Journey to the past
Ch 1
"So what do you want to do?" Ed asked his younger brother Al, his hands clasped behind his head, as they walked through a crowded street in Alesen, a town that they were sent to by Mustang to inspect. Alesen was a pretty, little town that made the brothers feel like they were at home in Resembool. Just outside of town past a cool, clear river was a forest where Ed and Al had spent the night camping.
"I don't know," Al, answered with his slightly echoed voice. "Mustang said this is where a string of robberies had happened recently."
Ed nodded adding "And because the thief has a reward on him we have to work fast. Good thing that no one but the government knows anything about him."
Over by an ally, a crowd had gathered. "Oh looks like a fight," Ed said in glee. "Might make this place a bit more interesting. Excuse me, excuse me, state alchemist coming though," Ed said pushing past the rather tall people compared to his height. As he pushed to the front, he saw two figures fighting.
One that looked tall enough to be 16 or probably 17 was wearing a light brown trench coat with its hood puller up casting a shadow on the figures face. The figure also wore a deep green jacket with a light blue shirt on underneath. He also wore long red pants over a pair of yellow- brown boots and dark brown gloves.
The other wore a wood brown T- shirt with black pants that looked to be in his mid to late 30's The person with the brown shirt looked like that he had had a good beating. The other kept kicking him with roundhouse kicks. Every time the hooded fighter kicked the man, the man distanced himself slightly from where he previously was and with each kick, there was a sound like wood hitting and splintering against a brick wall
"Wow, that guy must have pretty strong legs to make that sound, Ed admitted wide-eyed.
Finally when the man had been knocked down, sprawled out on the dirt street and stayed like that for a while, moaning in pain. The hooded person pulled up the chest of the man and tied him up with a rope that was in the pocket of the trench coat. After he had been tied up good and tight, the hooded person grabbed the rope and pulled him away. The crowd started chattering about what they had just seen.
Ed's eyes gleamed when he got an idea. "We should follow that guy," pointing to the person that was dragging the man down the road kicking up a cloud of dust behind them. They followed the hooded guy to the police station.
"Here you go, chief. Here's Throm," the hooded person said tossing the man at the bottom of the chiefs' desk.
"Nice work Rome. That's your third one this week! But how do you know that this is the thief?" the chief asked the hooded figured suspiciously as if they were working together. Rome bent down, reached in to the man's back pocket, pulled out a huge bundle of cash, and tossed it in front of the chief.
"That answers your question? Take care of it. Now the reward if you don't mind," Rome said already heading for the cash register.
"Do you ever think about anything other than money?" the chief asked counting the money that the reward promised.
"What can I say? Money makes the world go round," Rome said, beginning to count the money just to be sure he received the proper amount.
"If that's what you think," the chief said heading back to his desk and continuing his card game. Rome continued to count the money while leaving the police station. No sooner than he left; he tripped over something or rather someone.
"What the hell was that for?" Ed asked in anger getting up and dusting himself off.
"What?" Rome asked in daze for a second. Then after coming back to reality collected the scattered money in a hurry.
"Why the hell did you trip over me like I was the size of a pebble?!"
Rome looked at him.
"Because you're close enough. But I would call you a small boulder."
"And what you'd call a small boulder?"
"About your size."
"Quit calling me small!"
"I never said anything like that. In case you didn't notice I didn't trip over you because you were small, I had my attention on something else, but now that you mention it," Rome said placing a hand on Ed's head bending down, and smiling "You are kind of cute," Ed couldn't see Rome's eyes because of the shadow that his hood cast to tell if he was making fun of him or if he was sincere . Either way being called cute really pissed Ed off.
"Who you calling cute?!" Ed clapped his hands to form an outer ring of a transmutation circle. A blue light flashed around like lightning, Ed pulled back he right arm with a blade on it. Rome paused for a second and gave a small laugh.
"Ha, so you're an alchemist huh? Well I can't fight you now can I? I'm supposed to be the good guy," Ed narrowed his eyes. Rome looked at the sky and sighed. "Tell you what. At dusk we'll fight near the old oak tree across the river, okay?" Rome walked away stiff legged.
Ed stomach then growled fiercely. Ed clutched his stomach hoping to muffle the sound with a little in pain.
"Guess I should get something to eat before the battle if I have any chance of winning," Ed said with a little laugh and a smile facing his brother. Ed and Al wandered the town for a bit looking for something to eat. There were plenty of restaurants but nothing they could afford on their travel budget. "Why is everything so expensive?" Ed whined. Just then, a smell traveled through the air and passed Edwards nose "Mmmmmm, something smells good," Following the smell to the river on the other side there was a big bowl of steaming noodles. "Food!" Ed said excitedly jumping in to the river and swimming across as fast as he could. When he climbed out on the other side, his golden hair was wet and stuck to his face. When he was just about to dig in Al stopped him.
"Brother wait," He cried.
"What? Can't you see I'm about to eat?"
"Well brother it's about that food-"
"Al I know you can't eat."
"But don't you think it's weird? Freshly cooked noodles in the middle of nowhere?"
"Al, it's food." Ed insisted as he began to eat.
When Ed was done, a voice came from the woods "So I see you like noodles," Noted Rome emerging from the shadows of a tree.
"Ahh! And I see you like shadows...uhh...person from earlier," Ed said after his heart started beating again from the shock.
Rome walked into the light of the setting sun with his hands in his pockets. He looked down at the pool of water that Ed had brought up with him. Then, without warning, Rome shot out one of his hands and out of the sleeve came a bola. The middle of the bola went for Ed's chest. The force of the bola jerked Ed backwards toward a tree and the weights wrapped around the trunk and Ed's chest until he couldn't move his upper body.
"Hey why'd you do that?" Ed shouted in rage as Rome waked over and pulled out a knife from one of his waist pouches. He crouched down awkwardly, the flat end of the blade under Ed's chin lifting it up so he'd be looking him in the eye; if you could see Rome's' eyes.
"Just in case you decide to run away from our fight. It's been awhile since I had a decent opponent."
"So the noodles were a trap?"
"No, I just left to go to the bathroom. But don't look a gift horse in the mouth, they got you here and I can't let my opponent fight me on an empty stomach."
"I-I wasn't that hungry."
"Please, I could hear your stomach growling when I left," Rome said standing up and playing with his knife, tossing it up and down, and twirling it around his fingers.
"So what are you waiting for? Why don't you just kill me?"
"Like I said, it's been a while since I had a fight."
"Let me go and I'll fight you right now," Ed said trying to wiggle loose starting to itch for the fight.
"Brother, wait!" Al yelled. There was a flash of blue light and a land bridged was formed in the blink of an eye. Al ran over to talked to his brother "Brother I just want you to be careful. This person knows you're an alchemist but still thinks he can beat you."
"Bet you he doesn't know I'm a state alchemist." Ed whispered back.
"SHINKGGGggg" Rome's knife flew through the air and stocked itself in the trunk right next to Ed's real arm.
"Hey what are you trying to do kill me?"
"Now that's no way to talk to someone who just set you free," Rome said sounding a bit hurt. The ropes suddenly loosened and fell allowing Ed to stand up. Rome got in to a fighting stance "Ready?"
Ed clapped his hands and pulled back with a blade reflecting the setting sun "Ready," and with that, they both stated running towards each other.
Ed tried a swing but Rome reached back and planted his hands on the ground kicking the blade away and throwing Ed off balance. Rome pulled his legs over his head and stood up "Nice try," Rome started running towards Ed ready to throw a punch with his right arm but Ed dogged it. Rome spun around with the wind up. planning to hit Ed with his for arm but Ed has a similar plan, both of their for arms hit pushing agents each other. They pushed harder and harder determined not to let the other one win.
"When are you going to give up? A regular guy has no chanced agents an alchemist." Ed said though gridded teeth. Rome suddenly knelt to the ground, stuck out a leg and spun around knocking Eds' legs out from under him. Ed caught himself and stood strait up again. Rome throw a very choppy punch with his left arm that Ed could easily avoid. He took a mere step to the side. Rome didn't expect this, he quickly tried to kick Eds feet from under him, but by now Ed already knew his main fighting moves. Rome tried to do some round housing. Ed ducked being so small.
"Good thing you're so small, that kick could have knocked off your head if you were normal size," Rome teased. Now Edward was fuming.
"THAT IS IT!" Ed yelled with anger he charged toward Rome his blade behind him planning to hit possibly even brake one of his legs. Edward hit one of legs hard with the back of his blade there was a loud 'snap' and Rome's' leg went flying through the air. With wide eyes, Ed stopped and started to panic. "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to cut off your leg... uh where's the blood?" Ed asked, calming down once he saw no blood.
"It's fine, it's fine," Rome said lowering himself to the ground and army crawled toward the shadows where his leg had landed. While the movement of his right arm was normal, the movement of his left arm had a very choppy motion and always jolted Rome's body forward with each drag. Rome finally reached his leg , he pushed his body up, careful examined his leg. He scrunched up his pant led to reveal a broken oak leg.
"Uh nice leg. Here let me help you," Ed offered starting to walk over to Rome lining up his broken leg with what was attached to his body.
"I told you I'm fine I can take care of myself," Rome snapped as he finished positioning his leg and tying it up with a white cloth. Ed noticed how choppy the left arm was moving and knew something was wrong with it.
"What's wrong with your arm?" Ed asked with concern.
"It's been like this for a while."
"From this afternoon when you tripped over me?"
"No like since I was 8," Rome said trying to push himself up but his left arm wouldn't allow it and when he did manage to stand, his damaged leg collapsed with in the first step. "Stupid arm and leg," he mumbled to the grown.
Ed's eye caught something reflecting the last light of the sun between Rome's left coat sleeve and his glove. He grabbed Rome's left arm.
"Hey let go!" Rome demanded using choppy but vigorous motions trying to loosen Ed's grip, but to no avail. Ed carefully pulled down Rome's sleeve to revile a ridiculously cheap atomail arm. The atomail arm had two thin rods to that made the arm; the wrist was a cylinder on its side. He then took off Rome's leather glove showing a hand with a square piece of metal for a palm and only three fingers. Thinking he pulled off two of his fingers, he tried to retrieve them from his glove only to find that they did not exist. Rome had cleverly stuffed his pinkie, and middle finger of his glove with scraps of this and that to give the appearance of having all five fingers. On the three existing fingers, the knuckles were like hinges and the tips of the fingers were like claws.
Rome finally got his hand back and looked down shamefully "In case you're wondering; yes my other leg is wood too. Happy?" Rome asked sarcastically.
"Mind me asking how did this happen?" Al asked.
"Not everyone is born perfect you know!" Rome said sharply "I never had them."
Al looked at Ed who nodded "We're not like everybody else either." Al told him.
"Yeah, I know everybody's unique in their own ways and you're both alchemist." Rome agreed standing up and calming down.
"No I mean we have something that makes us really… unique," Al finished taking off his helmet and bending down so Rome could see that the armor was empty.
"AAAHHHHhhhh y-y-you're empty, completely empty," Rome said scooting back a bit shocked.
"Yep, my brother here is completely empty," Ed, said knocking Al's chest letting out a long deep gong-like sound to prove it. "I on the other hand have atomail like you," Ed stated, pulling off his black jacket and pulling up is left pant leg revealing is own atomail.
"So you two are brothers?" Rome asked
"Yeah, what else did you think we were?"
"Well to be honest I thought you were from some noble family and your brother was your body guard. That's why I thought you were a worthy opponent, but that could answer why your body guard was allowing me to fight you."
"We'll now that you know we're brothers maybe you've heard of us; the Elric brothers."
"You two!? Where's my money!?" Rome yelled at them.
"What?" Asked the brothers in union.
"Last time we met you stole my money. When I caught you, you said that you would pay me double next time we met. So pay up!" Rome demanded his palm opened. The brothers stared at his hand blankly
"Come on, pay up," he said again pulling his fingers back and forth asking for the money.
"Uhh we don't owe you anything; we never met." Al said calmly.
"Don't try to worm your way out of it again, Edward and Alphons Elric."
"We've never even met you until today!" Ed insisted.
"Well you just asked me to remember you two," Rome, pointed out.
"We'll that's not us, someone was stealing our names!"
"How do I know that you're not just saying that to get off the hook?"
"Do we even look like the guys who robbed you?" Ed said presenting himself arms stretched wide.
Rome eyed him very closely from the toes of his black leather boots to the top of his gold cowlick." We'll, now that you mention it your eyes seem to have changed from silver to gold, your hair seems to have gotten a little darker and you've somehow gotten shorter."
"WHO YOU CALLING SHORT?!" Ed yelled in fury kicking and throwing aimless punches as Al held him back" I'LL BREAK YOUR OTHER LEG AND THROW THEM IN THE RIVER, THEN WE'LL SEE WHO'S SHORT!"
"Hey no need to get mad, I call them as I see them. As for your brother he's grown massively and got that suit of armed ...and lost his body. Wait...he lost his body so I don't know his exact size, so I can't really tell if he's changed or not..." Rome babbled on about this for a while pulling his glove back on and started to draw in thin air.
"Uhhh Al, I'd like to feel the ground now please," Ed, stated wiggling his feet that dangled about a foot of the ground.
"Oh, sorry brother," Al said placing his older brother gently on the ground.
"...Then again it's been a year he could have- uh my head hurts," Rome finally stopped with a price of a massive headache and yawned. "It's getting pretty late. Ah well nice to meet you guys, whoever you are." He waved behind him as he was about to go in to the shadow of the woods.
"What! What's your name?" Al asked.
"I'm Rome..." There was a pause, "...a."
"Is there a last name that goes with that?" Ed asked trying to get him to go on.
"I can't remember to be honest. No one's ever asked for my last name in the last few years. Anyway bye," Rome began to leave again but fell. "DAMN IT!"
"Hey Rome maybe as an apology for cutting your leg off and my curiosity with your arm pushing you out of your comfort zone and a thank you for the food how bout I take you to my friend Winry? I bet she could fit you with great automail."
"That be swell, if I could afford it," Rome finished sarcastically "Do you wonder why I catch all these mobsters and crooks? It's so I can pay for food, I barely get by."
"Rome, we alchemist live by a rule of equivalent exchanges for example your wooden leg is all here just broken. Now if I use alchemy,"
Ed clasped his hands together and placed them on Rome's broken leg; there was a flash of blue light. Rome untied the cloth. His leg was as good as new! "See? But if I tried to take pure lead and turn that in to pure gold I'd have to give up something. So I'll pay for the atomail. A limb for each thing. Pack up your pajamas and toothbrush, we're going to Resembool. Oh and we might want to tell your parents that you'll be gone for a bit, where are they?"
"If I only knew," Rome said getting up and walking by them back into the forest pulling his knife out from the tree trunk ."Thanks for the offer but I refuse. If I need better atomail I'll get it myself." Rome finished completely disappearing into the shadows of the trees.
"Wow, now that's what I call stubborn," Ed, said scratching his head trying to figure Rome out.
"Well you're not the easiest going person I know either brother," Al said looking down on his older brother.
"Uh-huh," Ed somewhat agreed stretching and looking up at the rising sliver of moon "Come on Al, thanks to Rome our work her is done. We're caching the first train out of town tomorrow better get to bed. Let's head back to the camp site.
A few minutes later the brother were gazing in to a blazing fire.
"Brother?"
"What?"
"I feel like something is watching us."
"Al we are in a forest it's probably a bird or something. Now go to sleep,"Ed laid down and closed his eyes.
"Ok. Good night brother."
"Night."
If they only stayed up longer they would of seen a pair of eyes reflecting the light of the fire in up in the trees.