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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

VII. A Memory of Sanity and Deception, Part I

The day Edward first stood up and walked completely on his own was perhaps a miracle in itself. It began on a particularly slow evening, the end of the day, actually; not much progress recorded and very little results had been made.

The doctors were getting impatient; the pervious boy, a full year older, had advanced, however unwillingly, twice as fast in both auto-mail and alchemy with a hindering reluctance which Edward, under newly developed sedatives and conditioning brainwashing, therefore lacked. It should have been roughly equal in progression, despite the Ishbalan boy only needing his right arm replaced, which was reported to have been amputated by himself, but clearly this wasn't the case.

Something was unmistakably familiar about this new boy to his preceder, something having to do with endurance. Receiving the rebound effects of human transmutation, then sacrificing another limb for a flawed soul attachment, living to tell the tale wasn't an everyday feat, and overcoming the pain was another thing entirely. Edward was characteristically strong; there was certainly no doubt about that, but uncanny similarities in both strength and attitude were too much of a coincidence for the common denominator to blame to be in their bloodstream, namely the conditioning.

Edward was resting at the time in his hospital room, currently being tended by a nurse with his newly administered antipyretic medication which lessened his fevers. He seemed less alert than usual: sitting up in bed and rather downcast with his left hand balled into a fist around the blanket, a rare occurrence these days. The eleven-year-old barely talked and anything he might say could scarcely be heard, his words a soft mutter. His eyes hovered up only when his handler had come to check on him, following his movements from the time he entered to his departure.

Mustang had just left room, preparing to leave for the day. He'd stopped by only for a short visit this time, unlike the past few weeks. Normally he would have stayed with Edward until the kid fell asleep, but this time the Colonel didn't stick around that long. To be honest, Mustang wasn't having the greatest time with his piling paperwork and, quite frankly, life in general. He still saw Riza in his dreams months after the incident; his deceased infant also haunted him frequently.

That kid, Edward, was getting to him, too. Mustang couldn't stand watching him suffer painfully so much and so often. Learning to stand again with help from the rehab support team took what little energy the boy had left by the end of the day, and the routinely conditioning shots were nearly unbearable to witness as he squirmed away from the tip of the needle as is pierced his skin. The Colonel didn't want to see anymore of it, at least not until he could take a short break from the cycle. All he really wanted to do was crawl into bed and wait for this nightmare to end.

Hughes clasped his shoulder from behind him as he descended down the hall. Mustang's subordinate always seemed strangely hopeful in Edward's progression, making up for the both of them. He cheerfully invited his friend to a drink after the two checked out after unveiling a new roll of photographs of his daughter and wife.

The Colonel, annoyed, pushed the photos anyway. But before he could reply, he heard a high-pitched scream, a loud crash of a toppling gurney, and the solid crunch of broken glass. It came from the room he just visited, Edward's room.

"D-Don't leave me…"

He turned around. His student faced the teacher, standing upright by himself, sweat dampening his cheeks. The kid was leaning his auto-mail forearm against the hallway wall, his left fiercely gripping the throbbing pain in his right side. His body slumped, the auto-mail leg tensed and quivered, and he panted heavily to straighten his posture. Edward smiled weakly.

Mustang at the moment was at a loss for words. His eyes bulged; he took a step forward to approach him but forced himself to hold back. He knelt and held out his arms.

Edward knocked himself off the wall; he tightened the grip on his stomach, breathed deeply, and moved his left leg forward. The right leg followed slackly behind in an almost shuffle, but he did indeed move toward his handler.

At this point, all surrounding employees had stopped whatever they were doing, spellbound in the least, to look up and stare at the wonder of the prosthetics. There was an absolute silence, like an audience watching an unimaginable performance in order to see what would happen next, mouths agape, hearts pounding, none more worried than the handler. The kid was certainly putting on one hell of a show.

He took several more of his disoriented steps, working up his strength to actually lift his right leg. The kid winced and gritted his teeth, forcing it to hover above the ground, and brought it down in front of him. He paused only a moment to lean back on the wall, gasping, before continuing his short journey.

It took him exactly eight point twenty-eight minutes to finally reach the Colonel, collapsing from complete exhaustion in his arms, as the research team later calculated but to Mustang it seemed an eternity. A roar of applause filled the hospital, doctors and nurses gathering around the child to give him pats on the back or to ruffle his hair. Words of praise came flooding from all directions, but only two among the rest didn't seem to hear them. Edward drowsily grabbed a hold of Mustang's sleeve in his small fist, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

…

It wasn't completely perceivable when Edward first became aware of the conditioning treatments but the incident which spiraled from its discovering to the open was duly noted, transcribed and memorized for all head doctors to remember. This was a turning point to them, unlike the Colonel who realized only then of the full extent of the hardships the two of them would face.

The boy's hair had grown a considerable length in that time, once short, now brushing against his small shoulders. He was of adequate physical condition apart from his lack of an arm and leg which was fixed with auto-mail in a mere five months, though still hinting at signs of dysfunction.

That particular day the handler, Roy Mustang, had the day off. It wouldn't have gone through anyway with him present. He would have certainly objected to it, demanding an explanation, and that wasn't something the Society heads were comfortable with sharing at the moment. Anyone who got too close to the truth had to be erased, and the Civil War-hero was still much too important to get involved in things that weren't his concern so early in the process. The Lt. Colonel also was given even stricter Society to stay off the company's surrounding grounds, knowing that by his protective attitude alone he would be just as much a hassle as his superior. The Ishbalan didn't live to foresee this experiment, so Hughes wouldn't suspect a thing.

The plan of action was simple: allow the conditioning treatments to speak for themselves…

Hey guys, it's been a while! I know what you're thinking: "It's been a month and this is all you've written?!!"…I'm sorry…I've enjoyed my vacation, thus far until the end of it, as you might tell from the lack of updates…XD Arrgh, summer went by way too fast!!! The first week of school is over already…The first day I had Maximum The Hormone's "WHAT'S UP, PEOPLE?" stuck in my head. That's not good. That's really not good…

Again "the boy from Ishbal" is mentioned. (yes, he actually has a name, as does his little sister, and no, I am not going to tell their names for a while!! XD) Keep a lookout for him and Hughes's connection to him: Even dead, he plays a major role in the revealing of the true plot of the Society in the final Chapter as Edward will soon discover (at least I hope to be able to write this far…XD). He is a very interesting, cool, strong-willed character who I had the pleasure to flesh out and develop. I'm so happy I created him!! His description (both he and his sister's) will be revealed soon (I hope) and I plan to scan a picture of them. EDIT: A link to a picture of them is in my Profile.

Oh, be sure to check out my other fic, The Morning After, the first chapter of which I just posted recently. It's got a lot of good symbolism (flowers and colors and such) and foreshadowing to the Fullmetal movie! (shameless-plug, aren't I? XD)