Thank you for reviewing! Short chapter here again, but next one is the last one (unless I split the finale into two parts, because it's looking to be a very long chapter). The final scene is still under construction as well, so I'm not sure when the next update will come, but it should hopefully not be too long. Hope you enjoy!


"Roy!"

"Colonel!"

"Mustang! Bastard! Answer us!"

"ROY!"

Ed howled the colonel's name against the fire, but it was all in vain. Mustang hadn't stopped screaming to answer them, constantly screeching in a hearstopping wail of agony. It was the sound of torture, and from the fire still surrounding them, Ed didn't have to guess at what had left him in such pan.

Whatever had happened to him, though, it was clear that while the colonel was still awake, he was in too much pain to truly be aware. He couldn't speak to them like this. If he could even hear them at all over the fire, he wouldn't be able to comprehend what they were saying.

That didn't stop him from trying.

"God damn it, Mustang! Al! Someone, answer us!"

"Ed, it's no use!" Hughes shouted at him over the fire, standing back to wipe his face and cough from the smoke. "Roy's not talking, and I doubt Al can even hear us over the fire and Roy! We've got to start finding a way to put this fire out!"

"There's not one!" Ed turned desperately, looking towards the tunnel they had made before, but it was simply no use. In the explosion Mustang had set off earlier, the already unstable ground had caved in. The first tunnel was clearly impassable, and creating a second would be far too risky. He squinted back at the fire, his mind racing. "Is there any more backup coming?!"

It was Hawkeye who answered him this time, still pacing frantically around the blaze to find a way in. "Yes! We came on our own and beat them here- the official teams the military sent out as backup should be here in half an hour!"

"Damn it, that's too much time!"

Torn, Ed hobbled a step back. This was entirely up to him. Hughes and Hawkeye, while brilliant and resourceful in their own rights, were not alchemists. He was the only one here who could put an end to this fire- but he had never once studied flame or water alchemy. It just wasn't possible-

Ed only a few seconds away from absolute despair, Mustang picked the perfect time to stop screaming.

They all jolted at the sudden silence, staring at the fire. He'd broken for air before but always jumped right back in, but this time- there was nothing.

No more Mustang screaming.

Nothing at all, now.

"...Colonel Mustang?!"

"Roy! If you can hear us, say something!"

"MUSTANG!"

"Brother?!"

Ed gasped, moving forward as fast as possible. Thank god. "Al?! Al, is that you?!"

"Yes! Brother, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine! What about you?! And what's with Mustang?!"

An uncertain pause, and then Al shouted back another reply; Ed could hear the worry and concern in his voice rising with each word he spoke. "I'm fine, but Colonel Mustang- he's... it's really, really bad, Brother! I don't know how much longer he's going to make it! He's dying, Brother!"

His heart jolted like he'd just been shocked.

"Wha... what?!"

"What's wrong with him?!"

"Is he awake?! Roy!"

Once again, it took Al a few moments to reply, clearly trying to ascertain the situation for himself. "He's awake still, but I don't think he's aware of anything, and he's hyperventilating! I can't get him to stop- I think it's the air, Brother! I think he just can't breathe anymore! And his arms- he's already been burned really badly! Brother, you have to hurry!"

Ed swore, covering his mouth with his hand. Of course. He'd already known that at some point the air was going to get too thick with smoke for Mustang to keep breathing- but now of all times-

"Brother! His lips are turning blue!"

Shit, shit shit shit, what do I do, what the hell do I do, Mustang- shitfuck- MUSTANG-

"Brother, we can't wait anymore! We've got to get him out!"

"How?!" Because god bless Al if he had an idea, Ed sure didn't...

"There's no one else in the train car except us now! It doesn't matter if we trigger a collapse anymore if we can get him out!"

Ed gasped, staring at the fire in horror. "It'll collapse on you, Al! No!"

"But I'll be fine, Brother! Don't argue with me- I'm already getting him to you! He's not breathing! You need to get him out of here!"

"But-!" Ed swore again, fists clenching. Al was right, damn it. Fire? Nothing to him. The wreckage collapsing around him? Again, absolutely nothing to him. And by the sound of it Mustang was still trying to breathe, he just couldn't, which meant if they could just get him out into fresh air, everything would be fine.

The fact that getting him out here required trapping Al under the burning remains of a train car, besides making him mad enough to scream, was simply irrelevant.

Cursing again, Ed hobbled after the sounds of his brother, glancing once over his shoulder at where Hughes and Hawkeye stood, both clearly stunned and horrified. "You two better be ready to help Mustang. I'm going after Al the second he's out here!"

They both started, then nodded once, not even trying to protest, and with that Ed limped as close as he could to the fire and leaned forward, listening for his brother as hard as he could.

"Brother, this is the best place! There's just this one sheet of metal in the way!"

"Got it!" He touched his hands together, already breathing hard in the smoke and fighting the urge to cough. "I'll take it out, you try and brace it up. I'll stick my hand in there, you give the colonel to me, and I'll get out as fast as possible, okay?"

"Got it!"

There was no more time for preparation, mental or physical. No more time to think of any other plan, no more time to worry, no more time to even just breathe. Every single second they stood there, Mustang couldn't breathe. They had to go now, or in just a few minutes, possibly even less, there would be no point at all.

Ed stuck his hands to the metal, carving a hole large enough to drag a human body out of it, then dove his metal limb as far into the fire as it could go and waited.

The moment something hit his grip, he curled his hand into a fist and pulled.

First a leg, clad in military blue that was stained with blood and ash, and then the moment he could he grabbed for Mustang's thigh instead of his ankle and yanked again, working his other leg out of the hole. The colonel wasn't moving at all now, either to resist him or help him, and Ed gritted his teeth, hauling again on the unconscious body. His torso, when it finally emerged, was so covered in blood it was nauseating, but Ed continued to pull, dislodging the metal sheet an inch more with every bit the colonel was yanked out of the train car.

When the first arm was freed, Ed was so horrified he almost dropped the bastard's leg and forgot to keep on pulling.

The skin had been burned off.

Sleeve surely nothing but ash by now, his whole arm was bared, and while Ed might have expected a few injuries, what he saw now tore its way straight through his stomach of iron and lodged itself right under the sight of his own leg being torn off as the second goriest thing he had seen in his life.

His skin... was gone...

Blood leaked in obscene amounts, trailing freely down exposed tissue and tendons in a red so dark it was almost black. The little skin that remained existed in a frail patchwork; from wrist to shoulder, little island remnants of scorched pale flesh were entirely circled by scarlet muscle tissue and onyx lines of blood, fire having bit down all the way to the bone.

Hot acid abruptly rose in his throat, and Ed jerked around to throw up on the ground.

Mustang.

Mustang.

I did this to him... he blew up the train car for me, and now he's... oh my god, his arm...

Mustang's howls of agony rang in his ears again, now that he knew what had caused them the sound even more horrible to bear now than before, and another wave of nausea brought him to his knees.

With a jolt, he realized just what that thick, cloying smell permeating the air was, and he wanted to scream.

The smell of burning flesh.

He could smell Mustang burning.

"Ed!"

"Edward!"

The sound of hurried footsteps behind him made him jump, and Ed whirled shakily back around just as Hughes and Hawkeye joined him from behind. He heard himself mumble something, some sort of assurance that he was okay, but he could see nothing but Mustang's ruined arm flopping outside of the wreck, unspeakably limp, even when he just grabbed onto the bastard's leg again and heaved.

Hughes and Hawkeye pulled with him, and with their combined efforts, they jerked Mustang out an extra foot and freed his head.

For the second time in as many minutes, Ed was nearly floored with shock.

White as a sheet, cheeks streaked with faded and smeared black lines of ash, hair a mess of actual glowing sparks dotted through the hanging black strands, head lolling exhaustedly on one shoulder, and from the limp and injured state of the rest of his body, Ed had just assumed the colonel was out of it.

He wasn't.

His eyes were wide open with absolute, red-rimmed panic, his neck was straining, and his cheeks and lips were blue.

"Colonel!"

"Roy! Roy! Oh my god-"

His eyes started to flutter closed- panic never once leaving him- the look of choking on lack of air never once departing-

"Damn it, bastard, breathe! Breathe!" Ed grabbed at the colonel by the collar and pulled his face up until barely inches separated them, shaking him as hard as he dared. "Breathe, Mustang! Don't you dare pass out now! Breathe!"

One choked non-breath- then another, sheer terror burning in black eyes, and then-

he breathed.

The first gasp was more of a frantic wheeze, but Mustang's eyes shocked back open at the taste of air and he breathed again, more deeply this time, and he kept on going, gasping like a fish on land. The blue of hypoxia began to fade, fear started to drain from his eyes, and then his stare locked with Ed's.

He held it there, Ed scarcely able to breathe, and Mustang's eyes hazy and blank of all comprehension and recognition, until the colonel's head lolled backwards, his eyes rolled back, and the man passed out.

This time, Hughes and Hawkeye didn't even bother to drag him out of his shock. The investigator went for the Mustang's limp hand, the trusty lieutenant to grab him around the waist, and with one final heave, the colonel was freed, and the three were sent tumbling backwards in a heap.

Unfortunately, the force they'd had to use in freeing Mustang was also simply the last blow the devastatingly unstable wreckage could take, and with that, it began to crumble in the collapse they'd spent this entire time trying to prevent.

The last thing he saw was Al's soulfire eyes, just watching him, before the downfall of ash and metal tumbled between them.

"AL!"

"BROTHER!"