“You want to bring back someone that you’ve lost. You might want money. Maybe you want women. Or, you might want to protect the world. These are all common things people want. Things that their hearts desire. Greed may not be good, but it’s not so bad, either. You humans think greed is just for money and power! But everyone wants something they don’t have.”
He was born as a slave and manipulated into being involved in the genocide of his own race, then forced to live with the burden of having an immortal body filled with the crying souls of the thousands of people who had died.
He devoted at least a couple of centuries conversing with over 500,000 souls, getting to know each and every one of them, befriending them, and cooperating with them.
Hohenheimdid not leave his children alone. He left them in the (more than capable) hands of Trisha, where he knew they would be raised well. He trusted that Trisha would be able to explain his absence to Ed & Al without revealing the truth about his body. He couldn’t have anticipated her death, and as he was travelling the entire country he had no way of keeping in contact with Trisha to check that she and their sons were doing ok (this is assuming the Elrics didn’t have a telephone).
Hohenheim had difficulty interacting with people, even his own family. He would probably have a very hard time writing letters back home, or talking to Trisha on the phone. He more than likely thought it best to keep his distance 100% until he could return home for fear of ruining any of his relationships with his family.
Hohenheim was immortal and had already lived for hundreds of years. A year or two probably wouldn’t have seemed like a long time to somebody with such a huge lifespan. Hohenheim likely still pictured his sons as young children, even after 10 years of not seeing them.
When Hohenheim returned to Resembool he expected to be greeted by the love of his life and his two young boys standing at the doorway to his family home. Instead he found a pile of burnt rubble, Trisha’s grave, Edward’s automail, and Alphonse’s empty body.
He completely blamed himself for Ed and Al’s attempt at human transmutation and subsequent injuries. He understood that they were lonely, grieving children and in his eyes the fault was all down to him and - taboo or not - the brothers had not done anything wrong.
Despite being the most powerful character in the FMA universe, Hohenheim was a pacifist and did not fight or injure a single person in the whole series.
He always put everyone else before himself.
The things which made him happiest in the whole world were all to do with his children. Alphonse trusting him, Ed and Al helping him on the promised day, Ed calling him Dad for the first time, getting to shake Al’s hand after recovering his body… his whole life revolved around his sons as soon as he met up with them again. He was willing to sacrifice himself for Ed and Al’s sake.
He died happy because he was so proud of Ed and Al and he knew that they had made incredible friends who would look after them for the rest of their lives.
Without him everyone would be dead.
All he wanted was a normal life.
Van Hohenheim was not a bad person.
Van Hohenheim was not a bad father.
(Bonus):
He is romantically cheesy as hell
He wears glasses just so he looks slightly different to Father
He used to fly into an Ed-like rage whenever anyone called him unintelligent
The first thing he said to Alphonse after reuniting with him was, “My vintage armor!!”
One of the first things he said to Edward after reuniting with him was, “we have the same hairstyle”.
One of the reasons Ed argues with Roy is because he sees Roy as a father figure and just transfers his anger towards Hohenheim to Roy. Another reason is Ed just doesn’t know how a father/son relationship works.
The Rockbell and Elric families are related by a great grandmother who’d taught Hohenheim Modern Amestrian when he’d come back to Amestris after travelling the world to find a way to stop Father.
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?’
Tempe agreed to take them back into the catacombs to speak to Hohenheim again, and although they didn’t say exactly why they wanted to go back so soon, Ed suspected that she knew nonetheless. She didn’t question them, just guiding them through the tunnels until they reached the entrance to the homunculi’s home, still shrouded in darkness against whatever mysterious foes might lurk in the shadows. Ordinarily Ed would have probed more into that, but not today, not when there was so much more on his mind.
Hohenheim came out of his study, looking rather perplexed to see them back again so soon, but he nonetheless directed them to the kitchen with good grace, and Tempe vanished off into one of the side rooms, inherently aware that this was a conversation that did not need third parties.
Ed and Al took a seat at the table and Hohenheim set the kettle to boil on the stove before coming over to them.
“What is it that you wanted to ask?”
Ed took a deep breath. How did he even begin?
“We know how your homunculi were created,” he said eventually. “We know that they started as failed human transmutations, and that you pulled them into life again.”
Hohenheim nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“We just have to know… Our mom…”
“You tried to perform human transmutation to bring her back to life.” There was no chastisement in Hohenheim’s voice, no shock or horror like they had heard before when other people had become aware of what they had done.
Ed nodded. “Could you… Did you… It was four years ago, but we were in a tiny town out in the East in the middle of nowhere…”
“Resembool,” Hohenheim said quietly. “Yes, I know it. I was there.”
Ed’s heart was beating painfully in his mouth. Chary had said that there were seven of them, and they had so far met only six. The seventh…
“You have to understand that they have no memory of their first lives,” Hohenheim continued. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression; I don’t think that this would be the reunion that you’re hoping for.”
Ed opened his mouth to speak again, but the words died in his throat as another voice called through from the corridors, a voice that he had not heard for years but that was still achingly familiar nonetheless.
“Chary? Have you got the kettle on? I could really use some tea, it’s manic up there.”
Hohenheim looked at him and Al. “Would you like me to head her off?”
Ed couldn’t speak; he didn’t know. Did he want to meet her or not? She wouldn’t know them, and if she found out they were the ones who had brought her back and would have doomed her to living death if Hohenheim hadn’t intervened… But at the same time, all they had wanted to do was see Mom again, and now she was here, just a few steps away.
Hohenheim took the decision, springing up and going to the door.
“Dili, no…”
It was too late, she was already in the doorway.
“Oh, I didn’t realise we had visitors, sorry.”
She was Mom, and yet, she wasn’t. She looked like Mom. She had the same hair colour, the same eyes, the same face and build. But she was looking at them without any kind of comprehension or recognition. Her hair was braided neatly down her back; Mom had never worn hers like that, and Mom had never worn trousers or the dark colours that this woman - Dili - was dressed in.
It was all wrong, and yet she was Mom.
“I’ll bring you some tea, Dili,” Hohenheim said, ushering her out of the room.
She nodded and left without another word, maybe sensing the gravity of what was going on.
“Mom,” Al whispered.
It took Ed several minutes to regain his voice.
“Did you know?” he asked Hohenheim eventually, wishing that he didn’t sound so shellshocked. “Did you know Dili was our mom?”
“I put the pieces together,” Hohenheim said. “Because of what happened to me to turn me into what I am, I can feel when the Gate of Truth is opened and people are attempting human transmutation. That’s what lets me get to them and pull them through into life again. I felt when you two opened it, and I knew that there were two of you. I knew you had gone back to retrieve your brother’s soul. When two young alchemical prodigies with injuries consistent with a deal with Truth, from the village of Resembool, arrived in Central, it wasn’t difficult to come to the conclusion that you were the ones who had brought Diligence back, and that you were likely her children.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Hohenheim gave him a pointed look, but one that was nonetheless full of sadness.“Would it have helped? On top of everything else that was happening when we first met?”
Ed thought about it, and had to concede that Hohenheim probably had a point. On top of everything else that was happening, finding out that they had almost killed their mother a second time over and that she was now here in Central and didn’t remember them at all…
It would not have helped.
The kettle was whistling insistently on the stove, and Hohenheim got up to make tea.
“Milk, no sugar,” Al said. “That was how Mom always took her tea.”
Hohenheim nodded. “Yes. Diligence is the same.” He smiled. “They’re still the same people underneath, the homunculi. Their personalities still bleed through, they get odd impressions of the lives that they lived before and the things that were important to them. There is a part of me that has always believed that perhaps if they met people who knew them in their first lives, it would help to jog their memories a little. It’s entirely up to you if you want to pursue that theory.”
He brought the teapot over to the table and poured a cup for Diligence. “I’ll be back shortly, and I’ll answer any questions that you might have.”
X
Diligence was in her bedroom when Hohenheim brought her tea. The door was wide open and he knocked on the frame before entering, but he didn’t think she’d heard him. She was standing at the dresser, staring into the mirror.
“Dili?”
He put the teacup down on the dresser, and at length she turned to him.
“They’re the ones who tried to bring me back, aren’t they?” she said, her voice soft and unsure. “They’re… my children.”
Hohenheim nodded. “Yes.”
“I don’t remember them.”
“I know you don’t. It’s all right.”
“It’s not all right!” Dili pressed her hands over her face as she began to cry. “They sacrificed so much to try and bring me back and I don’t know who they are!”
Hohenheim put his arms around her, not knowing the best way to comfort her. This was the first time that any of the homunculi had ever come into contact with someone who knew them in their previous life, let alone the person who had tried to bring them back. Dili leaned into his chest, letting out a shuddering sigh.
“Do you think they want to see me?” she asked eventually.
“I don’t know. I think that everything is happening very quickly, and they don’t necessarily know what they want right now. It’s one thing to perform human transmutation and have it fail, and it’s another to then meet the person you tried to transmute and thought was lost forever.” Hohenheim rubbed her back as she continued to weep. “Do you want to see them?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation. Of all the vague impressions of memory that Diligence had had since she had come into this life four years ago, the one thing that she had always been convinced of was that she had been a mother in her first life, and Hohenheim knew that the idea of having left her children alone was one that caused her no small degree of anguish. He felt sure that if they spent some time together, then Diligence’s memories would start to return and she would remember her past life more fully.
Finally, Dili quietened and looked up at him.
“Could you please find out what my name is, at least?”
Hohenheim nodded. “Yes, I can do that. Are you going to be all right?”
She nodded. “Yes. I think that those boys probably need a comforting presence more than I do right now. They’re just children still, and they would have been so young when they did this… I don’t want to think about the trauma they’ve been through already in their lives.”
Hohenheim didn’t know what it was that made him peck a kiss to her forehead as he left her alone with her tea. Maybe it was just because she was so grief-stricken and it was the first form of affection and reassurance that came to him, but he was never usually so tactile with anyone else. He pushed the thought away, making his way back to the kitchen. The two Elric brothers were talking quietly among themselves, falling silent when he came in.
“If you’d like a moment to yourselves…”
“No, it’s fine, thanks.” Ed took a gulp of tea, turning red when it turned out to still be too hot to drink. “It’s just strange knowing that you were there that night, whilst we were just next door at the Rockbells. You were there in Resembool rescuing Mom. What if Granny had looked out at the wrong moment and seen you?”
“I’m careful,” Hohenheim replied. “Chary and Tempe were with me to keep watch.” He paused. “I’ll leave it to you two to decide where you would like to go from here, now that you know what you wanted to know. Dili has made one request, though.”
“Yeah?”
“She would like to know what her actual name is.”
“Oh.” Ed had evidently been expecting something more difficult. “Trisha. Her name is Trisha Elric.”
“Thank you.”
It was strange, now having a name and identity to put alongside Diligence. He had known so little about her, about any of the people he had pulled out of darkness and into a second life. They had always been complete people in their own right and he would never say otherwise, but now Diligence had not only an identity, but a place in the world around them; they had found the gap that she filled.
Eventually, Ed spoke again.
“What about the others?” he asked. “Do you know anything about their identities, too?”
Hohenheim shook his head. “No, not really. We only know what we’ve been able to piece together from the places where I found them and their own brief flashes of memory. We believe Temperance’s husband was the one to try and bring her back, and we’re fairly sure she had at least one child in her first life. Humility was the first I found; it’s so long ago now we’ll likely never find any clues. Patience’s appearance leads us to believe that they, like you two, were sired by the homunculus. Pasha was a stillborn child; since the homunculi don’t age, I had to use my Stone to age him past the point at which he died in order for him to have a fulfilling second life ”
“Brother… Do you think that Pasha could be…”
“Teacher’s child,” Ed agreed. “Did you collect Pasha in Dublith?”
Hohenheim nodded.
“Our alchemy teacher, Izumi Curtis, had a stillborn child whom she tried to bring back with human transmutation,” Al explained. “Pasha would be her child.”
Neither of the boys spoke for a long time, and Hohenheim couldn’t blame them, not in the face of all of the revelations that they were undergoing, but the furrow in Ed’s brow betrayed a much deeper thought than simply coming to terms with the fact that Diligence was the failed human transmutation of their mother, and that they also knew who Pasha was.
“Edward?” he ventured. “Is there anything else I can answer for you?” He didn’t ask if everything was all right. How could it be after everything that had happened?
“I don’t know.” Ed was still deep in thought. “Something isn’t adding up and I don’t really want to think about what the implications of that might be.”
“What is it?”
“Our father… The other homunculi’s Father. Izumi holds him at least partially responsible for the chain of events that led to her performing human transmutation. He used a Philosopher’s Stone to ostensibly heal her, but then her miracle baby was stillborn. There’s a part of her that still thinks the Philosopher’s Stone was responsible for that. What I don’t understand is why he would do something like that? I mean, I can understand him causing chaos and destruction wherever he goes because that seems to be his MO, but I don’t see what purpose it would serve.” He gave a disgusted shudder. “I hate referring to him as Father. I’m just going to call him That Bearded Bastard.” He paused. “No offence to your beard.”
Hohenheim couldn’t help laughing.
“No,” he agreed eventually. “No, I can’t see why he would do something like that either. It’s certainly a worrying development. I had always worked on the principle that our two paths and the homunculi that we brought to life were completely separate. The transmutations I had found had nothing to do with him; they were the result of complete desperation from losing a loved one. But if he’s been meddling in people’s lives like this, then it presents a very sinister picture.” He sighed. “There is another reason why I try to find the failed human transmutations when they occur. I want to try and save them, of course, but I also try to keep an eye on the people who perform human transmutation in the first place. That’s the trickier part. Those who have seen the gate of Truth possess incredible alchemic power, and they will be keys to the original homunculus’s plan.”
“Is that why the other homunculi refer to us as sacrifices?” Al asked.
Hohenheim nodded. “Yes. Although sacrifice maybe isn’t the correct word. I think we would be more like vessels to help him accumulate the full power of Truth. He would need five in total, just as the most powerful transmutation circles have five points. You two are on his list, as am I, and from what you’ve told me, your old teacher in Dublith is also one. As of yet, I have not managed to find anyone else who has attempted to perform human transmutation and lived this long with the consequences of what Truth took from them. The people who brought back Humility and Patience will all be long dead simply from human lifespan by now, even without the potential difficulties caused by Truth. I have a feeling that Temperance and Charity’s alchemists are also deceased by now, and Chastity was pulled back using a Philosopher’s Stone, so the alchemist did not gain the knowledge of Truth in return and would therefore be useless in Homunculus’s plans. That gives me a small glimmer of hope that perhaps this terrible day can be stopped in its tracks if he does not have the requisite number of sacrifices that he needs.”
“Wait, if he needs people to perform human transmutation in order to use them as part of his plans…” Al trailed off, but the horror in his voice was clear, and as Hohenheim also realised the implications, he felt his blood chill in his veins.
“Maybe he’s been putting people in positions where they’ll be desperate enough to perform human transmutation,” Ed whispered, putting two and two together as well. “Maybe he did make it so that Izumi’s baby would be stillborn, knowing how much she wanted a child he knew she’d be desperate enough to try human transmutation to try and bring her baby back.”
A profound silence fell in the room. Hohenheim didn’t want to believe what the boys were hypothesising, but at the same time, there was definitely evidence in their favour, and when it came to working on his grand master plan, there was nothing that Hohenheim would put past his nemesis. On the face of it, it didn’t make a lot of sense for him to be masterminding the human transmutations. He knew when the Promised Day would come, so why would he run the risk of his sacrifices dying of natural or unnatural causes before that time? Unless this was something he did regularly, just to make sure that the pool of sacrifices was always ready. There may well have been a time in the past when there had been five sacrifices simultaneously, but no longer.
“Brother?” Al’s voice sounded so very small and young and horrified, and Hohenheim was reminded forcibly of just how young they had been when they had made that fateful decision to perform human transmutation. “Brother, he was our father. He knew us, well, he sort of knew us. He definitely knew Mom. Do you think that he did something…”
Al did not finish the sentence. Ed was shaking his head.
“No. No, he can’t have. He was gone well before she died.”
Hohenheim could tell that Ed did not believe his own words. His voice was cracking, hands trembling as he curled them into fists, pressing down hard on the kitchen table.
“No,” he whispered to himself. “No, no he can’t have done that. He can’t have manipulated us in that way. Not when he never even met you. God, we can’t even ask Diligence, she won’t remember.”
“I’ll give you two some space to think.” Hohenheim rose from the table and stepped out of the kitchen, walking along to his study in something of a daze. Even after so many years, even after all this time of following in Homunculus’s footsteps, trying to work out his plans and plan against them… Hohenheim thought that he had his nemesis figured out, and yet even now he still found ways to surprise him with his utter cruelty and disregard for human life.
He sank into his chair, resting his head in his hands as he stared down at the map of Amestris that now lived permanently spread out over his desk. He traced over the tracks he had taken, the places he had been to collect the human transmutations and try to pull them into a better second life; nowhere near as good and fulfilling as their first lives, but still infinitely better than what they had been doomed to before. Had the homunculus been there before him all these years, sowing the seeds of despair and destruction wherever he went?
His eyes came back to Resembool, Diligence’s birthplace and the home of the Elric brothers. Here, he felt, was where Homunculus had caused the most damage.
When he had received his body and broken free from his flask, Homunculus had wasted no time in enjoying the freedom that his new shape could bring him. Hohenheim had always kept an eye on his movements, even as he himself kept to the shadows, keeping away from the humanity that he no longer deserved to be a part of. At first, it seemed that Homunculus was revelling in all of the pleasures of his newfound humanity, but it soon became clearer that what he was really doing was testing experiences. Everything that Hohenheim had expressed an interest in doing once he was freed from slavery, everything that had intrigued this strange being with no concept of humanity or human form, he was trying out, but as intrigued as he was, he was never satisfied, moving on from things and discarding them as soon as he had tired of them. Hohenheim was certain that Patience’s mother was someone that he had tired of, casting her aside unaware of the child he’d left in her belly. That begged the question why he had then stayed with Trisha Elric for so long; long enough to get her pregnant, see her through the pregnancy, and get her pregnant again six months later. He had spent just over two years with her, and that was the longest he had stayed anywhere outside of Central City where his master plan was taking shape. What was the reasoning behind that? Especially since, by this time, he would have created all of his own homunculi, removing his vices in the bid to become a perfect being. Lust would have been separated from him long before he met Trisha Elric, so it must have been something other than primal desire that kept him with her for so long.
As nightmarish as the thought was, the only explanation that he could see was Ed’s hypothesis. He had sought out Trisha and sired the Elric brothers specifically to then manipulate them into becoming sacrifices via human transmutation.
There was a soft tap on the study door, and Tempe’s voice came through the wood. “Hohenheim?”
He did not respond at first, caught up in the mire of his thoughts until Tempe knocked again.
“Hohenheim, please come out. I can’t cope with this many mental crises going on at once.”
Hohenheim shook himself, taking a deep breath and making his way to the door. It had got to the stage where he could no longer hide himself away as he had been doing for so long. The endgame was approaching and he would have to take an active role now. The Elrics had just had their world shattered, and they needed help. Hohenheim knew that he was probably not the person best placed to help them, but he would never be able to live with himself if he didn’t do what he could.
The boys were silent when he returned to the kitchen, and he got the impression that they had been so ever since he had left, the sheer enormity of everything too much for words. Diligence was hovering in the corridor, torn between wanting to go in and offer what comfort she could, and fearing making things worse.
“Thank you,” Ed said eventually. “Thank you for being honest with us.”
“It’s the least I can do, and you deserve the truth after everything that’s happened to you throughout your lives. I’m sorry that I can’t provide the answers you want.”
“They were the answers we needed,” Al said. “Whether we wanted them or not doesn’t really matter.” He paused. “I just have one more question, but I don’t know whether you’ll be able to answer it.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Is… Is Diligence mad at us?”
“No, of course not. Why would she be?”
“We brought her back - wrong - and if you hadn’t been there, then she’d have been stuck in that mangled, messed up body, buried alive forever. We should have left well alone.”
“No.” Hohenheim shook his head emphatically. “No, I can say categorically that she’s not mad at you.”
He heard Dili’s soft sob from outside the door, and he knew that the brothers had heard it too.
“She’s not mad. She’s just so sad that she can’t remember you after everything that you suffered at the hands of Truth to try and bring her back.”
Al nodded his understanding, and the visible tension that Ed had been holding within his frame for the entire length of their visit finally started to ebb away.
“I don’t think I’m ready to meet her properly. Not yet. It’s just too much right now. But in the future, once everything’s had time to sink in.”
“Of course,” Hohenheim said. “Just let us know. We’re not going anywhere.”
“We will. Thanks again for everything.” Ed paused. “And please tell Diligence that her garden is beautiful. Mom loved her garden, and I can tell that she created that garden in the warehouse that we came in through.”
Hohenheim smiled as they stood and he went to let them out of the catacombs; Dili had vanished out of the corridor but Tempe popped her head out of her door to take them back to the surface.
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?’
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.”
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ced47fcae3da6fd43e5a5da339fc108f/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-66/s1280x1920/58b719928815f71e2bf1fa76499c0900de35566b.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/fcdbabec2b9bc98945daeada19e233f7/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-82/s1280x1920/fb52affa82df4d12b2c0bbe332b0a14bf4a642ae.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6503e4919182dce7cc71e7bdda76c8c6/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-e5/s1280x1920/d99aa0a3d40c6f7e476173e5f61bcfb7d531f432.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6babd66e50338dc5b53936aa8a8bbdb2/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-a9/s1280x1920/70bbdbca31e6ced94ddaa435fa0b4d8bc506cea8.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/51d0cea868c37e953510c5ba8e6a77d6/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-5d/s1280x1920/51956cec9693c8a4c0346cbb84009703bc022bcf.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ec953b68a5c80dd5e5b47af286ba45c1/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-c3/s1280x1920/fa806bd725a74ddf873180ed1fac1d748ff6fdeb.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/6c8d949882fd36e42c1c81267d88ead5/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-30/s1280x1920/3f73c6691ddcc650eb621b5543f735608c57602e.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/81d718f39a5b8d4a081d0cbf4b501034/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-7b/s1280x1920/cbdef9926953670e58be4801ecac42cab05a37e2.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
![“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e8aab52d6ea750b32943b80fe125ef0b/a1ffde92c18bb5ca-e8/s1280x1920/2134ae82e0b15ee78e40dd979406585a99e18484.jpg "“Fullmetal Alchemist”Manga covers (Kanzenban edition)[Hotaru]")
