Disclaimer - I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist
A/N - No one hates me right? XD I felt kinda bad about throwing that whole Winry-Thing on you, and then I just added to it by Al's nightmare . . . Sorry! I know it was kinda sad but I hope that none of you were like upset because I've gotten complaints on other accounts that my writing is too depressing XD. So, sorry if anyone got upset (I don't have that many readers anyway so I'm not too, too worried). This chapter's got a little more mental-fuckery, just a warning. Sorry in advance.
. . .
London, England
1926
"DADDY!" Amanda screamed when her father walked through the door the next morning. She ran over to him and jumped into his arms. "Did you get all your work done?"
He swung her around in a circle. "Yep, and guess what that means?"
"Trip!" Amanda screeched. "You promised once you were don't with your chores we'd all go to see the stores and get lunch!"
Roy nodded. "Uh-huh. Why don't you go get your coat from your room and I'll go start the car up, okay?"
Amanda nodded and leaped out of his arms.
"Come on, Mandy, I'll help you," Noah said, offering her hand. The toddler accepted and the two of them walked up the stairs.
"Since you boys got home so fast and finished your chores before ten," Roy added to Ed and Al in that sarcastically powerful tone he always used. "I guess I'll allow you to come along. If you want, that is."
"Thanks, but I don't think so," Ed replied. "Neither of us got very much sleep last night, I was thinking we'd just stay here and nap . . ."
"No!" Al exclaimed, standing up from his seat at the table.
Roy, Lisa, and Ed gave him sideways looks.
"I mean-uh . . . Mandy's been looking forward to this for weeks!" Al said in a shaky voice-trying to sound casual and unsuspicious (and failing). "She'd be so upset if we didn't go, right?"
Ed shrugged. "Well, I guess we could always sleep when we got back . . ."
Al nodded. "Yeah, good idea, Brother."
"I'm going to start the car," Roy announced after a slightly awkward silence. He walked out the front door carrying his coat. The car-much like the telephone-was a newer addition to the household.
Noah and Mandy returned from upstairs, Amanda now wearing her winter coat.
Noah walked over to the coat closet and pulled out her own, Ed's and Al's. She threw the boys' to them.
"Thanks!" the chorused. The three of them pulled on their coats.
Lisa grabbed hers from the back of her chair, stood up and put it on. She picked Lewis up out of his high chair and pulled his little hat over his head. She also wrapped him up in blankets. "Let's start walking down the road. By the time we get to the bottom, Roy will have started the car."
Ed grabbed the stroller that Lisa always used for Lewis and offered it to her. Lisa nodded her thanks and positioned the baby so he would be comfortable.
"How are we gonna fit that in the car?" Al asked.
Lisa shrugged. "I suppose if we balance it on the seat it would fit."
Noah opened the front door and the six of them filed out.
"Eddie! Play horse-y!" Mandy exclaimed.
"Amanda, it's a long walk down the hill, don't bother Ed, you can walk," Lisa gently told her daughter.
"Nah," Ed said, lifting the little girl onto his back. "Eddie's really strong, right Mandy?"
Amanda nodded. "Right!"
. . .
The drive to the stores was shorter then the ride to Patricia's house, but much more uncomfortable. The Stanley's Crossley 14 was not made to easily fit seven people and a baby stroller. The structure of the car made the back seat big enough to put the stroller on the floor, but it didn't leave much room. And on top of that, because it was so cold out, Roy refused to put the roof down.
Roy was driving, with Lisa squished up in the middle next to him. She had Lewis in her arms. Next to her on the end of the front row was Edward, who was pushed against the window with Mandy on his lap. In the back seat were Al and Noah, with the stroller. Noah was against the window, and Al was practically on top of her.
"Well . . ." Ed managed. "This is . . . Cozy."
"ROADTRIP!" Amanda yelled.
. . .
Central, Amestris
1920
(Earth Year: 1926)
Hawkeye dropped a stack of papers on Mustang's desk. "Sir, I believe you will find the information in this report rather interesting."
Mustang gave her and are you serious? look. "Hawkeye, what the hell is this? I have enough of my own paper work to do."
"But it's not like you're actually gonna do it," Havoc chimed in from his desk a few yards away.
Mustang chucked a pen at him, but he dodged it.
"It has to do with your private investigation on Envy the homunculus, Sir," Hawkeye told him. "The one you told us not to put on file."
He sat up straighter in his chair-paying full attention.
"He's been spotted again around East City, and not long after that, a man showed up at a hospital vomiting blood. The reports came back saying that the man had no stomach. It was as if it had just disappeared. At his apartment, investigators found large amounts of blood that wasn't his around a large transmutation circle in his living room."
Mustang gasped. "You don't think he tried human transmutation, do you?"
"No, his stomach just disappeared and a giant circle just showed up in his house!" Havoc exclaimed sarcastically. Mustang chucked another pen.
Hawkeye sighed. "I'm not sure, Sir. But as Havoc said, I see few other possibilities as to what could have happened. All the man said before he died at the hospital was that some eccentrically attired person gave him instructions on how to bring his wife back to life. He never admitted to trying the transmutation, but it's doubtable that he didn't. Something similar happened a few towns over four days prior, but no result of the transmutation was found at either site."
Mustang's hands clenched into fists. "So he's giving people formulas to attempt human alchemy, but why?"
"Yeah, why would a revenge-seeking homunculus create more homunculi?" Havoc asked sarcastically. This earned him another pen.
"Damn it, Havoc I'm not going to have anything to write with!" Mustang complained.
"Perhaps he's trying to replace the homunculi that were killed," Hawkeye suggested. "As Havoc said-he probably wants revenge."
Her voice was even, but Mustang could tell by her eyes that she was worried.
Mustang nodded. "As much as I hate to admit it, I think that's the only logical explanation. I should go down to the library later to refresh my memory on what we know of homunculi."
He pulled out some paper to make a note to himself, but when he reached for a pen he realized he had run out. He groaned and Havoc snickered.
. . .
(Under) Eastern City, Amestris
Envy stood before the two baby homunculi. The older one was just starting to take on a humanoid appearance, even though he was so young. He was eating the stones faster than Envy had ever seen.
The four hundred-year-old homunculi had decided to hide out in one of the many underground houses he and Dante had created to hide the homunculi in back when she was still alive. There was still a rather large supply of red stones down there, because Dante had always liked to be prepared. She had built many of these houses, in the places she had gathered her original homunculi from.
Envy looked at the older of the two babies. The human he was starting to look like had been a farmer just outside East City two years before. Only 32 when he died.
His nephew was the one Envy had persuaded to create him. Now he was in a grave as well.
"I think I'll call you New-Gluttony," Envy said, more to himself than to the homunculus. "You eat just like he did."
He turned to the newer one-the woman. "And you. You were only 21, and from those pictures that your husband showed me, very pretty. You'll be New-Lust, and your job will be to seduce losers that we can use as pawns . . ."
The two monsters didn't even look up from their meal.
"Next, we'll go to Resembool. Dante made an underground hide out there to take care of Sloth until we could move her. But we'll just take the stones from there; after what happened to the Elrics, no one in Resembool would be dumb enough to try human alchemy, even if they don't know what really happened that night. No, we'll make another one in the south, then the west, then the north. By then, there will be at least six of us, and if we need to, we'll go to Central."
. . .
London, England
1926
After roaming around the stores for a couple hours, Ed began to become extremely bored. After all, his options were rather limited. Either go look at clothes with Lisa, Noah, and Lewis, or follow Amanda around with Roy as she searched for candy and toy stores.
He sighed. Why hadn't he and Al just stayed home to sleep?
"Hey, Elrics," Roy said, noticing Ed's boredom. "Why don't you two go find a good place to get lunch? It's nearly one in the after noon and we still haven't eaten."
"Okay," Al agreed. He turned around in the direction of a few different restaurants they had passed. "Come on, Brother."
Ed shot Roy a grateful look before following after his brother.
After they had been walking for a few minutes, Al decided to reattempted the conversation he and Ed had almost had. "Uh . . . Brother, do you remember at Patricia's, before we went to see Wendy? There was something I wanted to talk about . . ."
Ed caught the way his younger brother's voice had changed towards the end of the sentence. Whatever this was, it must be serious. "What is it, Al?"
"Well, it's just that I . . .uh . . ." He was doing it again. He was chickening out. Alphonse Elric; former 8ft suit of armor, alchemy prodigy, fighter of homunculi, was a chicken. "It's . . . uh . . . Well, I mean . . . You know what? Never mind! It's nothing really."
Al had never been a good liar. "Alphonse, tell me what's wrong before I have to beat it ou-"
"Ed! Al!"
The older Elric was cut off by the small teenage girl calling them and waving from about twenty yards away. Nina Andrews.
"Hey, Nina!" Al called back, and waved.
She ran over to them. "What are you guys doing here? You never come shopping, you always send Wendy! But then again . . . She can't really shop for you right now, can she?"
"Amanda wanted us to," Al explained. "We're just looking for a place to eat now."
"Oh, I know a great place!" Nina told them. "The owner's a little kooky, but the food's great! Follow me, I'll show you!"
. . .
"WELCOME TO MY RESTURANT! I GREATLY APPRICIATE YOUR BUISNESS AND HOPE THAT YOU ENJOY THE DELICIOUS RECIPES THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG LINE FOR GENERATIONS!"
Ed and Al's jaws dropped. They stood there in shock, staring up at the giant mass of muscle that was Alex Luis Armstrong-rather, this world's version.
"You know what Little Brother?" I'm suddenly not very hungry anymore! Let's just go back," Ed suggested in a small voice. He and Al began to make a run for it but Armstrong grabbed the back of their coats and held them in place.
"NONSENSE YOU BOYS LOOK ABSOLUTLY FAMISHED! YOU MUST COME INSIDE AND EAT AT ONCE!"
"B-but we've gotta go get the others," Al said, thinking fast. "How else will they know where we went?"
"I'll send them here!" Nina offered. "You two go get a table, I'll find Roy and Lisa. I've got to walk that way to get home anyway."
"Oh, but Nina we couldn't ask you to do that for us!" Ed exclaimed. "Really, Al and I could just-"
"IT HAS BEEN DECIDED!" Armstrong swung them both over either shoulder in a fireman's lift. "I SHALL SHOW YOU TO YOUR TABLE!"
The boys groaned.
"We can't even escape the crazy in another dimension!" Ed cried.
. . .
Ed bit into his chicken and moaned in appreciation. "Best damn chicken ever."
Amanda made a scared face and glared at the bite that was on her fork. "Chicken?"
"Yeah, we eat chicken all the time," Al told her. "When your mommy makes it."
Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Like the chickens in the hen house?"
"No!" Ed lied. "This is a different kind of chicken. This chicken . . . Grows on trees. Like apples."
Amanda's face returned to normal. "Oh, okay!"
She began eating again.
Ed and Al sighed in relief.
"Very nice, boys," Noah scolded.
"Hey," Ed whispered. "She's happy, we're happy, everyone wins."
Noah just shook her head. "I pray for your future children . . ."
Ed slumped back in his chair with his arms crossed.
Future children . . .
That got him thinking. He had never really thought so far ahead that he reached the point of wondering about marriage or children. Was it possible that he could possibly have kids someday? The thought seemed impossible. But then again, three years ago, if you asked him, he'd say that there was no way in hell that Roy Mustang would ever have children. But now, looking at Roy Stanley with Amanda and Lewis, it seemed perfectly possible.
"Ugh . . ." Ed's face morphed when he pictured it. Himself, a father.
Even now, the word "father" left a sour taste on his tongue. Fathers left. Fathers weren't loving. Fathers didn't care.
Would he be the same way is father was? Never around, leaving his family alone. Or would he be like Hughes was with Elysia or Roy was with Amanda?
He hoped for the latter. In fact, he made a silent promise to himself right then and there. If he ever had kids, he'd be the best damn father ever.
"Brother, your face looks weird," Al told him. "What are you thinking about?"
"N-nothing!" Ed exclaimed, embarrassed. He had not just been caught thinking about having kids. He was too tired for this . . .
"Eddie, can we plant a chicken tree when we get home?" Amanda asked.
Al and Noah giggled behind their palms.
While Ed was grateful for the change of topic, he also felt utterly screwed.
"Uh . . . Well, you see, Mandy . . . Um . . . It's just that . . . Chicken trees can only be planted in the summer, like all the other fruits and vegetables," Ed told her with big fake smile.
Amanda looked down, discouraged. "Oh . . ."
. . .
When everyone had finished their delicious lunches (made from recipes that had been passed down the Armstrong line for generations), Roy decided that the shopping trip was over, and they were going home.
Ed was almost happy to get back in the clown car. Getting home meant getting sleep. He hadn't told Al, but in truth he had pulled an all-nighter doing research. He just pretended to have gone to bed the next morning, but he actually hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours.
Al must have been tired, too. He had gone to bed at midnight and woken up before 5 in the morning in order to get back to the farm to do his chores. But for some reason, the younger Elric seemed almost . . . depressed about leaving.
"What's wrong, Al?" Ed asked, seeing his brother's expression. "You ust be exhausted! Aren't you happy to go home and sleep?"
Al shrugged. "I guess."
"What time did you boys go to bed?" Lisa asked in that strict, yet motherly, tone of voice.
"Uh . . ." Al tried to speak casually. "Like midnight . . ."
"WHAT?" Lisa screamed. Roy swerved in the road, startled by the outburst.
"You boys are operating off less than five hours of sleep? That's no good! As soon as we get home I want you in your rooms, curtains drawn. I'll wake you up for dinner, but until then you boys are napping!"
Amanda laughed. "Eddie and Al have to take naps!"
"You, too, Missy," Lisa told her. "You and Lewis have had a long day. You could use some sleep as well."
Amanda scowled, folded her arms over her chest, and growled softly, though only Ed was close enough to hear her.
. . .
As soon as they arrived home, Ed and Al did exactly as Lisa had instructed. They went straight up to their bedroom and closed the curtains.
The brothers didn't bother undressing. They simply pulled off their shirts, shoes, and socks and crawled into their beds, which were positioned parallel to each other, with about three feet of walking room between.
I'll just lay here, Al told himself. If I just stay awake I can't have nightmares. If I don't sleep I'll be fine . . . Just . . . Stay . . . Awake . . .
Against his own will power, he yawned.
No, no yawning!
Edward's soft snoring next to him was already making it worse. They had only been up there for ten minutes, how could Ed already be asleep? Al thought about how nice it must be to just sleep like Ed did. His bed was so comfortable . . . He hadn't slept for more than a few hours in so long.
Finally, he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.
Just resting my eyes for a second . . .
. . .
"Show me what you really look like!" Ed yelled as he punched Envy repeatedly. "Instead of acting like a coward whose only real power is to hide behind other people's faces!"
"Do you really wanna see?" Envy hissed evilly.
Al wanted nothing more than to stand up and help his brother fight, but he couldn't. He couldn't do anything.
Al watched as Envy's form morphed. His legs got a little longer, his skin just a shade darker. But the most significant changes were those of his eyes and hair. They were gold. He looked just like . . .
"Envy was the very first homunculi," Dante interrupted Al's thought. "Created by Hohenheim almost 400 years ago. The result of the failed human transmutation of out son, who died prematurely to mercury poisoning."
Al saw that his brother was frozen. They had actually managed to stun him still . . . But he had to move! He had to fight!
"I suppose you could say that Envy was once your brother," Dante added, probably just to be cruel.
"Then he abandoned me. Started fresh with his new wife and kids," Envy said. He now spoke with his real voice, which was deeper and a little gravelly. "Needless to say, I never did like being replaced."
Something changed in his eyes, and for a split second, the Earth seemed to stand still; time stopped all together.
Then, as if in slow motion, Al watched as Envy's arm morphed into a pointed tip, which he rammed through Edward's stomach.
Al took a shaky breath*. "Brother?"'
In response, Edward opened his mouth, almost as if to say something. But instead, blood poured out.
Envy grinned and threw Ed to the side as if he were nothing more than garbage.
"EDWARD!" Rose screamed. She tried to run forward but Dante stopped her.
Al didn't even have time to process that Rose had broken free from her trans. He was too preoccupied. He was too preoccupied watching his brother's blood spill out on the floor.
Envy stood up, grinning. "That was too easy, humans are so pathetic."
"Brother, no . . ." Al said to himself. If a suit of armor could cry, that's what Al would have been doing. "You can't die! It's supposed to be me!"
"He's . . . dead?" Wrath asked weakly. He was lying on the floor, only a few feet from Edward's body.
"That's right, he's setting the pace!" Envy growled, back in his form that was more familiar to Alphonse. "For every human to follow! Now we'll kill off each one of them until only homunculi are left."
He laughed, a cold, sinister, evil laugh.
"Brother can't die! That's ridiculous! He wouldn't let that happen! He couldn't!" Al squeaked.
"That's reality for you," Dante began. But Al stopped listening. He had an idea . . .
Even as Gluttony began to devour his insides, he was thinking. There must be a way . . .
It would work, it had to.
Al used his alchemy to free himself, knowing and excepting the risks.
When he sat up, he saw that almost all of his insides were gone. There was hardly any of the stone left . . .
. . . But it would be enough.
Dante began to stalk towards him, yelling for what he had done.
"Stay back!" Al commanded. She froze. "You can't make me do anything."
"And what do you think you could pull off?" Dante asked.
Alphonse walked up to his brother's corpse. He did the best he could to keep his composure. "Brother hasn't been dead for long."
He reached out his hand and rested it on Ed's cheek. "Look, there's still some color in his face. His soul is probably still at the gate. I just have to pull it back, the same way he did for me."
"Don't be a fool!" Dante told him. "You know what would happen to you-"
"Yeah, I do," Al snapped. "A lot of people died to make this stone, and I would have died too, if not for them. And it's time I gave my share, and made my own choice."
"Alphonse!" Rose exclaimed weakly.
"Good bye, Rose," he said. Envy laughed at him.
"This is for you, brother."
Al clapped his hands together as he had seen Ed so do many times. He activated the stone inside him, and did what he had promised to never to again; human transmutation.
Then, the memory changed. Instead of waking up on the floor of the big ball room, ten-years-old and without memories, he was standing in a completely white room, or if you could call it a room. It had no walls of ceilings, it was just space. And he was in his adult human body, no longer a child.
Standing in front of him was a sixteen-year-old version of his brother.
Ed was looking down at his shoes, a smirk on his face.
Al sighed in relief. "Ed, I-"
"Ed?" the older (well, in this case younger) brother asked. "Who's Ed? My name's Greed. The new Greed."
He lifted his head, so Al could see his eyes. They weren't gold-they were purple.
"What?" Al asked. He backed away a step. "No . . ."
Ed chuckled and rolled up his right sleeve, revealing a real flesh-and-bone arm, and also an ouroboros tattoo. "You know what happens when you do human alchemy, don't you, Alphonse Elric? I mean, you did already try it once n your mother. And again when you created me, you sick, twisted, bastard."
"No . . . I didn't mean for it to-"
"Why, Al?" Ed-Greed-asked sadly. "Why would you make me suffer like this? And everyone else as well!"
Suddenly, they weren't alone in the big white space anymore. There were thousands of other people there, too.
Winry was among them. She was in the front of the crowd with Pinako, kneeling on the ground, sobbing hysterically. "Why, Al? Why couldn't you just have let him rest in peace? Didn't you learn anything from your mother?"
Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye were also there, dressed in their military uniforms.
"I gave up my eye for you and your brother, Al," Mustang said. "And you couldn't even bring Ed home alive! Instead you just create another monster."
"No, I'm sorry!" Al exclaimed.
"You never learn!" Izumi yelled at him. She, Sig, and Mason were there as well, looking very pissed.
"Why, Al?" Rose asked sadly. "You're just making him suffer more."
"Please!" Al begged. "It was an accident! I didn't mean for it to happen this way! I thought that if I used the stone, I could-"
"Look at all the others!" Ed interrupted, gesturing towards the rest of the people, none of whom Al knew. "Notice what they look like?"
Al had noticed. They were all either Ishballan or Military.
"These are the people whose souls were used by you in to create me," Ed told him. His body began to change. He sprouted up in the air. His muscles became more defined on his long arms, and his hair grew a little, too. It was Edward of the present day, but with purple irises and a tattoo.
"Me," twenty-one-year-old Edward said bitterly. "A suffering, miserable, homunculus!"
. . .
*Ever notice that Al still pants and gasps even though he's a suit of armor? I noticed that while re-watching this part of the episode. It's weird.