Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Pure white, everywhere. "What happened..?"
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
"Where is he?!"
"This way, ma'am."
I followed the doctor as quickly as I could, lugging a hefty toolbox with me. He got hurt again, he did something stupid, again. Oh god, I just hope he didn't stretch his luck too far this time.
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
All I could see was a blinding light. I was laying down. Slowly, I sat up, and my heart stopped. There was a giant stone gate in front of me. I had seen this gate before, four years ago, when I had foolishly tried bringing my mother back from the grave.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! I can't be here, I can't, I must be dreaming!"
And that voice spoke to me again.
"Oh no, Edward, you're very much awake." I slowly turned around to see a static outline of a boy, sitting ten feet behind me. "And I believe it's time for me to collect the debt you owe. You didn't really think an arm and a leg were an adequate sacrifice to see the Truth, did you?" His voice was young, but it carried with a reverberating sound of giddy malice.
"What?" I started to ask what he meant, but I heard the gate opening. My eyes shot wide open, "No!" I turned back towards the gate, just in time to see black taper hands shooting out and grabbing me by my legs. I desperately tried to claw my way out of their grasp, but it was of no use, they pulled me effortlessly into the gate, and the last thing I saw was an inhuman grin spread across the demon's nonexistant face.
And then I was falling through nothing. And I screamed, with all of my lungs, the entire fall.
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
It took a few minutes to climb the flights of stairs to his floor, but as soon as I set foot on it, I heard him start screaming. I immediately dropped my toolbox and pushed the doctor out of my way, following his voice. "EDWARD!" I shouted, tears starting to prick at the corners of my eyes.
I kicked the door to his room in, knocking an orderly into a table in the process, to find Ed thrashing around in his bed, minus one automail arm and leg, screaming his lungs out. Al was nowhere to be found. I ran to him, and grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook. "Edward, Edward wake up!"
And say it for me, say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
After an eternity of falling through the black depths of the gate, it suddenly felt as if I were slowing my descent. It felt as though someone had their arms around me, not those black monstrosities, but warm, human arms. I could hear a distant voice, and I saw a speck of light in the distance. Slowly, but surely, the light got bigger, and the voice became clearer. It was a woman's voice, and I instantly thought that it was my mother's, and I started to cry. "No, no, I don't want to be dead!" I started crying.
"Edward, wake up!" the voice sobbed.
That, that's not Mom's voice, that's..."Win...ry?"
Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm fallin'
And all I see is you
"Win...ry?" Ed had finally stopped screaming, and slowly he opened his eyes. When he opened them, he flinched, and snapped them shut again.
"Ed? Ed, you're awake?" I sniffled, and managed to bite back my tears.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, as if afraid of the room. "Winry? Where am I..? What...what happened?" A few seconds later his eyes had adjusted to the light, and he looked at me, and I looked away. "Why are you crying, Winry?"
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Winry started to sob, and she buried her face in my shirt, wrapping her arms around me. She cried for what felt like eternity, and she started to hit my chest, not hard, but that was because her sobs were racking her body so she couldn't move without shaking.
"You," sob, "big," sob, "idiot." She pulled away and looked at me, and she looked like she had been crying for days. "You almost died, Ed." My breath hitched in my throat.
I looked down at myself, I was covered in bandages. My automail was gone. I brought my hand up to touch my face, only to find that half of it was also wrapped up. "What...what happened?"
Come please I'm callin'
And all I need from you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
"You don't remember, Fullmetal?" I asked as I crutched into the room. His head snapped to me as I made my way to a chair and sat down, leaning my crutches against a wall.
"Colonol? What happened?" The whole left side of his face was wrapped up, but his right eye was filled with what looked like confusion. Confusion and fear. He must have been crying in his sleep, from the looks of how puffy his eye was.
"What's the last thing that you remember?" I asked.
He looked down, thinking. "I...remember that we had an assignment from the Fuhrer, to investigate a building on the outskirts of central...and on the way we fought about whether Winry's or Mrs. Hughes cooking was better...and then...then...that's the last thing I remember."
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Mustang had a somber smile on his face, the one that he gets when he thinks about the peaceful moments during Ishval. "We got to the building the Fuhrer wanted us to investigate, and I found evidence that the Scar had been staying there recently, but you noticed that the building next door seemed suspiciously quiet, so you transmuted a peephole into it. About a second after you did that, you tackled me to the ground. A second after that, the explosives next door went off."
I couldn't believe it, I had done that? He had to be lying to me, but the look on is face says otherwise. "I...I did?" Mustang nodded.
"It's been a long time since I brushed so..close to death, that I forgot what being afraid was like. But I remembered what it felt like, trapped in that rubble. It forced me to...reconsider some things," he started to stand up, and he grabbed his crutches. "But, in the meantime," he started to grin,"I've got a hot date waiting for me." And with that, he started crutching out of the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman with long blonde hair and glasses start walking with Mustang. She turned towards me, and I could barely make out a smile and a nod from her, as if to say, 'Thanks for keeping him safe'.
And say it for me, say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Hurry I'm fallin'
"Colonol, do you think that Edward will be alright?" I asked as we walked away from the room. He shrugged as best he could with his crutches.
"If he's half as strong as I think he is, Riza, then he'll be back to himself in no time. Besides, he has that Rockbell girl, and from how he talks about her, she's been the glue that's kept his life together til now. Like you kept mine together. Now, come on, let's go find a cafe downtown, the food here is terrible."
And all I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
I was afraid to speak. "Ed-Edward?" Ed slowly looked at me. I could see fear deep in his eyes, the fear when I had seen him after that day four years ago.
"Winry...I-I'm..." he started, but he dropped his words, and looked at his hand. He balled it into a fist, and tried to punch his leg, only to hit the mattress, since his automail was gone. He started to cry.
"Ed, what's wrong?" I reached out to touch his face, but he flinched, so I pulled away.
"I'm scared..."
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
I felt Winry wrap her arms around me, but I kept staring at my lap. Focusing on that one spot was the only thing fighting back the tears.
"...You're scared..?" Winry asked in a hushed whisper. "What about..what about everyone that loves you, you don't think that they were scared you'd die?" She buried her face in my neck, and quietly started to cry.
It took everything in me to not cry with her, to bawl my heart out. After a minute, she pulled away slightly, resting her head on my automail. "Why did you have to join the State, Ed? Why did you have to leave us behind, leave me behind..?"
And say it for me, say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Hurry I'm fallin'
"Say it for me."
"What?" I asked as I looked up at him.
"Say the word..." Ed started to bite his lower lip, hard as I could see a small trail of blood dribble down his chin. Then I saw a tear streak his face, and I looked into his eye, and I could see the flood he was fighting. "I'll leave it all, if you really want. There's nothing left for me here." Another tear fell.
"Edward? Are-are you..do you really mean that? You've spent years trying to get your and Al's body back, why would yo-wait. Ed, where is Al?"
Another tear fell. Ed bit harder into his lip, more blood flowed. I pulled away from him and gripped his shoulders. "Edward, where is Alphonse?" I asked again, firmly.
Finally, Ed started to cry. He pulled his leg in and hugged it with his left arm, sobbing. It wasn't until now that I realized that Al's helmet was sitting on his bedside table, and I could clearly see the blood-seal that kept his soul attached to his armor. And there was a hole in the center of it.
And say it for me, say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me