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Alphonse's revelation was met by several screams. It wasn't the first time he'd received such a reaction. Still, Al had been hoping these kids would be different somehow. After all, if they believed in magic, how much of a stretch was a talking suit of armor?
"Please don't be scared. I know it's kind of strange, but—"
A bright light shot out of the girl—Hermione's—wand. Naturally, Alphonse assumed that her "spell" would not affect him, just as Ron's hadn't. In a sense he was right to think so, unfortunately this spell wasn't supposed to affect him, per say. Alphonse realized this too late when he saw a series of ropes (what?!) wrap themselves around his arms and legs. He dropped his helmet in shock and it toppled to the floor.
"How did you do that?" he asked in horror. "You…you can't do that!"
"What's he talking about?"
"The ropes…they came out of nowhere…how…? The mass, where did it come from? You can't create something from nothing, it's supposed to be impossible." How could they have just completely rewritten the law of Equivalent Exchange? Nobody could do that unless they had a…
"You're empty," Ron's voice seemed unsure of the words he was speaking. The redhead stepped forward glanced downward into the armor. He stuck his hand inside and waved it around, as if expecting to find an invisible person inside. "There's really nothing inside you," he said again, probably hoping that changing the words slightly would make the situation easier to swallow.
"Ron, get away from him. It could be dangerous. Harry, you stand guard. Ron and I will unpack." Harry grunted.
"I'm not dangerous," Alphonse insisted.
Harry ignored him. His eyes were cold and unsympathetic. Al tried to speak a few more times, but was only met with the same result. He wished he'd been paired with Ron or the girl.
Getting bored with his current situation, he began testing out the ropes to examine their strength and was pleasantly surprised to find that he could easily break through them.
"How the hell did you break through?" Harry, who seemed to have dozed off on his watch, was suddenly alert and terrified. Alphonse knew he could easily take the teen, but he didn't want to hurt anybody if he could avoid it. He needed to the find the other two and explain his situation properly, but Harry was having none of it.
"HERMIONE, COME OUT HERE! THE THING…IT ESCAPED!"
The bushy-haired girl burst through one of the doors, wand drawn. Al then felt the distinct sensation of falling forward but for some reason he could not right himself. In fact, he couldn't move at all.
Harry looked just as surprised as Alphonse felt. "What did you cast?" he asked Hermione.
The bushy-haired girl spoke quickly, with a distinctly nervous edge to her tone. "Agedimio. It's basically petrificus totalus for inanimate objects. It's the best I could do under the circumstances. I've never said it before, so I don't know how long it lasts."
"What do we do when it wears off?"
"We have to immobilize him. I can produce ropes, but he might be able to break through them. Err…give me a second; I think I have an idea." She furrowed her brow, as if deep in thought. "I've got it," she announced after a few seconds. Turning to Alphonse, the girl whispered, "Memboro Ungula."
With several distinct popping sounds, Alphonse's metal limbs were removed from their sockets. Alphonse couldn't really feel, so he couldn't exactly say it "hurt," but there was something undeniably disconcerting about being broken apart. The shocked boy continued to watch in awe and horror as Hermione and her friends proceeded to scatter the pieces around the room and reinforce each joint with more freezing spells, sending Al's proprioception into chaos and disarray.
Finding his voice, Al tried to call out. "What…what are you doing?!"
The three teenagers jumped in alarm. With Ron's spell concentration ruined, one of his arms came clattering to the ground. The redhead frowned and recast his "wingardium leviosa."
"He can still talk?" whispered Harry in awe.
"Makes sense. He doesn't really have vocal chords. His voice is coming from a different source altogether. Come on, help me move his arm—no, don't touch it. You don't know what kind of curses could be attached."
"Curses?" Alphonse repeated. What was happening? Why were these people taking him apart? "Ron," he tried to call out to the redhead. Weasley cringed at the sound of his name. "Ron, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I had no idea you'd react like…like this. Please, I promise I don't want to hurt anybody. I just need to get back home." He wished that he had waited for a more opportune time to break out of his bonds.
Ron's eyes refused to meet any part of the armor. "Sorry 'bout this, Al," he whispered. "We can't take any chances."
"Sorry?!" Harry practically shrieked. "You bring that…that thing in here and you say you're sorry to it?!"
Alphonse felt like crying. Never before had he received such a terrible reaction. Had he known, he'd have never taken his helmet off in the first place.
And to make matters worse, Ron was being blamed for it. "Please don't be mad at Ron," his voice sounded shaky even though he lacked any physical components to make it waver. "He was just trying to help me. He had no idea I was…like this."
Harry huffed and folded his arms.
"Take the horcrux off," Hermione suggested. Her voice was also shaking slightly. She sounded scared. "It's affecting your behavior."
"You know damn well that I have every right to be upset with this bastard," hissed the black-haired boy. He turned to address Alphonse. "Alright, Horcrux, we know what you are so you can drop the act."
"Horcrux?"
Ron made his way over to Hermione. "You know, I really don't think he's dangerous…"
"Horcruxes can be charming, Ronald. Remember the diary?"
Ron's face fell as he suppressed what looked like a disgusted shudder. Whatever Hermione had mentioned certainly had an effect on him because the redhead stopped protesting and simply settled for viewing Alphonse with a nervous gaze.
"What diary?" Al's voice grew more frantic when he realized that they were ignoring him. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about! Please put me back together. I'll leave you alone, I promise. Please! M-my brother needs me..."
"Brother?" Harry repeated.
"It might be an artificial memory," Hermione concluded, looking the armor over. "I don't know much about their creation process…did Dumbledore mention anything that might allude to this?"
Harry hesitated and Ron snorted. "Lovely. Just another little detail the old man omitted, I suppose?"
No. No, Alphonse was not going down that road again. His memories were definitely real. "It's not artificial! He's real and I need to get back to him. And my friends…they have no idea the Briggs has been taken over. I have to warn them." It was hard to conjure up words. Al had never been in this many pieces before and he found it completely disorienting.
Ron's eyes shined with pity, but the other two were unyielding.
This wasn't looking good for him. There had to be some way to persuade them, though. They were just kids, after all. They didn't seem like bad people. Alphonse refused to give up. He had to get to the others. He just had to. Nobody else could make it through the snowstorm. "Tell me about these horcruxes. If I can help you guys in any way, I will. I at least have a right to know why you did this to me, don't I?"
"'Mione, I really don't think he's lying. We should at least try to talk to him. He's not going anywhere, after all."
Hermione sighed. "I admit he sounds genuine. But think about this logically. If You-Know-Who wanted to create something difficult to destroy, what better way to do it than get us to sympathize with it? That being said, it doesn't really seem like his style…" She turned to Harry. "Is your scar bothering you?"
"It's always bothering me," he grumbled.
"I mean more than usual?"
"Not especially, no."
Ron grinned. "You see? Maybe there's a different reason he's like this. We don't know for sure that he's a—"
Harry stood up from his chair. "Are you actually defending it?!"
It? Alphonse wondered. Did the boy really think that lowly of him?
"All I'm saying is that we haven't heard his side of the story yet. Give him a chance, will you? We have no way of really knowing that he's a horcrux." He turned to Al. "Are you a horcrux?"
"That depends…what exactly a horcrux?"
The three looked at each other as if debating whether to confide in a potentially dangerous stranger. Eventually, Hermione stepped forward. "It's a soul magically bound to an inanimate object as a way to cheat death." The girl's eyes suddenly grew dark. "The binder, of course, has to pay a terrible price."
That sounded pretty accurate, actually. Almost uncannily accurate. Not in a position to lie, he decided to come clean. "I might be one," Al admitted. "But Brother didn't use magic. He used alchemy. I mean, there's no such thing as real magic. I'm guessing this Dark Lord you guys are fighting also made one?"
"We think he made seven." Harry shot Ron a look of annoyance, not at all thrilled with the other boy's eagerness to share information with the enemy.
"S-seven? How? What else could he possibly have to give?" Alphonse couldn't even imagine the kind of person who would have to bind seven souls. Perhaps it was a big accident and he needed to save several people. But then why would these three be fighting him? They seemed like pretty nice people, even if the black-haired boy didn't trust him. "I mean, I'm sure he had a reason…"
"See?" Harry threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "He's trying to justify murder!"
"Murder? No! I never said anything like that. I've never killed anybody before. Neither has Brother."
"I've had enough of this," growled Harry. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room."
Hermione, who looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, ran after him, telling Ron to watch Alphonse.
"Fantastic. I brought you here so that I wouldn't have to be the babysitter, and look how well that turned out." He crossed his arms and slumped into a chair, his eyes never leaving the suit of armor.
"I'm sorry," Alphonse said. "I didn't mean to make him upset."
"Don't apologize. That dodgy locket messes with whoever wears it." His eyes moved up and down the empty torso, Alphonse was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
"What does it feel like?" he asked suddenly.
"What does what feel like?"
"You know," he motioned to him. "Being like that." His ears went pink. "Never mind. I guess if you weren't really ever a person, you would know."
"I am a person, though. That's what I've been trying to tell you. My brother bound my soul to this suit of armor to keep me alive when I was ten. There…there was an accident. Brother was so brave, though…"
"Is this the same brother who works for the military?"
"Yeah. Edward. He's just…amazing."
Ron snorted. "Can't see how someone who would turn you into that could be so amazing."
"Brother did it to save my life! If he hadn't acted so he quickly, The Gate would've…" his voice faltered. The Gate! Flashes of memories suddenly filled Alphonse's mind. Two large doors. A mocking white figure. An emaciated body. His body. He had tried to reach for it and then…
"The doors opened," he recalled in horror, not realizing that he was voicing his thoughts aloud. "The arms…they reached for me and Truth said something about a different world…so I time-traveled." Al wondered if his brother was still alive and if he had been searching for him all this time. He felt guilty, knowing that Ed would put the blame on himself if Al didn't reach the little Xingese girl and the others.
He tried desperately to search his mind to see if Truth had told him anything else helpful, anything at all that would give him a clue about where he was. But what if Edward had left Amestris? Al let out a little gasp as a terrifying thought occurred to him. What if Amestris didn't exist anymore? It could happen. Countries changed borders all the time. Was that why nobody here had heard of it? Still, something didn't fit. Surely Amestris would at least show up in history books. It was, after all, a major world power during his time.
"Alphonse!" from the nervousness in Ron's voice it sounded like he had been calling his name several times without receiving a response.
"Sorry. What is it?" Al snapped out of his daze. He noticed that Hermione was standing next to him and looking directly at his blood seal. Did she know what it meant? No. That was impossible. How could she?
Ron gave Hermione a little nudge and she cleared her throat. "I just went through my encyclopedia—"
"Which, for some unfathomable reason, she decided to take on our horcrux hunt," Ron interjected, earning a glare from the girl.
"I just went through my encyclopedia," Hermione repeated. "And I can't find any mention of Amestris. Can you describe where it is on the map?" She opened the book to a blue and green page that labeled hundreds of countries Alphonse had never heard of.
"This can't be right," the armor breathed. "The continents are all distorted. They're all the right shapes, but they're in the wrong places! Xing should be further north and…and Creta doesn't stick out like that…" There was no way the earth's plates could have shifted so dramatically in eighty-two years. Something was seriously wrong.
A different world, Truth had said. Could he have really meant…?
Suddenly it all made sense. The strange place names, the misunderstandings, the lack of alchemy.
He wasn't just in the wrong time. He was in the wrong world.
krilavti: Those were my thoughts too. I'm glad you like my Harry and Hermione.
Sincerely The Sign Painter: Thanks.
Breyannia: Yeah, I'm sort of hypocrite when it comes to cliffhangers myself. I hate it when writers use them, but I use them all the time.
*Ambiguity in D Major: It's at the point when Al set out by himself in the snow storm to warn Mei, Yoki, Marco, and Scar (?) that General Armstrong had ben transferred from the Briggs and Central was sending in their own people. Since Alphonse wouldn't be affected by the cold, he decided to meet them on the other side of the tunnel and warn them.
Harrys_woman: You're right. Alphonse really does bring out the best in people. Also, to b fair, it's not exactly difficult to see the good in an adorable kitten-sized panda bear, regardless of whether or not it bites.
Suzululu_4_moe: Yep. I was originally planning on having Al phone Dudley's friend Piers Polkiss, but I figured that would be too obscure of a reference. As for your other point, I intend to avoid pairings for the most part in this story because I'm not very good at writing them. I may hint at romantic interest between characters, but I doubt I'll do anything further.
The_Awesome_Us: Considering that there are My original plan was to have Piers Polkiss, a member of Dudley's gang, pick up the phone, but I decided that would be a little too obscure for the average fan to pick up on.
xo._skyla: Thank you for reviewing. Hopefully their response was satisfactory.
urs-v: Thanks. I'm glad you like it.
Aijay: I can probably fit a character in the background at some point. It depends on how long I plan on making this story.
FullMetal_Panic: Wow. First of all, that you for writing a mega-sized review. I don't think I've ever gotten one so long before. I'm thrilled that you like it and really appreciate how thorough you were in your review. I only hope I can keep up my standard if I'm going to be worthy of such praise. I am especially pleased that you enjoyed the philosophical exchange between Ron and Alphonse because I was a bit worried that readers would lose interest with so much dialogue and so little action. As for the snatchers, they never really played a big part in the books. They're basically rogue wizards during the seventh book who try to make money by kidnapping muggle borns and handing them over to Death Eaters.