Chapter Three – The Price of Life Part I

"… I see. Now I understand who you are. It was always a mystery to me why a mere brat had a fearsome alias like 'Fullmetal' … but I know," Cornello said smirking at Gilbert. "Look at them, Rosé! Those two dared to do the one thing forbidden to alchemists … the unspeakable crime of Human Transmutation!"

Rosé looked shocked at the two brothers.

"They've committed the worst possible sin!" Cornello yelled.

'He made wings out of wax so he could fly … but when he got too close to the sun … to God … the max melted and he crashed to the ground,' Gilbert's words rang in Rosé's ears. Was this what he had meant?

XXX

"West! West! Hey Ludwig!" Eleven year old Gilbert called out to his ten year old brother who was in the library.

"What is it, big bruder?" Ludwig asked, turning blue eyes onto his brother who was laying a large piece of paper with a transmutation circle on the table.

"Look! We can't go wrong using this theory!" The albino said excitedly.

"No way. This is ...?"

"It is! This says how to do it! We can bring mom back from the dead!"

We never had any doubts about doing it. Our mother was so kind, the kindest person in the world … all we wanted was to see our mother's smile again.

Even if it meant breaking the Laws of Alchemy. That was the only reason we were studying Alchemy after all …

But the resurrection failed.

When it failed my bruder lost his left leg … and I had my whole body 'taken'. I lost consciousness for awhile … the next thing I saw when I opened my eyes was this armor body and a sea of blood …

"Heh, heh … sorry," Gilbert rasped, a leg stump bandaged and his left arm gripping the stump of his right arm. "All I could get for one arm was your soul …"

"Bruder, why?" Ludwig asked.

XXX

"Even after the horrible injury of losing his left leg, my older bruder exchanged his right arm for my soul … and put it in this body of armor," Ludwig said to Rosé.

"Heh …" Gilbert laughed closing his eyes, "the two of us tried to resurrect one person and this is what happened," he turned to look at Rosé, a serious look on his face. "This is what it takes to raise the dead, Rosé. Are you ready to make that sacrifice?" He yelled at the girl who looked frightened.

"Heh heh heh … and you call yourself a State Alchemist!" Cornello laughed, "Don't make me laugh!"

"Shut up!" Gilbert yelled. "You're just an unawesome third-rate hack who can't do anything without that stone!"

"I see, I see … so that's why you want the Philosopher's Stone. Good idea. If you used this you might be able to transmutate humans for real, eh?"

"Don't get the wrong idea, Baldy! The reason we want the stone is to get our original bodies back," the red eyed teen said, angrily, "besides we still don't know if it'll be able to do that."

"Father, I'll ask you again," the younger brother said, "give us the stone before you get hurt."

"Heh heh … you fools are the only ones who came too close to God and fell to earth," Cornello stated, holding his cane with both hands, "if that's the case, than this time I'll make sure to … send you to God permanently!" He yelled his cane now a gun firing rounds at the two brothers.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Cornello laughed before going, "huh?"

When the smoke cleared it showed a large block of stone with bullet wounds in it.

"Sorry," Gilbert said, "God doesn't like me very much. Even if I went he'd probably chase me away!"

"Tch!" went Cornello who turned to where Rosé was standing when Ludwig picked her up bridal style and started leaving with her. "Why you …" he fired several bullets at the two as Rosé screamed.

The bullets had no effect on the armor, only getting a barely audible "Ow, ow, ow," from Ludwig.

"West!" Gilbert yelled pointing at the door. "Let's get out of here!"

"Fools!" Cornello yelled. "The exit is rigged! Only I can open it from here!"

Gilbert than caught sight of an empty, blank wall.

"Oh, is that so?" He asked clapping his hands together and slamming them on the wall. A door appeared at that very spot.

"Whaaat?"

The Brothers than opened the door, pushing it with their shoulders.

"If there's no door, then I'll make one!" Gilbert said as he and his brother took off down the hall.

"Don't just stand there!" Cornello said, reaching the door. He spoke to his guards. "Go after them! They're Pagans who want to destroy our religion! Get them! Hurry!"

"There they are!" One yelled.

"Hey you! Stop!" Another added.

"Hey, you little runt, are you gonna take us all on empty handed?"

"Might as well give yourself up before you get hurt …"

Gilbert clapped his hands together, an innocent grin on his face.

"Huh?" went two priests.

Then the albino's face got an evil grin on his face as his metal arm turned into a blade on one side and a saw like blade on the other.

The priests yelled panicked.

"Er … um …" another priest said to other behind him as he watched his comrades' get beat up by the two. "They're strong! Don't let your guard down just because he's a kid!"

"'scuse us," Ludwig said, still holding Rosé as he kicked the priest, knocking himself out.

As they passed an open room Gilbert paused.

"What's this?"

"The broad-casting room. This is where Father Cornello delivers his sermons over the radio …" Rosé said after the younger brother had put her down.

"Oh really?" Gilbert said thinking, rubbing his chin with a gleam in his eyes.

'Uh-oh. He's got a bad idea,' Ludwig thought.

XXX

"There's a lot of noise down there today," a man with a watch said.

"Hey, what are you doing! It's way past the time when you're supposed to ring the bell!"

"The bell …"

"Huh?"

"The bell's gone!"

"Say what?"

Ludwig then walked away with the missing bell thrown over his shoulder.

XXX

"About what you were saying before," Rosé started saying as Ludwig joined her, "I can't believe you have to do all that to perform alchemy."

"I told you," the armored teen said putting down the bell. "The foundation of alchemy is the 'Equivalent Exchange.'

"To obtain something something, something of equal value must be lost. People call my bruder a genius, but the reason he's so good at it is he paid the prince … and worked so hard."

"But because you sacrificed so much, you must have been able to bring you mother …"

Ludwig looked down if he could, he would have closed his eyes.

"The thing we brought back wasn't even human any more."

Rosé looked shocked.

XXX

"Nooo! How could this happen? Big bruder, you theory was flawless!"

"Yeah … there weren't any mistakes in the theory …" Gilbert said holding up his bloodied hand. "We were the ones who made the mistake."

XXX

"We've give up on human transmutation, but my bruder still wants to get my original body back. I'd like to make my bruder's body the way it was too."

The suit of armor knelt down on the ground, drawing a transmutation circle with chalk.

"But like I said before, the risks are high … so we might end up even worse, or lose our lives. That's the way things are in this business."

Ludwig stood up and turned to Rosé.

"Rosé, that's why you can't choose this path."

To Be Continued …

Okay thank you to everyone who has read this story. I'm sorry for taking a while to get this out but I went camping over the weekend and I couldn't upload until Tuesday and I didn't have much time to write. On the good side however I've written in a notebook up to halfway through the train being hijacked chapter.

Really got nothing else to add so please read and review!