Time's Scar

Eighteen

In the end, they actually managed to figure out a convincing story to feed to Roy's superiors in Central. The Flame Alchemist and the Fullmetal Alchemist had pursued the killer to an abandoned munitions warehouse outside of the city and had confronted the killer there. Roy had been separated from Ed and had been engaged with trying to locate the boy before the killer did. Ed, on the other hand, had gone through the building, not only looking for Roy but the killer. The killer had set traps for them both, which activated when they had used alchemy. After a fierce battle, Ed had finally managed to corner the killer and would've beat him had the killer not used his own alchemy against the boy. Vulnerable, Ed hadn't had time to react and Roy had happened upon them just before the killer would've added Ed's name to his list of victims. Yes, maybe Roy should have tried a more non-lethal way of dealing with the killer, but his subordinate had been in danger, the killer was about to use alchemy himself, and Roy had reacted on instinct and had regrettably incinerated the murderer.

The superiors had accepted their accounting of events, and no one really stepped forward to contradict them. The older Mustang had seen to that, working with Elric to find what was left of the Académie and get rid of them. Roy wisely didn't ask how they'd done it and Elric wisely didn't tell.

A few more days passed in relative peace, and Roy delivered some hopeful news in the fact that the Führer had decided the translocation alchemy was simply too dangerous to utilize and had cut funding to the project. That in turn made the project shut down and the survivors were let back out into the population and returned to their families. The families of those killed received their due, and Bradley himself visited those families to express his condolences.

With the project dead, and nothing else holding them here, the elder Elrics and Mustang decided it was time to leave and go back to their time and world. It was decided the alchemy they'd need to perform would be better done in a less populated area, and so the group traveled to the East Area, where there was few people and even less of a chance of someone spotting them inadvertently. Once they had found a suitable place, Elric and his brother began to draw the required circle and symbols for translocation alchemy. The younger Elrics, Roy, and Mustang stood by watching them work, not saying anything. Ed watched his older self work, pausing now and then to make sure the symbols were right and drawn correctly. Elric was focused on the main part of the circle, while the older Alphonse was drawing in the fine details.

In all, it took the better part of two hours and when the circle was finished, Elric looked toward Ed and the others. Ed smiled. "I guess this is goodbye, huh?"

Elric smiled, but it seemed a little sad. "Yeah, it is. Good luck with your quest, Ed. Things are only going to get harder for you, but you'll make it through okay."

Alphonse the armor looked at Alphonse the young man. "It was nice to meet you."

The older Alphonse smiled. "Same. Which makes what I have to do even harder."

"What do you mean?"

The older Alphonse made a gesture. "You can never know about us. We were never supposed to meet or interact in any way. Since we did, those memories have to go away. It's a delicate form of alchemy, and I'm going to have to use it on all of us."

Roy looked at his older self, who nodded. "We can't know about each other." Mustang said. "We need to go back to our own lives as if we never met. As if this never happened."

"Wait." Ed said quickly. "If you're going to erase our memories, we won't remember this case."

"No, you'll remember it." The older Alphonse said gently. "You'll remember enough about it so that life continues on like normal for you. You won't remember us, or our involvement. You won't remember Olivier or the Académie. You'll just remember the case as we worked it, with everything on your shoulders, and the end of it, just as your report states."

Ed blinked. "And what about you? Are you going to remember it all?"

The older Alphonse looked at Elric, who shrugged. He looked back at Ed and smiled. "I guess if it works out that way, we will. But the Académie was well entangled in our lives. It may be harder for us to let it go than you."

Ed nodded and stepped back away from the circle drawn in the dirt. "Good luck. And thanks."

Elric shrugged. "Just do what you can, Ed. And know that sometimes having an extra set of arms and legs can make the difference between success and failure."

The older Alphonse lifted his hands, holding an alchemy pendant between them. "Are you ready, Brother?"

"Yeah, let's get this show on the road."

Ed watched as the older Alphonse activated his alchemy first. Ed felt nothing different about himself, just watching his older self activate the translocation alchemy that would take them back to their world and time. And then he blinked.

Ed stared at the alchemy circle drawn into the dirt. He frowned, wondering how it had gotten there, and who had drawn it. It looked like the beginnings of a circle needed for the now-banned translocation alchemy. Did I draw it? I must have. Those symbols look like my handwriting. But why would I-

"Fullmetal! What the hell are you doing? And Alphonse, too?"

Ed turned to look at Roy. The colonel was glaring at him, hands at his hips. "Um, I can explain..."

Roy gave him a toothy smile. "No, you can't, and I strongly suggest you don't try. This alchemy is banned, Edward. Meaning you can't use it in any shape or form."

"I was just-"

"Get your tiny ass back to Eastern HQ before I do something terrible to you."

"Who the hell are you calling a micro-sized midget?!"

"Brother! Brother, wait!"

Alphonse quickly grabbed hold of Edward before he could leap on Roy, and carried his struggling, hissing and spitting older brother after the colonel. The younger Elric paused to look back toward the circle and made a noise of confusion.

Ed stopped struggling. "What is it, Al?"

"I dunno. But I have a strange feeling that I'm forgetting something."

Ed and Roy looked at each other, and then back at Alphonse. "Maybe it wasn't important?" Ed said.

"Maybe."

Alphonse pushed the thought to the back of his mind and followed Roy and Ed back toward the car Roy had brought out. He decided if it was important enough, he would remember what it was he'd forgotten. Otherwise-

"Brother! Don't call the Colonel that!"