Welcome to my next awesome fanfic! Like the others, this will be Parental! RoyEd! A lot of people will think this is yaoi, but please…just because someone loves someone else does not mean the making-out, let's-all-get-drunk-and-married love thing. Also, this is going to be pretty dark. Don't kill me! It may also be short because I had kind of a hard time planning it out without making it an extremely long oneshot or like all of the other Parental! RoyEd fics on this site. But whatever, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA. If I did I would be eating the world's most expensive ice cream (which is $1,000 with edible chocolate gold!)

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The red glow seemed to burn Edward Elric's brain that night.

It was everywhere…in the walls, on the ceiling, in the tanks that he had spread over the red array he drew on the floor. It looked like it was on the prisoners, who were backing up from him in fear. It was on the homonculi, who were all looking at him with pure greed in their eyes. It was on Alphonse, who was looking at him, his own red eyes shaded with fear and uncertainty.

Ed knew what he had to do now. He had promised Al that he would regain his original body, and now was the peak chance to do it. He had promised, that no matter what the cost, they were going to take any chance they would get.

He was beginning to regret that as he watched the prisoners, their cream-colored clothes tattered and loose over their thin bodies, and their sallow, haunted faces were looking at him, every bit as fearful as he was. He could only hope those same sunken eyes would not gaze at him when he was done, for the rest of his life.

"Hurry up, Fullmetal," snapped the homonculous Lust impatiently, her usual seductive voice suddenly pushy and annoyed. Ed glared at her with the death stare, but she was oblivious to it. Envy, in the corner, his foot on Al's suit of armor as a precaution, chuckled at such a pathetic attempt to arouse them.

Ed pushed the last tank of red water into place. He couldn't believe this. He just couldn't believe it. Envy's words had echoed in his mind ever since they were spoken just a few minutes ago. You have to spend life…to make life…

"I promised," Ed said in barely a whisper. He was exhausted from the past few days of researching. He just wanted to get away from this mess, but there was no turning back now.

Slowly, he clapped his hands together, feeling the familiar rush of alchemic power in his veins, but there was no exhilaration in it at all. Not at what he was about to do.

Ed knelt on his knees. He heard gasps from the crowds of prisoners, and felt instantly guilty. He was getting closer and closer, inching forward until he and Al would regain their original bodies…

And his hands slowly brushed the ground, where the array was sitting, waiting to be charged.

And then it was absolute chaos. There were screams of pain and terror, and laughs of the homonculi that seemed to clash horribly in his ears. There were flashes of blue and red all over the place, and he could hear Al's screams echoing in the large suit of armor that had imprisoned his body for so long.

Ed could hardly see through the blurs of colors and flashes of light anywhere. It all seemed impossible to look at, there was just so much going on…but the light seemed to fade slowly, and he managed to crack an eye open.

There it was, resting in the palm of his white gloved hand. There was a strange whisper of warmth where it sat on his hand. It was jagged at the ends, but it did not hurt him. He could almost feel the power coursing through it. Its brilliant crimson seemed to light up the whole room in an even brighter red than before.

He had it. In the palm of his hand. He had the Philosopher's Stone.

"Give it here, Fullmetal!" yelled Lust, whose voice had lost all sensual quality and was now dripping with greed and want.

Ed didn't' know what to do, so he decided to multitask. He clapped his hands once, and the stone seemed to balance on them, not wanting to move from its only resting place. He placed one hand on the stone, waiting for it to happen.

There was yet another flash of light (Ed was sure he would be blind by the end of tonight), and there were many screams. Ed pulled each one out of the choir of sound until he recognized one. Alphonse. He could hear his brother's all too familiar scream, but this one had seemed to lose the echo. And that's when things started to go horribly wrong.

The first thing he noticed was a huge puddle of red water on the floor. The homonculi were gone…what had happened? Had the stone destroyed them? He could only look at the red puddle, and for some reason, assume the worst…that they had melted into it, and died. Oh, God. If the homonculi had been reduced to this, what had happened to Alphonse?

He wished he had never wondered. He wished he could erase what had happened in the past few minutes. He had made the biggest mistake of his entire life, bigger than when he had tried to bring back his mother.

In the middle of the room laid a pile of flesh…or what looked like flesh, but was contorted and pale...and a large streak of blood went across the room. Ed's breath halted in his chest and he felt bile rising in his throat.

The thing moved, in a way that made Ed feel completely sick. It twitched, a retching, choking sound coming from it. Ed could hardly take his eyes off of the pile of flesh on the floor, as though mesmerized by the sick scene. Then, the hideous thing on the ground spoke.

"Bro…ther…" it managed to spit out. It was all too much. Ed could feel the ground rising up to him, but he fought for his consciousness, not giving up so easily.

"Al…" he whispered, and he was sure he was going to be sick then there. Surprisingly, he held it in, trying to stand on his feet for a few more minutes. The thing let out a shrill cry that seemed to pierce the night and Ed's heart in the most horrible way possible.

Ed couldn't take it any more. He could see the blackness collapsing into his vision, and the ground was rushing up to meet him at a rapid pace. He could feel himself flying down, down…

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"What the hell happened here?" Lieutenant Maria Ross asked loudly as she stepped into the room.

She had a right to ask that question. Red water and blood were spilled all over the walls and the floors. The glass sectors, which had held back all of the red water, had shattered, and there were also other puddles of it, that looked older and more crimson, on the ground.

Sergeant Denny Block and Major Armstrong also stepped in, looking carefully around. Lieutenant Ross looked as if she were trying to hold in being sick at the scene. She managed, for she called out for Ed.

"Fullmetal, sir? Major Elric!" she called into the room. It was dark in the corners, so she decided to go in further to see if she could find Ed. She could hardly see. That's when she noticed…

She gasped, whirling around to see the pile of flesh on the floor, completely saturated in its own blood. Sergeant Block looked as if he wanted to do nothing else that stop the case. Major Armstrong, however, stepped over to it, observing.

"Don't shoot," he told her. "This may be some sort of forbidden experiment, and in case we need evidence of the goings on here, this would be it." She nodded and reluctantly stepped closer to it.

"What…is that thing?" she breathed. It was disgusting, as if it was a poorly transmuted person. Wait a minute…

"Edward!" she called, beginning to frantically look around the room. "Ed, we know what you did! Please!"

Just then, she heard a moan from the side of the room. She quickly ran to it, nervous. If Ed had lost a few more limbs, she would have never forgiven him! She knelt down by nothing in particular, but continued groping through the darkness.

She felt her heart skip a beat when she felt a small flesh hand under hers. She picked it up and patted up, hoping to get a response. She felt relief flood her when a familiar, yet weak, voice answered, "What…who…?"

"Shhh, don't talk, Ed. You've just been through a terrible ordeal, haven't you?" she asked quietly. Ed moaned again, sleepily. That transmutation he did must have taken a lot out of him.

Gently, she reached down and managed to lift him up from the rubble. The normal Edward Elric would grumble about "freakishly tall people", but he just closed his eyes, panting. She was extremely worried about his lack of insults.

"God get a medical team in here, now!" she commanded to Sergeant Block, who left at an instant to the outside.

"What should we do about that?" she asked Major Armstrong, referring to the awful transmuted human.

"NO! Don't touch it, please!" Ed cried sharply. It sounded as if every word he said was causing him pain, but he had to keep them from taking away his little brother.

"Ed…is this…?"

Ed nodded. He looked pale, as if he was going to pass out. She felt her expression soften. "Ed, go back to sleep. Everything's under control and we're not going to do anything to…" she glanced at the thing in the middle of the room. "…Alphonse." But it appeared Ed was already asleep, his face tensed as if he were in a nightmare.

In a way, he already was.

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Once again, icky yucky prologue. But at least you all know what happened! Expect the Parental! RoyEd in the next chapter. It's going on pretty thick in this story! This was the most disgusting thing I have ever written. All right, well review this mess and you can get a hug/cookie/handshake/hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream!