Fullmetal Exorcist – Chapter 28 – Equilibrium II
"How long do you intend on staying here?" Kanda asked, and Lenalee shot up from her seat. "You've been at this for an hour already. Was Elric's study too boring for you?"
In fact, the emerald haired girl had been sitting in a chair beside Allen's bed, staring at the IV pouch ever since she got there. If Kanda remembered correctly, she did hear Al's shocking report about Allen's condition. The next hour, she made it her duty to stay by his bedside, even sleeping there if she wanted to. Al said nothing to bother her, much to Kanda's dismay. Lenalee shouldn't be seeing Allen right now. The poor girl didn't want to look at Allen's face anyway. His broken form would only break her. Al was busy dealing with certain papers about the others' injuries.
"No…" Lenalee mumbled. "I'm just waiting for Allen to wake up."
"He's not waking anytime soon," Al directed her to the door. "Besides, Mustang has some business with Allen, so you might as well leave before you met face to face with a very persistent General."
"Oh…" She nodded, and promptly left, leaving the two young men in the ward. Al could only sigh and watch the sleeping boy.
"Hopefully he wakes up," He said. "Lenalee's been visiting every hour or so."
As an Inspector, and a high rank of the Shield, a young man like Ed himself owned an office of his own. It wasn't as spacious as Roy's, for Ed had a much smaller staff who didn't exactly work directly in his office. Books took up most of the room. Usually, those books were the ones he found personally most intriguing and was more worthy to be by his side rather than his personal study that he shared with his brother.
Luckily, his desk was quite neat, unlike Roy's or Komui's, although he didn't much paperwork anyways. Ed was always out on the field, and it was usually his fault that Roy got more paperwork than usual, especially on Fridays when Ed normally got back from a mission.
The door swung open as Riza walked in with a few files Roy felt like passing on to Ed. Ed looked up from his desk, and nodded.
"Morning, Edward," She greeted him, approaching the desk.
"Morning, Riza," He smiled and took the files. Most of the time, he took the files without any complaints. The boy understood that he had extra time while his mentor didn't, so he willingly made work more efficient around headquarters.
"Um… do you know where to put these?" Ed handed her a yellow envelope, and she read it.
"Repair damages?" She looked up at him.
"Yeah," Ed laughed nervously. "Lavi made a big hole in the training room yesterday… It nearly wrecked the control room, and now the rain simulation won't turn off. Fury was able to shut it down for now, so we won't be using it any time soon…"
Riza agreed, "Lavi must have been quite relieved yet guilty after Allen came back... all of them must be… Kanda is busying himself with helping Al. Lenalee and Road are helping Jeremy in the kitchen, and Komui even called his own headquarters to send him a good share of his paperwork to sign and send back. Lavi is probably training right now… He's already finished his lesson with Bookman. They must really be trying to work themselves raw to get their minds off of Allen."
"Yeah… But it's better, actually. If we failed to find or save Allen back then, they'd probably be a lot worse than today."
Ed returned to his work, when Riza remembered something that was happening that day.
"Aren't you going to oversee the body transfer?" Riza asked. Ed wasn't present when Hohenheim told his idea, and Al probably didn't tell Ed either because the two were so busy…
"Roy told me about it this morning," Ed broke her train of thought. "I don't think I'll want to go see it."
"But you're a high official."
"Roy's my superior. He can tell me later."
"But isn't your father going to be there?" Riza questioned him. "And what if the extraction doesn't work?"
"He's not really my father," Ed looked over the new documents he was given. "Didn't I tell you that? And I'm sure it will work. Nea will appear, and we'll have to teach Allen to walk and talk again."
Riza sighed at the boy's persistence to reject Hohenheim. Well, the man did leave the Elrics and their mother when they were five, and he didn't come to save them four years ago, and he sure didn't bother coming to them when he knew where they were for a long time. Ed never stated who would seem like a father for him, but out of all the people Ed's worked with, she'd bet that Ed secretly preferred Roy, his own mentor, to be the father out of their makeshift family here at the Shield. He'd never call Roy "dad" but the emphasis of concern for the man was still there. Roy was the one who filled in all the positions Hohenheim should have done, and he was doing a good job at it. But Ed still needed to consider again. He didn't know what Hohenheim was doing when he was away; Riza didn't know, either, but still…
"Haven't you thought a single bit about Hohenheim when he got here?" Riza continued. "He's been wanting to see you lately…"
A long silence answered her challenge, until Ed pursed his lips and looked up from his desk with resolute eyes, his frown unchanged. A small twinkle flashed through his eyes.
"Then tell him where my office is later on? I think I'll be finishing some of Roy's paperwork, so I won't be attending the meeting at the ward. Plus, I have a small appointment with Winry in twenty minutes."
"I'll make sure he knows your office, sir," Riza smiled. Fullmetal had many ways of saying "yes."
The doors of Allen's room slid open again, and Roy and the rest of the officials arrived, along with Hohenheim. There was a small exchange between the family, but not much otherwise. Kanda and Al said nothing, for they had been told about the situation.
Everyone cleared the area, enough for Hohenheim to not feel the tension, and only focus on freeing the 14th.
"You ready?" Al asked. He wasn't sure himself if the process was possible, but like Mustang, he had to put his utmost trust.
Hohenheim nodded, and he clapped his hands, and same familiar hum coming from his fingers. His hands hovered over Allen's chest, and the boy began to glow purple, reminding everyone of the purple glow that emitted from dark matter. Hohenheim shut his eyes, and moved his hands up, as if pulling something. The purple light seemed to struggle to cling onto Allen, but it complied, and the purple-black light moved up, away from Allen's body. He jerked his hands to the side, and the black aura did so, too, landing on the ground like a person landing on his feet. The black matter shifted again, this time to imitate the figure of a man standing casually, leaning on one foot slightly.
With a deep crack, the black figure gained color, and a man with a young gray face stood before them. His hair was short, brown, and unkempt. His long tan coat was still rustling, as if a wind had just blown him in. The man wore a gray pinstriped vest over his white dress shirt, equipped with a green tie that was loosely hanging from his neck. His golden eyes darted about the ward, surprised by his surroundings. His gray hands twitched, itching to attack, but with no weapon. But one word made its way to the watchers: Noah.
The Noah was quite surprised that he ended up in Allen's ward, but he seemed to recognized everyone as soon as he set eyes on his sleeping container. Roy slipped on his gloves, as reassurance that no one got hurt if the newcomer decided to turn back on them. Hohenheim thought otherwise. It was such a long time… a very long time since they traveled together…
"Good evening, ladies and gents," the 14th bowed gracefully, tipping his black top hat. "I am Nea 'Dorian' Walker, the 14th of the Noah Clan. I'm very pleased to meet you…"
"Quite a gentlemanly character," Falman observed under his breath. Mustang sighed in exasperation.
"Nea…" Hohenheim gasped. The man nodded to him, giving him a look that happy reunions will have to come later. Komui, Link, Leverrier, and Lavi were left speechless at the Noah's presence.
"I apologize for the trouble I have caused you," Nea looked at Allen's sleeping figure. "And for Allen, too."
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Mr. 14th," Roy calmly stated. "We're quite fortunate to meet you."
Roy couldn't say "fortunate to be allies with you" just yet. He knew that Nea had some distrust in the Order somehow, and that won't be different for the Shield, either. He still had family connections to the Noah, and trusting the organization that planned to hunt down your family wasn't a good idea yet.
"Ah… yes…" Nea looked back at Allen.
After a quite stimulating conversation of the happenings at the Shield, and Hohenheim's plan to help Allen, Nea decided to speak once again.
"After speaking with Allen for over a year," Nea explained. "I have come to fully understand the meaning of the situation. I interfered several times because I only awakened when Allen lost his Innocence and regained it again. I wasn't given a full explanation until a year ago. I didn't trust the Order enough…"
"Nea," Hohenheim sighed. "We've understood already. You don't have to say that."
"Van…" Nea looked unblinkingly at an old friend.
"I'm sure Mana was happy…"
"That I'm alive?"
"You are his brother, after all… He cares for you, like any brother, right?"
"I guess so…"
"So will you help us?" Roy asked with some impatience. Those two were too wrapped up in their world, the rest of the staff was disregarded.
"I will, but under certain circumstances…" Nea said carefully. "After all, we are supposed to be enemies…"
Roy couldn't help but roll his eyes. If Noah were this hard to negotiate with, he couldn't imagine talking deals with the Earl. Once again, he was glad Edward didn't come to this meeting…
"There," Winry patted Ed's automail port. "That should be all."
Ed sat on a steel table in the middle of the room, surrounded by the many tools and parts that his mechanic used and treasured. Usually Winry would let him set in the cot in the corner, but this time, she made him sit on the metal table. He sometimes slapped himself for noting such trivial movements, but this wasn't the first time she's done this… Every time she noticed something upsetting in Ed, she put him through full-course therapy talking, and he hated that. A lot. But he'll just have to go with the flow again.
"Thanks, Winry," Ed avoided her gaze, and she raised and eyebrow in response.
"Goodness, Ed. You've been like this for the past couple hours ever since your father came here. That's not all, you come in running into my lab with tears in your eyes. That's not like you at all."
"Of course that's not normal," Ed rolled his eyes.
"Then what is bothering you?" Winry asked. "Are you just so hard-headed you can't forgive your father for leaving your family, and also being the cause of this whole mess about Alchemists and the Church?"
Ed kept his head bowed, not answering. She sighed in defeat, picking up her toolbox and walking away from the table to place it on the shelf.
"I'm just not sure."
Winry stopped midway in climbing down the small ladder, and turned her head slightly to see his head. Ed was still staring at the floor, and his hands were wrung upon his knees, fingers slightly twitching without thought.
"I really… don't know anymore… I don't remember anything about him at all… So I wonder… why should he be my 'father'…? I have everyone here, and they're a lot better than him… Hell, even Roy should be considered my dad… Just that… he shows up…"
Ed covered his face with both hands, his voice choking… and he began to mutter incoherent things. Winry finally descended the ladder and climbed the table to sit right next to Ed.
"It's okay… Ed… let it all out…"
"Damn… I wonder if it was even a good idea for that body transfer…" Roy sighed to himself in exasperation. "Two hours already, and that man's already a handful…"
Sure enough, Nea was worse than Lavi. He had nearly pulled Allen's IV cord by accident. This caused a lot of anguish on both Allen and Al's part (Allen began thrashing unconsciously for no apparent reason, and Al went ballistic that one of his patients was going crazy). Nea then nearly broke the elevator by jabbing at the buttons too much as he was going up the elevator to find his room. Reever nearly lost it when he himself was in the elevator and he was sent plunging in free fall. Not only that, on the way, he rearranged Ed's books when he somehow got into Ed's room, only to be caught by Lavi. He reasoned that Ed's books were not in the correct color code and weren't symmetrical (was he some perfectionist?). Still, he caused more troubles by accident, such as causing Jeremy the cook to burn his hand and nearly busting the training room that Ed had assigned Brosh to fix one hour ago… come to think of it, how in the world could that Noah travel so fast? Even Road couldn't run at that speed.
Roy sauntered down the halls from the medical facility to his own office, passing by his proud science department, where his close friend Hughes commanded avid scientists, and mechanics. If he remembered correctly, Winry's workshop and offices are somewhere down this very hall.
Sure enough, the plaque he saw earlier said "Rockbell." This hall brought many memories. Ever since the mission he and his student began real missions four years ago, Ed had been suffering more nightmares than usual. The poor boy already had tons of those whenever he tried to sleep. They had gone so severe; Roy resorted to almost completely wiping Ed's memory of their experiences in the first months of his missions, which turned out to be less pleasant than they should have been. But he became stronger, and he didn't need to lose anything (he regained his memories by the second year of their big grand mission before they came to the Order a few months ago). But that didn't keep away the nightmares.
Ed stayed up late frequently, and he would be scolded by Roy himself whenever he tried to avoid sleep. He usually got lost in a mansion so big like this, and he wandered into Winry's workshop, where the girl worked overnight very frequently. As strong as he was, he had to depend on someone, too. Winry was there, Roy would come in an hour later, and Riza, Hughes, and everyone else afterwards. They were Ed's makeshift family. They helped him feel better from those horrid nightmares.
Hughes always teased Roy about not getting a wife and having children yet. Well, how was he going to if he traveled so much? He had a war to win, not a love to find… Then came the concept of children… he never thought once about having children, but he was already satisfied anyways… he had both Ed and Al. He was willing to take them in. Yes, he was already a proud father. Well, as for the wife part… Riza would shoot him senseless he asked her.
As he continued to think and digress, he stopped right beside Winry's workshop, and he heard someone sobbing quietly, and Winry's soothing voice. He recognized the weeper, and his throat tightened. Did Ed have another nightmare when he was sleeping during work? Then he recalled everything. The day when Roy was hospital-ridden, and Ed had come to visit him and Hohenheim arrived… he still remembered the moment Ed was broken down to tears, and stormed out the room.
Roy knocked on the door softly.
"Ed?" He called quietly, and the small sobs stopped instantly. The doors opened right after, and he met the bright blue eyes of Fullmetal's mechanic. He peered past her shoulder, and saw the boy sitting on the table, his head shielded away by his golden bangs. So the boy's gone and done it again…
"Ed… We need to get back to my office… it was successful… the transfer, I mean…"
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room as the door creaked open, and Roy and Ed slipped through the doors, which Hawkeye took the liberty to close behind them. Both Exorcists' staff was standing on either side of the room, in perfect line, saluting stiffly. Komui, Leverrier and Link nearby Roy's desk, waiting patiently as Roy made his way to his chair. Ed took a spot next to Komui. He felt the wary eyes of the Supervisor on him, particularly his face.
"Were you crying, Edward?" Komui whispered, and Ed looked up sharply, startled by the man's perception. Komui closed his eyes in understanding, not waiting for a verbal answer from Ed. Both of them turned their attention to the two men at the sofa before his desk: his biological father, Hohenheim, and Nea, whom he had seen back in Allen's mind. Ed averted his eyes elsewhere, noticing from the corner his eye a smirk coming from the 14th.
Roy looked through a packet of papers and looked up to the two men.
"Ah, yes, the orders," He cleared his throat. "Do you want the exact words or just a nice short explanation?"
"I like the exact wording," Nea smiled. Roy rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"All right," Roy sighed. "Welcome, both of you, to the headquarters of the Silver Shield. I trust that you have gone far on your journey. I hope your stay here will as pleasant as possible."
Ed listened to Roy ramble on and on, until a new statement caught his ears.
"Following your arrival to this building, you'll be assigned as part of Edward Elric's staff. Ross, Brosh, and Armstrong will be happy to have you."
Ed gawked, but he knew better than just to point and shout about why his father was going to be a subordinate of his? What the hell was Roy thinking?
He listened to more of Roy's ramblings about rules, but he guessed Ed was becoming really tired of this… And no one was cutting in? Ed palmed his face. How bad was it, the bystander effect…?
"And as for the dorm rooms and… oh, what the heck," Roy scowled, and tossed a massive book on both men's laps. "This is a copy of the regulations, read it and return it next week."
Ed heard a big relief wash over all of the staff.
"Dismissed," Roy let out another deep sigh. Everyone immediately filed out, and Lavi arrived shortly with a pile of papers. Roy face faulted at the sight of more work, his face pale from speaking for so long without taking any breath.
"What's wrong with him?" Lavi asked Ed.
"Introductory speech," Ed rolled his eyes. Lavi then seemed to recall something.
"Oh, I need to tell you something. I don't think it will bother you, but just in case…"
At a low whisper, Lavi relayed the small bit of information, and Ed nodded, his face suddenly frowning or being surprised at moments. Then the final expression was an aggravated frown, and he huffed in annoyance, and Lavi went ahead to dump the pile of papers on Roy's desk, while poor Roy was still struggling to get back to his seat. Ed was ready to leave, when a hand landed on his shoulder.
Ed fiercely glared at his own father, who was smiling and hoping the tense atmosphere would go away.
"Um… Edward?" he asked. "Can you lead me to your office? I might want to know where it is, so I don't get lost. You think you can help your old man a bit?"
"Didn't Hawkeye tell you?"
"I'm sorry, but who is Hawkeye?"
Ed clenched his teeth. She had set him up, and now he had to face his real father now… Ed hesitated, still glaring. He noticed Roy giving him a more encouraging look, more like puppy eyes that said, "Don't make life harder for me! I just talked for an hour and now I have papers!"
"Fine," Ed looked away. "Let's get going."
They were just about to go down the hallway, when a certain Noah gotten wind of where Ed was going. His head poked out from the office doors.
"Hey, what about me?" Nea asked. This caused Ed to spin on his feet, his face boiling red.
"No way, you jerk!" Fullmetal shouted across the hall. "I'm not going to help you because you messed up my bookshelf! Lavi told me a few seconds ago!"
Nea watched father and son leave, and he thought to himself. He had just finished exploring most parts of the castle (in less than three hours, are you crazy!), and he must have forgotten something. Then he remembered… food.
"Oh! The cafeteria!" He began to bound his way to the elevator. Roy heard Nea's gleeful idea, and turned to Falman, who had stopped at his desk with some more papers.
"Falman, can you keep watch on the 14th for me? Make sure he doesn't smash something in the hall, especially that suit of armor that Winry made."
"Here, it's behind this door," Ed knocked lightly on the wood. Hohenheim watched his son turn on his heel and go back the other direction he came, muttering incoherently about books and sorting.
"Ed?"
The boy stopped walking, but didn't look back. "What?"
"Have you been… happy here?"
Ed spent a few seconds pondering that question, and he finally spoke. "I don't know. I feel indifferent at this point, but I'll be saying that everything has been fine."
Ed began to walk away with more speed, leaving Hohenheim behind in the empty corridor. Ed probably was frustrated, the Sage thought. But the man was happy anyway that Ed said something more than just insults and curses. Hohenheim was tempted to open the doors to snoop through his things, like any parent would do, but he respected his son's privacy, and left it be, walking in the same direction Ed went.
Lenalee silently made her way to the cafeteria, only focusing on where she was going. For the past few days, she kept forgetting where it was, and since the Shield was so big, she could hardly keep track of how many rooms she passed. A kind Finder, generally Havoc, who usually walked around headquarters, would tell her where to go, and she thanked them back.
In the back of her mind, she could only think of Allen. Was he going to be fine? As much as she wanted to believe so, she couldn't help but think something horrible would happen, involving Allen. She didn't like to remember that she couldn't remember him. All Lenalee could do was wait, and she silently took a tray for food.
Usually there were so many members of the Shield lounging around in the cafeteria, but from what Lenalee could see, most of them wore the standard navy uniforms, or black shirts and combat boots. Those who dressed differently she could notice really well. For example, Ed tended to wear a red longcoat with purely black clothing underneath it, and the Exorcists who came with her kept with their own uniforms. She scanned the rather lengthy line of people… She groaned in annoyance that she'll have to wait a while…
"Are you in line, miss?"
Lenalee turned around, and her face blanched. Nea Walker was standing right before her, in the same clothing as she had seen him in Allen's world. Why was he here? What was the Shield doing? They didn't tell her about this!
"Oh! Hello, Miss Lenalee," Nea bowed. Lenalee merely stood there, ready to drop the empty tray and run for her life, but she didn't move and she didn't speak. Nea looked up and tilted his head slightly.
"Um… Miss Lenalee? Are you okay?"
Lenalee snapped out of her dazed state. "Ah! I'm fine!"
"Hm… Allen did tell me you get flustered easily…" Nea sighed. "Should have known better…"
"I-It's nothing!" Lenalee held onto her tray, and moved along with the line, grateful that no one had cut in front of her as she was held back by Nea. Nervously, she bit her lip.
"You look like you have some burning question you haven't asked me yet," Nea stated blankly. "Care to share it with me?"
Lenalee muttered quickly. "How did you get here?"
Nea caught it, and he answered, "Quite simple, actually. Edward's father came yesterday and used alchemy to separate me and Allen so that I can walk around these grounds. Ah, I'm also Edward's 'subordinate' from now on."
It took a while for Lenalee to register all that Nea had said. "Edward's father is here?"
"Yeah… his name's Hohenheim. You know… blonde hair, gold eyes… has glasses… looks like an older version of Edward."
The girl wasn't sure if she even saw that type of man…
"I thought Ed hated his dad."
Nea thought for a bit. "I don't know anything about that."
"So you're allowed to be here?"
"Pretty much."
Lenalee nodded and turned away from him. She bit her lip nervously. So she was supposed to treat a Noah like a friend… She was fine with Road, because Road technically no longer had her Noah self, per se, but the 14th here was fully Noah, an enemy of the Black Order. Something serious must have happened for Mustang to allow a Noah to run about the headquarters.
"Um… Miss Lenalee?"
"Yes?" the girl didn't look back.
"Would you mind telling me how Road is doing?"
Lenalee sighed. "I will, if you can drop the 'Miss,' please."
A/N: Yay! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I have another story that's the prequel to this one! Please check the archives if you haven't! High school has so much homework! I have homework over the weekends... and all this SAT prep stuff, and so on... I got so bored during class, I actually began drafting that manga I put on hold on DA. Now when I scan it on, and add vectors to it, it should be a little better.
As for the confusion with names for the 14th, I'm sticking with Nea. Let's just say that Dorian was a fake name he took when he was going on a journey with Mana and Hohenheim, who probably had fake names, too. I mean, if you're running away from the Noah, at least change your name to something more common like Dorian rather than some really strange name that's not common in Europe like Nea.
Then recently, I was talking with my friends about yaoi because one of them accidentally read one doujinshi when she started FMA... her reaction was really funny.
The poll's still going, so if you haven't voted for the extra character, please pick your best two! This poll will be lasting all the way to the end of this story (maybe less).
Plz review! and suggestions are still welcome (except for any yaoi or yuri stuff. As much as some of us all want to see kanda and allen kiss each other some time soon, we'll be saving that for Intangible Essence)