FanFic100 Prompt: #030 –Death.
Title: It Was Silent.
Length: 762 Words
Genre: Angst/Tragedy
Characters: Roy Mustang, Edward Elric
Rating: K+
Summary: An incident happens on a mission.
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It was silent.
Up until a few seconds before, the crowded warehouse had been filled with the noise of battle; gunshots, yelling, screaming and the sounds of various alchemy techniques, merging together to create a cacophony of din that had made it impossible to make out anything coherent. However, against all possibilities, everyone had heard the yell, the gunshot, the scream of agony and the cry of disbelief.
It was silent.
Colonel Roy Mustang lowered the still form of Edward Elric down onto the floor. After the shot, the force of it had pushed the boy back into the Colonel, who had had to move very quickly to catch the teen before he fell on his own. No one made a sound, Military or Ishbalan, as Roy shook Ed slightly, unable to find words. This was not how this was supposed to happen.
It was not silent.
Shouting and yelling erupted around the room; everyone wanting to know who had shot the golden-haired teen. All of the Military immediately turned on the Ishbalans, angrily exclaiming about how could they do that to someone who was trying to stand up for them? The Ishbalans immediately responded, half yelling about how the teen was obviously not standing up for them, as he was fighting as a dog of the Military; the other half asserting that no true Ishbalan shot the young man, and directing disgusted looks at the other half.
It was still not silent.
A couple of seconds after the argument blew up, Roy looked down at the youngest alchemist in response to the shaking he had felt in his hands. The boy's face screwed up in pain before hazy, amber eyes opened slightly.
"C-Colonel?" The voice was weak and rough but, quiet as it had been, it drew the attention of the arguing troops and refugees.
"FullMetal…"
Now that Roy knew the boy was still alive, he felt anger boiling up.
"How dare you!?" he hissed. "I told you not to come here! I warned you how dangerous it would be, but you completely ignored me, as usual!"
The amber eyes slipped closed for a second as Ed grinned weakly. It was obvious that it took a lot of effort to open them again. The young face, although still showing pain, hardened slightly.
"I … couldn't let you – kill these people… Even if – it was an order."
The stress of talking was evidently too much at that point, as Ed began choking, the coughs racking his small frame. It wasn't until Roy noticed the blood trickling thinly out of a corner of Ed's mouth, and the feel of the still-warm blood on his hands, that he realised that they had all forgotten something extremely important.
"Someone call for an ambulance!" he ordered, and was assured by Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye that one had been sent for and was on its way.
Before Roy could respond, he felt a jerk in his arms and looked back down to see Ed's face, pale and sweaty, screwed up tightly against the pain; his breathing harsh and ragged.
"C-Colonel…" Ed whispered.
"What is it, FullMetal?" Roy replied, reverting back to his professional demeanour in an attempt to not allow his voice to waver.
Edward coughed lightly and grinned without humour.
"Say … Say sorry to Al for me."
With that, ignoring the rustling whispers of denial from the crowd, his eyes slipped closed once more, and the golden head lolled back. This time, the eyes didn't open again.
"FullMetal!" Roy was shaking the young man again, but no matter how hard he shook, the eyes remained closed, the body remained still, and the lungs remained stubbornly empty.
"FullMetal! FullMetal!" Despite himself, Roy felt rain clouds gathering in the sky of his eyes.
"Ed!"
It was not possible. Edward Elric – the youngest State Alchemist, Major Armstrong's favourite, the boy Roy Mustang had directed until he was almost a protégé – could not be dead. Not in such a ridiculous way as this. The mission had been unnecessary, but called for by the brass. For the genius of the older Elric brother to end here …
From the corner of his eye, Roy saw Riza turn away, tears already falling down her cheeks. That was the thing that finally forced him to think the unthinkable. If even Riza Hawkeye – who was desensitised to death enough to be able to shoot immediately at any perceived threat – was upset, that would mean there truly was a reason to be so, which would mean …
It was silent …And everyone hated it.
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Number 1 is done :D And don't worry, this isn't going to be the theme that will run through the entire 100 fics – not all will be death, gloom, doom and destruction :D I hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully I'll be posting again relatively soon, but I'm a terrible procrastinator, so it's likely that after a while, the posts will taper off, unfortunately. I can never seem to finish a project, but I'm going to try my hardest to finish this :D
x sweety x