Worlds Collide

A/N: Amethyst-eyed Koneko, the graveyard scene with Maes was maybe laying it on a bit thick, but I wanted you all to see that Roy hasn't forgotten about his friend, so sorry you got misty-eyed at that. I think we may need to put Russell in that unredeemable category with Hohenheim for you. And Al and Ed together are just fun to write. SadlerGirl, Nicholas is definitely well-meaning and a contrast to dark and brooding Aideen. Falman's kid isn't nice, but mostly, she just doesn't like Raine. Nothing can be done about it. It's just one of those things. Glad you liked the graveyard scene and picked up on the fact that Roy also visited Riza.

Chapter 48

Clash of Wills

One Month Later

Wrath looked over the maps for an irrigation ditch to one of the growing towns south of Central, where a number of the former residents had fled in the last few months. The sudden influx of people had caused problems providing the basic necessities for them, and Wrath had been assigned, along with Fletcher, to analyze the possibility of bringing irrigation to the people not only to provide potable water but also water for the nearby farms to increase crop size.

Fletcher put his head down on the table. “We’ve been through this a half dozen times. This is the best way.”
“And the fuhrer rejects it every time.”

“He rejects it because my idiot brother had to go sharing stupid theories with him.” Fletcher groaned. “Really, Wrath, how can you stand to be with him… and don’t give me details about the sex being good or anything that will make me any more mentally disturbed than you two have already managed.”

“I love him,” Wrath said, patting Fletcher on the back. “If I didn’t, no amount of mind-blowing sex” Fletcher groaned in protest to those words. “would matter.” Wrath began folding some of the maps. “Besides, Russell didn’t say anything that I know of to Roy, aside from the fact that Aideen was now legal, and you were still single.”

“Still,” Fletcher said in a groan against the tabletop.

“You are here because Roy and Ed are trying to get Aideen to actually talk to her therapist instead of just to you.” Wrath watched as a pair of green eyes, much more emerald in tone than his brother’s, looked up at him. “Roy knew he’d have three weeks trying to get funding for the project from parliament, and that’s why he keeps rejecting our requests. We have to stay here a few more days, and you’ll be back home in time to celebrate your birthday. “

“So why’d they have to be so underhanded about it?”

“Because if you agreed and Aideen found out, she’d stop talking to you, too, and that would leave no one she could trust to tell her feelings to, save for Nicholas.” And realistically, Wrath knew the young man didn’t need that kind of pressure as the only person left that his sister could trust. Especially if she had Fletcher.

“And what about you?” Fletcher asked, lifting his head and helping with the maps. “Why are you stuck here with me?”

“Apparently, Ed doesn’t think I trust your brother enough.”

“With good reason,” the younger Tringham answered as he neatly boxed away the farm layouts.

“Exactly.” Wrath stood, unfastening the large leather band that had been holding his braids back from his face. “But, Ed, deciding to play big brother to me because Al’s got his life pretty much under control, thought I should be forcibly separated from Russell to find out for certain whether or not your brother would be faithful this time around.”

“If he isn’t, he’s not moving into my apartment. That was absolutely depressing and miserable. Not only was he a pain to have to deal with because he was missing you and kicking himself for stupidity, but all those habits he has that I had since forgotten were back along with him.”

Wrath smiled at his boyfriend’s brother. It was nice to know that Fletcher was his friend outside of the fact that he was dating Russell. There was also a strange comfort in the fact that the thin blond had always made Wrath consider him what Edward might have been in a less confining atmosphere growing up.

As Fletcher gathered a box under an arm, he looked over at Wrath. “What is it with my brother trying to insist there’s something between Aideen and I?”

The dark-haired man wanted to tell the shorter one that he simply needed to pay better attention to get that answer, but instead, he shrugged. “Well, now that we know we’re stuck here for a few days and have all of our studies and analysis done, why don’t we see what this little town has to offer in the way of entertainment?”

********

“Stop!” Danny shouted from his place beside Nicholas, lurching forward in his seat as they came to an intersection.

“I was stopping,” the new driver answered as he looked over at the pale-faced guard.

“Now, I’m certain of it that you got your license because of who your fathers are.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Nicholas, I saw my entire life flash before my eyes.” Danny rubbed his face as they jerked a bit at Nicholas’s start when the light turned green. “It was a rather depressing few seconds I’d rather not repeat.”

The teen laughed at his and Aideen’s chief guard. “Well, so far, it may not be a happy flash, but at least I’ve managed to live a life to entertain me in moments like that,” Nicholas answered with a grin as he tried his best attempt to parallel park in front of his therapist’s office. He looked up at the brick building. “You know, I’d be done with these damned sessions if the shrink didn’t think I had ‘unresolved aggression’ toward Aideen. I hate her.”

“Aideen?” Danny asked, looking at him, troubled.

“No, the shrink,” Nicholas answered with a laugh. “She’s an idiot. I know why I get angry at Aideen, but that woman thinks my sister is exactly what Aideen has worked so hard to make her believe.”

“Sounds a little like unresolved aggression.” Danny said, bouncing in the seat as Nicholas bumped the curb a bit too hard.

“But not because of my arm. That therapist is full of crap, and I keep telling my parents that, but because they’ve seen such a difference in Aideen’s behavior since she started going, they’re thrilled. Well, excuse me, but woop-de-freaking-do.”

Nicholas could feel that white-hot anger growing in his gut, and for a moment, he regretted never having studied plant alchemy with Fletcher to get the training in meditation that Aideen had learned. At the moment, it would have been helpful. He was trying to convince the psychologist that he didn’t need to continue meeting with her, and it certainly wasn’t going to happen if he went in looking like he was ready to kill.

With Danny visibly close by and two of the other guards nearby watching Nicholas and distracting reporters, the teen walked into the office building. Danny led him to the waiting area, quickly checking the waiting area for any signs of suspicious activity, then left, positioning himself at the only entrance or exit to the place save for the therapist’s room itself. Nicholas looked around the empty room. Unlike most doctors’ offices he’d been to, even his Aunt Winry’s automail shop, this waiting room was a pristine shrine to silence as Dr. Zacharias didn’t believe in distractions like magazines or conversation. She felt it encouraged the patient to be more talkative to her if given moments of reflection beforehand.

Nicholas pulled a sheet of rubber from his pocket, glancing for Danny before transforming it into a ball, which he began tossing around. That was entertaining enough, he supposed, but he had heard Aideen saying after their last appointments she was all but given a clean bill of mental health. Nicholas loved his sister, but he knew that was complete and utter bull crap.

Transmuting the ball back, Nicholas clapped his hands together then to the wall to allow him to hear what was going on inside just a bit better.

“I’m really feeling much better about everything,” Nicholas heard his sister say in that falsely optimistic voice she used when she was trying to convince their parents she was okay.

“And how are things between you and your brother?”

Shitty, Nicholas supplied.

“Improving.”

Nicholas furrowed his brows at the wall.

“And are you trying to get outside more often? A little fresh air can do wonders.”

“I’ve noticed. I’m not going out all the time, but I take Flint outside when he needs a breather or to stretch his legs.”

In the waiting room, her brother scoffed. She’d only started taking her dog out because he’d refused. He had a cat of his own to take care of and changing Charcoal’s litter box was disgusting enough without having to follow around behind the hyperactive and too-smart-for-it’s-own-good Elkhound waiting for it to make a “doodie” on the lawn.

“Well, I think a few more conversations like this, and we might be ending our professional relationship, Aideen. I’m very glad for that.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes. Dr. Zacharias had this wonderful delusion that her patients would want to be friends with her once they were “cured” or whatever the hell psychological mumbo-jumbo she termed it. The woman wasn’t exactly a quack, but she certainly wasn’t Dr. Petrov, the doctor who’d initially helped Nicholas cope with the loss of his arm. His father’s had wanted the twins both to go back to her, but Dr. Petrov had moved west.

For a few minutes, Nicholas listened as Aideen painted a rose-colored portrait of what she’d done since their last appointment, making it sound as though she was not only on the mend but ready for a marathon.
Inside, he seethed. His sister needed help, and if this so-called professional couldn’t see that, then he was going to see to it himself.

He watched as his sister exited the office.

“Your turn,” she said, almost chipper.

“Why don’t you go back in there? Maybe you’ll actually tell the truth.”

Aideen eyed him carefully. “Are you saying I lied to her?”

“I’m saying you pretended to be this chipper, happy thing that you haven’t been in I don’t know how long.”

“Does it just bother you that I’m improving and you’re not?”

“Improving? The only thing improving is your acting ability.” Nicholas narrowed coal-black eyes at his sister. “This isn’t you, not really.”

“Oh, so you prefer a despondent sister to a happy one? What does it say about you? Our fathers have already said how much they prefer me when I’m like this. So why don’t you? Do you prefer seeing me mope about the house dressed in black, acting as though my entire life is a giant black hole?”’

“I prefer it if it’s genuine. This isn’t!” At this point, Nicholas wasn’t even sure why he was yelling, he just knew he couldn’t stop.

“Or is it that you prefer me wallowing in guilt over your arm? Would you rather I was still feeling ashamed that I ran off to keep the salon safe not knowing that the incessant hero would come after me trying to ‘save me’?”

As though watching from outside his own body, Nicholas was in shock as he launched himself at Aideen.

********

“Well, hello, Brigadier General, Sir,” Frank said, as Kain walked through the door of his office.

“Colonel,” Kain said, with a curt nod of the head.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Frank’s secretary said. “Don’t try to act formal all of a sudden because you’ve both been promoted.”

“Yes,” Roy said from the corner, startling Kain so much, Frank started to chuckle. His husband could be brave in battle, but when in the real world, he still jumped like a skittish pup when caught off guard. “Really, the two of you are so sickeningly sweet most of the time, seeing you this formal is just awkward.”

Frank’s secretary smiled at him, them Kain, as she left.

“Fuhrer, sir, is there something wrong?”

“No,” Roy said. “Just doing a brief inspection of the departments. I’ve spoken to your husband concerning investigations. How is military intelligence?”

“Still searching for signs of it, sir.” Kain snickered, Frank groaned, and Roy rolled his eyes.

“Careful with that joke, Fuery,” Roy said. “It’s an antique.”

“So is that pun,” Frank said, leaning back in his chair. “Even on my world.”

“I forget,” Roy said, “I’m outnumbered here.”

“We’re old pros at having to team up against the world.” Frank put his feet on top of his desk.

“Well, don’t mind me. I’m just the fuhrer. Throw your feet up wherever you want.”

“What’s the benefit of being a colonel in charge of a department if I don’t get to enjoy my own desk?”

Roy merely shook his head, that look of mild surprise on his face, one Frank had grown familiar with over the last few years. This was obviously yet another move or attitude that the other Archer would never have considered.

Frank listened as his husband gave a short explanation of the current state of military intelligence, what had been learned on Dante as well as the doll from the zoo. Essentially, they knew the dolls were attacked by chimeras—that had been Frank’s department to investigate—and at this time, Military Intelligence was gathering information on the strange chimeras that had been mistaken for genuine eastern animals.

All the while, Roy nodded, listening and taking in every word. It was this side of his character that wasn’t necessarily different from the Mustang Frank had known on Earth, but far more utilized. Roy seemed to grasp concepts very well, and he tended to look at multiple outcomes and scenarios at once. The Mustang Frank had left on Earth had a very narrow field of vision when it came to the future, usually ending with him earning a commendation or promotion.

“And, I wondered how things are going on the adoption front.”

“They’re not,” Frank said. “It’s just so hard to find a child capable of understanding where I come from, even if it’s not immediate. Other orphanages still refuse to trust me enough to allow me to raise a child.”

Kain agreed and began adding more to the list of reasons that seemed to constantly stand in their way.

Frank had managed remarkably well to keep his composure as Kain continued to explain the many reasons why they still hadn’t managed to adopt or find a way to have a child. The last adoption attempt had hit them pretty hard because of the religious differences, but the simple fact was that everything seemed to be falling through. They had attempted artificial insemination with Anna, but nothing took, and though Kain and Anna were both in support of another try, Frank simply didn’t think he could go through it all again. It was too much, too painful. If the world had wanted the couple to be parents, it would happen on its terms, nothing less. Kain continued to want to fight that, but Frank had resigned himself to that fact.

He wasn’t a religious man, never had been, but Frank had been raised to at least believe in the small signs one is offered in life. This seemed like a rather big one to him. Fate, god, nature, or even that damned Gate that was the source of so many recent problems, seemed to be telling them to hold out just a bit longer or give up all together. But as long as Kain still wanted to try to be a parent, Frank would continue to visit orphanages, to try to find a child understanding enough and an orphanage with no prejudices against him for the bastard’s behavior.

********

Ed ran down the street, Al and his brood in tow. He’d heard the radio report that there was a fight going on at the twins’ therapist. And honestly, he couldn’t say what part of himself was most concerned at that moment, the part that thought this was someone outside of the family attacking him, or the part that thought it was the twins once again fighting one another. He’d always considered the psychologist’s office a sanctuary for the teens, or at least a place where they could go and he wouldn’t have to get half-sick with worry about their safety.

Perhaps that was why the idea they were fighting seemed so strong and why he felt so sick by the idea. Running along side one of the guards, he heard the radio squawk again.

“Alchemic interference…” The signal broke. “We’re trying to… under control… attacked Aideen… she verbally…”

Ed knew his children’s recent behaviors well enough to fill in the blanks. “There’s alchemic interference. We’re trying to get them under control. Nicholas attacked Aideen after she verbally attacked him.”

In normal situations, normal households, a fight between siblings was a commonplace occurrence that didn’t require the intervention of military personnel, but the twins had never been normal, never would be normal. They were fighting, and not just a simple brawl, but a fight that involved alchemy and possibly weapons.

Ed was to pick up the twins after their appointments to go out to eat with Al and his five. As he ran, he grew more and more angry, not only at the fact that his children were behaving so ridiculously, but also knowing that Sasha and Robert, as well as Hannah were particularly excited about having lunch with their cousins. Being older, those three held the twins in near hero-worship, rather than the simple admiration the younger two showed. And now, because Ed’s children couldn’t manage to behave themselves, he was going to have to disappoint all of his nieces and nephews.

When they reached the building, Al and his children waited in the lobby.

“Brother, do you need me to come with you?”

“Stay with the kids.” Ed went to the stairs, climbing up as far as he could.

He had seen the signs of a battle with alchemy shining through the windows outside. Finally reaching the floor where he knew his children were battling, Ed flung open a door and saw as Nicholas attempted to throw something, what, Ed didn’t know, but the object looked heavy enough to knock her down but not hurt her. With a clap of her hands, Aideen disintegrated the thing before it even grazed her.

“STOP THIS! NOW!”

For just a moment, Aideen looked distracted, just enough time for Nicholas, a pole he’d created from the floor in his hands, to move to her in a flash. He knocked her feet out from under her and held the pole to her neck.

“I’m done with this therapy, and I hope you are too unless you actually plan to tell the truth.” With a clap of his hands, he returned the pole to the wood floor. He turned his back on Aideen and moved beside Ed.

“Nicholas, in a spar, you always help the opponent back to their feet,” Ed said, hoping that somehow, things weren’t as bad as he thought, that the punishment would only have to be for irresponsibility.

“This wasn’t a spar,” his son said, dark eyes cold.

********

Russell sat at the bar beside Kain Fuery, not daring to try to match the man drink for drink, having learned that lesson the hard way. Instead, he was nursing a glass of whiskey, looking over at the man only a few years older than himself.

“You’re missing him, aren’t you?” Kain said.

“Mm-hmm.” He took another sip. “What about you? Why’s half of the perfectly sickening couple getting himself drunk?”

“I very rarely get drunk, Russell,” Kain said, ordering another gin and tonic. “Frank has a late night.”

“Hmm.” Russell said, swirling the liquid around in his glass. “Has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Frank’s been a little off since you got rejected for that Isballan girl?”

Kain coughed, glanced at him, then shook his head. “You are nothing if not blunt. Yes, it might just have a little bit to do with that.”

“So, are you going to keep dragging him to orphanage after orphanage, have him keep going through the embarrassing process of providing the ‘goods’ for insemination, all in the attempt to have a child?”

Russell watched as Kain’s chest puffed out. “We both want this child.”

“Yes, but you seem to be pushing things. Do you have a deadline or something?” Russell finished off his drink.

“And what about you, sitting here moping because your boyfriend’s been taken away. I know you miss him, but I think some of this,” Kain gestured to Russell with a wave. “might be for show because you think this is how you need to act to show the rest of us you miss him and you love him.”

“I asked first.”

Kain sighed. “I’d like to know Frank and I have found a child before he turns fifty. He hasn’t officially made it a deadline, but he thinks the idea of him being a father to a young child at that age is laughable.”

Russell ordered a martini from the bartender, deciding to make this his last. “You’re definitely not drunk if you can pull out words like laughable.”

“Now what about you?” Kain asked.

“Fine, you got it right.” The martini was set in front of him, and Russell immediately pulled out the olive. “But I do miss him. I’ll just be damned if one person can say I didn’t show how much I do or wasn’t completely faithful the big guy.” He ate the olive. “Because I have on both counts.”

********

Roy found Ed with his ear st the wall that ran between the children’s bedrooms.

“Are we spying on our children now?” Roy asked, running his hand over Ed’s hair.

“I want to find out what’s going on.”

“I don’t know that you will. Did you notice that Nicholas lined all his furniture along the wall beside Aideen’s room so she couldn’t transmute the wall to get through?”

Ed leaned against Roy. “I did.” He sighed. “What are we going to do about them?”

“Obviously find another therapist.”

Roy grunted as Ed smacked him in his stomach. “That wasn’t what I meant. What if this is too much? They’ve always been so close, but this…”

“They’ve fought before, Ed.” Roy kissed the top of the blond head.

“Not like this, Roy. Al and I never fought like this. Even when he’d thought I’d made him up, faked his body, it wasn’t anything like this.”

From within the rooms, there was a noise: Aideen speaking.

“Nicholas?”

“Go away, Aideen. I’ve blocked my wall from you.” That was Nicholas.

“I’m… I’m sorry about what happened.” That last bit was said quietly.

“Go to bed, Aideen. I’ll talk to you later. Just not now.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Nicholas.”

“Well, with being grounded for two weeks,” Roy said as he pulled Ed tightly into his arms, “they’ll have plenty of opportunities to talk.” Ed looked up at Roy, for just a moment, eyes so upset, so lost, there was a reminder of just how young Ed was when he became a parent, how inexperienced he was in things in his own life. “We’ll figure this thing with Aideen out together. She’s strong, and we don’t give up on anything.”

Already, Roy had talked to every expert and parent he could trust. There had to be some answer to Aideen and Nicholas, some way to deal with all this, and somewhere, someone had to have that answer.

He craned his neck down, gently pressing his lips to Ed’s, fingers combing at the side of his husband’s hair in a comforting gesture. He wasn’t entirely sure himself, and seeing Ed this shaken wasn’t helping, but if he could at least bring some confidence back in those honey-colored orbs, it would help.

“I know we will,” Ed said, running a comforting hand down Roy’s cheek. “And don’t think you have to be the strong one, got it? You have ideas or concerns, tell me just like you make me tell you.”

“Yes, Sir,” Roy answered as he stood for a few moments, holding Ed tightly to himself.

********

Munich

“Frau Eckhart,” Hohenheim said, entering the woman’s office. “I had a question concerning recent activity. It may be overstepping my bounds, but I wonder is all of this necessary for just another attempt at opening the Gate?”

There was a part of the man that felt like it died each and every time he kowtowed to the woman.

“It isn’t overstepping the bounds of our most willing and talented member to ask such a question.” She smiled at him. Though it disgusted Hohenheim to no end, he knew the woman was attracted to him. On more than one occasion, when she’d be exceptionally kind to him or show her obvious interest, he’d shuddered, nearly visibly at the thought. “Our contact on the other side sent me a letter last week. We have finally agreed on a date to open the Gate to Shamballa, and we have a few months in which to prepare a full assault force.

“To open the gate will require a blood sacrifice. I am considering that Tucker. He’s become almost useless, wallowing in self-pity. I would use the arrogant Brit, but Herr Mustang is a rather powerful alchemist once he enters that chamber.”

She smiled as Hohenheim struggled not to visibly pale at the idea of this woman and her weapons crossing through the Gate and putting his family at risk.

“Speaking of Mustang, would you be so kind as to remind the man of exactly why he’s here and what he’s putting a risk with his recent rebellious nature? I certainly don’t want to waste him by feeding him to the serpent, but I am equally certain he wouldn’t be pleased if I had to resort to other measures.”

That thought brought yet another chill to the man’s spine. He knew that those measures would be to go after the British man’s family, family that on Amestris was technically Hohenheim’s own.

The gray-haired man nodded to Eckhart before leaving the room to go to the holding area where the prisoners, all state alchemists in his world, were held captive.

He passed by two blond American brothers, both farmers and very capable with plants, by the once strong miner who was having another teary conversation with his stepson—Phillip had found ways to get into the holding area under pretenses of cleaning it—by the former bishop’s cell, who no longer occupied it as he was now a willing participant in all of this, by Tucker who still mourned his wife and daughter’s deaths. Finally, he stopped at the single cell where a set of angry black eyes watched his every move.

“What the hell do you want?”

“To relay the message that Eckhart knows exactly how to make you suffer. Even more than this. I think she’s located your family in London. Do not put it above that woman to harm them, because she will more than willingly do it.”

The black eyes grew wide. “And instead, I’m to help a group that plans to level my country, my family’s home with the knowledge that my assistance would give them?” He shook his head. “I can’t…”

“Consider all options, Roy,” Hohenheim said, afraid to divulge more, afraid that another would turn to the Thules as Kimblee had.

“For the first time in my life,” he answered, “I am.”