lilaclily00- You'll find out... eventually :)
Three siblings sat in a simple hotel room. There were two couches that sat opposite each other with a coffee table placed in between. Ed and Al sat on one couch while Myra sat opposite from them on the other couch.
When Ed had brought Myra to the hotel, Al was completely shocked. He felt like he was dreaming and that everything moved in slow motion. He was put into a similar state Ed was put in. But Al was calmer than Ed was... and no matter how much he wanted to, Al couldn't cry.
She hugged him as much as she could and even patted his head like she used to, which made Al so happy it could've brought him to tears. "Why are you wearing a suit of armour?" Myra had asked the unavoidable question. "Remember, you tell your story first, then we tell ours." Ed reminded her.
Now they sat as Myra was about to speak. "How much do you know already?" she asked, taking a shaky breath.
"Well, Colonel Mustang mentioned you were kidnapped by the homunculi and that you spent time with General Hughes." Al said.
"We also know that you're known as Raven among the Cloaked Alchemists." Ed added.
"I was known as Raven among them." Myra corrected causing confused expressions to grow on the boys' faces. "I'm pretty sure you two have figured out that Bradley is a homunculus by now, but we found out not too long ago ourselves and disbanded our group, no longer working under Bradley."
"Actually, we didn't find out that long ago either." Ed commented.
"I'm surprised he didn't say much when we decided to disband the group... Well, I guess I should start at the beginning," Myra scratched her head in thought. She took a deep breath. "I was taken by Lust five years ago for being a skilled young alchemist at the time. She stabbed me so I wouldn't get away and knocked me out, that's how she was able to kidnap me. I was brought to a place underground that very much resembled an underground base of the sorts. I was held captive with many others. Being down there was no fun, acting as their stupid experiments, we were at times tortured. But they would train us so our skills wouldn't weaken."
Before Ed or Al could say anything in anger upon hearing the fact that the homunculi tortured their sister, she continued.
"We spent months coming up with a perfect plan that would allow us to escape. But by that time... there were only four of us left." she trailed off with a solemn look and Ed and Al kept quiet, sympathetic looks taking over their features.
"I guess our plan wasn't so perfect because... when we did escape, a year after being captured," Myra paused. "The homunculi found us in that abandoned factory and chaos erupted. The other two members of the Cloaked Alchemists got separated from me and the other person being held hostage. Drew. His name was Drew Mendez. I only knew him for a year, but from the time that I've known him he became one of my closest friends. He told me about the little sister he had back in Dublith and in turn I told him about you two." Myra smiled slightly at the memory before continuing. "Then..."
Ed and Al listened to her every word.
"Drew died trying to protect me from Lust that day. I was devastated. We promised that we'd both make it out alive so we can get back to our younger siblings. After that..."
Myra felt a hand on top of hers, which stopped her shaking. She hadn't even noticed that she was shaking. She looked up, barely noticing that at some point she had taken her eyes off her little brothers' as she got lost in old memories.
"You don't have to keep going if you don't want to." Al said softly. He had made his way to the other couch to sit beside his sister.
Myra shook her head. "No, I want to finish." she said, taking another breath before continuing. "After that I was 'forced to go through hell'..." she paused again. "I think I blacked out because the next thing I knew, I woke up in a secluded area with Oscar and Ava at my side. Oscar and Ava are Ash and Azure's real names: the other members of the Cloaked Alchemists." she explained. "They managed to get me out of there alive."
"We went our separate ways for about three years. The first year I had spent in Rush Valley, recovering from the incident. The other two years I spent in Central. I was offered to take the state alchemist test, but I refused. I didn't have a place to stay and General Hughes took me in. So my first year in Central was spent with them. Even with Elicia there, he still treated me like his own daughter the entire time. About a year ago, Bradley brought the three of us back together and we formed our group."
"This is just a wild guess, but I'm guessing wearing cloaks and having alias's, were to prevent you two from finding out that I was alive. Bradley had threatened me saying that if I didn't do what he said, then you two would be put in danger, and you might even die. That's the last thing I would ever want. That was the reason I stayed in Central for so long, why I joined the Cloaked Alchemists and didn't come back home to Resembool. We were all threatened by Bradley in different ways. It was then that I suspected him of being a homunculus, but at the time I never had any proof of it..." Myra concluded looking up to meet her brothers' eyes.
Ed gritted his teeth and slammed a fist on the table. "I can't believe they would do that!"
"The homunculi... I can't believe it either." Al looked down. "Wait! What did they even want with you in the first place?" Al asked.
"I don't know." Myra said, shaking her head. "None of us do."
Everyone stayed quiet as the boys tried to process Myra's story.
"We forgive you." Ed said softly after a moment of silence. Myra looked up at him. "I said if you told us everything we'd forgive you."
Al then pulled her into a hug, which Myra returned instantly. "Why?" he whispered, his voice shaking. "Why did you have to go through all that?"
"Al..." Ed shared his brother's sympathetic feelings as he got up to sit on the other side of his sister.
"You were tortured by the homunculi for a year. You watched your friend die. You were threatened by Bradley, a homunculus. And you couldn't come home to me and brother, and Winry and Granny. Why couldn't it be me instead so you and brother wouldn't have to suffer so much?"
Myra's head immediately jerked up, as well as Ed's, but Myra spoke before he could. "Al, don't say that!" It hurt her to just think of it being either one of her brother's instead of her being put through that pain. "Don't ever say that! I would go through all of that again if it meant keeping you boys safe!" Determination shone in her golden orbs.
"Sister..." Al whispered. There was a short, but comfortable silence between the three.
"You're still stubborn, My." Ed said weakly.
She smiled weakly at him, but it soon disappeared. "Now its your turn. Tell me your stories."
There was another silence shared between them, but this one awkward. No one spoke, so Myra decided to speak up.
"Your soul's attached to that suit of armour, isn't it, Al?" Al was speechless.
"And Ed, your right arm's automail. As well as your left leg." he looked at her, astonished. "I could tell when you hugged me earlier."
"What happened?" she asked softly. She was hesitant, fearing for the worst.
And they told her. They told Myra everything. The human transmutation and everything up until this point. And it left Myra speechless.
"You're both so strong." she said after taking a moment to gather her words. "I can't believe you both went through so much at such young ages... But even through all the pain, I'm proud that you're both still fighting."
"But you—"
"Forget me," she said. Their story causing her to fight back tears. "You two have suffered more. I should've been there. I could've—"
"It's not your fault. You were protecting us this whole time and we didn't even know it." Ed said.
Suddenly, Myra stood up and faced them putting her hands on her hips, her mood completely changing. "I can't believe you two tried to bring Mom back! I mean, I did feel like doing the same thing, but, equivalent exchange! So this is what I was kept in the dark for so long about when we were kids? What did you think could be of value to a human soul?!" Tears sprung to her eyes as she scolded them.
Both boys put their heads down in guilt. "We know now that we can't bring back the dead... no matter what." Ed said.
Myra sighed. "So you guys saw it? You saw Truth?" Their heads snapped up. Al suddenly began to recall memories of Raven using alchemy... without a transmutation circle.
Myra brushed her hair behind her ears.
Ed's eyes widened and Al gasped. She had hearing aids.
"I told you guys I went through hell after they killed Drew." she said. "The circle was drawn for me and they grabbed me and held me against my will... They forced me to transmute him back to life."
"No..." Ed whispered. "Not you too." It seemed to be too much for him to take, and the colour of his skin paled.
"They... They forced you to..." Al was having a hard time trying to process the information.
"In exchange for performing human transmutation... I lost my hearing." Myra said. "Performing human transmutation puts you through hell. But after it happened I thought, 'at least it wasn't Ed or Al'." she said a bit more quietly.
This caused tears to fall onto Ed's lap. Al had his head in his hands. The next thing they knew, an arm wrapped around each of their necks. Myra was hugging them both. The two boys each holding on to her as they apologized repeatedly and Ed cried.
"We're sorry!"
Myra continued to fight back her own tears. "It's not your fault." she said as she tightened her grip around them.
"We're sorry." They continued to say. All three completely heartbroken.
"I'll help you get your bodies back... and then I'll forgive you."
"It's not just us anymore," Ed sobbed.
"We'll get your hearing back too." Al finished.
"You two..." she whispered, a small smile on her face as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
(A/N: So I know at this point in fmab it's 1916 and hearing aids weren't invented until the 1920's, but for the sake of the story let's just pretend that they were invented a lot sooner.
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