Thanks for the reviews. Glad you like it so far. I've seen all the episodes and the movie, but I try to keep the spoilers limited to the episode being written out. For Roy fans, sorry, you have to wait until episode 5.
Disclaimer: Don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Most dialogue based off A-Keep fansubs and my own knowledge of Japanese.
2 Body of Taboo
"You fools tried to perform a human transmutation." Cornello looked down at a shell-shocked Rose. "Rose, there are two things that are forbidden in alchemy," he lectured. "One is changing substances to gold. The other is forbidden by tacit agreement. That is human transmutation."
"No! We just wanted--"
"Al!" Ed's sharp warning sliced through the air like the crack of a whip.
Al dropped his gaze to the sand. "We just wanted to see our mother's smile again," he said quietly.
Cornello laughed callously. "You fools tried to transmute your mother." The priest derisive tone grated on Ed's nerves.
"Yeah, I lost my arm and leg and my brother lost his entire body." Candlelight danced across the surface of their bodies, glinting off the metal. Ed turned his molten gold eyes on Rose. "Rose, this is what happens when you try to resurrect just one person with only two people!" he warned.
Rose stiffened as the priest placed his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, Rose. I'm not like those two. I have the ring that Leto gave me," he assured her.
"Don't give me that!" Ed yelled. "Rose, without that ring, he's nothing but a third-rate magician."
Cornello barked a short laugh. "So you want to Philosopher's Stone so you can try again?"
"No."
Cornello stopped laughing and raised a confused eyebrow at Ed's laconic answer. "Then why?"
"We just want to regain our normal bodies."
Al stretched out a hand, palm upraised. "We'll say it again, please hand over the Philosopher's Stone."
Cornello clasped his hands behind his back. A red light flashed and danced down his arm. "State Alchemist, God's wrath will fall on you," he cried, whipping an enormous machine gun from behind him.
Ed and Al yelped as Cornello let loose and the sound of gunshots and smoke filled the room. The smug grin fell from Cornello's face as the smoke cleared to reveal a bullet-ridden concrete wall. Ed leaned against the wall with one arm. "That was close," he panted.
"What's going on?" The brothers turned to see Cray and four other men filling the doorway they entered through, small pistols clutched in their hands. "You two!" he shouted, firing his gun at Al, the bullets ricocheting off his armor.
"Al, this way!" Ed grabbed Al and dashed to side of the room.
"Fools," Cornello boomed. "There's only one exit."
Ed and Al didn't pause in their mad dash. Ed clapped his hands in front of his chest. "If there isn't another exit," he said slamming his hands against the brick wall, "I'll make one." Blue light skittered up the wall and huge double doors materialized. Ed yanked open one side and he and Al ran through.
Leaving his men to tend to the escaping boys, Cornello turned to Rose. She looked back up at him, startled. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Rose."
Hours later, Cornello led Rose into a room. A huge bed dominated the middle of the room, layers of sheer white canopy flowed over the bed from the ceiling, effectively shielding the occupant of the bed. Rose could only make out a faint shadow of a figure.
The shadowy figure swayed inside the curtains. "R-Ro s-se," a man's voice stumbled over the syllables.
Rose gasped happily. "Kain!"
"R-Rose," the voice said again.
"His body is not yet finished," Cornello explained, apologetically. Rose gazed blissfully at the bed, failing to notice the plethora of bird feathers littering the ground around it.
They came to a halt next to a stone statue of Leto. As Ed caught his breath, a voice boomed over the city's loudspeaker.
"Citizens," the voice announced. "Today, two heretics tried to assassinate the Head Priest. Please stay off the streets and remain indoors. They are dangerous."
The woman and spherical man sat atop a rooftop watched as the crowd pressed in on Ed and the suit of armor standing next to him. Women and men brandished pitchforks and shovels having guessed the identity of the heretics. "He looks like such a cute kid," one woman mourned.
Ed scratched his head in frustration. "Look, people, the High Priest is a fake," he tried to explain. "He's fooling you with his miracles. They're just alchemy."
A murmur rippled through the crowd at the boy's confident words. "You lie." The strangled accusation came from the back of the throng of townspeople. The crowd parted to reveal a trembling Rose. "Last night, my boyfriend, Kain, came back to me," she said, not looking at the brothers, her voice quavering with unspoken emotion. Ed and Al started in disbelief.
"Congratulations Rose." Happy whispers spread throughout the crowd.
Ed took a step forward and opened his mouth to protest. Just then, light streaked over their heads and enveloped the stone statues of the sun god littering the pavilion. The crowd shrieked in alarm as the statues stepped off their short pedestals and stiffly strode towards the brothers. One came up behind Ed and swung his staff like a mace into the back of Ed's head.
Ed crumpled face first into the ground. He struggled to keep his eyes open as the sun gods pummeled his body with their stone feet. Through his closing eyes, he saw two other statues demolishing the armor that lay a few feet away with their staffs. Another blow struck Ed in the ribs and the world went black.
Ed blearily opened his eyes. A pair of black pants and shined shoes swam into his vision. Cornello smirked at the battered boy dangling between two of his henchmen. A flash of silver at the boy's wide brown belt caught his eye. Reaching down, he grabbed the round object, snapping the silver chain.
"Hey!" Ed surged against the men holding his arms. "Give that back!" He glared daggers at the man who held the proof of his State Alchemist certification.
Cornello brought the watch up to his eyes. "So this is the silver clock of a State Alchemist," he mused, studying the intricate carvings. "I hear it amplifies the alchemist's powers." He laughed at the boy's lowered head. "So this is how you transmuted without drawing a circle."
Ed smiled at the man's presumptuous assumption; his long bangs formed a curtain around his face shielding it from the priest's view.
Ed stared up at his manacled hands and let out a frustrated groan. He couldn't do much sitting in this cold dungeon with his hands cuffed to the wall above him.
The heavy door creaked open and Rose shuffled in holding a sparse tray of food. She quietly approached him. Ed took in her sad, thoughtful expression. He plastered a cocky grin on his face. "With my hands tied up, I can't eat," he told her. "Will you feed me?" He opened his mouth wide.
Refusing to look at him, Rose hastily placed the tray on the ground a few feet from Ed. She was halfway to the door when Ed's voice stopped her. "Was he really your boyfriend?" he asked, all pretense gone from his serious tone.
Rose stiffened, but didn't turn around. Without a word, she opened the door and quickly exited. Ed sighed. Scooting forward as far as the handcuffs let him, he dragged the tray closer with his booted feet. Just as he realized that even if the tray was now near enough, he still couldn't pick up the food to eat, the sound of shoveling dirt reached his ears. Ed grinned. He loved his little brother.
Cornello tossed restlessly beneath the sheets of his king-size bed. Plagued by nightmares, his eyes shot open and he cried out as his nightmare materialized before him. A red serpent had slithered up the bed, its mouth wide open poised above his head, its deadly fangs gleaming in the moonlight. He shot up in bed, opening his eyes a second time, his breath coming in heavy pants.
He squinted into the darkness. The woman sat in a chair at the foot of his bed, negligently leaning against the wall. "The Philosopher's Stone was supposed to be our little secret," she said, twirling a lock of black hair around a black-gloved finger. Beneath the black glove, her fingernails looked like sharp points.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of those brats," he reassured her, sweat running in rivulets down his back.
She sank back into the shadows. "You'd better."
Rose ducked into the room and silently shut the door behind her. She looked at the bed cloaked in white. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Kain. I know the High Priest said I'm not supposed to be in here, but I had to see you again," she apologized.
"R-Rose," the voice warbled.
A hand fell on Rose's slender shoulder. She whirled around and met the eyes of the High Priest. "High Priest!" she exclaimed in a startled, hushed voice. "I know you…"
"I understand, Rose," Cornello smoothly cut off her explanation. "You wanted to see Kain."
With a soft rustle, the white curtains fell to the ground. A large bird chimera sat on the bed, its bulging, grotesque eyes at the top of its head, staring unseeingly at the ceiling. "R-Rose," it said in Kain's voice, hopping awkwardly to the floor, molting white feathers flying. Rose took a horrified step backwards, bile rising in her throat.
"I'm sorry, Rose, I couldn't bring back his body," Cornello apologized in a low voice. "Even with the power of the Philosopher's Stone, all I can do is sacrifice the lives of birds and transfer them into another body." He smiled. "But don't you like the chimera that sounds just like Kain?" With that, he exited the room, locking Rose in with the chimera.
Rose stood frozen in one spot. "R-Rose," the creature repeated, pushing its wings on the ground to propel itself forward. Unable to move, she shut her eyes as Kain closed in on her.
Instead of the attack she expected, Rose heard a sickening thud. She hesitantly opened her eyes. Cold air blew in through an open window, raising goosebumps on her skin. Al stood over the disgusting creature. He turned his eye lights on her. "It's dangerous here," he said to Rose. "Let's go."
Rose hesitated. She glanced at his outreached hand, then at the dying chimera, then back to Al. Wordlessly, she followed the suit of armor, disappearing into the night.
The sun's morning rays stretched over the quiet town. The bellboy yawned, sleepily grasping the thick rope to ring the bell. The tired boy yanked downwards. His eyes popped open, catching himself before he fell down the tower. He looked up into the gaping space where the town bell should have been.
The High Priest entered the dungeon with a smile on his face. Sitting on the cold floor, the bruised boy made a sorry picture. His red coat and black jacket were gone and his black shirt were torn and streaked liberally with dirt and blood.
Annoyance was written across Ed's face. "Your fraud will go public soon."
Cornello stood over the boy. "The believers can't tell the difference between alchemy and miracles," he informed him with an evil grin. "No, alchemy and miracles are the same to them and it makes them happy."
"And how does this benefit you?"
Rose stood atop a flat rooftop and watched Al calmly twist wires together. Next to him, the town bell sat on a wooden stool, its wide mouth facing the town. A wire trailed from behind the bell to Al's hands, then off the roof. "You must sacrifice in order to gain something," Al said, placing the wires over a transmutation circle on the ground.
"My brother is considered a genius, but he got to where he is through a lot of hard work." He put his hand to the outer rim of the circle and blue light flashed leaving a power box with an ON switch. "That's why he is the way he is."
"The two of you paid the price, didn't you?" Rose asked in a hoarse voice. "A body, an arm, a leg…" she trailed off. "What happened to your mother?"
Al paused, remaining hunched over his handiwork. He got to his feet. "It's going to start soon," he said, not looking back at the girl. He depressed the switch with a thick metal finger.
Rose covered her ears as a screech blared through the makeshift loudspeaker. She lowered her hands. "Ed?" Ed's voice echoed over the town.
"So you were after the money after all?" Ed questioned.
"I can get as much money as I want through donations from my followers," Cornello scoffed. "What I want are believers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for me. They believe that I can resurrect the dead, so they don't fear death. Those people will become the ultimate army." Cornello's booming laugh bounced in the tiny dungeon. He turned his back to the manacled boy, holding his staff behind his back. "Watch," he instructed. "Soon, I will begin subjecting this country in a few years."
During his gloating tirade, Ed had lowered his hands to his lap. "I don't care about that," he said dismissively, biting into the roll of bread.
"What?"
"You can't revive anyone right?" Ed threw out the disinterested question.
Cornello raised an eyebrow at the boy's nonchalance. "Of course not. Even if you try to perform human transmutation, the result is unpredictable," he sneered, turning back around to face the boy. "Why should I make a risk for a believer?" The last word was forced through frozen lips. He stared blankly at the unrestrained boy.
Ed looked back up at him and grinned. He leaned to the side and pointed to the hole in the wall and microphone hidden behind his body.
Cornello's bellow of outrage echoed in every corner of the town. Coffee poured out of frozen coffeepots into overflowing coffee cups. Men, women, and children alike stood paralyzed at what they just heard. "How long has that mike been on?" Cornello's frantic voice demanded. "About since you came in," the young boy blithely replied.
The broadcast ended with a rapid flurry of gunshots. Cornello's chest heaved with exertion, his arm shaking as he pointed the smoking gun to where the young alchemist once sat. He turned at a noise behind him.
A sharp blade sliced through the many muzzles of the gun. Ed stood before the terrified priest, his auto-mail sword glinting menacingly in the single torch's flame.
With a cowardly yell, Cornello ran out of the dungeon and out of the chapel. As he emerged onto the giant platform, he was met with the angry gazes of the townspeople.
"Was it true, High Priest Cornello?" they demanded.
Cornello scrambled to regain his composure and plastered a serene smile on his face. "I don't know what that heretic told you disguising his voice as mine," he called out to the crowd, raising a hand.
"Cut the crap." Ed stepped onto the stage.
The priest shot a panicked look over his shoulder. Desperate, he cast sparks of red light over the many statues of the city. Stone Letos moved toward the stage at his command. The crowd shrank in on themselves at this "miracle." Feeling slightly more in control, Cornello turned a victorious grin on the young blond boy. "Without your watch, you can't do anything but transmute your auto-mail. The wrath of Sun God will descend upon you!"
Ed's eyes hardened. "Old man," he said loudly, thoroughly exasperated, "I'll show you the real wrath of God." He clapped his hands and placed his right hand on the concrete ground. A loud rumble eclipsed the murmurs of the crowd and the grinding of the stone statues. Cornello's eyes widened and the crowd gasped in wonder as a towering statue of Leto burst through the chapel's roof, shooting up into the sky.
Al stood in the back of the crowd with Rose. "The beating he took had little effect on my brother," he told her as she watched Ed in awe. "My brother is the Fullmetal Alchemist."
Cornello backed away from Ed's kneeling figure. "Impossible," he sputtered. "Even I can't do that with the Philosopher's Stone." Ed's statue cast a dark shadow over the priest as it leaned over. Cornello cried out in fear and covered his head as Leto raised a fist and brought it down. The fist crashed into the pavement with an impressive boom.
Cornello summoned the courage to open his eyes. His eyes bugged out at the giant stone fist that was planted less than a foot from his trembling figure.
He spun around and ran. "I won't let you have it," he screamed at the boy. Ed shot to his feet, but before he could take a step, the ring on the priest's finger flashed. Cornello let out an agonized holler and sank to his knees as his arm turned into a hideous mass of flesh and metal. Ed sprinted up to the fallen priest who grasped his mutated arm. "A rebound?" Ed watched in disbelief as the red stone quivered in its setting then disintegrated into a million tiny pieces.
He dropped Cornello's arm. Looking at the ground, Ed clenched his teeth. "This is a joke, right?" He squeezed his eyes shut, his voice uncharacteristically high and strained. "You put us through all that for a fake?" He threw his head back to the heavens. "You've got to be kidding me!" he hollered, anger and frustration lacing each word.
Orange light from the setting sun streamed in though an open window. Cornello knelt before the two black-clad figures, clutching his mutilated arm. "The Philosopher's Stone was a fake?"
The woman raked her gaze over him dispassionately. "Of course," she calmly replied. "We couldn't give you the real one. You were just bait."
The round boy-like figure removed his finger from his mouth. "Lust, can I eat him," he pleaded. Terror shot into Cornello's eyes. The grotesque figure waddled towards the priest with a hungry glint in his beady eyes.
Ed dangled his red cloak over his shoulder, his clothes cleaned, black jacket and white gloves back on. He glanced over at the suit of armor. "Sorry, Al," he sighed. "I thought this time I'd be able to get your body back."
"Your arm and leg, too, Niisan," Al reminded him.
The State Alchemist stood up. "Well, shall we go?" he asked Al. A slight sniffling drew his attention. Rose stood at the edge of the town, her head bowed.
"Why did you have to go and do that?" she asked brokenly. "Why couldn't you have just left things the way they were?"
Ed raised an eyebrow. "Did you want us to let you live a lie?"
"What are we supposed to do now?" Rose lifted agonized eyes to Ed's. "What hope is left for us?"
Ed turned on his heel presenting her with his back, his shoulders rigidly set. "Stand up and walk," he said simply. "Your legs are fine. Move forward." Without looking back, he did so, walking out of the town with even strides.
Rose collapsed to her knees, her eyes following Ed's retreating figure. "Niisan is always like that." Al approached the tormented girl. "After all we've been through, he has to be," he explained. Rose lifted beseeching eyes to the kind suit of armor. Al began telling her the story of two brothers who dared to try the impossible and failed and their journey to recover what they had lost.
To gain something, you must sacrifice something in return. This is the basic principle of alchemy: Equivalent Trade. We believed this was the truth of the world when we were young.
Gluttony ambled over to Lust on stubby legs, joining her at the window. Below, the crowd gazed at a tall man clad in priest's robes. "My citizens," he said gently, standing amongst the rubble, "what has that imposter done here while I've been away?"
The gathered people murmured in relief. "High Priest, is it really you?" they begged.
The man smiled down on them, "Yes, I have returned." He lifted a hand and the dead birds littering the ground came back to life, taking flight into the orange sky.
Lust stared at the man. "Sorry, Envy," she whispered, "but you'll have to stay in that body for a while longer."
Along the setting horizon, tiny white birds burst into a little flashes of light, leaving nothing in their wake.
Good? Bad? Criticism or praise welcome. Onegai.