Dean and Sam were halfway to Michigan when something nearly broke through the windshield.
Upset at the near attack on his baby, Dean exited the car with his gun drawn.
He immediately holstered it when he realized that the one who crashed into them was just a kid.
He was pale, likely from blood loss, his blond hair half out of the odd braid he had it in, and he had multiple cuts. Looking at the odd drawings on his right arm and half his torso, they were quick to get him to Bobby's, as they weren't entirely sure that he wasn't a witch.
"He just crashed right into you?"
"Out of nowhere Bobby!" emphasized Dean. Sam nodded beside him.
"Well aside from losing a lot of blood, and not from being hit by your car, and the fact his left leg and right arm are made of metal of all things, not to mention the odd drawings on his skin, he's in good condition."
"Did you say his arm and leg are made of metal?" said Dean incredulous.
"Completely made of metal. And judging by the plates on both limbs I'd say the kid's a double amputee."
There was a low groan from upstairs and Bobby went up first. Sam and Dean would listen from outside.
Bobby asked the kid questions, even though he had given him the holy water/silver/iron test the kid checked out. He had no idea how he ended up in America and he spoke with a slight accent. It took Sam ages to recognize it as a subtle German one.
For the next week the kid stayed around Bobby's, by which time the brothers had already left having been assured that the teen wasn't a witch in any shape or form. Hell, the kid couldn't believe that they expected him to acknowledge magic was real.
Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist, was in a parallel world, one where his damn father never existed except as history. Ancient history that is.
Dean, the older sibling, had taken to calling him Rick because apparently Edward Elric was a fictional character in this world...one out of a comic book with the same title he once had as a state alchemist.
Needless to say he was shocked that his life story was a fantasy story for countless millions of fans. He was rather quick to dye his gold blond hair a similar shade of brown to Bobby's once he found that out.
Bobby Singer was a man he grew to like, as an uncle of sorts anyway. He had a no nonsense attitude and he knew what he was doing. The one time he took Ed on a 'hunt', Ed had learned the finer points of dealing with a werewolf.
That poor bastard had been shocked as hell to find that Ed's arm was metal, and that he had no issue punching his lights out.
After that Ed turned his sharp mind towards learning how to become a hunter. His alchemy had reverted to the same level as when he was a child, which meant he would have to relearn his old pathways before he could use it instinctively like he did in his world.
At least he could call on his armblade without the circle. That would have been pure hell if he had to carve the damn circle out on the plates. Another thing he test was his second favorite weapon, a pole with a blade. Thanks to Bobby he got used to making the blade out of silver and the pole out of iron.
Bobby seemed to like him well enough, once he got over the alchemy use anyway. They had the same personality, and Bobby quickly claimed him as a cousin's son who had lost his parents and would be living with him for a while. It helped that Ed had kept his hair in the same brown color that Bobby once had, and that he always asked for a warrant if people asked for a DNA sample which had only happened once.
It had taken a lot of convincing to prove he was in fact nearly seventeen, despite his small size. A quick trip to the dentist proved that his wisdom teeth were nearly out, which was all the Child Protection Agency needed to back off.
It had taken Dean and Sam longer to get used to his eyes, so he finally started wearing blue contacts to turn his gold eyes to a sharp green.
Apparently a demon with yellow-eyes had killed their mother, so they were naturally suspicious of anyone with yellow eyes. Even ones that were technically a warm amber and not a sickly yellow. Still he could live with contacts if it meant that the brothers wouldn't immediately go for their guns upon sight of his eyes.
Apparently the fact he could recite what was a demon-exorcising ritual, drink holy water and eat salt was enough to keep them from shooting him outright long enough to put the contacts in.
He really liked the Winchester brothers, he honestly did. They were more like him and Al back when their mother died, only they seemed far more dependent on each other than he and Alphonse ever were.
So much so that the fact Dean had sold his soul to bring Sam back because of yellow-eyes didn't surprise him in the least.
"So let me get this straight. I have to sit tight and wait here while you go deal with some guy who apparently kills in dreams."
"Yup."
"Hell and no," said Ed flatly.
"I ain't givin' you a choice idjit," said Bobby.
Ed's eye twitched. Bobby had a rather unique manner of talking that occasionally amused him. But he hated being called an idiot.
The fact he passed his high school exams in less than a week with only the most basic of course books given to him from the Winchester brothers could attest to the fact he was not an idiot. The fact he understood most of Sam's lawyer mumbo-jumbo after reading his old text books from Stanford before he went back to hunting also proved he was not in fact an idiot.
Ed glared at Bobby, who finally took out something he had been planning to give the kid ages ago.
A laptop.
"Here's the wireless password. I'll be back in a few hours."
Ed quickly dove into the manual for the laptop and once he set up his new computer (he had been meaning to get one anyway as they seemed interesting enough) he immediately dove into the internet.
Despite being a seventeen-year-old boy, Ed didn't go near the more adult sites. Instead he dove right into the scientific sites after using a popular search engine to find a community for it.
Needless to say scientific minds around the world were shocked to find a seventeen-year-old who understood physics who didn't have an e-mail account just yet jumping into their topics with fervor.
Bobby came back four hours later, noticed Ed was sufficiently distracted, and went to work. Around ten he went to bed, Ed having already gone to sleep after his eyes had given him trouble around thirty minutes earlier.
Ed woke up the next morning with Bobby unable to wake up. He even cocked a gun near Bobby's head, with no reaction. Holy water splashed in the face did nothing.
He grabbed Bobby's phone and immediately called Sam and Dean. He managed to keep the housekeeping out by flipping the little card on the door, so they could at least see the evidence without the EMTs trampling over everything.
"What happened?" demanded Dean when they arrived. Ed had taken his contacts out five minutes ago and hadn't expected them to nearly barge in. Neither brother noticed his golden eyes, which he took to be a good thing.
"He was investigating a dreamwalker. He came back four hours after leaving me here, and when I woke up this morning he wasn't moving. I tried everything and no response. That's when I called you two," said Ed bluntly.
"Did he say or do anything unusual?"
"I was in the middle of a chat with some guy in Germany about the finer points of astrophysics when he came back. I didn't notice anything off when we had dinner though," said Ed.
Sam raised an eyebrow until he noticed the new laptop.
"Dude, you didn't go on any sites with naked chicks at all?" said Dean incredulous.
Ed rolled his eyes.
"I'm not like you, Mr. I-can't-keep-it-in-my-pants. Once I got my e-mail account I started hitting scientific discussions. Why on earth would I care for pictures of undressed girls when science is more interesting?" deadpanned Ed.
Sam snorted in amusement. Ed was far more like him than Dean, intelligence wise. Once he got over Ed's eye color, and really spending time around the kid made it easier to see the warm amber and not the sickly yellow of Azazel (what that demon-girl had called the one who ruined their lives), it was nice to chat about normal topics instead of anything supernatural.
The kid was sharper than he was, and he was an older brother. Apparently he saw himself in Sam, oddly enough.
If anything ever happened to Dean, or they couldn't break the contract, Ed would likely be the one Bobby sent in to keep Sam together until he could stand on his own.
For some reason it was easier to talk to Ed than it ever had been with Dean. Possibly because while Ed looked at him like a surrogate older brother, he also didn't treat him like a child as Dean had an annoying habit of doing. He treated him like an equal.
The fact that Sam never once mocked Ed for his short stature didn't hurt either.
As Dean grilled Ed for the facts, Sam watched the two interact.
Yes, they got along well enough, but there was an undercurrent of tension between them. Dean acted as though Ed needed to be protected, while Ed treated him like an idiot.
Finally Dean threw up his hands in defeat and went to see if he could find whoever had put Bobby into this state.
Meanwhile Sam got Ed into a rather interesting discussion of physics versus alchemy. Since alchemy was more like science than witchcraft (Ed had shown them painstakingly that he was not drawing from any demonic forces, rather from a place he called the Gate of Truth which in his opinion was far more terrifying) Sam had no reason not to be interested in it.
It seemed far more substantial than learning how to use his psychic abilities at any rate. Ed seemed happy to have someone to talk Alchemy with.
When Sam carefully approached the subject of why he had trouble talking to Dean without a name-calling match eventually occurring, he got a surprising response.
"He reminds me of me, only I had the sense whatever god there is gave to people to ask for help when I needed it. I guess Al and I learned quick that standing on your own is good and all, but there's no shame in asking for help. Probably because we didn't end up in half the crap you two did thanks to your Dad until after we gained a measure of independence."
The closest thing he would claim to a father was Roy, and the closest thing he had to a mother was Teacher and occasionally Riza Hawkeye.
Honestly the similarities between Dean and him were uncanny. About the only major difference was that while he had the same older-brother-protectiveness, he also had a measure of trust in Al to be his back-up no matter what and to do the right thing.
Ed paused at that thought. Come to think of it, Dean had a similar way of treating Sam except for the full trust part. Like he was wary of something.
"Sam, is there any reason why Dean doesn't trust you?" asked Ed abruptly.
Sam blinked.
"None that I can think of off hand, why?"
"Well your relationship with Dean is very similar to Alphonse and me, except from what I can tell Dean doesn't fully trust you. Like there's some undercurrent of wariness he's not willing to admit," said Ed. Sam's mind flew to the whole 'psychic power' issue, and the fact that Azazel apparently dropped blood in his mouth as an infant.
"Well there is one thing. When I was six months old a demon who had been stalking our family for years apparently bleed into my mouth and killed our mother. We learned recently that he had done the same to many other children who all developed abilities of some sort."
Ed nodded. Now it all fell into place.
"And Dean is subconsciously worried that the 'demons blood' will eventually 'turn' you evil, and you two have spent your life chasing things that hurt or kill others. He probably doesn't even realize it himself actually."
Ed had hit Dean's personality spot on.
"Are you majoring in psychology at the moment by any chance?" asked Sam jokingly.
"I was bored and one of your law books recommended reading this psychoanalysis book based on human behavior. Bobby actually swore that I had more books on random subjects than he did about killing things in his study," chuckled Ed.
Sam could easily believe that. Ed's interest in science and hunting outpaced his easily. In fact Ed had already memorized the chants to exorcise demons faster than Sam had.
He even got the same tattoo Dean and Sam had to keep possessions from occurring with Bobby's "permission" out of state. Though Ed seemed surprised at the lack of reaction to his scars from Bobby at the time.
"I'm surprised you haven't confronted Dean about this behavior yet," said Ed.
"I've tried. Nothing seems to work."
"It just deteriorates into a massive shouting match that never seems to go anywhere, right?" said Ed. Sam nodded in annoyance.
"Heh, reminds me of the time Al refused to talk to me because he thought I was holding back on him when I was simply too afraid to ask if he hated me for what happened," said Ed in self-hating amusement.
"You never did explain what happened to your arm and leg."
"We were idiots who thought we knew what we were doing. Our mother had died nearly two years earlier and we learned as much about alchemy as we could, then we tried to bring her back."
Sam blinked.
"By bring her back you mean..."
"Bring her back to life through alchemy. There is one taboo which is forbidden, one that even the Military refuses to acknowledge for research...that of using alchemy to change the foundations of a human body. You can attach the soul to something inanimate like a suit of armor easily enough if you're dumb enough to do it, but bringing back someone who had died...well, I was considered lucky to survive."
"Attach a...how is that even possible?"
"Stupidity and sheer desperation. I wasn't letting my brother pass on to the next life because I was an arrogant, stupid child who should have known better."
And so Ed explained about the ritual, one that Sam almost immediately connected to magic, except Ed and Al never asked for help from a crossroads demon. They had tried to bring back a human life through their own power, and nothing of alchemy reminded him of witchcraft outside of their transmutation circles which looked only vaguely similar.
About the only reason Sam didn't shoot Ed out of principle was because Ed had admitted he was an idiot to try it in the first place and had done damn near everything to reverse what he had done outside of things that were morally repugnant to him. Like sacrificing innocent people to make a 'stone' which could bypass the laws.
Dean came back looking annoyed that he hadn't found anything. They had been forced to move Bobby to a hospital when the cleaning lady had come in and found him unresponsive.
It took some convincing, mostly on the part of Ed feeling monumentally helpless that he hadn't been able to help Bobby, before Dean agreed to share the dream root with him.
And it took all of an hour before they woke up along with Bobby...and the one responsible in a permanent coma because he was stupid enough to think Ed wasn't a threat because he was younger than him.
The idiot had regretted that idea when Ed beat the living shit out of him. Ed wasn't one to hesitate in an unfamiliar area. He saw a threat and reacted.
