Living on Borrowed Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Author's note: Sorry if this doesn't seem like the same story any longer. I promise my section of the story the whole Riza Transmutation thingy seriously does fit in with the movie and stuff…you'll just have to wait 'til the end. w00t all the way to the end of the movie. One chappie to go!

Chapter 32: Epilogue pt. 4

It took almost a day for Mustang to finally bring himself to make the call. Unfortunately, Alphonse wasn't the one to pick up.

"Rockbell Automail shop, Winry speaking." The girl on the other end of the phone said.

Roy gulped hard. He was going to have to face all the things he'd ran from head on if he was going to get to the bottom of this. "Hello Winry. It's Mustang. Is Alphonse there?"

It would be a lie if Winry had pretended to not know the name. She knew this man…he'd killed her parents. Strangely enough, she held on ill will toward him. At first she'd hated him—wanted him to rot in hell, wanted him to hurt as bad as he'd made her hurt. It was then she talked to a very wise woman. The woman had told her that she was willing to do what it took to protect him…it was when Winry asked 'what if the person isn't worth protecting?' that she got a surprising answer, "That's my decision to make." The woman had replied. Winry hadn't understood her reasons at the time, but she soon came to understand that he wasn't a cold-blooded murder, but a man that was doing what he had to. She now knew that he thought of her parents everyday, and even if it took their deaths to impact him, they'd impacted him for the better. That day, standing out on the rocks next to the riverside, she could see the determination in his eyes as he told his plans to rise through the ranks. It was then that she saw just how much of an impact her parents had made. They'd died doing what they loved, they'd known the risks and they'd taken them anyway, because of their deaths this one man had made it his entire mission in life to make sure that others wouldn't have to suffer like she did. Because her parents changed his outlook, he was determined to change the outlook of their entire nation. He was worth protecting, she could see that…and a little part of her knew that if her parents could see the man that he'd become, they would know that their deaths weren't in vain, they were still saving lives, thanks to the man that had taken theirs.

"It's been a while." She replied, breaking away from her thoughts.

"Sorry," his voice crackled on the other end, "I'm in no situation to make a phone call."

"It's all right," she said, "But Al isn't here."

"He's not?" Mustang asked, genuinely surprised. From what Riza had told him, Al would be just around 12…where would he be if he wasn't living with the Rockbells?

"He disappeared," she replied, her sadness of being left behind again seeping into her voice. "Al, and Wrath too."

"I see." He said, thinking out loud, "They're probably at Central."

"Yeah."

"Lior and Central, the two cities where the disasters occurred at the same time. Their common point—he probably came to the same conclusion I did." Mustang said, trying to not reveal too much.

Winry's heart skipped a beat or two, "Is it something related to Ed perhaps?" Life had gone on since her childhood friend had disappeared, but a little part of her could never accept his 'death'. Edward was too stubborn to die.

Roy didn't want to get her hopes up. He knew how much Winry cared for Ed, it would be cruel to lead her on with only a thought and a clue. "I can't say anything as of now."

"Oh…" her voice dropped. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to gather some more resources and see what information I can make out." Roy told her. "It was good speaking with you Winry."

"You too Mr. Roy." She said just before setting down the phone. After a moment of thought she went to her room and picked up a special metal case and packed her bag. Mustang was trying to lie to her. This had something to do with Ed, and she wasn't about to be left behind again.

Roy stared at the phone, that old determination crawling back into his gut. If Ed was still alive, he was going to make sure the world knew. It was the least he could do for her. He picked up his bag in the corner and left his post. He was needed and he was tired of running away from his problems. Some things just had to be faced head on.

--

"Give me the Easter lilies please." Roy said pointing to a bouquet of beautiful white flowers in a case behind the counter.

"That'll be twenty." The woman working the cash register said smiling. It was obvious that she found him attractive. He gave her two bills without so much as his trademark smirk. "Are these for your girlfriend?" she asked non to slyly.

"No." he replied shortly taking the bouquet from her.

"Oh…well if they're not for your girlfriend, for your wife maybe?" she was obviously fishing.

"No." he said again as he turned and headed for the door.

The girl wasn't going to give up that easily, "So you're single then? Maybe you'd like to—"

"I'm not interested. Sorry." Roy replied without even turning around. Two years ago he would have swept her off her feet, but a lot changes in two years.

Roy stood by his friend's grave, silently reading the name over and over again willing it to erase from the stone. Wishing that somehow Hughes would simply walk up behind him and shove a picture of his daughter in his face.

"Isn't she beautiful?" a voice said from behind him.

Roy's heart jumped out of his chest as he turned to see his old friend staring at one of his zillions of pictures of his daughter. "Maes!" Roy gasped. "You—you're—"

"Before you get started, it's not really me."

Needless to say, Mustang was more than a little confused.

"I'm kind of like the Ed you've been seeing. A figment of your imagination manifesting itself in the terms of someone you lost." Maes explained.

"Oh…" Roy replied, his heart dropping down to his shoes.

"You know Roy," Maes said, putting away the picture, "you should really get your head checked out…or therapy. I think you see way too many things that aren't there."

"I should, shouldn't I?" He smiled. Even if it was just his imagination, it was really good to see Maes.

"What you should do is move on." Maes said, becoming quite serious.

"How? I've done so many things, I've—"

"Helped a lot of people." Maes interrupted. "You're a good man Roy. Sometimes we do things that we regret, but all that we can do in the end is move on."

"But I should have—I should have down something. I should have done something in Ishbal, we murdered an entire race! I should have done something when you died. I should have—"

"You can't protect everyone. And you can't blame yourself for every death that happens."

"But—" he started.

"No 'buts' Roy. In Ishbal one soldier wouldn't have made the difference. I died, and when I did, I knew the consequences. I was a soldier. We all have our jobs to do. None of us are saints Roy, not even me."

Something finally clicked within Roy's head. He seemed to be seeing all the guilt and problems from the past two years from a totally different perspective. These past two years he'd carried the world on his shoulders, and now it was as if he could finally put everything down. All the guilt and blame from the past two years and even before that seemed to lift its way off his shoulders.

"She loves you a lot Roy." Maes said. "Don't you think its time that she gets a little happiness too?"

"Its just that after all this time I thought that maybe she'd move on with her life—"

"When you find that one person, the one that you want to wake up for. You can't just forget about them. She loves you, and I know you'd be lying if you said you didn't love her."

Roy smiled, "I do love her…a lot"

"Then go spend the rest of your life with her. Don't you think that you've made yourself suffer enough?" Maes said smiling.

Roy smiled. He placed the flowers on Hughes grave and watched as his friend slowly dissolved. "Thanks."

--

The ground shook violently as bombs dropped in the distance. People were seen running and screaming down the street as men in armor marched on the once peaceful city. Roy walked quickly against the human current, trying his best not to get knocked down. He had to get to headquarters.

"Who the hell are those guys?" Havoc asked around his cigarette as the squad attempted to keep the invaders at bay. The armored men simply continued their march into town like mindless pawns. Hope was running thin. Just then a familiar muscular man dashed in between the soldiers and the armored assailants and ripped off his shirt. "Behold this artistic transmutation!" he shouted, his muscles sparkling in the sun as he pounded the ground with both his fists. Immediately the ground erupted in several undulating statues (that bore a very good resemblance to him) that knocked the intruders off their feet. "Major!" Fuery called out happily, finally some hope of winning this battle.

Armstrong quickly did a back flip and landed behind the barricade. "Armstrong!" Falman shouted, "What are those things?"

"They seem to be the ones that appeared in Lior." He replied. No time for 'welcome back's, they were in war. A few armored men were getting back on their feet from Armstrong's earlier assault when someone called to the soldiers, "Falman! Fuery! Behind you!" The three men turned to see dozens of armored soldiers crawling down the front of Central Headquarters. So much for that hope of winning…

The soldiers quickly turned their attention from their front flank to their rear and everyone open fired on the new invasion force on the roof. A few of the armored men fell to the ground, but more were still coming. Everything seemed so hopeless. They were going to die there. 'I wish Roy could be here…' Hawkeye thought in the far reaches of her mind, 'I wish I could see him one last time…' As if someone heard her prayers Roy Mustang walked casually in upon the scene, as if he'd never left.

Hawkeye blinked twice and she couldn't stop herself from smiling wide. It wasn't a dream, he was really here. "Colonel!" Havoc said smiling at his former commanding officer. Mustang gave him a slight smirk as he simply snapped his fingers and incinerated the armored men on their front flank. 'He came back,' Havoc thought.

"Colonel Mustang!" Fuery shouted happily, his hope restored.

"Warrant Officer Falman!" Mustang shouted, "Protect the building with the troops at hand." With only a "Yes Sir!" Falman carried out his orders.

"Sergeant Major Fuery, send a message to the armored unit and immediately deploy the tank troops within the city, stop the enemy's movement." Fuery jumped up and complied with orders.

Havoc smirked to himself and said to Breda, "Look the Corporal's giving orders."

"Ensigns Havoc and Breda!" Mustang said, interrupting their chatter. Fear hit them and they immediately sprung to attention, "Yes sir!"

"This headquarters is the final fortress," he said, "get the generals together and make them signal to retrieve the soldiers from each garrison."

"Yes sir!" they said and ran off to complete their orders.

"Armstrong," He said turning to his friend, "In order to take down the enemies in the sky…"

"Yes, a balloon." Armstrong finished as if he knew his thoughts. "I'm going!"

The soldiers were gone, and there was only one other soldier left on the front lines other than himself. He'd avoided her gaze…afraid that she would be angry with how he left her…now he had no choice. He had to face her. Slowly he turned to look at her. She simply stood to attention, smiled at him and said, "We've been waiting."

He swallowed hard. Even with her helmet on he could see she'd grown even more beautiful than the day he'd left. Every fiber in his being told him to run to her. To take her in his arms and never let go.

She stared at him feeling breathless. She kept expecting this silly little romance novel fantasy to end, but it didn't. This was the real thing, and all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around and never let him leave again.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I—" Bullets flew between the two reminding them of exactly where they were.

"I guess our reunion will have to wait." She said quickly reloading her rifle and taking aim. He nodded and snapped his fingers at their enemies. The scene felt so familiar, it was like he'd never left.

As the two fought they were eventually being crowded into a corner. Roy looked around for anyway out. To his right he noticed a small side street where Major Armstrong and a few other soldiers were finishing up the balloon.

"Major!" He called and rushed to the man.

Armstrong turned and gestured to the balloon saying, "This is all we could make."

The balloon looked fairly sturdy; the canopy was made of the large draped flag that usually hung on the front of Central Headquarters. "That's good enough." Roy said as he rushed to the balloon. Kneeling down, he snapped his fingers once inside the canopy to heat the air. The balloon quickly began to fill and he hopped into the basket.

"Armstrong," Roy whispered to his long time comrade. "If I don't come back, take care of her." Armstrong needn't ask to whom he was referring, it was obvious. He simply nodded, and prayed that he wouldn't have to carry out that order.

It began to lift off the ground and Hawkeye just out of the corner of her eye she saw him in the balloon. 'He can't leave me again!' she screamed to herself. She ran toward the rising balloon. "Please wait!" she screamed to him, but Armstrong stopped her.

"I'm sorry!" he shouted down to her, "There's only room for one." It was a bad lie, but he couldn't risk her life. He had to do this on his own.

"But no! You can't!" she screamed, watching his form become smaller and smaller, "don't leave me again…" she whispered under her breath.

Roy's balloon sailed toward the enemy ship and two hundred yards away there was a familiar blue light of a transmutation. He smiled as he could clearly see two young blonde haired boys atop a rising concrete platform. There was no mistaking the Elric brothers. Suddenly the enemy ship fired at the base of the platform and the brothers lost their balance, nearly falling to their deaths. As they slowly crawled back to their former positions the enemy ship aimed to fired again. With one quick snap of his fingers, Roy exploded the entire gun array on that side. He was now close enough to the boys for them to hear him, "Now lengthen it FullMetal!"

Edward smiled, it'd been a long time since anyone had called him that. "Colonel!"

Roy smiled at his former charge. He was alive…any guilt that remained from the past two years faded away into a complete nothingness. The two boys clapped their hands and created a concrete spear and harpooned the airship, bringing it to a stand still.

As the balloon drifted over the concrete extension Roy hopped out and began running up to greet the enemy. Falling footsteps behind him indicated that Ed and Al were following. One glance behind him he could see Edward's face. He was older than Roy remembered, but that was to be expected. He even looked like he grew a little. "It seems you brought over this trouble."

"Sarcasm already!" Ed panted, "Man, that eye patch doesn't suit you well!"

"Excuse him!" Al interjected ever the peacekeeper.

Just as the three finally reached the airship a few guns took aim at them. Roy quickly blasted them away, but two more guns alchemized in their place. If he hadn't been fighting for his life Roy would have liked to find out exactly how their enemy was making these alchemic reactions appear so quickly. The three men found shelter from the gunfire behind a few support pillars that were holding the platform to the ship. Within moments Roy had exploded a few more of the guns. As the smoke dispersed he instructed Ed, "Go in from the front, that's why I came."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Edward smirked as he rushed right into the craft without so much as considering the consequences. 'He'll never learn!' Al thought, "Brother! Wait!" he called rushing into the ship after him.

As Roy watched the two boys disappear, he couldn't help but smile to himself, "I knew you were alive." Two more guns suddenly alchemized and he poured his attention back to the problem at hand. He'd lived through 1 massacre, 1 siege, and a complete overthrow of power in his country and he'd be damned if some bomb crazy sadist was going to destroy his country just as it was about to get back on its feet. His old motivation was resurfacing within him. He was no longer that broken guilt-ridden man Havoc and Breda had found in the snow covered northern outpost. He was Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, and he was about to let this enemy forget. Roy stepped out from behind the pillar and smiled his oh-so charming smirk at the guns. With confidence he'd only known years ago, he snapped his fingers.

Thirty minutes or so had passed since the boys had disappeared inside, and Roy was beginning to get worried. Every time more guns alchemized he made them explode, but ten minutes ago they'd stopped. Roy hoped that it meant whoever-or whatever was inside had been stopped. Suddenly the concrete spear the boys had made dissolved and the ship began to glide again. Roy had to hold onto the pillar he'd used as a shield or he would have surely fallen.

Down below the soldiers looked up, fearing slightly what could have happened to their commanding officer. Suddenly the mindless armor warriors all collapsed. Hesitantly Armstrong asked, "Is it over?"

Hawkeye released a relieved breath and said, "yes." He'd succeed…he was okay.

Meanwhile, on the airship Alphonse had come back outside to meet Mustang. He smiled that the boy. Finally it really seemed like things were looking up, but then Edward walked out of the ship…his face easily said that something was wrong.

"Fullmetal?" Roy asked. Edward didn't look at his brother, or the Colonel. He simply clapped his hands and placed them on the floor. The airship began to divide in half and the two pieces began to drift away from each other. Roy and Al were on one side, and Edward was on the other. "Brother!" Alphonse said, moving to jump to the other side. Roy stopped him, there was something wrong.

"With that much material you guys can make it." Edward said.

"Where are you going?" Roy asked, though he felt he already knew the answer.

"I'm going to return these guys to back beyond the gate." He replied.

Alphonse struggled again the Colonel's grip, "You don't have to go too!"

"I need to destroy that gate," Edward explained. "Al, you need to destroy the gate here too. So the path will never be open again." Edward began to turn, but was stopped cold in his tracks.

"What are you going to do about Winry?" Alphonse screamed. It was a low blow. Alphonse knew how much his brother cared for their childhood friend. He knew that it would be more than cruel to just leave her. After all, she'd waited so patiently. Now Ed would never get to tell her how he felt. He considered, for just a moment to actually stay. But the need was too great, he had to go. "Tell her thanks" Edward said turning and raising his automail, "For this." Without a second look he turned and disappeared into the darkness of the craft."

"BROTHER!" Alphonse screamed struggling against the Colonel. "Brother! Brother!" Finally he broke Roy's grip. "I have to go!" he said, getting ready to try and make a jump for the other side.

Roy grabbed him by the arm, "Your brother told you to stay."

"I don't care! I just want to be with my brother!" Alphonse said. His eyes said it all, he was just a broken little kid that was hanging to his last hope, "Please. You're the only one that can help me. I have to do this…he's all I've got left."

The words struck a cord with Roy…they were the exact words that he'd said to Edward years ago when he'd convinced him to help transmute Riza back to life. He let go of the boy. "Where's the gate? I'll destroy it for you."

Alphonse smiled, fighting back slight tears. "It's in the underground city!" he started to turn, but Roy stopped him. "Hide in one of the suits of armor, if he finds you he'll send you back."

He nodded, "Thanks!" Alphonse quickly turned and jumped to the other platform.

"Alphonse! Tell you're brother—" Roy shouted, "That we're even! He'll know what it means."

The young blonde haired boy disappeared inside and that half of the airship quickly blasted off in the direction of the gate. Roy smiled brightly, 'they're finally together.' After two years and what seemed like a lifetime, Roy realized that we make decisions, and we live with them. There is no going back. No regrets can be changed, and if you dwell on them, you're only stalling your life. We live now, not in the past.

Mwahahahaha…and now you know why Mustang let Al go. It's b/c he owed Ed one for Ed helping him resurrect Riza. See, I told you this had a point.