Chapter 2

he opened his eyes again... was he dead? he didn't... feel dead...then again, he wouldn't know what dead felt like either. He looked around and saw nothing for miles and miles. Well, his head still moved, he rolled over onto his back, it felt like the rest of his body was there... death didn't seem that bad so far. He sat up and realized that his arms were back... and he even had his own right arm again! no butt-ugly tattoo! hell, death was better than life was!

he laughed a litttle as he looked at his arms in amazement then realized something else... he also wasn't wearing anything...oooooooooooooookaaaaayyyyyyy... well, so long as there was nobody else there it was okay...just...very cold. then he looked in front of him and a huge, black, door loomed in front of him... his notion about death being better than life was very quickly deteriorating.

"welcome, scarred man..." a million voices from all around him said in unison. he jumped and instantly drew his knees up to his chest... a feeble attempt to cover himself up. Great, not only was he sitting butt-naked in the middle of nowhere with a big, scary, ominous door looming over him but nowthere were people looking at him sitting butt-naked in the middle of nowhere with a big, scary, ominous door looming over him! not to mention the fact that he was now offically DEAD really didn't help the situation.

he looked around again but there was still nobody there... hell, this was the sort of thing he had nightmares about in middleschool... he really wasn't looking foreward to their return.

"might I ask who's watching me?" he called to...whatever it was that was offically scaring the crap out ofhim now.

"I/we have many names... 'Truth' 'All' 'One' 'Universe' 'Creator' 'Destroyer' 'Alpha' 'Omega' 'God' 'Satin' 'Allah' 'Bealzebub' 'Yahweh' 'The Ultimate''The Void''Me' 'You'" the voices chanted the names in unison like they had rehearsed it or something. the ishbalan man didn't have the patience to listen to all of it... not in this situation anyway. he shouted in the middle of their chanting, "SHOW YOURSELVES, COWARDS!" the voices instantly scilenced.

he looked around again, and twisted his head over his shoulder best he could without...well... revealing anything.

"But ultimately, I am what you would call Ishbala..." a male voice said from in front of him. his head snapped back to the front and what he saw wouldn't have been believeable if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. It looked like someone had molded a child out of shadows... it sat in front of the door legs folded indian-style. It looked familiar somehow but he couldn't recall where he'd ever seen it's face before. "what did you say to me?" he asked it. It moved now, it stood and put one hand on it's hip, "I told you, mortal, I'm the one you would know as Ishbala... sorry if I don't quite live up to your expectations." it said with thematured voice of an adult but the mocking tone of a child.

The scarred man glared "do not mock me by saying you are my god... you're nowhere even close... you're so ignorant it's sickening." the shadow child/man looked at him for a moment then it's lips parted into a wide, curling, white-toothed grin. "really? you think I'm that ignorant? well, let's explore that notion a little..." it put it's hands behind it's back and began walking slowly towards him,

"you were born at home because your family didn't have the money to go to a hospital, your father's name was Jack, your mother's name was Sasha, both died of an illness that you still cannot name, (it was called scarlet fever, by the way)your brother's name was Eiji (shortened version of Elijah),your dog's name was Andy even though tit was a female, your goldfish that lived three days was named Slimy, you were ten when the Ishbal war started, the reason your hair turned white at age fifteen was because you saw your two best friends murdered and the third commit scuicide, your brother was turned into a eunich after the transmutaion and slowly began to loose his mind, you have an unnatural fear of pandas, for a reason beyond your knowledge you like the smell of wet dog, (by the way it's because it reminds you of Andy), you hate the fact that the military gave you the name 'Scar' because you think it's the corniest bad guy name ever,and your latest love interest has been-"

"ENOUGH! all right... I believe you" he said, cutting it off before it said more than he wanted to hear.

"good, now that I have your attention... I figure there's a few things you should know... first off, you body isn't dead." it said casually returning to the door and leaning against it. Scar looked at him/it/whatever-the-hell-it-was wide-eyed. "wha? how?"

"well, to be frank, I like you, Scarface... you're entertaining... I didn't feel like TOTALLY ending your life just then... but, then again I figgured you should have a choice. you see, as long as your body is alive, you, the spirit (that's why you're naked by the way, souls don't have clothing), can go into one of two places... one: the 'holding pen' as I like to call it" it said jabbing it's thumb at the giant gate"and wait for your soul to be re-born into the flow of the world (which can take a mellenia at most, a lifetime at least.) or two: you can go take over your alternate's body, then you may have a chance of reuniting with that love intrest I was talking about... afterall, a certan Edward Elric happens to be on earth right now as well.. he owes you quite alot dosn't he? with the right persuasion I'm sure he'd be happy to help you wrench the gate open... or at least he'd like that a WHOLE lot better than whatever wrath you're sure to unleash upon him."

"wait... what do you mean alternate?" he asked still reaaaaaaaaaaaaally not trusting the thing. "think of him as your twin... oh don't worry, it's not like he'd die for your convenience, he'd simply take up residence in your body untill you found a way back."

Scar thought for a long moment then nodded, "allright, I'll take those odds..."

another toothy smiled streatched unnaturaly accross it's face, "you never fail to keep the veiwer's attention, I'll give you that much." the door was slowly beginning to open.

"Now, how would I get back?"

"aah, Scarface... if I told you that there would be no show now would there?"

before he could change his mind, the door flew open and millions of shadowy arms flew out, grabbing hold of him instantly. he stood to try and fight them off (his modesty was the least of his problems at the moment) but in a matter of seconds the door was behind him and he had been pulled into the gaping abyss beyond the door. he chanced a look back and saw the little shadow child waving,

"break a leg, scarred man!" then the door creaked closed and the world was black again

"gramps! look, he's moving! He's not dead! I told you, Leo, now pay up."

"well I'll be damned... I have to wonder if he's a zombie or not sometimes..."

"Ishbala truly must be watching over you, young man..."

"Ishbala?" Dave said... what the hell was that?

his body hurt...ALOT. not just his back but all over now. He only recognisedtwo of thevoices and that was Ric and Leon... no... it was older than Ric and his brother... and he'd never heard him be called Leo before. what was going on? his own voice sounded forein to him... it was too deep for him...

he opened one eye and saw three shapes, one was an old man with a bald head and a long, white beard, the other was a boy of maybe twelve or thirteen, an older version of Leon. Ric looked like hewas nine or ten already...

"r-Ric?... when did you get so big?" Dave asked, his voice was clogged... and still way to deep-sounding.

Ric looked at his brother in confusion, "uhm... I don't think I've grown at all since you last saw me, Scar..."

"'Scar'?heh... sincewhen did I earna nickname as ugly as that?" he laughed a little, his nicknames usually had the word 'dummy' or 'noodle' in them somewhere... well, thats what he got for hanging out with little children all the time, he figgured.

"since you won't tell us your real name and give us a 'I have no name' lecture every time we ask." Leo said, crossing his arms... man, that kid was argumentative as ever...

"what are you talking about, Leon,you know my name, I'm Dave..." he tried to push himself up a little, "where's Sezja?"

"you shouldn't try to move yet!" Ric yelled in concern.

"who's Sezja? AND SINCE WHEN DO YOU CALL ME BY MY FULL NAME!"

"wha?" Dave didn't get any farther. his left arm was numb he looked over...no, his left arm wasn't numb... itwas gone.

"What the? wh- WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?" he looked to his right and saw a very long, intercute tatoo all over his other arm, "OR THAT?" he screamed...

Ric and Leo looked at each other... that was quite possibly the most feminine noise they had ever heard him make...over something he did himself and something he'd been complaining about ever since they'd met him. "we...don't know, why don't you tell us, the tatoo'sbeen there for the past year or so..." Leo said slowly... he leaned over to his little brother, "think he has amnesia or something?"

"if he had amnesia he wouldn't remember us, moron!"

Dave was still trying desparitely to remember what was going on...

okay... from the top...

he was six years old, he woke up and found that his brother had tied him to a tree... no, too early, fast foreward a little...

Ric had the bomb in his hand, he'd thrown it but it exploded anyway, he was blooeding, "stop moving or I'll knock you out!", Sezja was yelling something at him urgently, she looked worried... darkness... a bright field of nothingness, black things grabbed him as a man with an X-shaped scar on his face flew past, he had red eyes and white hair, "I apologize for your inconvenience, I promose I'll get you back as soon as I can"the mansaid then dissapeared, then he woke up here.

he looked the rest of himself over... this didn't feel right, like he was wearing clothes that were too big for him, even though he only had a pair of pants on... WHEN DID HE GET SO BIG? he looked up and saw a mirror. before the other three could stop him, he sprang up and ran over to it. his mouth dropped open... the man in the mirror had red eyes, tanned skin, white hair, and an X-shaped scar that stratched from his hairline to his cheekbones... if he had been this body's original owner, he may have handled it better...but he wasn't and could only think of one thing to do in a situation like this,

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

hello! I'm back again, and yes I know this thing makes no since but for those of you who havent seen the FMA movie yet, it takes place during WWII, there's even an anime version of hitler...he gave me nightmares. and as for the ever-present question, "where the hell did you get the name 'Sezja' from? it means protector in russian. if you haven't figured out who she's supposed to be yet... just...read the next chapter and... try to find out (c'mon it's kinda obvious)