SHONEN ALLIANCE
RE:BIRTH
Lightning lit up the sky as a heavy rain began to drench Central Amestris. Dry and warm inside Central Command, a young, woman sat behind her attendance desk, sorting through some papers.
She only looked up when the exterior door opened, admitting a dark haired man carrying a large, cream-colored canvas bag.
"Colonel Vine? Welcome, I didn't expect to…"
"I need to see the Füher," Vine declared, "we've got an important matter to discuss."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The attendant had offered very little protest, taking Vine's serious tone as an indication that this was no time for an argument, and so Vine was admitted into the office without a fuss.
He hesitated for only a moment, before opening the door, and confronting Füher King Bradley.
"Ah, Colonel Vine. You picked quite the night for a visit," Bradley greeted him, sounding more inviting then he actually looked, "what seems to be the problem?"
"You might want to look into getting some more competent help, King Bradley," Vine declared coldly as he laid the canvas bag on Bradley's desk. "Your entire plan would have been a bust if it weren't for me."
Bradley glared at Vine curiously, though Vine noted no confusion in his visible eye as he opened the bag and scrutinized its contents.
"What is the meaning of this, Colonel?" Bradley asked menacingly as he grabbed the bag and dumped its contents onto his desk. There was a sickening plop sound as the severed heads of Usopp and Maes Hughes fell onto the table, Hughes head rolling to allow his shocked, dead eyes to stare up at Vine.
"I think that should be obvious," Vine replied coldly.
OPENING THEME: GOLDEN TIME LOVER (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. After all, if he wasn't going to stop digging, it was only a matter of time before he stumbled on to something he didn't need to know," Bradley admitted, "you on the other hand, surprise me, Colonel Vine."
"Is it really that surprising? It's only human to want to be on the winning side, after all," Vine replied.
"Being the logical choice hardly makes a choice human," Bradley replied, "humans, after all are emotional creatures. No matter how logical the choice may be, it's rare to see a human take it if it means hurting those they care about. I was under the impression you and the Lieutenant Colonel were quite good friends."
"Not good enough to risk my own life for, and certainly not enough to turn my back on an opportunity like this," Vine admitted, "you talk about humans as if you weren't one."
"If you want to leave this room, Colonel, you'll leave that train of thought right where it is," Bradley warned fiercely.
"Eh, it's not like I care either way," Vine admitted casually, "as long as I end up on the winning side, it doesn't matter to me."
"Is that so? Well, I'll admit, Colonel Vine, it seems I've misjudged you," Bradley admitted, "I took you for the kind of foolish human who would let emotions cloud his judgement. Seems instead, you're the type of selfish human who would do anything for his own enrichment."
"I do what I have to do," Vine admitted, shrugging his shoulders, "if that makes me selfish, then so be it."
"Is that right," Bradley responded, rising to his feet, "in that case, we'll be in touch, Colonel. Now, if you don't mind, it seems I have some things to attend to."
"Yes sir," Vine replied, giving a respectful salute.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Only when he was out in the rain did Vine draw an easy breath.
"Guess that sells how high this goes," he sighed, "this is gonna be rough, but the first move seems to have gone as planned," he admitted quietly, continuing towards his home.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Vine's long walk home was as silent as it was wet. His soaked clothing dripped water on his wooden floor, but he paid that no mind as he made his way to a door embedded into the wall under the stairs leading up to his rarely used bedroom. This door led to another set of stairs, this one leading down to a pantry and cellar, the stone walls of which only really housed bare shelves.
Walking through the cellar, he reached the bare stone wall at the back of it, and placed his hands against it. A transmutation later, a hole in the wall revealed a carefully carved stone tunnel leading deeper underground.
A lantern hung on the wall next to the opening and as Vine stepped through the opening and resealed the opening, he grabbed and lit the lantern, setting out down the tunnel. After about a quarter of a mile spent trekking down the sloping tunnel, he emerged into a large stone chamber. The only source of light was another lantern hanging from a hook over a wooden table, over which stood Maes Hughes and Kakashi Hatake, analyzing Hughes's map while Usopp sorted through several crates of supplies, freely taking anything he could use.
"You're going to catch a cold walking around down here like that," Hughes heckled Vine as he entered.
The chamber was something Vine had thrown together a few years back. A hidden bunker where he could hide away in with no one else being any wiser where he was. Jean Havoc had called him paranoid, and back then, Vine had agreed. Unfortunately, as it turned out, paranoia was only paranoia until it wasn't.
"It's confirmed. The rot goes all the way to the top," Vine sighed, "also I'm a bad guy now, and Hughes and Usopp are dead courtesy of being executed as traitors by me. Admittedly not sure how that works with Usopp, but…"
"So the illusion worked then," Hughes sighed with relief, "sorry for doubting you Kakashi, but none of this stuff really makes sense to me."
"It's a good thing it did," Vine sighed, "making two convincing heads would have been a tricky task for one alchemist, to say nothing of fake corpses to sell the illusion."
"So what now? If we stick around here, they'll figure it out sooner or later," Usopp worried.
"I've set a few things in motion," Vine admitted, "we're just waiting for…"
The sound of footsteps on the stone floor leading down from Vine's cellar to the chamber.
"THEY FOUND US!" Usopp cried in fear before Major Armstrong emerged, the top of his shaved head sliding along the roof of the tunnel, followed by Gracia, carrying two bags, one full of clothes, the other of toys for the second little figure, a very sleepy looking Elicia. She brightened up the moment she spied her father.
"DADDY!" she shouted happily, running to her father who eagerly embraced his daughter, happily playing with his daughter.
"What's your plan here?" Kakashi asked Vine.
"Uhhh, let's just say there may be a couple of acid bathed 'corpses' in a shallow grave. They may supposedly be the wife and daughter of a treacherous officer who were killed by the heartless bastard who executed their loving husband and father. Or maybe not, who can really say."
"It won't mean much if we can't get them out of the city," Kakashi reminded him, "guessing you've got a plan there."
"I always have a plan. Sometimes, it's even a good one," Vine replied, retrieving the lantern, and indicating an exit from the chamber that led in the opposite direction to Vine's home, "who's curious to see where else this leads?"
Elicia and Usopp both raised their hands, prompting a good natured chuckle from Vine. "Well then, shall we?"
"I'll wait here," Major Armstrong recommended, "best not to draw too much attention to ourselves."
Vine and Hughes nodded in agreement before approaching the exit.
"Alright, let's go meet your chaperones."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The walk up the second tunnel wasn't a short one. It was a solid hour before the group arrived at a solid stone dead end. Handing Hughes the lantern, Vine approached the wall and placed both hands flat against the ground. A hidden transmutation circle, nearly invisible beneath the dust of the tunnel, roared to life as alchemic energy flowed through it.
A moment later, the stone swung forward like a door and the party stepped forward into the cool night air. The rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared, letting the gentle moonlight of the Amestrian night cast a pale glow over Central City, the outer walls of which were half a mile north of the large boulder out of which the group had emerged.
As they emerged,
As they emerged, a set of car headlights pierced the darkness as a motor hummed to life. A second set soon followed, removing the need for the lantern as the headlights lit the scene.
Alicia emerged from the driver's seat of one car as Cosette and Aliasse crawled out of the backseat. Meanwhile, out of the second car's driver's seat emerged a young man, with ill kept brown hair dressed in a simple white shirt under a brown jacket and brown slacks. Vine smiled at the sight of the man.
"Glad you could join us, Welkin," he heckled as he clasped his old friend's shoulders. Nearly a year had passed since they had seen each other, and neither could help but wish they were meeting under more pleasant circumstances.
"I finally come for a visit and you're getting into trouble again," Welkin chuckled, "and it sounds like you're in even deeper this time then usual."
"Did you make the arrangements?"
Welkin nodded, "they're waiting for us," he promised, "and they said your friends could stay as long as they needed."
"Thank you Welkin," Vine thanked him with a grateful nod, "alright, much as I'd love to drag this out a bit longer, the closer you guys are to the border when the sun comes up, the better."
The others agreed, and so hasty farewells were exchanged.
"What about Luffy and the others?" Usopp asked Kakashi, "you're going to tell them the truth right?"
"Hate to say it," Vine cut in, "but I think for right now, the fewer people that know the truth, the better. Makes it less dangerous for us and for them."
"Besides that, Luffy or Naruto would be more likely to derail then help our plans," Kakashi agreed, "for now, best to leave them out of the loop."
"Roy's going to want to know what's going on. You know that, right," Hughes declared to Vine.
"Yeah, working out how to get the message to him as discreetly as possible," Vine admitted, "leave that headache to me and focus on keeping your head down. How long has it been since you had a vacation?"
"Not really even sure what those are," Hughes quipped before turning serious again, "be careful. Don't you dare go dying."
"That is the idea," Vine sighed, "might be tricky though."
"We should get moving," Welkin suggested, "the longer we drag this out, the more difficult a time we're going to have."
"I'm staying," Aliasse declared firmly, stepping forward.
"This is going to be dangerous, Ali," Vine warned, "one wrong move and we're as good as dead."
"Yeah, that's exactly why you need me," Ali declared proudly, "to make sure you don't die."
"Alright then, as long as we have that established."
"You're going to let her stay? She's just a kid," Usopp protested.
"Yeah, a kid with the combined destructive capability of roughly a hundred tanks," Vine revealed, "besides, I've tried the whole 'arguing' thing and I tend to avoid battles I'm going to lose." His admittance prompted a conceited chuckle from the victorious Valkyria.
Final farewells were exchanged and Vine, Kakashi, and Aliasse were watching as the two cars drove for Amestris' border.
"So… are your friends going to immediately kill me when you tell them what happened?" Vine finally voiced the concern that had been on his mind for hours.
"I'll think of something," Kakashi promised, though Vine wasn't put at ease.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Even aware of the large caliber hoax he was pulling, Vine still felt like a complete bastard as he sat on a hill overlooking the cemetery where a funeral procession was laying former Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes to rest.
Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes had been branded a traitor and stripped of his rank, while he had been promoted to Brigadier General for his execution of both the traitor and his long nosed accomplice, and the fact that the only mourner who currently knew that was Major Alex Louis Armstrong put Vine in no mood for socializing.
Though their weren't many, the one that mattered was there, flanked as ever by his loyal attendant. Vine watched as Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye paid their respects to the friend they thought he had slain. This would be tricky.
Fortunately, Vine wasn't without a plan.
"Surprised to see you here," a male voice called him out. Vine turned and found Jean Havoc, another of Mustang's subordinates, had found his little hiding place.
"I was just leaving," Vine replied, turning to walk away from the funeral procession, walking past Havoc as he did.
"What's wrong? Not going to say hi to the Colonel?" Havoc seemed to be mocking him as he walked away.
"I'll pass this time," Vine replied, "oh, but before I forget," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tossing them back over his shoulder to Havoc.
"Wow, thanks," Havoc gave an uninterested response.
"Don't mention it. They're just some extras I happened to have lying around," Vine responded as he left.
"Right, just some extras he had lying around," Havoc repeated, opening the pack, "says a guy who's always giving me crap for smoking."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Colonel Roy Mustang watched quietly as dirt was slowly piled onto the coffin that had been laid into the grave, marked by a gravestone that read "Maes Hughes".
"Colonel," Riza Hawkeye spoke up as Havoc arrived.
"Where is he?" Mustang growled, rounding on Havoc as the latter lit a cigarette.
"He was here," Havoc revealed, opening the cigarette pack and offering it to Mustang, "and he left a gift."
Mustang glared down at the packs contents, which was missing two cigarettes. One Havoc had just lit up, one that was replaced by a tightly rolled note.
"Not like him to enable your habits," Mustang admitted, taking the note. Making sure no one was watching, he opened it.
After reading through the note, he rolled it again and held it out, allowing Havoc to set it ablaze with his lighter.
After it had burned to ash, Mustang turned and left in the opposite direction Vine had gone, followed by his subordinates.
"So what now, Colonel?" Hawkeye asked.
"Now," Mustang replied, "it's time we complete our transfer to Central. Vine and Hughes can explain their game after that."
"Vine and Hughes?" Hawkeye repeated in confusion.
"Whatever they're up to, they must be in deep if they didn't tell me beforehand, but they're definitely up to something," Mustang admitted, "for now, we'll leave it to them. When they need my help, they'll let us know."
"Understood, Sir," Hawkeye replied.
"Never a dull moment," Havoc sighed as the three left to return south.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Vine entered a quiet alleyway for some privacy. He passed a groove in one of the buildings, in which hid Kakashi.
"How did it go?" he asked.
"Not well," Kakashi replied, "Luffy is furious. He's ready to go on a rampage."
"That was expected," Vine sighed, "starting to think we should have your crew go back to your princesses' kingdom."
"We'd be leaving you alone against a Dark Saiyan. You wouldn't have any chance of winning."
"I don't think the Dark Saiyan is planning on moving any time soon," Vine admitted, "not based on what we've found. If anything, your crew leaving might draw our enemy into a sense of security, which might get them to make a mistake. Also, if your crew kills me, or worse, attacks Amestris, that isn't going to be particularly helpful."
"You might be right," Kakashi admitted, "we can calm everything down with my team without risking yours. What about Hughes? He'd be safer in Lunaria then wherever you sent him."
"I doubt he'd go. Not given the crisis we're facing," Vine admitted, "even if I personally agree with you, it would be his call. Whatever the case, I'll leave it to you. I've got work to do."
Kakashi silently departed as Vine walked away, setting out for Central Headquarters.
CLOSING THEME: KIMI NO NAMAE (Rising of the Shield Hero)