GreedxEd: Sometimes I have to do cliche, and it does seem to work out well, no? XD

Cheru-chan: I hope the "more" is equally entertaining. And Holly will be reappearing, so no worries.

musicaltastic: I have no idea, I've never read the Artemis books.

kazuko: Well if I do my writing correctly, I'll have you converted by the time the story is over. And Ed's wherabouts will be discussed later on. As for their ages, I'm going for Al being in the general 18-19 area, and Ed being... oh... in his 50's... think Ed would agree? XD

accident prone: Yes! Scar and Al is love! And no, he really doesn't. Come next chapter he'll be wishing he would catch a break every so often.

MandaxPanda: What happens next... authoress fights and wins against the urge to insert fluffy protective Al too soon.

Cesaree: Well I can only hope I can keep living up to the first chapter. Have you been wanting to read Scar/Al? Or was that just in reference to cliche soul stuff.

Nana-Riiko: Well, give me until the end of the story and we'll see if I've gotten the pairing to grow on you XD.

Kari Kurofai: I love you too, so please don't die because of the squee factor -P.


I did my best to make this chapter, which was a needed transition chapter, not drag on obviously with things that really wouldn't have mattered to Al, but also get to the Scar portion in a way that didn't seem too immediate. I actually had to rewrite it about three times before it came out to what it is. I hope I made the right end call. I guess I'll see what you all think. But regardless, the fun is about to truly begin.

I had some questions regarding Ed and Holly, I thought I should also answer those questions universally too. Edward's whereabouts will be explained later via Al to Scar; as for Holly, she will be a reoccuring character.

I hope you enjoy!


Chapter Two

It took Alphonse several hours to set everything in order. A few phone calls here, a cleaning of the kitchen there… for there was nothing so terrible as coming home from a vacation to a dirty kitchen growing its own science experiments. All he had left to do was pack his suitcase and he could go to the train station.

There was only one train that now ran into Ishbal, which was where he felt that Scar was. There would be no better place for the man to hide out. Had he stayed in Lior… well, that would have been suicide. At first thought, only having one train to take seemed like it simplified matters. Only it didn't.

Sure, he could take the train into Ishbal, but he doubted the place he kept seeing in his dreams was the same town the train would deposit him at. And besides, that would just be too easy. Everything up until now in his life dictated that nothing was going to be easy. So that meant he was going to have to take a lovely, hot tour of Ishbal trying to find one man who probably didn't want to be found by outsiders.

It was going to be like trying to find one particular grain of sand in a desert.

He finished packing with a look almost akin to self-pity on his face. But there was nothing to do for it except try and find Scar. No. He had to find Scar, else these dreams would continue until the man died. And he wasn't about to wait around to see how long that took.

With a morose shake of his head he grabbed his suitcase by the handle and turned to leave his bedroom. Once he'd locked his house up he headed off on foot to the train station.

Eventually he was standing at a platform waiting for the train to be ready for passengers. Not that there were many… very few ever traveled to Ishbal. It just wasn't the destination many people had in mind. Not to mention the country's past was far from peaceful. Hell, the one Ishbalan he now sought was a prime example of "far from peaceful".

Or, he had been. He wasn't sure if Scar was still somewhat tamed.

After a while the train was finally opened for passengers, and Alphonse made his way to one of the red leather upholstered bench seats. He wedged his suitcase between the wall and his own body before taking to staring out the window dully.

It was a three hour train ride to Ishbal, and he'd forgotten a book.

And when the train finally began to pull from the station, Alphonse felt every single one of those three hours painfully. Even mulling over his current situation did him no good, and sleeping was out of the question. He didn't want to be awoken from another of those dreams while on a public train. There were just some embarrassments a person could do without.

So three hours plus a fifteen minute delay later the train was finally pulling into the last remaining Ishbalan train station. And Alphonse couldn't be more relieved.

He was one of the first off the train.

As he stood there on the platform like the typical tourist arriving in a foreign destination, he carefully looked around. The landscape was as he remembered it. Even from the dreams. Sandy… rocks… it even tasted dry. There was absolutely no moisture in the air.

"Guess I'd better start looking around…" he muttered and finally stepped away from the train.

He knew it would be exceedingly easier to just ask around about Scar, if Scar had been the type that his kinsmen wouldn't protect from outsiders. So he knew that he couldn't rely on anyone to point him in the right direction. He could only rely on what he had seen from his dreams, and that wasn't much…

But it was something.

He knew from repeat experience that Scar seemed to visit a bazaar often in whatever place he was holing up in. If he could find that same bazaar, he could find Scar. Because even if people got suspicious and warned the Ishbalan, he did know the way from the bazaar to the place Scar was staying. He'd traveled it often enough when he should have been getting sleep.

So he made his way over to one of the street vendors who was selling cinnamon covered almonds, and other spiced nuts and fruits. "Hi," he said as the vendor turned to him, "I was wondering if you could tell me where the bazaars are here? I'd like to visit them."

The man was an aged Ishabalan, his skin weathered from the elements of his homeland. And he gave Alphonse a gap-toothed smile. "And where are you from?"

Alphonse smiled, not willing to ruin his chances by trying to hurry things along. "East Central." He replied easily, "I'm a librarian." Which wasn't the truth at all, but it was the farthest and most innocent thing from being involved in the military that he could be. And it also gave him a reason to be frequenting the bazaars, often times they had booksellers.

"Ah, noble job." The man nodded before glancing around. "Bazaars… there's a few here. One is up a few house sections in that direction-" he pointed, "and the other is nearer the outskirts of the town on the western edge."

Alphonse nodded, and was about to thank him and take his leave when he paused. "You wouldn't happen to know which other towns have them, would you?"

"Nearly all, only the villages don't."

Well, that narrowed it down slightly. "Thank you." Alphonse said, giving the man a short wave before heading off to begin his search. Even though he didn't feel this was the right town. He couldn't risk not being thorough.

With the man's directions firmly in mind Alphonse easily found the first bazaar, and after only taking one look at it, knew it wasn't the right one. So still of the firm belief the next one wouldn't prove the correct one either, he went off to check.

"Scar better thank me for this." Alphonse muttered as he walked down the dusty streets.

At least he wasn't being gawked at as much here as he would have been in other towns. With this one having a train stop in it, it pretty much meant that tourists didn't really stand out. He wasn't sure he felt like being stared at on top of everything else on his mind.

It was only the moment that he reached the last bazaar in the town only to find, unsurprisingly so, that it too looked nothing like the one Scar frequented, that his own drive of will eased up. In turn, allowing his subconscious to make a more firm appearance. And as he stood there, temporarily adrift at a loss of where to try next, he was struck by what he'd forgotten.

Every single time he had woken up from those dreams he'd felt an inexplicable magnetic pull towards the east. And while it faded throughout the day, it remained a distant tug in his mind. Now, with his mind more at rest he could feel that tug again.

But it wasn't tugging him east anymore.

Alphonse stood puzzled for a moment, before he looked towards the south. "Okay…" and he was reminded of what he'd said to Holly. "I've got nothing to lose."

Yet if this pull was correct, he'd be having a shorter vacation than he might have. And if it was correct, then he just might have to fully believe that he had part of Scar's soul, and the rest of it was calling out to him.

He just hoped that it wouldn't be a long walk. He didn't mind walking, but it was the landscape that could present a problem. Ishbal was a desert, and like most deserts, water was scarce. He had brought supplies, knowing this, but he had no idea how far he'd be walking before he ran across another town or village that he could restock in.

"I suppose if I die of dehydration that'll solve the problem on my end." Alphonse muttered as he started off, following the anchoring pull that was calling to him. Though he really didn't like the idea of Scar still being hurt… even if he had spent calm years before now thinking the man was dead.

He was certain that any Ishbalans watching him as he began to trek out into the desert surely thought he had taken leave of his senses.

And in a way he supposed he had.

So he kept walking across the unchanging landscape. More sand, more rocks, more sun. This was one of those moments in life where had the sun not been there to give him an anchor as to what direction he was going, and had that faint pull in his mind not been there either, Alphonse believed he would have started going in circles. Because everything looked just the same as everything else.

So he walked for the rest of the day until day faded into night. And night brought at least the welcome relief of cooler temperatures. But it also brought out the snakes and other creatures of the desert night.

Which a few hours later when hunger struck translated into food.

The next snake he came across was soon the victim of some well-placed alchemy, and later on a skinning and sticking over a fire pit. Not too long later he was sitting on one of the many rocks and eating his freshly caught meal. And it wasn't too bad, though he definitely would have preferred a fatter reptile.

He moved on after dousing the fire. For more than one reason he didn't want to try and catch some sleep yet. One, he wasn't tired. And two, sleep meant dreams, and he could really do without the dreams until he no longer could abstain from sleeping tonight. He doubted that his being on the way to get Scar would matter much to the other part of the man's soul. If anything, it would probably only encourage it.

For several hours more Alphonse walked, until he could no longer stave off sleeping. So after pitching camp for the night and having a long drink of water, he settled in to sleep.

"Probably too much to hope you'll leave me alone tonight." Alphonse sighed as he stared up at the stars, waiting for sleep to claim him.

It didn't take long.

And nor did the dreams.

The room was dark save the strip of moonlight across the floor. A scattered pile of yellow-aged papers lay on the thin blanket covering the mattress on the floor. They bore arcane designs, scribbled notes, suspicious looking stains, and in some cases paragraphs of scribbled words all set up in some chronological fashion.

Bandaged hands appeared, their fingers flicking through the papers with stiff movements. Searching for something… always searching. But for what they didn't seem to find as paper after paper passed in no real order past eyes that did not focus on the words. Such was the memorization, perhaps?

A blink.

The bathroom again… save the syringe. Instead rolls of gauze and a tub of sticky looking yellow salve was set open on the cracked countertop. The water at the tap was turned on, sputtering to life as the gauzed hands came into view – the fingers of the right delicately beginning to work the gauze free of the left.

Another blink.

The sink was stained a yellow color once again, globs of yellow salve and some other bleary organic matter floating on the last of the bloodied water down the drain. The left hand appeared once again, now wrapped in a large towel that extended to the wrist and seemingly up the arm.

And then suddenly the vision jerked sharply upwards, to the mirror as the still bandaged right hand reached out towards it. A flash of crimson eyes that pierced like a knife before everything went dark as the hand flung open the medicine cabinet behind the mirror.

Alphonse awoke with a jolt that was now all too familiar to him. And he sat up with a muffled groan, running a hand through his hair to brush out what sand had gotten into it. "Apparently the rest of Scar's soul is the impatient portion." He grumbled, applying his hand to his chest above his heart.

He didn't know why… but he could still feel those eyes piercing into him.

Hand still at his chest Alphonse began looking around. He could see it was just before dawn. And he still appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. But right now that magnetic feeling pull towards where Scar apparently was had regained its initial strength. There was no mistaking the direction he felt impulse to go. So he stood up a bit stiffly and gathered up his things into his suitcase before starting off again feeling rather sore around the edges. He wasn't used to sleeping on the ground anymore, he thought he'd given up the traveler lifestyle for good.

"I will have as soon as I've dealt with Scar." Alphonse amended.

And he picked up the pace a little with that thought firmly in mind. He would rather cover as much distance as he could before it got too hot to be walking fast.

Around midday there was a by all accounts spontaneous rain for about half an hour that cooled things off considerably. Yet it didn't help much in the long term as it only made the heat couple with humidity when the clouds vanished. Which meant that Alphonse was doomed to feeling soaked either way.

It was nearing dusk when something finally appeared on the horizon. The staggered and sharp contrasts of human made creations against the purpling sky. And when Alphonse saw it he breathed a sigh of relief. It was about time he saw something resembling human life. Perhaps he'd be able to find a mangled bike or something that he could purchase for cheap, repair in about two seconds, and have a quicker mode of transportation.

By the time he reached the outskirts of the small town it was just starting to get dark.

Alphonse knew he was being stared at by the Ishablans who were outside the homes or shops, but he didn't stop to introduce himself to anyone. He knew that eventually someone would probably come to him, but until then he was just happy acting like a tourist. And so he walked the streets acting like a tourist – which wasn't so different from what he actually was. He was still looking around for anything familiar.

Even while obeying the tugging sensation inside of him.

The prickle of eyes watching him still hadn't gone away as he turned down street after street. He was surprised though that no one had approached him yet to see if they could be of assistance. The next street he turned down though, he forgot all about the people watching him as he looked on at the commotion going on.

There were three men trying to drag another rather inebriated man away, and said inebriated man was trying to fight them off while still somehow managing to take swigs of the pint of ale in one hand. Another man was standing on a stool at the open aired bar shooting out helpful tips to either the self-proclaimed bouncers or the drunk – Alphonse wasn't really sure. The bartender seemed to be ignoring it all. Other patrons were loudly cheering the scene on or placing bets. In general, everything was loud and a mess.

It looked rather like a German family reunion to Alphonse, and he felt a twinge of nostalgia.

Soon it became apparent that the drunken man who was being dragged off had a friend. Said friend had come to assist in trying to get his buddy away from the self-appointed bouncers. One said bouncer was taken out spectacularly by this friend, and a brawl started there in the middle of the road.

"Now this takes me back." Alphonse muttered and then shrugged. It seemed that people acted like this everywhere.

He had nearly passed the bar counter, being ignored by everyone in favor of watching the altercations, when the tugging pull of whatever connection he had to Scar suddenly yanked a change of course so suddenly that it left him with the promising beginnings of a headache.

"You sure you want another?" The bartender asked in that voice all bartenders got when they believed someone had had one too many.

"I've not even finished an entire one. Damn thing keeps spilling." Was the dull but frustrated reply.

Alphonse whipped around at the voice, his wide eyes landing on the hunched figure he'd not seen tucked away in a shadowed corner of the open-aired counter. He didn't need the mental tug towards the man to know who it was. He'd have known that voice anywhere. "Scar?" He whispered in something close to disbelief.

And he stood there for what seemed an eternity, though in reality it was only a few seconds, standing in amazement that Scar was still alive. Then the pull had been correct, it was even now directing him towards the Ishbalan that had captured his attention. Then the thing about the souls… Scar was alive! That had to mean something!

The bartender frowned as he reluctantly got another glass. "Doubt the drinks will help cure that."

Alphonse moved slowly towards Scar with a pounding heart, still unnoticed. Even the bartender didn't seem to notice him as he approached. Only mere inches from Scar he reached out, wanting to tap the man's shoulder, when out of nowhere Scar seized up with a sharp intake of breath.

"You all right?" The bartender asked.

Scar looked down at the bandages as he tried to control the shaking overtaking him as pain began to rear its head once more. "Fine." He forced out. "Give me the beer."

Suddenly Alphonse was no longer frozen as he'd been when Scar had seized up, and he quickly stepped forward to reach around Scar and swat the beer away with a spectacular spray of brown liquid as soon as it made contact with the counter. "You are not fine, Scar!"

"Who do you-!" Scar began with a snarl before he stiffened abruptly, hands clenching together.

"Hey-!" Began the bartender – everyone else was just watching with interest.

Alphonse had whirled on the bartender first, even if he'd cut both of them off at the same time. "You're an idiot! Can't you see he's not well?!" And he whirled on Scar now, for the Ishbalan was facing him with flashing angry red eyes. And for a moment he could only stare as his breath stalled in his chest. In all the days he'd spent with Scar, never before had he seen the man look this haggard. The circles were deep and dark under the red eyes that had awoken him each night since this all began. Exhaustion was painted plainly across the man's face, and it made his pounding heart clench. "And you… what happened to you?" Alphonse asked in a breathless tone.

"Get lost." Scar growled menacingly before his red eyes suddenly widened as a jolt of agony spread through him like wildfire, causing him to stiffen in an attempt not to show weakness. "Shit…" he whispered, it was getting worse faster still. He needed to get out of here.

In one jerky movement Scar stood, a bandaged hand reaching over blindly for something that had been on his other side. His hand grasped the cane hard as he simultaneously turned to leave. Only to have it catch on a stool leg and trip him up.

Alphonse instinctively reached out with a bit of a worried sounding gasp to steady Scar, only to be swatted away. "Hey!"

"I don't need help from kids!" Scar snarled as he began to hurry away at a sickening to watch lurch, leaning heavily on his cane.

Alphonse grabbed up the suitcase he'd dropped to the ground in order to steady Scar and darted after the Ishbalan. "I'm not a kid anymore! And whether you want my help or not you're getting it, Scar." He didn't even wait for Scar to turn a startled and suspicious look on him before he added, "you saved my life."

"I'm not in the business of saving the lives of anyone not from Ishbal." Scar snarled at him over his shoulder. "Get lost."

Alphonse did no such thing, but nor did he bother with a reply. He only trotted along after Scar, hovering just near enough that they could have touched. He could explain things to Scar later. And Scar it seemed had given up snarling at him as if he were merely a lost puppy to frighten off. He had only gained one last menacing look before Scar had become entirely occupied with reaching that house.

However he did spare a confused and somewhat suspicious thought as to why no one had tried to stop him yet from following Scar. But he didn't dwell on it for long, not wanting to lose track of the man or let his guard down now that he'd found him.

Scar was silently seething underneath the pain as he realized that stupid kid that had knocked away his beer wasn't about to stop following him. He would have to deal with it later, first he needed to take care of the pain before it consumed and blacked him out. So he didn't even bother slamming and locking the door in the kid's face when he reached his dwelling. He'd eject the pest in minutes anyway.

Alphonse however did bother with locking the door as he entered after Scar, right before he took a deep breath and followed the sounds he could hear coming from the bathroom. "Just have to keep him from turning my brain into pudding until I explain." He figured it might be best to start with a name, instead of all this soul talk.

And he braced himself for the inevitable clash before the calm.