Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fullmetal Alchemist… but I'm waiting for the 'Animation Artbook' 2 and 3 to be mine soon.
Yay… The next Chapter… Thanks for all the reviews I got so far they are helping me to go on with the story…
Take care and enjoy this Chapter
TenshiShanai.
Chapter 13 – Reasons
Roy was walking through the streets of Central. He was exhausted and knew he couldn't walk any longer without passing out soon. But he couldn't. He had to find Ed. He had to get to him. The boy had gone through so much in his life. He had vowed to himself that nothing would ever happen to him. He stopped at one corner leaning at the house there. Think. Think about it! Where could they been. What does 15 mean. Come on, old man, think about it! He heard Ed's voice in his own head encouraging him to get to the conclusion he needed. 15. There was no street with a 15 in its name. A house number? No. The Elrics had been living in number 46; the Mustangs' house number was 95. That couldn't be it. He closed his eyes from exhaustion. Sweat was running down his forehead.Think harder, Roy! He took some breaths before it stuck him. He knew where the bastard would go and Ed knew as well where to search for William. Roy looked around. He wasn't that far from the warehouse district and hoped he would make it in time to keep Ed from a nasty fate.
The blond teen was panting heavily. Some of the strands were hanging loosely from his braid and a thin dried blood line was running down his chin. Envy on the other hand didn't look that rough. He wasn't even sweating as much as Ed did. He looked up to his elder brother glaring at him. The teen stood up and brushed some of the dust from his clothes. He clapped his hands and tried to form another spear from the ground but was interrupted as Envy shoved him aside.
"How often do I have to tell you that this wouldn't do? You're too slow, Ed." He grinned evilly at the teen who was again laying on the ground coughing up blood. Ed wiped the fresh blood from his chin standing up. He tried to regain his breath and composure as Envy started his next attack. The young man was really fast and used every opportunity to punch Ed but never hitting his face. He dragged Ed by his collar looking in the half lidded eyes of his younger brother. The teen panted heavily and swallowed several times before he spoke up.
"Why? Why do you do that?" Envy looked angry than smirked.
"And here I thought you knew. Mustang never told you, did he?" It was rather a statement than a question. Ed didn't know what to answer.
"What did he never tell me?" Envy shoved Ed back on the ground looking hateful at the teen.
"Hohenheim told him to take care of you if something happens to him and his precious little wife." He balled his hands into fists. "He didn't ask for me. He didn't think of me. He thought I was a failure, somebody who wasn't worth it to be protected." Envy punched the ground so that some stones were flying around. "Did you never notice? I am not able to use alchemy like you. He found out when I was four and my mother blamed herself for that. What a failure to give birth to the child of a famous state alchemist that wasn't able to perform alchemy. She committed suicide 2 years later but everyone thought it was due to an illness." He looked at the boy. "And than he fell for your mother and forgot mine. He was so happy when you were born. It was his second chance for a perfect son." Envy approached Ed who didn't back away. "He was delighted as you showed that you could use alchemy. You were four years old that time." He dragged Ed up by his collar. "Just one month later my little game started." He licked Ed over his ear shell. "Did you know that one can loose his ability to perform alchemy due to traumatic events?" He grinned at Ed. The younger's eyes widened.
That's why he did that? That I would loose this ability? Ed got really angry. This guy had killed his own father and Trisha, Ed's beloved mother. He had hurt Roy and Riza because he was jealous? Because he thought Hohenheim didn't want him as his son? He gritted his teeth and kicked Envy between his legs so that he could get away.
"You son-of-a-bitch! I will never forgive you that!" He clapped his hands and made a sword out of a metal pipe laying there. He approached Envy who waited for Ed grinning.
"So come on Eddie. Let me see what you're capable of when you're angry." Unseen by Ed was that Envy got a gun out of the back of his pants. The teen swung the sword but Envy could dodge nearly any attack.
Roy was already near the scene. He could see the light of Ed's alchemy. That was good so the boy was still alive. He had to keep the promise. He had to even if that would cost his own life. He rounded the corner which let to the warehouse the Elric's furniture was inside. Ed was looking rough as he attacked Envy. The green-haired man jumped and dodged the attacks but didn't attack himself. Roy could see that he was waiting for something.
The next time Ed swung the sword at Envy the elder could dodge it but landed on the ground the gun slipping in Roy's direction. He grunted. Ed swung the sword again ready to stab it through Envy's heart.
"STOP!" The teen stopped in the middle of his attack looking at Roy who had seen the scene and came out of hiding place. Envy used the time to get Ed's sword trying to kill the teen. He could scratch the skin on Ed's stomach before he fell back on the ground a puddle of blood forming under him. It was so fast that Ed didn't even hear the shoot. He looked stunned to his father seeing smoke arise from the barrel. Roy put the gun down walking over to both of them. Ed's legs couldn't support his weight anymore. He kneed beside the dying body of his brother. Roy sat next to him taking the shivering form into his arms.
"It's okay now Ed. It's over. He's dead." He kissed the teen on the head. Ed started to sob heavily. Was this he wished for all this time? Roy started to rock softly trying to comfort the teen with his motion.
They sat there for a long time. Neither of them could tell if it where hours or maybe just minutes. They didn't care. Ed was still sobbing and Roy was comforting him.
"We should leave or at least try to call somebody to come over." Roy stroked Ed's hair. The boy nodded and stood up. His legs were still shaking.
"Can you stand up?" Roy looked at his son. He was weak, sure, but he managed to get there so he would be able to walk back. He tried but failed heavily. He swallowed. Maybe the adrenaline had worn of and the blood loose showed his effects by now. He sighed heavily and shook his head.
"No. I think you have to find a telephone booth and call for help." He looked up at Ed who looked serious at him. The teen hold his hand out.
"I'm not leaving you here and if that means I have to carry you I don't mind." Roy sighed and grabbed Ed's hand. He knew he wouldn't come away without the boy's help and Ed wouldn't leave him here on his own just for some minutes. Ed supported his father and together they left the alley of the warehouse until they found a telephone booth and called Hughes.
It took some minutes until Hughes, an ambulance and a hearse arrived there. Hughes didn't miss one second to yell at them. At the end Ed and Roy were sound asleep in the ambulance taking them to the hospital were another round of yelling waited for them. They could bear with it. Roy was so exhausted from his trip to find Ed that Megan insisted to keep him some days longer and Ed was as well admitted to the hospital. He wasn't heavily injured but his mental state was pretty weak. He never had seen somebody dying and William was his brother even if just a tiny part of him survived in Envy. It was at night that he thought mostly about all the things that had happened. On one of this nights Ed got up and walked over to his father who was snoring loudly. The teen smiled. How near had it been that he had lost all this because of this devil? He got into the bed next to Roy. He knew he was too old for that but he remembered the time Roy and Riza had asked him to sleep in their bed after a nightmare and he knew that it had helped. He cuddled closer to Roy who opened his eye that wasn't under gauze.
"Can't sleep?" The teen just nodded. Roy lifted the sheets and Ed crawled under them. "You know that you're too old for this, don't you?" Ed rolled his eyes. "And I would think that you would rather cuddle with Winry than with me." The boy blushed heavily. Did his father know that he had slept with her? He swallowed hoping the blush would go away.
"I just remembered the time when Mum and you asked me to sleep with you in your bed and that it helped with the nightmares." Roy stroked over Ed's head.
"Are you having them now? Nightmares I mean." Roy sounded sleepy and Ed felt guilty that he had woken the man. He shook his head.
"No. I' m just thinking about stuff." He looked up at his father. He couldn't hold his thoughts back any longer. "I wondered what would happen now that Envy is dead and Archer and the others are under military custody for their crimes." He swallowed and looked at the elder's chest.
"Maes said that Archer and the others are getting court martial for the committed crimes and for Envy I don't know. His body is still in the morgue waiting to be buried." Ed went stiff. How could he ask Roy that?
"Dad?"
"Hmmm? What's wrong Ed?" The teen swallowed. He looked up to see his father's obsidian eye.
"I want to burry his body with Hohenheim's and Trisha's. I think he belongs there." He looked away again hoping that Roy would at least think about it and didn't refuse the request from the beginning. He laid there in silence for some time before Roy spoke up.
"I think that would be fine by me. He was your brother even if he did what he had done." Ed felt relieved.
"Thank you." He closed his eyes listening to his father's heartbeat and went to sleep.
AN.: The fight was pretty hard to write and I think I'm not good at it. ; Hope you liked it. Go on with the Epilogue or Review. Do as you like.
Take care.
TenshiShanai.
