Sorry about the wait. I had a play and now I'm the last week of school.
Liz: Almost done.
Envy: The authoress apoligizes for the lack of updates on Duoble Edged Blades.
Ed: She will have more time to get to it once the summer hits.
Wiht that said, REVIEW!
But as the blade fell a hand shot out and caught it. And I saw Greed, who looked as pissed off as I'd ever seen him, looming behind him. "I don't think so." He slammed his carbon covered fist into Malice's gut, leaving him gasping for breath.
"Shit." Malice muttered. "Let's get Fear!" I watched as the three homunculi threw their opponents off and ran down in the direction Fear was.
Were they leaving? Why?
"Where are they going?" Greed snarled. "They aren't leaving just yet." And with that he took off after them.
I only had to look to the side to see the pool of blood Knuckles was lying in. He was already dead, a gaping wound in his throat. I felt my heart clench at the sight. Just like Greed's old men. Dead and gone because they were willing to die for him.
"He jumped in front of Greed." Ed said, slowly getting to his feet, his hand over his broken auto-mail. "He didn't need to but he did. Instinct I guess."
"Yeah." Envy took my wrist and pulled me to my feet. "You ok?"
I nodded shakily.
"We need to help them. Al, Greed and Aaron won't be able to fight them all." Lust said. "Hurry."
So we ran after Greed and left Knuckles lying on the ground, as blood started to pool around him.
For some reason the homunculi hadn't attacked the others right away. Mainly because they were just staring in amusement as Aaron wildly swung his sword around so much it was hard for Fear to get near him. He was hitting the walls and the ground more than her but it was still hard for anyone to approach him lest they get skewered.
Finally Fear seemed get fed up with this and she rushed forward and kicked him in the face, miraculously managing to avoid his sword. He went flying back and ended up unconscious.
She shot Malice a glare. "Thanks for leaving me to deal with this idiot."
"My pleasure" Malice smirked.
"Now with that walking property damage out of the way" Greed's arms were coated with carbon shield almost instantly. "I can kill all of you nice and slowly… for taking one of my possessions!"
Regret was the one he went for, not surprisingly.
"Speaking of possessions, I know what I'd like to possess." Desire smirked at Lust.
"Only in your wildest dreams." Lust's fingernails grew out like swords and she lunged at him. Wrath went to her aid, with his own arm that he had made a blade from the stone.
Malice started to move towards me again, but with no Regret to restrain him this time, Envy quickly blocked his path and slammed his fist into his chest.
Which left Fear to Al and I.
"Where's brother?" Al asked.
"His auto-mail got demolished but he's fine." I said.
"Not when Winry get's a hold of him he won't be."
"Good point."
Fear observed me with amusement as I glared at her. "What's the matter Lizzie? Mad I killed my dear older brother."
"You hit the nail right on the head." I growled before lunging at her.
Malice may have been a hell of a lot younger than Envy but he knew what he was doing. Envy guessed he was using his transportation power to his advantage because he kept on appearing behind him when he had been in front of him a moment later. It was annoying but Envy could still keep up with him and even knock him with a few good punches every now and then.
At some point in the fight, Envy's back hit Greed's. They both whirled around upon this contact, then, upon realizing who the other was, ducked under the blades of their opponents. The assaulting blades both hit unintended targets and Envy and Greed used the other homunculi's hesitation to knock them off their feet and back up out of the way.
"These guys actually know what they're doing, don't they?" Greed muttered, a vicious smirk on his face.
"Yep." Envy agreed. "Good thing we know a little better."
"Oh do you?" Malice looked up from where he knelt on the ground, a fittingly malicious smirk on his face. "Did you happen to notice where you're standing?"
Envy looked down. At his feet was an all too familiar transmutation circle. The one that could undo homunculi.
The fighting around them paused for a breath as everyone took this in, in that split second.
"Envy!" Liz's voice rang out as Malice slammed his hand against the ground.
Greed threw out his arm, catching Envy in the chest and sending him flying out of the circle and into a wall. Then he was enveloped in light.
A few thoughts flashed through my mind at the sight of the transmutation circle. One: Where had that come from? We had come this way to spring the trap originally and there had been no circle. This one was carved deep into the stone. No one could have had time to carve it there during the fighting.
But the most glaring thought that blocked out all of my logical reasoning was this: Envy was in the circle. Envy could be killed without the stones. I was about to lose Envy again.
All of these I summed up with his name as it was torn from my throat in a strangled cry, "Envy!"
Then something amazing happened. As Malice's hand hit the ground, activating the circle, Greed slammed Envy in the chest with a force that sent him flying. At first I briefly questioned why he had attacked him, before I realized that he hadn't hit him because of that. He had knocked him out of the circle.
As the bright alchemic lights enveloped Greed, Envy looked up, his dazed expression marred with shock.
The lights cleared to reveal Greed coughing up the red stones, his chest heaving, and his face beaded with sweat. No sooner had he stopped coughing up red stones he was coughing up much darker blood as Malice thrust his knife into his back before he even had a chance to get up.
"Greed!" Al's eyes widened at the sight of the blood that now spilled from Greed's throat.
"Well, guess we got all we can out of this trap." Fear sighed. "One of the loose ends tied up. Would have been nice if we could kill two birds with one stone."
"Where did that circle come from?" I snapped. "That wasn't there before!"
"Arrogance is here." Fear smiled. "But he watches from the shadows. He's good at hiding. He carved it for us. And you didn't even notice."
"Let's go." Malice jumped, clearing the roof of the building before taking off. The others followed him before anyone could say anything else.
"I… hate those… newbies." Greed coughed.
"You're still alive!" I hurried over to him.
"Barely." He muttered.
"Why did you do that?" Envy's voice came from behind me. I looked up to see him standing over Greed as well, his face twisted in confusion.
"Because," Greed's mouth quirked. "If anyone can kill Dante it's one of us. We knew her the best. Couldn't have both of us dying could I?" He hacked up another glob of blood. "Don't get the wrong idea. I hate your guts. But I hate Dante's more."
Envy was glaring at him but a smirk was tugging at the corner of his mouth. "You're an idiot."
"Yeah, I know." He sighed.
"Thank you Greed." I murmured, wishing desperately that I could do something.
"No problem, doll." Greed grinned weakly. "Hey, can you make sure my man gets a grave of some sort other than that pavement? He deserves that much."
I nodded. "Yeah. Of course."
"Thanks." Greed's eyes went back to Envy. "Give that bitch hell."
"Like you need to tell me." Envy said evenly.
Greed's face relaxed and his chest stopped moving. A few moments later he had dissolved into red liquid that disappeared in seconds leaving a wet mark in its place.
None of us were feeling that great following the fight. Greed's death, while not emotionally effecting us too much, did leave us down. Plus, we humans who can't regenerate were feeling a little lousy from the injuries we had sustained.
Oh, except for Aaron. He was just as perky as ever, talking about how eventually the demons would be brought to justice.
God I wanted to run him through a blender.
You'd think a head injury would shut him up, wouldn't you?
After Knuckles was buried like Greed had asked we reached the unanimous decision that we needed to go back to Risenbol so that Ed could get repairs done. All of us could use a little rest quite frankly. And a little time to figure out who the mysterious Arrogance was… and how he had managed to carve the transmutation circle without us seeing him.
"Maybe that's his ability or something." Al said as we waited for the train to pull into the station. "Become invisible…or become shadows even."
"That would be handy." Envy nodded. "He could spy on anyone that way."
"Like some phantom!" Aaron put in dramatically. "A ghoul back from the dead."
"All of the homunculi are back from the dead." Al pointed out.
"Oh… right." Aaron said, looking flustered that he had managed to miss something.
"You really don't have to come with us Aaron." I tried. "You can go back to Central and-"
"We'll go back together!" Aaron said, proudly pumping his fist in the air. "We are all on this mission so we will finish it as one piece."
"You run the risk of not being in one piece if you don't shut up." Envy growled.
That shut Aaron up for a blessed ten minutes or so, at which time the train pulled into the station.
"Winry's going to kill me when she sees this." Ed muttered.
"It's ironic; because she just told you not to break it and you said you wouldn't." I smirked.
"Not helping Liz."
Mustang was in his office when the phone rang.
"Edward Elric is calling from an outside line sir." The operator said through the speaker.
"Patch him through." Mustang said.
"Hey General." Ed's voice sounded tired in the phone.
"You don't seem to be in high spirits." Mustang commented.
"No, we haven't gotten anywhere. It was a trap with no payoff for springing it. We're banged up and apparently Arrogance is some mysterious guy who hides in the shadows or something." Ed sighed.
"Well that's something." Mustang said. "It at least gives you a clue. It means you have to try to find him harder than you are." He drummed his fingers on the desk. "How did Aaron do?"
"Uh… well he lived."
"That's too bad—I mean good! Wonderful. I'm glad he did." Mustang said quickly, though he was smirking.
"Don't try to contain your disappointment, by all means General." Ed sounded like he was grinning. "We'll be back in a few days. I got my arm busted up again so I need a few repairs."
"Alright." Mustang agreed. "Get back as soon as possible. You have some more research to do."
"I hate you General."
"I know you do."
Mustang's face turned grim when he hung up the phone. Hawkeye glanced at him from where she was leafing through files. "Something wrong?"
"No." he rubbed a hand over his face. "There's just a lot more going on here than I'd like there to be."
A small smile played over Hawkeye's face. "Isn't there always?"
"No argument with that."
I'm right back to the depressing, what a surprise.
Liz: Sorry Greed fans.
Envy: The authoress realized she has a hell of alot of characters and will have to start killing alot of them.
Ed: Actually she planned to kill most of them for the beginnin.
Wrath: Because she is a sadist.
Lust: Indeed.
Alright alright. Thanks for your input.
Al: REVIEW!