Knowing More Than Recommended
Note: I have been on a drawing rampage over Thanksgiving break! Check out my deviantart account, mretie, to see all the fan-art I've done for this story. The link can also be found on my profile.
I am so excited for what I have planned for this story! And yes, I indeed have a plan, in case anyone was wondering. I hope, as the story develops further, y'all like what I have in store. I wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
This chapter features: Episode 41 "Holy Mother" Ed gets a letter to Mustang warning him to stay away from the transmutation array in the city. Kimblee tries to incite the rebels, but only draws Scar out for a final showdown. After ruining one of Scar's arms, the wounded Kimblee makes one final bomb out of Al. In the escape tunnels under the city, Ed encounters the familiar face on Sloth, as well as Wrath, but Rose's wailing baby distracts them from killing Ed.
-/-/-/-/-
Ed's bangs swayed back and forth in sync with the steady rhythm of footfalls. The evacuating people of Liore were well on their way to safety, and to Ed, that meant Rose and her baby weren't going to be a component for the Philosopher's Stone. None of Liore's citizens would.
Only thousands of soldiers would suffer.
Shit, that didn't sound much better.
Ed's face must have reflected his thoughts, because he felt Rose's comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I believe Rose inquires what troubles you, Edward," Lyra interpreted. Since Rose was a mute, Lyra- or Dante- interpreted for the girl. The alchemist glanced judgmentally at Lyra, before softening his glance for his old friend.
"Don't worry about me, Rose. You and your people are going to be safe soon enough." The girl smiled, which also put Edward's thought at ease.
Just then, a terrible scream echoed up from the front of the group.
"What's happening?" Lyra asked out-loud for Rose. But Ed had already started running toward the front. He easily weaved around the many bodies due to his small size, but he didn't need to reach the front before he saw the reason for the people's screams. Water filled the tunnel up ahead! A handful of bodies were already submerged- but funnily enough, the water didn't fill up the entire expanse as it should have. It seemed as if an invisible wall held the water in place, drowning only a handful of people instead of everyone.
Panic swept over the people closest to the water-wall, and fear poured into the crowd around him as several more blood-curdling yells bounced off the underground tunnel.
"Get back!" and "Run!" were heard as Ed fought his way to the front. He needed to figure out what the hell was up with the water works. The blond fought and fought against the fleeing citizens- it took all of his strength to keep from getting trampled in their panic. Finally, the last of the people fled and he reached the edge of the water-wall. Just how the hell was he going to make water flow as it should when it acted like its own container?
Ed didn't need to figure it out, however, because the water fell flat as soon as he reached out and touched it. The people trapped inside were freed, and they escaped after the others.
Which left the alchemist to face whatever controlled the demented water.
If the water-wall wasn't weird enough, the puddles began to move on their own!
"What the hell?"
Each blob morphed together in the center of the passage. First, they formed a shapeless water ball, but the molecules stretched into the outline of a grown woman. Color was painted over the watery form with an invisible paintbrush, until the watery shape of a woman resembled real flesh, hair and clothes.
The face of the woman looked identical to Ed's mother.
"Why couldn't you save me, Edward?" she asked softly, her voice pleading.
Every muscle in Edward's body tightened. His breathing stopped. Sweat broke over his skin. His eyesight saw only black for a moment.
This can't be, this can't be...
That voice.
That face.
"Mom."
-/-/-
The night gave way to dawn on the military base outside Liore. Colonel Mustang avoided a military invasion, but had he avoided countless lives being sacrificed for the stone? Were the people of Liore in danger of becoming the sacrifices for the stone if the military didn't invade?
Roy Mustang wondered this and many more questions as he and Lieutenant Hawkeye marched down the last flight of stairs before reaching the base's bottom level.
This was where Colonel Archer's rumored "command center" resided... or so he heard.
Archer was definitely corrupted, but just how was his corruption tied to Fuhrer Bradley? What did the King have Archer doing in his secret office? Of course, Major Armstrong was playing Archer's side-kick to figure out these questions, and Mustang hoped they'd be answered today.
He and the Lieutenant stopped in front of the iron door. He glanced at her auburn eyes; she returned him a nod.
Together, they entered Archer's "lair."
Colonel Archer seemed angry before they'd breached his space; now he was even more livid, but he did his best to compose himself. "So this is the place I've been hearing rumors about," Mustang teased flatly. Defective lighting, cracked concrete floors and walls, hideous chimeras locked away in rusty cages. "Cozy."
"A successful man does what he needs to achieve his goals," Archer replied coyly.
Major Armstrong stood stoic-like between the men, monitoring which side he needed to be on.
That was when Lieutenant Hawkeye eyed the bear-like, chimera-form of Tucker in the backdrop. To her, he looked like one of the caged beasts had escaped.
Without hesitation, she drew her gun and fired off several rounds at him.
Completely terrified, he bounded behind the cages for cover.
"Lieutenant!" Mustang signaled her to cease fire.
"What the hell was that?"
Archer only smirked. "You may have known him once as Shou Tucker, the sewing life alchemist." Roy and Riza seemed startled by this piece of information. They only knew Tucker as a sick individual, who transmuted his daughter and dog to pass a state certification. Last they'd heard of him, he'd been executed. "As you can see, Tucker works for me now, making chimeras to protect the state."
"Spare me your corrupt bullshit," Mustang replied. "This operation you have going on here ends today."
"Oh, please. Nothing illegal is going on here. That is, nothing the Fuhrer hasn't already approved of. Isn't that right, Major Armstrong?"
The macho Major only shook his head, before he walked over to Colonel Mustang.
Colonel Archer's smug expression fell. "I've only been playing the part of your second-in-command to dig up the corruption surrounding you, Archer," the Major revealed. In his total shock, the pale man looked like he was about to throw a tantrum. Instead, he smirked again, and this time walked along the cages of chimera. The beasts snapped at his heels as he passed.
"You're naïve if you think a military can function without a little corruption." He motioned to Tucker to release the chimeras, and the man complied. The viscous beasts snarled, snapped at and circled Mustang, Hawkeye and Armstrong until the three of them were trapped, back to back. By then, Archer reached the iron door, and Tucker followed closely behind. "You had the Ishbal uprising... you killed countless number of people, and came home a hero. Now, I have Liore. It's my turn to be in the limelight."
"Wait!" Mustang shouted. But he was too late. Archer closed the door and locked the three officers inside. They were at the mercy of the chimera, now.
Mustang was hardly worried about the beasts, however.
He was only worried about the damage Archer would manage to accomplish during the time this troublesome distraction would take.
The raven-haired Colonel picked his first target- a green colored mutt that reminded him of a fighting dog, but had several eyes and a swiping tongue, like a lizard. The chimera made a hideous growl as he registered Mustang's challenging glare.
Two fingers pushed against his thumb, and the duel began.
-/-/-
Amy looked down the snipe of her rifle and focused the cross on Scar's chest. She wanted to be curling up into a ball, crying, screaming, or all of the above right now, but instead, she kept the gun trained on the Ishabllan as she walked closer to Kimblee.
What the hell possessed her to do this again? Oh yeah, love hormones. Pesky chemicals.
A bead of sweat ran down the side of her face as time ticked by. From remembering the episodes, it took more than a bullet or two to take Scar down for good. There was even an episode when he maneuvered out of Riza's sharpshooting! Was that possible in the real world? Probably not. But from what Amy had seen in the show, if Scar decided to call her bluff... she was fucked, and Kimblee was dead.
"Two more questions," Kimblee began calmly, as if they were taking a walk through the park. "What made you decide to acquire a gun and come between a mass murdered and myself... and secondly," his voice gained quite a bit of anger now. "What possessed you to come toward the explosions? You could have been killed by him, or worse- by me! Do you have any idea how fucked up that would be?"
"Thank you for your concern," Amy replied calmly. The only reason her voice was steady was because she was concentrating on Scar so intensely. If Kimblee distracted her too much, she was definitely going to break her solid stance... and end up dead.
"Amy, get the hell out of here. Now." The Crimson Alchemist sounded stern...but also really concerned. That was unexpected.
"I'm not going to let you throw your life away. You've come too far," Amy bit back.
"That's for me to decide, woman. Get. Out. Of Here."
Amy sucked in a breath; she didn't cross the desert, find a gun, and risk her life just to get up and walk away.
Besides, she had no where to go.
"Zolf," she started curtly. The man stiffened, not used to people using only his first name. "You may not care that I'm here to save you from yourself. So how about this? I'm here to save you because I need you." It took a lot to confess this to him. Spilling guts was not something that happened often in their weird dynamic of a relationship. "You've helped me so much. You're an important part of my life now, you've impacted me and changed who I am and how I carry myself- for the better. I can't lose you now."
Unable to look back on whatever Kimblee's expression was, a silence dropped between them and Scar... Amy realized she was shaking. Scar noticed her faltering stance; his deep voice truly frightened her, but her grip tightened around the gun.
"Don't think for a second that I won't kill you, girl, especially if you defend a murder like him! Anyone who gets in my way is fair game." Amy swallowed hard. Scar intimidated her but hadn't moved an inch- he stared fearlessly down the barrel of her rifle, waiting. If he rushed at her, she would shoot, but probably not stop him from reaching her.
"Scar, this is between you and me," Kimblee shouted. "Don't bring her into it."
As he spoke, he pulled on Amy's arm. She shrugged him off, but he grabbed her again- this time hard enough to make her look away from Scar. His golden eyes said "get the hell outta here," and he attempted to give her a push in the direction she came from. Problem was, she didn't want to go.
In the moment she moved her arm from the trigger to push Kimblee off, Scar lunged toward them.
"Dammit woman!"
Time ticked in slow motion as the cause-and-effect destruction ensued:
Kimblee shoved Amy aside just in time to have Scar's fatal arm make contact with his side. The alchemist bit back his scream as Scar activated the destroying alchemy in his arm, vengeance bright in his red eyes.
When Amy registered that Kimblee was about to die- exactly what she wanted to avoid- her hand returned to the trigger. Without thought, adrenaline guided the aim of the gun and she squeezed.
The bullet entered Scar's right bicep, which disrupted the alchemy before it could fully activate.
Kimblee avoided getting blown up from the inside out, but the shirt and skin stretched over the right side of his rib cage suddenly disappeared. Blood spewed out in every direction. The red soaked into the yellow sand below their feet.
Scar, annoyed that the Crimson Alchemist wasn't a pile of guts, sought to eliminate the gun. Fire blindly raged in his bloody irises- but they targeted Amy now.
Kimblee registered Amy's impending death before the bleeding hole in his side. In a simple stride, he clapped his hands and grabbed Scar's left wrist. A blinding light overtook Scar's entire left arm. A strangled cry left the Ishballan's throat as his appendage turned into a bomb. After the transmutation's glow died down, Kimblee shoved Scar to the ground. As the Ishballan wrestled with pain and agony, Amy ran to Kimblee's side. He expected relief to be evident in her blue eyes, but instead, she was nearly in tears with fear.
Cue the pain for the hole in his side. He grabbed at his wound and bit back a painful groan.
He felt something wet starting to soak his clothes- and it wasn't sweat.
Suddenly, Kimblee's legs lost feeling and he toppled over- Amy attempted to catch his weight but ended up hitting the sand with him.
Time resumed its normal pace again as Scar's screams and Kimblee's labored breaths synchronized. The alchemist pressed his hand over the gaping hole in his side, but still made the effort to watch Scar struggle with a bullet in one arm and a bomb inside the other. He watched as Scar's left arm slowly blackened, more and more. Soon, the alchemist knew, it would explode beautifully.
How satisfying to get both of the Ishballan's arms.
Amy began tearing long strips out of Kimblee's state alchemist jacket. With shaking hands, she tied them around the bloody hole in his side, as tight as she could. She had to stop the blood from flowing, or else...
After she ran out of fabric, panic set in.
Kimblee grabbed her hand- she gasped, and glanced at the smirk on his face. "You did good. Don't worry."
Yeah, right.
Another pained howl from Scar brought her down to a calmer level. Quickly, her mind registered how much she had just fucked up the series. Scar's arm was going to explode any minute, but he still needed to create the Philosopher stone for Ed and Al! He didn't know the brothers were going to end up with the stone, but maybe she could still do something...
"Scar, rip off your arm! It's absorbing oxygen in the air- the longer you wait, the closer you get to detonation!"
The Ishballan stopped his torturous thrashing and seemed to listen. "What the hell are you thinking?" Kimblee shouted at Amy. She gave him a silent look that said "trust me," before she grabbed her rifle and stood up. A moment later, Scar took hold of his left arm and squeezed as hard as he could- combined with his alchemy, he manage to sever and cauterize the arm cleanly off. He chucked his amputated limb, which exploded in midair!
Scar took a moment to recover, his breaths labored, sweat drenching his brow- and then he locked eyes with the wounded Crimson Alchemist.
"Forget one man, Scar," Amy said. "You need to make the Philosopher stone so you can save your people!" He glanced up at her as she spoke, and as she positioned the rifle to target him again. "Please. Please forget him! I will shoot, and I won't miss your heart from this close!"
Scar's stony frown set in as she begged him to forget his revenge.
He took a step forward, a small flame still in his eyes.
Amy's finger tightened over the trigger.
This is so messed up! I'm about to kill the only one who can make the Philosopher's Stone... Ed and Al, I'm sorry. Amy took in a deep breath. Aim, exhale, then pull, she thought. Before she reached step three, the gun was ripped from her hands!
She jumped back in shock.
Her eyes followed two long, sharp, black nails that pinned the gun to a nearby wall. As quickly as they came, the long nails withdrew to the hand that produced them. The gun was left in pieces.
"Lust," Amy whispered.
-/-/-
"Mom," Ed whispered in total disbelief.
Except it wasn't his mother. He focused on the red oroborus symbol over her left breast. Her hair was too dark of a brown, and even her eyes were the wrong color.
This thing was a fake.
"That's right, Edward. I'm your mother."
The alchemist tightened his fists and glared at her mocking tone. "You're nothing but my sin. No matter how much you may look like the mother I lost, you'll never be her."
He'd known he'd have to face this particular homunculus ever since he learned how they were created... failed human transmutation... the only thing he wondered since then was when the inevitable would happen. Now of all times; it couldn't be a coincidence. This homunculus kept the people of Liore from escaping underground. But if Lyra- or Dante- was the mastermind behind the homunculi and the Philosopher's Stone in Liore, wasn't her plan to use the military as ingredients for the stone? Perhaps this homunculus was here to drive the people back into the city to be sacrificed. Did that mean that the military wasn't going to invade, and Dante was heartless enough to drive the people she pretended to protect right into harms way?
The whole thing barely made sense to Ed at the moment. All he knew, without a doubt, was that this thing before him was his mistake, and he needed to at least get her out of the way so that Rose and her people could reach safety.
Ed clapped his hands and touched the floor. With ease, he transmuted a dragon-shaped spear and aimed it at his mother's face.
The homunculus glared for a moment- probably upset that her likeness didn't distract him for as long as she thought. In an instant, her arms became long, water whips and she sliced them towards the alchemist's neck!
Edward jumped back.
He jerked his head back and forth to avoid her onslaught.
Left right, left right, left-
The pattern became too predictable and she whipped her right arm twice in a row, catching Ed in the cheek. She was made of water, but the impact felt like a real, leather whip. He was thrown into the opposite wall, but used his spear to regain his balance.
Behind him, he noticed Rose and Lyra- or Dante- standing closer to the fight than he would have liked.
"Get out of here!" he shouted. Ed didn't want to see Rose and her baby get hurt if he could avoid it. While he was distracted by their safety, the homunculus struck a critical blow to his backside. He slammed into the rock wall and landed face-down on the floor.
Through blurry eyes, he watched as the image of his mother walked toward him.
Time to face reality. He wasn't going to have the guts to kill her down here, right now. He just couldn't yet. Call it insecurity, or weakness... He only felt human by not being able to kill the image of his mother.
But something needed to be done.
"Enough," he whispered. Before she could make a move, he clapped his hands and transmuted several giant spikes out of the walls surrounding her. She transformed into a watery mass before the points impaled her body, but he bought himself enough time to transmute a thick, solid wall between the regenerating homunculus and himself.
Ed rested against the barrier for several seconds... waiting for her to find a weakness in the wall he created... but she never came through.
Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned to Rose and Lyra.
Or was it Dante?
"It's going to take more than that to defeat them, Edward," she said, narrowing her amethyst eyes.
His golden orbs stared back, judging, searching for her deception.
You can cut her sleeve or something to see for yourself... Amy's words echoed in his mind yet again.
"There's another way out of here, right?" Ed asked, gesturing toward the roadblock he'd just transmuted.
Rose nodded, and led the way.
As soon as Rose and her people were closer to safety... the alchemist glanced at Lyra, or Dante. As soon as the people reached the end of the tunnel, Ed planned to take Amy up on her suggestion. Maybe then he'd settle the name game in his mind; was the woman really Lyra or Dante?
-/-/-
The busty, beautiful homunculus glared at Amy with those piercing violet eyes. "My master thought she saw her next vessel somewhere around here. I'll deal with you after the stone is created." Amy swallowed hard- Dante had seen her. While she rested at the mercy of Lust's sharp nails, Amy recalled what she knew from the episodes. Lust was created by Scar's brother, wanted to be human more than any of the other sins... In the end, she switched to Ed's side, but Wrath killed her.
So, if Wrath was good now, maybe Lust would survive after she switched sides. Perhaps she would switch sides sooner than later.
The beautiful sin's eyes slid from Amy to Scar. The Ishballan seemed to stiffen as she gazed over him. His body was in love with her, but his mind knew she was a fake. "Time to get down to business, Scar. Don't let something petty like revenge keep you from reaching your goal." Lust glanced to Kimblee now, who bled on the ground near Amy. The sin raised her hand and pointed two fingers at Kimblee's head.
Amy lunged over and covered his body with her own.
The homunculus frowned; Amy couldn't be harmed... Masters orders.
"She's going to take the stone from you as soon as you make it, Scar! Don't be fooled!" Amy shouted.
The Ishballan seemed to ignore her as he brought his remaining, injured arm to his face. The bullet Amy lodged into his bicep had almost been a through-and-through, but the bullet didn't quite make it out the other side. Scar used his mouth to squeeze the metal out with his teeth. Through his pained expression, he managed to remove and spit it out on the ground.
"That's right, don't let all your hard work go to waste. Besides, if you activate the transmutation now, that state alchemist you hate so much will get caught up in the middle of things, along with the military who are waiting on the outskirts of the city as we speak."
Scar's eyes followed Lust's to the outskirts of the city. The military was here already?
Crap. Scar was totally believing Lust. What to do?
Amy dug her hands into her hair, trying to think of something to make Scar believe her. "Lust and her master have planned everything for this moment, so they can steal the stone from you. Lyra played you!" The Ishballan's eyes snapped back to Amy. Now she had his attention. "Yes, Lyra is the mastermind behind the homunculi. Her real name is Dante, and she's set everything up so you could create the stone for her. You're nothing but her scapegoat! Don't you see?"
Scar shook his head in denial.
"She's telling the truth!"
Everyone snapped their head toward the new voice.
None other than Edward Elric ran up to meet the assembly. Amy felt relieved to hear that he believed her, and he was like a guardian angel to show up when she needed back-up.
Now, it only mattered if Scar would believe them... and more importantly, what he would do after that.