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Chapter V

Ed studied his magic books while his younger brother was getting his breakfast. He wished that Al could have enjoyed the same privileges he did, but how could they let that happen without endangering Al?

But since Ed's brother was in danger, he might as well review everything he could that was related to the draining charms Al had been crucial in discovering. He knew he had to hurry up and win the war with all that was at stake now. Teasing out the details of Father's plan would be more possible with the clue Al had given them, and that would be crucial to winning.

In a tome whose thick cover was inlaid with gold, Ed found a better description of Father's draining charm: it short-circuited the belief being given off by the soul by amplifying even the slightest bit of doubt coming from the mind.

"Of course – since Father isn't powerful enough capture someone's soul instead of just their belief in his own magic, using their doubts against me is the next best thing." Ed frowned. Father hadn't been powerful enough in the past to skip past the belief that fuels magic and go straight to the source of the belief in the past, but he'd been doing what he could over the years to gain that power. He had to be getting close to powerful enough to capture souls...

A knock came on Ed's chamber doors. "Prince Edward? Are you awake? I've brought your breakfast."

It was Al, playing the part of the servant again.

Ed slipped a ribbon in his book and placed it on the bookshelf. He crossed the floorboards and opened the door for his younger brother.

He rushed Al into his chambers and closed the door.

"Brother?"

"Have you eaten? Hurry up and eat." Ed forgot his table manners as he scarfed down his toast and jam, washing it down with the goblet Al had brought with the meal. He didn't even bother to wash up with water and rag on his tray.

Al watched with his lips parted for a moment as though still surprised to see his brother acting outside his image of how a prince should act.

"Did you eat? Make sure you've eaten a light breakfast. We're going to spar in here before I go off to training and Mustang comes for your reading lesson."

"Yeah, I ate."

"Good." Ed gave his brother no further warning before he lunged at him.

If Al was caught off-guard, he was good at compensating for it. Al stepped to the side and got Ed with a blow of his own.

The two of them went at it for a few minutes before Ed ended up on the ground, Al pinning him to the floor with one hand and holding an imaginary blade to his throat with the other. "If this were real combat, this is when I'd incapacitate you."

The older prince grinned. "You're good. I shouldn't worry about you against any normal opponent."

Both boys quickly wiped themselves off with the cold water from Ed's breakfast tray before Al started helping his brother with his armor. When Ed left for training, he was much more able to focus on the battles that were bound to come up soon, mind as clear as the crisp blue winter sky and giving him as much hope as the warming air signifying the coming spring.

The new routine continued for a couple of weeks and Al never told his brother about the brief talks he and Selim Bradley would sometimes have. More than ever, Al was glad he'd come – if he could beat his brother at sparring every morning, then perhaps there was something useful he could do at Central Castle after all.

Al could be the warrior for the both of them, and Ed could be the sorcerer. Well, provided they could fix the problem of Ed's subjects' belief supporting his magic less and less. Even Al doubted that his brother's magic was actually strong enough to protect either of them at the present.

One morning toward the beginning of spring, Al was taking his brother's laundry to be washed. The skies were dark and overcast, and the young prince could smell the rain that was putting some chill back into the air. He shivered a bit from the air drifting inside.

With the skies a dark gray, it was darker than usual at this time in the morning, and Al could have sworn he'd just seen a shadow move out of the corner of his eye. He adjusted his grip on the laundry basket in his arms, ready to throw it if he needed to, and moved his eyes left to get a better look at whatever he'd seen.

There were shadows on the wall. Al would have liked them to be just normal shadows, but there were thicker strands of them, as though they were somehow solid. In one of the strands, a red eye opened up; in the strand below it, a sharp white grin was flashed by a mouth.

Al threw the basket at the shadows and ran down the hallway, but the shadows just zoomed ahead of him, surrounding him. He was totally unarmed. Al could either use his feet and fists to try to fend off something he may not be able to physically affect anyways, or he could try to use sorcery.

What was that spell his brother had taught him? He'd been practicing, but the spell slipped his mind now that he needed it.

Al dodged an incoming tendril of shadow, rolling to the side as it made contact with the floor behind where he stood and pulled up a chunk of the floor as though it were a dog tearing through a chunk of meat. He ducked another incoming assault.

He really wished he had a torch or something about now. Maybe the light could get rid of the living shadows.

Al clapped his hands together and tried to visualize an angelic Sig Curtis coming to protect him. A wisp of cloud appeared, but that was about it.

"Foolish mortal," said a high male voice. "Who do you think can protect you here?"

"My brother taught me the spell. He wanted me to be safe." Al's hands now drew to the pouch in which he'd always kept his charms. He felt the softness of the fabric charm inside his pouch. He knew it was from his brother, but it felt like rather flimsy protection to him. His brother's protection couldn't even save that little girl.

More tendrils shot out at Al. He managed to dodge the first one as easily as one of his mother's flying knives, but the rest, coming at him simultaneously from different directions, made it impossible for him to dodge everything. Shadows wrapped around each of his limbs, ensnaring him in a web of shadows.

Then a boy with the shadows coming from his form stepped out into the open. It was Selim. "Your brother can't protect you. He's too weak." He smirked evilly. "We've got plans for you."

That same morning, Ed was training outside with half a dozen of his knights, each coated in mud from the lower calf down. The barometric pressure was building and the fighters were already covered in sweat, but as long as the weather was safe enough, they'd continue to train.

The fighters were doing drills that day, spot checking various thrusts and lunges with their swords.

Ed felt a hand tapping his shoulder and spun around, pointing his weapon at Mustang's chest.

"You," said Ed, relaxing a bit, "you should know better than to startle me."

Mustang was breathing heavily. "It's urgent – the kingdom's in danger and your brother's gone."

"What?" He grabbed Mustang's arm. "Tell me what's going on."

"I caught Father's advisers going to his summons, so I decided to listen in."

Ed listened carefully as Mustang told him what he'd learned. Al had been captured – Mustang didn't have the details, but Father was confidently telling the otherworldly beings that he had a soul in the Gate between realms, that he was about to surpass the Hohenheims in magic.

Ed stopped listening to Mustang as he said that he'd seen Father start to impersonate Ed without first capturing the crown prince, too focused on what the knight had already said. "He's got Al?"

"Edward, I'm sorry."

Ed loudly compared Father to something particularly unpleasant. "Start the offensive. I'm going after my brother."

He ran off before Mustang could stop him. He heard the knight's footsteps chasing after him, as well as the knight's warning: "No one ever comes back from being trapped in the Gate itself – your brother's entirely in Father's power. There's nothing you can do!"

Ed heard the knight's unspoken concern just as loud and clear – if he went to the Gate, the knight didn't think he could come back either. The young prince ignored Mustang, running through the damp stone hallways and up the winding staircases until he'd reached his chambers.

He promptly sealed the door with something strong and ran over to his books. This, he was sure, would be the biggest bit of sorcery he would ever have to do, and he could not afford to have anyone with him to interrupt him.

"Dad, I'm sorry. Wish me luck."

Closing his eyes, Ed focused deep within himself and found the Gate. He slowly pulled the Gate open, and it hurt. A lot. He had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep his concentration as tears formed from the pain. "I have come... to sacrifice myself..."

He faded from the world around him and entered a new place of spotless white, where there was only a Gate.

"I've come to trade myself for my brother. You'd rather have a true sorcerer like me than one like Al, wouldn't you?"

There was no response from the Gate, so Ed tried the handle. It opened, but Ed had to brace himself against the white expanse pretending to be a floor to keep it open. Inside the Gate, was a truly repulsive black mass, but Ed could just make out his brother's shape encompassed in it. "Alphonse!"

Al's shape turned its head toward him. "Brother?"

Ed reached his hand toward his younger brother. "Al, I can get you out of here, but you've got to trust me. Do you trust me?"

"I've been trying to, but I don't know if I can. That monster kid's been saying things..."

"I know, Al, I know. You've only got to trust me enough to take my hand." Ed reached his hand out as far as he could while Al fought against the black gunk that held him in. Inches at a time, Al reached out and took Ed's hand. The two of them switched places.

The tar-like stuff was much worse than touching Al's draining charm. Ed wouldn't have even known if anything had happened to his supply of magic due to the searing pain that stabbed into his soul itself. Every painful memory of life came to the surface of his mind – learning the fate of his family as a child, seeing tears leave Winry's blue eyes and stream down her face, hearing Al's tone as he begged to stay at the castle...

But all Ed's recent worries about his brother were there as well. That was right – he'd come to offer himself for Al. He was possibly the first person to put himself in the Gate, but because he'd put himself there, and not Father, Ed was the one with the power.

"Brother, now you're stuck in there."Ed didn't see how the Gate was being kept open enough for his brother to talk to him, but he didn't think he'd heard it shut either.

Ed fought against the burning tar-like stuff that now covered his whole body to raise his shoulders. "I knew this would happen – I took it upon myself willingly. You've got to go back, Al. It's up to you to save Amestris."

"How?"

Ed twisted his neck the direction his brother's voice was coming from. "Use your fighting skills. Use the gifts I gave you – magic and resolve. Tell Mustang to seal Father and the others in here."

Ed could practically hear the tears in Al's voice. "But what about you?"

"I've got an idea of how to get out of here, but it had to be me. Go help Mustang."

Al sniffed. "I'll see you again, won't I?"

"Yes, Al. I guarantee it."

Ed heard the Gate close firmly shut. He did have a plan, really.

Al ran to find Mustang, but he didn't have to search far. All he had to do was unseal and open the door of his brother's chambers.

"Alphonse!"

For the first time in his life, Al saw Mustang off-guard. The knight's eyes were widened and his mouth open just long enough to be noticed.

"Sir Mustang?"

The knight regained most of his composure, still looking Alphonse over as though he were unsure it was really the youngest prince. "Where's your brother?"

"The Gate has him."

Mustang nodded. "That makes sense." He took his eyes off Al and gazed toward the rough stone wall instead, gaining a calculating expression.

Al didn't bother trying to conceal the liquid pooling in his eyes as he looked up at the dark-eyed knight. "He said to seal Father and the others inside the Gate, but he said he'd get out somehow, but he didn't say anything about how."

"Do you trust your brother?"

Al reached around his neck and pulled his pouch out from around his neck. "Yes. He rescued me. He tried to keep me safe – he gave me a protective charm. But I don't see how he can get himself out of the Gate if his protective charms don't even work."

Mustang held out a gloved hand. "May I?"

Al handed Mustang his pouch. Mustang opened it up and pulled out the piece of Ed's silky blanket on which something was written in a dark red ink. He turned the writing around to face Al. "I think you're far enough along that you can try to read."

"Protekte ackording to belieff," Al sounded out. "Protect according to belief?"

"It's like we talked about while we were visiting your dad – magic is fueled by belief. Father's been attacking people's belief in your brother's magic. I wouldn't be surprised if that included yours."

Al's eyes widened. "That monster kid – that's why he kept talking to me before he came to capture me."

Mustang put the charm back in Al's purse and put the purse back around Al's neck. "It should still work if you believe your brother will protect you. And he always will – just like he's done before. But now, you and I have some work to do. Your brother gave the order to start the fighting, but we must first rally our troops. The whole populace must choose a side, and I need you to spread the word of what your brother's done for you. Tell them that he's the first person to ever succeed in rescuing someone from the Gate - and he is - and that he has the power to break free himself. Tell them he'll save them."

Al looked at Mustang. "No one's ever rescued someone from the Gate before?"

"Your brother's brilliant and has enough belief in himself to retain some magic without others' help. If anyone was going to be capable of a rescue, it would be him. But now that we know he is, do you still think we'll lose?"

"But he's gone."

Mustang smirked. "Is he? You've still got access to his powers, right?"

Al looked at the door. "It was easier to unseal than before."

"That stupid kid put himself right in the best position to help us with his magic. We'll just have to trust him to be able to get himself back when this is all over."

"He said to seal Father and his advisers in the Gate. He said it's up to us to save Amestris." Al clenched his trembling fists. Was his brother this afraid when he was the one burdened with taking the counntry back? When he was handing himself over to the Gate?

Yes, he had to be. If his older brother was brave, then Al would be brave too. He reached inside himself and reached for the special gift his brother had given him. It was time to claim his extra resolve – no more relying mostly on mere physical reminders of why he was there, like the wooden charm that had ended up sapping away at his brother's magic.

"Get me a horse. I need to gather the people to our side immediately."