Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Automail Heart ❯ Part 1 ( Chapter 1 )

It wasn't supposed to happen, that was the first thing Winry told herself when she woke up. The irony enough was almost laughable. On one hand, she had always been fascinated with the technological and medical feats of auto-mail. One of the best minds in the business, if she said so herself. And as much as she firmly believed that an auto-mail limb was nothing to be ashamed of, she certainly never pictured herself having one, let alone an entire body.

 

The metal joints squeaked a bit when she first moved them, typical enough for new auto-mail that hadn't been worn yet. It was an odd sensation. The last time she was awake, pain was coursing through her body. Now she could not feel pain, or heat or cold. Technology only went so far as to send pressure signals to the brain, so although she could feel pressure against the metallic body, it was a completely different sensation than a touch to the skin. Only one part of her remained flesh and blood now, her neck and head which were thankfully saved the horrors the rest of her body had to deal with.

 

"Winry?" her grandmother's voice called to her. "Winry, dear, are you awake?" Winry rubbed her eyes. The metal fingers were cold to the touch.

 

"Yes," she managed to mutter back. "How long have I been out?"

 

"A good three days," came the reply. "How are you feeling?"

 

"Different," she admitted. "And tired." Suddenly she bolted upright. "Where's Miss Izumi?" she gasped. It was a premature action. The sensation of sitting too quickly after waking up was amplified about ten times, the blood quickly rushing to her head and then ebbing back again.

 

"Calm down," her grandmother scolded her as she helped her lie back down. "Izumi went home yesterday afternoon. Frankly, I told her to, because she was up all the time worrying about you, even though there was nothing more she could do."

 

At that point, Winry turned a bit red in the face. "I hope I didn't really upset her."

 

"You didn't, dear, she just wanted to help you. And I must admit, you're one lucky girl." Winry looked down at her metal limbs. The signal in her brain ordered the left fist to tighten and it did. But she didn't know if she would go quite so far as to call this lucky.

 

"There hasn't been a survivor of a full-blown fossil disease case yet," her grandmother went on, as if reading her thoughts. "And you made it through."

 

"Yes," Winry admitted. She had to admit, though, it carried a heavy price tag.

 

Originally she had just started working on the full body automail as a side project. Not that she could ever see anyone really using it in the near future, but being Winry, if it was a mechanical possibility, she simply had to try it out. The first model was female, obviously, she wouldn't dream of starting with a male model. It was a body based roughly on her own dimensions (okay, a slightly skinnier waist and a few other minor adjustments,) fully functional to do exactly was an automail limb would do - replace the missing part of the body. It became obvious early on that the entire project was pretty much useless due to the fact that it was possible to live without a limb and attach auto mail after the fact. Somehow moving a person from a dysfunctional body to Winry's new design was impossible without killing the person in the process. With, of course, the exception of alchemy. A powerful enough transmutation could combine two things together, even machine and human if the person was skilled enough. And so Ed and Al's famed teacher had such skill.

 

It started off when Winry returned home from their detour to Lujon's hometown, the village plagued with the fossil disease. The deadly illness quickly stripped its victims of any decency, changing soft skin and flesh to patchy, rock-like substance, similar to the bark of a petrified tree. It was a grisly and gruesome scene to see a victim in the final stage of the disease, but if caught early enough, the infected limb could be removed and the rest of the body saved. Once the disease took hold of any vital organs, however, it was all over. At one point, some alchemist had been coming through claiming he could cure people of the disease, and for a while he could. But a few weeks later, their illness would come back, and with a vengeance. In a short time, the entire town was reduced to nothing. Winry's hope was that some might be able to be saved, but she, Ed, and Al arrived far too late for that. Discouraged and uncharacteristically depressed, Winry returned home, completely unaware of what she had exposed herself to.

 

Winry first noticed the infection on her arm. She didn't want to believe it at first, but the growing stone skin spread like wildfire. Within a week, she was noticing it on her chest as well. Not a good sign. Her grandmother was ready to bid her farewell, but against her better judgment, Winry argued against her condition being a death sentence. after all, there was that full body automail project she'd been working on. And it wasn't as if there wasn't a highly skilled alchemist living down the road. One thing led to another, and before Winry could change her mind, here she was.

 

"I feel like a moving can opener," she muttered, flexing the metal arms back and forth.

 

"Oh good, I've got some fruit cocktail I need to you to open," her grandmother jokingly called from the kitchen. Leave it to her to put a humorous spin on things.

 

"Ha ha, you're a riot," Winry replied. She had to admit, though, looking at her condition made her wonder. How much of her was still human now? Al was in a similar circumstance, and she still believed with all her heart he was just as human as anyone else. One day he would achieve his dream and revive his old body, she had faith in that. Herself, on the other hand, well… that body would not be coming back.

 

"Ed would freak if he saw this," she thought to herself. An image of Ed's face appeared in her mind and it hurt a bit. She was always his support, his companion. She couldn't let him see her this way. So that's when she decided. Somehow or another, the transmutation would be kept a secret.