Cologne, Germany; early 1930s

Two young men got off the train and strolled along the platform to stretch their legs. They were brothers, properly Aryan-looking and in their late twenties. As they walked, the younger one did most of the talking. It was his voice that caught Germany's attention-that, and the red coat he wore against the morning chill.

He'd seen them board the train in Berlin, just after he had. It was strange these days to see young men traveling alone; the Fuhrer's policies ensured that every man could find a job in his own hometown, so there was no need to travel.

He motioned to his security detail to wait, and approached the brothers.

"Guten morgen," the younger said. The elder glanced at Germany suspiciously, then echoed the greeting.

Germany made an inoffensive comment on the ride and the weather, and the younger brother replied politely. They chatted and walked, and soon Germany found himself able to ask what they were doing traveling west alone. The younger brother opened his mouth to answer.

"Al!" the elder brother snapped, interrupting him, and looked Germany in the eye for the first time. His gold eyes heightened Germany's sense that something about these boys was not right. "We're on a quest," the older brother said. "We're looking for something important that we lost a long time ago."

Silence. Germany searched for something to say. "I'm on a quest too," he began finally. "My boss has sent me to find...weapons that will make him stronger." He was in uniform; the young men would have no doubt who his "boss" was, albeit for entirely the wrong reasons.

"We're looking for a weapon," the younger brother said, shaking off the elder's attempt to stop him. "Our father invented it, and it was stolen from him. He died before we could get it back."

"How do you know it still exists?" Now Germany was curious. This could be better than the Ark of the Covenant.

The older brother spoke again. "If it had been destroyed, you'd know. Believe me. We want to be sure no one uses it."

They were pacifists, then. A strange thing to find in this country, and not entirely patriotic. But their strangeness only convinced Germany that they were serious.

"I would also know if it were in Germany," he said. "You had better keep moving. War is coming, and someone may use your weapon before you find it."

The train's whistle blew, and Germany and his security officers boarded. The young men got in a different car. He wondered who they were and where they'd come from, and secretly hoped they would find what they were looking for.

The search for the Ark, and for the Holy Grail, turned out to be futile. Everywhere he looked, Americans seemed to have been there first. Then the war began, and Germany no longer had time to chase dreams.

He tried, sometimes, to distract himself from the horrors around him by recalling pleasant memories from before the war. Sometimes he told them to Italy, who smiled broadly and nodded, half-asleep and not really listening. One day he told Italy about the brothers on the train, and Italy sat up. "I remember them," he said.

"You've seen them?"

"Yes, ve~a man with gold eyes, and hair that sticks up like Mister America's, and a man in a red coat. I met them."

"Did you talk to them?" Germany asked, his heart beating faster at the thought.

"Ve~they said their name was Elric, and they were looking for something that was stolen from them. Maybe it was a weapon? Does it matter?"

1945

Then one day the war was over, and it mattered more than anything. Germany, defeated and convalescing, heard the news despite the nurses' attempts to keep things quiet.

The Americans had dropped two bombs on Japan. New weapons, more powerful than anything that had ever been used in a war. Something told him that this was what the Elric brothers had been looking for.

So they hadn't found it in time. He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if they did. But there was no point in dwelling on it; there were more important things going on. Like recovery. America had all kinds of bold ideas about it. With him in charge—Germany sighed—the world would never be the same.