"So, Mustang, I hear you're looking for us," Edward said with his usual arrogant tone as he sauntered into Fuhrer Mustang's new office. He plopped down on a sofa and Al followed, apologizing, like always, for his brother's rude behavior. Mustang looked up from his papers, annoyed at Edward. He stood, and to his surprise, Ed stood too, saluting him.
"Congratulations are in order, Fuhrer Roy Mustang," Ed said. Mustang nodded.
"At ease, Ed. I imagine you had a nice trip on the way here, but now it's time for business. The reason I had Major Armstrong escort you to Central Command is because we've been having a series of kidnappings lately, and all of the victims have been State Alchemists so far. We've sent out several search parties, but we've only managed to recover the bodies of two of our men. We still have six missing state alchemists."
"Do you think maybe another person like Scar is after them? Someone new who wants revenge against state alchemists for everything they've done in the past?" Mustang shook his head. There was something else, but he wasn't sure if the Elric brothers needed to know.
"There's something else, Fullmetal. The two bodies of the men we've found, they... they both had markings. You should probably have a look at them." Mustang slid a folder across his desk. Ed picked it up, flipping through until he found the pictures of the state alchemists. His eyes widened in shock. How could this be?
"Markings for a philosopher's stone? But how, why? I thought we had destroyed all of the homunculus, along with their Father. Who would want to make a philosopher's stone now?" Ed's mind reeled with tons of questions. He thought all this mess was behind him now, but here he was, with another case in front of him. He was going to end this soon, before anyone else gets hurt.
"That's what we're trying to figure out, Fullmetal. I was going to ask you if you would join the case so we can stop this from going any further. We have to stop whoever is trying to make another philosopher's stone, and soon." Ed nodded his agreement. There was no way on earth he was going to let someone make a philosopher's stone using state alchemists.
"And another thing, Ed, I have assigned Second Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh as your bodyguards again. You need to be careful, Fullmetal." Ed groaned. More babysitters, he thought. Then again, whoever was behind this had managed to overpower and kidnap eight state alchemists, two of which were dead. Maybe he really needed to be careful this time. After all, Al and Winry would be upset if something happened to him.