Week 13, Day 7 [ Dream ] Alchemist, Be Thou for the People
"Alchemist, be thou for the people, that's our motto. If you really want to be like me, you'll take that to heart!"
You do. You believe in it. Second only to Equivalent Exchange, you believe with all your heart that alchemy is meant to be for the good of the people. You've known this since the first time you saw it make your mother smile.
"But you are an alchemist of the State. Why would you defy the military you serve?"
It might seem odd to her, you know. That a dog of the military would be here, in this forsaken old mining town, trying to help these miners take back their town from a corrupt official so they don't have to live in fear of being overtaxed or being attacked by Yoki's underlings for not paying money they don't have. That one would even give a damn.
But if you're a dog of the military, you're far from an obedient one. Wriggling out of your collar is what you do best.
And you really believe that alchemy is meant to be for the good of the people, rather than forcing cooperation born of fear.
("Because I never sold my soul to them!")
You've seen for yourself, the good alchemy can do. Marcoh, the people in that small town that looked up to him as a miracle doctor. The babies he saved in Xenotime. Fletcher and Russell, and their alchemy research on having plants absorb toxins.
But you've seen the dark side of alchemy too. Far too often, you've seen the science you devoted your life to abused for wrongdoing. Majahal and his dolls, kidnapping young girls and trapping their souls inside, Cornello and his false miracles, Mugiar's red water poisoning an entire town, Tucker...fusing his four-year-old daughter and his dog into a monster because he could. Alchemy for murder. Firsthand you've seen Scar, and secondhand you've heard of the State Alchemists that preceded you--that tore apart his country in a single night.
Your hands aren't clean, either.
(You're no longer in Yousewell, in your confrontation with Lyra and Yoki that night. Instead you're back in Central. The basement of Tucker's house. There are cages laid out before you, along with a list. The cataloging task you were assigned before. The stairwell back up is missing.)
You make your way along the row of cages, marking off the poor bastards trapped in them one by one.
There's a sudden tug at your coat.
"Little...big...bwother..."
A pitiful creature, sallow coat with scruffy brown fur and big empty white eyes. Your eyes dilate sharply, and there's no hiding the gasp.
"Let's...pway. You...pwomised...big...bwother."
"NINA!"
You clap your hands, ready to perform the transmutation to open the cage, but all of a sudden she's gone, only a splatter of blood left on the wall.
All of a sudden your breath hitches, and you choke on tears shed three years ago.
"Can you really afford to get sidetracked by every little lost cause?"
You clutch your metallic hand into a fist and punch the bars of the cage and move on.
The next cage is empty, save for a lone array in the center. That alone is enough to make you gasp in horror and move on quickly to the next.
There's a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt in the next one, perfectly neat as if they hadn't been worn in a long time, at an odd angle as if they'd simply fallen off their wearer where they had once stood. There's a suit of armor in the corner.
There's a creature in the next. You almost sigh in relief but then the shadows clear and it looks...vaguely humanoid. It's barely alive, making awful gurgling and choking noises. It sees you out of the corner of an eye and reaches out a spindly not-quite-flesh arm. You scream, and you're before the next cage in an instant.
Nothing in this one. No clothes, no armor, no array, no half-dead creature.
But now, now there's a scratching sound and a familiar weight at your side is missing. When you look, you can't find your pocketwatch.
You look back up, and there are words being scratched into the opposite wall.
D-O-N'-T F-O-R-G-E-T O-C-T.3.11.
Suddenly, there's the smell of smoke, and you're no longer in that dismal basement. You're in your hometown, and your house is burning. You did it.
Don't Forget. October 3, 1911.
Don't forget.
Don't you ever forget.
[Ed wakes up to the Hitomi's screaming.]