Warning: Angst and Hurt/Comfort (In Scar's sense of comfort, non slash! lol)


Chapter 2: The Ishvalan Part 2

While searching for clues on his father's wearabouts in Liore, Weston Von Elric ran into the Ishvalan he had heard so many stories about, Scar.


The young teen, Weston, and Scar sat down at the table in the dark, cool room. The boy was cradling a mug of cider, finished bowls of stew were stacked up and pushed aside. He looked up at Scar, the man didn't look at all like he thought he would. With his cloak off Weston could see many more details of the man's profile he didn't see before, for example he had a ponytail, and the thin scar that wrapped around his right bicep, the arm that once belonged to his brother, was visible as well. Now that he could fully see both of his arms, Weston realized that Scar actually had a second tattoo on his left arm similar to the one on his right arm, Weston knew that they were transmutation circles of comprehension, deconstruction and reconstruction, but the design was completely foreign to him.

"I don't know if you've heard," Weston began, "but my father-"

"-is missing, yes I know," Scar cut him off, he seemed to like finishing his sentences, was he really that obvious?

"I'm here looking for clues," Weston added, "The cities I have been going to so far, are places where my father could have made enemies, possibly." he explained, his plan to find his father was a good one, but it had many faults.

The plan was to hit every city that his father went to as the Fullmetal Alchemist, and possibly caused a skirmish or made enemies. Down side, his father caused so much trouble everywhere he went during that time, and there were so many people that he fought with. The upside, was that most of those people were either humunculi, in jail, or dead, so that narrowed down many possibilities. Thanks to Fuhrer Mustang, Weston also got a hold of his father's hand written reports of his visits around Amestris. The one that stuck out the most was here, Liore.

Weston explained his plan to Scar, "Of course my sister would have said that this mission was basically to go to a city our father created an enemy and pick a fight until we got some answers, but I don't particularly agree to that one," Weston teased his sister behind her back.

"Why do I have the feeling that your sister is more like Fullmetal than you are?" Scar asked him in all seriousness.

"Retired Fullmetal," Weston corrected, "Oh, and my sister does have more qualities from our father than I do, but I've been told that we both have a good equal amount of both our parent's personalities, so I couldn't say." he shrugged, chuckling to himself, "So, how did you hear about my father's disappearance?"

"Just as everybody else has, through the military, as soon as Fuhrer Mustang found out fullmetal-,"

"-Retired Fullmetal-"

"-was missing he sent out the message to all of the headquarters across Amestris," Scar explained, "I was commanded from Major General Armstrong to the Eastern Headquarters, I was part of a search party afterwards, but we split up along the way, I was told that if I found anything to contact headquarters immediately," he finished, Weston nodded his approval, "I wasn't told much about what happened though," Scar finished, his eyes speaking for what his mouth couldn't.

Weston looked down into his empty mug, his expression darkening, "I need to tell you something," he said hunkered over his mug, "but I can't exactly tell you here," Weston looked up at Scar with knowing eyes.

Scar stood, "I know a good place to rent a room for the night," he said as he lifted the curtain that hid the room from prying eyes. Weston ducked through the curtain to find he was in a pub, thankfully none of the customers payed much attention to them. Scar led Weston through the pub over to the back where the bar table was. The bar was crowded as young men with their hearts in their eyes were trying to woo the waitress that manned the bar. The waitress was a woman, he supposed was around his mothers age, she had brown hair and pink bangs, with dark eyes. Weston soon found out that her name was Rose.

After Scar called her over and whispered into her ear, she gave a very serious nod and called out back to the cook. She said something about two house specials, the cook came out then, nodded at Scar and Weston and motioned them to enter the Kitchen. The Cook was a similarly beefy man, as most men were, with brown hair and a handle bar mustache. Weston followed as the Cook led them to the back of the kitchen where there were two freezers, one freezer door was small, and the other was large. He knocked on the smaller door in a certain pattern that sounded like "shave and a haircut; two bits". The freezer door then opened revealing a young man in brown pants and suspenders.

When Weston went into the freezer, the smaller freezer was lined with fake metal containers, and it wasn't being refrigerated. The young man moved Weston aside and gripped onto one of the wall length shelves, which rolled away revealing a sliding door that was near invisible. The sliding door revealed a dimly lit spiral staircase, the young man didn't even take a moment to go down the stairs, and Weston slid the door closed behind him before following.

The walked down the stairs for a long while, when they finally reached the bottom of the stairs they were in an underground hallway. The hallway suddenly stopped at a blunt edge, after that there was a strange liquid that seemed to be water. Only the liquid had an ominous green tint. The man then turned to scar, nodded and went back up the stairs.

"Ummm okay, Well what are we doing hanging around some poisoned water? You gonna drown me or some-" but Weston was suddenly interrupted when Scar slammed his hand against one side of the cellar wall. Blue sparks erupted and with a crash he blew up a part of the wall concaving it. Weston had never seen Scar's destructive abilities, he only ever heard about it as a child. Weston just stood his eyes bugged out from the trauma.

Scar towered over Weston, "I assume you have adopted some of your father's talent," his guttural voice stated not as a question but as a fact. Weston understood what Scar meant, and with a look of determination he nodded as Scar moved aside to give him some room. Weston then transmuted some of the concave into a smoother surface to step onto, Scar stepped onto the surface, "don't fall in", he warned.

Soon Scar and Weston formed a rhythm of teamwork as they would take turns building their bridge above the poisonous waters.

When they finally reached the end wall of the poisoned reservoir, there was a giant circular hole in the middle of it.

When they went through the hole, Weston found he was in an underground tunnel, with a single set of tracks to carry mining supplies and rock.

"Sooooooo, A tunnel," Weston commented lazily.

"This tunnel was built by a humunculus named Sloth, and was used as transportation for another humunculus named Pride, It circles around all of Amestris," Scar explained, Weston stared down the tunnel, it was pitch black, and he had the sudden urge to shiver, "I know you don't want to be over heard, and it's easy to find prying ears in the back of a bar."

"Y-yeah," Weston stuttered, he didn't know what to say about this tunnel. It was amazingly terrifying and he was lightly disappointed his father didn't tell him about it.

Unexpectedly, Scar did his oppressive towering that he seemed to do often with people, "I think it's time for you to tell me what I don't know," his eyes glowing red.

The Elric Children


The Elric Children

In the dim light of a lantern, Weston faced Scar in the abandoned tunnel, his face grim with a small frown adorning his features. He was nearing the end of his story, explaining what happened on that night. The masked man who kidnapped his sister, and forced Weston's hand at human transmutation. He felt a little weary to inform Scar about his sin, mostly because of the whole killing state alchemists for their sins and such. What if he decided that Weston deserved judgement from God? What if he felt that he shouldn't allow him to live with this sin?

"Scar," Weston called out the man's name for the first time, "I'm sorry," he said bowing his head in shame, his golden bangs hiding his face. Scar had no idea why the boy was apologizing to him, but he just waited patiently for the boy to say what was on his mind.

"What I had transmuted," Weston paused, almost choking on his words, he has never said it, not really no. It was always his sister who would save him the trouble, she would always hold his hand and say it for him when he choked. This wouldn't be easy to say, it was never easy, but this time he had say it himself. He didn't have his little sister to say it for him, "It was fed Philosophers stones," he stated first, lifting his head.

When Scar finally saw the boy's face, it was contorted in horror and fear, "I created a monster," he confessed gripping his hair into his fists, "I was thirteen years old! I was just a kid and that man used me to create a fucking humunculus!" He fell down to his knees, his forehead contorted into the dirt. His wails echoing off of the tunnel walls. He would have thought that actually saying the words would have been a relief, a weight lifted off his shoulders. But he couldn't cope with acknowledging this crime, he felt his Xerxian blood boil painfully beneath his fingers as he thought of the beast. He felt his head pound as his blood followed the law of gravity, making it a heavy lead. He felt so heavy, he never wanted to lift it off the ground ever again. He would have gladly accepted staying in this empty tunnel, forever, until his body would cave and the pain finally stop, until the boil beneath his skin would finally cool.

"Damn it! Damn it all!" he shrieked out, pounding his fist into the dirt, as if that could stop the boil beneath his finger tips. The boy's gold eyes wide and perturbed, his despair darkening his face, "I'm a child," he cried out, almost as though he realized this for the first time, fat tears began to crawl down his forehead and into his hair, "What sort of man makes a child create such a thing!?" he screamed out to nobody in particular, his voice echoed down the walls of the underground tunnel.

Scar watched the child, children were not supposed to shoulder such grief, and he had no idea how to comfort the child of it. He hadn't even tried comforting a child since May Chang, but she was no longer a little girl, and that was a long time ago. He understood why Weston had apologized to him before his confession, but the child had not committed any crime in Scar's eyes. No, this child went through a great injustice. He was so different, and Scar felt indebted to him for past mistakes that he once thought he had already paid the price for. So, Scar said the only thing he knew he could say to ease the child.

"A man who will pay for his sins," he replied to the boy, who froze at his answer, "This masked man will be found, and when he is," Scar's grave voice pierced through the eerie silence of the tunnel, "he will have to atone not only at the hands of God, but by the hands of those he abused for his sins."

The boy looked up at Scar, his intimidating figure stern and powerful, he pointed down at him, "you will be the one to exact such judgement, as you have every right to do so, and on that day, I will be there to ensure that happens."

The silence was deafening, as the boy allowed the weight of his words to sink in. His gold eyes wide as he gazed up at the man who spoke of vigilante justice. The old tunnel surrounded the boy with such a silence, an empty, desolate, silence that filled his ears and mind with impartial equity. It took a while for the boy to calm down, and while he listened to that silence his wails of fury began to change into cries of relief. He finally found the release, the weight was lifted, and his shoulders slumped forward, suddenly feeling light headed. He expressed his relief through his wails, and through his tears he made a groggy laugh.

When he cried himself dry and was finally able to stand, he wiped his face on his shirt, sniffling and hiccuping away his fears. It was then he did something that Scar really wasn't expecting, he looked up and smiled at him. A grateful, happy smile. His eyes were red and his nose was runny, but the boy still smiled, and when he was done wiping his face he looked up again at Scar, "Thank you," he grinned, his cheeks flushed from slight embarrassment and irritation from the cloth of his shirt.

"Yeah well," Scar scratched his chin, suddenly feeling embarrassed, "no problem, kid," he then put his had on the boys head in a comforting gesture. Which the boy welcomed as his smile widened. He wouldn't tell Scar, but he swore in the dim light that the man had actually blushed.

The Elric Children


A/N: okay so that's it for me today :P I was planning on revealing some clues that Scar may have about Ed in this chapter, but when all this angst stuff took it up, i decided to move that whole part for the third part of the Ishvalan trilogy :P

Review! Thanks for reading!