Subject: Edward Elric

Input 8: Dream

Before you read, please note that this story is made to not make much sense - it was based on a dream, so there.

Disclaimer: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist or any of its franchise. I own a necklace and two small figurines, but that's about it. But I own the plot, … or the story, because I'm not sure if it has any plot.

Edward opened his eyes to a dark, purple tinted room.

"Where am I?"

A girl with bushy brown hair glanced at him with a slight smile.

"You're awake, that's good. We can finally get out of here."

Ed blearily looked around. The room was clustered with piles of junk, varying from pieces of metal to unrecognizable blobs. In one corner there was an ominous looking metallic locker. There were more people than just he and the girl, though they didn't seem to be as confused. There was a man with dark skin, maybe an Ishbalan. The rest were children, and with his eyes still blurry he couldn't tell how many were there nor how any of them looked. The room had three windows that each took one whole wall of the room, but Ed couldn't see a door anywhere. He tried to look out the windows, but they seemed to be rather opaque - there were random colors of light shining through them and into the darkness of the room, keeping it less than pitch black, but they didn't have any recognizable shape to hope for any kind of rescue.

"Where… Where are we?" he asked the bushy haired girl, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up. "Who are you?"

She ignored him. "We have to find a way out of here - but we don't know where we are," she said to the rest of the group.

Ed rubbed his eyes harder. They didn't clear up. In fact, Edward was sure they were getting even more blurry. "Wait, who are you guys?"

The others ignored him as well. "Well, it's not like we're going to get anything done by sitting around here," said the man. The others seemed to agree.

Edward was tired of getting ignored. He stopped rubbing his eyes and decided to make do with how blurry they were. He glared -or rather, tried to- at the group of people before him, "You haven't answered me-"

"But how are we going to get out of here?" said a boy, cutting into Edward's sentence. Ed felt his patience wear thin.

"Answer me!" he shouted.

Suddenly a girl, or what he assumed was a girl, charged at him with surprising speed. Surprised, all Ed could do was block. He was even more surprised however, when the 'girl' didn't ram into him. Instead, she ran past him and into one of the windows, shattering it into a long, velveted hallway.

Edward, still shaken from the sudden attack, spoke first, only to be interrupted again. "What the fuck-"

"Are you okay?" asked the first girl, jumping next to the ram-girl. Now that he looked carefully, the ramming girl had some sort of an armor around her. A flimsy one that looked like it was made from scraps of metal from the purple room, but an armor nonetheless. The group moved out of the room, carefully sidestepping pieces of glasses. The hallway was devoid of any distractions, even of lights. It was kept lit however, in a bloody red tint. Edward moved forth from the group, numbly feeling the walls with his hands. That is, until the man ran by him, snatching his arm and dragging him into a sprint as well.

"Run!" someone yelled. Surprised, Ed looked back to see what they were running from. His eyes widened when a black hand almost snatched at his nose.

The Gate.

Ed's eyes snapped to where he remembered the two girls were. The bushy haired girl was nowhere to be seen. Edward could only assume that she was already gone from the world. The armored girl was getting shredded by the little arms, being dragged piece by piece into the unblinking eye of The Gate.

"Help me!" she yelled pitifully.

He jerked back, intending to run back to the girl - even though he knew she was probably lost as well - and save the girl from a fate worse than death. He was jerked back into running by the Ishbalan who was still, surprisingly, holding onto his arm.

"Let go!" Ed yelled. The man ignored him, as did everybody else who were running in front of them. Ed glanced back.

The girl's body was gone. "Noooo! Help me!" Her fear-struck eyes met his own for a second before that too was dissolved into thousands of black tendrils.

Just as quickly as he was pulled away, he stopped. Everybody had. He snatched his arm away from the Ishbalan man, glaring venomously at him. He knew he was being unreasonable; he probably couldn't have been able to save either of those girls- likely kill himself in the process. But to be as heartless as they?

"I think we outran it," said one of the boys, heaving a sigh of relief.

Ed narrowed his eyes at that. 'That' just now was The Gate's innards trying to snatch at them. No one could outrun The Gate. At least … that was what he thought until now. They all should have been dead. If not for the sacrifices of the two girls… Ed clenched his fists. And to have these - these people who all looked totally ignorant of what just happened here?

He was about to make his anger known when the group, as they did so far, continued to ignore him and proceeded to move into another room. Edward stared at the back of he group, unsure whether to feel bewildered and angry or just exasperated at how thoroughly they ignored him. Suppressing a feral growl, he followed them. The doorway looked eerie, especially with how a single golden rose with an eye as a core seemed to stare down at him. The dim lighting and blood-red hallway made it look even more menacing, as if the eye was actually following him.

The room looked about as weird as the doorway. It seemed to be a greenhouse, but instead of beautiful and organized rows of flowers, it contained more of the freaky flowers like the on on the doorway. It turned for the worse when he stepped through the doorway, as all of the eyed roses turned to stare at him.

"What the-"

"Where are we now?" asked the Ishbalan man, cutting Edward off.

"It looks like some kind of a greenhouse," said another kid. The group started to disperse around the room, expertly avoiding looking at any of the eyed flora. "Maybe there's an exit here somewhere."

Edward was petrified. The flowers kept staring at him unblinkingly, and that made him tense up. In his experiences, eerie staring pair of eyes (or in this case, a whole greenhouse load of them) was always a surefire sign that something unpleasant would happen soon. Very soon.

And just as he thought it, pain bloomed in his back, spreading to his whole body from his spine. He collapsed into a heap. In the corner of his mind he registered that the flowers kept staring at him. In another corner of his mind he felt outraged that he was, for once, one of those who dies first at the start of a horror adventure. At yet another corner of his mind he wondered where the knife now stuck in his spine came from. The rest of his brain was kept busy registering the image of the person who had just stabbed him in the back. He let his head loll into place, revealing said person from head to toe.

It was a woman. Xingian, perhaps. She was skinny, with a simple purple Xingian shirt that hugged her form all in the right places and a pair of faded skinny jeans. Her face reminded him of a treacherous snake, gloating momentarily before it went for the kill. Sharp, tilted eyes looked down at him with an amused twinkle as her mouth, below the tiny nose, curved into a smile that made him expect a forked tongue slither out any moment. Her skin was pale like the moon, and the way she posed, how she looked like she was caressing herself… she looked like a Xingian statue he'd seen long ago. And as outrageous as it seemed, Edward felt a tug at his chest.

The corners of his eyes started to dim and darken. He felt his body shut down, organ by organ. And just before he felt his heart stop, Edward muttered:

"Beautiful…"

With a giant intake of breath, Edward woke up in the exact same room that he had woken up before. The dark purple tint was back, the claustrophobic walls and their giant windows that showed nothing but random lights were back too. The locker was still ominous, and everyone was still there looking confused.

Wait, what?

Edward did a double take at the bushy haired girl in front of him. "What the-"

She glanced at him with a slight smile. Her face was a bit out of focus, as was everybody else's in the room.

Just like last time.

"You're awake, that's good. We can finally get out of here."

"What happened? Why are we back here?" Edward stood up from the ground. He tried rubbing off whatever was blurring his eyes, when they settled on the metallic figure he was sure had been gone forever. "You!"

The flimsily armored girl glared back momentarily before she went back to ignoring him.

"We have to find a way out of here - but we don't know where we are," continued the bushy-haired girl, completely ignoring - or unaware of - the exchange between the two.

Edward was confused. The last he remembered was a Xingian woman standing before his - Ed's eyes widened - corpse. His corpse. He had died. In the hands of that … that woman. Embarrassment flowed into his head in red as he remembered what he'd said to her when he got killed. How stupid was he, saying, of all things, a compliment to his killer?

"Well, it's not like we're going to get anything done by sitting around here."

Edward shook his head, trying to focus on the situation at hand. So obviously he'd been killed, but how did he come back alive? Did The Gate have anything to do with it? Did the Truth? If that was true, that meant that they were currently inside The Gate itself, before the armored girl smashed them out of here. But she was soon consumed by The Gate - she didn't live. Then what was she doing here, with all of them?

Edward glanced back at the armored girl, and noticed that her armor wasn't really an armor, but rather big pieces of plastic and thin metal that he could guess were from an automobile. Of course that wouldn't protect her much from The Gate's claws.

"But how are we going to get out of here?"

Edward only had time to register where in his déjà-vu he was before the armored girl blurred past him, crashing through the window. The glass shattered, and time seemed to pass slower this time. Edward was not entranced by the velvety passage, but stayed back, looking at how the scenery changed in a blink of an eye into a highly decorated elevator doors opening. Ed looked around warily, as if to expect The Gate to appear any second. He slowly walked backwards of the room, which didn't look any different than before, and into the familiar hallway.

The first girl was again at the side of the armored girl who was groaning in pain. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Edward felt a chill up his spine. He didn't need to look back to see that the Gate had appeared. Running up to where the two girls had been left behind, Ed snatched the bushy-haired girl's arm for her attention.

"Run!" He yelled at her face.

Her eyes stayed blank, looking straight through him, as if she didn't hear a word he said.

Before Ed could do anything else the Ishbalan once again snatched him out of the Gate's tiny hands as they started to peel off everything around the Gate. The girls didn't even try to run as they were covered and shredded to pieces by the black tendrils, only then screaming for their lives.

"Noooo! Help me!"

Edward grit his teeth as he was once again pulled away from the screaming persons. The group stopped in front of the eerie doorway again, starting on their conversation again. By that time, Edward felt pretty sure that time had winded back, though he didn't know exactly why or how. He supposed it didn't matter at the moment. He looked at the gasping others, mildly surprised that he wasn't as tired as they. He looked back towards where the Gate swallowed the two girls. It was gone, and what was left was a shredded, half collapsed hallway leading to the innocently intact doors of the elevator. What he noticed of new was that there was another door, right next to the doorway of botanical doom. It was a normal wooden door, but didn't have a doorknob. He tried pushing it, and found that it didn't work. Edward frowned.

"I think we outran it," said one of the boys, heaving a sigh of relief.

Ed grit his teeth, biting back a snarky comment he could have made, which he was sure he would be ignored. Instead, he walked into the doorway first, staring heatedly at the one eye of the flower decoration on top of it.

"Where are we now?" Ed heard one of the boys ask. Edward's frown deepened. That was different from last time.

"It looks like some kind of a greenhouse," commented the Ishbalan man, opting to out-walk Edward to the front. Ed felt mildly appalled, but kept quiet. He stared into the eyed flowers that were all staring at him, leaving the others to walk past him deeper into the greenhouse.

"Maybe there's an exit here somewhere," said one of the kids. Some of the flowers turned away from Ed's stare to stare intently at the new group of people as if they didn't notice the humans rummaging around before. Most of the flowers stayed staring into his eyes, and Ed could swear that their eyes actually looked curious. Some even seemed to tilt slightly to the side in a questioning motion.

Then suddenly all of the flowers snapped to the side, staring at their left. Ed followed their line of 'sight', and gasped at what he saw.

"What-" In the blink of an eye, a kid, a boy with a cap, had his arm eaten by a bush. The waterlilies that were attached to the bush were opening up to reveal several long tubes that started to implant themselves onto the rest of the boy's body.

Edward, surprised, took a brief moment to understand how the room was suddenly filled with screams and pleas. His eyes looked frantically around the room, finding one body struggling to live after another.

"Help!" - one of the children - a girl - had a thick layer of vine wrapped around her head, her barely visible mouth gasped in pain as her head was slowly crushed to a mush.

"The tree's got me!" - another boy was struggling to fight the roots of a tree stump as it tried to drag him into the hollow of its bark. Ed could see the remains of the Ishbalan man's lower half hanging out of said hollow, a putrid smoke wafting up as the acid inside digested the corpse. "They're eating me!"

"Help!"

Edward, despite all the screaming despair around him, decidedly felt calmer and calmer. He looked back at the eyed roses. They were not staring at anything. In fact, they were moving slowly in every which way, looking at everything but Ed. He turned to the doorway to the velvet hallway, and remembered how he died. Who had killed him.

Anger, fear and another emotion he wasn't sure he approved of welled inside him, and he slowly stalked his way into a thick group of dandelion stalks, noticing and picking up a kitchen knife that was conveniently placed on the ground. When he snuck out of the stalks the woman was there, gently looking around in a confused daze, clearly looking for someone. Edward felt the corners of his mouth twitching upwards in a small smile, turning them down again in disapproval as he snuck behind his prey. He barely registered that the eye roses were back to staring at him as he wrapped his arms around the woman's arms and waist in an awkward hug. Mildly frustrated that his body wasn't willing to do much harm to her even though his mind very much wanted to, he gently kicked at the back of her knees to bend down to his … height. Not that he was small. Ed readjusted his grip on the knife and pressed it high up on the woman's neck.

"Gotcha." Ed smirked. Smirked, not smiled. It was not a smile. He pretended not to hear the sliver of affection in his voice as he imagined his enemy to be frightened at how easily Ed caught her red handed.

She, however, wasn't quite trembling in fear.

"My, my. Aren't you quick to learn?" asked she, her melodious laugh shaking Ed's insides from top to bottom, making his legs go weak. He shook his head, bared his teeth and pressed his knife harder at her throat, cutting a small line of red.

"Let them go." he growled quietly. He felt himself relax into her back. He wasn't comfortable with that.

The Xingese woman snorted and looked over her shoulder with a sly, sexy look. Ed felt his arms go weak, the knife in his hand suddenly weighing a ton. "Or what? You realize, don't you? This isn't real. They're not real." She leant slightly back. "I'm not real, either. At least, to you."

"Let them go." Ed stated stubbornly. She may not have heard him, after how he mumbled it into her shoulder, enjoying her scent as he nuzzled her. He felt so comfortable, having her in his arms… that it was disturbing.

At some point Ed let the arm with the knife fall to his side, still pointing at her heart between her ribcage to stab if she still tried something. It was a weird feeling, trusting completely in someone but at the same time knowing that they will kill you the moment you fall for her charms.

She looked down at how firm Ed's hand was at her vital point, and smiled. Ed felt her arms snake around him, the knife at her hand skirting towards his spine. Ed shuddered, and hoped that she'd get it over and done with so that he wouldn't feel like this anymore.

Pain seared from his spine, electricity coursed through his veins, his limbs spasmed away from her body, sparks flew in front of his eyes. He fell on his nose, crushing it. As the world became darker, a soft, cold hand lifted his head up.

"I think I like you, Alchemist. Perhaps even love you."

Ed fruitlessly struggled to keep the smile off his face. She was such a tease.

Edward hoped, as he laid dying amidst pained screams of the others, that this would be the end, and that he wouldn't have to see her again… and possibly kill her.

He also knew by his heart that it wouldn't be possible.

But for the moment, ... Edward felt love.

Edward opened his eyes. The familiar view of the dark purple tinted room greeted him once again. He didn't need to look around anymore. He knew what was there, what would happen. He also knew what he would have to do to get out of this unending nightmare. He glanced at his side, and saw the kitchen knife he'd recovered from the greenhouse. He didn't know how it came back in time with him, but it didn't matter. He knew what was going to happen, and he would be prepared.

Now if only he didn't feel so sad about it …

"You're awake, that's good. We can finally get out of here."

He ignored the girl. Instead, he shifted away from the group, towards the window that would be broken any time soon.

"We have to find a way out of here - but we don't know where we are."

'I do,' he would say, though he didn't. Edward absently ran a finger down the knife's blade, remembering it cut through the perfectly pale skin.

"Well, it's not like we're going to get anything done by sitting around here.

'Damn right.' Ed didn't look up, and he didn't need to to feel the intent stares from all of the people in the room. They weren't real, as … she, said in his previous… life. It dawned on Ed that he didn't even know her name. He supposed it wouldn't matter; neither of them wanted the murder of each other become any more personal than it had. … Or will be. Ed felt his heart wane in pain. He was going to kill her.

"But how are we going to get out of here?"

Ed finally looked up, looking at all those pairs of eyes staring right back at him. What were they? Who were they? Why were they in front of him? He didn't know.

And he knew he didn't care.

At that moment, the armor girl dashed towards the mirror, jumping head first into the pane of glass. The same thing happened. The elevator doors opened, the bushy haired girl ran to attend to the armor girl. The others stepped out, in wonder of the velveted hallway.

Not him.

Edward gripped hard on the knife's handle, leapt out of the broken window, and started running towards the garden's doorway. Instantly, the Gate opened and started to grab at everything it could reach. The bodies of the people he was just with started to crumble down, their voices cracking into unnatural pitches. They screamed and screamed, their voice morphing into something not unlike that of a chimera.

"Where are you going?"

"Come back!"

"Aaaaah!"

"Run!"

"Noooo! Help me!"

Ed didn't look back; his gut told him he'd pay dearly if he did. Edward risked a glance behind him, and found that was was quite a ways before the Gate's tendrils. He dashed to the wooden door next to the garden doorway. He slid open the door as if it were the most natural thing in the world, slipped in just in time as Gate devoured the greenhouse. Ed thought he saw the golden eye rose on the doorway tear up in pain just before he closed the door.

Out of immediate trouble, Edward looked around the room. It was a hotel room, a high quality one at that. The carpet was lush and comfortable, with a queen-sized double bed sitting in the middle of it. There was a small table at the side, along with two armchairs, facing each other as the night sky was hidden by the thick curtains on the window. The bedside tables were furnished with small lamps, turned on dimly as they set the drowsy atmosphere of the room. On the other side of the room had a big dresser, with one bathrobe and slippers. Next to the door Ed came in was another door, this one with a doorknob, which Ed assumed as the bathroom.

A soft click sounded from behind him, and Edward jumped away from the door, positioning the knife between him and the Xingian woman who just entered. She held herself exactly like she had when he'd first seen her, and Edward had to stop himself from lowering his weapon once again.

She glided towards him, her thin, delicate hand twirling a butterfly knife as she did so. "You are a very quick learner. Most people take about six times the experience to find this place."

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Ed demanded.

She smiled that snake-like smile, tapping the tip of her knife on her cheek as she did so. "Straight to the point, too. Refreshing."

Then her smile turned slightly sad. "But you die now," she said.

Edward was at her back, in a similar position as he had been last time. This time, though, he had the proper grip on her arms, a safe distance away from her alluring aura, and still the knife pressed to her throat.

"You wish."

Her face turned into shock when she realized she was unarmed, pinned and at his mercy before she could even move. "What-how-"

"I am a prodigy, you know," he said, looking into the mirror that he didn't notice until now. She looked beautiful.

There was a moment of silence before the Xingian woman broke it with a short, shocked laugh. "Ahah."

Ed didn't move.

She let out a chuckle, then looked through the mirror straight into his eyes. Hers were yellow as well, though compared to his, hers seemed more like an animalistic yellow.

"You are… the most interesting subject I've met so far, Marco," she said, her head leaning slightly into the crook of his arm with the knife at her throat. He jerked away, and she looked slightly hurt, though it disappeared in an instant.

"That's… not my name." He muttered. For some reason that made him … disappointed.

"I know, Edward," she grinned the snake-like grin.

Ed snarled in irritation and jerked the knife higher up her throat. "What are you playing at! What do you want from me?"

And in a whirl of wind, he was suddenly atop her, straddling her waist while still holding the knife at her throat. Still confused at what happened, Ed was pulled down by the woman into a chaste kiss. It was sweet, mesmerizing, and it rubbed everything from his mind. It felt like an eternity in seconds, as she pulled away some moments later, leaving him wanting more.

"Kill me," she said.

Ed blinked, shook his head and pressed just a bit more on her throat. "Keep it up and I just might." Her blood shone black in the dim light of the room, but it was still a beautiful contrast against her pale skin.

"Kill me," she said once again. She was looking straight into his eyes. She wasn't pleading, she wasn't ordering. She just said it, as if she were stating a fact. It angered him, it frustrated him… It saddened him.

Edward leant down, leaning his forehead on her chin as he felt his arms tremble. The knife was still cutting her throat, unmoving as much as he wanted to - and not. "I love you," he pleaded, hoping she would get the 'Please don't do this to me.' under the words.

Her eyes softened, and her lips curved into a small smile.

"Kill me."

Ed saw a flash of metal at the corner of his eye, and moved his arm.

There was a sudden spurt of blood, and her head lolled to the side, face contorted in horror. Her hand held her butterfly knife, poised to strike him. Ed felt his eyes welling up with tears.

"If… If I hadn't killed you… you would have killed me, wouldn't you?" he muttered.

Her face looked horrified. She wasn't like that moments before. It was his fault.

But he didn't regret it.

Ed leant down and pressed his lips on her cheek.

"I love you."

Ed heard a gasp above him. He snapped up his head, crawling off the corpse with the knife at ready for any kind of an attack.

It was a giant man. A bald, white man, giant like a bear… he reminded Ed of Gluttony. And he was… crying.

Tears flowed down like small rivers, making small noises as they hit the top of a large chest he was holding.

It didn't look like he was about to move any time soon. The man had seen him, and yet he didn't go into a fit of rage. Ed figured that he was the woman's… parter, he supposed, seeing how affected he was by her death. And she was about to kill him if he hadn't killed her. So that chest was for…

"Give me that," said Edward.

The man nodded tearfully, coming into the room and placing the chest at the foot of the bed.

Edward picked the woman and started to stuff her into the box. Her body was lax and he folded her body every which way to get her in there. While he was doing so, the other man had kneeled down next to him, still weeping silently.

"Did you love her?" asked Ed abruptly. He didn't get an answer. "I did," he said. He could feel the tears threatening to come out. Ed blinked furiously. He didn't need this right now.

He didn't need this period.

Just as he was about to close the lid however, his eyes went to her horrified face once again. Ed felt like he should do something about it… lest she wasn't fully dead and somehow come back to haunt him. With his luck, it would happen. He turned to the man.

"I'm going to put my arms in there. Keep it closed, will you? Close it off as soon as I take my arms out."

The huge man nodded, obediently holding down the lid on the corpse as Edward picked up his knife and put both his arms inside. He had to do what he had to do, but he didn't want to look at what her face may look like when he did it.

He felt around and found where he had originally cut, and started sawing at it with his knife. It was disrespectful, it was disgusting, it was in every ways wrong, but he felt like he had to do it. The giant didn't say anything, for one matter.

After the deed was done, Edward slipped his hands out of the chest. The giant quickly closed the lid. Ed placed the bloody knife on top of the lid and clapped. The knife was gone, buried seamlessly in the chest's wood.

He felt tears finally roll down his cheeks. He hefted up the chest, wincing when something thudded at the side of the chest.

He handed it to the giant. "Get rid of her. Burn it, throw it into the river, I don't care. Just don't bury it."

The giant man looked at him blankly for a moment, as if he wanted to ask if Ed was crazy, then nodded, and walked out of the room.

Only then Ed allowed himself to cry.

Alarm rang besides his bed.

Ed reached his hand over to the side and turned it off.

He still laid there, tears flowing from both eyes into his pillow, soaking it uncomfortably wet. For once he didn't want to get up at all. He contemplated the thought of calling in sick for work. He knew it was ridiculous, but he wanted to have a day, a morning, an hour, at least, mourning over the death of whom he loved, in a twisted way, even if it were just a dream.

He loved her and still he killed her.

He killed her and still he loved her.

Ed coughed out a weak laugh. And he didn't even know her name.

That's it, folks. It's been awhile.

I know it doesn't make sense. I know usually someone doesn't fall in love with someone who wants to kill them. And vice versa. And I know some people don't take their dreams as seriously as I do.

Yes, this was my dream I based it on. I was in Ed's place the whole time, which made this whole dream even more awkward. I also can say that what I felt there may not be love, but I know definitely it wasn't just a crush, nor was it lust. I was really feeling two conflicting emotions … what I thought to be love, and hate. The hate probably came from how I thought I needed to survive the whole twisted situation and how she was in my way. I don't know where the 'love' came from, but it was there. I really felt like I did when one of my relatives died years ago, so I assumed it was love, no matter how weird it sounds.

So… this story is my dream, with only the names of some races changed around to fit FMA. I had the Gate chase me through the hallway too, but instead of a chest I had an icebox to work with, so I just left the knife in one of the compartments it had before taking my arms out. But FMA world doesn't have that, does it? So obviously I had to change it. Also, the armored girl actually had pieces of a motorcycle stuck to her body for some reason, but then I thought it would be too ridiculous given the situation, so I changed it into an armor.

Mrawgirl09