Broken↩️🪭 ✔

Chapter 20

The three men returned to Central and Beje was given permission to start on the counter-serum for Edward's body with his recovered book. Maes and Roy went back to Maes' home but found Riza there with Edward.

"Hawkeye..."

"Sir. How was your journey?"

"It was... oddly satisfying."

Edward looked up at Maes.

"Mustang said you killed the guy who killed Al. Is that right?"

Maes laughed nervously, shooting a glare at Roy.

"I, uh, got a little carried away. You boys mean a lot to me, as if you were my own kids, and so doing that to your brother just threw me over the edge."

Edward gave a small smile and then turned to Roy.

"And what about you? Did you get in on the action?"

Riza looked at him as well.

"I... got to incinerate his remains."

Edward nodded. "Well isn't that just peachy for the two of you."

The two officers looked at him in confusion as he glared something sharper than daggers at the two.

"I suffered so much for so long, the only thing left of Al being the voice in my head, and I didn't even get to avenge him."

"You were still recovering-"

"I've recovered just fine!" he growled, stamping his foot for emphasis.

Riza had to hide her smile because it wasn't supposed to be adorable, but it was.

"What the hell gives you two the right to dictate whether I'm fine or not? Are you doctors? Are you psychiatrists? No! You're just older than I am. That's it. You know nothing about me or Al or what we went through. You don't even know the half of the horrors that I had to endure by myself, half dazed and confused and full of false hope and dreams and memories and pain and sorrow and sadness and anything else that could be thought of!" he screamed, tears falling from his anger filled eyes. "Out of everything, the one thing I wanted more than to be rescued, was to see the man who killed Al. I wanted to ask him why he did it. I wanted to understand what possessed him to kill a kid like that! While Al was screaming in pain and screaming for me! Why would he just keep doing what he did?! And then I wanted to break him. I wanted to watch him die... but as it has been through this whole fiasco, no one has asked me what I wanted to do."

"I asked you about Al." Roy offered feebly.

Edward turned to him and if looks could kill, Roy would be dead many times over.

"And you're the worst of them all, Roy. You keep acting like you're the victim here when it was me. Why do I have to keep defending myself? Why do I have to look like the whiny child when I have every right to be upset and mad?"

"I'm sorry, Edward..." Maes said, truly sorry. "You're right, we haven't taken into consideration your feelings over what happened before you were taken and while you were taken... but you must understand that when we found you, you were so broken. You were like an expensive mirror that had been shattered into a billion pieces, each piece so delicate that if we touched it the wrong way, it'd shatter more. We had to be so careful with you; we had to make sure you would stay together as we tried to make you whole again. We've been tiptoeing around so much that we didn't stop to realize that you're whole again; fractured, but you can hold your own. We jumped ahead of you... I'm sorry."