I didn't plan on this, I swear. It just sort of...pops out of nowhere.

Anyway, enjoy. Oh, and my other story, Rewinded Time, will be updated soon. Read that too if you have the time. I've been told it's "interesting".

I know that Alphonse lost his body because he committed human transmutation, but was it really fair that he lost his body because Edward suggested it? Of course he couldn't bring himself to doubt his brother, the poor kid, but I think Ed was really the one who started it all. And he paid. Thus came the idea for this short drabble.

Special

Edward Elric had always stood out from the rest in his sixteen years of life.

He was the first to solve all math problems (advanced, mind you) when his first-grade teacher gave them the homework.

While everybody at the age of ten who lost their mother would sit in a corner and mourned and tried to get over the pain, Edward hauled himself up with grief and that very pain as his cane and kept on walking, determined to take back what he'd lost to the Beyond.

He and his brother got apprenticed to Izumi Curtis, same year, and although his teacher had never said it aloud, she was impressed how Edward struggled back up on his feet no matter how many times she drove him to the ground. Oh, sure, with lots of complaining (behind her back, of course; Ed and Al weren't idiots), but still, he stood again. On his own feet. And that was all that matters.

He finished his apprenticeship and performed human transmutation at the same age, while no kid his age would have ever come close to anything like he did. And he failed.

He performed soul attachment on that very same night right after losing his leg to save his younger brother, Alphonse Elric.

He faced down the gruesome results of their transmutation – their impossible dream to bring their mother back. The big junk of flesh in the middle of the transmutation circle that should've been their mother, the loss of Alphonse's body, and the loss of his arm and leg.

But why did the Gate, of all things It could take from the child – a true prodigy, nonetheless – have chosen to severe Edward's leg? Why not his soul? Heck, that would have been very fair in term of Equivalent Exchange. A soul for a foolish act.

Instead, It took Edward's leg.

Why?

That is Its greatest punishment, along with Alphonse's body. It would not let Edward stand up on his feet again. Ever.

Unlike Alphonse's body, who is not truly a complete Sinner, since he did not willingly commit the act – his body was taken as a toll for the assistance he gave Edward, the true Sinner, in his act – Edward's leg cannot be regained. It was just like Izumi Curtis's organs. Once it was lost, it was done.

But Edward wouldn't lie still. He once again challenged the Gates when he got his automails and stood up again, even though not quite on his own legs, but hey, the boy's back on his feet nonetheless.

Once again, grief, pain and the desire to regain what he had lost had become his cane.

Edward Elric was not special only to earthly beings. He was beyond that.

He made the Gates' thousand eyes stare as he struggled against whatever It – or life – throws his way.

And win.

And he kept on walking.

Tell me what you think in a review. Thank you for reading!