Soldier Keep On Marching On

Fullmetal Alchemist

Aiden strutted into the office and sat at one of the many desks that occupied the room. No one spared her a glance when she did so, except for one man.

"Aiden!" Maes called cheerfully. "What's up? I haven't seen you in a while!"

"It's been two weeks Hughes," Aiden grumbled. "I doubt you missed me that much. As for what is up, my team and I just finished the case on the Jones murder in the North. Turns out it was the old lady next door, and apparently she had schizophrenia. Who knew?"

Within the last five years, everyone Aiden knew had been promoted including herself. Mustang was a Colonel, Aiden and Maes shared the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Riza became First Lieutenant to Mustang, and Kain was now a Master Sergeant. During that time Aiden had figured out how the military and Amestris ran and she eventually broke off from Hughes and made her own team. Aiden's team worked closely with his whenever something big came up, usually a serial killer or murders when either needed a second opinion. It actually happened more often than one would think.

One of the things Aiden discovered along with her age regression, was that her maturity too, fell straight into the gutter. Sure she had joked around when in her homeworld, but then she arrived here and suddenly it was as if she was Jessica! While it wasn't a totally bad thing, it didn't help when the first thing that popped up in her mind would usually be a pop-culture reference or something alike.

The other thing she had noticed was that she retained information much more efficiently. Aiden could read an entire book and retain more information than she normally would have. So, being the 'go big or go home' person she was, she tested herself on alchemy after reading it once. Then she had Roy, who had been visiting at the time, quiz her over it. Imagine his surprise when she listed the entire Periodic Table backwards and was able to name compounds of random mixtures. One small circle in the middle of her front room proved she could, in fact, do alchemy.

Perhaps that was what Truth had given her, a door to alchemy. Although, the door to alchemy and the door to Amestris were the same thing for her, so maybe it was just a side effect of having gone through it. It still didn't prove anything, unfortunately. But Aiden felt that she'd know what Truth had done when she saw it.

When she wasn't on duty Aiden would spend her time going over Jessica's journal, which had worn down over the seven years she'd had it. Or more accurately, she would read the copy she had copied down in English. As it turned out, English and Amestrian, while they sounded the same to her, were very different and in no way were there any similarities. Aiden figured this out when she had been writing down notes. Maes had been looking over her shoulder and asked her about it. It took her a minute to recognize that she wasn't writing in Amestrian but rather in English, and it was a while to see the difference and not mess the two up.

The original journal Aiden had stashed away in case someone found hers. She tried to memorize every detail and plan ahead for what was to come. Aiden had no hope of remembering the show, as it had been over half a decade since she'd seen it. She was relying solely on what Jessica wrote and prayers that Jessica hadn't missed anything or wrote something incorrectly. Aiden knew she should put more faith in her daughter, she was after all at the top of her class.

"Hey, you know what Hughes? I hear Mustang is in Central to catch the Freezing Alchemist, and the Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother are here too. In fact I think they're just down the hall. How about we go greet them?" Aiden suggested.

"What a great idea Aiden!" Maes agreed.

Suddenly Aiden was being dragged down the hallway. In her opinion, he had too much experience kidnapping other people. She waited a couple moments before pointing out that they were, in fact, going the wrong way. Maes let go of her arm and let Aiden lead the way. They paused at the doorway and she gestured for him to go first. He grinned and shoved the door open.