Chapter 3

Fallen Flames and Lost Sparks

"I can't believe I lost him..."

Ed walks alone through the dessert in the cold of night, wrapped in a thick wind poncho. It had, at one time, a nice desert cameo design, but with much wear and tear it's been beaten down to a tattered brown color. He had the neck of it pulled up and wrapped over his face still, along with his thin red goggles, protecting him from the wind and blowing sand. He marched slowly into the wind, towards the edge of the sandy terrain which could be seen off in the distant horizon.

"I can't believe he got away from me. The bastard..." His words stopped short as he stumbled forward. He was struck from behind, without him even noticing he was being followed. He spun around quickly, enraged. It was a masked figure with the build of a taller man. His mask had the symbol of the Ouroboros along it's right side, with only his left eye exposed. He had a red shirt, with overly long sleeves, white gloves and loose, black dress pants. He was also covered in a large black cloak, with full hood. He flicked his right arm strait out to the side, parting the cloak."It'll all be over soon, child. But we can't have you find him yet." His voice was calm, and full bodied. He let out a cackle that would break glass.

"The hell do you want!" He spotted the mark on the mask. "You're with them, are you?"

The masked man just smirked, the smile barely showing through the black cloth. "You don't even know the half of it, child." His voice was somehow familiar, Ed knew the had heard it before, but never in this tone. He just brushed it off, and crossed his arms, fed up.

"Look, I'm not going to take any crap from a peon like you." He jumped forward and threw a swift sidekick with his automail leg. But there was no contact. The Man had vanished. Ed hit the sand, knelt down.

"Too slow!" The voice bellowed from behind him, as a large, steel-toed leather boot connected firmly with Ed temple. "You need to be better than that to stop him." Edward's head snapped to the side, right into a lightning fast left hook. Ed began to fall toward the ground, but was quickly flung upward, and uppercut landing firmly to Ed's jaw. "You're not even trying, cocky bastard." He smashed into the sandy ground with a sickening thud. Just like that, the fight was over.

The masked man growled with excitement as he bent over and threw the motionless Ed over his shoulder. "But I want to make this interesting... I need just one more thing to make this whole thing fun." He readied himself, and sprung up into the air. His jumps, at their highest points, reached well over 30 feet, and at speeds almost too fast to see by a normal human eye. He was out of the sandy wasteland in mere minutes.

"I can't believe he's still not here..."

Al was lying in his bed, wide awake, too filled with thought to sleep. "I just don't understand why he's not home yet..." He thought, glancing at the night sky. It must have been about 3:00am, but still he was unable to rest. He rolled over on to his left side to try to get more comfortable. "He hasn't even written to me. It's been months since I've heard anything." He tried to close his eyes, hoping that it would help him. "I hope my last letter didn't hurt your feelings, brother."

There was a knock at the front door. Al, shocked that he wasn't the only one up at his hour, threw on a pair of pants and dragged himself out of his room. "Now, who could that be?" He said to himself, under his breath. There was yet another knock, softer this time, as to not disturb any sleeping inside. "I was awake, anyway." He called out. "Just come in."

"Um, Al..." it was Winry's voice, sounding a little nervous. "It's locked..."

He looked around a bit, found his gloves and put them on with a sigh. "I've gotten lazy..." he said, clapping. He placed his hands on the wall beside him, sending a bolt of purple lightning across the wall nd toward the door. Upon contact, the door began to glow lightly, and slowly dissolved from the bottom up into purple rose petals.

"That's... one way to do it." She said, blushing slightly. "Show off." She grinned as she passed by him and made her way to the kitchen. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

Al raised an eyebrow. "I there a problem?" He said, following behind her. The both took a seat at the table. He lit a candle, shedding some light on the room.

"A few." she said softly, cracking her fingers.

"It's Roy, isn't it.." Al leaned back in the chair, lifting the front legs off the floor.

"Kind of... but not really. I mean, it is a bit uncomfortable with him around the last few days, but..." her voice became more timid. "It's ... It's Ed..."

Al let the chair fall forward, a very serious look fell about his face. "...Ed?"

"You remember a few years back , when he was home? You remember how happy we were?" She had trouble talking to Al.

"Yes, you two finally got together..." His spoke very low, very coldly. "Went on a few dates." There was a certain disdain in his words, as if it hurt him to speak them. "You ... cared for each other deeply."

"Yeah, I thought we did..." She muttered, looking down at the table. "I was sure we did. He even told me he loved me. He told me just as he was leaving. He promised me that he'd be back."

"He promised me, too..." His word were sharper. "He promised me..." he clenched his fist tightly. He saw a drop land on the table, as Winry sobbed.

"He said he'd come back, but he never did... he never did Al!" She broke down. This is the first time AL had ever seen her cry, she was a strong girl. Independent. It seemed as if nothing really got to her. "He lied to me Al! Ed..." She began to cry heavily. Al stood up slowly, and made his way behind her. He placed his arms around her shoulders, and hugged her tightly.

"He'll still be back.. .he said he would, and we just have to wait." He didn't want to hell her his, but he know it would make her feel a little better.

"There's no point in waiting any longer. It's been over a year, and still no word from him." She whipped her eyes. "But you... you've been here the whole time. Al, you where here and I didn't even see you. You've always been there.." She turned her head, and looked into his brown eyes. "But I was so blinded by thoughts of your brother..." She stood up, and faced him. They looked into each other's eyes, and time seemed to stop. He held her closer, their chest meeting, her eyes sparkling. "I never even tried, never thought that it could be you that..."

Al looked at her, his heart opening up. "For the longest time, even if you were with him..." he said, very choppy. "I've wanted to be near you, but I couldn't. You were his, and you should be his..."

"But there's no point in waiting for him anymore..." She leaned upward, kissing him gently.

There was a knock on the door frame toward the front of the house.

It was ignored, as the kiss became more passionate. They could not see who it was, a wall was blocking the line of sight. But it wasn't long before they heard footsteps. One heavier than the other.

"Alphonse, I'm... back..."

"Ed?" Winry jumped back.

A look of pure confusion fell over Al's face. "Bro... Brother?"

Authors Notes: Heh, I went a little bit without posting. I was on a mini vacation from work, and most of my writing is done at work, so... nothing got done. But I'm back and so is the story. I think I found out where I'm going with it, so it should get interesting. I like Al, he's going to be my favorite character in this story. I'm going to have fun writing this .