Allow me to present 'Science of the Devil', re-uploaded with spelling corrections~! Enjoy~!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of FMA, all rights belong to their respective owners, nor am I making any profit off this fic.


Chapter One:
Days of Apathy

"Gwaaaaahhhhhh!"

"Brother?"

"A-Alphonse...! Hurry!"

There was a flash of light and a tremer filled the apartment, knocking ornaments from the tables , books off their shelves and cracking a nearby window as foggy beads of rain water slid obliviously down the glass.

"Brother, wha-" The boy stopped himself as he caught his breath after running up the stairs, "Don't yell like that! I thought..."

The blonde haired boy who had called him, didn't turn around. He sat, crosslegged on the floor, a gray shirt that exposed his metallic, automail right arm and a brown pair of trousers rolled up to show his left automail leg. The boy's long yellow hair was pulled back in a ponytail, away from his face which had grown pale from the sight directly in front of him on the floor.

"Hey, are you listening?"

"Alphonse, look at this," The blonde boy spoke quietly, motioning Alphonse over. Alphonse leaned carefully over his older brothers' shoulder and gasped,

"Is that what I think it is?" The blonde boy nodded in response. "Ed, you're a genius!" At this, Edward turned to look up at his little brother,

"Yeah, Al, I think we'll be all right now."

Alphonse's smile couldn't be bigger - he looked much older now than Edward last remembered him. His golden blonde almost light brown hair had grown out and not unlike Ed, had it tied back in a ponytail. He wore a simular pair of trouser pants, with a white long sleeved shirt with this sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Alphonse's innocent brown eyes glanced over Edward's mischevious ones, "Brother, how did you do that?"

Edward leaned back on his hands, still crosslegged on the floor, "I dunno..." The flower vase had been a gift from Grace, the flower woman who worked down the street, and it had come to its demise when Al had bumped it from the end table, shattering the little red painted poreclien vase into tiny fragments. Now, there were two things wrong with that last sentence; first, Grace had the identical appearance of another woman both Ed and Al knew - a kind and loving mother and wife named Grecia who as absurd as it may seem - lived in an alternate reality where Ed and Al had been born and raised. Secondly, the vase which had previously been shattered into a hundred pieces, sat perfectly reconstructed after the flash of light subsided. Alchemy. The of art of science developed, taught and used in the parallel reality but a forbidden and unheard of within the reality in which Ed and Al lived now. Which lead to the next question; how was it possible that Edward was able to fix a broken vase with Alchemy in a world where it was impossible? Both boys picked up on this immediately and starred at each other in awe.

A smirk cracked across Edwards face, "Hey, Al?"

Alphonse sat down beside him, "Yes, brother?" Alphonse carefully picked up the vase as if fearing it to fall apart at any moment. Edward turned to him, his smirk growing wider: ear to ear,

"Do you realize what we can do now? All this time without Alchemy we struggled, but now we can finally get by a little better! I'll get a job to support us and we'll be able to tie loose ends, pay the rent and we'll be able to afford to buy you some new books, Al. Isn't that great?"

Alphonse laughed, "Brother, this is great!" Edward joined in the laughter, clutching at his chest but a great cough racked through his body. Alphonse sat up, alarmed but was dismissed when Ed wiped his mouth with the back of his gloved hand and waved off the fact that lately his cough had grown worse. With an almost sad look in his eyes, Al stood up and went back to the kitchen downstairs where he had left the hardened bread and goat's cheese unattended on the counter. "Supper will be soon so please wash up, brother, and come down when it's done."

Edward watched his little brother trudge slowly down the stairs, and was reminded of his own foolishness as his cold automail leg stiffened. He sneered at his metal kneecap, "Damn weather..." The rain pattered against the chipped window as if mocking his words. A short flash of light lit the dark rolling clouds. For a second Ed was reminded of the brilliant flashes of light that Alchemy produced, but soon after a low rumble of thunder followed. He sighed. This storm was just beginning.

"Brother, your cough is getting even worse," Alphonse fretted, stacking up papers on the kitchen table, "Do you want me to get you some medicine at the store while I'm out?"

Edward chewed on the piece of buttered toast Al had set out for him, "Don't bother. I'll be fine soon anyways." He looked up as Al sat down across the small wooden table, a frown creasing along his mouth. Alphonse was never good at being upset, it just wasn't what he was used to doing. "Don't look at me like that!"

Alphonse redirected his eyes to the kitchen window where the rain dripped from the gutters above, "Well I'm getting it anyways." He muttered, picking up a glass of orange juice. Edward silently rolled his eyes. Alphonse sipped his orange juice in silence and Edward picked apart his toast. The two often quarrelled about petty things, though lately because of economic times, money became the biggest factor. The papers Al had dumped on the table were documents and notes that he was working on with a research team that hired him a few months ago. Their main objective was something to do with nuclear arms, but that kind of stuff didn't interest Ed. Not unlike Alphonse, Edward had taken up a variety of small jobs to help them get by since Alphonse worked every day for as long as there was sunlight, and didn't pay as much as either of them had hoped.

The blonde haired elder brother leaned back in his chair and hit the kitchen counter. With enough room for a small refridgerator, a toaster oven, small table with two chairs and a window, the kitchen was perhaps the smallest of the rooms in their multi-level apartment. Next to the little kitchen was a slightly larger bathroom, a toliet and a shower. There was also a tiny living room area which had been mounted with books. Somewhere hidden amongest said books was a flight of stairs leading to two bedrooms - one with books about rockets and engineering and the other with books about everything else mainly science, fantasy and astronomy related. "We really need to get out of here, Al. It's too..." Ed bit his lip but said it between gritted teeth anyways, "...small."

Alphonse sighed, "I know." The defeat in his voice was saddening. Enough so to make Ed stand up, thank Al for the breakfast and pull on his red trench coat to step outside into the drizzling wet and foggy morning.

There had been a compromise between the brothers that Ed would get his coat back, on the condition that Al was allowed to copy his braided hairstyle. And this suited Ed just fine. The red trench coat had been fixed up with Alphonse's surprising sewing skills, but hadn't been washed. It smelled like home, real home and Ed wasn't ready to give up on the one thing besides his brother that kept his head focused straight in one direction. That direction was quiet a distance away, from some unknown angle, past time and space itself, back to a world where he yearned for.

"H-Hey! Watch where you're going, kid!"

Edward looked up solemly, his hands in his pockets, "I'm sorry?" He met the eyes of a shifty looking man, his hair slicked back and a fur trimmed vest over a black shirt. He had black trousers and matching buckled boots. To the everyday eye, he was a thief, a con-man and certainly a no-good lying piece of trash no one wanted on the streets. But to Edward, he was someone else. Someone who went by the name, "Greed?"

"What? Kid what are you going on about? Move," The man said, pushing past him and disappearing into an alleyway. If there were two things Ed had learned about this new world was that every person he once knew had a double in this world, and the doubles were nothing short of just that - doubles. Same appearance and same personality.

"Hey wait up," Ed called, running down the alley behind him, "I said wait!"

The man turned in profile, "Don't follow me." He paused when he realized he wasn't going to be left alone, "What the hell do you want?"

Edward pulled at his sleeve, fixing the arm of his coat but then looked at him in the eye, "See this?" Without thinking he pulled the sleeve up, showing off a shiny metallic automail arm. "I know you're interested in it, everyone is." The man tore his gaze from Ed's arm,

"Look kid, I dunno what you're trying to pull but -"

"-I'll tell you more about it if I can join your club."

There was a silence.

"What club?"

Ed smirked, "That hesitation proves it. A club that's hidden somewhere downtown in the slums or something. Am I getting close?" He narrowed his eyes, "A club that may or may not be named something simular to 'Devil's Nest'...Ever hear of a place like that?" This brought the man to full attention, his mouth twitched. "I'm very interested, if you'd be kind enough to show me the way, mister..."

The man ignored the drawled mister, indicating Ed wanted to know his name, and instead addressed the fact that Ed knew more than was possible. "Who told you? How much, nah, nevermind." He continued, "Kids aren't allowed, shorty, so just scram. It's adults only, if you know what I mean."

A nerve twitched above Edward's eye. Nobody joked about Edward Elric's height unless they included an addition deathwish tacked at the end, "Shorty?" Blonde bangs sheathed his flaming eyes, "I'll show you why no one makes remarks about my height!" He clapped his hands together, and gave off a devious smile, "And you'll tell me all you know about Devil's Nest."


~Days of Despair