Kay… I actually just finished chap 23. As in I just saved it and started a new doc two seconds ago. I was thinking of releasing the last three chapters together just for kicks. And to give you folks a lot of reading material for summer. Heh heh heh. Wait… I think I forgot to name the last chapter… Hmm… that wouldn't be good, would it? I'm going to go check on that…
As you all know, AdventureAddict does not in any way own any part of Fullmetal Alchemist.
On wit' da show!
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Chapter Twenty-Four – We'll Always Remember
Dead.
How could she be dead? It wasn't right. This wasn't supposed to end with an empty coffin! That stupid disease made it so that Ed couldn't even see Robyn's face when he was supposed to be saying 'goodbye' to her. Everything that had once been Robyn was gone. She didn't even get the dignity of a peaceful death. Ed had been there, he had seen it, and he knew.
It was painful.
How many times had he sat there, wishing he could do something to help? Ed looked up at the people that were at Robyn's wake as he fingered two vials in the pocket of his hoodie. Once this was done, he and Al would go back home. He was barely making it through the wake, he didn't know if he'd be able to survive the funeral the next day.
There was Robyn's dad in one corner, surrounded by a circle of relatives and bawling his eyes out as if the country needed a second Niagara Falls. Ed actually felt a little sorry for the man. He looked as if someone had snapped him in two.
And there was Kari, who was over by her parents and also crying. She wasn't crying as much as Robyn's dad was, but she was still crying.
Ed's foster parents were there too. They hadn't known Robyn well enough to be crying over her, but they were trying to comfort her relatives.
Al had managed to get in the building, and was trying to offer as much comfort a huge suit of armor like him could.
There was Fred from anime club, her hair dyed a somber black, Emily and Stephanie, the two twins that had been at the Thanksgiving dinner, the two blonds from the yearbook committee – Ally and Courtney – turning their cell phones off and trying not to say 'Like, oh my gosh!'
There were a lot of people from the high school. Even the Chemistry teacher had come out to pay his respects. One woman had introduced herself to Ed as Robyn's kindergarten teacher.
She had a lot of nice things to say about Robyn. (1)
Ed sighed as he looked around the room. All these people seemed to have some idea of what to do, but he had no clue. He couldn't collapse in front of the coffin and start bawling, and he couldn't go around trying to make other people feel better like Al was doing.
Ed turned around and looked at the front of the room. There were so many flowers there from so many different people. The flowers that he and Al had brought looked puny compared to the large wreaths that other people had brought in. Ed slowly walked up and looked at the different arrangements people had brought.
He slowly walked down the side of the room as he looked respectfully at the different wreaths, bouquets, lilies, and all sorts of different things. And then he reached the one from him and Al. A small bouquet with a note tied around one of the flowers' stems.
We'll always remember. –Ed and AlHe had finally given Robyn the bouquet of cheesy romantic roses he had only daydreamed of getting her. And now the flowers looked so small and insignificant. Ed thought that they were a beautiful bouquet before he came here, but next to all the other flowers, he realized that his bouquet of roses was nothing.
Robyn had so many other important people in her life, what made them so special? Why had she wished so long ago that she could meet the Elric brothers? There had to be something she saw in them, there just had to be.
Ed finally reached the closed casket, and he gently placed a hand on it.
"What made me so special to you?" Ed whispered softly. "What was it about me that you liked? I just can't see it."
"Ed?" a soft voice said, and he turned around to face the person. It was Kari. "I got the pictures from before developed, and I thought you might like this one," she explained as she held out a picture to Ed. Ed glanced down at it as Kari watched him sadly.
Of course. Robyn was smiling in the picture, a baseball cap resting sideways on her head in an attempt to hide the fact that she was bald. Her arms were around Al on one side, and Ed on the other, who had actually managed to smile before he realized that Kari was taking his picture.
"Thank you," Ed said softly. Kari nodded and walked back over to the comfort of her parents arms. Ed turned back to the casket, this time felling the smooth surface of the photo between his fingers.
"Robyn," a voice murmured, and Ed turned to his left to see a boy a little older than him standing at the casket. He had dark hair that was a little tousled, but not enough to make the boy look sloppy, and as he looked at a picture of Robyn hanging above the casket, a fresh wave of tears started streaming from his eyes.
His purple eyes.
"Luke?" Ed whispered softly, and the boy turned to look at him.
"How do you know my name?" he asked suspiciously.
"I was a friend of Robyn's," Ed explained hurriedly. "But she thought you were dead!"
"I thought I was for a long time too," Luke sighed. "I somehow managed to get away from there, but I guess I was missing long enough that they thought I was dead. I eventually ended up back here. If only I could have gotten back a little sooner," he said as more tears came to his eyes. "I wish I could have just held her hand one last time before she died."
Ed wasn't sure whether this Luke was real or just a figment of his imagination, but he was left speechless either way. But then the one thing that always managed to pop into his head came into his thoughts again.
"Equivalent Exchange," Ed muttered softly, making Luke look over with a confused expression on his face. "She wished that you were still alive, but she ended up dying herself. Nothing can be gained without giving something in return." Luke tried to make sense of this for a few more seconds before he gave up and looked back up at the picture of Robyn.
"We all deal with grief in different ways," he said reassuringly as he patted Ed on the back. There was a silence between the two, not an uncomfortable silence, since they both knew that they other was dealing with a load a heavy thoughts and wanted to deal with his own heavy thoughts as well.
"I remember how every year we used to get in a fight over what to be for Halloween," Luke said suddenly.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I always wanted to be Batman and for Robyn to be Robin, since her name matched, but she always wanted to be Darth Vader and have me be Luke Skywalker because my name matched. We could never come to an agreement until I would say that I would be Robin and she would say that she'd be Luke Skywalker. It was the same routine every year."
Ed laughed slightly at the thought of an eight year old Robyn dressed up as Luke Skywalker. "She never was one for the princess costumes, was she?" Ed asked with a chuckle.
"No, she never really was," Luke said, letting himself laugh a little with Ed. Another silence passed between them before Luke turned back to Ed.
"Thanks for being there for my kid sister," he said, putting one hand on Ed's shoulder. "I don't know how I can tell from a few minutes with you, but I think that she really needed someone like you around."
"She really loved you," Ed said softly, and Luke nodded, another wave of tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.
"I know. I was lucky to be related to such a great kid."
T-H-I-S—IS—A—D-I-V-D-I-N-G—L-I-N-E
Robyn slowly opened one eye, then the other. She thought for a minute that she must be out in the snow because everything was white, but then she realized that wasn't it.
There was nothing. It was the strangest thing. She didn't know that it was possible for there to be a place were nothing existed. There wasn't even color or light, or… anything. There was only nothing, and you had to either accept it as a fact or go insane.
Then Robyn suddenly thought of something, and she whirled around as if someone had been following her. Ha! As if someone could follow you somewhere where there's only nothing.
But there was something.
"Oh crap," Robyn muttered to herself.
She stared in horror at the huge stone gate looming over her, spoiling the perfectness of Nothing. Of all the places in Fullmetal Alchemist, this was the one she had hope she'd never see. She knew what sort of things happened at the gate, and she also knew that what she knew about the gate was probably only a small portion of information. After all, anything she knew about this place she had either learned from Manga or Anime.
And then a voice interrupted the silence of Nothing.
"Hello."
Robyn could feel herself beginning to tremble, but then she realized that this was no problem. After all, it was probably just some satanic demon child that called himself The Truth. No worse than watching Chucky after a night of junk food, right?
Well, maybe not, but still.
She slowly took a few deep breaths and prepared herself to speak calmly to the satanic demon child. She would not freak out. She would remain calm and collected. And with that final thought, Robyn slowly turned around.
"Hello, Truth."
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(1) You can tell a lot about a person just by their finger painting… XD
Yeah, it's a little short. I'll post the next chapter right with it, okay? I'll get 'em all up at once to keep you happy, since I know there might be a few people who will want to kill me for killing off Robyn. Sorry! Believe me when I say that I loved her at least as much as you guys, if not more! Eeeeepp! I feel bad about it…