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She wasn't there with them.
She was supposed to be here…
She would never have allowed this to continue if she was here…
He didn't notice the many people standing around them.
He stood over his brother in his black suit, staring blankly at his mother's grave. Alphonse was crouched down, his hands over his knees, crying. It was close to sundown, and they were the only two left on the hill at the burial ground. Even Auntie Pinako and Winry were gone now. They had invited the two boys to dinner, and told them that their door was always open to them, but they had refused.
He shivered as a chilled wind blew between them.
This couldn't have happened… he thought numbly to himself. But the gravestone was not disappearing… The day was not rewinding to a time before this happened…
What are we supposed to do now?
"B-brother…" Alphonse stuttered, shivering once before continuing. "I-I'm c-cold… a-and-d h-hungry… W-what are we go-going to do?" Al whimpered quietly. "H-how are we g-going to do this? H-how will we live w-without her?"
Ed continued staring at the tombstone.
Without looking toward his brother, he spoke. "We're not, Al… We're going to bring her back." His hands fisted and he ignored his short nails making half-moon indentions into his palms.
If she were there, she would have immediately stopped him speaking of that, for she knew better than they did what happened when straying down that road… She had seen it first hand, after all, with her husband…
But she wasn't.
Why did you do this God? Why?
To create, something of equal value must be lost…
We have nothing more to lose. Ed thought. Mother deserves another chance. She deserves to live, and we'll give her that chance. What choice do we have? We can't live without her… it's impossible.
They stayed near her tombstone until well-past dark, shivering, as it got darker and colder.
The next day, they fell into their studies of alchemy. But what other choice did they have? Who was there to stop them?
And they never looked back from the road they chose to take, even though they knew it was the wrong one…
End………