Alice woke up screaming. She thrashed in the hospital bed, tangled up in the sheets. Doctors and nurses bustled in, trying to calm her. She continued to thrash and scream, until someone jabbed a needle into her arm, sedating her. She was lost again to the nightmares she'd experienced; flashes of men's faces looming over her, tearing sensations within her body, the eyes at the gate, the mangled lump of flesh splattered on the floor, her father's face with hands reaching out toward her, a deep shadow coming closer, a knife across her cheek, men, over and over, men taking her and her innocence. Once again, she woke screaming, though how long it had been she did not know. Eyes wide with fear, Alice thrashed and screamed, trying to escape the restraints holding her down. Suddenly, a gloved hand slapped her hard across the face.
"Wake up, Alice," he urged, soothingly. "You need to wake up!" He gripped her shoulder, just hard enough for the pressure to anchor her in the present. The faces, the dreams, they were still floating behind her eyelids terrorizing her even when awake.
"No! No! No more," she cried, dissolving into a torrent of tears and attempting to thrash her way free again.
"Stop it," Edward commanded. "If you keep that up, you'll only end up hurting yourself more."
"I can't!" Alice sobbed. "Make them go away! Make them stop! No one's coming… I'm going to die… Can't fight… Please stop!" The events in the alley flashed past her eyes over and over; she couldn't escape the terror that held her in her memories. Edward leaned over the bed and looked at Alice, speaking softly.
"Alice, calm down. You need to come back and calm down, or else you'll never heal, body or mind." Alice stared up at him, not seeing the young man before her. Tears still poured down her cheeks but she slowly stopped thrashing and eventually the only movement was the sobs wracking her body. Edward continued to stare down at Alice until her eyes began to focus on him.
"Edward Elric?" She eventually whispered. "What are you doing here?"
"I found you in the alley."
"How do you know who I am?"
"You told me your name before you passed out."
"What happened to me…? I remember them…" She trailed off, the memories once again washing over her eyes and reducing her to shaking and incoherent whimpers. Edward tilted her face up with a gloved hand, staring hard into her eyes again.
"Come back, Alice, you have to be present for me to help you." Alice came back to herself again at his voice and the pressure of his hand on her chin. She tried to sit up, and Edward released the restraints on her waist and wrists. She shifted herself upright and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Her wings had been completely sawed off near her skin, and the metal bases protruded from her back, rough and extremely sharp. There were bandages crisscrossing her back and chest, faintly stained with blood.
"My wings?" She asked, looking up despairingly. "Removed for the surgery… They'd broken and bent in a number of places, severely piercing you during the attack. They've saved them, and with a little careful transmuting they'll be good as new," he reassured her. A doctor walked in then to check on her; he was surprised to find her awake and unrestrained. He looked and Edward pointedly, but he just acted as if he didn't care. The doctor checked Alice's eyes and asked a few questions. She responded robotically, not really able to function emotionally just yet. When he left, she looked over again at Edward.
"Thank you for helping me…but why are you still here?" She asked him, trying to distract herself enough to keep the memories at bay.
"You're a State Alchemist?" He queried, avoiding her question.
"Yes. Angel-Wing, they call me. You're one too, right? Youngest ever?" She recounted the conversation with Fuehrer Bradley so many weeks before.
"That's right," he said, slightly exasperated. "The Full-Metal Alchemist." He sighed, almost inaudibly.
"Full-Metal?" She asked, looking him up and down. "You don't look like metal to me." He pulled off his right glove and slid his sleeve up enough for her to see his wrist.
"Is that…automail?" She gasped, incredulous. "Where in the world did you get automail? And so elaborate…" she admired his arm for a moment before looking back up at him. His eyes held an unfathomable expression, and she looked away quickly.
"Did you know those men?" He turned the conversation back to her. Her expression turned dark, and she dug her fingernails into the tops of her arms; the action caused her re-broken wrist to throb. The effort helped to keep herself focused on the pain, in the present.
"No," she spat. "I don't know those bastards."
"Think hard, remember. Had you seen them anywhere before?" Alice sifted through the memories, trying not to sink beneath them and lose it again. One of them did seem familiar…dark haired, stocky, with a scar across his nose.
"Yes…" she squinted into her lap, trying to place his face. "The dark-haired one… He was shorter than the others… Not the leader, but he wanted the power, I could feel it… He had a scar across his nose."
"Where do you know him from?" Alice wracked her brain for any semblance of a memory.
"I don't know… he… I…" her entire body trembled with the effort of remembering. She let out a breath, and let it go. "I don't know. I can't remember." Edward sighed, but let it pass.
"Maybe you'll remember later," he allowed. "Keep trying."
"Alright," Alice agreed. "But why? He's a filthy, disgusting miscreant who deserves to die," she decided with a snarl. "Just like the rest of them."
"It's important." Edward stated with a sense of closing the subject. "I have to go. The doctors will take it from here." He scooped up his coat from the nearby chair, leaving Alice to her misery.