this starts off from ch. 19 of backwards. the first part is pretty much the chapter but the ending is where things are changed. enjoy!
and please thank love_toshiro_dragon for the wonderful idea! thanks for letting me use it and I hope I use it well!
"It's not use, Ed, you're too weak to get it done." Riza said from the ground.
Edward turned to her, fire in his eyes and also anger.
"Are you trying to say I'm too old?!" he growled.
"Precisely… Your body is not cut out for this anymore. Besides, why don't you just make the bars softer to they can be bent?"
"That's what I've been doing, but they won't budge at all."
"Maybe you're not strong enough." Riza got up and went to him. "Do it again and let me see if I can do something."
"Hello?"
The two of them stood still for a second, wondering if either heard the voice or not.
"Hello? Lieutenant Hawkeye? Fullmetal Alchemist?"
"Yes?" Riza said, leery.
A light at the end of the hallway began to get closer to them and they were surprised to find Dr. Striker holding a lantern up and coming toward them.
"Dr. Striker." She said with a frown.
"Hurry, we don't have much time. I happened to snatch the key from that young fellow. If we hurry, we can get out of here."
"Wait, we have to save the Colonel." Edward said.
Dr. Striker looked at him and did a double take.
"Fullmetal? Is that you?"
"Yeah, I got injected with your freaky serum."
"Oh my…" He unlocked the door and it swung open with ease. "Quickly, follow me."
He led them up the hallway and into the main area. As they ran across it, Edward thought he heard the sound of a baby crying. He stopped in the middle of the room and closed his eyes, listening. He heard it again and finally heard it coming from the right.
"Edward, where are you going?" Riza seethed.
"I'm rescuing the Colonel, or did you forget that?"
"I didn't forget but if we call for backup we can have a better chance at it."
"Then you can call for backup. I won't let the Colonel waste another minute in a body he can't stand to be in. I understand him so much better now. Hey, after this, you had better get me back to normal." Edward growled at Dr. Striker.
He ran off and Riza looked at the doctor as he watched the boy leave.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Doctor."
"And I will gladly give it to you. Is it alright to leave him to saving your superior? As much as I hate to say it, he is old now… even if he were normal, he'd be too young."
"You don't know him like I do. Although I'm afraid for his condition now…" She sighed. "I can't leave him like that."
"Then I'll come with you."
"You can't die, Dr. Striker."
"Then what would you have me do, Lieutenant?"
Riza would have given him her code but knew that it was too risky. She had a weird feeling that she really shouldn't even trust the doctor now.
"Fine, come on then."
They headed where Edward had ran off to.
Edward stopped to catch his breath and swallowed. This being old shit is for later, Edward. Pull yourself together… he growled to himself. He stood up, popping his back and began to run again toward the cries of the baby he knew was his superior. When he finally got to the place where he was crying, all he found was a microphone there, the sounds of the crying coming from there.
"Shit." Was all he said as he heard the sound of animal noises.
"Well, well, it looks like the old man fell for it." a condescending voice echoed from the microphone. "I would have thought that the Fullmetal Alchemist was smarter than this… then again, your ears aren't what they used to be…"
Edward just smirked and looked around for a moment, getting ready for what was to come.
"Don't try to fight it, Old Man. You can't possibly fight in your condition."
"How about you stop trying to mock me and come down here and see how much stamina I really have left. I may look different but I'm still the same on the inside, just like the Colonel. Do you really think I'd go down without a fight?"
"Oh dear, then you must be mistaken."
The sound of heels tapping on stone made a distant echo as well as a crying baby. The animal sounds seemed to stop and Edward braced for an attack. Instead, all he found was a beautiful black dressed woman, her boobs provocatively showing, as she held the Colonel, who was crying as was now his usual. She gave him a smirk and looked at him.
"Well, aren't you pretty sight." Edward said with a smirk. "Nice tattoo."
"Thank you…"
"So how am I mistaken?"
"You said that your Colonel was still the same inside. In fact, he is just as moldable as when he was born. Once we kill you two, we're going to brain wash him and then we're going to brain wash him more and more until he is an adult again –with the help of the serum- and he will not remember the loyalty of his little lapdog or the loyalty of his subordinates. He will be ours to control because we will have been all he's ever known."
"You can't take away what memories he already has. He will just remember them and know that what you say is false."
"True, but he won't remember them correctly. We weren't really expecting to use him at all but when we couldn't figure out a way to silence him without killing him, for he's a very formidable asset to the cause, Envy took his own action in that lab. At first it sounded stupid but when the plan evolved more, it was the best course of action. He'll have his old memories, but we will be planting betrayal in them, telling him they are false, what he thinks he knows isn't true. He'll have a time understanding it but we'll help him along. In the end, the result is the same: a perfect pawn."
"Not if I have anything to do with it." Edward growled, clapping and making his automail extend.
And then it fell off.
Edward yelled and looked at it in confusion.
"Oh my, it looks like metal grows old too… Looks like your gears are rusted."
It works inanimately too?! Edward yelled in his head, looking at his rusted inside automail. The outside had been made of some other metal that wouldn't be susceptible to environmental factors, taking a long time to rust in general, but the insides were regularly metal.
Obnoxious crying caught Edward's gaze as Lust held Roy up by the ankle, his arms flailing in fright and Edward's anger blazed.
"Hold him correctly!" he yelled.
"I don't take orders from little old men." She said, extending her nails.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE?!" he snarled, running toward her.
As Riza and Dr. Striker walked along, there was a low BOOM and suddenly the sprinklers overhead came on, drenching them.
"There's a fire. We must hurry."
Riza nodded, following the doctor. She was looking in the rooms when she came across one that had someone tied to a chair. She stopped and looked into it. The man lolled his head and then looked over at the door. Seeing Riza's face in the door, he gasped.
"Lieutenant!"
"Doctor… Striker?"
"Yes it's me!"
"But-"
"It's an impostor! Hurry and let me out!"
"Of course he would say that." The Dr. Striker in front of Riza said. "I've seen them. These Homunculi are smart and they would know that you would fall for the tied up trick."
"No! Lieutenant Hawkeye, it's me! I'm the real Dr. Striker! I'm the real-"
Riza blinked in confusion as she watched a long spike retreat from the entrapped Dr. Striker's head and a beautiful woman with long black hair came into the view.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Lieutenant… Now, where were we Envy?"
Riza turned back as Dr. Striker's face seemed to melt away and revealed the young looking Homunculus. Envy began to laugh, doubling over in happiness.
"Oh man you should see your face! It's priceless right now!"
"Then… then the man in there was…"
"That's right." Lust said, walking to the door of the cell. "This man was the real Dr. Striker. We didn't want him to mess up our plans with his silly experiments any longer. Although we should thank him for giving us the experiments in the first place."
"Yo, where's that kid?"
"You mean the Colonel or the old man?"
"Both."
"I finished off the old man and the Colonel is… being taken care of…"
Riza's eyes widened in fear for the first time since she had gotten there but she couldn't believe that. They had to be mistaken because she knew Edward would fight until his dying breath for the Colonel and she knew damned well that he didn't die from this woman in front of her.