Well, my dearies. I have an announcement.

This is officially the LAST chapter of Ivory Alchemist. I'm going to do some of the less important notes now, because, well, I've already finished this chapter as I type this up here, and well, it's sort of hard to type past tears XD so, you're all probably like Oh Mah Frackin God! She's finished? (goes to grow mushrooms in a corner like Tama-chan)

yes my peeps, I know, I know, I had planned to make this story quite a few more chapters long, but at the point I finished I was like- anything after this will be anticlimactic and 'll know what I mean when you get to the end (AND NO CHEATING!) this is the end to a fantastic journey my readers and quite possibly trolls who hate everything about this fanfic..

So I end it here, my dear readers but worry not.

I have a sequel brewing.

Chapter 9: The Shattering Point

When they finally caught sight of Xerxes, it was nearly noon the next day, and Edward was ten seconds away from falling to the ground and kissing the sand in triumph and utter happiness.

Well, he would've done so if his mouth wasn't so dry and he wasn't so damn close to having a heat stroke.

"We should be able to get some more water here, if the old well isn't dried up," Skye says hoarsely, breaking through his thoughts. "So drink a little more than you have." She threw the canteen to him and it smacked him soundly on head; due to his tiredness and how dehydrated he wasn't processing things fast enough to catch the metal bottle.

"Oww…" He mutters crossly.

Skye giggles—the first sign of emotion the entire trip.

"Anyways," She says, her smile staying put for at least the moment, "No doubt that guy will be staying somewhere in he ruins too. We'll have to stay clear of that lace for the next day or two, so we might as well stop here."

"And if we run out of water before we can get to the ruins?" He asks, worried about the tiny amount of water sloshing around in the canteen. They'd finished of the other fours bottles throughout the past two days. There was no way they'd survive another two on such a meager amount.

She waves him away with a scoffing sound as she slides down from her mount.

"Use alchemy to bring up water from under ground. It'll be easy enough."

Ed claps a hand to his forehead, "Why didn't I think of that?" He mutters.

She shrugs, and draws a huge transmutation circle in the dirt, surrounding them and the camels, which snort nervously.

Blue sparks fly as she activates the circles. The sand shoots up and creates a small dome shape that from afar would look like nothing more than a small sand dune.

Its hollow in the middle, with about five feet of clearance, allowing them to take refuge under it comfortably. She draws another circle and creates an opening.

Ed moans and just falls to the ground as promised, just happy not to be on a camel, or in the hot-as-hell sunlight.

Skye slumps down next to him, and for the longest time, they just stare up at the sandy ceiling above them and breathe.

"I wonder what my dad's doing." She mumbles.

Ed snorts, and can't help but say: "Not his paperwork, that's for sure."

Skye chuckles. "Riza is probably forcing him into it, I bet."

Another stretch of silence… Ed squirms, unable to keep away that uncomfortable feeling blooming in his stomach.

Here he is… alone with Roy Mustang's incredibly funny and good looking daughter with a great personality.

Alone.

He makes a small squeaky sound and continue to wriggle, to the point where even the blind girl has noticed.

He blurts out the first thing he thinks of before she can ask what's wrong.

"Don't you wish you could see again? I mean, being blind can't be fun!" He claps a hand over his mouth. Smooth Ed, he thinks to himself, real smooth. She considers his question while he frets, Shit, what if I just hurt her feelings/ Or offended her? Oh, shit, I'll have to live in fear for the rest of my life if I hurt her feelings…Mustang will kill me… and what would she do to me? I don't even want to know!

Edward cringes and practically curls into a ball at the sound of her voice.

"That's a good question." She says thoughtfully.

He uncurls at her almost indifferent tone, his eyes wide in the semi darkness. "You mean… you're not offended by my asking?" He squeaks.

"No," She replies, surprised. "Why would I be?"

"Uhhh…"

"Actually," She says, "That's something I never really asked myself. I never saw regaining my sight as a possibility, so I never gave it any thought. But…"

"But?" He asks.

"But if I could do so, I don't think I would." She answers simply.

Ed tilted his head to the right so he could look at her.

She remained stoic as ever, eyes closed, hands folded delicately over her stomach, and completely still.

The only thing that gave her away as still being alive was the slow rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

"Why not?" He had to ask.

"I don't deserve to see anything more than the darkness." She says softly, lifting one hand up as if to reach up and grab the heavens. Skye let her hand drop, as if recognizing defeat when she met nothing but air.

"Why?"

"You're young, Ed. And you've seen almost as many bad things as I have, whether it is through our eyes or our hearts. I've met my shattering point. I can only hope you'll never get close to yours."

Ed sat up and stared right at her, golden eyes unable to see what she was getting at. "Skye…you can't say you deserve to be blind…no one deserves that."

"I do." She replies, glad it was too dark for him to see her tears. She whispers again, "I do…"

(*FMA*)

"Riza…" Roy says quietly, trying to get the blonde to look him in the eye.

She glanced up from her papers, but didn't return his gaze. "Yes, sir?"

They were still at work, and she always seemed to feel the need to address him formally, even when no one was around.

"Can you go ask Hughes for the files on the Ebony Alchemist?"

"Of course…why, though, if I might ask?"

He rests his head in the crook of his elbows before answering evenly, "I want to see what kind of man our daughter was going to marry."

Riza smiles, understanding. "Yes, Roy." Before walking away to get the requested files, she stepped slowly toward his desk, and leans against. He lifts his head but doesn't look at her.

The look of pain and loss…grief that no one person or thing could cure… it was the same look their daughter wore hundreds of miles away.

She reached forward and touched his cheek, tilting his head toward her so he was forced to look her in the eye.

"There was nothing you could do." She says.

Roy can only stare back, and Riza feels that this isn't the Roy Mustang she fell for. The real Roy would be smirking and grinning, cracking jokes and ignoring paperwork.

No.

Learning of his daughter's strife had changed something in him.

But she still loves this man, and she would makes sure he returned from this foul place he was currently in.

"I could've searched harder, Riza."

"It would not have helped, even if you did find her. You wouldn't have been able to protect him too. Don't blame yourself for the past, Roy." She kisses him softly on the lips marveling if only for a second how wonderful he tasted. "Leave the past be…Remember…you have a responsibility to the future." They share another long kiss, exploring each others mouth for what seemed like an hour.

When they break away, the fire has returned.

Roy Mustang returned.

(*FMA*)

Ed wasn't sure when he drifted off to sleep.

Skye's answer was plaguing him to no end, and he couldn't stand the thought of her wanting to stay blind.

As her friend, he wanted her to be completely even with the rest of the world. Even though she still had the ability to sense things through chi, he felt as if her being blind tipped the scales in a negative way. As her friend, he wanted her to see the world.

…Or as more then a friend?

No….she's nineteen for alchemy's sake! I'm only sixteen. Not to mention fact she's the colonel bastards bastard. No. She was so wonderful though…so much fun to be around…cheerful almost every waking moment. She's seen tragedy…she seems to know me better then I know myself…She's beautiful…but…

I can't afford to fall in love with her.

But Ed had a sneaking suspicion he was already too late.

(*)

It was the crash that woke him some time later.

He opened his eyes and sat up, blinking blearily, realizing slowly that Skye was no longer beside him.

It was the scream that accompanied the realization that made him jump up and race outside.

"Skye!" He shouted, after the two receding forms.

Skye was locked in a chokehold, her eyes wild as she recognized the man that held her. Blood had slicked her fingers as she struggled to get away from Cade Townsend holding her painfully tight.

Ed recognized the man too, from the picture.

"Cade," He mutters furiously, he kept his gaze on Skye, trying to figure out if she was hurt.

"Oh, you know my name bean sprout? I was just telling Skye hear about how her lovely fiancé died!"

Ed bristled at the insult but doesn't act on it. Not yet. And he can't help but notice the choice of words. How her fiancé died? Skye knows more than she's telling…but...she has to have a grudge… if he really did murder him…

"We're here to bring you in. You've been accused of some pretty heavy crimes. Drop her now and we might not add assault to that already long list." Ed says caustically. He was mad, but he needed to at least try and get things to go peacefully.

Townsend snarls with an ugly smile and jerks Skye back farther making her gasp as she continues to try and breath past the pressure on her throat.

He knew it wouldn't work.

And that was all he needed as confirmation that he should fight back. Because there was no way in hell he was going to let her die, whether Mustang had threatened him or not.

(*)

When Ed advanced quickly on her captor, she knew that he had made a big mistake. The blonde alchemist was playing right into the killer's hand, and things were about go seriously wrong. Two accomplices jump up, hidden in the sand, and slow his progress. Ed fights them rashly, his only objective to get to Skye.

"Ed, no!" She gasps out desperately.

"Shut up, kid!" Cade hisses, cracking her harshly on the head with the butt of his previously concealed weapon.

Skye drops do the ground in a daze, her head spinning as she tried to regain her idea of up and down. She can hear Ed and Cade exchange a few words, heard them clash, and knew they were both receiving injuries.

She freezes when she hears the gunshot.

And one of the five human forms she had sensed was snuffed out.

She knew exactly whose it was too, just by the absence of the feeling his presence had radiated unintentionally.

Tears run down her cheeks before she can even think about why she was crying.

Ed…no…

"No!" She screams to the world, hands clamped over her eyes while she sobs. "Not again…no…please…"

(*)

Ed had seen Skye get hit, watched her fall, and that had enraged him more than anything else.

He kicked the one man harshly between the legs and left him to fall in pain before punching the other in the face so hard with his right arm that he fell to the ground unconscious without so much as a whimper.

Edward raced toward the bastard that dare harm his friend (or was she something more..?) his arm quickly converted into that of a blade.

He wanted nothing more than to impale the man and cause him pain.

"Why!" He yelled as the man engaged him, barely managed to black the blows with a long knife he had concealed in his jacket.

Edward was still moving slower than he had wanted. The automail was getting jammed because of the sand, no matter the changes Winry had made.

"Why what, kid? You know as well as I do what alchemy does to this world!" Cade gritted out with a laugh and a crazy smile.

"That doesn't mean you should kill people!" He had replied.

"Oh, but it does! You see," He dodged another angry attack and remains on the defense. "Her fiancé, the Ebony Alchemist, the very man who took from me my own wife and child!"

Ed couldn't afford to be distracted.

"Just because of the color of her skin, the color of her eyes!" He roared, and offered an offensive attack with the knife, giving Ed a nasty cut on his shoulder, just below where metal met skin. He grits his teeth in pain but ignores the burning sensation.

"He wouldn't have had a choice!" He said, hoping the man will see the truth but knowing all to well this man was to far gone with grief.

"I don't care!" Townsend scream. "You will die, and so will she!" A gun gleams in the sunlight, and Edward doesn't have the time to react.

BANG!

Darkness overtook him.

Soon the darkness broke into light, and Edward knew he was dead.

The white figure stood up, that familiar grin still plastered to it's face.

Welcome back, Edward Elric, Truth said.

(*)

"NO!" She claps her hands together forcefully, so hard that the sting from contact.

A huge wall shoots forth without an array to guide it. It rises up nearly a hundred feet high, pushing away Cade and his two friends, leaving her alone with Ed's lifeless form. She crawls forward to him as the tears continue to pour, and it's all she can do to reach forward and find him.

She cradles him in her arms and whispers to herself. "I'm not letting you die yet." She cuddles him closer to her chest. "You hear me Edo? You are not going to die. Not on my watch."

As if to clarify this, she pulls her pocket watch from her pocket and stares at it unseeingly.

She throws it as hard as she can and it smashes into the nearest of the four stonewalls, breaking into a million pieces like it was glassware.

She would no longer be an alchemist of the state after this next transmutation.

Skye probably wouldn't even be alive afterwards.

She wipes the tears from her cheeks and sets Ed down on the sand, noting the fact that he had yet to grow cold and pale, and could simply be sleeping. But he wasn't.

"I'm sorry father…" She whispers, as she brings her hands together to perform what might be her last transmutation. "But I'm going to visit the Gate of Truth once more…and for the last time."

(*TBC*)

*Polishes off yet another story and tips her nonexistent hat *

Thank you all for following me on this crazy trip so far.

Let it be known that a sequel is coming you're way by the title of Souls of Silence.

I'd like to thank some specific people, so here it goes : A HUGE thanks to – cometdragon96 (who helped me flesh out characters and plotlines, even if she didn't realize it) Saphire Drizzle (for commenting when I really needed it the most :D), and last but not least, the person who influenced greatly the turn out of this chapters events a anonymous reviewer going by the name of Allura Solis-Elric

I thank all my other reviewers, and hope this story is living up to your expectations. If not, draw me a flame array and go all Roy Mustang on my ass (I wish) in the review section :D

If you're still reading Allura, know that you helped me quite a bit with that idea of yours hope you like it!

If you've been hiding in the shadows the entire story, I'd ask you to come out and review, just this once, so I know what to continue in the next book, and what to change. I'd like to make all my readers happy, but I can't do that if no one reviews and tells me what to fix!

Now, to you all I bid ye farewell and wish you all happy (albeit late) holidays.

With more love than I can fit in a million pages,

gilraenstar