Knowing More Than Recommended

Note: Yay, update! Hope everyone had a good holiday season and spring break. Good luck with the spring semester if you're a student like me!
I recommend listening to anything by E. S. Posthumus while reading this chapter.

This chapter features: Episode 42 "His Name is Unknown" With Al a bomb and Kimblee dead, Scar discovers how to save Al from something Lust says. Ed separates Rose and himself from the homunculi and heads back to Liore to stop the transmutation. Archer traps Mustang's men in his chimera lair and heads out to Liore with his troops. Despite Ed's protests, Archer sights a dead Kimblee and Scar and sends in men, unknowingly, to be sacrificed. Once the giant red light dissipates, Ed finds Al and realizes he's the stone, and can't be touched by Lust because of the locket.

-/-/-

Ed nearly fell to the ground, out of breath after he arrived next to Amy and Kimblee.

Unknown to his current company, he'd just confronted Lyra by cutting her sleeve. Just like Amy warned him, her flesh was decaying underneath the clothing. Lyra really was just a vessel for Dante, and someone who could transfer their soul from body to body was the perfect candidate for leader of the homunculi; just as he and his brother had deduced. After confirming, he ran like hell back towards Liore, while Rose and her people traveled to safety.

"Perfect timing, Full Metal boy," Lust taunted from afar. She didn't seem happy with the addition, but she could end anybody's life with a thrust of her hand.

Ed finally caught his breath and continued his defense for Amy's story. "Scar, she's right. Don't be responsible for mass murder. Military or not, those soldiers are still people with loved ones waiting for them back home. What right do you have to wipe them off the face of the earth?"

Scar didn't seem phased by FullMetal's accusation. "I've already explained myself to you, Edward Elric. I have no sympathy for the military!" His sentence hung in the air, as if he had more to say.

"Still, even if you make the stone now, the homunculi or the military will take it from you while you're injured!" Ed reasoned.

-/-/-

The Ishballan's steely mind quickly sorted through the facts: Dante was a puppet master looking to use the stone. Lust's presence here was to make sure he completed his transmutation. The military was nearly at high tide, ready to flood into the sandy ruins of Liore...

And blood dripped from the bullet wound in his brother's arm. Considering the fact he'd also torn off his left arm only moments ago, his exhaustion and blurring vision shouldn't have been a surprise.

He was running out of time.

"Tick tock, Scar," Lust taunted in her low, seductive voice. Fullmetal's presence here made her uneasy, he could tell.

If what the Elric implied was true- and he began to think it was- then Lust, the military, and that woman 'Lyra' or 'Dante' were all connected. The loss of his arm, and soon his brother's arm (after he activated the transmutation), would leave him completely useless to the stone if he created it right now. He had the locket to ward away Lust, but in his weakened state, he may not escape the military. And the last thing Scar wanted was for something as powerful as the stone to fall into the bloodthirsty hands of the state.

"Oh god, Kimblee!" The panicked scream came from that heinous girl comforting Zolf J. Kimblee on the desert sand. Fear reached her eyes in the form of tears as she smacked the devil's face a few times, trying to illicit a response. His stillness gave her no hope. "No, no, you can't die, you can't die..." She grabbed his hand and touched it to her face while her fingers felt his wrist for a pulse.

The symmetry between this woman and his brother, when he was losing the love of his life, did not go unnoticed. How unsettling it was to think that anyone could feel such emotion for the Crimson Alchemist.

"Ed, please do something!" she pleaded now. Fullmetal's golden eyes grew wide, not knowing how he could help.

Everything rested on Scar's next few decisions, not Ed's.

The Ishballan took a moment to silently pray to Ishballah for direction.

"Brother, brother!"

The edition of the other brother Elric took everyone's attention, including Lust's.

-/-/-

Brandon rubbed his thumb over the state emblem on the cover of his official FullMetal Alchemist pocket watch. The grooves of the stylized dragon reminded him of the European coat of arms, popular during the Dark Ages and Renaissance. Many of the old families still use their family crest in the modern day to express their ancient prestige.

As Brandon remembered these few facts, he scribbled them down in his journal.

Dark Ages, approx. 5th-15th century, ended with Italian Renaissance... The young man had a good handful of pages written with all his historical knowledge, starting from the War on Terror and going backwards to the Greek and Roman Empires. The only thing that made him uncomfortable were the gaps on the timeline. Really important gaps. Like, which President was in office during the American Civil War? What was the name of that one religion that dominated Europe until the age of enlightenment?

He hesitated to ask Kelsey about the gaps, because he knew it would only upset her.

Then again, she noticed his frustration when he couldn't remember big details about their world and would get worried anyway.

After making his mark, he placed the watch back in his jacket pocket and closed the journal. His attention turned toward his red-headed friend, who sat in the middle of the bedroom with her eyes sliding over a page in an Alchemy book. After a moment, she would switch to the Witchcraft book, finish a page and repeat the process. With her reading speed- which rivaled Ed's- finding parallels between Witchcraft and Alchemy was a task better left to her. Too much reading put Brandon straight to sleep.

"I've got it!" Kelsey exclaimed.

The male nearly jumped at the sudden shrill. "What?"

Kelsey seemed to ignore him and took out a potted plant and piece of chalk. Within moments, she had a transmutation drawn- or was it a fancy pentacle? Brandon noticed that the potted plant looked wilted, as if it were dying. She began mumbling a few words to herself, letting her hands flow from different points of the star. Gradually, the chalk began to glow a bright blue.

Brandon sat confused. "Okay, explain?"

She looked up at him- her eyes burned with an anticipation she could barely hold. The emerald irises looked so bright and... pulsating. And then she clapped her hands together.

"Woah, wait!" Brandon shouted, and stopped her from putting her hands on the plant. "Are you trying to do a transmutation without a circle?"

Kelsey turned her head to the side. "That's what I was about to test."

"But..." what if you lose your memories with every transmutation like I do? He wanted to say. The reason he stopped her was because he knew she'd be able to transmute if she tried (considering all of her studying), but what price would it come at? "You took the time to draw a circle on the floor, though. You don't need to push things."

"Brandon, I'm not even doing alchemy. I'm casting a spell."

The male didn't seem convinced. "They look the same to me! Your 'spells' just involve weird mumbling and voodoo spirit chanting."

Kelsey's brows scrunched together. She looked insulted, but Brandon didn't mean for his words to come out so harshly. "Well, if you don't like it, then go to sleep and leave me alone."

Brandon was lost for words at her offended response. He thought he'd made a funny joke, not a mocking statement. "You know what? Sleep sounds great. Goodnight," he bit back. He stood up and stomped his way out of the room, taking his journal with him. Kelsey stuck her tongue out at him as he exited.

"Next time you transmute without thinking about the consequences, I'm going to let you," he mumbled.

-/-/-

"Brother!" shouted Al.

"Al!" shouted Ed. He looked relieved and concerned. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The younger brother stopped next to the Crimson Alchemist- who was still passed out on the ground.

"Kimblee? What's he doing here? He shouldn't be here..." Al said, pointing to the bomber.

Ed shook his head, trying to wrap his head around his brother's sudden appearance in this momentous conflict. "Alphonse! What are you doing here?" he repeated. His hair antennae was standing straight up.

"Colonel Mustang is trying to convince the soldiers to hold off on invading Liore!"

The older Elric hooked his fist toward his brother. "Good work, Al! I'm glad we're on the same page. I couldn't let anyone die just so we could restore our bodies."

Al pumped his fist the same way Ed had. "Right! We agreed to find some other way."

Scar looked back and forth from both Elrics, Kimblee and the woman, and then toward Lust. As he thought, his brain felt like the inside of an Amestrian watch, with the many parts all turning into place. As he stared from Elric brother to Elric brother, the gears clicked. Scar knew, deep down, that these brothers deserved the stone, (certainly a lot more than he and his brother did). Ishabllah in heaven, help guide him on the path he knew he was receiving from above.

He gripped the locket tighter as Lust glanced over and tried to decipher his stony expression. She saw that he'd made a decision, but what did he decide?

"You- girl!" Scar shouted at Amy. She was startled out of her worried trance. "Have Alphonse carry that piece of garbage out of the city." To actually command somebody to carry Kimblee to safety... Scar didn't recognize himself. This plan must truly be the wishes of Ishballah, he convinced himself. "Edward, be ready. I don't have much time."

-/-/-

Ed watched as Scar jumped up and darted toward the center of the city.

"Get to the outskirts, or you're going to be pulled into the array!" The Ishballan shouted back.

Ed's eyes went wide as he realized- Scar was running to the heart of the transmutation. And after everything he and Amy just told him! This zealous nut was actually going to risk the military getting the stone!

All fired up, Ed didn't waste more than a second before he ran after the man. "I'm calling your bluff, Scar!"

"I don't think so, Fullmetal..." Lust's sulky voice traveled to Ed's ears just as her deadly nails stretched in front of his path. "That man wants to create the stone, and dammit, I won't let you stop him."

-/-/-

Amy looked toward Al with tears in her pleading eyes. "Al, you heard him! We've got to carry Kimblee to the soldiers on the edge of the city. There'll be a medic. They can save his life!"

While Amy spoke hysterically, Al watched as Scar ran- and brother followed. His first instinct was to follow Ed and help him eliminate the danger, as a team.

But the bleeding Alchemist on the desert sand quickly rearranged Al's priorities. Kimblee was still alive- barely alive, but still alive- and Amy was about to explode with worry. Her face now reminded him of Winry's face on the night he and Ed performed taboo- when he fell across the threshold of the Rockbell home with Ed in his arms (and a couple limbs short at that). She'd looked terrified- he arrived completely soaked, after carrying his brother's bleeding body across the stormy field in his new, hollow body. "Please, please help brother..."

"Please, please help him, Alphonse," Amy sobbed.

Al had enough faith in his brother to let him handle Scar alone. Besides, the compassionate younger brother couldn't live with himself knowing he could have saved a life but chose not to. He scooped up the Crimson Alchemist and headed toward the outskirts of Liore with Amy tagging right alongside.

The many uniformed companies waiting on the edge of town didn't take long to reach.

-/-/-

"Colonel, movement on the front!" A soldier shouted. The Colonel in command swiftly walked over... This better be what I'm waiting for... The impatient Colonel was just about to send his troops in without cause before the scout reported activity. The entire morning felt like a big fat false alarm because of how deserted Liore looked. Kimblee was sent to stir up the rebels, not destroy them all in a single night.

The scout rechecked his update through the binoculars before handing them over to Colonel Archer.

He was hoping for a sighting of an angry mob, Edward Elric's mangled corpse, maybe even Scar himself. What he viewed through the binoculars may have pleased him even more. The younger Elric brother carrying the body of the Crimson Alchemist... Archer didn't care at the moment how things turned out like that, he was just happy to finally have the opportunity he was waiting for.

The irony, Kimblee. Sent in as bait for the rebels, but now you've become the military's bait for invasion.

With a satisfied smirk, the sadistic Colonel threw the binoculars back to the scout and called for formation in the same motion. "The people of Liore have sent us a message of war by attacking a State Alchemist. The tank division will patrol the perimeter, and the infantry will march into the heart of the city to put an end to the uprising."

The rows of uniformed men followed his command with quick obedience. Pure euphoria entered the war-happy Colonel as the troops marched into the city. This was his rise to fame. His opportunity to make his mark in history. He couldn't hold back his pride-filled smirk.

"Wait! There's no rebels in the city. The people of Liore have given up!" Al tried to protest. His words pulled the smirk straight off of Archer's face.

"You're carrying the corpse of a State Alchemist, Alphonse. Surely that is the work of Scar and the rebels. The troops have every right to march in and capture him."

"He'd not dead," Al replied, but didn't deny it was Scar who put Kimblee in his condition.

"I found the medic! Bring him over here, Al..."

Archer turned toward the somewhat familiar female voice... He was fairly surprised with who he saw. A certain female prisoner he thought was safely secured back at the base. And she was eager to help her captor? Things weren't adding up when it came to this woman and the Crimson Alchemist. He dully noted this before turning back to the younger Elric.

"Colonel Archer, please call off the troops!"

"If I remember correctly, Al, you were ordered not to leave base. Collateral, remember?"

If Al had a moving jaw-piece, it would have dropped with disbelief. "My brother is in there!"

-/-/-

Scar already had a decent head-start; Ed needed to get around Lust quick. The homunculus thrust her nails in Ed's path when he tried to dash past her.

Ed's agile body easily slid underneath her sharp weapons. Before she could strike again, he transmuted a blade on his automail arm. If it was a sword fight Lust wanted, Ed would give it to her. Right as the tip of his weapon finished forming, her black nails slashed through the blue alchemy. The alchemist ducked, twisted heel, and ran along her nail's line of sight- straight for her heart.

The homunculus retreated in the nick of time.

Ed and Lust stood at a standstill, a long plane of sand stretched between them.

An even longer plane separated Ed from Scar.

The blonde alchemist took a moment to survey her facial expression, and the authenticity of her emotions. "What do you get out of this, Lust? Serving Dante, doing her bidding... You're powerful and immortal! You could do whatever you wanted without a master!" Ed challenged.

Lust closed her violet eyes for a moment, as if trying to remember a fuzzy memory from her fictional history. "Without her..." a softness came to her usually dangerous and seductive voice. "I couldn't be human. That's all I want. With the Philosopher's stone, she'll make us human, she said she wou-"

"You know that's a load of crap! Even if it were possible to turn you into a human, Dante wouldn't waste a resource as valuable as the Philosopher's Stone on something as expendable as a homunculus!"

Ed's logical reasoning and harsh tone hit Lust like the hair in that locket. She froze.

She froze because she knew Ed was right.

The alchemist took her paralyzed stance as his cue to run past her. No time to lose, Scar could already be near the heart of the transmutation...

He glanced to the right to see her black razors at the last second. He reacted by putting his automail arm up- which Lust's nails pierced straight through. She dangled the Fullmetal Alchemist off the ground for a moment, before flinging him across the plaza.

Ed hit the sand face-first. Before he could recover, she'd already pierced his automail leg through just like his arm. He glanced at her pale face; her expression was one of determination, but her eyes held a hurt behind them he'd never seen before.

The blonde shouted as she lifted him up and flung him again.

His face hit the hot sand again- this time he managed to recover and swing his automail blade at her oncoming assault. Sssshink! He didn't negate all five of her fingers- one of her daggers pierced his blade and he was tossed about again.

He was no idiot. She was throwing him further and further from the center of the city.

A few more mouth-fulls of sand and they were well past the city limits of Liore.

"Don't bother trying to run after him now, Fullmetal. You'll only get pulled into the array," Lust warned. Ed gathered himself up out of the sand and glared at the homunculus- he knew she had a point.

On cue with Lust's warning, a bright red light started growing out of the heart of Liore. Ed heard the screams of the soldiers (which had apparently invaded the city despite Mustang's best effort), and watched as the red glow grew larger and larger until the entire city of Liore was engulfed.

He noticed how far in Lust was still standing.

Was she trying to... she wouldn't let herself... "Dammit, get back!"

Without thinking, Ed rushed over and clapped his hands together. A small, blue sphere of alchemy encased Lust and himself and protected them from the greedy appetite of the red glow.

As quickly as the red glow bloomed- it disappeared again.

Nothing remained where the ruins of Liore once stood.