NEVER TOO LATE

You were close enough for me to touch; yet somehow you were so far away that I wondered if we were still in the same galaxy. Slowly, you began to fade, second by second, drifting off into a hazy, imperceptible world. Perhaps it was my vision getting hazy – I had lost a lot of blood. I knew that it was something else, though, despite how much I wanted to deny it. My eyes weren't playing tricks on me, and I knew it.

I nodded slowly as Ed and Scar proposed their arguments to you, trying to shake myself back to reality and show that I agreed with them at the same time. Hopeful, I watched the back of your head, holding my breath as I waited for your response.

I cringed as the yelling started again, biting my lip tightly. What had happened? Even though I couldn't see your face, I knew that it was distorted with hatred and rage in a way I had never seen it before. Certainly, that expression was entirely different from the one you had showed me at my father's grave so many years ago, when I first trusted you with my back.

You were trusting me to do the right thing when the time came, or at least you once had. Right now, it seems as if you've forgotten every promise we've made. Your idealistic goals seem to have escaped your mind, and my vow to keep you in line has either gone with it, or is no longer of your concern. All I can do is hope that this is a phase, and that I couldn't possibly have taken you and turned you into something you're not.

Through everything that's happened, you've always come out smiling. After the rain, that little flicker of light would always come from you, no matter what we had been through. Sometimes it was dim, and as the days went on, it got harder and harder. But no matter how long it took, you'd get back up on your feet again, making sure to never leave me behind. In this moment, I feel as if you've not only left me behind, but have forgotten me completely.

Everything you believed in and worked for was vanishing, and I felt like there was nothing I could do to stop it. Was it my fault that this was happening? Perhaps if, all those years ago, I hadn't corrupted your mind with the fire alchemy, you wouldn't be falling to pieces like this. I could have saved you from so many of the things we've suffered through if only I had kept my promise to my father and kept my back's secrets hidden. If I hadn't made that mistake, there was a lot I would have missed out on – in fact, I hatred to think of all that wouldn't have happened. What I had to concentrate on was that you were being killed by this burden, even if you didn't realize it, and all you stood for was being torn apart from the powers I forced on you.

The least I owed you was to hold this gun to your head, and even if my hands were shaking, I'd keep still.

Yet, you continue to ignore me, as if my hand wasn't even there.

I cry out, hoping your mind isn't completely full of hatred and that some reasoning can sink through. No reaction comes, but I keep persistent, hoping that something – anything I say – will reach you.

Don't vanish…not after all this time…

Watching your back sink into darkness is too much to bear…

Don't leave me behind…not after all this time…

Seeing you sink away is too much to bear…

I can't lose you…not after all this time!

A large boom sounds, catching me off guard, as the wall beside us burst into flame, but you lower your hand and your shoulders begin to fall. Your posture sinks into a more natural way, and there's the strong smell of defeat in the air as you echo my thoughts, "I can't lose you."

And I can see it in your eyes this time that you're back now. All the traces of insanity I had seen before vanish as you douse the last flames of hatred.

I feel my breath slowing as I realize I'm not imaging things – you really are in your senses, and somehow I was able to pull you back to the surface with what I had said.

And as we fall, we fall together. I suppose this is when I realized that no matter what mistakes we might have made in the past, we're still in this as one.

Flame alchemy…Ishbal…and now the homunculi, everything we have done has had flaws, but we've done it all together, and side by side, through the good and the bad. This is just another thing that we've gotten through together, and there is no looking back.

Once you're able to stand up, I'll help you to your feet, and then we can move on to the next obstacles in our way, because we never stay down for long

Victory and defeat both lead to new beginnings.