Those words might as well have been daggers, laced with the icy bitterness of twisted deception and overpowering doubts, for the damage they inflicted was more than enough to kill. For all Edward knew, years had passed in the time he had stood there, absolutely stunned, confused, and even so much as heartbroken. Reality, sick as it could be, decided the events were not happening fast enough, and urged Alphonse to keep throwing out those knives.

"Isn't that it?! What you wanted to tell me... All my memories, my whole life.. it's fake!" The emptiness behind the echo of a child's voice within the armor was so fitting for the occasion that it was borderline disgusting.

It was difficult for the smaller alchemist to even conjure words, articulate himself well enough to do more than stare in absolute astonishment. It was not just that the statement was so completely false that it was astounding and insane that Alphonse would even reach such a conclusion, but more that he actually believed Ed had the capacity to be so heartless.

In a sense, this said a lot about Edward, himself, and just proved he had been right in being afraid. It was completely possible - probable, even - that Al still had ill feelings about their accident. Hatred, even. In what felt like another ten years of time slipping between his fingers, Ed finally spoke.

"No, that's n-"

"Shut up, Nii-san! If that's even who you are... You must have been in on this together, you planned it!" The idle Winry was subject to Al's fury, now, and she could do nothing but shake her head.

Finally, unable to stand the suspense or bear the guilt constantly weighing on his conscience as it were, Edward lunged forward, only desperately praying - to a God he no longer believed in, no less - that such a brash and reckless action would reach his brother's attention long enough for someone to get through to the younger Elric. Winry's cries of protest became completely drowned out by the sudden contact of a hollow metal on soft flesh; there was a crash, a soft whimper, and then nothing.

The silence was so pure that it had to be deafening.

Alphonse had done something he never had before - something so completely wrong and malicious, more sinful than Edward's constant use of colorful language, and most importantly, something he had always promised to never do. Worst of all, he had done so without any second thought, and at the moment, not even the faintest trace of regret. He had struck and hurt his brother. There was no possible way to even deny or erase this truth, for the trail of blood spilling from Ed's mouth was proof enough.

"Al..?" The alchemist's voice was uncharacteristically timid and hushed, which was disturbing in itself.

Winry could not even gain the strength to do more than mouth the armor's name, for her mind was too preoccupied with a setting of years past. Had they not promised to always stay together? If they were all they had left, why was a quarrel of such intensity arising to the point a gentle boy would hurt an already wounded Edward? She knew all too well that Ed had not fabricated anything, and the fact that Al, someone who had known Ed all his life, did not see the same truth just completely overwhelmed her senses.

"D-don't come closer!" Al shouted as Ed slowly advanced forward a second time, "Get away from me!"

Nobody had the time to even react to the statement before Alphonse made the decision for them, turning aside and dashing off towards the balcony of the hospital; since he was not human, taking a fall from four stories was hardly a threat. This logic in mind, he wasted no time in jumping off, only leaving Edward to rush after him.

Had it not been for Winry, who had snapped from her daze long enough to realize she needed to keep Ed intact, the small alchemist would have followed Al and completely ignored the laws of physics and what they would have done to his small body.

- - -

"Yes, he went missing, ran away... a large suit of armor, that's right. About... six and a half feet, roughly? Eyes are just white, his helmet's got a feather dec-... yes, just keep him if you find him. His name is Alphonse Elric, he shouldn't be too much trouble for you, he's really a sweet person. Thank you."

The ancient, dirty receiver clicked loudly as the phone was placed back upon it, leaving a few flakes of rust to flutter off in its wake. Reluctantly, Winry turned back to the teenage boy that was once Edward. At the moment, nothing about him radiated the passionate determination the State Alchemist was known for, and therefore, it was all the more difficult to call him by that name. To her, that title meant sunlight, and there was nothing bright about this youth's face.

"Ed, nobod-" she stopped cold, deciding it best to change her approach, "Don't worry, we'll find him."

"Yeah," he responded simply. 'Damn right we will,' Ed thought to himself, keeping the blaze of the faint normality concealed. He was in no mood, no emotional condition to begin sustaining a constant resolve. "I just don't know how... I thought maybe by now, I'd just know, he's so... usually so easy to figure out, I don't understand wh-"

"Sometimes you'll never get the answers if you don't ask the questions," Winry spoke softly, still trying to quell the persistant depression that seemed to plague Edward. The image of a younger Ed, stricken with fever and bedridden during a difficult automail surgery, had never ceased to flash through her mind, and how he had begged Al not to hate him had stuck with her forever. Never did she imagine, however, something like this to come up.

"I'll remember that... C'mon, I don't wanna just sit here, he might b-"

"If we don't wait here, we won't know if someone else has found him. Ed, just fifteen more minutes, okay? He couldn't have gotten too far," It was difficult to be the mature voice of reason when, inwardly, she wanted just as much to dash off in search of Alphonse.

"... Fine," Edward replied, visage cast downward in expression of the reluctance. The otherwise ever-present desire to rebel was buried too deeply beneath layers of concern and fear - depression, even.

Even seven minutes were agonizing, it was hard to imagine being forced to wait any longer. The benches outside the hospital building were slowly shedding their paint in large chips, and were even indented slightly from too many people sitting upon them over the years. Edward had been listening carefully for any signs of Al, possessing only a childish hope that he may return on a whim, apologizing, voice breaking, and armored pieces shivering with remorse. That was all it was, though - a hope, a fantasy.

A petite nurse trotted nonchalantly out from the building, a coffee-stained clipboard bound between her chest and her left arm. Her expression was an even mixture between sympathetic and utterly blank, the latter of which worried the two teenagers more - after all, people in the medical field had to have some skill in masking their emotions before breaking any kind of news. Winry had seen her parents do it enough times in the past, so she had even stronger suspicion that Ed would have.

"Phone call for Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric? It's Jean Havoc," she uttered simply, offering only a small instance of a smile.

"Ed, do you want to-"

"No. If he puts Al on the line, he's not gonna wanna talk to me... I can't do that to 'im. I just wanna know where the hell he is..." Inside, Edward was mentally slapping himself for refusing the opportunity altogether. Of course he wanted to talk to his brother, hear his voice, and have some semblence of a feeling that Al was still beside him. Fear had dominated too much, however.

Winry would not question his line of thinking, even if she did not agree with it nor condone it in the least; yet, Ed was old enough to make his own decisions, and if he honestly believed this was the best course of action, then so be it. She had no intent of crossing the fragile breaking point and upsetting the young alchemist more than he already was. Holding back her own fears and relief with the same near-emotionless mask the nurse had worn, the blonde started towards the entrance to take the phone call.

"Hello? It's Winry," She fought to keep the anxiety out of her voice, though the girl failed to notice her fingertips were still playing with the folds in her skirt in her nervousness, "Thanks for returning the call."

"Hey, Winry. Man, I don't even know how to do this stuff right... Ah," There was certainly something that was off about his tone, almost as if his nervous demeanor paralleled Winry's at the moment. Chances were, he was debating over possible pickup lines in his head and was merely buying himself time.

"Uh, so... Any news? On Al?"

"... Yeah. That's kinda the trouble here." Apparently, courting and dating someone of the opposite gender was not the first thing on his mind that was provoking this kind of behavior. Anyone that knew the man closely knew this was extremely abnormal - Winry was not one of those people. The only thing that remotely caught her attention on the issue was the fact he had mentioned trouble regarding her friend, and everything else mattered not.

"What trouble? What's going on?"

Her voice had rang unintentionally sharp, but she was not about to waste time in going back to apologize. Little did she know, Edward had followed her in - curiousity had gotten the best of him, and his preoccupation certainly had not helped fight off his temptations. His expression faltered instantly, and he could not help but regret ever entering the hospital building.

"Well, we sent out a search party when you called over and all, but they didn't really turn up anything until about half an hour ago. We just got the message. 'Parently, they did find a suit of armor, some kind of feather or fluff or something, but... Ah, damn. Sorry, but..."

The only response was an anxious silence and a small but audible gasp; therefore, Havoc regretfully continued. Why had they set him up to do these kind of odd jobs? Again, he believed he was not paid nearly enough for his services.

"... it was apparently busted up pretty bad. Unresponsive, didn't have the 'white eyes' Al always did, but... From what they could tell, the blood seal was destroyed-"

"So he's DEAD?! B-but he was only gone an hour at the most! How co-... H-how am I going to tell this to Edw-!" She turned, and much to her surprise, and dismay, two golden eyes stared back at her - two golden eyes that were impossibly wide and brimming with tears.

In all her years of knowing the alchemist, she had never seen such a disheartened expression on his face, nor one of such utter defeat and raw anguish.

And in all her years of knowing anyone, she had never heard a person scream quite as loudly or break quite as badly as Edward Elric had.

Will only be continued depending on the responses, since this can stand alone without any continuation.

Because I don't want to continue something that's BAD. D: