lostmoonchild: Okay, it's 4:20 Thursday morning and I've been conscious for an hour and twenty minutes now. I actually managed to crash about nine last night since the dogs had gotten out the previous night and one of them didn't come back until two in the morning yesterday and the other didn't come back until about five hours later. Add in playing with horses and no nap, my body was just begging to crash early.

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA or anything else unless I say otherwise.

Chapter Eight

Everybody had a telltale sign that spoke on volumes louder than what words could possibly hope to achieve. There was always that little quirk that gave them away, something that they just couldn't live without.

Finding that little quirk was just a matter of careful observation that bordered along the lines of extremely painful. That's probably part of the reason why people actually got into watching another's body language and got paid just to do it. If he had ever decided to do such a thing, there was a good chance that he probably wouldn't have done a very good job and probably would have gotten fired after the first week or two on the job.

Sometimes it was good just to be the brawn.

Ross was silent as he moved through the streets, careful not to draw attention to himself. There was a lead to the scientist and he was going to follow it as long as he could. The odds of the military leaving this one alone for any length of time was slim to none so that much was a relief.

It was amazing what the general public being afraid of one mad scientist could do to help the military. As soon as word got out that a scientist was killing people with a stolen weapon that had no known cure as of yet, the public was willing to help locate the son of a bitch before they were next. Add in that the said scientist had a hand in the torture and murder a pretty girl and a bunch of innocent children that were just barely in the prime of their lives and then suddenly everybody was keeping an eye out for the scientist and his known associates. "Uh huh, kind of helps that the kids were cute too. Sweet smiles and large eyes that seemed like they could never be tainted by darkness, how could anybody say that they didn't see anything when they have those images in their heads?" Rose commented lightly. "It's not going to be pretty, you know. Those final months."

He knew that. "I'll take one of those buns." Ross said when he got to a bakery. No use doing anything on an empty stomach. Hunger weakened the body. A weak body mixed in with adrenaline usually resulted in a huge crash later on as soon as it was safe.

Or as safe as a soldier could possibly get.

"You should probably consider staying clear of the shit that Dad got into. It's only going to get you killed sooner."

Maybe he didn't want to die slowly, that's why he was digging into his father's past. There was something that the military didn't know that he had been following, something that was just a bit too dangerous to bring in more people. What that was exactly, Ross couldn't say but he knew that there had been somebody else that had gotten involved just like his father had. There was only one difference.

That person had survived.

He had gotten a message from somebody named Jacob Williams saying that he wanted to talk. That he had information that the gray-eyed man would find to be very interesting if he wanted to know the absolute truth surrounding his father's disappearance and his siblings' murders.

After consulting Mustang about the message and just barely agreeing to have a few undercover officers with him, Ross contacted the other man and left a message that he was interested. Just because it didn't feel like a trap didn't mean that it wasn't.

The young man went over to a small coffee shop and took a seat outside, shaking his head when a young waitress came outside to see if he wanted anything. "You should consider sampling their coffee. It's to die for." A voice commented.

Ross looked up, seeing a man with dark mahogany colored hair smiling at him. "Jacob Williams?" Ross questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"That's me. You must be Ross."

"Yeah. Take a seat if you want."

Jacob sat down, smiling warmly at the younger man. "I must admit that I was surprised when I discovered that your siblings had been attacked." Jacob stated calmly. "Even more surprised when I discovered that you had been attacked as well."

"Given a death sentence more like it."

"Yes, that's very unfortunate. I understand that you want some information regarding the discovery that your father and I made before his disappearance."

Ross nodded. "Yes," he answered patiently. "I want to know so I can put an end to the madness before every alchemist in the country is attacked."

Jacob sighed a bit before looking around a little. "Fine," he said after a few minutes. "I'll tell you what you want to know but you have to promise me that you won't breathe a word as to what I'm about to tell you. I don't ever want to see or hear about another massacre."

"All you'll probably hear about is a few soldiers getting to the bottom of a mystery that the higher ups have been going crazy over for who knows how long." Ross answered.

The older man eyed Ross for a few moments before nodding slightly. "It started when your father and I were young men. We were young and we were eager to leave our mark on the world." Jacob pulled a flask from his pocket and took a drink. "If I knew then what we would be doing, boy, what prices we would both pay, I would have talked your father out of it."

"Out of what? What happened?" Ross pressed.

Jacob smiled wryly for a moment before answering, "That one's easy, boy. We saw Hell on Earth and that Hell didn't take kindly to alchemists of any type."

lostmoonchild: Another chapter done and the story is probably starting to get a bit deeper. I'm not sure what's going on as of yet but don't worry, I'll figure it out eventually. As all of you that have read these notes know, I generally accept flames but I've got a bunch of crap going on in my personal life that I'm going to ask really nicely that you guys just hold back on the flames until further notice. If you guys could do that, I'd really appreciate it seeing as I'm not really feeling like myself and haven't been for the past few days. I'm hoping that I'll be back to normal by my next update so read and review!