Chapter 8: Night of the Chimera's Cry

"She got a seven," Twilight growled, waving the worksheet in front of the tobacco store counter, "A seven. If you literally on guessed the same letter for all the multiple choice, you would get at least a twelve! How am I going to have any chance of getting that girl into Selim Bradley's class with scores this low on practice exams? Did WISE know it would be this hard? Did I do something to earn their contempt?"

"You done?" Franky flipped through the paper he was holding in front of him, a look of disinterest all over his face. He had been sitting here for the past few minutes, allowing Twilight to vent about how hard it had been to teach his daughter to complete his mission. Of course, he wanted to bring up again that he was teaching a six year old with material that was far beyond what almost anyone should expect from a child that age. He had brought that up, but that didn't mean that the spy was willing to take that information in.

Twilight groaned, before rubbing the ridge of his nose in frustration. The past ten or so days had been nothing but one problem building on another. This mission was likely his most important ever, and yet so much of it pushed him out of his comfort zone. He had to create a family in a few weeks, and while he had a "daughter" now, he was still behind on getting a wife, which he would need to mingle in Central. And with Nightfall still on her north, so he was going to have to chose a woman that wasn't one of his colleagues. He had barely ever had to rely on others during any of his missions, and even when he did it had always been with another spy.

'I've been so busy, I still haven't even had a chance to go on date yet,' he inwardly sighed. He had gone on dates before, and he knew how to get women to talk to him, but asking someone to marry him, he'd never had any experience with that, 'I don't know what to say to build that kind of relationship,' he then looked up at Franky, 'Maybe he migh-', he looked at Franky more closely and remembered the anger he in his voice when talking about Mustang, 'I'll have to figure this out on my own.'

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "I'm done."

"Good," Franky smirked, folding up his paper, and placing it on the counter. He then walked over to the back, and pulled up a carton of cigarettes. He then pushed the box across the counter to Twilight's open hand, who then picked up the box. As second later, he opened up the carton, however, instead of seeing a dozen or so packs of cigarettes, inside it was a set of papers. He opened it up quickly, and he was greeted by the face of Shou Tucker, "As you requested. Took me making a call late last night, but I got everything I could on his time that is "official", birth certificate, marriage license, you know the drill."

"Right," Twilight flipped through the papers, making sure to block the view from the door as he did so. If someone came in, he would be able to close the carton quickly and hide the documents without any real worries of someone thinking this was anything other than him picking up a fortnight of tobacco. The store was a hole in the wall, with constant but not overwhelming traffic, and dozens of posters relating to different brands and advertising campaigns, and an entire back wall covered in cartons of those different brands. It was perfect, and even better, Franky had already managed to get a lease in Central for when Twilight was able to get Anya to pass the exam and into the academic program. If he could.

'Everything is ready except my family,' Twilight seethed inwardly, looking over a picture of the wife that had left Shou two years ago, Ana Tucker. She had pretty blonde hair, that flowed down along her shoulders. He wondered awkwardly how a man as nervous as Shout Tucker managed to get a woman to marry him, but he pushed it out of his mind. She clearly had regrated it, considering she left him, 'Though,' he turned the page, and saw a the same woman holding a little girl, likely no older than three in her arms, 'to leave your daughter like that.'

He shook his head, and then turned another page, and then saw the thing he had least wanted to deal with when working on Shou Tucker. Flames and metal, for all that they appeared at times to look like magic, were at least foreign enough to feel acceptable for some reason. Using alchemy to effect living breathing creatures turned his stomach in another way. What stood there was a yellow colored creature that looked like a mix between an ape and a canine, with strangely proportioned arms and sad sunken eyes, 'What could drive someone to experiment with a living creature, to create something that is only unique for how it is able to ask to die?'

"Freaky thing isn't it?" Franky said, a bit too comfortable for Twilight's liking, "I had to review some of the notes a bit more myself. I kept some of the gross stuff out, and I didn't include pictures of the dissection of the corpse."

"Thank you," Twilight smiled, and Franky saluted him. The short, curly man had proven to be an acceptable partner for this. His knowledge of working the system had been impeccable, and this was the sort of information he was glad he didn't have to sneak into the archives to find, "So, he got funding starting two years ago?"

"Yup, after he created the chimera," Franky nodded, "You can see the approval for the license and everything," Twilight looked at the paper, and saw that it had been signed by Fuhrer Bradley himself, "Of course, there is a yearly evaluation, so he got really bad marks last year because the chimera he tried to pass off was a complete joke. Nothing really special. There have been a lot of questions going around that he was just some amatuer who got lucky with one creation, and fleeced the government to pay for his hobby."

"Would certainly explain why his wife left him," Twilight offered up, "Some guy who was too obsessed with his interests to properly take care of his family pushing her away."

"Don't know how good you have it till you are gone," Franky shook his head, "Still, two years without even coming up to see your daughter. Seems ki-"

"Two years?"

Franky stopped, and nodded. Twilight looked at him, and he looked back, and suddenly Franky's eyes widened behind his glasses. He looked down at the carton, and Twilight suddenly pushed back through the files, and then slapped down the picture of the chimera. And then Tiwlight followed that up with the picture of Ana Tucker. They stared at them for a moment, and Twilight felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"No way...," Franky began to shake, holding his hand to his mouth, "There's no way."

"Do you have anything else on Ana Tucker," Twilight said that far faster than he had previously. He felt an unusual desperation in his voice, one he hadn't heard since before he agreed to become a spy, "The census happened a year and a half ago, right, was she found in her hometown."

Franky rushed over to another one of the cartons on the wall, and opened it up. He then cursed, put it back down, and then opened another one. He then pulled out what Twilight could tell were census files, and he began to furiously flip through them. Twilight could see the sweat begin to build along the back of Franky's white shirt. Finally, Franky turned his head back, and shook his head.

They stood there, staring at one another for a few seconds. And then Twilight remembered something.

"He...he said he was going to be able to get a better result this year, he seemed like he had a plan."

"What could he do!" the shorter man shouted, there minds having already connected on what had happened, and what creatures had gone into that first talking Chimera, "It's not like the guy got married again. The only person he even hangs out with is..."

"...his daughter."

Franky reached beneath the counter, and then tossed Twilight a standard issue military grade handgun. Doctors in the military were allowed to carry side arms like this, so it wouldn't bring up any questions, but Twilight had liked to keep it at his office, since it would make him seem less threatening as he wandered the city. No one would question him with this gun however, and he needed a weapon stat.

He burst through the door, onto the cobblestone streets of East City. The Tucker household was only a few blocks away from here, and if he ran, he would be there in only a few minutes. As the storm clouds began to rumble with thunder, he could only think one thing.

'I hope I'm not too late.'

Edward walked through the door to the Tucker house without much of a fuss. It was another morning to use the time to try and study how to rebuild he and his brother's bodies back, and also to spend time with Nina and her giant dog Alexander. The two had become constant companions to Ed and his brother over the past few weeks, and despite their inability to find any good information through all the notes, they had actually come to enjoy the constant companionship with the child.

"Mr. Tucker," Alphonse called out, as they entered the large two story building. They couldn't hear Nina or Alexander, but a couple of times she had been out, so it wasn't anything too unusual. Still, in those situations, at least Shou Tucker would usually meet them to welcome them into his house, "We're here for our research."

"Mr. Tucker?" Ed added, a bit put off by just how many of the lights were out at the moment. He shook his head, and then stopped, when he heard a bump upstairs. He looked over at his Brother, and then pointed upward. Alphonse nodded his helmet, and the two began to climb the dark stairs. They had only gone up here a few times, where Shou Tucker's most important lab was, and where he held the many animals and chemicals he used in his experiments.

"Mr. Tucker!" Alphonse called again, and yet all they heard were the sounds of a few angry animals that resided in the cages within this floor and the sizzling of chemicals being cooked for experiments. As they stepped towards the main office, where Shou had spent most of his time while they had been in studying at his house, the heard rustling. For a second, Edward almost got into a fighting stance, but then he heard something familiar.

"Who's there?"

"It's us Mr. Tucker," Alphonse called out, and Ed felt some relief. At least they hadn't accidently borken into Shou Tucker's home when he wasn't around. Didn't need to worry about causing any more problems...well, for Shou Tucker. Making the Colonel's life harder was something of a pastime for Edward Elric.

"Oh, Edward, Alphonse," the Sewing Life Alchemist's voice carried outside the alchemy room, "It's good to see you," his voice seemed more dreamy than before, and almost giddy really, "Come on in, I want you to meet my newest creation."

Edward opened the door to the office, and there sat Shou Tucker, sitting in front of a dog like creature sitting on it's hind legs. Shou Tucker waved his hand to bring the brothers closer, and was smiling. This was the first time that Edward has seen Shout smile in almost a week, and he felt a sudden giddiness enter him as well. He was going to be able to see some new alchemic discovery.

"It is another Chimera that talks," Shou Tucker waved his arms, and Ed could see a large dog like creature with a long tail and hanging blond hair that flowed all the way down it's back. The creature, with sunken eyes and a long nose, turned stiffly to look at Ed, and twisted it's head at him. Edward felt most of his giddiness disappear, the creature was a bit more disturbing than he had anticipated, but he still looked over the beast in front of him, "go ahead, this boy is named Edward. Can you say Edward."

"E," the thing opened it's mouth and a stilted voice suddenly emerged from it's throat. Ed almost wondered what part of it's body the voice box was in, but he slowly became stunned as the creature began to form human speech, "Ed...edwa...Edward," it began to look Ed directly in his eyes, "Ed-ward. Edward."

"Wow," Ed felt like he should take a step back, like there was something distinctly wrong with what he was seeing and hearing, "It does totally talk."

"Man," Shou began to rub the back of his head, as Alphonse looked down on the creature, though he remained stone cold quiet, "I am so lucky I got this done before the asses-"

SLAM

Beneath them, they heard the door to the house be smashed open. Ed and Al had been sure to close it, so someone must have been in a rush to get inside. They heard rustling around the bottom, and Shou Tucker looked deeply perturbed by the unexpected intrusion into the house. Finally, they heard a shout that sounded almost familiar to Ed, though he could not quite place where it was from.

"TUCKER!" a distinctly male voice screamed from beneath them. Alphonse stared darkly down the hall, and then turned his attention back to Shou Tucker, who began to shake a bit, "TUCKER!"

"Edward...edward."

All the time, the creature continued to say Ed name. Yet it seemed to almost be in pain. For the first time in a while, Ed remembered the fate of the first Chimera that Shou had created, and he felt...shame. Alchemy had brought a creature to life, and it had only ever known pain. What a miserable fate, and maybe this creature was in a lot of pain too.

"Hey there," Edward held out his hand, and patted the creature's snout. Instead of recoiling like Ed feared, however, the creature pushed itself further into the palm of Ed's Automail hand, "That's right, I'm Edward."

"Edward," it said, "Bi...," it was trying to say something new, all the while the ruckus from downstairs seemed to be getting closer, and both Shou and Alphonse were staring down the hall to where the stairs were, with distinct sound of feet ascending a staircase traveling into their room, "Big...big-bro..."

"Big...Brother."

The world stopped.

Edward looked into the creature's eyes, and suddenly realized where he had heard that before. He looked over the chest of the creature, and noticed that it was quite similar to the chest of the creature that had a habit of jumping on top of him and nearly crushing him on a nearly daily basis. And he noticed that the hair color along the back of the creature was a familiar shade of yellow.

"Mr. Tucker...," the door to the room burst open behind him, but Ed was now too focused on his fellow alchemist not ten feet in front of him, "Where are Nina and Alexander?"

"God in Heaven," he heard the familiar voice of Dr. Forger behind him. The shouting was so distinct to the calm voice the doctor had used during their appointment, but the voice was no even more distinct than before. Where he had previously seemed to always in control, now the voice was one of complete despair. Ed didn't look back, not while he was glaring into the eyes of the monster standing before him.

"I really hate perceptive brats like yo-"

Edward slammed the much taller, but luckily much weaker man, back against the wall, so hard that he saw the man's head bounce on the wall behind him. He felt his rage begin to build up within his gut, as he shouted into the man's face.

"So that's what you did?" it was a shriek more than anything else, "You turned your wife into a chimera two years ago to get your lincense, and now you turned your dog and your daughter into one to keep it!"

"Why are you so mad?" Edward felt his blood freeze, and then boil not a second later, "Medical experimentati-"

POW

"Shut up!" Edward screamed, not caring as Shou Tucker spit out some blood from the strike to his left cheek, "Shut up! Don't give me that shit!" He then pulled back his free fist once more, "Did you think you were going to get away with it! You can't just go around transmuting humans. IT-"

"Where do you get to say such things," Shou countered, laughing though the broken jaw that Edward's fist had delivered, "Isn't your arm, and your brother's body, proof what liars you are."

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"You played around with peoples lives too, even if it was your ow-"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

"You and I are the sa-"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"SHUT UUUUUPPPPP!"

Ed went to throw his fist forward, but felt it get caught. He grit his teeth, and glared back at what was holding his arm, only to see his armored brother. For a second, he stared into the eyeholes of that suit of armor, and they stared right back at him. The suit of armor then shook it's head, and Ed felt some of his current rage flow out of him.

"Ed, if you keep hitting him, you are going to kill him," Alphonse said. Edward looked back at Shou Tucker, and saw that his jaw was already slightly misaligned, that his glasses had been smashed and some of the glass was implanted around the socket, and that his nose was twisted at an odd angle. He released his automail hand, and the monster fell to the ground in a heap. He felt Alphonse's hand on his shoulder, and turned away from the disgrace of a father, alchemist and man.

"He," he heard Tucker begin to speak through his smashed teeth, "You know it's tru-"

"Mr. Tucker," Alphonse spoke simply, "If you say one more word, I will kill you."

Edward looked up, and tried to force himself towards the door. He heard Alphonse in the back ground walk towards where the Chimera that had been Nina had last been, and heard him speak with it, all the while, he looked up, and saw Dr. Lloyd Forger, gun in hand, staring at the whole seem dumbly. The man's green eyes had sunken into his head, and his mouth was held tightly together, as though trying to keep from speaking, and possibly losing control himself.

"I'm so sorry Nina," he heard Al's voice over the sound of the pitter patter of the rain above the roof top above their heads.

"Wanna...play."

"We...we can't fix you. We aren't skilled enough to turn you back to normal."

"Wanna...play."

"We," Dr. Forger finally seemed to regain his voice, and looked Ed in his eyes. For the first time, Ed thought he saw a real sadness within the older man, "We are going to have to speak about this in our next session."

"Wanna Play."

"Yeah," Ed nodded, "Yeah, we probably should."

"WANNA PLAY!"