Summary: Greed manages to survive his battle with Ed and how the rest of the FMA story gets messed up from there.
a/n: I am currently posting this story one chapter ahead on my DeviantArt account. See my profile for the link.
Chapter 1:
There were two things in life that Greed absolutely could not stand. One was being penniless, the other was being powerless. And now he was both.
In a roundabout way, he could blame Martel. If it hadn't been for her, he would have been dead by now. Well, he couldn't totally blame her, she was just trying to return his favor, after all. It was just that she didn't understand that his continuing to live was no longer a favor. He wouldn't have gone back to that witch Dante's mansion if he wanted to live. He was a loose end for her, far too unpredictable to be an ally. She wanted him out of the picture. He didn't mind exiting, as long as it was dramatic. To him, a life with nothing was worth nothing.
But Martel was feistier than he gave her credit for. Instead of being able to contain her, Alphonse accidentally let her escape, which of course, led to her careening right into the middle of his battle with the Full Metal runt, and stopping him from dealing what would have been the fatal blow. What was he going to say? "No, don't stop him, I want to die?" If he had the gall to say that, he would have said it to Dorochet and Roa before they put themselves between himself and Gluttony. Maybe it came down to cowardice. But as before, the only thing he could think of to do while Martel was desperately trying to restrain Edward was run. Run and leave her behind.
So here he was underneath a towering tree in the middle of he-had-no-idea-where, having already coughed up the stones which would allow him to regenerate as he demonstrated to Alphonse. All it would take would be a single blow to the head, or maybe the chest, and he would die like any normal person would. He hated that thought most of all. Being a homunculus meant having power, didn't it? What was it worth now? In theory, his shield should still have worked, but after all the running and sheer disgust with himself, he didn't know if he had the energy to activate it. And on top of everything else, his glasses were broken.
As he lay on the ground and closed his eyes, a shadow passed over his face. Don't tell me it's going to rain now, he thought. When he looked, however, he saw no clouds, but a small girl who appeared to be about five or six years old. She wore a simple blue dress, tattered at the edges, and her long dark hair fell around her face in tangled clumps.
"Hey, mister, are you okay?" she asked. Greed groaned in response. A five-year-old just asked if he was okay. Couldn't sink much lower than that.
"No," he admitted with a smile. He figured this would make the girl go away, but instead she stood and stared at him for a few minutes. Then, of all things, she crossed her legs and plopped down next to him.
"Hey, no one invited you to sit," Greed said.
Still, the girl didn't answer. She stared off into the distance, as if she hadn't heard him at all. After a few minutes of complete silence, she finally piped up.
"I'm hungry. Are you hungry, mister?"
Greed could not resist a laugh. He wondered how Gluttony would respond to a question like that.
"I don't eat regular food," he finally told her.
She looked disappointed. "What do you eat?" she wanted to know.
Greed thought about that one for a moment. "It's a red stone," he explained. "But it's hard to find."
The little girl nodded. "I know where I can find red stones. I'll get some and bring them to you."
Greed laughed again. Why did Dante need the Fullmetal punk when she had such an obviously helpful servant right here?
"Whatever you want," Greed said with a snicker.
His young conversationalist looked annoyed. "I will, you'll see!" she insisted, standing up. "I'll bring them here first thing tomorrow, okay?" Greed didn't answer that one, yet she took off over the hilltop like she'd been sent on a mission. In some ways, he felt a bit grateful for her visit, even if it did humiliate him. If nothing else, she provided a final amusement before he died.
#
Meanwhile, Martel was having some issues of her own. Trying to stop Ed from executing his final blow against Greed was not without painful consequences. Currently Alphonse was busily playing doctor both to his irrational older brother and his unconventional new friend.
"You're so quick to attack people," he said to Edward.
His brother looked insulted. "Who's attacking who?" he complained, pointing to Martel, who had a bandage would tightly around her upper arm. "That girl just jumped out and grabbed me!"
"You were about to kill Greed," she spat at him.
"Who just murdered an innocent old woman!" Ed yelled back.
"Runt," Martel muttered under her breath. For having only known him for the past five minutes, she certainly knew how to hit his weak spot.
"Whose only excuse for being so small is that he must have been transmuted with a bacterium, you lousy jerk!" Ed cried in a fit of rage.
"She didn't say that," Alphonse sighed, though he wouldn't blame her if she had. Suddenly Ed remembered his own injury and cringed in pain, decided that it was better to rest for a little bit before flailing his arms about in anger.
"Anyways," Al went on. "I'm not so sure Greed is the one who killed Dante." He pointed over to the strange transmutation circle etched into the floor of the old room. He hadn't quite seen anything like it before, expect maybe in some of his old books. It was a pattern designed to drain energy, and the object it was to act on was sitting in a pile of broken pieces and dust in the center. Al walked over to the pile and picked up a small gray piece of material.
"Brother, what does this look like to you?" he asked.
Ed skeptically took the piece of Al's hand and examined it. He was almost ready to pass it off as nothing until his trained eyes caught a second glimpse. Unfortunately, he knew all too well what he was holding a sliver of in his hand.
"This is a piece of a human bone!"