A/N: well, i will say this is the second to last chapter of the story. and those who have reviewed, thank u! T-T i will also say, that this is my first fanfic story to ever have a very sad ending...anywayz, hope u like the chapter(u might not if u don't like characters from FMA die..sorry but it's a tragedy story!)! this is where, well, this is mostly where the angst and tragedy take place. the real angst and tragedy would be the last chapter, and least, that's how i planned it to be n.n Happy Reading (R&R plz!)
Chapter 5: The Perfect Mom? Or Perfect Homunculous?
It had been another couple of days, and yet Ed and Al hadn't seen Winry for a while. This only started to happen after Ed and Al visited for a short period of time that one day. They couldn't go to her, so they never got an answer as to why Winry seemed to have, disappeared. The Elric brothers knew Winry was at the Automail house, but whenever they spotted her and called, all she would do was give a weary smile, a sad smile, and then go back into the house. Sometimes they would see Den... but he would lower his head, whimpering with his tail between legs, and walk inside to Winry.
Things began to be different, strange. It was a weird sensation for the Elric brothers, because sometimes during dinner no one spoke like they used to, and the happy aura around the family seemed to fade away... Tommorow would be the day where Mustang and his fellow comrads would visit again, but Ed and Al weren't concerned about that. Perhaps they had, forgotten it. The only thing that seemed to be out of place was their mother. Every day something seemed to, take her by surprise. They didn't know what it was, but they didn't like it. Trisha would always say she was fine, nothing was wrong. But that led to questionings as to how things were 'okay', or how everything was 'fine'.
The brothers didn't question their mother, they would never. But something, something just kept bugging them about their mother's nightmare. They never really got an answer as to what her dream was, what took place. It bothered them a lot. It was early in the morning that the brothers realized that something was not right, something wasn't what it was. Their mother was beginning to change. The question was, into what?... Then again, maybe their mother wasn't changing. Maybe she had been what everyone had always asked them about. That dreaded word, a homunculous...
Ed woke up with a start as Al shook him abruptly. He looked at the shadow before him, and at the alarm clock. It read; 4:30 a.m. Ed groaned as he gave Al a deadly stare of death, but then it all faded when Al seemed shook up about something.
"What's wrong Al?" Ed asked.
"I...Brother, I know we're not little, little kids anymore, but I had a horrible dream!" Al exclaimed. Ed rolled over and Al got in.
"What dream was it this time? When all the kittens you had fell off a cliff?" Ed asked.
"Brother! It's not nice to make fun of my cat dreams! I love my kittens even though they're in my dreams! Insulting them, why I never!" Al cried, appauled. Ed laughed.
"I'm sorry. What dream did you have that was so bad?" Ed asked.
"Well...in my dream I was crying. And I rushed to mom, but mom wasn't mom." Al explained.
"What are you talking about? 'Mom isn't mom' what kind of insane talk is that?" Ed asked with a laughing snort. Al shook his head and continued to explain.
"In my dream I was five. I rushed up to mom, and when she turned around she didn't look well. She smiled at me, but the smile turned sour when she started to show all of these...signs of becoming...becoming something quickly." he continued.
"Something? Now you're not making any sense Al." Ed said sternly. Al shook his head again, more furiously.
"I can't explain it...mom wasn't mom that's all I can put it. It was very strange...and then I was screaming, and she kept coming for me, something red was on her hands, on her apron..." Al continued. Ed looked at his brother, wide eyed.
"Red?" Ed repeated and Al nodded.
"It looked like, smelled like, had the sickening feeling of blood. I screamed and screamed, and finally I heard mom screech and transform into something hideous...something, not human." Al finished.
"Not human...Al, you're getting me spooked up. You probably just had a bad dream. NO, it was a bad dream." Ed corrected himself.
"But Brother! It felt real! I can't help but...I think something bad's gonna happen, very soon!" Al cried as he tugged on his brother's sleeve. Ed sighed and held Al's hand firmly, placing it to his brother's side.
"Al, go back to bed." Ed said and Al snuggled up to Ed's second pillow. "Your bed Al." Ed said, his eyes were half closed with a look of exhaustion. Al laughed sheepishly and crawled into his bed. He made sure to provide something that would make him get a good night's sleep...er, an early morning sleep. He transmuted some fluff from his pillow into a kitty plush toy. He snuggled up to that, and fell asleep. As the sun finally rose, Ed awoke with another start. 'Al...' he hissed in his thoughts, but saw that it wasn't Al who woke him up. An unsuspected visitor did.
"Rise and Shine boys." the low, male voice boomed over their heads. They squinted their eyes painfully, and then yelled in surprise!
"You! What the hell are you doing in our house!" Ed cried.
"Our rooms none the less!" Al called as he hid underneath his sheets.
"Calm down, both of you. We need to talk now." Mustang said sternly and dragged them out of bed.
"Hey! Let go of us! Damnit I said LET!-" Ed started, and gasped at who he saw in his mother's bed. "Go..." he finished and dropped to the floor, Al alongside him. In the bed was Trisha, but she was looking awful. She was pale, her eyes seemed dull, and she looked quite fragile.
"Mom!" Al screamed and he rushed to his mother's side. Ed did the same, but rage took over.
"YOU! What did YOU do to HER!" he asked, blaming Mustang for what they were seeing.
"I didn't do anything! I came here like I said I would last time, and I found your mother on the floor. She seemed to have a fever and I helped her into the room. Then I took a closer look, and this is what I saw. Since you weren't up yet, I decided to wake you up so maybe you could explain. Now that I see your reaction, all of this is new for us." Mustang answered. The room was silent, and Havoc and Hawkeye entered the room.
"Sir, we searched for a reason, but we found nothing." Hawkeye said. Searching? What were they searching for? Someone stood next to her, someone the brothers did not know. He had spiky hair, and one long strip of bang. He also wore glasses.
"Who the hell is he?" Ed asked and pointed.
"My name's Maes Hughes. It's a pleasure to meet you Edward Elric." Hughes introduced himself. He and Al nodded, sensing a good aura around this Hughes person, someone they'd become friends with very quickly in the future.
"There's someone here to see the Elrics sir. A young girl." Havoc said when he walked up, and they saw Winry with a concerned look on her face as she appeared behind Havoc.
"Winry!" Ed called and the two ran to her.
"Ed...Al." Winry replied in response.
"We haven't heard from you in days Winry! You scared us, what's wrong?" Al asked. Their childhood friend had a sad look on her face.
"I heard what happened to your mom...and I think there's only one answer to all of this and why it's happening now." Winry replied silently. Everyone gave the Elrics a look.
"No..no no no that can't be! It just can't!" Ed cried in alarm and he backed away from everyone.
"Think about it Ed! Everything leads up to that!" Winry exclaimed.
"NO! IT ISN'T TRUE! YOU!" Ed cried and turned to Mustang angrily, rage could be seen in his eyes. "You said that you saw mom and that she looked like she had a fever, right? Right!" Ed snapped and Mustang nodded.
"But Ed-" Al started.
"Then she's just sick! We'll take care of her! I won't allow it do you hear me!" Ed roared and felt Winry grasp his arm.
"Ed please! Use your common sense! I don't want to see you like this! I'm sorry that you don't like the final option, but when that's all you have left sometimes you have to go with it even though it's not good!" Winry pleaded and started to sob. Ed clenched a fist, but stopped his rampage.
"Please, Edward, can we talk outside?" Mustang asked and Ed glared at him. "So we don't disturb your mother's rest." he added and they followed quietly, shutting the door. At the moment that happened, Trisha woke up, her eyes dull and disappeared in a mistlike form out the window, the doors swung open and were left to clatter. There was a wooshing sound as she took her leave, ready to deliver a final blow.
"Brother...please just calm down." Al said quietly to Ed who breathed in deeply.
"Listen Edward, why won't you come to facts with what we've just seen?" Mustang asked.
"Because...because we went too far! We went through all of this trouble! We thought everyone would be happy she was back! We thought we'd be a happy family again, everything would be back to the way it was! But instead of happiness, everyone kept asking the same question, we kept answering, but no one listens!" Ed roared.
"Even though you keep answering kid, do you think you're answering correctly?" Mustang asked and there was silence.
"Brother...I...I think we should take into consideration the possibility, that instead of bringing mom back...we brought a perfect homun-"
"Don't tell me you're siding with them too Al!" Ed cried, outraged.
"No one's siding with anyone! Calm down you little runt!" Mustang cried, taking matters into his own hands.
"RUNT!" Ed roared.
"Yes. Runt. Listen Edward, everyone here believes you brought back a homunculous. You may deny it, but I know that somewhere you believe us too." Mustang said, holding Ed by the cuff.
"Get the hell offa me." Ed growled. As Mustang let go, Ed stormed off to the door. Before his hand touched the knob, everyone could hear a faint barking outside. It sounded urgent.
"Hey...that's...that's Den!" Winry cried and ran off. Everyone followed, and Ed stayed put.
"Brother! We should follow! Come on!" Al called and looked back to the front. Ed opened the door, and gasped. There was no one. The window flapped constantly and the curtains floated from the wind. On the bed, there was nothing but water. Where was his mother? Ed had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, and it all hit hard when he heard a loud shriek coming from the Rockbell's home. Ed's pupil's grew small, filled with worry as he rushed off to see what had happened.
"What happened! What's wrong!" Ed cried as he burst through the door. Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, and Al were all in a circle around two figures. One of them was Winry, the other was on the hard floor, red began to stain the floor, and Winry's dress. Ed looked at Winry, who was sobbing and sobbing. She took her eyes off of the figure below, and looked at Ed, standing in the doorway. The tears rolled down her face, and he looked at her hands...covered in blood. Ed reluctantly pushed himself to see what was lying below her, beside her, face down. He slowly looked, and blinked in horror, having a feeling that would make him want to hurl right then and there. The figure lying on the now stained red floor, was Auntie Pinako herself...
A/N: there ya have it. for those wondering how trisha would deal with auntie pinako, there is ur answer. sorry if u didn't like it that she had to die though -frowns- o yea, with al's nightmare, when he said that trisha was becoming something, the something was what they had (in the anime of course, duh lol) originally transmuted (ep. 1 u get the pic). Something Ed never wished to see. well, the last chapter will be coming. and i'm planning on having the very sad Brothers song lyrics (they r in english not in russian) . after all, i think that song suits the last chapter best. -nods- anywayz, leave a review or else i won't paste the last chapter! lol jk jk. anywayz, hope u liked this story so far! chapter 6 will be coming!