5

"Look at her." Dante said bending over Winry as she lay unconscious on the couch. "Strikingly plain."

"I hear a great amount of bitterness in your voice." Envy laughed watching as his mother caressed the younger woman's face.

"Even Rose had a much better body than this one. She was exotic, this one is just plain." She said standing up again.

"So why didn't you just let me kill her? Break Pride's heart a little." Envy asked getting bored.

"I have plans for that one." She said smiling.

"What could possibly hurt Pride more than to take that girl's life?" he asked leaning to look at her, gauging her neck, calculating how much force was needed to crush her trachea.

"He opened that gate to be with her." Dante said staring at the passing countryside. "Imagine how much he must've loved her." She said quietly.

He watched as she stood there detecting a hint of envy in her voice.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he yelled turning to Pride. "Where the hell were you?"

"I was outside." He said his face still not betraying any emotions.

Roy swung at him, he was becoming irrational now. He didn't know if it was the lack of sleep or the fear of losing Winry. He just wanted to hurt Pride.

He was getting tired. He cursed himself. Not ten minutes into the fight and already he was panting. He put on his glove. He rarely used it now. He started sending explosions into the air. Getting desperate with every snap of his fingers.

"You're becoming slow, old man." He laughed.

"Why would you do this to her? For years she would cry herself to sleep. For years how inconsolable she was." he asked panting. "Why come back at all?"

Pride stopped. Why did he come back? If what Dante said was true that he was the one that opened that gate. He was the one that wanted to be brought back.

He kicked Roy hard on his gut and he pulled his feet from under him, sending the older man on his back in the grass. Pride stood over him , both his hands on either side of the older man's head.

"Don't I deserve to be happy too?" he asked quietly. He wasn't even out of breath. Pride's heart ached every time he was reminded he was a humonculus. Every reminder took him farther away from her.

"What if they hurt her?" he asked getting up.

"They won't." he said as if it was absurd to think otherwise. "Not if they want me to do what they ask."

They stood there awhile. Watching as the tiny stream of smoke coming from the train disappearing into the horizon.

"Why did you hold back? You could've killed me back in Central too." Roy stated not even looking at his companion. "Why didn't you?"

"It would've made her sad." He said simply.

Roy Mustang looked at the boy before him. When he came back with all those invaders years ago, he knew Edward had grown up. In the way he carried himself, in his decisions. And he felt a fatherly pride as he watched him sail away in the alien plane. Giving everything up to do the right thing. Sacrificing everything he could've gained.

Now looking at him, in his borrowed body. He just looked broken. Defeated. As if he just came home to die. And this brought such sorrow to the older man's heart; he could not help but grieve for him. For all he had lost.

"We have to go after them." Pride said turning to go into the car. He got into the passenger seat closing the door behind him.

Roy stared at him. He had been driving 20 straight hours and his back was killing him. Pride stared back at the older man, not registering what he was silently protesting.

"What? I don't know how to drive." He said annoyed. Roy couldn't help but smile. Ed really still was alive in him.

Riza Hawkeye watched as her husband kissed the boys lying in their beds. Tomorrow her eldest would turn three. She walked over to her office and sat down in her chair her face in her hands.

She heard him walk past her door. Hesitate a moment before moving on. He knew better than to disturb her in her office.

Brigadier General.

The irony of it all. She entered the military to be close to Roy, to protect him. But now when he needed the to be protected the most, she would not leave the military. Her priorities had changed so much it seemed.

She thought of him. Of his handsome face and his kind words. Of his shattered soul and the pain he was in. She wanted to protect him but it was no longer in her power to do so.

This was her life now.

Her eyes fell upon the letter on her desk. It was from the Fuhrer asking her to hunt down Edward Elric and everyone else that would stand in her way.

She knew Armstrong would never ask her to do this, not unless he had no other choice either. Edward's threat was too great. He had destroyed that city. Murdered so many people. Armstrong still had his citizens to protect.

"Oh Edward…" she whispered suddenly tired.

She opened her drawer and took out one last picture. It was of their first summer together. They were so young then. Roy had always been so trigger happy with the camera. Every moment he could catch her unaware he would take a picture of her. She had boxes full of pictures and she had burned every one of them. All but this one picture.

It was taken by Havoc in one of their reconnaissance missions in the mountains. Roy was holding up the fish he had caught and she was looking at him smiling. She rarely smiled even now, which was why this picture was so important to her. It showed her weakness, one she had taken so many pains to hide.

She looked at Roy smiling in the picture and of her so many years ago. She was so happy then.

She looked at him.

Her only weakness.

Pride watched the road, his mind lost. As he slowly recovered his memories, one by one they would return. Slowly he felt himself becoming more and more human. Slowly the guilt started crawling in his gut. His throat becoming dry every time he thought of everyone he had killed. All those voices, all those faces. He was a monster.

How could he ever regain what he had lost? He lost all of himself. How do you gain that back?

He thought about Winry about how wonderful it felt like to have her in his arms. How much he wanted to just stay there, be with her, forget everything else. He was tired of putting everyone else ahead of him. He was tired of putting off his happiness. Didn't he deserve to be selfish just this once?

If the law of equivalent trade was true where was his trade? All the pain, all the hardships, everything he had done. Still he lost Al, still he lost Winry, still he lost himself.

Roy was falling asleep. It was his fifth time to go off the road, Pride would have to nudge him awake. He was getting old. He never thought it possible.

He could not afford to lose Winry. His world would shatter if he did.

"Teach me how." Pride stated annoyed. "I can't save her if I die in this contraption with you."

Roy smiled. That was very Edward.

"You're going to get us killed!" he screamed pulling the wheel to the side, as Pride drove the car into a ditch by the side of the road. They looked at each other and started laughing.

They got out and started pushing the car, it didn't take long with Pride's strength. They stopped for awhile, watching the sunrise.

"I really do love her you know." He said quietly, shivering in the early morning air.

Pride nodded.

"I can't lose her." He said desperate.

Pride looked at the older man. Never did he imagine Roy Mustang would say those words. Never did he think he would hear desperation in his voice. Things have changed so much it seemed.

Every moment he started getting his memories back, becoming more human, becoming Edward. He wanted to hope there could be a way to be with Winry, he wanted to hope there was some other choice. But the more human he became, the more he realized the impossibility of it all.

He was humonculi. He could not love.

He looked at Roy. His pained face, his aging hands. If being human meant imperfection, if being human meant having weaknesses and feeling pain then he wished he could be those things.

He came back just to see her, if he could not give her what she wanted, maybe Roy could. He looked at the older man now, and he knew deep down in his heart he knew what he wanted no longer mattered. All that mattered now was her.

Winry's head was throbbing, her vision blurry as she opened her eyes. She saw Envy's face peering down on her.

"So you're awake." He stated simply.

"Where am I?" she asked rubbing her head.

"In paradise of course." He laughed standing up.

Winry looked around the room. She was in an old styled Victorian room. The furniture was from an ear long since forgotten. The room smelled of a sickly sweet perfume. Where was she?

"Where's Ed?" she asked softly to herself.

"Oh you mean Pride?" Envy asked. "That's why you're here. To make sure he comes."

"Did you bring him back?" she asked wanting to know the truth. "Why did you do this to him?"

"Idiot! Pride brought himself back. He crossed that gate on his own." He spat anger rising in his voice. "If we didn't need him to transmute the philosopher's stone, I would've killed him already."

"What?"

"Envy!" Dante scolded him entering the room. Envy stomped out, giving her one hard look.

"Sorry about him. He's rather spoiled." She smiled.

"Do you feel better?" she asked going over to the girl.

"Yes." She said not knowing who the woman was.

"He'll come get you child don't worry." She said running her hands on Winry's cheek. Winry shuddered at how they felt. They were so cold.

Hohenheim's son will love me.