AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I was thinking of trying to write a simple one-shot story before really writing back my original story. So I guess I shall write a one-shot story here. Well, a little bit on if the Pinako Rockbell ever met Scar.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: For those who read the manga of Fullmetal Alchemist, you should know that Scar killed Winry's parents, but in contrast the anime showed that Roy Mustang killed her parents instead. So, now I'm gonna' combine these two and write a simple one-shot story that I had suddenly thought of.
THE VISITOR
The Sun shone brightly on the quiet town of Rizenbul with the abundant greenery surrounding it. The people of the town were going about their daily lifestyles. Only one person wearing a hood over his head was out of place. As he made his way to a certain house, the sight of his flowing brown sack-like clothes caught the attention of many. Children playing in front of him could only see his downward frown with his eyes being concealed by the brown hood.
The man, or rather a boy nearing manhood, was Ishbalan in race. His dark brown skin made him outstanding among the people of the town, who had much fairer skin colors. Ignoring the children who were playing along the great fields in the town, he continued to walk slowly while lifting his head up once in a while to note his direction.
His heart was not of a peaceful one, but that of a troubled one. The Ishbalan visitor had to tell the kin of two murdered people of the homicide, especially the closest next-of-kin who was only a young child as seen in the pictures shown to him before. As he made his way on the brown dirt path, memories began to fill his troubled mind again.
He was reminded of that specially fateful day.
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"Brother…Brother…" He was muttering in his sleep on the bed he lied on. A dream of the day his brother died was tormenting his conscience, and his already fragile mind.
"Are you okay?" He opened his eyes to meet the eyes of a brown-haired woman. Recalling that he was in the hospital of the Rockbell doctors, the Ishbalan blinked a few more times to confirm it. He sat up on the bed, to see that Mrs. Rockbell had been observing him while he was sleeping.
"Sorry, I had another dream of my brother."
"You don't have to be guilty for it," she replied. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she continued to advise him. "What's done has been done. There is no point brooding over the past. Your brother must have already been saved by your god."
"He wasn't saved by Ishbala!" he snapped back sharply. "He has done forbidden alchemy, work of the evil!"
"Alchemy is not that all evil," the female doctor rebutted his words. "I know alchemy does good too. My neighbor has two children who can do alchemy well, and they do help us out by transmuting toys for my daughter."
"Your daughter?"
"Winry Rockbell, my daughter," she continued. "Still awaiting for our return back in Rizenbul…"
"Amestris? The country of the darn alchemists?"
"Yes, Rizenbul is a quiet countryside town far from here," Mrs. Rockbell went on. "But from the likes of the war, we will have to be more busy ever since the state alchemists started using some strange things to amplify their alchemy…"
The Ishbalan clenched his fists tightly, and grinding his teeth too at the mention of the state alchemists. "Unforgivable…unforgivable…they're trying to wipe us all out!" He gave an outburst of anger from within. He felt sudden warmth when Mrs. Rockbell touched his fists.
"Anger and rage will do nothing," she responded back, slowly unrolling the fisted hands and touched his palms gently. "That was what my husband had said. The cycle of violence will always go on, unless you choose to stop it."
The Ishbalan had not felt much care and gentleness for a long time. After all, he did not see his parents from birth, and his brother had neglected him after the death of his sister-in-law in which his brother had performed the forbidden alchemy. He knew that day was then when his inner desires were once awakened having been kept away since the day his brother turned a cold shoulder to him and began on attempting to revive his deceased sister-in-law.
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He had hesitated walking any further towards the home of the Rockbells. The door looked tightly shut and seemed like not a single soul was in it. After all, it seemed impossible for a little child to stay by herself.
In his disturbed state, he looked at his right arm and unrolled the sleeve. It revealed the ungodly tattoo that had been engraved on it. The sight of it along gave him many feelings of disgust and repulse. It was his brother's arm, which served as a memento to him of the terrible Ishbal war and the horrid massacre he had witnessed.
"This…this shall be a sign to my hatred of the Amestris military and the state alchemists…"
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"Ishbalan, you shouldn't be getting up often," the nurse had been advising him who had been at the sink for more than an hour. The Ishbalan was taking the water and running it through the tattoo on his arm. "Please stop. You need to rest to recover."
"I shall not leave here until this filthy heathen is gone!" he shouted back and pushed away the nurse who had tried to pull him away from the sink. He held one arm on the crutch, attempting to keep his balance and went back to wash himself under the sink.
It was not long before a sudden arm pulled his shoulder to turn towards a brown-haired doctor who gave him a tight slap across his brown, tanned cheek. His pupils had dilated to show eyes widened with shock as he fell on the porcelain sink.
"A child already nearing adulthood," the doctor chided the Ishbalan patient. "Acting as an eight-year old when you're already eighteen! Won't it be rude to remove something given to you by fate?"
He leaned by the sink for a long time deep in thought and consideration while Mrs. Rockbell went back on her rounds with the nurse who had previously called her to take control of the earlier situation. It was the first time someone had ever struck him unknowingly.
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The Ishbalan reopened his eyes to see the beautiful scenery of the countryside town. For someone to have a great impact on him like the Rockbell doctors, he gave a slight smile in return.
"If only they didn't killed the doctors…"
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He had been back in the civil war, in the last phase of it where more and more of his people had been massacred. Although advised by the Rockbell couple that he should not rejoin the scene, the Ishbalan was adamant in returning to fight against the Amestris military. He ran in the direction of the doctors' headquarters after hearing of a great military presence there. The Rockbells were probably in jeopardy for saving the lives of Ishbalans, and had to be arrested most likely. Taking a simple rifle, he ran towards the place to see if both the doctors were okay, especially Mrs. Rockbell.
BANG! BANG!
He froze in his steps not far from the headquarters. He had heard double shots being fired inside. His eyes were wide open with much shock as he dropped the rifle he was holding in his arms. Hearing the voices of military personnel, the Ishbalan scurried to a certain corner to hide.
"What do we do about the murder, General?" Came one of the voices of the officers.
"The Rockbells deserved to die," there was a reply back which boiled the Ishbalan's blood. "But we need a scapegoat."
"The Ishbal people, I say?"
"Correct. Which of them should we blame?"
"There is one person with an X scar on his forehead," the certain words made the Ishbalan freeze with shock again. He felt his forehead. There was the slight marking of the X scar on it which could be felt slightly. "He visits the Rockbells so often that he is like a family to them. But we'll make it seems like the Ishbal people are never to be trusted."
"Excellent," came the voice of the General. "Now, Officer Mustang, please lower the gun and leave the area for now. I, General Basque Gran shall return back to the headquarters to report this wonderful event."
The word 'Mustang' and 'Basque Gran' created a great impact in the Ishbalan's memory. These were the two who had claimed the lives of the two doctors, who were close to him like family by now. As soon as the military had left, he ran inside to find a gory scene.
Mr. Rockbell had been shot in the head, with the blood flowing out of the wound. Mrs. Rockbell had been shot in the neck with a pool of blood around her body, and with a picture of their daughter nearby. Apparently, they had held the picture of their daughter before they were shot to death.
He knelt down on the cold hard ground and lowered his head. Drops of tears impacted with the ground. He looked up to see the death scene again, this time with much tears trickling down his usually expressionless face. The Ishbalan formed a worshipping position.
"May you reach the kingdom of Ishbala."
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"What are you doing here, stranger?" He turned to see a short woman with a oval-like bun on her head with thick glasses. He had made himself close to the Rockbell residence and was preparing to knock on the door. "What relations do you have with the Rockbells?"
"I have come to show my gratitude to them," he replied pulling back the hood and revealing a young face of white hair and the infamous X scar with the prominent red eyes. "I'd still be disillusioned if not for them."
"You're that Ishbalan mentioned."
"You can choose to believe if I killed them," he spoke in a stern tone. "I believe that the military is lying."
She took off her glasses and wiped them for a moment. "I don't believe the military," she replied back and wore on her glasses. "But it is not safe for a boy like you to remain here. Just go."
"But…"
"Boy, you have a long future ahead of you," she looked up at him. "If you want to repay us the favor, I would prefer you to just pay your respects to their graves." The old woman was soon behind the house door where the Ishbalan could hear the soft weeping of a young girl.
She is tragic enough to lose both parents in an instance…
The next day, some villagers of Rizenbul came to find that Mrs. Rockbell's grave had been covered with a certain cloak of sack-cloth material. Nobody really know the reason how it had actually came about. Only Granny Pinako Rockbell knew whose cloak did it belong to, however he was already far gone from the place.
For a strange feeling, the Ishbalan visitor felt that it was not the last time he would see Winry Rockbell again, and if Basque Gran would ever die under him. The only thing he knew was that he now had a clear goal in mind; to discover the origin of the tattoo to find out more about it, and to prevent anymore unwanted murders. The Sun continued to shine on the land of Amestris.