Halfmetal Alchemist: Chapter 12

Hidden Secrets: The Will to Live

Winry shivered and moved closer to Alphonse, shaking snow off of her coat. Alphonse took her hand gently in his and peered cautiously over the rim of the outcropping, sized up the distance, and backed away. "Al, why can't we go home?" Alphonse tutted and frowned, watching her face remorsefully. "Winry... we don't have a home anymore. Alley is gone, Junior's gone, they're both... gone! They're not coming back, no matter how much you wish for it." Winry sobbed softly and he put his arm around her. "What if they're not gone Al? What if they're okay, and they're waiting for us somewhere?" Alphonse leaned his head against hers and sighed, his breath misting in front of him. "It seems... very unlikely. You saw the state of the house... didn't you? God Winry... all we can do know is try to survive out here in this blizzard... after that, we'll go back to Rizenbul, and we'll... try one more time. And Ed... poor Ed... I wonder where he is now?"

Winry curled into a ball next to Alphonse in their new found shelter; a cave they had found just beneath the outcropping. She closed her eyes slowly, and unbidden visions of Ed came to her mind. She saw the helplessness in his eyes, the terror. But what hurt most of all was his inability to recognize anything at all, not her, not Alphonse, his own brother, not his wife nor his child. Terror stricken of the 'new found' knowledge that Alphonse had given him, he had plunged headlong into this blizzard, and the couple had not seen anything of him since. Alphonse pressed closer to her, arms around her waist, burying his face in her hair. "What did we do to deserve this, Winry? We've lost everything... everything... Just when something turns out right, it gets taken away!" Tears welled up in his eyes and he let them fall, but they froze on the ground witha crack. "Winry... ifyou don't get out of here soon...you'll die..." It was then that Winry realized how weak Alphonse had become, how he could no longer hold onto her as if his fingers had become too numb for feeling, how he held hishead high but asthough in constant pain. She recalled his heavy footsteps on frozen snow, once light and swift, how he stumbled when his weight broke the frost shield.

She still felt able to go on, but Alphonse couldn't, and she realized this now. "I'm not going to leave you here Al. I'm not going to lie down and give up, and neither should you!" She turned and stared into his dim and clouded brown eyes. "I won't leave you here... I won't." Alphonse coughed and the force of it shook his entire body. After all he had been through, would he be doomed to die here in a frozen wasteland? He forced himself up on his arms, but even this small movement caused him pain and his arms shook unsteadily.

We're brothers, Ed. If we don't look out for each other, nobody will. You're own words, remember? Alphonse winced and he held his head. A giant suit of armor... what did this mean? A suit of armor speaking in his voice, what was this madness?

I'll do whatever it takes to get your body back, Al, that's a promise. What? What? A thousand questions exploded into his head.My body?But I have my body! Was there something that Alphonse himself could simply not remember?

"No! No! I-I don't understand... I don't remember any of this! Get away from me!" Ed turned, a terrified look on his face. The brother that had given everything for him turned from him and ran, unprotected, into a frigid blizzard. His arm... automail... but why?

He forced himself up onto his arms again, and gritted his teeth, leaning back onto his legs. He couldn't die here. He had to find Edward first, and then... then... he would find out what had happened... The suit of armor... he held his hand in front of his face and lifted it to the light, examining it. What did these memories mean? Could Winry possibly know anything of it? Winry stood up and caught his hand, helping him to his feet. Winry looked up into his eyes again. Though they were still cloudy, a light shone in them, and she knew Alphonse was ready to keep going.

A suit of armor... an automail arm... bringing bodies back... what do these things mean? Is there something being hidden from me? Brother... Edward... are you hiding something... from me?

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the conclusion of Alphonse and Winry's chapter! R&R people, it keeps my spirit up!

Now that I look at it, does this chapter seem a bit short too? Maybe it just went by quickly for me, oh well. This is turning into a real chase, isn't it? Now I'll have to map the activities of not one, but possibly four different groups at once! It'll be like writing about a four way slug fest simultaneously. Oh joy. But I really do enjoy writing, which is why I love Fullmetal Alchemist. There's a lot of things to write further, because it just doesn't really give you asense of real closure! Greatest show in the world, it is. -T A