Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Fullmetal Alchemist: Revised Version ❯ The Price of a Life ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: FMA? T'ain't mine to begin with. Otherwise, it would have been like THIS.

 

A/N: The roles are switched, just so you know. But I won't spoil anything. -sigh- And I apologize to those who've been reading Sparrow's Longing. As you can see, I deleted that because I, well, suck. I'll never post a story like that again until I know I have a good plot. Heh. Sorry, sorry.

 

I believe this is a novelization of the manga, only in a different version.

 

Interlude

 

“…I see. I see.” the founder nodded his head in understanding. “It was quite a mystery as to why a brat was called `Fullmetal', but…”

 

He smirked. “So this is why…Rose, these two have done something absolutely forbidden to alchemists: they have performed human transmutation.

 

“THEY'VE COMMITTED THE GREATEST CRIME!”

 

Ed cast aside his coat, revealing the price of his past deed. A metal arm and leg attached in place of the limbs he'd lost one year ago.

 

Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter 2: The Price of a Life

 

“Once, there was a hero who flew too close to the sun. His wings of wax fell apart, and he plummeted to the earth.”

 

-sss-

 

“Winry! Winry!”

 

The girl, much younger-looking, looked up from the book she was studying while perched on the stepladder. “What is it, Ed?”

 

He laid out the chart before him on the table, an excited expression on his face. “This is it! It'll work with this theory!”

 

She rushed to his side, surprised. “Huh? You mean…!”

 

“Yeah! We can bring Mom back!”

 

We were positive that we could create life.

 

She was kind…a very kind mother. Even to me, who wasn't even blood-related.

 

I only agreed to help Ed bring his mother back because she filled the void in my heart where my parents were supposed to be.

 

My parents…who left me in their care to go treat patients during the civil war…and never came back.

 

We were like children. In our age, we should've known better. But we didn't care.

 

A mother's smile was all we were ever hoping for.

 

Even though human transmutation was forbidden, we learned alchemy just to be able to do that one thing…

 

…But the transmutation…was a failure.

 

Ed lost his left leg in the process. I lost my entire body…then, I lost consciousness.

 

When I opened my eyes again, I saw this body…a body that didn't feel like mine at all, nor real…

 

…and amidst a sea of blood…

 

“Heh…Winry, I'm sorry. I could only transmute your soul with my right arm.” a bleeding Ed said softly.

 

“Why did you do this!” Winry wanted to sound angry. She knew she should sound angry. Throttle him for being so stupidly reckless. But she couldn't deny what her best friend had just done, and she felt more guilty than furious. Ed did something she wouldn't have if she were in his shoes. And up till that day, she never forgot…

 

Which was why she vowed to stick by him and support him…no matter what…

 

-sss-

 

“While Ed was suffering from the loss of his left leg…” Winry was saying in the present. “He traded his right arm to transmute my soul into this body.”

 

She wrapped a hand around her other elbow and glanced at the ground with a detached face. “In this body, I can't feel anything. I don't even need to breathe. And Ed relies on automail to keep him standing.”

 

“Hm…” Ed hung his head, smiling in spite of the situation. “This is what happens when two people try to resurrect a single human being. This is what resurrecting a person means, Rose.”

 

The woman shook, looking on with horror at the scene.

 

“YOU GOT THE GUTS TO DO IT? DO YOU?” Ed demanded, making her cringe.

 

“Hahaha…” Cornello jeered leaning on the bannister. “Edward Elric! And then you joined the army to become a National Alchemist! Don't make me laugh!”

 

“Shut up!” Ed snapped. “Without that stone, you can't do anything, you ultra third-rate!”

 

“I see, I see. And so, you want the Philosopher's stone? If you use this, your human transmutation would probably succeed, right?”

 

“Don't get me wrong, baldy! We just want that stone to restore our original bodies. What I want the most is to be like I was before.”

 

“Mr. Founder, we'll say it again.” Winry held a hand out, trying to keep her voice steady as she fought back her nervousness. “Give us the stone, while you're still not hurt.”

 

Cornello thought otherwise. “Hehe…you stupid children who came too close to God and fell to the earth…” he took the iron cane in his hand and transmuted it. “This time I will have to send you to God myself!”

 

The cane became a machinegun, and without hesitation, the founder fired at the two teenagers, laughing hysterically. A cloud of dust formed around the pair and Rose herself, shielding them completely from his eyes. Ceasing fire, he waited for the dust to clear, and he gaped at what he saw. “What!”

 

“Nope, God hates us.” Ed cracked with a grin, a wall recently conjured from beneath their feet standing to protect them from the gunfire. “Even if we go, he'll send us back!”

 

Cornello grit his teeth in annoyance. “Tch!”

 

Where Rose was still hidden in the dust cloud, Winry rushed forward and grabbed her arm. The founder spotted the movement and aimed the gun right at Winry, who yelped and sprinted off with Rose in tow.

 

“Shit! Winry!” Ed clapped his hands together and struck the ground with both palms, concentrating the alchemical energy towards the two women, and formed a curving barrier over their heads while they tried to make a quick getaway. The bullets penetrated the structure, but the two stayed safe.

 

“Winry!” Ed jabbed a thumb in the direction of the exit. “We're getting out of here!”

 

“Fools!” The founder scorned. “That exit won't open unless I command it to from here!” at those words, the double doors vanished instantly.

 

Ed smirked and clapped his hands. “Oh, really?”

 

He slapped the wall and produced a new set of doors.

 

“WHAAAT!”

 

“If there ain't an exit, I'll make one!” Ed pushed the door open with his shoulder, and led Winry and company out, surprising two or more of Cornello's followers as they ran into the hallway and escaped.

 

“What are you doing!” Cornello appeared at the doorway, furious at being ridiculed by Ed. “Those are heretics that are trying to tarnish our religion! Capture them immediately!”

 

-sss-

 

“Over here!” one of them yelled as the trio approached. “Stop!”

 

The three came to halt when the group of men barricaded the hallway. All of them had sticks for weapons.

 

“Hey kids,” one drawled, “gonna fight unarmed with the lot of us?”

 

“Before you get hurt, just calm down and give—“

 

Ed, seeing a wide opportunity to show off, clapped his hands together with wicked glee. Everyone en masse went, “Huh?” as Ed concentrated the energy onto his right arm.

 

…And the ultra-sharp, ass-kicking, menacing blade that appeared in its place spelt their doom.

 

“Hehehehe!” Ed cackled, tearing his way through the mass like they were chickens. Figuratively speaking in two ways.

 

Winry ducked when one of them flew over their heads. “Sometimes I can't believe I befriended a maniac like you, Ed!”

 

“Ahh quit ruining my fun!”

 

“Hey, that kid's tough!” the second group's leader yelled as the three of them came closer. “So don't hold back!”

 

“Out of the way, mister!” Ed stuck his left leg out and got the man squarely in the face, thus putting an end to the ambush.

 

“Ed, I think we're far from the exit.” Winry decided to say as they continued to run along the hallway.

 

“Care to jump out the window?”

 

“Didn't I tell you that I'm never doing that again?”

 

“Wait!”

 

They skidded to a halt, Rose bumping into Winry.

 

“What's this room?” Ed poked his head through a set of open doors, taking vague note of the microphone on the desk.

 

“This is the broadcast room.” Rose explained. “The high priest uses this radio for his sermons.”

 

“Hohoho, really now?” Ed's mischievous snickers were as comforting as a dog foaming in the mouth.

 

“…Ed, please don't be so evil…” Winry sighed.

 

-sss-

 

On the rooftop, Winry and Rose were gathering materials to set up Ed's scheme, consisting of a small speaker, the cord attached to the microphone, and pieces of metal that Winry was now drawing a circle around. Rose looked her over. She found it so hard to believe that so much could be revealed in one day: Winry and her body, the founder's plot, Ed the Fullmetal Alchemist, his body…

 

“…I still can't believe what you were talking about earlier.” she said quietly, hands clasped tightly to herself. “Unable to transmute without a sacrifice…”

 

Winry looked up from the drawing and turned to smile sadly at Rose. “It's like we said. The basis of alchemy is equal trade. If we want to do something, we have to give up something else. Ed's a natural-born genius, but he paid the cost through effort, so he's like this now.”

 

She was about to resume her task when she stopped to say something else. “Rose, do you know what this body's made of?”

 

The older woman stayed silent.

 

“Clay, plaster, fibers…a bit of each. And an inner skeletal structure of metal to hold all that together. And my hair's from the dolls I played with as a little girl.” she tapped the ground with her chalk. “These were the only materials available to Ed that time. Materials that we used to make small toys with for his Mom with alchemy. You know it's funny that so far, no one's ever noticed anything remotely close to calling `plastic' or `fake' about me. Ed really did a good job on my body. And that's for the better. I was told I'd be whisked away to one of those laboratories and become the subject for tests by several other scientists if my cover was blown. I know Ed wouldn't let that happen, but sometimes I can't help but think. Think `what if'. And I'm always going to wonder why we went and did it.”

 

“You mean…bringing his mother back…?”

 

Winry hung her head and nodded. “When that day came…that time when Ed's Mom died…we jointly decided to put our skills as alchemists to the test, and resurrect Ed's mother using alchemy. And as you know, it's more than illegal to conduct transmutation on a human being, let alone bring them back from the dead. But I guess we didn't care. We were only kids. Kids need parents. But…maybe that wasn't an excuse for our actions either, since we've done too much now to turn back from that.”

 

“But…” Rose replied. “because you paid that sacrifice, Edward's mother had to have been…”

 

“…The body couldn't have been called human.”

 

-sss-

 

A year ago…

 

Trembling, a younger Winry made her way over to the wounded Edward on her hands and knees. She wanted to cry then, seeing him for the way he was. But the body she now possessed didn't allow her the freedom to shed tears. And she held back whatever sound she made whenever she cried.

 

Struggling, she choked out his name. “Ed.”

 

“Winry. You okay?” he grunted, pain apparent in his voice.

 

Why should he ask that? What about him? Was he?

 

Winry's hands…hands that couldn't feel…reached out to him, and held his shoulders as gently as possible, and her left hand became stained with blood yet she didn't care. Her fingers were still a bit stiff; her body had yet to adjust. If she wasn't careful, the coating would crack. This colorless body she now owned.

 

That was when she noticed that she was naked. The body had no clothes on. As a woman would with a man present, she almost recoiled. Then remembered that right now there was something more important than modesty.

 

Drab eyes fell on her friend and she suppressed the urge to sob. At least her face was slowly permitting her to express some sort of emotion. Right now, it was twisted in the sort of grief over the one thing they knew they'd never forget; a scar on their souls. And seeing her most precious friend drenched in blood was far from comforting.

 

“Ed…your mother…she's…”

 

He turned his eyes away from the sight and made a gagging noise. “Don't look at it, Winry!”

 

She felt so helpless, and she wanted to cry again as she grabbed a fistful of the long, blonde hair she was almost surprised to see was there. It was dry and coarse, like a doll's hair. It looked so real. But it wasn't.

 

“This…can't be happening, Ed!” she cried. “Your theory should have been perfect!”

 

There was a silence that followed, and then Ed quietly answered, “Yeah, the theory wasn't wrong…”

 

He held up the remaining arm, and stared at the fresh blood on it with a mixture of terror and understanding. “The ones who were wrong were…us…”

 

-sss-

 

Winry began once more on the circle, but she still had more to say. “We quit working with human transmutation, but Ed wants to return me to my own body. And…I want him to get his lost limbs back. But it's a risk to take…we might even pay for it and lose our lives. At first, Ed didn't want me to come, even though he knew we were both at fault. But it was my decision to make. This is the road we've chosen all on our own.”

 

Putting the finishing touches on the alchemy circle, she stood up to look at the older woman in the eye. “Rose, that's why…you mustn't do as we did.”

 

-sss-

 

Cornello trudged down the hallway and skidded to a halt at the doorway of the room. Inside, Ed was sitting cross-legged on the desk, looking quite the picture.

 

“You punk!” the founder snarled. “You can't get away anymore!”

 

Ed gave him a look of skepticism. “Oh, you've given up? Isn't the fact that you lied going to spread to the people soon?” He rested his chin in his metal palm.

 

“Silence! My underlings are still in the church, and there's no way you can break my control of the information to my stupid believers!”

 

The gold-haired alchemist sighed. “Oh well. I feel sorry for the people who believe in you then.”

 

This brought mocking laughter from Cornello. “Those believers are just pawns for my wars! Pawns don't need pity! And, they'll be satisfied if they died, happily believing they're doing it for God!”

 

Strangely enough, a grin was beginning to crack on Ed's face, something that the founder failed to notice as he went on. “The difference between alchemy and the power of miracles is that I can mass produce believers and replenish my unending hordes of pawns! Did you really think you could stop me!” Cornello laughed wickedly. “Did you think you could stop my plans so easily!”

 

And the splitting grin was followed by Ed's own bout of laughter.

 

“…! What's so funny?” the founder demanded, confusion and irritation obvious on his face.

 

Ed slapped his right hand to his forehead. “Because you're third-rate, baldy!”

 

“You brat! You're still saying that!”

 

“Heyyy, mister,” the boy genius sing-sang showing him a switch in “On” mode in his gloved left hand, “what's this?”

 

Cornello stared for a few seconds, and noticed the microphone that was at his feet.

 

And it registered.

 

“YOU D— YOU DIDN— YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

 

-sss-

 

Out on the rooftop, Winry was standing next to a giant speaker on three legs, the cord from the transmitter attached at the end. And every word the founder had just spoken went right to the speaker for the entire town to hear.

 

“Wow, it's a good thing I drew the set-up first.” she said to Rose. “I always have to put it on paper before transmuting an object.”

 

“Um, does Edward do that too?”

 

Winry shook her head. “Nope. He doesn't need to. Otherwise, he wouldn't have such a `wicked' imagination.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“If you saw his other `masterpieces', you'd know what I mean.”

 

-sss-

 

“WHEN? WHEN DID YOU PUSH THE SWITCH?”

 

“From the beginning, my lord.” Ed never felt so smug.

 

The founder's knees buckled, and he began to sweat. “H-h-h-how could this…!” then the panic melted, and changed into utter fury. “…You brat…”

 

He transmuted the cane into a machinegun once more. “I'LL KILL YOU!”

 

But Ed was two steps ahead of him and he clapped. “TOO LATE!”

 

With one swipe, he sliced the gun in half, and sent the barrel rolling away. “Told you, didn't I? We're different.”

 

“I…I won't give up…” Cornello growled. This was too much. There was no way he was going to let a brat like Ed have the last word alive. And so he transmuted the gun again. “As long as I have this stone, I can use the power of miracles as many—“

 

But something else happened. Rather than the gun becoming twice its original size, it melted and the pieces attached themselves to his arm and became part of it. Bringing about a wave of agony from the founder.

 

“Gyaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

 

Cornello fell clutching his mutated arm in utter pain. “My arm…! MY ARM!”

 

Ed stood, stunned at the occurrence. It took him a few seconds to regain his voice. “Wh—

 

“Why…how…?”

 

“Dahhhh, my aaaaaarm—!“

 

“SHUT UP!”

 

The founder, caught off guard completely by Ed's reaction, obeyed instantly.

 

“This is only a rebound, right!” the alchemist yelled furiously in his face. “Don't scream like a girl about one or two arms!”

 

The bald priest didn't reply, suddenly fearful of the boy clutching a fistful of his robes.

 

“The stone! Show me the Philosopher's stone!” Ed demanded.

 

“St—stone?“

 

Then there was a cracking noise, and the stone on the founder's ring shattered and fell to the floor. An uneasy silence followed after, only to be broken by Ed.

 

“It…broke…” he stared blankly, before rounding on the man before him and shaking him. “WHAT'S GOING ON? THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE IS SUPPOSED TO BE PERFECT, SO WHY DID IT BREAK?”

 

“I…I don't know!” he was confused too. “I haven't heard about this before!”

 

Then it hit him. And Ed's heart nearly stopped. A fake…?

 

Meanwhile, the founder was now begging for mercy, but he wasn't listening anymore. Ed shook as he released Cornello and stood up. “I came all the way here…and I even thought I could restore myself…and it's a…fake…”

 

The bald one watched as Ed retreated some feet away, before dropping down, letting the drama unfold as his dreams of getting his limbs back and living a normal life again with some apple pie was shattered.

 

…He's wide open! If that's how it is, I'll kill that punk with just this!

 

Maneuvering the sharp pipe protruding from his backhand, Cornello inched his way to Ed, whose back was turned.

 

“…Hey, Pops.”

 

It caught him off guard again. “Y-yes?”

 

Ed placed his left hand on the floor. “You've tricked the people in this town. You've tried to kill us.”

 

“Eh…”

 

“But you made us waste all this time, and in the end, all I get is an `oh, I'm sorry, the stone was a fake'?”

 

Every word Ed spoke fueled the energy as it coursed through the floor, through the walls, till the ceiling. As the waves surged, the room began to shift, and the floor near the founder's feet rose and layers upon layers of cement mounted to form a giant fist.

 

“Wah!”

 

It didn't stop there. The desk, bookcases and chairs toppled as a head followed the fist.

 

The head was followed by a face.

 

The face was followed by a body.

 

The body was followed by a gigantic hammer.

 

The hammer…completed the Titans action figure collection.

 

“STOP SCREWING AROUND!” its creator raged, bent on bonking/crushing some heads.

 

The behemoth, looking like a cross between Zeus and the Statue of Liberty(minus the toga), towered over the founder in all its titanic glory. Cornello fell to his knees, looking at a monster…or two of them.

 

Ed, quivering like Jell-O, brought down “divine” punishment on the fraud of a priest.

 

“EAT…GOD HAMMER!”

 

“MY GOD…!” was what Cornello managed to say before a rock-hard fist swung down for the ground towards him.

 

Next thing he knew, he was on his back, close to having a heart attack before passing out. And the fist no less than 2 feet away from him from where it struck the floor.

 

Ed stood motionless for the moment, before he took a deep breath and exhaled. Now that he got that out, his tension was released. Some movement in the doorway caught his attention, and he glanced sideways to see the two women standing. Gawking.

 

Or rather, Rose was gawking. Winry was already turning her eyes from the scene and leaning against the wall back in the hallway with her hands over her eyes.

 

“Has he ever done something like this before?” Rose directed the question at her, eyes still popping out of her sockets.

 

Dropping her hands, Winry stared ahead of her with wide eyes. “I've never seen him pull that one before.”

 

Of all the things that Ed conjured from the ground, she never expected to feast her eyes on him summoning a god. Did she not know him enough?

 

All she knew was that after that display, she felt like…maybe she should take a walk down on the beach, skip some stones, watch the sunset, and maybe pick up a few shells and make a necklace. Whatever's…soothing right now…would help her very much.

 

“Hey. Winry?”

 

She quickly shot a glance at her friend in response, and he quirked a brow. “You okay?”

 

“…Are you?” there was an emphasis to her question.

 

He frowned. “I'm the one asking you that!”

 

She sighed and let the back of her head hit the wall with a light thump. “I'm fine…”

 

“Oh.”

 

No one spoke for a while. Then…

 

“…I was really mad, you know.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

-sss-

 

“So the stone was a fake?”

 

Ed rubbed the back of his neck with exhaustion. “Yeah. And I finally thought I could restore you.”

 

Winry sat next to him and offered a smile. “I'm more worried about you. Automail causes a lot of problems.”

 

“Is your body still okay?” he looked her over, checking for any signs of cracking or peeling.

 

She nodded as an answer. “Yeah. Don't worry. So now what? We're back to where we started.”

 

The alchemist stood, cracking his neck. “Can't do anything about it. We'll look somewhere else.”

 

“No…”

 

They turned to Rose, who was now on her knees with a lost expression. “It has to be a lie…because…he said he could bring him back…”

 

“Rose…” Winry began, but she was cut off by Ed.

 

“Give it up already. It's useless.”

 

But she still didn't understand. After all that she'd done, for the founder and for the church, after giving so much…

 

“…Why does it have to be like this…?” Rose sobbed. “What am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to live now? Tell me! Please!”

 

Neither said a word at first. Winry didn't know how to word her thoughts to help the situation. Then Ed finally spoke for them both.

 

“Think about that on your own.”

 

He walked past her, looking like a fighter coming out of a fierce battle. “Stand up and walk. Move on. After all, you have perfect legs to stand on.”

 

And he strode off, Winry on his heels as they continued their journey.

 

End of Chapter 2

 

A/N: -giggle- Somewhere halfway, I was feeling humorous so I got comically analytical.

 

Yes. Winry Edgestone: Is a walking Barbie doll of clay and plaster, loves skimming stones by the beach, and yes, has a major, MAJOR fangirl crush on Edward the Bean Terminator. And I have the little heart designs around his name in her diary to prove it. Jk

 

Now you know Winry Edgestone. XDDDDDD

 

Yes I have my reasons to change her name. Mostly so that she DOESN'T relate to the Rockbells.

 

So can you guys guess now from which anime Winry's body concept came from?

 

Stay tuned for Chappie 3. I post daily, so no lines, no wait. Hehe. -sigh-

 

-goes back to chewing on her Starbucks frapuccino-