This is my first fanfic on Fullmetal Alchemist, so please be kind.
After having read some dozens of fanfics and all the released english mangas, my interest in the series spiked and I put together this fanfic to satisfy my urges to retelling stories or series to which it would have different beginings and endings to influence the story line, particularly with the many characters from the manga and anime I would love to bring into a single story. Trust me when I say it will be worth while, that is until I'm certain when my personal computer is working again and have internet access.
Oh, well. What can you do?
The rest you'll have to read for yourself, so on with the fic!
Disclaimer: I don't Fullmetal Alchemist or anything else, just the plot of this fic.
First Step
Edward Elric had seldomly ever felt as furious and irritated as he did at that moment while he stared at the crumbled remains of the fake Philosopher's Stone; a blood-red gem no larger than a fingernail, disintigrate into dust and blew away with the wind. Just like all the times he and his brother had arduously searched across the lands for the means to return their bodies to their original state, suffered from the effects of the alchemic rebound of the forbidden ritual they performed so many years ago it seemed, which was actually only four. Their efforts, their struggles wasted away by futility, as if fate sought to eternally punish them for their transgression.
All that work, waiting, and time-consuming effort. All for nothing but a cheap knock-off replica!
Golden eyes ablaze, Edward scanned around himself, taking in the scene that surrounded him.
Dozens of people crowded surrounding the U-shaped stair platform leading into the church. Men, women, children and elderly, shouted for demands of the false messenger of Leto to answer for his lies he had told the people for so long, only to reveal his plot of using the people of Liore as martyrs for his selfish ambition to claim dominion over the country by heedlessly spewing his plans to the people through his own broadcast channel Ed and Al assembled, fooling the false prophet into revealing his own plans.
Broken, jagged blocks of stone littered the otherwise smooth surface of the stair platform, some the size of a fist, others as large as wagons. Behind the elder Elric, the church of Leto stood in ruins with its front completely torn from the main structure, exposing the interior floor levels and articulate masonry of the towering church that resembled a castle. The high sun's position made the inside of the church pitch in shadows while all else outside was under the baking sun's harsh bright glare, though Edward was still standing in the shadow of the twenty-meter-tall statue of Leto, which had bursted from the church -the same statue Edward had created from the Earth and manipulated it with his alchemy- to rip the church open wide from the inside.
His anger was still boiling his blood, so he turned to the prone Cornello to vent his fury-
Only to find the old priest had dissappeared. Only a small puddle of blood was any indication that Cornello had been there.
Edward grounded his teeth together and furrowed his brow in obvious anger. Where had the old man gone off to? Edward's trained eye caught a small detail overlooked in his frustration.
Another spot of blood was close to the puddle, followed by another, and another, leaving a trail of blood drops that lead into ruined chapel of the monestary. The wounded Cornello must have escaped into the church when Edward wasn't looking.
'I guess we need to fix that won't we?' Edward thought darkly, clapping his palms together and transmuting his auto-mail arm into a broad blade with a flurish of alchemic blue lightning, earning a few shocked gasps from the gathered populace. Ed ignored them all, too focused on planning Cornello's punishment to merit any attention to anything else.
As Edward surged into the chapel, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense come over him, one he knew but buried beneath his single-minded drive to find the means to restore his brother's body as well as his own.
Justice.
Yes, he remembered having a sense of justice, knowing right from wrong by law and moral standards. It flared to life in his chest as he recollected the scenes of the day behind his eyes; Cornello creating a chimera bird to trap Rose's boyfriend's soul into and having it attack the helpless girl, lying to the ignorant people of the Liore and planning to use them as expendable pawns to bring the country under his rule. Edward vowed to make the priest pay for his crimes.
That, and he had a personal vendetta to settle with the false prophet. Cornello might have started the battle between he and his brother, but Edward vowed to be the one that finished it.
Ed followed the trail of blood drops through the isle and up to the diaz where the twenty-foot statue of Leto was standing tall with his sun-crested staff in hand, surrounded by a circle of lit candles. Edward might have taken a moment to admire the statue's craftsmanship, but he didn't believe in admiring something that depicted an intangible being created from an eccentric's idea.
Edward moved on, turning left of the diaz while following the trail of blood that lead to an arched door of hard wood that was left opened ajar. The young Alchemist quietly pushed the door open and entered a circular chamber with no windows or openings to speak of, with a spiraling stone stair case twisted upward around a three-meter thick pillar that stretched perhaps two or three bow-shots high, with at least a dozen or more lit wooden torches hanging on the walls in scattered locations. Thick blue stone comprised the hollow chamber, and Edward heard echoing panting coming from above on the stair case where Cornello was limping upward along the stairs, clutching his malformed arm that suffered the fake Philosopher's Stone's alchemic rebound and mutated his flesh. The priest seemed not to have yet noticed him, as his laboured breathing sounded like thunder to Edward's ears.
Edward decided to waste no further time and quickly -though silently- made his way up the stair case after Cornello, keeping a relative distance to avoid notice.
By the time Edward had reached the top of the stairs, Edward had to fight to keep his breathing level and even without alerting the old priest of his presence. Considering he had continued walking nonstop upward for over a half-hour with his metalic prosthetic limbs, his legs felt like leadweights and his lungs were burning with lack of sufficient oxygen. When his breath finally returned to him, he continued on toward an arched entryway where a soft orange glow manifested, where drops of blood were still leaving a trail. Cornello was just inside.
Hugging against the wall with his back, the young alchemist peered around the corner.
Cornello wasn't alone. Within the rectangular dungeon with wall-bolted prison chains and several glowing torches, Edward could see two more figures at the far end of the dim room.
The first he noticed was the bald one, like a hairless gorilla, with thick muscular arms that reached the floor with large hands, sausage-like fingers and squat legs. His belly was huge, large enough to fit a wine barrel into, and he wore a pitch-black skin suit around his legs and middle, leaving only his wrist-cuffed arms and bald head bare. But most surprising about him was his perfectly circular bone-white eyes and huge jaws.
The other one, a beautiful tall woman by her voluptuos feminine curves, was as pale as salt with wavy black hair that reached her lower back, and her face was framed by her high cheek bones, purple-slitted eyes and pitch-glossed lips. She wore a fitting blackgreen dress cut at the top, revealing the swell of her cleavage and her shoulders, while her arms were covered in pitch-black latex arm gloves and she wore high-heel shoes. A red circular insignai was on her chest just below her throat, but Edward couldn't make out any details due to the dim lighting.
When Cornello noticed them, his expression of panic turned to rage. "You lying bastards!" he yelled at them, which reverberated off the walls like inside a cave. "You decieved me! You gave me a damn fake catalyst stone. You said that Philosopher's Stone would grant me power to rule the country! Instead it's just made my arm deformed!"
The voluptuous woman mock-examined her nails, showing her disinterest in the priest's ramblings. "I might have said something along those lines, but you were the fool to actually believe them." Her voice was sultry and smoothly seductive, but held a cruel edge easily dismissed to the average observer. "Did you really think we would give something so valuable as a Philosopher's stone to foolish human trash like you? You're not even a forth-rate fool to be decieved so easily, even by the Fullmetal boy." She gave a throaty laugh that reverberated off the chamber walls, making Edward's skin turn gooseflesh in fright. Her laugh sounded too unatural to be human.
"The true reason we gave you that fake catalyst stone was to cause some chaos in the region. Within another month or less, the military will come after hearing word of a possible sighting of the fabled Philosopher's Stone and bring with them their most skilled alchemists, and then we use them for our purposes." She gave the rage-trembling Cornello a bone-chilling sneer while her gorilla-like companion grinned a wide toothy smile with drool dribbling from his jaws. "It's unfortunate for you that you won't be alive to see this happen, old fool."
The underlying threat only served to make the old priest abandon what little temper control he had left and rushed toward the woman like a mad man, ignoring the flaming pain in his mutated right arm and pulled back his left fist to punch the tall, smirking woman in the face and see her bleed.
Faster than the human eye could follow, the woman ducked Cornello's attack, leveled her hand with his face, and her gloved fingers sharpened, extended, then shot out like hurled spears and pierced Cornello's skull and chest, protruding from out his back and killing him instantly and painlessly. The woman pulled her spear-like fingers from his skull in a flourish, waving the blood off her fingers, and the priest's corpse fell down lifelessly like a heavy sack of meat.
The woman regarded the dead priest with dissapointment and slight satisfaction, as though she somewhat regretted killing a vermin that might have served some usefulness. "Damnit all. Father will be furious when he finds out our pawn is dead." She said as her nails receeded to their origional size. She turned to her bald companion. "Go ahead and eat, Gluttony. We better not leave any evidence of the fool's body."
Gluttony didn't even pause after the woman told him to eat and he literally pounced onto Cornello's corpse with a leap that defied his gargantuan girth and tore into the old man's body with his large teeth like a starved canibal, tearing great chunks of flesh of priest's body and spraying blood all around him in a gory feast. The sight and sound of flesh-rendering made Edward's stomack heave even as he managed to turn away before Gluttony...digged in to his meal.
"Still eating like a pig I see." Said another boyish deep voice from the shadows. Edward tore his brief gaze away from the gory sight to see an androgynous-looking young man that looked no older or taller than himself with long strands of drooping vine-like hair of green obsidian, with a sharp face and purple eyes and a trimmed, muscular frame of gymnist. He wore dark-colored midrift sleeveless shirt, tight black shorts that reached near his knees with a short black skirt, black wrist gloves and toe-less feet gloves where the toes and heels were exposed.
The woman regarded the newcomer with both familiarity and indifference. "Hello Envy. What took you so long to come here? Gluttony's already done eating."
"Shut up, Lust!" Envy snapped. "While you and Gluttony were watching from the sidelines, I've been busy impersonating over a dozen humans and making phone calls to the military to lead them here. The rumors were a bitch to spread." Envy turned to the miniscule remains of Cornello's corpse that Gluttony hadn't eaten. "All that's left to do is impersonate Cornello and wait for the military to come while I fool the village idiots into martyrs once more."
When he finished speaking, Edward could only watch as Envy's body glowed pure white from the feet that rose up to his legs, across his torsoe, and over his head, while his body grew taller and wider, and the light cascading away like shimmering water to reveal the hairless wrinkled face of Cornello in his black church robes.
Edward knew that what ever it was that Envy used to change his shape and appearance to match Cornello, it wasn't alchemy. And for that matter, what ever Lust, Gluttony, or Envy were, they weren't human.
'Al and I have got to get out of this town immediately', Edward thought while edging away from the archway entrance. 'What ever plans these...things...have in store for us, it can't be good.' Just before Edward could step any further from the archway, he heard Lust say something else.
"While you stay and wait for the military, Gluttony and I will follow the Elric brothers until our chance to exploit their skills comes." Her voice changed to a chilling amused tone. "Also, keep an eye on that Rose girl. She might be just perfect for Father's plans."
Edward didnt' bother to listen for anything else, nor did he consider what she meant by "Father" before he tiptoed to the edge of the stair platform, which led a 150 foot drop to the stone floor. Edward looked left and right for something to transmute and caught sight of a wooden torch which he could use to make a rope, but stopped. Even if he did have enough torches to make a proper length of rope, which he didn't as their wasn't enough torches nearby, the alchemical flash of light would instantly alert the creatures in the chamber and pursue him and, in most probability, kill him.
Edward remembered suddenly of vest pocket that contained steel wire for binding if incase he couldn't use alchemy. He shuffled his hands through his vest pockets and found the length of silver garrot wire rolled into an oval loop. The wire was as thin as human hair, yet had the tensile strength to support nearly half a quarter-ton, thanks to Edward's alchemic skills in fashioning the make-up of the metal.
Hearing nothing from the chamber but slight shuffling of the feet that told him they were just moving about, Edward looped the garrot around the bolted torch holder on the stone wall and gave it an experimental tug and, after finding it secure, used his right auto-mail limb to wrap the wire around his hand twice so to slow his decent to the floor and hopped off the stair platform, the garrot pulling taught from Edward's weight. If he had used his flesh-and-blood hand, the garrot wire would have sliced it clean off.
It was thirty seconds of decending past the spiraling stair case before Edward's feet touched the floor and made a mad dash through the wooden door, past the dias of Leto's statue and through the isle of bench rows toward the entrance where the wall was destroyed and blinding bright light spilled into the sanctum.
He rushed out into the open outside, where the town's people were still crowding around the U-shaped stair platform in a frenzied mob, shouting for Cornello's name and demanding an explaination. When the town's people saw Edward emerge from the ruined temple, their shouts rang out.
"Where's Cornello?!"
"Did you see him in their?! Drag his lying ass outside!"
"What happened?"
Numerous deafening shouts similar to these resounded through the air that made the Fullmetal alchemist's thoughts stray from his focus and concentration, but still he could vividly remember Lust impaling Cornello with her spear-fingers, the routund Gluttony devouring the old priest's corpse, the shapeshifting Envy transforming into a lookalike of the dead cult leader, and of their plot to bring the military to Liore to use the State Alchemist for some purpose or other.
Before he could stop himself, Edward shouted loudly above the cacaphony of assembled people. "Leave this town while you can!"
The crowd fell totaly silent hearing Edward's shout, giving the blond young man looks of perplexion. Each person -man, woman, child and elder- had their faces in stunned disbeliefe.
"Cornello lied to you all!" Edward yelled again when the crowd quieted, "You heard it yourself on his broadcast not even an hour ago, and there's nothing he could say to prove it otherwise.
"I've seen what he had done myself and know he was just manipulating you all. He even tried to silence Rose with death upon hearing that he was just a fake! He used a chimera monster with her very boyfriend's soul trapped within it to kill her!"
The crowd gasped in astonishment, while some others raised their fists in fury for hearing about how Cornello sought to kill a kind girl like Rose, whome the whole town had grown fond of because of her cheerful nature and sunny disposition when having been under Cornello's care.
"There's nothing left for you all here. You must leave before the military comes to take over the town and imprison you all. They know that you have seen Cornello's 'miricals' and will execute you to keep quiet of it. Flee while you still can!"
Edward didn't know if the town's people had believed him or not, or were startled to do as he said to avoid possible harm. Nonetheless, the crowd scattered and made hasty retreats toward their homes, perhaps to pack their belongings and leave or to stay home for rest. Edward didn't know, and he didn't bother to concern himself with anything else but to wait until Al returned.
Edward caught a glance of red cloth buried under a pile of large jagged stones near the exposing opening of the temple and went to pick it up. He kicked the stones away and found it was his red coat, undamaged despite having been buried under sharp stones, and after clapping his palms together to revert his auto-mail arm blade back into its original shape--a multi-grooved plate of chrome steel-- slipped his coat on. He walked back to the dias' edge, sat, and waited.
The sun was setting now, a glowing ball of bright orange light behind the thin clouds as it made its way behind the town's buildings, casting lengthly shadows along the ground as the minutes passed by. A broad silhouette covered Ed, making the young alchemist raise his head to see who it was that owned the large shadow, only to see a seven foot tall suit of armor.
The armor was made of blue iron, with broad, spiked shoulders and a large chest. The head had no human-like characteristics and shoe-shaped, and halfmoon-shaped eye-holes where they glowed a red-rimmed white, and a cone-shaped horn protruded from the forehead. It chin was large and jutting, and had a loin cloth fastened around the waist.
This was Alphonse Elric, the younger Elric brother whose soul was bound to the armor by the rune of blood Edward had made to keep him in the living world after his body had been taken by the rebound of the human transmutation they attempted some four years ago.
Iron face expressionless, Al asked hesitantly, "Are you alright, Big Brother? What happened in there?" He pointed to the ruined Temple of Leto, his boyish voice reverberating through the armor as if he really were inside it, but the voice only came from the blood rune hidden within the armor.
"I'm fine Al. I'm glad you're here, because we have to leave this town before sundown."
"But Brother-"
"Don't question me, Al!" Edward immediatly winced after hearing how harsh his voice sounded and said in a softer tone, "We can't afford to stay here any longer. Let's pack our things and leave while we still can. I'll explain on the way."
Uncertain, Al nodded and left for their hotel room where they left their belongings while Edward started to walk away, stopped, then turned to the Temple of Leto. He strided away after a moment of gazing at it, hoping he wouldn't be left with any lasting nightmares from what he witnessed take place inside barely a half-hour ago.
When Edward reached the town border, he found Alphonse waiting just outside the entrance gate with their suitcase in hand; where they carried all their alchemic research notes and books. The sun was nearing the horizon now, slowly dipping toward the surface.
However, before they had stepped more than a few paces from the town's borders, a voice rang out behind them. "Please wait! Don't leave yet!"
Both Al and Ed stopped and turned to the source of the voice and found the young girl Rose running toward them, a leather bag held in her hands. She was taller than Edward, with dark-tanned skin and long dark brown hair that flowed down her back and pink-red bangs. She was a beautiful girl with a sunny disposition, but now she seemed anything but as cheerful as she had been before the incident. Her face was dirty with dust and dirt sticking onto her tear-stained cheeks, and her eyes were red and puffy. She must have been grieving for her dead boyfriend, Cain.
She stopped just a few paces from the Elric Brothers and crumpled to the ground with her bag in exhaustion, seeming to fall into a submissive posture, as though begging them to hear her plea. "Please, take me with you." Her voice sounded hoarse and ragged from her unsteady breathing. "Please let me come with you. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to believe in anymore."
"And you think we should whole-heartedly accept your request after you sided with Cornell, even after that bastard exposed his whole plan of using you all as martyrs to take over the country?" Edward's voice was dismissive, unforgiving almost. "You chose to believe that your god could bring the dead back to life. Don't come to us as a last resort since your faith in your god has failed you."
Al watched as his brother turned away from the grieving girl, only to see Rose grasp onto Edward's automail wrist softly but desperately. It was a feeble grip Ed could have pulled out of even ill and weak, but he didn't, and stopped, waiting. He turned to face Rose and saw the girl's tears dripping from behind her mismatched-colored bangs into the dusty soil, while tremors wracked through her slim frame.
"Please," Rose pleaded again in sob, "Please take me with you. Show my your truth, equivilant exchange or whatever it is, just show me something that won't use me or lie to me-"
"Alchemy isn't something to turn to when you're desperate for answers!" Edward said harshly, while Rose flinched from the cold tone. "Alchemy is science and nothing more. It is cold, ugly truth. You say you want to know Truth? Then here's the truth. Cornello lied to you, decieved you, plotted to use you and the villagers as his martyrs, and your god can't bring your boyfriend back to life, because nothing can bring the dead from their graves. That's the truth! And if it's too much for you to deal with, then just move on and forget it ever happened!" Edward roughly pulled his hand free from Rose's grip.
Hearing the girl's sobs continue, he said in a softer tone, "No one can tell you what path you must take or what beliefes you must commit. You still have good strong legs. Use them, and keep yourself up."
Edward strided past Al to the gate fences, while Rose quietly sobbed on her knees in the dirt. If Edward was willing to be honest with himself, he felt sick to his stomach for treating a grieving girl so cold and harshly after she just suffered betrayal twice in so short a time, but he knew it had to be done. Niether he nor Al could afford to take any straglers with them because their travels were too dangerous and they couldn't afford to waste time for anyone else.
"Are you really going to abandon Rose, Big Brother?" Al said solomnly behind the older Elric. "Are you going to abandon her...like our father abondoned us?"
The effect was immediate. Edward stopped dead in his tracks and reeled as if struck by a physical blow, his breath left him for a moment only to return to his lungs in deep heaves like a raging animal. Memories flashed behind his eyes of the man he had called his father walking out their home for the last time, never to return, and left their mother grieving alone but moved on to take care of Al and himself, all the while their mother, Trisha Elric, always hoped for their father's return.
'I'm nothing like him!' , Edward thought venomously, clutching his chest with his flesh-and-blood hand to lessen the spike of pain around his heart. 'I would never...I don't want to leave Rose, but...I can't always be around to protect her if we encounter any danger.'
It was a pathetic excuse at best, and Edward knew it -knew, but denied it- because he was affraid of taking on another responsibility and innevitably failing it later.
It was times like this that Edward hated his stubborn pride.
He remembered suddenly of what transpired in the Temple of Leto, where Lust had spoken to Envy about using Rose for some purpose or other to be used by their "Father", whoever he was, undoubtably something that would either lead to her death or suffering. He recalled his own harsh words he just spoke to the weeping girl, and he felt another stab of pain in his chest for how much his words sounded like hypocrisy. He had willingly -and blindly- attempted the most unforgivable act humanly possible just to see his mother again, just like she wanted to have her beloved with her once more, and he was whole-heartedly forgiven by his brother and sarogate family, the Rockbells.
But Rose never commited anything near as horrible as their -his- transgression. She only sided with Cornello because he was her only hope in reviving her boyfriend, the only hope she could hold on to, and she never meant any ill intent or harm to them. If he could be forgiven, after all he had done, why couldn't he bring himself to forgive the girl behind him?
Swallowing with great effort, Edward finally steadied his breath and tilted his head back. 'I have no right to condemn her', Edward thought. 'If I were to hold her mistake against her, then I should have never been forgiven for trying to bring Mom back to life.' He winced at the last thought, and a warm tear escaped his eye. 'Everyone makes mistakes, and never meant to have us harmed. She just wanted her boyfriend with her again.'
Edward made his decision, and he prayed he was making the right choice.
"Haaahh...Leto burn me for this." Edward drawled exhasperately, attracting the attention of Rose and Al. Swivling around in a spin, Edward all but glared at Rose with a look that commanded her attention, his brow furrowed in deep concentration and his face tight.
"You say you want to learn our 'Truth' and learn alchemy?" Edward asked with deep voice. Rose nodded her head uncertainly. "If you choose to come with us and learn our ways, you must renounce all your religious beliefs and be ready to undertake the training to understand the world of alchemy, because even if Al might be lenient on you, I won't.
"But let me give you fair warning before your final decision. Once you decide to join us, you can never return to this place for a home, and you must carry your own weight when we travel. And if you fall behind, you're left behind. Decide now."
Rose considered this for a moment, her brow furrowed in intense concentration showing her internal indecision. Edward knew his demands seemed unreasonably harsh and unfair and wondered if she would reconsider her decision and turn back into Liore, but Rose nodded firmly and rose to her feet, clutching the strap of her bag tightly as she fixed Edward with a determined eye.
"Whatever it takes, I'll do it. If I have to carry myself on my own feet, I'll accept that."
"Alright then" Edward said finally, "We leave now while the winds are still strong, so keep up and don't drag your feet."
Even when Edward pivoted away almost dirisively, Al couldn't help but feel great admiration for his brother for offering their new campanion their company. 'I'm glad you've changed, Big Brother' , Al thought while looking toward Ed's back, where the black Flamel crucifix insignia stood out in even greater contrast with the red coat in the setting light. 'I was afraid you lost your kindness.'
While Al carried the suit case and jogged up beside Edward, Rose too came up from behind the brothers and fell in step with them, giving both of them an apreciative smile of thanks for allowing her to join them.
As they trugded past the town fence border, Edward stopped suddenly and turned his sights toward Liore, recalling what he remembered of what occured in the Church of Leto, from Cornello's gruesome death and Lust's final words. "While you stay to wait for the military, Gluttony and I will follow the Elric Brothers until our chance to exploit their skills comes."
A frightful thought just came to him. Despite his relief that only two of the three creatures that would be pursuing them, there was still the issue of the creatures following their trail. What could be done about evading their tracking skills? Walking through the desert wasn't a problem, since the rough winds would quickly and easily remove their tracks from the fine grain sands. But what could he do to lead them away from their direction? Absently, Edward fiddled with his braided blond hair as he considered.
And then an idea came to him as his fingers stroked his braided hair. His plan in mind, he clapped his palms together, invoking the alchemic power of using mental material analysis, breaking down the steel metal of his arm by pieces seperating and rearanging, and in a flourish of blue light and electricity, changed his auto-mail arm back into a fore-arm blade. Before either Alphonse or Rose could ask him why he stopped or what he was doing, Edward grasped his braided hair length with his flesh-and-blood hand and severed it clean with his auto-mail blade, sending several dozen stray strands of golden hair to be carried by the desert winds due south and away from the town, shimmering brilliantly in the sunlight.
Edward unbound the length of golden hair in his palm and held it out in his outstretched arm as if requesting the winds to take it as an offering. As if obeying his silent wishes, the desert gale winds greedily took his cut hair and carried it away to the south, scattering thousands--if not tens of thousands--of shimmering golden threads through the air and disappearing in the distance.
"Why did you do that, Big Brother?" Alphonse asked curiously.
When Edward answered, his voice sounded wistfull. "To keep the wolves off our trail." Edward's reply only served to confuse Alphonse even more, so he let the issue drop and once again fell instep with Ed and Rose as the trio marched away from the desolate town of Liore, its occupants already making preparations for departure.
Edward didn't say anymore until later during their trip as they walked north in the opposite direction of Liore; toward west into Amestris, Rose and Al following close behind and unknowingly escaping the dangers lying within the once peaceful but now desolate town.
Lashing hot winds buffeted the sand dunes, carrying speckles of sand and dust in thick obscuring clouds, removing trio from sight as the sun finished its decent.
Silence dominated the desert town, where not even a stray dog or cat disturbed the stillness. Only stray tumbleweeds and random dustdevils gave occupied the empty alleys, streets, plazas, and pavilions.
High above the desert town of Liore, a single black crow, nothing but an unseen disfigurement in the dark night sky, circling above in the air searching for something, its obsidian black eyes scanning the streets, alleys, and building windows for signs of life, but found nothing. There was no one in the town as far as the crow could see.
Finding nothing in its flight search, the black bird angled its body sideways, gliding downward through the building spaces and flapped onto a perch atop a roof ledge of a tall apartment complex.
The sun had set at least an hour ago, and now only the waxing moon provided any meager illumination to the abandoned town. But to the crow, it didn't matter how long ago the sun had set. Aside from its night-attuned vision, it didn't matter how long anything came, lasted, or disappeared into nothingness. Whether it was only a few moments or several decades, even a century, time held no residual meaning or interest for the crow. It had lived for centuries and not even time, which could bring down mountains, could ravage its flesh.
The crow grew bored after a time, watching nothing as if contemplating something it would share only with itself in its thought. Flapping its jet-black wings, the crow lifted itself into the air, soaring at an angle toward ruined remains of the Church of Leto bathed in the serene moonlight that revealed its damages.
When the crow reached its destination, it slowed its flight decent and glided down onto the iron rail of the open observatory balcony of the church tower. The crow gave another flap and perched onto the rail with its clawed feet, and the metal suddenly gave under the bird as if under the strain of an enormous weight. It hopped off the rail and onto the stone floor, fractures appearing wherever the crow's feet stepped as it hopped into the shadows of the dark chamber.
The air pressure around the bird intensified suddenly, sparks of blue electricity whipped off its body as it transformed.
The beaked head enlarged, rounded, and the beak receaded inward into a sharp, narrow face, and whip-like hair of green obsidian sprouted from the rounded scalp like sharp vines. The body enlarged, the shoulders' broadened, its spine straitened, the feathers dissintegrated and receaded under the flesh and revealed pale human skin, while the legs changed shape, thickening with wiry, taught muscle. And in place of the feathers that once covered his body, the shapeshifter was once agian clothed in his mid-drift muscle shirt, free-bound skirt and tight shorts that reached just above the knees. His hands and feet were cuffed with toe and finger-less coverings.
On his left thigh was the Ouroboros crest; the winged serpent forming a circle attempting to eat its tail, surrounding a hexogram.
Envy irritably cracked his neck after completing his transformation, an after effect of altering his bodily shape into animal forms, and rearanging the formation of his organs, bones, muscles, and nerves into proper alignment.
'What a waste of fucking time,' Envy thought irritably, having to fly across the sky above Liore at Lust's insistance to find why the town had become so quiet so quickly, even though she was, by age, his lesser "sister".
But he had to do as she ordered, because their "Father" left Lust in charge of overseeing the planning of their actions. Even if Envy would -secretly- admit that Lust was the better strategist of the brood, that didn't mean Envy enjoyed being ordered around like a gods-damned dog!
Even now his memory taunted him of what Lust said for him to do. "Go scout the town and find out why the humans dispersed so suddenly. I've a feeling our monopoly just slipped through our fingers."
Envy had been only a hair's breadth away from ripping Lust apart right then and there for adressing him as if some lowly human vermin! Lust had better count their blessings while they lasted, Envy thought darkly, else she'll find herself on the wrong end of his fury, with or without Father's consent or approval.
But then again, it wouldn't matter if she were destroyed in either case, since she was the most expendable of the brood. Aside from her strategical skills, she rarely ever confronted their enemies and only did so under the most inoppertune moments that suited only herself, and she left the grunt work to the would-be alchemists that desired the power of the Philosopher's Stone until she would take their work and bring it to their Father as if she had done the work herself. A plan so simple even Gluttony could do himself, and his intelligence no better than a child's.
Out of all the other broodmates, she was the weakest. Only her strategical skills were of any value, and even then she's tetering on a knife's edge toward her own disposal. The thought made Envy grin with a slit-eyed sneer.
Speaking of which, the same aforementioned woman emerged from the darkness in the deeper shadows of the chamber like a silent wraith, purple-maroon eyes cold and narrowed as she glared at her brother Envy, awaiting what he had to report.
"Tell me what you found, Envy!" Lust growled, as opposed to her usual cold, sultry and impassive voice.
Envy smiled slightly in satisfaction at his sister's irritation. The shapeshifter had grown tired and irritated with hearing Lust's self-arrogant tone of voice about their accomplishments in their plans as if she alone had done the work.
"I found nothing." Envy said with false ire in his voice. "The whole damn town's deserted. I can't even guess when or where they left. Maybe the humans left after seeing Cornello was just a fake and went elsewhere. There are tracks going every direction, like they left in a hurry. Oh, and by the way; this is your fault they're gone because you insisted on waiting until the commotion died down. Way to fuck up the plans, hag!"
Lust ignored Envy's last insult and grinded her teeth together infrustration, her jaw strength cracking several molars which healed immediately after. What could have happened that made the humans depart so suddenly?
A childlike, gutteral voice suddenly called out. "Lust! I found something! Lust!"
Envy and Lust both turned their sights toward the arched opening where Gluttony was on all fours and sniffing the stone like a blood hound. The shapeshifter and seductress strided over toward their gluttonous broodmate to see what he found.
"What is it you smell, Gluttony?" Lust asked the bald creature.
"I smell Fullmetal. Fullmetal was here. At least a couple minutes. Scent's hours old, but he was here."
Lust and Envy shared a look. If Fullmetal was listening on their conversation, that would explain why the town was deserted. He must have warned them.
"Why is it you didn't notice the runt was there if he had been here as long as you say?" Envy demanded to his broodmate, who shrugged sheepishly.
"I was only interested in smelling and eating the priest, and the blood must have kept me from sniffing Fullmetal's scent."
"Can you track Fullmetal's scent?" Lust asked with a tone of viciousness, making the shapeshifter smile in sadictive delight.
Gluttony nodded hastily, and even he led the way out the church with his broodmates following close behind, Envy couldn't keep the sneer of his face.
It was still dark out when the broodmates reached the city gate fences, and Gluttony immediately began sniffing for the older Elric's scent, dragging his large nose through the fine grain sand while Lust and Envy watched and waited. After several minutes, Gluttony raised himself, signaling he found the scent, but he didn't point in any direction nor where the scent led, only turning his sights back and forth to west and south like a confused child.
"What is it NOW!?" Lust snapped impatiently, making the routoned bald creature flinch as thought struck by a physical blow.
"I smell Fullmetal going west, but I also smell him going south. Lots of scents go west, only Fullmetal's go both ways. Can't tell which way he go."
Envy rubbed the back of his head, exhasperated after finding their plans were ruined with the city abandoned. "So now what do we do?" Envy asked the glowering Lust. "There's no humans in the town, which means no sacrifices and the military will just leave as soon as they arrive when the find the city empty. Do we wait for the military, or do we pursue Fullmetal?"
Lust was silent, considering Envy's words. Both dierctions Gluttony panned to led to different towns which held train stations to allow the Elric Brother's travel to the military districts, but which one would he be heading towards?
"Envy, you go west while Gluttony and I go south. If you find Fullmetal before us, contact and wait for Pride to issue new orders from Father. Otherwise we'll lose track of the Elrics."
'Unless of course we just wait for him at any of the military districts', Envy thought, but nodded and kept silent. It had been a long time since he had seen Lust get so worked up, and he didn't want to miss seeing for himself.
Calling upon his shapeshifting powers, Envy's body changed, becoming smaller and sprouted black feathers from his flesh while his neck lengthened, his head curved and sleeked into a vulture's, and his legs thinned and grew sharp talons at the feet. The result of his transformation was a vulture the size of pit-bull dog with a wingspan as large as Lust was tall.
Envy gave an experimental flap of his wings and screeched in his vulture voice in approval before he took off into the air due west, while Lust and Gluttony trecked on foot the other direction.
Envy's screeches were the only sound that pierced the silent stillness.
To Be Continued...