Amestris hadn't moved from the spot he had sat at, still feeling rather dazed.
Those two... were they his citizens? But why had one of them looked like him? Did they have something to do with the gap in his memory?
He gave a small sniffle. Why couldn't he remember?! What happened to him?! Even England didn't know what happened to him!
Getting to his feet, Amestris made his way to the main street in hopes of finding the others, picking up his pace as he did so.
But... even as he ran, the throbbing pain in his chest refused to fade.
0o0
Hohenheim honestly didn't know what puahed him to return to Amestris. He just had a feeling he should be there or he'd miss something important.
Whether or not it was the good kind of important, or the bad kind, he wasn't sure.
Hohenheim really hoped that he wasn't wrong about this and that he wasn't just wasting precious time here that cpuld be used to try and find his eldest son.
Even though he hadn't had much luck with that for the past fifteen years.
But as Hohenheim had learnt from past experience, luck could change with just the turn of a hat-
All of a sudden, the former resident of the Kingdom of Xerxes staggered backwards as a blur barreled straight into him. He was not expecting this, since the road he was on was practically deserted even though it still a decent time.
"What on earth...?" Hohenheim stammered, seeing the small boy who had literally ran into him fell onto the dusty ground, dazed, with the wind knocked out of him.
"Ouch... I'm gonna feel that for awhile..." The boy complained slightly, holding his head in pain.
Gold eyes looked up at Hohenheim-
"Gold eyes?" Hohenheim found himself wondering, before his breath hitched sharply.
He found himself thinking that someone with possible Xerxian heritage in their blood would have been less unexpected than running into a child who looked like the splitting image of his eldest son.
Seriously, what were the chances of something like that?
"You're a Xerxian." The boy stated in a casual tone. It wasn't phrased as a question, but was stated as a fact. "You're one of mother's."
As if that wasn't confusing. Another added mystery, he supposed. One of his mother's?
That puzzling statement aside, Hohenheim had this absurd notion that he had met this boy somewhere before. And no, he was not thinking about this boy's uncanny likeness to his son.
In fact, this boy actually reminded Hohenheim of a child he had met when he was still a teenager.
And that someone ended up sharing a rather disturbing similarity to Hohenheim's son, who now also shared this now extremely disturbing likeness to the child in front of him.
Actually, Hohenheim had met someone else back at Resembool a few decades back at that small dancing event who looked like this boy as well.
... Come to think of it, this was getting rather complicated.
Hohenheim sincerely hoped this was just another case of coincidences, and not a case of reincarnation.
Because that would mean Edward died, and frankly, that was honestly not a thought he liked to entertain that much. And he was fairly certain that Alphonse would throttle him for suggesting something like that.
However, something in Hohenheim's gut told him that neither of the above mentioned was the case -foretunately- in this particular dilemma.
But if not, then what was he missing?
Hohenheim just about fainted when the child in front of him opened his mouth again to speak.
"Thanks for helping avenge mother. I knew the Homunculus was a bad idea."
Hohenheim's eyes widened to almost comical proportion from behind his glasses.
A woman dressed in fine robes was screaming-
A child pleading the woman not to go-
It clicked.
But by then, the child was gone, as if he had never been there in the first place.
That boy... he couldn't possibly be that child from all those years ago, could he?
But then again, in the words of Greed,
Nothing is impossible.
0o0
"You remind me of one of my friends."
"He came to learn Alchemy with me. I wouldn't be surprised if he's learning again in an endless cycle of reincarnation."
"Eternity isn't as pleasant as people believe it to be. No, it's nothing good. It's just plain torture."
"No, it's just... painful. I think about that word plenty of times... And... I sometimes wonder if I'll be missed."
"I hope you find what you're looking for, Hohenheim of the Light."
"Good luck. You'll need it."
0o0
"Alfred!" A small body collided with America's with a quiet 'oof!', before the former landed unceremoniously on his rear.
America lit up upon seeing the nation he had previously been searching for, before picking him up and crushing him in a hug, nearly crying with relief.
"Dude! I thought I lost you!" The American dramatically wailed, still oblivious to Amestris's quickly turning blue face.
"Alfred-san, is that you?" With a girly, rather high pitched shriek that America would later deny, he dropped Amestris, spinning around to meet the calm gaze of a certain Japanese man.
"Kiks! What are you doing in Amestris?" Alfred laughed nervously, doing a rather poor job at acting casual which was already suspicion.
Japan's face remained neutral as always, although it could be seen that the shorter nation was tempted to raise an eyebrow at America's poor acting skills that could apparently only need decent in a dire situation. This situation, however, was obviously not dire enough.
"Konnichiwa, I would greet formerly, but I do not have time. We have a situation on our hands, and that involves this Amestris-san's country." Japan reached into his coat's pocket, pulling out the article from Amestris's newspaper which brought him to the country in the first place.
America took one look at the paper before he freaked out, nearly pulling his hair out in a fit of hysteria.
Japan honestly wasn't sure how he should respond to the hysterical nation was practically on the floor by this point of time.
Before he could decide what to do about the American who was almost foaming at the mouth, Japan caught sight of a smaller blond boy who was busy poking the currently comatose Westerner.
"Sumimasen, but, who are you?" Japan asked the small blond curiously, who looked up at the Asian man to meet his gaze.
Japan felt himself freeze at the sight of gold eyes. Impossible, the only people he knew with gold eyes were the now deceased Xerxes and the currently MIA Amestris.
The Japanese nation hardly felt genuinely shocked about anything, other than his discovery of nakedness in Western culture, and the fact France ate snails of all things, but Japan could easily say that meeting a little boy who looked like Amestris was a little too much for his heart to take.
If he was as old as China, he'd probably have a heart attack right there and then.
Suddenly, Japan really wished he knew where Italy had run off to with Germany chasing after him. It would have been nice to have some normalcy around.
Well, at least as normal as it could have gotten with Italy around. Japan had never met someone who loved Pasta more than his own life, and constantly announced it wherever he went. Not to mention stripping in public because he felt 'hot' and that he was Italian so all the 'chicks' 'dig it', whatever that meant.
"...are you okay?" Japan snapped himself out of his thoughts, turning his attention back to the boy. "You kinda just blanked out for a moment there."
"Ah... gomen, I have a lot of things on my mind." Japan apologised, embarrassed. "Are you here with Alfred-san?"
"Naw, he's the one who's tagging along. I'm here with my brother, and Alfred dragged Mattie along on this. Francy came cause' he wanted to bother big brother." Amestris honestly said.
Japan nodded, considering this information. "I see... ano... would your brother happen to be Arthur-san?"
Amestris opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a loud explosion rocked itself through Central City, sending debris flying.
At the exact same moment, Amestris dropped to the ground, crying out in pain as he kicked and clawed at his chest, blood seeping through his shirt and dribbling out of his mouth. His pained cries really hit Japan hard.
He was only little kid...!
Japan watched this in horror for a few more brief seconds before he immediately rushed to tend to smaller boy.
Wait, not a boy. His reaction to the explosion had only confirmed what Japan had believed. Nations got injured of someone tried to attack the country.
That boy was Amestris, if not, why else was he hurt when Amestris was under attack?
America who had snapped out of his semi hysterical state from earlier, could only offer the smaller nation emotional support as Amestris cried out in pain.
Amestris's hand gripped at the ground, as if looking for comfort, so America took the Amestrian nation's hand in his own.
"It hurts..." Amestris whimpered, breaking America's heart. The American wasn't by any terms as over protective as England was, but damn, it still hurt.
"Al..." Amestris was saying, almost deliriously. But before America could say anything, the younger nation spoke again.
"Alphonse... it hurts." America's mouth opened and closed, as if he was imitating a goldfish, but no words would come.
Why was Amestris asking for that man they had met earlier on the train?
"Alfred! What happened?!" Speak of the Devil, Alphonse was there, looking utterly frazzled and panicked the moment he laid eyes on Amestris's wounded form.
He didn't wait for America to respond though. He rushed right to Amestris's side, pulling out a piece of chalk from his pocket before drawing a Transmutation circle for alkahestry.
Japan knew what Alkahestry was, so he moved out of the way and let Alphonse do what he could.
Blue light lit the chalk circle up, carefully knitting the wound over Amestris's heart up. Sweat dripped down the Alphonse's temple as he concentrated, biting his lip nervously.
He nearly lost focus, however, when Amestris looked up at him with bleary eyes. "It hurts... not again... Al... it failed...the Transmutation... why did it...?"
Oh Truth, Alphonse concentrated on healing Amestris, but the same thought was running through his head. He knows. He knows about that night. He really is my brother."Truth, you bastard..." Amestris muttered deliriously once more before promptly passing out.
"EDWARD!" England arrived at the scene, but Alphonse turned away. He didn't want to see this. The burning jealousy in his chest just made the realisation worse.
His brother really didn't remember him.
His brother had a new family.
Wow, that hurt more than Alphonse thought it would.
But... after what happened here, Edward had recognised Alphonse, even if he was delirious at the time. That gave Alphonse hope.
Maybe his brother would remember him...
He wasn't too selfish for wishing that...
Right?
0o0
Elsewhere, somewhere in the country, a man smirked.
"So it begins."
[A/N OH MY GOODNESS, I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO GET THIS OUT EVEN THOUGH IT'S ALREADY PAST MIDNIGHT!
So yes! It is I, and I have returned! Sorry about the delay, I was busy drowning myself in the Blue Exorcist fandom, and lamenting over the fact there is no season 3. I swear I'm going to shoot something if season 3 will never exist.
And just one question, was this chapter a bit rushed? I can't really tell.
Well anyway, thanks for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed it!
See you guys next time!
~ Gwntan12]
