Yay for fun action-filled chapters…

Chapter Ten

Pain shot through her entire body as the blackness ate through her skin... Left arm was ripped from her body...Right leg ripped from her body as well...Pile of blood and tears…Gates began to close the darkness beyond the gate, finally shutting them off from her…She could hear the echoing sound of her pleas into the nothingness as the blood pooled around her…

Winry awoke with a start, the dream leaving her two limbs feeling like they were on fire. Gasping for breath, she reached up to turn on her lamp, and pulled the sheets up to her chest in an attempt to calm down. Wiping perspiration from her forehead, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand. Her leg still hurt, but wasn't unbearable as it was a moment ago. She stretched her left shoulder, sending shots of pain throughout her entire torso. Sighing, she changed from her nightgown to a clean pair of pants and tank top, knowing she would not be able to go back to sleep. Winry walked over to her dresser and picked up her watch, then used the mirror to straighten her hair out and put it in a bandana.

Grabbing her coat and gloves, Winry walked over to the door leading to her balcony, and quietly stepped out into the cool autumn air. It was still the middle of the night from the looks of things outside in the town. Apparently there was an alcohol curfew, so there were no people wandering the streets in search of open bars. The air seemed still as Winry went to lean on the rail surrounding her balcony.

"Couldn't sleep?" came a voice from her side.

The surprised girl yelped in surprise at the voice, and looked around, only to find it was Alphonse sitting on his own balcony using the outside lights to read one of the many books sitting on the floor. "What are you doing up so late, Winry?"

"Yeah, Al, I couldn't sleep," Winry said while clutching her chest to calm her heart down. She had not expected anyone to be out here at this time of night! She finally calmed down and walked over to the side of the balcony facing her friend, and leaned again on the railing, "What are you reading?"

"Just another book on alchemy. Brother and I believe that one of these books may hold the key to getting our bodies back. I read while he sleeps since I don't need any rest. I'd rather read out here instead of keeping him up with the light," Winry nodded in understanding.

"Did you have another nightmare?" He asked quietly. Winry jerked her head in his direction with surprise written on her face, "Brother has them every once in awhile, so I guessed you did too…"
She lowered her eyes to the ground while rubbing her left arm, "Yeah, I just woke up from one a few minutes ago. I hate them so much because it always takes a minute for my body to readjust to the automail." She stretched out her metal arm and leg, "See? They're still tingling a little, and it's been at least 10 minutes since I woke up…"

A crashing sound caused Winry and Al to jerk their gaze to the ground. Two cats ran out from an alley with a trash can lid rolling after them. Sighing to herself, she turned back to a chuckling Al, "I'm paranoid now; even a couple of cats can freak me out…"

Two loud thumps sounded behind Winry, but before she could turn around, someone had grabbed her hands while another covered her mouth and held a knife to her throat. "Now we're going to be a good little girl, aren't we?" came a gruff voice from behind her. She attempted to protest, but felt the edge of the blade press slightly into her skin, making a small cut. Winry looked and saw four men surrounding Al. He was not resisting at the moment because of the guy holding the knife to his friend's throat. He didn't want to startle him and make him cut her more. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she saw more men congregating on the ground outside of the inn.

"Didn't you hear what I told you? I said for you to be good and stay still. Don't make me get rough with you missy." She could feel the second man trying to get her second hand in a contraption that prevented her from clapping her hands together, but she wouldn't let him pull it close enough. The man with the knife grabbed her ponytail and yanked back on it hard, causing her to yelp loudly. "What did I just tell you! Do it again and I'll kill you right he-"

Without giving the man enough time to finish his threat, Winry kicked her right leg back and heard the sickening crunch of the knife man's kneecap. He screamed loudly in pain as he fell to the balcony floor. As he fell, he slashed the knife at the girl, cutting her right side of her stomach in the process. Without pausing, Winry wrenched her hand out of the second man's grasp, whirled around and quickly grabbed his hair, then slammed his face down on her right knee. She could hear Al quickly dispensing the men on his balcony, and turned to face the first attacker. He lay crumpled on the ground, holding his kneecap with one hand, while still arming himself with the knife in the other. Looking skyward to make sure there were no more men waiting to ambush her, Winry grabbed her coat and gloves and put them on. The man attempted to stand up on his good leg, using the balcony rail for balance, "You bitch! What the hell are you?"

Winry grinned as she snapped her fingers, and caused the knife to fly from the man's grasp over the edge of the rail. "I'm an alchemist, and you've just royally pissed me off." Snapping her fingers again, she caused the man to rise by his belt buckle and threw him off the edge into a group of his buddies. Winry jumped onto the balcony rail, and looked to see how Alphonse was doing. All four men were lying unconscious on the balcony floor, and he had already opened the door to yell at Edward.

No time to wait on him, Winry thought to herself as she jumped to the ground, landing gracefully. About forty men had gathered in front of the inn to help dispose of the state alchemists. Many of them were alchemists themselves; only a third of them were regular thugs with nothing else better to do than join in on the fun. Winry stared at the group and grinned, "Who's ready to get beat first?" She clapped her hands together and transformed a blade onto her automail arm as some of the men debated. Seconds later, a few men stepped up from the group to confront the girl. They proceeded with caution, as they had seen what she did to their comrade on the balcony.

"What!" she heard Edward yell loudly from his upstairs room. Al must have finally gotten him up. Thanks for the distraction, Ed! Without hesitation, Winry yelled loudly as she lunged forward to attack the distracted group of outlaws. She slashed her way through the men, but was surrounded within seconds. She quickly glanced towards the balcony as she saw Ed and Al both jump over the railing to help her in the fight. The men kept a tight circle around the girl, and she had to dodge not only normal weapons, but alchemist attacks as well. The alchemy being used wasn't very strong by itself, but when used with many other alchemists, it quickly became a force to reckon with.

After being slashed on her right arm by a transmuted lance, a thug was able to sneak behind the girl and grab both of her arms. The circle closed even tighter, with men and alchemists ducking in and out to get a free hit on the girl. Edward and Alphonse saw this, and continued to fight their way to help their friend. Winry struggled to free herself, kicking anyone away who came within range. A man came into the circle, running with a large sword held over his head, preparing to cut her in half.

"Winry!" yelled Edward as he continued to fight. He wasn't going to get there within time!

Winry saw the man charging at her, and with a burst of strength, she was able to whirl around just in time to place the thug who held her between her and the sword. The charging man wasn't able to stop the sword's momentum, and the blade came down and cut through the thug's body easily. The edge of the blade managed to also cut Winry slightly on her right shoulder. Whirling around, and still using her transmuted arm, she quickly disposed of the large attacker.

Seeing their comrades fall, the surrounding attackers became angry and jumped on the girl. Ed saw them pile on top of Winry as he continued to fight to her area. I promised her I would help if she got into trouble! I've got to get there, his thoughts echoed in his mind. Ed clapped his hands and slammed them to the ground, sending a wave of dirt away from his center and moving all of his attackers away from him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could to the pile of men on his friend. Hold on, Winry!

As Edward came within twenty feet of the pile, he saw a strange light erupt from the middle. Not a second later a loud explosion sounded, and all the thugs and alchemists who were piled on top of her were thrown against various metal objects in the area. After the explosion, Edward could see Winry kneeling on both knees, with her hands on the ground propping her body up. He rushed to her side, and looked around to see there were no more threats in the area; what men she didn't dispose of, Al had taken care of.

"Winry, Winry!" Edward called as he grabbed her shoulders. She was keeping herself propped up, but her arms and shoulders were shaking badly. Blood trickled down her arm and side. He kneeled in front of her and took her shoulders in his hands, "Winry, dammit, answer me!"

The girl weakly lifted up her head, and slightly smiled at her friend, "What took you so long?" A coughing fit overcame the slender form, causing her arms to buckle and fail to support her weight. Edward reached out and caught his friend before she was able to hit the ground, "What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed for trying to take them on by yourself!"

Pulling one of her arms over his shoulder, Ed carefully helped his friend up as local police began to show up. "You're hurt too," he stated gently. Winry looked down to see the cuts on her side and arm, "Eh, they're not that bad," she quietly joked, "I think I'll live."

"Well, you better because you're not gonna let a bunch of punks like that beat you," he said, still providing some support. "Are you going to be okay? You're not going to pass out on me are you?"

Winry took her left arm and lightly hit her friend in the stomach, "Of course not, I just need to get some decent sleep. I was only able to get an hour or two."

Edward helped his friend over to an outside chair and made her sit down. He received some bandages from one of the local policemen, and turned back to bandage her wounds, only to find her dragging some unconscious thugs to the second police van that had just pulled up.

"What are you doing? Get over here so I can close those cuts," Edward stated, pointing to the spot she was in a few moments ago.

"Ed, I can take a few cuts and bruises. I'll let you do that if you insist after I get these bastards where they need to be. Then you can bandage away if it makes you feel better," Winry huffed as she helped to lift the men into the van. Edward snorted his disapproval, but pocketed the bandages and walked over to help. He kept a close eye on the girl in case she hurt herself more than she let on; she had a habit of doing that.

Winry walked up to the edge of the area to find one of her original attackers holding himself upright against a table with one of his legs dangling at his side. He tried to hobble away the moment he saw her heading his way, but fell as he lost his balance. She managed to harness her anger, though images kept flashing through her head of what he tried to do to her earlier. The man scooted on the ground away from the girl, holding his swollen and bleeding kneecap with one hand.

"You're lucky you didn't die, bitch," he spat out to the girl.

She cocked her head at his remark and smiled sweetly back at him, "You're lucky I decided to throw you to your buddies instead of onto the plentiful amount of sharp objects." The man's face paled as he realized she spoke the truth. Ed spotted her as she began to pat the man down, making sure he didn't have any more weapons on him.

"Is this another one?" he asked, frowning at the man. Winry nodded and began to help the man up by balancing one of his arms around her shoulders. She looked up to see the rest of the vans had already departed, but Edward helped her and the man over to one of the last police vehicles at the scene. They placed the man in the backseat and buckled him in. Winry rolled down the window before closing the door so she could ask the thug some questions.

"Who sent you?" Winry asked as she wiped some of the blood oozing from her neck wound. The thug laughed at the girl's question, "You really think I'm going to tell you?" The girl smiled at the thug's cockiness, and slowly transformed her automail arm into a sword, twisting it around in the air to let the streetlights glint and highlight its sharpness.

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way…I'll let you be a grown man and decide."

"Those cops won't let you do something like that to m-" Winry thrust the blade through the open window to come within a half-inch of the man's throat. She looked around quickly to see the police questioning Edward. Alphonse was walking up to the car to retrieve Winry, so she could let the investigators know her side of the story. "You see, I've already got clearance to get whatever information I want…Any way I want, got it?" The man continued to refuse, so Winry took the blade and rubbed it up and down the man's throat, "You're getting a little bushy there, man…Do you want me to shave it for you?"

"Ok! Okay, I'll talk. Just don't point that thing at me anymore…" Winry nodded and removed her blade from the man's neck, though she kept her arm transformed. "No one sent us. The alchemists banded together to try and stop you, and just got a bunch of us thugs to help out! Now I don't know if the alchemists are underneath anyone, I just know what I do."

Winry arched an eyebrow at the man, "Are you suuuuurrreeee?" She raised the blade in the air again and looked at it in the lamplight.

"Yes, I'm sure. That's all I know. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask one of those alchemists,"

"Where are the rest of them? And how many are left?"

"Dunno, they all have various places to meet, so they could be anywhere in this town," the thug sighed to himself for he had been beaten by a girl. "I have heard the alchemists are looking up to a foreigner right now; rumor says he's pretty powerful."

Winry nodded at this information, "Thanks, oh yeah, and you might want to get that knee looked at too. I don't know my own strength sometimes." She patted the roof of the car and looked to Al, who had been standing there during the conversation. "Are they ready to talk with me now?" she asked as the two began to walk off.

"Yeah, but uh, Winry? We weren't given any permission to do what you said to that man," Alphonse asked, confused at her actions a moment ago. Laughing, Winry nodded her head, "I know Al, I know. But he didn't have to know that," she said pointing back to the car as it was driven off to the police station. She rubbed her neck where it was cut to wipe more blood away, "I would have beat him up more, but I wanted him to be able to talk when I needed him to."

For the next few minutes, Winry stood and relayed her story back to the investigators. They took notes as she described everything that had happened, from the moment the two men jumped from her rooftop to the ending explosion. Surprisingly, there was little to no damage to the surroundings. The police thanked her for the information and went to their cars to leave. Winry walked over to where Ed and Al were standing waiting for her, and the trio walked back upstairs to their rooms. Edward walked into Winry's room and made her sit down, so he could bandage her wounds finally. She huffed her frustration, but complied with his orders, figuring it would be better to go along with it instead of arguing.

Edward easily bandaged the girl's neck and arm, and only found minor scratches in other places. He was just putting the bandages up when he noticed the dark, red stain on the side of her shirt. "What's that?"

Winry looked down and realized it was where the first thug's knife got her before she flung him over the rail, "Oh it's just a scratch, don't worry about it."

Edward cocked his eyebrow at her elusiveness and walked back over with the bandages in hand, "Pull up your shirt, let me see it." Both teens faces turned red when they each realized what he said, and he quickly tried to say it differently, "I meant, just pull up the front..no that's not what I meant, just lift the side or something, ah! You know what I mean!" After a second of silence, the two began to laugh at the situation, though they still were red from blushing.

Slowly, Winry lifted the side of her shirt so he could get access to her wound. It wasn't very deep, but could get infected easily. He put some ointment on it, causing the girl to flinch and curse lightly under her breath, but attached a bandage, then turned away while she wrapped the tape around her torso to hold the guaze in place. "Thanks a lot Edward," she said as she handed him the supplies. As she turned she saw he, too, had a dark red stain on his back from an injury. "And what's that from?" He tried to look over, but wasn't quite able to tell from its position on his back, "Eh, don't worry about it, it isn't that bad--"

"Don't give me that bullshit, go sit down over there right now so I can fix it!" Winry demanded, and waited until he sat down on her bed. Huffing she sat on the bed behind him, "I can't believe you would go through all that moaning to patch me up, when you're sitting here hurt yourself!" He took his shirt off and studied the blood stain and tear mark as she began to clean it out, "I guess I did get cut. I don't think I ever felt it though," he sat straight to give her better access.

Winry laughed as she continued to clean the cut, "I bet you wouldn't know if your automail was busted either."

Edward lifted up his right hand and wiggled his fingers. Then he stretched it out to the front and side to test the joints, "Nope, it's fine," he replied finally.

"Well, it better be because I wouldn't fix it tonight anyway," he smiled at her attitude. He knew she was joking and was just irritated that he worried about her so much, but he couldn't help it. He would rather her not get hurt at all. She finished a short moment later, and he felt her reach over for something on her nightstand. Sure enough, the next second he felt the familiar screwdriver poking around his upper arm on his automail. He turned his head slightly to grin at her, "I thought you wouldn't fix it tonight if it was broken anyway?"

"Shut up, you never know when it's broken unless it's in a million pieces," Winry reached over to her nightstand again and pulled out a small thing of oil, "You gotta take care of this stuff while I'm gone, you now that." She spent a few more minutes of poking around before sitting back and yawning, "It looks good so far, I'll have to take a more thorough look at it tomorrow after I've slept." Edward turned around and leaned his back against the wall.

"Why didn't you get any sleep earlier, anyway?" he asked quietly. She stopped putting her tools away for a split-second before resuming, keeping quiet the entire time. Edward put his shirt back on as she finished arranging her items, "I mean, we didn't get back from dinner late or anything, so what gives?"

Winry stood and turned to look at the window as she folded her arms across her chest, facing away from Edward, "I just wasn't tired, okay?" He could tell from her evasion what had happened.

"You had another dream, didn't you," he stated plainly. The way her head dropped slightly confirmed his suspicion. The room stood quiet for a minute with each teen in their thoughts.

"Hey, Winry, come here," said Edward, after finally deciding to break the silence. Winry turned around and lifted her eyebrow in confusion as she still saw him sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall. "Why?" she replied.

"Just come here," he said again, blushing slightly. The girl slowly walked over to the bed and sat down on the opposite side. He motioned with his arms for her to come closer, "Just come here and lay down." A bright blush covered the girl's cheeks, but she complied and crawled over to where he leaned. When she got close enough, he pulled her next to him so she could lie down. Her head lay against his chest, and she draped an arm over his stomach.

"Um, Ed, why exactly am I doing this?" Winry asked, still blushing madly. His blushing slowly went down as he explained his reasoning, "Well, my mom used to do this when Al and I were little if we had nightmares. I know they are nothing like the ones we have now, but I thought this might help. So try and get some sleep. I'll stay awake in case those bastards try and show up again." He wrapped his left arm around her as best he could, and let her snuggle closer to him. At first, the whole thing seemed awkward, and he thought that maybe he shouldn't do it, but after getting her next to him Edward felt comfortable fairly quick. He no longer blushed as she sleepily snuggled closer to him.

"Ed, wake me up if I start to have another one please," Winry asked as she finally began to nod off ten minutes or so later.

"Don't worry, you won't while I'm here," he whispered as he too began to nod off not long after the girl.