Thank you for reviewing! I'm hopefully going to post the next chapter tomorrow night, so you all can get a quick explanation on just what Roy does at the end of this chapter :)
The scent of burning flesh was an interesting one.
Quite distinctive, and mildly unpleasant, one that made even those unaware of its origin wrinkle their noses and frown. Sharp and tangy, it was, hot and with only vague similarities to cooking meat. For Roy, the smell called back memories of his own arm burning under the falling rain, and the massacres of his own hand in Ishval, and when it reached him again in the burning prison of the train car, at first all he could do was shudder and cover his nose and mouth against the nausea that rose.
The source, a corpse charred beyond recognition even as a human being half crushed under a fallen sheet of metal, sent a chill down his spine, and he forced his eyes away.
Roy glanced around the close space of the ruined train car, squinting through air heavy with smoke and sparks. His eyes burned, watering in protest, and when the coughs rose again he had to double over just to breathe. Agony trembled through his chest, ribs throbbing and shoulder screaming for relief, and he gasped again, sweat dripping off his face and hands. He cursed, pinching his nose with two fingers against the smell that pulled at horrific memories, his other hand struggling to push himself up against the heat of the floor. He'd already pulled his socks onto his hands to ward against the heat- trying to save his gloves in case they'd be needed later- but several holes had already been burned through the wool. It wouldn't be long before he just had no choice but to burn his hands.
"C-come on, Fullmetal," he ground out, voice low and gravely as vocal chords fought against smoke's poison. "Any time now, runt..."
At last, still coughing and gasping, Roy managed to worm his way through a gap in the rubble and finally emerge to where Al had been trapped. A grin was a bit beyond him at the moment, but he did sigh in relief, before somehow working up enough air to shout out his victory. There were other survivors here who, like him, were conscious and able to move about- he'd managed to get them to help him move the ones who could not. He wasn't too happy about trusting civilians to do military work like this, but they were simply out of options by this point.
"You got the transmutation circle ready, Al?" he asked weakly, working himself forward on his elbow, and the boy just looked at him.
"Of course, Colonel. ...You, ah... you really don't look very good."
Roy let his mouth work into a bitter grin. "That's because fire doesn't mix well with humans, Al. ...Not even with me."
Especially not with me, he thought grimly, old scar on his arm stinging again. Few understood the dangers of fire as intimately as he did. And as much as it pained him to accept it now, this was one of the reasons the master had been so harsh with him. So that he wouldn't take the name Flame Alchemist to head and think he could tame this blaze here- only to have it turn back around on him and eat him alive.
Him and everyone else still trapped here.
Arrogance is even more dangerous than fire, he always said. Fire will bite both the sage and the fool, but arrogance will lead the fool to fire as if it was as safe as water. And in the hands of a Flame Alchemist, arrogance will bring fire not only to the fool, but to everyone with in reach of his power...
Clearing his throat as best he could, Roy crawled closer to the boy's transmutation circle and called again for the other survivors to hurry up. "We're going to get those who can move to help carry those who can't out. Move in groups of two; you'll lower them into the tunnel and I'll catch them."
"Er, how do you plan to do that?"
Roy grimaced. He knew it wasn't the smug mocking he'd have gotten from Ed for that statement, but an actual, genuine question, but it still tried at his nearly nonexistent patience. "However I can manage it, Al. In c-case you h-haven't noticed... b-bit of a t-t-time crunch..."
"I got it, I got it!" the boy exclaimed hurriedly as Roy found himself doubled over again, shaking through coughs that ached to his lungs and shutting red and stinging eyes. He pinched his nose again, bile rising at the smell, fighting with all his strength to hold on.
Come on, Roy! Ed's fighting out there and he's alone. Come ON! Got to get through this... got to get through this...
Because damn him to hell if that kid wound up hurt because he was too busy coughing in here to get to his side to help him.
Finally, shuddering still, Roy rose tremulously to his knees and gestured Al forward. The first of the pale and nervous survivors joined him at the edge of the transmutation circle, one shaking and face covered in smeared soot, the other unconscious, and Roy nodded at them once before looking again towards Al.
Without hesitation, the boy leaned forward, empty gloves touched the floor, and with a creaking grunt of the ground, a tunnel split open at their feet.
Roy grinned.
When Ed hit the ground for the tenth time in as many minutes, and he was left with his whole body feeling like one gigantic bruise, an arm nearly wrenched out of the socket (the bone one, not the metal one), and the third crack of a broken rib, he had to face facts.
Without his leg or his brother, there was almost no way he could win against another skilled alchemist.
There was just no dammed time to get himself together. Every blow sent him hurtling back yards over the cliffside and in the precious seconds it took him to work himself up onto his knee, another attack came and, defenseless, he'd be hit once again. And to make matters worse, Landslide had started aiming for his leg as well, clearly trying to render him completely immobile. Ed didn't think it was broken yet, but it was starting to hurt like all hell to put his weight on it, and he found himself cringing with every rock that smashed into it in preparation to hear the gentle crunch of bone breaking.
He cursed under his breath, bringing his metal arm turned shield up to block a few rocks tossed his way. Ordinarily, this fight would be a breeze! Schmidit was clearly very limited here; his specialty was earth alchemy, and while they were surrounded by the stuff, he had to be very careful, or he could set off a landslide and the cliffside would be crushed. No one would be more aware of such dangers than the Landslide Alchemist, and, thank god, he'd been appropriately careful in every single move he'd done thus far.
Ed was not limited in such a way, however, with his specialty being close combat. Ordinarily, he would've destroyed Schmidit. De-stroyed.
As of now, his only attempt at a plan was a desperate scramble back towards the metal of the first and second train cars. Get him some metal, get him his specialty, get him something he could really work with, and he'd at least be able to stand a chance.
His only saving grace was at least that Mustang, while present, wasn't able to see the beatdown.
"Maybe you should've just stayed put under that rock I sent your way, Fullmetal!" Landslide screeched over the rumble of rocks, and Ed barely managed to duck behind the shield he'd transmuted his arm into in time. The blow hit him with what would've been a bone-bruising blow and he shook down to his spine to weather it, only just managing to keep himself on his knee.
"If this is all the fight you can put up, would've been safer for you to just stay behind and play dead!"
"You?!" Ed shouted back, just trying to stall until he could think of some sort of strategy. "You sent the landslide earlier?! Why?!" He cast another nervous look back towards the others near the third train car; they were still trying to get the injured out, and there was still no sign of Mustang or Al. Damn it, they still needed more time?!
"Damn pathetic question, Fullmetal!" Yet another rock hurtled his way, and Ed had to throw himself out of the way. He hit the ground in a roll and bounced over the yards, every additional blow pulsing through the growing cover of bruises until he couldn't stop himself from a single gasped cry of pain.
"I blew up this train! You think, when I saw those survivors, I was just going to let them walk away?! Of course I sent that landslide to finish them off! And when I take care of you, I'll go back to them!"
Yeah, good luck with that plan, psycho... Groaning, Ed managed to push himself up onto his sore knee again, nearby rubble morphing into another crutch as he jerked up his metal shield. He just needed to backpedal a little further- damn it, just a little closer-!
"Why go after this train at all?! They're all civilians! Attack the military if you've got a problem with us! Don't go after innocent people, Landslide!"
Another few rocks; another few hobbled steps backwards. The attacks were more violent than before, and Ed grimaced; he could tell the alchemist was beginning to lose his grip on his control. Ordinarily, a good thing in a fight- but if Landslide went too far, he could set off an avalanche that would bury them all.
"Military goes after the innocent all the time, my friend! Ever hear of Ishval?! Course you have, who hasn't- but you probably haven't heard of the unit that was left behind for slaughter just to try and lure out more Ishvalans to kill! News flash, kid- it was mine!"
Ed felt his heel run into the beginning of the wreckage, and he hid a grin. Perfect timing.
"Oh- got it, then! So your unit was killed- and you go after the innocent and uninvolved instead of targeting the one who issued the order. Comprende, Landslide!"
And now, Ed had metal to work with.
Really, it was going to be very simple, what he needed to do. After all, the only reason he was losing was that his leg was gone. Ordinarily in this situation, Ed would postpone and stall to wait for Al rather than go with such drastic measures- but this time, Al wasn't coming.
This time, postponing and stalling could get Mustang killed.
He had no choice, and it was the thought of Mustang suffocating that got him down on his knee, smacked his hands together, and then touched them to the metal of the train car.
One leg or no leg, damn it, I'm not about to sit by and watch as that bastard dies.
Gritting his teeth, Roy gingerly passed off the last of the injured to the civilian outside, shuddered through a gasp, then reluctantly lowered his arm and took a step back into the tunnel. With his ribs the way they were, lifting his arm high enough to get pulled out himself had already been shown to be an impossibility; he was just going to have to wait in the tunnel, where at least he could get fresh air, until military backup arrived that would be able to help him to safety.
Never mind that just waiting in this situation was absolutely insufferable.
"How is Ed- the Fullmetal Alchemist doing?" he coughed to the nearest civilian, the hoarse, gravelly nature forced into his voice by the smoke hiding the worry he was too strained to disguise.
The man glanced back down at him nervously, biting his lip. "Er..."
That right there, that was another problem with working with civilians instead of the military. An officer would've already given him a status report. "The kid!" he snarled. "The kid who told you all to help me!"
"Oh, Edward!" His face brightened then but only for a split second before the civilian turned back, clearly looking towards Ed's ongoing fight, and he bit his lip again. "Edward's...he's fighting another alchemist, Colonel Mustang. I guess he's an alchemist; he's throwing earth around like magic..."
Another alchemist.
Ed, missing his leg, was fighting another alchemist.
The second part of what the civilian had said barely registered through the sick sense of horror, but when it did, Roy found himself feeling even worse than before.
An alchemist that worked with earth.
An alchemist that worked with earth, surely further destabilizing the already unstable cliff, and... he was currently standing in an underground tunnel.
That was a recipe for disaster.
"Al!" he shouted, scrambling back as fast as he could to the other alchemist and reaching his arm up as high as his ribs would allow. "Al, bad news! I've got to get-"
The burst of a bloodcurdling, terrifying scream of agony left the end of that sentence dead before it had even reached his mouth, and his heart stopped.
Al met his gaze in shared terror, Roy's eyes widened, and together, they whispered the name they were both terrified for.
"Ed."
Automail was a very complicated, very difficult thing to make, on the inside and out.
Externally alone, Winry and Pinako's design was so intricate, Ed could stare at it for hours. His specialty was metal alchemy, after all, and their work was so good he could always find new, previously unseen details no matter how long he stared. Internally, functionally, he knew he never stood a chance. It had taken Winry years of study and practice, her entire life, to be able to create it. He just had never focused his talents or efforts on it. It would be like Winry trying a soul transmutation; it just wasn't going to happen.
However, he wasn't looking to rival Winry and Pinako's automail business.
He was just trying to transmute something that would work.
And by the way his leg hurt like fire when the nerves began to connect, he knew, it would work.
Groaning with the agony of it, Ed alternated between connecting the most important nerves and blocking the hurtled rocks aimed for his head. Landslide was advancing faster now, had clearly seen the new leg taking form and was trying to slow him down even as the enemy started to sprint across the cliffside separating them, but Ed had no way to stop him. He could hardly attack from this position, and if he tried to move to get out of the way now he could kill the nerves he was working with; end up removing some of the functionality automail had returned to him and potentially paralyzing his flesh leg whenever it was returned to him.
All he could do was watch Landslide come at him and race to get the nerves connected in time- and robbed of any anesthetic, time to prepare himself, or the calm, reassuring feel of Winry promising him it'd be over soon, he screamed with every electrical shock of nerve wiring in to metal conduit.
But whether it was that he was working too slowly, or Landslide approaching too quickly, or some dammed ridiculously unfair combination of both, with every second that passed a slow, steady sense of fear rose until he could barely even breathe.
I'm not going to make it in time...
The nth time Ed screamed, Roy burned his hands curling them around a blisteringly hot sheet of metal and tearing it aside. He barely felt the pain, desperation carrying him to a place beyond physical agony, and he just continued to dig through the wreckage.
All he knew, all he could feel, all he could think, was that Ed was in danger. Ed was out there, he was alone, he was hurt, and unless he could do something and do it now, he could die.
The first scream had gotten him terrified; the second scream, out of the tunnel to try and carve a line of sight out in the flaming ruins; every one after that made his heart skip yet another beat and forced him to work even faster. His panicked breaths screeched in his ears and chest screamed with the effort of both breath and physical exertion. Damn it, the kid was out there, alone, he'd defied orders and was risking his life out there, stubborn absolute brat that he was, but unless he could get to him Ed would wind up dead on the ground.
Because of him.
Roy cried out in frustrated agony, tearing his way through another sheet of rubble in a desperate scramble to reach sunlight. All he needed was to see him- all he needed was a line of sight- even with the rest of him still trapped it would be enough, just a single snap- that was all he needed but god he needed it now. "Hang on, Fullmetal, just hang on!" he gasped, ripping his way through another sheet of scorching hot metal again. The burns were nothing to him; he'd endured far worse at the hands of his own master, and with every hiss of heat against skin he just took a breath and kept on going.
God damn his wounded shoulder, god damn his ribs, god damn it all! If he could just be pulled out the other side of the tunnel- but, no! Fighting desperately, still trapped within the train, was simply the only option he and Al had, the boy sharing his task from behind and working even faster than him through sheer terror. He was scrawling transmutation circles so fast Roy couldn't even process the symbols before another rock or sheet of metal in his path had dissolved but no matter how desperately and frantically they worked, there was always another obstacle in their way.
"Come on!" he shouted, shoulders trembling with the agony of it now and terror making his heart race. This was pathetic! Ed was out there fighting, and all he could fucking do to help was scratch and crawl in here like a blinded animal?!
I refuse! I REFUSE! No!
Ed, I won't let you fight this alone, damn it!
Just hang on!
"Just hang on, Ed! Hang on!"
And then- precious sunlight.
Barely even a trickle, the gap he'd carved out in the wreckage perhaps a few inches in diameter, maybe not even that- but it was enough.
Enough for him to see.
Enough for him to snap.
"I've got it, Al, stop!" he gasped, already throwing himself after their success and squinting. The light blinded him and he blinked furiously, hands already fumbling for his gloves while he struggled to stare against the white glare, searching for Ed, searching for the enemy, searching for something, anything-
Bit by bit, the glare faded, the stinging pain remaining in his eyes but his vision restored at least enough that he could find his subordinate.
What he saw made his heart stop.
Ed was on the ground, and the enemy was walking towards him.
Ed was on the ground, and by the way he was curled in agony, clutching at his leg, he wasn't about to get up any time soon.
And the enemy was coming for him.
Roy didn't even stop to think.
Master, forgive me-
Hand rose, fingers clenched, and aim was taken.
-but I am going to break your most important lesson.
Eyes shut.
I am going to start a fire now that I can't control.
Deep breath.
But this fire will only leave me at risk-
"Al, brace yourself!"
-so forgive me, Master-
Snap.
but I must save him!
Boom.
