Righto. Hello everyone! This is my first story/one-shot thingie ever intended to be published for public viewing enjoyment, so please don't be too harsh! That is, if anyone plans on reviewing this...
Disclaimer: Don't own Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, although I love the title. It's such a mouthful. D
Edward really would have preferred death. He wished the Gate would have taken his life instead of sending him to this place. Death was by far better than living to witness the carnage he knew was soon to come.
He knew. The knowledge was ingrained in his mind.
This world has no idea the calamity that would soon fall upon it. So many people were going to die. Hundreds of thousands were going to be slaughtered. The images of the deformed, emaciated corpses that would soon begin to pile up made him nauseous. The inhabitants of this world he found himself trapped in would create so many atrocities. Although, Edward mused, he probably did deserve to be there. He fit right in with all the other damned and suffering souls that consumed this hell known as Earth.
He had killed so many. Whether it was on purpose in inadvertently, the toll was still in the thousands. He knew. He'd done the calculations.
If one applied the theory that every time someone transmuted something on his side of the Gate, someone on this side had to die in order to supply the energy needed, then Ed had been a murderer since he was 11 years old. The amount of energy needed, the amount of lives taken, depended on how big a scale the transmutation was. The doll he and Al had transmuted for Winry had probably taken two or three lives. Their attempted transmutation of their mother had almost certainly taken hundreds. Every time he drew a circle, every time he clapped his hands, he had caused the death of at least one person. Edward was imprisoned in a world filled with little more than sacrifices. Who was to say? Maybe he would be next. If so, he really hoped his death would be caused by his brother. At least that way, Ed would be able to see Al one last time before he died. It was this small spark of hope that kept him from killing himself. He had to wait for Al to kill him…so he could see him again. Golden eyes already haunted by the horrific images he knew would soon take place; Edward could not help but hope he would not have to wait long.