With Major Armstrong's alchemy the group ascends to the front of the Command Center, where all hell has come loose by Father's hand.
"What's happening, Roy?" Iris asks quietly to her older brother, holding onto the torn sleeve of his navy military jacket. When he looks down at her, he can't keep the wave of pity for her at bay. Her injuries look even worse in the daylight's sun. Her tattered clothes blow in the wind. Fingerprint bruises line the inside of her elbows, and the cuts through both of her palms from the Fuhrer's swords are still fresh and tender. Blood covers random parts of her body and face, and he absentmindedly wonders if it's others' or her own. He looks into her eyes, but all he receives back is a blank stare.
She tugs on the jacket like an impatient child. "Please, tell me. I want to know."
He looks to the fighting ground, but the scene is suddenly covered by kicked up dust. He coughs and covers his mouth. Iris and Hawkeye involuntarily do the same. The lieutenant is looking towards the source of the smoke, but Mustang sets his eyesight to what's left. He looks up, then gasps in disbelief.
"Central Command...! Half of it's been blown away."
"What's going on?!" Iris repeats.
"The smoke won't clear!"
But a scream can be heard from the thick dust in the air, and suddenly Hohenheim is sent skidding on the pavement. He stops at the three's feet, having just been blown away by one of Father's powerful blasts. The two adults go to his aid immediately to get him back up on his feet, but Iris is preoccupied with the sound of Ed's voice when he yells for the man.
"Hohenheim!"
Without thinking, she runs towards the sound of him. She knows his qi like the back of her bloodied hand and follows him, yelling, "Ed! Where are you?!" She coughs once more as the dust gets in her lungs, but she can feel it dying down in the air around her. She can also feel Father a few feet away from Edward, so she yells his name again, but is cut off with a halt. The smoke is settling back down, and the view of Father is clear again. The homunculus has his arm in front of him with a closing fist.
Fullmetal feels his throat clenching tight until he's unable to get any air out of his lungs. Looking from left to right he sees Teacher and Iris fighting for breath just the same, their hands wrapped around their own necks, trying to tear away hands that aren't there. Father laughs, his whole hand tight in a grip.
Iris can feel herself losing herself in this breathless struggle. She's drifting farther away from everything... She's about to let go... Then a shot rings out in the distance. Moments later, she doubles over, suddenly able to suck in air. She hears Father gasp and stumble over in surprise by the bullet that hit him, but she's too focused on breathing to get up and run.
Military men give out orders to their subordinates, and more shots are fired towards Father. The girl is scrambling to get away in case of a misfire or deflection, and she finds a raised bed of shrubs to hide behind. Edward quickly runs towards her once he's caught his own breath and hoists her up with his metal and flesh hands.
"Hey! Let's get you out of here!" he directs, slinging one of her arms around his shoulder. She takes hold of the space between his neck and his shoulder, right where his flesh and metal meet. He's not wearing his coat anymore she notices, and wonders how bad his injuries are. She knows no one has yet to be spared of pain in this fight but is worried for his physical state in particular.
It's almost as if Edward reads her mind because he pulls her closer as they run. He whispers a few words to her, but Iris can't hear them clearly over the roaring bullets and cannons and shouts coming from the battlefield they're running away from. Ed looks back at the scene to see Father deflecting the attacks with some sort of red alchemic shield encompassed around his body. Some Briggs men come to Hohenheim and Izumi's aid, which he's grateful for.
"Do not cease fire!" Major Armstrong commands. "If we cannot damage him, we must distract him and give him no chance to deal any damage to us! His entire Philosopher's Stone will be used up!"
"It's depleting," Iris shouts over the roaring noise, "but I don't know how much more it will take to make him powerless!"
This news makes Ed growl in frustration, and he runs even faster with her to the allies he can see in the distance. Lan Fan and Greed are busy attacking as well, but they run over to them and meet them halfway.
"What the hell happened to you two?!" Greed shouts. They both open their mouths to answer, but a clear and stern voice calls everyone's attention. From behind them, Colonel Mustang shouts, "Take cover, now!" Father turns to face him as well, but it is too late. As soon as Roy sees that everyone is down, he shoots out a thick and fiery flame from his gloved fingertips.
Major Armstrong is quick to join in on alchemical attacks, transmuting spiked weapons to projectile towards Father with his iron fist.
"Make him use up the power of the stone!"
No one needs to be told twice. From Iris's left, she can hear the quills of Zampano shooting through the air, Jerso's spit flying across towards Father... From her right, she hears Lan Fan's bombs releasing smoke, Greed's carbon claws striking against his father, Ed clapping and producing alchemy... Perfect chaos, and she wanted to be a part of it.
She puts her injured hands together in front of her and separates them to hit them on the pavement, but Edward pulls her bruised elbow back to prevent her from her alchemy.
Iris hisses, removing his hand from her injury. "Ouch!"
He ignores her cry of pain and shouts angrily, "You can't keep rushing into battle like this! You're going to get yourself or someone else hurt!"
"I can, Ed!" She sobers from her anger. "I promise. Trust me. Just be my sight. Describe it to me."
The boy huffs, but obliges. "Fine." He pulls her close towards him, her back against his chest. She can feel his heart going a mile a minute. He grabs her arm with his flesh hand and makes her finger point to Father. With the position they're in, his voice in her ear is clear as day.
"He hasn't moved from that spot since the fight started. He's about 45 feet away, and the Briggs and Central military guys are 20 feet away from him, making a sort of half circle from behind him and to the side."
She turns her head and he moves away just slightly so they don't bump heads. "Is anyone in between us and him right now?"
"No. Just us and him."
"And Roy? Where's Roy?"
"Colonel's to the right with Armstrong and Miss Hawkeye."
"Can they see us from here?"
"We can get their attention," he ventures.
"I have an idea." Iris lets go of him then claps her hands together. "Roy!" she yells to her step-brother, then slaps the ground to transmute. Around Father becomes an open dome, shutting out the military men but giving Mustang and his crew a front view of him.
The Colonel quickly catches onto her plan, then shoots out a controlled flame from his fingers. It travels through the air and flies towards Father, and all are about to celebrate a hit when the man opens up his palm. The fire is doused when it hits his hand, as if his body was eating up the flames. Embers surround him, but the fire is no more. Black smoke curls around the battlefield.
"You helpless beings," he scolds, holding his head high. "You cannot lay a finger on me, not even as a collective."
"Maybe humans aren't able, but don't forget, I'm the last of the homunculi!" Greed yells, coming to him from the rising smoke. "I'm the only one left, and I just so happen to want to kick your ass!" He pulls back, then lands a punch directly to Father's face with his carbon based fist. Unfortunately, he changes his form once again, and traps the homunculus, his black fist stuck inside his face.
"Ah, this is true," Father concurs. "You are my last child, so I'll be taking your stone. I am in need of a new one at the moment."
Thick veins pop out of Greed's arm and the ventricles turn a visible red as the Philosopher's Stone courses out of his bloodstream and into Father's. He screams out for a few moments, his face contorting in pain. The group gasps for his sake, but then he stops, throws his head back, and laughs.
"Acting was never my strong suit, sorry. But it is yours. Don't pretend you're invincible, Pops. You can't take my stone without letting go of your defenses. This power of yours, it's mine now!" Suddenly, the red flow of liquid is reversed. Father's power is tunneling back into Greed, despite him grabbing onto his forearm with both hands tightly.
"Anyone want to stop gawking and help me out?!" Greed shouts over his shoulder. Everyone snaps back from their trance, immediately going for their weapons or more alchemy. Father blocks them as always, except Greed is attached to him, making him slower. He lugs him around like a ragdoll, but still, not a single scratch has lain on him.
Iris tries for her own sake to get out of the way; she knows that Father's defense is a type of alchemic shield that deflects the projectiles, and she did not want to get caught in a ricocheted attack. Her lack of eyesight is replaced by her innate powers of qi and her alchemy skills though, for she sticks close to Edward and creates a circular shield to somewhat protect herself.
Quite quickly does Father become irritated with these attacks from all directions. It takes a fair amount of souls to do this, Iris notes afterward, but he releases a pulse of energy through the area. Everyone and their attacks are rebounded as they're pushed back by the energy, away from him. But for Edward, his arm made of metal is unraveling right in front of his eyes as he's pushed through the air by the energy. Bolts and screws fly from him, some scratching Iris in the face, who he's in front of. She skids farther away than him, and he's too shocked by the loss of his arm to go to her. He stumbles to get up, his weight no longer balanced. But he's determined to keep up the fight.
Briggs men come to Iris's aid, helping her up and ushering her to where they're hiding and shooting behind a large wooden bed of flowers that were originally used for decorating the front of Central's Command Center. She takes cover with them, giving herself a moment to wipe the blood from her injuries.
"No," she can hear Ed shout from far away. "Can't give up!"
He deals out a flurry of attacks with his legs and flesh arm, kicking and punching. At his final kick, Father's defense falls, and he uses his forearm to block and push him back into the gravel. Ed groans in pain, but Hohenheim exclaims in hope.
"His arm! He didn't defend with alchemy!" This new development restores the group's hopes, and suddenly their efforts multiply.
"We're wearing him down! Keep going!" says Izumi.
After a few blows, everyone can tell Father has had enough. Edward motions for everyone to back away, and he does so himself as well. The vessel is trembling and twitching, groans escaping his pale lips. His head lolls down for a moment, then he throws his chin up to the sky.
At first, black ashes slowly drift out of his mouth and into the sky. He caves in on himself in pain when red alchemic sparks surround him. He screams, agony coming out of his mouth. At this, Hohenheim smiles in satisfaction.
"He can't keep the power of god contained inside his vessel!"
No one dares to come close to him, they just watch and wait for a breath to be his last. But it doesn't happen. An eye emerges from his screaming mouth instead, the pupil quaking. This sends him writhing to the ground, his body spasming and fighting for control. With one final effort, he sends another blast of energy over the entire area, blowing everyone away.
Iris lands on her back, but by two qi's she recognizes. Mei and Alphonse are a few feet away from her, and she treads over to them, hands out until she finds Al's cold armor under her fingertips. Immediately she takes in his appearance. Not through sight, but touch. He's dismantled from his side, leaving him no legs to stand on. From what she can tell Mei fares no better either.
"What happened?" questions Iris to Alphonse, who is propped up by his elbow. The metal creaks. He doesn't answer though, too focused on the scene before him with panicked eyes.
"Brother!" he cries out, finding his voice.
Iris whips her head around. "What? What is it? Tell me, Alphonse." He doesn't need to explain though. When she locks onto Ed's qi, then onto Father's single qi coming towards him, she hears the shell of the Dwarf in the Flask wailing and calling for a stone to fill his empty void of a vessel.
"A stone... I must have a stone," he moans, targeting the first available resource: the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Edward Elric sits before him, trapped. His left and only arm is pinned to a slab of wall that was earlier destroyed by the chaos. A thick metal screw from the debris is the only thing preventing him from escape, as it is lodged clean through his flesh at the bicep. He struggles against it, but with no other arm to pull it out, a clear solution for him hasn't come up, and with the way Father is cornering him, he's afraid the answer won't arrive in time.
"What are you doing, Ed? Get out of there!" Iris shouts, unable to see the grim situation he's in.
"He can't," Alphonse whispers, dread obvious in his voice. "Please, don't," he pleads, his arms trying to move what left he has of his armor. More pieces of metal fall apart from under him as he crawls pitifully. "Don't hurt my brother!"
Father hobbles to Edward like the undead. Slowly but surely he reaches closer and closer, and Iris can't bear not knowing what's happening.
"I'll go help him!" she declares, but struggles to get up. Al is quick to realize her surplus of injuries and grabs her wrist in a tight grip to stop her.
"You've gone blind. You're hurt. Father will kill you and Ed, I can't risk that. It has to be me," he insists gently, willing her to understand. She opens her mouth to interrupt, but he needs her to listen. "Please, I'm his brother. You know what it means to me because you've felt the same for your sister! So please, trust me!"
She stifles a huff, gesturing to his body. "How will you stop him, Alphonse?!"
He repeats his words, but with the gentle voice she's more familiar with when it comes to the sweet armored boy. "Trust me." He loosens his hold, letting his arm fall back down. She knows what that means, somehow. A silent exchange. She could go, save Ed, get him out of harm's way, right now. Or, simply, she could trust him.
With a shaking breath, she stays put. She can feel Father inching towards the boy she loves, but she owes this personal inaction to Alphonse. She knows better than anyone the love for an older sibling and doing anything possible to save them. It was their time.
"Mei," Al calls. He doesn't look to her, his eyes still trained on the two. His voice is as calm as he can manage. "You need to help me. Right now.
"Brother's toll for the taboo we carried out was his left leg. But he gambled Truth his right arm for my soul, and won. So... shouldn't the reverse be possible?"
"Alphonse, don't tell me what I think you're going to say," Mei pleads, understanding his theory immediately.
"All I need is a clear path!" he bursts out, but then quickly composes himself at her startled expression. "Please."
The two look towards Edward a final time, who is now paralyzed in mind and physical state. His mind is somewhere else now, unable to do anything but let himself die. But his neck turns to the right side of the broken wall. There has materialized five daggers with pink ribbons on the back of each. He quickly recognizes them as Mei's. They're precisely thrown and with the intent of a pattern. Looking over to the source he inhales a gasp.
Alphonse is splayed before the battlefield ground with another identical five knives surrounding his broken down and hollowed body. Mei kneels before him, crying.
The armored boy raises his hands up to a sun that he can't remember the warmth of. Whispers from Ed turn into screams.
"What do you think you're doing, Al! Don't do this! No!"
He's hushed by his little sibling as he says clearly, "Keep moving, Brother."
He claps his hands together then settles them over his chest, right above his rune of his brother's blood. Blue sparks take over the field in a fireworks show. Eventually, the armor's hands turn lifeless and they fall over the chest piece.
A moment of silence befalls them all. Then, the red glow that once resembled a boy's eyes is gone.
