Innocence Of A Homunculus
Chapter Six
Almost instantly, Edward and Alphonse would race towards the train station. "I can't believe this! We're going to be too late! What if they got there by now!" Edward panicked and could do nothing more but run faster.
The larger of the two would find it a bit hard to run as fast but managed to keep up anyway. "Don't say that brother! I'm sure we'll get there in time! It's not like they can take the train, somebody would notice them!" Again, trying to find the Brightside of the situation.
"Al!" He would remind his younger brother. "Envy can easily look like a normal human being and just walk right onto the train without any questions!"
Hurrying up to the station, both of them passed by the ticket taker as they jumped into an available car.
"Excuse us! Official military business!" Probably one of the first times Edward would even use his ranking. Flashing that silver pocket watch of his, it made for a good passage onto the train.
- - -
Resembool would now be the current location of the two homunculi. Having already arrived earlier that day.
"This place seems familiar…" Vanity said, looking around at the scenery.
"Does it now?" Envy looked over at her as they both wandered through the forested area. Surely during the daytime someone would spot the two, and sneaking her around on the train was a hard enough task. The trees would hide them nicely. "What's so familiar about it?"
"Like I just think I've been here before…" She said, looking around. Oddly enough, her cemetery would be just beyond the trees.
- - -
The train ride was long and unbarring, but both managed to make it through. By now it was early into the evening, people would be having supper right about now.
"I hate trains." Edward mumbled. "I just can't get this bad feeling out of my head. I know something must have happened."
"If we're lucky, maybe they got lost?" Alphonse was running out of good things to come up with.
"Don't be ridiculous Al." He still couldn't help that bad feeling.
Walking back towards their home, they passed by houses of some old familiar friends. It was good to be back, to bad it was for such a horrible occasion.
"Alexander?" It was a woman's voice, an older woman from the sound of it.
Just on the other side of a small hill, there was a house. A woman stood outside who seemed to be looking at them both as they walked by. Then a man came out, saying something to her and was about to bring her inside. He looked over as she pointed and would wave as to motion them to come over.
"Brother, I think they mean us." Alphonse said, tapping Edward on the shoulder.
"Not now, we have something more important to do. I can't sit stop to chat with these people." He just moved on.
"Young man!" The husband called out.
"Dammit, what now." Edward stopped and looked over as the man approached. "Look here old man I ain't got the time! What do you want!"
As the husband came up, his wife would follow behind him. "Young man, tell us your name."
"What?" A weird request. "I'm Edward Elric, why?"
"See dear?" He turned to his wife, almost in tears now as she covered her face with her hands and turned around heading to their house. "I'm sorry about that, but my wife has been a total mess since our son disappeared about a year ago. Though I will admit, you look just like him."
"What a second, a year ago?" Edward looked up at Al, who would nod in agreement. "And he looked just like me?"
"Yea he did, though I think he might have been a bit taller though."
Edward would just have to hold himself back just this once. "Could I please go inside? I think we need to talk about something."
- - -
Vanity would be sleeping, curled up on the ground. But Envy would be on the watch, sitting perched up in a tree as he looked to the Rockbell house. "Where the hell is this girl, I'm tired of waiting already." Probably a bad night, Winry must have been out instead of home with her grandmother. "Just that old bag in the house…what good is that!"
"Envy?" Vanity would roll over onto her back as she looked up into the tree.
"What?" He was getting annoyed, waiting wasn't something he could handle.
She wouldn't say anything, because by that time she had fallen right back to sleep. He would find him self climbing down a few branches, looking at her for a moment.
- - -
At this moment, Edward would be brought into the house. Keeping a close eye out for anything that seemed strange. "You're son's room…where is it?"
"Right upstairs, but why do you need to see it?" The man asked, he was getting confused.
"Young man…" The sobbing voice of the woman as she stood at the top of the stairs. "You're one of them too aren't you? One of those alchemists, right?"
"Yes that's right." Edward nodded as he headed to the stairs. "And if I'm correct, your son must have studied alchemy too right?"
The woman would nod.
Alphonse would stay downstairs, letting Edward investigate things. The woman unlocked the room and let him in to take a look.
"Since he disappeared, I kept locked his room. I couldn't take it to look at his room when I passed by. It was just too horrible to stand." She almost started to try again.
"This will only take me a second, I promise not to disturb anything." He stepped in and looked around. The walls were covered in circles and different designs. "This is amazing…" Moving his hand along the dust covered walls, he traced the carved in circles. "Miss, did he have any books?"
She nodded, pointing to his closet. "He was a big reader…I could never understand anything he was studying though. It scares me."
Opening the closet as books would spill out by his feet. "Alchemic literature." Picking up a book. "I must have read all these already…kids books really." Opening to the different marked pages of some of the books as he read through them.
Again there was sobbing, the woman couldn't help herself. "Forgive me. But you so look like my son Alex standing there."
"It's alright, I know how you feel." Shutting the book. "I lost someone too actually, when I was real young. It's heartbreaking. It's also something your son knows very well."
"You mean, you know what happened to him? Please, tell me." She was clearly begging to learn any information about her lost son.
"I'm sorry to tell you this…but these books taught your son about a forbidden art known as Human Transmutation. It's alchemy that can never possibly work."
"I don't understand…"
"Did your son have a girlfriend?" He asked blatantly.
"There was a girl, Elizabeth. He loved that girl so much…but she was murdered. Since then he lived in these books. He wouldn't eat, or sleep…or even go outside. I worried about him so much… But what difference does that make?"
"Human Transmutation is alchemy that can be used to bring a person back to life. But its nearly impossible to do, so its forbidden. Your son tried to bring this girl back, but failed. He isn't missing, he's dead." Edward wasn't really the kind of person to break things gently.
