Chapter 27: The Philosopher's Stone

"It...it just felt weird," Lloyd let out a small burst of smoke from his cigarette. He put out the tobacco stick into a small ashtray on the counter, before fully turning his attention to Franky, "It was as though I...I don't know. It was like I lost my footing."

"You're here...talking about kissing your wife making you feel weird?" Twilight looked over at Franky. The portly man's deadpanned face, and raised left eyebrow was clearly meant to convey condescension. Twilight felt his shoulders stiffen at the mockery, and he slammed his hand down on the counter, hunching over the shorter man.

It was honestly lucky that it was early afternoon on a Sunday, because no one was besides them was in the shop. The normal foot traffic through the nearby shops was undone by over half of them being closed for the weekend. This combined with the summer heat dissuaded almost any random passersby. So Lloyd had been able to come to the shop, and just discuss what had been going on recently, and start up a new plan he had been considering for a few days, ever since his last meeting with Edward Elric.

Somehow, instead of actually discussing the plan, Franky had brought up a rejection on a date that had ended with a slap instead of a kiss, and that had lead Twilight to muse out loud about the strange event that had capped the visit with Yuri Briar. He was still thinking about it now, and he just had to get it off his chest.

"You don't understand," Lloyd said quickly, "I've kissed plenty of girls-"

"Course you have."

"Oh get off of it," Twilight snapped, massaging the bridge of his nose, before having the hand fall down and touch his lips once again, a slowly becoming familiar habit of his, "But this is the first time it felt weird. Every other time, dozens of times, it was just the feeling of flesh on flesh. But this time-"

"Dozens," Franky growled, pointing at Lloyd's face, a red rage beginning to overtake his skin, "You are just here to brag, aren't you!"

"No!"

"That's all you good looking spies do," Franky continued, "You trapeze from one woman to another kissing with them, getting compliments for your nice suits and your fancy words and being six feet tall, ready to hop to the next one that you need to cover yourself. You have no understanding of the pain that comes from the short man, the shy man, the man with an abundance of back hai-"

"Enough," Twilight coughed, getting Franky to end his rant. The afroed man just looked over and glared at him, "Enough, I'm sorry. But this is something new to me, and I needed to talk to somebody about it."

"Oh yeah," Franky said, crossing his arms and giving Lloyd the side eye, "Why would you want to talk about it with me? What makes me," he gestured his hands to himself, and Twilight could see the sweat developing underneath Franky's white shirt, "Someone who you thought would be good to talk about you getting a crush on your wife with?"

"It's not a crush," Lloyd fired back, "It's simply a new experience that I needed to relay to someone in order to discuss the possible detriments to the mission that it might cause. I've never felt this way after even kissing someone, and certainly not after a week since I kissed somebody."

"Riiiiigggghhhhttttt," Franky didn't seem impressed, before adding, "Also, it's been a week, and you're obsessing over this."

"And secondly," Twilight sighed, cutting off that particular line of inquiry, "You're probably the only one I can talk to about this sort of thing," Franky blinked for a second, before waving his hand for an explanation, "The only two men I have anything resembling a close relationship with right now besides you are an Amestrian intelligence officer and the only male heir for one of the most ancient houses in this whole damn country."

Even worse, to Twilight's mind, would be the reaction the two would have to him confessing his issue.

"Love is a wonderful thing. It breaks down the cold hard shell around men's hearts, and causes them to grow in magnificent ways. When I first met Gracia, I knew I had been changed the moment she first winked at me. A world of shadows disappeared, and one of a bright son was born! You must share your love with your Yor, and you can perhaps one day have as great a relationship as I have with my wonderful wife."
"Ah, yes...courtship. This is one of the most ancient rituals in all of history. Fear not, the ways of love have been passed down the Armstrong Line for Generations. I shall be able to advise you on all aspects of a relationship with a woman, from first meeting to the important goal of procreation!"
Twilight would rather die than tell them. Franky still looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"And I don't really have contact with anyone from Cresta either. I can't be in personal contact with the Handler, and I don't think she'd be very supportive on trying to figure out why I get weak kneed with my wife," he stopped himself for a second at how naturally the word had come to him. Franky didn't seem to catch that nodding at him about that.

"Yeah," Franky nodded, "The Fullmetal Lady certainly has some ideas about how to handle things like that."

"Fullmetal...," Twilight smiled, glad to see a way out of this aspect of the conversation and towards his actual goal, "That reminds me...I've been speaking with Edward Elric lately."

"Oh really?" Franky leaned forward, clearly glad to be moving on from the previous conversation as well. For all that he had been giving Twilight a hard time, talking about his own lackluster love life was probably wasn't something he was keen to spend much time on either. Twilight smile grew into a smirk as he tapped on the counter again.

"I'm going to need a few things though, as soon as possible."

"Big Brother," Alphonse was looking down at him from behind his set of notes, "I think you need to get something to eat."

"Come on Al," Ed whined, only to have the whine of his mouth joined by the whine of his stomach, which cried out in anguish for food. He'd skipped breakfast today, and maybe Al had a point. He shook his head, and glared at his brother, "Al, we're almost there. We just have to figure out what the main ingredient is, and we'll have broken the code."

They'd come so far over these past ten days since Sheska had provided Marcoh's notes, and he could taste it. They were so close to figuring out what how to make their own Philosopher's Stone. There had been some issues...some of the language that Marcoh had used for his code was more graphic and darker than they'd normally expect, but they were almost there. Once they cracked the last main piece, they'd be off to the races, and then it'd only be a short hop, skip and jump to getting their bodies.

'Who cares if I miss a couple of meals,' Ed flipped over the seventh page of the code again, trying to see if he could maybe catch something one more time, 'I'd rather my next meal be one I can share with Al,' he looked over at his brother, who seemed to be sagging as much as his massive body would allow, 'I know it's what he's probably missed most about not having his body.'

So, the two returned to their work. Al returned to the recipe on stew, and the proper straining method, which they'd already guessed was about channeling energy through whatever the main ingredient was, while he again returned to page zero, zero, seven, the final page of the introduction. It was mostly an introduction to the recipes, and on the importance of-

"Good Afternoon."

"Waaagh!" Ed fell back in his chair, looking over at the door that had once again been opened by an intruder. He'd specifically asked Lieutenant Ross to keep out unwanted guests (he didn't think Sergeant Broush had the stomach to actually stop anyone), but she would usually let in anyone who was of clearly higher rank.

'So why?' He asked as a familiar blonde man in a green suit pulled off his hat and bowed slightly for a second, 'Did she let Doctor Forger in?'

"I was just here to perform a quick mental health check in," Dr. Forger gave Ed his usual smile, "Word has been going around that some alchemists have been stuck in the upper floor of this library for almost ten full days, and I needed to make sure the isolation wasn't getting to you."

"Sorry Edward," Maria Ross was shrugging, doing her best to not look directly at him as he gave her a glare, "It's just...he's your doctor, so I didn't want to possibly stop a check up, especially if it might be important for your health."

'Traitor,' he thought, as Lloyd stook his hat off and bowed to Al.

"It's good to see you again too, Alphonse," the older man said warmly. Alphonse seemed to slink back a bit, before nodding at the doctor.

"It's good to see you too Doctor Forger," the suit of armor began to rub the back of it's helmet, "Thank you for caring for my brother, I know he can be," Alphonse looked over at Ed for a second, "blunt at times," Ed felt a twitch on his forehead as he recognized his little brother had just replaced a far harsher critique with that shorter word, "But it's really good for him to get some time to talk to someone about things that isn't me."

"Well, I'm always glad to help my patients," Lloyd laughed, pulling out a chair, and sitting down, "Though Alphonse, I was wondering if maybe you'd like a session with me," Alphonse reared back for a second.

"Oh no," the metal suit of armor said while waving his hand, "I don't need it. I don't have nearly the amount of problems my brother has."

"What you say!"

"Alphonse, I think it would help you," Lloyd cut off Edward before he could scold Al for his disrespect. The serious look on Lloyd's face made them both stop and look at him, "I know you don't like to talk about your condition," Alphonse seemed to shrink at the mention of his body, "but...talking through it in a safe manner might allow you to get better control over the yourself."

"Um..."

"We don't have to do it," Twilight smiled raising his wrist to his hand absentmindedly, "Whatever is most comfortable fo-" his eyes seemed to widen, "Oh shit, I have to get home," he quickly stood up, and grabbed Ed's to shake it, "So sorry Edward, but I'm going to have to cut this meeting short."

"That's quick," Ed felt his eyes widen a bit. Lloyd bowed while rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm sorry Ed," he then turned to Alphonse, "Alphonse. I was just in the area, and I didn't realize the time," he then leaned forward, "I have a package to pick up later today, and I need to be at the store before it closes at five," Ed looked up at the clock, and saw it showing four thirty, "I will have to run to make it," Dr. Forger sighed, before blinking, "Though before I go," he pulled out a small slender box, with a small bow attached to it, "I got this for you Edward, as a little peace offering."

Edward looked down at the small box, and quickly unraveled the small ribbon around the box, and popped the top. It was a long golden pen, with blue letters along it, saying "Connery" on it's side.

"One of the nicest pen makers in all of Central," Twilight nodded, "You never know when you might need to write something formal," he then bowed, and turned out the door, "I hope the rest of your studies go well Edward, Alphonse."

"Nice to see you again," Ed heard Alphonse say as he heard the doors shut. He played with the long pen in his hand, twisting it, to reveal the point with ink at the end, and then twisting it back. He then stood up, and walked towards the door. He heard Alphonse shuffle for a second, following behind him as he got up, "Brother, is something wrong?"

Edward opened the door, and the two guards on the outside suddenly turned around, and looked back at him, both blinking in surprise, "Is something wrong Edward?" Maria asked.

"Would you mind holding onto this pen for a while," Edward handed it to Maria, who took it and pocketed it in coat. She nodded at him, before both of the two young officers turned around and monitored the hallway. Edward nodded, and then closed the door, Al looking at him in confusion before Edward grabbed him and quickly pulled him back towards the main table.

"Was there a reason you just gave that expensive gift away?" his younger brother asked, and Ed nodded.

"We know Forger's working for Central Command Intelligence, right?" Al nodded. While Al was more open to working with Dr. Forger than Ed was, that didn't mean he hadn't taken Hughes and Mustang's information on who Lloyd was to heart. Ed smiled, continuing to keep his voice low, hoping that the big wooden doors would keep any residual sound from escaping, "So, I think he's investigating what we're looking for, to see what secrets Dr. Marcoh opened for us."

"Really," and then it seemed to dawn on Alphonse, "Wait, do you think that pen was some kind of listening device?"

"Probably," Ed nodded, before smirking, "But that guy still thinks we're too much like kids. Just because he gave us an expensive gift, doesn't mean we aren't going to check and make sure we can keep our secrets," he then smiled as wide as possible, "Right Al?"

"Of course," it was actually amazing how easily he could tell when Al was happy just from the tone of his voice. Al had probably gone out of his way to learn to exaggerate his tones slightly, but Ed would always be glad to hear joy in his little brother's voice.

"Alright then," he then turned to the stacks of papers spilled around the tables of the library, "Got to get back to the grindstone," he laughed, stretching his arms, "This code isn't going to decode itself."

"Right!"

"You were right," Twilight nodded as he held the phone's receiver in his hand, Franky's voice scratching through the line, "They were completely fooled by the pen trick."

It actually was a fairly easy sort of deception to pull off. Draw the attention of your opponent to something, and away from what you were actually trying to hide. Lloyd had placed the transceiver of Franky's listening machine on the bottom of the table he'd sat at for a moment while speaking to the brothers. He'd then offered Ed the incredibly expensive pen as a diversion. Ed, being suspicious, would think that Lloyd had underestimated him, and gladly latch onto the pen as the listening device, not bothering to check underneath the table.

Edward was a smart teenager, but still just a teenager. Once he thought he'd outsmarted his opponent, he'd be more careless and not ensure that he'd actually won the engagement. So now, Franky, who'd just closed up his shop, had direct access to whatever was said in that room. And that might prove an extremely fruitful bit of espionage.

"I told you it would work," Lloyd had a small smile on his face, giving a quick glance over to the pot of corn that was boiling. He was still trying to find vegetables that Anya liked, after her rather poor reaction to carrots last time, "Now, since you said you have the next few nights off," he heard a bit of a grumble from Franky, but ignored it and pushed forward, "I want you to write down whatever you can get from them about the Philosopher's Stone."

Twilight had become quite interested in the Philosopher's Stone when he heard that Edward was almost about to discover how they were made. On the one hand, the stone was supposed to be just a legend, and part of him wanted to dismiss it. But after what he'd seen Ed and Armstrong do with Alchemy, he wasn't about to overlook that they may have found a weapon that could be very deadly in the upcoming "Promised Day". He'd already done similar spying jobs when looking at other military equipment, to learn how best to sabotage it, so this really wasn't that different.

'And that they already kind of suspected me of spying on them makes it a bit painful,' he shook his head, and for a moment, Edward's previously hurt look from back in East City crossed his mind, 'No trust to betray when you already aren't trusted.'

"I'll do it chief," Franky probably had given a mock salute on the other end of the line, "I'll also make sure to record what I get, don't want to possibly get some of the details wrong in the process of translating it to text."

"Good thinking," Twilight nodded, before Lloyd let out one final sigh, and loudly saying for the whole of the flat to hear, "Okay, I'll be on standby, just call me if anything urgent comes up, and I'll be right over."

He then placed the receiver back onto the phone itself, and walked from the parlor into the living room. Anya and Yor were going through some of Anya's homework. He could already see that three of the four worksheets for the weekend were done, and he'd have to review them when he got the chance. Right now, they were working on the fourth booklet, the science one, and he could see that Yor was legitimately struggling with one of the problems, here eyes bouncing back and forth trying to solve it.

"Do you need any help?" Lloyd said, and Yor suddenly bounced up, a blush on her face.

"Um...yes," she sighed, her shoulders sagging, shaking her head. He stared at her for a moment, before sighing, and pulling out a chair to help with it.

'At least she doesn't remember kissing me,' He sighed. They were already rather awkward being physically close to one another, and getting more physically intimate might make it difficult to keep STRIX operating smoothly, 'especially if she decides we are too close and,' the image of Yor's leg shooting out and slamming into Yuri crossed his mind, 'she reacts.'

"So let's see," he looked over the problem.

In an Alchemic Circle, what does the outer ring of the circle represent, and how does it func-
"Ah, an Alchemy question," he spoke up, before nodding at the two of them, "This is relatively hard, especially since it's something you haven't had any time to study in any of your notebooks."

"I got all the questions on the test wrong," Anya seemed to fall out of her chair, exuding misery from her voice. Lloyd nodded at that.

'I really couldn't have asked her to do much better,' he thought, looking over the question, 'I mean, so much of alchemy is just bunk anyway, some shut-ins tossing out newer and vaguer ancient lore that really doesn't matter.'

"I think it's actually a trick question," Lloyd declared, pointing down at the circle, "It's simply a design that got decided on in basic , and it was chosen because it can be drawn out and created easily. The inner runes are what are important for the circle. "

"Ah, that makes sense," Yor nodded. Lloyd looked at the paper, and then gave a quick look at Anya, who was staring at him...as though she couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"Anya?" he asked, looking at the girl as her disgust almost overwhelmed him, "Is something wrong?"

"...," she just shook her head, and then said, "Nothing's wrong Papa," before pointing down at the next problem, "we need to get the rest of these done before tomorrow."

"Right," Lloyd said. Twilight was glad she was working to push through the question, as he was sure that he'd just been seeing things. There was no reason for her to be reacting in disgust after all. Besides, there was a pretty good chance that his answer was the right one.

Anya glared down at her notebook at the red x around the alchemy question. The weekend homework had just been handed back, and it was quite clear, the purpose of the circle was both to represent the constant changes of the flow of the Earth, and to also contain the energy of the transmutation into the actual runes. In other words, no, it wasn't just a design someone had come up with.

'Pretending to not know Alchemy is hard,' Anya groaned. She found school hard enough, but to fake being worse at the subject she was good at...it wasn't fun. her eyes turned to Selim, who was gazing about the classroom, trying to see who got the answer correct. When he saw a big fat x on hers, his eyes immediately moved past her, and continued to try and take in the rest of the class. He immediately saw Damian's paper, and his focuse again targeted the Desmond boy, 'At least he doesn't suspect me.'

Though if her Papa was going to keep making up stupid answers like he did earlier...she might go crazy.

"It's alright Anya," Yor was consoling their daughter as she brought home the results from the weekend's homework, "You at least passed, and now we know which chapters to cover more."

Lloyd sighed as he looked over the packets. Anya had passed the homework, but barely. He wasn't sure how to react. She was willing to put in the time and effort to study, but it wasn't making her the best in the class. Originally, that had been the goal of phase two of Operation STRIX. Have Anya be so good that there was not reason not to meet with the Fuhrer. That had been his best option, especially since he wasn't sure that Operation Best Buddies wasn't going to work.

And yet, with the promise of an interview with the Fuhrer himself...it really wasn't that much of an issue as long as Anya kept up enough to keep her head above water. He just needed her to stay in contact, just as a back up plan, and to serve as his background for the interview. His job was to figure out what Bradley was planning, and if he could gain Bradley's confidence, it shouldn't be too long to figure out. Honestly, he could probably just try and be a normal father, and keep his profession as a psychiatrist, and he'd be fine for the rest of Operation STRIX.

RINGRING

"Oh," Lloyd looked over at the phone. He quickly headed over to it, and picked up the phone, "Hello, Forger Reside-"

"LLOYD!" Twilight had to pull the phone back form his ear, "GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW!"

And then the man on the other side of the phone hung up. Lloyd took a second to put his little pinky finger into his left eardrum. He looked back at Yor and Anya, who had almost jumped back at the scream that he'd just heard from over the phone. Yor in particular looked nervous, as she placed a hand on Anya's shoulder.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Just having a few issues at the hospital," he smiled, nodding at Yor, as he walked over to put on his coat, "I might not get in until you two go to sleep," he pulled out some cash from his wallet, and handed it over to Yor, who took it hesitantly, "Why don't you two go out for dinner. Go have a good night for all the hard work Anya's put in."

"Hamburger steak!" Anya shouted aloud, and Lloyd nodded at that. Yor looked down at Anya, who seemed to have had any gloom from her poor homework showing pushed out from her, and then nodded, and smiled at Lloyd.

"Be careful out there," she said, as Twilight turned towards the door, "It's dangerous out when it gets dark."

_

"So, what was so bad that you had to shout at me to get here?" Lloyd marched inside Franky's cigarette shop. He had made sure to walk towards the hospital on his way out the door in case Yor had been watching him leave, and then change into a second coat and hat to make his way to Franky's shop in case they somehow went out close to where he was going. It had been quite a bit of work for a simple visit, but he couldn't take any chance of Yor finding out he wasn't going to the hospital.

"Why the hell do I keep working with you," Franky was pacing around the room, rubbing his hands into his curly afro, sweat stains covering the sides of his shirt, and a half dozen cigarette butts sitting in an ash tray on the counter, "It's nothing but trouble and horribleness."

"What are you talking about?" Twilight looked at his pacing form, and Franky stopped, and glared at him, before shooting a finger forward towards Lloyd.

"I thought I was done with the creepy stuff when Shou Tucker got arrested," Twilight grimaced at the reminder of that monster wearing a man's skin. He'd managed to mostly put the Sewing Life Alchemist out of his mind, and if Franky was saying this was as bad as that-

"What did the Elric Brothers do."

"It wasn't what they did," Franky seemed to panic, waving his arms around, before he sighed, and suddenly marched behind the counter.

Franky pulled out the a small circular disc. It was one of the recording disks, small little pieces of vinyl that would be placed near a sound, and be turned on for around an hour, and allowed to capture what the recording device picked up. It was crude, but effective, as long as the user had two devices so information wasn't lost in the transition. Franky placed the disk in the nearest player, and then arranged for the needle a bit into the recording. He then flipped the switch, and sound began to play.

"This can't be!" Edward's voice came through. It was a bit patchy, but it was clearly the teenage major who Ed had been meeting with.

The sound of a door opening came up next.

"What's going on," it was the voice of Denny Brosh, one of the boys' two guards. He could hear steps as the guards got closer to their wards, "Did you to have a fight or?"

"Did they?" Twilight hit the off button on the player, and Franky just glared at him.

"No, I didn't even know what was going on until this moment. It certainly wasn't a fight, and since I don't have a visual, I had to just try and listen in to what they were saying," he then flipped the switch, "Now pay attention, I don't want to be the only one to hear this."

"Are you frustrated because you can't decipher the code," Maria Ross's calm voice was still evident even through the scratchy recording. He then heard shuffling of papers, likely because of the boys looking over the pages of work. For a second, there was nothing but silence.

"No," It was Alphonse's voice, and he sounded awful, "We did manage to decipher the code."

"Really then," Brosh spoke up, a bit of a pop in his voice, "Then that's good."

"IT ISN'T GOOD DAMNIT!" Edward's voice seemed to nearly break under the strain, though it held together at the last moment. Lloyd noted the sound of Edward falling to the floor, and could imagine the boy laying down on the wooden planks, "This really is the work of the devil."

'Work of the Devil,' Lloyd could remember the description that Edward had given to Shou Tucker's transformation of Nina, and felt his stomach drop. If this was really that bad, then yes, he could see why Franky was in such a panic.

"Damnit Marcoh," he could hear a sadness to the boys plea, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Edward," Maria Ross's voice seemed to hold down the growing tension inside the room, "You have to tell us why you're panicking like this. It's the only way we can help you."

"...," Edward and Alphonse remained silent, before the eldest Elric brother finally spoke up, "The main ingredient in the creation of a philosopher's stone, is a living human being."

The conversation continued for a moment, but Twilight quickly reached over, and disconnected the needle from the disk. Franky, not wanting to lose their place in the recording, turned the machine off. They sat there for a moment, looking at one another. Twilight then leaned back, and stared at the ceiling, before letting out a sigh, and grabbing one of the cigarettes from the open pack on the counter. He lit it with a lighter Franky quickly provided, and took in a long drag, before putting it out in the ash tray that Franky had been chugging his cigarettes into. He made eye contact with Franky one more time, and said the only thing that came to his mind.

"I fucking hate alchemy."