Yep. Here I am again.
You guys are all probably wondering what took me so long to update... Well... Things have been stacking up lately... and not in a good way. Family issues and school are the most prominent ones.
Don't worry, though! No one died, it's just taken a while for me to get my mind out of the gutter and start writing this again.
I've also got to finish watching Your Lie in April and continue reading Maximum Ride, and with new episodes of The Walking Dead and Once Upon a Time popping up... It's not hard to see why I haven't had much time to get back to this.
Edward was running.
He's been running for a while now. His legs screamed for him to stop and breathe, but he just can't. Not with what's at stake.
After everyone left the hospital room, Ed was able to stop relying on impulse and just think for a minute. He'd went back in time. Very far back in time. He wasn't considering what was at stake when Armstrong, Al, Bradley, and Hughes were in the room, and he had to put on an act. Why did he have to put on an act? Well, he can't just go up to everyone and say, "Hey guys! I'm from the future!" Who in their right mind is going to believe that?
But that's beside the point. The point is that Edward went back in time and has no way of returning to the present, and that scared him. Thoughts ran through his mind. Dark thoughts. Terrifying thoughts. Being stuck in the past, and possibly having to relive and endless loop, or having to go through the same struggles as before.
The same struggles.
That's what got him to where he is now. Running desperately on his own intuition and instinct.
He never paid attention to the scientific theories on Time Travel and things like the Butterfly Effect or Chaos Theory, but he has seen them before. He never got to understand anything about it, considering he never found any interest in it. He's basically unable to concentrate on something if he has no interest in it, but now he's got a whole new reason to revisit that library in Central.
He knew the basics, like if you change one little thing in the past, it branches off into something completely different, but no one ever said the differences had to be bad...
If you stop something bad from happening, the changes would be something good, right?
Stopping someone from dying would be good.
It sounds sappy, but keeping someone from dying would keep everyone from the pain it brought with it. No one would have to suffer, and the victim can live their happy life.
Gracia, Mustang, Winry, Elicia, Hawkeye, himself. They'd all be happy. Hughes would just continue to brag about his daughter. It'll be a happy ending for everyone, right?
After all, it's not like some force beyond his control will do everything in its power to keep Hughes dead.
That's crazy.
"This is just PERFECT!"
A very angry Winry stood by the hospital door. You could practically feel the anger surrounding her like an aura of death and darkness. Her eyes glowed with red, hot enmity. Her hands clenched in fists and shoulders hanging.
All and all, she was pretty pissed.
A terrified and confused Alphonse was standing next to her, peering into the hospital room that made Winry as pissed as she is.
No one was inside.
But that was the reason Winry was so damn incensed. Edward had promised to take her to Rush Valley. It bothered her why he was so willing to take her rather than putting up a fight...
Now she's got her answer.
He was just toying with her, wasn't he? Playing with her emotions to let her down. That damn alchemy otaku! He ruins everything!
"Al, we're leaving." Winry grabbed onto Al's hair and with some magical strength, dragged him along with her.
"W-wait!" Al began to protest. "Where are we even going?"
"Where do you think? If Ed doesn't want to come then fine! He won't!" Winry would never admit it, but she was rather disappointed. She always knew Ed wasn't exactly the most virtuous person, but he was above this. She expected more from him. She didn't know why.
"Huh!? We can't leave without brother!"
"Oh yeah? We're doing it right now."
"Me and brother need to be at Dublith together!"
"Too bad!"
"Winry!"
"If you're so desperate to be with your brother then why don't you just stay too!?"
Silence filled the room. Winry knew she had been overreacting, but she was just so...
Why was she trying to explain herself? She got let down and that's that. Nothing more.
Swaying her hair behind her, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the hospital, leaving Al behind her. If Ed didn't want to come, then so be it!
"Lieutenant Colonel, you're bleeding!"
Hughes trudged through the office, hand on the wound that the homunculus previously made.
"It's nothing. I'm borrowing the phone."
Hughes grabbed the receiver of the telephone. He was about to call the President's office before a thought flashed through his mind, prompting him to put down the receiver.
"Sorry for interrupting you."
WHO YOU CALLING TOO SMALL TO ADD A HORIZONTAL LINE
"Put me through to Roy... Colonel Mustang!"
Ed knew that voice. That was the one he'd been looking for. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes.
He found him.
"This is Lieutenant Colonel Hughes from Central!" Yup. Definitely Hughes. "This is an emergency, so I'm calling from outside!"
He finally got close enough to see Hughes in the telephone booth. The first thing he noticed was Hughes' shoulder bleeding.
"Ah, this is a pain in the ass! Ankle, sugar, oliver, eight, zero, zero!"
What.
Ed was about to call out to Hughes, but he was panting like crazy from running for so long. Especially in his injured state.
The reason he wanted to call out to him? Second Lieutenant Maria Ross was standing right behind him. With a gun.
Hughes was obviously annoyed at the person on the other end of the line. He screamed at them to hurry the fuck up. The military was in danger!
A photo fell out of his jacket as he yelled at the receiver, suddenly understanding Roy's feelings when Hughes used public military lines to brag about his family.
The sound of a gun behind him made him stop in his tracks.
"Can you hang up the phone, Lieutenant Colonel?"
Making his movements slow and non-threatening, he turned his head around to see who the voice belonged to.
He saw 2nd Lieutenant Maria Ross holding a gun at his face. "Now put the phone down."
"Second Lieutenant Ross... No, you aren't... Who are you?"
"Who? I'm 2nd Lieutenant Maria Ross. We met many times at the hospital."
"No, you aren't. 2nd Lieutenant Ross has a birth mark under her left eye!"
Ross - no, - whoever this thing is wore a shocked, but amused face, before it twisted into an evil grin.
"Oh? Is that so? I was being careless."
The thing raised its hand underneath its left eye, and created a birth mark, making it look exactly like Ross.
"Is this okay?"
That was the last straw.
The thing saw something small run in the corner of his eye, tripping Hughes and charging at him to attack. Startled, he pulled the trigger, not really aiming at anything.
Hughes was alive. The boy landed a hit. The telephone receiver had been shot.
What a great day this was turning out to be...
Fucking finally I finished this chapter...
Thanksgiving had me fatter than Gluttony. At least I got to wrap this chapter up.
If everything goes according to my plans, there will be 9 chapters before the story ends. I have a list. Also, the little teaser I added last chapter...
Well... you see how that turned out.
I have another idea. Rather than adding a teaser for the next chapter at the end of every present chapter, how about I add ideas for other stories, and see if that's what people want.
I'm planning on making a short little fluff story about Madoka Magica. (I know, weird show to make fluff about)
I just suddenly got an idea and can't get it out of my head. How many times have you seen Hitomi x Kyoko stuff?