Disclaimer- I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Stray Dog Returns

Eight soldiers, in full dress uniform, walked slowly across the green grass. The other soldiers who were stationed in Central stood at attention and watched as the eight approached. Balanced on the shoulders of the eight men was a casket, draped with the State Flag. As the honor guard made its way to the freshly dug grave Fuhrer Mustang raised his hand in salute. The Fuhrer's action was quickly mirrored by the rest of the soldiers who were assembled in front of the grave.

The large assembly of soldiers held their salute as the casket was lowered into the grave.

As two soldiers began to fill in the grave Kaori spotted a lone figure standing at the edge of the cemetery. The lone figure was small in stature and dressed all in black.

"Nick?" Kaori mouthed.

When the funeral service was over and most of the soldiers gone, the lone figure approached the freshly covered grave.

"Fullmetal?" Fuhrer Mustang said, watching the lone figure's approach.

The lone figure came to a stop a few steps away from Kaori and Mustang and raised his hand in salute. "Hello Mustang," Nick said softly, gazing pointedly at the freshly covered grave. His salute had been for the deceased soldier and he wanted to make that fact perfectly clear.

Kaori walked over to Nick and hugged him fiercely. "Where have you been?"

For once Nick didn't guard against an open show of affection in front of Mustang. He wrapped his arms around Kaori and returned her embrace. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. So what exactly happened to Lt. Col. Breda?"

"Officially he was killed in the line of duty while fighting the rebels in the Northern Region," Mustang explained. "But I'm not sure I believe that."

"Hmm," Nick said thoughtfully. So many bad things had happened in the Northern Territory that had nothing to do with the rebels who had their camps along the border and Nick was fairly certain that Breda had not been a victim of the rebel faction. Nick thought it likely that he'd run afoul of the homunculi as he had.

"So why did you desert the military Fullmetal?" Mustang's voice was filled with accusation.

"I didn't," Nick said, looking Fuhrer Mustang square in the eyes. "I didn't choose not to come back from my last fight. I wasn't able to."

"What do you mean you weren't able to?"

"Perhaps we should continue this discussion somewhere a little more private." As he spoke Nick gestured toward several military members who were still hanging around at the cemetery.

"As you wish," Mustang said. "Shall we go to my office then?"

Nick nodded.

"Kaori." Mustang turned to face his daughter. "You should go home."

"Oh hell no!" Kaori exclaimed, her eyes filled with defiance. "I wanna hear this."

Mustang sighed but did not pursue the matter further. He merely shrugged and walked across the cemetery, headed toward a car that was parked at the edge. Nick and Kaori followed and the three of them climbed into the back of the car.

"Where to Fuhrer Mustang sir?" the soldier in the driver's seat asked.

"Central HQ," Mustang ordered.

"Yes sir," the soldier said.

About fifteen minutes later the car pulled up to the curb in front of Central HQ. The driver got out, walked to the back of the car and opened the door. Mustang got out of the car, followed by the two kids, and the three of them entered Central HQ.

On the way to Mustang's office, the group ran into Col. Havoc.

"Fullmetal?"

Nick waved at his direct superior. "Yo."

"Where have you been?" Col. Havoc asked, the tone of his voice containing a mixture of relief and anger. The colonel and his men had made several trips to various locations in Amestris, searching for the missing State Alchemist but never a trace of him was found and Havoc wanted to know exactly where the boy had been hiding. And now that he knew that Nick was still alive his worry gave way to anger.

"That would seem to be the question of the day," Nick said. "You may as well join us Colonel. It will simplify things."

Col. Havoc cast a questioning glance at Mustang. "Sir?"

"It's fine Havoc."

So the group continued the trip to Mustang's office, their numbers increased by one. When they reached the office Mustang opened the door and ushered them inside.

Once the group was assembled inside the office Mustang closed the door and walked over to his desk. Mustang sat down in his chair and motioned for the rest of the group to sit down, which they did. Three pairs of eyes turned expectantly toward Nick.

"So tell us Fullmetal," Mustang said, leaning forward in his chair and gazing directly into the boy's eyes. "Why have you been unable to return or contact us for a year and a half?"

"Yea runt," Col. Havoc said. "Inquiring minds want to know."

Nick's eyes narrowed and he pointed his finger at Havoc, a tick mark appearing on his forehead at the mention of his height, or lack there of. "Don't you EVEN start that with me."

Col. Havoc held up his hands. "Okay, okay I'm sorry."

"Come on Nick," Kaori said, breaking the strained silence that had descended after Havoc's remark. "Tell us where you've been for the last year and a half."

Nick took a deep breath and looked at Havoc and Mustang. He knew that Kaori would know nothing of what he was about to discuss but he was fairly certain that Fuhrer Mustang and Col. Havoc would. "I trust you're familiar with the Gate?"

The two men gasped.

"I'll take that as a yes," Nick said. "Continuing on. I was tracking Hunter through the Northern Region when I was ambushed by two of the homunculi, the two who call themselves Greed and Sloth. A fight broke out and needless to say I wasn't doing that great. Two homunculi are a tough fight to win on your own. The two homunculi ganged up on me and I ended up pinned. After they had me pinned the one called Greed stabbed me in the back. At this point, the homunculus called Sloth called out for someone and to my shock and horror the State Alchemist Killer, Hunter emerged from the shadows. He pulled out a chalk pencil and began to draw an array but I lost consciousness before he finished. When I regained consciousness I was in a bed in the home of a stranger who I later learned was my grandfather, Hohenheim. I was confused about what had happened during the fight, after I lost consciousness, and I soon became even more confused. Hohenheim informed me that I was now in a completely different world. And in this world alchemy did not exist. And I gotta tell you, that was freaky. And it sucked to no end, but that's beside the point. Once I recovered from the stab wound I began searching for a way to return to this world. Needless to say, the search did not go well. I even went so far as to travel to other countries in order to research ways in which I might return home and yet nothing I tried was successful. I remained trapped and without any solid leads to go on. Needless to say things did not look good. That is until one day I ran into an old enemy. Apparently the partnership of the homunculi had been dissolved and Greed's buddies had gotten rid of her. It appeared as though her buddies had tossed her into the Gate along with me and needless to say, that pissed her off. And as luck would have it I happened to run into her one day while I was roaming around aimlessly, lost in thought. She showed me an array that allowed me to use alchemy, even in that world and using her as material in the transmutation I opened the Gate and the two of us managed to return. And once I returned to Central and learned about what happened to Lt. Col. Breda I went straight to the cemetery. And this brings us up to present day."

At this point Nick stopped to catch his breath and smirked at the identical looks of amazement that all three of them wore. This was the look that he'd expected to get when he told his story and it amused him greatly. "So," Nick said, after he'd given his audience a chance to digest what he'd told them. "Do you believe me or not?"

Fuhrer Mustang thought about what Nick had told them for a few moment before he spoke. "Of course I believe you Fullmetal. That story is to unbelievable to be made up."

Nick arched a brow. "That went over better than I thought it would," he thought to himself.

"Nicholas," Fuhrer Mustang said. "I need to speak with Col. Havoc. You're dismissed."

Nick stood up and bowed to his superiors and then he left the room.

Kaori quickly jumped to her feet and rushed to follow Nick. She quickly caught up with him and the two of them left the building. The two teens went to their favorite spot on the grounds and sat beneath a beautiful shade tree.

"So Nick," Kaori said. "What was it like on the other side of the Gate?"

"A lot like this one actually," Nick said thoughtfully, thinking back to the time that he'd spent in America with the fighter pilot who'd shared Fuhrer Mustang's name and face but who had a distinctive personality that was all his own. "Names for things were different and the places weren't the same but I saw a whole lot of familiar faces."

Nick was sitting with his hands on his knees and Kaori reached over and placed her hand on top of his.

Nick glanced over at Kaori, a slight blush coloring his face.

"I really missed you Nick," Kaori said.

"I missed you too Kaori," Nick said, the blush that was coloring his face deepening.

Nick clasped his hands together and placed them on the ground at his side. Blue sparks erupted around his hands and flowers pushed their way up through the soft soil. Nick picked the light blue flowers and quickly braided them together. Then he placed the flower band on top of Kaori's ebony hair.

"I missed that too," Nick said, gazing down at his gloved hands. "Alchemy doesn't work on the other side of the Gate."

"That must have really sucked," Kaori said.

"It did," Nick said. "Immensely. But I learned a few things while I was in that world. One of which was that lives lost on that side of the Gate travel to our side where they are used by alchemists as energy for transmutations. And when I learned that interesting little bit of information I began thinking about human transmutation."

"Nick. . ."

"One would think that, following the law of equivalent exchange, a life would have to be forfeited in order to gain a life in return," Nick said. "But I no longer believe that to be the case. I now think that you could, in theory, give up the use of alchemy in order to regain a soul that was lost. It seems possible that that would work since you would, in a sense, be giving life for life."

Nick's words concerned Kaori and she gazed over at him, a worried expression on her face. "Nick, you aren't thinking about attempting human transmutation again, are you?"

Nick shook his head. "No. Life only flows in one direction. You can't bring back the dead; trying just causes more pain. And even though I may know how it could possibly be done I also know that I have the profound responsibility not to."

"That's good," Kaori thought to herself, heaving a sigh of relief.

"Kaori," Nick said, gazing at her with a serious look in his golden eyes. "I told you this because I care for you and thought that you deserved to know however you must not speak of this to anyone, not even your dad."

Kaori nodded. She more than anyone knew why no one must know of Nick's theory and she had no plans to tell people that Nick had possibly uncovered the secret of human transmutation. There were some things that people just didn't need to know.

As she thought about Nick's new theory, she gazed at him intently. She hadn't seen him in over a year and he seemed to have matured quite a bit during the time that he was away.

A/N - end of another chapter.