Disclaimer - I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist
A/N - Firstly, I feel the need to share the fact that I am typing this in an outrageous font (Century Gothic) for my own pleasure and I completely understand that when I post it, it will show up in standard font anyway. I don't care, let me have my fun XD
And now on to something much more relevant . . .
So, in this chapter I decided to address the whole "language barrier" thing. I wasn't going to, because in the show everyone just speaks the same language, but obviously in real life not everyone is just going to be in English ALL THE TIME. So I just figured I'd type it so that people were speaking in their native language, but you're reading it in English (if that makes sense). So like for example, Ed and Al are speaking to each other in Amestrian at on point, and Amanda asks them why. I'll type it in English but the idea is that Amanda has no idea what they're saying, only we do (muhaha).
Okay you're all probably confused now. Great . . . *face palm* whatever I assume you'll catch on.
. . .
Central, Amestris
1920
(Earth Year: 1926)
"Colonel, sir," Hawkeye said. It was the morning after she had made the call to Resembool.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" Mustang asked, not bothering to look up from the newspaper he was reading.
"Sir, you did attend the ninth birthday party of Elysia Hughes, correct?"
"Yes, Lieutenant," Mustang replied. He turned the page.
"While you were there, Sir, you wouldn't have happened to have spoken with Winry Rockbell, would you?"
Mustang looked up at her. He thought a moment, then said, "Uh . . . No, I didn't even know the Rockbell girl was there."
Hawkeye nodded. "Thank you, Sir."
Mustang looked confused. "What for?"
"For answering my questions, Sir."
Mustang sighed. He hated how strictly business Hawkeye kept their relationship. He looked back down at his paper. "What's with the sudden interest in the Rockbell girl, anyway?"
"Well, yesterday was the Fullmetal Alchemist's 21st birthday. Or rather, it would have been-"
Mustang spit out the coffee he had just taken a sip of. "TWENTY-ONE?"
"Well, yeah," Havoc said. "I totally forgot. That little pipsqueak would have been all grown up . . ."
"That's not possible!" Mustang exclaimed. "That would mean that I met Elric ten years ago! It has not been that long!"
Havoc leaned over his desk and whispered in Breda's ear, "Someone's in denial about his age."
"I AM NOT IN DENIAL!"
"Hey, you guys know what Hughes would have said now?" Furey asked.
"Better hurry up and get yourself a wife!" Falman, Havoc, Breda, and Furey chanted together.
"Shut up and get back to work!" the colonel commanded.
"Colonel, Sir, if I may make a suggestion," Hawkeye said.
"Shoot."
"Maybe if you'd finish your paper work instead of reading the newspaper for once you'd have been promoted by now!" And with that, she snatched the paper out of his hands and pushed a big stack of file work in front of him.
"Oh yeah," Breda chimed in. "I heard General Peterson had a nervous break down and retired . . . Maybe you'll get bumped back up to General, Mustang."
The familiar glint of determination resurfaced in Mustang's eye for the first time in a while. He would finish his climb to the top.
. . .
London, England
1926
Sun poured into the Elric's bedroom through the small window.
Alphonse tried to turn his face away from the window and go back to sleep, but it was too late. He was a wake. He sighed and sat up.
Well, might as well make Ed get up, too . . . Al got out of bed, grabbed his pillow, and smashed it into his older brother's face. "Brother, wake up!"
"Ugh, fuck you, Al . . ." Ed mumbled, burrowing deeper into his covers.
Only being woken up would cause Edward Elric to use such fowl language so casually. Normally, you'd have to seriously piss him off first.
"Come on!" Al hit him with his pillow again. "The sooner we feed the animals, the sooner we can eat."
At the mention of food, Ed sat straight up in his bed. "I'm awake!"
. . .
"It's too cold, and too early for this," Ed complained as he threw some hay into the horse stables.
He and Al moved along to the barn, where they had to feed and milk the cows.
"Eddie! Al!" a familiar little voice shrieked from outside the barn.
"Amanda?" Al asked, confused. The toddler normally slept until breakfast was done, and she never came outside this early.
"Ed, Al!" another voice called.
"Noah?" Ed asked. "Shouldn't she be getting the eggs?"
The two of them abandoned their task prematurely to see what was going on.
"What's up?" Al asked as they emerged from the barn house.
Amanda ran over to them as fast as her little legs would carry her. When she was close enough, Al swooped her up in his arms in order to keep her out of the now-melting snow.
"Lisa said it's something important!" Noah told them. "She called for a cab; she wants us all at the house now."
"Now?" Ed asked. They still hadn't finished their morning chores.
"Now," Noah confirmed.
The three of them ran back to the house, Al holding Amanda tight against him so she wouldn't fall.
. . .
"Lisa, what is going on?" Roy asked when he arrived in the kitchen a few minutes after the others.
Lewis was keeping himself busy by grabbing clumps of Al's hair in his hand and yanking on it as hard as he could. Ed was now holding Mandy, and she was complaining to him that she was still tired and wanted to take a nap.
"Lisa!" Roy repeated.
His wife was busy running around the kitchen, trying to pull together breakfast as fast as she could. "There's been and accident . . . I don't know much else."
"An accident?" Roy asked.
Lisa nodded and handed them each a piece of toast with jam thinly spread on them. Amanda made a face at hers. "This looks yucky!"
Lisa handed Roy Amanda's coat and started to help Al with Lewis's. "A car accident. That's all I know, but we're going down to the hospital right now to figure it out.
"Who was in an accident?" Ed asked.
Lisa sighed and looked down. She hadn't wanted to tell anyone, the news was so terrible. But under the circumstances, she was possibly the only way they'd find out without seeing for themselves. "I . . . I got a phone call . . . Patricia used a public phone to call our new number and honestly I'm surprised she could remember it I mean her mind's always been a little frazzled and-"
"Lisa!" Roy, Ed, Al, and Noah exclaimed.
She swallowed. "It was Wendy."
. . .
Past experiences had caused both the Elric brothers to develop a hesitancy of entering hospitals, but knowing who it was behind those big glass doors, they didn't even pause before running right into the main lobby.
Ed ran right up to the front desk and banged his fist on the counter. The nurse who was sitting behind it jumped.
"Where's Wendy Franklin's room?" Ed demanded.
The woman jumped again and began shuffling through her papers. "Uh! Uhm . . . R-room 113. Up the stairs, down the hall, second door on the left!"
Ed ran off without thanking her. Roy, Lisa, and Noah followed, carrying the kids.
Al gave the lady a sympathetic look before rushing after the others.
Edward was the first to reach the door, and he ran right in without knocking.
What he saw in the room made his stomach flip over a few times. He instantly felt like throwing up.
Wendy was lying, unconscious, on a hospital bed. She had blood-stained bandages wrapped around her forehead, left arm, left leg, and her stomach. Her eyes were swollen and purple, and she had bruises all over her body.
Lisa, Roy and Al ran in right after Ed. Amanda tried to go with them, but Noah grabbed hold of her chubby little arm and held her in place.
"Let go!" Amanda screeched. "I wanna see Wendy too!"
"No, Mandy!" Noah exclaimed. She had Lewis in her other arm, and her grip on the toddler was slipping.
"Wendy!" Amanda cried. "I wanna see her!"
"Mandy, a hospital room is no place for you!" Noah told her, desperately attempting to hold her back.
"Why not?" Amanda asked, tears in her eyes. She pulled against Noah's grip; harder, harder, harder, free!
She tried to run right into the room, but she ran into something else first.
Edward's leg.
He scooped her up in his arms. Noah relaxed and stood up straight. She mumbled something in German that Ed couldn't translate-he had never really mastered the language. Learning English had been hard enough; all those extra riles of grammar. Besides; Gracia, Hughes, and Alfons spoke English fluently, so there had been no reason to be perfect in German.
"No, Mandy," he said. His voice sounded almost . . . Defeated.
"What's wrong with Wendy? Why can't I go in?"
"Wendy's just got some boo-boos," Noah said in a gentle voice. "And it's really crowded in the room."
Ed and Noah carried the kids over to the waiting room and sat down in the chairs. There were some blocks on the floor, and Amanda hopped off Ed's lap to play with them.
After a few moments of silence, Noah turned to Ed. "Do you think you'll be alright on your own? I want to go see her . . ."
"I'll stay, Noah," Al said. Ed and Noah both looked up, not having realized that Al was there.
Noah nodded, handed Lewis to Ed, stood up, and left. Al sat in her chair. "Brother, why did you run out of the room?"
Ed looked down at the giggling baby, not wanting to answer.
"Edward," Al said sternly. "You weren't even in there for two seconds before you turned around and ran out!"
"I couldn't help it," Ed blurted. "When I looked in that room, I wasn't worried about Wendy . . . I was worried about her."
Al was a little surprised. "Well . . . I guess that makes sense. They are identical . . . And we're known Winry forever. Compared to her Wendy's brand new, so . . ."
Ed shook his head. "Not like that, Al. I knew it was Wendy lying there. But instead of worrying about that, I was automatically trying to figure out if something similar could have happened on the other side. And thinking about it like that; Winry could be dead right now and we wouldn't know it. This world's Edward died, yet I survived. And Alfons Heiderich died and you're perfectly fine! What if both of them were in a fatal accident and only Wendy got to survive? What if it's always like that?
"That was my first thought when I saw on of my closest friends half dead in a hospital room. It's terrible but I can't help it. They could all be dead. Aunt Pinako, Winry, Mustang, Hawkeye, Gracia, Elysia, Ross, Brosh, Rose, Armstrong . . . Our world could have ended and we wouldn't know!"
Ed could have gone on ranting, but his head suddenly began to ache, just like when the other Edward had entered his body, only this time, he was alone in his head.
Ed shoved Lewis into Al's arms and made a mad dash for the men's room.
"Brother!" Al yelled after him, ready to follow. Then he remembered the kids and sat back down.
"Al?" Amanda asked.
"What is it, Mandy?"
"How come when you and Eddie talk to each other sometimes you sound different?" Amanda asked.
"Because we're not speaking English," Al explained. Ed had taught him the basics of the language back before they left Munich and on their journey to London. Al had picked up the rest with help from the others and a little more on his own.
"Why not?" Amanda asked. "You live here with us."
"Because Ed and I aren't from England, like you are. We just live here. Like when Noah, Gracia, or Hughes speak in German."
"Well where are you from?" Amanda asked.
Al took a moment to think of how he wanted to answer that question.
"Far away," he decided. "Very far away."
"Do your mommy and daddy live there?" Amanda asked.
Al shook his head sadly. "My mommy died a long time ago, and my daddy didn't live with us."
"No mommy or daddy?" Amanda asked, completely shocked.
Al shook his head again. "No mommy or daddy."
Amanda ran over, climbed up on the chair next to him, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You can share my mommy and daddy! Ed can, too!"
Al laughed. "Thanks, Amanda."
. . .
Ed ran into the bathroom and stopped in front of the sinks.
His vision was becoming blurry. He turned on the cold water and splashed it in his face.
Instead of seeing the chrome faucets, he was looking at images swimming through his head. People laughing; Winry, Pinako, Mustang and his team, Maria Ross and Denny Brosh, Izumi, Sig, and Mason, Sheska, Fletcher and Russell Tringham, Rose, the two Ishballan boys; Rick and Leo, Gracia, Elysia, Armstrong, Lieutenant Hughes, Nina Tucker, his mother, a suit of armor . . .
And the last image he saw; a giant gate. Then everything went black.
. . .
Munich, Germany
Envy sighed. Three years later and the Thule Society still hadn't freed him. He wondered if they were even still in need of him.
At this point, he decided that he really didn't give two shits about the Elrics; he just wanted to get down from the bloody ceiling.
So he did what he had to do; he called upon the gate in which he was made.
He was going back to Amestris.
. . .
London, England
Hughes moved in his sleep, resulting in his very pregnant wife to wake up.
Gracia was hungry, so she abandoned her attempts to go back to sleep and got up to find some food. Besides, she had to use the bathroom.
When she entered the kitchen, she noticed two things. 1) it was empty. No busy Lisa running around doing things, no toddlers coloring at the table, no Elrics scribbling in journals - empty. 2) There was a note on the counter.
Gracia and Hughes
A friend of ours (Wendy, you met her yesterday at Ed's party) was been hospitalized. There's food if you need it. We'll be home later.
Lisa and Roy
"MAES WAKE UP WE'RE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL!" Gracia yelled.
There was a loud bang, followed by Hughes's weak voice. "Baby?"
"No, now hurry!"
. . .
?
Edward stood before the giant gate once again-the truth. It was opened this time.
"Damn!" he muttered to himself. "I can't even remember how many times I've seen this fucking thing. But why am I here now?"
"Well isn't it obvious, Pipsqueak?" a familiar voice asked.
Edward gasped and did a one-eighty. Standing before him-back in humanoid form-was the last person Edward had ever wanted to see again.
"Envy!" he exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Same reason as you, I assume," Envy replied. "I'm going home."
"Home?" Ed asked. "So I'm . . . dead? Ah, shit! Al's gonna kill me . . ."
Envy laughed out loud. "You're not dead! Yet, anyway . . ."
"Well, then how did I get here? My mind, body, and soul were all joined together on the other side . . . I shouldn't have been able to create my own gate!"
Envy sighed. "Damn, for an alchemic genius, you sure don't know much. I guess I'll be king enough to explain; you see Pipsqueak-"
"I'M TALLER THAN YOU NOW!"
"-there is another way to open the gate inside yourself. Either Hohenheim didn't know or he just didn't tell you; I'm honestly not sure."
"Just get to the point," Ed said impatiently.
"Fine," Envy agreed. "Every human has the ability to do alchemy, right?"
Ed nodded.
"So therefore, every human has an inner gate, which acts as the source of their alchemy. When you form a close relationship with a person, your inner gates start to pull on each other. Now, when enough inner gates are connected, it forms a gate large enough to open up a black hole of sorts, and it sucks in whoever's at the center of it and brings them here."
Ed scratched his head. "Well, I don't really understand that but I suppose it makes sense. How do you connect inner gates?"
Envy shrugged. "I'm not human, how the hell should I know?"
"Well then how did you get here?"
"I'm a homunculus, Edward. I was born from the gate, therefore I can summon it whenever I please. Why the hell did you think the Thule Society needed me? I acted as a conductor for them."
"Just one more question," Ed said. "Why are you telling me all this? I thought we were enemies."
There was an evil glint in his purple eyes. "Oh, don't get confused, Pipsqueak, I still hate you. I'm telling you because the sooner you get back to Amestris, the sooner I get to kill you!"
"I'm not going back," Ed told him. Envy's grin melted. "Not yet, anyway. Not without my brother."
"But you finding a way back here might take forever!" Envy shouted. "Just come back now while you have the chance! It's the sane thing to do!"
Edward shook his head as hundreds of small, black hands reached out and grabbed hold of Envy.
"I'll recreate them!" Envy vowed. "The seven shall wreck havoc again! We will tear you Elric brothers down and dance on your graves!"
And with that, the gate closed, and darkness enveloped Ed again.
. . .
When Ed could see again, he was back in the men's room, thinking about what Envy had said.
"All I did was think about home . . ." he muttered to himself. That's when it hit him, the solution to the problem.
He had figured in the past that relationships always stayed the same, no matter what side of the gate you were on. That whole blood is thicker than water thing was just a load of crap. Well, what if all of that had to do with the inner gate?
What if, the inner gate was somewhat like a soul, and it knew love and friendship. When Alphonse was just a soul in a suit of armor, he had still been able to do alchemy, so didn't that prove the inner gate and the soul were tied?
Envy had said when you form a relationship with someone, your inner gate and their's begin to pull on each other. Thinking about it like that, you could have thousands of inner gates pulling on your own. What if, in order to connect them, you had to succumb to the pull and let it take you over?
But that didn't seem right either . . . There was still a key detail that Ed could feel he was missing.
Ed heard the bathroom door open. He quickly flew into one of the stalls, although he wasn't sure why.
"Brother?" Al's voice called. "Wendy's awake . . . She wants to speak with you."
Ed sighed and opened the stall so he could see his younger brother. He decided not to tell him what had happened just yet. "Okay. Let's go . . ."