CHAPTER 11: HIS REASONS

Nazi Base – July, 1943

Gabriel sprinted down the dimly-lit tunnel as fast as he could, with Edward, Alphonse and Winry in tow. He had to get the brothers and her as far away from Doctor Baldwin as possible. The tunnel extended another fifty feet or so before it made a left turn. As they rounded the corner he finally slowed down so that they could take a rest.

"This will take us back to the surface, we can figure out what to do once we're out of the base." Gabriel said in between breaths. He then turned to check on everyone else, as he had failed to do so earlier in his haste, only to catch a glimpse of Ed's metallic fist slamming into his face.

"Ed!" Winry screamed and watched Gabriel hit the wall from the force of the punch. The Colonel was dazed and started to fall but before he could do so, Ed kneed him hard in the gut with his automail leg and decked him a second time in the face with his real arm. Gabriel flew a few feet before crashing to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Brother!" This time it was Al. Ed was seething as he walked towards the fallen soldier. Winry wrapped her arms around his chest from behind to hold him back.

"Stop it Ed!" She yelled. "Please!" Winry begged him, as she struggled to stop the enraged alchemist from advancing any further.

"You think this makes up for what you've done?" Ed yelled angrily.

"No. It doesn't." Gabriel replied meekly, as he painfully tried to get up. "It's okay Winry." He coughed and wheezed while keeping his head down. "He's right to do that." She felt Ed relax a little at hearing those words, and he stopped fighting against her restraint.

"Gabriel." She noticed the growing red botch on the lower half of his green army shirt. He looked up, and saw what they were all looking at.

"Yea, that's from the bullet I took back in Central, when I tried to stop them." He managed to stand back up on both feet, albeit somewhat wobbly. "Hasn't had a chance to completely heal yet." Al moved over to the Colonel and helped steady him. Winry let Ed go who had calmed down a tad by now, and the younger Elric looked at the officer straight in the eyes.

"I think its time you did some explaining Colonel."

Central – June, 1927

Brigadier General Roy Mustang hung up the phone in annoyance, his face reflected his mood. He was frustrated and fed up with the bureaucracy of the military.

"Was that General Hakuro again sir?" Major Riza Hawkeye asked from her desk.

"They're already complaining about how much it's costing us to keep all of Central's forces on alert." Roy huffed.

"It has been a week and a half since the incident at the hotel." She reminded her superior officer. "You know how tight they keep the military in check now."

"And we have the Fuhrer to thank for that." He referred to the long-deposed dictator of Amestris. "But it's times like these that he didn't seem so bad. The military's budget has been severely reduced since the Parliament took over. And they're refusing to bring in more troops from the borders to reinforce the garrison here."

"I suppose we'll have to make do." Riza concluded, and Roy stood up from his desk and strolled over to hers.

"You know Major." His voice changed to one that was more casual. "We never made up for that missed date." He sat down on her desk.

"We haven't had the time since you put us on full alert." She replied plainly, although he knew she was taking a jab at him.

"You're right, we've both been stuck in this room for days working non-stop." He grinned at her. "I think we both deserve a little time to ourselves, especially since we're alone right now."

"Brigadier General!" She was more then a little surprised and their eyes met as he leaned in close to her. Aw hell, it's now or never. Roy convinced himself.

"You still owe me a kiss." He mustered his most charming voice, and she visibly blushed.

"I guess… I do." She stammered out quietly. Roy aimed his lips for hers, and they both closed their eyes as they inched closer and closer and… they were both suddenly washed over with a wave of intense nausea which caused Roy to back off. He felt highly disorientated for a few seconds before it subsided. It took some effort but he managed to focus his eye on her, and noticed that she too looked very uneasy.

"Did you feel that too?" He was hoping that his move on her was not the source of her discomfort. She nodded. "What was that?" Neither of them knew, but then a bright, red flash from outside the office window caught their eyes.

"What?" He muttered, and moved back to his desk to look out the window. But as he did so his phone started ringing. They exchanged glances before he answered it.

"Brigadier General!" Lieutenant Kain Fuery exclaimed excitedly on the other end. "You better come up here!" Fuery was working as a lookout on the roof of the Central Headquarters building.

"What is it?" Roy inquired.

"I can't explain it, just come and see! Hurry!" Roy hung up and looked at Riza briefly before the two dashed out of the room.

Gabriel had recovered from earlier, and he took point again to lead the pack through the maze of corridors. They were walking at a brisk pace now instead of running but then they all paused when they briefly felt sick to their stomach.

"Are you okay Winry?" Ed asked as he shook it off and noticed that everyone else felt it too. She nodded back at him.

"What was that?" Al asked.

"I don't know." Gabriel replied. "But we should keep moving." He suggested when he saw that everyone was alright. They all knew that something was definitely wrong but there was little they could do at the moment.

"You can regale us with your tale anytime Colonel." Ed reminded him, who smirked at the remark and turned to resume their trek.

"I met her about eight years ago." He started his story. "Her name was Winnie Perkins." Ed, Al, and Winry's eyes widened at the name. Gabriel glanced back, and smiled lightly at their reaction. "As Doctor Baldwin explained to me, she was our world's counterpart of Winry. She looked exactly like you." He turned back to face forward and continued. "She was incredible, beautiful and brilliantly smart. She was an expert at alchemy." Everyone noted the irony. "In terms of research anyway, she couldn't perform any of it of course." Gabriel cleared up. "Long story short, we fell in love and got engaged."

"Is that why…?" Winry said quietly to herself, it was all beginning to make sense now. Gabriel kept going, as if he didn't hear her.

"Fives years ago, she went to study under Doctor Baldwin. Everything went well for her, and we were all set to get married. But then the war started." His voice noticeably darkened. "Shortly after, she was kidnapped by the Nazis and disappeared." He paused for a few seconds. "I had joined the British Army by then when I found out. I don't know what happened to her but I swore I would find out, so I worked my way up through the ranks of the Special Air Service. She was gone for over a year before we heard anything about her. Our intelligence got word that she was being held at a Nazi research facility deep inside Germany, and forced to work for them. Doctor Baldwin vouched for us and so they let me take a team in to rescue her."

"What happened?" Al asked when Gabriel fell silent for awhile.

"It was a complete disaster." The Colonel's voice was hard, grim and they couldn't see his face. "It was almost as if they knew we were coming. Most of my men were killed, but I found her." He stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath. "Then she was executed right in front of me."

"Gabriel…" Winry whispered, tears forming around her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"I was so close; I could almost reach out and touch her. And they just shot her like that." The Colonel raised his left arm to lean against the wall. "I never even got to say goodbye." Goodbye. The word hit Ed like a ton of bricks, but his thoughts were cut off when he felt something grabbing his right hand. He looked down his arm, and saw Winry's hand holding his.

"Ed…" She could barely be heard, and the tears were now streaming down her face which she kept downward to the floor. She squeezed his hand, and he did too. Gabriel collected himself and resumed walking.

"A couple of my men and I made it back out. Let's just say my will to live sort of died with her." Gabriel tried to lighten the mood, but failed miserably. "But the good Doctor consoled me, and took me under his wings. I ended up volunteering for the Crimson Soldier Project."

"Why?" Ed asked him.

"Revenge. I wanted nothing but revenge." Gabriel's voice was filled with hatred. "I wanted to kill every single Nazi bastard for what they did, no matter what it cost me." Ed could relate to that. "I was sent to your world, to gather information on you brothers and to keep an eye on one of the most famous automail mechanics there is." They heard the Colonel chuckle. "Imagine my surprise when I saw who it was." Winry didn't respond, she didn't know how to. "Of course, I failed, again."

"Why does the Doctor want to open the Gate permanently? Does he want to take over our world?" Ed questioned hostilely. The group had reached a dead end in the tunnels, and a long ascending ladder stood before them. Gabriel turned to face the group for the first time in awhile. He looked very pained.

"You must understand." He explained. "With the power of alchemy, we could manufacturer countless weapons in no time. And with automail technology we could make ourselves stronger then ever. With these advantages, we would crush the Nazis once and for all."

"So you can have your revenge." Ed shot at him.

"They have to be stopped." Gabriel shook his head. "You've seen the things they've done." He referred to the numerous horrors and atrocities they witnessed in the base.

"But you're the ones who gave them the tools and the knowledge to those things in the first place!" Ed's anger was rising again. "And you let them do it! You're not any better." Gabriel was taken aback.

"I… I let it all happen." The Colonel mumbled, as the truth of Ed's words sunk in harshly.

"Colonel." Al walked forward closer to Gabriel. "Long ago, my brother and I did something terrible and very wrong. We did it because we were arrogant, and because we thought it would be worth it." The Colonel saw that both Al and Ed both appeared sad now, and he didn't know what to say. "But it wasn't, in the end it resulted in a lot of pain and suffering, for us and for those close to us."

"And how did you deal with it?" The younger Elric smiled lightly at the question.

"We did the only thing we could do. We picked ourselves up and we walked forward." Al put his hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "Dwelling on the past won't help, because you can't change it." A minute of silence passed between them as the Colonel absorbed and digested what was said.

"Walk forward…" Gabriel repeated the words, and collected himself to refocus on the task at hand.

"Why did you help us back there?" Ed was still not completely trustful of the man who had betrayed them before. They looked each other in the eye for a few seconds, before the Colonel's glance shifted to Winry.

"Because I couldn't let her down again." He said softly.

"She's not Winnie." Ed reminded him. "You think by doing this, you can make up for failing her?." Gabriel broke into a thin smile.

"No, not anymore, I know nothing I do will ever make up for that." He turned and jumped on the ladder. "But this is the right thing to do... the least I can do to right some of my sins." Then he started climbing as Ed watched.

"Brother?" Al whispered from behind, causing Ed's hard look to crumble.

"I guess we don't have a choice anyway." He sighed, and got on the ladder. Winry went next with Al bringing up the rear. It would be several minutes before they reached the top, and just in time too as their arms were getting worn. Gabriel lifted a hatch at the end of the ladder causing bright sunlight to flood into the otherwise dark shaft. They had to shield their eyes, and Gabriel staggered out first followed by Ed who turned to help Winry and Al.

"Let's not do that again anytime soon." Al was breathing hard from the exercise. Ed and Winry agreed with him as they sat down on the grass next to the hatch to rest.

"Colonel?" Ed turned when Gabriel didn't join them or spoke. The officer was standing, facing away and staring at something.

"It can't be…" They heard him mutter. "No, it's impossible." Their curiosity grew and they got back on their feet to join him. Their jaws collectively dropped when they saw what Gabriel had been looking at.

"Is that… Central?" Al gasped. They were standing on top of a grassy hill which gently curved down towards a large metropolitan center that they all immediately recognized.

"No… there's no way." Gabriel argued. "The Doctor can't open the Gate."

"He didn't have to." Ed said grimly, the sight before him confirmed what he had feared before when they were all struck by that wave of queasiness.

"Ed?" He turned to face Winry who was already looking at him. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the droning of what sounded like a horde of bumblebees, and the bright sunlight around them suddenly faded.

"Brother!" Al had tilted his head upwards. Above them, were hundreds of airplanes, so numerous that they formed a giant cloud of black-dots that blocked out the sun. They were all flying in tight formations heading straight towards the large city.

"Oh no." Gabriel gasped in horror. Even at their high altitude he could identify the planes by their familiar shapes. "If that's Central, then that means…"

"What?" Winry asked.

"Those are British and American warplanes." They could see the dread in Gabriel's eyes. "The Allied invasion of your world… it's begun."

To Be Continued…