"Edward, you've been adopted."
"What about Al?"
"Just you."
"I'm not going without Al."
"You have to go."
He stood there and watched someone take Al away.
"Ed! Please!"
"Al!"
But arms around his middle held him back.
"Let me go, you bastard! That's my brother!"
"Not anymore. This is your new family."
Al cried alone.
He'd promised Mom he'd protect him! He have to stay with him! He couldn't let him lose him too!
He couldn't lose Al too. He couldn't...
Ed woke up with tears on his face.
"If we get adopted, it'll be by the Rockbells;" he whispered, "if we get adopted, it'll be by the Rockbells..."
It was his chant against those nightmares. They'd never be separated, not him and Al. Never.
He scooted closer to the sleeping Al. "We'll always be together," he said, though Al couldn't hear him, "That bastard may have left, Mom may have died... but I'll never let anything happen to you. Or me."
Nothing could separate the Elrics. Nothing, ever.
Not even death?
It was against the rules... nobody'd done it before...
Sounded like a job for Edward Elric.
"We're going to get Mom back," he told Al.