#fmabrotherhood

Inktober 15

Summary: Xerxes falls and the only two survivors walk away from the dead city.

Homunculus is keen to make the most of the new human body he now wears, and he goes out into the world, still planning his ascension to godhood as he strips away his vices and turns them into homunculi.

Van Hohenheim believes he has become a monster, and he hides himself away, befriending the other abominations of the world, failed human transmutations doomed to agonising half-life without the intervention of a Philosopher’s Stone.

Years later, Homunculus meets Trisha Elric and sires two sons with her before vanishing into the night, whilst Hohenheim tries to foil his doppelgänger’s schemes.

Years after that, Edward and Alphonse Elric are caught up in the middle of it all…

A Father-Hohenheim role reversal switcheroo, following Mangahood’s main plot with elements of ‘03, based on the premise ‘what if Father was Ed and Al’s father and Hohenheim was the one hiding under Central?’

Rated:Teen

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[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [AO3]

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Six

Al decided that the best thing for him to do now would be to stay where he was, take several metaphorical deep breaths, and take stock of what was going on. The one saving grace was that Gluttony seemed to be just as terrified by what had happened as Al was, having accidentally eaten both a sacrifice and one of his homunculus brethren, and he was now getting very worried about what his father was going to say when he found out. 

Everything had been going fairly well. It hadn’t exactly gone according to plan, because none of them could have been prepared for the fact that Bradley was a homunculus, however much they might not have trusted him, and none of them could have been prepared for Lan Fan’s injuries. But once they’d met up with Mustang again, and once they’d got medical attention for Lan Fan, and once Mustang had rushed off to go and warn the rest of his team that the Fuhrer could in no way shape or form be trusted, things had seemed to be back on something of an even keel.

Now, though, through a series of, to put it mildly, unfortunate catastrophes, Ed, Ling and Envy were inside Gluttony’s stomach, whatever pocket dimension that might lead to, and Al was outside Gluttony’s stomach with only one hand and therefore no ability to perform alchemy. His first thought was to somehow let the colonel know what had happened, but he really didn’t think that the colonel would be able to do anything to help. He was a great alchemist, sure, but getting people out of homunculi would be beyond most people, and the colonel now had to worry about the fact that the Fuhrer was a homunculus and he he no idea who in the military could be trusted, on top of worrying about Ed and Al and Ed’s currently unknown fate. 

The thing that perturbed Al the most, although he knew that it shouldn’t, was the fact that the mysterious strangers had not made any appearance throughout these last confrontations with the homunculi. Before, they had always been there.

True, they had always turned up in response to the homunculi doing things rather than in response to him and Ed being in danger. That had always been somewhat coincidental, and Al knew that it was silly to be relying on them for assistance now. All the same, it did make him wonder why they hadn’t arrived to combat Gluttony and Envy and the Fuhrer if nothing else. Maybe it depended on what the homunculi were doing as to whether the strangers would arrive or not. Al wished he could predict their patterns. 

He pulled his thoughts away from them and back to the here and now. It was now extremely clear that the homunculi did not want to kill him and Ed. Harming them maybe, but whatever happened, the homunculi and their leader needed Ed and Al alive, and presumably, that meant that the homunculi’s father would be invested in getting Ed and the others out of Gluttony so that they could continue to be instrumental in whatever he was planning. Al really didn’t want to think about what that might be, especially since they were always referred to in terms of sacrifices.

He had an idea. It was quite likely a terrible idea that could get everyone into more trouble than they already were, but it was the only idea that he had that might work, and sitting here doing nothing and waiting for a rescue definitely wasn’t going to get Ed and Ling out of Gluttony’s stomach any quicker.

He got to his feet and went over to Gluttony, who had been pacing up and down in quick little steps, mumbling to himself about how much trouble he was going to be in when Father found out what had happened. 

“Gluttony!”

Gluttony stopped and looked Al up and down.

“Gluttony, I want you to take me to your father.”

The homunculus gave him a pained look. “But he’s going to be so angry with me.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand if you tell him it was an accident,” Al said. He had no experience with a father of his own, but Mom had always understood when they’d broken stuff by accident. “And besides, if you take me with you, then he’ll be happy that you’re bringing him a sacrifice, won’t he?”

Gluttony nodded. “Yes. Yes, I think he’ll want to meet you.”

“Ok. Then we’re going.”

Gluttony nodded, a little more enthusiastically this time, and he set off back in the direction of the city. Al was surprised by this, but reflected that he probably shouldn’t be. If Bradley was a homunculus and working for Father, whoever he might be, then it made sense that the person who was actually in charge of running the country through Bradley as a puppet ought to be somewhere in the capital so that he could keep an eye on things. 

Since he didn’t really have anything else he could do until they got to Father, Al wondered for a long while what this shadowy figure would be like.

They had reached the outskirts of the city when Gluttony stopped, sniffing the air. 

“They’re here,” he said.

“Who’s here?”

“The other ones.” Gluttony started to wring his hands again. “Oh dear. Oh dear. Where’s Lust? She should be here. Lust would be able to see them off. Oh dear.”

“What other ones?” Al asked. “Who are you talking about?”

The question was unceremoniously answered when two figures dropped down off the top of the building they had stopped beside, landing on top of Gluttony and pummelling him down to the ground. Al recognised the strangers from the fifth laboratory.

“Don’t kill him!” he yelled. “My brother’s inside his stomach!”

“Really?” The golden-eyed stranger gave Gluttony a look that was part awestruck and part disgusted. “You really are an extreme omnivore, aren’t you? Well, never mind. We’ll do it the hard way instead.”

Although Gluttony was doing a grand job of fighting back, the two newcomers had managed to tie his mouth shut as their first defence against him, and with both of them working together with their inhuman speed, he was soon outmatched. 

“Hello again.” The mysterious golden-eyed friend waved. “I think it’s got to the stage where we should really be properly introduced. My name is Patience, and the young man who is currently manhandling Gluttony is Chastity. You must be Alphonse Elric.”

“Erm, hello.”

With Gluttony now tied up, Chastity began to roll him along like an outsized toy ball. 

“Ok, Patience, I think we’re good to go. Let’s get him back home to Hohenheim and see if he can get the others out of him.”

“Yes.” Patience turned back to Al. “Please do come with us. If anyone can rescue your brother from wherever he is, I’m sure that Hohenheim can.”

Al looked from Patience to Chastity to Gluttony and back again. Although the mysterious friends had turned up in opposition to the homunculi as he had predicted they would, even if a bit late, he still wasn’t entirely sure that he could trust them. He thought of the last time he ended up going with a bunch of strangers, back in Dublith, although he hadn’t had much choice in the matter that time.

Now he nodded, following Chastity and Patience and the Gluttony-ball through Central’s alleyways, keeping well clear of the main thoroughfares where their strange retinue would most certainly be questioned. Getting Ed back had to be his priority, and if this unseen Hohenheim could do that, then so much the better. Once Ed was out of Gluttony’s stomach, then they could regroup and make a plan. Potentially a plan that involved escaping from Patience and Chastity.

“Here we are.” They had arrived in the manufacturing district, stopping outside a derelict old warehouse with missing ceiling panels. Al looked at it critically. 

“You live here?”

“Of course not. This is just the entrance. No one would ever think to look here.” 

Patience let them into the warehouse, and Al was surprised to find that inside the crumbling walls, there was a neat and well-maintained garden, with flowers and herbs. It reminded him of Mom’s garden back home in Resembool.

“This way.” Patience helped Chastity to lift up Gluttony and the two of them carried him carefully across the garden, not wanting to roll him and squash the plants. Al followed them, still mystified as they reached a door on the opposite wall. This was unlocked to show a dimly-lit staircase leading straight downwards. 

“Where are we going?”

“This leads to the catacomb tunnels under the city,” Patience said. “That’s where we live. Don’t worry, it’s quite safe. We made up all the rumours about vicious chimeras living down here to stop people stumbling in on us by accident.”

“Right.” Al wasn’t quite sure what to make of that statement, but he nonetheless kept following Patience and Chastity.

He didn’t know how long they walked through the dark tunnels, and there were so many twists and turns in the path that he was sure he’d be completely lost if he tried to make his way back to the entrance. He felt like he really ought to say something, but what was there to say? Patience and Chastity knew where they were going, and he had put himself into their hands.

He was about to ask whereabouts in Central they were under when the little convoy stopped suddenly, and Chastity jumped back from Gluttony with a shout of warning. 

“Patience! Alphonse! Take cover! I think something very nasty is about to happen!”

Al looked at Gluttony, alarmed by what he saw. The homunculus was swelling up like a balloon about to burst, his stomach hideously distended and mutated as if something was trying to claw its way out from the inside. Was Ed doing something from the inside that was causing this?

Chastity dived into the nearest niche in the tunnel, pulling Patience with him, and Al pressed himself as flat against the wall as he could as Gluttony’s huge mouth extended open, horrific teeth exploding out and hitting the walls as the swirling eye of truth could be seen in the void that was his innards. Al covered his head out of instinct.

The bang was deafening, and Al felt chunks of Gluttony’s rubbery flesh hit him before they melted away into dust. When he finally chanced to take a look at what had happened, he had to gawp at the sight that met him.

“Whatis that thing? Is that… Envy?”

The creature now taking up most of the space inside the tunnel was something out of a horror story; Al had never seen anything like it before and although he had a good imagination, he didn’t think that even he could have dreamed up something like this. 

“Yes, unfortunately, that is Envy.” Patience came out of hiding in the alcove, addressing the massive green monster that was getting to its feet.”Well, Envy, I didn’t think that it was possible for you to get any uglier, but here we are.”

Below Envy’s huge frame, Al saw Ling and Ed as well. Ling was sitting up, but Ed looked to be out cold. He rushed forwards, picking up Ed’s limp body before one of Envy’s feet could stamp on him, and Chastity darted in to help Ling onto his feet and pull him out of range of Envy’s wildly thrashing limbs. Patience was already bouncing off the walls trying to evade the monster even as they continued to taunt it. Al glanced down at Ed; he was unconscious but still breathing, and whilst his automail looked to be intact, it was obvious that his flesh and blood arm was broken.

“What happened?” he asked Ling.

“Ed used souls from Envy’s Philosopher’s Stone to open up the gate of Truth and get us out of Gluttony’s void,” Ling said. “It must have really taken it out of him.”

Al wasn’t surprised; if Ed had performed human transmutation again, and this time transmuting himself and Ling and Envy into a different place rather than transmuting someone back to life like they’d done before… The first trip through the gate had been traumatic enough that Al hadn’t remembered it for years; he couldn’t imagine that a second one would be any better.

“Chass, a little assistance if you please!” Patience was slowly losing the upper hand over Envy, and Chastity pushed Al, Ling and Ed into the alcove he had sought shelter in when Gluttony had exploded before going over to assist Patience. Envy was massive and strong, but their huge bulk and the limited space in the tunnel made them unwieldy and it was hard for them to manoeuvre. Chastity and Patience were both lighter and more agile, but they didn’t have the raw brute strength that Envy did.  If the circumstances had been different, it would have been a mesmerising fight to watch, but Al could only feel fear - it was too dark and claustrophobic in the tunnels to feel anything else. 

“Envy!”

The voice echoed down the tunnels, sounding very near and very far away at the same time, as if it was being yelled through a loudspeaker. 

“Stop it, Envy, and get back here!”

Almost immediately, Envy stopped, turning tail in the tunnel and lumbering back the way they had come, transforming and shrinking back into their usual form as they did so. Chastity cursed under his breath and ran after the homunculus, disappearing into the darkness in the distance. 

There was silence for a while; Patience was the one to break it. 

“Well, that was certainly a bit of excitement for a Tuesday morning. Shall we continue, gentlemen?” Patience looked down at the remains of Gluttony, the last large chunk comprising of his head and some of his body still breaking down into dust and showing no signs of healing like the homunculi had done before.

“His stone is expended; he won’t be coming back from this one. I think that having everyone explode out of his stomach on top of everything else was just the last straw.”

Although it was something of a comfort to know that the homunculi could be killed, Al was still disturbed by the sight. 

“Come on, let’s come away from this gruesome scene.” Patience led the way further into the tunnels. “Even though there’s now no need to get Hohenheim to get everyone out of Gluttony, you could all definitely do with medical attention, Ed especially, and we can help you at home.”

They continued to follow Patience through the catacombs; Al kept glancing down at Ed every few seconds, but there was no change in him.

“This next section of the tunnel has no lighting,” Patience warned as the lights started to dim behind them. “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other; there isn’t anything to trip over.”

Al continued to tread carefully as the visibility reduced to zero; he could hear Ling beside him and Patience in front of him, and even though he was almost completely convinced that Patience was a friend, there was a part of him that still wondered if they were being led into a trap. He tried to listen for the sounds of anyone else in the tunnel with them, but Lan Fan and Fu had already proved that they could move silently when they wanted to. 

“Can you feel anything?” he whispered to Ling.

“No. The impression of multitude is in the very ground here, I can’t differentiate anything over the top of it.”

That didn’t really do anything to reassure Al, and he looked around, desperately trying to see through the blackness.

“Ok, stop here,” Patience said. “The lights are going to come back on now, don’t get dazzled.”

There was the clunk of an electrical switch and the tunnel burst into life again, and Al looked around in wonder. They were evidently still in the tunnels, but this was no longer the gloomy catacomb they had been wandering along before. This seemed more like, well, a home, almost. There were rugs on the floor and neatly painted wooden doors leading off the main tunnel, which was illuminated with soft lamp light. 

“Wow.”

Patience smiled. “Welcome to our home. It’s not much, but it serves us well.”

Al looked down to see that he was standing on a welcome mat, and for some reason that served to reassure him. 

“I’m sorry if it’s a bit of a mess,” Patience continued. “We don’t really tend to get guests all that often. Secrecy’s the name of the game when you’re… like us.”

“Is that the reason for keeping your porch in pitch darkness?” Ling asked.

“No, that’s more of a security feature. No light means no shadows. You never know what might be lurking in those.”

Al shuddered. The little reassurance that the welcome mat had given him went completely out of the window with those words. Well, metaphorically. They were deep underground, there were no windows. He thought of the voice that had echoed through the tunnels and called off Envy, a voice that had seemed to have no owner but had come out of the darkness nonetheless. Patience probably had the right idea when it came to keeping the dark tunnels safe.

“Hohenheim?” Patience called, moving further into the tunnel. “Tempe? Where are you? I brought guests!”

A female voice responded from one of the doors to the right, slightly ajar. “We’re in the study, Patience.”

Patience bounded along in the direction that the voice had come from and waved for Ling and Al to follow them. 

“Tempe, I thought we agreed that we were going to call this the war room,” Patience said as they all entered. “I mean, look at you. All you need are a few little models of homunculi and some sticks to move them around with.” 

Two figures were looking over what looked like a map spread out over a large table in the centre of the room, and the woman glanced up as they entered, startling at the sight that met her. 

“Good grief, Patience, you could have warned us that one of the guests was unconscious!” She bustled over, peering into Ed’s face and checking him over before looking up at Al. “You must be Alphonse, come with me and let’s get Edward sorted out.”

Try as he might, and as grateful as he was for the medical attention, Al couldn’t move. He could barely hear what the woman - Tempe, he assumed - was saying to him. He was transfixed by the other person in the room. 

Al had never met the man before, but he’d seen his picture. This was the man whose picture Mom had kept all those years, and Granny had kept after, and that now lived tucked into the chest cavity of his armour. 

His hair was tied back now, and he was wearing glasses, but there was no mistaking that the man in front of him now was the man in the picture. 

His father. 

And yet, when the man looked up, his expression didn’t fit. Sure, he had the same golden eyes and hair and beard, and the angles in his face were the same, but there was something in his expression that was softer. Older. Sadder. 

He shook his head. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “And I’m not him. I know I look like him, but I’m not your father.”

“Al?” All of Patience’s exuberance seemed to have gone, as if they realised the massive gravity of what was going on. “Al, I’ll take Ed; Tempe and I will get him fixed up.”

Al didn’t resist as Patience lifted Ed out of his arms.

The man came towards them, taking in Ling’s bent posture and Al’s missing hand. 

“Here, let me help.”

He gently placed a hand on Ling’s ribcage; there was a spark of red alchemic light and then Ling straightened up. 

“Thank you. That’s much better.”

“And now for you, Alphonse.” He touched Al’s arm and the lightning sparked again, regrowing his hand out of nothing, the armour not thinning. No equivalent exchange.

“Thanks.”

For a while the three of them looked at each other, and then Ling gave an awkward cough.

“I think I ought to go too.” Ling backed out of the room, leaving Al alone with the man who was apparently not his father.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” The man indicated a squashy, moth-eaten sofa in the corner of the room. “My name is Van Hohenheim, and it’s a very long story.”