I Will
Author's Note: This story contains boy/boy romance, so if you don't like that kind of stuff, don't read. It also contains spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala. So if you don't want to know ahead of time what happened in the movie, don't read. Otherwise, enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of Full Metal Alchemist.
Japanese Terms: Hagaren- Fullmetal Alchemist (Wrath's address of Ed), Kenja no Ishi- Philosopher's Stone, Sensei- Teacher (Al's address of Izumi)
Pairing: Al x Wrath
Summary:
In the quest to reclaim his lost brother, Alphonse Elric enlists the assistance of a forgotten former enemy to direct him through the perilous depths of the Underground City.
…
This was the place…A place of pure darkness where the oldest evil once took root. It was the origin of legends surrounding the Philosopher's Stone, and a haven for those who were "mistakenly" brought into the world.
On either side of the cavern, ancient buildings skewered one another as they disappeared into the abyss, their pale walls dripping with unidentifiable gunk. The only light that peeked into the desolate kingdom came from above, but even it was dimmed by the elaborate labyrinth of sewage piping slithering along the ceiling.
This was what Alphonse Elric saw as he entered the Underground City, the dead land of the demigod Dante, whose name was now only a strained echo in the suffocating air. Other names begrudgingly made themselves known, but were far fainter, as if those who possessed them had never existed at all.
Greed,
the Ultimate Shield…
Lust, the Ultimate Lance…
Sloth,
the Tormented Mother…
Pride, the Führer…
Who they were, he did not know. It did not seem important.
Al felt an unsettling tremor creep up his spine as he took in his surroundings. They were so familiar, yet so different. How he wished he could remember what had transpired prior to his miraculous return to Amestris three years ago.
The sound of Wrath's automail leg on the wet earth jarred him from his thoughts.
"Well?" the sin asked impatiently from behind.
Al knelt, considering what he was about to do. Several moments later, he turned his head to meet Wrath's violet gaze.
It was strange. The blonde alchemist had only known the boy for several hours, but in that short time, a sense of security had come over him. He felt safe in the sin's presence, despite him being a homunculus. Yes…He remembered well Sensei's lessons regarding the subject: Artificial lives born of failed attempts to create human beings through alchemy, marked by ouroborus tatoos. Though they appeared human, they lacked souls, and though they had hearts in their chests, no softness congregated there.
Why was it then that Al believed otherwise? Why did he desire the solace of knowing that Wrath could be just like him, in body and in spirit?
Finally, Al whispered, "I must alchemize myself to open the gateway between the two worlds."
The sin nodded, and watched intentively as the alchemist clapped his gloved hands together before laying them down on the ground.
Energy crackled from his fingertips, fanning out across the rugged terrain until it had formed an elaborate array in the center of the room.
The homunculus would have continued in his observation had it not been for the grunting noises that arose from above them.
Wrath jerked his head upwards. The volume of the growls grew as he examined the metal structures that hung aloft. As soon as he was confident that his sucpicions rang true, he leapt aside, as far away from the other boy as possible.
Instinctively, Al's attention wandered from his current task. The distraction wrought by Wrath's sudden bound had nullified the transmutation circle. Not that it was his primary conern…The pale blob that fell opposite of Wrath was much more problematic.
With its crash landing, the mass of flesh had caused a powerful quake through the floor.
While Al tried to maintain balance, he noted Wrath's stern expression. To his horror, the thing that had come to greet them now had its sights set on the sin, mouth watering with hunger. From where its neck should have been, a pea-sized head with a tiny set of limbs was bitter contrast to the rest of its body, bulky and seemingly overflowing with muscle. Its massive arms pulsated, and a trio of rounded tails jutted from the underside of the creature's stomach.
Wrath bit down hard on his lip. "Gluttony…"
The alchemist regarded his companion with confusion. "Gluttony?"
To Al's surprise, the sin heard him.
"He's a monster like me. A homunculus."
The twisted behemoth rushed his fellow spawn with unprecedented speed, sending the boy flying with a swat from one of his swollen offshoots. The sin landed face-first in a collapsed section of the room, where everything had sunk into a vile stinkhole of muck.
Al made a move to aid his downed ally, but his attempt was immediately repulsed by Wrath's vehement warning.
"Stay back!" he shouted, once again pumelled by the madbeast.
Al was not about to be ordered around by someone shorter than himself. He dashed towards Gluttony, ready to alchemize a stone pillar through the unsuspecting giant.
Too late did he realize how much of a bad decision it was, for the brute reacted quickly whilst keeping Wrath pinned underneath his grasp, launching his free arm at the approaching alchemist.
Wrath managed to gather enough strength to push the constricting digits apart, springing from one of the fingers to Gluttony's other arm. The larger sin's assault was haulted, and Wrath used the extra momentum to wring the projection from his shoulder.
"Didn't you hear me? Back off!" the homunculus child yelled as he struggled against the titanic force, who had again knocked the boy off his feet.
Gluttony roared, having lost one of his supports, which promptly disappeared into the disgusting pool beneath himself. Where it had been attached, now only a bloody stump remained, sinews dangling haphazardly from the opening.
Al did not give up. He clapped his hands together and alchemized a wall from the fetid water between himself and Gluttony, taking the oppurtunity to scoop up Wrath while the atrocity trounced about in pain. The sin's tails thrashed wildly, reducing the Elric's handiwork to rubble, but not before he had escaped down a tunnel with Wrath in tow.
As the young alchemist ran through the passageway, sludge and mire hampered his getaway. The laboured breathing that reverberated in the chamber around him served to only deepen his fear. He was certain that Gluttony was right behind him.
"Idiot."
Al froze. His adrenaline subsided. The word was spoken once more.
"Idiot."
The alchemist then understood completely. The breathing that he had heard was not that of the ogre he thought was chasing them, but his own, coupled with that of the boy clinging to his back.
"Wrath…"
"You idiot! I-I told you to move aside, and what do you do? You walk straight into the crossfire!"
Al released the sin from his piggyback slowly, allowing the other to stand on his own. He stared ahead into the void.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get in the way."
Wrath held his hips. "Damn right! You want to end up homunculus food?"
"Sensei said that homunculi don't eat," he pointed out, still fixated on the nothingness before him.
The sin scowled from hearing the term, as it reminded him of her, but behind his disapproval Al caught a glimpse of anguish. "Technically we don't need to eat, but you've seen Gluttony. He'll eat anything!"
The alchemist silently agreed. At last, he turned to Wrath, an expression of determination crossing his face.
"Your arm…Could I fix it for you?"
Wrath inspected his automail, badly worn down in his fight with Gluttony, and nodded, presenting his arm to Al.
In a flash of light from the blonde's hands, the metal appendage had been repaired.
Wrath half-smiled, admiring his skills. "Then let's go. You still have a job to do."
With that, the two retraced their steps through the dross.
As they again neared the hellhole that housed Gluttony, the foul stench prevalent in the air was more than enough of a message to them that the oaf had never left.
There, propped up against the side of a decaying cathedral was the disfigured menace. Despite his dismemberment, the sin retained a relatively fearsome stance with the help of his tails.
"This time, leave everything to me." Wrath picked up a rock and tossed it at the mindless one.
Gluttony became enraged, crushing the church under his weight and propelling himself crab-like at Wrath, disregarding the shattered stained glass that collected on his gut.
The homunculus child diverted the sin away from Al with more projectiles to the head.
The obese monstrosity repetatively tried to capture him, but met difficult without the aid of his second limb.
Wrath backpedalled as Gluttony bellowed in frustration.
"Lot faster than you look!"
The fiend slammed one of his tails into the ground, and it reappeared from underneath the troublesome boy's feet.
"Wrath!" Al shouted his name in concern.
The youth was now hanging, suspended upside-down by a vicious set of teeth. Identical incisors had sprouted from each of Gluttony's other extensions.
Nauseated by the creature's sudden metamorphosis, Al transmuted a row of jagged spires, which unfurled one by one from the floor until they had impaled Gluttony through the chest.
The ghastly cage that confined Wrath ruptured, and he once more found himself in the alchemist's clasp.
Flailing, the grotesque broke free of the Elric's concoctions, red ichor spurting from countless puncture points on his body.
Although he was badly wounded, Wrath managed to stand with Al's support.
"You really don't know how to listen, do you?" He coughed up blood.
"You're hurt…" The blonde wept over his battered friend, whose present state forced him to recollect his deceased teacher's medical condition.
"I-I'll be fine. I'm not like you." Vitally continued spilling out of his mouth. "Not human…"
"You're wrong!" Al protested. "You are a-!"
"This is hardly the time! Move!" The sin pushed him away just as Gluttony struck.
The larger homunculus' tails spiralled around Wrath, brandishing their razor sharp teeth. Like a predatory bird, one swooped down on Wrath, grazing his shoulder in the process.
The boy narrowly avoided the next attack, ducking under the center tail. The third caught him off guard, ramming him through the window of an archaic restaurant and out the other end.
As the smoke cleared, Al spotted Wrath's unmoving form, partially buried beneath a pile of debris.
"Get up! Wrath, get up!"
The imp stirred and slowly came to.
Gluttony's foaming mouth snapped open and closed as he approached.
Lying on the ground, Wrath waited until the hog's triplet of tails was directly above himself.
"What are you doing? He's gonna kill you!" Al screamed.
All three of the beast's tentacles descended upon the seemingly immobilized boy.
With some quick footing, the smaller homunculus slid under the ravenous mammoth, murky water exploding around him. The extremities pursued him, but were unable to reach him due to their host's fat, which obstructed their paths.
As Wrath recovered from the bolt, Gluttony's gargatuan hand forced him underwater.
The putrid liquid filled his lungs. Blackness enveloped him, obscuring his vision. He could taste the repungant fluid flooding into his mouth, and it felt as if his nose was being torn straight off his face by the repulsive odour. He could barely hear Al's cries. The light at the surface began to dim.
"Alphonse…"
He closed his eyes, eclipsing them with their lids.
Within the caliginosity, something took shape.
He could not see what it was, but he felt the immense power that radiated from it.
"Kenja no Ishi…"
The legendary item that bypassed the law of Equivalent Exchange…This one, however, was incomplete.
"Must have come out of Gluttony."
It was identical to those his former comerades had consumed for purposes of living indefinitely. Identical to those he had devoured to return his mind to the past. Hundreds of human sacrifices, their souls rolling off his tongue…The delicious meal that Envy had presented him with, of which he had taken sadistic pleasure in dining upon.
Where was he now, the homunculus who had initiated his hatred…His hatred towards his creator…His hatred towards Hagaren? Did the murderous deathbringer suceed in eliminating his father, or was he cursed to wander aimlessly, forever angry, without his dream being fulfilled?
The resentment was fresh.
"I can never forgive you and there'll never be a time when I'm able to forgive you, for carrying that bastard's blood in your veins!"
Wrath relished the thought of Envy's demise. He pictured the shapeshifter's corpse, rended of all flesh and mentality, as he closed his fingers around the red stone and brought it to his lips.
He swallowed the pebble and it took effect instantly. Veins surging with renewed strength, his eyes shot open.
"That place…I have to get there!"
The sin swam upwards, erupting from the fen accompanied by a caustic rain.
Gluttony recoiled in bewilderment.
The blonde alchemist's sadness quickly vanished. "Wrath!"
The sin plunged headlong into the insatiable giant's midsection, his prosthetic leg ripping through the monster's many layers of blubber.
Staggering, Gluttony whipped the boy with his tails until he had retreated.
Pouncing on top of the closest extension, the child established a firm grip and backflipped with both hands dug into the tail's interior.
It bit him just as he did so.
Al gasped.
Silence.
Wrath grinned.
Twitching violently, the appendage was severed from its master in a gory mess.
The youth threw the morbid object aside while dodging the attacks of the remaining consorts. Via the length of one of them, he met the savage eye-to-eye, eliciting distorted moans from him as he sent his metal fist into his head.
Red water cascaded from the fracture in Gluttony's skull.
Gritting of the teeth. Gritting within the jaws of another.
The sin had taken the assailant into his maw, his tongue restraining him. As his acidic saliva corroded Wrath's automail, he began literally taking bites out of him, shredding through flesh and metal alike.
Al stood, shocked, and still as a statue, until the victim of Gluttony's feasting finally managed a croak.
"T-This is how it was supposed to end up from the beginning."
"What?" The Elric was in disbelief.
"You were willing to give up everything to bring your brother back. I couldn't let that happen. I don't ever want to be witness to that. Never again…"
"W-Why are you-?"
The sin shushed him. "You wouldn't have been able to do it…To alchemize yourself. Homunculi are the catalysts needed to open the gateway. That's why I brought you here. D-Do it now…Send me to where mama is."
The alchemist hesitated, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Did you actually think it'd be enough?" Wrath tried to smirk, wheezing. "Would your body have been enough to bring him back?"
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, I really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth."
Al apprehended how naïve he had been, somewhat overly quixotic, but could not stand seeing the other in his current predicament.
"Wrath, I-"
Gluttony chomped down on the sin's already badly beaten form, teeth sinking deeper into his torso, heightening his castigation.
The boy let out a strangled wail, blood gushing out of his mouth. He glared at the Elric, his own teeth producing a wicked smile.
"HURRY!"
The blonde, still wary, resolved to his duty, darting at Gluttony, his braided hair dancing upon the hollow wind. Following a hasty clap, his palms contacted with the gross hellion.
Lightning encased the two homunculi within an incandescent bubble. Bit by bit, they dematerialized. The resulting implosion drew Al into its vortex.
"The basic strength of a transmutation circle is the nature of the shape itself. The circle represents the circulation of power. By drawing it, that power can be evoked. By understanding this circulation of power and the laws that govern it, you can harness it for yourself. And one who works within this system of flow to create new things, that is the true alchemist…When you live, your life will end sooner or later…The body will return to the earth. Grass and flowers will grow on top of it. The soul will nourish the hearts…and it will live on in the hearts of other people. Everything in this world flows around and circulates. That goes for human lives too. You cannot bring back the dead."
The boy awoke, rubbing his eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he could not focus, as the space in which he had ended up was blindingly bright. He recalled hearing Sensei's voice, and suddenly things became visible.
An ornate door, infinately taller than himself, revealed itself a ways from him. Incomprehensible runes were etched along the threshold's columns, the outline of an eye floating above a sun seperated between the center panels. Warped sculptures adorned the entranceway, wrapping themselves around it in positions of worship, or perhaps agony. At the foot of the door, Al recognized Wrath.
The sin was unclothed and lacked his automail. His visage was unscornful, untouched like that of an infant's. Innocent and docile, he patiently attended to what the blonde realized was the Gate of Alchemy.
The Gate opened. A crouched figure emerged from within, arms outstretched in a loving gesture. The woman, like the child, was also nude. This prompted Al to look away in embarassment, especially since, while alive, his teacher had punished him severly for walking in on her without knocking while she was bathing.
"Why is Sensei here?"
Izumi embraced her son, tenderly stroking his hair.
He nuzzled against the nape of her neck, at long last reunited with his mother.
"Mama…"
She did not say a word. Taking him by his human hand, she guided him towards the unknown expanse within the Gate.
As he made his first step beyond the structure, he tugged gently at his mother's arm to halt her advance.
She nodded in approval.
He turned to Al. "Thank you…I hope you find your brother."
With that said, the two spirits disappeared into the Gate of Alchemy, which closed behind them as they passed through it.
Although Wrath had already left, Al sensed the cherub's lingering presence. It held him by the chin, lips coming together with his before disappating completely.
"Sayonara, Wrath."
…
A
moment from now
The evanesce memories that were held
Will fade
into a new light
Forget, disremember
Uneeded, it is said
A
finale will come to this prelude of sadness
Tossed over you, the
starry blanket which shines unhesitantly
Painful and
certain,
Shiftless footsteps along the path towards an uncertain
end
A reckless greeting
Dreams laced delicately in the sky,
The
time that was once cherished
Becomes a stagnant meditation
I
will see you again
Lined here
are the gravestones
The markers
Of our broken souls
Stay, or
the sorrow will overflow
Leaving the door ajar,
Find a way to
return
A
season from now
The intimacy that was shared
Will be broken
with detest
Leave, disown
Uneeded, it is said
A finale will
come to this tale of sadness
Taken from you, the protection of
moonlight
Regretful and lasting,
Frightening paces along the
path towards an uncertain end
A forbidden goodbye
Love destroys
the ascertain mood
The feelings that were once revered
Become a
dreadful torture
I will see you again
Lined
here are the gravestones
The markers
Of our wretched
hearts
Stay, or the sorrow will overflow
Leaving the door
ajar,
Find a way to depart
An
eon from now
The words that were spoken
Will be offered once
more
Regain, dissolve
Needed, it is said
A finale will come
to this life of sadness
Given to you, the charity of
devotion
Confident and determined,
Graceful strides towards an
uncertain end
A song of splendor
Affinity so true
The
relationship that was once a mirage
Becomes a reality
Don't
stop now
Lined
here are the photographs
The images
Of our rapturing bond
Stay,
or the sorrow will overflow
Leaving the door ajar,
Find a way
to my side
I surely will…
…
-Owari-