Worlds Collide

A/N: Amethyst-eyed Koneko, you'll get to see what they do about Roy's family this chapter, more about Aideen and that night will be explained. And the petting charcoal thing? Charcoal is the cat. MustangsHavoc, you have no idea how evil. You'll get a glimpse this chapter. shirk, there is a reason that the perfume thing hasn't panned out. Its in this chapter but won't be explained outright until later.

And please don't shoot me, but we have character death. (I'll duck and hide somewhere for a while, working on the next chapter).

Chapter 52

Coming to Fruition

Two Months Later

Nicholas stood in the little restaurant with Aideen at his side. Today was a good day for them, at least as far as he was concerned. Admittedly, she was far too quiet to suit him, none of her usual light teasing there, but the nasty, sugar-coated side to her personality wasn’t showing itself. For Nicholas, that made it a good day to be with his sister.

He was loathe to admit it, but in all honesty, Nicholas Mustang both loved his sister unquestionably and yet, hated her—a fact he was surprised to blurt out to their new therapist two weeks before. Even like this, quiet and introspective, cold and closed off, he loved her and knew he’d do anything for her. Yet, when that persona of hers came out, that side of her that felt so unnatural, so false, he hated her more than he could begin to explain.

And he got angry at his parents sometimes, too, because he felt they couldn’t see through the act. They wouldn’t let her buy new clothes after having incinerated her favorites following the whole incident two months ago, an action Nicholas still didn’t think was explainable as part of her temper tantrum that day. They told her repeatedly they preferred when she was better behaved, and better behaved meant being that false thing that Nicholas despised.

But as he stood beside her, trying to get her attention by squeezing her wrist, he couldn’t help but notice her entire body had gone rigid.

“Aideen?” he asked. Finally, he felt her scramble to put herself behind him, her left hand clenching his left at the flesh upper-arm. “Aideen, what is it?”

He glanced over his shoulder to see his sister’s eyes still devoid of that fire he missed so much, but this time holding near terror in their hazel depths. This was no act, he was sure, and if he wasn’t sure, the only flesh part of his left arm was certain, since she was making five neat, round bruises with her fingertips. Aideen was frightened, and Nicholas wanted to find out why. He followed her gaze to a curly-haired man in the crowd, one Nicholas recognized almost instantly.

“Please, Nicholas, can we get out of here?”

“Miss Mustang?” one of the guards asked. “Is there a threat present we’re unaware of?”

“N-no,” she stammered. Nicholas felt his chest clench. He’d never heard his sister so caught up in any emotion that it affected her ability to speak, save for that night a few months before.

“Nicholas!” A happy voice said from the crowd, and Nicholas felt Aideen shrink behind him. Phillip made his way through the somewhat crowded café, smiling at Nicholas, and apparently making just enough eye contact with Aideen that it made him blush.

“So, you’re on break from the academy?”

“For a few days.”

“Hello, Aideen.” That look in Phillip’s eyes was at once the familiar longing for something affectionate from Nicholas’s sister and yet unfamiliar all together, as though he knew something the blond teen did not. Whatever response Aideen gave, it wasn’t verbal, but Phillip reacted as though she’d done something to acknowledge him.

Feeling his sister’s hand at his arm, her right gripping tightly to the looser fabric of his shirt at his back, some things began to fall into place from the night nearly two months ago. She’d returned home crying, looking small, and broken. She’d burnt her clothes and shoved them away where only Nicholas had spotted them that first night. She’d gotten a shower that, while she hadn’t been in it long, had managed to scorch her skin until she resembled a lobster. Two and two were equaling four, which in this case was a reason to pound Phillip Armstrong’s face in, possibly even hurt him more permanently.

“Danny,” Nicholas said, the muscles in his face clenching as he looked at his chief guard, “can you get Aideen out of here? She seems very uncomfortable. Maybe drive around Central for a while?”

“Nicholas, don’t do anything rash.”

“You know me well enough to know I’ll only do what’s necessary.”

He watched as the longtime guard and friend to the family pulled his frightened sister from him. No sooner was Aideen out of the little café than Nicholas had Phillip pinned to a wall, automail pushing heavily against the person he’d called a friend.

“I’m not saying I won’t kill you if you do, but I seriously recommend you tell me what you did to my sister,” Nicholas hissed at the other teen who he now met in the eyes. “Because if you don’t start speaking, I’ll kill you anyway.”

“I-I didn’t do anything to her!” Phillip said in a panicked voice.

“Keep your voice down,” Nicholas said. “It’s bad enough we’re in public. Now, do you want to tell me why she looks at you like you were an attacker of some sort, or why I have strong suspicions her time the night she disappeared was spent with you, in one way or another?”

“I didn’t— It was consensual, I swear.”

“I think there are two men who would like to speak to the young man who hurt Aideen.”

He spun Phillip and grabbed him by the back of the neck, leading him to the guards’ vehicle that was parked out front.

“We need to go to the mansion,” Nicholas said to the other members of the guard, giving them all a nod of gratitude for not stopping him from defending his sister, as he hadn’t hit the prick he’d considered a friend.

********

“This sucks,” Russell said as Wrath stood at the stove of their tiny kitchen. “I’ve hardly gotten to see you all week.”

A black eyebrow raised at him. “Are you telling me that you blame the fuhrer or…”

“No, I blame those people on the other side of that damned Gate,” Russell said, rising to wrap his arms around his boyfriend’s waist, pressing his body flush against the hard muscle of the taller man’s back. “Why’d they have to get so active lately?”

“That’s exactly what we’re all trying to find out.” Wrath turned in Russell’s arms, now leaving the older man to look up at the two amethyst eyes. “Besides, it’s not as though you and I are the only ones taking turns down in the underground city. Your brother’s there now, and Ed, Al, and even General Armstrong have all taken their turns.” Just as Russell was about to argue, Wrath put a massive hand over the goatee and mouth of the blond. “And, yes, I know they haven’t as much as you, Fletcher and I, but they have families.”

“Then what are we?” Russell asked, muffled by the palm covering his mouth.

For a moment, Wrath opened his mouth, but said nothing. Russell tried not to smile at the fact that he had confused the younger man, but all urge to smile faded when he saw tears gathering in the violet eyes. He thought maybe that he’d hurt his lover’s feelings, and started to apologize only to find the hand over his mouth had moved and been replaced by a pair of hungry, seeking lips. The older man realized, as the lips moved and he was embraced tightly, he’d said something very, very right.

“You consider me family? Really?”

“When someone nearly trumps my brother as someone I’d risk my life to save if he was in danger, yeah, I’d say he’s family.”

“I’ve never really had that.”

“The entire Mustang family adores you, Sig Curtis considers you his son—”

“But ultimately, I’m not their family. Like you said, there are many others who would ‘trump’ me if we were both in danger.”

“As long as you and Fletcher don’t both get yourselves in trouble, then, I have no issues.”

“I’ll do my best.” Wrath squeezed Russell tighter for a moment, which made the more research-driven alchemist gasp for breath just a bit. Then, Russell found himself released, Wrath carefully analyzing him again. “You know, it’s taken a while to get used to it, especially when we kiss, but I think I like the goatee.”

“So do I,” Russell said. “Makes me stand out from Ed a little more.”

“You were the one who chose to stand in his shadow.”

“Yeah, but trying to step out from it has been harder than hell. Who’d think such a little guy could cast such a big one?”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way if you ever tell him that, but I have to agree.” Wrath flexed his right arm. “I get just two limbs from him and I have more power than most alchemists.”

Russell kissed Wrath on the cheek. “I think you might have just a bit to do with that.”

Wrath only smiled, hating that he had only a half-hour before he had to go and monitor the Gate, because if there’d ever been a time he felt like actually making love with his boyfriend, it was now.

********

Ed hung the red coat back on the rack by the main door. Whenever Aideen saw it, which, knowing her, would probably be immediately after she entered the house, hopefully, she’d realized he’d gathered the pieces so that she could wear it again. Things had been so… quiet around the house. Even when it had been just he and Roy, Ed couldn’t remember a time there wasn’t some activity. No, that wasn’t really true. There had been quite a few times, he and Roy would sit in silence and read or merely hold to one another, both still very much awake, but saying nothing. But this silence was hollow, painful.

Aideen’s behavior, at least, seemed less rebellious, as she was now going to bed at earlier hours, eating slightly better and more than she’d been, fights were dwindling between parents and daughter—though the same couldn’t be said for the twins themselves. Their arguments seemed to be lumped into one larger one, and yet, whenever Aideen became sullen or distant, Nicholas’s behavior toward her resumed as that of the loving brother.

He blamed his children for the first gray hair he’d actually found on his own head, one which he had very quickly plucked from his head and flushed down the toilet. He’d teased Roy long enough that he didn’t want to show any sign that he was aging until the older man was completely white. That was something that looked to be happening sooner than later, as his hair appeared less like steel from a distance and more like silver with the way the black and white blended throughout.

Al had needed to leave early. Apparently, Winry had some sort of automail order to fill and needed him to watch over their brood—or litter, as Roy tended to tease, based on Al’s devoted love of cats—and Sasha and Robert had both caught something at school and were sick with some kind of stomach virus. As far as Ed was concerned, Al could just stay with his kids until that virus had made its way through the family. He had no desire to run to the toilet emptying his stomach’s contents.

But, just because he didn’t have Al with him didn’t mean that either of the two brothers had stopped their search for ways to permanently close the Gate. Things had been far too stirred up lately in the underground city, and that almost always signified trouble. At all times, one alchemist was kept down there, sometimes more, to monitor activities along with a troop of soldiers trusted enough to keep the city and the Gate’s portal a secret. Unfortunately, the pool of reliable soldiers and alchemists in areas of keeping secrets was limited.

Ed also thought it was a bit unfair that Roy seemed to be sending Fletcher down there almost twice as much as everyone else. Roy admitted he respected the younger man for standing up to him concerning his feelings for Aideen, but that hadn’t stopped the fuhrer and over-protective father from giving the plant alchemist a job almost entirely contrary to his abilities. And yet, Fletcher continued to earn Roy’s respect by never balking his duties, never questioning anything.

Of course that was before Roy had asked Fletcher why, when the younger Tringham brother gave the answer that apparently disturbed Roy far more than it had Ed. “Because we think Dante’s involved, and that could mean danger to Aideen. I would do anything, including spend fifty or sixty hours a week inside of a dark, cavernous city to make sure she and everyone else are safe.”

There had been no mentions that Roy was being unfair, which he was. None that he was being hypocritical, which he was. There hadn’t even been a mention that Roy had given Ed his first kiss at nearly the same age and first sexual experiences before his next birthday, which he had.

As Ed was considering what Fletcher could one day mean to his only daughter, and still trying to accept all of the possibilities, he heard noise on the front porch, noise that usually signified his husband was home, much too early, and Falman was still trying to deliver messages to him. The door was only open a slight crack when he heard Roy.

“Major, please, I will do everything within my power to return to the officer after this is over, but when I receive a message this cryptic from my son, I answer it.”

Roy opened the door, seeing Ed still near it. He smiled that wary, tired smile that familiarly graced the pale face. As Roy stepped in the house, he wrapped an arm around Ed and kissed him lightly.

“So what’s this about a cryptic message?” Ed asked.

“Nicholas called, he said he thought he’d found out more about what happened with Aideen that night Tringham nearly took advantage of her—”

“Roy…” Ed said, warningly. He wasn’t happy at the idea of his daughter with anyone in a serious relationship, something he’d never considered her dating Phillip to be. Yet, he liked Fletcher, and he wasn’t thrilled that his husband kept talking about him that way.

“Fine, he told me he knew more about that night and he needed to meet with us here at the house. He knew you’d be here or at the lab out back.”

“Am I that predictable?” Ed asked, just a hint of mirth in his voice despite concern over his son’s strange message.

“Horribly,” Roy said before instructing Falman to go back to the main office and sat with Ed in the study, waiting on Nicholas. They hadn’t been on the sofa, Roy next to Ed with his hand on Ed’s knee, for more than a few minutes when the doorbell rang. Ed hopped up, knowing he was still by far quicker at getting up from a seated position than Roy, to go to the door. When he checked to see who was at the door, he found only a massive uniformed chest and realized he knew exactly the only person it could be, even if their face couldn’t be seen.

He opened the door to a very serious-looking General and Rose Armstrong. If it was possible, Ed was more confused than ever. He let them into his home and was about to shut the door when he saw Nicholas and a few of the guards with Phillip. The eldest of the two Armstrong boys had a slightly swollen look to his jaw and Nicholas continuously clenched and unclenched his hand as though it had recently been used to cause that swelling.

The moment they were all inside of the house, Nicholas glared at the other teen Ed thought he’d still considered a friend. “You!” Nicholas pointed at the curly-haired cadet. “Talk. Now!”

********

Fletcher had been grateful for the relief from the city. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he still felt astonished it wasn’t night when he left the dark cavern. Like most of the soldiers and other alchemists had all commented before, it was strange to spend that much time in that complete darkness without expecting it the moment he stepped outside.

Though he was tired from pulling what equated to a very long cat-eye shift in the city, Fletcher needed to go to the Central office first, to speak to the fuhrer—hardass that he was being since the kiss two months before—and Frank Archer, then the Elric brothers. Going toward headquarters, Fletcher greeted the woman at the front, books under his arm. She informed him that the fuhrer was dealing with family business, and his eyes must have flashed concern because she immediately informed him it had something to do with Nicholas.

Though Fletcher tried to pretend that he was just as concerned about Nicholas as his sister, the reality was that he wasn’t. He liked Nicholas, considered him a friend, but the thought of Aideen having a problem clenched at Fletcher’s chest and stomach.

He made his way to the door labeled “Colonel Archer: Head of Military Investigations”

Frank’s secretary nodded at him to enter, warning Fletcher that the colonel wasn’t in a particularly good mood.

“Colonel Archer?” Fletcher said, almost wanting to spit that name from his tongue.

“Hello, Fletcher,” Frank said, coldly. It brought an involuntary shiver up the younger man’s spine.

“Is something wrong, Frank, um, Colonel sir?”

“Oh,” Frank said, features softening slightly,” sorry Fletcher. Just an unresolved fight at home.”

Fletcher didn’t want to ask what about or why he, specifically, seemed to bring the colonel out of his funk.

“It was about a lot of things, but ended with Aideen and her recent behavior. Of course, I defended her, but Kain really wasn’t happy.”

Fletcher understood now; he was a fellow Aideen supporter, a brother-in-arms of sorts.

“So, what brings you here?” Frank asked.

Fletcher held out a few books. “I was reading these while I was down in the city.”

“Aren’t you supposed to play guard while you’re there?”

“I was there in the middle of the night in the pure silence. If anyone is with you during those times, trust me, you know.” Fletcher sat in one of the leather chairs across from Frank. “The thing is, I think we need to start looking at more eastern techniques at tracking down Dante. There are a few tell-tale signs these books describe in matters of possession.”

“I still don’t quite understand how everyone’s so sure this woman, thing, whatever the hell she is can possess other people’s bodies.”

“Have you ever seen Al do it?”

“No, only heard.”

“Because he was bound to a suit of armor—and I know you might not believe it because you haven’t seen it, but trust me on this—he can detach his soul much easier than the rest of us.”

“Dante has survived for over four hundred years that way.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Apparently, in Piamo, the country east of Xing, it’s happened before and they have several wards against it, one very similar to the array that we all wear of Ed’s design. They also have methods of detection.”

“Shouldn’t you be taking this to Ed?” Frank asked. “Or at least Kain?”

“I would,” Fletcher said, “except that I need your researchers and investigators as well. It won’t be a quick process, but there are apparently certain things to look for that have nothing to do with alchemy but residual minerals.”

“In other words, something our fledgling science could detect while the alchemists work on more important issues.”

Fletcher nodded.

“Interesting.”

********

Munich

Roy Mustang had done everything he could to earn praise, to get promotions and rank in his career, but today, all that mattered was that he resist the will of the Thule Society. For whatever reason, he was naturally powerful, nothing like that man Hohenheim, but powerful enough. He’d resisted learning anything more about this joke science of alchemy, and he’d even tried to refuse to eat just to take the easiest possible way out, only to have food stuffed in him.

Apparently, he was an important part of the equation.

Though he had always sought rank, he hadn’t wanted it in the manner he’d achieved. He hadn’t wanted to be the chief prisoner, the one with the most power in this situation. Apparently, the rank worked downward, with the Scotsman in a three-way tie for second with a set of American brothers, both farmers and planters by nature but naturally skilled when it came to alchemy, particularly involving plants. Following them, it was the turncoat bishop who had joined the Thules, a Spaniard named Gran who had a head completely devoid of hair and a mustache even more ridiculous than that of the Scot, and a woman whose beauty, despite the age somewhere around forty, was incredibly enticing, with a nature around like that of the psirons of Greek mythology. The American brothers’ father, Nash, was next, holding such a spot only because his constant presence ensured the two brothers would cooperate. Last on the list was the least important, the most easily sacrificed, Shou Tucker.

They had realized that Tucker was to be a sacrifice some time ago, but the man who still mourned the loss of his wife and daughter couldn’t seem to be made to care. In all honesty, if it hadn’t been for the Thule society, keeping the man alive, Tucker would likely have done himself in. From what the former colonel understood, Tucker had been on that path when he’d been abducted.

They’d all been abducted, save for Roy. No, the trained intelligence officer and occasional spy had walked into their trap. But he was also necessary. He was needed by the Thules to complete their plans to wage war on this other world, to capture the technology and knowledge available there. Finally, they would use that information on the rest of this world, helping the Nazis complete their plans, helping them destroy London.

They threatened Roy’s family, but really, what more could they do? Riza and the boys lived in London, and that was one of their first areas for attack if the Thules reached their so-called “Shamballa.” Either way, Roy was going to lose his family, and he’d mourned it and accepted that fact. Either by his inaction or action they would die, but at least thousands of others wouldn’t.

Now, as he stood contemplating his actions, making the decision he’d hoped he’d have the nerve to make, he found himself meeting that bitch Eckhart’s eyes. They were cold and smug, and he had a very bad suspicion that things were going to go very bad for him, very fast.

“Are you planning to defy me?” she said with a faint smile.

“What do you think?”

“I think you are going to obey my every command.”

“I think you’re crazier than I originally thought.”

Eckhart smiled again, and for just a second, Roy glanced up at the tall, gray-haired alchemist standing by her side. He saw the look of almost illness and pity in the usually stoic face of Hohenheim, and Roy tried to hide the worry that was eating away at his gut.

“Why don’t we bring in some familiar faces?” Eckhart said.

At that single phrase, that command to her subordinates, Roy’s heart leapt into his throat. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

But she had.

Struggling against the restraints, furious and fierce, he saw his wife and sons fighting, yelling.

Riza looked much too thin, probably from worry or thinking she’d lost him. But still, in those coppery eyes, there was a dangerous passion.

“Roy!”

“Father!” the twins yelled in unison.

Beyond his control, even finding some strength in his much-too-weakened body, Roy ran to them, embracing them. Tears ran down his face as he held and saw his family for the first time since he’d started “spying” on the Thules.

As his wife was trying to understand what was happening, as he was just trying to take in her face, his boys’ faces, he found himself being pulled roughly away.

He saw her, though. He’d finally seen Riza after all this time. Her hair was lighter as it was going gray, there were crinkles in the skin at the corners of her eyes, but she was still beautiful and fiery.

Aiden was trying to be strong, his coal black eyes that matched his father’s in every way looked hard and angry. His short black hair was a mess, his thin lips pursed together in anger.

Beside him, Nicholas stood, his eyes, just as identical as his mother’s, took everything in, a mixture of fear, anger and awe evident, particularly when he spotted the serpent. His blond head jerked upward to get Aiden’s attention toward the ceiling, which he did, looking less fearful but just as surprised.

“You see,” Eckhart said, “I’ve been more than aware of the decision you were planning to make, Mr. Mustang, and I thought your family might like to hear you utter their death sentence in person. Perhaps, if you’re lucky, our executioners, who are all rather skilled with their guns will be able to keep you from being splattered by your family’s blood.”

Roy looked over at his family.

“Whatever they want, don’t give it to them,” Riza yelled. “They’ve already killed Raine when she tried to protect us. Don’t believe what they say!”

“That’s right, you have no proof we’ll keep them safe, do you?” Eckhart said. “But you do know if you do nothing, we’ll pluck them off one by one, and you’ll be unable to stop it. After all, we’ve been keeping you alive, not strong, all this time for a reason.”

Roy looked into three sets of eyes, six orbs that belonged to the people who meant the most to him.

********

Amestris

Roy watched as his husband attacked the young Armstrong.

“No,” Roy said, voice flat. “Ed. Stop.” He watched, trying not to encourage Ed as he held the teen against the wall, threatening him within an inch of his life. He also tried not to attack his top General when he pulled Ed from Phillip.

“Were you going to do nothing?” Armstrong asked Roy as he held a squirming, pissed off Ed back.

“I might have if I disagreed with my husband. Personally, I think you should be grateful he didn’t deck your son immediately or that I didn’t pull out my gloves.”

“Well, I would appreciate it if you trusted me enough to handle my son,” Armstrong said.

“Our son,” Rose corrected.

“Our son,” Armstrong said, as though trying not to sound highly irritated with his wife.

“You’ve done an excellent job so far,” Ed hissed as he pried himself from the large man’s grip.

It was rare to see the usually gentle giant angry, but at those words, he looked as though he might do serious injury.

“I will not have you taking away our Armstrong family honor any more than my son already has.” Then, the glaring blue eyes were turned on Phillip. “I have raised you from the time you were a boy, gave you the Armstrong name, a name with a proud tradition, and this is how you show me respect? This is how you honor the family you have been brought into? Perhaps you didn’t learn enough about self-control.”

“Self control!” Nicholas yelled. “You didn’t see my sister today. She looked terrified of him. The night she allegedly consented, she came home and burned all her clothes, took a shower so hot her skin was red. You tell me what that sounds like you did to her.” Then, maliciously, he added, “Maybe it’s just genetics.”

“I’m not Lucas Reid! I’m not that man!” Phillip yelled. “I would never take advantage of anyone, especially not Aideen. I love her!”

“But that’s exactly what you did, even if we do believe your story,” Roy said, his voice remaining calm, so calm it actually scared himself. “My daughter came to you, according to your story, telling you what had happened that day, about the fight she’d had. She was an emotional wreck and yet, when she told you she was interested in doing more, you didn’t hesitate.”

“I tried to tell her it was a bad idea, but you have no idea how hard it was to tell her no.”

“Then perhaps you should get some tips from Fletcher Tringham. He managed to do it well enough,” Roy said, watching the shocked expression on Phillip’s face. “She failed to tell you that you were her second choice, did she?”

“Then how can you blame my son for what happened? Why not place the blame on your daughter?” Rose asked of him.

“Because while your son has been walking around smiling, possibly bragging that he took my daughter’s virginity—”

“I’d never do that!”

Roy continued as though he’d never been interrupted. “Aideen has been walking around looking like she’d been broken, damaged irrevocably.”

“She’s been acting rather like a petulant child lately, if you ask me, not to mention the other words to describe her behavior with my son and her teacher,” Rose said.

“I really don’t believe in hitting women, Rose,” Ed said, glaring, “but you say another comment like that, and I swear I won’t be able to restrain myself.”

Then, from the hall came the slamming of a door and the sound of Danny Brosch yelling out Aideen’s name.

Roy was the first in the hallway, finding Brosch opening the door, searching frantically for any signs of the teen.

“She’s gone!” the guard and major in the military said. “She just… she vanished.”

“A teenager cannot just vanish, Brosch!” Roy said, stepping out onto his front steps, looking around for any sign of his daughter. “Tell me what happened?”

“She wanted to come back to the house, said she was feeling a little under the weather,” the guard said as he proceeded to search the grounds by Roy’s side as Ed and the Armstrongs looked elsewhere. “She saw the coat hanging by the door, said ‘They don’t hate me,’ and put it on. Then, she seemed to hear what you were talking about and ran out before I could stop her. She should have been right outside of the door when I opened it.”

“But she wasn’t,” Roy said.

********

The radio Wrath had been given signaled for him to look for any signs of Aideen. Apparently the girl had run off again. He shook his head, wishing he could just know what was wrong with her. She was family to him, but more than that, he was concerned about Nicholas, who had come to visit at least weekly, looking distraught at what had been happening with Aideen.

The teen was still the first to truly befriend him, and Wrath hated to see what the fighting with his sister was doing to Nicholas. He also hated that lately, it seemed as though everything going on in Amestris revolved around those two, but he’d never say that aloud. Though, that didn’t stop the other soldiers who had to separate and search the rest of the underground city in a wider area to look for Aideen.

Well Wrath never said anything to anyone, except to Russell, who felt the same way. Wrath could hardly help himself as he smiled, patrolling the area of the underground city close to the Gate. Damn, he was an idiot for that man. He hadn’t thought he’d ever find someone he cared about half as much as he had about Edward, and he’d been rather certain it wouldn’t be the son of a bitch who’d gotten him so angry just to get him to speak.

But he’d been wrong, hopelessly, blissfully wrong.

********

Kain wasn’t known around the office as a mean or miserable man, but today, it seemed everyone was taking a wide berth with him. And in the mood he currently found himself in, he couldn’t argue. He practically growled at everyone who passed.

Fights between himself and Frank were so rare, even more so were the ones that remained unresolved. He almost didn’t recognize this feelin felt like something was eating at his stomach all day long, not only because he felt the continued anger at his husband, but because he felt guilty for being so angry and staying that way.

He needed to resolve this.

He started to knock on Frank’s door, but saw it was already open. Pushing it further open, he found Frank at his desk, watching something in earnest. Pushing a little more, Kain, saw Fletcher Tringham, shirt off, rubbing his hands over his chest.

Kain tried to check feelings of hurt as he tried to shut the door, trying to remind himself that Fletcher was straight, or at least claimed to be.

“I thought I’ve told people to knock before they come into my office.”

“I-I didn’t think that applied to me,” Kain said, still holding onto the doorknob.

“Of course not,” Frank said, his voice still cold. “You’re my commanding officer, you can do whatever you like.”

“Right,” Kain said. “Just your commanding officer.”

“Kain, get your ruddy little ass back in here this instant,” Frank said, making Kain blush and make sure that no one aside from maybe Frank’s secretary and Fletcher had heard that. He walked into the office and Fletcher smiled broadly at him, as though he’d been doing nothing wrong, and perhaps, he hadn’t.

“I was just talking to your husband about mineral residue that can be left when dealing with soul transmutations, as well as the distinct rotting of the flesh when a foreign and weakened soul is the only resident in a body. I really should have brought a diagram, though. It’s unbelievably cold in this office.”

The blond man grabbed for his shirt and smiled at Kain. “I was so glad to finally find this information. It could help us find Dante. Really, I need to talk to you too. There is discussion in some of these records and books of ways that a false soul can be recognized in an interrogation. Far more helpful to you with that being your department.”

Kain had never seen Fletcher look so excited, so energetic. That was until Frank’s phone rang, informing the three that once again, Aideen had run off from her guards.

“You know,” Frank said. “I love the girl dearly, but I’d like to not play babysitter for her every time she runs away from home.”

Kain could see his husband meeting his eyes, trying to tell him this was a small concession on his part concerning the fight they’d had. In return, Kain smiled and nodded.

“But she is troubled.”

With that, the issue of Aideen was resolved until they could better discuss it, though Kain knew there was much more behind the origins of this fight. He’d talk to his husband about it later, but at the moment, he was just pleased to feel a fraction of the anger and guilt off his chest.

********

Munich

Hohenheim watched as Mustang grappled with the decision ahead of him, looking to his family, to the wife that Hohenheim’s son-in-law—he supposed by now—had never gotten to marry, to the sons that Hohenheim tried to picture with features of his own son incorporated.

“I- I’ll…” Tears were forming and falling. “I’ll do it. I’ll help to open the Gate.”

Hohenheim had expected as much. Despite all this man’s shortcomings, if one thing could be said about him, it was that he did love his family. Hohenheim felt sorry for the man, knowing that none of these people would be necessary to open the Gate if he would do it for them. Unfortunately, Hohenheim was not about to be used as a weapon against his own family. That was why he kept the extent of his knowledge and ability in the field of alchemy a closely guarded secret. He hated to think what these people would force him to do if they had any idea, and preferred to think of what he could manage if he could catch them by surprise.

“Very good, Mr. Mustang,” Eckhart said. “But you see, as I’m planning to cross through the gate myself,” she said as she looked toward the dirigible at the back of the room, “I think I’m going to need some form of insurance that you will help those here to re-open the Gate again.”

A non-verbal signal told one of the Thules to grab the man’s wife.

“Riza! What the hell do you mean? You said you wouldn’t kill them!”

“I won’t,” Eckhart said, “but if you want to ensure your wife comes back in one piece from the other side of the Gate and that your children aren’t killed in front of you, you will open the Gate once again when we need to return.”

“Frau Eckhart,” Hohenheim said, “as I am going to be nno the dirigible with you, allow me to handle this woman.” With a smile to the woman that seemed almost devilish, a smile he hadn’t thought himself capable of. “I know perfectly well how to take care of her.”

He met Mustang’s eyes, seeing that the man knew he was offering his protection to Riza as they crossed through to Amestris. Mustang still reacted violently, not letting the others know that he felt she was safe in the older man’s hands.

Hohenheim warned the woman to close her eyes as he saw some of the men leading Tucker up the stairs toward Envy. “You aren’t going to want to watch this. Signal to your boys to do the same.”

He didn’t look up when he heard the screams or the sound of the man’s body being crushed, and he tried desperately to ignore the single drop of blood that had struck his cheek.

********

Amestris

Dante had been forced to work fast. She had been delayed in coming down here. The dramatics of the Mustang family were really growing to be too much, not to mention the number of soldiers she’d had to avoid just to get to the hot point in the city. She knew that with the quick clap of her hands to create the array, she’d cause suspicion, as it created a practically blinding light in the middle of the near darkness.

It had been much too long since she’d managed to see a plan done so perfectly come into fruition. Tucker was only part of what she needed, part of something that had nothing to do with opening the Gate. Instead, she had called up every member of the military she knew to be filthy, underhanded cheats. They would all be heroes of this battle, they would “save” Amestris from the invaders, and they would be her pawns to manipulate. She knew that as long as she found ways to offer them power and money, they would obey. None had seen her face, and it would be some time before anyone was able to associate this body with her name. Not until she’d dispatched with the brat and his family.

Now, all she had to do was wait for the first person to come running to investigate in order to complete the necessary blood sacrifice.

Conveniently enough, the massive form came around the corner.

“What are you doing down here?” he said.

“Wrath,” Dante said, “I need your help.”

The former homunculus, the sin who had never truly sworn his allegiance to her came closer. So trusting.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Dante smiled. How she loved this body.

“Are you okay?” Obviously, the man was worried by the drastic change in her demeanor.

“I’m quite all right, Wrath. You see, I needed a blood sacrifice, and it seems only fitting that after all the trouble you’ve caused me, you finally be of some use.”

“Dante? How the hell—”

But before he could utter another word, she’d speared him with the dagger she’d been carrying with her, piercing the man’s stomach and gashing it downward. Still, desptie the wound, he tried to attack her, making him bleed much more quickly, much more copiously. Dante, however quickly rolled out of his way and blocked him with simple air alchemy. He fell to the ground with enormous force, too much in his injured state to allow him to get back up.

He muttered out some things, some questions while he tried to hold the now gaping wound closed. He grabbed the necklace around his neck, the one that all those closest to the fuhrer wore.

“Oh, you mean this?” she asked as she pulled her own from the collar. “It has to be on before I’m in the body to work. I think you’ll find I’ve been here a very, very long time.”

She watched the man gasp, coughing up blood. “You, like all the rest, wanted to be more human. Does that seem so appealing now that you are drowning on your own blood? Now that you know you will die? And you will die quite painfully.

“Tell me, Wrath, will you think of him, your lover, as you die? Perhaps the one you are about to join? Or will you dwell on seeing this face you trusted, this body bringing about your end?” She enjoyed taunting him, enjoyed that he had buckled so easily, that this mountain crumbled beneath a true master of alchemy and manipulation.

“They will stop…” Again he coughed.

“No, they won’t.” Now, she needed to finish before other soldiers came to investigate. With a clap of her hands and a scream of pain from the large man, she opened to Gate.