Halfmetal Alchemist: Chapter 17

Fullmetal's Memory

Riza got off the train at Lior, Edward following her briskly. Havoc had decided to stay behind since he feared greatly that Riza would immediately put a bullet in his head if Roy really was in pieces. She had caught a glimpse of the place where the bomb had detonated while on the train, and it honestly didn't look all that bad to her. She couldn't be too sure though, seeing as she had only caught a glimpse of it. "So... where are we going?" Edward asked timidly. Riza had been in a horrible mood since waking up in East HQ with the news that her husband might have been blown to pieces. She preferred not to think about her children at the moment, hoping fervently that they were alive and well. If they weren't... she'd rip out her hair about it later and kill Havoc.

"The military HQ out here is still up," Edward put in, trying to be helpful and placate Riza. Riza only nodded and headed for the hospital. Edward decided that it would be in his best interests to shut up and not say anything while they were there; it was probably the best for his health too, judging by the murderous look on the Brigadier General's face.

Riza flung open the doors and marched right up to the front desk. "Is there a man named Roy Mustang checked in here?" she asked. The man flipped through sheets of patient readouts and scanned one with his finger. "Yes ma'am, there are quite a few actually. Mustangs I mean. Are you going to visit him?" Riza nodded, elated that he was still alive.

"Name?"

"Riza Mustang."

Edward sat down on a couch in the lobby. "I'll stay here." There was no need to intrude on family business, he thought.

"Second floor, third room on the right. And be careful about his right eye."

Riza nodded again and ran up two flights of stairs and past two doors on the right, flinging open the door to the third on the right. Roy was sleeping somewhat peacefully in the hospital bed, turning his head a bit and thrashing in his sleep. Riza pulled up a chair and sat next to him, wondering when he'd wake up.

"Mom?" A sad-eyed Leroy had pushed open the door and stood with one hand holding it ajar. "Leroy! What's wrong, baby?" She got up and hugged him tightly, and Leroy buried his face into her shoulder. "Were you there too?" Leroy nodded and tightened his grip on her. "It's all my fault, Mom... I couldn't see it... I couldn't see it..." he looked up at her, tears in his dark eyes. "All I got was a scratch, but Dad got hurt... It's all my fault... I could have killed everyone!" Riza traced the scratch on his cheek and sighed, wiping away his tears with her thumb. "Shhh... it's all right now... I don't blame you for anything, and neither will your father..."

"He'll hate me now! He'll never forgive me..." she tilted up his chin so he looked straight in her eyes. "You stop that Leroy Mustang. He'll forgive you, he's not a cruel man, you know that. Just explain what happened, he'll understand."

A fire burned in Leroy's eyes. "How? He'll be ashamed of me! Me, his firstborn son, a useless piece of trash because I can't see! I'll never be anything if I can't see!" he cried, bolting out of the room, leaving Riza to wonder just how long her first child had nursed and hidden his one true fear. She looked at Roy, still jerking around in his sleep, and she wondered how he felt about what had happened, if he had been consious long enough to feel anything at all.

She brushed hair off of his face and hugged him tightly, and he stopped jerking, calming down slowly. He opened his eyes slowly and stared at her blearily. "R-Riza?" he groaned. "I'm right here, it's okay Roy..." He tried to sit up quickly, but moaned again and sank down onto the blankets. "The bomb! W-what happened?"

Alley walked into the room with Ed, tinkering with Ed's automail arm which was disconnected from his shoulder. "You saved us, Dad. You battled that thing explosion for explosion." Roy leaned his head on Riza's shoulder and sighed. "What?"

"You kind of sent explosions back at the thing, and there was this huge wall of fire... You must have kept the blast in a kind of check. Leroy got scratched up a bit, and Ed's rock shield was blown down, so Al got hurt a bit too... he hasn't woken up yet." Ed mimicked Al getting hit in the head with a large chunk of rock and falling to the ground stunned.

"Where is Leroy? He was right in front of the bomb," Roy asked as Riza kissed his forehead. Roy was tempted to smirk at all the attention he was getting from her. It would be a happy smirk though. Ed blanched slightly. "He's having a fit somewhere. Saying something like he'll never show his face to you again."

"He thinks it's all his fault, Roy..." Riza murmured in his ear and Roy frowned. "Why does he always have to learn the hard way? Stupid boy..." he sighed. "He thinks I'll despise his soul forever, doesn't he?"

"Basically."

"I'll set him straight later... right now..." he put his arm around Riza's waist but Riza put her hand on his chest. She whispered something else in his ear and he let go of her. "Edward? Here?" Ed stared at them. "Why are you talking about me? You know I'm right here." Roy sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, right eye firmly closed. Riza handed him an eyepatch that was sitting on the table and he put it on, along with his military uniform. Riza thought he was amazing, having just narrowly escaped being blown up by a bomb he was already walking around.

"Ed... come on. There's someone you should see." Ed got up obediantly and followed Roy to the lobby, where a doctor spluttered that he really shouldn't be out and about so soon, to which Roy promptly ignored. He saw Edward sitting, his chin resting on arched fingers, looking about him with great interest. He looked at the man approaching him and stood up.Roy stopped.

"Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric," he said, as if wishing verification. Edward nodded, hands in his pockets. "You've changed a lot, though you haven't gotten any taller in stature..." Edward's jaw twitched, but he battled down the urge to scream. "You're the Fuhrer... that's all I remember. A tall, dark haired, smirky man."

Roy thought about this new description of him . "I guess it would fit, but you forgot 'married', tall dark-haired smirky man. And speaking of married... where's Terra?" Edward looked at him blankly. "I lost my memory, I don't remember."

A rage was building up in Roy's chest. "Don't... remember, huh? I'll set you on the fast track then!" he picked up Edward with one arm and slammed him into the wall. "Dad!" Ed cried, trying to get Roy off of the other man. "Leave me be, Edward!" He shook Fullmetal viciously. "You don't remember? About as tall as you, a bit on the petite side, dark eyes, long black hair, you don't remember your own wife!"

"I don't remember anything!"

"You, the Fullmetal Alchemist! Your brother's soul was transmuted into a suit of armor because you attempted human transmutation on your mother!"

A vision of a boy screaming and reaching out to him pleadingly, purple lightning arcing everywhere, a burning pain in his leg. Looking down, he saw it disintegrating before his eyes and screamed. After that, he remembered a pain in his arm and then it was no more. On the floor was a suit of armor that was hauntingly empty, but... it was his brother inside.

"You looked for a Philosopher's Stone, so you could get your bodies back!"

A quick playthrough of all his mishaps; the Tucker chimera; Nina and Alexander. Scar, Lior, the Homunculi, Hughes... The Rockbells... Winry and Pinako.

"You got Alphonse back! And then you disappeared, and came back again! You got married to Terra, my sister, you married my sister!"

He remembered now... a little... a woman who watched for him to return home every day from work, holding a small child by the hand and an infant in her arms.

"Now where is she! Where?"

Edward grabbed his wrists, a wrathful, hurt expression on his face. "I-DON'T-KNOW!"

He and Roy stared each other in the eyes and Roy smirked. "You're back with us, Fullmetal." he dropped Edwarduncerimoniously on a chair. "That's that, now, do you know where you've been?"

Edward gave him an exasperated look. "Fine. I'll tell you."

Yay! Edward's memory is back! Review people, review! - T A