I can’t help but smile at their dumbfounded expressions besides Nina who just looks confused.

“Hey, guys! I got a bit turned around and met this lovely lady who offered to help escort me back in exchange for a meeting with a state alchemist. I figured it was a fair enough deal since I was traveling with two.” I make a show of reaching out and touching my way to my seat much to the others in the cabin’s further confusion.

She stands in the doorway for a moment taking in everyone's appearance. I can see a small hint of surprise when she notices Alex’s gauntlets are currently on and some of the looks that are being thrown her way. I can see the flash of disgust that if I wasn’t paying attention, I wouldn’t have even noticed it before she has a gentle smile.

“A pleasure to meet you, my name is Solaris.” She gently puts her hand out to Alex.

“Hmm, yes. Nice to meet you… I am Alex Louis Armstong! From the Armstrong family!” He starts awkward but as he says his name, he slowly gains confidence. Like he’s rehearsed this constantly to the point of only having one way of introducing himself. Despite that, he does not take her hand. Instead looking at it with apprehension. Like he’s fighting something in himself telling him to take it.

She looks around at everyone before deciding that perhaps this isn’t the best idea. A small grimace before putting on a gentle smile again. “Well… It’s a pleasure to meet everyone! I hope you all have a pleasant rest of your trip.” Rather than introduce herself further or try to drag out any more information she says her goodbyes and quickly leaves.

Edward gives me a questioning glance. It doesn’t take long after the doors shut that he pulls me in close and starts asking questions. “What was that all about? Was she the one that had it?”

I nod and take out the same paper from earlier and write down everything that happened.

Edward considers it for a long while. “We’ll need to keep that in mind if we confront her. Solaris huh… odd name.”

The stop at the town that the Hamburgangs are waiting for us comes up. Alex agrees to see her off so we might see her when she gets off. But then she did something none of us were expecting. When he got off the train, she went out too. Seeing this Zig, Edward and I follow out too much to Nina’s relief at being able to say goodbye outside.

I keep my attention on her as we head outside the station. She hasn’t moved much she’s just been watching us. I can feel a pair of eyes watching me from her relative position too. I can see her trying to move carefully between crowds.

“Hey, Nina?” She looks up at me and smiles.

“Yes, big brother Du?”

“Do you mind smiling and waving to the right towards that crowd?” I gesture with my head a bit. She gives me a confused look but does so anyway. Making a small mention of me being a big weirdo.

Sure enough, Solaris was watching. She grimaces slightly before smiling back and waving. Not realizing that Nina never saw her begin with.

After we get out of the more crowded area, I softly inform the others. “She’s following us… I don’t think it was random chance that led to her being on the same train as us.”

Alex looks at me then glances around trying to find her again. “What makes you say that Jiang?”

I gesture to Nina. “I had her wave towards her location, she didn’t call out or anything. She responded meaning she had been watching us already. Considering she didn’t approach more and decided to hide more but still follow us this way I believe she’s trying to tail us. I don’t know why though.”

He rubs the bottom of his chin for a moment. “Well, that is concerning but for now let’s try to see Nina off. If she follows her away, then we will act. If she follows us instead that just means we can get her out of potential danger.” Not a bad idea. I put on a big smile and start talking loudly with Nina. I have her pretending to be my eyes as we move to where we are supposed to meet the Hamburgangs.

As we get there I’m pretty much tackled by a small girl. “Jiang! You’re here!” Amy looks around at everyone and is excited. “Where’s the big metal freak?” We look around for a moment. Realizing that he’s missing too.

Edward stiffly turns towards Alex. “Major Armstrong… you did take my brother off the train, right?”

He also goes wide-eyed. “Oh! I uh it’s just that I um.” He begins sprinting towards the train at full speed with Edward hot on his tail screaming about leaving his brother on the train with a bunch of farm animals.

I can’t help but chuckle along with the girls that are all here. I can feel the presence of our followers move towards them as they head back towards the train… Interesting so they aren’t after me or Nina, that’s good.

Lady Hamburgang smiles seeing Rosaline so excited. “Well, she’s certainly excited to see you back. I tried to get Rosaline to come by too… but she’s not having a good day today. She wanted me to say hello for her though!”

I feel Nina hiding behind my leg. Amy being very outspoken looks at her and just points. “Is this the girl we are taking in mom? She looks really shy? Are you shy? It’s okay because the big brother metal freaks helped us out so we’ll make sure to look after you too!” She means… well I think? But she’s just so overbearing to her that just makes Nina shrink even more into my side.

Lady Hamburgang can’t help but chuckle at her antics though. “Relax Ro-Amy! She just needs some time to open up. Sorry, she’s been excited about this ever since I told her about another girl coming to stay with us.” She smiles warmly down at the two of them.

“She said it gets a bit lonely in the big old house without someone near her age around especially with Rosaline's… condition I feel like having another face around their age should help.” It’d also help to have a kid that wasn’t a… replacement around. It has to be awkward having two girls that look the same there. Especially when one looks like the other and you’ve gotten so used to calling Rosaline that you still slip up occasionally.

I rub the top of Nina's head. “I thought the same thing, I also figured you’re the only people I really know that might be willing to look after her while I’m busy. The government is looking into finding her other family so it shouldn’t take too long.”

She squats down to be at Nina's height. “Hello, I’m Mary Hamburgang. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nina.” She puts out her hand in a lady-like hold for Nina who looks a little out of depth.

Her eyes seem to swim a little as she puts her hand out too. “Um, I’m N-Nina T-tucker nice to meet you?”

She smiles down at her. “Well, I’m sure we’ll just be the best of friends in the coming days.” She looks at the bags Zig is carrying.

“Is that all her stuff? The butler can load it up. Can you stay for dinner? I know you said you were busy but I’m sure Rosaline wouldn’t mind a bit of a check-in.” Her smile is a bit plastered. She’s happy but her eyes are a bit tired. She’s worried about her still.

“How is she? Any improvement?”

She looks off for a moment. “She’s improved just… It’s hard seeing her like this. I’d grown so used to how things were… It’s just now I want everything to be like how it was before this mess all began and she’s just… I know I should be more patient it’s just…” She looks away. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Amy watching on too. Looking down at the scar on her hand sadly.

“You have two wonderful daughters… Just make sure to remember that. I’m a bit on a schedule now so I can’t visit but as soon as I have some more free time, I’ll be sure to do so. In the meantime, I appreciate what you’re doing.” I toss both Nina and Amy's hair much to their giggling annoyance.

With that, I say my goodbyes and meet back up at the train yard. I can sense Solaris still watching Edward and Alex from the crowd. Al is now on Alex’s shoulder as Edward is still yelling at him for almost losing his brother in transit.

When our scheduled train arrives, we are followed on the train by Solaris again… hmm now that Nina isn’t here, we might be able to confront her without as much worry. We’ll get to a less populated stop first though.

So, we start planning an ambush at our last stop. Edward doesn’t feel comfortable leading her to Wenrys place, so it’ll have to be before then. Al’s also inside our compartment now because Edward doesn’t trust him not to be left behind again.

As we pull up to the next stop Zig and I sense something again.

Both of us snapping in the direction we sense it. “It’s another stone… weaker than the one in our follower though…”

Edward and Alex share a nervous glance. “Another one? They shouldn’t be this common right? I thought they were a legendary item… why are they popping up left and right today?”

They are likely connected to our follower… perhaps backup? Did they call for them at the last stop when they noticed Alex was with us? Oh well. Even if they are back up we should probably be able to handle them.

“Keep an eye out at the station when we approach. Whoever they are they aren’t standing still.”

Alex gives a serious nod before staring out the window along with Zig.

Edward starts getting antsy. “How am I supposed to help one-handed?”

I just let out a sigh “Give me your glove and I assume you use the same circle as your brother?” He blinks in surprise before nodding slightly embarrassed.

“Right… I guess I could do that…” I use a similar technique as when I etched my wave transmutation circle to transmute the carbon of some smoke into the glove to become a structured transmutation circle.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I just toss it back to him with a smile. “There you go, now you’re not useless.” He grumbles a bit but puts the glove on regardless.

It’s not long before we start pulling up to the trainyard. Alex seems surprised by something he sees before yelling out. “Doctor Marcoh? Doctor Marcoh, that’s you, isn’t it?” Turning my attention towards the man Alex is yelling towards he’s the only one at the station and he’s where the feeling of the stone is coming from.

“It’s me! Alex Louis Armstrong, from central!” As the man turns around, he looks aged easily in his late 40’s to mid-’50s with short black hair a well-structured face, and brown-colored business attire. He’s currently wearing a look of utter terror though as he looks at Alex before he begins running as fast as he can.

“Shit… where’s he going?!” Edward starts heading out, likely identifying him as the one with the stone. I turn to Zig. “Tail him, make sure he doesn’t skip town.” With a nod, he goes out the window and chases after the man following from the top of the nearby buildings easily.

I casually start making my way off the train. Turning to Alex with a question. “So who is he anyway? You seemed to know him.” He nods seriously.

“He’s a capable State Alchemist from Central. He was researching how to apply alchemy to medical treatment. But after the Ishvalan civil war, he went missing. Supposedly he ran off with a lot of important research material too.” Interesting…

“That research material is probably the philosophers stone then…” Edward looks at me shocked.

“Do… do you think maybe he’s the one that made it? Or maybe he could tell us about how he got his? If… if we get it then we should be able to get our bodies back right? At least trading it with you means you’ll be able to start working on making new parts…” He looks excited and starts running slightly ahead before realizing he doesn’t know where he’s going.

“Uh… where did he go through?” I just point towards where the stone is currently.

“Let’s have a chat with him first. I don’t think the person following us is with him… we’ll probably have to deal with them afterward though. If he isn’t with them then that means that he might be on the run from them too.”

We start making our way towards what looks like an old medical clinic. After questioning a few people around town on our way there it’s easy to tell what’s happening. The man deserted the military before he started treating injuries here. He’s probably using the stone to treat otherwise incurable diseases or injuries. If it can pick up the slack on that imagine what I could do with the required knowledge to already do it…

Zig meets us outside the house. “My lord, he issss insssside. After clossssing the door and windowssss he turned off the light. I believe he issss sssscared of Alexssss” Alex shrugs.

“I don’t know why he would. I never had any sort of disagreement with him. Perhaps he’s afraid of the military?” Regardless we all wait outside his home and I knock on the door.

….

No response even though I can feel him right behind the door.

“I’m going to open the door now, okay? We just want to talk.” I open the door a bit and I notice he has a gun aimed in my direction.

I start to act but before I even have a chance to Zig has already pounced the man and wrestled him to the floor. “Do not! Aim that at my lord!” He lets out an angry hiss in the man's face who looks like he’s about ready to wet himself. “A-are you here to take me back there? I-I don’t ever want to go back there… Anything but that!”

“Doctor, please calm down.” Alex starts trying to calm down everyone. Some of Zig’s drools slowly pooling out from under his mask unto the doctor's face makes his eyes finally roll back and he passes out.

“Well… that was one way of handling him I suppose.” Alex just looks around the room. I pick up the gun, stashing it inside my coat pocket after taking out the round in the chamber it’s on.

“Well, let’s get him seated and comfortable for when he comes back too. We don’t want him freaking out and passing back out do we?” With an annoyed huff Edward and I move the old man to a chair while Alex starts looking around the clinic.

“So how long do you think he’ll be out for?” He lightly pokes the side of Marcoh’s face.

I just shrug. “Eh, it depends. If this is his first time passing out like this probably about 8 minutes. If he’s a frequent fainter probably less.”

We wait for a moment. I can feel the presence of the philosopher's stone in his pocket and take it out.

“Huh… guys check this out.” I hold up a small vial with a red liquid in it.

Edward also looks confused. “That’s a liquid… not a philosopher’s stone?”

Swirling it around a bit, It’s easy to see it’s a very thick substance.

“Perhaps they come in different forms? Either that or this is an incomplete product.” He takes out a notebook and begins writing down some ideas.

“What about the one that’s following us? She still outside?” Expanding my senses again I can feel her right out across the street from us.

“Yep, watching the building like a hawk. I don’t think they are connected.” Alex and Edward relax slightly at that.

Our discussion is interrupted by our friend waking back up. “What's going on? I was… there was drool hitting my face and then… right!” He starts rapidly looking around at all of us and fumbles at an empty holster on his side.

“You’re here to silence me is then…”

“No no please.”

“I won’t be tricked!

I cuff him upside the head. This seems to stun him long enough to get something in before he starts freaking out again. “Relax if we wanted you dead we would have already done so. We just want to talk. Who’s after you?” He looks around at us confused before settling on Zig.

“You mean you lot aren’t here to get me? I was sure… with your chimera friend?” W-wait… there are more like him? I share a glance with Zig.

“Start talking.”

He starts telling us his life's story… he grew up a doctor wanting to do good etc... signed a contract with the military for education so he can become a doctor. The Ishvalan war led to a loss of his faith in his country.

Alex nods. “So you changed your name and identity and moved out here to help people, did you? That’s a noble goal. But the rumors are that you stole top-secret materials when you left too.”

He hesitantly nods. “I-I took my research materials. I couldn’t take it anymore… researching creating that thing!” He almost spits in disgust.

Edwards is interested now. “What thing would that be?”

He looks hollow before answering. “It took so many lives… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make up for what I’ve done. No matter how many people I save.”

I look towards Edward and he glances my way too. “Doctor, what exactly were you ordered to research?”

“The philosophers stone…” This garners a reaction from everyone at the table.

“You mean… you’re the maker? Not just holding one?” He looks concerned before reaching into his pocket and noticing it was missing.

“You took it…” I set it on the table.

“Well, we’ve run into one before. It lets an alchemist cheat a bit. It’d be like letting you hold on to a loaded gun in your pocket.” He nods in acknowledgment.

“I suppose so…”

“So why is it a liquid anyways?” He sighs before taking the jar and uncorking it. He slowly pours it out onto the table. It seems to maintain its form rather than spreading out its beads up like a small red sack.

“The sages stone, the celestial stone, the grand elixir, the red tincture, the fifth element. Just like how it has many names it also comes in many forms. This one is an incomplete product though. No way to know when it will reach its limit and become unusable.” He looks downcast at that.

Interesting… while I turn my attention towards the bottle. I can feel it. The screams inside the substance. “I can feel their screams.” He seems startled by this.

“Y-you can feel them? How?” His eyes become somewhat hollow like he’s reliving a nightmare.

“My country, we practice something that lets us sense these sorts of energies. When I sense this bottle. It’s like having hundreds of men overlapped within the space of that one bottle and screaming in agony.” Doctor Marcoh hides his face as I can see the pain he’s feeling from that remark. Edwards's hand snaps away from poking the stone.

“Wait… you’re saying it might be made out of people?”

The doctor let out a long sigh. “You see now why I can never allow another of these stones to be made right? The government wanted more of them… I just don’t think I have it in me to do that anymore. So much death.” He shakes his head.

I can’t help but ask something though. “Why don’t you just use animals or plants?”

He looks at me oddly. “What do you mean? It requires a lot of concentrated energy to make this stone. A lot of lives and souls used to make that energy.”

I shake my head slightly. “Yeah, but it’s rich in Chi. It’s like the life energy of every person is sucked up and put in there, right? Well, everything has life energy. The ground, the trees, the animals. We are just one part of that energy. This stone is just the product of only grabbing from one source when we could make one that draws only a little from many sources. Like cows or something.” His eyes seem to go wide then he slams his hand on the table.

“You mean to tell me… I could have been using animals!? All those deaths! M-my research! Everything pointed towards… but then…” He seems to shrink on himself a bit.

Edward who had looked outraged until this point looks thoughtful. “Doctor Marcoh… While I don’t think I could ever use a stone made out of humans… My brother and I need one to help repair our bodies. Can we… could we get a copy of your research notes to maybe make our own? We won’t use people of course! Just uh I feel like if you could make this copy… maybe we could make the real deal?”

He looks almost defeated. Laughing while crying to himself.

“All this time! I thought it was a cursed path haha… I’ve been such an idiot… Why…. Why did all of them have to die?” He starts cackling to himself somewhat crazily. We all look at each other somewhat concerned since this is the man with the transmutation circle.

“Who are you, two young men?” He looks between me and Edward.

Alex smiles and gestures towards Edward. “He’s a state alchemist.” Doctor Marcoh seems like he’s seen a ghost. “So young… A child like this in the military?”

“After the war, many of the state alchemists turned in their certifications because of how brutal it was…”

Edward snarls in anger at that. “I know what I’m doing! It’s what I need to help fix my brother and I’s bodies. If I’d never joined them I wouldn’t be here now learning about this. So I’d say I made the right choice don’t you?” Huh, that seems… reasonable.

Doctor Marcoh seems taken aback by this. Not really able to respond so I speak up next to cut the tension a little. “And I’m the 9th prince of Xing Jiang Du.” He looks at me oddly.

“From what I know of the princes aren’t the 5th and younger all under the age of 17? I read a piece on it ten years or so ago.” I nod. “Yes, I am currently 16 years old. This time both Edward and Alex stared at me in confusion.

“I mean I’m the same age as Zig over here.” I pat Zig on the shoulder. That’s when I realize that he’s been staring at the philosophers stone liquid on the table ever since it was uncorked. His eyes transfixed on probably not even realizing I’d touched him.

“Are you alright Zig?” I put the liquid back into the container and as soon as the cork is back in he comes back to it.

“I’m Asssshamed, my lord… I… I wassss disssstracted.” He looks down in shame shrinking in on himself slightly.

“Regardless…. If you want to read my research…” He seems to hesitate for a moment.

“I thought this was the devil's research. But if you can make a tool for good out of this at the price of some cattle then it will be worth it…” He takes out a note and writes down several book titles. “Find these books in the national central library 1st branch. I’ve hidden my notes within their covers.”

Alex looks like he understands why. “Hah, like hiding a tree in a forest.”

“Exactly… now if you don’t mind it’s starting to get late.” He turns towards me and Edward. “I hope you can find the truth hidden within the truth.”

A sense of movement draws my attention. I can feel the philosopher's stone outside draw slightly closer.

“Ah… right. You should know there is another philosopher's stone outside. It’s inside a person.” His eyes go wide.

“They’ve found me… I must get out of here. I hope you all the best but I need to get away before they hurt the people here that I’ve spent the rest of my life-saving. I don’t want them to die because of me just like the war.”

“The least we can do is deal with the one following us. It should buy you time before you need to leave right?”

He nods seriously before he takes in his surroundings. “I need to start packing! Sorry but I need to leave soon even if you deal with one more will come. I hope you understand.” He begins throwing vials and other things into bags in a rush.

I look at the others. “Let’s go handle our little follower then.”

As we leave the doctor's room Alex speaks up. “You know… you two could have just taken his liquid stone from him, right? He wasn’t exactly strong enough to resist.”

Edward speaks up first. “I’m not going to do that to a man that just wants to help people that would make me feel… wrong. I want our bodies back, but I don’t want to give up on my morals to do it.” Respectable.

I shrug my shoulders. “I just want to make it myself before using it. It’ll make the first use seem more special. I don’t exactly mind my missing limbs so much they are a minor annoyance more than anything.” Alex nods looking at the two of us with a curious look.

We finally make our way to an ally that turns sharply. Holding up a hand everyone pauses taking a position for the ambush. Let's see how strong she is with that stone.