Chapter Five: Arguing with a Full-length Mirror

Ed and Edward were on the train to Central. Ed had the window seat and was staring out the window as he thought.

"Al's soul is trapped in a suit of armor?..." Winry asked wide-eyed.

"So that was the 'alchemy experiment that went wrong'... But, if you knew all of the components of the human body, why didn't it work? What happened to equivalent exchange?" Edward asked.

"That's just it - it wasn't equivalent... We realized that we were missing something - apparently something big, judging from what we had to pay."

"Now that you know that, you can find out what you were missing the first time and make it work, right?" His alternate self asked.

"No! Don't you understand?! Human alchemy is prohibited for a reason!" Ed yelled, stealing the smile from his other self's face. "Neither of us are going to try doing anything like that ever again! All my brother and I are going to do is find the philosopher's stone and get our bodies back."

"Hey..." Ed said, turning toward Edward.

"Yeah?"

"You'll watch over mom, won't you? Make sure she's okay?"

"Of course, brother," Edward said with a smile.

"If... If that doesn't work, and she dies here like she did in my world... Will you promise me that you won't try to bring her back?" Ed asked.

Edward thought for a moment. The question took him completely off guard. He loved his mom - could he live without her? What if he could achieve where his other self failed? After all, he would be older and more experienced than this other Ed had been - having only been 10 or 11.

"Promise me!" Ed demanded, grabbing Edward's shirt with his concealed automail arm and yanking him off of his seat.

"Fine! I promise!" Edward said wide-eyed. Ed let go of his shirt and he fell back into his seat.

"My brother and I had to go through a lot because of our attempt and I don't want that to happen to you two. Understand?" Ed said with a harsh voice. Edward nodded.

After getting off the train, the two headed straight for the library. As they neared the building, however, Ed stopped walking. Edward turned around and noticed his face pale.

Ed stared as Shou Tucker and his daughter passed by them on the sidewalk.

"When are you going to make another talking chimera?"

"It seems like everyone's asking me that..."

"Why does it hurt inside?"

Bead-like eyes flash through Ed's mind, and a charred outline followed close behind.

"What is it?" Edward asked, trying to figure out what Ed was staring at.

"...Isn't that Tucker? ...And Nina?"

"Who?" Edward asked, giving his double a puzzled look.

'Oh... That's right... I never became a state alchemist in this universe... So I never stayed at his house or even met him...' Ed thought. "He's... Someone I used to know..." Ed watched as the two turned a corner and went out of view.

Frustrated, Edward said, "What's wrong with you?! You act as though you've just seen a ghost!"

"...I did..."

"Huh?" Edward asked, confused.

"In my dimension, that little girl is dead, and now I know it's all because of me!" Ed said, his voice beginning to crack. Edward didn't say anything. "He fused his little girl and his dog together to make a talking chimera, and now I see that he would never have done it if I wasn't there, urging him to do it! I was such an idiot not to realize his plans! I heard about him creating a talking chimera in the past and I was fascinated by it! Fascinated by it!" he repeated disgustedly. "I thought there was something odd about it, but I never thought he had used his own wife! ...I saw that girl after the attempt. I witnessed her pain!" Ed cried.

"Get over yourself!" Edward snapped.

Ed widened his eyes in surprise. "Huh?"

"You think the universe rotates around us?!" Edward demanded of his double. "Just because he did it in your dimension and not in mine doesn't mean you caused it to happen!"

"You don't understand!" Ed exclaimed. "Look - he had to choose between his house and Nina. If he didn't make another chimera, he wouldn't have passed his evaluation and they'd take away his funding. He couldn't decide which was worse, until I came into the picture and pushed him over the edge!"

Edward exploded with, "You're making me look like a big baby!" He just couldn't stand seeing his own face like that for another second. Surprised, Ed blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall. "How selfish of you to think that our mother being alive was the only difference in our universes! I know I wasn't there to see your failed attempt at bringing her back, or to see that guy's crazy experiment, so I don't understand everything you do and probably never will - but, if that allows me to think more rationally, then I don't care! For all we know, that guy's wife may be at home right now - and it wouldn't have anything to do with us. It would be because our universes are different, and nothing else!"

--End Chapter--

An alternate title thought of for this chapter was "The Center of the Universe" - but I ended up going with the current one - and actually, it kind'a ties in with the title I gave this story's sequel - which also had an alternate title at first. " How odd...

My original chapter notes (bold words are new):

Hmm... Maybe I went a little overboard with the Chimera thing. Has anyone else had images of that... thing... for days after seeing that "Cry of the Chimera" episode? That may have been the freakiest thing I've ever seen on TV. (or at least in the top five...) I mean, I thought he might have been lying about his wife, but to do that was totally unexpected. Ed spent months with that little girl and her father! We got to know her! And then... suddenly, we see that animal, with it's long red mane and those little round eyes, and it repeats "Edward friend" after Tucker said it and then it says it hurts inside. It's like, the dog and her minds are merged and neither are operating at full capacity! (or... maybe it just effects me more than usual because I've had a little bit of a phobia of losing my identity...) But, when I saw Tucker again, and the other chimeras, they didn't freak me out at all.

Anyhow... I know I probably got some of those quotes wrong, but my brother has all the episodes at his place, so I can't look it up. (--Now that I finally have the episodes on tape myself... I didn't think to check my quotes...)