Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Dispair and Revival ❯ Pain ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist.

 

 

His lips were quivering. His hands were shaking. Tears were rolling down his face. The muscles in his arms strained against the shackles that bound them to the craggy wall behind him. A name rested on the very tip of his tongue. A howl was rising in his throat. His mind was numb, whirling with questions. Why? What...? It was all so… confusing, horrifying, …monstrous. His throat worked to swallow down the bile and howl yet it took a few tries for some unknown reason. The shackles jangled again and he felt his foot move out to nudge what was in front of him. There was a clang and… nothing. Not a single thing inside. No color but the color of the armor and the shadows that inhabited it. Everything was an echo now. Everything was numb now. His eyes ached, his throat ached, his whole body hurt and stung whenever he moved. There was something creeping down the back of his neck, the sides of his face, his arms, and his forehead. That same color that was missing from inside was seeping into his eyes from the crevices of his fractured being. He could feel it flowing through his body, out of his body, into his mouth. His lips quivered more as his vision began to give way. He welcomed it with open arms and willing soul.

`Take me from here,' he pleaded to anyone… anything that was listening to him and had the power to make this just… stop. `Take me away from here… from this place… this life… just… take me,' The cold tendrils wrapped around his being, soothing his aches and pains from him and sending his mind to a numb plain where it could rest for as long as it wished. His eyes continued staring though the gaze was blank. The tears continued falling though the ground was unmoved. And the body hung there… for all the world as if it were a lifeless little doll.

 

 

Their calls were frantic. The footsteps were frantic. The lights bouncing off the cave walls were frantic. Everything was a frantic search as men and woman in military uniforms continued searching for something some did not even believe to be there. Orders were being shouted to one another and the large group began to split down the many tunnels, making sure to leave markings where they had been. It had been a bitter realization for Colonel Roy Mustang that… just maybe… that innocent looking letter had been right. What had led him to believe so was the small patch of red on the very bottom corner of the paper, as if someone had dipped it into red paint or something. The words had been short sweet and to the point, so to speak and cave just one bit of a clue. They would be somewhere dark and to the south.

As he continued to follow the other soldiers down a particularly large tunnel a sudden wave of fear struck him. What if the note had been lying about the condition they would probably be found in? What if… if they found them one of them was dead? Another chill swept through him but it wasn't from the cold cavern air this time. A sight lay before him that he NEVER wanted to see. The lights from the flashlights reflected off the metallic armor of Alphonse Elric that was just… lying on the ground and not moving… or speaking. And hanging from shackles on the wall a few feet from the pile of armor, his left arm still securing him to the wall, his right arm unattached to his shoulder and still clutched in the metal embrace of the shackles, his luscious sunshine hair a mess and matted with crimson, was the elder brother. Edward Elric. He didn't move as the soldiers rushed forward to help him down from the chains nor did he make a sound as his arm was reconnected with his body. There were shouts of surprise and the medic that had been assigned to their team was slapping him gently to try and rouse him. Roy's breath caught in his throat as a particularly hard slap made Full Metal's head loll back on his shoulders. Dull, lifeless, amber eyes connected with his horrified black ones, the tears still leaking from them and blood seeping from somewhere upon his head to complete the image of a broken, soulless doll. There was nothing to this being at all save an exorbitant amount of grief should he wake up. He knew already the fate of the younger Elric yet the fate of the Older… was yet undetermined.

It rushed in a blur as the small body was hurried back to the main team and the armor was collected and taken as well. He was giving orders the whole time despite how numb his body felt. The older Elric was loaded onto a stretcher and put into the medical van they had brought with them for just such an emergency while the armor was placed in the jeep Roy had taken with First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. She said nothing as they followed the convoy back to the town they had passed and nothing more as they watched the Older Elric being rushed into the doctor's office. No words passed her lips as she followed him to his hotel room yet they did fall as he collapsed onto his borrowed bed.

“He'll be fine, sir,” she whispered before shutting the door softly behind her. He did not move, he did not scream, nor did start sobbing. The only sign of fear on his face was the small tear track running down his right cheek that he did not bother to wipe away.