![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batsutousaiTitle: Come What May
Series: Part one of Our Sinner's Redemption
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Darius/Edward Elric/Heinkel, pre-Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Warnings: Ed's potty mouth, spoilers for FMA:B ending, canon-typical violence, pile 'o OCs, survivor's guilt, angst, original character death, slow build (btwn Ed & Roy), referenced underage relationships, off-screen violence against women
Summary: After the Promised Day, with his alchemy still intact thanks to Hohenheim's sacrifice, Ed finds himself and his chimera team getting dragged into the shadowy world of military secrets in an attempt to keep Bradley's legacy from causing a civil war.
A/N: There is a side-story for this chapter, from Roy's PoV, which can be found, as always, on Archive of Our Own or LiveJournal. It's in the last scene, so best to read this entire chapter before going looking for it.
I love how well you lot know Ed. XD
While I was working on the guide for Ed's squad, I did one for my original State Alchemists. It includes a couple that showed up in From the Worst of Times, but not in this series (so far), and one from Dreaming in Red and Gold, who will appear in chapter 19 (I think?), so it's something of a pass-around guide. ^.^; It is, however, also full of spoilers for the characters' backstories, some of which you'll find out in the next couple of chapters, some of which you won't find out in this fic, so if you're a person who doesn't like being spoiled, best not to look at the guide. (Sorry. There wasn't really a good way to do a spoiler-free guide for them.)
Chapter Seventeen
-0-
While Heinkel – and Darius, though he was a bad judge right then – didn't mind Elicia visiting, it hadn't occurred to any of them that 'brass-level security' meant it was going to be a pain in the arse to get her in to see them. Elicia's pouty face got them past the front desk without having to sign her in – they traded high-fives in the stairwell – but the soldier standing at attention outside the room door was not moved by such, so Ed ended up having to pull rank, which he hated.
"We're a good team," Elicia informed him as they stepped into Darius' room.
"What did you do?" Heinkel asked tiredly from where he'd been hunched over the Aerugonian primer that Ed had found at the library and devoured in approximately three hours, much to Heinkel's unending disgust and Darius' drugged amusement.
"I forgot what tight security meant in terms of getting non-military personnel in as visitors," Ed admitted with a shrug, while Elicia walked very slowly across the room and looked hopefully up at Heinkel. "It would be easier if I wasn't trying to avoid a paper trail."
"The danger of accumulating rivals," Heinkel offered, using the more child-appropriate term for 'enemies looking to use anything they can against you', as he turned and picked Elicia up with his good arm. "And how have you been, Miss Elicia?"
"Good," Elicia chirped, gently hugging him around the neck. "Big Brother says I have to be super-duper definitely big-time careful, or he's gonna take me home."
"That's because your big brother knows how much longer it takes for things to heal when you're constantly pushing it," Heinkel replied, nodding.
"Please shut up," Ed muttered; the last thing he needed was for Elicia to learn he was a terrible patient and then emulate him, because it was even odds if Gracia, Mustang, or Ed himself would kill him for that first.
Elicia turned wide eyes on him. "Did you get hurt, Big Brother?"
"Mr Lion's talking about something that happened a long time ago," Ed insisted.
Heinkel raised an eyebrow at him and Ed huffed and rolled his eyes.
Elicia seemed to believe that – Ed had picked her up a few times without trouble, which went a long way towards proving he was fine, he was sure – and turned to the book Heinkel had been reading. "What's this?"
"A book on the Aerugonian language," Heinkel explained patiently, carefully resettling her in his lap so she could see better.
Elicia peered over at it curiously. "Big Sister Sabine said her name is A-e-ru-go-ni-an," she informed him, pronouncing the word slowly, as though trying to make certain she got all the syllables, and it was probably the most adorable thing Ed'd heard all morning.
"Did she tell you what it meant?"
Elicia shook her head. "She said she didn't know. Her mama picked it because it sounded different."
Ed snorted at that as he dropped into the chair on the other side of the table. "I'll believe that."
Elicia looked hopefully towards him. "Do you know what it means?"
Ed shrugged. "Nope. There's a Sabine River, though, in Aerugo, and I guess it's a pretty popular girl's name, since they use it in that book a few times."
Elicia perked up at that. "I wanna see!"
Heinkel motioned towards Ed, who snorted and caught the book by one corner, dragging it across the table and turning it so he could see it. "I can read you a few passages," he offered as he picked up a scrap of paper to mark where Heinkel was.
"Okay!"
"In Amestrisan or Aerugonian?" Ed asked as he flipped to the first passage he remembered.
"Uh..."
"He can do both," Heinkel suggested.
"Both!"
"I'm sure my accent is horrendous," Ed warned before settling in to read first the Aerugonian, then the translation. Which turned into Elicia wanting to learn how to say very specific phrases. Which then became, once he'd woken up, Darius attempting to trip Ed up by requesting he translate the most inane sentences ever, and Ed ended up having two different dictionaries and his alchemy journal opened next to him so he could write down declensions and scribble notes to himself.
By the time it was time for Ed to take Elicia home, they'd all clearly had a good time, and Darius and Heinkel both looked better for the entertainment, so Ed knew he was going to be sneaking her in again.
Darius was kept in hospital for two weeks, and they were all about ready to throttle each other by the time he was released to 'take it easy' in the hotel room Ed got them.
Ed had already gone through all of the Aerugonian, Cretan, Drachman, or Xingan books he could find in both the military and civilian libraries, Intelligence, and the Armstrong library (which the major had invited him to check after Ed dropped by Intelligence for their stash) by then, and Heinkel was making his own steady way through the pile, while Darius rolled his eyes at both of them (and read the books Ed kept slipping under his pillow when he thought they were both asleep or otherwise occupied).
Aerugonian and Cretan were the easiest to find resources for, and the easiest to learn, since they used the same alphabet as Amestrisan and shared some words. Drachman resources were only a little less common than the other two, but they used an alphabet that was a mix of Amestrisan and what looked, to Ed, to be a relative of what little writing he'd seen in Xerxes, which made learning it far more difficult, especially as more than half of the Amestrisan books on the subject didn't use the Drachman alphabet.
As for Xingan, well, there wasn't much on the language of their distant neighbours, and none of what Ed managed to find used the strange alphabet Ling had used on that note for Lan Fan, which was a serious pain in the arse, but he'd learnt what he could. And since he was learning languages to keep from having to use another translator for messages passed in something other than Amestrisan, he didn't suppose it really mattered if he learned proper Xingan; it wasn't very likely that anyone would actually use it. (Still, he'd probably end up asking Al to teach him once he got back.)
Bored, Ed had gone back to the library and taken out some alchemy books that he'd never read before, but those weren't much of a distraction from Darius' whining about how he was sick of being wounded and stuck inside all day, or Heinkel's irritated huffing as he tried some of the practice sentences in the books he was reading, which Ed had breezed through, but he was struggling with. (There was nothing he could do about being a fucking genius, okay? And fuck alone knew what language knowledge he'd gained from the Gate – he and Al had long assumed it have given them more than just alchemy knowledge – to augment his natural knowledge retention.)
Visiting the Hugheses was always a relief, but he couldn't do it all the time. For one, it wasn't fair to force Heinkel to always be the only one at Darius' beck and call, and the part-lion needed to escape from the hotel room too, sometimes. For another, Gracia had enrolled Elicia in a local preschool when it had started, the week before Ed and his team's return, in the hopes that it would help her adapt to spending hours away from her mum every day, while avoiding the dramatic parting on the first day of school that they'd all heard horror stories about. And, while pulling her out for the day didn't really hurt anything – and Ed was absolutely willing to teach her a little bit about whatever he or Heinkel were reading that day – he could see the sense in teaching her, now, that Ed – or Mustang – being in Central wasn't an automatic pass from school.
All of this turned into Ed donning his uniform and storming into Command midway through the first week of Darius' release.
"Lieutenant Colonel Elric!" Grumman's designated secretary, Second Lieutenant Days, recognised as he shoved the heavy door of the bastard's outer office open.
"Is he in?" Ed demanded.
"Yes, but–"
"Is he with someone or on the phone?"
"No, but–"
Ed ignored her and shoved his way into the inner office, to find Grumman sitting calmly at his desk, clearly in the process of reading through a report. He raised an eyebrow as Ed stalked up to his desk and dropped his hands down on the edge. "Fine," Ed snarled.
Wisely, Grumman kept any victorious smiles to himself. That said, the file he handed over was sitting out on his desk, very obviously waiting for Ed to give in. "Consider it a curiosity, rather than a mission," he suggested as Ed snatched the file.
"Go fuck yourself, sir," Ed retorted as he straightened and glanced through the file. It had basic information on each of the alchemists who were working in the labs – far, far less than the personnel files he'd got into, but he also hadn't gone snooping for information on the non-military certified alchemists in the labs, so that was new – as well as information on each of the labs, and what Grumman would like to see them become. Laboratories one – which was weapon and transport development, managed by General Bess and Major General Colt – and four – which was a chemical lab, managed by Lieutenant General Peabody – were both well on their way to being what Grumman wanted, judging by the checks next to each of them on the paper, but the two alchemy laboratories were lagging behind, and neither had any names for who was managing them. "Well, there's your first problem; who's in charge of the labs?"
Grumman folded his hands together on top of his desk. "I feel like we just discussed this," he remarked.
Ed huffed. "So Armstrong's busy with Intelligence and you've got Mustang and me on clean-up, fine. Lack of formal military training or no, if you're going to trust a State Alchemist to lead a team in a battlefield situation, you should be able to trust them to manage a lab with a bit of oversight, right?"
Grumman raised both eyebrows at Ed. "Feel free to put in your report which one you think would be best suited to the task. And do keep in mind that they'd have to be aware of their surroundings enough to be able to report on the work of the other alchemists, not just trust their words for it."
Ed closed his eyes because, okay, yeah, that was a problem with research-focussed alchemists. Just like that fucker, Tucker, and how his alchemy had led to him neglecting his own daughter until he realised he could use her as a part of his research.
Awesome, yeah, the last thing he needed was to be reminded of how he'd failed Nina. He snapped the folder closed and turned to leave.
"Lieutenant Colonel," Grumman called, and Ed stopped before he could open the door, glaring down at the doorknob. "Be thorough."
Ed shot a glare over his shoulder. "I know what alchemists are capable of; if there are any problems, I'll drag them back in chains."
Grumman nodded, so Ed stormed out and made for their hotel; he might as well give Heinkel a spell while he looked over the paperwork.
Grumman's eventual intention for the alchemy labs, was to have laboratory two focussing on medical-based alchemy, while laboratory three focussed on defensive alchemy.
Laboratory three, from Major Armstrong's brief reports from three months ago, was still doing some work with weaponised alchemy, with a side of precious metals – Quicksilver's doing, Ed suspected – but Iron-Form had been trying to simplify his arrays to create armour from nearby materials, working with Ceramic and Quicksilver to incorporate their specialities. (Ed almost thought Iron-Form could make a good manager, at least for lab three, but looking good on a brief report was something entirely different from actually doing the task.)
Laboratory two, on the other hand, was far from Grumman's goal, and Ed knew a lot of that was due to Amestris' medical-based alchemy being next to useless without the assistance of a Philosopher's Stone. (He made a mental note to ask Al to actually send those Xingan alchemy texts he kept teasing, and either a translation or a language primer or some variation of the two.) For the moment, Armstrong reported they were working on plant and animal-based alchemy, the latter of which made Ed suspect chimeras. (He really wished he could just shut that down entirely, but there were no laws against animal experimentation, and he really fucking hated that.)
In the end, he decided to do laboratory three first, hoped it would be a quick run and he could hand it over to Iron-Form to manage, and then he could waste the rest of his leave trying to rearrange laboratory two into something he could stomach.
Because he could see where this was headed: either he or Mustang needed to take charge of the alchemy labs, and Ed was the one most likely to be passing through Central for a surprise inspection, so it was going to end up being his job, even if Mustang was the one actually marked down as being in charge. Which, well, duh. Alchemy prodigy or not, Grumman couldn't actually put down Ed as the person in charge of either of the labs; he was only seventeen, and the other two labs were both managed by members of the brass, so even if Ed was doing all the work, Mustang would be getting the credit. (Some things never changed, though Ed was far more okay with passing the credit on to the bastard now than he'd been before, and he couldn't honestly say if that was maturity, or the fact that he was very determinedly in this for Mustang, rather than a means to his own ends.)
Well, fine. Being in charge of banging the alchemy labs back into shape would both give him something to focus on after they finally finished cleaning up the pro-Bradley mess, and also give him an excellent excuse to visit the Hugheses on a fairly regular basis, without anyone in the military looking at him oddly for always making side-trips to Central. Better yet, he could forego the uniform in the labs, because past experience said he'd look far less conspicuous in a lab coat; Ed could always get behind military work that didn't require the fucking uniform.
Getting out of the hotel room the next morning was only difficult because Ed had let himself be talked into serving as Darius' 'teddy bear' the night before and had stupidly fallen asleep, so he'd had to waste time disentangling himself from the grabby fuck, and Heinkel, the arsehole, had just sat at the table and laughed at his struggle. On the upside, he left feeling a lot less guilty about leaving Heinkel alone with Darius all day. On the downside, he was probably going to end up paying for it that night. (Maybe he'd just take Gracia's open offer and crash on her couch? No, because then Heinkel really would be out for revenge.)
It wasn't a long walk, but the morning's struggle still left him arriving long after most of the staff would have been expected to be there. The guard at the gate gave him a suspicious frown as he approached, and said, "Hey, kid, this is military proper–"
His mouth snapped shut when Ed pulled out his pocket watch, and Ed smiled a bit meanly as recognition bloomed across the man's face. "I know where I am, Sergeant," he promised, patting the man's arm as he stepped past. "Keep up the good work."
"Yes, sir!" the man called out, in that military tone of voice that said he was standing at attention and saluting.
Ed sighed, rolled his eyes, and didn't bother looking back.
There had been updated blueprints for all four labs in the file Grumman had handed over, so Ed adopted a purposeful air and made for the men's locker room, where he expected he'd be able to find a lab coat to run off with. He was in luck, managed to find one that he didn't have to resize, and he slipped it on before returning to the halls of the lab.
He didn't have a particular destination in mind, just started wandering, holding tight to his purposeful air so no one was likely to pay him any particular mind. There wasn't much actual alchemy going on – which didn't surprise him, in all honestly, because actual transmutations were quick, it was the designing of the arrays that took time – but he saw a few people collecting materials from the large shop that took up most of the ground floor, and he stopped to listen in on a couple of debates. When most of them left for lunch, Ed ignored his own stomach in favour of snooping through some of the labs, poking through research that had been left out in the open, then went to get his own food when people started returning.
Most of the researchers were looking into ways to weaponise alchemy, rather than turning it into a defence, and Ed suspected that was part familiarity – the Dwarf in the Flask and Bradley had hardly found defensive alchemy a priority – part a lack of creativity. After all, what sorts of defensive things could you do with alchemy? Create a shield? Could it stop bullets or alchemic attacks? No? Is it something a non-alchemist soldier can activate in the field only as needed? Also no? Then why bother?
Ed rubbed tiredly at his face between bites; dammit, lab three was supposed to be the easy fix. Maybe he should just spend Friday surveying lab two, then take the weekend to figure out which one he'd need to prioritise and give each of them a week to light a fire under their pathetic arses. Ugh, he did not want to waste the rest of his leave dealing with this shit, but it looked like he was going to.
"There's got to be rules against this fuckery," he complained to his lunch; he was going to make Grumman pay for this so bad. Right as soon as he figured out how. (Maybe he could ask Chris. She seemed to have some sort of history with the bastard, and Ed could probably win her to his side by complaining about how he was on leave, dammit. And, anyway, after two days of this, he was probably going to need the drink.)
He'd brought his borrowed lab coat out of the building with him, so the soldier on duty at the gate – different from that morning – let him pass with barely a glance. And it wasn't really like Ed cared about military security – fuck knew he'd used the holes he'd found to get into all sorts of trouble, like sneaking into the unguarded personnel room after everyone had gone home for the night – but given how unstable some arrays could be, and the fact that this stupid mess was pretty much guaranteed to become his problem, he sighed and turned around before he reached the door into the lab, walking back to the soldier, who didn't even cast him a glance that time, too busy picking at a loose string on his uniform.
Ed was out here on his leave, because of stupid fucking Grumman, and this lazy fuck was fussing with his uniform.
"Corporal!" he barked in his best commander voice, the one that never worked on his team and had only ever worked about a third of the time on his squad.
The man came to attention, automatically saluting as he turned to Ed's direction. Of course, as soon as he realised the only person standing there was an unimpressed blond teenager wearing a lab coat, he relaxed, his mouth turning down into a frown. "Not funny, kid."
Ed raised an eyebrow at him. "What's not funny, Corporal, was you letting me in without anything more than a glance because I happened to be wearing a white coat."
The soldier rolled his eyes. "Fine, you've had your fun. Go home." Then he turned away, muttering, "Kids."
"This kid," Ed said, way beyond irritated, now, "is Lieutenant Colonel Elric." The corporal stiffened, slowly turning to look back at Ed, who yanked out his pocket watch as proof of who he was, setting the keys jingling angrily. "And you, Corporal," he continued as the man quickly saluted him, his eyes following Ed's watch as he shoved it away, "should be asking everyone who passes for proof that they belong here, not just fucking checking that they're wearing a lab coat. This is not a fucking free-for-all, and if some civilian or curious soldier gets hurt because you're too busy picking at your uniform, I'll hand you over to lab two next time they need a human subject." Okay, no he wouldn't, but it was the first thing that popped to mind that wouldn't require Ed hunting down the man's CO and fucking around with military politics in the middle of his damn leave.
The corporal had turned nearly as white as Ed's coat and was nodding rapidly. "Yes, sir," he got out in a rush. "It won't happen again, sir."
"You'd best hope not," Ed shot back, before turning and stalking back towards the building. Which, well, he didn't really feel any less pissed off, but at least he'd blown off some steam? Sort of? (Okay, not even a little bit. Dammit.)
He made his way back inside and went back to wandering, letting himself get distracted by a debate three alchemists were having about whether or not adding colours to the weapons they made was a useless waste of energy. He was fairly certain one of them was Max Magnus Norman, the Colourway Alchemist, who, according to both his personnel file and the information Grumman had handed over, had a peculiar habit of adding colour to...everything. (Ed was kind of impressed that the building was still the boring military grey, though he suspected someone had talked to Colourway about that before he was let inside.)
Peculiar habit or no, he managed to make some excellent points about colouring alchemically enhanced weapons being a good way to keep them from getting mixed in with the normal weapons, however... "You're forgetting one important point," he said, stepping around the doorway he'd been lurking behind, and all three of them jumped. "Approximately four percent of the military has some form of colour-blindness, including members of the Armoury staff. If you add colours to things, especially weapons – which, actually, not a terrible plan – you're going to want to work in patterns and use contrasting shades."
"...who are you?" one of the two researchers asked, looking more confused than upset about being interrupted by someone who looked a little too young to be running around unaccompanied in a military lab.
Ed shrugged and smiled. "Me? Nobody."
Colourway – getting a good look at him, Ed was certain it was him, between his multi-coloured hair and the bizarre patterns and colours of his clothing under his white lab coat, which looked oddly out of place with everything else – scoffed. "Nobody?" He gave Ed a considering glance. "I think I preferred your old coat. Good colour."
Ed felt his grin widen; somehow, he'd had a feeling he'd like Colourway. "My team told me it made me too much of a target," he offered a bit helplessly. "I do miss it sometimes, but people shoot at me less often when I wear neutral colours."
"Sad," Colourway decided, sounding like he meant it, before turning to the researchers, both of whom were looking between them in confusion. "This is the Fullmetal Alchemist."
Recognition dawned and Ed very quickly found himself getting drawn into the argument, which turned into more of a debate about what colours and patterns would be best for weapons, rather than whether or not the colouring was worth it. It was actually kind of nice, getting the chance to argue about something so mundane. He also ended up picking up a few new arrays: one for polka dots, one for starburst patterns, and one for pulling hints of colours from minerals and pockets of gases, so the staffs and knives he liked to transmute at a moment's notice from the ground would be a 'little less bland'. (Ed could get behind that, if only for the potential expression on an opponent's face when he transmuted a fluorescent pink staff and whapped them over the head with it.)
"So," Colourway said as they left the two researchers to their work, "what brings the military's resident terrorist-chaser to Lab Three? Surely not the need to create beautifully coloured weaponry."
Ed snorted. "If you think anything 'beautifully coloured' is gonna get accepted by the Armoury, you're completely barmy."
Colourway nodded, his expression turning slightly distracted. "Yes. I suspect my brothers would agree with you there."
Ed peered into a room they were passing, only to find it empty. "Führer wants to get the labs up to scruff, and since I happen to be in Central for a bit..." He shrugged, then added "Not chasing terrorists, mind you."
Colourway smiled at that. "Oh, good. I should hate to think someone's running around in here thinking to blow people up." He frowned slightly. "Although, now that I consider it..."
"Lab full of alchemists who are designing weapons for the military?"
"Yes, that," Colourway agreed, before casting Ed a considering look. "You stand out far less than the large bald man that came through a few months ago," he decided. "He made a nuisance of himself and was so very obviously military. Some of the researchers hid their work when they heard him coming."
Ed was beginning to suspect that Colourway – who was described as both easily distracted and extremely absent-minded – wasn't actually either one, because he'd been the only person so far to recognise Ed on sight, and his comments just then...
Well, it was hardly the first time Ed had come across a State Alchemist who put on a front so people would underestimate them, and he doubted it would be the last. Fuck, he sometimes caught himself playing up his age or his well-known temper just because it made people underestimate him.
"Yes," he said to Colourway, nodding a bit absently to someone passing them going the other way, "Major Armstrong is a little hard to miss. It serves him well as a soldier, but for this..." He shrugged.
Colourway stopped walking and craned his head back to stare at the ceiling, his eyes very focussed on a particular tile.
When Ed stopped next to him and glanced up at the tile, he was surprised to see a tiny starburst on it, close enough in shade to the rest of the hallway that you wouldn't notice it at a quick glance. And on the tiles around it, too. "Are those–" he heard himself asking quietly.
"Not my doing," Colourway admitted, looking back over at Ed with a smile. "Just one of the surprises these labs hide."
Ed narrowed his eyes at the man; definitely not absent-minded. "Should I ask what the exchange rate is for 'surprises' around here?"
Colourway's smile widened. "It would be nice to be allowed to paint my lab space."
"I'll consider it."
Colourway opened his mouth to continue, but snapped it shut as the building trembled slightly. They traded confused looks, and he said, "Earthquake?"
But Ed could taste it now, that hint of a zing that the air acquired when a transmutation was activated nearby, and he turned and hurried after the taste as the building trembled again.
Finding the room was easy – the blue light of an active array was glowing out of the open door – and he shouted, "End that transmutation before I stop it for you!" as he rushed through the doorway.
The two researchers who were kneeling on either side of a large circle painted on the floor both jumped away, disrupting the alchemy, because if Ed interrupted the transmutation for them, they'd get hit with the rebound.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" a heavy-set man demanded as he stood from where he'd been watching from one of the lab tables on the far side of the room. Johann Schweitzer, the Iron-Form Alchemist, Ed recognised from his personnel photo.
"I could ask the same of you," he shot back as he reached the edge of the array and looked it over. It was a mid-level array, designed to pull iron from the surroundings to create weapons – Iron-Form's speciality – and easily able to be controlled by multiple alchemists without having them fight each other and cause a rebound. They'd brought in iron from the shop on the ground floor to act as materials, but the array was designed to pull from the closest source, first, and since it was drawn on the ground... "You were about to bring the fucking building down on our heads!"
"What?" one of the researchers asked, looking horrified. "But it's not supposed to do that!"
"It's designed to use iron, boy, not concrete," Iron-Form added, pointing at the concrete at their feet.
Ed closed his eyes, a lot less hopeful about letting Iron-Form run anything now. "Would someone please tell me what is supporting the concrete?" When none of them seemed to have a response to that, he suggested, "Steel beams, perhaps?"
"Oh," one of the researchers said, while the other whispered, "Shit."
Iron-Form scoffed. "There is sufficient iron here for it not to affect the building," he insisted, waving at the stacked iron around them.
"Except your little experiment was, Johann," Colourway called from behind Ed, by the doorway, and when Ed glanced back, he found the State Alchemist wasn't the only person standing there, though he was the only one who looked anything approaching calm.
"The building was shaking," one of the men standing with Colourway added, looking honestly freaked out.
Ed huffed and pointed to a specific spot on the array on the ground. "You're telling it to pull iron from the nearest source and then placing it on the floor, moron," he said, and Iron-Form turned a glare on him. Before he could respond to the insult, Ed continued, "The concrete's not that thick of a layer, which is why there's very firm rules about using outside materials to do any arrays, rather than just pulling from the floor and replacing it later, so the steel supports are way closer to the array than your little piles of iron." He kicked at the nearest one, which was out of his reach. "And because the support beams are connected throughout the building, you're destabilising the whole fucking thing."
Iron-Form looked a bit like he wasn't sure if he was more angry, embarrassed, or freaked out, his skin turning a sort of mottled dark red over pale white. "That– I wasn't–" And then he clearly settled on anger, for he pointed a finger at Ed and snapped, "What the hell do you know? You're probably just one of Max's pet apprentices! Get out of my lab!"
Oh, yeah, no way Ed was ever going to let Iron-Form have charge of anything. Crossing his arms over his chest and giving the man his best unimpressed stare, he deadpanned, "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist." There followed a heavy silence, during which Iron-Form's skin went completely pale. "If I catch you trying another array like this, without the proper limiters or direction markers, while inside the building, I will take your watch and you can find another job. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir," Iron-Form agreed, his voice shaking.
Ed nodded, then clapped his hands together and knelt to change the array, adding a series of limiters to keep from drawing the iron from compound mixtures, like the steel support beams, or Ed's own automail. "There," he said, standing up and stepping back. "Now you can activate it."
From behind him, he heard someone loudly whisper, "How long did it take Schweitzer to make that array?"
"Four months," someone else replied, before Iron-Form glared past Ed at the group in the door and they fell completely silent.
Ed, for his part, just sighed; adding limiters was easy, even with having to restructure a few lines to make them fit in properly and not overload the array, so it really wasn't that impressive a thing for him to have done. And he wasn't in the habit of making new arrays, really, just improving on what others used, so he really couldn't say how long this array would have taken him to create.
Iron-Form moved off the array and the two researchers stepped forward nervously. They traded uncertain looks, then knelt and, nearly in sync, touched the array.
The piles of iron quickly vanished, forming two slightly differently shaped canons in the middle of the array.
"Boring!" Colourway called from where he'd joined Ed while he hadn't been paying attention. "A bit of colour–"
"Get out of my lab, crack-pot," Iron-Form snapped, pointing a shaking finger at Colourway over the canons.
"A nice red?" Colourway suggested, looking hopefully at Ed.
"I told you, red is a target," Ed returned, before jerking his head to the doorway. "Come on. At least let them inspect the finished product before you go making additions of your own."
"I'd only be adding a bit of colour," Colourway insisted as he joined Ed in leaving the lab, and Ed rolled his eyes, while Iron-Form snarled something that was, doubtless, insulting behind them, too low to catch.
Out in the hallway, one of the researchers, who couldn't have been much older than Ed, asked, "Are you really the Fullmetal Alchemist?"
"Last I checked," Ed agreed.
"Jay is going to be so upset he's not here today," the researcher breathed, looking gleeful, and Ed turned a questioning look on Colourway.
"James Price, the Quicksilver Alchemist," Colourway explained, "has a minor case of hero worship."
Ed did not groan. Barely.
The researcher laughed. "Minor?" he returned. "No kidding, Maxie, he's practically got a shrine set up."
Ed gave in and groaned, rubbing at his face. Fuck his life. Fuck Grumman. Fuck everything.
"Does he really?" Colourway enquired, sounding interested. "Is it properly colourful?"
The researcher rolled his eyes. "Come on, Maxie. No, it's not colourful. You’re the only one who's obsessed with colours around here."
"How regretful."
"Nah. What was regretful was the week he spent trying to spell out 'Fullmetal Alchemist' using chemical symbols, and the week after that he spent debating which chemical elements he could rename–"
"Nope," Ed decided, turning away. "Don't want to know, don't care. Leaving." He was going to find a way to avoid Quicksilver if it killed him.
The researcher just laughed.
Colourway caught him up before he reached the second set of doorways down from Iron-Form's lab, peeking into one of the doors to see if there was anything interesting going on. (Given the recent upset, it was no surprise that no one had really got back to work.) "Quicksilver," Colourway said, and Ed glanced back to find his eyes gleaming with amusement, "spends more time at lab four than here."
Ed nodded in understanding. "I'd heard he was a chemist," he admitted, because that had been in both Quicksilver's personnel file and what Grumman had handed over, and Armstrong had mentioned that he never seemed to be in lab three. "Easier to avoid him, I guess."
Colourway took the opportunity to laugh at Ed while he peered into another room.
There were three suits of armour in the room, all different from Al's, but they still had Ed stepping inside and walking closer to look them over.
"Franz Tausend," Colourway offered from the doorway, naming one of the non-certified research alchemists that had been in the paperwork Grumman had handed over. "He says he's looking into ways to make the armour move on its own."
Ed snorted. "Maybe with some sort of mechanical contraption inside."
"He suggested linking a living soul."
Ed shot Colourway a sharp look. "A living soul," he repeated, his tone far too flat, and Colourway gave an uncertain nod. "That's human transmutation."
"Temporary!" a voice called from behind Colourway, and the State Alchemist shifted out of the way, letting pass a mousy man with glasses that looked far too large for his face. "Let an alchemist who can't fight go into battle, with no harm to themselves."
Ed crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the newcomer; Franz Tausend, he expected. "Temporary or no, it's still human transmutation, and human transmutation is forbidden."
The man deflated somewhat. "But, in lab five–"
"I know what they did in lab five," Ed snapped. "It was despicable and beyond inhumane, not to mention forbidden for a fucking reason." He motioned towards the armour, watching the researcher for any sign of a lie as he demanded, "Do you know the dangers in performing soul alchemy? Do you know what happens to the mortal body left behind?"
"N-No," the man admitted, seeming to become even smaller.
Ed nodded and pointed at the piles of research scattered across the lab table next to the armour. "You have the weekend to destroy any hints of human transmutation; if I see it when I come back, I'm dragging you before the Führer in shackles." Because he'd made his own mistakes with this research, and he wasn't above giving second chances, especially when the person involved looked like they didn't fully understand what they were getting into.
"Yes, sir," the man agreed, looking very much cowed.
Ed allowed himself one last glance back at the armour, then stepped past the chastised researcher.
Before he could reach Colourway, who was watching him with a considering look, the researcher asked, "Fullmetal, sir, can I ask, what does happen to the mortal body?"
Ed glanced back at him, recalling what he'd heard from Al about Barry's body. "It's left defenceless and, if enough time passes, it will begin to decay. Should something happen to the body, can you imagine what would happen to your soul?"
The researcher shook his head, his face pale and eyes wide; a clear wish that he'd never asked.
Ed nodded, then stepped past Colourway and started down the hall again, feeling tired. Fucking Dwarf in the Flask and his twisted experiments.
"I was under the impression," Colourway said quietly as he fell into step with Ed, his voice unexpectedly focussed, "that all of lab five's files were destroyed when it exploded."
"Yes," Ed agreed. "They were remarkably thorough when they placed those bombs."
"...'they'?"
Ed offered him a smile that felt twisted and wrong. "They," he agreed, before glancing up at the ceiling, picking out the starbursts hidden in the tiles. "There are some surprises, I've discovered, that are best left to the rubble."
"...I suppose," Colourway allowed, sounding rather like he wasn't certain he agreed. Then he shifted, and when Ed glanced over, he found the man once again returned to the absent-minded, slightly barmy man that he usually appeared. "I wonder," he said, tone distracted, "if it would be considered human transmutation to change the colour of your skin."
Ed blinked at that and let his head tilt to the side as he gave the idea some consideration. "No more so than medical alchemy, I suspect. I mean, it's only skin-deep, unless you're intending to turn your heart green?"
Colourway's expression said he hadn't been until then. "Polka dots, maybe? Heart-shape–"
"Just stop," Ed suggested, and Colourway flashed him a too-bright smile. He shook his head. "We're you going to continue showing me around, or should I leave you to your ill-conceived experiments?"
"Am I showing you around?"
Ed shrugged. "You may just be serving as a distraction from things no one wants me to see," he allowed, before casting the man a considering look. "But I don't think you are."
Colourway smiled a bit absently at him as he picked at a loose thread on his lab coat. "I might be," he pointed out.
Ed shot him a smile with teeth. "If you have something worse in here than a researcher looking into soul alchemy, I don't suppose it matters whether I find it or not, it'll come to light in its own time. A few people might die, but..." He shrugged, feigning a casualness he didn't feel.
"Not in this lab," Colourway offered way too cheerfully.
Ed sighed; somehow, he'd known lab two was going to end up being a pain in the arse.
"But I know a couple other researchers who you can have a pleasant discussion with," Colourway added.
"How pleasant?" Ed asked as he followed the other man down the hall.
As it turned out, one was an idiot, and the other served as a nice discussion partner to end the day with, so he didn't get back to the hotel feeling homicidal, which was always a plus.
Lab two was, in turns, more and less stressful of an initial walk through. For one, the only State Alchemist loosely attached to lab two was the Blooming Alchemist, who was currently away on assignment in the west, and all of the plant-based research seemed to have ground to a halt without him there. (Ed was going to have to address that, ugh.) Also, no one seemed to recognise him, so he spent his entire visit just snooping around on his own.
That said, he didn't need a guide to find Giovanni Linden, a chimera researcher who had notes for animal/human hybrids. Upon discerning he was wholly aware of what he was doing and didn't care about the ethics, Ed rang Grumman and had him send a team of MPs to drag the fucker to prison. If Ed had any say in the matter, that researcher would be serving a life sentence.
Once the guy had been taken, he destroyed all his research, then had a nice long talk with the other three chimera researchers, which boiled down to, "If you have any of his research or your own work is showing signs of leaning towards combining animals and humans, you have the weekend to get rid of it. And if I ever discover that someone in here actually went the final step to creating a human chimera, you'll be stuck in a cell next to Linden."
But other than that, there wasn't much of note, and Ed was honestly a little worried about what he hadn't found.
When he got back to the hotel, he flopped down on the bed next to a reading Heinkel, and couldn't quite suppress a pleased noise when the man absently pulled out his hair tie for him, then started scratching his scalp. "Not a cat," he mumbled, even as he leant into the touch.
Darius scoffed from the table, where he was cleaning his gun. "So, how bad was it?"
"Some fuck-shit was researching human chimeras," Ed muttered.
Darius drew in a sharp breath and Heinkel's fingers stilled for a moment, before continuing their soothing motion. "And?" Heinkel asked, his attention clearly pulled from his book.
"MPs dragged him off and I destroyed his research."
"There's probably some at his home," Darius pointed out.
Ed lifted his head to shoot him a considering look. "Probably," he agreed. "How's your side?"
Darius' smile was all teeth. "Don't expect any acrobatics."
Ed nodded and reluctantly sat up, away from Heinkel's scratching. "So, dinner out, a quick wander past Command so I can check a couple files, some liberal destruction of property, then Madame Christmas?"
"No alcohol," Heinkel added, shooting a hard look at Darius.
"Aw, come on. Just one?"
"The doctor said no mixing alcohol with the pain medication," Heinkel reminded him.
Ed glanced towards the bottle of pills next to the bed Darius slept in, then raised an eyebrow at the man. When Darius slumped slightly, Ed nodded. "No alcohol, or you're on bedrest for the weekend."
Since Ed had made plans to take Elicia to the circus that had set up outside the city that weekend, and said Darius and Heinkel could both come if Darius promised to take it easy, weekend bedrest was a pretty good threat.
Darius slumped as much as he could manage with his side and nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Right!" Ed grabbed his hair tie from where Heinkel had dropped it and jumped off the bed. "You arseholes ready? I'm starved."
"And that's new how?" Darius returned as he carefully stood.
Heinkel sighed at them as he set his book aside and got out of bed, and Ed and Darius traded grins.
It was good to be getting out of the hotel room for the night, especially with the promise of a bit of destruction and some possible dirt he could shove in Grumman's face ahead of them.
Between the destruction of all of the human chimera researcher's private notes, getting some amusing blackmail stories out of Chris, and going to the circus with Elicia and his team (which involved so many animal training jokes, both of the chimeras looked ready to kill him and Elicia by the end of the day), Ed was in a much better mood to face down the labs, come Monday. Since he'd got confirmation that Blooming wouldn't be back until the end of the week, and it was only fair that he was there when Ed started going through his research, he decided to tackle lab three first.
Since all Grumman had requested was a report, Ed dropped by Command first thing on Monday and dropped the report he'd written up the night before on his desk. "Don't fuck with me," he suggested as Grumman picked it up. "Next time you want me to fix this shit, just say it straight up."
Grumman offered him a mild smile. "I wouldn't do that while you're on leave."
Ed crossed his arms over his chest and glared. "The fuck'd I just say, you smug-faced shit-for-brains?"
Out in the front office, someone gasped and something hit the floor with a hollow thump.
Grumman gave him a flat look. "Lieutenant Colonel."
Ed sighed. "Seriously. You don't need a report, you need someone riding herd on those idiots."
Grumman took a long moment to glance through Ed's report – he suspected it was punishment for his insult, and responded by flopping back into one of the rather uncomfortable couches that he'd thus far avoided, which he scowled at – then said, "Are you requesting to be put in charge of the labs?"
Ed snorted. "Oh, the brass would love that, you putting a lieutenant colonel in charge of two labs. Since you're avoiding getting the extra work–" he shrugged and shot the bastard a sharp smile "–I guess you'll just have to make it Mustang's job."
"Hm." Grumman sat down the report and picked up the phone with one hand, dialling with the other. "This is Führer Grumman," he said after a moment. "Please find Brigadier General Mustang for me."
Ed shifted on the couch and shot it another scowl. "Can I fix your couch?" he asked, because he suspected performing unsanctioned alchemy in Grumman's office would be a lot less mildly received than calling the Führer 'shit-for-brains'. (And he needed to pass that one on to Darius next time Heinkel was out, because he'd love it. He'd also make comments about Ed's self-preservation, but he'd enjoy the fact that he got away with it.)
"No. They aren't there for your comfort."
"No one likes you," Ed informed him, and someone out in the front office muffled what sounded suspiciously like a snicker.
Grumman picked his report back up and looked at it, a very obvious 'I'm ignoring you', and Ed grinned.
"Brigadier General," Grumman suddenly said, setting Ed's report back down. "Lieutenant Colonel Elric seems to think you should be put in charge of the alchemy labs here in Central." He was quiet for a moment, before his eyes flicked towards Ed. "He's aware."
Ed frowned, could almost understand the urge to tap lines right then.
"So he is," Grumman said next, a clear agreement, before falling silent, expression patient, as though he was just waiting for Mustang to give in to the inevitable.
And, ugh, Ed hated that expression, hated fucking Grumman and his certainty that he had them right where he wanted them. (Even if Ed was kind of doing the same thing, getting Mustang's name put on this, rather than his. Banking on the fact that Mustang knew, as well as he did, that the rest of the brass would give them all hell if Ed got officially put in charge; the military rank system was such a pain in the arse.)
Grumman laughed and Ed couldn't keep from grinding his teeth together as the bastard turned an amused smirk on him. "I'll be sure to pass that on to him."
Seriously. Ed was going to punch him.
"I will," Grumman said, before his expression turned thoughtful. "Ah, that reminds me, Major Armstrong is technically in charge of lab inspections right now. Shall I have him start formally reporting to you?" He glanced towards Ed again at whatever Mustang said. "Of course." Another pause. "It is. Thank you, Brigadier General." Then he hung up and turned to focus on Ed. "Brigadier General Mustang requests that you send copies of future reports to him; I will see to forwarding this one."
"Yeah, fine."
"And he expects to hear from you some time today."
Ed blinked at that, vaguely surprised. Which he...really shouldn't have been. Actually, he probably should have rung Mustang first, but it hadn't really occurred to him until last night that he should just make all of this official so no one could go bitching at him about how he didn't have the authority to order them around. (Not that he expected any of them would – his second name carried a lot of weight, and his rank did a fair bit itself – but there was always one fucker who decided they didn't want a kid mucking in their affairs.)
"...right," he said, once it became clear that Grumman expected a response.
Grumman nodded. "Please see Major Armstrong on your way back to the labs; he'll be reporting any future investigations he conducts to you."
Ed sighed and stood. "Yes, sir." Then he turned to leave.
As he reached the door, Grumman called, "And Lieutenant Colonel?"
"Yeah?"
"You're no longer on leave."
Ed turned and glared at him. "The fuck–"
" 'Shit-for-brains'?"
Okay, so he wasn't getting away with that one. But still, that wasn't worth two weeks, was it?
Who was he kidding? Grumman was just using that as a handy excuse to put Ed back on the roster, so he didn't get any heat for giving Ed work while he was on leave.
"Yes, sir," he ground out, before storming from the office and slamming the door behind him.
"Lieutenant Colonel," Days said with a sigh, clearly resigning herself to Ed's usual manner. Which was good, as often as he was coming to see their fucking Führer every time he made a stop in Central.
"He deserved it," Ed muttered, not caring that he sounded petulant, and stalked from the office before she could get it in mind to try reprimanding him.
With a sigh of his own, he turned towards Intelligence. At least it was never hard to find Armstrong, and Sheska had promised to see if she couldn't find any new language resources for him the last time they'd spoken, so he had that to look forward to.
Come What May Chapters:
01 || 02 || 03 || 04 || 05 || 06 || 07 || 08 || 09 || 10
11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15 || 16 ||
Extras:
Ch 04 (Roy) || Ch 07 (Roy) || Ch 10 (Roy)
Ch 10 (Darius - NSFW) || Ch 16 (Ed - NSFW) || Ch 17 (Roy)
We All Need Saving Chapters:
Unposted
Dancing With the Devil Chapters:
Unposted
.
