(A/N) Hey! Sorry to everyone who was into the funnier side of the story – I know it lacked it in the previous chapter! It is difficult to make a chapter…you know, serious, but still really funny - and still full of tin can jokes XD But I know I got some in somewhere! Anyway, apologies for the kinda…serious (like I said before) look on things in the story at the moment! But for everyone who's into that side of stuff, I'm hoping it's at the right balance! Next chapter will be uploaded soon, it's nearly done, just re-writing the ending. And sorry for the wait for this one! I hope it's worth it!

I know, I know, I waffled.

And apologies for the typo in the last chapter when I wrote Tim instead of Time. I am, admittedly, not perfect.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Fullmetal Alchemist – but maybe I own Aura (I don't actually know)

Chapter Three – Aura's Story

'I'm sure you'll see my point when I finish my story, Edward.' reasoned Aura.

'Well, I'm never going to see anything if you don't hurry up and tell me, so get on with it!' Ed was getting more and more irritated as he sat on the damp ground, but he was too afraid to stand up in case Aura shot him with the strange blue beam again. It was still snowing, and Ed was furiously brushing the snow out of his hair.

'Right then,' Aura took a deep breath. 'Here we go.'

Ed rolled his eyes. 'It doesn't need an introduction!'

'I'm not giving it an introduction!' Aura snapped.

'You don't need to get all defensive!'

'I'm not getting defensive!'

'You're getting defensive!'

'I am not! Now let me get on with my story!' Aura yelled angrily. 'Right. My parents met in the middle of a storm, so the family had always thought they're relationship would've been a stormy one, but it never was. Well, until the argument. You see, they'd been together for six years before they decided they wanted a kid – that's me – but the argument was about names or anything. That was simple. A boy, it would've been Haru, and a girl, Aura. As you can see -'

'So you're name's Haru?' Ed interrupted.

'You…you…you….….prune.' Aura finished weakly. Ed laughed evilly. She threw some snow at him and carried on. 'Anyway, as I was saying, the relationship went downhill after my mother decided it might not be the best option for her to have a child. Obviously my father questioned her, and that was when she broke the news to him that caused the argument. She was a homunculus. Mother expected him to be furious and horrified, but he wasn't, and told her it didn't matter, that he loved her anyway. But my mother said she was concerned for the child. She said that a human and homunculus pairing wasn't sensible, and that the child could end up…damaged, I think was the word she used. My father was certain that the child – me – would be fine, but mother was still adamant I wouldn't be. She, as a homunculus, could make her hands glow with some sort of strange, silvery light -'

'Like you can?' Ed asked. He knew what was coming next in her story.

'Yeah. Yeah, I guess so,' Aura said quietly, staring at her own hands. 'But yeah, mother told father straight that they'd try and lock me up in some laboratory, and if he was willing to let that happen that he would be a terrible father. As far as I know they didn't speak for two or three days, and mother stayed with her sister. But apparently she thought about it for a long time and thought that maybe, as she'd stayed out of the labs for all her life, it would've been easier for me. So eventually she went back to father and told him she was sorry.'

'So, they had you?' Ed asked quietly. 'And you're half homunculus?'

'Obviously!' Aura snapped. 'Stop stating the obvious while I'm telling my story!'

'Well, I thought you were finished!'

'Well I'm not!'

'Okay! Okay! Carry on then. I won't say a word.' Ed made a gesture as if to zip his mouth shut.

'You forgot to throw away the key.' Aura said, rolling her eyes. Ed made to zip his mouth open.

'Yeah, but if I did that, I wouldn't be able to speak.'

'Zip your damn mouth and throw away the damn key Edward.' hissed Aura slowly. Ed did so quickly, and Aura began again. 'Well, I was born, and my parents were ecstatic. I remember being dropped off at my aunt's because my parents needed to do some shopping, and then my aunt got the news. When my parents had returned home – they were going to pick me up a little later – the police raided the house, after being tipped off there was a non-human living there.' Aura laughed coldly. ''Non-human!' They couldn't even say homunculus. She was considered vermin. And then, they took her away to the laboratory. I don't know which. But a month later my father received a letter that she had died in unfortunate circumstances.'

'Unfortunate circumstances…' mused Ed. 'A simple cover-up.'

'I told you to stop stating the obvious!' Aura hissed.

'I'm not! I'm just, thinking aloud!'

'Well, don't!' Aura snapped. 'Anyway, my father knew people in high places, he said, and one of his friends who was a scientist in the lab where my mother died confirmed what had happened. They'd made her use her 'powers' so many times, it killed her from the inside.'

'From…from…the inside?' Ed mumbled quietly.

'Yes. You see, whenever I make that beam of light appear, I get a clenching feeling in my chest. My father's friend was in with the scientist who wrote up what killed my mother. That feeling…it's the heart. It skips beats. And my mother was doing this constantly, until her heart gave up completely.'

A tear squeezed itself from Aura's eye, and rolled down her cheek.

'Uh, y-you should, um…' Ed sat there, helpless, as Aura brushed the tear from her cheek. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she held it there for a minute, finally letting it fall.

'So, do you see now?' Aura mumbled quietly, staring at the ground. 'Alchemy was the reason my mother died. If someone hadn't tried to bring her back using it, she'd never have suffered!'

Ed nodded. 'I know, Aura, but alchemy…you can't blame it for what happened. How alchemy was used then, to bring her back…it's forbidden. The laws of equivalent exchange make that clear.'

Aura tore her gaze from the melting snow on the ground. 'You think I don't know that?'

Ed was silent, pulling grass from the wet ground. 'Aura,' he said, raising his head to look at her. 'Someone must have loved your mother very much to want to bring her back. I should know.'

'Don't speak to me like a child!' Aura raged. Then she suddenly calmed down. 'Why…why should you know?'

Ed smiled. 'My own mother. When I was young, I persuaded my brother to help me transmute the…ingredients of a human body, and bring her back to life. She was our only remaining family really, as my dad had left on a trip. She always thought he'd come back, but he never did.'

'Why did you try?' Aura asked. 'Nothing good comes from it.'

'We didn't know that,' Ed said slowly. 'But it was the biggest mistake of my life. My brother and I suffered because of it, like your mother, but just think of the good alchemy does. The people that pay attention to the laws, and the people that follow them – look what good they can do!'

'Yes,' Aura muttered. 'I suppose that's true. But, Edward…what happened to you? And to your brother?'

'I had to seal my brother's spirit into something close by – which was a suit of armour. Now he can't eat, or smile, or do anything we take for granted.'

'And you?'

Ed took a deep breath, and rolled up his sleeve. His auto-mail glinted in the sunlight.

'It's terrible, right?' He asked. 'You're afraid, aren't you?'

Aura reached out a trembling hand and touched the cold steel. 'No. I'm not afraid.'

Ed smiled. 'That's good to hear. And think, Aura: my brother is only alive now, because of alchemy. It does good, too.'

Aura smiled. 'Yes. Yes, I can see it does.' She clenched her fists, and stood up. 'Yes. I'm going to…I'm going to let you have it back.'

Ed followed her, standing up, and flipping her pendant over between his fingers. 'That's a good idea, Aura,' he dropped the pendant, and it swung back to her neck. 'People are going to be happy you did. But…'

'You want to know how to get home?' she asked. 'It's okay. I'll take you back.'

She clasped his hand, and for once, Ed felt comfortable with it being there. There was a sound like a plate smashing, and a tremendous blue light erupted up from the ground, flowing over the field like a wild sea.

On the train-tracks, Rizenbul

Ed and Aura stood next to the train that Ed and Al had originally been riding in. The windows were steamed up, but Ed could still make out all the passengers sat as is frozen in their seats.

'See, Aura,' he grinned. 'Look at all the trouble you've caused.'

Aura glared at him. 'Shut up, Edward.'

'But look, all the little passengers, all frozen. And do you know why they're frozen?'

'Yes.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes.'

'I don't think you're sure.'

'Trust me, Edward, I'm sure.'

'You're not sure. Shall I tell you why they're all like that so you are sure? Because you're not sure. I know you're not sure.'

'Edward -'

'They're all frozen, because…you took alchemy away!'

Aura rolled her eyes. 'You don't say!'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Ed laughed. 'You really were sure, then?'

Aura slapped him hard on the shoulder and he stopped laughing, and started scowling. Ed stepped over random obstacles like rocks and tufts of unusual spiky grass (that really hurt if you fell on it, Ed soon found out) until he reached the side of the train. Clambering up onto one of the planks between the carriages, he looked around for Aura, who was stood at his feet.

'Are you coming up, or what? Ed asked, holding out his hand to help her climb up. Aura bit her lip. 'I'm not sure. Seeing your brother…it might remind me of my mother.'

'Brother, mother…yeah, I see how that could work.'

'Don't be stupid, Edward, it's got nothing to do with rhymes. If your brother, as you say, is in a suit of armour, the whole pain of alchemy might come back, and I might have the urge to take it back again,' she sighed. 'If you hadn't noticed, I go through serious mood swings. That's the thing with being half homunculus.'

Ed grinned. 'Mood swings? What mood swings?' he asked, as Aura shot him a filthy look. 'Anyway, are you coming? Nothing'll happen, trust me.'

Aura took her hand and clambered onto the plank. 'Trust you? I must be insane.'

Ed nodded. 'Yep. Pretty much.'

(A/N) Ta-dah! The end of another chapter. I debated whether to finish the story here, or have one more chapter. Yeah, one more chapter. C'mon, you know you wanted one more chapter too! So, yep – there's another chapter! Or at least, there will be... (I said chapter a lot)

Dying by sherbet, signing out x