…I spent up 'till 11:00 pm writing this, so you better like it. This is the longest chapter I've ever written in the history of my fan fiction writing. SO YOU GUYS BETTER BE GRATEFUL! glares
Well, on a happier note…
PyscoNeko15: Hm…depends on what you call 'getting better'. He looks like he's getting better, but I can't guarantee that it's gonna stay like that. Alright, 'nuff said. Heehee :D
WildfireDreams: Thanks, I hope you like this next chapter!
KamauFox: Again thanks! Hope you enjoy this chapter!
…It's people like you who review that make a better place.
Alright, on with the story!
----
The boy lay quivering on the ground, his hand still clasping the strange piece of metal. He sobbed silently onto the concrete, his head hurting as bad as if he had hit it with a 5-ton-rock. Flashes of people that he didn't know quickly went through is head, along with random sentences that made no sense to him.
"In alchemy, they say the human is made from the mind, the flesh and the soul! How can a person survive with just his soul and a suit of armor?"
"Al, come help me plant the rose bushes in the back, will you?"
"Al…I promise I'll get your body back."
The boy shuddered involuntarily as the last voice rang through his mind. That voice…it sounded all too familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time. He racked his brains for some sort of remembrance, but all that he could pull out was seeing a young boy lying in a pool of blood, his right arm and his left leg severed off. He couldn't see his face, no matter how hard he tried to remember. Just red liquid everywhere.
Suddenly a shadow fell over him. He looked up to see a beautiful young woman with jet-black hair and scarlet eyes staring at him, wearing a long black dress with a cloak, a scarf covering her neck.
She smiled, showing a mouth of perfectly set teeth, but for some reason that smile sent a shiver of fear run down through the boy's spine. The woman crouched down to level with him while he sat up in a more dignified position. Then she spoke in barely above a whisper.
"I know who you are, and I can give you the answers that you seek."
She smiled again, this time an almost warm smile. She then said in a louder voice, "You poor boy, lost in the rain like this, you must need a place to stay during this dreadful night. Come with me, my house is just down the street and I have an extra room, if you would like."
She started to walk away, while the boy stared at her, at a loss for words. "I know who you are, and I can give you the answers that you seek." Her words rang loud and clear in his mind.
Still staring at her, he stood up, and clutching the metal talisman, followed her through the pouring rain, a sliver of hope in his heart.
----
Winry sat down on the edge of Ed's bed, two slices of fresh pie wrapped in napkins in her hands. She smiled cheerfully as she gave Ed his slice.
"Oh, so now you're cheerful and happy eh Winry? Just a minute ago you where drowning me with milk…I'll never understand you…"
Ed snorted slightly as he downed half of his pie in about 3 bites; it was true, Mrs. Wayatt's pies where the best in Rizenpool. He then heard a whine as Den sat eagerly by his bed, his tail thumping hopefully for a slice of pie.
Ed stared at the dog suspiciously for a second, but after a second whine and those eyes that dogs do that make you feel incredibly guilty at not giving them a slice of pie, Ed gave in and gave Den the rest of his pie.
"Ed, you know you can't let Den have sugar, he'll bloat like a toad!" yelled Winry angrily.
Ed shrugged. "C'mon, one time isn't that bad, is it?"
Winry rolled her eyes and muttered something like, "…and they say the same thing about drugs…"
Ed gave Den a little pat as he licked the last few remaining crumbs of pie (time taken to it it: 0.19 seconds) and asked Winry, "Hey Winry, where's Granny Pinako?"
Winry finished swallowing her bite of pie and said, "She said that she had some urgent business to attend to outside of town…something about Farmer Shackter's daughter and her auto mail hand getting messed up. Apparently we're the closest auto mail mechanics around. She did come to say good-bye to you, but I don't think you noticed."
The last part Winry said slightly bitterly, and for a second Ed couldn't meet her face. "Ah…I must've been-"
"-reading, yeah." cut off Winry.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them as Winry finished off the last of her pie. The soft pit-pattering of rain could be heard outside, signaling that a storm was most likely coming in.
Ed opened his mouth to say something, but instead of words a gasp of pain was emitted.
"ARGH!"
He clutched his chest and shut his eyes, pain swelling through his body.
"Ed, oh my god are you ok?" said Winry, rushing up to hold him up. Red began to stain the sheets.
"You're chest wound, it's starting to bleed again, I'm going to have to re-bandage it and call the doctor-"
"-No…don't!"
Winry paused for a second as she was beginning to un-tie Ed's bandages. The sound of his voice…it had a mixture of pain and warning, an adult's command yet with a hint of a child's plead in it.
"Please…I don't want…I'll fix it myself."
"D-don't want what Ed…Ed you need a doctor!"
"I said I'll do it myself."
Winry watched as Ed forced himself to sit up straight, and clapping both hands together, he placed them on his chest where blood was beginning to flow more freely.
A blue light seemed to appear, and then the bleeding altogether stopped. Ed panted slightly, and closed his eyes, leaning on the back of his bed.
Winry stared at him for a second before starting, "…How…?"
Ed smiled softly, almost amused at her bewilderment. "…I simply repaired the skin cells that had broken…nothing too major."
" 'Nothing too major', Ed that was a serious injury, you shouldn't try using alchemy to-"
"Did you see it?"
Winry stared at Ed confusingly. "See…what?"
Ed looked down at his now-bloody sheets. "…My injury."
"N-no, why do you ask?"
Ed sighed with a mixture of relief and exhaustion, saying, "Nothing, doesn't matter."
"Ed, tell me if there's something wrong…"
"I told you, it's nothing." He said tartly.
For a second Winry wavered there, her eyes filled with the same pain that was always there whenever Ed kept something from her. Ed avoided looking at her, the pain in her eyes was just too much for him to stand.
Then, Winry turned to the door, saying "I should change your sheets; they're covered in blood…"
Edward silently cursed himself for lashing out like that with Winry; after all she'd done for him he should be thankful.
"I'm sorry Winry, but I can't let you see it…at least not yet."
----
The wind and rain clashed in a furious combat, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Underneath the storm inside the basement of their house, a teen-age boy and a suit of armor finished the last of the giant transmutation circle. The boy gave one last look to the suit of armor and said, "Al, are you ready for this?"
The armor shook his head affirmatively. "Nii-san…I can't believe…"
"I know Al, but in just a few moments you're going to be a normal boy again." Ed smiled as he held the Philosopher's Stone in his hand, the blood-red stone that gave joy to sorrow, victory to defeat, life to death.
"Ready Al?" Ed asked again, looking at the suit of armor seriously. Al didn't respond, but rather lay down in the center of the circle, and with that gesture Ed positioned himself for the transmutation.
Ed concentrated on the stone in his hand, and what his final objective was. He could feel the power surging through his hand, surging into the transmutation circle; he could feel a light radiating from the circle…
Suddenly a giant explosion filled the room.
Ed opened his eyes in shock as he found himself in a white room, seemingly endless in proportions. Then out of nowhere, he saw a huge tree in front of him. From it, giant red fruits that resembled apples but too large to be them hung heavily from the branches. He walked over the tree, and saw some writing carved deeply into the wood.
His eyes widened in shock at what it said.
"Those who take from the tree of knowledge will be condemned to HELL."
Suddenly he felt an odd taste in his mouth; the taste of…apple? Then he felt a throbbing begin in his head, which seemed to increase in pain with each throb.
Ed sank to the ground, screaming in his head because of the pain, but not making a sound with his voice. He clutched his head, and gritted out painfully, "Make…it…stop…"
Then a child's laugh filled the room. It was a bubbly, sun-shiny laugh, but it made Ed sick to his stomach all the same. "I thought that you had been warned, but you keep coming back don't you, Ed?"
Ed turned around slowly, and saw the same child-like form that he had seen 4 years ago. Like a shadow, but pure white. The Truth, but in a different form.
"You play too much with fire, you get burned, isn't that right Ed?" said the child, as if it was a game to him. "You just don't seem to stop, do you, you just keeping pushing and pushing, pushing boundaries that lowly humans just shouldn't touch. Ah well, what's done is done…"
"You BASTARD, GIVE AL BACK!" Ed looked around furiously for the child, but he was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly he heard a voice behind him. "Well, how can I give back something that I don't even have?"
Ed turned around; the child was sitting up in the branches of the tree, throwing an apple from one hand to the other. "What do you mean, 'I don't have him,'?" said Ed confused.
"Well…technically I do have some of him, but not what you're looking for." said the boy, still playing with the apple.
"…looking for…?" echoed Ed, still staring up at the child.
"Edward, Edward, Edward, you really shouldn't have tried to transmute Al with the Philosopher's Stone, you should've just kept him as it was, he seemed just fine like that. I can't believe you didn't realize that the stone would reject him like that."
"I know that's what happened but what I don't understand is why."
"Of course you wouldn't, the answer is not in any of those pitiful books you pour over. In fact, it's not in anyone's book in the world. But I'll be willing to tell you, since it is so worthless there is no need for equivalent exchange. You see, the problem with Al is that he was too pure."
"Pure? And what the fuck do you mean by that?"
"I mean, that the stone was created by humans, right? It was really only meant as a thing for gain by the person who used it, I don't recall the real stone ever being used for the benefit of others. In other words, it's a corrupt item, its use can only be that of bloodshed.
Since you where going to use it for pure intentions, that going against everything that it meant, it backfired. Maybe if it had been another Philosopher's Stone, it wouldn't had mattered, but I guess you had to go and take the one that those homunculus's had made. Ah well, your punishment I guess."
"IF IT'S MY PUNISHMENT THEN WHY THE FUCK IS IT AL THAT HAD TO HAVE THIS HAPPEN TO HIM?" Ed bellowed out to the child, tears of anger beginning to form in his eyes.
Suddenly the child appeared right in front of him, barely a centimeter apart. "Because this is the ultimate punishment; having your brother pay for a crime that you committed. You're always dragging people into messes, and this is what happens Edward. You're a walking danger to people."
"YOU LIAR, I NEVER MEANT TO…MEANT TO…"
Suddenly the room was dark. Ed was left kneeling on the floor in a defeated position, trembling. "I never…meant for this…to happen…"
Suddenly, there was a dim light. Ed could make out the figure of a boy, about 14, walking in the distance. He instantly recognized it as Al.
"AL, AL, WAIT, IT'S ME, ED!" he yelled, trying to stand up, but his legs wouldn't pay attention. Al turned around, and waved for a second and continued walking. "AL, AL WAIT!"
"AL! ALPHONSE!"
