Angel Fall

Fullmetal Alchemist/Warhammer 40K

Chapter 4: Memories

"I am fortifying this position" -Rogal Dorn, "The Unyielding One"

"The overwhelming weight of the Imperium upon me…" -Roboute Guilliman "The Avenging Son"

Resembool

Oct. 3, 1917

"I wonder what you'd think of me mom."

The stark Gravestone gave no reply. Adorned with a circle of flowers, the grave itself was simple as can be. Sitting in front of it was Edward Elric, Living Saint and former State Alchemist of Amestris.

"After everything I've been through, everything I've seen, I've always tried to stay your son. Even after 200 years in another universe, I like to think I haven't changed that much." He felt at peace again, after so long of not seeing his mother's grave. "You know when the Emperor offered to try and find your soul so I could meet you, I… I don't know why I said no. Maybe because I was afraid of what you were thinking of me. It sounds silly but for like the first 50 years there I sorta lost myself in the situation of the time you know?" He sighed.

"I sound silly. I know you love me mom. I know you always did and always will. I hope to the Emperor that Al came by every year at the least. I wonder where he is now, on today of all days." He said that last part to himself more than to the gravestone.

Whispering a few words, he stood, having sat there for a few hours.

"Are you finished?" the voice was weaker than he remembered it, but he knew who it was already.

"Hello Granny Pinako. Shouldn't you be in the refugee area near East City?" He said turning around with a smile. "Not that it's not nice to see you."

"This is my home. Besides, it's not like I haven't lived a long enough life." She said, beckoning with her hand for him to follow her.

He simply smiled and followed her. He hadn't been in the Rockwell house in a long, long time.

"By the way, where is Winry?" he asked a little conspicuously. Of all the women he had met in his life, he doubted his feeling for Winry had ever dissipated. Indeed after seeing some of the old spots in the village he loved, his mind brought forth images of him and Winry sitting on that riverbed, their feet in the cold water, of him and Winry on that tree, laughing as some of the other kids tried to climb up, of him and Winry laying down on that hill, watching the stars.

Few women had such a hold on his heart, the only other woman he'd ever been close to truly falling in love with was one of the Sororitas he had slept with, she'd gone on to lead a preceptory in his third crusade and was his closest friend and advisor at the time.

He shook his head as memories of her death at the hands of a Dark Eldar rattled in his mind. No use thinking about it now.

"She's in Rush Valley. She's quite the successful automail expert now actually. People love her for those different arrays she can add to her work."

Ah those. He remembered giving her a notebook of different alchemical seals she could copy onto the ports of automail. They were all quality of life improvements that could be activated and re-activated by any simple village alchemist. There were things like Heat retention so that whether through cold or heat an automail won't be affected much, or that durability array he created after having his own arm be destroyed so much.

"And Al?" He said, almost dreading the answer. What could explain him not being here in Resembool for the date they both promised they wouldn't forget?

"Xing. He and that wife of his, May I think, are pretty happy. His letter said that she was pregnant and he couldn't leave her to go here."

Ed's heart soared. Al getting together with May was something he'd always teased his brother with, hoping that they really did get together. And now she was pregnant? He was going to be an uncle!

"That's… that's amazing Granny!" Thinking clearly now, he realized he was far older than her technically.

Walking to the old house memories came unbidden to the forefront of his mind. He had missed this place, he really did.

Oechalia

2.M42

Oechalia was a Civilized world of the Gothic Sector, not a world the Archenemy should be prioritizing, yet here the forces of Chaos were, attacking indiscriminately the citizens of the Imperium. The PDF was under-manned and were barely holding the back the tide of monsters and daemons. With the splitting of the galaxy into two, loyal forces in Imperium Nihilus needed all the aid they could get.

He watched as another small fleet of ships descended into the atmosphere, more reinforcements from the sizeable fleet he had been entrusted with commanding to aid the Indomitus Crusade. Golden eyes watched as his favorite regiment formed up, the banner of the 221st Cadian Regiment flew high, eliciting pride from the purple-eyed men and women who marched under it.

Edward Elric sighed. It was time to get to work. Entering the war room he set out to immediately make good use of his 2 chapters of Astartes, the Night Swords and the Shadow Wolves, both of them successor chapters of the Imperial Fists. Ordering fortifications made to protect the half of the planet still under Imperial Control, he directed Imperial Guard Regiments to areas he had been told were in danger of being overrun.

He had been fighting in the Emperor's wars for centuries now, and yet now was a day he didn't know he was waiting for. After joining up with the newly revived Roboute Guilliman's forces, a crusading fleet of the size not seen since the Great Crusade, he had been directed in his dreams by the Emperor Himself to go here, as here he would find an important asset for the Imperium.

The Lord Commander gave him a sizable force, but still one smaller than the forces he had commanded before in his crusades.

"Crush and Advance, that's what the sons of Dorn do best and that's what we need to do. Break the back of the Chaos advance before we surge forward with Hatred and Rage worthy of the Emperor." He spoke, the chapter masters nodded and set out to do what he asked while the rest went about arranging for divisions to organize.

'I wonder what He on the Throne wants me to find here on this planet.' He had a niggling feeling that he had asked the wrong question.

'Who does He want me to find here?'

10 km South of Resembool

Oct. 3, 1917

The Military Convoy halted to a standstill when they had reached the edge of the medical tents. Lt. Col. Maria Ross took note that most of the column was made of jeeps, no armored elements were sent to aid her it seemed.

'Not like it matters anymore with these new fortifications.' She thought.

General Max Weber stepped off the jeep with a shocked visage, his eyes drawn to the highest point of the large wall behind her.

"Welcome to the Eastern Flank General!" she saluted smartly.

It took him a few seconds to snap to his senses and salute back.

"Lt. Col. You are relieved of command of the Eastern Army Group."

"I stand relieved sir."

"Now then Ross, mind explaining where this giant wall came from?" he asked disbelievingly, as if the earthen works in front of him didn't actually exist like his eyes were telling him.

"That's thanks to our visitor sir, this morning we were aided by the former State Alchemist Edward Elric, also known as the Fullmetal Alchemist." She said as she motioned for him to follow her to the elevator, the pully system powered by a simple lever at the top.

"Elric! He came and built this entire thing with alchemy?"

"Yes sir. Before that he stopped the enemy advance singlehandedly and destroyed several armored divisions." She said as they just reached the top of the wall.

"The wall is 20 feet high, with multiple pulley systems to help bring supplies and equipment to the top. It's 15 feet thick, with rooms inside that act as officer's quarters and barracks, as well as a medical wing. Somehow, he also managed to create hard communication lines that go all along the wall, with crude phones in most rooms. There are places to add machine gun emplacements in overlapping firing arcs. He even created these sighting lines," she gestured towards small telescopes attached to the wall, with a multitude of markings beside and around it. "These connect down behind the wall, allowing artillery units to accurately sight enemy positions without being exposed to enemy fire. The wall continues from here to the Great Desert."

The man was absolutely shocked. "How did he do this is a single morning?"

"We advanced to this line, facing little resistance thanks to Mr. Elric's actions, and he simply came and clapped his hands, creating the entire structure in seconds."

There was a long silence.

"He really is as legendary as they say isn't he?"

She simply nodded.

"Are there gates?"

"Yes sir, he realized we'd need gates, so he made several, yet they're so seamless that from where the enemy is standing it looks like there aren't any at all. They are as thick as the rest of the wall but open with only lever in the room beside them. They're quite frankly incredible. Based on initial reports, the wall itself can hold a maximum of 10,000 troops, not to mention how many we can garrison behind it." She informed him.

"This… This will change the way we fight here. Hell, as long as we have men here this thing will be impregnable. This is the greatest fortification in all of Amestris, and one man did this with one alchemical array? Where is he now?" he asked.

"Resembool sir. Visiting his mother's grave. He said he'll head to the Center of the Front to meet with Field Marshal Mustang next."

Nodding he turned around and started giving order to the men who arrives with him to garrison the wall and start setting up artillery pieces.

She looked over the war-torn areas in front of the wall. 'Looks like they're gearing up for another assault.

Moving towards a nearby phone on the wall she announced that the enemy were attacking again.

They were repelled after a few minutes, the accurate artillery fire destroying any hard targets while the thousands of firing holes were opened up by the Amestrian riflemen, killing hundreds of infantrymen as they tried to charge the wall with ladders.

She shook her head. 'Edward Elric just secured this whole flank for the entire war.'

Oechalia

2.M42

Edward threw himself to the ground as an explosive round from a traitor-owned Leman Russ tank whizzed over his head. Clapping his hands, he raised hundreds of spikes from the ground, skewering the armored vehicles and several large daemons.

"We hold this line! The Emperor Protects!" he shouted, his voice finding the ears of every guardsman who stood beside him.

The wall they stood on was crudely and quickly made, 50 feet tall and 20 feet thick, it spanned the whole continent, protecting hundreds of different Astra Militarum regiments from the hordes of Chaos. They were outnumbered and outgunned, their opponents throwing daemons the size of buildings at them, yet they were warriors of the God-Emperor of Mankind and they would do their duty.

Edward had moved himself and sizable portion of his forces to this front when he got reports of a demon prince in the area. He still hadn't seen it yet but traitor Astartes were starting to push hard at several points along the wall.

"Your holiness! Look!" one of the guardsmen called, pointing to a large disturbance in the distance.

'There he is.' A daemon prince of Khorne stood mocking the Imperium's warriors.

"Lunar Wolves rally on my left! Night Swords to my right!" Looking behind me I signaled for my personal guard, consisting mostly of Adepta Sororitas. "To me! We advance and destroy that daemon, for the Emperor!"

"For the Emperor!" they shouted as they followed my orders.

"Guardsmen! Hold this line and do what you do best!" he shouted out.

"Only in Death does Duty end!" cried out thousands of guardsmen as their lasguns continued to fire, thinning out the chaos hordes.

"Charge!" he roared as his wings erupted from his back. He took to the air along with hundreds of Sisters of Battle, whose jetpacks allowed them the best hope of keeping up with him.

The gene-sons of Rogal Dorn charged slowly but surely, nothing in front of them survived the push.

Descending from the sky towards his target, he prepared to ram his sword into the daemon's head.

"Right where I want you puny human" it roared as it opened a warp disturbance.

Unable to stop his momentum in time, Edward Elric disappeared into the warp.

South City

Oct. 3, 1917

Her shot rang out and she watched the bullet take off half her target's head. The Colonel in charge of the Aerugan artillery dropped dead.

Taking her sniper off the destroyed wall, Colonel Riza Hawkeye signaled for her unit to move out.

Moving their way through destroyed buildings she spotted a pinned down unit of Infantry and signaled for her snipers to take up positions behind them. As her snipers suppressed the enemy she whistled, grabbing the attention of the 5 riflemen, one woman and four men.

Using her hands, she instructed them to run to her position, a defensible building with three floors. Seeing that the enemy was suppressed they took off running, one man carried another as he was wounded while the rest took turns covering them as they moved towards her. She shot a few rounds downwind, hitting a target each time.

As the group reached her, the highest ranking one, a sergeant, saluted her.

"Ma'am, our squad was separated by enemy armored divisions. They're trying to push northward and break the infantry lines." He reported.

"Stay with me, we'll try to break back through enemy lines and reach ours." She turned to her radioman. "Fuery, call it in. Enemy armored divisions pushing in."

As he did so she heard the noise of dozens more men pushing their way to their position.

Taking cover, her troops dug in and fought back, snipers took out officers and riflemen suppressing their shocktroops while she killed dozens with her accurate shots, sometimes killing two or three with a single bullet.

"Ma'am. We're pinned. HQ says to hold as long as possible until they can get a force to push in and get us."

Cursing, she reloaded her now empty rifle.

'Roy please break through' she pleaded in her mind.

The Warp

?

Cursing, Edward swung his power sword diagonally, cutting the daemonette in half. Spinning around he kicked the next one into the abyss. Rolling out of the way of a claw, he managed to cut off the head of another daemon before he jumped over the next one, running in the direction of one of the caves he saw on this piece of floating rock.

'I only have two rounds left in my bolter. Fuck this shit'

Spinning to cut a particularly close daemon in half, he rolled into the cave, shooting his last two bolts into the ceiling, caving in the entrance.

Taking a moment to breathe Edward tried to check for more hostiles in the cave itself. Seeing no immediate danger he collapsed on the floor, supporting his back on the caved in rocks, his eyes vigilant for any danger from further in the cave.

'I fucking hate this place. There are chaos daemons and heretics everywhere, and my wings barely work.'

Edward Elric had been stuck in the Warp for an unknown amount of time. The warp itself twisted and corrupted the normal passage of time. Still, he felt like he had been here for a year, an entire year of fighting, restless and frequently disrupted sleep, and no food. He didn't need to eat anything though, but his hunger was still there, as well as his thirst. Yet he could not die from hunger or thirst. He hated this place with a passion. The only thing that kept him alive was the blessing of the God-Emperor, something he was more and more thankful for every day. Another reason he was alive was that in the Warp, the tectonic energy that powered his alchemy seemed to be limitless, meaning he didn't tire from making arrays.

Deciding to move on in case larger daemons came to dislodge the rocks he stood up and moved forward.

Surprisingly he saw light ahead and soon a wooden doorway emerged, embedded into the rock wall.

"Well I guess it's better than waiting to die." He shrugged and made his way to the door, opening it.

One the other slide was a metal slab, with a seemingly human body chained to it by his arms and legs. Getting closer he realized it wasn't just a normal human body but a giant one.

"Is that a primaris astartes?" he questioned out loud. Seeing nothing else in the room he moved closer.

The size of the body was more apparent now. This wasn't just a space marine, the size of the man was similar to someone he'd seen before.

'He's the size of Roboute Guilliman' he widened his eyes. This man was a primarch! One of the Lord Commander's brothers, one of the Emperor's own sons! But was it a loyal son or one of those who threw in their lot with Horus?

Getting close he tried to determine who it was and gasped in shock.

"Rogal Dorn" he whispered reverently. One of the greatest primarchs to ever serve the Imperium was here in front of him, a primarch long thought dead.

Cutting the chains off he realized the man was injured his body seemingly in stasis.

Trying to remember a few of the Cretan healing arrays he learned after he had gotten his alchemy back but before he had been sent to the Imperium he clapped his hands and went to work.

It was slow going but the many wounds that adorned the primarch's body started to disappear. It took days of nonstop alchemical arrays before he got somewhere until he heard a noise from the cave.

Spinning around he clapped his hands and secured the door with stone braces. Hearing footsteps, approach, he watched as something tried to push open the door. For perhaps an hour he listened as whatever was on the other side tried to push, Edward staying as silent as a ghost.

It took an hour for the daemon to give up and leave.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he got back to work, more silent and careful. If a daemon managed to get inside while he was healing the Praetorian of Terra, he doubted he could fight back properly.

It took a week of Cretan healing arrays before he finally felt satisfied and collapsed in exhaustion, he had stood for so long his legs were starting to cramp.

His back to the metal slab, he fell asleep, hoping that he would awake if anything managed to get through the door and attack the primarch he had worked so hard to heal.

Waking up, he felt a blade to his neck. Nervous and gulping he looked up to see who had taken his powersword.

Seeing the chiseled face of the Vigilant Son, he looked at him in awe.

"My Lord!" he almost shouted. "My healing worked."

The Emperor's son was silent for a while.

"So, you were the one that healed me. Please prove that you're an ally and not another trick by daemon scum." His voice was deep and commanding. A voice that made you want to follow the man speaking.

Nodding he focus his power on manifesting his wings and halo.

"I am a living saint, blessed by your Father my Lord." He whispered.

Nodding, the blade was retracted, and he stood up.

"I am Rogal Dorn" he said simply and moved to open the slab. It broke apart when he punched through it. There was something inside!

Pulling out his ancient chainsword and armor, Edward realized that this was the person he was looking for on Oechalia. As he put on the Auric Armor and armed himself with Storm's Teeth, the colossal chainsword, and the Voice of Terra, a tactical bolter given to him by the Adeptes Custodes, he looked every inch the son of the Emperor.

Explaining how he had gotten there and what the situation of the Imperium was, Rogal Dorn seemed troubled.

"Much has happened in the absence of a loyal Primarch. My personal differences with Guilliman aside, I am glad he has returned to the Imperium. We must return. Thank you for freeing me from my captivity."

Standing up he punch through the stone he erected and the wooden door with ease.

In awe, Edward followed him out of the cave.

Central Army Command

Oct. 3, 1917

"Why can't we break through their lines?" He shouted in anger. His wife was pinned down behind enemy lines and he couldn't get through to her.

"Armored Divisions have stalled any hope of a force pushing through. It seems that since they couldn't break through us on our left flank, they've moved all their divisions here instead." Havoc explained, looking over the tactical battle map of the city and its outskirts.

There a long silence before he decided on his course of action. "Private, my gloves please"

His batman, a personal valet, of sorts, for officers had a shocked look on his face.

"Sir are you sure?" Havoc asked. "You haven't been on the field in a while and you still have a lot of work to do here coordinating the entire army!"

"I need to get to her Jean! I can't sit here and do nothing!" he roared.

Jean Havoc just stared at him.

"I'm sorry. My temper got to me."

"You're making a mistake; you need to be here to react to enemy movements. You're letting your personal- "

"Don't you dare finish that sentence soldier." Roy cut him off, his voice icy.

The two stared at each other for a while, as if daring each other to continue.

"Hey, you can't go in there! That's the Field Marshal's command tent!" the guard posted at the entrance to his tent exclaimed before he heard a thud.

The flap to the tent opened and in stepped a young man, perhaps around 20, his blond hair was long but braided into a single ponytail. On his back was a large Warhammer. His coat was red-

His eyes were gold.

"What's up Bastard?" he drawled out.

Roy couldn't keep his eye from widening. Havoc's cigarette fell from his mouth.

"Edward Elric…" he whispered as he stepped toward the blonde alchemist.

"I heard you stopped the enemy on our left flank. I didn't think you'd get here so quickly." He said softly, still unbelieving that the man in front of him was truly Edward Elric.

"It's good to see you boss." Havoc said.

Edward just smiled. "Where's the rest of the team?" he asked. He had been hoping to see Breda, Fuery, Falman and Hawkeye before going to Rush Valley to see Winry.

"Breda's behind enemy lines with Falman, disrupting enemy comms and logistics. Hawkeye..." Havoc started.

"Riza is in the city, she pinned down." Roy said firmly.

Ed's eyes took a hard edge.

"Are you pushing through to her position?" he asked.

"After you pushed them out of the East, they shifted all their armor units here, they're holding most of the city pretty well." Havoc replied as he pointed to the relevant information on the map. "She's over here, in this bombed out building. She's got Fuery and a few sharpshooters, as well as other infantry units who got trapped in the area."

"I can get to her." The statement was so sure, so calmly delivered that Roy and Havoc looked at each other first.

"Ed you don't need to-"

"Where will you break through?" Roy interrupted Havoc. "I'll have Shock troops push through behind you." He gestured to the map.

"No, you don't understand, I'm going to go over the enemy lines and rendezvous with her. Then I'll break through the enemy lines from behind." He said.

The two officers looked at him.

"How are you going to sneak past their lines?" Havoc asked.

"I said I'm going to go over their lines, there's a difference." The blonde said, turning around to head outside the tent. "I'm going to fly over them."

Both officers followed him out, curious as to what exactly he meant.

"We don't have any aerial assets, unless you brough some with you." Roy said sarcastically.

Edward just smiled at him, reminding him of all those times he thought of him as insufferable and annoying during his service as a State Alchemist.

"I am an aerial asset." He said. Before Roy could ask what he meant, a golden halo appeared above the man's head.

Havoc gasped. Roy just stood in shock.

Then white wings sprouted on the man's back, feathered and glorious, they radiated a warm light.

Now Roy gasped.

With a single flap of his wings, Edward propelled himself into the air, towards South City.

'Please save her Ed' Roy thought silently.

Oechalia

2.M42

Battle-Sister Mary ducked under the Chaos blade, firing into the disgusting abomination with her bolter. Her sisters had fallen back along with the Astartes to the walled fortification after the disappearance of Saint Elric. It pained her that her entire preceptory had failed to protect on of the Emperor's favored. She looked to her Canoness-Preceptor grimacing as she herself seemed to wallow in failure, even as she destroyed more of these Chaos abominations.

Suddenly a large warp disturbance appeared above the enemy lines, a few kilometers in front of their fortifications.

Dropping out of the wormhole a giant of a figure landed, looking closely she could see a speck of gold in his shoulder.

That speck of gold suddenly grew wings and her heart soared. Was that Saint Elric?!

"Soldiers of the God Emperor, fear not, for another primarch walks among us once more!" the saint's voice reverberated throughout the line.

Then a deep, commanding voice followed.

"It is I, Rogal Dorn." The statement was simple, said with no excitement, yet the fervor that it raised in the ranks of the God-Emperor's faithful around her was intense.

"Abominations of Chaos, prepare for your death." He said simply before charging with his massive chainsword.

The gene-sons of Dorn were fanatics as they charged, hoping to really to their gene-father.

She looked to her left as her Canoness-Preceptor ordered the entire Preceptory to charge. Behind them, Guardsmen from a hundred different worlds took up a call.

"To the Living Saint! To the Primarch! Charge!"

She watched as the primarch threw the living saint into the enemy ranks, his blazing aura disintegrating lesser daemons while his sword sliced through any that survived, his mysterious power to cause explosions with a snap of his fingers causing massive destruction in the enemy ranks. Near him the Primarch fought like a man possessed, crushing smaller beings with his feet, his colossal chainsword sliced even tanks in half.

The entire world was freed from the Archenemy in a matter of days, the warriors of the God-Emperor were led to victory by two of the Imperium's greatest warriors, the Living Saint Edward Elric, Ork-Slayer, The Crimson Bane, The Emperor's Chosen, and the newly returned Primarch, Rogal Dorn, The Vigilant, The Praetorian of Terra, The Unyielding One.

South City

Oct. 3, 1917

Riza Hawkeye rolled behind a column as more bullets whirled through where she was just crouched. Pulling out a small mirror to check behind the column, she managed to see that a single tank had been pulled away from the front line to try and take them out.

"Tank!" she warned to her men and proceeded to shoot as many infantry soldiers around it as possible. If she was going to die here, she was going to take as many of the bastards as possible.

Seeing the main gun rotate towards her position, all she could do was wait.

Some of her men did the same, resigning themselves to their fate, a few panicked, shooting what few rounds they had left to try and do something, anything, to avert their deaths.

Looking directly at the tank, Riza knew she wanted to at least look the thing that was finally going to kill her with her own eyes.

That's when something came down on the tank, from directly upwards, a gold and white blur smashed into the enemy armor, bits of metal and wreckage exploded outwards.

Soldiers, both hers and the enemy's, just looked on in shock, the guns fell silent.

Standing up where the tank stood was a man who wore red, crimson really. His blonde hair wild and long, reaching to his chest. A golden halo shined its light from its place above his head.

But what truly drew her eyes was his wings. White and angelic, they spread wide framing in the middle the man who had just saved their lives.

He looked at them, searching for someone perhaps. Until his eyes reached hers. Golden Eyes that she'd know anywhere.

Edward Elric's eyes.

A/N

Well that's it for Chapter 4. It's longer than the first three chapter put together and I think it's my most successful one yet.

I'll be keeping the alternating flashback and current events sequence for the rest of the story I think, it'll allow me to show both Ed's backstory and the stuff he goes through in the present.

Reviews are always welcome.