Gluttony lead them through the streets of central as they got closer and closer to father's lair, or at least they hoped they were. They were winding their way through so many streets, it was hard to tell where they were headed anymore! "Hey Tubs," Shura finally spoke up, "You sure you know where we're going?" She was STILL being dragged along by her arm, much to her annoyance. She wished she could shout at him to let go of her or maybe smack him, but she couldn't risk upsetting the big lug and causing him to run off. She assumed he was the "innocent" one of the bunch based on how he acted, and thus was probably the most sensitive. He also wasn't too smart, so he would probably follow his first instinct to run the second she started scared him like he had before when she had chased him.
"Yup!" he chirped happily, "It's this way!"
She frowned at him. "That's what you said when I asked the last 12 times where we were going!" she responded in exasperation. She then sighed before glancing over her shoulder at alphonse. He was still with them, but she noticed something black and white was now sitting on his shoulder. She raised an eyebrow. It was that tiny panda thing.
"Alphonse, where the heck did you get that?!" she questioned.
"Hm?" he perked up, "Oh! I found her in the woods when we were traveling through them."
"And you couldn't have just left it behind?" she questioned, "This isn't exactly the time to be picking up strays." The panda glared at her Shura glared back.
"Well there were demons out in the woods! I couldn't leave her to them, so I took her with," he argued.
Shura rolled her eyes. "Whatever kid," she said. She turned back around to face forward, but she couldn't shake a feeling crawling up her spine. She knew this feeling very well. It felt like they were being watched. She glanced around slightly to see if she could spot anyone, but she wasn't able too. She slowly turned her gaze forward and kept moving. It was probably just some demons this father guy had placed around the city to monitor it or something. That wasn't a comforting thought, but it was probably the most likely.
Dolcetto's eyes had widened when he saw the flash of red hair from a distance. They had been trying to track down the panda. They had no luck at the train yard, losing the scent almost as soon as they found it. However, the girl insisted they couldn't leave without her and despite their better judgment, Dolcetto and Scar could not say no. Yoki on the other hand protested quite a bit, even offering to buy the girl a cat to replace the panda(which Dolcetto was very much against for several reasons). Once they got to the streets, he stopped his complaining as to not make a scene. They spent most of the day ducking in and out of alleyways on the search for it but found nothing. About nine am, however, Dolcetto suddenly caught whiff of something. literally. It was faint and tinged with the smell of metal, but it was her. He had suddenly dashed down the hall as quickly as he could so he could track it down, the others confusedly trailing behind him.
He only stopped when he saw that flash of hair tinged with yellow on the ends. Alarm bells rang in his head as he caught the smell of fruit punch, snakeskin, alcohol, and coconut moisturizer in the air. He remembered that scent from the fight at the train station. It was the same scent that sword fighting girl had all over her. He took a step back before peaking around the corner to see if he was right, and unfortunately, he was. The woman with the long, bright red hair was walking down the alley with the suit of armor, Xiao Mei on its shoulder….and the homunculus?! What the heck were they doing with that thing?! He swore they had been fighting it when it had shown up….Well, it was mostly just that random other Xingese kid that had been fighting it. Did that mean they were in league with the homunculi? If they were, this could end very badly for them.
"Mr. Dolcetto? What's wrong?" Mei called, running up to him.
"Yes…" Yoki said huffing, "Why did you have to run off like that?! Do we need to get a lead for you or something?" Scar was right behind him, coming to a halt as the man finished his sentence.
Dolcetto rolled his eyes at him but didn't respond. "See for yourself," he growled, moving aside. The three looked around the corner and were shocked with what they saw. "That suit of armor and that lady!" Mei hissed in distress, "they took Xiao Mei! Those monsters!"
Scar frowned at what he saw. "What are they doing with that homunculus?" He wondered aloud.
"I don't know but it can't be good…" Dolcetto said. All of a sudden, the woman turned and looked around behind here. The four ducked behind the corner before she saw them, but Scar continued to watch her from where she couldn't quite see them. As he did so, he blinked in surprise. Her eyes looked red from this angle. Were they always red? As she looked away he blinked and shook his head. No...it must have been a trick of the light. He was a good distance from her, after all. As they walked away and disappeared around the corner, Scar stepped out. "Come on," he said, "We should figure out what's going on here. Whatever this is, can't be good."
…
Bon's eyes were wide the entire time he listened to Ed and Rin talk about what happened in Ishval. Every word made his stomach twist sickeningly. He couldn't believe it. Within the last decade, Ed's homeland had committed mass genocide against another race and it looked like the homunculi were involved. He felt a burning anger in the pit of his stomach over all of this. How could they do that? How could they just destroy an entire civilization like that? Those innocent people… Even if he wasn't a homunculus, he still wouldn't consider King Bradley anything less than a monster.
He growled as he realized how familiar this whole situation was. "No wonder they call him Further…" he muttered.
"Huh?" Ed questioned at the odd statement.
"Nothing…" Bon responded, "It's just...that's horrifying…" His eyes suddenly widened as a thought came to mind. "Wait, you weren't involved in that, where you?!" he questioned.
"What? No!" Rin responded, "The war ended before Ed and I were even seven."
Bon nodded. "...But what about the Colonel and the others?" He questioned.
Rin looked away uncomfortably. Edward sighed before speaking. "They did fight in the war unfortunately, and had to kill a lot of innocent people in the process," Ed explained, "But they didn't have much of a choice in the matter, and to this day I know they regret everything that happened there…"
"My dad wants to become Fuhrer," Rin spoke up, "In hopes that he can fix things himself."
Bon turned to look at him. He didn't know quite what to say to that, so he simply nodded. Just because the man wanted to help and repent, doesn't make what he did any better. Still the colonel was deep down a good person. He wouldn't be trying to repent if he wasn't. "So...I suppose this is why Scar hates state alchemists, huh?" he questioned.
Rin and Ed both looked away before nodding. A long silence followed this. None of the four really knew what to say. Ling had been sitting silently listening, not really getting involved in the conversation. Then, all of a sudden, he sensed something approaching. He stood up and turned in the direction of it.
The three others looked to him in surprise. "Ling? Is something wrong?" Ed asked.
"It appears we have company," he answered in a low voice.
All of a sudden, Rin heard a distant splashing. He stood up, sword at the ready as he felt something dark approaching.
"Is it that homunculus?" Bon asked, "Did he get swallowed with us too?"
"No…" Ling responded, "I think it's one of those demon dogs."
Bon nodded as he stood up and grabbed his prayer beads. Ed followed suit, transmuting his arm into a blade. They all stood ready for a fight as the splashing became louder. However, when the dog came into view, it ran straight past them and off further into the ocean of blood.
The four teens were thrown off in surprise before exchanging confused looks. "It...didn't attack us?" Ed questioned.
"I guess not…" Ling said, "But why?"
Rin smirked. "Hey! Maybe it was scared of my me!" he joked.
"Or maybe…" Bon started, taking a step forward into the ocean of blood, "It's looking for a way out." "Come on," he said, "This demon might be sniffing out an exit. Demons can find all sorts of bridges between worlds. If we follow it, we might be able to get out of here." The three other nodded before following after him.
…
The four tracked the demon down using Ling's chi sensing abilities. It only took them a few minutes to catch up, but when they did, they were both disappointed and surprised by what they found. Instead of finding an exit, they found Envy being attacked by three of the demon dogs instead. Envy thrashed about, trying to shake them off of him. He managed to put up a good fight, dodging them and throwing them against the different stone structures and fragments jutting out from the pool of blood. However, the homunculus was starting to waver in his struggle as the grims attempted to coordinate themselves.
"Jeeze, they must really have something against him," Rin noted, scratching the back of his head.
"Bon?" Ed said glancing from the teen to the artificial human. The exwire nodded before raising his prayer beads.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Ling hissed, "Why are you helping him? He tried to kill us!"
"Yeah, but he's also the one who probably knows the most about this place, so if we want to get out of here, keeping him alive is the least we can do!" Suguro argued. He then began calling out his prayer, loud enough for the demon dogs to hear.
"Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes by day," the boy called out. The dogs stopped in trying to tear apart the homunculus and began growling at him. He looked surprised as they broke away from him to charge in the direction of the voice. Envy looked up in surprise to see that it was the pipsqueak and his little entourage helping him. Envy furrowed his brow. What the heck were they doing? Why were they helping him?
"Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you," Bon proclaimed as the demons charged towards him, "these evils will not touch you!" With those words, the demons exploded into smoke mid leap.
Ed whistled and Rin looked on in awe. "Shit, that was bad ass!" Rin breathed. Bon smirked at him at that.
"Kind of wish I could have seen what happened…" Ling muttered.
A splashing noise broke the silence as Envy tried to get up while still healing. Ed and the others glanced at each other before Bon shrugged and went over to the homunculus. He roughly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet. Envy glared at him before swatting his hand away. "Get off!" he snapped, "I don't need the help of a human."
"Oh really? You certainly looked like you needed it earlier," he noted, raising an eyebrow and smirking at the homunculus, "After all, those dogs certainly weren't jumping on you cause they wanted to lick your face."
Envy growled at him and rounded on him. "Shut up, you worm!" he snapped, "I am perfectly capable of handling myself in a fight, even against a demon!" His eyes then narrowed. "You wouldn't be laughing if they were trying to tear you apart…" he hissed.
"Yeah, speaking of which," Ling interjected, "Why didn't they attack us? They didn't in the forest, and one ran past us here. Besides, aren't the homunculi supposed to be allied with the demons?"
"I think I know why, actually," Bon said, "But just to be sure, all homunculi have a philosopher's stone at their core, right? Those things made of soul power?" They had to explained what a philosopher's stone was to him back in the shack. He had been disgusted at the time, but still accepted it as a reality he could not change. It was like the souls stuck inside a ghost train. He could pity them, but there was nothing he could do.
Envy smirked at him. "That's right!" he said, folding his arms, "It's what makes us so powerful, immortal even. One stone can contain thousands of souls. you humans could never match up to-"
"Yeah that's nice, shut up," Bon said, causing Envy to give him an offended look, "Anyways, because you literally have thousands of human lives trapped inside you, that makes you more of a target."
The group looked surprised. "Excuse me?!" Envy questioned.
"Yeah, why does having a philosopher's stone make Envy a target?" Rin asked.
"Well, you see, Grims are part of the reaper family of demons. Specifically part of the class that feeds off of human souls," he explained, "Usually, they just hide on the sides of dark paths or graveyards and just pick off any wayward traveler they come across and devour their spirit, but Envy here has as he said 'thousands of souls' in one body." "Basically, he's an all you can eat buffet while we're little more than table scraps by comparison," Bon explained jabbing a thumb at the now startled homunculus. The rest of the group also looked surprised.
"W-what?!" Envy cried, horrified by this revelation, "Y-you can't be serious!"
"I'm completely serious. There are plenty of demons that eat human souls," he said, "Do you need me to pull out the demon handbook to prove it?" It was probably also the reason why they had targeted Alphonse too, now that he thought about it. He was easy pickings considering the fact that one lick to his seal would be enough to release him, but he didn't feel like that needed to be mentioned, especially in front of Ed.
"But I thought the demons were allies with them?" Ed asked, "Why would they be trying to eat him if they were allies?"
"They aren't their allies," Bon stated simply, "First of all, those particular demons that were attacking you aren't commanded by Astaroth, the demon you're working with. They're kin of a different demon king, namely Lucifer." "And more importantly," he continued, "demons aren't on anyone's side. They're on their own side. They don't make friends or anything like that. They don't have a sense of loyalty."
"Hey!" Rin cried.
Bon rolled his eyes. "Besides you, Rin," he clarified before continuing, "Anyways, they're only ever for something if they benefit from it somehow, usually at the expense of whatever idiot made a deal with them." Envy glared at him.
"Wait, what about familiars and tamers?" Rin questioned, "They seem to get along well. Also, Kuro's my friend! And Sheimi has that little green guy and he seems nice."
"Tamers and familiars are a bit different but a lot of exorcists wouldn't call their familiars their friends," he clarified, "Demons listen to them because they respect their authority, and not everyone can be a tamer. Even then, most tamers still have a contract with their demons of some kind, and that can be broken too and the demon will not answer to them anymore. Kuro and Nee are a bit of an exception as they are a lot more friendly than most demons."
"As for everyone else, as soon as you aren't of use to them, they'll throw you out like trash," Bon finished, locking eyes with the homunculus.
Envy raised an eyebrow and gave a laugh. "Oh, are you trying to scare me now?" he said with a smirk. However, inwardly, he was worried. Was the kid telling the truth? Just how much was Astaroth holding back from them? ...It didn't matter. The had measures to stop Astaroth if he tries anything. If nothing else, if he betrays them in the moment of truth, they can always use the boy's sword to get rid of him...That is, if this plan could still work now that gluttony swallowed a sacrifice, one of the twins, and the sword…
Bon glared at him. "I'm not doing anything. I'm just stating a fact," he said, "It's your choice whether to listen or not."
Envy rolled his eyes. "Preach all you want. It's not like it matters anyways," he muttered as he turned to walk away, "That info isn't gonna get back to anyone considering we're going to be stuck here forever."
The four teens looked at him in alarm. "Wait, you mean that?" Rin questioned, "B-but this is gluttony's stomach right? He's your ally, or friend, or something! Shouldn't you know how this stuff works?!"
Envy turned to him and glared at him. "Of course I do!" he snapped, "And I can say for certain there isn't a way out. We're going to be stuck here for all eternity, waiting for our strength to run out. We're out of options, done, dead, finished, whatever other term you humans like to use, and it's all your faults! If you just behaved and hadn't tried to kidnap Gluttony, none of this would have happened!" Hatred was clear in the homunculus eyes and his fists shook. They had ruined all of their plans, those meddlesome little mites. He was about ready to squash them for it.
The four stood around dumbly in shock for a few second, unable to respond. Rin and Ling gave hopeless looks while Bon's face became grim. Finally Ed spoke up. "But...how is that possible?" he asked, "How is there not a way out? What kind of place would it be impossible to escape from? Where exactly are we?"
Envy raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought you of all people could have figured that out. After all, you have seen this before haven't you?"
Ed froze as realization dawned on him and the other three teens turned to him. "Ed...what is he talking about?" Bon questioned.
"...I remember seeing something before he sucked us in. An eye in his stomach," Ed admitted, "When I opened the portal of truth...I saw it there too…"
The teens all took a step back. "Wait...are you saying we're inside the portal of Truth?" Ling questioned.
"The portal of truth...wait, that was that thing that we had to pass through to get to this world," Bon said, "And it looked like a white void with a giant door!" Envy turned to him in surprise.
"Oh yeah, I remember that," Rin said, "My brother and I saw that too!"
"Wait what?!" Envy cried, "You've all seen the real portal of truth?" he questioned before his eyes lit up curiously, "Wait...does that mean you've all opened the gate?"
"What do you mean by that?" Bon questioned.
Envy sighed. "Can you, or can you not do the things the pip-I mean fullmetal can do with clapping his hands?" he asked, demonstrating by pressing his hands together and outstretching them towards the ground like they had seen Ed do so many times before.
"What? No!" Rin responded, "Bon here isn't even an alchemist!"
"We don't even have alchemy in my world," he stated with a shrug.
The homunculus looked at him dumbly. "Don't have…" he started, "What kind of backwards world are you from if you don't have alchemy?!" Envy then shook his head. "Never mind. I don't want to know," he said.
"Wait a minute," Ed spoke up, "You said 'the real portal of truth.' Are you saying this place is a fake portal? How is that possible?!"
"I don't understand everything Father did to create it, but yes," Envy said, "Gluttony was a failed portal of truth created by our Father. He was trying to make a real one but couldn't. Our Father is powerful, but even he has limitations…" Envy looked away. "So currently, we're stuck somewhere between reality and truth," he finished, "And like I said before, there isn't a way out."
Edward and Rin felt their hearts sink and Ling looked horrified. "No…" Edward muttered, looking off in the distance, a look of horror on his face. "T-that can't be! Al and I….we made a promise! What is he going to do?! How is he going to get his body back without me?!"
Rin was in a similar state. "Yukio….Dad…" he whispered. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to his brother. What was going to happen to them without him? He felt his stomach twist and turn. It felt like it was his fault. After all, he was the reason why Gluttony had freaked out in the first place…
Bon just glared at the homunculus, wishing he could just set him on fire and he moved his hand to the gun in his pocket. He was equally terrified of the situation, but his fear had quickly turned to anger. He wanted to blame Envy for all this, even if it wasn't directly his fault. Even if this was all an accident and they partially shot themselves in the foot over this whole thing by trying to recapture Gluttony, none of them would have been in this mess if it weren't for these monsters. In fact, the whole world would be better off without them.
"This is all your fault!" he shouted, "You're the ones who created this damn place! What kind of a maniac even thinks of something like that? 'Yeah! I'm just going to make a walking talking doorway to limbo!" "You're lower than demons, you know that? You deserve to rot in a place like this for all you've done! Experimentation, creating philosopher's stones, murder…" he growled, "and to top it off, you were ones behind the genocide of the Ishvalan people, weren't you?"
Envy smirked at him. He was tempted to just crush him now for his words, but instead, he decided to ruffle him a bit more. He was going to die in a few minutes anyways. "Oh that? I'm surprised you even had to ask," he sneered, "Of course we were, and it was the best job I ever had." Bon's eyes widened before giving him a look of disgust, his nose wrinkling up like a snarling wolf. "Those idiots probably told you how it started, didn't they?" Envy said, still smirking, "How a little girl getting shot started the war? Well guess who pulled the trigger!" He pointed to himself while grinning cheekily.
Ed's eyes widened further in outrage and Ling looked disgusted. Rin's face was twisted in fury. Smoke began curling from his fingers, but Bon looked the angriest of all. Even though he did not know this world very well, he did remember similar horror stories from school. The holocaust, the slave trade, the imperialists who invaded smaller nations and destroyed them, current terrors like in North Korea, and even what his own country Japan had done in World War II when they had invaded China and Korea, and to this day those things still made him sick to his stomach, but the feeling was still distant. It was harder to feel emotions towards someone when there wasn't someone physically present to be angry at.
But now there was someone in front of him, GLOATING about events just as horrible as those, and he was absolutely seething! He gritted his teeth and his fists shook as Envy laughed. "With one bullet, I ravaged their entire country!" he cried in glee, "Talk about invigorating!" He then let out a hearty laugh. Bon couldn't help but imagine the one that had attacked his temple laughing like this. Ed and Rin were ready to clobber the homunculus in front of them. How dare he laugh at this! How dare he laugh at al, the pain he caused innocent people! How dare he laugh at all the soldiers he scarred! How dare he laugh at all the civilians who lost family or had their homes destroyed.
However, they didn't get the chance to as he continued.
"And the best part is," he said, a look of excitement on his face, "the soldier I impersonated was a moderate! He was against the occupation in ishval to begin with! And when the old bull was put on trial he had no way of defending himself and he was court marsh-" BANG!
Envy's face froze in shock as the bullet dug itself into his skull. Ling, Rin, and Ed lost their anger for a moment in surprise as Envy fell back into the pool of blood with a splash before they slowly turned towards Bon, looking at him incredulously as he held up the smoking gun.
His nostrils were flaring and he glared daggers at the homunculus's body but he calmed down a little as he lowered the gun. He then turned towards his companions before raising an eyebrow at them. "What?" he said, "Don't tell me you didn't want to do the same."
The three looked between each other before Rin shrugged slightly. All of a sudden they heard the crackle of the red lightning as envy got back up. He sent them a murderous glare as he got back on his feet. "I was talking you little roach! How dare you interrupt me!" he snarled before smirking, "Just for that, I've got a little something special I want to share with you before we all die!" All of a sudden the red lightning encased him again. They all stumbled back in confusion as he began to grow and turn green.
"What's going on?" Rin cried as the giant homunculus fell on all fours as he sprouted two extra sets of limbs and a tail. His features became more reptile-like and his body bent out of shape to become more beast like. His clothing melted away as his slimy green skin became covered in large green boils of some kind, which continued to grow until, much to the teen's horror, became half formed human bodies hanging off of him. He opened his eyes again to reveal one was pitch black and the other had seven pupils. It reminded Bon of the stories of the impure king's eyes. He towered over them, smiling a half human, half animal-like smile.
The four teens swallowed and moved back, readying their weapons as the beast like homunculus lumbered towards them. "Ya know…" Rin spoke up, half laughing, half scared, "...I really would have preferred a duckmunculus…."
*digs herself out of her pile of homework, study guides, and essays* I LIIIIIIIVE!*immediately begins to sink back in* No,no,no,no,NO!
Sorry this took so long guys. I've been really busy and was distracted with my some aus for a little while. ^^; HOWEVER! I am really excited for this chapter. I've been wanting to write it for a long time and now I finally have it done! YAY! :D I really hope you guys enjoyed it.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS: This summer I will be hosting a fandom week for fma! It's called Fullmetal Alchemist AU week, and as the name implies, it will be dedicated to aus of all kinds! It will run from July 9th to the 15th and there are a lot of really good themes for the week to choose from including one for crossover aus! The tumblr url is fmaauweek. You'll be able to find more info on it there. If you guys want to support it by making content, I would really appreciate it. The submit feature will allow you to share content with me on it, or, if you don't have a tumblr but want to contribute here, you can PM me with the story and what theme it corresponds to. Please mark the mature content though, as I may not have time to read through everything!
If you aren't a writer, I would still appreciate you guys sharing this infer with others you know would like this fandom week. Thanks guys and have a nice day! *salutes before slipping back into her studying material*
