"This life form of a planet," Father begins, his voice rising for his announcement. "It's all mine, now!" He raises up his hands and smiles. "Open this planet's gateway, so I may unlock its power! Obey me, my five sacrifices!"
Together, the alchemists represent the nationwide human transmutation circle that Father created. The homunculus had control of all five of them now, but an unprecedented fighter forced his way into the battle.
With a fierce attack of his Ultimate Shield, Greed yelled, "Not if I can help it, you old bastard!" He aims for Father's body, but it morphs at his will to block the encounter.
"Foolish son, I know you too well," he scolds. "You thought to come here to challenge me for control of the universe. But you forget that you were born of me. I promise my avarice is much greater than yours." He transmutes a slab of concrete to throw at him, and while Greed's carbon shield helps him take no damage, he flies and cracks the wall behind him when he lands.
Having him out of the way, Father creates another inky and black tendril from his vessel to pull Hohenheim out of him. He wastes no time arranging his subjects into their corresponding place to align with his alchemic circle.
"Right now we are at the center of the universe, and I, its King, shall know no bounds!"
Angry red sparks fly from a simple transmutation circle once his hand activates the alchemy. In Iris's darkness, she sees one thing - a giant eye opening up to gaze at her. She feels a wave of an oily substance wash over her, filling quickly inside of her lungs and suffocating her. It seizes her entire body. She's rendered helpless. Along with the entire nation of Amestris, she falls into a sleep that she's unsure if she will return from.
•••
She's unaware of how much time passes, but she's shaken out of her unconscious by a rough hand.
"Hey, stay vigilant," Izumi tells her, grabbing her forearm and hoisting her up. "He's changed."
Iris rights herself then takes her sister's stone from her pocket. It glows in her fist as she calls for its power to see with Wrath's Ultimate Eye. Seconds later she sees them all, fortunately, none hurt. But when her eyes meet the God, a shiver crawls down her back. She can't seem to look away.
Father sits on his throne with a bored expression on his new face. He looks thin but ample, and almost like a younger version of Hohenheim himself, except long and pale hair and a simple robe covering his body. The qi inside him is almost immeasurable to the alchemist. Her temples flash with pain from the concentrated energy of the souls and she winces, wondering if Mei shares the same pain.
"What's happened?"
"I've acquired God with the amount of energy from the Philosopher's Stone," he states as if it were a simple task.
"How many lives?" Ed demands an answer with a pointing finger. "How many lives did you take for your own selfish cause?!"
"The population of Amestris is close to 50 million," Iris recalls, then looks over to Father, her blind eyes glazed-over. "They're... all inside him. I can feel them."
"50 million... That is more than enough to achieve godliness with the correct power," Hohenheim announces, his fists curling.
Father chuckles as the group immediately begins an offensive barrage against him with alchemy. With a tap of his finger, a pulse shakes the room. The spears and bullets produced by their transmutations immediately deconstruct and fall to the ground before they get a chance to hurt him.
"Your alchemy is bound, and you are helpless. Beg for your lives if you will, but it means nothing to me."
A quick flick of his wrist and suddenly there's a glowing mass floating above the palm of his hand. It emanates a heat akin to the sun itself, and it blinds everyone but him.
"Becoming a god is such a great feeling," he boasts, running a finger over the hot ball of gas in his hand. "It's a shame you humans will never know this satisfaction."
Greed, overcome with anger, runs towards him with his carbon claws. Father is quick to act, though, for he creates a shield around himself with one hand. The homunculus hits this barrier and is struck backward by it, lying on his side in pain.
Father lets down his shield and smirks, but when a thunder-like boom echoes throughout the room he freezes, his face shocked and the small sun disappearing when he clenches his fist.
"You're a fool to underestimate us, after all this time. You call us worthless, yet we are the very thing that powers your precious Philosopher's Stone," Hohenheim spits out in disgust. "You have ruined my life the moment you were introduced into it, Dwarf in the Flask. You took the lives of my people, the people of Xerxes. And now it is time for us to fight back! It's taken both of us many long years to formulate our plans; yours was to obtain God, and mine was to stop you. You made a mistake by harnessing me for my stone because now, the souls trapped within me are trapped within you. The souls of these Amestrians you've taken still have bodies to return to. The shadow of the moon serves in our favor to be the ultimate transmutation circle to undo what you have done!"
Veins pop out from under Father's skin, the red stone flowing through him in pain. He struggles but transmutes a few attacks for the team to dodge. Eventually though, he grows powerless against the massive amount of souls wearing away at his insides. Red sparks surround him as the people of Xerxes fight for the Amestrians in an internal conflict. His muscles seize up and he groans in affliction.
From him, red and black malformed faces fly up into the sky with a cry of yearning for their own vessels. The souls disperse from their crowd and return to their true state of being, inside their keeper's own body.
From Central City all the way to the very outskirts of the country, souls reunite with their own. Iris breathes a sigh of relief as she feels the dragon's pulse of Amestris is restored.
"The people of Amestris have their souls returned from this monster. He does not have enough souls any longer to control the godliness he wished to achieve."
Father's brain is in an aggravated frenzy as he comes to a different solution to his problem. "I can draw power from others!" Quickly he conjures a black ball of energy and shoots it towards Hohenheim, who blocks it. It goes flying overhead and breaks more of the ceiling of the homunculi's lair. The eclipse is even more visible to them all now as it slowly shifts away from the sun.
"Let me help!" Mei yells, then gathers them all behind the old man. With her daggers, she creates a transmutation circle around them. "Be ready for his next attack! The more power he uses, the more my alkahestry can feed off from him! With that, we can use it to attack him!"
Father directs another beam of dark energy at them, and Hohenheim is pushed back by the sheer force of it, struggling to keep the attack at bay.
"C'mon, Dad!" Al motivates behind him. He pushes roughly against the back of his shoulders with both of his gloved hands. Ed joins quickly, temporarily letting go of his decade-old grudge for his old man. He's aware that they've teamed up collectively, but helping him directly, having hands on his back, helping him move forward... his emotions are mixed, but he decides he can dwell on those later.
They are pushing with all their might, and Father the same, yet both opponents can feel each other's power taxing their own. Iris watches as Father's source of souls depletes every second he spends using his attack against the Elrics. His qi is dying. Slowly dying, but surely dying.
"His stone is fading, but not fast enough!"
"We have to think of a different option!" Greed informs.
"What are we waiting for?" Izumi asks over the sound of the wind pushing against them.
"We need Scar to activate the reverse transmutation circle his brother created! It can null Father's nationwide transmutation by rendering the stone ineffective. Then, he won't be able to disarm our alchemy!"
"Just in time!" Al shouts, referring to a blue strip of sparks seems to come out of nowhere.
"It's coming!" Hohenheim yells.
The sparks shoot in front of Father and he draws back in surprise, the black beam of energy no longer ailing the alchemists. The man takes this to his advantage and transmutes two hands to grow from the floor below and crush the throne of power.
"Our alchemy is restored!" he confirms. They waste no time with this new information, all except Iris who is suddenly unable to have the stone do her bidding. She wills it to unlock the Ultimate Eye, but it glows in a faux manner, then remains dim.
'This can only mean...'
"Wrath the homunculus is dead," she whispers under her breath, then backs away from the battle that, seconds ago, she was ready to head into. "I'll have to come up with some other way to fight."
The rest of the team has already created weapons: spears to launch, cannons to fire, bullets to shoot, and more, all against Father. She can hear him block them all with his own alchemy from his stone, but it is weak, and becoming weaker with each use.
"Dry out his Philosopher's Stone," Hohenheim commands. "It will eventually sap out his energy!"
'I have to think quick to help them!' the girl yells into her conscious. 'What can I do?'
She claps her hands together, crouches, then slams them onto the pavement below her. Alchemic sparks travel just below the surface, racing past all of her allies. They watch in amazement as the ground underneath Father starts to crumble at a rapid pace. He loses his footing, and the attack aimed at the group instead hits a thick chain to his right. The chain snaps and a giant pot of lava tips, the magma flowing at an alarmingly quick pace.
He seems unfazed though, and bends the substance to his will once he's steady on his feet. The lava lifts the slab of rock he is standing on into the air. He's sent upward, leaving behind the homunculi and the group of alchemists.
"We have to get out of here!" Mei yells. Al creates a barrier for the lava as a temporary fix, but the hot liquid is already eating away at the concrete.
"I'm going to follow him," Hohenheim shouts, creating his own platform to serve as an elevator. He yells louder as he goes farther up. "He'll attempt to create more power for his stone if I don't stop him! Make sure everyone gets out of here safe!"
Greed, not willing to waste any more time, jumps and climbs his way out on the pipes, following the two of them who are already at the surface by now.
"Everyone, come over here!" Al instructs. They all group close to him and he begins to transmute the ground below him to get out of the tunnels but stops when he realizes his brother isn't with him. In the corner, he sees Edward's flesh hand trapped in a vice grip by a shadow tendril. On the other end of it is Pride, his state of decay apparent by his entire body. Small pieces of his face have chipped and flaked off, but yet he still fights.
"Brother!"
"Ed!"
Everyone shouts in concern.
"Pride wants a fight, so he's going to get it," Ed declares through gritted teeth, pulling at the shadowy extension of the homunculus. "Go on ahead! I'll meet you there!"
Iris begins to run to him at the sound of his struggling voice, but Mei grabs hold of her wrists with a strong grip. She doesn't struggle as much as before. It ails her heavy heart, but she can't convince herself that she'll be any help in his situation.
"Take care of Iris!" Ed tells to no one in particular, "Make sure she doesn't get hurt!"
"Just worry about beating that monster into the ground!" Izumi shouts, punching her fist into her other palm.
"I will, now go!"
Alphonse hesitates, but knows his brother can win the fight. He transmutes, and they ascend without Edward.
They travel a few floors up, but the armored boy abruptly stops when he sees other figures on a higher floor. The big group stops talking to themselves as soon as they see Alphonse and his own team. An expanse is between them, but to Izumi it means nothing. She jumps over at the instant she sees her husband, embracing the big man in a hug that seems to crush him instead of her. Many others are with him as well, including military men from both the North and Central, chimeras Darius and Zampano, Greed, Scar, Lan Fan, and two qis Iris recognized very well; ones she was not exactly elated to see. Or rather, not elated for them to see her.
Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye stand close to one another, the woman just a few steps behind her superior. Both have minor injuries here and there from the fight so far, but Iris is somewhat sickly glad that she can't see the expressions on their faces. She knows she must look like hell, but it's more than obvious in their voices how bad it truly is.
"Major King!" the man bellows angrily. "Get your ass over here, right now!"
She ducks her head in shame, some of her hair covering her face. He pulled rank; she knew that meant trouble.
Quietly, Alphonse makes a bridge to close the space between the two platforms. "I think you might have to come to her, Colonel."
Roy does so, his irritation spiking the closer he gets. "And why, may I ask, might that be? What happened?!"
Slowly, she raises her head. Her line of sight doesn't exactly match his.
"Look at me," he demands.
"I-I can't, Roy," she stammers, wiping a single tear from the corner of her discolored eye. And that's when he realizes. With a sharp inhale he grabs her shoulder tightly, and begins to speak.
"Don't," Iris breathes, warning him through a tight throat and lips before he can say anything. "Now is not the time to worry about me. We have the world depending on us," she swallows thickly, "so let's go."
"Like hell you'll step foot on that battlefield! I will not allow you to fight in this condition!"
She grabs his forearm quickly. Her small hand doesn't even fit entirely around the circumference of his wrist. Nonetheless, she holds tight.
"If I could look you in the eye I would. But you don't need to see me. You need to hear me. I promised myself I wouldn't be a liability. I intend to keep my promise. I'm doing it for Nina, for Maes, for my sister Iridian. For all these people inside this stone-", she holds out the small Philosopher's Stone "-they need to be put to rest. We can only do that if we fight. If we fight, and if we win."
She pushes away his hand on her shoulder, absolutely ready to defy him if he doesn't grant her this, but seconds later she's met with a hug that warms her insides. He smells of wood and ash, and his military coat is tough but soft in her grasp as she returns the embrace.
"You've got me wrapped around your damn finger, don't you kid?"
They let go of each other and smile. From below, they hear a gust of alchemy. When the group looks for the source of the noise, a platform ascends up so fast it's a blur.
"That must be Edward," Izumi reckons. "We have to go."
"If you know you can't fight, get off now! Leave it to us," Greed roars to them all, and some switch places in terms of where they're headed. The injured chimeras, Sig, Olivier, Scar, and some military men stay behind, their injuries having taken too much of a toll on them. Major Armstrong, the Lieutenant and Colonel, Greed, and Lan Fan join Alphonse, Mei, Iris, and Izumi on the platform. With a quick promise to be safe, they go up onto the surface.
Collectively, they all wonder if this will be their final fight.
