Al aged 14, Ed and Van aged 15.
Van POV:
"As hollow as they come. Spirit in a can." Ed says with a smile.
"I'm surprised you realized it. Well done."
"It was easy actually. We spare against someone like you all the time. The way you move is a dead giveaway." Ed says as he glances at me with a smirk.
"There's someone like me in the outside world?"
"It's annoying, isn't it? But I can't believe some idiot besides me had the idea to bond a soul to a suit of armour. Now I'm feeling unoriginal."
I sneak by while Ed talks to him and make my presence unknown. I won't leave Ed. I know he can handle him, but in the worst case scenario, I need to be here. I'll make my presence disappear and hide in the shadows and observe until I am needed.
The armoured soul pulls his helmet down and gets into a fighting stance.
"Number 48 was my prison number. According to official records, I died two years ago."
Ed called it. I say in my mind with a shrug to myself.
"When my body was flesh and blood, I was called the Slicer. I was a mass murderer and I made a real splash. Now my skills have been put to a different use. I'm an immortal god."
Immortal? Are you kidding me? We all know that's wrong.
"No, you're hardly immortal. That seal. It's alchemy. Someone took the iron in that blood and tuned it to the metal in your armour. That's what keeps your soul bound to this world."
"Finally, someone with a backbone who thinks they can live. This should be a good fight." he says with a laugh.
"I've told you, I know your weakness. This is your final warning before I use it."
"I don't care!" he yells, "See, I'm the type of person who likes a little struggle in their kill."
And then the fight begins. Ed is smaller but faster, though the empty suit is fast too. Ed defends with his automail arm against his long sword. The automail arm of Ed's almost caves and I almost jump in, but stand my ground instead.
I hope Al is okay.
Ed's arm gets sliced and I panic, almost charging in, but he sees where are I am and gives a small shake of his head 'no' so I stay back. But I can hardly bear to watch. He may need help and he's just being to stubborn to admit it. But I stay until Ed says so, trusting his judgement. The armoured soul has no idea where I am and seems to have forgotten I was there.
Ed is almost hit with the shiny long sword, but dodges and falls back.
"You won't last much longer. Unlike you, my body doesn't know fatigue.Give up any hope you had. As we speak, my colleague is disposing of your companion outside."
I worry about Al, but Ed sets my mind at ease with his usual smirk and a few words.
"So this colleague of yours, is he strong?"
"Yes, yes he is. Though not as strong as myself."
Ed chuckles, "We've got nothing to worry about than. My companion, as you put it, we've fought him plenty of times and never beat him once." Ed glances at me and I take that as my signal to go help when he leasts expects it. So now I lie in wait like a snake.
Alphonse POV:
Every time I punch he goes flying and he seems to not be as strong as he thought he was.
"Hold still so I can cut you up!" He yells at me.
He swings his knife around and I dodge each swing. Each one is all over the place with no proper aim. As I keep stepping back while dodging each and every jab, I eventually come across a rock and trip backwards. He takes this as his chance and jabs the knife where my inner elbow would be, but it doesn't faze me. I punch him and he goes flying backwards, knocking his helmet off to reveal no head, or body.
"You're empty inside."
"Yes, that's what they said when they sentenced me. And thanks to the circumstances it ended up quite literal." He says as he points to the inside of his suit of armour. "You don't recognize me like this, do you?" He says as he tosses his head up and down in his hand.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Don't tell me you forgot. After all, it was all thanks to your help catching me that I ended up here, a condemned man. Number 66 was my name on death row but back when I still had a flesh and blood body I went by better names. Barry the Butcher, or my favourite, Barry the Chopper."
"Barry the Chopper?" Memories of him flash in my mind and I now realize why the voice had been familiar. "You're the one who kidnapped Winry."
"That's right, and after being caught, imprisoned and executed, I come back from a pit of fire to take my revenge on you, maggot!" He says with a maniacal laugh.
I stand there sheepishly and tilt my head, "Is that so?" I ask.
"Is that so?! What do you mean is that so?! People get terrified when a serial killer comes back from the dead, and an empty suit of armour moves on its own! You should be saying "ahhhh!!" or "ahhhhhh!!! what's wrong with your body?!"'
I lift my helmet to reveal that I am bodiless as well and then he's the one that screams. "What's wrong with your body?!"
"Take it easy," I say, "you're going to hurt my feelings."
"If I destroy the blood seal on your armour you'll die!"
"The same goes for you."
He screams again after I say this.
"But I still have the advantage, you rotten beast. You don't know where my blood seal is."
"And you don't know where my seal is either."
"Ahhhh!!! Than I'll just have to chop you up until I find it, and you can't do that because you don't have a knife!" He says as he charges at me.
"Why do I have to get the crazy one."
Van POV:
The battle rages on and by now I've joined in. Slashes from both sides. Ed's arm is dripping blood, you can see it even though what he's wearing is black. Ed slices his head off. He picks up his head.
"Now back to business. There's something you need to tell me about."
"The Philosopher's Stone? If you came down here, there's little else you could be seeking."
I snatch his head from Ed.
"Van, what're you doing?" Ed asks and I just stick my tongue out at Ed.
I place his head down then sign to Ed then pick up the head again.
"Heh. She says you're a good fighter."
"She can't talk?" He asks and I shake my head.
"Well the more you know." He says and I feel like He would've shrugged while saying that, if he had a body.
"Anyway, let's cut to the chase." Ed says, "Tell us all you know about the Stone and it's connection to this lab."
"I can't do that."
"Really? Listen Slicer, beaten up dogs don't get to call the shots. You tell us now or I'll break your seal." Ed tries to grab the helmet but I like holding it so I don't let him.
"The battle isn't over yet." He says with a chuckle. I try to warn Ed, but there's no time and I push him out of the way, throwing the helmet to him. The suit of armour had appeared behind him with a second blood seal. It sliced at Ed, but hit me instead when I pushed him out of the way.
"Van!!" He yells to me. "How? It can't be."
"One set of armour doesn't have to mean one soul."
At this point I'm on the ground and I don't know which soul is talking.
"Are you okay older brother?" The armour asks and I conclude two things. First, The suit of armour had been talking just now. And second, I failed at tossing the helmet to Ed because it is at the armours feet.
"Yes, younger brother." The helmet answers.
"You two are brothers?" Ed asks.
"Did I forget to mention that?"
"Yes, you forgot." The suit replies.
"That's what made the mass murderer, the slicer, so great." The older brother said (the helmet).
"He was a pair of mass murdering brothers." Said the younger one.
So it was 2 vs. 2 the whole time.
The armour attacks Ed and I and know I'm on my feet, but we're both bleeding everywhere. My vision begins to grow blurry from blood loss. Ed is backed against a pillar.
Are we really gonna die here?
Just then, an image of mustang flashes through my mind along with Ed and Al and I know that we have to keep fighting.
"If it ends here than who's gonna get Al back to normal again?" We look at each other and we know that we have to fight.
"This is for my brother!!"
"And this is for ours."
Ed does something I never saw coming. He pulls a page from Scars book and only deconstructs him. The armour is blown into two halves. We collapse against the wall pillar and Ed places his hand on my head.
"This time you won." The older brother says.
"Perfect, than this time you can tell us about the Philosopher's Stone."
"No, I cannot say. Listen to me, you must destroy us."
"We're not killing anyone. That's not what we do."
I stand and lean against the pillar for support.
"You're to generous with your words. Saying anyone instead of anything. As if we could still be called human at this twisted state. I didn't say kill, I said destroy. Destroy these things we've become. Now get on with it."
I glance down and think of Al.
Al is no thing. He's a person. A human being, and we will restore him to his original self. He's no monster.
"The only way I could do that is if I admitted your definition was right, and if i did, I'd be accepting that you're not human. That means that we'd have to admit the same of our brother, and we can't do that. Right, Van?"
I nod in agreement.
"He's your brother..." The eldest says.
Al POV:
He doesn't stop and I start to get annoyed and worried for Ed and Van.
"Can we call it a draw? I'm worried about my brother and sister."
"Brother? You're kidding. Those little pipsqueaks are your siblings?"
"Yes, and they'll get angry if you call them that."
"I see, this changes everything." He says with the same maniacal laughter as before.
"Huh? How?"
"So it was your brother who put you in that armoured shell, isn't that right?"
"Yes, he did. He risked his life to do it. To save me."
He laughs again and it annoys me.
"What're you laughing about now?"
"Nothing. Nothing. I'm sorry, It's just... sibling love is so beautiful. Gets me every time. Even when it's a total fraud."
"A fraud?" I ask in confusion.
"That's right. Artificial affection."
"No, you're wrong!! You don't know anything about us! They love me for real, and I love them."
"What a naive worm you are! What if you're a fake? An imitation. How would you know the difference?"
I freeze a little and don't know what to say. What if he's right?
"Your brother is the one who crafted you in this form, how do you know you don't love them because they made it so that you would. Tailored your memories and personality to suit them best."
"That just isn't true! I'm Alphonse Elric! I'm exactly the same person as I was when I was a boy, I know I am!"
He laughs.
"But that's the trick, isn't it? Your so called soul is invisible, undetectable by any scientific tool. But what if you were designed in a way to make it possible for you to decide what's real and what lies your two siblings have been feeding you."
"No.. That can't be..."
Van POV:
"Our brother's a person, I'm telling you. And that means you guys are too. I don't want to kill you, I can't." Edward says to the armour.
Laughter rises from the helmet and I look up at him.
"Are you alright older brother?"
"Yes, it's funny. That's all. As long as I remember my brother and I thrived on scheming and murder. We were demonized, spit on, called animals. Forget biology, we were inhuman because they couldn't stomach what we did. And now's the first time in which we're treated like people, when we're scraps of metal." He breaks into laughter again. "It's to much! What a stupid irony." he says between laughter.
Alphonse POV:
"I'm a person! I'm real! I'm Alphonse Elric!" I yell.
He has to be making this all up. He wouldn't truly know anyway. But that's not enough to convince myself.
"How can you prove this Alphonse ever existed? That the identity isn't a lie of convenience? Where's your body? Have you seen it?"
"Ed said it was gone. For the whole thing to be a fabrication..." I say as memories with Van and Ed from our childhood flash through my mind. "Mom? Everything? It couldn't be!" My mind flashes to a memory of Ed saying that he needs to tell me something back at Winry's, and my eyes widen.
"What was he trying to tell me? What was he scared of? Am I not what I think I am? Guys..."