Disclaimer: I don't own FMA... or these pants.
If one and one are always two, and two and two are always four, how can two become one while still being four?
"Hello, oh desperate solider, to this barren land. Ask what you want, but the answers… you won't understand."
Roy shivered and looked up in horror. The large gate he was told of, but never truly believed, was bearing down on him. In a world of only light, it cast its cold thick shadow over his quivering form. He was afraid and humbled without question.
"Speak mortal, project your ultimate wish, that desire. Nothing is too much for you, right, great alchemist of fire?"
The voice boomed in his mind, leaving him unable to think or speak properly. A sudden severe pain collapsed Roy onto his knees.
"Do you pray before a god you don't believe in? It's strange because only through a god there can be sin. For if there is no higher power to dictate the rules of living, how would you know what is wrong? What is right? What is stealing and what is giving?"
Roy found his voice as the pain dissipated. With eyes he could not keep from being incredibly wide he answered. "We are taught morals as children. Right and Wrong are the fundamentals of our education and upbringing."
The Gate remained unchanged as the eternities passed by. Roy stayed kneeling, his two gloved hands on the ground between his bent knees. His tired legs slide apart until his thighs were comfortably resting on the nothingness that supported his weight. For all the world, he looked like a crumpled child.
"Yes but who was the mentor who taught the ones who taught you that first knowledge? Why me of course, you are all my students and it is to me you should pledge."
"Enough games! I came here for Riza," Mustang pleaded with a slight crack in his voice. A foreign pressure around him was shifting into an unbearable weight, pressing down on his whole body.
"You came all this way for death? To give up that very last breath?"
The voice didn't hurt him this time. It tickled him with a curiosity that fluttered like a moth in Roy's mind. Roy squinted and shook his head slowly as if it would relieve the bizarre feeling. "What do you want in exchange for my wife?" He demanded as he forced his eyes open again.
"It doesn't work that way. You must offer an exchange, something I can take away."
"What do you want?"
"Equivalence."
"I can't give you that until I know the cost."
The weight pressed him down hard, making Roy's forehead become level with his knees in a slave like bow.
"You dare come here and demand a purchase price as if this were a store? You need to be aware of the rules, Roy Mustang, they are not there for you to ignore."
He was being crushed slowly under something he could not see. The shadow over his bent form was getting darker as Roy began to panic despite his resolve.
"You are but a novice in this game of life. So I will make you a deal for your wife. Offer me what you value most, dear boy, and I will give back that girl with joy."
Roy closed his eyes and remained bowed, even though the pressure was no longer there. What was most valuable to him? His first thought was of Riza. She was his world. Without her, he was nothing, but he couldn't offer Riza to retrieve Riza. He needed something of equal value. His ambition was often commendable. People would tell him they wish for the same kind of drive he possessed, but he didn't have that anymore. All Roy had was himself and a few snow banks. Maybe that was all he needed.
"My life, for my wife," he rhymed to match the Gate's articulate yet odd style.
The pressure returned tenfold, flattening him completely. Roy hissed as the air in his lungs was pushed out.
"You dare mock me, you flickering candle of a child? This equivalence you offer is mild. I said what you value most and you defiantly could care less about this Mustang ghost."
A dull snap in his chest informed Roy that he had at least one broken rib. He moaned in pain but couldn't move.
"Let me explain something here to you. This is not a place of exchange, tariffs or due. Here is where you come for TRUTH indeed, and I will extract my price in giving it to you, fair and noble stead."
The only thing Roy could mange was a shallow scream as those black hands pulled at his face.
Steady as the Tree
Edward clutched at the white socked ankle. The flashing light died immediately after he broke the array. Panic was swelled up inside of Ed as Mustang left a bloody streak where he was dragged.
Did this mean…?
Edward pushed all morbid thoughts aside and surveyed the array quickly. It was his by design but the bastard took out the safety restraints. Dammit, he could have died and received nothing. Equivalency was the key and the man expected something from nothing, unless…
"You tried to use your own life," Edward stated out loud.
Horror and a sickening sense of understanding flooded through Edward's veins. It was the same feeling he got every time he thought about just how easy it would be. All he would have to do was draw an array, gather ingredients and in no time, Edward would be able to see her face again. But it was never that easy. It wouldn't be her. It would be a ghost, a shadow, a homunculus, a sin. Edward loved her too much to inflict that kind of existence on Winry. How could this man try to do the same for his wife? It wasn't right.
"Get up you selfish bastard. What are you missing?" Edward snarled hatefully and flipped over the taller man.
What he saw made the bottom of his gut fall out. All the hate and bile melted away. Edward felt ashamed and scared. Mustangs face was the source of the growing pool that was seeping into Edward's clothing. All the blood around him oozed over the array's lines in a disgusting sense of irony. Payment was taken. The array was no longer active. Edward was just happy nothing was created from it. Stupid bastard was so grief stricken he forgot to have his own human transmutation materials ready. Fucking stupid lucky bastard.
Edward pulled the man's head into his lap and inspected the damage with blank eyes. The Gate took his left eye…
"This is confidential, Doctor. I'm sure you understand. No nurses, no admin personnel, no one but you is to come into this room from now until dawn." Colonel Elric sternly told the small town clinical doctor.
The older man looked past Edward to the only occupied bed in the small room.
"Colonel Eh? Aren't you kinda young?" The physician inquired as he packed some things into his bag.
"Young, possibly, but I have experiences no one can relate to except for this man. No one is more qualified to deal with his 'situation' than I. Now, I expect you back here an hour after dawn to make him travel worthy." Ed's words were brisk and official.
He was being overly harsh in hopes the doctor would leave, but those hopes were quickly dashed when he noticed the man eyeing his watch chain. "You're na ordinary colonel. That's a state alchemist chain you got there."
"Yes it is," Edward quirk one of his eyebrows and waited. He was thankful the man was able to do as much as he did, but that didn't mean the floor was open to questions from the peanut gallery.
"Then you must be that famous Flame Alchemist Colonel, the one in all the stories. I thought you was dead?"
Edward put his hands in his pockets. "I think you've been here too long Doctor. I will see you tomorrow, bright and early. I need to get this soldier to Central for surgery as soon as humanly possible."
"Fine," the doctor said and turned for the door, "but you know, I ain't stupid. That man was messing around with alchemy you should be mess'in with. That's no ordinary wound."
"And what, by fucking chance, would be described as an ordinary wound? The man's eye was scooped out?" Edward yelled slightly but tried to harness his temper. White hot waves of pure wrath were rippling beneath the surface, ready to surge out if that man said on more comment not the Edward's liking.
"I'm just say'in. If he dies of some mysterious cause in the night and you ain't around. I'm reporting you. I'm know backfiring alchemy when I see it."
"Good night and get out," Edward hissed, clutching the contents of his pockets. His watch was warming up in his left hand while he snapped his pen in half in his right.
Edward watched him go with an unprofessional glare. He felt like his old rebellious self for a moment, and it felt good. He stomped over to the door and wedged it closed with one of the spare chairs. He gave the knob a long look as if expecting it to jiggle, but it didn't.
Edward's shoulders slumped. It felt good to be off display. The flame alchemist wasn't even in that room anymore. Edward walked over to Mustang's bed and grabbed the second spare chair. This man wasn't the flame alchemist anymore, just like Ed was no longer Fullmetal. They were both changed almost beyond recognition.
"Mustang, what happened to us," Edward asked, knowing he wouldn't get an answer. Mustang was fast asleep, pleasantly drugged and bond in white cotton strips.
The bleeding had stopped quickly, quicker than it should have, but that was the nature of the Gate. It didn't want you to die of blood lose because that wouldn't be fun or equivalent.
Edward took off his jacket and sat in the chair at Mustang's side.
"We've switched places, you and I. I remember all those times I would wake up and see you sitting here, looking pissed. 'Fullmetal, you should take better care of yourself,' and 'you are an adult now; it's time you acted like one.' So you better not kick the cat while I'm asleep you bastard. I've have a whole number of ironic bullshit saved up for this day and don't think being a bastard will save your sorry ass. As of last week, you are MY subordinate until you are reinstated. So sleep now while you can." Edward smiled a bit and put his socked feet up on the bed. He didn't want Mustang to sneak away in the night, so this was an effective way to keep tabs one the man.
Edward closed his eyes and prepared for the nightmares. He always got them after seeing any form of horror. It was a fact of life and there was no escape, that was one thing both Mustang and Edward had in common. They both knew that there was an imprisonment when they went to bed. Any demon could seep into your dreams and not let go.
Edward took his feet down from the bed and folded his arms on the sheets, putting his head on his arms. He looked at Mustang one last time. "Sleep and I'll protect you like I couldn't them."
He felt a hand brush his bangs aside but passed it off as Winry haunting him, like she always did.
END
Author's Note: So I have an announcement. I have about thirty to fifty review replies to write after I post this. So if you think I forgot you… I did, but not anymore! Now I need to organize my massive photobucket account. I put all the yaoi and shounen-ai pictures I love in there. Now I must put them into pairing folders, tag and title them. :D
Ummmm... I think I'm forgeting something... Oh yeah, ENJOY!
-Rix ... the demon
OH! entre nous means between us after you make it pretty in English.