Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

Chapter 26: Into the Depths

Gluttony walked down the alchemically created stairs that Ed had made, his nostrils flaring with every sniff he took, the smell was bad, it was indescribable in its rankness.

The bronze giant was still obscured by the darkness, but Gluttony could make out a large bulky mass that seemed to pulsate slightly every few second: the path that Ed was creating was a couple of yards away from the bronze giant, but the ripe stench of him was all-encompassing.

Gluttony looked at Lust, who was walking a few feet ahead of him, he waddled after her and, when he caught up with her, he looked at her face and saw that she looked... sad, "Lust, why do you look so sad?" he asked, Lust sighed "You wouldn't understand, Gluttony." she said wearily, Gluttony frowned and, for the first time in his life, he disobeyed a request (or order) from Lust.

"Lust... you know I'm your friend right? I know that you're MY friend, Winry says that friends tell each other when they get sad, I know that you're sad, Lust... tell me what's wrong... please?"

Lust clenched her fists and turned to him, 'Because for awhile now I've been... obsessing about becoming human. Now I'm feeling... different, like something got taken out of me and something else got put in in its place, I just... I just don't know how to feel right now." she seemed to deflate and Gluttony laid a massive hand on her back and gently rubbed.

Winry walked beside Ed, she saw that his skin had turned pale and sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead, Is he getting sick? she thought worriedly And if so... what's causing it?, Winry lightly touched Ed's arm and said "Hey Edward, are you okay? You look a little bit sick" , Ed smiled at her, "It's just the strain, I've never made a pathway like this before, I mean, I've made mini-mountains before, but this is ridiculous!".

Winry smiled at Ed's attempt at humor and slipped her hand into his.

Ed's smile could have lit up the darkness surrounding them.

Envy slithered behind the group in the form of a cobra, Soon he thought soon I'll get that little son-of-a-bitch.

His reptilian mouth curled into a manic smile and his fangs began to drip.

Alphonse, Martel, Wrath and Greed had found and freed Dorochet.

Now they were running from something that they couldn't see: something big , but very fast.

They could hear it's footsteps pounding after them, they heard its animalistic roar and saw the pinpricks of purple light behind them, Alphonse and the others turned down another passage just as Ed accidentally made a hole in the wall ahead of them.

After the dust settled the two groups looked at each other in astonishment, then...

"BROTHER!"

"BROTHER!"

Edward and Alphonse hugged each other fiercely, Greed raised an eyebrow when he saw Gluttony smiling and clapping his hands, Alphonse let go of his brother and hugged Winry.

"I'm so glad I found you! You had me worried for a bit." said Edward

"Me too." said Alphonse happily, the two hugged again.

Greed rolled his eyes, "This is heartbreakingly beautiful and all, but can we go? 'Cause last time I checked there was something very big and pissed off chasing us."

As is on que, the pissed-off thing in question walked around the corner, each and every member of the two groups either gagged or stood in stunned silence: this creature wasn't one entity per se, it was several entities, the bodies of the creatures up above, that had been stitched into one, very large, humanoid form.

Its roar blasted from the mangled maw that served as its mouth and it charged.

Riza Hawkeye heard the roar just as she was coming to the end of the path that Ed had created, she had been following them for awhile, watching as they made their way to the chasm, she had kept her sights on the two homunculi for most of the first few days, but over time she began to notice the two artificial humans acting... like actual humans, she had begun to actually think of them as such.

She had also noticed the seemingly random animals that were following the group,

At first she had thought nothing of it, but after seeing a single crow, spider, bat, cat, a dog and several other bird breeds, she began to get suspicious, then she had seen a cat turn into a dog and had realized what was going on: Envy was following them, now she had another threat to worry about besides those creatures that she had fought off on several occasions (although they seemed to be gone now).

Riza had been following Envy in his snake form to find out whether or not he was working with the others, then the snake had disappeared, now she was heading towards a monstrous roar to give any help she could.

Clearly this was going to go well.

Ed had been too shocked by the beast's face to see the cannon that served as one of its multiple arms until it was pointing right at him, he created a wall just as the first rocket fired, the rocket blew the wall to pieces, the shockwave was so strong that it lifted Ed right off of his feet; luckily Alphonse was there to create a giant hand to catch his big brother.

Greed saw the rocket aim at Martel and, with hardly a thought as to what he was doing, he engaged his Ultimate Shield and leaped in front of her, the blast didn't leave a scratch on him, as to be expected.

Hmmm... I guess the old bag's death IS affecting me, and here I thought I was exempt.

The beast charged and aimed a kick at him, Greed and Martel dodged and the beast's booted foot created a crater in the earth, Gluttony sprang at the beast and got off a single punch before another arm emerged from a gash on its shoulder and batted him away.

Lust engaged her Ultimate Spear and impaled it, the beast slammed it's rocket down on Lust's nails and broke them, Lust howled in agony and backed up, Gluttony regained his footing and launched himself at the beast and latched onto the rocket, using his acidic saliva to eat through the weapon.

The beast reached out for him, but a rapid succession of bullets tore its hand off, Riza joined the fight; adding her incredible shooting skills to their cause.

The beast shuddered as the bullets ripped through its flesh, Lust regenerated and slashed at the stitches that held its body together, Gluttony slammed all of his considerable body weight into its sternum, forcing it to its swollen knees, Martel wrapped her arms around several of its arms while Dorochet hacked others off.

Greed got a running start and punted a portion of the creature's maimed face off, it howled and struggled to rise, but couldn't; Wrath, who hadn't known how to contribute to the fight, now saw his chance and let loose a hail of earthen spears and tore through the beast's body like fingers through tissue paper.

The beast collapsed to the floor, dead.

The Master watched from the shadows of the immense ceilings with a smile; the fools had their backs turned to his newest creation, he hadn't created him to last, but he HAD created him to be a good distraction while he got his giant prepared.

His smile grew as he watched the beast's body split open and as the smaller creatures came out...

Author's note: Dang this took me a bit, sorry for the wait, Please read and review!