Three –

Ed spoke loudly to his chalk board, using his left hand to draw out the equations he was saying without really knowing what he was saying. He knew all of this since he was a child; he didn't have to know what he was saying to know what was right.

There was a pause as he switched paragraphs in his lecture where he reached out his right hand, touching the small array he kept drawn on the bottom corner of the chalkboard. He walked away, leaving the chalk there and continued speaking as it drew itself along the wall.

One of his students, Miss Grace Pride, waited behind after class had ended for a moment and stared at the now empty board as though she was solving a puzzle. He looked up at her as she slowly walked down the steps to the board, seeming confident in herself.

She wore a light yellow sundress with darker orange spots covering it and cradled her alchemy books to her chest as she tucked a strand of her short blonde hair out behind her ear and out of her blue eyes. "Is something amiss, Miss Pride?" He asked, watching her stare at the board.

"I've been your student now for two years, Professor," she explained, not looking at him. He supposed that was probably a good thing since he was giving her a no-shit; thank you captain obvious look. "And I think I finally figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"At the beginning of both years, you challenged us to figure out how you write on the board with the chalk without ever touching it."

"I do remember that."

"Well, that array on the board looks like a simple answer, but it's a Ground Elemental array and doesn't hold enough strength to keep the chalk up nearly as long as you do."

"So?"

"So you use two arrays. The last one is on the back end of the chalk; that's why you use only one end; it's an Air Elemental that cushions the chalk on helium to keep it up and oxygen to keep it down. With a simple move of your fingers, you can get it to write exactly what you want it to."

He smiled at her and nodded his head. "Very good Miss Pride. In my six years of teaching here, you are the only person to ever figure it out."

Ed sat back in his chair, letting his brown fedora rest in his lap as he smirked at Scheizka and Gracia. The former had her hair up in a tight bun like all the cliché librarians do (for the kicks of it or for her date tonight, he didn't care to find out) and her light green, short sleeve v-neck shirt fit her a lot better than the baggy old thing she had worn back when he was younger, going with her green skirt better, too. The University's librarian held her hand in front of her mouth as she laughed, wishing she hadn't taken a drink of her water when he'd told the joke.

Gracia was doing the same as Scheizka. She wore a light, sun bleached shrug over her green sundress and her reading glasses were beside her salad on the table. They'd all gotten the salad today, so Ed's hand was leaning gently on the table next to his plate, watching, bemused, as the two women tried to calm down.

There were a few of their students in the small café they'd decided to eat at and he couldn't help but chuckle lightly at the looks they were getting from them all. To them, they were emotionless Professors (and librarian) bent on pushing as much information into their minds as possible before Midterms and Finals. And the librarian was too smart to follow sometimes, talking like she was in the Military to herself oftentimes.

"You done laughing yet?" He asked, smirking to himself as he watched the women calm down. "It really wasn't that funny. It wasn't even a joke."

Scheizka just smiled at him. "Oh, that was pretty funny, Echo, whether you meant it to be or not. I mean, you called Kathryn Edward! What'd she do after that?"

"Clapped her hands and put them against my legs, saying that Al was supposed to call Ed 'brother', told me I was bait and I couldn't move until I called her that. So I clapped my hands and touched my legs before chasing her down the stairs."

"Is that why she was shrieking of laughter when I left this morning?" The brunette giggled and rolled her eyes, taking a bite of lettuce.

"Or maybe it was from her remembering what she caught you and your boyfriend doing last night."

Her face was so red that she had to sit up straight and hold her hand in front of her nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "We didn't do anything while she was there, Echo!"

He arched his brow. "While she was there? Naughty girl."

"Echo!"

He laughed, holding his hand in front of his face as their students looked at them for a moment before returning to their conversations. A bell that was above the door jingled, telling them that someone was there, but none of them looked over at whoever it was as they went to the counter.

"How is your boyfriend, Sam?" Gracia asked, looking at Scheizka.

"Ah, he's good."

"We were talking about mentally and physically, not in bed," Ed chastised, watching her heat up all over again. He laughed and shook his head. "That was bad; I'm sorry; totally horrible."

"You think!"

Gracia laughed watching them. Scheizka filled the silence by taking a few bites, which Ed decided was a pretty good idea and did the same. A familiar voice caught their attention as it asked "Gracia? Is that you?"

The three of them turned their heads to where a blonde woman with her hair clipped up in the back and over her forehead stood with a small bag under her arm. She wore her Military uniform (skirt version, surprisingly) and she looked exactly like she had when he was in the Military.

"Oh, Riza, I didn't recognize you for a second." Gracia smiled warmly, "You put your hair up again."—Again? How often does she leave it down now? No! No! You don't know her! You're not Edward Elric!—"These are a couple of my colleges. This is Samantha Watson and this is Echo Thompson. Sam, Echo, this is Captain Riza Hawkeye."

Riza was staring at him the entire time she was introducing them. Ed finally forced himself to smile and stood up, holding his hand out for her. She took it, letting him lean over and kiss the knuckles like he had been taught to. "It's an honor to meet you, Captain."

"Please," she smiled, and it was weird to him but obviously normal to the other two so he managed to hide it under his false-turned-real smile. "Call me Riza."

"Well then it's an honor to meet you, Riza." The name sounded foreign on his tongue, but he brushed it off, taking his seat again and fixing the fedora in his lap. "It's an honor to finally meet you myself. Gracia here talks of her friends all the time."

Gracia blushed gently as Riza looked at her, but Ed offered her a sympathetic grin. There was a pause before Riza turned to him again—or maybe it was just his imagination that there was that pause because she had been looking at Scheizka for a moment and it almost seemed as if the two of them spoke—and apologized, explaining, "You remind me of someone I used to work with."

Gracia gave her sobering smile and muttered, quietly, "Yes, he looks a great deal like Edward, doesn't he?"

"Very much so."

Ed looked between them for a moment before shrugging and giving a sigh. "Sheesh, you grow up in a little town isolated from all the other towns around it with absolutely no way to get news and suddenly you're left out of everything."

Riza examined him with curious eyes. "You've never heard of the Full Metal Alchemist?"

He hummed and searched the ceiling for a moment, making a show of thinking about it before shaking his head. "No, not at all. Or at least, not that I can remember. I might have at one point, but I tend to not press anything into my mind if I don't find it important… that and I'm horrible with names."

She smiled at him for a moment. "I don't believe I've met anyone who didn't know of the Full Metal Alchemist. Anyway, it would be a pleasure to see you again sometime, Echo, was it?" He nodded. "You have a very unique name."

"My father was a very eccentric person," he explained. "And I would be honored to be in such a lovely woman's company again. I look forward to a reencounter with you."

She turned and bid adieu to the other two, explaining that she had to get a couple of people in the office their meal before they died of starvation, leaving with a small smile. Ed watched for a moment before he muttered in German, "Sehen jemand wusste ich so wenig sollte nicht so viel verletzt...*"

Gracia gave him a sad smile and placed a hand on his metal shoulder. Although he hadn't felt it, he could see her moving his hand out of the corner of his eye, so he turned and offered her a small smile. She smiled back and muttered, "Any time the pain becomes too much, you just have to tell someone."

He smiled at her. "I know." But I won't ever do that because Edward Elric doesn't exist anymore. Why don't you people understand that? What is so hard to understand? I can tell you that in German, Aerugen, Xingese, Cretan, Ishbalan, Ancient Xerxes and Drechmen, too!

She smiled back. "We're always here for you, Echo."

"Well, Sam here seems to be busy half the time with her boyfriend." He smirked and looked at the mentioned woman. She glowered, red faced, and kicked her feet, managing to miss both his legs.

Roy walked into the small deli around four that afternoon on his break. Madame Christmas had told him that there would be an informant waiting for him there, but aside from what looked like a few college students silently chatting to each other. There was a single table where a young man, about their age but with a look to his tarnished gold eyes that made him seem twenty years older, leaned back, twirling his brown fedora's "brim" on his right middle finger, using his index to keep it going.

He recognized the man and couldn't stop his legs from moving over there and leaning over the back of one of the chairs. "You're the young man from across the hall in my apartment complex, are you not?"

The man looked up from his hat, clutching it between his fingers for a moment before a small grin touched his face and he stood up, holding his right hand out. "Brigadier General Mustang; I've heard a lot about you. I'm Professor Echo Thompson." The young man waited until after he had taken his hand to murmur, quietly, "I was beginning to wonder if Chris had forgotten to tell you that I've gotten your information."

The grin that touched Roy's lips was genuine and he took the chair that Echo gestured to, sitting down and leaning forward while the man pulled his hat from the table and put it on the edge of his suitcase. "Do tell, Thompson."

"Why so formal, General?" He smirked. "Echo is a much better name."

"Then you can go ahead and call me Roy."

"Well then, Roy, before I begin, may I ask a question of you?"

"Most certainly."

"Why are you looking for information on Dublith and the actions Fuhrer Grumman himself has placed there?"

Roy smirked and linked his fingers together, resting them in an arch under his nose. "Perhaps I'm a little curious as to why he would be moving cadets to such a small, quiet town."

"And perhaps you know there's something you weren't told?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. "It appears there's something none of us were told."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

There was a pause and Echo looked around, shaking his head. He knew what that meant—there were too many people overhearing their conversation. He could tell that, too, but the gears behind Echo's creepily familiar eyes were turning and suddenly something changed, a sweep of emotion and they were distant, withholding all information they held. "Oh, I don't know, something about Fuhrer King Bradley being a homunculus," he shrugged. "Ridiculous, right?"

They both chuckled, but for a second he could have sworn he'd heard something in the younger man's voice that went along the lines of knowing Bradley was a homunculus. He knew that this man worked under his mother, but, then, the man would have to have been working for her for at least eight years now, and his mother wouldn't hire someone so young. At most, he was only twenty-four or –five.

Ah, yet, this was his mother they were speaking of, now wasn't it? She was full of secrets that no one would ever know.

"Truly preposterous," he agreed, shaking his head, looking for something to change the subject to. He remembered the flash of the conversation he'd heard from him and that young girl the night before. Hadn't she called him 'daddy'? "Your daughter seems to be quite the fan."

Echo shrugged. "It seems as if she has to idolize the worst State Alchemists there ever were."

He brushed off the comment at his own person in favor for someone much more important at that point. He knew that the young girl had dressed up as Edward that day and he'd even gone so far as to pretend that he was Alphonse so they could play! "I'll have you know that the Full Metal Alchemist is a very esteemed man and there is not a person in the world that…." He stopped, glaring at the man's hand roll.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Sorry, look, I'm just tired of everyone talking about him. Sure, I get it, he's esteemed and people want to be his standards one day, but don't you think it ever gets annoying when you walk down the street and the only things you hear are ever about the Full Metal and what he could be doing at the moment if he were alive? Or about how much you act like he had? Or how much you look like him? Or how much potential you have to be better than him at Alchemy?"

"I take it you're faced with that day in and day out?"

"It's horrible," he stated, shifting in his seat and resting his right elbow on the arm of the deli's chair. "Hor-ri-ble. Truly, I understand all of that, but it gets annoying."

Echo's accent was slightly familiar in the back of his mind, but no matter how hard he tried to place it, there wasn't nearly enough of it in his words to pull out a specific place in his mind. It could just be the lingering of him speaking a foreign language earlier that day, too.

"You do look stunningly like him, Echo," Roy explained. "You can't expect others to not comment on it. It's almost uncanny how much you look alike."

Echo just rolled his eyes and pinched the skin between his eyebrows together with his right hand. "Not you, too." He groaned quietly, making Roy chuckle gently.

Half an hour later, Echo seemed as if he was readying to leave. From his seat, he could see the reflection of Havoc walking in, looking around for a moment in a shinned vase. Hidden tarnished eyes split off from his onyx ones to glance up in Havoc's direction and he shifted again, this time straightening his back. "Ah, one more thing. I met Edward Elric shortly before he was placed under MIA eight years ago," he told him. "He asked me to tell you something if I were to ever meet you in person."

"And what's that?"

Echo shrugged. "He told me 'shitty bastard Colonel, why the hell are you sitting around on your ass when you have a country you should be running?' said you'd know what he meant."

Roy felt himself smile genuinely and he spoke softly, "When was the last time you saw Full Metal?"

"I never met Full Metal," he corrected standing up as Havoc came over to the two of them. "I met a young man named Edward Elric two hours before he ran off in a hurry and got in a car and asked me to tell you that. Now,"—he pulled his hat on with practiced ease, tilting it forward slightly—"it was truly wonderful getting to know you, Roy." He reached into his jacket, pulling a piece of paper from there that looked to be nothing more than a business card and he held it out for him to take, which he did. "I look forward to doing that again." He picked up his briefcase, walking away as Havoc stopped beside the table.

"Was that…?"

He watched the young man leave the store with briskness to his walk. "It's not Edward, if that's what you're going to ask. Edward died a very long time ago, you know. His name was Echo Thompson; he grew up in Ellis."

"That small city outside Resembool? No he didn't."

"Why do you refuse that?"

"That's my hometown and I think I'd remember growing up with him."

Roy just offered him a grin and stood up. "He's a good ten years your junior, Havoc; you may not have noticed him since you were so much older than him."

Havoc shook his head and muttered "I doubt that" before watching the man walking out of the building.

Roy flipped the paper in his hands for a moment before unfolding it, arching his brows. "What is it, sir?"

"Nothing, Lieutenant. I take it Hawkeye wishes for my presence?"

"Yessir."

"Let's get going," he said, folding the page down and slipping it into his pocket.

Grumman is planning to find a way to open a Gate to where the EAR disappeared to and retrieve Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist. It'll end up with millions dead; stop him.

It was a lie. The handwriting told him that much.

Beagle's back, Roy told himself inwardly.

Ed sighed, looking up at the sky with a tilt of his head. Clouds were starting to gather together and they looked dark, but not quite dark enough to rain yet. "Bah, damn weather," he muttered, walking forward again. "You always seem to tempt me with the chance of rain when I truly wish it would."

Wordlessly, he reached up and cleared the corners of his eyes of the tears that had gathered there after he had stepped away from Roy and Havoc—and the pull at his old life.

A/n -

* Sehen jemand wusste ich so wenig sollte nicht so viel verletzt... – Seeing someone I knew so little shouldn't hurt so much...

I want to thank anyone who stayed this long with me. I know it's been a long wait but my zipdrive has been missing a long time, but I have now found it (obviously) and plan to take great care of it! Thank you! Please say *small voice*. ~JWhitney