Beyond Redemption
Jigoku-Chan
A/N: Mnyo. This is just a wee one-shot that popped into my head while I was, surprise surprise, reading FMA. Flames shall be doused. Mangaverse.
Summary: A case study in role reversal.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. This is not for profit.
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Chapter One: Stormy Night
It was raining.
The only way Ed could tell that was from the raincoats that hung on occupied chairs in the tavern. Anyone who had arrived recently had a wet coat on the back of their chair. It seemed to him to be a vague metaphor for life, what with us all wanting to get out of the rain, but carrying the wet jackets inside with us and all. Then again, everything can be somehow interpreted as a metaphor for life, Ed thought. Even my friggin' chair. He gave out a low, mocking "huh" as he leaned back and drew in the many scents and sights of the scum of the earth. This was not a country club.
Ed was here on an assignment. Some underground drug ring or something was taking out any State Alchemists or innocent civilians who found them out. Somehow, Colonel Mustang had thought that Amestris's youngest State Alchemist was appropriate for the job.
"Um... Nii-san?"
Ed glanced over at the huge suit of armour that was currently his little brother. "Nn? What's up, Al?"
Al leaned towards Ed and lowered his voice. "Aren't we supposed to be gathering intelligence?"
"We are. Just sit back and eavesdrop, Al. Though I will admit that there doesn't seem to be that much intelligence floating around in here."
"Nii-san! ...Let's get out of here. If a fight starts, I don't want to get caught up in it."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just relax, will you? Don't mother me, Al." Ed waited, then concluded from the awkward silence that this was not a subject to be pursued. He uttered a suspiration punctuated with a near growl and turned back to his thoughts. Well, he does act like the more mature one. Heh. I guess with me for a big brother, he'd have to. Hell knows I'd be either dead or in really bad shape without Al. He's the best little brother anybody could ask for. And someday he's going to make some girl very happy.
"Hey."
But he's not perfect. Who is? I mean, even before he got turned into a suit of armour, it was annoying how good he was at everything save for the alchemy.
"Hey, brat."
He's not half bad at that either. And dammit, he got the good looks of the family, too.
"HEY! SHITBEAN!"
Ed snapped out of his spaced-out phase and stared at the grotesquely huge, balding man waving a dishcloth at him threateningly. Al sat by, shocked by the man and the amount of noise it took to get his brother's attention. Ed glared with all his wee power and snarled, with more menace than previously thought possible, "Who's a shitbean so puny you want to mash him up under a single hair off your head?? HUH???"
The waiter was unimpressed. "You. Now, whaddaya want, kid? Or should yer daddy," he grunted, indicating Al with his thumb, "order for ya?"
"D-Daddy?" Al said, laughing nervously all the while.
The waiter looked vaguely startled at the unusually high pitch of Al's voice for a 'daddy'. "Oh, I'm sorry, must be yer mom in there. 'Scuse m'rudeness, ma'am."
"Actually, he's my younger brother. And if you wouldn't mind, I'm just gonna have water. Please," Ed spat, 'accidentally' showing the waiter the silver pocketwatch used as proof that he was a State Alchemist.
The waiter froze. Then he gaped, wide-eyed, at the little ball of impudence sitting in front of him. Almost everyone knew about the supposed child prodigy who had become a State Alchemist at the age of twelve, but in his own tavern? This was a chance he couldn't pass up. "Ah-hah. Edward Elric, huh? Well, well, well..." He turned towards the questionable characters who populated the rest of the bar and shouted, "Well, boys! Seems we got the Fullmetal Alchemist here!"
A low wave of malicious laughter washed across the room. Ed and Al were getting a teensy bit tense. The two leaned toward each other for a quick conference. Ed put his bit in first. "They're going to attack us."
"No. They wouldn't! Why would they?"
"Because I'm a State Alchemist, Al! How many of that stupid gang do you think are in here? And even if none of these guys are gangsters, do you have any idea what kinds of bragging right a guy gets when he beats the crap out of a State Alchemist??"
"Well, they'll probably all think I'm the Fullme--"
"Aaaal..."
"Right. Sorry, Nii-san. They'll probably attack me first, so you could run while I fend them off an--"
"No. What if they damaged the Blood Seal before you could 'fend them off', huh? Like hell I'm letting you put yourself in danger like that. We made a promise, remember?"
"I'm sorry, Nii-san, I just want to help..."
"You can help me kick their sorry asses in," Ed mumbled, cracking the knuckles of his left hand. Winry would crack what was left of him if he cracked the knuckles on his automail hand.
"No!" Al paused, then the little orbs of light that generally passed for his eyes widened. "Nii-san... we're in deep trouble..." he whimpered.
Ed glanced around for reasons unknown. He turned back to Al and casually asked, "Why?"
"They know you're a State Alchemist now... and weren't those people who were killed--"
"Yeah, Al. I know." Ed looked surprisingly calm for a guy who might die in a few minutes.
This was the point at which the Elric brothers noticed a certain amount of movement in the bar. About three-quarters of the bar had risen and were converging on him and Al. Al looked nervously between Ed and a particularly mean-looking member of the crowd, who was holding his arm behind his back. Al looked around a bit more, and saw that they were all holding one or both hands behind their back. "Um... Nii-san... We're in really deep trouble..."
"I know, Al." Ed stood up, calmly, slowly, and then turned towards the freak show that was the crowd. Some of them were missing eyes, some were missing limbs, quite a few were missing a lot of hair and most of them were missing proper exercise habits, from the looks of it. Ed sighed at their half-hearted attempts to hide their weapons. They must have thought he was as stupid as they were. He stared at them, put on his signature I-may-be-short-but-that-doesn't-mean-I'm-not-vastly-superior smirk and spoke loudly enough that the whole mob could hear him. "Don't hide your weapons, guys. I know they're there, and besides, it's not nice."
Half of them pulled out some sort of bludgeon, and the other half pulled out a miscellany of chains, brass knuckles, and fireplace pokers, but Ed was half surprised and half disappointed that no one had thought to bring a gun or even a sword. All they held in their hands was material he could transmute. Why did I get this mission? Of all the things I could be doing, I'm doing the easiest and least relevant mission. Geez, the guys at HQ still think I'm a little kid, don't they? Amidst Ed's inner rants, the mob stopped moving in. Ed looked at them, looked at their weapons, and then his smirk turned into a semi-evil grin. "Come on. You guys are sad enough that you need weapons against a defenceless kid?"
"No," one of them grunted. "We're not after a defenceless kid. We're after that State Alchemist there." He nodded his head towards Al. Ed promptly turned an interesting shade of purple and decided now was a good time to get psycho on them. He moved his hand in the much-practised motion of turning one of the plates on his automail arm into a blade, then charged at the man who had mistaken Al for a State Alchemist. The man didn't have time to react before Ed had his blade shoved almost up the man's nostril. "I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist, YOU FUCKING MORON!" His voice escalated to a scream as he knocked away the man's weapon in one movement.
"Oh, really?" the goon hissed while preparing himself for a fistfight.
"Yeah, really," Ed growled. Then he charged. Another man behind him moved his hand to his waist as Ed elbowed the first goon in the face with his right arm, breaking a nose and at least a couple of teeth. Another goon came on his left, allowing Ed to use his left leg to assure that the man would never reproduce. Before Ed had time to react, a snub-nose revolver was pointed at him and the trigger was halfway pulled. Then, his view was blocked by his own face, surrounded by metallic grey. He heard the gun fire. A scream of agony followed almost immediately from his far right. More gunfire, more screams from different directions. It wasn't the first time Al had done this, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
-
A faint voice came from around Ed's neck. "Nii... san?"
"Hm?"
"What are you... thinking about?"
"Nothing." Ed put his hand on the back of his younger brother's head. "Just remembering when you had to take care of me."