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.
Chapter 7
"Geez!" Hughes groaned as the troops stepped through the Gate into Colonel Mustang's office and the ground under their feet trembled as an explosion in the sewers rocked the city, "I knew Ed tends to walk into all sorts of trouble, but seriously! Remember when he led troops into the sewers in Drachma, Roy? It's the Bloody Valentine all over again!"
"Only this time, it's in Amestris instead of Drachma," Mustang frowned as he adjusted his gloves. "Don't get complacent!" he barked, "The last time he went into the sewers after the enemy, Fullmetal not only lost his temper, but also his patience and he dropped the entire city into a massive sinkhole. The sewers here in Eastern City are much more extensive than in Drachma!"
Hughes shook his head in amusement. The sudden horror on certain soldiers' faces was laughable as they suddenly realized that the Lieutenant General was implying that the Fullmetal Alchemist was under the city when previously, he'd leveled another city after being sent underground.
"That was cruel, boss," Havoc muttered as the soldiers dashed for the entry points directly under Eastern Command, "Very cruel. You know that Chief's not going to dump Eastern City into a sinkhole. He likes this place too much."
Mustang shook his head, "That may be the case, however, will his patience hold out? Let's go before Fullmetal goes and opens a crater under the city."
Hughes shook his head as he followed his old friend out of Eastern Command. Really, he could be so melodramatic at times, and Edward seemed to take after him more and more as time passed by, which meant that Alphonse was slowly, unknowingly, but ultimately, doing the same.
Alphonse would follow Edward's lead to the end of the world if it came to it, and no one but Edward knew why Edward was still in the military. Certainly it wasn't because of his contract, he'd come to the end of it three times since his initial enlisting, and each time, Edward had renewed it.
The first time was understandable, Alphonse hadn't been restored yet, the second time, also understandable, the war with Drachma was well underway, and Edward's conscience would not have let him walk away from it. But the third time, only weeks before Edward had stepped between an assassin's bullet and Mustang's death, only Edward knew the reason why he'd renewed that contract, and not even Alphonse could pry the reason from his brother. And it wasn't for the lack of trying either.
~*~
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The frustrated bellow echoed through the sewers.
"Where the hell are all of these chimera coming from?!" Brigadier General Edward Elric snarled as he kicked a fox/eagle hybrid with his automail leg, snapping its neck, "I am fast loosing patience with this farce! I will drop this city into a crater, sentimentality be damned, if we do not make any headway within the next three hours!"
"Please Brigadier General!" Hawthorne cried, "Don't do anything rash, sir!"
"I'll show you rash!" the blonde bellowed as his automail blade sliced a wing off another chimera, sending it careening into a wall.
"Must you really yell, Fullmetal?" a wry baritone asked as the one winged chimera burst into flames as it leapt at a figure in the shadows. "The sewers have a tendency to send sound echoing through long distances, you know."
"Mustang!" Edward ducked under the tail of a snake chimera, "When did you get here?"
"After the fifth alchemist came running into my office covered in blood and sewer goop," the dark haired alchemist said dryly as he clicked his fingers, "Now, it's going to get a little toasty down here."
"That's a horrible pun, Mustang!" Edward barked as he clapped and deconstructed a chimera.
"Yes, but it's true," the Lieutenant General smirked, "Now, duck."
"Roast duck?" Edward joked as he thumbed the dials on the radio to a different frequency, "I'd prefer roast Mustang myself."
Mustang rolled his eyes as the blonde barked orders into the radio. "Haha, Edward. Very funny. But then again, I guess you don't have to duck. You're just too short."
"Who the hell are you calling so short that he could hide in a crack and not be burned by a spark in the sewers?"
"I didn't say that, Fullmetal. Now are you going to duck, or are we going to have to cart a charred shrimp out of here along with the chimeras?"
"Who the hell are you calling short?!" the Brigadier General barked as he ducked under a gout of flame.
"You, shrimp," Mustang smirked as he clicked his fingers together and a massive blast of flames consumed the pack of chimeras approaching them from the other end of the tunnel.
"Why must the two of you do this in the middle of what essentially amounts to a warzone?!" Havoc demanded as a blast of superheated air on Edward's part slammed a chimera away from him followed by a gout of flame that swallowed up the airborne chimera.
The two alchemists exchanged amused smirks and the battle was on.
~*~
The sewers were mostly clear by the dawn of the next day. There were the signs of hurried departure from some of the more cavernous junctions of the sewers, but other wise, was mostly cleared of alchemical existences and most if not all of Eastern City's less than desirable residents.
"Really," Mustang said tiredly as the soldiers made their way up out of the sewers via access points underneath Eastern Headquarters, "I expected them to be in Central, not Eastern City."
"Fuck, Mustang," Edward's voice was rough with exhaustion and amusement, "If you were expecting them in Central, why the hell was the bulk of the expedition stationed in Eastern City?"
"You know the answer to that, Fullmetal," Mustang yawned. "And here I was hoping I wouldn't see another battlefield after Drachma…"
"It's only a few chimeras."
"Enough to make you go running back to HQ for help?" Hughes teased.
"Alright so not just a few chimeras," Edward flushed, "But they weren't going to let us out of the sewers alive, and if nothing else, I want for there to be a future to return to, shitty as the path to it was. I don't step in front of a bullet for just anyone, and neither do I stay in the service of an institution I hate like nothing else for no particular reason. You lot know me better than that."
"But you'd never tell us why," Havoc griped. "You just smirk and walk away or change the subject."
The Brigadier General smiled and swiftly scaled the ladder and shoved the hatch open and hauled himself out of the manhole, and distantly, the troops under the sewers could hear him barking orders at the maintenance crew who kept the access points functional and ensured the equipment down there functional.
Lieutenant General Roy Mustang shook his head. Havoc had a point about Edward's tendency to not answer that particular question and followed his subordinate out of the sewers.
The maintenance crew did not so much as bat an eye as three exhausted, dirty, gore covered generals hauled themselves out of the sewers, followed by equally battered troops. Once a year or so, some aspiring officer might lead an expedition underground to clear the city of undesirables. Really, soldiers emerging from the sewers under the Command Building were not an unfamiliar sight to the maintenance crew, although this year was unusual in that there were three generals leading the expedition and that the future was overlapping with the present, and if the entirety of Amestris didn't know that already… Well, military buildings always found ways of finding out about things that were supposed to be top secret, and even if it was common knowledge among soldiers, certainly civilians tended not to have a clue about what the hell was going on inside the bowels of the country's exalted military…
~*~
Colonel Roy Mustang and staff remained in the headquarters for three days straight while the older versions had gone underground after the umpteenth soldier, exhausted, dirty, and injured, had dashed through the Gate. Whatever the hell the future was doing in the sewers had the entire city in a panic, and it was annoying as well as worrying!
Right up until tired and battered soldiers staggered into the office, making a beeline toward the Gate to which Ed obligingly lowered the barrier so they could pass through. Then came the staff, battered, dirty, exhausted, and covered in sewer slime and chimera gore, followed by three generals, one snarling in familiar impotent fury, another, smug and arrogant as he prodded the younger general into even greater depths of anger, and the eldest of the three shaking his head and smiling in fond amusement at his friends.
"Must you two prod at each other like that?" Hughes' voice was amused, "Ed's been up for almost four days straight, at this rate, all any of us will be able to deduce is that the two of you are falling for one another."
"…That was profoundly disturbing, Hughes," Edward said wryly.
"Hughes," Mustang lifted a hand, "Die."
"Eep!"
The exhausted soldiers did not blink, and simply made way as three highly commended generals darted through the Gate like children, one fleeing for his life, the other two pursuing with the intent to cause severe bodily harm.
Major Havoc sighed and patted his pockets in search of a cigarette, "Where do those three get their energy? Geez, you'd think they were newly minted Majors again and not decorated Generals, the way they act sometimes."
Colonel Hawkeye shook her head and chivvied the remainder of the soldiers through the Gate. "Be grateful at least," she said wryly, "that we arrived before Edward lost his patience all together and dropped the city into a crater like he did the last time he lead a mission underground in Drachma."
She smirked as she crossed the gate. The wary looks the staff was giving the younger Edward would serve to keep her amused for a long time to come.
"Just once!" the Brigadier General barked as he strode to stand before the Gate, "You turn one enemy city into a sinkhole, and no one lets you forget it! And it's not as if other Alchemists didn't have the same orders! And Havoc, get your blasted, nosy, paparazzi cousin out of my office before my alchemists decide that they're not going to stop her from setting off the security! Damn you for letting her trail you around Headquarters like some demented lost puppy!"
"Shit!" Havoc darted through the gate, "Don't kill Alice!"
"I'll transmute her into her precious camera if I catch her going through my papers in my office again Major! Be grateful that I don't keep anything important in the open, or she'd be meeting my automail up close and personal!"
"Seriously Chief!" Havoc called from the hallway, "Don't kill her!"
Edward pinched the bridge of his nose to release tension, and once sure that all the troops from the future were through, brought the barrier back up and collapsed into his chair. He sighed and left, looking forward to a hot shower, warm food, and a good long sleep.
~*~
TBC…