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Fullmetal Alchemist: Conspiracy

Fullmetal Alchemist quote:

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT? I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR FEET OFF AND STICK 'EM ON YOUR HEAD!"- Edward Elric

Chapter 4: Blackmail

At Central Headquarters in Mustang's office Hughes and his team were speaking with Mustang and his crew. It had been two days since Edward and Al escaped from Mustang, Hawkeye, and Hughes at the restaurant. After two days of searching Hughes felt he had enough information about the two boys.

"So Hughes what have you found out about those kids?" Mustang asked.

Hughes stood up and gave Mustang a file. "Edward Elric: 12 years old. Birthday: February 3, 1899." [1] The major's eyes widened and he grinned as he pulled a bunch of pictures out. "That's the same day as my beautiful Elysia's birthday. Want to see some pictures?" Not waiting for an answer, Hughes shoved the pictures in Mustang's and the others' faces.

"HUGHES!" Mustang yelled. "Stop with the pictures. Continue with your report about the kids."

Huffing, Hughes put the pictures away. "Alphonse Elric: 11 years old. Birthday: August 18, 1900. [1] They are brothers from a small village in the east called Resembool. You guys should remember it. We passed through it when we were on our way to and from Ishval."

Hawkeye put her hand on her chin thoughtfully. "Now that you say that those two kids did look a little familiar. We must have passed them when we were in Resembool. I remember passing two kids performing alchemy together when we were on our way back here. They looked so happy then. When we saw them a couple days ago it looked like they haven't smiled recently, the older more than the younger. I wonder what would make them not want to smile and why they would come to Central."

Hughes pushed his glasses back up and frowned. "When Edward was four and Al three their father, Van Hohenheim, abandoned them. A few months after that their mother, Trisha Elric, died of a disease. A friend of the family helped took care of them after that, but they were rather independent and didn't ask the friend for much help. No one knows why they left Resembool and if they do then they aren't telling. Something must have happened to cause them to want to leave."

"Did you find out where they are staying? We still need to bring them in." Mustang said.

"Central Hotel." Hughes replied.

Mustang nodded his head. "Hawkeye, Havoc, Hughes, you will all come with me to find the kids. The rest of you, wait here."

All the officers saluted Mustang and the ones named followed the Colonel out of the office. Havoc and Hawkeye went to get the cars while the he and Hughes waited outside in front of Headquarters for them.

At Central Hotel, two brothers sat in their room. One sitting on a window sill staring angrily out the window. The other was sitting on the couch reading a book that he had gotten a few days ago. "Brother, what is wrong?" Al asked, looking up from his book when he heard his brother sigh.

"I don't have a clue of where to start searching for information on that bastard and the military is probably still looking for us. This sucks." Edward explained. "And to top it off, it's raining."

"Is your automail hurting?" Al inquired.

Edward nodded his head. "Nothing I can't handle though." The blond alchemist sighed and rubbed his right shoulder. "I'm going to go make lunch."

"Okay, brother." Al replied and went back to reading his book.

As Edward was in the kitchen cooking there was a knock at the door. Not wanting to bother his brother, Al got up and opened the door to the hallway that was connected to the living room.

"Good afternoon, Alphonse." Mustang said when Al opened the door.

Al frowned and looked at Mustang and everyone who was with him. He could just slam the door in their face and lock it but that would be rude and slamming the door in their faces wouldn't do anything for Al and Ed. They were on the top floor of the apartment building. Then again, they are alchemists. They could find a way down, but it would still be rude to slam the door in their faces.

So not wanting to be rude, Al shut the door quietly and nicely and locked the door. "BROTHER!"

Edward screamed in surprise and a lot of clanging and banging could be heard from the kitchen. Then moaning and swearing started. "Al, why did you have to scream?"

"Forget that." Al said, running into the kitchen that had a doorway connected to the living room. He froze when he got there. His brother was lying on the floor, buried under pots and pans and the table and chairs were flipped over.

Edward looked up at his brother. "What is wrong?"

"Um…The military is here." Al answered unsure as he looked at the kitchen.

Edward stared at his brother before throwing out every swear word known to man and stood up. "Where are they?"

"I closed the door in their faces." Al replied. "What do we do now, brother?"

Before Edward could reply, the door busted open and the officers entered the room. Al and Ed stared at them, then at their door, then back towards the officers, then back to the door, then back to the officers. "You're paying for that." Edward said, pointing towards the door.

Mustang rolled his eyes. "Whatever." And before Edward could even think about what he was doing, Mustang was in front of him and grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back then wrapped his other arm around Edward's chest keeping his other arm locked to his side.

Edward blink in surprise. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET GO OF ME!" He yelled.

"BROTHER!" Al yelled and moved to help his brother when the blond haired man with a cigarette in his mouth grabbed his arms and pulled them behind his back.

"I asked you nicely to come with us to headquarters two days ago and you ran off. I'm not asking this time." Mustang answered as he dragged the struggling Edward to the hallway. Havoc followed with the struggling Al and he was followed by Hughes and Hawkeye, who closed and locked the room door after grabbing the room key from a small table by the door.

When they got to the lobby, the check in lady looked at them in surprise. "Uh…..sir?" She asked nervously.

"We need to take the kids for a while." Mustang said and dragged the struggling and now yelling Edward out of the hotel and towards one of the military cars while Havoc dragged Al to the other car. Both boys looked at each other wide eyed when they saw they were being separated.

"AL!" Edward yelled, trying to get to his brother. Mustang tightened his grip on Edward to stop him from moving. Havoc did the same to Al, who was trying to get to his brother.

Mustang smirked. "You two won't try to escape if you are separated. You won't leave the other behind. That is your weakness. You two care too much for the other."

Edward growled and tried to get away from Mustang, while Al just frowned at Mustang. He was right of course. He wouldn't leave without his brother and his brother wouldn't leave without him.

"Now let's go." Mustang said as Hawkeye opened the back door of the car. The Colonel pushed Edward into the car and climbed into the back with him to make sure the kid wouldn't try anything. In the car behind them, Hughes climbed into the back seat with Al while Havoc climbed into the driver's seat.

Hawkeye climbed into the driver's seat and drove off with Havoc following her. She looked in her rear view mirror to see Mustang pinning Edward's hands to the seat. Sighing, Hawkeye continued to drive.

Al crossed his arms and pouted at he stared out the car window, watching the buildings fly by. Hughes watched him from the corner of his eye. "You different then your brother, aren't you?" Hughes asked.

"What do you mean?" Al asked, turning to face him.

"I don't know you two. I only just met you two days ago but I can tell your personalities are different. You are quiet and polite and your brother seems to be loud and rude." Hughes explained.

"Yeah. Brother and I have a lot of differences. When we were younger and our mom was still alive we used to fight a lot and over a lot of stupid stuff. Whenever we did fight I would run to a river or the nearest water I could find and sit in front of it. I wouldn't move from that spot until brother came for me. Sometimes it was a few minutes or it could be hours, but he would always come for me. He would never apologize. Each time we fought and he came for me he just said 'Come on, Al. Let's go.' After that he would just turn around and started walking away and each time I ran after him. Most people wouldn't be able to detect it but he's my brother and I can always hear the apology in his voice when he says that, even if he doesn't say it aloud. Since mom died we haven't fought as much, probably because we saw that we are all we have now." Al explained and sighed. "Everything was simple when mom was alive. I miss that time. Even though fighting with brother was not fun, it was a simple time."

Havoc looked in his rear view mirror. "You would gladly go back to fighting your brother if it would mean you could be back home with your mother alive and have a nice peaceful life?"

Al nodded his head. "I would like that, but brother wouldn't. I mean he would be glad that mom would be back but he is restless and doesn't like staying in one place for long. That's how it was at home. He was always running around doing something."

When they arrived at Central Headquarters, Mustang dragged Edward out of the car while Havoc gently pulled Al out of the car. Al seemed to have calmed down and didn't need much pulling to get out of the car.

Al glanced at his brother, who looked at him with a smile. The little brother smiled back and looked at the building they were being taken in to. Edward stopped struggling against Mustang's grip.

The six of them entered headquarters and Mustang lead them to the Fuhrer's office. Knocking on the Fuhrer's door, Mustang looked at Edward, who Hawkeye was now holding still, and Alphonse, who was being held by Havoc.

"Come in." The Fuhrer's voice said from the other side of the door.

Mustang lead the four adults and two kids into the office. "Sir, I have found the kids who were said to have saved the train the general was on two days ago."

Fuhrer King Bradley stood up and looked at the two kids. "Thank you, Colonel. You may all leave."

The four officers saluted the Fuhrer and left. Edward and Alphonse watched them quietly as they stood to the side.

When they were gone, the Fuhrer turned to the brothers. "You two know how to escape from the military." The Fuhrer said chuckling.

Edward and Alphonse looked at the Fuhrer strangely. "What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"You managed to evade the military all day two days ago after saving the train, which I would like to thank you for. I never expected two kids to be able to save a train from terrorists. General Halcrow sends his personal thanks. His family was on the train with him." The Fuhrer said.

The boys nodded their heads. "Sure. Do you want something else? We would really like to leave." Alphonse said nicely.

The Fuhrer folded his hands behind his back and walked out from behind his desk. "You two know alchemy, know how to fight, and are probably geniuses."

Edward crossed his arms. "What's your point?"

"Don't be rude, brother. He's the ruler of this country." Al hissed quietly at his brother.

"You are very straight forward." The Fuhrer said, chuckling again. "I want you two to join the military as state alchemist."

The older brother frowned and narrowed his eyes. "We are kids and we don't like the military. Why should we join the military?"

"Because I can have you arrested." The Fuhrer said.

"On what charges?" Edward demanded.

The Fuhrer walked back to his chair and sat down. "The charges of vigilantism. Vigilantism is not allowed. If you join the military then you will not get in trouble for it."

Edward and Alphonse glanced at each other. Edward's eye was twitching. "Blackmail." He whispered under his breath.

"So, what is your choice? Jail or join the military? You have a chance of not joining the military if you choose joining the military." The Fuhrer explained.

"What do you mean?" Alphonse asked.

"To become a state alchemist you need to take the state alchemist test." The Fuhrer explained. "It just so happens the state alchemist test is in two weeks."

Edward looked at his brother then back to the Fuhrer and growled. When they left Resembool this was not part of the plan. "Give us a week to talk this over." Edward proposed.

"I'll give you three days." The Fuhrer said with a commanding voice that left no room for argument.

A/N: I think vigilantism is illegal in some places. It probably isn't in Amestris because I'm sure people travel all the time and save and help others, but it could also be illegal but no one gets in trouble for it because they don't get caught. I just needed a way to get Edward to become a state alchemist and this was all I came up with.

[1] These birthdays are made up cause the dates of their birthday are never mentioned.

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