Worlds Collide

A/N: Amethyst-eyed Koneko, Nicholas is pretty much all the more outgoing traits of his parents combined, so he's definitely outgoing. So Phillip's grating on your nerves? It's okay, he's kind of supposed to, but he's jealous of the older man who seems to know his girlfriend better. And Russell and Wrath, for some reason, every time they fight, it ends with them having sex, so... well something to look forward to. And drugged-up Ed was just fun to write. Oh, and the line of thought from Fletcher over the coat, basically, he figured out that the coat was involved in sex in some way, but hoped it wasn't worn during. HumanInfiltrator, glad you like this story so much. I'm really enjoying writing it. Hikaru_9, What can I say, the twins are polar opposites. Mustanghavoc, Elysia's hubbie is a co-worker, just a generic, nameless person. (Mostly, because I didn't want everyone getting paired off with someone else in the story.) And thank you.

Also, last chapter took place two months after the ones before. Forgot to put it on. Sorry.

Chapter 45

Startling Discovery

One week later

Nearly getting her head taken off by a low-hanging vine, Dante approached the eastern exhibit in the Central Zoo.

“Hello again, Mr. Tucker.” Dante saw him react as he always did when she addressed him that way. For whatever reason, it disturbed him, and she rather enjoyed it.

“Things worked exactly as you said they would.”

“You doubted me,” she said, patting the head of a very obedient chimera. “I told you the customs soldiers would have no idea how to tell the difference between real eastern animals and our little creatures here. I’ve been around this military often enough to know where some of its most idiotic members operate.” As another chimera nuzzled against her hip, Dante scratched it behind the ear. “And you seem to have corrected our problem with them from before.”

“I developed methods to get them to recognize you and your voice.” Tucker seemed to see a few of the chimeras sniffing at that doll of his daughter he’d made. “It meant including a few more loyal breeds into the mixture, and will ultimately reduce their viciousness.” Dante looked at him angrily. “But they are still quite violent. I have been able to test that as well.”

Ignoring the chimera who had made her small army, Dante knelt down, looking one of the cat-things in the eyes. “Will you kill for your master?” The creature looked at her with such unwavering obedience, there was little doubt that it would, and Dante could hardly contain her smile.

She stood, this time, addressing Tucker. “Very well, I will give you my research from Pride. It will take you some time to learn, but by then, I think I’ll have gotten to use my little ones at least once.”

Tucker looked pleased, as well he should. Dante had been holding this over his head for so long, if he hadn’t truly wanted the research she offered, he would have given up long ago. “Now, let’s get them to their new home. I can guarantee you this one won’t be found.”

As the two herded the group of chimeras, Dante with a black hooded cloak over her head to prevent her from being recognized, Tucker looked at her.

“Why do you want them back in Central now?”

At first, Dante wanted to tell the thing it was none of his business, but decided that if she seemed to be showing some sign of faith in him he would continue to serve her, and more importantly, not reveal her identity. “Because the other side is losing patience. They’re trying with less and less frequency to get to our side. I’ve heard the reports from the underground city.”

“You’re going to let them through soon, then.”

“Only long enough to get their technology and gain control of the Gate, yes. I am more than human,” she said as she guided the chimeras through a series of tunnels she had created that led several feet below the fuhrer’s home. “I have been protecting them for years, taking control of chimeras, preventing them from finding out about the philosopher’s stone, preventing them from using it if they create it. I am humanity’s greatest protector, and they think me a villain for it.”

Tucker said nothing, but the expression seemed to say that while she had his loyalty, he thought no more of Dante than the humans did. It didn’t matter. Ultimately, he was only a tool, a means to an end.

********

The next day

Phillip tried to joke with Nicholas as he waited for Aideen to come downstairs, but he was honestly dreading her answer. She hadn’t exactly sounded enthusiastic that night of Elysia’s wedding, and he wondered if he’d pressured her not to give him an answer that night. He had spoken to his father about this, wondering if maybe because he wasn’t an Armstrong by blood if he simply didn’t have the resilience his father did.

To be perfectly honest, he cared for Aideen, possibly even loved her, if everything he read on the feeling was right. The idea that she might only consider him a brother was sickening.

When he pictured his life into adulthood, he’d always planned she’d be there by his side, probably leading him by the hand a few times, knowing his still-girlfriend. He smiled inwardly and outwardly at that thought.

“Hey, Phillip, you still with me?” Nicholas asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

“Huh?” Phillip chuckled nervously. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Nicholas paused a moment. “Phillip, I know you’re going to be gone for a while, and I know why you’re really here fidgeting in that chair, but no matter how this conversation goes with Aideen, we’ll still manage to be friends, right?”

“Sure,” Phillip answered. Honestly, if Aideen decided she wanted to break things off, then he’d at least hope their time apart would do them both some good. He had considered the answer he got from her would not be a positive one, and in light of that, felt he could be mature.

And there was the added bonus that he was soon to be joining the military academy, giving him the opportunity to nurse his wounded pride if he was rejected.

He watched with nervousness as a dark figure leaned her head into the room. “Phillip,” she said. “Will you come into the library with me?”

He stood, running a hand through his mass of brown curls, finding Nicholas giving him a sympathetic smile as he left.

********

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Ed yelled out as his latest attempt at a way to detect Dante turned into the greatest smoke bomb he’d ever seen, forcing him and Al out of the lab coughing. “Damn it. I just started breathing normally and this happens!”

“I warned you about crossing those two symbols.”

“Well, it’s never been done.”

“Maybe, brother, it was for a good reason.”

Ed scowled at Al with his ridiculously cut hair and freakish over-six-foot-height.

“Well, now we know,” Ed replied back a bit snottily.

“And you’re the older brother,” Al said with a roll of his eyes.

Ed smacked him in the stomach, glancing up at the library window, seeing Phillip looking at something, though more likely someone, out of Ed’s view. “Damn,” he muttered. “It’s probably better this happened. She might need me after this.”

“Brother?”

“Aideen’s dumping Phillip.”

“Dumping him?” Al looked at Ed curiously. “They seem happy together.”

“He’s going away to the military academy. I know he’d like to continue dating Aideen, but she thinks she’s too young to be in that kind of a committed relationship.” He looked back at his brother. “Her words, not mine, though I agree with her.”

“Right," Al said, sarcastically, "because being with someone in a serious relationship when you’re still a teenager is so out of character for our family.”

Ed shared a smile with Al, waiting for the inevitable.

“Small consolation is that she’s going to the greenhouse with Fletcher in two hours. If she isn’t too crushed by having to do this, I think it could be good for her. She really does enjoy plants, and she’s always been comfortable around Fletcher, from the time she was little.” He hadn’t intended for his tone to come out as remorseful as it had, but there was no taking it back, just like there was no pretending that Al had caught it.

Ed found a long arm wrapped around his shoulders. “She’ll come around to the rest of the family eventually. Teenagers are that way.”

“How would you know? Robert’s still twelve, and he’s your oldest.”

“I had this brother once, who used to keep all his feelings to himself unless I beat them out of him, and he ran around wearing nothing but black and a red coat.”

Ed wrapped his own arm around Al’s back, giving him a hard squeeze before they saw Phillip leaving the library, looking very crushed.

“I’ll clean out the lab. Nicholas is probably talking to Phillip now, so why don’t you go to her?”

Ed nodded, walking up the steps of the porch, finding Nicholas comforting Phillip without making it obvious he was trying to comfort him, the older boy looking like he was trying not to tear up and failing miserably.

“Aideen?” he said, as he went in the library, finding his daughter, clad in her black garb. “Are you okay?”

As she turned, he expected to see remorse or sadness on her face, but instead, there was nothing. She was as unreadable as ever.

“I’m fine. It needed to be done.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t make it any easier.” He stepped a bit closer. “He was your first boyfriend.”

“I know, but he’s going away and I’m too young.” She tried to walk by Ed, who chose to incorporate the technique Al had used on him so many times before, using a bit of force to get something out of her. He grabbed her by both her arms, spinning her to look him in the face. Initially, she seemed surprised, even put-out that he was actually stopping her.

“Aideen, I know this hurts you, so don’t try to pretend it doesn’t.” He held onto her for several moments, awaiting the inevitable. “I know you didn’t want to have to do that, don’t try to brush it off as nothing.”
Then the inevitable happened: her mask cracked and she held her father so closely, he had to tilt his chin to rest it on her shoulder.

********

Nicholas had known what Aideen’s answer would be, and had already arranged for a number of his and Nicholas’s male friends to go out and have a “guy’s night out.” He’d even asked Danny to make sure that it would only be male guards with him that night. The teen was prepared for a night of female bashing, and he doubted he’d manage to do so comfortably with women around. He liked and feared them too much to do it to their faces, and at the moment, his friend needed to be told he was better off without a crazy, moody woman in his life, better off single to explore the field.

It was one of those things the guys in Nicholas’s group of friends had always done. The single ones remind the dumpee how great it is to be single, the ones in relationships shared their worst stories, all in an attempt to make the one who felt like his heart had been crushed. It was something that none of their girlfriends, future girlfriends (or boyfriends if Nicholas ever managed to settle down either way) should ever hear. Without a doubt if any potential dates ever heard those speeches of comfort they tried to give one another, it would have lead to the tight group of friends remaining single for life.

Nicholas glanced in the library, a little surprised to see his sister being held by their dad and her not fighting it. She’d been upset, but he didn’t think that much over having to break up with Phillip. As a matter fact, she’d seemed calm going into the whole thing, not calm, pleased possibly? Then again, Phillip had asked a lot of her. The mere thought of having to be in a long term anything scared him more than he wanted to admit. It could have been mere relief.

Nicholas walked into the kitchen, picking up the phone and telling the operator to connect him to Victor.

“Well, did she do it?”

“Yes.”

“Damn, that sucks. For both of them.” There was a pause. “Phillip still there?”

“No. He just left. I say we bombard him at his house and drag him out with us.”

“Sounds good. In two hours? Think that will give him enough time to lick his wounds before we all go out and act like idiots?”

“I think so,” Nicholas said. Phillip was his best friend, but Victor, despite his somewhat homophobic ways had remained close to Nicholas even after he more or less proclaimed to the world he was bi, something some of Nicholas’s other friends had only half-heartedly done, claiming that with the realization that Nicholas could be interested in them it made things “different.” They all said they didn’t mind that he had an interest in men, but that none of them really wanted him interested in them.

“All right then,” Victor said. “See you in two hours.”

Nicholas told him goodbye, then hung up the phone, making his way to the library to find his sister had already gone, probably to get ready for her visit to the greenhouse. Still, he couldn’t have missed her by much, so he quickly made his way upstairs to the first room on the right, knocking first before coming in to see how she was holding up.

“Aideen?”

She turned, giving him a sort of sad smile, it was tiny, but it was there.

“You okay?”

The expression on the usually expressionless face didn’t fade as she nodded. He made his way to her, wrapping his arms around her, seeing that familiar flicker of guilt the moment his left arm made contact with her back. For once, she actually let him hug her, no fighting, no struggling.

********

Wrath looked doubtingly at the restaurant Russell had picked out. “You have to be kidding.”

“Why not?”

“Cretan cuisine. I don’t even speak Cretan. I won’t have a clue what I’m ordering, and neither will you.”

“I know enough.” Russell opened the door for Wrath, who only scowled at him as he passed through. “You know, we’re on a date, so you could at least be pleasant.”

“You haven’t earned pleasant, yet, Russell.”

“Civil?”

“We’ll see.”

A fair-skinned woman smiled at Russell, who apparently had made reservations rather than just dragging Wrath here, something out of character for past experiences with the blond. The woman led them to a table on the second floor of the restaurant in a secluded booth with a candle offering very little additional light to the dimly lit room. Russell took the seat closest, Wrath moving to the other side, thanking the waitress as she prepared to give them menus.

To the dark-haired man’s surprise, Russell actually did know a few Cretan phrases and ordered for them both. Wrath wasn’t quite sure whether to be pissed that the man was assuming he knew what Wrath would want or impressed he actually knew how to do something aside from study alchemic texts all day.

“Listen,” Russell said, folding his hands and laying them on the tabletop. “I know I was an ass. I do.” He did a quick toss of his hair to get that stray chunk out of his eyes so he could look up at Wrath. “But I meant what I said.”

“Which part?” Wrath asked, leaning against the wall and turning his body sideways in the booth. He was pretty sure he knew what part, but making Russell squirm was always nice, and if he’d say those words again, well, maybe Wrath could manage civil for the night.

“That I love you, you asshole. You knew what I meant.”

“Asshole?” Wrath asked. “Is that a new term of endearment?” He began toying with the napkin in front of him. “What happened to civil?”

“I’d like to ask the same thing.”

The waitress brought a bottle of wine and two glasses of water.

“Trying to get me liquored up?” Wrath asked as the waitress poured the wine.

With a loud groan of frustration, Russell took his glass from the woman and drank much too fast to actually enjoy what he was drinking.

They sat in relative silence, save for when Wrath could come up with a smart aleck remark. Finally, Russell stood from the table, making no excuses for his sudden move.

“Giving up on it so soon?” Wrath asked.

“I have to pee, if you want the details, damn it. And personally, I think the urinal would keep me better company.” Still turned in the booth, Wrath soon found himself beneath Russell, not entirely loving the position considering the fiery anger in the man’s eyes. “I’m trying to repair this, fix what I did, but damn it, you aren’t making it easy. I screwed up. Fine! But you know, I never told you we were in a relationship, and aside from a few absolutely miserable dates, I didn’t cheat on you.”

“If they were so damned miserable, why’d you keep going on them?” Wrath looked up at the grey-green eyes coolly. “If you hated those women, why keep tormenting yourself?”

“Because you scared me,” Russell said, grabbing Wrath’s jaw in his hand, while Wrath moved his own hands to Russell’s sides, prepared to push him away. “You had me feeling things I never had before and had me giving up my control. I don’t know if you’ve noticed over the years, but I pride myself on my control and dominance in a situation. Yet, I willingly gave that up to you, and I didn’t know why.” Then, in barely a whisper, he said, “I still don’t know why.”

At those last words, Russell brought their mouths together. His lips covering Wrath’s, his body nothing more than a blanket for the larger one beneath it. Wrath’s brain tried to tell him to push the man away, to get him the hell off, but his arms weren’t listening. As a matter of fact, they were wrapping themselves around the smaller chest and back and crushing them together.

The food came, but the two hardly noticed, barely acknowledging the waitress when she cleared her throat to get their attention. And when Russell finally went to the bathroom—apparently he hadn’t been lying—it took every ounce of self control not to follow after him.

When he happened to glance Russell at the door, looking at him as though trying to signal him for something, Wrath realized self control was seriously overrated as he threw his napkin down and rose from the table.
Russell might not have been forgiven, but that wasn't going to make Wrath abstain from a little fun while he could get it.

********

Walking through the greenhouse and conservatory of the museum, Aideen by his side, Fletcher had to smile. Though she tried very hard to keep that look of cold disinterest on her face, he’d already seen it crack several times since he’d picked her up at her home. She’d told him on the phone she still wanted to go, though she’d just broken up with her boyfriend, and when she’d climbed in the car, there was a definite melancholy, and she remained somewhat distant as they drove, her eyes looking out the window, eyes seeming to only partially follow what was passing by.

He’d turned up the radio, unable to take the sad silence, and after a few songs, an upbeat duet came on, one that Fletcher had always liked, but drove Russell nuts—so naturally, as a little brother, he’d learned every word and sang it at home whenever the opportunity presented itself. Of course, sitting in the car with Aideen, he wasn’t about to display more musical talents where he’d felt certain were as lacking as his piano skills. Mouthing the words as he turned down off of Main Street, he happened to notice he wasn’t the only one in the vehicle who knew each and every one.

Taking the risk that with a tone-deaf brother and papa, the teen had probably heard worse, he had actually started to sing, much to Aideen’s obvious shock, and after making what he was certain was a fool of himself, he had actually gotten her to join in, even if it was a bit quietly, her face just a bit closer to the color of her coat than when they’d started.

Now, as he stood watching her look over the exhibit he’d organized, the plant’s he’d studied and gathered, he couldn’t help but feel pride. There were very few things that impressed the teen, but his research and the plants he’d discovered near the eastern border seemed to be one of them.

“Watch this,” he said, pointing to a little mouse that was getting close to one of the larger plants. “If your stomach can take it.”

“What do you me—” At those words, the mouse was stuck on what had appeared to be an open leaf, but was now slowly closing around the little animal. “The poor mouse!” And then Fletcher waited for a moment. “But what a cool plant. And you found this thing?”

“Mm-hmm. Got to name it, and quite a few of the others here too. This one has seven ways to trap a victim, so this is the ‘Seven Deadly Sins.’ I wasn’t specific about naming each method, but one of my fellow researchers called what you just saw wrath.”

She nodded. He pointed out a silver-barked tree that grew bluish-colored pears. “This one, the other researcher named, so blame him, but it’s a Fullmetal tree with Mustang pears.”

“I’m sure my fathers will appreciate it,” she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

“Now this plant,” he said, pulling out a tiny scrap of paper and placing on the stem, making the plant, with no harm to itself, release a single flower, which he handed to Aideen. “This flower has a nice, long specific name that these all do. But I gave it the name that’s stuck.” He saw her looking at a plaque near the railing as she tucked the red and gold blossom into her hair.

“Little Flame?” she asked, looking up at him, that pink tint in her cheeks. Many people didn’t have a clue what their name meant, but Fletcher had seriously doubt she didn’t, since she and Nicholas had been named specifically in ways to ensure it appeased both fathers.

“It seemed appropriate. There’s another one in there. I don’t know if you can see it,” he said, pointing toward the back, far from where the normal pathways led, “but that gold one that keeps closing up any time something tries to land on it. That one’s the ‘Gold Joker.’”

“Nicholas.”

Fletcher shrugged with a smile. He was about to point out a very delicate variant of an orchid when screams could be heard coming from the zoo just next door and something about the fuhrer’s daughter that she was being hurt. He looked over at a very unharmed Aideen, taking her by the hand.

“I know a shortcut into the zoo. We can see what’s wrong from there without being hurt if something is going on.” She nodded and followed him through the awkward path into the plants that grew only under heavy forest-cover with very little exposure to light. It grew darker and harder to see, and he glanced back at Aideen, who seemed to be managing well enough over the vines and uneven ground.

“Fletcher,” she said, “watch your head.” At that, a large vine, hanging far too low in the walkway appeared suddenly in front of him.

“Are you sure you’re not part cat?” he asked. “I nearly missed that in this dim light. I’d have probably hanged myself.”
She ducked just as he had as they entered the zoo, seeing the screaming people below, all panicked over something from one of the animal displays.

“Get her out of there!” someone yelled.

“It’s the fuhrer’s daughter. I’m sure of it!” another cried.

Realizing he was still holding tightly to Aideen’s hand, Fletcher released it, signaling to the guards who, until that moment, had blended into the background to watch her while he checked to see what it was.

He looked down in the pit where the tigers were, a bright red coat, short black hair being mauled by one of the large cats.

Eventually the two animals were coaxed back into their dens and through those, the cages where they were kept during cleaning of the area. One zoologist moved to the red-coated thing, gingerly turning it over to reveal a near-perfect copy of the fuhrer’s daughter, its body and face scratched, revealing not blood, but a red substance, nonetheless.

Fletcher heard a gasp to his right, seeing that Aideen, in classic form, had moved away from the guards enough to look. He grabbed hold of her arm and guided her beside him, holding her rigid body tightly, one hand at her head, the other at her back, doing his best to obscure what was essentially a doll in her own image gashed into near shreds, but unfortunately, not enough to keep it from being recognizable.

“It’s okay, Aideen. I’m here.”