Chapter Eight: Charades, Part Two

"Well, there isn't much more that I can tell you then what you already know from reading my report. I couldn't make it work - the red water would could cause a tear in the dimensional fabric, but it was unstable and would only last a split second at a time. It's amazing that someone actually found a way to stabilize it," Tucker said and glanced toward Ed - the proof that it could work.

"Any idea of who it could have been?" Edward asked.

"Did you work with anyone besides the Tringum brothers?" Ed asked.

Tucker shook his head.

Tucker convinced them to stay the night, and they had dinner with him and his daughter - whom, Ed noticed, had grown in the past three years. Nina talked about her dog and her father and other things in her life.

"I'm gonna write mommy a letter after we're finished eating and I'm gonna tell her about you two visiting us," she said happily.

"My wife left me several years ago," Tucker explained. "She went to live with her parents."

"I'm sure she did," Ed said with a glare.

"Would you cut that out?!" Edward whispered. "Our universes might be different, remember?"

That night, after Edward went to sleep, Ed put on his clothes and got out of bed. 'I can't believe that Tucker could be any different in this dimension. He must have done something to keep his funding and I'm going to figure out what,' Ed thought as he snuck around the dark house. He came to a partly opened door, light coming from the room behind it. The door squeaked as Ed opened it.

"Oh, hello, Ed. Anything I can help you with?" Tucker asked from inside, putting his pen down.

Ed walked inside the room as he said, "I know you have an evaluation every year, Tucker. That report may have gotten you by one year, but what did you do the next? Or the one after that?" Ed asked with narrowed eyes.

"I have no idea what mean," Tucker said. "Did I do something in your dimension that I shouldn't have done...?"

"Is your wife really with her parents, Tucker? Time for you to stop the charade, this time. You may have fooled the other version of me, but I know you."

Tucker smirked as he got up from his chair. "You're a smart boy, Edward. Okay, I admit it - I turned my wife into a talking chimera, and I turned Fletcher Tringum into one as well."

Edward widened his eyes in surprise. That wasn't what he had thought. "But... Alexander..."

"I didn't have to use my dog. There was a stray cat that came by my house one day... Fletcher took quite a liking to it, so I used it for the transmutation."

"What about Russell? There's no way he would have let you do that to his little brother!" Ed said.

"He didn't have a choice in the matter. And with a little contact of that red water we were working with, he was gone. I passed off our work as my own, saying that I found those odd properties and only investigated them farther after the brothers left. Of course, they didn't have any objections."

"You monster!" Ed yelled. "You may not have used Nina in this dimension,"

"Nina?" Tucker uttered, slightly surprised he had to resort to that in Ed's dimension.

"but you're not any better than the Tucker in mine!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" Tucker asked with a slight smile. "This year's exam is coming up and I haven't made a talking chimera for quite some time now... No one would miss you, you know. - All I'd have to do is tell your double that I found a way to send you back to your own dimension."

Ed widened his eyes. Tucker had a point. The madman could do anything he wanted with him. That's probably why he had been so ready to talk. Tucker grabbed Ed's arm - the metal one - and Ed smirked as he threw the man off of him.

"Wha...?" Tucker said in surprise.

"Unlike the other me, I have an automail arm," Ed said. He transformed it into a blade, to Tucker's surprise, and pinned him to the wall. "Now... Tell me who perfected the dimensional portal," Ed demanded, holding the blade by Tucker's throat.

"I told you already! - I don't know!" Tucker cried.

"I'm sure you must have some idea..." Ed said. "Does this jog your memory?" he asked and touched the man's throat with the cold metal.

"There might have been one guy... Just please let me go!"

--End Chapter--

My Original Chapter Notes (bold words are new):

Did that sound T rated? Anyone surprised about Tucker? (Seems like you guys may have been, based on the reviews from the last chapter) He seemed like a good guy in the show, until what he did to Nina, so I'd think he'd act really nice in another dimension, too. (I just saw a episode with him in lab 5, and he seemed kind'a nice there, so maybe I made him too mean...) (--Huh... I don't think I decided to change anything, but last chapter, I added in a "said with a smile". The only thing I changed in this chapter was add a little more about the room Tucker was in. He's supposed to be sitting at a table and I discovered that I didn't specifically say that - although I thought I had. I actually only added that he got up from a chair and put his pen down, but I figured that the table's obvious.)

Well... Since I'm thinking that we don't know much at all about Scar until after they moved to Eastern, I'll change some things in the first chapter or two and make it Eastern where Mustang is... I think that'd work... (--This is what I mentioned me having changed last chapter (Mustang and Ed were both in Central, then both in Eastern). And now, Mustang is in Eastern, but Ed isn't. So, I guess it's like a compromise between the previous two versions.)

I saw my brother yesterday (after taking a train to Indianapolis and visiting a relative of my dad's - why I didn't put this chapter up sooner) and... He said earlier that he was going to transfer several FMA episodes to the computer so I could upload them to my flashdrive... He only did one of them (ep.22). I told him as I was leaving that I'd give him ten dollars a tape to record them for me with a VCR, before his dish thingy deleted them all. Hopefully he'll do that for me. (--He finally did! He gave me two tapes! 32 episodes! I still haven't seen past 22, though, since I've been re-watching the first ones, but I'm looking forward to the new ones - and to see if my whole fanfic idea will fall apart... It shouldn't, though, since it's now taking place before the last episode I've seen. - The idea for the third - not started yet - fanfic in the trilogy, may end up falling apart, though, since it takes place after what I've seen... " And strangely, it would be the only one of the trilogy I actually thought much about before beginning to write.)

Katty008 helped inspire some stuff for the next chapter. So, there's a little with Mustang, and a little about him believing Ed... I'm kind'a confused about some details for the next chapter, though. I saw that one episode my brother recorded for me, but only a very brief appearance was made by Mustang, so he's probably out of character... Scar might seem to be, too... (Heh, heh... Poor Ed. He's in trouble in the next chapter - I'll try putting it up tomorrow) (--I wrote Mustang so plainly that he could be any character and be in character. " But, back in the second chapter, I did change Hughes to not be so in-your-face-with-Elicia because I've found him to be a very serious character in the series when not around people he knows well. I was somewhat surprised by that, when watching the episodes over again...)