Worlds Collide

A/N: Hikaru_9, there's a bit more Ed/Al here. SadlerGirl, thanks. Amethyst-Eyed Koneko, you'll see what happens with Nicholas. Wouldn't expect you to call Wrath Ulysses, it's just what they have to call him for the sake of the world that doesn't know he was a homunculus. Glad you noticed the tie to Lior. I try to incorporate things from canon.

Hope no one shoots me after this. Next chapter's going to deal with the emotional part that the end of this chapter brings about, and I'm not sure where I'm going, so no promises on how long until I update. I want to do it well.

And for a pic of the twins as teens, visit my lj. I actually attempted drawing (be afraid) http://nomdeplume13.livejournal.com/23985.html#cutid1

Chapter 37

Hands

Al had difficulty at times keeping from focusing on his older brother, watching as he viciously attacked at the chimeras, slowly covering himself in their blood. While it was true that as he fought, Al was doing no less damage than Ed, his methods didn’t leave his hair stained red, and there was no relish in killing, even these vile creations.

Al continued performing his transmutations, watching as Ed punched, slashed and kicked before any of these beasts managed the slightest hint of an attack. Ed was a military man, where Al was simply an alchemist. He realized that, little as he wanted to. He had proven time and time again that he didn’t have the coping skills necessary to deal with killing that his older brother did.

“Al!” Ed yelled out, a signal that he needed his younger brother to work with him at some coordinated attack.

Running to Ed’s side, Al saw his older brother signal with his thumb for Al to toss him up to where he could begin an attack on the largest of the chimeras so far, beginning with the thing’s back. Al bent down, creating a stirrup with his hands and felt Ed’s blood-soaked hand, making contact with his white shirt as he attempted to balance himself.

Ed wasn’t the easiest person in the world to toss up, and Al silently wished that the older man was just a bit lighter or that it could be as simple as it had been when Al had been in the armor. Those thoughts passed as Ed was hurtled haphazardly through the air and landed squarely on the top of the monstrosities arched back, grabbing hold of a handful of fur with his left hand, right almost immediately stabbing not only to fight but to ensure he didn’t fall from the rather impressive height.

Al proceeded to attack from below, hearing his brother practically growl as he assaulted the thing from above. He heard the creature cry out as death must have finally gripped it, and felt the sensation of something warm splattering his cheek.

“Al, it’s coming down. Move!”

Al obeyed, watching as the creature’s lifeless legs gave way and nearly crushed the tall alchemist below it. Almost gracefully, Ed landed beside it, his chest rising and falling. He could still do what needed to be done, but it was obvious it no longer came as easily to him.

“We need to get to the salon,” Ed said as he took up to run from the now weakened chimeras that were somewhat less of a threat to the military men shooting at them. “If Dante is behind this, and I’m sure she is, Aideen could be in danger.”

Al nodded, more than willingly following to protect his niece who could be more than just in danger, but be the target of all of this. They encountered some kind of lizard beast, one with blood already dripping down its mouth and a large welt on the top of its head. It was obviously still stunned, and it seemed as though its attacker had been far too interested in something else to finish the job. It required no effort from Al to kill the thing, as Ed easily slashed at it and before glancing down at the lifeless beast before running on much faster than before.

“Nicholas was here, too,” Ed said as he ran voice cracking either from the physical exertion or from alarm for now both twins’ safety. Al didn’t question how his brother knew that, as the twins’ father, realizing that he must have known better than anyone the signs of his son’s alchemy. And Al had the sickening realization that if Nicholas had been the one to punch that thing, there was also a strong possibility that it had been his blood trickling out of the corners of the beast’s mouth.

********

“Frank?” Kain croaked, eyes opening as he felt his lover’s hand wrapped around his own.

“So sleeping beauty decided to wake up.”

“Sleeping… what?”

“A story from my home about a princess under a magic spell, forcing her to sleep until she received her true love’s kiss.” Frank leaned over the cot and very carefully placed his lips to Kain’s. “I’ll have to tell you the whole thing once we have you home. And by home, I mean here. You’re going to have to go through therapy for that leg of yours, so don’t expect to be going to the east for some time.” Frank kissed the back of Kain’s hand. “Ever, if I have anything to say about it.”

“I outrank you.”

“Mm-hmm,” Frank said, lips against the back of Kain’s hand. “But I’m older.”

Knowing Frank was there, Kain started to allow himself to drift off to sleep once again.

“Oh, no you don’t. I’ve been trying to get you awake, and I’m supposed to keep you awake now that I have you here conscious.”

“Then, you’re going to have to talk.”

“Fine, about what?”

“Why me?” That was a question Frank wouldn’t normally answer, but maybe with the recent attack he’d finally get something out of his boyfriend.

Frank sighed. “This is going to sound stupid, but it was your hands.”

“My hands?”

“Told you it would sound stupid.” Kain rubbed Frank’s cheek. “Like that. You do that, and yet you can still readily handle a weapon.” Kain watched as once again Frank leaned down to kiss him. “I love you and your kisses, but this,” Frank laid his hand over Kain’s on his face. “is what makes you so different.”

“You’re a great big sap, you know that?”

“Well, I told you. What about me? Why me?”

“Well, you intrigued me when you took the punch from the fuhrer without flinching or trying to be a weasel afterwards.” Kain wasn’t sure how to continue. “But I think I started thinking about you this way the moment I watched you carry your friend from the scene of the crash, even cry over him.”

“Shed a few over you, too.” Kain only smiled as the older man delicately pressed their lips together.

********

Fletcher was investigating the business district, a bag full of marked seeds on his shoulder. He’d already had to use them once in order to restrain and kill what he’d been told was one of the two things capable of flight, and had heard there were two more attempting to enter an accounting firm in this district. The only reason they would be attempting this was if there was someone inside the building. He saw the two monsters, unsure what they might have been initially, as they no longer resembled anything the alchemist had ever seen before.

They seemed to be attempting to scale the wall of the building, trying to reach something on an upper floor. It was then that he heard the shouts, a voice from upstairs that made him feel ill to know was the one trapped inside.

“Fletcher!” He looked up, seeing a dark head looking through one of the upper story’s windows. “Fletcher, help! Nicholas has been hurt!”

Alchemically activating the transmutation circles on the seeds, he tossed handful in front of those creatures, watching as tendrils of vines wrapped themselves around the two chimeras. Transmuting the door Aideen or Nicholas had likely sealed, he ran inside, hearing the sounds of the once-animals being strangled behind him, and the noise as they both put up the last futile attempts to live. He ran up the two flights of steps to find Aideen trying to wheel Nicholas through the hallway on the makeshift gurney created from what looked like three rolling chairs.

“This was the best I could do, but it doesn’t move right,” she said, obviously fighting back tears that threatened to overflow. “And I don’t know how to get him down to Auntie.”

“What happened?” Fletcher asked as he looked closely at the blond teen, who seemed to be struggling to remain conscious and incapable of speech.

“Something bit him. There was venom in his system. I got most of it out, but it’s a lot of damage.”

Fletcher lifted Nicholas from the gurney, not entirely sure how far he could carry the young Mustang, but knowing he could handle the distance to the clinic if there weren't any delays.

“Let’s go.”

Aideen only nodded, leading the way down the stairs and into the streets, where the noise of the fighting was gradually dying down. Running ahead of him, as though daring any of those things to try to attack her or her brother again, Aideen was almost frightening in the representation of all three parents’ resolve boiled down into her young body. It was not often Aideen was compared to her mother as Nicholas resembled her far more, but this protective streak seemed reminiscent of stories of Riza Hawkeye’s fierce defensiveness of her commanding officer and lover.

The teen in Fletcher’s arms grunted a bit, coal black eyes opening just enough. “Hey Nicholas,” Fletcher huffed, trying to keep up with Aideen. “We’re going to get you to your Aunt Raine, okay?”

There was a faint nod and the teen’s eyes rolled back into his head. The fact that Nicholas was fighting this so strongly was nothing short of amazing. Ten years ago, when he was the same age, Fletcher seriously doubted he’d have had even that kind of energy.

“Fletcher!” Aideen hissed loudly enough he could hear her. “I can hear them. They’re coming.”

Though she had obviously heard before he did, the young man realized she was right. He picked up his pace, knowing that somehow those chimeras would overtake him at his already hurried stride. With the startling realization that he was probably going to have to fight, leaving Nicholas defenseless and delaying his treatment.

Three of those things approached, and Fletcher prepared to give Aideen the task of guarding her brother while he fought, only to find the young girl stopping dead in her tracks, hands in fists at her sides. She moved to Fletcher’s side, clapping her hands and holding them out toward the approaching creature. Then, with whatever transmutation it was she was performing, her voice echoed across the abandoned area of town.

“Get away and stay the hell away from my brother!”

The three creatures began to be thrown backwards into buildings, where their bodies were practically snapped in half.

“Holy shit!” a voice said from one of the alleys.

“Dad!” Aideen said, running to him.

Fletcher couldn’t help but notice how quickly the fearsome expression on Ed’s face disappeared the moment he saw his son. Aideen seemed to notice not the expression, but the state which Ed was in, unwilling to hug him, for fear of the mess all over him at the moment. Al, who was not quite so bad, went to her, catching her as she wobbled just a bit from the amount of energy she’d used to shove away those monsters.

“Dad, all that blood.”

“None of it is mine,” he said.

“Dad, please, we’ve got to get Nicholas to Auntie! It’s some kind of venom.”

“Fletcher, can you manage it? I don’t want to shift him too much if I don’t have to,” Ed said, sounding calm, though there was a definite quavering in his voice, showing his true worry for Nicholas.

Ahead of Fletcher, Al scooped Aideen into his own arms.

“I can still walk, Uncle Al.”

“Humor me,” he said as they all moved toward the clinic, a grimy and frightening-looking Ed keeping watch for any more.

The moment they were within the clinic, Al set Aideen to her feet immediately within the door, Fletcher walking a few steps further and laying Nicholas on the first available cot. When Raine glanced up and saw that Nicholas was now among her patients, Fletcher saw as she paled, finishing her orders to the nearest nurse. Moving through the sea of beds and cots, she clapped her hands so they were ready to analyze Nicholas the instant she was near him.

“Baby,” she said with a casual tone that Fletcher felt certain would get anyone else killed when addressing Ed, “what happened?”

“Something bit him and left venom in his system,” Aideen answered before Ed could even try. “I forced as much of it out as I could, but he’s still like this.”

“You did a good job,” the eldest Mustang said before closing her eyes.

“He wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for me. If I hadn’t been at the salon at all today, or if I’d have stayed there…”

“Aideen,” Raine said, “you did a very good job. The venom’s gone. Now we just need to treat what it did to his body.”

“You understand, Aideen, you did the only thing you could. You can’t help your brother went running out after you.” Ed moved to comfort Aideen.

“Don’t take another step. I don’t want chimera blood all through my already sanitarily-compromised clinic. Go out to the decontamination unit at the side and get washed off.” She looked at Al. “You too.” Ed looked reluctant. “He’ll live, Ed, I promise you that,” Raine said with confidence that showed them all she wasn’t lying or even trying to merely be optimistic. Nicholas would live.

********

“What was that blast?” Russell asked as Wrath walked through the re-transmuted door. “We don’t know, but it scared the chimeras, not to mention a good number of the soldiers too. The chimeras that were left were all fleeing the city”

“You mean they didn’t run off from just you?” Russell asked, a grin on his face so big, it startled the former homunculus. “You were unbelievable.”

Against his own will, Wrath felt his face go just a bit red at the rare praise from his friend. “Thanks.” He looked around the shop. “Jacob?”

A set of blue eyes looked up from behind one of the booths, and much to Wrath’s disillusionment, those eyes held both loathing and fear. And while everyone in the little place was cheering him on, calling him a hero, all he could see was the look in the eyes of the man he cared for, the one who seemed to say silently he would always be a monster.

********

With the threat of the chimeras gone and the news that his son had been injured, Roy no longer had any reason capable of or threatening enough to keep him from his family. With Breda driving the car to Raine’s clinic, Roy swore he was carrying a ton of stones in his stomach, all turning over one another, threatening to make him sick. Why wasn’t there some kind of rule that stated your child could only suffer from poisoning once? Or that children couldn’t be pulled into the issues of adults?

Why wasn’t there some kind of equivalence when it came to his twins?

It was all Roy could do not to shut down and go numb as he had those years before. Emotionally blocking everything certainly sounded appealing. He couldn’t break down, he couldn’t show weakness because among those many casualties, his child was one. He had to show that above all else, he was concerned, but also remained strong.

Breda hardly touched the brakes outside fo the clinic before Roy had leapt out, trying to spot any sign of his family. Instead, he found Frank, seated next to Fuery, gripping tightly onto the smaller man’s hand and touching his face. Those blue eyes met his black and signaled to the fuhrer that his child and his family were at the makeshift surgery area behind the clinic.

Roy only half-glanced at Fuery, who was awake, but looked somewhat delirious, then back at Frank, feeling all the more sickened by the look of actual worry in the former spy’s face, worry that didn’t seem directed at his wounded boyfriend.

Roy found Ed pacing the hall, clad in nothing more than a medical gown, one hand clutching the rear to hold it shut, his hair resembling a wet dog’s. He saw Aideen on a bench beside Fletcher Tringham, face buried in his chest, repeating over and over that whatever was going on was all her fault, and with him repeating just as frequently that she had no reason to blame herself.

Al, who must have been able to keep his undershirt and pants during decontamination, appeared to have been bouncing back and forth between Aideen and Ed all this time. Even after being the shoulder to cry on for all these years, something had Al at a bit of a loss.

“Ed?” Roy said, voice cracking just a bit as he began to unbutton his uniform coat. “Nicholas, how is he?”

Ed looked up at him, not with that determined attitude Roy had gotten to know during all these years of marriage during moments of disaster and strife. No, this was an Ed who was horribly shaken.

Roy took off his coat and draped it over his husband’s shoulders, letting him put the thing on and offer a bit of cover for his backside. He listened as Ed told him the story as best he could, Roy doing his best to grasp the concept that his sister had assured them that Nicholas would be okay, that the greatest concern at the moment was Nicholas’s arm. Roy put his arm around Ed, and sat beside Aideen—Fletcher had more than willingly giving up his seat to Roy—though Ed continued to pace the moment Roy sat down. He held his daughter close to him, feeling her tears through his white dress shirt and her body tense in her guilt.

When Raine appeared from the swinging doors of the operating room, she carried with her two masks. “I need to talk to the two of you. Nicholas asked that he get to listen in.”

Roy stood up, Al taking his place beside Aideen.

********

Ed watched, holding the cloth mask over his nose and mouth, as Raine revived Nicholas. The large onyx eyes opened, looking up at the three adults.

“You kept your promise, Auntie,” he said, weakly, moving just enough that he winced in pain. “My arm.”

“That’s what we need to talk to you about. Aideen acted as quickly as she could, but your arm is our problem now.” Raine looked from her nephew to Ed and Roy. "I'm not going to spare details. You understand that, Nicholas?"

"Uh-huh."

Ed waited, dreading what words might follow. “The most intense portion of the venom did not spread as fast as what went through his bloodstream.” She ran a hand over his light blond hair. “But near the site of the puncture, it destroyed tissue which is already showing signs of early infection and Nicholas’s white blood cells are attacking at his own body.”

“Can the tissue be removed?” Ed asked.

“It can, but we’re not certain just how much will be necessary, and even if we do, I’m afraid it will be a constant source of pain.”

“Then get rid of it,” Nicholas said, making all three adults look down at him in stunned silence. Though Nicholas looked exhausted, it was obvious that he wasn’t taking this lightly.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Ed said. “You’re young, you don’t understand what it is—”

“I’m two years older than you. And it can be replaced with automail.”

“Automail isn’t the same, Nicholas, take my word on it.”

Raine rubbed Ed’s shoulder. “I know that isn’t what you want for him, but, the amount of damage done isn’t reversible, and I don’t know if we can just remove the tissue.”

“Raine,” Roy said, finally speaking up. “Can you try to save the arm?” Nicholas glared in protest, though Ed felt somewhat satisfied. “But if you can’t save it…”

Roy didn’t seem capable of finishing, not any more than Ed was capable of imagining it.

“Of course,” Raine squeezed Roy’s shoulder, her right hand never leaving Nicholas’s hair.

“How soon does this need to happen?” Roy asked.

“With how quickly the infection seems to be growing and spreading, as well as the way this is affecting his immune system, immediately.”

Ed watched as Nicholas’s attempts at being strong faded and his chest began rising and falling rapidly, in failing efforts to fight off the tears. Both fathers rubbed their son’s shoulders, cheeks, trying to comfort the teenager, so like a child in his anguish so like an adult in his acceptance.
“Nicholas, we might be able to wait a day,” Raine said.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, get it over with.”

Nicholas’s right arm, the left having apparently no function at all left, covered over his eyes as the tears ran freely and the fathers were given some time to comfort their son.

As Nicholas’s fever seemed to increase by tiny increments, the two men knew they couldn’t stall the inevitable any longer. Reluctantly, they left the room, going back to the hall where Aideen was waiting, not yet ready to tell their daughter what was happening, but as Ed found himself freely crying, there really was no secret, and he knew it.

“He shouldn’t—” Ed quickly sucked air through clenched teeth. “Not this young, not like me.” Nicholas had no idea what was in store. He couldn’t begin to comprehend it, not the pain, not the freakishness of being permanently different from the rest of the world. And yet, could he ask his son to suffer daily with pain? Could he seriously consider that as an option for his boy? Hadn’t he actually had the nerve to do so just moments before?

He found himself being gathered into Roy’s arms, Aideen and Al doing the same, and they stood in the hallway, comforting one another. And when Ed heard the faint, distinctive sound of the bone saw through the doors that simply weren’t designed to keep these kinds of noises within their respective areas, the alchemist who had seen and done so much that day, broke, relying on the support of his family to keep him upright. He could be strong through so much, but just couldn’t imagine being strong through this, and for once, Ed thought he was entitled to his weakness.