Chapter 11
AN: Bear with me on this chapter. Don't stop reading this story because of the ending, hang in there and you shall be rewarded, I promise.
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Envy simply stepped aside as Ed rushed him, casually swatting at the alchemist as he passed. The force sent Ed pitching forwards, and he automatically fell into a controlled tumble, righting himself once more.
But the sudden blow had jolted him back to his senses, the red film leaving his eyes. Ed's rage did not diminish, but it was a cold, deadly thing now, not the wild tempest it had just been. He was going to kill Envy, he knew that, it was just a question of how long it would take.
Ed dodged Envy's next swing, his automail blade carving deeply into Envy's chest. The homunculus retched, spitting red stones onto the floor.
"What's the matter?" Envy chuckled, "Pissed that I got a taste of something you didn't?"
Ed fought desperately to shove his blinding rage away. He couldn't lose control now...
He nearly pitched over when Armstrong – directing a blow at Gluttony – missed and smashed his fist into the floor instead, creating a cavernous pit. Ed skipped away from it, cursing. The pit looked near bottomless, what if he stumbled?
But on the other hand, if he threw Envy down...Ed suspected it would be a very long time before the homunculus managed to drag himself up again.
Eyes narrowing, Ed began to circle Envy, looking for his opportunity...
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"Why the hell are you here, can't you just leave us alone?" Wrath snarled, flipping out of the way of Al's fist.
He slammed his hand into the floor, and a sharp spike rose from it, narrowly missing Al's armoured body.
"We're not going to let you hurt Winry!" Al yelled, managing to land a blow that sent the young homunculus staggering backwards.
"We're not going to hurt her!" Wrath snapped, seeming incensed at the very thought.
And it was that defensiveness that made Al pause. Wasn't it Wrath who had asked earlier if the transmutation was going to hurt Winry?
Al thought fast. It was likely Wrath hadn't been well treated by the homunculi, but Winry had offered him nothing but kindness. If he could persuade Wrath that the homunculi meant to harm Winry...there was a chance, slim but there, that he would choose Winry above all others.
"But they are going to hurt her," he said, his voice far softer. "Didn't you wonder why they wanted Winry? They want her blood – and they're going to have to hurt her to get it."
"You're lying!" Wrath yelled, but for a heartbeat, he had looked shaken.
Al was about to try again, when he felt something, something cold and watery slide inside his armour. He yelped at the sensation – it always felt as though someone were sliding inside his body – and tried to leap away. But the ribbon of water followed him, slipping dangerously close to his seal...
"Brother!"
"Nobody move!" Sloth's voice rang through the hall, even over the noise of the battle. "Not one inch or I'll erase the bloodseal!"
Every human in the room (save Dante) ground to a halt. Sloth had slipped one watery arm in the gap between Al's head and the rest of his body, and a single flick of her fingers could wipe the seal away entirely.
"That's better," Sloth said primly. "The transmutation is going to be completed, and if any of you interfere, I'll send Alphonse Elric's soul back to the Gate."
"Mother..." Al whimpered.
"I'm not your mother, you little fool!"
"Marvelous, Sloth," Dante smiled, stepping carefully around the gaping hole in the floor, walking towards Winry.
"Don't touch her!" Ed roared, about to take a step forwards, but Sloth deliberately sloshed her liquid arm and he ceased moving.
Dante approached the table, and drew a knife from within her dress.
"You ARE going to hurt her!" Wrath screamed, leaping across the pit in one smooth motion.
As the other homunculus watched, apparently incredulous, Wrath seized Dante's wrist, and tried to wrest the knife from her grasp. Unnoticed, Izumi's eyes lit up, wondering if there really was some good left in the creature her child had become.
"Get away!" Dante snarled, another blast of alchemical power knocking Wrath away. "I'm not going to kill her, you stupid child, I need her living blood!"
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Winry watched Dante's approach through slitted eyes. The glittering dagger made her stomach twist, but the fingers of her left hand curled, touching the spring hidden inside her sleeve. She hoped the drug wouldn't impede her too badly, and if this crazy plan worked...
As Dante began to heft the knife, Winry sprang up from the table, catching her unawares. Her shock made it easy for Winry to twist the dagger from her hand, yanking the spring from her sleeve in the same moment. A few quick steps, and Winry was teetering on the edge of the yawning pit. Both hands came up, crossing diagonally across her chest, bringing both blade and spring to press against her neck, resting against the jugular veins.
"Everybody, stop!" Winry ordered.
No one moved.
"Right," she continued, blinking rapidly to try and compensate for her blurring vision. "I currently have two very sharp implements pressed to my jugular veins, and with enough pressure I am quite capable of opening my carotid arteries."
She waited a heartbeat to let that sink in, struggling to ignore Ed's strangled cry.
"And why should we care?" Dante bluffed.
Winry had to admire her skill. If she hadn't just heard the woman saying they needed her alive, Winry would have believed her.
Instead, she smiled grimly. "I heard what you were saying. Something about needing living blood to do whatever you're trying to do here, right?"
A slight twitch of Dante's cheek was the only indication that she had heard. "Even if you slit your own throat, we can always use the blood as you're dying."
"If you look closely," Winry said flatly, "You'll see that I'm standing at the edge of the pit that Mr. Armstrong so kindly opened in the middle of the floor. If I cut my throat and fall into it...well, by the time you manage to haul me up again, I think I'm going to be well and truly dead, wouldn't you agree?"
Ed made a small, choked sound, like a lost kitten.
"Now that we've covered the basics," Winry flicked her head in Al's direction. "You,Water-Lady-That-Looks-Like-Ed's-Mum, get your arm out of Al, NOW!"
Sloth's eyes flickered to Dante, removing the liquid limb at Dante's nod.
Dante meanwhile, was trying to ease closer to Winry.
"You'll want to stop there," Winry said, keeping a close watch on the alchemist approaching her.
"Come, child," Dante coaxed. "Do you really have to courage to take your own life?"
Truthfully, Winry was wondering the same thing. If the moment came...would she do it? Could she? But it didn't matter. All she had to do was make them believe she would do it.
So as Dante moved closer, Winry pressed both blade and spring sharply into her neck, allowing drops of blood to well on her skin.
"Winry!" Ed yelled, half-paralysed with horror at seeing her calmly slicing into her flesh, inches away from doing herself fatal damage.
Winry didn't look at Ed, knowing that if she did, she would lose her courage. The cuts stung sharply in the cool air, like an affirmation.
"I thought I said not to move," Winry warned Dante, her tone light.
Dante halted, rage flickering across her features, before they went blank once more.
"Now, I want all of you to-" but Winry never finished her sentence, her vision – already hazy from the drugs – started to go black. Struggling to remain on her feet, she began to blink frantically, desperate to restore her sight before anyone noticed anything.
But then she lurched, nearly falling, and everyone knew. As though a silent signal had been given, the fighting broke out once more, the homunculi lunging for Winry.
Lust was dragged back by Seig's sheer strength, before some quick alchemy on Izumi's part turned the blood in the homunculus's veins to acid, Lust shrieking and regurgitating a slew of stones. Gluttony was knocked aside by a hail of meteor-like chunks of rock that Armstrong rained on him, nearly driven through the very foundations of the building.
Sloth dissolved, attempting to slide across the floor, but Al was there, transmuting her watery body to ice. She remained rigid and frozen for merely moments, bullets from Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Falman and Hawkeye raining down on her and shattering her form, before she began to agitate the molecules of her body and melted back to her previous state.
Envy tried to jump over Ed's head, but Ed wouldn't let him escape so easily. The automail blade was driven into Envy's ankle, and the homunculus was thrown to the ground. Envy only just managed to roll away in time to avoid the knife that slammed into the floor where his head had just been.
But Pride was the closest to Winry. He leapt away from Roy before the Colonel could stop him, his inhuman strength propelling him towards the girl teetering at the edge of the pit.
Winry only became aware of him when powerful hands knocked the spring from her fingers. She stumbled, her sight beginning to blur back into focus, trying to keep her grip on the knife. Feeling the blade being twisted from her grasp, she made one last desperate attempt to snatch it back. All she got for her trouble was a searing cut across the palm of her right hand.
Pride tried to grab the collar of her shirt, but Winry scrambled backwards, falling heavily, willing the lassitude sweeping through her body to recede once more. She'd never make it in time...
But Wrath was there, knocking Pride back, buying her time. Her legs as unresponsive as a paraplegic's, Winry opted for a faltering crawl, cursing the fact the drug chose now, of all times, to reassert itself.
With a shouted obscenity, Envy went after her. A sharp snap of Roy's fingers sent him up in flames, distracting him long enough for Ed to make it around the pit. Apparently deciding the alchemist was the bigger threat, Pride broke off his battle with Wrath and lunged for him. Only just managing to block the homunculus's sword, Ed was forced back, away from Winry.
Risking a peek around his opponent's shoulders, Ed could see Wrath trying to help Winry to her feet.
'Never thought I'd see the day when I was actually glad for Wrath's presence...' Ed mused, but then Pride's blade drew a line of blood on his cheek and brought his attention back to the fight.
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As Al was assisting the non-alchemists in dealing with Sloth, Riza was free to help Roy. As the shapeshifter threw the Flame alchemist into a nearby wall, he was driven back from the man's prone form by a hurricane of bullets, causing him to stagger away, vomiting red stones.
Riza stood over Roy, calmly tossing aside the empty clips and reloading both guns, her eyes trained on Envy. Roy regained his feet slowly, coughing and massaging his chest. He had a sneaking suspicion he'd broken a rib. He stood beside Riza, sending what he hoped was an appropriately grateful smile her way. They stood side by side, his fingers poised to click, and her guns ready to shoot.
And as Envy rose, Roy snapped, and Riza fired.
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"Come on, Winry," Wrath whispered urgently, half-carrying the taller girl.
Winry strained to obey, but she felt like she'd already run a dozen marathons through a river of treacle. Her muscles were heavy and slow to respond, and she kept gasping for air.
'What the hell is this drug doing to me?' she thought in despair. Even with Wrath's help, she was nowhere near escaping – they'd only just made it to the middle of the large transmutation circle.
"It'll be okay," Wrath murmured. "Just keep going."
"Need...to get...away," Winry panted. "If I...get away...no need...for the fight...everyone will...be okay..."
She knew she wasn't making much sense, but was glad that Wrath nodded anyway. Maybe he was humouring her...
But Winry knew, in the deepest recesses of her heart, that they weren't going to make it out of here without someone being hurt...maybe killed.
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Envy blurred across the room, ignoring the bullets that peppered his torso and the flames that scorched and blackened his flesh. She was getting away...the mechanic was crawling away with that good-for-nothing brat...he had to stop them both!
The bullets he could ignore, and the lieutenant had to be nearing the end of her clip anyway, but the flames couldn't be dismissed. The bullets pierced, and the wounds healed easily as he moved. But the flames destroyed, and his progress was forced to cease as he regenerated from each of Roy's attacks.
So, as a lull was reached, Envy went for Roy.
A staggering blow sent Roy into the wall again, and he slumped, wheezing painfully. Envy's arm snapped out, elongating into a sharp lance, aimed straight for the Colonel's chest. Riza automatically raised her guns, but the triggers clicked, and she didn't have any time to reload.
'No!' she screamed silently, already running towards the figures, with no idea of how she was going to stop Envy. 'I won't let this happen!'
Roy, unable to get away with the breath knocked out of his body, closed his eyes and waited for the pain.
It never came.
Instead, there was a shout, and a sickening tearing sound. Something warm and wet dripped onto his clothes.
Roy's eyes sprang open.
Riza was standing over him, looking down at him, her eyes filled with pain, horror and...regret? Sorrow?
It was then Roy noticed the bloody appendage piercing the center of her chest. Envy's lance had found a mark – perhaps not the one he'd intended – but a mark all the same. It was buried in Riza's chest, bone splinters jutting from the hideous wound, blood soaking her clothes.
For several moments, Roy didn't move, his jaw hanging loose, his eyes starting from his head. His mind refused to comprehend what was happening, refused to accept that Riza had just saved his life at the cost of her own.
She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but blood bubbled over lips, thick and dark. The metallic fluid dripped from the end of Envy's makeshift lance and splattered his clothes. And that was when it finally hit Roy.
Riza Hawkeye had only seconds left to live.