if there is one character I adore and wishes had more screentime in both Manga and Brotherhood, it gotta be Scar's brother. and there is unfortunately not much fanart or stories about him either, so I decided to write a story.
this story happens in the Brotherhood/manga universe. about three years after the Promise Day. some of the characters might become a bit Oc, but I will try my hardest not to make that happen.

enjoy the story!


Deep inside a forest made solely out from bamboo, a group of four sit in cover for the heavy rain at times falling in such a place as Xing.
A man in the mid-thirties with glasses and light brown hair, comments somewhat relieved. "Man, good thing the two of you can alchemy, otherwise we would've been soaked in seconds." His partner, a black, somewhat chubby man nods in agreement.

One of the two who transmuted this makeshift cover for the rain smiles weakly, he's a young man with bright blond hair and eyes. "Can't have we end up with a cold when we're this close to the Wang clan." He would like to be presentable for one of the oldest daughters of the late emperor. He blinks and the smile fades when he notices that the only female in the group, who also happens to be his girlfriend and a princess of the former emperor as well. She has a quite troubled look on her face. "What's wrong Mei?" He asks her worried, knowing from past experience that the many families don't fancy one another one bit, that should've changed when Lin took the throne. Now the families are supposed to be friendly against one another. But he guesses old rivalry dies hard. "Are you worried about the Wang clan?"

Mei nods seriously, her pet panda Xiao-Mei copies her movements as the teenager explains the three others. "The Wang clan has long been the emperor's favorite clan and his favorite daughter. Many were sure that Li Wang would claim the title as empress, but I am happy she didn't. what I heard: the Wang clan flourish on conflicts with the neighborhood clans." So the princess of that clan must be just as bad right?

"Guess we can't expect much of a warm welcome then," the black cubby man, named Jerso muses and his partner Zampano asks the girl. "Can't we simply visit some of the other clans instead?"

Mei shakes her head. "No, the Wang has one of the best Alkahestry scrolls about the dragon pulse." She figured this place might help since she has so far failed making Alphonse understand her way of reading the life flow of the earth. She does not like going, but hopefully, the Wang clan has eased up on their hostile behavior now that the new emperor protects her clan.

Suddenly a scream echoes through the forest, making the group snap their attention towards where the sound came from. Zampano, the one closet to the opening of the cover looks out and spots a young child fleeing from three people who are dressed very closely to Lan Fan; the bodyguard of the now emperor, but it is clear those three people are not Lan Fan since all of them are male and out for blood.

"Assassins!" Mei tells them horrified and from how they are chasing this child it is clear this child must be a close relative of the Wang clan chief.

Alphonse springs to action. "We gotta help her!" Chases the three assassins who try to kill this defenseless and very horrified child. Zampano, Jerso, and Mei quickly follow.
Alphonse claps his hands and uses his alchemy to make a cluster of the bamboo whack one of the assassins before those guys could recover, Mei kicks him hard over the head; knocking him out. The two others notice it but don't stop their chase to this defenseless child. Jerso chooses to risk it and transforms into his chimera form of a yellow frog and uses his extremely sticky saliva to catch and trap the second one, but they are unable to catch the third who swiftly jumps over to the child, catches her and pulls out the knife. the child screams in terror but is unable to get away.

However, before he can finish the task. A beaming sound of alchemy, followed by the earth itself attacks the assassin, throwing him away from the crying child to then get trapped by the palm of a man with the left arm sparking of alchemy. Alphonse freezes up when he spots a very familiar tattoo array on this newcomers left arm: it looks a tad too familiar to Scar's for comfort. Could this be? No, Scar should still be in Ishval along with Miles. The man slams the assassin onto the ground and transmutes the ground around the assassin, trapping him.
"Daddy!" The child calls and runs crying over to the man who pulls her into a hug. The group notice that this man has silver hair and brown skin, but the damning proof of what he really is gets revealed when the man turns to them with those striking red eyes, slightly hidden by a pair of glasses. "Thank you for saving my daughter." The red eyes land on the transformed Jerso. "... whatever you are."

"No problem, mister," Jerso replies, a bit surprised how calmly this man takes his chimera form. And Zampano asks the man. "Say, what's an Ishvalen doing this far East?"

The Ishvalen blinks. "Ishvalen?" Now it's the group turn to blink in confusion and Jerso mutter to the others. "Should be one, brown skin and red eyes, no doubt about it."

"If you say I'm an Ishvalen, then I take your words for it." The man tells them with a shrug, catching the group rather by surprise and he explains them. "You see, I don't have any memories about my former life. Name's Shade; at least for now." And he offers them his right hand—his automail hand.

Alphonse shakes it. "Nice to meet you Shade, I'm Alphonse Elric."

"I'm Mei Chang." Mei bows in her sign of a hello, to then nod at the panda on her shoulder. "And this is Xiao-Mei."

"Zampano."

"Jerso." The frog chimera turns back into human, making the also red-eyed child stares at him in awe.

Shade gives the two chimeras a respectfully nod before asking them. "So, where are you heading?"

"to the Wang clan, I was hoping to ask them to enter their library," Alphonse replies.

"What a coincidence," Shade laughs lightly. "I happen to live there. I'm sure I can put in a good word for you." He lifts his daughter up on his shoulders, telling them. "You four have after all saved the daughter of the Wang princess."

"Princess?!" They exclaim in shock, with Mei remarking in realization. "That explains why those assassins tried to kill her. "

Shade nods, "yes." His expression turning sad. "The assassins have been very set on removing the main source of the Wang clan's power." Eyeing the small girl half sleeping up against his head. "The chief has been reluctant on giving my girl any protection, more set on protecting his own daughters since they too are in danger now the new emperor soon will choose his wives. So I have been forced to step up as her personal bodyguard, which isn't easy as I have no training in combat."

"Man, that's harsh." Jerso muses, he glances back to the still trapped assassin. "At least you make up for it in alchemy."

Shade smiles proudly hearing this, but quickly brushes it aside, telling the group. "Anyway, I am sure the chief will let you stay. Just..." His eyes land on Mei, "Don't tell him what clan you're from: he's still very touchy about that subject."

Mei nods that she understands. They follow Shade back to the village, here he returns his daughter to what Alphonse presume is the girl's mother, but reconsider when Shade shows no signs of affection towards that woman as he does his daughter and this other pale skinned and green eyes girl there is a few years younger than him.

"This is my second daughter." Shade introduces her, putting his automail arm on her shoulder. "Selena, this is Alphonse, Mei, Zampano, and Jerso." He introduces his teenager daughter to the group. "They saved your younger sister from the assassins."

And that made them alright in her book. "Thank you very much." She says, giving them a respectful bow before turning to her father. "Dad, when those assassins attacked; they blow up half our house..."

Shade nods and asks the group for their patience, "I need to fix the house-"

"I can help." Alphonse offers, explaining he too is an alchemist. Shade seems very fascinated in that and asks. "What kind of alchemy? I figure yours aren't from Xing since you wish to study here."

"I'm using alchemy from Amestris" Alphonse replies, his smile fades when Shade suddenly gets a faraway look in his eyes. "Shade?"

"Hm?" the man blinks, then realizes he has been spacing out. "Oh, sorry about that." He gestures for Alphonse to follow him.

The blond boy glances up to the man, wondering if Shade spaced out because he recognized the name. "Did what I said sound familiar to you?"

"Must admit it did." Shade replies thoughtful, the red meeting the yellow as the man asks. "I presume it's because I was originally from that place?"

"Ishval is part of Amestris yes," Alphonse says.
They stop at the place where the assassins have blown themselves inside, Shade puts his left arm on the blown up wall, revealing the white tattoos on it again. Alphonse just has to ask about it. "It's a very unusual tattoo you have." And claps his hands together; helping the man to fix the damage with alchemy.

Shade lifts his left arm, giving the tattoo on it a somewhat proud but also question look. "yes, I have it as long as I remember. Took me a while to fully understand it; it's the only remaining part of my past." He lowers his arm, hiding underneath the sleeves once again. And speaking about alchemy. "You too have a very unusual alchemy; never seen one perform alchemy without a transmutation circle- or array."

Alphonse chuckles but doesn't explain why he can do it, simply agreeing that his ability to perform alchemy by clapping his hands does come in handy. And can't help but laugh when Shade remarks. "It's not like I'm dealing with that problem," waving his left arm and so true. Like Alphonse and others who can do alchemy without a circle still needs to clap their hands before touching the ground or whatever objects they want to transmute, Shade here can simply touch it... just like Scar did. This is getting too similar to be a coincidence, guess he has to ask Scar about this when he returns back to Amestris. It's not like Shade here can tell him anything as long he doesn't have any memories about his past or how he got that array.

"Anyway, let me introduces you to Tai Wang." Shade changes the subject, leading the blond boy away from his house. "Hopefully the father of his granddaughter and personal healer words holds some supremacy to him."

So Shade is the healer of this village? It doesn't really surprises Alphonse since Xing's alchemy is specialized in the medical.
As promised, Shade takes Alphonse and Mei to the chief's mansion, Zampano and Jerso don't follow, instead deciding to check out the local bar.
The house of the chief is incredible, Alphonse admits that it's very spacious and had a lot of art about this tribe being proud warriors with all the weapons, armors and statues of dragons decorating the rooms. But there is something there confuses Alphonse. "Why aren't you and your family living here?" He asks Shade, after all, this man is the father to the princess's daughter; the granddaughter of the chief.

"That's a bit complicated." Shade muses sheepishly, they pass by a pair of lovely dressed women. Alphonse and Mei notice the dirty look they give the Ishvalen. Away from their range, Shade explains them. "Long story short, the princess fell in love with a complete stranger who has nothing to offer her or the family. But since she was the princess of the former emperor, I gained a lot of status marrying her, so all Tai could do was keep us away from his so-called palace."

"Hang on, the way you speak about your wife," Mei notices how he said was and fears the worst from how sad Shade suddenly looks.

He sigh sadly, "guess there's no point hiding it... my wife got assassinated about a year back."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Alphonse muses, knowing far too well how much it hurt losing someone.

Shade simply nods and with a somberly, "please do not speak unless asked." And opens the door leading into the chief's hall. He tells one of the many servants for his reason coming and about five minutes later. A very broad shouldered but also quite obese man arrives inside the hall, giving Shade an annoyed look. "And what do I owe you this visit, Shade?"

"Your granddaughter got attacked about an hour ago." Shade tells the man hard, not hiding his anger of the lack of protection around his daughter. "And if it hadn't been for this young man and woman, then she would've died."

The chief looks genuinely shocked hearing this, but that expression quickly turns into a scowl aimed at the Ishvalen. "And what the hell were you doing while that happen?"

"The assassins knocked me out." Shade replies, adding in a hard matter of fact. "Honestly you should've expected it, I have told you countless of times that I am not a fighter. Yes, I will protect her with my life, but that's not enough against trained assassins."

"Fine, I will give you two of my most loyal and trained bodyguards."

"thank you, my lord."

"They will only protect her, not a foreigner like you nor that ghost of a second daughter of yours."

"Of course," Shade says calmly, but his eyes reveal his true feelings about this. Alphonse must admit that he is impressed how collected this man is even when insulted right at his face. "There is one more request I would like."
The chief sends the Ishvalen a disproving stare but lets the man speak. "These two saved your granddaughter out from the goodness of their hearts, in return for their noble intentions I ask they are granted permission enter the Wang clans library."

"And for what purpose may I ask?" The chief eyes Alphonse and Mei suspiciously, Mei takes a step forward, keeping her head down in a sign of respect even though her entire being screams at her to attack this potential threat to her family. "We're simply asking for the scrolls and books about the dragon's pulse."
The chief watches them in silence for a painfully long time, then with a sigh. "Permission granted." Waving them off "I will send the materials to Shade's house. Since you already seem acquaintance, you can stay with him as long you're here."

Shade bows, the two others does as well and they leave the room. When out and away from anyone's hearing range, Shade muses. "That went better than expected, usually I have to fight with him about anything."

"Has he always been this harsh against you?" Mei asks.

"No." Shade shakes his head, "it only began when Li and I married without his consent. it worsen when she got killed: he still blames me for her death." Shaking his head and the still looming depression over having lost his beloved wife. "Anyway, let's get the four of you settled in. Fortunately, the chief has been kind enough handing my family a house with plenty of spare rooms."

"This dosen't bother you?" Alphonse asks worried, he's not sure if he would like it if someone practically forced him to house a bunch of strangers, but Shade here doesn't seem too bombed out about it. "It's not every day I get visitors, it'll be nice using all of those rooms for a chance." Adding with a smirk, "I can always transmute you to the ground if you do anything stupid."

Alphonse and Mei believe him on that one, they are both glad Shade has accepted them into his home. He seems like a nice guy. After have fetched the two human chimeras and Shade shown each of their rooms, the Ishvalen asks one of the servants of the house to cook them some food, explaining the guests. "I may be a brilliant alchemist, but I can't cook a decent meal even if my life depended on it."

"Guess the term 'alchemy's coming from a cookbook' doesn't apply to you." Alphonse laughs lightly.

Selena walks over to them, telling them cheeky. "Dad learned all his alchemy from old dusty books and old dusty people."

"Manners Selena." Shade scowls her, although very halfhearted. Turning back to the guests, "speaking about books, I am sure the books you requested will come tomorrow. You can borrow my office for your study- as long you do not mess with any of my research notes."

"you don't have to," Alphonse says embarrassed he and Mei will be robbing this man of his study room. "We can find somewhere else to study."

Shade merely shrugs casually, "hey, it's the least I can do for the people who saved my daughter—which reminds me: I better go and check on her." And leaves the room.

"Is it just me or does Shade looks a bit like Scar?" Zampano asks quietly to the others, making sure that Selena doesn't hear them.

Alphonse sends a quick glance to the room where Shade is speaking softly to his youngest daughter, at the moment having his left arm lifted in a way so the sleeve is down and revealing the array there looks very much like Scar's. That and Shade has some of Scar's traits in appearance. "I have noticed it as well, but it can just be a coincidence." He muses to the chimera.

"But what if it isn't?" Mei quietly counters, unlike the others she knows a lot more about the man is known as Scar and meeting an Ishvalen with the same array of Alkahesty and Alchemy mixed together, plus missing the same arm that Scar got from his deceased brother. Could this really be him? could he have survived?

Alphonse might not know the detail about the right arm, but he can see the familiarities between the two and is planning on paying Scar a visit when he returns to Amestris again.


and the ending of the first chapter of this story. I hope you like it and will stick around for more. those of you who have been following me for a while probably already going to know I am not good at making short stories.

till next time!