Uh. Do I have any notes for this one? Um… no, not really… Enjoy.
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The next morning, Al and Hohenheim sat on the floor with the medallion between them.
"So how did you regain your own memories?"
Al began tracing the design on the medallion. "I… brother did it for me. He traced both sides of it onto one piece of paper, and it made a picture of… what we had made with human transmutation."
Hohenheim stared at the medallion. "Maybe… Here, trace it again."
"What, like how brother did it?"
"Yes, only when you do it… flip the medallion the other way."
Al did as he was told, drawing as neatly as he could. After a while, the drawings formed a familiar shape. Al stared at the armor in confusion. "But wouldn't he have to see this?"
"Not necessarily. I've dealt with something like this before. It should work just fine."
"How will we know, though?"
"You'll see in a couple of days."
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Ed followed the still nameless soldier down the hall. As soon as his brother had been reported as kidnapped, Ed had been brought in for questioning. Of course, the interrogation had yielded no results, and Ed was now being escorted back to his room.
"Who would want to kidnap Al?" he asked, more to himself than anything.
"Probably someone who's working against us, but don't worry. We'll find him soon and… what are you doing?"
Ed was leaning against the wall, clutching his head. "It…" Ed tried to say more, but the pain proved to be too great and he collapsed on the ground.
"Hey, what's wrong?" the soldier asked. "Hey!"
When Ed didn't respond, the soldier stood up and cursed. "Shit." He ran to the end of the hall and got someone's attention. The soldier walked up to him with some confusion.
"Something wrong?"
"Call an ambulance. Now."
The confused soldier looked at the unconscious boy in the hallway and immediately ran off to get help. Ed groaned as he shifted his position. The nameless soldier (whose identity you should know by now) placed a hand on Ed's forehead and cursed again. "Why did you have to get sick right now?"
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Ed could hear voices around him, but he couldn't understand what they said. He tried to see what was going on, but something was covering his eyes. His limbs felt heavy.
"Al…" he muttered weakly. He felt a hand on his arm. It wasn't his brother's. Armor wasn't warm.
"Your brother isn't here, remember?" he heard a voice say. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to get through this on your own."
Ed groaned and closed his eyes again. His mind was racing, but he couldn't quite keep up with it.
A few days passed like this, with Ed occasionally trying to sit up or just move his hand. He wanted to see if it was really a flesh hand. Whenever he tried to move, though, someone gently pushed him down.
Finally, the last memory returned to Ed, and he felt a wave of anguish as he realized just how harsh he had been to his brother. He felt tears run down his face. He fell asleep.
That night, a shadow passed over his bed, and Ed weakly opened his eyes. He was lying on his side, and the cloth had fallen from his face. Ed looked to see whom it was standing over him, but before he could, a hand gently placed the damp cloth back over his eyes. Ed tried to move, but his body wouldn't respond.
"Who's there?" he asked weakly. The only response he got was a piece of cloth in his mouth. Ed began to panic. Someone was kidnapping him. He tried even harder to move, but he only moved two inches. His kidnapper brought his hands together and tied them with a rope. Then whoever it was took some cloth and tied it over his mouth and eyes. All Ed could do was wait and see where this person was taking him.
He fell asleep on the way.
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When Ed woke up, he was still very weak, but he could have moved if he hadn't been tied down. He looked around the room. He was still unable to speak, but he could at least see. Someone was sitting next to him. It was Al.
When Al saw that his brother was awake, he smiled and waved to someone that Ed couldn't see. "Are you okay, brother?"
"Mmmph."
"Oh, right, sorry." Al pulled the cloth away from his brother's face.
"No, I'm not okay. What's going on, Al?"
"We had to get you away from the military so that you wouldn't accidentally reveal that you regained your memories."
"Wait, how…"
"I did it for you. I had some help, though."
"Who helped you?"
Al looked behind him as someone walked up to the two. He sat next to Al and looked straight into Ed's eyes. "I did."
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If Ed's hands hadn't been restrained, he would have punched his father straight in the face. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked angrily. Hohenheim blinked and remained silent.
"He's on our side, brother. He already talked to Colonel Mustang and everything."
"That doesn't explain anything. Why am I tied up like this if you're helping us?"
"Because we were trying to avoid suspicion from the military. Or at least, putting suspicion on you. The only way to do that was to… well… kidnap you."
"Great. Then why am I still tied up? The military can't see us here, can they?"
"No, they can't."
"Then?"
"There's a lot we need to talk about. This is just so that we can be sure you'll listen."
"Why should I listen to him?" Ed asked, glaring at his father.
"Because he cares about his family, brother."
"Yeah, right."
Al gave an aggravated sigh and gagged his brother once again. "Look, I'm not letting you go until you listen. Please, brother. At least give him a chance."
Ed tried to argue through the gag, but he stopped when he saw just how serious Al was. He quietly gave up and looked expectantly at Hohenheim, who was staring in surprise at Al.
"Right. Well," Hohenheim began. "The reason I left, and something I never wanted you to know about, is this. I'm… not exactly what you could call human."
"Mmm?" Ed asked, forgetting that he couldn't speak. Al looked in surprise at their father.
"What do you mean?"
Hohenheim paused. "You know of that place under Central, right?"
Ed and Al nodded. "And that man called Father, right?"
"Yes. In some way, I'm like him."
Both brothers stared at their father in surprise. "Wait… like him? You mean like with the philosopher's stone?"
"That's right."
"But… how is that the reason for you leaving?"
"I didn't… I didn't want to watch you die."
"Mmmm?" Ed asked.
"What?" Hohenheim pulled off the gag.
"You left us for that?"
"Yes."
"That's stupid."
"Brother!"
"And why is it stupid, Edward?"
"With all the time you spent away, you missed out on the most important years of our lives. That and your plan didn't exactly work out the way it was supposed to."
Hohenheim's eyes were filled with pain. "That's true. I never meant for your lives to be ruined like that."
"Well, so much for that."
Hohenheim stood up and walked out of the room. Al watched him leave before turning to his brother. "Why did you have to be so harsh, brother? It's not like he wanted for us to go through all that."
"I know, but I can't just go from hating him to being all sad for him because his life's so hard. He didn't go through what we went through."
"Brother, he used to be a normal human."
"Eh?"
"Earlier, when you were asleep… he told me that he'd made a mistake that caused him to have to live the way he does now. Unless I'm way off, that means he used to be somewhat normal, like us."
"Al…"
"And besides, he just wanted to live happily with us. What's wrong with that?"
Ed watched as his brother walked off as well. He lay staring at the ceiling for a long time, not knowing what to think.
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"What would a bastard understand about that?"
"I do understand."
Ed weakly opened his eyes and looked around. He was alone in the room once again.
He wanted to live happily with us… We wanted to live happily with mom but we failed… He failed too…
He really does understand…
Ed felt tears in his eyes. Why am I crying?
He blinked the tears away as Hohenheim entered the room. He kneeled down next to his son and began untying him.
"When was the last time you ate?" he asked as Ed sat up.
"I don't really know… maybe at the hospital?"
"Can you stand?"
"I think so."
Ed weakly pushed himself to his feet and tried walking. His legs were shaky, but he could walk. Hohenheim had him sit on a nearby chair.
"About yesterday…" Ed began.
"Hmm?"
"I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be. I made a big mistake when I left you in the first place. If anyone needs to apologize, it should be me. I did very poorly as a father."
"Why don't we just call it even then?" Ed asked, trying to force a smile.
"Very well."
"Where's Al?"
"He's getting some food. He should be back soon."
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Once they had eaten, Ed turned to his father once more. "So you know what they're planning?"
Hohenheim nodded. "As far as this country is concerned, I know what they're planning to do with it."
"Back then… you knew when we were kids, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Then…" Ed stopped himself and looked at the doorway. Before anyone could move, he was at the door, staring down the alley. Immediately he ducked back into the building and faced the others.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
"The military's here. King Bradley too."
"Already? How did they find us so quickly?"
Hohenheim had grabbed a rope and was now using it to bind Ed's hands. "This isn't good. Alphonse, take your brother and get away from here. I'll distract them for a while, so get as far away as you can."
"Father…"
"Go. As long as Ed acts like he doesn't want to be here, they shouldn't put too much suspicion on him."
"What about me?" Al asked.
"Trust me. You'll be fine."
Al nodded and grabbed his brother's arm. "Come on, let's go."
They made their way to the rear end of the building as Hohenheim stood in the near-empty room. Ed looked back to see his father standing tall, watching his children leave him for what Ed hoped wouldn't be the last time.
They ran through the alleys as fast as they could until they came to a dead end. Al quickly used alchemy to dissolve the wall and continued running, not realizing until it was too late that he had brought the two of them into a trap.
They were completely surrounded by soldiers. The alley behind them was the only place that wasn't filled with armed men. Al stopped running, holding his brother's arm as tightly as he could.
"Al…"
"Damn it."
"You know we can't fight, don't you?"
"I know, but…" Al had been walking backward, his brother's arm still held tightly in his hand. "There has to be something… Brother, help me…"
Ed was conflicted for a moment. To him, the logical thing to do was to go with the military, but Al was against it. Just as he was about to make a decision, someone grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back into a side alley. He struggled to get away, but whoever had him was strong.
Finally, the person stopped and turned to face Ed. It was Scar. He pushed Ed against the wall and looked straight into his eyes for a moment before turning his head away. "I'm sorry."
Before Ed could understand what Scar meant, he felt his right side erupt in pain. He screamed and fell to the ground.
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Al managed to find his brother very quickly, but he stopped short when he saw Scar wiping his hand off on his shirt. Ed was on the ground, his entire body covered in blood.
"Brother!" Al cried as he ran up to Ed. "What the hell did you do to him?"
Scar didn't respond. Instead, he ran off. Al wanted to go after him, but as he was about to run after the Ishbalan, he was stopped. Two soldiers had grabbed his arms and were trying very hard to keep Al from running after Scar.
"Let me go!"
"No!"
"Why not? He killed my brother! He… brother…" Al went limp, and the soldiers let go of his arms. Al began sobbing as he held Ed's head in his lap. "Edward…"
Just then, he felt someone pulling him away from his brother. Al struggled weakly as the person pushed him against a wall. "Let me go."
"No," Envy replied. "Not until you stop being an idiot."
"He's dead."
"No he's not. He's close to being dead, but he isn't dead."
Al watched numbly as two paramedics gently moved Ed to a stretcher and carried him away. Envy let him go and began walking away. "That stinking Ishbalan failed again."