Chapter 37

Gluttony's End

Hermione shoved several bushes and branches out of her way as she ran through the woods towards the dim glowing lights of the slums. She could hear Draco stumbling and beating himself up with the backwards swinging branches.

"Come on Malfoy, hurry up!" she scolded him harshly as she broke the treeline into the back ends of the slums. Draco fumbled out of the bushes after her, cuts and bruises all over his cheeks. His clothes were heavily skewed making him look mre like a ragamuffin than the snobbish child of a wealthy pureblood. Hermione looked him over once and rolled her eyes as she turned back to the town. It was rather large for being a slum and there were small houses and camps everywhere. She didn't expect the energy generator to be much of anything since the lights were all dim and flickering, but the problem was finding it. Draco let out an aggravated cry as he looked at the slums.

"How are we ever going to find it! I don't know ekelektricity!" he groaned. Hermione put her fingers to her lips to try and shush him up. It was still morning and people would be inside sleeping or just getting up. The only lights on were the outside lamps to light the dirt roads with. They needed to take care of those.

"It should be in the center of town," Hermione noted quietly as she grabbed Draco and pulled him along through the small alleys out of sight towards the center of the place. They moved as fast as they could without getting seen. They doubted that the citizens would like it when they cut their power. Draco stumbled behind her as they looked high and low for some sign of a generator.

"Hey," Draco whispered as they stumbled towards the center of the slums. There was a well for water in the middle of it and a few closed shops scattered the area. Hermione looked back to see Draco pointing at a rather large box across the way. It was humming and several cords and lines were attached to it, running into different houses and developements. "Is that it?" he asked, not really knowing what a generator was. Hermione nodded and grabbed his arm before looking both ways and crossing the street. There was still no one up at this hour which made sneeking around much easier for them. As they reached the box, Hermione pried open the cover and looked at all of the switches. Draco gawked at the complexity of the device, but Hermione just started to flip several of the switches off. Street lamps and houses slowly shut down plunging the slums and the nearby forests into darkness. Draco lit his wand to help her see as she continued to flip more of the switches off. When all were done, she closed the box and stood up.

"There they are out. Let's go-"

"But what if they just turn them back on again? We need to keep them off like the Professor said-" Draco started. Hermione shot him a glare and he immideately shut up. But, as much as she didn't like it, he was right. In only a few moments some of the citizens would be coming out to fix the generator when they realise that they are out of electricity.

"We can't just destroy it, Malfoy. This is their only form of electricity. We don't want to permanently damage it-"

"What if we hide it? do those rope things come out of it?" he suggested picking up one of the extension lines that ran elsewhere. Hermione rolled her eyes and took it from him, correcting him that they were not ropes but cords. "Cords, whatever," he grumbled defiantly, "I just say we hide it so they can't find it until it is too late. They wouldn't think to look anywhere but here."

"Malfoy, that is probably one of the only good ideas you had all day," Hermione told him as she quickly started to rip the lines out of the generator.

"Hey-" he started to argue, but Hermione shushed him again as his voice was getting a bit too loud. When all of the lines where out, she casted the levitation charm on it and they quickly floated the large generator box into the bushes just in the woods. They set it down there and Draco covered it with a branch (a rather flimsy and thin branch, but it helped), and they back tracked their steps through the dark woods towards where the fighting was going on. Hermione told Draco to turn off his wand as it was a light source and they made their way back through the pitch darkness.

...

Edward tackled a flying shadow out of Lanfan's path before it collided with her and went tumbling to the ground. She was stubborn, he would give her that. It was obvious her automail hadn't even healed all of the way yet and she was not trying to out manuever the shadows with it. Her stamina wasn't up yet and she was slow. As he tumbled to the ground a rising shock of pain raised up through his back and he let out a loud curse. His stitches weren't holding up too well either. He felt them burn even more the longer they fought Pride. He wasn't in that good of a position either. They both needed to get this over as fast as possible.

"You didn't have to do that!" Lanfan scolded him as she jumped to the side of another shadow. Edward growled at her as he stumbled up.

"Yes I did you moron!" he retorted shortly. the black whisps shot around everywhere, slicing down trees and attacking anyone that got too close. He heard a sudden yelp from the Weasley twins as the shadows snaked their way closer to the limp form of Alphonse. They were shooting a few light spells at the whisps but more and more kept coming. Edward went to take a step towards his brother but something snagged around his ankle and tripped him. His back let out a searing roar as he hit the dirt and he couldn't help but let out a little yelp. There was a roaring laughter from the snake like voices that came out of the darkness.

"Once I retrieve your brother, you two are coming with me to visit Father," It sneered as Edward felt the shadows wrap up around him. He moved to clap his hands but in a blink the shadow split and caught them before they could even connect. He wrythed but the teathers were too strong. There ws another yelp beside him as he took a glance over to see the darkness wrap itself around Greed, pinning him in place. Even his ultimate shield couldn't stop the shadows from tying him up. "I think I will also settle a bit of business with dear brother here as well. Father is very displeased with him."

"Of course you would, bastard," Greed scowled. Suddenly there was a blinding light that seared Edward's vision. It raced closer to him until the burning light stood above him. The shadows of Pride were wiped away into oblivion and Edward scooted back across the ground to try and get his footing again. In an instant, the spell went galloping over towards where Greed was and practically did the same thing. It was in this moment that Edward realised it was a glowing doe of somesort. He glanced back to see Severus commanding it with the tip of his wand. After Greed was freed, it cantered to look over Alphonse.

"Haha!" Greed laughed cruelly at his own kin. "If I want to talk to Father I will go on my own accord!" Suddenly the lights were shot down and the forest plunged into darkness. The bright burning image of the doe instantly was put out and only remained in their memories. Everyone seemed to freeze as their eyes adjusted to the new light. Edward looked around and where a tentacly shadow once stood, just was darkness. Pride must have been just as blind as they were. They could all still feel the danger in the air, knowing that the homunculus was still near them, but everyone now stood as a stalemate. Edward huffed nervously as he heard the Lion King's footsteps fade off into the distance. He was sniffing out the homunculus. Unfortunately, Edward wondered if the chimera could take him out by himself. Even though it was just little Selim Bradely, it was a homunculus with many many lives. Quiet seeped out through the trees as all they could do was listen. He heard a few people mutteras they started to gather around, stumbling through the darkness.

"Darius, is that you?" he heard Greed ask. He was just as blind as they were. Edward slowly stumbled his way over to them, tripping over a few good roots.

"Where are the students?" he asked stumbling over he ran into something and he recieved a fowl curse in return as Greed answered him. Edward apologised but continued to search around for everyone else. He didn't want them to be lost in such dangerous darkness. "Weasleys! Potter!" he shouted out into the void.

"Professor?"

"Right here," he heard Fred and George next to him.

"I got Potter," Severus called out. As they came over to the little group.

"Hermione and Draco are still in the slums," Edward counted trying to keep all of the heads together. "Where's Hohenheim?"

"The strange creature with the large chi?" Foo questioned.

"With the wha- oh yeah," Edward exclaimed as the thought suddenly hit him. His father must have been giving off a lot of energy to the Xingese group since he was a philosopher's stone. Normal humans didn't have that source of power so that might have been what lead them to where they were added with Greed's as well as Pride's. "Where is he? Where's Lanfan?"

"They are with your brother. He just started to come too. I told her that I will look after the prince. There is something in the air," he heard Foo mutter. "We need to be on alert, I feel another thing coming, almost as powerful as your father."

"That would be that shadow creature wouldn't it?" Severus questioned.

"Yeah, but how do you think it knew we were here?" Greed mumbled to himself. Edward felt it too, a definite unease in the air. Heinkel, the only one who could see in the darkness was off fighting Pride now. Edward quickly counted heads of everyone who was there. He couldn't see far but the blurred visions of everybody were clear enough. After counting everyone twice he felt a pain in the back of his mind as if he was forgetting someone. He looked around one last time until it hit him. There were only two red heads, not three.

"Where's-"

"AHHH!" a scream cut him off. There was a sudden red flash igniting up a small portion of the forest giving Edward enough time to see the short flame haired figure of Ron sending a spell at the large booming image of Gluttony. Edward felt his stomach drop into his gut as the light faded and they were plunged into darkness once more.

"Ron!" he yelled as he took a step forward but he tripped over a root that he couldn't see and collapsed to the ground. His back howled with agony and another flash of light shot up, this time purple before it faded just as fast. Luckily the spells were too fast and bright for Pride to react to, though he doubted he would attack Ron while the Lion King was probably eating him right now.

"Why you stay no still?" the whiny childish voice of Gluttony complained. "I smell good meat. I just want to eat you."

"He smelled us!" he heard Greed exclaim in disbelief. However, Edward couldn't be too surprised. With the vast stomach Gluttony has got it was logical it would have a good nose when it came to the smell of food. Unfortunately for them, that food was humans.

"I will get the boy," Foo announced quickly as he sped off into the darkness.

"Dang it, I can't see," Greed complained as he tried to follow the old man into the early morning. He tripped once just like Edward did but quickly caught his balance. "That old man's going to get himself killed!"

"If we turn on the lights then Pride will get us for sure, but in the dark gluttony will," Edward growled to himself.

"Its like they just want us to pick which way we go; eaten whole or stabbed to death."

"Professor, that's our brother. We need to go-"

"No," Edward scolded the twins as he grabbed them blindly by the tails of their shirts and pulled them down to the ground with him. "There is no use getting lost in the dark with the homunculus. You will just cause more trouble. Foo can sense their presence. He knows where it is."

"Well, we got to do something! He's my friend!" Harry yelled. Edward fumed as he raked his mind for any possibility to help.

"Mr. Gorilla can you see in the dark like the Lion King?"

"Not far. I can only see a few yards... AH!" Darius said as suddenly the round head of Gluttony appeared before them.

"I smell Fullmetal," it sang. Everyone let out a yelp as it was so close to them, but before it could even open its mouth, Darius gave it a strong uppercut to the jaw. Edward quickly pushed the twins and Potter back a few good yards to get them clear. Darius was still throwing a few blind punches at it, being able to see the thing slightly better than they could. Greed, didn't run through, as blind as he was the hommunculus got caught in the fighting and the farther back Edward kept the kids, the more he lost sight of him. The only thing they could see were dim shadowed figures of people fighting and hear the effort thrown into each punch. Edward saw a movement in the shadows and he quickly got down in his fighting stance as it was coming closer. He took a small step so that he was standing infront of the crowd and Severus raised his wand. Nothing was going to harm the students if the teachers had anything to say about it.

"Get back," he ordered his students, feeling like it was more of a day care than an aid.

"Ron!" Fred and George exclaimed as they spotted a red head take his form from the darkness as well as the old geezer Foo. The boy was filthy and a little ruffled up, but Edward knew he was alright.

"Bloody hell! I thought he was gonna get me!" the kid yelped his voice a little broken. Foo shuffled them the red head back into the group where the twins nearly pounced on him with releif of his safety.

"Foo, Mr. Gorilla is fighting the homunculus but I don't know how long he could hang out. We need to change Greed back into Lin. He can sense them can't he?" Edward asked and Foo quickly nodded his head.

"I feel that the Prince will pull through and manage that on his own. He is a strong lad. However, I fear for those other younglings that you sent off in the woods-"

"Oh, my god, Hermione and Draco!" Edward exclaimed as he started to take a few steps off towards the slums but Foo stopped him.

"I will find them, stay here and guard the others. You are of no use in the dark," he told him. As quick as the man came, he left, running off through the woods and towards the slums.

"Elric, how are we going to defeat these things?" Severus asked him. He kept his wand raised at the ready incase anything would come out of the darkness. Edward searched around but he was having little luck seeing anything at all.

"We just need to-"

BOOOMM! An explosion was set off and Edward saw a burning flash of light ignite itself in the black veil. He caught sight of two dark robed figures attacking the creature who was stumbling around trying to gain its balance. The lights quickly faded and darkness consumed them again. Edward blinked his eyes as if he didn't fully see it right. That wasn't Darius fighting. Another loud explosion was set off and the air lit up like a festival. Edward took a moment to look closer at the two people and then he realised that it was Greed and Lanfan. Foo was right. Lin did manage to knock Greed to his senses and release him, and due to that, they were winning. Suddenly Edward felt something slam into his jaw and he was sent to the ground to the shock of everyone around him. Someone let out a victorious cry and Edward recognised that to be the lost Darius.

"Yeah I got him!"

"That was me you block head!" Edward scolded him as he rubbed his sore jaw. He had to give that thing credit though, he did have some weight behind that throw. "Greed and Lanfan are already on Gluttony. They are wearing him down, I don't think that stone is going to last much longer with the way they are going at him. We need to find Pride."

"I thought Heinkel should have killed the thing by now."

"I wouldn't go underestimating what lies in the shadows, Mr. Darius," Severus told him. Suddenly Edward caught sight of a few lights in the distance. They weren't the slum lights that's for sure, as they were too dim and were moving across the land. Edward squinted slightly, studying them until he realised that they were lanterns.

"Oh, no," he whispered to himself. They must have been getting curious as to what all of the comotion was about. They were causing a lot of noise fighting the homunculi that they must have wanted to figure out if they were any reason that their power went out. With the lanterns, they would undoubtedly stumble upon Pride and then the shadows will be ignited once more. Heinkel would be in danger. Edward sprinted as fast as he could over to where Heinkel disappeared and to where the lanterns where growing ever brighter. Though he was glad for the light, he hated it all the more. Some of his students protested in his abandonment but he knew that they were with Severus. He just hoped he wasn't too late. After dodging a small kickback from a cherry bomb Lanfan set off inside Gluttony not too far away, he broke out through a small patch of brush to see Pride lashing his shadows within a torment of fire. Civilians who obviously gotten too close were running back for cover in fear of the strange creatures around them. Their lanterns laid broken and forgotten, spreading their flames through the brush of the forest. Heinkel was covered in a storm of cuts and scrapes as Pride was attacking him relentlessly. Edward raced over to him and quickly reached out his automail arm effectively deflecting one of Pride's shadows from hitting the Lion straight through. Selim looked rather surprised to see him but Edward haad only hoped that Heinkel had enough strength to atleast get a safe distance away.

"Come on get out of here you cat!" Edward hissed to the struggling lion as he blocked a few more shadows from hitting the chimera. However, the man was too cut up to even make it a few yards. Pride had gotten the best of him when the shadows had come back. Edward cursed to himself as he dodged a heavy barrage of shadows.

"Mobilicorpus!" he heard someone shout. Edward took a quick second to look back to see Heinkel floating effortlessly away a few inches off of the ground towards the small figure of Draco. Heinkel only made it a few yards clear before Hermione had tackled Draco to the ground just as a storming Gluttony ran into the clearing with Greed, Lanfan, and his other students following it. Heinkel dropped to the ground with a loud thwump and as Edward was distracted one of the shadows quickly wrapped around his ankle and took him to the ground. There was a cruel laugh as Edward tried to sever it with his automail blade but another shadow latched onto that.

"Your automail is cheap. It is like an attempt to have my brother's pathetic ultimate shield. It can't be severed, but it can be crushed. With that out of the way, you won't be so dangerous after all," Pride hummed. Edward heard the creaking of metal as the shadow slowly tightened around his arm. Suddenly there was a quick blingin flash of light and the shadows dispersed into oblivion for a few seconds. Someone's hand grabbed the back of his jacket and he was hauled back several yards away from the creature Pride.

"Watch yourself young man, I expect your students wouldn't want to see you get hurt," Old man Foo scolded him. After being blinded, Selim had his shadows perfectly centered around him while both he and Gluttony were rubbing the dots out of their eyes. Edward could tell that the two of them were getting weak. Gluttony had taken a beating from Lanfan and Lin while Pride had his in by Heinkel. They were faltering a bit, but still rather dangerous. Edward took a step back as he saw Pride's shadows whip around a little bit. He was preparing for another attack. The wall of darkness rose like a tidal wave and crashed down right on top of Gluttony. To Edward's surprise, the kid was attacking his own brother.

"No," Severus mumbled as if he was thinking the same thing. "He's absorbing him."

"He's bloody eating him that's what!" Ron and Draco exclaimed together. Yes, in the matter of seconds Gluttony had went from being one homunculus to vanishing to dust.

"Well, that takes care of that," Pride hummed as his shadows finished licking their chops.

"How could you just eat him like that? He was your kin!" Greed scolded his brother harshly. Pride rolled his eyes as his large shadowy tentacles took large sweeps of his surroundings like razor blades, chopping down trees and clearing the land so his light could spread. Edward shoved Draco and Harry to the ground as one of the dark tendrils came so close it nearly could have taken their heads off. A large tree behind them fell over and was coming down towards them before Severus shot a spell to send it off course.

"He was of no use anymore so I simply took his stone in order to use it more…. Effectively," Pride told them. "It is rather convenient. Now I can smell you all, however I am not too fond of the appetite. I can always fill it with you useless creatures. I don't think that you would cause a problem then." Edward heard soft sniffs coming from the shadows that were growing ever closer. Edward pushed his students back and prepared his automail for another attack however they seemed to be distracted by something.

"Hohenheim," Pride said the name like it was venom. The boy had just noticed that the man was there. Edward looked beside him to see his father step out of the brush and into the flaming clearing that was feeding the homunculi's darkness. He had his hands in his pockets not even ready for a fight. He knew that his old man was a philosopher's stone but he didn't have to be that thick headed.

"Hello, Pride," Hohenheim returned. "Causing chaos like usual. I would have expected that more from Envy or Wrath, not the son of the president."

"Hohenheim, get back you idiot! He's got Gluttony inside of him!" Edward scolded his old man but he didn't budge. Instead, he took an casual step closer to the homunculus. Edward saw Pride's shadows slowly curl into himself as Hohenheim approached and he quickly closed his mouth. Selim was getting nervous. Edward widened his eyes. Hohenheim seemed to notice this too as he kept taking slow steps towards the homunculus. He was planning something.

"So, Pride, you ate your own brother. I have been calling myself a monster for years but even I couldn't have imagined to steep that low," Hohenheim talked. Pride scowled and his shadows retracted until they were completely circled around him.

"I wouldn't be talking so high of yourself Hohenheim. For who was it that created us? We are your own sin afterall," Pride huffed back but it didn't have much force behind it as his eyes were darting back and forth nervously wondering if the man would attack.

"Where's Alphonse?" a sudden whisper from Hermione caught Edward's ears. However, by the question registered it was already answered. The large suit of armour leapt out of a bush and raced towards the distracted Selim. The instant his brother exposed himself the darkness was already wrapping itself lazily around and through his body confining it. His brother was pathetically caught again and struggled against the shadows of his foe.

"Al!" Edward exclaimed as the shadows dragged his brother to the ground, forcing the armour to kneel on the dirt. His brother couldn't fight it, they needed to get him out. "Foo do you have anymore flash bombs?" The man pathetically shook his head but Edward saw a stern look in his eye. He knew his father was up to something.

"Your plan was for a sneak attack? You really don't learn do you? Now all of your friends efforts to free you were just wasted, Armour boy," Pride laughed cruelly making Edward's blood boil with rage. He took an angry step towards the homunculus but suddenly Foo grabbed the back of his coat and pulled him away as the ground started to shake. Large pieces of earth errupted lightning fast right where his feet were. They stretched and twisted and started to form together over top and around Pride. Red alchemical light zapped around as Edward saw his father handlessly transmute and entire spherical tomb around the homunculus as well as his brother. In a blink of an eye the pieces were sealed off completely confining its targets within itself and slashing off all escaping shadows. Silence filled the air as the entire lot of them stared at the new mountain in front of them. Pride wasn't going anywhere, and now, neither was Alphonse.

"Hohenheim!" Edward screamed, slicing off the quiet releif in the air. The man turned towards him as he raced over and grabbed a fist full of Hohenheim's shirt to drag him down to his level. Edward glared at his father a look that could have curdled dairy but the man didn't react. It was as if he knew that was coming. "What did you do?" Edward hissed to him. His brother was now trapped in the giant rock with a homunculus. He was alone and helpless in there, getting trapped right after they just freed him.

"It was your brother's plan, Edward," Hohenheim told him quietly. He reached up and gently pulled his shirt out of Edward's metal grip. He stood up and brushed his battered suit off however Edward felt his face burn in anger at his father's casual display.

"You don't even care do you? Alphonse is in there! How could you let him go through with this! Why didn't you tell me?"

"We need to get to Central as fast as we can," Foo told him, seeing Hohenheim's point of view clear as day. "We couldn't defeat him so Hohenheim trapped him."

"But-" Edward stuttered just to get cut off by his old man.

"Alphonse didn't want me to tell you," he said. "He knew that you wouldn't allow him to go through with it otherwise." Edward felt his heart sink to what seemed like the bottom of the ocean. Alphonse was right. He would have declined all plans that would have meant Alphonse getting in the way or having to sacrifice himself. He took a glance back over to the huge mountain of dirt. It stood quiet and unmoving. If someone was just passing by they wouldn't even have known that someone was in there. Edward felt a heavy hand lay on his shoulder and he didn't even have to look up to know that it was Hohenheim. "He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry," he mumbled pathetically before moving back over to the rest of the crowd. Edward took in a deep breath as his vision wouldn't move from the huge pile of dirt. It was as if he was hooked there forever.

"Professor," Edward heard one of his students call out. Footsteps came out until he saw the face of Harry poke into his vision. The kid was dirty and worn out but he looked even more worried for him than himself. "Professor, will Alphonse be alright? What was all of that about?" he asked curiously. Edward found his shoulders lift into a pathetic shrug.

"I don't know."