Here's chapter 2!
In response to someone's question, lemme give a quick explanation of what world we're in. (Note: I'll try to answer questions in the reviews but they will always be fully answered in the following chapter).
This story takes place in the brotherhood world regarding storyline/plot (ie. Motivations and existence of characters like Father and Dante). Certain characters (eg. Envy) will, however, have personalities from the original anime. The particular sins will also be from the original anime (eg. The Fuhrer is the sin Pride, Wrath is Izumi's son, etc.). This is around the time after Nina Tucker is killed by Scar, but before the brothers learn the main ingredient of the philosopher's stone.
I'm going to try to get the first chapters out fairly quickly so ya'll don't have to wait that long. Most of the earlier chapters are already written and simply need edits and adjustments before being posted.
Reviews are appreciated!
Glass shattered. The two watched from the roof as the girl on the ground beneath them showed the Elric brothers a glimpse of her alchemy.
Lust's eyes narrowed as the glass returned to its original condition. She had not drawn a circle or formed one with her hands. "That's interesting."
Envy leaned against the dormer of the building they were on, arms crossed. "Mhmmm."
Lust held up a picture of a woman with brown hair and deep blue eyes and pushed it into Envy's face. He peered at it, then swatted it away. Lust withdrew the photo. "Envy, you know what to do. I'll return to Father, he'll want to hear about… this."
"Mhmmm."
"Don't screw this up, Envy." Lust hissed at him.
"I won't." Envy sneered. "She's just one stupid human."
Emilee followed the same path she always took in the afternoon, taking in the fresh hair and relishing in the heat of the sun as it warmed her skin. The morning had been spent caring for her garden in the back. She had plucked several of the prettiest tulips and carried them in her hand as she stepped down the road.
"Hey, Emilee!" A woman waved her arm from her front porch. She was rocking in a wooden chair beside her husband.
"Good morning." Emilee returned the wave.
"You think you can help us later?" Her husband called. "Our fence out back broke."
"The fence broke because you smashed into it." His wife laughed. "What were you even doing?"
"I told you it was an accident." The man chuckled.
"Sure, I'll come by on my way home." She smiled brightly at them.
As soon as she passed out of view of the happy couple, the smile descended from her face. She had become so accustomed to her walk to the cemetery, yet the experience always left her feeling drained. Her forced smile seemed to easily convince her neighbors and friends that her life was picking up. But, though she attempted to convince herself she was happy now, the façade of joviality was something she was unable to maintain in the absence of observersation.
She pulled her blue, summer dress to the side as she kneeled in front of her mother's grave. She replaced the drying daffodils of the previous day with the new arrangement of fresh tulips.
"Hey, Mom." She said softly. "I'm sorry I was so upset yesterday. Those boys were just so impolite and intrusive." She grimaced at the recollection of the particular boy's brusque attitude. "Well, that one boy, Ed at least." Her voice hardened as his name passed her lips.
She was silent as a light breeze rolled through, fluttering her dress and hair. She regretted leaving her hair down that day as she pushed back the strands that swirled across her face, blocking some of her vision. "I don't know why they care so much about this. And he said there was something wrong with my eyes." She blinked away moisture that blurred her sight. "There's nothing wrong with my eyes, right, mom?"
Silence was her response. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to imagine the response from her mother. She could barely even recall her mother's voice.
"There's nothing wrong with them, Emilee. But they're special."
Emilee's eyes flew open. Had that voice come through her ears? Her head swiveled around to the source of the voice and her mouth hung open. She stared, struck, frozen as time stood still. She fell backwards, knocking over the vase, and she scrambled to pick up and arrange the flowers again. Her head slowly turned back to the woman who stood behind her. "Mom?" Her voice came out more as a gasping shriek than a question.
"Yes, Emilee." The woman smiled and walked closer, crouching in front of her. She was wearing one of her mother's favorite outfits, white blouse and a long blue skirt. She brushed disheveled hair from Emilee's face, tucking it behind her ear, before placing a cold palm on the side of her face.
Emilee began to laugh historically. A dream. Wow, this was one insanely real dream.
Her mother pursed her lips. "Aren't you happy to see me?"
Tears began to fall down Emilee's cheeks as her laughing turned to sobbing. "Mom. Why are you coming to my dreams? I haven't seen you here in years." Had the incident with the brothers yesterday thrown her mind off this much?
Suddenly Emilee felt cold arms stretch around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. "This is no dream," her mother said softly.
"Yes, it is." Emilee laughed through sobs, shaking her head. "Just a dream."
Her mother pushed Emilee back a bit and pressed both hands against the girl's face, wiping away the tears that streamed down her cheeks. She smiled softly. "Don't let that boy make you feel bad."
Emilee nodded. "I won't." She suddenly put her arms around her mother's torso, resting her head on the soft white blouse and squeezing tight. She wished so badly this was real.
They remained like that for several minutes. When Emilee's arms finally loosened, her mother pulled away and stood. She offered a hand down towards Emilee. "Come, let me show you something."
Emilee nodded and took her mother's cold hand, letting herself be pulled to her feet.
She didn't release the hand her mother had offered her. Not once had her grip even softened while her mother led her out of the cemetery and down the street.
"Where are we going, mom?"
"You'll see."
No one in the town had seemed to notice her mother's appearance. Several looked over but, at most, gave a small wave before carrying on with what they were doing. This was certainly a dream. She looked up and was confused to see that her mother's face had been replaced by that of an unfamiliar female. Emilee said nothing and when they rounded a corner, suddenly hidden from other people, her mother's face returned.
They continued down the alley until they turned and reached a dead end, nothing interesting in sight. "I don't understand," Emilee said. Her eyes darted around the area and she turned about, trying to find something of interest. "Why are we h—"
She felt a cold hand cover her mouth with a cloth carrying a strong scent. A wave of drowsiness descended, muddling her brain. She looked up. The person standing above her was not her mother. Violet eyes bore into hers, green hair spiking out of the man who clutched the cloth tightly over her mouth. Her eyes widened momentarily but slowly closed, succumbing to the chloroform.
"Hey. Have you seen Emilee?" Ed asked a woman walking with a very young child.
"I think she's at the cemetery."
"She's not." Ed groaned. "We tried there earlier."
"She doesn't normally head there until 2 pm and I saw her walking there not too long ago."
Ed sighed. "Let's try there again, I guess."
"Thank you," Al said to the woman.
The two of them neared the graveyard but saw no one in the area as they walked up.
Ed groaned and put both hands on his head. "Not this again."
"It's okay, brother." Al said, trying to comfort him. "We'll find her."
Ed ran up to an elderly woman sweeping the front of a store with Al close behind. "Did you see Emilee here?"
The woman nodded. "She went to the cemetery a bit ago, but I saw her walking away with some woman."
"What woman? Do you know where to?"
"I'm not sure," the woman said thoughtfully. "Must be a visitor, I'd never seen her before. But she probably needed something fixed."
"What do you mean?" Al asked.
The woman beamed. "That girl is so sweet. Always fixing things, helping others. She's just like her mother."
Ed and Al looked at each other and smiled. Maybe she would forgive them for how belligerently they (Ed) had approached her the day before.
"Did you see which way she went?" Al asked.
"I think she went that way." The woman pointed down behind a building.
"Thank you so much!" Ed grinned.
"You're welcome." The woman returned a smile.
Back behind the buildings they walked the main path down the alley, glancing down empty turns before continuing.
"You hear that?" Ed asked. There were voices from ahead.
Following them, they rounded a corner into a dead end. Both froze.
Envy released a cloth from over Emilee's mouth and holstered her over his shoulder.
"Envy?" Ed snarled. He and Al took offensive stances.
Envy's lips formed a twisted smile. "Thanks for the help, Pipsqueak."
"Who're you calling a pipsqueak, you fucking palm tree." Ed clapped his hands together, forming a blade on his right, automail arm. "Let her go," he shouted, racing towards Envy. He swung his arm, aiming his blade towards the side of Envy that Emilee did not lay across.
"Not gonna happen." Envy smirked, easily dodging the attack. He leaped to the side gracefully, avoiding the spikes raising from the ground as Al's metal hands made contact with a chalk-drawn transmutation circle.
"Careful, Al. We don't want to hurt her."
"Sorry!" Al backed up.
Ed charged again and managed to catch the edge of Envy's arm as he hopped away, slicing the skin. Blood dripped down Envy's left arm from the deep wound, exposing the white fat under the skin. Within moments the wound closed.
Ed ran forward again and swung his arm out at Envy. He tried to stop his arm when Envy pulled Emilee in front of him, but still landed a small slice across her shoulder. Thankfully not deep. A few beads of blood formed across the cut, but only one drop dripped down.
"Careful, Ed. We don't want to hurt her," Al mimicked, sarcastically.
Ed flashed an angry look at his brother as he jumped back.
Gripping the back of her shirt and holding her in front of him, as if she was a shield, Envy hopped towards Ed. His arm had turned to a steel sword and he swiped at Ed's head. Ed narrowly avoided the attack. At the second strike, he held his arm up to block. A loud ringing sound pierced the air as blade met automail.
Ed jumped back, replaced by Al who attempted hand-on-hand combat of his own. But he faced a similar problem avoiding the Envy's Emilee shield. He appeared to find sick entertainment in waving the girl about, warding off the brother's attacks. Eventually, he withdrew as well, standing across from the boys. He was only 15 feet away. Their minds each raced as they attempted to plot a rescue.
Envy raised his sword-arm and lunged towards the boys, only a few feet, teasing them. He let out a maniacal laugh when they flinched, bearing defensive postures. "You know what? This is taking too much time."
"Then just let her go," Ed commanded.
Envy sneered. "Sorry, boys but she's coming with me. But, as thanks for finding her, I'll let you live."
The boys tried to rush him again but Envy returned Emilee to his shoulder, hopped onto the building and raced across the rooftops.
Ed and Al chased him, Ed on the roof and Al on the ground. But when Envy ditched the shingles and entered a forest outside the town, they lost him.
Ed groaned and fell to his knees, banging his head on a tree repeatedly until Al stopped him. His hair covered his eyes, "What are we going to do?"
"We'll save her." Al assured him.
Ed leaned his head against the tree. "We don't even know where they're taking her."
"We'll find her."
"I can't believe I led them right to her."
"It's not your fault."
Ed turned his head and glared at his brother. "Yeah," he growled. "It is."
Envy chuckled to himself as he hopped from tree to tree. How easy it had been to lose the Elrics.
His eyes made their way down to his shoulder, where the girl laid slumped across. Her body bounced like she was a rag doll as he moved.
Her arms were weak, her skin was pale. She was an easy catch. Would've been even easier without the brothers there with their attempts to intervene. But, without them, discovering the girl would've been much more taxing.
As his eyes moved from her and back to the path ahead, he frowned. He hated that lust always made him do the dirty work. He hated dealing with humans. Although they sometimes brought comedic entertainment through their ridiculous antics, they were such pathetic creatures.
If he had more time, he would've killed that bastard's sons. But the human wouldn't be unconscious forever and he didn't want to deal with the possibility of returning to Father without her.
In memoriam of a lost opportunity in destroying the pathetic brothers, he fantasized about killing them all the way back. Wiping off the seal keeping Al's soul bound within that armor with his saliva while Ed watched. Then, slicing through Ed's skin, cutting him bit by bit. Dismembering his body with his arm a blade.
His eyes were wild and his mouth was twisted into a smile. It remained that way until he returned to the hideout where Father and the other homunculi awaited him.