The next morning, I have a lump that refuses to be alone attached to my leg while preparing breakfast. She seems to be under the impression that if she loses sight of me that I’ll be gone forever too. We still haven’t talked about her dad, she keeps telling herself that he’s just busy in his lab. I’m pretty sure that’s not healthy. I don’t have any say in her life I’ve only just met her a couple of days ago.

Just after finishing preparations, someone knocks at the front door. I guess it’s around the time that Edward would show up. I wasn’t sure if he would show up after that argument yesterday, then again without my guidance his Chi lessons are probably a lot more painful for the both of them so he may not have much of a choice. I know he’s just a kid, but he’s chosen a profession that has him fighting people for a job. One day he’ll make a mistake and it will cost someone their life.

I’m shaken out of my thoughts when Zig comes back in with Edward. He looks like shit. He has baggy eyes like he hadn’t slept at all last night, his metal arm is ripped off and he’s scuffed up quite a bit and drenched.

Quirking my eyebrow, I can’t help but ask. “What the he-“ I glance down at Nina. “H-heck happened to you?” Nina unlatches from my leg and attaches herself to Edward. “Not you too! You’re not allowed to be hurt either!” She begins desperately holding on to him. Like he’s going to disappear.

Edward just stands there shocked for a moment. Slightly grimacing when she tightly hugs his nonmetal leg but likely doesn’t know what to do.

He rubs the back of his neck while looking at the ceiling. “I might need a bit of patching up. Al might also need a bit of a fix-up too.” As if punctuating this a man dwarfing even Zig walks in behind Edward. Holding Al in a box with his head exposed he ducks under the door frame to come into the kitchen. I can see Nina’s gaze travel up the man and settle on his blond mustache and a single patch of hair that forms a strange curl in the center of his otherwise bald head.

He sets Al down next to the table. His gaze is serious as he takes in Nina then switches to myself and Zig. He narrows his eyes at Zig glancing up and down. Seeming to come to a conclusion he nods to himself and takes a step forward flexing. “I am Alex Louis Armstrong! I am told you are acquaintances with the Elrics and a practiced medical alchemist?” He maintains full eye contact as he’s flexing towards Zig. I can’t help but laugh a little along with the first small laugh I’ve heard from Nina since yesterday. Zig isn’t a very social person, everyone can see his clear discomfort from this, especially when the man starts taking off his shirt and flexing more. The man is solid muscle and… oiled? Why? Zig let out a confused hiss likely just not knowing what to do.

Alex makes a grunt while flexing again towards Zig, after a moment without a response he finally nods once more before putting his shirt back on. “Sorry, by the look of this man's muscles I’d thought I’d met another brother in training. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

I share a look with Zig before we turn to look down at the giggling Nina catches our glance. I can see the look of surprise then annoyance, almost like she’s annoyed at herself for not being sad. She just buries her face back into Edwards’s leg to avoid our looks.

Looking back at this strange man again before noticing his rank on his uniform. This guy is a Major in the military?

“Well… nice to meet you? Alex?” I put out a hand to shake his but rather than that he pulls me in for a hug. I almost use alchemy to freeze or kill him but stop myself. I’m pressed up against his chest my feet off the ground. This is… deeply uncomfortable, his buttoned-up shirt is still open. His muscles are still shining almost unnaturally, I can confirm though he’s oiled himself up with something.

I can hear Edward and Al’s laughs as he starts attempting to console me dramatically. “Oh, I heard such tragic things! One of your friends has died and you found out such horrible secrets!”

As soon as I hear the part about horrible secrets, I start trying to shut him the hell up. Nina is still here. Placing my hand over his mouth while turning my attention towards her. Her eyes are watering, she’d been okay until the mention of death again. If I had eyes, I’d glare at him.

Edward tries to cut the tension a bit. “Yeah, Major Armstrong is like that, he’s a hugger.”

Now that I have an arm on his face, I start shoving him off. It takes a bit before he gets the idea and let’s go.

Alex looks down at me confused for a moment before glancing over at Nina and “Sorry about that. I was… unaware that not everyone was comfortable with that knowledge here. If you don’t mind me and a few of my men need to search the place for any additional information or proof.” He starts buttoning himself up.

“Okay… sure? I mean Zig can show you to his lab and office. That’s where most of the information can be found. I need to talk with Edward for a bit though. Do you mind having someone look after Nina for a bit?” Zig lets out a low hiss of annoyance at the idea of going with him.

He turns to look at her for a moment. A small frown before he puts on a large smile. “That shouldn’t be a problem! I’ll get someone in here right away!” He puts his head back out the door frame.

“Second Lieutenant Ross! I need your assistance!” Not long after a woman with short black hair and a small mole just under her left eye walks in at attention.

“Major! How may I be of assistance.” She glances around all of us. Her gaze settled on Nina and slightly frowned.

“I believe Nina here needs someone to look after her for a bit. I’d do it myself, however…” His serious look is all Ross needed.

“Do not worry sir!” She gently starts coaxing Nina away from Edwards's leg. She starts some nonsensical conversations slowly carrying her away to Nina's room.

Alex’s smile drops the moment Nina is away. “In our job, it’s not unusual for children to need assistance… Ross is typically our designated handler for when a child is in need.” He has a long far off look for a moment before snapping himself out of it.

I wonder how much of that was an act to just cheer up Nina and how much of that was the real Alex?

He turns back to Zig. “I believe you are Zig? Please lead the way.” Zig lets out a small hiss much to Alex’s surprise before being led out towards the office.

Edward crumbles into a chair. I sit across from him. “So, what happened? Obviously, something hit the two of you hard.”

He lets out a long sigh, his nose lifting slightly and checking out the food in front of him. “We found Scar… He’s not exactly what we expected though. We thought we were dealing with a highly trained alchemist or something. We’re still not sure about that. He didn’t show any other form of alchemy besides deconstruction.” He gestures to his missing arm then starts picking at some of the food left on the table.

With a sigh, I start preparing some more food for him while talking. “Alright, can I get a description of him or something? Also, possible motive? After learning about what Mr.Tucker did to his wife I was thinking he may have been doing this as some sort of revenge for something the military did?”

Edward has a far-off look for a moment like he’s lost in thought before shaking himself out of it. “S-sorry, just when I heard the news about what Mr.Tucker did… I was just surprised is all. I thought he was a nice enough guy, just really driven.”

I can’t help but nod to that. “Same here, I also get sucked into my thoughts and projects. I just thought maybe he was like me in that regard.”

He shrugs before wincing in pain. “Haaaa…. Regardless we didn’t get any sort of motive out of him. The first thing he told me was that ‘Where there are creators there must also be destroyers’ we didn’t find out until midway through the fight that he’s an Ishvalan. So, you can see how he might hold a grudge.” I set down a plate in front of Edward who starts eating ravenously while wincing with each movement.

“Aren’t Ishvalan just people to your southeast? I met a few nice ones on my way here. I don’t see why that would automatically mean he’d attack people.” He has a look of surprise for a moment.

“Well… I don’t know about any there, but we had a major war with them a couple of years back. Their people believe in Isvhala a god of creation and that only a god should hold such a gift. That alchemy is sacrilegious hubris, perverting the natural creations of Ishvala into unnatural forms and thereby suggesting that human hands are more capable.” Interesting… they didn’t seem to mind my Alkahestry though? Then again, I suppose Alkahestry is described as more of a medical mixing bowl rather than using it like these alchemists.

“Several years ago, relations were strained between Amestris and Ishval. I’m told there was a lot of discrimination between Amestris and their people because of their dislike of alchemy. Things kept building up more and more until supposedly one day a soldier shot one of their children. They claimed it was on purpose, while our people said the supposed soldier wasn’t stationed there, to begin with so couldn’t have shot a child. Regardless of the intent that sparked a bloody war that lasted years… It didn’t seem like an end was in sight until our country sent in our state alchemists, they slaughtered the Ishvalan people.” He winces a bit at the mention of how much death there was and looks down at his plate with a pause.

That sounds incredibly stupid… “Why was the military involved anyways? Were the Ishvalans hostile towards alchemists or something?”

He sinks into his seat slightly. “Honestly I have no idea… The guy… Scar? We know he’s Ishvalan, he has a large scar in an X trailing from his forehead to both his cheeks under his eyes. We don’t know his real name so that’s just what we’re calling him. He has short spiky white hair, tan skin, and the typical red eyes.”

Alright, picking out a tan man with white hair shouldn’t be difficult here. It seems like nearly everyone here is some shade of pale, so he should stick out in a crowd.

“Okay, so how did you find him, and what happened when you confronted him?” Edward laughs somewhat nervously scratching at his cheek at that.

“Well, about that… we knew he was hunting down state alchemists, so we just sort of went out into the public and did a bunch of random jobs? It was pouring rain, but people still needed help. I wanted to find him before you…” Ah, so he used himself as bait… I guess if not for Nina I’d have gone searching for him yesterday. So him looking for him like that makes sense. I nod to let him know to continue.

“I… I thought maybe you’d search and try to kill him. So it just seemed like the best option. I was surprised when Zig answered the door and told us you hadn’t left. Though I guess Nina probably needed the help. Thanks for looking after her, I hadn’t even considered her…” He looks down again stuck in his thoughts.

Al finally speaks up. I’d been slightly worried he was unable to speak for a moment, but I guess he was just enjoying the taste of food since he now shares Edward’s taste. “It’s okay Ed. Besides, we now know more about Scar so we might be able to help another alchemist before it’s too late.”

That seems to make Edward smile a bit before looking up at me. I can’t help but mention something though. “You made the right call, if not for Nina I would have gone out after him. Now… I’m not so sure. I’d like to meet him before I decide to kill him or not. I want to know if he is killing these people because of something they have done in their past or if it’s just blind revenge for his people.”

Edward looks slightly shaken up from that but gulps slightly. “I… I understand. I don’t want anyone to die. I… if possible can we attempt to catch him and see what he knows? That would mean you could learn how he knew things right?” Smart… Edward knows where my priorities are in this and why I want to kill him so he’s using that as an incentive for me not to.

“Anyways you were saying? You used yourselves as bait.” I just remind him where he left off as I refill his plate. Al making happy noises while Ed takes a bite of bacon.

He finishes up a few bites before nodding. “Right, well after we lured him out, we didn’t know what he looked like besides a scar even that wasn’t really described well just that he had one. We were taken by surprise when a man in a crowd we were passing smacked Al on the side. He destroyed half his armor before we even knew what was going on. Luckily he didn’t destroy Al’s back or else that could have been bad…” That would have just instantly killed Al. He’s already pretty lucky no cracks formed on the way to his blood seal.

How was he able to destroy his armor though? “Is your brother's armor just made out of a common alloy of steel?” Edward blinks surprised before nodding.

“Yeah of course? It’s just a suit of armor. It’s my brother in there that makes it special.” I can’t help but shake my head as I look at my arms. I’m going to need to fix this.

“Can I assume the arms Wenry makes are the same?”

“Well, sort of they are a common alloy of Steel and Chromium.” Sure, enough it’s also a common one. You could probably tell the difference with a practiced eye too if most automail is made from it.

“I suggest we both coat our arms in something only we know then.” He looks confused.

“What do you mean?” I gesture to his missing arm.

“I assume he did that by grabbing your metal arm?” He nods.

Doesn’t he use metal and stone alchemy? “Well, if you cover it in a less well-known substance then he won’t know what to transmute to break it down. The steps of alchemy are understanding, deconstructing then reconstruction, right? He obviously needs an understanding of the material before he can deconstruct.” Edwards's eyes light up.

“That’s right! Why hadn’t I thought of that? No wonder he failed to deconstruct my arm through my jacket…”

Doesn’t that mean he had an advantage? “Wait, he failed to destroy your arm? Then how did he get to it?” Edward nervously looks to the side again muttering something.

“I’m sorry I didn’t hear that?” I lean in closer.

He turns and shouts this time. “I said I took it off okay! I didn’t realize it’s what helped me not lose my arm the first time. How was I supposed to know he’d destroy it? It’s not like everyone memorizes the structure for Steel and Chromium.”

I can’t help but let out an annoyed sigh. “Well, someone that’s aiming to kill people with automail might. Heck, you might just want to learn it yourself. It’d help out a lot for when you’re fighting people with automail too.” He huffs in annoyance but at least doesn’t put up much more of a fight.

“Alright, so he broke your arm what next?”

“He was going to kill me when mustang and Major Armstrong got involved. I was kind of useless on the ground…” I shake my head again.

He starts getting annoyed, his face turning slightly red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “Oh yeah? What else could I have done? I’m still just starting your Chi stuff and fighting up until that point was a pain because of all the growing pains. I swear I’m still hungry and you’ve been feeding me this whole time! Umm… but uh please don’t stop… I’ve noticed I’ve grown a centimeter since we’ve started…” He instantly deflates losing most of his anger at the possibility of me being upset with him about the training. Smiling to himself at the idea of getting taller.

I let out a sigh. “You could have taken my advice and put your transmutation circle on your hand or something. That way you don’t need to clap alchemy? While he was destroying your arm you could have used alchemy on the other hand to attack him.” He looks annoyed but doesn’t say anything for a bit.

He looks down at the missing arm. “Yeah… okay, I see how that could be useful… It would have let me stay in the fight even after losing my arm.”

“Do you think you can fix it?” I look at his missing arm too. I mentally find the schematics from when I’d used analyze on it previously. It’s too complicated without all the parts. Too many different substances for just transmutation and I don’t have the right parts.

“Nope, Wenry would probably kill me for touching her precious automail and besides I want to ask her some questions about alloys. We can see if we can’t get a covering that no one knows that way no one but us can use alchemy on them. So it’d be worth a trip to see her again anyways.” He lets out a long sigh as well.

He scavenges in the box that Al is in for a moment before pulling out the severed arm. “Can you at least repair this a little? Right now, she might have to waste time completely remaking it… But if you repair some parts, she should be able to just fix it up.” Taking it from him I compare the schematics of the current arm piece with the one I’d collected from the train ride a while ago.

I’m able to fix a little bit of the metal but most of the wiring is gone same with a lot of the fluid and other more specific parts. This probably hurt a lot when it was broken off. Despite being metal there are still the synthetic nerves inside connected to the arm so while you can’t feel with it you can still send signals. When it’s destroyed like this though it’d still send a pain signal to the brain.

“That’s about as much as I can do without any extra parts. I repaired the broken metal parts, but I didn’t thin it out so there is still some missing. When she starts working on it, she should have some extra I can use to fill in the gaps.” I look over at Al.

“Is there anything special about him?”

Edward tilts his head to the side. “Kind of? When you’re performing alchemy on him you need to be careful not to draw any of the steel from his back or you might disrupt his circle. Otherwise, it just needs to be fully connected ah also the original metal needs to be on the joints otherwise everything else can be replaced.” Makes sense, those would be the only points that he actually moves.

Turning towards the expert in his own body. “Al, do you feel heavier when you have too much-added metal?”

He thinks about it for a moment. “Not really? Well, I can’t really feel anything. When I’m heavier I just can’t move as easily. My arms can only lift so much even if I can’t feel it.”

Edward leans back after finishing off the plate again. “Well, I’m done here. If we are going to Wenrys we’re going to need to talk to Mustang. I also don’t know what to do with Nina.”

She’s still pretty young… I can’t exactly send her over the desert, I doubt Wenrys grandma would be willing to host another kid. “I can try talking to the Hamburgangs they might be willing to take her in until we find some of her family? If she has any left.” The table is silent for a while.

Edward just stares at his hands for a while. “That’s probably the best we can do. Gran would probably smack her aside from the head for even trying to cry. At least with the Hamburgangs, she’ll have a few other kids her age there. We can swing by that way on our way to Wenrys. I just wish… If I could trade an arm or a leg I just wish I could bring back that girl's mom…”

I can’t help but shake my head at that. “It’s impossible you know… I thought about it again last night. Even if you manage to make a person. They wouldn’t have any of the original memories… If given enough time I could probably slowly make a copy of her mother… just their mind would be that of a child.” He just stares at me for a while…

The silence is interrupted by Alex sticking his head in again. “Elricks! Ahem and Jiang. We have boxed up all the evidence in his lab! Is there anything else you’re aware of that may need our attention while we are here?”

Edward speaks up. “Yeah, we are planning on going to my automail mechanic to get myself repaired and to test some things for Jiang.” He gestures to me.

“Then I was wondering if it would be okay to bring Nina to the Hamburgangs estate? They owe me a favor and might be willing to look after her at least until you guys find any next of kin.”

Alex nods seriously. “Hmm, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea. From what I remember they have a young girl… you know the Hamburgangs well then?”

I nod. “Yeah, I helped heal their daughter. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind looking after another one for a little bit. If not the only other place I could think of would be Wenrys place.”

“Well, I’ll sign off on letting you take her to the Hamburgangs for now. When were you thinking of heading out? I may need to get some things in order before we can leave.”

Edward looks at him oddly. “We?”

He laughs with a hardy chuckle. “Hoho! Of course, ‘we’ I can’t very well leave a state alchemist going home alone without the ability to defend themselves, can I? No offense to you Jiang but I don’t know you so I would rather be there to defend them if necessary.” Ah, they were also just in a confrontation with Scar. Both hurt him so he may settle a grudge. Not only is it to defend Edward but it’s also baiting since it’s two state alchemists.

I wave him off dismissively. “I understand, Zig and I will help defend them if anything happens though. Are we going to have any other tails or just you Major?”

His eyes grow serious. “I’m not at liberty to say 9th prince of Xing.” That confirms it. This is a formal mission from someone higher up, not just a favor.

Edward leans back in his chair. “I don’t really mind it either way. Just uh Major Armstrong try to keep your shirt on around Gran and Wenry please?”

“Hoho! I’ll try but sometimes my muscles just need to be seen!” He starts flexing again and I can’t help but facepalm.

“Regardless, I’m going to help Edward with his exercises. You go figure out your stuff. I think we’re going to leave tonight?” I look to Ed for confirmation, and he just nods in agreement. “He needs his arm repaired sooner rather than later.”

With that, we all head our own ways. Lieutenant Ross offers to look after Nina until we leave. She is a bit teary-eyed but I promise that we’ll see each other tonight at the train station to go on an adventure.