[LOCKED: April, DBFS Journals] Vortex Traps Aftermath

[twinpharaohs]

((OOC: The following journals are likely to turn up at some point: twinviziers, fmalchemist160/Edward Elric, stonebluesorrow/Zelgadis Graywords, toreador_saviour, lionheartedgangrel/Harry Potter, and any of the DBFS NPC journals (all begin with "dbfs_").))

When Yugi turns up in the Nexus to meet April, he looks considerably more battered than he ever has before, bandages wound around one arm and several cuts on his face held shut with those little white medical strips they use for small cuts. One of his legs bounces nervously, and he's rubbing at his bandaged arm. He's twirling what appears to be a Tarot card—or at least, something superficially similar to a Tarot card—between two fingers. Yami is nowhere in sight—for now.

Comments

[slayers_desire]

"I went after my father next. But fortunately, a mental breakdown and a vision stopped me from harming him."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed blinks. "A vision?"

"Like the kind Bakura gets," Kat says. "I mean, I assume," she adds to April. "Don't know if you get the splitting migraines or not."

"Bakura's tend to be vague, too," Yugi adds. "He describes them like a series of seemingly-random video clips strung together coupled with the worst migraine you've ever had and a little bit of whispered, relevant information. Usually not much."

"Riiight..." Ed replies. He clears his throat. "So what did the... vision say?"

[slayers_desire]

"My visions come as voices. Soft whispers that describe the future in confusing clues and imagines at times. I don't get a migraine... but I still space out most of the time."

"The vision told me I was needed in Rome. I had to help fight against Seven Sins and Three Witches."

[fmalchemist160]

"Seven Sins?" Ed frowns in thought, vaguely recognizing the term, and then remembers where he's heard it before. "Right! Christian mythology. Seven Deadly Sins, right? Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Pride, Greed, Sloth, and Envy."

Yugi arches an eyebrow at him. "Thought you were atheist."

"My first apprentice in alchemy was an anthropologist," Ed sighs. "He's the one who told me about the idea."

[slayers_desire]

"They were more than an idea. Each sin was attached to a Demon, and we had to defeat them."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed arches both eyebrows, then grimaces. "Tough fight, I imagine. Since you're still around I'll assume you won."

[slayers_desire]

"We did win against them. Yes."

[fmalchemist160]

"You stay mad at your dad after that?" he asks quietly. He knows a little something about being pissed off at one's father.

[slayers_desire]

"My relationship with my dad is still strained. But we are trying..."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed lets out a wry snort. "Yeah, my relationship with my dad isn't that great either... The reasons are peripherally related to my own story."

[slayers_desire]

"I did already tell my story..." April smiled softly, encouraging Ed to tell his.

[fmalchemist160]

Ed smiles a bit too. "Guess it's my turn, then." He sighs, his eyes going a bit distant. "Well, my brother and I were born in a small farming village called Resembool. First couple of years of our lives, it was me, Al, and Mom and Dad. Then when I was two, Dad ran off somewhere, so it was just me, Al, and Mom. And for awhile it was fine. Our dad was an alchemist, and Al and I started going through his old books and teaching ourselves Alchemy. I was... six, maybe? Al was five.

"Then, one day, our mom collapsed while she was working on the farm. The doctor said..." he swallows a bit. "...He said she'd probably been sick for years, but never told anyone, and it was only a matter of time until she... she passed away. I was nine. Al and I... we didn't think we could make it without her. So... after the funeral, I made a really, really stupid decision."

[slayers_desire]

"What was that decision?"

[fmalchemist160]

Ed grimaces. "We... I decided we were gonna bring mom back to life."

"There's something you gotta understand about alchemy: even though we can do pretty much anything we want as long as we obey the Law of Equivalent Exchange—conservation of mass and all that—there are some things we just don't do. Transmuting human beings is one of those, and there's a good reason for it: most people who try don't survive. So it's taboo.

"And we knew that. Every time it came up in one of Dad's books, there was always something about how very, very bad it was. Illegal, even. I barreled ahead anyway."

[slayers_desire]

April nodded in understanding. In her own world, Willow had used magic to bring Buffy back to life, with dire circumstances. She can imagine that it would not be much different for Alchemy.

[fmalchemist160]

Ed waits for about a minute for April to offer any commentary. When he doesn't get any aside from the nod, he continues with the story. "So... we found ourselves a teacher; before, when we were teaching ourselves alchemy, we were making little things. Silly stuff, like a doll for our best friend's birthday. Toys. Flowers for Mom. But after she died... we were done with that stuff. We dove into it seriously. I think our teacher suspected what we were planning to do with the knowledge she gave us, but she never stopped us, only warned us not to do it.

"We were with her for about a year before we came back to Resembool. Pretty much the moment we got back, we started getting together all of the ingredients we'd need." He snorts. "Humans are actually pretty cheap to make, at least as far as the physical components go. The soul, though... that's another story entirely."

He takes in a deep breath, staring down at his feet. "Back then, we thought a couple of drops of our blood would be enough to account for the soul. 'This is our blood. From her blood. That's a fair trade.' Of course, I was wrong; it wasn't a fair trade. So when we started the transmutation... it looked like it was going fine at first, but then I felt this... this burning pain in my left leg. When I looked at it... it was being broken down by the forces of Alchemy.

"And then I heard Al calling for me. His entire body was being taken. I tried to help him, but..." he trails off and swipes his left hand across his eyes, apparently trying to hide the fact that he's started crying a bit.

[slayers_desire]

"It balanced things by taking a life for a life." April whispers. She too will need a kleenex, sharing the sorrow that Ed is feeling right now.

[fmalchemist160]

Kat silently rises and retrieves a box of tissues from her pantry, offering it to April. Ed, meanwhile shakes his head a bit. "Sort of, but not quite. When I... came to, I guess, even though I wasn't unconscious, my left leg was completely gone, and the pain was enough that I had trouble forming a coherent thought. All that was left of Al were his clothes. And when I looked at what we had brought back..." he chokes a bit. "It wasn't human. I can't even describe it. There's no way to describe it."

((No way he could ever forget seeing it, though, and the image is probably right at the front of his mind at the moment; therefore, it's possible April might pick up on it. Watch the scene in all its horrific glory here, if you're up for it and you haven't seen Full Metal Alchemist already :).))

[slayers_desire]

April uses the tissues to calm herself, but she can still feel the pain radiating off Ed. It can be difficult for a psychic to handle such strong emotions, and even worse when she deals with pregnancy hormones too.

She sees his memories too. The blood. The loss of his brother. The horror of the creature in his mind. And she closes her eyes to control her reaction.

"That is awful...."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed doesn't seem to realise that it is his own pain that's causing some of April's distress, but he makes an effort to reign in his own emotional pain anyway. Mostly he just doesn't want anyone to see him break down. He takes in a deep (if somewhat shaky) breath and continues.

"Al was the only family I had left. I'd gotten him killed, and it had been for nothing. But I still thought there was something I could do to save him. It was risky, and difficult, but... Like I said. Only family I've got left.

"I knocked over one of the suits of armour our dad kept in his old lab. One was a breast plate, the other full plate mail. Seven feet tall and everything. Used... the blood from my leg to draw an Alchemy array on the inside of the armor, and the same array on my right and left arms..."—he crosses his arms and touches his shoulders by way of demonstration—"and a third over my heart." He lays a hand on his chest, again by way of demonstration. "I'm not sure how I managed it, but by sacrificing my right arm, I was able to get Al's soul back and bind it to the suit of armor."

[slayers_desire]

"That must have been... a difficult reunion." April replies softly.

[fmalchemist160]

"Yes and no. Al was..." he pauses, frowning. "I'm... not really sure how to describe his state of mind. Scared, probably. Distraught that we'd failed. I told him not to look at..."—he shudders quietly—"...it. He did anyway. Even through all of the... fear and worry he must've been feeling, he still wanted to understand what had gone wrong on some level. And through it all, he was more worried about me than he was about being stuck in a suit of armor."

"You were bleeding out on the floor of your dad's laboratory," Kat points out.

"Well, yeah," Ed admits. "Anyway... I was kinda out of it for most of the rest of the night, but Al did his best to tie of my... well, my stumps, and he got me over to our friend Winry's place. Winry's grandma is an AutoMail engineer, and she was teaching Winry the trade. Convenient thing was, AutoMail engineers always need to have some medical training, in order to be able to install their handiwork in the first place. So Auntie Pinako—that's what we called Winry's grandma—got me properly patched up.

"This is all more or less second-hand, you understand; I was fading in and out of consciousness for several hours. Al filled me in about that part later. But I was awake for when Colonel Mustang came to visit. From what he said, he'd been in town looking for our dad, and he'd seen all the energy the transmutation had given off and the fact that Al and I were even still alive apparently impressed him. He offered to try and get us into the military as State Alchemists."

[slayers_desire]

"Did you destroy the creature?" It is not a word that April uses often, but she feels it would apply the best to what was created by Al and Ed.

Listening to the rest of the story, April nodded slightly. "Were you able to get on a different path then?"

[fmalchemist160]

Ed bites his lip. "Not until four years later. After I'd recovered enough to be able to go back to our house... it was gone. Somehow managed to crawl off."

"I took Mustang up on his offer, actually. I came up with this whole plan to get me and Al's bodies back to normal. Get my arm and leg back, and Al's body back. Becoming a State Alchemist was essential to it. We needed access to research material that only State Alchemists can use. But first I needed to have the use of both arms and legs, and Dad had left us some money. I told Aunt Pinako to take however much of it she needed to make me some AutoMail. After some time to recover from the surgery, get used to walking on a new leg, and make sure that I was up to my old combat abilities, Al and I burned down our old house and made our way to Central City."

[slayers_desire]

"It sounds like alchemy is a lot like magic... you have to be careful using it and you should be trained properly."