A.C.: hah... exams are over –waves a white flag-
Summary: Upon finding the diary of the legendary Phoenix Alchemist, Edward is thrown into a plot long since launched into motion by the fabled war hero...
Timeline: Sometime before Hughes is dead.
Warnings: oocness, grammar/structure/spelling mistakes, spoilers?
The New Fullmetal Alchemist- The question was "what is the main idea of this passage" but they used a thesis-esque word in place of the main idea... the funny thing about these exams is that you can usually add up how many ones, twos, threes, fours, and fives you get at the end and guess... but this time it was pretty uneven. Like seven fives, and five threes out of a 25 question exam -.-
"I've been here before haven't I?"
"Well we've all been here before, even you, even if you don't remember."
The shorter sin sits on the floor, jaws on his hands as one eye swivels towards the other.
"Where's the gate?"
Envy shudders, just not visibly.
"You don't go looking for the gate kid, the gate comes to us."
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Hughes opens his eyes and find that he was in a room of light. The streaming rays of gold to which the gates of after resided ominously in the middle. He licks his cracked lips, running his tongue over the crazed surface before attempting to move.
He falls back towards the ground with a sharp gasp, the wound over his heart was bleeding madly over his clothing and the chest area already soaked in burgundy. He looks at his hand, pierced beyond the bone, gritting his teeth at the amount of red that came off on it.
"Mr. Hughes!"
Heavy footsteps of armor, the one that he never thought he'd hear again.
"Alphonse? What are you doing here?" He gladly accepts the leather and metal hand that is offered to him. "Where are we?"
Alphonse looks around nervously, or as nervous as a suit of armor can look.
"I'm not sure; I think... we're at the gate."
Hughes draws a sharp breath.
The gate,
He had heard many talk of it; many who dared to talk of it but would not elaborate. Mustang himself had once told him that he had seen it, a structure of darkness with thousands of eyes...
Then Hughes's eyes are drawn to the blond fuzz in Al's other arm, the still and bleeding form of Edward Elric.
"Ed!" He drops to his knees immediately, placing the index and the middle finger at the base of the blonde's neck to seek out a pulse, anything to indicate in anyway that the boy was alive.
Al pulls away from the former Lieutenant Colonel,
"That's why I'm here, I'm the stone you see Mr. Hughes... I'm going to bring brother back"
Hughes' eyes widen marginally,
The gate was right beside them...
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The other violet eye blinks open, rolling in anxiety
"It's here..."
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"No need for that Alphonse..."
A raspy voice and click of heels
"General?"
The Roy look alike is there, dark and foreboding against the golden background.
"Ahh, no."
Beside him is a sick looking Envy, who was sweating in nervousness as he realizes just exactly where he is
"The gate is here...! Where, where's the bastard dammit!"
'Hope' looks amused, but there was some heaviness to the youngest homunculi's form, an undefined weight that clings on to the dark shoulders.
"The gate..."
Hope walks over to the two humans and a soul. And past them to lay a cold hand upon the intricate designs of hands on the dark surface. The black metal pulses like a living thing beneath his fingers.
Hope lets out a brief purr, a sort of a cooing as if to pacify an unruly child. Eyes half closing he thrills at the gate, tracing the dark lines.
He stops,
He steps aside
"KYYYYAAAA!"
Just as Envy came barreling forward to wrench the doors open.
Hope smiles and holds his hands out. Just as the door opens and the blue violet eyes blink up at the light and at the pair of stunned violets, grinning fiendishly as the shadows encloses over Envy's slight frame sucking him in.
In Hope's palms is a perfectly shaped half of a red stone, rolling delicately over the curves.
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"No need Alphonse Elric... no need for needless sacrifices."
He can't explain why he knows them all, just the reason why he can't explain why he is doing this. He is a sin, but he is hope.
The ultimate sin.
He is a phoenix.
He takes the prone form of Edward Elric and stretches him out fully before the black doors.
The stone in his hand glows with alchemical power before dying down, the crimson glow of the legendary artifact transferring over to the dead teen's in a string of light.
Red like blood,
Like an IV tube, feeding Ed back into life.
Golden eyes jerks open to soft hair falling on an achingly familiar face.
He is smiling.
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'Who's smiling...?'
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Ed flexes his newfound arm and leg, about to thank the sin when the dark haired homunculus turns on Alphonse, punching through the chest piece with the fingers poking out the other side.
The steel wrought body disintegrating in a flash of white lightning.
Ed screams as Al's body is obliterated under Hope's hand.
The metal arches fell like heavy feather towards the floor, chiming like tinkering bells as they made contact.
Ed freezes,
Can't move except scream and cry, hearing nothing except the roar behind his ears and the yells of the Lieutenant Colonel who was now dying.
The part with the blood seal, formed in a rough heart in the taking of it, is still smoking in Roy look-alike's hands.
The gate opens and the seal dissolves into dust,
Ed falls dumb as the bony body of a child is thrown out of the darkness,
As the soul replaced itself in the rightful body
Hope is walking towards Hughes, his heels still making the clicking sound
Only then did Ed move,
Only then did he throw himself above Al's naked body and sob in relief and joy at his brother's return.
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A cold thumb was placed on the bleeding eye,
The wire frame and the shattered glass was left forgotten on the not-quite-floor, digging into the Roy-homunculus' knees as the man's sweaty forehead was placed lightly against the still colder lips.
"I haven't forgotten, god I'm so sorry Roy, I'm sorry I left you, I'm sorry."
The apologies were mere whimpers bubbling at the back of the older man's throat.
A blue light
Signature of those who had seen beyond the gate and lived to tell the tale, much like the Elric brothers, much like...
"I'm not Roy."
Hughes is crushed, so is pseudo-Roy.
There is something about the man,
Something that transcended past the grudging obedience he had held briefly for his mistress.
"I was supposed to push you up from the bottom."
"I'm sure you did."
There is a strangled laughter,
"What the hell am I supposed to tell your mother?"
"I don't have one."
"You... I'm sorry"
Violet eyes lightens,
"Don't be..."
Hughes' vision clears, his eye, along with the stab wound above his heart heals...
Hope stands before the gate, facing the three humans struggling to support each other before him.
"Roy no..."
"Bastard General... what are you..."
There is an unidentifiable grunt from Al, but the frightened gray eyes tell him enough.
"The one you call Roy is gone, but he has a message for you..."
The doors had not closed with Al's entrance, the hungry eyes are still looking at them as predator might do to prey. The eyes are telling them that they are famished... oh so empty...
The rasp of the homunculus' voice had clears
The Colonel-turned-General's voice comes forth
"Tell the ones that I love... my story..."
The eyes shriek in glee as the shadow hands reflecting the colors of space catch hold of the youngest homunculus' arms.
"Tell them... that phoenixes never die."
The doors close
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Thomas Hughes snarls and throws his gun down as they approach, grinning maniacally.
All of them hold some type of weapon
No guns though, at least none in sight
And him with his fists.
He likes the odds, really. He would have ran except that there was a really nice wall blocking his only escape route that didn't involve plowing through a human wall of lethal weapons.
One of them spits off to the side, leering with a gap-toothed mouth.
He should have asked Gracia to marry him.
"Well, well officer, it seems as though you're in quite a predicament."
"Thank you for your concern gentlemen," grits Hughes, curling his fingers tighter. "But I think I can handle myself..."
"Oh we fully expect you to..."
But before the other man could carry on with whatever he was going to do to him, blades stuck out of the shadows, decapitating the leader.
Few of the gang members at the back scream in terror and flee. The others are soon to follow but the stragglers are swiftly cut down.
Blood shines in the light as it floods the narrow strip of ground.
Trying to bite back the bile gathering in his throat, Thomas snuck a quick peek at the stranger to see that he was holding his hand out, black blades extending from it.
Some type of swords, from fingers?
Nails, Hughes decides, extendable nails that somehow the man was able to retract. Perhaps one of the secret projects of the government he has been hearing about through the grapevine. Whatever he is, he is grateful.
"Thanks for saving me..."
The other man looks uncomfortable Hughes realize,
The tantalizing violet eyes were cast downwards,
'He must be cold... dressed in only that...'
The other man didn't look German, or even Jewish. He looked exotic, almond eyes and paper and ink skin, totally foreign and out of this country.
There was one time he had...
Where was it again?
Japan? Yes...
The Asians, the man before him looked Asian.
Hughes strips himself of his uniform jacket and places it on the shorter man's shoulders.
The man looks up at him, cat like pupils widening.
"Uhh are you alright? You're not from around here right?"
No answer, perhaps he couldn't speak German?
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"What's your name?"
At this so many thoughts streams into the homunculus' mind. Roy, Ryan, Colonel, General, Flame, Phoenix, Hope...
So many names, many grand ones, titles really,
Hollow, lacking substantial meaning, he had many names and thus none.
He'd have to earn a name for himself.
"I... my name is h... Sorrow."
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He is amazingly fluent in the language, Hughes replies in a small 'oh' before tucking the jacket closer on the smaller form.
"Weird name, did you know that sorrow actually means sadness, grief here?"
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"Yes."
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"I see..."
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"Have anywhere to stay? Because if you don't well… you saved my life and all."
Violet eyes look up,
"Hughes..."