4/29/13 A/N:
Wow, it's been a long time since updating this. I had some real life things that took me away from writing and I just needed to figure out a few details leading up to the end of this story. I hope you enjoy it.
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Chapter 14: Snap
Bang! Bang!
Moments earlier, the bright blue light made her squeeze her eyes shut tightly. Now, loud pounding on the alchemically created wall brought Winry Rockbell to her senses. Slowly, she opened her eyes to try to assess just what just transpired.
"Hey! What's going on?!" A man's voice echoed through the rock and mortar. "The Senator is in there! Someone help!"
She pulled at her left arm but could not free it from the rock that encased it and held her to the wall. Winry also felt the vibrations of the men on the other side, frantically pounding to get to their beloved senator. She could not muster enough strength to call out to them, especially after taking in the horrible scene before her.
Ashley, or what was left of him, lay on the floor next to Julia's death bed. Credit to Winry's excellent automail work, his sole metal limb still clutched the linen transmutation circle on top of his sister while the rest of him rested upon the cold floor below.
The rest of him.
She gasped upon seeing what remained of the strong young man. Both legs were gone, sheared off at the hips. Ashley's right arm was gone as well. But most gruesome and what made her stomach turn was the horrible red pool ever spreading around his body. Winry screamed. She couldn't hold it back. She witnessed his life ebbing away in that red pool and she could not free herself to stop it. Upon hearing the mechanic's scream, Julia's guards started pounding frantically on the wall and yelling for an alchemist.
"Ashley!" She tugged at her hand until she felt her own warm blood trickle down her arm. It was no use. "Ashley!"
"Stop." Despite the trauma to his body, the man's voice carried across the room strong and warm. "Don't struggle."
She couldn't believe he could say this. Ashley lay dying on the floor and he worried about her insignificant hand. "Please, I have to stop your bleeding!"
"Stop."
She couldn't see his face from his position on the floor. Winry only wanted to keep him from dying. Her ever optimistic mind already came up with the plan for installing automail to replace his newly missing limbs.
"I can save you, but I can't get free!"
"Don't." Ashley's voice became labored. "There's no time. Just talk to me, just for a while."
"Please!" She wondered, thought back to a few minutes earlier. Had she answered yes to his question, had she actually agreed to run away with this man would he have made a different choice? "Ashley, it's my fault, I'm sorry." Winry couldn't stop the tears as she slid down the wall and hung limply from her concrete shackle.
"Never think that. I knew what I was doing."
"What, what should I tell Julia?"
"Tell her that I wish things turned out differently for us. Tell her I wish mom and dad weren't murdered, hell I wish they weren't alchemists…sometimes. Tell, her, tell her I'm sorry I had to leave again." He struggled to make these last words.
"I promise, I promise I'll tell her everything." She looked to his ravaged form on the floor. "Ashley? Ashley!"
"I won't fail to kill him this time." The stout man, obviously in pain from his severe burns raised the pistol to Edward's temple. "I really doubt you can heal him if I put a bullet in his brain. Or, actually, that would be fun to watch you try for a minute or so before I end your miserable existence too." His scarred hand shook trying to keep the gun in place.
"Alphonse?" Mustang and Hawkeye came into the room in time to witness the scene. Roy realized they stumbled into a dangerous situation and put an arm out, stopping Riza from moving forward.
"Stop! Stop right there!" The crazed man yelled, bringing all the other patients and hospital staff in the large ward to a standstill. No one moved.
"Listen, you, you are all alone here, please don't make it worse…" Al tried to speak reason to the injured man, a man he recognized as Ashley's commander. He had evidently snuck into the hospital for treatment and by luck, stumbled upon the former Fullmetal Alchemist.
"All, those years of planning….the months and months of secret construction. All for nothing!" His finger twitched against the trigger. "And HE couldn't even perform alchemy!"
"Please, hand me the gun, you're not well…" All the emotion fell from Alphonse's face and no one in the room noticed the faint blue sparks leaping from his brown shoes. The trickle of blood that flowed from the corner of his busted lip let a tiny drip slide off his chin and ebb and bob as it fell to the floor. It never made it to the pale green linoleum. The drip rolled and undulated into a perfect round sphere and rose up in front of Al's face.
"No, I think I'm going to kill both of you and then find that son-of-a bitch subordinate of mine and make him pay!"
"Alphonse." Mustang whispered and silently held his hand up in preparation to snap. Having seen and passed through the gate, he now was perfectly capable of using his trademark flame alchemy without ignition gloves.
"I really think you should stand down, please. We'll get someone to get you something to ease the pain of your wounds."
Sweat fell down Riza's temple and just as with Alphonse's blood, it formed a sphere and rose in the air, suspended by alchemy. She suddenly shifted her brown eyes to her left and saw that everywhere in the room, small items rattled on their resting places: pencils vibrated and rose into the air, needles and other medical implements shook and ascended. Water in patient's cups bubbled up and formed droplets levitating upward. Even pens left their owner's pockets to float alchemically in the air unaided by human hands.
The officer's eyes shone with anger and insanity. He failed to notice the now hundreds of tiny objects collected from the four corners of the large room now floating around them. Mustang grimaced, not sure if he could ignite the bastard before he shot Ed, but he also knew exactly what Alphonse was planning and for a small fragment of a minute, the General was afraid.
Suddenly and silently, it was over.
Ashley's commander dropped his gun and it fell with a loud clank on the floor. He gasped, a terrible sound that snapped Alphonse out of his self-imposed trance. The young Elric's face twisted in horror in what he had just done as the officer slumped to the ground dead, his body now impaled by pencils, pens, coins, toothpicks-all the objects Al collected from the room. These objects, even the round spheres of sweat and blood acted as bullets propelled by alchemy into his body and head.
"Alphonse?" Riza couldn't disguise the horror in her voice.
"I asked him to stand down…he, he wouldn't."
"Yes, you did." Mustang's stare into his subordinate's brown eyes silently communicated what they both were thinking. Alphonse had become too dangerous. Roy knew that there was no way the boy could ever return to his normal life now. He knew that if Al wouldn't commit himself to serving Amestris, they wouldn't allow such a dangerous human weapon to live. Mustang frowned in anger and despair.
"What, what's going on? Al?" Slow movements snatched everyone's attention back to the elder Elric, his amber eyes wide and looking at his brother. "Where's Winry?"
"Ed? Are you ok?" Al came to his brother's side, not looking at the body on the floor.
"Yeah, I feel pretty good, actually…Al?" Ed's eye's grew large as he saw the dead officer on the floor. "What happened?" Edward sat up quickly and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "Alphonse?" Horror wavered the young man's voice.
"He, he was going to shoot you brother." Al pressed his right palm to his head, clearly upset. "I asked him to stop. Mustang you heard me, right?"
"Yes, Al, we heard you." He couldn't mask his sadness. Roy wished they all weren't in such close quarters so he could have ignited the bastard and saved Al from having to kill the man. He wondered if this was the first life Alphonse ever had to take. The General hoped it was his last.
"It's alright, Al." Edward's voice turned warm and he reached out and grabbed his brother's wrist, pulling him closer. The elder brother felt his sibling shake beneath his grasp. "Alphonse. It will be alright." He stood and embraced his little brother.
"No. It's not." Al broke free from his brother. "I didn't have to kill him." He wiped his eyes, the tears flowing freely now and he backed away from his friends and his brother.
"Alphonse Elric." Mustang's authoritative voice almost stopped Al from escaping, almost.
"Sorry. I'm sorry." Seeing his only exit blocked, Al turned and ran toward the window. He leapt up and transmuted the glass just before he broke through. True to his new abilities, the young man shot up into the air and disappeared.
"Al!" Ed jumped up but became tangled in his IV tether and failed to stop his brother. Angrily, he pulled the catheter from his arm and ran to the window but didn't catch a glimpse of Alphonse. He rubbed his tender arm and slowly rejoined the others.
"Hawkeye. Get rid of this carcass." Roy tossed a linen sheet over the officer. He eyed her strangely as he did this.
"Yes sir." Riza did not miss the General's subtle signal. She knew it was unorthodox for him to ask her to dispose of this dead man when they were in a hospital full of orderlies to take him to the morgue. She knew there would be more orders to come.
Everyone in the room, all the doctor's, nurses and other patients started gathering their wits trying to process just what transpired. All this was interrupted by shouting from the hallway.
"Alchemist! We need an alchemist!" One of Julia's guards ran past the door and Mustang ran out to catch them.
"What is going on?"
"Someone has sealed themselves up inside the room with the Senator!" The man panted. "The mechanic is trapped with her!"
"Winry?" Edward ran toward the man.
"We need help!"
"Take care of this." Mustang growled at Riza and she nodded as he and Edward ran after the guard to Julia's room.
Winry hung limply from her encased left arm. Her hand was numb but she no longer felt her body could support her weight. The blood, HIS blood had seeped all the way to her feet and she watched the red liquid roll along the floor traveling in minute and unseen lows in the linoleum. She knew he had passed a long time ago. The men outside, frantic to get to their Senator periodically brought her out of this malaise. She hoped they'd get in soon as she felt her grip on sanity coming loose.
"Stand back!" The same authoritative voice she heard while in the emergency room reverberated through the thick concrete wall. A distinctive ring sounded and alchemy deconstructed the wall just as alchemy had constructed it earlier. Mustang and Edward stormed the room, followed by Julia's guards.
"Winry!" Edward turned and ran toward her, his bare feet sloshing through Ashley's blood. "Are you hurt?" He helped her to her feet and ran his hands along the stone round her left arm but was unable to free her. "Mustang! Help me!" He growled at the General who stood solemnly over the mutilated body of Ashley Crichton. Roy turned and quickly spanned the short distance.
"Winry, Ed, please lean as far away as you can." The two blondes complied and the General clapped his hands together and placed them on ether side of the mechanic's trapped arm. The stone dematerialized leaving her bruised arm free once more.
"Thanks." Winry rubbed her limb to improve the circulation but before she could get the blood flow going, Edward pulled her tightly into her arms.
"You, you're ok?" He squeezed her hard, worried she'd disappear.
"Fine. I'm fine." She let him hold her, she gave in, and felt grateful to feel his body not wanting to let go.
"I thought I'd lose you again." He sighed, his chin on her shoulder. "I'm not making that mistake, ever." Edward released her from his bear hug but still held her.
"He's dead." Mustang's grim voice broke them from each other's spell. He stood up from feeling for Ashley's non existent pulse.
"What about the Senator?" One of her guards hovered over her, trying to ascertain her condition. "Where's a doctor?!"
"Julia?" Edward, sill holding Winry, turned toward the prone girl. Mustang maneuvered around the corpse on the floor and placed a hand on the Senator's neck to feel for a pulse.
"She's alive. Huh?" Much to his surprise, the bandages around her face unraveled a bit revealing perfect, unblemished skin. He grasped the sheet with the makeshift human transmutation array and jerked it off her body.
"It worked, didn't it." Winry uttered as she placed her head on Edward's shoulder. She hoped Ashley's sacrifice was not in vain.
All of them slowly hovered around the bed to see the sleeping girl. The leg she lost years ago saving her brother and restoring his face had been returned. All the damage caused by the terrorist bombing was healed.
"Let me see." Finally a doctor came to inspect the senator, while another assessed her brother. He slowly removed her facial bandages revealing perfect pale skin. "Impossible!"
Julia Crichton was whole.
"Edward. I, I have to get out of here." Winry was just through with the hospital and everything that happened. Julia was still unconscious. She had just watched Ashley die. Alphonse was missing. With nothing more to contribute, the mechanic just wanted to slip into a coma for a few hours and regroup. "Take me back to Julia's house."
"Fullmetal, let me get a car to take you back." The General motioned to Hawkeye and she nodded in understanding.
"Stop calling me that." Ed growled and placed a protective hand around Winry's shoulder as the two exited the hospital intent on getting as far away from that place as possible. "We will walk, it's not far." Ed held on tight to his mechanic, fearing she'd get away from him again.
"Are you sure? It's starting to rain."
"We'll be fine, thank you." Winry sighed exhausted. She just wanted to sleep for twenty hours. As warm as it was, the rain would be a good thing too. She and Edward started walking away as the rain came.
"Sir!" A soldier in blue ran up to the officers. "Alphonse Elric has been spotted!" He panted.
"Al?" Edward turned at the mention of his brother's name.
"Take me!" Mustang turned on his heels and followed the lone soldier. Riza Hawkeye did not follow. She looked on the group of soldiers and smirked as she slowly but urgently carried off in another direction.
"Come on, Wirny!" Edward held her hand tight and hoped they both had the strength to keep up with the Amestrians. He had to find Al, he had to make sure he was safe too. Happily, the girl with him had the same determination despite her weariness.
"Damnit!" Ed didn't know where all the soldiers came from, they just appeared running down the street with them, overtaking them until he could no longer find General Mustang among the sea of blue. "Where did he go?"
"Over there!" Winry pointed to an alleyway where most of the Amerstrian soldier seemed to have congregated.
"Stand down Alphonse!"
"Al?" Ed's voice cracked and a chill went down his spine as he heard Mustang screaming at his brother. He'd heard that tone in his voice before. He'd heard it when Mustang had been determined to incinerate Envy in the bowel's of central on the Promised Day. Terrified, he pulled Winry quickly through the crowd of soldiers. He didn't care how, he was going to get to the front of them.
"Ed? What's going on?" Winry was scared too. Almost at her breaking point, the girl just couldn't handle one more tragedy this night.
"You stand down, Mustang!" Alphonse stood his ground, cut off from escape by a wall. Mustang stood before him, his hand raised and ready to launch his flame should Alphonse attack.
"Elric!" A gruff voice carried through the crowd and the men parted, whispering as they moved. "Listen to him!" Fuhrer Grumman and his entourage threaded their way to the front and stood next to Edward and Winry. "Just listen to us! Your power, your expertise would be an asset to your country!" The old man really wanted the alchemist to join their ranks.
"I spent my childhood as a military dog, no more!" The rage coming from the otherwise docile young man startled Ed and Winry.
"Al! C'mon! I'll figure something out, just back down!" Edward screamed, trying to knock some sense into his brother.
"No! Ed, I just want to get back to Xing. You know they are not going to let me leave!" He scrunched his eyes closed and slowly, things started to happen. "Everyone, just get outta my way!"
Just as in the hospital ward, items started to rattle and rise up in the dark alleyway. Rocks, sticks, garbage levitated up and hung suspended around the young Elric. General Mustang started to worry, he scowled and clenched his ignition hand.
"Alphonse! Please!" The General made one last attempt at getting the dangerous youth to submit.
"Brother." Al's amber gaze held fast to his brother's. "Don't give up."
"No." Edward muttered. He knew what Alphonse was going to do. He knew his brother felt trapped.
"Everyone! Move!" With a flourish of hurricane strength wind, Alphonse pushed the air out of the alley and toward the man threatening him. The objects, the projectiles started to fly.
Snap!
When they were little kids, Ed, Winry and Al were inseparable. They camped out in their front yards, they fished, climbed trees and got into a lot of trouble together. The trio shared the pain of losing parents. They shared the pain of losing limbs and body. They traveled together and grew up together. And, despite miles separating them at times, they always knew they'd reunite or would be a family unit. But, right now, right now and for the first time in their whole lives something actually succeeded in splitting the atomic bond of their love and friendship. Roy Mustang's fire had extinguished Alphonse Elric's life.