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 11

Central City, Amestris—The Future

"…and as it turns out, the reason behind the lack of activity from the Perfect Peace People and the People's Army was because the PPP was doing their best to convince the PA that if they wanted to go militant, then they should be a militia since the army can't be everywhere at once, a sort of private owned army of sorts. The People's Army, of course, agreed, and the Parliament has convened to discuss the ramifications of such an act," Hughes grinned.

"And the reason for the array?" Mustang inquired, resting his chin on top of his laced fingers.

"The PPP think that it was planted. Apparently, they had regulated the warehouse to storage instead of using it as a meeting place since the PA seemed to have a nasty tendency of gate crashing. They wanted more security than a warehouse."

"Someone wanted us to suspect the PPP of terrorist actions then," Edward said, "But that brings up a more troubling question, if the PPP and the PA did not come up with the array, who did? If the array was planted, then why did they do it? Our search obviously, was a distraction, so what is being planned?"

"We can't be sure," Hughes shook his head, "But we do know that whoever planted and used the array is still changing things due to the discrepancies in records and the back up indexes. Frankly, having our younger analogues write and hide the original alchemical journals in the past where they can't be affected was brilliant, Ed. We'd never know that things were being changed otherwise."

"I don't like this," Edward sighed, "It's like chasing the Philosopher's Stone all over again, grasping at smoke and shadows and sliding back three steps for every two that we take. I didn't renew my contract with the military to chase myths and illusions." He glanced over to the couch where Alphonse lay unconscious, his eyes troubled. He'd been forced to knock out his brother when the blonde had gotten hysterical about the time difference, 'How could you do this to me? Why did you put another year's difference between us, brother? General, why did you let him! Mr. Hughes why didn't you stop them?' "Let's not forget that Al seems to have reached the end of his rope."

Mustang reached across the desk and took Edward's hand in his, feeling heartened when the blonde didn't withdraw from his grasp, "I know you were hoping this mission would snap Al out of it, but it doesn't change the fact that his discharge papers have been prepared since before all of this started. The recent outburst and the results of the recent psychiatric examination has only made it clear that he can no longer efficiently function as either an officer or a soldier. With his mental state as it is, we have no choice but to release him. Al is more likely to recover his mental equilibrium in Risembool than in Central, and it will give him a chance to develop as his own person instead of being a reflection of you. As his CO, all you have to do is sign."

Edward sighed. "I know, Mustang, I know." He squeezed his superior officer's hand gently in acknowledgement before extricating the appendage from the older General's grasp. "Where are the papers anyway?"

Mustang opened a drawer and pulled out a file which he placed in front of the blonde. Edward quickly flipped through the file and snatched a pen off the blotter, swiftly scrawling his signature on the designated lines and almost roughly shoved the file toward Mustang who received it gravely, slowly closing the file and putting it gently on the outbound pile of paperwork on his desk.

Edward finally broke the long silence that followed the completion of Alphonse's release papers, "So, Hughes," he studiously ignored the choked quality of his voice, and the two older generals did the same, "Any clues as to who planted the array? A general location maybe?"

"That's more of your forte, Ed," Hughes's smile was strained. "'Never send a soldier to do an alchemist's job,' wasn't that what you told General Lester the year you were promoted to Brigadier General?"

Edward dropped his head onto Mustang's desk with a dull 'thunk'.

Roy patted his shoulder sympathetically with a wry smirk. "Maybe this will remind you to think before you open your mouth."

"Shove off, Mustang."

Eastern City, Amestris—The Past

The atmosphere in Roy's office was tense as they listened to the not so quiet conversation taking place on the other side of the still open Gate. The blow up between the Elric brothers of the Future had been loud and messy; and Edward, who normally gave as good as he got, simply stood there, taking his brother's vitriol in silence, a troubled look in his eyes. It was clear then to everyone watching, that even before the talk in the older Mustang's office, Alphonse's outburst had confirmed something in Edward's mind and he was deeply hurt by it. To see a bond that they'd thought was strong enough to last through years turn out to have been twisted into something akin to an obsession on the part of the younger Elric-whom everyone had always believed to be the level headed one-suddenly fray and snap before their eyes was a disquieting sight, and the normally rambunctious staff ruled by the iron fist (and gun) of Hawkeye, was subdued and more productive than normal.

Al was obviously hurt and confused when no one would look him in the eye, and to no one's surprise, Ed was angry and snapping at anyone and everyone whenever he noticed the slump in Al's metal shoulders. The only thing was, he didn't seem very surprised or very confused at all whenever the adult members of Roy's staff made vague reference to the fight or the two brothers' closeness—or lack thereof. In fact, he seemed to understand and seemed to have known beforehand that something like this would occur; a fact that no one could prove or disprove.

More than one person was confused by the blonde's behavior, although Maes was suddenly convinced that Ed knew a great deal more about what was happening, had happened and would soon happen than he let on. The teen could often be seen poring over several scraps of papers, each of which seemed like bits and pieces of old literature or songs. The Intelligence Officer was convinced those scraps were a code of some sort, but whatever code it was, it was incomprehensible to all but the Fullmetal who was certainly not sharing.

Bring it down. Bring it all down, then kill… Kill them all. Starting with the ones who took him from us…. Then we'll deal with the traitor… He's ours, OURS! He belongs to us! We'll kill them all and then he'll be ours again… He'll come back to us again once they're all dead….

"Yes," the golden haired boy murmured, his voice too quiet to be heard, "Kill them all…"

The single black eye floating in the darkness shivered as cruel, mocking laughter rang through the air…. The boy slept on.

TBC…