Equivalent Exchange and All Matter! (On Hold)

Chapter 21: Created Human

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except for Isabella.

*No POV*

Meanwhile, at the Hughes residence. Hughes is on the phone, and in his pajamas. "What are you doing calling me this late?" Hughes asked Roy on the phone. "Well, there's something that's been bothering me for a while." Roy said to him on the phone. "What? That we haven't caught Scar, or is this about Dr. Marcoh being taken into the Fuhrer's custody?" Hughes asked him. "Yeah, well okay, there's that, too. But mostly it's that I haven't made an appearance lately." Roy said to him when Hughes hangs up.

"What an egomaniac. He doesn't realize the mess we're in." Hughes said to himself. "Maybe you should inform him. Colonel Mustang could be of some help here. At least with the Elrics, Rockbell's disappearance." Armstrong said to him. "He doesn't need to know that. Not yet, right? The soldier detachment I requested to guard the library is standing by now. They're all gifted marksmen, pretty damn useful in a raid." Hughes said to him when Ross gasped. "Does that mean?" Maria said to him. "It does. On my own authorization, you three can lead a full dive and sweep up Lab Five at daybreak. But you'd better be ready to confront whatever you find." Hughes said to them as they salute him. "Yes sir!" The three said to him.

"Humankind cannot gain anything, without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth."

{Opening song}

Ready Steady Go!/L'Arc~en~Ciel

"Created Human"

Isabella's POV

Ed is looking through some materials about making a true Philosopher's Stone. I was standing the whole time when he does this. "I think I get it now, what this facility is being used for. It was an operation to develop large-scale military applications for alchemy, or more specifically how they could harness human alchemy to the military's advantage." Ed said when he faced the incomplete material. I faced it also. "That explains what they were doing with these incomplete Philosopher's Stones." I said about what we just saw.

"If you two wanted to, you can use them to forge a complete Philosopher's Stone." Tucker said when Ed and I faced him. "Does that mean you know how these fragments were made?" I asked him. "Not quite. By the time I came, this room was already here. Created and abandoned, most likely by the man who had run this place before. One doctor Tim Marcoh, I can only guess his methods." Tucker said to me. "They're made of--" Tucker cuts me off. "Isabella, does it honestly matter anymore what it is they're made of?" Tucker questioned me.

"Even if they were in fact created using living human beings, are you and Edward capable of restoring them back to life?" Tucker questioned when Ed and I remembered Nina's bloody remains, and how the younger Slicer destroyed his own blood seal. "Using what's left of them to make a complete Stone is the only way to give their sacrifices meaning." Tucker said to me and Ed. "I couldn't have said it better myself,." Older Slicer said when Ed and I faced him. "You're agreeing." I said to him.

"Their lives have no value in this disembodied state, I sympathize." Older Slicer said to me. "No value?" I questioned when Ed stood up and sees his own reflection. But his reflection changed into an image of his brother. "I don't by that," Ed said when he gets on top of the material for support, so he can reach the ceiling. 'Edward, what are you doing?' I thought to myself. "But Al... Your life has value, even in this state, doesn't it remain..." Ed trailed off when his used alchemy to create a transmutation circle on the ceiling.

*Maria's POV*

Hughes, Bloch, Armstrong, the others and I are running down the hall and saw the Fuhrer coming out of the room in his pajamas. We stopped and saluted. "Well, you're all working overtime, aren't you?" The Fuhrer questioned us. "Fuhrer. I apologized for the disturbance." Hughes said to him. "I know, you're eager to get to the bottom of this business at Laboratory 5." The Fuhrer said to him when he gasped.