Chapter 7: Another Death

"AHHHHAHAGH! That hurts!" Edward Elric said as Winry Rockbell tightened a bolt on his automail leg.
"Don't be such a baby, Ed!" Winry said.
"I'll be back; I have some unfinished buisness with 'Juliet',"Ed said.
"You talked to her? She seems really quiet," Winry said.
"Yeah, and now I know why!" Ed said as he walked through the door to the field outside. He continued walking to the bank dropoff where he was talking to Sloth. She wasn't there.
"Sloth! Where'd you go!" Ed said, starting to get angry."I know you're around here"
"You guessed right. I'm down here," Sloth said."In the river"
He peered down into it and the water was crystal clear; he could see the bottom of it.
"Liar! Where are you? You're really pissing me off"
Suddenly, a watery figure arose from the river, which dissolved into Sloth.
"I'm where I said I was," Sloth said.
"Why the hell are you here? Why are you bothering the Rockbells? They've never done anything to you!" Ed said.
"I didn't come here on my own. Pain transported me here. I have no idea why, so if you have a problem, talk to her," Sloth said.
"I wish I could. She took off somewhere without finishing our fight"
"If you stayed in that battle any longer you could've gotten hurt worse than you did"
"Oh, mom..." Ed ran up and hugged his mother. Sloth looked surprised, then hugged him back.
"I wonder what that's about..." Winry said as she looked out her window at the two.
"I'll return you to normal...I promise..." Ed whispered to Sloth before she turned herself into water and ran into the river.
As Sloth floated in the river, she thought about Edward and Alphonse...Honhenheim...what happened?...how did she get like this?...why does she have these powers?...why does she have to hide the symbol that her friends have?...it all seemed so weird...

IN THE FOREST...

"Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, I've decided to reveal some of my plan," Greed said as he paced back and forth."We are going to use Sloth and her relationship with the Elrics to get the Scholar's Stone"
"And just how are we going to do that?" Envy asked.
"Well, I'd tell you, but I don't feel like it," Greed said.
"Greed, I'd like to let you know that I hate your guts," Envy said.

AT THE ROCKBELLS...

Edward walked back to the Rockbell's house. Winry was running towards him as fast as she could.
"What was that about?" Winry asked him.
"You were right. That was Mom"
"Did she tell you?" Winry asked.
"Sort of," Ed said.
"Ed! Colonel Mustang just called!" Alphonse said as he came out of the Rockbell's house.
"Oh, yeah? What'd he want?" Ed asked.
"He said Pain and Torture were tracked down. They're here, in Risembool"
"WHAT!" Ed said.
"So, Colonel Mustang told you about us? He's going first," Torture said with a sly grin on his face.
"Torture!" "It's time to finish what I started," Torture said. He took a shot at Edward, who went flying backwards with force.
Edward got up quickly and dusted himself off before getting his blade drawn and charging for Torture. He took three swipes at him, missing all three times.
"Why are you here? What do you want?" Ed asked, still fighting.
"I'm here to kill you, then look for Sloth," Torture responded calmly.
"I don't know where Sloth is," Ed said.
"I never asked you if you knew where she was," Torture said.
Winry walked out of her house to see Ed and Torture fighting. She went back inside and grabbed a wrench.
"Stop hurting Ed!" Winry said as she hit Torture with the wrench several times. Torture didn't even move.
"Okay, this is just annoying," Torture said as he stuck his claws through Winry's midsection. Blood was everywhere.
"Ed..." Winry said as she was shaking and dying.(A/N: I have nuthin against Winry. Plz dont be mad about her death, Winry fans)
"WINRY!" Ed yelled. He dropped to his knees. He coudn't go through another death."Torture, you're going to pay for that!" He ran up to him and started slashing away.
Al was fighting Pain, and she was turning the flower petals on the ground into small blades and forcing them to slowly scratch away the seal in Al's armor. He tried to deflect them as best as he could, but there was too many. He finally drew a circle on the ground and made it into a solid rock lance.
"It's on!" Al yelled as he charged at Pain and slashed at her hands.
"Pain, I feel Greed...Let's go..." Torture said shakily.
"Gotcha," Pain said as she snapped her fingers and both of them instantly dissapeared.
"Winry..." Ed said as he ran over to Winry."Winry, you can't die on me"
"Ed...I've never told you...or anyone...but...I...love...y. . ." she went limp in Ed's arms.
"WINRY! NOOOO"
"Ed, there's nothing we can do..." Al said.
"Al, just shut-up! You're not helping anything!" Ed said through tears.
Without a word, Al walked into Winry's house to break the news to Pinako.
"Winry...I love you...why did you have to go so soon"
"Ed?" Sloth said."Ed, everything's going to be alright"
"Torture...Torture killed her...she...she didn't stand a chance against him...he'll kill just anybody...he has no emotions"
"Come here..." Sloth said. She held Ed close in her arms."I'm here. Everything will be okay."

The next day, everyone was at Winry's funeral. Ed was crying the entire time.
"You really did love her, didn't you?" Al asked him.
"...yea...look, I don't really want to talk right now..." Ed managed to say.
"I see...I'll see you later then..." Al said before he walked off. Ed was alone now.
"Winry...I'll miss so much...I never even got a chance to tell you how I really feel..." Ed whispered.
"...she was trying to save me... it should be an equivilent exchange! What do I get! I feel like I'm only losing things and not gaining anything!" "I'm so sorry...about the girls death...I truly am..." Sloth said as she walked up to Edward, who was standing in front of Winry's grave.
"Mom...First I lose Dad...then you...and now Winry. I lost my right arm and left leg. Al lost his entire body. We've gained nothing. We're only losing things! Why does it have to be this way"
"I don't have the answers, Ed, but maybe with the help of the Scholar's Stone, you can bring her back, instead of me"
"If I had my automail arm and leg remain the same, I could bring back the both of you. I could live with automail," Ed said.

"Ed, are you okay?" Al asked him a few days after the funeral in their old bedroom.
"I think we should get on with our journey and put the past behind us," Ed said."I'm still sad about Winry, but I'll manage"
"Good, because I just got word from Riza that Torture and Pain are in her custody," Al said happily.

(A/N:) I WANT TO LET YOU ALL NO THAT I AM NOT A WINRY HATER AND I DONT WANT HER TO DIE AND I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST HER! Plz, Winry-fans, dont be mad about her death and dont flame me! BTW, How do yalll like th story so far? w00t! Im working on it, like, nonstop.

FireflyDreamer