rebody | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ Rushing headfirst into a conflict with only a minimal plan and hoping it works is truly the Elric way.

That is to say, following Wrath down to the ruins of the underground city was enough of a gamble. Wrath may have spent the past three years living in the woods outside of Risembool like an angry feral kitten, but he was still, you know, one of the homunculi. Though, Rose had told Alphonse that he had given them some vital help against Envy and Dante, so what little remains of Al's kiddish gullibility these days extended to thinking okay, I'll give him a chance, what do I have to lose at this point?

Uh. A lot, apparently. He was not expecting to have to deal with the 100 foot tall abomination that used to be Gluttony trying to eat them both, nor was he expecting Wrath to just...lay down and die. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself to get your brother back, right? I'm not going to let that happen again."

(Look. Look. It's not his fault that he and Ed have the kind of relationship where they'd jump in front of a train for each other, it's the sheer amount of bullshit they've been through. Which, a few years ago, included having to dig up their mom's grave and use one of her bones to kill the homunculus wearing her face, who they made, by the way, that was nice to find out. Not that Al remembers that at the moment, but he will momentarily. Truly, nothing nice ever happens in the 03 universe!!)

When Alphonse puts his hands down, he's not sure how this is going to work, or what's going to pop out of the other side--well, he's hoping to suddenly have Ed tumbling out, of course, but things never happen the easy way. For all he knows, it'll be Ed but catatonic, or it'll take half of the environment around him, or the worst of all--nothing. To have gotten this far and sacrificed this much and just have no result...it might break him a little.

Still, he's holding out hope. He may have become an unhinged little gremlin in the 3 years since Ed vanished, but he's still Al, which means he's still got his ever-present optimism! It's just...you know, less blind optimism, now.

Anyway. There are lots of hands. There's always so many weird, grabby little hands when the Gate is involved, and it skeeves him out, because he can remember the hands grabbing him that night when they were kids, pulling him away from the basement and out of Ed's grasp, past a doorway that no one was ever meant to cross more than once.

And yet.

And yet.

Here he is crossing it a third time.

The circle flashes again, and he's being subtly tugged past the threshold. His feet skid into the blackness beyond the doors, and he almost screams, but--he finds a hand inside that's solid, one that's attached to a real arm and not a spindly tendril. Putting all of his weight into tugging on the arm, he throws himself backward, back through the doorway, and lands on the concrete courtyard hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

He doesn't register the fact that he's still gripping Ed's arm with more force than is probably necessary, but uh, give him a minute. Three years worth of stuck-in-a-suit-of-armor memories just zoomed back into his noggin and he needs a moment--several moments, maybe a few months worth of moments for the entire thing with Sloth--to process it.

So, um. Welcome to the empty underground city ruins that Definitely Isn't Xerxes, Ed?? It was already in pretty bad shape, but Gluttony and Wrath wrecked the surrounding area even more, and there's a waterway nearby filled with red stones. Al is laying on his back kind of staring at the sky with a raptured look on his face, but he's breathing, at least. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ohhhhhhh, boy did he fuck up.

He doesn't know what Xing has to do with any of this (isn't that the huge country on the other side of the Eastern desert? why would they send one of their princes to Amestris?), but the fact that Ed is bringing it up at all is what makes it all click. It's a country from this world. Not whatever world he'd been seeing in his dreams, the one that had names and places he never recognized. So, wouldn't that mean--

...

Al feels a cold chill run up his spine as the reality settles in. It was never going to be that easy. There's no way that they'd just get a freebie from the Gate. Using Wrath and Gluttony wasn't the exchange, it was just the key that started the ignition in the first place.

He barely registers the rest of Ed's explanation the first time, and has to take a moment to process it. Envy again, like always. He felt like they'd never not be dealing with Envy, even though he disappeared into Munich, too, and Al supposes that's fair, given the family fallout that seems to find them wherever they are.

Gluttony being a false Gate is the thing here that makes the most sense, and it almost makes Al laugh, because of course Dante would try something like that. Except, Ed doesn't remember her. If he doesn't remember her, then who's directing all of the homunculi behind the scenes? Their dad?

He has a million questions that he wants to ask about basically everything Ed just said, but he's going to start with the most important one. His voice has gotten deeper in the past few years, but right now, it comes out small and squeaky. ]

You...you were still in Amestris? Not Germany? Munich? The city with the rockets.

Germany? No, I was in Amestris still. I did leave once, to head to Xerxes, but no farther than that. I'm not sure I remember a Germany or Munich on the maps...?

[Yeah. This is not helping that growing sense of unease. That something isn't quite adding up. Ed hasn't seen Al's body at the Gate yet but he isn't sure on what is going on. Why this Al seems to remember things differently. And not just that he might remember more than Ed given they had figured getting his body back but that their memories don't seem to match up? Or at least. Ed's don't or haven't caught up to Alphonse's? He can't help being on edge, wondering on what else Al hasn't told him that might not match up.]

Why? What's going on...?

I don't know. [ He's not unfamiliar with working by the seat of his pants, but this is the sort of uneasy atmosphere that makes him feel nauseous.

It's only by this point that he notices the other weird thing happening right now. They were hurrying out of here, but the commotion topside stopped. Al squints up at the rock ceiling like it might be able to up and tell him what's going on. ]

Xerxes...?

[ He feels like he should be recognizing that name, but the look on his face makes it obvious that he doesn't. ]

This isn't...something must have gone wrong, I don't know what, but--there's no prince from Xing in Amestris, right now. [ That seems like something he'd have heard about from the military grapevine by now, even if Xing was trying not to publicize it. ] And I've never heard of any place called Xerxes.

It isn't like it was exactly well known. Ling snuck into Amestris with his bodyguards. You and your habit of picking up strays, you found him on the street. He's a mooch, but he's willing to help out sometimes, I guess. When it counts. But -- no? Xerxes, the city that disappeared overnight? I remember stories even as a kid.

[But then. It obviously was not like Hohenheim has gone telling everyone. That Ed is yet aware of their heritage in that regard for the reason behind their unique eye and hair colour. Ed can't help the sinking, confused feeling in his stomach as more of what they say both makes sense and confuses one or the other. Something isn't right. This might not be the right place? Somehow? He isn't sure what happened and neither it seems is Al but. Something isn't adding up.]

This isn't.....?

[Home. At least. Not his time? His version? Somehow, with the Gates. He's not had an issue before but then he only messed with using them twice before the situation with Gluttony. This isn't his Alphonse?]

[ Al scowls at that description of himself because excuse you, he does not always go picking up strays, they come to him and what is he supposed to do? Not take them in? ]

No, I remember reading about that. The city in the desert that vanished, and no one was ever able to find any trace of it. Is that its name...? Xerxes? And you're saying you've actually been there?

[ He should feel way more excited about solving a 400 year old mystery, damn. He's too keyed up for this.

Al shoves his hands into his pockets in an attempt to make them stop shaking. It barely works.

He doesn't wanna say it. Saying it feels like admitting that Ed Prime is probably lost out there in a universe he's ill-equipped to deal with. ]

...I don't think so. You--the you that I've been looking for, has been in the world on the other side of the Gate for the past three years.

[ Why can't there be more worlds out there, he guesses. ]

Yeah. I probably should have talked to Winry first about going there with the auto-mail though. But. I'm glad I went.

[Even if he had no idea where they were going or why, at the time. Thanks to Armstrong just basically kidnapping him for a while like that to take him to see Ross. That she was alright, that she was alive was a relief. Ed raises an eyebrow though at what Al says. Sure, the Gates were....weird. But he hadn't been considering the idea of other worlds on the other side. He just knows it as that weird void like place where he had a bunch of information shoved at him. Where he had seen the Truth. Where his Gate was, connected to his ability to use alchemy.]

Three years? I guess I never considered there might be other worlds on the other side of the Gate. So, what, you were trying to get him back and I showed up when I opened the Gate to get out of Gluttony?

[ ...... ]

Your arm got overheated again, didn't it? Or was it sand getting stuck in the cogs, this time?

[ Neener-neener. Ed sure gave him shit for getting stuck in the sand outside Liore, but now the shoe is on the other foot!! He's been vindicated.

At the mention of the other Ed, though, he visibly tenses. ]

When you put it like that, it sounds so simple. [ .... ] Mmmm. I'd been looking for a way to open the Gate again, without any human transmutation.

[ Turns out that's impossible! For given value of "human". ]

O-oi.....I mean. Both, really. But it isn't like I exactly had time to prepare or anything, with Armstrong just grabbing me and running off the way he did......

[It's just that there is something so familiar that it is easy to fall into that typical sibling defensiveness and banter and teasing. Even if this isn't the same Alphonse. It's an Alphonse which means Ed still has that same instinctive response somehow.]

If there is a way to do that, I haven't figured it. Yet.

[But. He's promised. And vowed to himself to fix things for Al at least. So. He's trying to figure a workaround. That isn't using the Stone. Ed rubs at the back of his neck, looking apologetic at bringing up the other Ed, aware that must be something of a sore topic for Alphonse, whatever had happened that his Edward ended up on the other side of the Gate.]

Closest thing I've come up with is trying to look into alkahestry from Xing.

Good to see the Major isn't any different, I guess. [ a short laugh

It gives Al a similar feeling, anyway. He's still stewing in that uneasy, panicked way, but going through the motions of their usual stupid banter is bizarrely soothing. He's gotten used to traveling alone, but it's not the same.

And it tells him that though this might not be the Ed he hoped to reach, it's still Ed.

He takes a breath and starts up the stairs again, motioning for Ed to follow him. He's really gotta see what's going on above ground. ]

There's a way...kind of. But this was my last shot at it. There's no way I can open it again, unless I... [ Unless he wants to pay the Gate's toll with his body parts. He drifts off, because he realizes he probably shouldn't say that in front of Ed. Not with the sort of relationship they have.

Al shakes his head. ]

Alkahestry...? I feel like I've heard of that before, but I can't place it.

I'm not sure his stunt leaving with me like that really helped things with Winry but. I guess I can't say I would really expect anything else from him, when it was supposed to be all hush.

[It wouldn't be good if everyone found out that Ross was out there, heading to Xing and all. That she was alive when officially, she was reported dead and all. But through everything, even if this was a different Alphonse, he was still very much Al. That Ed can't help having that familiarity all the same. In the casual teasing or the casual way he talks about things together. He follows without a second thought, figuring to head up and go with Al to try figure what was going on and how they could fix things.]

Unless what? Maybe I can help. Ah, that is, alkahestry is like a sort of medical alchemy? From what little I've gathered. It's from Xing.

What was supposed to be hush?

[ He's trying to picture Armstrong on a stealth mission.......no, it's not working, it's way too funny imagining him tossing Ed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and sprinting off into the distance.

Al shakes his head again. He not-so-subtly skips over Ed's offer, because nothing good is going to come from that. It's fine, forget he said anything. :') ]

Wait, really? Why did we never think of looking into that...

[ To be fair, they were getting tied up in The Elric Family Gong Show by the time their research hit a brick wall. There was the whole thing with Greed, and then--hm. Going down this particular part of memory lane makes him walk faster, like getting back into the fresh air will help or something. Al could have lived with the particular memory of Bradley stabbing Martel to death while she was hanging out inside of his armor getting permanently scrubbed out. Definitely not one that he needed back, thanks! ]

That we were going to Xerxes. We were ah. Meeting someone, is all.

[Ed can't be sure on how things went down with regards to Hughes here. If Al went through that and the subsequent mess with Ross being framed for it. So he figures to maybe keep that quiet. Though honestly, Ed is tiny and light enough for Armstrong and the chimeras to easily run around carrying him like it was no big deal, so Al isn't actually that far off with that image.]

I wouldn't necessarily have thought of it if I hadn't met some people from Xing. I figure if I can ask that girl about it since she knows alkahestry.....

[While some things were different, Ed would at least be able to figure that. Martel had been killed back home for him as well. He'd spent a while cleaning up the aftermath of it, trying to help Al as best he could and keep his seal from getting messed up.]

[ Al raises an eyebrow in question, but doesn't verbally ask further. ]

I wonder if that's what made things happen differently for you. How you met the people from Xing, and it made everything change...there's a word for it. Butterfly effect, maybe?

[ Though, that begs the question of what the hell Dante is getting her rotten little hands on in Ed's universe.

He hums in thought for a moment before looking over his shoulder at Ed. ]

Brother. Do you...do you remember Martel? I was thinking about her.

[ They were not happy thoughts. ]

I don't know? But it does sound like things turned out differently for you. Or you remember more than me or something. It's...weird.

[He is trying to figure this out but it is rather confusing. Of course this would take time to piece it together. And probably, take time to figure getting Ed back home. He figures it would have something to do with the Gate. But of course what that requires, at least from his experience and knowledge so far, human transmutation.....he can't. He isn't sure if he can accept that cost. So again, he's going to have to try figure another way.]

Huh? Martel? Y-yeah. What about her?

[ Waving it off. ] I just don't like not knowing what's going on. I guess it's instinct to try to solve it.

[ Al shrugs, a little restless.

Hmm. He notices that momentary stutter, Ed. ]

Is she...okay? [ In his world. ] She was killed when I was trying to hide her from someone. It's probably wishful thinking, but she had a kind heart...I hope there's some version of her I was able to keep safe.

I get that. I'm sure working together we'll figure something. Figure some way to fix this.

[If they work together. Ed isn't sure how much everyone else here might know about their situation, how similar certain things might have played out or what. But he glances down and to the side for a moment, shaking his head in answer to Al's question.]

She....no. Same thing happened to the Martel I knew. I helped clean out the armour afterwards, to make sure to be careful of the seal....

[ There's a long, long pause from him.

Not being able to eat or sleep in the armor were the most topical concerns, of course, but honestly? Not being able to cry was pretty bad, too.

For Nina, for Hughes, for Martel. It was borderline hellish. ]

I see. [ A shorter pause this time. ] If you'll let me be honest for a moment, the seal breaking wasn't even my biggest worry at the time.

[ It was, yknow. The everything. Didn't even have the luck the other Al had of being unconscious when it happened. ]

I know, you were probably trying to protect her. Keep her safe, right?

[From the little context he managed to get around what happened, at least back home. He can't automatically assume it was the same for this Alphonse but he maybe has some sort of understanding and empathy at least. Vaguely. Assuming it was something along the lines of what went down back home. Which, from the context of what Al has said it sure sounds similar enough. Ed of course wasn't right there when it happened, but. He gets the idea at least. And saw the aftermath, back home.]

[ And boy was there ever an aftermath to deal with. :') ]

'Trying' being the key word here.

I don't know exactly what happened, but she left to do some reconnaissance and got into a fight with Fuhrer Bradley. That's when she found out he was a homunculus. [ His voice wavers, a little. ] He started chasing her, so I had her get into my armor to hide from him.

It...didn't matter. He knew she was there. He just...he just ran his sword through me and thanked me for helping apprehend her.

[ He takes off one of his gloves and wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. ]

Edited 2023-09-22 05:13 (UTC)

Yeah, sounds pretty similar to what I gather went down back home too. More or less, I guess. I mean. I don't know if he thanked Al like that, but. I hadn't been there to help at the time.

[They had lost so many. Not just Martel. But Nina and the others as well. Still. It just gives more determination to persevere and figure this. A way to get their bodies back as a means to repay everyone for their help over the years. And stopping whatever is going on with the homunculi and Father, the military.]

....I don't know. I'm thinking with everything. Maybe it might be better to quit. Leave the military.

[Because he hasn't yet had that sit down with the Fuhrer with Winry being threatened if he were to quit. But it does all just feel like. Too much.]

That's...

[ He bristles a little, because he's not sure how he feels about the use of "Al" and not "you"--this whole alternate world business has always felt personal in a way he can't explain well. He's spent too much time watching the other version of himself drive cars and build rockets and play cards with Ed after work to feel like they're wholly different people at this point.

The change in subject he doesn't mind, though. ]

Are you sure? [ Said evenly, neutrally. ] You joined for the paycheck as much as you did for access to the classified information.

[ And Al would have, too, but. Physical exam. ]

[Ed isn't sure how to exactly distinguish which one he is talking about exactly. So he just figures saying 'Al' works. He's still getting the hang of this, not as used to the idea of it as Alphonse, in having been watching some other version like that.

Still, he purses his lips, glancing to the side. He's learned a little more, during his time with Envy and Ling. And the more he learns, the more everything just puts a bad taste in his mouth. The more he hates the military and the history around it. What they did. What the homunculi did in encouraging and starting it....]

I know. But. I don't need their help, their records if I'm looking into alkahestry. Other ways to figure fixing things. Besides the Stone. I only used Envy's because that was the only choice. I'm not.....I'm not using one to fix things, to keep my promise. I have enough money. And I'd figure something else if I had to. I'm not worried about that.

[ He'll get used to it. But at the moment, it's very, very weird.

Al listens quietly and nods, but shoots Ed a strange look when he mentions not using the stone.

The way he's hearing this story, he assumes Ed is talking about those imitation stones that homunculi tend to barf up when they get hurt. Not the real deal. That would trigger a very different reaction that Ed might not like so much. Not that he'd ever get involved in the making of one, but if they discover that Dante had a backup stone hidden somewhere in the opera house, uh...well, it's already here, you can't unmake it. May as well use it. That was pretty much his line of thought when he used the one that got fused with his armor to yoink Ed's soul back from the Gate. ]

There's not much you can do with a red stone, anyway... How did you get one from Envy, come to think of it?

[ Did he knee Envy in the gut like he deserves?? ]

A red stone? You mean the Philosopher's Stone.

[Right? Unless Al meant something else but he was pretty sure the other had to mean the Philosopher's Stone. From the context and all. Ed's still not the most comfortable talking about it because of the way the Stones were made. But like he said, they were trying to figure an alternative. Another way to fix things and get their bodies back. Al's body being the priority, at least, to Ed.]

Envy gave it to me to use. We had no other choice. It was that or die stuck inside Gluttony, slowly succumbing to hunger and thirst. Which was pretty gross. So much blood, everything he had been eating over however long he had been alive. Mostly stuff they wanted to hide, to destroy I guess....

[Like part of that mural from Xerxes.]

....no. I mean red stones.

[ The lack of recognition on Ed's face is concerning, to say the least.

Al waits until they get to the next landing area and puts his glove back on, stooping low to clap and transmute a small bridge jutting out over the torn waterway. At some point it was probably some kind of aqueduct, but now it's just a path full of shredded concrete and tiny, dull red stones.

He plucks a few of them out of the water and holds them up. They sure do look like Philosopher's Stones, albeit kind of in a costume jewelry sort of way. They're also a much duller color than the real deal. ]

Have you not seen these before?

[ Also why is he not surprised that Gluttony is a walking bag of holding.....Al kind of feels sorry for him. A little. Mostly the one he knows, who went catatonic after Lust died. ]