Summary: Dietlinde Eckhart is dead and there will be no army from Shamballa to aid the uprising against the government in Berlin. On one side of München a paramilitary groups seeks to take over Bavaria and on the other two brothers want to make sure no one tries to invade Amestris again and they can continue living at peace; though now both exiled to a world they were not born in.
Notes: This work expands the ending of the Conqueror of Shamballa. Unlike the original movie, where Edward returns and the uprising has already been surpressed, this story will start with its supression before covering the Elrics' residence in Munich for about two weeks before leaving with Noah as seen at the end. Their trip will begin the following work.
The German nation had already gone through much in less than a decade. First, there was a four-year-long war that they lost and still refused to admit it was a loss. That was accompanied by the collapse of the old order – the monarchy fell and was replaced with a Socialist leaning republic. Among all this, the evening of November 8, 1923 in the city of München began innocently enough.
It was a Thursday like any other, except for the small public gathering called to the Löwenbräukeller beer hall on the Stiglmaierplatz, but such events occasionally occurred, and this one seemed no different from the previous ones. Bavaria's current government representatives would hold speeches and try to conduct a more direct form of politics. "Gentlemen, I would like to thank you for coming here. Your number fills me with hope that there is still will and energy for change," said Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the State Commissioner of Bavaria.
Recently in an attempt to create a wide coalition government, the German President Friedrich Ebert, had raised Gustav Stresemann, the leader of German People's Party, to be Prime Minister. This new government had stopped opposing the Occupation of the Rhineland by mere passive resistance, and although they had recently lost the support of Ebert's own Social Democratic Party, they remained in the position of national leadership.
Bavaria's local government had immediately acted and created a regional dictatorship. A political triumvirate composed of Kahr himself, Otto Hermann von Lossow, the Commander of the Bavarian Reichswehr, and Hans Ritter von Seisser, the Head of the Bavarian State Police, now wielded near absolute power in place of the Minister-President Eugen Ritter von Knilling, who had thus far supported them as fellow fighters against the corrupt and traitorous elements in the north.
"On this day, when we remember the infamy of that grave national treason, we can, for the first time since then, talk of developments that may finally indicate that justice is at last prevailing." The date choice was blatantly symbolic on all sides. Today was the fifth anniversary of Wilhelm II's abdication, which lead to the formation of the current republican government the next day, and the Armistice of 1918 was signed two days after that.
Few inside the building, however, knew that there were secret plans for everyone at the meeting to be taken hostage by the followers of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, who had decided to stage a local coup. As von Kahr continued his speech on the corruption and treason that permeated the government in Berlin, men with guns suddenly started entering inside through the various doors. "What on Earth is the meaning of this," the State Commissioner yelled.
The entire hall erupted into confusion and fear. Adolf Hitler and his ally Erich Ludendorff, once the First Quartermaster General of the German Empire, finally entered. When it became clear no one would hear anything, the party leader decided to get everyone's attention by shooting his gun upward. The gun shot and subsequent crack of a light destroyed by the bullet did indeed cause everyone to turn.
Hitler climbed on the table and then screamed throughout the room. "This place is surrounded by our Party's Sturmabteilung army; resistance will be punished without discretion! The national revolution and Germany's rebirth begins here and now!"
Three kilometres to the east on the outskirts of the English Garden were Königinstrasse and Ohmstrasse, whose intersection housed two buildings associated with the Ludwig Maximilian University. On one side was the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and on the other was a part of the Technical Institute. The latter had been built two years prior with generous donations from individuals, who happened to frequent the famous den of nationalist and völkisch agitation known as the Vier Jahreszeiten Hotel.
One of the building's cupolas was cast in golden light. A connection with another world had been opened around the same time as the final preparations for the coup were under way. The Study Group for Germanic Antiquity, known better as the Thule Society, sought to gain power from that world to aid in the fight for a new Germany. Instead of any coming with an army, as the clock approached ten at night, the remnants of the only surviving flying machine that had been designed with rocket propulsion crashed onto the underground factory floor.
The mutated body of Dietlinde Eckhart, who had been driven insane by the Gate Children as they, only too happily, stoked her fear and hate for their own purposes, came with it. People did not take kindly to a stumbling black mass that looked like it wanted to consume them. The gurgled yells about a desire to immediately return, were soon silenced by gunfire. The mass fell to the ground and dissolved, leaving behind the emaciated corpse of the Thule Society's Chairwoman. The excursion had been a failure.
Edward stumbled past the door, or what remained of it, and upon seeing Eckhart could only sigh and wag his head. "Hope it was worth it," he muttered. Those that had stayed around started to slowly leave as it became clear they would have to carry out a coup under their own power. "Edward," shouted Noah from the ground, where she was still holding on to the dead body of Alfons Heiderich. The boy stumbled forward. "Yeah, I'm still here. Is it really that much of a surprise?"
The girl rose from the floor and as she did so, the truth of Rudolf Hess's crime was finally revealed to Ed as the blood soaking the shirt on Alfons Heiderich's dead body and Noah's skirt became visible. The gasp from Edward was immediate. Oddly, thought the five stages of grief went through quickly and resigned acceptance soon came. His friend deserved better than this, alas such was not to be. That was a sentiment sadly common in the last half a decade. Noah was, however, still stunned by his choice.
"Why did you come back? To a world like this," Noah weakly threw her hands to the side to underscore the sentiment. Edward could only sigh. He understood that as a Romani girl, she would always see this world as an unjust hell. Especially given the society one ran into in Germany these days. Running away however would not change anything. He learned that the hard way. It would just give all the control of the world to evil. "It's hard to explain."
Even Professor Haushofer had slowly started to move towards the exit, since he too became resigned to the fact that their plan had failed. Edward noticed him and turned to him. "Now, where are you going, professor?" He made sure to put as much sarcasm into that title as he could, "Afraid you'll end up like your dear chairwoman? All you two have done is kill more of your precious Aryan supermen," he said with as much audible contempt at the last two words as he could.
The man turned around and tried to look completely composed. He was not doing well. "It would be unworthy of the great Aryan race to give up at the first sign of resistance. Even if we are defeated today, we shall yet triumph," he said and promptly fled who knew where. Ed rolled his eyes, because that did not even deserve a response. This racist idiot, who thought the title of professor made him magically wise, did not deserve any regardless.
"Shamballa will not be helping us," he heard the man say, and now even the last holdouts started to leave the building. Which of them were giving up instead of going to join the fighting, was not clear. Edward did notice that some of the military supplies, that hadn't been taken for their failed invasion of Amestris, were slowly being pilfered. "Are you really that attached to this world," Noah asked, but this time it was calmer.
"That is one thing. But there are other reason," was his response. Edward took a breath to continue, but before he started, someone else joined the conversation. "Someone had to come here to seal the gate," a familiar voice suggested from one of the suits of armour. Both teens were briefly confused, but Ed recovered quickly. "You used that soul transfer trick again," he guessed as came closer. "How long will it last this time?"
The helmet fell to the floor with a clunk, and suddenly it became clear it would be a lot longer. "Al, what are you doing here?!" Apparently, his brother had decided to invite himself to this world regardless. Without the slightest hint of regret for the decision to abandon his home world, Alphonse started to open up the suit of armour to get outside. "I jumped on the ship at the last second, brother. I hid here just in case. Mustang can break the gate from that side, and we will do the same here."
The complete confidence of that delivery was impressive. "But you will get stuck here," Edward immediately protested as Al finally found the last buckle and got outside. He should have known better than to even bother with that a justification. "I know, but I want to stay here. I would love nothing more to learn and journey with you again, as we did when looking for the stone. Those are the best memories I have."
Now hold on. That wording had some implication. "Wait, you mean you got your memories back again?" "Yeah, the crossings did that, I think." This time, Edward reacted with a more jovial laugh. At least the Gate Children were not complete bastards, just nearly. "Excuse me," Noah interrupted. "Who is this boy, Edward?" The teen in question turned back to her. That was a rather nice can of worms. "This is my brother, Alphonse."
A second and a confused look from Noah later, he remembered both that spelling did not carry over to speech and German was not exactly beginner-friendly. That did not even get into the problems of Standard German and Bavarian being two languages forced to exist together. "It's spelled with a "ph" like in English. Also, he can't talk to you, since he doesn't know a word of German." His brother pretended to cough loudly.
"I think I know at least some words of this "Deutsch", brother." Noah continued looking at him with a confused frown for a while, and then turned back to the deceased boy on the floor. "Trust me, Al; the shared words will not get you far. The language is far harder than it looks at first. The grammatical gender and noun declensions are a headache."
Alphonse then looked, where Noah had turned to look during the explanation, and upon finding the dead rocket scientist on the floor, had the weirdest feeling of both déjà vu and complete confusion. Not noticing the looks, Edward turned to Noah again and continued in German. "There is a reason they look similar. The two worlds overlap in some ways. I had a counterpart here, and I knew your's back in Amestris. Don't ask me why that is, I never found out the exact reason."
The girl sighed and shed a tear. "I am sorry," she said. "I thought I knew what you wanted, but I was justifying my own selfish desire to escape oppression. In the end, all I managed to do was kill Alfons. And lead a group of people to their death inside that portal." "Stop it. I understand your thinking process and forgive you. Maybe I am doing it too easily, but I have forced myself into other peoples' business so often, I'd be a hypocrite to hold this against you."
"Everyone here made his own choices, and so did the killer. You did not kill any of them personally, so don't even think about blaming yourself for that." Noah cringed, but did not protest. "I don't get why Hess decided to shoot him. Was he not useful to them?" "Why am I not surprised it was that bastard. Those assholes have some sort of insane view of loyalty. He probably thought what he did was treason and worthy of death."
"What actually happened here," Alphonse asked after a while. Ed quickly had to explain the whole situation. Al gave Noah a rather stern look, but he did not comment further, nor did the girl actually see his emote. He then pointed to Heiderich and asked, but this time mostly rhetorically, "Those dreams I had about flying machines were real, weren't they?" The question was mostly whispered. It was a shock to realise this, but given all that had happened in the past decade, the surprise was not as strong as it could have been.
"Alchemy doesn't really work here, Al. How are going to destroy it?" The boy looked up, finally snapped out of the odd reverie of seeing the body of his counterpart. "With the both of us, we'll figure something out," he responded immediately. The certainty in that voice was admirable, and Edward wondered how his brother had still managed to main that optimism of his.
Noah had meanwhile sat down next to Alfons Heiderich and continued silently crying, just slightly. "I can see random memories and make weird predictions, but preventing bad things is apparently too far. I promise, as much as I can – and Edward will agree, of that I am certain – we will try to keep your memory alive. You deserve that at least." From her view, a light flashed in the room and a brief vision appeared.
It was only visible to her and was where the cupola would be. A star was streaking across the evening sky toward the horizon, above which a waxing moon hung against the background of oranges and reds. As it reached the crescent, it flashed and vanished alongside the rest of the vision. It was an odd vision, which she did not immediately understand. Was it a symbol of a dead person's soul entering the afterlife, or did it relate to rocketry?
The brothers did not notice any of this; instead, they continued to think about the portal. There were golden currents of energy all around the edges of it. The cupola was completely filled with unstable arcs similar to electric discharges, and that would pose a large problem. The circle had been painted near, if not on, the ceiling itself and the easiest, if not only, solution would be to destroy it. Without it, the energy would be forced to dissipate. Unfortunately, that was dangerous for several reasons.
It would almost certainly be a violent collapse and could very well cause an explosion for one. "How much are you against destruction of property," asked Edward. "I don't think it matters. If there isn't a rebound, it would be a miracle and a half. The question is how bad it will get." Ed expected that answer, but still it was not one he wanted to hear. This whole section of the roof would probably collapse down to the floor.
"Is there something like a roof access? I don't see anything on this side, which would allow us to get to the circle." Alphonse had found the stairs and started slowly going up. Edward stayed on the floor and helped Noah with putting his friend in the tarpaulin. "Not one I saw. I think this will require us to destroy the wall." He shouted upstairs. "Did they paint on the ceiling or something suspended below," came a question from up there. "Pretty sure it was on the plaster itself."
Edward looked at Noah and she nodded. "It's on the actual wall surface. We will have to actually break through the side somehow. At least those nationalist morons left behind several crates of explosives, so we won't be short of options. They had tons of ordinance stuffed in the underground storage. It will be easy to rig something to explode and blame it on them. Pretty sure this weapons cache is illegal anyway."
This got a loud laugh from Al. "Ah, not even an hour back together and already committing crimes together. How quickly we've returned to our old shtick." There actually was an access point to the roof, but that only revealed that there was nothing above the windows on the side of the cupola. Though the near blinding light of the gate, at this height, meant Alphonse had to inspect up close.
Everything was going perfectly so far with the National Socialist coup. Fellow party member Ernst Pöhner would soon become Knilling's successor, and Bavaria would provide a springboard for the great rebirth of Germany. How ironic, they thought, that mere four years ago an unsuccessful Soviet styled revolution had been planned in this very city by that traitorous Russian Jew, Eugen Leviné. Now, the triumvirate already looked poised to fold and publicly declare their support.
Adolf Hitler's de facto deputy and one of the editors of their parties Völkischer Beobachter newspaper, Hermann Esser, took stage. "Hear, oh, people of Germany! Today we declare the government of November Criminals overthrown! Our provisional national government, under the leadership of General Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler, General Lossow and Lieutenant von Seisser, will reclaim our national honour and glory!" Cheers and hails were heard throughout the building. Meanwhile, Rudolf Hess had finally run in through the back to join his leader.
"Ah, Mr. Hess, I see you have finally decided to join the actual revolution instead of Eckhart's mystical meditations. Or has dear Mrs. Eckhart finally seen the light and realised the Aryan race must fight its battles on its own merit?" Hess looked away and wagged his head. "Chairwoman Eckhart is dead. She tried to reach Shamballa and thought she succeeded." Now that surprised Hitler. The woman had actually figured something out.
"But she came back as a mindless black husk and had to be put down. The men, who went with her, are dead as well," Hess added. Well, that was less than stellar. Nonetheless, there apparently was some truth to this Thule nonsense, once this little revolution was finished, it would be beneficial to see if something could be gained from this. Meanwhile, Hess looked disturbed and confused, directionless and seeking purpose – the easiest kind of person to subdue to one's will. Those classes of Hanussen had proven beneficial, and he could be useful as a future minister.
"If you wish to yet prove your worth to our cause, then I have a job for you." The sudden light in Hess' eyes made his leader smirk with satisfaction. "I will give you men to lead, and you will insure the more craven members of Bavaria's government will not get in our way." He turned to the side and called upon an old man standing by the door with a small weapon in his hand. "Lehmann, come here, the Party requires use of your house!"
The old doctor, named Julius Friedrich Lehmann, had gladly given Hess the key to the front door. "Take von Knilling and all the other fools into custody. I don't trust them with their support. The Bavarian People's Party is filled with half-hearted conservatives and submissive Roman Catholics. I would rather negotiate with them," said Hitler and pointed at the triumvirate. "They have actual wills and spines. Now, get to work!" Hess gave a firm hail and left.
After he left, Hitler was approached by Ernst Röhm, the leader of the party's paramilitary group officially called the Storm Division (in German Sturmabteilung and thus shortened to SA), but also known as Brownshirts in allusion to neighbouring Italy's Blackshirts. Just like the National Socialists took political cues from Italian Fascism, they would soon emulate their leader Benito Mussolini's March on Rome a year earlier.
However, in Italy the King Victor Emmanuel III had seen the light and before much blood was spilled, he had given Mussolini the post of Prime Minister. Here it would be harder to achieve victory, but such was a fit challenge to be met by the Aryan race. The presidency was held by the traitorous social democrat Ebert, who was one of the November Criminals that had backstabbed the nation five years ago. Such men deserved only the sentence of death carried out by the hands of the victorious.
"Röhm, go to Lossow's headquarters on Schönfeldstrasse, I charge you with preparing the Reichswehr to follow us into battle. I wish that we can start our northward march as soon as possible with a loyal and power army behind us. With Lossow's authority, we will have little issue convincing the true Germans. I will send the triumvirate to prepare the other paths for us in an hour, once Hess tells me he has cleared the human shaped roadblocks from our road to victory.
While you are there, make sure to prepare a room for our planning meeting. General Ludendorff and I intend to make it our base of operations in the following days, as we insure our command of the city is truly absolute. Also prepare a group of soldiers to welcome him at the headquarters. It would be unwise to not show such an important ally of ours and a national hero anything but the honour he deserves."
Röhm gave his own salute and started to prepare his subordinates to march. The Triumvirate soon caved and declared that supporting this putsch would be the best way to fulfil their shared goals of causing Germany's rebirth from the spiritual death imposed by treachery. Now all that was needed was to spread the good news among the people and call them to arms and glorious battle for the sake of their blood.
In a room at the New Courthouse of München three men had just finished a late dinner and sat down around a table discussing politics. Bavaria's vice minister-President and Minister of Culture Franz Matt had attended a production at Deutsches Theater München, so he had asked his guests to meet him later than usual. While officially this was an informal gathering of friends and acquaintances, it was in fact a meeting of two important leaders of Bavaria's Catholic political sphere.
"Hopefully, with Stresemann as Prime Minister, we will set a better course, now that he has broken with the godless Socialists. Maybe we will finally see some advance in the national negotiations on the Concordat with the Holy Church. I would certainly like to see our nation come to a mutual understanding with His Holiness. Perhaps we could then inspire Italy to do likewise and end the Vatican imprisonment," said Matt.
"I maintain hope," responded Cardinal Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber of München and Freising. "But his letter did not inspire much of it. He seems too afraid to put his neck on the line and has too much faith in the current republican system." Faulhaber had made himself infamous among the republican and left-wing circles last year, when during the 62nd Katholikentag; he had declared the Weimar Republic as being rooted in treason. While he is ambivalent to republican governments, he considers the one in Germany a historical mistake.
After the fall of the monarchy five years earlier, what had once been part of the Christian Democratic grouping known as the Centre Party, had split of to become a more local Bavarian entity, that nonetheless still cooperated with its former fellows on the national level. "I have sent a message to Monsignor Pacelli, that you believe Bavaria's government has come to their sense in this manner, and you can see a possible path to a national reconciliation with Christ's Church," adds the archbishop, referring to the Apostolic Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, who could not attend.
"And what does he think," asked Matt. After taking a drink, the priest continued. "He fears we will have to wait much longer. As Stresemann has done little to pursue true reconciliation with the Faith. They usually discuss very specific matters of contention, rather than a general approach. The man is after all a Protestant, and sadly much of the rebelliousness of Luther and Calvin is still to be found in both the Imperial Parliament and Diet. The worst parts of Prussian dominion have remained, while the good was demolished for being judged too old."
"He has also spoken of his alarm at the spread of those unchristian ideas in our lands. And I do not speak of socialism and communism. The Pope has heard of what men like Lorenz Pieper keep saying, and is not happy. The National Socialists have been rather open about their support for bloody revolution and wish to bring about a swift national rebirth. Yet our men go around and bless all their acts, proclaiming them faithful sons of the Church. I personally have had quite enough of the Völkischer Beobachter and their blaming of every single bad thing on the Jew.
When I dared to correct their claim that I was their ally by separating the Jew in general from powerful Jewry, they decried me as a protector of traitors. It is disturbing to see the pure spring of our Lord's cause be poisoned by much blight left behind because of the Prussians. The Kulturkampf of Bismarck is sadly still with us in some form and only keeps this nation under the thumb of a leadership treasonous to both man and Christ."
Matt only nodded as he listened. "Do you know about the leader of these National Socialists? I have only heard the name Adolf Hitler, but not much beyond vague praises for the man," finished Faulhaber. The vice minister nodded. "He was born in Austria, but joined the Kaiser's army in 1914 and though of the Gefreiter rank earned the Iron Cross of the First Class. He is a silver-tongued man capable of commanding an audience with ease. He positions himself as a mighty leader of his followers. Nominally, he is a member of our Holy Mother Church, but is practically an apostate."
"That I can believe," said the cardinal. "I have heard some of their words. In their hatred of the Jew, many of them have only disdain for pure Christianity. They see it as an imposition by the enemy to subdue the power of Germany. One of their members, Alfred Rosenberg, often talks about a Positive Christianity, but it is a blatant mixing of various pagan cults with a strong emphasis on the Germanic. They also took many ideas from the nihilists."
"Indeed, your Holiness. I have heard them call any reverence for Jesus, ours or the Protestant heretic's, a negative Christianity. He recycles the drivel of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, but uses our language to make it sound grander. He doesn't even bother to hide this. Actually, he once said Chamberlain was a kind of John the Baptist for their cause. I never understand such conduct. Our Lord offers a peaceful dominion to his followers, but men seemed obsessed with the spirit of Cain. They do not seek to restore tradition, but create a new crown from spilled blood."
Faulhaber shuddered. "May God grant that we never see such carnage as the Great War. The Prince has told me enough to never want to see such things. It was a blessing of my advanced age that I was spared the draft to die choking on poisonous gas," he added in reference to another friend, who could not come, the former Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, whose position as commander on the Western Front had made him hate modern war machinery. These discussions were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door.
"Enter!" Matt's secretary entered the room with a frown on her face and a fearful aura. "Sir, I have just received news from a subordinate of von Kahr, and it appears we have a large civil disturbance on our hands." That changed the atmosphere in the room rather quickly. "What sort of disturbance are we talking about," Matt asked with rising concern.
"The members of the National Socialist Worker's Party have gathered in the Löwenbräukeller with weapons and have demanded that people accept their new government and help them march against Berlin. They have taken Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser hostage and are all armed." Matt rose from his seat quickly. "Are they absolutely sure of this?" The secretary nodded, and the Archbishop sighed loudly. "So they have chosen the broad path of fools and attack their brothers."
Matt started looking for his cloak. "They seek to emulate Mussolini's brutes, I assume," he said to no one in particular. "They have fed on the sentiment against the Occupation of the Ruhr and the Jews, and now think themselves great conquerors." Faulhaber agreed and added his own thoughts. "They are full of pagan nonsense about the superiority of the German race and have exactly zero time for God and his Prince of Peace. And that is why they will ultimately fail. Apart from him, there is no stable foundation.
I will speak with Pieper and Schlund and tell them to stop before they become apostates, heretics and schismatics. When I called out this rotten regime in Berlin as an enemy of the people and God, they gave me high honours. But when I reminded the people of the Law of God and told them that the Jews are their neighbours, so they must give them love, they called me a traitor."
Matt had meanwhile moved to the door. "Your Holiness, my household is at your service as long as you wish to stay." The two said their goodbyes and the host left with his secretary. "Go, my good man. These godless fools will only bring the wrath of those faithless Socialists on us," said Faulhaber to an empty room. "These men are more interested in their own glories than God's. They have no love for our People's Party and only seek our alliance for their own purposes."