Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Audigy Alchemist ❯ Aftermath: Case 1 ( Chapter 5 )

Edward Elric

 

Military record report pg.2

 

Date: May 2X, XXXX

 

On May 1X two state alchemists, The Iron Alchemist and the Machine Alchemist had committed treason. I had traveled to Château Merrian to apprehend the local crime lord by the name of Corry Raymond. Upon arriving at the Château I was confronted by said alchemists at the front gate. After a brief interrogation, they admitted to being employed as “enforcers” the Mr. Raymond. I incapacitated them with the intent of arresting both of them and the crime lord, but before apprehending Corry Raymon the Iron Alchemist had regained consciousness block and attempted to me. I again rendered him unconscious and proceeded to apprehend Mr. Raymond.

With the assistance of The Audigy alchemist, I was able to disarm, incapacitate, and apprehend Corry Raymond (The Events within the château are described in full in the Audigy Alchemist's report). After incapacitating Mr. Raymon, we proceeded to a nearby room where we had been told Mr. Raymon had been holding a child prisoner. After rescuing her we exited the building and accomplices of the Audigy Alchemist escorted her home. The building had sustained so much damage during the raid that it collapsed the next day.

Full investigation into this case: pending

 

 

The next day (after the rescue)…

 

Dane, Alphone, Ed, and Dane's two friends stood in front of the former mob headquarters.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Al said looking at Dane.

“I'm sure, and to cover any problems, I removed the vital info linking him to his crimes.” Dane said opening case 1 again. He pulled out a giant marching tuba (Sousaphone) and put it on. He pulled a mouth piece out of his pocket and put some warm air through to warm it up.

“He's been waiting for this day for a long time.” The one with the chain on his belt said.

“He wants to give this town a fresh start, free from the tyranny of organized crime.” The one with the sniper rifle case said.

“Ready?” Dane said putting the mouth piece on the instrument.

“Ready.” The Elric brothers replied simultaneously.

“Show time.” Dane's comrades said together.

Dane pulled the ring out of his pocket and slipped it on his finger. He took a deep breath, put his mouth on the mouth piece and blew hard. The ring glowed softly and great impacting force erupted from the bell of the instrument, knocking the Elrics and Dane over. The blast knocked over the middle section of the house. Dane stood back up and repeated the process again for the east and west wings of the mansion.

“Are you sure that was the right thing to do?” Al asked Dane.

“Yeah,” Dane said with a wry grin “let's head back to town. I want to celebrate”

“Fine, but I still want my information.” Ed said.

“You'll get it soon enough.” Dane replied, looking at Ed “For now, just have fun, you stopped a great evil from destroying this town.”

The three of them returned to town to find a great crowd huddled around their hotel.

“They're back!” A villager shouted

Half the town rushed to thank their heroes. The town's people thanked the Elrics profusely. Mr. Stringfellow stood next to Dane and watched as the towns folk swept the Elric brothers off to a party.

“It's been ten years.” Mr. Stringfellow said. “are you going to stay?”

“Not yet,” Dane said watching the crowd as well. “I still need to help them.”

“Well, I would ask you to stay, but you know what you're doing.”

“I need to borrow Brown and Smith.”

“Do you?” Mr. Stringfellow chuckled. “You're leaving our town defenseless.”

“I know,” Dane said sighing “but what those two are trying to attempt…they need all the protection they can get.”

“The stone?”

“Bingo.”

“Well, I'll tell them what I know, but I doubt it would be any help.”

“Right…” Dane said looking off in the distance. “Well, I suppose we should join the party.”

“You stole my thunder.” Mr. Stringfellow said laughing and the two headed to the party.

The whole town partied all day and into the night, Ed had never seen so many beautiful girls competing for his attention. He was tempted get their numbers, but he knew if Winry found out about this she would turn him into dog food. Alphonse was regarded as a man of mystery, refusing to take off his armor. Most of the women (age 17-30) were flirting with him.

When Ed and Al finally got away from the party, they found Mr. Stringfellow and talked with him. They talked about the philosopher's stone for hours; in the end it was Al, who changed the subject.

“Excuse me.” Al asked timidly.

“Hmm?” Mr. Stringfellow grunted looking in Al's direction.

“I wanted to know…who is Dane?”

Mr. Stringfellow sighed and looked off into space.

“S-Sorry I asked!” Al said quickly.

“No…I think you ought to know a bit about the person who's looking after you.” He looked back at Al “I better start from the beginning. 15 years ago Dane was a student of alchemy, incredibly gifted. He could do things I had never seen before and I'm ex-Alchemic Military. He had a real gift and his family did all they could to help him become better. Two years later a boy moved in to town, his name was Corry, he had an hunger for power that I had never seen before. He became friends with Dane and they enjoyed their childhood, but I could tell Corry was Jealous of Dane's gift. Corry resorted to crime and after a time he organized the criminals, he created the mafia. A year later, things started to become worse, Dane went to go convince Corry to stop and atone for his crimes. That night he arrived on my door step, full of holes. They used him for target practice.”

Ed's eyes widened and he stared intently at Mr. Stringfellow, Al gasped in shock.

“It was horrible.” Mr. Stringfellow continued “His wounds were so bad I had to use the bullets to stop the bleeding. I altered their form to create small plates over the bullet holes. It took a month for him to stand back up. When he was finally up and about again, one of Corry's thugs came knocking at the door. He was to bring Dane to the mansion for an audience with the boss. It turned out that Corry had kidnapped his parents and used them to force Dane to do his bidding.”

“What?!?!” Ed shouted.

“That's so terrible!” Al said loudly.

“Yes it was, for two years he did their dirty work, never able to see his parents. Then one day, one of the guards let slip the truth. His parents were dead, killed in the process of capture. Dane was devastated; all he could do at the time was run. He returned to me and told me the whole story, the he said `I'm leaving the town; I've got to find a way to stop him. I'll return when I'm stronger.' So the in the early morning he fled the town. He's been gone for ten years.”

“What about the other two that helped us?” Al asked.

“Hmm…oh them, they too were children of this village who showed great promise in their abilities. Both were manipulated by Corry too. It took Dane a long time to convince them that capturing Corry was better than killing him.”

“Wow” Al said

“That's pretty strong devotion to justice.” Ed said leaning back.

“Hardly,” Mr. Stringfellow said chuckling “Dane's pretty damn crafty, he did that to remind Corry that Dane was his friend, to show him that power isn't every thing. He's trying to heal Corry of this great evil.”

The Elrics stared at Mr. Stringfellow in amazement.

“Believe it or not, under that village idiot façade you see, he's smart, quick, and scary powerful.” Mr. Stringfellow “When he fought Corry in the mansion, that wasn't anger you saw it was determination. Well I think I've prattled on enough and the party is dying down, let's get some rest for the next day.” He got up and headed home.

“Are you ready to go?” Dane said strolling towards them.

“Yeah, we're tired” Ed said stretching his arms “we've got a long day ahead of us.”

“Alright, your effects were moved to my house.” Dane said walking away. The Elrics stood and followed Dane. they traveled to a house near Mr. Stringfellow's where Dane procured an old key. Fitting it into the slightly rusted lock he turned it, the bolt slid open, and he opened the door.

“Forgive the mess,” Dane said walking in and flipping a light switch “it's been a while since I've cleaned.” The furniture was covered in white cloth and everything was covered in dust. There was a path in the dust where someone had walked through the house. They followed the path of dust to the rear of the house. At the back of a hallway was a staircase, they proceeded up the stairs and down another hallway, the tracks stopped at the last door. Dane laughed.

“What?” Al asked.

“This room,” Dane said putting his hand on the cold brass knob and turning it “it used to be mine.” He opened the door and moved for the Elrics to enter. Ed and Al stepped in and looked around, it was amazing. Like Chezka's house it was filled wall-to-wall with books, but all the books were on Alchemy. “You can borrow any of the books you want, I suggest you read them tomorrow though, you need some rest. The restroom is down the hall, second door on the right.”

“Ok…” Ed said enthralled by the mass of books.

Dane closed the door and went down the hall to a door that was locked. He procured a key and unlocked it. Taking a calming breath, he put his hand on the cold brass handle (he remembered it being warmer), the brass was heavily tarnished (it used to shine like the sun), he turned it and opened the door. The air was stale, the room was clam. In the center was an old fashioned four-post bed. The dressers and mirrors were covered in the white cloth, he stepped inside. A tear ran down his cheek “mom, dad, I'm home.” He found a chair and positioned it next to the bed. Sitting down, he was deluged with a flood of memories, all of them released after being suppressed for such a long time.

He couldn't take it anymore; he left the room and went down stairs. He wandered around the house, taking the covers off the furniture until he got to the study. He took the cover off a piano; he remembered learning to play when he was younger. He sat down on the bench and adjusted it to his height. He glanced inside and made sure the strings weren't broken (they weren't) he closed his eyes and pressed a key.

The note resounded through out the room, faintly reaching the rooms upstairs. The purity of the note snapped the Al out of his daze, they to find it's source.

Dane remembered sitting at the piano, developing his sound alchemy theories. All the hours he spent creating music in a way no one else could ever duplicate. He wasn't doing it for the progression of alchemy; he did it to become a musician. He saw an old booklet on the floor near by, he picked it up and looked inside. It was filled with piano music, the moonlight sonata…I think this will be appropriate. He placed the music on its stand and took his ring out. He remembered forging the ring, how he had to create an internal seal on the ring to make the alchemic circle un-findable. He pressed his foot on the resonator pad and all the dampeners were lifted off the strings. He leaned forward and strummed the strings with his fingers, they sang softly. Dane looked at the music and placed his hands on the body of the piano. The ring glowed softly and the music started. Using alchemy, Dane was playing piano, playing the moonlight sonata. The notes hummed with a crystalline quality unheard of in most concert halls, a quality that would make Steinway drool in envy.

The Al heard the beautiful music and found it slightly haunting; he could feel the flow of a thousand sorrows within the chords of the music. He went down stairs and followed the sound of the music. Stopping outside the door to the study, Al watched through a crack as Dane played.

When Dane was finished he leaned his head back, Al could see a tear flow down the side of his face. “Did you enjoy the song, Alphonse?”

Al jumped and entered “I'm sorry for eves dropping, it was wrong of me to-“

“Don't worry about it. I'm surprised you could hear it.” Dane said wiping the tear from his eye.

“How did you do that?” Al asked in amazement.

“Alchemy, this is why I created that branch of the field. I wanted to be a musician.”

Al looked at the piano astonished such an old thing could sound like that.

“There's something I've been meaning to ask you about.” Dane said suddenly “Your seal.”

“Wha?! But…I…”

“Don't worry, I knew what you were from the start.”

“How.”

“Eyes and ears my friend, but brains help too. You sound like a tin can, I can hear your body resonate with each step, if someone were inside there would be no resonance. Besides you were dismantled at the mansion too.”

Al sat in silence, looking at the floor

“I'm not telling anybody, don't worry. I want to know, who created your blood seal?”

“My brother.”

“I figured, you're lucky, I know something that will change your life forever, but I don't know if it will work or not.”

“What?” Ed said his curiosity piqued.

“I developed a theory, years ago on the imposing of souls on objects. I was never able to test it because I didn't have any test subjects. The theory is it is possible super-impose a soul to a body and the other to an object. In short, switch bodies.”

At this Al's attention spiked, he was completely focused on Dane.

“Unfortunately it is temporary, but since your brother is the seal maker, you are in luck.”

“I volunteer to be your test subject.” Al said, standing up.

“Good, but for now, I need rest. I'll tell your brother about it on the morning.” Dane got up, closed the piano and started to leave the room. “Al, if you don't mind, can you clean up the kitchen. I'm going to cook pancakes in the morning.”

Al smiled inside at the thought of eating food again, “sure.”

Dane went upstairs and went to the master bedroom. After changing and lying down, he was out in a matter of moments.

 

 

*OMG!!! Al can finally get a body (maybe)!!!*

Me: Aw man! That took for ever to write!

Dane: quit complaining, you've got at least 6 more chapters to write to finish this story up.

Me: Awwww…

Dane: look on the bright side, you still have your adoring fans who will write reviews for you (or my toaster will find them and get them in their sleep)

Me: *sweatdrops* Wonderful that's just like saving someone from falling to his death and him suing me because my heroic effort left him with a bruise.

Dane: well…no comment *runs away*

Me: *cry's* please write a review! *goes back to computer and starts writing next chapter*