Ed sat at Fuery's hospital bedside, tears running down his face. Nothing he had done seemed to affect the homunculi. They were unbeatable. Even when cut to pieces, they regenerated almost instantly. He wasn't sure how he could possibly win against them.
"The look on his face." The green haired one had cackled, rolling around on the ground after Hayate had been eaten.
"The dog or the boy?" The obese one had asked. It was strange. He seemed incredible naive. Whilst the green haired one seemed to delight in cruelty, the fat one almost didn't seem to recognise that eating live people or animals was in any way wrong. There was an odd, childlike innocence about him that made him extremely creepy.
"Both." The green haired one had said, wiping tears of laughter from their eyes. The image was burned into Ed's mind. A huge Ouroboros tattoo on the fat one's giant tongue. From the way he had regenerated as well, he must also have been a homunculus. Barry had talked about a dark haired girl. So that made three. The green haired one had also mentioned someone called 'father'. Did that make four? Ed couldn't see how he could take down four homunculi.
"Still hungry. I'm not full." Ed had heard the fat one say, when he was dragging Fuery's bleeding body away as fast as he could.
"Well get used to it. You'll never be full. Just like I'll never be done taking everything away from stupid humans." The green haired one had replied.
"I ate dog in one bite. I wish I had eaten in two bites. Then I would still have one bite of dog left."
"Your gift for equations is staggering." The green haired one had replied, sarcastically. "I'm glad you didn't though. I'm not sure I could have stuck the whining, from the dog or the kid if you'd chewed him in half. God, I hate whining. It's one of the absolute worst things about humans. Plus it was a particularly hilarious visual seeing his stupid little face peering out like that as you devoured him."
That one seemed to delight in cruelty. They had been right though. That was an image Ed was never going to forget. The obese homunculi had swallowed Hayate whole, back paws first, a look of terror etched on his face as his mouth had closed and he disappeared from view. The same look had been mirrored on Ed's face as he had been forced to watch. He'd tried a final transmutation at that exact second, in some hope of maybe getting him back. But it was fruitless. They were impervious to any damage he could deal. After that, he had no choice but to flee. Fuery would have died otherwise. It was touch and go as it was.
Suddenly, Riza ran into the room. "Ed." She wrapped her arms around him. "I came as soon as I heard. Are you alright?" She asked.
"I took a punch to the stomach. But other than that I'm fine. It's not me anyone should be worrying about." Ed replied.
"What happened? Who did this?" She asked.
"It was the homunculi. We found two of them. I think there might be a couple more out there as well. It was horrible. I couldn't damage them. Nothing we did seemed to have any effect. And-" Ed stopped.
"Ed, what is it?" Riza asked.
He sobbed into her shoulder. "Black Hayate is gone."
"Gone?" She asked, becoming tearful herself.
"A homunculus. A stupid, fat homunculus. Apparently it ate three people earlier today, and it wanted to eat us. I couldn't protect Hayate."
Riza pulled away and walked towards the door.
"Riza, please. I swear, I tried to protect him. But Fuery was bleeding to death, and then Hayate tried to bite the homunculus." He pleaded.
"I believe you, Ed." She said, still facing away from him. "I'm not blaming you. Especially when I wasn't even there. But that little dog was everything to me." She said, breaking down crying. "Whenever I come home, he's always there to greet me. When I wake up, when I go to sleep, when I feel lonely or insignificant, and he never asked for anything in return." She continued, biting her lip to force back the tears. "I think I need to be on my own for a little while." She said, closing the door behind her.