A/N: Yes, I am back, and I have updated! I'm sorry for the killer cliffhanger; hopefully, this will make up for it a little. Thanks to all of the reviewers, especially , who reviewed this one chapter three times, and Maya Sushi, who wrote a review longer than some of my one-shots. The second section of this chapter, in Ed's POV, is something I've been looking forward to writing for a while, so I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, this chapter's quote is the only one I plan to use from the original FMA anime, and I've been planning to use it for this specific chapter since I found it. That said, I hope you enjoy!
A Recurring Nightmare with Popcorn
Chapter 9: A While Since I Killed Anyone
"It's been a while since I killed anyone. I kinda miss it. Wanna watch?"- Edward Elric, FMA (original anime)
A slow grin spread across Envy's face. This was child's play. Humans were such fools, to risk everything for others. And Pierce was a special kind of fool, to do it for someone he didn't even know.
Tomorrow, they would find him, covered in blood and screaming about the thing he'd created and the fact that Ed had told him to do it. The Fullmetal pipsqueak wouldn't be able to escape that unscathed, that much was certain. The Amestrians wouldn't be forced to leave, though. Mustang would see to that. For a pathetic human, he was a master of manipulation. He would make sure that he and his people were allowed to stay.
And as long as they were, Envy would be able to continue Father's plans for Korea. The 4077th was only the beginning, and Pierce was little more than a test run. And Mustang's people, whether the Flame Colonel knew it or not, were little more than pawns.
Pierce's hands were centimeters from the ground. Envy felt like laughing aloud. Then, the familiar sound of a certain midget's mismatched footsteps reached his ears. The smile twisted further. So Fullmetal thought he could stop him, did he? It would be fun to show him exactly how wrong he was.
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"ENVY, YOU B-!" Ed screamed as leaped from the top of a nearby tent and plunged his transmuted automail blade into the homunculus's chest.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pierce scramble backwards, his foot disturbing the dust that made up the transmutation circle as he moved. Ed allowed himself a brief grin of satisfaction before he returned to his primary goal of killing Envy.
He'd been having some trouble sleeping, so he'd decided to take a walk. And what did he see on that walk? That…that…Ed didn't even have a word that described how angry he was at the homunculus…that disgusting creature trying to get Pierce, of all people to commit the taboo. Ed was not about to allow that to happen. Ed knew that stabbing Envy only once wouldn't kill him. But he was far past caring.
Envy, grinning widely, shifted out of Ed's form and back into his customary one as Ed's blade tore through his chest. He jumped backward, the wound closing in a flash of alchemy as Ed chased after him.
"WHAT THE H- DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Ed yelled, striking out all but blindly at the homunculus, who easily danced out of the path of his blade. He knew that his fury was destroying his aim. But he was far beyond the point where he could think about this rationally. He just wanted Envy dead.
"Maybe if you win, I'll tell you," Envy taunted, still moving backwards. He raised a finger to his lips and continued in a sing-song tone. "But quiet down! You'll wake everyone up, and they'll be an-gry!"
"SHUT UP, HOMONCULUS!" Ed screamed, his blade missing Envy's neck by mere inches.
The only reason he missed was that he was still so furious that he couldn't see straight. What the h- did Envy think he was doing? Getting some random soldier to commit the taboo was one thing, but trying to get Pierce to do it…in the time that Ed had known him, he had come to respect Pierce. Without realizing it, really, Ed had let Pierce become important to him. The list of people who Ed considered truly important to him was very short, and too many of those on it were in danger, injured, or dead because of their relationship to Ed. Ed was not about to let Pierce become another of those. The homunculi could do whatever they liked to Ed. He didn't care. But if they so much as touched the people that were important to him…Ed was going to kill Envy. He didn't care how many times he might have to kill him for Envy to stay dead. He was going to kill him.
"Oh, dear, you really will wake everyone up, Fullmetal pipsqueak," Envy said, a fake look of concern on his face.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT! AND I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE H- UP!" Ed said, leaping at Envy and slicing through his arm. The wound healed instantly.
"I don't think you used such a dirty word last time," Envy said with a smirk, leaping backwards.
"I COULD USE ALL THE DIRTY WORDS I KNOW AND THEY STILL WOULDN'T COME CLOSE TO DESCRIBING YOU!" Ed fumed as he followed him.
"From you, I'll take that as a compliment," Envy returned. "Now stop attacking, or I'll be forced to fight back. And I was hoping to get some sleep tonight."
"LIKE I CARE WHAT YOU WERE HOPING FOR!" Ed yelled furiously, lashing out again at Envy and slicing his cheek open.
"My, my, aren't we persistent," Envy said, the amusement leaving his voice as his cheek repaired itself. "You're not leaving me much of a choice."
He kicked Ed in the stomach, then delivered a karate chop to Ed's automail shoulder with such force that he felt the blow in his collarbone and ribs, where the automail was bolted to his skeleton. If it had been his flesh arm, the shoulder blade would have broken. He collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
Crap, Ed thought. I wasn't ready for him. Teacher will kill me if she finds out I made such a stupid mistake.
Envy flicked a strand of hair over his shoulder and slid past Ed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to attend to," he said, heading toward Pierce.
"No!" Ed gasped. Envy had knocked the air out of his lungs, and maybe even broken some ribs, he wasn't sure. That didn't stop him from doing his best to get up and stop the homunculus.
"Don't!" he shouted, wincing at the pain in his abdomen as he struggled to his feet. Yep, that was a broken rib. "Pierce, get back to the Swamp, now! Envy tricked you! He lied! You can't bring back the dead, and if you try…!"
"That's about enough, Fullmetal."
Ed looked behind him. Mustang was standing behind him, his gloved hand raised and ready to snap.
"I'll take it from here," Mustang continued.
Suddenly, Breda, too, was behind him, lifting him up. "Can you walk?"
"Y-yeah, I think," Ed said slowly, getting to his feet. He looked around and saw the other members of Mustang's unit around him.
"The gang's all here, huh?" Envy said grumpily. He sighed heavily. "Guess I gotta retreat."
"Not so fast!" Mustang said, snapping his fingers. A jet of flame rushed toward Envy, who leapt backwards and out of sight. The flame ended up catching the tents on either side on fire.
Ed rolled his eyes. "Think before you set things on fire, will ya?"
Mustang had the decency to look embarrassed.
Fuery, meanwhile, threw a bucket of water at the fires, diffusing them.
"Where did you get-" Mustang started.
"I had the feeling we'd need water," Riza said, cutting him off.
"I'll fix the scorch marks," Ed said tiredly, clapping his hands and returning his hand-blade to its original form before clapping again and pressing his hands to one tent wall, then the other. He tried to ignore the background noise.
"Did you expect me to set a tent on fire?" Mustang demanded.
"Well, if I did, sir, it would appear I was right," Riza said evenly.
"That is no way to speak to a superior officer!" Mustang sputtered.
Falman snickered. "Even one who can't aim?"
Roy growled under his breath.
"Fuery, you owe me 10 cenz," Breda said. "We did need it."
"Fine," the bespectacled master sergeant sighed.
After fixing the tents, Ed walked toward Pierce, clutching his side. He tripped about halfway there, and nearly fell, but was surprised to feel a hand on his back, steadying him.
"You okay?" Mustang asked, as Ed felt his hand move from his back to his shoulder.
"Think I broke a rib. No big deal."
"You should head back to the tent."
"I have to talk to Pierce."
"You can't tell him what that was," Roy said, tightening his grip on Ed's shoulder. "The Americans can't know about alchemy. Come to think of it, how do we explain this?"
"We'll tell him this was a dream," Ed said, twisting out of his grip and turning to face him. "But I need to warn him somehow. Otherwise, Envy might get him to do it next time."
"Okay," Mustang said, his dark eyes serious. "But don't push yourself. You're injured. If you pass out and I end up dragging you back to the tent, you're doing my paperwork for a month."
"Fair enough," Ed said, heading toward Pierce.
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Pierce looked up from the circle when he heard Ed shout, and then watched, wide-eyed, as Ed stabbed himself. Not like committing suicide, either. There were two Eds and one of them stabbed the other. Which he knew was not possible. Especially since the Ed who did the stabbing seemed to have a knife attached to his arm. Pierce scrambled backward, wondering if he was drunker than he thought or just crazy.
Then one of the Eds turned into a red-eyed, spiky-haired being wearing a headband, a tube top and a pair of really tiny shorts. And when he moved backwards and the knife-arm came out of him, the wound on his chest closed in a flash of blue light. The one who was still Ed was screaming at him, and really loudly, too. Pierce didn't even understand half the words. What the heck was a "homunculus," anyway? This was one weird dream, if it was one. Which it had to be. Things like this didn't happen in real life.
Ed charged the red-eyed thing and sliced at it with his knife-arm, but even when he hit it, the cuts healed instantly. Pierce did not have to be a doctor to know that that was impossible. Then, the one that wasn't Ed got a truly frightening look on his face. Pierce didn't even see him move, but suddenly, Ed was on his knees and gasping.
Then Mustang showed up, and the other Amestrians. They looked angry, but not particularly surprised. Which was weird, because it wasn't every day that one saw a not-Ed-thing that could change itself into Ed and heal from being stabbed. Or for that matter, a real-Ed with a knife where his arm ought to be.
Mustang was wearing a different pair of gloves. These had weird red designs on the back. The not-Ed-thing said something, and Mustang snapped. And fire appeared. The "Flame Colonel," huh? At least something in this crazy dream actually made sense.
Then the not-Ed-thing disappeared and some of the tents caught on fire, and Fuery dumped water on the flames. And then, Ed was walking toward him, holding his side and looking unsteady on his feet.
"Are you okay?" Pierce asked, letting his doctor side take over while the other parts of his brain tried to process what was going on.
"I'm fine, but I need to talk to you," Ed said, sitting down next to him.
Pierce watched as Ed inhaled slowly, then exhaled. He looked exhausted.
"What did En-I mean, that guy who was pretending to be me tell you?" Ed asked at length. He was staring at the ground.
"The kid who was missing organs died," Pierce said, the burden of his failure settling on him once again. "He said I could bring him back."
"He lied," Ed said, with such vehemence that Pierce flinched. "No one can bring back the dead. No one. No matter what method you use, and no matter how much you just want to see them again-" He broke off, his voice thick, and rubbed at his eyes.
"It's impossible," Ed continued. "Life only flows in one direction. And if you try to bring someone back, you're trying something forbidden, and there are consequences."
"Forbidden?" Pierce asked. "Consequences? What do you mean?"
"It's forbidden because life and death aren't things that humans can control," Ed answered. "I'm agnostic, but calling it 'within the realm of God' is the best way I can explain it. It's like that myth in your book…the one about Icarus? If you fly too close to the sun, you'll fall to Earth."
"But consequences…" Pierce said. "I mean, if I just tried it, just to see…" He stretched his hand toward the circle.
Ed caught his hand. His grip was surprisingly strong, and surprisingly cold. His hand was devoid of warmth, like ice or maybe metal.
"If you tried, you could pay with your life," Ed said. His tone was harsh, and his golden eyes were narrowed. "If you're lucky, you'll just end up short some limbs or missing internal organs. That circle is not something to be messed around with. If you activate it, you'll regret it as long as you live."
Pierce found himself somewhat frightened by Ed's gaze. Those eyes-they were full of anger and pain and regret. They were the eyes of someone who had seen much more than they'd ever wanted to and had forgotten none of it.
"I want you to promise me that you will never, and I mean never, touch a circle like that again," Ed said fiercely. "I don't care if Mustang or I or anyone else says you should. You have to promise me you won't."
Pinned by Ed's gaze, Pierce could only nod. "I-I promise," he said shakily. Wow, was he tired. It had to be past twelve. He should be either sleeping or in the OR, he was sure of it. He wasn't sure which one, though.
Ed's glare softened. "Don't worry, tomorrow you'll wake up in your tent and it'll be like none of this ever happened."
So he was supposed to be sleeping. Well, that clears some things up, he thought, before falling asleep.
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Once he was safely out of the Flame Colonel's range, Envy stopped to look back at the camp. Flame's fire was already out, which was a pity, since he'd have preferred it if all the stupid humans had gotten burned up by it. Idiots, he thought scornfully.
He'd hated having to back down, even if there was no point in fighting them at this point. He comforted himself with the thought that he'd get a chance to knock them all around a bit soon enough.
What a waste of time. Out of all of his siblings, of course he was the one that got sent to this godforsaken, middle-of-nowhere military base where no one even knew what alchemy was. Then again, even if he hated the place, he didn't mind the mission.
He'd failed twice now, though, which he was sure Father wouldn't like. The first one had been badly chosen, he'd admit that. But he was sure that the Mustang look-a-like could've done it.
Pointless now, though, he thought. The Fullmetal pipsqueak had probably given him the human-transmutation-is-forbidden-for-a-reason speech, complete with automail exhibition and emotional outbursts, by now. Pierce was officially a lost cause. He could kill the pipsqueak for messing up his plans.
But, of course, if he succeeded, he'd be able to. The half-metal brat should watch his back, he thought, his lips twisting into a smile.
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"Ed, stop moving," Fuery said as he tried to wrap bandages around the irritable alchemist's midsection.
The Amestrians, along with the unconscious Pierce, had gathered in the tent where Fuery, Falman, and Breda were sleeping to bandage Ed up and figure out what to do next. Neither endeavor was going particularly well.
"Sorry, it just feels weird," Ed said. "I think the bandages here are made of different materials from the ones back home. Hey, can you hand me some? If I use alchemy on them, I can figure out their chemical composition…"
Fuery watched as his commanding officer rubbed his temples. He felt bad for the guy, he really did.
"Ed, you just broke a rib, you shouldn't be trying to do alchemy," Mustang said tiredly.
"I've done alchemy with broken ribs before," Ed said.
"That doesn't make it a good idea," Riza put in.
"Like I care," Ed snapped.
Fuery tied off the bandage around Ed's midsection. "I think there's another way to fasten bandages, but I can't remember it."
"Concentrate, Fuery," Mustang snapped.
"Sir!" Riza admonished.
Mustang took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I just don't like this. Ed's injured, we can't use alchemy, and we're up against a shapeshifter. I feel like an easy target."
"How's that different than usual?" Ed asked.
"Do you want your official title changed to "The Shrimp Alchemist," Fullmetal?" Mustang growled.
"You wouldn't!"
"Try me."
"That's enough, both of you," Riza said sharply.
Mustang's face betrayed his frustration for a moment. "All right, then. Breda, you and I will carry Pierce back to the Swamp. Falman, Fuery, go with Fullmetal and take care of the transmutation circle. After you're sure it's deactivated, I want you to take the materials in it and dispose of all of them individually, in separate locations around the camp. I'd also like you to check the area for any evidence of what happened tonight, and destroy said evidence if it exists. Lt. Col. Hawkeye, I'd like you stand guard outside of the Swamp tonight, in case Envy returns."
Each soldier nodded in turn.
Fuery watched as Breda and Mustang picked up the unconscious Pierce.
Ed, meanwhile, had finished putting his shirt back on and was heading out the door. "C'mon, let's get this over with," he said, motioning to Fuery and Falman.
Fuery followed reluctantly, wishing with everything that he had that he'd just listened to his mom and become a lawyer instead of joining the military.
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Pierce woke up with a headache the size of New England. His head was full of weird images that he only remembered halfway and that didn't make any sense at all. He looked around, almost expecting to see the weird circle and the shadows of nearby tents. Instead, to his surprise, he found himself in his own bunk.
"Hey, you're up!" Trapper exclaimed.
Pierce winced and covered his ears. Either he had some sort of viral infection that mimicked hangovers, or he'd attempted to drink himself into oblivion last night.
As his memories of the previous night reappeared, he realized it was the second. Only, some of the things he remembered were a bit unbelievable. Maybe he'd been hallucinating?
On the other side of the tent, Ed looked up from a book. "Oh, hey, Pierce," he said. "How's the head?"
Pierce tried to get up, and winced when it felt like a railroad spike was going through his skull.
"That good, huh?" Ed laughed. "Maybe you shouldn't drink that much next time. I went to the latrines in the middle of the night and found you passed out near Rosie's. I had to wake up Mustang so he could help me get you back here."
"So it was a dream…" Pierce said. He was confused, though. He didn't remember drinking enough to make himself pass out.
"What was?" Ed asked, confused and wide-eyed.
"It was really strange…you were telling me how to bring someone back from the dead and then another you came and stabbed you with your arm…"
Ed raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you should lay off the alcohol for a while."
Roy walked into the tent and ran a hand through his hair, then looked over at Pierce. "The breakfasts here haven't gotten any better while you've been unconscious."
"Did you expect them to?" Pierce asked joking. He stared at Roy's hand, which was, unusually, ungloved. On the back of it was a scar, faded, but still pretty recent by its looks. And it looked familiar.
"Of course not, but a guy can dream, right?" Roy replied with a smirk.
That was when it clicked. It was faint, but the scar on Roy's hand looked like the symbol he'd had on his glove in the dream.
It was a coincidence, right? Pierce glanced at Ed, who was rubbing his side. The same side he'd been holding in the dream.
Pierce's eyes narrowed in suspicion. That dream was too strange to be real, right? But at the same time, he didn't remember it like a dream. He remembered it like it was real. There had to be some reason for that, some explanation. Something was up here, and he was going to figure out what it was.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review, even if it's just "I read this"; I like knowing that people are reading the fic. Thank you, by the way, to those of you who have been giving me nice, long reviews. I consider it a compliment to the fic that you spent that much time on reviewing it. Anyhow, next chapter will be a little calmer, for better or worse. Tentatively, this is the quote: "If we don't go crazy once in a while, we'll all go crazy." –Dr. Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H.