Hope you guys enjoy the story! I have a few other one shots for it on fan fiction as well as some art for the au on deviantart under the same username as on here. enjoy!
His body was wracked with pain as the alchemic lightning engulfed it. He cried out in agony as he felt like his limbs were ripped from him. His throat felt like it was being ripped out as he continued to scream. He swore the scientists were talking about something as they tortured him, but he couldn't hear them over the sound of his shouting and the howling of the animal they had wheeled in beside him.
All of a sudden it all stopped as he found himself in a dark space. He blinked as he looked around in confusion before a spotlight opened up on a figure. He shielded his eyes for a moment before he gasped as he saw the familiar tall man. His hair was slicked back. His sunglasses covered his eyes and his torso was covered by a black vest with a white fur trim.
Dolcetto heart nearly stopped. "Greed?" he whispered before a smile broke out across his face. "GREED!" he cried, running towards him. However, he slowed as he noticed the man wasn't smiling, his usual toothy grin. As he pulled off his glasses, Dolcetto stopped as he saw the forlorn and pained look in his eyes. It was if the man was almost pleading with him.
"Greed?" he questioned, worry in his voice, "Greed, what's wrong?" He didn't get a response, however, as the platform Greed was standing on suddenly became a hand and folded in on itself. "NOOOO!" the dog chimera cried, reaching out towards him. He looked on in horror as blood seep through the crevices between the fingers. There was a low rumble of laughter as the owner of the hand revealed itself. Father towered over him, smiling evilly. The monster suddenly uncurled its fist and raised it up to bring down on the dog chimera.
...
Dolcetto awoke in a cold sweat, panting heavily. He glanced around in the dark to find himself sitting inside a dark, cool space. It smelled like dirt, and the floor beneath him was hard stone. However, he knew he wasn't back in the lab as he was lying inside a sleeping bag. With his night vision he could make out a lantern and a pack of matches next to him. He quickly stuck them and lit the lantern to get a good look around him. He glanced around to see that he was inside a tent. He sighed as he remembered. They had made it to the ruins of Xerxes the previous day, and stopped for the night there. They being himself, Lan Fan, Ling, Mei, her panda, and their two escorts. They were headed back to Xing to deliver the secret of immortality so that Ling may become emperor.
Dolcetto brought his hand to his face as he took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. He had had the first part of his dream so many times, that it was easier to calm himself down from now. He could remind himself the pain was gone. He wasn't in the lab any more. He wasn't going to wake up to another damn experimentation. He was safe. And now he could add the fact that any surviving personnel that had experimented on him and his friends were arrested and were going to be put on trial in the near future for their crimes. That thought definitely helped.
But the second part...well that had just started recently after Greed's death. His shoulders shuddered and he brought his forehead to his knees. as he remembered his friend's passing. How he had been ripped from Ling's body and crushed by Father between the monster's teeth. That idiot...If he had just stayed away from him. If he had just been close enough to stop the homunculus...he would still be alive right now.
Dolcetto growled and rubbed his eyes, catching the salt water that was starting to form. He reminded himself that the last thing Greed would have wanted was for him to be crying over him. He might even tease him about it. He did when he first met Greedling after all.
"What? You crying over me? Boy you must have gotten soft when I was away. Next you'll be telling me you adopted a barrel full of puppies! Though if you did that would bring up the question of would that make you a dog parent, or just a parent parent?"
Dolcetto chuckled as he recalled the memory before frowning. He had lost him one before, but the last time had been different. He still had hope the homunculus was out there somewhere. Now he was gone for good like the rest of his friends and it stung. He felt so alone. He sat up and sighed as he rubbed his hands down his face. He then glanced over to his bag where his flask was. He was no alcoholic, but he always kept some on him if he needed two shots to ease himself back to sleep after a particularly bad nightmare. They all had. It was one of the perks of living in a bar. He considered taking a few swigs but decided against it. He wasn't exactly inconsolable right now and he really should be saving it for a particularly bad night terror.
He yawned as he slipped back into his sleeping bag, ready to fall back asleep...That is until he heard a gasp and panting come from the next tent over. His eye snapped open in alarm as he heard the panting continue. It was then follow by some kind of muffled whimper. He also smelled something. What was that? Were those...stress pheromones? With another whiff he was able to confirm it. There was no mistaking it. He remembered that smell very well coming off of people during the promised day, during the raid, at the lab...He shudder, pushing the thought from his mind before he turned his head in the direction of the noise. He remembered that Ling had the tent next to him. Was the kid alright?
Dolcetto grabbed his lantern and got out of his tent. He shivered slightly in the cool desert air as he walked the three yard distance over to Ling's tent. As he did so, the noise got a little louder. Yup, it was definitely coming from him. "Ling? You ok in there?" He called quietly as he approached, "Ling you alright?"
The noise stopped almost immediately. There was a pause before the boy spoke. "Yes...I'm fine," he responded carefully.
Dolcetto raised an eyebrow. "You sure? You sounded like you were upset in there," he said.
"I'm afraid you were mistaken. I assure you, there is nothing for you to worry about," he reiterated a bit more forcefully.
Dolcetto frown. "Ling, I can smell the stress pheromones coming from your tent from mine," he stated.
Ling cursed under his breath at Dolcetto's dog senses. "Fine," he sighed, "Come in."
Dolcetto did so, lifting the flap of the tent before entering. The teenage prince scowled at him as he entered. Ling hair, which was down for once, was a total mess. It was clear the boy had been tossing and turning in his sleep. "What do you want?"he asked, clearly annoy.
"To make sure you're alright. You sounded like you woke up from a pretty nasty nightmare," he said, sitting down across from him.
Ling frowned. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm not a child," he said, "I don't need to be coddled after I've had a bad dream."
Dolcetto frowned at him. "First of all, I'm not here to coddle you. I just want to make sure you aren't having a panic attack alone or some shit," he said, "Secondly as much as you probably hate to admit it, you were CRYING a few minutes ago. It takes a lot to make you cry, so something really serious must be up." "So spill it kid," he said, "What's got you so upset?"
Ling glared at him before sighing. As he did so, his eyes looked much older than he was. The were worn and tired, for more reasons than a lack of sleep. "...I had a dream about the Promised Day," he admitted, "About what happened to both Greed and Fu, I…" He bit his lip trying to contain his emotion, although some of still slipped through into his voice. "I couldn't save them…" he admitted guiltily.
Dolcetto winced. He couldn't image how the kid felt, not fully anyways. Although it was true he had seen Greed die too, and he had been the dog chimera's closest friend, Ling had him living inside his head for over a year. They were "soul mates" so to speak. It was impossible to not be extremely close with the homunculus under such circumstances. And to top it off, he had to feel the philosopher's stone be ripped out of him, his friend be pulled out of his body. That couldn't be anything less than traumatic. Oh, and not to mention he lost what was essentially a family member on the same day. How the kid wasn't a mental wreck right now was beyond him.
But he definitely knew how he felt when he said he wasn't able to protect them. That was the whole reason why he was still alive it seems. He would have died at the Devil's nest protecting Martel and Roa if he hadn't been knocked out cold. And he probably would have died like Fu at the hands of Fuhrer Bradley trying to protect the Briggs soldiers if Falman hadn't held him back after he had gotten injured. Instead all he could do was just sit back and watch from a distance as good men were slaughtered and his closest friend was destroyed by the one who made him. He had felt useless. Utterly useless.
Dolcetto placed a hand on Ling's shoulders. "It's not your fault kid," he said, "It couldn't be helped. The old man made the decision to protect you when he knew he was gonna die. And Greed well, in that situation I don't think there was anything you could have done."
That didn't assure Ling as he looked down. "I could have held on," he said.
Dolcetto gave him a confused look. "Come again?" He said.
"I could have held onto Greed. When Father was pulling every soul out of the stone, I could have held onto him longer and kept him there, but he told me to let go," he admitted, "I should have held on…"
Dolcetto frowned. "And how well do you think that would have worked out?"he said, "You said it yourself, the asshole was pulling every soul out of the stone. If you had held on, you might have gotten sucked up with them! Then what would have happened, huh? Who would be emperor then?"
Ling shrugged. "Mei?"he suggested.
Dolcetto huffed and rolled his eyes. "Sure, fine, but what about your friends?" he said, "If you died after getting so far, how do you think that would make them feel? Fu died protecting you. Lan Fan gave up her arm for you! What would happen to her if you kicked the bucket? She had just lost her grandfather, there's no way she could handle losing you too! You're the girl's purpose in life. Hell, even I wanted to risk my life to see you reach that throne."
Ling went silent for a moment. "I suppose you're right," he said, "It's just...I suppose I feel very alone right now. It's hard to get used to not sharing a body with someone," he said.
"Well, you aren't," Dolcetto said with a sigh, "We're all hurting here. We all've got loss in common. But I think that just makes us better able to support each other. You and Lan Fan especially. In fact you should probably talk to her about what happened. The girl may seem all tough and stoic, but if she's anything like Martel she's probably needs a shoulder to cry on right about now." He felt a pang of sadness. Martel had always been tough as nails, withstanding anything that had been thrown at her. Beat downs, starvation, torture, anything those crazy scientist had in mind, but she would only break down if someone else she cared about was killed or seriously injured. In that way, Lan Fan reminded him a lot of the snake chimera. "Seriously though," he said, "If you ever need a distraction or something to deal with the pain...just let me know. I probably could use it too."
Ling smiled at him. "I'll keep that in mind," he responded, "You know, you really are quite good at this whole supportive friend thing," he said with a sad smile, "I think this one conversation helped me more than I realize…You've got a real talent for it, you know."
Dolcetto smirked at him. "Hey, maybe the dog they fused me with was a therapy animal," he joked. This caused Ling to smile further. After that, Dolcetto bid him good night. As he headed back to his tent he felt his heart was at ease. For the rest of the night, not a single nightmare plagued either of them.