The Restricted Section

Alexa yawned and stretched and tried to roll out of bed. Her muscles screaming and she groaned and lay back down. She managed to open her eyes and the sight of Ed's face so close to hers made her jump.

"Edward!!! I hurt!!! Don't do that."

She finished in a whine and went back to feeling sorry for herself. Ed backed up a little and began stroking her arm before he realized what he was doing. As soon as he did, he jerked his hand back and pushed himself back onto his bed. Only then did Alexa roll over to assess Ed's condition. It wasn't awful.

His metal arm was in a sling and his leg was useless from the knee down. he had been leaning on it against a table that separated his and her beds. Al chilled out in the corner, observing everything and laughing softly at their antics.

"Brother! You scared her."

Al was laughing harder as Ed blushed.

"I was just seeing if she was awake yet. I feel completely lame like this."

He gestured at himself and Alexa tried to nod instinctively, but it gave her a massive headache.

"Oh....my head."

Ed looked worried.

"I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean to land on you."

She opened an eye at him.

"You're an idiot."

Ed became indignant,

"Hey! I said I was sorry!!"

"It's my fault."

"What?"

"I knocked your leg out from under you. It's my fault you fell on me."

"Yeah, but I still feel bad..."

"Don't."

He looked at her and she smiled at him.

"It's fine really."

Her voice got softer.

"And as soon as I can move properly, I'll fix you, but it'll only be temporary so be nice to yourself. No reckless behavior."

Ed gave a toothy grin.

"When have I ever been reckless?"

***********That Night

This time when Alexa carefully stretched, she only winced a bit. Much better than before. Ed had been getting extremely restless and had comandeered a crutch from a nurse and had been out and about all day and he and Al were finally coming back to the hospital when Alexa awoke.

"Well hello."

"Hey. How're you feeling?"

"Better. Not great. But better. What have you been up to?"

Ed hesitated, but Al jumped in.

"We were doing research on the Restricted Section of the library."

Alexa raised her eyebrows at them and asked in a skeptical voice

"So how did that go?"

Ed shook his head and plopped onto his bed. Al seated himself on the bed next to him.

"We tried asking Lieutenant Hawkeye, but she'd never been in there and Colonel Jerkface was an asshole about it."

Alexa chuckled.

"What did he say?"

Ed put on a bad imitation of the colonel's voice.

"It's too dangerous material for those so...small."

"ahahahahahahaha!"

Ed glared.

"ANYWAY, we tried asking Armstrong, but all he said was that it was only a place that either desperate or evil people spend their time."

"He was warning us away from it, but all he did was make Brother and me more curious."

"You could have asked me."

"Would you have told us any different?"

"No."

Ed sighed hugely.

"But I would have added that you two just barely fall into the desperate category."

Ed perked up somewhat.

"I'm not insulting you, don't get me wrong. But there are things in there that would be very helpful to your cause. Things you need to know."

Ed sat up straighter.

"Things that perhaps I may be able to enlighten you to without making the trip to the library."

Ed slumped.

"We already know all the simple stuff."

"You know the process of making a philosopher's stone?"

"Yes."

The brothers answered in unison.

"And the key ingredient?"

"Yes."

Ed sounded even more put out.

"Were you surprised to learn it?"

Ed looked at her strangely.

"I guess not surprised exactly....something had to make it very rare and hard to make...disappointed more."

"Because you would never kill anyone for your own benefit."

"Right."

Ed looked at her suspiciously.

"Would you?"

Alexa sighed and looked down.

"Not directly."

Ed's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know why alchemy works?"

Ed and Al stared at her.

"You understand the process and use equivalent exchange. If you know the properties, it's easy."

Alexa shook her head slowly.

"No. You are scientists. Look at it scientifically. Equivalent exchange. Yes. The equation of starting and ending must be the same. However. To begin the change, a catalyst must be added. To start and sped up the process."

They blinked at her. Neither of them had ever questioned the happening of alchemy. It just was.

"The gate."

"Yeah, we know about it."

"If you see it, the Truth, then you can use your body as a circle and transmute without drawing one."

"Correct. However. Neither of you sacrificed enough to see beyond the Truth."

"What?"

"Al gave up his entire body!"

"That's not important."

They sat back and looked at her.

"When you are willing to give your whole self, soul and body, then you learn what comes after the Truth.

The accident that took my sister's life. I went after her. I went to the Gate and yelled at The World, or whatever you call the being outside, to let me get her. Let me take her place. It told me that I had more to do in life. That I was not finished. I told it that if it meant my sister's life I was finished."

Everything was completely silent except for Alexa's voice, now soft and laden with regret, sorrow, and guilt.

"It told me that if I gave up It would show me the Truth beyond the Truth. I agreed, thinking that as soon as he'd shown me, I would sacrifice myself again for Nickel.

He pulled me not just into the Gate, but through it. There is another world on the opposite side. I was pulled over it, examining it, feeling it. It is like our world, but alchemy cannot work there. At some point in our history, this world turned, it was a major event, but we turned to alchemy. It is our main principle. That world, a copy to ours, split off and went in the direction of science, something that is completely different, but stemming from the same source."

Ed and Al were drinking all of the knowledge in, trying hard to keep up with her.

"Because of their science and everything, they remembered equivalent exchange, but what they forgot, what that world lacks that we have, is the knowledge of the soul. The people here, the alchemists, the reason they can do alchemy is because they are unconsciously in tune with their soul and the souls around them.

In the other world, these kinds of people are called philosophers, but they are far rarer than our alchemists. Sometimes, these philosophers make the mental leap and then they too are able to perform alchemy. When this happens, they often, either by choice or by mistake, end up eventually in our world because anything like magic, anyone who practiced it there, would be severely punished."

"Why?"

Al whispered.

"People hate what they cannot understand. I'm sure you've had experience with that."

Before either of them could speak again, Alexa raced on.

"The reason alchemy works for people who are in tune with the soul is that, the souls of the dead of the other world come here, just as ours go there. Sometimes with a body and mind and have a new life in the other world. Most of the time, they are just spirits. Our minds, philosophers and alchemists, attract the lost souls and they collect around us. They especially do when we draw the symbols. Do you know where those symbols come from?"

They shook their heads.

"Ancient arts. Of calling to the dead. Soul trappers. The power and energy from the souls surrounding us fuel our alchemy. Make it work."

Ed and Al stared, then finally broke the stare. Ed looked devastated and stared at his hands.

"Do people here know that?"

He croaked. Alexa shook her head and he closed his eyes. She put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You're not killing anyone. You're not hurting anyone. One is all and all is one."

They swiftly turned to her again, shocked.

"It is the flow of life. Souls need a purpose, in life and death. You are simply part of the flow and course of nature."

Ed quickly wiped a tear, forming in the corner of his eye, but turned away so that neither Al nor Alexa could see. He nodded. Al wondered,

"That was all good to know, but why tell us?"

Alexa smiled weakly.

"Don't you see the implications?"

Clearly, they did not.

"The philosopher's stone requires souls not lives."

Ed stared, a look of wonder in his amber eyes.

"So there's a way then. A way to make a stone, just using more energy and not by killing people!!!"

Alexa nodded and Ed turned, grinning hugely to Al.

"Al! We can get your body back!"

"But yours first, Brother!"

Alexa was gladdened at the sight. She hoped that perhaps that was enough. Of course, it never is with the Elrics. Ed turned to her, almost hopping in excitement.

"So then when we go in the Restricted Section we have to learn more about the Ancient Arts. We have to be able to call more souls. There must be ways listed to do it in there."

They both looked at her, practically drooling at all the potential knowledge. Alexa had to laugh.

"You look like hyper puppies!"

Ed crossed his arms and looked off to the side and Al giggled at his brother. Then Al looked back at Alexa and asked in a more somber voice

"What happened with your sister then?"

Ed looked at Al like he was crazy and then glanced at Alexa. Her head was down and her bangs hid her face.

"My sister."

Nyko took the opportunity to hop up on the bed and crawl into her lap, turning around a couple of times before settling himself down. Alexa buried her face in Nyko's fur and her reply was a muffled one.

"Nevermind my sister."

They looked at each other and looked down. Al was about to apologize when Alexa brought her face up and looked at them with a smile.

"I have decided that I will sneak you two in tomorrow night. How we're going to sneak Al though...I'm not so sure."

*******The Next Evening

Ed flexed his fingers and rolled his ankle, checking once more to make sure everything worked okay. Alexa was right, even though she was able to get them working again, Ed could feel a difference, only a slight one though. She had earlier explained

"I don't have any fancy tools on me and though I know more than average, I'm no magic mechanic. I can follow directions. I know everything I did and how to undo it, but I got caught up in the fight and landed a couple of more serious blows, especially the one to your leg. They'll work, you can pick up things and run if needs be, but please, don't overdo it."

Ed had shrugged and was just happy she could fix him at all. There'd be no sneaking around the way he was before and he was also delighted for any excuse to delay the inevitable visit to Winry. He inwardly winced again at that upcoming trauma. He just knew it wouldn't go well.

He shook his head and brought his thoughts back to the present, where, presently, Alexa was holding a finger to her lips and peering around a corner. She motioned to them and they snuck, crouched as low as possible. Because of the time, the only people about were the standard guards roaming, but they didn't seem to be in this part of the building. For the moment anyway. They came to a bookshelf that looked exactly the same as all the others, but Alexa pulled out a very thick, boring looking, almanac.

She traced a complicated shape on the inside cover and then put her palm over it. It glowed a very dull purple and the bookshelf proceeded to turn into a door. Ed and Al stared. This was probably the strangest transmutation they'd ever seen.

"This is the only removable book. I wasn't making books into a door. The entire thing, shelves, false books, they're all metal and make a very nice door."

Ed was incredulous that he'd never discovered this in all his hours in this library, but it was in a reference section on the history of battles, or something like that. He wasn't one to study war. Al, on the otherhand, was just delighted at the whole thing. Imagine a dancing suit of armor.

"Okay, okay, you make a lot of noise, thank you. Let's go."

Alexa whispered and beckoned them forward. The door pushed open and swung into a pitch black room. Ed walked forward, holding out the candle he had been carrying. His eyes widened greedily at the sight.

The room was mostly filled with manuscripts, or books so old they were falling apart and looked like manuscripts. Alexa pushed the door closed behind them and said, albeit quietly.

"Everything that is about to be published gets run by a secretary of the Fuher. If they decide the material is too dangerous, they keep it from being published and lock it up here. Along with silencing the writer."

They glanced at her and paused in their pawing of the papers.

"It's also research, commissioned by secret branches of the military. The ones we're not supposed to know about."

"Like Laboratory 5, Tucker, and everything."

Ed muttered, going back to the papers in his hand.

"Alexa, why does the military do things like this?"

"Well, Al, look at it as if you were the Fuher."

"Huh?"

"If you were in charge of running a country as large, prosperous, and, well, aggressive, as this one, wouldn't you want to know everything you could?"

"Sure. I guess."

"Of course you would. You'd want to know about the land, the people, the culture, the battlefields, the enemies, the allies, but mostly the people. How they run themselves, who you can trust, who you can't, who you should fear, but most of all, what the people can do.

Not just people working under you or close to you, but the entire population. Of the world. You need to know everything man is capable of. Even the cruel and terrible things. Perhaps those things most of all. And seeing as how testing is the best way to prove something, the government does some very awful things to better understand nature and the ways it shouldn't work."

"You're condoning this?"

Ed's voice froze the room. Al was even a little afraid to hear his brother in such a frosty rage. Alexa, however, stood calm and faced him fully.

"No. I'm not. I'm simply explaining it."

Ed turned and they stared at each other for awhile.

"Seems you know an awful lot about how the higher ups think and why they do things."

His tone was still cold.

"Seems you don't."

Alexa snapped back. He whipped his head around to look her in the eyes again. He noted that, in the darkness, her eyes seemed to glow a very faint green. They were frighteningly beautiful.

"And what do you-"

"Edward Elric. Being a scientist should have taught you something about this. Not equivalent exchange, but something very similar. Balanced. Everything has balance. Good and evil, white and black, dark and light, your opinion and somebody else's. The only way you can fully validate your opinion is to hear the opposing side, and I'm not even giving you the propaganda speech the Fuher himself would surely deliver, and then reassess things. Sometimes, people can show you how right you are. Equally as often, you'll see your mistake, however major or minor."

Ed watched her carefully. Taking her advice, he listened carefully and realized, ironically, that she was quite right. Not about what the government did, but that he should listen more. He shrugged, but never took his eyes off her. She could tell her words were sinking in. Her face softened.

"I'm not criticizing you Ed. I'm trying to help. But for me to do that, and for anyone else to, you've got to listen before you assume. You can't always be right. You can't figure out everything alone. I'm not saying how the government goes about seeking knowledge is the right way, but it is the way they do it and they do have a good reason."

"Good reason or not, they're wrong."

"Brother."

"I mean, they're doing it wrong. Why don't they spend more time in libraries and less time in labs?"

Alexa smiled. Ed ran his hand through his hair and resumed reading. She herself walked around to find interesting looking manuscripts. After the three had looked and found some promising titles, they gathered in a triangle on the floor, each sitting or lying how was most comfortable, with the candle in the center, just barely giving enough light.

Al read up on the traditional way of making the stone, with only 10 to 20 sacrifices needed and then about the Grand Arcanium, needing thousands, an entire city worth. He discarded it to his side. Alexa glanced at it, realized the content, and found it a pity neither of them would ever study war. They'd learn the cause of it for sure.

Al also saw text on how to change yourself into something you're not. It wasn't really a type of soul bonding, but the problem was that too often, the change was not complete and the person involved either died or became a chimera. It was to be performed by having the perfect image of whatever animal you wanted to become, but people often thought you needed feathers to be a bird or a snakeskin to be a reptile and that was how they became human chimeras. Talking ones. Depending on how many animal traits they acquired, they may or may not retain the ability to perform alchemy.

Lead and base metals to gold...not a big deal, Al thought. But then he nearly dropped another manuscript that he saw was written by Dr Marco.

"Brother! I have some of Dr Marco's earlier work. Before he discovered the key ingredient!"

"Anything of use?"

"Um...."

Al's enthusiasm dwindled and then turned to utter horror.

"Brother...the red water, remember it?"

"Sure Al, what about it?"

"Well, this says how to....turn it into a red stone. The ones that all the military had in Ishval."

"And?"

Ed was a little impatient, but then he noticed the distress Al was in.

"Al? What is it?"

"It's crystallized by being implanted into a woman who is with child's stomach and then waiting until the fetus and mother die before removing the stone."

Ed's face lost its color. Alexa looked away.

"It does make sense, after all."

"What?"

Ed was in a state of disbelief. How many innocent mothers and unborn children died so that State Alchemists could go slaughter Ishvalens?

"The red water is purely chemical, not to mention very toxic for humans, to breathe or touch it, by killing the mother and child, you're teaching the chemical properties to absorb life. The red stone then can be easier transmuted with more lives."

Ed was appalled and considered taking it out on her, but he quickly realized that she was again, just giving him information, so he kept his mouth shut and went back to reading. Alexa and Al looked at each other and did the same.

Al read with interest about soul bonding. He'd never been positive how his brother did it and under what conditions would his soul be loosened or broken away entirely.

Ed was also reading some very interesting things, but he only chose to share one. He'd read about transmuting people's minds to be more open to suggestion and by shrinking the logical part, you expanded the imagination. It was how people were made to tell the truth. Also, by giving your own memories over, to be shared, not lost, you could tap into another person's memories. This was called Dreamfesting, though it had naught to do with dreams.

He supposed it would also work with information, but he couldn't imagine himself in a situation where he would be forcibly looking into people's past, as well as able to let them look into his. It was also supposed to be rather painful and could cause amnesia for either person.

He quickly had realized why the government needed to keep all this away from most people. He was not in favor of censorship, but all of this was very dangerous and the knowledge that someone could even attempt this would spread nationwide panic.

He also read up on going to the other side of the Gate, the one Alexa had described. This manuscript could easily have been the oldest one there, Ed was holding the paper so delicately and yet it still tore a little.

It was talking about something he didn't really understand. The language was archaic and difficult to read. Also, some of it was in shorthand and the paper was on the verge of tearing further. He spread the pages out on the ground. Something about a catastrophic event. One that killed a great many people. A city called Xerces, destroyed in one night. He read further about a great power that resulted from it. One thats qualities resembled a philosopher's stone.

Nyko trod across his papers and he shoved him off, muttering curses at the cat who pointedly shoved his tail and behind in the air, puckered his butthole, and marched off to settle into Alexa's lap. Ed shook his head and went back to reading.

Something about 'The Father'. And that he was immortal thanks to this. Also, something about how, much longer ago, another event, one just as great, had occurred and from that event a savior arose, a prophet and a philosopher. Someone who had discovered alchemy for the first time. In the time of crises, he used his limited knowledge to try and forge a simple baton for a weapon and turned a sapling into one.

That was the first record of alchemy. And, interestingly enough, he did not draw a transmutation circle. Ed frowned and looked more carefully. It was actually not until this Father destroyed the city that circles and designs came into being. It explained why, something about the Guardian of the Gate, but he couldn't make it out. He squinted and leaned closer, his nose centimeters from the page.

Deviation from nature.

The statement hit him like a ton of bricks. Before the attempt at the stone, alchemy was a very natural and benevolent force. In the East, even today, it still was. People turned one natural thing into another and only very rarely, using plants and minerals, but always involving plants. And the energy from the plants fueled the alchemy. Ed realized with growing sadness that it wasn't until man began experimenting with other men, animals, and man made objects that souls from across the Gate were needed.

He saw that there were ways of making gateways, ones that bypassed the Guardian, but that most people died in the crossing of man made Gates. Oddly, he saw that people on both sides needed to open the Gate, but he thought that Alexa said that alchemy was extraordinarily uncommon there, nigh impossible.

The other thing he noted, the thing he shared.

"So I guess, every time someone is killed using alchemy they end up in front of the Gate. Everyone goes into it and just disappears I guess, it doesn't say specifically. But the people who are afraid, they try and make bargains, figure out ways to not die. Those people usually come back and are used as additional fuel for our alchemy. However, very few people do this, but if you can either offer the Guardian something It wants or that you already know the existence of the other world, you can go there. And not die."

Alexa knew this already and Al was completely fascinated.

Alexa had taken out a notebook and was scrawling away in it. Ways and symbols to bring the dead back. The idea that if a thousand lives went into bringing one person back, one person could do the reverse. The human transmutations failed, she saw, because of greed. When you want to bring someone back from the dead, it's because you love them and therefore, you want to be with them. So you sacrifice other people, already living or in stone form. However, it is merely as simple as giving yourself. You cannot copy a soul, but the only thing that makes a proper trade for a soul you love, is the soul you love most, yourself.

She noted about bonding souls together. In simple form, the way she did for a very short time with Al, or more permanently, though why you'd do that, she wasn't sure, in the sense that forever you would be talking to a voice in your head of that person and also that they could take over your body and tell it what to do.

There was the third option, of binding someone's soul to a living creature, but that was much harder, because the animal had to either have a very docile personality, or love the person whose soul it was very much to accommodate that person directing their movements. The only successful ones were done in dogs, the most loyal of creatures. Alexa smirked at that statement and Al wondered what had been so funny.

Then she noted the part about just bringing souls. Not from the other side only, but an infinite number, to be used in a powerful transmutation. She wrote all of it down and memorized it. Just when she was picking up the manuscript entitled "The Emerald Tablet and Mutus Liber" they heard people, getting very close. One sounded a lot like a very angry colonel.

"You're telling me they're in where?!"

Ed, Al and Alexa looked at each other for a brief moment. Then they jumped up. Nyko yowled loudly and Alexa scooped him up, getting clawed in the process

"Is that quite needed? Calm down Cat!"

Then she noticed where Ed and Al were headed.

"Not that wall!"

Alexa didn't bother keeping her voice down. How long had they been in here anyway?

Ed walked to the wall she stood by and transmuted a door. They were making it into a wall again, just as the colonel busted open the main door. They ran, their chests heaving, turning many corners, both Ed and Al being quite familiar with Central, until they ended up in front of an inn. They walked in, wincing at how late it was.

A very sleepy man, took their coin, shoved a key in their hand and gestured upstairs. Al thanked him profusely and he just nodded and shuffled off.

After climbing the stairs, the adrenaline faded and Ed and especially Alexa got very tired. Nyko was sleeping in her arms and Alexa cursed the cat for getting a ride when they were making a great escape. She wanted a ride too.

Upon opening the door, they realized a mistake had been made. The room was very small, no one minded that. There was room in the corner for Al to hunker down. No, the problem lay in the center. In the one, smallish but large enough to fit two people, bed. The bed that left very little room around it. Alexa was completely out of it anyway, she didn't care. Ed was already blushing and twiddling his thumbs, but she was too tired.

"Look, I really truly don't care. We'll sleep in this bed. It's one night. Please, please get over it and just get in bed."

Ed stared at her. She pulled off her rucksack, long coat and put them aside. She sat down and pulled off her boots and socks. Then she pulled off her skirt which revealed small shorts underneath, as well as a tank top under her shirt. She piled the discarded clothes and burrowed into the warmth of the blanket.

"Ed."

He was still standing there, but now he very slowly, pulled off his black coat, shirt, and shoes. And pants. He was accustomed to sleeping in his boxers after all. He unbraided his hair, shot a 'help me' glance at Al, who pretended not to notice in his laughter, and then Ed very carefully pulled himself under the covers.

He tried hard to roll over onto his side and he suddenly felt Alexa jump, but then move back and a little closer to him then before.

"You're cold."

She said. He felt bad about his leg and tried to move it, but she proceeded to stay exactly where she was. They both fell asleep quickly.

Al noticed that in their sleep, they both snuggled up to each other and it wasn't a cold night.