.
"Why does it have to be me?!" Ed asked in turn.
Not wanting a fight to start, Al intervened, "Come on, Brother. What's the big deal? It's on our way."
"Only if you want to, Al." Edward conceded, crossing his arms.
Winry squealed with delight at knowing she could go with them, "Yay!" She rushed to the door, opening it up, turning back over her shoulder to say, "I've got to call and tell Grandma!" She left the room in silence with the four men and Amelia.
Hughes put his hand on Edward's shoulder and said in a serious voice, "She'll make you a fine wife someday."
"Don't start that again!" Edward growled out, clearly fed up with the joke.
Hughes only laughed sheepishly, smiling, "I would rather talk about my wife, anyway." Edward's expression deadpanned.
"Like any woman in her right mind would marry you, anyway," Amelia said, crossing her arms as she stood. Edward turned to her.
"And just what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you have a temper that's out of control. I hate to see what happens when she calls you small, and you assume she means your height."
Edward's face exploded into a bright red blush, his voice cracking as he exclaimed, "What the hell?!"
"I mean, really," Amelia continued, feeling a bit of a streak coming on, "With the way you act around me, I feel sad for the poor girl. You'd probably punch her lights out before she could tell you what she meant."
"I would never do that!" Edward snapped at her.
"You've tried to deck me like five times!" Amelia snapped back.
"That's because you keep pissing me off!"
"I keep pissing you off because you can't control your fucking temper! You blow up over the tiniest things!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO TINY HE COULD FALL IN A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK?!"
"I didn't say that, you dense son of a bitch!"
"Amelia!" The two stopped when Armstrong's booming voice interrupted the conversation, "That is enough. It is true that Edward has his temper, but you continue to antagonize him."
"Not my fault he makes it so easy," Amelia replied. Armstrong gave her a glare, and she couldn't help but shrink under it a little. She knew he brought her here in the hopes of making the brothers feel a little at ease, and this wasn't helping. She sighed and relented, "Fine..." She looked back at Edward, "I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it."
Edward didn't say anything until Alphonse said, "Brother." Edward looked back at the suit of armor, and he sighed as well.
"Okay, I'm sorry, too." They both sounded like reluctant children. "Al wants us to get along better because he thinks you're a nice person."
Amelia let out a small scoffing laugh at the ridiculous thought, "Okay." The reaction wasn't lost on Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, but he said nothing about it.
"We should get to work on what investigations we can manage." Hughes said, turning to Armstrong, "I'll still do some looking into a few things, but we need to be as quiet as possible."
"Of course, sir." Armstrong said, "I'll finish with Amelia's alchemical training and then I will return to the office." Hughes nodded and saluted Armstrong, who returned the gesture before he started to leave, Amelia following behind him.
"Oh, Major," Alphonse's voice stopped him, "Do you think you can give Ed, Winry and I a ride to the train station in a couple hours?"
"It would be my pleasure, Alphonse." The Major said, "It should be just enough time to finish your training Amelia."
"Great, does that mean I have to share a car with them?" She asked, "Because all that leather that blonde moron wears stinks."
"Hey!" Edward snapped at her comment, and she stuck her tongue out immaturely at him in response. Armstrong sighed tiredly and put his hand on Amelia's shoulder, pushing her along out of the room, leaving the Elric brothers and Hughes behind.
"How in the hell does Armstrong manage to deal with that girl?" Edward asked, scowling after her, his arms crossed.
"Oh, I don't think she's as bad as you think she is." Hughes said, "I think your brother's right. Amelia is a good person, at her core. It seems she just has an affinity for making herself unlikeable."
"What would she do that for?" Edward asked.
"I suppose I'll find out eventually." Hughes said before he left the room, "You should rest up before you go. I'm sure the doctors won't let you leave without making sure you're okay to travel."
After a couple of hours of alchemy training, Amelia was allowed back out with Armstrong. After having the fuhrer comment on her handcuffs, she didn't wear them anymore, though she imagined Fuhrer Bradley didn't read the report on her recent escape attempt. He would probably request that she be locked up again, so she would enjoy her freedom while she could. She learned about transmutations, her skills with making different objects slowly getting better. She was starting to learn to make more complex things, like tiny statues of different animals, or herself. She preferred to make a tiny version of herself instead of a tiny version of her teacher, mostly because she didn't want him to model for it (Seriously, this man had a problem with keeping his shirt on).
Once they were in the car, they went straight to the hospital where Edward walked out with his brother and Winry, dressed in his usual clothes instead of the hospital scrubs he had been given. Amelia made room for all of them in the car, finding a place to squeeze herself off to the side as she sat with Winry and Edward, while Alphonse sat up front with the Major.
"God, you're wearing that nasty look again?" She asked Edward, "Red and black is such a horrible combination, why the hell do you wear it?"
"Why the hell don't you shut up?" He snapped back. "I happen to look awesome like this."
"Oh, please. You looked better in the hospital scrubs."
"Yeah? Well how about I put you in the hospital so you can wear those clothes and see what it's like, huh?" Edward growled out.
"Oh, bring it on! I can take you any day!" Amelia replied, thinking she was calling his bluff. He really didn't seem the type to get into a fight with a woman. She was proven wrong when she felt something hard hitting the back of her head, and she and Edward cried out in pain as they were hit at the same time.
"Both of you, knock it off!" Winry said from her seat in between them. "Do you really want to spend your last moments in Central fighting with someone, Ed?"
"Maybe. It would make me feel better to smack that smug tone out of you." Edward said.
"And I could smack some fashion sense into that thick head of yours," Amelia responded in kind.
"Just what is it that you have against Edward, anyway?" Winry asked her, "Did he do something to you?"
"What?" Amelia was a little surprised at the question.
"What did Edward do to you that was so bad that you have to poke at him like that?" Winry asked.
"Well… uh, nothing, I guess, but-"
"If it was nothing, then you should stop bullying him." Winry said, "Ed has his reasons for wearing his clothes just like you do for yours." She turned to Edward, "And you should stop getting so fired up. I'm sure that a big part of why she's picking on you is because she thinks your reactions are funny." Amelia was silent, her lips kept shut in a mix of shame and spite as she rubbed at the forming bump where Winry had hit her. Edward seemed to be the same, glancing over at Amelia, only for her to glare back at him, and returned the gesture. "Do you two always fight like this?"
"Pretty much since they met." Alphonse chimed in. Winry frowned as she looked at the pair.
"Amelia, I think you should apologize." The girl looked back at Winry with wide eyes.
"What?! No!" She looked back at him, "His clothes are gaudy as hell! I'm not about to apologize for saying something that's true!"
"Screw you!" Edward snapped back.
"Oh, in your dreams." Amelia scoffed, leaving Edward with a bright red blush on his cheeks.
"You're saying it to make him mad." Winry brought them back to the subject, "It doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you should learn to get along with someone like Edward considering he's your senior." Edward grinned as he realized that same information.
"He is not, he's my age," Amelia said.
"No, she's right." Edward said, and Amelia glared at the smug grin on his face, "I'm a fully certified alchemist. You're not, and you need to be. I'm superior to you."
"Oh, the fuck you are…!" Amelia growled out, leaning forward, only to be pushed back by Winry's hand.
"No more fighting. Alphonse told me that you're planning to take the alchemist's exam, so I don't think it would be so awful for you to get help from someone like Ed." Amelia hated that Winry was right, but she was. The blonde then turned to Edward, "And you shouldn't lord that seniority over her, either, Ed."
"What the hell did I do?" Edward asked, surprised that she was turning this around on him. "She started it!"
"And you're only making it worse by keeping it going." Winry scolded him, "You shouldn't be trying to knock down the people who are looking for help."
"She has help with the Major!" Edward pointed out.
"And you're the same age that she is!" Winry said in return, "You're one of her peers, whether you like it or not. Even if she's not out to break your record for youngest state alchemist, she could still use help." Edward crossed his arms and muttered under his breath irritably. Winry scowled at him, turning back to Amelia, who crossed her arms and looked away from her. "So I think you both could stand to act like adults and apologize."
"Yeah, right." Edward scoffed.
"Edward," Winry spoke his name in a firm tone that spoke of a punishment waiting for him if he didn't comply, though what exactly that punishment is was something that Amelia was unaware of.
Edward sighed reluctantly and turned to face Amelia, "Fine. I'm sorry I acted like a jerk."
Winry turned to Amelia expectantly, and she could feel her mouth twisting in a way that it was trying to seal itself shut. She really didn't want to apologize, but when Edward was the bigger person and apologized… she didn't want to look like a petulant child by refusing to apologize, "Okay… I'm sorry I said all that stuff about you."
"And you both promise to act better towards each other, right?" Winry said, and the two of them nodded half-heartedly, muttering out reluctant words of agreement and Winry smiled. "Good."
It wasn't much longer after that they reached the train station, and Amelia walked alongside her teacher as they met up with a woman and her child. Edward's grumpy mood brought on by what happened in the car brightened a little bit when he heard the little girl call out, "Big brother!" And started to run towards them.
"Hey, Elicia!" Edward called out to her, ready to hug her, but she went right around him to hug at Alphonse's leg, which made him laugh. He frowned a little as he realized that Elicia still thought that Alphonse was the older one because he was taller than him, which was just irritating. Elicia looked up at Edward and his frown, which made her pout at him a little.
"It's okay! Hugs for little brother, too!" She said as she came over to him, and sighed as he reached down to pick her up.
"Elicia, I told you I'm the big brother, remember?" He said. "Alphonse is the little brother."
"Or she could just mean your size." Amelia chimed in, Edward gave her a glare, but he didn't say anything since Elicia pulled his face back to her to poke at the new scar on his forehead that he got from the fifth laboratory. Amelia got elbowed by the Major and she scowled up at him, "I didn't say anything bad." Armstrong gave her a look that told her he knew she was lying by making that subtle poke about Edward's height when she knew it bothered him, and she turned away. She glanced at the little girl, a little surprised that she recognized her face, and she remembered Hughes shoving pictures of his daughter into her face not too long ago.
She looked over at the woman that shared Elicia's hair and eyes, and put together the pieces pretty quickly. She and Elicia both had round cheeks, and smiles that spoke of a sweet nature and kind hearts. Mrs. Hughes came forward to Amelia with a sweet smile of her own, "Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Gracia Hughes." She said, holding out her hand, "I don't think we've met."
"I'm Amelia Seymour," She introduced herself, shaking her hand, "I have no idea if your husband's talked about me at all or not."
"Oh, actually he has." Gracia's smile brightened, "He said you're quite the interesting character. You look almost exactly like I pictured you." Amelia was a little surprised to hear that Hughes had been describing her well enough that his wife got a picture of her in her head.
"Well, you look exactly like your husband's pictures of you, so I guess we're even." She joked, the two of them sharing some small chuckles. Gracia turned her attention to Edward and Alphonse as they came up, reaching to take Elicia from Edward's arms.
"Maes had to catch up on some work, so he couldn't be here to see you off with us." She explained as she picked up her toddler, who gladly clung to her mother. "So I'm here to see you off, and Winry, too." She smiled at the blonde girl, who returned the gesture and came over to Elicia.
"Big Sissy! Come back soon, okay?" Elicia said, reaching for Winry and she gave her hand for Elicia to hold onto.
"Okay, I promise to come back and visit real soon," Winry said with a smile, and Elicia cheered happily.
The train whistle blew, and that was their cue to hurry and get on before the train left. Amelia watched as her teacher saluted the train car as it slowly left the station, with Elicia and Gracia waving goodbye to Winry, who stuck her arm out the window for them. Amelia didn't wave, or smile, or salute. There wasn't really much reason to, so she watched the train depart until it went over a hill and out of sight.
"Well, I should return to work as well," Armstrong said, bidding goodbye to Gracia and Elicia, who made their way home from the station. "I'll drop you off at the estate, Amelia."
"Wait, um…" Amelia wanted to take a little advantage of the fact that she was outside again, "Why don't I come with you to work?" Armstrong's brow raised in surprise, but his look quickly became suspicious, "Oh, come on. What harm could it do? I can get in some extra alchemy training and stuff, and you can look up the whole ouroboros junk or whatever. I won't get in the way." He didn't look convinced, "Maybe I can help? It's not like I'm able to do anything, I don't know what the linoleum in the floor is made out of, or the plaster on the walls. Come on, I don't know when the next time I'm going to be out of your house is, please?" He sighed a little as she pleaded with him, finding it hard to say no to his young student, even when he's supposed to be disciplining her.
"Very well." He relented and Amelia smiled brightly at the thought that she would get to stay outside a little longer. She wanted to take advantage of it every time she had the chance since she doubted she would be outside very often. "But I will keep a very close eye on you."
"That's fine with me, so long as I get to be somewhere other than your house," Amelia said, the pair walking towards the car.
Amelia went back to Central Headquarters with the Major, who was given his own caseloads to deal with once he arrived. Since most of it seemed to be petty things like accusations from angry neighbors about property, and some graffiti charges, he handed it over to Second Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh to deal with as he looked more into the higher up staff, to see their roles in Ishval, as well as any other skirmishes or wars they were involved in. Amelia was mostly just in charge of making sure none of the papers fell, though she did a little reading herself. "This General Raven guy sure is altruistic." She said after reading over some of his file, her words making the Major lift his head.
"General Raven is rather well-known for such behavior," He said.
"Yeah, but I can't think that it's very smart for him to go right on the front lines as a commanding officer." She said, "That's like putting your king in the same line as your pawns in chess." She put the paper back where she had found it.
The Major chuckled, "One of his most common criticisms. He takes it very personally when he's berated for his bleeding heart."
"I bet." Amelia sighed a little bit, "Just how many of these generals do you think it is?" She asked him, "I mean, there are the guys that are killing to make more philosopher's stones somewhere in all this paper, but how many of them were just guys doing what they thought was best and guys doing it with a motive?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." The Major said, and Amelia looked back at General Raven's folder.
"Well, how many of them have any background in alchemy?" She asked, "I mean, that might be a good start." The Major looked down at the paper, his brow furrowing, "Think about it, you start up a lab to make the stone, you must know how to do it, only an alchemist would know how to even start with making one, right? Like, a big-time master alchemist or something." The major's eyes widened.
"I can't believe I didn't…" He stood up, "I'll need to get different papers. That did not even cross my mind!" He stopped when he went to the door, and Amelia had stood up to follow him. He looked back at her over his shoulder, "I'll need to go to the recruitment offices to find the papers I need."
"Okay, so let's go." She said with a shrug.
"Military clearance is required to enter, civilians are strictly prohibited." He turned around to face her, "But I can't very well leave you alone in the hands of another guard."
"Why not?"
"The last time I did was at the Tucker residence, and he let you walk away." She frowned a little at his reasoning, but she had to admit that it wasn't baseless…
"Well if you can't do that, then what are you going to do?" She asked, and he already seemed to be forming a solution in his mind.
Amelia grumbled as she sat in the chair, just next to Lieutenant Colonel Hughes as he took documents that were being written fiercely by a mousy-looking girl just across from him. She looked exhausted and pale, but she didn't do anything to stop her writing as she wrote out one line after another. Amelia had been placed in the Lieutenant Colonel's care until the Major came back from the recruitment offices. She didn't care for it, though she found it odd that he was simply reading the newspaper while the girl across from him worked her butt off. She hadn't been introduced to her, she had been writing like this when she came in, and the Lieutenant Colonel didn't mention her name or do anything to take her attention away from her work.
"There!" The woman said with a sigh, "That makes investigation documents for the Eli Hausfeld case." She said, grouping up her papers and handing them over to the Lieutenant Colonel, who smiled as he took them, "Should I get started on the next case file?"
"No, Sheska. I think you've earned a little break." He said with a smile, and the woman who was apparently named Sheska let out a sigh and collapsed on the desk, looking completely exhausted. "Yeah, just a little fifteen minute one and then you can start on the next case file." He stood up, "I'll get the log books for you." He said, and headed over to a bookshelf not too far from him to pull out a book with a blank binder and bring it back over to her, placing it on top of the other five that were present already. Sheska said nothing as she seemed to just relax with her break.
"You sure are a slave driver," Amelia commented as she looked at the poor woman.
"Only because the rest of the investigations department is breathing down my neck for those case files we lost in the library fire," Hughes said as he sat down again. Amelia's brow furrowed in confusion as to how Sheska was fixing the lost files and he explained, "Sheska can remember everything she's ever read verbatim. She happened to work at the first branch not too long ago, and she read our files. So now she's copying them for a very generous salary."
"And suddenly I'm very glad I don't have a photographic memory," Amelia said to herself as she looked at the exhausted woman, who couldn't have been too much older than herself, maybe her early twenties. "I'd hate to be in your position." Sheska didn't respond more than a half-hearted raising of her hand before she went back to relaxing. She looked back at the Lieutenant Colonel, "So how far away is the recruitment office from here?"
"Well, it depends on which one you're going to," Hughes said, "There's one here in the building, but there's also one out by the library, and another over on the other side of town - we keep it for any immigrating folks."
"Great…" Amelia sighed, knowing there were three offices in three different locations meant she was going to be here a while.
"What's the matter?" Hughes grinned, "Feeling a little upset?"
"You're essentially my parole officer," She replied, "I'm not exactly comfortable hanging out with you."
Hughes rested his face on the heel of his palm, his elbow resting on the table as he turned to face her in his seat, "Is that how you see me? I'm hardly a parole officer, I just keep tabs on you."
"Yeah, you keep tabs on me to make sure I'm not doing anything to violate my parole." Amelia said, "I'm pretty much on parole anyway since I was wrongly arrested for what I did."
"Well, I suppose consistency is key for lying," Hughes replied, and chuckled a little when Amelia stuck out her tongue with a furrowed brow in response. "Well, if you're my parolee, you're one of the most interesting ones I've had."
"How's that?" She asked, bringing her arms up to the table and resting her chin on top of them.
"Well, you're an interesting personality from what I can tell so far." He said, "You come off as abrasive and unempathetic, but I think that's just a front for something else." She scoffed.
"Oh, yeah? Like what?"
"Maybe for some vulnerable, scared little kid that's hiding inside." Amelia openly laughed at that.
"Ha! Yeah, I'm some terrified wittle baby under all the sarcasm!" She laughed and leaned back in her seat, "Get real. Is that seriously your psychological diagnosis of me?"
"I think a part of you craves approval," Hughes continued, "Which is why you do so well with Armstrong and his alchemy lessons. Maybe that's because you didn't really get a lot of approval from another adult figure in your life?" Amelia still smiled, though she didn't like where it was going, "I think that abrasive attitude is more of a defense mechanism, so you don't have to deal with the rejection you felt when you didn't get that approval and attention you were seeking as a kid."
"That seems dumb." She replied simply. Hughes quirked a brow, knowing he had hit a point if she wasn't openly laughing at his thoughts. "Why would I be an asshole if I wanted to be surrounded by people who like me? Honestly, if I wanted that, I could get it easily."
"So you're saying you want to be a jerk?" Hughes asked, and she glared at him.
"This isn't a therapy session."
"You're right, just humor my curiosity for a while." Hughes said, "Why do you want to be a jerk?"
"Because it's fun." Amelia said, "I think it's funny to see people get all worked up over a few words. People are more likely to value the opinion of a stranger than a family member or a friend. A friend is biased, they already like you. A stranger is blunt and honest, and when they don't like you? It's funny to see them act up."
"So you're just a jerk because you can be. Absolutely no reason for it at all?" Hughes asked.
"Yeah." Hughes's smile stayed on his face.
"I think you're a lousy liar." He said, "I think at your core, you're a person that wants to be accepted and liked, and will always do the right thing when placed with that kind of moral dilemma, even if it means risking your own skin."
"As if I'd ever." Amelia scoffed.
"So that incident with Scar and the Elric brothers?" Amelia paused at the mention of it, "That wasn't done out of any sense of good will?"
"I was scared." She said simply, "Triggered my fight or flight response. The way out was blocked, so the next option was fight."
"Scar wasn't looking to kill you, just Edward." Hughes said, "You could have easily run away from him if you had the chance." Amelia frowned and glared at him.
"You listen here." She said, tapping decidedly on the wood of the table, "I am not a good person. I'm a jerk and I do it for fun, I'm selfish and I look after me and to hell with everybody else. Your idea of me is wrong, and you're stupid for thinking that I would be some nice girl that just does what she's told because she wants everyone to like her. I couldn't care less what people think of me, all that matters is what I think of them! Everyone loses their damn minds when someone doesn't like them unless they learn to toughen up and accept the fact that there will always be someone out there that doesn't like you for no good reason."
"Like you did?" Hughes asked.
"Yes!" Amelia replied without thinking of the implication of what she said, and she stopped when she did, "B-But that doesn't mean I'm like this because I didn't get approval from my parents, so don't you think that it is!"
"You know, I never actually mentioned your parents," Hughes said, and Amelia's face flushed as she realized she had proven him right.
"Oh, shut up." She grumbled, crossing her arms and looking away from him. Hughes only smiled and sat up straight.
"I get it if you don't want to talk about it." He said, "It's a touchy subject, and like you said, I'm just a parole officer. Not a therapist." He reached for the newspaper, looking over the articles in it, "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to."
"Then why did you try to start a conversation?" She asked, still frowning at him.
"I suppose… I just did it because it's fun." He said, making a jab at what she said earlier about why she chose to be mean. It only deepened Amelia's scowl and she turned away from him. The room was only silent for a moment before the door opened again and someone else came in, "Ah, Captain Focker." The man with dark sepia colored skin smiled at Hughes as he held up the paper, "Is that my evening edition?"
"Right off the presses." Captain Focker said as he came over to give the paper to the Lieutenant Colonel. Hughes opened it up to the front page, where the Captain looked over at the exhausted girl, "Sheska, you really shouldn't have agreed to work such long hours…" He said with a pitiful sigh.
Amelia glanced over at the paper, reading the main headline on the front page, where apparently Hughes was looking into another article in another spot. She tilted her head to read it properly, reading the title out loud, "Violence in The East Could Spread Throughout." She looked up at Hughes, "What's that one about?"
Captain Focker answered her, "It's about the recent riots that have been coming out of the city of Lior lately. It hasn't been pretty, the military's been called in to try and quiet things down. It's apparently all in response to a sham religion that was preying on the townspeople. They finally realized they were being suckered."
"Oh damn." Amelia could see why they were rioting. Their beliefs suddenly uprooted, people had a hard time dealing with that, especially when their idea of the afterlife suddenly became a wrong one.
"Yeah… Ishval and Lior. The east has been a real hotbed lately." Hughes said. Amelia's brow quirked at the mention of the other place that had been through a war.
"I thought Ishval was, like, years ago?" She asked.
"Not too long, only about 7 or 8 years ago since the troops were recalled." Hughes said, "Though, that was mostly because there wasn't much left of Ishval to fight after four years of war."
"I'm afraid it's not just the east." Focker interjected, "There have been reports of uprisings in the north and west as well."
"The bodies are piling up all over. The government's going to have a hard time keeping control at this rate." Hughes said, with something of a resigned tone in his voice, though as he looked at the article, which bore a picture of a map of the country to show where the violence was happening, he couldn't help but think of something. Something about this nagged at him, this information of recent wars, and still more going on… He needed more information. He stood up from his seat, "Amelia, come with me."
"What?" She stood up with him, a little confused about why they were suddenly leaving, "What about the Major?"
"Colonel Hughes? Is something wrong?" Focker asked, a little confused by the man's actions as well as he went to the door with Amelia following.
"Sheska, if the Major comes looking for Amelia, tell him we're in the archive room." He said to the girl, who sat up straight at the mention of her name, and nodded compliantly, though she didn't understand what was going on. The pair of them left and Amelia followed Hughes down the hall as they headed to the archive room.
"Why are we suddenly going to the archives?" She asked, "Is something up?"
"With everything that's going on in the east, and what we've found out from the Elric brothers, something's bugging me about the military's ties to it." He said, and Amelia quickened her pace a little to walk beside him.
"You mean the Philosopher's Stone?" she asked in a hushed voice.
"Right, we know the military was involved in the prisons to make the ones used by the military before." Hughes said, "But I need more information than what I have now." He turned into a pair of heavy double doors and walked inside, Amelia following behind him, "Do you think you can look through those shelves over there? See if you can find any information from the years 1889 to 1903."
"Uh, okay." She went over to look through some of the shelves, looking over the marked binders that were thankfully labeled with information by year, and had varying levels of thickness. She pulled out the ones for the years he mentioned and she came back to see he had already gathered some more, as well as a map of Amestris that he laid out on the table. She watched as he flipped through the binders in silence, not saying a word, at least none that she could hear. A lot of what he did say was just mutterings to himself as he looked at different information. This went on for about five minutes before Amelia realized she needed to address some urgent business, "Um, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes? Do you know where the bathroom is? I have to pee."
He didn't glance up as he said, "Down the hall, first door on your right, we passed it on the way here. If you're not back in five minutes, I'll go in there and grab you." Amelia grimaced a little at the thought, but she figured it was his way of making sure she made it back so he could keep an eye on her.
"Okay, weirdo…" She said under her breath, leaving him to go over his research as she went on in search of her quick bathroom break.
Hughes was completely focused on the map in front of him as he looked over the various binders, looking at every mention of riots, uprisings, skirmishes, every event where the military had been involved in the last 50 or so years. There was a startling amount, but as he looked over everything, he couldn't help but see a pattern in who had approved what in regards to sending the military out.
"Lior…" He circled the town on the map, muttering to himself, "These endless uprisings… The Philosopher's Stone… Human sacrifices…" With so many bodies piling up, it would be easy to make a Philosopher's stone from that, wouldn't it? And prisoners of war weren't often well-documented in the field, they could have been used as well, undocumented and unregistered. "And the outright genocide of the Ishvalan people…" He was starting to see a pattern, especially in the commanding officers that oversaw most of these events, it wasn't just one General or higher up officer. It was almost all of the Central-based Generals, members of Bradley's cabinet. And with all of these uprisings and so many wars, what else could these powerful men be doing with so many bodies? He picked up the map and looked at it closely, "This means… How could this even happen?" He asked himself, starting to recognize a pattern in just those few years. It was surprisingly… calculated for random wars and uprisings, "Who could have orchestrated something as terrible as this?" He wasn't sure who was the one in charge of the higher-ups, but they were definitely after something to make their own Philosopher's stone using the people of Amestris. If it went on, it could only get worse. "I've got to tell the Fuhrer right away."
He stopped when his source of light from the hallway was suddenly cut off by a door slam. He looked up, expecting to see Amelia, but instead saw a voluptuous woman in a deep-cut dress, and a very recognizable ouroboros tattoo on her chest.
"Hello Lieutenant Colonel, it's nice to meet you." She spoke in a breathy tone of voice, "Well, actually… 'Hello' isn't really the word I'm looking for." She held up her hand, and he could see her fingers extending into rather sharp-looking nails, even in the dim light of the archives.
Amelia sighed as she came out of the stall and went to wash her hands. It was nice to get a little bit of privacy when she was constantly monitored, though it didn't last long. She ran her fingers under the warm water, thinking about what the Lieutenant Colonel had said about her earlier. She didn't want to think that her relationship with her parents was that obvious, but he was a member of the investigations department. He was probably trained to pick up behavior and things like that when investigating criminals or serial killers like the police did back home.
She looked up at her reflection, looking at her face, her skin, her brown eyes, her brown hair. Everything about her looked as normal as she remembered, but at the same time, she remembered looking in a mirror when she was younger, calling herself a failure for getting second place. It hadn't been enough, silver wasn't good enough for what she wanted, it had to be gold for her mother. She wore it enough to know it was her favorite kind of metal, though Amelia berated herself for not knowing that in the beginning at the time. She sighed as she looked back down at her hands as she washed them with soap.
The lieutenant colonel was a good man from what she had seen, definitely not like her own father. He treasured his daughter like she was the greatest thing in the world, if he acted like this at work, she could only imagine how smothering he was at home. He probably encouraged his daughter at every turn, always telling her he loved her, he seemed like the kind that would play with his kid just to see them smile. It would be good for his daughter to have a dad like that, she would probably grow up to do a lot of good things for the right reasons, not just doing them because she wanted her dad to like her.
She turned off the sink and went to wipe her hands dry on the paper towels. She needed to get out of her head and get back to the archive room before he pulled her out of here. He only gave her five minutes after all. She didn't want him to just yank her out like she was imagining. She stepped out of the bathroom and headed back down the hall, seeing the archive room door open, but something else seemed out of place. She looked down at the floor and saw little red spots, and there was a huge red stain on the floor, with a big red smear on the wall.
"Is that blood…?" She asked, and she jumped when she heard footsteps, going to hide behind one of the wall pillars as she heard heels clicking along the floor. Those weren't men's shoes, she knew that sound well enough. She saw someone walking out of the archive room, peeking out from behind the pillar. It was a woman in a dark dress with long, dark curls cascading down her rather shapely back. She turned her head and Amelia could see her face had blood on it, watching as she sighed exasperatedly.
"I don't think I'm the type to handle it from here." She said into the air, "Go ahead and tell Envy to follow after the Lieutenant Colonel. I can't follow him when I'm filthy like this." She said, and turned around to wipe at some of the blood from her face with her gloved hand. Amelia ducked behind the pillar so she would avoid being seen, but she felt her blood run cold at the one thing she had seen on the woman before she hid herself. She had a tattoo on her chest, of a snake eating its own tail. She was part of that group from the fifth lab! And she had done something to the Lieutenant Colonel! She pressed her back up against the wall as she listened for the sound of heeled shoes clicking against the ground, and was relieved to hear them going farther away from where she was. When they were quiet enough, she poked her head out from behind the pillar, and saw she was gone. She looked down at the ground again, seeing the blood trail.
"Oh, no…" She moved out from her hiding spot, looking inside the archive room to see it was empty of anyone, so she started to follow down the trail of blood drops that went down the hall, opposite the way the woman had gone.
Lust continued down the hall, hearing Pride's whispers as his shadow hung around the corners of the wall, "You missed a witness, Lust." He chided her. "Armstrong's little pupil just saw you leaving."
"Did she?" Lust didn't realize she had even been in the room, "Well, I'm sure Envy can take care of that as well."
"We can't kill them both at the same time, it would draw too much attention." Pride said, "We might scare off the Elric brothers if they find out the people that were investigating us suddenly died. We can't have them leaving the country." Lust turned a corner to the elevator, pressing the button on the wall as she wiped her face clean of blood, her wound from Hughes' knife already healed.
"What are you suggesting?" Lust asked.
"Go back to the archive room." Pride said, "Put away some of the binders, but not all of them. We can't have anyone figuring out what he did. Not too soon, anyway." Lust let out a small hum as she glanced back down the hall.
"You're a big boy, I'm sure you can do that yourself." She said, "Besides, you're the smartest one of us, aren't you? You should know which binders will hide which facts."
"Fine, but head to the Armstrong manor." Pride ordered her, "Keep an eye on the girl. She'll be following the colonel soon enough. We need to make sure we know where she is at all times to find an opening. Her security is very tight."
"Duly noted." Lust said, watching the elevator doors open, and she stepped inside.
Hughes could feel his shoulder throbbing painfully from where he'd been stabbed, feeling the pressure from his hand gripping at it didn't help that at all, but it was all he could do short of going to a hospital. Still, he doubted that these people would let him get that far, he needed to tell who he could while he still could. He knew Mustang would be able to do more than he could in his condition. He went straight to the phone lines, seeing Corporal Roberta at her desk like she had been earlier when he had called to gush about Elicia to Mustang.
She heard him coming and looked back over her shoulder, "Oh my, you're back again already?" She asked with a joking tone, "Who gets to hear about your daughter this time…?" She trailed off as she got a better look at him, gasping at the sight of him, "Lieutenant Colonel, you're bleeding!"
"It's nothing." Hughes got out between clenched teeth, stumbling a bit in his footing as he went to the phones, "I need a private line." The corporal turned to the operator's line to wait for him to say who he wanted to call. "I have to tell him…" Hughes grabbed at the wooden handle of the phone, but he stopped. These were military-exclusive lines, and he had no doubt that Roberta would be able to hear what he said, not to mention anyone else that might have the lines tapped. No, no… he couldn't do it from here. They would know, and they would come after Roy, and everything he went through to get this far would be for nothing. He knew his friend, he wouldn't leave after being told all of this, he would be a strategist, try and work the system in his favor. He put the phone down and turned around, his hand going back to his bloody shoulder.
He started to walk back out past a confused and concerned Roberta, "Sorry… Forget I was here." He told her as he walked by.
"But…! Sir!" She called after him, but he only quickened his pace. He could already hear her going for the emergency lines, to call for an ambulance to come and take him to the hospital. He didn't need that right now, he needed to get to Roy before these people got to him. He had to hurry!
Amelia continued down the hall, following the blood trail to one corner, and pausing when she saw another trail beside the one she was following. She glanced around the corner, seeing the one she had been on went down to what looked like a line of booths of some kind, but then came right back. She could hear a woman's voice speaking to someone about injuries, describing a bloody shoulder, and Amelia grew more worried.
She looked down at the second trail on the floor, following it down another corner, and seeing it went right to an outside door that led out of Central Command. She glanced behind her, worrying a little bit that she could get in trouble for this, but she wasn't sure what else she could do, and if he was leaving this much blood behind… she could only imagine his wound was a terrible one. She didn't know what that woman had done, but she needed to make sure the Lieutenant Colonel was okay.
She went out the door into the night, following the dotted trail of blood to where it should have led to the Lieutenant Colonel.
Hughes waited as the line rang in the outside phone booth, hearing a female voice answering the line after one ring, "Good evening, Eastern Command."
"I need you to connect me to Colonel Mustang right away." He said.
"I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to connect from an outside line." The woman apologized.
"You are speaking to Lieutenant Colonel Hughes!" He snapped into the phone, "And this is a matter of life and death!"
"Can I have your code please?" She asked, and he let out a frustrated grumble as he reached into his pocket for his book that had his emergency code inside.
"What?! Are you trying to waste time?!" He pulled it out, along with the family picture of him, his wife, and his daughter, but he could leave that for the moment. He opened up his pocketbook and read out the code, "It's Uncle, Sugar, Oliver, then 8, 0, 0…!"
There was a pause before the woman said, "Your code was verified, please hold while I connect you."
"Will you hurry?!" He yelled into the phone, "It's an emergency!" He stopped when he heard the clicking of a gun and felt his blood run cold. He barely moved and glanced back, slowly turning his head to see a familiar, yet unfamiliar face standing behind him, pointing a gun at his back.
"I need to ask you to put down the receiver." Was it really Maria Ross? He wasn't sure, "Please, sir." He slowly turned around to face her, the phone still in his hand, "Go on. Just hang it up."
"You look just like…" He paused when he noticed a very significant difference, smirking a bit as he realized it was a trick, "But you're not. Who the hell are you, lady?"
"I'm Second Lieutenant Ross, sir." She answered with a small smile, confident. "You've lost too much blood."
"Drop the act already." Hughes said, taking a little pleasure in seeing that confident smile fall into a frown, "You're not Second Lieutenant Ross. She has a mole under her left eye!" These people made a mistake when they forced that disguise. The fake Ross behind him looked at him with wide eyes as he pointed it out, but their surprised expression quickly turned into a sickeningly malicious grin.
"You're observant." They spoke in a voice that was definitely not their perfect Maria Ross impression, "I can't believe I forgot." He watched as they brought their hand up to their cheek, watching as a mole appeared on their skin after a brief, tiny flash of light. "There, how do I look now?"
Hughes gasped as he realized he was up against something that was definitely not human, and he had no way out at this point. But he had to do what he could to fight back, feeling the knife he kept at his forearm waiting there for him to use.
Amelia looked down at the ground, following the trail of blood with the light from her phone since it had gotten too dark for her to see anything as she started to rush down the empty streets. She grew more and more worried as she looked at the trail, part of her mind telling her she should stop what she was doing and go back to Central, say that she needed to get help for the Lieutenant Colonel, but she had come too far at this point. People would say that she failed an escape again. That wasn't what mattered right now, she needed to make sure that the lieutenant colonel was okay after whatever attack just happened.
She stopped when she heard a loud popping. It reminded her vaguely of a firework, but she couldn't see anything going off. And she remembered reading once that the difference between fireworks going off and a gunshot was that fireworks had an echo to their loudness.
She didn't hear an echo.
"Shit…!" She started running faster until she got to an open park. She could have sworn she saw someone standing in front of a phone booth, but she blinked and she didn't see anything but a bird flying off. She rushed to the phone booth, letting out a cry when she saw the lieutenant colonel slumped down at the bottom of it, a hole in his chest and one in his shoulder, laying in a pool of blood. "Oh my god…!"
He turned his head, looking up at her, "Amelia…" His voice was raspy and weak, and she kneeled down, her eyes filling up with tears as she looked at him.
"What do I do?" She asked, her voice shaking out of fear, "What do I do? I don't know what to do…!" She moved her hand to his chest, "I… I put pressure on it, right? To stop the bleeding?" She asked, looking up at him for approval, and he slowly nodded his head. She moved her hands to his chest and he groaned in pain. She felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks as she heard the sound, "I'm sorry! I-I'm sorry…!" She looked down at his chest, seeing his blood coming up between her fingers as she pressed her hands against the wound. "I don't… I don't know what to do…" She felt her body shaking and she felt her shoulder shaking as she looked at his chest, and back up at him, "What can I do…? I-I don't know what to do…! What can I do?" She asked him urgently, but he didn't answer. His head slumped back and he let out a heavy breath. Her eyes went wide and she started to shake him, "Hughes? Hughes!"
In the distance, she could hear sirens, but she ignored it as she tried to figure out what she could do to fix this, "Hughes, wake up!" She shouted at him, looking down at his chest, feeling nothing from his heartbeat. She started to press her hands against his chest rhythmically, hoping this was the right way to do CPR and get it to start working again, "Wake up, Hughes! Come on, wake up! Wake up!" Her tears spilled down onto his uniform and she started to sob as she kept applying pressure, trying to get him to come back, "Come on, wake up! Please, wake up! Y-You have to tell me what to do…! I-I can't do this myself…!" She started to sob, hearing the sirens growing louder as they came closer, hearing voices of people coming by, "Please, Hughes! Please…! I don't know what to do…" She broke down crying, sobbing aloud as she kept weakly pressing her hands against his chest, hoping for a miracle.
It wasn't until the EMTs pulled her off of him that she was able to stop and realize that others were here, and they were better equipped to help. She let them take his body, watching as it was put on a gurney, and she was pulled into the ambulance with them.
Time was a blur, she was pulled from the ambulance to the hospital. She didn't remember anything that happened after she was put aside in a chair, and she could hear someone telling her to wait there, but she didn't register it. She kept seeing Hughes' blood coming up between her fingers as she pressed on his open wound, remembering the faint sounds of his rough breathing as she had done so. Had she done something wrong somewhere? She didn't really know any CPR, so maybe she did something wrong? What if she made it worse? What if she guaranteed that he died? She looked down at her hands, seeing her palms stained with blood, and she could only see that open wound again, putting pressure on it, trying to get the blood to stop, trying to get him to stay alive a little longer. It was all she could see, all she could hear, all she could think about, sitting in that chair, she felt like she was still at the phone booth, replaying the scene over and over again, trying to figure out a way to make it better, to figure out a way to help him more. What should she have done? What did she do? What could she do? What could she do?
"Amelia." She was pulled out of the memories by the sound of her name, looking up to see Major Armstrong looking down at her, still dressed in his uniform. She looked around them, seeing white walls and tiled floors… That's right, they were in a hospital. The people came and took Hughes to the hospital… "Are you alright?"
"I…" Her voice was hoarse and she cleared her throat, looking down at her hands in her lap again, "I… I'm okay…" She looked down at her palms, seeing where the blood had seeped between the lines of her palms, of her fingerprints, it was so red…
"Amelia," she felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up again, seeing that Armstrong had knelt down to her eye level in the chair, his hand on her shoulder, "What happened?"
"Is… Is Hughes okay?" She asked, her voice shaking a little. "Did he make it?" Had she helped? Did she do something right? She had to, right? Surely… surely he was okay, wasn't he?
Armstrong's expression softened, though it was heavy with his own grief, his eyes filling with tears as he spoke, "The Lieutenant Colonel's wound was fatal… He did not survive."
"No, but…!" She had done CPR, she had tried to help! She was right there after he got shot! She had to have helped somehow! "I did…! I…!" She felt her eyes welling up with tears as she started to come back to reality, "I tried to-! I tried to help him, I-!" She held up her hands to show what she had done, but she stopped when she saw her bloody fingers, and she realized at some point, she had felt his heart stop. She felt her shoulders shake and she sobbed, and the Major wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his shoulder, feeling it shaking as he let his own tears flow as well. She didn't help him. She didn't miraculously save him. He died, and she couldn't do anything.
Lieutenant Colonel Hughes was gone.