The Gate

A fan fiction inspired by the “Full Metal Alchemist” movie, “Conqueror Of Shambala”

By Karen

Chapter 1

Equivalent Exchange

(Munich, Germany, November 8, 1923)

I stare upwards in shock and horror at the scene playing out just above our heads. The blood of Edwards father, Professor Von Honhenheim Elric, gushes out like water from an open floodgate through the jaws of that captured dragon-like creature. That huge device above the balcony which Ekhart called “The Gateway to Shambala” started to activate and glow like something out of a Jules Verne novel, contrasting sharply with the dim light of the night-time factory.

My best friend sinks to his knees in despair, looking almost the same as when I found him in that empty run down apartment that day after his father left without a so much as an explanation or a goodbye. No matter what Edwards bitterness towards Hohenheim, I could always tell he missed his father, and this loss, along with the memory of the loss of his mother, must be almost more then he can bear. I felt the same way when I lost the last remainder of my own family too…

I should have known from the start, the minute I heard that “pure, blonde, blue eyed Aryan” nonsense out of Haushofer and Hess, that my colleagues and I were being used! I should have listened to people like Professor Huber at the university who see the Nazi party as they really are;(1) I should have listened to Edward that night instead of just thinking of myself and running off like that! Now this country is in danger of being hijacked by criminals who will no doubt make things even worse then they already are, and Ed’s world could suffer too!

I see Ekhart raise her arm and point her gun at Ed, who looks too distraught to notice or care. Almost as calmly as signing her own name, she fires a single shot.

“No!” I gasped, but from where I was I was unable to do anything except stare helplessly as my best friends body falls from the ceilings balcony and onto the floor of the factory.

“Edward!” I hurry to his side. Had I been a religious person rather then an atheist, I probably would have prayed to whoever may be up there that my friend was alive. Luckily, as it was, there turned out to be no need for that.

The bullet had only hit the mechanical ligaments of his false arm. He was breathing regularly and his pulse was normal. Aside from a few scratches and bruises he was fine. He should wake up and be his usual charming self in a few minutes. I heaved a sigh of relief.

My assistants all looked at each other in surprise and concern.

“What should we do now?” Loa asked nervously.(2)

Dorchet swallowed. “I don’t know. They’re probably going to come down here looking for him.”

Bido and Barry nodded in agreement.

“What if Hess and Haushofer find us with him?” questioned Bido.

“Worse, what if Ekhart does?” Barry added.

I hope they aren’t implying what I think they are…

“We’d better take him to Ekhart and Haushofer,” Loa says with a shake of his head. “If we hide him and they and the others find out…”

“I don’t want to even think of what will happen if we cross the Thule Society,” Dorchet agreed.

The group starts to advance towards the still unconscious Edward…

I couldn’t let them do this! Quickly, I scrambled to my feet and moved between them and Edward.

“No!” I pleaded. “Don’t!”

They drew closer, but seemed surprised to hear me speak out like that.

“Come on, Heiderich,” Dorchet snapped. “Get out of the way!”

“If Eckhart or the others see us helping Elric after what just happened, we’ll get the same, or worse!” Bido insisted.

But I wasn’t budging. Of course I was nothing compared to the whole group of them, I wasn’t even a fighter, but they could beat the tar out of me all they liked. I wasn’t letting them turn Edward in!

“You heard Hess and Eckhart!” I say, trying to reason with them. “They’re going to use that porthole and our inventions to invade and attack Ed’s home unless we can get him there first!”

“But what they’re doing could help our country…” Barry argued, though his face seemed unsure.

“By dragging it into another war when we’re barely recovering from the last one? Is that how you want everyone to think of Germany, that we’re stupid enough to make the same mistake twice?”

And then it happened; that pain in my chest that I’ve had for the past year. The pain and coughing spells the doctor had said would take my life in less then two years. It couldn’t have picked a worse time to show itself to my crew!

This time, it was worse then usual. It actually brought me down to my knees, trying to catch my breath. I leaned down, covering my mouth, and my hand came away with blood on my palm again, just like when I had argued with Edward.

“Heiderich!”

They each knelt by me and Loa put a hand on my shoulder.

“Are you all right?” Dorchet asked.

Bido and Barry eyed my bloodied hand in alarm.

“I’m fine,” I lied, “I’m fine… but… if we have any pride left… in ourselves or this country… we have to help Edward before it’s to late.”

They helped me to my feet, which I gratefully assumed meant they finally saw the logic in my argument.

Loa looked around at the rest of the team.

“But… What do we do now then?” he asked.

I took this chance to pull Edward to his feet, placing his arm around my shoulder to support him.

“See if you can inform Munich Command about the uprising if someone hasn’t already,” I answered. “Get the police, anything, just please hurry!”

They all nodded and murmured in agreement, then turned and made their way out of the factory…

I watched them go in relief. Even if the authorities found me here and I was arrested for taking part in the Thule’s plans, I would rather spend my last days in jail as atonement.

I managed to drag Edward over to the closest rocket, a one-seater biplane. With two engines on each side, four in total, and speed over eleven kilometres a second,(3) Haushofer had calculated these would be enough to get through any kind of pressure or phenomenon.

Carefully, I pulled Edward up and placed him into the seat. Then after fastening him in with the safety buckle, I waited by his side and watched as he started to stir…

“Really, you’re the lucky one, Ed,” I sighed quietly as he regained consciousness.

His eyes flew open and he sat up with a gasp in the seat of the rocket.

“Shhh,” I quieted him, placing a finger to my lips.

Edward looked around him in near disbelief. “What is this?” he demanded, lowering his voice.

“I’ve set everything up so you can go back home,” I explained quietly. “You can take this second rocket while Ekhart isn’t looking. You ready?”

To my surprise, he gave me a shocked and wounded look, as if I had betrayed him or something, then he looked down at his false arm where the bullet had grazed his sleeve.

“Right in the fake arm,” I murmured. “Good thing she’s a bad shot.” Then, of course, I just had to explain the rocket to Edward. “Our rockets peak at over eleven kilometres a second.(3) should be enough speed to punch through the pressure and get out safe. That’s Haushofer’s theory anyway. This one seater shouldn’t have any problems.”

“Wait a minute!” Edward snapped in alarm, “I never said I wanted to go!”

I just can’t win with you, can I, Ed? For two years all you could talk about is your home world and how you couldn’t wait to give this one the shaft, and now that you finally have the chance you don’t want to go? Well, sorry, but I’m not about to let you back out now. Your world needs you to protect them from Ekhart, and your brother, your real brother, needs you too.

“I’m not giving you a choice, Ed,” I answer gently with a patient smile.

He places his hand on the side of the rocket, next to where mine is resting…

“Because I’m in the way? You’re trying to get rid of me,” he accused, that betrayed look on his face again.

I had to shake my head at his obliviousness. Trying to get rid of him? Didn’t he know how much I dreaded the thought that the stories he’d been telling me since I’d met him might actually be true, and that he might one day leave and never come back? My whole family, my parents and my older brother,(4) were taken from me thanks to the Great War and meeting Edward Elric brought back memories of my brother, another Eduard, just like he’d always said I made him think of his own brother, another Alphonse…

Sometimes I even allowed myself the brief fantasy that Edward and I really were brothers, a real family; If things had been different, if Ed didn’t belong to some other world and I had had longer to live, we could have stayed and done what we could to help this country and this world… Maybe we could have kept working together on rockets and been among the first to ride them into space… Maybe we could have gone to each other’s weddings, lived next door to each other and raised our families side by side…

“We’re real Edward,” I tell him softly, “we’re not just a part of your dreams like you thought.”

His eyes widened at this. He was probably surprised to hear something so philosophical from a rocket science geek like me.

“I care and I make mistakes,” I continued. Yes, huge mistakes, but hopefully I can correct this one. “I may not live much longer, but I’ll still be here.” I force a smile. I know this is probably the last time I will ever see my best friend again, so I warmly place my own hand over his in a final gesture of farewell. “Just don’t forget me.”

I close the seats top hatch, forcing myself to pay no attention to Edwards protests. If I don’t go through with this now, I might just change my mind.

“Alfonse! Alfonse, wait!” he screams, no doubt trying to undo the safety belt and struggling with it. “Alfonse! Dammit!”

I pulled down the lever to launch the one-seater rocket and I smile happily in accomplishment as I watch my creation rise up towards the opened porthole that leads to Edward's world…

Suddenly, I hear hurried footsteps and Hess’s voice not far behind me.

“What?!” he shouts in surprise and anger.

He takes out his gun and aims it at the rocket, but it’s to late, Hess! Edward is already on his way back home, and he’ll stop Ekhart from doing to his world what you and the rest of those warmongering fascists who dare to call themselves our fellow Germans are trying to do to ours!

Then another shot is fired… A biting pain in my back and through to my chest… but I still cling to my smile as I collapse onto the cold floor next to the rockets controls… My work here is done…

They say when you’re about to die you see your whole life flash before your eyes, well it’s true for me in this case… I can see my childhood days, the happier times before the war… I see my parents’ faces, Vati(5) with his glasses and wise, typically teacher-like expression; something about Professor Hohenheim always reminded me of him…

I see Mutti(6) wearing her favourite dress and apron, with her hair tied back over her shoulder, and her warm smile…

Then I see my older brother; The two of them, Eduard and Edward, definitely resembled each other, and when I met Elric he was close to the same age my brother was when he died, though one always kept his hair short and the other wore his long and tied back…

After losing all three of them by the time I was ten, I was pretty much on my own until I met Edward Elric when we studied together in Romania under Dr Oberth…

Yes, we were both fairly different; I kept my illness to myself, but I still wanted to be as open and giving as possible with the people around me. Edward however usually never allowed himself to get emotionally involved with anyone, saying he didn’t want to get attached to this waking dream, this Hell. I’ll admit, it hurt to hear him refer to this world like that.

I was an atheist, like him; but while my own scepticism came from lack of sufficient evidence of a higher power or being, his seemed born out of a kind of resentment or anger towards any sort of faith or belief other then what he claimed were the laws of alchemy in his world.

I was a fan of scientists like Einstein, etc, while he would dismiss them as eccentric,(7) though we both read Oberth's “Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen”(8) several times over when it came out.

Still, Edward and I had many things in common too; After Hohneheim ran off he became like me in that he had no immediate family to go back to, and both of us had lost brothers whom we were reminded of every time we looked at each other… Did Edward only accept my friendship because he saw me as a replacement for the other Alphonse though? Just a copy or a clone? I guess I’ll never really know now…

I can feel my life’s blood running out through my wound and my body grow number, but strangely enough I am at peace… Maybe it was better this way… Maybe it’s better that my death should come quick like this, instead of painfully and slowly…

I know I’ll probably be written down in the books somewhere as a collaborator to a treasonous crime, instead of as a rocket engineer who helped give his downtrodden country something to be proud of like I wanted, but I can at least hope I did something worthwhile and meaningful for Edward and his world, and that he won’t remember me with hard feelings…

I hear someone else approaching and a woman’s voice cry my name… I am gently turned over onto my back to see the worried, tearstained face of Noah…

I force another smile for her, even though I can almost no longer feel my body and I am struggling to keep my eyes open... I’m not mad at the Roma girl for what she did; if anything I’m even guiltier then she is; We were both being lied to and used by people like Eckhart, Haushofer and Hess…I’m glad Noa is here. After all, I don’t think anybody really wants to die all-alone…

“Alfonse,” she pleads, gently brushing my bangs away from my eyes, “Alfonse, don’t die! Edward already left for his own world; Please don’t leave me too! You have to stay awake! Hai shala?”(9)

Thank you for caring, Noa. I’ve asked Fräulein(10) Gracia to let you stay on and give you a job in her flower shop if you want it... I hope you know I never believed all the unkind things people like Officer Hughes say about the Roma... I wish I could stay, but, like Edward, I don’t seem to have a choice now…

Auf wiedersehen…(11)

My body gives a final shudder in her arms and my eyes close… I draw my last breath as darkness overtakes me…

I suppose this might be what Edward would have called “equivalent exchange” in those stories of his; In order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. In short, you can’t get something for nothing. He always said that was the principal rule of alchemy in his world…

I have no idea if Edward considers me to be of equal value to his own brother or not, but I don’t mind being “traded” so that my best friend can save his world and get his real family back. Maybe by helping him save his world I’ve helped my own in some way…

The pain is gone and I am surrounded by light almost similar to what came from the opened porthole…

To my surprise, I find myself approaching a strange, large, black door… It looked similar to a picture I’d once seen of a sculpture by Rodin… I believe it was called Gates Of Hell…(12)

I shudder at that. Could this really be Hell? Was this the punishment for my mistake of getting involved with the Thule Society, or for my selfishness towards Edward that night?

“No,” comes a familiar voice from beside me. “No, it’s not Hell and you’re not going to die.”

Startled, I turn to see Edward himself there, and beside him is a younger boy who is practically my own mirror image with the exception of his sandy colour hair that he wore tied back, just like Edward, and his hazel eyes. This had to be the brother my friend was always talking about, the other Alphonse…

Slowly, the gate begins to creak open, and I remember one of Edward's stories; it was about how he’d said he came through this very gate into my world… I gasp and back away nervously…

“It’s okay,” the other Alphonse says with a cheerful, reassuring nod. “Go ahead. This is the only way.”

“After all you did for me, this is the least we can do for you,” Edward adds with a smile. “Go on.”

As surreal as this was, if I couldn’t trust my best friend and his brother, who happened to share my name and my face, whom could I trust? I took a deep breath and remained still, allowing myself to be drawn closer towards the gate as it opened further…

The last thing I remember was Edwards voice behind me…

“His life on this side of The Gate for a life on the other side. I just hope that’s a fair exchange.”(13)

(1) Kurt Huber, who would have been a young professor at the University of Munich at the time, was one of the members of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition against the Nazi party. Today, the members of the White Rose are honored in Germany as great heroes who opposed the Third Reich in the face of deadly danger for such resistance.

(2) Not very creative of me, but I just named Alfonses assistants after their Amastris counterparts.

(3) In the English dub it was 2 kilometers per second, but in the Japanese sub, and the collectors’ booklet, it was 11, so I stuck with that.

(4) A reference to the last episode. This seems to be a popular theory among fan fic writers that Edwards Earth counterpart, supposedly killed in the German air raid on London, Sept. 8, 1915, was Alfonse Heiderich’s older brother. And by the way, Eduard is the German spelling of Edward, though you probably already guessed that.

(5) Father or Dad.

(6) Mother or Mom.

(7) I’ve watched episode 51 and the movie, so I know Ed thinks Einstein is pretty fishy and no one believes him, but I don’t really know weather Alfonse is a fan of the scientist’s ideas or weather that’s fanon.

(8) "By Rocket into Planetary Space", Oberth's controversial book on space travel which came out in 1922 or 23 and is mentioned in the movie.

(9) “Do you understand?” (Roma)

(10) Miss.

(11) Goodbye.

(12) Supposedly, this very sculpture by Rodin is exactly what The Gate is based on.

(13) Okay, okay! I know this is probably a huge stretch for the FMA fandom purists, but bear with me here, allrighty?