Fic: What Doesn't Kill Us - Chapter Two
Title: What Doesn't Kill Us
Chapter: Something Strange
Word Count: 1914
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Eventual Roy/Riza with various appearances from the rest of the characters
Summary: Life rarely complicates itself at the right moments.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One
"Ah Breda," Roy's voice dripped with sarcasm, "to what do I owe the pleasure so soon?"
On the other end Breda hesitated and cleared his throat. Roy's life suddenly passed in front of his eyes.
"Fullmetal didn't level the entire town, did he?" Heads whipped up from their desks to stare at their Colonel in absolute horror. Hawkeye reached for the drawer that held the accident reports.
"No," Breda responded and Roy let out the biggest breath of his life.
"So then what is it?"
"We ran into some problems," Breda reported frankly, "structural problems, you might call them," and then quieter than his first admission, "we found this huge array at the base of one of the buildings Ed destroyed. Now I'm no alchemist, but something about it just doesn't seem right. None of the guys here can make heads or tails of it."
Roy's interest was instantly peaked. "An array?" he swiveled his chair to face away from the office door, "describe it to me."
"Not that I'm particularly knowledgeable about alchemy, but something about it... It's real complicated; more detail than I've ever seen in an array before. There's lots of circles, triangles, squares, and they're all interlocking with one another. There's some writing on it and it's definitely not any language I'm familiar with. It was hidden under the foundation, so it's possible it could have just been an innocent mistake, but the way it was buried... Whoever put it there was really deliberate about what they were doing."
Roy reached into his breast pocket for his notebook, "what does the writing look like?"
"It's definitely some sort of ancient writing. I'd say the closest thing I could compare it to is ancient Dracman, but even that...," and then as if letting his excitement get the better of him, Breda urged, "It's strange Roy, it's really strange. I definitely think you should come take a look."
"Well if you think it would be for the best," Roy's voice boomed throughout the room as he swiveled his chair back around, "then I have no choice but to return. Structural problems may not be my strong point, but as a minister to the people I have no qualms about lending my aid. I will be on the next train out of Central."
Breda grunted, "I knew you would, Sir."
Roy hung up the phone with a satisfying clack and then turned towards the remaining inhabitants of his office. "Well kiddies, looks like we're going on another trip!"
The resulting groan that erupted from their mouths was almost inaudible.
Almost.
---
The train ride this time went quicker than the last - there were no longer questions of "oh God, are the Elrics dead?", "is everyone dead?", "am I dead?"; no, instead there was excitement, tension, and Falman's snoring which, on any given day might have thrown Roy into fits, but not now. Not when mysterious alchemy loomed on the horizon.
Doodling on his notebook, Roy continued to wrack his brain. Ancient writing... what ancient civilizations had existed to the west? There was Xerxes, of course, but although their spread had extended across current day Amestris, they had mostly inhabited the east... There were the Alethian people, but their writing system had been almost entirely nonexistent, rather they relied more on oral traditions... It wasn't Xingese and it wasn't Aerugan (Breda would have recognized either of those), so then what was it?
A loud snore escaped Falman's mouth. Roy reached across the isle and kicked him, waking the Warrant Officer with a start.
"What? Ah, oh, Colonel?"
Roy tapped the pen against his jaw, "Falman, what civilizations existed to the west pre-Creta?"
As Falman furrowed his brow, Roy wondered if he knew how disheveled his hair was. He looked every bit the part of the mad intellectual they had pinned him to be. If only Havoc were awake, Roy shot a glance to the sleeping man to his left, he would love to see this. Perhaps he'd wake him? Or take a picture? No, better to hold this little scene against him. He so loved to tease the Second Lieutenant, after all.
Falman cleared his throat. "Well, the Cretans have existed there for at least two hundred years, but before that there were the Erosophians, the Anathemians, the Archaedemans, and then a series of small tribal groups who shared the territory after the destruction of Xerxes."
Roy nodded. "And what sort of civilizations were these? Did they have any sort of formal writing system?"
"Well, the Erosophians wrote hundreds upon thousands of texts. Much of pre-Cretan history is understood because of them. Their writing is fairly similar to Cretan, which makes it easy to translate." Not them, Roy frowned, Breda would have recognized the similarities. Falman continued, "the Anathemians were a warring people, which accounts for their swift destruction of the Archaedeman peoples. Their leader was actually a descendant of the Archaedemans interestingly enough. He found fault with the current Archaedeman rulers. You see they were an oligarchy, but he was much more interested in a form of dictatorship-"
"Falman."
"Sorry," the older man scratched his head, "I get carried away sometimes. What was it we were talking about? The writing systems?"
"Yes, the writing systems."
"Well," Falman readjusted his collar, "the Anathemians wrote a fair amount of things down. Their written language was more primitive than the Erosophians, obviously, and it's much more difficult to translate. However, there are several scholars located across Amestris that would be able to read it, if the need was there. As for the Archaedemans, they were largely a semi-nomadic people who relied mostly on oral tradition to record their history. There are a few instances of written text later on in their existence, but it isn't much. It's mostly pictographs and no one has been able to figure out-"
"Would you be able to recognize any of these writings if you saw them?" Roy interrupted.
Falman thought for a moment. "Well, I'd certainly recognize Erosophian and perhaps a few letters of Anathemian. I'm not so sure about Archaedeman."
Roy nodded, "Alright. Thank you, Warrant Officer. I'm sorry for waking you," and then, smirking as an afterthought, "but your snoring was horrendous. I'm surprised the people in the next car didn't complain."
"It's no worse than yours, Colonel." Roy tried not to jump as Hawkeye's voice suddenly pierced the quiet air. He failed quite miserably.
"Ah, Lieutenant, I didn't know you were awake!"
"She's right you know," Falman nodded. "If there's anyone who should be complaining it's us. Office hours are dreadful with that racket."
Roy folded his arms and regarded Falman cooly. "I take offense to that."
"Perhaps you should reconsider your methods of travel?" Hawkeye responded flatly, "superiors are allowed their own accommodations, after all."
Roy turned his attention towards the remainder of his sleeping subordinates and suppressed a smile, "ah, but why would I want to miss all this?"
Hawkeye just shook her head. "You shouldn't complain then, Sir." Roy watched as she shifted her body weight, crossing her legs at the ankles. A stray hair fell in front of her face and he thought to reach out and brush it away, but he ignored the impulse. And it was fine, really, because a moment later she had taken care of it herself. Wasn't that typical Hawkeye? Always on top of things.
Shaking his head, Roy turned back to Falman, "so, what was that you were saying about the Anathemian leader?"
Falman's face brightened instantly, "Oh, well you see, the Archaedeman hierarchy in place was..."
Roy folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. Every bit of information could be important, he reminded himself, and so for the rest of the train ride he listened carefully as Falman babbled on, trying his hardest to formulate some sort of thesis. What on earth could this array be that had Breda so concerned?
---
"We found it underneath this building," Breda offered, gesturing towards a large pile of rubble. "We had a team working on removing these stones and then there it was."
"And the men who saw it?" Roy asked.
"Already taken care of," Breda responded, "I debriefed them myself. Said it was some sort of graffiti from local kids. They lost interest real quick."
"Good." Roy knelt down above the array and ran his fingers along the edge, careful not to touch any part that might activate it. Complicated, he now agreed, was the right way to describe it. Never before in his life had he seen so many geometrical patterns and shapes in one space. It was large too, covering about 3 feet in diameter. The words and the letters that composed them were nothing like he had ever seen before. There were no noticeable similarities to any language he knew. Roy rested his arms against his thighs. Yes, Breda was right to call him.
"The building that stood here had been there for centuries," Breda explained, "it was left to the owner by his father, who inherited it from his father, and so on. Ed and Al have been talking to the townspeople to see what they know, but so far it isn't much. I had thought to go look in the town archives to see if I could find anything concrete about it's history, but I figured I'd wait to see what you thought first."
Roy nodded. "Falman, do you recognize any of the words on this thing?"
Falman stepped forward and knelt beside Roy and regarded the array carefully. "Well, it isn't Erosophian, I can tell you that much."
"What about Anathemian or Archaedeman?"
"I can't say for certain," Falman frowned. "Like I said I can only recognize a little bit of Anathemian, but the patterns seem to indicate that it may have come from that alphabet. Archaedeman, from what I've heard, consists mostly of pictographs and these," he gestured, "look a lot more like letters to me."
Roy clapped Falman on the back, "well alright, we'll start from there. Breda, continue to oversee clean up as normal. Make sure no one else comes near here, but don't be suspicious about it. We don't want anyone snooping around. Falman, I want you and Fuery to go look around the archives for anything that may be useful. If they ask, say it's research for the rebuilding. Zoning disputes or something to that nature. Havoc, find the Elric boys and see what they've got, if anything. Everyone meet back here in two hours. Got it?"
"Yes, Sir!" the men chorused before going their separate ways. Roy turned towards Hawkeye.
"Lieutenant, I want you to stay with me. I'd like to study the array and make some copies in my notebook. We're going to have to-" his train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt as Hawkeye moved past him and knelt down at the array. "What? What are you- Hawkeye, I wasn't done speaking yet! I know you're eager to get to work and I commend you for that, you know I always have, but honestly I'd appreciate it if you showed a little more respect to me, seeing as I'm-"
Whatever Roy was going to say next fell flat as she turned to meet his gaze. "Sir," her voice was low. Roy felt his entire body tense.
"What is it, Hawkeye?"
She turned back towards the array, resting a palm on the ground. "I've seen these symbols before."
Chapter: Something Strange
Word Count: 1914
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Eventual Roy/Riza with various appearances from the rest of the characters
Summary: Life rarely complicates itself at the right moments.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One
"Ah Breda," Roy's voice dripped with sarcasm, "to what do I owe the pleasure so soon?"
On the other end Breda hesitated and cleared his throat. Roy's life suddenly passed in front of his eyes.
"Fullmetal didn't level the entire town, did he?" Heads whipped up from their desks to stare at their Colonel in absolute horror. Hawkeye reached for the drawer that held the accident reports.
"No," Breda responded and Roy let out the biggest breath of his life.
"So then what is it?"
"We ran into some problems," Breda reported frankly, "structural problems, you might call them," and then quieter than his first admission, "we found this huge array at the base of one of the buildings Ed destroyed. Now I'm no alchemist, but something about it just doesn't seem right. None of the guys here can make heads or tails of it."
Roy's interest was instantly peaked. "An array?" he swiveled his chair to face away from the office door, "describe it to me."
"Not that I'm particularly knowledgeable about alchemy, but something about it... It's real complicated; more detail than I've ever seen in an array before. There's lots of circles, triangles, squares, and they're all interlocking with one another. There's some writing on it and it's definitely not any language I'm familiar with. It was hidden under the foundation, so it's possible it could have just been an innocent mistake, but the way it was buried... Whoever put it there was really deliberate about what they were doing."
Roy reached into his breast pocket for his notebook, "what does the writing look like?"
"It's definitely some sort of ancient writing. I'd say the closest thing I could compare it to is ancient Dracman, but even that...," and then as if letting his excitement get the better of him, Breda urged, "It's strange Roy, it's really strange. I definitely think you should come take a look."
"Well if you think it would be for the best," Roy's voice boomed throughout the room as he swiveled his chair back around, "then I have no choice but to return. Structural problems may not be my strong point, but as a minister to the people I have no qualms about lending my aid. I will be on the next train out of Central."
Breda grunted, "I knew you would, Sir."
Roy hung up the phone with a satisfying clack and then turned towards the remaining inhabitants of his office. "Well kiddies, looks like we're going on another trip!"
The resulting groan that erupted from their mouths was almost inaudible.
Almost.
---
The train ride this time went quicker than the last - there were no longer questions of "oh God, are the Elrics dead?", "is everyone dead?", "am I dead?"; no, instead there was excitement, tension, and Falman's snoring which, on any given day might have thrown Roy into fits, but not now. Not when mysterious alchemy loomed on the horizon.
Doodling on his notebook, Roy continued to wrack his brain. Ancient writing... what ancient civilizations had existed to the west? There was Xerxes, of course, but although their spread had extended across current day Amestris, they had mostly inhabited the east... There were the Alethian people, but their writing system had been almost entirely nonexistent, rather they relied more on oral traditions... It wasn't Xingese and it wasn't Aerugan (Breda would have recognized either of those), so then what was it?
A loud snore escaped Falman's mouth. Roy reached across the isle and kicked him, waking the Warrant Officer with a start.
"What? Ah, oh, Colonel?"
Roy tapped the pen against his jaw, "Falman, what civilizations existed to the west pre-Creta?"
As Falman furrowed his brow, Roy wondered if he knew how disheveled his hair was. He looked every bit the part of the mad intellectual they had pinned him to be. If only Havoc were awake, Roy shot a glance to the sleeping man to his left, he would love to see this. Perhaps he'd wake him? Or take a picture? No, better to hold this little scene against him. He so loved to tease the Second Lieutenant, after all.
Falman cleared his throat. "Well, the Cretans have existed there for at least two hundred years, but before that there were the Erosophians, the Anathemians, the Archaedemans, and then a series of small tribal groups who shared the territory after the destruction of Xerxes."
Roy nodded. "And what sort of civilizations were these? Did they have any sort of formal writing system?"
"Well, the Erosophians wrote hundreds upon thousands of texts. Much of pre-Cretan history is understood because of them. Their writing is fairly similar to Cretan, which makes it easy to translate." Not them, Roy frowned, Breda would have recognized the similarities. Falman continued, "the Anathemians were a warring people, which accounts for their swift destruction of the Archaedeman peoples. Their leader was actually a descendant of the Archaedemans interestingly enough. He found fault with the current Archaedeman rulers. You see they were an oligarchy, but he was much more interested in a form of dictatorship-"
"Falman."
"Sorry," the older man scratched his head, "I get carried away sometimes. What was it we were talking about? The writing systems?"
"Yes, the writing systems."
"Well," Falman readjusted his collar, "the Anathemians wrote a fair amount of things down. Their written language was more primitive than the Erosophians, obviously, and it's much more difficult to translate. However, there are several scholars located across Amestris that would be able to read it, if the need was there. As for the Archaedemans, they were largely a semi-nomadic people who relied mostly on oral tradition to record their history. There are a few instances of written text later on in their existence, but it isn't much. It's mostly pictographs and no one has been able to figure out-"
"Would you be able to recognize any of these writings if you saw them?" Roy interrupted.
Falman thought for a moment. "Well, I'd certainly recognize Erosophian and perhaps a few letters of Anathemian. I'm not so sure about Archaedeman."
Roy nodded, "Alright. Thank you, Warrant Officer. I'm sorry for waking you," and then, smirking as an afterthought, "but your snoring was horrendous. I'm surprised the people in the next car didn't complain."
"It's no worse than yours, Colonel." Roy tried not to jump as Hawkeye's voice suddenly pierced the quiet air. He failed quite miserably.
"Ah, Lieutenant, I didn't know you were awake!"
"She's right you know," Falman nodded. "If there's anyone who should be complaining it's us. Office hours are dreadful with that racket."
Roy folded his arms and regarded Falman cooly. "I take offense to that."
"Perhaps you should reconsider your methods of travel?" Hawkeye responded flatly, "superiors are allowed their own accommodations, after all."
Roy turned his attention towards the remainder of his sleeping subordinates and suppressed a smile, "ah, but why would I want to miss all this?"
Hawkeye just shook her head. "You shouldn't complain then, Sir." Roy watched as she shifted her body weight, crossing her legs at the ankles. A stray hair fell in front of her face and he thought to reach out and brush it away, but he ignored the impulse. And it was fine, really, because a moment later she had taken care of it herself. Wasn't that typical Hawkeye? Always on top of things.
Shaking his head, Roy turned back to Falman, "so, what was that you were saying about the Anathemian leader?"
Falman's face brightened instantly, "Oh, well you see, the Archaedeman hierarchy in place was..."
Roy folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. Every bit of information could be important, he reminded himself, and so for the rest of the train ride he listened carefully as Falman babbled on, trying his hardest to formulate some sort of thesis. What on earth could this array be that had Breda so concerned?
---
"We found it underneath this building," Breda offered, gesturing towards a large pile of rubble. "We had a team working on removing these stones and then there it was."
"And the men who saw it?" Roy asked.
"Already taken care of," Breda responded, "I debriefed them myself. Said it was some sort of graffiti from local kids. They lost interest real quick."
"Good." Roy knelt down above the array and ran his fingers along the edge, careful not to touch any part that might activate it. Complicated, he now agreed, was the right way to describe it. Never before in his life had he seen so many geometrical patterns and shapes in one space. It was large too, covering about 3 feet in diameter. The words and the letters that composed them were nothing like he had ever seen before. There were no noticeable similarities to any language he knew. Roy rested his arms against his thighs. Yes, Breda was right to call him.
"The building that stood here had been there for centuries," Breda explained, "it was left to the owner by his father, who inherited it from his father, and so on. Ed and Al have been talking to the townspeople to see what they know, but so far it isn't much. I had thought to go look in the town archives to see if I could find anything concrete about it's history, but I figured I'd wait to see what you thought first."
Roy nodded. "Falman, do you recognize any of the words on this thing?"
Falman stepped forward and knelt beside Roy and regarded the array carefully. "Well, it isn't Erosophian, I can tell you that much."
"What about Anathemian or Archaedeman?"
"I can't say for certain," Falman frowned. "Like I said I can only recognize a little bit of Anathemian, but the patterns seem to indicate that it may have come from that alphabet. Archaedeman, from what I've heard, consists mostly of pictographs and these," he gestured, "look a lot more like letters to me."
Roy clapped Falman on the back, "well alright, we'll start from there. Breda, continue to oversee clean up as normal. Make sure no one else comes near here, but don't be suspicious about it. We don't want anyone snooping around. Falman, I want you and Fuery to go look around the archives for anything that may be useful. If they ask, say it's research for the rebuilding. Zoning disputes or something to that nature. Havoc, find the Elric boys and see what they've got, if anything. Everyone meet back here in two hours. Got it?"
"Yes, Sir!" the men chorused before going their separate ways. Roy turned towards Hawkeye.
"Lieutenant, I want you to stay with me. I'd like to study the array and make some copies in my notebook. We're going to have to-" his train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt as Hawkeye moved past him and knelt down at the array. "What? What are you- Hawkeye, I wasn't done speaking yet! I know you're eager to get to work and I commend you for that, you know I always have, but honestly I'd appreciate it if you showed a little more respect to me, seeing as I'm-"
Whatever Roy was going to say next fell flat as she turned to meet his gaze. "Sir," her voice was low. Roy felt his entire body tense.
"What is it, Hawkeye?"
She turned back towards the array, resting a palm on the ground. "I've seen these symbols before."