Quicksilver Chapter 5, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

A/n: Yo!

Random rabid reviewers: YOU'REEEEE LAAAAAATTTTTEEEE!!!! TT

O.o -has tomatoes thrown at her- Heh. Sorry about the lateness of this fic. It's rather hard writing this at the moment, but I'm trying. The fact that I recently went on a Naruto high and watched 117 episodes straight with no sleep and only breaks for food doesn't help either.

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FLASH!
Red
FLASH!
Blue
FLASH!
Green
FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASH
Swirls of colour so dazzling and stunning and beautiful, and is that black? What is that shape? A beautiful and stunning queen in a bright robe and a golden crown sitting upon her forehead, and dissolving into the multitude of rainbows and colours and gentle splishes of rain on a dreary day. Switching now, switching clearly to sunshine, bright sunshine, and a face, feminine, fine, fastidious, familiar. Beautiful, but plain at the same time, warm, and lost and distant and with long brown hair, and just a touch of lipstick, not much, after all, who is Trishia going to impress in a small town?
FLASH!
Yellow and warm and strong and kind, and arms wrapping about his frame in something that he can't quite remember. Contact without coldness, without the small tang of metal touching the air, infecting his nose. Small arms, warm arms, beautiful, kind, yet strangely meek, almost as if too afraid to grip tightly, as he just might shove away. "Brother..."
FLASH!
PURPLE! SCREAMS! DARKNESS! NO! Anything but this! Anything in the swirl of colour! Please no! Please! But it's there, the darkness, the fear, the cold eyes of truth staring down at him in a way that judged and held him, and dazzling white again, and slipping away from him. "Noooo!" Nowhere near perfect. Nowhere. No.

And it's drifting away, drifting slowly, as a male peacock strutted his glory and fanned the bright colores he contained in short, staggered bursts Each accompanied with a dazzling flash and though time moved forward development flew backwards, and there was something important, something he couldn't quite grasp in any of the static dances the peacock would present. A deafening roar.

And he knew that roar and feared it, feared the green lion as it soared over his head and ripped at the Peacocks neck, spilling entrails across the ground, as if afraid of what it could reveal to him, if not had revealed already. And blood dripping, dripping a scarlet red stain on the green around him, the lion turned, eyed him down, held him in the upmost contempt preparing to lunge...

"Brother..." A voice... soft, interrupting, gripping, attack! Blast! Get rid of! The stages are not through! Progression! Need progression! "BROTHER! WHAT ARE YOU!" The lion's roar covered the end of the statement, matching the yell that issued from his mouth, and the lion continued its onslaught. It leapt over the coils of the purple snake with ease, aiming for his jugular, and changing, moulding to a copy of himself, and then swiftly becoming a shadowed face, outlined in the bright white light and disappearing, in a rush of feathers.

White feathers! White everywhere, the swan dancing about him, and helping him scale a white mountain, even up into the clouds, and even though they were in their thousands, not a drop of rain tarnished the white cotton wool, except in one small area which came as soon as it went, even as he reached, reached and slipped as the mountain transformed suddenly into a black toad the size of a sky scraper, belching up ravens and black feathers, and the grey clouds face was swept away once more, leaving a trail of black soot in it's wake.

And the soot widened, widened into a realm of everlasting blackness, and with no foothold he fell, fell into the now-too-familiar expanse of mercury, as red lightning danced and swirled, only one blue bolt remaining, and he cringed aware of the pain coming, and gritting his teeth, he bore it as it struck...

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"FULLMETAL!"

Edward's eyes snapped open.

The charcoal haired man in front of him was glaring darkly. "Did you know," Roy Mustang snapped, his presence on the train unexpected, "That you can do alchemy in your sleep?"

"What are you doing here, Colonel?" He asked, his eyes still wishing to close in exhaustion and the desire to sleep. He couldn't bring himself to insult the man who was scowling in front of him.

"Alphonse, may I speak to your brother in private for a moment?" The colonel asked, showing a surprising amount of tact. Edward turned his eyes towards where his brother was... attached... to the wall of the carriage. "If he would be so kind as to let you go first?" Edward let out a gasp.

"Al! I'm so sorry!" Edward yelped, flying up, his braid flopping behind him, one strand of yellow straw being left behind, caught in a spider's thread. Clapping his hands swiftly, he released his brother from where he was stuck, lodged between the luggage rack, and the leather seat. For a brief moment, Edward saw a human imprinted over the metal suit, smiling at him, as Alphonse gave a small, tinny laugh.

"It's alright, Brother, you were asleep." The enchanted metal form clanked its way out of the compartment, the boy's superior taking the now empty seat. The man seemed almost surprised at the fact the leather was still cool.

Mustang opened his mouth to speak, but the sharp eyed boy beat him to it. "What are you doing here?" He snapped, his features set in a cold mask. The man across from him gave a small smirk.

"Your brother reported what happened between yourself and scar to me, as soon as he was back inside the train, Fullmetal. Unlike a certain short alchemist we all know, he did not immediately pass out."

Edward's vision was filled with a fine, red mist at that moment. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT THEY CAN BEFRIEND A MOUSE IN ITS HOLE???" A crackle of energy flew down his left arm, and a red bolt shot up from it. Anger calmed to confusion in an instant. "What the..?"

"And there is what I must talk to you about, Fullmetal." The smirk melted away from Mustang's face, as he stared into Edward's eyes in all seriousness. Edward looked back, startled to see that his were red. Blood red. Roy sighed. "Speak. What is happening? You are suffering from a lack of sleep, and your alchemical response is changing colour. What is going on, Fullmetal?"

"For once the great Roy Mustang doesn't have all the answers, huh?" Edward bit out, his eyes fading to gold. He sighed with relief. "All I know, is recently, I've been having weird dreams that leave me more tired when I wake up, than when I went to sleep. That, and this other fucked up crap about my eyes, and my alchemy."

Roy nodded; a crackle of some idea or another flicking past his face. "Have you ever wondered, Fullmetal, if your dreams and the 'symptoms' you are experiencing are interrelated?"

"Of course you bastard! I'm not an idiot!" Edward snapped, his eyes flashed red again, and he gulped.

"Tell me, Fullmetal, what do your dreams contain?" The man replied not in the least fazed by his subordinates' attitude. He had to deal with it on a regular basis, after all.

Edward turned away. "That's... private."

The smirk returned to Mustang's features. "Let me guess, a raven, a toad, a peacock, a lion, a queen and a swan." Edward looked up, suddenly startled.

"How did you...?"

"Know? I have a bit of reading for you, Fullmetal." Roy tossed a book across the table, and it slid into Edward's lap. He didn't look at its title. "You are relieved from this mission, Fullmetal, due to your current inability to control your alchemy. Its unpredictability is a danger to you and those around you. Thus, you will come back to Central to be isolated to prevent this danger."

Edward looked up at him sharply. 'What? I can't do that! I..."

"Will get angry." The flame alchemist cut over the top of him. "And your alchemy will react to this anger, as happened a few minutes ago. Think, Edward, what would your enemies do if they knew that the great Fullmetal Alchemist was having trouble controlling his Alchemy?" Mustang sighed.

Edward grunted resignation, the man had a point. "One of these days, I am going to kill you for fucking my life over like this."

Mustang grinned, a dangerous grin. "I look froward to it, Fullmetal. I expect you to catch the next train into central." He stood to leave. "And Edward? Do read that book, I think you'll find it most interesting." He stepped out of the carriage leaving a startled Edward in his wake. Nothing better to do, Edward looked down at the cover of the book he was holding.

"101 uses for tea... Why on earth would I want to read this?" Edward pondered, smirking, ever so slightly. "Unless... of course... it's in code."

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A/n: Feed a hungry authoress? -Kicks a box at her feet labelled 'will dance for reviews'-

P.S. This was written at 1 am. Be kind.