A/N: So, um, this came out of nowhere. Don't worry, the whole thing isn't going to be depressing like this chapter. I think. Maybe. Probably. I don't really know, actually.
As the description states, this is going to be a parental Roy/Ed and Roy/Al fiction, with dashes of EdWin, RoyAi, and (possibly) AlMay. I honestly don't know how long this will turn out to be. However, please note that there will be some major spoilers on the topic of Maes Hughes and Nina. So... enjoy to the best of your ability, then, and please review? Yea...

Chapter 1: Nobody Else To Blame

Ed...

Edward felt his facial muscles contort into something akin to a grimace, but with far more torment showing in his firmly shut eyes.

Edward.

He rolled to his side, dragging his sweat-covered sheets with him. The salty liquid dripped down from his forehead and onto the slick, down-filled blankets.

Edward...!

Unknown to him, Ed suddenly let loose a bloodcurdling shriek into the otherwise silent night. Metal clanged on wood as Al sprinted to the room to his brother's contorted form, balled up with a mix of tears and sweat forming a circle around his head and neck.

Ed opened his eyes, looking out into an endless field of black. "...Hello?" he called out uncertainly, taking a shaky step from his current position, arms put up like a helpless fortress in front of his face.

There came no response.

"Hello? Who's calling for me?" Ed shouted, slowly becoming a bit more irritable as the silence stretched on, roaring in his ears.

Though he had been asking for a response, this voice pierced the quiet so slowly and uncertainly that he felt a choke rising in his throat. "Bro...ther..."

A cream colored dog now stood before him, the figure draped with orange hair that flowed over its empty white eyes.

Nina.

"Bro...ther... let's... play... let's play," Nina begged, padding up to the alchemist and nuzzling his leg with her muzzle.

Tears sprang to his eyes. "Nina, Nina, this is all my fault!"

"Bro...ther... why...?"

It was enough to make him fall to his knees in anguish.

Al sat on the edge of Ed's bed, having become accustomed to Ed's night terrors. His metal body looked so strange and out of place as he slowly reached out and picked up his older brother, cradling him softly. If a metal helmet could be gentle, then this was a prime example of that.

"...all my fault..." Edward whimpered, clutching the smooth armor that Al was encased in with a stifled sob.

"No, Brother, it's not," he murmured, rubbing a soothing circle on his brother's hand. Even though he had no eyes to cry with, the soul-fire dimmed slightly as if it were being extinguished.

"All... all my fault... I'm sorry..."

The chimera nuzzled Edward's now curled up form urgently. "Bro...ther... let's play... let's play!"

The hole in his heart enlarged as he gripped the invisible ground, tears falling onto the nothing. "Nina, Nina, it's all my fault... all of it, all my fault. I'm sorry," he forced the words through his clenched teeth, eyes shut tightly. "I'm sorry!" His voice escalated to a shriek.

There was a thud, a bang, and a whimper.

Ed forced his eyes open, and then wished he hadn't.

Plastered against the eternal black that encircled him was a sharp contrast of red blood, spreading out everywhere. The voice remained.

"Bro...ther... Bro...ther... why...?"

He blinked, the tears shaking his shoulders and blurring his vision, and then the chilling sound of blood dripping from an unseen wall was gone - replaced by a soft, yet gravelly breathing.

Lying on the ground in a heap of mismatched flesh was his mother. Trisha, the amazing woman who kissed his wounds and praised his success, now lay before him - a mound of an alive, yet dead mother who shook as stunted breathing groaned through her distorted form.

She didn't say anything, and she didn't need to.

Mom.

Mom...

Edward fell to his knees before the pool of blood that surrounded the figure, clasping his hands over his ears in a fierce, yet feeble, attempt to block the noise out. His automail hand was cold and sharp against his flesh-and-blood ear as he screamed again. His vocal cords screamed like his mother did. She began sputtering out questions.

"Why, Edward! Why, why me!"

The small alchemist had no answer, his eyes slammed shut and tight, tears leaping from the edges like rain from clouds. "Mom - please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, please, I'm sorry!"

The younger brother carefully held his brother in his arms, his shrieks and tears not daunting him in the slightest - although, his red eyes took on a rather clouded look as he heard just what it was that he was apologizing so fiercely to.

"Mom... please... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to," he whimpered, the tears seeming to strangle his throat as the words slipped from his lips.

Al's metal arms caressed his shivering form silently. "Brother, it's okay," he murmured, unable to feel the wetness of the tears against his silver form. It was disconcerting to see his brother in such a small, broken, shattered state - he usually stood so straight, shoulders broad as he focused his eyes unrelentingly on their goal.

Slowly, deliberately, Nina walked back to Ed and Trisha's quivering forms. "Bro...ther... Bro...ther... why?"

His heart rate quickened as he forced his eyes open, forced himself to stare straight at the blood, and then slowly at the wretched creature that he had created. Ed felt his jaw clench, and he squeezed his ears in his hands. His maw opened in a violent howl as his back arched. "I-I'm sorry... I'M SORRY!" escaped his lips, if warped by the clenching of his jaw.

If you could feel your heart drop without ever having one, Al did. His brother sucked in a shaky breath in his arms and let loose a frightfully anguished roar. "I-I'm... I'm sorry!" he sobbed, his hands clutching his younger brother's metal body.

Finally, Al decided that enough was enough. Gingerly placing his brother's body on the bed, he clenched and unclenched his hands before placing them on his brother's hunched shoulders, shaking him slowly - but not at all gently. "Brother... Brother, no one blames you! Wake up, Brother, it's okay!"

After a few more minutes of shrieking and sobbing, the elder Elric pried his crusted-over eyes open. The eyes, which were normally filled with an intense, burning fire, now gazed at the younger Elric with a soulful despair and apology that made him feel torn on the inside. "Al... it's all my fault... all my fault," he breathed shakily into the stunted silence, which still echoed with the sound of his shrieks. The covers, now torn from Ed's bedside and flung almost halfway across the room, were wet with the sudden release of its owners woes. The shaking boy's form was clammy with sweat, his golden hair knotted and forced wrenched unceremoniously from its braid.

"No, Brother, no," Al shook his helmet head forcefully, the feather that sprung from the top whipping in the thick air. He enveloped his older brother in an earnest embrace, his cold metal arms folding noisily against his back. Ed drew in a sharp, stifled breath. "This isn't your burden alone, if at all. Brother, I carry the weight of our troubles, as well. Stop trying to turn yourself from a hero to a villain."

Even though he was being hugged by a metal figure filled with nothing but air, Ed felt warmth radiating from his brother's body. Hesitantly, he hugged his brother back, tears still streaming down his face but his breathing more steady.

"But-"

"Shh. It's okay, Brother. This isn't your burden alone. I won't let you carry it by yourself," Al stated, the shaky voice not matching the formidable figure he was in. His soul-fire eyes went black for a moment. "I won't let you blame yourself."

Even though Ed accepted the hug and didn't protest to his normally comforting words, he couldn't stop thinking that he carried the blame. That he was the one who committed all the atrocities.

After all, he thought to himself with a stifled sob, there's nobody else to blame but me for Hughes' death.

As Al flicked the lights off reluctantly in Ed's room, the calm air that had taken over the room was nothing more than a flimsy disguise of what he was really feeling. Though the night was calm and quiet, Al noticed when they began to get ready for work the next day that Ed's eyes were bloodshot.