Chapter 2 - Edward meets Edward
Edward Cullen was out in the woods with Bella, now a vampire herself. The two lay out in the sun, free from the discrimination of humanity in their territory.
Their skin gleamed in the sunlight, radiating like diamonds in the light, soft rays. Here, nothing could bother them. Their love for each other burned stronger than any sun.
Edward suddenly turned his head towards his wife, and she turned hers to meet him. Their eyes - gray-colored today - locked as if bound by destiny.
"Bella," Edward began, a smile crossing his face, "I want you to know that, no matter what, I will always-"
Crack!
Edward's content grin immediately changed to a blank stare of concern. Quickly, he and Bella rose from their positions and looked around for the source of the sound.
"Edward," Bella pointed to a large mass to their left, "what's that?"
Edward studied the large black mass carefully. It appeared to be opening up, somehow.
A large eye suddenly formed in a slit of the black apparition. It quickly split in two and the mass disappeared.
In its place were two humanoid figures: a short, golden-haired boy and a large, armored man. Or so they thought.
"Could they be other vampires? ...No...they have the scent of human blood," Bella remarked.
"Well, the small one does. The other one...he feels cold, lifeless even. But...could it be a vampire in armor?" Edward replied.
"Man...what happened, Al? And where the hell are we?" Edward wonders.
"I don't know, brother...it's like we were just swallowed up by the portal and all of a sudden we're here..."
[oh gosh, this is going to get confusing...I'll just refer to vamp Edward as Cullen]
"Hey! Are you alright?" Cullen questions.
Edward gets up quickly to face these residents, he assumed, of this new world.
"Yeah, we're alright...but where are we?" he questions.
"You're in Forks, Washington. United States," Bella replies.
"United States, brother? That's not a country!" Al remarks.
"Then we're definitely not in Amestris, or even our world, anymore."
Cullen puzzles himself to make sense of this situation. It was a portal of sorts that seemed to teleport them here. Perhaps a vampire power?
Though he appears calm and hospitable, Cullen is secretly reading the alchemists' minds, searching for information by the second.
"I'll start with the big one," he ponders.
Cullen activates his powers, trying to locate anything Alphonse could be thinking. He pulls up nothing. In fact, he never even got into Al's mind. It was as if there was nothing to read.
"Strange...he can block out my power..." Cullen ponders. "Could he be a vampire, with a power similar to Bella's?"
With his powers of no use on Al, Cullen sets his sights on Edward.
And that's when shit hit the fan.
Cullen steps back, appalled.
"Bella...," Cullen remarks, "these guys are alchemists."
"Alchemists?" Bella replies. She had heard of the primitive science in books like Frankenstein, but never dreamed she would meet one.
"Around the 15th century, the Volturi recorded a particularly horrendous practice - alchemy. Considered criminals against nature, alchemists would aim to create human life, turn metals into gold, and perform other miracles that defied nature."
"As you know, the Volturi aim to keep balance in the vampire world. However, one of their members, tortured by the horrors of newly-acquired vampirism, once appeared to an alchemist, hoping he could find a way to return him to human form."
"What happened?" Bella questioned.
Cullen's eyes turned dark.
"The experiment worked. The vampire became a human once again."
Bella's mouth drops open in surprise. All this time, she and Cullen could have been human? They could have lived a happy life together, without all the secrecy?
"That was when the Volturi decided enough was enough. They declared alchemy to be forbidden in the vampire community, and on December 17th, known today as The Undoing, the Volturi and its members went on a killing spree, hunting down alchemists left and right. A few escaped, but most were slaughtered."
"Because of this..." Cullen turned to the Elric brothers, "they declared that all vampires, not just the Volturi, would be ordered to slay any alchemists they found alive."
Edward is taken aback. Their first day in a new dimension and already someone wants to kill them.
"Al...did you understand any of that?"
"No, brother. It appears their history with alchemy is much different than ours. They seem to hate us..."
"Edward," Bella reasons, "do we really have to kill them? We don't even know if the armored one is human!"
Cullen's eyes are more stern than ever. Bella has only seen him this serious when he fought James.
"I'm sorry, Bella. But their kind has committed the ultimate taboo against our kind. Besides, if the Volturi find out about this, they'll have us killed along with them for breaking one of their most dire rules."
"We've fought them off before," Bella counters, "or at least we would have."
"We can't risk it. We had the werewolves' help last time, and this rule could be even more serious than the one they thought we broke last time. They would bring even more numbers."
Bella's face turns dire, then disturbed. Her eyes flare with a blazing fire of rage.
"I won't help you, then! Kill them yourself!" And with that, Bella runs off with incredible speed.
"Bella, wait!" But it too late. She was gone.
Cullen pushes his feelings aside for now, and focuses on the hatred he, and his entire race, have for the alchemists in front of him.
"Are you prepared to die...Edward?" Cullen respo-
"HEY! WHAT? YOUR NAME IS EDWARD TOO?" he cries in anger.
"YOUR NAME IS EDWARD? YOU, MR. I'M-A-VAMPIRE-GLITTERFACE-PANSY?" Edward replies, just as angrily.
"Brother, are you sure you can win? I mean, he isn't human!" Al worries.
"Neither were the Homunculi, and we beat plenty of them," Edward reasons. "Al, I want you to leave and try to find the others. Maybe they've been sucked into this dimension too."
"Brother..."
"Just trust me, Al! I've got this! You just worry about finding the others!"
Alphonse is taken aback by Edward's recklessness. Still, there was no convincing his brother. He turned his back towards Ed and ran off as instructed.
With that, Cullen rushes forward at Edward, ready to destroy that which has violated not only the laws of vampirism but also his name.
Boy, is he in for a surprise.