V
With a metallic shriek of brakes that had gone far too long without the acquittance of oil and a shower of glowing red sparks, Alphonse's train arrived at the Grand Depot in Central. The young alchemist lurched awake both from the jarring halt and the gentle chime of the alarm clock built into his wristwatch.
With a dull groan as his body told him it had emphatically not enjoyed becoming acquainted with the hard wooden train bench he'd ridden on since Resembool, Al rolled his shoulders and stood, taking a moment to shut off the alarm on his watch as he did so. He paused and gazed on at the oversized timepiece on the heavy leather wristband, his expression growing guilty.
Winry had made him this watch- and he had not told her where he was going; he had not told her was leaving at all beyond a curt note promising to return he had left in his laboratory.
She and Rose work so hard to take care of me and Gran…Alphonse thought, thinking back to the last year and a half since the not-quite war with Drachma had begun. Before that, too, of course, but since the war and the blockades and trade embargos, it had been harder, even with the extra money brought in by the uptick in auto-mail work as wounded soldiers came back from the border skirmishes.
But on the empty space on the bench where he'd been riding, was a heavy, hooded red overcoat. And if the watch called to the family he had found, the coat spoke all the louder of the one he had lost.
The coat was Edwards.
Alphonse picked it up and flung it on as he stepped into the aisle that ran behind the packed seats of the passenger car as he made his way to the exit. As he made his way through the small group of people getting off the train from the East and unto the throning platform of the train depot, he was awash again dim, secondhand memories, although this was his first time visiting central in his recovered body, it was far from his only visit to the bustling city.
Fight it, fight it, fight it he thought, clenching his eyes shut
There had been a thing with his mother's face that tried to kill Edward, why, why, why…
Screams and chaos and smoke and gunfire ringing off the hollow metal of a body he felt it and almost prayed that he could feel the pain, feel anything…
STOP
We are here for Edward.
He took a deep breath and stepped forward, following a path towards the distant, sprawling complex of the Central Command of the Amestrian Military, following a path he had no business of knowing with absolute assurance.
All the while, he had a nagging worry in his head about just who that we he had just spoken of in his thoughts were.
Whether or not he had the lingering conscious of a past life bouncing around his head or not, what he did not have, after so preternaturally finding his way there, was the slightest idea of how to get into Central Command when he got there; something that looking back he certainly should have seen coming. He eyed the armed, grim-looking sentries and moved on, trying to remain inconspicuous as he looked for a way in, but he was quickly finding that the area was bustling with men and women in blue military uniforms, with many of them seeming to take an inordinate interest in him, so much that the hair on the back of his neck began to stand on end with paranoia as his thoughts raced to figure out how they knew what he was here for…
"Ed?!"
The high voice nearly sent Al out of his skin, and he whirled around to find a woman in a military uniform with short brown hair and glasses staring at him, wide-eyed
As his eyes met hers, she reddened in embarrassment,
"Oh, I'm so sorry young man, I thought you were…"
A name reared from the murky depths of Al's memories and he hesitantly asked,
"Sheska?"
The woman froze and then gasped,
"Alphonse?"
"Yes, I think you know…"
Before he knew he was snapped into a hug after the woman rapidly closed the distance between the two of them,
"Al! Oh my god, I can't believe it's you! It worked! Ed…" Sheska's face fell, "Oh, Al, I'm sorry."
Al met her eyes with what he hoped was a reassuring gaze,
"It's not your fault, Brother got me my body back, just like he swore he would, now, I just have to figure out how to get him back…"
"Get him back?" Sheak let out a panicked gasp and dashed over to grab Alphonse by the shoulders, "Al you can't do that, that's how you both ended up in that nightmare in the first place!"
AL shook himself free, confused as he asked,
"Sheska, what are you talking about?"
"Al, I don't want to sound blasé about this but you should have learned from trying to bring back your mother that you can't resurrect someone using alchemy!"
"Resurrect? My brother's not dead!"
Sheska looked incredibly confused,
"What? He died under Central, stopping Dante."
"No, Sheska, he was taken by the Gate."
"Gate? What Gate?"
"It's a long story." Al said, looking speculatively at Sheska- and more specifically her uniform, "Can we talk somewhere? I just got off the train from Resembool…"
"Sure. Wait, how do you know who I am, Winry said you'd lost your memory?"
"I still remember pieces but, it's coming back to me all the time." He set a hand on his head, "Gives me a headache sometimes."
Sheska was unsure quite what to do- she knew Alphonse, but the boy in front of her was almost a stranger; it was like talking to an old friend who barely remembered who she was.
"I'm on break right now, Al, if you want to come get some tea?" she finally asked, he had wanted to talk, after all.
Al smiled and nodded, and the two walked in silence as Sheska led Al to a small, side alley café that was mostly empty save for a pair of soldiers in a back booth they could just barely make out.
As the two ordered and sat at their table, Sheska leaned forward, speaking low out of a habit from the final year of the Ed and Al campaign against the Homunculi and its need for secrecy,
"What are you doing back in Central? And who's here with you?"
Al looked confused,
"I'm here by myself."
"Al! You're just a kid, what do you mean you're here by yourself?"
Al shrugged; there was no point in beating around the bush with this; Sheska was Winry's friend, he recalled, and he was sure that she would soon be on the phone to inform her of his whereabouts, unless-
"Sheska, I'm going to explain as best I can what I'm here for- I know you'll want to tell Winry, but just listen, please,"
A waitress came with their order and Al ignored the steaming drink in front of him as he did his best to explain what his plan was.
"This may all sound a bit disjointed, which is partly due to it being mostly theory-based on information I don't quite even remember, but here goes,"
"I'll do my best Al, but I'm no alchemist,"
Someone sat at a nearby table; Al didn't even glance over at them as he concentrated on the best way to explain what was a conflicted alchemical theory in layperson's terms; but then he seized on the perfect starting point and began;
"You know that the energy that alchemy uses supposedly comes from the movement of tectonic plates in the ground beneath Amestris, right?"
"Yes, I learned that in school, but the "supposedly" is new."
"When Edward and I were confronting Dante either she or my father, Hohenheim told us that it is actually powered by consuming the souls of people who die on a place from the other side of the Gate, called Earth."
Sheska frowned,
"What? Al that would mean," the mousey girl gasped and covered her mouth as her eyes widened,
"Yeah. Yeah, that's bad, right?"
"Pretty much the worst. Al that would mean every use of alchemy would be as awful as using or creating a Philosopher's Stone!"
Alphonse nodded,
"I think their theory is wrong."
Sheska froze,
"Al, I never met Dante or your father, but I read history and know enough to guess that they're the mythical creators of alchemy,"
"Just my father. I think."
"And you're saying they're wrong and have been so for their entire lives?"
"Yes and no, really. I think some form of alchemy uses soul energy- specifically theirs, and they thus assumed all alchemy functions that way."
"Al, how could there be two forms of energy that power alchemy?"
Al shook his head,
"I don't know. Actually, the important part is that they're wrong about the Gate."
"What do you mean?"
"For all alchemy to draw power from the Gate, from souls passing through it, that would mean a constant, irreversible outflow of energy, right?"
"That would make sense. I guess."
"Then how was my body held in perfect suspension inside the gate for years?"
Sheska shook her head,
"And why does it open whenever someone tries to use human transmutation, why does it open at all? If it's just a link for energy to flow through, why is it a Gate at all?"
"Didn't Ed travel through it? What did he say?"
"If he ever said anything about it at all, I don't remember. But one thing I can say for sure is that it's able to fix a point in time and space and hold it there, suspended like it did with my body."
"But, Alphonse what could,"
"I think the gate only opens when the alchemical actions that violate its rule occur, which means it functions on a system. It's not some mystical link between worlds, it's a machine." Alphonse set his mouth in a grim line, "And if it's a machine I can get it to do what I want."
Sheska looked worried and didn't want to ask but Alphonse answered anyway,
"I want to go to the other world, to Earth, at the exact time that Edward was sent there, and I want to get him back."
"You can do that?!"
Al's grim face actually fell after a moment,
"In theory. The thing is, I need to open the gate to do that- I already have an array drawn up that will, theoretically direct it the way I want it to work, but the problem is…well, I need to open it, and the known ways to do that are all out of the question."
"Then, why are you at Central?"
"I'm hoping I can use a false Philosopher's Stone in place of a real one to open the Gate, my brother and I came across several before. I had even hoped to meet a pair of brothers we met who were creating something similar using plants, but when I got to their town they weren't there anymore, and no one knew where they'd gone."
"Alphonse, how long have you been away from Resembool?"
"Er, ah…two months."
Sheska froze,
"Did Winry know you were leaving?"
Al grinned, sheepishly,
"I'm not sure who I'm more pissed at, you or her for not letting me know to keep an eye out for you."
Sheska held her head in her hands,
"Why are you in Central, and why are you so interested in Central Command?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"I need to get inside, down to the sunken city where Dante lived."
The former librarian groaned,
"You're not in the military, Al."
"Yes."
"Central Command is off limits to civilians, and we're on a war footing with Drachma, it's both nearly impossible and dangerous to try and get in."
"Yeah, I guessed that which is why I need your help."
"Why do you need to get down there?"
"I was…well, I was hoping that Danta had a store of false stones down there, somewhere, and that the military hadn't found them yet. I think she used to feed her homunculi with them."
Sheska looked up,
"Alphonse, what are those stones made of?"
"They're actually made…similar to a Philosopher's Stone." Al sighed, "There's no other way, and I can't make my own. I just hope my brother understands when I get to him."
Sheska shook her head,
"No way, Alphonse."
Al's face fell,
"Sheska, I…"
"You're coming with me back to my apartment, and I'm calling Winry. Even if this wasn't crazily dangerous, even if it worked, could you even come back, Al?"
Alphonse hesitated and then shook his head.
"Well, there isn't a chance in…"
"Don't be too hasty, Corporal." A new, smooth voice cut in on their conversation, and Sheska and Al looked up to find a man in military blue looming over their table; he had closely cropped grey hair and his eyes were so dark they were almost black,
"Colonel Von Luck." Al greeted him, voice cold, as Sheska shot to her feet and snapped a salute so quickly she almost toppled over,
"At ease, soldier. Please, sit." The Colonel ordered as he sat at an empty seat; Alphonse was not enthused to be sharing air with the man, much less a table.
"I couldn't help but sit right here and listen to your entire conversation," The colonel announced, smiling unpleasantly "And I can't help but wonder, how many people you've had it with."
Al lowered at the grim officer,
"Just Sheska."
"Excellent. Corporal, if you share any of the details of this conversation, with anyone, I'll have you shot."
Sheska and Alphonse's faces dropped with shock,
"I'm serious."
"B…but…" Sheska looked like she was about to cry,
"Are either of you familiar with the religious practices of Drachma?"
Both shook their heads,
"They have deeply held beliefs about the eternal soul and its afterlife. And if it were to come out that our alchemy- theoretically of course -is powered by the consumption of human souls, even alien ones, well, there would be a line of Drachman armor parked on the corpses of every alchemist in this country and anyone fool enough to get in their way by the next weekend. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Sheska spoke,
"As for you," the Colonel turned to Alphonse, "If you had these false stones to test your hypothesis- the ones that would not risk the end of the planet, and don't deny, I've seen your research -you could possibly prove that your fathers' theories were wrong?"
Al hesitated, and then nodded,
"That hasn't really been the point of my research, but I believe so."
Von Luck smiled,
"Well, then, welcome to the State Alchemists, Elric. We're leaving for this Dante's' lair immediately."
"I…what?"
"Now, Elric." Von Luck stood, "We don't have time to waste. Corporal if you'd be so kind as to inform those girls in Resembool that their charge is enlisting? And do avoid any topics of conversation that will land you in front of a firing squad."
The two soldiers in the back booth quietly watched as Alphonse stood to leave with the second in command of the State Alchemists, leaving a shaken-looking Sheska sitting at the table alone.
One of the soldiers looked at his companion's form behind thick, square-framed glasses,
"Wonder what that was about?" He asked his companion, who surreptitiously watched Von Luck and Alphonse heading out the door,
"Nothing good. Feury, you know Sheska a bit, right?" she asked,
"Yes ma'am, a bit…"
"Wait until she leaves and try and catch up with her before she gets back to headquarters, I'll try and tail Von Luck."
"Why the cloak and dagger, Lieutenant?"
Riza Hawkeye shrugged and leaned back in the booth,
"Habit. And I need to get ahold of the Colonel as well."
Feury's face fell,
"Well, good luck, ma'am."
She shrugged, hoping whatever was going on was serious enough to jolt Roy Mustang out of his self-imposed exile.
Von Luck led Alphonse through a side entrance to Central Command, walking in long strides that the smaller boy had to work to keep up with, but it seemed the cold officers was single-mindedly pursuing the course of action he had chosen and simply expected Al to keep up or be left behind.
"Your research notes never mentioned your father's belief of how alchemy functions." He suddenly stated not turning to look at Al as he led him past a group of startled sentries- one started to voice an objection to Alphonse's presence but a glare from the State Alchemist kept him quiet.
Al waited until they were out of earshot before cautiously answering,
"I never wanted it written down where some stranger could read it." he answered pointedly, "It seemed like a good idea to keep it to myself."
"Does Mustang know?"
"Who? Oh, the Colonel, umm…not sure." Al sure as hell wished he did as had the sudden realization that the officer might simply be planning to have him disappear while in the military headquarters- but if that was the case he wouldn't have let Sheska go with orders to tell Winry where he was. Most likely, at least. He hoped.
"We frankly haven't had more than a basic look through this underground city, Elric. I'm unsure we're going to find what you're looking for."
Al nodded, although the Colonel couldn't see.
"I understand. If not, I'll have to find some other way to bring Edward back."
Von Luck stopped and spun on one heel before looming over Alphonse,
"Let's get this straight, Elric, you understand you've been conscripted, right?"
Alphonse didn't answer,
"I've seen your theories, and the ways you've imagined to get your brother back when we searched your laboratory back in Resembool, and at no point in time are you going to be using alchemy to try and rip a hole in space and time, defy physics or any of the other insanely dangerous theorems you came up with. Frankly, boy, you scare me. And if you think you're getting out of the sight of the military to do any of that insanity you've come up with, you are gravely mistaken."
Alphonse didn't answer, simply glaring back,
"Am I clear, soldier? Or shall I place you under custody in the nearest military prison while this matter comes under consideration by the new governmental oversight board?"
Al really had no idea what was going on, but following in this bastard's wake was taking him where he needed to go, at least for now, so he nodded,
"Yes, I've got it."
The colonel grunted, and then said,
"In any case, we're three levels above one of the hidden entrances the Homunculi use to get in and out of the lower levels, let's hope we can be quick about this."
They passed the rest of the short trip down a side staircase off the entrance they had come through in silence as Von Luck led Alphonse down to the depths of Central,
"Shouldn't there be some paperwork or a ceremony or something if you just conscripted me into the military?" Alphonse asked, breaking the silence as it grew monotonous,
"There's a war on. No one's standing on ceremony, you have brought something to my attention that's critical to national security and I conscripted you, which under the War Powers Act is all the ceremony or authority that's needed."
"I know there's still a blockade, but I thought Drachma and the government signed a ceasefire after they repatriated General Armstrong's sisters and her soldier."
"Yes, they did, but you'll notice things are still falling apart in this country."
Alphonse thought of the poorly maintained train he'd ridden in on,
"I guess."
"And Drachma and Areugo haven't withdrawn any of their soldiers from the borders."
"Are they planning an attack?"
Von Luck shrugged as he stopped at a metal box mounted along one side of the staircase and pulled out a pair of heavy electric flashlights,
"Maybe. But after the mess Bradley and your Dante woman put this region through, they may rankly just not trust us to attack them."
"But we don't have any reason to!"
"From their perspective, we never have, but we've been aging no stop war for decades now."
Al sighed, wearily
"Yes. That about sums it up, Elric." Von Luck stopped a pile of rubble at the base of the stairs that had once been a hidden door, before squatting down to scrawl an alchemical array on the floor. The colonel clapped his hands and slammed them down on it, activating in a storm of blue energy that crackled forth to clear the way to a dark set of stairs that had been carved out of the earth with alchemy.
He motioned for Alphonse to follow as he clicked on his light and plunged into the darkness.
Al went after him, but let Von Luck pull ahead, having no further desire to converse with the unpleasant man as his thoughts swirled- things were moving fast right now, too fast for him to keep them in line with his plan, and as far as he could tell his only path lay straight forward, down this cramped stairway to the bowls of the earth, and to hope the treasure he sought was down in the dark below.
He glanced down, picking out the footprints in the dust that coated the staircase; under a fresh layer that had been building up, he could still make out old tracks; some seemed like barefoot human footprints, and others were in several varieties of what after a moment he realized were high heels- one set if racks were smaller than the other, interspersed with both small, child-sized tracks and massive, heavy boot prints.
After a moment, he realized these were left by the homunculi as came and went from their stronghold under Central. His mind swirled with old memories as he fit a name to each set;
Envy had always gone barefoot, save for his odd half-sock foot coverings. The child-size one had to belong to Wrath, the youngest in both age and psychically, while the imprint of high heels had to belong to Lust and Sloth. Alphonse shivered and fought back traumatic memories of the homunculus with his mother's face and voice. He shook his head and looked around to find the claustrophobic walls of the tunnel were gone and he was standing in the open, with stygian blackness on every side, pierced only by the soft, yellow glow of his light.
"Mind yourself, Elric!" Von Luck called from ahead and Alphonse could barely make out the alchemist in the glow of his flashlight, "Dante was no firm believer in safety regulations and these stairs are steep. Lucky we won't have too far to go once we reach the bottom; her old residence is near the base."
Al stopped for a moment,
"How do you know your way around so well down here? I thought you said these tunnels were sealed?"
"I led a quick expedition down here after the homunculi were defeated. We just poked around for a few hours and went back up."
"That's all?"
"The government had collapsed and we were at war, it took more of our attention, as you might imagine."
Seemingly uninterested in further conversation, Von Luck forged ahead again, with Alphonse cautiously following; the stairs really were steep and there was no railing. But he was starting to worry about Von Luck; he seemed to know more than he was letting on.
As they walked in silence, a sense of dread grew in Alphonse as well, either from memories of his previous visit to these subterranean ruins or just from the eerie silence that pervaded down here. The pathetic beam of illumination caused by his flashlight picked out the dark, looming shapes of buildings, either lying down here in ruins, leaning against each other as gravity propped them up, or standing impossibly straight, like their occupants might return at any time.
He looked to the side, shining his light down a crumbling roadway that ringed the crater-like chamber as if it had been lain that way, and it stretched off into darkness, covered in dust and debris undisturbed for however long this city had been here.
Shivering, Al picked up his pace, unconsciously drawing closer to Von Luck, who, awful as he was, was the only other living creature down here with him. Thankfully, the eerie, dangerous journey came to an end as they soon reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the main plaza of the fallen city.
Von Luck turned and pointed off into the darkness,
"That opera house is in that direction, where your brother…where your brother defeated the homunculi's plot." Von Luck said, for the first time showing a sign of humanity as he corrected himself from saying where your brother disappeared, "There was a set of generators in an old civic building next to it that used to run the lights down here but they weren't of any design we recognized and overloading and destroying them was the greatest achievement of our little foray down here, hence the darkness."
Alphonse shrugged,
"And over here," Von Luck pointed with his lamp, "Was what we believed to be Dantes laboratory; if your false stones are anywhere down here, that would be the logical place to start looking."
He again led them away, correcting their course through the dark midway empty space of the courtyard, and leading them to the ornate doors of a massive residence, Al looked close, spotting the telltale jagged edge of alchemy in its construction, although they were fewer and smoother than any he had seen before, Clearly the structure had been transmuted by an incredibly skilled alchemist.
Von Luck tried the door, and it smoothed up with a creak of unmaintained hinges. He glanced back at Alphonse and then went inside, quickly being swallowed by the darkness save for the soft yellow beam of his flashlight.
Alphonse followed, shining his own weak light around the grand entryway he suddenly found himself in-, and immediately his shoulders slumped in defeat as he realized the inside of the structure was seemingly hollow, choked with rubble; what had once been a grand stairway lay caved in with a massive, black boulder sitting in the middle of it.
Von Luck froze,
"Wait, it didn't look like this before…"
The boulder began to roll, no, not roll- it moved, unwed itself into a monstrous figure just barely visible in their lights.
A giant, bald head gazed at them, its round, chubby features breaking into a massive square-toothed grin as the monster in the dark gazed at them with white, pig-like eyes.
That's who the last set of tracks belonged to Alphonse pointlessly reminisced, thinking of the homunculi tracks he'd been looking at earlier, Gluttony.
The alchemically created thing drooled and it wetly spoke,
"Food?"
"Elric, run!" Von Luck shouted, as he stepped back and fruitlessly fumbled with the holster on his belt; Al had just enough time to wonder just what the hell the man expected to do with the small weapon when Gluttony lunged forward, jaws open impossibly wide he reached out his arms to grab the human in front of him.
Von Luck ducked to one side, dropping his light and plunging the area around him into darkness- there was a wet snap as Gluttony closed his jaws around something out there in the black, and Von Luck started to scream in agony.
"Food!"
Without thinking, Alphonse snapped up a rock from the floor and tossed it in the direction he had last seen the homunculus' head,
"Over here!" he shouted.
There was silence for a moment, and then the monster surged into the pool of light cast by Alphonse's flashlight, moving impossibly fast as it roared out,
"Hungry!" in its shrill, childish voice.
"Oh shit." Al cursed, throwing himself back out the door and into the massive plaza behind him.
He scrambled to his feet and began to back up just as the front façade of the mansion exploded outwards in a wave of dust and debris, somehow none of it striking Alphonse as he darted away, with the shaking, echoing footfalls of the monster right behind him.
A building loomed out of the dark in front of him and Al quickly cut round it, while behind him another resounding crash marked the passage of gluttony straight through the stone construct as the homunculus kept up his pursuit of his next meal.
Alphonse thoughts raced as he found himself in another open space with gluttony rapidly gaining on him from behind; desperately, Alphonse ducked behind a muck-covered fountain and brought his hand slamming into the ground, throwing up a thick, spike-covered wall with a shower of alchemical sparks before he took off again as Gluttony bounced off the thick structure behind him; all was silent for a moment, and Al slowed barely taking a breath, just as the sound of a massive impact sounded in the abandoned plaza-
How the hell did he jump that? Al demanded in his head and realized how the homunculus avoided Al's obstacle. Regardless, it did buy him enough time to duck into the crazed, half-collapsed warren of the fallen city just outside of its massive central square.
Breathing heavily, he looked around, sure that Gluttony wouldn't be far behind recalling that the round monster would have the nose to track even in this dusty rat's nest of alleys and collapsed roadways, whereas he would be completely helpless in the dark without a light…
Alphonse held up his flashlight and looked at it, as a plan formed in his mind.
With a single-minded drive, Gluttony stalked his prey through the ruins, tongue lolling out of his mouth as he licked the bloodied remnants of the snack he'd had back in his home. His simple mind, already half destroyed by Dante, drove him with ferocity in pursuit of his next meal.
He smiled wider as his keen eyes picked out the glow of a light far ahead in the surprisingly intact road he'd been tracking his prey down.
"Food!" he gleefully shouted as he took off after the distant light as it bobbed up and down in the distance, "Food!"
He rapidly closed, his mind blank with hunger, ignoring the warning the half-functional recessed part of his mind began to send; that light isn't moving, something's wrong, something smells like alchemy, stop stop stop- but he didn't, and as the road narrowed, he lunged head first crawling through ruined houses and piled debris, snapping his jaws at the light that remained just out of reach, until finally, he extended his head on his almost nonexistent neck just far enough to snap his jaws closed around the glowing flashlight- only to find it had been hanging from a broken rafter by a string, gently swaying the subterranean breeze that blew down into the ruins form above.
There was just enough of Gluttony's mind left for him to freeze as he realized he had fallen into a trap.
In a storm of blue energy, the ruins gluttony had wound through came to life in a cacophony of grinding stone and cracking wood as they transmuted into a forest of spikes, hooks, and stakes that impaled the homunculus up and down his monstrous body, his shrieks of pain roaring out and echoing in the cavern until the ring of debris around his neck shifted into a gaping, fanged maw- and snapped down with an echoing boom as they lopped Gluttony's head from his shoulders.
From deep in shadows nearby, Alphonse waited for a few moments, carefully gazing into the darkness where he had trapped Gluttony. When nothing came out of the shadows, he lit a torch he had made with a quick flare of alchemical energy and strode forward.
Tangled in the savage trap he had sprung, all that remained of Gluttony were the half-digested contents of his bloated stomach, and Al blanched as he looked at the tangled mass of whatever the monster had been eating down here- and then he froze as he spotted the upper half of human skeleton, with a few tattered bits of flesh and maroon fabric still clinging to it.
Dante? No, not quite, this would be Lyra, after Dante had possessed her.
He stepped closer, bringing his torch close to the skeleton as he squatted in front of it. He made a disgusted noise he gazed at this old foe he barely remembered, now nothing but yellowed bone and liquefying organs…he saw the dull red gleam of a crimson gemstone in the remains. Without further thought, he plunged his hand through the broken ribs of the skeleton and yanked the gem out as he held the slimy gem up in the light of his blazing firebrand.
The Philosophers Stone! No, no it can't be that easy, after everything Ed and I went through, but Alphonse could feel the power of the stone, and knew it was. Or…Al looked closer, realizing the stone was chipped on two sides, a fragment of a fragment, maybe? Would this be enough? Alphonse felt the pure alchemical power radiating from the stone in his hand- Yes. Yes, it would be.
Alphonse stood, tucking the stone in a pocket before wiping the ichor on his hand off on his overcoat. Before he did anything, he had to head back down into the black and see what had become of Colonel Von Luck, as he had no desire to keep rooting around in Gluttony's stomach contents to see if the man had been in there when the homunculus died.
Al held his torch up as he neared the ruins of Dant's mansion, carefully picking through the debris field left from the fight with Gluttony. As he neared the doors, he saw a trail of blood leading from them and almost jumped out of his skin as a wet cough sounded from near the entrance.
"Quite a light show, Elric."
Al stepped forward and found Von Luck near the entryway, a pool of blood around the stumps of his legs.
Gasping, in shock, Al rushed forward to the shattered man's side,
"Colonel, hold on, I'll," Alphonse looked down at Von Luck's legs where he had desperately tied tourniquets to them with his belt and strips of cloth torn from his uniform.
"No reason to waste your time," The colonel said, digging around in his blue overcoat before pulling something out and holding it in a clenched hand, "Surprised you came back, Elric. You must still be looking for those stones."
"Actually, I found…something I could use already." It felt wrong to mention the Philosopher Stone so casually,
"Good. Use it to test your theory and get your brother back."
Al looked at the Colonel's brutally amputated legs,
"I could…" he began, but was cut off by Von Luck.
"No, you can't. You won't be using that abomination on me!" the man growled, "It's already been made, so use it for your brother, but I will not have my life preserved by that perverted bit of atrocity-made alchemy, it violates every rule we alchemist must live by."
Al nodded,
"And die by, sir?"
"Yes. Anyway." Von Luck held out his hand- inside was his blood-smeared State Alchemist's watch, "You take this," Luck sucked in a gasp of air "From now on, you live by those rules, and you serve Amestris and…its people."
Al grimaced,
"I can't,"
"You can and will, Elric. Just be careful- if you come back for…someone like me…I suppose nothing… is going to keep you from going after… your brother."
"No." Al agreed.
Von Luck chuckled the sound wet with blood,
"Then, from now on, I dub you…the Guiding Light Alchemist…serve Amestris well, kid."
"What?"
Von Luck fell silent, and then with a rasp of air, faded away.
Still not sure what to make of things, Alphonse slowly stood, unconsciously tucking the bloodied watch away in the same pocket he'd stowed the Philosopher's Stone in.
"Alphonse!" A woman's voice called in the dark and Al froze- he could swear he recognized the voice, "Alphonse Elric, is that you with the torch?"
Hawkeye the name came back to him as he spotted a group of lights far off in the darkness, and he waved his torch in the air, drawing their attention.
After what seemed like an eternity later, Alphonse found himself back above ground, sitting in a side room of one the guardhouses of Central Command; a medic had come by and given a quick once over before pronouncing him a bit worse for wear but otherwise healthy, and then he had been left alone.
Hawkeye had led a small group after he and the late Von Luck- ostensibly to ascertain why the Colonel had brought a civilian into headquarters, but Alphonse noticed a lot of faces he vaguely recognized amongst the lieutenant's party, and assumed she was still keeping tabs for Mustang, although Al had not seen him yet.
Hawkeye had stayed with him, briefly, but had been called to make a report about Von Luck's death, leaving him alone in this side room after an officer had ordered the black-haired segreant, Feury, Alphonse thought his name was, out on some other duty and away from "babysitting the other Elric boy".
Alphonse might have been insulted, but he was happy to have time to think. He stuck a hand in his pocket, feeling both of the items wedged inside; the blood on the watch was still slick, but he felt like the fragment of Philosopher's Stone was less soaked in gore, having full knowledge of how it was made, and who had been using it.
Even though he was barely pushing fourteen years of age, Alphonse had a more intimate knowledge of death than anyone should have ever amassed over a lifetime; his mother, Winry's parents, but in a roiling storm that had started down in the tunnels, who could see other name and faces, friends lost over the course of his and Edwards quest for the Philosophers Stone. So many had died…Maes Hughes had been like an uncle to them and Alphonse could not help but feel like he would be alive right now if he had not been set in motion on the investigation that got him killed if it weren't for him and Ed. And there may have been others, people who had suffered and died who he couldn't even remember.
Alphonse stared at the dirty tile floor of the guard room for a long time. He knew he was embarking on yet another quest, this time to either get Edward back, or bring himself to his missing brother, and already a man was dead because of it.
Colonel Von Luck- Alphonse almost felt physical pain when he realized he had no idea what the man's first name was -had been…not a very pleasant person to be around. But he'd been trying to help Alphonse with his quest, even if it had been for his own ends, and now he was dead because of it. Al barely knew him, and he had died because of his drive to save his brother.
Alphonse felt a deep, grim resolve form in him as he determined to go the rest of the way alone, no matter what. He stood, taking the watch out of his pocket- he supposed technically he was about to desert the military, but the only person who thought of him as conscripted was dead. He placed the watch on his seat and looked around the room for an escape.
Sometime later, Riza and Feury almost burst into the room- Hawkeye not at all surprised to find it empty, with an alchemically created hole in the floor and an empty chair with a bloodied State Alchemist watch sitting on it nearby. Hawkeye briefly panicked until she determined the blood probably wasn't Alphonse's. She sighed as he looked at the younger Elric's escape route- there was no telling how long he'd been gone, and thus how much of a lead he had.
With a curse, Hawkeye turned and snarled orders at Feury to contact the Rockbells again and let them know that Alphonse had slipped away and to keep an eye for him in case he went back to the Resembool area before getting himself to the train station- the short man protested he had duties he needed to get back to but a lethal, snipers glare from Hawkeye sent him scurrying to obey.
Riza had her own duties she would be neglecting as she stormed off to form a search party to check Dant's lair in case he had made his way back down there, but she would do the best she could to try and get Alphonse to safety again, for Roy. She only wished the brooding moron were here where he could do some good.
Later on, that night, she met Feury at the train station, after a long, fruitless search through the underground; still covered in dust and dirt from the ruins, she stormed across the platform, tightly clutching a sheaf of papers as she made her way to the exhausted looking sergeant,
"Lieutenant Hawkeye, ma'am I haven't…"
"I know you haven't, Fuery, otherwise you would have come back to base.'
"Oh…yeah."
"Did you get word to Pinako?"
"No, I talked to Rose, actually."
Hawkeye looked confused,
"Thomas? That girl is still living with the Rockbells?"
Feury shrugged, and Hawkeye shook her head.
"Let's just hope Elric is heading home, I guess."
Winry carefully paced back and forth on the porch of her house, tired eyes sweeping the horizon, across the recently harvested fields and outbuildings, as had been an off-and-on-again habit of hers since Alphonse had left- the experience was filling her with new worries and old, bad memories of waiting for the brothers to return, or to hear words that were never going to be.
She shook her head- she'd had an eternity of waiting for those two, but couldn't shake her worry for her old friends. She was torn between wishing she could and rebuking herself for even considering it- Alphonse had slipped out like a thief in the night months ago, with nary a word since though Winry was sure, he had set on a quest to find a way to his brother- an Elric quest tended to end in tears.
She growled in frustration; she'd been unable to even file a report with the local military police, as it would no doubt quickly reach the ears of that sleazy-shit State Alchemist, Von Luck, and who knew how that would end, besides not well?
"Winry?" a voice called, and she looked to her right to find a dark-skinned woman on a chestnut horse cantering around the side of the house- Winry had been so distracted she hadn't even heard her approach.
"Yes, Mrs. Shaheem?" Winry asked, turning to meet the woman, who gazed back at the blond girl from serious dark red eyes under the broad brim of her hat- like Winry, the older woman was dressed in worn work wear and boots.
She rolled those red eyes and rebuked Winry;
"Winry, please, if you insist I call you by your first name, extend me the same familiarity."
"Oh, uh sorry, Rania."
The older woman shrugged,
"Think nothing of it." And then she promptly carried on, "There's someone poking around that old, burnt-out house on the East ridge."
Winry froze. That was the Elric house.
"Did you see who it was?"
"No, whoever it was didn't want to be seen in the first place."
Winry walked into the yard, looking out into the sun-swept landscape at the burned husk of her old neighbor's house. She turned and went inside, with Rania keeping a curious watch on her.
"Rose! Honey, I'm going to head over to the Elrics…" There was a crash from the kitchen and with unnerving rapidity she found herself looking into her lover's eyes as Rose quickly darted to the front door from the kitchen where she had been preparing lunch.
"Did you see Alphonse heading over there?" Rose asked, voice tight with hope,
"No, not sure, but Rania saw someone head over there."
"It might've been a thief." the farm manager pointed out as she came into the house after tying off her horse.
"The house is a ruin, there's nothing worth stealing there."
The Ishvallan woman shrugged
"It might have been a very stupid thief, then."
Winry shook her head,
"I'm going to have a look. I'll be careful…"
"I'm coming too if Rania will keep an eye on Thomas?" Rose's voice had a perfunctory tone in it that Winry had never heard before…
"I'd rather you stayed here." Rania said, "And let me go with Winry."
Rose gazed steadily back at the older woman, who sighed and nodded.
"Just, be careful."
Winry nodded and slapped the toolbelt she still wore from some auto-mail work she'd been doing earlier,
"We'll be ok. Tell granny we went out if she asks!"
They passed the short trip to the ruins of the Elric's house in silence, with Rose lost in thought and Winry keeping a careful eye on their destination for any signs of movement.
"What if it isn't Al?" Rose quietly asked as they reached the falling-down fence around the ruins.
"Then I get to smack some trespassing jerk upside the head with a wrench if they don't clear out."
Rose shook her head,
"I'm not sure I want it to be…" she began, but then the old cellar door flew open in a crackling, raging storm of red energy,
"Al!" Winry shouted, and dashed ahead,
"Winry, wait!" Rose shouted, taking off after her, trying to grab ahold of the blonde's coveralls to drag her down to the ground too late- before she knew it they were at the top of the stairs, and then tumbling down.
The terrifying edifice of the gate was before him and it flew open, and Alphonse found himself staring into a wide, terrible eye once again as it regarded him completely impartially.
And nothing was happening.
He stared at the thing, and it stared at him.
He was distantly aware of shouting from somewhere nearby, but it quickly faded, drowned out by a fast, strident burst of string music, of all things, that built into a crescendo, and then died.
The eye blinked, and then the gate started to close.
"What?!" he demanded; he'd been prepared for anything when he opened the eldritch gateway, but not indifference.
He looked behind himself and cried out in fear as he found a skinny, hazy figure standing behind him, featureless except for a wide, horrifying grin.
Sometime, long before this part of the tale, and after another, in a safe haven on Earth, after it had fallen to the dead, a man with a neatly trimmed beard was walking with an older woman- she was dressed as professionally as one could in this new world, not a suit and heels, but blouse and slacks with sensible shoes. Her companion was wearing a blue uniform, similar enough to one he had worn before to make his skin crawl.
"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to insist,' His soft, southern accent lent a stubborn tone to his words that more than matched the woman's broad Midwestern one as she answered, with a sigh,
"And I will too, Rick. I interview every newcomer, that's how I get to know my people."
"They don't speak much English, Diana, not sure there'd be much of a point to it."
"I've spoken to Mr. Hershman- he knows some Yiddish, and he thinks he may be able to help translate." Diana stopped and looked at Rick Grimes closely, "I didn't get any pushback even when I wanted to interview Carl, why with this one?"
Rick laughed, shortly, and looked out over the homes and walls of Alexandria,
"We were lost, out there, just before Erin found us. If Carl hadn't insisted we help that blond kid when we came across 'em, well…it broke something in us. Something that needed breaking. It wasn't too long before Erin found us, actually."
Diana smiled and set a hand on Rick's shoulders,
"I understand you all went through a lot out there, things I can't even imagine, but this is one way we keep things going in here, and I'd appreciate it if you allowed me to speak with…" Diana grimaced, "I forgot their name. See? It's for my benefit more than anything else. If I can't use an old politician's trick and learn everyone's name, what chance do I have?"
Rick shook his head and smiled slightly,
"I'm sure you actually forgot, of course."
Diana shrugged, innocently,
"What if you were there too Rick, would that be ok?" she offered a compromise that still ensured she got her way.
"Fine. We'll meet you there in ten minutes."
Diana put on her best beaming smile and watched him go, before deciding to take a long, lazy circle around Alexandria and back to her home before interviewing the last of the newcomers that had been with Rick.
When she got back, she was happy to find that Rick had indeed brought the last of his charges for her to talk walk with, and she sat down for the interview with the elderly Mr. Hershman to act as a translator,
"Hello, I'm Diana," she began, letting Hershman translate as she looked at the two young women seated across from her- one, dressed in a long, loose linen dress and boots had chestnut hair with an odd, pink splash on her bangs gazed back cautiously, her dark black eyes alight with reservations, while her blonde companion almost lowered back, arms crossed; she glanced up at Rick, who nodded seriously and smiled. She grunted, and then gave her name,
"Winry Rockbell,"