Sorry about the short chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist


Chapter Fourteen

Once Ed was calmed down, Roy sent Hawkeye to fetch Ed some breakfast and a large ice cream. Ed ate with his usual gusto, and the four of them were soon ready to visit the church of Leto. They had made a kind of plan that if anything turned dangerous, Alphonse would open his chest plate and let Ed climb inside and stay there until it was safe to come out.

And so Ed held Roy's left hand as they walked into the church. Roy was already wearing his ignition glove on his right hand, not taking any risks with Ed around. They passed the many pews, coming to a girl that was kneeling in front of the altar. She heard them coming in and stood up and turned towards them. "Oh, hi. Are you interested in Letoism?"

Roy guessed that if he wanted to talk to the priest, then he needed to pose as a potential follower. He smiled as charmingly as he could. "Yes, but I'm still not sure whether it is the path for me and my family yet. As an alchemist my faith is still rooted in science. It would be a tremendous help for me if I could speak with the Father himself."

The girl lit up. "Yes, of course! Father Cornello will surely lead you to the ways of Leto!"

And so they followed the girl, who presented herself as Rose, further through the corridors of the church until they met a man who was introduced to them as "Brother Cray."

Cray left to talk to Cornello and returned ten minutes later, guiding them towards what Roy guessed was a kind of large congregation room. It was completely made of stone and lit by torches. He had to say that it was a bit ominous. Ed seemed to think so too, because he walked even closer to Roy.

"Father Cornello is a busy man, you people are very lucky that he has time for you."

"I understand. We'll try to make this as quick as possible," Roy said smoothly.

"My thoughts exactly." Then Roy heard the sound of a gun and watched as Al's head was shot off, and immediately heard another shot go off as Hawkeye shot Cray in the shoulder not even watching what she was doing. The guards that had moved forwards to restrain them, seemed to change their mind, especially when Roy turned around and glared at them. Nobody shot his boys, whether they could feel it or not, it didn't matter. These people had hurt both Ed and Al now. Roy snapped his fingers, sending a couple of controlled flames at their wooden spears, making them go up in smoke. The guards ran.

Hawkeye had her gun pointed at Cray who was yelling with pain and Al was replacing his head. Rose was staring at Alphonse, stammering, but Roy's focus was solely on Ed who was sitting on the ground, his legs curled up to his chest, trying to block out the sound of Cray's screams. Al seemed to have seen this too, as he swiftly hit the man in the face before making a makeshift bandage for his shoulder.

Roy was kneeling in front of Ed, gently removing his hands from his ears. "Hey, Ed, it's okay. It's safe."

Ed lifted his head slowly and looked up at him. The golden orbs were filled with horror and fear. "Daddy? He's not dead, is he?" Roy hadn't really thought about it before now, but Ed was a country boy that wasn't used to such a violent life as the one he had suddenly been forced into. And he was five. Only five. Pained screams were pained screams whether they came from a criminal or not.

"No, and he'll be perfectly fine soon enough."

Ed nodded, then he suddenly threw himself forwards at Roy, sobbing. "I don't like this, Daddy."

Roy held him, kissing the top of his head. He felt bad for dragging Ed into this. But at the same time, Al needed to get his body back and Roy couldn't just leave Ed on his own. "I'm sorry, Ed."

"My, my, what's going on here?" Roy looked up towards the sound. At a kind of platform at the far end of the room, stood a thick, bald man. Rose immediately lit up with a gasp. "Father Cornello!"

Roy stood up, holding Ed close to his chest.

"I would like to apologise for my disciples' behaviour, it would seem they were misguided."

"So you're saying that you're not the one teaching them that it's okay to try to kill innocent five-year-olds?" Roy said, anger flaring.

"Of course not. The Sun God Leto is a just god, he would never condone such actions."

"That's funny, because this is the second time today that someone from your flock has wanted to hurt my brother," Al said, far from as sweet as usual.

"Like I said, they've been misguided." Roy was getting sick with the man's smug tone and expression. Roy didn't seem to be the only one, as a bullet whizzed about a centimetre from Cornello's right ear and lodged itself in the wall behind him. Cornello jumped, losing his attitude pretty quickly. "Y-you can't do things like that!"

"Father Cornello, your followers have just threatened the lives of two military officers, I suggest you stop talking until you answer our questions," Roy said coldly. "Your miracles, they're alchemy, aren't they?" Roy had heard quite a few stories about these "miracles", and except for the red lightning instead of blue, it sounded like what it looks like when someone transmutes. The only problem was that he didn't follow the law of Equivalent Exchange, which seriously supported the theory that Cornello had a Philosopher's Stone.

"Please don't mistake my miracles for alchemy." He created a small stone statue in the palm of his hands. "Just look, could mere alchemy create something out of nothing in this way?"

"No, but a certain alchemic amplifier certainly could. Now please hand over the Stone."

"The Stone? What stone? These are the blessings of Leto and nothing else."

"Please, Father, just hand us the Philosopher's Stone before you get hurt," Al said.

"My, my, you military dogs really are persistent. I guess you've earned a special reward. Tell me, have any of you ever seen a chimera?" He pulled a lever and a side door opened, revealing a part lion/bird/lizard, bounding towards them. Al quickly took Ed out of Roy's hands and put him inside his armour as Hawkeye shot the chimera three times straight to the brain, killing it before it hit the ground.

Cornello didn't lose heart at that, and created a machine gun, but Al seemed to have foreseen that, and had already drawn a transmutation circle on the floor, activated it and put up a protective wall in front of them.

Roy peeked his head around the wall and snapped his fingers, sending a flame directly at Cornello's right hand, making him drop the gun. Cornello shouted in pain, falling to his knees as he held his wrist. Roy walked out from behind the protective wall, striding towards him. "Tell me where the Stone is!"

"I don't think so! I can use the Stone to heal as well!" His right hand glowed bright red, but then Roy heard a crack and watched as something clearly went very wrong as the wrist twisted itself around and Roy didn't even want to think of the rest as the transmutation clearly rebounded and his arm started bleeding a lot. The screaming fool was going to bleed out within minutes. Roy and Hawkeye both ran forwards, and Hawkeye quickly began to wrap the broken appendage in her own jacket. Roy was getting furious. They were so close to finding a way to get Al's body back, but if something was wrong with the Stone, then they couldn't risk it. "WHERE IS IT?!"

Which was when Roy saw the little, red stone on the ring on his left hand crack and fall to the ground. Then it dissolved and disappeared before their eyes.

"No! My Stone! It was supposed to be perfect! How could it just break like that?!"

Roy was about to ask the Father a few more questions, but that was when a group of what was probably every guard in the church showed up, most of them carrying guns. "LOOK UP THERE! THEY'VE HURT THE FATHER!"

Then Roy and Hawkeye were ducking behind the banister, avoiding the barrage of bullets. They ran up the stairs to their right, followed by Alphonse who was attracting a lot of the fire while also shielding them. Roy hated to admit it, but they were outnumbered as well as chasing a fake Stone. The town was going to be in an uproar about them "attacking" the Father and they needed backup. They wouldn't be able to bring Cornello with them, not without putting themselves in further in harm's way just for a fool who obviously didn't know what he was doing.

And so, with the help of a few transmuted stone walls, they were able to get out of the church and were soon walking through the desert back to the train station. Roy brought a terrified Ed out of Al's chest the moment they were out of harm's way, and hugged him tightly for the trek through the sand.

"Daddy? Where are we going?"

"We're going to go back to East City. I've got an idea about what we should look into next."

That chimera had got Roy thinking. Maybe they didn't need a Philosopher's Stone at all. Maybe they just needed some sort of biological alchemy, and in that case, he was pretty sure that there was a State Alchemist in East City that had specialised in chimeras. They just needed to make a few phone calls to make sure.