The Cataclysm of Edward Elric
Chapter 10: Changes

A/N: I know you're all thinking 'Huh? Isn't this chapter supposed to be called 'Runaway'?' ... and I just have this quick note to tell you that I've changed the name of the chapter to 'Changes' since it suits the subject matter in this chapter more than the other name.

When Ed unlocked the hotel room door, he braced himself for the assault of questions that he knew Al would badger him with.

However, even after he opened the door and poked his head into the room, Al remained sitting on the floor up against the far wall.

"Al?"

Al looked up from the book he was reading.

"Oh, Brother! You're back!"

He got to his feet and clomped over to Ed.

Ed closed and locked the door behind him.

"I was worried," Al continued, following after Ed as he walked over to the beds and threw himself onto it, "I wondered where you went last night and I was going to go look for you, but I decided to wait instead. And then someone from the military phoned this afternoon and said that you were injured and would be staying at HQ until nightfall. What happed?"

Ed told him everything. He owed his little brother the explanation. He told him everything that had happened from the incident in the sewers up to his ride to the hotel with Colonel Mustang. Although, he did omit the part where he had broken down and told Mustang everything about his fears. He didn't need Al to worry about him any more than he already was.

So...what now, Brother?" Al asked after his brother's story sunk in. He sat down on the ground beside the bed Ed was in.

Ed ran a hand through his hair, unravelling the braid in the process.

"I really don't know," he said, "It's only a matter of time before this all happens again...I'm dead sure he'll be back."

Ed sighed and picked at the dried blood caked into the crevices of his auto-mail hand. There was blood under his flesh fingernails, but he didn't have the means to clean them.

The two brothers sat/lay in silence as the hour hand on the bedside clock edged slowly past the numerals on the face of it.

At half-past 5 in the morning, Al glanced up and over at the sleeping figure of Ed. Al was surprised he even fell asleep with all the lights on...but he assumed that all that has happened in the past day tired him out.

As quietly as he could, Al got to his feet and walked over to the other bed to fetch the blanket off of it and used it to cover Ed, who had fallen asleep without any covers.

Ed stirred slightly, rolling over onto his back. Al almost laughed as Ed's mouth was hanging open. Open enough that Al could see the fangs in it.

He didn't mean to, but he was a little curious about those fangs. He bent over the bed and peered into Ed's mouth.

The fangs looked...well...like fangs. There wasn't anything special about them like Al thought they'd be. They were just long, pointy teeth...that looked really sharp. Al was surprised that Ed hadn't cut himself with his teeth already...or maybe he had... Ed never tells him anything anymore.

Al looked back at the teeth. He tried not to think about it, but his imagination had already created an image of Ed biting someone with those teeth, his eyes glowing with that creepy red and slight insanity in them.

And it scared him.

Ed woke up several hours later and, still groggy, watched Al read his book in his little space against the far wall.

After a while, Al finally noticed that he was being watched and looked over at Ed.

"Hello Brother. Any good dreams?"

Ed rolled over onto his side so that his back faced Al.

"I can't dream anymore."

"Oh." He heard Al say.

A few minutes went by in silence.

"I was thinking," Al said finally, "Maybe there's something in the library on how to get you back to being human."

"I doubt it," Ed responded, "If there was, then Adèle or the others would have said something."

He heard the clanking of Al as he walked over to his bed.

"We can't give up hope, Brother. We can't!"

"Just drop it Al! There's nothing we can do!"

Al was really starting to bug him. He was being way too optimistic about this. They were NEVER going to normal ever again. N.E.V.E.R

"But Brother-"

"I said ENOUGH!"

Ed could smell his human blood mixed in with the steel in Al's armour. It was in close enough range so that at Ed's last words, he lashed out with his hand at Al. He heard a cry and turned to see three gashes on Al's arm.

Ed looked down at his own left hand and saw that the nails on his fingers had grown out into long spear-like blades.

As his anger vanish, the nails shrunk back to their original length.

"B-Brother..?"

It seemed that al was as shocked as himself.

"Al I...I don't know what just happened..." He shook his head to clear it of the nasty thoughts that filled it, "Let me see your arm."

Al held it out and Ed inspected the damaged done.

It was very clear to Ed now that his fingernails were dangerous...and dangerously sharp. Al's arm was nearly sliced in two. The cuts were clean and not a trace of any resistance with Ed's nails. It was sheer luck that Ed didn't cut if off completely.

"I'm sorry, Al." He told him.

"It's OK, Brother. I shouldn't have gotten you angry in the first place."

Ed looked miserably at the damaged armour,

"That's not ever going to be fixed," he said, "You should be careful with it in the future."

Ed lifted himself out of the bed and walked over to his traveling trunk.

He dug inside it for a few minutes until he had found some spare clothes and gloves. He quickly changed into them and transferred his pocket watch from the other clothes to the ones he wore now. He pulled out his wallet and flipped through the bills, pulling one or two out every once in a while. He closed it up again and stuck it into his back pocket. He quickly counted the money he had pulled out of the wallet, then handed the bundle to Al.

"This should be enough for about 3 months. I'll probably be back before then anyways."

"Where are you going, Brother?" Al asked as he took the money.

"Away from here. I need some time to myself," he gave Al a smile, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

Ed crossed the room and opened the door into the hallway.

"Brother, don't go! Please!"

Ed couldn't make himself turn around.

"I'll be back before you know it."

He forced himself to ignore Al's calls to him as he walked into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

He pulled his hood up over his head again. He didn't need humans to see his in-human eyes, or the tears that ran down his face.

Damn it! This is stupid. I'm losing all my emotions... and I'm getting emotional.

A/N: If you haven't already gotten it, Ed's fingernail.. dagger.. things...I have no idea what to call em... they're pretty much the nail things that Lust has. Or, if you want to go deeper... in the anime/manga 'Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles' the vampires in it have fingernail dagger things as well...
I'm not exactly sure where the idea came from...but it came from one of those...