Seeking the Incomplete
By Marz
The Side Effects
The whole world was red at first. And then it burned away and she was left in the dark.
Not quiet dark. She sensed them, one against the wall, not moving, the other coming towards her, calling out. The name echoed, but it wasn't hers. They were filled with red. It wasn't as bright as the red in her, but it stood out against the cold and pointless background.
The red came closer. Its insides moving faster, spinning through the center and then to the outsides, but two of the limbs had no red, the right arm, the left leg…that was familiar, that lack of symmetry was familiar, but it still lacked a name.
She realized she could know its name if she wanted, but it was like trying not to vomit. As the red glow faded away, the rest of the world constricted, forcing her back into that one form, trying to push everything inside out, to take away her clarity. She pushed it back. It wasn't important to know where she came from. Remembering too much would just confuse her.
She looked around, felt around. There was more red a few blocks away, hiding, but not so well. Hiding from other red, she decided. The one in front of her twitched, planned to flee. She grabbed ahold of it, the crippled one. She felt it shake, felt the red swirl around under its skin. It babbled out that name again and again. The wrong name.
She looked a little less deeply at the part outside the red. It was familiar. It was…injured. The injuries were old, but…she knew what caused them. Something had bitten it and tried to drain the red out. She found the name then, bubbling up in the back of her mind. The right name.
I am the Slayer.
"I remember," she told it. "I'm here to kill."
That was simple enough. It didn't take too much remembering. The instincts were right there. She could be that, and keep her clarity.
The thing she was holding went limp, not unconscious, but not able to stand. There was a thump as it hit the ground. She wandered away from it, to peer at the one still clutching its head. Two kinds of red in this one, human and dog.
"Boss?" it asked groggily.
The red faded and she saw a face, she recognized it, too, but the red was fading. She picked it up and shook it, but the red didn't come back. It just stayed there, out of sight, under the skin. She looked back at the other, still slumped and watching her. She walked back to it, dragging the two-blooded one with a careless hand.
"I need more," she said to the crippled one.
"More what?" it asked petulantly, even though it already knew.
"More red!" she said, bending down and grabbing it by the back of the neck so it couldn't turn away from her. "It's fading. I need more red."
"There isn't any more," it said. "The whole bag went in."
"Get me more!" she hissed, shaking it.
It didn't answer her, it just glared. She could tell it was afraid, but it wasn't lying. There wasn't any more, not the kind she wanted, anyway. She tossed it away in disgust and strode towards the door, belatedly releasing the two-blooded one she was dragging when it got caught on the doorframe.
"Summer, stop!" the crippled one yelled.
It followed her into the hall.
"Where are you going?" it demanded.
She watched it for a moment, and then decided she didn't have to answer. She turned toward the exit, but the walls around her flashed with blue light, and suddenly the doors were gone. The light faded. She could still sense exactly where it was, hear its heart hammering in its chest, and sense its head turning from side to side, trying to figure out where she was in the hall he'd trapped them both in.
"Are you Summer?" it asked. "Are you really Summer, or do you just look like her?"
She darted around behind it, but it hadn't noticed. It was still facing the wrong way. She leaned over its shoulder, her mouth almost touching its ear.
"I never was," she whispered.
It yelped and scrambled away, running right into a wall. It bounced back and toppled over, sprawling on the floor. It got up again, head darting from side to side. She thought it might've been trying to hear where she was. She picked up a pebble off the ground and tossed it at the far wall. It heard the sound and whirled.
This wasn't getting her the red she wanted, but it was still fun. Cat and mouse. Cat and mouse. She moved toward its unguarded back again. It thought it could trap her. She could just break down the walls it had created, but she felt she should prove to it that it was the mouse. She reached out and brushed the side of its face.
It didn't yelp this time, instead it lunged towards her. Its fist darted out, but went through empty space. She had already moved.
"So who are you, then?" it asked.
She leapt up, fingers clamping onto an exposed beam in the ceiling. She crawled along it until she was hanging directly above it.
"The Slayer," she said.
It turned in a circle, unable to find the source of the voice.
"Summer was the Slayer," it said, pressing its hands together.
She couldn't argue with that.
She let go of the ceiling and dropped onto it.
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It was going just about as badly as he thought it would. Sure, he hadn't lost any limbs yet, but this thing that might or might not be Summer was stronger, faster, and even less sane than the original. The transmutation had only added energy, not changed the actual body. Could this be due to the damage sustained when Scar attacked? Or was the energy itself corrupting?
Recharge her, right, he thought. But those stones, if Summer was right about them, were made from other people's lives. Summer or not, he couldn't let her go on a rampage looking for more. She'd be a bigger threat than the vampires.
"Don't suppose you want to calm down and discuss this?" Ed asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking.
There was no answer.
This is really bad, he thought
Ed was pretty sure she was above him, so he kept up the act. Then he heard it, the faintest rustle of cloth. He dropped to his knees and slammed his hands down.
Blunt pillars of stone shot up around him and there was a thump and crack as something flesh and blood ran into them. Ed scrambled between the pillars, the light of the transmutation already fading. He considered trying to start a fire, but he'd closed off the hall completely, and that meant no air was coming in until he opened it up again.
He got free of the pillars and whirled, seeing her jump at him, unfazed by the recent collision. He saw a line of blood on her forehead, but it was shrinking away to nothing in a trail of purple sparks.
Wasn't that how she described the homunculi? Was she like Greed, then? Or like the others? The thing that wanted to break into the Hughes house and eat people? The thing that tried to drown the Colonel and Al?
I can't let her out. I never should've done this. If she hurts anyone, it'll be my fault. I can do this, he told himself, struggling to calm down. Al and the Colonel caught one of those things, how hard could it be?
He dropped low and punched upwards with his automail fist. There was a pop as a rib snapped, but he couldn't put enough force into the blow to stop her forward momentum and she went past in a controlled tumble. She lashed out with a knee that clipped his side, but he was already moving away.
Ed didn't hear her land, and the light from the reaction was completely gone, but he figured she was coming right back at him so he pressed his hands together and transmuted the floor again. A wall sprang up in front of him, and in the flash, he saw her barely a yard away. She leapt up over the wall and kicked down towards his head.
Ed kicked off the wall he was making and the half-completed reaction fell apart, but he managed not to get his skull cracked. She landed in front of him and her foot snapped up. This time he couldn't dodge. His arms came up to block, but her leg was much stronger than his arms and they were forced back.
His own automail slammed back into his face and lights flashed in his head as his nose snapped. He fell back.
Blood gushed down over his mouth and dripped off his chin. He started to get up but a second kick caught him in the belly and lifted him off the ground. A third got him in the ribs and he was knocked into a wall.
Is she really trying to kill me?
He gasped for air, lashing out with a foot to try and kick her, but there was a rush of air as she leapt over his leg. He pushed himself up, still gasping, and raised his arms in a guard. He touched his palms together, and the outer plating of his automail reformed into a blade. She'd backed up enough that he couldn't see her in the light of the reaction.
"Think that will help, little mouse?" her voice called from the dark.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE?" Ed shouted, though raising his voice caused lightning pains to shoot through his broken nose up into his head. "THOSE STONES BROUGHT YOU BACK FROM THE DEAD; THEY DIDN'T MAKE YOU TALLER!"
A punch caught him in the side of the head and he went down, seeing more flashes.
Knew this was a bad idea. Knew this was a bad idea. Knew this was a bad idea.
Sharp-fingered hands grabbed his shirt and dragged him upright, and then slammed him against a wall.
"Do you think I owe you, mouse?" she asked, pulling him away from the wall and slamming him back again. "If you haven't got any more red, then what good are you? You aren't one of us. Just one more bit of red, all spilled out on the ground, and the worms will get the rest."
She thumped him against the wall again. Ed's hands were still free and he pressed them together. He couldn't see her, but her voice was empty and mocking. This couldn't really be her anymore, could it?
"Summer, stop it," he warned.
"Make me," she said, laughter in her voice.
She leaned in towards him again and he slammed his palms into her chest. He hadn't really planned out his transmutation. The only thing going through his mind were the other freaks that had tried to kill him that week, and Scar leaning over him in the haze of the train station.
She was blown backwards in a shower of blood and purple light.
Ed's knees gave out and he slumped to the ground.
Brought her back and killed her again. But they don't die that easy, right?
He dragged himself upright and limped toward the body that was thrashing and glowing with purple light as it healed. He raised his bladed arm as he inched closer.
What the hell do I do? Finish her off? Tie her up? What?
"Boss!" He heard faint shouting through the wall he had sealed, Dorchet kicking and pounding on the transmuted concrete. The hall went dark and Ed froze. While his attention wandered, she'd stopped regenerating, and he was sure it wasn't because she had died.
He thought he heard something on the right and lashed out, but his blade went through empty space. He turned, straining to hear. Feet slammed against his shins and knocked his legs out of under him. He brought up his hands in time to avoid smashing his face into the floor. He rolled over and swept his legs around, but then a knee came down on his gut and hands caught his wrists, pinning them to the ground. He gagged but managed not to puke, but then she was leaning in close to his face and her dead-for-a-week breath was washing over him. He turned and retched, wondering in a foggy sort of way how he could smell anything with a busted nose.
"You're hurting my feelings, short stuff," she said.
Ed froze and turned back towards her. His eyes were wide and there was darkness all around, but he thought maybe he could see two faintly purple circles above him, her eyes glowing in the dark. He could still hear Dorchet pounding on the walls.
"Summer?" he asked.
"I'm the Slayer," she said again.
"Then why did you call me that? Summer called me that," he asked in a raspy voice, trying to push her off.
"Summer…one of my line. They die and I am reborn. Only I matter."
"You aren't reborn," Ed said. "You're transmuted. Summer, wake up!"
"You presume to give me orders? I am older than history. I am what the dark fears, mouse."
"And you can do no wrong?" Ed mocked. "Wake up, Summer! Snap out of it! This thing is gonna kill your friends and trash your city! Wake up!"
She clamped a hand over his mouth. She had to let go of one of his hands to do this, but even with one arm free, Ed couldn't pry her hand off. He tried to breathe through his nose, his whole head pounding in agony. He could feel blood getting sucked down the back of his throat, he had to cough; he shook but no air was getting in or out.
"No more squeaking, mouse."
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The wrong name. The wrong name. The wrong name.
There was a small body, another living thing thrashing and dying under her hands.
I'm the Slayer. It presumed. It got in my way. It refused me.
And there was another one calling to her. Another wrong name, but that one didn't challenge her, didn't presume. It was loyal. It was hers. This one though…
Its heart was slowing, the rabbit frenzy over, the body giving up, the red fading away without air.
Weak little thing. Hardly a challenge.
It had hurt her, for a moment. She had healed, though. She was stronger now. She didn't use to heal like that. Things like that would kill her and she would have to move to a new life, a new calling, a new chosen one. How did this happen? She knew it was because of that red…
The red was almost gone now, and the pressure was building. Words were bubbling up inside her head, running over the quiet and the instincts, filling her mind with unbearable shouted noise.
I'm the Slayer. I'm only the Slayer-
"-Ed knows a lot about alchemy. He could help you."
A voice echoed in her head. Another human, pathetic and weak…the one that took her in…gave her food…
Hughes…
Her mind rolled and new things flooded in, images, people, so many words…
She tried not to think about it, to stop it from coming in and taking over. It was better like this. There was no confusion. She fought and anything in her way was removed. It was better like this…
I'm the Slayer. They don't matter.
"-my big brother might know-"
"-keep it to yourself Al-"
"Summer? Are you alright? You're bleeding-"
"So you're the Scrap Demon?"
"Young lady-"
"Hey B, what's up?"
"Buffy? We could use a little help!"
"Take care of her-"
"You can't run from your calling. You are chosen-"
"Buffy, watch out!"
"We're going with you-"
All these people shouting in her head.
That's how you know who you are, they tell you who you are, don't listen…if I don't listen…
And then it was her own voice echoing in her ears…
"No dying, shorty. It's against the rules."
She let go and leapt back. Ed lay there unmoving. She shook him and he gasped for air, but didn't wake.
I'm the Slayer, I'm Buffy, I'm the Scrap Demon, I'm Summer…I'm too damn many people…
Dorchet's panicked voice finally came through. She picked up Ed and kicked a hole in the wall.
There was light in that other room and she saw the array on the floor and Dorchet a few yards away, arms thrown up to ward off bits of flying rubble.
"Boss, what happened?" he asked.
He had a cut on his forehead.
Where I dragged him into a doorframe.
She looked down at Ed. She knew she'd messed him up pretty bad, but in the light he looked much worse. There was blood all over his face, and his nose was all smushed. He was breathing, though.
"I…I tried to kill him," she said to the chimera as he came rushing towards her.
Dorchet looked at the limp teenager in her arms.
"Well…he is pretty annoying," Dorchet said in her defense.
They paused for a long awkward moment.
"What happened?" she asked.
"When?"
She looked around.
"Before now," she said. "How'd I get here? Why was everything red?"
"You went looking for the Alchemist killer, the guy with the scar on his face. Gabriel was supposed to be watching your back, but he screwed up. He and one of the Ishbalans you helped escape from the lab dragged you back to Shezka's with your brains turned to mush. Then the Fullmetal jerk there got back to Central, going on about a vampire invasion, and the killer went after him, and the military tried to pull some shit, and then he used the stones you got from Greed to fix you up," Dorchet concluded. "But you're fine now, right, Boss?"
She wanted a couple of days, just to clear all the junk from her head, to put things in order, but there was this new threat, this old threat… The undead were following her…even if she was one of them now.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
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Ed lay on the couch, looking up at the ceiling of Shezka's basement.
What have I done? he wondered over and over again. Summer, if she was really Summer anymore was upstairs talking to the chimera and Al. Al was giving her the rundown on the vampires they'd fought in Southern. Ed probably could have added something to that conversation, but he didn't really feel like talking to Summer, or even looking at her. Al had asked what happened to his face. Dorchet said Summer had been disoriented and had flailed around when she woke up. Ed didn't bother to argue.
Dorchet was acting like there was nothing wrong, and maybe for him, there wasn't. The 'Boss' was back. The Boss was stronger than ever, probably able to go toe-to-toe with the homunculi now.
Because she is one
He rubbed at the bandages on his face. It wasn't like he could do anything. Summer had even apologized when he woke up on the way back from the warehouse.
"I'm sorry I went crazy and tried to kill you," she'd said.
Yeah, that had made it all better.
They couldn't take him to a military doctor until he got his report to the Fuhrer, and Jorn Fisher was passed out drunk when Summer went to ask his help, so Ed was stuck with Marta and Shezka setting his nose. Marta hadn't ever set a nose before, but Shezka assured him that she had read all about it, so a lot of tape and bent spoons and "I'm not crying, my eyes are watering" later, Ed was laid out and recovering. It was probably going to look horrible, not that he could really tell yet.
He groaned.
"Do you need more aspirin?" Shezka asked.
"No," Ed said, his voice muffled by his stuffed sinuses.
Ed didn't want to talk to her again after the torturous hours of setting his nose, but Summer had left the book girl to babysit him. Honestly, he'd rather have had Winry looking after him, but she was still catching up on sleep from the all-nighters she had pulled to adjust Ed's new automail. Of course, if Winry was helping him, he'd probably end up with an automail nose by the end of the day.
"So you were in a mental hospital?" Shezka asked out of the blue a minute later.
Ed nodded.
"So what was it like?" she asked.
"Why do you care?" he asked.
"Oh, it's just that I'll probably end up in one, you know, because of my problem, and I've read all about them, but I don't really know, you know?"
Ed scowled, but stopped when that made his face hurt. "It smelled like B.O. and pee. It was noisy. They kept giving me shots of god-knows-what, and the other patients were out to get me. It was annoying," he concluded.
"Annoying?" Shezka asked.
Ed nodded.
"In all the books they describe it as mind-bending and soul-crushing."
Ed shrugged. "Don't know what to say. Maybe it's cause I know I'm not crazy. And it was only for a week. Plus I knew I'd eventually escape."
"Oh," Shezka said.
"Why do you think you'll end up in the nut house?" Ed asked.
"Oh…um…you did see all the books when you came in, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So I can't stop collecting them, and eventually somebody is going to notice and I'm not useful enough for other people to call me eccentric and leave me alone."
"Maybe you can work in a library," Ed suggested, and then recalling she had been fired from the Alchemists' library amended, "A different library."
"I'd just get fired again," she said. "But maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I'd probably have time to read all the books before they kicked me out. I think that's why I got kicked out of the Alchemists' library. I ran out of things to read and it started driving me crazy."
"You ran out of things to read?" Ed asked.
"Yeah, I was there for almost a year. I read all the books, and then the files, and then there wasn't anything left to do."
"How fast do you read?"
"Oh, I usually go through a few dozen a day if I don't have anything else to do."
"And you remember what you read?"
"Of course."
"This book," Ed said, picking one up off the floor and flipping to a random page. "You remember what's in this book?"
"Oh, yes. That one's about soil conditions in the Drachman range."
"What did it have to say about…'the effects of late spring rainfall on the rate of erosion in the Eastern sloping catchments?'"
"Oh page 257! I liked that page. It had a chart. They said it increased the overall rate as well as increasing the soil acidity because of all the volcanic activity in the region. The first line of the chart represents rainfall for March, which was an average of 0.2 inches per day during the month-"
"Ok, stop!" Ed said.
"Sorry," Shezka said.
Ed snorted. "Why should you be sorry? That's freaking unbelievable."
Shezka stared at him.
"I'm not one to tell people to join the military, as they're a bunch of heartless bastards who're only interested in power, but you'd probably make a great spy."
"Hu?"
"You get into some other military's record room, look through all their files and then wander back over the border with all of it in your head? The higher-ups would probably kill to get someone like you working for them."
"Do you really think so?" she asked.
Ed nodded.
He was about to ask her if she'd read the Alchemy books in the high-security section even he wasn't allowed in, when Summer and the chimera returned.
"Alright!" Summer announced without really looking at Ed. "Here's the plan."
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Author's note: Sorry this took forever. I had trouble figuring out how to write a few scenes about the first Slayer possessing people. Also I started writing all of Ed's dialogue in the too many D's broken-nose fashion, but then it bugged the hell out of me as I reread it and I took it out. By Dose id Boken. Yeah, that drove me nuts. So just use your imagination for that, I guess. Next chapter should be out quicker, it's shorter and already pretty much done. Don't forget to review!
