Not much to say this time except I'm really glad if you have decided to read this far. I love you very much and give you hugs across cyberspace. (The nice friendly kind, not the creeper stalker kind)
Reviews would be magical because I want to know what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Even if it's just a few words it would mean a lot to me.
I own nothing except my own wacky head-canons.
Welcome to Hell: Chapter Three
"Short" Introductions
Edward woke up in a strange room. In the half second it took for him to realize where he was and remember the events of… whenever he had last been awake, he sat up quickly. Too quickly. With a groan he fell back against the pillows. The world had done way too much spinning recently.
Al, he noticed, was not in the room. Panic swelled inside of him and he had to swallow it down. As soon as he could stand he would go find Al. They would figure out a game plan.
His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. A girl, probably a little younger than him, came in with a tray of food. "Oh." The girl stared at him. "You're awake. I'm Dawn, by the way. I'm Buffy's little sister."
"Where is my brother?"
"He woke up just a few minutes ago. He keeps asking for you."
Ed sat up again, slowly this time, and started to stand.
"Wait! You should at least eat a little first!"
"Look kid, I don't have time for this-"
"Kid! I'm probably older than you! I'm sixteen!"
"Well whoop-de-doo, so am I." Ed started for the door. "Now take me to my brother or I will find him myself."
"He's in the next room," she sighed. "Will you at least eat in there?"
Already out the door, Ed didn't hear her. He burst into the room and pushed the people inside away until he was kneeling on the floor next to the bed where his brother lay. Alphonse's face lit up at the sight of him and cried, "Brother!" They hugged, and for a long moment the room was silent.
"Brother I woke up and I was all by myself and then all these people came in and they said you were still asleep and they wouldn't bring you here and I was really worried and everything feels, Ed, it actually feels isn't that-"
"I know, Al." Ed cut him short. "We will have this whole talk okay? Just not now. These people helped us and now we owe them answers. Equivalent exchange, right?" Edward grinned. "Do you remember what happened at the Gate?" Alphonse nodded. "All right, I'll do the talking. You just sit there and start getting your strength back."
"So what's the deal?" Buffy narrowed her eyes at the two. She clearly didn't trust them. That was good because Ed didn't trust her either.
"Ask away." Ed grabbed the tray of food offered to him by Dawn. "I'll answer what I can." He picked up the ham sandwich and handed it up to Al.
"Who are you exactly?"
"Edward Elric: Major in the National Armed Forces of Amestris and certified State Alchemist. My codename is the Fullmetal Alchemist."
The room was stunned. If only they could see the looks on their faces. This was clearly far from what they expected. Good. He had the upper hand now.
"I-I'm sorry, what?" An older gentleman stuttered, removing his glasses and wiping them on his pristine tweed jacket.
"I'm a Major in the National-"
"He heard you the first time, pipsqueak. What he's saying is what the bloody hell does that mean?"
Ed turned slowly to glare at the blonde haired rat-bastard who had been enough of an idiot to open his disgusting mouth and fill the room with his noxiousness. He could feel the veins in his forehead spasm and he clenched his teeth.
"What the hell did you just call me?"
"Problem, pipsqueak?"
"Spike, don't-" Buffy started, but Ed had already snapped.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M SO SHORT YOU COULDN'T EVEN USE ME AS A FOOTSTOOL?"
Fully ready to unleash his alchemical wrath upon this Spike bastard, Ed was stopped by a pair of frail arms wrapping around his waist. "Edward, stop! He didn't say anything like that!"
Ed forced his anger down for the sake of Al and glared frostily at the man who had dared to insult him. He was surprised when the man didn't wilt, but kept up the stare. He was known for his potent death-glare. This ended up making him angrier.
"Call me that again and you will regret it. I don't know how you have a soul even though you are one of those monster things-"
"You can tell Spike's a vampire?" the woman called Willow gasped.
Ed gave her a pointed look. "It's the eyes. Look, can we get back on topic here?"
"I believe you mentioned alchemy," the older man prompted. "I suppose you are referring to the ancient practice of changing lead into gold?"
"That particular act is illegal, but sort of yeah. Being a State Alchemist is more of a 'Be thou for the people' deal though."
"You're part of the government?"
"The military of Amestris, yes."
"Woah woah woah." Xander jumped in, "What's this country you keep mentioning? Amestris?"
"It's hard to explain," Al chimed in. Ed handed him his apple, which he ate.
Buffy crossed her arms and glared at the two. "I've saved the world quite a few times. It takes a lot to surprise me, a lot."
"We are form another world." Ed decided to just be blunt. "The Gate between realities has given us a mission to destroy a creature from our world that jumped into yours. If we don't destroy it the balance of the universe will be tipped and then things will get… let's just say that things will get ugly."
The people in the room exchanged glance, and seemed to come to a consensus. "Allrighty," Buffy announced for her team. "What's this big bad and how do we kill it?"
Ed was shocked. That was it? No fuss at all? He had expected them to laugh, to make him prove his crazy claims. They acted like he had just commented that his favorite color was red.
Willow noticed his confusion. "You have to understand, Ed, that this sort of thing's not unusual here. Sunnydale, that's the town we're in, is a hellmouth. Beings from other dimensions, mainly hell dimensions, are always showing up here."
"Oh." Ed added that to the list of ever-growing tidbits of information about this world.
"So what manner of creature are we facing?" the older man asked.
"Good question Giles," Xander added. "Are we talking demons of the slimy or scaly variety, or maybe spiky?"
"Neither. Probably." Ed added as an afterthought. "We aren't sure which homunculus is here, just that one of them is."
"Homunculus? An artificially created human?"
The alchemist laughed bitterly. "The homunculi are not human. They are monsters who just happen to seem like people. There are seven of them in total, each with different abilities, and one of them is here. I just hope for your sakes that it isn't Pride."
Alphonse shuddered at the name. "They are incredibly powerful and nearly impossible to kill. My brother has been trying to stop them along with a particular division of the military for a while now. They are smart-well- most of them are, and it probably already knows we are here."
"So step one is to figure out which homunculus is here and form a game plan around that."
"Exactly our plan," Ed nodded to Buffy. "Now I need as much information on this world as I can get, anything at all that could help. Actually, it would be easier to just read. Is there a library around here I could get this information from?"
The entire room burst into laughter. "Books!" Xander guffawed. "Oh man do we have books, eh Giles? More books than you could ever read through!"
"You'd be surprised," Ed smiled. "I'm quite the student when I want to be."
