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Gunslinger Alchemist: A Crossover Fanfiction

"The boy has a mechanical body, but he is still an adolescent child…"

Chapter 4: A Broken Heart in my Hands, The Truth Revealed

5. Nightmare

The first thing Edward saw when he slowly opened his eyes was black. Everywhere he looked was a never ending void that seemed to stretch on forever. What surprised him most was he could see himself amidst the thick black, the only known source of light being that which radiated from his small body. It was a new indefinite place in his mind, he was dreaming this he knew it, yet it felt so real. He wondered what memories it would show him this time.

He ran toward all directions, searching for an exit, his Military boots sloshing on the ground with every step. The ground was firm enough to stand but clearly some kind of thick liquid, though it was difficult to place due to the darkness.

"Here again, are you?" A voice echoed throughout the abyss, a voice belonging to a young boy.

Ed turned around to find an eleven-year-old wearing a maroon t-shirt over a black shirt and khaki shorts sitting on the ground, arms outstretched casually on his folded up right leg. He had striking golden eyes and long blonde bangs enveloping the sides of face, framing the look of childhood innocence. The boy seemed entertained by his elder's confusion, a playful smirk across his lips.

There seemed nothing out of the ordinary about him, nothing remarkably noticeable to pick him out from a crowd: no missing limbs or familiar features that Edward might have remembered. So why was he here? Ed went for the motion of reaching for his right shoulder holster in the act of sudden defensive, keeping a keen eye on the unknown boy. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asked sternly.

The boy gave him a withered look, but after a moment began to snicker. He threw his head back as his laugher grew almost in a maniacal state. "What? You don't know?" he said in the middle of his fit. "It's just too funny!" Edward tensed up stunned as the blonde boy settled down, running his fingers over his forehead. "I'm sorry; I keep forgetting how little you actually know."

He stood, walking briskly over to Edward with a stride in his step, the smirk unwavering. Gazing up directly into the identical eyes of the alchemist, he grinned mischievously, pointing a finger toward him. "I'm YOU."

The dark void around the both of them dispersed, as blinding bursts of light puttered from the opening that started as a mere speck. Edward shielded his eyes from the brightness with his arm, yet it proved futile as the white overtook the darkness, flooding into his head a vision of his forgotten and painful past…

Two young boys, two close brothers ran together side-by-side in harmony across the grassy field toward their protective loving mother who was hanging out sheets to dry in the sunny weather. They knew they could always rely on her to be there for them and in turn they would do anything to make her happy.

"Mother, Mother come look!" They thrust open their waiting palms revealing a matching set of clay horses. The younger brother giggled. "Isn't it great? It's a present for you!"

"For me? How sweet!" The brown-haired woman knelt down, accepting the gifts. "How did you get these?"

"We transmuted them! We used alchemy!" the older brother answered proudly. The younger boy nodded in agreement.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed, smiling warmly. "Well, thank you very much!"

"Brother helped me, though. I can't get just it right," the younger brother sighed, disappointed by his skill.

The woman overlooked the mistakes, some more noticeable than others. "I think they're both perfect! After all, my two favorite boys made them." She touched her oldest son's cheek soothingly. "Thank you for helping your brother. It's so nice how you could create such wonderful things, but it's too bad…"

Black thundered ravenously across the land, darkening streaks which stained the once blue cloudless sky. The woman's body decomposed and deteriorated, rotted flesh clinging to exposed bloody bones and organs. Long chestnut colored hair which was collected in a loose ponytail over her right shoulder unfurled and transformed to an unruly, greasy black.

The hand and arm which held onto the young boy's face remained undisturbed, warmth still emitting from her fingers. Yet, this was no longer a female human; this was a monster. Her crumbling facial structure almost seemed to smirk, drooling fanged teeth open. "…you couldn't save me, too…"

Edward gasped, suddenly stumbling back to the darkness. He was lying on the thick liquid ground, hands tightly clenched, holding his head in agony. It hurt so much. He sat up to see his young counterpart standing apart from him and gazing down excitedly, his right hand on his hip and the all-knowing smile still as smug as before.

"How was that? Painful, I hope?" The eleven-year-old chortled cruelly to himself. His widening gold colored eyes glistened with pure hatred, his pupils turning to slits like a snake. The more Edward suffered, the larger the boy's smirk grew. "It's all YOUR fault. YOU are the one who condemned your own mother to this heinous form."

After the boy spoke, thousands of arms appeared behind his back through the darkness, none of which pocessed human characteristics. They were long, pitch black vectors with small, sharp, grasping fingers. They wrapped around his own arms and chest, alchemically deconstructing his left leg and right arm. Bones and red muscles evaporated, taken by the arms. The boy didn't mind or even bat an eyelash at their arrival. In fact, he seemed to expect and enjoy it.

Edward shook at the imagery in front of him. He didn't know what to say to counteract. All he could do was stare transfixed as his young body was taken apart. The arms turned their attention and shot out towards him, cascading around Ed and constricting his limbs and torso, not unlike his counterpart. He couldn't have avoided it; his body refused to move.

They felt cold and icy against his skin, those black arms. He could barely breathe or make a sound. All he could hear was the subtle hum, 'You're to blame, you're to blame' buzzing in his ears.

"No, not just Mother…"

Ed whirled around, the arms still covering his body. "Al-Alphonse? Is that you?"

His once younger brother snickered at his amazement. "I tried to stop you Brother, but you just wouldn't listen to reason." Al's flesh ten-year-old form slowly changed to twisted bronzed armor, his skin now cold rusted metal. "The toll you paid was only a limb. You got off easy while I gave up my soul. Then you left me with a body that can't feel warmth, that can't sleep, that can't even cry."

"B-But, I thought…"

"I've been trapped in here for so many years behind your back, treated like a lab animal, all thanks to YOU!!" The remaining half of his flesh human face was concealed by his metal helmet.

Edward cringed, clenching his teeth against the weight of his words as the realization sunk in. It was his entire fault. Everything would be all right it if wasn't for him. His mother turned into a monster because of him. He got his own brother involved and now he was nothing more than an iron shell to be used in experiments. All his doings. His fault. All of it.

The vectors swiftly pulled him into the liquid ground, himself struggling to get to the surface, kicking his legs until it burned. He gurgled and choked on the liquid substance which was filling his lungs as he was dragged deeper and deeper into an even more hellish black. His attempts to escape only resulted in an array of bloody red bubbles. A dark crimson gloom of the liquid overtook him and continued to pull him into the dark oblivion as his vision become clouded and hazy under the blanket of red…

"DAMN IT FULLMETAL, WAKE UP!!!"

Edward gasped on a pocket of air and thrust open his eyes. This wasn't the dark, unforgiving place in his mind anymore; he was lying, in actuality sitting up, in his bed at the Society. It really was just a dream.

Thick dark shadows danced along the bedroom walls revealing the shapes of several other adults in the room, one he recognized to be the Colonel by his voice. At least two guards had restrained his arms by holding them behind his back to prevent him from moving. By the look of their faces and the darkness, he silently concluded it was either extremely late or extremely early.

The misty sight rejuvenated, slowly adjusting to lack of lighting. His aching and sore body was absolutely drenched in sweat, his black sleeveless shirt sticking to his chest. His heart still felt like it was going a mile a minute and won't slow down. His broken and tready breathing was just the same. Coils of long, wet, blonde colored hair hung in his face and his blanket was hopelessly twisted around his legs.

"God, thrashing around and yelling in his sleep? I can't take much more of this." It was a doctor talking this time, an old gravely voice. In a shadowy silhouette, Ed saw the man in the white lab coat hold up a glass syringe, prodding the barrel and the blood red contents inside. The man then reached out for Ed's left arm.

"…N-No…please…" Edward felt the sharp sting of the needle bite into his forearm, but then a quickening wave of drowsiness overcame him and his body succumbed to the conditioning. He slumped backwards against the guards, letting out a soft groan before falling on the bed sheets in a heap. The world became lopsided and fuzzy and his hearing was muffled at best. It wouldn't be much longer until he passed out completely…

The old doctor faced Mustang in the darkness. Even in the inadequate light, he could tell the Colonel was frowning. "He'll be sedated for the night and probably the next morning, depending on the effect. Just…be sure to expect it in the morning."

Mustang nodded in understanding and watched as the officers and guards on duty filed out of the room, leaving him alone with his almost unconscious student. Out of regard, the Colonel unwound the blanket around Ed's legs and covered him properly. He turned to leave as well, but stopped, surprised, when he heard a soft voice.

"C-Colonel? Is that you?" Ed asked feebly.

Mustang returned to his bedside, pulling up a stool and sitting down next to his small form. He stroked Edward's hair with his hand. "You should really go back to sleep," he spoke gently.

The teenager coughed and rubbed at his dry throat. "I…I can't…" he trailed off.

The Colonel felt himself reeling back to the first time he had watched over his student, that night in the hospital when Ed was still recovering from his automail surgery…

It was almost midnight and the eleven-year-old still had not closed his eyes. Covered with bandages and machinery, Edward withered in pain on his bed. He squeezed the linen blanket in his left fist so tightly it hurt. His body trembled and he tried to remember a time when it had hurt so badly. The heat of his fever had long since peaked. He never knew the night could be so long.

Ed's handler, Colonel Mustang, had stayed with him, watching over him in his agony. Mustang had been the only one who had stayed behind while everyone, even the nurses, had gone home.

"I-It hurts…so bad…" the boy stuttered, a rippling new pain hitching from his wired right shoulder. He struggled not to cry in front of his teacher.

"I know, Ed. I'm sorry," Mustang replied softly. The Colonel hated watching him suffer. "Try to get some sleep."

Ed moaned a bit, and fell silent. After a while, he spoke again. "Wh-When I was little, my Moth-" He stopped mid-sentence. "Uh, I mean, s-someone close to me used t-to hold my hand when I w-was scared or lonely. Th-That way, I would a-always feel protected. And m-my hand would be w-warm in the morning." He held out his hand shyly from the blanket. "Too much to ask?"

The Colonel widened his eyes, but then gave Edward a kind smile and grasped his small hand in his much larger one, lacing his fingers to capture the warmth. "Of course not…"

"Colonel? Y-You still there?"

Mustang glanced up, emerging from a far away memory. "Oh, um, sorry," he muttered. He heard Ed's unsteady breathing in the shadows, the raise and fall of his chest, the unnerving expression on his face. That thing in the boy's past which he had most likely forgotten, the Colonel knew it was the only thing he could do for him now. "Y'know, they say that if you hold someone's hand when they're sleeping, they get better faster."

Edward turned his head toward Mustang, puzzled at first, but blushed a soft red. "You-You'll stay with me?" he replied.

"Yes," the Colonel grinned and leaned closer through the darkness.

"A-And you won't let go?"

"I promise," Mustang nodded.

Ed finally held up his quivering left hand as his handler gripped it against his own war-roughened hands and smiled weakly before shutting his eyes. "Thank you…"

GAH!! Summer vacation!! Yay!! I'm happy I'm now a sophomore, but it's kinda overwhelming, too. I can drive in less than a year. That's a scary thought. XD We get some really nice Parental!Royed going on here. It's so cute, a lot of fun to write. Poor Ed, (hugs). At first I intended this scene to be the start of Chapter 4 but it kind of snow balled into a time lapse and children's birthday party. It's for the best. XD The actual nightmare scene took a lot of revising, but I'm happy with the result. "Portal Edward", as I like to refer to him, is actually like a recollection of Edward's memory of "that day" which he had forgotten. He isn't a separate soul, but is like part of a larger entity. He has some consciousness and can reshape and deconstruct his body at will. He enjoys being mean to Ed and teasing him. He's a kind of a mixture of Envy, Wrath, and Road Camelot from D. Gray-Man. I'm quite fond of him. XD He will appear again later, when things take a turn for the worst…Uh, let's just say it involves a death and someone getting beaten up REALLY bad (whistles innocently). Amanda, if you're reading this, you'll know what I mean. XD

I recently was involved with helping out at my church's vacation bible school, a week long program for the little kids. I was a mentor (leading them around, helping with the activities, etc.) for the (get this) five-year-olds-going-into-kindergarten group. Karma really is a bitch. XD It was a lot of fun, though, playing around and such. What really surprised me was there was another helper my age whose name was Ed and had blonde hair. And he got jumped by the kids. A lot. Go figure. XD Oh, and I saw Pirates!3 with my friend Brendan. It's great, everyone go see it!! Hooray for Captain Sparrow!! And Will Turner, too!! XD

Almost forgot. Happy Fourth of July!! (throws confetti)