Halfmetal Alchemist: Chapter 29

Old Wounds Reopened

Ed and the others jolted out of their sleepy stupor as a hideous scream of pain seemed to rent the air usunder. Al and Alley yelped and clung to Winry and Alphonse for a second before letting go a bit embarrassed. Fullmetal got up and patted Ed's shoulder, walking to the door. Riza was wringing her hands, feeling helpless and biting her bottom lip until it started to bleed. She didn't think she had felt this way since Roy had lost his eye in the war, or when he saved her from the Homunculus Lust in their hideout. That had been years and years ago, and this was now.

She desperately wanted to wrench open the door and open fire on Roy's tormentors, but doing so would only make herself feel better and hurt Roy in the long run. His tormentors were trying to help, and giving whatever feeble help they could offer. Right now they were faced with the problem of resealing Roy's reopened eye socket as it seemed that the pressure of the water had torn it open again.

Unable to hold back any longer, despite her constant reminding herself that she couldn't do any good, she burst into the room and flung herself onto Roy's hospital bed. It was soaked in blood, but she didn't care, she only wanted him to stop his screams. And she told him so, cradling his head in her arms and whispering softly into his ear, reducing his tortured cries to softer tones of suppressed pain. She wasn't entirely sure if he was even consious anymore, nor did she care. She had stopped caring about a lot of things since entering the hospital, just like she had to stop caring about a lot of things when she got married, and had to think of a great deal more of more importance.

"It's okay Roy, I'm right here... nobody's going to hurt you now, ssshh..."

"My eye..."

"It's okay, everything is okay..."

"Is Riza okay...?" he whimpered, tossing in his unconscious state. She watched him for a second.

"I'm fine, Roy, nothing happened to me."

"Riza... no... Elizabeth..."

He had never called her by her name before, and whatever he was dreaming of grew more intense. "Riza... Riza!"

He started to shake his head from side to side as if trying to break free from something."Run, get up and run... I'm not dead... get up and run! No! No! Don't... don't touch her! Stop! Noooooo!" His eye jerked open and he threw his body over to the side of the bed and threw up, retching and gasping for breath.

Riza held him tighter and his eye locked with hers, and she felt like recoiling. What she saw there was the most feral in pain and fear, a raw emotion she had never seen in Roy's eyes before. His gaze softened in relief and he fell back down onto the pillows, chest heaving for breath. The doctors bandaged his head again and left the two of them alone, shaken by his fit.

"Roy... what were you dreaming?"

He looked at her, checking her up and down as if for wounds. Then he reached for her hand, his own hand trembling.

"I was dreaming that we found the Homunculus base again, and that we had split up again, just like last time... and... you thought I was dead, and you just gave up, but I was dragging myself along, like last time.

"But I was almost there, and you screamed, and unloaded all your guns on Lust, just like last time, and I was still pulling myself along the floor, trying to reach you. I keptgoing and going, and I could see you, but the corridor just kept getting longer and longer, and... and... "

He was like a child waking up from a bad dream, but he was no child and it must truly have been a nightmare to have shaken him so badly.

"I don't want to lose you, Riza, not like I almost did. If we're going to die... then I want to at least die together!"

She stroked his face and smiled softly. "No one dies together. In the end, we all die alone."

"Then... if that's the way it has to be... I'll only die if you're gone first," he said, tears filling his one good eye. "I don't want to be alone again."

"You won't be, I promise," she said firmly. She wanted to burst into tears herself, because she felt the exact same way. Both of them had come so close to dying that day, but she had become weak and given up before the battle ended, all because she thought he was dead. In the end, it had been Roy who had forced himself up from so close to the edge, cauterizing his own wounds to get up and save her.

Now she had to be their strength, and she wouldn't let him down.

"Leroy will be back soon, and everything will be okay. He said he has a way to heal you, and then everything will be okay." Her words comforted Roy a little, and he drifted back into sleep.

"You've been my strength all this time, Roy, now it's time for me to be yours."

A'right, first things first.

Congratulations, Jazmin Hawkeye-Mustang, for being the 100th reviewer! I'd have balloons and confetti, but this is the internet so..

-shrugs-

Ah well. I can't believe it, 100 reviews! I mean, how many fanfics get 100 reviews I wonder? I'm so happy T.T

Woohoo! Unfortunately, since school starts up again tomorrow, new chapters will only come up on weekends, I think, because of 'parental restrictions'. In other words, this means that I must put my nose to the grindstone and work.

More chapters asap, or something! Keep reviewing guys! - T A