SHONEN ALLIANCE

BOOK OF THE SHADOWS

EPISODE 35

Battle of Avarice

Opening Theme: Melissa (Fullmetal Alchemist)

"Ah great, now the greedy guy is here!" Ali whined.

"The greedy guy?" Sloth replied looking up at the man who had just joined the fight, "he's emitting the same aura as a Homunculus… who is he?"

"That would be Greed," Ichigo sighed in reply, "just what we needed, now there are two of them."

"What? That's Greed as well?" Sloth replied.

"Unfortunately," Ed replied, "sooo, what's the deal? Is this Homunculus good or something?"

"Uhhh," Sloth replied, obviously uncertain of what to say. She yelped a little when Ali suddenly grabbed her from behind and smiled.

"What are you, thick or something, Shorty? Of course she's one of the good guys! Does she look like a bad guy to you?" the young Valkyria replied smiling.

"STOP CALLING ME SHORTY!" Ed shouted angrily.

"Are you guys still here?" Ling/Greed shouted suddenly, "get lost, you're all cramping my style."

"You don't have to tell us twice," Ed replied, "like we'd stay here anyway."

"Come on, let's get going," Ichigo ordered.

"Wait," Sloth pleaded, "I… please… can I…"

"Stop stuttering and come on, we're wasting time," Ichigo ordered.

"Huh?" Sloth replied, "wait, but…"

"You want to help save the people here from getting killed right? Well if she's your mother, then maybe she'll listen if you tell her you don't want to kill anyone. Maybe you can end this without anymore fighting."

"Do you think so?" Sloth asked, suddenly looking very hopeful.

"I wouldn't count on it. There's no way Mother will even allow a little traitor like you to even see her. I'll let you go, but I doubt Wrath will be so kind," Greed declared, smiling wickedly.

"Wr… Wrath?" Sloth replied timidly. She was obviously frightened by the name of the other Homunculus.

"Don't worry, I can handle him," Ichigo replied, "now, let's go."

"Right," Ali replied, "oh, which reminds me, we can't just call you Sloth all the time. I know, how about Senna!"

"That's my name! We'll get confused," Senna replied.

"Oh, that's where I heard that name before," Ali replied, "Umm, how about Momo?"

"We have one of her," Kakashi replied, "she's the one with the bun in her hair who stayed at the castle."

"Oh man, uhh… Rangiku?" Ali tried again.

"We definitely don't need two of her," Miria replied.

"Ooooo, Mizore, you pick a name!" Ali shouted angrily, glaring at Mizore.

"Tsukune," Mizore replied simply.

"Huh? That's a boy name!" Ali shouted angrily, "you can't just say the name of the boy you like when we're trying to name a girl!"

"Guh, I swear, I'm never having kids," Ichigo sighed as the team began to leave.

"Selvaria, come on," Alicia said as she began to follow.

"I said that I was staying behind," Selvaria replied.

"Huh? But that Greed guy has things under control here," Alicia replied, "if you're worried about Vine, he'll be fine."

"I AM NOT WORRIED ABOUT SIR VINE!" Selvaria shouted angrily.

"You're always lying whenever you shout like that," Alicia replied cheekily. Selvaria looked rather dismayed that she'd been figured out so easily. "Alright, just take it easy on those two Greeds. I'll see you when you catch up," Alicia declared as she took off after the rest of the group.

"Heh, of course," Selvaria replied, "you should know by now that you can't get rid of me that easily.

"Well, what do we have here?" Ling/Greed asked as Selvaria readied her Lance and Shield, "another one of the dark hair's Valkyrian girlfriends. Man, gotta hand it to him, he sure knows how to pick 'em."

"How dare you speak ill of Sir Vine!" Selvaria shouted angrily.

"Whoa, easy there Babe, I don't recall saying anything 'ill' about 'Sir Vine'. Apparantly, your body isn't the only thing hotter then the brunette Valkyria."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!" Selvaria shouted angrily.

Greed, if your done pestering the Valkyria, we have a bigger problem to deal with, Ling declared irately from inside Greed.

"Quiet Prince. Don't forget who you're talkin' to here," Ling/Greed replied as the Ultimate Shield spread up Greed, "I said I wanted this girl's head and to be the only Greed, and I don't forget about things I want!"

"Prince, huh?" female Greed declared, "you've got a pretty high ego for an inferior Homunculus."

"Ego? Hardly! You happen to be talking to the Prince of Xing!" Ling/Greed shouted as both Greeds charged at each other with their shields covering their arms. Female Greed took the first swing and connected with Ling/Greed's jaw, causing him to step back.

"Gonna have to do better than that, babe," Ling/Greed declared as female Greed realized that he had spread his shield to cover his cheek.

She's not the only one. You realize that if her shield is just as hard as ours, we're not gonna be able to puncture it either, right? Ling asked.

"I remember telling you to shut up!" Ling/Greed shouted as he slammed his fist into female Greed's cheek, knocking her through the air and onto her back, "it doesn't matter that our shields are equally hard, because I'm the stronger Greed!" he shouted as female Greed rose to her feet. Her shield had covered her cheek as well… and there wasn't a scratch on it.

What was that you were saying?

"No one likes a smart mouth, Ling!" Greed shouted angrily.

"That's unfortunate. It appears your theory about strength doesn't turn out to be true. Too bad, because since it looks like our shields are both equally hard, this might take a while," female Greed declared cheekily.

"You're forgetting me!" Selvaria shouted firing a large burst of energy from her lance which engulfed Greed.

"You're not even worth forgetting," female Greed declared as the flame dispersed revealing her to be fully shielded and unscratched, "if you're not right next to me when you fire your attack, you can't even scratch me, and don't even think that I'll let that happen again."

"What?" Selvaria gasped, surprised by the fact that her attack had no effect.

"Well, looks like you're just in the way now," Ling/Greed declared as his Ultimate Shield covered his entire body, "guess I'll just have to cut loose!"

"That won't do any good," female Greed replied, "not when our shields are equally powerful!"

"We'll see!" Ling/Greed shouted as they both charged each other. Ling/Greed made the first move, kicking female Greed in the stomach before planting his feet again and bringing his fist up to uppercut her under her shielded jaw. She only took a step back before regaining her footing and slamming her head into Ling/Greed's knocking him back a step. The two Greeds continued their exchange of blows, neither one gaining any ground, while Selvaria watched from the sideline's obviously annoyed.

"I don't know which one is which anymore," she said angrily, "I might be able to get the enemy with a sneak attack, if I knew which one she was." Just then one of the Greeds was able to knock the other one back a good distance so Selvaria made her move, appearing in front of the one that was still standing, her lance pointed directly at the Greed's throat.

"Now I have you!" she shouted.

"You idiot! Wrong Greed!" Ling/Greed shouted angrily at the Valkyrur.

"What?" Selvaria gasped, her eyes widening with a look of surprise, which soon turned to one of pain as a large amount of blood suddenly erupted from her back, knocking her forward.

"I told you, you're little more than an annoyance right now," Greed declared, shaking Selvaria's blood off her shielded hand.

"What an idiot," Ling/Greed declared, stepping to the side as Selvaria fell past him.

How… how could I be defeated so easily… with only one blow? Selvaria wondered, have I grown so weak during these last years? Is this… Is this because I allowed myself to grow soft… have I… her thoughts were interrupted as she fell against something soft which gently lowered her to the ground, laying her on her back.

"Well look who showed up," she heard Ling/Greed declare, "what keapt you."

"Shut up," she heard a voice call back. The voice sounded so… familiar.

"My… my lord, Maximillian?" she asked.

"What?" the voice replied.

"What did she just say, Raging Blast?" another familiar voice asked, causing the wounded Valkyrur to snap back into reality.

"Sir Vine!" she exclaimed in dismay as she stared up at Vine kneeling next to her and Colonel Mustang who was standing above her on her other side. She was dismayed to see that they both had worried looks in their eyes.

"Vine, I think I can treat her injuries," Rukia declared running over to them.

"Yeah, sure," Vine replied, his voice showing that he was troubled, "I'll leave her to you then."

"Sir Vine… wait, I…" she tried to cry, but he had already stood and began to walk away.

"So what's the deal? I thought you were gonna prove you were the one and only Greed, weren't you?" Vine taunted.

"Shut up!" Ling/Greed shouted, "there's not much I can do when I can't get through her shield!"

"Sure sounds like an excuse to me," Mustang replied, "pretty pathetic, actually."

"Just weaken her shield a little bit and I'll show you pathetic!" Ling/Greed shouted angrily.

"What? Is the one and only, mighty Greed asking this ordinary human for help?" Vine mocked.

"And a Darcsen no less, where's your Homunculus pride, Greed?" Mustang asked.

"Uhh, let's leave Pride out of this. That's a different monster entirely," Vine suggested.

"Just do it!" Greed shouted angrily.

"Fine, but only once. After this one, you'll have to figure out another way to pierce that shield," Vine declared.

"Once is all I need!" Greed declared.

"I have no idea where you get your confidence from!" Vine shouted as he fired a large blast that engulfed female Greed.

"That was useless! It couldn't even begin to damage…" she began as Ling/Greed charged her and put his armored hand through her stomach.

"What?" female Greed gasped.

"Not much fun is it? I didn't think so either when he used that dirty little trick on me!" Ling/Greed declared, smiling wickedly.

"You realize that the moment you pull your hand out, she's gonna heal and her shield'll go back to full strength, right?" Vine asked, "if you'd caught Selvaria instead of just letting her fall, I might have been nice and helped you one more time, but as it is, I'm gonna enjoy…"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Greed declared, "I happen to know a Homunculus' weakness!" he shouted as he pulled his hand out of the female Greed's stomach. Vine was surprised when it didn't begin to heal.

"What… what did you…!" female Greed began to cry, realizing her body wasn't healing. Ling/Greed held up his hand, revealing a Philosopher Stone clutched in it.

"The core of a Homunculus," Greed declared, "I wonder what would happen to you if I smashed this to dust. Why don't we find out?" he said as he crushed the stone with his shielded hand.

"What happens now?" Mustang asked.

"Given that she uses souls from her stone to heal, I'd have to guess that Greed's wound just became fatal," Vine replied as female Greed stared in disbelief as Ling/Greed let the powder from her stone slide through his fingers.

"You… how could you?" she stammered the area around her wound began to turn to philosopher stone dust.

"I told ya before. I'm gonna be the one and only Greed!" Ling/Greed declared in response as the female Greed faded entirely to dust.

Wow, I didn't know that crushing their Philosopher Stone actually killed a Homunculus, Ling declared.

Neither did I. Honestly, I'd never tried it before, Greed replied, at any rate, I'm taking a nap, so take over for a while.

"Well, color me impressed, you actually pulled it off," Vine declared.

"Ah, come on Vine, you ought to know better then that," Ling replied, "that was easy."

"Uck, your Prince Squints again, aren't you," Vine hissed in reply.

"Sure am," Ling replied, "you don't sound happy to see me."

"You oughta be used to that by now," Vine replied.

"Vine," Rukia declared as she and Selvaria walked up to the group.

"Hey, Ms. Valkyrur," Ling said, waving joyfully, "glad you're alright, sorry about before with Greed and all, I…" he was silenced when Selvaria slapped him. "Ow, hey, what was that for?"

"You insulted Sir Vine, you will take back what you said now!" Selvaria shouted, glaring angrily at Ling.

"What! Wait a second, that wasn't me, it was Greed. Tell her Vine," Ling pleaded.

"You look like Greed to me," Vine said as he walked away.

"What? Hey, wait… uhhh, Colonel Mustang?"

"I honestly don't care," Mustang replied as he turned and followed Vine.

"Wow, you two are pretty cold," Ling declared.

"What do you think?" Mustang asked when he caught up with Vine, "if she'd just accidentally said his name, I wouldn't be worried, but she was still calling him Lord."

"I love how you always ask what I think and then tell me what you think," Vine replied.

"This isn't exactly the time for jokes," Mustang replied.

"Yeah, I know," Vine replied, "so what do you want me to do Mustang, run her through?"

"I know I don't have to remind you how much of a threat she'd be to all of us if she turned back to the Empire. I'm not asking you to take care of this right now. I'm asking you if you're prepared to do so should the need arise," Mustang replied, "how far do you really think we can trust her?"

"I don't know," Vine replied. "I'll worry about that when the time comes."

"I wish I could be as simple as you sometimes," Mustang declared.

"I'm not sure whether I should feel complimented or insulted," Vine replied, "but right now, we have more important things to deal with. We'll worry about Selvaria later."

"I hate it when you're right," Mustang replied, "alright, let's get moving. The others can't be far ahead!" he shouted back to the team.

"Yeah, and I bet once we find them, we'll get to have some real fun," Ikkaku declared as the rest of the team began to follow Mustang and Vine. Vine's gaze never left Selvaria. He tried unsuccessfully not to wonder if they could really trust the imperial Valkyrur.

Ending Theme: Super Infinity Stream (Infinite Stratos)