"Are you crazy?" Yukio questioned, "You just finished fleeing from a monster with a black hole for a stomach and yet you're going to dig yourself further into this mess?" They had stopped at Roy's house so the man could change back into his military uniform. He planned on going back into work to speak with some officers about Bradley and hopefully gain some allies. "You do realize how dangerous this is, right?" he questioned, "Maybe you should wait a few days to figure this out more."
"Yukio," Roy said as he buttoned the chest fold of his uniform, "Do you remember what I said when Rin and I had that fight for his reassessment?"
Yukio blinked. "That 'the Fuhrer is off his rocker if was going to allow this'?" he offered with an amused yet slightly confused look. He knew it wasn't the right answer but he felt it applied well to this situation.
Roy blinked before chuckling slightly. "Well yes, I did say that in private," he said, turning towards his son, "I meant when I was fighting Rin. I told him about how you never want to give your opponent the opportunity to get back on their feet and plan around you. Strike quickly and you will end it quickly too." "We've almost waited too long. They've had plenty of time to recuperate from us capturing one of them, and are probably very suspicious of us," he explained, "We need to act fast before they have the opportunity to plan around us." "Besides," Roy said, now frowning, "Your brother is out there fighting that monster with the Elrics and two other boys. They're children, and yet they're fighting my battles…I can't just sit back and do nothing while that happens. I'm already a crappy enough father for leaving him there like that…I don't need to add cowardly to that title because I didn't act when I had the best opportunity to."
Yukio frowned. "You're not a crappy father," he insisted, "It was Rin's decision to stay behind, and when it comes to fighting homunculi, he's the one that stands the best chance of winning against them out of all of us."
"I know," Roy said, "If I thought he couldn't handle it, there was no way I was going to leave him behind. But that doesn't stop me from worrying and feeling a little bit guilty in the back of my mind. Looking after someone for over seven years does that to a person."
"Well, it was technically it was less for me because of Xing," Yukio said.
His father smiled at him before sighing. "Well, I suppose it's time to head out," he said as he grabbed his coat, "You need to get back on shift, don't you?"
Yukio blinked before he remembered. "Oh right," he said, "I technically never clocked out." With that the two got in the car where Riza was waiting for them. Their first stop was driving Yukio back to the hospital. As they did so, the car fell into silence. The tension in the car was thick. Roy glanced over his shoulder to his son in the back seat. He was scratching the back of his left hand through his gloves, while looking down with a worried expression. Roy furrowed his brow. "Yukio, are you alright?" he asked.
The boy looked up in surprise. "Hm?" he said, "Oh Yeah, I'm alright. Just a little worried is all."
"Things will be alright," Roy responded, "Just keep a level head. Whatever happens, we can handle." Yukio forced a smile and nodded in response. The car pulled up next to the hospital entrance. "Looks like this is your stop," he said.
Yukio nodded before opening the door and stepping out. "Good luck dad," he said, "Stay safe." The man smiled and nodded in return.
"You too," he responded. With that he rolled up the window. Yukio gripped his left hand as he watched the car drive away. His smile fell as it was replaced by a frown. As much as he wanted to keep cool and collected, he felt it was going to be near impossible to do so right now. Afterall, it wasn't just Rin and his dad that he had to worry about.
….
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The bullets tore through Envy's body, causing him to stumble and fall as he revived. The two humans had been faring decently against him, but Bon was starting to get worried. He was going to be running out of bullets here quickly. As Envy got up, he pulled the trigger again, only to receive a clicking noise. He cursed as he felt only one cartridge left in his pocket.
"What's the matter, little human?" Envy sneered, "Running out of arms?"
Bon growled. "Not yet," he said before looking over his shoulder, "Hey, Al! Toss me a bat, will ya?"
The suit turned to him before nodding and transmuting one out of the stone beneath them. He tossed the stone bat to bon who caught it mid air. "Alright!" He said with a smirk, swinging it around a few times, "Let's play ball!"
….
Shura followed the snake into the woods. It had moved past but she could keep up with it easily. However, keeping up wasn't what she was concerned with. She was far more concerned with whether the boys were ok. Whatever made that giant hole couldn't have been anything but extremely dangerous. She hoped she could make it there on time.
All of a sudden, the snake stopped dead in its tracks, lifting its head up in the air. Shura stopped behind it, confused. "What are you doing?" She questioned, "come on, let's keep moving! What, did you lose the scent?"
Her question was answered as she heard a chorus of low growls. She slowly turned to see dozens of pairs glowing red eyes staring at her from the shadows of the trees. The low rumbling of growls coming from them got louder as a few of the individual pairs decided to step into the clearing. The creatures looked like walking shadows, almost flat in appearance as they moved towards her. They looked like some kind of dog, but they were large and pitch black. She narrowed her eyes at them as she held her sword at the ready. "Great…" she thought, " Just what I needed right now: Grims." She then bit her thumb and rubbed the blood across the the length of the blade. "Devour the Seven Princesses, slay the Serpent!" She cried before her sword grew in length and opened up like a snake's mouth.
Xiao Mei had caught up at that exact moment. Her beady panda eyes widened as she saw and felt all the monsters hiding in the woods, glaring out at Shura. The woman was going to die. There was no other way this could end. All of a sudden the horde leapt at her. Dozens of shadowy figures towered over the human, about to come crashing down upon her in a wave. Xiao Mei was about to turn tail and run, but she stopped when she saw the woman leap at them. Letting out a cry with just one swing, she slashed through ten. They cried out in pain as their bodies disintegrated into smoke. Xiao Mei was frozen as she watched this, her tiny jaw hanging open. The woman slashed through the air again and slew five more of the shadow fiends. Another slash and seven more had lost their heads. She landed in a crouch before getting back up into a fighting stance, ready to take down the rest. The tiny panda started. She slayed twenty-two of the demons without even breaking a sweat! What was this woman?! Well, she knew what she wasn't: dead.
….
"Hrah!" Bon shouted as he swung the stone bat. Envy narrowly dodged it before crouching down and sweeping the boy's legs out from underneath him. As Bon fell, Ling leapt over him, sword held above his head as he brought it down upon Envy. As sword met flesh, Envy cried out. His arm fell to the ground with a thud.
"Damn it…" he hissed, clutching his wound as it healed and repaired, "Lucky shot...but let's see how good you do against this!" He smirked as he relinquished his healing arm as the other one turned into a snake and shot out at Ling, wrapping its way around his neck. Ling gagged as he gripped the serpentine appendage. It squeezed tightly around his neck, Envy chuckling as it did so. "Not so tough now, are you little worm?" he sneered, "You humans are so weak...face it! You can't compete with the likes of us."
"I beg to differ," Bon growled. All of a sudden Envy felt a spitting pain shoot up his leg as Bon smashed his shin. He cried out and loosened his grip as he fell to the ground. Ling used this opportunity to slice the arm off.
"Thanks," Ling said rubbing his neck and smiling at Bon.
Bon nodded back. "No problem."
"Damn it!" Envy shouted as he tried to force himself up, "No fair!"
"Dude, it's completely fair," Bon said, "You knew you were fighting the two of us from the beginning."
"And you weren't holding back," Ling said running forward, brandishing his weapon, "So neither will we!" Envy's eyes widened as the Xingese prince charged at him, ready to slice the homunculus' head off. Before he had the chance to, however, the shapeshifter quickly changed his form to that of Lan Fan, looking up at him pleadingly. The Prince froze in shock. Envy quickly took the opportunity to shift his fist and punch him in the stomach sending him flying back.
Envy chuckled as he got back up. "Stupid human," he laughed, "You always fall for the same tricks. It doesn't matter if you're young or old or only half human. Your emotions rule you, and so long as I'm like this, you won't be able to hurt m-" He was cut off as Bon's bat made contact with his skull, smashing it and leaving him dead on the ground, a look of surprise on his face as red lightning sparked around him. Ling looked on in shock from where he was picking himself up, mouth hanging open.
"Maybe he can't, but I can," Bon said, glaring down at him. He then turned towards Ling, noticing the state he was currently in. "Hey!" he said, running over to him to help him up, "You ok?" He gave the prince a worried look as he noticed to horrified and disgusted look on his face. "Ling are you alright? What's wrong?" he questioned.
"You...I…" he said before shuddering, "I think I'm going to be sick…" He clutched his stomach as he tried to stand up.
Bon winced. He forgot for a moment that not everyone had dealt with the horrors of demon hunting and become numb to gore. Blood was one thing, and he was sure Ling was very familiar with that, but gore was another beast entirely. Even when he had blown up gluttony, the prince's eyes had been closed for a good chunk of the time as he tended to rely on his chi sensing. On top of that...it couldn't have helped that the person whose skull he had just smashed had looked exactly like one of his closest companions. If that wasn't traumatizing, he couldn't tell what was. Bon scratched the back of his head. "Sorry…" he said as he held out a hand to help him up, "You ok?"
Ling nodded as he swallowed. "Yes...I think I'll be fine now…" he said. 'Although I can definitely see that image coming back to haunt me in my nightmares…' he thought silently. His eyes then widened as he caught a glimpse of movement. He turned to see Envy, arm now a blade, charging straight for Bon.
"Look out!" Ling cried. Bon turned just in time, swinging the bat as hard as he could. It hit Envy in the stomach. To everyone's surprise, the impact cracked the stone bat as it sent the homunculus tumbling back into a tree. As he made contact, the oak tree snapped under Envy's weight.
"I believe that is a home run," Bon said before turning to Ling, "Thanks for the warning."
"Any time," Ling said back before glancing at the bat, "How hard did you swing that thing?"
Bon looked it over curiously. "Not hard enough to do that on purpose...That homunculus must be made of tougher stuff than we thought if he cracked this…"
"Yeah…" Ling said, "Did you see the impact he made? I think there's a lot more to him than we know…"
"GRAAAAAH!" Envy snarled picking himself up, "That's it! I'm done with you pesky little mites! You wanna know what I'm like when I'm not holding back? Well here you go!" Red lightning suddenly sparked around the homunculus. He started to grow slightly and Bon and Ling moved into fighting stances, preparing for whatever the homunculus had in store. However, Envy stopped and reverted back to his usual form as a loud, unearthly howl tore through the night air. Everyone paused as they felt a chill run up their spines and a sense of dread overcome them, even Gluttony.
They all turned to see twelve pairs of glowing red eyes peering out at them from the forest. One of the figured slunk out of the darkened woods, revealing its own shadowy dog-like form. Bon felt his stomach sink slightly. Great, just what they needed: a pack of grims.
Envy, on the other hand was grinning ear to ear. "Well, looks like I've got back up now!" he said before turning to the humans, "Lucky me!" He hadn't been expecting Astaroth to send help for him, still it was not unappreciated.
Bon gave him a confused look. Wait...they were allied with Astaroth, right? Why would grims be helping the homunculi? They were the kin of Lucifer, not Astaroth…
He didn't have time to contemplate this as Envy spoke up again. "Ok boys! Go ahead and tear those two apart. But leave the other three-GAH!" he suddenly cried as one jumped on him and began trying to rip his arm off. Another went for his leg as well. Everyone but Bon looked shocked by this. "What the hell?!" Envy cried trying to shake them off as they tried to rip him apart. "What are you doing?! You're supposed to kill them! Not me! What is wrong with you?!" he snapped. They continued to not listen as one more tackled him, digging its teeth into his throat. However, the rest of the pack did move to attack the others, but they mostly seemed interested in the two homunculi and Al. A pair started approaching Ling and Bon, growling. Bon immediately pulled out his prayer beads and started chanting while Ling got his sword ready again for battle.
Meanwhile, the other seven headed for gluttony, Al, Ed, and Rin. The first one tried to latch onto Rin's arm but he dodged it and slashed it with his sword. The demon cried out as it was consumed by fire and disappeared into smoke. "Woah, that was close…" he said.
"Yeah," Ed responded, kicking one that had latched onto his automail leg and tried to drag him down at gluttony. It hit him in the face before joining the two others that were trying to rip apart the homunculi.
"Guys? A little help!" Al cried. The two boys turned to see two of the grims had latched onto the suit of armor and were now trying to get his chest plate off.
"Hey get off of him!" Ed cried as he tried to rip one off on his own, but couldn't do it. "Rin a little help?" he asked. Rin nodded picking up his sword.
"Wait!" Alphonse cried, "Your flames...back at the third lab I could feel them when they came near me it burned...what if that happens again?"
He blinked in surprise. "You're serious?" he said, to which the suit nodded. Rin winced. "Ok sorry," he said before sheathing his sword and cracking his knuckles, "Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way. He then began trying to tug one of the shadow dogs. It became distracted by Rins attack, struggling against him, but refused to budge. Gluttony was faring no better, if not worse. The demon dogs were unrelenting as they tried to tear him apart. It was good that he could regenerate so quickly, otherwise he would be minced meat right now. He swatted at them wildly as they tugged and tore at him. "No!" he cried, "Stop it! Don't eat me!" He couldn't see where he was going as one covered his face as it chewed on his skull. He swung his body around wildly to shake them but only became more and more frustrated as he found he couldn.t
Envy was also pretty bad off, though he was at least able to fight back. Once he had torn the one on his throat off, he was able to get up and keep them off of him. However, he was barely getting an attack in otherwise. He didn't get why they were acting like this. They were allied with demons, right?
All of a sudden, the dogs whimpered and cried out as Bon recited, "Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you!" The three demon dogs suddenly disappeared into smoke. Envy turned to see the grims fighting Ling and the kid had done the same. 'Well, that was convenient,' he thought before he got up and rushed at the two humans.
It had also been a lucky break for Gluttony and the three alchemists, because although the demons had not died like the one's Ling, Bon, or envy faced due to distance, but it had weakened them, causing them to fall off of Al, and Rin and Ed to stumble back from the recoil of their own force. They fell back, dogs still in hand. But they had squirmed out of their arms to join the three that had tried to attack gluttony but had fallen off themselves. The five approached the homunculus carefully, causing him to back up.
"No! Get away! Get away or I'll eat you!" he warned. The demons paid him no heed as the continued to move forward. And so, Gluttony did as he had promised them. He activated his black hole of a gate and attempted to suck them inside, but they leaped out of the way and reformed.
Envy and the two humans had gone back to fighting each other, but stopped when they hear the sound of the air violently being whipped around into a vortex. They all looked up to see gluttony trying to eat the dogs and absorbing anything in his path. The three alchemists had to dodge the homunculus as sucked up everything in his path. Bon, Ling, and Envy all started to panic. "ED! RIN! ALPHONSE!" Ling called, running up the hill to protect them.
"Gluttony stop! What do you think you're doing?!" Envy cried, following the prince.
"Leave them alone!" Bon hurried after them.
The three ran as fast as they could to get up the hill, however, it was too late for them to stop Gluttony. Ed and Rin had already gotten caught in the blast, as did Alphonse's arm along with the pesky hounds. However, they did make it up the hill just in time to be sucked in along with.
"BROTHER!" Alphonse cried in distress. They all screamed as they were dragged through the void into gluttony's bottomless pit of a stomach, but everything fell silent when gluttony stopped and he and Al stood frozen in horror as they contemplated what had just happened.
….
Mustang was inwardly terrified as he had been lead to the Fuhrer's office. He cursed at himself for his boldness. Yukio was right, he should have waited longer. Now he was in the pit of hell with no way out. And with every second he stayed there, the darker and worse it got.
The homunculi had finally had enough with his meddling and now had decided he needed to be punished. Their method? Isolation. They were splitting apart his whole team, leaving him utterly defenseless and unable to do anything. Roy didn't know how things could get much worse…
"Oh, and I thought you might like to know…" Wrath continued. Roy looked up at him to glare at him in rage. "There's one more transfer you should know of, just so you know exactly where you stand now."
Roy gave him a confused look. Who? Who could possibly be left to take from him? The Fuhrer turned to him with a smile as he handed him a transfer order he had signed. Roy looked it over, heart stopping as he saw the name on the order. No...Please no...
….
When Yukio had first gotten to the hospital, he spent half an hour explaining to his superiors where he had gone and who he had treated. He changed most of the important details, like his patient's name. In fact, most of the story was fabricated. He ended up telling them that a girl had gotten stabbed by a thug and he had to stitch it up and give her an IV. When he was done, he had briskly walked to his office and shut the door behind him after he entered. He sighed as he leaned against it. Today had been emotionally exhausting to say the least. But now he was finally alone. He only had one thing left to do.
Yukio locked the door to his office before walking over to his drawer and pulling out a canister of holy water and a pitcher. He poured out the holy water into the pitcher. He bit his lip as he stared at it before glancing down at his left hand. He hoped this would work this time. He was starting to feel desperate. He pulled the glove off his left hand and grimaced at the black splotch on the back of it. It had grown by a quarter of a centimeter in diameter. That couldn't be good. Immediately he shoved his hand inside the pitcher of holy water. He hissed as his hand felt like it was burning as it entered the water but gripped the table and held it there for several minutes.
After he couldn't stand the burning sensation for much longer, he pulled his hand out to examine it, hoping the spot to be gone, but to his dismay it was still there, mocking him. It hadn't even shrunk in size. Yukio sighed in defeat before he slumped into his office chair. This thing had shown up the day before Rin returned to central. It had been too large and dark to be another mole so he had been worried it was a cancerous tumor of some kind, but little did he know it was something much worse. He had only found that out, however, after he had tried to remove it using his alkahestry. Removing tumors was actually a great skill he had learned in Xing and he had already saved a few lives by removing a few before they became malignant here in Amestris. However, for some reason it didn't work this time. No matter how hard he tried, it would not go away! He had been utterly baffled and terrified by this. What was going on? What was this strange growth? He soon found out as he accidentally spilled holy water on his hand, causing his hand to burn and the spot to seemingly disappear, that it was not cancerous but demonic in origin.
It had sent him into a panic. He thought he was completely human. However, he kept it to himself. It was gone after all, right? No need to bother anyone with it...Or so he thought. The next day it had come back. He treated it again the same way, trying to soak it longer this time, and once again that seemed to work, but as time went on it became less and less effective. He had thought about going to his dad for help, but then things started getting crazy again and he was unable to do so. And now...It appeared nothing could stop this...The holy water hadn't even worked this time. Not even a little. Yukio was extremely worried. What was going to happen to him. Would he just be like his brother Rin? Or would he completely lose control, becoming a full demon? Should he tell Roy or try to talk to Shura or Mephisto about it?
He didn't have time to think about this more as there was a sudden knock at the door. Yukio looked up in confusion. Who could that be? He got up, pulled his gloves back, dumped out the holy water, and went to unlock the door. When he opened it, he found an unfamiliar military officer standing there before him.
"Um...Can I help you, Sir?" he asked.
"You're Yukio Mustang, correct?" the man asked.
The boy frowned but nodded. "Yes is there something that you need?" the teen asked.
The man simply pulled out a file and handed it to him. Yukio looked at it curiously before opening the manila folder and reading the contents. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw. "Y-you've got to be kidding me!" he cried, "Please, there has to be some kind of mistake here!"
"Sorry, son," the man said, "These orders come straight from the Fuhrer. You're to be transferred to Fort Briggs effective immediately."
….You guys all probably hate me now, don't you? Well, I can't say I don't deserve it. Sorry I haven't gotten anything done sooner. I've been extremely busy with school work, plus I ended up posting a ton of stuff for FMA Villains week on tumblr. I probably won't be able to post anything knew for a while either except for a few pre-made one shots. Speaking of, I written a few one shots, including one where Dolcetto lives and becomes a royal guard to Ling. Its very cute and it is already posted, so if any of you are interested, feel free to take a look.
Also, thank you guys for over 300 reviews! I've really appreciated them. :) It warms my heart to see them after I post something, every single one.
