MAJOR RECAP TIME! If you just finished the last chapter and don't need it, skip to the next bolded, italicized, and underlined portion. If not, I'm not dead! Yet. I might just die of writer's deprivation if I'm not careful. ...My laptop broke. Again. I'm on my phone. Again. I wrote most of this a long time ago. Again.
Anyway MAJOR RECAP TIME! As suggested by someone I think might actually be dead. She hasn't been on in a while. I miss your stories, person who knows who you are I think.
LAST TIME, ON FULLMETAL ADVENTURE. COPY AND PASTED (and shortened) FROM VARIOUS CHAPTERS FOR YOUR REMEMBERING PLEASURE.
...
"Hey, Al?"
Clank. "Hm?"
"When this stuff is over, do you think you and Ed can help me with something?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"I have an idea...about...how to get back home."
"What's the idea?"
"I think I can get home if I reopen The Gate. I... I know I got here with it, even if I don't remember how or why, but I do know that another function of The Gate is to connect worlds—I think if I have something worth giving up to the Gate that isn't, you know, my life, it might let me go back through."
"That's a big 'might.'" ... "Of course we'll help you, Felicity."
I smiled. "Don't forget though. I need to help you get back into your home first."
"Once it's all over."
...
I snarled at Pride, "BASTARD!"
He laughed. "My, what language!"
My head was ringing; all I could hear was the swishy, icky sound of Pride's shadows all around me. He couldn't have just said what I thought he said.
Al spoke up... "What are you doing here, Pride?! We thought—"
"You thought I'd find you the night immediately before the Promised Day," Pride predicted smugly. "And that you and your dad would be able to defeat me by using his Philosopher's Stone. But he can't do it without you, can he?"
'"What—how did you know that?" I screamed.
"I know because you told me, of course."
...
...entire trees were collapsing around us. Al jumped back to avoid getting crushed, but I more stumbled. He blocked a giant chuck of wood from falling on me. "Now would be a good time to put those sparring lessons into use!"
"I know!" I yelped.
... a flash of bluish-gold came out of the forest and stood between us and the still-approaching shadows.
"Ed!" Al and I shouted at once.
...
"Northern automail," Ed grunted. "It's got a carbon fiber base."
"Oh, of course!" Al exclaimed. "Felicity, your automail's the same thing! You can transmute it—harden the carbon."
I fell to my knees briefly to avoid getting decapitated. "Oh!" I gasped aloud and tried to grab each arm with the other hand without getting killed. It took me a few seconds, but I'd learned how to transmute the carbon in my automail already—there were blinding alchemical sparks, and now I had two Ultimate Shield arms.
...
...something flickered, and I caught sight of lightning streaks of alchemy rising into the sky. After a few seconds, the alchemy died down, and with it all the light from the slums faded away.
"Wha—they've turned off the lights?"
Somewhere to my left, Ed cheered. "That bastard did it!"
"Where are the chimeras?"
...
After that blissful minute, Al spoke up again. "How's your cheek?"
It took me a moment to get what he meant, and when it hit me I realized my face was burning. "On fire. ... How's your head?"
"...What?"
I sniffed. "It's gone, dude. It was a...joke. To lighten the mood?"
Ed snorted.
I was curious now, though. I raised my hand and brought it up close to the gash in my face, but the very idea that there was something close to touching it made me wince.
...
Lan Fan was no longer on the job of Gluttony's demise. Instead, she'd gone to back up Heinkel and Bido in weakening Pride as much as possible in the dark. The everyone else I was talking about a moment ago consisted of Ed, Al, Darius, Greed, and Hohenheim. The latter stood off to the side, torch in hand, sending up projectiles and spikes and whatnot with motionless alchemy; and you'd think that'd be enough, but Gluttony's stone must've been huge because as many times as we'd killed him, he just would not die.
...
I stood rooted to the spot, sweeping the area with my eyes. I just had one thought in my mind right now: 'Where's Selim?'
He must've known that with Hohenheim here he was in danger of being subdued, if he was being so careful as to hide it. Finally, I clenched my fists, turned, and ran away from the fight.
...
I heard myself yell, "HOHENHEIM!", desperately hoping he was there to do something. Then I heard it: The unmistakable sound of alchemy—beautiful alchemy. As the light of the final flash bomb faded, I gave Pride a victorious smile.
I think he got the message. ... he tried to turn to see what was going on, but I tightened my grip on his neck. He snarled, "You little—" and used his shadows, now allowed to exist that the flash bomb was gone, to strike.
...my grip on Pride was abruptly broken when the shadows pierced my side, sending me flying backwards until I hit the ground gasping.
The sound of Pride's angry roars, probably in the form of the word 'NOOO,' faded away around the same time the dome closed above our heads, and the light was completely cut off.
...
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, 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.
"Sloth?" I wheezed. 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!"
"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."
...
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."
Fu moved closer so I could see him a bit. "Aren't you an alchemist doctor? Is there nothing you can do?"
"There's not enough time. And I'd need medicine—nursing without an aid is a difficult business..."
'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...
..."H-Heink'l... 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!"
...
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.
...
"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."
...
"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.
MAJOR RECAP COMPLETE! Summer is here, so... I'm hoping to get this puppy done before next school year. Enjoy.
(Yo, you mind going to my profile to check out a related and sort of important poll that will determine the ending of the story? Thanks. :3)
In the short time I was unconscious, I dreamed that Pride killed my family. The details are either too blurry or too hard to think about to describe, but I will tell you that I kept thinking it was Ed or Al or Winry who was being mauled, which left me confused and frustrated and maybe feeling a little bit guilty. Needless to say, I didn't wake up rested.
In fact, when I did wake up, it was with the sudden realization that Heinkel was dead, and everyone else could be next—Ed could be next, and Al could already be dead for all I knew! Everything going on—it was too much all at once. I was sick from exhaustion, and every inch of my body was aching; I'd definitely reached my limit.
Before any of my current companions could react, I'd already stood up, stumbled to the opposite side of my egg-shaped trap, and miraculously managed to further empty my hollow stomach
I closed my eyes and tried not to whimper. It wasn't fair. I didn't know what 'it' was, but nothing felt right—from Hughes, to Dr Knox, to Heinkel, to anyone else who might've run into Sloth by now and not managed to fight him off. Even Kimblee—
Wait.
"Felicity?"
Ignoring Fu's concerned voice, I pushed myself away from the rock wall and stumbled around Pride's new confinement. The distance wasn't far between here and the place Heinkel had been killed, but it seemed to take forever to reach it.
I stopped two feet from the edge. It felt surreal; the metal spikes I'd created in my panic earlier stood proud and rusty-looking, like the scene of a crime. My arm came up to unconsciously wipe excess vomit from my chin. My chest felt numb.
...I've been saying that a lot lately, haven't I? Numb. I felt numb; I feel numb. I guess that's just my body's reaction to things I don't want to handle. Like this: I could see, about three feet below the rim of the hole, about six feet below the reddish-brownish tips of metal, something that obviously used to be white, now stained red. At my feet, it looked like the man's shoe had been knocked off and was now sitting apart from the rest of him. The little crevices that indicated alchemy had been performed were dirty with blood and bits of...I'm gonna say skin. It smelled. Bad. None of it seemed real. I couldn't have done this. It couldn't have been me who caused Kimblee's death. Kimblee just couldn't be dead.
And yeah, I actually felt bad for Kimblee. Don't get me wrong: before now, I'd known he would die, and I didn't really care. But looking at what I could see of his corpse... It was like a slap in the face. 'That was a real, living, breathing, thinking, maybe-feeling human being. And you killed him.'
'But Gluttony was a thinking, feeling being too,' something in my head whispered, 'and I don't feel like he shouldn't be dead.'
My fists clenched. I shook my head. Not going there.
Something touched my shoulder, and I whirled around. Dr Marcoh was standing over me. He turned his head to nod at the mini-dome where Pride was being held. "You did a good job on him," he told me. There was a kindness in his eyes that made me fidget, but I didn't say anything. After a moment of silence, he raised his hand in a vague gesture. "You should let me heal those wounds."
"...What wounds?" 'Didn't he heal me before?'
The worried look that formed on his face told me I'd missed something. Marcoh pointed at my feet. "You're limping."
I looked down. Oh, there was blood on my foot. Was I limping? I tested it by putting more pressure on the left, then winced and stood on my right foot. Yep. Definitely must've been limping. Refusing to look up, I mumbled, "Oh, yeah."
I tried to get my brain to focus. 'He can heal me...with a Philosopher's Stone... which I have. It's... Right. Here.' Way too late, I raised my hand and transmuted the metal of the forearm, revealing the red stone nestled in a bundle of wires. I took it out, fixed the arm, and handed it numbly to Dr Marcoh. He nodded gratefully and knelt to fix my foot. Just—poof—done. No more pain; he didn't even have to kneel long enough for it to be awkward. Why couldn't he have done that to Heinkel?
That was it. Finally, everything that had happened in the past hour—for it had really been only an hour—made it to the 'reality room' of my mind palace. Heinkel was dead. Kimblee was dead too because of me. Sloth had gotten away to stop my friends, and it felt like my automail was going to fall apart if I did it any more damage. The one Homunculus I hadn't accounted for, the one I'd flat out dismissed, was about to ruin everything, and I hurt.
It felt wrong. So much felt wrong right now. "How could they have trusted my plan?"
"Felicity," Marcoh said, jolting me back to reality. I realized just now weird it was to hear him say my name. "Do you think you're well enough to come to Central with us?"
That got my attention. I looked up at him. "Eh?"
The man turned a bit so I could see behind him. I hadn't noticed; someone had driven a car out here. A car. I looked back at Marcoh. He explained: "While you were unconscious, we were trying to think of a way to get to Central fast enough to warn the others. Then Yoki came out of nowhere with transportation. We were just about to wake you when..."
"Right." I couldn't believe it. Yoki... He was sitting over there, acting all smug, probably telling Fu and Bido just how he got here. When...in the anime, he'd...
My teeth made a crack sound, and I realized I'd been grinding them together. "I remember now," I breathed. Yoki was supposed to have been helpful. He hadn't come in time.
And he was acting smug.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was stomping over to the chilling miner man. His back was turned to me; his hair looked freshly brushed. He was saying something about how he 'knew' he was 'needed.' That was it. I grabbed his head from behind and shoved him to the ground. Then I kicked his shin for good measure. "You're damn right you were needed!"
Yoki yelped, then cowered on the ground for a moment before daring a peek at me from under his arm. He huffed and sat up. I noticed pained tears at the edge of his eyes. "You don't have to hit me! I came, didn't I?"
I clenched my fists. Everything from my shoulders down was rattling with anger. "You should have come sooner!" The man's pathetic flinch was extremely satisfying, but I was still frustrated. Especially since I knew he'd probably come at the same time as in the anime—it wasn't really his fault—I just needed something to blame other than myself. Yoki was irritating anyway. I smacked the back of his head again and turned to look at Marcoh, whose expression might have been funny if people weren't dying. "Can we go now?"
"I think I remember now," I announced about halfway to Central.
"Finally," Yoki muttered.
"The Armstrongs," I remembered, ignoring him. "They uh... They and Izumi, Ed and Al's teacher—they can kill him."
"Where will the teacher come from?" Marcoh asked. "Did someone tell her to be there?"
I shook my head slowly. "I think... Remember how she was part of the whole spreading the word thing?"
"Mm."
"Right. She should just come." I swallowed. "I hope. But if not, I mean, the Armstrongs should be there. And Mustang. May was told to keep away from Amestris with Envy, right?"
"Of course." Fu answered this time. He was sitting directly to my right. I looked at him. "Your concern was that the Flame Alchemist would be preoccupied, correct?"
I nodded. "Mm hm."
Marcoh turned so his arm was over the back of his seat a little. "So when we get there, Fu will lead Felicity, Bido and me to Sloth, while Yoki heads to Central Command to alert the Armstrongs."
"What!" The car swerved as Yoki screeched in horror; everyone yelled at him. "I will do no such thing!" Yoki snarled, "I'll be killed!"
"You'll be killed if we don't win," I argued. "Everyone will be killed if we don't win."
"She's right," Dr Marcoh told him seriously, "I really wish it wasn't the case, but you're our only hope, Yoki. Without you, the entire country of Amestris may be swallowed by that monster."
For a few seconds, the only sound was that of wheels on the road. I could practically see the gears turning in Yoki's brain, until finally— "Alright. I'll do it."
I made a note to make sure no one praised him for this.
Central is only a few miles from Kanama. It didn't technically take long to get there—but it felt like hours.
"I think this is where Lust died," I mumbled as we turned away from the departing vehicle. (I silently prayed Yoki wouldn't run off somewhere—at least not before getting word to the Armstrongs.) The 3rd Laboratory stood tall and official-looking on the other side of its open gate.
Fu hummed thoughtfully. "If this is where a Homunculus perished, then perhaps the chi is on our side."
I looked at him. "What does that mean?"
The old man gestured at the walls surrounding the building. "Chi is made of many things. Health, vibration, emotions and intentions are a few: The energy that the ground, the air and our bodies create." He turned to face me. "The human soul has no chi, but the physical effects it has on the world are obvious—take for example your unusual spirit, struggling to survive for so long. The strain on your mind and body were always apparent."
"Okay..."
Fu nodded, like he got that I didn't really like that topic. He continued, "Death also creates a strain—people tend to feel uncomfortable in places where loved ones or relatives have died. If we're lucky, Sloth may be weaker here."
'That would be nice,' I decided.
Finally, we walked through the gate. I noticed there weren't any guards outside—didn't these places have guards?—and came to the conclusion that Ed and the others had come through here already. There was probably an unconscious soldier hidden in a bush somewhere.
Marcoh paused at the door and looked at the rest of us. "If we're confronted by anyone in there, I want you all to follow my lead."
We nodded. He opened the door.
The entrance of the building was empty, but I followed Marcoh—and Fu, who knew where we were going—through the first couple of pristine hallways before actually saying anything about it. When I did, Dr Marcoh answered my question with a question. "Did you hear the explosions from Central in that dome?"
I shook my head. "I couldn't hear anything."
"Well, the assumption was that Mustang had begun his attacks. It's entirely possible that all the men here have gone off to help deal with it."
Suddenly, Fu stopped and held his arm out to block my path. Bido grunted behind me. (Yes, Bido was still here. He hadn't been completely silent, but I wasn't paying attention.) "Here," Fu told us, turning to the wall on our left.
Bido somehow managed to scowl with his voice. "A wall? We came all this way... for a wall?" He shook his head and turned back the way we'd come. "I don't have time for this. I don't want to die because some old men—"
"No, Bido, he's right," Marcoh cut in. He knelt down and put a hand on the wall. It had transmutation marks on it.
Something somewhere suddenly exploded. And yes, I realize that's alliteration; the point is the ground rumbled. Everyone paused for a moment. "That was close," I said finally.
"We should move fast then." Marcoh stood and gestured at the wall. "If you don't mind."
I nodded. He was referring to the fact that I still had the Philosopher's Stone. It was tucked in my arm like before, and I should probably say: The longer I held it, the more sure I was that I wasn't a horrible person for using it. Something about how warm it was...I don't know. It just seemed to me that if these people's souls were going to be used for anything—and they would—the purpose of preventing others from experiencing the horror they were going through must've been the best thing to use them for.
It was this reasoning that allowed me to put my hands on the cement wall and reduce it to a lump on the floor without hesitation. With the path cleared, Fu led the way into a dark stairwell.
The stairs went down far enough that I started feeling claustrophobic. Then I started thinking: Was it too late to get off the ride? Why was I here, anyway? I'd thought we'd established how useless I'd be. So I had a Philosopher's Stone—so what? Couldn't Marcoh take it? Did he just feel like he shouldn't be the one to use it? Why not take it to Alphonse? I knew how awesome Al could be with it. I didn't want to do this anymore. What would we lose if I went back now and left the Stone with Marcoh? I knew I was panicking, and that it was too late, and that my friends needed backup, and that they hadn't felt safe leaving me with Pride, but if something didn't happen to stop these thoughts, I was gonna—
BOOM!
The ground shook. I grabbed hold of the railing to steady myself as bits of debris rained from the ceiling; something below us had just hit part of the building structure. Bido squealed, "What—!"
"Sloth," I gasped, coughing the dust away. Then I looked at Fu. "Right?"
The Xingese man nodded solemnly. "I can sense a great presence below us. It's not far—hurry!" With that last word, we started down the stairs again, this time as fast as we could. There was no time for mental freak-outs. (I actually forgot what I'd been thinking about. Just—poof—gone. Jesus...)
It took us eight seconds to get to the bottom of the stairs—I counted for some reason—and we ran faster down a hallway. Fu took a right, then a left at an intersection, and from there we followed a curve that went on for what felt like forever. Then we reached a dead end.
Fu put his hand on the wall in front of us. "It's behind this wall."
I vaguely remembered something happening in a closed off room on the Promised Day. "Okay then," I murmured, clenching my fist decisively. With an approval-searching glance at Marcoh and Fu—I noticed Bido seemed terrified—I walked up to the wall and pressed my right hand against it. I felt the elements in the rock, and the depth; it was really thick, and if the rectangular markings were anything to go by, it'd been alchemically created. 'Didn't Ed make this wall?'
That's when I realized: The burning silence of the halls behind me had disappeared. There were noises emanating from this wall. No one else seemed to have noticed. I put my ear against it.
"...m now, Jerso!"
Clang!
"...phonse!"
"I'm okay!"
BAM
I jerked back when something hit the other side of the wall. "Shit!"
"What is it?" Fu asked.
I glanced back at their confused faces, then stared at the wall, unsure of how to answer that. I wanted to hesitate; I wanted to stop here and go back, but...
Steeling myself, I put my hand back on the rock and transmuted it. Sparks flew up, revealing an enormous room on the other side of the wall. The first thing I noticed was the giant door at the end (big, gold, elaborate), but after a millisecond of surveying the rest of the room, I couldn't help but take a step back.
'They're...people.'
They were everywhere. A crowd of them—naked, white, people with red ribbons all over them, and one eye each. That's what they looked like: not zombies, or creepy, inhuman dolls—the mannequins looked like naked, albino, ugly people. For a second, I couldn't move. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to RUN AWAY. And I might've done just that, too, if Fu hadn't suddenly appeared in front of me in a flurry of knives, rushing into the room with an enraged-sounding grunt.
My mind blinked a few times, and I finally snapped back to reality, realizing... Oh, well, apparently all the mannequins soldiers within a twenty foot radius of the hole I'd just opened up were now stumbling over to me and Marcoh in a horde. Well, shit. When I realized that, I decided I needed to do something, and thus proceeded to do the dumbest thing I could think of. Running through the hole, and by association into the room, I slapped the wall behind me so it closed up, locking Dr Marcoh outside, and me inside.
Dumb.
"Felicity?" Ed shouted at me, finally realizing what was happening. "What the hell are you doing here?"
I almost looked over at him, but a mannequin by me suddenly lurched forward, its mouth a gaping, hungry hole. I yelped and yanked my arm up, grunting harshly when it impacted with the loose metal. My back hit the wall; I hissed in pain—and half a dozen more of these things started coming for me.
"No, Felicity!" Al yelled. I heard him start running for me, but it was too far. My shoulder was starting to hurt, and if I didn't act now—
"DAMN IT!" I cursed, and rammed my elbow into the wall behind me. A wave of stone shot out of the concrete to pull the monster away, taking four or five other mannequins with it before it disconnected from the wall entirely and stopped. I started to let out a breath of relief, but then another one tried to sink its teeth into my other shoulder. "Gh, no!" I squeaked in pain and tried to pry the cyclops' face off me, but it was too strong; I lost my balance and collapsed on my back, the mannequin's weight pinning me to the ground.
I might've cleared my mind enough to remember I had a Philosopher's Stone in a minute, but I'll never know for sure, because the next thing I knew the grotesque creature was being ripped violently off of me by Alphonse's gloved hand. I was lifted into the air and set hard on my feet.
"What the hell?" Al snapped before turning and kicking a gaggle of lurching monsters away from us. He sounded panicked when he turned back to me. "You're supposed to be with Pride—what happened?"
I jumped back when Darius appeared next to us, beating mannequin faces in. My mind whirled. 'Wait, where's Sloth?'
"Felicity!"
I looked up. Al wanted an answer. I swallowed. "I—I was— P-Pride got out—Sloth was there—Kimblee— Uh..." I paused, trying and failing to breathe. My ability to use words was suddenly incredibly inefficient. I held up my arm and transmuted the Stone to my palm. "I got this."
Al gasped, but I didn't give him a chance to respond; on an impulse, I grabbed his wrist and yanked it down so I could press the Stone in his hand. "Heinkel had it. I—"
I was cut off by the biggest explosion I'd experienced over the past few hours—which is saying a lot. The alchemical wall flew into the room in bits and pieces, heat searing the air until all I could see were walls and walls of light. I vaguely remember Al grabbing hold of me to shield my body from chunks of rock that rained down on his back, heat searing the air around us as flames roared. Finally, the light faded, and my pupils struggled to re-dilate.
"Well, now," a vaguely unfamiliar voice huffed. "That was almost too close."
I coughed once and tried to stand, but Al was still over me. My head knocked his chest-plate. "Oh!" He gasped, "Sorry," and stood up. I followed, coughing again as the last of the dust and smoke cleared from the air.
"When will you stop making me clean up your mess, Fullmetal?" the new voice growled, but not in a chimera or old person way. So...none of the men with deep voices I was accustomed to being around.
I turned.
Oh.
From not even ten feet away, I saw Mustang's piercing eyes as they swept critically over the room. They stopped for a moment on me, briefly taking note of my presence, before snapping back to Ed. With his head turned, I lost sight of them completely. "Seems you could use my help."
I was about to follow his gaze when another piercing thing broke the thick atmosphere like a high-pitched knife. "Alphoonse!"
Al clanked in surprise. "May?"
"May?" I gasped, turning to watch as the little girl came running out from behind Hawkeye's legs—Hawkeye, who I just noticed had come with—right up to Al's. She hugged him briefly before backing up and turning fiercely toward the other side of the room.
I looked up.
Sloth.
Now that the mannequins were gone, (Mustang had apparently incinerated them upon entering the room) all that was left were us and the Homunculus.
And May.
"May," I said cautiously. "Where's Envy?"
She looked back at me, her expression firm. "Don't worry. I got your message," she said with confidence. She turned back to Sloth. "Envy won't be giving us problems any time soon."
'I freaking hope so you little twit,' my brain barfed out before I could pre-censor it.
Everything seemed to freeze. Sloth was blinking at us in slow motion; Ed grunted, adjusting his stance to prepare for the inevitable attack. I couldn't see his face now, but I could hear the bitter smirk in his voice. "I don't know what you're doing here, Colonel, but you couldn't have come at a better time."
Mustang laughed shortly through his nose. "I can't say I completely understand what I've walked in on... But I'm pretty sure that thing is a Homunculus."
"Third one I've fought since yesterday," Ed growled, tensing further.
Mustang, uh... "tch"ed, and Sloth started moving. I found myself slipping around the back of Al's armored body "The..." Sloth began, lumbering closer to us without any apparent goal. His eyes seemed to be staring at nothing, which I found greatly disturbing, since his face was turned toward me and Al. (And May, but whatever.)
Time was frozen. Only now did I take stock of who was here. There was Darius, Zompano and Jerso, Ed and Al, Scar, May, Marcoh, Fu, Hawkeye and Mustang, and Bido. Greed wasn't there. Neither was Lan Fan. I hoped nothing bad had happened to them.
Sloth stopped moving about halfway to us and raised an arm awkwardly. "The girl," he finally mumbled, and I tensed. Everyone was tensed. Al shifted. "Pride...was supposed to be...with the girl."
I'm not sure if my face got really hot or really cold right then, but I've come to the conclusion that all emotions are directly connected to my face. 'He knows something went wrong...'
Hawkeye aimed her gun with a click. "What does he mean?" she demanded of no one and everyone.
The back of my head tingled. I turned to see Darius's sideways glare of accusation. "Sounds like someone's water tight plan sprung a leak."
The suffocating silence lasted about half a second more before Sloth quite suddenly started turning away from us. "Rrrh," he mumbled, "I wasn't told...to kill you..." He froze, and for a second I thought he would do something. Everyone else seemed to think so too, because they all shifted around, anxiously awaiting battle. ...But Sloth just turned another 90 degrees, mumbling, "Dying...would be a pain... Outnumbered... I should just...do...what Pride said... Maybe...I can sleep...after."
"What..?" I murmured—then remembered that Pride had commanded Sloth to go inform their Father of the unexpected circumstanced I'd brought about. My mind battled for a moment over whether or not I should try to stop him (tell the others to try and stop him), but by then it was too late, and Sloth had already zoomed through the wall like it was bread. The ceiling shook, sending bits of plaster and cement raining over us. It wasn't enough to do damage, but May sneezed, and Dr Marcoh (oh, he was still here?) coughed. Hawkeye put her gun away with another click. Do guns do anything without clicking? Well, I guess they BANG too, but that's sorta like an extra loud click.
Uh, anyway.
"Damn," Mustang swore under his breath, his voice almost hoarse. "This one is fast?"
My brain barfed again. 'I know! Ironic, right?'
Scar growled under his breath. "It came here with a mission."
"Yeah," the...green chimera said. Was that Zampano or Jerso? I'd only seen them in their chimera forms once before. "He kept muttering 'bout an accident, like something'd gone wrong."
The other one—pretty sure that was Zampano—turned to me. "Hey, girl, you seemed to have something to do with it. What happened back at the dome?"
"I hope Pride didn't get out," Jerso (yeah, definitely Jerso) added, his voice low, like, 'he better not have.'
And then everyone was looking at me. Twelve pairs of eyes, accusing and/or suspicious, all awaiting my answer. I suddenly felt cold. "Ah-I..."
Fu cut in for me. "The Homunculus Sloth appeared to free Pride," he told everyone, and their gazes turned on him. A sigh of relief escaped me. "That Mr Kimblee was with him, and they managed to blow up part of the imprisonment. Thankfully, we were able to subdue the Homunculus again, and Kimblee was..." He glanced at me. "Dealt with. But we were unable to stop the huge one from following Pride's orders: To come and warn his father of a mistake in their plans. They did not anticipate our preemptive moves to capture Pride."
"This Pride," Mustang cut in. "He's another Homunculus?"
No one was looking at me, so I crossed my eyes and muttered, "Ah, der," under my breath.
"The worst."
The Colonel turned to me quizzically, and I realized I'd spoken aloud. Wait, hadn't I been saying 'Ah, der'? Did I say two things at once? How was that possible? What was wrong with me? I bit my lips to silence the thoughts.
"What does a little girl know about the Homunculi?" Roy asked.
My feet shuffled unconsciously as all the images of Envy's screaming, burning face went through my head. "Oh, you know... Stuff." He was giving me that accusing look I'd grown to recognize. Suspicion, curiosity, and resolve all mixed into a face I couldn't maintain eye contact with. I stuffed my hands in my pockets. ('I have pockets?') "I...know that...the longer we stand here, the less time we have to stop a lot of deaths."
That got the reaction I was hoping for. Everyone got this, 'Oh right' look on their faces, and Al nodded. "Right." He turned to Mustang and pointed in the direction Sloth had just run. "Sir, we'll explain on the way, but right now we need to follow that tunnel."
And so we did. The first thing that happened conversation-wise was Fu asking about where his granddaughter and "the young lord" went. Apparently, they'd been dropped off above-ground when they realized the fight on Mustang's side wasn't going as good as it could have been. Wrath had showed up, and Greed thought he could hold him back. Lan Fan, naturally, had opted to stay with her prince.
"Good girl," Fu murmured.
As we continued to walk, rather than listening to the whole of the rest of what was said, I kept myself on my mental toes. 'We're walking to the heart of the enemy,' I told myself. 'There's a whole army up there, and they're depending on us. Al has a Philosopher's Stone now. I need to be...helpful.'
I frowned. 'Wait.' Would it have been more helpful if I'd kept the Stone? Al was already a good alchemist. Which was better: An amazing alchemist and an amateur with a Philosopher's Stone, or an insanely powerful alchemist and an amateur that couldn't do shit without her magic gloves and would probably get in the way?
Hm...
The pipes lining the walls seemed to become more bunched up the longer we walked. By now, I was climbing over lumps of rubber tubing and ducking under loose pipes from the ceiling. I started to get uncomfortable—physically uncomfortable.
"Ugh," Zompano snorted, and I almost jumped. I wasn't used to being so close to that weird, piggy voice. "This place is creepy."
I watched from behind as Darius paused to put a hand on the narrowing walls. "These tubes are like veins, and the closer we get...the more it feels like I've got a bad case of heartburn."
'Wait—' I stopped walking. Ed bumped into me, causing me to stumble forward, and grunted, "Wha-hey, what's the hold up?"
'—a second.' Regaining my balance, I ignored Edward's complaints and stared past the people in front of me, deep into the dark tunnel. I couldn't see anything down there, but it felt like I was looking for something. Something... "Heartburn," I repeated softly.
Darius turned, and I looked at him. His eyes shifted. "Uh, yeah?"
Now, I didn't notice at the time, but I was staring him right in the eye, my own eyes glazed over in thought, which was probably a bit creepy. I could almost feel a headache coming on. "Veins...heartburn..." I turned to the wall, and to the metal that kept the tubes from falling all over us. I turned to look behind me, beyond Ed and Mustang and Hawkeye, back the way we came. My brow furrowed. "That sounded..." I closed my eyes and put a fist on my forehead. "Mng."
"Is something wrong?" Ed asked, concerned.
I opened my eyes, still doing that thousand yard stare. I had something; I didn't want to loose it. "These tubes are like veins," I murmured, just to hear it in English.
Then it clicked.
I sucked in sharply. "Oh, no."
"What's wrong?" Hawkeye demanded.
I looked at her, almost ready to explain when I realized she had no idea about anything. So I turned to Ed. "We're going the wrong way."
"Impossible," May piped up behind me. "This is the way to the Homunculi's Father. I can sense his chi."
I clenched my fists to avoid snapping at her. "That's not what I—Ed. No..." I turned to Mustang. "Colonel. No...Wait..." 'Make up your mind.' I shook my head. "There's another way. There's something—if we don't stop him, it'll all be pointless!" Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. My brain hurt. I shook my head again, shutting my eyes and grabbing my head, frustrated and beginning to panic.
'The Gold Toothed Doctor. That was it—that guy...'
"I can't—words aren't coming out right! Ed, I remembered something. There's something else, s-something I missed. They have an alchemist—he's going to...do something, and we need to stop him. He's back there somewhere—" I gestured wildly back the way we came. "—down some other path, a path that leads somewhere with brick walls, a-and there's a proper room somewhere, with pipes in the ceiling, and—."
"Felicity." Al's leather hand landed on my shoulder, startling me to look up at him. "Calm down," he asserted. I slowed down and took a few breathes, then forced myself to relax. Man, that felt good. Why didn't I do that more often? "Now tell us what you saw. Think it through first."
I nodded, embarrassed now. I tried to think back to that exact episode. It was so distant, one of the ones that stuck in my mind the least. How could I forget? The Gold Toothed Doctor, the mysterious man who'd created King Bradley and had to be at least eighty years old. Ed, Scar, Mustang and Hawkeye ran into him in the anime. I remembered that because it was after Envy was dead, and they were already somewhere deep in another direction, probably lost. This was the way the others were going after Ed and Scar had left, or... was it after? I couldn't remember.
'Wait though. It would've taken way longer for Mustang to defeat Envy than us to watch Sloth run away and walk this far. So we have time, unless Sloth changed something. Then again, he wasn't told to go to the Doctor. We have time. But how to explain..?'
Finally, my eyes somewhere between the floor and Ed's boot, I opened my mouth again. "King Bradley was created a long time ago by government experiments. He and a bunch of other kids...were raised from birth to learn how to be the person they wanted to rule so Father could put a piece of his Philosopher's Stone in him and make him into Wrath."
Mustang gasped, and my eyes flicked up reflexively. He looked horrified. "Don't ask me how I know," I told him quickly, almost too fast to hear I think, then went back to looking at the air between me and Ed's right sleeve. "But the doctor who did those experiments is still alive and still working with them. He—it's hard to explain. ...He's going to open the Gate if we don't stop him."
Ed suddenly grabbed me by the arms, startling me so much my vision actually went dark for a moment. "Every life in Amestris is counting on this plan, and you just forgot something like that?!"
When my vision had cleared in the half a moment it took for him to say that, I found myself staring into an angry...no, a desperate pair of golden eyes. I'd screwed up again, and it was affecting Ed's mission. It wasn't supposed to be my mission, or our mission, it was Ed and Al. Not me. But if I wasn't here, they wouldn't know. If Pride hadn't escaped, it would be for naught; the sacrifices would be subdued and captured.
I felt sick. "I'm sorry, but I remember now." I tried pulling away from Ed's iron grip. I wasn't strong enough, but he released me. "We have to go back."
Fu spoke up. "But we still need to meet Hohenheim at the center of this place."
"We'll have to split up," Hawkeye decided.
Mustang sighed, apparently exasperated. "Alright. I have no idea how you know this, Felicity, but what can we expect in this room you were talking about?"
I felt my face darken. "About a dozen of the surviving children who grew up with Bradley. With swords."
"Damn," the Colonel muttered as Hawkeye glanced back down the tunnel as if she were watching for enemies.
"But they're all human," Bido piped up, nearly jumping me out of my skin. I'd forgotten he was there! Again. He flicked his tail, which, I noticed, was beginning to grow back. Creepy. "Right?"
I nodded.
"And none of them are alchemists?" Scar asked.
I shook my head, then hesitated. "Well, the doctor is... But I don't think fighting's his thing." 'Hopefully.'
"Perfect," Bido trilled, or...whatever you call lizard sounds in a human voice. "I'll go back with you guys."
"Me too," May added, confidence in her tiny voice
"No," Al told her firmly, causing her to squeak in shock. "The Homunculi's Father can still turn off our alchemy. We need you and Scar to go this way and help our dad deal with him."
"Right," Ed agreed. "And Dr Marcoh, you need to go too. Not to be disrespectful, but if these guys fight anything like Wrath, we need fast fighters."
Marcoh nodded. "I'd only slow you down."
I scratched the back of my head thoughtfully. "You know, technically, I think the four of you—" I pointed at Ed, Al, Mustang and Hawkeye, then paused, remembering that one shot where the big, blubbery, frog chimera had the doctor in his spit, and gestured at Jerso. "—and him could deal with the swordsmen."
Ed looked at me suspiciously. "You're sure?"
"I..." Well, I was mostly sure. But didn't Hawkeye get really badly hurt? And that was only because they wanted Mustang to perform Human Transmutation, so she could be killed in real life...but Jerso came in later, so if he was there to help this time, that would work, right? Or was I forgetting something? I sighed. "Mostly, but I guess you're right." 'My memory isn't all that trustworthy.'
"Okay!" Jerso exclaimed. "We'll have the original team, plus Felicity and Bido comin' along."
'Wait.'
"And me," Zompano butt in. "I'd rather protect you bozos than run into the heart of the enemy just yet."
'Plus me?'
Everyone sort of paused to take in the situation. I tried to open my mouth and protest, but for some reason I couldn't. I was suddenly thrown back to a year ago—more than a year ago—when the idea of talking in front of one person I didn't know well made my skin crawl. The only people I knew personally in this room were Ed and Al...and Darius, I suppose. Did May count? I didn't want to argue with these people.
"That's gotta be most of our best fighters," Mustang pointed out warily, drawing me out of my pointless thoughts. "I'm not sending two old men and a little girl into the hear of the enemy with only Scar and a chimera to protect them. You'll have to forgive me, Dr Marcoh, but you're no soldier."
Fu lowered his head so a somber shadow fell over his mask. "And you'll have to forgive me, Colonel, but my age does nothing to impede my competency, and this girl can handle her own from what I've seen." He glanced around. "However, I see your point. We need numbers when it comes to this Father Homunculus."
"Felicity," Marcoh caught my attention. "You still have the Stone Heinkel gave us. You—"
"Actually," Al interrupted. "Oh, sorry." He paused, but now everyone was listening. "Um... Actually, she gave it to me." He held out his hand, and all those who didn't already know of the Stone's presence gasped. Al seemed sheepish. So sheepish, in fact, that I almost could've sword I saw him blush. "In all the commotion, I almost forgot about it."
Ed looked at me in shock. "Wh...where did you get that?"
"Heinkel had it," I said numbly, hoping the other chimeras wouldn't ask why he wasn't here with us.
"Oh, yeah," Darius remembered, "He picked it up in the mines back at Baschool." He paused. "Why isn't he with you guys, anyway? Was he too injured?"
'Damn it.'
After a moment of hesitation, Fu responded. "Pride attacked us all at once. The rest of us are lucky to have escaped with our lives, but your friend..."
I bit my lip.
Strangely, the chimeras didn't freak out at the news. They looked stricken, definitely angry, but none of them yelled vengeance or pounded the walls or anything I'd imagined they would do. Instead, Jerso looked sadly at the ground, and Darius clenched his fist. It occurred to me that these guys had been part of the military. Death was always a possibility.
I looked down.
Then Zompano snorted, snapping the silence like a twig. "We can't waste any more time." He looked at Fu. "The old man said we need numbers going this way." He gestured the way we'd been walking with his snout.
Jerso glanced around and nodded. "So? How're we splitting up?"
Marcoh looked relieved at the change of subject—or maybe I was projecting. Either way, the doctor turned his attention to the glowing thing in Al's hand. "I was about to suggest the chimeras continue with us while the rest of you move on."
Fu nodded. "The fact that Felicity has the Stone may be more than enough to aid you."
"But now Al has the Stone," I blurted.
Ed looked at me curiously. "Why did you give Al the Stone?"
I rubbed the back of my head uncomfortably. My voice went down to a mumble. "I just thought Al could put better use to it 'cause he's a good alchemist..."
'...and I don't want to be involved in the fighting.'
"Exactly," Hawkeye said, and I looked up. She was giving Mustang a look. "Edward and Alphonse are already skilled alchemists."
Mustang's eyes widened ever so slightly in understanding; he looked at me. "Can you use a Philosopher's Stone?"
I swallowed. "Uh, well, yeah, but—"
"Hey, hold on," Ed cut me off sharply. "Do you know what those things are made of, Colonel? Th—"
"Human souls. I know, Ed." Roy looked the younger State Alchemist in the eye. "But what do you think is going to happen to those souls now? Do you think you can save them?"
"I..." Edward stared at him for a long moment before casting his gaze to the floor with a defeated grunt.
I stared at the side of his head. I remembered how I'd justified use of the Stone with the idea that the souls inside were in pain, the same kind of pain I'd felt in my own soul before. I knew Ed had felt it too, back in Baschool, when he'd transmuted a part of his soul...but... No, it wouldn't have been the same, would it? He'd only used part of his soul. He didn't know.
I didn't really feel like telling him.
Suddenly, something leathery grabbed my right hand. I jumped, then flushed when I realized it was Al. I watched as he set the Philosopher's Stone in my palm with a subtle clank, then looked up at him. "Hawkeye's right," he told me, still holding my comparatively tiny hand. I guess he wanted keep me from pushing it back, but it made me slightly uncomfortable. "You need this more than the rest of us. Do you think you can use it?"
'Oh man, his eyes...' My vision went fuzzy around the edges, and I blinked. His bright red eyes had actually given me the staring-at-a-light-bulb effect. Weird. "I-I guess," I finally answered, noticing vividly that Al had let go of me already. He stood tall and tilted his head so it looked like a smile, nodding encouragingly. I couldn't help but smile back.
"That settles it," Mustang announced. "Felicity will lead us four to this 'doctor.'" He turned to the others with his military-man face. "The rest of you hurry to meet this Hohenheim character. Remember, there's still Sloth to deal with. Hohenheim might have a Philosopher's Stone, but I won't bet on one man against two powerful Homunculi."
Everyone nodded.
I had the Philosopher's Stone in my hand now, which meant I'd lost any chance to protest my involvement. It wasn't like we had any more time to waste, anyway. I'd just have to try and keep a visual of the room that gold toothed doctor was in in my head (double in...grammatically correct, but not aesthetically pleasing) and hope for the best. Focusing on that visual, I followed Al back the way we'd come. Ed and Mustang took the lead, and Hawkeye fell back to walk next to me.
We were all quiet until we reached the crossroads that had originally led us down this way. Here, Ed stopped and turned to me inquisitively. Mustang asked, "So, which way?" He sounded very doubtful.
I hesitated. The tunnels seemed to reverberate with silence. I stared down the two other directions we could've gone, thinking, because, while every path started out with off-white, cement floors, one of them clearly transitioned into a bricked up tunnel not too far down...but the other was more concrete. I very clearly remembered both environments in Mustang's fight with Envy. But which came first...?
I took a breath and closed my eyes, trying to visualize it...
The screen lit up red as the green Envy howled from the pain of being burned alive. From his position across the room, Mustang snarled something like, "I can't believe you'd give me a bigger target. You idiot." Envy simmered and sparked and moaned on the ground, clutching his face protectively. "Stand—"
No.
"Rise, you monster! You'll suffer a thousand deaths before I'm done."
Envy's burning face was shown up close. His horrified voice echoed as thoughts: "That's right. This was the man who burned Lust to death!"
Or something like that.
Clearly panicked, Envy glanced around before throwing a chunk of the wall at Mustang's face and running off in his human form. Down the nearest hall he ran, the dark grey walls creating a more hurried atmosphere as Mustang's enraged voice exclaimed, "YOU COWARD!"
I opened my eyes and pointed down the more concrete tunnel, the one that appeared more like the halls we came in here through. "That way."
The others shared a glance I couldn't read before following my instruction. For a second, I was almost surprised...then I remembered we didn't have that much time.
"So," Hawkeye started after a moment of walking, her voice easy. Too easy... I looked at her curiously and realized she was talking to me. "How do you know about this dangerous alchemist?"
I swallowed. I'd never spoken to her before—not directly, anyway. Was I really still that shy? Could I still say "shy" at this point? I sighed through my nose. "It's a long story...kind of."
"Kind of?"
I looked ahead and found that I could only see the back of Mustang's head. Ed too. Neither of them were watching us, but I could tell they were listening; both had their heads ever so slightly turned to the side, so it wouldn't have seemed unfriendly if they were talking to each other. Al didn't give any signs of noticing the hawk's eye's question, but that was enough to say he was listening too.
I decided not to look at Riza's face while I answered. "I guess it's not long, just hard to explain. I...I guess I performed Human Transmutation..? But I don't remember it—and the um... I don't know how much you know about that, but I saw some things..." I glanced at Hawkeye's face, expecting shock or curiosity, or even disgust, but what I got was clear cut kindness. She tilted her head, like, 'Go on.' 'Oh.' I cleared my throat. "I-instead of getting to transmute without a circle like Ed and Al, I learned some things about...stuff. The Homunculi and their plans, mostly."
"So that's why you insisted on staying with the Elrics," Mustang concluded. "You knew their father was involved."
At the mention of Hohenheim, my eyes automatically flickered over to Ed, but he didn't react. "Yeah, I guess..." I said hesitantly. "Sort of. That, and they need people who've performed Human Transmutation." Weirdly enough, Edward's shoulder actually twitched at that. 'Huh.' I cleared my throat again. "That, and I wanted to help Ed and Al. All this stuff with the Homunculi and their dad and Human Transmutation—it's all connected."
'Hopefully, there won't be any follow up questions... I just jinxed it, didn't I?"
"How so?"
"Of course," I muttered. "Uh, I mean—i-it's complicated."
Al glanced back and caught my eye. "I understand," the armored boy asserted after a moment. "You don't have to explain." Again. You don't have to explain again. I gave him a relieved smile, but he'd already turned his gaze ahead of him.
Things were quiet for a while after that. As we walked, I thought about where we'd end up next. After Envy ran away, the episode had gone...somewhere else. The nearest thing I remembered...
Colonel Mustang was shown stalking a concrete tunnel with off-white walls, pipes embedded perfectly up near the ceilings. It looked man-made—and fireproof. "Come out, Envy! I ...(something something)," he yelled into the darkness. A boot was shown stepping out of the shadows; Mustang turned and was confronted by a sinister version of Maes Hughes. "Hughes" said something, causing Roy's face to form such a terrifying expression of fury that I almost flinched away from the screen before he incinerated the cruel representation of his friend, growling like an enraged animal—
"Which way now?"
"Hh!" I just about jumped out of my skin as I stumbled away from Mustang, falling into the wall on my left before I could remember myself. I rubbed my shoulder self-consciously. "Ouch."
"Felicity...is something wrong?" Al asked worriedly.
My face reddened. I shook my head and looked around. "Oh..." We were exactly where I'd been in my mind just now—unless every turn and corner looked the same, which was completely plausible. Confused, I took a few steps forward to have a look down the left turn that was available, but it was too dark to see. Gazing ahead, I took note of the electric lights flickering up above. All the familiarity was bringing back memories...but not enough to know for sure.
I turned to find the spot Envy had stood as Hughes. It wasn't hard; this was exactly where I'd thought it was. I backed up until I could easily imagine him standing there, staring at me with those cold, evil eyes. I remembered how I'd felt watching that for the first time: Empathetic, angry...like Roy's every move was perfectly justified. Envy's screaming seemed to echo in my mind.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? YOU DIDN'T EVEN HESITATE TO INCINERATE YOUR BEST FRIEND!"
My head buzzed. As though in a trance, I raised my right hand and imagined watching the pettiest Homunculus writhe on the ground, screaming as he burned alive, forced to regenerate again and again... He'd been thrown back in a fireball...run at Mustang...
I snapped.
Once his muscles had regrown themselves, Envy ran crying in the most direct route he could away from his attacker. His skin crackled as he leaped down through a hole in the ground...
My face burned at the realization of what I'd just done. I looked at Ed, deliberately avoiding Mustang's eyes. "Did we pass a pit back there? Something with pipes leading into the ground—wide enough to cover a hallway about this wide?"
Ed and Al looked at each other, and I realized they were both unnerved by my behavior. Al made an anime-gasping sound, and Ed's brow was furrowed so tight, I almost expected it to implode. I didn't want to see what Mustang thought of my random snapping. 'Why'd you do that, me? The heck is wrong with you?'
Finally, Hawkeye responded. "The tunnel's been perfectly straight up until now."
Still embarrassed, I nodded at the turn. "That way then."
We started down the darkened path. This time, it was Ed and Al who brought up the rear, so I was stuck in the middle. I wouldn't have minded that had, against all my inner wishes, Mustang not slowed his step to match mine. I tried not to acknowledge him.
"What was that?"
My head turned of its own accord, and I caught sight of the Colonel's almond shaped eyes for a moment. "...What was what?"
"That," he answered, holding out his hand in a ready-snap position. "What were you doing back there?"
"Oh. That. Um..."
I ignored him for a few seconds longer. This place, his voice—the fact that my memories were being distorted by reality—it made me wary of making him mad. 'I was just remembering how you might've taken the worst kind of vengeance for your best friend's death if I wasn't here. Oh, by the way, I could've stopped his death, but I didn't. Instead, I told him that his death was important, so it was basically suicide for him to follow every move I told him he'd make.'
I glared at the ground. 'Yeah, that's right. I made Hughes commit suicide.'
I took a deep, almost ragged breath. 'I killed Maes Hughes.'
I opened and closed the fist with the Philosopher's Stone in it. 'I'm basically Envy.'
Only slightly perturbed, I turned down the volume of my computer. When that didn't work, I took out one earbud. Still, Envy's tortured screams made me dizzy, but it was far too satisfying to say it bothered me. He killed Maes Hughes...
"Is something wrong?"
I flinched and licked my lips guiltily. I wasn't an idiot; I knew Mustang wouldn't torture me to death if he knew Hughes' dying was somewhat my fault, but... He might burn me. He'd be somewhat justified if he did.
"Felicity?"
It was so weird to hear Mustang say my name. "I don't remember everything I saw. I was just...trying to bring it back."
"Bring what back?"
I clankle-clanked my fingers together nervously. "The probable future. Th-that's a lot of what I saw. Stuff that should be happening now...but isn't."
'Shut uuuuppp. Mustang's SMART. He'll be thinking about Hughes next!'
'But he won't say anything...right?'
He didn't say anything.
It didn't take us long to reach the indention in the floor that I'd told them about. I acted like I wouldn't have expected anything less, but in all honesty, I was really relieved. I'd been almost sure I was wrong.
It went on like that for a little while longer. We'd reach a crossroads, and I'd dig something unpleasant from my memory to make an educated guess. It didn't take long for me to run out of guesses, but at that point I didn't really need to; the uncomfortable feeling from before was back. This time, Ed felt it too.
"We're getting close."
I realized those "old wounds" he'd been talking about in the show wasn't his automail. It was his side, the place he'd healed using his own soul energy. His hand twitched, like he wanted to place it on the scar. My chest felt tight.
Then we found it. At the end of a long, long, brick hallway of empty arches leading to empty rooms and more tunnels, through another arch, down a short path; we entered a large, dome-like room with pipes in the ceiling and a figure hunched in the middle. I slowed to the back of our small procession, wondering frantically if I should have insisted we bring a chimera along. I'd remembered about half-way there that Scar had been there as well. What if we needed him? What if he'd made all the difference? Would Al and I be enough to replace him? I clenched my fist around the power of the Philosopher's Stone, buried in the metal of my hand. I hoped the alchemist crouched over his unfinished circle just yards away couldn't sense it.
As we stepped into the room, he stood up, stuffing his hands in his lab coat. We stopped. "Well, now. I wasn't expecting to have an audience so soon."
'"So soon."' I shuddered. 'Right. Pride.' How could I have forgotten? The Homunculi knew that someone would turn up here. What else did they know? I remembered the fight Lan Fan and Greeling had with Wrath. A flash of worry made my stomach clench.
"You're gonna give me performance anxiety. Hehe." The man smiled, revealing a glinting gold tooth to match his glinting glass lenses.
Everyone else got into a battle stance, and Ed transmuted his automail with a ringing clap. I flexed my hand and started to transmute those fist spikes I'd come up with whenever ago, but then I realized that didn't give me much reach; wherever those swordsmen were, I didn't want to get anywhere near them. So, instead, I pressed my hands together and used the Stone to copy Ed's over-hand blade on both arms. 'Hope they're not too thin...'
"This him?" Ed growled.
I nodded. "Not sure where the others are."
The doctor—I'll just call him Gold Tooth—leaned forward suddenly. "Oh, I didn't realize that was you, Felicity. And here I'd thought Pride had taken care of you." He chuckled darkly, leaning back and raising one arm above his head. I vaguely recognized the gesture; my body tensed. "I guess you just can't leave things to children, can you?"
My brain farted out a passing thought before, one by one, the leftovers of King Bradley's creation dropped from the ceiling and ran at us. 'Apparently he KNOWS ME—' The thought was sharply interrupted by a sudden shot of adrenaline. 'The circle is there. He's gonna finish it while they're after us. I need to stop him.'
'Right.'
"Why don't you boys keep them out of my hair for just a few minutes?"
Then they were on us. Hawkeye and Mustang ran left, and the Elrics darted to the right; my first impulse was to follow the boys, but something intelligent—or maybe stupid—told me to take advantage of my only advantage. So instead of racing off one way or another, I dropped so hard that my left knee clunked against the floor. The pain in my knee jarred me for half a second, but I managed to be quick enough and—
'No.' The...the ground didn't transmute. I'd wanted a giant pillar to drive itself through Gold Tooth's circle, but all I got were some crumbling bricks and dust. 'What happened? Isn't brick mostly rock and mud—?'
A vice grip snatched my upper arm and yanked me to my feet. My struggles were cut off—literally—by a blade pressed against my throat; I stopped moving just in time. My neck stung. I felt something wet make its way down my chest. 'Shit.'
"Felicity!" Al yelled, distracted just long enough for a guy to run him through from the side. He turned, grabbed the sword, and bashed the leftover in the face with the hilt before starting toward me—only to get caught up by three other men.
That's when I remembered the Philosopher's Stone. I may not have transmuted brick before, but I knew my own arms; I focused, there was a spark and a SHWING, and the blade on my right forearm shot back through the elbow. The man behind me grunted. I felt the wet of blood on my back as his sword arm wavered. No time to lose, I grabbed the blade and brought it up over my head, turned around, then kicked the man between the legs.
'Ah...oops.' I winced as he fell to the ground, bloody and in pain. I almost felt sorry for him, but something whooshed behind me, and I turned with the stolen sword outstretched. The new guy easily ducked and flung it away with his own before stabbing my left arm with such terrible strength that I was thrown into the wall behind me—about two yards behind me, in fact, and the blow to the back of my head really didn't help anything. I tried pulling the arm forward, but he'd managed to pin me to the wall. Another leftover ran up and went for my other arm, and that's when I realized what they were doing.
"NO." I raised my hand to block the attack to my shoulder—as if that would work—and was surprised when the blade simply glanced off the palm of my hand. Without pausing to question it, I grabbed the blade stuck in my left bicep and deconstructed it in an explode-y mess of sharp bits, one of which cut my nose. (Ah, good old steel... Easiest material by far.) Then I darted away. One of the men managed to grab my shirt, but I just alchemically dissolved the part he'd touched and kept running toward the center of the room.
Two more came at me, blades flashing. I yelped, stumbling in a really bad attempt to dodge. Arms went up; the men's weapons sparked against my wrists. The men recovered as quick as that, though, and struck mercilessly. If Hawkeye didn't shoot them both in the back of the head, I wouldn't have made it.
"Use the Stone!" she called.
I didn't even argue. Gold Tooth was only ten feet away from me. I pressed my hands together, transmuting circles into the backs. They were rough, Al had told me, but they'd do the job on simple stuff. I fell to the ground and used them on the brick. 'Clay,' they told me. It was mostly clay. "God, I'm an idiot," I muttered, sending up walls to protect myself. The outside layer crumbled with the impact of someone's sword, but it mostly held while I destroyed the ground under Gold Tooth's feet.
I wasn't even sure if it'd worked when my walls were struck down by two men's muscly blows. I saw a flash of their bloody fists before something sharp went through the top of my left shoulder. I gasped in pain, stumbling away from the second guy's attack. He thrust forward, aiming for the other shoulder—or maybe my neck—and I deflected him with my forearm. I used the blade still transmuted into my left arm to cut down on his wrist. Somehow, it struck home. Blood spewed from the deep cut, which distracted him long enough for Alphonse to leap in and kick him into the other guy. They both went flying.
"Al!" I squeaked. This was way worse than Ed's sparring lessons.
The armored boy turned to me. His eyes flashed. "You're hurt!"
"AL, behind you!"
At Ed's warning, Alphonse whirled around and grabbed someone's shoulders. I couldn't see them from this angle, but Al sounded pretty satisfied when he exclaimed, "Gotcha!"
Something exploded behind me. I turned to find a burnt corpse on the ground; Mustang had already gone off to snap at someone else, but I realized, in that moment, that the only reason I was alive was the fact that everyone else knew I couldn't fend for myself. Never before had a charred body humbled me so.
"Call them off," Al was commanding of the man he'd captured. Turning back to him, I could only assume it was the gold-toothed alchemist. "Call them off now!"
The man laughed. "Or what? You'll snap my neck?" He clearly didn't think Al had it in him.
I thought about what this guy had done. He'd made Wrath, forced countless young boys to grow up as mindless slaves, and now he expected them to give their lives for him; he was working with the Homunculi, and he seemed to have recognized me, which could only mean we'd met before I got that memory wipe. What if he'd been the one to interrogate me? None of the Homunculi seemed to have that sort of subtlety in them.
This man was a monster.
Deliberately motivated, I stalked around Al's metal body and transmuted my right hand into fist-spikes. I thrust pressed their points against the man's exposed neck. He met my eyes. "Call them off," I told him. He started to smile, to call my bluff, but that just made me angrier. I pushed against his skin and drew a thin stream of blood. The smile faded. The tint of his glasses went away, revealing eyes that were equally derpy and fearful. I imagined I'd actually do it, transmute these spikes into a long, smooth blade and watch his head roll to the ground. For a second, I imagined it was Pride's head, then Envy's. ...No, Pride.
My heart pounded with the idea of killing that monster. GOD, I hated him SO MUCH. I didn't even realize how much I'd hated that little brat until now. What I wouldn't give to replace this cowering man with that monster...
"Lay down your weapons, men!"
I pulled away, slightly jarred by the vocal vibrations that had run up my automail. Still, the sounds of fighting petered out around us, punctuated by a final BANG! from Hawkeye's gun. Gold Tooth grunted as Al shoved him to the ground and transmuted arms of rock and brick to hold him still.
I stepped back. All around me, bodies alive and dead littered the floor. Thankfully, none of them were my companions, but it still made me shudder. The rest of the men—maybe seven or eight of them—dropped their weapons.
My eyes scanned the room for the transmutation circle we'd come here to prevent, and, to my happy surprise, I found that I'd succeeded in turning it inside out. In place of that spot, a vague cat face peeped out of the ground, broken whiskers crumbling apart.
"What happened?" Mustang demanded. He still had his hand up snap-ready in someone's face.
Al looked down at the blind man crouched at his feet. And yeah, he was blind. It was obvious when I thought about it: The eyes, the fact that he hadn't realized I was there 'til I spoke... He must've been an incredible alchemist to be able to draw out a Human Transmutation circle without seeing it.
"Felicity stopped him," Alphonse said.
If my face weren't already hot with adrenaline, I'd have blushed. "Al stopped him."
"This won't change anything!" Gold Tooth growled. Well, I say growled... It sounded more like an angry rasp. "This was just a convenience. We know that Izumi Curtis is close by." He laughed manically. I thought Mustang anime-grunted. "It won't be long before word is sent to Pride and he collects the final sacrifice."
The atmosphere in the room grew still.
"Pride?" Al finally echoed, and the air seemed to melt in an instant. Suddenly, that blind old man seemed like the most hilarious thing in the world; he didn't know I'd kept Pride from being here! I laughed, covering my mouth because I actually didn't mean to. 'Oh god...'
Gold Tooth's face lost all expression. "What? Uh, what are you—"
"You-your backup was P-Pride?" I choked. I tried to stop laughing, but somehow this was just so funny. I took a few slow, deep breaths and pressed a palm to my forehead. "You're so arrogant," I wheezed, completely oblivious to everyone else's gaze. "You knew...you all knew, but Pride came anyway...with Gluttony. You knew, but you didn't change your plans. You even relied on him." I coughed out a giggle. "You're so stupid!" I gasped, eyes widened. "You're dumber than me..."
"What are you on about?" the stupid man snarled. "Aren't you scared of Pride the Arrogant?"
I grinned. "Terrified."
Mustang reminded me that I wasn't the only person in here by snorting. "So we have all the Homunculi subdued except the fuhrer, huh?"
My grin faltered, but I still nodded. "And Sloth."
"Let's not get cocky," Hawkeye warned. "That's still a lot to handle, and we still have their father to deal with."
"Right," Mustang agreed. He glanced around. "As for these mindless drones?"
Thinking back on it, I think I knew what was about to happen before it did. I even flinched at the words "mindless drones" instead of the sound of Hawkeye's shotgun as it struck down every leftover in the room. Ed and Al gasped in horror. I just remained frozen, staring at the barrel of the gun until it was back in its harness.
"What the hell!" Ed screamed, just as Al yelled, "Why did you do that?!"
Naturally, my brain tried to supply an answer. 'Their lives were meaningless anyway.' I shivered at how cold that sounded.
Mustang turned to the doorway at the other end of the room. "They were the enemy, mindless drones without any reason to hold back. If we left them alive, they'd be a threat."
Ed glared at him, but evidently he saw no point in arguing. Al sighed angrily and joined his brother in following the Colonel. I brought up the rear with Hawkeye.
We left the blind alchemist trapped in the ground.
Lemme know if my writing's getting worse.
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