• ❁Alchemic Scars❁ •

Chapter 24 - The Breaking Point

"What are you saying, Al...?"

"You told me once that there was something that you were too afraid to tell me. Maybe what you wanted to tell me was that my soul and my memories are all fake and that they were created artificially. Well, 'Big brother'? Can you prove that a person named Alphonse Elric really existed!? Isn't it possible that Winry, Granny, Elleah, and everyone else is lying to me!!? So, 'Big brother', what do you have to say to that!!? And I'm sure Marcus and Jacky want to hear the truth from you too, Elleah! You can't keep this lie up for long. So what do you have to say!!?"

Edward slams his first down hard on his food tray table. The room goes silent again and everyone stares at the small boy. I walk over to him and place a hand to his back.

"You were... Keeping all that bottled up this whole time? Is that what you wanted to tell me?"

Alphonse stays quiet, and it seems Edward has his answer.

"...I see."

With that, he gets up from the side of the bed, with me trailing behind, and walks out the door. We hear Winry calling out to us as we leave, we even hear a large 'Klang'ing sound as she chastised Alphonse, but neither of us turn around.

-

We eventually make it to the roof, pushing open the metal door. I walk to the railing of the building and almost immediately Edward turns to me.

"Why did you follow me up here?" He asks in a small voice, not making eye contact.

I keep you gaze over the large city before me. "Alphonse has been brainwashed in some way. He believes he isn't real, and he has managed to wrope my siblings into thinking the same antics." I take a small breath and walk to the wall next to the floor's doors. "If you can find a way to convince your brother otherwise, then there's a chance for me to get my siblings back." I pull the door open as a large suite of armour comes through.

"Ed..." Alphonse mumbles.

"Now that I think about it..." Edward begins, almost as if our conversation had never occurred. He quickly kicks off his hospital slippers one by one. "My body is feeling kind of out of shape because we haven't sparred in a while."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Your wounds haven't healed yet- Woah!?" Alphonse is quickly cut off by a foot heading in his direction. Edward recoils a bit and prepares himself for a right hook. "Wait! Hold on a sec, big brother!!"

The older boy takes his chance at his younger brother's stunned state and takes a large, white sheet that is hanging up on the line behind him. He pulls it down hastily and slams it onto Alphonse's face. He then kicks Alphonse in the face and, using the younger boy's momentum, sends him down to the ground.

"I win!" Edward declares. He sits down beside Alphonse and quickly lays on his back. "Heh heh... That's the first time I ever beat Al."

Alphonse takes off the sheet from his face before complaining. "...You cheated..."

"Shut up. A win is a win!... we sure have gotten into a lot of fights since we were little. Now that I think about it, it was always something dumb." Edward stares dazedly off into the sky as the brother start to list off the many fights they have had through the years.

"Like who gets the top bunk." Alphonse chirps.

"I lost that one."

"We fought all the time over snacks, didn't we?"

"Yeah, I don't remember ever winning any of those, either."

"We fought at training at our teacher's place, too."

"That one was a draw because our teacher told us to 'shit up' and proceeded to almost killing the both of us."

"There was the time we fought over our toys..."

"I won that one."

"And when I drew in your book."

"Oh, I definitely won that one."

"Remember that one when we were playing by the Rain River? When we were all there?"

"Of course I do. You and Jacky threw Elleah and me in!... and Marcus was no help either..."

"We also fought over who would be the one to marry Winry, and whoever lost has to ask Elleah out."

My head quickly perks up at the sound of that fight. Edward quickly replies with a flustered face.

"Huh!? I don't remember that!!"

"I won that one, but we both got dumped."

I quickly walk over to the two boys. "Marcus, is that true?" I ask as I hear giggling from inside Alphonse's chest plate.

He quickly opens up the metal and pulls out my siblings. He hands them to me as Jacky giggles away while she listens to all the fights that had happened. I glared down at her softly, remembering the time she pushed me in the river.

"He's not lying about that. I even have proof." Marcus explains.

I lift the bottle of milk still in my hands to my lips. "Oh, really? Show me." I take a small swig as Marcus rustles through his pages to find the memory.

Eventually, he comes across it and I skim over the words that are written on the page. I see it did happen. There is a detailed description of him asking me out and my stuttered reply. If I am remembering it correctly, had to turn him down, not because I didn't like him, but because my parents didn't want me to date at such a young age. I never told him that, because I was too nieve to think of his as a potential partner.

"I even remember you mentioning something later that day." Jacky pipes up. "You said that you would consider him date-worthy when he grows taller than you. At least that's what I remember."

My face flushes. "I don't have any recollection of this comment."

"You can't go judging a man by his hight!" Edward yells, almost crying with embarrassment as he turns to face me. He stops for a moment to ponder on what I had said. "...Did you really say that?"

I turn away to look back at the sealed souls. "So do you three still believe that all of these memories are fake?"

"...Sorry." They say in unison.

I nod my head. "We all decided that we were going to get our old bodies back, no matter what we had to do. So we can't go doubting ourselves over something so trivial."

"We are going to make ourselves stronger on the outside and in," Edward adds. "And I'm even gonna try to drink milk... if I can..."

"That is if I don't drink it first." I take another swig of Edwards milk bottle. Edward looks at me in disgust. I, in turn, finish the bottle in one go, watching Edwards face fall.

"You're a demon." He mutters.

I throw the empty bottle at him and stand up. I hold my first out and wait for the other two. "Let's all get stronger. Together."

The others stand up - Edward having trouble as he strained himself too much - and meet fist to fist in a circle. I smile ever so slight at the boys.

I walk away as they trail behind, going through the doors were Maes and Winry stand. 'Strength. Is that really all we will need in times to come?'

Word count: 1892