Remember No. 48? In case you don't, just remember that they're two brothers joined as one suit of armour -one head, the other torso.
Speech is taken from the FUNimation sub of that respective episode.
This is my debut fic (on this account anyway), so please read and enjoy~ All reviews will be greatly appreciated!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Who said that empty suits of armour are not human? What was the other half of No. 48 then, when that blade-fingered Homunculus pierced through the eyes of his brother? Did he not cry out? Was his cry not one of the ultimate pain and agony of one who lay watching the seconds pass as he lost the epitome of everything he ever loved? When the red glow of his brother's eyes faded, as the blood seal within him cracked apart, did he not call out "Brother! Brother!" with the same amount of disbelief and horror as you might feel if it had been the two halves of your brother's face that had fallen to the ground with that deathly resounding clatter?
If the green-haired snake of a sin had stabbed the only lifeline imprinted on the inside of your neck once and once again, and it had been you who felt the cool blade breathing a second death into your soul, wouldn't your arms have quivered in the same helplessness, and wouldn't your mouth have gasped with the same pain? Because if you say you wouldn't, doesn't that mean you're even less of a human than he is? Because, did you know, he felt it all?
And when the clash of metal against metal stopped, his arms too fell silent. Who is to say that yours wouldn't have fallen also, even if it had been metal against flesh?
Who can say that suits of armour with souls bound to them are no longer humans? The souls are still human souls, n'est pas?
His brother never said that he wasn't human. Not once, and he was thankful for it. For whenever he clenched his hands into fists, whenever he raised his voice to call out to his brother; the anger he felt when No. 66 called him a "puppet", and the bottomless anguish he felt when he believed it to be true; the guilt he felt when Winry said to him, through overwhelming tears: "in what world would you find someone so stupid that he's prepared to give his own life to create a fake brother?"; the peace and comfort he felt lying on the solid ground next to his brother while revisiting all those memories that he knew must be true; the resolve he felt as he clenched his fist when they swore to return each other back to flesh and blood; he knew that inside this massive suit of armour, inside his brother's blood seal, he was still that little boy whom everyone called Alphonse. Wasn't the fact that everyone still called him that proof enough?
"You two brothers are all you've got, aren't you?"
Isn't it only human to need to always rely on someone? Isn't it only human to be afraid of losing someone you love?
Ed never needed convincing that his brother was still human. Hadn't he heard him laugh as played around with Nina in the first snowfall of that year; hadn't he heard him cry for him to run when Scar's hand had been only seconds away from disseminating his head? Hadn't he been there to hear him cry –that soft voice quivering along with his own, as they succumbed to their teacher's motherly embrace?
Who said that suits of armour couldn't be human? From where he saw it, he was his brother all right; it was Al whether he was made of metal or flesh. After everything, his brother, his brother, was still standing there, right by his side. Isn't that all that mattered?
What does it mean to be human? Is an answer really necessary if you just feel that you are?