So after a year's hiatus, I finally found time to write the next chapter. I joined the Air Force this past January, but got hurt during basic training and ended up spending two months in medical hold. During that time I sat there getting paid to do literally nothing I occupied myself with picking up where I left off on this story and managed to finish this chapter and half of the next/final one. Hope there're still people out there reading this. If not… well, at least I have the personal satisfaction of knowing I was finally able to finish this story.
Chapter Fourteen: Those Whom We Chase
Ed wasn't sure who moved first: him or his homunculus. All he knew was that within the blink of an eye he was once again locked in deadly combat with his alchemy-born clone. The two moved in near perfect harmony - lunging, ducking, punching, kicking as if it was all really some kind of choreographed dance. Somehow through the haze of battle lust Ed was once again taken aback by how similar his homunculus' fighting techniques were to his own. It reminded him of that old saying that one's worst enemy was always oneself.
His homunculus suddenly came at him with a vicious left hook, intent on smashing his face backwards into his skull. Reacting almost on pure instincts, Ed parried the bone-crushing blow away from him with his automail arm. The limb's internal gears and springs groaned under the pressure. Ed grit his teeth at the inhuman show of strength - the base of his right shoulder tingling uncomfortably in the wake of the shuddering blow - and lunged at his double with his own attack. Dropping into a crouch, his leg shot out to sweep the other's legs out from under him.
But the golden-haired Sin was too fast. Twisting quickly to the side, Ed's homunculus backpedaled half a dozen feet away, giving both him and Ed a momentary pause to recoup and formulate a new attack plan. The soulless boy stood in a tense fighting stance and stared at Ed with fiery gold eyes that seemed to literally glow in the flickering glare of the flares still hovering several hundred feet above them in the air. The air around him swirled and churned with an unnatural, cyclonic wind - the outward manifestation of his homunculus power which could reverse and copy any alchemic attack that came within range. The same exact ability that had already de-transmuted the blade-like forearm plate of Ed's automail back to its normal shape…
Ed held his double's gaze undaunted as he turned to face his homunculus again. In almost the exact mirror image of his soulless clone, he sunk into a low fighting stance.
Breathing heavily from their short but intense clash, Ed silently cursed in his head. His homunculus was too fast and too strong for him to keep fighting like this. He knew he wouldn't be able to last much longer if he didn't find some way to turn the tide of battle back in his favor. Homunculi were blessed with near inexhaustible strength and stamina, and Ed knew he was still out of shape from years spent on the other side of the Gate studying to find a way back home to Amestris. He also knew that if it wasn't for the slight advantage of his artificial arm, he would have probably already been killed some time ago. The flesh around the base of his automail still tingled from fending off his double's attacks. He just wished he could transmute it into an actual weapon. But his homunculus had already proven his ability to take away one of Ed's most reliable weapons by de-transmuting it; not to mention the fact Ed could no longer use alchemy attacks for fear of them instantly being turned around and used against himself.
He realized with a strong sinking feeling that he was slowly being pushed more and more onto the defensive…
"Tired?" his double called out to him with a nasty smirk.
"You wish," Ed snarled. As much as it galled him to admit it, he knew his chances of winning were slim to none. At least not while there were still any Red Stones in his double's gut to give him an unlimited source of power and lives. At the most, all he could really do was stall until he could think of some way to defeat his clone.
Or, until his homunculus finally overpowered and killed him…
Ed and the other boy slowly began to circle each other, their eyes locked in an intense staring match. Ed dared not take his eyes off his double for a second. Because an instant was all it would take for the other boy to see an opening and attack.
Despite his intent focus on his soulless half, however, Ed was still aware of two familiar presences standing just on the edge of his peripheral vision. Mustang and Hawkeye stood together anxiously watching his and his homunculus as if debating whether or not to enter the fight. Ed knew they wouldn't though. Mustang knew better than to try and interfere in battles that weren't his own. It was one of the colonel's few redeeming qualities in Ed's opinion. Hawkeye, meanwhile, restlessly gripped the handle of her gun. But with an empty clip and no more ammunition, the female sharpshooter was about as powerless against Tucker's alchemic creation as Ed himself.
Behind them, several hundred feet away, major Armstrong and their remaining squad of soldiers were still locked in combat with Gluttony. Ed didn't know where Al and Izumi were. He hadn't seen any sign of them since they'd broken away from the rest of the group to fight Envy. Ed just hoped nothing had happened to Al while he'd been fighting. Because if something happened to his little brother Ed wasn't sure what he'd do…
As Ed and his double continued to circle, sizing each other up, Ed flexed the knuckles of both his metal and flesh hands. Every particle of his being hummed with the thrill of battle. Never had he faced an opponent as skilled and deadly as his own clone. Despite the intensity and danger of his current situation Ed nevertheless felt a thrill of excitement go through him at the prospective challenge. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced in quite some time.
Hauntingly familiar gold eyes seemed to stare straight down into him before with only the tiniest of movements to betray his intentions and warn Ed, the soulless boy lunged at him for a second assault. Ed barely had time to dodge to the side before his clone's fist swiped the air right where his head had been barely a second before. Growling fiercely, Ed's double swung around and came at him with another swing. Ed's automail rattled with the force of the blow.
Staggering backwards, the young alchemist barely had time to bring his metal arm up as a shield before his clone was once again on top of him, his fists pounding against his only form of defense like the ocean relentlessly crashing against the shore. Fighting now completely on the defensive, Ed dared not try to make an attack of his own in retaliation. Because he knew if he did it would only give his double an opening to attack. And then it would only be a matter of time before he was overwhelmed by the sheer speed and strength of his homunculus and taken permanently out of battle…
Like a shark smelling blood in the water, his clone seemed to sense Ed's weariness and growing desperation and came at him with renewed intensity. Ed didn't even have time to parry one fist away before his double's other suddenly snuck under his guard and caught him full in the stomach, sending him crashing to the rubble-strewn ground. Ed lay there in a jumbled heap, coughing and gasping for air even as he struggled to roll back up onto his feet.
"Just give up," his soulless half said as he came to stand over Ed. He stared down at him with empty, emotionless gold eyes. "It's useless to keep fighting like this. We both know how this is going to end for both of us."
"Screw you," Ed spat. His automail arm wrapped protectively across his throbbing stomach, he clawed at the rocky ground with his other hand and painfully pulled himself up to his knees, then slowly up to his feet. His legs shook dangerously underneath him, but he willed himself to ignore his injuries and bone-deep exhaustion to straighten and fully face his soulless twin.
"This isn't over yet," he growled. "I'm not about to let some cheap copy of me win."
The other boy's eyes narrowed, his lips contorting into an ugly snarl. "Cheap copy?" he hissed. His eyes flashed molten gold in the dancing phosphorescent glow of the flares overhead. "I'm so sick of you people talking about me like I'm some kind of inanimate object that can't think or feel, or some kind of animal that needs to be destroyed. I may not have a soul but I'm still exactly the same as you. I have your thoughts, your emotions, your memories. The only thing that differentiates you and me is something that isn't tangible or can even be proven by science to actually exist. If you ask me, it's you humans that are the problem, not us homunculi! You alchemists let your egos and own selfish desires run wild and delude yourselves into thinking you can play god. But when the product of your experiments doesn't fit into your idealistic view of the world you immediately judge it as evil or a sin against nature - something that must be destroyed because you can't understand it or even begin to try! You would rather exterminate all us homunculi like sweeping a dirty little secret away under the rug than ever actually have to deal with the full magnitude of our existence!"
"You're not telling me anything I haven't heard before," Ed coldly replied. "But no matter how wronged you feel, it still doesn't change the fact you killed a helpless man in cold blood and tried to kill another. If I know nothing else about you, those facts alone tell me you have to be stopped at all costs."
"You bastard…" his double hissed. The unnatural cyclonic wind surrounding him suddenly increased in intensity, whipping the air around him like a miniature tempest directly dueled by the Sin's boiling inner rage. He glared at Ed with enough hatred to kill. His face was a near inhuman mask of hurt, anger, resentment and betrayal while clenched fists shook by his sides.
With an almost animalistic cry of rage, he charged Ed, killing intent rolling off him in palpable waves. The young alchemist scrambled to defend himself but the homunculus was on him before he could even take a step backwards in surprise. Ed's automail shuddered under the force of his clone's first blow. Again and again fists smashed against forged steel, slowly hammering away at Ed's only form of defense.
As his homunculus continued to push his attack - steadily overwhelming Ed with his near mindless, uncontrolled, unrelenting anger - Ed could feel himself slowly succumbing to the onslaught. He shoulder where the metal places and wires of his prosthetic arm attached to the rest of his body had long since gone numb from fending off the Sin's constant blows. He now had to steady his metal limb up with his other hand to keep it from faltering under the deadly assault. Sweat poured down the sides of his face and arms and soaked his tank top to his back despite having already tossed his jacket and gloves off to the side some time ago.
After having already survived a close encounter with cultist Nazis, sacrificing his father to cross through the Gate back home to Amestris, battling a giant snake-like Envy, and descending the long, winding stairs back down to the hidden underground necropolis all within the last seventy-two hours with barely four hours of sleep, Ed knew his was quickly nearing the end of his physical limits.
With a sudden brutal kick, Ed's homunculus snuck past his guard and sent him flying backwards to the ground. Ed's body skid across the rocky debris and rubble like a thrown rag doll until he finally slammed to a bone-breaking halt against the remains of a crumbling building front and collapsed into a broken heap at its base. Ed didn't even try to stifle the scream of pain that erupted from his mouth upon impact. He lay there motionless in a huddled ball, unable to move and barely able to breathe. His side where his other half's foot had caught him felt like one massive throbbing would. He could feel several ribs grind against each other with every shallow breath he took. The entire length of his spine burned like a thick trail of fire where he'd collided with the unforgiving brick wall. Just trying to shift himself up off the ground to slump against the dilapidated building sent excruciating bolts of pain shooting through his entire body. It was only with a supreme force of will and his stubborn sense of pride not to lay down in defeat that Ed managed to pull himself up enough to watch his soulless clone slowly stalk towards him like a predator closing in for the kill.
"Cheap copy am I?" the boy called as he drew near and finally came to a stop half a dozen paces from where Ed. He stared down at him coldly, the hatred and hurt in his eyes burning like a smoldering fire. The edges of his clothes and hair danced in the swirling vortex of wind that surrounded him. "For being such a cheap replacement, I seem to be a major improvement over my perfect original."
"I never realized before now how annoying I am when I gloat," Ed dryly quipped from the ground. "I'll have to remember to stop doing that from now on."
The corners of his double's lips twisted downwards in an annoyed scowl. A dangerous gleam sparked in the back of his eyes as his fists unconsciously clenched open and close by his sides. "You're not going to have to worry about breaking yourself of that little habit," he said with a growl, "because you're not going to be alive much longer to have time to."
Despite the gravity of the situation, despite the fact he knew he didn't have the strength to fight anymore, Ed have an empty, mirthless laugh. "Yeah, I guess I wouldn't," he said. "I just never thought I'd someday die like this - basically by my own hands. It makes me wonder if this would be considered homicide or suicide…"
"We never get to choose our fate," the Sin emptily replied. "It's all just a matter of chance what lives we're made to suffer…"
For the briefest moment, Ed saw in his mirror image's eyes all the suffering and pain the other boy spoke of - all the emptiness, sadness and hurt. But then like blinking himself out of a trance the look disappeared from his eyes, replaced once again by anger, resentment and wrath.
"This ends now," he said. "Goodbye…"
Then drawing one fist back, the soulless boy kicked off the ground, speeding towards Ed to deliver the final fatal blow.
Edward sat there motionless, strangely detached from the entire scene as if he were really watching death rush towards him from outside him own body. Battered and sore, he was just too tired to care anymore how this really ended.
His Sin seemed to move towards him in slow motion, as if suspended in a world that moved at only a fraction of the speed of Ed's own. As he closed within the last dozen feet of him, Ed could feel the sting of dirt and bits of rocky debris kicked up by his clone's inhuman power against his face. He could actually feel his skin prickle from the energy-charged wind that whipped the air the other boy was so close to him now. His homunculus' fist was drawn back in a punch, its trajectory aimed directly at his chest. It began to swing towards him, ready to punch its way through his ribcage like punching through a flimsy cardboard box.
But before Ed's double could cover the last few feet still separating him from his helpless victim, Ed suddenly saw out of the corner of his eye a red-clothed figure appear and leap directly into the blond Sin's path - shielding Ed with his own body.
"No!" the figure managed to cry just before the soulless boy's fist made contact with human flesh, but not Ed's own…
The figure went flying, sailing several dozen feet through the air before finally crashing to the ground with a sickening crunch. It rolled once, twice over the rocky ground before finally coming to a jerky halt and laying there motionless. It was only then that Ed realized the identity of his unexpected savior, and felt his stomach curdle with ice.
Long dishwater blond hair tied back in a messy ponytail lay fanned across the ground beneath his savior's head. A dirty red coat embossed with the stylized image of a winged serpent winding around a pointed cross covered the crumpled body of a young teenage boy no older that fourteen years old.
"Al..?" Ed whispered, his voice small and weak with shock. As he continued to stare at the motionless body of his little brother the world which had seemed to come to a grinding halt the moment Al went flying to the ground suddenly seemed to speed up again, rattling Ed would of his horrified daze. "Al!!"
His previous weariness and pain now completely forgotten, Ed scrambled to his feet and was at his brother's side in an instant. "Al?! Al, answer me!" he frantically called as he rolled his brother onto his back. Panic the likes of which he'd never felt before clogged his throat like acidic tar as he took in the younger alchemist's injuries. Blood poured down the side of his brother's face from a shallow gash on his left temple. Al groaned low in the back of his throat as Ed gently shifted his upper body off the ground to lean against his chest. "Al?" he continued to call. "Al, speak to me!"
With another groan, Al's eyes weakly fluttered open. "Brother?" he coughed, obviously in pain. "Are you okay?"
Ed could barely believe his ears. "Am I okay?" he snapped in disbelief. "I should be asking you if you're okay. What were you thinking jumping in front of me like that?"
But Al ignored his second question. "My side…" he murmured, unconsciously wincing as he held his right side. "I think I broke a rib." Gingerly leaning away from his older brother, Al glanced around Ed and stared. Unsure of what had captured his brother's attention, Ed turned to follow Al's gaze - and found himself staring back into the eyes of his own homunculus.
The boy stood several yards away staring at them, unmoving and stiff. His eyes were wide with shock, his face etched with a sickened look of horror. He seemed frozen in place, his hands hanging limp by his sides as if he couldn't comprehend the scene he beheld. His mouth fell open as though trying to speak but no sound actually came out.
As Ed knelt there beside his brother staring at Tucker's soulless creation, an intense hatred began to build inside him, licking and eating away at his insides until it felt like his very skin burned with fire. His vision swam red. His pulse pounded in his ears. His entire body veritably shook with rage.
That bastard… He hurt Al. It was one thing to attack him, but it was a completely different thing to attack his little brother. No one, no one, hurt his little brother and got away with it. Not as long as Edward Elric was around to mete out retribution.
Ed suddenly no longer felt tired or weak. He no longer felt the pain of his injuries or the fatigue of his battered body. It was as if seeing his little brother struck down had given him an unforeseen surge of energy. Leaping to his feel, he wheeled around to face the other boy, both his hands clenched into shaking fists and his teeth bared in a livid snarl.
"You bastard!" he roared and launched himself at his soulless twin.
The other boy hardly even seemed to be aware of Ed's attack until Ed's automail fist connected with the side of his face, spinning his head halfway around. The Sin staggered backwards, dazed by the blow, but strangely did not try to retaliate with an attack of his own. Ed didn't care though. All he wanted to do right then was smash his double's face inside out and tear him limb from limb, destroying any and all resemblance the other boy had to himself.
"You monster!" he screamed, charging the boy again in a near mindless storm of rage. "That bastard colonel was right! You really are just like every other homunculus! I can't believe I actually thought for one second you might somehow be different from the rest of them! You're nothing but a soulless monster!"
The other boy did not respond. The strange, alchemic wind that had surrounded him barely minutes before was now nowhere to be seen. As if in a trance he dazedly struggled to evade Ed's attacks, yet did not try to make any kind of counterattack. No longer even trying to fight he moved completely on the defensive - ducking, dodging, backpedaling, but never fighting back. Somehow his homunculus' sudden apathy made Ed even angrier.
"Fight me, you bastard!" he yelled, darting forward to take a swing at the other's face. The blond Sin ducked to the side, just barely missing the angry blow. "Come on, fight me! You were so ready to hurt Al, so why not me? Come on and fight, you coward!"
When this still did not receive any kind of reaction from his alchemy-born clone, Ed finally could take no more and angrily lunged forward to grab the other boy by the front of his shirt. Fisting the black material in a tiny ball with his metal hand, Ed cocked his other hand back over his shoulder in a tight fist. Then, with all his might, he drove his fist into the other boy's face, relishing the way the cartilage in the Sin's nose made a satisfying crunch beneath his bare knuckles.
The boy went flying backwards. He hit the ground hard and lay there motionless with all four limbs splayed out from him and bent at odd angles. But instead of collecting himself and rising again like Ed expected him to, the soulless boy remained where he lay. It took a moment for the battle lust to drain away from Ed's senses enough for him to realize the other wasn't getting up, and then another moment for him to realize why.
The Sin lay on his back staring up at the underground necropolis' jagged stone sky, his eyes wide and bulging almost bug-like from his head. His breathing was labored and shallow, as if he suddenly could no longer breathe. As Ed stared in morbid fascination a violent tremor shook the homunculus' entire body, as if he'd just been shocked by an intense electrical charge. Limbs twitched uncontrollably against the ground while muscles seized and released in rapid succession.
Ed was so startled by this unexpected fit that he barely moved when several moments later the twitching finally stopped and his homunculus weakly lay there gasping for air on the ground. The boy slowly rolled onto his side before shakily pushing himself to his feet. Staggering slightly as he forced himself to stand, the Sin turned to stare in Ed's direction. No longer was there any hint of wrath or anger in his eyes, but instead a startled expression of confusion and fear.
Slowly backing away from Ed like an animal sizing up a dangerous predator, the boy broke eye contact with Ed just long enough to steal a furtive glance in Al's direction where the younger Elric brother still sat on the uneven ground holding his injured side. For a split second his eyes softened, flooding with a look of such heartbreak and regret that Ed felt his hatred for Tucker's failed transmutation momentarily waver. The boy glanced back at him. Then turning swiftly on his heels he took off in the opposite direction.
"Gluttony, come!" he yelled over his shoulder as he bounded across the rubble-strewn plaza towards the darkened warren of surrounding streets. "This fight's over. Retreat and fall back to the safe house."
Gluttony paused and looked up from his own battle with Armstrong and the remaining handful of soldiers. With a disappointed whine he released the soldier whose arm he'd been about to bite and took off after the retreating Sin. Moving faster and more agile than any creature his size should be able, he sped away, disappearing into the city's pitch-black sides streets just as quickly as he'd first appeared.
Left in the wake of the homunculi's sudden retreat, Ed could do nothing more than stare in the direction his double had vanished like a wraith into the darkness, confused and left to wonder what he'd just witnessed really meant…
The rapid staccato of gunfire drummed the air as Wrath deftly leapt and somersaulted amongst the scattered squad of soldiers. They were a small dispatchment, probably a scout party sent off from the main group to try and weed out the location of their elusive homunculi targets. It was ironic, Wrath thought as he darted forward to disarm on the other men with a well placed kick, that while the colonel had sent these men to search for him and his fellow homunculi, it had been him that found them first.
He'd been playing with these men for some time now. While the soldiers fought with expected tenacity and purpose, Wrath merely dodged and sprang among them, creating general confusion and panic but otherwise really doing nothing more than toying with them. Earlier, before he and his fellow Sins had separated to meet their unwelcome guests, Ed had given him the task of cutting off any group of potential reinforcements from rejoining the main contingent of troops and to stall them for as long as possible. He wanted to meet his other half with as few distractions as possible, the golden-haired Sin had said in an empty, emotionless voice.
And so Wrath had, but now found himself becoming bored with the whole endeavor. These humans were slow and stupid, giving him absolutely no challenge as he easily scattered them and diverted their attention away from the real battle that was probably already taking place in another section of the city if the flares burning overhead and muted patter of distant gunfire was any indication.
Spinning in place, Wrath knocked the rifle out of one startled soldier's hand and dispatched him from battle with another well-aimed kick to the head. Several of the man's comrades immediately took aim at him and opened fire. The homunculus child was too fast however for such conventional means of attack and twisted almost lazily to the side to cartwheel away. A trail of bullets sunk harmlessly into the ground in his wake.
Deciding he was becoming bored with the currently flow of battle, Wrath decided to lead the soldiers on a little wild goose chase. Maybe it would make things more interesting. Turning towards the nearest side street that ran off the crumbling boulevard he'd ambushed the unsuspecting group of soldiers, he darted into the inky gloom of the necropolis. Just as expected, the men hurried to follow - probably assuming they'd somehow gained the upper hand and had him on the run. As if… These humans were such idiots…
For the better part of a mile, Wrath wove a confusing, zigzag maze through the decrepit back streets. If he'd wanted to he could have easily thrown his pursuers off his trail. But that would have defeated the whole purpose of him being out there in the first place. So instead Wrath kept his pace purposely slow, running just fast enough to keep the men within constant eyesight of him. At most he only let them get within thirty feet of him - just close enough to let them think they may eventually catch him, but far enough away to ensure they never would. Several bullets zipped by him as he ran but never came anywhere close to actually hitting him.
With a mischievous grin, Wrath veered into yet another street - this one slightly wider than the previous one he'd traveled. Behind him around the corner the men's inarticulate shouted echoed through the canyon of decaying buildings like the angry brays of pursuing bloodhounds. Despite himself, Wrath found himself enjoying this little farce of a hunt. Ever since meeting up with Edward Elric's homunculus clone, he'd noticed himself falling back to how he'd been when Dante had still been alive to lead their little band of homunculi. It was just easier, he found, to treat all humans as faceless, nameless aggressors - as enemies to him and his kind - instead of being forced to acknowledge the inalienable fact he could never be one of them or earn their acceptance or love. Becoming a mindless being of hate was just so much easier and less painful. Following Ed's orders gave him a distraction from the constant, ever-present ache in his heart and at least momentary respite from being reminded of why he'd come back to Central in the first place - about who he'd come there searching for.
It helped him forget about her…
The muffled echo of the soldiers was getting closer. Within seconds they'd appear around the corner and follow him into the new street and their chase would continue. Wrath expectantly glanced back over his shoulder to watch them appear. The elongated shadows of running figures bounced up and down on the ground at the lip of the street, coming ever closer.
But before the humanoid outlines could materialize into actual human beings, a muffled clap followed seconds later by a crackling wave of blue alchemic light suddenly sprang up from the ground at the intersection of the two adjacent streets and solidified into a towering stone wall that spanned the entire space between the last two buildings, effectively closing off the second street from the first as if there had never been anything there but a sudden dead end. From the other side of the wall Wrath heard the garbled shouts of confused men. They paused for a moment on the other side of the wall, shouting amongst themselves, before finally moving on to continue their chase after the fleeing homunculus boy.
Wrath froze and spun around in place, his fighting instincts on full alert. He knew that type of light. He knew what kind of people were capable of making a solid stone wall appear out of nowhere.
There was an alchemist somewhere nearby…
But as Wrath whipped around to face his mysterious attacker - his entire body humming with anticipation for battle - he froze at the sight of the one he saw standing before him several dozen feet away cutting off his only route of escape from the blocked street.
It was a woman. Tall and pale, her black hair pulled back from her face in hundreds of tiny braids, she stood there staring at him motionlessly, her eyes filled with an intense look Wrath could never hope to analyze or accurately describe. It was a look that spoke of pain, of happiness, of uncertainty, fear, hope, regret, and a sadness that was so long-felt and intense it had sunk so deep into the marrow of one's bones it had become a part of that person's very being where it could never be fully exorcised. Wrath felt frozen under the woman's unnerving gaze. At first all he could feel and think when he turned to first see the female alchemist was shock. But the longer he stood there - him and the woman staring at each other in mutual unbroken silence - Wrath felt tendrils of confusion, anxiety and… fear begin to worm their way through the numb haze of surprise clouding his mind before slowly spreading to the rest of his body. He knew this woman. How could he possibly forget her face? It was for her he'd come back to Central to find. Her he saw every night in his dreams and whose love for her dead child had been the catalyst for his own unholy creation.
"Mama..?" he whispered in a strangled voice, surprise and apprehension at her unexpected appearance stealing anything else he might have said.
"Wrath," Izumi whispered in reply. She took several hesitant steps closer to him.
"What do you want?" Wrath demanded, taking just as many steps backwards. No matter what his motives for originally setting out for Central had been, he didn't trust this woman. No matter how much he wanted her to be his mother, she was still human, and he had seen firsthand how fast humans were to turn against the clones of their deceased loved ones - how quick they were to want to see the products of their failed transmutations destroyed. The soulless incarnation of Edward Elric was proof enough of that.
"I came to find you," Izumi answered. A look of hurt flashed through her eyes at Wrath's obvious distrust. "I heard that you were here. I came to see if it was true."
Wrath glared at his suspiciously. "What's it to you?" he growled. "I know you're here with the Elric brothers and that colonel. You came down here hunting homunculi. You want to kill us."
"No," Izumi said, shaking her head emphatically. She held her hands beseechingly out towards him. She held his eyes almost desperately with her own as if begging him to listen. Tears shined brightly in the corners of her eyes. "No, I came down here to stop the colonel. I wanted to stop him from doing anything stupid."
"I don't believe you!" Wrath shouted, gritting his teeth against the unbidden sting of tears in the corners of his eyes at Izumi's words. "You tried to kill me - twice! First when you gave me back to the Gate as a baby and then when you took me to that deserted island."
"I know! And I'm sorry!" Izumi cried, her eyes now impossibly bright and shiny although no tears actually fell to wet her cheeks. "I was stupid and selfish! I see that now. You never deserved to be abandoned or betrayed like that. It's because of me you've had to suffer so much." She stretched her hands out towards him pleadingly. "Please," she begged in a tiny voice, "forgive me. I should have fought harder for you. I should have done more to keep you safe. A mother should never abandon her child like I did. Please, forgive me…"
For a moment Wrath could barely breathe. Izumi's words had hit something deep inside him. Something inspiring and warm yet incredibly painful at the same time. She'd called him her child. She'd acknowledged him as a part of her. She'd called herself his mother. She didn't see him as some kind of cheap replacement for her lost child and had asked him for forgiveness.
But could he really trust her? Despite how much he desperately longed to run into her outstretched arms - something he'd only pictured in his loneliest, most fanciful dreams - how was he to know this all wasn't really some kind of trick by the colonel and the ones hunting him? How was he to know if what she said was really true?
As if reading the uncertainty on the young homunculus' face, Izumi took another step towards him, her arms pleadingly held out towards him. Wrath this time did not take any steps away from her.
"Please," she said, now openly begging. "Come with me. I'll protect you from the colonel. I won't let him or anyone else hurt you. I'll die before I ever let that happen again. I swear."
Wrath hesitated, still unsure. He felt torn by indecision, split between his loyalty to Ed and his fellow homunculi and his own selfish desire to finally know the warmth of a mother's love. As Izumi took another tentative step towards him he felt his resolve begin to waver. Wasn't this scene playing out before him exactly what he'd come to Central hoping to experience? Wasn't this the reunion he'd dreamed of for almost as long as he could remember? Wasn't this what he'd always ever wanted?
So then why, he asked himself, was he hesitating?
But before the homunculus child could finish sorting out his warring emotions, another figure suddenly appeared - leaping down from the surrounding roofline to land beside him with the same silent, effortless grace of a cat.
"Envy?" he stammered in surprise at the other Sin's sudden appearance.
"Come on, brat," the shape-shifter said. "The blond pipsqueak's called a retreat. We're all falling back to the safe house."
"What?" Wrath stuttered.
Envy's features contorted into an angry scowl, his lips curling away from his teeth in an ugly sneer. "You heard me: the brat's given up the fight. He was fighting the other shorty but then just suddenly stopped and ran off with Gluttony. That bastard… I was having fun watching him beat the crap out of that other Fullmetal shrimp. If it wasn't for Hohenheim's other bastard kid he probably would have finished the brat off for good too. But now that he's gone there's no point in sticking around."
"But…" Wrath hesitated, glancing in Izumi's direction. "I don't want to go back to the safe house."
Envy followed the younger homunculus' gaze and only then seemed to realize the female alchemist's presence there with them. His eyes narrowed. His expression darkened. "You again?" he snarled, turning to fully face her. He glanced between her and Wrath. "So I see you managed to find each other after all."
"He's coming with me," Izumi said, meeting the shape-shifter's glare undaunted and returned it with one of her own. Her voice was as hard as sharpened steel and brooked no room for argument.
"Like hell he is," Envy growled. He began to stalk towards her in slow, measured, threatening steps. "You lost your chance with him. He belongs to us now."
"Over my dead body," Izumi hissed, sinking into a fighting stance.
"Have it your way," Envy replied.
"No!" Wrath cried, jumping in front of the other Sin. "Leave her alone! I won't let you hurt her!"
"Out of the way, you annoying little brat," Envy snarled and dodged around Wrath to rush Izumi faster than Wrath could follow with his eyes. Izumi seemed just as startled by Envy's speed and barely had time to raise her arms in defense before the shape-shifter's fist caught her in the gut and sent her flying into a nearby building.
Izumi hit the wall with a crunch and slid down it until she came to rest in a jumbled heap at its base. Coughing violently, a gush of bright red erupted from her mouth which she tried to cover with her hand.
"Mama!" Wrath cried. Even in the inky gloom of the underground city his mother's blood gleamed an almost unnaturally bright shade of scarlet. It oozed between her fingers and down the sides of her mouth. Izumi stubbornly tried to pull herself to her feet and stand, but before she could even rise to her knees her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed back to the ground, coughing violently.
Wrath stared in horror, unable to comprehend the horrible scene.
Envy was moving towards Izumi, his eyes gleaming with an almost maniacal look of bloodlust. Wrath had seen that look before on the shape-shifting Sin - had even been the target of Envy's volatile spats of madness several times himself - and knew if he didn't somehow intervene his mother would not survive. Wrath knew of Izumi's illness, of how easily she could be weakened despite her outward strength and aggressive personality. Surely traveling down from the surface to the underground city could not have done anything for her health, let alone just being thrown into a brick wall by a half-crazed homunculus. He had to do something or his mother, who he'd only just been reunited with, would die before he ever even got the chance to know her.
"No!" Wrath cried, leaping at Envy's turned back. "I'm not going to let you hurt her!" With one hand he grabbed the older homunculus by the arm and spun him around to face him, and with his other he smashed his fist into Envy's face with all his strength. The shape-shifter staggered backwards from the blow but did not fall. Instead he stood there hunchbacked as he recovered, glaring at Wrath from beneath a curtain of long greenish hair. A thin trail of purple blood dripped from one nostril. Envy gingerly dabbed at it with one finger and glanced down to stare at the smeared evidence of Wrath's assault. His eyes darted back up to spear Wrath with a poisonous glare.
"You little bastard…" Envy growled low in the back of his throat. His eyes flashed murder as his face slowly warped into an expression so hateful and insane it no longer even looked human. He slowly straightened, danger radiating off him in almost tangible waves.
Wrath took an unconscious step back from the other homunculus, sensing Envy's threatening aura. Envy began to stalk towards him, his body tense and eyes burning with demonic fire.
"You too?" he growled, his voice dangerously low. "You want to go against me too like that little shrimp's double? Well, let me tell you something: I'm not going to stand it anymore. I'm tired of you little pieces of shit thinking you have the authority or power to tell me what to do. All this ends right here and now!"
Like a green and black blur Envy lunged at Wrath, once again moving too fast for the younger homunculus to stand a chance against. If there was one area of combat Envy had an advantage over Wrath it was speed and experience, and he used both of them to their fullest. With a vicious uppercut he pummeled his fist into Wrath's exposed stomach. The homunculus boy jackknifed forward, doubling over himself at the waist. Pain shot through his midsection. Bursts of white exploded like fireworks before his eyes. He felt as though his stomach had just been turned inside out and rammed flat against his spine. Bile burned the back of his throat, but miraculously he didn't throw up. Or at least he was sure he wasn't going to until Envy's other fist came around half a second later and connected with his jaw with enough force that it would have decapitated a normal human being.
Wrath's head violently snapped around over his shoulder. The metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth. A foot shot out and buried itself in Wrath's left side. A dull crunch like snapped kindling echoed through his body all the way up to his ears. Another merciless kick and he was suddenly flying, sailing weightlessly through the air until his body was brought to a swift and incredibly painful halt by something hard, unforgiving and cold.
In a hazy detached sort of way Wrath realized it was one of the many buildings lining the deserted street he'd collided with. The decaying masonry gave way almost immediately under him and crumbled inwards. It's superstructure now completely compromised by the gaping hole in it's front façade, the dilapidated building front began to collapse, raining bricks and time-decayed mortar down on the homunculus boy. And just before the thundering roar of crumbling stone drowned out any other sound and an avalanche of dirt and rocks swallowed him in its crushing black embrace, the last thing Wrath saw was Izumi staring at him from where she sat in a broken heap on the other side of the street - her eyes two pools of shock and utter horror. But before Wrath could analyze that look in his mother's eyes, it was lost to sight behind a rocky curtain of inky darkness.
And then, there was nothing…
As Wrath disappeared behind a waterfall of crumbling masonry and stone Izumi felt as though her heart had just shriveled into a tiny ball somewhere in the center of her chest. For a moment she let the initial shock convince her what she saw wasn't really true, that it couldn't possibly be real. But as the last few bits of debris settled into a rocky heap at the base of the now frontless house - the soft patter of rock on rock echoing eerily through the suffocating sea of silence of the necropolis - the reality of the scene seemed to crash down on her like a physical thousand pound weight.
"No…" she weakly murmured, ignoring the pain in her body as she shakily forced herself to stand as she stared wide-eyed and disbelieving at the giant pile of crumbled stonework Wrath had disappeared underneath. She had to steady herself against the wall behind her to keep from sagging back to the ground. "No…"
"Pathetic little brat…" Envy's voice echoed through Izumi's horrified daze. The shape-shifter stood a short distance away from here, admiring his handiwork with a satisfied smirk. A faint gleam of lingering madness shined brightly in his eyes. He turned to glance at her. "Good riddance if you ask me. He was completely worthless. I should have known from the beginning his love for you humans had made him soft. Him and that pipsqueak's double are exactly the same."
Izumi could think of nothing to say in response. What could she say? Her child has just disappeared - once again!- before her eyes while she'd sat there unable to do anything to protect him.
Envy watched Izumi's thoughts flash across her face in a wild kaleidoscope of painfully raw emotions. He grinned in satisfaction. "Too bad too," he smirked. "It looks like you would have actually taken him back…" Then turning swiftly on his heels, the long-haired Sin disappeared into the surrounding darkness of the city just as quickly and silently as he'd arrived, leaving Izumi to stare at the pile of stone her homunculus child lay buried underneath. For several moments she stood there motionless, unable to move. But then as if snapping herself out of some kind of daze, she sprang to life and rushed towards the half demolished building.
She reached the pile of debris and plunged her hands into the soupy mess of rocks, mortar and splintered stone. Dust hung thick over the area like a gritty cloud of smoke. It clogged her nostrils and covered her face in a fine film of dirt, but she ignored it as she began to frantically dig through the rocky mess, shifting aside dirt and boulders alike with nothing but her bare hands.
No, please not again. I can't lose another one of my children, her mind pleaded in frantic denial as she worked. Not again. Not like this. Not now. Please don't let me lose him again…
But no matter how much debris she moved aside she saw no sign of her missing child…
Sergeant Kane Fuery's face was streaked with dirt and grim. His usually tidy hair was ruffled and stuck out from his head in odd little tufts. The soft-spoken communications officer's glasses were bent and sat crooked on his nose, giving him a bedraggled, dazed appearance like that of a man who'd just survived the deepest circle of hell. He knelt on the round beside a small field radio with a set of overlarge headphones straddling his head. For several minutes he played with the radio's dials and knobs. The muffled hiss of static leaked from the headphones.
Finally, with a frustrated shake of his head, Fuery removed the headphones and looked up at Mustang with a helpless look. "I'm sorry, Sir," he said, "but I can't reach any of the other search parties. It may be I can't get a good enough signal to radio them on a short-wave frequency. Or it might be because they had their own run-ins with the homunculi, in which case…" He trailed off uncomfortably, the unpleasant possibilities hanging unspoken in the air.
Mustang nodded gravely. Like Fuery, he too realized the possible meaning of the other search parties' sudden loss of communication. As much as he didn't want to admit it, coming down to the underground city to try and flush out their homunculi targets had been a bad idea - both from a tactical military standpoint and what should have been plain old common sense. They'd been caught off guard traveling in unknown territory with little topographical intelligence. All they'd set out with was Ed's own limited knowledge of the necropolis' layout, and even then Mustang realized with a bitter drop in his stomach, he'd went ahead and pushed for a full frontal assault and ignored practically all of the younger alchemist's misgivings and warnings. He knew now what Ed had meant when he'd said trying to hunt down his soulless half was a foolish course of action. They'd gone into battle blind and uninformed. And now they were running around blind in the dark; battered, demoralized and their forces scattered to the four corners of the decaying city.
Around Mustang the battered remains of his main contingent of troops sat here and there in huddled circles tending to the wounded and regrouping themselves. To his right and left Hawkeye, a shamelessly half-nude major Armstrong, the two Elric brothers and the remnants of his personal staff stood in a loose circle around Fuery and the radio - all of them looking more than a little rough for wear, bruised and weary. Over nine in his immediate squad of soldiers had been killed in their short but intense clash with the tiny group of homunculi. Many more were injured - several having lost entire limbs to the rapacious Sin, Gluttony - while who knew how many other men in the other search parties were hurt or dead or currently under attack with no means of communicating to call for backup. All in all, the mission had been a complete disaster. Just as Ed had said, the homunculi had anticipated their attack and made a devastating preemptive strike on them, ultimately turning the supposed hunters into the prey.
The colonel was man enough to admit he'd made a serious miscalculation by letting his own personal feelings dictate his course of action. He saw all of that clearly now. He'd done exactly what Hawkeye had warned him against but been too stubborn to acknowledge at the time. But that didn't mean he was about to let his past mistakes keep him from doing what he needed to do now to prevent anymore of his men from being unnecessarily injured or killed.
"Fulman, Breda," he said, glancing at the two, "I want you two to oversee getting all the dead and wounded back to the surface. Take half the remaining able-bodied troops to help you. The other half will be split up to look for the missing squads still searching the city and call an immediate withdrawal. Major Armstrong, Hawkeye and myself will lead them. Sergeant Fuery, keep trying to reach them on the radio. Maybe you'll be able to get someone. Once all have been found fall back to Central Headquarters to regroup."
"And what about the homunculi?" Ed angrily spoke up. His voice echoed loudly through the plaza and down the surrounding streets into the distance until it was finally swallowed by the unnerving silence of the necropolis. "What, we're just letting them get away? What kind of messed up plan is that?"
Mustang remained calm in the face of the shorter alchemist's wrath. "Our forces have been severely weakened, Fullmetal. We have no choice but to retreat, regroup and come up with a new plan. The homunculi have too much of an advantage down here. If we try to engage them again, it will only end in disaster. They are too strong to take on in open battle like this."
"That's what I tried to tell you from the beginning but you wouldn't listen to me!" Ed shot back, his eyes flashing with irritation and open anger. Mustang chose to ignore the truthful sting of Ed's words. "It was your idea to come down here in the first place and now you just want to give up and go back?!"
"As I've already explained," Roy said in a carefully composed voice - like that of a parent speaking to a particularly petulant child, "we no longer have the manpower needed to take these creatures on in open combat. Out best course of action is to retreat and figure out a new strategy and then go from there."
"But they could get away by then!" Ed snarled. "I'm not going to let that bastard get away. Not after what he did to Al."
"Brother…" the younger Elric brother plaintively whispered from Ed's side, trying to forestall one of his brother's infamous bursts of anger.
Ed ignored him. His attention was wholly focused on the colonel. "That bastard attacked Al. He could have killed him! If he was really anything like me he never would have done that."
"But it was an accident," Al pleadingly pointed out. "He didn't mean to do it, and I wasn't hurt that badly." No one chose to point out the bloody length of cloth wrapped around the alchemist's head and tied off over the seaping gash above his left eye.
Ed, however, was too worked up to listen to anything his younger brother might have said. "I want him tracked down and dead," he snarled through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to let him get away. Not after what I saw him do."
Mustang was taken aback by the venom in his subordinate's voice. For originally being so opposed to the colonel's plan to hunt down his soulless half and destroy it, it was startling how quickly the hot-headed teen's opinion had changed. But then again, Roy had seen the way Al had been struck down by the blond Sin. And if there was one thing to be said about the Fullmetal Alchemist it was that he was violently protective of his younger brother.
"What I want to know," Breda ventured, "is if we do decide to go after those homunculi again, how are we going to fight them? Not all of us are alchemists, and we've already seen how useless bullets are against them. We'd just have a repeat of what just happened."
"I agree," Armstrong nodded sagely from the back of the group. "Even with alchemy and all my strength, that large homunculi proved to be more of an adversary than I expected."
"Not to mention the fact Edward's homunculus can use an alchemist's own attacks against him," Hawkeye said, her eyes darting pointedly between the colonel and Ed. "He's extremely powerful and dangerous."
"But then why did he leave?" Fuery timidly spoke up from where he still knelt beside the radio in the center of the group. "He had all of us against the ropes but then suddenly ran away."
"It almost looked like he was spooked by something," Fulman noted.
"He left because Brother touched him," Al said. Everyone glanced at him with mixed expressions.
Ed quirked his head at his younger brother questioningly. "What are you talking about, Al? Of course I touched him. We were fighting and I couldn't use any alchemy attacks against him. I had to fight hand to hand."
"No," Al said, shaking his head. "You were fighting him with your automail. It was only after I got hurt that you actually touched him with your real body. Didn't you see the way he froze and suddenly startled shaking when you did? It was exactly like what happens when homunculi are exposed to the remains of whoever they were made after."
A deafening silence fell over the group, Al's words echoing loudly through the empty sound vacuum left by his unforeseen revelation. Everyone stared at the young alchemist.
"But…" Ed said, openly taken aback by this, "that doesn't make any sense. Homunculi freeze whenever they get anywhere near their original half's remains. Why would he have reacted like that after we'd been fighting for so long? If what you're saying is true and he somehow reacts like that around me, then why didn't he freeze before we ever even started fighting?"
"It's because you actually touched it," Mustang blurted out before anyone else could offer their own explanation. He felt a flush of understanding wash over him, like a mental puzzle piece clicking into place. He met Ed's eyes and held them, willing the teenage prodigy to follow his train of thought. "It makes perfect sense. Homunculi react like that whenever they're close to the bones or whatever else remains of their original half. But Fullmetal's homunculus wasn't created after a dead person; Fullmetal was still alive. Tucker's creation is different and more powerful than any other homunculus we've ever encountered, so it's possible it might have some kind of immunity to that weakness since its creation was so different from every other homunculus'. But since Fullmetal is still the closest thing to it's original's remains, Fullmetal must have to actually touch it to induce that type of freezing. That would explain why it reacted so violently to Fullmetal touching it."
Ed stared at him, a look of dawning comprehension lighting his dirt-smeared face. "You're right," he murmured. He glanced from Mustang to his brother then around to scan the faces of everyone else. "He's right. My homunculus only reacted when I actually touched him." As understanding settled in, the alchemist's features slowly hardened, a look of calculated resolve darkening his eyes. "We can use this," he said, glancing quickly back at Mustang. "If what you're saying is true, I can use that to seal him. All I need to do is touch him and while he's incapacitated we can use that time to remove any Red Stones sensei fed him. He'd be completely vulnerable after that."
Ed speared Roy with a razor-sharp glare, his eyes flashing alchemized gold in the inky gloom. "We have them on the run. If we wait much longer they could slip away. But if we hurry we might still be able to track them and find out where they're hiding. It's now or never, Mustang."
Roy knew what Ed was asking of him, what he was silently demanding in no uncertain terms. But for once Mustang was willing to oblige the younger alchemist's demands, because for the first time he acknowledged the fact that if any of them wanted to see an end to this, one way or another, it would only come about from one last deciding clash between Ed and Tucker's unholy creation.
"Fine, Fullmetal," he said in a carefully schooled voice. "We move out in ten minutes…"
To Be Continued…
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