Halfmetal Alchemist

Chapter 38: Terra Mustang Elric

Fullmetal gritted his teeth and pushed Ed back with one arm, staring at Lust defiantly. "I thought you'd had enough of dying, the way Mustang torched you last time," he said more bravely than he felt. Ed was impatient and staring at Lust with a murderous look in his amber eyes. "Let us through!" he howled, trying to get free of his father so he could take a swing at her.

"Careful Ed," Fullmetal murmured, his hand tightening on the boy's shoulder. Ed hesitated, but then his blood boiled. "I can't! Mom's in there and we have to get her out! We have to hurry!" Ed cried breaking free of Fullmetal at last and lunging at Lust. He quickly pressed his hand against the circle burned into his automail arm, transmuted it into a blade, and swung at Lust. It connected and the midsection of her body seemed to contort, then it regenerated again. Ed took a stepback and looked at his father for an explanation.

"Homunculi can regenerate, Edward. Until their Philosopher's Stone core is destroyed, they will keep coming back. So we'll have to mix up our attacks a bit, is all!" While Ed had been lunging, attacking, and waiting for an explanation, and while Lust had sat there and toyed with him, Fullmetal had discreetly scratched a circle into the ground beneath his feet.

"You'll remember this one, Lust, I think you'll remember it well!" He put his hands to the circle and clashed his automail against the ground with enough velocity to generate a spark, and he activated the circle.

"Old Colonel Arrogant was good for something," Fullmetal muttered. Flames spewed from the circle and engulfed Lust who had realized what was happening and tried to get away. She escaped the first onslaught by an inch; it had burned her entire left side, which she quickly regenerated. She lashed out with an elongated finger at Ed who was not so nimble; he was pierced in his good shoulder and he cried out in pain. Fullmetal redoubled his efforts and this time, Lust didn't have time to pull her finger out and jump away at the same time; this time she was caught full blast until her core distentegrated, just like last time.

Ed fell down and held his wounded shoulder tightly, trying not to show any pain on his face. Fullmetal got up from his circle and pried Ed's fingers away, examining the wound as best as he could. He sighed and said that he was no sort of doctor, but it didn't look too bad, lifted Ed up and continued inside.

Ed followed behind Fullmetal this time, not so eager to get hurt now that he was already wounded. "What else do you think is in here?" Ed asked Fullmetal, who was peering around the dark insides of the mountain.

"I don't know, Son, but we just found... what looks like a city." Ed whistled appreciatively. "How many of the Homunculi did you bring back? I mean, there were seven, weren't there?" Ed shuddered at the thought of having to deal with six more homunculi, plus Ultimus outside once they got back. He wondered how they were doing.

"I only brought back two, as was Gluttony's instructions: Lust and Envy. Lust has been dealt with, so the only two left are-"

"Envy and Gluttony." Fullmetal nodded and decided to explore a little more. "She could be anywhere, Ed. Where should we start?"

"First of all, what did this place use to be?"

Ed looked thoughtful. "It mighthave been an early civilization; ancestors of the Rivantians, or a completely different set of people to boot. We have no way of knowing..."

Ed peered around and singled out a tall building that must've been a grand one in it's time. "Dad, how 'bout we check that one?"

"Any particular reasons why?"

"Well... to see us coming, they must have been in a high place, and the mountain from the outside doesn't look very inviting for a climb... so maybe that building was some sort of astronomical building... or a palace or something. It must have a giant peep hole or something like that!"

"Now that you mention it... there does seem to be more light than there should be..."

"Which betterproves my point! Let's go!"

It was learned about twenty minutes later that Edward Elric the Second was not in the best of physical shape, proved by the fact that he was huffing and puffing before they had even gotten halfway on the steps. Fullmetal looked back at him and sighed, smiling and shaking his head. "Need help, Ed?" Ed had his hands on his knees, but looked up menacingly. "NO!"

"Fine, I'm going ahead without you if you don't hurry..."

"GAH! I'm coming!" Ed hot-footed it up the stairs and past Fullmetal was was three quarters of the way there before Fullmetal had taken another fifty steps.

Fullmetal found him at the top, lying on his back and panting desperately for breath. He held out an arm and Fullmetal reached and pulled his to his feet. "I hate stairs," Ed grumbled as they continued onwards.

"If I was Envy... where would I keep a prisoner..." Fullmetal mulled over this question for some time and could not find an answer. Ed stared at him incredulously. "Are you stupid or something? In a dungeon of course! And dungeons are always at the bottom!" he stopped at the stairs abruptly and glowered at them. "At the bottom of more stairs," he corrected himself, hopped on the banister, and slid down them.

Fullmetal sighed and took the stairs one by one, he didn't want to break a leg, not in here.

Ed spun around in the dark dungeon, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, hands cupped around his mouth, eyes squinting into the inky blackness. "MOOOOM! MOOOM!" he called, then he hesitated. Why would she respond to 'mom'? Everyone had moms, and she didn't even know if he still existed or not. He looked back as Fullmetal's boot made contact with the dungeon floor. "What's Mom's name?" he asked.

"Terra? Terra! Are you in here?"

A feeble sound from one of the cells.

Fullmetal tried harder, trying to pinpoint the sound. "TERRA! Where are you? It's me, Terra, it's Edward!" A noise, a litte louder this time. Fullmetal managed to narrow it down to the first couple of cells. Ed grabbed a piece of wood lying on the floor, scratched a circle into the ground for fire and lit the wood. He held his makeshift flambeaux and held it near his father. Fullmetal suddenly ran to some bars and flung himself at them. "Terra!" he clapped his hands together and turned the metal bars into smaller segmented bars that fell away from the cell altogether. She looked up at him, disbelievingly. "Edward?" she asked, touching his face. His throat lumped and he nodded. "See? I told you I'd... I'd come... I told-" he cuthimself off and hugged her, alarmed at how weak she had become.He picked her up bridal style and carried her out of the cell.

"Why did you take so long..."

"It's a long story, Terra... I'll tell it when you're better. One more thing... Terra, this is Ed... our son, remember?" She turned her head slightly to look at him and her eyes widened. "My little baby... you're... still alive!" she started to cry happily and Fullmetal held her closer. "I thought he died, I thought... I thought..." Fullmetal smiled and nodded. "I know, Terra, I understand..." Ed grinned and kissed his mother's cheek, dirty or not. "See, I'm alive, and I'm okay! We'll all be okay once they kill Ultimus out there!" Terra shook her head violently. "Edward!" she looked up at Fullmetal again and he looked down at her.

"Ultimus... he's Edgar, Edward... he's your son!"