"Strange relics?" I question what I've just been told.

"Yes. Considering all of the Murder cases going on in Central city at the moment, there aren't many officers readily available to go. And on top of that, the fuhrer wants a state alchemist to go, and you ended up being chosen." Colonel Mustang says, while sitting in his desk, looking cocky and his chin rests on his hands as his elbows were on the table with a smirk. Meanwhile a pile of probably unsigned papers sat on the desk beside him.

I let out a sigh in annoyance. "Mustang, I have work to do! I had just gotten a lead for how to get Al's body back! I don't have time to go off and look at a couple old items that someone wants to know stuff about but can't do it themselves!"

"What if I told you that it was on the way to where you're wanting to go?"

I give Mustang a look. "Do you even know where you're going?"

Mustang chuckles. "I overheard Alphonse telling Hawkeye earlier." He smirks as I sigh in annoyance.

"Ok, fine. I'll do it. I only need to go in and look at them, right?" I ask.

"And preferably make an estimate and their use, value, material, and age, yes."

I stare at him for a moment. But then I nod, understanding what I'm going to have to do. "well... I guess I'll see you later."

Not waiting for a response, I turn around and walk out of the office, where my younger brother is waiting for me. "Hey Al."

Alphonse gets up from where he was sitting and looks at me. "So what was that meeting about?" He asks.

I sigh, and we both start walking towards the exit of Central Command. "So apparently we need to go to some island in order to look at some really old so called relics that no one knows how old they are." I explain to him.

"Come on Brother, that doesn't sound too bad. We'll be able to get through that quickly and then get to that lead, right?" I look at Alphonse, who's looking down at me, his glowing hollow eyes showing specks of hope into them.

I smile at him. "Hell yea, of course! We'll just have to run through that and get to that lead as soon as possible!" I say enthusiastically, trying to come across as pumped as possible. I'm honestly only a bit pumped for the lead though, not the mission.

Getting out of Central Command, Alphonse and I make small talk as we make our way to the inn that we're staying at. One we get there, and to our rooms, and flop down onto one of the beds.

"So I guess we leave first thing tomorrow, huh?" I hear Alphonse say from across the room.

"Yea." I call back in reply and look at the time. 10:25pm. I should probably get some sleep for tomorrow if I wanna try and finish that mission and get to that lead in the one day. Taking my jackets off and getting under the covers, I close my eyes and fall asleep without much thought.

I feel myself getting shaken by someone. "Brother, wake up."

It's Alphonse. I wonder why he's waking me up, it's not like we're about to miss the train for a mission before the lead or someth...

Oh crap the mission! I slowly open my eyes, and look up at Alphonse. "What time is it?" I half grumble at him in my tiredness.

Alphonse sighs in annoyance. "9:30. We have to leave at 10 if we wanna catch the next train!"

I sit up quickly. "What do you mean next train?" I ask urgently, feeling like I'm not going to like what he's about to say next.

"There was a train at about 7 this morning, but I couldn't wake you up for some reason. I knew there would be a train later in the morning anyway, so I left you to sleep." He explains.

I send Alphonse a light glare. "You should've tried harder. Let's just catch this train." I say as I get out of bed, and start putting my jackets back on, also realizing that I fell asleep with my clothes on.

Quickly eating breakfast and getting ready, we quickly check out of the inn and run to the train station, getting there just as the train arrived. We quickly hop onto the train and take our seats.

"We're getting off at Hillsbury station, right brother?" Alphonse asks, sitting across from me, his metal body pretty much taking up the whole seat.

"Right." I answer and I look out the window and at the city scenery as the train starts moving again and buildings and people pass us.

The train is going for about 3 hours before we get to Hillsbury, including a few stops along the way. Alphonse and I get off of the train and I take a good look at our surroundings. Hillsbury looks like a small city, people bustling around, enjoying the sunny day, others running small shops near the train station. It had the feel of a small town, smaller buildings rather then larger ones you'd normally see in a city of any kind. I look at Alphonse, and we both leave the train station, beginning our search for that lake that island was in.

Alphonse approaches an older lady walking through the streets. "Hello ma'm, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to a lake around here, would you?"

She looks up at him kindly. "Which one? There are several around these parts."

Alphonse looks at me for the name. I'm about to tell her when I realize a small problem. "Uhhhh... Mustang never told me."

"Brother! You didn't ask about it either?" Alphonse thrown his hands up in annoyance.

I start to defend myself. "I didn't think about it at the time!"

"Well then how are we supposed to find the place we're looking for!"

"I don't know! Keep asking people I guess?"

Anyway, it takes us a while, actually a lot longer then I would've liked, but we eventually find our way to the lake, and find a way to get there, except for another small issue... The boat was too small for Al to go on.

"I guess you'll have to stay here Al." I tell him, slightly disappointed.

Alphonse looks at me. "It can't really be helped, they don't have any bigger boats right now. They'll have then later though. If you're not back by a certain time, I could easily get my own boat and look for you."

I nod in agreement. "That should work." I pause for a moment. "It's late enough, I should go."

"Just stay safe, and be back before it gets dark, ok?" He says, sounding worried.

I look at him, and nod before getting into my boat and pushing it away from shore with one of the paddles. It takes a moment, but I figure out how to use the paddles to move the boat and I paddle towards the island, which I can see in the nearish distance. The wind blows my hair around, sometimes in my face and over my eyes, and after several mouthfuls of hair, I finally get to the island, and I park my boat along the convenient beach along the shore. I pull the boat up onto the shore a bit so it doesn't float away on me.

I turn and look into the island, starting to wonder how that actual fuck I'm going to find those damn relics, study them, and get back to Alphonse before dark. Well, I'm already here, so I might as well give it a shot. I walk into the forest of an island. Pushing tree branches and bushes out of my way, I walk into the seeming depths of the island, keeping an eye out for any of the relics. I'm almost glad that Alphonse stayed back, considering that this forest is to damn thick, and he'd probably end up stuck on the beach anyway. Atleast he'd be able to call someone if something went wrong.

I'm not sure how long I was looking, but by the time I looked up at the sky, it was sunset. Oh lovely. I'm pretty sure I have no idea where the fuck I am, and I promised Alphonse that I would be back by dark.

I turn and start walking back, trying to map out where I came from, and I find that I just kept getting more, and more lost the more I walked. The forest is getting darker, making it even harder to see, and it's getting dark fast. I have a feeling that if I take too much longer to get out of the forest, it's probably going to become pitch black in here. I continue walking, trying to find my way out, or atleast find a shore line. Before I know it, I can hardly see where I'm stepping, and I can only hope that I'm not about to step on something poisonous, or an animal, or a gian-

My foot slips and I let out a scream as I fall into a giant hole, and I slide down a passageway into a dark area. I suddenly stop at the bottom, in a sitting up position and my back slightly sore from the sliding. I look around, not really being able to see anything, let alone how big the cavern is. I carefully turn around, and try to climb back up, however I find that it's too steep to climb. I then clap my hands and press them on the ground, using alchemy to make almost a staircase to climb back up. A shiver goes down my spine as nothing happens. Maybe there's another way out.

Using my arms to feel any walls, I slowly get up off the ground and stand up. Surprisingly, I don't feel any ceiling. I thought it was alot smaller. I start slowly walking into the cave, using my hands to feel any walls or anything so I didn't crash into them. I slowly walk through, when suddenly I spot a soft light coming from an entrance somewhere. Or exit. It looks similar to moonlight. It just might be a way out.

I slowly make my way over to the passage way, I almost trip on what seems like a small set of stairs leading up to the light. Slowly climbing the steps, I go through the doorway to see maybe the most amazing things I've ever seen.

It was a large cavern. The ground was sprinkled with sand, and the walls had things hung from them. A round pool of water took up at least half of the cavern, some stones sat along the edges. There was also a hole in the ceiling, and the moonlight came in, reflecting off of the pool and lit up some of the walls in the cavern.

Looking up at the opening in the ceiling, I decide to try to use my alchemy again, hoping that it would work. I clap my hands, and put them onto the ground, hoping to even be able to create something simple. But to my dismay, nothing happens.

I decide to take a quick look at the relics, partly so that if I ever survive and get the fuck out of here, I won't have Colonel Bastard chewing my ear off about not having a report on the relics, and getting stuck in a random cavern. Walking over to one of the relics, I carefully inspect one of them. It looks like it may be centuries old, is made out of stone, and it is so worn out that I can't even make out any of the designs that are on it. A crystal is also embedded in the center. I move onto the next one, and find that it's exactly the same, the only difference that it's made out of steel. The next one is also the same, but made out of copper.

I realize what I was supposed to be doing, and I glance at the pool, hoping that it will lead out of this place, and that I can get out of here. I just need to hope that my automail doesn't weigh me down too much. I walk over to the pool, and try to look in the water, wondering if I could even try. Luckily, I spot a tunnel just under the surface of the water, which could be a way out. It's risky. But I don't see any other option. I sit down at the edge of the pool and dip my feet into the water. The water is cold, but it doesn't feel too bad. I lower myself into the water, and almost immediately have to swim as hard as I can to keep my head above the water. Before I know it, I find myself in the center of the pool.

I look up at the opening in the ceiling, and I almost see the moon move into the center of the opening, and the strangest thing starts to happen. The water starts to bubble like boiling water, and golden bubbles start to circle me, floating up towards the moon. The moon shines directly onto the pool, reflecting in every way possible, and making the crystals on the relics look like they're glowing. I feel an odd energy that I can't explain start to flow through my body, and I find myself looking around in awe, and mostly staring at the moon.

Suddenly, all of the effects start to slow down, and eventually come to a stop. I look around for a moment, and everything looks like nothing had happened. But something seemed to have happened. My auto didn't seem to be weighing me down as much as it was before, and I felt like I just had the best sleep ever, and all of my strength was restored.

Looking around once more, I take a deep breath and I duck underwater. I start swimming towards the tunnel. The tunnel is alot longer than I thought it was, Taking me alot longer than I thought it would take to get through it. It is actually pretty big though, maybe big enough to fit 2 or 3 people at the same time. To my surprise, my automail didn't seem to weigh me down too much, and even more to my surprise, I am for some reason having no trouble holding my breath while I'm here, completely underwater.

It doesn't take much longer before I see the exit of the tunnel, and to my luck reveals the lake. I should probably figure out where my boat is, and get back to Alphonse before he sends some rescue team after me. Poor Alphonse. He's probably worried sick about me.

Just as I'm about to swim along the shore to find my boat, I hear something, more like someone call through the dark night.

"Brother! Where are you?" It's Alphonse.

I call back his name as loud as I can, shouting his name and that I'm here as loudly as possible so that he can find me. It doesn't take long before I see the light of a flashlight shine at me. I quickly start swimming towards the light, hoping that it's Alphonse. Turns out it was, and once I get to him, he pulls me out of the water, and onto the boat.

"Where were you?! I was so worried!" Alphonse angrily asks, probably not shouting because it's the middle of the night.

I decide to not say everything, I don't think he'd believe me if I told him about the pool, and the bubbles, and all of that stuff. "I got lost and then I fell." I say, not spilling all of the details.

Luckily, Alphonse doesn't question it. "Come on, let's get you to sleep. I already booked us a room at an inn in town." He sounds relieved.

I realize something. "What about the boat I took to that island?" I ask.

He sighs. "I brought it back to the person we rented it from once I found it. Then I started looking for you along the shoreline."

I let myself lean against the wall of the boat, suddenly exhausted. The feeling of the boat on the water feels really soothing and relaxing, and I can't help but close my eyes and enjoy it. Before I know it, everything goes black.