Disclaimer: I own nothing, contrary to my wishes.
Beginning A/N: Hello my faithful readers! I have decided to restart this story! I only hope that you guys will like it as much as the last one. Okay so I bet you're all wondering why I decided to delete and rewrite this story. Well here's the best explaination I can give you:
I have grown and matured.
I am no longer the same person I was when I first started writing this story. Along with my growing so has my ideas. I find that old story to be quite juvenile and the plot was crap. That's just my opinion though. Well I guess I'll stop wasting your time with this babble and begin the story.
Enjoy my dears. :)
We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.
~Jim Rohn
Chapter One: Regret
One word, six letters, but so much meaning.
At the moment that was the main emotion Edward was feeling. How could he not, though? It was his fault, or so he thought.
His Ashten was laying here dying in his arms.
"Ashten. Ashten please. Open your eyes. Ashten. Please don't leave me, " Edward murmured as he clutched her to his chest, as if she was the only thing anchoring him to the ground.
Tears were falling down his face in quick rivers. His eyes were closed because, at the moment, he couldn't bear the sight of Ashten, of what he had caused.
Somehow, thousands of cuts, varying in depth, appeared all over her body causing her porcelian skin to be tainted so red that it rivaled her flame of hair. She was grotesquely beautiful.
It made him sick to see what he had caused. If it wasn't for him they wouldn't be in this situation! They'd probably be back at Ashten's watching television or something.
Why did he have to be so greedy?
Why couldn't he be happy with what he had?
The last week or so had been perfect, he had been happy with Ashten back in her world. If he had never wanted to come back here him and Al could have probably got jobs and, eventually, him and Ashten and Al and JayDen could have gotten married. Life could have been good back there.
Another wave of emotion washed over him and he chocked back a sob.
He regreted it. He regreted it all.
He regreted every trying to get back home for the first time, he regreted ending up in another time in the same world, he regreted letting Ashten help him and Al, he regreted staying there longer then was needed, he regreted meeting the girl who saved him and his brother, he regreted falling in love with that same girl
Oh God, what had he done?
Al and JayDen had gone to go look for some form of help but they didn't know where to go. They were in territory foreign to the brothers. A lot had changed since they had last been home.
"Al?" JayDen practically whispered as they ran East, hoping to find a town or road at least.
"Hm?" Al grunted in response.
"What if we can't find anything? What if we don't make it back in time? What if Ashten-" JayDen's pace slowed to a jog and soon she stopped all together. Al, hearing the lack of her footsteps, stopped and turned to face the young woman.
"JayDen," Al said, remaining in his spot. "You've got to have faith in Brother. He can keep her alive until we get back. For now, we just have to keep going."
JayDen nodded and wiped at her eyes. "Y-yeah. We've got to keep going. Al?"
"Huh?"
"There is no God, huh?"
"...Sometimes it seems like there isn't. Or if there is one, he sure likes to jerk us around.." He remembered just a few days ago they were celebrating a holiday that had to do with the birth of the savior of the Catholic faith. Where was that savior now?
"Al?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry."
Al turned away from the young woman he had fallen for and let his blond hair fall into his eyes.
"JayDen, sorry doesn't fix everything. You know?"
Al cringed as he heard a small sob escape from her lips.
"I know."
And with Al began running again. He felt like a coward, yes, but he couldn't just stand there and watch as she cried. He also couldn't find it in himself to comfort her.
He knew it was stupid but she had disobeyed him. She had gone between his back and purposely endangered herself and he wasn't exactly ready to forgive her yet. What if it was her life instead of Ashten who's life was in the hands of fate?
Al grimaced and quickened his pace.
When had he became such a coward?
JayDen stood in place as she watched Alphonse's rapidly retreating form.
This all felt like some kind of surreal dream, no. This was no dream, this was a fucking nightmare. It felt as if this couldn't be happening. It was too unreal.
Ashten, Ed, Al?
What the fuck was going on!
JayDen shook her head, trying to clear away the thoughts that kept bombarding her and wiped at her eyes. This was no time to be standing around crying. Ashten needed help. Find help first, cry later.
Taking in a deep breath JayDen took off after Alphonse.
This run wasn't really hard, she was an athlete, a gymnast to be exact. She was used to things that pressed her to her limits and she could still go a ways if needed. They had only been running for about an hour, an hour and a half tops. It was probably because of the adrenline high that this didn't feel like to long, though she wished that they'd hurry and find someone. She had no idea how much longer her friend could endure, nor the extent of her wounds.
How did this happen?
Why was Ashten wounded?
Why weren't any of them hurt?
Should they have brought Ashten with them?
JayDen mentally paused and a small frown crossed her face. Al said it would probably be better for her to wait back with Edward while her and Al ran to get help but wouldn't that just be more time consuming, finding help and then trying to find there way back to where the two were? Plus, JayDen didn't trust Ed anymore, not after what he had said to Ashten. The frown on JayDen's face deepened. That mother fu-
"JayDen!" Al shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts. The small brunette looked to find Al stopped at the end of a drop off.
"What?"
"Hurry up! I think I found something!" As JayDen drew closer she could see a small smile playing at Alphonse's lips.
"What'd you- Holy crap, is that?" JayDen stopped next to Al and stared at what lay before them with awe.
There, before them was a huge town and on the outskirts of that town was water. Just then JayDen realized that the air was slightly thick and smelt of salt water. The massive body of water was the ocean, how could they not have seen it before? And if this was the ocean then this would have to be-
"Xing, we're in Xing."
"That would explain the lack of snow..." JayDen murmured as she kept her gaze locked on the city.
"Yeah. Welcome on Jay, let's go get some help."
JayDen nodded and trailed after Al as he began the descent downward to the town.
As she followed after Al, one thought entered JayDen's head. "Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore."
Pain, white hot pain flooded through Ashten's veins as she slowly began to rise from the darkness.
The red head wanted to scream but somehow she couldn't find her mouth. Every aspect of her throbbed. It felt as if someone stuck her in a blender and pressed "liquify". It didn't help any that something hot and wet kept falling on her and making her body sting even more.
"Ashten, please, just open your eyes," a hoarse voice quietly cried and Ashten realized that the back of her body wasn't touching anything.
Slowly, and with great effort, Ashten opened her grey eyes only to find a beautiful blond man hovering over her, tears streaming down his face. So that was what was stinging her.
"S-sir?" Ashten croaked, blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Why was anyone this beautiful crying over her? She wanted him to stop, it was breaking her heart.
"Ashten?" the man said, shock filling his golden orbs. How did this guy know her name and where the hell was she?
With great effort, Ashten struggled into a sitting position and almost fell back as another wave of pain hit her. To support herself she grabbed the beautiful mans shoulder, which was suprisingly hard. Almost metal-like. That was stupid though, no one had fully metal limbs, or at metal limbs that weren't covered by some kind of plastic or such, especially not men as young as he was.
This man had to be in his late teens or early twenties, judging by the sharpness of his facial features. And by the looks of his clothing he wasn't exactly the richest man around, he had to be middle class and it seemed that prostetics would cost quite a bit of cash.
"Where am I?" Ashten asked, a frown crossing her face as she tried to consentrate on the man and ignore the spinning sensation she felt. She was starting to feel slightly nauseous.
"You're back in my world Ashten, don't you remember?" A frown similiar to the one on Ashten's face fell over the man's face.
"Remember what? And what do you mean by 'your world'?"
"Ashten. . ." the man murmured, staring at her with great intensity.
Ashten frowned deepened as she asked, "Why do you keep saying my name? How do you even know it? Do I know you?"
"Ashten you don't. . .?" he trailed off, looking dumb founded.
Suddenly black dots started to make their way across Ashten's vision. She could feel her conscienceness slowly fading and quickly she blinked her eyes, trying to make the feeling disappear.
"Ashten! Ashten are you okay? Answer me Ashten!" the man shouted at her as she gazed unfocusedly up at the sky. Everything felt like it was slowly disappearing.
"Whoa. . ." the red head said before slowly falling back into unconscienceness. Her only regret was not asking the beautiful man's name. What if he wasn't there when she woke up? What if she didn't wake up?
Ending A/N: Okay so I'm not quite sure how that was, I've been working on it for like two weeks and I just now finished it at 1:30 a.m. I'm super exhausted, it's been a long week but I'm happy I finally accomplished this one small task. I feel so proud of myself.
So I have one request of all of you, will you please review on this? Pretty please? Give me your true and honest feed back on it. Is it worse or better then the last one? Have a good weekend. :)
Love Y'all
~Santi