The Mistake

Chapter One "Circumstances"

Edward could not make a sound for the immense weight on his shoulders was crushing him on the inside. He lay on his hands and knees, begging for some twist of fate that he never truly believed in. His younger brother's soul had been bonded to that suit of armor, all that connected Alphonse to his world was that seal Edward had drawn there with his own blood, and now it was being threatened by creatures that were only said to exist in myths. Three of them stood there, Lust, the one with raven black hair, another large one with drool running down its mouth known as Gluttony, and the one who had kicked him in the face with the hate-filled look in its eyes, Envy.

Envy towered over Edward with an impatient glare, at a second's notice he would love nothing more than to crack open his head, or pierce him, or beat him, or anything else that he could let out his bitterness; only a thin line of self-interest kept him from doing so.

This was impossible, what was he going to do? The floor was so cold and yet it glowed with the pink substance he now knew to be made of human lives. Humans, they were people, and they expected him to…

Slowly, the one known as Lust removed Alphonse's helmet and tauntingly reached her outstretched nails to pierce the seal of blood, his lifeline, his soul. Edward's heart felt like it had stopped when he heard the sound of Alphonse's gasp as her hand was laid over it, ready to pierce it and shatter it into pieces like she had done with the former-murderer just seconds before. Nothing in heaven or hell mattered to Edward aside from his brother, they had both given up so much and yet this artificial woman was about to cheat Edward out the last thing he had left.

"No! Please don't hurt him!" Edward cried out desperately as if he were the one whose soul was being filed off. "Please don't take him away I'm begging you!"

Alphonse interrupted him, calmly and solemnly. "Ed. It's ok, what am I, after all?"

Al's mind was clouded with questions that he knew he would never find the answers to. Was he human at all in the shell he was in? Alphonse had lost hope; he did not give in out of selflessness but out of complete acceptance.

Ed recognized that he had already lost and there was nothing he could do to stop this moral decision to either choose his brother or the life of the prisoners the homunculi had gathered in order to forge a philosopher's stone.

"Don't give up on me now Al, k?!" Edward's determination had gotten him far in life but now it was to work against him; he could not sit back and watch Al get killed.

He clasped his hands together despite his metal shoulder being dislocated and performed alchemy on the ground to absorb the materials there. He then transmuted the ceiling's circle larger in order to create an array. For Al, it was like torture to lay there helpless while his brother made a tragic choice to not let the cards fall as they may. Ed's voice had been flowing with concern and fear, fear of loss, the kind of fear the two brothers were far too used to.

Gluttony backed the men into the corner, they were now just as helpless as Al and Edward could not erase their looks toward him from his mind. They were crying out in silence and yet Edward could hear it, echoing in his mind, pleading with him not to take their lives… but he still continued to move the unfinished ingredients into place, for to him, the first gasp from Alphonse was louder.

"Brother, no! You can't do this, it's not worth it!" Alphonse did not even know if he was truly human at all, but he did know the prisoners were.

Scar passed by with frustration directed towards Ed for not destroying him while he had the chance, he was about to do something morally wrong on every level but something made him, wait, hoping that he would come to his senses.

Edward's hands were barely moving under the complete drain of will power, they hung down as if they did not belong to him at all and numbed him to the harsh reality. This was it, he was going to transmute living human beings in order to save his younger brother, and he had no choice. He took one last good look at the prisoners, trying to meet every face which he was sure would continue to be in his nightmares for the rest of his life, calling to him for the unjust execution.

"Quit doing this Brother, these-these people, they're-they're human!" Al was again interrupted but this time by Envy speaking. "Yeah, and soon you and I will be. So what's your problem?"

"I don't wanna get my old body back if it means having to take someone else's life!" Al said with a trembling voice.

"Huh, I thought for sure you and your older brother would have gotten the message after your pathetic attempt to bring Mommy back. You've gotta spin life to make life." Envy grinned. "Come on, this is basic alchemy here, don't kid yourself into thinking there's some way around that, cause there's not. As they say, death is the high cost of living."

"In order to gain anything in life, you inevitably have to take it from someone else." Lust crossed her arms patiently waiting for Edward's most drastic use of alchemy. "That is what any honest adult knows."

"But we're not adults!" Al protested.

"When Edward decided to sign up with the State Alchemist, he gave up all claims to childhood in exchange for power. So don't start behaving like a child now because you can't have it both ways."

"I see now… this is really the truth… behind all truths…" Edward's eyes had no fire lit in them, instead a cold sad faded color of one who had nothing left to do but give up with morality.

When he had absorbed everything and chose his own form of acceptance, Edward moved his two beaten and bruised limbs together… and clapped… "I promised… that I'd get you your body back… no matter what."

The whole room froze in a silence that pierced Edward hard, not even Alphonse could offer any form of speech for the tension that only came in the death of someone, entered into the room. He came closer and closer to the floor, where the circle was, his hands were trembling, a few inches and he would take the lives of all those people. In a surge of conscience Edward's strength and force of will was weighing and he had decided that he could not do it… but his automail shoulder had still been dislocated in his fight with the Slicer-Brothers…

Edward watched in horror as his hand was jolted downwards and the weight of it brought down his other hand. It was only an honest reaction… human beings instinctively use their hands when falling… but this time it did more damage than anything physically ever could have.

The circle lit up in a violent reddish color until it engulfed the entire room. Screams rang out and the prisoners watched as their cellmates evaporated into nothing but red-colored-dust floating in the air until they themselves joined them. Edward had performed a transmutation, and though by mistake, killed all those people he had chosen to save even in the place of his younger brother.

Lust's eyes lit up in hopeful bliss for a stone could make her human, instead of the lifeless doll she was thought to be.

Edward fell on his back, unable to breathe or make any sound of any kind. The ingredients were all gone… all of it… and it their place a pure stone said to be capable of miracles.

"No! I… I didn't mean it!" Edward's formally cold eyes were filled with remorse and guilt that stabbed him at every look through them.

"Way to go, Pipsqueak, I didn't think you had it in you." Envy said this so causally and walked right passed him, paying his hand on the stone.

Al was stunned; no words could express what he was experiencing right now. He was a soul in an empty husk and yet he watched Edward press his hands together and kill every last prisoner until there was nothing left of them.

Edward looked back at Alphonse suddenly and although he had no way of letting Edward know how he was feeling, Ed sensed it, and it hit him.

Lust moved her hand across the stone Envy was carrying over his shoulder and fully intended on keeping her end of the bargain.

"Now now Edward, be a good boy and fix your brother so we can go." Lust said with her luscious voice.

Envy snarled. "Over my dead body! We don't owe anything to that BRAT!"

Lust showed slight irritation on her otherwise flawless demeanor. "Our Master will decide what happens to them, until then a Lady never breaks her word."

Edward forgot that they were even there, he watched as Alphonse remained silent while Edward himself was breaking inside. He really killed all those people, his automail was only attached by a few wires now and yet he had managed to have taken something from Alphonse in the process, his kind nature.

"Al I didn't mean it! You've got to believe me! I swear, it was an accident!" Edward longed to hear Alphonse speak and reassure him but he thought that he did not deserve him. "I promise it was a mistake!"

End Chapter