"Just think, this time tomorrow, the world will be changed." Iris said this aloud to her group of misfits as they walked towards the forest.
"A lot can happen in a day," Heinkel reminded. "We don't know the outcome of tomorrow."
"Either way, nothing will ever be the same."
"It already isn't," Edward stated, looking straight ahead. His mouth was pressed into a thin line as his thoughts of doubt and certainty clashed in his head. He didn't know what to expect, except bloodshed. He just wasn't sure which side would bleed out.
To that, the gang fell silent. They all knew exactly what was at stake.
The closer into the woods they got, Iris sensed multiple energies. At first, she regarded it as the trees - Mei taught her that anything that lives has a qi, just much less active. But she was starting to tell that this was not the case. Homunculi were too easy for her to track at this point.
"Wait," she whispered through her teeth, and they all stopped in their tracks. Just before them was the entrance to the deep woods. "It's a homunculus."
"That's what that creepy feeling is?" Darius asks her, and she nods but looks at him strangely.
"You know about qi, too?"
"What? No."
"Animal instinct," Heinkel clarifies, making a lot more sense.
"What are you fools talking about?" Greed interrupts. Ed is also curious by the look on his face.
"If only you were Ling," she said, disappointed. "But shut up. It's coming this way."
To everyone's surprise, a familiar suit of armor steps out of the trees, a menacing aura confined to it. The qi helps her differentiate, but his movements are strange enough for her to recognize it truly is not Alphonse. Even his footsteps seem heavy and harsh - nothing like the sweet boy she's come to know. Iris trembles, but stands her ground.
Ed grows a smile on his face and runs up to what he thinks is his little brother. "Alphonse! What are you doing here?!"
'This boy never listens!' Iris thinks as she runs in front of him, getting between the two siblings. She looks behind her to Ed and explains, "Ed, that's not Al."
Black particles and smoke slowly seep through the open spaces in the worn armor. Iris steps back and puts an arm in front of her friend so he doesn't advance.
"Al, answer me!" he calls but is only met with silence.
Iris tries to provoke the monster. "I know it's you! One of you, anyways."
Before their eyes, the black particles form into a sharp dagger and they both jump to the ground at the last moment.
A sinister, yet childlike voice finally rings out. Multiple monster-like eyes appear in the armor's eye-holes. "And here I thought this disguise would do the trick."
"What have you done with Al! Get out of his body!" Ed shouts, jumping right back up and getting ready for a fight.
"It's Pride!" Greed shouts, grimacing.
"It has to be. But we can fight him. No matter what, he needs us. He wouldn't kill Al, so we know he's okay. He can't kill us either, so we're bound to win the fight." Iris reasoned.
"Right!"
Pride laughs. "I think we all understand that I can do things to you that are far worse than death. I can take you to Father no matter your condition. If I have to get my hands dirty, then so be it."
"Enough talk! Show yourself!" one of the chimeras demand, extremely tense.
The homunculus doesn't waste any time. From Al, darkness shoots out in razor-sharp daggers. Thinking fast, Ed transmutes a dirt wall to deflect the attack.
"Defenses like that won't keep him at bay!" Greed advises, going after the armor once he immediately took down the wall with his tentacle-like attacks.
"We have to keep him away from the slums somehow!"
Before Greed can share a tactic, he's suddenly enraptured by the darkness as it coils around his body. He's suspended in the air, struggling to break free.
"Do you give up, Fullmetal? Or would you like me to threaten the lives of those innocent slum dwellers?"
Quick on his feet, Edward found a temporary solution. He put his hands together and slammed them onto the uprooted dirt, meaningfully touching the delicate power lines he disrupted from his earlier transmutation. From nearest to farthest, the village lights of Kanama shut down.
"Ed! What are you doing?" Darius yelled, fearing of a surprise attack from Pride.
"It's okay! He's being strategic," Iris realized, praising his genius. "Pride can't cast shadows without light."
"Yeah, except now none of us can see," the alchemist grumbled, sticking his hands out in front of him.
"Technically you're the only one who can't see," Iris clarified. "But you're not totally blind here. Grab onto me. I can sense everyone's qi, I know where I'm going." She gently grabs his flesh wrist. He jolts, but recognizes her.
"C'mon. Ling's already going after Pride." She leads him by the hand into the dark woods, using her qi to sense the trees so as not to run into them.
"Where's Al, then?"
"Don't worry. Pride seems to be just puppeteering Alphonse. He's not inside him. I can feel his homunculus soul deeper into the woods, not in Al's armor."
Iris notices one qi moving away from the group, so she hurries along to where she can feel Ling.
"Who am I with?" she questions once she reaches the two auras. "Sorry, I can't tell the chimeras apart just yet."
"Heinkel is out there fighting Pride while we think of how to get out of here."
"How did Pride even find us?" Ed shouts in frustration. "We're in the middle of nowhere!"
Iris elbows him in the side. "Maybe he followed us by the sound of your big mouth!" she shouted in a whisper. "Quiet, would you?"
Ling ignores the two and looks off into the distance. He can't see two feet in front of him, but he definitely feels a remarkable qi coming towards them. He grabs onto the girl's shoulder. "Do you feel that too?"
"What is it?"
"Get down!" Darius yells suddenly, pushing Edward's head down as they all duck into the dirt. Iris feels the homunculi now as it screams and heads towards them at full speed, mouth dripping wet as it came into contact and gnawed on the tree behind the group. The creature bit down with ferocity and took a sizable chunk out of the wood.
His stomach grumbles and he makes a disappointed noise.
"It's Gluttony," Iris informs.
"So hungry! I need food and I can smell you!" he chimes happily, slowly approaching them all.
"This must have been how they've found us," Ling realizes. "They're using his sense of smell."
"Darius," Ed laughs nervously, "you can take him, right?"
He grumbles. "Oh sure, let the chimeras risk their lives."
"I promise we'll join the fight in just a second! Hold him off for a minute!" Iris pleads for him to comply, putting a hand around his forearm.
"You're gonna owe us a hell of a lot once we're done here, girl," he reminds her, then takes off with the other homunculus who makes an excited noise once he smells the prey coming towards him.
"What's our plan here, boys?" she questions, bringing them both into a group circle by their arms. Her nervous grip unsettles Edward.
"It's best for me to keep control since Greed can't see in the dark. But now I have no ultimate shield."
"I can be your cover," Iris suggests. "You keeping up with your swordsmanship?"
His sword makes a metallic twang as he unsheathes it from his scabbard. "Don't underestimate me." He goes toward the fight without hesitation, and Iris follows.
Even with qi, it's proving difficult for Iris to maneuver through the trees - she can barely see three feet in front of her! Gluttony's carnivorous noises help track him, and soon enough the two friends attack the homunculus at full force, Iris with a swift kick and Ling with a precise swing of his sword. Darius joins as they use combinations against the creature and he cries, overwhelmed.
Gluttony's voice distorts as he screams, "No fair!" They cannot see much, but the sudden gust of air reminds Ling of a previous predicament he once found himself in. He grabs the girl's wrist and runs away. They hide behind a strong arbor, their hair and clothes following the wind.
"He's trying to swallow us like he did to me and Edward last time!"
The trees are pulled from their roots and the ground is cratered as the monster consumes, trying to trap them.
"What now?!" Iris yells over the fierce wind, thoroughly frustrated. Before they know it, their shield is being uprooted and taken by the wind. Ling is taken by the gust, and Iris in turn, having held on to him. With a quick mind, his body turns to carbon and his weight drops them both onto the ground. Hastily she grabs onto another tree then hoists them up.
"Nice thinking, Greed!" she compliments, both of them now running against the constant airflow that wills them to enter the beast's mouth. Suddenly though, all stops. Gluttony cries out in agony, and the two look back to see him cut straight down the middle. Then, a bomb is thrown at him, causing him to explode, then dissolve. With the detonation came light and smoke, and they saw their savior donning all-black wardrobe and a familiar mask. True to her nature, she said nothing but removed her mask so that they would have no doubt that it was her.
The shared body seemed to switch back to Ling as he said, "I was waiting for you to find me again, Lan Fan."
"Excuse my belated presence, Young Lord."
Iris runs up to the girl, grinning from ear to ear. "It's nice to see you back in action." She takes a hold of her automail arm, moving up her sleeve to get a better look. She whistles low. "What a beauty. I'm sure Edward will love to see it."
"I believe Grandfather is with him right now."
She goes to comment about Fu, but her mouth presses into a thin firm line when she hears a yell of distress from Heinkel. She almost forgot he was facing Pride alone.
"I'm going to help him. He's in trouble. You all need to deal with Gluttony, and for good."
Ling and Lan Fan merely nod, convincing Iris that they would take care of it. She runs off, deeper into the woods. Overly-reliant on her sight, she snaps and transmutes a flame onto her fingers to guide her, ignoring the hot burn she feels on her fingertips. It barely lights her path, but it was better than no sight at all. She mentally thanks Roy for the technique.
Conveniently, the fire dies just as she reaches an opening of a field, the moon and outer trees looming over the space. In front of her is Heinkel, who is grabbing onto his bloody shoulder and panting heavily. Pride has a poisonous smile on his childlike face as he toys with the chimera. He walks toward him, but Iris shouts and makes herself known.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?"
Instantly, Pride's eyes flares with anger. He focuses his attention on her now, and it seems Heinkel breathes a sigh of relief.
"You don't look very surprised," the child says cooly, despite his fists curled up at his side.
Iris scoffs. "I can give you some credit. What a good actor you are. You surely have your own mother fooled. But I could see past any monster's disguise."
"Oh, truly?" He smiles a sinister smile. He spares no expense and twists the metaphoric knife in her heart. "Even your sister's?"
Trembling, she shouts, "What would you know about my own sister?"
"Wouldn't you like to know..." Pride laughs.
"Enlighten me," she challenged, pining for information.
"You really wish to understand how your sister became a monster?"
Iris stands firm. "Tell me what you know, Selim Bradley."
