Entry 003
All of those spirits yesterday...they were disturbing.
There weren't any around me...Thank goodness.
[Private to Colonel Mustang//Unhackable]
...What do you know about Greed?
And also...
Wrath arrived but...he's different. He seems more like Envy. He has Nii-san's real arm and leg.
There weren't any around me...Thank goodness.
[Private to Colonel Mustang//Unhackable]
...What do you know about Greed?
And also...
Wrath arrived but...he's different. He seems more like Envy. He has Nii-san's real arm and leg.
He ran a hand through his ponytail once as his mind attempted to sift through all of the information he had been force-fed the past few days. Two Amestrises, Envy and Wrath trying to kill him, the City itself with its curses and its death policy...It was new and stressful for Alphonse. The huge gap in his memory was troublesome enough in his daily life but now...he just hoped that he would find the elder Elric soon.
He left the room that Roy had temporarily loaned him (Al would pay him back later somehow. After all, there was the principle of Equivalent Exchange to be met.) into the kitchen area. He was very grateful that Roy had opened his home to him, especially considering he didn't really trust any other person in the City yet aside form him. He sat down at the table, hands on his knees as he looked down at his hands in thought.
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With Alphonse in the city, another alchemy user - beating their enemies might be a little easier. Especially with Hughes on the case too, and the few allies he had accumulated over the last few curse days. Still, he wasn't sure he wanted to risk the chances. As far as he knew from what Fullmetal had told him before everything blew up in Central Envy and Wrath were both rather desperate to have the boys eradicated unlike the other Homunculi who only had a goal of creating the philosopher's stone.
He would just have to ensure Alphonse's safety for the moment and then perhaps he and Hawkeye could come up with some ways to enable them to live a relatively normal life here in the City. He pushed the door opened into the kitchen, and put on a surprised face when he saw Al at the table.
"Aha. Alphonse just in time. I thought you might like something to eat then? Anything in particular you'd like?" He asked, walking straight through as if nothing had happened and making his way to the fridge.
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And any chance to learn more about the other version of Amestris- as disturbing and gut-twisting as it always was- was going to be an opportunity she needed to seize. Especially now that the City had two Wraths. And she seemed to be on the bad side of both of them through no fault of her own.
The Lieutenant had taken the complicated route from her apartment to the Colonel's to give herself a little more time to sort out what she needed and to be sure she wasn't followed, with a fresh threat over her head. But it was still not long after the summons that she rapped on the door.
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The younger Elric caught himself wondering how many allies exactly the Colonel had made while he was in the City. Conversely, he also wondered how many enemies he had made as well. He hoped that whoever was at the door would be someone that hadn't come to harm them. All the same, he quietly slipped on his white gloves with the transmutation circles on them.
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A knock at the door that shocked Alphonse caught his attention too, and he looked from the young alchemist to the door before pushing the fridge closed and walking across. His instincts told him that he knew who his visitor was - so when he opened the door to his First Lieutenant he wasn't really all that surprised, rather he offered her a smile.
"Ah. What wonderful timing." He sighed softly, and took a step back, motioning across the room to where Alphonse sat.
"Hawkeye, meet Alphonse Elric. Alphonse, meet my First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye."
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She knew Alphonse. No. No, she didn't. Because this was the Alphonse from the Colonel's world. And sparing a quizzical glance at the Colonel, she stepped into the room and found the eyes of-
"Alphonse?"
He...was not the suit of armor she had always known him to be. He was a slightly younger, milder looking version of Edward. Surely this was a success then? He and Edward must have succeeded in their quest- but according to Envy - wonderful source of accurate information that he was- he'd lost his memories?
No, she'd had this explained to her before, but it had been months ago, and only generally. But that timeline, her timeline, was not shared by anyone in the room. She needed more information. And she needed it now. Hawkeye looked back at the Colonel.
"I hope there are a few explanations of world differences in store, sir."
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"Oh! Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Hawkeye and I know each other--" he had started to say but when he heard the Lieutenant's tone of voice and then saw the look of shock on her face, he stopped mid-sentence.
Then it clicked. This Hawkeye must have been from a different Amestris, as Roy and Envy had tried to explain to him. He got up from his chair to get a better look at the Lieutenant. She looked the same...
This was all too confusing.
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"Where to start?" He asked himself quietly as he closed the door behind the Lieutenant, moving to stand by the table and folding his arms across his chest, staring down at the table top.
He exchanged looks between Hawkeye and Alphonse slowly, frowning. There were to be no secrets between them, which would mean a lot of explaining for Alphonse - but he definately couldn't start without eating.
"Are you hungry, Lieutenant, we were just about to get something to eat?"
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"I'm fine, Colonel. Go ahead and eat without me."
How much had the Colonel failed to explain before? How much, now that Alphonse was in the room- an obvious reminder of differences merely by his appearance, would need to be explained? It had been a while since she'd had to deal with the discrepancies, had gotten used to the details of things being different, but this- this could not fall under the category of minor.
With a sigh to match the Colonel's, she replied, "I'm afraid we know each other less than I would like, Alphonse. The world difference...poses a few challenges."
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"I...heard as much..." he replied, looking down at his gloved hands.
"Um...do you know me at all, Lieutenant Hawkeye? And my brother?" He needed to gauge just how much she knew.
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Roy sighed when he heard the conversation going on behind him, and without really bothering to do much he simply brought over some bread, butter, three plates, a knife and some cheese that he had in the fridge. Placing it down on his table and pulling up a chair to sit down in before motioning for Hawkeye to do the same - he wouldn't allow her to stand, he supposed everyone knew that this was going to take a while.
"Alphonse, where you and I are from, you have regained your body, and Edward has gone missing - you and I know this much... In the Lieutenant's world... I think things are much different?" He finished, looking over at Hawkeye with a slight frown.
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She glanced over at the Colonel, a minute pause before replying, "Much different, yes."
Hawkeye turned back to Alphonse, looking him directly in the face as she answered his question. "Of course I know you, Alphonse. Just the things that I remember that we went through and the things you remember are different." She'd rationalized this to herself enough times that the words flowed easily. "In my world, you had not yet succeeded in regaining your body. Both you and Edward were searching for a way to do that, and my last information had both of you heading north to Briggs."
"Edward and yourself have been in contact rather frequently with the Colonel and myself in my version of Amestris. Both of you have fought with us."
It was an unpleasant sensation to realize that she alone remembered some of the trials they'd gone through. But there was no sense in dwelling on it, and Alphonse was newer to this than she. He probably needed all the reassuring he could get that things in the two versions were similar.
"I find the easiest way to think about it is that we remain the same people, but with a different set of experiences after a certain point."
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"Ah...Lieutenant Hawkeye...um, about when I was in that suit of armor those four years. You see, I...well, the last thing I remember before waking up was trying to--to bring our Mother back," he started, hesitating a bit when he began to talk about his mom. "I woke up and well...I was told that four years had passed since that day. I don't remember any of it. That was two years ago too."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but I don't remember fighting with you at all from those times. Though, the last time I saw you was a couple of days ago in Lior because of that earthquake and all of those hundreds of suits of armor appearing out of nowhere."
He slowly sat back down, making sure his red coat was flat beneath his bottom. He then removed his gloves and put them back into his pocket, seeing as he didn't really need them at the moment.
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When Alphonse began talking however, he found it much harder. Perhaps because it was an issue so fresh to his own mind. Managing to busy himself with buttering some bread he listened slowly, pressing his elbow onto the table top just in time to catch the end of Alphonse's speech.
"I don't remember seeing you since just after you regained consciousness." He explained quietly, before pressing his forehead into his hand and rubbing lightly. "The last thing I recall was making my way to Central City where the attack seemed to be directed." He paused - about to let slip that Edward had been in the city already.
"It seems that our friends are from a time before that when relations were hostile." He waved a hand gesturing to the Lieutenant. "Just as Hawkeye remembers them, correct?"
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But not as jarring as four years of his life missing. Envy hadn't been kidding when he said he'd lost his memories.
...Lior? Where was Lior? She'd never even heard of it, let alone been there. The blonde shook her head in dismisssal. Comparing most recent memories wouldn't prove anything that they didn't already know.
Obviously this was going to be an adventure in dealing with things that she'd pushed off to the corners of her mind rather than confront.
"Correct."
"It's nothing unusual to not remember in this case, Alphonse. Some of the fights you assisted me with in my version of Amestris simply did not occur in your world." A pause. "The Colonel, coming from your copy of Amestris, remembers them no more than you do." That fight against Lust- Hawkeye was really not pleased at all with how many times that seemed to come up.
"Even if your memory were intact, chances are high that we would still have vast differences in what we remember."
Deep breath, decide what needs to be said. "In my world, the President King is still in power." It would be easier to stick with the basics, ignore the details. "Things are still in progress in the Amestris I know." Understatement of the year. But then, she'd been understating this for months now, and with Alphonse in the room it was no time to stop.
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