Worlds Collide

A/N: Kuragari, check bottom of chapter. Nomme de Plume, Tucker didn't die last story. As for Wrath, you'll see later. SadlerGirl, there was kind of a lot going on in this chapter, but glad you liked it. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, Sorry to bring back bad memories. Aideen is definitely becoming an experienced alchemist. Russell is going to be a regular character as he keeps working with Wrath, so I hope you can find him a little less annoying. Falman's daughter is a typical child of divorce, and Raine is a bit much to handle. And Dante is finally working toward the big battle, but the question is how is she going to deal with the betrayal.

Chapter 32

Daughters

Ed had felt the alchemic power rushing through Central, and forgetting both his sadness and the mild embarrassment that Roy had found him on the floor under the pretense of comforting their dog, sobbing over the news of Pinako.

“Roy,” Ed yelled, wiping his eyes, the lingering feeling in his muscles that he’d been run over by a massive vehicle going ignored. “The Gate. The twins are out there.”

Ed ran out of the house in time to see the object crash, Roy not far behind him. His only thoughts were of the twins as he charged through the streets, trying to get to them, even more so than the mysterious object that at an earlier point in his life would have taken up all of his attention. If something had happened to them, Ed would rip open the Gate himself and kill the bitch on the other side and anyone who was helping her. Thankfully, as he scanned the crowd of people, he saw Wrath’s tall head poking above the rest, Russell next to him. As he neared, he saw Fletcher and Falman, and saw the twins were there and were safe.

“Who’s Dante?” Ed heard Nicholas asking.

Dante? Ed hadn’t given that woman more than a few passing nightmares in the way of thought over the last few years. Why was his son suddenly speaking her name out loud?

“Don’t you read any history, Nicholas?” Aideen asked. “She’s the one who controlled the homunculi.”

“But… I thought that woman was eaten by one of the homunculi, Gluttony, right? She’d have to be better at more than alchemy to be around to be writing letters across the Gate.”

“What’s going on?” Ed asked, moving through the crowd of military officers and civilians to the voices of his children.

Wrath moved to Ed as he reached the cleared circle, and Ed didn’t like the deadened look on the former homunculus’s face. A pack of papers was held out to him, including research that had been done thus far and topped with a letter addressed to Dante.

She couldn’t still be alive. He’d witnessed her being eaten by Gluttony himself. This had to be wrong, a lie, anything but what it seemed.

“I thought maybe they’ve had contact with her before her death,” Falman suggested.

Ed read over the letter. It certainly didn’t seem that way.

Dante,

I send you this because I wish to know if there are any other suggestions you have for increasing our power. We have already captured a number of the men and women you suggested and their power seems to be helping us meet our goal, but I doubt we will be successful without a way to increase it further or for you to find a connection to your world like our own.

We could once again use your assistance.

Dietlinde Eckart

It definitely seemed that Dante was present in their world. The question was: Where?

She could be anyone with her powers, and it was frightening to think that right now, in the crowd of people, she could be standing, watching.

“You look sick,” Aideen said from her spot in front of Fletcher.

“I’m fine,” he lied. “It’s just a shock. Kind of like when we saw Frank for the first time.” Fiery eyes watched him closely, almost analyzing him.

“You’re afraid,” she said slowly, eyes narrowing.

“This isn’t the time to talk about this, Aideen.” He began flipping through the research, much of it was information he already had, while most of his mind tried to comprehend that Dante really seemed to be here.

“Ed?” a rich bass voice said as it approached. Ed almost blindly handed the stack of papers back to Roy, going to analyze the metal object.

“It’s one of those rockets that Frank told us about,” Nicholas said. “There was nothing else to it. Aideen checked it out.”

Ed glared up at the adults around him. “You let them get to the rocket first?”

“They’re fast, faster than us,” Wrath said as he approached the short alchemist. “What are we going to do?”

He looked up at the former homunculus seeing that lingering fear and anger from Dante’s regular torture when he’d been younger. “I might let you have a go at her for a bit of revenge, but first that means actually finding her.” He patted the muscular arm as he knelt beside the rocket.

He looked up at his daughter, whose molten eyes watched his every move intently. Dante couldn’t be back, couldn’t have been here all along. He wouldn’t risk his daughter to that parasitic soul, and it almost frightened him to think what he’d do if Dante tried and how far he'd go without remorse.

********

Al wrapped his long arms around his wife, letting her cry into his chest, their three children gathered around them, all embracing her, hugging, sharing in their grief.

He hadn’t really gotten to mourn, himself, as he was too busy trying to make preparations, deal with calling all friends and relatives, comfort Winry…

Being an adult, taking the role of the strong one sucked.

But looking down at the sad faces of his son and daughters helped as he steeled himself to his tasks. If he needed to be the strong one, he’d do it. He’d take his moment in the shower, when the water was too loud, drowning out the sound of him crying and mourning his adopted grandmother, knowing that he couldn’t expect his usually resilient wife to manage to handle all of this alone. She would recover, she would be strong, but if she needed him for support, he would be there.

At the moment, thinking of when he’d made the announcement to the stubborn and tiny woman that Sasha was going to be born and had been conceived shortly after their engagement, he smiled, remembering the woman at first trying to pound him into the ground for getting his precious granddaughter pregnant before going into a frenzy about getting supplies and wondering what the little baby would look like. Pinako had wanted to deny it at first, but had eventually given up on trying to pretend that she wasn’t thrilled to be a great-grandmother, and by the time the couple had adopted their elder son and younger daughter, she had been nearly as proud with her pictures of the family as Lieutenant Colonel Hughes had been.

Still, as he stood with his family, Al couldn’t shake the feeling that something was happening, a bit of that connection he'd always had with his older brother, a sixth sense when something was wrong.

********

Sitting on the sofa in the commanding officer’s home at the eastern headquarters, Frank read over a rather interesting historic novel. He’d found he enjoyed these, which provided stories to entertain him but also taught him a bit of the background of the world in which he found himself.

“Frank,” he vaguely heard as he continued to read. “Frank, I’m sorry to have yelled at you today.”

“It’s your job, Kain. It’s what you do.”

For the last three months, the couple had been stationed out in the eastern area of the country, as there were some concerns with Lior and Ishbal, the once-massacred tribe actually the lesser of the threats. The people of Lior once again were having wars over their religion, and there were factions that regularly attacked the government, forcing the military’s hand to once again take sides when really there was no desire to do so.

“I was too hard on you,” Kain said, the guilt evident in his voice.

Frank merely turned the page of the novel he was reading. “You’re my superior officer. You can’t go easy on me because we’re together.”

“But that’s just it. I was harder on you for that same reason.”

Frank looked up from his book, watching as Kain crossed over and pulled himself onto the larger man’s lap, something he didn’t do often as both men needed to be in the right mood so they didn’t feel they were a bit too old for this.

“I was so worried about you,” Kain said, laying his head on Frank’s chest. “I respect that you felt you had to go and save that girl, but you gave me no notice that you were. I thought something had happened to you. You scared me.”

Frank smiled and kissed the young colonel’s head. “I’m sorry Kain.”

He wrapped his arm around Kain’s waist, resting the arm with the book over his lover’s shoulders, continuing to read, enjoying the feeling of the man in his arms. He felt the man shifting, and heard papers crinkling below.

“Letters from your sisters?”

“Yes. They are asking when you’ll come to visit again. They all thought you were charming.”

“Well, I try,” Frank glanced down. “What does Anna mean, ‘the offer still stands?’”

“Oh…”

“I didn’t mean to be nosy.”

“No, it’s just… My sisters have always known I preferred my own gender, and that I’d never have a family of my own, so to speak. They’d all made the offer that if I found someone I wanted a family with, they’d help me get it. Since Anna’s the one closest to my age, it’s the safest for her.”

“Do you want a family?”

“I don’t know. I know I love watching you with the twins.” He rubbed a hand over Frank’s chest. “I just know I’ve never told anyone of my sister’s offer before. But I don’t know about the whole baby stuff at our ages. And Al can only adopt so many. And not that I think it should be soon.”

“Well, at least it’s something to think about.” Frank bent down and kissed his boyfriend, noticing the strange expression on Kain’s face as he did. “What?”

“Well, this wasn’t how I expected you to react. I thought you’d either be so excited that you’d be going out to adopt immediately or making arrangements with Anna or you’d panic and think I wanted something you didn’t.”

“Honestly, the idea of planning for a baby seems a little strange to me, not to mention the idea of three a.m. feedings at my age or playing catch with the kid when I’m in my fifties seems odd,” Frank said. “And we visit orphanages often enough running errands for the fuhrer or doing missions of goodwill. I prefer the attitude of ‘if it happens, it happens.’”

He ran his hand over the stubbly cheek. “I think when it’s time, if it’s time, we’ll know. Does that bother you?”

“No. I suppose it’s just nice to know if one of us thinks it is time, that we’ve found a child we can raise, we’re on the same page.”

Frank kissed Kain’s head again. “And besides, if we had a child together, I’d like it to look at least a little like you. Anna looks more like she belongs in the Elric family.”

Once again, the two settled into their positions, that conversation out of the way. Honestly, Frank was thrilled at the idea that Kain wanted a family with him, but he wanted to let things happen as they should, not rush into something as important as this. Despite that, he could just imagine his little lover and their daughter—Frank had always wanted a little girl, had even considered marriage briefly on Earth for that reason. It was a nice thought as he felt the warmth of the younger man still seated on his lap, reading over the letters from his sisters, all of whom had adopted Frank into their family willingly.

Then the telephone rang, rousing Frank from his daydream. Kain shifted on his thighs, grabbing the phone.

“Colonel Fuery,” he said, sounding rather official for the quiet man Frank knew elsewhere in their lives together. “Fuhrer, Sir, is everything okay?” Frank couldn’t hear much, but heard his own name on the other end of the phone. “He’s right here.”

Frank took the receiver from his boyfriend, speaking into it. “Frank speaking.”

“Frank, we need to know everything you do about Eckhart’s research.”

“I told you everything I know.”

“But I have one question: Did she seem to have a contact on our side?”

“I wouldn’t say it was from this world, but she definitely seemed to have someone who gave her new information when what we tried failed. I just assumed it was someone who had studied more thoroughly. You don’t think it was Ed’s father, do you?”

“No, we think it was someone who’s still here. Have you ever heard the name Dante?”

“Possibly once, but there is a novel with that name in that is widely read in my world. You think this Dante person might be responsible for their work?”

“They broke through again, Frank, and there was a letter addressed to Dante inside of a small rocket. I was hoping to ease Ed’s mind after talking to you, but it seems we have a major problem. And while I need Kain to continue his work there…” There was a pause.

“I will come to Central,” Frank said, “on the first available train.”

“Thank you, Frank. I really am sorry to separate you both.”

“I understand.”

There was a click on the other end, and Kain was looking at him curiously. Frank handed him the phone to hang up and looked into those bespectacled eyes.

“Roy said that they think a woman named Dante has been helping the Thules.”

He felt the body in his arms grow rigid. “She can’t… Ed will be a nervous wreck... And the twins…”

“Kain?”

The shorter man sighed and moved from Frank’s lap. “There is more to alchemy than what you’ve seen the fuhrer’s family do. There are darker parts. Dante was one of the darkest, and if she’s still around, Aiden will be in danger.” Frank found himself looking into two round, brown eyes. “I’ll start at the beginning…”

********

Three weeks later

Dante walked into the darkened storage room, looking at the monstrous creature before her.

“Hello, Mr. Tucker,” she said.

The large thing turned, still clinging desperately to the doll of its daughter.

“You know who I am?” it hoarsely whispered.

“Of course I do. I asked to meet you here.”

“But I was told that—”

“Dante requested your presence. And Dante is here. Surely you must remember that I am capable of changing host bodies, Mr. Tucker. This is my new one.” She stretched just a bit. “And I must say I rather like it.”

She approached the monster to run a hand over the greasy hair of the doll he’d created. “You did an excellent job on her. She resembles the Nina I have seen in photos.”

“You said in your letter that there was a way to bring my Nina back.”

“Not exactly,” Dante said, tucking her hair back into its bun. “I said I could show you how to create something that would look and talk like your daughter and look to you like a father. I can teach you how to make a homunculus.”

“I already know how. I also know what it costs,” it whispered. “If you will remember, I housed the Elric brothers at my home.

“And yet I stand here before you and have stood before you on other occasions. When I created Pride, the fuhrer, my body suffered no such loss.” She held the lifeless doll’s hand in her own, running a thumb over the top. “I could teach you how to do the same. You can learn from my experience, from my mistakes. Pride was perfect, obedient, loyal and so close to being human. Not once did he betray me. I can show you how to create something just as perfect, but in her image.”

“You must want something in return.”

“Of course I do, Sewing Life Alchemist. I want an army. It drains a lot of power to create another Pride, and en masse, homunculi are too unpredictable. I want an army of chimeras. Ones that will obey my voice, defend me at all costs. Will you help me?”

“You can teach me how to bring back my daughter?”

“I can.”

“Then, yes.”

“Good. I’ll set you up with a proper lab, and all of the raw materials you may ever need. The fuhrer and the brat haven’t found all of my secret locations just yet.”