Chapter 19

Ling and Lan Fan entered the hall, splitting up from Mei and Mr. Owens.

"Are you sure your children could handle things?" Lan Fan asked.

"I did when I was younger, and I have fewer people to depend on." He smiled at her. She was one of those people he could depend on. "They'll be fine. But it doesn't matter. Because we'll live."

Then he took off.

Lan Fan let him take the lead, following out of sight. She wanted to help. Most of the people in Amestris were innocent and didn't deserve to deal with this, and it would effect the whole world. But Ling was still her top priority.

Lan Fan stopped by a vent. There was a dalek on the floor below her. They were very quiet when they weren't screaming, but that actually helped her. Something was clearly moving down there, and it was too quiet to be human. And it probably wouldn't take it long to get up here.

Lan Fan pulled a smoke bomb out and dropped to the lower floor, flinging it.

"LIFE FORM DETECTED. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

It could try, but it shouldn't be able to see her now. She ran past it, detecting its chi to avoid hitting it, and threw some more smoke bombs. She didn't want it to clear them easily after all.

"LIFE FORM DETECTED."

Lan Fan heard the sound of the dalek weapon move. She wondered, somewhat belatedly, how accurate that detection was.

Then, the floor between them burst up, with the familiar sparks of alkhestry. "Run!" Mei shouted from below.

The dalek began shouting exterminate in a panic as it tipped back towards the floor below. Unfortunately, it also began firing in a panic, hitting the ceiling. Lan Fan ran, but chunks of the ceiling were falling at her. One hit her leg. With a cry, she fell over.

"ELEVATE!"

"No! No you're attacking me now!" Mei shouted from below.

Lan Fan didn't see what she did, but she heard more alkhestry, and considering the dalek stopped coming for Lan Fan it must've worked. Now to get out of this situation.

Lan Fan turned as much as she could and pushed against the rubble on her leg with her automail hand. It wasn't looking good. It wouldn't be easy to push anything off from this angle, much less anything so heavy, and even if she did, her leg was seriously damaged. She wouldn't be able to move on it. For a while she stayed there, trying to figure it out.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Lan Fan tensed up, and stayed low. The dalek hadn't seen her yet, that was much was clear. But it was coming closer. What did she do now? Cut her leg off and scramble away by crawling. There were a few flaws with that, and she didn't want to resemble Ed, but she'd do it if she had to. And right now, it might be her best option.

"EXTERMINATE."

Ed managed to stun multiple daleks without them reacting. They all seemed too shocked that they were being attacked by one of their own. Winry broke free of the two that had been holding her, stumbling away. Sadly, the supreme dalek seemed a bit more on top of things.

"STOP," he ordered. "STOP THEM."

Time to go. "COME ON," Ed shouted.

Ed started moving towards a different exit. Winry had been so caught up in the situation, she'd forgotten about that for a moment. The two moved towards it as fast as they could.

"ENOUGH!" the supreme dalek shouted.

Ed's case stopped and lightning seemed to charge up from the floor into it.

"Ed!" Winry shouted, turning back to the case.

It opened. Ed was still there, still breathing, but his eyelids fluttered between waking and sleeping. The ends of his clothes and hair were all charred up. He leaned forward and sort of toppled out. Winry caught him. She put one of his arms around her shoulder and stood as best she could. She wasn't confident she could move like this, especially if Ed became completely unconscious.

"I THOUGHT SO," the supreme dalek said.

"Took you long enough," Winry said, glaring at him.

It wasn't that she wasn't afraid. She was still, a little. But the two of them were also still alive, making him all talk so far. And she wasn't about to let her fear show.

"YOU CAN BE THE FIRST TWO ALCHEMISTS CONVERETED TO DALEKS."

Ed laughed weakly. "We're not alchemists."

The room went silent. The daleks still in the room, who hadn't been stunned, all turned to them. The sudden shift looked like staring.

Ed wasn't going to speak again, wheezing slightly, so Winry continued for him.

"Did you expect us to tell you the truth? Alchemy is something you study. Ed has studied, but can't use it, and I never learned. He just taught me the basics. It would take you forever to find alchemists, and you'd still lose their knowledge with their identity."

Silence continued to ring across the room for a while. Then the supreme dalek spoke. "WE WILL NOT LOSE THEIR KNOWLEDGE. ALL USEFUL INFORMATION WILL REMAIN, AND WE WILL ASSIMILATE IT. IF YOU HAVE NO USEFUL INFORMATION, YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

The dalek raised is weapon, but didn't fire it, because a new voice entered the room, seemingly coming from everywhere. "Hello daleks! This is the Doctor speaking."