Chapter Seven "Broken Ones"

Wrath crawled to the side of the church, letting the light come in from the stain glass window down on his empty face. Everything he built himself on was all pointless, he wanted to take everything from Edward and now he was gone, he wanted to live for the mother he chose as Sloth and now she was dead. It was a painful existence, lying on a cloud slowly dwindling.

The only comfort was solitude, he had no hunger for what he could not have any more; unable to administer the wrath of his anger and impulsiveness.

"Edward?" Wrath squinted, looking to the end of the hallway where the voice came from.

Edward's Teacher stood there solemnly with her eyes focused straight as an arrow. In all her life few things made her cool-personality break under pressure. Her dreaded locks of black hair spiked out a little like she had slept on it wrong the last night.

Wrath lowered his eyes, filled with contempt for this woman. While she had treated Ed and Al like sons, he was nothing like either of them. He was a mistake she was going to correct and Edward offered to do for her once before. As far as he was concerned it might have been better if she never found him before his complete transformation.

She saw him now, leaning against the glass as the sun set in the outside world. Her expression did not chance but her lip did slightly dwindle, like she was considering what to say before Wrath spoke out first. "What? Looking for the Alchemist? He's dead; another one like us emerged instead."

Wrath sneered as he said this, raising his voice to lash out. "Mommy's little Boy, huh? Well you can forget him! HE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE GIVEN ME HIS WHOLE BODY THE FIRST TIME HE SAW THE GATE!"

If her heart could reflect her state it would have stopped right now. Izumi was the one to let Edward go running after Al, she didn't even try to hold him back... this was her fault... Wrath was very bitter, it was eating him up inside. But deep down he hated seeing Al dive in for Ed only to disappear in a flashing light, being human didn't seem like anything more than a short existence. Why did he want to be human so badly?

Izumi ran up to Wrath and punched the glass, shattering it into thousands of pieces on Wrath's head despite his reaction to it. Her hand was bleeding yet she made no outcry, just set her jaw looking as angry as she ever had before.

Everything went as silent as a graveyard as Izumi stood over Wrath shuddering with her clenched fist. And for the first time Wrath started to let down his walls, completely blown away by the way she took the pain in her hand. Izumi looked at him with the same eyes, unmovable, and grabbed his one arm to pull him to her level.

She was silent but in some strange way Wrath could read her thoughts as if... she was crying out to him. Slowly, she put her bleeding hand in front of him, letting him see the blood drip down onto the floor. This was something Wrath could not understand, the way humans were fragile but the more he thought of it the more it captivated him.

There was great strength in Izumi, the only time he saw her really cry was as she gave her child to The Gate, the child that in turn created him. Maybe this meant humans had soemthing more to them. He still didn't fully know what it was Izumi was trying to say to him but it might have been that it was not meant to be understood, only acknowledged that they were two different creatures.

"If you want, I can see about getting you a replacement for that leg." She said this in a monotonic voice completely devoid for what he knew she had to be feeling for the loss of Edward and Alphonse.

It was almost as if she was empty now. Maybe this meant she had come close to not being human anymore or maybe it meant she was far greater than any human, it was something he would have to decide on later. He still hated this woman but he had nowhere else to go missing an arm and leg, he wasn't strong enough to move on forward like Edward did. So, without a word he agreed to it for now. She moved close to him taking him under his arm to help him walk, being his crutch. Both of them left the church with the shattered window, broken in spirit together.

-

Winry slammed the door to her house and pressed her back against it, holding her mouth and shaking in fear of what she had seen. It seemed like her whole life was spent waiting for Ed and Al to come home, to be that beacon of light that flashed for them after Trisha died. What now? She didn't have the answer to the question.

Her legs gave weigh and she slipped to the floor against her entrance, trying to think of what to do. Trying to block out the thought of how Ed and Al died was torture, all she wanted was see them accomplish what they sought out for but it all appeared to be in vein.

With a loud slam she was jolted to her feet, somebody hammering on the door with no restrain. She tried to compose herself but she didn't have much time, whoever was on the other side was far too impatient. As she turned the doorknob it was thrust open with the edge of the door slamming her on the face knocking her to the floor.

She held her cheek from the rush of pain and adrenaline but when she looked up she for the first time in her life felt frightened looking up at this figure, when she made her way to see his face… he was smiling…
End chapter