Since I have gone into a sort of writing frenzy, I might as well give you guys more chapters. Also, thinks Scar will appreciate we get to it where he will find his brother. *glances outside* he has been giving me some scary looks ever since he discovered his brother is alive...
*sound of destructive alchemy*
oh boy...
Back in the bamboo forest, one of the Chief's bodyguards climbs onto one of the bamboos, breathing heavily from what he is trying to get away from. However, his opponent is not letting him get away that easily and to the warrior's shock, the cluster of bamboo he's holding onto shatters under the alchemy of the red-eyed man who is hunting him down. The bodyguard does quickly recover; lands somewhat gracefully on the ground and tries to get these three intruders down.
He charges at the Chang princess, but the red-eyed man isn't having it and returns the attack by slashing his sparking with alchemy right arm at the bodyguard who would've lost a leg if he hadn't moved.
The two warriors dance around one another, trying getting the lethal hit in by either a kunai or the right arm of deconstruction. They are both somewhat equal in their relative fighting style, and the only difference is that the bodyguard is a bit faster and Scar physically stronger. That didn't decide a winner, though. Only one misstep by either will resolve the battle—if Scar had been alone that is.
Alphonse runs over to help, punching out after the Wang bodyguard, the man blocks him, but that robs him the time to prevent Scar's attack, only his speed saves him from losing his left arm. He jumps away from the two, wondering out loud. "I wasn't aware there would be more people looking like that traitor to Shade, better warn the Chief." About to take the run for it, but gets trapped by Mei's long-ranged alchemy.
"Nice work, Mei!" Alphonse praises her.
She beams at him while Scar walks over to the trapped Wang bodyguard. The scarred man grabs the bodyguard around the throat, demanding harshly. "Where is the man you call Shade?!" He gets no answer, so Scar destroys some of the ground around the bodyguard's head, warning the man. "Next time it will be your leg."
Realizing that this man is serious about the threat but not wanting to betray the clan, the bodyguard questions back. "What do you want with that traitor?"
"Where is he?!" No answer, so Scar destroys the man's leg, causing the bodyguard to go into a fit of pain.
Alphonse steps over to stop this madness but gets stopped by Mei. "Don't; Mister Scar's the only one who can make him speak. Protecting his master lies in his blood."
"But torturing him isn't right!" Alphonse argues, flinching when Scar uses his deadly alchemy to tear off the man's right hand.
"It's the only way," Mei tells him hard. She does not like it either, but sometimes brutality such as Scar is needed, at least in her eyes. "Unless he speaks, we will be running in blind. We can't risk it, least when it's the Wang clan. They have too much military strength."
He still doesn't like it one bit, but can see reason, so incredibly reluctant Alphonse lets Scar torture the answers out of this man.
"Where is he?!" Scar demands for the fifth times, once again ready to use his right hand on this Xingese bodyguard. This time the man speaks. "He's in the dungeon, lowest floor..."
"How do we get inside?"
"There is a wall blocking the way, if you can get over or under, the path will be mostly clear..." The man reluctantly tells him.
Scar stares menacingly at this man for a long time, figuring this can be a trap, but one he's willing to take; for his brother's sake. He leaves the mutilated man, commanding Mei to use her healing alchemy on him. "We got what we wanted." He still has enough honors not to kill unless necessary and right now: it is not. Mei quickly runs over and heals the wounds the bodyguard got; she does, however, does not release him as this one can very well warn the others.
Seeing that small form of mercy from Scar is a massive relief for Alphonse, he still feels sick of the man had to go through torture, though. At least the man will survive: but he won't be winning any beauty contests anymore.
After Mei has healed the man, the trio moves on.
They do wait to invade the mansion there looks like a palace until it gets dark, using the cover of darkness to sneak up to the wall the bodyguard pointed out. Scar horseshoes Mei up, giving her the speed needed to scale the rest of the tall wall. Up there she attach the transmuted rope Alphonse made out from the bamboo, enable the two others to get over. They all figured that it would be a stupid idea using alchemy so near the mansion since the light from an alchemic reaction would warn the guards of their location. Over the wall, Scar knocks out the single guard while Mei and Alphonse check the area for any path leading to the dungeon, but all they find is a room filled with resting guards. As expected from Scar, the bodyguard has lured them into a trap. Only out of pure luck, none of the guards noticed the young man and woman peeking inside by the door, allowing the two return back to Scar, telling him what they saw.
Scar figured as much, yet he does think that bodyguard has been completely lying. "Block the door." He commands them and walks over to the other side of the building.
Just as Alphonse blocks the door, Scar destroys half of a wall, causing so much noise that the blond young man now sees why the scarred man asked him to block the door since every guard in there are now banging on it in attempt to reach them. He and Mei quickly follow the Ishvalen, not sure if he should be annoyed or understand why Scar is not bothering to wait for them.
Scar knows he's on the right track; this place looks very much like a prison. His mind is purely set on saving his brother; although also worried this other Ishvalen might not be his brother, he will take that as it comes when he sees the prisoner. Right now, all he thinks about is finding this fellow Ishvalen and get him back home. A few guards try to stop him, but none of them stands a chance against him and soon all lies dead on the floor. Scar cannot bother with mercy now that he's so close to the possibility that his brother might still be alive. Mercy less so when some of these guards have fresh blood spatter over their uniforms.
He hurries down the hallway, checking every cell for a red-eyed and brown-skinned person. So far, there isn't a single person in there. So he follows the trace of where the bloodstained guards came from, that leads him into a sort of chamber and there... he sees him.
"Brother." It is really him; he has been alive all this time! But for how long? He has many different kinds of wounds all over his body; the right side is the worst. The remaining of his right arm is torn to shreds; blood is everywhere, so his brother dying of blood loss is a high possibility. Scar steps over to him but stops when a sudden sharp pain arrives at his left side. Scar snaps to his left and spots his attacker; a Xingese man has stabbed some sort of knife into him. Scar, however, doesn't go down this easily and although the wound can be a huge problem, he still has more than enough strength to slam his attacker into the nearby wall, knocking him out and probably also causing major head trauma, that last part Scar doesn't care. Holding over his bleeding wound, Scar—unfazed by his injury walks over to his brother, worried that this reunion might be very short from how bad his brother looks.
They must have tortured him for days. Eyeing the shredded right side, Scar notices metal. His brother must have been wearing an automail arm, and these bastards had the cruelty tearing it off. Scar's anger flares when coming to this conclusion, how dare these people to do this to his brother?!
His kindhearted, wise, bookworm of a brother. The only thing keeping Scar from tearing this whole place down and kill everyone inside; is the fact that his brother is still alive.
He destroys the chains holding his brother; carefully lifting him on his back. "emMy turn to protect you./em" He muses softly in their native language to the barely conscious man and leaves the room.
Alphonse and Mei catch up to him by then, both winching from how bad shape Shade is. Scar ignores their reaction; he's more worried about getting his brother out here alive. He refuses to lose him right after he has found him again! "Mei, find us some horses." He tells the Xingese girl, she nods and runs off, Scar then turns to Alphonse. "I can't fight with him on my back, so you have to protect us both." He points out in a hard matter of fact.
Alphonse transmutes himself a spear out from the floor, telling the former killer harshly. "I'm not going to protect you, Scar. I'm doing this for Shade."
And that's all Scar wishes; it doesn't matter if he dies. All Scar wants is his brother's survival and return to his two daughters, his brother deserves to live more than a murder like him.
They head out from the palace, luckily not getting the whole Wang army in their faces for that would've surely ended with their defeat and death. Most of the clan warriors are protecting the chief and his family, a good thing for them. The few guards they did encounter were held at bay by Alphonse martial art and alchemy, allowing Scar to flee with his severely wounded brother.
Outside, Mei awaits them with three horses, one of them: a reddish mare with a white spot on the forehead neighs as a sort of greeting to the Ishvalen. Scar blinks at this, for a moment, wondering if this horse happens to be owned by his brother, but he can't think much about it with the fast-approaching guards. So he helps Shade onto the red mare, mounts it himself and set it in a gallop. Alphonse and Mei follow on their horses, leaving behind the village, although they doubt the chase is over.
They ride as fast the horses will allow them throughout the whole day, once nearly getting ambushed by the chief's warriors but Alphonse and Mei made short work of them, still just in case, they make a detour to throw the Wang clan off their trail.
With the horses exhausted, the group seeks rest at a small river, here Mei heals Shade- as Scar refuses to get healed first, with the older of the two Ishvalen wounds closed, she turns to Scar and treats his injury at the side.
He briefly thanks her before turning his attention back to the man now calling himself Shade, he's still not fully conscious, but Scar's not really surprised how slowly he takes to recover; his brother has always had a low pain tolerance. He remembers he often teased his brother about it back when they were children, but now he wishes his brother isn't dealing with it.
Alphonse speaks softly to Shade, trying to get a proper response from him. It takes about three hours before Shade can form a proper sentence. "...Are... they... safe?..." Is the first thing the wounded man asks.
Scar's heart melts of this simple question, even without his memories, he still worries more about friends and family than his own well being.
"Selena and Harika are safe in Ishval," Alphonse replies the man softly, asking worried the still pretty beaten up man. "What about you?"
"...In pure agony, but..." Shade muses weakly and falls into an unconscious sleep before he can speak any more words.
Scar takes off his jacket and puts it over the man's shaking body, musing to him in their native language. "emLet Ishvala look after your beloved while you rest./em"
Alphonse and Mei give him a questioning look, but he gives them no explanation of what he had said. Instead, he gets up and leaves the small camp. "I'll keep watch; we will leave the moment he wakes." No way he's going to risk his brother's life, not when they are so close getting him back home.
Mei returns to Shade's side, doing her best to make sure his wounds are healing correctly. Alphonse instead watches Scar, a man he still despises, but right now he feels like he understands the man. Being a younger brother himself, Alphonse knows how hard it is to see his brother get hurt or almost killed. Worst of all, his brother Edward almost got killed by the same man he's now helping, irony at in its finest.
But looking past that, Alphonse can see why Scar got so set on saving Shade when he realized it's his older brother. If it has been him with Edward, he would probably have done the same... with less murder and torture.
Shade awakes nearing sunrise, his body still much in pain, especially around the stump there once was his right arm. Shade tries to sit up with his teeth clenched but give up when doing that causes too much pain. His body isn't made to endure such things and from how the chief's men tore off his automail there caused him so much agony that he passed out, Tai knew that too.
"You're awake."
Shade turns and has to concentrate his eyes since the person beside him is mostly just a blur. But from the sound of the voice and the shape of the figure, he's confident it is Mei Chang. "How long was I out?" He asks her.
"About six hours," Mei replies and explains to him that she managed to close his wounds and will do her best making sure they will not reopen.
Shade thanks her and the blurry figure he presumes is Alphonse and tells them both. "They either would've broken or killed me, so I'm grateful you got me out."
"I wish we could've come sooner." Alphonse muses regretfully, yet still very relieved they came just in time.
"You came back, that's what matters." Shade replies softly, no hint of anger in his voice.
That Alphonse can agree on, his gold-colored eyes land on the missing arm, not sure if Winry will help the older brother of her parents killer, but guesses he has to asks her first before making the suggestion. Shade is quite different from Scar; he's very gentle compared to the younger brother.
And speaking about Scar, the man notices Shade has awoken and calls him and Mei to pack up as it is time to move on.
Shade blinks hearing a third voice, one he does not recognize and yet it does somewhat sound familiar, he can't place from where. "Who are you?" He asks, looking at the blurry figure not far from him.
"An Ishvalen like you," Scar replies before the two others can, he rather not explains the man about their relationship at the moment; it will just cause too many questions. "Can you move?"
"I think so, doubt I can run, though." Shade points out in a somewhat neutral way, no idea why but he already trusts this stranger like he always has. So weird.
This other Ishvalen grabs his left arm and proves his strength when he quite easily pulls him to his feet, telling him: "We're moving on horseback."
"Oh." That explains the strange dreams he had.
The other Ishvalen supports him over to the horses, the red blur in shape of a horse makes Shade gasp in surprised joy. "Hey girl," he greets the red mare there greets him back with a small neigh. "seems like I can't get rid of you after all." He chuckles to the mare.
"Your horse?" Scar asks as he helps his brother onto this red mare.
"Sort of, it used to belong to my wife, but Star here has always preferred me over her."
Scar hesitates for a second, hearing that his brother had a wife and from the sounds of it; she's gone now. It takes him quite aback that his brother got a life here in Xing. Compared to himself— He shakes the thoughts away and mounts the red mare as well.
Alphonse mounts the plain brown and Mei the dark grey, with all of them ready, they ride off to Ishval.
And the brothers of Ishval has been united again! yay~!
The horse Star comes from an old FMA draft I made a few years back, but one you'll never get to read. I don't find that story good enough to read for others.
Feel free to write them to me if you have any chapter suggestions. I do from time to time draw inspiration out from your comments