Authors Blog: Ok Here is the first Real chapter of The Truth Behind Melancholy…YAY!! Oh, I forgot to mention, that this story makes more reference to the anime than the manga. Scraps the idea of Ed dying…'cuz you can't kill Edward, But Greed, and Pride are both dead.
Thanks again to my lovely Beta, HoldOnToYourTunaCans. She is so wonderful!!
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"YOU BASTARD!" Edward Elric was in a heated battle with Envy. Envy had just hit him hard and the crash into the wall had broken a few joints of his auto-mail arm. Envy hit him again before he was ready to block and he was shot against another wall. This time he heard a crack. His leg auto-mail cracked along the side. The image of an angry wrench-throwing girl briefly flashed before his eyes and he winced.
A quiet voice rang around the room. "Now, now Edward. Just help us and we'll leave you alone." Lust came out of a dark corner with Gluttony at her tail. Edward was in no condition to fight any longer. He didn't even know if he could stand.
"Can't I just eat him? I'm hungry!" Gluttony begged, licking his lips.
"No Gluttony, you can't eat him. Remember, you're on a diet." Lust replied lazily. A snap was heard in the distance and flame shot in every direction of the room. Envy, Lust, and Gluttony huffed before running out of the room.
"We'll deal with you later pipsqueak; when you don't have those military bastards to back you up!" Envy sneered before running out of the room.
"Well Fullmetal, I'd say you never looked better!" The man let out a chuckle. His smile smug.
"Shut up, Mustang! I was handling the situation." Ed said, disgusted.
"Yeah, By the looks of it, you were doing a great job at getting your ass kicked around the room!" Mustang smirked. He loved teasing the small alchemist.
"Just get me back to headquarters," Edward said as he tried to stand up. Almost immediately he heard another crack from his auto-mail leg and fell. He couldn't stand. 'Oh joy.' Edward thought miserably. One of the last things he wanted to do was ask Mustang for help walking. He hated the smirk coming from Mustang and refused to ask for help, but when his second attempt at standing landed his face in the ground, he decided he would have to suck it up.
"Mustang would you lend me an arm. I can't stand."
"Maybe it would be better for me to lend you a leg?" the new Fuhrer replied, an even bigger smirk on his face than before.
*~*That Evening in the Hospital Room*~*
"No… Mom…" Edward Elric was tossing in his sleep crying out for his mother. Even now, seven years after the incident, he still had nightmares of his mother's death and their attempt to bring her back/raise her from the dead. Tonight Alphonse Elric, his little brother, was just watching from the sofa on the opposite side of the room. Every time his brother yelled out, cried, even screamed in his sleep, he got afraid. Ed would sometimes hit the walls with his arms or fall off his bed slicing his auto mail into his shoulder like he did last week. Ed was Al's hero. He couldn't stand to see his brother in so much pain and it tore him up inside. With his soul inside the armour, his emotions were all he had. Usually he would shake his brother till he woke, but tonight… tonight was different. His brother wasn't yelling, crying or screaming this time. He was just calling out for his mother, almost begging for her to come to him, to hold him, to comfort him. He seemed more upset, or like he was saying his last request, like he was giving up. Edward's inwardly growing depression was worsening. Al would have cried. The search for the stone seemed to be all Ed lived for as of late. The only reason he kept going was to get his brother out of that suit of armour.
Ed awoke with a start to a dark room before turning on his side and looked at his auto mail. He gave his arm a quick rub, before glancing at his brother lying in the other bed. He squeezed his eyes shut, and rolled over, turning his back to him. In his dream, his mother had been holding him, telling him that she was so proud of him, and that she couldn't believe how handsome and strong her eldest son had become. Then she had just disappeared, before reappearing as Sloth, standing there staring at him. She had told him about how sad she was that he would do such a thing and that she thought she taught him better. She then used her water and started to drown him. Al watched his brother turn over in his bed and almost moved to comfort him, but stopped himself. He knew that while he was in the armour using physical means of emotional support were not his forte. He cried silently, though no tears could fall from the helmet.
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~* The Next Morning *~
Edward was back at Central HQ and was not impressed. His auto-mail didn't take the fight well and he had to have help walking back. He finally had found his brother, who had agreed to carry him. He was ashamed and furious with himself. He was quite certain Winry would have a field day when she found out about how banged up he got. He shivered at the thought of being hit again with her Wrench of Doom. Al had just finished making sure he was all right and had left to call Winry.
Walking with a crutch was more difficult than he remembered. Last time however, his arm wasn't busted as well. Now, as he wobbled around the building, his shoulder was sore, his back even worse, and he was continuously stumbling and crashing into walls. Though he was thankful, he was embarrassed to ask someone to help him down the stairs. He heard a commotion in the hall and limped his way to the door.
All four Colonels from the Southern, Northern, Eastern, and Western states were getting together with their First Lieutenants in Central, before a big meeting about the destruction of these homunculi Edward had mentioned to the new Fuhrer. Fuhrer Mustang had only just recently taken the position due to the fact that the last Fuhrer, was recently murdered. After years of waiting the man had accomplished his dream.
Edward, tailed by his brother, walked into the room full of chattering people. Mustang was sitting on a table conversing with Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye. "They all should be here soon Riza," he said lovingly rubbing her hand between both of his. Their affair was well known by the whole military now, since his almost-death trying to save the last fuhrer. "Is everyone ready for the visitors?"
"Almost Fuhrer Mustang Sir!" Major Armstrong said walking through the hall passing out bulletins to the officers present.
It was much later that day when the Colonels from the Southern, and Eastern states came, flanked by their First Lieutenants. It was soon after that, that the Colonel from the Northern state arrived as well. With them there, the commotion only intensified.
"You know what I heard?" The Colonel from the South said in a tone that had the entire floor listening to him, "I heard that Boots is coming. I heard she raised ranks and became a Lieutenant Colonel and is flanking the current Colonel of the West here instead of a First Lieutenant."
"You must be joking, that little girl is now a Lieutenant Colonel?" First Lieutenant Breda asked. "Isn't she only like 17?"
"18 now, I think. It will be nice to see the Freeze again!" Hawkeye exclaimed.
"She's not the "Freeze" yet Hawkeye. Remember she didn't take the state alchemist exam?" Breda answered back.
"I can't understand why Boots just didn't take the exam in the first place! There's no way she wouldn't have past it!" The Colonel from the South stated.
"Well with her job, one wouldn't expect her to put more pressure on herself. Hey Ed you should see her when she comes!" Havoc said looking in Edward's direction. "She's an auto-mail mechanic, and a damn good one at that. She should be here before that mechanic of yours is, so maybe she can make it so at least you don't have to use that crutch anymore.
"Winry does just fine on my auto-mail," Edward said dully. "I'll wait for her."
"But Boots is the best. She was training to become a State Alchemist! But before her exam, she just got up and quit and continued with her auto-mail mechanics instead." Havoc continued.
"It's been almost two years since we last heard from her. She was the tiniest thing I ever did see performing alchemy. But Boots was sure one good fighting machine. Hey, she reminds me of you Edward, tiny!" said Havoc with a small smile on his lips.
"WHO YOU SAYING IS SO SMALL THAT HE WOULD MAKE ANTS LOOK LIKE GIANTS." Edward yelled back.
"Now what's all this racket about?" Mustang yelled walking out of his office with an angered Riza Hawkeye behind him. "Here I'm trying to do my paperwork and I can't concentrate because of all the ruckus!"
The Colonel from the East filled him in before sitting back looking at the ceiling boredly.
"I left a memo for you Sir," Hawkeye replied, "But because you left your paperwork to the last minute again I told everyone else so they could prepare."
The Fuhrer groaned before going back into his office with a Riza Hawkeye following behind, shooing him back to the paperwork.
"Hold on a minute… So who are we talking about?" Edward was sitting on a chair lazily waiting for something interesting to happen, and this spiked his interest.
"Well that's a question I think you should ask the Fuhrer about." All eyes turned to the voice before a chorus of "Boots" ran through the crowd.
What Ed saw when he looked to the end of the hall shocked him. A young woman was walking toward the group. She looked about his age with blonde hair lying smooth and straight to just below her shoulder blades, and gold bangs that rested just above her eyebrows. Brilliant blue eyes looked out at everyone. She was petite, just like they said, and she wore a black tank top and a dark purple short skirt that hugged her hips. Over her left shoulder she carried a deep violet long jacket. On her lower legs and feet was a pair of almost knee-high heeled black leather boots each with a gold Alchemy circle on them, red sparkles along each heel, and a white star on each knee. What really got his attention was that she had auto-mail for a right arm.
"Lieutenant Colonel Amelia Richards, why aren't you in uniform! If the Fuhrer sees you…." said Armstrong walking up to this girl, Boots.
"It's Colonel now Armstrong…" She corrected him smiling. "And you know how I hate my uniform. Stupid mini-skirt for my alchemy…" She grimaced.
"Colonel Richards? Still you should go get into uniform before he sees you…you know how Mustang gets…" Havoc had walked over to her now as well.
"Fine…I hate you all…" She stormed out of the room with her suitcase that she'd conveniently sat beside the door, almost like she knew she would have to change upon her arrival.
When she finally came back into the room, Mustang was already there. He smiled brightly when he saw her. She glared at him quickly before standing tall and saluting him.
"Sorry I'm late sir, my subordinate was sick at the last minute and I took him back to Western Headquarters, before coming here. She glared at him again as she let her hand fall.
Mustang laughed at her before patting her on the shoulder
It took Ed a minute to stand up with his busted leg, but he finally walked in front of all the officers that had started to crowd around her. Her eyes looked in Edward's direction and she tisked.
"Seriously Roy! Don't you take care of your officers! His auto-mail is trashed. She walked up to Edward, and grabbed hold of his auto-mail arm and started turning it this way and that. A small flush appeared on Edward's cheeks in being in such close proximity to her all of a sudden. He didn't jerk back until she tried to bend the elbow and he shrunk back slightly as a jolt of pain hit him.
The entire group of officers in the room went silent upon hearing her calling the Fuhrer by his first name. He laughed at her again, watching her mess with the Fullmetal Alchemist's arm, and watching Ed's face turning pink as if a paintbrush had been swiped across his face.
"I see. Broken elbow joints. Cylinder looks cracked and will need replacing. Looks like the nerves are connected wrong too. Either that or the nerve wires are torn and have reconnected wrong. Definitely the finger joints have to be tightened and restrung. That wiring looks trashed, and your lucky that that shoulder joint hasn't given out and the entire arm hasn't fallen off. Dang, looks like you've also burned out the bearings. Mind you, this looks like Winry Rockbell's work with these markings on the shoulder here. She does well on her arms. Her legs however lack certain necessities. As I see yours is all banged up too! It looks to be cracked along the main joints. Not an easy feat it is to crack it there. Also your knee joint is bent out of place, and that's what is causing the limp. The connection plate on the ankle looks like it will need replacing too. By the way, you are Edward Elric right. The Fullmetal Alchemist?" She asked, kneeling before him running her fingers along different joints here and there on his metal knee.
"You ask after you analyze my injuries?" Edward started with a raised eyebrow. "Yes I am."
"Thought so. You fit the description. Mind you they didn't tell me you'd be this short. I'm actually kind of glad. I always felt so small compared to everyone here." Edward looked shocked at this. He was fuming and readying a comeback, but now…did she just say him being small was a good thing?
"Here I'll fix you right up. Come with me. My stuff should already be in the main room," she said with a smile guiding him to the main room of the building. He just let her drag him. She intrigued him.
She sat Edward down on a couch next to a toolbox. She laughed at the way Ed fell down, unceremoniously, onto the couch. He gave a grunt of disapproval before lifting his arm onto the arm of the couch. She opened her toolbox right away and got out a large screwdriver then started to undo the lower arm covering.
"If anything hurts at any time, even if it just twinges, I want you to tell me. No being a man and trying not to show pain in front of a girl. I didn't make you're auto mail, so if I did something wrong I want to know." She said still unscrewing the lower arm cover. While she worked Ed stayed mostly silent, a twinge here and there, but mostly silent. He watched her work before speaking up.
"You called the Fuhrer by his first name. Why would you call Mustang by his first name like that?" He questioned her, while she was scrounging in her toolbox for more metal pieces of this and that.
"We grew up together. I was really young when he got his license, but we learned from the same Alchemy teacher at the same time." She answered before putting a screwdriver in her mouth.
"So you were a State Alchemist huh "Boots?" He chuckled. "They called you The Boot Alchemist?"
"Ha. Ha" She said sarcastically, taking the screwdriver out of her mouth, before nicking a wire on purpose making Ed jump.
"I was a State Alchemist in Training, and no I wasn't the Boot alchemist. That's stupid. Seriously, what is it with guys these days? I am - was going to be known as the Freeze Alchemist."
Ed twitched again as she disconnected the elbow and reached into her toolbox pulling out new elbow joints.
"You were in training?" Ed questioned.
"Yeah, the Isballan war was definitely a turn off from alchemy."
Ed looked shocked. "You were in the Isballan war? But you would have had to be…"
"8 years old. Yup, I would have been the youngest State Alchemist ever. The Fuhrer said it would be good field practice to put me in there with the best." She was looking in her toolbox again pushing this way and that while Ed sported only a thumb and forefinger.
"Is that how you lost your arm." Ed asked before jumping in his seat again. Amelia had jerked when he had said that and banged an open wire on his arm. "I'll take that as a no?"
"How I lost my arm is none of your business. But, I was shot in the shoulder. I was in the medical tent until…" She paused fixing Ed's arm. She looked behind him, almost trance-like, before she quickly returned to Ed's arm, shaking her head.
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*meanwhile*
Just before Amelia had arrived, Ed had sent Al to get Winry. He didn't want to see the mechanic with his auto mail trashed. That was his thought before Amelia had fixed it.
Al waited for a nearly half an hour after the train was supposed to arrive. It was very late. As he waited, he people-watched… or a better term might 'watched by people'. One of his favourite passtimes was watching people interact with eachother – it reminded him of when he was human – but to his dismay, more than half of the time he was watching them watch him. The bench he was sitting on sat nearly in the middle of the station. As children walked by with their parents, they would point at him, or their parents would pull them away from him, or they would run up to him and poke at his armour. He was used to it, but it still reminded him about how unnatural he was.
Finally Winry's train pulled into the station. The crowd exited the train, but Al didn't spot Winry.
"GOTCHA!" A loud yell filled the air as a girl jumped infront of Al.
"Winry, you scared me!"
"I know Al, that was the point." Winry laughed before sighing.
"How bad is Edward this time?"
"Worse than you've seen him in a while."
Winry sighed. "Well, at least I have something to look forward to. I get to meet Amelia Richards! She is the greatest Auto-mail mechanic around. I hope she likes me." Stars were in Winry's eyes as she clasped her hands together cheerfully. Al was currently beside her lugging her toolbox in one hand, and her luggage in the other. "C'mon Al, lets run… oh I can't wait to see her." She screamed again and took off, leaving Al to follow as fast as he could.
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The next morning Edward felt restless. He and Al always had a quick fight after his auto-mail was fixed, to make sure it worked properly. Last night he didn't get that.
"Man I could really use a good scrap right about now. Loosen up my muscles." Ed was walking along the backfield daring anyone to start a martial art contest with him. All the military officials that were up that early were mostly in the dining hall, eating breakfast. So it was only he and a few of the privates outside. Amelia, dressed in her normal black boots, purple skirt, and black top, walked out of the hall with Hawkeye and Armstrong walking beside her.
"Hey Major! Come scrap with me. I need to work out the kinks in my muscles." Armstrong shook his head at Ed before turning his head in the sound of a voice bellow.
Amelia stretched her auto mail arm across her chest. "I'll scrap with you Ed. I could use some work right now too. Slept funny last night you see. Auto mail vs. auto mail. Should be an interesting fight! Mind you, you got an auto-mail leg too… oh well" Amelia glanced back at him. "But no alchemy… that would be cheating."
"I'm not fighting a girl in a skirt; especially one that short."
"Why Ed, afraid you might see something?" she winked at him and a huge blush covered his cheeks.
"Well…"
"Embarrassed are we? Well I figure if I'm going to be going into assignments with a skirt I might as well practice wearing a skirt. C'mon Ed…"
Without even thinking Ed looked down at her hips imagining what was under that tight, form-fitting purple skirt she wore. His blush deepened before he looked into her eyes and accepted her challenge.
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Edward and Amelia were squared off in the center of the battle circle and a group of military officials had crowded around the circle already placing bets on who would win.
"Alright Edward! Ready to be humiliated?"
"In your dreams."
With that said they ran straight at each other. Legs met arms and fists met fists. Edward threw a punch only to be kicked in the head by a heeled boot. He fell flat on the ground staring up at her.
"Are you going to stay down there? I hope not, I'm still getting warmed up!"
"Wow that actually hurt," he said, kicking his legs up and stood upright once more.
"They do have two inch heels Ed. Your lucky though I didn't hit you harder, otherwise you might have had a hole in your head." She giggled at him before taking her metal arm and swinging it at him. He caught it with his own auto-mail arm and the battle started up again. Amelia did a few back flips and kicked him again with her boots knocking him down, but he barely touched the ground before he got back up again.
"How can you do that in those boots?"
"Lots and lots of practice. Three hours a day seven days a week for two months. Took a while but I finally can do it without even thinking. Why do you think they call me "Boots"?" With that she kicked up her legs and did some more flips toward him and took another swing with her boots. After missing she squared her feet and stared at him. A few catcalls could be heard from the military officers in the background. During one of her flips her skirt rose ever so slightly to show a slice of white cotton panties underneath. Upon landing Amelia tugged on the hem of her skirt pulling it back to it's original location. "Well you giving up yet?"
"Never…" Edwards face had become hot and he knew he was blushing. That was a sight he knew he soon wouldn't forget and that it would haunt him, tease him in his dreams. They both kept going at it kicking, punching, and flipping and after 20 minutes of bruising and cuts from auto-mail connecting with real skin, they both fell over deciding that it was a truce.
"Damn you fight well. I still can't understand how you move so well in those boots!"
"Like I said…practice. I think my arm broke though. I can't move my fingers or my wrist. I'll have to take a look at it later… or even better, I hear Rockbell is coming here to Central. Maybe she can take a look at it, it's really hard to work on your own auto-mail. She's one of your friends right Ed?" She said getting up and dusting off her skirt while receiving a nod from Ed as he got onto his own feet. "Not too bad for a girl in a skirt huh?"
"If you call showing off your panties to every officer presently here in Central a good thing, then yes, I say you did swell!" Mustang walked out of the crowd and into the circle. An "ooooohhhhh" could be heard coming from the crowd and a smirk appeared on Mustangs face as a glare appeared on Amelia's.
"I figured you'd get beaten up pretty fast by her. I can admit without my ego being harmed too much that she too beat me quite a few times when it came to a fight. Those boots of hers even scare me. How she can move so easily in them…"
"Yeah, I mean when I was 8 and you, Roy, were what 21? I beat you bad!" Laughter could be heard and then silence as white gloves came out and the next second flames shot through the air. A huge pothole could be seen in the ground and where Amelia once stood was bare.