Chapter 8

Al lay dead in Ed's arms. His brother's blood staining his black State Alchemist clothes.

Ed sobbed silently and tears cascaded down his pale white cheeks like an unending water fall as he held Al close to his bleeding heart. He couldn't stop crying and he didn't want to. They were tears of sorrow for his brother, a person he loved more than life itself. And he had killed him!

Ed wished this was all a dream and he'd wake up at any moment. But this was no dream. Nor was it one of his waking hallucinations that Al had told him about. This was real, and as real as reality could get! He recognized he was fully aware of his mental facilities, he was no longer haunted by Guilt's influence. He had broken free of his control. The sight of his brother's corpse cut the strings of his puppet master.

He cried and nuzzled his bother's face against his chest, hugging him tightly. He didn't want to let go, he never wanted to let go. He wanted to be with his brother. It was his obligation to be at his side forever. They were brothers and as he was the eldest he had to look after him. But he had failed in that job, he had allowed an outsider to take Al away from him and he couldn't do a thing about it but watch.

As Guilt had control of his body he felt trapped and all he could do was watch through his own eyes the events that transpired. Watch as he, his own body, and Guilt's control over it, murdered his flesh and blood. And all Al had wanted to do was save him. "How could you make such a deal, Al? You idiot!" he said.

His eyes filled with tears, he turned and looked at the imposter who posed as him. He still didn't know who this person was, but he didn't care anymore. Whoever he was he had murdered his brother, and now he was going to pay. He didn't care what happened to him anymore. If he died, he'd join his brother. But he was going to take Guilt with him. He was going to get his revenge and there was nothing that was going to stop him.

He gently lay Al down in the water face-up and rose to his feet. He turned and faced his brother's murderer, the evil puppet master. He clenched his teeth and suddenly his mind was filled with rage. He brought his blade in front of him and wiped a finger in Al's blood. He then made a mark on each cheek as if ceremoniously marking himself before going into battle.

"You win? I don't think so. If you want Al's body, you're gonna hafta get pass me!" He said with an almost insane look in his eyes. He was so filled with a blinding hate for Guilt that he was prepared to do anything.

Guilt chuckled sinister and amused. "I'm afraid not," he said, grinning dubiously. "The first principle of Alchemy is equivalent exchange. I restored your consciousness to you in exchange for Al's physical body. The law dictates that that is a equitable exchange. He acknowledged the deal willingly. Though he didn't have to. I would have taken his body despite who won. His fate was sealed even before the fight began!"

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"The moment he entered your mind in a futile attempt to save your sanity an equivalent exchange was made. He promised he would give up anything to save you and this is the result. I needed a willing body to host my consciousness and now with Al departed to the great beyond, his body is now mine. I wanted to see who was strongest of the two, if he won the fight I wouldn't taken his body anyway. So matter who won the fight, my prize was assured. But I enjoyed the fight. You didn't disappoint me, Ed. I knew you would win."

"No, I lost," he said straightly. "I killed my brother and he meant everything to me. He was my courage and my reason for being. Without him to guide me on the straight and narrow path I would've probably turned out like Scar with an unquenchable thirst for revenge against the military for taking my father away from us."

"You're placing blame where it doesn't belong and you know that," he said."You became a State Alchemist of your own free will."

"Yes," Ed agreed. "It was the only way I could gain access to restricted material that could've been used to restore my brother back to his human body. But in the end, all we needed was each other. I loved my brother, he meant everything to me. And now you're gonna pay for what you did. You used me to get to him. Now it's time to turn the tables. I heard what my brother said and now that I know he forgives me for what I did to him, my guilt is completely gone."

Guilt chuckled amused. "I am still here so it's not completely gone," he said. "You can't just eradicate emotion from the mind. It's impossible. Besides I'm much more now that was first given birth by your guilt conscious. I'm a living entity."

"I think its time you told Ed who you really are," Maes Hughes said.

Ed had forgotten that he was here.

Maes was dead, but he would forever be alive in Ed's thoughts. He had a special bond with the man, because he helped deliver his daughter. But why was he here? He'd have to ask him later.

Ed looked back at Guilt.

"Not yet," he said with an insane smirk. "I'm not finished having fun."

"Fun!" Ed said angry. "How dare you!"

"What would you give to get your brother's soul back?" Guilt asked him.

Ed was temporarily taken back by the question. "Ed's dead, it's too late," he said.

"What if he's not dead? For the sake of argument, what would you give in exchange?"

"I'd give anything, even my own life. He deserves to live, not me."

Suddenly something grabbed Ed's ankle and he jumped. He looked down and saw that Al's hand had grabbed it. "Al?" he said. But then he looked at his brother's face, his eyes were lifeless. His eyes were pure white, there were no pupils. They had glazed over. "What have you done to him?" Ed said.

"I've brought him back temporarily."

"This isn't my brother, he's--it's a zombie."

"Quite right. This is a representation of his physical body he manifested, but it has no soul. I now control it as I will soon hold dominance over his physical body in the real world." Al's body got on all fours and then rose, wobbling to his feet, the bloody wound in his chest still oozing with blood. Ed looked at him horrified. "I've brought him back for a single purpose. If you completely destroy the last remnants of his body, I will give you back his soul."

Ed looked a Guilt wide-eyed and speechless. "What? You mean you have Al's soul? Where?" He said.

"This is my world until I decide to leave it, Ed. In here, everything lives with or without a physical body. Even though it may look like you have killed his body, what you see is a mere representation of a recognized part of himself. A person's soul can never die. Despite it not being visible, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist in some other form."

"You mean Al's soul is still here?"

"Yes. And if you don't do what I tell you, his soul will be forever mine to torment."

Ed extended his blade to twice the size than it would normally go and used his entire automail arm to make it. He then pointed it at Guilt. "I'm warning you, if you don't tell me where Al's soul is…"

Suddenly Al's zombie body grabbed him and held him tight across the chest, locking his finger tips. Al's body then transformed into the suit of armor he had been bonded to for nearly five years. In this physical form, Al, or what pretended to be his brother, was nearly invincible. But it wasn't Al, only his body that Guilt allowed to continue to exist inside Ed's mental plain.

Ed struggled to free himself, but to no avail.

"You refuse to fight your brother's body? Then fine, I'll keep your brother's soul forever."

"No please, give me back my brother's soul. I'll fight his body."

Guilt nodded and Al released him.

Ed felt his chest. Al had squeezed so tightly that his breastbones felt bruised. He looked at the suit of armor and glanced into the eye sockets. There was no life and he couldn't sense Al. Where was his soul? Guilt had it. Maybe if he killed Guilt, Al's soul would return to his body?

"Are you ready to fight, Ed?" Guilt said to him.

"I think I have better idea," Ed said, and with a quick thrust with his blade, impaled Guilt through the stomach. Guilt gasped as the blade penetrated his body and broke through his back.

Ed grinned innately as he thought he finally delivered the final blow and this was all over. But instead of dying, Guilt merely grinned innately back. Ed looked at him confused.

Guilt snorted with a smirk and put his hands on his hips, looking at the blade that had been forced through his body. "That wasn't nice," he said. "In fact, it tickled." Then with an extension of his hand, an invisible force tossed Ed backwards, ejecting the blade from Guilt's stomach.

Ed landed in the water with a thud and a loud splash. He had landed on something and felt his butt. Then he felt something underneath him. He grabbed it and brought it out from the water. It was Al's samurai sword. Funny, in his mind, he would never have thought things in the real world had true substance. However, as this world, created by his mind and construed as real, everything here was. So Al was able to make this.

He clapped and transmuted his automail arm back to normal so he could grip the sword properly. He got to his feet and then witnessed Guilt's stomach regenerate itself before his eyes and seal the wound as if nothing had transpired. But for some reason, it didn't surprise Ed.

He was starting to understand.

This world inside his mind was real and yet it could be controlled. So if you truly believed in something here, it was possible that it could exist or happen. The mind was so complex, erratic and interchangeable that anything was possible here. That's how Guilt was able to generate. He believed nothing could harm him in this place. Ed had to start thinking in the same manner if he was going to defeat him.

"Time to die now, Ed," Guilt said.

And the suit of armor attacked him.

To be continued…