Burnout

Chapter 19.

Roy's POV:

W-Where am I?

I'm surrounded by white nothingness and before me stands a giant stone door.

The door is covered with an ancient alchemical formula I've never seen before.

"Hey, Roy is that you?" I hear a familiar voice say.

"Hughes?!"

I turn around and see my old friend, Maes Hughes.

"Yessir!"

I rush over to him, wrapping him an a brotherly embrace.

"It's so good to see you, Hughes!"

"You too, Roy."

I pause.

"Wait, if your here, am I dead?" I ask cautiously.

"Probably, yes."

I sit down on a nearby bench.

"Woah, Roy, what's wrong?"

"I-I don't belong here. You died for a noble cause, so you can be allowed to enjoy eternal paradise. But I killed myself, Hughes, and it was the only way, to save Havoc and Riza and Kallie..."

"Wait, Who's Kallie?"

I let out a sob.

"My daughter..."

His face lights up.

"Woah a daughter! Congratulations pal! Who's the mum?"

"Riza..."

His face lights up and he dances around for a while.

"What's so great?"

"MY OTP HAS HAPPENED!!"

"Your what?"

"My One True Pairing! The IT couple! The people destined for each other! The soulmates!"

I bury my head in my hands. We were soulmates. Were.

"Oh, right." He said reluctantly.

"They're all alone. The homunculi came back and tried to kidnap her! They needed the secrets of Flame Alchemy for some reason, and they thought that she knew them."

He paused.

"But didn't you burn them off her back? Back in the war?"

"That's what I told them! Then they tried to force me to go with them." I pause.

"Then I realized that they weren't going to let them go alive, so I had to die, to scare off the homunculi and to make sure they have no reason to return."

Hughes just looked at me.

"I see," he whispered.

"And now they're alone and I won't be able to raise Kallie, or to finally marry Riza..."

"I'm so sorry Roy."

I let out another sob.

"Well, isn't that a pity, Roy Mustang, struck down in the prime of his life..."

Me and Hughes jump up at the sound of a mysterious voice.

"Who's there? Show yourself!!" I call out.

I look down by my door and see a figure, one that looks similar to me, except that he has no features, just a big grin on his face.

He snaps his fingers and Hughes disappears.

"Hughes? HUGHES!!"

The figure laughs.

"Who are you?" I call out to him again.

"Im what you humans refer to as the world, or the universe, or all, or one, or true knowledge, and-" he paused, "I am you."

"Can you send me back?" I demand.

He grins the biggest, most ugly grin I've ever seen and whispers, "That depends on you, Colonel."

"Depends on what?"

"You should know, being an alchemist and all. The law of Equivalent Exchange. What will you give up in order to return?"

I stand there, dumbfounded. What could I possibly give up to be able to be sent back? As I think, the 'Truth' speaks again.

"Technically, you're not dead yet. Your wounds are severe, and you're organs are giving out. This place is a place between life and death, where the alchemist Edward Elric came when he performed human transmutation. Though you are not dead, your future is unclear. Most people refuse to pay the toll and accept their fate. I do not expect this of you. You have a reason to live."

Riza. Kallie. They are my reason. I know what I have to do.