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CHAPTER 25:

THE NEW LIORE BATTLE OF EXTERMINATION

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The majority of the Stones in the cylinders rose up into pipes and tubes attached to each mannequin, and as Doctor Lujon inhaled sharply in horror, heartbeats sounded from the assemblies.

Ed was impressed. However the mannequins had been constructed, no further transmutation circle was necessary for them to be animated once they were given Stones.

The mechanic turned and ran in the direction of one of the trees in the field, and Ed didn't know whether he was glad, in the sense that he could be, or frustrated. That was undoubtedly the alchemist the Homunculi had sent, but they couldn't get to him amidst all the soldiers from here, and wouldn't be able to when he reached the tree.

The soldiers audibly and visually expressed alarm and took guard positions, but none of them stopped the technician.

That was good. Now the mannequins had a lesser chance of catching them off guard.

The heartbeats continued at a steady pace, but after a number of seconds, they sped up, coming faster and faster. Edward looked on, prepared to react at a moment's notice, and as he did, he saw the heads of the mannequins move down and then up. Then veins rose out of the surface of their heads in the direction of the red circle in their forehead.

Hundreds of red currents coursed out into the air from the white inside the circles, and the red circles bulged outwards along the skin of the dolls while the white inside the circles bulged outwards into the air. Without warning, the white inside the circles extended further outwards in the shape of a vitreous membrae, and an eye with a red iris rolled up into the center of the bulge as the edges of what obviously was a vitreous membrae grew bloodshot.

The mannequins opened their mouths and screamed.

The soldiers surrounding them jerked or cried out or otherwise reacted, and Edward recoiled backward violently. They were indescribably loud, high-pitched, inhuman screams of immeasurable anguish nothing could comprehend, filled with pain and loss and torment and longing for something that could never be fulfilled, and it horrified Ed in a way no horror had in his life, and even the unnamable horror worse than horror he'd experienced when he'd believed he'd murdered Al hadn't surpassed in every way.

"This…" Doctor Lujon's face was white, and his voice was absolutely sickened. "This is what the Philosopher's Stones are made out of?"

Edward clenched his teeth, suppressing the urge to cover his ears. How could he have spent approximately three years searching for the Philosopher's Stone!? "Apparently," he replied.

After what felt like forever but Ed knew had just been seconds, the screaming ended, and for a number more seconds nothing happened.

Then the tubes attached to the dolls' backs pulled free, liquid the color of Philosopher's Stones trailing from them and falling in drops, and the hundreds of mannequins fell onto their hands and knees. The far smaller force of soldiers surrounding them leveled their rifles at the dolls, but all the dolls did was push themselves up and stand in differing positions, many of them swaying from side to side. Edward again suppressed the urge to activate the underground transmutation circle. The tree the 'mechanic' had climbed was outside the circle, but if that was Kimblee, his Philosopher's Stone had more than enough range to break the circle if Ed circulated energy through it.

After seconds passed, the mannequins started speaking, but although their voices reminded Ed of the faces and bodies attached to Envy's outer true form, he was too far away to make out what they were saying.

Doctor Lujon was now in the large basket attached to the very thick hot air balloon that lay on the alley stone behind them, blue crackling while his hands touched the transmutation circle for transmuting the air and inflating it. Zampano, in human form, had boarded the basket with him, the rifle Julia had stolen from the human soldiers aimed at the doll soldiers, and Edward desperately pleaded the mannequins would stay swaying and speaking until the trio were in the air and attacking them.

But before the balloon could finish inflating, the mannequins moved.

Within seconds, the throng turned and ran at the nearest troops, multiple mannequins charging each soldier and leaping at him or her. A large number of the soldiers reacted in time to open fire, sending one or more of the mannequins jumping at them or their comrades falling back onto the ground in sprays of green fluid, but a minority of the soldiers were unable to respond in time to keep the amount of dolls assaulting each soldier away from himself, herself, or his or her companion, and a small number of mannequins reached a smaller number of troops and sank their teeth into the faces or necks or torsos or limbs of those soldiers.

As he forced himself not to look away, Ed fisted his hands so tightly his automail's servos whined and his left nails drew blood. He'd known it was almost certain they wouldn't be able to prevent every single person here from dying, but a part of him had still felt something akin to hope they could.

"So one of the possibilities I brought up was right," Heinkel, in human form himself, remarked as most of the dolls were blown off the troops they'd hurt by other soldiers. "They have unnatural j… What!?"

Julia screamed in horror.

Every single drop of blood drained from Ed's face as he became aware what had surprised Heinkel and caused Julia to scream, and he almost lost the contents of his stomach.

The dolls that hadn't been blasted off troops were eating the soldiers they'd downed, tearing bloody chunks of their flesh and muscles and brain matter and other insides out of their bodies.

Julia, shaking extremely violently, ran in front of Al, as though by doing so she could shield him from the unimaginable atrocity unfolding, but Edward, inexpressible anguish for what his brother must be experiencing consuming him completely, knew it would do no good. In addition, even if it would, he knew his brother wouldn't hide behind Julia.

The mannequins who hadn't yet attacked ran at the troops, who were now firing repeatedly at the dolls on their legs and on the ground, but though the mannequins on their legs staggered when the bullets impacted with them, many of them didn't fall and jumped at the firing soldiers, sinking their teeth into their necks or shoulders or upper heads, causing numerous soldiers to scream in pain, and ripping those portions of the troops' bodies off.

Even now Ed wouldn't look away. Ed's days of running from the Truth were at an end. Ed wasn't going to look away from any Truth any longer, no matter what it was, and he was certain Alphonse wouldn't either. They'd seen terribly wounded corpses before, Ed had smelled the stench of blood, and they'd seen people die before, but they'd never seen death like this or this many people die at once, Edward had never smelled this much blood at once, and they'd never witnessed a full-scale battle. That didn't matter, however. No matter how horrible this conflict became, no matter how gruesome or grisly the wounds were the soldiers took or how agony-filled their screams became, no matter how horrified the screams they could hear from the townsfolk who had been standing at the entrances to New Liore watching what was going on became, Edward wasn't going to hide from what was happening, and he was aware Al also wouldn't hide.

That didn't cause this to feel any less horrible or painful, though.

"They want bodies," Al breathed, the same horror Ed felt in his younger brother's voice. "That's why they're eating human flesh. In their state, they think consuming human flesh will give them new bodies."

Ed was sure Alphonse was right. The souls in the Stones inside the mannequins were so tortured they didn't care how horrifically they brutalized their fellow humans. He'd thought he'd understood how abominable the Philosopher's Stone was by now, but he'd just seen the surface even of that.

How could the Homunculi have been willing to do this!?

But there was no time to think about that. This made things unspeakably worse, and not just for the people and soldiers at New Liore. Because this was what made the mannequins so deadly, they weren't going to wait around once they'd depopulated New Liore for anyone to retrieve them or wipe them out. They'd hunt down people in the countryside and neighboring residential areas and might have consumed who knew how many other people before State Alchemists defeated them. He spun to Doctor Lujon, Jerso, and Zampano. "Is the balloon inflated yet!?"

"Almost!" Doctor Lujon cried.

"Fall back into the town!" an officer cried from among the outnumbered troops as the mannequins jumped at or ran at the soldiers about him and a large amount of the mannequins, moving more slowly and partially aimlessly, walked around the soldiers. "Request the main body of our forces bring as many rocket launchers as they can as well! Bullets are mostly useless!"

"I'll take out Bradley's alchemist!" Ed cried, then knelt and clapped his hands, touching the ground and opening a hole in the alley floor. He jumped into it and clapped his hands again, touching the surface in front of him and forming a short tunnel beneath the alley extending in the direction of the tree Kimblee, or whoever it was, had climbed and hidden in. Ed clapped his hands again and ran to the end of the tunnel to extend it.

Julia had thought she'd known what war, and living nightmares, were after the years she'd spent in the Valley of Milos and after she'd discovered Atlas had murdered her brother. She'd thought she was used to the sight and smell of bloody corpses, and was aware of everything there was to be aware of about how reality could feel like it was something as bad as the darkest visions her mind could create when she was asleep from all the times she'd walked among the dead Milosian bodies in the trash piles in Death Canyon or at Milos' funerals, or from her days walking through the countryside or streets of Amestris with an infinite emptiness that didn't even not have nothing inside her after she'd learned Ashleigh was dead.

But, in countless ways, even how she'd felt after she'd found out Ashleigh had been murdered didn't compare to this.

She'd known war, and nightmares, and death, but it had never been like this.

It was like she was standing in a dream.

In front of her, as she watched through tear-filled eyes with tears on her cheeks, the mannequins bit into the insides of the soldiers on the ground and tore out their body parts, chewed them up and swallowed them, then bent and tore out more. Sizeable parts of heads and faces were broken off in one bite, leaving bloody skull chips and brain matter and back teeth and bones naked in the air. Arms and legs were shredded like slabs of meat one bought at a convenience store. Fingers and toes were ripped off by maws and chewed up and swallowed like they were the remains of animals hunted down in the wild.

And Julia could do utterly nothing to stop it.

Al's hands were on her shoulders, holding them tightly and reassuringly, but she was just aware of them at the edges of her perception. All she truly knew was she was witnessing a massacre incomparably more horrible than anything her people had suffered and again she was absolutely powerless to protect anyone from becoming its victim. There were Crimson Stars right there in the cylinders out on the field, and the doubts about using them she hadn't been aware she'd still had until she'd seen Kimblee's Star no longer existed with the mannequins brutalizing the troops and townspeople, but she'd never get close to them.

A number of mannequins vanished from sight down streets beyond buildings to their right, and screams came from a portion of the citizens who had been too foolish not to run away yet.

Something within Julia snapped. Screaming, she wrenched herself out of Al's grip and charged the two mannequins running at the alley they were in, barely aware of Al's cry of, "Julia!"

Darius, in gorilla form, outpaced her and seized the mannequins by the upper torsos, pushing them onto the ground, then she felt herself pulled back against a fur-covered chest she peripherally knew had to be Heinkel, as Darius brought his strong feet down on their thin legs and broke them, one after another. Then he grabbed their arms in his powerful paws and snapped them.

"No!" Julia thrashed and kicked back against Heinkel desperately, smashing the back of her head into his chin, and it took her a few seconds to become aware the voice screaming shrilly and hysterically was her own. "Let me go! I have to save them! I have to save them!"

Peripherally, she was barely aware Al was at her side, but at the cold touch of his arms as she took her from Heinkel she felt her body stop struggling and let him hold her against him.

"You can't do anything," Darius' voice came, and the words were something immeasurably worse than a molten hot, serrated knife twisting inside her heart. "The balloon is on its way up. We'll be able to neutralize the mannequins before they slaughter too many people."

Reality partially returned to Julia, and her head whirled with desperate hope in the direction of the rising balloon and basket, Jerso and Zampano already moving the net over the edges of the basket. Then it spun in the direction of the tree the alchemist had climbed, but no red was running from it. It wasn't Kimblee, or he couldn't detonate shrapnel out of one of the buildings near the balloon with his Stone and shred the balloon part at this range without causing the ground below the mannequins to erupt as well.

The screams of the soldiers and the townspeople felt like they were wrapping around her from all sides, suffocating her, and she couldn't breathe as Al carried her back into the alleyway, holding her against him as he did, Heinkel and Darius running behind them. Intermixed with them were the stench of blood and the sounds of gunshots, a smell and a cacophony that brought back every memory of crouching or standing behind cover as Milosians and Amestrians or Milosians and Cretans, or all three, fired at each other and her companions fell in storms of blood and she'd been able to do nothing but stay where she was as someone she'd known and loved had died in agony knowing even if she was able to reach him or her she was too inexperienced with medical alchemy to mend a wound or wounds like the ones he or she had or the wound or wounds were too terrible for medical alchemy to heal and someone was going to die and she couldn't stop it could never stop it they were bleeding bleeding bleeding bleeding dying dying dying dying and she couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it couldn't stop it could never stop it could never stop it could never stop it could never stop it

Mom and Dad hung upside down in the darkened library with their bodies covered with blood in various places and a large pool of blood spreading on the floor beneath them and coating the opened books strewn over it, their eyes gazing out lifelessly and unseeingly at her as Mom's hair fell down behind her face to dangle below her corpse

The male who had pretended to be her brother laughed. "But I am your brother, Julia. This is his face, save for the eyes. I peeled it off of him, and fused it with my own with your parents' lightning."

She sat on the ledge with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, the freezing cold permeating her even through her dress. Mom was dead. Dad was dead. No one knew where Ashleigh was, and it was probable he was dead. She was utterly alone now and completely helpless and absolutely abandoned by Creta here in this valley the Cretans called Death Canyon and everyone she loved had died and abandoned her and no one would come for her again or save her for the rest of her life and she was going to die here starving and alone.

Three gunshots rang out and three of the adults who had been yelling at them behind the wall with raised arms and fists and who were now climbing up the gate and wall and over it fell forward in sprays of crimson blood to fall lifelessly before the gate and wall. Then another shot sounded and the head of an adult male who had been climbing up the wall snapped back violently, crimson gushing from his forehead and his hat flying up and off behind him and to his right as he fell back out of sight behind the wall, and a fifth shot sent an adult male climbing up the wall on the opposite side of the gate back and down out of sight in a fountain of red as his hat flew up and off behind him. A sixth gunshot sent a male standing behind the gate falling back to the ground as crimson erupted from his upper chest

It was happening again. She was there, in the library and in the caves and on the ledge in Death Canyon and in the Cretan truck, and they were all dying dead and they'd all left her and she couldn't do anything was absolutely helpless to do anything but hold her mother tighter or stand in the doorway or sit on the ledge before the Milosians had found her with her arms wrapped around her knees or let a stranger hold her protectively when she should have been the one doing the protecting but she didn't have any power to do anything she was utterly helpless

No. The knife was gone, the anguish was far away, and the reality unfolding about her was distant. She wouldn't let this happen again.

Her combat training took over, and she maneuvered her body in his grip until she was leaning forward, and waited until Al's front foot was rising and beginning its next step and for the instant it was most unbalanced.

Then she threw herself into a forward and downward roll with the necessary force and angle to send him off-balance, and when he staggered, she used his distraction to continue the roll, break out of his hold, land on the ground, and rise to her feet.

She turned and ran at Heinkel, seeking to take his gun from him.

Metal arms grabbed her around the waist, but she turned in Al's grip and spun his helmet so it was facing backwards, hoping that would disorient him. Then she kicked out at Al's stomach with her knee and pushed off of it, freeing herself again.

"I'd never do that to you, or any of your family."

But it didn't matter she'd just attacked Al for a reason that had nothing to do with getting her hands on a Crimson Star to save her people. She'd already injured him horrifically by murdering his nephew, and by worsening the cycles torturing them, and she was powerless to do anything to support him or protect him. She was already an abomination, so what did it matter if she hurt him intentionally?

It didn't. All that mattered was she got one of the Crimson Stars across the field and saved the Amestrian soldiers and the people of New Liore.

"Cut it out!" Darius yelled at her, but Julia shifted into a battle-ready stance. "Keep it up and I'll knock you unconscious!"

"Darius!" Al yelled, and she could tell from the sound of his voice his head was facing forward again. There was an anguish, and a terror she'd never heard from him before, not even when he'd been his most worried about Ed, in his voice, as well as countless other emotions. "That's going too far!"

"This is no place for loose cannons!" Darius yelled back. "I'm not going to take the chance she'll get us all killed!"

What was wrong with risking that? Didn't they see? She couldn't protect or save anyone and all she could do was hurt people. And that would never change unless she got a hold of the power of the Star. If she didn't, the people she cared about would continue to suffer and die and she'd be forever helpless to do anything to stop it. So what was wrong with letting her risk killing them?

"Julia isn't unreliable like that!" Al protested, and that terror was still in his voice. "She's more than proven herself!"

How could she trick one or more of them into dropping their guard long enough for her to steal one of the Chimeras' guns?

"Do–" Heinkel cut himself off, and sighed in relief. "About d-mn time."

Julia knew what that meant, and the sense of being separated from everything vanished.

The screams and gunshots and the stench of blood swallowed her again, and she was aware of the agony and how much she ached all over, but more than that, what she'd just done consumed her, and horror engulfed her. What had she done? She'd just attacked Al, without any misgivings or regret, and it hadn't been for her people at all. In addition, even if she'd had no choice but to fight him for the sake of the Milosians it would have hurt her and she'd believed she would have felt incredibly guilty, at least, but it hadn't hurt her at all and she hadn't felt any guilt over assaulting him. Nor had she cared, after everything he'd spoken and done for her, and as much as she cared about him.

What was wrong with her?

But this wasn't the time for that. She turned and looked up at the hot air balloon, watching as the blue coursed from the hot air balloon, now floating above them at a steady level much higher than the tops of the buildings. It was spreading out the folded netting they'd made out of light but strong metal wires hanging below the balloon's basket and transmuting it into a large expanding net, and as it was it was extending the net down and to the side and changing its shape so it would fan out over the mannequins beyond the buildings and out in the fields, pulling the balloon to the side as it did. As it descended large portions of it vanished out of sight behind the buildings, and the portions that touched the ground she could see grew points that stabbed into the ground and anchored the net there.

Many of the mannequins Julia could see looked up at the netting, but just a minority of them attempted to walk or run out from beneath it. But they failed when the netting expanded and fell over them too. Seconds later, the screaming stopped.

Blue continued to course, and the netting shrank outside the city, and Julia knew it was doing the same thing on the streets she couldn't see, pulling the mannequins inwards. What she could see of it was moving in the direction of the partially constructed structure on the far side of the street relative to where they were, where a transmutation circle for reconstructing the mannequins in harmless shapes was hidden below the bottom of the building.

Her legs weakened, and Julia felt Al's hands on her shoulders, not holding her in place but clasping them supportively. He wasn't holding them tightly this time, and she knew it was because he didn't want her to feel he was restraining her, and there was a protectiveness and a desperation in the way his hands touched her that had never been there before.

Julia started at the sound of clapping.

She spun and looked at the open doorway to her right to see a familiar white-suited figure wearing a white hat standing with a Crimson Star in his left hand. Al gasped, and Julia couldn't breathe.

"Well done," Kimblee complimented them. "I didn't anticipate you'd use a hot air balloon."

Kimblee looked at Al. "If Edward Elric went after me, don't worry. I dug this tunnel as soon as I climbed the tree, in such a way you didn't know I wasn't in the tree." Julia's legs became weaker. "When the tree trunk was between you and I and I was hidden by the branches and leaves, I put my hat over the hand holding my Stone against the surface of the upper tree trunk to conceal the transmutation light, made it hollow with an entrance into it, then climbed down inside the trunk to the ground, closed the opening to hide further transmutation lights, and dug a tunnel below one of the buildings at the edge of New Liore. I've been waiting in here since then to see if you were here and, if you were, what your plot was."

Red shone from the Star in his hand and raced down his body, and part of the alley in front of him rose into the air before him in the form of a rough slab, in front of all his body but his face. But Julia tried to make herself breathe. Zampano had his rifle aimed at Kimblee, and he might be a good enough shot he could shoot Kimblee diagonally under the doorway from his position, as soon as Kimblee's words gave them evidence he was about to use his Star, before Kimblee transmuted with it. They hadn't failed this time. They hadn't failed all the people here. They hadn't.

They hadn't. Even though Zampano had told them he wasn't a skilled sniper so he probably couldn't shoot between the stab and the top of the door well enough to hit Kimblee. Even though Zampano hadn't taken the shot yet because Kimblee might be able to react in time to start a transmutation that would free the mannequins as soon as he heard a shot, before the bullet killed him, since he didn't need to move to transmute with the Star. That didn't mean it was all over. Not this time. Not this time.

Kimblee inclined his head, then raised it. "You have my regards now. I didn't believe anyone here had the technical skills to know how to build a hot air balloon." He frowned in irritation. "I'm disappointed in myself. I believed, as a veteran of Ishval and a proficient judge of character, I had the experience and the good sense enough to keep myself from falling prey to the same arrogance many other people society sees as criminals do, and underestimating anyone. But now it appears I haven't risen above that hubris. I actually underestimated you."

He shrugged a little. "But it's not a big deal. It's not as though you enacting a plan I didn't see coming will prevent me from doing my work."

Blue crackled and the alleyway to their left separated into a hole with a stone ladder extending out of its foremost, relative to facing the city, side, then Ed climbed up the ladder. As soon as his head extended up over the rim and he saw Kimblee, he froze.

"I'm glad you could rejoin the symphony," Kimblee spoke.

Then, as the feeling of reality being distant returned, though not as drastically as before, as Ed swore and Al cried out in wordless agony and his hands squeezed her shoulders gently, but not tightly, red crackled out from his hand, through the ground below the slab, across the street, and into the building below the net extending out from the hot air balloon.

It erupted upward in currents of red and a volcano of huge chunks, tearing the net apart.

This wasn't real. It couldn't be. It couldn't be happening again.

Julia felt arms picking her up and pulling her back against a mental body, then she was moving toward Ed and the metal body was bending forward to shield her from the flying debris against it and shield Ed beneath it. She heard cries and maledictions, but they didn't make sense to her. Nothing made sense to her other than the knowledge being seared into her mind it was happening again, people were going to die all around her, die horribly, and she was again utterly helpless and absolutely powerless to stop it, she'd never had the power to stop it, she'd always be completely powerless and people would die and suffer and suffer and die like her parents had like Brother had and she'd never be able to do anything to stop it or even slow it down or lessen it the tiniest bit

"Klause!" Lujon's anguished voice.

Reality froze.

Julia slowly turned eyes that felt like they were moving of their own volition to the ruins of the destroyed building, to stare in horror that no human could express at the lowest floor of what had once been a structure, now open to the sky with no floors above it, where Klause's ruined corpse lay on the floor on her back near a shattered partially existing window facing the alleyway with a large, sharp chunk of stone impaling her head through the right eye and crushing it while shards of glass were embedded in her blood-covered body all over it. The corpse of Klause's father, bones sticking out of his left leg at unnatural angles, lay on its stomach nearby with a large piece of stone atop his neck; it must have crushed it.

Klause must have come here to watch over Lujon, terrified she'd lose him, and she must have convinced her father to come with her.

Julia felt a hand stroking her hair, but she didn't know who it belonged to. All she knew, all she could see, were Klause's inquisitiveness and her brilliance, Klause pumping her fist in the air enthusiastically and crying, "I love Milosian cosmogony!" Klause asking Julia if she wanted anything from her, even though Klause was still grieving the death of her older sister, because Julia had lost someone too. Klause looking at Ed angrily because Ed had called Julia's perspective stupid. Klause furious with clenched fists, glaring at Ed because she'd believed he'd called her not as smart as him because she was young. Klause showing evidence she'd grow up into the next Elric.

But now she'd never be able to grow up to become anything.

Because Julia had been powerless to protect her and save her.

"Rapturous!" Kimblee cried, and reality returned violently, no longer distant but more crystal sharp and clear than it had been before in Julia's life, a blinding hatred and fury Julia had never known before consuming her completely. She twisted so Al would know she wanted him to let her go, he did, and she ran around him to face Kimblee. At the edges of her perception, through her tear-filled eyes, with tears on her face, she registered the mannequins on the other side of the destroyed building were pulling the netting free from the ground with their attempts to move free and thus escaping it; a reinforced glass dome was covering the rubble-strewn alley to protect them from the mannequins, no doubt courtesy of Kimblee since the Homunculi wanted Al and Ed alive; Kimblee, still standing behind the slab of ground, was holding his Star up to warn them not to attack the mannequins or he'd use it on them, smiling in bliss; and Ed was now standing in the alleyway with his hands clenched into tight fists at his side, shaking violently. "This is the most fulfilling work in the universe! An agonizing death and the forthcoming screams of slaughter produce a blissful sound more euphoric than the sweetest lullaby! I don't know how I was able to live for all the years I did without the Philosopher's Stone! It's the epitome of happiness!"

Julia ground her teeth so hard she was certain they would chip. She was going to take Kimblee's Star and then use it to peel his smiling face off the way Atlas had peeled Brother's off. "You're a disgusting monster," she snarled hatefully.

Kimblee smiled and shrugged. "I do my best," he responded. "But don't take me to task for loving my work, you hypocrite. You of all people should know better than to do that." For whatever reason, there was admiration in his tone, and Julia's stomach churned with disgust. "You're no different than I am."

Julia cringed. She'd never thought about things that way before, but as much as she wanted to deny it, it was true. She'd murdered Envy. She was as horrific as Kimblee.

"Shut up!" Al shouted, and there was a fury in his voice she'd never heard before. "Julia is one of the kindest people I've met in my life! You're nothing but an alternately apathetic and sadistic murderer! You're blindly following the Homunculi because you believe that's your duty and that matters more than people, and you're enjoying it! How dare you compare yourself to someone as caring as Julia is!"

Kimblee sighed in exasperation. "I'm not following the Homunculi blindly," he disagreed. "I'm following them because they've given me permission to be true to myself, and my talents, as much as I wish. And that's why I'm saying Julia and I are the same. She wants the Star so she can use her abilities as an alchemist to their fullest extent."

Rage surged through Julia. "Who do you think you are?" she retorted. "I'm nowhere near the same as you! I want the Star so I can protect people! You want it to kill them!"

"That's true," Kimblee acknowledged. "But the fact remains we're equally devoted to using the power of the Stone for the sake of wielding that power at its best. I was there at Huskisson's, I heard what you and Jerso discussed. And I saw your little performance when you learned what the mannequins are from inside this building. It's obvious to me; you crave power for power's sake, to feel strong and accomplished, to feel as if you've used your talents meaningfully and are worth something. That's how I feel when I use the Star; you and I are the same type of person."

The blood drained from Julia's face, and Al walked forward to in front of her side and stopped moving slightly in front of her, a position clearly meant to say he was shielding her but not blocking her ability to move so she wouldn't feel restrained. A small amount of the anguish inside her lessened, and something softened inside, at how thoughtful Al was being.

"I told you to shut up!" Al cried. "You don't know anything about Julia!"

"I don't?" Kimblee smiled at him amusedly, and then faced Julia. "Then tell me, young lady. How do you feel when you use your powers as an alchemist to protect others by killing another? Do you feel accomplished?" Julia's eyes widened in horror, for there was no mistaking the recognition she had felt that way. Her stomach twisted violently. "Do you feel proud you have the abilities you used to kill?" Julia felt like she was going to throw up. "You do, don't you? You feel empowered, strong, as though you have value, as though you've achieved something meaningful. That's how I feel when I use the Star, or my explosive alchemy, to kill. That's why I'm obeying the Homunculi. They enable me to feel those ways however I choose to, whenever I choose to. I crave the chance of using that power, with just as much devotion to power as you, young lady, crave power and are devoted to it. You crave power because you want to feel as though you can make your mark on reality, like I do; the sole difference between us is I crave power for myself while you crave it for others. But your path has equal validity because I can tell you're fully committed to your belief in it, so that difference between us doesn't make us that much unalike. You're just as much a monster as I am, Miss; just as devoted to power as I myself am." Julia's stomach rose, but there was no escaping the truth of Kimblee's words. He was no different than her. "You're my kind of girl." More disgust rose within her. Surely he didn't mean– "Wholly committed to your talents, and your beliefs, and in love with power."

"I told you, shut up!" Al was actually yelling now, fury and concern and terror in his voice, and something else, now, something that, even through all the horrific anguish, caused her heart to stop beating. "She's been through enough! If you have any humanity inside you, leave her alone!"

"Al," Ed said, more worry in his voice than it could convey.

Across the ruined structure, many soldiers with rocket launchers opened fire on the mannequins, and Julia felt a surge of hope as the rockets detonated upon striking the mannequins and sent them flying or falling to the ground, whole chunks of a large number of the mannequins gone. But after seconds passed, all of the ones that had been damaged or sent to the ground began getting to their feet.

Several soldiers swore.

"Retreat!" an officer cried out. "Get as many of the civilians out of the town as you can!"

Julia found herself moving in the direction of the ruined building, but Kimblee held his Star forward. Then he looked up at the hot air balloon where Zampano was aiming at the mannequins and held his Stone up. "Ah ah ah," he warned them.

Ed clenched his hands into tight fists again, and as he did, many of the soldiers turned and ran, and a large number of the mannequins raced after them.

Then Kimblee looked down at Al and snorted. "I have plenty of humanity," he responded. "Much more than you and your brother do. I heard about what you tried to do beneath Central. You tried to turn most of the military against the Fϋhrer and the Homunculi, and it's obvious that was so a revolt would be as bloodless as possible. That was insanity. Humans survive and advance by devouring each other to make themselves something greater. We can't grow unless we feast upon one another, because everything comes with a price and is therefore limited. So we fulfill our dreams by taking from other people, because we can't realize our wishes by giving things up ourselves. Preying upon one another is one of the fundamental ways we're true to our hearts. To who we are, in addition. When we harm or murder others, we feel we're greater than those we kill or hurt. Inflicting pain or death is a way to affirm we're alive, and we exist. You and your brother are the ones who are inhumane," hatred even more blinding than before consumed Julia, "Because you're not true to yourselves. Your brother became a State Alchemist without having the determination to kill."

"I became a State Alchemist determined not to murder!" Ed snarled, fury in his own voice at what Kimblee had said about Al. "And I stayed true to that since I was given my certification!" Kimblee's eyebrows rose, and, to Julia's surprise, approval appeared on his face. "Al's… stayed true to that all his life! Even by your standards he's humane!"

"That's an interesting way of approaching things," Kimblee said. "But that's not the point I'm attempting to make." He turned back to Julia. "The point I'm trying to make is this: I rarely meet many people as true to themselves as you are, and unlike the hopelessly idealistic Elric brothers, you understand how reality works. I like you a lot," Julia felt like she was going to throw up, "And I hate to see you wasting your life with the Elric brothers when you could be happier being true to yourself with people who are okay with you doing so as much as you want." Julia's jaw dropped. There was no way– "I recommend you leave them and come with me. You belong with us, not them."

"You're out of your mind!" Al yelled, and there was more fury in his voice now than Julia had believed it was possible Al could feel. "Leave her alone, or you'll be the first person I've met in a long time who has caused me to lose my temper!"

Kimblee ignored him. "What do you say, young lady? The Fϋhrer investigated who you are after hearing my report about my meeting with Huskisson. I know where you come from, and I know about the situation the Milosians are in. I can tell you with surety Milos is outside of the range of the nationwide circle." This didn't lessen any of the tension within Julia. Kimblee had uncountable reasons to lie. "If you join us, I'll give you this Philosopher's Stone once we've transmuted the people of Amestris." Julia's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to refuse, but no words came out. To her horror, she realized she wasn't fully sure she should refuse.

"What's wrong?" Kimblee queried. "What happened to this 'Klause,' and what's happening here now, prove you can't protect everyone, and they prove you can't protect anyone with the power you have now. So you know you'll have to sacrifice some people to save others. Who are more important to you? The people of Amestris, who have oppressed your people for over a decade, or the people of Milos?" It didn't matter the people of Amestris had oppressed her people. They were all human, all capable of giving love and warmth and laughing and sharing burdens. "More importantly, who would your people prefer you sacrifice? Can you truly risk their happiness for the sake of the people of a country they hate? How would they feel if you did that?"

Julia's eyes widened. That was true. If she had a chance to protect the other Milosians and gave it up to protect the people of a nation that had oppressed them so horribly, they'd see her as having abandoned them. She could never do that to them.

"This is your last chance!" Al yelled. "Consider yourself warned!"

"So what do you believe is right, Julia?" Kimblee questioned. "If you come with me, you'll be able to protect the people who are depending on you, and what happened to Klause and what's happening here now will never happen to them. You can save them all, and you'll finally have the power you've been searching for all this time; the power you need to protect them. All you'll need to do is give up on the people of a nation partially responsible for your people's suffering, and who are among the last people the Milosians would want to save. With that in mind, will you come over here to me, please?"

Almost before she was aware she was doing it, she took a step forward.

Al jolted violently. "Julia!" he screamed. "No, please don't do it! It's okay! I'm not going to leave you the way your brother did!" The reality of what she was doing crashed into Julia, and her stomach twisted violently. "You're not alone! I care about you! I'm here for you, and I won't leave you! Please don't listen to him!"

The power she needed was right there, in Kimblee's hands. All she had to do was join the Homunculi, and it would be hers, and her people would be safe. But she couldn't. She'd let it happen again, to Klause and to the people of New Liore, but that didn't mean there wasn't a way to save both countries and not abandon anyone. She couldn't give up. Not when Al was there, and cared about her this much.

She took a deep breath.

"You have no proof I can't save both nations," Julia spoke. "Forget it."

Kimblee frowned, but then shrugged. "Ah well.

"Then it's time to ensure you don't interfere with the symphony I'm conducting." Al ran back so he was nearer to Ed and Julia. "The Philosopher's Stone doesn't have the accuracy I need to kill most of you and leave the Elrics alive, so I'll just have to hope you're all still unconscious when I'm done monitoring the mannequins to ensure none of them escape the vicinity of New Liore, they've served their purpose and I've discarded them, and I have time to take the Elric brothers into custody." He took his hat off and tipped it to Julia. "Goodbye, Miss Crichton. It was a pleasure meeting you."

He put his hat back on, and then red coursed out of the Stone in his hands into the alley floor beneath them and it detonated violently. Everything shook and flew through the air below them and around them and above them, and then Al grabbed Ed and held his brother to him, and then he bent forward over her, and then everything was blackness.

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BOOK FOUR: THE FLASHPOINT OF NEW LIORE

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Fin

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Begin

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BOOK FIVE: DIGGING FOR GOLDEN BONES BENEATH ICE

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"Never! I'll never let it happen again!"-Shinn Asuka

GUNDAM SEED DESTINY:

Phase 37: THUNDER IN THE DARK