Title: The Heart of Everything: The Song of the Forge Volume 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Summary: When whispers of a Rebellion sweeps across Amestris and a failed assassination reveals a terrifying plot against the State, Brigadier-General Edward Elric and Colonel Alphonse Elric are dispatched with orders to stop the rebels at all costs. The only problem is that the rebels have traveled twelve years into the past.
A/N: Many thanks to EmpireFiefAstor for the battle sequences that made this chapter possible! Changes to the chapter! Thanks to my beta, FleetInquisitorSaraiyu for pointing out that there are discrepancies in the relationship between Lt. General Mustang and B.G. Elric. As a result, this chapter has been completely reworked!
Chapter 4
Once the Fuhrer and Brigadier General Gran had left with the older (and human! Imagine that!) Alphonse to arrange housing for the soldiers and an office for the staff from the future, and the older version of Roy had returned to the other side of the Gate after a quick conversation in hushed tones with Ed's older self, the older version of himself waved jauntily with a bright smile. Brigadier Ed (Brigadier-General! How had that happened?) responded with a curt nod (not so strange considering that he was now a Brigadier General, but who would have thought that Ed would stay military when it was obvious that he'd achieved his goals?) and Colonel Al (he was having trouble wrapping his mind around kind, sweet, armor bound Al having Colonel stars on his shoulders) responded with a small smile and returned the wave and the two older generals left. The recently promoted Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes paused and mused wryly at how strange this line of thinking was. But then again, admittedly, it wasn't every day that soldiers from the future, including one's own elder self from the future went to the past to try to save the country.
Cool golden eyes swept over them and Maes shivered as the Brigadier-General said in smooth, measured tones, "Edward Elric. Come." And he stalked out of the office. He paused at the door when it became obvious that his younger counterpart was not moving and said coldly without turning, "Now boy. I am neither Major-General Hughes nor Lieutenant-General Mustang. I have not the patience to deal with your adolescent brooding."
He was having trouble reconciling this older, colder, and presumably more cynical Edward who seemed to only thaw in the presence of his CO with their own younger, more temperamental and sweet hearted Ed. "Go," Hughes whispered, "He's your older self. I doubt he'll do more than give you a bruise."
"He sounds like General Humbolt in a bad mood," Ed muttered as he shuffled forward.
Maes found himself swallowing hard at the child's pert reply. Was it from amusement or concern from the dark look that crossed what was visible of the Brigadier General's face? He resisted the urge to follow the two when the Brigadier General dropped his right hand onto Ed's shoulder and steered him out of the office.
~*~
Ed had been surprised when a gloved hand fell lightly onto his shoulder and looked up as he was steered out of the office and blinked as he noticed a corner of the Brigadier's lips twitch.
"I'm not that bad," Edward murmured once they were out of sight and earshot, "You should have seen Mustang after Alphonse destroyed a garage full of military vehicles in Western City. For want of explosives…" he shook his head minutely, "And he thought my leveling cities were bad."
His eyes were distant as he added, "I needed to speak with you before the Major General lets the Lieutenant General know that they just left me alone in a roomful of regrets. Remember, Ed, if you make people see only what they expect, you'll get predictable. They expect you to loose your temper, so they'll rile you up or attack your brother. If you act from the heart too often, you loose the capacity to act for the good of many. There will be times when you must make hard decisions, but you need to learn to sacrifice one for many. You also have to stop bringing Al with you on missions. It's not fun waking up to hear him screaming in nightmares because of what he's seen. Especially after Drachma…"
Ed stared at his older self who was considering a door before opening it and steering him inside and closing it behind them.
"Stop coddling Al," the Brigadier said firmly. "Don't let him follow you every where. He can't grow like this. All he'll do is become a miniature you. Learn to accept and ask for help when you need it, and trust Mustang. He doesn't show it well, but he has your best interest at heart. Wear the uniform to your assessment, and think before you act. A cannon looks impressive but is simply overdone, and considering who Mustang is, he can turn your weapons against you, especially if they have a penchant for exploding to begin with. You know other forms of alchemy, more subtle forms of alchemy. Use them. Don't overestimate yourself, and I know Trisha Elric taught you manners, use them. Believe me when I say that a little etiquette solves more problems than screaming and hitting someone."
"I don't know how many things have changed because of the mere presence of the future in the past, so be careful. Wear your uniform when on military grounds. Don't take unnecessary risks. Keep a weapon on you at all times if Mustang hasn't let you keep your own sidearm yet. Be alert, be polite, watch what you say, and most importantly don't loose your temper."
Ed watched as his older self fished a scrap of paper out of a pocket and handed it to him. "Memorize this and then destroy it. These are things that should be avoided if at all possible. The future is not as wonderful as it looks. The more things change, the better, and maybe we won't end up in a war. Be careful, Ed, and good luck."
Ed stared blankly at the scrap of paper in his hands as his older self left the room closing the door quietly behind him. The first paragraph read:
"I fear not Death by that Wrought of Human Hands. I fear only the Shatter Glass within me, for where fore shall I find Succor if not within the Flame of mine Heart? Harken unto me! For the Pain and the Sorrow and our Mistakes! Open your eyes! Will our Sins be Justified? Falling Asleep from our Vanity may cost us our Lives! Shall we beg the Sky to Redeem us in Our Fallen Hour? This is the Heart of Everything."
A code then. Ed carefully folded the slip of paper and slipped it into his watch. He'd study the code later in the library. Ed held the watch for a moment, his eyes tracing the crest of the Amestrian Military that was emblazoned on the cover as he considered the future. Was that what he was going to become? Someone who put up fronts and obeyed orders, bending them only when there was no one to see?
No. there was no difference between him and the Brigadier General. He'd simply become more cautious about when he broke and bent the rules and had become more subtle in how he went above and beyond his duty, that was all. But just what had driven the change in him?
"Unless the tension with Drachma got out of hand before my contract expired?" Ed asked empty air.
And if that were the case, it would explain a lot. More than likely then that he had succeeded in returning Al to his body, only for war to break out. At some point, Al would have followed him into the Military, and even after the war ended they might have been saying after this mission, after this mission. At some point, had that one mission been followed by another, and another, until they'd reached a point when all thought had left their minds about ever leaving the military?
Ed knew himself better than anyone, and he had no doubt that was the case. And his older self wanted to step in and stop the cycle before it ever started. What would happen in the future that even his older self would risk completely rewriting history to spare him?
~*~
Eastern Headquarters, Front Steps
June 23, 1902, 1400 Hours
Time passed, and the day of Ed's (the major not the Brigadier General) Battle Assessment arrived. There had been neither hide nor hair seen of the troops from the future, and at some point, a curtain had been erected by the future on their side to hide the gate, and Ed and Roy had worked with Basque Gran to erect an alchemical barrier---"I don't see the need for a barrier, Colonel Mustang," Brigadier Elric said, "The office that the Gate opens into is mine, and the brigade, both Colonel Elric's and mine, will be moving through the Gate quite often. Not only that, but your entire staff is already aware of the presence of the Gate. At this point, hiding it is somewhat redundant."---to hide the gate from the rest of the hordes of alchemists currently in Eastern Headquarters.
Roy sighed as he stood at the top of the steps of Eastern Headquarters and studied the crowd below. The day after the arrival of the troops from the future had seen him, Ed, and Brigadier-General Basque Gran working in the library, devising ways to keep the arrival of the future a secret despite the number of soldiers and alchemists who had been present for their arrival. The day after that had been spent setting up the barriers only for some little glitch to cause a rebound, bringing his older self running with a much aged version of the Strong Arm Alchemist close on his heels to grab the rebound and drag the alchemy back under control (To think that alchemy had progressed to such a point! Basque Grand had all but salivated at the thought of having access to such information. The number of alchemists who hesitated to experiment for fear of rebound as well as the number of rebound related injuries would go down drastically!) from their side of the gate while the older versions of Ed and Al had gone over the notes for the barrier---"Brother is right," Colonel Elric murmured, "And while your work habits as a General are impressive, I remember your tendency to procrastinate at this age, and the alchemical reaction when we take down the barrier to cross the Gate will only serve to distract you…."---and fixed the glitch. Once the barrier had been set up, Ed had vanished with the excuse of research, and no one, not even Al, had been able to find him since.
"I can see Alphonse, but I don't see Edward, sir," Hawkeye said behind him.
"Where is the brat?" Roy muttered irritably. "He'll loose his certification if he doesn't show. I would have thought that he cared more about Al than that."
A soldier passed them, making his way down the steps of the Headquarters, and Roy caught the gleam of silver chain at the hip and a flash of gold and a hint of a wry smile under the brim of the soldier's hat and Roy's eyes widened. Since when did Edward Elric wear the uniform willingly when he was not being forced, kicking and screaming into it for inspection?
"Well," Roy said nonchalantly after he had pulled himself together, "I suppose we had better head down then…"
"Yes sir," Hawkeye said calmly as the pair descended the steps and entered the parade ground.
Once there, Roy faced his young subordinate from across the parade ground, taking in the teenager's sudden acquisition of the proper military posture. Strange, he thought, where has all the time gone? It seemed as if just yesterday Ed was the twelve year old boy who showed up in Central City determined to take the State Alchemy exam and pass. When had Ed started to look so professional?
So caught up in his thoughts was he, that Roy found himself blindsided a wave of flower petals, which, to his surprise, sliced through clothes and skin alike.
"What the hell?!" Roy gasped, clasping a gloved hand to his face and pulling it away to see a red stain on his fingers as a gust of wind carried the petals away from the Colonel to swirl around Ed.
The teenager smiled, "I used to transmute flowers for mom and make them dance for her when she was sick. I figured if they can be used to entertain, they can be used to fight."
"Ostentatious does not necessarily equate to effective, Fullmetal!" Roy clicked his fingers.
"Useless," Ed stated as his hands curled and the petals swirled up in a mass of shimmering pink, and the resulting explosion threw up a cloud of dust and scattering the fragile blades. The teen took the chance to leave the general area and dove into the crowd of soldiers who had been swallowed by the dust cloud.
The dust settled and Roy frowned as he turned slowly, narrowed onyx eyes searching the empty arena as he held his fingers ready to snap. Slowly, he allowed himself to smirk. "So that's why you wore the uniform today, Fullmetal?" he called, "I was wondering about that. Unfortunately, hiding won't help if your opponent knows your weakness and can flush you out with it…." He paused for a moment for effect and called mockingly, "Short stuff!"
Outside the circle of spectators, Ed ground his teeth, forcibly biting back the impulse to give himself away with one of his usual rebuttals, shouted at top volume, to the Colonel's jab at his height. He'd spent every free moment he could since his older self had come through the Gate in the Colonel's office going through the note for clues and memorizing the instructions. And when he wasn't doing that, he was sifting through the alchemy that he'd performed for his mother, revising it so the simplistic beauty of transmuted flowers floating on an alchemically created breeze would become a flurry of beautiful and unassuming blades that would cut and slice through cloth and skin and flesh. The transmutation of a tiny stone or metal animal would become a small blade of various elements that could be hidden in his hand, and the transmuting of a sheet of paper into origami art would become a quiet lesson in control as he would be folding and unfolding the same sheet of paper multiple times. He still couldn't quite fathom why his older self wanted such things from him, but he was already beginning to see the advantages. He circled around the ground, slipping through the group quietly, taking advantage of the fact that his uniform rendered him invisible in the crowd of soldiers to circle around and approach his CO from behind.
~*~
Eastern Headquarters, Third Floor, East Wing, Colonel Mustang's Office
A pair of dark eyes and a pair of golden eyes watched the spectacle from the safety of the office on the third floor of the command building. The dark haired man placed white gloved hands on slender blue clothed shoulders, the sun gleaming off embroidered red arrays and golden stars and brocade, and smirked as he leaned down to place his lips just above the curve of an ear.
"I don't recall you fighting this way during your assessments until after Drachma," Lieutenant-General Roy Mustang said in amusement, "Someone has been going above and beyond their duties again."
"He needs it," Brigadier-General Edward Elric replied. "I still have trouble comprehending how I survived certain missions when I never listened to Al or planned anything out. You should appreciate fewer hospital visits on my part."
"It was just one such hospital visit that led to where we stand today," Mustang murmured.
"Ha," was Edward's sardonic reply.
Mustang let his hands drop to his side and he stepped back while rolling his eyes. "Very well, if you want to play it that way. Your report, Brigadier General."
~*~
Eastern Headquarters, Parade Ground
Roy was growing concerned as time passed and there was still no sign of Ed. The teen had never failed to rise to his bait before. Roy turned as he caught a flash of gold from the corner of his eyes, and his lips twitched upwards in a smile.
"Now why don't you save me the paperwork by displaying the same control over your temper during your missions, Fullmetal?" Roy called.
Ed slipped out of the crowd and knelt behind Roy and muttered under his breath, "Try controlling this, Mustang," as he pressed his fingertips together and brushed his hands over the ground.
Roy swayed as the ground rolled and bucked beneath him, and turned at the sound of rushing water, and he leapt out of the way as the wave crashed down toward him. Only the instinctive clicking of his fingers kept him from being drenched, sending boiling clouds of steam across the parade grounds. There was a quiet whistling sound, and Roy dashed to the side even as a rain of long, fine, razor sharp blades imbedded themselves where he'd been standing moments before and Roy flinched as several blades sliced through his cavalry skirt, pinning a corner to the ground.
"Damn!" Roy hissed, "What the hell has that man been teaching you, Fullmetal?!" A snap of his fingers was enough to free him, and he snapped his fingers again when he saw Ed touch his palms together. He was relieved to hear Ed's yelp as the kid dodged to the side, rolling up, but was not so pleased when the teen clapped his hands and made a shoving motion in Roy's general direction. Roy clicked his fingers again and a fireball slammed into the gust of superheated air and the resulting explosion blew the both of them backward.
Roy hissed as he felt a thin, sharp blade pierce his left hand clean between metacarpals and another thin blade struck him in the thigh while his already battered uniform found more damage due to the blades that did not harm him. He caught a glimpse of silver out of the corner of his eyes, and shifted his eyes downward and repressed a flinch at the sight of the blade that missed his neck by a hairs breadth. Of course, he could also see that he had been incredibly lucky. A little bit more in either direction, and he'd probably have a lot worse than a few scrapes here or there.
Roy gingerly sat up, and carefully extracted himself from the blades and rose somewhat unsteadily to his feet. He glanced across the parade ground, squinting through the dust and soot and just barely able to make out a flash of gold vanishing into a mass of blue once again. He resisted the urge to groan. He knew now that Ed wasn't going to rise to the baiting, and Roy couldn't attack the outside of the boundaries of the arena without being sure that Ed wasn't laughing at him in the opposite direction.
What was it about the sudden arrival of the future in the past their present that had sparked such changes in the adolescent alchemist?
A flutter of movement out of the corner of his eye had Roy spinning around, and he lifted his hand, fingers poised to snap….
~*~
Eastern Headquarters, Front Steps
Maes Hughes had abandoned the parade ground once Ed and Roy started the battle and was watching the spectacle from the safety of the top of the stairs of Eastern HQ. Oh, it was a remarkable battle, who knew that Ed could control multiple transmutations at once to give the impression of flower petals dancing on the wind, when in reality, it was actually a mass of tiny blades that reflected the light in such a way that it looked like flowers?
Oh, oh dear. Maes watched as Roy boiled away the alchemically manifested tidal wave only to have the clouds of steam cut by a rain of razor sharp blades which Roy avoided by a mere hair. How in the world had Ed managed that?
Ouch, Maes winced as the two alchemists were thrown away from each other by the explosion, and sighed. There went Ed, back into the crowd of soldiers, smart, he was circling around them, oh! It seemed Roy had figured him out…
Maes watched as the remainder of the steam dissipated and the dust settled to reveal Ed with his automail transmuted into a blade held at Roy's throat while Roy's fingers were held in preparation to snap in front of the teenager's nose. Stalemate.
The battle was over, and Maes had no doubt that Ed had passed his assessment. Now to vacate the premises before the Fuhrer decided to draft everyone outside of the Command Building to clean up….
~*~
The Parade Ground
The sound of clapping drew the two alchemists from the stalemate, and the silent battle of wills that had been raging.
"Well fought, both of you," the Fuhrer smiled. "This is very likely one of those few alchemic battles with the least amount of damage I've ever seen. However, as it is, why don't everyone pitch in and help clean up?"
~*~
Eastern Headquarters, North Stairwell
Maes hummed happily to himself as he climbed the stairs, anticipating Roy's reaction to finding him in his office with pictures of his beautiful angel. He just loved the look on his old friend's face when he realized that the inevitable had just happened… In fact, he should really spread the joy! Get Roy a wife, and find Ed a girlfriend… Hmm… Maybe Riza and that mechanic of Ed's….
He left the stairwell once he reached the third floor landing and made his way toward Roy's office.
~*~
TBC…