I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Brotherhood. But there will be some direct lines from the story.
This story deals with a gender-swapped Ed.
And please feel free to comment and or give suggestion.
"Shit!" I yelled. I ran past the armoured man to the cloud of fire. I heard Al behind me. "Is Ling coming?" I asked while running.
"No he went with Barry." He told me while running. The streets were dark I was surprised that no one came out to see what the explosion was about.
"Al you need to make better friends." I joked. We came up to a cloud of smoke so I stopped. The cloud began to part and I saw Colonel Mustang standing on the other side of it. 'Of course this hot head is behind the explosion but why?'
"Hello Fullmetal." He said from across the alley way, his voice was cold. The smoke fully cleared out and I saw a burnt corps on the ground with the standard prison bracelet.
"What's going on here?" I asked, trying not to gag on the smell. I put two and two together but I wanted to know for sure that I was right. He gave me a dead stair. I ran to him and grabbed his shirt. "You bastard! Explain yourself! I trusted you! And you killed her!." I started hitting his chest but his face remained unchanging. "I trusted you! Why did you kill her! Was it because she might have shot Hughes?!" I screamed at him. He slapped my face with enough force to knock me off of him.
"How dare you lay your hand on a higher rank. Behave yourself." He said as he fixed his jacket. I was crying due to pure anger, I stood up to hit him again but Al stopped me. I struggled against him until more military people arrived. One of the men asked for my report so I filled it out as well as I could. I followed Mustang to the morgue to make sure that it was 2nd Lt. Ross that he did kill, I hoped that it wasn't. We were waiting out side of the door when Armstrong walked up to us. I started crying again.
"It's my fault. I'm the one that git Hughes hurt, and if he wasn't looking for information about homunculus or the philosopher's stone he wouldn't have been hurt." Armstrong bent down to be at my height and hugged me, not in his bone crushing way but soft and gentle.
"It's not your fault."
"And if Hughes wasn't shot, Ross wouldn't have been a suspect and shot." I continued. "She's dead and it's all my fault." He pulled me in a little tighter and started rubbing soothing motions on my back. The door opened and he pulled away from me, I started wiping the tears from my eyes. The doctor stood at the door.
"Everyone here then?" He asked looking from solider to solider. "Since the injury is too sever I couldn't tell if she was dead before or after she was burnt." He reported.
"So is it possible that it wasn't her?" I asked with little hope.
"It was confirmed from dental test on the teeth that we found. How cruel torching a girl to death." At that I realized how dangerous my superior officer was. "You sure had a grudge against her huh? Ain't that right Mr. Mustang?" He asked. My eyes drifted to Mustang sitting down with his legs and arms crossed. "You couldn't have made it easier on us Doctors huh?"
"It's been a while since I used my flame, I over did it." His voice was still stone cold as before.
"Ishvalan war hero alright." He said as he walked away. Mustang stood to leave at that and Armstrong went to talk to him, I stayed to the sides so I could over hear them. I couldn't believe that he was apologizing for Ross, they had no real evidence against her. That's when I saw Armstrong break down, he threw himself down on the chair that Mustang was previously sitting on. Mustang squatted on the ground to be able to talk to him without talking down to the large Major.
"You seem quiet stressed Major, maybe you should take some vacation time. The eastern region that I was last at was a nice place, to as noisy as the city and there are a lot of chicks." And with that Mustang left. My anger grew he just killed a person and he's talking about hooking up with a girl. I kick the trash can beside me in a way to vent my anger, the soldiers around me jumped at the noise.
"Come on Al let's go back to the hotel and tell Winston the news." I said as I stormed out of the room.
When we got to the hotel room I knocked on Winston's door but there was no answer.
"He went out?" I was puzzled at that, who in Central would Winston want to see? I went to our door to unlock it but it was already unlock. "Shit Al did we forget to lock the door before we left?" I walked into the room to inspect if anything was missing. The room was the same way that we left it, a mess. Research papers cover almost any flat surface, my clothes were piled away nicely in the corner just how I left them. I went right to the desk and saw the newspaper missing.
"Was anything stolen?" Al asked still looking to see if there was anything stolen.
I looked in the immediate area for the newspaper and I couldn't find it.
"Dammit Winston." I walked out of the room, and back to the door right beside our room. I started pounding on the door. "Winston open up!" I yelled. I heard feet shuffling on the other side of the door, I waited beside the door then I heard a click and the door opened. Winston stood there he looked like shit, his face was red from tears and his clothes looked like he was trying to sleep in them.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, he sounded like a wounded puppy.
"I thought you over heard Breda at the hospital." I responded, the two of them where right behind me and Al defiantly heard him so why didn't Winston.
"I did, but I didn't know that it was her." He took a breath. "I talked to her once and I didn't even know her name." My eyebrows knit together, trying to figure out how to deal with this situation. "She didn't seem like a killer, she couldn't have done this we just have to ask her." He tried to get past me as if he was leaving to do what he just said. I blocked him and pushed him into his dark room, when I found the couch I pushed him down on it and sat besides him.
"We can't. Ross died earlier tonight." I said waiting for his reaction. He looked like a lost child his eyes were big and looked hurt.
"What happened?"
"She broke out of jail and there was an order to shoot on sit if she resisted, and Mustang found her and she resisted." I told him.
"So he shot her?"
"Burnt her." I gulped, my saliva tasted like ash in my mouth. Winston's eyes went from tears to anger in less then a second.
"That sick Bastard. Ed you still want to be in the army after he did something like that?"
"I don't really have a choice, I have to fix Al's body no matter what."
"He's dangerous!" He said and I knew who he was talking about. "He killed someone Edelle because she injured his friend. That doesn't seem wrong to you in anyway?"
"It seems wrong to me in every way but I have to deal with it until I fix Al's body!" I hung my head low. "It's because I want to fix Al's body that he got injured in the first place. It's my fault that Hughes is injured and Ross is dead." Winston pulled me into a hug.
"Ed it's not your fault."
"Armstrong said the same thing, but I'm pretty sure that it is." I pressed my forehead into his collar bone.
"Maybe you should go and apologize if that will make you feel better." He suggested. I nodded not moving from the hug. "Or you could call him if you want to stay here." Winston made me stand and walked me down to the lobby. Winston went up to the front desk. "Hi I would like to make a call." He said to the man, he nodded and put the phone on the desk. Winston gave me a look to say that I was on my own now. I picked up the receiver and dialled the number for the hospital, the dial tone rang back at me for a few seconds before someone picked up the line.
"Central Military Hospital How can I help you?" I heard a lady ask on the other side of the line.
"Can I speak with Lt. Colonel Hughes?" I asked into the line
"Can I know who this is before I ask?"
"Tell them that it's Ed." I said I heard the phone get put on the table. I waited for the other line to get picked up.
"Hello?" I heard a woman ask from the other side of the line.
"Mrs Hughes? Is Mr Hughes there?" I asked
"I'm sorry Edward he's asleep right now what can I do for you." She sounded tiered herself, I looked to the clock to see that it was a little past 11 at night.
"I'm sorry for calling so late." I apologised "And I'm sorry for getting your husband shot. It was my fault that he was staying late researching something for me, and I knew that it was dangerous but I still asked him for his help. I'm sorry."
"My husband found something out, so as a warning they injure him to keep him and others from looking into the matter?" She asked me.
"Yes I think so." I told her. "It's my fault I dragged him into this and I just wanted to say that I was sorry. If people keep getting hurt I'm not sure if I want to continue into what I was doing "
"That sounds so much like him, getting hurt trying to help other people, he always tried to nose into other peoples business to try to help them out even at his own personal expense. If you give up now you'll make my husband's injury worth nothing, you have to keep trying no matter what the cost is, because if you give up you make the sacrifices people made for you worth nothing." Her voice turned serious at the end.
"Yes ma'me." I said while nodding. "Could you still tell Mr Hughes I'm sorry though?"
"I will now is there anything else?" She asked from the other end of the line.
"No I don't think so."
"Then Goodnight Edward."
"Good night Mrs Hughes." I said and hung up the line. I really didn't know what to believe, Ross asked me to trust her when I was in the hospital, but the fuhrer asked us not to trust anyone. Winston and I walked back upstairs in silence when we got to our respected doors we just looked at each other instead of saying anything. I went to sleep with nightmares chasing me the entire night.
Hey guys long time no see. Sorry about that and don't worry it shouldn't happen again (not for a while anyway). Hoped you liked it and feel free to comment and suggest things if you like
See you next time in Central with Roy and on the way to Xerxes with Ed.