"Transcending All Odds"
Ch. 2
"Good morning, Sensei," Edward greeted, walking in.
Sensei smiled. Good morning to you, Edward. It's good to see you again. How are you and Alphonse doing?"
"We're fine, thanks," Edward replied. He looked over and saw Bryan asleep on the couch. "Who's the kid?"
"I found him unconscious outside my house yesterday. He's been sleeping all this time. The poor thing looked so helpless and alone I just couldn't leave him out there."
"I wonder how he got there… he doesn't look like he's around from here… just look at his hair… it's orange like fire…" Edward reached over and pushed aside a wayward strand of hair that had fell in Bryan's face. "He looks so young… I wonder what he's doing all the way out here on his own," Edward wondered aloud.
Suddenly Bryan yawned and he slowly opened his eyes. When he saw Edward staring at him he screamed and jumped away. "Who are you! What do you want with me!" Bryan cried.
"Whoa, it's okay… I won't hurt you…" Edward tried to calm him down.
"Then what were you doing just staring at me like that?" Bryan was blushing deep red by this time.
"Nothing… I was just checking up on you…" Edward looked away mumbling to himself.
"Oh…" Bryan crawled over to Edward, getting really close. "Thank you…" he said, just before kissing him on the cheek."
Edward's eyes widened in shock and he blushed a bright red. "Wha…?"
Sensei walked in and smiled. "I see he's finally awake. Good, I was starting to get worried."
Bryan looked over at Sensei. "Did you… did you take me in?" He asked.
"Yes, I did. My name is Izumi, but you may call me Sensei."
"Sensei…" Bryan said thoughtfully. He had once heard Azura call Jeckle that, years ago… when he was still teaching her the ways of the Demon race.
"Sensei… why… did you help me…? You didn't have to… yet you did anyway." Bryan looked down.
"How could I not help you? I couldn't just leave you lying there. Now, what is your name?" Sensei asked.
"My name isn't important… but it's Bryan…"
"Well Bryan, here are some new clothes for you to change in to," Sensei laid out white tank top and jeans. "I also have to go in to town to get a few things. Edward here will look after you and help you to change, okay?"
Bryan just nodded and Sensei left. Bryan looked over at Edward and blushed, looking away. "I don't need help…"
"That's fine with me," Edward muttered and he turned away as well, until he heard Bryan take a sharp intake of breath and start to cough. "What's wrong!" He turned back around and gasped.
Bryan was on his hands and knees gasping and coughing up blood. "Why… why is this happening?" He whimpered. "It hurts… so bad… like someone stabbing me in the stomach over and over again…"
"Come on, you have to lie down," Edward said, helping Bryan up and placing him on the couch again. "What happened to you?"
"I remember fighting someone… then he… used a transmutation circle on me and… before I knew it I was… I was looking up at this huge gate and all these black tentacles came for me. I thought I was dead but then I woke up on the ground and then… here…"
"Gate…?" Edward repeated in shock.
"Yeah… I really thought it had… decided to take me back. Considering what I am. I didn't think they could give you a third chance…"
"What…?"
Bryan took his shirt off to reveal a Homunculus tattoo on his abdomen. "Do you… like it Edward? It's the brand of… a monster…" Tears slid down his face. "I just wanted to die…" Bryan coughed again, the blood pouring down his chin. "I just… want peace…"
Edward just watched in horror.
Suddenly Bryan walked over to Edward and took a hold of his right hand and lifted it to his throat. "Kill me Edward… please. It would make me happy to be killed by someone as handsome and kind as you…" Bryan stopped for a second and looked at his arm closer. "You're arm… it's so heavy…"
"That's because its auto mail… an artificial limb. It's a price you pay… for trying to do human transmutation."
Bryan stared at him in horror. "You're… an alchemist?" Bryan backed away from him, shaking. "It's because of alchemists that homunculi are born… Why do you have to be so God damned selfish? Accept our deaths and go on with your God damned lives…" Tears streamed down Bryan's face.
"I should be dead… not alive suffering the guilt of what I did oh so many years ago… and why did my elder sister bring me back to life… for her own selfish reasons… Now she's dead… she killed herself… another selfish act. I hate you all. I—"
Suddenly Edward pulled Bryan in to an embrace. "I'm sorry…"
Bryan's eyes widened in shock, when he found his cheek pressed up against Edward's warm chest. "W-what? I don't…"
"You're right… we are selfish… but we are only human… we don't understand the consequences of what we are doing. But you have to understand… your sister only did what she did because… because she loved you. Like my brother and I loved our mother…"
Bryan breathed in sharply. "You… made a Homunculus of…"
Edmund didn't say anything.
Bryan suddenly pushed him away and looked at him. "You tried to transmute your own mother?" He began to back away shaking. Suddenly he fired a fire ball at Edward.
Edward dodged it but Bryan kept shooting fire ball after fire ball at him, some of them hitting him.
Just then Bryan stopped and he fell to his knees coughing up blood.
Edward walked over and knelt beside Bryan.
"Just get it over with and kill me already… I don't deserve to live…" Bryan cried.
"No… I won't… I won't kill you," Edward said solemnly. "I don't want to take another's life."
Bryan looked up at him, tears streaming down his face with a look of rage. "Damn you! Just kill me! I want to… I want to die!" He cried.
"No…"
Bryan growled. "Bastard…!" He cried, slapping him. He bowed his head shaking and suddenly he slumped over in a faint.
Edward sighed, wiping away the tears that had started to slip down his face.
§§§
Bryan woke up to the sound of the clock chiming. He was still alive. Bryan looked down to see his clothes had been changed. The clothes smelled of Edward. He suddenly remembered the look on Edward's face when Bryan had asked him to kill him. Edward had looked so sad… so full of pity.
Bryan sat up and sighed. He went to run his hand through his hair but he found it was bound in a pony tail. "Why… why are you being so kind?" Bryan thought.
Suddenly there came a knock at the door. Bryan looked around and when he saw that no one was around he got up and answered the door. "Yes, can I help you?" He blinked confused when he saw no one was there. He suddenly looked down to see a small bundle of some sort.
Bryan picked it up. Attached to it was a note which read: "For a fellow Homunculus. Eat up."
He arched an eye brow confused and opened the bundle to find little red stones. "Are… these the stones my sister wrote about?" Bryan whispered. He slipped one in his mouth and found it tasted good. He then began to eagerly scarf down the rest.
"That's right, eat them all up," Trent, the vampire lord, chuckled, watching from the shadows.
"Aren't we going to nab him yet?" Envy asked impatiently.
"Not yet, my dear Envy. We need to take our time. First we gain his trust and then we get him," Trend explained.
"Okay, it's your plan."
§§§
Gerald walked down the road, Azura trailing behind him. "Come now, Azura, pick up the pace," Gerald said, looking back at her.
She groaned. "But… I'm just so hungry! We've been walking for miles and we still haven't found a house! I'm starved!" Just to prove her point her stomach growled.
"Azura, you just have to get used to it. When I lived with my father, there were times when I would go for a week without being fed."
Azura just groaned. "That's it, I can't go on!" Azura collapsed to the ground. "Just leave me, Gerald. Go save yourself!"
Gerald sighed, rolling his eyes. "Huh?" Gerald looked over to see a young boy with dirty blond hair tied in a pony tail and a red coat staring at them. "Um…"
"Do you need some help?"
Azura looked up and smiled. "Yes! We haven't had food for almost two days!" She cried, crawling over to the boy and grabbing on to the collar of his coat.
"Actually, it's only been twelve hours since the last we ate…" Gerald simply stated.
Azura turned around glaring at him. "Shut up."
The young boy laughed. "Sure, come with me. My name is Alphonse Elric by the way, what's yours?"
"Well," Azura said, hopping up, "I'm glad you asked. My name is Azura Nagomii, renowned half-demon goddess. You've probably already heard of me."
"Um, not really…"
Azura fell over with a loud thud. "Oh what a cruel world…"
"Granny, we're home!"
"Welcome back Alphonse dear," Granny, a short old woman, said coming in to the room.
When Azura and Gerald went inside they saw a man with an 'x' shaped scar on his forehead, a woman with brown hair and pink bangs holding a child and a young girl with blond hair and bandana.
The five just stared at each other until Alphonse finally piped up, "Everyone this is Gerald and Azura. She says she's a renowned half-demon goddess where she comes from. Gerald, Azura, this is Scar, Rose, and Winry."
Suddenly Scar got up, glaring at Azura.
Gerald stood in front of her and placed his hand on his gun. "Don't worry Azura, if he tries to attack I can take him on," he whispered to Azura.
"Move aside… Gerald… I do not wish to harm you, but if you insist on getting in my way I will have to eliminate you. If she is what she says she is… a demon… then she goes against Ishbala Himself."
"I'm sorry, but I won't let you harm my lover," Gerald growled. "And if you insist on trying to kill her," Gerald pulled his gun on Scar, "Then let me send you to your so-called God."
"You dare pull that on me?" Scar grabbed Gerald's arm. "May Ishbala, pass judgment on you..." Suddenly Gerald's arm exploded up to just a little past the elbow.
Gerald's eyes went wide in shock and he just stood there for a second. He looked down at where his arm once was and he placed his other hand over the end of it while the blood poured on to the floor. Finally he screamed out in pain falling to his knees.
"Scar, stop this now!" Alphonse cried.
"Please Scar, don't," Winry pleaded. "I thought you promised you would never do this again."
Granny went over to Gerald to assist him, wrapping a cloth around his arm to try to stop the bleeding.
Scar didn't say anything and grabbed Azura by the face and lifted her up. "Now, let Ishbala pass judgment on you!"
"Shut up… just shut up…" Azura whispered, tears sliding down her face. "I didn't come this far just to be killed by someone like you. You think just by killing people you think you're passing judgment down on them?"
Scar just frowned at her.
"You're just like Gerald when I first met him… only with freaky powers. You think your so high and mighty… but where will you go… when you die? It sure as Hell isn't going to be heaven. I know I'm going to Hell… I've accepted that as my fate… I'm not delusional like you!"
Scar growled and was just about to kill her when suddenly he felt Rose wrap her arms around his waist.
"Please! Stop this violence now!" She started to sob. "Please my love, stop this at once! I don't want to see anyone get killed…"
Scar stood there, frozen and silent. Then finally he let Azura drop to the floor. "I'm sorry, Rose…" he whispered.
Azura crawled over Gerald. "Oh God… I can't fix this… the arm has been completely destroyed!" She cried.
"Well Winry, looks like we'll have to fix him up a new arm," Granny said.
"Wha-what…?" Azura asked.
"We'll have to give him an automail. Come on Winry, let's get him fixed up before he dies of blood loss," Granny said and she and Winry help him up and took him away to get bandaged up.
Azura stood up and looked at Scar. Then suddenly she walked up to him, punching him in the face. "Bastard…! I should kill you for harming Gerald…"
"Azura, don't…" Alphonse said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Why not…? He attacks people he doesn't even know! How could you just let him live in your home!"
"I…"
"First… first my best friend kills herself… then her younger brother is transmuted to some crazy place… now this! I can't, fucking stand it anymore! Everywhere I go… everyone I love gets hurt… and always at the hands of you, bastards!" Azura cried, pointing at Scar.
"So what if I'm a demon…! I believe in God… and I know… this isn't how he gets his work done. What kind of God do you worship!
"I have tried my hardest to be a good person... I really have… and I don't need a person I just met to tell me how much of an evil person I am! You don't know anything! You just don't!"
"Come now, my dear. Gerald is asking for you," Granny said, pulling her away.
"Gerald… I'm here…" Azura said, walking to Gerald's side and sitting down in the chair next to him. She took a hold of his remaining hand and squeezed it gently.
"That Scar…" he chuckled, "is amazing…"
"What…?" Azura breathed.
"I remember when I was exactly like that… talking of God all the time… when I still believed in God that is. When I was young, I thought I was doing exactly that… passing on his judgment and all that shit..." Gerald chuckled again. "Maybe… maybe I was fated to lose my arm… so I could never shoot another human being ever again." Suddenly tears started to leak out of his eyes. "It's funny… I can still feel my arm…" Gerald closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep.
"What do you want?" Azura suddenly asked.
Scar walked in to the room. "I am… sorry… I know nothing I say will ever make up for what I've done but…"
"Just shut up, okay?" Azura said, without turning around. "I don't want to hear your apologies. I want to see them… for actions speak louder than words. Do you think by making some heart felt speech about how sorry you are, I'll forgive you for harming Gerald and trying to kill me?"
"No… I wasn't expecting that at all. But if there is a way…"
"Equivalent exchange, Scar… ever heard of it?"
"I…"
"It's when you give something up in exchange for something else. I want something from you in exchange for you taking away Gerald's arm." Azura stood up and walked towards Scar.
Scar just stood there watching her.
"Stand still, and don't move," she said and suddenly she began punching him continually, Scar just standing there and taking it.
§§§
Gerald lay on the operating table, wires and tubes everywhere.
"Okay… Alphonse, you hold his legs down and Azura you hold down his arm while Winry attaches the automail," Granny instructed.
"Don't worry… I… can take whatever pain that comes my way…" Gerald said.
"Let's just hope so…" Granny muttered. "On the count of three now…! One… two… three…!"
Winry attached the arm and suddenly a blinding pain shot up Gerald's body. He gritted his teeth and his hand clenched and unclenched in to a fist. Sweat beaded down his forehead and it took all his will not to scream out in total agony.
"Hang in there Gerald, it's almost over…" Granny reassured.
Suddenly Gerald's vision began to blur and before he knew it everything had gone black.
§§§
Gerald slowly opened his eyes and found Azura sleeping with her head resting on his chest. He smiled and without knowing, gently stroked her face with his right arm. He breathed in seeing the new metallic arm. It felt so natural… just like his real arm.
"Do you like it?" Winry asked, walking in to the room. "I made it myself."
"Thank you… so much… you've been so kind to me. You truly are amazing," Gerald said.
Winry blushed. "You're welcome… it was the least we could do… I'm sorry about Scar. We had really thought he had gotten over his old ways…"
"Don't worry… I believe it was fate… nothing more… you tell him… that I don't hate him. How can I hate someone… when I was once like that oh so many years ago?"
"How old are you?"
"A lot older than you, my dear…"
"I hope you don't mind me asking but… where did you get all those scars on your body?"
"You don't want to know…." And once again Gerald's eyes drifted closed and he fell asleep.