Chapter 25: End of the Beginning - Part 1

After the hectic first day of school, it had been surprising how normal it had apparently gone for Anya and the rest of the class the next day. No issues had cropped, up, apologies had been given, and by the end of the day, Yor picked up Anya at three. That was the story Lloyd got when get got home at six, and the one he believed because he had used his lunch break to go and spy on her class. When it had seemed to simply be a normal school day, Twilight had rushed back to his office, and completed his appointments for the day, no one the wiser.

He had made sure to punish Anya with no dessert on the night of the first day, but he'd gotten her one on the second, and so they were more or less back to normal by this morning, when once again, Yor would take Anya to her school, while he would be off to his job as a doctor.

'Honestly, he thought,' reading through the file of a captain in the military police who had just left from his appointment, 'Yor seemed to be taking it worse that Anya did.'

Yor had profusely apologized about introducing Anya to self defense, but honestly, he knew she had only done so after a literal kidnapping attempt, so it was hard to blame her. He'd told her as much, but he wondered if it had actually managed to get through to her. She'd seemed so worried about upsetting, and that mixing with her brother coming over the next evening, caused her to be unusually melancholic this morning.

'Maybe I should buy her something nice on the way home from the office today,' He thought, leaning back in his chair, playing with a pen sitting between his teeth, 'She's been trying really hard to be a good mother, and I don't want to discourage her and Anya from building a relationship.'

"Dr. Forger," he heard a small intercom speak up from beside his desk, "You last appointment is here to see you," he heard his nurse's voice come from the other side.

"My last appointment," Twilight turned back to his calendar. He'd forgotten who it was fo-

"Alright, alright!" a familiar voice barged into his office. Lloyd didn't have to look up to know that a short, blond kid was marching into his office, and that he was likely carrying a scowl on his face. Once he looked up, he confirmed that was exactly what was going on, as Edward Elric glared over at him.

"Good afternoon Edward," Lloyd chuckled, as Twilight observed a young woman with short dark hair, a mole, and a military blue uniform standing outside the front door. Second Lieutenant Maria Ross, he believed, "I'm glad to see you again."

"Yeah, yeah," Edward growled. He marched over to lounging couch that he'd set on the right side of his office. The teen kicked his feet up, and was laying with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as he laid there.

'I wish he'd take off his boots before putting his feet up like that,' Lloyd sighed, though part of his wondered if this was an attempt by Ed to punish him for being dishonest earlier about his position, 'Rebellion is the permanent mindset of the young,' he shook his head, before his mind wandered to another young blonde man, 'though my rebellion was a bit different.'

"So Mr. Agent," Edward spoke up, breaking Twilight from his reminiscence, and for a millisecond he became worried, before remembering that Edward thought he was working for someone in Central command, "What's the plan for today? Going to try to keep asking questions about my past, like before we fought Scar?"

'Probably wouldn't be good to go down that path,' Twilight considered, remembering seeing Edward's missing limb and Alphonse being nothing but a suit of armor, 'It's probably not something he's willing to consider divulging. Especially,' he thought back to the accusation Shou Tucker gave to Edward, and Edward's discussion of the parts of a human body, 'If he thinks it might be something that could possibly incriminate him and his brother to Central Command.'

"We don't have to," Lloyd smiled, walking over and getting in the chair next to Ed, wanting to allow the young alchemist to lead the conversation, "You should speak about what interests you. That's what these sessions are meant to help with."

"Fine," Edward finally arrived at, before twisting himself to the side, and looking over at Lloyd, "Why is everyone so insistent that I talk to you?"

"Yes, that can be a tough question," Lloyd rubbed his chin, "I think it's because you've just dealt with a fairly traumatic experience, what with fighting and nearly dying from a terrorist," Ed was willing to give a nod to that, "They probably just want to make sure that you are operating mentally as well as you seem to be operating physically."

"Yeah, physically," Ed said aloud, and Lloyd had the decency to wince. Perhaps it wasn't good to mention physical wellness to a boy who was missing an arm and a leg. Ed then held up his right arm, the one Twilight new to be automail, and squeezed it tight, "I just wish they'd understand that the best way to help myself mentally would be to get a move on. Sitting down like this just makes me antsy."

"Get a move on with what?" Twilight asked, trying to see if he could coax out a bit more. Ed looked over at him for a second, and then Lloyd added, "It might be good for me to understand, because," he looked over at the door, "I might be willing to cut our session short if it seems like doing that work would be better for your mental health."

"...," Ed looked at the door, before nodding slowly at the offer, "You kind of know I joined the military to get me and Al's bodies back, right?"

"Not really, but it makes sense," that would be a good explanation for why a twelve year old would be willing to join the state at such a young age. Take advantage of what the resources the military had to discover the secrets necessary to restore your body and your brother's body. Better reason than he had had when he signed up for service, "So...do you have a lead."

"We think we do," Ed nodded, "The most likely thing to help us get our bodies back is something called the philospoher's stone," Twilight nodded. The philospoher's stone, a supposedly legendary jewel that could both turn any material to gold and provide the elixir of life. It was decided to be nonsense by WISE's classification, though from what Twilight had seen, he wouldn't put out the possibility of it existing, "We managed to find out that the notes to create a stone were in Central's Library."

"Were," Lloyd said, Twilight knowing exactly where the end of this conversation lead to.

"Yeah," Edward formed a similar face to the one he had shown on the platform earlier in the week. It was replaced quickly though, with a small smirk, "Though, we managed to find some copies."

There was a story behind that. He didn't know what it was, but Edward was only giving him the bare minimum of detail. He probably thought that Lloyd would try and investigate where these notes came from, and if he could get access to this important lost knowledge. Which, to be fair, Twilight absolutely would have begun to investigate had Edward said the information's origin.

So, point to Edward.

"But, it took until about an hour ago for the notes to get set up for us..."

"So Marcoh's notes are all like a recipe?"

"That's right," Edward smiled as Sergeant Brosh held up one of the pieces of paper. Sheshka had just finished delivering the notes to them, and now they had set themselves up in a small annex of the third branch library, not far from where burned remains of the first branch still smoldered, "Like I was saying, every alchemist uses a code to hide their secrets."

"Right," Alphonse spoke up, as he set a huge stack of papers on another table nearby, "Brother keeps his notes as a travelogue, and I can't make out heads or tails of them," Edward seemed to stand up in a bit of shock at his own brother's difficulties, "A recipe though, that's relatively simple. Alchemy is said to have started as cooks in kitchens, after all, and it's far more replicable once you start breaking parts of the cipher."

"Still," Ed continued, "This isn't going to be easy, there isn't some accepted shared code for any of this," all the while flipping through the first set of the notes, "It's going to take a lot of inspiration."

"And even more perspiration," Alphonse added, though Ed snorted, mostly because Al couldn't sweat anymore.

"Alright!" Ed shouted, getting out a small pencil, "Let's get to wo-"

"Edward?"

The two brothers turned their heads to Lieutenant Ross, who stood at attention. Despite the time they'd spent together, Ross still tended to fall back to formal protocol when interacting with her "superior". Ed was mostly uncomfortable with it. After all, what fun was it to boss around nice people. Being in charge was only fun when you got to torment jerks, and after their confrontation with the spy lady, he knew completely that Maria Ross wasn't anything close to being a jerk.

"Do you remember that you had something on your schedule this afternoon," she said aloud, not looking Edward directly in the eye, though maintaining a calm demeanor, "You set up a time for today to go to your psychiatrist appointment with Dr. Forger."

"Oh...pft," Ed snorted, before turning his head back to the papers in front of him, "This stuff is way more important. I can go visit that stupid doctor when we have our bodies back."

Ed continued to read for a moment, before he noticed a shadow cover his head. He turned, and saw Alphonse staring over him, crossing his arms as he looked down on his older brother. Ed felt some sweat drop down the side of his face as he looked up at his "Little" brother, and could already guess that this was not going to be a positive discussion.

"Brother," Alphonse said, "You are going to that appointment."

"Al-"

"Don't you "Al" me, Edward," Alphonse continued to hover over Ed, "It's important that you talk about your problems. These notes will be here when you get back, and I can work on them and get things ready while you take an hour to go help yourself."

"I don't need it," Ed whined, and then, as was his right as elder brother, he turned his back to Alphonse and began to read through the next document.

"I'll call Winry to tell her you ski-"

"I'll right, I'll go!" Ed threw his hands into the air, the papers being flung above him. Alphonse took the time to catch the flying notes, and place them back in order, "Can't even get my little brother to not tattle on me anymore."

"If it's what it takes," Alphonse responded. Ed got up, and matched out the door, with Maria Ross walking alongside him. They turned back just outside the door, and Ed gave a small salute to his brother, who gave his own little salute back. They then stopped, and closed the doors, and began to march out of the library. Maria Ross looked down at Ed, who looked back.

"So...is this Winry a girl frien-"

"NO!"

"Well, I understand your frustration," Lloyd nodded, "To be on the way to finding your bodies, and then have it delayed by our appointment must be extremely frustrating."

"Yeah," Ed sighed, continuing to lay on the couch, his eyes on the ceiling, "But...I know they're just trying to help," he kicked for a second, and Twilight was glad to see that the boots were now off of his rather expensive couch, laying on the floor where Ed had thrown them off to, "I just..."

"Go on."

"I can't afford to keep stopping and starting like this," Ed groaned, his frustration seeming to boil over, "I have to keep moving forward, to keep pushing for our bodies," he looked down at his right hand, the automail wrist visible through the glove and sleeve, "If I don't keep pushing, if I spend too much time talking about what I'm thinking and feeling...I'll let myself get caught in the mud, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to climb out of it again."

'The need to be moving,' Twilight considered, trying to categorize Ed's issue, 'Speaks to an extreme guilt, likely to do with his and his brother's bodies. He feels the need to try and make up for it...before he drowns in the guilt.'

"I understand," Lloyd nodded, before deciding to try and offer more support to the young man, "Why don't we make this only a half hour, and you can get back to the library and more important things then?" he then waved his hand, "I have a dinner party tomorrow night," he thought of the image of Yuri Briar entering his home, "So I need to start getting everything prepared. You can tell Al it's my fault."

"Really?" when Lloyd nodded, Ed's smirk returned, "Well thanks Doc. You know, you really aren't half bad...for a government spook."

"I try not to be," Lloyd laughed, though Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Edward would think if he ever truly discovered who Lloyd Forger was.

It likely wouldn't be pretty.

"So," Ed smiled, "Any other questions?" he looked over at the clock, "We still have fifteen minutes to make this seem believable."

Lloyd rubbed his chin, before thinking on it for a moment. Then he remembered something, and looked at Edward, and remembered that the alchemist was still a teenage boy.

"So this Winry girl," he noticed Ed's face heat up, "If you are in a relatio-"

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"

"So," Becky leaned over to Anya, both of them working on a set of math problems from their desks which sat right next to one another, "Why do you think Selim is so interested in Damian?"

Anya looked down, and listened into the thoughts from the dark child, and again shook her head when she heard the monster inwardly curse about the idiot children he was surrounded with. Just because it no longer hurt her, didn't mean she liked to read Selim's mind. Most other minds could be interesting in how much they fluctuated, but Selim seemed to only have one thought process, how much better he was than everyone else around him, even the teachers.

"I don't know," Anya answered, and Becky quickly nodded at that. After their first day, Becky had decided that from then on, she and Anya were best friends. Anya had been rather shocked at this declaration, but since it gave her someone to talk to, she had accepted it quite quickly, and had come to really like it when Becky was talking, because usually it meant there was something to focus on besides her problems.

The first of these problems was Selim. Despite her confrontation with him, Selim didn't even seem to pay Anya any mind. And while Anya liked not being the target of the dark people, she still was constantly dealing with his dark thoughts, and his annoying inner voice. It only got worse whenever he spoke out in the open, and said things that were completely different from what he thought. No one else Anya knew was like that, lying as easily as they breathed.

...Except her father, who was a spy who lied about everything in order to cover for his super secret mission.

...and her mother, who was a hitman who constantly lied about how she'd killed people for a living.

...and Mr. Hughes, who was lying about why he was hanging out with Mama and Papa, all to try and monitor them to make sure they weren't planning anything against him.

...and then there wa-

Okay, so a lot of people lied around Anya a lot. But most of them weren't so obviously smarmy. When Papa lied, it was like he was writing a story for a novel. When Mama lied it was like she was juggling, with many knives that she had to hold up in the sky or they'd fall and stab her. When Mr. Hughes lied, it was like he was putting together a puzzle, and using his words to discover the edges. Selim just lied and shrieked in rage at her perdicament.

...but that wasn't her main problem. She gave a sideways glance over to her right, towards a young boy with black hair.

Damian Desmond was staring angrily down at the chalkboard, before looking back, and noticing Anya.

'Why won't she leave me alone,' he thought, 'I already had everyone think I was week when Selim was attacking my family, but now they think I'm a priss who needs girls to fight my battles,' he kept looking at her, 'And what's with her eyes? Why do they seem to shine.'

'Shining eyes,' Anya thought, 'Is he seeing me read his mind?'

She just groaned, before placing her head on her desk. She was just glad there was only one more day until she was free, and able to have a whole weekend not studying. It was nice to hang out with students her age...but she just wanted to go somewhere and not have to think about whatever stupid thing Professor Henderson was going on about.

"Pay attention Ms. Forger."

"Sorry!"

"So...you think he's working directly for the Fuhrer himself," Mustang looked at the school picture, taken with the Forger family standing in the same crowd as some of the highest ranking people in Central City. Including the Fuhrer's wife and son, who were a few rows down.

"That's what Armstrong and myself were able to piece together," Hughes voice came over the phone. It'd been almost a week since they'd last had a call, and while Mustang appreciated he hadn't had a discussion of Elicia's potty training the whole time, it was good to finally hear his best friend's voice again, "Why else would the Fuhrer take the time to publicly humiliate his son for the benefit of Donovan Desmond. It probably got them in a room to discuss plans without the chance of a leak going out into the rest of Central Command."

The stories he shared about the Forger family were interesting. From saving Elicia from a kidnapping, to the several outings they had had as families, it painted the picture of a strange but relatively happy family. Which was likely a lie, considering how Yor had been brought into that family only two weeks ago, but that only made the real connection the two adults seemed to have even more shocking.

Mustang had been shocked to discover Yor would be leaving. He may have found her flightiness and denseness a bit of a problem at times...especially when she somehow undermined him in front of the whole staff, but she had been a responsible and well put together employee. And to see her run off on a whim with a man she'd only known for a few days didn't match with she his image of her. That it turned out that Lloyd was an agent for the Fuhrer, and likely had shared that with Yor as a way to ask her to accept the marriage made it far more easy to understand.

"No, you're right, it makes everything about this Dr. Forger make more sense if he's actually the Fuhrer's personal investigator," Roy groaned, "Honestly...I kind of think Bradley's being smart about it. Have a few personal agents who are only loyal to him, rather than to Central Command. Means there's a set of agents he can rely on to not give out any information on his personal plans."

"...," Roy considered his team. Havoc, Breda, Falman, Fuery...Hawkeye. One of the reasons he had specifically created this team was so his plans could be kept secret from the rest of the staff. He shook his head...just another way he shared uncomfortable connections with the Fuhrer.

It made him uncomfortable.

"Any plans to further investigate him?" Roy rubbed his temple, trying to keep himself from going down his path of continual guilt. It would only slow him down from his goals if he let himself get stuck in Ishval again.

"Actually, remember Yor's little brother?" Mustang's eyes widened, as he remembered a conversation he'd overheard between the office girls at the front of his office.

"Yeah, he's an officer in your unit, right?"

"Right," Maes confirmed, and then smirked, "Yor forgot to tell him she and Lloyd were getting married, so they're having a make up dinner tomorrow night to try and make it up to him," Maes paused for a moment, before adding, "He was really upset about the whole thing when I was the one who told him his sister was married."

"Well, that makes sense," Mustang acknowledged, "Your sister gets married without telling you. I'd be upset too."

"It's a bit worse than that," Maes's exasperation was clear, and Roy felt his eyebrow raise, "Yor isn't just his sister, she's his only family. She's about five years older than him, so I think she more or less filled the role of mother as well as sister for him," Mustang nodded, "So...this isn't just like his sister got married, it's like he got a new step dad too, at least from how it looks to me as an outsider."

"Ouch."

"Yeah," he could almost hear Maes nodding in commiseration, "Good news is he agreed to wear a wire once I told him my suspicion of who Dr. Forger really is," Hughes paused, as though considering something, "He seemed a bit conflicted. I don't think he wants to even think about investigating and possibly arresting his sister, but I told him it's important to discover what is going on with Lloyd's investigation, and learn if Yor might be getting in over her head."

"Play into Yuri's protectiveness."

"Exactly," Maes then began to laugh, "We're actually looking after Anya that night, so she and Alicia will have a lot of fun together while Yuri gets to do all the hard work, good night for me, thank you very much."

"Anya is Lloyd's daughter correct?"

"Right. Honestly, it's kind of amazing how well she get's along with a girl four years her junior. She almost doesn't look like a six year old, but hell," he was probably shrugging his shoulders in acceptance, "What are ya gonna do. No one under six could have passed that exam. Most ten year olds can't pass an exam like that."

"Well," Mustang looked back up at the clock, and smiled as he saw his shift was almost over for the day, "I'll have to talk to you later. I'm heading out."

"Wait Roy!"

"Maes, I swear to god, if you make this another crack about me getting married-"

"It's not that," Maes cut him off, "I just wanted to ask if you'd found anything on the Twilight case like I asked?"

"Oh," Roy groaned, before laying back in his chair, and picking up a file, "Unfortunately, I don't have much else. From what I can gather, you were probably right about him jumping across the sector border in the south. We spotted a strange man twisting along the outer sectors of Eastern Territory, before turning back in," he shook his head, "The last known guess for him would be entering New Optain about a month ago, but no one could tell where he's gone to since."

"Crap," Maes groaned, before continuing, "With guys like Twilight out there... and with the Fuhrer using people like Dr. Forger, and with violent killers like Scar wandering around, not to mention the violence in Liore...everything just seems so dangerous now."

"I hear you," Mustang hadn't been happy to hear that Grumman's Seventh Eastern Regiment had been pulled from Liore for the Nineteenth Central. There were already reports of the violence in the city getting worse, "Things really do seem to be getting dangerous. And it should only get worse when I'm finally called into Central, to help replace some of Scar's victims," Old Man Grand hadn't been the only alchemist in central that the Ishvalan Terrorist had managed to kill over the last six months.

"Yeah, and with how dangerous it is, you have to make sure you have people you can absolutely trust," Roy nodded, and his mind immediately went to Riza Hawkeye, "So that's why you should go ahead and get marrie-"

"GOOD NIGHT!" and Roy once again slammed the phone into the receiver.

"Everything set up?"

It was eight o clock, and Yuri Briar would be arriving at there home in an hour. The preparations for Yor's brother's arrival had taken nearly half the week, but they seemed ready, as the house was fully decorated to show a loving couple. From the pictures on the mantle, to the color coordinated sets of clothing they were wearing, to the bed in Lloyd's room made to look like a bed they shared...everything gave off the impression that they were incredibly intimate.

'It was enough to get Anya to needle us again,' the sound of Anya asking if they were going to kiss ringing in his ears, 'That girl really needs to learn to respect the privacy of others. It is a key part of living a normal life, to respect other people's privacy.'

"I think so," Yor came out from Anya's room, smiling happily as she walked down the hallway. She'd just put Anya to bed. The little girl had tried to insist to join her her parents in meeting her uncle, but she'd been sent next door for a sleepover at Maes Hughes house. Honestly, it was probably better for Lloyd to not have Anya as a distraction, but he was getting uncomfortable with how close his "family" was getting to the intelligence officer.

It would just make the whole thing too complicated.

"Good," Lloyd smiled at his wife, whose hands were fidgeting as the two of them stood right at the opposite end of the entrance hallway from the front door, "You know there is no need to be nervous. I'll do my best not to embarrass you."

"Lloyd," Yor turned her head down, looking away for a moment, "I'm worried about embarrassing you. I already forgot to tell Yuri about you, so what if I say something wrong."

"Then we'll get through it together," Lloyd laughed. Twilight considered his "wife" and tried to wonder why Yor seemed so nervous, but quickly pushed it from his mind. Yor always had a strange outlook on some things, but it wouldn't be too hard to get through this.

"Just be yourself, and I'm sure your brother will just be happy to see you and meet me," Lloyd smiled. Yor looked him in the eye, and smiled back, only for her head to snap back, as they both could hear the knob of the door begin to turn.