Ed heaved a heavy sigh as he sat down, rousing the Dust Storm Alchemist from his slumber.
Strange. Somehow it was impossible to think of him as anything else.
"So he's gone home then?" asked the soldier.
"Yep," said Ed, and he sat back resting his head on his hands. "Back home to Atmos. You wanna go join him?"
A thoughtful expression crossed Major Blitz's face.
"I want to," he said, "but I haven't even seen Atmos in nearly twelve years now. If I just go waltzing back in there like nothing happened, do you have any idea how much of a stink that would cause?"
Ed nodded. If this man really had been as famous as he could assume, then he would be in no end of trouble if he just turned up out of the blue and was forced to explain where he had been for the past decade.
"You seem to be taking the fact that I came here from Atmos over eleven years ago rather well," he commented.
"Truth be told," said Ed, "I'm more surprised that a full-grown alien would be able to master alchemy in only eleven years, let alone get good enough to enter the military. Especially if you're self-taught. Then again, that's a longer amount of time than Al and I had to get to the point of attempting human transmutation."
Major Blitz stared at him in alarm.
"Long story," he quickly added. "Thing is though, me and Al at least managed to find ourselves a teacher for the most important stuff. How exactly did you come to be so knowledgeable that you would be able to transmute across universal boundaries?"
Again, the Dust Storm Alchemist looked deep in thought.
"And another thing," Ed said, "of all the titles you could have been given, how did you get 'Dust Storm'?"
"The title," Major Blitz said slowly, "is probably because when I went in for my exams, I'd gotten pretty damn good at air manipulation but I was still having a bit of trouble with the whole earth thing and I couldn't move much more than a few pebbles at a time. So I may or may not have improvised a small dust storm."
"'May or may not have'?" Ed sniggered.
"Alright, I did!" the soldier admitted. "And I... may or may not have accidentally and temporarily blinded some of the examiners."
Ed could barely contain his laughter.
"That's almost as reckless as what I did!" he choked out as he tried to catch his breath.
"Why?" asked Major Blitz. "What did you do?"
"Threatened the Fuhrer with a spear."
He laughed again at the expression of pure horror on the Dust Storm Alchemist's face.
"You didn't," he muttered.
"Oh, I did," Ed said proudly. "I didn't regret it then and I still don't regret it now. How about you? Did you have fun blinding your examiners?"
"Unlike you," Major Blitz said sternly, "I was far more interested in finding a stable means of income than I was in trying to make myself look unnecessarily violent. I've heard stories about the Fullmetal Alchemist and how strong and selfless he's supposed to be, but in the flesh you're a little bit…"
"Awesome?"
"Obnoxious."
Ed scowled in his direction.
"Now I see where Aerrow gets his attitude from," he commented.
When he looked again, he saw that the Dust Storm Alchemist had gone back to being deep in thought.
"Hey," he said. "You doing alright?"
The alchemist slowly turned to look at him again, and this time his eyes looked greyish-green.
"You asked how I managed to master alchemy to the point of transmuting across universes," he stated. "Who taught you and your brother how to draw your human transmutation circles?"
"Huh? No-one," Ed replied. "I mean, we never asked Teacher to show us how to do it, and even if we had I doubt she would've told us. Thinking back, a lot of it was probably improvised, but it definitely followed a strict structure. And we were so goddamn desperate to see our mother again that…"
He trailed off.
The Dust Storm Alchemist didn't have to speak for him to understand what he was saying.
"Oh," he said, "I see."
"That's my answer to that question of yours," said Major Blitz. "I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert on the subject, but if it meant getting home and seeing my family again, I would have pulled the sun out of the sky, woven its beams into a three-piece and steamed the oceans dry by walking through them. I would have done anything just to see my wife and child one last time."
He looked away, fixing his frown on the floor.
"You got your child back," Ed pointed out. "And he seems pretty happy to have you back too."
Major Blitz smiled.
"Yes," he said, his voice strangely faint. "After all this time. I have my child… I have my son back."
"But I think right now would be a good time to give him a bit of space," said Ed. "I can't imagine how incredible it must be, finding your child again after so long, but he found a family in his squadron and he's refused to see them ever since that night. I'm not entirely sure if he needs his father fawning over him right now."
The Major wiped away a tear, apparently of joy.
"You're right," he admitted. "I'll give him some time to get reacquainted. And then I'll see if his friends are actually any good for him or if they're going to be a bad influence."
Ed didn't appreciate the way he was being glared at in that last sentence.
He could only pray this wasn't going to be like Hughes all over again.
It didn't take as long for the light to fade as she had expected. Certainly not as long as it had taken last time.
"Still not completed," she muttered in annoyance as she brought the globule over to herself. "Oh well. At least it doesn't appear to have very far to go now."
There was a knock at the door, and she turned back to her machine and concealed her 'project' within her cloak.
"Enter," she commanded.
She heard the door slide open and footsteps approached. Even without turning to face him, she could tell who it was.
"You summoned me, Master," said the Dark Ace, and he took a knee out of respect.
"Indeed," said Master Cyclonis, and she turned to stare down at her right-hand man as he straightened up. "Tell me, what exactly where the orders that I gave you for your covert mission last week?"
He was clearly trying his hardest not to appear confused.
"To eliminate Aerrow of the Storm Hawks," the Master said for him, "and ensure that he is in no way able to interfere with any of our future plans."
"I… I believe that was the order you gave me, Master," said the Dark Ace, who clearly understood the trouble he was in.
"They were," Cyclonis confirmed. "So can you please explain to me why it is that certain persons have informed me that Aerrow has returned safely to his squadron, apparently unscathed save for a wounded leg?"
The Dark Ace remained silent.
"It's such a shame, Dark Ace," said Cyclonis calmly. "I've almost come to expect these kinds of failures from you. Since you have proven a loyal and trustworthy subordinate, however, I am prepared to forgive you for this little disappointment."
The man in question nodded.
"It is appreciated, master," he said.
"My only regret," Cyclonis continued, "is that in this case, I did expect you to leave him alive. After all, you seem as though you would prefer to finish him personally. Up close."
He nodded again. This was also true.
"So I had to, shall we say, take steps to ensure that he would still remain out of the way, but not so much that you could not finish him at some later date."
Once again, the Dark Ace was confused.
"Steps, Master?" he asked.
"I will only say this," said Master Cyclonis. "Though Aerrow's body may inevitably recover, especially now that he and his squadron have the power of alchemy on their side, his mind is likely to remain broken for the rest of his life. You may find little purpose in killing him at this moment, as chances are that he is already dead on the inside."
The calmness in her smile would have chilled the Dark Ace to the core, had he not already possessed a heart of ice.
"And don't bother trying to track down those I hired," she said, turning back to her machine. "They have already received a more useful, more permanent reassignment. One which is sure to benefit our empire in days to come."
She looked down fondly at the globule she held hidden.
"You are dismissed, Dark Ace," she said. "You may return to your temporary station."
The Dark Ace saluted.
"Master," he said, and then he turned on his heels and walked out of the room.
The Master held up the crystal before her eyes once he was gone. Its glow was faint, barely noticeable, but still definitely there.
And surely it wouldn't be long before it only grew that much brighter.
The Dark Ace's fists were clenched as he strode through the hallways, glaring sideways at any who dared so much as glance in his direction.
So what now, genius?
Oh, great. He had surfaced again.
'What do you mean, what now?' he mentally demanded. 'This is your fault, you brat.'
My fault? How is this my fault? Surely it's your fault for being such a goddamn warmonger!
'It's your fault,' he thought, 'because you're the one who convinced me that it would be more satisfying to finish him in battle. You're the one who convinced me to shift my aim to his leg. You only wanted him incapacitated, and now look where that's led us!'
There was silence in the wake of this mental retort.
'When are you going to learn your place?' the Dark Ace asked.
My place?! In case you forgot, Dark, this IS my place! It's my head you've got me stuck inside! You're the one who won't let me out! If anything, you're the one who needs to learn his place!
'My place,' the Dark Ace thought calmly, 'is in the servitude of Master Cyclonis. That is my purpose.'
Pfft, yeah, sure. Too bad it's the only thing you're good at.
The Dark Ace decided not to humour this with a reply.
'If you do not recall,' he said, 'it is thanks to me that you have remained alive in the first place. Only by repressing every last trace of you have I kept you from being discovered by my Master and therefore kept you from being purged from your own brain. Do you understand?'
Oh yeah, I understand alright. I just hate the hell out of it.
The tall man wore an intimidating scowl for the remainder of his journey to the vast expanse of Cyclonia's hangar bay, where he quickly found his ride and jumped on.
You'd better hope Master Polka Dot doesn't learn about your other massive failure, right?
'I don't know what you're talking about,' he thought as he activated the wings and soared out into the blood-coloured clouds.
Yes you do. You know exactly what I'm talking about, Dark. All those years ago? When you first took me over for good? A certain Sky Knight that you failed to assassinate?
The Dark Ace's frown deepened.
He's alive. I know you've seen he's alive, you drove his goddamn car. In fact, if I remember correctly, you're the one who helped him shepherd his son to the hospital!
There wasn't a lot the Dark Ace could say to that.
So what're you going to do? You can't just kill him now; he's a State Alchemist, a big shot, and if somebody bumps him off it'll make headlines in Amestris. You did your research on the Scarred Man, right? And if your precious little Master Polka Dot-
'Could you PLEASE stop calling her that?'
-finds out you failed in what was literally your very first mission, I don't even want to know what she's going to do to you.
He revved his engine, giving himself an extra burst of speed as he cut through the clouds.
'I think,' said the Dark Ace to the other consciousness inside his mind, 'that it's time Corporal Messerschmitt did a little digging on the Dust Storm Alchemist.'