How to Get What You Work For

by PurpleTurtle21

After a friend attempts to perform alchemy from one of her favorite anime shows, Amelia finds herself on military property and about to go to prison for trespassing, until the Fuehrer offers her a chance: She gets a one-year trial period learning under a certified alchemist and if she passes, she gets a get-out-of-jail-free card. Now if she could only find someone to teach her…

30. Secrecy in Prison Cells

30

Amelia considered herself lucky out of the three of them. The cells were only two beds for two people at a time, so she ended up with a whole cell to herself while the Elric brothers had to share. She ended up stealing the incredibly rough blanket from the other cot and laid it on top of her own on the other side of the cell. It wasn't exactly comfortable, and the wooden handcuffs she wore didn't really make things easier, but at least she was just the slightest bit warmer inside her cell while Edward fumed with his brother in their cell just beside hers.

"What the hell is wrong with these people?! We bust our asses to save their asses and then they throw us in jail?! Yeah, we did it "under duress" but we would have helped anyway! Who the hell do these people think we are?!" He ranted alongside his patient brother, who mostly just let him rant as he paced around their cell. "We're the Elric Brothers! Everyone knows me, the Fullmetal Alchemist who has the silver pocket watch to prove it, as the alchemist of the people! We would have helped them with the homunculus without the stupid tank fuel and whatever, but they didn't have to do all this bullshit!"

"Brother, you really should calm down," Alphonse said.

"Yeah, conserve your energy." Amelia agreed. The prisons weren't heated, she could easily see her breath when she spoke, though only very quickly, "You might freeze to death down here if you run around like that for too long."

"Hell, I'd do that just to show them they fucked up!" She could hear Edward's hands grabbing at the bars of his cell doors, shaking it as he shouted down the hall, "You hear that, Briggs?! I'm gonna freeze to death down here and it's gonna be your fault!"

"Jesus Christ, Ed," Amelia sighed exasperatedly.

"How are you not pissed as hell about this?!" Edward snapped at her.

"I am, but I'm just choosing my battles." Amelia replied, "General Armstrong is smarter than I originally gave her credit for, I doubt she won't make use of us being down here somehow. I'm saving my anger for her." She gripped at her blankets, "Because I want her to know how much she dishonored her family name by pulling this shit. I want to hit her where it hurts."

"Wait, really?" Edward almost sounded impressed.

"Dude, I've been composing that monologue since we got put in handcuffs, I'm fucking ready to tear that bitch a new one when I get the chance," Amelia confirmed as she tried to get comfortable under the irritating blankets that were simultaneously the only good thing about her freezing stone cell. She let out a small sigh, "Besides, there's nothing I can do about it now. We're stuck here with no alchemy until someone decides to let us out. So, I may as well just prepare for the next moment we're inevitably going to talk with the General. She's made it pretty clear she won't let us leave until we give her the full story."

"Yeah, like that's about to happen," Edward replied.

There was a beat of silence between the three of them that was only broken by the sound of Edward's cot creaking as he sat on top of it, seemingly calmed down. The three teenagers evaluated their situations differently, all with their own strategies in mind. Amelia's was to pick her battles, save her energy for when she could verbally assault the General for the great injustice of imprisoning them after they had done everything they wanted to help them with the homunculus they clearly had no experience or idea about fighting. Edward's was to rant and rave now because he had terrible control over his emotions but was quickly starting to adapt to Amelia's idea. He could come up with something very witty, and well-worded in the time it would take for them to come and let them out. Alphonse's strategy was more just to deal with the two angry teenagers that he was stuck with. There wasn't anything they could do about their situation, and while it was frustrating that they were imprisoned on a technicality imposed by the General's own people, he was sure that the General could be reasoned with and had let go of his anger to try and focus on a solution rather than focusing on a long-winded angry speech about the wrongs she had done to them like Edward and Amelia were doing. Still, if he made a comment about it, they would both just respond that he was trying to make them feel bad about their actions (which they really should, in his opinion) and make them forget to try. They would forget in their own time, neither of them had that great of a memory for it, so he just took out his alchemy notes that he kept hidden inside his armor and started to write out some of his thoughts about different alchemical theories to kill time.

In Amelia's anger, while she was mainly focusing on General Armstrong and formulating a fantastic speech about how she was a disgrace to her family, there was something about the entire experience that was bugging her.

"That homunculus… what do you think it was doing?" She asked softly into the chilling quiet of their cells.

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"It kept talking about digging, remember?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, why is it digging? I mean, what does you-know-who get out of sending one of his guys to dig?" The thought had been bugging her now that they had time that wasn't spent worrying about getting the homunculus out of the way so people wouldn't get hurt. The homunculus, who they could probably guess was named Sloth for that attitude that made him think it was okay to sleep in the middle of a stand-off, had been sent to dig underground, and so far from Central as well… "I mean… this is really far from his headquarters, isn't it? So why would he send one all the way out here to dig a hole?"

Edward let out a small hum, sitting back against the stone wall as he tried to think about it, "If I had to guess… maybe it was to mark something."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure, I can think of a few reasons why someone might want to make a mark, but that guy… I'm not really sure what he wants." Edward said, and on her side, Amelia sat up, working with her blankets to try and keep herself warm as she sat back against the cell wall on her cot as she tried to think of a reason why. "He didn't really seem to be all that interested in anything other than gathering sacrifices."

"Maybe that hole is part of some kind of surveillance effort to keep an eye on you?" Amelia suggested.

"It's a possibility… but I don't think that's right." He said, "You remember how he acted when we saw him for the first time? He made sure we were physically okay, and he made a point of telling us that he wanted me and Al to live, but for you and Ling, it was like he didn't care at all."

"Right, I remember." Amelia shuddered a little at the memory of Father threatening to turn her into a homunculus, "He was really callous."

"I don't think he would be the kind of guy to go out of his way to keep an eye on us, not personally." Edward said, "Maybe send one of his lackeys to do it, but this last homunculus doesn't seem like his best option. He might even just send one of the senior staff to do it or someone under them."

"That's true…" She had to agree with that, this homunculus didn't seem too concerned about that idea. "You don't think someone at the fort would be keeping an eye on us for them, do you?"

"No, I think most of them are stationed in Central for a reason, and since Fort Briggs has almost no contact with Central HQ outside of necessary reports, I don't think anyone would be surveilling us for that bearded bastard."

"That's a charming alliterate insult." Amelia complimented.

"I thought it fit," Edward grinned, "But going back to the hole, I don't think he would send a homunculus to dig his way up here just to keep an eye on a couple of his sacrifices. I think it depends on where the hole lets out."

"I guess if it went back to Central, it would mean something is probably being sent up here if it wasn't already." Amelia sighed.

"It was a pretty large hole, too." Alphonse noted, "I don't know if it was that big for the size of that homunculus, but it was pretty deep. Whatever he would send here would have to be really big."

"We don't really know enough about this to make any real theories." Edward said, "I'm not sure we can really figure this out without getting the chance to see the hole itself."

"Which isn't going to happen anytime soon." Amelia exasperatedly pointed out.

"Right," Edward's sigh mirrored her exasperation, "But if someone brings us news about it, maybe we can get a better idea."

"Maybe we'll hear something tomorrow?"

"Maybe, but I think we'll be alone here for a while." The two simultaneously sighed and tipped over so that they were both on their sides on their cots that rested against the wall. "We could ask the guy that brings us breakfast tomorrow morning."

"Hopefully we'll hear something." Amelia said as she shifted around on her cot, "I guess all we can do now is just wait."

"I hate just sitting around waiting, I want to do something," Edward complained.

"Well, there's nothing we can do right now, so we might as well try to get some rest, yeah?" Amelia shifted up her cot until she was next to the bars that acted as the wall to her cell. She looked through them to the cell next to her, "I think we'll be okay, I don't think the General will have us executed or anything."

"We can hope not." Edward sighed, "But she scares me, I've never really had to deal with someone like her outside of a fight."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to a fight," Amelia said, getting as comfortable as she could on her cot, "Goodnight, Ed."

"Goodnight, Amelia."

"Goodnight, Alphonse." She said.

"Goodnight, Amelia." She heard the armored boy reply.

Even if this wasn't the best outcome for their situation, it was nice to know that her friends were right near her if she really needed it.

---

The next morning came after a long night of restless sleep for both Amelia and Edward. Neither of them seemed to take well to their prison cots, and it was hard to find a comfortable place when it was so cold, and they didn't have as much cover as they would like. Alphonse offered Edward his blanket, and Edward added his coat on top, but it still wasn't quite enough for him. Amelia wasn't much better, finding herself shivering and shuddering at different points through the night. At one point, she almost gave up on sleeping, yawning and rubbing at her eyes as she stayed under the warmth of her blankets. She looked in front of her, the rest of her cell still empty, and in the quiet of the morning, she couldn't deny that she felt incredibly lonely, even though she knew the Elric brothers were just one cell next to her, she couldn't see them at all. It was as if she was imprisoned again as she had been months ago, and now she was left with little company but her own. Still, in the stony cells, she could make out Ed's breathing from his cot on the other side of the wall. She listened for a little while, hearing how gentle it was as he was already deep in sleep, and the sound was enough to gently lull her off to a more proper rest that left her feeling a little invigorated when she woke up a few hours later to the sound of footsteps.

She yawned and sat up a little, seeing Neil the automail mechanic making his way down the hall. She pushed herself up awkwardly in her wooden handcuffs as he came closer to her cell, giving her a friendly smile as he held onto two cups of coffee.

She could hear Edward yawning on the other side, and then shuddering, "It's so cold…!" He complained, feeling his hands moving a little strangely as he pulled up his blanket to try and warm up, pulling them out from underneath to see his wooden cuffs, "Restraints?" It took him a moment to remember what had happened, and then he let out an exasperated sigh as it all came rushing back to him and he started to sit up.

"Good morning," Alphonse dryly greeted him, none too pleased about their situation either, "Nice chains."

"Yeah, they're just lovely." Edward sarcastically replied.

Neil walked up to their cell with his cup of coffee, "Hey, you three sleep well?"

"I guess, considering," Edward said, holding up his cuffed hands.

Neil gave him consolatory smile for his situation as he held out a cup of coffee to Edward through the bars of the cell, "I heard you helped defend the fort from that monster." He said. Taking that as his reason for the hot coffee, Edward took it from him with his thanks and took a sip. Amelia did the same with her offered cup and while the bitter liquid tasted horrible, the warmth from it was definitely needed and gladly appreciated, "That'll be 100 cenz each."

Edward sputtered and spat out the coffee he was drinking while Amelia groaned, "You're charging me for this?!" Edward snapped.

"Don't give us this stuff if you're gonna charge us! And you made it sound like you were giving us this out of gratitude!" Amelia snapped at Neil, making the man laugh at their anger.

"You can't let your guard down around here, you know." He teased them, and Edward grumbled as he sipped at his coffee again.

"Just start a tab or something…" He muttered as he took another sip from the cup, needing the warmth it provided more than anything.

"So, find anything else out?" Alphonse asked, deciding to change the subject to something a bit more pressing than getting charged for a cup of coffee.

"We sent a party down to investigate the hole, they should be back anytime now." Neil answered, "Also, Major Miles is at the hospital."

"Is he hurt?" Edward asked, trying to remember if anyone got injured yesterday, and he was fairly certain no one did.

"Hardly," Neil scoffed, "He's there visiting a soldier who was wounded fighting Scar."

"Scar's in the north now…?" Edward didn't particularly like that, especially considering he had no idea why he would come up this far north. Other than himself, there weren't exactly a lot of known state alchemists that chose to work among the cold and ice of Northern Headquarters, much less Fort Briggs. It would be arrogant to assume that Scar was chasing him, but is it possible he was chasing the alkahestry girl, too?

"Oh, here they are," A new voice brought Edward out of his thoughts as he saw a group of Briggs soldiers coming up to their cells, all with friendly faces.

"They're awake!" One said.

"Thanks for yesterday." Said another.

"Yeah, you saved our buddies' lives." Said a third.

Edward smiled at the group of men as they came over, "I'm impressed. You guys stick together. You really seem to care." It was nice to see such a camaraderie when he was so used to people trying to fight him or shoot him down or just get him out of their way. He was never exactly thanked for helping out around Central soldiers, since they kind of just let him do almost anything he wanted within reason, but it was a pleasant surprise to see these Briggs soldiers coming up to thank him themselves.

"Well, here at Briggs we have to look out for each other." One explained.

"You saved our pals back there, so that makes you our pal as well." Another added.

"Well, you wanna let your pal out of here then?" Edward enthusiastically asked.

In almost perfect synchronization, the soldiers and Neil all replied, "No, we're not allowed to do that, sorry."

"It was worth a try, Ed." Amelia encouraged him from her cell, taking another sip of her drink. She looked over at the soldiers, "So, everyone's okay? That monster is still out in front and hasn't gone anywhere?"

"There's a patrol that's keeping an eye on him for now, it doesn't look like the guy's moved at all." One answered her.

"That's good." She said, relieved to know that homunculus wasn't going to go on some kind of rampage, "I guess that tank fuel did its job, it's nice to know we can freeze these guys in place."

"Yeah, we're lucky the General's such a quick thinker." Another soldier said.

"Hey, one of you is acquainted with her family, right?" Amelia sat up a little more.

"That would be me." She said.

"We heard the General comes from a pretty intense background, are the rest of her family like her?"

"Well… no. I mean, they're eccentric and a little bit weird about their family traditions, but they're nowhere near the same level of intensity that General Armstrong has." Amelia said. "I'm pretty sure she would kill me if I made her angry enough. I never felt like that with another member of her family."

"See? I told you." One soldier nudged the one that had asked about the Armstrong family. The one that asked rolled his eyes and nudged the other back.

At Amelia's questioning look, he explained, "My friend said that there was a chance that the General's background made her the family's black sheep, I just figured they were all that kind of intense because where else would she have learned it?"

The soldiers stuck around briefly for a little while, chit-chatting with Edward and promising to update him often on everything that was going on while others asked questions to Amelia about General Armstrong's family. Apparently, it was something that was almost never brought up, so to have a direct source gave them plenty to talk about. She almost felt like she was talking to a bunch of gossip columnists with some of the questions they asked about her family, asking for more details on how they acted, as well as what routines they had together, and about the Major himself.

In the end, they all had to return to their posts, and Amelia's coffee had gone from hot to warm, but it was still better than being stuck in the cold of their prison cell for too long. She sat up against the cold stone wall, keeping her hands around the metal cup and trying to hang on to the warmth it gave her, though she was considerably restricted by her handcuffs. "Thank you, Ed."

The blonde looked up from his own cup, turning his head towards the barred door where he could hear her voice, "For what?"

"For buying my coffee."

"What?! Who said I was buying your coffee?!"

"It's not like I have any cenz to spend around here!"

"I'm not buying you a stupid cup of crappy coffee!"

"Well, you have to now! I already drank like half of it!"

"Spit it out!"

"It's in my stomach, I'm not about to make myself puke!"

"Well, you—! I—! You're—!" Edward threw up his hands (as much as he could in his restricted cuffs, "Argh, fine! I'll pay for your stupid coffee." He slumped back into his seat with a scowl, grumpily sipping at his cup.

"...Thank you, Ed." Amelia said in a soft voice, and Edward's expression softened for a moment before he went back to grumpily scowling.

"Yeah, whatever."

Alphonse watched the whole exchange and chuckled, and Edward scowled up at him, "What's funny?"

"Nothing, Brother," Alphonse said before he held up his book, "I decided to do a little theory work concerning the portal. You want to take a look?"

"Really? Yeah, sure." Edward gulped down the last of his cup and tossed it away, the metal clanging unpleasantly against the wall before landing on the floor as Edward began to read over his brother's notes.

"Did you come up with something good?" Amelia asked, curious for the highlights.

"It's mostly just a bunch of hypotheses about what it could be, and why it's so important that we've opened it." Alphonse said noncommittally, "But I've been trying to think about why it's so important that we've done it. I imagine there must be more to it than just us." Amelia let out a small hum in agreement as she sipped gently at her coffee, trying to make it last as long as possible, while simultaneously trying to drink as much as she could before it got cold. "I also tried to theorize about why you and Katie ended up at the gate together when Brother and I transmuted at the same time and we went in separately."

Amelia's eyes widened as he brought up that point, "That's… true. I never knew you guys went in separately."

"When we opened the portal, we didn't see each other. All we saw was the Gate, and the Truth before we were deconstructed for the toll." Alphonse said, "So it seems interesting that you described your events with Katie going in at the same time."

"Well, neither of us had a gate when the transmutation was performed, so maybe that's why?" Amelia offered.

"What do you mean?" Alphonse asked, and Edward lifted his head up to listen to her theory.

"I mean, you and Edward were both capable of alchemy before you opened the portal, right? And Katie and I couldn't, and I definitely couldn't until I had a gate that was made from Katie's sacrifice. So maybe that's why you went in separately while we went in together? You guys were sent to your… your gates, or whatever, because you already had them, and we didn't so we got lumped in together."

"You think the gates are directly related to our ability to perform alchemy?" Alphonse asked.

"I don't know, I'm just spitballing," Amelia said, shrugging her shoulders.

"...You could be onto something." Edward said, and Amelia turned her head to listen to him more closely as Alphonse put his attention on his brother, "I mean, maybe that's why it's so important that we've opened the portal since being able to perform a transmutation without a circle is the only real sign. It's a unique kind of knowledge that can only come from opening the portal, so maybe there's some other piece of knowledge within us that bearded bastard needs in order to do his plans."

Amelia didn't really like what that implied, "Like what? I don't know that I remember a lot from the portal. I mean, it was all kind of shoved into my head like it was pre-processed, I couldn't tell someone how it was done."

"Yeah, I know, but maybe that's what he wants. Some piece of knowledge or information that's locked away in our heads that we don't know is there." Edward said.

There was a pause as Amelia considered his words, "But… if that's the case, how would he get it from us?"

"Well, we got that information by alchemy, maybe he can take it out with alchemy?" Edward questioned, "In theory, I think it makes sense, considering what little we know."

"I guess…" Amelia didn't really think that was it, but it was all they had to go on right now. "But what could he need? He can do a lot more with alchemy than we can. He doesn't have to move or do anything."

"Yeah, I know… but maybe there's something specific?" He sighed frustratedly, "We just don't have all the information here, and that's really bugging me." He looked back at Alphonse's book and started trying to read over his theories about the portal… but his mind kept wandering back to what they had been talking about, and he was too distracted to really understand any of it, "I don't know! Maybe… I don't know. I feel like the answer is right in front of me, but I can't reach it yet."

"I don't think it's quite that, but I can agree with how frustrating it is to be left in the dark," Amelia said, sighing a little bit as she looked around her empty cell, feeling that sense of loneliness again and she shifted over to the cell door, putting her head against it to see if she could see where Edward and Alphonse were, but she didn't succeed. She pulled her head back with a frown, "It's also frustrating as hell to be in a cell all by myself."

"Sorry, Amelia," Alphonse called to her, making her smile.

"It's not your fault, Al. You don't have to apologize." She said, "I just wish I could see you guys. I don't particularly like talking to you through a cement wall."

"We're not exactly fond of it, either." Edward said with a chuckle, "I mean, I don't get to see you acting dumb and I can't make fun of you."

"Oh, really?" Amelia grinned as a little mischievous idea came to mind, "Well, I don't think it's all bad, considering I can call you a shorty from over here and you can't do jack."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"Amelia!"

Hearing Edward's angry shout and Alphonse's chiding voice sent her into peals of laughter, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I couldn't resist the temptation!" She said between giggles as she leaned back on her seat, "You give yourself too many openings, Ed."

"Yeah, more like you make them just to piss me off," Edward grumbled on the other side.

"Maybe a little," Amelia admitted, "But only because you make it so easy."

"It's not my fault that the world decided everyone else was going to be taller than me!" Edward snapped.

"No, it's your fault for being a little baby about it and moaning about it being unfair." Amelia teased.

"Oh, shut up! I don't want to hear anything about being a baby with someone who whines more than anyone I've ever met!"

"I do not whine!" Amelia frowned.

"Yes, you do. You always have something to complain about."

"Name one!"

"I'll name five! You always complain when we do any kind of physical training—"

"That's because you go at it super hard!"

"—Or any kind of alchemy education—

"I'm bad with math sciences, I'm trying!"

"—And you always find something to complain about at the hotels we go to—"

"The North City hotel had shitty heating and you agreed with me!"

"—And there's always—"

"Alright, alright, alright!" She quickly spoke and interrupted him, "I get it, okay? I have a lot to complain about."

"You mean whine." Edward cheekily corrected her.

"Ugh, yes, fine. I whine. But that doesn't mean you don't have the world's quickest goddamn temper." She fired back.

"It's not the quickest."

"Yes, it is." Amelia and Alphonse replied at the same time, which just made him frown.

"Oh, fine! I guess it's not exactly under perfect control." Edward admitted.

"You could stand to work on it," Amelia commented.

"It would be good for you not to get so mad about things like that, Brother." Alphonse agreed.

"She does this on purpose!" Edward defended.

"Yeah, and you could take it as a learning experience." Amelia shot back.

"Oh, shut up!" Amelia chuckled at his typical response, and Alphonse just sighed. "I am working on it, okay? In my own way."

"Is your way just shouting all the time? Because I think everyone's noticed." Amelia teased.

"Amelia, please stop provoking him," Alphonse said, "It's bad enough we're all stuck here without any knowledge of what's going on outside the prisons, but we don't need to fight with each other."

"This isn't really fighting." Amelia said, "This is more just… I don't know, bickering? What else am I supposed to do other than talk to you guys in here?"

"Talking doesn't mean you take the time to piss me off." Edward replied, "I thought you were done with that?"

Amelia frowned as he realized he was probably right, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I guess I just slip back into old habits when I'm bored." She heard a door open at the end of the hallway, hearing footsteps coming down the stone floor towards them, "But I guess I won't be bored for much longer."

The footsteps sounded much heavier than the soldiers who had been here before, and Amelia stood up as she recognized the shadow that bore a mohawk on its head, seeing Captain Buccaneer coming towards her cell. She could hear Alphonse and Edward standing up, too, as they recognized him. He glared down at Amelia, who glared right back at him. She wasn't really used to having someone so massively intimidating glowering down at her like this, so she figured it wasn't good to just keep staring at him in silence looking scared. She took a deep breath and gathering a little courage as she looked at the man who towered over her.

"What are you lookin' at?" She asked in the most intimidating voice she could muster, and she watched as the captain's expression changed from a glowering scowl to bursting out in laughter, and her cheeks burned as she realized she had not succeeded in being intimidating. At all. He stood there for a few seconds, laughing and she just continued to feel embarrassed, so she ended up shouting, "Stop laughing! It's easier for you to be scary when you're freaking ten feet tall with a fucking mohawk!" That just made him laugh more, and she felt her cheeks burning in embarrassment even more and she finally decided it was best to shut up and let him get it out of his system. It went on for about a full minute, meanwhile, Ed was trying to comprehend what the hell Amelia was thinking trying to intimidate Captain Buccaneer, who they had initially mistaken for a bear when they first met. Very few could be as intimidating as that.

Eventually, he calmed down and he went to open her cell door, "The General has requested to see all three of you."

"All of us? What for?" Edward asked as he came up to his door.

"She didn't say," Buccaneer answered as he went to unlock Edward's door next. The three of them all filed out and started walking behind Buccaneer out of the prisons. As they walked, Amelia felt Edward nudging her from behind and she turned to look at him.

"What were you thinking?" Edward whispered, and Amelia's face flushed in shame.

"I was trying to look tough, you would have done the same thing!" She hissed back. Edward gave her a dry look and she turned away with red cheeks as she continued the rest of their walk in silence.

---

They were led back to the opening made by the homunculus and brought inside. Their handcuffs were removed as they were all mounted on top of horses. The hole was massive, easily stretching above all of their heads as they were brought inside with General Armstrong, Lieutenant Falman, and Captain Buccaneer. They were tied up along the saddles so they couldn't really leave without taking the saddle with them, guaranteeing little chance of escape as they started to make their trip inside. It seemed to stretch on endlessly, and what little light they had to show the way inside just showed how huge it really was, and that there was no real end in sight.

"Awesome… this is a serious tunnel." Despite knowing what made it and that it probably served a nefarious purpose, Edward couldn't help but be impressed, knowing it was all dug by hand, looking up and gawking at the work of it all.

"I still can't believe that an intruder was able to get this far through our defenses." General Armstrong said, glaring down into the darkness of the tunnel before them.

"So, has anyone else ever made it into the fort before?" Edward asked.

"No, not in all the time I've had command here," General Armstrong answered, "But once, nearly 20 years ago, there was a strange incident where the mountain guard was attacked in the middle of winter. Apparently, a mysterious woman stole food and supplies for a full month."

Edward and Alphonse immediately winced, the knowledge of something like that happening lined up with another story they had been told long ago by their teacher, who would always compare their training to one month on a solitary island to her own: a full month in the icy Briggs mountains. They didn't say anything about it, having no intention to oust their alchemy teacher as the thief that attacked their guard all those years ago.

Amelia looked back behind them as they rode, seeing the darkness in the tunnel behind them, "You can't even see the light from where we came in anymore." She idly commented, wondering just how far in the tunnel they had gone.

The General pulled her horse to a stop, and the others followed suit, "This should be far enough." She looked over at the trio, "You, dismount." They stopped their horses and their bounds were carefully undone by Captain Buccaneer as he came over to them, though all three of them still had ropes tied around their waists with the ends connecting to Captain Buccaneer's grip. The General brought out some supplies in one of the boxes, putting it down on the ground so she would have somewhere to sit, another box being put on the ground full of supplies for another team she would be sending in later.

She took a seat, her sheathed sword in front of her as she looked towards Edward, Alphonse, and Amelia with a serious expression, "Now then, we're safely away from any prying eyes. You can tell me everything without fearing discovery," Her gaze narrowed at Edward, "And I mean everything. Don't hold anything back." Edward and Amelia's eyes widened as they realized why she brought them down here, "Yesterday, I asked you about that monster, remember what you said? 'I can't answer.'" Edward frowned a little as she brought it up, "You refused me. And that, even as a hint, is a dangerous thing to do. I told you to answer my questions fully and completely. At great peril to yourself, you neglected to do so. I think there's something you're trying to hide," She gave a pointed stare at Amelia when she said this, and she wilted a little, "And you'd risk your lives to protect it. Something, or maybe someone." Her words hit the nail on the head, and it showed on all three of them, "This time, don't lie to me. I want the truth." Her words held a great deal of weight when she said she wanted to know everything, she meant everything. She had brought them down here for complete and total privacy so nothing they said would leave this tunnel, all in an attempt to understand what was going on and why.

Edward glanced over at his brother, who nodded to his silent question and then to Amelia, who nodded as well. She brought them down here because, even without them giving any hint as to their situation, she had figured it out and clearly wanted to help, or at least find out the truth as to why this had all happened at her fort. Edward turned back to the General, his gaze determined now that he knew that she respected them enough to do all of this just to find out what was happening.

"We need your help, General." He told her everything they had left out. He explained everything he knew about his experience at the Fifth Laboratory, how the discovery of how the Philosopher's Stone was made led him to the much larger conspiracy that stones had been made by the government of Amestris, and worse yet, there was something that was leading all of the senior staff to do it in the form of a team of a homunculi. He spared no details, and Amelia piped in different places, explaining that she had been used as a leverage tool to keep Edward in the state alchemy program that was in place to find alchemists who had opened the portal and that not only was Edward and Alphonse's childhood friend being held hostage but so was General Armstrong's brother, Amelia's former teacher. On top of all of that, they revealed to Lieutenant Falman that the reason for his sudden transfer had been an effort from Fuhrer Bradley to place him, as well as all the other men under Mustang, in a similar hostage situation by separating them all and leaving him without his trusted team for his defense. They explained the bulk of their journey, all that they had learned, and that they learned a way to fight the man that was responsible for all of this, which was why they wanted to find May and get her to teach them alkahestry. It was the only way they knew of to fight against Father and his strange ability to block their alchemy, as well as find a way to wear out the philosopher's stones that rested in all of the homunculi, of which Fuhrer Bradley was one. As they continued to speak, Buccaneer took a little time to undo all of the ropes that kept them bound so that they could move freely, a sign that they were trusted now that they were revealing the entire truth to them.

Through all of it, the General had a cold, calculating look on her face as she took in all of their information, and when they reached the end and explained it all to her, her finger had started tapping at the end of her sword's pommel as she considered everything, "The Philosopher's Stone… Homunculi… Fuhrer King Bradley… a mysterious man called Father… Corruption in the senior staff."

"There are hostages involved as well." Captain Buccaneer added.

"Your childhood friend the automail engineer, my brother Alex, and all of Mustang's men." She looked up at them, "We've done some joint training over the years, so I know officers Hawkeye and Havoc, and I'd hate it if we lost either of them. I would like to help them."

"And, uh, what about Colonel Mustang?" Falman asked, curious as to her thoughts on his superior officer.

"Yeah… I couldn't care less about him. I'd just as soon see him fall from power, that would eliminate another rival." General Armstrong answered, causing all but Captain Buccaneer to grimace.

"That's just cold…" Amelia couldn't help commenting.

"Never mind him," The General stood up, looking down at the group before her, "The question is: what do we do next?" She pointed her thumb at the dirt walls around them, "This tunnel here, I would like to know what you alchemists make of it." Edward, Amelia, and Alphonse all shared a glance before they went to work doing some quick inspections of the tunnel around them. It was solid, which was surprising since it was built by hand. There was a track on the ground as well, speaking to someone using a mining cart to try and dispose of the rubble so the tunnel would be completely cleared. They took their time investigating, looking down the track to see the direction it went in and seeing how it just gently curved the more they looked at it. After a few minutes, Edward asked to see an Amestrian map and a compass, and they were given to him without question. He looked down at the compass, noting each direction as he turned to see either way down the tunnel and then looked back at the map.

The pieces they had been missing in the jail cells were starting to come together for him, and it was satisfying in one sense, but terrifying in another. "First of all, the tunnel probably didn't originate in Drachma," He said, quelling the General's fears about it being part of a spying effort from across the border, "This is just my guess, but I'd say chances are it's dug in the shape of an enormous circle." Amelia didn't like what he was implying, and neither did Alphonse.

"Why?" Captain Buccaneer asked.

"It's an alchemical principle," Amelia explained, "A circle is the symbol used to control power for transmutations."

"We need to look at this more closely," Edward said, looking down at the map with a given pencil, thinking over everything as he looked at the map of the country. Drawing a circle in some way, that was definitely a mark of some kind like they had discussed, but now this meant something else. Making a circle was one thing, but in order to perform a proper transmutation, they would also have to make sure there were points denoted to give it a specific purpose, but they couldn't just go digging all the lines around the country, that would have been noted with obvious structural problems in the ground for whenever they made it. But there were definitely other ways to create markings denoting points for the circle, but which ones could they have used? He looked over the map and his gaze rested over the eastern area of Ishval, knowing everything that had happened there, and considering their country's war-filled history… was it possible? He circled the area of Ishval as it was the only one he really knew of, "Lieutenant Falman, can you list the major events in Amestris that were accompanied by bloodshed?" If he didn't know, the living filing cabinet definitely would.

"By bloodshed? What are you getting at?" Falman asked as he came over, and Edward pointed to the map, showing that he had circled the area of Ishval. Understanding what he meant, he began to list the events chronologically, "First there's July 1588 in Riviere," He pointed to it on the map, and Edward circled it.

"Okay, Riviere. Next."

"October 1661, the Cameron Uprising." He pointed the location out on the map, and Edward circled it, "February 1799, the Soapman Incident there, in Fisk." Again, Edward circled it, this pattern continued as Falman kept reciting dates and locations of different events, pointing them out on the map with everyone carefully watching, Amelia growing more anxious as she started to see the points on the map of a country that now struck her as resembling a giant circle… "March 1811, The Wellesley Incident. October 1835, the First Southern Border War in what is now known as South City. Then, in 1911, there was the Second Southern Border War in Fotocett."

"What about Pendleton, in the west?" Edward asked, noting that most of the events were in the east and south.

"There's been fighting with Creta, a lot of soldiers have died," Falman answered, and Edward marked off the town that looked like the best point to continue this pattern he was seeing that Amelia and Alphonse were starting to see, too. "And then, later in 1914, there was the Lior Insurrection. There were many casualties."

"What?" Edward looked up at Falman, growing pale.

"An insurrection? But why?" Alphonse asked, equally worried.

"Wait, what's the big deal?" Amelia asked, not sure of what's going on.

"I don't understand, I exposed the fake priest in Lior, and I reported it to Eastern Command immediately!" Edward said, answering Amelia's question as to why he was so worked up. It was the most recent incident, and clearly knowing that this was an event that led to bloodshed clearly wasn't sitting well with him since he had been involved.

"Yes, you did," Falman agreed, "But the Central forces came in and ran out the troops from the East. After that happened, Lior just fell to pieces."

"Oh, no… Damn!" Edward cursed, not realizing that one of these events was something he ended up directly causing with his report. What happened to all of them? To Rose? To Father Cornello? Were they even alive anymore?

"No time for that." General Armstrong interrupted him before his self-loathing could get any worse, "Back to work, Fullmetal." Edward glared fiercely at the General for her callous dismissal of his distress. Amelia saw this and went over to Edward's side, resting her hand on his flesh shoulder to get his attention. He looked back over at her silently, their eyes meeting for a moment. She knew he must have felt terrible for what happened, but there was time to feel sorry about it later. They were on the verge of something incredible, and terrible, and Edward was the only one right now that could clearly see a pattern to where he could point out the missing pieces. He relaxed a little under her gaze, silently understanding her and thanking her for her support before going back to the map.

"Alright, fine." He circled Lior on the map, looking over the entire image carefully to confirm what he knew, "And now, we just connect the dots." He said, and everyone gathered around as they watched him draw out the circle, as well as the different points on it, connecting the lines until it formed a pentagon inside of a pentagon that bore a hauntingly familiar look to it.

"How is that possible?" Falman asked, horrified at the sight of it.

"That's the transmutation circle from the Fifth Laboratory…!" Amelia recognized it once Edward had finished it.

"Is that so? The Philosopher's Stone array that draws power from human lives." Captain Buccaneer growled out, "If they make a Philosopher's Stone with something this huge, how many people will have to die?!"

"I would make an estimated guess of the entire country…" Amelia said, crossing her arms as she looked down at the drawing. She looked up at the General, "What is Amestris's total population?"

"We are a very large country, with over 50 million people." She answered, and Amelia felt a small shiver run through her body. She had seen Philosopher's Stones made from dozens, maybe even hundreds of people, and they were all small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. If they made one this massive… how big would it be? And what could it possibly be used for? She looked down at the map, letting out a slow breath.

"How do we know these events aren't just coincidences that don't necessarily line up with this purpose? When did this start happening again? The 1500's?" She asked, wondering just how long this had been going on.

Edward's eyes lit up as she unknowingly added another piece to the puzzle they were looking at, "The first of the conflicts happened in 1558." He said, pointing to Riviere on the map.

"Right, it was just after the founding of Amestris." General Armstrong said.

"They attacked Riviere, that was the neighboring country at the time and then the military…" Falman trailed off as he realized something, "Hey, wait…" He reached down to pick up the map, getting a closer look at all of the events, going over the details of them in his head, "That's it! It was the military! They were involved in all of it!" Everyone looked over to him with wide eyes.

"Are you sure?" Amelia asked.

"Each incident was a coup d'état or insurrection, like in Lior." Falman answered with certainty, "Forces from Central would be sent in and they would make everything worse!"

"It's been going on that long?" Edward asked, scowling.

"We kept growing, our country started out as a small nation, but we expanded as we took over more and more neighboring countries. That was all to create this circle?" General Armstrong asked.

"So that means… not only are they planning to use this country to do whatever it is they're doing, but they actually created it in the first place for that single purpose." Edward said, feeling his stomach dropping as he said it out loud.

"My country…" General Armstrong's grip on her sword grew visibly tighter, and Amelia noticed it right away. She could understand their distress, finding out that the nation they loved and took pride in was just made for the purpose of one giant alchemy experiment spanning over 300 years… It was a harsh reality to suddenly face.

After a moment of thought, Alphonse looked over at Edward, "Do you think General Hughes…?" At the name, Amelia's head shot up to look at Alphonse, wondering why he was bringing Hughes into this.

"Yeah, before he was killed, he must have seen the transmutation circle." Edward immediately picked up on what his brother was suggesting, and Amelia's eyes went wide. "He was serving in the court-martial office, he would have all the information about the military incidents."

"I brought him the binders on it," Amelia said, growing a little pale as she realized the answer to all of this had been in front of her that night and she had never thought to see it, "He had me bring him all the binders from every year documenting these incidents. I can't believe I had been right next to him when he had been so close to figuring all of this out…" Edward nodded grimly.

"He would have known that something wasn't right, that must be why…" He trailed off as he was suddenly struck with the words that had been said to him at different times by Isaac McDougal and Envy, people who had known about this since long before he did.

---

"You've sworn your life to the state as a dog of the military… but do you really know the ones you serve, or what their true plans are?"

---

"You get a speck of power, and you have the arrogance to assume you're the one who's in control of it"

---

"Don't be a fool! He'll lead us all to ruin! I'm only doing what needs to be done!"

---

They had all known, and McDougal had recognized the danger before any of them did, and he had been taking action to stop it! He didn't have the full story, but he knew enough to know Bradley had been near the center of it and was trying to stop him. How many others had seen this pattern ahead of time and recognized it? How many had tried to stop it and ended up killed?

Amelia noticed something as she looked over the circle, "Wait, all the points are dated except…" Except up north.

General Armstrong immediately caught this, and she scowled, "I do not like this!" She brought her sword down to the only missing point from the circle, Fort Briggs, "As far as I can tell, there's only one place left. If you're right about your theory the next place they're going to hit is right here in Briggs." Her eyes narrowed into a sharp, icy glare filled with a fiery hatred, "Those bastards in Central… What kind of dirty plans do they have for my fort?!"

"General!" A voice called out and the group looked up to see a Briggs soldier riding in on a horse with a lantern, "You're needed back at the fort. Lieutenant General Raven from Central is here to see you."

Edward stood up, and Amelia's eyes widened as she recognized the name. General Raven? That bleeding-heart superior officer that tended to his own soldiers in battle? He was one of the senior staff stationed in Central, wasn't he? She remembered his name when she had been doing an investigation with Major Armstrong during Lieutenant Ross's trial to see what kind of connection there was to her being framed and the senior staff since they had been investigating the homunculi at the time as well. She felt her stomach grow a little uneasy at the idea that he was only a bleeding heart as a front if he was stationed in Central with the rest of them. Was he only making sure that the soldiers he sent in came back alive so that they could be sacrificed for a Philosopher's Stone?

General Armstrong's frustrated sigh pulled her out of her thoughts, "It looks like our time's already up."

"Excuse me, General Armstrong." Edward got her attention, "I'd like to ask a favor of you." She turned to him questioningly, "Do you think you could con some information out of General Raven?"

"What?" Amelia looked over at him.

"Brother, what are you thinking?" Alphonse looked over at him.

"We don't have all the pieces to this puzzle, we know that," Edward said to the other two, "And that's the only thing we know. This circle, the military, the homunculi, these are all the pieces, but it's not the full picture." He turned to General Armstrong, "You're high up enough on staff for them to believe that you're willing to work towards their goals of making a better country, maybe you can convince them that you want the same goal that they're planning for themselves?"

"Ed, I don't know. It might come across as too obvious if he knows we're here." Amelia warned him, there was a very real chance that he was part of that entire operation in Central given his stationing and his rank, but they had no definite confirmation of that at the time.

"So what? We won't be in the room with him, I think we can manage it." Edward said, turning back to the General, "If we run a line to the room where you meet with him, we can listen in on everything, and we can use it to figure out their plans and their goals in their entirety. If that works, we might be able to keep your fort out of their plans." General Armstrong scowled at the idea of her fort being used in that manner, but she had to agree with what he was suggesting. "Pretend to go along with it, send some men down here to investigate the tunnel more thoroughly in the meantime, and we can really get a better idea of everything that's happening here."

"And if she does go along with the plans and he tells her to seal up the hole?" Amelia brought up, "He won't just let anyone come down here to look at this tunnel and figure out what's going on. If other people have figured out this pattern and we've never heard of it, that means they were likely killed, he won't take that kind of risk here."

Edward thought for a moment since she brought up a good point, and then looked over at the General, "You know your fort better than anyone here, don't you?"

"Of course," She replied.

"Then could you tell us if we're under any specific rooms?" He asked, and the General's eyes narrowed as she caught on to what he was doing. She looked up at her captain.

"Buccaneer, go and get everything set up in the level 4 radio room to listen in on General Raven." She ordered, and he saluted, "Lieutenant Falman, join him."

"Yes, sir." He saluted her in return.

---

The plan was in motion. Major Miles was sent ahead to stall General Raven while they set up the last of the details. A bug had been placed in one of the radio rooms, just above a perfectly placed table for tea to be shared with him. With luck, they should be able to hear everything that was said.

They walked with Captain Buccaneer and Major Miles down the halls of the fort, making sure the line was far enough away and inconspicuous enough that no one would notice as they went to a storage room next door to have the perfect place to listen in on the radio. They had mostly been walking in silence after they had set up everything in the tunnel for the Briggs soldiers, and it was all falling into place. From this point, they had to wait on General Armstrong to get the information out of General Raven and hope their fishing line caught a bite.

"Winry's apple pie…" The gentle murmuring from Alphonse's armor caught Amelia and Edward's attention.

"Hm?" Amelia looked up at him questioningly, wondering what he meant.

"That was the first thing I wanted to do when I got my body back, but now even that much may be out of reach forever," Alphonse said softly, and Amelia's expression softened as she looked up at him, and Edward gave him a reassuring smile.

"You'll have all the apple pie you could ever want." He said, seeing his brother turn towards him, "We're going to get our bodies back. And the monsters who have been messing with our country for all this time are going to pay. Just you wait!" He promised, and Alphonse stood a little straighter after his brother's encouragement, though it wasn't sure that all his doubts had disappeared. Amelia smiled over at Edward, reaching over and giving him a gentle nudge.

"You always give these kinds of inspirational speeches?" She teased him. He grinned and nudged her right back, and she let out a small chuckle. With all this darkness that was hanging over them, given what they knew now, it was nice to have a little levity and hope, if only for a few moments.

Soon enough, they reached the storage room and quietly entered. It was right next to the radio room, but the only door in was located in the opposite hallway, so no one in the radio room would be suspicious of them moving in there. Vents were located all over, so Buccaneer had run a line from the bug hanging over the vent opening for the radio room to the storage room, where their speakers waited. He turned it on, and they all sat around, listening as he cleared through the static to the channel the microphone was stationed on until they heard the clear sound of a door opening and closing.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting, General Raven," General Armstrong's unmistakable voice called out.

"Oh, it's alright," General Raven jovially replied, "I came in unexpectedly, so I don't mind waiting. Is everything going well?"

"Not exactly, things have become quite different around here recently."

"I noticed a few men seemed rather frantic when I came in."

"I apologize for the chaos, sir. We were attacked yesterday."

"By whom?"

"I think it's most appropriate to call it a monster, but fortunately, we were able to fend it off."

"A monster? What do you mean?"

"We killed it, but it didn't die, sir."

The General chuckled good-naturedly, "Is that so?"

There was a pause, and General Armstrong continued as if she was giving him a report, "I suspected that it originated in Drachma, but the Elric brothers…" There was a pause, "Didn't I mention? The Fullmetal Alchemist, his brother, and his apprentice are all here. I found it disturbing, they seemed to know about this monster, but they wouldn't talk. Obviously, if we have a state alchemist doubling as a spy for Drachma, that's a serious problem." Edward's face unknowingly contorted into a displeased scowl at the accusation of being a spy again, but a little nudge from Amelia brought him back to the moment. "I've locked them up. Perhaps you'd like to speak with them?"

"Hm… certainly. They won't tell you anything?" He was here to check up on them, to make sure they were behaving and going along with their plans…

"Correct. They said they came here to research living transmutation or something. What could be more suspicious? I distrusted them instantly." General Armstrong answered. There was another pause and just the faintest clink from the teacup and saucer, "I had thought about torturing them to get the information, but I am a woman after all. The thought of hurting those children… let's just say I couldn't stand it."

"Now that's rich!" Buccaneer laughed, "She would have tortured you in a second and not thought twice about it!" The rest of the group paled a little bit at her callousness, unable to help admitting that he was probably right. That ice-cold queen wouldn't have cared at all if it came to torturing them for information. She probably just didn't have enough time to set it up when they arrived…

They could all hear General Raven laughing at Armstrong's words, "But General Armstrong, aren't you known as The Northern Wall of Briggs? Walls aren't so soft as that."

Armstrong let out a small chuckle, "You know, General Raven, at my age most women are expected to have had a child or two, at least. Unfortunately, I'm well past that now."

"So, we at least know she's over 35," Amelia muttered, a little satisfied at that information for her own reasons since she knew the general consensus was that women couldn't have children easily after 35 since the number of their eggs cut by half, only to be quickly shushed by Edward.

"Shh!"

"You shh!" She shushed right back.

"Come now, surely men are lining up to have children with you!" General Raven encouraged her.

"Hardly, sir. I hate to say, but like everybody else, I'm growing older, and my body is, too." General Armstrong said in a sad-sounding tone. "That Drachman monster, though… It had an outstanding body… An immortal body. Like something from a dream." These were all the right words she needed to say to lead him on, everyone was silent as they listened in to see if this would work in their favor.

"What if I told you that very soon, it wouldn't be a dream anymore?" He asked. Edward and Amelia shared a shocked glance, was this actually working? They were on the edge of their seats, leaning in closer to try and hear more of the conversation, "Tell me, General… would you be interested in a legion of immortal soldiers?"

He took the bait!

"Never dying, or getting old… you want it, too, don't you?" He asked, and there was a long pause before General Armstrong answered.

"Oh, it's just such an incredible question, I don't know what to say." Amelia recognized that forced tone of amusement, she had done it plenty in front of her parents' friends at parties as they made jokes about her, in front of her, and she had to pretend it was funny.

"Well, are you interested or not?" Raven asked, "There are only two answers."

"...It is intriguing. Can you tell me, General, on the day when this dream comes true, will my men share in this gift as well, or is it only for me?" General Armstrong asked, playing into it and making sure he thought she was on his side.

"I can tell you when the time comes," Raven said, and Amelia frowned at his response. Did that vagueness mean that there weren't any guarantees until that time? Or was he being vague because he didn't want to show all of his cards? Still, General Armstrong had to go forward with an answer, and it wasn't coming. It was plain that if she agreed to it, she could become a very necessary insider for information, but she would also help them with whatever plans they might have had for Briggs or she would likely be demoted and swapped out for someone more willing to go along with their schemes. Even in the face of that news, Amelia could understand her reluctance in going forward, but she couldn't help hoping she would knuckle down and say yes since they needed this advantage over their enemies.

They didn't get the chance as thudding was suddenly heard when someone knocked loudly on the door, "Excuse me," General Armstrong went over to the door, but not before whoever had knocked tried it again. "Yes, what is it?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but the underground tunnel advance team…" The soldier trailed off as he realized who General Armstrong was meeting with.

"What's this about an underground tunnel?" General Raven asked.

"Speak, soldier," Armstrong ordered.

"Yes, sir. Something's happened to the advance team."

"Very well, I'll be right there."

"I'm coming, too," Raven said.

Seeing that their conversation was over, the others all stood up inside of the storage room since they knew they couldn't stay in there now that they wouldn't be able to hear anything else.

"Hold on a sec!" Edward hissed at them, making them all stop as he went over to a bag and transmuted it into a rope, "It has to look convincing. You can't just be walking around with three prisoners without any kind of bonds."

"Good point," Buccaneer said, and he came over to help in that effort. He started to tie up Edward, rather impressively, to make it look like they had to be tightly tied up to make sure nothing happened. Alphonse helped Amelia with tying her hands behind her back, covering her in a thick length of rope that was almost like a blanket. They did the same for Alphonse and made sure that it was enough rope to make it look like they were definitely tied up, though they could have gotten out at any time with a good tug in the right place.

They were led out by that rope, still very much looking like prisoners as they were brought down the hall to see if there was anything else that could be done in regard to this situation. They would need to regroup and meet with the General later on to make sure she was able to give them as much information as possible. As they made their way down the hall, they saw the familiar face of Major Miles walking with someone else — some man in an all-white suit that Amelia thought was kind of stylish, if a little bit showy.

Major Miles looked over at the group, and quickly approached them, "Buccaneer, what are you doing?"

"Prisoner transfer, sir." He answered, "I'm moving the Elric brothers and their apprentice from the east cells to the west." he glanced over at his companion, "May I ask who this is?"

"This is Mr. Solf J. Kimblee, he's General Raven's honored guest." Major Miles answered.

The name stuck out to Amelia and Edward, remembering him from the stories they had heard about Ishval from Lieutenant Hawkeye. He was the Crimson Alchemist, the one who took such a weird pleasure in his job while everyone else was lamenting their wanton murdering. Amelia immediately felt a little uneasy as she saw a smile growing on his face, reaching up to his hat and tipping it so he could better look at who was in front of him.

"Wait, did you say the Elric brothers? You mean the Fullmetal Alchemist?" his eye was immediately drawn to Alphonse, "I see, now I understand your nickname." Alphonse sighed and nodded to his brother, as well as everyone else pointing at Edward to correct him, "Oh, it's this one?" the disappointment was clearly heard, meanwhile Edward just looked furious that someone had made the mistake of saying his brother was actually him, again. His dark gaze moved over to Amelia, that smile still present while she didn't return it, "It's nice to meet you," He lifted up his hat in greeting, "I've heard much about the Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Hello," was Edward's terse reply.

Seeing that he wasn't up for talking, Kimblee glanced at Alphonse, "And who would that make you? His brother?"

"Yes, I'm Alphonse Elric, it's nice to meet you." He said politely. Kimblee nodded and then looked over at Amelia.

"And I've heard about the Fullmetal Alchemist's apprentice, as well. It's Amelia Seymour, right?" He asked.

She nodded, "Yes, it is." She said, looking him up and down, trying to identify the material his suit was made from, "I like your suit." She figured a small compliment would be enough to try and placate him for the time being. She watched his lips curl up a little more, though she couldn't find it in herself to mirror the gesture.

"Excuse me, sir, but we need to continue with our prisoner transfer," Buccaneer said, swiftly ending the conversation and leaving Major Miles and Kimblee to continue whatever it was they had been doing before they had taken a moment to let him talk. Amelia was glad to be away from him and visibly relaxed a little bit. Knowing what she knew about him, considering the nut job that Lieutenant Hawkeye described him to be, she didn't want to stick around him too long.

---

They were returned to their cells, and Amelia was quick to cover herself in blankets again while she was left alone in her own cell while the brothers had one together. They weren't left alone for too long to discuss everything they had heard since they soon had a visitor come by.

General Raven gave them a friendly smile as he stood outside their cells, nodding to Amelia before he spoke, "I am General Raven from Central. I've heard a great deal about you from His Excellency." He introduced himself.

"Hello," Edward nodded his head towards him in greeting.

"It appears you've all been very good and kept your mouths shut," Raven said in a congratulatory tone.

"That was the agreement." Edward bit out, and Raven's head tilted slightly to one side, his expression unchanged.

"You don't seem happy," He commented.

"Oh, no, I'm absolutely thrilled." Edward sarcastically replied, "Who wouldn't love to have their friends taken hostage?" General Raven seemed to take this comment well, his friendly expression still remaining on his face as Edward complained.

Alphonse turned to the man, "Um… do you think you could release us from this cell soon? The deal was if we didn't mess with you, you would let us continue our journey."

"There's no need to worry, I'll let you all out of here soon." The General promised.

Edward glared up at the man, "That tunnel… is it part of whatever you're planning, too? If they find out…" He let the threat hang in the air, hoping it would rattle him a little bit, but General Raven seemed the same as ever.

"Again, you don't need to worry." General Raven said, "I've already spoken with the General, she's going to put the homunculus back underground and seal up the tunnel's opening." So, she was going along with their plans, at least for the time being. Still, they all acted shocked at the news so he wouldn't be suspicious. His friendly expression turned into a satisfied grin that reminded Amelia of the Cheshire cat, "General Armstrong's on our side now, Fullmetal." No one replied, not wanting to give anything away about what they knew, "In any case, it may take a little time before she releases you, but we'll have you out as soon as possible. In the meantime, I brought something that might help you kill time while you're here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something, handing it through the bars of Edward's cell, "It's a journal, I'm sure you can both take your time writing in it and using it to make time go a little faster while you wait." He went over to Amelia's cell to offer her the same thing, and she took it. "Don't worry, you'll be out of here soon, but I do have some business to attend to with the General, so you must excuse me."

They were all silent as they watched him leave, waiting until he was out of sight, and then waiting to hear the door close that indicated he was out of earshot.

"Well, she's got them fooled," Amelia said, "But does that mean she's going to have to have some kind of bloodshed at Briggs?"

"I don't know," Edward said, letting out a sigh. "I can't imagine that she would just let someone just decimate her troops in her own fort."

"Right… But this is good," Amelia sat back against the cement wall that connected to the Elric brothers' cell, "At least we'll have someone on the inside to give us some kind of information as to what's going on… though I guess we already have a good idea of what they're planning. The question is why? And also, how do we stop it?"

"Those are good questions." Edward grumbled, looking up at his brother who seemed as lost as he did, "Let's say the motive doesn't matter right now, we just need to focus on stopping them."

"Ideally, we would be able to just keep Sloth frozen for a while, but that won't work while we're in prison," Amelia said.

"Right…" Edward sighed, leaning back against the wall that connected to Amelia's cell, his head moving back to rest on the wall, "So, that's not an option anymore…" He tried to think over what options were presented to them, "Well, General Raven will get us out of here… eventually. I don't know how soon that will be. I doubt they'll be letting us out too early to interfere with their plans while they seal up the tunnel."

"That's a reasonable assumption." Amelia replied, "So, we have until the tunnel is sealed up, how long do you think that will take?"

"Well, they'd probably have to put up something to keep material from falling in and blocking the tunnel, and then they'd have to make sure that homunculus was still in it and work around him, not to mention the team that they sent down there." Edward surmised, and let out a sigh. "I just hope they're able to make it out okay."

"It's kind of frustrating not knowing what was so urgent with the advance team that interrupted that meeting." Amelia said, frowning a little, "But good call on your part to see them sealing it up ahead of time." She remembered that Edward had set up a separate entrance to the tunnel in a hidden part of the lowest level of Briggs since he had no doubt that as soon as it was known they had access to that tunnel, it was better for them to seal it off and keep others away from it. She agreed, having an idea that these people that worked with Father and the other homunculi had been working to keep whatever that tunnel was a secret for a long time.

"Yeah, at least we know they'll get out safe if General Raven orders to seal it up early," Edward said, a little relieved to know that much.

There was a moment of silence as the teenagers all stewed in their ignorance, not knowing what was happening, but desperate to try and find out. Still, there was nothing they could do right then and there to make that information come to them faster without making more trouble, and they knew all they could do was wait.

---

Two days had passed, and they had heard next to nothing. Every now and then, Neil would come by with coffee they had to pay for, and news of what was going on. They found out that General Armstrong was going ahead with sealing the tunnel even though the news had come back that the advanced team had likely been attacked when a horse returned shocked and scared with only the severed arm of its rider. And they were also working to keep General Raven and his guest as separated as they possibly could with Major Miles providing Kimblee with an extra-long, extra-detailed tour of the fort, at General Armstrong's orders. She was planning something, though Neil wouldn't tell them what, and that was frustrating in itself, but they were grateful for what snippets of information they could get on how things were progressing outside of their cells.

During this time, the trio had managed to make up a game to kill time while they were in there, taking turns making up fake stories of things that never happened to try and entertain themselves. Amelia was aware of a few games that they had played in the early get-to-know-your-fellow-pianists stage of piano classes that tried to encourage social creativity for making music. She managed to turn some of them into games with Edward and Alphonse, even with their own set of loose rules. If a story was bad enough that you got booed from the other two members of your audience, you had to end the tale in 5 seconds. If you didn't do that, you gained a point, and you wanted as few points as possible in the game.

Currently, Alphonse was in the lead for spinning the best stories that never got booed, and Amelia loved to hear his soft voice echoing through his armor as he talked about whatever hero or heroine was going to face whatever conflict lay ahead of them. Amelia was just behind him, having been booed a few times for stories that had references Edward and Alphonse didn't understand, and they ended up taking offense to a couple of times. Ed was in last place, with the most points because all of his stories ended up being rehashes of stories they already knew with different names because he was terrible at making things up on his own, but he was slowly getting better at it.

As Neil left them with their food for the day, as well as a few copies of the morning newspaper that he had sent out for them so they could have something else to do, Amelia turned her head over to Edward and Alphonse's cell, "Whose turn is it now?"

"I think it's Ed's," Alphonse said, and Edward groaned.

"Oh, come on, really?" He didn't really particularly like it when it was his turn.

"It's your turn, Ed. You know you can't pass." Amelia replied, and Edward groaned again.

"Okay, but you guys need to give me a minute to come up with something good this time." He said.

"That's not in the rules!" Amelia shot it down.

"We made the rules, can I get a minute to think of something, please?" Edward whined.

"No," Amelia said firmly.

"Oh, I think we can give him a minute." Alphonse interjected, "New rule: You have exactly 60 seconds to make up a story in your head, and then you have to tell us."

"How would we keep track of it?" Amelia asked, "I don't exactly have an egg timer handy."

"We could use your watch, Ed," Alphonse suggested.

"No, I haven't wound it in a while, it'd be no good." Edward rejected the idea immediately, "You guys can just count it, I'll be fine."

"You want us to count to 60? Why can't we just use your watch, that's more accurate." Amelia rejected his idea since Alphonse's made more sense.

"I said no." Edward insisted.

"Dude, just let Al hold the watch and he'll tell you when your 60 seconds are up." Amelia went on to insist back.

"No!" His voice came out much stronger than Amelia anticipated, and it scared her a little bit, Alphonse seemed stunned into silence, too. There was a long moment before Edward sighed and said, "I just… I don't want to use my watch."

"Oh… kay…" Amelia said, sitting up in her cot. She wasn't really used to the sound of Edward sounding so… distressed? He didn't exactly seem angry; his tone didn't say that. His tone sounded more like he thought something bad would happen… Amelia could guess he was definitely keeping something inside of his pocket watch, something private that he kept to himself. But, what would he keep from Alphonse? Secrets from her, she could understand, but his own brother? Edward cared about him more than anyone, so what could he have to keep from him? Still… she knew better than to push it when Edward clearly didn't want to discuss it, certainly not when they had the company of Alphonse present. Maybe she could ask him another day, but for now, she decided to change the subject. "I guess we can just count it down? You want to join me, Al?"

"Sure," He said, glad for some kind of distraction after seeing his brother like that. Edward had refused to look at him when he spoke, which wasn't something he was used to, and he was worried, but he knew better than to push things with him too hard. It would only make him clam up more. And so, they began.

"60… 59… 58… 57… 56… 55…"

As they counted, with every second, there were a pair of white shoes that clicked along the stone floors of the fort.

"45… 44… 43… 42… 41… 40…"

Hands stuffed inside of his pockets, walking ahead of his assigned guard that he was fairly certain was there to "keep him out of trouble."

"30… 29… 28… 27… 26… 25…"

He didn't mind it, if anything, it encouraged him. He didn't think they would be in Briggs for much longer, so soon he could go out and start doing what he intended.

"17… 16… 15… 14… 13… 12…"

However, there was an opportunity he saw clearer than daylight, and he intended to seize it where he could.

"5… 4… 3… 2… 1! Time's up!"

The three jumped at the sound of a door opening as soon as Amelia and Alphonse had finished counting, and Edward couldn't begin his turn at the story. Edward went to the door of his cell to see who it was, and Amelia stood up to do the same. She could see Major Miles in a Briggs uniform standing just at the entrance, while someone else dressed in a stark-white suit started to make his way down the cells. As he approached Amelia's, she stepped back, expecting him to go forward to Edward and Alphonse's cell, but he didn't. He gave her a smile that reminded her briefly of a snake, with the way he pressed his lips together and how the corners of his mouth curled up around his face…

Everyone was silent before he reached up, tipping his hat to Amelia, "Hello there, young lady," He said, being as courteous as anyone could, "I thought you might like to join me for some tea."

"Um… me?" Amelia wasn't sure what his game was, but she instantly distrusted Kimblee, especially after his stories from Ishval. Why did he want to talk with her? "You sure you want to talk to me? Not the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure." He turned to Major Miles, "This is the one I want to speak to, would you mind releasing her?" Amelia looked over at Major Miles as he made his way over to the door, unsure and a little worried that she was being told to go with Kimblee, of all people. She watched him unlock her cell door and open it, stepping inside.

"Wait, Major Miles, what's going on?" She asked, stepping back from him, and he paused when he saw how scared she seemed.

"Mr. Kimblee has been granted permission to speak with you from General Raven," he explained as he reached out for the handcuffs that she had on, "It won't be for too long, just a short visit out." He began to gently tug her by her handcuffs, having her step out of her cell and next to Kimblee, who still had that snake-like smile slithering over his face.

"Wait, what's happening?" Edward demanded from his cell, "Amelia?"

"Don't worry, I'll have you back here safe and sound," Kimblee reassured both her and Edward as he started to walk out with his hand over her shoulder, a gesture that instantly made Amelia tense up.

"Hey! Wait a second!" Edward's hands rattled the cell bars of his door, pressing his face against it as he saw Kimblee escorting her away, "Where are you taking her?! Hey! I asked you a question!" Kimblee ignored him, but Amelia looked back at Edward over her shoulder, her steps slowing as she looked back at her clearly worried friend, Alphonse coming up beside him to the cell door to see what was happening, "You can't just take her out of here like that! Hey!" His shouts were growing more urgent as she was brought out, the door shutting behind her as she was led out of the prison cells, "Damn it!" Edward banged his handcuffs against the metal door, trying to see if he could get the wood to splinter so he could use alchemy and get out to find her, though it wasn't much use.

---

Amelia sat uncomfortably stiff in her chair across from Kimblee, who poured out some sweet-smelling tea out from a pot that was borrowed from Briggs'. The room was fairly normal, nothing particularly special, but Amelia could guess it was likely used as some kind of interrogation room at one point or another, given how bare the furniture was outside of a single table and two chairs. He poured out a cup, sliding it over to her and she could see the hot steam rising up from it as he poured out another for himself.

"I've been told you're fond of the Fuhrer's favorite raspberry blend, and he was kind enough to lend me some." He said as he reached for his cup to take a sip. Amelia felt her hackles rising up at the mention of the Fuhrer. She looked down at the cup, the heat from it asking her to take it and use it to warm up… but she couldn't trust it. She glared down at the cup, and Kimblee noticed pretty quickly, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not thirsty," Amelia said tersely, reaching up with her handcuffed hands to gently push the cup away from her.

"Really? I would have thought you'd want something different after prison food." Kimblee said, reaching for the saucer, "I know I would have done anything for a good sip of tea when I was in jail." Amelia looked up at him as he slid the cup back over to her side of the table. She glanced back over at the door where Major Miles was standing guard for them, outside and unaware of what was going on, though she had no idea if he could hear through the door or not. She looked back at Kimblee as he sipped from his cup again, putting it down, "Are you sure you don't want any? I did invite you to have tea with me so I could share it."

"I'm. Not. Thirsty." She reiterated, and Kimblee shrugged and seemed to let it go.

"Well, then I guess if you're not going to drink, maybe we can simply chat." He said, and Amelia glared up at him.

"Look, I don't know what angle you're trying to play here, but I won't fall for it." She said.

"Angle?" Kimblee's smile fell as his expression shifted to one of false confusion, "Whatever do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." Amelia hissed at him, "Bringing me up here, separating me from the Elric brothers, I don't know what you're planning here, but it's not going to happen. Whatever you think you can do by bringing me up here won't work."

Kimblee stared at her for a moment, before reaching up to remove the white hat he wore, putting it down on the table, "Goodness, you really seem to dislike me. And here I thought you would be the most amicable of three." he said, sitting back a little bit, "Your name is Amelia Seymour, isn't it?"

"Yeah?" She still sat tensed up, glaring at him even though she could feel her legs shaking a little bit.

"What could I have done to earn such hostility?" He asked.

"Are you serious?" Amelia could hardly believe he would ask such a question, "You know why! You're with them!"

"Oh," Kimblee's slithering smile returned, "You mean the homunculi."

"Yes, the homunculi!" Amelia snapped, "Do you even know what they're planning on doing? Because I can promise you, the stories they're telling you about immortality are probably a load of bull."

"They haven't told me any stories about immortality," Kimblee replied calmly, "And I haven't asked." His blue eyes met with Amelia's brown ones, "They made me an offer a long time ago, though under different circumstances, and I took it up because I thought it would be interesting. And it was." Amelia's brow furrowed as he told her all of this, "I'm not interested in any promises of immortality, or power, or even the Philosopher's Stones. I don't want any of that, I have no need for it."

Amelia stared at him, a little confused for a moment, before her expression relaxed, "Right, of course, it wouldn't." Kimblee raised a single brow, curious as to what she meant, "I mean, I heard the stories about you. You're a psychopath, you probably thought killing all those people in Ishval was fun." She spat out the word with an intensely bitter tone, which only made Kimblee smile in amusement.

"You say that like it's a bad thing to take pleasure in your work." Kimblee replied, Amelia glared at him, and he laughed. "But I'm curious to know what you heard about me to make you think I was a psychopath."

"You don't think you are?"

"I never said that I said I was curious." Amelia's eyes narrowed and there was a long silence between them. What was he trying to do? She wasn't used to trying to figure out someone who would so blatantly put his interests in front of her. Normally, people on that side of the fight would hide their tactics, hide their cards and put them face down so their enemies couldn't see them. It was why they had only spoken to General Raven once because he had no interest in letting them know anything more about their plans and give them a chance to ask and potentially get more clues. Edward was smart in that he could sniff out things when he wanted to know, though he was usually pretty dense everywhere else, so Raven didn't stay around him long. Amelia could normally read everyone like a book, and she had her own idea as soon as she had seen Kimblee. A stark white suit, with a white scarf, cream vest, white hat, white shirt… and a lavender tie to just slightly offset all the white in a way that didn't hurt the eyes by keeping it to a muted color. The man had style, he prided himself on his appearance, he was confident but nothing about his demeanor spoke of being boastful or arrogant. He was a man who was somewhat aware of his limits, at least to where he knew better than to try and boast about how great he was. And as far as she could tell, those assumptions were still correct, but this brief talk had added on a lot more.

He obviously wasn't going to tell her anything about their plans, not that he seemed interested in discussing it, but there was something else about it, too… the way he talked to her when she suggested their stories might be false and said he didn't want it, and there was also the way he didn't deny her accusation of him being a psychopath. Most people would, as they would equate being a psychopath with being a dangerous murderer… the fact that he didn't deny it made her a little nervous, but it also caught her off-guard. She looked into his eyes from her seat across the table, seeing how they were completely focused on her as much as she was focused on him. He was reading her as she read him, he was clever and knew it, but he also knew better than to underestimate someone. He wasn't going to give away anything he hadn't already in his physical appearance, but to openly deny the main goal of what the homunculi offered him, to tell her that he had no interest in becoming powerful or reaching a position of power… it didn't make sense. Why else would he be working with them if not to gain something?

"I've confused you, haven't I?" Kimblee broke the silence between them and Amelia jumped as he pegged down exactly what her thoughts were. "You're not sure what to make of a man like me."

"You make it sound like you're the only man like you." Amelia scoffed.

"I would hope so, if there were more of me running around, Amestris would be in a lot of trouble." Kimblee replied in a joking tone. Amelia didn't laugh. He let out a small huff of a laugh before he leaned forward on the table, threading his fingers together in front of him around his teacup, looking at her straight on, "But I imagine there aren't many people like you in Amestris, Miss Seymour."

She didn't like where he was going, "I'm sure there are plenty of people like me."

"Oh? So, you don't think you're all that special?"

"Of course not."

"I think I would have to disagree with you there." Kimblee said, "You put on an air of modesty and humility, but I'm certain there's a part of you that, even subconsciously, holds yourself higher than everyone around you." His eyes narrowed and his snake-like smile curled up a little more, "It's not because of your background, I can see you come from a very privileged household where manners were very important. Your etiquette is outstanding, and it shows in everything you do, so I can only conclude you come from a rich family, but you don't see yourself as the same as the other rich people that your family surrounded themselves with. You can see through their behaviors, their snobby attitudes, their fake personas that they create for the public and for their friends while being terrible people inside. You can see their shallowness and their vapid nature, and you want to be nothing like that at all, so you made sure that you weren't, and since that world was the only one you seemed to know, you also put up walls to make sure no one could see past the facade you put out for that world to see." He sat back a little bit, his hands unthreading to reach for his cup, meanwhile, Amelia couldn't help but feel a little nervous as he continued to speak, "But then you come to a place like Amestris, and you meet someone who doesn't come from that background at all. Suddenly, the world around you has changed and you've adapted. You've let some of your walls come down, you forgot the facade that you were once so comfortable with, you let yourself make connections with the likes of Edward Elric and his brother, as well as some connections with the Armstrong family — a rich family from that rich world you're so familiar with."

Amelia shifted back in her seat, her heart racing and sinking into her stomach at the same time, "You've found these connections and let them stay inside you, even if it's to your detriment because now they're being used against you. These genuine people you genuinely care for are now the reason that you're trapped here in Amestris, prone to these games played by beings that aren't human that seem to control all the humans around you in one way or another. And then you see someone like me, a human you assume is also controlled by them, and you think you're better separating yourself from me, and you'd be right. Because you see me and you read me like a book, you read everyone around you, and you know that you're smarter than them. You may not know as much alchemical theory like the Elrics or know about the profitable realm of business like the Armstrongs, but you know people. You know how people are, you know how to read them, to use them, to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do, but you don't do it out of malice like everyone else you knew back home. No, no, you only do it out of necessity because you have a goal in mind and that's the safest way to reach it."

"Stop talking." Amelia could feel her hands trembling in her cuffs as he ignored her request.

"You tell yourself that working people is the only way to get things done where everyone is happy because a good person like yourself wants people to be happy. You want these people who you've connected with to have some joy in their life, and you want to make sure some of it comes from you because that means these connections matter, no matter how much you might abuse them."

"Stop." She could feel the blood draining from her face.

"You take advantage of their trust, their insecurities, their ways of connecting with others, and you work them to your favor. You do it because you know people, and you're smart enough to know people better than everyone else, better than everyone here, and convincing them that what you want is also what they want is what you do best. You're better than them at that, and you know it, so you use it out of what you believe is necessity and convince yourself that because of that, you're still a good person at your core because you want to believe that you are. But you know, deep down inside of you, that you're no better than those shallow, vapid people that used to fill up your life because they do everything you do in the exact same way."

"I said stop talking!" Amelia nearly screamed as she banged her cuffed hands onto the table and stood up, her chair scraping against the floor behind her. She had tears at the corners of her eyes and her hands still shook in her contained fists. She could feel her very core shaking fearfully as Kimblee just read her better than she had read anyone in a long time and told her everything she ever worried about late at night when she was awake for too long.

The door to the room opened and Major Miles stepped in, "What's going on? Is everything all right?"

"We're fine, Major Miles," Kimblee calmly responded, seemingly unfazed by Amelia's outburst, "Oh, but we would appreciate it if you would undo Miss Seymour's cuffs. She's having a difficult time taking a drink with them on, and she's promised me she wouldn't harm me." He completely took over the situation, and Amelia still felt herself trembling. She glanced over at Major Miles to see him looking back at her before he stepped forward towards her with a key ring, going to the locks on either side of her wooden cuffs and undoing them, releasing her hands from the uncomfortable shackles.

"Is there anything else you might need?" He asked the two of them.

"I think we'll be alright to talk a little longer," Kimblee said, giving Amelia a smile that, if she hadn't just been ripped asunder by his thoughts on her, appeared to be friendly and genuine, "Please, sit down Miss Seymour. You won't have to be so frustrated anymore." She hesitated, rubbing at her wrists with her hands before she slowly sat down in her chair again, bringing it closer to the table from where it had been pushed back. Kimblee took a sip from his tea, and Major Miles looked between the two with an unsettled expression before he went back to his post, closing the door behind him. There was still silence between them for a little while before Kimblee glanced down at her tea, "You know, you should take a sip. The sweet blend in that cup should help you calm down."

Amelia looked down at the warm brown drink that sat in front of her, the steam no longer rising out of it as it had cooled down some more from their talk. She could probably use it, she could still feel her hands shaking as she reached up to wipe at the corners of her eyes to get rid of the tears that didn't fall. She was so shaken up from having someone read her as well, if not better than the way she did him. He had only looked at her and watched her for a few minutes, but he had read into her deepest fears that haunted her subconscious dreams and said them aloud in a way that terrified her. She took a slow breath in and out to calm her heavily beating heart, at least a little bit before she sat up straight as she had been doing before, and glanced back up at Kimblee, shaking her head, "...I'm not thirsty."

"And stubborn, too." Kimblee commented, still smiling, "But I can appreciate someone who sticks to their guns like that." He put his cup down in its saucer with a quiet klink from the porcelain meeting. "I suppose the question I asked now is a little pointless, so why don't you ask me one?" Amelia looked up at him, her brow furrowing again, "Ask me anything you like."

She was quiet as she considered this, she doubted he would let her have more than one question, so she needed to choose her words carefully. Still, she probably couldn't ask about their plans since he would know better than to tell her any details that they could use to their advantage, he didn't seem the type to betray his masters like that. She looked back up at him, deciding to ask the question that had been on her mind since he had come down to get her, "Why did you want to see me?"

Kimblee leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, "Because I thought that you would be the easiest to talk to."

Her brow furrowed further, "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember what you said to me the other day? Back when I met you in the hall." Kimblee looked up at her.

She paused to think about it, "I like your suit?"

"Yes, you're someone who can appreciate good taste, so I thought you would be the easiest to talk to between you and the Elric brothers."

"Why did you want to talk to me?"

"Well, I have a few things that I need to do while I'm here in the north, one of them specifically concerns your current alchemy teacher, but that's something I need to discuss with him alone." Kimblee began, "However because I know how that thing might go, I thought I would talk to you and make you an offer."

"An offer to what…?" He wasn't going to seriously offer for her to join their side?

"I'm not going to ask that you join the homunculi side, it's clear that you won't." Kimblee addressed that first, knowing it was the obvious thing that she would think of. "But the request I make of the Fullmetal Alchemist is something that might put your apprenticeship in jeopardy, so I thought I'd offer an extra space alongside myself." Amelia's eyes widened.

"You want me to be your apprentice?" She could hardly believe it.

"I would like it, though you also have the right to refuse." Kimblee replied.

Amelia let out an incredulous laugh, "Why would I want to be your apprentice?"

Kimblee shrugged, "Perhaps so you could learn a specialized alchemy that might give you an advantage in the alchemy exams in a few months."

"You think I want to learn how to make bombs? I know your deal, you were an explosives expert in Ishval. Why would you think I'd want to learn how to do that?"

"That's not the only part of my offer, you know." Kimblee said, sitting forward a little more, "I have more to it. You see, since I have such a close relationship to the Fuhrer, I can actually accelerate a lot of this process for you. I can guarantee your pardon, apprenticeship under me would guarantee your freedom." Amelia's eyes widened, "I could even help streamline your citizenship process so that you would become a free-wandering citizen of Amestris free to go wherever you want — even outside of the country border." He grinned as he saw he had her captivated, "The Fuhrer is well aware that doing this is a risk, considering your sacrificial status, but he's willing to take it if I give it my seal of approval."

Amelia could hardly believe everything that was coming out of his mouth. He was offering her freedom, the one thing she had been wanting since she had been arrested, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He was giving her a chance to flee the country, to get out before things got worse, and leave all of this behind. She couldn't deny the temptation was very strong, but… where would that leave Ed and Al? Knowing them, they would think this was part of their plans to change the hostage situation so that she would be in even more danger. How would she know if she could trust Kimblee's word, anyway? And she would be leaving those boys behind to fend for themselves… it's not like they hadn't done it without her before, but she didn't want to just up and leave them.

She straightened in her seat, looking up at him, "How do I know that's true?"

Kimblee's smile fell, "I'm not a liar, Miss Seymour, this offer is genuine."

"So, what's the catch? I doubt it's as simple as becoming your apprentice and you hand me my citizenship papers."

"Well, no, that's true. It's not that simple." Kimblee agreed, "It would take them about a week or two to mail the papers over confirming your citizenship status, complete with a passport that would allow you to travel outside of the country. During that time, you would be my apprentice, and I would teach you the ins and outs of making alchemical explosives, but do you really think that would be so bad?"

"Why would I want to learn how to make explosives from a murderer?"

"Is that how you see me?"

"Of course that's how I see you! I've heard your story."

"And what exactly have you heard of my story?"

"I know you were in Ishval, and I know you took joy in killing the Ishvalans, and I'm sure you probably took a lot of joy in killing your superior officers, too."

Kimblee grinned, "Well, you're not wrong in that I took some pride in it, but would you like to know why I killed those people?"

"What?"

"I killed the Ishvalans because I was ordered to, that was all. I didn't care who they were or why they were fighting. I was an alchemist serving the Amestrian people, and the Amestrian people said they wanted to stop the fighting in the east, so I did my duty as a soldier." Amelia frowned, "But then… they gave me a little something to help make that easier." He reached into a pocket in his coat, bringing something out and putting it on the table. As he took his hand away, Amelia's eyes widened at the sight of a small Philosopher's Stone. "The reason I killed my superior officers was because they wanted to take this stone away from me, and I'm sure you can understand why that would have potentially been catastrophic." She stared at the stone with wide eyes, glancing back up at him, "After all, they're planning something terrible with it, just like I did something terrible with it. I decided if someone was going to do anything with a stone that helped erase the limits of equivalent exchange, it was going to be me." He reached for the stone, holding it up to show her, "And if you like, this can be yours, too. Provided that you take me up on my offer for an apprenticeship." He let out a small breath, his expression changing to one of regret, "Goodness, that's actually quite a lot now that I think about it. You'll receive your citizenship status, a passport to leave the country, and the Philosopher's Stone to boot. Perhaps that's too much, but I've already made the offer and I can't quite take it back, now can I?" He smiled at her, "But all you have to do to receive it is be my apprentice for a couple of weeks."

Amelia couldn't deny that it was a huge offer that he was making to her, but how could she believe him? What was the guarantee that all of this was true? And even more than that… "What about Edward and Alphonse?"

"They have their own plans to deal with," Kimblee said, "But aren't you tired of getting caught up in their business? You're not even from Amestris, why would you want to stick around to see if you can help save it? There aren't any real ties keeping you here, are there? Just the legal ones that say you're not allowed to roam freely. I know I would be tired of it if I were in your place."

Amelia glanced down at her cup of tea, which had seemingly become lukewarm from all their talking as there wasn't any sign of heat from it now that she looked at it. These were all things that she once said to herself, questions she had asked because she was tired and annoyed and fed up with everything that was going on. She didn't really want to be so deeply involved with this country's politics, she wanted to be even less involved in these strange plans to make a Philosopher's Stone out of the entire nation. She never asked to be swept up in it, but she was, and she had lamented it but there was nothing she could have done except cooperated. And now, here Kimblee was giving her the offer to get out like she had wanted.

She smiled for the first time since she arrived, letting out a small chuckle, "You're very good, Kimblee." She said, glancing up at the man to see his smile had fallen to a confused expression, "Really, you are. You've done a very good job of analyzing me. I would have never gotten so in-depth in my analysis of other people, but I guess I can chalk up that difference to experience. You're right in that I don't particularly care all that much about this country, and if you had made me that offer two months ago, I would have taken it in a heartbeat and gotten the hell out of here." Her smile fell as her expression steeled as she looked up at him, "But things are different now. I'm not the person I used to be. All that stuff you said about me was probably true at one point, and I won't deny that what you described is probably my worst existential nightmare, but I've changed. I've met people who are unlike anyone else, who can do things I know no one else can, I know their stories and their choices, and I can see who they are now as a result. I know they're good people, with good intentions and I want to be like them. So, maybe this is just me trying to fight off that nightmare you so eloquently described, and maybe it's futile in the end, but I want to help these people I've met try to achieve their goals."

Kimblee's confusion faded away as his expression relaxed, while Amelia stayed as she was. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table in front of him, "Is that really what you want? You're turning down my offer in exchange for the hope that everything you want to happen to others will happen?"

Amelia nodded, certain of her words, "Yes."

Kimblee's expression shifted to disappointment, before he shrugged it off, "Very well, then. But that offer will remain, should you change your mind." He stood up from the table, grabbing his hat, "I really should get going soon, anyway. There's an important phone call I need to make." He turned to the door, loudly speaking up, "Major Miles!"

The major came in, looking up at him, "Miss Seymour and I have finished. Would you be able to find someone to escort her back to her cell?"

---

Amelia was put back in her cuffs and escorted back to the prison cells, where Edward and Alphonse were waiting for her as soon as she arrived. She could see Edward's face pressing against the bars, and the visible relief when he saw that she was okay, she gave him a small smile before she was put back in her cell next to his and sat on her cot.

"What happened?" Edward couldn't help asking, "Was everything okay? He didn't say anything weird or gross to you, did he?"

"It was… weird, but okay." Amelia said, and let out a dry laugh, "He wanted to ask me if I would be his alchemy apprentice."

"What?!"

"I know, right?" Amelia laughed, "Like I would ever be anywhere near that psycho!"

"But… you're okay?" Edward asked, "He didn't hurt you or anything?"

"He never touched me, I'm fine," Amelia reassured him.

"Good," She could hear the relief in his voice, hearing the sound of the cot sinking under his weight as he sat down on it. "Why would he want you to be his apprentice?"

"I have no idea, but that guy's not gonna find one in me," Amelia said, leaning her head back against the wall she shared against their cell, finding herself much more comfortable, and it was much easier to breathe back when she was imprisoned than it was in the room with Kimblee. She closed her eyes as she turned her head to her door, "Thanks, though. For worrying about me."

"Of course, we're gonna worry about you when you're gone, you brat." Edward sighed.

"Who are you calling a brat? You subatomic shrimp."

"WHAT?! WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE CAN USE AN ATOM AS A SHIELD WHEN ANOTHER ATOM GETS SPLIT?!"

"Brother, she never said that, calm down!" Alphonse quickly interjected.

Their bickering echoed through the halls of the prison for a good while, and although it was an argument that Amelia had so many times with Ed, she was sick of it, she knew there was no place she would rather be than right there with him.

---

A/N: Just so y'all know, this is the longest chapter yet and I'm kinda proud.