Chapter Three: One Year

The morning dawned bright and early. The new summer sun had only just begun its ascent over the small, eastern village of Resembool, casting its golden hues across the slowly lightening, cerulean sky. Off in the distances, beyond the grassy hill to the south, Mr. Jacob's roosters crowed with the rising sun and the beginning of a new day.

A new life, Alphonse Elric thought to himself, as he gazed out the window of his and his brother's bedroom.

It was hard to believe that it had been a year, that an entire year had passed since he and his brother had attempted the forbidden. To this day, Al wasn't quite sure what it was that he and his brother had been thinking. Now living with the results of their attempt at human transmutation, he was certain that they hadn't been thinking at all. Ed somewhat agreed with him to that effect, though his brother stubbornly stood by their theorems and calculations.

"Everything was perfect. We had it right."

And it would have worked the way they had wanted it to, if they hadn't been missing something. If they had just stopped and took a minute to set aside their arrogance and account for things properly, the transmutation might have been the success that they had so desperately wanted it to be. Then again, if they had stopped and allowed themselves to gain perspective, they most likely would have realized just how impossible what they had been attempting to do truly was. What it was that they had been missing, neither he nor Ed were entirely certain of, but they had concluded that, whatever it was, its value was more than a few drops of blood. In fact, after thinking on it over the last year, Al had come to the resolution that there was nothing in the whole of Amestris, or the world for that matter, that they could have exchanged for their mother's soul. She was dead, gone. Her soul was resting in the afterlife, unattainable to them.

Naturally, it had been Ed, who had worked out what had truly occurred during the transmutation that they had preformed. Despite not having what was needed to obtain their mother's soul, they had had everything else that was required for the construction of a human body and, according to the report that Mustang had left them along with their surviving notes, they had in fact succeeded in transmuting a body of sorts. Though the body that they had created had been male and had not resembled their mother in the slightest, it had been a human body all the same. Ed's theory was that their transmutation had done exactly as they had intended and what they experienced had not been a rebound.

"Al, there is no way to measure a soul. We knew this even back when we first began discussing bring Mom back. We never even factored her soul into our calculations, not really. A soul just isn't tangible. Its value isn't tangible. How could we have attempted to obtain something that we had nothing to exchange for in return that night, if we hadn't actually factored her soul into the transmutation?"

If Ed was right about what had actually happened, which Al was now certain that his brother was, they hadn't lost their limbs due to miscalculation or a rebound. No, they'd been pulled into the Gate of Truth, as they had taken to calling the white plane and massive stone doors that they had encountered, because they'd been seeking to create life when they had no business in attempting to do so. Or that was what Ed believed. His brother claimed that they'd been messing around with things that they had no understanding of and no way of factoring into equivalent values and that was what had done them in, that was why they had ended up at the Gate and had lost their limbs to the Truth in exchange for a measure of the Truth (knowledge) in return.

"Just think about it. How is each of us loosing an arm and a leg equivalent exchange, if we didn't actually obtain something of equal value for our loss? I mean, it might just be punishment, but the Truth did allow us access to a whole shit ton of information that we hadn't been privy to and most likely never would have been privy to. Not to mention, it had said that our arms and legs were a toll for what we had been allowed to see and that what we had seen was all that it could show us for the toll we had paid."

So it was that they had indeed been messing around with things that neither of them had an adequate understanding of, nor the ability to measure in equivalent values. Al was not certain how knowledge compared to human flesh, but if knowledge actually could be exchanged for parts of the body in such a manner, then the Truth had brought a quite literal meaning to the phrase 'costs an arm and a leg'.

"Really, we had it right. We just weren't transmuting what we thought we were transmuting. We weren't bringing Mom back, Al. We were creating a whole new human life. If that thing had lived, we really would have done the impossible! Thousands of years of alchemist trying to create life and we damn near succeeded!"

The fact that there had been no energy backlash from their transmutation that was typical of a rebound and that they, along with their house, had survived the transmutation relatively intact only supported Ed's claims that their attempt at human transmutation had actually been a relative success.

In all honesty, what they had done scared Al. Yet, a small part of him was exhilarated by their accomplishment. Mustang had noted in his report that the lungs of the body that had resulted from their transmutation had been expanded when he had incinerated it, suggesting that it had been alive, breathing and all, at one point. Whether it had lived for more than a few seconds or would have been capable of functioning as a living human being, they would never know. He and Ed had agreed that to attempt to bring their mom back had been foolish and that to even contemplate attempting the transmutation a second time was even more foolish. There was no way of knowing what the Truth would do to them, if they returned to the Gate. Not even for the sake of doing the impossible were they willing to risk a return trip.

"Ready?" Ed's voice broke through Al's concentration.

"As I'll ever be." Al smiled, as he turned away from the window and the rising sun to face his brother.

Ed stood in the open doorway of their room dressed in a black vest with a black leather jacket over top, black leather pants slung on his hips, and all terrain boots strapped to his feet. His crimson overcoat with their teacher's symbol, the Flamel, stitched into the back was folded over his flesh arm, while he had his new travel satchel grasped firm in his automail hand and slung back over his right shoulder. He returned his brother's grin with eagerness and excitement alight in his eyes. At the purposeful nod that he gave to the packed travel satchel and royal blue overcoat that was nearly identical to his crimson one that was resting on Al's bed, Al knew the time had finally come.

"So we're really going do this?" Al asked, as he pulled the blue overcoat over his own leather ensemble and picked up the satchel.

Ed nodded without a shred of visible doubt in the action.

Al expected no less, but had wanted to be sure. After all, they had been working towards this day for nearly a year now and what they were setting out to do was not to be taken lightly.

–

The room was warm, almost sweltering with the humidity clinging to the air. Faint sunlit poured in through the thin, brown blanket covering the room's single window, casting dim shadows over the two bed ridden boys, as they attempted to rest. Minutes passed uncomfortably, as the two shifted in their beds, contending with the summer heat and the pain of their injuries for sleep.

"Fuck it," the elder of the two boys cursed, yanking his sheets away from him with a frustrated huff.

"Be careful, brother," the younger brother chided. "You'll upset your ports and Granny will have to reset them again."

Ed gritted his teeth.

Al sighed. They had known that getting automail would be painful, but they hadn't realized just how painful the process would be. So far, between losing his limbs to begin with and the pain of the ports being attached, he hadn't had a single moment where there had not been a dull thrum of pain aching through his body. He knew Ed was in just as much pain as him, despite his brother doing everything he could not to show it.

"Brother, when Granny finishes our automail, what do you want to do after?" Al asked, hoping to distract Ed.

"I don't know." Ed turned his head to look at Al. "We could stay here and help out in the village when we're needed or …" he took in a deep breath, as if bracing himself, "or we could go to Central."

"You mean accept Lieutenant Colonel Mustang's offer?" Al asked, his eyes flying wide. He knew that Ed had suggested that they think about it, but he hadn't known that Ed had actually been giving it serious thought. The fact that Ed even brought it up, suggesting it as a legitimate option for their future and seeking his opinion in regards to it, spoke volumes of just how much his brother was actually considering accepting the offer.

"Shh!" Ed hushed sharply and sent a pointed look at the door. "Keep it down."

"Right." Al nodded. Granny and Winry didn't know about the lieutenant colonel's offer and he and Ed had agreed to keep it that way, at least for the time being. Granny was very outspoken about her opinions of the Military and State Alchemists in particular, while Winry simply hated the Military, as she blamed soldiers for her parents' death.

"Seriously, though, Al," Ed said, drawing Al's attention back to him, "what do you think?"

"I'm not sure," Al said hesitantly. He hadn't really given it much thought, as he had just assumed that Ed would mull it over and then decide against it without really consulting him about it. "I mean, it sounds interesting. We'd have all sorts of information available to us and money to travel around with, while gaining further knowledge. There'd be a lot of potential to do a lot of great things, and we could really help people, not just people here in Resembool, but all across the State."

Ed sighed. "I've been thinking about that."

"But?" Al prodded, knowing that there was a 'but', because even he had a 'but' – a very big 'but' – that stopped him from jumping at the offer.

"But nothing," Ed said, after taking a moment to consider how to answer his brother. He lay back in his bed and turned his face up towards the ceiling, his eyes narrowing and his brow furrowing contemplatively. "Al, if we really think about it … if we put things in proper context … serving the Military in a time of war is just one more way of helping people. By going to the front lines and using our skills, we'd be saving our own soldiers' lives, as well as be protecting the State of Amestris as a whole."

"What about Ishval, brother?" Al demanded, stunned. He jerked up in his bed to glare at Ed, hardly believing it was his brother saying these things. But then again, his stubborn, idiot brother had always been able to rationalize anything, if he wanted it bad enough.

Ed hesitated. "Ishval is over, Al. And after what happen there, I doubt people are prepared to strike up another civil war any time soon. If we do become State Alchemists and we do get called to war, it will most likely be against Drachma."

"You real want to do it, don't you?" Al asked. He could hear it in his brother's voice and see it in his brother's face, as well as in the tension in his brother's body. Ed had never been one to sit idle and the opportunity to travel and expand his knowledge was clearly proving too much for his sensibilities to handle.

"O-only if you want to too," Ed said, shifting his gaze from the ceiling back to Al. "If you don't want to, we can stay here or maybe do a bit of traveling on our own, when we scrape together enough money."

Al shut his eyes, his one hand twisting in the sheets with uncertainty and conflict. He didn't necessarily like it, but how Ed actually expected him to refuse him was beyond him. The idea of being called to war didn't sit well with him – war meant killing – though he supposed that Ed was right. If they did get called to war, it would most likely be against Drachma. Ishval had quelled a good majority of the unrest throughout the State. No Amestrian citizen with any brains was eager to tangle with the Military.

"Forget it," Ed said resignedly, causing Al to reopen his eyes and look to him. "Forget that I even said anything. I'll call –"

"I want to do it, brother," Al cut Ed off, before his stupid brother could say anything further or do something noble. Ed was always giving things up for him. This was the first time Ed had ever really asked him for anything. He could at the least give his brother this one thing, and it wasn't like he didn't see the good that would come with the bad and wasn't tempted by the offer himself. Teacher was going to kill them. "Let's become State Alchemists."

–

"I'm sure going to miss this place," Ed said, shrugging on his crimson coat, as they paused just inside the front door.

"Yeah," Al agreed softly, handing Ed back his satchel.

Together, the two brothers stepped out into the crisp morning air. Al watched from the side, as Ed locked the house behind them, before proceeding to bend down and slip the key into a crack at the bottom of the door frame, where the weather had done damage to the wood.

"Winry will figure it out," Ed said surely, as he stood.

"I still think we should tell them." Al shifted his own satchel from his flesh shoulder to his automail one, feeling uncomfortable about leaving without saying goodbye in person.

"They'll get the letter this afternoon, and by that time, we ought to be far enough gone that Winry can't chase us down with her wrenches," Ed quipped, raising a lazy hand and waving away his brother's concern, as he started down the garden path. A bit more seriously, he said, "You know they wouldn't let us leave, if they knew where we're headed and why. It's better this way for everyone. Winry will have time to cool down, before she sees us next, and we won't get locked in the basement with Granny ensuring that we don't escape."

"I suppose." Al sighed, still feeling guilty.

"Come on," Ed said, smiling and giving Al's flesh shoulder a soft punch. "We've got a train to catch."

–

"Isn't she just a doll, Roy? Look, just look at her adorable, rosy cheeks. Don't they just make you want to pinch them and never let go?"

"Hughes," Roy Mustang, who was now sporting the rank of a colonel, growled at his best friend, Maes Hughes, as he pushed the picture of a pink blob in a rainbow stripped onesie out of his face – not for the first time that day, let alone that hour, or even that very minute. From behind his black bangs, he glowered up at the lieutenant colonel standing before his desk, which was for once not filled with paperwork. "That is the seventh time in the last two minutes that you've shown me that photo."

"I know. She is just so adorable, isn't she?" the lieutenant colonel gushed on and sighed whimsically, as he looked down at the precious photo of his beloved daughter. "Just look –"

"Hughes!" Mustang snapped sharply and tactically diverted the photo, before it could be shoved in his face for an eighth time. He was seriously losing his patience with his love sick, family oriented friend. The itch to just snap his fingers and be done with the whole stack of photos was getting harder to control with each passing second. "Hughes, I didn't call you hear to talk about your daughter – or your wife," he added quickly, upon seeing Hughes smile brightly and reach back into his stack of photos with a entirely different love stricken look on his face, suggesting that he had no doubt been about to replace the photo of his daughter, Elicia, with a photo of his wife, Gracia.

"Then what did you want to talk about?" Hughes asked, his smile deflating, and upon finally taking note of the annoyed tick twitching at the corner of Mustang's right eye, he smartly straightened his stack of photos and hastily shoved them back into the safety of his pocket, before his friend threatened to burn them for a third time that day or simply outright set them alight.

"The Elric brothers," Mustang said in answer to Hughes's question, once the photos were out of sight.

"The Elric brothers? The Elric brothers?" Hughes tapped his chin thoughtfully. "The Elric Brothers … Hmm… Oh, right, the kids you've somehow coerced into think that it would be a good idea for them to take the upcoming State Alchemist Certification Exam and sign up with the Military, despite being children," he said, while giving Mustang a reproving look. "Yes, Roy, let's talk about the Elric boys."

Mustang didn't even so much as flinch under his friend's disapproval. He had, after all, been expecting it. "What have you found out about them?"

"Who says I was even looking into them?" Hughes countered and raised a querying eyebrow.

"I know you, Hughes." Mustang smirked at his friend. "You like butting into my business far too much to not have looked into them."

"So I do." Hughes sighed, as he plopped down on one of the two leather couches not far from Roy's desk, which sat facing each other with a coffee table in between and the doors to Roy's office five paces from the opposite end. "But we both know you need someone to look out for you."

"What'd your best efforts turn up?" Mustang asked, giving Hughes an expectant look. If there was a man who could dig up the Elrics' past, it was the man sitting before him now. Hughes had eyes and ears everywhere, from one end of Amestris to the other. If there were something of negative consequence regarding the Elrics to be found, Maes Hughes would have found it.

"Their given names are Edward and Alphonse. Their assumed surname is Elric. Edward was born February 3rd, 1899, making him 12 years old. Alphonse was born May 20th, 1900, making him a little over a year younger and 11 years old. They've been considered permanent residents of Resembool for the entirety of their lives," Hughes rattled off, as he gave his report on the boys. "With a little bit of digging, I managed to uncover that their mother was Trisha Elric, a kind hearted and generally well liked woman. She died in the spring of 1904 at the age of 26, cause of death: seasonal illness. Though Trisha Elric never married the man, nor did she end up marrying any other man for that matter, the boys' father had left her and the boys a generous sum of money, upon walking out on them two years prior to her death – a sum of money which she never touched and a sum of money which she passed onto the boys, upon her death, leaving the two substantially provided for. According to my sources, the boys were mainly looked after and generally cared for by Pinako Rockbell in the years following. The two attended the local school in Resembool with Mrs. Rockbell's granddaughter and both are considered exceedingly bright."

"That's all you've got?" Mustang asked surprised. Perhaps he had been overestimating Hughes's skills, or maybe he had just been underestimating how resourceful the boys could be.

"Well, Roy, if I didn't know any better," Hughes's eyes narrowed into suspicious slits behind his glasses, "I'd say they're exactly as boring as they seem. But seeing as I do know you and what sorts of things catch and hold your interest, I'd say that they've got something to hide and that someone has taken a fair bit of time, as well as taken all the proper precautions, to help them in doing the hiding. Now you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, Roy?"

"What of their father?" Mustang asked, sidestepping Hughes's question for the time being.

"I only got a description: tall, long blond hair, a beard, and wears glasses. Supposedly, the boys look far more like him and very little like their mother." Hughes's expression switched to a frown, his keen eyes sweeping over Mustang's form in a studying fashion, as if attempting to suss out what Mustang wasn't telling him.

"And their automail?" Mustang queried, playing oblivious to Hughes's searching gaze.

"They've got automail?" Hughes sputtered in shock.

"Good." Mustang said, satisfied. And he really was. If Hughes hadn't been able to dig up so much as a speck of dirt on the brothers, the boys' past would be safe from all others who dared attempt to pry.

"Now that you're done conducting your little test," Hughes bit out, looking far more curious than annoyed, "are you going to tell me just who in the hell these boys are and what exactly it was that they did to so ensnare your interest that you've actually put in the effort yourself to wiped their backgrounds of any significant information when you'd normally have come to me and asked me do it for you?"

"I'm sorry, Hughes, but no. There are some things that you are better off not knowing," Mustang said, his brusque tone and the sharp, protective look in his eyes suggesting that no manner of prodding, nor any form of interrogation would get him to speak of the secrets that he was helping the brothers keep. "Thank you, though, for putting my mind at easy concerning the boys' past."

"Roy, what are you getting yourself into?" Hughes asked cautiously, as he leaned forward in his seat and looked to Mustang with unconcealed worry.

"Let's just say that I established contact with the two a little over a year ago and have kept off and on contact with them over the last twelve and a half months … and let's just say that the more I've spoken with them, the greater in value I've realized they actually are," Mustang said, being sure to word his response carefully, as Hughes was no doubt listening for a tell of some sort that could give him more information than he intended for him to have. Upon seeing Hughes's face shift from worried to downright wary and highly concerned, he added, "Trust me, Hughes. I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life, and neither have the brothers. Perhaps, at first, there was a tad bit of coercion on my part for them to join the State Alchemists, but I promise you that at this very moment joining our ranks is something those two want to do completely of their own volition."

"And you're confident that they'll pass?" Hughes asked, the skepticism in his voice palpable.

"With flying colors." Mustang nodded. Oh, there was no doubt in his mind that the two would pass. As if the two hadn't already been prodigies enough before experiencing the Gate of Truth, they had come out of the Gate with skills and innate knowledge regarding alchemy that he, himself, envied, and he considered himself one of the more accomplished alchemists of the modern age.

"You plan to lobby for the both of them to be placed under your command," Hughes stated as a fact, rather than a question. "Can you really claim them both?"

"It's practically already arranged," Mustang affirmed with a smirk, while thinking of the slow manipulations, the buildup of favors and blackmail, and the slightest touch of gambling that he had engaged in over the past year. Really, why General Halcrow thought that promoting him to colonel would be consider equivalent exchange for him holding his tongue and not telling the man's wife of thirty years about the man's ongoing affair with 1st Lieutenant Allen was beyond him, seeing as the promotion really should have been his to begin with for the near three months worth of painstaking undercover work that he and his team had done in order to avert the eventual complete destabilization of the State's economy and bring down Alexander Riter, the alchemist master mind behind the periodic influxes of gold over the last five, once and for all – and that was only his most recent accomplishment. Frankly, the general's assumption that he could be bought off with a promotion that should have been his in the first place was insulting, if he did say so himself. But, at last, the Elric brothers would be firmly tying up that particular loose end soon enough. "If all goes to plan, Maes, their induction into the Military should go rather smoothly."

"They're children, Roy," Hughes said, disapproval once more making an appearance on his face.

"We were all children at one point," Mustang shrugged, doing his best to look impassive. He knew the real truth and children was not what he would call the Elric brothers. The elder of the Elrics hadn't been a child, not since the boys' mother died, having taken it upon himself to look after his younger brother. And while the younger had been permitted a somewhat extended childhood compared to the very short childhood of his older brother, the younger Elric had been forced to grow up considerably fast as well, especially over the last year. By technicality of physical age, the two may still be considered children, but, in reality, the two had already seen and done a lot more than what most adults had or ever would. Children, they were not.