Wow, people are sure liking this story, aren't they? Thank you very much, I really appreciate the response! Heh, and yes, everyone, I knew that a lot of you expected what happened in chapter two to happen...so that's why I had that occur in chapter two rather than later in the story. Might as well get the obvious out of the way. From now on, it'll be harder to guess what's happening, heh heh heh. Of course, some of you guys are just really intuitive no matter what twists I throw in, so I can never fool everybody...but I can have fun with the weird twists I throw in anyway! Muahahahahahaha!
...Anyway...I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. Leave me some reviews after you're done reading, okay? Thank you! (overly annoying smile follows suit in order to try and convince you to review.)
Disclaimer: Disclaimed...(everyone's looking at me) What? That says it, doesn't it?
"Ed, are you okay?" cried Winry, who promptly ran over and started slapping Ed on the back to make him stop choking. Soon he stopped choking, but he glared at Winry. "Wh...What's the matter, Ed?"
"You're joking right?"
"Joking about what?"
"Joking that I am the only person you've ever met that fits the characteristics of a demon!"
Winry looked around between the two boys, trying to find some explanation. Al was still in a state of shock about what Winry had said, but he finally managed to clear his throat and explain. "Yes, Winry, we're actually looking for a...demon in man's clothing, if you will. The person that matched the character profile was supposed to be our man...but I don't see how Brother could possibly be 'it'. He has a bad temper and all...but I don't think he acts...demonic." Ed was sitting with his head crouched low over his plate so that one couldn't see his face. One didn't need to to read his expression however, as one could almost see dark fumes radiating from him.
"How dare you," Ed growled.
"Wh-Who are you talking to?" asked Winry.
Ed looked up at her from his crouched position and said, "I'm talking to you. How DARE you remind me of my true identity when all these years I had successfully managed to forget." Winry started visibly shaking. There was something wrong here, something very wrong. "For that," continued Ed, "You shall pay!"
Ed quickly stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. He placed his hands on the edge of the table, and yellow sparks, not blue alchemical sparks, but yellow sparks, flew out of his hands, sending the entire table across the room, and slamming Winry into the wall. Ed ran over and jumped up onto the table and transmuted his auto-mail arm into a blade and raised it up high to bring it down upon Winry. Winry looked up at him with terrible fear in her eyes. Any second now, she would probably be dead. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
Just then, Al rushed up and grabbed Ed around his ankle. "No, Brother, please don't! She didn't mean to do any harm, just leave her alone! Please, Brother!"
Ed glared down at Al and tried to shake him loose. "Let go of me you little runt! Why do you persist in calling me 'Brother' anyway now that you know my true identity? I'm not your brother and never was."
Al only gripped Ed's ankle even tighter. "All the same, just because you don't have a human soul, you are in a human body, and that body is related to me. Hence, you are my brother, and I'll always consider you as such...and...and...and I'll always love you, no matter what...but please don't hurt Winry anymore...please..."
Ed slowly lowered his arm and gave Al a disbelieving look. "You...still love me? How could you possibly love a demon? Humans and demons don't love each other!"
Al shook his head. "I don't care what is normally done. There is nothing you could do to make me stop loving you."
Ed snorted. "What if I told you that all my alleged love to you has all been fake?"
Al gripped Ed's ankle even tighter and looked up at Ed with tears in his eyes. "It...wasn't real?...even after all we've been through?...You...lied to me?"
Ed cocked his head to one side and looked down at the boy. "Listen kid, let me give you a piece of advice. Never trust a demon, no matter how sincere he may seem. That 'I love you' stuff was all just an act to keep my identity hidden, even from myself."
Silence fell upon the little group for several long minutes as they let all this sink in. No one moved a muscle, as they were all numb from the sting of Ed's words. Finally, Ed spoke up. "Listen, I'll let your precious Winry live today, but that's only because I don't think she's worth wasting the effort to kill." Al was so numb that he wasn't able to keep up the tension on his grip on Edward's ankle, so Edward simply pulled his boot out of Al's grasp as he said, "I'm going out, so don't bother looking for me. I'm not going to be back." With that, he walked away and slammed the door behind him.
It took a few minutes for everything to sink in, but before long, Al started to shake uncontrollably from sobbing. Winry had been bawling even before Al had been able to bring himself to, and it wasn't from the pain of being trapped between the table and the wall. She'd completely forgotten about her physical pain for the moment. Even Pinako was shedding a few tears, which everyone knew meant that she was distraught, since she wasn't the type to shed even a single tear over anything.
"Al," Winry sobbed, "What did I do? I ruined everything! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! It would've been better if he had killed me back then."
"No," Al said, trying to console her, "It wasn't your fault, it was mine. I was the one that was so blind that I couldn't even tell that he didn't even love me. He even said on the train that demons weren't capable of loving." Suddenly, tears started streaming down his face in rivers. "But..But I always loved him so much, and yet he never loved me back! Sh-Should I just give up on loving him, since he's not even human?"
Pinako then walked up and put a hand on Al's shoulder. She brought out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. "Alphonse, love transcends the obstacle of whether someone is human or not. It really doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter whether he loves you back. Loving him is your choice, and it's not foolish to do so. Even if he claims that he doesn't love you, you two have been through so much together. Are you really willing to just throw all that away just because you find out he isn't who you thought he was?"
Al looked into Pinako's eyes. He could barely say anything for the tears, but he managed to say, "Auntie" before he threw himself into her arms and started up with the sobbing again. Pinako didn't say a word, but just held him there until he cried all his tears out. Finally, he let go of her and stood back. "You're right, Auntie. Brother and I have been through so much together. I can't just throw it all away on account of the fact that he's a...demon." He gulped. "I need to find some way to help him." He was about to walk out of the room when Pinako reminded him that they still needed to release Winry from the wall. He blushed and ran back to the table and helped her pull it away from the wall, causing poor Winry to collapse to her knees.
"Are you alright, Winry?" asked a concerned Al.
"Yes...I'm fine...just a little dizzy."
Al ran over and helped her up, slinging one of her arms over his shoulder so that he could act as a crutch. He led her away into the living room, and set her down on the couch. "So," said Pinako, coming into the room, "What did you have in mind to help your brother?"
"Well, I don't really know much about demons," said Al, "so I was thinking...maybe there's a way that I could find the person that sealed him...and ask her, or something."
"It's worth a try," said Pinako, "But how are you going to find her?"
Al was already at the phone, dialing a number in and holding the receiver up to his mouth. "I'm calling Colonel Mustang. He'll probably be able to direct me to her." Pinako nodded her understanding, and just let Al be while he made his call.
After a few minutes, Al came back into the living room. "Colonel Mustang gave me the number to the lady that had sealed him, so I called her and told her the situation, and she said she'd be right over. She doesn't live too far away, actually. That's probably why Brother ended up being sealed here in Rizenbul." Everyone else just nodded but didn't say anything. Al sighed and sat down on a nearby chair and just waited.
Soon a car pulled up into their driveway, and a middle-aged woman stepped out. Al was a little surprised by her appearance. After all, if she had sealed away a demon, she had to have been a witch...but she looked just like a normal person. Maybe all the movies he had seen weren't actually based off of reality, but it was still kind of shocking to him.
"Is this the Rockbell house?" she asked.
"Y-Yes," said Al, hesitantly, "I just called you a little while ago. I was hoping that you could help my brother." The woman smiled at him and walked into the house, carrying what appeared to be something like a knitting bag with her. She set the bag down on the living room floor, and then started fumbling through it. Al quickly caught on that it held a lot of her witch materials.
"Do you know how to help my brother?" Al asked, a little impatiently.
"Help him with what exactly?" asked the woman, still fumbling through her bag.
Al shrugged. "Well, I don't know...help him to accept himself, accept us, help him to just be...himself again."
"Hmmm..." said the woman as she pulled out a few chemicals and set them on the floor while continuing to fumble, "That might not be so easy to do. Even demons have their own free will, and I can't do anything to alter that. The most I could probably do is summon him here and help him to seal away his memories of being a demon."
"But," Al protested, "Then we'd just be right back where we started, and now that we know that all his feelings for us have just been a charade..."
"...You want me to try and work with him as he is," the woman finished. She finally fished out her wand and set in her lap, and then turned and gazed at the containers of various chemicals and herbs she had lying around on the floor. "Look, something you may not understand about demons is that they have a deep-seated loathing of humanity, and there's no cure for that. The only way to keep ourselves safe from them is to seal them into human bodies where they can't do much harm. The body strips them of their powers so that they are safe to be around, even if they aren't exactly pleasant to be in the same vicinity with."
"But..." Al protested, "It seems that Brother is dangerous. After all, he sent that table flying across the room and had Winry pinned against the wall for awhile. Both he and I are alchemists, so that was the first thought that entered my head when I saw him do that...but now that I think about it, there was no way that that was alchemical energy. It had to have been demonic."
The woman sighed. "Yes, it's true, some demons are quite powerful even while trapped in their bodies. He had told me just before I sealed him that he'd gotten stronger. It appears that that statement was true."
"But how can he do that when he's been sealed?" Al asked again.
"Even a trapped lion can reach through the bars of his cage," said the woman. Al opened his mouth as the understanding suddenly hit him, but didn't say anything in response. That sentence had actually made sense, especially considering how strong and gifted he knew that Ed was.
"So, is there anything that can be done for him...at all?" asked Winry, "We've been friends ever since childhood. I'd hate to see all that go out the window just because I was stupid enough to cause his memories to return to him."
The woman smiled. "I can see that you all still care deeply for him, even being a demon." The others in the room nodded their sincerity. "Good. That might help. We would simply have to find a way to convince him of that. I can't guarantee that that would actually do any good for him, but it's our definite first step."
"So, do we have to wait for him to come back, if ever, or can you summon him here?" asked Winry.
"We can do either one. Just understand that the way the summoning works is that I cause him to have a throbbing headache, and the only way for him to get it to stop is to come back here and get me to relieve him of it." Al and Winry were both showing very questioning looks, so the woman continued, "With demons, you usually have to go to extreme measures to get them to do anything that you want. There have even been a few that actually managed to resist the summons and spent the rest of their life in excruciating pain. They are a very stubborn group."
"I see..." said Winry, sadly.
"It's your choice, you two. What would you like me to do, wait for him, or summon him?"
Al and Winry exchanged glances. They didn't say a word to each other, but somehow, they just knew what the other was thinking. Both of them then turned and faced the woman and said simultaneously, "Wait for him."
"He may not ever come back," said the woman.
"I know," said Al, "But if I want to convince him that I love him, I can't very well cause him pain, can I? I just have to hope that there is something, or someone, here that draws him back, even for a few minutes. Maybe he'll just come back looking for a book or something, I don't know...but I'll continue to wait and hope that he will."
"Al, don't you remember? He said he wasn't coming back," said Winry.
Al grabbed for his coat and slipped it on. "In that case, you and Auntie stay here and talk with her, and I'll go and look for Brother. He may not want me to seek him out...but I just have to do it. I'm not going to let our relationship end like this." He put his hand on the doorknob to go outside just as Winry called to him.
"No, Al, don't! Remember what he almost did to me? He could do that to you if he wanted in a heartbeat. He's not the Ed we've always known. It's foolish to go out seeking him right now."
Al turned around and faced her. "If I don't go, then what'll happen? We'll have a demon running loose, and he'll likely kill any unsuspecting person he runs into who just happens to tick him off. He has his memories back now, so he's not the person I know...but I still know him better than anyone else. Everyone around is depending on me to find him. I have to go, even if it means putting myself in danger."
Winry was about to protest, but decided against it and closed her mouth. She cast her eyes down to the floor as she blinked hard a few times to let the tears that were tickling her run out. After a few small drops of water appeared on the floor, she finally said, "Okay, I know that there's really nothing else that we can do under the circumstances...but be careful, okay?"
"I'll try, Winry...I seriously will."
Just then, the woman stood up and walked over to Al. "It took me awhile to find this in my bag since my organizational skills are a bit lacking..." she blushed, and then continued, "But I want you to take this." She held something out to Al, which looked to him like a pendant covered with a bunch of symbols. It was attached to a long, leather string. "This is an amulet that was designed especially to help protect one from demons. In case your brother decides to attack you, this will help you to survive his attacks."
Al looked at the amulet in his hand, and then back up at the woman. "I'd rather not wear something that he could accidentally see. After all, if he decides not to harm me at all, he might be hurt that I thought he was going to and needed protection."
"If that's your concern, just carry it in your pocket, then he'll never know unless he tries to attack you."
Al shrugged and gave in, especially when he saw the pleading look that Winry was giving him. He thanked the woman for her help, shoved the amulet in his pocket, and then headed out the door.
"Be careful, Al," said Winry under her breath after Al left, "Please be careful."
Thanks for reading, now please leave a review if you want to see the next chapter. I still have a lot of inspiration for this story, so I'll update really soon if I get some reviews, hint hint. Hope to see you around soon!
