It's Time to Choose, Soldier (BxB)

Chapter 39

Third Person's POV

Days turned into weeks and weeks soon became months. Alphonse was becoming visibly frustrated as time passed him by. Knowing that his father was a complete monster was one thing. Having no idea what he was planning or how to stop him was what truly pissed him off. He understood that he was running out of time but then again, what can you actually do when you were limited to four concrete walls and your only contact with other human beings was the medics that came to check up on you every four hours?

The answer to that by the way is nothing. This was his 32nd day since he had been taken from the school. Yes, this means that he'd been counting. He was stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of deciding what his next move would be, then throwing away his plan, and getting frustrated because nothing seemed to make sense. Could you tell that the lack of human contact was affecting him?

"-phonse..." "Alphonse!" he heard someone call. Looking up his gaze met the dark brown eyes of his older brother. While in his own mind, he didn't seem to remember that he wasn't completely alone in this. After so many years of mental and physical wounds, constant worry, and confused thoughts, he wondered whether he could now trust his own family.

"What do you think he's planning?" Alphonse suddenly asks out loud.

"I don't know, he's a crazy guy, Al. There's no way to figure out how he thinks of the horrible things that he does" his brother quietly answers. Silence lingered for a moment.

"Maybe if we can try to figure out how he thinks, then we could try to predict his next move" The long-haired male suggests.

"Al, I know you're trying to make sense of it all but it's literally impossible. All of the things we know are morally wrong, our father only sees as obstacles. He doesn't care to think of moral consequences and love is a weakness to him. There is no way you can rationalize what he's done. That also means that there's no way that we can predict was he wants to do next," Maxwell states as his gaze switches from his brother to the wall in front of him.

"Even after all this time, you haven't asked me why," Alphonse said as he looked down at his lap. His hair had by now grown and become dishevel leaving it to cover his face. When Max looked over at his brother he had a brow raised and a confused look on his face.

"Asked why what?"

"Why I never tried to out you about what you were doing. Or why I never rejected you as my older brother after all of the things you did to me" Alphonse replied, his words exited his mouth slowly, as if he was thinking of the correct words to voice his thoughts. The room was filled with deafening silence after that.

"Why didn't you?" Max restated. He looked down at his hands. Every few seconds, his mind would flash imagines of the nights where he had to wash of the dried blood from his hands. Images that never had come to him before. Not even when he had been put away for trying to frame murder on his own brother. It came as a surprise to Maxwell when he felt a weird pang in his chest. It was obvious that guilt wasn't something he was accustomed to feeling. So experiencing it now, it was almost painful to him.

"I remember the day that I had found out what I was. I promised myself that one day you and I would become so much closer and that one day you would be my royal advisor. Shortly after that, your mental state spontaneously deteriorated and our friendship was broken faster than I could ever imagine... I thought that the love that we had for each other was much stronger than that. I guess I was wrong," he began while taking a deep breath.

"It didn't take me long to understand why you changed but it always did confuse me how your mind worked. You and I had both spoken in the past about how much we hate our father what he really means to us. I never actually established a reason to explain why you weren't able to see that your violent ways resembled what our father did to us. Well, resembled is used lightly in this sense-" Alphonse babbled but a groan interrupted him.

"What is your point Al?" Max asked with an eye roll.

"My point is that I know you hated our father just as much as I do. So I didn't understand why you would be just as bad as him. It didn't make sense that you decided to hate me instead of wanting to team up and fight for our futures together" Al said. This made Maxwell pause. He honestly didn't understand the whole thing himself. Did he really regret any of the things he had subjected his brother to? Or was he really just as bad is their father?

All of a sudden, Maxwell looked towards the front of his bed and saw a man standing before him. His eyes widened but he managed to stay in place as the man stared at him. The more he looked at the unknown person, he more familiar their face became. Maxwell's eyes soon met the man's own and in that moment, he watched as the man's eyes flashed purple and then went back to their original caramel color. As he opened his mouth to speak, the man rose his index finger to his lips, signaling for him to be silent.

Maxwell's mouth closed and his eyes followed this mysterious man towards his younger brother. He watched in curiosity as the man placed his arm on his brother's but it seemed as if Alphonse didn't feel a thing. Tilting his head in confusion, he soon noticed that the man's hand began to glow the same purple that his eyes had moments before. Something Maxwell had only seen his brother do. Line after line began to appear on his arm until his entire arm was covered in his markings. The glow of the man's hand became brighter and brighter until a flash forced him to close his eyes.

He has to fight him... he heard a voice say.

Don't let him do it alone. He will not be strong enough to end him... He will die without his other half... the voice finished. Upon opening his eyes, the man was gone and Alphonse's tattoos were gone. Looking around in confusion, Maxwell sighed.

His eyes once again land on his younger sibling and can't help but groan inwardly. When it came down to it, Maxwell knew that his survival depends on his little brother and his old comrade. To finally be rid of their father Alphonse had to win. Could things be any more complicated?