Chapter 14
November 7th
AN: In this chapter, Winry's flashbacks are in italics, and anything in italics normally will be in the default style. Just to clear that up. And thanks goes to LaughingAstarael, who was kind enough to look this over. I know the first two sections are fairly weak, but I felt like posting this anyway.
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November 7th – Military Headquarters, Central
Ed watched as Clara sent Winry in what she called a 'hypnotic sleep', and began trying to direct her to remember her life before she became Angel.
"I want to think far back into your memories, all the way back to your March 21st of this year."
Winry's face didn't flicker, and after a beat, Clara asked, "Who are you?"
To Ed's surprise, Winry's voice rang through the room, not sounding blurred or sleepy in the slightest, "I'm Winry Sara Rockbell."
"How old are you?"
"I'm turning seventeen this very day."
"Good, now I want you to just relax, and allow yourself to remember what happened. What happened that day, and everything after it. Don't tell me, just let the memories seep back to you. Just let it happen."
Winry's face relaxed into utter serenity, with a little bit of happiness and satisfaction. Then her brow creased, her hand twitched, and she looked sad. Then it passed, and this time she actually smiled in her trance. But then the frown returned, only this time Ed thought he could detect a hint of fear in her expression. She began to twitch and jerk, and her mouth opened on a silent snarl of rage and determination, which quickly melted into a grimace of pain and fear.
Earnest and Jade were beginning to become distressed, and Al couldn't help asking, "Is this hurting her?"
Clara held up a hand for silence. "She's working through her memories, it's best to just leave her do it. As little outside influence as possible. She will feel what she felt at the time, so I'm afraid that if there was pain involved, then yes, she will feel pain. But it will only last as long as the memory does, and there will be no ill effects when she wakes up."
So everyone sat silently for what seemed to Ed like hours, watching Winry on the couch, watching her twitch and jerk like an epileptic patient as she worked through her memories. There were no smiles on her face now. With the occasional flash of rage, fear and pain were the main expressions on her features.
It broke Ed's heart to even contemplate what she must have suffered. He wanted to go to her, to hold her hand...but he was afraid of breaking her out of her trance.
He had no idea how long they sat in silence, how long Winry tossed and turned and snarled. But then, almost instantaneously, everything began to get worse. Winry thrashed, bucked, flailed, her mouth opening on a horrific wailing scream.
And she wasn't stopping. If anything, her movements and vocalisations intensified, testimony to the horrors she must have endured.
'To hell with this!' Ed thought, rushing to her side.
Clara leapt forward, looking alarmed. "That's enough, you'll break out of it when I count to two. One, two!"
As though someone had shut off an electric current, Winry went limp, her face lax, her breathing beginning to even out. Her eyelids fluttered, and Ed held his breath.
Had it worked?
Her eyes opened. She blinked twice, once hard, once gentle. Then she saw him.
"Hey, Ed," she whispered.
And Ed knew she had remembered. Winry was back.
"I...I have to...can you give me a minute?" Winry was already up and walking towards the door, her wings vanishing into her body as she reattached the back of her shirt.
"I..." Ed began, not entirely sure what he was going to say.
But the door shut behind her before he could finish.
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November 7th – Military Headquarters, Central
Winry sat on the balcony, her legs dangling through the railings. She stared out at the sky, watching the clouds, letting her mind drift.
She'd only just remembered who she was, after several months as the rescuer/leader of a group of refugees who were waging a crusade against the man who'd imprisoned them.
It was a lot to take in.
Especially the memories that had just flashed behind her eyelids.
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March 21st – Rockbell Automail, Risembool
Winry had no idea what had happened. One minute she was cheerfully celebrating her birthday, the next, the air was filled with screams.
She and Pinako pelted to the door, bolting it on instinct as a loud thump signaled a heavy body flinging itself against the unyielding wood. They backed away, Winry's mind racing.
What could she do? What could she do?
The door suddenly splintered and gave way, and Winry screamed as a large, dark form collided with her grandmother, dropping her to the floor.
"GRANNY!"
Winry didn't think about it. She snatched her wrench from the table and flung it. The collision with the beast's skull did almost nothing, and when it turned, Winry couldn't keep herself from screaming again.
It looked like it must have been human once, but now it walked on all fours, it's limbs hideously mutated. It's skin was slate-grey, it's nose elongated into some kind of trunk. And it was about the size of a horse.
She screamed again, the urge to run grappling with the urge to stay and defend her grandmother.
She never got a chance to do either.
Something seized her from behind. Something with thick, hairy arms the size of tree trunks. Winry bucked and thrashed, but the iron-grip on her shoulders didn't show the slightest sign of buckling.
The movement was so fast she could have sworn her vision blurred. One moment she was being held like a reeled-in fish, the next she had been thrown into the back of a truck.
She hit the floor on her stomach and flipped over almost instantly, rushing for the fast-closing door. But she was too late, and she struck the metal with a bone-jarring thump before being hurled back to the floor by the force of her run.
And it was only then she realised there were other people in with her. All fairly young – not one of them over thirty – and looking as terrified as she felt.
She recognised her friends, and made her way over to them. Nelly, Laura, Tanya and Kim parted their huddled circle to make room for her. She opened her mouth, but whatever she had been going to say died in her throat as she felt the truck spring to life beneath them, throwing every occupant to the side as it turned.
As though that had been a signal, everyone suddenly began wailing and screaming, panicking and racing around the enclosed space like mice after a cat had been let loose. Winry was jostled from one side to the other violently as people tore around their prison, shrieking and smashing their fists against the walls. A small boy went down under the press of bodies, and on instinct, Winry threw herself over him, bracing for the impact.
A knee in the back drove the breath from her body, and she couldn't even make a move to defend herself as she was trampled and pummeled unmercifully.
But when she did get her breath back, she made sure she was heard.
"EVERYONE, JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!"
On instinct, everyone froze. Winry got to her feet, wincing all the way, and helped the boy underneath her to his feet. She looked around at the pitiful group surrounding her and addressed them, her voice brisk and business-like. Commanding.
"Now, it doesn't take a genius to see that we are in a lot of trouble, but yelling and screaming about it isn't going to help."
Scattered nods, and Winry was rather disconcerted to realise they were all looking to her for directions.
"First, we need to determine if it's possible to escape from this truck, I want everyone circling this place, looking for any possible weak points, okay?"
Again, everyone moved on her command. They spent at least half an hour looking over every inch of the truck's interior, and the only possible weakness they could exploit was the seam where the door joined the walls.
So, with Winry's direction, they'd taken turns throwing themselves at that very seam. She wished they had some kind of tools or something, but at the moment, all they could use was brute strength.
They'd only just managed to dent the door when the truck rattled to a stop. Everyone instantly bolted to the back of the truck, as far from the door as they could get. Stomach churning, Winry squared her shoulders and prepared for whatever the opening door might reveal...
Whatever she had expected, a middle-aged man with greying hair wasn't it.
"Come on!" he barked, "Move, now!"
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March 21st – Location Unknown
Winry kept her eyes on the ground, reasoning that if she didn't look at the hideous monsters , then her fear wouldn't need to shoot through the roof. And overblown panic made it very difficult to keep a level head, something she was going to need if she had any hope of ever getting out of here.
It seemed that the truck had somehow managed to get underground. How, she wasn't too sure, but Winry was convinced that the sleek metal walls were underground – maybe because of the complete lack of windows.
The entire truckload were hustled into a large, white room, and ordered to remove their clothes. Winry shed her garments, trying to control the instinctive cringe as her body was exposed. She squared her shoulders and raised her head, but kept her gaze fixed on the opposite wall.
'Keep it together! Remember, he can only take your dignity if you give it to him.'
Icy sprays of water suddenly shot from jets on the wall and ceiling. Winry nearly shrieked as the cold water hit her skin, and cries of surprise erupted around her. She didn't move, simply stood in her place, eyes shut against the water and tolerating the spartan wash.
The jets shut off and one man was suddenly separated and shoved through a door at the far end. The man followed him in, and for several moments, no one moved, everyone just stood naked and dripping on the tiles and wondering what was going on.
Winry briefly considered making a run for it, but one look at the creatures surrounding them dispelled that notion before it was even fully-formed. There was nothing to do but stand and wait. Wait for whatever fate would befall them.
Winry detested waiting. Each second that went by seemed to make her more and more nervous, her nerves stretching as though they were on a rack. When the door opened a second time, Winry almost bolted to it, desperate for something to happen, for the waiting to stop...
But then she realised the man hadn't come out with him.
'Okay, that guy was taken into a room that he did not exit from. It's either very, very bad, or very, very good. And I'm leaning towards very, very bad. Time to rethink the game plan, Winry.'
But what game plan. She'd never had one in the first place! What was she going to do, what would happen now?
'Easy, Winry, easy. Deep breath in...and let it. In...out...in...out. Focus on your breathing, don't focus on how fucked up this whole situation is fast becoming...'
Strange...she'd never said 'fucked' before, even in her internal monologues.
The number of people dwindled, and Winry was still focusing on her breathing. Her friends were still with her, so that was some comfort, at least...until she was the one being shoved through the doorway.
It wasn't quite as bad as she expected. The room was white and sterile, the overhead light bright and harsh. Shelves lined the room, a table at one end, and a chair in the center. She was directed to sit in it, and she sat, trying to control her trembling. Where had her courage gone? She'd had plenty to spare in the truck, where was it when she needed it?
She nearly screamed when her hair was grabbed from behind, but saw the glint of a blade and forced herself to hold still. The last thing she needed was to lose an ear because she decided to fight back now.
Winry had to bit her lip to stave off the urge to cry as her hair was shaved off at the scalp. She could feel the loose locks slithering off her shoulders and neck, and she watched as stray strands drifted to the floor. It had taken her years, years, to grow her hair out, and now...
When he had finished, he tossed her hair onto a shelf and forced her out another door. Winry went, her panic having faded to a detached numbness, as though she were watching herself from a great distance. Or as though she were watching someone who wasn't really her.
She was thrown into a cell so roughly her shoulder scraped the floor. It hurt, and she slowly crawled into a sitting position, curling in on herself, trying absorb what had just happened. The cell was bare of anything save a toilet, and the walls were shining steel. But there were only three walls – the one facing the corridor consisted only of vertical bars. On the far wall, two numbers daubed in black paint towered over her, a one and a five.
They just made her feel smaller than she already was.
She ran a hand over her head, again mourning the loss of her hair. There wasn't even fuzz left – just bald, smooth skin.
Winry didn't know how much time had passed before Nelly joined her in the cell. Slowly, the others began to trickle in after her, Tanya...Laura...Kim...
Winry didn't fail to notice that her cell mates happened to be her closest friends in Risembool. She couldn't help wondering if it was just coincidence, or if there was something more?
No one spoke, and after a while, Winry curled up on the floor and tried to sleep.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
One day – at least, Winry assumed it was day, with the lights on all the time and only snatches of sleep on the floor, she had lost track of time long ago – he took Laura. He took her from the cell...and she didn't return.
They waited...and waited. When they were fed, it was only in four bowls, but they saved some for her anyway. It was strange, but they hadn't spoken a word since they had been thrown in here. As though, even after all this time, they were afraid to speak, afraid to accept their situation...or afraid to admit they had accepted it.
Winry didn't know, and some part of her simply didn't care. It was enough of an effort just to keep her sanity in this place, where all she could do was stare at the bare walls or the dead eyes of her friends, all she could hear was people screaming and sobbing from the cells next to them, and all she knew was that she was either going to die, or become one of the monsters that stalked these halls in obedience to her captor's whim.
They waited, but Laura never came back.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Tanya was taken next. One day they woke up, and she was gone. Just gone.
They knew what had happened, but still...they waited. They saved their food and water, they peered down the corridor, looking for when she'd return.
And this time, they were rewarded.
Tanya was thrown back in, and Winry reacted, catching her and breaking her fall. She eased the girl's limp form down to the ground, licked her lips, and spoke.
"What happened?"
It was the first time any of them had spoken since being placed in this cell. The words rang slightly off the metal walls, then were swallowed by the silence.
Winry was just beginning to regret speaking when Tanya answered.
"I don't know...he injected me with something...it hurt," she confessed, the way a toddler might confess she'd scraped her knee.
"It's okay," Winry soothed, her voice scratchy from disuse. "It's okay..."
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
But it soon became apparent that it was not okay. Tanya began throwing up. Her skin felt hot to the touch – fever – and she began coughing.
The day she choked, heaved, and coughed blood onto the floor, was the day that Winry realised that nothing was ever going to be okay again.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Winry watched their captor and his creatures drag away Tanya's body, and for the first time thought that there might be some anger left in her. She'd thought her imprisonment had beaten everything out of her but the urge to survive.
Apparently not.
Just as the man was leaving the cell, Winry's anger – repressed, strangled, and smothered for far too long – finally exploded, like a volcanic eruption.
She lunged for the man, her hands going straight for his neck. The element of surprise was on her side, and she managed to knock him down and wrap her hands around his throat. But she had only begun to apply pressure before he reached up and touched the wall.
The blaze of light that always accompanied alchemy seared Winry's eyes, and she saw the wall warp.
'But he didn't draw a circle! He didn't even clap his hands!' was all she thought before a slender rod of steel shot from the wall and smashed into her head.
The world went dark before Winry's eyes, and her body went lax as she fought desperately not to black out.
She was dimly aware of the door closing, of Nelly and Kim gathering around her, trying to help her. When her sight began to melt back, she managed to sit up again, feeling the bruise forming on the side of her head. Her hair was now only the finest gold stubble, and didn't hinder her exploration.
She decided that, though it hurt, she probably didn't have a concussion.
'Lucky,' she told herself. 'Very lucky...'
She didn't feel lucky, though. Not in the slightest.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Sometimes, Winry wondered what it would be like to die. Would it hurt? Sometimes, in the harsh light of the cell, she contemplated suicide – kill herself before he could, right?
But she could never quite go through with it. After Tanya had disappeared while they slept, they posted a watch – one awake while the other two slept.
So, when he came for Kim, they had some warning, at least.
They tried to stop him, but stood so little chance against him and his creatures that Winry might have laughed, but she wasn't sure she was even capable of laughter anymore. It seemed like it had been years since she'd even smiled.
Nelly was knocked down, and her back was scraped open on the floor. Winry was caught in the shoulder by one of the creatures claws, and dropped like a stone.
Kim was taken, and never returned.
The food and water arrived, and Winry took some of her share and splashed it on the deep gashes the claws had opened it her flesh. Maybe it would get infected. Maybe she'd get gangrene. Maybe she'd die.
Without the slightest flicker in her expression, Winry kept washing it.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Time passed, though Winry could never say how much. The voices of around their cell diminished, new voices took their place, and still she and Nelly hadn't been taken.
Sometimes, she wondered what they were waiting for, but mostly Winry simply lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling, trying to pretend she was somewhere else. Trying to escape in her memories.
'Remember Ed? Remember the day I realised I loved him? Pity I'll never get to tell him...'
'Remember Al? Remember the day he pretended to be a lizard and lay on that rock in the sun all day. He got so sunburnt...'
'Remember Granny? Remember the day she got me that wrench for my birthday? Poor Ed probably wishes that never happened...'
Remember Den? Remember the day I got him? I picked out the smallest puppy in the litter, though you wouldn't know it, the size he is now...'
'Remember Paninya? Remember how she stole Ed's watch and he chased her across the town? And then I only grabbed her because I wanted a look at her automail...'
'Remember Garfiel? Remember the day he took you on as an apprentice? He's a bit weird, but always so nice...'
In her memories, she didn't hurt, didn't fear. There was only the happiness of what had been, tainted with the bitterness of the knowledge that it could never be again.
In her memories, she was safe.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
When they came to take Nelly, the pair fought even more savagely than they had when they took Kim. It was like that single spark of defiance had ignited a bonfire.
Winry went straight for the man again, but this time, he was ready. The blow sent her into a wall, but she ruthlessly pushed her pain away, already regaining her feet even as Nelly was being dragged from the cell, kicking and punching.
The creature knocked her into the bars so hard her ears rang. Her shoulder sagged, and it was all she could do to groan in protest as Nelly was dragged away. As soon as the fuzziness cleared from her senses, Winry sprang to her feet, shouting and slamming her hands against the bars...except that her left arm wouldn't respond.
She looked, seeing the shoulder and arm drooping unnaturally.
She'd dislocated her shoulder. But she'd barely felt it...she must be in shock.
Winry took a deep breath, and grabbed her arm. She really wasn't looking forward to this, but it had to be done. Her still-functioning hand re-positioned her shoulder, and she drove it into the wall.
Pain exploded down the limb. Bile rose in her throat, and Winry fought not to throw up as she felt the ball joint pop back into the socket.
She slumped to the floor, now utterly alone in the barren cell. At least her arm could still function, that way, if they tried to take her as well, she could at least put up something of a fight...
And in was then, in that split second, when Winry realised something.
Her fear had gone, replaced by a dull sense of despair and resignation.
She was no longer afraid of dying.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Winry sometimes wondered what was happening in the outside world, but not often. It hurt too much. Here was where she was, and here was were she was likely to stay.
At least until she died. And some part of Winry knew it was going to happen – she was going to die here, and she was fairly sure it was going to be messy and painful.
It wasn't a pleasant prospect, but she had finally accepted there was precious little she do about it. She had no hope of escape, no hope of rescue...all she truly hoped for was to put up a good fight. She wasn't go to go easy – if he killed her, she was going to go out kicking and screaming.
Not that she didn't have regrets. She had plenty of them, and it didn't do to dwell on them, not now. It couldn't be helped now. She'd scratched words into the black paint on the wall – her birth date, her initials, the year she assumed they were still in...and she scratched, until her fingernails tore and bled, until the words of her own silent vow to herself were etched into the wall.
She might die here, but she refused to become his puppet.
She was always afraid to go to sleep, now. Afraid that they would take her while she slept, while she was unable to put up a fight...
But her body demanded rest. Winry curled into a small ball in the corner, and closed her eyes.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
Winry woke with a start, and realised several things at once. Firstly, that she was chained, face-down, to the floor. Secondly, she was in a room she had never been in before. Thirdly, that the man was in the room with her – she could hear him muttering and taking things off the shelves that lined the walls.
For a moment, Winry froze. This was happening, this was really happening...she was going to die, here, now...
His hand touched her back, and the blaze of alchemical light filled the room.
Pain rocketed through her body. Agony as she had never known it – it was as though her blood boiled, as though something tried to explode from beneath her skin, and Winry writhed and screamed as though she were being electrocuted. Her mind felt like it would rip apart beneath the onslaught, and she was sure she was going to die. No one could endure this much pain and live...
Something was trying to force its way into her, and Winry tensed, trying to resist even through the pain, the pain and the fear and the terrible, twisting sensation as her body warped.
She was engulfed in a tornado of fire, and bright light spun before her eyes like a Catherine Wheel.
And suddenly, Winry wasn't in the lab anymore.
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Date Unknown – Location Unknown
She didn't know where she was, but it was definitely somewhere she'd never been before. Somewhere 'Else', with a capital E.
The whole place was white, suffused with light. A door was in front of her, strange carvings littering its surface...but what was strangest was that the door seemed to hovering several inches off what she perceived as the ground.
Everything was silent. Silent and empty.
Where the hell was she? Was she dead? Was this the 'afterlife' that people spoke of?
She looked down at herself...yep, still naked. She felt her hair...still just a short fuzz. The only real difference was that the pain wracking her entire body seemed to have melted away.
What was going on?
Winry walked up to the towering doorway, idly tapping on it with her fingers. She nearly jumped away at the texture of the material – it was all textures at once, smooth and rough, hard and soft, steel and water.
"Where the hell am I?" Winry asked aloud, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
"You are at the Gate," a voice said from behind her. A voice that was both young and ancient, male and female, a voice that seemed to reverberate within her soul.
Winry nearly screamed, spinning around, her hands coming up to cover her body, the nearly-forgotten sensation of embarrassment washing through her.
But as soon as she turned around, her state of undress was forgotten. She'd apparently been addressed by what looked like a human made of light, smoky shadows lining it's body, it's entire form seemingly without features except for the right arm and left leg, which seemed no different from a normal human's.
"Who...?" Winry managed to whimper, utterly stunned by what was happening. "Am I...am I dead?"
"No," the figure said, "But you are close."
"Close?"
"You are on the border. The damage to your body is such that you cannot live, but your spirit will stubbornly cling to life for as long as it can."
Winry blinked. "Who are you?"
"Some call me 'Truth'," the figure replied. "To others, I am 'God'. Or 'the universe', 'the world'..."
"Truth will do fine..." Winry whimpered, reeling slightly.
What was this creature?
"What are you?"
"A rather more difficult question, and I doubt that you would truly understand the answer. So let us skip right to the business at hand, shall we?"
But Winry was eyeing the flesh and blood limbs suspiciously. "How come those are different?"
A shrug, or what looked like one. "I thought the presence of something familiar might reassure you."
Presence? Familiar? What was familiar about a right arm and left leg?
But suddenly, Winry knew. "Those are..." she wet her lips, hardly able to believe what she saying, "Those are Ed's limbs, aren't they?"
A nod.
And Winry flipped out. Far from reassuring, her fear seemed to have trebled. Where was she, that Ed's lost limbs could manifest here? What was this creature, that it could use them?
"That is not reassuring!" she yelped, skittering away, her voice hysterically. "That is just downright creepy!"
"You would prefer I was without them?"
"Yes!"
The limbs vanished, replaced by the strange, solid-looking light, and Winry tried to slow her breathing.
"What do you want? Why did you want to...reassure me...in the first place?"
"I decided it might put you in a better frame of mind, making you more susceptible to my bargain."
"Your bargain?"
"Indeed. I believe you want a chance to stop the man who did this to you?"
Winry's eyes narrowed. "And you'll just give me a chance? No questions asked?"
"Of course not! You and I have a similar problem, and I am simply offering a solution to both."
'Yeah, with me doing your dirty work,' Winry thought. But out loud, she said, "Talk."
It may have just been here, but she got the impression the creature didn't like being ordered around. She could hear the irritation in it's voice as it spoke again.
"This," it gestured expansively around, "Is my domain. And I do not take kindly to people stealing from it. However, three people have taken from me, taken from the Gate...and used it to ignore my influence."
"Influence?"
"Yes, my influence, the fundamental law that I enforce. The law of Equivalent Exchange...you have heard of it?"
Winry knew her jaw had dropped. "Equivalent Exchange...alchemy, right?" she managed to squeak out.
"Correct. And now there are three who have taken from me and defied me."
"Wait a minute," Winry said, raising her hand as though to ward off the realisation of what was happening here. When did her life become some bad sci-fi novel? "I know next to nothing about alchemy...so you'll have to explain from the top."
"Very well," there was that note of mild irritation again. "These are the Gates of Truth, and to see inside them enables an alchemist to perform alchemy by simply clapping their hands. However, this is always bought at a price, and no alchemist can see the Gate without having attempted human transmutation."
'That's what must have happened to Ed!' Winry realised.
"However, some went through the Gate, and seized one of my...the closest approximation in your language would be 'daemon'. And this allowed them certain liberties...liberties that I will not tolerate any longer!"
"So..." Winry began cautiously. "Where do I come in?"
"I am capable of manifesting in the physical realm, but only if I have a human's limbs to anchor myself to, and even then I am incapable of translating my powers across the gap between the physical and the metaphysical. But...if I were to imbue a human – already anchored to the physical realm – with a seed of my powers..."
"I get it," Winry interrupted. "You'll give me this 'seed', bring me back to life, and I'm meant to just go around doing your dirty work?"
"Listen to me!" the creature hissed, in what could only be described as a snarl. Winry thought she even saw the shadows of teeth. "Yes, I will give you the seed, yes, I will bring you back to life..."
"Why me?" Winry interrupted again. "There have been plenty of people who've died from these experiments – what makes me so special?"
"Many died, yes, and those that – like you – had the will to survive were taken over by the essence of the daemon. It is the only way a human will survive the process, but it meant that I could not reach them. I had to wait for someone who could not only survive the initial transmutation, but whose soul was strong enough to stave off the daemon's essence until I could reach them."
"And that's me?"
"In all of his four hundred and twelve experiments, you were the only one who was strong enough to hold yourself on the border of life and death, and resist the daemon's essence at the same time."
Winry digested that for a moment. "So...you said there were three...who will I have to go after?"
"Mangeli, the man who did this to you, a man called Father, and another called Hohenheim."
'That's Ed's father!' Winry thought. She mulled the possibilities over in her mind before asking, "Will it...hurt them?"
"Not if they accept it," Truth said. "But I doubt any of them will."
"Okay...I'll do it!" Winry nodded. "But what do I get in return?"
"I'm giving you the ability to live through this!" Truth hissed. "I'm saving your life, that should be payment enough!"
"You want me to track down these people, you need me alive, so you're really helping yourself on both counts," Winry pointed out. "So I'll need more of an incentive than that."
Another almost growl. "If I didn't need you-"
"But you do. You said it yourself – out of over four hundred, I'm the only one you could use. Do you want to take the chance that someone else will come along?"
Truth let out what sounded like a snarling sigh. "Very well, what do you want in exchange?"
Winry didn't hesitate. "The return of Alphonse Elric's body, and Edward Elric's limbs."
"No. You ask too much – you cannot have both."
"That's a pretty tall order, considering what I'm doing for you."
"With the seed of the Gate inside you, you will hardly find it difficult."
"Okay, I'm willing to concede on this point. Just Alphonse's body, then." Winry had a feeling Ed had long-since forgotten his vow to restore his own limbs, anyway.
"Deal," Truth nodded, holding out it's hand.
After a moment of suspicion, Winry slipped her fingers over it's palm, ready to shake hands...
Except something passed into her skin like an electric shock. The jolt made her snatch her hand back on reflex, her whole mind reeling from the sensation of something darting into her body like a fox into it's burrow.
It was as though she were seeing inside her body, from somewhere apart from herself. She could see a bright seed of white light travel up her arm, coil in the center of her chest...and then explode. Bright white light seemed to wash through her body, filling every cell of her being, every nook and cranny of her mind.
Then it dimmed to a glow, then a faint fizz, then finally faded away. But she knew it was still within her. Her skin felt tight, as though it was too small to contain whatever had just been poured into her. Her mind, too, felt strange, like an encyclopedia had been jammed into her head, and all she needed to do was turn the pages to unlock its knowledge.
"What...?" she gasped out, "What...was that?"
"The seed of the Gate, and the knowledge of what you must do with your power," Truth explained, "And one more thing..."
It reached up to her shorn head, and ran it's hands over her scalp. It was like being touched by warm mist. The light fingers traversed the curve of her skull, before dropping through the air to her waist.
And her hair grew after it, as though seeking the hands. A wave of long, golden locks washed down Winry's back, her hair restored to its original length.
She yelped, putting her hands to her head, feeling thick strands of hair instead of prickly stubs.
"There, that should help those brothers recognise you."
"Huh?" But it seemed as though Truth was preparing to send her on her way.
"Now I send you to the field – my champion, prepared for battle. Serve me well. Become my warrior, my messenger...my angel."
And then Winry knew no more, sinking into the oblivion of unconsciousness.
But this time, she would awake without memories, without dreams, nothing but the voices in her head screaming "Who am I?".
This time, Winry would awake to a new identity.