A/N: Welcome to my revamp [of DOOM! of Across the Void! Yesh..
... as before:
Anyway, Across the Void- This is generally something crazy I thought up at school and put into words. I haven't any idea where it is going, so... meh. I hope you like it, anyway :D
Parings: AlxOCSelene, EdxWin, RoyxRiza
Warnings: Slight spoilers for Conqueror of Shambala. Sumimasen!
Across the Void- Chapter 1
"We are now entering the airspace above Munich, Germany," the pilot announced through a crackle of static. "Strap yourselves in." The small jet shuddered in the turbulence and the creak of steel below indicated the beginnings of landing procedures.
"We'll be on the ground and facing customs in an hour," Sky, one of my best friends told me, referring to a small computer screen that displayed the flight plan, route and estimated arrival time. Stowing the delicate piece of equipment under the arm of the chair, she turned her attention back to a sketch the girl was presently fixing.
Katy, another of my best friends, snored from her seat in the front row. As the cabin was small, with only eight or so seats, we could afford to spread out and we were arranged so that we each had a column of seats each. I reached forward and shook the red-haired girl awake, then retrieved my hand before she could maul it.
Katy opened her eyes, dulled grey from electric blue by boredom and travel sickness.
"Merf," she said. "We still on this goddamned plane?"
"Nufin' wrong with my plane," Sky retorted. "Put your seatbelt on, woman, and go back to sleep."
Katy obliged and muttered, "Dunno why you even brought me along. I don't remember Germany-"
"So you've told us dozens of times," I butted in.
"-and I'd be a-"
"-'useless guide'. We know," Sky finished and smirked at the glare Katy directed at her. "Besides, I just had to bring you along, Katy, my dear-"
"Don't you mean dragging me away from my library kicking and screaming?"
"Pfft," Sky replied. "You call that mountain of manga you have a library? Please, Katy." I didn't bother pointing out that Sky had overlooked the 'kicking and screaming' part.
"Nufin' wrong with my library!" Katy told Sky.
"Besides," Sky began, cutting off all retorts. "It wouldn't be a birthday without you, dearest. And I also can't count on Selene getting us through customs safely. Her Japanese is perfect, but she can't speak German."
"I can too!" I yelped, indignant. "I can say... good morning and goodbye!"
"Go on, then!" Katy challenged.
"Uh..." The damn words. They just didn't come.
"Exactly!" Sky crowed, triumphant.
"Well, my Mandarin Chinese is better than either of you," I huffed.
Sky shrugged. "So? Katy can speak German. We're going to Germany. I'll bet you won't be having any Chinese conversations here!"
"Baka," I muttered at her.
"I can understand that, you know." Sky didn't look up from her drawing. The entire circle was around about half a metre in diameter and the intricate patterns on the outer ring looked to be runes of some description. Each quadrant of the circle was perfectly symmetrical, the runes the exact size all the way around it. Looking at it now, it was a wonder how short a time it took Sky to craft it from scratch on some drafting paper.
"Hey... what is that supposed to be, exactly, anyway?"
"It's a transmutation circle."
"Which is... what, exactly?"
"I dunno. I saw it on television. Something to do with alchemy."
"Alchemy? You mean... like in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone? Nicholas Flamel? That Swiss guy... Hohenheim something or other?"
"Yeah... that."
"What's it do?"
"I dunno! I just want to draw the damn thing 'cause it looked cool."
"Ouch. No need to bite my head off. Yeesh."
"Sorry, Selene. All this flying is getting to me."
"I can tell." Selene is me, by the way. Selene Yusheng. Born and raised to the old age of ten in China, then forced to move to Australia where I lived the rest of my life (another eleven years) being educated by people who did not speak my native tongue. High school, which was a strange and rather creepy experience for me, was where I met Sky, the orphan daughter of two rich and, frankly, dead Japanese merchants and Katy, an English bookworm with a talent of learning and basically memorising three more languages in less than five years. She was now perfectly fluent in English, German, French and Japanese.
Sky was in charge of this escapade; her parents had left her a private jet, and she decided that she might as well use it. So in the space of a week, she had booked in a bunch of hotels all across Germany, explaining that she'd always wanted to go there, readied her private jet and given Katy a call in England so she could say goodbye to her extensive collection of manga and anime. She'd also dragged me along, saying that my early birthday present from her would be a visit to as many museums as I liked.
Here we were now, dead tired after a twenty four hour trip to England to pick up Katy, and then another four hour flight to Munich, from London. And as luck would have it, we'd been scheduled to land around the time a huge and random storm was due to hit.
A purple flash of lightning illuminated the cabin and Katy's head popped up over the seat, looking down onto Sky's drawing with interest.
"Transmutation circle... I've heard of them before. I've got a manga at home that I haven't read yet, with those in them. Something to do with metal and alchemy, if I remember correctly..."
Sky glanced up at her. "You happen to know how they work?"
"I've seen pictures. Touch your hands to them and they change the form of whatever you're trying to transmute. They channel energy."
"Though... that one looks more complicated than the ones I've seen. Maybe it does something different?"
"Maybe it can turn people into ferrets," I joked.
"Nah. You'd need something of equal value or some such random thing. Anyway, alchemy of the flesh is taboo. I think. Something like that. I can't remember, I've only read a few pages."
"I'll try it then!" I leant forward and touched my hands to the edges of the circle. Then I took them away and waved them in Katy's face. "Abracadabra, I turn you into a... penguin!"
Nothing happened.
"Well damn," I sighed, slumping back into the chair. "Didn't work."
Sky quirked an eyebrow at me. "Strange, that."
A surge of turbulence hit the plane, making it roll jerkily to the side. I clutched at the side of my seat, grumbling, and peered out the window.
"Uh... Selene?"
"What?" I asked, turning back to look at Sky. The 'transmutation' circle spread out in front of her was blue, glowing steadily brighter. "What the Hell?!"
"I think you activated it..."
"Well, that's a new development," Katy said, forever observant. A second surge of turbulence -or was it something worse?- hit us again and the plane was jolted upwards. The lights promptly went out.
"Um... now what?"
A flash of violent purple lightning shot past, residue sparks licking the underside of the plane. A shock travelled through the air and the plane turned into a steep dive.
Pressure built up, pushing down on us, making my nose bleed and Sky shriek in pain.
White light shone bright and then there was nothing. I heard a door creak open and I blacked out.
The search for the Philosopher's Stone, and then his brother was finally over. Alphonse Elric was content with spending his time eating, sleeping, alchemising things that needed fixing and ducking wrenches. And maybe deciding whether to try the State Alchemy Exam next year... He still wanted to fix his brother's body, after all.
But for now, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the world was good. The silence, only occasionally broken by a ticked off Winry chasing Ed around with a wrench, was blissful. And under his favourite willow tree where only the breeze disturbed the swaying branches, and where he had a perfect view of his surroundings and the river, was where Al was happy to sit until lunch was called.
It had been only a short while since both Ed and Al had returned to their home-world. In short, Earth had rejected them, like a living body would a foreign object like a thorn and the Gate had been forced to send them back.
The brothers had been 'ejected' into Central, and more precisely, into the military H.Q. during a formal assembly. Okay, so it wasn't really an assembly, it was a celebration held to honour the country's newly elected President, Roy Mustang.
Edward had landed directly on his former boss, scaring the whole gathering into a chaotic form of retaliation towards the 'attack'. Eventually, everyone had calmed down and realised that the 'assassin' was actually just the former Fullmetal Alchemist who was also supposed to be dead. Then of course, Gate had spat out a taller and older Alphonse -who apparently was also supposedly dead- who was wondering what in the world (or two worlds, really) had happened.
A tearful reunion ensued. Which involved Roy having his nose broken for not keeping a hold on Al during the battle against the Germans -the little brother had to be kept safe at all costs, after all- and letting him go through the Gate after his big brother. Riza Hawkeye decided having a few rounds shot at Ed would make him shut up. Al then tackled his brother to the ground for being 'overprotective and selfish'.
Afterwards, while the brothers and Roy were having their aches, pains and bruises tended to, Ed reclined in his hospital chair and declared, "It's good to be back."
Al couldn't have agreed more.
Admittedly, Ed's view of life changed dramatically the very next day when Winry turned up and beat him to a bloody pulp for not only leaving her behind, but taking Al with him. Al then got a couple of dents and bruises when his friend turned on him and beat him up for going along with his 'stupid, arrogant jerk of a brother'. She then dragged the brothers all the way back to Risembool by the backs of their coats -which Roy had told them looked funny- and told them to stay put for at least a year before even thinking of rejoining the military.
Winry always had seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do with life. At any rate, he was still only seventeen (though his mind told him he was twenty one) and wanted to slack off for a while before doing anything.
This brought him back to reality. Sitting under trees was exactly what he wanted to do right now.
"What'd I do this time?!" The shout was forced, like it's owner was running.
"Ed!" The second voice, Winry's, was exasperated. "I told you, you didn't pack up your goddamn theories! I fell down the stairs after I tripped over one of your books!"
"Sorry!" Both Ed and Winry ran into view, Winry hot the heels of Al's brother.
"That isn't good enough," the mechanic hollered. "You have an appointment with my wrench, you short alchemy freak!"
"I'm taller than you, machine junkie!"
Not answering, Winry pelted her wrench at Ed. It hit the alchemist dead-on, making him drop like a stone in a river. Al didn't fail to see the irony in it all; Ed had bought that wrench for her nearly seven years ago. Seven years of Ed-bashings with that one tool.
Satisfied her friend wasn't going to get up without help, Winry slowed to a halt and picked up her trusty wrench. Standing up, her pretty blue eyes sought out the younger brother. He waved to catch her attention.
"Lunch in five minutes," she yelled up the short rise. Al called back his thanks and pulled himself to his feet using a low-hanging branch. Time to go help his brother up.
It was truly a wonder Ed didn't have brain damage. The poor guy was hit at least twice a day with some sort of metal object, generally either a wrench, a handful of nuts and bolts, a screwdriver or -on the odd occasions he had his automail limbs detached- with a solid metal arm or leg. Maybe Ed was lucky and the projectiles always missed anything vitally important to his mental state. Or maybe he just had an incredibly thick skull.
Either way, Ed was always in a sorry state when Al decided that he'd suffered enough and helped him stand and walk. This time, however, Ed was amazingly muddled; weaving on his feet, muttering strings of incoherent techno-babble and blinking like a thunderstricken deer.
"Al? Zat you?"
"Yes, brother, I'm here."
"Good. You hear that... that weird sound, right?"
This confused Al. He couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary.
"I think you're hearing things, Ed." He couldn't help but think that Winry had hit something important with her wrench. Ed proved this when he immediately sat down again, pulling Al down with him.
"Earthquake..." Ed muttered.
"Broth-" A shock jolted the ground, shaking it like a killer whale with its prey. Okay, so maybe Winry's hit had given Ed psychic powers. That was new. He'd have to document it when they got inside.
Ed jumped to his feet, again surprising his little brother. "Al, quick, the Gate, it's openi-"
A purple dashed with fiery red whirlpool formed in the sky, spinning into a vortex. Al's eyes widened; it was exactly like what he'd seen in Lior, rewind four years.
A craft, sleek and silver, like one of the rocket's of the other Al's design, shot through the vortex towards the ground, a wing on fire. The small rocket -hadn't Ed called something like that a 'plane'?- disappeared below the tree line only a few hundred metres away.
The resulting explosion and fireball from the crash echoed. Without so much as a whisper, the vortex closed itself up.
"C'mon, Al, we gotta see what it is!" Ed yelled, taking off in the direction of the forest. He realised he didn't really have a choice and followed.