Equivalent Exchange

Chapter Summary: The aftermath of Edward's attack.

& to my reviewers, Not Short Your Just Freakishly Tall, and Queen NekoChan- Thank You! Love yah~

Chapter 2 - Hurt

~HAVOC~

New Year's Eve, The Military Headquarters, 10:30pm

Jean Havoc was standing outside the front doors of the military head quarters.

'Fuck Mustang! It's already 10:30, and your is still keeping me here! I try to help him and then he yells at me for lighting my cigarette! That genius, leaving his work to the last minute deserves to stay here, and not me. All he is doing is yelling at me anyway. Mustang can really piss me off when he is stressed out over paperwork. Which he should have done days ago anyway.'

Havoc lights his cigarette, and lets out a tired sigh. It was New Year's eve night. Almost everyone had to go to some kind of family event tonight and left work early. Some even out of the city, and Havoc was one of the few, who said he was free tonight and then ended up with Mustang, who had no choice but to finish his paper work. It was dark, but the parties were just starting. Even with all the parties going on at the moment, it was quiet. Havoc wished for anything but to be at work still.

"EDWARD!" Havoc hears faintly, and stands up straight, letting the word hit his brain,

"Was that... Alphonse Elric? Why did he-? Ugh. I better get that annoying man, he'll give me hell if Fullmetal is hurt."

Havoc puts out his smoke out quickly and then rushes inside to get his damn boss, Roy Mustang.

~AL~

'No, no, no! I think brother fainted! He has lost so much blood already too... He looks so pale... and cold... I need to get help. The military is only 5 blocks away, that is like 10 minutes... But its so late, what if no ones there? Mmmm I don't know! If don't hurry... Nii-san...'

Al picks up Ed off of the cold cement. His worry goes up once he sees just how much blood Ed has already lost. Once Al has a strong yet gentle hold on his brother, he starts to run towards the military. It's so dark and nobody sees Al and Ed. After just a couple minutes of running Al spots a car and he slows his running into a walk. Once the car's headlights hit Al, the vehicle starts to slow and pulls in next to Alphonse.

The driver's window slides down.

"Alphonse Elric, is everything alright?"

"Co-Colonel? No, we are not alright! He is not alright! He's hurt. Brother's hurt! You have to help Ed! ...I-I don't know what- He was calling me and I didn't come! Colonel this is my fault! I didn't come!"

"What is going on Alphonse? Why are you so-"

Roy noticed the thing Al was carrying was the Fullmetal. He saw the dark liquid covering Ed was blood. Roy's eyes widened.

"Alphonse, I'm sure this is not your fault." Roy breathed, trying to stay calm, "Havoc, get a towel from the truck and put it in the back seat! AND HURRY!"

The passenger door opened the Jean Havoc exited. He rushed to the truck and looked for a towel.

"Take the passenger seat Al and hand Fullmetal to me, we're going to help."

Al nodded, and held his unconscious brother to Roy's open arms, then Al silently went into the car. Roy was holding Edward and waiting for Havoc to get the back seat ready. He really looked at Ed to see just how hurt was.

'What the hell happened Edward?' Roy thought, he could feel some of Ed's blood soaking into his clothes. Although for the most part Ed's bleeding had stopped, he still looked awfully pale and sweaty. Roy noticed his skin felt like ice; his expression pained.

Once Havoc was done, Roy carefully placed Edward in the back seat with Havoc. Havoc looked shocked.

"...What happened!"

The blond said once he saw Ed for the first time. Without answering, Roy quickly went into the drivers seat, and turned the engine on,

"How is he?" Roy asked Havoc as the car started to move.

"Um... Well his pulse is slowing rapidly, he looks like he is in a lot of pain and... Roy he needs a doctor; this is to serious for us three to handle!"

"I know..."

~ED~

Dreamworld

"Whats wrong, boy?"

"Yeah shrimp. You seem like you're in pain, your not sad, are you?"

"Maybe Edward, feels bad about hurting his friends."

"No way! This shrimp is one of us now!"

"Eddie sad?"

Ed opened his eyes to see Lust, Envy, Pride and Gluttony staring at him. He didn't know how he knew their names, he just did. Lust was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her late 20's, Envy was a strange boy who somehow looked familiar, Pride was just a young boy, who had a dark expression on his face, and then Gluttony, who was just extra abnormally big for a guy. They were all pale, had dark hair, and were all beautiful, but somehow they scared Edward.

In the background Ed saw that they were in Central. But it was different. Behind them was some of his friends from the military, either fighting with someone or terribly wounded and unable to move. Ed realized it was a war; a war was going on in Central.

"What is going on? Back to work you three, keep fighting, and don't stop! Edward what is happening?!"

The man speaking moved just in front of Ed while the others ran off. He was tall, with long blond hair... 'Dad?' Ed thought.

"I'm alright, father. These are no friends of mine, let them die."

Edward said. He smirked and saw a dead Hughes and Armstrong in the corner of his eye. Ed realized that "he" was on the enemy's side...

Then out of nowhere a sharp burning pain shot his body. He screamed out in pain.

2 weeks later, Central Military Hospital, 6:57am

Ed awoke gasping. He was covered in sweat and tangled in his bed sheets. The fiery pain was still there but subdued slightly and was slowly fading away even more. It took a minute for him to realize he was no longer in a dream... But where was he?

Ed sat in a bed with white sheets, white blankets and white pillows. It wasn't just his bed but the whole entire room was white!

The room had one bed, one window; where he could see it was still dark outside; and in one corner of the room there was a gray suit of armor curled up in a ball.

"...Al?"

Edward's throat was dry and his voice was weak, but the little sound that escaped his mouth made his brother's head turn up.

"Brother?"

Al shot up once he saw his brother's open eyes and ran to him.

"Edward! You're awake! I was so worried brother! You were in so much pain Ed, and... and I was starting to think you might never wake up."

"Wait. What? How-" *cough cough* "Al, water."

Al understood. He grabbed a cup and ran into the bathroom to fill it with water. A minute later Al came back and handed it to Ed. Ed took a few large gulps, then all of a sudden slowed and dropped the cup. Ed tried to spit out out the swallowed water.

"What's wrong brother?"

"This water is disgusting Al!"

"What do you mean? It should taste as good as any cup of water nii-san!"

"How would you know that!? You don't drink water!" Ed joked, "That water tasted like it was dust! But my throat feels a bit better..."

"That doesn't matter Ed! You scared everyone, people have been coming to the hospital section everyday to visit you! Do you how worried-"

'Wait- hospital? What? Why?' Ed's eyes widened.

"Are you in pain again, Nii-san?!"

"Al how long have I been asleep? What happened?" Ed asked seriously.

"You don't remember? You were attacked but since no one saw anything that night, we don't know any details..."

"Attacked? But I can't remember... You didn't answer my first question, how long was I asleep Al?"

Ed asked again, he honestly didn't know anything, and it was driving him insane.

"2 weeks. You lost a lot of blood, Brother. But you only had two small cuts in your neck. They were deep, and no one understands why you were in THAT much pain."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you were screaming in pain brother, but your injury wasn't even that bad."

Ed reached for his neck and felt a bandage. He layed back down on his bed.

"I'll be right back brother! I'm going to tell someone you're awake!"

Edward watched his brother run out of the room and then turned to look out the window.

The sun was just starting to rise, and Ed shut his eyes hoping to fall asleep again. A couple minutes later Ed felt a sharp burning sting on his hand. His eyes shot open to see the sunlight hitting his uncovered hand. He blinked and moved his hand away to see it heal in another blink of his eye. Edward's eyes widened.

He remembered what happened.

Thank You For Reading~