The Mercury Alchemist

Chapter 21 ~ Truth behind the Truth

'She's lived in this fairy tale long enough...

I can't wait for the day... when they find

out what she truly is...!'

Chapter 21 ~ Truth behind the Truth

-Alice-

As everyone in the slept silently in the train cart, I watch happily as Cat sleeps soundly with her head resting on Ed's shoulder as his head tilts to the side and rest on Cat's. "You've noticed it too?" I nearly jump in surprise at the sudden sound of Al's voice. I calmed myself down and nod, "It doesn't take a genius to notice after seeing how they haven't stopped staring at one another. I've known Cat way too long not to notice. Though this is kind of the first in a long since she's ever acted this strongly towards a boy she likes ever since her first crush."

"She liked someone before!?" Al covers his mouth as we both stared at the two nervously. Surprisingly, neither of them wok. Instead the noise only caused them to snuggle up closer to one another. We both sigh in relief. "Don't scream like hat Al... you almost got us in trouble..."

'If only I had a camera with me...! This would be the best moment to remember!'

++Morning++

While we all sat patiently as we waited to arrive in Central, something dawns on me the moment I spot Ed's arm. I panic and tap Cat's shoulder to get her attention. "What is it?" she asks me. I bit my fingers and point at Ed, which she too realizes what I meant. "I don't know if Winry actually checked Ed's arm... I told her last night but I didn't check," I whisper in her ear. Cat scowls at me when she hears me say that, "You're not suppose to change anything...! We have to keep things in line if we don't want something horrible to happen in the future...!" "You could have at least tried to save Nina..." I think I said something wrong, cause the moment I decided to look back at her her face suddenly darkens for some odd reason.

I saw her lift her hand up. I shut my eyes expecting her to hit me, but instead she just pats my head and goes back staring out the window. 'I wonder what happened while I was gone... I hope I didn't say something wrong again...'

-Me-

We looked through what was left of the library, trying to find something that had at least survived the burn out. Ed picks up a book only for it to crumble into ashes. "There's nothing left here but ashes... everything's gone..." Ed mutters in despair. I walk up to Ed and place a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him, "Well not everything couldn't been burnt down Ed... maybe there's some that were salvaged from the fire!" "Cat!" Alice calls me over, waving a hand as she stood a few feet away from where we were. I ran up to where she was after I excused myself from the trio, who were trying to figure out what to do next. "What? Did you find something?" I ask after I finally caught up to her.

Alice crouches down to the ground and picks something up. "I saw this before... when I was still trapped in the stone with all the others. I don't know how, but sometimes I was able to see things through her eyes and this is one of them," Alice tells me as she hands the object to me. It was a necklace, a silver locket that was completely sealed up tight by alchemy, there's no way I can transmute this open and we can't ask Ed or Al to open it for us. I'd love to if only I didn't suck and shaping matter without deforming it or destroying it into pieces. I only got the destruction part done with alchemy, but reconstructing solid matter is a no go, and that's why I stuck with water alchemy all the way through.

I flip it over and saw two initials on both sides. "E.E & C.C... N.F & P.C... I wonder who they are?" Alice wonders out loud after reading the initials. I shrug and put it in my pocket, "Or who they were Alice. If this belongs to Jealousy, that means she killed people like the cold blooded monster she is. If we could open it we might find some answers."