Edward Elric
Alphonse Elric
&
Eruo
The horrors of the Ishvalan war still plagued his mind as he sat; rotting within a cell. His State Alchemist uniform was replaced with a raggedy jumpsuit. The amount of space within the confines of the cell was limited, he wasn’t meant to live out the rest of his days in comfort. In fact, it was just the opposite; his hands were to remain cuffed behind his back at all times. The guards were afraid of what he was capable of doing.
The only things that kept him sane in such an environment were thoughts of his wife and children. He yearned to see them once more before leaving the world.
Just once…I want to say goodbye. Why have I been forsaken to such a cruel fate? He raised his hands to his face to hide the tears that formed. Though it was dark, he didn’t want his fellow inmates to see or hear him crying. It would end up subjecting him to ridicule.
The footsteps of guards echoed through the pitch black corridor.
They came to a stop in front of a cell not too far away. The man clutched the cold steel bars tightly. He knew exactly what cell they stopped at. His eyes widened slightly, the men spoke in murmurs…He couldn’t hear what they were saying from that far away, but they opened up the cell and removed someone’s handcuffs. It seemed like they were going to walk away, but a one set of footsteps came to an abrupt stop. They began to go toward the man’s cell; he knew exactly what it meant.
“Eruo…I was the reason you were in here, right?” The man’s voice was sinister and cold, but Eruo regarded him with a fairly pleasant tone.
“Indeed, Kimblee. I believe you owe me a debt.” Eruo tried not to make it sound so demanding, but Kimblee wasn’t interested in making anything of it. He brought his face closer to the bars and grabbed them tightly; causing them to explode upon contact.
“How were you able to pull that off?” Eruo stepped out of the cell and noticed that the corpses of the two guards who let Kimblee out lied idly at his feet.
Kimblee merely showed Eruo two red stones, “Military issued. You better get out of here.” Kimblee approached Eruo so they were face to face. He reached out; Eruo flinched instinctively, but Kimblee reached around Eruo’s back and destroyed the handcuffs that bound his hands behind his back. With that, Kimblee was gone.
Eruo followed Kimblee outside; greeted by an overpowering ray of light.
“Damn…” Eruo almost forgot what it was like to see the sun. He shielded his eyes and watched Kimblee climb into a car and drive away. Eruo didn’t think that Kimblee was aided in that little stunt, but it made sense. Kimblee wasn’t exactly a strategist. He was a long way from civilization, but it wasn’t like there was any rush. He didn’t want his family to see the toll that his sentence took on him.
“Brother...” A soft voice emitted from the suit of armor that stood alongside a young blonde boy. The boy didn’t answer; he was flat against a brick wall in an alleyway; waiting for ideal moment to move.
“Brother!” The blonde turned his head, “I don’t think she’s going to show…It’s late. This isn’t a very good lead, maybe we should just look for Marcoh.” The armor suggested, but the boy seemed to be tuning him out. He had a look of determination plastered across his face as he waited.
“No, she’ll show, I’m sure of it. We can worry about Marcoh later…Who would’ve thought she was so close by? Even when hiding out in a small town like this, word gets around.” An enthused smile went across his lips.
While fulfilling his duties as a State Alchemist, the blonde heard rumors of a woman who knew of the Philosopher’s Stone. She wouldn’t be as useful as Marcoh; who created the very first stone, but she was nearby. Her knowledge goes as far as knowing how to construct a Philosopher’s Stone; which was a key detail that the blonde was more than eager to know. It would bring him one step closer to restoring his brother and his own body to normal.
“We’ve been here for three hours…It’s getting late. You need to get some sleep. We have to be in Central in three days to report the success of your mission. Why do you insist on neglecting your duties?” Al insisted they leave, but the blonde hush him with a wave of his hand.
“If she knows anything, this’ll be a huge step closer to our goal. We’ll at least be able to go to Marcoh with some knowledge on the Philosopher’s Stone; we’ve got to do this.” The boy wasn’t planning on arguing with his brother. He ultimately decided what they did and didn’t do. Not to say that his younger brother didn’t have a say in it, but he rarely objected.
“We don’t know anything about this woman. Haven’t you stopped to think how she obtained such information? With all the people we’ve talked to, not one of them knew how to construct a Philosopher’s Stone.” Al pointed out; bringing up a good point, but his brother didn’t respond.
The two were in pursuit of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone; which they had to keep a secret. The older one, Edward Elric only took the title of State Alchemist so that he could freely roam the land in search of the stone without having to deal with any of Amestris’s forces getting on him for the illegal practice of alchemy. It also granted him access to a seemingly unlimited supply of information and yielded quite a bit of money. Respect was something he didn’t care for, but he was rather young to possess the rank of Major, so people looked up to his success. He was known as the Fullmetal Alchemist; Hero of the People.
The empty suit of armor was his younger brother, Alphonse Elric; who had his soul attached to the armor in a failed Human Transmutation. Though Ed paid the price of one leg, Al gave his whole body and soul in equivalent exchange. Ed brought his brother’s soul back from beyond an intangible gate and attached it to a suit of armor found in the basement of his old house.
They originally wanted to return their mother to life to see her smile and feel her warmth once more, but the experiment taught them an important lesson. The dead were best left undisturbed. Nothing good came of it…
They just wanted to restore their bodies to their original forms.
After Ed heard whispers of a woman possessing some knowledge of the Philosopher’s Stone, Al and he set out for Lastrina; a small town a good distance away from Central. They still had to report the success of their most recent mission to the man whom they worked under; Colonel Mustang.
It took some time, but they were able to find out where she might be staying. The town was really small and sort of average, so they had no trouble finding the local Inn.
It was wedged between two larger homes. It was sort of secluded, but that’s why it made for a good hiding spot.