Title: Blood Ties (12/14: Fates)
Author: Jordanna Morgan
Archive Rights: Please request the author's consent.
Rating/Warnings: PG for fantasy violence and blood.
Characters: A whopping big ensemble across two worlds, although the strongest focus is on Ed.
Setting: First anime. Same timeframe as CoS, two years after the end of the series.
Summary: Alternative to Conqueror of Shamballa. An old enemy plunges Ed into the dark secrets of his new world, linked to the alchemy he thought lost to him - while in Amestris, Al faces a life-or-death choice. Will the nightmare Ed is drawn into provide the key to both their fates?
Disclaimer: They belong to Hiromu Arakawa. I'm just playing with them.


Maes Hughes had always been the most formidable of the London Hunters, but with madness to fuel him, he fought like a demon. He seemed untouchable, untiring, heedless of pain, and it was all three dhampirs could do to contain him in the second-floor hallway.

Vato was finished for the fight now, pressed tightly into the corner by the stairwell, clutching a deep sword wound that had penetrated between his ribs. He would live, but it would take blood and many hours of time to restore his internal damage and renew his strength. Jean had also lost blood from a slash to his shoulder, but he was still fighting as it healed - and Roy Mustang knew it was only because of them both that he was not yet seriously wounded. It had been a long time since he'd actively fought, and knowing they were more practiced, they had borne the brunt of the battle so far.

And yet, even now, Maes was not deliberately trying to kill them. He merely wanted them disabled, out of his way.

It only added insult to injury that he wouldn't shut up.

"Get - back!" the rogue snarled, punctuating the words with staggeringly powerful blows against Roy and Jean's swords. "Elicia is waiting for me!"

The other dhampirs had ceased trying to argue with Maes' disjointed babblings, drawn from a mixture of his real memories, and those his mind fabricated from Edward's less-than-intimate knowledge of his counterpart. Mostly it was that imagined life: shining and perfect, acknowledging no part of Ed's peripheral awareness that the other Hughes had also endured the horrors of war and conspiracy. It was no wonder he longed so desperately to escape into that fantasy.

Painfully, Roy understood the desire to become the man Ed had known and in some ways idealized - but not literally. For himself, he would wish only to achieve that here, in his own world, by living up to Ed's perceptions of Colonel Mustang's better qualities.

Granted, Fullmetal thought those qualities were few and far between... but the ones he did see were worth wanting.

Beside Roy, Jean overbalanced and stumbled forward a step. The pommel of Maes' sword caught him in the back of the head, and he dropped, stunned and groaning.

Now it was one on one.

"It's not supposed to be this way, Roy," Maes said, shifting his grip on his sword as he eyed the last Hunter standing. "We're supposed to be friends."

"I am your friend, Maes." Roy's voice trembled, and he swallowed hard. Knowing what he meant to do, it sounded like the hollowest, bitterest lie he had ever spoken; and yet it was true. The Maes he owed his life to would have been horrified to see himself now, as the murderous, tragic creature he had become. He would want his Hunters to stop him from hurting anyone else. He would want to be given peace, and he would be grateful to the hand that gave it.

At least his soul might find his real family waiting for him.

Roy struck, quick and hard, but his sword met the same unmoving resistance Maes had put up since the fight began. Indeed, Maes was the one who had made some progress, advancing a few feet closer to the stairwell doorway. If he broke through, he clearly intended to go on the hunt for Ed again - and Roy had a terrible feeling the kid's mismatched hands would be full enough by now.

"Come on, Roy! There's not a trick you know that I didn't teach you!"

That at least came from Maes' legitimate memories. It was also a fact Roy was all too aware of. He didn't have a single move his erstwhile leader would not know how to counter.

Frustrated, Roy swung his sword with graceless violence. "Will you - stop - talking!"

Maes smirked. He adroitly flicked Roy's blade aside, and punched the leaner dhampir hard in the chest with the knuckles clenched around his sword's grip. There was no real breath in Roy's lungs to be forced out, but the sheer power of the blow caused him to stumble back against the wall.

In the next moment Roy's sword was gone, and Maes' blade hovered below his throat, sharp enough to take his head off. Aside from a pierced heart, decapitation was the only guarantee of immediate death for a dhampir.

Heaving a sigh of genuine disappointment, Maes shook his head. "You never did want to listen to me."

"I did listen," Roy murmured faintly. "Just not until too late."

A small, regretful shrug arched Maes' shoulders. With an oddly apologetic look, he drew back his left fist for a sledgehammer of a punch...

And then he froze, his eyes darting away for an instant, as the simultaneous sounds of a gunshot and a woman's scream echoed down loudly in the stairwell.

Riza.

Roy's insides twisted into a sick, tight knot, and he instinctively seized the second of distraction. He grasped Maes' arm, forcing the sword away from his throat, and his right elbow plowed into the rogue's jaw. Maes reeled backward, and Roy bolted for the stairs, suddenly faced with a far more intense and primal imperative than the duty of putting Maes down.

Sounds of a struggle led him upward. On the sixth-floor landing, he found Sig; the bulky human was bleeding from a head wound that smacked more of blunt trauma than a blade, and his right leg was visibly twisted, evidence of having been thrown down the stairs. In spite of his injuries, he was struggling to pull himself to his feet with the aid of the railing.

Seeing Roy, Sig turned his eyes upward, and spoke one word that explained all.

"Envy!"

His fear intensifying, Roy rushed onward, only to find a monstrous tableau on the landing between the sixth and seventh floors.

Heymans was slumped halfway onto the lower steps, breathing but insensate from a blow to the back of his head. Councilor Bradley was quite literally pinned, both hands tugging desperately on the grip of a sword that had been thrust through his right shoulder and into the wall. And Riza...

Riza was limp in the arms of the nightmare that stood on the steps above the landing, his mouth fastened on her gushing throat.

"No!"

The agonized shout prompted Envy to raise his head and look down at Roy, fangs bared and chin stained with blood. Without a word he slid Riza's sword from the scabbard on her belt, and dropped her carelessly on the steps as he began to descend.

Roy felt his solitary eye flush scarlet, every particle of his being flooding with a dhampiric rage he had never dared to let himself feel before. He braced himself to spring at Envy like an animal.

Something hit him hard from behind, throwing him to his knees, and a tall figure swept past him.

He looked up to see Maes on the landing, hurling himself at Envy with a manic power that made his fighting down below pale by comparison. Even the vampire seemed to be taken by surprise at the rogue's assault of snarling, frenzied hacking. Their blades clashed, and under the force of Maes' heavier body, the astonished Envy tumbled backward onto the steps beside Riza.

A homunculus and a human: the two components necessary for alchemy, and the transmutation that would open the Gate.

With the stifled beginnings of a cry rising in his throat, Roy leaped forward, but he knew there was no time.

Maes' sword clattered to the steps, leaving him completely unguarded for one all-or-nothing effort. He clapped sharply and reached down, his left hand clutching Envy's jaw, his right hand pressing against the blood that flowed down Riza's mauled neck.

One interminable second passed before something happened - but it wasn't alchemy.

A single violent spasm arched Maes' body as the point of a sword burst up through his back. For a moment he hung frozen on the blade, blood trickling from his mouth, his expression filled with a desolate, baffled disbelief; and then his rigid muscles relaxed. He collapsed heavily on top of Envy, and moved no more.

The vampire pushed him off with a growl and scrambled to his feet. Scarcely glancing at the other Hunters, he wrenched the sword from Maes' chest and vaulted over the stairway railing, disappearing into the darkness below.

For a brief, trembling moment, the stairwell was gripped with the silent stillness of a world that had ceased to turn.

A dry sob choked abruptly from Roy's lungs, and he stumbled across the landing. On the way he passed Bradley, who had paused his struggle with the blade that pierced his shoulder. The Councilor watched him sorrowfully, and said nothing.

One glance was enough to know that Maes was dead. His heart had been all but cleaved in two by Envy's sword, killing him instantly, and his glassy eyes still held that final look of confusion and betrayal.

The alchemy he had poured all his hope and strength into had failed him, and he didn't understand why.

Roy turned his back to that painful sight. He sagged down onto the blood-streaked steps between Maes' body and Riza's, and gently gathered the woman he loved into his arms. She was still breathing - but she would not breathe for much longer. Not with the left side of her throat torn open by Envy's fangs.

Her eyes slowly opened to see Roy's face. She gave him a tiny smile, and whispered, "Sorry..."

Bewildered and grief-stricken, he pressed his quivering fingers to her savaged throat. The very fact that she was not already dead, her blood consumed as fuel for the transmutation, was as inexplicable to him as it had been to Maes.

He shook his head dumbly. "It didn't... Why didn't it...?"

Sudden understanding gripped him, and his leaden soul was struck by a jolt so powerful, he almost let go of her.

Riza was infected.

It was the only explanation. Her blood was tainted, rendered useless for alchemy, just as Edward had meant to do to his father. Riza carried the poison of the dhampirs in her veins, and when her last living breath had passed from her... she would be one of them.

He wasn't going to lose her - but she was going to lose a precious part of herself.

"You knew?" he breathed softly.

It twisted his heart to see that ghost of a smile deepen a little, as if she was glad of it. "A long time."

Involuntarily he wracked his memory, trying to remember an occasion when she might have been exposed. He could pinpoint nothing. She had been injured now and then by the rogues the Hunters put down, but never had the blood of one of them mingled with hers. Perhaps she could have hidden such a thing from the others - but not from Roy. He alone knew her carefully hidden emotions too well.

"But - whose blood?" he whispered urgently, overcome with his irrational need to know.

For a moment, her smile positively glowed up at him. Her shaking hand rose to caress his cheek.

"Whose... do you think?"

Then Roy understood, and the horror he felt was suffused with an incredible wonder. He closed his eye tightly and leaned his forehead against hers, breathing the scent of her mortal life as it drained away - knowing now exactly what it contained.

His blood was the poison that would turn her. Somehow, at some point, Riza had obtained a little of it without his knowledge, and taken it into her own veins. Defying her knowledge of the torments of existence as a dhampir, she had deliberately infected herself with the monstrosity that was in him.

There was no need to ask why. He already knew the answer to that question.

Riza closed her eyes. Her breaths were growing quicker and more shallow, and the warmth of her body was fading. It would not be long.

The sound of running footsteps on the stairs below spurred Roy to raise his head sharply; but it was only Jean, looking somewhat dazed but unhurt. When he saw the carnage on the landing, he quickly averted his eyes and swore under his breath.

Bradley's pain-roughened voice spoke, giving him something else to focus on. "Where is Vato?"

Jean blinked and shook himself. "He's okay. Just too hurt to fight any more. I left him someplace safe. Sig's still alright too - if he doesn't break his neck trying to climb up here with a bad leg and a concussion."

Unasked, he moved forward and grasped the sword that pinned Bradley, bracing one foot on the wall to pull it out. The Councilor clenched his jaw in pain as Jean worked the blade loose, and when it finally slid out of his shoulder, he sagged against the wall with a grunt.

"Edward and Noa were cut off above us, with Hohenheim," he explained tersely, clutching his wound. "We were trying to reach them when Envy took us by surprise."

Upon hearing that Noa was trapped, anxiety crept into Jean's eyes, and he looked up the steps toward the blocked passage. "What's happened to them?"

"I don't know... but we still have to help them." Grimacing painfully, Bradley straightened and began to move toward the steps. "Jean, see how badly Heymans is hurt."

Rather reluctantly, Jean turned and knelt down next to Heymans. At his not-too-gentle prodding, the brawny human groaned and attempted to slap his hand away.

Still cradling Riza in his arms, Roy swallowed hard and looked up at Bradley. "Sir, shall I..."

"No." The ranking Hunter gingerly reached down to squeeze Roy's shoulder. "For now, take care of Riza - and stand lookout for Envy while we try to break through."

With that, very carefully, Bradley moved past Roy and started up the stairs. Jean went after him, and a moment later, Heymans dragged himself groggily onto his feet to follow as well. In short order, sounds of shifting rubble and scraping metal filtered down from above.

Spent and aching in heart, Roy pushed himself and Riza a little farther away from Maes' body on the bloody steps. It was unbearable to think that the same monster had taken the life of Maes Hughes in both worlds... and yet, at least he had spared the Hunters from the duty of putting down their leader, once the kind and courageous man to whom each of them owed all they had become.

It might have been the only act of mercy Envy had ever committed.

A soft whine caught Roy's attention, and he smiled sadly as he saw Cyclone padding toward him across the landing. The dog was limping just a little, but he seemed to be otherwise unhurt. He sniffed gently at Riza's still hand, and then he laid down faithfully beside his masters, resting his chin on Roy's knee.

Roy absently ruffled the fur of Cyclone's neck, heaving a deep sigh of exhaustion and bitter sorrow. Then he braced his back against the wall, wrapped his arms tight around the woman who loved him enough to be cursed for him, and proceeded to watch and wait - alone with the dog, the dead, and the not-quite-dying.


Ed wondered for a time if he had discovered the Hell designed especially for alchemist sinners.

He didn't know how long he lay writhing, not entirely successful at holding back screams, as alchemic energy crawled through his flesh and organs and lit them ablaze from the inside out. It felt as if the very cells of his body were tearing themselves apart and melding together again. His lurching heart stabbed like a knife with each random thump in his chest; his lungs felt seared by every breath, yet they were compelled to suck in deep, desperate gulps of air. The process of coming back to life seemed to take just a little longer than eternity, and some primal part of him longed for escape into the nothing he had felt when he was only dying.

At long last, the torment did begin to subside. The liquid fire that was his blood started to cool. The unpredictable thuds of his heart steadied into a regular rhythm, and his ragged breathing quieted.

He couldn't think or consciously move while in the full depths of the misery, not really... but somewhere along the line, his soul and body came to an abrupt consensus, and he jerked violently upright with a mouthful of scathing curses.

In contrast to the dull, hot pain that gripped him, he realized he felt cold - and that perception of discomfort was something startlingly new. The night air around him was cold, and the hard concrete beneath him was colder, and he truly felt the chill of it. He felt himself shivering from more than his pain, felt goosebumps rising on his warm flesh.

His human flesh.

The full realization crashed down on him in a shock of dazed wonderment. He was no longer a dhampir, an undead; his body was entirely alive. His heart was beating, his lungs craved oxygen, and his nerves felt raw with reawakened sensitivity. Every inch of his flesh was brimming with the bright, fresh tremors of life, filling the void where he had felt only silence within himself for the last week.

It was a life-energy that came from Hohenheim, transmuted from his own being and alchemically force-fed into his son's lifeless body.

A lump caught in Ed's throat, and he squeezed his eyes shut, struggling with a surge of anger and guilt and fathomless gratitude. It was a rare gift for a man to give life to his child twice. He wondered if Hohenheim could have anticipated this result of his sacrifice: the restoration of true human life, instead of dhampiric undeath.

Still, there was a limit to the terrible wonder he had performed. Ed carefully stretched out his right hand and left leg, noting the familiar weight of unfeeling steel without surprise or bitterness. His father's life had not bought back his flesh limbs in place of automail... but that was alright. He had already received more than he ever would have asked for or expected.

On the scales of Equivalent Exchange, one life for another was an unusually generous bargain.

And yet... had it truly been just one life?

Ed remembered hearing Noa cry out as the transmutation took hold. His newly living heart skipped a beat, and his eyes flew open.

A panicked glance found Noa several feet away, curled fetally on the concrete, her face hidden behind her arms and her tumble of dark hair. She was sobbing and shivering, clearly in pain, and Ed's stomach gave a horrified squirm as he wondered whether his father's life had paid the price alone. Although Noa was a dhampir with no living blood to offer, perhaps Hohenheim's human transmutation had aroused the Gate to reach out hungrily for more, to take something from her as well...

Choking back his own childish whimper of pain, Ed dragged himself to his unsteady feet and lurched over to Noa. As he collapsed on his knees at her side, he spoke her name softly, almost beseechingly. When she did not respond, he reached down to touch her. His steel hand clasped her shoulder, and his flesh hand slipped under her cheek to lift her head.

He felt dampness beneath his fingers - and warmth.

With a staggering shock, Ed realized the fitful heaving of Noa's body was not simply due to pain. She was breathing, her lungs gasping for air between the shudders that wracked her frame. Her skin was warm, and her tears were hot, and the face he turned toward his was flushed with a beautiful, rosy tinge he had never seen there before.

The transmutation had not taken from her. Somehow, it had given the same gift to her as to himself.

Noa was human.

Any initial delight in Ed's own change had been muted by the realization of its cost; but as he saw and touched Noa's new living warmth, the emotions spilled from his heart. Seized with a thrill of nameless joy for both their sakes, he gently slid his arms around her and lifted her upright, pulling her close to him.

Her tear-filled eyes focused hazily on his, confused and frightened by the pain and the heat and the needful panting of her lungs. Ed suddenly realized that while he had existed as a dhampir for just seven days, Noa had known undeath for years. She had forgotten the very sensations of mortal life, and may not even have recognized now what was happening to her.

"It's okay!" he exclaimed swiftly. On an impulse he hugged her to him fiercely, marveling at the sensation of her quick, fearful heartbeat against his chest. He spoke soothingly close to her ear. "We're alive, Noa - really alive. We're human again."

She gave a violent start in his embrace, and buried her face against the crook of his neck - yearning not for his blood that pulsed there, but for the simple comfort of human contact. Her trembling hands clung to his shoulders with that instinctive need.

"Your father..." she breathed, her voice quivering with a renewed sob.

"Don't, Noa." Ed leaned his head back just far enough to search her eyes, cupping her cheek in his flesh hand. "It wasn't your fault. It was his choice to make - and this was what he wanted."

Struggling with a survivor's guilt himself, Ed knew Noa must have felt even more torn, because she was the one who released Hohenheim and allowed him to perform the transmutation. He didn't want her to feel she was to blame. Guilt was pointless now, and in the end, perhaps it was just as well that Hohenheim had gotten his way one last time. They both knew he was right: with his wounds, in his condition, they could not have preserved his life for more than a few short hours. In giving that life to them, at least he might have been able to feel there was meaning in his death.

His life had been worth more than enough, after all.

For a few long, bittersweet minutes, Ed was content to hold Noa and let her weep softly, as he attempted to come to grips with this new reality. He didn't even try to make sense of his emotions; they would take much longer to heal. For the present, simply adjusting to his physical state would be victory enough, because there were things missing in him now that he had grown disturbingly used to. His body felt weaker and less quick to react, his perceptions dull and stifled. Without the extraordinary added dimensions of awareness his dhampiric senses had given him, he felt almost shamefully vulnerable and uncertain of his surroundings. Even his normal human strength had been sapped by the trauma of the transformation, leaving him exhausted and still in considerable pain.

It was a dangerous condition to be in. He couldn't forget that Envy was lurking somewhere nearby - and having failed twice to defeat him as a dhampir, Ed feared the thought of how he would fare against the powerful homunculus now.

Unless...

Ed lifted his head with a frown, straining his feeble human sense of hearing, and heard exactly what he had thought he heard. Rough scraping sounds, coming from the stairwell opening beneath the wreckage of the crane. The other Hunters were still trying to dig their way through.

A hopeful gladness buoyed his spirit, and he squeezed Noa's shoulder gently. "Will you be alright?"

The gypsy sniffled and pulled away from him a little, wiping her eyes with a dust-streaked sleeve. As she looked up at him, the tension of pain was still in her face, but she managed to give him a smile that was not completely unconvincing. "I... I think so."

"Okay. The others are trying to reach us - and we'd better see what we can do to help. We'll all be a lot better off if we can face Envy together when he comes back again."

Safety in numbers was the credo of the Hunters, and this night had proved the value of that strategy to Ed. Invariably, vampires and even mere rogues were solitary predators; but Hunters typically fought as a team, overwhelming their adversaries until someone could succeed in getting close enough for a crippling strike. Even Envy knew he could be brought down if he faced them all at once. There might still be casualties, but if they just had the chance to combine their full strength against him, one of them was sure to reach him.

They had gained another advantage, as well. Unlike the dhampirs who still required the blood of human partners to transmute, both Ed and Noa would now be able to perform alchemy alone, using their own blood.

With a grimace at the burning ache that still lingered throughout his body, Ed pushed himself to his feet, and offered Noa his flesh hand to help her up. After rising, she did not let go, but stared down with a tender pensiveness at his hand that lay in hers.

"You wouldn't have to be afraid to go home now," she said softly.

Ed breathed a quiet sigh and slipped his fingers from hers. Placing both of his hands on her shoulders, he sought her downcast eyes.

"But I still can't," he answered steadily. "Opening the Gate would still cost a human life - and you know I can't accept that. We've got to study the alchemic processes here, to find out if there's some way to do it without paying that price."

He chose not to tell her what he further resolved in that moment, as he looked at her sweet, troubled face. If they ever did find a way to cross to the other side without hurting anyone... he would take her with him. In Amestris, she could find the peace her own dark world of monsters and blood had never allowed her to know.

For now, any such future was still too far beyond the horizon to consider. The solution could take years of research to discover, if it existed at all; and in the meantime, he meant to keep his word. He may have been human now, but it was still his choice to be a Hunter, to join Noa and the others in protecting their world for as long as he shared it with them.

To his surprise, he was alright with that. It was painful and dangerous work, but he would be in the best of company.

His only regret was that he couldn't let Al know he was okay.

"Come on," he said softly, tugging at Noa's sleeve with a wan smile. "I think we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do to the others."

A little reluctantly, he turned and moved toward the wreckage of the fallen crane, stopping only to pick up his sword. He had dropped it when Envy felled him, and it lay beside a horrific splash of scarlet where dhampir blood had earlier spilled from his heart. Even with his blunted human sense of smell, he was aware of its scent, and it made him a little nauseous.

No longer would he hunger for blood. No longer would he fear the light of the sun... or the awful, animal darkness he had known within himself. It was a precious thing to be free of those monstrous bonds of dhampirism, even if he was now far less powerful and more fragile.

When they reached the tangle of metal that was the crane's crumpled frame, Noa stood watch as Ed cautiously climbed halfway up onto it - feeling just a little sorry that he had lost his dhampiric night vision. Peering down in the moonlight, he could see through a small gap the other Hunters had carved out of the scrap metal. Havoc and Bradley were in the stairwell directly below, attempting to pry steel bars out of the way without causing the whole mess to crash down on them.

"Hey! Is everyone okay?" Edward called out.

Both dhampirs looked up in surprise, and Bradley drew a breath to speak; but he paused as Ed's altered scent registered, and his eyes widened. At his side, Havoc mirrored his incredulous expression.

"You're - !" Bradley gasped.

Ed cut him off quickly and grimly, feeling a sudden sense of guilt, because he could not share with the others the wondrous cure he and Noa had received. "Yeah. Somehow, my father did it... and we lost him. But Noa's human now, too."

He was keenly aware of the torn expression that crossed Havoc's face, an impossible combination of joy and grief. Because his unrequited love for Noa was so startlingly genuine, he would rejoice at her release from the curse of dhampirism - but he would also be thinking he had forever lost all chance of winning her. Just as Ed had observed between Mustang and Hawkeye, Havoc's suppressed desires could now endanger Noa if he failed to control them, to avoid being pulled down too deep by her scent or the chance touch of her skin.

Ever the intently focused professional, Bradley swiftly gathered his wits. His shocked expression grew more solemn, and he inclined his head.

"I'm sorry for the loss of your father. He was... unique." The Councilor glanced over his shoulder, as if taking stock of the situation below, and glanced back up at Ed. "In answer to your question - Envy attacked us, and we've suffered several injuries. Maes Hughes did not succeed in an attempt to open the Gate, and Envy killed him. And Miss Riza..." He paused, searching for words, and a sorrowful smile twisted under his mustache. "She will soon be Roy's foundling."

The meaning of those words was all too clear to Ed, and he squeezed his eyes shut with a curse. "Then Envy's still alive?"

"Unfortunately so. This two-person system of alchemy is something of a problem. He managed to take down our human associates before any attempt could be made to transmute him."

"Problem solved," Ed muttered fiercely. "Noa and I both know alchemy, and our blood is human. If we can get close enough, one of us can kill Envy by ourselves - but our odds'll be a whole lot better if we've got some of you to cover us."

"We're working on that. I think you should be able to slip through this hole in a few more minutes."

Edward eyed the few inches of opening the Hunters had so far succeeded in creating - and an old irascible spark flickered in him.

"Who're you calling small enough to fit in a thimble?"

A familiar voice drifted up from somewhere farther down the stairs. "You, Fullmetal..."

Mustang sounded tired and strained, rather as if he was desperately grasping at humor to stave off tears. Knowing now what had happened to Hawkeye, Ed could understand, and he was instantly sobered.

"You're gonna pay for that," the teenager retorted in a soft voice, gently playing along. "Once we take care of Envy, I'm kicking you all the way down those stairs."

Ed heard a weary half-chuckle in response, and his heart lightened a little. Mustang was coping remarkably well. He would never have wished for Hawkeye to become what he was, but at least that painful barrier between them would soon be gone. And as his foundling, the poor woman would have him to guide her in the ways of dhampir survival...

Somehow, Ed suspected Roy would be a fine teacher.

With a halfhearted smile, Ed sheathed the sword that was still in his hand. Very carefully he began to help widen the hole from the upper side, tearing broken pieces of metal from around its edges.

"Look out, Ed - !"

The warning cry came from Noa, and Ed instinctively turned, reaching for his sword. He was just in time to see the glow of red eyes as a dark shape retreated, springing backward across the concrete.

For a moment Noa's body was braced halfway in front of Ed, in the place where she had rooted herself to shield him... and then she sagged backward with a soft groan. He caught her as she crumpled against him, and his eyes swiftly searched her limp, trembling body.

Her eyes were wide with pain, her breaths short and harsh. She was clutching her left ribs with both hands, but the pressure did little to staunch the bright blood welling up between her fingers.

A single shudder passed through Edward, as a burning chasm of rage and despair gaped open within him.

He looked up at Envy. The homunculus stood halfway across the open space with sword in hand, his black cloak and golden hair flowing in the night breeze... and he was smiling.

Had he wanted to, he could just as easily have taken Ed in his attack - but he hadn't.

"Why?" Ed screamed at him.

"Because I missed the satisfaction of killing the old man. Because it's more fun when you really have something to fight for... and because I want to end this."

Inside himself, Ed suddenly felt a cold, deathly stillness, even deeper than the void he had known as a dhampir. He bent down with Noa in his arms, and gently settled her against the wreckage of the crane.

Noa gasped and shifted feebly, her bloody hand reaching up to clutch his wrist. "Ed...!"

Ignoring the soft plea, he straightened. The claw-spikes of his automail fist dug into the flesh of his left palm. He clapped hard, heedless of the pain, and pressed his bleeding hand against the plating of his right arm.

The steel rippled beneath a haze of pale light, erupting into a long, familiar blade.

Envy's eyes widened - and Ed realized his renewed ability to perform alchemy alone was one thing the vampire had not expected.

With a savage cry, Ed launched himself at Envy. His blade threw sparks as it smashed against Envy's sword, and the homunculus fell back a step, displaying a level of caution he never had in their previous encounters. He knew now that Ed had discovered how to hurt him.

Dhampir instincts were dying far harder in Ed than the physical traits. He may have lost the strength and speed he had possessed before, but something of the animal fury was still in him, a primal protective drive unleashed by the sight of harm to someone he cared for. Under any other circumstances, that lingering impulse would have disturbed and dismayed him, but now he welcomed it with all his being.

His. Noa was his, and Envy had hurt her... and now Envy would pay the price, the store of life-energy within him transmuted to save her. There was nothing left in Edward's heart but that resolve.

She would live, even if it cost his life as well. She would feel the warmth of the sun again, even if he never did.

In spite of Envy's new awareness of his vulnerability, he still had sheer physical power in his favor. Their blades clashed, and he shoved Ed backward, forcing him to stumble against the fallen crane.

"Don't fool yourself." Envy stalked forward, his eyes blazing. "You're nothing but a human pipsqueak again. You don't have a chance. Give it up - and I might make it quick."

Between gasps for breath, Ed smiled bitterly.

"Go to hell."

A snarl of rage rumbled in Envy's throat. He rushed forward, swinging his sword furiously against Ed's blade, and it was all Ed could do just to parry the overwhelming blows as Envy struck repeatedly. There was no chance for him to bring his hands together, much less to reach out and touch the cold flesh of the homunculus.

Under the onslaught, Ed was nearing the limits of his frail human body, his battle-scarred automail. The shock of a particularly massive blow coursed through his entire lean frame, and he felt something in his mechanical arm begin to give...

The collapsed framework of the crane suddenly buckled and groaned, parts of it sagging as the Hunters below continued their struggle to force their way through it.

For a single instant, Envy's focus on Ed faltered.

Unthinking and unfeeling, driven by pure instinct, Ed seized the one and only chance he would ever have. He lunged forward, and thrust his blade upward into Envy's chest.

Envy screeched and twisted away, causing the battered blade to break off of Ed's arm entirely. He clawed at it as he reeled backward; and then, to Ed's astonishment, the vampire suddenly toppled, stumbling over something that moved on the concrete behind him.

That something was Noa. Unnoticed by the two combatants, the wounded Hunter had crept closer to their battle, and one glimpse of her hard, determined eyes was enough to fill Ed with a horrified comprehension.

He heard an echo of his own desperate clap as he threw himself forward. His automail arm stretched to its creaking limit, the hand reaching out for Envy's face.

A sudden scream of earth-shattering agony erupted from the homunculus... but it was not Ed's hand that had touched him.

Then an explosion of light and a physical shockwave hurled Ed backward.

For a timeless moment, there was silence and stillness, but Ed could feel the pulsation of an immeasurable alchemic energy in the air. It was a dark, terrifying power, a thing he had felt just once before, in the desert on the outskirts of Lior - and he knew. Before he raised his head, before he shook the blackness from his vision and saw Noa... he knew.

Envy was gone, his deathless body and sadistic mind utterly erased from existence; but Noa was kneeling a few feet from Ed, her back partially turned to him. Her head was sunk over her chest, her arms were wrapped tightly around her body, and her ribs heaved with painful, rasping breaths.

"Noa - !"

At Ed's cry of her name, Noa flinched and stumbled to her feet, still clutching her wounded side. She turned to him, slowly and unsteadily, and the nightmare he had sensed in the deepest part of his alchemist soul was confirmed.

The eyes that met his, streaming with tears of pain and apology, were luminous with a soft scarlet light. Her tears themselves glowed with it. Even the blood that was still seeping from under her hand glowed.

From the life-energy Envy had consumed through the centuries, Noa had transmuted a Philosopher's Stone within herself.

Sick and shaking with horror, Ed pushed himself up from his knees and took one step toward her. He vaguely heard more shifting of steel and concrete behind him as the other Hunters began to break through, but his mind scarcely even acknowledged their existence. There was nothing else in that moment but Noa, radiating a vast power that was not even supposed to exist in this world - and yet still damaged. Still dying.

"Noa, use the Stone to heal yourself!" he pleaded, his voice quivering with a desperate tremor.

A faint, sad smile twisted Noa's lips, and she slowly shook her head. She took a deep breath, and clapped her hands firmly; and the scarlet light that spilled from her grew brighter, spiderwebbing across her skin in the form of intricate lines and symbols. They were alchemic equations, and although Ed could see only a small visible portion of them on her face and neck and hands, their purpose was as clear as day to him.

The array she had made of her flesh and blood invoked the Gate. She intended to open it, transmuting her own body as the key.

She staggered toward him. Had he possessed any sense, perhaps he would have backed away from her, but he could only stand paralyzed by shock and grief.

Within a step of Ed, she swayed faintingly and tipped forward. He reached out instinctively to catch her - taking care, even in the panic of that moment, to make no contact with her exposed skin. He remembered all too well the way it was before, when Al carried the Philosopher's Stone in his armor. As an alchemist, even Ed's slightest touch might cause a dangerous reaction.

As he cradled Noa awkwardly in his arms, she let out a deep sigh, and her broken smile softened. He held her close enough now to see her eyes through the light of the Stone that shone from them, and they were filled with perfect peace.

"Don't do this," he gasped roughly, his throat tightening as his own tears brimmed. "This isn't your fate!"

"No." Her voice was a trembling whisper. "This time... it's my choice."

"But - "

"My work is finished, but yours... hasn't even begun." Noa closed her eyes, hiding their scarlet glow from his sight. "Remember this world, Ed. Take the truth to your people... and save mine."

Ed felt his tears spill over. "Noa, please - !"

He was able to say nothing more. Noa's hands came together behind his back, completing the circle, and her dark world fell away from him in a blaze of golden light.


For an endless age that followed, Ed knew only the sensation of plummeting upward, tumbling through that infinite glowing haze. Somewhere within himself he was screaming, he was weeping, a part of him desperate to give back what Noa had given for him, another part of him simply yearning for escape from the terror of the void; but he couldn't even feel his own body, much less control it. An irresistible force dragged him onward, caught up like driftwood in a vast current of pure, surging energy.

The energy released by death on Noa's side of the Gate - a ceaseless torrent flowing through to the alchemic world, pulsing with the limitless potential for good or evil.

An unknowable portion of forever passed before his senses rushed back into his flesh, and he felt his movement halted with a sharp tug on his automail. He could suddenly sense he was not alone. Something was moving around him, beneath him, anchoring him by his metal arm.

He looked down... and this time, he did hear his own scream.

Myriad unblinking eyes stared up at him. Grasping, oil-black fingers crawled over his automail arm, inquisitively caressing hard steel, finding no flesh to seize and questing on toward his shoulder. The guardians of the Gate, or its parasitic invaders, or whatever they were: all-knowing and yet knowing nothing of human life, hungering for flesh to give them feeling in their eternity of nothingness. Whether they consciously sought a toll for passage, or only preyed instinctively on any life that came near them, it didn't matter. The consequence was the same.

Ed thrashed and struggled against their swarming clutches on his arm. The rushing tide was in his favor, pulling his body away from them, but their grip was inescapable. They clung and groped, reaching up greedily in search of skin and blood and bone to sear away.

Something had to give, and it was the automail that finally did, the entire mechanical limb tearing away from its connection port at the shoulder. A cluster of half-existing voices snarled angrily as the inert metal crashed down into their grasp. It was not what they had wanted.

For a split second, Ed felt the current begin to sweep him clear of the writhing entities, but the freedom was short-lived.

Icy fingers seized his right ankle, slithering over his skin. His body was jerked down again, and more monstrous hands latched on, drawing him toward their midst to divide his limbs and organs among them.

With a final sob of agony and despair, Ed closed his eyes. Noa had sacrificed her life for nothing, and now, this was how his life was to end. His body would be torn apart by these monsters of the Gate, and his soul... he didn't know what would become of it. Perhaps they even had some way of taking that. Perhaps it would exist forever here, untouched or discarded by them, disembodied and helpless. Or perhaps, if he was truly lucky, it would find the release of death when its mortal shell was ripped to pieces.

As a dozen hands pawed over his chest, he braced himself for the living torture of his heart being torn out.

Suddenly, with demonic, shrieking wails, the creatures around him shrank back... and a supernova of warm white light forced his eyes open.


2011 Jordanna Morgan