Blood-Mail

Story by Alphie Iota

After Hiromu Arakawa's

"Fullmetal Alchemist" © 2004 Hiromu Arakawa/SQUARE ENIX

(*:Partial references to The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri)

It was white, extremely white. The bleached color of the room seemed to burn into my eyes.

"So...how did you like it?" A ghostly shade* was sitting in the room, just existing. I turned around to stare at the monstrous door that had been my tormentor. Strange symbols graced its wood, bleached of color by the white room.

"It was...everything" I whispered to myself.

"Not what you expected."

"Not what I expected." I mouthed to the door.

"Now to pay your toll." Darkness swept through the white room, I was disappearing, That Thing was taking everything from me, why was the truth so costly? "Fools trespass on fools' domain, all men must pay their toll, eventually." I could feel the creature's breath on my neck, my breath on my neck. "So...was it worth it?"

As the the darkness consumed me I uttered one last breath, "Yes."

"Fool."

If I still had a mouth it would see me smirk. Your the fool, fool.

"Get up, idiot." I opened my eyes, started. Under the sheets of the bed I could feel my pulse beating, warm and moist. I still had flesh and blood, what had happened? "Your lucky to be alive, the fact that I could give you back your flesh and blood is a miracle." I gazed back at the man stupidly. "If you don't remember I really am going to kill you."

"Of course!" I remembered everything, the secrets, the pain, and it. "The truth, but where..." I stared down at my hands.

"The rune is at the center of your back. Your legs, along with some of your torso, are auto-mail."

"Auto-mail." I whispered, after seeing it I thought that my whole body would be one big chunk of unfeeling steel. "How?"

The man only chuckled. "Do you think that the greatest alchemist in Arakamu would leave his best friend a hollow piece of metal? But, I only had the formula safe enough to transmute most of your torso, sorry."

I looked at Will in disbelief. "Will, this is more than enough." I looked down at the intricate auto-mail, the signature of the Alchemist/Auto-mail engineer. My real flesh was stretched flawlessly over hard metallic pieces, synchronized with my pulse and bone fragments. "I've seen some of your better work, but this is incredible."

"Ray, your the only Alchemist I know brave enough, or foolish enough, to cause a rebound strong enough-" The man stopped, unable to continue. "Your house is gone too, your research papers are...no more." I let out a sigh, that would be a draw-back, but...

"You think I'm good enough to get a state license?" He looked back at me, eyes unwavering.

"I think..." His brow furrowed in concentration. "That you could be a better alchemist than me." We both let out a big laugh.

I looked away, my gaze falling into space. "Fullmetal will pay."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Concern dripped into Will's voice.

"Don't be so worried." I said lightheartedly, "I can look after myself." My false sense of confidence quickly disintegrating under Will's icy leer.

"Show me your alchemy." I looked on, confused...

"But, the circle, the runes..."

"You don't need them." I looked on, helpless.

"Alright, but you might not like what you see." I got out of bed, at least I was clothed. "Here goes nothing!" I put my hand over my part auto-mail arm. A flash of light, then.

"Wow."

"No kidding." My arm had been transmuted, the flesh and steel intermingled into a gross new form. "Well, let's take this to the next level." I put my hands together, concentrating hard on my back. With a sickening crack, then the smell of blood, thin, leathery wings protruded from my back. My abdomen had shrunken, too. "This is going to be great, all I need is some more time to perfect it, then-"

"Wait, see if you can return to normal, I don't want you stuck like that."

"Okay." I felt the wings retract, my grotesque arm return to normal. Inside I felt fuller.

The sun was quickly running to hide behind the rolling hills. Has it really been that long? "What day is it?"

"The 22nd, why do you need a state license?"

"To regain something I've lost."