Heavy boots of lead,

Fills his victims full of dread,

Running as fast as they can,

Iron Man lives again!

"He's insane" breathed Ed, voice shaking from the horrors he'd just seen and all the vomiting he'd just done. Shaky hands closed the door as shaky legs tried to lead him away. Some of the people viewed so far had been hacked to pieces but he hadn't been able to hold off vomiting long enough to see exactly how it had been done. And to think; less than three minutes ago, getting something to drink had been his only concern.

He could hear the screams as those people were brutally murdered echoing in his head. Try as he might, he could not block out the noise. Then, in a burst of realization, he realized the screams were not just in his head. Jeeze, talk about picking a bad day to leave your common sense at home. Mentally kicking himself (again) and focusing on the screams, he ran as fast as his exhausted body would let him.

It was coming from the sanctuary. 'God must really hate me,' Edward thought, 'I was only a child then and he still has me marked.' He stopped at the monolithic double doors, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before intruding upon holy ground. Inside looked exactly like the room in lab 5 where he fought The Slicer, moonlight poring in through the slanted ceiling and all. There was even a dark figure there ready to greet him.

Blood was the first thing he noticed: smell penetrating air thick and cakey-strong as an overbearing scented-candle, smeared over walls and floor, gathered in puddles around the dead bodies. There was a 'klinking' sound, bringing Ed's attention back to the figure, as he stood up. He was holding something furry with his right hand but since his back was to him, Ed couldn't tell what it was. The figure turned slowly, facing Ed with his left side; keeping the right hidden.

"Alphonse? What are you doing here?"

"Taking care of business," Alphonse said indifferently.

"Don't tell me you've been –" yelled Ed.

"Aren't you happy brother," the armor turned slightly, "Look-" he held up his right arm, dangling a man above the floor, holding the guy's hair in an iron grasp, "-I even did this one – just for you." Ed's eyes traveled down the form then went wide in horror; the figure Alphonse was holding had been cut-off at the knees.

"No, no, this isn't what I wanted . . . I just . . . this isn't . . . this wasn't suppose to happen!" Ed moaned. "You wanted them to stop making fun of you, I thought you would be happy brother" Al, bright and innocent sounding as ever. "No! It doesn't make me happy! Sure I hated it when they called me 'shorty', but they didn't deserve this!" Pause. "What you're doing is wrong, Al, and I can't let you keep on doing it, even if you are my brother." Al let go of his hold on the guy's hair, causing him to fall to the floor, landing on his nubs, making the still-living-being emit a painful scream from the pressure of full-weight on freshly severed limbs. "Then if you don't approve of what I'm doing, you do realize I can't let you out of here alive." Ed had that tortured/haunted look on his face and was shaking his head, "No, Al, don't make me do this-" "TOO LATE BROTHER!" the Armor yelled as he lunged at Ed who was taken by surprise and barely had enough time to jump out of the way, though not far enough as he was still well within reaching distance: Al caught his left leg, bringing Ed out of flight, and, to Ed's horror, pulled hard enough for him to hear the 'click' as the auto-mail dislodged from its housing.

Ed fell to the floor as Alphonse tossed the auto-mail carelessly behind him. He struggled to get up then rolled over on his back and was about to clap his hands when Al grabbed his right wrist, yanking hard on the arm, much harder than was required, to remove that auto-mail from its housing as well. "None of that now, Edward" Al chided, then kicked him in the side, making him roll back over on his stomach, clutching his side with his remaining arm. While Ed was in pain, Al walked back to the bodies, tossed Ed's fake arm in the midst of them, and redirected his attention to the only one still alive. By then, Ed had uncurled enough to look up; he saw Al pulling the man who'd been cut-off at the knees up by his arm with one hand, move his other hand to clap that one, then pull his arm back like he was going to grab the man's head before turning to Ed and saying, "This I learned from Scar so watch closely."

'Doesn't need transmutation circles! But only people who've seen the gate can use alchemy like that . . . then that means . .!' "Stop! Al! Remember when we went through the gate? – it showed us the end of mankind! You're helping it, Al, you're –" "I don't care! That doesn't matter! They think we're freaks – they must suffer!" At that, Ed's voice was reduced to a whimper as he struggled to hold back tears that threatened to choke his throat and his eyes, "No . . . don't do it . . . please . . . stop. . ." Alphonse's response was bone-chilling: "No brother, I won't stop. I'll keep on killing . . . until there's no one left." A look of absolute horror crossed Ed's face as he uttered the only word he could think of. "Yes, brother, and you're going to watch as I do it too, then, it will be your turn to die." The utter soon became a scream that reverberated throughout the dead town, stirring birds that had gathered on corpses to flee from impending doom.

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This is actually the end of the story but if you don't likehow it endedor you just feel like reading on, then by all means look at the epilogue.