HOME | DD

Description
They had all gathered upstairs, in the study, and now sat on whatever cafe chairs and stools they had gathered over the years of near-constant bombing. It was almost a miracle that the house was still standing, but it was certainly showing the signs like all the others, pockmarked with shrapnel and windows blown out.

"So... we are left with the problem of what to do." Maes concluded. "It's obvious none of you can stay here, but the Thule society very kindly closed the gate as well."

Ed nodded. "The way Al and I closed the gate was with a great deal of power from the Thule Society's machines, so it's a fair assumption that to open the gate, the reverse would be required."

"I doubt there's a functioning generator left anywhere here." Hawkeye pointed out.

Ed looked to Winry. "Do you know how to build one?"

"Eh... I have no idea, automail runs off the patient's own energy."

"So then, what are we to do?" Mustang questioned.

The room fell silent; nobody was quite sure.

Unless...

"When Hohenheim was alive, he reminded me of a weapon of great power that was to be used here: I saw it when I was dragged into the gate of truth, as did Alphonse. From what I understand from his last letter, he was following up a lead in New Mexico."

Mustang pondered. "Could we use the energy from that to somehow power an alchemic reaction?"

Edward remembered the cloud which dwarfed even the battleships below it.
"Not unless we want to be blown to smithereens..."

"Hang on..." Falman said. Wait, what? Falman?! Everyone turned to him, confused that he had a suggestion.

"I know it's not exactly related, but there was a military project to build a method of remote transfer of power, in order to keep radios and other equipment powered in the field remotely, and from what I understand, it could convert pure alchemical energy into physical or electrical energy."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "That could work... if we somehow managed to build one ourselves and hope that this weapon could power the reverse, we could open the gate on this side. Falman, do you remember the plans?"

Falman shook his head. "I only ever saw the concept... but if I remember correctly, the research was stored in central library."

Everyone turned to Scieska.

"No... It was about sixty volumes!"

The unanimous reply shook the room.

"WRITE IT AGAIN!!!"

"KYAH! I will!" She grabbed pen and paper from Maes' desk and began scribbling.

**

Two months later...

"Scieska?" Edward prodded her, making sure she was still alive. The pen was idle now, and there was a line of ink which fell off the page from the last word she had annotated in the margin.

"Finished."

He gently pulled the last set of notes from her hands, and laid her head down resting on the desk. Closing the door behind him, he laid it beside Winry.

"The last piece..."

Mustang nodded, looking at the pieces of metal now being welded together by Winry.

"So how will we know when the weapon is ready?" He probed.

"Al should have got my letter by now, I did post it from France." Ed remembered the hours spent in the looted car with Hughes to do so about a month ago. "And judging that the post office has just reopened here, I think there's a chance a reply may arrive."

"Here!" Elycia walked in, holding a letter with a look of triumph. "To Edward Elric."

Edward ripped it out of her hands, a "Thank you" tumbling from his mouth as he tore it open and read, carefully decoding his Brother's words.

"The test... will be on... Sunday... Expect high yield... will capture." He read, before simply delivering the final statement. "Best regards to everyone, and... Farewell, Brother."

He obviously had no intention of joining them, and Ed knew that being in the development team of the weapon, he surely had his reasons. Ed himself was out of the picture and unable to do anything else, penniless as he was.
He sighed: Al would be the one to make sure this world stayed in the right.

Gracia handed them each a coffee, grateful they had managed to snatch some off a passing British supply truck.

"So then... Sunday is the day?"

Edward nodded. "If someone on the other side has managed to open the gate... yes."