2. Human Alchemy-The Forbidden

Mika left with Rikku before Al and I got to say anything else.

"We have to go brother! He might hurt Rikku!" Al said with a worried look on his face.

"I know," I said. "Lets go."

We ran as fast as we could. After about half an hour we finally got there.

"If you wish… I'll kill you now, that way you won't have to deal with the pain of your friends' death…" came Mika's voice, faintly through the door.

Al gasped.

"Let's get in there," I said. "Quickly." Al and I worked together to break open the door. Mika's gun was pointed at Rikku.

"Leave her alone!" I yelled.

"And what are you kids going to do if I don't?" asked Mika, turning around and lowering the gun.

"I'll… I'll…" I stuttered, trying to think of what to do.

Rikku, who had been struggling the whole time, finally broke through the chains and paused. "You don't want to move," Mika said. Finally, Rikku started running towards me, but Mika grabbed her hair and lifted her.

"Ouch! Let go of me!" she shouted as she started to struggle again.

"Sorry baby I just can't do that," Mika said.

"Put her down!" I shouted.

"Leave her alone!" Al yelled at the same time.

"You want her down?" Mika asked, an evil smile forming on his face. "Fine," he raised his gun towards Rikku, "I'll put her down."

"Oh my God!" Shrieked Rikku. She was hiding it before, but now Rikku's panic was bursting out of her.

"L…l…leave her alone!" Al was panicking too.

"NOO!" I shouted. I started running towards Mika.

CRACK! He fired. Mika dropped Rikku to the ground. She was still alive, but barely. I was angrier than I'd ever been in my whole life. I stopped running.

"Unfortunately, I must continue my search for another," Mika said, starting to turn around. "She probably wasn't the one anyway…" He shrugged and took a step forward.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away!" I said.

"Ed! You can't! You need a…"

I knew perfectly well what I needed. I just didn't care. I started running, again, towards Mika. I clapped my hands together and touched the ground. In a flash of light, thorny vines reached and grabbed hold of Mika.

"transmutation circle…" Al continued slowly, shocked.

Mika, surprised at the use of Alchemy without a circle, snapped his fingers and was gone, leaving flames.

"Rikku!" Al shouted. He ran over to Rikku. Her eyes were closed. "Rikku! RIKKU!" Al couldn't accept the truth, and for that matter, neither could I, though we knew we had to. "She's…she's…" Al couldn't say it.

"She can't have died…" I muttered softly. "She can't have died!" I shouted this time, tears forming in my eyes. "We've known each other since…since… we've known each other so long, I can't even remember where or when we met!" I dropped to m y knees and wept. "A…and n…now…she's…g…gone! Just like th…that! This can't be real!" I punched the floor. "It…it has to be a dream! Wake up! WAKE UP!"

"Brother," Al said not bothering to fight back his own tears, "This isn't a dream! I know it's hard to believe, but…Rikku isn't coming back! Not now, not ever! Not even Alchemy can change that!"

I looked up. "That's it Al! We can use Alchemy," I said, suddenly happier at the solution. An idea was forming in my head. We could use Human Alchemy…no one has ever tried the idea I have I thought. "You're brilliant! For an eleven year old…"

"Didn't you listen? I thought I just said not…" Al started to say.

"You're still crying Al," I said. "Why? We can revive Rikku using Human Alchemy!"

"What? Have you lost your mind Ed? There is no way I'm gonna do that!" Al said, wiping his eyes.

"Even if it could save Rikku's life?"

Al had to think a minute. "It's not possible!" he said finally. "Every attempt made has ended up in death of the one who used Alchemy! Making a body is no problem, sure, but making a soul? It's not possible!"

"But no one's tried the idea I have. Quit being a baby Al!" I said. "Are you going to help me? What can we lose?"

"Our lives!"

"We could have lost our lives today too, but you still came with us. Al, anything could happen. We could drop dead anytime," I said, hoping it would persuade him. "Rikku could have died tomorrow if--"

"Don't say that!"

"Why? Because you know I'm right? Come on, Alphonse. I can't do this without you."

"This is a bad idea…" Al said. "What about Winry? She's already gonna be hurt at the fact that Rikku's dead… If we die…"

"If," I said, smiling. "But I really think my idea's going to work. Even if you don't help, I'm still going to try."

"Are you crazy? You can't, brother! You'll die!" Al exclaimed.

"I probably will. But you're the only one who would even consider doing Human Alchemy, and you won't, I have to at least try. And there is a small chance it would work."

"I… guess…" Al said reluctantly. "If you're sure it would work."

"How did you do it?" Al asked, shuffling through Human Transmutation history papers.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Alchemy without a transmutation circle."

"I don't know. Maybe I used my hands as a transmutation circle. I do know I was angry at… Mika…" just saying his name made me furious. "And I didn't care that I didn't have a circle."

"Can you do it again?"

"I don't know. I haven't ever thought about it."

"Oh," Al sounded disappointed. "I wish I could do Alchemy with out circles…"

"It's not all that great," I said, searching through books on the same subject as Al. "It just saves me time."

"But it could be really useful if you get into trouble. You wouldn't have to give the enemy time to attack you while you draw a circle."

"I don't even know if I can do it anytime I wanted, Al. It could be emotionally triggered."

"So? All you'd have to do is think about Mika and--"

"…And if you remind me about him again," I said with a fake smile, "I'll be angry enough to use Alchemy on you."

"Point taken…" Al said, taken aback.

"Okay, I think we have enough information to revive Rikku using Human Alchemy," I said excitedly.

"Really? Does that mean we can stop researching? Winry's gonna be upset when we tell her Rikku died… and we're not even going to her house anymore…"

"I know, I know… I've tried to avoid telling her. But today, we will stop researching and prepare for Human Transmutation. Afterwards, we'll go to Winry's. Tomorrow we'll revive Rikku."

Al and I rang Winry's doorbell. A voice that sounded lonely answered it. "Who's there?"

"It's us! Al and Ed!" I shouted through the door.

Winry's voice sounded much happier. "I'll be right there!" The sound of rapid footsteps of someone running towards the door assured me that Winry was excited that we were here. It was a shame that we were about to douse that excitement.

She opened the door.

"Al!" she hugged Al. "Ed!" she hugged me very tightly. I could see why Al was rubbing his arms behind her back.

"You've got a tight grip, Winry," I said trying to get some air.

She backed off of me. "Oh, I'm sorry! It's just that… you and Al… Where have you been? Where's Rikku?"

"Well…" I said, "that's what we came to tell you about…"

Winry looked puzzled, but when she saw the depressed looks on our faces, her eyes filled with tears.

"She's…" Winry said silent tears running down her cheeks.

"Yeah…" I said. "But don't worry, Winry. We can get her back."

"How?" she asked, wiping back tears and sniffling. Then her eyes opened with shock. "What? No!"

"Heh… that was the same reaction I got from Al…" I said.

"It's not funny, Ed! You always told me that Human Alchemy couldn't bring people back to life… You said that… it always killed the person who used it!"

"Winry!" I said loudly to get her under control. "It's okay. I've got an idea that will surely work."

"You mean it might? Right? What if it doesn't? What if it doesn't and you die? I can't live with that!" Winry shouted. She started crying again. "I can't lose you two! We've been friends too long!"

"Winry--" Al started.

"Winry… I'm sorry--" I said.

"You'd better be!" Winry answered looking up at me.

"No…. I'm sorry, Winry, but I'm going to do this, even if you tell me not to…"

"NO! You can't! You're not going to do it too, are you Al?" asked Winry.

"I'm sorry Winry, but I'm with Ed. I was reluctant too at first, but… Rikku's life is important to me…"

"I… I can't stop you?" She looked to me, then to Al.

"No…"

"We're really sorry…"

Winry began to cry uncontrollably. Her mom entered the room.

"Please, I'm sorry Ed, Al, but please leave… I don't know what you did to poor Winry, but she's upset now, please come back later… Oh, and tell Rikku 'Hi' for me."

At this statement Winry cried harder. Al and I got up and left the room.

"Okay, Al. Are you ready?"

"Yes, brother."

"Great. Let me see your hand. We need our blood to help make this work." He held out his hand and I took a knife to cut it down the middle. Al flinched, but didn't make noise as blood dripped from his palm.

"Now my turn." I followed the same procedure. "Okay, let's go, Al," I said.

"Right," Al answered.

"Remember, don't go into the circle during the transmutation," I said, getting nervous. If something went wrong, not only would it have been my fault, but we both would have paid the price. "If you do, you can alter the Alchemic Reaction and kill us both."

"Okay."

We knelt down and put our hands flat against the edge of the Transmutation Circle. A gold light filled the room.

It was working!

I looked at Al and smiled. He smiled back and gave me a thumbs up.

But something was wrong. Horribly wrong. The light turned dark, an eerie, evil glow.

"Brother!" Al was being pulled into the circle by snakes of the black light. His hand went within the boundaries of the circle. Al screamed as the Alchemic energy tore at his flesh.

"Al!" I shouted. I stepped up to reach for him, my leg crossing the circle's boundaries. I winced in pain but couldn't keep it in.

"AAAAAAHHH!" I screamed. Al's entire body was in the circle.

"Brother! Help me! Please don't let me die!" Those were the last words that came from him before the room was engulfed with his shrill scream and his body was torn to shreds.

The light died. All that was left was Rikku's unmoving body.

"Al?" I asked softly at first. "Al!" Instantly, tears filled my eyes when I realized I had sacrificed my own brother to attain an unreachable dream. "Al! You… you can't have died! It was supposed to work! Al! Al!" I clutched at the stump of where my leg was and thought of one remaining idea. I couldn't live without my brother. I was willing to sacrifice my own limbs to bring him back. I touched what was left of the transmutation circle. The same evil light that engulfed Al's body reached for that arm, but I didn't pull it back. I screamed in pain as my right arm was torn from my body.

I heard the shuffling of metal as I fell to the floor, holding my right shoulder where my arm should have been.

"A…Al?" I asked quietly, barely having enough energy to speak. I was losing blood… fast.

"Ed? Ed! Ed! Are you okay?" Al asked from somewhere in the darkness.

I was relieved to here my brother's voice, but I was afraid to see what he had looked like now. 'Al… It didn't work… Rikku's not alive! It didn't work! Alphonse… I'm sorry… God I'm so sorry…

"It's okay, brother," said Al.

"I'm… so… sorry…" I said wearily. "I'm… sorry… Al… so… sorry…"

I blacked out.