Chapter Text
Chapter 6
Ed felt strange walking to work in the blasted uniform. She had managed to avoid wearing it years ago when she was a kid, and she was sure that Mustang would make some sort of comment about it, the bastard. Edaline arrived at the same time as Havok did; he took one look at her and gave her a mischievous smirk.
"Well, well, look at that, Edaline Elric looking like a proper military officer in her new uniform. I never thought I would see the day." She gave him a nasty face and her middle finger in response, which made him burst out laughing. As they entered the main office, everyone looked at her; she gave them her nastiest look, so no one said anything, but she could see that Breda was attempting to hide his amused smile. Mustang's office door opened, and Hawkeye came out and saw her.
"Edaline, you're here." She said, trying to disguise her surprise in her voice.
"This is the time I was supposed to be here, right?"
"Yes, it's just strange seeing you arrive on time."
"I wasn't always late!" I tried to sound convincing, although she realized she was lying through her teeth. Hawkeye was kind enough only to raise an eyebrow and change the subject.
"The Major General wants to see you." She moved to the side so that Ed could go into Mustang's office. He was sitting down, but he had his back to her looking out the window.
"The day hasn't even started, and you are already avoiding working?" He turned around to look at her.
"Look at you, on time; miracles do exist." She contained herself as she knew Mustang wanted to see her reaction to his comment.
"So, what is my assignment?" She refused to call him sir, she would eat her uniform first. He gave her a final smirk before his face got serious and handed her a file.
"Here is the information on the labs and their locations, although you probably know where most of them are. After promise day with the death of the Fuhrer and so many generals arrested, there were other priorities than the labs."
"The experiments that father and the homunculi did?"
"Those were done beneath the labs and did not involve the researchers that did not know of father. Lab 5 was an exception, but they blew it up, so it was not a priority. Rebuilding the military and ensuring that any Bradley loyalists were out was. Even if they didn't know about the scheme with father, simply the way that Bradley ran things in the military, they had to go; they wouldn't have accepted the changes. But now things are stable; we have cleaned house so to speak. The Fuhrer and I want to tackle the labs now. Alchemy can do great or terrible things Edaline, you of all people should know that. For too long has alchemy been used for terrible things in this country, let's use it for good now. We are rebuilding lab 5, we still aren't sure what we are going to do there, but it will be finished in a month. That is where you come in."
"How exactly?"
"I want you to go to all the labs, take your time, and have a month to delve deep into the four labs. Ensure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, if anything is going on you don't like, write it down in your report, I trust your judgment in alchemy. Also, I want your opinion on what the labs are being used for, do you think the research is worth it or is it a waste of time? When you give in your report at the end of the month, if you have any suggestions on what the 5th laboratory should be used for, please let me know. Many are giving suggestions that I don't like. Feel up to it?"
"You know I love research and investigation; I will actually enjoy this assignment."
"Good then, get on with it. The labs have been warned that you will be doing an inspection and that from now on, you will be the overseer of the labs, so if they give you any trouble, tell me."
"As if I would need your help." Just as she turned to leave.
"One more thing Edaline,” She saw his face transform into a smug smirk. "You look lovely in the uniform." She gave him the middle finger and decided not to give him any more satisfaction to his stupid face.
She exited his office, and Hawkeye showed her to a smaller office connected to their main workspace.
"As you will be overseeing the labs, you need your own office. The laboratory investigations are sensitive, and your reports will be confidential except for a few high-ranking officers. I've asked them to send here all the files that they have on the labs so you can read through them first if you want. But just so you know, all the drawers have locks as well as the door. The keys are in the table, and the Major General and I are the only ones with keys apart from you."
"Thanks, Hawkeye, I think I'll look through all the files before deciding how to approach my investigation."
"Since it's your first day, I reserved a restaurant for all of us, Mustang, Breda, Havok, Fuery, Falman me and you for lunch. Ho does it sound?"
"That sounds great, Hawkeye!" Hawkeye gave her a small smile and said. "We'll make the Major General pay." She couldn't help herself and burst out laughing, and Hawkeye gave her a final smile before she left closing the door behind her.
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After a few hours going through the files, a few things became apparent; she was going to enjoy this work, and two, she really needed to visit the labs and see the research upfront. Ed was almost certain that chimera research was still happening, no matter how vague the reports were, and some experiments seemed pointless. But overall, her inner researcher and scientist was going to enjoy working with the labs.
Hawkeye popped her head in after a knock. "Lunch break Edaline."
"Fantastic, I'm starving." She organized the papers and followed after Hawkeye as they joined the rest on the way to the restaurant.
Riza had reserved a table in a lovely restaurant, not extremely expensive but not cheap either. Mustang sat a the head of the table with Havok at his left and Hawkeye at his right. She sat at Hawkeyes right with Fuery next to her and Breda in front, with Falman next to Breda.
"We have to do this more often," said Havok as he devoured his food. Mustang gave him an unimpressed look.
"You just want to eat at my expense, which I still don't understand why I am paying."
"We are celebrating Edaline's return to the team, and you are our CO, so it's your responsibility," Hawkeye responded with a straight face, but she could hear the amusement in her voice.
"I, for one, agree with Havok, we should go out and eat more and make the bastard pay." She sent Mustang a smirk as the other in the table started piping in their agreement.
"I knew I would regret having you part of my team again, I just didn't think it would be so early." the rest of the lunch passed in enjoyable conversation and laughter, and by the end of it, Edaline was confident she had done the correct thing joining the military again.
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After lunch, she decided it was time to tackle the labs. She chose to go in order as she suspected that they would get progressively worse by the reports she had from the labs.
When she arrived at lab four, she was proven correct. Lab 1 had gone well, it was focused on plants and agriculture, and while she had some ideas about how to help them, it was worthwhile investigation. The second lab didn't have such a focused approach, she would have to delve deeper into each individual experiment, but everyone was helpful and was looking forward to working with her. She was sure most of what they were researching could be salvaged and refocused in a better way.
The third was terrible; the researchers were cold and unfriendly, probably suspecting that Ed would not approve of what they were researching, and they were correct. They were working on better ways to use alchemy in battle. She was sure that father and the homunculi had initially started it, but they had clearly never stopped. Her breath nearly stopped when she realized that one of the researchers was trying to figure out Mustang's signature fire alchemy. She trusted Mustang with that weapon but not the military as a whole or other alchemists.
Lab four was as she had suspected where they were conducting chimera investigations. They tried to hide it from her, but she eventually found where they performed the experiments on those poor animals. She stayed very little time in that lab, just enough to confirm her suspicions before going back to central command.
She didn't even wait, just barged into Mustang's office.
"I thought you had outgrown dramatic entrances since you don't have to compensate for your lack of height."
"Hilarious Mustang, but this is important, we need to talk." His face turned serious. "The labs?"
"The labs." he pointed at the chair in front of his desk for her to sit.
"Lab one is doing good, two just needs a bit of focus, but three and four need to be dealt with now."
"How bad is it?"
"Four is still doing chimera experiments."
"What? Those were shut down."
"Well, they haven't, in the reports they say that the lab refocused on healing alchemy and that they experiment in animals first, but that's bullshit. They never refocused just hid it better. Also, lab three is still focusing on using alchemy for battle; they are even trying to recreate your fire alchemy."
Mustang's face turned murderous.
"Thank you, Edaline; I am glad that I gave you this assignment. I had a feeling that something was off. Tomorrow you and I will go to labs 3 and 4; we cleaned house with Bradly's officers, it's time to do the same with the researchers. I'll go and talk with the Fuhrer now and alert him of what we are going to do. You are dismissed, go home, and good work. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow Mustang."