Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Full Metal Alchemist : Asylum ❯ Hohenhiem Gone ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Edward Elric sat pale-faced in the corner of the dark, damp bedroom. Sounds of a struggle came from outside his window as the musty stench of the city wafted in.
“Al…” He sighed breathlessly. He could see his breath in this frigid enviroment. The heater hadn’t worked in three weeks, which was about as long as it had been since he’d left this room.
Warm tears fell from a now 18 year old Edward’s red eyes. He watched in silence as it coursed down his cheap metal arm. How he missed Winry’s auto-mail. He misssed everything from the old world…his world. He threw his head back in anger, slamming it against a wall. With a painful groan, he closed his eyes and relived a two-month old memory:

“Edward…” his father’s raspy voice echoed softly against his bedroom walls. “You knew this day would come quickly, why do you cry so hard?” The putrid stench of rotting flesh intruded upon the salty scent of hot tears on Edward’s cheeks.
He screamed “But father, what’ll I do? I’ve only had you with me the past few years, I don’t have anyone else!” He mentally noted to kick himself later for having such an out of character moment. He wasn’t acting himself, but it was understandable in the situation.
“Edward”, the old man put his hand out to his son, “You will be fine, I am paying the price for my sins, as you have.” His eyes shot to Ed’s false arm.

Edward’s eyes flashed open as he felt a rat scurry across his bare leg. He glared down at his own form, pale and scarred. A flash of blood streamed silently down his inner thigh to the floor. Glaring at it, he tried hard to remember when he started cutting himself, but could only achieve memories of how blissful it felt.
He visually shifted to his left leg, which was wooden and nicked. Not self-inflicted, however, but a reminder that he couldn’t fight as well in this world as he did in his own. No, in his world, the three punks that kicked his ass would’ve been dead without having a chance.
Lost in thought, it took him a bit to realize someone was pounding away at the front door. He contemplated yelling at them to fuck off, then decided he didn’t’ want to waste the energy. It was probably just the landlord, anyway. The short, balding bastard came and beat on the door three times a week, demanding the rent money Edward didn’t have.
The pounding finally stopped, and Ed chuckled softly as his eyes spanned the dimly lit room. Alchemy symbols were everywhere- painted, chalked and even carved right into the stone. He had tried every symbol he knew, and even a few he had never seen before, yet remembered all the same.
To his dismay, alchemy didn’t work in this world. He wondered if it ever had. And yet… somehow his father had used it to come back to their world. He concentrated hard, trying to recall anything his father may’ve said that could give him a clue as to how to do it. The harder the thought, though, the worse his head hurt. Images flashed through his head; painful memories he couldn’t forget.
Vision after vision plagued him, memories slammed the back of his eyes like sledgehammers. Voices echoed in the back of his mind, singing, screaming. He tried to ignore them, did his best to push them out. Finally, with a scream, his eyes flashed back open and it stopped. A wicked smile crossed his face as realization dawned. He knew how his father did it; and knew how he could, too.
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“ Dear Ed,
I dreamt of you last night. You were there in Colonel Mustang’s office, laughing and joking with everyone. I was there, too, but you couldn’t see me. I woke up crying, yet smiling.
Winry says not to pay too much attention to the negative aspect, but to focus on the good parts. I can’t shake the feeling of uselessness I felt in the dream, but I’m filled with warmth every time I think of you smiling again. I miss you brother, come home soon.
Love,
Alphonse

“Al, I don’t see why you bother,” Winry sighed and warpped her arms around Al’s neck. He was older now, and after Ed’s disappearence, Winry stopped looking at Al as a little brother, and more like a lover. They were there for each other in the beginning of the ordeal, back when Al had no memories of his life as a “tin can”, as he now puts it. As he became more adept at Alchemy, however, his memories started to come back, and he needed Winfry more and more each day. Their companionship became full of love, and eventually, passion. On her 18th birthday, Alphonse proposed, and Winry accepted; a few months later she was Mrs. Winry Elric.
Winry sighed as she kissed Al’s ear, “he won’t be back, Al.” A single tear fell from her eye and hit the letter he had just finished.
“I know, Win; but it helps me to do this.” He stood up, and lifted the letter from the table. Taking a few steps back (winry doing the same), Al stared intently at the paper, concentrating.
“Send this to Ed!” He screamed, and let go of the paper, it floated two inches down before Al’s palms slammed it from both sides. A brilliant flash, and the apper was gone.
Al lowered his arms and burst into tears, soon collapsing to the floor. Winry knew from past experience that he wanted to be left alone during these “fallouts”; so she quietly left the room and closed the door. As she walked down the hall, sobbing quietly, her heart sank with every agonized screaming of Ed’s name from Al’s study.
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 220;Watch it, asshole!” A drunkard slurred at Ed, after being hit in the back of the head with the young man’s metal arm. Ed just ignored him and pressed on to his goal, a devilish grin plastered on his face.
He put his flesh hand into his pocket, and groped the letter that had appeared at his doorstop just as he was leaving. The smile stretched further, and if possible, became more evil.
“I’m coming home, Al. I’m coming home.” He muttered under his breath as he pushed his way down a dark street littered with drug-dealers, whores and thugs.
Finally, he stopped. His gaze fell upon a set of rusty iron gates. A fire of hatred and passion flared in his eyes momentarily as he started walking toward the crumbling walls of the Hallowcrest Cemetary.
“Here I come…Father.”
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“Al?” Winry’s voice was but a whisper in the darkened bedroom.
“Mm?” Al rolled over toward his wife and slid his arm over her revealed midriff. He nipped lightly at her neck as she went on.
“You never told me how you do it…” Her tone never changed, but a slight quiver shook it.
Al chuckled softly, “You know how it’s done, honey,” he laughed gently as he slid his hand down her stomach.
“Al!” She laughed out loud and caught his hand before anything else started again. “I didn’t’ meant that!” She turned her head to face him. “I meant the alchemy. It’s not like normal alchemy, not by far.”
“Oh. That.” He sighed and rolled onto his back. “Well,” another exasperated sigh, “I don’t know realy. I know Ed could transmutate without a circle because of the what happened that night.”
“Your mom?” SHe interjected softly, she could tell the memories still bothered Ed.
“Yeah. And I can only assume it’s because of where I’ve been that I can do it without a circle, too.”
“That makes sense,” Winry sighed, then fell into silence as she contemplated Al’s words. She had forgotten he was even there until he spoke again:
“It feels like it comes from somewhere else inside of me now. Before, it felt like it came from my arms, now it feels like it comes from deep inside my heart…” His words drifted off into silence, the dreamy way they left, lulling Winry to sleep.