Beta: TaintedLetter
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
"Someone burned down the library?!" Elizabeth shrieked, startling Nina. She had been teaching Nina math when her best friend in the whole wide world came in to give her the news. She abruptly dropped the worksheet she was going over with Nina, and stood up from her chair to stare at Selim in abject terror.
"Calm down, Ellie," Selim said, chuckling at her horrified expression. "It's only a library."
"It's—it's not just a library!" Elizabeth vehemently rejected, her stomach churning in disgust and grief. Even the comforting familiarity of being in her beloved greenhouse wouldn't quell her distress. "It's—it's where I met you. It's where we became friends."
Selim's lips tugged down, a thoughtful flickering over his face before he shook his head. "That may be true, but it doesn't matter. Buildings fall, people die... will we stop being friends because of this?"
"Of course not!"
"Then what does it matter? We're here now," Selim said, scratching his cheek.
The sentiment behind Selim's question made Elizabeth want to smile and relax, but then another thought popped in her head. "It wasn't... it wasn't that vile thing was it?"
Selim caught on to Elizabeth's venomous tone, chuckling in amusement as his friend leaked out murderous rage. He reached forward, tucking a stray curly bang behind her ear, immediately causing the girl to falter in her anger and blush under the affection. "No, Ellie. It was not the serial killer."
"O-Okay... have you, um, had any luck with it?" Elizabeth inquired, resisting the urge to fidget. Her cheeks warmed under Selim's growing amusement, and she tried not to show her embarrassment any further.
It failed, but at least she tried.
"Red," Nina said, her tail slowly wagging. "Elle... red!"
"Yes, she is a bit red, isn't she?" Selim agreed, reaching forward and giving Nina a pat on the head. "Good girl."
"Good," Nina repeated, elated at the compliment. "I'm... good girl!"
"N-Nina, why d-don't you get the fertilizer ready? Want to feed the flowers again?" Elizabeth wheezed out, trying desperately to quell her rapidly beating heart under Selim's growing larger smirk. She could handle his teasing under normal circumstances, but for some reason she felt particularly sensitive to it that day. Must have been because she was so thrown off kilter about the library and the mention of the-thing-she-would-destroy.
(Or puberty. Cursed thing.)
Nina slowly got up from where she sat beside Elizabeth, her normally dull eyes sparkling at the thought of feeding the flowers. "Yes! Flowers... yes! Yes!"
The chimaera hobbled off to collect the fertilizer, her tail wagging furiously. As soon as she was out of sight, Selim let out a rough chuckle, and Elizabeth abruptly turned away from him to start fanning her cheeks.
"You're so easy today," he laughed.
"Shut up," she brilliantly retorted. "Ugh! I'm not used to you initiating without your shadows."
"I know. I always get the best reactions this way."
"Ugh!"
Selim reached around and played with one of her bangs, immediately eliciting another fierce blush from Elizabeth as she spluttered. "St-Stop teasing!"
"So sensitive today," he murmured. "I suppose I better stop before you pass out again."
Elizabeth had only ever fainted one time in her life, and that was when Selim had abruptly kissed her on the cheek after she had made him laugh for almost an hour straight.
The moment he had done the action, the girl couldn't explain what came over her. Her whole world tilted, and she could distinctly feel the lingering sensation on her cheek even as she fell backwards in a faint.
(Perhaps if she were more aware of how touch-starved she was, she would understand why he affected her so. There were only a handful of people throughout her life that treated her kindly, and even less who showed her warm affection. Having it come from the person she cherished above all else was overwhelming for her.)
"That would be appreciated," Elizabeth said, starting to feel herself relax even as her cheeks still burned.
"Or maybe I'll just make you faint for the fun of it," Selim said, leaning forward and pecking her cheek.
And for the second time in her life Elizabeth Luxanna fainted.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
A little over two weeks later Elizabeth had to carry over some paperwork to Central Intelligence on behalf of Papa. Since the library had been burnt down Intelligence was in a bit of a scramble to reorganize where they kept their paperwork and filing. They had originally kept everything over a year old at the library, but... Well, that was clearly no longer an option, was it?
Elizabeth moved quietly through the halls, ignoring the guards that opened the door for her. She kept her shoulders back, and her head held up high. She made sure not to dirty the dress her Mumma had picked out for her to wear that day, and she kept her hair tied off to the side and over her shoulder.
She looked exactly how a young heiress would.
Anything less than perfection is shameful, Grandfather Crow's voice echoed in her head.
He was right.
Anything less than perfect was unacceptable. Her new family had welcomed her in, and it would be disgraceful if she gave them anything less in return.
Mumma would not ask for perfection, she knew, but Elizabeth felt obligated to give it to her anyway.
Papa demanded a certain level of perfection, which was expected.
And Selim...
Selim already was perfection.
"Oh, um... are you lost little girl?" came a tentative question.
Elizabeth immediately noted that the woman who asked that had to have been new. Everyone who worked at Central for longer than a month knew who Elizabeth was. It was common sense to know the boss's daughter, at least. Especially since she frequently ran errands and took care of paperwork.
The accounting department straight up stopped sending reports to the führer's office, and forwarded them to Elizabeth since she did almost all of them.
Papa was quite happy about that. Nothing infuriated him more than having to balance accounts, check expense reports, and go over projections. He destroyed several stress balls over one day of doing the math-filled reports.
Elizabeth stopped in her tracks and turned around to assess the new woman. She was of average height and build. She had mousey brown hair, big brown eyes, crooked glasses, and an overall appearance of: forgettable.
Not that Elizabeth thought that was a bad thing, or even realized what she thought was insulting. Everyone was compared to her family and friends, and if they didn't resemble them she unintentionally wrote them off.
For example, while Katherine Bradley also had mousey brown hair, and big brown eyes Elizabeth would have described her as: an elegantly dressed woman with deep chocolate brown hair, almond eyes, and a face that would win over a country.
"No, I am not lost," Elizabeth answered the new worker. She noticed Maes approaching them from behind the woman and nodded to him. "Maes, I have the dispatch approval copies."
"Excellent!" Maes declared, brushing past the new woman to accept the offered paperwork.
"U-Um... Mr. Hughes, do you know this child?" the woman quietly asked.
"Ah, you two haven't met, have you?" Maes adjusted his glasses. "Sheska, this is Elizabeth the Spring Alchemist and führer's daughter. Elizabeth, this is Sheska, my latest hire."
Sheska did a double take at Elizabeth's title, flushing while Elizabeth curtsied politely. "How do you do?"
"Ah-ah—ahhhh—um—umm!" Sheska struggled to stammer out. "Um! It's—thank you for your service!"
'With a lack of social etique you won't get far here,' Elizabeth thought, giving the unkempt girl a once over. 'She must have a unique talent, or know someone important.'
Maes likely guessed what Elizabeth was thinking because he said, "Sheska's got a eidetic memory. She's been rewriting all the old case files that got burned down in Central library."
"How impressive," Elizabeth demurred. "How did you find her, Maes?"
"Heh-heh, the Elric boys, actually," Maes said, scratching the back of his head. "They asked her to recreate some cookbooks that got burnt up."
Elizabeth blinked in surprise at that. "Cookbooks?"
"Oh, yes, whole stacks of them," Sheska confirmed.
'What? Cookbooks? How could that—'
Something clicked in the back of Elizabeth's head.
'Alchemists hide their research through codes. It's possible these cookbooks are an example of such. Cooking and alchemy... hmm, yes, I can see how that would fit.'
Elizabeth herself had coded several volumes of her notes over the years. Although she developed her own cipher with Selim to do so, rather than risk using a standard template than anyone could figure out.
"I see," Elizabeth said, flattening out her stylish dress. "Well, then, I guess I'll go pay the Elrics a visit while I'm doing errands."
"Good call. I heard they've been cooped up," Maes said with a big sunny grin. "Although before you go, I got you a little something."
"Your defeat in writing?"
"Ahahaha," Maes laughed in good nature before he flatly said, "no. Be right back."
He turned around and hurried back into his office before he came back up with a small bag. He placed the bag in Elizabeth's arms.
He explained, "My darling wife made some treats for you and Selim to share. Part of what makes her the greatest."
"She's a good wife," Elizabeth allowed, "but she is not the greatest."
"How would you know? You're not even married!"
Elizabeth haughtily stuck her nose up in the air. "I bet if I was I would make the best wife."
"You talk the talk, but you could never walk the walk!" Maes denied. "Now get outta here before I decide my wife's cooking is too good for you."
"It sounds like you want to be reintroduced to my rapier," Elizabeth warned, narrowing her eyes.
"For the sake of what is right, I will gladly go to war again," he boldly declared.
When Elizabeth started to reach for her rapier, Sheska panicked and literally started to drag a laughing Maes away.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Elizabeth tracked down the Elric Brothers about an hour later at a posh hotel... along with Major Armstrong. Armstrong immediately noticed Elizabeth, and he greeted her with a twinkle in his eyes and a salute. "Good evening, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth curtsied in return, smiling kindly at her once bodyguard. The man was as outrageously buff and well-kept as ever. Not a speck of dust, food, or dirt could be found on his uniform, and his blonde mustache was clearly well groomed. One of the reasons why Elizabeth liked the alchemist better than most was how neat and orderly he was. "Good evening, Major. What are you doing here?"
"I am here to check on the Elric brothers, and I'm assuming that's what you're here for as well," Armstrong said, relaxing his arm. "Might I accompany you?"
"Of course," Elizabeth accepted, her shoes clicking against the concrete sidewalk outside the hotel as she moved to stand before him. "How have you been, Major? I haven't seen you lately."
"Busy. I was put on the Scar case—" Elizabeth twitched at the name of that thing. "—and only recently returned after guarding the Elric brothers."
"You guarded them?"
"Yes, as you know they were attacked by Scar. It was decided that I would be their guard until the Fullmetal could have his automail repaired," Armstrong explained. "Of course now Second Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh have taken lead over such."
'Why does he still need guards?' Elizabeth questioned. 'Is that...thing...truly so strong?'
Elizabeth wondered if she should give the boys some of her most potent poisons. One whiff, or one knick would put down even the strongest humans. Selim said it would even debilitate a homunculus long enough for Elizabeth to do serious damage.
The very idea of someone attacking her friends made her want to slowly peel off the skin of the arrogant little sh—
Elizabeth politely cleared her throat to keep her thoughts from getting too violent. Papa said if she let anger cloud her judgement she was not fit to be his daughter. Wrath was powerful, he said, but if it could not be controlled then she was ultimately a failure. "Major Armstrong, have you come into contact with that thi—that man?"
"Scar? Yes, we had a brief encounter," Major Armstrong answered as he opened the front doors to the hotel the Elric brothers were staying in. It was a luxurious place with lush furniture, golden lighting, and a stuffy atmosphere that pompous jerks seemed to love.
"What was he like?" Elizabeth gently inquired.
"Very skilled in hand to hand combat," Armstrong admitted. "It was all I could do to keep up with him. I would guess that he was an Ishvalan monk, or at least some training from it. His fighting style is nearly identical."
'Ishvalan?'
If the thing was truly of Ishvalan nationality it would be understandable—to a degree—why it was targeting State Alchemists. Amestris had thoroughly beat down the nation after they tried to "avenge" a child or whatever. They waged a war against Amestris for the sake of a single life and Papa systematically destroyed them. Their nation was nothing but ruin, fire, and starved humans.
There had been relief groups sent out, and Elizabeth had generously donated some of her medicine—and Luxanna funds—to them. Not because she was focused on helping them, so much as the more people who tested out the medicine the better she could refine it. She used her Luxanna money to fund the groups to head out in order to earn their trust so they would use her medicine.
Apparently some of them were wary of her medicine because she was a State Alchemist.
Whatever.
They all took the medicine in the end, and for the most part it was a success. There were a couple allergies, but those were impossible to predict. It was still good information since Elizabeth's previous subjects hadn't experienced an allergic reaction and she was able to learn the common symptoms and precursors.
If it was an Ishvalan, then...
"Ishvalan monk, you say? Would you believe he has resistances to poisons from that dessert, then?"
"Very likely."
"And poisons from Amestris?"
Armstrong stroked his moustache as he considered this. "Likely not. Are you planning something, Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth smiled sweetly. "I am Papa's daughter, after all. It would be shameful to allow such a man to go about and do as he pleases."
Armstrong might have responded, but he caught the eye of two other soldiers. Both noticed Armstrong and Elizabeth within seconds and stood in salute.
On the left was an unremarkable man with blond hair, and on the right was a sharp-eyed woman with short black hair and a mole on her cheek.
"Second Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh, at ease," Major Armstrong said with a brief nod. "Where are the Elric brothers?"
"The Elric brothers are holed up their rooms," Second Lt. Ross, the woman, softly answered. "They haven't eaten all that much, sir."
"Hmm." Armstrong thoughtful cupped his chin. "Their fatigue must have caught up to them."
Then to Elizabeth's surprise, while Armstrong's back was turned the two soldiers turned towards each other and whispered.
'What?' Elizabeth thought in disbelief, dismayed at the ridiculous display of misconduct. Her cheeks flushed with anger on Armstrong's behalf—and then for herself when she realized they had dismissed her.
"After working so hard to decipher the material," Second Lt. Ross whispered to her partner, "to have that happen..."
"It disturbs me too just thinking about it," Sargent. Brosh whispered back.
'Of all the...! The audacity! Papa would have demoted them on the spot if he saw soldiers under his command blatantly whisper behind his back while he was still there!'
"Enough," Elizabeth snarled out, startling both of the second lieutenant and sergeant and bringing Armstrong's attention back to them. "Your misconduct shames you both. To gossip so brazenly in front of your superior officers is grounds for punishment. Apologize this instant and properly explain what's going on."
Both startled at Elizabeth's venomous tone, staring down at this small little girl in disbelief.
"I'm sure neither meant disrespect," Armstrong tried to say, but Elizabeth's glare turned darker.
"And now you're forcing your superior to apologize on your behalf," Elizabeth snapped. "What is wrong with you two?"
"S-S-Sorry," Brosh stammered out.
"Sorry!" Ross added quickly.
'If Papa were here he'd give them his Super Duper Mean Glare,' Elizabeth thought, wishing she could mimic him. Her eyes were too big, though, and she didn't have enough wrinkles. Even Selim could do a better job of a Super Duper Mean Glare.
All Elizabeth could do was turn her nose up in disdain and (try to) look down upon them as if they were ants like Mumma would when Papa upset her.
(It came across more adorable than threatening and instantly put all three at ease with thoughts of: Aww. How cute.)
"Hmph!" Elizabeth tried to mimic Mumma, putting both her hands on her hips. "I'll let it slide for this time. For now you better explain what's going on with my friends."
"W-Well..." Ross and Brosh exchanged glances before Ross took a deep breath and began to explain. "Edward and Alphonse learned how to make the philosopher's stone... but it requires human souls. In addition... it looks like part of the military had been involved in trying to create one."
'Wait, what?'
She knew the boys had been hunting for the philosopher's stone for years in order to reverse what happened to them. They believed the stone would be able to restore their bodies, and were borderline obsessed with obtaining it.
Elizabeth personally hadn't believed in the stone's existence since it was so... fantastical.
The fact that it existed—and a small part of her was still skeptical—and that it required human souls was... was huge.
Her first thought was: 'Okay, cool. I can ask Papa to donate some live subjects and we can make the stone.'
Her second thought was: 'Edward and Alphonse would never go along with that.'
From that point it wasn't hard to understand why they were "cooped up" and "not eating."
But failures came with life. Failures came with being an alchemist, with being a scientist. If Elizabeth beat herself up over every failure she would never be able to complete the next project.
'Still... my failures and this are on different levels for the boys,' Elizabeth thought. 'They put a lot of hope in this myth to fix them. And now it's straining their morals.'
But Elizabeth was a firm believer that there was no one path for a scientist to walk on.
This avenue might not have worked out, but she was certain it wasn't the end for the boys.
There was a way for them to restore their bodies, she knew it. Now they just had one less path to go down.
'Maybe now they'll be willing to experiment with cadavers since they'll have to give up on the stone now,' Elizabeth guessed.
"I'll speak with them," Elizabeth said, glancing up to find Armstrong already tearing up.
'What a sweet soul,' Elizabeth thought.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Armstrong made a move to knock on the door but Elizabeth blatantly kicked it down with a high jump kick. The door fell down into the room, Elizabeth brushed her dress back down and then sprinted over to Edward's side and hugged him. She kept one arm around Edward to keep hugging him while she reached for Alphonse's hand.
The younger brother accepted her hand, and she squeezed his gauntlet in a gesture of comfort.
"We heard!" Armstrong exclaimed, streams of tears pouring out of his eyes like a fountain. "To think such a terrible secret was being concealed by the philosopher's stone! And our own military might be involved! The truth can be a cruel thing at times."
Edward gasped, his eyes widening. "The truth!"
"What is it, Brother?" Alphonse asked.
Edward slowly pulled Elizabeth off him so he could sit up straight, his gaze wild as if he had realized something desperately important. "Do you remember what Dr. Marcoh said? The truth within the truth. It's the same as with alchemy notes. What you see on the surface is only a portion of the truth. There's still more."
'Who's Dr. Marcoh?'
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
The lights were flipped on, and per Edward's request Armstrong retrieved a map from the hotel staff. Edward and Elizabeth took a seat on the couch, as Armstrong rolled out the map on the coffee table in front of them. The major then took a seat opposite of them on another chair, with Alphonse standing nervously beside him.
"Currently there are four alchemy laboratories within Central which have connections to the government," Armstrong said, examining the map. "From among those, Marcoh worked at the third laboratory. This one is most suspect."
Marcoh was, apparently, a State Alchemist who had deserted the military after making a partially successful philosopher stone. He had placed his research notes in cook books, and given the Elrics his blessing to go through them. They had, and discovered how to create the philosopher's stone.
Through human sacrifice.
Edward considered each of the labs, his eyes narrowed in thought as he stared at the map. "We visited all of the labs with Lizzie, and none of them had any remarkable research." He noticed something and pointed to a crossed out laboratory. "This one, what happened here?"
"It was the building for the fifth laboratory," answered Ross, "but it's not currently in use. There's a risk of it collapsing so it has been declared off-limits."
"It's here," Edward said firmly.
"Eh? What makes you so sure?" Brosh asked, leaning over the couch to look at the map.
"There's a prison right next to it. What are the ingredients for a stone, again?"
"Well that's convenient," Elizabeth remarked while the other soldiers turned a little green. "They just steal the death row inmates and use them as they please?"
'Ugh. I wish a prison was near my lab.'
"If prisoners from other jurisdictions were used, I wonder if the government was involved," Alphonse mused.
'Probably,' Elizabeth thought.
"I feel like we just stuck our nose in something terrible here," Ross muttered, her and Brosh looking decidedly nervous.
Armstrong rolled up the map, standing up from the couch. "This could become a highly political issue. I shall look into it. In the meantime... Second Lt Ross, and Sergeant Brosh speak of this to no one. Elizabeth, I must ask that you also refrain from spreading this information, and Elric brothers you behave yourselves. Elizabeth... I shall escort you back home. The führer would be cross if I let you go back out this late unescorted."
"Okay," Elizabeth agreed with a sigh as she digested all the information thrown at her in the past hour.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Elizabeth returned home, her head spinning over all that was discovered.
One: the philosopher's stone was real.
Two: Some part of the military experimented in creating it.
Three: the philosopher's stone required sacrificed human souls.
'How did one even begin to scientifically explain a soul?' Elizabeth thought, exasperated. She couldn't even begin to guess how to write out that formula, yet someone had already done so and gone above and beyond and friggin' used it in some bizzare experiment.
It was... it was insane! The scientist inside of Elizabeth wanted to scream in frustration at this revelation.
What was a soul, then?! Energy? Mass? What did it do? What was its purpose?
The more Elizabeth thought about it, the more frustrated she gew. When Edward first told Elizabeth that he had bound Alphonse's soul to the suit of armor, she was skeptical. Not because she doubted Alphonse was really Alphonse, so much as she hadn't realized that consciousness was separate from the body.
'Did that define a soul, then? Consciousness?'
That's what she initially thought. The mind, or soul, were the same thing and could be tangibly touched by science.
But now she got to learn they were used as literal ingredients for a fantasy stone!
'I want to make one...'
She shook her head to stop that train of thought. She already had enough on her plate than trying to recreate some fantastical stone. Maybe after she reversed Nina's transformation she could ask Papa for live subjects.
Elizabeth entered her front door, unsurprised to find Selim waiting for her.
"Selim, you will not believe what I learned tonight," Elizabeth said seriously.
"Oh?" came Papa as he entered hallway, getting ready for bed. "This sounds interesting."
Selim gave her a lopsided grin. "Why don't you tell us all about, Ellie?"
She took a deep breath and explained everything.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
BONUS
"...and then I tried my Super Duper Mean Glare, but they didn't look as scared as when you guys do it," Elizabeth finished sadly.
Wrath and Pride exchanged glances, both struggling to keep a straight face.
Wrath cleared his throat. "Hm. Fascinating. Perhaps you should show us your, ah, glare?"
Elizabeth replicated what she did. She furrowed her brow, and unintentionally puffed out her cheeks. There was no heat, or malice behind her glare, just... just cuteness.
"Terrifying," Pride deadpanned.
(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Very busy day tomorrow, so decided to update a day earlier. Pride is exactly sadistic enough to be a teasing master.
Answer: Hunting: probably Envy. Savior: probably Alphonse.
Question: If you could create the philosopher's stone, would you? If you just got one for free without having to create it, would you use it and what for?
Reviews are love!