This one was written entirely on a phone. Feels weird. It also feels weird to update so frequently, but it's a good weird—a really, really good weird.

I know a lot of you haven't even read the 32nd chapter, but for those of you who are caught up: You're welcome. :3

I was awoken when something hard hit the side of my head.

Wondering vaguely if Ed had finally knocked me out, I tried to pick up the offending object without opening my eyes, but it seemed to have gotten lost in the pile of rocks next to me. 'Weird. Were we fighting in a pile of rocks?' I was about to give up and force Ed to drag me back to camp himself—he deserved it for hitting me that hard—when a rough voice yelled, "Get out of there Felicity!" My brain almost tried to figure out what that meant, but...man, I was tired. 'Who is that?' 'Who cares?' 'Good point.'

I probably would have lain there until I died if, at that moment, a familiarly cold feeling hadn't slithered around me and started pulling me up. Shocked by the contact—and horrible implication of the situation—I opened my eyes and gasped.

Light.

There was light everywhere, reflected again and again by the billions of particles of dust in the air. I suddenly remembered where I was and tried to twist out of Pride's grasp, but the formerly gentle grip around me jerked and tightened, ripping a pained, almost-scream from my throat.

"I told you it would get infected," Pride's casual, cocky voice purred. By now, the dust had cleared enough for me to see the forest, and to notice the receding pile of dirt and rock under me. Most importantly, with me being lowered closer to the ground, I caught sight of the nightmare child that had been my one responsibility—and the reason he was free.

Well, reasons.

"Sloth?" I wheezed, coughing because all this dust was making my chest hurt even more. When my eyes stopped watering, I could see that I was right: The big, hulking beast of an artificial man stood a few feet behind Pride's container, looking just as confused as I was. Then I looked at the other reason and felt my blood run cold.

"This is the potential threat I couldn't take on alone?" Kimblee sneered, insulted by whatever he meant by that. He looked at me from under his hat. "She looks half dead!"

Pride glanced sideways at the man; the desire to rip his head off was evident, but he restrained himself. "Don't be a fool, Kimblee. They anticipated more of our moves than we thought and replaced the threat with her." The elder Homunculus turned to look at Sloth. "Father must be alerted at once."

I swallowed, my throat dry, and watched as Sloth turned around and bent into a running pose—he was going to run to Central, where the others were; no one was anticipating it, and I was pretty sure they didn't meet in the anime. My mouth opened on its own. "Wai—!"

But the speedy bulk was already zipping away, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.

'No!' I tried to struggle, but my weakened limbs would barely allow that. Kimblee gave me an amused smirk; I scowled. 'No, this can't happen! I prevented this, DAMN IT!' "How?" I croaked, trying to snarl, but nothing in my current environment was helping.

Kimblee suddenly frowned, tilting his head to the side like he was curious. "Wait a second," he said, ignoring my attempt at verbal communication. He took a few steps toward me; I looked down and wished my feet were a foot closer to the ground, but the best I could do was lean away from him as he approached. "Aren't you that girl from Briggs? The one we lost along with Fullmetal?"

I swallowed again, but this time nothing went down. Unable to think of anything else, I shook my head furiously.

Kimblee's eyebrows shot up. "It is you!" he exclaimed, then proceeded to jab me in the stomach. "Only the last time we met, you felt like death."

I hissed inward. This wasn't good. This was way less than good—this was the end! I had no help and no way of fighting back; if I had my gloves I might've been able to transmute my arms into cutting Pride's shadows off me, but those were shredded and it wouldn't have worked long anyway.

'Nooo.'

But then, like a horrible miracle, the world exploded. ...Well, that's what it felt like, anyway; searing heat spread from what felt like my stomach in all directions as an even more painful light blinded me, and I blacked out. When I came to a few seconds later, Pride wasn't holding me anymore; instead, the uneven surface I was now lying on seemed intent on shaking my brains of my ears.

Something else exploded to my left.

"Hurry!"

'What?'

There was a ringing in my ears, but I was pretty sure someone was yelling a ways away, and ragged breathing seemed to be coming from the squishy wall to my left. The after effects of the explosion fading, I realized I'd been rescued. I was really confused for about four seconds before remembering there had been people outside the dome.

Words cannot describe the intense feeling of relief I experienced in that moment.

"Here, everybody in—hurry!"

'That's Dr Marcoh!' my brain screamed at me.

Something sparked ('Alchemy!') and the rough feeling of being carried around by an injured chimera slowed to a stop. Everything went quiet. Through my eyelids, I could see the flickering light of a flame, which I decided not to question for now. I seemed to be away from Pride, and that's all that mattered.

"Is everybody alright?" the voice of Marcoh asked urgently.

There was a chorus of semi-positive responses. Part of me felt like moaning, 'I'm noooot,' but I just didn't have the energy. Besides, I was too disconnected from the situation; the whole explosion thing was still trying to wrap itself around my mind.

"How's the girl?" That was unmistably Fu.

Suddenly the arms keeping me suspended started shifting; it took me a moment to realize I was being lowered to the ground. 'Maybe I should not act like I'm dead...' Something shuffled around. "Is she dead?" Oh, I'd forgotten about Bido. Why had I felt the need for him to remain alive again..?

Something cold briefly touched my neck, then a freezing hand rested itself on my forehead. I grimaced. 'Okay, time to open your eyes, Felicity. You can do it, just...open! ...Now! Ugh.'

"She's alive," Marcoh said with a breath of relief. "But she has a high fever."

I tried again to open my eyes and see what was going on, but all I managed was deepening the grimace. Frustrated—and terrified that I'd never open my eyes again—I settled with a loud groan.

The hand on my forehead lifted, then landed gently on my shoulder. "Felicity," Marcoh said softly, "can you hear me?"

I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry; my eyes seemed to be recovering from the blinding explosion earlier, so I nodded weakly with a little, "Mm."

"Alright. Then I'll let you know I'm going to be looking over your wound."

I barely got a chance to process what was said before what was obviously the doctor's hands started ripping away at the fabric around my torso. I instantly realized the difference it had been making: it was numbing my entire body, like when I used to wrap a rubber band around my wrist and wait 'till my hand started turning blue. (I was like...eight at the time.) Just like then, when the fabric was removed, blood gushed toward where it had previously been restricted, which meant turning on all the dormant nerves.

I gasped; my eyes flew open on their own, but my vision was too blurry from pain to notice anything about my surroundings. 'GAH, put it back—put it back!' I groaned.

"My God..." Marcoh breathed, which didn't help anything at all. His worried expression wasn't helping either.

Oh, hey. I could see again. I took note of the rock ceiling, rememered hearing alchemy, and questioned no further.

"These wounds are far worse than you led us to believe," Fu said accusingly. I assumed he could see my face from wherever he was and scowled; was I really in a position to be accused of anything right now?

Bido spoke then. "Couldn't all that be burns from the flash bomb?"

I frowned. 'Flash bomb?'

"Some of it," Fu admitted, "but heat on that level does not do this much damage." My brain suddenly clicked into place as I remembered that I'd still been wearing Fu's belt. 'The explosion. Did it go off on its own? Or...did they do something?'

I was torn from mu thoughts when Dr Marcoh leaned forward, his eyes still on my side, and did something with my shirt that almost made me think he was ripping ten layers of skin off. I sort of...whined at the pain.

Something outside our little cavern made a big BOOM.

There was an animalistic grunt. "That doesn't sound good," a chimera that could only be Heinkel rumbled.

I tried to swallow again; it kinda worked that time.

Dr Marcoh was shaking his head in distress. "This is bad. Pride wasn't kidding—this is infected, and she's lost a lot of blood. I have no doubt her internal organs were badly damaged."

Fu moved closer so I could see him a bit. "Aren't you an alchemist doctor? Is there nothing you can do?"

That expression on Marcoh's face made me feel like I was already in my coffin—of dirt, since I doubted I'd end up properly buried. "There's not enough time. And I'd need medicine—nursing without an aid is a difficult business..." He sort of muttered that last part, but I heard it, and I knew he was talking about all that time he had a Philosopher's Stone to help him. And maybe it was selfish of me, but I really wished he had one right now.

There was another explosion outside.

Marcoh finally looked at me, his eyes filled with despair. At that moment, I realized just how close I'd come to succeeding, and just how completely pointless my death would be. I mean, dying was absolutely terrifying, but dying pointlessly? The idea made my stomach drop and my chest contract. My vision went blurry with, I realized, tears. 'No...'

My side ached and stung. I wondered what my mom was doing right then. I wondered if anyone back home would even guess that I'd died a worthless death in a hole with a miracle doctor watching helplessly at my side, as all the while the world starts to burn. I imagined my mom crying over my dead body; my dad would be standing to the side, holding a hand over my youngest sister's eyes; my brother I could easily imagine holding back tears, but I think my other sister, the youngest middle child...she would be staring in disbelief.

'I'm gonna die. After all that... If only Marcoh had a stupid Stone... Maybe the world will be fine even with Pride, maybe out of dumb...luck...'

...stupid Stone...

My eyes widened.

BOOM

It was closer that time.

I forced my mouth to open. "H-Heink'l..."

I could feel everyone's eyes turn on me. Ignoring the pain it caused, I turned my head until I saw Heinkel's face looking down at me. "The Stone," I croaked. "Please tell me you still have it."

For a scary moment the chimera looked at me with confusion, but then he gasped. "I do!"

"You have what?" Marcoh stared in disbelief as Heinkel reached into his pocket and pulled out the jagged looking red rock that Kimblee had used against Ed way back in Baschool. I looked up at the doctor hopefully. He looked confused, then elated. "Well that's one life saved," he said with a tensely bright voice, taking the offered Stone. He looked at me, then at the stone, then back at me. "You know what these are made of..."

Oh, I knew, but right now I didn't care; I didn't want to die this way. I needed to do something. "I know," I told him, and while my gut felt like it was on fire, I realized it was easier to talk now that my throat was clear. Then I said the coldest thing I think I've ever uttered. "But they're already dead."

Something directly outside our makeshift cavern exploded; the ground shook. Dr Marcoh looked at the wall to my left. "We're running out of time."

My vision tunneled for a second. "Then heal everyone," I insisted, and with a shock of terror I realized it sounded like my voice was coming from the other side of a wall. "Please," I tried to say, "Now." With every passing second, it seemed like reality was getting less real. I wondered if this was what dying was like. 'I don't wanna die,' I whimpered mentally.

Just as I was thinking that, I saw a brilliant glowing light, and for a second I thought that meant I had died. But it was red, so...

I blinked. My hand moved to my side; I poked it. It didn't hurt. I stared at Marcoh. "Huh," was all I managed. The man smiled, which looked more like a grimace what with...you know, the melted face. Feeling a little awkward with how desperate I'd felt mere moments ago, I looked beyond him and murmured, "That was anticlimactic."

The doctor opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted when the ceiling above us ruptured, leaving dozens of rocks and boulders to rain over us. I gasped and rolled over to avoid one that would've crushed my neck, then I looked up...

...but had to stop when the first thing I saw was Marcoh holding the Stone out for all the world to see. Knowing that explosion couldn't be anything but Kimblee, I darted forward and snatched the object out of Marcoh's hands, hiding it with a fist and ignoring the man's expression after. Then I looked up.

The dust had just cleared enough for me to make out the smug form of Solf J. Kimblee standing at the edge of the crater we now sat in. I felt like a sitting duck. He clearly felt victorious. "There you are," he grinned sadistically. "Four little play toys and one package to be delivered." His gaze turned on Marcoh, who, along with the others, had stood. I decided to stay where I was. "Doctor Marcoh!" Kimblee's grin became even more sadistic. "I didn't expect to find you here. In all honesty, I thought the alchemist who'd created all this was one of those clever Elric boys."

"Kimblee," the haunting voice of Pride cut in just as his body stepped into view. He looked a little irritated.

Kimblee seemed to get the message; he nodded subtly and changed the subject. "But enough chit-chat," was the last thing he said before leaping down into our hole.

I panicked. Our situation was bad: three wounded, a doctor, and me against The Crimson Alchemist and Pride. Everything in me was screaming to DO something, which was revised to 'do THIS' when I felt a buzz in the palm of my right hand. I acted on instinct, slamming my fist against the ground and willing it to change—except, in my panic, I wasn't thinking clear enough; I remembered the last thing I'd transmuted and recreated it without a second thought.

It happened in two, maybe three seconds—possibly less. Two dozen sharp, metallic spikes shot out of the ground way faster than I could have done on my own, and made their way up past the rim of the crater. I saw Kimblee's eyes widen in shock, but by then it was too late; I felt the tiniest bit of resistance, heard the sound of impact, and stopped. Then, feeling numb, I took my hand off the ground and watched as a trickle of blood made its way down the nearest spike.

I could smell it.

"Did I just...?"

Something dark whipped by me. Turning my head as fast as I could, I caught sight of Heinkel just as one of Pride's shadows impaled him—but barely had time to register it before another tendril sliced off the retreating Bido's tail, Marcoh was caught in the shoulder, and Fu ran at me so fast he was a blur. I felt a tug at my side, vaguely remembered I was wearing a belt, and had my vision compromised for the third time that day by another blinding flash of light.

Pride yelled with annoyance as his shadows were ripped away. My brain heard that and smacked me: 'Get up and do something, you idiot!' The light was fading; I knew Pride would get us as soon as he could see, and I knew no one but me and Fu were in any shape to move anywhere now. I had a Philosopher's Stone in my hand.

'Okay then.' Willing the Stone to activate, I did two things: First, I took the top layer of dirt within a fifteen yard radius and seperated it from the ground, then, coughing from the resulting cloud of dust, I ripped open the Earth and dropped (well more like slid) all of us into another cave—I deliberately pushed us a good fifty-sixty feet away from where we were, then threw the Stone against the wall.

Now that we were effectively cut off from the world, the only sound to be heard was the pained breathing of the others. I would have asked them if they were all alive, but the fact of the existence of everything that had just happened was like a ringing in my ears, and it made me feel sick.

'I just killed Kimblee,' my brain whispered in disbelief.

I shook my head. 'No.'

'I just impaled Kimblee on a bunch of metal spikes.'

'Maybe he survived.'

'He's dead.'

'He's Kimblee.'

'I killed him. I used a Philosopher's Stone, and I killed someone.' And the scariest part was how easy it had been. I'd got my hands on a Stone, and I'd used it to kill someone.

'Are you even listening to me? He might be alive!'

'Do you WANT him to be alive?' After all, if Kimblee was gone, all we needed to worry about was Pride, right?

When I realized that thought had come out of my own head, I slapped my hand over my mouth—whether to shut up my brain or hold back vomit I wasn't sure.

"Felicity, where is it?"

I blinked back to reality and realized someone had been talking to me. "What?"

"The Stone," Marcoh said urgently, his voiced strained. "Where is it?"

"O-oh." Panicking, I scrambled forward on hands and knees until something clanked against my hand; it felt warm. I picked it up and turned to crawl toward the sound of pained grunts. "I got it," I told them. "...Dr Marcoh?"

"Yes, here." I handed the Stone to the doctor, then watched as its alchemic power lit up the cavern. In the moment of light, I saw Marcoh holding the Stone next to Bido, whose stump of a tail had bled a lake. He didn't regrow it, but when the light faded the bleeding had been stopped. Then again the light appeared, this time not as long, and Marcoh gave a sigh of relief. "Heinkel, it's your turn now," he announced, and I realized that I hadn't seen the chimera when the Stone lit up.

I turned, listening for an animal sound—preferably a response—but all I heard was the silence of everyone else listening too. My stomach went to my throat. "Heinkel?" I called.

Silence.

Fu gasped. "Oh, no."

I whipped my head around. "What?"

There was a moment of tenseness, then the old man murmured, "The chimera's life force. It just vanished."

My heart skipped a beat. 'What?' "What? I mean... No, what?" I turned towards where the chimera would have been if he hadn't moved. "Heinkel?" No response. I crawled forward.

"Child..." Fu warned, just as my hand met something soft. I moved closer. "I would not—"

"No!" I squeaked. My hand, though mosly numb, was picking up the sensation of something the size and shape of a man's face. I pulled away. "Noo, no no no." No, maybe he was just unconscious. I leaned forward and tried to listen for breathing. 'Maybe it's just quiet.'

A firm, slender hand rested itself on my shoulder. "Felicity," Fu said softly.

I was shaking. Violently. I could hear the clanking in my arms. "He's not dead," I breathed. "Heinkel isn't dead, not in the end. He's not dead. He's not supposed to die." The others probably thought I was crazy, since I didn't have the discretion to say all that in English. Still, it was true—Heinkel the lion guy WAS NOT DEAD in the end of the anime; he just wasn't.

Somewhere outside what was going on in my head, Marcoh called quietly to Fu. The cave lit up momentarily as he used the Philosopher's Stone to heal the old man, causing me to see what was in front of me.

I sobbed.

"We need a strategy," one of the older men was saying. "Pride's still out there, and he's not leaving without Felicity."

'He isn't?' Funny how easy it is to forget your role in things when two people die right in front of you.

"I wish Master Greed were here. He would know what to do..."

My brain being numb, I didn't really question Bido's murmurings. In fact, I started having a thought like, 'What would Greed do?' The immediate response was, 'Get the hell out of there,' but that didn't really help my cause. Pride was free. He wasn't supposed to be free. He needed to be contained.

I don't know what the others were talking about while my mind did all this, but at that moment I knew what had to be done. I turned to where I figured Marcoh still was. "Dr Marcoh, how good of an alchemist are you?"

The conversation I hadn't realized was happening ceased. Marcoh hummed. "I usually know what I'm doing. But I have a feeling you aren't just talking about medical alchemy."

"Pride needs to be contained. The Stone should make it poss—"

"Don't tell me you want to be confined with that brute again," Marcoh growled, shocking me for a second. "I heard you in there, and I will not be responsible for putting a child in that horrible situation again."

I hesitated. No, I didn't want to do that again. But the Promised Day was already underway; Father wasn't going to spare anyone to get Pride out now—except maybe Sloth, but that wasn't the point. The point was it seemed like they'd been prepared with a backup plan for if Pride wasn't home in time; someone being locked in with him would do nothing. "No," I told Marcoh. "We just need him away from Central for a few hours. Do you think you can do it?"

There was barely a pause. "No."

I blinked. "But...you hid us before! With a dome!"

"True, but it was small and the ceiling was thin, and took me far too long to remember how. I would never be able to do what those boys' father did. My expertise is in matters of the living, not the inanimate."

I exhaled sharply. "Well, what other choice do we have?!"

"Why don't you do it if you're so sure?" Bido huffed; I could tell he was still in pain from losing his tail, or at least upset. "Your alchemy was fast enough."

I felt a tightening in my chest. That had been my first thought, but I couldn't do that. I mean...well... Okay, so I hadn't thought of a logical reason it couldn't be me, but I couldn't use that Stone again. It felt wrong.

Unfortunately, a wise old ninja didn't agree. "Bido is right. As inexperienced as you are, your alchemy has been focused on transmuting the Earth, correct?"

I swallowed. "Well, yeah, but..."

"Your quick thinking saved our lives. It's the most sure-fire way we have to beat him."

I closed my eyes against the darkness, finding it hard to breathe. "I saved your lives?" The very idea filled me with guilt; if they were alive because of me, then didn't that mean Heinkel's death was my failure?

I grit my teeth as a stream of tears threatened to fall. I'd never thought that hard about the chimeras. Sure, I didn't want them to die, but I hadn't thought about... I liked Heinkel. He cared about Ed and me, and he'd gone off to fight Pride in the middle of the dark woods with only a lizard at his side. If I hadn't hesitated, if I'd remembered Pride...

"Whatever we do," Bido wheezed impatiently, "we better do it fast. We're running out of oxygen!"

There was some shuffling, and a big hand pressed a warm object into a hand that couldn't feel temperature. "I would try," Marcoh told me, "but I'm afraid our best bet right now is you. What's the plan?"

I took a few calming breaths. What I was about to do was more nerve wracking than anything I'd ever thought I would have to do. I had to keep a cool head—or at least the appearance of one.

I counted to ten.

'Now.'

I opened my mouth and called, "Hey, daddy's boy! I'm over here!"

A wave of shadow immediately shot towards me. I raised my hand, palm down, and raised a wall of Earth, dropping myself back into it in the process. Then, feeling like a mole, I transmuted the ground to carry me back to where Pride had been waiting for us, right by our broken dome. As expected, by the time I was out of the ground, raising a wall around Selim's tiny form, the Homunculus had caught on; he broke the walls apart, grabbed me by the wrists and ankles, and suspended me in midair.

My breaths started coming in gasps; I squeezed my eyes shut. 'Just breathe, Felicity. He killed Heinkel. He's already done-for.' Taking a deep, calming breath, I reopened my eyes and glared.

Pride's arrogant eyes met mine. He smiled. "Do you really think you can trap me like that again, human?" he sneered.

Heart pounding, I forced myself to laugh. "You're such an amnesiac. That's how you acted the first time—do you do that to hide your shame?" The child's face contorted in rage. Good. That's what I needed. I swallowed. "What, too afraid to admit you lost to a child's plan? That you had to be rescued by a human? I heard what you said to Sloth: that we anticipated your plans, like it wasn't your fault. But I had no idea you knew about the dome. You lost because you're weak!"

The shadows tightened so hard they dug into my wrists and ankles. I'd have been more upset if three of my limbs weren't made of metal; as it was, I only winced for my poor left ankle. "You're one to talk," Pride hissed, "My father is proud of me. You haven't even earned the respect of your friends."

I looked at Pride's shadows. 'Damn it, still too far.' Ignoring the stabbing pain in my leg, I mustered an eye-roll. "If you were truly the essence of arrogance, you wouldn't need the approval of your father. ...My friends don't need to validate my existence."

A bit of shadow lashed out and reopened the wound on my cheek. I hissed in pain, but Pride's limbs were starting to pull closer to his body, eyes glaring. I was struck with a feral sense of fear; good thing I'd planned my insults beforehand. "You're just a petty child, Pride," I snarled, then had to spit out some blood. I got the feeling he was about ready to snap. "You're pathetic. The fact that you live in that tiny body is demeaning in and of itself." His shadows raised in defiance, and I knew this was it. I just needed to be two feet closer to the ground. I took a deep breath. "You can't even face me on the ground—am I so scary? Greed is more of a Homunculus than you!"

Crack!

That was the sound of the back of my head slapping against the ground so hard it gave me a nosebleed. My vision swam. 'Crap.' I frantically tried to remember what I needed to do, ('Oh, right.') and then activated the Stone. I couldn't see straight, but I followed the earth's movements: It went up, curved around, stabbed through and outright grabbed Pride's humanoid body. I made sure it would leave him uncomfortable.

"WHAT?! NO!"

The earth closed around him.

It was done.

I passed out.