Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Fullmetal Alchemist: Revised Version ❯ After the Rain ( Chapter 7 )

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

 

A/N: Sorry for the late update. Lagging behind on schoolwork takes a lot to recover.

 

Soon to come to a chapter near you…the kitty lover.

 

:3 Guess who.

 

Welp, enjoy watching them suffer it out in this one!

 

Interlude

 

Screws and metal cords flew and scattered to the pavement, Ed staring blankly into space as he dropped to his knees beside the remains of his automail arm, the shock overwhelming him. Everything small that held his arm together stayed intact. But the plates that made up its construction had completely disintegrated, not one atomic particle left behind that was a testimony to his arm's existence.

 

The man towered over Ed, fingers still curled for the effect of that moment. Winry, lost for words, gaped at the scene, blue eyes wide with realized terror.

 

“…ED!”

 

Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter 7: After the Rain

 

Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the street for a moment before dying down, followed by a loud thunder clap. Three motionless figures waited, two of them awaiting the other's next move. The third one, desperate to act, was now clutching to a stick of chalk.

 

The dark-skinned man began to slowly advance on Ed's unmoving form on the ground, and Winry's impulses took over. Without hesitation, she dropped to her hands and knees(knee) and drew another alchemic circle on the cement.

 

LEAVE HIM ALONE!

 

Beside herself with anger, Winry planted her hands on the circle as she concentrated the energy towards their enemy and beneath his feet.

 

The electric-blue currents erupting from the ground caught his attention, and he moved to the left just in time to avoid the whip-like tentacles that emerged from Winry's circle and darted towards him in an attempt to ward him off. The transmutation caused Ed to look up from his position and grimace.

 

“Winry, don't!” he ordered.

 

“But Ed!“ she protested in frustration.

 

“I'll have to take away your arms too.” said the man slowly, now moving over to Winry who recoiled and backed up against the wall.

 

“YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!” was Ed's furious outburst. “It's me you want, right? I'm the one you should be after, and no one else gets involved especially her!”

 

Winry's shoulders sagged visibly as her nerve wavered. “Ed…”

 

The man froze in his tracks, and a few moments went before he turned on the alchemist once more. “I will give you time to pray to God.”

 

Ed held his gaze on his opponent, unyielding. Before dropping it to the wet pavement, bangs obscuring his eyes. “Sorry. I don't have a god to pray to.”

 

The man regarded him silently as Ed continued. “I'm the only one you want to kill. Winry doesn't have anything to do with me.”

 

“Ed…”

 

“Unless…you want to kill her too…?” he asked in a low voice.

 

The man answered evenly, “If there are obstacles, I will remove them. But for now, the only one I have business with is the Fullmetal Alchemist. Only you.”

 

Ed was silent. And then to Winry's shock, he smiled noticeably. “Really? Then promise me…that you won't touch my friend.”

 

“…!”

 

The serial killer nodded only once to affirm. “I will keep my word.”

 

“What are you saying…?” Winry's voice was barely a whisper, then she grew frantic. “Ed, what are you doing? RUN!”

 

Disbelieving and desperate, she fell on her stomach and crawled over to the pair. Horrified when the man began to bend over her childhood friend.

 

“NO! STOP IT!” she cried out in fear, her pace quickening as she dragged herself over to them with only a leg and two arms to carry her, but they seemed so far away. “DON'T! ED!”

 

He didn't even seem to hear her. He kept his head down, prepared for death. A pose, to her horror, that was almost too similar to the one he'd taken the previous night.

 

No…no…! she thought, panicking. This…this can't be happening…!

 

Slowly, the killer lifted the hand that destroyed more than one life the night before.

 

“WAIT! DON'T!” Winry sobbed, her nerve completely dissolved. “DON'T TOUCH HIM! DON'T KILL HIM! PLEASE!”

 

The destructive hand was now inches from that crown of golden hair, and an anguished cry escaped her.

 

“STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!”

 

A gunshot cut through Winry's pleading screams.

 

The man looked up, as did Ed, who ogled at the Colonel and his team of officials.

 

“That's as far as you go.” he stated in a calm tone. It had been Roy Mustang to shoot in the air, thus interrupting them. Behind him stood the First and the Second Lieutenant. “That was a close call, Fullmetal.”

 

For a moment, Ed stared at the unexpected arrival, before he came back to reality.

 

“Colonel! He—!“

 

“That man is a suspect for the serial murders of State Alchemists.” Mustang explained. “But there's no doubt about it after witnessing this. Which means,” he added through dark half-lidded eyes, “you're also behind the murders of Shou Tucker and his daughter.”

 

For a moment, Ed felt his own heart jump to his tightened throat. This guy…? This guy…killed Nina…?

 

From his spot on the pavement, Ed rounded on the tall dark man with an angry snarl, his eyes ablaze. At that moment, he couldn't explain how he wanted to react to this bit of information, but he did know what he wanted to do right then: tear the killer apart with his bare hands.

 

Over on Winry's corner, she'd heard the Colonel. And felt her face go slack rather than stretch to a horrified expression like she wanted to.

 

What followed after that became a blur to them both. Or rather, to Winry. Leaning on the wall, she barely registered Mustang advancing on the enemy, only to be tripped by the First Lieutenant upon a narrow escape. Then, the Major Alex Armstrong stepped forward to intervene. He challenged the dark-skinned man(who was finally identified as Scar) to a fight that was just as challenging to the muscled man. And Armstrong, so caught in the moment, couldn't help but entertain Scar with his own alchemy. Something that everyone felt needn't be so stressed, as it turned out. All the same, Scar finally decided to save his energy for another day, and escaped to the underground.

 

And the commotion died down with his quick getaway. With the Colonel busy giving Lt. Colonel Hughes(who'd been in hiding) a piece of his mind, Ed found himself on his knees next to Winry's unmoving form. And for a moment, he thought she'd passed out.

 

“Winry!” he called to her.

 

She didn't answer. Winry's glass eyes, unfocused, continued to stare ahead. She didn't seem to hear or see anyone. Not even Ed, and somehow it made him panic.

 

“WINRY! WINRY!”

 

Then, she blinked. Slowly, her head rose to meet his anxious gaze, much to his relief. Which shifted to utter shock several moments later when she pounced on him angrily.

 

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” Winry yelled at him, clutching fistfuls of his shirt with her face inches from his own. “DO YOU REALIZE WHAT KIND OF STUPID THING YOU JUST DID?”

 

Ed, caught between responding(something he was struggling with) and shutting his mouth, stared wide-eyed and didn't make much of an effort to pull away from Winry, her face contorted with the kind of fury he had a feeling matched his a while ago after hearing of Scar's deed.

 

“I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!” she was still yelling, ignoring the onlookers and focused only on Ed. “YOU'RE ONLY HUMAN, ED! YOU'RE NOT GOD! YOU CAN'T JUST SAY YOU'D RATHER BE KILLED THAN ME, OKAY? YOU CAN'T!”

 

At this point, Winry's threatening tones were quickly softening, and her voice began to sound more pained than angry. “Don't…don't…!”

 

She tried to look for other things to say to him, things that would knock some sense into her childhood friend. So that he'd…never…ever…think of doing that for her again. Because somewhere, somewhere in-between Scar's attempt to murder Ed and the military coming to their rescue, she'd come to a conclusion. And as scary and as, admittedly, somewhat silly…

 

Winry Edgestone couldn't take seeing anything happen to Edward Elric.

 

If the Colonel hadn't come for them in time, Ed wouldn't have lived to see tomorrow.

 

And she would have been hurt.

 

A dry sob escaped her lips, her forehead resting on his left shoulder. Her grip on his shirt had loosened. Winry didn't realize she'd already stopped yelling moments ago. And Ed was still recovering from the shockwave.

 

He blinked a few times, checking if she still had more to say, before pulling himself away from her as Hawkeye draped her blue coat over his shoulders. Winry fell silent, and made no sign of protest when Ed moved away from her. She just sat there. Holding the leg that remained.

 

They'd both lost a part of them in the fight; he lost an arm and she lost a leg. There was some sort of irony in that situation, and she couldn't pinpoint what was exactly. But, she did know that in spite of the yelling, what she'd really been trying to tell him was…

 

“…Please don't do it again.” she whispered with her head down, her words barely audible over the pouring rain.

 

But he heard it. He heard it as he wrapped his red coat securely around her body. She sounded pleading. And he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

 

“Ah…we're all beat up.” Ed finally had the chance to speak since Winry had yelled at him, and he sat on the ground beside her. She looked up when the coat fell on her shoulders, and her hands automatically reached up to take hold of the material.

 

Ed tilted his head back to feel the fat droplets pattering his face, and he sighed tiredly. “We're all beat up. There's no way we can suck this much.”

 

Winry stared at her friend. And without warning, a chuckle escaped her. And it surprised him enough to ask, “What?”

 

Still laughing quietly, she shrugged a little and stared at the remains of her leg. “I don't know. I'm just…glad we're okay is all. We're not dead. We're alive. And I'm happy.”

 

Ed chortled, getting it. “Okay. Well, you just took the words right out of my mouth.”

 

A silence fell between them. But Winry still had one last thing to say. And she really wanted to say it. Just so to clarify what she had really wanted to say in place of her berating.

 

“I'm so glad you're okay. Ed.” she whispered shyly.

 

“…Yeah.”

 

End of Chapter 7

 

A/N: What you've recently read was the work of a restless author. I didn't want to get into the whole “Scar's-out-for-blood” scenario. Besides, we all get the point. R and R, fooz! -is trying to be hip- XD