A Shadow Of Who He Was (A Fullmetal Alchemist FanFiction)

Chapter 4

Al's knees buckled beneath him, and he fell forward, Winry yelping and catching him moments before he crashed into the ground. "Alphonse!" She yelped, and Al winced, the noise abusing his ears. He could feel the hands supporting him, calloused from years of work, yet still soft enough to be identified as a females. "Where's Ed?" 

"H-he's gone W-Winry..." He croaked, wincing. His voice box had atrophied over the time it had been unused, and he looked up at Winry. "H-he attacked me...something happened to him and he's gone..." His voice was a whisper, a rustle of wind blowing through the autumn leaves. 

"But Ed would never..." Winry gasped, eyes wide.

"That's the thing. I don't think he was in control of himself when he did. He was so...evil, I guess." She had helped him to stand and hobble over to the bed, and sit on the rumpled and mussed up sheets.

"Do you think it has to do with his disappearance?"

"Has to be. He...he wasn't like that before then."

"But he was so normal when he came back!"

The phone rang.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ri-

Winry had moved, picking it up, Al hobbling after.

"Rockbell residence and automail, Winry speaking."

She paused.

Paled.

Turned to Al.

"Hang on. I...I'll put him on the phone."

She, without any further words, held the phone out towards Al. He accepted it and put the receiver up to his ear.

"Hello?' He ventured. Colonel Roy Mustangs voice was panicked through the phone as he spoke. What had happened..?

"Alphonse, where is your brother?"

"I...I don't know...Colonel, what's wrong?'

"Denny Brosch and a civilian boy were killed. We believe Edward to be the suspect. Hughes is panicking. If you see him, do not approach." Roy said firmly, his voice now steely even through his worry.

The blood in Al's voice turned to ice, crawling along at a languorous pace. "Roy..." He breathed, fear lacing his voice. "Ed was here..."

"When? Is he still there?" Roy demanded, and Al gave the negative answer.

"H-he left last night...he went..." He choked on his words. "He w-wasn't h-himself...he attacked me." He finished weakly.

There was dead silence for a minute.

Then two.

At three, Al's knees demanded he sat down. He didn't.

At three and a half, he fell on his ass.

Roy broke the silence. "Alphonse, what was that?"

He grimaced. "Fell. Sorry."

"Alphonse...that didn't sound like your armor..." He ventured slowly.

"I don't know if I should be glad or not that I left it."

"You have your body back?" Roy breathed into the receiver, hardly daring to speak the words aloud.

"Yes. Ed broke my blood seal and...I don't know...I should be dead, but I woke up..."

There was more silence. "Al, I have to go. Do you have any idea where your brother could have gone?"

"No, sir. He could have gone anywhere. Hell, he may be headed back to Central."

"Al?" Roy said, voice terse. "Don't curse. It doesn't suit you." Al let out a choked half sob, half laugh.

"Yessir," he said, and the line went dead. Roy had hung up.

"What did he say..?" Winry said, looking at Al's prone form.

"Ed is suspected of the murders of Second Lieutenant Denny Brosch and a civilian child." Al said quietly, voice dull.

"B-but...it's Ed...he wouldn'-"

"And we didn't think he would ever try to hurt me either, but he did." That shut Winry up.

--

Ed soared above the ground, the green fields and pastures passing in a blur beneath him. He hadn't really wanted to go to the slums so soon, but, alas, he had little choice in the matter.

Gyrhon could help him, he mused, with being a bit more discrete with his killing. Although...messy seemed to be more fun.

The light of dawn broke the horizon, and Ed allowed himself a small smile. That was one thing that would never change; the rising and setting of the sun would always be there for him. It wouldn't betray him.

Why? Because it was merely a ball of burning gas that their planet orbited for eternity, giving the illusion of the sun coming and going when it was those on earth doing that.

He angled his wings, banking to the left steeply as he relived the fight between him and Alphonse with a smile. His brother had always been too trusting. And he had paid for that.

Edward redirected himself slightly, now moving just East of where the middle of Central would be. He wanted to see Elysia Hughes one last time before he killed her.

Perhaps twenty minutes later he landed silently on the pavement.

Twenty five minutes later he was in the Hughes household.

Thirty minutes later he was staring down at a still sleeping Elysia, memorizing every soft inch of skin, every small dimple and curve to her face.

Forty minutes after he had adjusted his course, he left the Hughes household for the second to last time, with no blood having been shed for now.

It was too light to risk flying now, so he resigned himself to alleys and rooftops, not drawing attention to himself for once in his life.

The slums came into view, and he was positive it was the one he was looking for, if only because of the animalistic way the people prowled, the way that some people glared, as though they'd much rather be flying or slinking along. But they couldn't. Not in the day.

Gyrhon greeted him almost immediately. "Thought you were going somewhere?" He said, more of a statement than anything.

"Yeah. I did." He gave the black haired chimera a coy smirk. "It went rather...pleasantly, shall I say."

Gyrhon looked unimpressed. "Who did you kill?"

"Someone who was too trusting for his own good. My brother."

"You killed your brother." Gyrhon sighed. "How lovely. Anyways, we'll have to find you a tent, unless you want to sleep out in the open or find a tree."

Ed quickly opted for the tree. They were...homey, he supposed.

--1031 Words--

Well. This chapter sucked.