Keeping My Brother

Begun Feb 4, Fri, 2005
Edited Oct 16, 2007

Genre: Crossover
Universe/s: Two FMA'ers land in the Bleach world.
Spoiler Warnings: Set around Bleach anime eps 15-18, but references manga knowledge from a little farther on. Involves the end of the FMA storyline, so DO NOT READ if you are following Cartoon Network.
Question: What is the concensus on filing Crossovers? Cause I can only list this under Bleach /or/ FMA… and I've listed it as Bleach b/c it's in the Bleach universe, but I think I'm gonna end up paying more attention to Ed+Al. So….. dunno.

The following is even more made-up than the two storylines which I am blantantly sticking my fingers into. FAKE FAKE FAKE FALSE LIES ALL LIES USO CHO-USO.

So, the Gate is fueled by human life energy, which means there has to be a balance on both sides. People die in Our world and fuel Their side, then they use alchemy and expend energy. When stuff is destroyed There, it goes through the Gate and fuels Our side again.

When the Quincys eradicate souls, they create an imbalance in everything, including time. Think of it like putting your foot down on muddy ground; the water will seep out of the mud and into the depression left by your foot. Things passing through the Gate are affected by this 'gravitational'-like effect.

What happens when a Shinigami purifies a Hollow? The re-Plussed soul goes to the Soul Society... but there is unaccounted-for energy, IE all the sins the Hollow committed while being a Hollow. When a Hollow is purified, those slivers of energy feed into to the Gate, the one "valve" between the two worlds.

So what happens when a being that is made up of smaller individual parts recieves a severe wound? Like... a Menos Grande. Said wound could be caused by the attacking force ripping off and purifying the smaller Hollow-forces that summed up to make a MG. Such a tremor of so much purified-Hollow-energy hitting the Gate in a single instant would undoubtably resonate within the Gate... at a time when two individuals were attempting to make 'deals' with the Gate...

According to the real storyline... First Al gave himself and the Stone up in order to fix Ed. Then Ed gave himself and those four years up in order to get all of Al back. So at some instant, both boys were in the Gate at the same time. Surely the Gate would take a buttload of purified Hollow energy as Fair Trade for a couple of little boys...

Chapter One: If I Hold You Tight...

As the Menos Grande which only a handful of people could see anyway faded back into the crack in the sky, Rukia could only gape at Ichigo, Ishida could only gape at Ichigo, Getaboushi could only smile knowingly, and Ichigo could only collapse from the strain. No one noticed two small figures dropping out of the very bottom of the crack on the far side of the park, which itself was on the other side of the construction fence, and landing in some bushes. Not even the Soul Society's Shinigami who were watching the battle from very far away. And even if anyone had noticed, what would they have done?

Everyone else crawled home, some of them dripping blood as they went, while Ed merely crawled out from under a bush and tried to figure out what in the hell just happened.

[What just happened? No injuries, I'm not hurt. Leaves, sticks, but I'm fine. He fell on his back and wondered how he had gotten from inside an underground theater to a park. He tried to piece his dizzied thoughts together. He raised his spreadeagled right hand to the sky... and noticed he had fingernails.

"AL!" Ed sat bolt upright and cried out from the bottom of his heart, vaguely aware that there was life around him, but it was on the edges of his periphery, and he didn't care if anyone heard. He had nothing to hide anymore.

"Here!" came a voice, a clear voice, a beautiful and precious and lovely and clear voice, a voice he'd been waiting to hear with this purity for four years, not resonating out from inside a metal box. The voice of his brother, his only family he considered himself to have left, the voice of his best friend. The voice of Al.

The bushes a few feet away shook sporadically as an exhausted Al tried to orient himself and climb out. Ed scrambled to his hands and knees and tried not to let his mind overload. [Al is here! It worked, he's here, he's back, I can hear him, see him, he's alive and he's fine and everything worked out and it's gonna be fine! The sensation of ground under the heel of his right hand, the little stone that suddenly dug into his left knee, the stiffness of the bush branches as Ed plunged his arms in and hauled Al out, none of it was pain, it was all joy, all beautiful... and Ed embraced his brother and cried with happiness.

Al's mind was spinning even more than Ed's. The world looked different, sounded different, the air tasted different, his body felt... different...

Ed repeated over and over as if it were the only word he knew, "Al, Al, Al, Al, Al..." then letting his voice fade into relieved sobs. Al could hardly do anything but try to catch his breath... and marvel at the feel of air in his lungs again... rejoice at the feel of Ed's arms around his shoulders. Suddenly he found his voice again, and he too started sobbing, and wrapped his arms around his brother's chest, and could only find to say, "Brother... I'm so glad!"

After a bit the crest of the moment faded, the tears slowed down, the boys caught their breath and sat up a bit more comfortably. Even still, they couldn't let go of each other.

"It worked," Al said, speaking quietly because he wasn't used to having real vocal cords.

Ed nodded furiously, looking at his brother, his fourteen year old brother, clothed in the same things he'd been wearing the last time he could wear clothes... hopelessly small on him now. The sleeves too short, the pants looking more like capris. His face, his eyes, his hair, everything looked so perfect, just because it /was/. "Heh... I don't want to close my eyes, I might be afraid it's a dream." Ed spoke quietly out of emotional exhaustion. Al smiled, and Ed realized that his smile was perfect too.

And Al realized, "Brother, your arm! Your hand, it's back, does that mean your leg too?" Ed shifted and pulled up his black pants leg just far enough to show skin. With his right hand, he ran his fingernails over his skin as though he were scratching an itch, then laughed at himself. "It's all perfect, Al."

Al smiled enough to close his eyes. "Yes, very very perfect."

And then, for the first time, the two boys bothered to look around and see where they were. "Where...?"

Ed stood up and looked through the bushes, over the railings that signified the edge of the park, and could only let his jaw drop. "Al... I have a feeling... we're not in Central anymore..."

"Mm," Al agreed, and slowly and carefully got to his feet, still unused to his real body. He took a look around, and gasped. "Brother! The cars! They're... so different. And... much faster, and so many..."

"And the buildings," Ed added quietly. "And the people, over there, see, and over there too. So many... Wherever we are, and why-ever we're here... it's not any place we know."

Both standing now, they finally turned to face each other. And they both realized that Al was a little taller than Ed.

Ed's face fell and his eyes darkened with anger. Al smiled apologetically and raised his hand to the back of his head. "Ah... I'm sorry, Brother, I didn't chose it this way..."

Abruptly Ed composed himself, and looked ashamed of his anger. "I know, Al, don't apologize. I shouldn't get mad over something as silly as height."

Al briefly wondered if Ed had sold that part of his personality to the Gate. [Not get angry about his height? But if Ed let it go, so would he. "So... where do we go? We'll need food, eventually... someplace to sleep. This doesn't look like a world that gives things out free, and we have no money."

Ed clapped his hands together and concentrated, and after a moment put them down. "I can't seem to do any alchemy here, so I guess we can't fix things for money. I'd feel bad, doing too much anyway, knowing what it costs..." He let his voice trail off, and since he was looking away from Al, didn't see the questioning look.

A branch in the tree overhead rustled as a black mass fell towards the ground and landed with the precision of a cat. Al jumped and nearly lost the little bit of balance he had.

Ed turned also to look at the cat. "A green-eyed cat? Never seen one of those before." The cat took off, ran about thirty feet into the clearer area of the park, then turned and looked back at the two boys.

Al asked, "Does it want us to..."

The cat sat. And looked at them.

Ed finished, "Follow? Sure seems like it. A green-eyed black cat that picks up strange boys and takes them home? This is a very odd place indeed."

The two boys stepped out into the afternoon sun and followed the cat through a city far more grandiose than they ever imagined cities could be. And all the while, talked and debated back and forth about everything that had happened.

Oct '07 - Updating one chapter at a time. I should subscribe to my own story to see what kind of emails, if any, you guys are getting. To future readers: when you get to a chapter that doesn't say it was updated after Oct 2007, you'll be reading a previous version, and it will /suck/. I'm editing them through, but unfortunately, this just isn't in Priority Slot #1 in life right now. Shitsurei shimasu