Until the End

By Gozilla


A/N: Thanks a lot to those of you who read and reviewed the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I don't have anything. So don't sue me!

Please excuse my poor English. -

Reviews are most welcomed!

Enjoy!


Chapter 4: The Search


The next day-

Mustang sat on the chair placed beside Edward's bed while the other stood behind him. They could not take their eyes off the young state alchemist sitting on the bed as he explained everything from the moment the brothers got the philosopher's stone to yesterday morning.

Their hearts were heavy as they found out how Edward restored his brother and how he got his new automail limbs. Edward was too busy thinking about his brother to notice the winces on the others' face when he briefly mentioned he "lost his remaining arm and leg during the transmutation".

Edward explained how he encountered Lust and Envy in Rizenbul, and how he managed to escape from them.

When he had finished, everyone was quiet in shock. Even Mustang was shocked as, though he had roughly figured out what happened, it was far more dramatic with the details. Armstrong was already drowning in his own tears as he hugged Edward tightly (almost suffocating the young state alchemist), appraising the deep bond between the brothers.

"So what are you planning to do, Fullmetal?" Mustang asked, after separating Edward from the death grip of Armstrong. "You know you can't defeat the sins on your own."

"I don't know." Edward whispered, "I can't just leave Al wondering somewhere out there without the knowledge that we are being chased by the sins. I have to find him before the sins do. I will then figure out with Al what we will do."

"Not a wise plan," Mustang said, "but it seems to be the only feasible one at the moment." He turned to face the others, "Armstrong, Hawkeye and I will go to find Alphonse Elric with Fullmetal. For the rest of you, return to Central and wait for my orders. If anyone asks, just say that we are on a classified mission and will report to duty soon."

The officers saluted to Mustang and Armstrong before moving out of the room. Once the others were left, Edward said to Mustang, "You don't have to do that, Mustang. It is a private matter between the sins and I. There is no need for any outsider to get involved."

Mustang turned to Edward and, suddenly, punched the young alchemist hard on the face. Edward fell on the bed at the impact, shocked.

"Stop the nonsense!" Mustang shouted angrily, "Why didn't you come for my aid when you brothers are in trouble?"

Edward looked at his superior in surprise. A small smile appeared on his swelling face as he finally realized what Hawkeye was talking about. He could feel the almost brotherly concern under Mustang's harsh words.

After a few moment of silence, Edward broke the silence. "So... I presume that you people will go to Paromo with me to find Al, right?"

A nod and a smile from Armstrong and Hawkeye confirmed the answer. Mustang, on the other hand, simply looked out of the window.

Edward smiled a little at the lack of reaction from the Taisa, "I guess it means we need to buy a few more train tickets to Paromo then."


Five days later-

The few people on the Paromo station platform could not stop but stared in amusement at the gigantic figure standing beside the train. There were three persons standing beside the giant man, all of them in thick, casual wear. The weather was chilling and thick grey cloud covered the sky, threatening to snow at any time.

"I told you that if you don't want to attract attention, you should not bring along such 'attraction' along." Edward said in annoyance, thumb-pointing the sparkling Armstrong standing behind him.

"I told him to return to Central." Mustang said in frustration, "He was the one insisted to come long."

"How can I leave you and your brother to face such dangerous situation alone?" Armstrong said as tears started pouring down his big face, and pink stars flashing around him, "What a beautiful bond between brothers! I am so touched by the sacrificial acts you two!"

"Enough." Edward and Mustang said in unison, sweat dropping.

"Taisa." Hawkeye said in her usual calm voice, "I suggest you to move on if you don't want to attract any more attention."

The three state alchemists looked around and noticed that almost everybody in the train station was watching them curiously.

Embarrassed, they quickly left the train station and went to the nearby market. The weather was cold and it was starting to snow. They knew they don't have much time and decided to separate to search for Alphonse.

Edward took out the photo taken in Rizenbul a fortnight ago. The photo was taken by Winry when the brothers were practicing and wrestled together childishly. Edward took it away from Winry's photo album by saying that it would be too embarrassing for anyone to see the photo. But in the depth of his heart, he was more than happy to see the cheerful smiling faces returned to them. So he kept the photo in his wallet and took it wherever he went.

Edward smiled bitterly as he had never imagined that, only a fortnight later, he would need to show the photo to, not only the military people, but many strangers on a desperate attempt to find his brother. Without second thought, Edward started asking people in the market whether they have seen Al.

It was not long before someone recognized Al's face. After searching for over four hours, Mustang called off the search as it started snowing and was getting dark. The four of them checked in to a small inn for the night.

They ordered dinner to be delivered to Armstrong's room in order to prevent strangers to overhear their conversation. They re-organized the information they gathered during the day.

"It seems that Alphonse has left the town area three days ago." Armstrong said as he put a big piece of steak into his mouth.

"The flower lady said that she overheard Alphonse saying that he would go to a small village located in the valley of the snowy mountains we saw from the train station. Not a good idea in such cold weather." Mustang added as he sipped the hot tea.

Edward sat quietly, staring at the food placed in front of him. Dark eye bags formed beneath his golden eyes.

"Ed, are you alright?" Hawkeye was the first one to notice the silence of the young state alchemist. But she did not receive any response. Mustang and Armstrong looked up in concern as Hawkeye touched Edward's shoulder and asked again, "Ed, are you alright?"

Edward was surprised by the touch. He looked around and saw the concerned look on Hawkeye's face. "I... I am fine. Don't worry." Edward gave her an assuring smile.

"You should eat something, Ed." Hawkeye said as she noticed the untouched food in front of the young state alchemist, "You haven't eaten anything properly since we left the Central. Are you sure you are alright?"

"I am fine." Edward smiled and said, "I am just tired. I want to go to bed. Enjoy your meal." He left and headed towards his room before the others could say anything. He went straight to his room and locked the door behind him. Without switching on the light, he sat on his bed and stared at the floor.

Edward felt the heaviness weighting over his chest increasing over the past few days. He lost all his appetite and he could not sleep without having nightmares of Al being in danger some way or the other. He was extremely worried over the safety of his brother, not only about the harsh weather, but also the sins who were hunting the brothers.

Edward sighed in exhaustion and looked up to the sky with tired eyes.

"Al, where are you?"


The next morning -

The weather got worse overnight. A heavy snow storm hit the town and the temperature had dropped dramatically. The heavy snowfall made it almost impossible to go outdoors.

"But Al is out there!" Edward shouted as he leaned over the table, "We have to find him as soon as possible! He could be in danger somewhere out in the mountains!"

"That's why we can't risk making more people in danger." Mustang said calmly, "The weather is too harsh for us to go out. Especially you, Fullmetal, look at you, you are too weak to go out in such heavy snow storm."

"I am not weak!" Edward said in annoyance, turning away to avoid eye contact with the others, "I... I am fine."

"You are not fine, Edward." Armstrong said in concern, "And you knew it."

"It is nothing compare to the safety of Al!" Edward shouted angrily.

"It won't help if you become the one who needs to be rescued." Mustang said coldly, staring straight into the young alchemist's eyes. "Decision is made. End of discussion. Go to your room and get some rest. We will see if we can resume our search tomorrow."

Edward quietly walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, his head lowered and shoulders slumped in defeat.

The three look at the closed door in silence.

"It is good that he is listening to you, Taisa." Armstrong said as he nodded appraisingly.

But Mustang and Hawkeye looked at the closed door, both sensing something amiss.

"It is not like him..." Mustang said hesitantly, frowning. Before he finished the sentence, Hawkeye rushed out of the room and charged into Edward's room.

There was no one in the room. The window was opened and swinging dangerously in the strong wind. Edward's coat was no where to be seen.

Hawkeye rushed back to Mustang's room, "Taisa! Edward is gone!"

"Dammit!" Mustang cursed as he took his coat from a nearby empty chair, "I should have known he is not giving up so easily! We have to get him back! Go, he shouldn't be far!"

Armstrong was about the leave as he sensed danger. He swung his fist in front of him, just in time to push away a spear-like object shot through the closed door, which was aimed to nail him through his chest.

"Show yourself!" Mustang turned, fingers pointing at the door in firing position. Hawkeye, on the other hand, knelt in another corner of the room with her gun aimed at the door.

Suddenly the door was being sliced into dozen of pieces and fell on the floor. A figure stood in front of the entrance, "Good reflection. But you won't get away next time." She said as she licked gently on her razor-sharp nails.

Mustang narrowed his eyes dangerously and flicked his fingers. A huge fireball shot straight at one of the sins, Lust.

An hour later, in the mountain -

The snow and wind hit mercilessly on the lone figure walking slowly along the track almost completely covered by snow.

Edward struggled to make every step over the knee-deep snow and against the strong wind and heavy snow-fall.

'Why the hell do you have to go to places like this, Al?' Edward thought, not really meant to blame his brother, just a way to release a bit of frustration accumulated in his mind.

Suddenly, Edward fell into a shadow pit hidden by the snow. Cursing under his nose, Edward struggled to get out of the pit. However, with only loose snow around him, he had great difficulty finding a spot to hold on for support.

Out of nowhere, Edward felt himself being lifted from the pit and thrown roughly to the nearby ground. He looked up and was surprised to see a familiar figure standing in front of him, "Tai... Taisa?"

"Do you think you can run away from me, Fullmetal?" Mustang looked at the young state alchemist with disgusted eyes. "Hurry and lead the way!"

Edward looked at Mustang for a while, sensing something not being right. But he could not tell what it was. A whirl of strong wind broke Edward's train of thoughts. He looked up at the darkening sky and knew that the weather might change to the worst at any moment. Putting aside his uncomfortable feeling about the sudden appearance of Taisa, he got up and headed towards the village which his brother might be staying.

Unaware by Edward, an evil smile appeared briefly on Mustang's face before it was replaced by the Taisa's usual stone-calm face.


Three hours later -

Edward dragged his exhausted body along the thick snow, heading towards the depth of the valley. An hour ago, Edward and Mustang reached the small village among the mountains.

To Edward's dismay, the villagers told him that his brother went to the depth of valley a day ago in order to repair a bridge linking the village to the other side of the mountain, which was damaged in the last snow storm a few months ago.

Ignoring the villagers' urge for him to wait for the storm to cease before he continued with his search for his brother, Edward headed straight into the depth of the valley, fearing that Al might be in danger in such harsh weather. Mustang followed him without saying a word.

After two hours of struggle in the thigh-deep snow, Edward felt his body was falling apart in exhaustion. The heavy automail limbs were like dead-weight on his weakened body. His vision was starting to blur when they finally arrive at the damaged bridge.

Edward inspected the bridge and confirmed that the foundation was being repaired with alchemy. The bridge itself was yet to be repaired.

But there was no trace of Al.

"Al!" Edward shouted with all his strength over the strong wind. "Al! Where are you? Al!" Mustang stood silently with cold eyes nearby.

"Al!" Edward shouted harder as his heart burnt with worries. "Al! Please answer me! Al! Where are you?"

"Niisan?" came a distanced voice.

"Al?" Edward shouted in excitement, "Al! Where are you?"

"I am here, nissan!" the voice became closer and shape of a figure gradually appeared behind the thick sheet of snow fall.

Edward rushed towards the figure and hugged his brother tightly. "Al! I am so glad I found you!"

Al was confused by the action of his brother. But he was more than happy to see his brother and returned the hug. "Niisan, why are you here? Winry and grandma said that you should take more rest as your body is still recovering from the automail surgery."

"We have to get out of here quickly, Al." Edward released his brother, "The sins are after us. No, they are after the philosopher's stone. They found me back in Rizenbul. You cannot let them find you. Come on, let's go."

Edward took Al's hand and was about the leave the place when a sword-like object cut through his left abdomen. He fell to the ground and threw up a mouthful of blood onto the white snow.

"Niisan!" Al shouted in horror as he saw his brother fell to the ground. He turned to look at the attacker and was shocked by what he saw. Mustang stood behind Edward, with his right arm transformed into a sword.

"Good work, Fullmetal-chibi." a non-Mustang voice came out from the man's mouth.

"Envy..." Edward spoke painfully, "How can I be so careless..."


End of Chapter 4

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