A/N: Own I do not

Eckheart's finger curled around the trigger, Alfons could almost see it clench. The sharp crack split the air, cutting through Alfons like he was the one in the path of the bullet. But no, it was not meant for him, that would be too merciful. They would kill the one thing more precious than his life, more vital than every blood-laced breath. Maybe, in a later hour, a bullet would end his life too -the way things were going, it seemed likely. His own life meant nothing - it was ending in any case. They wouldn't even need a bullet to kill him.

Edward pitched forward. He was too close to the edge. He seemed to fall with a grace to slow for gravity. Then it was over he crashed in the crates that had been unloaded only hours before. Wooden boxes tumbled around him, shrouding his body in angles and edges. Eckheart stalked away, and the doors clanged closed behind her. No guards rushed to the scene. They were confident that Edward was dead. No, that couldn't happen, it shouldn't happen. Alfons started to call out, but the words were smothered, a massive hand covering his mouth from behind.

"Don't scream. Dorochét and Jean are already getting him."

Roa looked down at the young man, looming over him. The ox of a man removed his hand from Alfons' mouth. Lowering his gaze he saw the blood covering his palm then from the mouth of the boy. His own wide mouth pinched in mirrored pain. Of course they had known. Secretly, silently. Alfons had tried to hide it but the had all heard the muffled coughing and seen the pale clammy skin.

"For how long?" His normally gruff voice turned to gravel.

"Just over half a year" Alfons smiled grimly "No 'why didn't you tell us, Alfons'?"

"I know well enough."

Alfonse looked away.

The hunched figures of the two men shuffled into sight, with a third smaller one slung limp between them. At a nod from Roa they clambered up on the platform and gently settled the boy in to the first seat. Nobody spoke. Nobody had too. It seemed rehearsed and wooden. Alfons' brain was full of broken cogs. Someone had closed Edward's eyes. His face was deathly white, blood blossomed from his chest seeping through the fabric, making it stiff and dark, so much blood, he couldn't possibly be…

Roa clapped him on the shoulder with the bloody hand and pushed him toward the rocket. "Get in."

"What? No! I can't -"

Taking Alfons' narrow chin in his huge hands, Roa forced the boy to meet his eyes, through a sheen of hysterical tears. "Why not?"

Alfons was shivering. Why should he? Ed was dead. Nothing mattered.

He'd spoken aloud. "Ed's not dead."

"Not...dead?" Alfons looked up with unfocused eyes, his world reeling off its axis and back on.

"Naw. He's tougher than that. Took the bullet in his shoulder."

"Really?"

"See for yourself." Roa pulled him around the nose of the rocket to stand beside the little passenger pit. Ed's body was slumped over the controls. He looked dead, skin pasty pale, the brown of his jacket stained a deeper lurid carmine.

"Not dead?" he repeated, voice sounding hollow and distant to his own ears.

"Hardly. Here." Roa took his hand and held it out in front of Ed's face. Sure enough, Alfons could feel the faintest warmth and tingle on his palm as Ed breathed shallowly.

"Are you going to send him home?" Alfons' voice trembled.

"Yeah. And you're going with him."

"Me? But I can't. Not to his world!"

"Hey, someone needs to look after him!"

Hope fluttered under his ribcage, but almost instantly became the urge to cough, and Alfons turned away, hacking. "I'm sick," he whispered, into his blood-splattered hand. "I'm dying. I can't look after him."

Roa rocked on his heels and looked upward.

"Him and his blasted stories. But I'm not drunk, and this goddamned glowing hole isn't a dream, and maybe, maybe mind you! Maybe there is such a thing as the magic he spoke of. It might cure you."

Still Alfons hesitated.

Roa sighed. "Look at it this way. You're going to die." Alfons didn't even flinch. "Might as well die on a gamble as on a fold. Am I right?" his gaze softened. "We've all seen how you look at him. Don't pretend you could live without him. Don't pretend you could let him go."

Alfons took a shaky breath. "Ok. Ok you're right."

"That's my boy. Get in." Roa's strong arms were under his, practically lifting his weak, shivering form into the cockpit, cramming his limbs in beside Edwards. Edward made a little noise and shifted some. Al immediately leaned in to rub his back and murmur soothing words in German, and the blond boy stilled again.

Looking out at the man, Alfons found his throat choked with something that wasn't blood or pain for once.

"Roa... I... thank you."

Roa wiped a hand suspiciously across his eyes and nodded. "Don't mention it kid. Just make it worth it, and start a new life with Ed. for the rest of us." His hand came to rest on the launch lever "Don't worry Alfons Hiedrich, we won't let history forget you. I wish you luck."

"Say goodbye… to everybody for me"

The large man smiled, cheeks glistening with tears. "Godspeed" he whispered pulling back on the lever.

There was a roar like thunder in a bottle, and Alfons found himself pressed forcefully back in his seat with Ed's weight against him the only reassurance as the world exploded in color and light.

A/N: It's short it's late and I have no excuses besides the fact that I've been channeling Bones making flashbacks rather difficult. You can thank Ms. C for the majority of this chapter she wrote a lot of it and as always edited it. If you like the change, have questions about the names I completely guessed or at the chapter in general at let us know, we are only the writers in this venture. If you have complaints we will accept them if they are in limerick form only
-Elliot