HYBRID RAINBOW: FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST

Rated: T for violence / angst

Warning: SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE ANIME SERIES!

a/n: I decided to write a songfic! The song is Hybrid Rainbow, by the pillows. They're an awesome j-rock band. I started this about five episodes before the end of the series ended on Adult Swim, and finished it like five weeks after it ended. PS: yes I engli-fied the lyrics so people could understand them! PPS: dont flame me cuz i got some of the lines wrong or anything, kuz i just did it from memory, k?

Edward was kneeling by the transmutation circle, blood pouring out of where his left leg should have been. The violet light was just beginning to fade away. A pulsing pile of flesh, bone, and blood was sitting in the middle of the circle.

"No," managed Ed, teeth gritted. "That wasn't the way it was supposed to be!"

It is an almost sinking uninhabited island
It's not on the globe and it doesn't even have a name
Although a ship of hope sailed near us yesterday
It wasn't here to pick us up

Al woke up and saw his brother kneeling there, bleeding. He remembered nothing since when they had activated the circle. The whole room was dark, save for a single lamp on the wall.

"Brother!" he cried, rushing up to him. He soon found that he was encased in a large suit of armor. Al picked Ed up. "What happened?"

"I-I'm sorry, Al," croaked his brother. "You got taken for... Equivalent Exchange... All I could do was attach your soul... to a suit of armor... by sacrificing my arm..."

"What about Mom?" Ed shuddered at this.

"D-don't look," he sobbed. "It's not human."

We got burnt by the allure of the Sun
We wave hands with its prism between our hands

We got burnt by the allure of the Sun

"BROTHER!" came the cry across Lyor. Ed heard it and rushed into the desert where the red light had been moments ago.

"AL!" he yelled. "AL, WHERE ARE YOU!" he suddenly spotted a suit of armor amongst the sand and furiously dug it out.

"Brother?" asked Al tentatively. "It's you!" He jumped up. "Run away! I'm going to explode any minute!" Ed cocked his head.

"What are you talking about?" he asked warily.

"But..." he started, surveying his body over. "Kimbly turned me into a bomb... and Scar sacrificed his arm to try and save me... and there was this big red light... and now I'm here!" Ed's eyes widened.

"Al..." he whispered. "Open up your chest plate."

"Why?"

"Just do it." Al did so, and the two both gasped at the sight: a glowing red light was inside of his armor, attached to his soul.

"Ed..." quired Al softly, "Is that...?"

"Yeah," said Edward breathlessly. "That's it."

Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
Although we didn't get selected until yesterday,
We're waiting for tomorrow

"Is that all you got!" Ed yelled, punching Envy again, who had taken the form of Marco, then Hughes, then Sloth, then his own brother. "All you do is hide behind other people's faces! What's your REAL form, you coward!"

"Do you really want to know?" Envy asked venomously. "Then by all means!" He changed his face one last time. Ed stopped abruptly.

"Y-you're his son!" Ed exclaimed in horror. He had Envy pinned to the ground and was about to stab him. Envy had taken on his true form; the son of Hoenheim. His lips curved upward in a nasty smirk.

"Yes, Hoenheim was my father," he said, voice dripping with loathing. "And I'll never forgive that bastard for what he did to me!" And with that, he turned his arm into a sword and plunged it through Ed's chest.

Our almost deflated airship
Is barely above ground

"B-brother...?" Al whispered. Ed's body spewed up more blood as Envy tossed him aside.

"That was too easy," he hissed, smirking and changing back to his hommunculus form.

"N-no..." Al whispered. "Brother... can't be dead... He can't die... He wouldn't let that happen... I- I was the one who was supposed to die..." If he was human, he would have been crying. Gluttony was staggering up to him, starting to devour the stone hungrily, but Al clapped his hands and pressed them to Gluttony's mouth, burning him. Lyra gasped.

"What have you done?" she exclaimed. "You activated the Philosopher's Stone!" Glowing red tattoos were appearing all over Al's body and he was freed from the transmutation circle. He got up and Lyra rushed over to him, clapping her hands.

"Stay back!" Al said forcefully. "You can't make me do anything!" Lyra faltered.

"What are you going to use it for?" she spat. Al walked over to his brother's body.

"Look," he said softly, "Brother's soul is still probably at the Gate. There's still color in his face." Envy scowled.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Al clapped his hands.

"Brother sacrificed his arm and leg for me..." he said. "Now it's my turn to return the favor." He pressed them to Ed's chest, and a great blue light shone around them as red transmutation circles appeared.

The uncertain color that we hesitate to name
It'll probably be picked by the birds without hesitation

Ed stood looking at the Gate, encased in a white haze. He reflected on all the times he and his brother were together. It brought painful memories to him. Suddenly, an image of his brother in the armor appeared in front of him, vanishing as quickly as it had come.

"A-Al?" Ed stared at it, then at the great doors that lay before him, and began to cry silently, tears streaming down his cheeks as he made no move to wipe them away.

"Al."

Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
It's definitely not here yet
The limit of endurance isn't here
It's not here

"Can you hear me?" the voice asked softly in his ear.

"Yeah," Ed sobbed weakly, voice cracking. "But what am I crying for?" He wiped his eyes with his right hand and noticed that it felt... soft. He cracked his eyes open to find it as flesh.

"He used alchemy..." said Rose quietly. "To bring you back." Ed's eyes widened.

"The Philosopher's Stone..." he whispered. Horror suddenly flashed across his face. "Don't tell me... he's gone..." Ed trailed off, tears stinging his eyes. "No..." whispered Ed. "AL! AL!" He sank down to his knees, crying silently. "No... his life for mine... never..." Ed clapped his hands and pressed them to the ground, and a large transmutation circle emerged. "Rose," he said. "Get out of here. Now. I'm destroying this place." For a moment, she hesitated, but then nodded and ran off. Taking off his jacket and shirt, Ed dipped his finger into the pool of blood he had been laying in and began to draw transmutation circles on his hands, chest, arms and head.

"Maybe life has no equal trade," he said softly, "Maybe you can give up all you've got and get nothing back... But still... Even if I can't prove it's true, I'm willing to try. For your sake, Al." Taking a deep breath, he clapped his hands and pressed them against his own chest.

Can you feel?
Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?
We want to believe it is only halfway here

Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth. But the world isn't perfect. And the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange doesn't encompass everything that goes on here, but I still choose to believe in its principle. That all things do come at a price. That there's an ebb, and a flow; a cycle, that the pain we went through did have a reward and that anyone who's determined and perseveres will get something of value in return, even if it's not what they expected. I don't think of Equivalent Exchange as a law of the world anymore. I think of it as a promise between my brother and me. A promise that someday, we'll see each other again.

I can feel.
I can feel that hybrid rainbow
Although we didn't get selected until yesterday,
We have tomorrow in our hands.

a/n: well, that was depressing... sigh it fits the show perfectly, though. review plz!