I'm being nice today. Here's another chapter for you guys. I'm going to post chapter 33 on Tuesday and 34 on Thursday, and then most likely wrap up the last three chapters during next weekend. It's sad, I don't want the fun to be over! And as for a sequel…I don't know yet if I'm going to do one. I think it will all revolve around what is going on at my school. It's kind of sad, I've been a senior since August, and just now realized it! So things might be getting hectic soon. But if I do, you guys will see it on here! I'll have to write it out and finish it before I post it, so you guys won't have to wait weeks in between chapters!
But, it's still a thought I'm twirling around in my head…We'll see…
Chapter Thirty-Two
Alphonse remained motionless on the floor of the opera house as the transmutation circle shined brightly around him. Dante stood close by, holding the unharmed baby in her arms, as Winry stood quietly by her side. Envy was dragging his fellow homunculus, Gluttony, over to the circle, trying to get him to eat the now weakened Philosopher's Stone. Gluttony, who was still overcome with grief at the loss of his comrade Lust, sat on the floor and continued to quietly call out her name.
Edward was nowhere to be found.
Al was surprised to see Winry in attendance and kept trying to get her attention, to bring her out of whatever spell she may be under. Maybe if she could hear him, they could figure out a way to get out of this situation.
"It's no use, Alphonse," Dante said after a few minutes of listening to him try and alert his friend. She was becoming tired of all this nonsense; she just needed Gluttony to eat Al's body so the Philosopher's Stone would be at full power, but nothing was going to plan. "She can't hear you. Well, she can, but her body is not able to react without me telling it to first." She reached up with a hand and stroked the side of the girl's face, "Soon, my soul will replace hers and take over this body. The automail makes an interesting addition, don't you think Envy?"
Envy looked over to her with indifference, and then turned back to Gluttony, "Eat him," he said, poking the side of the large homunculus. "Inside of you, he'll become a perfect stone! So," he said as he stood up and wiped his hands, "let's hurry and get it done."
"Lust…" moaned Gluttony, as he started to warily walk away from the scene, "What happened to Lust? Lust…"
Envy became angry at his comrade's attitude and walked over to him, demanding he eat Alphonse's body, "What's with you?" he yelled. "Hurry up and eat him!" He pointed at the transmutation circle, while still glaring at Gluttony, "Let me see it! I wanna see HIS children being eaten by you!" He saw Gluttony lower his head in sadness and cursed to himself in frustration, "And I wanted to beat the shrimp to a pulp, too!"
Dante carefully handed the child over to Winry, who held the baby lovingly in her arms, and walked over to kneel in front of the large homunculus. She gently stroked the top of his bald head, "Forgive me. It's so sudden…" Seconds later she plunged her hand into Gluttony's mouth, and stretched his tongue out, revealing his Ouroboros mark. Holding the mark in her hand, Dante activated the alchemy within it, causing it to glow brightly, before releasing his tongue and letting it retreat back into his mouth. Gluttony lowered his head and stared at the floor.
"Um…Gluttony?" asked Envy. He had never really seen Dante do what she just done, and didn't know what the reaction may be. The large homunculus reared his head back towards Envy and stared at him. Everything about Gluttony's demeanor had changed. His eyes held malice, and streams of drool dripped from his gaping mouth.
"Be careful," warned Dante, "There is nothing left but the gluttony inside him. After all, homunculi are created like Red Stone, they don't need a mind…Now, Gluttony…" The voice caused him to turn his head back sharply at the woman. She pointed towards the transmutation circle and pointed at Alphonse's body, "I want you to eat him." The homunculus nodded his understanding slowly, and began to lumber towards the circle.
Watching his slow movement, Dante walked back and took her spot next to Winry and the baby, "Very soon, you shall become me…" A noise from the side caught her attention. "Envy!"
The slender homunculus turned around and caught the child trying to run past him at the last second. Wrath struggled against Envy, while Dante once again took the baby into her arms. "Don't let him use alchemy."
"You…fool," Envy muttered as he tried to hold the child back.
"Make my…my Mommy come back to life!" yelled Wrath as he continued to struggle against Envy.
Dante lifted the baby in her arms above her head and activated the transmutation circle that was on his body. Wrath and Envy both opened their eyes to see themselves in front of the large and ominous gate. Wrath whirled around, breaking free of his bonds with Envy, and watched, terrified, as the gates opened and the tentacles of blackness stretched out to him. He tried to back away, but the darkness, being too quick for him, enveloped the child.
"What a bad child," Dante mentioned without a second thought, "Now, the Philosopher's Stone will soon be activated to its greatest power." She continued to hear the pleads and screams coming from the child homunculus, and ignored them, "But, if he uses alchemy here, the transmutation would start on its own. It would be better to get rid of any chance of his using alchemy…"
The darkness still enveloped the child and began to eat into his flesh. Moments later, between the bone-chilling cracks of limbs being torn and the child's screams, they all watched as all four of the boy's limbs were ripped from his body. After getting what they were after, the darkness slowly retreated back into their haven, and the doors quickly creaked shut.
Dante tilted her head down slightly, and smiled, "And I let him live because I thought I might still have some use for him…"
"The Gate…" muttered Envy, panic slowly emerging in his voice. The sound caused Dante to look up. "The Gate…" he said again, pointing in front of him, "isn't disappearing!" Slowly, the doors began to open again, creaking against a powerful force that was trying to make its way through. The doors opened under the power of the force being used, as Edward pushed his way back through the gate into his world.
"Ed!" exclaimed Envy, as he saw the boy crash onto the floor.
"Brother!" called out Alphonse. Thank goodness he was all right, what Dante said wasn't true!
Edward slowly pushed himself up on his hands and looked around. Confusion was written all over his face as he saw his younger brother lying in a huge transmutation circle, "Al?" He felt something weird and looked down to his right hand. For the brief minutes that Edward was transported across the gate, he inhabited a boy similar to his age in the world on the other side. Surprised to say the least when he woke up over there, Edward had four regular, fleshy limbs. He found his father, who explained the principles of the gate and the Law of Conservation, and informed Edward that dying and dead souls from their side of the gate cross over to become the energy needed for alchemy on the other side. Unfortunately, the boy Edward inhabited was killed, and Ed's soul fought to regain his body that was locked in the gate, and return to his original side.
Edward stared at his automail hand, and realized the boy on the other side of the gate lost his life, granting Edward passage to return back here. "It's back?" he said, flexing his right hand slightly, "I see…so back there…he died. Did I use another life from there?" he asked himself sadly.
"Isn't this extraordinary, Edward?" asked a voice that Edward had not heard from forever. He quickly lifted his head to see his friend Dr. Marcoh, staring down at him.
"Dr. Marcoh?" he asked, somewhat confused, "Why are you here?" A light flashed as another familiar face took form, causing Edward to narrow his eyes in realization.
"You must know," Maes Hughes said, as he straightened up and pushed his glasses back. "Edward, weren't you the one who entrusted Dr. Marcoh to the Fuhrer?" he asked as he pointed his finger jokingly. "He couldn't have been safe. It's been awhile since he went into Gluttony's stomach," Maes said, pointing to the large homunculus, who had stopped moving closer to Alphonse during all of the commotion. "It's as if you had killed him…And me as well!" the soldier yelled as his throwing daggers came from nowhere and were hurled in Edward's direction.
Edward quickly dodged the flying daggers and jumped to the side. "It must be hard on you…" continued Envy, who was still in Hughes's form, "dealing with a face you know. "Even if you know it's not the real person!" he yelled again, running forward to attack the teenager. Edward tumbled inches underneath where the blades fell, dodged more attacks, and quickly whirled around the form of his deceased friend, yanking his arms behind his back. Edward quickly used his right arm and slung it around Hughes's neck, and drug him to the floor in a choke-hold.
"Is that all?" Edward said, continuing to keep his grip on Envy's neck, "Is that the limit to your power? Then," he continued as he heard the homunculus gasp for air, "I can defeat you. I've killed homunculi. Even the one that had my mother's face; I killed it. Now, no matter what face I see…"
"You're right," Envy interrupted as the light flashed again. Edward gasped as he saw Winry's face turn around to look at him, "Go ahead and kill me then, Edward…"
Envy caught the teenager off guard and quickly elbowed him in the stomach, sending him stumbling back a few feet. The form of Winry stood up and turned to face Edward, before the light once again surrounded her and Envy remained standing there, "See?" he laughed, "It is hard…"
Tired of the child's play, Edward quickly clapped his hands together, but didn't transform anything when he heard a voice behind him, "Stop this at once, Edward." He turned his head slightly and glared at Dante, though keeping Envy in his sight, "You have no right to order me!"
"Oh well, not that I mind, but…" laughed Envy as he walked closer to the teenager, "Don't you care at all about what will happen to your younger brother?"
"The Philosopher's Stone has been activated," explained Dante as Edward stared at his brother, "If transmutations occur near it, you know…"
"What would happen," sneered Envy as he snuck up Edward. The teenager reacted to his presence, but was too slow as Envy raised his knee and kicked Edward hard in the stomach. Edward tried to punch back, but was quickly kicked in the face and sent flying to the ground. He quickly kicked himself up and ran after the homunculus, "Don't get too cocky!" he yelled. He charged and tried to attack Envy, but wasn't fast enough to catch the homunculus.
"It's impossible," Envy laughed as he continued to jump out of the way, "cause I'm stronger and faster than you!" He landed from doing a back flip, and was about to move again, when he felt something sharp sink into his ankle. He turned around to see Wrath, who now had no arms and legs, latching onto his ankle with his razor sharp teeth. "You bastard," he muttered, as he quickly shook the child off of him and kicked him to the side.
The moment of distraction gave Edward the chance he needed, and he quickly tackled Envy to the ground. They rolled on the ground from the force of his tackle, and Edward wrestled his way to the top. As he straddled the homunculus, Edward quickly and angrily began punching its face. Between punches, Envy would change the look of his face to try and trick the teenager again, hoping to get a chance to escape. His face changed into Trisha Elric's, pleading with Edward to stop, then to Dr. Marcoh's, Maes Hughes, even Winry's (which Edward felt bad for hitting, even if he knew it wasn't her). Envy changed his face into that of Colonel Mustang's, which Edward found was the easiest to punch.
"Show your true face!" Edward demanded as he continued to punch Envy, "You only borrow people's appearances, and manipulate their hearts! That's the only thing you can do!"
"Do you really want to see it so badly?" Envy sneered as Edward continued to punch him.
Edward reared back and readied another strong punch, "If you can show it to me!" He swung his fist towards Envy's face, but stopped it in mid-air when he saw the light dissipate as he finished his transformation.
"What's wrong? You wanted to see it didn't you?" Envy laughed slightly, as Edward saw the form his face had turned into. Edward was shocked to see Envy's true face matched closely to that of his father's and his own.
"Fa…Father?" he choked out, his hands trembling in utter shock.
"Envy was…the first homunculus Hohenheim created, back when he was younger," Edward could vaguely hear Dante explain, "Back then, our child died from mercury poisoning. He tried to bring him back to life, and failed.
"And then, he abandoned me…" continued Envy, still from underneath the teenager. "You must understand, right?" he sneered. "Why I hate him!"
Envy took his chance as Edward still sat there in shock, and plunged his arm he had transformed into a spike straight through the teenager's chest. The malice and glee could be see on his face as he saw the teen gasp for breath; blood ran down Envy's spiked arm onto his body. He sat up and pushed Edward off of him, the sickening sound of the spike withdrawing from his body echoed throughout the room. Edward coughed up blood as his body slumped on the ground, as the very last bit of life he had fought a losing battle to stay alive.
"Brother…" Alphonse sadly called out, still not able to move from the transmutation circle.
Winry still stood motionless next to Dante's side; her eyes remained in their distant state. Then slowly, consciousness began to flicker through them. "Ed…ward," came a small whimper from her lips. Dante looked over and could see the hold she had on the girl was beginning to weaken, but knew she could not perform alchemy at the moment to stop her. Winry's eyes opened slightly more, as her mind fought to overcome the spell on her body.
"Ed…ward…" came the voice again, though this time it was a little louder and sounded more urgent. Pain suddenly shot through the girl's head as her soul finally overcame the force that had controlled her, and screamed out while reaching towards his dying body, "EDWARD!"