"What did you come here for?"
A commanding voice resounds in the courtyard of the luxurious military base of Lyssa, in the devastated Ishval region.
"Pride... You shouldn't be so hasty, you know?"
The man who responded to Homunculus Pride is a man wrapped in a green cloak quite fringed at the edges, with the hood pulled down to the eyes, the snow-white skin contrasting with that typical Ishval clothing.
King Bradley observes him, scrutinizing him thoroughly with his icy eye, the one uncovered by the blindfold.
He doesn't like the man wrapped in desert clothes, he doesn't like the scent of sand and south wind that long worn cloak emanates with every blow of air, he doesn't like the inquisitive blue eyes that look at him from the slit of the hood , he doesn't like that hoarse voice.
"That person wouldn't appreciate your attempted intrusion..." the Führer reminds him, putting his sword back in its sheath, "The chimera knows too many things and that foolish boy is protecting her."
"The foolish boy is precious, a soul tied to a heavy armor... Fascinating, he reminds me of the experiments I conducted in the basement of my lovely family mansion... Such sweet memories…"
The stranger becomes nostalgic, with a veil of smug sweetness in his tone that makes the supreme leader of Amestris very nervous, well aware, however, that he cannot do anything against him.
"Let those two meet with Fullmetal Alchemist. It's a game of pawns, you know it too... If you burn them prematurely, the game is over, with no more chance of reopening it. For once, put aside the arrogance that makes you believe you always have everything under control. Damn, is it possible that your mommy created you so badly?"
The stranger is annoying and inappropriate, and Pride knows that his first instinct would be to run him through with his sword, but his reason yells at him not to.
"Maybe it's not clear to you... That snake woman knows my secret." Bradley repeats to the other, without losing his temper.
"And by whom would she be believed? She's a chimera, a waste of society, a lover of anarchy. As for Fullmetal's brother, I remind you that the souls transmuted into foreign bodies have a fleeting and confused memory. It won't be difficult to make him pass for a mythomaniac."
The man who came from the desert makes it easy. Pride doesn't trust him, but he doesn't deploy his troops in pursuit of the two fugitives.
"So be it. I will let them go, but I will personally go to Reole."
"Paranoid to the bone. Do as you please, but keep a low profile. I always say: a silent gate hangs the longest."
And having said that, the strange guy goes away among the dunes that surround the military base of Lyssa, under the suffocating heat of a sun that confuses the features of the landscape and creates cruel illusions for water-thirsty travelers. Bradley looks up, and wipes the sweat with the palm of his hand.
Meanwhile, Alphonse is running as fast as possible, also taking advantage of alchemy, thanks to which he has been able to create a thin strip of floor on which to advance without sinking with each step.
"Al, are you sure you can continue like this? I am a snake, I would have no problem crawling on the sand." Martel points out to him, huddled inside the armor.
"No, I'm fine, just stay where you are, it's safer, and then the sun is very aggressive, you'd risk getting burned."
The woman smiles. It's nice to have someone who cares about you, like when her companions were still alive.
"You are a very sweet boy, Alphonse. I'm sorry to have given you all this trouble."
"I have to protect you. Before, you were taking a very reckless action."
Martel's mood suddenly changes.
"Bradley is my enemy. He is an oppressor who hides behind those false cordial ways, is it possible that you haven't understood it? On the other hand, what could I expect from a Homunculus?"
"Huh? Are you serious?!"
"Yes, Alphonse... Bradley is one of them, I saw the symbol in his eye..."
"The one that is always covered?"
"Yes…"
The armor boy doesn't really know what to think, even if something deep inside him has always warned him of King Bradley's friendly but distant manner. And now… This.
"We have to go to Reole, Martel. My brother is there."
"Did he know about those bastards' plans to destroy the city too?"
"Yes... We suspect that Scar wants to do it too, to build a Philosopher's Stone."
"Apparently I will see a lot of scum gathered... Better this way, less effort for me."
"I have already explained it to you, Miss Martel, I will not allow you to-"
"To carry out a free and conscious action? Nobody asked you for anything, Alphonse Elric, and stop addressing me with all those ceremonies, you get on my nerves."
The boy suddenly falls silent. He can't make her change her mind, but he's not going to give up. He couldn't bear to see the umpteenth person collapse lifeless before his eyes.
"For that matter ... I am taking a free and conscious action as well. You want revenge, I want to protect you. We can define it as a conflict of interest."
Martel says nothing; she could jump out of the armor and run away, but that stubborn one would stop her immediately with his alchemy. What a situation. Paradoxically, she doesn't even have that much desire to leave and be on her own.
"I accept the challenge, Al ... We'll see who will win in the end..."
Towards evening, Alphonse and Martel made their way to the small village of Hybris, not far from Amestris.
After finding an inn, Alphonse was served an invigorating dinner and booked a room with a single bed for the night to rest the snake woman.
That night, after allowing the woman to eat her meal and making her lie down on the bed, the boy sits down in a corner of the room; on the other hand, he has no special needs, he doesn't feel the discomfort and even less the fatigue.
After endless minutes of silence, with Alphonse collected in his thoughts and Martel intent on staring at the ceiling with an active paddle fan, the metal boy turns to his travel companion:
"Martel, can I ask you a question?"
"Mh? Yes, tell me."
The tattooed woman sounds bored, almost sleepy.
"You... Have you ever had a family?"
Hit and sunk. Yes, she had a family, even before meeting Greed and the chimeras...
"… I was told I ended up in an orphanage because my father spent all the family money. We ended up in the street. My mother couldn't hold it and started drinking. End of the story."
There is so much pain in that woman of indefinite age that she hugs the pillow as if she were still a defenseless child. So much pain and so much anger, perhaps an anger similar to the one Edward feels when someone names Hohenheim.
"Oh, sorry…"
Martel gets up and looks at him tenderly.
"No, don't worry. It's water under the bridge, and now I'm strong enough to get by on my own."
She flexes her muscles, as if to reassure him. Alphonse feels calmed.
"Do you miss your family?" she asks, catching him by surprise.
The boy mulls it over for a while, then decides to answer her:
"Since I have been stuck in this armor, I haven't felt the heat of the sun anymore, nor I have been able to taste my favorite dish. The feeling of not being able to find comfort in these little pleasures almost threw me into the darkest depression, but luckily my brother has always been there. He is my light, even if his embrace collides with my cold metal. Since our mother is gone, we have helped each other not to sink."
Martel is struck by that speech so much more mature than Al's fifteen years. She would like to tell him something else, she would like to give him strength, but she can't do it. They are two castaways who found themselves in the middle of the sea.
"It's late. Tomorrow we will leave at dawn." claims the blonde.
And having said that, she turns off the light and silence falls into the room.
With surprising speed, the man who stopped Pride's sword reached Dante's mansion, now in the guise of her apprentice Lyra.
"Did you miss me, Dante of the Deep Forest? How many years have passed? One hundred and eighty?"
The man's mocking tone brings Dante out on the balcony, with an indignant expression on the beautiful diaphanous face of that young body.
"Oh, there you are, princess. Aren't you coming to hug me?"
There is tension between the two people, and Dante's eyes narrow to two slits.
"You are not welcome here." are the only words she addresses to him.
"Now now… Will you kick me out of the forest? And where are your good manners? Have you forgotten them in four hundred years? Maybe it's true that you are getting old..."
Without warning, the woman uses her alchemy to transform her arms into enveloping vines, which lift and hold the impudent man.
"Tell me how you didn't change your original body, and maybe I'll let you live."
"Eh eh eh... Foolish girl... You know you can't kill me..."
"Oh, no? Sooner or later the Philosopher's Stone will be consumed..."
"You think? Wanna try?"
Annoyed, Dante throws him to the ground, making him fly for at least five meters. The man's ankle breaks, but it takes a moment to put it back in place.
"Go away." Dante hisses, before turning her back on him and re-entering the building.
The mysterious individual keeps looking at her.
"You can't kill me anyway... You always knew that."
