Chapter 22 - Death of a Star
Fullmetal had been at the compound for nearly two months, and Olivier was basically out of things for him to fix.
In that time, she believed that he had learned to respect her; as she had learned to respect him.
And with that newly formed trust, she felt it was time to pick his brains for information.
But politics turned to the personal, and she ended up asking, "Why did you leave Central?"
"Someone has been trying to kill me, and they got too close to home," he said without missing a beat.
"You think leaving them would keep them safe?" Miles asked.
Fullmetal shrugged, "I'm not quite sure what else to do."
"Get them arrested," Miles said.
Fullmetal shook his head, "I'm not sure I could prove they exist. Besides, I think Bradley is a part of it."
"Fantastic," Olivier groused, putting a hand to her chin. "What can you tell us?"
Fullmetal gave her a bright grin, "That would depend on your faith in the absurd and the improbable."
She glowered at him, "Like your theory that Bradley purposely started the war in Ishval with Black OPS insurgents?"
"Exactly," Fullmetal agreed, sipping his coffee. "Only a little less sane and a lot more malicious."
"More malicious than starting a civil war?" Miles asked dryly.
"Drastically so," Fullmetal said, expression falling. "Attempted genocide was a by-product not the intended reason for the war."
An alarm blared.
A voice sounded over the intercoms, informing them of the intrusion on the base level.
Olivier, Miles, and Fullmetal were running before the com clicked off.
The lights in the halls flashed and Olivier felt her blood begin to boil.
Who would dare to attack them from the ground?
It took them only a few minutes to reach the basement floor.
"Hey Bobby, this way! It's this pipe," Smith called.
"This sound," Bobby said. "It's definitely coming from underground!"
"What?!" Buccaneer called before listening himself. "It sounds like someone's digging."
"Don't tell me the Drakmans are building an underground passage beneath the fortress?!" Smith exclaimed.
"It's really close!" Bobby said, grabbing Smith's arm and pulling him back. Neither of them was armed for anything big enough that would shake the earth like that.
A giant climbed out from the hole.
Olivier was close enough to see Fullmetal's expression change, shifting from horror to recognition, to determination.
"Withdrawl all staff and combatants!" Fullmetal yelled.
No one budged at his words.
He looked to Olivier, "Tell them!"
There was fear on his face, but not for them.
The giant, dark hair with odd pink-lined tattoos, groaned, "What a drag. Really, what a drag. It's such a drag, I could die." It seemed to pounder its own words. "But dying is also a drag."
Fullmetal's words from earlier echoed through her mind, That would depend on your faith in the absurd and the improbable.
Olivier had a sense that whatever this was required a bit of faith.
At least, faith in her own instincts.
"Retreat!" she yelled. "All noncombatants are to withdraw immediately."
Fullmetal's shoulder slumped in relief.
"Where am I? Do I not have to dig anymore? Where am I?" the monster asked no one in particular.
"Shut off the alarm, too," Olivier told her men. "Don't let Drakma guess that there is any commotion."
Fullmetal stepped forward, clapping as if he was praying, only alchemic light bloomed around him, "I got this."
"I have to dig," the thing said.
"Wait!" Miles yelled.
But Fullmetal was already running, his hands parting as he launched himself at the creature, feet first.
For such a small man, Fullmetal managed enough momentum to push the giant back into the tunnel.
Fullmetal brought his hands down on the thing's shoulders as they disappeared out of sight.
"Get out of the way!" Olivier shouted, only slightly relieved that her people were already out of the way, helping each other to the upper metal rigging.
Red blue light bloomed in the hole, and the foundation began to shake, and then the worst happened.
The tunnel caved in, the compacted land spilled into the emptied space.
Swallowing the Fullmetal Alchemist beneath stone and rubble.
The following silence was all encompassing.
"Get digging!" Miles roared. "Get him out!"
There was a flurry of movement, organised and competent.
But Olivier remained still, knowing it was too late and feeling as if she had just witnessed the death of a star.
oOo
"Not happy to see me this time?" Ed asked Truth.
Truth shook its head and sighed, "You are so rash, Edward Elric-Hughes. You may buy Sloth's humanity, but not his life."
"What do you mean?" Ed asked.
"I cannot control what happens in reality, Little Alchemist. So you must choose, and learn where the rocks fall."
Ed felt his stomach drop. He had jumped into the hole and Sloth had attacked him.
"Tell me what I need to do," he said.
Truth did not smile, "Make your choice, Son of Hughes."
Ed cocked a brow, "You almost sound afraid."
This time Truth did smile, "Perhaps I am. Perhaps I fear for a world without you. It would be far less entertaining."
Ed sighed, "I want Sloth to be human and I want the souls released from their prison."
"So predictable," Truth sighed. "And yet utterly unexpected."
Edward fell into nightmare before he could come up with a retort.
He saw each bloody crest be carved around the country, the ones that had been, like Ishval, and the ones that would be, like Liore and the Drackman soldiers slaughtered beyond the wall.
Crests of blood marking each point of the transmutation circle.
The same one Ed had seen in Gluttony's stomach, the same circle that had taken Xerxes.
And just as in the vision before, Ed saw the faces of the people whose souls would be taken from him.
Only they weren't all golden eyed or golden skinned like himself and Al this time, no.
They were familiar faces of the people who knew and loved; in Resembool, in Briggs, and in Central.
Winery and Al.
Granny and Hohenhiem.
Sig, Enyo, baby Isa and Ion.
Roy's team.
Nina and Elicia.
Maes and Gracia.
Floating in the red power that descended upon the world.
At the centre of the glowing circle, deep beneath Central sat in his throne was the Dwarf in the Flask, looking like an inhuman version of Hohenhiem, a sun held in the palm of his hand.
At his feet the only humans who remained alive in Amestris; Roy with eyes that had clouded over, Riza who was gripping her throat, Ling whose eyes seemed strange, Teacher, and Edward himself.
Five sacrifices.
Five alchemists strong enough and foolish enough to have performed human transmutation.
Fuck no.
Ed woke coughing on dirt, he scrambled his way out of the dirt, reaching for air.
With air came a cold darkness.
Ed clapped his hands to bring the ground up to stabilize the tunnel. In the glow of the alchemic energy, Ed saw golden hair and a large form half buried under rubble.
There was blood.
And Ed was certain that the empty golden eyes that stared at nothing would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Sloth was dead.
And Edward was not at all certain that it mattered that he had died human.
It would seem he had killed another person.
On any other day, Ed was sure he would be having a moral crisis about it, but right now, all he could think of was his family and Amestris.
He had known what the Dwarf was planning, but seeing it?
Edward shook his head and clapped his hands again.
He couldn't undo the crests of blood, but he could certainly fill in and destroy the circle.
He was, if nothing else, an alchemic genius who specialized in infustracture.
He began by making sure he wouldn't be followed.
If he was lucky, the Dwarf would believe him dead.
If he was really lucky, his loved ones would know that if not body of his had been recovered that earth had not killed him.
Either way, he was going to owe Maes one hell of an apology.
Ed's only defense was that he had witnessed the world perish and his father die twice now.
Ed wasn't just trying to save Maes and Alphonse, but Elicia and Nina, and for that, Ed knew he would be understood if not forgiven.
oOo
They found golden hair, but the body it had been attached to had been far to big to be Fullmetal's. So they had continued searching.
And the search proved… fruitless. The more they removed, the more the surrounding tunnel fell in on itself.
Still, she allowed weeks to pass.
Miles was trembling slightly as she approached him, and she was almost hopeful he had found something, something definite.
"You found the body," she said as if she could will it so.
Miles let out a long breath, the dejection in his frame a clear negative as any, "Not his body, no."
Olivier held out her hand.
Miles placed the silver pocket watch into her hand. She opened it, the hinge was broken, as was the glass inside.
But it still ticked.
On the inside, was carved; Don't Forget, 3rd Jul. 1911.
Olivier shut the watch and said, "Call off the search and schedule the train. We will tell the Colonel in person of his son's death."
It had been a month.
Fullmetal was dead, because no one could survive that long without food in this cold. Either crushed in the tunnel, lost in the tunnel, or lost in the wilderness somewhere.
Either the earth or the winter had extinguished his light.
If Olivier was a woman who could cry, she was certain she would be.
She was at least certain that Miles would never testify against her despite the silver that reflected down from her eyes.
oOo
Roy wasn't expecting the summons.
He certainly wasn't expecting to find Maes standing in front of the Fuhrer's door.
"Maes?" Roy asked, seeing the tired expression on his friend's face.
It wasn't truly tiredness, however, yet it was something.
"Officers from Briggs arrived this morning," Maes said flatly.
Fear hit Roy in the chest before he knew what he was supposed to be afraid of.
"Ed wasn't with them," Maes continued.
Roy's breath caught.
Maes stared at the door, "I keep thinking all I need to do is open the door and I will know. Then I think, for right now, I don't know. I have my fears but if I know, I will lose hope."
Roy said nothing, merely stayed by his friend's side.
They stood in the in between for a time, and for a time, time had no meaning.
But eventually, the unknown grew larger than the reprieve of ignorance.
Maes opened the door, and they stepped in together.
The Fuhrer stood, as did Major General Olivier Armstrong and Major Miles, they looked grim.
"Where's Ed?" Maes asked without saluting, dropping every formality.
Miles looked away.
Maes took a step toward him, "Where is my son?"
Olivier Armstrong actually flinched, but she answered, "A tunnel was discovered beneath Briggs. It was several hundred meters long, possibly longer, but there was a cave-in. Continued excavation proved to cause only more cave-ins."
Roy closed his eyes, picturing Ed's smiling face.
"Where is my son?" Maes demanded again.
"We weren't able to recover his body," Olivier said, remorse softening her tone.
"If there's no body, then he isn't dead," Maes stated. "Ed would have been perfectly capable of protecting himself from rockfall."
Olivier shook her head, "It was over a month ago, Colonel. He died protecting the rest of us from a monster."
Maes was silent as he remained unmoving as if waiting to be given the punch line to an unappreciated joke.
Olivier moved to stand before him and when Maes didn't acknowledge her, she gently took his hand and placed a silver pocket watch in his palm.
Maes's fingers curled around it as Olivier took a step back.
"I am deeply sorry for your loss, Maes Hughes. Edward was a remarkable person and I was never given a reason to doubt how much he loved you and your family."
Maes said nothing.
Bradley cleared his throat, "All arrangements will be made and he will receive a full military send off. A battalion is being sent to Briggs to relieve the men and women Fullmetal died protecting so they may attend the funeral."
Roy stepped up, "Thank you, Sir. If we may be dismissed, I'll take the Colonel home."
"Of course," the Fuhrer said. "Hughes, you will not be expected back at work this week. Please take time to recover."
Maes walked out without acknowledging the Fuhrer.
Roy saluted and then ran after his friend. He was trying to think of where they could go that would be private.
Maes couldn't go home and break down, Ling was at Roy's place—
Maes was headed toward Roy's office.
Which wasn't soundproof.
But you would have to be missing a soul and a heart to not have sympathy for a father who lost a son like Fullmetal.
Edward.
Roy buried his own feelings as Maes flung open his office door and said in a deathly calm voice, "Everyone out."
Roy's team stared at Maes dumbfounded. Maes outranked them, but he had never spoken to them in such a way.
They looked around Maes to Roy.
"I said get out!" Maes yelled.
Roy's team scrambled out of their seats and toward the door.
All but Riza who kept looking between them, "What happened to Edward?"
Maes made a sound that was somewhere between a scoff and a gutted deer, "He's dead, Hawkeye! He finally got his fucking wish! He died! Sacrificed himself because, God forbid, he ever give so much as a passing thought to his own well-being!"
Roy's team stood frozen in the open door.
Fruey had tears running down his cheeks while the others gaped.
"No," Havoc said. "No—"
Roy ushered them out, "Go." He shut the door in Havoc's face.
"Maes…"
Maes spun on, "Don't you fucking dare tell me this is okay! Don't tell me this will get better! How am I supposed to tell them!?" Maes sank to his knees on the floor, shoulders shaking as the tears began to flow. "How am I going to tell Nina and Elicia their big brother is never coming home?"
Riza knelt beside him without touching him, "They knew, Maes. We all knew."
Maes wrapped his arms around himself, "I tried so hard to teach him that his life mattered. I failed. I failed him. God help me, I failed him—"
Riza hushed him, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault. Edward burned bright, and you gave him a family when his life had fallen apart. But it's not on you to fix those deepest parts of him."
Roy joined them on the floor, wrapping his arms around Maes. "He will find peace now. He can rest now."
Maes shook his head, "No, no. He wasn't supposed to leave. Why didn't he stay? Why couldn't he just be—"
Riza hugged Maes from the other side, "He gave all of himself, to every challenge presented to him and to any person who asked it of him. If he were anything else, he wouldn't have been himself."
Maes choked on a laugh, "He wasn't done growing yet. He didn't know himself yet. He didn't know who he might have been."
Roy squeezed him harder, "He was your son."
Maes let out a sob, "He was my salvation."
Roy and Riza held him together as best they could as Maes gave himself time to shatter. When the sun had set, Maes rose to his feet, parts of his soul discarded as put himself back together.
Riza drove him home to break his little girls' hearts.
Roy went home to break Ling's.
The house was quiet save for the flipping of papers in the living room.
Roy entered the space, not bothering to take off his uniform.
Ling was on the floor with numerous alchemy books strune around him. He was bobbing a pen in his mouth glaring down at a blank page of paper. Black Hayate remained asleep curled into the boy's side.
It brought Roy back to his own years of studying alchemy, and he hated that this scientific art that Ling had fallen into because of a boy he had fallen in love with was about to be tainted by grief.
Would Ling quit?
Heart breaking for his little brother, Roy cleared his throat.
But before he could, Ling demanded, "What happened?"
Roy swallowed hard, meeting his brother's eyes which were the same shade of grey as their mother's had been. "Ling, I'm so sorry. Edw—"
"No," Ling snapped, voice rising in anger even as all the colour drained from his face. "Shut up. Don't you dare say his name."
"Ling," Roy sighed.
"He's not dead," Ling stated.
"He is," Roy said softly but steadily.
"I don't believe you. Your military is incompetent. Edward is not dead."
"He died protecting others from a rockfall in a collapsing tunnel."
"Did they find a body?" Ling demanded.
"No, but—"
"Then he isn't dead," Ling snapped. Grabbing his sketchpad and the book he had been reading before retreated upstairs.
Roy flinched when Ling slammed the bedroom door.
He sighed, rubbing at his face. He wondered if Edward knew the hole he would leave behind him.
oOo
The funeral was a large affair, larger than Riza had expected.
She watched the crowd, setting aside her own grief that felt minor in the wake of the sorrow around her.
The Rockbells and Edward's biological father and brother stood together. Alphonse Elric might as well have been a phantom in his resemblance to his brother. Some of the military personnel kept having to whisper to themselves to spread the information that despite Edward being a Hughes, he did have a biological extended family.
Winry Rockbell and Alphonse were holding hands.
Van Hohenheim's tears flowed freely and unabashedly, though they were ugly tears, his entire face creasing with sorrow, he was silent in his grief.
This was not true for Elicia and Nina who kept yelling at people that they were lying and that 'Big Brother had promised to come back.'
Riza didn't miss Alphonse's flinches every time the girls spoke.
Ling hung back in the crowd, he looked angry.
As Edward's CO, Roy had to do the majority of the eulogy. But surprisingly, it was Olivier Armstrong who prevented Bradley from speaking as she took over.
"For the men, Major Hughes gave his life for, our debt is unpayable. And for this nation… Edward Elric-Hughes is an example of what the military is capable of, of what science and progress are capable of.
"In less than three years, a young man reengineered a city's infrastructure, humbling us all. Not in his great deeds, but in showing us all the great things we are capable of giving back to our people. It is not enough to keep our borders safe if we cannot provide for the well-being of our nation. If Major Hughes leaves any legacy behind him, let it be the conviction that the State is meant to serve her people."
There was a ripple through the crowd.
Riza couldn't make out Bradley's reaction, likely he had made no outward reaction at all.
But the officers present and the citizens who had known Edward looked visibly shaken. Such a statement was the antithesis of the nationalism they had all been raised with.
Major General Olivier Armstrong wasn't exactly known for being a populace.
But Edward's actions had been, political values that had not been voiced before, only exemplified.
Maes was the last to speak, and his words were brief but just as damning. "I met my son the day I returned to Central from my deployment to the Ishvalan War. I would like to say, I helped the boy I adopted, but in truth, Ed saved me.
"However you remember, know that yes, he was a genius, but he was also the best big brother on the planet and a son that any man would be proud of."
Not much was said after that.
There was a coffin but no body. Still, all those who had known Ed placed a rose on top at the tombstone.
A hundred roses doing their best to capture the sun, they were not white roses, they were burnt yellow, the closest they had to gold.
Major Edward Elric-Hughes
Fullmetal Alchemist
Beloved Son, Friend, and Big Brother
And immortalized in stone were Ed's own words a reminder of the selflessness that had driven him:
"Even when our eyes are closed, there's a whole world out there that lives outside ourselves and our dreams."
oOo
AN: Thoughts, arctic wolves, or feedback, pretty please?