Mortality

Author: Kodoku no Ookami
Summary: Tucker may have done the unforgivable but that doesn't mean he was the only one, as Ed finds out once again.

Warning: a little gore, a bit of language

I: components

Edward presumed he was near the station. He could hear a high whistle sounding off every couple minutes, and then a rumble, shaking the ground, as something rushed by. The air reeked of something like burning charcoal, or maybe incense from one of the local shrines. It was hard to tell.

Ed wrapped his arms around his knees and pulled them closer. He shuddered, shivering in soaking clothes as the sky continued to pour down rain. Al would be looking for him; it's been hours since he ran.

Nina.

A train whistled by, billowing black smoke to the sky.

There was a family of three: a son, a daughter, and a mother. They welcomed Ed and Al into their home, offering them the place to stay while the two were in town. A nice, overly-friendly gesture to strangers.

The son asked endless questions. The daughter laughed, while coloring a picture with broken crayons. The mother smiled, pink lips pulling at a gentle face and both Ed and Al had to think twice to stop themselves from calling her "Mom."

Edward.

Three days, two nights, they stayed at the house. Three days of homemade meals, of laundry on a line, of apples picked from the grove. Three days of homesickness, eating, gnawing, at the back of his mind.

Everything's clearer now; everything's always clearer when it's too late. Ironic, as fate always seems to be. But of course, all good things had to come to an end.

EDWARD.

"I don't know why," Ed said to the rain, "I don't remember their names."

-
II: create

The mother's smile was false. Fucking fake. She encouraged her son's wonder, learning secrets of alchemy while she served the chicken bake for dinner. None of them, not even her children, knew she could do alchemy. She hid behind a motherly image - tempted - and weaved the two alchemists into her trap, without even trying. Children are so easily lure by sweets. she sneered.

By the time the two fled to the scene, the son was twisted around, skeleton wings sprouted on his back, still dripping blood. And his face, glowing monster eyes, a greenish tint to the skin, he roared and couldn't speak. The daughter was unrecognizable, for she was the failure - a pile of smoldering flesh, still sizzling when they came.

You couldn't save one little girl.

It was Al that held Ed back (again) from flying at the mother, held him struggling and kicking, screaming incoherent words. The mother leered at her creations with an almost satisfied (but sickening) smile.

Ed saw a man with baby-blue eyes, wearing that same sickening smile, flash before his eyes.

Tucker used his wife, his daughter, his dog. Those he loved, those who loved him. He saw the possibility, saw the chance, and stripped away lives and crafted them into abominations, violating the art of alchemy. Or fleshing out the use of alchemy to its true potential...?

"I just wanted to create one," he said, leering that smile, "because the possibility was there. Scientists - no, humans have a limitless desire to experiment what they can. If the chance is there, we'll take it."

The woman used her son and daughter. Discovered a technique she'd never before heard, alchemy, and wished to make animals never before seen (except in her dreams).

"Isn't that right, Edward?" she said, patting her son/creation's arm. He/it hissed, rotting fumes breathing out of visible lungs, dangling out of his back. "I can make my fantasy a reality. It's every human's dream and it's within my grasp to do so. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Your arm. Your brother's body. They're the results of toying with human lives, are they not? It's every human's desire to reach out farther than they can. Think, how could we resist?"

"You shut the fuck up!" Ed lashed his hand at the air. "You had no right - lives can't just be - You, they were human. All of them, human. EVERY SINGLE ONE. They had their own lives, AND YOU--"

She looked at him. Al looked at him, sad and silent. The mother didn't blink. Just kept smiling.

You and I are the same.

"Just shut up," Ed backed away. (It looked at him. Were those Nina's eyes? Sweet and innocent? It looked at him, called his name - '..E..dwa.r...d?' - and it wanted to play.) "JUST FUCKING SHUT UP."

She was still smiling when he fled.

-
III: destroy

It's still raining. Ed looked up from where he was sitting, feeling raindrops fall onto his face. Wasn't the rain supposed to wash away everything? Cleanse sins that've been commited? Funny, Ed felt caked with layers and layers of decaying dirt and it wasn't coming off.

Nina was found after she was transmuted, and she was splatters of flesh and blood dripping from a wall. Ed remembered clapping his hands, again and again, and trying to transform the gruesome remains back into a girl and her dog.

He ran when the truth finally sunk in. The dead can't be revived.

He should've known that before trying to bring back their mother from the dead. An arm, a leg, and a boy's body. Prices for crossing just a little too far. Results because he was ignorant to everything but wanting to see their mother's familiar smile again.

And in that town, after staying there for three days and two nights, he ran when the mother was found, after she commited heresy, claimed the lives of her children, tried to follow down a path many others had tried (but only resulted in failure, as they should've).

He should really stop running.

Can't save anyone. Not little children stolen by psychotic parents

And face them all.

I want to become human again, brother.

Repent for sins that can't be undone. Try to find redemption through this world full of everything even though everything can't be what you desire. Maniacs and killers and arsonists and believers. They're all sinners alike.

Ed stood, wringing water and salt from the sleeves of his red jacket. Another train rushed by, calling out and rumbling over tracks. The rain still fell, unrelenting and unforgiving, like it was trying to rid of all things evil, but failing to do so.

They can only pretend and pursue. Else go insane from all that they don't know. It's a lie, a false hope, but hope nonethless. No one said the world was ever fair.

Because we're not gods

Edward turned around - paused, horrified, and he saw the Bringer of Death lingering behind in the cold, cold rain. It had red eyes of vengeance and a right arm tattooed in all things forbidden.

Just human.