The Same Coin

Cemetery Mink

Maes Hughes was dead.

While she had known it to be true, it hadn't really sunk in until she finally saw his gravestone. It had taken her weeks to work up the courage to allow herself to go with Gracia and Elicia, however — she was afraid she wouldn't be able to maintain her composure, and that would be the worst thing for Elicia to see. Every time someone came to the door, Elicia still ran to open it, expecting her daddy.

Gracia had been kind and didn't pressure her to go before she was ready, but once she was at the cemetery it still felt like it was too soon. Her heart broke again when she'd stared down at the small plot of land that such a great man had been confined to. 1885-1914. A life too short. She'd had no way to know back then that the last time she'd seen him would be the very last.

Although her memory of losing her parents was softened by how young she'd been when they died, and how long ago that had been, she felt the wound of Maes Hughes' death in that same place in her chest. Was that where death would always hurt?

"I hear the Elrics' are wrecking havoc."

"What, again?"

"The MPs have been running around like crazy."

Winry turned in the direction of the people she overheard as she walked by on her way back from the cemetery, but they were already gone. The Elrics were in another fight? She'd thought that their pursuit of the Philospher's Stone would keep them in libraries and safely away from the front lines. Ed was in the military now, yes, but she'd believed research would be their focus.

"It seems they're after that guy who's been killing off State Alchemists—"

Winry's heart dropped. She'd heard about the attacks but...were Ed and Al in danger? Real danger? She thought about his automail — what if something happened to it? He wouldn't be able to perform alchemy. She heard the rolls of thunder in the distance. Or, at least, she would have thought it was thunder if she didn't know better. Winry clenched her jaw and took off in that direction.

She found the first telltale signs of the fight more easily than she'd expected — rubble was strewn through an alleyway, and there were soldiers collapsed among it. Winry rushed to kneel beside them, checking each for a pulse — the heartbeats and breathing were both strong and steady. She heard another thunderclap nearby and, after a moment more to consider, she left them to continue on. Winry rounded the corner—

"You're so self-righteous, but do you remember two Amestrian doctors named Rockbell?" Ed's voice demanded, and her feet suddenly stopped moving. "The order came down to exterminate Ishval but that didn't stop them! They kept right on helping your people. Don't you remember them? Those doctors saved your life! And you killed them!"

It was only then that Winry really became aware of the man Ed and Al had cornered. His eyes were the red of an Ishvalan, and there was an X shaped scar across his face that was several shades lighter than his skin. The man's fist clenched.

"Brother!" Alphonse cried out.

Only then did Ed turn to see her where she stood in the mouth of the alley, stricken.

"What are you talking about, Ed?" she whispered.

"Winry—"

She stared at the Ishvalan, her entire body trembling as the immensity of what Ed said sank in. This...This was the man who killed them? The person who had taken her family away, making it so they would never return home to her again. He had robbed her of every family dinner, every kiss goodnight, the sound of their elation at every accomplishment. They had helped him and he had still killed them.