Inextricable
Chapter Eleven: Confrontation

I've received some comments on the shortness of the chapters and the cliffhangers, to which I can only say — it's ALL ABOUT the short, cliffy chapters in this story! Mwuh-ha-ha!

But seriously, due to my real life schedule and the update schedule I want to keep for this AND the fact that this is a mystery, relatively short, cliffy chapters are unavoidable. Next story, I'll try to do things a bit differently. Thanks to all who've reviewed so far! I really appreciate the feedback.

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Winry had never seen anyone move so fast before in her life — especially not anyone who'd just had an arm removed — but before she could so much as blink, Vera had gained her feet and stood staring off into the darkness. A sound like a growl hummed almost too low to be heard. It was altogether the eeriest thing Winry had ever seen.

A figure moved toward them out of the darkness, the silhouette's odd contours soon resolving into a new shape or two shapes. A large figure carrying a smaller one thrown over its shoulder.

Damn it. Ed.

"Marcel," Vera growled. "What are you doing?"

"Rafe said we needed him," the man rumbled. He stopped right beside Winry and dumped Ed's unconscious form next to her on the gurney. Ed's right arm had been removed.

"And since when does Rafe lead the pack?" Vera demanded.

Rafe, as if summoned by the sound of his name, appeared out of the shadows from the opposite direction. The three began to argue more and more loudly, their voices becoming raspier and less human with every passing second until Winry couldn't understand them at all. They circled each other, growling and snapping, in a sickening imitation of animal behavior.

"Ed?" Winry whispered, leaning over to examine the young man. She hoped he'd only been knocked out and that no worse injuries had been inflicted on him.

"Hey," he breathed, though his eyes were still closed and his voice was too faint to be heard by anyone but her. "If I said this was all a part of my cunning plan to rescue you, would you believe me?"

Winry felt a flash of heat followed by cold run across her skin as the relief surged through her veins. "Ed, are you okay?"

"Bastard took my arm and nearly knocked my head off, but otherwise... yeah, I'm fine." He seemed to have to work to open his eyes, and they didn't focus properly when he finally managed to look up at her. "Think I'm going to be sick," he muttered, apologetic.

Winry helped him lean over the gurney's edge while he coughed up the little he'd had to eat over the past many hours. His hair had come free of its braid and hung in a tangled mess around his shoulders. Even in the dim light, Winry could see the blood staining his neck, and as she smoothed his hair back from his face, his skin felt feverishly hot. She worried he'd been seriously hurt.

"Vera," she said, her voice angry. "What's going on? This wasn't our deal."

The woman turned from the argument she was having with the other two, and Winry's eyes widened at the sight. Vera's eyes were wild and red-rimmed, her teeth were bared, and her hair stood on end.

"Stay out of this," she growled.

"They're hyenas," Ed said faintly. "All of them... a pack. And the females lead the pack, so I guess she's in charge."

"If she survives this fight," Winry said. "Can you sit up?"

Ed nodded once then stopped, his eyes squeezing shut against some reaction to the movement. "Don't try too hard, Ed," Winry scolded. "You're hurt."

"No. We gotta get out of here," he wheezed, letting Winry do most of the work of getting his body into a sitting position. He leaned heavily against her, his missing right arm making him feel weirdly lop-sided.

He took a deep breath and seemed to regain some control. "This whole situation has gone on for who knows how long, but now it's gone to hell. All three of them are alchemists. Marissa was an alchemist. They're all hyena chimeras. And from what Martel said, they had to have done it to themselves."

"They're all crazy," Winry whispered.

"We can't trust them not to be," Ed agreed.

Winry eased herself from the gurney, trying to be quiet. Once the floor was firmly beneath her feet, she helped Ed stand beside her.

The pack whirled as one, all three glaring and growling at Ed and Winry.

"Well, shit," Ed muttered.

"Fullmetal..." Rafe rumbled. "Your fault."

Ed rolled his eyes at this, leaned back against the gurney, and grabbed his right shoulder with his left hand, in an affectation of crossed arms. He was the picture of indifferent impatience.

"How," he asked. "Is this my fault?"

"They used to work out of Lab Five," Winry explained.

"Oh," Ed said, and nodded once. Then he frowned and glared back at the pack. "You weren't there. Everyone was gone but Tucker and the prisoners."

"All of our work. All of our research—" the second man, who Vera had called Marcel, began.

But Vera cut him off. "Shut up. Shut. Up. Both of you have ruined everything. We were fine. Our work continued. No one even knew about us. But you couldn't leave well enough alone. Marissa—"

Rafe went slack-jawed and his voice sounded like a dog's yip. "She wouldn't join us! We had no choice! The pack needed—"

"After everything she sacrificed for you, Rafe!" Vera shouted. "You killed her and nearly killed me in the process. You knew she couldn't deal with it. But you were selfish—"

"I was lonely!" Rafe wailed. "She wouldn't even let me touch her! I thought if we were both—"

"God, what a disaster," Ed breathed. "It's like watching a train wreck."

"What's going on?" Winry demanded.

Vera snapped at Rafe and Marcel, and they both retreated, whimpering. Winry's stomach turned at the strangeness of it all. Their movements and actions were so off. So unnatural. They didn't even seem properly animal.

"How did you save Rafe, Vera?" Ed asked. "Everyone thought he was dead."

Vera crossed the room with a surprisingly firm stride for someone who'd so recently lost so much blood. The two stood regarding one another for a long moment, oddly balanced as both were short, blonde, and missing their right arms.

"Human alchemy, of course," the woman said at last. "But I didn't follow the same path as you, Fullmetal."

"Let me guess," Ed said, relaxing into his persona of know-it-all investigator. "He was badly injured, so you combined what was left of him with a conveniently nearby hyena? You must have already been working with chimeras to have even tried such a solution."

Vera nodded, looking mildly impressed. "We were doing reconnaissance for the alchemists — assessing locations and angles of attack — on the outskirts of Ishbal. Then the hyenas attacked. An injured one remained, when it was all over. Together, between Rafe and hyena, there was enough life for one being. I didn't have time to think about it. I just did what I had to do to save my little brother."

Ed's chin lifted in silent acknowledgement of an understandable motivation. "But now all this? I don't understand."

"Basque Gran found us moments later. He was so impressed by what I'd done that he—"

"Blackmailed you into working for him," Ed guessed.

Vera's left hand flipped out in a shrug, her fingers opening as if letting something go free. Such as the truth, Winry thought.

"I was always too close to the edge of the correct uses of alchemy for my family's comfort, anyway. I never wanted to accept any limitations. Alchemy's just a tool — why not use it to achieve whatever your heart desires?"

Ed shook his head and leaned back more heavily against the gurney. Winry could feel his body trembling — with exhaustion or from pain or both... she didn't know. But to all outward appearances, he was in control. "There's always a price to pay, Vera," he said as if he were the older of the two. "And equivalent exchange doesn't always seem very equivalent."

"Wise child," the woman said. "I wish I'd have been so wise when I was your age."

"I paid for this wisdom with an arm and leg."

Vera nodded, as if putting a puzzle piece in place which finished the picture. "I see. Mine cost me my humanity."

"Vera, he doesn't need to know everything. He just—"

"Marcel, don't you understand?" Vera said, turning to face the man. "It's over. From the moment Marissa ran, it was over."

Marcel slunk back into the shadows, his eyes glittering at them from the darkness, but Vera ignored him and returned to her story. "We couldn't control Rafe. He was too animal. Marissa begged me to do something — find some way to fix things. Gran moved us to Central, to Lab Five. Set us up with anything we wanted or needed. So I asked for more hyenas.

"Marissa argued with me. Said there must be some way to fix him rather than turning ourselves into what he'd become. But she was foolish and scared. Every alchemist knows the components of a chimera are—"

"Inextricable," Ed said, a catch in his voice. Winry knew he was thinking of Nina.

"He doesn't seem too animal now," Winry ventured. "What changed?"

Vera's eyes flickered to Winry's face before resettling on Ed's. It was as if he were the only one in the room, and her eyes moved over his face with a calculation that frightened Winry, though she didn't know why.

"We were careful with my transmutation, and I was able to still be myself. I was able to impose order, as pack leader. And with a pack leader to tell him what to do, Rafe calmed down. He regained some of his sense, his humanity, but he can't do alchemy any more. He's still the most animal of us all.

"Gran was thrilled. With the success of my transmutation, we were able to try more and more exotic combinations and give Gran what he wanted: Perfect soldiers."

"I've met some of them," Ed said. "Beautiful work, if that's the kind of thing you want to do. I've never seen such perfect chimeras." Winry could almost hear the following thought: Nor do I ever want to again.

"But why did the Shooting Star Alchemist join your pack?" Ed pressed, he looked briefly into the darkness then back at Vera. "I mean, his specialty was munitions." Marcel made a weird, growling noise from somewhere in the shadows.

Vera sniffed disdainfully. "Love," she said. "Gave up everything for me, the fool. As if I could ever love someone as weak as him."

Winry frowned, unsettled by this turn. Up until that moment, Vera had seemed almost reasonable: The devoted older sister, trapped into this life by her brother's predicament. But something else was at play in her motivations. Something dangerous.

Ed's next question showed Winry he was thinking the same things. "But you did it anyway, Vera. Turned him into one of your pack-mates. Why do that, if you thought so little of him?"

"The pack is everything, and we needed more. We needed more power, and he was an alchemist." Vera's eyes glittered. "We need more."

"But it's over," Ed countered. "You said so yourself."

"Not necessarily," Rafe rumbled as he walked up to stand beside Vera. "Just imagine, Fullmetal, having two arms again. Two legs — real ones. You can't imagine what it feels like to be like this. Our eyes see more and our ears hear more than you can even dream of. Wouldn't you like to be whole?"

"You have got to be kidding me!" Ed exclaimed. "Just a few minutes ago, you were blaming me for all of this, and now you want me to join you?"

Rafe growled, shaking his head as if against a restraint, but all he said was, "Vera wants it. And whatever Vera wants, I want."

"With you in our pack, I can be whole again, too," Vera breathed.

"You're already a chimera," Ed said warily, turning his head sideways as if to avoid a blow he could see coming.

Vera's eyes turned on Winry, and Ed gasped, taking a stumbling step forward to place himself between the True Blood Alchemist and his friend. "No. Fucking. Way," he rasped.