Title: Far Away
Summary: He was simply, too far away. [Elricest]
Word Count: 2,872 (without lyrics)
Total words: 3,119 (with lyrics)
A/N: Based on "Conqueror of Shamballa" the FMA movie based off the end of the first anime. So long as you don't read/think about the manga while watching both the first anime and the movie, they're not that bad. Started this a long while ago, December 29, 2009 to be exact (I ish a nerd sometimes), when I was first obsessing over the movie then shit happened and I lost the movie so I couldn't write the end. But I can now, yay me! Neways. Hope you enjoy.
This time, This place
Misused, Mistakes
Too long, Too late
Who was I to make you wait
Just one chance
Just one breath
Just in case there's just one left
'Cause you know,
you know, you know
When Ed first arrived on the other side of the gate, he thought he was doing Al a huge favor. That he was doing the better thing. In fact he still felt like that, he just felt like he lost a huge chunk of himself in the process. Sure, there was an Alphonse on this side too, but he wasn't the same. It just didn't work, staring into blue eyes and longing for them to change back into the charcoal color he had known so well back when they were kids. Or wishing to turn around and see that familiar suit of armor. He wouldn't care that meant what he did was a failure, he just wanted his brother back. He loved him, a little more than he should've too.
Alfons was the same as Al, at least when you were looking at him. There were a few differences like the eye color mentioned before, but other than those small things, nothing. It pained Ed to wake up every morning and see his 'brother' only to remember that it wasn't him, not the one he remembered, not the one he wanted.
But, Ed had been on the other side for about three years now and had grown used to it. To the disappointment, to the dreams that would never come true. He was even able to lie to himself at times and pretend Alfons was the one he remembered from childhood. It was almost easy with all the similarities. But sometimes the differences shattered the illusion Ed had created and reality would come back into play once more. He missed Al, he missed alchemy, hell, he even missed that bastard Colonel Mustang! But he wouldn't try to go back. For one it was impossible with the small amount of alchemy this side had to offer, plus, even if it was possible, it'd mean more sacrifices. He didn't want to cause more trouble; he had figured they were all over him by now.
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you'll be with me
and you'll never go
Stop breathing if
I don't see you anymore
Al purposely went around in his older brother's old clothes and wore his hair just like him. Others thought it was because, somehow, Ed was still guiding him (and oh god, he hoped that true) but it was mostly because he loved his older brother and missed him. Back when he was ten (er, fourteen? In a ten year old's body anyways) he didn't know what exactly to make of it (his body wasn't making hormones, but good god, he felt the feelings alright) but now that he was thirteen and his body was starting to undergo puberty, he began to realize the feelings weren't as innocent as brotherly love, they were deeper. And that could be a problem, considering they were siblings (and brothers!) and not even in the same world, per se. he was determined to get him back, no matter what.
"So, are you really still looking for him?" Rosé asked him after he finished with the suits of armor and was playing with one of the little kids.
"Yeah," whether the soft look was because of the child, the thoughts of Ed, or both, not even he knows.
"He's gone," Rosé insisted. Just how many times had he heard that phrase? Ed wasn't gone. Al just...knew that. Maybe he was just being wishy-washy but he persisted with that belief, and so long's he did, he'd have the strength and energy to continue his search for his brother. His beloved older brother.
When he saw the suits of armor going through the gate his eyes widened. He knew they'd take him to his brother. How? He didn't know, the only thing on his mind was finding him again. He ran and grabbed one of the suits, not letting go. In a second he felt weight added to him, but he refused to let go...until he was pulled off. Only then did he turn to look at whoever it was pulling him away from the one he loved. Rosé.
He turned back to look at the armor, know it was too late now and his expression turned pained and sad, knowing that the chance was gone and he may never get another.
On my knees, I'll ask
Last chance for one last dance
'Cause with you, I'd withstand
All of hell to hold your hand
I'd give it all
I'd give for us
Give anything but I won't give up
'Cause you know,
you know, you know
At first Ed thought his eyes and ears were playing tricks on him. That couldn't have been Al's voice he heard, nor his eyes in that suit of armor it...couldn't be...right?
"Brother!" he had cried after Ed blinked and in that moment he knew it was Al, no matter the impossibilities, it was him. He was here and that was all that mattered.
He soon found himself caught in a tight hug with Al going on and on about how he missed him. Ed felt his heart skip but as soon as he got a chance he told him he couldn't breathe, which was the truth, he couldn't. Ed was slightly disappointed when he was let go but put it aside, he was just so happy to see Al again. At the statement about his height though, he still had to blow up. It was instinct now.
"What, you thought I'd still be a runt when I'm eighteen years old?" Ed yelled and hit his head off. Before he knew it though, the order to fire was given and they were ducking behind other empty suits of armor.
After they escaped they went to the river and talked until sundown. Eventually though, Al had to go.
"I'm sorry brother the transmutation circle I used to transfer my soul it doesn't last for long, it looks like I've run out of time."
"Al, don't go yet, It's too soon."
"It's okay, I think I know how to bring you back now. That portal they use, I'll try to open it from my side."
"Al." Al's eyes went dark and the armor fell over. Ed's eyes widened and he put it back in a sitting position. "No, you can't leave yet, not yet. You just got here. You can't leave me, I love you..." He let his shoulders drop and let go of the armor, letting the tears come.
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you'll be with me
and you'll never go
Stop breathing if
I don't see you anymore
Ed tried to tell Alfons not to go and not to work with his sponsors. Because he didn't want the other side being destroyed. He was willing to risk never going home for that. So long's Al was alive and safe on the other side. Nothing else mattered. Sure, most people wouldn't understand that logic, but Ed was content with just knowing he got his brother back alive and well on the other side at his sacrifice of maybe never seeing him again, but it was worth it, it really truly was. So he had to do anything, anything at all to stop the gate from being opened and starting a war between both sides. That was why he told Alfons what he did.
"Alfons, I need to talk to you. These people, your sponsors, they're bad news. You need to stop building their rockets." Alfons just kept packing his bag.
"Our work's in the final stage, I'll be sleeping at the factory now." He said monotonously, ignoring what Ed had said.
"Wait! Your sponsors are plotting a war! They're gonna start by invading my world, and those rockets must have something to do with it! Listen to me!" At that moment, when Ed grabbed Alfons's shoulder he was thrown back into the stairs and Alfons started coughing heavily again, but this time he coughed up blood. Sometimes lines blurred, and Ed could see his Al standing there, hand covered in blood that came from his mouth, a small amount trailing down the side, and worry colored his face.
"The truth is I'm running out of time. You say this world isn't yours, well it is mine and I want to leave proof that I lived in it. It's a bit late for you to start caring now." Alfons quickly picked up his bag and ran out the door. Ed called after him and made to follow him but was stopped by Noah the gypsy. He no longer cared which world he was in or who he was, he wanted to help the blonde haired boy that resembled his brother so much it was almost painful. He wanted to help this world and his own. He might have been developing a hero's complex but right now, he didn't give a damn.
So far away
Been far away for far too long
So far away
Been far away for far too long
But you know, you know, you know
Al watched Wrath bleed and bleed on the circle, in Gluttony's mouth, and all he could do was stare. It was a horrid sight. To think Wrath would just give himself up like that. And for Al? For Ed? That was a big surprise but made perfect and total sense right then, for some reason. Always, always, always when a Homunculus died the gate opened and that's what he needed, an open gate but...he didn't want to use Wrath, he had grown to like the boy, and now he just wanted to die in front of him. That was almost cruel...if it wasn't for something Al so desperately wanted.
Al gritted his teeth and tried to open the gate one last time. And this time, it worked.
.~.~.~.
"I set everything up so you can get back home, you can take this second rocket when that guard isn't looking. Ready?" Alfons asks, making Ed's eyes widen slightly."Alright, fake arm, good thing she's a bad shot. Our rockets peak at over two kilometers a second should be enough speed and punch through the pressure and get out safe. That's Halsopher's theory anyway. This one machine shouldn't have any problem." Alfons explains hoping Ed got the point.
"Wait a minute! I never said I wanted to go!" Ed protests to being sent off through the portal in a rocket.
"I'm not giving you a choice Ed." Alfons insists.
"Because in a way, you're trying to get rid of me, really?" Ed asks almost surprised and slightly saddened.
Alphonse shakes his head. "We're real, Edward, not just part of your dreams like you thought." He says. "We care, we make mistakes, I may not live much longer, but I'll still be here." Alphonse put his hand on Ed's. "Just don't forget me." He closes the cockpit and runs off to give take off room and to pull the lever to make it go. Ed's yells of protest are ignored as the rocket is short through the gate and to the other side. To Ed's home. To war.
I wanted
I wanted you to stay
'Cause I needed
I need to hear you say
"So what now?" Roy asks turning to look at Ed who in turn cuts off the part of the win Roy and Al were standing on.
"Brother?" Al asks slightly panicked, worried he's never see him again. "Brother what are you doing?"
"That should be enough alchemic material to get yourselves down," Ed says standing up with a slightly sad smile.
"What about you? Where will you go?" Roy asks holding Al back as he was about to cry.
"I'm going to take what's left of the solders back to their world," Ed replies looking over his shoulder back at the people in the armor that had been killed.
"Why? You don't have to go with them!" Al screams straining against Roy's resticting arms to go over to Ed. To stop the blonde. To say he loved him.
"We have to break the gate on their side. I need you to stay here Al, destroy it on this side too. So the portal can never be opened again." He turns and takes a few steps back into the ship.
"What about Winry?" Al asks desperately. "She misses you too!" his tears were barely being held back now. He now knew how Winry felt every time she saw Ed turn his back on her. Not sure if she'd ever see him again. That ache in his chest was now unbearable.
Ed turns around with a soft smile. "Tell her thanks," he says clenching his automail fist in front of his chest so as to indicate what for. "She always made the best automail."
Al couldn't hold the tears anymore as he screamed to Ed's back, "Wait! Brother, no! I just got you back, you can't go again!" Seeing Ed leave was breaking his heart slowly. Ed had always been like that, though. Willing sacrifice anything he wants for the good of anyone else. It was impossible for him to be selfish. He just wanted to hear Ed to say "I love you".
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I forgive you
For being away for far too long
A crash was heard when Ed kicks away the door that was acting as a boundary between him and the side of the gate he's lived for so many years now. He would never have called it home until this moment, and even then it wasn't, but it was going to be.
Hughes steps back like he's seen a ghost and Noah, who was holding Alfons's dead and limp form in her arms says, "Edward!"
"Noah...that's right, after all that trouble, I'm still here. Surprised?" Ed's comment was almost endearing in a way only he could pull.
Noah sets Alfons down and Ed now sees the blood both on him and Noah's dress as she stands. He may not have acted like it before, but Alfons was just as much his brother as Al was in his book. His death now shattered Ed. Surprised him. Saddened him.
"But why? Why would you come back to our world, Ed?" she asks walking towards the blonde who was just coming out of the shock of seeing Alfons, now laying dead on the floor.
"It's hard to explain," Ed says looking away almost ashamed.
"He came to destroy the gate," a voice inside a suit of armor says, surprising everyone in the room.
"So you transferred your soul again, huh Al?" Ed asks slightly amused, walking over. "How long 'til you fade out this time?"
Al pushes off the armor's head and peeks out with a grin on his face, feeling proud of himself. He could stay with his brother after all.
"Al! What are you doing here?" Ed asks concerned and surprised.
"I jumped onto your ship last minute, brother," Al replies trying to find a way to climb out of the armor without falling. "Then I hid inside this armor so you wouldn't find me. General Mustang should be breaking down the gate on the other side right now. And we're going to destroy it on this side, right?"
"But you won't be able to go home Al," Ed reminds him worried. He didn't want Al to sacrifice everything for him.
Al stand to full height, out of the armor, and says, "I want to be at your side brother, no matter what. I want to see the same things and learn what you learn and keep on journeying together like those years we were looking for the stone. Despite all the hardships those were the best times we had."
"Al...are you telling me your memory is back?" Ed was astonished. He was happy. Al now remembered all the things that made him the Al he was today. The Al that Ed fell in love with.
"Mhm. When we left our own world, I think." Al replies with a nod and small smile.
"Equivalent exchange, huh?" Ed asks sarcastically with a shrug before standing as they both look up at the gate.
"Destroying that gate is going to be a challenge without alchemy," Ed says.
"Between the two of us, we'll find a way." The two brothers look at each other and smile before returning their gazes to the gate, resolute. They had each other back and that seemed to be all that really mattered to them.
So keep breathing
'Cause I'm not leaving
Hold on to me and
never let me go
Alfons's funeral wasn't small, but it wasn't too big either and Ed and Al were among the people who attended, they stood in the middle of the crowd. Ed's face solemn remembering both the good and the bad times with the boy who was almost his brother. Al didn't even feel out of place at a funeral for a person he didn't know and that looked so much like him. He was with Ed and Ed had loved this boy, maybe not as much as he loved Al, but it was good enough for him. That's all he needed to know to mourn his passing.
Noah danced as some of the mourners played music for her. It seemed to really fit the occasion. Her moves seems to express the joy that Alfons had caused people and the pain of his loss smoothly. Even the fact that she was wearing white didn't faze anybody, she missed him just like the rest of the people there.
Hands clenched at their sides and grave faced Ed and Al managed to fight off their tears as Noah's dance came to an end. So long as the brothers were together they would be able to face anything that hit them. They just needed each other. That was all.
A/N: bittersweet ending huh? Anyways, I basically encompassed all of the highlights of the movie with this fic along to a song that fits it. Hope you enjoyed R&R
Your Author,
~Evelynn