The Phoenix and His Demons

All right, so I have FINALLY updated my story. Somehow it just seems forever since I\'ve done this and yet it\'s only been slightly over a week. I guess I\'m just too used to being able to crank out chapters while I\'m bored at work and now that I\'m on vacation for a short time, my motivation is gone. Either way, here you go and I\'m sorry it\'s a bit short, however I couldn\'t bring myself to draw it out any further for fear it would get redundant.

Now then, for my loverly reviewers: While I admit to being human and making mistakes, I still have to be proud of the fact that it took eight chapters before I made one. It\'s rather funny but I\'m not sure I want this story to be perfect. Perfect is overrated anyway and if it was perfect then no one would have a reason to review and critique the story. I\'m very glad that everyone seems to be enjoying it and I hope that continues to be the case.

I also admit that smut does have it\'s place, especially if it\'s well written and makes sense, but I honestly don\'t know when more cuteness, fluff, or romantic interludes will take place. I can promise there will be more intimate scenes, so if that\'s what you\'re looking for, you\'ll have to bear with me because this thing has to potential to be any number of chapters.

Always, reviews are welcomed, desired and I\'m a good sport about it. Enjoy everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patterns

It had been almost a week since they’d moved into the library to start work on the unusual murders that Al had been looking into. So far they hadn’t gotten any new information and Ed had read over the reports enough times that he had them memorized. So far it had been three cities with three murders in each one. The victims were in their early twenties, a mixture of men and women and no one could quite say when they’d first disappeared. Lior had been the first target with the deaths of two men and a woman there. The place was still something of a mess so it was no surprise that the youths hadn’t been noticed as missing right away, though their bodies had been found in the same place and the doctors had determined they’d only been dead for a day or two at most. There was no visible cause of death; granted all the bodies had had strange symbols carved into their flesh, but none were bad enough they could’ve killed.

Each body was found nude with a large circular design carved into their chest. It resembled a transmutation circle, but it was unlike anything they’d come across before. The symbol consisted of three circles inside one another and had a blackened, reversed, triangle in the center and smallest of the circles. The next ring contained a series of dots and squiggles that were repetitive in some ways; almost like a strange writing. The outer most circle had twelve triangles in them of varying sizes; horizontally and vertically symmetrical. The final touch was added with two vertical lines that cut through the outer circle, almost touching the middle one. They rose well above and below the outer ring, with lines cutting down to touch the circle, effectively making a very strange hexagon.

On each wrist and ankle, the symbol was repeated in a smaller fashion, which lacked the elaborate squiggles or writing of the center ring. It was always the same. In Youswell there were three women killed and in East city two women and a man. Once again no one knew when they had disappeared for it seemed they were not residents but travelers, yet their bodies were found about three months apart. Three months between killings, that’s the only other pattern they’d come across so far. Edward had spent hours upon hours staring at the drawings and photographs that were in the files and it was when he could barely keep his eyes open from lack of sleep that a thought finally struck him. With renewed energy he grabbed at the files, spilling papers everywhere as he ripped the photographs from each and laid them out on the table to compare.

“Brother! What are you doing? You just mixed everything up and it’s going to take forever to put them all back the way they were.” Ed wasn’t the only one that hadn’t been sleeping well; this case had been keeping him up since he started working on it almost nine months ago.

“Quiet, Al. I think I’m on to something. Come look at this.” The younger sighed and stacked the files he’d been trying to salvage on the floor before moving to sit next to his brother.

“Well? What do you see?” He didn’t mean to snap, and he knew his tone had come out a bit harsh but he hadn’t spent this long without proper rest in six years. Come to think of it, the only time he’d ever pushed himself this hard was when it was Ed doing the pushing. He was going to have to find a way to remind his brother, none too gently, that he was human again and did need sleep.

“Look at these markings. We know they’re carved in with a knife of some sort but look at the edges of the skin. It looks slightly burned. I think someone did use some kind of alchemy on this, which the energy of the transmutation or whatever it was, seared the skin slightly.”

The younger boy looked over the pictures and didn’t see what Edward was talking about. He gave a frustrated sigh and rubbed at his eyes a few times before he set to studying them again. Finally, after many tense moments of silence, he saw it. “You may be right Ed, but if that’s the case and alchemy was used on them, how come we can reproduce the reaction here?”

“Maybe it’s because it’s some sort of ritual? Alchemy used in a religious ritual. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve come across it, though Cornello was one hell of a fake, he did use it to make ‘miracles,’ the big fraud.”

“But Ed, if it worked, what did they make? And what did they take from the body?” The second question was the key to everything.

“I don’t know Al, but I have a feeling if we find out what they took, then we’ll be able to answer a lot more questions. We’ve been looking in the wrong places the whole time. Instead of looking up Alchemical history, we need to be looking into religions and cults.”

“Great. I guess we should get started then.” The boy gave a defeated sigh as he started to gather up the books they’d hauled out of the main library, intent on returning them so he could gather more on an entirely different topic.

The sigh is what caught Ed’s attention and he couldn’t help but stare at his brother. His usually bright eyes were dull and his skin looked a bit too pale with dark circles under his eyes. Al hadn’t arrived like that; he had been energetic, refreshed and lively. Realization dawned on him harshly, wringing a wince as it became clear; he’d caused this. “Hey Al? Let’s, do that later. We should probably get some rest first, I don’t know about you but I’m beat.” The last words were said with a nervous chuckle, and while he knew he wasn’t going to sleep well while he mulled their new leads over, but Al didn’t have to know that.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure and I’m sorry.” Al merely nodded and gave his brother a smile. Edward didn’t have to explain what he was apologizing for; Al knew his brother well enough to figure that out all on his own.

“It’s okay. Goodnight brother.” He’d gladly dropped the books in a neat pile and deposited himself on the couch. He was asleep seconds after his eyes closed.

“Goodnight Al.” He turned the lights off and dropped onto his own couch with his fingers laced together to cradle his head as a makeshift pillow. Golden eyes wouldn’t close for another hour at least while a myriad of possibilities raced through his brain. They’d really gotten into a mess this time.

**********

A few days by train from the brothers, another insomniac blonde sat up pouring over alchemical texts. His hair was short and he was much taller than the hot-tempered Edward, but a year younger. So engrossed in his studies was he, that he never heard the door opening and by the time he noticed the shadows advancing on him, a sharp pain seared through his body before the darkness of unconsciousness took him.

Two rooms away a younger boy sat up in his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he was awakened by a loud thump against the wooden floors of their home. Groggily, he crawled from his bed and cracked open the door, calling out into the dim hallways. “Russell? What are you still doing up so late?” Silence greeted him, and a dull throb began to take root in his chest. It was panic, but it wasn’t overwhelming yet. It wouldn’t have been the first time his brother had simply fallen asleep at his desk. Thus he stepped outside his bedroom and made his way to the small library the house contained. His fears were realized as he peered into the empty room. There was no one in it, but papers and books were scattered across the desk and the chair turned over. “Russell?!” This time he shouted; over and over again he cried as he raced through the house looking for his brother. Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Many panicked and teary minutes later, Fletcher Tringham raced out of the house and to the town proper of Xenotime. He had to get someone to help; someone had to have seen his brother. They just had to have.

**********

Pain had sent him into the darkness and it was pain that snapped him out of it. Russell woke to the unique fire of pain that came as his hands were being slammed against a concrete slab with a hammer. His captor, for he quickly realized he was in dire trouble, obviously knew he was an alchemist and was making sure he wouldn’t be able to draw any transmutation circles. He screamed against his gag and thrashed about wildly as tears stung his eyes. Seemingly satisfied that his young captive wouldn’t be drawing anything anytime soon, despite the iron shackles that held his arms and legs, he moved out of the cell, leaving his prisoner alone. The cell was small, with cold, stone, walls and had he not been so busy whimpering against the throbbing pain in his hands he would’ve heard the water steadily dripping. He hadn’t been able to get a good look at the tall man who’d broken his hands, the light had been behind him and there wasn’t much of it anyway.

One down, two to go

**********

He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, but he did notice when the pounding on the door roused him so suddenly that he fell off the couch with a startled yelp. “Hey! What the hell’s going on? Damn it, we’re sleeping in here, go away!”

“Open the door, now, Fullmetal.” Edward groaned, he knew that voice too well and if General Jackass was coming to get them at this ungodly hour instead of having them hauled to his office, something was seriously wrong.

“All right, all right…just gimmie a second.” He only managed to get back on the couch while Al opened the door, greeting their superior officer with a salute.

“General Mustang, sir, what’s wrong? You usually don’t come to see us, especially not this late.”

“I know, Alphonse, but we’ve just gotten a report of something in Xenotime that I want you to go investigate. A young man was kidnapped from his home earlier; we just got the call from the local authorities. We can’t be sure if his disappearance is in any way related to the case you’re working on but I don’t want to take any chances. Here are your tickets, now get going.”

“Xenotime, huh? Hey Al, isn’t that where Russell and Fletcher live or did they move while I was gone?”

“No brother, as far as I know they still live there, though I haven’t seen them in ages.” He’d taken the tickets and stuffed them in his pocket, though the expression on Mustang’s face made him pause. “Is there something wrong sir?”

“I had forgotten you were acquainted with the missing boy, that’s all. Hurry up you two, your train leaves in less than an hour.” With that he turned and marched down the hallway, leaving two very stunned alchemists.

“We’re acquainted…with…brother he doesn’t mean that Russell or Fletcher…” Al’s voice shook with fear. Those boys, especially Fletcher, were his friends. He didn’t want to even think about one of them ending up in their case files.

“God I hope not, Al, but it sounds like…” Ed shook the thoughts from his head and started packing furiously. “Come on, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can make sure they’re all right.” It was going to be a very long and stressful train ride and the two already exhausted alchemists weren’t going to find decent rest with that news hanging over them the whole way.