A/N: This is my first attempt at a multichapter fic, usually I just write oneshots but I'm trying to break out of that box with this fic. A few notes about this story: its a bit fantasy, as you'll see, but I'm trying to keep it sorta in context and it will serve its purpose in the end.
The setting is after the anime, but doesn't follow the movie. I honestly haven't seen the movie, so I'll be taking my own road when it comes to that. This is eventual Ed/Win. Sorry, I just don't like the fact that they didn't get together in the end, so I'm taking things into my own hands! haha Also, if you don't like Winry, you probably won't like this fic because she has a big part (obviously). Oh yeah, and this is rated M for safety.
Disclaimer: i don't own FMA
I'll Leave the Door Open
Ch. 1: Minds Eye
Winry Rockbell sat gloomily at her desk, lazily flipping through a large stack of papers that sat before her. Most of them were reports of misuse of various metals, ranging from tin, to bronze, to gold and silver, not to mention her own specialty, automail. Her palms itched to feel the soothing metal in her fingers again, but as of late she had found it entirely impossible to find time away to tinker.
She had brought this upon herself, she reasoned. Three months ago she had finally gotten fed up waiting around home for something to happen, and had ventured out to try her own hand at getting back what had been taken from her.
The sign of her around the military base had shocked many, but most thought with approval she had eased into this life rather quickly and it was almost as if she had always been there. Being a dog of the military would serve its purpose, she thought desperately, as long as she got Edward back, what did it matter what her service was used for?
Edward. She sighed sadly, her eyes unfocusing on the report she held in her pale fingers. It had been three years since he had disappeared, leaving no trace of where he went. The only one who could possibly have some idea of what had happened to him had lost any memory of his existence.
Winry had been ecstatic when she saw Alphonse had gotten his body back. The sad reality of it however, was he had forgotten everything that had happened since being stuck in a suit of armor. His body was exactly the way it had been before he and his brother had performed that fateful alchemy that day so long ago. But that left everyone with many unanswered questions, most importantly: where was Edward Elric?
Winry's thin mouth turned down a frown, her delicate brows furrowed and her face reddened slightly. It was just like Edward, to leave everyone behind worried, wondering if he was safe, if he would return. Nothing was ever simple with him. She shook her head, feeling her anger once again flare up. This always happened when she thought about him. She got angry and then later regretted it. She was here for him after all, she had vowed to do everything in her power to find him. This is what she had told Roy Mustang as well, who had given her a good job dealing with things she loved. She was grateful to the man, who allowed her the use of military resources to search for clues.
She smiled to herself, thinking of what would have been Ed's reaction to her working with his sworn enemy. Most of the time, however, Roy was too busy to be of much help, or perhaps he just kept back what he knew.
Grumbling, Winry tried again to focus on her reports. She worked for a while longer before increasing amounts of yawning told her she had better stop. Shuffling a stack of papers together, she set them in her workbag. Maybe she'd get more done at home, if she could somehow regain her focus. After gathering up her things, Winry switched off her lamp and exited her office, securely locking the door behind her.
Instead of heading straight out of headquarters however, she took a detour down a side hall where the workrooms were located. At the very end was the door to her private workroom, which she paused before. On the door was a taped note which she quickly pulled away and began to read.
W. Rockbell
We've come across an unidentifiable metal recently when we caught some pirates distributing illegal contraband across the country. I need you to write up a report about any suspicious attributes the metal might have so we can further identify it. I'd like you to do the preliminary look-over of this substance before it is handed off to trained alchemists (as you know it gets extremely complicated with alchemists, which is why I'd like you to look at it first).
Winry nodded to herself, chuckling slightly. She knew how true that statement was.
She read on: I know you are busy, but I'd like you to do this at top priority. I left the package on your worktable.
Signed,
Fuhrer Roy Mustang
At the bottom was the official stamp of the Fuhrer, making the letter authentic, not that she thought otherwise. Winry absentmindedly pulled her hair in frustration; so much for an early night away. She considered just leaving, and later using the excuse she hadn't stopped by her workroom before she left, but decided against it. She owed Roy, and she didn't like to owe people.
The flame alchemist and now Fuhrer had gone out of his way to find her a good job at the military. She got to do things she enjoyed, from working on automail parts for people in need, to developing new techniques at making it, to learning about a variety of other metals and how to mold them to suit her, she was truly happy to have such a job. She felt she owed Roy Mustang her best, and that's what she would give him.
Resigned, she tucked the letter in her bag and unlocked her workroom door. Hitting the light switch on the wall, the blonde mechanic descended the stairs of her small, yet cozy room, not before closing her door securely behind her. Reaching the bottom of her stair she glanced around at the littered worktable. Tiny metal artifacts and loose sheets of papered were sprawled around varies corners of the room and the single light cast eerie shadows into areas it couldn't reach with its soft glow.
A spot had been cleared on the large table before her and upon it lay a large wooden crate. Grabbing a crowbar from a nearby shelf, she took about the task of retrieving her assignment from the box. She pulled out the wrapped up metal and laid it out on her table, then set the crate aside. Putting on some rubber gloves, she carefully extracted the paper away from the metal, and looked it over.
It was a white, steel like solid, which had an abnormal shimmer to it. But the strange thing she noticed, was its dough like qualities. Instead of being a solid bar or rod, it was just, well, a lump. She found, like clay, she could mold it into certain shapes, and it would stay that way.
Taking out a notebook, she began writing down certain properties of the metal, its color, weight (she quickly weighed it on her scale), and any other useful information she noted. From what she could tell, there really wasn't anything all that spectacular or abnormal about this metal, and didn't see why it would be considered worthy of pirating.
Winry yawned. She was quickly growing bored with the task at hand and soon, though for no apparent reason, found herself feeling around one of her drawers when her hand brushed a long box. Hesitating, she pulled it out and made room for it on her desk. Her fingers trembled as she ran them across its dusty surface, and her heart quickened.
Eventually her fingers found the latch, and the box sprung open. In the box lay a metal arm. It was small, seemingly fit for a child, and it was broken and cracked in a few places.
She ran her fingers across the smooth, cold surface of the automail arm as memories flooded back to her. Memories of a boy with intelligent golden eyes, eyes that seemed so much mature than he should have been. Winry remembered the very first automail arm she had had to make for the boy, who had barely survived an alchemic ordeal when he and his brother tried to bring their dead mother back to life.
The arm that lay before her, she recalled, was one which he first realized he no longer needed a transmutation circle. It had been damaged beyond repair sometime along his travels, and it was the last piece of him she had left.
The young woman dropped her head sadly and clutched the automail arm to her chest as it rose and fell with dry sobs.
"You deserved a better life," she spoke quietly to the empty room, as a tear rolled slowly down her cheek. "You promised I'd shed tears of joy."
She trembled with anger and anguish as her voice rose in intensity.
"You promised me! You promised everything would be alright! That we could be a family again!" Her tremors increased, and she raised her head, her face flush with fury as she stared down at the arm, yet the tears continued to fall.
"You promised me and I believed you! You promised me Edward…you promised…" By the end her voice was no more than a whisper.
Her chest constricted with heartache. Quickly, she reached out for a pan she used for melting and through the arm in it, then slammed it into her oven. She knew automail's melting point by heart, and quickly turned the oven to such a temperature she knew the arm wouldn't survive in. Once done, she felt all her energy was spent, and crashed down into her chair, her breathing coming in gasps. Winry shut her eyes tightly and forced herself to take slow breaths, in hopes of settling her frazzled nerves.
What am I doing? she inwardly chided herself. I'm acting like a child!
She sighed and brushed her blonde hair out of her face, as feelings of sadness washed over her now much calmer body.
I can't keep living in the past, I have to… move forward.
Determination flooded in her eyes briefly, and she gripped her hands into tight fists until she felt her nails digging into her delicate skin.
It's not like Edward expected he would just…disappear like that. It can't be what he wanted…
After a few more minutes, Winry felt much more relaxed and decided she should take out the automail from the oven.
She put her large, fire proof oven mitts over her rubber gloves and turned the dial down. Pulling open the oven door, Winry was met with steamy air. The once solid automail arm was reduced to a smooth, shiny liquid.
Carefully, the mechanic reached in and pulled the pan out of the oven. The thick, viscous liquid sloshed around slightly, and she moved her body slowly to avoid spilling. Turning her body, she moved a careful step forward, on her way back to her worktable where she would leave the metal to cool for awhile. But it wasn't the hard level floor her foot hit, as she had expected it to be, but instead hit the round handle of a hammer that was left lying on the floor.
Winry lurched forward in a reflexive move to try and regain her balance. The pan tipped forward and her crystal blue eyes opened wide with horror. The liquid pool of metal splashed up and over the rim of the pan, and went cascading downwards towards her worktable.
Actually, in the end, the metal didn't even touch the table. Instead, it all landed smack dab on Winry's mystery metal. Winry could only look on in horror, her mouth wide open in a silent scream and her eyes wide as saucers as she watched in slow motion as the liquid metal descended towards the unsuspecting glob sitting on her worktable.
Upon impact she turned her head away, shutting her eyes tightly. Only when her lungs began to burn did she finally remember to breathe. She blinked a few times, and couldn't stop the feeling of certain dread as she slowly turned her head to survey the damage.
A strange scene met her eyes, and she wondered for a moment if anything had really happened at all. There sat the, seemingly impervious, lump of solid with no evidence of the disaster that she was sure had occurred.
"I must be really luck--" she began wiping sweat from her forehead, but froze when something bright caught her eye.
A flash of light had caught her eye, and she thought it had come from the lump. The blonde blinked a few times in confusion, then disregarded the thought as she set the pan with what remained of the liquid automail down on the worktable to the side of her assignment. Blue illumination flashed against the walls, drawing her eyes back to the lump, and her heart began pounding furiously.
"What in the world is going on!" She whispered a bit shakily, staring wide eyed at the source of the light.
FLASH!
Winry covered her eyes slightly, but didn't look away this time as she saw a spark of what she guessed was blue lightning jump out of the lump, skip across its surface, then dive back down into the mass. Sweat rolled down Winry's cheek as she tried to make more sense of what was going on. Her mind could only grasp one possibility: that this was some side effect of it mixing with automail. Her eyes followed another spark dance across the surface, only to disappear into the solid once more.
Experimentally, Winry once more brought the pan of liquid automail over to the unknown lump and poured a small amount onto its surface. The lump seemed to soak up the liquid metal, and soon the darker color of the automail disappeared altogether from the surface.
"Well that's really odd," Winry commented dryly.
She cast her sight down to the contents of her pan, then back to the light silver glop just sitting there, and then shrugged.
"Not like I'll be using this anymore anyways," was her final comment before unceremoniously spilling the rest of the melted automail onto her unknown.
As it was added, it was quickly soaked up by the solid, leaving no trace of liquid anywhere.
"That's a neat trick, but I wonder why it does that," she thought aloud, setting the pan aside.
She moved to make a note of this strange behavior when the room was illuminated by the brightest blue flash yet. Many tiny sparks of lighting were now jumping across the mass of metal, diving into it then back out at a greater velocity than before. But now the lump wasn't just sparking, but it seemed to be boiling. Bubbles of varies sizes appeared on its surface, swelling up to a decent size, then exploding.
Winry squealed and waved her arms frantically when a large bubble popped, sending bits of metal showering outwards.
Her mind was reeling; she had no idea what to do. She had never seen metal behave this way and her nerves were at their wits end as she tried to think of a logical plan of action.
When none came to her, she, in the end, made an illogical action: she reached out and touched the bubbling and sparking lump and frantically tried to mold its convulsing girth back together.
Later, Winry would wonder what exactly had happened to her poor mind for her to have done such a stupid and rash thing, but at the time, it was all she could think of. At least she wasn't completely incompetent; she still had on her rubber gloves.
As soon as her gloved hands lay on the surface of the metal, however, she realized her mistake. Lighting was everywhere, and the temperature of the lump was somehow increasing. She also noticed the solid had taken on a darker shade, and it now matched the color of automail.
Desperately, Winry tried to pull her hands away from the soft metal. She was scared to think of what would happen if the lightning touched her.
As the sparks clung to the metal, they began to fan out around the clayish metal in bands, covering all sides of it. Yanking with all her strength, she managed to free her left hand from the pull of the metal, but before she could work on freeing her other hand, a spark jumped at her right hand. When it hit her rubber glove, the weak material broke apart.
Time seemed to slow in that moment and Winry's gaze momentarily landed on her military notebook. On the cover was a transmutation circle with a dragon etched in its center, strong jaws opened wide in what had to be a fierce roar, claws pawing the air. The picture of the dragon appeared in her mind until pain seared through her hand where the glove had once been. The blue spark had come in contact with her hand, and she had flinched, tightly shutting her eyes. Random images reeled through her mind in blinding speeds causing Winry's stomach to churn painfully. Bright lights appeared in the back of her eyes, swirls of blue light converged together etching the dragon into her mind as the final image she saw and then all went black.
Winry's hand was released and she fell to the ground, unconscious, blue lightning clinging to her hands and jumping around her arms. The clump of metal bulged and the lightning was absorbed into it, branching out like wiry veins. The metal was moving on its own now, stretching at awkward angles and rippling with energy. A long thin piece came out its top, while another piece stretched out its back. The middle thinned and elongated, then branched off in four places.
As more lightning was collected into it, the metals shade lightened to a soft silver color. The metal continued to shape itself. On each of the four branches that came out of the body, forearms and back legs appeared, followed by small clawed paws. On the long branch that stretched upwards, a snout and two delicate horns formed. The branch out of the back snaked around and formed a tail, and two more pieces began jutting out higher up on the creatures back. The creature stretched its long neck out and opened its forming mouth showing small metal teeth jutting out and uttered a sharp high pitched cry that sounded like metal scratching metal. The single light bulb on the ceiling flickered then went out, and the whole room became shrouded in darkness.
Please please please review! Tell me if you liked it, hated it,I don't care,I just wanna know. Flames may burn but I'll get over it. Most importantly, thanks for reading!
-- Miss Soupy