6/13/11 - Edited

Hey guys! As promised, here is the next chapter one week later. I really like how this is going so far, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!

There's a little note I forgot to add last chapter. In this fic, I'm taking writer's initiative and altering the character's age differences. Instead of there being 14-16 years difference between these two, I am making it 7. That means Ed is 20, and Roy is 27. It makes the situation less... awkward... as far as age goes, and still leaves that gap to make everything believable... even though I am tearing poor Amestris apart anyways!

I apologize in advance for any OoCness in this chapter. I feel the events that took place are a little necessary. I loved the episode in FMA when Ed was so shaken over almost being killed by Barry the Chopper. It really showed a glimpse of human in our favorite hero, and gave me the liberty to write an emotional Ed. Anyhow, I'll shut my mouth now so you can get to the reading!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own FMA. It makes me sad. The world needs more Fullmetal/Flame.

Sparks Fly in the Dark
Chapter Two

Edward winced as he felt the sharp sting of the knife dig into his finger, effectively slicing a cut that would bleed and give as much fluid as he would need. Quickly, he drew out the still somewhat foreign designs on the wall of the central command building. It was early morning and only one day after he had entered the bar and given the colonel his warning. The sun hadn't risen yet, and if Ed had it his way, it would rise to shed light on nothing but rubble and him far away and unharmed.

But things hardly went his way.

While the blonde didn't really understand what each intricate spiral he crafted meant, he did know what they would lead to. He was, once again, attempting to get to the stone archway that managed to make him shudder in fear and deploy large explosions. The place he had used to destroy his last target, the place he had to figure out for his brother.

For Alphonse.

The first time he had ever entered the ethereal realm with his brother in tow, they had been fishing for their mother's soul. She had recently died, and in an old leather-bound book the two young children had read about the Gate. It was the place where the deceased went, so it had to be where one could go to get them back, right?

A chibi, golden-eyed blonde had found that this wasn't so. That night in the barn he and his brother had stepped into the world of the dead and only one had come back. Al had been sucked into the gaping vortex the Gate had opened to reveal, and Ed had been thrown out panicked and crying. He had been spared, but his brother had been lost.

Repeated attempts to get Alphonse back had only resulted in consequences for him and an unyielding door. Sometimes he swore he could hear his brother's cry for help, could see a glimpse of his pleading face in his mind's eye. These drove him on, even as his own body was deteriorating from his efforts. The first rescue attempt left him with his golden hair in tatters and the laughing stalk of bullies. There were other times that had been less extreme, too. Baby teeth ripped from his mouth when he still had them, various slashes across his chest and back which had scarred over, even a whole organ – thankfully, the appendix – had been torn from his body. The worst, by far, had been the last time. That time he had used the Gate, had traveled to it for an explosion he wanted. It didn't like that. In return for his insolence, it had taken his right arm and his left leg, and spat him out, bleeding and barely conscious, on the floor of the then-burning building.

That had been a year and a half ago. Twelve full years after Alphonse had been taken.

"I will get you back." Ed's hoarse whisper echoed across the hall. He would fight tooth and nail to reach the boy again. Maybe their mother was a lost cause, but Ed would get Al back. It was his fault, and he would fix it. Even if it took his own life.

And Ed was fighting. He knew these central bastards had to know more about the arrays he was drawing than any book could ever tell him. And they refused to divulge their knowledge. Despite Resembool's then being considered a Central town, he had joined the Easterners when the higher-ups refused him the information he needed. In the East, he had been met with open arms at the tender age of twelve, and had quietly submerged himself in all the knowledge the state had to offer him.

Many sought to help him, including his fiery childhood friend, Winry. Together, they joined the Rebel forces to bring down Central, or at the very least, steal the information Edward needed. They spied, researched, even fought in a few of the battles that had broken out between the two opposing forces, but no break had come to them. The answer still eluded their grasps, and it even seemed as though the East was beginning to wither in the war.

Edward knew something drastic had to happen. And soon.

With a low mutter, he finished his arrays and placed his hands on the fresh blood, willing his energy to spread into the markings and split the air to reveal the entryway to the place his was aiming for. After a moment, he felt warmth under his flesh appendage as chemical reagents pushed for paranormal products. He closed his eyes against the bright glow he knew would soon accompany the reaction, and braced his body for the flinging it was about to experience.

His feet felt like they had left the ground, and he knew he was there. Opening his eyes revealed the white world devoid of life aside from himself and the promise of trapped souls behind an archway built from green stones, a heavy door firmly shut in it. Ed took a deep breath and walked forward, glaring at the eyes carved into the door, waiting for them to open and see him before them again.

"Hey! You stupid pile of fucking stones!" Step one: aggravate the Gate, causing it to open momentarily and unleash large, unaccounted for amounts of energy.

The carved eyes slowly opened in annoyance at the disturbance. Edward stared firmly back, refusing to back down. "Yeah, it's me again. Gimme my brother, ya fucking piece of shit! You have no goddamned use for him!"

Stone eyes looked at him…. And rolled. What? "….Did you just fucking roll your eyes…?" The Gate had never moved before, aside from opening or watching him move about. Since when had it been able to do more, let alone get an attitude?

"The yellow-headed mortal doesn't think very clearly. He is back again with nothing to offer."

The fuck? The Gate just spoke! "Oh, so now you can talk?" Edward shot back, his voice hot and trying to hide his internal fear.

"We have always been able to speak. We spoke the first time the mortal and his kin entered our realm. Memory must not be a strong point in human."

The Gate's words brought back a memory of a younger self standing, demanding his mother's life back.

"Life belongs to the ones who create it, not the ones who come from it. Go home and do not seek to come here again."

"NO! We won't leave without Mother!"

"Foolish child. You do not see. Life does not belong to you."

"I fucking remember…" Ed fought back a suffocating wave of emotion as he remembered his brother's face being torn from him. "I fucking remember what you did." Somewhere inside him was slowly tearing as he spoke, "I fucking remember you taking him."

"It was the price." The voice seemed like it came from everywhere and yet had no source. The words themselves carried heavy solemnity, as serious as their meaning.

"No… no, damn you! It was no price!" Ed felt his self-control slipping. All he could see was Alphonse. Alphonse smiling, Alphonse laughing… Alphonse trying to convince Ed not to try to get Mother back. Alphonse reluctantly agreeing to help him. Alphonse screaming for Ed as he was taken.

Alphonse….

"It was no price! You fucking SHIT! It was no price! I made him! I made him come here to this fucking hell! I made him! You should have fucking taken me! Why didn't you take me? It wasn't his fault!" Ed could feel his voicebox tear, and he knew if he made it from this alive, he wouldn't be speaking for a while. But he didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. "I have had nothing but shit! You have caused nothing but shit for me to deal with! Where is my brother, you useless fucking stone thing? Where is Alphonse?"

"Your brother is beyond your reach, child. Go home."

"What, so you can continue holding him? I'm not leaving until you give him back! I'm done with your games!" His eyes were stinging now, liquid gold mixing with liquid emotion. "You fucking bastard. You fucking bastard…"

"Leave. You have trespassed here enough."

"Or what? Will you take my other arm and leg? Were they not enough last time? Was my brother not enough? My fucking life?" Tears fell to a white floor as he broke, unleashing sixteen years of pain and hurt and disappointment. "You took him from me… What price is there in that? What do I get in exchange? Where's the equality? Where's the fairness? What did I get for my lost brother? For my lost mother?" a sob racked his frame as he fell to his knees.

"You fucking thing… you took my life and left me to live as an empty shell. For what? Do you get some sick pleasure out of it? To think we fight to keep your goddamned existence a secret. People die for you and they don't even really know what the fuck you are! Nobody knows. And all you can fucking say is 'go home.' Well, guess what? I'm fucking staying until you pay me back, you pile of shit! I'm staying!" Ed's flesh arm shook violently as he raised his gaze to the stone eyes, which remained as emotionless as ever.

"Foolish child. You do not understand. You never will. Leave now, and never return. Your brother and your appendages were not price enough for you? We are so merciful as to let you exist and live on to meet your fate and yet you question us? Truly you have no grasp as to what our rage can do." The Gate's voice steadily rose in intensity. "You will leave. You will not come back, child. You do not know how to get your kin back, and you won't as long as you remain the way you are. Do not question our decisions! We create life, and so may take it back if that is what we so desire! Learn your place, mortal, for you do not know." Upon the final words, the gate flung itself open, unleashing a powerful wave of energy upon the blonde, causing him to be thrown backwards. He felt a slash across his side – the Gate's repercussion this time – and pain spread across his body. His feet left the ground, and the whiteness of the Gate's world faded away to the pre-dawn place he had left moments before.

Edward felt the floor below him and sank slowly to it without opening his eyes. He shuddered as he continued to sob relentlessly. He was lost in his sorrow. He had kept it in far too long. He had been trying for far too long. He had been failing for far too long.

What a fucking mess.

In the end, Roy had decided against taking the strange boy's advice and, instead, had decided to come in early the next day, completed paperwork in hand. The man was up before the sun, walking along the quite streets to Central Command to open his office and take a few quite moments to slack off before Hawkeye arrived.

He wore the same old uniform, his six stars shining dully in the lamplight as he moved down the familiar pathways to work. It only took a few minutes to reach the building and a few more minutes to unlock the door and navigate halfway to his department. There was nothing but the steady sound of his boots on the smooth floor until he rounded a corner near the information wing. Then, a foreign presence made itself known by means of quiet sobbing. Roy blinked as his guard went up. Who would be in Central Command so early in the morning… and crying, no less?

He pulled out a chalk piece as he braced himself for a coy enemy in the shadows. Alchemy may not be as quick as a gunshot, but it was unexpected and often led to the gaining of the upper hand in battles. And normally, it was discreet.

Roy drew a small circle on the wall. It would, when activated, unleash a wave of sparks that would burn the target – the best and most powerful array created yet. He silently hoped the array would work for him, since he had only managed to get it to work a few times before… Oh well, if it didn't then he still had his gun. Fully prepared for the situation at hand, he stepped around the corner to face the intruder…

…And almost cried out in shock when he saw Alphonse sitting on the floor, covered in his own blood, crying.

"…Alphonse?"

Bitterly, the boy replied, "he's still fucking gone. He's still…" golden eyes flicked up to view the colonel before them. He looked surprised, and then guarded his expression quickly after.

"What are you doing here, Alphonse?" Suspicion quickly began to grow in Roy. The opinion, the message, and now this…

"I… I…" The blonde was at a loss for words. Completely understandable, but still…

"You are not in the military, last I checked. Therefore, you are not authorized to be in Command before hours. I demand an answer, Alphonse, or else I will be forced to take you into custody." Damn, he hated being a military dog sometimes. His duty had to be one of the worst in the world.

"…don't call me that."

"What?" Roy hadn't been expecting that as a reply.

"Don't fucking call me by that name. He's not me. He never did anything to deserve that…"

The raven-haired colonel observed as the younger man stood on wobbly legs. "Then what would you prefer I call you?"

"By my name… my name… not Alphonse…" the blonde wheezed out, obviously in pain.

"What is your name?" Roy frowned.

"It's Edward." Edward's eyes looked dead, his body looked weary, and his side was bleeding heavily.

"What have you been doing here, Edward?"

"None of your business."

Roy bit back a sharp reply. This was not the time. The man was obviously delirious. "Do you need help walking? We need to get you to a hospital."

"No… no… I can't go there. I can't go there…." Edward's face was almost pleading as he looked to Roy. "Please…"

"Then…" Roy sighed, oddly resigned already. With his medical training he could probably help the blonde… and somewhere… he knew the truth. The man was no Centralist. If he got better, then he could be questioned. Roy had a feeling the man was quite intelligent and could easily assist in the war with his knowledge. But that would never happen if he was left in the Central Command's care. Edward would never see the light of day if Roy handed him over. "I guess we will have to go to my house. Can you walk? How badly are you injured?"

"I can…" Edward stuttered as he almost fell. A long string of expletives followed suit, interrupted by a pathetic sniffling of his nose. "I can walk."

"You are a terrible liar." Roy walked forward and helped the blonde over to a nearby chair. "Wait here. I need to clean up your mess and find something to stop your bleeding." His words were met with a silent nod.

The colonel turned on his heels and walked over to a closet. Inside were materials he could use to clean up the blood from Edward, but nothing he could use to bind the man's side. And from the looks of it, he needed it. Now. So Roy did the first thing that came to mind: he stripped his jacket off and removed his shirt, praying that it would effectively wrap around the Edward's body.

He walked back to the blonde and spoke in a surprisingly calm voice. "Listen to me, Edward. If you can, I need you to take off your shirt. I've got to bandage it up to stop the bleeding and I also need to see the degree of the wound."

Once again, no audible reply came from the man. Instead, he moved forward solemnly and undid his jacket and shirt, quickly shedding them and revealing his bare skin under it. Roy suppressed a gasp at the sight. Edward's torso wasn't only marred by the deep gash in his side, but also by what looked to be many scars and, quite possibly the worst of all, an automail arm attached to his right shoulder. What had this man done? Now there was no doubt in Roy's mind. Edward was an Easterner, and one who had seen combat many, many times. And that meant he had been here to sabotage the Command center, and also meant that Roy was committing true treason by helping the man. But Roy knew what torture awaited Edward. And try as he might, he could not bring himself to leave the fiery man in the cold hands of the military. Not while he was so wounded. Not while he seemed so mysteriously broken. Not while, honestly, he didn't trust the cause for the war in the first place.

Despite common belief, Roy Mustang did have a heart.

Roy leaned forward and examined the wound. It appeared deep and would require stitching. Thankfully, that skill had been passed on to all military officers before one of the first major battles, so Roy could easily fix that. The problem would lie in the chance that the blonde's wound could be infected. If that happened, then the situation would be out of Roy's control. Tentatively, Roy reached out to touch the edge of the cut, seeking any foreign particles that may have been embedded in the skin.

A metal hand weakly smacked his own flesh one. "Don't fucking touch me."

The dark-haired man sighed. This was going to be one long process if the blonde was going to fight him the whole way. "I have to see, Edward."

"Just fucking wrap it up. It'll be fine."

Slightly annoyed, Roy moved to obey the hoarse voice's command. It was better to keep the man less upset. He watched as Edward winced when he bound the wound up, despite taking care to be gentle. That done, he moved to clean the blood from the walls and floors, wrinkling his nose at the metallic smell. No matter how many times he smelled the red fluid, he would never be used to the harsh scent. When he finished, he quickly went to help the blonde up and out of the building. He knew there wasn't much time before someone would arrive at the center and start asking questions.

Roy slung Edward's automail arm over his shoulder and worked to support his weight. The blonde merely gave a grunt in reply. When he was steady, Roy took a step forward and helped the other man to walk beside him. In this way, they made their way out of the building and to the older man's house, both staying silent the whole way.

This was going to be one long day.

I love feedback guys, seriously. It makes my day to see you guys favorite, alert, and/or review this. I smile every time.

However, I do apologize for leaving off in a rather... bad place, I guess.

Until next time! :D