Chapter Title: EPILOGUE: Respect
Characters: Scar, Ed, Al
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: Nope
Warnings: Mild blood
Disclaimer: If I owned the show, Kimbly would have died the first time. Unfortunately, I don't own it. XP
A/N: Waaaaah, the last chapter! I'll miss this story! -sniffle- My first completed one. It's been a long road, and for all you reviewers who stuck with me, thank you. I love all of you to death, and I certainly hope you'll stick around through the sequel! Now I'm sure you're all more anxious to read the chapter than to hear me giving a speech, so here it is!
Scar returned to consciousness slowly. He ached all over, and his shoulder was throbbing unmercifully. He allowed a small groan to escape his lips as about twenty different kinds of pain decided to make themselves known. Wait a second…lips? A slight feeling of elation rose in his chest for the first time in a long time as he remembered that he was human again. And not only that, but Clara was dead. But how long had he been out? He slowly opened his eyes to see his surroundings. He was covered in blood, both his own and Clara's, and surrounded by a widening pool of it that was flowing from her corpse. But judging by the way most of the blood had dried, it had to have been at least an hour, possibly two. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, grimacing as the dried blood that had been basically gluing his shoulder to the ground came away and opened the wound again. Not to mention that his ribs were exceedingly unhappy with the fact that he was moving at all. But he would live. He glanced over to see that Ed had, as could be expected from anyone, fallen unconscious. He didn't look to be in too bad of a shape, so no doubt he would live as well. Then he heard shouting from outside.
"Search every building in the area until they are found!" a militant voice called out, followed by various 'yes, sir!'s.
'Time to go' Scar thought. He wasn't intending to let himself be seen by the military. Well, now he at least knew where Alphonse had gotten off to. They didn't seem to have entered his building yet, and he really didn't want to jump out of the window in his condition, as that would attract unnecessary attention and be rather painful besides. So he went down the stairs like a normal person, giving Ed one last look before he left. Ah, he'd let the boy go today. There was plenty of time for his promised revenge later, after all.
A short time later, a military troop discovered the room. After calling all the others back from searching with cries of "We've found him!", and sent Ed off to a hospital, they puzzled over the confusing scene. Obvious signs of a fight, the corpse of an AWOL State Alchemist, blood everywhere, and no signs of Scar anywhere. By the state of Clara's body, he had obviously been there, but did not seem to have been the one to have injured Ed. Nobody could really figure out why.
When Ed had regained consciousness, he had jolted upright and yelled "Scar!" before realizing where he was and calming down. His story had been that both he and Scar had been kidnapped by Clara, and that Scar had been able to get loose and kill her before she had killed them (it was almost the truth…). Al, who had been the one to get the military out there, backed up Ed's story. The fact that they had been turned into cats was never mentioned, although two officers had a mysterious experience in which rocks flew out of nowhere to hit them in the head. Ed had seemed rather smug the morning after this incident. As time passed, everything slowly returned to normal around Central.
Meanwhile, a solitary figure leaned against an alley wall on the outskirts of town, his crimson eyes staring up at the sky. His shoulder was nearly healed, and so he was ready to begin to go about his normal business of killing State Alchemists again. Although for one State Alchemist in particular he found himself feeling a tiny bit…of a grudging respect.
A/N: Told you it would be a short chapter. But…holy cow, it's over. My first FMA story that I wrote is also the first that I finished. Of course, now there's the sequel, as soon as I get that all figured out.
Scar: And as soon as you get your scanner working there are going to be several nice pictures up on your Homepage from this story.
Envy: Not to mention all those plot bunnies that have been dancing around in your head like there's no tomorrow.
Right. I dunno when I'll get the sequel started, because I have all this other stuff I want to write. Anyway, before I answer reviews, I'd just like to say again to all of you who have reviewed throughout the course of this story, that I love you all and you're the best reviewers in the whole world.
Darkness Shadow of Hatred: Hey, come back with my muse:)
Anasazi Darkmoon: You know, that's what was going through my mind as I wrote that…
crazyanimefreak15: Y'know, that's actually the part I got stuck on. Couldn't figure out how they would get their clothes back.
no one's friend: Yes, much easier to cuddle. And I think Scar would bite…hahaha.
Night-Owl123: Soon enough:)
LadyRiona: Go Scar! Whoohoo!
PhantomAlchemist: Yay for no more parental controls! And wow, he emailed you back? Ooooooo…
Lunatic Pandora1: Naw, I don't think that would ever happen in a million years. :p
Uniasus: Hehe, thanks. It is a very hard word to spell.
