In this chapter Al, Ed, and Amber come in contact with the chimera. And also, Lust begins to conjure up a plan to get rid of our heroes. This chapter is longer than the others so I had to cut it into two parts. As the story continues, Amber starts to realize that she has feelings for Envy as well as Edward! Who will she choose in the end? And who loves her the most? You must read to find out! Mwahahahahaha! (okay, so maybe the evil laugh wasn't called for)

Chapter 5: The Chimera and a Scandalous Plot (part 1)

It was still night; Envy disguised himself as a regular human while walking through the town. He arrived at a small house. It was the place that Lust had obtained after killing the two people who lived inside. Envy walked in, reverting back to his true form. He entered the living room and found Lust sitting on the sofa, reading a book. She looked to her left and saw Envy standing there and said, "So, how are things going?" She adjusted the lamp on the platform next to her to get better lighting. The green-haired homunculi hesitated for a moment, then he answered, "She hasn't done it yet".

"I see…Well, if she doesn't do it soon, then I'll have to get my hands dirty" she smiled wickedly.

Envy kept quiet.

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, I'm just tired. Where's Gluttony?"

"Eating out tonight…Ah! Hey that gives me an idea" Lust closes her book and turns to fully face Envy. "I've got a new mission for you…"

The next morning-

"Wake up already! Hey!" It was 7:46 a.m. and Ed was yelling at Amber, who was fast asleep. He dragged her limp body out of bed and began shaking her hard. "Grrr! Get up, damnit!"

"Nii-san, you're being violent again. You're scaring Little Elk" Al exclaimed as he pointed to the little kitten who was hiding in a corner. Elk's thoughts at that moment: "Big scary man in red coat with big mouth!" Ed tried waving his dirty socks in front of Amber's nose, but still she slept.

"Wow, that's some powerful stink and she still sleeps!" Al laughed.

"Aw, shut up"

"…Maybe a kiss will wake her up"

"I said shut uuuup!"

Al giggled. That was the last straw; Ed took a deep breath and yelled in Amber's ear: "AMBER, GET THE HELL UP OR YOU SHALL FACE MY WRATH OF INFERNO AND BURN IN THE ETERNAL FLAMES OF MUSTANG'S UNDERWEAR!" Amber immediately jumped up screaming, "AHHHH! IT BUUUUURNS!"

Roy at that moment-

"ACHOO!"

"You okay, sir?" asked Lt. Havoc

"Yeah, I'm fine. Someone must be talking about my underwear again. Geez, I mean REALLY, if you go to a party wearing a velvet purple thong, everyone makes a big deal out of it! Maybe it was the gold trim that was a bit much…I dunno…"

Havoc made a 'what the f-" face, his cigarette falling out of his mouth.

"Oh, and by the way, did you know that Hawkeye is completely nude under her uniform? Ha ha, how's THAT for useful information!" Roy stood proudly on his desk holding a 'thumbs-up' at the camera, with a twinkle in his eye. Havoc wiggled into a puddle of mush on the floor thinking, "I can't understand anything anymore…Mustang in a thong! That's creepy!"

Lt. Riza Hawkeye came storming into the room holding a gun in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. She glared hard at Roy and said, "Do you want to die fast, or painfully slow?" A little ghost spirit floated out of Roy's mouth shouting, "I'm too young to die!" and he stood there frozen like ice…….

Back to the other side of the story-

"Oh, it's you, one of the Mario Brothers" Amber yawned.

"Who?...Anyway, you sleep like a rock! Now get dressed, we're leaving!"

"Huh? Leaving? What nonsense are you spouting?"

"It's not nonsense! We're going to Azure Town in the west to kill that wild chimera."

"Oh…Alright, whatever you say chief" Amber stood up and stretched.

The three teens gathered their things and headed out; the homunculi group secretly followed. Once they arrived to the town, they noticed people running around screaming in fear. Amber saw a woman she knew and pulled her aside from the crowd. "Akina, what's wrong?"

"It's The Beast! It's on another killing spree!"

"Where is it?" Ed butted in.

"A few blocks down there, the police can't stop it! Oh, and Amber, you should go home to check on your mother."

"No time for that! We have to stop it" said Ed.

"Stop it? But how?" asked Akina.

"With Alchemy…" Amber answered.

"Come on!" said Ed, running towards the heart of the commotion.

"Right!" said Al following.

"Be careful" Akina noted to Amber. She nodded, then ran off to catch up with the others.

They came to a sudden stop when the chimera emerged from the crowd, holding a dismembered leg in it's mouth. People came running from all directions, nearly knocking the three down. Ed clapped his hands together and slammed them on the ground, making the ground collapse under the creature. But it failed, the animal leaped into the air and charged at Ed. He clapped his hands again and formed an extending chain with a sharp dagger at the tip from his metal arm. He quickly swung it and it wrapped around the chimera's neck. The chimera was much too powerful to be held by a kid, and it thrashed around, knocking Ed off his feet. Seeing that was a careless idea, he abolished the weapon. Al created a giant concrete hand that rose from the ground and grabbed hold of the beast. The hand squeezed hard and the animal growled. Ed sent flying daggers at it. Amber began drawing a bunch of transmutation circles on the ground with a pencil. But before she could do anything else, she heard Ed yelling, "WATCH OUT!" Suddenly she felt herself being grabbed violently by the shoulder. The chimera ran off with her in it's teeth. "Damnit!" Ed cursed and changed his metal arm into a sharp blade. He and Al chased after them. The chimera brought Amber to a clearing and released her from it's jaws. Her arm was bleeding badly, and her shoulder was filled with intense pain. The chimera looked deeply into her eyes, then roughly rubbed it's nose against her cheek. It began licking her wound. Amber examined the strange creature; that's when she found it to be quite beautiful. It had the body of a wolf, but it had the size and mane of a lion, and there were deer antlers on its head. Amber stroked its fur…She started to feel déjà vu…..Ed came rushing in, and stabbed the animal in it's side. It roared loudly and pawed at Edward, knocking him down. Grabbing his metal leg, it shook him from side to side. "Stop it!" Amber yelled. The chimera stopped, it took one last look at her and ran off. "Wait, come back!"

"We gotta go after it!" said Ed, feeling dizzy as he stood up.

"No, Amber's hurt, see? She has to be treated" said Al.

"Alright…Aw man, that looks painful."

"Yeah, it is" Amber huffed.

"Come on, we have to get you to a doctor and have that checked" Ed placed Amber's other arm around his neck and his hand held her waist to help her walk. The streets were a mess; it looked like the aftermath of a war. Ed was able to hitch a ride with the police to get to the hospital. While in the car, Amber began to loose consciousness. Her head slipped off of Ed's shoulder and onto his lap, her vision became all blurry. The towel that was pressed on her shoulder was soaked with blood. Ed was saying something to her, but she couldn't hear. She began to slip under.

Amber woke to find herself lying in bed at the hospital, with her shoulder bandaged up. She rubbed her eyes and saw Alphonse sitting in a chair by her bedside.

"She's awake" Al nudged his brother who was lying in the bed next to Amber's.

Ed looked over and smiled, "How are you feeling?"

"A little drowsy…But, why are you in bed too?" Amber answered weakly.

"Well, the doctors said that you lost a lot of blood so…"

Al cut him off, "They had to perform a blood transfusion. And Ed was the guinea pig!"

"Hey!" Ed sat up, feeling a bit tired and almost falling back down.

Amber smiled widely, "Thank you, I owe you one."

Ed blushed a bit, "Aw-it was no trouble."

"So how long are we supposed to stay here? Don't we have to catch the chimera?" Amber asked Al.

He replied, "The doctor's said that if you're strong enough, then you'll be released tomorrow."

"Good" Ed sighed.

"Oh Amber, I wanted to ask you about that lady you talked to earlier. She said that 'you should go check on your mother'. Do you live here?"

"…Yeah…"

"Then, why were you way in Bushburg?"

"No reason really. I just wanted to travel for a while to improve my skills in alchemy."

"Oh"

A few miles away, the homunculi group were entering the town-

"What a mess; wonder what happened here" said Envy.

"Not many people around…Perfect." Lust smiled.

Gluttony walked up to her, "Lust, Lust! I'm hungry again! May I go searching for the humans?"

"Yes, but be back in ten minutes." Gluttony ran off laughing and drooling like the strange creature that he was.

"Envy" said Lust; he faced her. "Don't forget about the plan. You have to find that girl as soon as possible. And when you do, you'll know what to do." "Yes" Envy nodded, remembering what she had told him last night…

The next day, Edward and Amber were released from the hospital and they went off looking for the chimera.

"It might be near the forest. Should we check there?" Al questioned.

"Yeah I guess, but I'm a little tired and hungry. Hey Amber, can we stop by your mom's for a while?" asked Ed.

"Uh…I don't know. You see, I sort of ran away from home, so…"

"What! Why?"

"'Cause…my mom and I don't get along all the time"

"At least you have a mom" Al said solemnly.

"….Oh, I'm sorry you guys….Alright, let's go."

When they arrived to Amber's house, her mother's emotions exploded. She fussed at her daughter for sometime, then settled herself and was thankful that she had returned home, and with friends!

"Forgive me for being so loud. Pleased to meet you gentlemen, my name is Maria Smith, Amber's mother" she held out her hand.

Ed shook it, "I'm Edward Elric and this is my brother Alphonse Elric."

"Nice to meet you ma'am" Al greeted happily.

"Oh my, such big armor! Why don't you take it off, dear? Aren't you hot?"

"Uh-no I'm fine, really!" said Al nervously.

"By the way, my mother forbids Alchemy in this household; so don't do anything" Amber whispered. The Elric brothers nodded. Sanji entered the living room, holding a toy in his hands. When he saw Amber, he ran to her with open arms crying out, "You're back, you're back!" Amber scooped her little brother up into her arms and kissed his head.

"Hi Sanji! Have you been good?"

"Uh huh! I've missed you big sis!"

When Mina came out from the shower, she heard voices coming from the living room. She walked in and saw her little sister standing there. She too came over and embraced her sibling. Ed and Al stared at the young woman who was dressed in nothing but a towel.

"Amber, I'm so glad you're back! We've missed you so much!"

"I know, me too! Oh hey, I want to introduce you to my two friends, Edward and Alphonse Elric!" She turned to face the boys and found them staring at Mina. "ACK!" she shouted, "Stop staring at my sister like that!" She slapped Ed hard across the face.

"I wasn't staring!"

"Yeah, and I'm not breathing" Amber said sarcastically.

"Now, now sis," Mina placed her hand on Amber's shoulder, "That's no way to treat our guest…"

"Heh, yeah you're being rude" said Ed, smiling.

"This is!" said Mina as she slapped Edward across the face with the wet towel that was wrapped on her head. Ed fell on the floor thinking, "I'm officially afraid of the beauty."

"Well now, I'll whip up some lunch! Make yourselves comfortable, boys!" said Maria, as she exited the room.

That evening everyone gathered up in the living room to look at old photos. "Oh, this was when Amber first learned alchemy. Look at that cute little face!" Mina squealed. "Yeah, you were pretty cute" said Ed. "You thin so?" asked Amber, smiling brightly. Ed nodded and flipped the page. Sanji was asleep, and Alphonse was helping Maria clean the kitchen. When they were done, they joined the others in the living room and ate brownies. One certain picture that Amber found, reminded her of what happened a year ago.

Flashback

A chimera sat in the middle of a transmutation circle. There were all sorts of tools and other strange instruments inside the candle lit room.

"Amber, come see!"

"What is it, Dad?...Whoa, what's that!"

"It's a Chimera; I've combined a wolf, lion, and a deer into one animal."

"Wow! It's beautiful! But why'd you make it?"

"It's a gift for you."

"Really!"

"Mmhm. It'll be your guardian, but make sure you take good care of him."

"I will! I'm old enough to take care of an animal. So did you name it yet?"

"No, I was going to let you name him."

"What is that monster!"

"Oh, Maria."

"Get that thing out of this house! I'll call the police and have that thing exterminated!"

"No, I wanna keep him!"

Later that day, Amber sat in the basement with the chimera; which was locked up in its cage.

"Mom says that she's going to get rid of you. But I won't let her. You're my friend, and she can't take you away!...Humans are such stupid creatures, I hate them!"

The chimera stared at her with its golden eyes and listened intently. It made a soft growling noise and Amber stroked its fur.

"I can't let them take you…" Amber unlocked the cage. "Run away. And don't trust the humans, they'll kill you once they catch sight of you!" She said as she led the animal to the back door. She held it open; the chimera took another look at her, as if he didn't want to leave. "Don't worry, we'll meet again someday." Still, it stood there, staring. Then it left…

End flashback

"That's right, I remember now…It's my fault that the chimera kills humans…I'm so stupid!" Amber thought. The peaceful evening was interrupted by a person's scream from outside. "Again!" Ed shouted. "Brother, look! It's that Homunculi!" Al exclaimed. They peeked out the window and saw Gluttony eating people. Amber, Al, and Ed rushed outside to stop him. "Hey fat boy!" Amber called. Gluttony faced her and smiled widely, then ran off. "Get back here!" "I'm tired of running!" Ed complained as he followed Amber and Gluttony, Al followed as well. Gluttony ran to a dark alley and turned a corner. When the three teens came to the corner, he was gone.

"What the hell!"

"Where'd he go?" Al looked around.

Suddenly, Edward was forced onto the ground and hit his head. The fat homunculi had jumped on him, knocking him out cold. "Brother!" "Edward!--AH!" Envy knocked her on the head as well. She fell to the ground unconscious. "No, Amber!" Al shouted. "Don't worry…" came Lust's voice. Al turned around and saw her standing right in front of him, "You'll join them soon." Envy changed his arm into a long blade, chopping down the brick wall next to them. The rubble fell onto Alphonse and buried him deep. The three homunculi made off with Amber and Edward….

-To be continued

Coming up next chapter, stage two begins in Lust's plot to kill Edward and Amber; but what about Alphonse? Will the plan follow through, or will something unexpected happen that will alter everything? You'll find out soon! Please review!