Fandom: FMA
Title: Phoenix Rising
Characters: Ed, Al, OC

Pairings: Elricest
Rating: R
Warnings: Angst, slight incest, slight yaoi, attempted suicide, violence

Author's Notes: AU

Word Count: 1,648

Status: Incomplete
Disclaimer: When pigs fly.

Summary: Alphonse Elric was dead, Ed had killed him, and from the bitter ashes of that crime, the killing machine known as the Soul Alchemist had been born. The Soul Alchemist; Amestris' deadly secret weapon of war. Alphonse Elric.

Note: This chapter is dedicated to Cold Drake Queen, without whose inspiration I would never have been able to get this far, but would have remained stalled out, several chapters ago. Thank you honey!

Phoenix Rising

Chapter 12

It was the darkest part of the night; that ghostly eerie pit long past midnight, when all is still, and it seems as if morning will never come again. The moon was so bright it was as if floodlights lit the world, giving everything a strange incandescence. The gusts had died back as if they'd never existed. Everything was hushed, watching the passing of something extraordinary.

Sam dropped the still smoking gun, sobs tearing from his throat as he watched the whole world die in front of him, seeping the coppery stench of blood. He fell heavily to his knees between the Elrics, shaking hands, broken wrist unnoticed save for a twinge, turning Edward over. The brilliance of the moon clearly illuminated the fall of blood as black as poison over his chin, glistening on his black jacket and staining the white piping.

"Ed," he choked.

But Ed wasn't paying any attention to him. The end was very near for him. His fingers slid through the dust, still trying to reach his brother. "Al… Al…"

Knowing there was nothing he could do, Sam bent his head and wept hopelessly.

"Sam…"

Having almost forgotten that Soul was still there in his grief for a man that had become like a brother to him, Sam's head jerked to see Al staring at him, eyes glistening in the moonlight. He wasn't trying to reach his brother anymore; instead his hand was fumbling weakly at a pouch on his hips. He coughed, tiny dots of black blood spattering the stony ground below his mouth. "Bring... him… to me… please…"

Feeling the rightness that the brothers die together, Sam groaned in pain when he lifted Ed, and drug him dizzily towards his brother. The fractured wrist, garnered in his slamming into the stone that saved his life, gave an audible snap, and Ed slithered from his hands to lie before his brother. They lay together in almost a circle, facing each other foot to head. Ed's hand once more began the laborious dusty trek towards his brother.

Al gave a frustrated cry, too weak to even unsnap the pouch. "On… on my hip… Get it for me." Soul couldn't use the part of himself he left in the sniper to direct the older man. All his energies were dovetailed into staying alive long enough to do what must be done; what he'd been preparing for since he enlisted with the military.

Cradling his broken wrist against his chest, Sam's fingers slid under the coarse and stiff denim flap of the shaped pouch, and closed over something as smooth as polished glass, yet strangely warm, as if from Al's body heat.

Despite the brightness of the moon above, it was as if a small sunrise lit Al's hip, as Sam drew out a stone the size of a goose egg, that pulsed with a scarlet light, and was mottled with shifting darkness, like streamers of clouds across its slick surface. It lit the summit of stone with a wash of crimson, chasing away the knife bright shadows of the moon above in a soft rosy glow.

"The Philosopher's stone…" Al panted, a strange smile gracing blood stained lips. "I made it just for something like this. Every kill, every death, I used to strengthen its power. It had to stand for something, right?" Al grimaced, more blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. "I couldn't have it all be senseless, could I? I had to make everything I did count… had to… for him…"

Sam shuddered, his skin crawling as he realized what glowed like fresh blood in his hand; the hundreds, no thousands of souls the Soul Alchemist had claimed every time he stepped out in battle. Ruby tinted tears glowed on his cheeks. "I… I can't use it. I'm no alchemist."

Again that melancholy smile. "I know, Sam. Give it to me... Mine will be the last sacrifice to power it, and my brother will again be whole. Give it to me..."

"No!" Sharp, short, bubbly yet furious…

Both men jerked to stare at Ed, who'd found the wherewithal to lift his head. His eyes speared Sam to the ground like a butterfly under a pin. "Give... it to… me… There's no point… to the world… going on… without Al… Give it… to me… Sam…"

Sam sat back on his haunches, clutching the horrid stone to his chest, sobbing once more. Why should he have to make such a choice? He was only a man, one who'd trespassed on godly grounds, yes, but he never asked to be here, to be forced to make such a hideous choice. And what did it all matter anyway? Whomever he gave the stone to would die in the conflagration of power the stone would unleash, and the other that survived would be condemned to life in a world without the other. He'd learned enough from Ed over the years to know that Ed would not want to live on in such a world. Likewise, if Ed used the stone, it would be to condemn Al to the machine that lay in psychic shards around the younger Elric. Right now, it was all Al; warm, loving, alive.

While Sam was arguing with himself, fingers crawled through the dust towards each other once more, and found what they sought. At last! Hands met, fingers entwined, a palm to palm embrace. Sam lowered his streaming eyes, beheld this and made the only choice open to him. He slid the stone between their linked hands.

The red light was snuffed out of existence, and with a faint tching sound, a massive transmutation circle sprang up in lines of brilliant blue, covering the entire summit and even wrapping around and down the rocky sides of the massive spire for several feet. The moment the stone touched the two Elric's hands, alchemy flowed like water. A shockwave visibly blew out, knocking Sam back a foot or two. The blazing light was blinding, making the moon overhead sickly and pallid in comparison.

Sam groveled in the gritty dirt as streamers of light whispered and hummed past him, spiraling forever out, like the arms of a galaxy. The sight was so beautiful he forgot the agony screaming up from his wrist as he clutched desperately to whatever he could find to keep from spilling off in the furious alchemic winds scouring the plateau.

In the center of this fury the forms of the two Elric brothers could be seen, glowing in sharp relief against the ghostly blue white lights spinning around them like celestial dust. They both sat up slowly, still linked together by their hands, a tiny red glow like a hidden sun between them. They were moving gradually upwards, and as their feet left the ground, they too began to rotate like the winds around them. One linked hand became two, the glimmering stone now hovering between them at heart level. A faint chaotic thumping could be heard, like that of several hearts beating in disharmony, but the beats steadied slowly into two, then the two became one, that soft gentle sound beating in time to the slow pulsations of the Philosopher's Stone.

Sam was overwhelmed. He was witnessing something no one had ever seen before, and likely never would again. He was crying like a baby, the beauty before him piercing his heart with sweetness mingled with sadness. Would the two brighten until they were no more?

Ed and Al's eyes were locked together as tightly as their hands were. Sparkles and flashes of lights danced around them as they slowly spun in the alchemic storm raging around them. Everything but themselves was consumed; their clothes, their weapons, even the blood soaking the ground was picked up and joined in swirling winds. The boy's hair streamed in the currants as if with a life of their own, as they drew closer and closer together. Their hands parted to wrap around each other's body, a tight embrace too long denied. Lips met, hearts beat as one. Finally.

I love you!

Even Sam could hear that commingled psychic cry from two aching and healing hearts. The two boys' souls were laid bare to each other; every thought, every deed, every regret clearly seen, and just as clearly accepted without reserve or recrimination.

The winds began to die back, the light to ebb. Sam slowly got to his feet, watching enthralled, never noticing the fading burn in his wrist, or the reknitting of a couple of long ago broken bones in his body, or the fact that his clothing and weaponry, yea, even the body of Stennin himself had gone into that alchemic reaction. He could only weep softly as he watched the two rotating boys slowly sink to the ground, bare toes touching the ground. There was a physical jar as they settled fully to the earth, then the wind and glimmering light were gone, a small jingle as dull red shards fell to the ground at their feet. The stone was spent.

Sam dashed the tears from his eyes, hope swelling anew in his body as he beheld the brothers, washed in a kinder and gentler moonlight than before, embracing each other tightly, lips locked together in a passionate kiss. He took one awestruck, hesitant step forward.

The kiss ended moistly, and the two brothers smiled shyly at each other. Then their eyes closed in unison, and Sam sprang forward, in time to catch them before they hit the ground, heart thundering fearfully in his chest.

But the brothers lay sleeping, still tightly wrapped in each other arms, and Sam sat back on his haunches, drug a wearied hand across wet cheeks, gave a choked sob of joy, and curled his bare body tightly around both of their protectively, as he too succumbed to exhaustion.