The next morning is a lot brighter, and when I start to wake up, I don't notice the cold of Al's armor. Opening my eyes, I see that I'm on a little cot on the floor of a house.
"What the hell?" I ask myself in a whisper, looking over to see Ed and Al on another cot. They get up as well now, but pass by me before I can ask where we are. Shrugging, I follow Al.
"Good morning." He says to the little girl from before.
"Hey it's the make believe Elric brothers." She says, noticing me as well. "And the girlfriend!" I go scarlet then as she returns her attention to Ed. "That must hurt. Did somebody hit you because you were telling lies again?"
"I'm telling you, we're not the imposters here, kid. But I did get clocked by one of them." Ed says stubbornly, his hand on a swelling on his face.
"Wait, you don't mean that you were the ones who snuck into Mugiar's mansion last night, do you pretend brothers?" The girl asks innocently.
"Of course we did! We can't let those phonies just run off with our names!" Ed states, crossing his arms. "Besides, it's a major crime to us a philosopher's stone to make gold. You're going down!" Al puts his hand on Ed's shoulder.
"Brother…" The little girl is looking down at the ground sadly.
"I'm going to see what I can find out in town." Ed says while walking away.
"Ed!" I say, frowning. "Ugh…" He walks away without even turning back.
"Hey, big guy." The guy with the lemons from before says. Oh, this must be his house.
"Yes?" Al asks, turning to face him.
"How would you like to run down to the pharmacy for me today?"
"What do you need?" Al asks him and I lean against a wall, feeling the need to cough again.
"Elica needs her medicine and your brother… he could probably use a cold compress." The guy says in response. Al nods and leaves to get the medicine.
"Al, wait for me!" I say, jogging to catch up to him and then coughing. "My throat is so sore." I state in annoyance.
"Are you sick too?" Al asks me as we walk side by side to the pharmacy.
"I don't think so." I wait outside the pharmacy while Al goes to get the medicine. My eyes widen in surprise as Al is kicked out. "Oh for the love of alchemy…" I sigh, walking over to him.
"Great, now how are we going to get that medicine for Elica?" Al asks me.
"Uh, excuse me." I turn towards the sound of the voice to see the younger boy from last night.
"You…" Al says in surprise.
"I can buy that medicine for you, if you let me…" He looks down at the ground, as if ashamed for something. "To make up for me borrowing your identity." He looks up now and I can see that his eyes are a beautiful purple color. I wait with Al as the boy goes to buy us the medicine.
"Here." He hands me a little paper bag as we sit on a pipe.
"Thank you." I say, handing it to Al.
"Very much." He adds on and we sit in silence for a moment. "I guess the both of us have older brothers who let their tempers get the better of them."
"Aren't you mad at us?" The boy asks, looking over at Al.
"I figure you have your own reasons." Al says back and I stand up and look up at the sky for a bit.
"I'm sorry. For us to work with Mugiar we had to have some credibility. The only way for my brother to pass as a state alchemist as a teenager was to claim he was the famous Edward Elric." I can hear the boy say.
"You want a philosopher's stone that badly?" Al asks and now I turn to look up at the two of them.
"My father… He devoted his entire life to working on the stone." The boy says sadly.
"So… your father was an alchemist too?" Al asks him quietly.
"Mhm. But then one day, he was suddenly gone. So now out of love for my dad, my brother insists on completing his research." I go and sit by the boy again, putting my hand comfortingly on his shaking shoulder.
"That's the opposite of my family." Al says and the boy looks at him in surprise. I know where this is going. "Our father was also an alchemist, but my brother hates him for it. He was obsessed with the science and our mother suffered because of it, especially when he left her, and us. On our journeys, my brother and I have met a lot more people who have suffered because of alchemy. Listen, if your brother is doing something you know is wrong, please, just be brave and stop him. It's tough, I know, but if someone else has to intervene, it will only hurt your brother more." The boy looks down again sadly.
"Al's right though." I say quietly to him. "They've gone through so much; everyone has. But we can't let that bring us down." The boy nods and we walk a bit more through the town now.
"Hey, have you noticed that there are a lot of people with bad coughs around this town?" Al asks and as if to prove his point, I start to cough a bit. The boy looks a little alarmed.
"Uh… no." He states and I catch his hesitation.
"Well, isn't this stuff cough medicine?" Al asks, looking at the package.
"Actually…" The boy starts out, but then he looks up the street to where his older brother is standing. Al and I follow his gaze. "Brother!" The boy calls out, but the older brother turns to walk away. "Sorry, I have to go now." He starts to run up the street when I think of something.
"Wait! Tell me your real name!" I call out to him and he stops to turn and face me.
"It's Fletcher!" He smiles before turning to follow his brother again. Al sighs and turns around, only for us to see Ed run past.
"Brother?" Al asks him. "Why are you running?"
"That imposter is around here somewhere!" Ed says in anger. "Have you seen him?" I hate to lie to Ed, but Fletcher… he's not what Ed thinks.
"No, we haven't." I say firmly.
"That unethical jerk. Did you know he's been transmuting wheels and fixing people's tools all over town?" Ed asks, stopping his walking in front of us.
"That's better than him using your name to do bad stuff." Al points out and I give Ed a 'you know he's right' look.
"That's not the point; it's the way he works! He's got no regard for the law of equivalent exchange!" Al and I gasp a bit in surprise. "Al, Jade, we're going to sneak into the mansion again tonight!"
"What? Just one day later?" I ask Ed in confusion. Has he gone out of his mind?
"Right, they won't expect us." Ed smirks and I gulp. This ought to be interesting…
That night, we sneak out of the house we're staying in, and back into the mansion grounds.
"Tonight we're trying operation Mole Hole." Ed says confidently with a smile.
"Mole hole?" Al asks him and I just shrug. Ed claps his hands together and touches them to the ground, making a deep hole. We all jump in, first Ed, then me, then Al. we crawl through the tunnel that Ed makes until he stops.
"By my calculations, we should be under the center of the mansion now." Ed says, looking up.
"Are you sure?" Al and I ask him at the same time.
"No, but we've got to come up somewhere." Ed says firmly, clapping his hands together again and touching them upwards, creating another hole. A purplish light shines from above. "We're in!"
We climb up through the hole, finding ourselves on a ledge by a stream of purplish-red colored water. The mist is the same color, like red wine.
"Ah, what is this?" Al asks, looking at the water and the gas.
"So that's their plan. I think this is the chemical used to produce the red stone." Ed says quietly, looking at the water.
"What red stone?" I ask him, but he doesn't take his eyes off the water.
"I remember reading something about it at the library in Central. It's a theoretical solid pumped full of alchemic catalysts. You put this red water under a few tons of pressure until it turns to stone." Ed says quietly. I start to cough again, worse this time. It's like I can't breathe at all.
"A philosopher's stone?" Al asks him as we all watch the water rush by us.
"No, more like a cheap imitation." Ed replies. "I think there was some alchemist named Nash that was researching the stone, but in the end it never panned out." Ed starts to cough now too.
"Brother! Jade!" Al says in worry.
"I'm having… some trouble… breathing…" Ed says through strained breath as I collapse onto the floor. "J-Jade..!" Then he too collapses, Al catching him before he can hit the ground.
"Brother! No, Brother! Jade!" Everything is so blurry… so blurry…
"This way!" I hear someone say.
"Who's there?" Al asks aloud, but I can't see anything anymore. The world is going black.
"It's me, come on. Hurry!" Is that… Fletcher?
"Fletcher…" The last thing I hear is Al's voice before everything goes black and silent.