Hello Fan-Fic readers! *waves like an idiot*
OKAY, SO! HERE WE GO! This story is a spur of the moment co-authored (yes, CO-AUTHORED! THIS IS NOT ALL MY WORK!) story featuring the ever-so talented Taylowolf!
This particular chapter is of my creation.
...enjoy?
*MAJOR EDIT* OKAY, SO THIS CHAPTER WAS BUGGING ME. I went through and edited the hell out of it, just to be safe. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Gold and stark white, yellow and light grey mixed into a muted backdrop. The usually bright, piercing colors were subdued by the white light emitted from an inconceivable point.
He had lost almost everyone that mattered to him, anyone who could possibly help was probably gone…
A formidable opponent, that ancient stone being. It was staring at him with its dead, unseeing eye.
Taking a breath, though he couldn't feel it, he stood solemnly staring at his adversary as it swallowed the first Homunculus hungrily .
He didn't care.
He was numb. His whole being simply placed there, reluctant to feel or to move. But still he stood, watching with wary eyes as the imposing doors closed behind his rival. He watched the Homunculus' serpentine form snaked its way through the eternal depths, only to be forced from his vision as the solid doors shut, separating them from one another. With a final squelch of undoubtedly rusted hinges, the Gate sealed itself once more.
Hopefully, they would never meet again.
But somehow, he knew nothing would ever work out that smoothly for him.
He took another breath, still suspended in an obtund paralysis. By just standing there, he knew his fate was sealed. He knew that somewhere, in some world, he was bleeding to death on a cold stone floor with ravenous vultures leering over his soulless body . The vultures who craved his death, who each led him toward it… they would be watching. Waiting. Observing.
He should have been concerned. But where rage, contempt or at least depression should have captivated his heart… he felt nothing. A cold void remained, untouched as his thoughts drifted toward the outcome of his recent fray. He struggled to raise a ghost of a hand to his chest, an invisible pressure subduing his ability to move. Deftly pressing his left hand to his heart, the boy… no, man looked into the depths of the abysmal Gate, and studied the ornate carvings inscribed upon its features.
His sullen eyes focused on the living relic, and suddenly, as reality dawned upon him, they snapped open wide. As spark of gold trickling its way back into his death marred eyes, the man stared strait ahead. He parted his lips slowly; wanting to shout, to curse the being in front of him, but only being able to force out one tiny whisper.
"…Al…?"
And with that, the young alchemist flickered out of existence.
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A cold hand rested on his cheek, and he reeled at the sensation. Shrinking away from the touch, he turned his head to the side. Damn, what he must have done to cause such an unbearable headache-
And then it all came crashing back to him.
Liquid topaz eyes snapping open, he bolted upright with a small gasp, terrified and unsure of his surroundings. His eyes taking their time to adjust to the bright light, the alchemist squinted at the room around him… and at the woman to his side.
"…Ed…Edward?! Y…y-you're ALIVE! I… I was so worried, and you wouldn't wake up, an-"
At the sound of her voice, Ed forced himself to focus on the reality in front of him. And he couldn't do that through her rambling.
"…Rose? Rose, calm down." he cut her off. Looking into her eyes, something wasn't right. He could almost feel a tangible sense of dread pouring from her expressive orbs… and somehow he knew It was directed at him.
Panic. The light of his eyes blazing into a passionate golden amber, Edward stared strait into her eyes, hoping to glean as much of the truth as possible. Picking up on his intentions, Rose lowered her gaze to the bit of floor between them, avoiding his unspoken question.
No. No, no he would never… Al wouldn't have…
The desperate man, feeling remarkably small at that moment, (though he'd never admit it) reached out an ungloved right hand, stretching the gap between them as to rest it upon her shoulder… and froze. His staggered breath caught in his throat, and the man's thoughts sputtered out of control: spiraling towards one central point, but branching off like so many roots of the trees above their heads.
"…Rose." he paused, "Rose, look at me," willing his arm to move from its shock still position, he rested his right palm against her cheek. He could feel the warmth generated by the caress of flesh on flesh...
"…Rose. Where… is Al?"
Her eyes met his briefly at the touch, but lowered to the ground again at the mention of the younger Elric brother. She visibly trembled, her silent weeping staining her dress a darker shade.
She bowed her head. Switching her focus to the sleeping form cradled in her arms, the newborn's slumber too deep to be roused by a few stray tears hitting his delicate face, she simply stated the facts. There was no need to dance around the issue. Ed could handle it… couldn't he?
" …He used alchemy to bring you back, Ed. After… a-after you died."
Even though he knew it was coming, it still stung. And it was with this newfound bitterness that the elder brother Elric rose on trembling legs, removing his hand from the warmth of Rose's face in the process. Subconsciously, she leaned into the touch, the smallest sigh escaping her once the heat was out of reach.
His eyes darkened, hard as stone. His voice took on a clipped, restrained tone, but the panic behind his façade still shone through. Nothing that bright, as pure and strong as his emotional panic, could ever be totally paved over. "…you can't tell me he's gone, Rose."
She still wouldn't meet his eyes.
"…Leave, Rose. Just… go. Please." a stern order made to seem like a request. He offered his hand to help her into a standing position, but she refused to take it.
"…No, Edward. I really don't think I should leave you here--"
He grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her to her feet. "Rose, listen to me! Just… get moving. I'm going to destroy this place. So that no more innocent lives can be sacrificed for the stone like this-"
"Edward, no-"
"ROSE-"
A shrill cry split through the cavernous room, reverberating off each ornate wall. Startled, Rose shot her attention to the crying infant she still held close to her chest.
He had to get them out of there.
Reaching again with his right hand, its newfound human senses alien after coping with automail for so many years, he grasped her free hand in his. They exchanged sympathetic looks, deep eyes meeting for only a moment before Edward's eyes and hand slid from her grasp.
"…get out of here, Rose. Both of you. I… I'll be fine." he looked again, directly into her damp eyes. "Don't you worry about me… I'll make it back. I promise." he effortlessly lied to the young mother.
She finally lowered her stance to a submissive pose, and looked him in the eye; ravenously memorizing his form, his masculine features and bottomless eyes… as if she would never lay eyes upon him again."…you've got strong legs, Ed. You'll get up and use them… won't you?"
A moment of tense silence.
"… Get going Rose." was his curt reply.
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A loud crack resounded throughout the spacious ballroom as the teen prodigy clapped his hands. Blue-white sparks were formed by the action, as the man fearlessly activated his internal connection to the Gate. He looked around once more at his work: the flawless lines and curves adorning the walls, floor and even the ceiling towering above his head. Of all the transmutation circles he had ever devised, this was surely the most intricate; one tiny miscalculation could mean disaster… although, the whole concept of Human Transmutation itself wasn't exactly the safest to begin with.
His moment of silent observation passed as he pressed his charged hands to his chest, activating the circles around him; the various symbols painted in the man's own blood began to emit blinding rays of energy, the entire area being shrouded in an all-encompassing neon glow.
Again, he stood in front of his ancient adversary.
Confident. Steadfast. The iron will of this alchemist was something not to be bargained with. He defiantly held his new arms out, offering himself to the insatiable Gate. Head held high, he shouted at the tyrant before him.
"GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER!"
The unblinking eye etched upon its doors split in two, opening to reveal its greedy tendrils. They reached out to him, effortlessly encircling him in a dark form. The dull golden white backdrop faded from Edward's vision as he was pulled into the depths of the Gate's mirth. The dark forms of children sacrificed to the ancient power swarmed him, the empty souls beginning to pick apart his newly restored body…
All the while, Ed was being assaulted with knowledge. His being mind flipped through as if it were an open book, his memories lost and new ones implanted. Some people, some events he recognized, and others he didn't: although he didn't know it, he was seeing the events of not only his world, but of other parallel universes as well. He witnessed explosions wiping out all living organisms within range, and causing horrible mutations among the unfortunate outside the dead zone. He witnessed various dictators ruling over minorities with an iron power, mercy a luxury not at hand.
But none of those visions were anything more than a nightmare to him.
Suddenly, a flash of a familiar scene. Blood red symbols painted across every surface of a dusty room, careful attention paid to every minute detail. In the darkness, he could make out someone's obscured form, bent over the freshly constructed transmutation circle. Edward didn't need to see this scene again, a chapter of his own past. Even without provocation this memory haunted his every waking hour… perhaps that was why the Gate always chose to force him into watching his own failure over and over again.
This visit would be no different, he would have thought, had he been in control of his own mind.
But somehow… this vision was… was….
The man's power lit up the massive circles around him, encompassing him in light. The obscuring shadows were chased away by the sudden illumination, and Edward could clearly see…
That this time, he was not baring witness to his own failure.
An almost too-large tray sat in the center of the circle, its contents beginning to spark. Ed baffled at the sheer amount of material being manipulated by one person. Focusing on the raw material being transformed, slow realization dawned on the teen as the circle glowed with an even brighter light. The Gate had given him knowledge. The Gate had mentally told him that the offering was not enough. Ed desperately wanted to scream at the fool, to tell him what the composition of the designated materials would entail-
Jet black hair fell into this mystery man's face, beclouding his features. Ed watched on in horror, rapt in the ambiguous scene unfolding in front of him. It wasn't as if he had much of a choice, anyway.
The desperate raven haired being was still bowed over his work when he began to lose control. His pained voice cut through the roar of the transmutation, a distressed shriek emitted from his throat. Arms wavering, he struggled to keep himself upright: the strength was sapped from every muscle in his body by the greedy circle. He violently shook, and through his screams a claret fluid gushed from his agonized mouth. The man's blood was an unhealthy shade of pink, the iron being swiftly drained from his body by alchemy. When some alchemists lost organs, and others paid limbs to the Gate's games, this man's body was being drained of the very chemicals that had been placed into the center of the main circle, in an attempt to fill in the gaps. No matter the amount of material resting in the circle's epicenter, there simply wasn't enough for the transmutation… for the Gate to feed off of.
And so the man's body was being consumed from the inside out, all of his organs targeted.
As the man's frothy blood cascaded to the ground in front of him it came into contact with the circle's vital edges… and marred the transmutation's progress. As Edward bore witness to the man's suffering, obsidian locks of disheveled hair still obscuring his face, the glow of the ravenous transmutation circles began to falter, sputtering on and off at random intervals. They were losing strength. Dying.
Fading out of life right along with the man.
Edward never did see the man's face; as the vision petered out of his mind, the young alchemist's consciousness faded with it.
