Well, I'm late again, but I finally got the chapter finished.
I do not own FMA.
The fifth lab wasn't too difficult for Ed to infiltrate, all things considered. Whoever was using it clearly hadn't been expecting someone who was small enough, or clever enough to wriggle through their defenses. Still, the lab wasn't a small building, and the hallways were just about indistinguishable from each other. But it was only a matter of time before he found a large room that had a transmutation circle with old blood stains and a pedestal in the center. He examined the area carefully as he thought aloud, "What is all this? I bet this is what they use to transmute a philosophers stone."
"Yes, that's right."
Ed glanced around to see an armored being enter the room from the other side as it continued, "I don't know who you are kid, but you figured out a lot just by looking at a transmutation circle."
Ed watched the person approach carefully. Based on the suit of armor, they had to be some sort of guard. He called to them, "I'm just good like that. Who are you, pal?" He immediately got the reply, "The one in charge of guarding this place from curious brats. For the moment, let's just say my name is Forty-eight." The guard came to a halt before he added, "And believe me, I'm not your 'pal'. My orders are to dispose of anyone who wanders in here poking his nose where it doesn't belong. Try not to take it personally, boy." Ed glared at the person as he replied, "Alright, I won't." He transmuted the plate of his forearm into a short sword and shot back, "You try not to take it personally when this boy kicks your ass!"
Forty-eight didn't seem impressed with his alchemical feat as he commented, "You're an alchemist, are you?"
Within a few seconds the person raised it's sword into an attacking position, and stood mere inches away from a shocked Ed as they continued, "Alright then, let's see what you've got." The first attack came swiftly, and Ed was luckily able to dodge it before the second strike glanced off his automail.
Ed moved backwards to get out of the reach of the sword as 48 said, "A prosthetic arm, huh? No matter, my sword can pierce steel as well as flesh!" He shouted as he swung his sword again, and Ed just managed to stop it, though his arm shook from the effort. With a small grunt of effort, Ed repelled the attack and responded with an kick which connected with a hollow clang as 48 was repelled. After a moment of surprise, Ed smirked as he said, "My, my, What's this? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you're hollow inside!" Forty-eight moved out of his crouched position as he admitted, "You're a perceptive one." Ed immediately replied, "I can tell by the sound. I spar against someone like you all the time!" Forty-eight's voice conveyed no emotion as he commented, So there are people like me on the outside too, are there? That's surprising."A short, bitter laugh slipped out of Ed as he admitted, "Yeah, it makes me sick. To think there's more than one idiot in the world who came up with the brilliant idea of bonding a disembodied soul to a suit of armor."
Forty-eight seemed mildly impressed as he said, "Perhaps I should introduce myself again. Forty-eight is the number I was assigned when I was on death row. Back when I still had a living body, I was better known as 'Slicer'. I was a mass murderer, you see." "So you were slated for execution." Ed commented before he continued, "Tell me something then. This laboratory, are they using condemned prisoners like you to make philosophers stones here?" It came as no surprise when Forty-eight replied, "That I can't tell you, it isn't my area. They simply recognized my skills, gave me this body, and made me their trusty guard dog." "Interesting." Ed looked at his opponent closely as he continued, "I'm sure they gave you a seal too, to serve as a medium between soul and armor." Forty-eight confirmed the statement, then proceeded to reveal the seal on the neck part of his armor before he said, "This is it right here. If you destroy this, the fights yours." The action was far too generous, and Ed glared as he announced, "That's awfully considerate of you to show your weak spot." "I like to give myself a little extra challenge during a fight now and then." Ed's frown turned into a smirk as he asked, "As long as you're in such a giving mood, why not let me go?" Unsurprisingly, the suggestion was denied, and the fight began again. Ed launched himself into the fight using his full strength until he felt an unnerving change in his automail. He managed to dodge a couple strikes from Forty-eight before he thought back to what Winry had said about being more careful since she'd changed the material of his automail.
With his arm compromised, Ed had no other choice than to finish the fight quickly. He tried to make his strikes as quickly as possible, but Forty-eight easily overpowered him, and cut off all of his attempts to evade while successfully injuring both his shoulder and forehead.
Ed landed on his backside, gasping for breath as he tried to think of a way out. Forty-eight held his weapon at the ready as he mocked, "What a cute little monkey." Ed raged at the insult to his height before Forty-eight laughed as he announced, "It's been too long since I've had prey that was worth hunting." He picked up his sword as he continued, "But you're tired and wounded now, you won't last much longer. Right about now, my companion should be finishing off the partner that you left outside." Ed continued to try to catch his breath as he asked his opponent, "Is this companion of yours strong." Forty-eight continued to look pleased as he replied, "Yes, he is." He then added, "He isn't as strong as I am though." Ed smirked and laughed upon hearing the statement, then hauled himself to his feet as he said, "In that case, I don't need to worry. You see, we've been sparring partners for a long time, and I've still never beaten him!" Despite the confidence in Ed's voice, Forty-eight didn't seem particularly bothered by that revelation as he replied, "Your brother is that good, is he? Then I'll have to hurry up and defeat you so I can get around to taking care of him."
Ed's smile slipped away as he looked just behind Forty-eight and yelled for 'Al' to attack. Forty-eight took the bait, and Ed rushed to attack in time to separate Forty-eight's head and seal from his body as the guard cried foul. Ed dismissed the statement. A win was a win, even if it took a dirty tactic. He transmuted his arm back to normal, and approached Forty-eight as the armored guard said, "What's the matter, you still haven't destroyed the blood seal I so kindly pointed out. Are you going to, or not?" Ed raised the helm by the tassel on the top as he insisted, "There's something I have to ask you about."
"The philosopher's stone?" "Yes," Ed replied, "Tell me everything about it." Forty-eight refused, and Ed protested, "Hey now, tell me. I did beat you at your own game." Despite that, Forty-eight remained calm and said, "That's where you're wrong. I'm not beaten yet." Ed turned around dumbstruck to find the headless body of Forty-eight standing behind him, sword at the ready. Ed released the helmet as he lunged back. The sword grazed his side regardless, and Ed grasped his wound as he exclaimed, "Impossible!"
Ed gritted his teeth as he saw Forty-eight's body stand beside their head as the head said, "I forgot to mention something about this mass murderer Slicer." A second voice emanating from the body continued, "His crimes were really done by a pair of brothers."
Ed tried to keep the pain out of his voice as he protested, "An independent head and body? That's a dirty trick!" "Now, now," the first brother countered, "Who said there was no such thing as 'dirty' in a fight?" The second brother interjected eagerly, "Are you ready? Round two is about to begin, short stuff." Ed yelled back, "Don't call me short!" as he raised his hands to use alchemy, only for Forty-eight to declare he wouldn't give him the time to as he bombarded Ed with attacks. Ed dodged as best as he could, but between his damaged automail, and the blood loss, the fight was getting worse by the second. In the next moment, he cried out as the hilt of Forty-eight's sword rammed into his gut and sent him flying into a post which sat behind him. Ed sat frozen in fear as Forty-eight raced towards him. There was no doubt that Ed would die now, and with only seconds left, he found himself blindly wondering what Scar would do if he was in Ed's position. The thought sparked an idea, and Ed hefted himself from the ground in time to destroy Forty-eight's torso.
Ed heard the first brother gasp as he collapsed again and grasped hold of his injured side and admitted, "You reminded me of someone I know." Ed laughed shortly as he added, "I wonder what he'd say about this." He jumped and yelped a moment later as Forty-eight's detached torso failed his arms and yelled, "How could you, you little brat!" Ed shouted back about the freaky wriggling as the second brother yelled for the first who firmly pointed out that they'd lost. Once Ed had confirmed that there were only two of them, the first brother insisted, "Come on boy, you've won. Hurry up and destroy us." Ed sat up again as he replied decisively, "No, I'm not a murderer." "With bodies like these, are we really even people?" The first brother's question raised Ed's ire, and he replied, "I consider you people whether you have physical bodies or not. If I didn't, that would mean I didn't believe my own brother was a person either. I know my brother is a human being. That means you guys are human too. And I will not take the life of another person." There was silence for a minute before the first brother began to laugh to Ed's and the second brother's surprise. The first admitted, "My brother and I have been lying, stealing, cheating, and killing together for as long as we can remember. And know that we're in these pseudo bodies, we're being treated like humans for the first time! Don't you see the irony?" As Ed stared in surprise, the first brother continued, "For that boy, I'll give you a parting gift. I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you who made the philosophers stone, and ordered us to guard this place."
Before he could continue though, some dark, talon-like objects burst out of the darkness and pierced the first brother's blood seal. The second brother gasped in shock and Ed's blood ran cold as he saw the 'talons' were the extended nails of a black haired woman with an ouroboros tattoo on her breast, just like the inhuman being Scar described. "My, that was a close call." She said as her nails retracted and the first brother was brought to her. "Number Forty-eight, you should know better than to talk about things that don't concern you."
An androgynous, black haired boy appeared from darkness beside the woman as they said, "Well well, would you look at that! What's the Fullmetal pipsqueak doing here?" Ed shook uncontrollably as he quickly looked for the larger being that Scar had described. He couldn't see them, but that didn't mean they weren't hiding off in a corner or something. The woman remained nonplussed as she said, "Such a troublesome boy. How did you find out about this place?" The woman began to separate her fingers, and the first of the Slicer brothers groaned as the helmet was split in half, breaking the soul bond. His brother called out for him until the black haired boy stabbed his soul bond with his own sword. "Quit your pathetic blubberin, you idiot." The boy continued to stab the second Slicer as he complained, "You were trying to kill one of our most important sacrifices! Do you understand me? You could have messed up our entire plan! What would we have done then, huh!?" Ed watched as the boy abandoned the second Slicer's now stilled body and approached him, the brother's sword slung lazily over his shoulder. Ed glared back defiantly as he hobbled to his feet. The woman joined her companion and Ed demanded, "Tell me who you people are. What plan are you talking about? What do you mean when you say important sacrifices?" The boy leaned over so his smirking face was lined up with Ed's as he taunted, "Oh my, the pipsqueaks raring to go! I think I made it angry!" Ed struggled to keep his temper in check as he retorted, "Don't call me pipsqueak again." The boy seemed further amused as it said, "Then what would you prefer? A pipsqueak-" his sentence was cut short as Ed attempted to kick him, only for the person to dodge, then complain, "Hey now! No need to fight here, someone might get hurt."
Ed clapped his hands and prepared to use alchemy to defend himself as he shot back, "This is a fight you started, so come on!" The words had barely left his mouth when his automail finally gave up on him. While Ed gaped in horror and the woman looked uninterested. The boy however, was exuberant as he rushed over to drop his hand on Ed's head before he drove his knee into Ed's gut. Ed made a pained noise and collapsed only to be held up by his braid as the boy said, "Your fortune your arm is broken. If not for that, you wouldn't be getting off so easily." He immediately dropped Ed to the ground where he lay in pain. as he attempted to keep his pained groans to himself, The woman chose to speak up, "Listen to me well boy, never forget this. We allowed you to live." Ed felt his consciousness fading as the woman told her companion to destroy the place.
Well this is a bit of a long chapter, but I felt that it was important to show that Scar's presence in Ed's life is starting to have an impact even if it's just wondering what he'd think of something.
I can't say when I'll upload next as I'm still deciding what I want the next chapter to be about and work out the others that will follow it.
