Summary: Kimblee considers power and motivation. Manga/Brotherhood, though it'll probably make sense if you've only seen the 2003 anime.
The first fic I've written in four years! I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters in any way shape or form. I've rated it T (for discussion of violence and adult themes) but if you think it should be higher let me know.
The Red Lotus Alchemist wonders. He wonders if anyone has ever felt anything that could come near to the seething and glorious power he has, tearing through people and buildings, control over ruin and death. If this is the feeling ordinary powerless people seek as they pursue love and sex, reaching for a small part of the glory that he wields in what he knows and the tattoos on his palms – the security in knowing that nothing can touch him and the thrill of knowing that nothing can escape him unless he allow it. This is the potential he has unlocked through years of study; nothing short of death can take it from him in any meaningful way. And when death does take it from him it will be a deserved victory – after all the true winners are those left standing at the end, and nothing will remain after death. Having studied alchemy, knowing where it could take him and for what purpose he learned it, nothing is more alien to him than the intents of one who would commit to learn something like this, something with so much destructive power, and then expect to use it to help people. Why seek words of thanks and some hopelessly idealistic vision of the future when one has, quite literally at one's fingertips, the means to create the most beautiful of sounds, the thundering of explosions, crackling of flame and rumble of buildings as they give way. Why choose the path of weakness when one's power exceeds even the need to feign subservience and conformity? What has the Flame Alchemist found on his weak path that could compete with wielding the indescribable power of destruction and judgement
Constructive criticism would be welcome, and might help convince me to get back into writing. Thanks for reading.