Wow..."I'll Take Care of Him, Mother" got so much response, even a request for a sequel! Wow, never expected that, especially since I was just writing the story to vent. Heh, maybe that was why it was liked though, since the emotions were real. Well, rest assured, I was venting while writing this one too, so the emotions are almost the same, heh. I hope that you like it, and thanks for the support!
Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist. I know that this disclaimer isn't creative, but I don't feel like doing creative disclaimers for this series of stories. I'll save that for my other fics that are less personal.
There is so much that I want to see,
But without you, I am not me.
I go down onto my knee,
And cry out for you to set me free.
August 15, 1915 - Dear Mom,
I know that I wasn't planning on writing until I found Brother again, but somehow, I just can't resist the urge to talk with you and tell you what's going on. I'm sorry...I really wanted the next time I wrote you to be a joyous reuniting with my brother, but I guess that our plans don't always work out the way one expects them to.
Anyway, I've been relearning alchemy, since I can't remember those four years we travelled together after we made that mistake we did. I think that relearning alchemy might help me connect with him somehow. I'm not completely sure why I think that...but I do have this feeling that it'll work out somehow. I know he's still alive.
A lot of my friends keep trying to tell me to give up my search and just accept the fact that Brother's gone, but I know he's not gone. I keep having dreams of him, though he looks much taller than I remember him, and he keeps hanging out with an older version of myself. I'm not quite sure what those dreams mean, except that I think he's calling out for me somehow. Have you ever heard of a phenomenon called sibling telepathy? I think Brother and I have it.
In a world beyond our world I see
That you are calling out to me,
Hoping that I'll also see
That you also want to be set free.
January 7, 1916 - Dear Mom,
It seems like every time I write to you lately, I'm only bringing you bad news. I'm so sorry. I don't want to make you start to regret hearing from me. Do you see what's happening in our lives before I specifically tell you? Either way, I'm sorry that I seem to be the bearer of such bad news all the time.
My teacher was getting very ill recently, more than usual, so she told me that she had nothing more to teach me, and sent me away. I learned that shortly afterward, she died. I wish that she had told me. I wish I'd had a little time to prepare for it. She was sort of like a second mother to me, in a way. I mean, of course, it's not like I needed a second mother, since you were the only mother I'd ever need, but she was quite motherly to both my brother and myself, though she was a bit rough at times. I'm going to miss her in any case. Have you perchance met up with her yet? Do you even get the chance to see lost loved ones after you die? I hope so, I seriously hope so. I know for sure that a human being has a soul. Other than that, I'm not totally sure.
Is there a way for me to ever be
Happy when you're away from me,
Or must I find a way to flee
My emotions for all eternity?
October 21, 1916 - Dear Mom,
I had the weirdest experience. Over the past few months, I've discovered that I seem to have the ability to take a piece of my soul and put it in an inanimate object in order to manipulate it. It seems that my soul is easily detachable. It's a good thing that I know alchemy, or I'd probably be having spontaneous astral projections because of that. At least it's a useful skill to have.
Anyway, a whole mob of armors appeared in Lior City one day out of nowhere, and they were attacking the villagers. Since I seemed to be the only one around that knew how to help out at all, I started using my soul transference technique to make the armors fight against each other, as well as a number of other things, whatever I could think of.
Suddenly, a vortex of some sort opened up and sucked all the armors back through it. I tried clinging to one of them in order to go through the vortex to find what was on the other side, but Rose grabbed me and pulled me off. I was really disappointed. I somehow felt...maybe even knew...that there was some sort of connection between that vortex and my brother. I guess that it must be that sibling telepathy thing again...but somehow, I just knew.
As it turned out, a large part of my soul had remained in one of the armors, and when I got back home and laid down, I somehow accidentally projected my consciousness to it. Strangely enough, that happened to be right where Brother was! I knew he was alive! Now I finally have some more evidence to base my quest on than just the dreams I have. This has renewed the energy I was starting to lose due to my fruitless efforts. I now know where Brother is, and I know how to get him back. Don't worry, Mother, I'll bring him home soon. It won't be long now.
What is the price that you would pay for me?
What would you pay to see me set free?
No price is too high in your love towards me,
And I feel the same for you, multiplied by three.
November 8, 1916...I mean, 1923 - Dear Mom,
Time is a strange thing, isn't it? Does it even exist? Sometimes it doesn't even seem to follow it's own laws. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up.
I had finally figured out how to get Brother back. He was on the other side of the Gate, and was stuck there because of the lack of ability to perform alchemy there. So, when I found out, I set out to find a way to open the Gate. For some reason, Wrath jumped in and offered to show me a place that would help me, in some way.
I didn't know where he was taking me, but I followed him anyway. It seems he led me to some underground city. It had a huge transmutation circle mapped through it, just like how Lior had been destroyed. It was terrible.
I quickly formulated the circle I would need to use to open a permanent Gate, and transmuted it onto the ground. Strangely enough though, I couldn't seem to activate it. Something was missing. It was right then that I had a memory flash about my own encounter with the Gate. I remembered that if I were to open the Gate, I'd have to transmute myself. I wanted Brother back so badly, I was willing to do it, and I was about to.
We were interrupted, however, by the intrusion of Gluttony, a very hungry homunculus who had apparently let his gluttony consume him until he was so badly distorted that he was beyond recognition. It kind of made me wonder if that's what happens to a human being who lets sin consume them. Does it distort them so badly that they are beyond recognition? Do they lose their own identity, and just run like a robot...like a monster?
Gluttony seemed to have no mind whatsoever, unlike Wrath, and it wasn't long before Gluttony had apprehended Wrath, right over the transmutation circle. Wrath looked up to me and begged me to transmute them into the Gate, telling me that they'd be the sacrifice that was necessary to open it. Apparently, that was why Wrath had come in the first place.
I didn't want to do it. The idea of killing someone else, even a homunculus, was a very difficult idea for me to deal with. However, Gluttony had bitten Wrath so hard that it was obvious Wrath was dying, and he wanted to see his mother, my teacher, again. I also couldn't, in good conscience, allow Gluttony to roam the streets, and potentially kill a lot of innocent people. No, this was one time that I would have to go with logic, rather than my intuition.
Finally, after a short waiting period, the Gate opened. I was thrown back by the shock to see these large, flying machines come out of the portal. What were the called...rockets? I think I'd found some information on something called a "rocket" at a library once, but it was only about a toy that could fly. I never would have guessed that they could actually make them this big, or this reliable.
Surprisingly, one of the rockets was actually being piloted by my brother! Apparently, he had come home after all, once I had opened the Gate, but he didn't seem like he had come willingly. I hadn't stopped to think of the consequences of my actions before opening that permanent Gate. People were starting to suffer because of my foolishness. Why does it seem like whenever I use the left side of my brain, the side that deals with logic, I get in trouble? Must I always depend on the uncertainty of intuition to stay out of it? One thing was for sure though...I had been responsible for this whole mess, so I had to help put a stop to it.
You see, apparently someone in that other world had decided to wage war against this one. I still don't know what they had against us. I guess they were afraid, though that's a pathetic reason to go to war. All the same, Brother and I had to go to work to stop her from causing too much damage. To make a long story short, we stopped her, but then Brother got the idea that he needed to take them back through the Gate, and go with them so that he could shut down the permanent Gate. If only I hadn't made that Gate permanent, I wouldn't have been dealing with this now.
I didn't know what to do, and Brother wasn't responding to my cries, so at the last minute, I jumped over to where he was, and hid in a suit of armor so that he wouldn't find me until we had returned through the Gate.
Once we had landed, I popped right out of the armor, completely startling Brother. He had thought that I'd transferred my soul again. I suppose that I can't blame him for thinking that. It made the most logical sense, but I think I'm going to have to abandon logic from now on. It seems to get me into trouble. It gets Brother in trouble too, but he leans on logic like a crutch. I suppose I'll have to be illogical for the both of us in order for us to survive.
Anyway, it turns out that I didn't exactly get him to return home, but we're together again. I suppose that that's one good thing, but I feel bad about leaving Winry behind without warning. I suppose that I had acted a bit impulsively back there, but following him seemed the most logical thing to do at the time. Again, logic is getting me in trouble. Sigh. I wonder if we'll ever see her again? I hope so, I really hope so.
My memories finally returned once I got to this side of the Gate, though some of them are still a bit foggy. They're slowly coming back, but I get a bit impatient at times. It's kind of annoying to not remember something that Brother is talking about, and have him have to remind me about it. I suppose it'll all come back in due time though. Also, without alchemy, I seem to have gotten into the habit of spontaneous astral projections. It's a bit annoying, actually. I'm going to have to learn how to balance myself now that I don't have alchemy to control it, unless I can actually learn how to perform alchemy on this side of the Gate. True, logic says that I can't, but I've abandoned logic by now, as it gets me into too much trouble.
So, Mom, I'll do my best from now on to keep my promise to you about taking care of Brother. We're together again now, so I'll try to keep him out of trouble. I hope you're happy, I really want you to be. I want you to be proud of us. I hope that we've done at least one thing to make you proud, in spite of our mistakes. I really, really hope so.
Oh, I've got to get going now. Brother is calling me to come and help him with some sort of project he's working on. I'm still not totally sure what it is he's doing, but I'll keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. I'll write to you soon, okay? I love you, Mom, and I miss you. I hope that I can find a way to talk with you sometime. Byebye!
Hope that you enjoyed that. Feel free to comment and give me some feedback, especially if you'd like me to create yet ANOTHER one. ((Yes, believe it or not, even though FMA doesn't continue past the movie, I can. I can continue creating Al's journal of what happened after the movie if you'd like, but you'll have to ask, heh.)) Anyway, take care, and hope to see you all around again soon.