From a point in this chapter, this goes another way than the manga. Why? Because chapter 99 hasn't showed up yet, so I don't know what happens after chapter 98.

Anyway, I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and characters are very OOC.

Disclaimer: I still don't own FMA, but I do own Angel, Christian and Alexander.

Chapter 29

Pride

Angel picked her small cat up in her hands.

Alphonse was going to keep Pride here 'till they had defeated Father, but she knew Kimblee would show up before that and make a huge battle.

"Are you nuts?!" Edward's voice yelled behind her, scaring the girl half to death. She turned around, and her vision was filled of Edward shouting to his father.

"What the hell is this, Hohenheim?! You trapped Al in there, too! What were you thinking?!" Angel's eyes widen. He hadn't even noticed her part of it?

"It was Al's idea. Defeating Pride in his current state presents far too much risk. We will almost certainly drag innocent civilians into the fight. So instead of beating him, we are holding him captive. This buys us time to come up with a strategy," Edward's father said, looking at the place he had trapped his youngest son and the most dangerous homunculus.

"Then why didn't you ask me before you-" Edward started, but was cut off by Hohenheim.

"Al said 'don't tell Brother; he will never let us do it.' We needed him to focus all his shadows onto one central point. Al volunteered himself; he said he was the 'most suited' to handle the job. He, in his own way, figured out how to ensure all of us remained alive. Now, let's put out the fire before al gets roasted."

Angel rose from the ground, and walked over to where they had captured Pride.

"Al!" she called out once she got near enough.

"Angel?" the boy's voice answered her, wondering.

"Whatever you do, don't let the kid make any sounds except talking! Anything else can be dangerous!" she told him, hoping he would get it. This would most likely change the story, but so what? She had no dreams of meeting the monster once more before this was over.

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The girl looked at the laboratory in front of them. They had left Alphonse and Pride, and gone into Central so that they could get down to Father. None of them had wanted her to come with them, didn't want her to get hurt or killed, but she had to anyway. This might be the only way for her to get home. She had to take it.

Scar, Marcoh, Yoki, Zanpano and Jelso had caught up with them just some time before they left. Greed-Ling had run away, Fuu had left to fix some things.

Before they left, they had told Marcoh, Yoki and Heinkel to wait for Fuu to come back. Edward had told her to wait with them, but that had led to Angel looking at those who knew her secret, and they had understood the meaning in her look. So, she was allowed to come with them.

They had decided to sneak into the underground using Laboratory 3, the place where Alphonse, Riza, Roy and Jean had gotten into once before, mostly because their first chose had been closed off.

"There are three guards at the entrance. Guess we gotta clobber them," Darius said, looking over at the entry.

"No, this is one of those times where you pull rank on them," Edward said as he started to head toward the entry. Once he was visible for the guards, he started to run toward them, yelling that he was the Fullmetal Alchemist and that Scar was after him. The guards turned around to look the way he had come from, only to see Scar standing between the trees the rest of them hid behind.

Angel giggled as the short boy attacked the guards from behind, knocking them down with only one attack.

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Once they got into the underground, they stood at a point where the road split up in three different paths.

"Should we split up?" Edward asked.

"Yes. I will go this way" Hohenheim pointed to the right, "You and Scar go that way," this time he pointed to the left, "And then we someone to go in the middle path." Angel raised her hand in the air.

"I will do it!" She didn't want to go with Edward and the gang, mostly because they would get in a fight with Envy, but also because she didn't want to see Roy flip out with his flames. That had been scary enough in the manga.

"Okay. Ran Fan, come with me. The rest of you, go with Edward," Hohenheim said.

Angel grabbed Edward's arm, and dragged him some steps away from the others.

"If we survive this, could you do me a favor?" she asked quietly. The boy nodded, wondering what she had in mind.

"Could you tell Winry you like her? I'm sure she would be pleased to hear it," the girl smiled. Edward went red, tried to find words to deny that he liked her. Unfortunately, he didn't find any.

"Fine," he said after some minutes, before they both went back to the others, and walked different paths.

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Angel didn't know for how long she had been walking. For some reasons, she regretted leaving Sol behind with Marcoh and that gang. At least then she would have some company.

Footsteps behind her got the girl to stop walking. If she turned around, she would be able to see who it was – the corridor was filled with light from the roof – but did she want to?

"Angel?" a shocked voice called out. A voice she had longed to hear in weeks.

The girl turned around, and found Christian and Alexander smiling to her just some steps behind her.

"Christian! Alexander!" she shouted, and started to run toward them. Once she was close enough, she threw her arms around their necks, hugging them with all her powers.

"I missed you guys so much!" she told them, tears almost running down her cheeks. Both the boys dragged her closer to them, hiding their faces in her hair.

"Such a sweet reunion. Too bad I would have to ruin it!" a familiar voice said behind her, and Angel could feel both the boys freeze.

She turned her head slowly, and found herself looking right into Pride's face.

The homunculus had escaped, but that also meant that Alphonse and the others were heading toward Central.

Christian and Alexander got in front of the girl they loved so deeply.

"If you want her, you will have to fight us first!"

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Before they could even know what had happened, Pride's shadows had knocked Christian into the nearest wall, resulting in that the boy lost consciousness.

Angel watched as her friend went limp and felt to the ground. Something inside her chest wanted her to run over to the fallen boy, to make sure he was still alive. But her fear for the homunculus kept her in one place, unable to move.

Alexander pulled into an attack as soon as he saw his friend. No one hurt his friend when he was on duty, nor did they try to hurt the girl he loved.

The girl almost screamed when her other friend got thrown several feet away after attacking the little monster in front of them. Why did they have to meet him? Pride alone was bad, but now that he had sucked in Gluttony and Kimblee as well, he was even worse.

The shadows came closer and closer to her body as she let her thoughts wander. When she first realized her mistake, they almost touched her.

"What do you want?" she asked in a small voice, finally getting the feelings back in her feet and taking a step away from the homunculus in the form of a small boy.

The thing grinned.

"Father wanted to meet you, so that you can tell him how to win the battle he soon would be in," he said. Now it was Angel's turn to grin.

"Sorry, Pride. I think you are already too late for that. Considering how much time I used on getting here, your so-called Father is already in a battle with Hohenheim, and my friends would soon be there to help him. You homunculi don't have much time left. Lust is dead, Sloth is dead, Gluttony is inside of you, Greed and Wrath are in battle somewhere above our heads, Envy killed himself, soon the only one left would be you and Greed, and he is on our side," she told him, her voice still small.

"Even a better reason for me to take you there quicker," the homunculi answered, his shadows coming closer to her.

Behind her, Alexander tried with everything he had to get up on his feet again. Angel was in trouble, so he didn't have time to lie around and relax. What would his boss had thought if she had seen him lying around like that?

After several tries without any luck, he collapsed to the ground again, hoping with all of his heart that Angel would forgive him.

The girl throw herself to the ground to get away from the shadow-arms that came toward her, trying to capture her so she could be used in this insane battle.

For some stupid reason, she tried to kick the shadows once they got closer again. It was pointless to say that this didn't help much.

"Stupid girl. Foolish girl. You have no power against me," the boy said coldly.

Angel swallowed, before she sat up on the ground.

"I might be stupid, and I might be foolish, but at least I don't live my whole life with only pride in my heart," the black-haired girl told him calmly. Why was she saying this? It was like someone else had taken a hold on her mouth.

Then, her eyes fixed on something behind the homunculus, and she knew she had to distract the boy.

"Even I can see the pride you have. Pride of being on a place your friends would love. Pride of getting to meet people from this world." He grinned, looking at her evilly.

"You're wrong. I too, as every other person, have prides, but my prides goes for something else than what you pointed out. I'm proud of my friends, both those from my real world and from this one. I'm proud of my family, and that one does not only include my parents and other blood-related family. I have almost-siblings in this one too! I'm proud of my work, my writing, because I want to base the rest of my life around it! Now, Alexander!" the last thing was cried out as her friend pulled the trigger of his gun, the same one that he pointed at the homunculus. The boy had finally gotten himself to his feet, and it was just pure luck that Pride's mind had been focused on Angel, or he might have sensed the boy before.

Unluckily, the bullet missed, hitting the wall far behind Angel.

Pride turned around to face the boy, his shadows already twisting around his body. Alexander's eyes went big, almost scared, before the shadows started to move his feet toward the girl.

She could feel tears starting to show up in the corner of her eyes.

"Alexander?" she asked quietly, even more scared than the boy in front of her.

He shook his head a couple of times, telling her that he wasn't in control anymore. Pride was, by controlling his shadows.

The girl rose quickly from the floor, running right toward the blond boy. Once she was close enough, she threw her arms around him, hiding her face into his chest.

"Stop, please. Let go of him," she cried out.

Above her head, Alexander's eyes kept her in his vision. Something deep inside him started to push the attacker off. He didn't like being controlled by anyone, at least not this thing.

The boy's arms slowing came up and around the small body hugging him, doing the one thing Pride tried to keep him from.

Blue eyes looked up through black hair, and her lips whispered two words that made his heart grow warm, even if it was a word he hadn't expected.

Behind the girl's back, Pride got ready to attack them again, slowly pulling his shadows out of the embrace.

"Not so fast!" a voice cried out behind him, earning that Angel and Alexander turned around.

A bullet hit the homunculus in the back, while a bullet and a knife hit him in the chest.

"Foolish kids," the monster said as he started his attack, his shadows aiming for Angel. Christian – the one firing the first shot – shouted to his friend to get out of the way, in the same minutes as he got his gun ready again.

"It's not a gentleman's work to hurt a girl!" a loud voice yelled from somewhere close and huge spikes for stone came flying toward the homunculus.

At the same time could they hear two claps, and the ground rose underneath the homunculus, sending him flying into the air.

"ANGEL! What are you doing here with only Christian and Alexander?!" a familiar voice yelled.

"I don't really think this is the moment to discuss this!" she shouted back as she threw two knives after the boy, followed closely by a storm of bullets.

"Sergeant Eritsu, didn't I tell you to watch out for the girl?!" yet another angry voice yelled.

"Foolish humans, thinks your alchemy and bullets and knives can defeat me," the homunculus said as he made an attack.

"That is because, if we kill you enough times, you will die!" Angel shouted, dragging a knife out of her shoe and got ready to attack.

Izumi and Alphonse clapped, stood ready to put their hands on the floor.

Christian, Alexander, Olivier and the rest of the Briggs-soldiers stood ready to fight.

Armstrong just waited for the rest of them before he put his hands near the floor.

"GO!" one of them yelled, and everyone attacked with their weapons against the Homunculus at the same time.

A storm of bullets, knives and alchemy-spikes made their way toward him, giving him no time to recover after each attack.

The shadows made their way toward the group standing against him, trying to break down their attack.

"No, you won't!" Angel pulled something out of her pocket, and pushed one single button.

Her iPod, linked to a set of speakers, played out the chosen song loudly, making everyone clap their hands over their ears to keep the loud sound out. But it did the thing it was supposed to do.

Pride was forced to drag his shadows away, looking completely out of it thanks to the loud music.

"NOW!" Angel screamed, throwing more of her hidden knives at the Sin, backed up by her friends' attacks as well.

The girl felt inside of her sleeves, looking for more knives. Unfortunately, she had used them all.

"You can't do much without your knives, can you?" the Sin said, mocking.

Angel only grinned. Her shoes were empty for knives as well, but she still had three places left.

Her hand went into her jacket, coming out again with two more knives.

Claps and bullet-shots could be heard all over place, along with flying knives.

Then, the shadows made a move.

Christian saw them just in time to move out of the way, before he ran toward Angel to get her out of the way as well.

The girl felt with him to the ground, locked away inside his arms. Her eyes were locked on the face to her friend. He had given everything away to save her.

A warm feeling filled her heart, grabbing a hold on her thought.

I think I found out my feelings for him, guys.

Pride's shadows came closer as the two teen rose from the ground.

"Don't even think about it!" Angel screamed, before she dragged her flashlight out of her bag. It didn't even take her two seconds to push the button and let the strong light fill the corridor. Just like earlier, the homunculus was forced to drag all his shadows back to his main body.

Angel's knives, Alphonse and Izumi's alchemy and Alexander, Christian, Major General Armstrong and the rest of the Brigg soldiers' bullets made their way over to him.

Finally, the monster started to fall apart, disappearing from this world. He was empty for the power to fix himself, and Angel's light had made him unable to protect himself.

Finally, Pride was dead, just like Envy, Sloth, Lust and Gluttony.

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A/N: Hope you liked it^^ The next chapter is the last one.