They easily passed by all of the conflict on the middle floors. Soon, they found themselves at the top floor, albeit at the opposite side of the building from where their destination was. It was an easy trip, especially since the smoke had cleared, a small detail in which they all were immensely grateful.
They ran the length of one hallway, getting ever closer to the sounds of intense conflict. Another tremor shook the floors beneath them, threatening to break and send them falling to their deaths. Another explosion took out the wall several yards in front of them. Sympathizers were thrown back into their line of sight. Several of the officers running with the homunculus and the Colonel pulled out guns that were looted from bodies and shot them as they tried to recover.
From around the corner, most soldiers flooded over the fallen men, quickly traveling to their next rendezvous point. One familiar face noticed them and stopped. Blond hair swept back as gentle brown eyes took them in, she called out orders for a reinforced perimeter and waved the newcomers into their path.
The group rushed forward, ducking around the corner before the rear collapsed, sending a new wave of gunfire their way.
All of them made it back in one piece, and once they were able to stop and gather their bearings, saw why. Parts of the walls had broken off and fused together, creating a wall that blocked any enemy soldiers from their path. They, in essence, had made a small base for themselves just a hallway and a few turns from the Führer's office. The culprit, State Alchemist Armstrong, stood just a few paces away, a proud grin planted over his face, much unlike the somber giant Mustang had grown accustomed to over the past few weeks.
Mustang did a mental count of the personnel there. All of his personal subordinates had survived, at least, as well as many more he did not immediately recognize. The great number of allies heightened his morale. And it seemed their small reinforced section of headquarters had granted them some reprieve. However, that reprieve was short-lived.
With a cry of battle, more chimera charged from around the corner into their small camp. Those who were resting quickly rose and began firing, alchemist began casting, and the rebel chimeras charged headlong into the throng of enemies. A few chimeras perished in the first wave, their confidence overshadowing odds as an endless wave of enemy chimeras ran into the fight.
Pride watched with something akin to horror as he searched for the one he knew had to be among the beasts. Finally, in the back, he saw him. The doctor with the misshapen body and bright eyes turned and locked gazes with the homunculus. Up to that moment, there had been something brewing in the teen, like resentment or even hate, something he needed to channel onto something carefully and exclusively. He had found his target.
Ignoring all protests and shocked gazes, Pride barreled through the chimeras, past the foot soldiers behind them, and towards the doctor. He was quickly aided by Armstrong, who rose the ground under the chimeras, crushing most and critically wounding the rest, giving Pride less to deal with on his way to the doctor. As he neared, his head rattled with ideas of how to kill the pathetic man. How best to translate his anger. He was closer, closer, reaching out his hand, crackling with blood red energy...
...When without warning, another jumped the doctor, a large, dark, savage creature, whose skin shone like deep, black scales. It ripped the doctor to shreds and Pride fell short, taken aback at his stolen chance of revenge. He was momentarily overtaken by anger, but turned to surprise as he realized something familiar about the newcomer, something in the way he fought. After what seemed to be a few timeless moments, the doctor lay in a heap before him, torn apart and barely twitching through a very slow death.
His attacker stepped over the dying man and Pride could see him more clearly. His towering shadow fell over the homunculus, as dark as the man himself. With one affirmative nod, he reached out his hand. Pride accepted it without hesitation and was unsuspectingly pulled into a brotherly hug, quickly resolving his questions.
When he pulled back, a grin stretched across his face. "Greed."
The man gave him a thumbs up and stood back. A light quickly washed over him, from his head to his feet. Dark eyes blinked, a mouth opened to inhale much needed oxygen, and the familiar white fur exploded from under the second skin, revealing the clothes of his former mentor. "Hey there."
"How did you-?"
Greed shook his head. "No time. We've got to get to the office."
Pride nodded, casting a look back at the rebels, who had completely overtaken the attackers and had abandoned their post, quickly passing both homunculi and charging down the hall, where they met more resistance.
Mustang fell to a kneeling position, pulled on his glove and sent waves of fire into the horde. From next to him, a shirtless officer fired his gun, one eye closed in concentration. During the lull in the battle, the Colonel gave him a lopsided glance. The officer noticed. "I didn't have time to get dressed by the time your rebels came knocking on my door."
"Well, my apologies."
"No need, nothing more a coat could do for me than skin can," He said with a grin.
Another tremor shook them to the point where they nearly lost their footing. They were coming at shorter intervals and that unnerved most of the soldiers, wondering if the physical foundation of their battle was faltering.
Greed leaned closer to Pride. "I know where the earthquakes are coming from. Your father is handling it."
Eyes wide with curiosity, Pride leaned back. "He's here? What about Tobias?" He felt like an excited child seeing his friends after a long time. For a moment, something in the homunculus' face worried Pride, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
"There'll be time for that later."
The abrupt dismissal worried the teenager further, but he didn't press the issue, he only followed as the elder homunculus started down the hall back into the group of rebels. By now they had realized Greed was an ally and moved to let him through. Whether it was out of disgust or respect, it didn't matter much to the man, so long as he could get to the front lines of the fighting.
Mustang, who knelt a few yards away, reviewed his mental map of the building, quickly able to extricate his position and conclude that they were very close to Hakuro's office. He relayed his information to anyone who was near. They relayed it to their officers and soon, in the midst of a shootout, a plan was hatched. If something so bold and spontaneous could be called a plan.
While talking to Marcus and Dylan, who were holding their own despite their personal handicaps, they had devised the plan to send in the chimeras as the first wave against the sympathizers, followed closely by lower rank soldiers and then officers and State Alchemists. Assuming Pride and his companion had already gone on ahead, the chimeras and soldiers would meet up with the direct resistance nearest the Führer in one piece. Marcus and Dylan reluctantly agreed.
Greed had kept his pace yards ahead of Pride. The teen wondered if it was to shield the younger homunculus from harm and, agitated, pushed himself ever closer to his elder. They were out of sight from the rest of the party. He hadn't realized how far they'd gotten. Sooner had he thought that that they came upon another group of rebels, red scarves flowing from their respective bodily locations. They fought earnestly against the group of sympathizers congregated outside of the Führer's door. Pride suddenly felt a chill of anticipation and just a touch of fear, so distracted was he by the conflict that he had barely time to notice his father fighting among them.
Hohenheim was concentrating hard, as his eyes never left one particular spot, which Pride followed and found the most likely target, a State Alchemist in the back, standing against the office door. She held her side, hunched over with blood dripping from her lips. Her eyes narrowed at the older man, who had most likely caused her the physical trauma. He, in return, narrowed his own and moved his hands, clearly transmutating but what it was, Pride could not determine. Suddenly, a scream escaped the woman as something hit her square in the chest, knocking the air out of her and obviously causing some additional internal damage. It was an effect similar to Pride's when he had shoved the Colonel out of the chimera's path.
Bracing through the pain, she moved her hands in a similar fashion and another tremor shook the area. Finally, Pride had found the source of the earthquakes, as Greed had told him. Unbelievably, roots sprouted from the floor and took hold of his father's legs. Simultaneously, several soldiers dropped abruptly, hitting the floor as dried husks. Hohenheim paid no mind to the roots crushing his legs and keeping him in place, instead sending several more thrusts of solid air into the State Alchemist. After a long moment, the woman, her wide, green eyes brimming with tears of pain, slumped over and fell to the floor, having been literally beaten to death. The roots around Hohenheim's legs withered and died and finally the older man noticed the pair of homunculi and waved them over.
"Can we get in now?" Pride asked eagerly, an odd reassurance washing over him at the sight of his father, yet Tobias stayed at the back of his mind.
"Should. We've rid ourselves of the main resistance... The door is open to us... In a sense."
All three turned towards the office door, which was still overcome by massive roots. All around them soldiers scrambled, picking off the last few sympathizers and gathering around who they regarded as their commander of the moment.
The homunculi walked up to the door, studying it for a few moments before trying their own methods to rid their entrance of the foliage. Greed turned back into his other form, clawing at the roots and trying to tear them apart. Pride stood back and bombarded the barrier with various transmutations. Nothing worked.
"Let me try." A voice calmly said from behind them.
They backed away before turning to regard the Colonel as he slipped on a new pair of gloves and snapped, sending torrents of fire onto the door, threatening to catch the entire structure ablaze, but focusing it on the roots, which were engulfed in flames before drying up and falling to the floor as ashes. In his awe, Pride looked back towards his former superior and noticed several other familiar faces gazing from behind him.
Hawkeye and Havoc stood on either side of him, guns ready. Armstrong stood flexing, like he always did, and the two privates, Shields and Josten stood nervously next to him. Haymans Breda and Vato Falman stood among them. The only one absent, Pride thought with a pang of guilt, was Fuery.
With the roots cleared, the rebels crowded around the door, hesitance lining the tense postures of each individual and creating a silence. What would they face on the other side? What if it was just a trap? Pride had little knowledge of the extent of the Führer's power and he guessed the same was true with the rest of his companions.
"What are you waiting for?" Asked Dylan, holding onto his brother by the elbow to guide him through the chaos.
They all looked to the teenager. It was him, after all, who had needed to get to the office. Slowly, Pride grasped the doorknob and let alchemy surge through him. The doorknob broke apart in his hand with a flourish of light and fell to the floor in pieces.
Pushing the door open, very slowly, the others readied themselves.
The door opened and revealed...
Nothing.
There was no one in the office. The others released a collective sigh of relief and crowded into the office.
Hohenheim pulled his son back through the throng of soldiers. Pride stumbled slightly and found himself face to face with his father. "What?"
The older man's face contorted with something akin to concealed guilt as he pulled a vial out of a pocket inside of his coat. "This," he said, holding it up. Inside, red liquid gleamed.
"Is that-?!" Pride felt a mixture of excitement and horror. Liquified philosopher's stone was the bane of his humanity, but it held him with desire like a drug.
"No, not quite," He said, also pulling out a metal canister and placing the vial within it. "It's difficult to explain... Take it if you find yourself unable to defeat him on your own." Hohenheim held it out to his son.
Pride took it reluctantly, rolling it in his hands before slipping it into his boot. "I don't understand."
Hohenheim shook his head. "You will if you use it."
The teenager's gaze lingered for a moment before he turned and started to walk towards the office. Hohenheim watched his son go. There was what waited underground for the boy and the old alchemist would make certain his son got the time and chance to confront it. Hohenheim was needed on the outside, with the soldiers, but he gave himself one more moment to look on after the boy with a doubtful smile. "Good luck, son."
In the office, Mustang immediately began giving orders to the remainder of the soldiers and, on the other side of the spectrum, Marcus guided his rebels. A combination of the two forces were sent to search the rest of the building for stragglers and hiding sympathizers. Although at first reluctant to the idea of combining the two armies, Pride's worries were quickly resolved when he saw how each rebel regarded each chimera and vice versa. Indeed, the teams would work well.
The same could not be said for the elder homunculus, who had arrived as sort of a surprise to soldiers who were fighting against homunculi themselves. Standing now towards the back, Greed folded his arms, silently looking down at the soldiers on either side of him, who glared at him out of the corners of their eyes.
Before Pride could confront them, Mustang approached him. "Well, here we are. Want to tell me what you're planning?"
The teenager looked around, avoiding that question, and something behind Greed caught his eye. Something odd about the bookcase he was standing in front of. Greed noticed his inquisitive look and turned, running his hand over the spines of the many texts. He looked back, and Pride knew what he was thinking. Running over, the homunculi began ripping books out of the shelves. They all fell loose until one dark, green binding offered some resistance, folding down like a lever instead of falling out of its place like the others. With a metallic groan, the bookcase shifted sideways and revealed another doorway.
It was caged, like a box, and a chain ran down the back wall, nestled in another molded piece of metal that seemed to go down to the floor and even past that.
"An elevator?" The Colonel had approached them from behind.
"Well, there's your answer. I have to go down."
"We're coming with you."
Greed stepped between them. "So am I."
Pride shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe you should stay with the others here, in case more sympathizers come."
Greed scoffed. "No one is going to be left once those chimeras sweep through this place. Besides," he added, glancing towards the soldiers, who still eyed him with distrust, "I think I'd be better appreciated underground."
After a moment of consideration, Pride acquiesced, stepping into the elevator. The Colonel, his lieutenant, and Greed followed closely behind. A small army. Pride was satisfied and confident that they wouldn't draw too much attention in the world below them, however many of the sympathizers, chimeras, or homunculi they might encounter.
With a final word from the Colonel to his rebels, the elevator slowly descended, dropping them into the stomach of Central.
