AN: Hey guys! Sorry I didn't explain this in chapter 1 but, better late than never. Anyway, you know how the pronouns addressing Edward changed from "She" to "He"? Well, since Joe the bartender didn't know Edward was a girl and it was sorta from his POV, he refers to Edward as male and so will anyone else who doesn't know Edward's little secret.
It's good to see you all again, I'm so happy to have such great fans supporting me! I hope you like this next chapter. And if anyone has any, ideas for Brotherhood/2003 cross-over are still welcome because I need all the help I can get!
Religion. It is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence. Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe.
Some religions are so far spread and impacted the world so much, they even effect the dating system like the long since dead Christianity religion that would use the terms BC (before Christ) and AC (after Christ) in their holy book called 'The Bible'.
Other religions are small like Letoism and only effect the people who follow them.
But no matter what, religion is a very dangerous thing. It can bring order and peace to groups of people who all follow it as one… and death and discrimination to those who refuse to believe it.
Wars have happened before because of religion and because people were too busy arguing about who created the world, they couldn't look past it and see the faces of the people who were destroying it until it was too late.
That was all I ever believed religion to be; a way to take control of faint-hearted people who were unable to think for themselves and make their own decisions.
But I could never hate someone for following a religion; nothing was wrong with that so long as you didn't try to hurt someone else because of it and that's what I've always believed.
Unfortunately for the people of Liore, all their great Father Cornello cared for was creating soldiers out of believers.
A few hours later, with the sun setting and the trio set up for the night, we have Edward looking out a window, seeing Rosé standing in front of a grave.
Alphonse and Celina walked up to also look out the window, the pair having recently heard of the kind girl's tragic tale.
"That must be the grave her boyfriend's resting in." Celina stated, seeing the posture Rosé made as she stood in front of the grave.
Shoulders hunched, head down, body slightly trembling… Celina knew that posture well from her own days of grief and mourning.
Alphonse filled Edward in, since she hadn't been around when they'd heard of what happened to him, "There was an accident about a year ago that took her boyfriend from her; he'd been all she'd had at the time. Her parents had died years ago. Rosé's convinced Cornello can bring him back to life for her."
Edward stared at her brother as he spoke and looked out the window at the end of it, "When all the while, there's no way to bring someone back from the dead."
"How very sad and tragic." Celina's solemnness was heavy in her words.
"They do appear to come back." Alphonse stated, making the girls turn their heads, "As the living are given immortal souls, so are the dead given resurrection. The testament is in the miracle works, or so they say."
Edward's scowl deepened as she turned back to the window, "Sounds fishy."
Celina also looked out the window and saw a large, bald man with white skin standing behind Rosé with a walking stick in his hands; he and the other man with him were wearing black Priest Robes.
The other man, one with black hair and dark skin, turned to glare at them, but the trio just shut their blinds.
The next day, in front of the church of Leto, Cornello was showing off his 'miraculous' works. He turned a half full glass of water into a full glass of wine and a block of wood to his knee-height into a statue of Leto.
Near the back of the crowd, Edward was standing on her suit case to get a better view while Celina had her arms wrapped around Alphonse's neck while his arms hooked under her legs to help keep her up.
"Well, boys, what do you think?" Celina questioned.
"Well it looks pretty obvious," Alphonse stated, "he's using Alchemy."
Edward had her chin in one of her gloved hands, "Yeah but still, something's wrong, there isn't any Equiva-"
"Hey, guys!"
The trio turned their heads to see Rosé walking towards them, smiling as always, but her main focus was the Holy Father, "What do you think of Father Cornello's miraculous works?"
"Hate to break it to you, Rosé," Celina began, "but that's no miracle."
"She's right, anyhow you look at it, that's Alchemy." Edward stated, "This Cornello guy is just a swindling bastard."
Rosé gasped in outrage, but Alphonse tried to make the blow a little gentler on her, "That's not entirely established, yet, Rosé. We just know he's ignoring the laws."
"The laws?" Rosé blinked in confusion.
Edward hopped off her suit case and Celina let go of Alphonse's neck, bending back so her hands touched the ground and then he let go of her legs, which flew over her hands and landed on the ground so she was crouching; Celina quickly stood back up and grabbed Edward's suit case to ensure it wasn't lost.
"Alchemy isn't the creation of something out of nothing." Edward explained, "It's a scientific technique, which obeys the laws of nature."
Alphonse also pitched in with the explanation, "You can only get something out of another thing of the same mass. It's like how I could only make a radio that was the same size as before. I couldn't make it a bigger radio or change it into a piece of paper, or a tree, or something."
Celina said the last bit, "That's how, if you want to obtain something, something of equal value must first be lost. That's the law of Equivalent Exchange, but somehow Cornello's not following up on it."
"That's what we've all been saying, it's not Alchemy, it's miracles!" Rosé yelled, insulted.
On the stage, a young girl showed Cornello a dead bird and with a touch of his hand, the bird was alive and flying once again. The crowd went as wild as they had before; but all Edward did was smirk, having realized what was going on.
"Can you bring about such a miracle using Alchemy?" Rosé demanded and her eyes watered with a smile, "And Cain will soon be…"
"The Elric Brothers and Wolf?"
Cornello sighed and began to explain things to his loyal right hand Cray, "I heard that the older brother received the title of State Alchemist when he was 12 years old and they call him the 'Fullmetal Alchemist'. The Wolf girl could fire a gun since she was 8 years old; she's apparently as skilled with weaponry as the Elric Brothers are with Alchemy."
Cray's face twisted in shock and disgust, "Those little brats are that dangerous?!"
"He's a dog of the military who's recruited a wolf from the wild to be his bodyguard." Cornello explained, "The military have cast their evil eyes upon our bountiful town and plans to intervene. We must protect my children from them, Cray."
Cray, like the little puppet he was, bowed his head and declared without fear, "I will carry out the will of God."
That night, in the Church of Leto, Rosé could be found scrubbing at the table were 4 candles sat.
"Just by serving God so dutifully, someone who is dead will come back at some point?"
Edward's voice broke through the silence and Rosé frowned slightly, before turning back to the boy and offering a smile, "Yes, absolutely!"
Edward was sitting with his legs crossed and arms all over the back of the chair and frowning at her. He sighed and pulled a book out of his coat and started reading from it.
"Water; 35 litres. Carbon; 20 kilograms. Ammonia; 4 litres. Lime; 1.5 kilograms. Phosphorus; 800 grams. Salt; 250 grams. Saltpetre; 100 grams. Sulphur 80 grams. Fluorine; 7.5 grams. Iron; 5 grams. Silicon; 3 grams. And trace amounts of 15 other elements." Edward recited, reading from the book but it looked like he knew it off by heart.
Rosé didn't know what any of that stuff was supposed to be, so she asked, "What's all that?"
Celina, who was sitting next to him sighed, "That's the chemical make-up of the average adult human body, right down to the last ounces of protein in your eye-lashes."
Edward closed the small hand book, "Even though science has helped us understand this, there has never been a reported case of bringing someone back from the dead. Scientists have been researching what's been missing in the equation for several centuries now. That's a lot more productive then just waiting and praying, isn't it? What makes you think some hack job priest with his parlour tricks will get you something that not even science could give you?"
Rosé glared at the blonde; how dare he call the Holy Father such an awful thing?
"And encase you're wondering," Celina said, looking at the young girl, "all those ingredients can be bought anywhere with the spare change in a kid's pocket. Doesn't matter how you look at it, really; humans are pretty cheaply made. It's no wonder we break so easily."
Rosé let her anger show, "Humans aren't things! How dare either of you talk such blasphemy in the Great Creator's home!"
"Depends on your opinion, Rosé." Celina stated, "I knew a man who once thought of humans as nothing but things; even his own daughters were nothing more than pawns to him that he'd use without fear or remorse in his experiments."
"And, just to let you know, Alchemists like me are Scientists," Edward explained, standing up and shoving his hands in his pocket like the arrogant being he was, "we don't believe in unprovable concepts like Gods or Creators." He walked up to the table she'd been cleaning and inspected the state of the great Leto behind it, "It's ironic since we are the closest beings to Gods that exist in this world."
Rosé glared, "You're not a God, you're nothing close to it."
"The sun isn't a God either, Rosé." Edward stated, looking up at the statue, "It's just a mass of hydrogen. Get close to it like Cornello claims and all you'll do is burn up."
Celina glared at the statue of the Great Creator, "I once read a story about a hero who was arrogant enough to believe he could touch the sun; he made wings of wax and tried to fly up. But when he got too close, his wings melted and he came crashing back down to earth. He was lucky he lived to tell his tale."
For a while, Rosé stood there, thinking about what they had said.
None of it made sense to the religious woman. A hero with wax wings? What did that have to do with anything? Humans being cheaply made? Impossible! We are all the precious sons and daughters of God, how could Celina believe anything but that?
BANG/CLANK!