Welcome One and All! Tis' I, Vastardux Imperator! Now that is a good name, I like to think. Sorry for the long wait for those who follow this story, nut thit, this is the one we've been waiting for, the Prologue is finally OVER!

As always, I'm open to feedback, comment please and as always (Yes, I just wrote as always thrice in the same sentence) I own nothing. A Song of Ice and Fire and Fullmetal Alchemist franchises belong to George R.R. Martin and Hiromu Arakawa respectively.

By the way, I changed from -X- to "T".

—This is time and place —

"This is dialogue."

"This is gods/eldritch being speaking."

"This is thinking"

'This is a dream/vision'

— Ruins of Xerxes, Eastern Desert, August 24th, 1918 CY —

The Engineer

She was peacefully sleeping.

Relishing in her perfectfully comfortable, firm and warm pillow.

And then, she felt it, seering into her eyes through her eyelids and through the canvas of their tent.

The sun.

The goddamn sun.

Every single day during the last goddamn almost two weeks. This was supposed to be her vacation. People were supposed to sleep in until noon on their vacation.

She checked her wristwatch. It was 6:30 in the fucking morning.

So she did the only thing she could do on these dreadfully sunny mornings, she just snuggled deeper into her pillow, grumbling plans to destroy that blasted ball of hot air.

"Y'know it won't go away just cuz you curse it to hell and back, right?" Her pillow said.

"Still worth a shot." She answered. "It's our vacation, we should be able to sleep in on our vacation. You know how often I get to sleep in?"

"Winry, you don't sleep, you just turn off for 4 hours at most until you get the smell of coffee."

She punched him in the chest softly with a groan. "Hnnn. Don't speak of coffee so early, you're just making me wake up even more." He knew it, and he didn't care. Al and Ed had always been early birds but once they came back from training with Mrs. Izumi, it became even worse. "Do you have an idea of how many all-nighters I have to pull in my job? When I have the chance to sleep in, I will sleep in".

Ed looked her in the eye with fond exasperation. "How about we both get ready for the day, and then you can carry on with your heliocidal schemes. We're almost done with the Ruins anyway." He said, gently petting her hair.

Winry could only sigh, resting her forehead on his chest, resigned to have to be a functional human for the day. "Ok, ok, you win. But, first things first. Off with your pants."

"Wow. You want to go at it so early? And here I thought you were tired."

Winry rolled her eyes at Ed's attempt of stalling with a fine dust of pink gracing her cheeks. "Play your cards right and we'll see later. But seriously Ed, I need to check your leg. Let's go to the wagon."

With a sigh, Ed compelled. They left their shared tent and went towards Winry's wagon. Once inside, he pulled down his pants and undressed down to his boxers, plopping down on a bench and rested his left leg on a stool while she arranged her hair into a bun and put on her clothes for the day, sturdy brown boots and blue jeans, her trusty black tube top and a well worn orange cotton shirt that had belonged to her father.

The desert is one of the worst environments to have an automail in, between the constant overheating rick, the sand that gets in the finer mechanisms, the corrosion by the salt in the air, the damage the heat can cause to the skin of the stump are some of the reasons why almost no-one with automail dare to venture there in the first place. Thank God that Ed decided to stick with his Briggs Alloy model rather than common steel after their tenure in the north (the aluminum, copper, nickel and carbon fiber alloy was rather resistant to rust and corrosion). After reading her tools, Winry put on her binocular magnifiers, disconnected the nerves and got to work.

She removed the armored metal plate that stood as his shin and started inspecting all the joints, the cogs and pneumatic muscle that compose the leg. The pneumatic muscle seemed alright, the coating of the inner coils wasn't damaged by the heat, the central coil that contained the neurofeedback system was on point and well calibrated and the neutro-ports seemed to be holding up really well. Squinting her eyes, she found a little sand that got into the ankle and knee joints and proceeded to get rid of it with a brush.

"The skin around the stump is a bit irritated." She said professionally, without looking apart from her craft. "I told you you shouldn't spend so long out in the sun, you should have taken breaks more often. I haven't found a way to incorporate a refrigeration system without reducing functionality… yet." She reprimanded him while she lubricated all the joints.

"Oh, get off my back Win, I've told you I'm alright. As long as it doesn't blister I'll be just fine." He said without any real heat in his voice. -I've already told you that I could do it with Alchemy. maybe an ice array could work, or a modification of the vacuum array to keep air circling. Just imagine it for a minute…." With eyes alight with fervor, Ed started to ramble as he tended to do when he got a new crazy way to defy the known boundaries of Alchemy… and blow up a limb in the process.

"Oh no! No, no and no, Mister I-fucked-up-my-prothesis-pulling-some-reckless-stunt-again. You are NOT engraving an experimental and untested alchemical array into the bodywork of my masterpiece. These spare parts are pricey!" Perhaps it was due to having been a State Alchemist since he was twelve and getting used to having the budget of a small country in his bank account, but Ed had no sense of money whatsoever. The amount of money that had left Ed's pockets just to fill Winry's was outrageous (but, if he ended up paying for Granny's retirement… and hers in the process, well, who was she to complain?).

Ed looked at her with an aggrieved expression. "Oh, c'mon Win, I'm not that reckless… anymore. I wouldn't test it on an automail I'm attached to, We could test it on an old model. And, your "masterpiece"? You say that every single time you upgrade my automails, you Gearhead." He said, endearment leaking in his voice.

"But of course I do, you Alchemy Freak! They have to be, you go through automails like Havoc through cigarettes. I have to keep improving them or you'll end up in a ditch or something. They're my babies, that's why I craft them so meticulously." Winry said smugly, placing the shin-plate back in place and screwing it back.

"Meticulously, uh huh, sure… Y'know, I seem to remember certain screw #A-08 that would beg to disagreEEAUCH! Truth's bald balls, Win! Warn a guy before reconnecting the nerves, we've talked about this!" Ed exclaimed through gritted teeth.

Winry covered her mouth with a gloved hand, portraying the picture of perfect innocence. "Oh no, my hand slipped for a second! I'm so sorry Ed." She said, with a sweet tone that dripped with sarcasm. "Alright, your leg is good to go! Now go get dressed, exhibitionist." She said humorously.

After dressing himself into a white shirt, brown pants with boots to match and a beige overcoat, Ed started to put his hair into a ponytail when Winry stopped him and took the hair tie from his hand.

"Here, let me." Any protest Ed might have had died on his lips when Winry pecked him softly. She parted his hair into three strands and slowly started to braid them together, neither of them said anything, just basking in each other's presence and enjoying the intimacy of the moment. Ed slowly started to lean back with his eyes closed, and in that moment of peace, he really looked his age.

Ever since Ed first donned the Silver Watch, in every visit the brothers made to Resembool, his eyes started to change, burdened by the things he had seen, the decisions he had to make, and the times when his best wasn't enough and someone else ended up suffering. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and Ed's soul was old. It was such a joy to see him relax like this. She unconsciously smiled at the thought.

"So, what are you and Al hoping to find here? We've searched the place for almost two weeks and we've found almost nothing, mainly some old journals and alchemical works about theories long debunked."

"Hey, that's not fair, there are some interesting things. Who knows? Maybe we will decode Flame Alchemy one of these days. I'd love to see Coronel Bastard's face, Hehe." Then his face turned grim. "But I know Al just wanted to feel a little closer to the Old Man. Besides, we've found some confusing stuff. Like, thus far we know the basics: Xerxes was the birthplace of Alchemy, great empire, untimely end, Gluttony's snack time, yada-yada. But there's something in their own records that rubs me the wrong way. Eh, I'll explain it better later, Zampano has the deets. He's a history freak. Who knew?"

"He might have been a soldier, Ed, but people are more than just their jobs."

"You mean other people."

"Heh, okay that's fair. You wouldn't be Edward Elric without mumbling the Periodic Table in your sleep." She said with a small smirk.

"And you wouldn't be Winry Rockbell without leaving grease stains in our bed sheets."

"It was one time! One!" She retorted, a little flustered while Ed laughed before going a little more serious.

"H-hey Win. Do you have… p-plans for when we get back?" Ed asked nervously.

She pretended to think about it for a minute. "Hmmm. Well… I have to catch up on my pending orders but I asked for a full month's vacation, so I should still have a free week… Why do you ask?"

"W-well, I just remembered a restaurant Major Armstrong told me about, in Central. And I was wondering… Would you like to go with me?" He asked as if he worried she would refuse.

"Are you… asking me out? I don't remember the last time we went out together. You have something planned?" Winry asked with suspicion, one dark blonde eyebrow raising a little .

"... Maybe?"

"... Very well Ed, keep your secrets".

After a few moments, Winry was done with his braid, his face was framed by golden locks all the way to his chin and right above his forehead there was the Edward Elric Antenna.

"There you go, all ready." She announced, letting Ed's braid hang behind his neck. "I don't know how you do it, you have spent almost two weeks in the desert using Alchemy to avoid a bath and you still have better hair than Mei. And she is a literal princess."

"Uhff! I knew it! You're with me for my hair! Al told me but I refused to believe him!" He said dramatically, clenching his shirt right over his heart with a hand and falling to the floor in stop motion.

Winry just facepalmed and massaged her forehead. "Ugh. You're such a child sometimes. You're lucky I love you either way." She lamented.

"Yes I am." He said looking up to her, laying on his back on the floor, smiling softly and with absolute sincerity despite his theatrics a moment ago.

"And don't forget it." Winry said with a self-satisfied grin. "Now, let's catch up with the rest and let's get ourselves some breakfast."

"Winry, you and I know it's gonna be potatoes. All we have left are Jerso's potatoes."

"Then maybe next time someone shouldn't leave the bag with our food in the inn."

"But it was you who…" Ed started mumbling until he was silenced by a gloved hand covering his mouth.

"Shhshshsh I know, I know. We all make mistakes… Anyway, let's get some food, we're burning daylight." She said, taking him by the arm and pulling him into the sun and towards the camp, when she suddenly stopped short. "Err… actually, you go ahead. I have a couple things to take care of over here."

Ed quirked an eyebrow. "Ehh.. Sure? Is everything alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's nothing, really. You go ahead, I'll catch up in a bit. Save me some coffee, will ya?" She reassured him with a smile.

Ed looked at her strangely, but ended up smiling and nodding to her. "Alright, if you're sure. See you by the campfire. I'll save you a mug." He said. He gave her a feather-light kiss on the cheek which made her smile and went off to get her breakfast. Once he left her sight, the smile on her hace gave way to a conflicted frown. With a deep sigh, she went back to the wagon and started rummaging through her stuff until she found the box she was looking for.

The object was a small aluminum box a little bigger than a cigar case and closed with a lock. Winry then reached for her neck where a thin chain with a tiny key hung. With the key she unlocked the box and opened it. The very moment she laid her eyes on the contents of the box, she felt a knot of uneasiness start to form in the mouth of her stomach.

She still felt guilty for hiding it from Ed, but she knew him and how he would react. He would freak out to hell and back and worry about her, but this was something she felt she needed.

Inside the box, there was a gun.

Model Enfield No. 2. Caliber 9.2 mm. Six shots cylinder. Small. Easy to conceal.

A gift from one Riza Hawkeye.

Ever since the Promised Day and the return of the boys to Resembool, Riza and her had talked over the phone and she had visited Riza regularly enough to call her a good friend. She was honest, direct and stern but also very kind, sensitive, loyal and emphatic. One day when she visited central City they talked and Winry opened up with her about a conflict that had been stirring within her for quite a while.

She was powerless.

Ever since Ed and Al's attempt at Human Transmutation failed and the boys left on their journey to get their bodies back, she had felt increasingly powerless. Powerless to help. Powerless to offer anything more than putting the pieces back together whenever they came home in pieces (literally, sometimes). And that's not to talk about the times her involvement actively dragged the brothers down. Her mistakes at Briggs Fort and Baschool still haunted her sometimes. Ever since, she swore to herself that she would never again be so useless, that she would never drag them down.

During her visits to Central for the last year, Riza had taken up to herself to teach Winry to defend herself. Both hand-to-hand and with firearms. She prayed to whichever deity listening in that she never had to use it. That she never had to reveal this secret to Ed, for she wasn't sure if she could survive being seen as a monster in his eyes.

Your hands weren't meant to take people's lives, Ed had told her the day he fought Scar in Central City, They were meant to save them.

She quickly loaded the cylinder, put on the shoulder holster Riza gave her her left arm and hid it under her cotton shirt and buttoned it up to.

After taking a moment to center herself she finally left her wagon and went to reunite with the rest.

Despite being made of cold steel, she felt as if the gun was burning a hole against her skin.

The War Hog.

Zampano was a history buff.

As a lover of history, in his free time whenever he managed to find it, he would delve into the tales of times long gone. He would read of the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms, the historic battles and where they took place, the new inventions and how they helped to mold the daily life of a country. He had always found it comforting to recognize the patterns in human history. The fact that war was always followed by peace, no matter how brittle, short-lived or tense it could be. No war lasted forever, that was a constant of life. Although as a former soldier of Amestris' State Military, it certainly seemed so at times. Knowing that the semi-perpetuous state of war of his country for the last centuries had been so by design filled him with rage, shame and relief.

Rage, just thinking of how many compatriots, soldiers and civilians alike, lost their lives due to the megalomaniacal delusions of a failed experiment. how many of his colleagues and civilians lose their lives.

Shame, knowing that he himself was part of the war machine and he never stopped for a second to question orders. For not realizing that they were not defending their country or its people. They were no heroes, just butchers.

And relief, knowing that the core cause of their strife was gone, that Amestris could finally look towards a future free of bloodshed. Knowing that his son wouldn't have to deal with the same nightmares as him.

People of Amestris never even thought of questioning if their cause for war (whatever cause, no matter which) until they reached the battlefield and bullets started to rain down on your ass because they had been educated (read: indoctrinated) to trust blindly in the State.

The State is Good, The State is Right. The Führer Knows Best.

That's the kind of thinking that the State-Approved history books and the State's PR departament fomented.

History is written by the victors. What the other side ever thought, knew or opined didn't matter. And that is why since the establishment of good diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, Zampano had had the luxury of purchasing history books from the perspective of the "enemy".

It was such an interesting exercise to compare differences in accounts of the same happening, there were obvious discrepancies between the amestrisan narrative and that of other countries. The State's victory in the Conquest of Riviere during the First Drachma-Amestris War wasn't nearly as one-sided as the "official truth" would like you to believe, the supposed 'attempted invasion' by Aerugo that triggered the First Southern Border Conflict were actually just aerugonian border patrols doing their rounds. The real bloodshed in Liore started when Central forces came into the picture, and the least said about Ishval the best. And so on and so forth.

So when the amestrisan version and the foreign version agree, something is most likely true, or just a truth so universally acknowledged that the old State.

That's why the current puzzle in front of him was so frustrating. He couldn't find anything solid in any version.

He was sitting under the desert sun on a stone table and a couple benches that Alphonse transmuted from the debrits of the city next to a well a couple nights ago and reading different books and tomes he brought with him from Xing when the boss and the princess started to plan the trip. The boss had taken to translating the inscriptions of the murals in the city and trying to make sense of it all.

"Still no luck, Quillhead?" Asked a deep voice from behind him. Zampano turned around to see Jerso, covered up from head to toe with handkerchiefs and a big baggy coat to protect himself from the sun. He was heading for the table and carried bowls of hot meat and potatoes stew in his huge hands, just the smell made his mouth water and reminded him that he still hadn't eaten anything since midday the day before.

"Nah, still nothing. It makes no fucking sense, we have nothing but leyends and murals without context at al, and it's maddening. One would think that the founding of a kingdom would merit more than passing mentions and artistic representations."

Jerso took a seat in front of him and put the bowls on the table. Just when Zampano was reaching for his bowls, it was pulled back by a smug-looking Jerso.

"Nuh-uh. I want to hear you say it."

Zampano sputtered and looked at him exasperatedly. "Seriously?"

"As a heart attack."

"Just say it Zampano." He thought ."It's not like he's wrong."

After a short sigh, Zampano complied, and with a voice as monotone as that of an elementary schooler's greeting to their teacher, he said: "Jerso, buying 12 kg of potatoes was a good idea."

"Haha! And don't forget it!" And having received satisfaction, he passed him his bowl stew which they started eating with gusto.

Zampano looked at Jerso, raising an eyebrow. "I still can't believe you bought so many potatoes."

"Hey, I remember the boss giving me the money for the supplies and saying 'buy whatever you want', it's not my fault that he was too busy on a mini-honeymoon with the little princess to pay attention to what I bought." Jerso said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and Zampano had to snigger in agreement, he had already told as much to Alphonse and Mei, to which the boss responded eloquently by choking on his own tongue and blushing like a schoolgirl. The princess just looked pretty satisfied with herself.

"But still… 12 kg of potatoes? You could have bought something else, spice it a little bit."

"Hey! Don't diss the potatoes! They're the ultimate food! They're versatile as fuck! By the way, thanks for the magic sack, boss!"

"It's not magic, Jerso, the boss just embroidered altered ice arrays on the inner lining."

"I don't care how much they try to delude themselves into thinking it's not, but I know Alchemy is just magic."

"Eh, I don't know, it keeps my whiskey ice-cold just right, it could be witchcraft for all I care, hehe. For the Boss" He said, raising his flask towards him in mock toast. "For the boss!"

Between spoonfuls of stew, Jerso then asked. "So… still nothing 'bout the beginning?"

Yes, the beginning.

The single most infuriating puzzle Zampano has ever found.

The Founding of Xerxes.

There are many well known facts about Xerxes: It was the capital of an Empire that ruled a great part of the Eastern Desert, after their founding they started to absorb and conquer the nearby villages and provinces (they even adopted their language as their own) and improve their lifestyles by using Alchemy to dig underground tunnels to create wells and to instill life on the soil for agriculture. Their military was well known for their discipline and the use of great semi-cilindric shields that allowed them to protect whole squads with a turtle-like formation. They rarely used Alchemy in battle, claiming that Alchemy was meant to create, not to destroy, which makes the means of their destruction all the more tragic.

Slavery was common in their culture, but the slaves had the chance to gain their freedom impressing their masters through study and research, and the masters were required by law to give them said chance.

It was all very standard in history terms. Kingdom or city has military superiority, starts to expand, consolidates borders, technological advance, yada yada. One more in the Dawn & dusk pattern that kingdoms and nations have repeated itself ever since written records existed.

The problem is the founding itself.

The legends and murals describe the Arrival of the first Xerxians around six hundred years ago stating that they came down on a ray of sun in the middle of a valley, where they first made their Capital city, this along with their typical golden eyes and hair earned epithets like "Children of the Sun" or the "Dawnborn". The problem is there are no fucking vallies in the Eastern Desert, there aren't even mountains, there are some rocky formations but nothing else, and they were right in the middle of the goddamn city (at least what's left of it), they would have seen mountains on their way there.

"Nah, nothing yet, the princess and the boss wanted to go ahead to check the ruins of the royal palace, they'll eat later."

"Ah, so that's where they are. And here I wondered why they weren't here attached by the hip this morning." Zampano couldn't help but agree with Jerso, those kids were so chummy that it was diabetes-inducing. They both were talented alchemists and some of the scariest fighters he had ever met (and, mind you, he had met Kimblee) but they were still children.

"Sup' guys!" They heard a shout next to them, following the sound they found the sender of said shout, Edward. He was clearly in a good mood, a pep in his step until he reached the pot of stew, filled two bowls to the brim, took a pair of wooden spoons and left them on a seat on the right of Jerso. "My big-brother-senses were tingling. Why are we making fun of Al right now?" Ed asked as he turned to the well and filled a jug with water at the bottom, then he took out a packet of coffee beans from the inner pocket of his coat, pulverized them with Alchemy and poured it into the jug, he clapped his hands together and dipped his right index finger into the jug, instantly there was a blue glow and the water was steaming and the delicious roasted aroma of coffee attacked their noses.

Ed took a seat next to Jerso. "So, where's Al and his better half?"

"They went to check the Royal Palace, they'll come back later. I don't know how you drink something so hot being in the desert, kid. I'm already feeling my eyeballs evaporating." Jerso looked at the alchemist bewildered.

"And it's actually something Teacher taught us." The boy shrugged. "If you drink something hot in warm weather you start to sweat more and when the sweat evaporates you cool off faster." No sooner did he finish his sentence Jerso was already right in the kid's face, empty mug in hand and a begging expression in a bizarre and twisted imitation of a puppy-eyed look. Ed rolled his eyes and filled his mug, immediately declaring war on his bowl and eating like a starving man. "Pal, it's hard for me to be the one to tell you this but if you're over 40 you're legally banned from using puppy-eyed looks."

"I'm 33, you midget!?"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL YOU COULD MISS HIM AMONGST THE SANDGRAINS, YOU WARTASS?! I'M NOT EVEN THAT SHORT ANYMORE, ASSHOLE!"

"Girls, you're both pretty, now calm the fuck down!"

"DON'T MEDDLE INTO THIS, ZAMPANO!" Both of them yelled at him.

"So, is that why you brought coffee here?" Zampano asked, hoping to stop their bickering by changing the topic.

"Nope, I brought coffee here because I brought her here." He said pointing in the direction he came from, revealing Winry heading towards the table. She took a seat on the left of Zampano and her eyes softened when Ed passed her a bowl and a steaming cup of coffee.

"Thanks Ed. Good morning, guys" Winry said with a tired but grateful smile, expertly ignoring Ed's antics. "Sooo… you guys had any luck?"

"Nghhh." Zampano groaned with an are-you-mocking-me? glare.

"O-oh, that bad, eh?" Winry faltered.

"You guys found something?" Zampano asked Ed and Winry, half-hopeful, half-resigned.

"Nah, nht rh'lly, bt'h Wuun fhn'nd sum c'rpy drw'ngs." Ed said without stopping eating when a spoon got embedded between his eyebrows thanks to a powerful launching courtesy from Winry.

"Don't speak with your mouth full! And they are not creepy drawings!" As abruptly as her temper flared, it cooled down to something more civil. "We found some diagrams and blueprints along with a few unfinished prototypes. It seems the old Xerxians were close to creating an automail-like prosthesis and the mighty Fullmetal Alchemist here can't stomach the drawings." She finished condescendingly.

"Those sick fucks wanted to sew catgut cord to the nerves to control limbs like some kind of sick puppet! That's creepy as hell!"

"How would that even work? Wouldn't the body just reject it?"

"Thank you Jerso." Edward said.

"Hey! I never said it was perfect, just that it's a creative idea for a civilization of four hundred years ago. Besides, the joints were so detailed!" Winry gushed.

"And here we go, you were doing so well, Win."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Winry asked with a misleadingly even tone, her hand clenching so hard on her mug you could hear it cracking.

Ed started to swim a little on his own sweat before answering. "W-well Win, you see…"

and suddenly the ground shook violently, and Zampano felt it.

The chill in the air that made his skin crawl.

The radiance of the floor beneath him.

The tremors that shook the ground.

The electric sensation coursing through every single fiber of his body, like all of his cells were being needled individually at the same time.

He had felt it. Once.

He couldn't forget it no matter how much he wished to.

This is what being Transmuted feels like.

He turned to look at Jerso, whose ebony skin went paper-white and his dilated pupils filled with pain and panic that came with the remembrance.

"W-whats happening? Ed, what is this?!" Winry asked horror-struck.

"WIN! RUN!" He heard Ed trying to reach for her.

The ground beneath them parted like eyelids, revealing a single giant violet Eye with concentric rings engraved upon its pupil staring emptily to the heavens. From the rings, black shadow-like sprouted and constricted them in their deadly embrace.

Next thing Zampano knew, the world disappeared around him.

—-

— Ruins of Xerxes, Eastern Desert, August 24th, 1918 CY —

10 minutes earlier.

Mei and Al had been at the Palace's ruins for hours.

Their findings were interesting, sure, and they were convinced that the archaeological community of Amestris would talk about their trip for years, but for Mei that didn't really matter.

Alphonse, on the other hand, mattered for her.

When the two of them planned this expedition with Alphonse he looked so filled with hope, so alive, and Mei couldn't for the life of her say no to that face, but with each passing day in Xerxes, Al's face showed less happiness and more resignation. He felt defeated. She just wanted to find something, anything, that would make Alphonse feel satisfied. But she knew this to be impossible.

What Alphonse was looking for would not be found on dusty ruins in the middle of nowhere. And the worst part is that Alphonse, deep inside, knew it.

He hid it better than his brother and if you asked about it he would gracefully dodge the topic with a smile, but his father's absence hit him hard, that's why he was trying so hard to find his validation among the dilapidated ruins that were once his father's home nation. She knew about absent fathers, her own Father was the textbook example of such. And Alphonse felt even worse knowing that Hohenheim sacrificed his life in order to bring him back. Survivor's Guilt Jerso called it once. He felt guilty for Hohenheim's sacrifice, guilty for not knowing him better, when none of these problems were his fault.

That was another thing Edward and her agreed on.

They looked first on the remains of the royal library but hardly did she find anything that the desert fauna hadn't found first. She looked in the Great Hall, the dormitories, the kitchens, everywhere.

"Think Mei, if you were a paranoiac monarch hiding the secrets of the origin of your dynasty, where would you keep them?" Mei thought.

Her eyes roamed across the Throne room, when they stopped on the remains of the Mural above the Throne. The main material was polished marble, beaten and battered by the merciless pass of time, but there was something…

"Al?"

"Yes, Mei?" Alphonse answered absently while looking at the remains of the throne itself like looking for hidden compartments or some kind of switch.

"Is it me, or is there a patch of a different color over here?"

"Uh? What are you…?" Al turned to see where she was pointing towards and squinted. "I think you're right Mei." He walked to the mural and crouched down to inspect the floor, passing a hand across it. "You are right, Mei. The paler parts are pure marble, but this… This is something else, I think it may have been hidden beneath the marble, but with the centuries it wore away and exposed it." The patch Alphonse was studying was made of stone, it seemed like black volcanic rock, melted and molded together in one singular piece. "This was done with Alchemy, there's no other way they could have made this, there are no volcanoes around Xerxes, the closest are deep in Aerugo."

"But why would they just put a giant block of volcanic rock under the marble if they weren't going to do anything with it? It is asi fi they were…"

"As if they were hiding it!" Both of them exclaimed. This was looking good.

"But what could they have hidden in here?" Alphonse wondered.

"...Maybe it is a Tomb?" Mei suggested.

"I don't know, it could be but most of the Xerxians would burn their dead."

Mei crouched down and laid a hand on the black surface, closed her eyes and focused on reading the Dragon's Pulse, on harmonizing with the natural energy flow of the world, a highly useful ability honed through years of practice. She felt Alphonse's chi signature, a steady warm glow always beside her, she extended her senses and felt the little animals of the desert such as mice, snakes and lizards scurrying and slithering around, she felt camp, where Jerso and Zampano's chi signatures roamed with Edward and Winry's signatures getting closer, and she felt that…

"There is something beneath the block! Like a huge empty chamber!" She exclaimed with a great smile.

"Really, Mei?!" Alphonse asked excitedly.

"This is it. This might be what we've been looking for!"

With a swift movement Alphonse rolled up his sleeves and clapped his hands together, pressing them against the black stone a second later. There was a flash of light and the slab of stone seemingly came to life and turned into a giant hatchway decorated with elaborate frames and intricate door handles depicting fierce lions holding rings in their snouts.

"You know, Alphonse? Edward may be a drama queen by his own right, but you do give good shows yourself.

Alphonse blushed and laughed lightly while scratching the back of his neck, it seems that being a little over-the-top is in the Elric's blood. He approached the doors of stone and opened them up, revealing to the world for the first time in over a millennium…

"Stairs?"

"So it seems, Al."

The recently created Alphonse looked at the descending stairs with newfound determination, his eyes ablaze with a sense of purpose.

"I'm going down."

"What?"

"I'm going down, Mei. I want to see what's at the end of the stairway."

"So do I, but I still think we should…" She never got to finish that sentence, the next thing Mei knew Alphonse was running down the newly unveiled stairway. "Alphonse!" She yelled frustrated. With a sigh of resignation she jumped down the stairway to follow the stubborn mule she called boyfriend.

…

"Thank God Zampano didn't come with us." They both thought.

The disgusting smell of dampness and rot intensified as they delved deeper into the tunnels, it was so bad at times that it would make them stop on their tracks to recollect themselves. Zampano, with his enhanced sense of smell, would have balked at the idea of even going near the hatchway. And so, they kept going deeper and deeper into the maze of tunnels and stairs, until they reached…

A dead end.

"W-what?" Alphonse asked no-one in particular.

The road they had been following suddenly ended in a thick wall of sand and rock.

Mei lowered her eyes sadly, putting a hand gently on Alphonse's back in sign of support. "There are many earthquakes around here Al. It could have collapsed during one of them, or maybe during the activation of the Xerxian Transmutation Circle."

Alphonse gave no signs of having listened to her, he placed a trembling hand against the wall and dropped to his knees.

To be honest, Alphonse knew in his heart that this journey was just a way to not address his feelings about his father. That no matter what they could have found or learned in Xerxes, it wouldn't fill the void he felt.

Sometimes he envied Ed a little. He made his peace with their father not being in their life a long time ago and didn't let his presence or absence affect him a great deal, but Alphonse didn't, and in truth, he always held a candle for him to return to their lives, and after understanding his motives for leaving, the horror of the idea of your children and the love of your life dying before you must have been terrible.

That made it hurt even more, the fact that Hohenheim had actually cared about them but he just was never around to show it to them. Only moments before his death. He felt cheated. He felt as if his father's death was in his hands. So he laid out this plan, this idea. Maybe if he found something here, something worth preserving that would help to keep the legacy of his old home alive, maybe he would feel that maybe it was worth it.

He knew that Mei knew. He knew that his Brother knew. But neither of them said anything, they just went along with his plan because they wanted to see him happy. As if saying no to him would break him in pieces. He knew that they loved him and that they wanted the best for him but sometimes they treated him as if he were made of glass.

"There's nothing here anymore. Is it, Mei?" He asked in a small voice.

"... No, Al. I'm sorry."

"I-it's alright Mei, I… I'll be fine, I just… I guess I always knew that this trip would end up like this, but it's still hard."

"I would worry if you felt nothing at all, Alphonse."

Al stayed silent for a minute before speaking again. "Why didn't you or my Brother say anything before?"

"Because you needed to process this, Al. This was your way to come to terms with your father's death. And the death of what could have been." Then she knelt next to him and cupped his chin on a delicate hand to softly make him look her in the eyes, their faces illuminated by the flashlights. "Edward did not have the same longing for a relationship with Mr. Hohenheim as you did so despite that it did affect him, it was not such a big hit for him." Then she tenderly pressed their foreheads together. "We actually wrote to each other before coming, we knew that if we told you what we thought you would have listened to us and forsook your plans but you would not have had his closure, this catharsis. We decided to do what we knew you needed, no questions asked. And if you needed to come to the middle of the desert and poke and prod all around these dusty ruins, then, that's what we would do." She finished with a closed-eyed smile.

Alphonse could only smile softly, wiping his moistened eyes with a hand. "So you and Brother talked and you didn't tell him or Winry about us?" He asked, trying to dispel the tension.

"And missing their expressions when we told them? Not in this life."

""We didn't tell them, you just sat on my lap in front of them!"

"And you did not complain one bit! Besides, did you see your brother's face?!"

"Did you see his hair!?"

And the both of them erupted in laughter, Al's sullen mood from earlier gone, as if absorbed by the sand. At that moment, Alphonse felt really blessed. He knew that the closest thing to a good in this world didn't really meddle with mortals' lives, but he felt blessed all the same. Blessed by his friends, by his family and by the wonderful woman in front of him.

"Mei, I…"

But that was all he managed to say before the floor disappeared beneath them.

Next thing the pair knew they were falling into the abyss, they were so startled that they let go of their flashlights, the light they emanated turning into small distant stars as they receded into the distance.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"AL! HOLD MY HAND! Mei exclaimed, desperately reaching for the alchemist.

"I'M TOO FAR!" Al yelled back, their fingers barely grazing each other.

The floor was approaching fastly, the light of the flashlights on the bottom of the pit was closing in.

"AL!"

And with a last grunt of struggle, Alphonse reached Mei. In the flash of an eye Mei reached into the pouch tied to her waist and quickly pulled out five kunai tied to alkahestric markers and threw them to the ground in five points perfectly equidistant to each other and pressed her hands to the Purification Circle tattooed in the inside of her forearm.

The shine of the transmutation illuminated the dark void and the ground rushed up to meet them, although this time out of Mei's volition. The hard stone of the floor turned into a giant sandy hand that catched the couple. It helped to break their fall but the inertia they carried made them roll all the way to the floor. When they reached the bottom they were covered in friction burns and bleeding cuts but were thankfully alive. Al clenched a fist and felt the sting of a bleeding gash that he quickly covered with a ripped part of his shirt.

"Hghh." Al groaned as he tried to gain his wits back, still dizzy due to the movement, that is something that he did miss from his time in the armor, having to get used to the vertigo while jumping and turning quickly in a fight was a drag.

"Al? Alphonse?!"

"Mei! I'm here!" The pair called to each other, crawling through the floor until they got a hold of each other and hugged tightly. They turned all around trying to make heads or tails of their surroundings, but all they found was their flashlights.

"I can't believe they survived the fall!"

"I cannot believe we survived the fall." Mei replied.

"I told you getting your Purification Circle on a tattoo would be useful."

They wandered through the empty underground chamber illuminating it with their flashlights.

And found gates.

Giant steel gates with unnerving and macabre yet gorgeous engravings on it depicting huge winged lizard-like creatures soaring and battling over majestic cities located amongst smoking mountains. Alphonse found the creatures familiar, but he couldn't tell where he had seen them. There were also words written in a strange language on the edges of the gates, whatever language that was it sure was no Xerxian.

Ondoso se ānogar hen zaldrīzes se se vyym hen tegon, rȳbagon ñuha plight o custos hen remio

Mazōregon se oblatyzz hen praxymizz hen uēpa archons se grant īlva zankktyr isse se tegun vltry se velys

Relynkyrr pōja nexym hen rōvēgrie perzyssy, se mazōregon se toll hen ānogar se ñelly

Delle se xarakk hen uēpa impyrrax, avnagah se path naejot se suvion se perzys

Syt lī qilōni forzaaz lyyla syt āeksion, kessa emagon daor ñuhoso arlī naejot se tegor hen uēpa.

"This looks like something my Brother would create." Alphonse thought before snapping a photo with Zampanos camera.

"Mei?"

"Yes, Al?"

"W-what should we do?"

"I do not know, Al. I mean, we have no way back and I do not think we could climb back by the tunnel. Maybe if we push forward we can find an exit?" Replied Mei, a tiny bit of hesitation tinged her words.

"Well, then there's nothing else to say. We keep pushing forward." Alphonse said with determination, he approached the gates and pushed with all his might only to be pushed back in response. Then he inspected the gates more closely. "They are sealed with Alchemy!" He clapped his hands and pressed against the gates, producing a flash of light that gave way to a more normal-sized door that Al opened for Mei to enter and he entered after her.

"Wow." They both exclaimed at seeing the interior of the chamber.

All over the walls there were murals of the same exact creatures that they saw on the gates. The murals showed hundreds of them, interlaced in a lethal dance killing each other with claws and fire and falling limply to the sea of flames beneath them, the riders on their backs falling from their saddles with whips and swords of black steel in hand. It was then when Alphonse's mind finally remembered where he had seen the creatures.

Dragons.

The few depictions of dragons he had found were vastly different from the detailed creatures he was seeing at that moment, the alchemic texts that mentioned them described them as giant snake-like fire-breathing creatures, and the ones on Amestris' Flag and the Ouroboros of the Homunculi were more alike to the xingese depictions.

Then, Mei looked at the floor and froze on her tracks, any shade of color leaving her face.

"Al! We have to go back! NOW!" The alkahestrist whispered-shouted.

"Mei! What's the matter?!" Alphonse asked alarmed at Mei's sudden urgence.

"Look beneath you!"

And Alphonse looked. And he blanched.

A giant Transmutation Circle right beneath his feet.

Some of the runes and arrays in it were familiar enough for Al to recognize them.

It was similar enough to a Human Transmutation Circle. The recognition made Alphonse clench his hands at the memories of his mistake.

Of his Greatest Sin.

And by clenching his hand, he committed a mistake.

From Al's poorly bandaged hand, a droplet of blood fell to the Transmutation Circle on the floor.

And after a flash of red light and the smell of sulfur, the next thing Alphonse saw…

Was E.

— Unknown Space —

Staring into the endless void of Their liar while reflecting on Their next Work, a featureless Being felt a pull to a particular Gate. One not used ever since…

"Oh? Oh well… This should be Interesting." The Creature said and their empty face morphed into a sadistic grin, and laughed.

— Unknown place —

In the deep bowels of a port city under the light of a giant beacon and past the watch of stone sphinxes, beneath libraries and healing rooms, in the dusty solar of an old mastiff..

A twisted candle made of black obsidian with sharp edges, for the first time in centuries… burned.