DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Fullmetal Alchemist! It belongs to its rightful owner. I am just experimenting with something that has been bothering me for a while.
Warning: This is my first fanfiction so please try to be kind. This is set in the original adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, post Conquer of Shamballa, I probably will rewrite the ending so…if you don't like that idea, please don't read! As I get farther into the story I might need help with some ideas!
Alphonse Elric didn't know what to believe half of the time.
Ever since he'd woken up in the village underground with Rose, whose name he didn't know just then, leading him out. She was cradling her baby in her arms and kept a tight grip on Al's hand as she led him out. He remembered her tears very clearly, as if waking from a daze he asked her where Ed was. The tears on her face fell faster, her purple eyes were haunted with a memory he did not see. "He's gone," her voice was shaky; she seemed to have to force those two simple words out of her mouth.
Gone.
Al didn't know what to say…what to think.
He knew one thing though, his last clear memory. Ed reaching for him by the light of the crackling transmutation circle, screaming his name; then in an instant everything was brilliant white.
From that he knew, the human transmutation had gone horribly wrong, that was why Ed was…gone.
They exited the underground city, into the middle of a large city. Huge, bustling…bigger than any Al had ever seen.
How did he get here?
Where was here?
The girl gripped his hand tighter, "Central…" she breathed, "We're in the middle of Central." As if conjured by what she said two men dressed in Amestrian military blue stepped up to them. One had orangish brown hair and blue eyes with an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, next to him; shorter in stature was a man with short black hair, square glasses and dark brown eyes.
The girl wrapped her arm around Al's shoulders pulling him close, along with the baby in her arms. Al let her, fear and confusion keeping him in place. "Who are you?" The taller one demanded, "How'd you get here?"
The girl straightened, "I…I'm looking for-for Colonel Mustang. Ed-Edward Elric…" her voice caught and she couldn't go any further. The two men exchanged a glance, "The Colonel is currently in the hospital, but if this is concerning Ed's whereabouts, you'll have to come with us. I'm Jean Havoc, and this is Furey." The taller man, Havoc, said motioning first to Furey then for them to follow.
It didn't take long to get to the hospital; it was all a blur to Al anyways. He didn't fully understand the situation at all and no one was bothering to explain it to him just yet. The one thing, though, that dominated his entire mind was the fact that Ed was gone.
For those of you who don't have siblings it would be impossible to understand, and those who do and have not lost them would fail to see what it's like.
When your brother, your friend, your one and only confidante left in the world is taken from you it's like there is suddenly no air, or as if you've taken a step on what you believed to be solid ground but find it to be quicksand.
It's like missing a step on the stairs and forgetting to catch yourself as you fall.
It is an all-consuming panic that swirls around you and refuses to let go until you see your sibling safe standing in front of you.
Havoc and Furey led them into a hospital room, where a young women with blond hair and brown eyes stood at attention next to a man propped up on the bed with messy black hair, and dark eyes with a hint of xingese decent to them.
"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang; I understand you wanted to speak with me about the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric, miss." The man on the bed said, with a deep, soothing voice.
The girl blinked, and began to speak in a trembling voice, "My name is Rose, I first met Edward and Alphonse in Liore when they came seeking the Philosopher's Stone in Father Cornello's possession."
At the sound of his name Al started and listened to the girl, Rose, more attentively. He'd never been with Brother to Liore…in fact he couldn't remember being anywhere except Risembool with Ed.
Rose talked about Ed stopping Cornello, his words to her, the ones that inspired her to make her own future and stand strong…she skimmed through the civil war and talked about somebody named Dante…Al didn't really get it, until she said, "I was in some sort of dream…I don't remember coming here but…when I saw Edward die…" Her voice caught once more and tears slid down her face, the blond woman had gasped aloud and Mustang's face tightened. "Then Al used the stone to bring him back… but destroyed himself in the process. Afterward, Ed told me to wait for him, but when I went back to find him he was gone."
Rose turned to Al, "I found him, lying in the middle of some sort of drawing."
The attention of the room finally turned to Al who was trying his very hardest to come to terms with this new reality, Ed didn't die on the night they tried to bring Mom back, this was something else. Something he couldn't remember…Al could feel the cold weight of dread overwhelm the hot panic inside him. He had forgotten all these people in the room…he had forgotten time, a lot of it from Rose's story it seemed, with his brother…