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Chapter Text

The sun was blazing down onto the square. In spite of the heat, Nico kept his red cloak on. It was the best way to hide the black of his Stygian iron automail arm. The heat was fierce, but he could bear it. At least Bianca wasn’t suffering from the heat in spite of her immense bulk. More than one person had asked her how she could stand to wear the black suit of armor in the blazing sun, but she just told them that she had to, because of her alchemic training, and it really didn’t bother her that much. Nico knew the truth, though. She didn’t feel the heat, because there was no body inside the armor, just her soul, bonded to the metal itself. Somehow, he had a gift when it came to working alchemy on Stygian iron, and he was able to pull her soul back when her body was taken.

Nico wasn’t thinking about the heat at this moment; what he was doing was cursing his commander.

“Stupid Colonel Mustang, sending us out into this gods forsaken town in the middle of nowhere. Investigate this town, Laore, he says. See what you can find. Stupid, smug Colonel Perseus Mustang! What kind of name is Perseus, anyway?”

At any rate, he was thirsty from the train ride out to Laore, so he headed for a stall that seemed to be selling refreshments. There was a radio in the stall, and a voice coming from the radio was making some kind of religious pronouncements.

“Citizens of Laore!” the voice boomed out. “The sun god, Apollo, has bestowed his blessings upon you in the form of me, Father Octavian. Flock to me and behold his miracles, my children.”

“Who is that?” Nico asked.

“I was going to ask you the same question, strangers,” the man behind the counter said in a friendly tone. “Are you street performers?”

Nico looked at the man. The look he shot back was less than friendly. “Do we look like street performers?”

The man smiled at them. “Well, yes you do. You, in that enormous suit of armor,” he pointed at Bianca, “and you wearing gloves and a full cloak in this desert heat.”

Bianca was less prone to anger, so she took over the conversation. “No, we’re just looking for something. And who was that on the radio?”

The man’s eyes widened in surprise. “You really must not be from around here if you don’t know who father Octavian is.”

Some of the other men gathered around the drinks stall joined in the conversation.

“Father Octavian is the emissary of the sun god, Apollo,” the first one put in.

“He came to our town to teach us about Apollo and show us the path of righteousness. He keeps us from the darkness of the Graecae and works miracles,” a second man said.

“What are Graecae?” Nico asked.

They all just shrugged at this.

Nico continued, “What about those miracles of his?”

“They’re amazing. With a wave of his hand, he made flowers appear out of nowhere. He pointed at my own children's teddy bears, and the toys sprang to life and began a fight to the death, ripping each other apart,” a third man said, awe in his voice.

“Too bad for the bears,” Nico smirked, but he wondered about this. Alchemy could do some of this, but bringing inanimate objects to life? This needed to be looked into.

A small child called out to Bianca. “Aren’t you hot in all that black armor?”

As she turned to answer, the plume on her helmet caught on the radio, knocking it off the shelf (she still wasn’t used to this enormous form sometimes), and the radio fell to the ground, smashing it to bits.

As the stall owner looked on in dismay, Bianca said, “I’m so sorry. Here. let me repair it.”

The poor man shook his head mournfully. “I don’t see how you can. It’s in a thousand pieces.”

Nico grinned. “Watch and be amazed.”

Bianca knelt down, sketching a circle with the appropriate symbols around the fragments of the rado. By now a small crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch in curiosity at these two strangers. Next, Bianca placed her palms down on the edge of the circle, concentrating as she drew on the alchemical energy of the earth. She and her brother found that the earth’s energies were the easiest for them to draw upon. There was a flash, and then there was the radio, as good as new. She replaced it on the shelf, turned it on, and the sound came out, much clearer than it had before.

There were gasps from the crowd. “She’s a miracle worker!” “First Father Octavian, now this! Truly we are blessed!" “Do we have more blessings than before?”

Nico sensed a change in the crowd that could spin out of control if it ran wild, so he put up his hands. “No miracles here, just good old fashioned alchemy. Any alchemist worth his salt could do it.”

That seemed to calm the crowd. Sure enough one old man said, “Yeah, I’ve seen alchemy before. But you seem to be so young.”

By now a crowd had gathered, drawn by the flash from the alchemical reaction. A girl with pink streaks in her hair was pushing her way through the crowd. As she came up to the counter, the men gathered around called out a greeting.

“Hey Gwen! Come here to pick up our offering to the temple?” the stall owner said to her.

“You bet,” the girl replied with a smile. “The Fifth Precinct has to maintain its reputation for generosity.”

The stall owner handed a large bundle over the counter to Gwen, who accepted it with “Apollo’s blessings on you.” Then she headed up the street.

As she walked away, the gathered men waved to her, fond looks on their faces. “It’s good to see Gwen smiling again,” one of them said.

Bianca, ever tender hearted, leaned forward, making an inquiring noise.

“We were afraid that she’d never smile again,” he continued. “When Father Octavian first came to town, there was an accident. Her boyfriend, a fellow named Dakota, well he was killed, and we almost lost our Gwendolyn. It was the first miracle. He brought her back from the brink of death, and then he said he could raise her boyfriend from the dead if only she believed enough.”

Nico became interested when he heard that. “Hey, Bianca, maybe we should meet this Octavian.”

Hearing this, the stall owner pointed to the tall building across the square. “He’ll be in the church. I’m sure Father Octavian would welcome the chance to save you two from the snares of the Graecae. If you ask Gwen, I’m sure she’ll be happy to introduce you to the Father.”

The two alchemists needed no further prompting and headed to the church. By the time they arrived, Gwen was coming out of an office. Speaking to her was a pale, thin man with blond hair and blue eyes. For a moment, the eye and hair color made Nico think of Will, almost as if they were related, but the blond hair was faded, like it had been washed too many times, and the eyes had a slightly crazed look to them. Nevertheless, this man had a look of authority to him, and his tone was patronizing.

“Gwen, my child, you must have patience. You know that when the time is right, Apollo will bring your boyfriend back from the grave.” As he finished speaking, the man turned and went back into the office, closing the door behind him.

Nico couldn’t keep a soft snort from issuing at those words, though. Gwen approached him, smiling, though.

“So, strangers,” she said, “have you come to hear the gospel of Apollo and be saved?”

Nico replied, “Sorry, but I’m not religious.”

Gwen was not put off by this. “That’s not a real answer. If you believe in the gods, you can live in hope and gratitude every day.”

“So you believe the dead can come back to life?”

“I do.”

Nico closed his eyes and recited from memory. “Water, carbon, ammonia, lime, phosphorus, salt, sulphur, saltpeter, iron, and other elements in trace quantities.”

Gwen stared at him uncomprehendingly, so he continued.

“That’s the composition of the human body. Science has known that for centuries, but there’s never been a single successful case of human transmutation. Now some people think that makes science a lost cause, but I think it’s better than sitting around praying and waiting for something to happen. The funny thing is, all those ingredients I listed, you can buy them in any market for a child’s allowance. If gods made humans, they made us on the cheap.”

By now, they could hear a commotion coming from the courtyard. It was Octavian’s voice, loud and, in Nico’s opinion, pompous, followed by a loud booming (the sound of large transmutations, something the Elrics were quite familiar with) and then the sound of cheering. Nico ran to the window to see what was happening, Bianca and Gwen close behind him.

As they watched, Octavian plucked a flower from a vase at his feet. He shouted something along the lines of “Behold the might of Apollo,” (it was hard to tell over the noise of the crowd around him), and then closed his hand over the bloom. Then he cast his arm up and opened his fist. There was a flash and a boom, and a shower of rose petals fell from the sky. The crowd cheered.

Next, two people at the front of the crowd thrust their children forward. The two children presented Octavian with their toy bears. (The toddlers didn’t look entirely pleased to surrender their toys.) Octavian grabbed the plush bears by their heads and flung them into the air behind him. Another flash and boom, and the bears had grown to ten feet in height and began to dance around in a clumsy lumbering fashion. The children, looking a bit terrified, fled back to their parents, but the crowd again cheered.

“Now do you believe?” Gwendolyn asked triumphantly.

“I believe that was some impressive alchemy,” Nico replied, “but he seems to be getting around the law of equivalent exchange.”

“I noticed that glint on his finger,” Bianca pointed out. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I’m thinking I’d really like to meet this Father Octavian. Gwen, could you help us out?” Nico asked as sweetly as he could. Bianca wasn’t fooled in the least by this act, but Gwen, not having followed the brief exchange, looked delighted.

=====
Seated at his desk, Father Octavian looked up at his attendant. “What is it, Brother Lawrence?”

“Visitors, sir. A boy and a woman in a suit of armor. They say their name is Elric.”

Octavian grew alarmed. “Elric? That must be Nico Elric, the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

Brother Lawrence looked shocked. “How can that be? He’s just a child.”

“Fool,” said Octavian, “he’s the youngest state alchemist on record. He got his title when he was only 12. It seems the dogs of the military have good noses.”

“Shall I get rid of them?” Father Lawrence asked, a trifle too eagerly.

“I think I’d better oversee this one, Bryce. Your methods are effective enough, but sometimes your enthusiasm makes you a little sloppy. Show them in, but be careful.” With that, Octavian retired to his inner sanctum.

Brother Lawrence opened the doors and gestured for Gwen and the Elrics to enter. Nico stepped forward.

“We don’t want to take too much of your time,” he said.

Brother Lawrence stepped in front of him. From under his robe, he produced what looked like a short javelin. He held it in his left hand and pointed it at Nico’s chest. With his right hand, he pulled out a pistol and fired it at Bianca’s head. The suit of armor fell backward, the helmet flying into the air and landing at Nico’s feet. Gwen shrank back in horror, crying out, “Brother Lawrence, what have you done?”

“I’m merely carrying out the will of Apollo,” he replied smugly. “These heathens have come to entrap his holiness with their Graecus wiles.” Then he brought the pistol over to point at Nico’s chest. Before the priest could do anything, though, the headless suit of armor had risen from the ground and seized the pistol in its black iron gauntlet. That still left the javelin in his other hand, but by now, Nico had grabbed his sister’s helmet by the plume and swung it against the luckless priest’s head, causing him to crumple to the ground, unconscious.

“Hey!” Bianca’s voice issued from the helmet. “That’s my head you’re swinging.”

Gwen gaped into the empty suit of armor. “What is this?” she whimpered in a frightened voice.

Bianca replied in a sad voice, “You might say that is what happens when you trespass in the realm of the gods.”

Nico cut his sister off. “That’s a story for another time. I’m going to have a word with Father Octavian. Gwen, do you have the courage to face the truth?”

=====

Octavian leaned against the pulpit, looking down into the arena. Surely that fool Lawrence had taken care of the intruders. Too bad about Gwen though. She was such a tractable little thing. His musings were cut off when the door below him flew open and those two Elric brats burst in.

Octavian was seething at his incompetant assistant. Couldn’t the fool take care of two children? Nevertheless, he kept his cool.

“Welcome to the Church of the Sun God, Apollo. Have you come to learn his holy ways from me?”

Nico looked up at him, a cold smile on his face. “There are some things I’d certainly like to learn from you. For starters, how you use your lame alchemy to deceive your followers.”

Octavian was unruffled. “Do not confuse my miracles with alchemy. If you saw for yourself, surely you’d be convinced.”

“Yeah, I saw, alright. And at first I couldn’t figure out how you did those transmutations in violation of the rules of alchemy. Then it came to me. You’ve got a philosopher’s stone. That’s it in your ring, isn’t it?”

Octavian gave a short bark of a laugh. “I guess the military gets its money’s worth out of you. You’re right.” He raised his hand to brandish the ring with the blood red stone. “It is the philosopher’s stone. With it, I can get the maximum result with the minimum cost.”

“And what do you use the stone for? Is it money? You could make all the Imperial gold you want with it.”

Octavian snorted derisively at Nico. ‘Money? Hah! I get all the money I want just from the donations of my flock. What I really need is followers who would happily give their lives for me. Within a few years, I’ll have enough followers to take over all of Amestris. Think about it! An invincible army of fanatics with no fear of death.”

“Hmph.” Nico rolled his eyes. “Tell you what. Give me the stone, and I won’t expose the scam you’ve been pulling on everybody.”

“Fool! Why should they believe you? The people of this town love me. They think my words come directly from Apollo. No-one will listen to you. These idiots will believe anything I tell them. I’ve completely fooled them.”

Nico applauded softly. “Wow! You really are smart. Thank you for telling me how you do it. You’re right. Your followers won’t believe me.”

He reached over and opened Bianca’s chest plate to reveal Gwen hiding inside. “But what about her?”

Gwen looked at the priest with wide eyes as she climbed out of the suit of armor. “Is it true? Were you fooling us the whole time? You can’t bring Dakota back?” Her voice trembled on the last sentence.

Octavian narrowed his eyes, a look of cunning on his face. “I may not be Apollo’s emissary. But with the stone, I can resurrect him.”

He could see the wavering in the girl’s face, so he pressed on. “Think about it, darling. I’m the only one that can grant your wish.”

Her will crumbled at that. With tears in her eyes, she faced the Elrics and said, “I’m sorry, but this is the only choice I can make,” and she turned away, not willing to look at their eyes any more as she walked toward the priest with slumped shoulders.

Sympathy dripped from the priest’s voice. “She really is a good girl.” Then, his voice hardened. “And now, we really must eradicate this Graecus scum.”

“Brother, what’s a Graecus?” Bianca asked. Nico just shrugged.

Octavian gestured at the floor, and it turned to sand. “You won’t be able to draw a transmutation circle in this,” he crowed. “Now meet one of the pets my ring made for me.”

From the shadows, a growl issued.

“How do you like my manticore? It really is amazing what i can create with this ring.” Octavian looked at Nico and Bianca eagerly as the creature emerged from the shadows, a misshapen nightmare of a lion with a human face and a scorpion’s tail.

Nico clapped his hands together and then placed his palms on the sand. A sword rose up into his hands, and he used it to lop off the tail before it could sting him. “Insufferable brrrat!” the monster cried out in a harsh, metallic voice. Then it gave a swipe of its claws, and the sword fell to the ground in pieces. It then raked its claws savagely against Nico’s left leg.

Gwen gasped in horror as Octavian called out, “My pet’s claws can cut through steel. I can only imagine what it did to your leg.”

Nico just laughed as his tattered pant leg fell away to reveal his black iron automail leg. The manticore, however, roared in pain, its claw shattered and its paw bleeding.

“You’ll have to do better than that. This is a custom job, specially reinforced.”

The manticore, enraged by the taunt, roared in fury to reveal immense fangs, which it used to clamp onto Nico’s right arm. This proved even more useless than the swipe to his leg, as he pulled his undamaged automail arm free amid a shower of broken manticore teeth.

“What’s the matter, kitty? Doesn’t taste good?” He took advantage of the chimera’s surprise to land a blow to its head, and the monster collapsed onto the sand. Then he turned to Gwen, all the humor gone from his face.

“Take a good look, Gwen.” Nico removed the tatters of his shredded sleeve and pant leg to reveal the stark black of his Stygian iron automail. “This is what happens when you use alchemy on human life.”

Octavian eyed the boy standing before him, taking in his automail prosthetics. “So, this is why they call you the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

“That’s right. Now come down here and face me, you fraud.”

Octavian didn’t move from his pulpit. He looked down at them sneering. “I wondered,” he sneered, “how a little brat like you could earn such a fearsome title. Now I see. Look at them, Gwendolyn. They dared to do the one thing absolutely forbidden to alchemists. Like the alchemist in the legends who made wings out of wax and dared to fly too close to the sun.”

Gwen choked out, “His wings melted, and he fell into the sea.”

Chapter Text

“We just wanted to see her smile again.”

Bianca’s voice rang out plaintively from the suit of armor as she recalled that fateful night.

“We knew we were breaking the first law of alchemy, but we were two kids who’d just lost our mother, and we wanted her back.” She continued, her voice full of sadness. “Our formulas were perfect, but...but, the resurrection failed. When it failed, my brother lost his leg. But I, I lost my entire body. I lost consciousness for a while. When I came to, I saw Nico lying there in a pool of blood. He looked so much smaller than he had before. I looked down at myself and saw this armor body. He tried to smile at me, even though he was in so much pain. He just said, ‘All I could get for this arm was your soul.’ Even after the agony of losing his leg, he exchanged his right arm for my soul and bound it to this suit of armor.”

Nico looked at Gwen, his eyes so hard as he said, “The two of us tried to resurrect one person, and this is what happened. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?”

Octavian just looked down at them and laughed. “So, that’s why you fools want the stone, to be able to transmute humans.”

Nico returned the look without fear. “We just want to try to get our bodies back. Now give us the stone, and you won’t get hurt.”

“You fools are the ones who tried to get too close to the gods,” Octavian said and touched the stone to his cane, transforming it to a machine gun. “Now I’ll see to it that you meet them permanently,” and he opened fire on the Elrics.

But to his surprise and annoyance, when the smoke from the rain of bullets cleared, an enormous stone wall had arisen, no doubt more of their alchemy, and shielded those annoying brats. By now they were running for the exit, Bianca carrying Gwen in her arms.

“Stop them, you fools!” Octavian shouted. The guards were intimidated by the hulking armored figure, but the slight boy in tattered clothes didn’t present such a frightening figure and was promptly seized.

“Secure his arms! Throw him into the dungeon. I’ll deal with him in the morning.” Octavian strode off, looking smug.
“Oh no,” Nico said, hoping that these idiots couldn’t understand the mocking irony in his voice. “Not the dark, scary dungeon, full of shadows.” He still had a trick or two up his (rather shredded) sleeve.
After his arms had been chained, they threw him into a cell. When he heard their footsteps receding down the corridor, Nico looked at the lengthening shadow in the far corner of the cell and stepped into it, leaving the chains behind. He emerged in a darkened alley, where Bianca was waiting. His sister always had a knack for knowing which shadow he’d step out of at times like this. Gwen was waiting with her
“I have a plan,” he said. “I need you to set something up somewhere in the center of town.”
“There’s an old bell tower there. The church there was abandoned when Father Octavian built the new church, because he said the old one wasn’t grand enough for Apollo, but the tower still rises above the other buildings there,” Gwen supplied.
“Perfect. We’ll need to create a few electrical pieces.”
There was a smile in Bianca’s voice even though the helmet of the suit of armor was incapable of showing expression. “It’s a good thing Teacher’s friend Leo taught us how to do this.”
=====
In the morning, Father Octavian headed to his office. He liked the office. It wasn’t too close to the church, so he could have some privacy, but the view of the bell tower and courtyard from his desk chair was nice. He was not pleased, however when he entered the room and saw the insolent youth lounging against his desk. Still, he kept his anger in check. Good to maintain control of the situation.
“How did you get out of your cell?” he demanded. “How did you get in here?”
Nico’s face assumed his usual smirk. “I tell you what, father. I’ll answer your questions if you answer a few of mine.”
Octavian’s face changed to a bland smile. “Why not?” he thought. “You won’t live to tell anyone.” His left hand briefly touched the red stone on the ring on his right hand.
“All right, my curious friend. If you must know, my credulous flock is going to make excellent cannon fodder. Those fools are already willing to lay down their lives for me, so when I’m ready to make my next move, my lambs will be ready for the slaughter.” His gloating mood made his tongue loose. “You give people a few cheap miracles, and you have an army of slaves.” He laughed at this, a touch of madness glinting in his pale, bloodshot eyes.
“Now it’s your turn.” He gestured to Nico. “How did you get out.”
“Oh, I’ll let you know that,” Nico said airily. “But there’s something else you should know first.”
He moved aside to reveal a microphone on the desk. Then he gestured to the window now at Octavian’s back. The priest turned and looked out to see a large loudspeaker set up in the bell tower, with the large form of Bianca next to it. She waved and then pointed down to the courtyard below. The entire population of Laore was gathered, and they looked angry.
“You! You!” Octavian sputtered. “How much did they hear?”
“I’d say every word of it. I think your lambs might be ready to slaughter you.”
The priest frothed with rage. He spun about, his elaborate robes swirling as he did. He pointed down with his right hand. His ring glowed and a catapult appeared, loaded with Imperial gold. He aimed the catapult at the bell tower and then swirled to face Nico. “I’ll kill your sister while you watch. Then I’ll kill you.”
As he reached for the release lever on the catapult, Nico saw that Octavian’s robe had caught on the payload, but before Nico could say anything, Octavian pulled the lever, and the load flew through the window, dragging the screaming priest with it. The noise of his shrieks caught the attention of the crowd, so they scattered. To Nico’s relief, he saw Bianca duck into the shadow before the incendiary mass hit the tower and erupted in flames.
The courtyard was still deserted a few minutes later as the siblings stepped out of the shadows to search the rubble.
“Look, Nico, it’s his ring!” Bianca called out.
Nico reached for the ring, but to his disappointment, the stone fell out of its setting, turning the color of mud as it fell. The mud colored blob seemed to melt, leaving nothing but a brief stench.
“I guess it wasn’t a real Philosopher’s Stone after all,” Nico said, a touch of bitterness in his voice.”
“Well, brother, I guess we have to report back to Colonel Mustang.” Their journey back was interrupted when Gwen stepped in front of them.
“What do I do now?” There were tears in her eyes. “What am I supposed to believe in?”
Nico’s voice was cold, but there was pity in his eyes as he and BIanca walked back into the desert. “You have two good legs. Stand up and walk.”

Chapter Text

They were back on the train again. “Another fool’s errand for Colonel Mustang,” though Nico Stupid Colonel Mustang with his stupid green eyes. Why was he thinking about Percy Mustang’s eyes? At least this time, they weren’t out in the desert. He hated the desert. It was hot, the sun was too bright, and Bianca tended to fill up with sand.

As they rode, he read the Colonel’s report. Apparently there was some concern. Youswell was the heart of Amestrian wine production, and in addition to being a major source of income, the wines were useful in producing some fairly complex organic chemicals that bio-alchemists needed. Now, production was off, and there were rumblings of unrest.

Bianca was looking out the window as the train came to a stop. The area looked lovely. Youswell was one of the most fertile parts of Amestris. She couldn’t understand why the people she saw looked so downtrodden. In spite of the lush greenery, the whole place seemed run down. They got off the train and headed into town.

“First off,” said Bianca, let’s find a place to stay. I have a feeling this could take more than a day.”

“I hope they have something to eat,” Nico put in. “I’m starving. The food on the train was greasy and disgusting. I wouldn’t feed it to dead people! And that stupid toy they put in with it. What was that about?”

“I’m sorry you’re unhappy about your meal,” Bianca said.

“Hey!” a girl called out to them. “If you’re looking for food and lodging, my dad has a place just down the street.”

The Elrics looked at the girl. Her clothing was threadbare and patched, but it was clean, so they followed her.

When they arrived at a large building at the end of the block, the girl opened the door and shouted, “Dad!”

A large man in a patched apron called back, “What is it, Leila?”

“Customers.”

The man smiled and greeted the travelers. “Welcome, strangers. You need a place to stay, I take it.”

Nico sat at a table by the entrance with a sigh of relief. “Yes, and a meal if you have it.”

The large man stepped into a back room and came back with two steaming bowls of stew that made Nico’s stomach growl. When it was placed before him, he grabbed a spoon and took a mouthful. Around mouthfuls, he said, “Thanks, mister. This is really good.”

“Thank you, stranger. I’m Michael Kahale.”

Bianca, being incapable of eating, decided to take care of the business at hand. “How much for the meal and a night’s lodging, Mr. Kahale?”

He responded, “Call me Michael. It’s 200,000 drachma per night, meals included.”

Nico spat out the mouthful in shock. “200,000! That’s outrageous!”

Michael shook his head. “It’s the best deal you’ll get. We’re the only inn around, and we don’t get many guests. I have to make enough for taxes somehow.”

Nico had a travel allowance from his CO, but that amount would use almost all of his funds, and he didn’t want to have to wire Colonel Mustang for more. He took in the other people seated at tables around the room. All of them were wearing old, patched clothing, and a lot of them had bundles of farming implements, most of them old and in poor repair. He saw his chance.

“Maybe we can work out a trade. How about a room for the night and dinner if I fix your tools?”

The men were dubious, but Kahale nodded. Within a short while, the table was piled high with broken hoes and axes and worn out shears. Nico reached out for the worst of them, a pair rusted and twisted pruning shears. He clapped his hands together and then placed his palms on the shears. There was a flash of light and the shears were sitting on the table, gleaming bright and freshly sharpened.

That was all it took. Tools were handed to him and he repaired each one. With each flash of light, the crowd cheered. Nico warmed to the attention. He was enjoying it, so when Kahale said, “You’re an alchemist, aren’t you? What’s your name, son?” he responded with pride.

“I’m Nico Elric. Maybe you’ve heard of me. I’m also known as the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

The room grew abruptly silent. Then Kahale spoke, all friendliness gone from his voice.

“You’re a state alchemist?”

Nico nodded, and the next thing he knew, he was flung out the door as the innkeeper shouted at him, “We don’t give food or lodging to dogs of the military!”

He heard Bianca’s voice calling out, “Wait! I’m only a civilian. I’m not a ‘state’ anything.”

“Traitor!” Nico muttered as he crashed into the dusty road.

=====

Inside the inn, Bianca asked the girl Leila, “So, you don’t like the military?”

“The whole town is under the thumb of Corporal Dionysus. He keeps raising the taxes, and when we can’t pay, he takes ownership of everything. Right now, our inn is the only piece of property he doesn’t have the title to. When we complain, his military goons just haul us off to prison.”

=====

Nico was sitting outside the inn, still hungry, when Bianca stepped out and produced a large bowl of stew from inside her chest cavity.

“Brother, I knew you didn’t get a full meal, so I snuck this out for you.”

“Bianca, my dear sister!” His previous cry of “Traitor” forgotten, he threw his arms around her for just a moment, and then fell to devouring the meal before him. As he ate, Bianca explained the reason that the military was hated so much.

He had just finished eating when a trio of military men pushed both of them aside. The leader was short (though still taller than Nico) and porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He and his aides strode into the inn. Nico and Bianca followed them, curious to see what would happen.

“Well, the place looks filthy as always,” the officer said, holding a handkerchief in front of his red nose as if the smell offended him.

“Corporal D, what brings you to our humble lodgings?” Kahale asked, keeping his voice level.

“Morton Callahan, you are late with your taxes for the last time,” the lieutenant simpered.

“That’s Michael Kahale, you fool,” the innkeeper muttered.

“No matter. These,” the lieutenant brandished a sheaf of papers, “give me full ownership of this hovel. You will vacate the premises by tomorrow morning.”

Leila sprang up in rage, her fists aimed at Corporal D. “You can’t! I’ll…”

The lieutenant swiped his fist at her, knocking her back. Then he gestured to one of his aides.

“Pollux, teach this whelp some manners.”

The man drew out a sword and prepared to strike the girl with it, but the blow was stopped when the sword struck Nico’s upraised arm and fell to pieces.

“It shattered! How did he do that?” the soldier asked in surprise.

“Who the hell are you?” Corporal D demanded.

Instead of answering right away, Nico reached inside his collar and pulled out a leather thong with some beads hung from it. The corporal’s eyes widened when he saw the design on the beads. “The president’s seal! This is a state alchemist. I can make some good connections with this runt,” he thought to himself.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” the corporal said in a more placating tone. “I am Corporal Bacchus Dionysus, but you can call me Mr. D.” His voice was oily as he sidled up to Nico. “If you need a place for the night, there’s no need for you to stay in this pig-pen” (Kahale bridled at that.) “Come back to my estate, and I’ll show you proper hospitality.

“Why thank you, Mr. D. I’m Nico Elric, but you can call me the Stygian Iron Alchemist. I’d be delighted.”

And he walked out with the soldiers, ignoring the glares of the locals.

=====

The meal Nico received at Mr. D’s manor was far more lavish than what the inn had to offer. In addition, there were plenty of the finest wines from the Youswell vineyards, although he noticed that the corporal only drank from his own decanter.

“Mr. D,” Nico said, “I can’t help but notice that you seem to be doing alright.”

“Thank you,” the man simpered. “One does one’s best. It certainly hasn’t been easy living among these brutes. I’ve done my best to make sure that they pay their fair share in taxes, for the good of the country, of course, but these ingrates just don’t want to support the military as they should.”

“Support the military,” Nico thought, “more like make you rich while they slave here.” He also noticed that his own wineglass was being refilled as fast as he drank, and after the first sip, he knew that what he was given was quite strong. No problem, a few symbols drawn on the side of the glass in a finger dipped into the dark red wine, and he was able to transmute the beverage into nothing more potent than colored water.

“Would you be interested in a game or two of pinochle?” Mr. D asked after the meal (but not the wine) was cleared.

Nico nodded, and as the other man left the table to get the cards, he examined Mr. D’s private decanter. Just as he thought, while trying to get Nico drunk, this corporal was drinking the same colored water that Nico had changed his own wine to. Well, two could play at that. He drew symbols on the base of the decanter, and whatever liquid was put into it would become more alcoholic with each refill.

Halfway through the first game, Nico proposed that they play for money, just to make it interesting, he said. He liked the way Mr. D’s eyes lit up at that and the way he drained his goblet eagerly, urging Nico to do the same.

Nico made sure to keep losing, but only small amounts. Midway through the night, he produced a stack of papers and moved them toward the corporal.

“Sorry,” he said, affecting a slight slurring of his words. “I’ll need your signatures on these, It’s my reports, You understand…”

“Of course, of course,” Mr. D. replied, not noticing how truly slurred his own words were. He signed the papers readily, thinking to himself that he’d have his aides go through the alchemist’s papers the next morning and remove the forms if they didn’t portray him in a flattering light. The way this kid was chugging his drinks, he probably wouldn’t wake up until noon, he thought. Little did he know…

=====
The next morning, Nico was up almost at sun-rise. He wasn’t pleased to be up so early, but there was a lot to do. First, he stopped at the soldiers’ quarters and gave them some of the papers that Corporal D had signed the night before. Then he used the telephone to make a brief phone call to Central. The remaining papers he tucked under his arm and headed for the inn. He assumed that most of the workers assembled there for breakfast before their long day toiling in the vineyards.

When he arrived there, the assembled workers didn’t seem to be happy to see him, and they certainly didn’t appreciate his cheery “Good morning, everyone.”

One of the workers, who happened to be hefting a rather sharp and gleaming pruning hook (Nico assumed that Bianca had continued the repair work on their tools after he’d left) snarled, “You have some nerve showing your face here!”

“Now, now,” Nico chided, “is that any way to speak to your new landlord?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kahale asked angrily.

“It seems,” Nico replied smoothly, “that for some reason, Corporal Dionysus transferred ownership of all the confiscated properties, as well as this inn, to whoever holds these papers.”

There were gasps and mutters that seemed to take on a threatening tone as Nico brandished the pile of signed documents, but he continued, appearing not to be concerned with the glares he was receiving.

“Unfortunately, I have to be leaving for my next assignment, and with only one real arm,” he drew back his right sleeve to reveal the automail underneath it, “these are just too much for me to be carrying around all the time. Besides, I don’t really have the time or the inclination to be an absentee landlord.”

“Michael Kahale,” he thrust the sheaf at the innkeeper, “you seem to have the room to store these. Why don’t you keep them here? Unless you can think of somewhere else each of these deeds should go.”

The innkeeper was astonished as he took the pile of deeds, but not so astonished that he didn’t start handing the papers to the rightful owners. “Sir,” he said respectfully to Nico, “I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Well, would you consider exchanging the deeds for the cost of my sister’s staying at your inn, and throwing in a few meals?”

Michael Kahale threw back his head and laughed. “Alchemist, you drive a hard bargain.”

The room erupted in a responding laughter, followed by cheers.

The cheers were cut off as the doors flew open to reveal a furious Corporal Dionysus. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose was redder than usual, and he was quivering with rage.

“What are you doing here?” he croaked out furiously. “This is my property now! And you!” He pointed at the vintners. “What are you doing idling about? No wonder you can’t pay your taxes. When my aides get here, I’ll have you shot if you don’t get back to work immediately!”

Nico calmly stepped up to the fuming man. “Actually, I don’t think so. You may have forgotten, but in the course of our friendly game of cards, you signed over all of your holdings to me.” To back up his claim, several of the men held up the deeds, clearly showing the corporal’s signature on them.

Corporal D turned purple. “This is some kind of trick. When my aides get here...where are Lieutenant Castor and Lieutenant Pollux?”

Nico gave him a cold smile. “Oh, they’re on the train back to Central. You also seem to have forgotten signing their reassignment papers. And, by the way, they’re carrying my full report back with them. I gave a brief report by telephone this morning, though, and it seems I’ve received the authority to have you held in custody until tomorrow, when a detachment will be escorting you back to Central.”

“You! You! How do you intend to hold me?” The man was paunchy and looked unwell, but he did have a few inches and quite a few pounds on Nico. He knew he could hold his own, but after restoring this inn to its proper owner, he didn’t want it to be damaged if he had to fight the man.

That didn’t seem to be necessary though, as the corporal found himself surrounded by a ring of vintners, all of whom were carrying very sharp farming implements, and none of whom were strangers to hard work.

=====
For the rest of the day, the Elrics found themselves constantly being approached by the vineyard workers. Each one seemed eager to show their appreciation. Bianca tried to take it all in stride, but Nico found it difficult to hide his discomfort at the attention until Michael Kahale said to him, “You know, most of us have been living in Youswell and working the vineyards for generations. We were afraid that we were going to lose our homes. I don’t know if you can understand how much that means to us.”

Nico thought about the home that he and Bianca could no longer go back to, and just nodded at the man and his daughter.

When they headed for the train that evening, they were surrounded by a crowd of admiring townspeople, who made sure that they were well provisioned for the rest of their journey.

Chapter Text

As they rode the train back to Central, they thought back to their first trip there by train.

=====

“I don’t see why we had to wait until today.” Nico was, as usual, in a bad mood.

“Cheer up, brother. We’re on our way to Central at last, and you’ll be a state alchemist soon.” Bianca tried to cheer her brother up, but she also wondered why Colonel Mustang had told them to postpone their trip. It was only two days, but the Elric siblings were eager to move ahead on their journey to get their normal bodies back. The colonel had made some vague statements about the timing of the exams and making sure that things were in place for them, but Nico didn’t trust him. Still, they were on their way.

As they sat on the train, Nico facing back and Bianca facing forward, he noticed a tiny head peeking over the top of the seats. When he leaned forward to get a better look, the head popped down quickly, but then came slowly back. It belonged to a young girl who stared at the massive suit of black armor with wide, curious eyes.

“Wow,” the little girl said. “You must love armor to be wearing so much of it.”

“Julia,” a voice hissed. “Mind your manners. Don’t disturb the strangers.”

Bianca turned around and looked over the seat to see a stony-faced man glaring at the little girl. The man sat stiffly, and his arms were tucked so close to his sides that Bianca wondered whether he actually had arms.

“Sorry, Uncle Terminus,” the little girl apologized.

“And what are you staring at?” the older man snapped at Bianca, who hastily turned around, muttering apologies.

Unnoticed by the Elrics, a short stocky figure stepped through the door to the next car up on the train. The figure continued along the train until he made his way to the radio car. As he entered the car, the man at the switchboard looked up at him.

“Anything to report, Warrant Officer Hedge?”

“There’s one suspicious character in car 13. All in black armor, a girl by the sound of her voice.”

Maes Beckendorf, seated at the switchboard, laughed. “If she’s traveling with a short boy with a long black braid, you can relax, Hedge. That’s one of ours. Now, get back on patrol; I have to file my report.”

As the warrant office went back to patrolling the train, Beckendorf placed a call.

“Hey Percy, Beckendorf here,” he said into the receiver. “Just wanted to chat. Did I tell you Silena’s expecting?”

From the receiver, an angry voice rang out. “Only four times today already. How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me just to brag about your wife?”

Beckendorf laughed again. “But wives are assets better than gold. They’re like money in the bank. There’s no better place than a home with a wife in it.”

He paused a moment to let Colonel Mustang rage at him. Then he went on. “You’re still single, I’ll bet. Maybe I should look for a nice girl for you. You’ll thank me after I introduce you to some of Silena’s friends. You’ll really like them.”

“That’s enough time wasting out of you, Beckendorf! Some of us have work to do!” came Percy’s angry voice just before he slammed the phone down. Beckendorf just leaned back in his chair and smiled.

At headquarters, Lieutenant Annabeth Hawkeye came into Colonel Mustang’s office, drawn by the shouting. She’d been Mustang’s second in command for years, and they’d fought together in so many battles that she had a certain leeway in how she treated her superior, at least when they were in private.

“Colonel, I heard you shouting all the way down the hall. What’s the problem this time?”

Mustang showed none of the anger he had a moment earlier on the phone. On the contrary, his mood was excellent.

“No problem, just getting a message from Beckendorf. He just informed me that our scheme is set to go.”

Hawkeye shook her head and walked out of the office, muttering “Seaweed brains, both of you.” to herself.

What she didn’t know was that Mustang and Beckendorf had long ago worked out this method of communicating when they didn’t trust the security of the phone lines. Everyone knew that Beckendorf doted on his wife and that he teased Mustang about his single status, so he’d start gushing about Silena, and then Percy would complain about it, working a number into the complaint. That number was how many words into each sentence the key words would be placed. In this case, the message was: Assets in place. I’ll look after them.

Hedge got back to car 13 in time to see a commotion. Two men were standing at the front of the car. They were brandishing rifles. One of them said, “No heroes today! Everybody get your hands over your heads...or say hello to a bullet. We’re looking for something on this train. Don’t give us any trouble.”

The second one pointed his gun at Bianca. “You! Out of the armor! Now.”

Bianca looked at Nico. She couldn’t really remove the armor. Her brother sprang up, waving his arms frantically.

“Oh gods, you’re going to kill us!” he shouted, spinning around as if in a panic. Hedge wasn’t too impressed with this agent of Mustang’s if he panicked so easily, but then the boy’s gyrations brought him closer to the first gunman, who tumbled as the boy’s foot caught him. He raised his rifle, but the boy caught it in his hands, which had some sort of chalk markings on them. As the hands closed on the muzzle of the rifle, it twisted into a bow. Nice, so the kid was an alchemist, and a pretty good one to be able to pull off a stunt like that on the fly.

“Stupid move, kid.” The second gunman brought his rifle around, but then crumpled to the floor of the car as the armored girl’s fist fell heavily onto his head.

“Nice work.” Hedge stepped forward. “But those weren’t the only ones on the train. There are more of them at the front.”

“Right,” Nico replied. “Bianca, let’s take care of these clowns. I’ll go high; you go low.”

“Got it, brother,” she replied as he climbed out the window.

Hedge looked at them in surprise. “Who are you cupcakes?”

The hulking figure gave a little shrug. “Just a couple of alchemists.” The girl’s voice echoing from the helmet seemed out of place, but she seemed to know what she was doing, so Hedge went to the window to follow the other character, her brother, she’d said.

Nico walked carefully along the roof of the car, struggling to maintain his balance. He was surprised to see the man who’d spoken to them earlier scrambling nimbly forward like a mountain goat.

“Hey kid, there’s an art to walking on top of a moving train. Stay low, it minimizes wind resistance, and it makes you a smaller target.”

“Thanks,” Nico said, adjusting his stance as they came to the front of car thirteen and prepared to jump to the next car up. “Who are you, and who are you calling a smaller target?”

As if on cue a shot rang out, making them duck down between the cars. “Warrant Officer Gleeson Hedge. I was put on this train to provide some extra security, but they didn’t tell me why. You’re part of Percy Mustang’s team, I take it.”

Nico frowned, not pleased to be called part of Mustang’s ‘team.’ “Not exactly, we’re more free-lancers at this point. Is that gunman still up there?”

Hedge poked his head up for just an instant, and another shot rang out. “I don’t know how we’re going to get past him.”

Nico grinned evilly. “I got this.” Then he pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and sketched a figure on the side of the car, just below the roof. He put his hand on the figure, and a small cannon formed itself out of the roof. A brief blast from the cannon took care of the gunman, so they were able to continue their way up the train.

Meanwhile, Bianca was making her way to the front of the train. She went from car to car without incident, although some of the passengers gave her frightened looks. She tried to wave at them reassuringly, although her helmet was incapable of a friendly smile. Finally, she opened the door to the first passenger car. A gun was pointed directly at her chest.

“Wait! You don’t want to shoot! The bullet will…” Her statement was cut off by the sound of a gunshot, immediately followed by the pinging sound of the bullet bouncing off the impregnable black iron of her armored chest. “Ricochet,” she finished to the gunman who was now lying on the floor clutching his leg, which was bleeding from the bullet that indeed had ricocheted.

He had a compatriot who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle which he deployed against Bianca with the same effect, leaving him also bleeding. Fortunately, there was no-one else in that car to suffer the ill effects of these two trigger-happy idiots.

In the next car, she found two of the trainmen tied up and gagged. She hastened to assure them that she was friendly and removed their gags. The first one said, “We’re gonna die! I overheard one of them say they sabotaged the Buford Bridge.”

“The Buford Bridge, what’s that?” Bianca asked.

“It’s the last bridge before the train enters Central. My guess is, they’re going to jump the train when it slows on the curve before the bridge.”

“That’s crazy,” said Bianca. “And some of them aren’t in any condition to jump any more.”

“Crazy is what they are. That’s Lycaon’s gang. He’s a fanatic, and he wants something on this train. We’re all going to die.” The man started to moan softly.

“No we’re not. My brother is taking care of this. We’re going to be fine. I hear someone coming. Be quiet.” She stepped into a shadowed corner of the car and, for all her size, faded from view.

In the communications car, Beckendorf looked up at his two captors. He wished they’d open a window; he wanted to gag at the rank unwashed smell coming off of them. It was like wet dogs.

“Call your boss,” the leader snarled at him. “I’m tired of waiting.” He emphasized the point by jabbing him with the tip of his gun.

Beckendorf recognized the man. It was the notorious terrorist, Lycaon. He did as he was told, and put through the call to Mustang’s office. Percy picked up immediately.

“What is it, Beckendorf?” came the voice through the receiver.

“I’ve got your man at gunpoint, Mustang,” Lycaon snarled. It seemed like snarling was the only way he could speak. “Tell me where it is or I’ll start shooting.”

Percy’s voice came cooly back. “Where what is? And from those dulcet tones, I’m guessing it’s Lycaon.”

“Good guess, Colonel. It’s me. And you know what I want. I know the Parthenos is on this train. You,” he said to Beckendorf, thrusting the receiver at him. “Tell your boss that if he doesn’t come across, I start by shooting you, and then I go after the other passengers.”

Beckendorf pitched his voice high to get a sense of panic across. “It’s a bad situation. It’s like I’m under water. They’ve taken total control of the train. Don’t try to stall them.”

Percy smiled to himself at hearing Beckendorf’s buried message. “Okay, Lycaon. I’ll tell you where it is. It’s in a trunk in the baggage car with the name Athena on it.”

Lycaon barked out a laugh and turned to his man. “I’m going to the baggage car.” He pointed to Beckendorf. “If I don’t come back in five minutes, shoot him. If he tries anything, shoot him. If you get bored, shoot him.” He strode out of the car.

After he left, Beckendorf said, “Nice guy.”

Apparently, that qualified as ‘trying something.’ The other man brought the muzzle of his gun around to point at Beckendorf. Unfortunately for the gunman, that also brought the gun within Beckendorf’s reach. He was never sure what happened next, but it ended with the burly Major’s fist coming down on his head. He was unconscious after that.

In Mustang’s office, Annabeth Hawkeye was yelling at him yet again. “I can’t believe you told that thug where the Parthenos was! That book is full of top secret alchemic research.”

Mustang gave her a crooked smile. “Relax, Wise Girl. Beckendorf assures me he’s got the situation under control. He just needed me to buy him some time.”

=====
When they reached the roof of the radio car, Hedge cautiously lowered himself to where he could look into the window. He was pleased to see Beckendorf sitting calmly, his assailant unconscious before him, so Hedge dropped from the roof of the car onto the coupling between the cars and motioned for Nico to follow him.

When they entered the car, Beckendorf greeted them. “I’m Maes Beckendorf, and you must be Nico Elric,” he said with a warm smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Colonel Mustang.”

Nico scowled at him, but didn’t say what he was thinking about Percy Mustang at that moment. Instead, he asked, “What’s the situation?”

“Lycaon, the leader of these thugs, is headed for the baggage car. There’s some sensitive materials there that we don’t want him to get a hold of.”

“On it,” Nico said, climbing back out the window before either man could stop him. As he was about to leave the car, Bianca entered.

“Brother, I just heard that they sabotaged the Buford bridge!” she cried, but Nico didn’t stop; he only said, “I’m on a mission, Bianca. You can handle it.”

Beckendorf called out, “Bianca Elric, I presume? Not to worry, I’ll call Mustang. He’s more than capable of taking care of the bridge. I’m Maes Beckendorf. I’m working for Colonel Mustang.”

Hedge was watching this exchange nervously, his head going back and forth like he was watching a tennis match.

“I don’t like sending a kid after a hardened criminal like Lycaon,” he said nervously.

“Brother can take care of himself,” Bianca said, but there was also a touch of nervousness in her voice as well.

Beckendorf just smiled. “I don’t doubt that Nico Elric can take care of himself, Hedge, but follow him at a distance, and don’t let him see that you’re there as backup. I’m going to stay here and let Percy know about the bridge.”

=====

“Lieutenant, how’d you like to take a trip to Buford bridge?” Percy drawled.

Annabeth Hawkeye glared at him with cold grey eyes. “What now? Shouldn’t we be waiting for the train to arrive?”

“Well,” he said with infuriating calm, “I just got word that the bridge was sabotaged. We can get there about 15 minutes before the train goes over it, and I’m counting on your sharp eyes and vast knowledge of architecture to let me know how I can use the river water to reinforce it enough to let the train cross safely.”

Annabeth looked at her commanding officer sharply, but he was right. Using just water to reinforce the supports enough to hold the weight of a train was well nigh impossible, but Percy Mustang was in a class by himself where water alchemy was concerned, and with her architectural knowledge, they were more than equal to the task.

“Come on, Seaweed Brain, we have a train to save,” she said taking his hand and pulling him to the door.

=====

Nico clambered over the top of the train, heading for the rear of the baggage car. He noted the tanker car filled with water behind the baggage car with satisfaction. Entering the car by the rear door (which he’d marked with a chalk circle), he called out, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Lycaon looked up at the intruder. “Who the hell are you?” he snarled. “You’re just a kid. Nice arm, though.” He pointed at Nico’s black automail arm. “Mine’s better, though.” He lunged at the shorter boy, his sleeve pulling back to reveal gleaming claws.

Nico leapt backward to avoid the raking claws, and reached out to put his hand on the door he’d come through. As he touched the wooden door, he connected with the alchemical circle he’d drawn on the other side and activated it. A nozzle bloomed forth, and a torrent of water knocked the large man back, stunning him.

At that moment, Hedge burst in. “Nice trick with the water, kid. I’ll take it from here.” He produced ropes and tied the stunned Lycaon up.

Nico grinned at him. “I figured he could use a bath. He smells like a wet dog.”

The imprisoned Lycaon just laughed. “You’re all going to die, anyway.”

“Not today.” That was Beckendorf. “We rounded up your men and took care of your little trick with the bridge. Colonel Mustang will be glad to see you.”

=====
When they pulled into the station, Percy Mustang was waiting as the imprisoned assailants were led off the train. He eyed Nico and Bianca. “Good work, kids. I hear you pulled a neat trick with the water.”

Lycaon glared at him, rage contorting his features as he lay on the ground, his hands tied behind his back. Abruptly, he sprang up. He’d used his automail claws to cut himself free, and he lunged.

“Percy Mustang, I’ll kill you with my bare hands!” he cried, spittle flying.

“I don’t think so.” Mustang barely spared him a glance. He just snapped the fingers of his gloved hand, and the spittle from Lycaon’s mouth formed into a tight noose around the enraged man’s neck, choking him into submission.

Percy turned toward Nico. “I also know a few neat tricks with water.” Nico looked more closely at the glove that Mustang wore and saw that it was covered with symbols, only a few of which he recognized.

Nevertheless, he glared at Mustang. “You knew something would happen on that train! That’s why you made us wait until today to come to Central.”

Mustang gave him a lopsided grin. “Don’t be ridiculous, Nico,” he said cooly. “How could I know all that? Still, it’s lucky for you that you were on that train. Fuhrer King Kronos was so impressed with your part in this that he agreed to let you take the State Alchemist’s exam.”

Nico was fuming, “But you let me believe I could take the exam any time I wanted. That’s why I came to Central in the first place.”

Mustang chuckled infuriatingly. “The state’s never let a kid take a military exam before, but I guess it’s a good thing you took that particular train.”

As the colonel strode off, still wearing that infuriating grin, the blonde lieutenant glared. Neither Nico nor Bianca could tell whether she was glaring at them or at her commanding officer.

Chapter Text

“You’ll be needing a place to stay for until the exam takes place.” Percy Mustang made the statement sound like he was gloating rather than helping them out. Nico glared at him, while Bianca’s metal face of course showed no expression. “I’ve arranged for you to stay with someone who might be able to help you prepare. His name is Quintus Tucker.”

“I’ve heard of him,” Nico exclaimed. “Isn’t he the Sewing Life Alchemist?”

“The first alchemist to make a talking chimera?” Bianca asked excitedly.

“That’s the one,” the colonel replied. He can help you prepare for the exam, and he’s agreed to give you the run of his library. Corporal Beckendorf can take you to his house.”

Beckendorf was his usual chatty self. “Now Nico, Bianca, if you need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to call me.”

They didn’t pay him much attention, though. Both of them were excited to meet such a famous alchemist. Even Nico was enthusiastic.

“I can’t wait to see this talking chimera. I want to see all his notes on it,” he said with a surprising eagerness. Bianca was glad to see that side of her brother she hadn’t seen in so long.

They pulled up to an enormous house. “Wow! It’s huge!” Bianca said with a touch of awe.

“Well, that’s one of the perks of being a state alchemist,” Beckendorf said with a chuckle. “It was awarded to his wife’s father back when he was a dog of the military.”

“So he lives in that huge house with just his wife?” Bianca asked.

“Actually, it’s just him and his daughter; his wife is gone. I heard that she moved out to the countryside but I never heard the details.”

Beckendorf helped them take their bags out of the car and went up to the front door to ring the bell, but before he could do so, there was a rustling from the bushes as an enormous creature leaped out and tackled Nico to the ground. Could this be the chimera?

“No, no, Mrs. O’Leary! Bad dog!” a child’s voice called out.

Sure enough, Nico realized, this was just a dog, albeit a huge one. Then the front door opened. A pale, rumpled man with glasses came out. Beckendorf greeted him.

“Mr. Tucker, hello.”

Tucker replied, “Ah, Corporal Beckendorf, I see you’ve brought the Elrics.” He turned to them, his hand extended to help Nico up. “I’m Quintus Tucker. I see you’ve met my son, Icarus.”

Icarus was a small child with an eager face. “Have you come to play with me and Mrs. O’Leary?” He indicated the dog.

Nico was about to say that they didn’t have time to play with dogs, but Bianca, tender-hearted as she was, said, “We can’t play right now, but we promise we will as soon as we can.” The small boy’s face lit up so much that even Nico was charmed.

“Okay,” Icarus said, his eyes drinking the newcomers in. “You can be my new brother and sister! Big sister and little big brother.” Nico bridled at that last bit.

“Now, Icarus, why don’t you take Mrs. O’Leary and play in the courtyard?” The boy nodded and then ran off, Mrs. O’Leary trotting behind him.

Beckendorf made his farewells, once again reminding the Elrics not to be shy about calling him. Tucker led them into the house.

“I’m quite impressed. I’ve never heard of anyone so young taking the exam. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.”

“Thank you, Mr. Tucker,” Nico said. “To start with, we’d love to see your famous talking chimera.”

But Tucker just shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid you’re too late. It died shortly after it was made.” He saw their disappointment, so he went on. “Now studying for your exam comes first. Let me show you my library.”

He led them through a doorway, and they gasped in amazement.

“I’ve never seen so many alchemy books in one place!” Bianca exclaimed.

Tucker chuckled at her. “This is just a small sample of what you’ll have access to if you become state alchemists. A lot of these came from my wife, but you’re welcome to look through any of them.”

“Brother, I can’t wait to get started!” Bianca called out, but hearing no reply, she looked around for Nico. Then she saw him in the corner, surrounded by a stack of books he’d already taken from the shelves, his eyes flicking across the pages, eagerly drinking in the knowledge. “I guess he’s already started,” she thought to herself with a laugh.

That night at dinner, little Icarus sat across from Bianca, chatting happily with his new ‘big sister’ eagerly telling her of the make believe adventures he’d had with Mrs. O’Leary that day. He stopped mid-sentence and scolded her.

“No, no, big sister. You have to eat. You have to keep your strength so you can wear your metal suit.”

Bianca laughed at her new little friend and then said, “Okay.” She lifted her helmet slightly and slipped a roll into her armor. “Mmm, delicious,” she said, acting as if she’d eaten it. She’d give it to Nico later as a late night snack. She couldn’t help seeing the sad look on her brother’s face, knowing that he felt bad that she was no longer able to eat.

She caught sight of Tucker looking at her as she pantomimed eating, but he just smiled at her and her brother. “You two are certainly working hard,” he said. “I think you’ll be ready for the exam.”

“It’s so kind of you to take us in, Mr. Tucker,” she said.

“It’s my pleasure. It’s just been Icarus and me by ourselves for so long.” His face got a peculiar look. “I like having other alchemists around. You know, my wife, Perdita, was quite the alchemist herself. Almost as good as I was.”

=====

In the following days, the two young alchemists threw themselves into studying, wanting to take as much advantage of the well stocked library as they could in the time before their examination. Nico, in particular, was absorbed in scanning the volumes, devouring the most complex of the tomes, unaware of the passing of hours or even days. He sat hunched over the books for so long that his back ached. He rose from the table, stretching stiffly.

“Bianca, I’m beat.” He heard no response, so he looked around for his sister. Suddenly he heard Icarus’ voice coming from outside the window. The child was shrieking with laughter. Then he heard the familiar clanking sound that Bianca made when she moved. He looked outside to see what was going on.

Nico was surprised to see that it had snowed. Then he reminded himself that it was January, so snow was to be expected. What was not expected was that Bianca was lying on her back, making an enormous snow angel while Icarus cheered her on. Suddenly, Nico’s weariness was gone. Sure, he had to prepare for the alchemy exam, but he wanted to play in the snow. When was the last time he and his sister had done that?

He flung the window open and launched himself out into the snow covered courtyard.

“Hooray!” Icarus shouted. “Little big brother has come to play with us.”

Nico didn’t lie down to make a snow angel. Who knew what Will would say if he got the workings of his automail clogged up with snow? Instead, he reached down and took a handful of snow and shaped it into a snowball. He pitched the white missile at his sister.

Bianca cried out indignantly, even though the snowball missed her completely. Then she grabbed her own handful of snow and retaliated. It struck Nico squarely in the chest. It wasn’t fair, her aim was always so much better than his.

“Rowrf!” Mrs. O’Leary’s familiar cry rang out as she bounded toward them, eager to join in the fun. This time Nico knew what was coming so he jumped out of the way to avoid being tackled by the enormous dog. The next thing he knew, Icarus had gotten up on the dog’s back and was riding her around the yard like a pony, while Nico chased after, his metal hand transmuted into a very silly looking dragon head as he emitted rather unconvincing roars. It was good to put aside their studies for a short while and romp around like the kids they still were.

The game came to a halt when Icarus tumbled off the dog’s back. He was unhurt, but he looked sad.

“I wish you could stay here after you take your test. It gets so lonely with just Mrs. O’Leary to play with.” Icarus’s voice trembled.

Nico looked at the boy and then picked up a stick. He used the stick to mark a transmutation circle in the snow.

“What are you drawing?” Icarus asked curiously.

“It’s a transmutation circle. If I have a wish, it helps it to come true. Now watch this.” He reached down and touched the edge of the circle with his palms.

“Ooh! Magic flowers from a magic circle,” crowed Icarus. Sure enough a ring of asphodel sprung up inside the circle.

“Nice work,” a familiar voice said.

“Corporal Beckendorf, what are you doing here?” Bianca asked.

“I’ve come for you, Nico. We can’t have you studying on your birthday.”

“That’s right,” Bianca said in surprise. “That’s today. How did you know that?”

“I’m the information officer. What kind of information officer would I be if I didn’t know that?” Then he noticed Icarus pouting.

“Don’t look sad,” he said to the child. “You’re all invited. How can we have a birthday dinner without Nico’s friends?”

=====

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you all.” The woman beamed at them.

“Nico, Bianca, Icarus, may I introduce my lovely wife, Silena?”

Icarus, with the guilelessness of a child said, “You’re so pretty.” Then he went on, “but your belly’s so big.”

Silena wasn’t fazed. “That’s because I’m going to have a baby soon.” Icarus was fascinated, although both Nico and Bianca were a little put off by Silena’s frankness about her pregnancy.

A few minutes into the lavish birthday dinner, though, they were all chatting like old friends. Both Silena and Corporal Beckendorf were such warm, friendly people that they were all put at ease.

“I’ll just get more tea,” Silena said, but as she started to rise from the table, she sank back down, looking pale.

Beckendorf looked at his wife with alarm. “Silena, dearest, what’s wrong?” he asked, panic in his voice.

“It’s the baby. It’s coming,” Silena gasped out.

“But, but, the doctor said it wasn’t due for another week.”

There was an edge in her voice as she gasped out, “But the baby said she’s coming now, and I think she gets to decide.”

That galvanized Beckendorf into action. He sprang up, shouting “I’ll get the doctor. Nico, Bianca, look after her while I’m gone!” Then he ran out into the snow.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Nico asked in a panic.

Silena lay down on the sofa and said in a tense voice, “Nico, get a basin of hot water. Bianca, there are some towels in the hall closet.”

After some panicked running in circles, Nico went into the kitchen and found a wash tub which he filled with water. Bianca went down the hall in search of towels. By the time they came back, Icarus was looking out the window eagerly. Apparently he’d be put on sentry duty to watch for the return of Corporal Beckendorf and the doctor.

Bianca put the towels on the floor, and Nico put the tub next to them. By now, Silena was looking very pale. She was moaning quietly, which made Nico pace the floor nervously.

“The snow’s coming down really hard,” icarus said in a frightened voice.

Silena let out a cry as a contraction hit. This increased Nico’s anxiety.

“Alchemy is the most powerful science known to man. But there’s nothing we can do to help.” He clasped his hands together in frustration.

Icarus had left his post at the window. “Little big brother,” the water’s all cold,” he said.

Nico unclasped his hands to reach for the wash tub, but when he touched it, steam rose up from the surface of the water.

“Brother,” Bianca called out.”How did you do that!” There was a touch of awe in her voice. “You did alchemy without a circle. Just like Teacher.”

“I don’t know,” said Nico, although he had a brief mental picture of that awful Gate.

Just then, the door burst open. Corporal Beckendorf came bounding in, followed by a paunchy man with a bad complexion.

“I’ve brought Dr. Papadopoulos,” the corporal said with pride.

The doctor looked at the youngsters. “You three might want to leave the room.” Then his eyes fell on the basin of steaming water, and he smiled. “Good, just what we need.”

Silena chose that moment to cry out in pain, and the youngsters decided to take the doctor’s advice and ran out of the room in terror.

They huddled in the next room shivering each time Silena cried out in pain. They heard her give out one last long drawn out shout, and then there was silence. The silence only lasted a moment, but it seemed to stretch on forever, until it was broken by another cry. It was the wail of an infant.

“Kids, come in here,” Corporal Beckendorf called out. “There’s someone we want you to meet.”

They came back into the room, not sure what to expect, but all three of them looked with relief to see Silena, looking pale but smiling broadly as she held a tiny infant in her arms.

“Nico, Bianca, Icarus, meet our daughter, Drew,” she said, a look of pride on her face.

=====
The following days consisted of long hours in the library, punctuated by romps in the courtyard with Icarus and Mrs. O’Leary. The day of the exam was drawing closer, and they could feel the pressure of it. The night before the exam, they sat at the supper table, and Quintus described the exam.

“First is the written part. If you pass that, the interview is next.”

“What’s the interview like?” Nico asked.

“That varies. Sometimes it’s just a few questions. Other times it can go on for an hour. Frequently it includes a physical exam.”

Nico and Bianca looked at each other nervously. Bianca couldn’t be examined. What would the military do if they discovered that there was no body inside her armor?

Quintus continued, “The final part is the practical exam. You can bring in a sample of your work, like I did, or you can perform a feat of alchemy on the spot.”

=====

When the siblings emerged from the exam hall the next day, they were greeted by a pleasant surprise.

“Corporal Beckendorf, what are you doing here?” Bianca asked.

“Someone asked me to bring him here so that he could wish you luck.”

With that, Icarus came running up, calling out, “Little big brother, big sister! How was your test!”

Nico’s shoulders sagged. “I barely finished it.”

Bianca nodded. “I’m exhausted.”

“That’s okay,” Icarus said enthusiastically. “We brought you sandwiches. Come have a picnic.”

They were in the midst of their meal when an unwelcome visitor interrupted them.

“Do mind if I borrow these two? It will only take a moment,” Percy Mustang asked smoothly.

=====

“But I can’t back out now,” Bianca protested. “We’ve been working so hard.”

“I’m sorry, but I know that they’ll want to do a full physical exam during the interview,” Mustang said. “Do you want them to find out that you don’t have a physical body? You won’t become a state alchemist; you’ll become a subject for their experiments.”

Nico tried to console his sister. “Besides, Bianca, remember what Granny Naomi said, You’d be a dog of the military, doing everything they say. What if they order you to kill someone? It’s bad enough for me to go through it. You’re too kind-hearted.”

“Hmph!” There was a clanging noise as Bianca crossed her arms. “Okay brother, but you’d better pass this test for both our sakes.”

=====

Nico faced the unsmiling panel. Mustang was there, nothing on his face revealing the conversation they’d just had. One of the panelists spoke to him.

“So why do you want to become a state alchemist.”

Nico scowled at them and then gave his reply.

“Because, I made a promise to the only living family I had. I promised that I’d become a state alchemist, that I’d take the good and the bad.”

=====

As Nico prepared to enter the arena for the practical exam, Icarus called out. “Wait, little big brother! I made something for you.” He pressed a sheet of paper into Nico’s hand.

Nico opened the paper and saw crudely drawn figures. He recognized Bianca’s helmet on the first figure. There was a small figure in the middle, probably Icarus, since the other one seemed to have a long black braid like Nico’s. (“Did he have to make me so short?” he thought.) There was a poorly drawn circle at the top of the page.

“I made a magic circle like you did so your wish will come true,” Icarus said proudly.

Nico smiled at the boy. “Well, with this, how can I fail.”

Bianca laughed and gave Icarus a little hug as Nico strode into the arena.

His confidence dropped, however, as he looked first at the panel of judges and then at the other two finalists. He realized that he had no idea what he was going to do to demonstrate his alchemic skills.

No time for that as the same panelist who’d questioned him before called out, “Let the first candidate begin.”

A tall man dropped to his knees and sketched a circle on the ground. He put his hands onto the circle, and a stone tower rose from the ground, quickly getting taller and taller until it was about twenty feet high. It was a fairly impressive show, but the tower wasn’t very well proportioned, being rather crooked and too narrow to be entirely stable. Also, the power required to create the tower had left the candidate so drained that he could barely stand up again.

The second candidate snorted at that. “If one transmutation wears him out so much, he’s hardly fit for the job.”

Then she sketched her own circle. Into it, she placed some wooden planks and a bucket of water. When she placed her palms onto the edge of her circle, a large, brightly colored balloon appeared and rose into the sky.

“Wood into a paper balloon filled with hydrogen from the water,” Nico thought. That will be tough to top.

Abruptly, a gust of wind blew the balloon into the tower, causing it to collapse. The first alchemist, still dazed from the effort of creating the tower, was in the path of the falling debris. Nico, a vision of the Gate in his head, clapped his hands together and then pointed his palms at the rubble, which transmuted into dandelion fluff and corn silk.

“Transmutation without a circle,” he heard Colonel Mustang mutter in astonishment.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” the head of the panel said, “I think we’ve found our alchemist, the youngest we’ve ever had.”

Then he turned to Nico and handed him a leather cord with some decorated beads on it. “This cord proves that you are a state alchemist with all duties and privileges. This bead,” he indicated the largest one, marked with the letters FE in black, “is your official title. From this day, you shall be known as the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

Chapter Text

Their first missions were successful, and they were returning to Central in a certain triumph, Nico thought as the train pulled into the station. They’d stopped a power-hungry priest from raising an army of fanatics, and they’d uncovered and put a halt to government corruption in an area vital to the economic health of Amestris. Not bad for a state alchemist who’d just passed the exam. Maybe now Colonel Mustang would show him a little respect.

Bianca was more looking forward to seeing Icarus Tucker. She knew that the little kid got lonely with no-one to play with, and in the time they’d spent at the Tucker house, she’d become fond of him. She also knew that Nico felt the same way (even though he’d never admit it).

When they got off the train, a soldier stopped them. “I’m Lieutenant Cecil Havoc. The Colonel asked me to take you to the Tucker estate.

‘Too busy to talk to his latest heroes, huh?” Nico said, frowning.

Havoc was not put off by this as he led them to the waiting car. “Actually, he is.” He paused until they were in the car and the doors were closed. Then he continued, “There’s a serial killer on the loose around HQ, and Mustang would prefer not to risk his newest assets.”

“That’s fine with me,” Nico said. “Now that we have a little free time, I was hoping to speak to Tucker and find out more about his talking chimera.”

“Me too,” Bianca added eagerly.

Havoc’s face fell. “You know that was how he passed his state certification.” Nico and Bianca both nodded. “Well, what the general public never heard was the only thing the creature said. It was ‘I want to die.’ Then the poor thing broke loose and jumped off a cliff. It fell into the sea and drowned. Let me tell you, the top brass wasn’t too happy about that. The only reason they let him keep the house was that it belonged to his wife’s father, and when the old guy died, Tucker’s wife was next in line for it if she got her state license.”

“Yeah, I heard that she left town, though,” Nico put in.

“Well, it was right before the day of the exam. I guess she couldn’t take the stress, so she went back to her parents’ country place, but no-one’s heard from her since.”

When they got to the house, Icarus ran up to the car to greet them, Mr.s O’Leary bounding up behind. Havoc helped them to get their luggage out of the car and into the house, but then he took Tucker aside and said something to him that made the alchemist frown. Bianca was pulled away by Icarus, who had missed his ‘big sister and big little brother,’ but Nico stayed inside.

“Mr. Tucker, are you alright?” he asked the other man.

“I’m afraid the lieutenant reminded me that I’m up for re-certification soon,” he said with a sigh. “The military hasn’t been quite satisfied with the work I’ve been turning in.” He scowled. “I’m worried that I’ll lose my certification, and if I do, they’ll take the house away from me. I can’t go back to living in poverty.”

He walked slowly into the library, and Nico followed, but the older man raised a hand. “I’m really sorry, but I must get back to my work,” he said to Nico in a tone that suggested a curt dismissal. Nico nodded and walked out of the library, but not before taking note of the books that were out on the table. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something about the older man’s manner that made him want to find out what he was up to.

Later that day (after some strenuous romping in the courtyard with Icarus and Mrs. O’Leary, Nico, seeing that Quinus had left the library, announced that he needed a break. Bianca was happy to continue the play, so Nico quietly went into the vast collection of tomes to continue his investigation. However, he was so intent on the older alchemist’s research that he didn’t realize what the man himself was doing at that very moment.

Having heard the sound of both Elrics playing in the courtyard with his son, Quintus had snuck into the Elric’s room and stealthily opened Nico’s own notebooks. He looked at the arrays that Nico had sketched and his eyes widened. Alright, the brat was a genius. Some of the finer points were beyond his comprehension, but Quintus was gifted enough in his own right to understand enough. He hurriedly copied some of the arrays from the notebook and put it back in its place. Then headed back to his own study.

This was it! He’d solved the problem. When he published his research, he’d have to change some of the details so that Elric wouldn’t realize what he’d stolen, but this would enable him to keep his certification permanently. He drew up some notes and then placed a call.

“I need to speak to the general immediately. In a meeting?! Never mind. Just tell him to come to my house tomorrow night. I think he’ll be pleased with what he finds.”

=====

The next morning, Nico decided that he needed to access some items not found in Quintus’ personal collection..

“I’ll be going to the Central library today.”

“I’m coming with you, brother,” Bianca said. Then she leaned toward him and added quietly, “I’ve been a little behind in my research.”

Icarus frowned at that, but brightened immediately when his father said, “How would you and Mrs. O’Leary like to play with daddy today?” The child practically vibrated with excitement.

=====

“I’m sorry, but you don’t have the clearance to see those materials.”

Nico glared at the librarian, but the red-headed woman wouldn’t budge even when he pulled out the beaded necklace to show that he was a certified state alchemist.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized again, “but you need General Atlas’ signature before I can give you what you asked for.”

“Who the hell is General Atlas?” Nico said through gritted teeth.

“He’s got oversight of all the Sewing Life Alchemist’s papers.”

Nico felt Bianca’s hand on his shoulder. “Brother, calm down. I’m sure we can just ask him about it when we get back.” Thank the gods for Bianca. She was always more level headed.

The Elrics went back to their researches, Nico still feeling unsatisfied. After a few hours, they exited the library, preparing to walk back to the Tucker estate, but Cecil Havoc was waiting for them. How did he know they were there?

“I’ll be happy to give you a lift. Colonel Mustang asked me to keep an eye out for you. There have been some unsavory characters around lately.”

=====
When Havoc dropped them off at the estate, Quintus Tucker was waiting at the gate for them. He seemed more excited than they’d ever seen him before.

“Ah, Elrics, you’re just in time. I have something to show you, something wonderful.” He led them toward his laboratory. “I’ve really done it this time!”

“What is it, Mr. Tucker?” Bianca asked, catching a bit of the man’s enthusiasm.

“I’ve succeeded! Look.” He gestured at the corner.

There it was. The creature was enormous. It was some kind of quadruped, but nothing either Nico or Bianca had ever seen before, obviously some kind of chimera. It was furry and had floppy ears, but the eyes were the strangest thing. The creature’s face was mostly immobile, but the eyes were disturbingly intelligent.

“Watch this.” Tucker approached the chimera. “This is Nico,” he gestured, “and this is Bianca. They are friends. Say hello to them.”

“Hel-lo friend Nee-ko. Hel-lo friend Bee-an-kaaa.” The creature’s voice was an eerie bleat. But it was a voice, nevertheless.

“That’s amazing. It’s perfect,” Bianca said, a little awe in her voice.

Nico, however, didn’t seem so impressed. He kept his face blank as he turned to Tucker and said in a flat voice, “Very good, but I do have a few questions.”

“Of course, of course,” the older alchemist replied.

“Mr. Tucker, when was it that you got your license, when you made the first talking chimera?”

“That was two years ago.”

“And when did your wife leave?”

“That was also two years ago.” He frowned, but any further reply was cut short as Bianca bent down to stroke the chimera’s head, and the creature spoke again.

“Friendz. Bee-an-ka. Big sis-ter.” Then it turned to look at Nico. “Lit-tle big bruz-zer.”

Nico’s eyes were blazing but his voice was still flat. “One more question. Where are Icarus and Mrs. O’Leary?”

The room seemed to grow cold. Tucker’s reply was brief. “I hate perceptive brats like you.”

Nico reached up and grabbed Tucker by the throat, pinning him to the wall. “You scum!” he roared. “How could you? Two years ago it was your wife!! This time you made a chimera out of your own daughter and a dog!”

Tucker smiled at him. Nico hated that smile. Then the older man replied smoothly, “I don’t see what you’re so upset about. The progress of human knowledge is the result of experimenting on humans. As a scientist, you should be the first to…”

“SHUT UP!” Nico shouted. “Do you think you’re going to get away with playing around with people’s lives?”

Tucker laughed at him. The bastard laughed. “People’s lives? Playing? You mean like your arm? Your leg? Your sister’s entire body?”

It was too much. Nico slammed his left fist into the other man’s jaw. It didn’t stop the man from continuing.

“You’re no different than I am . You thought you could do it, so you did. You couldn’t help but try, even if it was forbidden. In fact, it was the forbidden texts in your notes that showed me how…”

He broke off as Nico slammed his fist into his face, but this time it was his right arm, the auto-mail drawing blood as it impacted the other’s jaw. “No! You monster! I’m nothing like you!” Nico drew back to strike again, but Bianca seized his arm.

“Brother, stop,” she cried. “If you don’t stop, you’ll kill him.”

Tucker continued to laugh, a soulless burbling laugh. “Pretty words won’t get anything done, young lady.”

Bianca wheeled around and looked down at the man on the floor, anger blazing in her eyes now.

“Mr. Tucker,” she said, “if you say one more word, this time I’ll be the one to snap.”

Then she turned and stroked the head of the creature that had been her little friend, Icarus. “I’m sorry. We don’t have the skill to turn you normal.”

The creature looked up at her as if unable to understand her. In its broken voice it said “Big sis-ter. Lit-tle big bruz-zer. Can we play now?”

It was too much. Nico emitted an anguished cry and ran from the room. Bianca followed him. Nico didn’t stop until he’d come out the front door of the manor. When Bianca caught up to him, her brother had sat down on the steps and had his head bent down. He was softly crying. Bianca sat down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. Around them, a light rain was falling.

“If there ever truly was ‘the work of the devil,’ this was it,” he said, his voice hoarse.

A new voice said, “the devil’s work?” All state alchemists are nothing but the military’s human weapons. We do what they want. We obey their orders, and we don’t complain if our hands get dirty in the process.”

Nico looked up. It was the Colonel. When had Percy Mustang gotten there? Somehow, the rain falling about the colonel looked right; it made him look good.

“My point is that Tucker’s actions aren’t so different from our own,” Mustang continued.

“With all due respect, sir,” the woman behind him, Annabeth Hawkeye said, “that’s the logic of an adult. Even though Nico acts older than his years, he’s still a child.”

“Yes,” Mustang replied, but the path he’s chosen will lead to even greater hardships. He has to move forward on it. He can’t be held back by something so small. Isn’t that right, Stygian Alchemist?”

“So small?” Nico asked. “You’re right, people think of us as gods or monsters, but we’re neither one. We’re humans. We can’t even save one little boy. We’re just humans, just pathetic humans.” His shoulders shook as he spoke. Then he grew still as he said, almost in a whisper, “But we will get our bodies back.”

“Either way,” Mustang told him, “we need to leave. Now. General Atlas is on his way here, and we don’t want to be here when he arrives.”

The Elrics followed the Colonel and his aide to their car without a word, and they drove off.

A few moments later, another car pulled up. Two figures emerged, both in military garb. The first looked at the elaborate entryway and frowned.

“So ostentatious,” he said in a scornful voice. There was an odd accent to his voice, making the sibiliants more like a z sound than an s.

“That’s enough, Thorn,” the second man gestured to his aide to be silent. He looked up at what had provoked the other’s distaste. It was an immense globe over the doorway, solid marble and was six feet wide. Both of them turned as they heard footsteps. A hooded figure approached. The aide stepped in front of him.

“Who are you? This area is off limits to civilians.”

The stranger stepped forward and said, “You cannot stop my holy mission.”

He placed a single hand on Thorn’s chest. Thorn collapsed, blood pouring from his mouth.

The second military man didn’t flinch. “You dare to face me? I am General Atlas of the Amestrian military.”

“General Atlas?” the stranger said. “Divine justice will be served to you as well.”

The general raised his fist to the stranger, revealing a gauntlet with an alchemical circle on it. The circle began to glow, but the stranger leapt backward with amazing speed, his hand touching the doorway. As he did so, his hood fell back to reveal a face marked with an x-shaped scar.

“You!” the general shouted, evidently recognizing the man. That was all he said. There was a loud crack as the doorway shattered where the stranger had touched it. The general looked up to see the immense globe dropping down. He raised his arms as if he could catch it, but the weight of 10 tons of marble crushed him. The stranger stepped through the ruined doorway.

Inside the library, Tucker looked up in surprise at the sound of the crash from outside. He saw the scarred man standing before him. The man spoke to him.

“You are Quintus Tucker?” he asked.

“Who are you? Did General Atlas send you? No, you’re not from the military.”

He shrank back in fear, but the man reached for him, saying, “Alchemists who have strayed from the path of the gods must die.”

The stranger put his hand over Tucker’s face. Tucker froze like a statue. For a moment it seemed like his body had turned transparent. Then he collapsed, dead.

The creature that had been his son padded over and sniffed the body. “Dad-dy. Dad-dy hurt.” Its voice was filled with sadness.

The stranger looked down, his scarred face full of sadness. “You poor thing. Through his godlessness, he’s done this to you, and there’s no way to change you back. Oh gods, hear me. I return this soul to you. Grant him forgiveness.”

Then he reached out and touched the creature’s back. It fell to the ground. Then the stranger walked out into the rain.

Chapter Text

The young boy ran across the field, a grin on his face as he held his treasure in his arms.

“Mama, mama, see what I did!” He presented the treasure to her, a miniature pirate ship made of silver.

She knelt down to put her face close to her son. “What is it?”

“It’s a present. I made it for you.” He held it out to her, and she took it, placing her hand on the top of his head fondly.

“Did you make this with alchemy?” He nodded eagerly. “I guess you do take after your father,” she continued. “Thank you, Nico. You really are special.” He beamed with pride at his mother’s words, his brown eyes shining. “You can do such wonderful things. But it’s too bad...” the air grew dark as she spoke.

Then her form twisted into that misshapen monstrosity as she finished, “you couldn’t put me back together, too.”

Nico pulled back in horror and turned to run, but in front of him was a small boy with his arm resting on the head of an enormous dog.

“Little big brother,” the boy said, but then his body melted into the dog, the two of them twisting into a horrible form that cried out in a pained bleat, “Come play wizz uss, lit-tle big bruz-zer.”

Nico woke up. He was drenched in sweat and shaking. Alchemists frequently had dreams. Dreams provided inspiration and guidance, But this was nothing but horror.

Bianca sat up. In her current form, she didn’t sleep, but she watched over her brother every night. She looked at him with concern. “Brother, are you alright?” she asked.

He shook his head. Then he said in a voice barely above a whisper, “It hurts. It’s just a dream, but it hurts.”

Nico lay there for another few moments. Then he couldn’t take it any longer. He hastily dressed and left the room, Bianca following. He walked quickly down the corridor and stopped at the door to Mustang’s office. He knew that the colonel wouldn’t be in, but that wasn’t who he wanted to talk to. He knocked on the door.

“Nico. You’re up early.”

He was glad to see Lieutenant Hawkeye. There were times that he found her penetrating gray eyes difficult to meet, but he knew that she would give him straight answers.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I have to know. What’s going to happen to Quintus and Icarus?”

“Quintus was scheduled to have his license revoked. Then he was going to be put on trial.” She paused for a moment. “But they both died.” Another pause. “Or, to be more accurate, they were both killed.”

Bianca gasped.

The lieutenant continued. “You guys would’ve found out eventually, even if we tried to hide it from you, so I might as well tell you.”

Nico was stunned. “What? Why? By who?”

“We don’t know,” Hawkeye said, strapping on a side arm. “I’m on my way to the crime scene right now to see if we can find anything.”

Nico followed her as she walked out into the morning sunshine. “We’re coming too.”

“No,” was the terse reply.

Nico snapped back, “Why not?!?”

Hawkeye’s face made the two Elrics stop. “It’s better that you don’t see.”

Bianca expected her brother to argue, but something about what they’d just been through had affected him. He just hung his head and let Lieutenant Hawkeye stride off to a waiting car. Then he sat down on the front steps, She sat down next to him, and they watched the car drive off.

=====

The light drizzle pattering the windows of the manor’s windows matched the somber mood of the men inside. They looked down at the bodies on the floor.

“After what he did to his own son,” Beckendorf said, “It’s almost like divine justice.”

Mustang scowled at him and then bent down to examine the fallen bodies more closely. Tucker’s body looked like his bones had been blasted. Icarus wasn’t as badly battered, but there were blood stains across his misshapen back that looked like bizarre wings. Who could’ve done such a thing?

He guessed that Major Armstrong had an idea about that. The major’s scowl was deepened by the scar on his lip. He nodded to Beckendorf, who had been peering at the alchemist’s body.

“It matches the MO,” the major said.

Beckendorf returned the nod. “Judging by this,” he indicated the body he’d been examining, “and the look of General Atlas’s aide, there’s no doubt about it.”

=====
The riots in Laore were getting worse. All it took was one townsperson looking at another the wrong way, and it was sure to end in bloodshed. Two figures watched from a window high up in the church, untouched by the turmoil below them.

“Look at them,” the first one, a woman with flaming red hair and wearing a long dress said. “Humans are such fools.”

The second figure, a cloaked man with drooping features, responded, “fools, fools,” but his words were distorted by a prodigious yawn.

A third figure emerged from the shadows. “You’re quite right,” he replied, but when things work out so well for us, that foolishness is so nice.” He stepped into full sunlight, revealing the form of Father Octavian.

“Really,” the woman said, “I was worried when the Stygian brat messed up our plans. But now it looks like we’ll be finished ahead of schedule after all.”

The priest laughed. “All it took was for you to spread a little propaganda among my ‘followers,’ and now look at them. Humans really are simple creatures. All it takes is a little push, and bloodshed begets bloodshed. We’ll have our crest of blood in no time.”

The third figure emitted another yawn. “Will more of the humans die?”

“I suppose so,” the woman said.

“I hope I can eat their dreams before they do,” the drooping man said, leaning against a pillar.

“Oh,” the woman said, turning to Father Octavian, “how much longer are you planning on wearing that body? It’s quite disgusting.”

“Sorry,” the priest said, “I was just staying in character. Then his features seemed to melt like wax until they molded into the form of an old woman.

“The other woman smiled. “Ah, Akhlys, it’s good to see your real face again.”

“What are you?! You’re some kind of monster! What have you done with Father Octavian?” The horrified voice of Father Lawrence rang out as he came into the room.

“He called me a monster! That’s just rude.” Akhlys spoke in a shrill voice.

The other woman sprang at him, and Father Lawrence backed away in horror, but the drooping man seized him and put a hand on his head. The father collapsed as the other man said, “Ooh, his dreams are so full of anger and hatred. I’m going to eat them all.” He swept his cloak over the fallen figure, and when he stood up, there was no trace of Father Lawrence.

“Oh, by the way, Kelli, Morpheus, just so you know,” Akhlys told her companions, “I heard that Quintus Tucker is dead.”

The other woman, “Kelli, frowned. “Wasn’t he the Sewing Life Alchemist? I heard he wasn’t good enough to be important.”

Akhlys nodded. “Yeah, he wasn’t important, but his killer, he was the guy from before.”

“So?” Kelli asked.

“And now both Mustang and the Stygian brat are on the case.”

“That little runt is a pain, but we need him as one of our sacrifices.”

“I guess we have to go back to Central to make sure he doesn’t get killed by...what is the killer’s name again?”

=====

“Scar, that’s what we’re calling him.” That was Beckendorf. “We don’t know his name; we don’t really know anything about him, where he’s from, how he does what he does, all we know is he has a large scar on his face.”

“He’s killed five alchemists in Central, all of them state certified,” Armstrong put in. “And that’s not counting Tucker last night as well as General Atlas.”

“Atlas?” Mustang was shocked. “He was one of the strongest combat alchemists in the country!”

“That’s why we’re asking you to lay low, Percy,” Beckendorf put in quietly.

Colonel Mustang looked worried, though. “Are the Elrics still at HQ? I don’t want them out where they’re not safe.”

“I just left them there, sir.” That was Lieutenant Hawkeye. “They just found out about Tucker and wanted to come along, but I told them to stay behind.”

“Oh, no!” Mustang said. “They’re probably on their way here right now. Those kids are so damned headstrong.”

=====

Sure enough, Nico and his sister were out on the street. They’d started to walk toward the Tucker manor, but they’d stopped and sat on a low wall. Nico’s shoulders slumped.

“Brother, what’s the matter?” Bianca asked, her voice full of concern.

“Since last night,” he said slowly, “I’ve been wondering whether we’re even right to put so much faith in alchemy.”

Bianca started quoting by rote, “Alchemy is the reconstruction of matter based on the knowledge of natural laws.”

Nico responded, “The world flows by obeying those laws. Death is a part of that flow. Accept that. Teacher really beat that into us.”

He hugged himself and then went on. “I thought I could beat that. That’s why I tried...with mom...I was such a fool. And it keeps getting worse. And now, the sun shining down on me, it feels like it’s looking down and mocking me.”

Bianca put her arm around her brother’s shoulders. “I can’t even feel the sunlight on this metal body,” she said. “It’s so lonely inside here. Brother, I want to get my body back. I want to be human again. And you, brother...your arm, your leg. We have to keep trying, even if it means going against the flow of the world.”

Their mournful musing was interrupted. “Are you the Stygian Iron Alchemist?” This came from a man in a cloak that hid most of his features as he looked up at the Elrics sitting on the wall.
“I am,” Nico replied in a challenging voice. “Who the hell are you?”
The stranger said in a quiet voice, “I am your judgement.” Then he put the palm of his right hand against the wall and it crumbled, causing the pair to drop to the street.
Their teacher had trained them well, so they landed on their feet, but Nico’s footing wasn’t entirely stable. The stranger lunged at him, reaching out with that right hand of his. Fortunately, Bianca grabbed his arm and pulled him away, crying “Run, brother!”
They took off down the street. The stranger sprang after them, so Nico, attempting to buy some time, clapped his hands together. A mass of rock rose from the ground, blocking them, but the rock mass crumbled much as the wall had when the stranger had touched it.
They ran down an alley, which turned out not to be such a good idea, as the stranger dragged his hand against the narrow walls, causing rubble and dust to rain down on them. “I guess we’ll just have to stand and fight,” Nico said, clapping his hands and touching a fallen piece of masonry, transmuting it into a sword.
He lunged at the stranger with the sword, but the man ducked under it and grabbed his arm. There was a surge of power, and Nico was thrown back, the sleeve of his coat disintegrating.
“An automail arm! No wonder my attack failed. But it won’t fail again.” The stranger reached out, but before he could come into contact, Bianca jumped in front of him,
“Don’t touch my brother!” she shouted, but his hand brushed against her, and the side of her chest and upper part of her leg shattered, and she fell to the ground.
“No!!” Nico screamed, In his rage, he transmuted his automail arm into a Stygian iron sword.
The stranger danced back and looked at Nico. The hood of his cloak fell back, revealing a face with a scar covering most of it. He spoke in an almost analytical voice. “Your sister is hollow. Truly this is the unholy work of state alchemists. You use your arms to make your cursed circle. I’ll put a stop to this.” He reached forward, deftly dodging Nico’s sword, and touched the metal arm just at the shoulder. It blew apart. The force knocked Nico to the ground, and with a shattered arm he couldn’t do much.
The scarred man bent over him. All the while, Bianca was shouting at him, “Brother, get up! Get up and run away!”
“I’ll give you a moment to make peace with your gods,” the scarred man said in an eerily calm voice, “Then I’ll send you to them.”
Nico’s brain raced, Because of the diffuse light of the overcast sky, there wasn’t any shadow to jump into, and even if there were, Bianca, in her damaged state, wouldn’t be able to reach it. “You say you’re after state alchemists. My sister isn’t a state alchemist. Swear to me that you’ll spare her. Swear it.”
“If you submit to your fate, I do so swear it,” the man said solemnly. “My only quarrel is with state alchemists.” He bent forward as if offering a benediction.
“Brother, get up, he’s going to kill you!” Bianca was pleading.
A shot rang out, “You won’t be killing anyone today.” That was Colonel Mustang’s voice. He and a few of his troops had arrived at the far end of the alley. “I’ll be ending you today, Scar.”
“No,” shouted Lieutenant Hawkeye as she knocked his hand away. She kept her service revolver trained on the cloaked man as she reprimanded her superior. “You were going to hit him with a water blast, weren’t you?”
There might have been just a hint of a pout in his voice as he said, “With this drizzle, there’s plenty of water to work with,”
“Yes, but with those weakened walls, that water blast might have brought them down on the Elrics as well,” Then she dropped her voice, “and what if you’d hit Bianca’s blood seal?”
“Very well,” he replied, keeping some dignity in his tone. “Keep him covered, lieutenant.”
“Yes sir,” she replied and added in an undertone, “Seaweed brain.”
Unfortunately, their target took advantage of this conversation to reach down and create a hole in the street, which he dropped into and disappeared.
“Are you alright?” Hawkeye ran up to Nico.
“I need to see to Bianca,” Nico said, panic in his voice as he struggled to his feet.
When he reached her, his face full of concern, she shouted at him.
“Idiota! What were you thinking? Why didn’t you run away?”
“Bianca, he might have killed you.”
“And he might not have! But if you were dead, how would I get my body back? And how would we save people like Icarus? By not being idiots!” In her frustration, she raised herself up and took a swing at Nico, but the damage to the suit of armor was too much, and her arm hit the ground with a clang.
“Oh great! Now my arm’s fallen off because my brother is a big idiot!”
Nico just shook his head and laughed sadly. “Aren’t we a pair?”
“You men,” Mustang called out to the troops that had come with them, “search the sewers. We have to find Scar. And some of you, help the Stygian Alchemist and his sister.” Two men set to gathering the fragments of Bianca’s shattered form, and two more helped the Elrics into the waiting transport to take them back to HQ.
As they rode back, Annabeth said, “Colonel, did you get a good look at Scar?”
Mustang smiled wryly. “I did. I’d swear I recognized him. And you, Wise Girl?”
She nodded tersely.

Chapter Text

Well, they were on the train. But why did that hulking Major Armstrong have to come along? He was too loud, he was too imposing. Nico had been put off by the huge major when he first announced that he had to head back to Resembool.

“I need to put Bianca back together,” he’d told Colonel Mustang. “In order to do that, I need to get my arm fixed, so I’ll need to go to my mechanic.”

Of course, Armstrong sprang up, proclaiming, “Allow me! Let me show you the alchemical techniques passed down through the Armstrong family for generations. I shall perform the repairs on your sister.”

Nico jumped up to stop him, but before he could say a word, Mustang stepped in. “Hold on Jason,” he said, using the major’s first name to defuse the situation. “That armor is Stygian iron. I don’t think your family’s traditions include working with that metal, since it’s fairly rare outside of Resembool.”

Nico was calmer when he added, “Even if you could work with the metal, I’m the only one who knows how to bond her soul with the armor.”

That seemed to give the headstrong major pause, so Nico hoped he was done with the matter (and the man), but now here he was on the train back to Resembool with Major Armstrong as his escort.

“You should be grateful to have me,” the large blond man said. “Neither you or your sister is in any shape to defend yourselves.”

Nico didn’t appreciate hearing that, but it was true. And, as overbearing as he was, the major did come in handy, since Bianca wasn’t really fit to walk with that gaping hole in her side, not to mention that it made it obvious that she was currently an empty suit of armor, and that was something neither she nor Nico wanted to explain to anyone not already in on her secret. It was less than ideal to have her put into a packing crate, but at least Armstrong was able to carry the enormous crate around easily enough.

Nico was not happy on this train ride. Normally he’d chat with Bianca, but since she was currently in the crate in the baggage rack, they’d agreed that this would draw unwanted attention. Major Armstrong tried to engage him, but Nico sullenly turned to look out the window, which elicited this from the blond giant.

“Children can be so stubborn sometimes.”

Nico did not appreciate that. He wasn’t stubborn, he was just unwilling to strike up a friendship so casually. And he was NOT a child! He gazed out the window as the train pulled into the station. They’d be here for a short time while the train refueled. The last thing he wanted to do was make small talk with Jason Grace-Armstrong. The man was an unstable lunatic. Back at HQ, the news after being told that he would be the escort for the Elric siblings, the major had burst into sobbing, proclaiming that the family devotion they’d shown was an inspiration for all to hear as he removed those ridiculous spectacles to wipe away the tears flowing down his cheeks. Nico glared furiously at Colonel Mustang and demanded how the man had found out so much about his and Bianca’s personal life.

“Major Armstrong can be very persuasive when he wants to find things out,” he’d said, his green eyes downcast. Stupid greed eyes. Why did Nico keep thinking about those green eyes?

Now, as they sat in the station with Nico looking out the window, the major leaned toward him. Nico prepared to glare at the man as if to say, “if you try to tousle my hair, as soon as I get my other arm back, I’ll make you regret it, superior officer or not,” but that wasn’t Armstrong’s intention as it turned out.

Instead, he leaned out the train window and began to shout. “Dr. Chiron, is that you?”

The man he was shouting at turned a horrified face.

“Don’t you recognize your old comrade? It is I, Jason Grace-Armstrong,” but the man ducked into the crowd on the platform.

“Who was that?” Nico asked.

“Dr. Chiron was a gifted alchemist who was in the research department during the war in Ishval. He was studying medical applications of alchemy and made some remarkable discoveries, but he vanished during the war.”

Nico stood up. “Let’s go see him.”

Armstrong was surprised. “I thought we were going to Resembool.”

“If he knows about medical research, he may know about biological transmutation as well. I want to talk to him. We can get on the next train,” Nico said.

As the major picked up the crate containing Bianca, she said faintly, “Me too.”

As they exited the train, they didn’t notice a woman with hair so red it almost looked like flames. She followed them at a distance, something odd in her gait, almost like she also had an automail leg, but one that didn’t match her other one.

Unfortunately, the man they were looking for had vanished by the time they got off the platform, and Nico had no idea where to go. Major Armstrong was undeterred. He pulled out a pad of paper, adjusted his spectacles, and made a hasty sketch. He approached one of the locals and showed him the sketch, asking the man if he knew the person he’d drawn.

Nico glanced at the drawing. It was an amazing likeness. “Wow, you’re quite the artist.”

The major puffed himself up. “The art of portraiture has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations.”

The man he’d shown it to said, “Oh, that’s Dr. Brunner.”

Another man said, “Of course we know him.”

The first one continued, “We’re not the richest town in Amestris, so we can’t really afford doctors. Dr. Brunner treats people for free.”

“He’s a good man,” the second one said.

A woman joined them, “He treats everyone, even people regular doctors couldn’t treat. He’s a miracle worker.”

Another woman, a farmer by her attire, said, “I almost lost my leg in a thresher. I thought I wouldn’t be able to walk. Now look at me.” She twirled around as if she were dancing.

The first woman said, “When he treats you, it’s like a flash of light, and then you’re healed.”

“A flash of light,” Nico said softly to Armstrong. “That must be alchemy.”

Armstrong nodded, stroking the small scar on his lip. “There was a rumor that when he disappeared, he took some top secret material with him.”

Nico had gotten an address and some directions from the helpful townspeople, so they set off, Bianca, still in her crate, on Jason’s shoulder as if she weighed nothing. Nico knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so he pushed the door open, calling out, “Is anybody home?”

An arrow flew from the doorway, just missing the young alchemist. The man they’d seen at the station emerged, holding a bow. “What did you come for? Did you come to take me back?” As he asked the question, he drew another arrow from the quiver he’d hastily drawn.

“Calm down, Dr.” Nico said hastily, raising his hand in a gesture of pacification. But this man would not be placated.

“I’ll never go back to that place. The things I was made to do…”

“No, no, that’s not it at all…” Major Armstrong began, but the doctor turned, now pointing his bow at the major.

“So you mean to kill me? To shut me up for good?”

“Doctor Chiron, please calm down”

“I don’t believe you,” he said, drawing back on the bow string.

“I said, calm down!” Jason Armstrong’s voice was anything but calm as he emphasized his words by flinging the crate containing Bianca at the other man before he could loose his arrow.

“Hey!” Bianca called out as she flew through the air, knocking the doctor over.

=====
Somehow, they all did manage to find themselves calmly seated at Dr. Chiron’s table. He spoke in a trembling voice, not daring to meet their eyes.

“The things they made me do, what they did with my research, I couldn’t take it any more. I saw them use it to slaughter so many people, so many innocents. And yet, I couldn’t disobey their direct orders. I didn’t dare to. I couldn’t make up for it, even if I spent the rest of my life paying for it. But I still try to do what I can. That’s why I became a doctor in this small town.

Jason looked at him inquiringly. “What were you working on, Dr. Chiron? What did you take with you?” he asked.

The old doctor took a breath to steady himself. “It was the philosopher’s stone. I took the stone and my notes.”

He produced a small red stone and put it on the table. Nico looked at it in wonder.

Chiron continued. “This,” he said, pointing to the stone, “was an experimental version. It’s imperfect, like all the ones I made. It’s impossible to know when it will reach its limits and cease to function. Even so, the others that I made were taken and used secretly throughout the war. They were immensely successful.”

Nico thought about the stone in Octavian’s ring. It must’ve been another one like this one. He leaned forward eagerly,

“Dr. Chiron, please, I must see your research. If it’s possible to create this, it’s possible to perfect it.”

The doctor raised his head in shock and looked at Armstrong.

“Major,” he said, “who is this boy?”

“He is a state alchemist,” was the simple reply.

“At his age?” Chiron put his hand on his face. “He must’ve been lured by the promises of prestige and research money.”

“Do you realize the cost?” he went on. “Do you know how many other alchemists threw away their licenses after being used as human weapons?”

“I know all about costs,” Nico said, looking at Bianca, who had sat, unmoving through all of the discussion. She raised her eyes, and the old doctor looked closely at her.

“So,” he said, “you committed the ultimate sin. You were able to transmute your sister’s soul. With skill like that you might be able to perfect the stone.”

Nico looked at him eagerly, but Chiron shook his head. “I can’t allow you to see my research. It’s the work of the devil. It will lead you straight to Tartarus.”

Nico stood up and shouted, “I’ve already been to Tartarus! And to save someone I love, I will go back there!”

Chiron just shook his head again and gestured to the door. Armstrong put Bianca back into the crate and lifted her to his shoulder. Then he and Nico walked out the door. As they walked away, Chiron could hear the boy’s words echoing in his mind. “I’ve been to Tartarus!”

=====
As they waited on the platform, the major said to Nico, “Even though you didn’t get to see Dr. Chiron’s research, you could’ve just taken the stone from him by force.”

Nico nodded. “I know,” he said, “but I thought about all the people he’s been saving with that stone of his. I’m willing to pay any price to get Bianca’s and my bodies back, but if I stole that from him, everyone here would be the ones paying the price, not me.”

“We’ll just find another way, Major. What about you? What will you say when you get back to Central” Bianca asked.

Jason adjusted his spectacles. “Me? Why should I say anything? We exchanged pleasantries with a local doctor named Brunner. Why should anyone care about that?”

Nico began to respect this blustering giant of a man a little more.

Just as the train pulled into the station, they were surprised when Chiron came up to them. He handed Nico an envelope. “This is where I hid my data. If you can look the truth in the face, then do it.” He walked away, only pausing when he stepped off the platform and said, “I’ll pray for the day that you two can return to your original bodies.”

When the doctor returned to his house, he was startled to see a most unwelcome visitor seated at his table.

“It’s been a while, Chiron,” she said, brushing her flame red hair back and pulling her skirt up to cross her ankles, revealing very mismatched legs. I was tailing the Elric brat. Imagine my surprise to find you here.”

He recoiled, but she went on smoothly. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not here to take you back. The work you started was plenty for your subordinates to follow up on.”

“Are you still making those monstrous things?” he asked.

In response, she rolled her eyes. “Oh Chiron, where’s your school spirit? After all, we were the ones who taught you how to make them in the first place. You just sped up the process. But your notes...If an alchemist like Elric sees it, he could cause us a lot of trouble. You were bad enough; that’s why you left, wasn’t it?”

“You’re monsters!” Chiron said. He reached for his bow, the one he’d left behind the chair, but before he could reach it, she pointed a finger at him. Abruptly, her sharp fingernail elongated into a thin spike that stabbed through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall. He could feel the blood running down his arm.

“Naughty, naughty,” she chided. “Just tell me what you told the boy.”

Chiron reached around with his free arm, seeming to clutch at his wound, but actually using the blood seeping from it to draw a quick circle on the wall behind him.

“Never!” he shouted as he activated the hasty transmutation circle to cause a massive spike to erupt from the wall, piercing the woman directly through her chest. She sagged for a moment, her eyes falling shut, but then she pulled herself free. To Chiron’s horror, the gaping wound his spike had created simply closed up.

“I’m a busy woman; I don’t have time for this,” she said. “I still have more lives than you can handle, Chiron. On the other hand, I can’t kill you either. You’re too valuable as a potential sacrifice. Those children, on the other hand…” She gestured to the window and then pointed two fingers at the children playing in the next yard over. “Do you think my spears can reach them from here?” She smiled, and Chiron’s blood ran cold. “I do. Do you want to find out? I’ll tell you what. Just tell me what you told the Stygian Iron brat, and I’ll leave. Otherwise…” She tapped the window with those two fingers again, and Chiron’s will crumbled. Before he could say anything, she added, “And if I find out you’re lying, I’ll erase this town from the map.”

“All right, I hid the data in…”

=====

Nico unfolded the piece of paper the doctor had given him. “National Central Library, 1st branch,” he read. “That’s where we’re heading as soon as we get fixed up.”

Jason chuckled. “If you want to hide a tree, put it in the forest. But how will you find it? There are thousands of books and papers there.”

“Don’t worry, Major Armstrong. We’ll find it,” Bianca said confidently.

“There’s one more thing on this note, though,” Nico said, reading aloud, “The truth that lies within the truth.”

Chapter Text

Naomi Rockbell gave the straps on the prosthetic leg a final tug.

“Thanks, Naomi,” old farmer Triptolemus said. “It fits much better than the old one.”

Naomi smiled at him. “You know, I could fit you with an automail leg, and you’d be able to do so much more with it.”

The old man shook his head. “No way! I’d love to be able to walk as good as I used to, but I hear the operation hurts like Tartarus, and the rehab is really tough.”

Naomi snorted at him. “What a baby! I fit an arm and a leg on a 14 year old boy in one operation, and he took it better than you.”

Old Trip laughed as he hobbled off. “You mean the Elric kid? He’s braver than I’ll ever be.”

Speak of the devil…

“Hey Granny!”

Naomi loved it when the Elrics referred to her as ‘granny.’ She’d been looking after them since they were infants, after all.

“Hey, stranger! It’s about time you came by.” She took a better look at Nico. “What happened to your arm? Did you lose it somewhere?” Then she took in the enormous stranger behind him, noticing Bianca’s head poking out of the crate on his shoulder.

“And who’s your tall friend? You know, people as short as you shouldn’t stand so close to normal sized folk.” (Jason Armstrong smirked at this; being six and a half feet of solid muscle, people usually didn’t refer to his size as normal.) “I almost didn’t see you. Good thing I’m wearing my glasses.”

Nico’s nostrils flared. “Who are you calling short, you dried up little raisin?”

Naomi reddened and came back with “Raisin?! You little pea!”

“Grain of rice!”

“Speck of pepper!”

And the glares and insults went back and forth, getting harsher and harsher, until Naomi reached out and grabbed Nico, pulling him into a hug, which he returned (to Jason’s astonishment; normally Nico hated to be touched).

“Oh, Granny,” he sighed. “I need to get my arm repaired so I can fix up Bianca.”

“Down to business at last,” she laughed. Then she turned to the workshop and yelled, “Will, come out here. We have a customer. Repeat business.”

Will Rockbell came out, his hands stained with motor oil and his blond mop of curls bound up in a bandana. “Who is it, Grandma?” His eyes grew wide as he saw who it was. He ran toward Nico, his arms raised, but instead of a hug, he cuffed the other boy on the head.

“Two months and no letters, no phone calls! What did you do now?”

Nico shrugged off his coat to reveal the wires and scraps of metal coming off his shoulder. Then he opened his pack and dumped the fragments of his destroyed arm onto the table.

“You jerk!” Will was shouting and cuffing him. “That arm was my masterpiece! I’ll have to start from scratch. And what’s this?” he went on. “You broke Bianca too? What kind of trouble are you two getting into?”

As best as he could, Nico told the Rockbells briefly about what had happened. Then he started to explain about the need to find Dr. Chiron’s research in the library. Will just shook his head. Naomi gestured for him to sit down. She started examining his automail leg.

“After we finish with your arm, we need to adjust your leg as well,” she said.

Will joined in the examination. “What do you know, you actually did grow a little.” Nico scowled at the jibe. Will walked out of the room, heading for the workshop.

“We can use your old leg; that will just be a few adjustments,” Naomi said, tapping his knee with her pipe. “The arm has to be completely rebuilt, so…”

Nico rolled his eyes. “What’s it gonna take? A week.” He quailed at the loss of time.

She barked a laugh in his face. “Give us some credit. We’ll have it ready in three days.”

Then she bent down and gave his metal leg a sharp twist. Nico winced briefly as it popped off. Will came back, carrying another leg, not as well made as his original, but slightly longer. Nico grunted as the two automail mechanics snapped the new leg into position.

“This one will get you used to the new height while we do the adjustment,” Naomi said, tapping the leg with her pipe.

Nico got up, somewhat unsteady. “It’s hard to walk on one I’m not used to.”

Meanwhile, Will was ticking off the work required to do the job. “I’ll need to machine new parts, assemble them, check the connections, do the adjustments.” He shook his head. “That’s at least two all-nighters.”

Nico muttered an apology, not sure why the other boy was willing to put himself through so much to get it done so quickly, but he was grateful nevertheless and tried to show it. Will just laughed.

“You need to get back to Central ASAP, right?” he said, “Well, let’s see what I can do. Just trust me, you’ll be paying double for this one.” He gave Nico a playful shove, but unfortunately, the shorter boy still wasn’t used to the temporary leg and fell over. Will blushed furiously and helped him up.

Naomi shot her grandson a look and said, “Stop fooling around. You have work to do.” As Will blushed and hurried out of the room, the old woman gave Major Armstrong a wink. He could make no sense of it.

Naomi gestured to the Elrics and the major.

“Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll have to start charging the forge. It will take a while to get it up hot enough to work Stygian iron”

“What kind of forge is it?” Jason asked.

“Electric. Why do you ask?”

“Madam, allow me to present myself. I am Major Jason Grace-Armstrong, the Thunderbolt Alchemist, and the tradition of electrical alchemy has been passed down through the Armstrong family for generations!” Sparks flashed between his fingers to emphasize his speech.

“Well, that should certainly save us some time. Come with me, major. You two,” Naomi indicated Nico and Bianca, “make yourselves at home. I hope you still remember your way around this house.”

=====

The next day, they’d gone out to the yard. Nico was lying in the grass, Bianca seated next to him. The Rockbell’s dog, Cerberus, had curled up at Bianca’s feet after prancing happily between the siblings that had played with her when she was a puppy. Nico reached out to stroke the dog and looked at her automail paw. Crafting the limb was Will’s first solo project, and Naomi had been so proud of her grandson, both for his skill at designing and machining as well as the tender care he’d given his dog as she got used to walking on her mechanical leg. Funny, Nico thought, how Will could kick his and Bianca’s asses without a second thought but be so gentle when it was called for.

His contemplation was interrupted by a loud crash from the workshop. It sounded like thunder. Nico hated thunder. He guessed it was Major Armstrong giving the electric forge another charge. He imagined the blond giant blustering about another family tradition “passed down for generations.” Although the major’s assistance might reduce the bill for the repair job (not that money was a problem for him with the high salary of a state alchemist), Nico felt a need to get away. He stood up suddenly.

“I need to go for a walk,” he said.

“Where are you going?” Bianca asked.

“I think I need to pay my respects,” he told his sister.

As he went to the gate, Cerberus sprang up and trotted to his side. Nico found he was actually glad for the dog’s company and welcomed the familiar companion as he walked down the road.

Inside the workshop, Jason Grace-Armstrong was not blustering or bragging about family traditions. He was seated at the kitchen table across from Naomi and feeling a little drained after generating the electricity needed to keep the machinery running for as long as Will needed to work the final components for Nico’s arm.

While Will toiled at his workbench, Naomi brought out a cup of coffee for her guest.

Jason started to thank her for both the food and the hospitality, but Naomi raised a hand to stop him.

“Major, you’ve been quite helpful here, and we’re happy to have you. If you really want to repay me, tell me what the Elrics have been up to. We haven’t gotten a single letter from them since they left, and I worry about them.”

“They’re quite famous in Central,” Jason said, “and the rest of Amestris is starting to hear about the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

“That fame seems to be coming with quite a bit of trouble,” Naomi said thoughtfully.

“I wouldn’t worry, though,” Jason said. “They’re strong, those two.”

“Strong, huh?” Naomi began. She remembered that horrible night when Bianca showed up the first time in that metal body. She was holding Nico in her arms, and he was covered in blood. Naomi remembered Bianca’s tearful voice calling out from that hulking suit of armor.

“Granny,” Bianca had pleaded, “please help him.”

“I’ve seen that strength,” Naomi said, her jaw set. “It was four years ago when he sacrificed his own arm to transmute his sister’s soul. I saw it when he decided to become a dog of the military. I saw it when he endured the automail surgery that would have a full grown adult screaming in pain.”

She looked at the major, her face set but with a softness in her eyes. “And I worry about what will happen to him when he finally faces an obstacle that even his strength won’t be enough for.”

“They’re like grandchildren to you, aren’t they?” Jason said.

“Well,” Naomi said, “I’ve known them since the day they were born. I helped raise them, especially after their father disappeared. He was an old drinking buddy of mine. I’ve wondered what became of him, how he could’ve left his wife and children. I don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

“Speaking of parents,” the major said, “where are Will’s parents?”

Naomi sighed. It was an old wound, but it still hurt. “They died in the Ishvalan war. My son Michael and his wife Lea were surgeons. They were called to the battlefield. They never came back.”

Jason had his own terrible memories of that war. He softly said, “It was terrible.”

=====

Nico made his way along the path to the cemetery where his mother’s headstone stood. It had been too long since he’d observed any of the funeral rites that had been so important to Maria Elric’s family. He knew that she’d have understood, but he still felt a little guilty.

“Is that Nico?”

The woman’s familiar voice pulled Nico’s mind into the here and now, and he looked over to the side of the road.

“Hey, Chiara.”

The man standing beside her laughed. “Nico Elric, look at you. I hear you’re a famous alchemist now. Still as short as ever.”

Nico bridled at that, but he was used to Paolo’s teasing.

Paolo continued in the same friendly tone, “What brings you back?”

Chiara swatted her husband and pointed (not so discreetly) at Nico’s empty coat sleeve.

“Maintenance, eh?” Paolo said, looking not at all embarrassed. “Well, Will does the best work.” He spread his own automail arms to emphasize the point.

Paolo’s arms were some of the first surgeries that Will had done on his own. Paolo had lost both arms in a thresher accident. When Will would tell people that it was some of the best work he’d done, Nico would bridle, thinking his own black arm and leg were better than Paolo’s steel arms. Then he’d be annoyed at himself for getting upset about something so silly.

=====

“I’d best be starting supper soon,” Naomi said.

“Madam,” Jason said, “I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to stay here, and you’ve been so generous, housing and feeding us all.”

“Nonsense,” Naomi said with a barking laugh. “Food always tastes better when it’s shared.”

“I have to ask, though,” Jason went on. “Why do Bianca and Nico stay here? Wouldn’t they rather stay in their own house?”

Naomi’s face dropped, just a little. “Those children don’t have a house to go home to. On the day that they set out for Central, they burned it to the ground.”

Jason gaped at her in incomprehension, so she continued, “I don’t know much about alchemy, but I know that what they’re trying to do is no ordinary task. I think they destroyed their own home so that they could never turn back. Now, why don’t you get Nico back here? I think he’s gone to the cemetery to visit his mother’s grave. By the time you get back, Will should be finished with his arm and leg, and we can re-attach them. Then we can all sit down to supper.”

=====

Nico did not expect his time in the cemetery to be interrupted by the booming voice of Major Grace-Armstrong.

“Nico Elric, how noble to sacrifice your leg to try to recover your mother! How tragic to burn your house to the ground so that you would never stray from your path to recover her body! Come, let me embrace you.”

Nico leaped up as the hulking blond leaned toward him. For all his clumsiness with the temporary automail leg he’d been using, he made it back to the Rockbells with surprising speed, staying out of reach of the blubbering major.

When he arrived, he was greeted by Will, who looked rather worn out after his non-stop work on the finely crafted metal limbs he held up.

Naomi came out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand, which she handed to Jason.

“Major,” she told him, “you go into the kitchen and keep stirring the stew.”

Nico was relieved that Jason now had something to keep him busy, but then Naomi turned to him.

“You,” she told him sternly, “know the drill.” She pointed to the chair where he’d sit while they did the re-attachment.

“I hate this part,” he said with a grimace, but he dutifully pulled off his shirt and sat in the chair.

“Will looked at his chest. Were there even more scars on it? Had he gotten even thinner? Naomi gave her grandson a nod, and they moved into place. Naomi pulled the temporary leg off and moved the better made black iron one into position. Will put the arm that he’d labored over for the last three days and nights against Nico’s shoulder.

“On three,” Naomi said. “One...two…”

As she said three, they completed the connections. Nico’s face contorted with a brief flash of pain, and when it was over, a single bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.

“That’s the worst part,” he said after a moment of recovery. “When the nerves reconnect. Well, soon I can kiss this pain goodbye, just as soon as I find the philosopher’s stone and can get my old body back.”

Will’s expression was unreadable when he said, “I’ll be sorry to lose you as a client.”

Nico stood up, pulled his shirt back on, and stretched first his leg and then his arm as Will went on, “I know you’re not good at maintenance, so I used more chrome in the alloy. It’s more rust resistant, but it’s less durable, so don’t be so rough on…” He trailed off as Nico ran out the door to the yard where Bianca was waiting. “Why do I even bother?” Will said.

=====

Jason had been relieved of kitchen duty so that he could watch how Nico restored his sister. All of the broken parts of her armor were placed around her. After Scar’s attack, the MPs had carefully gathered up all the fragments they could find.

Jason looked on curiously, “So that’s all you need to fix Bianca?” he asked.

Bianca removed her helmet, and Nico pointed to a rust colored alchemical circle marked inside the collar of her armor just at the back.

“That’s the rune that binds Bianca’s soul to her armor. It’s crucial that it stays intact.”

“It looks like it’s written in blood,” Jason said in a quiet voice.

“It is,” Nico replied. “That’s my blood.”

It looked like Jason was going to have another outburst, but Nico stopped him with an upraised palm.

“This next part is a little tricky,” he said. Then he clapped his hands together. He touched his palms to Bianca’s armor, and the fragments flew together with a flash. She rose to her feet, looking fully restored. Jason looked on in awe. He’d heard about how the Stygian Iron Alchemist could perform feats of alchemy just by clapping his hands together, but to see it with his own eyes!

“Good as new,” Bianca said.

“Shall we?” Nico asked, binding his long hair into a tight braid. He leapt up at his sister with a fierce kick. She blocked it almost effortlessly. They began sparring.

“Is this some kind of sibling quarrel?” Jason asked.

The sparring paused as Nico replied, “No, this is just a good way to make sure that our bodies move correctly.”

Jason laughed. “In that case, let me help you.”

Nico and Bianca looked a little horrified, but as Jason moved toward them they resumed their sparring with renewed vigor.

This went on for several minutes before Naomi leaned out the window and told them to get cleaned up for dinner.

=====

Over dinner, Bianca said, explaining their pre-dinner combat earlier, “Our teacher always told us that in order to train the spirit, we had to first train the body.”

Nico added, “that’s why we have to practice every day.”

Will glowered at him wearily, saying “so that’s why your automail needs to be repaired so much,” but truth to tell, he didn’t mind watching the display.

Naomi laughed. “That’s fine by us. You boys are making us rich.”

“But the principal is correct,” Jason said. “A healthy spirit makes its abode in a well-trained body.”

Nico found that maybe Armstrong wasn’t so bad after all, until the major continued.

“Look at how well trained my body is,” as he flexed his arms, his bulging muscles threatening to split his shirt open.” Nope, never mind, completely annoying and embarrassing.

Nico hastened to move the conversation elsewhere. “Tomorrow morning, we’re catching the first train back to Central. We’ll have our bodies back before you know it. Then we won’t have to come running back here to bother you so much.”

Will’s face fell at that.

=====

Immediately after dinner, Nico had fallen asleep on the sofa, exhausted by the trauma of limb-reattachment and the exertions of the alchemical repairs to his sister.

“Look at him, sleeping there with his stomach out,” the aforementioned sister said with just a trace of irritation, but she took a blanket out of the cupboard and spread it over her brother as gently as she could.

Naomi smiled at that. “Look at you. It’s almost as if you’re the parent, Bianca.”

A sigh came from the suit of armor. “It’s not easy having such a high maintenance brother.”

She sighed again, this time more fondly. “I’m reminded of when we were in Youswell. He worked so hard to make sure the locals didn’t lose their homes.”

“I guess you two would know better than anyone else what it feels like to lose your home,” Naomi said ruefully.

“That’s why I appreciate how you and Will always welcome us back, just like we’re family,” Bianca said. “Nico feels that way too. He just won’t say it.”

“We don’t regret burning down our house,” she continued, “but sometimes it’s too much. I wish I could just have a good cry, but with this body I can’t cry even if I wanted to.”

Will looked over at Nico’s sleeping form. “And he tries so hard to be tough that he won’t let himself cry.” He walked off to his own room to go to bed.

In the guest room, Jason Grace-Armstrong had been listening to the conversation. Tears flowed silently down his own cheeks.

=====
The next morning, Nico stood in the courtyard, suitcase in hand.

“Thanks for everything, granny,” he said.

“You bet,” the old woman replied.

“Hey, where’s Will?” Bianca asked.

Naomi replied, “He did three all-nighters in a row. He’s still asleep. Should I wake him?”

“Don’t bother,” Nico said, forcing a casualness in his voice. “If you wake him, he’ll just nag me about my automail maintenance.”

“You two,’ Naomi said, “don’t be strangers. Come back for a home cooked meal now and again.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Like we’d come all the way out here to the boondocks just for a meal.”

Jason couldn’t stifle a chuckle. Nico turned and glared at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Nico! Bianca!” A sleepy Will leaned out the window and called to them. “See you later.”

Nico continued to glare for a moment and then turned to wave up at Will. The glare faded from his face. Then he, Bianca, and Jason turned and walked toward the station, and Will went back to bed.

=====

A few hours later, Will came down and greeted his grandmother. “Good morning.”

She laughed at him and pointed at the sky, The sun would be setting soon. Then she said, “You’d better clean up your work table.”

Will went back into the workshop and looked at the mess. He’d been too tired to put anything away last night, but he set about restoring order.

“Those two come by and everything goes crazy.” Something on the bench caught her eye. It was a small black screw. Black, the color of Stygian iron.

“Uh-oh,” Will said.

Chapter Text

Nico leapt off the train enthusiastically. Bianca looked up in surprise. When was the last time her brother was actually enthusiastic about anything? Maybe going back home and seeing Granny Naomi and Will had been good for him.

“Come on!” her brother called out impatiently.

“Relax, brother, it’s not like the library is going to fly away,” Bianca, trying to be the voice of reason, said as she followed him off the train. Their progress down the platform was halted by two figures in military uniform standing directly in their path. The two figures offered a smart salute to Major Armstrong as he followed the Elrics.

“Sir,” the first of the soldiers, who Nico recognized as Lieutenant Cecil Havoc, said to the major, “we’re here as escorts.”

Jason Grace-Armstrong returned the salute and smiled. “Very good, lieutenant, and thank you second lieutenant Ross as well.”

The second soldier, a woman with dark hair and green eyes, presented herself to the Elrics. As she came closer, Nico noticed a small birthmark under her left eye, shaped almost like an inverted torch. She smiled at the Elrics.

“I’m Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross. May I say what an honor it is to serve as your escort. And may I say how appropriate your title is.” She looked at Bianca’s iron-clad form. “You are indeed the Stygian Iron Alchemist.”

Bianca tried to mumble an explanation, but Nico stepped forward, glaring furiously. “I’m the Stygian Iron Alchemist,” he shouted angrily. “This is my sister, Bianca.”

Lieutenant Ross began to stammer out an explanation, but then she caught sight of Havoc’s smirk. She turned and smacked him on the back of his head. “You ass! You set me up!”

“Come on Lou Ellen, it was pretty funny,” Havoc said.

“Most unprofessional,” Jason muttered. “I’m not sure if I can trust you two with the responsibility of looking after these two.”

Nico thought about the major’s propensity for hugs and emotional outbursts, and made his decision. “Oh no, Major, we’ll be just fine with these two,” he said hastily moving away from the huge blond.

“Very well,” Jason said. “I’ll trust Colonel Mustang’s judgement on this.”

“Good,” thought Nico, “we’ve made our getaway.”

No, not quite. Jason Grace-Armstrong may be big, but he was quick. Before they could make their getaway, the two Elrics were seized in a bear hug, and the major’s voice shook as he said, “Farewell, and may fortune attend your quest to regain what you’ve lost.”

As they were released from the embarrassing embrace, Nico looked at the shoulder of his red leather cloak. Yes, that sentimental idiot had left tear stains on it.

=====

As the car drove toward the library, Lieutenant Ross turned to face Bianca in the back seat.

“If you don’t mind, Ms. Elric…”

“Please, call me Bianca.”

“Very good, Bianca. If you don’t mind my asking,” Lou Ellen said, “why do you wear that suit of armor?”

“Good,” Nico thought. “Our secret isn’t common knowledge. Out loud he said, “It’s part of Bianca’s alchemical training.”

“That’s right,” Bianca said, but in a voice that, to a careful observer, suggested that there was nothing right about it.

Then, they saw the front of a huge building that seemed to radiate learning. Nico shifted about excitedly. “That must be it,” he said “There must be thousands of volumes in there.”

“Oh that’s just the public wing,” Cecil said easily. “The restricted wing is even bigger. That’s the one you want.”

But as they rounded the corner, they were greeted by a smoking ruin. A regular policeman, recognizing the uniforms of the two lieutenants, approached them.

“It happened last night. We’re investigating. We think it was arson,” was the police officer’s terse explanation.

Nico and Bianca looked at each other in horror and disappointment.

If they’d looked up above them, they’d have seen two figures seated on the roof of a neighboring building.

The first, a cloaked man with a drooping face suppressed a yawn as he turned to his companion, a woman with flaming red hair.

“Why did you do it, Kelli?”

“Well, if the Stygian brat found what he was looking for, it would’ve spoiled Mother’s plan, so I had to stop him. I didn’t have time to look through every book to find the right one, so…” she flicked her hair, and sparks fell from it. Any luck with your task, Morpheus?”

He opened his mouth to tell her of his lack of success, but then he paused, sniffing the air.

“I smell the dreams of an Ishvalan,” he said languidly. I smell them, and I’m going to eat his dreams, all of them. His dreams of home, his dreams of revenge, his dreams of death. And when I finish, there won’t be anything left of him.”

She clapped her hands eagerly. “Let’s go, brother of mine. Let’s find your Ishvalan, and when you’re finished, maybe I’ll suck the marrow from his dry dead bones.”

The macabre duo leapt off the roof, landing in the street as if they’d just stepped off a low curb, not dropped two stories to the pavement.

=====

Inside the public wing, Nico was trying not to appear frantic as he asked the head librarian if there was a chance that any of the volumes in the torched restricted area had survived the conflagration.

The librarian shook her head, but then her assistant said, “You might try asking Rachel. That bookworm would know.”

“Rachel?” Bianca said hopefully. “Is she here today?”

“Sorry,” the head librarian said, “she doesn’t work here anymore. I can give you her address, though.”

=====

The address they were given was to a small house not far from the library. Cecil knocked at the door, but there was no answer. Lou Ellen peered into the window.

“The light is on and there’s a cup of coffee at the table. I think she’s home.”

Nico pushed the door open. He could barely get it open. The entryway was crammed full of books. “Is anybody here?” he called.

There was a faint cry of “Help” from the next room. The four of them scrambled over the pile of books only to find that this room had even more books, piled from floor to ceiling. “Please help me,” came faintly from a huge heap of books. They quickly dug and found a young woman under the pile.

“Oh, thank the gods. The pile of books fell over onto me, and I thought I was going to die under them,” the woman said.

“Are you Rachel?” Bianca asked.

“Yes, I’m Rachel Elizabeth Sheska. I used to work at the library. I loved working there. As you can see, I love books. The only problem was, when I was surrounded by books, I couldn’t help reading them instead of doing my work so they fired me.” Her face fell. “I needed that job. My father is really poor, and I need to make enough money to pay his medical bills.” She buried her face in her hands for a moment and then went on. “Oh gods, I’m the worst. I can’t hold down a job. I’m worthless.”

Nico interrupted her self-castigation. “I have to ask you a question. Did you ever see anything written by Dr. Chiron?”

The young woman looked up at Nico’s question. “Dr. Chiron? Oh, yes, I remember. None of it was printed books; they were all hand-written journals. I remember them well.”

“So they were in the restricted section?” Nico asked.

Rachel nodded. Nico’s face fell. “Then they’re all burned to ashes,” he said with a groan.

“So we’re back to square one,” Bianca said sadly.

“Wait, did you want to read them?” Rachel asked.

“How can we?” Nico asked. “There’s nothing left. They’re all burned to ashes,” he repeated.

“I remember what was in them,” Rachel said. They looked at her blankly. She went on. “I read all of them.” Still no reaction. “I have a photographic memory. I can remember everything I’ve ever read.” Nico’s jaw dropped as she continued, “I can recall every word, every phrase.”

Nico had a brief urge to hug her. Then the memory of Major Armstrong’s behavior stopped him. Instead he said, “Can you write all of them out?”

“It will take me a few days, but sure,” Rachel said. “It’s not like I have a job to go to anymore.”

=====

Two days later, Rachel came to the apartment where Nico and Bianca were staying (and Lieutenant Havoc and Second Lieutenant Ross were keeping watch over them). She was carrying several large bundles of hand-written pages.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Rachel began, “but there was so much material.”

“But you wrote all that out?” Nico said with amazement.

“Yup,” Rachel said, nodding. “That’s every word of Dr. Chiron’s notes.”

“Brother, there are some amazing people in this world,” Bianca said. Rachel flushed with pleasure. No-one had ever complimented her like this before.

“Look at all of this,” Nico said. “No wonder he didn’t just try to sneak his notes out when he ran off.” He turned to Rachel. “So that’s everything?” he asked, just to be certain.

“That’s every word,” Rachel said beaming. “Dr. Chiron’s 1,000 Meals for Everyday Living.”

Cecil picked up a page and started reading. “Two cups of flour. One quarter cup of sugar. Two eggs. So all this fuss about a bunch of recipes?” he asked scornfully. “I guess it was all a waste of time.”

Neither Bianca nor Nico was put off in the least. They both picked up pages and began reading eagerly. Nico turned to Rachel with a broad smile. “Thank you so much, Rachel. You’re really amazing. Come on, Bianca. We need to get to the library.”

“Good idea,” his sister said. “We can get the references we need to start working on this.”

Then Nico added, “One more thing.” He pulled out a notebook and wrote something. Then he tore out the page and handed it to Lieutenant Ross along with the beaded necklace he usually wore, the proof of his certification as a state alchemist. He told her, “this page has my signature and account number. Along with the necklace, this will give you the authority to withdraw funds from my research grant. Withdraw this amount and give it to Rachel as payment for her work.”

“Yes, sir,” Lou Ellen said.

As the Elrics left the apartment with Cecil accompanying them as escort, they heard Rachel’s shriek. Obviously she’d seen the amount Nico had written as payment.

“THIS MUCH! HOW RICH ARE THESE PEOPLE?”

Cecil’s curiosity got the best of him. “You’re awfully excited about a bunch of recipes.”

It was Bianca who explained, “Dr. Chiron didn’t want his research falling into the wrong hands, so he encoded his notes. What looks like recipes to anyone else is actually high level alchemical documents.”

“So you know his codes?” Cecil asked.

“No,” said Bianca, “but with hard work and inspiration, we can figure it out. Recipes are a logical way to encode alchemy, since some people say that alchemy started in the kitchen.”

“Seems like a lot of work to me,” Cecil said.

“My brother writes his notes encrypted as complex card games.”

“Colonel Mustang has a large collection of nautical charts, even though Amestris is land-locked. I wonder if those are his alchemical notes,” Cecil mused.

By now they’d arrived at the library. Nico’s brown eyes were ablaze. “Come on, Bianca! I can’t wait to get started.”

=====

A week later, the fire in his eyes had dimmed considerably, giving way to puffiness. He’d been going over the pages again and again and had barely made any progress in deciphering Chiron’s coding. Both he and Bianca were actually glad when Rachel came by, as it gave them a reason to take a break.

Lieutenants Havoc and Ross, knowing that their charges had spent hours poring over the texts, barely stopping for meals or sleep, were happy to welcome the bookish redhead.

“Oh, Mr. Elric, Ms. Elric, I just had to stop by to thank you again.”

“Rachel,” Bianca said, “it’s good to see you again. How are you doing?”

“Thanks to your generosity, Mr. Elric,” she began gushing again, and Nico cut her off.

“Just call me Nico,” he said.

“Well, thanks to you, I was able to pay off some of his doctors. But I feel guilty taking so much of your money.”

“Believe me,” Nico said, waving her concerns away, “considering the secrets I’ve already found in this data, I got off cheap.”

“So how is your research coming?” Rachel asked. Nico’s expression darkened.

Bianca, sensing her brother’s mood, asked, “So, Rachel, have you been able to find a new job?”

Now the redhead’s face fell. “Not really. Although the money you’ve given me has been a lot of help,” she deflected. But then she smiled, just a tiny bit. “It’s nice to feel that a talentless nobody like me can do something that’s at least a little useful.”

Bianca patted her shoulder gently. “Rachel, you’re not a nobody. I think your memory is amazing. And your passion about reading is a talent all by itself. I think you’ll do just fine.”

At this the door opened to admit a second visitor, Corporal Beckendorf. He was his usual ebullient self. “Elrics! I thought I told you to come see me whenever you came to Central.”

“Sorry, we’ve been a little busy,” Nico said with more than a trace of snarkiness.

Beckendorf ignored the tone. “I know what you mean,” he said. “I’ve been in charge of the court martial office, and we’ve been struggling to catch up after that fire at the library. It destroyed almost all of our records.”

Nico looked over at Bianca and then at Rachel. “Say, Colonel,” he said coyly. “How would you feel about hiring someone who could reconstruct all of those records?”

Rachel just stared at him in amazement as Beckendorf sized up the situation immediately. “Young lady, how’d you like a job with the military? It comes with full benefits and an excellent salary.” Without waiting for an answer, he took Rachel by the hand and led her out, saying, “Let’s get the paperwork done right away and get you to work.”

Rachel went willingly, only pausing at the doorway to turn and shout a hurried, “Thank you so much!” to the two alchemists.

When they were alone again, Bianca turned to her brother. “Well done, Nico.” Although her metal face was immobile, he could hear the smile in her voice.

=====
For the tenth day in a row, the two lieutenants stood guarding the door to the Elric’s quarters. Suddenly they heard a crash, followed by what seemed to be swearing in a language neither of them was familiar with. They flung the door open and rushed in. The table the two alchemists had been working at was overturned, and crumpled papers littered the floor.

“Have you been fighting?” Cecil asked.

“No, that’s not it,” Bianca said, her voice trembling a little.

“I understand that you’re frustrated that you can’t decipher the code…” Lou Ellen began, but Nico cut her off.

“We did decipher it.” was all he said in a quiet voice.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Cecil asked.

“There’s nothing good about it!’ Now Nico was shouting. Then his voice dropped. “Chiron was right. This is the work of the devil.”

“What’s wrong?” Cecil asked.

Nico’s voice was almost a whisper now. ‘The main ingredient for the Philosopher’s Stone is human life. In order to make a single stone you have to make scores of human sacrifices.”

Chapter Text

Lou Ellen was the first to respond. “We can’t allow this to go unpunished.” Cecil wasn’t saying anything, just looking at them with a stunned expression.

“Lieutenant Ross, Lieutenant Havoc,” Nico said slowly. “Could you please not tell anyone about this.”

=====
A few miles across town, the MPs were examining the wreckage.

“Dear gods,” one of them said. “Did a gas main blow up?’

Annabeth Hawkeye’s cool grey eyes surveyed the rubble. As always, she missed nothing.

“This was no gas explosion,” she said.

Colonel Perseus Mustang had also spotted something. It was floating in the river. He tapped at the alchemical circle inscribed on the back of his glove, and the water responded, carrying the floating object to within his reach. He fished it out and held it up. It was a bloody jacket.

“That’s definitely Scar’s jacket,” he said, using the code name they’d given the fugitive, although he suspected that he knew the man’s real name.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Hawkeye asked.

“Judging by the amount of blood on the jacket, if he’s alive he’s not in good shape,” the colonel replied. “But I’m taking no chances until I see a body.” He turned to the soldiers on duty at the site. “I want a full search done. I don’t care if it takes a week.”

The soldiers groaned at the thought of sifting through all the rubble, but they set to work.

Out of range of the search, two figures lurked in the shadows.

“He got away,” the first said, disappointment cutting through the usual languor in his voice. “I didn’t get to eat any of his dreams.”

“Maybe next time,” the second said. She put a finger to her lips and licked a bit of blood off of it, a trace of ecstasy crossing her face as she did. “He won’t get far in his current condition. I’m returning to Mother. I have to inform her of the latest developments.”

=====

Back at Central HQ, Lieutenants Ross and Havoc were squirming. Major Armstrong was subjecting them to one of his stormier glares, and it felt to them like they were caught in a torrential rainstorm. It had started calmly enough when the major had made a seemingly innocent inquiry into the wellbeing of the Elrics. He was mildly concerned that he hadn’t seen them around the library or in town. Lou Ellen had tried to pass it off as being caught up in their researches, but somehow, Jason’s suspicions were aroused.

Cecil had pulled her aside and tried to whisper something about letting him answer the questions. He was, after all, better able to bend the truth when it was called for. The problem was that the whispering made Jason even more suspicious, and he decided to pull the two subordinates into his office for a ‘private discussion.’

=====

Nico lay on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

“Brother, you should eat something,” Bianca said in a worried tone. She produced an apple.

“Hmph,” he grunted in response. He stared at the apple like he could wither it by glaring at it. Then he began to grumble. “You know, I’m tired of this. It seems like every time our goal is within reach, it slips between our fingers. It’s like the gods are slapping us in the face.”

Bianca said, in a small voice, “I wonder if we’re going to stay like this for the rest of our lives.”

Nico was silent for a long while, but then he said, “Hey Bianca. There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, but I’ve been too afraid to bring it up.”

“What is it?” she asked.

Nico didn’t say anything for a long while, almost like he was mustering his courage before he started. Finally, he took in a breath to begin, but he was interrupted by the hammering of a fist on the door. He tried to ignore it, but the door flew open with a crash.

Major Armstrong strode into the room, followed by an embarrassed looking Lieutenant Ross and Lieutenant Havoc.

“I heard all about it,” Armstrong boomed out. There were tears flowing down his cheeks. “Gods! What a tragedy! Who would’ve imagined that the Philosopher’s Stone concealed such a terrible secret? And how much has the military been covering up?”

Nico sprang up from the couch and grabbed Havoc by the collar. “I thought I told you to keep quiet about this,” he hissed.

Cecil just stammered out an apology, backed up by Lou Ellen, who said, “We had to tell him. You know how the Major can get.”

Cecil had recovered enough to stare at Nico’s right arm for a moment. Nico realized that his two escorts had never seen his arm or hand uncovered, so they didn’t realize it was automail. They also didn’t know about Bianca’s body. Nico was grateful for that, at least.

“What happened to your arm?” Lou Ellen asked.

Nico mumbled something about the war, and Cecil responded, “So you want to use the Philosopher’s Stone to get your arm back?”

Nico nodded at that. Meanwhile, Jason had started to cry again. “The truth can be so cruel sometimes.”

Nico paused at that, his memory jogged. “The truth,” he said. “Do you remember what Chiron put in that note he gave us?”

Bianca just shook her head, so Nico continued. “The truth that lies within the truth. There’s something more to this.”

He picked up a map from the floor and spread it on the table. Then he indicated some of the buildings on the map. “When I got my certification, they gave me a tour of the alchemical laboratories.”

“Dr. Chiron worked out of lab #3,” Jason supplied.

“I don’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary there,” Nico said. Then he pointed at the map again. “What’s that building? It looks like a laboratory, but it’s not marked as one.”

It was Lou Ellen who answered, “That was the fifth laboratory, but it was shut down years ago. It’s condemned now, something about structural damage.”

“That’s the one we want,” Nico said confidently.

“What makes you so sure?” Cecil asked.

Nico pointed to the building next to it. “That’s a prison,” he said. Then his face turned grim. “They keep condemned prisoners there.” Cecil still looked baffled, so Nico went on. “When a prisoner is executed, his body isn’t returned to his family. What if, instead of being executed, they’re being used as raw materials?”

The others looked on in horror, but it made a sick sense.

It was Cecil who spoke first. “If the prison is involved, does this mean that the government is, too?”

“I think we’re in this way over our heads,” Lou Ellen said nervously.

“That’s why I told you not to tell anybody about this,” Nico said through clenched teeth.

Jason drew himself up stiffly. “Remember that this is still only speculation. Even if the Stygian Iron Alchemist is correct, it’s possible that the laboratory is operating independently.”

Bianca asked, “Who’s in charge of the government research department?”

“It was General Atlas,” Jason said.

“Why don’t we start by contacting him?” Nico asked.

“That’s not possible,” Jason replied. “He was murdered a few days ago. He was one of Scar’s victims.”

Nico started to ask if there was anyone above General Atlas that they could contact, but Jason cut him off.

“If this goes above General Atlas, the situation is truly complicated,” he said, standing directly in front of Nico so he towered over the alchemist. “I’ll investigate this on my own and keep you informed of what I find. Until then, none of you are to say anything to anyone about any of this.”

He picked up the map from the table and then looked Nico directly in the face as he said, “And you, Elrics are to STAY PUT!”

Nico had sunk into a chair under the major’s gaze. He tried to rise up to say something, but Jason glared at him, his blue eyes looking like thunder clouds as he went on, his voice booming as he said, “You were going to sneak in to investigate, weren’t you?”

Before Nico could reply, he went on, “DON’T EVEN THINK OF IT! This is too dangerous for children like you, even if there may be a clue to regaining your original bodies.”

Nico quailed under that blue glare, and then for a moment, he thought of Will’s blue eyes, always looking like the sunniest of skies. Why did that come into his mind right now? He put up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. We’ll wait here for your report, Major.”

“Sheesh,” Bianca put in. “As if we’d do anything that dangerous.”

The major and the two lieutenants stepped out of the room, closing the door behind them. As the key turned in the lock, they heard Jason saying to his subordinates, “And see to it that they don’t set foot outside this room until you hear from me.”

In response, Nico called through the door, “We’ll just be doing some reading.” He moved the lamp across the floor, ostensibly for just that purpose.

When the coast seemed clear, he gestured to the large shadow that the repositioned lamp had created. Bianca nodded.

=====

It was fortunate for them that in spite of Nico’s fame as an alchemist, the Elric’s skill with shadows was a well kept secret. At this hour, the only illumination in this part of town was the badly maintained street lights, and they cast plenty of shadows, shadows that the Elrics were easily able to travel between. It took a few tries, but soon enough they emerged from a shadow just down the street from the building known as the fifth laboratory.

Nico snickered. The major thought he was so clever, taking away the map when he left. As if there weren’t other maps in the papers that littered their room! He gestured quietly to his sister, and she saw it as well. Why would an abandoned building need an armed guard at the entrance? They were onto something here. They slipped back into the shadows, emerging at the back of the building, where they found no entrances, just a ten foot high wall topped with barbed wire. Fortunately, the demanding physical training their teacher had put them through made them equal to the situation. Bianca flung her small brother up into the air, and he landed, one-footed, on top of the wall. The barbed wire had no effect on his automail leg, and he dismantled a length of barbed wire long enough to provide a steel cable that he lowered to the street so that Bianca could pull her armored form up onto the wall beside him.

Now inside the wall, they saw that there was a window into the building proper. It was too small for Bianca to fit through, but Nico could get in that way with no difficulty.

“You wrap yourself in shadows,” he told his sister, “and check out the perimeter of the building. Be careful, though.”

Bianca nodded. She knew that although the shadows would hide her form, she could still be heard, and her metal body could be rather noisy when it moved.

=====

Just inside the building, two large figures stirred. “We have company,” the first one said. “You take the one in the courtyard. I’ll handle the little one.”

The second one gave an eerie laugh. “So I get the big one? How big, I wonder? Will I have to trim him or stretch him?”

=====
Bianca stood in the courtyard. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, so she relaxed her grip on the shadows. Manipulating shadows could become tiring after a while, so she was glad to step out of them. Of course, no sooner had she done so that a large figure jumped in front of her.

“Who are you?” she called in surprise.

In response, the figure lunged at her, swinging a cleaver. She leapt back to avoid it, taking a better look at her assailant. Like Bianca, he was an armored figure, but unlike her own black Stygian iron, his armor was the dull grey of ordinary iron. And instead of a helmet, his face was a huge fanged skull, reminding Bianca of pictures of Laestrygonians she’d seen in books as a young child.

“You’re pretty fast for such a big guy,” he said.

“I didn’t ask to be this big,” Bianca said, somewhat sullenly.

“Hey! You’re a girl,” he said. “Oh well, either way, I’ll have to trim you down a little.” He swung his cleaver at her again. Then he said, “Oh, where are my manners? Since you asked, you can call me Number 66.”

“That’s your name?” Bianca asked.

“Well, that’s what they assigned me when they gave me this job.” He paused for a moment. “If I told you my real name, you’d probably piss your pants.” He laughed, sounding a little hysterical. “I think I’ll tell you just before I finish you off, just to hear you scream.”

=====
Nico looked around the room. There were a few dark alcoves, but the only furnishing was a small platform in the center of the room marked with a pentagon. On the floor around it was a huge alchemical array about fifteen feet across, a circle inscribed with several more pentagons. It was a design he’d never seen before, but it’s purpose seemed obvious.

“This must be where they transmute the Philosopher’s Stone,” he muttered.

“It is.” The speaker was an armored figure with a large sword. He lifted the sword menacingly as he said, “I don’t know who you are, but you seem to know too much. He advanced on Nico as he went on. “I am Number 48. I was entrusted to guard this place. My orders are to eliminate anyone who trespasses here, even a kid like you.”

Nico bristled at being called a kid. He clapped his hands together and then touched his flesh hand to his metal one, transmuting it into a sword of his own.

“Alchemy, eh?” Number 48 said. “Well let’s see what you can do with it.” He swung at Nico, who dodged the first blow. The second blow caught his right shoulder and sword met automail with a loud clang.

“So, your entire arm is metal,” his attacker said. “No matter, this sword can cut through steel.”

“Good thing Will didn’t use steel on my automail then,” Nico said, parrying the next strike and then following through with a kick to Number 48’s chest. When his foot connected, he said, “I know that sound. Could it be that you’re hollow?”

“How did you know that?”

Nico smiled grimly. “I spar with someone like you.”

The armored figure drew back in surprise. “There are others like me outside?”

“It makes me sick,” Nico said, “to know that there are other idiots besides me would even think of binding a soul to a suit of armor.”

“Well then,” his opponent said, drawing up his sword, “allow me to introduce myself. 48 was my number on death row. When I had a normal body, I was called Trophonius. I was known as the Slicer. I was a thief and a murderer. Officially, I was thought to have been executed two years ago. But my skills were needed, so I was pulled aside for experimentation. Now I serve as their guard dog.”

“So there must be a seal that connects your soul to the armor,” Nico said.

“I see that you know more about alchemy than I do.” Now the Slicer reached up to undo the faceplate of his helmet. Inside the helmet at the back, Nico could see the same rune that he had drawn inside Bianca’s armor. Someone had poached his research!

“This seal is drawn in my blood, and the iron in my blood ties my soul to the iron in my armor,” the swordsman said. “If you can destroy the seal, you will defeat me.”

“So kind of you to show me your weak spot,” Nico said.

“I like a challenge,” the Slicer laughed and lunged forward.

=====

Cecil and Lou Ellen were not happy as they searched Nico and Bianca’s room. “How did they get out?” Cecil asked.

“I have no idea,” Lou Ellen replied, “but let’s go.” She strode out of the room with Cecil on her heels.

“Where?” he gasped out.

“Where else?” she snapped in reply. “The fifth laboratory.”

Chapter Text

Nico danced back as the sword swung around. This Slicer knew how to use it. The sword might not be able to cut through the Stygian iron of his automail, but if it connected with flesh, he’d be cut to ribbons. He’d already received several slashes. None of them were deep, but they were adding up, so blood was trickling down his face and left arm. And even though the metal could withstand the sword’s edge, the impact of the blows were fiercely jarring.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had so nimble an opponent,” his armored opponent said. “You’re a regular little monkey.”

“Who are you calling little?” Nico snarled. He darted forward, his sharpened automail arm dealing the other a vicious slash that bit savagely into the armored breastplate. Unfortunately, it caught for just a moment, allowing Slicer to bring his sword to bear. It connected with Nico’s right shoulder with a clang.

He jumped back again. As he did, he tried to raise his arm to block the next blow, but the motion was stiff, and there was an ominous clicking sound from the mechanism of the automail. This was not good. “I’ve got to end this soon,” he thought.

Slicer gave a barking laugh. “You’ve fought well, boy, but you’re getting tired and sloppy. I’ll cut you down like a dandelion.”

Nico glared defiance at him, not knowing why that last remark bothered him so much.

“And don’t think that your friend outside will come to your rescue,” Slicer went on. “My ally is dealing with him even as we speak.”

“This ally of yours,” Nico asked. “Is he strong?”

“He’s strong, all right. Just not as strong as me.”

Now it was Nico’s turn to laugh. “Then I have nothing to worry about. For starters, that’s not a friend. That’s my sister out there. And I’ve never won a fight against her.”

=====

Outside, Bianca was holding her own quite well, even though she was unarmed, and her opponent had a cleaver. He swung it at her repeatedly, but it never connected, whereas her fists made contact with his torso consistently. The hollow ringing told her that he was like her, and she used that knowledge to direct her blows. She worried about the location of his blood seal; she didn’t want to damage it, as that would kill him, but she did need a way to incapacitate him enough so that she could go to Nico’s aid. Doubtless her brother needed her help. (He always did.)

“Oh, come on, sweetie,” her assailant cajoled. “Let me trim you down.” He swung the cleaver at her head.

“I’m not your sweetie!” Bianca retorted, landing a sharp kick on his midsection.

“Ooh, I’ll get you for that,” he said. “If I can’t take some off the top, how about the bottom?” He aimed the cleaver at her legs, but she managed to jump up and land directly on the cleaver with her feet, causing the blade to snap.

This seemed to enrage #66, so he attempted to head butt her, but Bianca was too quick. She landed a quick blow to the bizarre skull front to his head, which knocked the helmet completely off.

“Hollow,” was all Bianca said, not really surprised, but he seemed to think he’d startled her.

“How can this be, you ask. What is this horror? An empty suit of armor? Let me tell you a story,” he said, a false chuminess in his voice as he picked up the helmet.

“Once upon a time, there was a man named Crusty. He owned a hotel. It was a lovely hotel, with luxurious beds for the guests who stayed there. But the guests were messy and ungrateful. They didn’t like the beautiful beds. They complained if the beds were too small or too big, too hard or too soft. There was nothing wrong with those beds, so Crusty decided to fix the people instead. If the person thought the bed was too big, Crusty took some rope from the store room and before you know it, the bed fit just fine. And if the bed was too small, well, a cleaver from the kitchen did the trick. Crusty managed to get 23 guests to fit his beds perfectly before word got out and he was taken away to be executed. It was the talk of the town, let me tell you.”

He paused to let the drama build and then went on.

“But it didn’t end there. Before the execution, some men made Crusty an offer. In exchange for guarding a certain place, they wouldn’t hang Crusty, they’d just take his soul out of his body and put it into a tin can.”

As he used one hand to put his helmet back in place, he pointed at his chest with the other hand and proclaimed, “Yes, it’s true. I am the famous Crusty, the Stretcher!”

Bianca gave her head a little shake. “Sorry, I’ve never heard of you.” When she saw his disappointment, she went on, “I’m from a little town back east.”

“A hick?!” Crusty seemed offended. “But you must be surprised by my body. Can’t you at least say ‘Waagh!’ or ‘Aieee!’ Come on, throw me a bone! It’s not every day you see a living suit of armor.”

Bianca just lifted her own helmet off her shoulders and leaned forward to show her own hollow body.

“Aieee!” Crusty screamed. “You’re a freak!”

“Now that’s just rude,” Bianca said.

“Okay,” Crusty said, calming down. “So you’re just another death row inmate.”

“No,” Bianca said hastily. “When my body disintegrated, my brother transferred my soul to this suit of armor.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet.” Crusty’s voice dripped sarcasm.

“Hey!” Bianca rankled. “My brother loves me. He risked his life to transmute my soul, and I would do anything for him.”

“Aww, ain’t family love beautiful...even if it isn’t real?”

“What are you talking about?” Bianca was confused.

“What if your personality and your memories were fabricated by your brother?” Crusty asked slyly.

“That’s not possible,” Bianca said, but there was a quaver in her voice. “I’m a real person. I’m Bianca Elric. I have a soul.”

“But what is a soul?” Crusty asked. “Can you see it? Can you measure it?” He saw his advantage, and he pressed it. “Maybe your brother and the people around you are lying to you. Think about it. How can you prove that Bianca Elric ever existed? Where’s your body?”

“What about you?” Bianca couldn’t cry in this armor body, but her voice trembled.

Suddenly, a security guard appeared from around the corner. He aimed a rifle at Bianca and Crusty. “Hey,” he barked. “This area is off limits.”

From somewhere within his armor, Crusty produced another cleaver. Saying only, “Too tall,” he swung it easily and sliced through the unfortunate soldier’s neck. Bianca looked on in horror as the lifeless body fell to the ground.

“That’s all the proof I need,” Crusty said. “I kill, therefore I am.”

=====
“Even if your sister did defeat my ally, I doubt that she’ll get to you in time.” Slicer’s voice was calm, as if he were reciting a lesson in a classroom, not coming at Nico with a sword. “This building is poorly lit and difficult to navigate even if you’re familiar with it.”

Nico smiled a little to himself. He and Bianca had never had much difficulty with darkness, and as so often in the past, he’d used it to his advantage. He hadn’t been able to use his alchemy, between the stress of the fight and knowing that the flash of the transmutation would give his ruse away, but he said, “You think so? Now, Bianca!”

Slicer turned to swing his sword at the large figure only to discover that it was nothing but a heap of crates. Nico used the distraction to leap upward, kicking the helmet off of the armored body. He knew that the blood seal was in that helmet, and once it was separated from the body…

Sure enough, the massive form toppled to the ground. Nico panted to catch his breath for a moment and then touched his flesh hand to the automail arm to transmute the sword on the end of it back into a hand.

“That was a dirty trick,” Slicer complained, his voice smaller as it came from the helmet on the ground.

“All’s fair in fights to the death,” Nico snarked.

“Well, you’ve beaten me,” Slicer said. “Now I suppose you’re going to destroy my blood rune.”

“Why should I?” Nico said. “Without the head, where your soul is, that body is just a hunk of metal. Besides, I have some questions for you.”

“About the Philosopher’s Stone?” he asked.

“Tell me everything about it,” Nico said as he raised the helmet so that he could glare directly into its eyes.

Slicer just laughed. “Never,” he said.

Nico gave the helmet a short shake. “Cut out the tough act. It’s not like you’re in a position to argue, loser.”

“I haven’t lost yet,” Slicer said.

Nico had only an instant to puzzle at the other’s words before he felt the sword slice into his side. Fortunately, he’d instinctively moved to dodge the worst of it, but the blood ran from the deep gash in his side.

He looked in horror at the headless suit of armor preparing for another sword strike. “How can this be?” he called out in alarm.

“Why should there only be one soul in a suit of armor?” Slicer asked. “I may have forgotten to mention that when the police caught the Slicer, it was actually two brothers. Allow me to introduce you to my brother, Agamethus. He’s not as agile, as he doesn’t have a head, but he gets the job done.”

Sure enough, Nico had to dodge another sword blow. It was a little less well aimed than the earlier ones in the fight had been, but there was plenty of power behind it, and he knew that he wouldn’t survive another direct hit.

“Well, that’s not fair,” he gasped out, jumping back to move the sword and clutching at his side to try to staunch the flow of blood.

A laugh came from the helmet on the floor. “Someone told me that all’s fair in a fight to the death. And yours will be coming soon.”

“He’s not wrong,” Nico thought. “I can’t keep dodging like this. Oh merda, I’m really going to die. I’ve lost too much blood, and there’s something wrong with my arm. I don’t have the strength to work another transmutation.”

He thought about how it wasn’t so long ago that the killer Scar had cornered him. Only this time no-one was coming to his rescue. Then an idea came to him. He didn’t have the strength or the time for a full transmutation, but…

The sword swung at him again. He ducked under it just in time, and he reached out with his right hand. It connected with the armor breastplate for just an instant, but it was long enough. The armored body flew into fragments and fell to the floor. The largest piece was the sword arm and shoulder plate. It still swung the sword feebly until the helmet called out, “Give it up, Agamethus. We’ve lost.”

Apparently that’s where the other blood seal was, and Nico’s partial transmutation had left it intact.

“That was pretty amazing, kid,” the helmet, Trophonius said.

“Well,” Nico came back, “now you’d better tell me what I want to know.”

“That we cannot do,” Trophonius said. “Hurry up and destroy us.”

Nico didn’t move. “I won’t be a murderer.”

“A murderer? How can it be murder? We’re hardly human.”

Nico shook his head. “If I were to accept that you guys aren’t human, that would be saying my sister isn’t human either.”

Trophonius started to laugh. “When we were alive,” he said, “we robbed, we killed without a thought. We were called soulless devils. How ironic that only now someone considers us human. Very well, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

“Brother, no!” a faint voice called from the armor fragment on the floor. “If you tell him, they’ll destroy us.”

“They’ll destroy us anyway for failing to eliminate the intruder. Consider this a parting gesture. But I warn you, I know nothing about alchemy or the Philosophers’ stone.”

“Arrgh!” Nico grunted. “Can you at least tell me who ordered you to guard this place?”

“They’re the ones who made the stone,” Trophonius began. “They are…”

Abruptly, a red lance of flame shot out. It struck the back of the helmet, reducing it to ash and destroying the blood seal on it. A woman emerged from the shadows, her hair a mass of red flames.

“That was close,” she said. “Naughty, naughty Number 48, talking about things you shouldn’t.”

Another woman stepped out. “What’s the Stygian Iron runt doing here?” she said in a voice like nails on a chalkboard.

As she kicked the broken sword aside, she looked at Nico and said, “I suppose we’ll have to fix that.”

Chapter Text

“What a troublesome child,” the first woman said. “I wonder how he found out about this place.”

The iron arm on the floor twitched feebly, reaching toward the charred ashes that had been the helmet. “Brother, where are you?”

This seemed to engage the second woman. “You idiot!” she screeched, picking up the arm. She turned it over to reveal the blood seal inside of it, and she scratched at it with fingernails that looked like some horrible beast’s talons. “Your idiot brother was going to reveal our secrets. And you!” She was almost shouting now. “You almost killed one of our precious sacrifices.”

She continued to scratch at the seal. The shrill noise of her nails against the iron was unbearable. She only stopped when a man stepped out and spoke.

“That’s enough, Aklys.” His voice was indistinct, almost like he was talking in his sleep. “He’s joined his brother.”

She threw the arm down in disgust, but the first woman walked over to it. “Best to be sure,” she said, raising her skirt to reveal a leg made out of bronze. “Was it some kind of bizarre automail?” Nico wondered. She raised her leg and brought it down onto the iron arm, shattering the dull gray metal into tiny fragments.

The second woman, Aklys, apparently, turned to Nico and smiled at him. It was a ghastly smile. “Well, well, if it isn’t the Stygian Iron runt. Congratulations on making it this far. Still, you did see something you shouldn’t have. Maybe I’ll have to kill you after all.”

“Why you!” Nico said through clenched teeth. As she came closer, he reared up and kicked viciously at her, ignoring the pain from the bleeding wound in his side.

She just laughed. “Look at that. The little guy still has some fight in him.”

Nico raged. “Stop calling me little.” He clapped his hands together, preparing to transmute his metal arm into a weapon, but when his hands separated, the right one fell limply to his side. “Not good, not good!” Nico thought frantically.

Aklys seized the advantage and kneed Nico savagely in the chest, causing him to collapse to the floor.

“Oh, look at you with your busted arm. Look at all your wounds. You’re the picture of misery.” There was something about the way she savored that word. “You’re just perfect.”

The first woman walked over to where Nico lay. She looked down at him for a moment and then said to Aklys, “We don’t need this facility to make stones anymore anyway. Let’s just blow it up to get rid of the evidence.”

“What about the runt? Are you sure it’s such a good idea to let him live?”

The man slowly shook his head. “Just knowing about the process won’t get him anywhere. Our plan is in its final stage.” And he walked away without another word.

Nico groaned feebly. He had to find out more about this plan. He tried to get up, but Aklys jabbed at him with her foot, and he fell back. She delivered a kick to his wounded side. He quivered in agony, losing consciousness, and she bent over him, saying, “One more thing. Don’t ever forget that we let you live.”

=====

Bianca stood there, frozen as Nico’s words ran through her memory: “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, but I’ve been too afraid to bring it up.” What had he meant?
What was he too afraid to bring up? Then Crusty’s words returned. “What if your personality and your memories were fabricated by your brother?”

Her reverie was interrupted by Crusty’s cleaver hitting her side. “What’s the matter, girly?” he said with a cruel laugh. “You seem distracted. Gee, even an artificial soul ain’t perfect. One little doubt and…”

“Shut up,” Bianca shouted at him, knocking the cleaver aside. “I’m not…”

But he leaped onto Bianca, knocking her to the ground. “Just accept it. You’ll feel better that way.” He prepared to strike at her again, but a shot rang out, and the aim was so accurate that it knocked the cleaver out of Crusty’s hand.

“The next shot is to your head.” It was Lieutenant Ross. She and Lieutenant Havoc had found them, and they had Crusty covered with their powerful military-grade rifles.

“Who the hell are you guys?” Crusty asked. “And why didn’t that security guard keep you out?” Then he looked over at the fallen form he’d so recently decapitated. “Oops, my bad,” he muttered.

Suddenly an ominous rumbling started from the building behind them. “What’s that sound?” Cecil Havoc asked.

There was the sound of an explosion, and the wall began to collapse. Lou Ellen Ross was the first to respond. “We have to get out of here!” She took Bianca’s arm, but she resisted.

“No! Nico is in there! We have to get him out!” She started toward the falling wall, but Lou Ellen stopped her.

“Don’t be a fool, Bianca. If you go in there, you’ll be crushed.”

Crusty was on his feet. “Gotta go,” he said as he ran down the street. Cecil fired a shot at him, but it rang uselessly against the armored body.

Just then a figure emerged from the building. It was a woman with disheveled hair, and over her shoulder was slung Nico’s unconscious form. “I have a delivery for you losers,” she said in a voice like a rusted door hinge. She put Nico’s body down with a surprising gentleness. “He’s lost a lot of blood, so you might want to take him to a hospital. And in the future, try to take better care of him. He’s got plenty of talent, and we’ll be needing that in the future.” As they looked at her in stunned surprise, she walked down the street.

=====

As the building across the street shook as a result of the explosion, the inmates were starting to panic. The guards ignored them, as they usually did, but the guard in the highest security wing took a moment to make sure that his most dangerous charge was still properly restrained. As he looked over the prisoner, he muttered something about an earthquake, but the prisoner laughed at him.

“That’s no earthquake. That’s the sound of high explosives reducing a building to rubble. Such a soothing sound, it reminds me of the Ishvalan extermination campaign.”

The guard just snapped, “Quiet, Kimblee,” and strode away. He hated him. Alabaster Kimblee was a raving lunatic.

=====

“Where am I?”

“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” That was Cecil Havoc.

“Once again, where am I?” Nico was awake. Nico was grumpy.

“It’s a private clinic. It’s run by a friend of mine,” said Lou Ellen.

Cecil added, “We thought it was safer not to take you to a military hospital, in case someone started asking questions.”

Nico sat up. He put his hand on the wound in his side. “Damn! That hurts. And I was so close to the truth. This is no time to be stuck in a hospital.”

Abruptly, the two lieutenants stood at attention. All of the casualness in their demeanor was gone.

“Stygian Iron Alchemist! Sir,” Lieutenant Havoc barked out.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Ross said. “Please allow us to apologize in advance for our rudeness.”

Nico looked at her in puzzlement for an instant before she brought her hand across his face in a sharp slap.

“Sir,” she went on, “Major Armstrong told you specifically not to go off on your own. You disobeyed a direct order. He knew that it would be dangerous, which is why he told you to stay put. By disobeying the major’s orders, you almost got yourselves killed.”

Lieutenant Havoc stepped in. “You may be extremely talented, sir, but you must remember that you’re still a child.”

Lieutenant Ross continued. “You can’t always act on your own. You need to work with the people around you. It’s alright to trust the adults sometimes.”

Then the two of them snapped back to attention and said in perfect (and a little eerie) unison, “Please forgive our insubordination for speaking so rudely and raising a hand to you.”

Nico looked at them in stunned silence for a moment before replying, “No, I’m the one who should apologize.”

Lou Ellen asked, a little less crisp tone, “And will you reprimand us for slapping you, sir?”

“Nah,” Nico said, “I had it coming.”

The two lieutenants sagged with a visible relief. Nico asked, a little puzzled, “Why are you guys so deferential to me?”

It was Cecil who replied. “Although you’re not a standard soldier, you have a rank equivalent to Colonel. One word from you, and we could be discharged.”

Nico shook his head. “You don’t have to be so nervous around me. I didn’t take the state alchemy exam for the rank. And you don’t have to be so polite. After all, and I quote, ‘I’m still a child.’”

“That’s such a relief,” Cecil said. “You have no idea how hard it was to be so polite to someone younger than me,” and he slumped into a chair.

“They’ve adapted to that quickly,” Nico fumed silently. Then out loud, he said, “Where’s Bianca?”

Cecil held up a very red hand. “I gave her the same lecture and a slap as well. I think I broke my hand.”

Nico laughed. “She does have a hard head.” Then he paled a little. “Speaking of lectures, could one of you pass me the phone? My arm isn’t working too well right now.”

=====

Nico was not looking forward to this conversation. If Naomi picked up the phone, she’d scold him in that way that only someone who’d known you since you were in diapers could. On the other hand, for some reason, he was more nervous about Will’s response. So naturally that’s who picked up the phone.

“Rockbell Automail. How may I help you?” His cheerful voice did nothing to encourage Nico, but he replied nevertheless.

“Will, it’s me.”

“Nico! I didn’t expect to get a call from you, of all people.”

“Um, this is really hard for me to ask, but could you come to Central to do some repairs?”

“You want me to come all the way out to Central?”

“Well, I busted my right arm, and...it’s a long story, but I can’t really travel right now.”

“Busted?!? How?”

“Well, I can’t move my arm at all. My fingers still work a little.”

“Hm, I guess that’s what that was from…” Will said more to himself.

“What was that?” Nico asked.

“Did you lift anything heavy or swing your arm around too much?” Will said, a little too quickly.

“I kind of got into a big fight…” Nico began.

“Again!?!” Will shouted into the phone. “I told you that you’d break your arm if you did that.” Then he stopped talking.

After a long silence, Nico asked tentatively, “Will?”

A sigh. And then. “Alright. I’m coming to Central. I’ll catch the next train. You can meet me at the station.”

Cecil came into the room. “Did you just call your girlfriend?”

Nico scowled at him. “No, that’s not my girlfriend. He’s my automail mechanic. Now help me up. I want to see Bianca.”

As Cecil helped him into a wheelchair, he asked, “So you don’t have a girlfriend?” Another scowl. Cecil fell silent under the glare and pushed him into the corridor. There at the end of the hallway, Bianca was sitting on the floor, not moving.

“Bianca, what are you doing out here?” Nico asked. “Come back to the room.” When she didn’t stir, he said, “Sorella, are you okay?”

Bianca shook her head just a little. “It’s nothing. I’ll be right there.”

Nico gave her a curious look. “Okay, see you back there then,” and the lieutenant wheeled him back to his room.

When Nico and Cecil were out of sight, Bianca slumped down, Crusty’s words echoing in her head. “What if your personality and your memories were fabricated by your brother?”

Chapter Text

Will was relieved when the train pulled into the station at last. He didn’t know how Nico and Bianca could stand it. Riding on a train was not fun. His legs were cramped and his butt was sore from that uncomfortable seat. Besides, he hated sitting still for so long. He’d tried to divert himself by coming up with more refinements to his automail designs, but that just made his mind circle back to the thought that the failure of Nico’s arm was his fault for leaving that one screw out.

The blond boy got out and started looking around the crowded platform. He was grateful that he was tall enough to see over a lot of people in the crowd and wondered how Nico managed, given how much shorter his darker haired friend was. Nico had said someone would be waiting to escort him, someone he’d recognize, but who?

Then his eye settled on a blond even taller than himself. Not just taller, but larger in every way. It was the gigantic Major Armstrong.

“Major Armstrong!” he called out, waving his arm.

“Mister Rockbell,” he called back, waving his arm in return. “Thank you for your hospitality and help in Resembool.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Will replied. “Thank YOU for looking after those idiotic Elrics. I can’t believe Nico called me all the way out here, and now he can’t even be bothered to meet me at the station.”

“That couldn’t be helped,” Jason said. “In his present condition, he really can’t go anywhere.”

Will’s eyes narrowed. “Just what do you mean by ‘can’t go anywhere?’”

“I’m afraid he’s in the hospital.”

Will’s eyes grew wide.

=====

“So, you know Drew’s turning three this week.”

Percy Mustang shouted into the phone. “What makes you think I have the time to listen to you brag about your daughter right now?”

Maes Beckendorf smiled. He’d given the sign that the phone line was secure, and Percy had given the countersign that although the phone line was secure, there were people around him, so Beckendorf could proceed with giving any information he had straightforwardly, but Mustang’s responses couldn’t reveal anything to the people in the room with him. They were old hands at this. Besides, Beckendorf didn’t need any immediate response; he just wanted to make sure that his commander and old friend had the most up-to-date information.

‘So, aside from an invitation to Drew’s birthday,” he couldn’t resist baiting Percy like this, “I’ve been following the Scar investigation, and I’ve heard that most of your superiors think he’s dead.”

On the other end, Percy was still shouting. “Stop bragging about how hot you think your wife is! I don’t have all day to listen to this!”

Beckendorf knew that meant “tell me more, but we don’t have much time to talk,” so he got right to the point of the call.

“Before his supposed death, Scar managed to take out a lot of the higher up alchemists here, so it looks like your invitation to Central on a permanent basis may be coming sooner than expected.”

Percy’s voice was pitched so that anyone listening on his end would assume he was being sarcastic, but Beckendorf knew he meant every word when he said, “Thanks a whole hell of a lot.”

“Just a bit of advice, Colonel. There are plenty of people around who might resent seeing a young upstart rising so quickly.”

Percy replied with, “And stop telling me to find a girlfriend,” before slamming the phone down.

Beckendorf laughed at that last. It was their code phrase letting him know that Annabeth Hawkeye had entered the room and that it would be a good idea to end the conversation. They both respected the lieutenant (he suspected that Percy’s feelings toward her went a bit beyond respect), but sometimes she was too smart for her own good, and stood the best chance of seeing through their coded conversations. Ah well, she’d be let in on their plans soon enough. Oh schist, though. He’d forgotten to tell Percy about Nico being hospitalized.

=====

Will and Major Armstrong burst into Nico’s room. Will just stared at Nico’s bandaged form, but Jason burst into tears and sobbed out, “What happened to you?”

Nico looked up at him guiltily. He’d disobeyed a direct order. Well, no help for it. “This happened to me when I snuck into Laboratory 5.”

Instead of reprimanding him, though, Jason just sobbed harder. Nico thought he could make out the words “poor brave fool.” He didn’t give much thought to the major’s words. He was looking at Will.

The normally tanned and sunny face of his friend was pale, and he looked like he was about to cry as well. For some reason, the possibility of that bothered Nico much more than Jason’s actual tears.

Will took some time before speaking. When he did, his voice trembled a little as he spoke softly. “This is my fault.”

“What do you mean?” Nico asked.

“You were hurt because your automail failed you.” Nico normally would’ve given him a bad time about being so obsessed with automail, but something made him hold his tongue as Will went on.

“It’s my fault for not being thorough enough when I built it.”

There was more worry in his voice than shame in his work, so Nico said hurriedly, “No. It’s not your fault. It broke because I was being too rough on it, and when it broke, that saved me from getting even more beat up.”

“Alright.” Will still didn’t sound alright. “Well, I’ll get started on the repairs right away.” He reached over and put his hand on Nico’s right shoulder, just above where the automail was joined to the flesh. Will had been doing Nico’s automail repairs for years. Were Will’s hands always this warm? Why had Nico never noticed before? And why had Jason stepped out of the room so hastily?

When Will took his hand back, he looked at Nico’s frame and scowled. “You’ve gotten thinner.” Then he looked over at Nico’s dinner tray on the bedside table. The meal had only been half eaten. “No wonder. You didn’t eat your vegetables.”

Nico glared at him. “I hate vegetables. They taste green.”

Will slapped his palm to his face. “That’s why you’re still so short!” he said only a little more quietly than a shout. “And what does green even taste like?”

Knowing that this was an argument he’d never win, Will opened up his tool box and started laying out wrenches. “When you left Resembool, you said you’d get your old body back before we knew it, and you wouldn’t have to keep running back home to bother us so much.”

If there was an edge to Will’s voice, Nico chose not to respond to it. “You still have your automail, though. No luck with the stone?”

“A lot of stuff’s been getting in our way,” Nico grumbled. “It looks like I’m going to be stuck with this automail for a while longer.”

“And Bianca’s gonna have to stay the way she is, too,” Will said without thinking.

Nico didn’t say anything to that, but the way his face fell told Will volumes. The blond boy thought back to some things Nico had told back when his automail had first been installed, and now Will regretted saying anything.

Perhaps fortunately for both of them, the door flew open and Maes Beckendorf walked into the room, followed by Lieutenants Havoc and Ross.

“Hey, Nico!” the corporal cried out ebulliently. Then he saw Will. “And who’s this?”

“Just my automail mechanic,” Nico said sullenly. Will shot him a look.

“Fine. Corporal Maes Beckendorf, this is Will Solace. He’s from Resembool. He’s been my automail mechanic since I first got my arm and leg.”

Beckendorf eyed the blond boy. “You came all the way out from Resembool just to put Nico’s arm back together. That’s a long way to travel just to tighten some screws.” He thought for a moment. Then he sat on the bed next to Nico and gave him a gentle nudge (which made Nico wince), and said with a conspiratorial wink, “I’ll bet he came out here to see Bianca.”

Will looked at him blankly, and Nico snorted. “We’ve all known each other since we were kids. I don’t think Will feels that way about my sister. Besides, don’t you have work to do, corporal?”

Beckendorf laughed. “I have the afternoon off.”

“I thought you were swamped with the investigations.”

“I made Rachel work overtime.” Nico thought of the poor redheaded girl, surrounded by mountains of paperwork.

“You’re just evil, Beckendorf.”

That got a grin out of the colonel. “I wanted to see how you were doing, and I wanted to give you an update on the Scar situation. Your bodyguards,” he pointed to Cecil and Lou Ellen, “are going to be dismissed soon.”

Nico brightened. “That’s great!”

“Bodyguards!” said Will, rather loudly. “What kind of danger have you been in?”

“Nothing. Nothing to worry about,” Nico said a little too quickly.

Will frowned. “You and Bianca never tell me anything, no matter how nicely I ask. Fine!” in that tone that indicated nothing fine about it. He began packing up his tools. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. I need to find a place to stay for the night.”

Nico said, “You can stay at the military hotel. If you tell them I sent you, you’ll get a cheap rate.”

“Hey,” Beckendorf put in. “Why don’t you stay at my place?”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Will said.

“Nonsense. My family would love to have you.”

Will had to agree to it, as Beckendorf had seized him by the wrist and was dragging him out the door.

“Thank you, corporal,” Will said, recognizing that resistance was futile.

“Please, only the soldiers call me that. Call me Beckendorf.”

=====

When Will and Beckendorf arrived, the household was bustling. They were greeted by a lovely woman, whom Beckendorf introduced as “my gorgeous wife, Silena.” She blushed at that, but hastened to tell Will that she was delighted to have him stay with them. Then a toddler flew into the room, crying “Daddy, daddy.” When Beckendorf picked her up and introduced her as “my daughter, Drew,” the little girl looked up at Will and said, “Ooh, have you come for my birthday party? You’re pretty.”

Will blushed at the compliment. Drew demanded to be put down and then reached out to take Will’s hand in hers. She led him into the next room, where a crowd of toddlers was playing. Although he was not particularly fond of small children, he found himself quite taken with Drew. And then, when one of the other children said, “Hey Drew, who’s that?” she announced “This is my new big brother. He’s come here to celebrate my birthday.” Yup, Will was in love with this little girl.

Later in the party, she called out, “Daddy, my toy mouse doesn’t work.” There was just the tiniest hint of a pout, so Will said, “Hold on, let me have a look at that.” He pulled a few tools out of his pocket, opened the mechanical toy up, and in minutes had it back together and working like new.

One of the other kids, a little girl named Nyssa, a stocky kid with a band-aid on her chin, said, “Wow, Drew! He’s a toy doctor. That’s so cool.” Will blushed with pride as Drew wrapped her chubby little arms around his leg and gave him a hug.

As the party was coming to a close and Drew was saying farewell to her little friends, Will stepped into the kitchen to chat with Silena. She smiled at Will.

“Maes tells me you’re Nico’s mechanic.”

“It’s a little more than that.” Will blushed a little as he spoke, not really knowing why. “I grew up in the house next to the Elrics, so I’ve been friends with them forever.”

Beckendorf laughed. “I imagine Nico in particular must’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”

“Not so much trouble, a lot of worry, though. He’ll come back once in a while, and his arm is completely trashed.” Will was smiling as he said that, but then his face grew very serious. “When he called me to fix his arm, I didn’t expect to see him so badly injured.”

He went on, “And Bianca seems to have a lot on her mind. It was just two weeks ago that I had to make Nico a brand new arm. And when I saw it today, it was in really bad shape. And all those wounds.” He looked down at the floor as he said, “It makes me wonder what kind of lives they’re leading. He never...” Will paused and then started again. “They never tell me anything. They didn’t even tell me when they left town to get their original bodies back.” He blinked rapidly, a little too close to tears. “Maybe if we were really family, maybe he would’ve told me about their journey, what caused their wounds.”

Silena put her hand on Will’s shoulder as a way of comforting him, but it was Beckendorf who spoke.

“I don’t think that’s it. I think they didn’t tell you because you’re so much part of their family that they felt like you already knew. I’ve seen them work together, and there’s so much they don’t say, even to each other. I think each of them doesn’t want to say things that will make the other worry, so they tell themselves that the other already knows it. Sometimes it works, but sometimes, things have to be said.”

Will smiled again now, even though it was a little watery. “I guess I don’t really know what it’s like to have a brother or sister.”

Just then, Drew flew into the room and grabbed Will’s hand. “I’m your sister now!” she proclaimed.

“Yes, you are,” Will said and gave her a hug. His smile was genuine now.

=====

The next day, Nico was sitting up in bed, facing the lunch tray. There was a sad little salad on the plate. He glared at the wilted greens as if his gaze could cause them to shrivel up into nothing. “So, we meet again,” he said in a tight voice.

Bianca sat facing her brother. “Come on, Nico,” she said softly. “You need to eat your vegetables. You still have most of your real body, and you need to take care of it.”

Will stepped into the room in time to see Nico push the tray away from himself. He put his toolkit on the table and started to roll his eyes. He thought he knew what was coming next.

“I won’t eat what I don’t like,” Nico sniffed. “I can grow without eating all that green stuff. Maybe I won’t have a body as big as yours…”

Abruptly Bianca jumped to her feet angrily and shouted, “I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS DAMNED BODY!!”

Chapter Text

She said it again, this time almost a whisper. “I never asked for this damned body.”

Nico just looked at his sister, his face crumbling. Then he said in an even softer voice, “I...I’m so sorry, Bianca.”

He went on, his voice shaking, “It’s all my fault that this happened. That’s why I want to get you back to normal as soon as possible.”

“Is there any guarantee?” Bianca’s voice seemed a little cold. “Is there really any guarantee that we can get our bodies back?”

Nico gave a weak smile and tried to sound encouraging by speaking a little too loudly. “Of course, Bianca. I’ll get your body back. You have to believe me.”

“Believe you?” Bianca’s voice was rising. “How can I believe anything in this empty shell of a body?” She went on. “We were taught that human beings are made up of a body, a mind and a soul. But has that ever been proven? Memories are nothing but data. It should be possible to construct them artificially.”

Nico looked at his sister, his face unreadable. “What are you saying, Bianca?”

“Brother, you said there was something you wanted to tell me, something you were afraid to tell me. Maybe you wanted to tell me that my memories and my soul are fake, that you created them.”

Nico couldn’t say anything; he just stared at her.

“Well, Nico, can you prove that a person named Bianca Elric ever existed? Isn’t it possible that you and Will and Granny Naomi are lying to me? So, brother, what do you say to that?”

Nico brought his fists down on the table with a crash. Then he glared at his sister. His voice was quiet again, but it was trembling with anger. “Were you keeping this bottled up the whole time? Is that what you wanted to tell me?”

Bianca just looked at him. He stood up and said “I see.” Then, without another word, he walked out of the room. As he went into the hallway, he passed Beckendorf and the two lieutenants, who had been drawn by the sound of his arguing. He didn’t spare any of them a glance as he walked down the corridor in silence.

The stillness in the room was broken when Will spoke to Bianca.

“You,” he said softly, but then he shouted. “YOU IDIOT!!” He picked up the heaviest wrench in his kit and slammed it against Bianca’s helmet.

“What are you doing?” Bianca asked. The wrench had no effect on her Stygian iron body, but it made a terrific clang. She looked at this boy she’d known her whole life. Will Rockbell was a gentle soul at heart. He had a temper when her patients (read Nico) didn’t take proper care of their automail, but he was essentially a pacifist. Not now. His face was contorted with a rage she’d never seen in the boy.

“YOU IDIOT!” he shouted again and swung the wrench again. Bianca moved back in time to avoid another ringing strike, but Will’s words struck deeper than any physical impact. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF HOW NICO FEELS, DO YOU?!?”

“The thing he was afraid to talk to you about,” Will’s voice started to crack, but he went on, “was whether you blamed him.” He sat down hard on the bed, and tears started to roll down his cheeks.

Will hated to cry, especially in public, but he couldn’t help it as he told Bianca about that night so long ago.

Nico was lying on the bed in their little surgery back in Resembool, recovering from the agonizing process of having the automail stitched to his nerves. Will had seen grown men screaming and fainting from the pain, but even when he was 12 years old, Nico had borne it all. He’d never shed a tear; he’d barely cried out throughout the whole operation. Until this night when Will had come upon him lying in bed, tears streaming down his face.

When he’d asked if Nico was in pain from the operation, he’d gasped out, “It’s not that… it’s just…this is all my fault. It’s my fault Bianca’s stuck in that metal body. She can’t eat. She can’t sleep. She can’t feel anything. What if she blames me?”

Naomi had come into the room and taken Nico’s hands in hers, a gesture of infinite tenderness. “I’ve known the two of you all your lives. You and I both know she doesn’t blame you.”

“But what if she does?”

Naomi smiled and said, “Why don’t you just ask her?”

Nico pulled back. “I can’t. I’m too afraid. That’s why I have to get her body back as soon as I can.”

Wiping the tears from his own eyes, Will stood up. Bianca had sunk onto the bed, and, as large as the suit of armor was, Will seemed to tower over her. “He cried himself to sleep that night.”

Then he struck at Bianca’s shoulder, not with a wrench, but with his fist. “And then you went and said what you did. What idiot would risk his life to create a fake sister?”

Will picked up the wrench again, as if he was going to slam it into Bianca, but instead, he threw it onto the floor and collapsed onto the bed, sitting next to Bianca.

“All you guys have is each other,” he sobbed. Then he straightened. “You!” He jabbed his finger at Bianca. She drew back in surprise, but Will continued, jabbing at her with each word. “What are you waiting for? Go after your brother. Now!”

On his last word, Bianca sprang to her feet and ran off down the corridor. She knew where her brother would be. Whenever he was upset, he’d head up to the roof of whatever building he was in. He’d go to the edge and stare out into the distance as if he were in the crow’s nest of a ship, trying to figure out what course to plot.

When he heard Bianca’s metallic footsteps, he turned around slowly. Then he spoke. “I’ve been feeling out of shape. It’s because we haven’t sparred in a while.”

Bianca said in concern, “What are you talking about? Your wounds haven’t healed yet.”

Nico launched a kick, landing it in Bianca’s midsection. She fell back, putting her hands up in a defensive pose. “Nico, stop. You’re going to reopen your wounds.”

It didn’t deter him. Nico continued to land blows on his sister. Finally, he hooked his foot behind her, and brought her down with a crash. He stood over her and proclaimed, “I’ve beaten you. That’s the first time I’ve ever beaten you.” Then he fell to the ground, exhausted.

“You know, sister,” he said, panting, “we used to fight over all kinds of things.”

“Yeah, and most of them were dumb things.”

“I know,” Nico agreed. “We fought over toys.”

“We fought over who got the last cannoli,” Bianca said.

“Remember when we were playing by the river?” Nico asked.

“Yeah,” and you tried to throw me in. I also remember the time you fought me because I said I didn’t want to marry Will.”

Nico laughed at that. “And then he said he didn’t want to marry you either.”

“We fought at Teacher’s house, too,” Bianca said.

Nico laughed again. “And then she told us to shut up and almost killed us herself.” He went on. “Do you really think all those memories are fake?”

Bianca muttered, “Sorry.”

Nico continued, “Back home, you told me you would do anything to get your body back. Was that fake?”

“No,” Bianca replied.

Nico sat up. “That’s when I decided to take the state alchemy exam, so that we could get both our bodies back.” He paused for a moment. “I mean it Bianca, I’ll get stronger, I’ll get better, so that we’ll succeed. Whatever it takes.” Then he gave his sister the warm smile she wanted to see. “Even if it means eating my vegetables.”

Her gauntleted fist bumped his automail one. “That’s right, Fratello.”

Will and Beckendorf had come up to the roof and looked at the siblings. Will remembered the other’s words and quoted them. “Sometimes, things have to be said.” The corporal just nodded.

=====

Back in the hospital room, they were going over what had happened at Laboratory 5. Nico said, “I don’t remember what happened after that woman, Akhlys, kicked me. But I do remember seeing that all three of them had this tattoo. It looked like the alchemical symbol for Earth, a downward triangle with a horizontal line through it.”

Beckendorf scratched his chin as he ran through the list. “Human souls trapped in armor bodies used as guards, human sacrifices, you allowed to live, this Akhlys woman...this Earth tattoo.”

“And a transmutation circle for the philosopher’s stone,” Nico added.

“This is too many mysteries for this just to be about the philosopher’s stone,” Jason threw out.

Beckendorf groaned, “And the lab is a dead end, because it’s been reduced to a pile of rubble.”

In the corridor outside the room, Lou Ellen and Cecil were staring in amazement at the approaching figure.

“I might be able to find something in the criminal records division. Maybe somebody knows about this tattoo,” Beckendorf offered.

“And I can see who was working with Dr. Chiron,” Jason began, but he was cut off by a commanding knock at the door. When it opened, Jason and Beckendorf snapped to attention.

“Fuhrer King Kronos!” they both said.

“At ease, men,” he responded easily. “I’ve come to see our patient.” He pulled out a mesh bag full of fruit. “Do you like melons?” He handed Nico the bag. The smile faded from his face as he turned to Jason.

“I understand you’ve been doing a lot of digging into military records, Major Armstrong.”

“Well, sir, I’ve been…” Jason began, but the king cut him off with a gesture and turned back to Nico.

“And you, Stygian Iron. You’re searching for the philosopher’s stone, are you not?”

Nico’s face stayed still, but his eyes grew wide, as Kronos continued.

“How much do you know? A great deal depends on your answer.”

Time seemed to flow more slowly than usual for a moment, but then Kronos laughed. “Just kidding. Honestly, you guys are so uptight.” He stopped laughing. “There’s been some suspicious activity going on around HQ lately, and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

He picked up one of the sheets of paper that Jason had brought out. He looked at it for a moment. “This is a list of all the researchers doing work on the stone. My goodness, major, you’ve done a very thorough job. Unfortunately the whereabouts of all of these researchers is currently unknown. They all disappeared shortly before the explosion at laboratory 5. It seems that our enemy is one step ahead of us. I want to know how much they’ve infiltrated the military. Major Armstrong, Corporal Beckendorf, Elrics, I trust the four of you. I am giving you this order for your own safety. I will not allow you to speak to anyone about this matter or stick your necks into it any further. Is that clear?”

Armstrong and Beckendorf saluted in response. Nico indicated his still damaged automail arm to indicate that he was unable to give a proper salute. Kronos just winked at him, an unsettling gesture from a man with an eyepatch. Then he said, “When the time comes, I will make certain that you are informed when the time comes. And now gentlemen…” he nodded to Bianca, “and Ms. Elric, I have to get back to my guards before they realize I’ve slipped away.” With that, he climbed out the window.

No sooner had he gone than Will came into the room. “What’s up with you guys?” he asked with a smile. “You’re acting a little weird.”

“A minor storm just passed through,” Nico said.

“Whatever. I picked up the train tickets you ordered.”

“Is that wise? You’re not fully healed.” Jason was starting to act like a mother hen.

“I can’t stay in an infirmary for three days. There’s a place Bianca and I have to go to,” Nico said.

“Where are you headed?” Beckendorf asked.

“A little town called Dublith,” Nico replied.

Will stood up excitedly. “You didn’t tell me you were going to Dublith!”

“So what?” Nico said.

“Dublith is right next to Rush Valley!” Will was practically shouting with excitement. “Rush Valley, the automail engineers’ Mecca. I’ve always wanted to go there!” He began to punch at Nico’s automail arm. “You have to take me there!”

“Why can’t you take yourself?”

“Oh come on, you know private travel is expensive. You’re a state alchemist. I can travel at a discount if I’m with you. Besides,” Will said, giving Nico a sly look, “you might need me to do some maintenance. You’re always wrecking your automail.”

Bianca sighed. “Brother, you might as well say yes.”

“Fine, whatever,” Nico grumbled.

=====

As the train pulled out of the station, Will leaned forward in his seat to wave at Beckendorf, who’d come to the station to see them off. Then he sat back, facing Nico.

“You never told me why you and Bianca need to go to Dublith.”

It was Bianca who answered. “We’ve decided to see our old teacher.” She turned to Nico. “She’s gonna kill us for sure.”

Will looked alarmed. “What kind of teacher is gonna kill you?”

“Don’t ask,” Bianca and Nico said in perfect unison.

=====

Beckendorf was poring over the reports that had come in while he was at the hospital. “Riots in Laore?” he asked the aide who’d brought in the latest dispatches.

“I heard it started when this cult leader was exposed as a fraud. All the people he’d taken in turned on him, and it turned bloody. I don’t know. It seems like there are riots starting up all over Amestris. There’s no pattern to it.”

When the aide left, Beckendorf thought about what the man had said. He pulled out a map of the country and started to mark it up with the locations of the riots. In short order he saw that the aide was wrong. There was a pattern. It was a pattern he had just seen a few hours ago in the drawings Nico had shown him. This couldn’t be!

“I’ve got to tell the major about this,” he said. He rose from his desk. Then he carefully folded up the map he’d marked and put it inside a book of nautical charts that Percy had given him when he first got this job. Then he headed for the door, but before he reached it, it flew open. A striking woman with flaming red hair stood blocking the doorway.

“A little birdie told me someone’s been looking into things he shouldn’t have been,” she said.

The woman was beautiful, but Beckendorf only noticed one detail.

“Nice tattoo,” he said, indicating the design just below her collarbone, a downward triangle with a horizontal line through it.

“You know too much,” she said, reaching out a hand with fingernails that turned into impossibly long talons,

Before the razor sharp claws could connect, he’d pulled out a sidearm and shot her point blank in the chest. She fell back, more from the impact of the bullets than from any damage they’d done. In a flash, Beckendorf was out the door, but not before one of this monster’s talons had dealt him a fierce blow, drawing blood from his side. Beckendorf managed to fire a few more shots before he ran down the stairs.

He stopped at a bank of phones and grabbed one. He hastily dialed a number.

“Put the phone down, Corporal.” It was a woman he thought he knew. She had a gun pointed at him.

“Who are you?”

“You know me. I’m Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross.”

“You look like her, but you’re not. She has a birthmark under her left eye, not her right one.”

“Oops.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and the birthmark faded and reappeared in the correct place. “Is that better?” she asked with a smirk. The smirk faded when she saw that he’d taken advantage of her brief pause to draw his own gun. He fired without hesitation, but instead of aiming for a lethal shot, he’d shot at her hand, causing her to drop her gun.

“Clever. A shot to the heart wouldn’t have done anything,” she said.

He didn’t wait to respond. His call had gone through, and he had to get the most vital information through first. “Your first gift,” he shouted into the phone, hoping that his message would be understood. Then he took aim for a second shot.

“Maybe a heart shot wouldn’t work, but how about a headshot?” he said, raising the gun.

“But could you shoot your own wife in the face?” she asked.

Beckendorf froze in horror. Somehow she’d become the image of Silena. “But how…” was all he could gasp.

She smiled coldly, in a way that his beautiful wife never had. “Well, misery takes many forms.” Then she shot him point blank in the heart. He fell back onto the phone, breaking the connection.

Akhlys heard people coming, drawn by the sound of gunfire. Before they arrived, she shifted her appearance back to Ross. “Might as well spread the misery,” she said before she left the building.

=====
Percy stared at the phone in his hand. He’d heard Beckendorf’s voice, saying, “Your first gift,” then gunshots. “Beckendorf,” he called into the dead phone in a choked voice.

Chapter Text

“So what made you decide to go visit your teacher?” Will still didn’t like to ride trains, but having someone to talk to certainly took his mind off how uncomfortable he was.

Nico scowled (as usual) as he replied, “First of all we need to get stronger. We’ve been losing too many fights.”

Will frowned. “So it’s all about fighting?”

Nico shook his head. “It’s not that simple. It’s more than physical strength. We need to be stronger on the inside.”

“I know we’ll get stronger when we get to Teacher’s place,” Bianca said confidently.

Will was not satisfied. “You said that was the first reason. There must be more.”

Nico looked around nervously as if afraid of being overheard. “I want to ask Teacher about human transmutation. The whole time we studied with her, Teacher never said anything about human transmutation or the philosopher’s stone.”

“But I thought human transmutation was forbidden,” Will said quietly.

Nico responded even more gravely, “We can’t afford to be timid about it any more. There’s too much at stake.”

Will, feeling the need to lighten the mood, reached into his travel case and pulled out a box. “Maybe this will cheer you up.”

“What is it?” Nico asked.

“It’s an apple pie. I almost forgot, Mr. Beckendorf’s wife, Silena, baked it for us to eat on the trip.” When Will saw how wistfully Bianca looked at it, he said, “She gave me the recipe so that when you get your body back, I can make one for you.”

Bianca seemed cheered by that. Nico thought about how Will always knew what to say to make people feel better. He wished he could do that sometimes. It seemed like he never had any friends growing up besides Will.

Will went on. “I met their daughter, Drew. She’s such a cutie. They’re all such nice people.”

Nico smirked. “He’s such a busybody. He was always complaining about how much work he had, but he spent a lot of time in my room in the hospital.”

“Come on, brother,” Bianca chided, “you were glad to have company.”

Nico laughed. “I guess you’re right. I should do something nice for him when we get back to Central.”

=====

They all stood at attention in their full dress uniforms. Their heads were bent as they faced the casket draped with a shroud embroidered with an anvil, the Beckendorf family crest. Even Fuhrer King Kronos was there, his face stern and his shoulders stiff.

The silence was broken by a child’s voice calling out, “Mama, why are they burying Papa?”

Silena couldn’t bring herself to respond, as little Drew called out, “No, Mama, Papa has so much work to do! How can he do his work if they bury him? Please, don’t let them bury Papa!”

Silena pulled her child into her arms and hugged her close. The scene was hard to bear. Even Kronos’ face twitched.

When the crowd had dispersed, only Percy Mustang and Annabeth Hawkeye were left. Percy looked at the headstone.

“Promoted two ranks up in death, huh? Major General Beckendorf. You said you’d always stand behind me and support me. But now you outrank me.”

“Sir,” Annabeth said, “don’t you think we should be heading back?”

Percy spoke, but not really in response. “You know, we alchemists, we’re such despicable creatures.” She raised an eyebrow at him, but he went on. “You know, there’s a part of me thinking about trying a human transmutation. Now I think I can understand why those two kids wanted to bring their mother back.”

“Are you alright?” Annabeth asked in a worried tone.

“I’m fine. We should go back. It’s starting to rain.”

She looked up at the cloudless sky and then saw the water streaming down his cheeks.

=====

The next day, Percy accosted Major Armstrong in private, accompanied by Annabeth. “Jason, I understand you have some information on the Beckendorf case.”

“That is correct, Colonel Mustang.” The response was stiff and formal. Annabeth noted the use of title and last name. While that was appropriate protocol, she knew that the two men had known each other for years, and especially after the Ishvalan war, tended to be less formal when not in public.

Jason went on, “We have a good idea as to the identity of the major general’s killers.”

“Then why haven’t you arrested them?” Percy snapped back.

Jason’s head dropped slightly, “I’m sorry, sir. I said we have an idea, but we don’t know who or where they are?”

Percy scowled. “What do you mean by that? Explain yourself.”

Jason looked abashed, “I’m sorry, sir. I cannot.”

Percy’s anger was obvious in his tone. “Are you disobeying the direct order of a superior officer? I am ordering you to speak.”

“I cannot,” was all Jason said.

Percy smiled slightly at that. “I understand. I apologize for calling you out.”

Jason’s head lifted at that. “Thank you sir. Oh, and one more thing. The Elrics were here. They left yesterday.”

Percy asked, “And did they find what they were looking for?”

“How could they? What they were looking for was only a legend.”

Percy smiled more broadly. “Thank you, Major.”

As Jason walked away, Annabeth shook her head.

“I’m impressed,” she said. “For someone who refused to say anything, he certainly told you a lot.”

“Pray tell, enlighten me,” Percy replied with one of his infuriating smirks.

Annabeth began tapping a pen on the table, a sign that she had put a lot of thought into what she was about to say. “To begin, he said ‘killers’ plural, so there was more than one murderer, probably an organized group. Second, he kept repeating the words ‘I cannot say,’ even in the face of a direct order from a superior officer. This tells me that an order came from higher up for him to remain silent. It would be safe to assume that it came from the upper command levels.”

Percy grinned broadly. “That’s my wise girl. Then there’s what the Elrics are looking for. The philosopher’s stone.”

Annabeth stopped tapping the pen and began to look very worried. “So, there’s something going on at the top military levels, and it involves the philosopher’s stone. But what?”

Percy shook his head. “I have no idea. But some I’m going to be transferred to Central. I’m going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.”

Annabeth looked at him in surprise. “The only way you’ll be able to do all of this, not just to avenge Beckendorf’s death, but to root out the corruption behind it is to…”

Percy faced her, all humor gone from his face as he completed her sentence, “I’ll have to become president. Are you with me?”

Now Annabeth smiled just a little as she said, “Do you even need to ask?”

=====

The images came flooding back to him. At first he was standing by the entrance to the temple. The building showed the damage from all the fighting, and it was empty. Even the lamp was extinguished, a sign that it had been abandoned. But there was someone there, a man standing on the altar, profaning the sacred surface by putting his feet on it. He called to the man in a cracked voice,

“Who are you?”

The man smiled at him. It was not a reassuring smile. Quite the opposite, it was a smile of cruelty, devoid of human warmth. Then the stranger spoke.

“It seems I’ve failed to introduce myself. How rude of me. I’m the alchemist responsible for the genocide in this region.” Then he raised his palms in a gesture like a mockery of a benediction. His palms were marked with the foul symbols of their twisted science. He brought his palms together and the fiendish power poured out of them.

The scene changed. Now there was another man, this one hulking and menacing with drooping features, as if he could barely keep himself awake. This man reached for him, and he knew that in that embrace was an unending nightmarish sleep. The man’s tongue lolled out, and to his horror, he saw that it was marked with a downward triangle with a line through it, the symbol for the earth, he remembered his brother teaching him.

Well, time to use his brother’s gift. He put his right hand on the man’s grabbing arm and let the power from the marks his brother had put on his own arm flow forth. The hulking man’s arm exploded into fragments, the force driving them apart. He smacked into the wall behind him. The impact stunned him for a moment, but he recovered enough to rise to his feet, just in time to avoid a lance of fire coming from the head of a woman who had entered the room. The fire hit the wall, and shards of brick fell on him. He managed to run outside, feeling stunned and knowing that he was too injured to face these two hellish creatures. He saw a sewer grating and used the power in his right hand to blow it open. He looked at the filthy water flowing through the sewer and dove in. That was the last thing he remembered.

“You’re awake.” It was the voice of a young girl. Was he still hallucinating? No, this seemed too real, too solid. He forced his eyes to focus. They were in a tent. He took in the girl’s features, the upturned eyebrows, the habitual grin, the dark skin and red eyes. Was it possible?

“Where am I?” he asked the girl.

The girl said, “The slums at the edge of East City.”

“And you saved me?” he asked.

“Yup,” the girl nodded. “It’s not every day a man comes floating down the sewer, especially one of ours.”

The girl stuck her head through the tent flap. “Zeyda!” he called out. “He’s awake.”

That confirmed it. ‘Zeyda’ was the word for grandfather in the old Hermetic tongue the Ishvalans used. Somehow a remnant of his people had survived.

An old man stepped into the tent. He had the same features, although age had dimmed the red irises. “You’re very lucky to be alive, young man.” The old man had an air of authority. “We’ve heard about you. You’re the one the authorities are looking for, aren’t you?”

He tried to sit up but was too weak as he said, “Are you going to report me?”

The old man laughed. “No need to be on guard. This slum is full of Ishvalans, both born and converts. We’d never betray one of our own.”

Then another man poked his head into the tent. “Hey,” he said, “I heard he’s awake.”

Suddenly, the tent was full of people, all of them seeming happy to see him. Even though these people looked like the ragged refugees they were, each one of them was eager to offer him something to eat or drink. The old man told them to quiet down and not to crowd their guest when he was still recovering. There were murmured apologies of “Sorry, Rebbe Feingold.”

So, this Feingold was a figure of authority in this refugee camp. The old man laughed again and said, “Even a place like this begins to feel like home after you get used to it. Wherever we travel, we are always within the bosom of Ishvala.” He quoted the ancient scripture and then dismissed the crowd, saying “My granddaughter Julia and I will look after our guest.”

When the crowd had cleared, Rebbe Feingold said, “The authorities are calling you Scar, but may I ask your name?”

He closed his eyes. Among Ishvalans, names were sacred and treated with the utmost reverence. He thought about what he’d done, what he’d become. He felt like he’d forfeited the name his mother had given him, the name graven in the records of the now destroyed temple.

He opened his eyes so that he could look directly into the faces of those who had saved him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I no longer have the right to use that name. I’m just Scar.” He was Luke no longer.

Young Julia, feeling the need to lighten the mood, said, “But your right arm is amazing.” She pointed to the markings running from wrist to shoulder. “Is that a tattoo?”

Scar answered slowly, “Yes, it’s something precious that my family gave me.”

Chapter Text

Rush Valley. Rush Valley! RUSH VALLEY!!! Will was so excited, he was practically dancing. (He was also driving Nico slightly crazy with his excitement.) He looked into every shop window. Nico wanted to laugh at how over the top his nerdy friend was being, but there was something in Will’s eyes that made him stop. How had he never noticed how blue they were? Why was he even thinking about that now?

Will was gazing intently at an automail arm on display. It was coated in brass, but the brass was polished so brightly that it looked like it was made out of gold.

“That’s the model with Collier’s 3rd generation pivoting orbital joint. I never thought I’d get to see a C3PO in person,” he breathed with a reverence neither of the Elrics had ever heard in their old friend’s voice.

Bianca was looking around the town square in amazement. Everywhere you looked was another automail shop, and they all seemed to be doing a lot of business. She turned to Will and said, “You weren’t kidding when you said this place was the automail mecca of Amestris.”

Will’s face sobered. “Yeah. After the war in Ishval, a lot of the soldiers who came from here were in really bad shape, so all these automail shops opened up. They called it the Boomtown of the Broken Down.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I love automail, and this town is amazing, but I wish places like this didn’t have to exist at all.”

On that more sober note, they continued to wander around the center of town. As they walked, Nico could feel the eyes of the townsfolk on them. He felt bad for Bianca. The enormous figure made by the suit of black iron armor attracted a lot of attention. She never showed it, but he knew that people staring at her all the time had to be getting her down. Finally, he had enough.

“Alright! All of you! Stop staring at my sister!” he shouted.

The man gaping at them most obviously shook his head. “We’re not staring at her,” he said. “It’s just... I’ve never seen such fine workmanship. Look at that join!” He tugged off Nico’s shirt and studied where the automail connected to his shoulder. Will, meanwhile, was blushing furiously. For a moment, Nico couldn’t take his eyes off the other boy’s flaming cheeks.

Other people came closer. “Whoa!” one of them shouted, plucking at Nico’s pant leg. “Your leg is automail! I never would’ve guessed. The motion is so fluid. The connection to the nerves must be perfect.”

The next thing Nico knew, he was stripped down to his underwear as the people thronged around him, each one shouting questions about the interfaces and neural alignments. Will was thrilled to answer each one of the questions and couldn’t stop blushing. Finally Nico had enough. “GIVE ME MY CLOTHES BACK!” he shouted. The crowd fell back, astonished that so much fury could come out of someone so small, but they handed him his shirt and pants. He only got angrier when someone tried to give him not his own black shirt but another one, this one decorated with brightly colored parrots and palm trees.

He hastily dressed and started to say something about wanting to get away from this crowd of pawing, prodding lunatics when he clutched at his throat in a panic.

“It’s gone!” he wailed.

“What’s gone?” Will asked.

“The one thing that proves I’m a state alchemist,” Nico cried out. “My necklace.”

“Those beads on a throng that you’re always wearing?” Will said. “I wondered why you made such a fuss about that.”

“There’s a reason why I made such a fuss,” Nico snapped back. “That necklace is valuable. Somebody stole it.”

One of the older men, the one who had first approached them, offered, “That sounds like something Leo would do.”

“Yeah,” another one said. “He makes his living pickpocketing tourists.”

“Great,” Nico snapped. “Where do I find this Leo?”

“I can’t really remember,” the first one said. “Maybe if something were to jog my memory.”

The second one said, “Yeah, like maybe a chance to get a closer look at your automail.”

Nico had enough. “Take a closer look at this,” he said, putting his right arm, which he’d transmuted into a sharp blade, right into their faces.

“He’s probably at Glitz’s pawn shop,” they both said, pointing frantically.

“Come on,” Nico said. “We have to find this thief. And the three of them took off down the street.

They came to the pawn shop and saw someone, obviously the owner, talking to a short boy with dark curly hair. From the way the boy took off when he saw them, Nico figured this had to be Leo. He ran after, shouting threats as he went. The kid was fast, and he was nimble. He scrambled up a drainpipe and ran across the rooftop. Nico followed him by clapping his hands and transmuting the side of one of the houses into a rising platform that carried him up after the fleeing pickpocket. The owner of the transmuted house came out and started shouting something about property damage.

Nico thought he’d cornered the kid when he came to the edge of the roof, but he sprang up and jumped clear across the street to the next roof. Nico repeated his own trick, and the chimney became a platform that carried him to the next roof. Another homeowner emerged and shook his fist, gesturing at his disfigured chimney.

Nico didn’t waste any time. When he landed on the next roof, he clapped his hands and put his palms to the roof so that the edge of it rose up and formed into a barrier. “Got you this time, you thief!” he shouted in triumph.

“Do you really?” Leo asked with a laugh. “It will take more than a few tricks to catch the super-hot McShizzle.” He pulled up a trouser leg to reveal an automail leg. At the metal knee was a nozzle. Will looked up and shouted, “Nico, get down! That’s a…”

He didn’t have time to finish the sentence, but luckily, Nico had got the message and jumped out of the way just in time as a gout of flame poured out of the flamethrower that was installed in the automail leg.

“I told you I was super-hot,” he said with a laugh as he sprang easily over Nico’s barrier and ran off, only to come to a halt as he looked at the odd design Bianca had marked into the pavement.

“What’s that for?” Leo asked.

Bianca responded by placing her palms onto the edge of the design. In a flash, a cage of steel bars rose up around the thief.

“Your flamethrower won’t get you out of this,” she said with a note of triumph.

Leo smiled at her. “Maybe that won’t, mamacita.” Bianca wasn’t sure what that last word was, but she didn’t like it. “But,” he went on, “this will.” From his other knee, a blade of Celestial bronze emerged, and it cut through the steel bars in a moment.

As he jumped free of the cage, he gave Bianca an impertinent bow before turning to run off. He didn’t get far, however. As he ducked into the next alley, Will was waiting for him. The taller boy tackled him. While Leo was on the ground, Will jabbed at the backs of Leo’s knees with a screwdriver. Then he wrapped an arm around him and, having a height advantage, held him off the ground.

Leo struggled to get free, but he couldn’t break the other boy’s grip on him. Then he tried to turn and bring his mechanically enhanced knees to bear on his captor, but Will just laughed.

“Don’t bother. I deactivated the weapons systems in your legs.”

Sure enough, when Leo tried to get even a small jet of flame out of his right knee, there was only a clicking sound.

“Oh man,” he moaned. “What did you do? You busted my legs.”

Will snorted. “Oh please, you can still walk just fine. I can put the rest of it back on-line, but you have to do two things for me. First, give me back the necklace you stole.”

Leo reached into his pocket and produced the pilfered item. “I don’t see what the fuss is. It’s just some beads on a thong.” As he handed it over, he took a closer look. “There’s some writing on the back of some of the beads.”

Will took the necklace from him and turned it over. As he read the inscription, his face fell. “Don’t forget - 3 Oct 11.”

Leo looked at him quizzically. “What’s that? His girlfriend’s birthday?”

Will didn’t answer. He knew what that date was. It was the day that the Elrics had burned down their house and started the long and painful journey to get their bodies back. His cheeks burned with shame as he realized that he’d pried into the deep and personal secret of his best friends.

Leo ignored Will’s blush and said impatiently, “So what’s the second thing you want? I can’t wait all day for you to put me back together.”

Will regained his composure and said, “You can show me who made your automail. It’s gorgeous. The workmanship is perfect. How did your mechanic get so much weaponry into such a small space?”

“I know, hermano. This is some seriously amazing work. Let me tell you, nobody can come close to Hephaestus.”

Will’s eyes grew enormous. “Your mechanic is Hephaestus? That’s unreal. He’s like the best of the best. You have to introduce me to him. You have to, YOU HAVE TO!!!”

By now, Nico and Bianca had caught up. They were amused by the familiar sight of their friend geeking out over automail, but Nico was still in a bad mood.

“Okay, gearhead! Did you get my necklace back?”

“Yes, yes,” Will waved a hand dismissively. “You’ll get your stupid beads back. But first we have to do something more important.” He began to follow Leo as he led them out of town.

The Elrics had no choice but to follow as the path wound up into the mountains. As they walked on for over an hour, Nico grumbled the whole way, but somehow he was unwilling to let his friend wander off with this stranger. Bianca, as always, bore his brother’s complaints with patience.

As they walked up the path, Leo asked Will, “So why are you so eager to meet Hephaestus?”

Will looked at him earnestly. “I’m hoping he’ll take me on as an apprentice.”

Leo shook his head, “Good luck with that. Since he gave me my legs, I’ve been trying to do the same. He just said he stopped taking apprentices after my mother.” He got kind of a sad look on his face at that, so Will didn’t ask him anything more.

At last they came to an isolated cabin at the end of the path. The cabin was made of brick and had a smokestack coming out of the roof. The door was circular and made of thick metal.

Leo pounded on the door. It rolled back smoothly without a sound, surprising for something so massive. A man with a reddish face peered out.

“Leo, is that you? And you’ve brought company.”

Leo waved a cheery greeting. “Hey, Jake. I’ve brought company.”

Will stepped forward. He blushed for a moment and then started to speak. “I’m Will. Are you Hephaestus?”

The man laughed. “Nope. That’s my father-in-law. I’m Jake. And this,” he gestured and a woman stepped forward, “is my wife Nyssa.”

“Hephaestus is my pa,” Nyssa said with a smile. She was a pretty young woman and very pregnant.

By now, Nico and Bianca had also arrived and presented themselves. Nico was, as usual, rather irritated, but Bianca was fascinated with Nyssa. She shyly asked about what it was like to be pregnant. Nyssa smiled at her and invited Bianca to place her hand upon her swollen belly.

“You’ll be able to feel the baby kicking if you take that gauntlet off,” she said, but Bianca shook her head sadly.

“I have to keep it on as part of my alchemy training,” she lied. What would this woman do if she could see the empty arm, the non-existent hand? But Nyssa only laughed.

At last, as Jake brought bowls of stew to the table for supper, Hephaestus emerged from his workshop. He was a gruff and grouchy old man, his arms heavily muscled and covered with burn scars. He walked with a pronounced limp and had mechanical braces on his legs. He scowled at everyone except his daughter.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” he growled at Will and the Elrics. Then he paused. He grabbed at Nico’s right arm, pulling it closer for inspection.

“Hmph. It’s good work. The style looks familiar. Who did it?”

“I did, sir,” Will said respectfully. “And I’d like to become your apprentice.”

Hephaestus brought his massive fist down on the table. “No apprentices! It’s bad enough this child,” he gestured at Leo, “has been asking me. Now you too? Do I look like I’m running a nursery school?”

With that, he rose from the table and hobbled back to his workshop. As he slammed the door, a roar of thunder split the air.

Jake shook his head. “Up in these mountains, a storm like this can be awful. You’d better stay the night,” he said to his guests.

Will smiled at Jake and his wife. “Thank you so much.” Then he said to Nyssa as she started to clear the table, “At least let us do the washing up. It’s the least we can do.”

As he and Nico stood at the sink, Will up to his elbows in soapy water while Nico dried each dish, Will turned shyly to him.

“Nico, I’m sorry. When I was getting your necklace back, I saw what you had written on the back of it.”

Nico blushed and turned his face toward the floor. “It’s kind of pathetic, holding onto that…”

Will cut him off. “No it isn’t. You burned your house down so that you couldn’t turn back. You and Bianca have worked so hard, risked so much to get your bodies back. That’s why I want to become Hephaestus’ apprentice. I want to make sure that as long as you have to wear that automail, that I can keep making it better for you.”

Nico flushed at hearing that and was about to say something, but Bianca burst into the room.

“Guys!” she called out. “Something’s wrong with Nyssa. She just started moaning.”

Will dropped the dishrag into the sink and ran into the sitting room, where Nyssa was slumped onto the couch. Nico followed the taller boy.

“Nyssa, are you alright?” Will asked.

“It’s...it’s” she gasped for air. Then she went on. “It’s the baby! It’s coming now.”

“But it’s not due for another two weeks!” Jake called out in a panic. “Are you sure?”

Nyssa grabbed his arm. “What do you think?”

Jake paled visibly at the force of her hand grasping his wrist. Evidently, she’d inherited some of her father’s strength. “You’re sure, you’re sure,” he replied in a pained voice.

When she released his arm, he made for the door, grabbing a slicker to put on as he headed out into the downpour. “I’ll be back with the doctor as soon as I can,” he called back.

“Ay Dios mío,” Leo muttered. “In this weather, he’ll be lucky to get back in an hour.”

“I don’t think we have an hour,” Nyssa said through clenched teeth.

“In that case,” Will said, trying to look more confident than he felt, “We’ll have to deliver the baby ourselves. Leo, do you know where they keep the towels?”

Leo nodded, then he headed further into the house to get them.

“Nico, I’ll need a tub full of hot water.”

Nico recalled heating the water for when Beckendorf’s daughter, Drew, was born. He found a large basin, filled it with water, clapped his hands together, and then placed his palms on the rim of the basin. He was pleased when a light steam rose from the surface. This business of having babies was beyond him, but at least he could do this.

He brought the steaming basin into the room where Nyssa lay in the bed. Leo and Bianca had brought towels and other clothes and were hovering over the bed, looking at the woman anxiously. Abruptly, she let out an ear-piercing shriek.

“Out, out, all three of you!” Will shouted. “Let poor Nyssa have a little privacy.”

Leo and the Elrics beat a hasty retreat. Nico and his sister knew that, although a pacifist by nature, Will could have a fearsome temper when roused, and Nyssa’s cries were getting louder and more frequent. As the three of them huddled in the kitchen, not sure what to do next, Hephaestus came out of his workshop, his face an angry red.

“What is all this racket?” he growled. “It’s louder than my hammering!”

Leo spoke up first. “It’s your daughter, sir. She’s having the baby.”

“What?!” Hephaestus paled. “That can’t be. It’s not due for another two weeks.”

“It’s happening now,” said Bianca flatly. “Babies come when they’re ready, not when the calendar says.”

“But, but,” Hephaestus stammered. “It’s too soon. It’s too dangerous. Where’s Jake?”

“He’s gone to fetch the doctor,” Bianca said.

“My daughter is all alone and having a baby?”

“Will is in there with her,” Nico said.

“But he’s just a kid,” Hephaestus said, a tremor in his voice.

“He may be young, but his parents were the best doctors in our town. He grew up reading medical texts. He knows what he’s doing,” Nico said, pride in his voice.

“I hope you’re right,” Hephaestus said, then he dropped into the chair. His ruddy complexion was ashen. “This is why I prefer automail. Human bodies are such shoddy workmanship, so unreliable.” He put his head into his hands.

From the next room, there was another cry of agony, this one drawn out. The old man seemed to be ready to faint, but then, the wail stopped. It was replaced by the wailing of an infant.

The door to the sitting room opened. Will stood there, looking tired but happy. He gestured for the others to come in. There, on the couch, Nyssa held her child in her arms, her face glowing with serenity.

Of course, it was then that Jake returned, accompanied by another figure.

“Nyssa, I’m back,” he called out. “And I’ve brought Dr. Yan.”

Nyssa just smiled at him. Jake saw his wife holding their child and ran to her side, throwing his arms around her. Dr. Yan followed close behind and began a quick examination of mother and child.

“Congratulations,” the doctor said, “Both mother and child seem to be doing well. How did you manage the delivery?”

“It was this young man, Will, who helped me.” Nyssa beamed at Will, who was starting to show the strain of what he’d just been through.

Nico, it seemed, was entranced by it all. “Oh my gods! Will, you delivered a baby! That’s so awesome! Even with everything alchemy can do, you helped another human being into the world. It’s just so awesome.”

“Thanks, Nico,” Will replied in an unsteady voice. “But I don’t feel so awesome. Feel my hands. See how badly they’re shaking.”

Over by the couch, Hephaestus had recovered and was holding his grandson. His face was no longer pale. He was smiling delightedly. He raised up the infant proudly.

“Everyone, come see my new grandson. His name is Harley.” The infant, Harley, gurgled happily.

Then he handed Harley over to Jake, who was eager to hold his infant son. He turned to Will and said, “Young man, I can’t thank you enough for helping my daughter.”

Will rose shakily to his feet and walked over to the old man. “In that case, I’m going to ask you once more to take me on as your apprentice.”

Hephaestus frowned and looked over at Leo for a long while. Then he spoke. “My last apprentice was this young man’s mother. I loved Esperanza Valdez like a second daughter. When the fire broke out in her forge, the one that took her life and cost her son his legs, I swore I’d never take another apprentice.” He sighed and looked at his daughter and son-in-law holding their newborn. Then he turned back to Will, a slight smile on his face. “Maybe it’s time for me to reconsider, just one more time. But I don’t even know your name, young man. Who are you, and where are you from?”

Will’s own smile returned. “I’m Will Rockbell. I’m from Risembool.”

Hephaestus’ smile faded. “Rockbell? From Risembool?”

“That’s right. I learned automail from my granny Naomi.”

“Naomi Rockbell? The pantheress of Risembool?” He paled and sank into a chair, memories flooding into his head. He remembered their student days together, Naomi’s voice mocking him as their old teacher, Vulcan, berated him for his incompetence, as well as the nights when Naomi would drink him under the table.

At last he spoke up again. “No, I couldn’t have her grandson as an apprentice. Too many bad memories,” he muttered.

Then he squared his shoulders and looked Will in the eye. “No, ask me anything else. Anything but that.”

Will returned the look, unflinching. “If you won’t take me as an apprentice, take Leo instead. It would be a fitting way to honor his mother’s memory.” Leo shot Will a watery smile.

“Besides,” Will went on, “if he had an honest trade, maybe he wouldn’t have to pick pockets.” At least Leo had the decency to blush as he shot Will a thumbs up.

Hephaestus gave a rueful chuckle. “Young man, you have a generous heart.” In a quieter voice he added, “And your granny’s sharp tongue.”

He went on, “I’m going to recommend you to another former student of mine. His name is Tyson Briares. He’s a good teacher and can always use more hands around his workshop.”

Nico gestured to Bianca. “Well, sorella, it’s time for us to head back to the station so we can get on the next train to Dublith.”

As Bianca got to her feet, she said to Will, “When we get to the station, we’ll send granny a telegram to let her know you’re staying on in Rush Valley.”

Will smiled warmly. “Let her know I’ll call her as soon as I’m settled in.” Then he shot Nico a harsh look. “And don’t forget about me in your travels.”

“As if I could,” Nico said, shaking his head as he and Bianca walked out the door.

Chapter Text

They were at the station. Nico and Bianca were ready to board the train. Will had been set up with the second-best automail engineer in Rush Valley and was seeing them off. It was time to make their farewells.

“Don’t forget to call granny, she’s probably worried about you,” Nico said to Will.

“Like I need you, of all people, to tell me that,” he harrumphed.

Nico laughed at that. He laughed more easily than he had in a while. Then he and Bianca turned to step onto the train. His sister moved into the car to find seats, but Nico hesitated in the doorway and turned back to face Will, not quite willing to break things off yet. As he stood there, the train started to move.

“Be sure to learn as much as you can so you can make me a better one of these,” he said, pointing to his automail arm.

“You can count on it,” Will called out. “Just don’t ask me to deliver any more babies.” He shot Nico a broad smile as the train pulled away.

Nico kept the image of that smile in his mind as he moved into the car to sit across from Bianca. She looked up at him as he sat down.

“Oh gods, Teacher’s gonna kill us when she sees us,” was all she said. They spent the rest of the trip in a nervous silence.

=====

Naomi picked up the phone and gave her usual response:

“Rockbell Automail

“Is that so? Rush Valley…”

“Don’t worry about a thing; just make sure you work hard.”

“So you met my old friend, Hephaestus. He said what?” She laughed quite hard at that.

“So, they’re off to see their old teacher? Okay, take care.”

She hung up the phone and thought about how large and empty the house seemed just now. She thought about how Will and the Elrics used to run around it as little kids. Well now they’re out in the world, walking their own paths.

=====

They walked up the street toward the butcher shop, Bianca’s armor making faint clanking noises as she shivered nervously. Nico was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice. He was thinking back to his earliest memories. They were vague, as if they’d been badly erased. But there was the image of their father. He was always so cold, so aloof. The day that he left, Nico remembered asking his mom what happened. She’d smiled sadly and said “There’s nothing that can be done about it.”

She’d smiled at him as she said it, but Nico knew that later that night, when he and Bianca had been put to bed, their mother Maria had spent the night crying. It wasn’t long after that the disease had taken her out of the world as swiftly as a summer storm.

Nico was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of Bianca tapping timidly on the butcher shop door. It flew open and a giant of a man stepped out. He was dressed in a bloodstained apron and had an enormous cleaver in his hand. He scowled at the Elrics.

Then he reached out and put a meaty hand (thankfully not the one holding the cleaver) on Nico’s head.

“Nico, is that you?” he asked. “You’ve grown,” Nico smiled at this. “A little.” The smile fell from his face.

“And who is this?” the huge man said, turning to Bianca.

“It’s me,” she said in a nervous voice. “Bianca, sir.”

He looked her up and down. “Well, you’ve grown a lot. Why the sudden visit?”

“We had a question for Teacher,” Nico said.

“How is she doing?” Bianca asked.

“Not so bad, considering. Come with me.”

He led them to the back of the shop, through a familiar door. Then he called out, “Hazel, you have visitors.”

“Who is it, Frank?” a faint voice called out.

“The Elric kids.”

“Nico and Bianca?”

“Can you get up?” he asked.

“I think so. I’m feeling a bit better.”

Nico and Bianca walked toward the bedroom and stopped abruptly as their teacher stood before them, a fierce glare in her golden eyes. When she spoke, all of the faintness was gone from her voice.

“Well, if it isn’t my idiot apprentices. I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about you, even out here in Dublith.”

She turned on Nico, her eyes blazing. “So, you’ve stooped so low as to become a dog of the military?”

He withered under the force of her gaze, unable to reply. Then she turned on Bianca, who was trying to cower behind Frank.

“And who is that in the armor?”

“It’s me, Bianca.”

A smile lit up Hazel’s face. “Bianca, you’ve gotten so big!”

She held out her hand. Bianca reached out to take it and was flung over Hazel’s shoulder.

“Hmph! You’ve let yourselves become weak.” Hazel said scornfully.

Bianca sat up, still a bit stunned. “I thought you weren’t feeling well, Teacher.”

“What are you talking about? You think after you’ve come all this way that I’d stay in bed?”

Then Hazel began to cough. The spasm was brief, but she coughed up large gobbets of blood. In an instant, Frank had his arms around her as she leaned back against him, fanning her face with her hand.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said in a soft voice, looking up at him with adoring eyes.

In a few moments, Nico, Bianca, Frank, and Hazel were seated at the table in the kitchen. Hazel scowled at the Elrics.

“The Philosopher’s Stone. Why are you wasting time on a fairy tale?”

Nico quailed under her gaze. “Um, intellectual curiosity,” he dissembled.

Hazel shook her head. “I’ve never had much interest in it.”

“Well,” Frank put in, “the last time we were in Central, we heard about that guy who seemed to know a lot about it.”

“Oh, yeah,” Hazel said. “What was his name again?”

She ran her hands through her cinnamon brown hair reflectively for a moment.

“Hohenheim. He called himself Hades von Hohenheim.”

Bianca leaned forward excitedly. “Was he very pale, with black hair and eyes?”

Hazel nodded. “Why?” she asked. “Do you know him?”

“So, the bastard’s still alive,” Nico muttered.

“He’s our father,” Bianca said.

“The father who left you all those years ago?” Frank asked. “That’s perfect. He might still be…”

Nico slammed his metal fist down onto the table. “That guy is the last person I want to ask for help!” he said through gritted teeth.

To distract her brother’s fury, Bianca started to tell them about their other adventures, including what they’d done at the vineyards of Youswell.

Hazel looked at Nico coolly. “You know,” she drawled, “if you’d kept the deeds to the vineyards, you’d have some financial security when you got old. Instead, you just handed it over to the workers and pissed off that colonel you reported. You may have made yourselves a powerful enemy.”

Nico shook his head. “He’s not a colonel anymore. They stripped him of his rank. And I couldn’t keep those deeds. The people who’d spent their lives working those fields deserved them more than I did.”

Under the table, Frank took Hazel’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Although her face showed nothing, she was so proud of these children she’d taken on as students.

“It seems like you’ve gotten into a lot of danger on your travels,” Hazel said.

“Not just danger,” Bianca said. “In Rush Valley, we saw a baby being born.”

“Yeah,” Nico said enthusiastically. “And we helped out.”

Bianca laughed, “More like freaked out.”

Nico laughed back. “Either way, it was so awesome.” He looked at Hazel. “Come to think of it, Teacher, why don’t you have any children?”

Both Hazel and Frank froze at the question. Their faces became unreadable. The tension in the air made it difficult to breathe, almost like the temperature had dropped below freezing. Then Hazel forced a smile and said, “Why don’t you kids show me what you’ve learned?”

Bianca, relief in her voice said, “We’ve even been able to do large scale transmutations. Why don’t you come outside, and we’ll show you.”

The Elrics hurried out into the courtyard behind the shop, eager to show their teacher their new skills. Hazel rose up and started to follow, but Frank took her arm so she paused. He looked at her with a soft expression, only saying her name.

“Hazel?”

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” she said.

Then she went on. “So they saw a life being born. That was a good experience for them.” Then she went out to catch up with the Elrics.

On a bit of pavement, Bianca had sketched a chalk circle with markings around the edge. In the center was a pile of stones. She knelt down and touched the circle with her palms. There was a flash, and the stones were transformed into a small metal horse. Hazel plucked the horse from the circle and picked up the figure to examine it.

She smiled at Bianca, looking pleased. “You’ve gotten quicker and more accurate.”

“My turn,” said Nico. He took the horse from Hazel’s hands and placed it on a patch of bare ground. He carelessly tossed more stones at it, denting the metal sides.

“Hey,” Bianca called out in outrage at the damage to her work, but Nico just clapped his hands together and touched his palms to the horse. There was a second flash, and the figure had become a full sized statue of a rearing pegasus.

“Show off,” Bianca harrumphed.

Nico was about to snap back a retort, but he saw their teacher’s cold gaze. She turned to him and paused before speaking.

“You did that transmutation without a circle.”

Nico was usually quite pleased with himself at this ability, but he saw the look on his teacher’s face and muttered an abashed, “Yes ma’am.”

She went on in a stern voice. “Nico, don’t lie to me. You saw it, didn’t you?”

He couldn’t meet her gaze. He knew what she was talking about. She’d seen it too. Before he could frame a response, though, a crowd of children came into the courtyard.

“Ms. Curtis, Ms. Curtis,” they cried out.

Frank stepped forward to keep the kids from crowding his wife, but she gestured for one of them to come up to her. He was holding a model of a locomotive, but the wheels had come off.

He held it out to her expectantly. “Can you fix it?” he asked.

She smiled and took the broken toy from him. She put the wheels back onto the axles and then pulled a piece of wire from her pocket and used it to fix the wheels in place. There were cries of disappointment.

“Aw,” another one of the children said, “we thought you’d use alchemy to fix it.”

She scowled at them. “You shouldn’t depend on alchemy for everything. Try to fix whatever you can with your own hands.”

Seeing that they weren’t going to get the show they’d hoped for, the crowd dispersed, but a little girl remained. She was holding a kitten in her arms, and her face was tear-stained.

“Please, Ms. Curtis, Chiko won’t move. Please fix her.”

Hazel took the cat from the girl, already knowing what the problem was.

“I’m sorry, child. She’s already dead.”

“Ms. Hazel, please.” The girl was on the verge of breaking down. “You can fix anything.”

Hazel frowned but her golden eyes were full of tenderness. “A life is not an object, and I’m not a god. Chiko had a life, but it’s over and it will never return.”

The little girl began to cry, so Hazel continued. “I can’t give Chiko back her life, but I can make her a grave. That way her body can return to the earth, and that will make the flowers grow.”

The girl seemed to take a little comfort in that, and turned to go, sniffling as she walked away.

When the girl was out of sight, Hazel looked at Nico and Bianca for a moment. She spoke, but it was almost to herself.

“Our bodies become nourishment for the earth, and our souls become nourishment for the people in our lives. Everything has a flow. I learned to accept this long ago, but it’s a hard lesson to learn.”

“Teacher,” Nico asked quietly, “have you ever wanted to bring someone back to life?”

Hazel turned away from him as she responded, “Yes.”

Then she turned back and looked him straight in the face, her golden eyes meeting his brown.

“Nico, are you ever glad that you’re a dog of the military?”

He frowned, “I don’t know when they’ll command me to become a human weapon. I’m afraid of that day.”

“Even so,” Hazel said, “you joined the military because you needed the power, didn’t you?”

Nico’s voice was firm. “There is something I have to do.”

Hazel didn’t respond for a moment. Then she lashed out with her foot, driving him back so that he fell against Bianca, bringing them both to the ground.

Hazel glared at them. “You little brat! Don’t be so arrogant, when you know you disobeyed my teachings. Bianca, inside that armor, you’re empty, right?”

Bianca flinched, the movement revealing the answer.

Hazel went on. “And you, Nico. Your arm and leg are automail, aren’t they? I can see from the way you walk and the way you fight. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Don’t insult me like that. What happened to you?”

She had spoken quietly, but now, she shouted, “Tell me everything!”

Chapter Text

“Tell me everything!” she’d shouted. The Elrics knew better than to disobey.

Everything. Nico thought back to some of his earliest memories. Playing in the study. They’d loved their father’s books from an early age, even though the man himself was hardly ever there. Their mother, Maria, however, was standing over them, shaking her head at the mess of books they’d strewn around. She was smiling indulgently at them. Somehow, even though they were both so small, they’d managed to get books even off the top shelves.

“Hey, don’t doodle on the floor.” Her smile had turned to a frown as she saw the messy chalk drawing Nico had made.

“I’m not doodling, Mama,” he said proudly. “Watch this.”

He put his childishly chubby palms on the floor, his fingers touching the edge of the chalk scribble. There was a flash, and a small crude model of a pirate ship appeared, complete with a crude skull and crossbones flag.”

“My turn, my turn,” Bianca called out. She imitated her brother’s motion. When she touched the chalk, there was a second flash, and a single wooden arrow appeared in the circle.

“That’s alchemy,” Maria cried out in amazement. “Did your father teach you how to do that?”

“How can someone who’s never home teach us anything?” Nico said with a scowl.

“We learned from books,” Bianca said eagerly.

“Oh, my beautiful brilliant children!” Maria crowed with delight, reaching out her arms to draw them into a warm embrace.

“That was all it took,” Nico thought. “Our mother praised us, and we never wanted to look back.”

Until that day, that awful day. They called it the Thunderbolt plague. No-one knew where it came from or how it spread, but it got the name both because it struck so quickly, and it left its victims with black marks on their bodies, as if scorched by lightning.

They’d been sent outside to play while their mother cleaned the house. They took no notice of her soft coughs; they were little kids, and the sun was shining. When it was well past the time she’d usually have called them in for lunch, they came into the kitchen, calling out “Mama!”

They found her sprawled out on the kitchen floor, the contents of the kettle spilling out where she’d dropped it. Nico stood frozen, but Bianca reached out toward their unmoving mother, so she was the one who saw the awful black marks looking like burns on her arms.

Even the children knew what those terrible marks meant. Nico and Bianca threw their arms around each other and began to wail.

It was Naomi Rockbell, their next-door neighbor who found them like this, several hours later.

Although Bianca seemed not to notice, Nico still remembered the comments at the funeral. The neighbors were well meaning but what they said burned into his memory.

“How sad. Those poor children.”

“Where’s the father?”

“No-one knows. Nobody’s seen him in months. He just disappeared.”

Nico glared at them through his tears. Bianca seemed unmoved by what they were saying. She had stopped crying that morning. How did she stay so calm?

Bianca looked at her brother, schooling her face to calm. She had to keep it together for him. He was so hot-headed. She’d have to look after him even more now that all they had was each other.

After the funeral, when everyone else had gone home and back to their lives, the Elric children sat at their mother’s grave, neither one saying a word.

At last Bianca spoke up. “Fratello, I’m cold. And hungry. Let’s go home.”

Nico looked at his sister, his brown eyes lit up with something.

“Sorella,” he said. “I’ve been thinking. Mama died because her body died. But if we’re good enough at it, we can make anything using alchemy, even complex organics. What if we could bring her back?”

Bianca looked at her brother in shock. “But the books said it was forbidden to create human life using alchemy.”

Nico returned the look. “Then it will be our secret.” He didn’t think creating life was wrong. He just wanted to see his mother’s smile again.

They buried themselves in alchemy books. They went over every line over and over again. Even their next-door neighbor, Will, noticed.

“What are you guys studying?” he asked with a sunny smile. “You’ve been working so hard on it.”

Bianca returned the smile. “It’s a secret.”

Nico was more blunt. “None of your business, Will.”

“No fair,” Will pouted. “You guys are always keeping secrets.”

He started to walk away. Bianca waved at him, while Nico continued his usual sulk. Then Will turned back.

“Don’t be late for dinner.” Naomi Rockbell had taken it upon herself to make sure that the Elrics were properly fed. “We’re having stew.”

Even Nico brightened at this as Will went down the path to his house. He loved Naomi’s stew.

When the Elrics got to their house, Nico was in a philosophical mood.

“You know,” he told his sister, whoever invented stew had to be a genius. It has milk in it, and it still tastes good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Somebody had to have the idea of putting milk into meat and vegetables. Then they had to be willing to try it, to keep trying it until they got it just right. That’s how science advances. People have to try new things.”

“But why is human transmutation outlawed?” Bianca asked. “Maybe it’s so dangerous that no-one can do it and live. Remember the story of how all of Aegyptia was destroyed in one night?”

“You mean the story about the philosopher in the island to the east?”

“Yeah,” Bianca said. “They said he was trying to create a perfect human being, and instead he wiped out the entire kingdom.”

“That’s nothing but a fairytale,” Nico scoffed.

“But what about the alchemist who was performing a transmutation when a fly flew into the circle, so he got turned into a fly-man?”

Nico laughed at his sister. “You dummy, that was from a movie.” He ruffled her hair affectionately and went on. “I bet adults made it forbidden just to cover up that they don’t know how to do it.”

“But Nico, we don’t know how to do it either. If papa was around, I wonder if he would have taught us alchemy.”

The smile was gone from Nico’s face. “Don’t talk about him. He left us, and he made mama cry. It’s his fault she got sick. Then he couldn’t even show up for her funeral.”

“Still,” Bianca said thoughtfully, “being self-taught can only take us so far.”

Then the night of the storm came. It was like the wrath of the gods was pouring down on Risembool. The rain fell hard and fast, and even the old timers said that they’d never seen a storm. The entire town was at the river, shoring up the levees to hold back the swelling water. But for all their efforts, the water was rising too quickly. It looked like the town would be flooded. The townspeople were planning to evacuate and were trying to make sure that the children of Risembool were safe. Of course the Elrics were in the middle of the crowd, never far from trouble, whatever the source.

Suddenly, a woman strode up to the edge of the levee. No-one had ever seen her before. She had hair the color of cinnamon, skin as brown as a roasted coffee bean, and striking golden eyes. In spite of being just five feet tall, she was an impressive figure. One of the larger men who had been working, unsuccessfully on shoring up the levee called out to her.

“Lady, get back! It ain’t safe.”

She scowled at him. “You’re right. You should all get back.”

She studied the levee for a moment and then clapped her hands together. Then she knelt down and put her palms to the ground. There was a flash, and as if by magic, the ground rose up into a solid wall, twelve feet high and extending as far as the eye could see in either direction, effectively containing the raging river. There was a trench along the edge of the wall from where the earth had been moved, but the town was safe. There were also a few glints from spots in the wall, almost like flashes of gems, but the woman glared at them, and the glints vanished into the wall.

“That should hold it,” she said, “but you should keep reinforcing it, just to be safe.”

“Who are you?” the man who’d tried to warn her away asked, awestruck.

By now, a second stranger had come up behind her. As tiny as this woman was, the new stranger was enormous, six and a half feet tall and burly with muscles. He had the appearance of someone from the far edges of the Eastern Island, with close cropped black hair and soft brown eyes. He held an umbrella protectively over the woman’s head as she responded.

“I’m just a housewife who was passing by.”

Then she collapsed, coughing violently until blood came from her mouth.

“She needs a doctor,” the enormous man called out in a panicked voice.

Of course, old Naomi Rockbell came forward. “Bring her to my house. I’m not a doctor, but we’re properly equipped.”

The next morning, Hazel woke up in a clean bedroom with the walls stocked with pharmaceuticals. Frank was hovering over her anxiously, but she seemed to have recovered well. A few moments later their host entered. She was a short woman with a no-nonsense air about her, but the kindness that led her to take two strangers into her home was evident.

“I’m Naomi Rockbell. How are you feeling this morning?” she said.

Hazel smiled at her. “Much better, thank you.” Looking at the way the room was furnished, she asked, “Are you a doctor?”

Naomi shook her head. “No, I’m just the local automail mechanic. My son and his wife were the town doctors.”

“Were?” Frank inquired.

Naomi’s face became solemn. “It was the war in Ishval. They went out to see what they could do to help and…” She trailed off, pain in her face.

Frank put his hand on her shoulder. For such a large man, the gesture was surprisingly gentle. “Madam, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m Frank Curtis. This is my wife, Hazel. We’d like to thank you for your generous hospitality. We are in your debt.”

“Not at all, not at all,” Naomi said, some of her smile returning. “After what you did, I’d say Risembool owes you. That was most impressive. If you don’t mind my asking, are you one of those state alchemists?” There was an edge to her voice on those last two words, understandable after what she’d said about her son and daughter-in-law.

Hazel laughed. “Me, a dog of the military? Never in a million years. No, I’m just a simple housewife. My husband is the village butcher in Dublith.”

Any further conversation was halted by the entrance of the Elric children. As tanned and fair-haired as Naomi was, they were pale, with hair so dark brown as to be almost black (and they were a bit grubby), but they entered the room as if they knew the house well. Without introduction or leave, Nico marched up to the bed and looked Hazel directly in the eye.

“Lady, make us your apprentices!” he said in a voice brooking no denial.

“What did you say?” Hazel asked in a menacingly quiet voice.

Bianca took the hint. “Please, kind lady, we’d like to be your apprentices. We can already do a little alchemy, but we want to get better. We saw what you did last night.”

Hazel rose from the bed. “I don’t take apprentices. Besides, I have a shop to run, so I have to get back to Dublith.”

“Please, please,” Nico had taken hold of one of her hands. “Take us with you.”

Bianca took her other hand. Both children dropped to their knees and looked up to her with pleading brown eyes.

Hazel seemed unmoved. “Do your parents know what you kids are doing?” At that, their eyes got even larger and softer.

“They don’t have parents,” Naomi said evenly. “Right now, I’m looking after them.”

Hazel looked at Frank as if asking him what to do. He responded by leaning over and whispering in her ear, “They’re almost the same age he would have been.”

Hazel’s face fell. Then she glared at the Elrics.

“Very well. I’ll evaluate you after one month. If I don’t think you’re good enough, I’ll send you home. If not, your real training will begin.”

“Granny Rockbell,” Nico said. “We won’t be back in a month.” Bianca nodded.

Naomi smiled at him. “I thought you’d say that.”

=====

At the beginning of the train ride to Dublith, the Elrics were beside themselves with excitement. They were almost singing with joy.

“WE’RE GOING TO TRAIN! WE’RE GOING TO TRAIN! WE’RE GOING TO TRAIN!”

Hazel sent one fierce glare in their direction.

“We’re going to train. We’re going to train. We’re going to train.” Their singing continued, but in a whisper.

As the ride continued, Hazel thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” Then she thought more about what Frank had said about them being almost the same age HE would have been, and her face dropped. The Elrics didn’t notice. By now they were both asleep, sprawled on the train seats. Frank looked on, smiling at his wife.

As the train was pulling into the station, he said to Hazel, “Where are they going to stay? It’s not like the house is ready for visitors.”

Hazel gave him a fierce smile. “They can spend tonight in the parlor. Tomorrow, we won’t have to worry about that for another month.”

Frank knew better than to question his wife. She always had a plan.

The next morning, the Elrics could hardly contain their excitement, even though Hazel didn’t appear to them until they’d finished their breakfast. A young woman with bright pink hair had come in and prepared the meal for them. She seemed very long-limbed, but she moved around the kitchen with a grace that suggested dancing.

After they’d cleared the dishes, Hazel came in. She thanked the woman, calling her Lavinia, and instructing her to help Frank open the butcher shop for business. Then she turned to the Elrics, even then ignoring their questions.

“You will come with me,” she said sternly. She led them a good way from the town, to a rocky crag. She examined it briefly until she found what she was looking for. It was a small, triangular mark. She clapped her hands together as they’d seen her do that night when she performed that miraculous transmutation. Then she placed her palms on the rock on either side of the mark. The rock split open, revealing a passageway leading down into the earth.

“Is this where our training begins?” Bianca asked. Nico remained silent.

“No,” said Hazel. “This is where your examination begins. You will go down that path, and I will seal you in. In one month, I will unseal the passageway. If you are still alive, I will ask you a question. If you don’t survive, or if you cannot answer the question, you were never meant to be alchemists, and there is nothing I could teach you.”

Nico looked at her defiantly. “How can we survive in there for a month? Are we supposed to make food and water from the alchemy we already know?”

Hazel laughed. “You will use no alchemy in there. This is Mother Lupa’s entrance to the Labyrinth. If any transmutations are performed inside, I will know instantly, and I’ll come in there and send you home. There is enough to survive on inside the Labyrinth without alchemy; you just have to know how to find it.”

Bianca and Nico looked at each other, their faces unmoving. Then Bianca said, “What is this question? Do we just have to guess and hope that our answer is correct?”

Another short laugh from Hazel. “Oh no, I want you to spend as much time as you can, think as hard as you can on this question. What I will ask you is the meaning of a single sentence. One is all, all is one. If you can’t answer that, I can teach you nothing.”

She shoved them through the passageway, and as they stumbled forward, she stepped back. They could hear the sound of the rock sliding together, and they pressed on as the light faded, her last words echoing in their minds. “One is all, all is one.”

When the entrance was securely closed, Nico looked at Bianca in the dim light, and they began to laugh. This would be a breeze. What that crazy alchemist woman didn’t know was that the Elrics had grown up playing in the Risembool branch of the Labyrinth. They’d used the entrance on the border between their property and the Rockbells, the one everyone called the Door of Orpheus. Their mother had told them stories about how her family had wandered through that branch of it, becoming so familiar with it that the locals said her family, the di Angelos, had some kind of shadow magic.

Back at the Curtis Butcher Shop, Frank was a little worried.

“Hazel, are you sure they’ll be all right? They’re only children.”

His wife scoffed. I survived the frozen wasteland of Asphodel outside of Fort Briggs; they can survive this.” Hazel said, her voice firm, although there was a touch of doubt in her eyes.

Frank laughed. “Those Fort Briggs soldiers never knew what hit them. Still, I worry.”

“I’ve already given instructions to Lavinia about making sure there is enough food and water for them.” Then she showed Frank the disguise Lavinia was to wear while in the Labyrinth. It was a mask of the demon Minos, a creature that was supposed to carry bad children off into the shadows if they didn’t obey their parents.

In the Labyrinth itself, Bianca and Nico had begun scouting around. Although there was little light, the Elrics had always been able to see well in dim light. So far they hadn’t found much, but they started exploring, first hoping to find what their teacher had meant by her puzzling “one is all, all is one.”

By the end of the first day, they’d managed to find a stream for water and a few mushrooms they’d recognized as safe to eat. That night, they discovered a crack in the roof to the Labyrinth through which they could see the moon. At least that meant that they would know when their month was up, assuming they lasted that long.

The next day, as they went deeper in, they discovered that this was as much a man-made structure as a natural cave. There was some kind of faint illumination, not torchlight, but a faint phosphorescence. They studied the markings on the walls and found that they recognized some of them as alchemy, but an older version. It was almost like finding an old library.

That day they came across the first sign of other humans ever having been there. Nico found a green hat just sitting in a niche in the wall. He picked it up and presented it to Bianca with a flourish. She grinned as he put it on her head. Later that day she came across a silver ring decorated with a skull. She in turn presented it to her brother.

Later on, in their search for more food, they were startled to find a skeleton. Apparently, this Labyrinth was more dangerous than they’d thought. They continued exploring and studying the markings they found, but by that night their dreams were full of troubling whispers.

It was on the third day that they were attacked. They were already on edge from the night before, so when a figure burst out of an alcove, the two children screamed in terror. Bianca was the first one to identify the monster. She saw a gaunt bearded face topped by a gold circlet. She knew this horror from the stories that Granny Naomi had told them as they shivered in front of the fireplace at the Rockbell house. This was Minos, the monster that carried children off to judgement in his lair in the Underworld. He was carrying some kind of sack, doubtless for the children he abducted. She cried out his name and ran down the corridor.

Nico took off after her in just as much terror, but somehow he went down a different corridor. He’d completely lost his way, and this set of passageways was much darker. Bianca, where was Bianca? At least he’d gotten away from Minos, but he’d lost his sister. He began to explore the dimly lit area, his eyes adjusting to the low light. He recognized the area. They’d looked around it two days ago. He forced himself to calm down in order to retrace his steps, but the loss of Bianca weighed down on him. He thought about the disciplines they’d learned from their father’s books and slowed his breathing rate. As he grew still, he thought he heard a familiar voice.

“Nico, Nico, where are you, brother?”

He could hear the faint whisper in his sister’s voice. It seemed to be coming from where the shadows were the thickest. He walked into them, his only thought on finding his sister.

When he emerged, it was in a completely different part of the maze. He saw his sister, a look of amazed relief on her face, Then he collapsed onto the floor, completely exhausted.

Nico awoke to find Bianca holding him and looking anxiously down at him. “How did you do that?” she asked.

“Do what? I heard your voice and came toward it.”

“Nico, you just stepped out through a solid wall. When I saw you, I went to see if there was a passageway, but it’s solid rock. I think you shadow traveled.” There was awe in Bianca’s voice. Shadow travel was theoretically possible, but very rare indeed. She remembered her mother telling tales that her ancestors could do it, but those were only fairy stories, she’d thought.

Then, Nico saw a sack, the one that the shadowy figure was carrying. He must’ve dropped it. Bianca didn’t want to know what was inside of it, but Nico’s hunger and curiosity won out. To his surprise and delight, there was a loaf of bread in it. At least they wouldn’t starve today.

The next day, they realized that this meager supply wouldn’t last long. Bianca hit on the idea that if Nico could truly shadow travel, he might be able to find food for them. Nico was sure that if he was able to do it, surely Bianca could as well, so he spent the rest of the day working out how to do it and then teaching Bianca what he’d learned.

At first they were limited to the Labyrinth and exhausted by each short trip, but by the third day Nico felt confident that he could get out and find some real food. (The spongy mushrooms that they’d found had gotten quite old by then.)

He and Bianca used phosphorescent rocks that they’d found scattered through the tunnels, trying to cast clear shadows. Then they sat at the edges, trying to perceive what was on the other side. Sight, of course, was useless. Sound would have worked better if their stomachs hadn’t been growling so loudly. It was the smell that drew Nico in. He stepped into the shadows and vanished. Bianca gasped nervously. She waited for what seemed like an hour. Finally Nico re-emerged, clutching a greasy paper sack. He sank down wearily, but they fell to hungrily, making short work of the bounty he’d brought them.

“It was amazing!” Nico’s eyes almost glowed. “It was dark out, so it was easy to find shadows. I’m not sure where it was, but there was this glowing...I don’t know how to describe it. It was smaller than our house, but it was lit up like a palace. It had these two yellow arches over the roof. I ran inside. I didn’t have any money, so I just grabbed this bag and ran out.”

“Nico, you stole it!” Bianca didn’t want to sound accusing, but really.

“I know, Bianca. I didn’t want to, but what could I do? Someday, when we’re real alchemists, I’ll find the place again and pay them back.”

This mollified her. They lay down, able to sleep soundly for the first time in days.

Over the next few days, they continued to explore and experiment with shadow travel and to ponder their teacher’s mysterious sentence. Their confidence grew, and they honed their skills. They discovered that Nico had more range in his shadow travel, while Bianca had greater accuracy and was less exhausted by it. One time, Nico came back with food neither of them had ever seen before (they ate it eagerly all the same) and passed out for a whole day. When he woke up he said he thought he’d gone all the way to Shing.

Such was their progress that the next time that Minos creature appeared, they were able to ambush it and drove it off with makeshift clubs landing a few solid blows to its sides. So they spent their days exploring with more confidence and discussing their teacher’s riddle. As a result of their travels, they began to have an idea of what she’d meant by it. It was then that they decided that it was time to go back to their teacher. They stepped into the shadow with confidence.

The month was not quite over as they emerged from the shadow cast by the Curtis Butcher Shop, but they strode with confidence into the building.

“Well, look who’s back early.” Hazel didn’t seem to be surprised to see them. “Why don’t you tell me what you’ve learned.”

Chapter Text

They looked so solemn, their childish faces scowling. They thought about what they’d seen, what they thought as they moved through the darkness of the Labyrinth, through the shadows that connected the entire world. They looked at Hazel for a long time. At last, without preamble, Nico called out, “The one is me!”

In an equally strong voice, Bianca responded, “The world is the all.”

Then they returned to silence. This was it. Would their training begin, or would they be sent back to Risembool in shame. Hazel eyed them coolly. And then, she burst out laughing. She laughed loud and long, so long that she leaned against the wall, fanning her face. When she regained a bit of composure, she looked at them and said, “Very good, my apprentices. Let us begin your training.”

She led them through the house and up into the attic. NIco looked eagerly at the books lining the walls. He could hardly wait to pull them from the shelves and glean the secrets hidden within them. But Hazel didn’t give them long to contemplate the bounty before them. She hurried them out of the attic, locking the door behind them and then took the children out to the courtyard behind the house. There was a rack holding several swords, but there didn’t seem to be any of the familiar alchemical tools the Elrics remembered from their father’s study, and the uneven ground didn’t seem to be a good place to draw the circle required to perform transmutation.

Hazel indicated the rack and told the children, “Choose swords for yourself. Be quick, we don’t have all day.”

Neither of the Elrics were familiar with swords, but something in Hazel’s tone suggested that they’d better do as she said. Bianca chose a steel sword with a silvery sheen to it, but Nico was drawn to a black iron sword. Its weight made it difficult to wield, but it gave it a serious heft.

“Interesting choice,” Hazel said. Then she picked up a spatha, its length seeming too great for a woman as short as she was.

“Raise your swords,” she commanded, holding her own perfectly vertically in front of her face and holding it steady.

Bianca was able to hold the lighter steel sword up more easily than Nico, who after a few minutes had to lower the point of his heavier iron sword to the ground.

“What does this have to do with alchemy anyway?” he asked grumpily. He wanted to ask about the books he’d seen, but her response was quick and silent.

It was a smack on the arm with the flat of Hazel’s blade.

“The first lesson is to respect your teacher,” she said tartly. “You want to learn about alchemy, about how to command the flow and balance of the world when you can’t hold a simple piece of metal steady? Raise your sword,” she barked, accompanying the command with a second smack of her sword.

But this time, as he struggled to hold the heavy iron steady, Hazel put her sword down and picked up a wooden rod from the sword rack. She used that to prod him into correcting his grip and his posture, and this made the weight of his own sword much easier to bear. She then did the same to Bianca, but added, “Since you’ve chosen a lighter sword, you have to hold it farther from your body.” This, of course, made it more difficult to hold up.

Thus began the lessons. For the first week, it seemed like all they did was hold swords. For several hours each day. In varying stances. All the while, Hazel said nothing to them, other than to make corrections to their positioning. Although late at night, as they lay in their beds in the room that Frank had thrown together for them, they complained about the lack of actual alchemical training, Bianca commented that at the end of the week, they were actually able to maintain their stances for longer periods of time.

The second week, they moved onto other weapons. While Nico favored edged weapons like swords and daggers, Bianca excelled at the longbow. At the end of the week, Frank’s assistant Lavinia made an appearance with a queer sort of crossbow that she called a manuballista. She demonstrated it, but neither of the Elrics were allowed anywhere near it. (“You idiots will put someone’s eye out with it, probably one of mine,” Hazel was heard to say.)

All the while, Nico and Bianca were disappointed that while Hazel had much to say about stance, physical balance, and economy of motion, not a word was spoken about chemical formulas or alchemical arrays. They knew better than to say anything to her, though. They’d learned early on to fear her sharp tongue, and although she never struck them, the wooden staff that she wielded to nudge them when their physical form was less than perfect seemed like it could deliver stinging blows should she decide to use it that way.

It was on the third week that they came out to the training area and saw no weapons. Could it be that at long last, their real training would begin? No, now Hazel had moved them on to unarmed combat. For hours each day, they hopped about as this tiny woman continually knocked them off their feet, raining countless blows on them while they were unable to land a single strike on her.

At least now Hazel deigned to speak to them in something other than short corrections barked out as they trained. Now she started speaking about balance and flow of energy, but it seemed only to apply to their combat skills, but even then, Hazel kept returning to the concept of equivalent exchange, the first law of alchemy. Even the uninitiated who were barely aware of real alchemy and thought of it as almost magic knew of this principle. Somehow, Hazel managed to find examples of this in every aspect of their day.

“To obtain, something of equal value must be given. That is alchemy’s first law.” Hazel droned on. Nico fumed inside. Like they didn’t know that already. But Hazel was determined to drive the lesson home. “In order to breach my defenses,” she said, calmly blocking each blow that he and Bianca attempted, expending less effort on the children’s combined assaults than as if they were a minor distraction, “you must spend energy. How much you need to spend is a sign of how well you are trained. I can see that my idiot pupils need much more training.”

“Even in everyday life,” she went on, “this holds true. If my darling Frank did not extract payment of equal value for the meat he sells, we’d soon be reduced to beggary.” Bianca hid a smile at this. She knew that the kind-hearted butcher was always giving away food to the poorer residents of Dublith, and he never turned away any of the town’s children without pressing some treat into their eager hands.

“Now,” Hazel continued, “we move onto the use of the circle.” She changed from defensive moves to knocking the Elrics off their feet with sweeping kicks. “The circle is the basis of all alchemical reactions, because of its elegant simplicity. It conveys the maximum result with the minimum outlay of effort.”

Was it a week later? To the Elrics, the grueling physical sessions seemed to go on forever, whereas Hazel seemed to be able to overcome the two of them without expending any effort whatsoever. She did lecture them as they fought, but it was all basic principles, applicable as much to combat or even daily living as to their beloved alchemy. One day, she even had a book in front of her face as they attempted to take her down. She read to them as they sprang at her. For all that they practiced the physical disciplines, their teacher was unbeatable. Their futile attempts to unbalance Hazel took so much of their concentration that it was only after an hour of fighting that Bianca noticed the title of the book that Hazel was reading from.

It was the Flamel’s Breviary. The shock of it threw Bianca off her game, resulting in Hazel knocking her off her feet and crashing into her brother. He was about to rail at his sister, but she took advantage of their moment on the ground to whisper into his ear.

“Brother, that book!”

He looked at the tome in Hazel’s hand. He gasped. Flamel’s Breviary was an incredibly rare book. It was centuries old and reputed to be full of lost alchemical lore. It must’ve come from that fantastic collection in the attic. Nico had to get in. He needed to see those books! But no time now. Teacher advanced on him, and although she was barely taller than him, she’d plucked him from the ground, growling, “The lesson is not over! Back on your feet.”

That night, although they were exhausted from the grueling workout, Nico snuck out of the room they slept in. Bianca followed him, whispering warnings of what would happen if Hazel or Frank caught them out of bed.

“Brother, if Teacher catches us, she’ll rip us apart like a flock of harpies.”

“Quiet, Bianca, I need to concentrate.” He crept silently around the outside of the house until he saw the attic window high overhead. The moonlight streamed through it, and the clouds drifted through the sky. Just a little more, that’s it! The clouds obscured the moonlight at just the right angle, and Nico leaped into the shadow of a nearby tree, vanishing as he had so many times before.

After what seemed to Bianca to be an eternity, he re-emerged from the shadow, clutching a large book. He held it up so that Bianca could make out the title. It was another of Flamel’s works, even rarer than the Breviary. This was the Codex. This was a treasure indeed.

They snuck back into their room. Bianca wanted them to go back to sleep, saying that they could read tomorrow, but Nico insisted on staying up and studying. He got that way whenever there was an alchemy book to read. He said he’d read as much as he could and then return it before morning, and Teacher would be none the wiser.

The plan went like clock-work. The volume was returned to the attic before dawn, and training was resumed the next day. That night, Nico went back outside. When he came back in, he had Flamel’s Codex and a second book.

“Brother!” Bianca exclaimed. That’s Dee’s Steganographia!” She seized the book from him and began poring through it with the same eagerness that he had for the Codex. And so it was that each night they studied for hours instead of sleeping.

Of course, after a week, their training sessions showed the effects of that lack of sleep. It seemed that Hazel was particularly brutal one day, knocking them back repeatedly without a word until…

“So,” she barked out to the prostrate Bianca and Nico. “My idiot students don’t seem to be concentrating today. Perhaps,” she said, pulling Nico to his feet, “you’d be able to focus better if while you fought, you recited Flamel’s theory of multiple inscribed cardiods.”

Nico was shocked. This was exactly the advanced theory he’d been working through for the last two nights. How had she known? No time to worry about that as Hazel came at him, her gaze focused and her arms raised.

As he parried her attacks, he said, “The placement of the x-function indentations can concentrate or diffuse the focal points, enabling finer control of reaction rates.” He added, “I think that a proper array could be designed that would enable a self-sustaining reaction.”

Abruptly, Hazel dropped her stance. “Well,” she said. “It seems that the physical discipline has finally enabled you to achieve some basic mental discipline as well. Come inside.”

She led the siblings into the house and up the stairs to the attic. Producing a key, she unlocked the door.

“In the future, please limit yourselves to using the door to enter my library.” Nico looked at her in surprise. How had she known?

Both his and Bianca’s faces lit up at the sight of the books lining the shelves. They recognized some from their father’s collection, but here were many, many more.

“Now,” Hazel said, “your formal training begins. But you must never, not for a single day,” she said in a warning tone, “neglect your physical training as well.”

Chapter Text

And so the lessons continued. Each day, they would start out with grueling physical exercise. In spite of her apparent frailty and occasional bouts of being bed-ridden because of fits of coughing up blood, Hazel was more than a match for the Elric children. She led them through martial arts training accompanied by lectures on both the philosophy and practice of alchemy.

Hazel held a book in front of her face as she easily parried Nico and Bianca’s attacks. Although the book looked like a simple book on meat cutting techniques, logical for Frank’s business, by now the Elrics knew the alchemists’ secrets of encoding their notes and could tell that this was a rare tome on bio-alchemy.

“The foundation of alchemy is the circle,” Hazel read. Although they’d heard this lecture many times, her students listened attentively as they tried to knock their teacher off balance with well-practiced kicks. “The circle dictates the flow of power, and the runes inscribed in it make it possible for the power to be directed.”

Nico asked the question that was on his mind so much. “But Teacher, we’ve seen you do alchemy without a circle. You just clap your hands together.”

Bianca said, “You kind of make a circle with your arms when you clap your hands. But where are the runes?” Nico wished he’d thought of that.

“It’s almost as if I’m the runes myself,” Hazel said thoughtfully.

Nico put his palms together as he’d seen their teacher do. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he said, scowling.

“Maybe if you arrive at the truth…” Hazel began and then sat down, fanning her face. That was the end of the lesson for that day. She dismissed her pupils and returned the book to the attic library.

For the rest of the day, as Bianca pored over the books they’d taken from their teacher’s library, Nico kept putting his hands together, his arms making a circle, but nothing happened. Finally, he collapsed onto the floor in frustration.

“I can’t do it,” he grumbled. “What did she mean by ‘the truth’?”

Bianca looked up from her book. “I think I know,” she said in a soothing voice. “I think she wants us to keep studying diligently and arrive at the truth on our own, like she did when she told us ‘All is one, one is all’.”

“Studying diligently, huh?” he replied. “You keep working on those books. I have an idea.”

He went up to the library and returned a few minutes later, carrying the book on meat-cutting that Hazel had been holding earlier. He studied some of the text and then took out a pen and began scribbling notes in the journal that he kept hidden under his mattress. Sure enough, it was a book on medical alchemy, and it had some fairly precise formulas on the make-up of the human body, just what they needed for their secret project to bring their mother back.

Almost as if she’d known, Hazel began the lesson the next day with a lecture she’d given them many times. It started with the law of equivalent exchange, the very basis of alchemy, but then it went onto the circle of existence, how life and death were part of that circle, and were not to be tampered with. It was something she’d told them often in the past, but Nico was a little unnerved that she chose to repeat that lesson the very day after he’d gotten the formula they needed to do just what she’d warned them against.

That night, Hazel was not at dinner. Frank told them that her old illness was acting up and that she needed some time off. Maybe it would be a good time for them to go back home for a week or two. The next morning, Lavinia drove them to the train station for the trip back to Risembool. As they boarded the train, she told them, “Hazel told me to remind you to keep up your training while you’re back home. She’ll know if you’ve slacked off, and trust me, you don’t want to see that.”

On the train ride, Nico showed Bianca what he’d written in his journal. To untrained eyes, it looked like lasagna recipes, but Bianca was well versed in her brother’s cipher, and knew exactly what he had encoded.

That night, they returned to their family home for the first time in months. They began preparations for the work ahead of them. They carefully inventoried the chemicals still left in their father’s collection and determined what they’d still need to obtain. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to find those ingredients in the local market, so they were able to do that first thing in the morning.

Naomi Rockbell had invited them over for a large midday meal, eager to see the children she’d looked after for so long. Will was beside himself with excitement to see them as well, and had to be reminded to keep his mind on the automail parts he was working on until lunch was ready.

Over the meal, he greeted them with the big smile he always seemed to have, but when he asked them about the training they’d been going through, the Elrics turned pale and silent, remembering the grueling sessions Hazel had put them through. Undaunted, Will said, “Can you at least show me some of the alchemy you’ve learned?”

Bianca went first. She sketched a circle on the ground and put some stones in it. She knelt by the edge of the circle and placed her hands on it. There was a flash, and the stones were replaced by a brand new set of wrenches, just what Will needed to do his work. He beamed at her and thanked her profusely.

Nico stepped up and said, “My turn,” but Naomi interrupted.

“Actually, if you don’t mind,” and she gestured at the sagging entryway to the house. It was old, and in need of a good coat of paint. Also, the sign “Rockbell Automail” was in need of repairs, still showing the damage that the storms of last year had done. She was hoping that maybe they could transmute up some paint and lumber so that she could get started on repairs.

Nico stared at it briefly, but instead of making a small circle like Bianca had done, he picked up a stick and started to run all the way around the house, dragging the stick behind him. When he returned, he used the stick to inscribe some symbols. Then he knelt down as his sister had. Before he touched the edge of the circle, he called out, “You guys might want to step outside.”

Bianca, Will, and his grandmother made a hasty retreat to a few feet away, and Nico touched his hands to the circle he’d drawn. The flash from the transmutation was blinding, but when Naomi’s vision returned, she was pleased to see that not only was the porch repaired, but the whole house appeared to have been repainted, and the roof looked like it had been reshingled.

“Show off,” Bianca muttered.

Will just looked at Nico with stars in his eyes.

Nico, however, was panting after the exertion of the alchemical reaction he’d caused. Will noticed that, and said, “Maybe you should lie down after that.”

Nico was not to be put off, however. “Sorry, Bianca and I have work to do at home.” He started off toward the Elric house. Bianca followed.

“What kind of work?” Will wanted to know, but Nico just called back, “Top secret.”

Will’s habitual smile faded into a pout. “They always do that to me,” he complained to his grandmother. “They never tell me anything.” She just chuckled at him.

=====

It was nighttime by the time they had assembled the necessary equipment and drawn the complicated circle required for what they were about to do. The darkness outside seemed to be fitting, and the rainstorm that had started seemed to complete the mood. The Elric children were alone in the house, and the only witness to their deed was the tall black suit of armor, made entirely out of Stygian iron. It had been there as long as either of them could remember, and all they knew about the armor was the stories their mother used to tell them about how one of their ancestors had brought it halfway around the world, almost dying in the process.

In spite of this gloomy atmosphere, the siblings were beside themselves with joy.

“What do you think is the first thing mama will say to us?” Bianca asked, flushed with excitement.

“I don’t know,” Nico replied, “but I know what I’ll say to mama.”

“What’s that?”

“Please don’t tell our teacher.”

The two children dissolved into giggles over that, the first time they’d laughed together so freely since their mother had died. They fussed over the final preparations, making sure that each of the ingredients was measured out perfectly, that the circle and runes were perfect, and that each of their calculations had been triple-checked. This was too important for even the smallest error.

At last, they stood by the completed array, the ingredients placed exactly in the center of the circle. Nico produced a small sharp knife from his pocket.

“Last, but not least,” he said, slicing the knife across the edge of his finger, “part of our souls.”

He let a drop of blood fall onto the mass of chemicals at the center of the circle. Then Bianca took the knife and did the same. They stepped back to the edge of the circle and knelt down, reaching their palms toward the rim of the circle.

“Let’s do this, Bianca,” Nico said.

“Right,” said Bianca, nodding enthusiastically.

The circle began to glow. The siblings looked at each other, grinning, but then…

“Brother, something’s wrong,” Bianca said, alarm in her voice.

The glow turned to an eerie green. Bianca called out in terror, “Fratello, help me!” as she seemed to fade into the green glow. Nico reached out for her, but fell forward as his left leg just disappeared, her cries echoing in his ears as he blacked out.

=====

Nico found himself in a featureless void. How had he gotten here? Did he shadow travel? No it was more like he’d been transformed into wind and blown here. What was this place? He realized that behind him was an immense pair of stone doors, covered with runes and markings. Some of them were familiar to him through his studies, but most of them were unfamiliar to him. Had he come through these doors? No, they were firmly sealed, and he’d just appeared in this room.

“Hello.” It was a quiet voice, unfamiliar to him.

Nico whirled about. “Who’s there?” he demanded.

“I am,” the voice said calmly. “I’m right in front of you.”

A figure appeared in front of him. It looked vague and indistinct, but as it spoke, it became clearer.

"Who...who are you?” Nico asked hesitantly.

“I’m so glad you asked,” the creature said as it resolved into the figure of a slimly muscled young man, but with large, pure white wings sprouting from its (his?) shoulders.

“I’m what you’d call the world.” He paused. “Or perhaps what makes the world go round.”

He went on. “Or the universe. Or God. Or the truth. I am the one. I am the all. Or…” He trailed off for a moment. Then he faced Nico and opened his eyes wide. They were solid red, the color of bright blood. “And...I’m you!”

Abruptly, there was a loud rumbling coming from behind Nico. Before he could turn to see what it was, the being said, “Welcome, you arrogant fool. You have dared to knock on the door. And now the door is open!”

With that, Nico felt himself being seized from behind. The hands, so many of them grasping his arms, his waist, pulling him back into the stone doorway which was now open, were made of shadows. But these were not the shadows that he and Bianca had wandered in and out of so easily. These were cold and implacable, and they grasped him inexorably, pulling him back into a darkness so terrible.

As he struggled, crying out in fear, the being said, “Hush now,” although the voice was far from soothing. “This is what you thought you were longing for, isn’t it. I’m going to show you the truth.”

The massive stone doors slammed shut, and Nico was in utter, suffocating blackness. Then, the blackness exploded into light, but not a light that he could see. This was more like light pouring directly into his brain, threatening to tear him apart. Just as he felt he couldn’t take it any more, it stopped.

Nico found himself standing in front of the stone doorway, facing the being with the red eyes.

“It was like all the secrets of the world were pouring into my head,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I see now, there was nothing wrong with the transmutation itself. It just needed a little more.” He turned to the door and made as if to pull at it with his hands.

“The answer is in there, and I almost saw it, I know it. I have to go back in!” He turned to the being and pleaded. “You have to let me back in. Let me see it just one more time.”

“That’s all I can show you for the toll you paid,” the being said in an icy voice.

“The toll?” Nico asked. What did he mean?

“You know the first law of alchemy, the law of equivalent exchange. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. What you have obtained moves you so far forward…”

Nico looked down in horror. His left leg! The being’s own left leg looked more solid, as if he’d stolen Nico’s leg to use as his own. He collapsed as the searing pain of the loss of limb tore through him.

When he opened his eyes, fighting the agony, he called out “Bianca! Bianca!”

Then he heard a noise from the center of the circle. The transmutation had worked. They’d brought to life…

Not their mother. This was a hideous misshapen creature, a parody of a human form, arms and legs projecting at angles no human limbs had even attained. The inverted head dangling from a twisted neck opened its mouth and emitted a hideous howl. Nico looked around in panic. Where was Bianca? Then he remembered, her entire body seemed to come apart just like his leg had. He cast about all his senses, and felt just a glimmer of his sister’s essence, just a bit of her soul, but with nothing to bind it to this world, it would be gone in moments. He looked around in a panic and saw that the enormous suit of armor had fallen over, but by some miracle it had stayed in one piece other than the helmet being dislodged.

First, he ripped a strip of fabric from his shirt to bind the wound from the amputation. Then, he crawled over to the armor, ignoring the agony from his maimed leg. He knew what to do. He remembered that much from his horrifying encounter with the Truth. Some blood was oozing from the crude tourniquet. Perfect. He dipped his finger into it and drew a rune inscribed circle inside the armor, at the back of its neck. That would provide the framework for the transmutation. Now he needed the power for it, the price.

He put his fingertips on the edge of the blood circle, careful not to damage it in the least. Then he concentrated, willing the transmutation to start. He called out, “Give her back! Give her back! She’s my sister, she’s all I have left. I’ll pay the toll whatever it is. Take my other leg! Take my arms. TAKE MY HEART, JUST GIVE HER BACK!”

The strange being that had called himself the truth, stood before him. “Back again are we? You really are a fool.” Nico passed out from the pain, just as he noticed how solid the being’s right arm had become.

Chapter Text

The old farmer, Triptolemus, drove his wagon along the road. He glanced back at his two passengers. It was rare that two high up military types got out to Risembool, but he was grateful to get a little extra cash to ferry these strangers to and from the station.

“So what brings you out here?” he asked in a friendly voice.

Lieutenant Colonel Percy Mustang replied, “We’ve heard reports of a pair of talented alchemists, and I wanted to meet them for myself.”

“Scouting for new state alchemists, are you?” Triptolemus asked.

“It’s part of the job,” Percy replied. “After the last civil war, we need all the new recruits we can get.”

Triptolemus laughed. “I can’t wait to see the look on those kids’ faces when a high ranking officer shows up at their door.”

Percy started, and it wasn’t just due to the lurching ride of the cart, which seemed to have one of its wheels replaced rather inexpertly.

“Kids?! This report says the alchemist living here is an adult.”

“Nope,” Triptolemus said. Nico Elric is 13 years old. His sister, Bianca, is a year younger.”

Percy thrust the report at his traveling companion. “Second Lieutenant, how do you explain this?”

“Sir,” Annabeth Hawkeye responded coolly, “I have no explanation, unless these children managed to freeze their ages for a few decades.”

Percy snorted at this ridiculous answer, but Annabeth continued, “Sir, why don’t you just meet them before you come to any conclusions?”

Percy had to agree that this, like so many of her suggestions, was a good idea, so they continued their journey to the Elric house. When they arrived, Percy strode up to the front door, his hand raised to knock, but the door was ajar.

“Elrics?” he called out.

“Sir.” Annabeth’s sharp eyes had spotted something. She pointed to the steps Percy had come up. “Those are blood stains.”

Percy didn’t hesitate. He gestured for her to wait outside and dashed into the house. Annabeth shook her head at her commanding officer’s foolhardiness and assumed a posture of watchfulness, prepared to run to his aid should he call for her.

After what seemed to her like an hour (but was really no more than ten minutes, he emerged, his normally tanned face pale and his green eyes wide.

“There’s no-one inside. Where are they? I need to talk to them.”

There was an edge to his voice, and the old farmer replied, a little nervous, “I expect they’re over at the Rockbells. Naomi has been looking after them.” He pointed to the house across the field. Percy started over toward it in something almost like a run, and Annabeth followed, but Triptolemus just headed back to his wagon to wait. After all, they’d paid for a round trip.

When he got to the house, he rapped sharply on the door. He heard a dog barking followed by a woman calling out, “Hush, Cerberus, we have visitors.”

The door opened, and Percy stepped in. The old woman scowled at his uniform as he muttered, “Pardon me, Ms. Rockbell. I’m looking for the Elrics, and I was told they might be here.”

In spite of Naomi Rockbell’s protestations, he pushed past her. He saw a boy sitting in a wheelchair, probably Nico Elric, as he looked like some of the photos he’d seen in his examination of the Elric house. Behind him was an immense figure who seemed to be wearing a full suit of armor. Percy glared at the sullen face of the boy and then reached out and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him up out of the chair as he shouted at the boy.

“I’ve been to your house! What the hell did you do? What did you create?”

Nico made no response, he just dropped his gaze. It was the bulky armored figure who responded, but the voice was incongruous; it was the voice of a young girl, and all she said was, “We’re sorry. We’re so sorry.”

=====

Percy had put together a better idea of what had happened that night. He sat at the kitchen table with Naomi, Nico, and Bianca. Bianca’s immobile metal face was impossible to read. Naomi scowled at the lieutenant colonel, but she listened attentively. Nico sat in his wheelchair, his face looking dead, but his eyes never leaving Mustang’s face.

Percy spoke to Naomi, as she seemed to be acting in loco parentis, but he made sure that the Elrics understood every word he said.

“They’d be given full funding for their work. All of the government’s best facilities and research staff would be at their disposal. Those are just some of the privileges they’d receive as state alchemists.

“Of course, in exchange, they’d have to pledge loyalty and obey orders. But they’d have the ability to conduct research that would be impossible for a civilian. They might even be able to find a way to regain their original bodies.”

Nico’s head raised almost imperceptibly at that.

“Do you think these children have what it takes to pass the licensing exam?” Naomi asked dryly.

“From what I saw of the transmutation circle they drew,” Percy began, “coupled with the fact that he was able to bond his sister’s soul…” but Naomi cut him off.

“After Bianca showed up at my door that night, holding her brother’s bloody body in her arms, do you know what I did?”

Percy paused for her to continue.

“I went to their house,” she said, her voice starting to rise. “I went to their house, and I buried that thing in their backyard. That thing that they made, it wasn’t even human! Alchemy created that thing! Alchemy took away their bodies!! And you!! You want them to do more of that?!?” By now she was shouting.

Unnoticed, Will crept into the kitchen, horribly fascinated by what he was hearing. He fetched a tray and put the teapot and some cups on it and went back into the living room. He shyly approached Annabeth.

“Would you like some tea?” he asked in a quiet voice. Annabeth smiled at the boy and took a cup. After a long silence, he said, “Um, Lieutenant?”

She extended a hand, saying, “Please, just call me Annabeth. Annabeth Hawkeye. It’s nice to meet you.”

He didn’t take her hand. “Ms. Annabeth...have you ever shot a person?”

She gave him a grave look. “I have.”

He dropped his gaze and said, “I don’t like soldiers. My parents were killed when the soldiers took them to the battlefield. And now that Colonel Mustang is trying to take Bianca and Nico away. I don’t want them to be soldiers. Please don’t take them away.” The last sentence was almost a sob.

Annabeth spoke in a quiet, firm voice. “The choice is theirs to make. To be honest, I don’t like being a soldier either, knowing that sometimes, I have to take a life.”

“Then why are you in the military?” Will asked.

Annabeth glanced toward the kitchen and said, “Because there’s someone I need to protect.”

In the kitchen, Percy spoke to Naomi, unconsciously echoing Annabeth’s words.

“Ms. Rockbell, I’m not forcing them to do anything. The choice is theirs to make.” Then he turned directly to Nico.

“You can spend the rest of your life in that chair, with your sister trapped in that suit of armor. Or you can do something with your life by allying yourself with the military and maybe even finding a way to change yourselves back. The choice is up to both of you. You may have to wade through a river of fire and a river of ice to do it, but if your wills are strong, you can do it.”

At the same time, Annabeth spoke again to Will.

“The person I have to protect is headstrong, so headstrong that he looks foolish sometimes, but I believe in him. I believe that what he’s doing is right, that it’s important, and if I have to pull the trigger again for him, I will do it without hesitation.”

Will thought about someone else who was headstrong and impulsive and who he would always stand behind.

In the kitchen, Percy stood up as if to leave, Then he drew a card from his pocket.

“I’ve said all I have to say.” He handed the card to Nico, who took it without looking up. “If you decide to enlist, come to the East City headquarters.”

Percy came out of the kitchen into the living room.

“Let’s go,” he said brusquely to Annabeth, who nodded in reply, rising to follow him.

Then she paused and turned to Will, her smile returning. “I’ll see you later, young man.”

Will also rose. “Will,” he said. “My name is Will.” Then he extended his hand to her. As she shook the proffered hand to shake, Will smiled. It was a small smile, but it made his face light up like a beam of sunlight.

When they left the house, Triptolemus was there in his wagon, waiting to take them back to the station.

“Do you think they’ll actually come?” Annabeth asked.

“Oh they’ll come,” Percy said with perfect confidence.

“Judging by the boy’s appearance, I’d have said he was beyond help. Those eyes of his looked like shattered glass,” Annabeth said.

Percy shook his head. “I didn’t see shattered glass in his eyes. What I saw was fire.”

=====

Nico lay in the bed as Naomi prepped him for the first surgery.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” she asked.

His face was stern. “I’ve made up my mind. How long will it take for the surgeries and the rehabilitation?”

“Three years,” Naomi replied, knowing from long experience.

“I’ll do it in one!” Nico said stubbornly.

Naomi smiled grimly. “You’re gonna go through hell,” was all she said.

=====

The next day, Nico lay in the bed, pale and exhausted, but not allowing the pain from the previous night’s operation to show on his face. When Bianca came in to check on him, he managed to smile at her.

“Sorella, just be patient. I promise, I’ll get you back to your original body.”

“Okay, fratello, but only if you get your body back first.”

=====

The year had passed, and, true to his word, Nico was back on his feet. He and Bianca had even resumed the rigorous physical training that their teacher had put them through. It actually helped with the rehabilitation, although there were times that he struggled so hard never to cry out, in spite of how bad the pain was. No matter. He and Bianca were going to resume sparring, no better exercise than to pit yourself against a worthy opponent.

Unfortunately, the noise from his metal arm and leg impacting Bianca’s metal body attracted some unwelcome attention.

“You idiot!” Will shouted. “Are you trying to wreck the automail that I worked so hard to make?” He had gotten Nico’s attention by roughly cuffing him atop his head (damn the height advantage the blond had) with his bare hand, but he hefted a wrench in the other hand and looked like he was ready to smack Nico with that if he persisted.

=====

The Elrics had learned their lesson. No more sparring. (Until they heard the sound of Will working in the forge to make the automail that he loved so much, too engaged in what he was doing to come out and scold them.) Nico sent a short telegram to Colonel Mustang with two words: “We’re coming.” He was disappointed by the response of “Do not come today. Passage will be provided on the train departing on Thursday. This is a direct order. Disobedience will result in immediate expulsion.” but Bianca managed to argue him down.

On the day that he and Bianca were to leave for Central, Will came to their house to see them off and to drive them to the station. He was smiling brightly in spite of hating to see his friends leaving, but anyone could see that the smile was forced. The Elrics were standing in front of the house they’d lived in their whole lives.

Nico said, “You’re just in time,” and Bianca nodded.

Then, she said to Will, “You might want to stand back.”

He stepped back, not understanding, but Nico knelt down and touched the circle he’d made on the front door. There was a brief flash of transmutation, and then the entire house burst into flame.

“What did you do?” Will asked in horror, his false smile dropped and his eyes filling up with tears.

“No turning back now,” Nico said. Bianca nodded again. Then she turned to Will.

“Why are you crying?’ she asked.

“Someone has to,” he sobbed. “And I know you two won’t.”

“Sheesh,” was Nico’s sole response as the three of them got into the wagon.

Chapter Text

Nico and Bianca finished their story and looked nervously at their teacher. The three of them sat at the table, while Frank stood over Hazel protectively. Hazel was silent for a long time. Finally she spoke in a calm quiet voice.

“Go three blocks down the street. There, you’ll find…”

The Elrics waited. At last Hazel went on, this time shouting as she stood up.

“A COFFIN STORE! GO AND BUY TWO IN YOUR SIZE!”

Nico and Bianca shrank in terror. Then Hazel sat down again, her calm restored.

“How many times did I tell you to stay away from human transmutation? But at last, the students make the same mistake as the teacher.”

Nico looked at her in shock. “So you?” He couldn’t continue.

Hazel sat back down heavily and fanned herself. “It took some of my insides.” Then her face softened. “It must have been tough,” but Nico cut her off.

“No, we brought it on ourselves. I guess we got what we deserved.”

Hazel drew Nico and Bianca into a hug. It was too much. The Elric children started to cry into their teacher’s shoulders, just murmuring “We’re sorry. We’re so sorry.”

At last Hazel released her hug. As she straightened, she said to Nico, “But to get your license when you’re barely fourteen years old, most people would call you a genius.”

Nico shook his head. “I’m not a genius. It’s just that I saw that thing.”

Hazel cut him off. “If you were able to come back alive and sane after seeing it, I’d call that genius enough. Even though you’re my apprentice, I’m impressed.” Then she stood up sharply, causing Nico and Bianca to rise as well. “But I have to stick by my principles. You’re both expelled.”

Nico and Bianca stood there stunned as Hazel went on, “I didn’t teach you alchemy so that you could end up with bodies like these. You are no longer my apprentices.”

When they didn’t move, Hazel gestured to the door. “The trains are still running. Go home.”

Bianca backed up, trembling, but Nico moved as Hazel had gestured. For a moment, he clenched his fists, but then he relaxed and said in a deadly calm voice, “Thank you for everything,” and then walked out the door. Bianca followed her brother, her shoulders slumped.

As they walked toward the station, Frank caught up with them, as if to escort them off. Then he began to speak.

“While she was pregnant, Hazel fell ill. The doctors did their best, but the child was stillborn, and they told us that she could never have children again. She fell into a deep depression.”

Frank didn’t say anything for a moment, but the memory of his wife’s pain was visibly etched on his face. Then he went on.

“She spent the night saying nothing to me but, ‘I’m sorry,’ even though it wasn’t her fault. I think that’s when she started looking into human transformation. You know the result, I think.”

As they came to the station, Frank finally smiled at them and said, “Come on by whenever you’re in the area.”

Bianca stammered, “But we’ve been expelled.”

Frank shook his head. “You fools! Don’t you get it? You’re no longer Hazel’s students. That means you can speak to her as peers.”

Nico slapped his head (thankfully not with his metal hand) in exasperation. “We didn’t get what we came here for.” Then he started to run back to the Curtis house.

Bianca ran after, calling back to Frank, “Thanks, Mr. Curtis. We’re going back.”

Frank stood in front of the station trying not to laugh as he called out, “Don’t let her kill you.”

=====

Hazel stood at the counter, sharpening one of Frank’s best boning knives. The work calmed her after what had happened with the Elric children, and he needed the knife to be perfectly sharp for his business. She held the knife, inspecting the edge she’d put on it, and the door slammed open. She flung the knife with perfect accuracy, and the knife stuck into the wall, vibrating less than an inch over the top of Nico’s head.

“How dare you come back here?” she shouted.

“Teacher,” Nico called out, no fear in his voice, but Hazel said, “How dare you call me teacher?” She plucked the knife from the wall and brandished in Nico’s face.

Neither he nor Bianca moved an inch, and Bianca said, “We came here to find a way to get our original bodies back.”

Nico met her gaze, “We can’t go home empty handed.”

The looks on their faces, even on Bianca’s helmet, so different from her original face, made Hazel remember how they’d glared at her, unflinching, so long ago when they’d demanded that she take them on as students. She knew when she was beaten.

“Bianca,” she said, “when you were transmuted, didn’t you see the truth?”

Bianca shook her head, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Hazel looked up at Bianca. “Maybe the shock of it made you lose your memory. We have to get that back. After all, your entire body was taken. Think of what you must have seen.”

Nico nodded. “That thing, the truth, told me that I’d paid the toll with my leg. But what Bianca must have seen. It must have been the entire truth.”

“All right,” Hazel said, “I’ll try to find a way to get your memory back. There’s an acquaintance of mine I can ask.”

Nico and Bianca were relieved. Their teacher’s mood seemed to be just the opposite of when she’d thrown them out and sent them back to the train.

“But before I do that,” Hazel went on, “you must be hungry. I’ll make some dinner. I’ll need a few things from the store, though.”

=====

Colonel Perseus Mustang faced his mentor across the chessboard.

“Your transfer has come through,” old General Blofis said as he moved the red bishop three squares across the board. “You’ll be working in Central by the end of next week.”

Percy studied the board and only remarked, “yes, sir.”

“It won’t be the same without you,” the general went on. “You brought a little color into this dreary desert.”

“Thank you, sir,” Percy replied, moving his knight into position. “Oh, and by the way, checkmate.”

General Blofis eyed the board briefly and began to laugh. “It seems you’ve beaten me at last. It only took you a hundred games to do it. Consider it my parting gift to you.”

“Actually, I was wondering if I could ask for one more parting gift,” Percy said, deciding to take advantage of the older man’s good mood. “There are some subordinates I’d like to bring with me.”

The general continued to laugh gently, and said, “Take anyone you like.”

=====

Lieutenant Cecil Havoc had just finished repairing the radio when the order came in. Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross was in the same office, finishing up filing. The Stoll brothers were up to something, probably no good, when they were called in. Lieutenant Annabeth Hawkeye (to no-one’s surprise) was at the artillery range, working on her (already perfect) marksmanship, but she reported to Colonel Mustang’s office immediately, where the others had already gathered. Colonel Mustang had been sitting at his desk as she entered, but he rose to address the five of them.

“All right, my transfer to Central has come through. Furthermore, all of you are being transferred with me. I won’t hear any objections. Any questions?”

“No, sir.” All five of them saluted smartly, even though the Stolls had those infuriating smirks.”

=====

Nico and Bianca hurried down the street, a bag in Bianca’s arms.

“Man, Teacher’s gonna kill us for taking so long,” Bianca said.

“Well, if her shopping list wasn’t so long,” Nico said in his usual grumpy voice.

Their path was blocked by what looked like a beggar. His clothes were nothing but rags, but he had an elaborate hat on his head. He called out to them in a voice interspersed with screeches and clicks.

“Spare a coin for a beggar?”

“Sorry, can’t help you,” Nico muttered, but the beggar leaned forward..

“Surely a state alchemist has more than enough money.” He moved even closer. “Especially one clever enough to transmute his sister’s soul.”

That was too much! Nico lashed out, using one of the moves Hazel had taught him, and the beggar went flying.

Amid a torrent of clicks and screeches, the beggar called out, “Such a temper! Didn’t your mother teach you better?”

That ill chosen remark brought Bianca into the fight. She raised the beggar into the air by the scruff of his neck, but before she could do anything, his tail lashed out, knocking her metal head off. Wait! His tail?

Before Bianca could fling the odd creature to the ground (the better to recover her head), he glanced down into the suit of armor.

“Hollow, indeed!” he said. “That’s all I needed to see.”

He then hit the ground and made to run off, but Nico clapped his hands together and touched them to the pavement. A sheer wall of glass rose up, impeding the creature’s path.

“A good trick, that,” he said, “but I’ve got a better one.”

He sprang up the wall, adhering to it. Nico could now see that his hands and feet (which were bare) were covered with suckers. In no time, he’d scaled the glass and was racing away by means of the walls of the buildings, and in no time, he was lost to sight.

Nico and Bianca just stared, dumbfounded.

Several blocks away, in a tavern in a part of Dublith that Hazel had made it clear that they were never to venture, a man was holding court at one of the tables. He had luxuriant blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and in spite of the fact that several young men and women were paying rapt attention to him, he seemed more interested in his own reflection in the mirror behind the bar.

He looked away from the mirror as the tailed man came in. He smiled at the beggar, and his smile was as radiant as the sun.

“You’ve done well, Click-Wrong. I didn’t think they’d come all the way out to little old Dublith.” He gestured at the two men by the doorway, both of whom were in tattered military uniforms and wearing large hats not consistent with their dress. The gesture revealed a curious tattoo on the back of his hand, a downward triangle with a line through it.

“Bring them to me. If they resist, use force. But don’t kill them.” His smile became broader. “They are honored guests.”

Chapter Text

Nico and Bianca were going through one of Hazel’s more grueling physical workouts when Nico emitted a shrill cry.

“Oh gods!”

Bianca immediately stopped, her voice full of concern. “What’s the matter, brother? Did you throw your back out?”

“No. I just remembered, it’s almost time for my assessment.”

“Assessment?” Hazel asked, not dropping her martial pose.

“Every year,” Nico said, “we have to pass an assessment. Otherwise, the military will take away my license and throw me out. I’ve been so busy, I forgot all about it.”

“Great,” said Hazel. “Now’s your chance to stop being a dog of the military.” She picked up the phone. “I’ll call the military and let them know you won’t be showing up.”

“No!” Nico said, placing his hand on the receiver to cut the call off. “I’ll head over today. South HQ is only two stops away by train. I can come up with something during the ride.”

He hastily grabbed his coat and a suitcase. “I’ll only be gone for two or three days.”

Bianca started to follow her brother, but Hazel quickly stepped in her way, saying, “Where do you think you’re going? Your sparring session is still going on.”

=====

In the Ishvalan encampment, old Mr. Feingold was worried about their guest.

“Why are you pushing yourself so hard? You’re not fully healed. You still need to rest.”

Scar continued to practice his martial arts and sword play. “An Ishvalan warrior must train constantly,” was all he said.

Mr. Feingold would not let it go. “I’ve heard that you’ve been targeting state alchemists. I know that the state alchemists led the siege that cost us our homeland and put us into this diaspora, but this violence only sows the seeds for further violence. Even the elder gods of Ishval limited vengeance. Only an eye for an eye, they said, and even that threatens to leave us all blind.”

Before Scar could reply to that, screams rent the air, and two young Amestrian thugs burst into the tent, one blond and one brunet. The larger of them, the blond, laughed coarsely.

“It seems like the old sot was right. There’s quite a bounty on your head, Ishvalan.” He reached for Scar, whose injuries and exertions left him looking hardly able to defend himself.. “We’re gonna be rich.”

Then he looked at the sad figure who’d followed them into the tent. His leopard print pants were in rags and his eyes were more bloodshot than usual, but it was definitely Mr. D.

“Don’t forget my percentage,” he called out hoarsely.

Julia had come running up behind the thugs and pointed her finger at the former corporal angrily. “Mr. D, how could you?” she demanded. “After we took you in and gave you food and shelter.”

He turned on her. “Listen, Josephine, or whatever your name is, I need that money to get back on my feet.

“If I stay here,” Scar said, “it will just cause trouble.”

“That’s right,” the blond thug said. “Just come along quietly, and we won’t hurt the rest of them.”

“Any more than we already have,” the brunet laughed, grabbing for Scar’s right arm.

Before anyone knew what had happened, the brunet screamed and clutched at the bloody stump where his hand had been just a moment before. The elaborate tattoo on Scar’s arm seemed brighter than before.

“You bastard! What did you do to him?” the blond thug said as he made a grab for a sword. Scar reached his right hand up and pressed it to the thug’s mouth.

“I’ll give you a moment to make your peace with whatever gods you worship,” Scar said. Then he released the man, who fell to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth before it stopped and his eyes fell shut. The brunet thug, seeing the body of his friend, turned pale and ran, his mangled arm still bleeding.

“I can’t stay here any longer,” Scar said to Mr. Feingold. “If I do, the authorities will take it out on you.” Then he turned to Mr. D, who was trembling in terror. “You are coming with me,” he said sternly. “And no tricks.”

“No, no sir,” the cowed man said, following Scar as he walked away from the Ishvalan encampment.

=====

As she waited for her brother’s return, Bianca swept the sidewalk in front of the Curtis’ butcher shop. She had almost finished, leaving the area spotless, when a wad of paper fell at her feet. She wondered where it had come from, as there was no-one on the street, but then she looked up at the rooftop and saw a figure darting away, almost hidden by the chimneys.

In front of an abandoned bunker in the seediest part of Dublith, three figures waited, a stocky man, a woman leaning sinuously against the bar, and a smaller man who sniffed the air eagerly. All three of them had eyes that didn’t look quite human, and all three were wearing elaborate hats.

“She’s coming,” the smaller man said, just a trace of a whine in his voice as he clambered down from the rooftop.

“Is she alone?” the larger man asked with a snort.

The smaller man nodded eagerly. The woman replied, “Either she’s very brave, or she’s just stupid.” She elongated the sibililants as she spoke.

Bianca walked up to the trio, the piece of paper in her hand.

“Meet us in front of Bunker Nine. We know your secret,” Bianca read off the paper. “I’m assuming you guys wrote this.”

“That’s us,” the short man said. “We know a lot about you.”

“That’s good,” Bianca replied. “There’s a lot about me that I don’t know.”

“Come with us,” the larger man said. “And you might find out what you want to know.”

“But Teacher said I shouldn’t go off with strangers,” Bianca said.

“Just how old are you?” the woman asked.

“Fourteen.”

The large man snorted. “Fourteen? That’s old enough to make your own decisions. None of this ‘teacher says’ crap!”

“You really think so?” Bianca said eagerly. “You’re right. I can make up my own mind.”

“So you’re coming with us?” the shorter man asked eagerly, approaching Bianca.

“I’ve thought about it,” Bianca said slowly, waiting until the man was within reach. “And I’ve decided,” she said, picking the man up easily and flinging him at the larger man and knocking them both over, “to just make you tell me what I want to know.”

The larger man got up and plucked up a large sledge hammer. “So,” he said slowly but menacingly, “it’s come down to force.” The woman produced a short sharp dagger.and assumed a combat stance.

Bianca sized up her opponents and made her decision. She made as if to run at them, but at the last minute, she veered and dodged past them, her evasive move giving her time to gain a head-start.

“Hiss-Marta, Snort-Loa!” The shorter man called as he struggled to get up. “After her!”

The woman, Hiss-Marta, said, “She’ll never get away from us. She doesn’t know these back alleys the way we do.”

As it happened, Bianca was familiar with these alleys, or at least some of them from Hazel’s grueling training sessions. As she wove around the maze of streets, she was looking for something, a small sign carved into one of the blocked doorways. She found it, the small triangle carved into the arch over the doorway. The large man, Snort-Loa called out as Bianca reached for it.

“Kid! Stay away from that! You don’t want to go in there.”

Actually Bianca did want to open the entrance to the Labyrinth. She and Nico had become familiar enough with it, but the concern in his voice startled her for just long enough.

The smaller man leaped up with surprising agility and delivered a kick to Bianca’s helmet with enough force to dislodge it.

“Hey!” she cried with a little outrage. “That’s my head!” As she bent over to retrieve it, Hiss-Marta displayed an even more startling agility and flexed her body in a way no human should be able to, slithering entirely into Bianca’s armor body.

“Get out, get out!” Bianca said, her voice trembling. “This is too weird.”

“How does it feel to be controlled from within?” the woman said, extending her arms and legs into Bianca’s hollow limbs and holding them rigid.

“You’re not strong enough to control me,” Bianca said, fighting with all her strength.

“Girl, I don’t have to overpower you. I just have to delay you.”

Sure enough, Snort-Loa was wrapping stout chains around Bianca, immobilizing her. Then he replaced the helmet and hoisted the trussed Bianca onto his shoulder as if the massive iron body’s weight meant nothing.

“Watch it,” Hiss-Marta said as she bounced about inside the armor. “I’m still in here.”

“And you’ll stay there,” he grunted. “We need you to help keep our guest in line.”

Hiss-Marta emitted a sound like an angry teakettle, but she complied.

“Where are you taking me?” Bianca called out.

The shorter man replied in a far too cheerful voice. “We’re taking you to meet our master.”

Chapter Text

Bianca sat, chained to the floor in the locked cellar that was her prison. As it was a poorly lit cellar, full of shadows, she should be able to escape. But there was a problem. Although she and her brother could move easily enough from one shadow to another regardless of how far away, she wasn’t sure what would happen to her passenger, and she didn’t want to risk hurting the woman.

From the depths of Bianca’s armor, Hiss-Marta’s voice echoed.

“Sorry, about this, kid. I know it must feel weird to have me inside you, but I’m on guard duty.”

“That’s alright,” Bianca replied, sort of feeling like she was talking to herself. “I’m already used to it. Just don’t damage my blood seal. It’s the only thing keeping me in this world.”

Bianca couldn’t really feel the woman inside her, but she could sense her shifting around.

“You mean this red mark under your collar?” she asked. “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll be careful.” Then she said, “Your body’s actually kind of cool.”

Bianca replied, “Your body’s kind of interesting, too.”

Hiss-Marta’s response shocked Bianca. “Do you know what a chimera is? I’m part snake.”

“But…but that’s impossible. No-one has ever successfully made a human-animal chimera!”

Hiss-Marta laughed. It was a very sibilant laugh. “Rude, kid. If I”m not a success, what am I?”

“How could they do that to you?” Bianca said in outrage.

Hiss-Marta’s voice was serious now. “I was a soldier. I was critically wounded. The military dragged my half-dead body into their laboratories and experimented on me.”

“That’s awful,” Bianca said in a trembling voice, trying not to start crying. She was thinking about poor Icarus after what his father had done to him.

Hiss-Marta went on. “The last thing I remember was being blown to pieces by a mine. When I woke up, I had the body of a snake. I was glad to be alive, but to those scientists, I was just a lab rat. We all were. A few of us were ‘successes’ but you didn’t want to know what the failures were like.”

The shorter man who had been part of the trio that had captured Bianca trotted into the room. Hiss-Marta continued to talk.

“We were the success stories because we survived and didn’t go completely crazy.”

The man put in, “We would have died if they hadn’t done this to us. Human or chimera, either way it doesn’t matter. At least we’re still alive.”

Bianca’s curiosity got the better of her. “What animal did they combine you with?”

Hiss-Marta answered for her companion. “I’ll give you a hint. Yip-Fred raises his leg when he pees.”

Yip-Fred protested. “That was one time!”

A small crowd came into the room. At their head was a tall man with bronzed skin and blond hair. He was wearing smoked glasses.

“Everyone here has a reason that they can’t live in the so-called normal world,” the blond man said, flashing perfect teeth in a bright grin. Then he lowered the glasses to shoot Bianca a wink that revealed startlingly blue eyes.

Then the man reached over and lifted Bianca’s helmet. As he stared into Bianca’s hollow armor, she squawked in protest, but the man was undeterred.

“Wow, you really are hollow inside,” the man said. “That’s incredible. Nice to meet you kid. Let’s be friends,” he said in an overly effusive voice as he replaced the helmet.

Then he introduced himself. “The name’s Apollo,” he said, gesturing at himself. “But you can call me Vanity if you like.”

The gesture showed Bianca the back of Vanity’s hand. She stared at it. “That tattoo on your hand! I know it. That’s the Earth symbol.”

“What do you know about this?” Vanity asked.

“When we were attacked in Central, I met someone else who had that mark.”

“Who was it? Was it that doped out Morpheus? Or was it that wretch, Misery? Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. So,” he went on, “you’re Bianca, right?”

When she nodded, he went on. “Tell me. How does it feel to be a soul bonded to an indestructible body, one that can never die?”

Bianca was shocked. “How do you know so much about me?” she asked.

Vanity went on suavely, “Oh secrets have a way of getting out. I heard all about how you and your brother fought at the lab that blew up shortly after. The military put a gag order in place, but people do talk.”

“So, what do you want from me?” Bianca said, getting right to the point.

“Well, think about it. Transmuting a person’s soul and binding it to a physical object basically makes that person immortal. You never feel hunger, you never get old. You’re just as good a hundred years from now as you are now. That’s what I want. I’m so perfect. The world deserves to have that perfection preserved forever. You have that secret inside of yourself, and I want it for myself. I need it. I deserve it.”

“This guy is a total nutjob,” Bianca thought. “Fortunately, he’s too busy enjoying the sound of his own voice to pay attention to what I’m doing.”

What she was doing was sketching a circle in the dirt on the stone floor. She placed a hand on the edge of the circle as Vanity came toward her, and the floor erupted into a massive stone fist that blasted into her captor’s chin, knocking him clear across the room. Another touch of the circle made her chains shiver into tiny pieces.

To Bianca’s surprise, although the blow should have left the man unconscious, he sprang easily up and dealt Bianca a blow that caused her head to slam against the wall. Her iron form was not at all hurt by this, but she heard her concealed passenger groaning.

“Sorry about that, Hiss-Marta,” Vanity called out. “I forgot you were inside her.”

“No problem, bossss.” The voice emanating from Bianca’s chest seemed a little groggy, and the hiss was more pronounced even than usual.

“Ya got spunk, kid,” Vanity said. “But if you really want to take me out, you gotta try harder.” Then he nodded at Snort-Loa and said, “like this.”

At the nod, the human-ox chimera raised the sledge hammer he’d been holding and swung it at Vanity’s head with all his might. The blow smashed his head to a bloody pulp, and his body toppled over.

Bianca cried out in horror, but Hiss-Marta called out, “Wait for it.”

To her surprise, the body began to rise, and Bianca could see that the mangled head was repairing itself. In a few moments, even the artfully messy blond curls were fully reformed as if nothing had happened.

“But, but,” Bianca stammered. “How did you do that? Are you immortal?”

“Not really, no.” Vanity shook his head. “I’m not quite immortal. What I am is a homunculus.”

“A homunculus? But that’s impossible. It’s just a theory.” Bianca was stunned.

“Impossible?” Vanity smiled at her. “Is a chimera impossible? Is a human soul bonded to a suit of armor impossible?”

Then he leaned in close to her. “Come on, missy. I’ve told you my secrets. How about you tell me yours?”

From inside her, Hiss-Marta called up, “I’d tell him if I were you. You don’t want to be taken apart and treated like a lab animal. Trust me, I know what that was like.”

Bianca, still stunned by these revelations, said, “I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. Someone else did it. I was unconscious when the transmutation took place.”

“Great.” Vanity gave her a toothy smile. “All we need to do is get the guy who did the transmutation. It was your brother, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Bianca said, grateful that her immoble face wouldn’t give away her ruse. “But,” she pitched her voice like she was about to start crying, “he’s gone.”

Snort-Loa patted her shoulder with a surprising gentleness. Yip-Fred emitted a mournful howl, and Hiss-Marta called out, “We’re so sorry for your loss.”

“Perfect,” Bianca thought. “They think Nico is dead.”

=====

“I’m dead,” Nico said as he looked at the notice.

The faceless bureaucrat behind the counter just said, “You missed the deadline for your assessment, so you’ll have to file for an extension. Take these forms to the office of technical evaluation.

After ten minutes of wandering through badly labeled corridors, Nico was hopelessly lost. When he caught a glimpse of a military uniform, he started to ask for directions, but stopped as he recognized the owner of an immense pair of arms about to pull him into a hug that would leave him with bruised ribs.

“Nico Elric!” the unmistakably blustering voice of Major Jason Armstrong called out as the arms pulled him into that damned hug. Nico’s dismay was only heightened when he was pulled by those arms into a spartan office where none other than Fuhrer-King Kronos sat. The single in-tact eye of the ruler of all of Amestris glinted with amusement when he saw the form that Nico was holding. Not for the first time, Nico wondered what had caused him to lose his other eye, now covered by the eyepatch that every Amestrian knew so well.

“My seal, please,” the fuhrer-king said to one of his aides. He stamped the assessment form, signing it with a flourish.

When Nico tried to protest, his superior laughed. “Stygian Iron,” Kronos called him by his code-name, “I’ve been hearing about your exploits around this country of ours, and I know that you are more than capable of passing any tests with flying colors. If you don’t mind my asking, though, what are you doing so far south?”

Nico knew better than to lie. Fuhrer-King Ethan Kronos had a reputation of seeing more with his one good eye than anyone else in Amestris with two good eyes or a hundred. “I’m just visiting my former teacher in Dublith.”

“If she taught you,” Kronos said affably, “she must be very skilled indeed.”

Nico nodded, but thought “skilled and VERY scary.”

=====

How scary?

Hazel was furious. “What kind of idiot can’t do something as simple as sweeping the sidewalk without getting kidnapped?”

Frank knew that her fury was only a cover for her deep concern. Sure enough, Hazel’s rage was spent, and she collapsed into a chair, fanning her face. He looked up from his wife and asked Lavinia, “So you think you know where Bianca is?”

Lavinia flushed and began, “So this girl I know…from around…,” but Hazel cut her off.

“Lavinia, stop beating around the bush. We know Ivy is your girlfriend. It’s not a big deal. Dublith may be a small town, but we’re not idiots or bigoted northerners.”

The girl stopped her nervous hopping from foot to foot and went on. “Well, you know Ivy works at the Devil’s Nest Bar. She was out back having a smoke break, and she saw some of the regulars carrying a suit of armor. Then she said it was weird, because the armor was so dark it almost looked black. What if it’s Bianca?”

Hazel got up. “Well, I guess I’m going to visit the Devil’s Nest. Should I say ‘hi’ to Ivy for you?” Her tone was almost conversational, but there was a touch of menace in her face.

=====

The crowd outside of the seedy bar looked menacing. One of the larger thugs looked down at this ordinary-looking woman, glaring into her golden eyes.

“Lady, we don’t appreciate you coming into our part of town and asking questions.”

“I’m so sorry to have upset you,” she said in a voice sweet as pie. Then, barely seeming to exert herself, she flung him over her shoulder, knocking over the goon who was coming up to grab her from behind.

Seeing that this woman wouldn’t be taken so easily, five of the gang advanced on her with knives drawn.

“Oh my, such a fuss over a harmless housewife,” she said, clapping her hands together as if in surprise and then touching them to the wall at her side. The wall grew two immense stone hands that clapped together on the gang, dropping them to the ground.

“Idiots, can’t you take care of one girl?” the one she’d tossed over her shoulder called out, although he wasn’t getting up from where he lay.

“Oh I can.” A new goon emerged from the bar. This one had an unnaturally large mouth filled with extremely sharp teeth.

Hazel sized him up, preparing to take him out, but one of the fallen goons called out. “You won’t find Click-Sobek so easy to beat. He’s got crocodile blood in him.”

Sure enough, as this man moved toward her, his jaws just kept opening wider and wider, as if he would swallow her whole. His attack came to a quick end, though, as a massive form dropped on top of him, causing his head to hit the pavement with a sharp crack. Sure enough, her beloved Frank had leapt into the fray, and he would never let his beloved Hazel down.

It was obvious that these idiots wouldn’t be any help, but a new face emerged from the bar. This was a slight girl with hair dyed green. She scratched nervously at a rough patch of skin on her arm, intimidated by Frank’s enormous form, but he smiled at her sweetly and spoke to her in such a gentle voice.

“You’re Ivy, right? Lavinia’s girlfriend.”

She nodded, a little less shy.

“I wonder if you could help us out,” he went on.

=====

Bianca did not like the turn events were taking, but she put on a brave face.

A man with a nose like a hawk’s beak was jabbing at her chest with a finger that came to a nasty point like a talon. “Boss, just let me take her apart,” he said in a rasping voice. “I know a little alchemy.”

Vanity patted the man on the shoulder, “Careful, Screech-Horus. She’s our only lead.”

Bianca decided to brazen it out. “If you’re going to sic an alchemist on me,” she said with a false calm, “at least get one with better skills. Maybe you can find a state certified one.”

Again, Vanity smiled, his teeth gleaming like an ad for a dentist. “Now where are we going to find someone like that?”

The closed door burst open, and Hazel strode in.

“Right there,” Bianca said, relief evident in her voice. Her elation was dampened as Hazel glared at her, fairly trembling with rage.

“Idiot!” Hazel shouted at her. “How could you let yourself get kidnapped?”

“Hey,” the hawk-man called out. “We’re the ones asking questions here. Who the hell are you?”

Even Vanity shrank back just a little as Hazel shouted out her reply.

“I’M A HOUSEWIFE!!!”

Chapter Text

In short order, Hazel had left most of the throng around Bianca in a heap on the floor. She prepared to land a blow on the ringleader as he stood smirking.

Bianca called out, “Teacher, no!,” but the blow was already coming.

There was a crack as Hazel’s fist connected with the man’s nose, but she grunted in agony and stared at her fist, which had turned bright red.

Vanity smiled at her as blood ran down from his now mangled nose. “Lady,” he said, “you’re lucky your reflexes are quick. All you got is a first degree burn. And you can’t even do this to get over itl”

There was a popping sound as his nose reformed itself perfectly. “Ahh,” he sighed. “This face is too pretty to leave like that.”

Hazel put her hands together, preparing to transmute a weapon, but Vanity put up a hand in warning. “I wouldn’t do that,” he scolded. “I can turn the heat up enough to take care of anything you can dish out. I’m just that smoking hot,” he added smugly.

“In fact,” he went on, “I could even melt down iron if I put my mind to it, and we wouldn’t want that,” He looked significantly at Bianca, who shrank back.

“Hey boss!” Hiss-Marta’s voice called out from Bianca’s midsection. “I’m still in here!”

“Oh, never fear,” Vanity crooned, “our guest is far too valuable for me to really do anything to.”

Bianca was not reassured in the least by that. “Teacher,” she cried out, “where’s Nico? Did he come with you?”

“No,” Hazel said calmly. “And what is this creature?” She looked scornfully at Vanity.

“He’s a homunculus!”

“Way to spill my secrets, kid.” Vanity now sounded petulant. “And I thought your brother was dead.”

“I never said that,” Bianca was defiant. She turned back to Hazel. “And he says he knows a way to get our original bodies back.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Vanity was mystified. “Your current body is so much more durable.” He leaned in chummily toward Hazel, who pulled back, looking slightly disgusted. “I tell you what. You tell me how to transmute a soul, and I’ll tell you how to make a homunculus. Think of it as an equivalent exchange.”

“You kidnap this girl, and you want me to make a deal with you?” Hazel’s voice was even, but her golden eyes flashed dangerously. “How about this? I’m leaving, but if I find even a scratch on her, I will take you apart, heat shield or not!” And she strode out as Vanity’s minions cowered back from her.

=====

Nico stepped off the train relieved that his assessment had gone so smoothly. His relief faded as two figures emerged from the next car back. “How did you follow me without my knowing?” He sputtered.

Jason shrugged his shoulders. “The tracking skills of the Armstrong family have been passed down for generations.”

Fuhrer-King Ethan Kronos smiled blithely. “So this is Dublith. I like it.” Unlike Major Armstrong, he had forsaken his military garb for tourist clothing, even down to a gaudy shirt with parrots on it. Even that couldn’t really hide his identity, though. If nothing else, the eyepatch over his left eye was known throughout Amestris, even though no-one really knew which of his many battles had cost him that eye.

The leader of all Amestris sauntered into the nearby butcher shop as if he truly were incognito. He called out to the large figure behind the counter, “My good man, I’d like to speak with Hazel Curtis,” but Frank ignored the question, simply quoting prices of the various cuts of meat as if it were an ordinary customer standing before him.

At last, Jason couldn’t take it any longer. The effrontery of this village shopkeeper, blithely ignoring the ruler of all Amestris. He could feel his temper rising. “Sir,” he said to his commander in chief, “let me handle this.”

He would show this bumpkin who was boss here. “You,” he said in a stentorian tone to Frank. “Let me show you the majesty of a true state alchemist! Carve this upon your eyeballs!” He pulled his tunic off and proceeded to demonstrate the magnificent physique that only the discipline passed down by generations of the Armstrong family could produce.

Frank, however, was unimpressed. He flexed his own mighty muscles so fiercely that his own shirt was split into rags. The two bare-chested men glared at each other for an instant and then clasped each others’ forearms in a deep friendship. Nico’s eyes bulged in a mildly disgusted surprise as he choked out, “What was that?”

Lavinia laughed at him. She’d seen this before, but not often. “That was the camaraderie of muscle.” She danced out of the room laughing as her feet beat out a complex rhythm.

Nico, however, was not laughing when Hazel returned, her hand bandaged.

“Kidnapped?!” he sputtered.

“For ransom,” she replied. “They want information. They want to know how you transmuted her soul.”

Well, the cat was out of the bag. Fuhrer-King Kronos, however, was not as interested in that as what Hazel said next.

“And their leader, he’s not quite human. He had a tattoo on the back of his hand, the sign for earth.” It was that sentence that drew Kronos to his feet, and in an instant, he was out of the shop, pulling a radio from his pocket.

“You mean, he’s another homunculus?” Nico asked. As Hazel nodded, Kronos looked on intently.

Then, Nico asked, “What happened to your hand?”

“Oh,” Hazel said coolly, “it’s nothing, just a little burn.” With that, Frank began to fuss over her. Jason immediately leapt to her side, offering the healing alchemy that his family had, of course, passed down for generations. Nico took advantage of this moment to try to slip out the door, but as he headed down the street, Hazel’s voice called out, “Don’t be late for dinner.” Then, almost as an afterthought, “And don’t get killed!”

By the time he’d arrived at Bunker Nine, Nico was seething with rage. The fury on his face was so obvious that the crowd of lowlifes gathered around the front of the bar knew to get out of his way, in spite of his youth and small stature. He burst into the back room and took in the scene. He took special note of the tall blond man at the center of the room and thought for an instant that he was looking at an older version of Will. He dismissed that thought as irrelevant.

“You must be Vanity,” he growled.

“And you must be Nico Elric,” came the reply in a smooth purr. “I apologize for dragging you into this. It would’ve been much easier if we only needed your armored sister.”

“Brother,” Bianca called out, “be careful. He’s…”

“I know,” her brother cut her off. “A homunculus.” He turned back to Vanity. “That’s a pretty bold claim. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Vanity sniffed and ran a hand through his curly blond hair, mussing it perfectly. “I never lie. Lies are so unattractive. Now listen, kid. I want to know how to bond a soul to a permanent form. And I hear you want to create a body for your sister. I can tell you that if you tell me what I want to know. Think of it as equivalent exchange.”

Nico just stood there for a moment as if struck dumb. Then his eyes darkened and his entire body took on an aggressive pose. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “You kidnap my sister? You hurt my teacher? And you want an equivalent exchange with me?” With each sentence, his pale face became redder and redder.

Now he was furiously shouting. “I won’t give you anything! I’ll take you apart. By the time I finish with you, you’ll be begging to tell me anything I want to know.” He clapped his hands together and then touched his right hand with his left, transmuting the automail into a black sword (but choosing to make the metal heat resistant, having seen what had happened to his teacher).

In short order, he’d taken down the two henchmen, leaving only Vanity himself standing.. He advanced on the blond, whose response, surprisingly, was to applaud mockingly.

“Oh bravo,” the homunculus said. “This should be fun. I can see you have some tricks. Just so you know, so do I.” Then, he moved forward so quickly that Nico couldn’t dodge being seized and flung against the wall. The hours of training Hazel had put him through enabled him to mitigate the impact, but it still hurt. Best not to let that happen again.

As he got to his feet, he did a quick transmutation on his metal arm, increasing the reach of it abruptly and dealing Vanity a slash across his face that left blood trickling down his cheek. It didn’t do much good, the wound closed easily as Nico watched.

“Now, now,” the homunculus chided. “Can’t have you spoiling my pretty face, even though my ultimate healing takes care of it. Maybe you’d like to experience my ultimate heat shield.”

As he said this, his henchmen, Yip-Fred and Snort-Loa, got quickly to their feet and seized Bianca. She called out in alarm, but Snort-Loa said to her, “Trust me, girl, you don’t want to be around for this,” and pulled her out of the room and into a downward sloping passageway. From inside her chest cavity, the voice of Hiss-Marta echoed out, “Thanks, guys.”

Nico was too preoccupied with the fight to go to his sister’s aid, though. He prepared to slash at Vanity again, but his opponent was enveloped in a blinding flash. Nico could feel the heat coming off of him. Where had the power to do that come from?

“How do you like it? If you like, I can make it hotter,” Vanity said, his voice sounding high and flutey.

Nico blinked to clear his eyesight. How had Vanity done that? He wasn’t sure he could stand another blast like that, especially if it were hotter. Then it came to him. Why Vanity’s voice became higher. He clapped his hands and put his palms out. There was a loud popping sound, and suddenly Vanity was dripping wet and his skin was reddened but healing. Still the man looked stunned. At last, Nico had the upper hand. And outside, he had another advantage that he wasn’t aware of.

=====
Yip-Fred sniffed the air nervously. “I know that scent,” he whined.

In front of the bar, a squadron of soldiers had assembled. Their commanding officer barked out orders.

“Protect the girl in the suit of armor and the boy with the black braid. Capture the man with the tattoo on the back of his hand.”

The squadron leader replied, “Yes, Fuhrer-King. And the others?”

The genial expression on Fuhrer-King Ethan Kronos’ face was belied by his cold words. “Eliminate them. All of them.”

Chapter Text

To the squadron leader, it was a well-run operation. The young crack troops of the Amestrian military made short work of this nest of insurgents, and Fuhrer-King Kronos would be pleased with them. To Major Jason Armstrong, who had seen too much of this during his time in the Ishvalan insurrection, this was a bloodbath, with these green young soldiers mowing down civilians who may have been guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong bar at the wrong time. Now some of them may actually have been insurgents, but this was not battle, this was callous slaughter. It reminded him too much of the nightmares brought on by his time in the east, when alchemists were turned into human weapons and ordinary soldiers became mindless killing machines.

He was brought out of his horrified reverie by the arrival of two men, one large and stocky and the other short and wiry. The shorter man was hopping from foot to foot and pointed at Armstrong.

“I told you I smelled someone familiar,” he said to his companion.

“Smelled?” Jason thought.

The larger man grunted. “Shit! It’s Armstrong. Time to get serious.” He drew in a deep breath and raised his arms. To Jason’s surprise, the man’s face, no, his entire upper body started to change. Horns sprouted from his forehead, his torso grew in size, becoming more muscular, and his face shifted, his features becoming less human. By the time the transformation had finished, it was as if the being before him had become half man, half bull.

“What manner of creature are you?” Jason gasped.

The smaller man, whose own face had changed, but not as much, just the ears becoming long and droopy, said, “What’s the matter, Major Armstrong? Don’t you recognize some of your old soldiers?”

Then he went on, his voice becoming higher. “Well, I guess we are a little hard to recognize after what those military doctors did to us. I used to be Frederic Caen, PFC, but now I just go by Yip-Fred. The big guy was Sergeant Loa, but now it’s just Snort-Loa. It’s a little hard for him to talk in this form, but he can still fight.”

With that, Snort-Loa lowered his horns and charged right at Jason. He managed to leap out of the way just in time, but the man’s speed surprised him. With his massive frame and those huge sharp horns, this was a formidable opponent. But why were they on the side of insurgents? And what had happened to them? Jason had no recollection of the private, but he vaguely recalled Sergeant Loa. He had been a loyal soldier. But then, the Ishvalan campaign had happened, and who knew what horrors they’d seen there. And who had done this to these men? Jason was realizing that they’d been made into chimeras. But that abominable practice had been forbidden! They’d said the military doctors had done it to them. Jason’s mind was reeling as he dodged the next charge. He didn’t want to fight these men; he wanted to talk to them, to find out what was going on.

“Don’t worry, Major!” It was the voice of the squadron commander. “We have a clear shot.”

Jason’s fight with these chimeras had allowed the squadron to come up behind him close enough for them to get clear shots at the poor creatures. Before Jason could do anything, shots rang out, and Snort-Loa and Yip-Fred fell over, blood pouring from their chests.

“That’s the last of them,” the squadron commander said.

Jason’s face was red. “Why did you kill them?” he blurted.

“It was on my orders, Major,” the cool voice of the fuhrer-king called out. “We take no chances with insurgents.” Wisely Jason held his tongue, using the techniques his family had passed down through the generations to cool his temper.

=====

“What did you do to me?” Vanity was rising from the floor, stunned and soaking wet.

“I figured out what that bright light was,” Nico said. “You had gathered hydrogen from around the room, and somehow, you were fusing it to make the light and heat. It’s not an easy alchemy, but somehow you have that one trick down. I just burned every hydrogen atom in the room. It turned to water, and I suspect that you don’t have the skills to use it in that form. It’s going to be a while before you can do that shield trick again, so how about you spend that time telling me what I want to know?”

Anything Vanity would have said was interrupted by soldiers bursting into the room, weapons drawn. Their leader called out, “Don’t worry, Stygian Iron. We have you covered.”

“No,” Nico cried out, “Don’t shoot. I need him to tell me something.”

But it was too late. The homunculus had run out of the room and was running down the passageway, hoping to regain the materials he needed for another shield.

Bianca was making her way down that corridor, struggling every step of the way as Hiss-Marta fought inside of her.

“Stop fighting me,” the alchemist called to her passenger. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“No,” the chimera inside her called out. “I have to stay and fight.”

“But you’ll die!”

The pair stopped as Vanity burst out of a doorway and called to them, “Stay hidden, you two!”

Bianca was able to drop back into just enough shadow to do just that when a third figure stepped into the passageway. It made it almost impossible to see what was going on, but she could hear well enough, and it kept her and Hiss-Marta safe. Vanity looked at the newcomer scornfully.

“Well, old man, it’s been a long time.”

“That’s Fuhrer-King Kronos. What’s he doing here?” Bianca whispered.

The leader of Amestris drew his sword. “I’m just here to take care of unfinished business.”

In a movement too fast to follow, he drew his sword and lopped off Vanity’s right arm. Vanity stepped back and started to regrow the missing limb, but just that fast, it was cut off again.

“I may not have your ultimate shield or an ultimate spear to pierce all armor, but I do have this,”
The Fuhrer-King said coolly, lifting his eyepatch. What was revealed was an eye, but not a human eye. It was a white orb with the familiar earth symbol in red on it. “I have an ultimate eye. It lets me see your weakness. Right now I see that your shield has been stripped away. I also see that you are running out of strength to regenerate. Let’s see how many times I have to kill you for you to stay dead.”

Chapter Text

The sound of her friends and comrades being slaughtered and the glimpses she got from the shadows of her patron being slashed to ribbons was too much. Rage-filled adrenalin poured through the body of the snake chimera, giving her the strength to overpower Bianca from within, forcing the armored body to stand upright and emerge from the cloaking darkness.

All the while, Bianca fought to contain Hiss-Marta, but her animal strength was too much. Against her will, she felt her armored form rise and advance on the Fuhrer-King of Amestris and seize him by the throat. Bianca called out, “Stop it! He’ll just kill you.”

With no trace of emotion on his face, Kronos drew his sword and plunged it under Bianca’s helmet and deep into her chest cavity, slicing the concealed snake-woman to ribbons. Blood poured from her wounds, spraying inside the armor, splashing against the blood seal that bound her soul to the physical form of the Stygian armor suit. Bianca’s mind swirled into blackness.

The blackness erupted into brightly colored images: the smiling face of Maria Elric, Nico’s panicked face, the transmutation circle in the Elric’s house with the alchemical abomination that they’d created rising from it’s center, Bianca’s own human body dissolving in from of a faceless figure wearing a silver tiara and with a body as white as the moon…

When Biana awoke, she was seated on the ground, her chest plate removed. She saw her brother in front of her and called out in panic.

“Nico! You’re covered in blood!”

Beside her brother, a very battered Major Armstrong said in a quiet voice, “We opened you up and pulled her out. It’s her blood that you see on us.”

Bianca put her hands over her face and started to shake as she said in a voice that sounded like sobs, “I couldn’t help her.”

Nico gently pulled her hands from her facing, saying, “It’s not your fault, Bianca. Let’s just go home.”

Abruptly, Fuhrer-King Kronos stepped between them. “Just a minute,” he said sternly. “I have some questions for you.”

With that, they were ringed by soldiers. Kronos went on, “Did either of you make any deals with the man with the tattoo?”

Nico scowled at the leader of all Amestris. “No we didn’t.”

“Did you share any information with him?” Kronos continued.

“None at all. He didn’t ask anything about military matters.”

Kronos fixed Nico with his single eye. “I’m not concerned with your military knowledge. If you made any deals with them or shared any of your alchemical expertise, I’ll execute both of you right now,” he said in a voice as cold as the grave.

Nico didn’t shrink from the gaze or the voice. “I told him nothing.”

Kronos turned his gaze on Bianca, taking in her hollow body for a moment. She was afraid of what he would say. But he turned back to Nico. Abruptly, his scowl was replaced with an avuncular grin.

“You’re both good kids.” He gestured to his soldiers, dismissing them with a wave and an easy, “Fall out, men.”

He walked away and then turned back to wave as he said, “Nico, look after your sister,” before he, Major Armstrong, and his soldiers left the Elrics.

When they were alone, Nico picked up some rags and cleaned out Bianca’s chest cavity before replacing her chest plate. Then he looked at his sister with concern, asking “Are you okay, Bianca?”

“I’m just in a daze, that’s all,” she replied.

He took her hand again, murmuring, “It’s not your fault,” but she cut him off.

“It’s not about that. Nico, when I was unconscious, I got my memories back. I saw the Gate.”

He gaped at her, but she went on, “I didn’t find out anything about transmuting human bodies, though.” Bianca sighed. “I guess we haven’t made any progress, even with that.”

“No,” Nico shook his head. “Do you remember what happened in Central? Those people had that tattoo. I looked it up. It’s an old alchemical symbol for earth, back when people thought there were only four elements. Well, all of them were making philosopher’s stones.”

“The Fuhrer-King said that there was some kind of conspiracy in the military,” Bianca replied. “He said he wanted to get to the bottom of it.”

“Right,” Nico said. “But in that case, why did he kill them all? If he wanted to get to the bottom of it, he should have kept one of them alive to interrogate.”

They had been walking while they were talking, and by now, they’d reached the Curtis butcher shop. Bianca said, “It doesn’t add up,” just as Hazel came out with a broom and a mop in hand, ordering them to get back to cleaning if they expected to get any supper that night, and that put an end to their conversation.

=====

Annabeth Hawkeye was returning from the market that evening, grateful to finally have a day off to pick up some groceries. It was her first chance to do so since her transfer to Central, so her lack of attentiveness could be excused when a figure in a ragged cloak startled her by popping out of an alleyway.

That shock only lasted an instant as Annabeth slipped her free hand surreptitiously under her coat to grasp the side-arm she always carried.

The figure called out, “Hey lady, it’s dangerous to be out alone at this hour. How about I walk you home?”

“Thanks, but I’m fine,” Annabeth shot back coolly.

“I don’t think you realize how many odd characters there are on the streets in these parts,” the figure said, stepping directly in front of her. He pulled the cloak from himself and called out theatrically, “Like Crusty, the Stretcher.”

He lunged for her, but Annabeth was unfazed by both the gesture and his odd appearance. She pulled out her side arm and fired three shots directly into his armored chest.

“What the hell are you doing, lady?” he said in shock. “Well, if that didn’t scare you…” he pulled his skull helmet up to reveal his hollow body.

Annabeth was unimpressed. She fired two more shots and said, “Like I haven’t seen that before.”

Crusty dropped his menacing demeanor and became friendlier. “Oh, so you know Bianca?”

=====

Percy Mustang picked up the phone. “Yes, Lieutenant Hawkeye?” he said.

“I know it’s my day off, but I’ve captured an interesting character. Do you remember Crusty the Stretcher? The serial killer who was executed last year?”

Chapter Text

The interrogation of the prisoner was not going well, Warrant Officer Underwood thought. A prisoner should not be taking so much delight in confessing to all these crimes. But this strange fellow, all encased in armor, with a skull for a face, was positively proud of the murders he’d committed. He recounted each of them fondly, knowing details that had never been released to the newspapers, even correcting him when he’d tried to trip the prisoner up by misstating the date of the act. No doubt about it, this was definitely Crusty. But what had happened to him.

Colonel Mustang’s team had been in on the arrest. Grover remembered it well, and the murderer, who had been given the name “The Stretcher” by the tabloids (for his gruesome methods of killing people) was a slim, man with delicate features. But this guy was huge. At first Grover couldn’t understand why they allowed him to keep the armor on, but Annabeth Hawkeye had pulled off the helmet to reveal that the armor was empty. This freak was nothing but a suit of armor!

“No question, sir,” Grover said to his superior. “This really is Crusty.”

The result did not please Percy Mustang. He turned on the prisoner angrily. “But you were supposed to be executed. What are you doing alive and walking around in this armor body?” he asked.

“Before I answer, I have a question of my own,” Crusty said. “You’re the military, right? But you didn’t know that they put me in this tin can.”

“That’s right,” Percy said tersely.

“So you don’t know about the fifth lab, do you?”

Percy shook his head, so Crusty went on.

“Those Elric kids snuck in. I fought with Bianca. She’s good.”

Percy knew that the children went there in search of the philosopher’s stone, so he said, “Tell me more.”

Crusty said, “First, promise you won’t snitch on me. Then I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Percy smiled. “What you tell me stays here. You have my word on it.”

Crusty told them about the researchers sacrificing prisoners to create philosopher’s stones. He also told them about the strange beings, Lust, with her flaming hair, and Misery, small and wiry, with a voice like nails on a chalkboard. Then he told them about how his soul was ripped from his living body and placed into the suit of armor. He shuddered when he remembered the pain.

“Sir,” Grover said, “there were military personnel there. Maybe I can track some of them down.”

Crusty laughed. “Not a chance. A few days before the place blew up, everyone there was used to make more philosopher’s stones.”

Percy’s green eyes turned icy as he said, “One last question. Did you murder a military officer in a phone booth a little over a month ago?”

Crusty thought for a moment. Then he asked, “I don’t think so. How did he die?”

“He was shot,” Percy growled.

“Nope, not my style,” Crusty said easily. “I don’t like guns.”

Percy rose. “We’re done for now. Warrant Officer Underwood, I have a job for you.”

Grover grew nervous at his superior’s tone, but he nodded, so Percy went on.

“Please forget everything you’ve heard tonight. We are getting into dangerous waters. I’ll arrange for you to be placed on leave. I want you to keep an eye on our guest. Keep him out of sight of civilians and military alike. I’m going back to HQ to do some digging.”

He rose to leave. Annabeth followed him, calling over her shoulder, “And Crusty, don’t even think of killing him.”

As the door closed, Crusty called back, “No, ma’am.” Then he turned to Grover, who stepped back, trying not to look nervous, and said, “You don’t look like much fun to stretch anyway. Let’s be friends.”

=====

The ruler of all Amestris, the all-powerful Fuhrer-King Kronos, undefeated in countless battles, was in a position of utter submission. With bowed head, he spoke respectfully into the darkness.

“I have reassessed the Stygian Iron Alchemist’s sister. I believe that she would be an excellent candidate. I believe that their teacher, the woman Hazel Curtis, would also be worthy.”

A woman’s voice called out from the darkness, “Excellent.”

“One more thing,” Ethan Kronos said. “I’ve brought back a prisoner.”

A light sprang up, revealing the man known as Apollo or Vanity. He was suspended above Kronos’ head, bound hand and foot and tied to a stone cross. His formerly lustrous blond hair hung in limp greasy curls.

“Now there’s a blast from the past,” Kelli called out, her flaming hair crackling as if in anticipation. Wake up, Morpheus.” She prodded the lump sleeping at her feet. “An old friend has come to visit.”

Vanity turned a grin on her, dazzling in spite of his suffering. “Well, if it isn’t little Ms. Lust?”

Then he turned his glance to Morpheus. “And look, it’s Morpheus. Lazy as ever, I see.” Morpheus just blinked up at him. “And you, Misery. I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t be caught dead in that outfit.” Akhlys also remained silent, but glared at him.

Vanity looked around as much as he could, being so trussed up. “But where’s the big guy? I miss our buddy Iapethus. Is he out piercing something?”

“He has work to do,” Kronos said.

“And who are you, really?” Vanity said. Turning to Kelli, he said, “What’s the Fuhrer-King of Amestris doing here?

Kronos answered for her. “I am Revenge. When you abandoned our mistress, she made me to take your place.”

“And the humans made you their king? Oh, that is rich!” Vanity laughed feebly, but another voice cut him off.

“That is enough, my children,” the woman’s voice called out. As she spoke, a light fell on her. She was enormous, easily twelve feet tall, and she was seated in a stone chair that seemed to have risen from the earth itself.

“Hi mom!,” Vanity called out jauntily, even though there was a tremor of fear in his voice.

“My son, to whom I’ve given a portion of my soul,” she said, extending a hand to him, “will you return to your mother’s side and work with me as I made you to do?”

“Sorry, I’m too pretty to work for mommy any more.”

“Then I have no choice.” She extended her hand, and a cauldron rose up out of the ground beneath the bound prisoner. With a grinding of gears, the stone cross slowly began to lower into the bubbling liquid that filled the cauldron. As Vanity’s feet touched the surface, he screamed out in agony, but he regained some of his taunting demeanor and called out.

“Come on in, brothers and sisters! The water’s fine. It’s as hot as Tartarus, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you all there soon.”

The woman in the chair just said, “If you will not join me at my side, your soul will join back into mine.”

When he was fully submerged and his cries had died out, the woman gestured at the cauldron. A spigot grew out of the side of the cauldron, and she placed a goblet under it. All of the seething contents of the cauldron had become a glowing red liquid that fit neatly into the goblet. She raised the goblet to the assembled homunculi as if in a toast, saying, “To the Promised Day, my children. May you remain faithful until then.” Then she drained the goblet in a single drink.

=====

Ethan Kronos, Fuhrer-King of Amestris, returned to the presidential mansion in Central that evening. He was greeted by his loving wife, Rhea and their daughter, Nixie, who ran eagerly toward her papa as he came through the front door.

“Papa!,” the child called out. “Welcome home.”

“Ah, Nixie,” he said with an indulgent smile, “how I’ve missed my darling.” Then he gave Rhea a fond kiss on the cheek.

“Papa, papa, tell me of your adventures,” his daughter called out, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“Now, Nixie,” Rhea said, placing a hand on the child’s shoulder, “give your papa a chance to settle in. We can hear all about his adventures over supper.”

As they walked into the dining room, Kronos said, giving his daughter a wink with his one eye, “I saw the Stygian Iron Alchemist in my travels through the south.”

Her small eyes grew wide. “You saw the little alchemist?”

“You really like stories about him, don’t you?” Rhea said with a fond laugh.

“It’s just so cool that he became a state alchemist when he was so young. I wish I could learn alchemy.”

“Why do you want to learn alchemy, Nixie?” Kronos said.

“I want to get my state license so that I can help you, papa,” she said so earnestly.

Rhea beamed with pride at their daughter. “Keep dreaming, my Nixie, keep dreaming.”

Chapter Text

“Be a dear, and take your father his lunch.”

Leila’s mother pressed the pail into her hands and pushed her toward the door. Leila went willingly. She enjoyed seeing her father and knew that he’d be hungry for the sandwich his wife had made for him. She skipped down the street with a smile, and the townsfolk waved to her on her way to the winery where her father worked to make the delicious vintage that provided the prosperity of the town of Youswell. She was so distracted at the thought of cheering up her father that Leila didn’t see the other girl lying face-down in the street until she tripped over her.

“What are you doing in the middle of the street?” Leila asked indignantly.

“I’m so sorry,” the second girl said. “Is this the country of Amestris?”

“Yup,” Leila replied easily. “This is Youswell, the easternmost town of Amestris.”

The second girl rose unsteadily and looked around. She was small and pudgy, with a pixie haircut and an outfit in garish shades of red, yellow, and green. She blinked and produced what looked like a small cat from somewhere. She hugged the cat to her and said, “We did it, Peaches! We crossed the great desert and made it to Amestris!”

Then she fell, face-first back into the road.

=====

The new girl had finished eating all of the sandwich that Leila was bringing to her father, but that was alright. Leila knew that her parents wanted her to do the right thing. The girl turned to her.

“Thank you, kind stranger,” the strange girl said. “I almost starved before I completed my mission.”

Leila looked at the girl like she had three heads. “Mission?” she snorted. What kind of mission could this little kid be on? “Who are you, and what brings you here?”

The girl drew herself up with dignity. “My name is Meg. I’ve come here from Xing.”

Leila’s eyes grew wide. “You came all the way from Xing? All the way across the desert by yourself.”

Meg smiled at this. “I wasn’t alone.” She brought out the strange reddish cat. “Peaches came with me. We came to learn the secret of immortality.”

Once again Leila gaped at her, wanting to say something, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash from the direction of the winery, followed by a lot of shouting. She stood up and started to run in that direction. Meg rose, scooped up Peaches, and followed.

When they got to the building, one of the men stopped them. “Don’t go in there, kids, it’s terrible!”

Another one said, “A whole pallet of barrels came crashing down. They’re trapped under them.”

Leila grabbed his arm. “My dad! Is he alright?”

The man turned pale, but Leila pushed past him. She had to know! She ran into the building, Meg on her heels. Leila was not prepared for what she saw. At least ten full barrels of wine had fallen, and three men were trapped under them. Their faces showed the pain they were in, and worst of all, her father, Michael Kahale, was among them. His face was pale, and blood was oozing from his mouth. Leila covered her face with her hands, trying not to cry.

Meg stepped in front of her. “I know what to do,” she said, pulling five rings off her fingers.

The rings opened up into small daggers, and she flung them expertly into the fragments of a shattered barrel. The daggers pierced the wood in a perfect pentagram shape, and the wood shivered as it was struck, a greenish light the color of ivy coming from the center of the pentagram. The light pushed the barrel fragments off the men and flowed into their bodies. Their wounds seemed to heal before Leila’s amazed eyes.

“What are you doing?” she cried out in amazement.

“It’s alkahestry,” was all Meg said. Then she slumped to the ground, worn out from her efforts.

=====

When Meg awoke, she was in the dining room of an inn, surrounded by people she didn’t know, but they all seemed to be trying to press food on her, so she didn’t complain. Then a large man spoke.

“Hey, kid, I don’t know who you are but you saved all our lives. Come on, eat up! It’s the least we can do to thank you.”

Meg smiled up at him. This was probably Leila’s dad. “Sir, my name is Meg, of the McCaffrey clan.”

“Well,” he said, “Meg, of the McCaffrey clan, you must be some kind of alchemist. You know, this is the second time we owe our lives to alchemists.”

“You know other alchemists?” she asked eagerly.

“Yeah, the first time it was the Elrics. They saved our whole town,” another man said.

The first man, Michael, said, “Nico and Bianca Elric. They call the boy the Stygian Iron alchemist, and he’s already really famous. He got his alchemy license when he was only twelve years old. He’s some kind of alchemy genius.”

“I must find him,” Meg said forcefully. “I must learn this country’s alchemy from him. Where can I find him? What does he look like?”

“Well, as far as the first, I don’t know. He’s with the military, so he might be in Central. As far as his looks, he’s hard to miss. He’s got a long black braid, and he always wears a red coat.”

Meg sprang up and gathered Peaches into her arms. “I must find him. Thank you, my new friends.” With that, she hastened out the door toward the train station.

=====

Will was thriving in his apprenticeship in Rush Valley. He’d learned so much from Mr. Briares. The old man only had one eye, but he was so skilled that he seemed to have a hundred hands, all working at once. In fact, Will had learned so much that he was fast becoming in demand for his own skills and had a lot of loyal clients. One of them had said, “The old man’s work is great, but you’re so good at the surgery that it’s like you’ve reattached my original arms.” (At least that’s what Will thought he’d said. The guy had this thick accent.)

So Will was walking down the street, calling out greetings to the many Rush Valley inhabitants he’d befriended when he heard a familiar voice.

“Well, hello there, Will,” Nico called out. “You’re looking awfully chipper today.”

Will recognized the false cheer in his childhood friend’s voice. “Nico, Bianca! What a surprise. What brings you here?” He kept his tone light, but braced for what he knew was coming.

Sure enough, Nico pulled back his right sleeve to reveal the battered automail arm, the one Will had worked so hard to build just a few weeks back. Will’s eyes flashed angrily at him, and for a moment, Nico was reminded of how that homunculus, Vanity, or what had he called himself, Apollo, had reminded him of Will.

The blond boy seized him by his flesh and blood left arm and pulled him toward the shop where he worked. As Will dragged him, he muttered about idiots who don’t know how to look after themselves, occasionally turning back to glare.

In an attempt to soften Will’s anger, Nico said, “How is that little thief, Leo, doing?”

Will smirked. “Not like you have any business calling somebody else little. He’s doing great with his apprenticeship. He’s already made some innovations in automail design, and everybody says he’ll be the next Hephaestus. And how about you? Have you made any progress? I mean in something besides the hundred best ways to wreck automail?”

Nico gave a short laugh. When had Will gotten so snarky? “A little progress,” he said. “We need to go back to Central though.”

“I’d like to go with you,” Will said. “I’d like to see the Beckendorf’s. I want to thank them again for giving me a place to stay, and I’d love to see little Drew.”

Nico was going to reply when he noticed Bianca looking into an alley. “What’s up, sis? Did you see a stray kitten?” Bianca was a little crazy about wanting to adopt strays.

“Not a kitten, brother.” She pointed at the form of an unconscious boy.

=====

After several large helpings of stew, the ‘stray’ was looking much better, or at least, less likely to die on the spot. He had brown hair and blue eyes, but his face was marred by acne, and his body seemed a bit soft.

“Thanks for the meal. You guys saved my life. I’m Lester, by the way.”

“Where are you from?” Bianca asked. You seem to have an accent of some sort.”

“I’ve come here from Xing,” Lester replied.

“All the way across the desert?” Nico said, looking at least a little impressed.

“I traveled by camel and horseback,” he replied. “I even stopped to see the ruins at Xerxes.”

“I heard there’s nothing there,” Nico said. “According to history, the entire place was destroyed in a single night.”

“I know,” Lester said. “I couldn’t find what I was looking for there, so I’ve come here. I’ve come to learn about what we in Xing call alkahestry. We use it in medicine.”

“You must mean alchemy,” Nico said. “Here it’s more put to military purposes. Our country is engaged in a lot of border wars. Even today, we have skirmishes on our western border. To the north, the only thing that keeps the peace is Mount Othrys and Fort Jupiter.”

“What a tough country,” Lester said.

Nico frowned and spoke softly. “We’ve always had our share of quarrels, but it was only when Fuhrer King Kronos ascended the throne that war became our way of life.”

Bianca added equally softly, “Maybe if we didn’t fight all the time, alchemy could be used in a way to benefit people, like it is in Xing.” She looked around, knowing that she and her brother were touching on a dangerous subject.

“I’d like to learn more about your country’s alchemy anyway,” Lester said with a smile. “Do either of you know much about it?”

Bianca said, “Actually, we’re both alchemists, I’m Bianca Elric, and my brother Nico is a state alchemist.”

Lester stood up, grinning broadly, “Perfect,” he said.

“What about you?” Nico asked. Can you teach us about alkahestry?”

“Sorry,” Lester said, not looking sorry at all. “I don’t know anything about it.”

Nico frowned. “Then why are you so interested in alchemy?”

“I’m looking for something. It’s called the philosopher’s stone. Know where I might find it?”

Nico stood up, motioning for Bianca to follow. “Not a clue.”

He started to leave, but Lester said, “Not so fast.”

He snapped his fingers, and abruptly, two masked figures appeared, almost as if they’d shadow traveled. One had a sword pointed at the gap between Bianca’s chest plate and her arm, and the other had an arrow knocked to a small bow, with the point aimed at Nico’s throat.

Nico kept his cool and said to Lester, “What do you want with a philosopher’s stone?”

Lester replied with a single word. “Immortality.”

Chapter Text

Nico smirked at the young man. “What is this? The latest fad?” he quipped. “You’re the second one who’s tried to find out about that.”

The youth smiled blandly at him and said, “It’s a family matter. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Is this your idea of how to thank us for the meal?” Nico said. “Interrogating us?” He sprang up, pushing the sword away from his throat. “Well, I won’t play along.”

“Such impertinence,” the sword wielder said. “That is no way to talk to the emperor’s son.”

Bianca brought her arm down, smacking the sword away as she moved away from the arrow pointed at her. The archer, undeterred, managed to grab Bianca’s arm and flip her directly toward Nico, who only barely got out of the way before his armored sister crashed into him. The fight between the masked fighters and the Elrics escalated, with Nico clapping his hands together and transmuting some of the flooring into a staff so that he wasn’t unarmed. Fortunately for the owner and other patrons of the restaurant, the combatants had tumbled out into the street, so the eating establishment managed to escape any damages.

Lester just smiled at the chaos and gestured for the waiter to bring him more food, smiling and telling him to add it to the alchemist siblings’ tab.

In the street, Nico and Bianca had switched opponents, so Bianca was fighting the one with the sword, while Nico’s foe had been using a bow and arrow. Outside, however, they were too closely engaged for ranged weapons to be effective, so the fighter had switched to a pair of daggers, and it was all Nico could do to evade them. He did, however, take careful note of his opponent, hoping to find something to give him an advantage. So far, the fight was too frantic for him to use alchemy. Both he and the dagger wielder were flying about furiously, seemingly evenly matched.

“Why are you so loyal to that freeloader?” he asked. Then he saw it. The one chink in his opponent’s defenses. Insulting this guy’s boss made him lose his cool. Nico pressed his advantage.

“He’s such a loser,” Nico went on. We’ll beat him, and you’ll all have to crawl back in defeat.”

That was it! The blows were less precise. First things first. He touched his palms together and then put one hand on the mask. It evaporated as he said, “Let’s get a look at you.”

Nico stopped in shock. It was a girl, even younger than he was, with a flushed face and red hair with green fringes. The girl pulled back, putting up a hand as if to cover her exposed face, but then, from her sleeve, she produced a throwing dagger that she hurled at Nico’s automail arm with unerring accuracy. The dagger was followed by a small sphere.

Meanwhile, Bianca was hard-pressed by her own opponent. He’d managed to grab her arm and flung her against the wall of a shop. The impact of her metal body made a terrible crash, and a head popped out to investigate the noise, a familiar head.

“Leo!” Bianca called out.

“Hola, Bianca,” the boy replied.

“Listen, Leo,” she said as she rose hurriedly as the masked fighter came toward her. “Can you do me a favor?”

He nodded and then moved back out of the way. The masked man prepared to leap at Bianca and only spared Leo a glance as he called out, “Hey, ‘chacho!” and raised up his pant leg.

That glance, though, gave him barely enough warning to leap out of the way from the gout of flame that erupted from the nozzle in Leo’s knee. Fortunately for Bianca, the distraction gave her time to clap her metal hands together and touch them to the ground. Ropes sprang up, securely wrapping themselves around her opponent, effectively mummifying him.

“I wonder how Nico’s doing,” Bianca mused when she heard a loud crash.

The crash had been the result of the hurled sphere. It had been some kind of explosive, and the girl who’d thrown it looked in horror at the pile of debris it had brought down. She’d not expected it to cause that much damage. When the smoke cleared, she saw a metal arm coming out of the heap of shattered bricks, and she approached it tentatively, cursing herself for not being more careful about which of her bombs she’d thrown. Master Lester would be furious with her.

She pulled tentatively at the arm, and, to her surprise, it popped up from the rubble, not being attached to anything. Even more to her surprise, she was caught in an enormous snare, pulling her up into the air as Nico came from behind the rubble heap.

“You sacrificed your arm!” she called out, shocked and horrified.

“That dagger fouled the mechanism, so it wasn’t doing me any good. I disconnected it to use as bait. I’ve been setting snares like that for rabbits since I was a kid.”

“Give me back my mask,” she shouted.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be making demands,” Nico shot back at her just as Bianca came around the corner, carrying her trussed prisoner, a young man with dark skin and hair in elaborate cornrows.

“Tell me why your master is so interested in the philosopher’s stone,” Nico said to their prisoners.

“Hello, Elrics,” Lester called out as he rounded the corner. “That was some impressive fighting. How’d you like to come back to Xing and work for me?”

“You have some nerve,” Nico said. “Those guys tried to kill us.”

“Yes, yes, they can be a little hot-headed,” Lester said coolly. “Well, time to be going.” With that he scurried off. Nico turned to his and Bianca’s prisoner, but all they saw was an empty snare and some severed ropes.

That and several angry shop owners, including the restaurant owner, who brandished a lengthy bill. Several of them shouted about all the damage the fight had caused and how it had to be fixed immediately.

Nico pointed to his missing arm. “I need to get myself fixed before I can fix anything.” To himself, he thought, “Will’s going to kill me.”

“Don’t worry, brother,” Bianca said cheerily. “I’ve got it covered.” She clapped her hands together and then placed her palms on the pile of debris, and it reassembled itself back into the wall of the building.

NIco looked on in shock. “Since when can you do alchemy without a circle?”

=====

The party from Xing sat in a secluded path in the foothills outside the town of Rush Valley. Their leader spoke.

“It seems I was lucky to collapse in the street.”

“How can you say such a thing, Master Lester?” the swordsman asked in shock.

“Well, Austin,” the young man replied with a smile, “I met such interesting people.”

“The girl?” Austin asked. “There was something odd about her. I sensed no flow of chi from within the suit of armor. It was almost as if she wasn’t there.”

“And the short boy!” Their other companion flicked her green tinted bangs brusquely. “He was most impertinent.”

Lester laughed. “Maybe, Kayla, but he knew something. Something important.”

Austin scowled. “You mean the secret to immortality? That would be helpful.”

Lester’s smile dropped. “I suppose we’ll have to follow them around until they agree to tell me the secret.”

“And if they refuse, we’ll just take the secret from them,” Austin said ominously.

As they rose to go, Lester shook his head. “There is something not right about this country.”

=====

Nico and Bianca approached Old Man Briares’ shop uneasily, with Nico’s detached prosthetic arm cradled in his left one. As they entered the shop, they were surprised to see the old man sitting calmly, sipping tea with a guest. A most unwelcome guest.

“YOU!” Nico shouted. “LESTER! What are you doing here?”

The young man gave Nico an all too cheerful wave. “I collapsed again, and this nice fellow invited me in for tea.”

Nico debated whether to smack Lester upside the head with his metal arm, but his ponderings were cut short when Will came into the shop, his arms laden with groceries.

Nico shook his head to clear the mental short circuit the sight of his childhood friend had induced. He held out the automail arm, looking embarrassed at the state the limb was in as he said, “I’m sorry, I need a quick repair. Bianca and I need to head back to Central.”

Lester smiled again. “I’m heading there myself. How nice to travel with my new friends!”

Nico started to say (or rather shout) that they were most certainly not traveling with this grinning lunatic, but Will cut him off.

“Oh, Nico, I’m so glad you’re making new friends.” His own smile was so warm that Nico knew there’d be no getting out of it.

A few blocks away, Kayla and Austin were searching high and low for their young master, who had eluded them yet again.

=====

Far from Rush Valley, a horse-drawn cart was making its way down a dusty road. The driver wore a tattered cloak and a sour expression as he sat on the horse. No longer the opulently dressed, well-fed Corporal Dionysus, no, these days he went by ‘Mr. D.’ Probably safer to keep it that way, at least until he was able to regain the wealth and power that had been stolen from him by that Elric brat. He’d have his revenge, no doubt about it. But now he was so tired.

He turned back and called into the covered wagon. “Mr. Scar, is it time to stop yet?”

A pair of sullen eyes glared back at him. “No!” the voice called implacably. “Keep moving.”

“Very well,” Mr. D said, his own voice bitter.

Chapter Text

Nico glared. Nothing new in that, but today he was glaring at the person sitting opposite him in the train. It was Lester. Somehow, he’d conned them into providing passage for him to Central, so there they were, Nico and Bianca, facing Lester and Will as the train roared along the track.

“What I don’t get,” Nico said, “is how a freeloader like you can afford two servants.”

Lester gave an easy laugh. “Kayla and Austin? They’ve been serving my family for generations.”

Will put in, “And where are they now?”

Nico said, “I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just glad we didn’t have to pay for their fares as well as you two.”

Lester just cast his eyes upward, and Bianca knew that the gymnastic pair of guards was perched on top of the train, actually an excellent vantage point if the train were to be ambushed.

=====

Cecil Havoc was not thrilled. He was tired of being holed up in this crumby apartment, playing guard-dog for that armored freak with his creepy skull face. He was relieved to hear a knock at the door, even though he kept his side arm at the ready. He was even more relieved when a familiar voice issued the proper passwords. He lowered the gun and opened the door to admit his cousin, Connor Stoll.

Crusty was more effusive in his greetings. “Stoll,” he said affably. “I remember you. Listen, I’m bored being cooped up in here all the time. When are you going to let me out to stretch some people?”

=====

Colonel Mustang was looked up from his lunch in the officers’ mess to see a familiar face. Major Armstrong had just entered, sporting a bandage on his head. Honestly, the man collected head injuries the way some people collected trading cards. He looked up and called out a greeting.

“A new wound, Major?” he said.

“A souvenir of my trip to the south,” the blond giant replied. “Just a scratch.” He went on, “I saw the Elrics at Southern HQ. Nico was there for his assessment.”

“I guess he’s staying a dog of the military, then,” Percy said, his characteristic half grin gone. “He’s turning 16 soon. I wonder if he’ll get his original body back by then. Or if he’ll be sent to the battlefield to be used as a human weapon.”

Both men frowned as they remembered their own battlefield experiences. Jason thought back to the memory of holding the shattered body of an Ishvalan child in his arms, struck down by the force of an explosion wrought by one of his fellow alchemists. Percy recalled the toll it had taken on his friend and fellow officer, resulting in Jason being sent home on medical leave afterward. Gods, how he hated the endless warfare.

At last, Jason spoke. “Would you wish that upon him? He’s still so young.”

Percy spoke coolly, his tone measured. “He knew the risks when he signed up. While Amestris is locked into these wars, how can we make exceptions, even for the young and foolish?”

“Perhaps we need someone in charge to put an end to these wars,” Jason said in a soft voice.

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Dangerous talk, Major.”

Jason rose to leave, saying, “I don’t know what you mean, Colonel. I’m just hoping that our leaders be wise men.”

Percy delayed him with a question. “Did you tell the Elrics about Beckendorf’s death?”

Jason shook his head. “No, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

Percy rose up so that he could lower his voice, but Jason could still hear him. “The philosopher’s stone, the fifth laboratory. Beckendorf was digging into it. Nico and Bianca would be devastated to know that this was what led to his death.”

“You’ve been digging yourself, Percy.” Jason wanted to warn him to be careful, but the other man cut him off.

“And I’m almost there,” he said.

=====

In a soundproofed room, deep below Central HQ, the three homunculi, Akhlys, Kelli, and Morpheus stood in front of cages filled with misshapen creatures, some looking almost, but not quite human and others horrifying amalga of beasts with mismatched limbs.

Kelli tossed her head angrily, the flames of her hair dancing. “That Mustang is getting too nosy. He’s like a bulldog, sticking his nose into our business. He’s a problem I’d like to be rid of.”

“It’s not that easy,” Morpheus said between yawns. “He’s a prime candidate for sacrifice.” Then he sunk to the floor in a doze.

“Here’s an idea,” Akhlys said with a grin. “If the dog is a problem, why don’t we give him a bone to gnaw on.”

She laughed and then shifted her form into that of a security officer wearing a name tag that said ‘Douglas.’.

=====

Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross and Lance Corporal Travis Stoll were simply enjoying lunch in the general mess hall when a security officer neither of them recognized strode up to their table, flanked by several MPs.

“Second Lieutenant,” he said brusquely, “I am Officer Henry Douglas. Please tender your firearm to my custody.”

Lou Ellen knew protocol. She removed the gun from her holster and handed it over to him, grip first with the barrel pointed at herself. “May I ask what this is about?” she said, her tone even.

“Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross,” he replied in an official tone, “you are a prime suspect in the murder of Maes Beckendorf.”

Lou Ellen was flabbergasted. “That’s ridiculous!” she shouted as the MPs seized her arms.

“Officer Douglas only said, “I’ll hear your statement later,” as the MPs dragged the protesting woman off.

Chapter Text

Will, Nico, and Bianca walked easily down the streets of Central, Nico taking the lead.

“Let’s stop at Central HQ first,” he said. “Lieutenant Colonel Beckendorf works at the courts martial office, so he’s probably there.”

“I wonder if he found out anything about the philosopher’s stone yet?” Bianca asked.

“I don’t know,” her brother replied thoughtfully. “King Kronos did tell him to stay out of it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Will asked.

“Alchemist business,” Nico said, cutting him off.

Will was about to make a snarky comment about that, but all three of them were startled when Austin appeared in front of them, almost as if by magic.

“Where is the prince?” the Xingese bodyguard asked curtly.

In fact, Will and the Elrics had forgotten about Lester entirely, so excited were they to be back in Central. The disappearance of the boy threw the two guards into a panic. They assumed ready positions, scanning the scene for evidence of their master.

Two blocks over, a pair of military police prodded the figure sprawled face down in the street.

“What are you doing there?” the first asked, turning the figure over. Of course, it was Lester, passed out again.

“Obviously a foreigner,” the second MP said to his partner and then said to the unmoving Lester, “Where are your papers?”

Getting no response, he seized one of the boy’s hands and indicated that his partner take the other one. And so it was that Lester, prince of the Papadopoulos clan and possible heir to the throne of Xing was dragged down the street to the local prison.

=====

Having left behind Austin and Kayla to search the streets for their master, Nico, Bianca, and Will entered Central HQ, where they were greeted by a familiar face.

“Lieutenant Hawkeye!” Bianca called out, a smile in her voice if not in her immobile metal features.”

Annabeth Hawkeye returned the friendly greeting. “Nico, Bianca! How are you guys?”

Before they could reply, Will cut in. “I know you,” he said with a sunny smile. “We met in Risembool.”

Annabeth stuck out her hand for him to shake. “I remember you,” she said. “You’re Will.”

Nico frowned at Annabeth. “Hang on a second. If you’re here, that means…”

Sure enough, a door opened and Colonel Perseus Mustang stuck his stupid head out, his green eyes bright. He always made Nico feel uncomfortable, and now, with Will around, he was even more uncomfortable, although he couldn’t say why.

“What are you doing here?” Nico ground out between clenched teeth.

“I was transferred here a few days ago,” Percy said with a crooked half-grin. “And what brings you here?”

“Research” was Nico’s one-word answer. Then he added, “We’re trying to find information on homunculi.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Creation of homunculi is strictly forbidden. Do you think the military has information like that just lying around?”

“We also thought we’d visit Lieutenant Colonel Beckendorf,” Bianca added.

Percy’s grin completely disappeared. Will looked over at Annabeth, and her face was frozen.

Nico’s face, however, had relaxed at the memory of their friend. “Is he around?” he asked.

There was a long silence before Percy said, “He’s left.” Then he went on, “He moved back to the countryside with his wife and daughter. He took over his family’s business. It’s safer there.”

Annabeth shot him an unreadable look as he rose to leave. Then Percy went on, “If I hear anything about the philosopher’s stone or homunculi, I’ll let you know.”

He gestured for Annabeth to leave with him, and she walked to his side, gathering a few papers. In parting, he added, “And Stygian Iron,” using Nico’s official title, “try to stay out of trouble.”

Nico shook his head as the pair left, not knowing what to make of Percy’s parting words.

=====

When they were out of earshot, Annabeth turned her steely grey eyes on Percy. “Why are you treating him like a child all of a sudden?”

Percy dropped his own eyes. “There’s no need for them to know the truth yet. In order for the Elrics to move forward, the fewer obstacles in their path, the better.”

Annabeth’s silence forced Percy to confess, “And I’m just as much a softie as Major Armstrong.”

“Speaking of Major Armstrong, did you hear about his subordinate?”

Percy looked up in surprise so she went on. “Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross has been arrested as the prime suspect in Beckendorf’s murder.”

Percy scowled. “Bring me every piece of information you have on Lou Ellen Ross.” Then he added, “but be secretive about it.”

Annabeth Hawkeye’s salute was crisp and professional, but her verbal response was, “Of course, Seaweed Brain.”

=====

In the interrogation room, Major Jason Armstrong was questioning his subordinate as military guards recorded the conversation.

“Explain the situation to me,” he said, fixing Lou Ellen with eyes of stormy blue.

Lou Ellen kept her voice as even as she could. “Lieutenant Colonel Beckendorf was killed by a single bullet the same caliber as my sidearm, but it’s a standard issue. I recently fired a single shot in the skirmish at Laboratory Five, in defense of the Elrics. Unfortunately, that issue has been sealed, so I wouldn’t be able to raise that in my defense.”

“That can’t be the only evidence!” Jason said, a touch of outrage in his voice.

The officer in charge, Douglas, Jason noted it said on his badge said in a calm voice, “We have eyewitness testimony that Lieutenant Ross was seen leaving the sight of the murder.”

Jason put his face into his hands at the hopelessness of the situation. He spoke a brief farewell to Lou Ellen and left. As he was stepping out of the building, he was approached by an agitated Cecil Havoc.

“Sir,” the distraught lieutenant said to Jason, “I’ve been trying to speak on Lieutenant Ross’s behalf. I was present when she fired the bullet in question. But they won’t even let me in to file my report. It’s almost as if…”

“They’ve already made up their minds to frame the second lieutenant,” Jason finished for him.

=====

Across town, Connor Stoll produced a newspaper for his “guest.” The armored figure took it eagerly. He glanced at the photo on the front page and whistled. How the skull face on the armor managed to make that sound, Connor had no idea.

“Whoa,” Crusty said. “I know that dame. She’s the one who shot at me.”

Connor grabbed the paper from him and scanned the article. Then he grabbed up the phone and pulled it into the next room so that he wouldn’t be overheard when he whispered a string of code words to the operator who had picked up on the other end. By the time he was connected to Colonel Mustang, Crusty had come up behind him. Connor had only said a few words before Crusty had snatched up the phone and started shouting information to Percy.

=====

Nico lay on the couch of the hotel room he and Bianca had booked upon their return to Central. He was still puzzling over who had created the homunculi he and his sister had encountered when Bianca came into the room, clutching the newspaper, which she thrust into his face.

Nico’s eyes grew wide in horror as he read the headline, “Second Lieutenant Lou Ellen Ross convicted of the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Maes Beckendorf.”

Will, in the next room over, was startled at the knock at his door. Bianca and Nico were there, both looking agitated, but all Nico said was, “You stay here. Bianca and I have to check on something.”

Poor Will was left wondering as the Elrics walked quickly down the hallway without saying another word.

=====

Lester Papadopoulos, prince and potential heir to the throne of Xing, was not pleased to be locked in a prison cell. Nor was he pleased to be interrogated by a commoner barely worth his notice, but he gave sullen, curt answers nevertheless.

“Where are you from?”

“Xing”

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen”

“Who else was traveling with you?”

Lester didn’t want to answer that one. He was better off with Austin and Kayla at liberty. Fortunately he didn’t have to, as there was a loud noise from the corridor. Guards were firing their sidearms, but it didn’t do any good against the armored figure, who was violently knocking the guards aside, remarking as he did, “Too short! Too tall. I’m going to have to come back later and fix you.”

“Hey there,” Lester called out to the armored figure, who looked a little like a violent caricature of Bianca Elric. “Can you get me out of here?”

“Sorry, no time.”

Lester smiled at him. “I can make it worth your while.”

“Where are you from?” the armored figure asked. “You seem like a good height.”

That made no sense to Lester, but he said, “The eastern kingdom of Xing.”

“Okay.” The armored figure gave a sharp jerk to the cell door, and it popped open. “You can come with, but make it snappy.”

They made a detour into a room marked “Confiscations.” Lester saw something familiar and reached for it.

“That looks nice,” the armored figure said. “What is it?”

“That’s my combat ukulele,” Lester said, but his rescuer snatched it up. “I’ll be needing this for now. You can have it later if you behave.”

Lester knew better to argue. They ran down another corridor. Evidently this brute had already taken out the guards here. They paused at one of the cells.

“Hey, honey,” the armored figure called out. “Remember me? Crusty.”

Lieutenant Ross shrank back in horror, but Crusty swung the ukulele at the lock on the door. The instrument shattered it, only breaking one string in the process. As Crusty pulled the door open, she gave a short shriek.

“Oh, sweetheart!” he called out. “You do remember me. I’m touched.” When she made no move, he gestured impatiently.

“Come on. We have to get out of here. They’ve already convicted you. If you stick around here, the next visitors you have will be the firing squad.”

That was reason enough. Lou Ellen sprang up and ran out behind the odd pair.

=====

Akhlys (still in the guise of Henry Douglas) picked up the phone. This plan was getting a little bumpy, but it would still work to neutralize Mustang.

“The prisoner has escaped. Alert all units. She is with armed and dangerous companions. If she is spotted, shoot to kill.” What pleasure there was in those words. “I repeat, shoot to kill.”

When the word reached Percy Mustang, he was ready to move. He donned a pair of special gloves with the alchemic circle marked on the back that would enhance his already formidable control of water in any form and said only to his aide, Annabeth Hawkeye, “I’ll be going out. Look after things while I’m gone.”

=====

The fugitive trio were moving through the alleys of Central. Lou Ellen called out to Crusty, who seemed to be leading them somewhere, “How much farther?”

“Just keep running,” was all the reply she got.

Any further information was cut off when a pair stepped out in front of them.

“You!” Nico shouted. “Second Lieutenant Ross! And what are you doing with him?” He pointed at Crusty.

“And Ling!” Bianca said, standing behind her brother.

“Sorry, no time to chat,” Crusty sang out as he swung the combat ukulele, causing the Elrics to jump back.

In the confusion, Lou Ellen broke away and ran down another alleyway, one where another figure stepped out of the shadows.

“You!” was all Percy Mustang said before he touched the circle on the back of his glove and then pointed at the second lieutenant.

The neighborhood was lit up by the flash of an alchemic reaction followed by a column of water that hit the street and walls with a violent splash.

“What!?!” Nico yelped out and then ran in the direction of the sound, Bianca at his heels.

Crusty turned to Lester and said, “The place will be crawling with MPs soon. Let’s get out of here.” Once again, the Xingese prince knew better than to argue.

Nico was looking in horror at the twisted figure that might have been human once. Percy Mustang stood over it, his eyes looking as hard as jade.

“Hello, Stygian Iron,” the colonel said with no trace of emotion in his voice.

Chapter Text

Nico grabbed Percy by the collar and began softly, but with each word, his voice grew louder.

“When?” he asked almost in a whisper. “Beckendorf? Second Lieutenant Ross? Why did she have to?” He could barely finish each question, but now he was shouting. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!?”

=====

Back at the hotel, Will stepped into the Elrics’ room, looking at the mess they’d left behind.

“Jeez!” he said in exasperation. “They didn’t even lock the door! They just took off. Typical!” But then his eyes fell on the newspaper Nico had dropped.

=====

Nico was reeling from the slap Percy had dealt him. The green eyes blazed with anger, but the colonel didn’t raise his voice as he said, “You dare to assault a superior officer? You forget your place.”

Nico’s own dark eyes were also blazing as he stepped forward, but Bianca had seized him by his arms, saying, “Brother, no!”

Nico turned his head to his sister and called out, “That bastard killed Lou Ellen!” as he indicated the dessicated corpse at their feet.

“She was convicted of murdering Beckendorf and escaped from prison. The orders were to shoot to kill,” was all Percy said in explanation.

By now the MPs had arrived on the scene, led by the disguised Akhlys and followed by Jason Armstrong, who couldn’t believe how callously his old friend had done the deed.

Akhlys, or Douglas, as she was calling herself, looked faintly disgusted at the dry figure lying on the ground. Percy was repeating that it was on Douglas’s orders that he’d done it.

“The thing barely looks human,” Douglas said.

“An alchemical autopsy will reveal that it is a human body, or what’s left of a human body after most of the water is driven off,” Percy said, cool as ever.

By now, Jason was leading Nico and Bianca away. This was no place for children! Nico was distraught. He just kept muttering, “It’s all my fault. I got him involved in this.”

=====

Before they knew what had happened, they were back at the hotel. Nico knew he’d have to tell Will, but he didn’t know how he’d do it. He knew how eager his friend had been to see the Beckendorf family again. But when the Elrics got to their room, they saw the door open. Worse, they saw the newspaper sitting on the table, and Will was gone. He must have seen it!

=====

Praying that this was all some horrible mistake, Will knocked on the front door of the Beckendorf house. The door was flung wide as the childish voice cried out, “Daddy!”

But then her face fell, the sweet face of the little girl, Drew, who had declared that she was Will’s sister, and she wrapped her little arms around Will’s legs and collapsed against him in sobs.

From inside the house, Will heard Silena’s sweet voice calling out, “Drew, sweetie, what is it?” as she came to see who was at the door. When she saw Will, she tried to smile, but he could see how hard it was for her.

=====

As they neared the Beckendorf house, Nico turned to his sister. “You don’t have to come along as well.”

“No, brother,” Bianca remonstrated. “This is as much my fault as yours. We said we’d do anything to get our real bodies back…” She paused and then went on, “but if other people are going to suffer and die because of it, I’d rather stay in this body forever.”

When they arrived, they saw Will sitting on the sofa with Drew asleep on his lap. Taking a deep breath, Nico turned to Silena.

“Ms. Beckendorf, there’s something I have to tell you. Will, you should hear this as well.”

It wasn’t easy, but he had to do it. He told Silena all about how much Beckendorf had done, how their search for a way to get their bodies back had led the man onto the trail of corruption that had resulted in his getting killed. Along the way, Bianca added details about how much Beckendorf had looked after them.

“So,” Silena said when they’d finished, “they found out that my husband was on to them. And did this to send a warning to you.”

Bianca nodded sadly. Nico took a deep breath and said, “It’s our fault for getting him involved. We’re so sorry.”

“If other people are going to get hurt,” Bianca added, “we can’t…”

But Silena cut her off, raising a hand. She smiled so radiantly and then said, “He gave his life trying to save someone else. That’s so typical of him. He was always helping other people. It’s so much of why we loved him so much.” She put a fond hand on the sleeping Drew as she said this.

Then the smile left her face. “If you give up on your search, my husband’s death will have been in vain. You have to keep looking. If it’s not the philosopher’s stone, there must be some other answer.”

As Will and the Elrics rose to leave, Silena smiled at them again and said, “Promise me you won’t give up.”

They nodded in assent as they left. As they walked out the door, only Will looked back to see a single tear trailing down Silena’s face as she closed the door behind them.

=====

In the room full of cages beneath Central HQ, Akhlys was dancing in triumph, her stringy hair flying about.

“So,” she said, almost singing, “Mustang avenged his friend’s death. Everyone lived happily ever after.”

“I wouldn’t be so happy if I were you,” Kelli scolded. “The woman managed to break out of prison. That wasn’t part of our plan.”

“Actually,” Akhlys said with a smirk, “I’m enjoying the thought of the dog eating the bait. Besides, it flushed somebody out of the woodwork.” She produced a crude sketch. “Guess who was behind the prison break?”

Kelli glanced at the crude drawing of a suit of armor topped with a grotesque skull. “Him, again. And where is he now?”

“How should I know?” Akhlys said, her mood souring. “He always was too good at hiding.”

“Useless hag,” Kelli spat. Then she went to one of the cages. “This should help track him down.”

A creature, hardly human, pulled at the bars as she unlocked the door. It had been a man once, but all humanity had been dragged out of the shambling creature that stumbled out.

“Come on, Crusty,” Kelli cooed to it. “Time to find your soul.”

Chapter Text

“I told you,” Crusty said testily, “the researchers that put me in this body are all dead, so I can’t help you. I have no idea how they put me in this body.”

“No fair,” Lester said sulkily. “We had a deal. I helped you at the prison.”

“Well,” Crusty replied, “you know that girl, Bianca, right? She’s like me. Maybe she knows how it works.”

Lester brightened at that. He turned to his attendant. “Kayla, I’m stepping out. Send me a signal if anything happens.”

She nodded in agreement, but Cecil Havoc moved to block the door.

“Hold on a minute,” he started to say, but before he could finish, Lester had sprung out the window.

=====

Percy Mustang was all smiles as he spoke into the phone.

“Minnie, good to hear from you. No, my assistant isn’t here. I gave her the day off.”

“Geez,” Grover said, “he gets so flirty whenever Lieutenant Hawkeye isn’t around.”

Percy was undeterred. “Listen, Minerva, sweetheart, I was thinking of going fishing. You want to come along? Smart girl.”

=====

Back in their hotel room, Will was polishing Bianca’s armor.

“Bianca,” he said, “I never realized how dinged up you’ve gotten. You must be having a hard journey.”

Then he turned to Nico, who was lying on the bed, a sour expression on his face.

“What are you going to do now?” Will asked him.

“I don’t know,” Nico said. “What do you think we should do?” Then he scowled at his old friend.
“Why the shocked face?”

“You’ve never asked me for advice before.”

“I guess we haven’t”

Will thought for a while before he replied. “I was scared. When I thought about how much danger you and Bianca were in, danger so bad that an experienced soldier like Beckendorf could get killed, I was afraid I’d lose you. You’d go off, and I’d never see you again.”

Nico could hear the pain in Will’s voice when he said that. But he continued.

“But then, when Bianca said that she’d…that you’d both give up getting your bodies back, I knew that I didn’t want either one of you to give up.”

Nico didn’t have a chance to process the rush of feelings that washed over him at hearing Will speak like this, because the door swung violently open, and Major Jason Armstrong strode in.

Before Nico could say anything, the towering soldier had raised his fist and smashed Nico’s automail arm with all his might. Nico fell back in surprise, but Jason just looked at him for a moment. Then he spoke.

“Oh dear, Nico. Your automail seems to be damaged. It must be repaired immediately. I’m taking you back to Risembool.”

Will and Bianca were frozen in surprise at the major’s assault. Then Nico said, “What are you talking about, you maniac? Will is right here.”

Jason shook his head, “No, no, no, this won’t do. I only have passage for the two of us. We must leave immediately.” With that, he seized Nico and dragged him out into the hallway as his sister and friend looked on, still unable to move.”

“Oh my, that was surprising.”

Bianca and Will were shocked out of their immobility by the sound of Lester’s voice from behind them. Bianca was the first to speak.

“How did you get in here?” she asked.

“Through the window,” Lester gestured with his thumb.

“How did you know we were here?” It was Will’s turn to ask.

“Oh, Austin spotted you earlier.”

“But why through the window?” Bianca asked.

“Oh,” Lester said easily, “I’m a wanted criminal.”

=====

Crusty started abruptly. “Ooh, I just got a chill.”

Cecil looked at him with annoyance. “How can you get a chill? You don’t even have a body.”

Connor wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Man, what is that stench?”

The answer came as a ragged creature leaped through the open window. He was covered in filthy tatters, and his face was covered by a crude metal mask, but his eyes barely looked human. He lunged for Connor, who pulled out a pistol, but before he could fire, Crusty had deflected his aim. The creature responded by tackling Crusty, and the two of them wrestled each other to the floor.

“There are more of them outside, a lot of them, but they aren’t moving,” Austin said evenly without even looking up.

“How can you tell?” Connor asked, but instead of answering, Austin sprang out the window and began climbing to the roof.

“Great,” Cecil groaned. “I don’t have enough ammunition to…”

But before he could finish, the door burst open, and a figure all in black, his face hidden by a balaclava, fired two quick shots at the creature.

“Travis, is that you?” Connor asked.

Their rescuer pulled off his mask irritatedly. “Quiet, you idiot! I’m supposed to be under cover.”

The stinking intruder now turned on Travis, who pulled the trigger, but only a faint click came from the pistol. He shrank back but kept a hopeful eye on the window.

And his assailant roared in pain as blood erupted from his shoulder. He collapsed, overcome.

Cecil whistled in awe. Travis gestured to a building across the street. “The hawk’s eye is watching over us.”

=====

“Minnie, sweetie,” Percy crooned into the phone. (Grover rolled his eyes.) “Are you alright?”

From the other end of the call, Annabeth calmly put her rifle down. “Just a customer getting fresh with Maia. I slapped him. She’s got it under control now.”

“Oh, baby.” Grover was cringing now at the sound of Percy’s voice. “You’re so strict.”

=====

Crusty was staring at their secured prisoner. “Oh my gods! That’s my body!”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Connor asked.

“When those bastards in the lab pulled my soul out of this,” he pointed at the creature, “they must’ve stuck some dumb animal soul into it.”

Then he studied the figure. “You know, I never realized how short I was. Let me stretch it.” When the others wouldn’t let him get any closer, he started to wheedle. “Come on, just a couple of inches.”

“Don’t you want to return to your real body?” Cecil asked, but Crusty shook his head.

“That body isn’t going to last much longer.”

Travis put his hand over his mouth to hide a retch. “So that’s what I’ve been smelling.”

=====

“Gotta go,” came the voice over the phone, “Got another customer.”

Percy stared at the dead phone in his hand. In no time, he was out the door and in his car.

Annabeth looked at the looming figure in the doorway. Although it appeared sluggish, it was approaching quickly. She wasted no time in raising her rifle and opening fire on it.

=====

“Who the hell are you?” Akhlys rasped. “How did you know I was up here?”

“Before I answer that,” Austin said, “I have a question for you. How many souls do you have inside of you?”

Akhlys glared at him. “I only came here to keep an eye on things. I hate fighting, but…” and she moved toward Austin.

He reached into his pouch and pulled out a small cylinder. He plucked the cap off it, and it began to hiss as he tossed it toward Akhlys.

Chapter Text

“Are you serious?” Bianca asked the Xingese prince. “Is that why the major took my brother away?”

Before he could respond, a flash lit up the sky. Will looked out the window and asked, “Are those fireworks?”

Lester frowned. “Not exactly. It’s the signal.”

He rose to his feet and headed for the door, turning to Bianca. “Are you coming?” he asked her.

“This might lead us to the ones who killed Beckendorf,” she said firmly. “I have to help if I can.”

Will took her hand. “You have to come back,” he said, pleading earnestly. “Promise me, please promise me.” It was when he was alone that he whispered, “And please bring Nico back.”

=====

Deep underground the woman asked the question. “Have you finished cleaning up the situation?”

Kelli smiled easity. “It’s only a matter of time before we find out where our lost lab rat and his vermin are hiding. The body and the soul are drawn to one another.”

“I hope there won’t be any mistakes this time,” the woman said.

“No worries. I’ve sent Misery and Sloth after them. They always do well.”

=====

Misery, also known as Akhlys, was not so certain about her success.

“That’s three times you’ve killed me,” she rasped out. Then she darted behind a building before Austin could fling another one of those damned sonic arrows at her. When they struck, the blast of discordant sound they generated literally ripped her apart. “Well, let’s see what he can do if he can’t tell it’s me,” she thought as she shifted her appearance to that of a middle-aged man carrying a sack of groceries.

“That’s right,” she thought as she strolled casually toward him, and he looked right past her altered form. “Just another two feet and I’ll have you,” but her thought was cut off as Austin whirled in a blur, producing a dagger from under his robes and plunging it into her abdomen.

Meanwhile, in the room across the street, Annabeth was slumping into a chair as the figure of Morpheus lumbered toward her.

“That’s right,” he said in a hypnotic drone, “Soon you’ll be in a sleep you’ll never wake up from,” but he too was cut off as she pulled a shotgun from the cushions of the chair and blasted it directly in his face.

The pellets tore his head apart, but, to Annabeth’s horror, it slowly wove itself back together. She took advantage of the time it took to spring up. Staying here to fight would not be wise, she knew as she fled the room, but the creature was reassembling too quickly. She stumbled as he grabbed her leg, scrabbling to find another weapon, anything, but a lethargy had taken hold of her. She knew the end was coming, but there was nothing she could do, no plan of escape she could come up with.

But there was a rending sound as the floor erupted, torn apart as a water pipe burst through it. The water shot out with enough force to knock her assailant out the open window.

“Colonel Mustang,” she said, anger in her tone. “What are you doing out in the open?”

“You’re welcome, Wise Girl,” Percy said without rancor.

The fight between Akhlys and Austin was interrupted as a soaking wet Morpheus fell directly on top of her. Austin contemplated what weapons to bring to bear on this unnatural pair when he was aware that Lester had joined them.

“Sire,” he said, “we should withdraw. I’ve struck at this woman several times, each time fatally, and she keeps recovering.”

Lester’s eyes widened. He knew that Austin was extremely professional and not prone to exaggeration. If he said he’d dealt fatal blows, that was exactly what he’d done. Could she be what they’d been searching for this whole time, immortal? He had to talk to that woman! But she and her companion had run off.

Meanwhile, Percy had assembled his crew of Annabeth, Connor, and Cecil in a turtle-top bus, the one he’d come over in. He gestured to Bianca.

“Are you coming?” he said.

“This is about Beckendorf’s murder, isn’t it?” Bianca asked. When Percy nodded, she got into the vehicle and began to talk.

“I saw that woman at the laboratory right before it blew up. She’s a homunculus. She has that tattoo of the symbol for earth.”

Connor turned back in surprise. “That’s impossible! A homunculus isn’t real.”

“I met another homunculus in the south,” Bianca protested. “He had the same tattoo, and he could regenerate from massive injuries.”

“I shot that other man several times,” Annabeth said. “Point blank. I saw the wounds close up with my own eyes.”

Percy smirked. “At this point, I’m ready to believe anything is possible.” He drove on, following Crusty, who was running down the street in pursuit of that creature that was his former body. He followed the misshapen thing into the wreckage of a building, so Percy stopped the vehicle, and everyone got out to follow them into what remained of the structure.

From time to time, it looked like the building was going to collapse on them, and each time, Bianca would mark a circle on the wall and do a quick transmutation to shore up the walls around them.

Percy and Travis broke off to examine some of the rooms, and came into one of the labs. Percy took a look around in horror.

“What kind of hellish research were they doing?” he said as he looked at the twisted remains of examination tables and cages.

“Well, well, well,” a sultry voice called out. “Who are these two nosy boys? And how did you get past Morpheus and Akhlys?”

Travis, ever the womanizer, was transfixed by the woman who had appeared, almost out of nowhere. She had fiery red hair, and a sexy, swaying gait. To Travis, it was mesmerizing, although to Percy it almost seemed like her legs were mismatched.

“Who are you?” Travis asked, more than a little distracted by the sight in front of him.

“You can call me Kelli,” she said, advancing toward them. “And, if I’m not mistaken, you’re Travis Stoll. And of course, the famous Colonel Percy Mustang.”

Percy grabbed Travis’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Be careful, Stoll. She’s a homunculus.” He pointed to the distinctive tattoo on her ample bosom.

“Oh, Colonel,” Kelli cooed. “You seem to be quite knowledgeable.”

“There’s something I’d like a little more knowledge about,” Percy said with an edge to his voice. “What do you know about Maes Beckendorf?”

Kelli giggled. She may have meant it coquettishly, but it had a sinister undertone. “He was also quite knowledgeable. I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to finish him off.”

That was too much for Percy. He pulled his sidearm from its holster and fired several shots directly into Kelli’s chest. She staggered back, but somehow remained standing, a grim smile on her face.

“Quite the man of action,” she said. “But it will take more than that to finish me off. Let me show you something.”

She tugged at the mutilated flesh of her chest. To the horror of the two men, she pulled it back as easily as if she were taking off a scarf. In the cavity of her chest, a red stone pulsed with a light the color of blood.

“That’s a Philosopher’s Stone,” Percy gasped.

“You really are a homunculus,” Travis whispered.

“You’re a monster,” Percy said.

“Not at all,” Kelli said as she replaced the flesh, which was knitted seamlessly around the pulsing stone. “We have the same feelings, the same passions. We are as human as you.”

“I’m guessing,” Percy said as he pulled on a pair of gloves decorated with a circular design, “that you’re telling us all this because we’re not getting out of here alive.”

“You are a clever man,” Kelli said, Then she reached a hand out. Faster than thought, her fingers elongated into claws, and she ripped Percy’s gloves into shreds. As he gasped in pain, she shook her head.

“You use those gloves to create transformation circles. Not a chance! I know about your skills with water, But you’ll find water in short supply here.” With that her bright red hair erupted into actual flames that seared the air around them, drying the air.

Travis didn’t say anything, he just pulled out his own side arm, but before he could use it, Kelli whorled about and reached out with those hellish talons and ripped his side open. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room, only pausing to flick her flaming hair, causing every flammable substance in the room to ignite.

Chapter Text

They’d pursued the bizarre creature that had been Crusty’s human form into the center of the ruined structure. Bianca had managed to sketch a circle onto the floor of the large room they’d found themselves in, and used the circle to transmute a loose stone cage around their quarry. As Annabeth approached, her eyes began to water.

“What is that stench?” she asked, covering her mouth and nose with a hand.

“My body’s rotting,” Crusty said carelessly. “I guess it didn’t take to whatever beast’s soul those sick bastards crammed into it. No wonder it’s decomposing.”

He didn’t seem to be disturbed by it in the least, but Bianca began to fret silently. “A body with an incompatible soul in it can’t last. How long until this metal body rejects my human soul?”

Her gloomy train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of the homunculus, Kelli. Crusty waved to her.

“Hey, look, it’s old Lusty!” Evidently, he knew her by that title. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“Number 66,” she sneered in response. “So, you took the bait. Why are you helping these people?” She gestured at Annabeth.

“Oh, I got tired of sucking up to you creeps,” he replied. “These guys are much more fun. Besides,” he said, plucking out a long knife, “You’re a little too tall. How about a trim?”

“Oh, Crusty, you metal fool.” She shook her head. “And you,” she glared at Bianca. “You just had to tag along. You leave me no choice. I hate to lose two potential sacrifice candidates in one night, but a girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do.”

Crusty lunged for her, knife in hand. “The only thing this girl’s gotta do,” he sang out, “is die.”

His rush toward her stopped in surprise as she idly waved a hand at him. To the horror of all of them, his metal body fell to pieces. She examined her now elongated fingers with a look of dismay.

“Look what you did, you tin can,” she scolded. “I almost broke a nail.” She turned to Annabeth and Bianca. “Who’s next? Lieutenant, you seem to be devoted to that colonel. I should send you to join him.”

Annabeth was stunned. “What do you mean?”

Kelli’s fingers were getting longer and sharper as she said, “You know that other sacrifice candidate I was talking about?”

It was too much for Annabeth. She pulled out a pair of pistols and began firing them at the homunculus. Kelli collapsed under the hail of bullets as Annabeth emptied both pistols into her. When the sharp reports of the guns were replaced by clicks, Kelli rose, her wounds healing to the horror of Annabeth and Bianca.

“Are you finished?” she asked, contempt in her voice. “Humans are such foolish creatures.”

Annabeth fell back in frustration. What would it take to finish this creature?

Bianca stepped forward. “Lieutenant, you have to get out of here!” she cried out. Then she clapped her hands together and pressed them to the wall. There was an alchemic flash, and a hefty spear emerged from the wall.

“So,” Kelli said, “you opened the portal. I’m impressed. Too bad it won’t save you. What a waste of a good sacrifice.”

She slashed at Bianca with her long, sharp fingers, slashing through Bianca’s stone spear easily with those fingers that had become black spears themselves.

“Lieutenant, run!” Bianca called out to Annabeth, but she called back, “No, you get out of here. I can stall her long enough for you to get away.”

“I won’t leave you!” Bianca shouted. “ I can’t watch another person die.”

“So noble, so sickeningly noble, the two of you,” Kelli spat out. “But it won’t do either of you any good.”

She drove her black finger spears into Bianca’s chest. Bianca knew that as long as the talons didn’t touch the blood seal at the back of her neck, she could survive, but the fact that this monster’s claws could cut so easily into dense Stygian iron showed what terrible power she had.

In desperation, Bianca clapped her hands together and fell to her knees, pressing her palms against the floor. A thick stone wall erupted around the homunculus. It would buy them some time, but not much, and the effort of the transmutation, combined with the damage Kelli’s talons had done to her metal body, had severely weakened Bianca.

“Do you think that will save you?” the homunculus called out, and a gout of flame shot up above the top of Bianca’s hasty barrier.

“Actually,” a fourth voice called out, “restricting an enemy’s mobility is a first-rate military tactic.”

Annabeth’s heart soared. That was Percy’s voice. He sounded hoarse, like he’d had a lungful of smoke, but he was alive, in spite of what that monster had said.

“How did you survive?” Kelli called out. “My flaming hair drove all of the water out of the room before I ignited everything in it. You and that aide of yours should be nothing but ashes.”

“Knowledge is a weapon. This building is made of concrete.” Percy lectured in the tone of a school master. “Concrete is made from seashells. Even when they are out of the water, the water is within them. Enough water for me to do this.”

He gestured at the ceiling, and a torrent of water fell upon Kelli, dousing her flaming hair and leaving her looking like a bedraggled cat.

She glared at him. “Foolish human,” she said. “It will take more than that to kill me.”

Percy looked at her, his green eyes as cold as the Arctic Ocean. “How much more?” he asked, gesturing at the floor and causing a second torrent of water to erupt, battering her mercilessly. Time and again, a gout of water would spout from the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and each time, it would batter her and then be absorbed back into the porous stone of the building. With each assault, she seemed to grow weaker, trying to raise her hand up and summon her demonic talon, but each time, Percy would summon more water to pummel her.

At last, she managed to form her finger into that hellish spear, but even as it reached out to stab Percy in the chest, her whole body collapsed into glittering dust, showering down onto the floor, leaving nothing but a shining heap of golden ashes and a single misshapen bronze leg.

Spent from the effort, Percy pitched forward, but Annabeth sprang forward and caught him before he could hit the floor.

“Bianca, thank you for looking after my subordinate,” Percy managed to gasp out.

“Never mind that,” Bianca said. “You need a doctor.”

“That’s right,” Percy said weakly. “Call a doctor. Travis needs immediate attention.”

“Seaweed brain,” Annabeth said with a grimace.

=====

Will was so relieved when Bianca returned. He sprang up and threw his arms around her massive armored frame in a hug. To his dismay, her left arm fell off.

“What…what…what?” was all he could choke out.

“We kind of got into a fight,” Bianca replied sheepishly.

=====

As they exited the train in Risembool, Nico glared at Jason and asked him, “Are you finally going to tell me what’s going on?”

Jason didn’t respond, but a voice called out, “Good to see you, sir.”

Nico spun around to see Cecil Havoc standing beside three traveling packs.

Chapter Text

Instead of heading for Granny Naomi’s shop, Jason directed Nico into the restaurant next to the train station.

“So, we’re not getting my automail repaired?” he asked with a tone that implied he knew the answer.

“Of course not,” Jason replied, indicating the stranger sitting at the table. “This is Yan. They’ll be coordinating our departure.”

The stranger, Yan apparently, raised a hand in greeting. “How do you do? You must be Nico. Austin has told me much about you.”

Nico recalled that Austin was one of Lester’s attendants. He wondered what they meant by departure.

“Enough talk,” Cecil said. “Let’s get down to business. We’ll be crossing the border tonight.”

“I don’t have a passport,” Nico blurted out.

“Don’t be naive,” Cecil reprimanded. “If you use a passport, you can be traced.”

Nico smiled grimly. “So, abduction, illegal border crossing, what next? Where are we headed?”

Cecil returned the smile. “To the east.”

=====

“How could you let them live?” Akhlys cried out in rage, her voice a piercing shriek even shriller than usual. “They killed Lust, they found the lab. They almost made it here!” She gestured at the room.

The woman the homunculi referred to as ‘Mother’ addressed the Fuhrer King more calmly, but there was still anger in her voice. “Why did you let the Water Alchemist escape, Wrath?”

Fuhrer King Kronos acknowledged his true title with a nod like a polite kowtow. “I believe that he may still be of use to us.”

The woman moved forward, a look of interest on her face. “Can he do it?”

Kronos (or Wrath) replied. “Percy Mustang has a kind heart. We can use that against him. He can be made to open the portal.”

She smiled. “I’m counting on you. I’m putting you in charge of the Water Alchemist.”

“Leave it to me,” Wrath replied. “He is still answerable to the military chain of command. I will strip him of power.”

=====

As Connor led Bianca down the corridor of the hospital to approach Colonel Mustang’s room (apparently the wounds he’d received in the battle with the homunculus were worse than Bianca had realized, and Travis was in the next bed over. Was the attempt to get their bodies back worth the toll it took on so many people?

Wounds or no, Percy Mustang was shouting furiously at Lieutenant Hawkeye.

“How could you believe the lies they were telling you, lieutenant? You know that they only did that to demoralize you and let your guard down. I expected better of you.”

Annabeth dropped her eyes and murmured, “I’m sorry sir. It won’t happen again.”

Percy’s reply was curt, and only someone who knew him well could feel the profound tenderness in his voice. “Annabeth, I’m counting on you to watch my back.”

Connor broke into the conversation. “Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have someone with me who can detect a homunculus’s aura.”

Percy’s eyes widened at that announcement. Annabeth looked over at Connor, who nodded in reply and said, “I brought what you asked for,” handing her a large roll of paper.

“What have you got there?” Percy asked.

Annabeth unrolled the paper. It was a map of the part of the city they’d fought in. She brought out a pen and marked out a circle.

“I kept track of our steps and turns. Because the corridors weren’t perfectly straight, this is approximate, but I’m certain that these creature’s lair is within this circle.”

“That’s my wise girl,” Percy said softly. Then he looked at the buildings within the circle.

“Laboratory two and three are in the circle. But that’s not all.” He tapped the map with a finger. “The fuhrer-king’s estate also lies partly within the circle.”

Both Connor’s and Travis’s eyebrows shot up at that.

“Are you saying that King Kronos is working with the homunculi?” Travis asked.

“But he fought against the homunculi in Dublith,” Bianca said. “He fought alongside Major Grace.”

“So, he eliminated Greed and his followers because they were a threat to the military command,” Percy said. “Beckendorf warned me that the military was in danger. I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but we can’t let our guard down.”

“If we could drag them out into the open and finish them off,” Annabeth began, but Percy cut her off.

“I sent Crusty into the penitentiary as a fishing expedition,” he said. “It looks like we caught a bigger fish than we expected. But this is only the beginning. We need to keep digging. Can I count on you?”

Annabeth winced at his mixed metaphor but nodded. “You know you can always count on me.”

Connor gave a brief salute in the way of agreement, but Travis shook his head.

“You’re going to have to count me out, Colonel.”

Everyone else looked at him in surprise. Travis was always eager to join the fray. In response, he pulled the sheet off himself. “It’s my legs. I can’t feel either of them.”

As they walked out of the hospital room, Bianca could feel the tension coming off of Connor. She knew all too well what it felt like to see a brother hurt. Finding out how badly Travis had been injured and might not be able to walk ever again must have hurt the young soldier. She spoke just trying to ease that pain.

“I think I can see why my brother dislikes Colonel Mustang so much.”

Connor looked at her questioningly.

“The Colonel talks so much about the importance of the mission, but as soon as someone around him is in danger, he completely disregards his own life.”

That finally brought a smile back to Connor’s face. “Just like Nico, huh? They fight because they’re so similar.”

=====

Nico was miserable perched on his camel as they rode through the desert. All he could do was mutter, “So hot, so hot.”

Jason snorted and said, “Surely you can take a little heat.”

Nico glared at him. “In case you forgot, I have a metal arm and a metal leg. Right now, you could probably cook an egg on either one of them.”

Cecil called out to their guide. “Yan, have we reached our destination yet?”

The guide replied without turning around. “We are almost there. We are within the borders of the country.”

Nico brought out a small telescope and raised it to his eye. He stared at the broken buildings that he saw.

“The ruins of Xerxes. Once the capital of a great kingdom. Now it’s just a place for caravans to stop.”

As they approached a broken building on the edge of the ruins, a figure emerged. “I’ve been waiting for you,” it said, and then went on. “Why did you bring the child?” he said, indicating Nico, who now recognized the figure.

Nico glared at Austin belligerently. “I didn’t ask to come out here, old man,” he shouted, but his ill temper abated as the older man led them to a large pool of water and indicated that they could drink from it.

Nico fell to greedily, and when he finished, he said “All I know about Xerxes is the story of the philosopher from the east.”

Austin raised an eyebrow quizzically. “The philosopher from the east?”

Nico nodded. “Uh-huh. It’s a children’s story about the man who brought alchemy to our people. He was the sole survivor of Xerxes. It was destroyed in a single night, and he wandered into the newly founded country of Amestris. That’s how the legend goes.”

Austin smiled. It was a bright smile, almost like sunshine. “In my land, we tell a similar story. A stranger drifted to our shores from the west. After his arrival, our alchemy underwent rapid progress.”

“In your country, alchemy is mostly used for medicine, right?” Nico asked.

Austin nodded. “But in the distant past, it was mostly illusion and superstition. They say that in ancient times, three generations of the imperial family died from ingesting quicksilver because they believed it would grant immortality. Then, the stranger from the west came. His teachings were blended with the ancient techniques of Xing and became the modern alchestry that we practice today.”

“And your legends say he came from here?”

“That was why young Lord Lester wanted to come here.”

Nico and the others wandered around the ruins. They were indeed wonderful, even in their run-down state.

“How could a civilization this advanced be destroyed in a single night?” Jason asked, awestruck.

Cecil shrugged. “Maybe it’s just a myth after all.”

But Nico wasn’t so sure. He had come across some kind of altar. The top half was missing, but the lower half… He couldn’t read the writing, of course, but the design was unmistakable. It was an alchemical array. It looked familiar, even with the top half missing. He’d seen something like it before, but where?

“Come on,” Yan called out. “We don’t want to leave her waiting.”

Leave who waiting? Nico was puzzled. And then he saw. He couldn’t believe his eyes!

Jason was the first to respond. He sprang forward, arms extended and eyes full of tears.

“Lieutenant Ross,” he blubbered out as he wrapped the woman in a hug. “My heart nearly burst from worrying about you! I am overjoyed to see you safe!”

“But what is she doing here?” Nico asked Cecil.

“If everybody thinks you’re dead, you can’t hang out where someone might recognize you. After Colonel Mustang faked her death, he had her shipped out here.”

Nico’s head was spinning. “So he knew she was innocent all along?”

=====
The man disembarking at the Risembool station walked down the path easily, knowing it well even though it had been years since he’d walked it. When he came to his destination, he scowled at the burned out patch where the house had stood, the wind blowing his black ponytail.

In her own house, Naomi Rockbell was seated at the table, flipping through an old photo album. There were pictures of her son and daughter-in-law, and there were pictures of her grandson, Will. There were even pictures of the Elric children, usually with Will, since the three of them had been inseparable growing up. Her reverie was broken by the sound of footsteps on her porch, so she closed the book and went to see who was outside, probably a customer.

She opened the door and fell back in surprise. “Hohenheim!” she called out.

He gave her a small smile and said, “Naomi, I seem to have lost my house.”

She invited her guest to sit down at the table and reopened the album to the beginning. It had a photo of herself as a young woman. The years had done their work on her, but the other figure in the photo looked identical to the man seated across from her.

“You haven’t changed a bit in all the years I’ve known you, Hades von Hohenheim.”

Chapter Text

Percy thought back to how he’d engineered it. He’d sent Crusty to break Lou Ellen Ross out of military prison. Then he’d arranged for Lieutenant Havoc to pick up a very specific list of alchemical ingredients.

“What do you want with all this stuff?” Cecil Havoc was a good soldier, but he was always curious. Percy trusted him, though, so he responded.

“It’s the basic ingredients of a human body.”

Cecil goggled at him. “You’re not attempting human transmutation?” he asked in horror. Percy smiled at him, calm as the beach on a summer day.

“I’m only making a corpse, not a human being.”

Cecil was clever enough to understand at least part of Percy’s plan. “It won’t pass an autopsy.”

Percy’s green eyes grew stormy. “When I’m finished, there won’t be much of a body to do an autopsy on.”

When Percy confronted Lou Ellen in the alley after her jailbreak, she cowered, but then, he pulled the crude simulacrum of a human form out of a dumpster pressed against the wall and dropped it at her feet. What he said next did nothing to allay her fear.

“After tonight, you’re a dead woman,” he said and raised a gloved hand.

He gestured at the form on the ground and every cell in the misshapen body ruptured, the water in it heated to near boiling. Then he grasped Ross by the arm and pulled the prison ID bracelet off her arm. He dropped the bracelet onto the hideous mass of pseudo-flesh at his feet and gestured at the dumpster.

“Get in, we don’t have much time!” was all he said.

When she climbed in, she was greeted by her old friend and comrade, Cecil Havoc. He was poking through a hole in the back of the dumpster that led through the wall behind the container. As she followed him into the passageway, she heard shouting coming from the alleyway but was in no mind to stick around.

Austin related a version of this to Nico as they sat in the Xerxian ruins, explaining that she’d been brought to Yan, who was another loyal member of Lester’s household, and that he’d secreted her here, awaiting this rendezvous.

Jason now joined in the story, telling how he’d not been told any details other than that he had to come up with a reason to get Nico to come to Risembool, as it was close to the desert.

“A minor automail repair seemed like as good a reason as any to return to your hometown,” Jason said casually.

“Minor?!,” Nico sputtered, pointing to the large dent in his metal arm.

“No matter,” Jason said easily. “Metallurgical alchemy has been passed down through the Armstrong family for generations. Allow me to undo the damage I have wrought. Now what grade of steel did the Rockbells use on your limbs?” he said, grabbing Nico’s damaged limb and producing a piece of chalk to inscribe transmutation symbols.

Nico glared at him. “It’s not steel, it’s a Stygian iron alloy!”

Jason dropped the arm hastily. “Stygian iron? That metal is extremely temperamental! Few alchemists have the skill to work with it.”

“Never mind, I’ll fix it myself,” Nico grumbled, clapping his palms together. As he placed his left hand on his right arm and it mended itself with a familiar flash, he added, “If I screw this up, Will is going to kill me.”

“It’s time to share information,” Cecil said.

Each took turns telling what they knew about the homunculi and the philosopher’s stone. Nico concluded the discussion by speaking about their painful conversation with Silena, Beckendorf’s widow.

“She said she believed that Bianca and I would know what the right thing to do was, and she told us we had to keep moving forward. It was the only way to honor her husband’s memory. So many people have helped us, even though it was our own fault we lost our original bodies. So I swear, I won’t let another human being become a victim.”

“And what about you, Lieutenant Ross?” Jason asked.

“I’m going on to Xing. I can’t stay here, and I can’t go back to Amestris.”

“My clan has offered to shelter her,” Austin said. “Yan will escort her the rest of the way to our country.”

“One more thing,” Lou Ellen said. “Cecil, would you please send a message to Colonel Mustang? I owe him my life, and when the time comes, I will stake my life to repay that debt.”

She rose to her feet and saluted smartly. Yan rose to their feet as well and led her away from the group.

As Lou Ellen and her escorts rode off into the east, Nico thought about something he’d seen in the ruins of Xerxes. He got up abruptly and headed toward the thing that had caught his eye earlier. It was a broken altarpiece with a fragment of carving on it that looked almost familiar.

When he got there, it was indeed familiar. There were some strange elements to it, and the writing was in a language and alphabet that he’d never seen before, but it was definitely a transmutation circle (or at least the lower half of a circle). Although there were a lot of crucial parts missing, it reminded him of the circle he’d seen in the fifth laboratory in Central. Could the alchemists of Xerxes have been making a Philosopher’s Stone? Was that what had brought their mighty empire down?

So intent was Nico on studying the carving that he almost didn’t hear the footsteps behind him. Almost was the crucial difference. As the arm reached for him, he grabbed, relying on the instincts that Hazel Curtis had so brutally instilled in him so long ago, and his attacker flew over his shoulder and landed on the ground, stunned for long enough to enable Nico to pin him.

Nico looked at the man on the ground and recognized his characteristic features.

“You’re Ishvalan,” he exclaimed.

Too late, he realized that his assailant was only the first of a throng. He was surrounded by Ishvalans who looked at him with hostility. One of them called out to him.

“You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble if you just surrender.”

Nico decided to try bravado. “Sorry, but I don’t have any parents that you can milk for ransom.”

“We don’t want money,” one of the other Ishvalans said, “We want the land back that was stolen from us. In other words, boy, you’re going to be the hostage when we demand that the Amestris occupiers remove their forces from our ancestral land.”

“I’m just a kid,” Nico said disingenuously. “Why should the military lift a finger to save me.”

“You’d be surprised what the life of a child can change,” a third man said. “It was the senseless murder of a child that ignited the Ishvalan Civil War.”

Nico flinched at that. He remembered hearing the story of how an Amestrian soldier accidentally shooting an Ishvalan child had galvanized the locals into an open revolt, resulting in years of slaughter. His thoughts were disrupted by the sound of an old man’s voice.

“That’s enough! This is not the way of our people!” The head of every Ishvalan around him turned to face an old man in religious garb who approached. Nico heard several of those around him muttering “Sorry, Rebbe Feingold.”

The old man nodded in acknowledgement. Then, he said to Nico, “Young man, if you’d be so kind as to let this rude fellow up, I give you my word, he will do you no harm.”

As Nico let his attacker up, the old man, Rebbe Feingold, evidently, went on. “I apologize for the unkindness of my countrymen.”

Nico looked at him, saying, “It’s okay. I understand why you hate us Amestrians.”

Feingold held up a hand. “We can never forget what your people have done to us, but we know that not all Amestrians are evil. It was Amestrians who saved my life, and the lives of many of our people.”

A young girl smiled up at Nico. “What my papa says is true,” she said. “If it weren’t for the Amestrian doctors, I would not be able to walk.”

“Amestrian doctors?” Nico asked, wondering if it could be.

“Yes, a husband and wife,” the young girl said. “With golden hair and kind eyes.”

Nico had to ask. “Would that be the Rockbells? Michael and Lee?”

“You knew the Rockbells?” Rebbe Feingold asked, astonishment in his voice.

“I grew up with them,” Nico said. “They practically raised my sister and me.”

Nico found himself thronged by Ishvalans, all of them with words of praise and thanks for the people who were practically parents to him. He was almost overwhelmed by this outpouring of gratitude. He’d gone from being a stranger, one of the enemy to an honored guest. But he had to ask.

“Do you know how they died?”

Nico could feel the silence fall over the crowd of Ishvalans. But this was not hostility. The old man, Rebbe Feingold, took his hand, his head bent in shame.

“I am so sorry. They were killed. Killed by one of us, one who they’d saved. I didn’t see his face, but his arm was covered with tattoos.”

“Tattoos?” Nico said. He had an awful suspicion.

But the old man didn’t quite understand, and said, “Ishvalans do not have tattoos. They are banned in our faith, but this one had them all over his right arm.”

So, it had to be him. Nico knew he had to be returning to his comrades, but between this and the broken inscription he’d seen, he had a lot to think about.

Seeing his motion, Rebbe Feingold said to him, “Young man, may I ask your name?”

“I am Nico. Nico Elric.”

“Very good. I beg of you, could you deliver a message to the Rockbells’ gravestone?”

Nico nodded, and the old man went on. “Please give them our thanks and our apology.”

Nico nodded again, and made to leave, but a woman from the crowd called out to him, “Nico Elric, friend of the Rockbells, you will always be welcome in our community.”

=====

On the way back into Amestris, Nico was silent, his head full of the thoughts of the journey, Lou Ellen’s story, the broken inscription, and what the Ishvalans had told him, but as they came to the train station in Risembool, he stopped Jason before the tickets back to Central were bought.

“I’ll be staying here tonight. I want to have Granny Rockbell look at the repairs to my arm.” And, he thought, I want to visit Uncle Michael and Aunt Lee’s grave.

“Very well, Stygian Iron Alchemist,” Jason said formally. “We will meet again in Central.”

Nico came to the small graveyard, thinking of what he wanted to say over the Rockbells’ headstone, but, as he saw the figure standing at the grave a few feet away was spoken through teeth gritted in rage.

“You! What the hell are you doing here?”

Chapter Text

Bianca was almost shouting into the phone. “What do you mean, brother hasn’t shown up in Risembool?” Her panic was cut short when Naomi’s voice crackled over the line.

“Nico’s not here, but someone else did.”

Now Bianca was really panicking. Who could it be? As always, Naomi kept her cool, but what she said next did nothing to allay Bianca’s panic, and she reeled back, dropping the phone.

Will put his arm as if to catch Bianca before she could fall, but the weight of her armored body made both of them stagger as she told Will what his grandmother had said to stun her so.

“Dad’s back!!”

=====

Nico raged at the figure kneeling by his mother’s grave.

“You’ve got some nerve showing your face here.”

Hades von Hohenheim eyed his son. “You’ve become quite famous in Central..The smallest state alchemist in history, right?”

Nico ground his teeth in anger. “THE YOUNGEST!!,” he bit back.

Hades shook his head. “You tried to do a human transmutation, didn’t you? Naomi told me.”

Nico was still fuming. “You bastard!” he said to his father. “If you weren’t standing in front of mom’s grave, I’d slug you.”

Hades turned back to face the headstone. “Maria, why did you have to die? Why did you leave me behind?”

“You’re the one that left!” Nico shouted. “Do you know how hard it was for her to raise us all by herself? You have no business being here. There’s no place for you in Risembool.”

“That’s right,” Hades said calmly, as if his son’s anger had no effect on him. “My house. Why did you burn it down?”

“I made up my mind never to turn back,” Nico said, his mouth a stubborn line. “I don’t need a place to go home to. That burned out husk is a symbol of our resolve.”

“I can entertain the notion that you might have done it for multiple reasons,” Hades said as calmly as a schoolteacher talking to a willful child. “You may have done it so that you would have to move forward. But you also did it because you didn’t want to be reminded of your mistake. You wanted to escape from the painful memories. You were running away.”

Nico started to stride off. “Talking to you makes me sick. I’m leaving. Don’t follow me!”

“You’re going to Naomi’s house, aren’t you?” Hades said, rising to his feet. “I’m going there too, seeing as how I no longer have a home to return to.”

Nico walked down the road in a tense silence. There was nothing he could do about his father following him, but he’d be damned if he’d let the old man get him into a conversation. It seemed like every word out of the old man’s mouth infuriated him. And, to make matters worse, the wind blew his hair into his face as he walked, so he tied it into a ponytail.

Hades contemplated his son as he walked behind him, and at last said, “I see you’re growing your hair out.” He pulled his own black ponytail around and said, “We have the same look.”

This was too much for Nico. He turned around and shot a death glare at his father and then pulled his own dark tresses into a tight braid. He stomped the rest of the way to the Rockbell house, neither looking back nor uttering a word.

=====

Later that night, Hades quietly opened the door to Nico’s room and looked down at his sleeping son. He thought back to when Nico and Bianca were small children, clinging to his pants leg and gazing up at him with expectant eyes. It was all he could do to keep himself from reaching out to stroke his sleeping son’s brow. He went down to the kitchen, where Naomi sat drinking a cup of tea and sat down.

“Human transmutation,” Hades muttered without preamble. “Why didn’t someone say something to them, try to warn them.”

Naomi snorted. “What could I have said to them? Besides, you’re their father, Mr. Renowned Alchemist. Why didn’t you warn them? You could have at least given them a phone call.”

Hades looked up from his tea and stared at the phone on the wall like it was some bizarre piece of abstract art. “I don’t know how,” he admitted.

Naomi was beginning to warm up to her topic. “Trisha was waiting for you! Those kids would never have tried to transmute their mother back to life if you’d been around. The poor dears, they had to watch their mother die twice.” Although she tried to hide it, Hades could hear the pain in her voice.

He stirred his tea thoughtfully. “Transmute their mother back to life, eh? Naomi, you were the one who had to clean up after the failed transmutation.” His next question rocked her to the core.

“Are you sure it was really Maria?”

She sighed and said, “I told you it wasn’t shaped like a person. I could never think of that thing as Maria.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Hades replied. “For example, what color were the eyes? What about the hair?”

Naomi stared at him. “What do you mean? Are you saying that thing wasn’t Maria? That those children sacrificed their bodies to create something that wasn’t even their mother?” By now she was almost shouting. “That’s the cruelest thing I’ve ever heard!”

Her voice carried through the house, and Nico, who had been awake the whole time, heard everything. He stayed still, though, waiting for his father to leave.

Soon enough, Hades von Hohenheim rose to his feet. “I’d best be on my way. My train is leaving soon. Naomi, thank you for letting me stay here.”

He moved to the hallway and stopped to look at a cork board that had photos all over it. He touched one and asked, “Do you mind if I take this?” It was a photo of him and his wife, and each one of them was holding a child in their laps.

Naomi’s warm smile returned. “Take any ones you want,” but he shook his head.

“I only want this one. It’s the only one with all four of us in it.” After a pause, he said, “Naomi Rockbell, you’ve been a good friend. Even though we’ve known each other most of your life, you never viewed me with suspicion, even though I look just like I did when we met, over fifty years ago. So I’m going to tell you something.”

She looked at him expectantly, and he went on.

“Something terrible will happen in this country soon. Get out while you still can.”

Her face hardened, and she said, “Terrible things have been happening in this country every year. Why should I run away? And there are those who need this house as a place to come home to.”

He smiled at her and walked out the door. As he made his way down the path to the street, she called out to him.

“Hohenheim, try to come back for a meal once in a while.”

He didn’t say anything, just thought how he’d miss her fine cooking.

=====

“Your father?”

Lester gave Bianca a quizzical look as they sat in the hotel room in Central. Will and Lester’s attendants, Austin and Kayla, looked on.

“Yes,” Bianca replied. “He just showed up after being missing for ten years.”

“Shouldn’t you go see him?” the Xingese youth asked.

“Even if I saw him, I don’t know what we would talk about,” Bianca replied. “I don’t remember much about him. But I would like to talk about alchemy with him. From what I can tell by the book collection he left in our house, he really knew a lot.”

She put her head into her hand. “But knowing brother, I’m sure he’s just arguing with dad, not talking about alchemy. I wouldn’t be surprised if he punched dad in the face.”

“That’s not hard to imagine,” Will put in wryly.

“Are you close to your father, Lester?” Bianca asked.

Lester shook his head. “It’s hard to be close to a man I’ve never had a conversation with.”

Bianca leaned forward. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

Will flushed and asked, “Did he, um, pass away?”

“No,” Lester said. “He’s just not someone you can have a casual conversation with, being emperor of Xing and all.”

This was too much for them. Both Bianca and Will burst out laughing so hard they both fell out of their chairs.

This was too much for Kayla. She sprang to her feet, glaring at the collapsed pair. “Shall I slay them for their disrespect, my lord?”

Lester raised a hand to stop them. “No, no, it’s quite alright. They’ve probably never seen a prince passed out in the street from lack of food.”

Will wiped a tear from his eyes and nodded.

“What you need to understand is that there are more than a dozen clans in our country, my own, the sun clan, as well as the moon clan, the blacksmith clan, the vineyard clan, and more. The eldest daughter of each clan is presented to the emperor as a concubine to bear his child. I am the seventh child of the emperor.”

“What about the right of inheritance?” Bianca asked.

“Well, that’s what I’m doing here in Amestris,” Lester answered. “The emperor has been stricken with illness. He may not have long to live. Presently, all the clans are desperately vying for power. Whoever wins the emperor’s favor will succeed him to the throne.”

Bianca caught on easily. “Since he’s dying, immortality would be the thing that would impress him the most.”

Lester nodded, but Will put in, “But if the emperor becomes immortal, how would you inherit the throne?”

“In his current condition, I doubt that even the Philosopher’s Stone would do more than buy him a little more time,” Lester replied. “In that time, I could take enough power to guarantee the success of the sun clan. Fifty thousand of my clan are depending on me. I was lured by the promise of the Philosopher’s stone, but then I learned about you.” He tapped Bianca’s arm.

“Because you have a metal body, you’re the closest thing to immortal.”

Bianca barked a bitter laugh. “The joke’s on you. With my soul bound unnaturally to this armor, I don’t even know if I’ll even live out a full human life.”

As the others in the room looked on, Will’s face suffused with horror, Bianca went on. “My body’s a ticking time bomb.”

=====

Percy lay in the hospital bed, recovering from the wounds he’d been dealt while fighting the homunculus, Kelli. He was recovering slowly, but doing well. Not so much so, poor Travis Stoll, who was asleep in the next bed. Percy’s contemplation was cut short by someone sitting down hard in the chair next to his bed.

“Dr. Asclepius,” Percy greeted his old comrade, “not doing so well, I see.”

The old man in the chair grunted. “As head coroner, I’m on my feet all day long. Indulge an old man’s aching back and feet.”

Percy grinned at him. “What brings you to the head coroner to the bedside of a humble soldier?”

“Cut the crap, Mustang,” the old man said tersely. “You’re up to something as usual. I saw your handiwork on that thing. I covered for you and signed off on it as Maria Ross, but you’re lucky I pulled rank and handled it personally. None of my underlings would have been fooled by it. You may have made something that looked good enough for a casual observer, but anyone with a trained medical eye would’ve seen right through it, even though you left it in a terrible state. You took a terrible risk.”

Percy continued to smile. “I knew you’d be handling such a high profile case.”

“But what made you so sure I’d cover for you?”

“We were comrades in arms in Ishval.”

The old man scowled. “Ishval was nothing but a laboratory to learn how to turn alchemists into murderers. We weren’t comrades in arms. We were accomplices.”

That knocked the smile off Percy Mustang’s face, but the voice of an aide called out, “Dr. Asclepius, your lunch break is over.”

He rose, but before he left, he had a parting word for Colonel Mustang. “If you keep walking these tightropes, one of these days, you’re gonna get a serious wakeup call.”

Percy pulled a book from under his pillow. “I already have.”

The coroner saw what he’d been reading. “A book on spinal anatomy. What happened?”

Percy gestured to the sleeping form in the next bed. “Travis was injured. He suffered spinal damage. Is there anything that can be done?”

Dr. Asclepius considered. “It depends on the degree of damage, but if it’s the spine, it’s unlikely that I can do anything.”

Then he rose and exited the hospital room.

A little while later, Cecil Havoc came in. By now Travis was awake. Cecil turned first to Percy and said, “The package is in transit.”

Percy smiled. “It looks like things are beginning to move forward.”

“It will have to be without me,” Travis said. “I’m no use like this.” He gestured at his unmoving legs.

Cecil paled. Percy recalled that he and the Stolls were cousins, so this was probably hitting him hard.

“Can’t you get automail, like Stygian Iron?” Cecil asked.

Travis shook his head. “My spine was completely severed. The nerves can’t be connected.”

Percy signaled Cecil to come to him. “I have a delivery errand for you, Lieutenant Havoc. Memorize this note, and destroy it.” He handed him a sheet of paper and a sealed envelope.

Cecil looked at the paper, not believing that his commanding officer was so calm about Travis being paralyzed, his career being over. But then he read the paper. It was a name, a single sentence, and an address.

Dr. Chiron, AKA Dr. Brunner. He has a Philosopher’s stone used for medical purposes.

Cecil memorized the address, touched a lit match to the note, and strode quickly out of the hospital.

=====

Kindly old Dr. Brunner was about to close his small office for the night, when he heard a sharp rapping on the door. He opened it and then tried to push it closed when he saw the soldier on his doorstep, but the man in uniform stuck his booted foot into the way.

“Dr. Brunner, I’m here to escort you back,” he barked in a gruff voice.

“What do you want with me?” Brunner said. I’m just a simple country doctor.”

“Cut the crap, Chiron,” the soldier barked. The old doctor feigned surprise, but the soldier pushed the door open and stepped into the office. Behind him, a second figure entered as well.

“Now, now,” the soldier said. “Is that any way to treat an old friend?”

Brunner (or Chiron) pulled back in horror as the soldier’s form shifted into an old woman. He recognized her as well as her drowsy looking companion. He attempted to retreat back into his office, but Morpheus had cut him off, moving with surprising speed for someone who barely seemed to be conscious.

“What a dump!” Akhlys exclaimed, the gruff tones of the soldier she’d been masquerading as gone. Now it was her familiar, fingers-on-the-blackboard screech. “Don’t look so scared, doc,” she said, but Brunner found no reassurance in her words.

“We’re not going to kill you,” she went on. “That would be a waste of a good pawn. We just want you to work with us. We’ve come to bring you back to Central.”

“And if I refuse?,” he said, trying to sound defiant.

Akhlys emitted her grating, rasping laugh. “Like you have a choice.”

Morpheus grinned up at him. “I’ll swallow up the entire town. It will vanish like a dream.”

Brunner moved toward Akhlys. He knew what the poison of her claws could do to him, but he was beyond caring. “Oh gods, just kill me,” he moaned.

“You don’t get off so easy, doc,” she said, baring her sharp teeth in his face. “If you try to kill yourself, Morpheus will follow through with destroying the town.”

=====

Cecil pounded on the door to the doctor’s office. “Hey, doc! Are you in there?”

A passerby called out, “Did you forget something?”

“What are you talking about?” Cecil asked.

“Weren’t you the one who just left with Dr. Brunner? I saw you leave with him just ten minutes ago. You and the doctor, and your sleepy friend.”

The light dawned on Cecil. He headed back to the station, wondering how Colonel Mustang would take the news that his prime hope had been taken by homunculi.

=====

“So you’re saying your metal body could reject your soul at any time?,” Lester asked.

“It could be a year from now; it could be tomorrow,” Bianca said. “I have no idea how much time I have left.”

“Now do you understand?” Will said, holding back tears. “This is the opposite of being immortal.”