Silent Song

Chapter 19: Wandering Souls

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullemetal Alchemist, only the original content in here.

I heard coughing.

Immediately, my mind went into overdrive, thinking the worst possible scenario. I attempted to calm myself down, telling myself that it was just sand or something of that caliber.

Once I had wiped the stricken feeling away, I knocked in the door. "Glory? Are you awake?"

Her soft voice answered. "Yeah. Come in."

I opened up the door, and found her sitting up in her bed, squinting at me through the dimness. I pulled the curtains open, and light flooded the room.

"How are you feeling? I heard you coughing." Unintentionally, my tone had become demanding.

Glory flinched a little at my command, and I softened. "I'm just making sure you're okay."

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me that much."

I sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress sinking a little under our combined weight. "Hey, if I don't worry, who will?"

She gave me a pout. "I'm supposed to be the one worrying, not you. You have to take care of the entire village." She let out a sigh, staring out the window. "I just wish I could do something."

"You don't have to do anything," was my reply. "I'm the older sister; it's my job to take care of you."

Glory was still staring out the window, probably only half-listening to my side of the conversation. I found her doing that a lot, especially after our parents' death. She would just sit there, glancing dreamily at the sky, sometimes for hours. I had offered to take her outside, but she said that it wasn't what she wanted.

"Do you believe in souls?"

I blinked hard. "What?"

"Souls, do you think they exist?"

I gaped at her, astounded that she had come up with such a strange question. When she looked expectantly at me, I closed my mouth, trying to think it over.

"No, not really."

"Why?" Glory tilted her head, her messy gold hair spilling on to her thin shoulders. She appeared to be a young child, even though she was eleven.

"All the feelings we get come from the amygdala. People use 'soul' like a loose term for mind. And the mind is the brain." I said truthfully. I had never been one for religion or philosophy. Psychology books defined the soul as just that.

"Then why do people say alchemy comes from the soul?"

I whipped my head around the perimeter of the room out of habit, paranoid that someone might be listening. Of course, no one was around, but I still leaned in and spoke in a low voice. "Alchemy works by us using the crust's energy. We control that by using our minds."

Glory's questions were sporadic. Her knowledge on alchemy was greater than mine, yet here she was, asking me about it. I began to get more worried.

"If souls don't exist, where do the dead go? Like Mom and Dad."

I froze. It was as if she had sprung a trap on me. Her eyes were as sharp and cunning as usual, but earnest as well. She really did want my answer.

I pushed myself off the bed, the springs squeaking in protest. "It's getting light. The patients need me."

"Okay."

I opened the bedroom door, and stepped out, but poked my head back in. "Let me know of you need anything."

"Alright."

Her head was down, and she didn't look up at me. The door closed shut behind me as I walked down the hall.

It was then that I realized that I really did not have an answer for Glory's last question.

My eyes snapped open. A light shined down on me, blinding my vision. I tried to move my arm to cover it, but my body screamed in protest.

I felt as I had been run over by a car. My body was sore all over, and the places I had been cut hurt like hell. Not only that, but it felt as if fire was running through my veins.

My head was pulsating, getting stronger by the second. I was parched; my throat completely dry. I felt my hair sticking to the sweat coating my forehead.

It hurt to keep my eyes open, so I closed them and passed out into a blissful blackness.

The next time I awoke, the sunlight was hitting my face. The headache had dulled down, only a small pulsating now, and my body still complained. A nurse stood by my bed, smiling at me pleasantly.

"Oh, good, you're awake." She said. "How are you feeling?"

I licked my chapped lips and mouthed, "Fine."

She nodded, looking down at her clipboard. "That's great. You passed out from exhaustion, so you're wounds aren't life-threatening. I do have to redress them, though."

I nodded, discovering a little knot in my neck. The nurse helped me sit up, a bit of a difficult task for me at the moment.

She unwrapped the bandages, and I couldn't help but stare at the marks. The inside of my wrists were fleshy, rubbed raw by the binds. I had slashes across my arms, all going the same direction. My leg wasn't much better off. The spike had torn through my clothes, and sheared my skin.

It wasn't the marks that surprised me though; it was what condition they were in. Instead of the gaping, painful wounds I had been expecting, they were the light pink of new skin. Somehow, my wounds had managed to heal overnight.

Judging by the nurse's face, she was perplexed as well. Cuts like I had gotten would take weeks to completely heal, but here they were, no tissue scarred.

"Funny," she muttered to herself. Then, she shrugged it off. "It looks like you're good now." She pointed to the corner of the room, where my bag was. "You'll be staying here until your friend fully recovers. Your belongings have been moved from your hotel."

I nodded my thanks, and the nurse turned to walk out the door. When she opened it, she was met by Maria Ross.

"Mr. Elric wants to know Miss Levington's current condition."

The nurse gestured toward me. "She is fine. She can go see him, if she likes."

Ross poked her head in and accessed me with a look of surprise. She smiled gently. "It's good to see you're okay. I bet Edward will, too."

I looked down at myself, noticing that I was only wearing a hospital gown. I held up a finger, and Ross nodded in understanding.

"I'll let you change. The boys are next door." With that, she let the nurse pass, and shut the door.

I slowly pulled myself off the bed, studying the rest of my body for injuries. Aside from bruises, and general stiffness, nothing was causing me pain. However, my body was shaky from lack of use.

I walked across the room, and rummaged through my belongings. After picking out a clean outfit, I dressed and went to the bathroom.

As I brushed my hair, I glimpsed at myself in the mirror. I had dark circles under my eyes, along with a few cracks on my lip. My normally bright eyes seemed a little flat, but I had no idea why.

After managing to make myself look half-decent, I went to go check on the boys. Brosh and Ross, guarding the door, let me in.

Edward was sitting on the bed, his body covered with various bandages. The automail arm was hanging from his body on a sling. His face lit up when he saw me.

"Lark, you're okay!"

I nodded as I sat in the stool next to his bed, tucking my dress under me. A clipboard on his nightstand told me that he had suffered only minor injuries.

Al remained silent in the corner of the room. He seemed as if he didn't want to be bothered. That type of behavior was extremely unusual for the boy.

Ed continued talking. "They told me that you ha a fever and were passed from it." He saw the confused expression I had on, and furrowed his brow. "Don't you remember what happened last night?"

I shook my head. I was remembering bits and pieces, but for now, all I knew was that I had been hurt somewhere in Lab Five and brought to the hospital.

Before Ed could explain what had gone down, the door opened, revealing Maes Hughes, followed by Ross and Brosh. Hughes waved at us jovially.

"Hey, Edward. I heard you guys have been up and around today."

"Yeah, a little." Ed said in good humor.

Hughes turned to Al. "How about you, Al? Been holding up, too?"

"Sure."

Al's response was clipped. I tried to meet his eyes, but he refused.

"Oh, I forgot," Maes hit his forehead and glanced at our bodyguards. "I haven't had a chance to eat lunch today."

Brosh, eager to please, immediately volunteered. "Oh, I'll get you some food, sir."

"Yeah," Hughes said thoughtfully. He directed his attention to Ross. "Lieutenant Ross, why don't you go with him?"

Ross looked as if she were about to argue with him, but she stopped herself. Instead, she saluted.

"Understood, sir."

"Thanks, I'm real hungry," Hughes remarked as she stepped through the door. "Just been so busy." He chuckled, but it sounded fake to me.

When we could no longer hear the clicking of her boots, Hughes dropped his airy facade, and pulled over a chair to sit next to Edward.

He adjusted his glasses, and said to us all, "About Lab Five. As far as the official military report goes, everything that was done there is considered collateral damage done by Scar as he was pursuing you. But needless to say, I'm not really convinced."

My eyebrows rose. Just those few sentences surprised me. Apparently, what had gone down in Lab Five had caused it to collapse. And in that equation, there was Scar, the state-alchemist killer.

Ed, however, didn't react to the information.

Hughes continued, fixing his gaze on the boy. "We found a lot of corpses we suspect were chimeras, and a great deal of sophisticated equipment I can't help think was working until yesterday. And surviving prisoners think they were taken there by Brigadier General Grande, who we both know is in a grave with an exploded skull. Ed, what the hell happened?" No reply. "Ed."

I tried to make sense of what Hughes was describing. A few memories surfaced in the back of my mind. A red room. A transmutation circle. A flash of blue light. But as soon as I reached for them, they slipped out of my grasp. I let out a frustrated puff of air.

Edward finally answered. "How should I know? I passed out."

Maes did not look at all convinced. "Don't give me that. Just tell me what you saw, will you?"

Complete silence. Aside from out breathing, all I could hear was the chirping of birds from outside. I wished that Ed would hurry up and answer. Maes wasn't the only one wondering about the night before.

"Homunculi."

Ed's one word answer made me do a double take. Homunculi? Somehow, I wasn't as shocked as I should have been. A voice in my head told me that it was something I already knew.

Hughes, in the other hand, was as astounded as I should have been. "You're kidding me. Artificial people?"

"That's right. Believe me, they weren't human at all."

"So they're connected with the Philosopher's Stone?" Out of habit, Hughes leaned in and lowered his voice as he spoke.

"I'll say," Ed sad dryly. "They tried to convince me to create a stone to make them human. And worse, they wanted me to use those prisoners to pull it off."

Slowly, as Ed spoke, memories came back on their own. Each time he mentioned something, the thought popped back into my head.

"That's hard to believe." Hughes shook his head.

"Tell him, Al." Edward jerked his head toward his brother. "Isn't that right?"

"Yes."

Maes seemed to believe Al. "What did they look like? Have I seen them before?"

"Do you have paper? Maybe I can draw some of them."

After seeing Edward painstakingly draw a crooked line that was supposed to represent a mouth, I left the room to find some water to drink. Not that I could judge. The most I could draw was a transmutation circle. Even my handwriting was almost indecipherable.

When I came back into the room, Ed was introducing his cartoonish drawings to Maes.

"A guardian who's soul was attached to armor, a psychopath named Envy, tattoos of Ouroborus: the snake that devours its own tail, and the arrays to make a Philosopher's Stone. Those are the things I saw in there, Hughes."

I stopped listening after that. One look at Ed's drawing told me all I needed to know. Despite the unaligned eyes and disproportionate body, it was my old friend Envy.

It was then that my memories surged back at me.

"Surprise."

"It's more fun when you find these things out by yourself."

I gripped the side of the chair, trying to keep my expression neutral. The betrayal I felt was consuming, and I didn't pay attention to the rest of the conversation Hughes and Edward were having.

"Lark? You there?"

I snapped out of my trance to see Ed and Maes looking down at me with some worry. Quickly I nodded, not sure what they had been talking about.

Hughes stood up. "Thanks for the information, Ed. I'll take it from here. Now get some rest. Why don't you kids just worry about yourselves for a while?" Then turned to me, and said, "Can I see you in the hall for a second?"

I followed him out, and as soon as the door clicked shut behind us, his face became dead serious. From under his jacket, he pulled out a sheath of papers. "Sheska wants you to have these."

I realized with a jolt that those were the profiles I had asked Sheska to write down. Hughes handed them to me and continued.

"She wanted to come herself, but she had a lot of work to do. I told her that I was visiting, so I could give these to you."

I nodded. The way the conversation was going told me that Maes had something important to say.

"I don't mean to pry, but I took a look at these." Again, I fought to keep my face expressionless. "I know these two are your parents: Roy told me."

I assumed "Roy" was Mustang, due to the fact his nameplate at his desk had read "R. Mustang". I wasn't surprised that Mustang had told Hughes. I had suspected that they were good friends.

"I don't know what you want with them, and I know it's not my job to ask. Just be careful. I don't want you digging yourself into a hole you can't get out of."

Brosh and Ross came by a few seconds later, holding a lunch tray full of food. Unintentionally, my stomach let out a growl. Maes glanced at me, then took the tray out of their hands, and gave it to me. With a quick farewell, Hughes headed back to his office.

Before they could ask what had happened, I moved past Ross and Brosh, into my room.

I quietly shut the door behind me, and sat down crossed legged on my bed, not caring that my skirt bunched up around my waist.

The feeling that I had been holding in came to the surface, and I allowed them. They burst out like a whirlwind, so many emotions at once.

The first ones I deciphered were anger and betrayal. Envy had clearly known more things about me, things I never told him. There were so many mysteries surrounding him, and he took advantage of it. He was with the enemy, people who were trying to cause harm to me.

The next was confusion. Were the people in Lab Five actually homunculi? What were they planning to do with me? Why did Envy become friends with me in the first place?

Why could I still feel his arms wrapped around me, defending me against the claws of Lust?

My head started hurting again, so I stopped thinking about it. To distract myself, I flipped open the folder on my lap, and began reading through.

The first page was a picture of my mother. Somehow, Sheska had managed to find one. My mother was young, maybe in her late teens or early-twenties. Her soft blond hair was flowing down her back, her blue eyes looking directly at the camera. She had a slight smile on her face, giving her a pleasant demeanor. Just looking at her calmed my nerves. I remembered how, when I was younger, she would tell Glory and me stories before we went to bed. We would listen to them in amazement, riveted by the talking animals and beautiful princesses, soothed by her gentle voice.

Under her picture were my mother's full name and some other information.

Full name: Natasha Joan Hearst

State Given Name: The Healing Alchemist

Date of Birth: February 24, 1871

Place of Birth: Central Hospital, Central City, Amestris

Date Joined: 1890

Rank: Major, State Alchemist

I stared at the paper. My mother had only been nineteen when she joined the military, eighteen if it had been before her birthday. I knew Edward had been twelve when he became a state alchemist, but my mother's age was still impressive. And knowing that the military didn't favor women, this was amazing. I kept reading.

Abilities: specializes in medical alchemy (non-combative), experienced in medical field

Notes: Hearst developed an alchemic formula for treating internal bleeding, and...

I moved past the pages, deciding I could read them later. I stopped when I got to my father's picture.

He was older than my mother in his picture. He had managed to tidy up his usually unruly hair, but a few dark strands still stuck out. His brown eyes stared a little past the camera, a bit dazed as usual. My mother always teased him about it, and he took it in stride. I smiled a little bit.

Full Name: Ethan Daniel Levington

State Given Name: The Vine Alchemist

Date of Birth: September 19, 1869

Place of Birth: Dublith, Amestris

Date Joined: 1892

Rank: Major, Lieutenant Colonel, State Alchemist

Abilities: specializes in agricultural alchemy (combative and non-combative), mnemonic memory, trained in martial arts

Notes: Levington created an alchemic formula for making plant hybrids, along with...

So, my father had become a state alchemist after my mother had. To be truthful, I wasn't surprised by that. My mother had always been more focused, more ambitious, more serious. On the other hand, my father tended to get distracted more easily, and had a laid back outlook on life. They were almost polar opposites.

Someone knocking on my door jolted me out of my concentration, and I scrambled to hide the file I had been reading. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a surprise visitor.

"Lark! It's so good to see you!" Winry flounced into the room. She stopped, and turned to inspect me. "I'm glad you're okay, though, I can't say for the boys."

Judging by her scowl when she mentioned the boys, she had already seen them. There was no doubt that I was in better shape than them, but my miraculous recovery still bothered me.

Quickly, I gave Winry a hug in greeting. She set her things down, and sat down on the stool by my bed. I settled down on the bed across from her.

She let out a sigh. "What have you guys done this time? I got a call from Ed yesterday, saying that he was in the hospital. The idiot broke his automail again."

I recalled the faint popping in Lab Five when Edward tried to use alchemy against Envy. Ed's arm had just slumped down like it wasn't connected at all.

Winry was looking sad again, so I sprang off the bed. She glanced up as I handed her a paper I had written on.

"Since you're here, do you want to explore the city with me? I bet they have a lot of interesting stores here." It read.

She immediately brightened up. "Are we going to use Ed's money?"

Despite the image of an angry Edward in my mind, or maybe because, I smiled and nodded.

I hoped Winry wouldn't get attached to something too expensive.

By the time we came back to the hospital, it was sunset. Shopping with Winry brought a strange normalcy to my life. It was a thing two regular teenage girls would do, something I had never had the chance to do.

To be honest, Winry kept on getting distracted by any piece of machinery on the street, while a trip to the bookstore almost trapped me inside the science section. Our solution was to go to the clothing district, where we might have been the only girls not squealing over the mannequins in the windows. But my clothes had been ruined in the lab, so I needed new ones.

We dropped our bags off in my room, where Winry was staying. Her express train ticket to Central had cost quite a sum of money, so she was staying in military housing with us to compensate.

Ed was done with his dinner by the time we walked in, where Winry greeted him with a cheery, "How are you doing? Looks like you're done with your dinner."

Edward noticed the toolkit she held in her hand, and let out a hefty sigh.

"Don't be a baby. It won't hurt much." Winry retorted. She noticed the glass of untouched milk on his tray. "You didn't drink your milk."

Her tone was extremely accusatory. I had gotten used to Ed's diversion of milk over the time. When Ed had first stayed at my house, my questioning of why he didn't drink his milk gave me strange answers like, "It's from a cow's nipples" or "Freaking cow juice". In the end, I gave him calcium pills, but his lack of intake still worried me.

"Can't drink it." He muttered, not making eye contact with his friend. "I hate milk. It's like drinking vomit."

Winry shoved the bottle in his face. "Drink it! Milk's good for you!"

Ed shoved the glass back at her. "Forget about it! I hate it! It tastes bad! I can't drink this crap!"

"Argh!" Winry cried in frustration. "This is why you'll always be the size of a bean!"

"A bean?!"

"Yeah, a bean," Winry tipped her head to the younger Elric for backup. "Right, Al?"

"Just do what she says, Ed. Drink the dumb milk."

I was astonished by his tone. It was nothing like the soft and gentle lilt he usually had.

Ed's eyes widened at his brother's command. "Yeah, sure. Easy for you to say, Al. You're lucky. You didn't have to drink any of it to get that big."

"Shut up. It wasn't my choice to be this way."

The aura of the room had darkened. Everybody went silent because of the hostility in Alphonse's words. I bit the inside of my cheek, nervous about what was to happen next.

"Right, Al. I'm sorry." Ed said, breaking the quiet.

I looked between them. Al was being uncharacteristically bitter, while Ed had become more withdrawn. Something I hadn't seen had happened in Lab Five, and created a fray in the fabric of their relationship.

Winry noticed as well. "Hey, what's wrong with you guys? Are you fighting? Al?" He didn't answer, and Winry whipped her head back to Ed. "I've never seen him like this. Are you guys fighting?"

Edward didn't give an answer. He avoided eye contact with his childhood friend, a dead giveaway that he had a secret he was hiding from us.

"Why is that? I've known you my whole life, and you don't tell me anything. I'm standing here worrying about you guys, yet you don't have the decency to tell me why you're fighting! Or how you got hurt! Or anything important! It's always secrets with you!"

Still no reply.

"I don't care anymore!"

Winry stormed out the room, the door slamming behind her. I stayed where I was, shocked by her outburst. I knew that the feelings had been building up inside her, and that this fight between the brothers was the breaking point. She must have been one sentence away from tears.

"Lark," Ed said tiredly. "Can you talk to-"

I slammed my fist into the wall, interrupting him. Both of the Elric's head whipped toward me, what I had been going for.

No, I signed in sharp movements. This isn't my job. I can't do damage control for every time you do something stupid. She's your childhood friend, and if you keep treating her like this, you'll lose her. I know that you know that you need her just as much as each other, so do this yourself.

I disliked creating an outburst, but the brothers needed to hear (or see) that. And I also felt like I was scolding myself. Without waiting for an answer, I excused myself out of the room.

I ran into Maes and Winry in the hallway back to my room. Maes greeted me with a smile.

"Hey, Lark. It's Elisia's birthday today, and I'll be taking Winry with me. Do you want to come?"

I shook my head, but bid them farewell. I shut myself in my room, and collapsed on the bed.

I was starting to get a migraine.

I smacked my pillow for the fifteenth time in annoyance.

Winry had gone over to the boys' room to fix Ed's arm. She had come back later the night before, tuckered out, but not as upset as she had been. Apparently, Hughes had given her some advice, so I didn't have to do anything.

I was reading the folder containing information on my parents. So far, all I had read were notes on their research and assignments. Nothing useful enough to solve why they had the book published in 1900.

What I had gleaned from my mother's files was that she worked with Doctor Marcoh in Lab Three to create new antibiotics. She remained at the major rank, which all state alchemists started out as. Her research fund was renewed every year for the cure of a disease.

My father worked on the field. He made arrests, overthrew people working to undermine the government, and apparently caused property damage. How he did that with agricultural alchemy was beyond me. Most of his assessments were battles, which he always seemed to win.

I was reading both their files chronologically, which turned out to be a lot more troublesome than I wanted it to be. Not to mention, I could imagine Envy making snide comments in the back of my mind.

I could remember a few times that he had entered my house while I had been reading a book, and read over my shoulder without me knowing. When he finally spoke up, he would scare the shit out of me, and cackle like a mad man.

Then, he would pluck the book out of my hands, and read sections out of it, calling it useless or boring. If any words longer than ten letters were used, he would call the author a "pretentious idiot", and when the wording became confusing, he would dare to write over the print.

To be honest, I would agree with him. He was a whole lot smarter than I was, not that he or I would admit that.

Just thinking about it brought up a swirl of uncalled for emotions. I had learned to distract myself from the feelings by rereading the same paragraph until the words became ingrained in my mind.

By the time it was noon, I had only read to the year 1895. Just a few years covered so many pages of information. All I had discovered by that information was that they were both still affiliated with the military. Nothing drastic had happened, aside from the fact that my father had been stationed in Central after working so long in the south.

Clouds had gathered outside, preparing for rain. I stopped reading because my eyes were starting to get sore. I heard a flurry of movement outsider door, and barely had enough time to put my papers away before Edward and Winry ran into my room.

Both of them had an expression of panic on their faces.

"Al..." Ed said, trying to catch his breath. "He just ran away!"

Ed and Al had had another falling out. Al accused Ed of giving him artificial memories, saying that the boy Alphonse Elric had never actually existed. I faintly recalled the strange creature in Lab Five claiming to develop memories to recreate a person. Al had taken that remark personally, and become upset. The brothers had gotten into an argument over it, and Al had run off into the city.

After hearing that, I joined Ed and Winry in search of the boy. I hadn't forgotten that we had seen Scar in Lab Five, and there was no news that he had been caught. He was most likely in the city as well, and we couldn't risk Al facing him alone.

In the past, I would have sided with Alphonse. I didn't believe souls were actual things, just an old myth to describe feelings and thoughts. Memories were more believable; just pieces of information.

But now, after finding out about the Philosopher's Stone and discovering more in the world, I had learned the soul was an important thing. It was as real as an eye or a nose, but much more complicated and harder to explain with science.

We searched for hours, but barely found a trace of him. We were all terribly panicked, thinking the worst could have happened. It had never occurred to me before, but if the rest of the military found out that Al was a soul bonded to steel, them they would want to experiment on him. That thought scared me, urging me to find him.

The sun fell, and day became night. We stopped by a phone booth to call Ross to ask if Al had gone back to the building.

I couldn't hear Ross's side of the conversation, but I could hear Winry's.

"Hi, Lieutenant Ross, it's Winry."

A crackle of noise from Ross's end.

"We couldn't find him anywhere."

Another indistinct sentence. Suddenly Winry's face grew animated.

"Really? You heard from Al?"

We exchanged hopeful glances. More noise.

"What? Where is that?"

Another line of static.

"Okay, thanks!"

Winry slammed the phone back into its holder. She turned to us.

"Al went to the hill outside the city. Apparently, somebody was kidnapped, and Al's heading there to get him."

"That's just a mile from here!" Ed cried. Before he could explain more, he sprinted in the direction. I had no choice but to follow.

A fight was going on when we arrived. There was a house on the hill, lights still on. I could see Al sparring off with a strange suit of armor holding two butcher's knives. Nearby, under a tree, a small group of Ishvalans were gathered there, watching the fight with nervousness. Off to the side, I spotted Scar fighting a military man with a strange contraption on his back.

As I neared them, I saw the suit of armor was leaping toward Al with its knives raised. Edward immediately jumped on front of his brother, his automail arm blocking the blow.

"You leave him alone!"

"Ed... Brother," Al gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"That's a stupid question!" Winry came up the hill behind us. "We've been worried sick about you. He's been looking for you all over Central!"

The strange suit of armor raced at Ed, but Al leapt forward and knocked it backwards into the wall of the house. There was a large, gaping hole in it, and a large group of men holding assorted weapons were gathered inside. They fired them at us, but Ed created a wall using alchemy.

We ducked behind it, feeling it shake as bullets hit it.

"Al, all this time, I've been too afraid to ask you, but I need to know the truth, okay?" Ed yelled over the noise. "It's my fault you don't have a real body anymore. Do you hate me?"

The enemy ran out if ammunition and we let the barrier fall.

"What?" Al stared at Ed in surprise.

"Do you? I wouldn't blame you if you did, Al, but I've got to know. Do you hate me for all that's happened?"

"That's what you've been trying to ask me?"

I punched Al's arm to notify him of the strange armor flying toward us, and in turn, he punched the thing up into the air.

"Brother, I could never hate you!"

The next few minutes became a blur. The men rushed at us, but they were no match. Grass, controlled by my alchemy, crawled over their bodies, keeping them from moving. Edward trapped them inside a steel jail, until only one man was left.

He and Scar were at a draw, currently staring at each other, waiting for the other to strike recklessly.

"Shoot!" yelled the man. "Somebody, shoot him!"

Of course, nobody did. Ed stepped forward.

"Time to give up. It looks like you're the only one who's left here."

The man whirled around. "Who the hell are you?"

"Dog of the military, just like you." Edward said, looking pointedly at the man's uniform.

"You're a state alchemist? But that doesn't make any sense! We're on the same side!"

Before any of us could question that, the armored being appeared again. "Well, this is a surprise. A real state alchemist! Please allow me to thank you, for making me look like this!" His mask crumbled, revealing nothing underneath. He was another soul bonded to armor.

He ran at us, intent on slashing us to pieces. A person streaked past us. Scar.

Scar's arm lit up with red sparks, and tore through the armor's shell. The armor shrieked while it soared across the air, landing on the military man. The contraption he was wearing began spitting out electricity, shocking him and the armor. The armor screamed in agony, while the man cried, "Stop it! Get it off of me!"

He managed to slip the malfunctioning device off of his back, and made a run for it. My plants stopped him, wrapping around his legs. He fell down and clawed at the grass, but soon, they were crawling over his arms.

Just then, the device exploded, shooting out multitudes of spikes. They flew out in different directions, and I saw one strike a child in the chest.

The panic and anger and fear that I had been holding back let loose, channeling into my alchemy. The vines grew wild, thickening and squeezing his body. The man squealed like a pig, choking, gasping for air. The plants began covering his face.

"Rick!"

Another child shouted the boy's name. The anguish in his voice snapped me out of my frenzied state. I lifted my hands off the ground, and the plants loosened, but still kept a firm grip. I could hear the man gulping down air, something I had been depriving him of.

I stared at my hands, the ones that had healed so many people. The same ones that had nearly killed a man.

More panic and fear rose up inside, but this time, when I pushed them down, I made a promise. Terrible things happened when emotions and alchemy mixed. It had already happened to me a few times.

There would be no next time.

Oh my god this is such a jumbled mess. I think I meant for something different to happen, but then something came over me and this came out. T^T

Is it just me who gets inexplicably emotional when I sit down to write? I mean, I was listening to "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" from Frozen and I almost started crying. I didn't even cry during the movie. Mehhhhh...

A few questions: Does anyone actually care about what happens to Lark when it's not related to Envy? Also, should I write a special chapter about Lark's parents? It would include a lot of fluff, which this story is lacking right now.

Let me know your thoughts in either a review or a PM. Thanks to those who reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. To those who haven't: Please do so.