Fullmetal Alchemist and the Crimson Stone Chapter 11: Tears in the Crimson Light, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Fullmetal Alchemist and Harry Potter, as well as any other songs or other character references made in this story.

Fullmetal Alchemist

And the

Crimson Stone

A Fan Fiction Fusion

Tattoo Alchemist

Chapter 11: Tears in the Crimson Light

The chimeras in the courtyard of Flamel's Castle were being well taken care of with the help of Flame, Strong-arm and Tattoo Alchemist along with Riza Hawkeye. As they took on the army, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ed, and Al made the dash for the castle in the center of the courtyard.

There were a few times when one or two of the chimeras came down upon them. The first was a winged chimera that had set its sights upon Harry Potter. Its talons stretched out and ready to snatch the young wizard up like a mouse in the field.

"Expellriamus!" Harry cried out as a blast shot out from his wand and hit the flying chimera straight to the ground where it lay stunned on its back. The creature looked like it still had movement in it and that was when Edward Elric stepped into action.

Ed clasped his hands together retracting his arm blade and the then brought his hands down to the stone pathway where from the blue light he extracted a long and elegantly carved spear. Then just like a knight from a medieval tale, he raised the spear above his head, leaped for the winged Chimera and plunged his spear directly into the creatures' chest. The great fathered beast let out a cry like an eagle that was shot out of the sky as it gasped its last breath with each inch of Edward's spear driving deeper into its chest.

He leapt off of the feathered chimera and came back down to the others, while his boots and pant legs were spattered with the blood of the beast he had slain. Harry was intensely reminded of that night in the Chamber of Secrets when he had slain the beast called the basilisk yet Ed treated the slaying with such casualness as if he had taken care of a household chore.

"Let's keep going," Ed commanded.

No one needed any further encouragement as they continued their dash to the front gates of the castle. Ed had reached up for the metal ring embedded into the carved wooden door that had transmutation circle patterns in it. He pulled as hard as he could upon the metal ring that sent the door flying open revealing darkness within. Without giving it a second look the young wizards and alchemists dove into the darkness within.

Inside, the wizards and alchemists looked around the great front hall by the light that was coming through the front door. By it's light, they saw the great marble staircase that went up to the exposed second floor and the doors around it. Upon the ground floor, there were only two doors that were as large and as elegantly carved as the front door. The wizards and alchemists looked left and right, with no clues as to where they were supposed to go.

"Which door do we take?" Al asked, his voice echoed through the great hall.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Ed answered as he continued to look for some clue or sign that would tell the location of Sandra Locke.

As the others looked, the sharp eyes of Harry Potter looked to the left to the great wooden door and he looked to the crevice between the door and the floor. His eyes started to adjust to the darkness of the great hall and he saw a soft yellow light coming from under the door.

"There!" Harry called out as he dashed for the door, reached for the door knob and flung the door open to let out the yellow light within the room beyond. Inside the yellow light room the wizards and alchemists stood at the threshold of a great library with rows and rows of books all around the geometrically round room. In the center there were chairs and a couch that sat near a fireplace opposite of the door.

Standing there was a very elderly looking man with long white robes, beard, and hair. If Harry hadn't known any better, he'd swear that he was looking at Albus Dumbledore, except there was something about his face that told that it wasn't Dumbldore. Firstly, it was the fact that this man wore no glasses, but it was his eyes, they were so dark and menacing as if the mind behind them were plotting unspeakable schemes.

At this man's side was Sandra Locke herself who had a look of very piteous sorrow. She only looked at Edward with those eyes that were at the verge of tears to tell him how sorry she was for what she had done.

"You're Nicholas Flamel, aren't you?" Ed snarled at the old man.

The old man smiled, his teeth yellow and chipped that gave him an even greater menacing stare, "That's no way to talk to your elders, boy…" The old man hissed, his voice dried and cracked but still retained the British accent, "but yes…I am Nicholas Flamel…in the rotting flesh."

"Sandra!" Hermione called, "Why did you betray us like this? How do you know Nicholas Flamel?"

"He's…" Sandra wept as the tears rolled down her cheek, "he's my…my…creator."

"Creator?"

"Yes…" Flamel smiled exposing more of his yellow teeth, "An unexpected by-product…I was trying to create another stone…but my foolish wife got in the way…thus Sandra…a perfect…human transmutation."

"You bastard!" Ed cursed.

"You're one to talk…Fullmetal Alchemist…" Flamel hissed, "You also tried human transmutation…but…with disastrous results."

Ed had lowered his head in shame but still felt the great hot swelling anger he had inside him.

"So," Hermione conjectured, "this whole time you've been trying to create a new stone. You were the one releasing the chimeras on Hogwarts!"

"Presumptuous little girl," Flamel insulted, "those were just…experiments…experiments that got loose….experiments that I was…commissioned to do."

"By who?" Harry demanded

Flamel smiled once again, "Wouldn't you like to know? Now…now…that I have…my journal back…and…my key ingredient…I can finish my work."

"Not if we can stop you!" Al said with the defiance of a lion.

"Your bravery…is commendable…" Flamel smiled wickedly, "But…let's see…how you fair…against my prototypes."

Flamel reached for a brick in the fireplace, lightly shoved it, and as he did a great hole opened up underneath the feet of the wizards and alchemists and they fell down…down…down…into the darkness below.

In the darkness below Flamel's castle, the alchemists and wizards opened their eyes finding it very difficult to figure out where they were. All that they had was the sound of each others voices in the darkness.

"Al…" Ed groaned, "…my back…"

"Hold on everyone," Harry called as his hand felt the wooden length of his wand, "Lumos!"

From the tip of Harry's wand came the white light that illuminated the room that they were in. The place was like a dungeon with the thick bricks, slime and filth on the walls and floor, chains hanging from the bricks, but most of all, no windows whatsoever. Harry's attention was brought back to his friends as they moaned trying to find some footing to get up from the human dog pile.

Ed's bones creaked and popped as he stood up straight, looking around at the dungeon that he was in he wasn't going to let such a small set back stop him. Now it was a race against time, to find Flamel before he uses Sandra as simply an ingredient in his plans to create the stone.

"Let's get out of this place!" Ed ordered, "We've got to stop Flamel!"

"Hold on, Ed," Hermione interrupted, "First thing we need is a plan. No doubt if Flamel's both a wizard and an alchemist, there's no telling what kind of traps he has down here."

"She has a point, brother," Al agreed with the young witch.

""But we won't get anywhere by standing around here!" Harry added taking his side with Ed, "Look, there's a doorway over there."

Each of them looked to see an opening in the dungeon brick wall and with the light of Harry's wand; they saw that there was a set of stairs that went upward. Curious and unafraid, Harry and Edward went first. As the two of them reached the steps, Ed remembered the wand he had nearly forgotten about. Pulling it out he recited the spell he learned:

"Lumos!" Ed commanded and the tip of his way began to illuminate with the same intensity as Harry's. As the two lights blended together the long dark stairway was a little clearer as the alchemists and wizards continued their journey upward.

The journey was then stopped when at the top of the spiraling staircase was a great stone door with an odd carving in it. The wizards and alchemists recognized it as a transmutation circle but aside from its geometric designs and configuration, it was the symbol in the center that was the most bizarre. It was one that made Ron Weasley shiver to the core of his bones.

"A spider…" He quivered, "Why's it always spiders?"

"Calm down, Ron," Al consoled, "Let's not panic until we know what we're up against."

"But there's no doorknob," Hermione observed.

She was right, despite the intricacy of the door, there was no visible way of going beyond the door. Though Harry and Ed had similar ideas as they raised their wands together to the door and said in unison.

"Alohamora!"

At that, there was the sound of stone scraping against stone as the door opened upwards. The light of Harry and Ed's wand had flooded into the room beyond it and they only saw a room similar to the one that they fell into. It was just as circular with another door on the other side, but what was unusual was that the ceiling seemed unusually high. Not giving it a second thought, the wizards and alchemists proceeded to the other side of the room. At least most of them didn't give it a second thought, but Ron Weasley.

Seeing that spider made him, some would say paranoid, but it's with mild justification. Especially during his second, that was the year when he and Harry had barely escaped several thousand spiders in the dark forest. Thinking of that time, Ron started to look up the abnormally high ceiling and with the light of Harry and Ed's wand, his worst fears were realized.

Ron tried to speak to the nearest person to him, Alphonse Elric, about the horror that he had discovered, but he couldn't articulate anything intelligible, but it was enough to get Al's attention.

"What is it, Ron?" Al asked

Ron pointed up with such a terrified look that his face was white as a sheet that contrasted against his red hair. Al looked in the direction that Ron was pointing and he found in the abnormally high ceiling there were strands of white cobwebs and in the center of it all was a giant spider. At least that's what it looked like at first glance, but when Al gave it a better look, the thing was a chimera of different insects, it had the head, legs, and chest of a spider, while it had the wings of a hornet, pincers and tail like that of a scorpion but along it's tail it was stripped like the abdomen of a hornet in black and yellow. Al was going to quietly bring this to the others attention, but the eight eyes of the spider chimera had spotted them and from the scorpion-like tail came the spinnerets of its arachnid part while it came down to face them.

"ED!" Al shouted.

The others didn't need to be told where the thing was coming from; they all looked up and saw the hideous spider chimera bringing itself down to the center of the room. As it did, the alchemists and wizards backed up to the circular wall as the spider snapped its scorpion pincers and brought about its stinger ready to strike with whatever deadly poison it had.

Ed had switched hands to where his wand was placed, he took his stance with the glowing wand in his left hand and he extended his arm-blade on his right arm. While Al knelt down and carefully drew a transmutation circle on the ground keeping his eyes on the spider chimera. With the young wizards holding out their wands to the creature, they were more than ready, except for the strike that the spider made.

The spider chimera had spread out its pincer arms as if it was surrendering to them, but then from its mouth came a white stream that hit Hermione Granger. The white spinneret threads cemented her to the nearby wall and the great inset drew back its tail like it was a fist ready to punch. The tail came down and struck Hermione Granger in the chest, knocking the air out of her lungs as the poison filled her system.

"HERMIONE!" Harry screamed as the spider chimera drew back its tail and started to make its quick decision for the next target.

Looking at the foul thing, Harry hated it more than anything in the world. More than Dudly for his torture, more than Draco for his pompous arrogance, more than Snap, and even more than Voldemort himself. Harry had raised his wand and performed the only spell he knew that would work on this creature.

"Arania Exime!" Harry called and another flash of light came from his wand and hit the spider chimera knocking it onto its back.

Edward Elric saw the chance, "AL!" He cried out to his brother as he clasped his hands together.

"Right!" Al answered back as he touched the transmutation circle on the floor.

At the same time, Ed had brought his hand down to the ground where his alchemy met with Al's. The light of both transmutations began to intensify as the floor beneath them changed. Underneath the spider, a series of spikes came from the stones that skewered the creature like a fork into a cocktail shrimp.

Seeing that the spider Chimera was dying as it struggled with the last bit of life it had, the wizards and alchemists had gone to the side of Hermione Granger to find out what her true fate was.

"Hermione…" Harry called as he cupped her face, feeling the warmth that it still had, "Please…come back to me…" Harry began to weep, "Come back…my love…"

"Oh calm down, Harry," Hermione's voice called out.

Everyone looked down and saw Hermione looking up at the wizards and alchemists, but they were quite puzzled and confused by why Hermione was still alive.

"How did you survive that sting?" Ron asked

Ed had a slight hunch, he knelt down and taped on Hermione's shirt and found it to be as solid as wood.

"You used alchemy on your shirt didn't you?" Ed asked.

Hermione sat up and showed the transmutation circle that she had drawn onto her right palm. She smirked knowing that her cleverness had saved her own life.

"I used alchemy to make my shirt have a stronger mesh so that the stinger couldn't penetrate it," she explained, "Now to take care of these webs."

She reached down with the hand that had the circle draw into it, with the alchemist reaction; she dissolved the spiders' webs and got back to her feet. On her feet, she got out her wand and she went to the unopened door of the spider chamber.

"Alohamora!" she called and once again the sound of stone scraping ringed out across the room as the door opened.

The wizards and alchemists dashed up the stairs that led up beyond the spiders chamber. At the top of the stairs, they found a very peculiar sight that was too out of place. They found a new door, but this one was wooden. It was just like the doors in the main part of Flamel's Castle, elegantly carved with transmutation circles.

Ed reached forward and turned the knob being cautious of what they might discover on the other side. He opened the door, raised his wand with his arm-blade, and he found that beyond the door was the Great Hall of Flamel's Castle. More specifically, one of the many doors that were on the ground floor of the great hall.

Looking to the right, the wizards and alchemists saw the open door that led to the library. They needed no further sign and they dashed over to the library, but still being careful not to fall into the same trap twice. Inside the library, they saw that the hole that they fell through was closed, but Flamel was nowhere to be found.

"Where could he have gone?" Ed asked aloud.

"Maybe he's in another part of the castle," Ron speculated.

"If he was," Al said, "then why was this door left open?"

"Probably to throw us off his trail," Hermione guessed.

"No," Ed shook his head, "Guys like Flamel think that they can plan for everything but they eventually screw up somewhere. There has to be a clue somewhere in here."

Even though ti was less than fifteen minutes ago, it felt like it had happened last week as Al thought back to their confrontation with Flamel. He thought about how he opened the hole that sent them down to the dungeons and the spider chimera. How did he do it?

"The wall," Al said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Flamel pushed something in the wall to open the trap," Al answered.

"What of it?" Ron asked.

"Flamel might have an escape route in this room," Al explained.

"How?" Hermione asked

Al paused for a moment thinking what Flamel could do to get out of this room and yet still leave that library door open. He then turned to his brother with a greatly ingenious idea.

"The glasses, brother," Al said to Ed, "Do you still have those see-through glasses with you?"

Ed searched his pockets but did find the glasses; he had them in his school robes since yesterday afternoon when Al came to see him. Having the glasses in hand, Ed immediately slipped them on following Al's thinking that there might be a secret passageway in the library. Through the lenses of the enchanted glasses, he watched as the layer of the physical world had slipped away and he looked into the emptiness beyond. He looked to the fireplace and saw the switch that Flamel used to send them down to the spider. Seeing that, he frantically looked around for a similar switch and it was a matter of seconds when he saw something in one of the book cases.

He pulled the glasses off and walked over to the one bookcase where he saw something that was out of place. Coming closer, he realized what it was the old book case trick, that all what someone had to do was pull a book from a shelf and there would be a secret passageway. Yet, to Ed's great dismay, the book was out of his reach.

"Man," Ed groaned as his fingers only reached the bottom of the shelf that the book sat upon, "I hate being short."

"I got it, brother," Al offered as he came over to Ed's side and looked up at the bookcase, "which book is it?"

Ed looked up the bookcase and slipped on the glasses to find that false book once again. He kept his eye on the false book as he pulled off the glasses and read the title as it came into view.

"Beginning alchemy," Ed read the title to his brother with a smirk.

Al looked and instantly found the book Beginning Alchemy, he reached up and pulled the book finding that only the top part of the book could be pulled out into an angle. Pulling upon the top edge, Al heard a loud click like a door latching shut, but as he did, the bookcase began to sink into the floor revealing something that was hidden behind it.

Once again, to their surprise, it wasn't a hallway or a staircase that was behind that bookshelf, it was more like a small hidden closet with the bookcase as its door. Yet, there was nothing inside that hidden closet except a small wooden podium with an open book set on it. Even the book made the whole situation seem even more bizarre. The young wizards and alchemists looked closer at the exposed pages of the book and found that there were no words written or illustrations drawn in it's pages. There was only one , and it was just a small picture that was moving within its frame like a wizards photograph. Yet, inside the photo there was a tall building that looked like the rook piece in chess.

Without even thinking about the results of his actions, as he usually did, Edward Elric reached out to touch the photograph in the exposed book, and as his fingers touched the photograph, he vanished.

Ed opened his eyes to find himself in the most bizarre of surroundings. It was like a hallway with high brick walls except it was so bright that he looked up and saw the bright blue sky above him with a few clouds dotting it. He looked behind him and saw a wooden podium and an open book just like the one that he found in that secret cabinet behind Flamel's bookcase. Yet looking at the open page of that book the picture inside was different it had in its borders the library as if he was looking through someone else's eyes as they walked through that library. Ed looked away from the book and down the length of the non-ceiling hallway; there was the rook-like tower at the end surrounded by the same high brick walls exposed to the open air.

Yet, as he looked at the tower, he saw something in the windows. At first the opening in the side of the tower were dark but then began to glow, it was a red light that was emanating from them as if every light in that tower was red. As each second passed the light grew brighter until Ed knew that something was unnatural about it all. He panicked and began to dash towards the tower.

As he made the dash for it, he heard the loud cry of his brother and friends.

"Ed!" Al called to him, "Wait up!"

Ed looked back for a split moment to see Al, Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the end of the no ceiling hallway. They were dashing trying to catch up with Ed.

"There's no time!" Ed called out as he looked back at the tower whose red light was growing in its luminous intensity, "Sandra's in danger!"

With all that Ed had tried, it still wasn't enough for the red light had finally consumed the tower. It had gotten to the point where the wizards and alchemists had to cover their eyes. They were expecting some kind of explosion to happen from the bright light, but nothing came. The light only grew bright and then faded away as if it was the light of a sunset. He looked to the direction of the tower, but saw that it was gone. There was nothing left of it, just a large crater of charred Earth like the remnants of a blazing fire.

"No," Ed whispered as he looked towards the direction of the crater, "not again…"

It was true déjà vu all over again, just like the time before…back in…Heissgart…Professor Eiselstein…the Philosopher's Catalyst…and…Armony. Ed stepped up to the edge of the crater and fell to his knees.

"Why…" He wept, "Why does this keep happening? Why couldn't I stop it this time?"

The others had gathered around Ed, feeling the enormous pain in their hearts to see him like that, but most of all because of the loss of their friend, Sandra Locke. Especially, Harry Potter who had all the talent and power that a young wizard could have and yet there were people he couldn't save. He too felt like sitting next to Edward Elric with his deepest sympathies and his greatest empathy.

"Ed…" Al had whispered before he felt something, it made him look up and there he saw a thin ray of light coming down to meet the crater. Upon the light there was a small stone, Al looked closer and saw that the stone was red as blood. It came down to the crater as softly as a feather until it landed in the charred earth of the crater.

Ed looked up at the red stone and knew right away what it was, it was a Philosopher's Stone, a true Philosopher's Stone. Ed crawled his way to the stone and saw that it was glowing like an ember in a fire. He reached out to it and the moment that he touched it, he had a vision.

In the vision, he saw the inside of the laboratory that was inside that tower, there were shelves of books along the walls, but it was in the center that Edward Elric saw the last moments of Sandra Locke. She was lying on a table strapped down like she was about to receive a lethal injection. Then there was Nicholas Flamel who was adding the last few touches to the transmutation circle that was drawn on the floor beneath the table. Sandra was struggling to get loose, but Flamel only laughed at her efforts.

"Resistance is futile, my dear," he cackled at her, "soon you'll become the Philosopher's Stone and I'll live forever!"

Flamel laughed as if he knew that he had already won, but he was too blind by what he thought was victory to see that Sandra wasn't trying to get free. She was only trying to loosen herself just enough to pull a small piece of cloth from her sleeve. She unfolded it with one hand and inside it was a single seed but there was also Sandra's signature transmutation circle in it. She touched the circle and the transmutation began. The seed began to sprout and to Ed's great surprise as he watched it was a flower he had only seen once back in Heissgart. It was the white Ehterflower. As the flower bloomed it fell to the floor where Flamel's circle lay. The flower caused a new and massive reaction that made the circle enlarge all the way out to the walls themselves trapping both Sandra and Flamel in its borders as the transmutation began.

"Noooooo!" Flamel screamed, unable to stop the reaction.

The circle began to glow that same red color that Ed only saw a few minutes ago coming from the towers windows. As the glow of the reaction became bright and brighter Sandra looked up to the ceiling with a smile as if she was truly happy.

"Ed," she whispered, "I wonder…If I were reborn…would I have…another chance of…becoming…your friend?"

It was with that last breath that the light of the transmutation became so much that it ended the vision that the Philosopher's Stone was giving to Ed. As the vision ended, Ed was brought back to reality with the stone in his hands and him on his knees in the crater. He looked to the crimson stone, watched as it began to crack like an ice cube in warm water, and then it shattered into pieces only to evaporate into the open air.

"You idiot…" Ed began to weep, "SANDRA!"

Ed cried as his voice echoed back to him to the dead quiet of the crater where he continued to mourn for another lost apprentice.

To Be Continued…