Should I have said that I did NOT invent Wrath wearing a Hawaiian shirt in the last chapter? Because that happens in the manga. And it's as ridiculous as it sounds. Anywayyy, I feel like this was a long time for me between updates, but the holidays are not super great for me, so I will do my best to stay current through the next few weeks. Dublith ends on a rough note overall, though I tried to sprinkle some hope - and next we meet the Xingese! So I'll be working hard to steamroll right into that. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the closing-out of the very long sojourn that is Dublith!
Fifteen minutes later, Lissa set out from the shop, her hair drawn back in a ponytail, gloves in place, nothing but her mind and her alchemy to aid her, and followed Izumi's directions to a seedy part of town and a bar named the Devil's Nest. A fitting name, it seemed.
As she turned onto what was supposed to be the correct road, if she'd followed her directions right, someone stepped into her path—a larger man, muscular and looking thrilled to have found her. "Well hey, little girly," he began in a smarmy tone. "What brings you to this part of town? And all on your own. Take a wrong turn or something?"
Lissa raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed. "I don't believe so, no." She pointed ahead, to an open stone archway leading down a flight of stairs—and the sign hanging above, unreadable from her angle. "Is that the Devil's Nest?"
He glanced sideways, and one of his compatriots stepped out into the roadway too. "Why's a little girly like you wanna know that?"
She twitched her fingers at her sides, just faintly, getting a feel for what was in the air. Before she'd gone, Lissa had added a couple circles, inked in pen underneath her gloves—and her secret one on her abdomen too. She could transmute the ground if she wanted now, among other things. She wasn't afraid of this weirdo. "Not that it's your business, but I'm looking for someone called Greed. He's got a tattoo of an ouroboros on his left hand, if that helps."
The man quirked a grin. "You're not the only one. But Greed's in a, uh, a private meeting, see. So unfortunately you gotta scram, kid. Unless you want us to make you."
Lissa rolled her eyes, through with his stupid machismo act. "Oh, please. I've been sparring with someone twice your size since I was seven. Look, either point me in the direction of Greed or I'll lay you all flat, understand me?"
That only made him laugh at her, though. "Cute. Now, go home, kid. Before we make mincemeat outta your face."
It was all the opening she needed—the one last useless threat that bought her enough time to find the currents of air around her, all the particles in her path, and part them. She slipped effortlessly through the space between her and this idiot, the air crackling blue around her from the transmutation, and rammed her elbow directly into his solar plexus.
He was knocked backwards by the impact—size differences could be mitigated with enough force, after all, and she'd been moving unimpeded—and fell straight on his back, stunned. The other guy snarled and leapt for Lissa, but she transmuted again, feeling the disruptions around him as he moved, and dodged—then planted her foot at the center of his back in a firm kick that knocked him flat on his face.
"So!" she announced loudly, spinning to face the few other guys lurking nearby. "Are you gonna tell me where the fuck I find Greed, or do you need another demonstration?" Just as a threat, Lissa curled her fingers and shifted the air around her right hand, making it crackle and spark with alchemical energy.
"Downstairs and to the left, take two rights, biggest door you run into," one of the others called.
Lissa grinned. "Thank you very much!" She ducked past one of the lurkers and jogged down the stairs, taking the moment of respite to half-open her senses. She could feel that same worms-in-the-dirt writhing sensation here, almost as strongly as before, which meant if she didn't keep a lid on her ability she'd be rendered mostly useless. Thankfully her control was pretty reliable at this point. In addition to that horrible feeling, she got bursts of blood, a thick deluge of iron-copper that reminded her of the Philosopher's Stone, oddly enough; the salty tang of fear; and amber, warm and familiar.
Amber is Ed, she realized, almost tripping at the foot of the stairs. Amber and the sun shining through crystalline water, the clear expanse of the night sky…
She shook herself. This was so not the time to get deep into that.
Lissa followed the guy's directions, hoping he hadn't led her into some kind of trap—but when she took her second right turn, into yet another concrete-walled hallway, she began to hear fighting from the other end and knew she'd been led correctly. Most likely they still figured Greed could take her. And maybe he could, since he'd injured Izumi like that… But her and Ed together? That was a whole other story.
The closer she got, the more she could hear—Ed shouted a lot when he was fighting, and this was no exception. She could hear the stress, the pain in his voice… But he was also inadvertently giving her masses of information. From what she heard, this Greed homunculus had something he called an Ultimate Shield that protected him from most attacks. Most attacks. Just as she was approaching the door—it had to be the right door, both from the noises filtering out and the sheer size of it—Lissa heard Ed give her exactly the tools she needed.
Greed's Ultimate Shield was made of carbon. Which meant it could be transmuted, affected… And when broken, it would release plenty of particles into the air for her to make use of.
"I'm glad to hear it!" Greed almost cackled. "It's no fun if it's not a challenge!" he roared, with the scuffle-thump sound of a continuing attack.
"And there's one other important thing I noticed!" Ed snarled furiously. She could hear the crackling of a transmutation as he spoke, only urging her to move faster. "You can't harden your shield and heal at the same time!"
Lissa shouldered past the door and planted herself in the room, arms at the ready. Her appearance startled both Edward and Greed out of their battle, giving her a split second to take stock of the situation—Ed was in bad shape, both his old cut on his forehead from Laboratory Five and a new one on the left side of his face bleeding profusely, his face caked in red. The right side of his shirt and jacket were soaked in blood too, from some kind of injury he'd sustained during the fight. She knew all the signs, the warnings to look for in him, and he was ticking almost every box. Ed was finished. He was absolutely on his last legs in this fight.
Fifteen minutes, Izumi? Next time I'll wait ten.
Greed was…kind of horrifying. Izumi's brief description had him as a pretty normal-looking man, save the Ultimate Shield claws on his hands and wrists…but this version of him seemed covered in the carbon armor. His face was inhuman, bared teeth and fangs, smooth atop his head, with eerie black and purple eyes.
"Ugh, come on, really?" Greed bemoaned, looking at her in some kind of exasperation. "Another kid? And a girl. Seriously, I don't fight women, especially not little girls. Get lost, kid."
Lissa narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I'm weak?" she hissed. "You think I'm a shit opponent because I'm a girl?! You damned sexist pig! First you about broke Ms. Izumi's hand, which was bad enough. But then you had to go and to this to Ed?! What the hell is wrong with you homunculi? That's what you are, right? You and the other freaks with the ouroboros tattoos! You're all fucking cowards!"
Greed just scoffed at her. "Your girlfriend's got a mouth on her," he muttered to Ed.
She gritted her teeth, rage just burning and burning away in her chest. Lissa didn't take kindly to anyone who hurt Ed this way—and on top of that, this asshole was a damn sexist who wouldn't fight women?! He'd certainly done something to Izumi! "I didn't come all the way down here to be insulted and ignored," Lissa snarled. "Carbon, right, Ed? Okay. I can work with carbon."
Lissa shot forward, a blur of shimmering blue transmutation energy, and rammed her foot into Greed's side. She didn't expect it to hurt him—that wasn't her intention. But it did spin him, just enough for her to press a hand on his back and reach down, down into the carbon of his armor. She found the individual atoms and transmuted them, at the most basic level of their existence, shoving the molecules apart with all her might.
The Ultimate Shield cracked and deconstructed beneath her palm, leaving a sizeable hole at his back. Ed was on him in a heartbeat, transmuting spikes on the knuckles of his battered automail and slamming his fist into the exposed area.
"I thought you were staying behind," Ed mumbled out the side of his mouth, giving her a slightly irate look.
Lissa rolled her eyes. "What, and miss out on all the fun?" She cut in front of him as he went in for another attack, watching Greed's eyes follow as the homunculus regenerated. Fine. She'd give him time to do that if she had to. "You stay put," she hissed, reaching out and pushing Ed's automail arm down. "You're way too injured."
"And you don't have the right transmutation circles to make a weapon!" he shot back under his breath.
She turned back to him just long enough to smirk. "No?" Lissa rolled forward, transmuting on the fly, air currents cascading over her fingers and forearms. She altered the resistance as she moved, and at the same time sought out the particles of metal and carbon in the air. It wasn't much, but on the way she spied a broken-off piece of Ed's automail and got an idea.
Lissa snatched the piece and transmuted it with the carbon in the air, bonding what she yanked from around her with the carbon already existent in the metal, and formed it as she sprinted back behind Greed again.
"Hey! Stop movin' around like that!" he complained.
She sprang off her hand and flipped over his head, landing behind him again as he turned. "What, is this little girl too fast for you?" Lissa sneered. When Greed rounded on her, angry now, she transmuted the air around her and ducked under his guard, slamming the palm of her right hand flat on the underside of his neck and part of his face. A quick burst of transmutation energy and she'd deconstructed part of his shield again—this this time she was ready.
Lissa swung her left arm up, channeling a move Alex had taught her long ago. Her fist, unprotected before, now had steel and carbon molded around her glove, forming two wicked-sharp spikes atop her knuckles, with protection down along her fingers and the back of her hand. A hastily-transmuted weapon, but an effective one. She silently thanked Alex for his instruction as her left fist hit home, spikes jamming through his neck and into his mouth. He coughed and spat blood as he jerked away, and Lissa danced backwards, shaking blood from her fist and glaring at him.
Ignoring her insistence from before, Ed stepped up beside her and mirrored her fighting stance as she moved into it, clearly intending to back her up regardless. She half-respected and half-hated it… But either way the fact that he was so determined to fight at her side was a sweet sentiment.
Greed eyed them a moment—and then began to laugh. "Hah! This is incredible!" he crowed. "Look at you two, teaming up on me. What a cute couple. Though, to be honest, I'm not particularly interested in fighting this battle…" He shifted his weight back, preparing for…something. "I'll just be on my way now."
"What?!" Ed stood up normally, baffled.
Lissa glared at him as he turned and ran. "I knew you were a damn coward!" She was ready to go after him—but suddenly the room was flooded with soldiers, shouting about securing the children. Someone grabbed Ed around the middle and began pulling him away, and another caught Lissa, all of it too quick for either of them to really fight. Not without literally attacking Amestrian soldiers, and even Lissa didn't have the guts for that.
"Wait!" Ed shouted, trying to pull free of the soldier trying to 'protect' him. "My brother's out there still! We have to find him!"
"We have orders to get you and Cadet Caito somewhere safe, Fullmetal Alchemist!" the soldier told Ed fiercely. "There's no time, sir!"
"No!" Ed yanked even harder. "Al! Alphonse! I have to find him!"
Lissa glanced back at her semi-captor—everyone's attention was on Ed, on his frantic attempts to free himself, as though they felt their orders to drag them out of this place were more important than, well, anything else, and he was threatening their ability to carry them out. So what would make this so damn vital?
Führer Bradley, she realized, going a bit limp. He'd been at Izumi's shop earlier, which meant he was at least nearby… And he might've heard her and Ed speaking with Izumi. He could've heard about Al being taken hostage and mobilized these soldiers!
"Woah! Are you gonna pass out or something?" the soldier behind Lissa asked, hoisting her like she'd lost her footing. She glanced around, almost angry—but then realized one very important fact. Just like with Greed, underestimating her just because she happened to be female was a serious misstep. Lissa had been fighting around guys her entire life, kicking their asses and taking hits without regard to her gender or size or age. Those homunculi—as she now believed them to be—underneath the Fifth Laboratory hadn't cared that she was a girl. One of them had been ostensibly female herself. They'd come at her just the same as Ed.
But people like Greed… And this soldier… They put her on a lower pedestal just because she happened to be a girl. And while it made her angry, seething, bitterly angry—it was also an opportunity to be seized.
Lissa let all the strength go out of her legs and fluttered her eyes, giving a weak, airy sigh as she swooned right out of the soldier's arms. There was a brief flurry of activity, where they tried to lift her up and then decided it was better to lay her down for a moment, chattering about how she was probably overwhelmed and she'd wake up soon.
She shot upward with a burst of alchemy, darting between soldiers quicker than they could grab her. Lissa flashed a grin over her shoulder at Ed as she took off sprinting, chasing after where Greed had headed. Behind her, the soldiers shouted and clamored, stunned, but it was too late.
It was a victory. A bitter one, achieved by exploiting those idiots' lack of faith in her own gender… But a victory nonetheless.
And now Lissa could go find Alphonse.
She tuned into her extra senses a bit more as she ran, seeking that familiar parchment-and-ink feeling of comfort that indicated Al's soul—but also searching out the writhing sensation she now associated with homunculi. It was gross and unnatural, but distinct enough to separate out of anything else she might sense down in these tunnels.
Lissa slowed and let the transmutation fade as the tunnel lowered and darkened, not wanting to give herself away. With her senses open like this, darkness wasn't so insurmountable as it might be otherwise—she could feel out whatever was around her without physically seeing it.
A few steps in, she began to feel that particular sense she got only from Al's soul, so Lissa followed it, allowing the darkness to close in even more around her as she walked further in. It smelled…like a sewer, which was gross but not exactly unexpected. The sewers would be a great back door and escape route for Greed and his cronies to use without being detected. Not to mention it'd have plenty of openings throughout Dublith for them to move about unnoticed, when they wanted to. And somebody like Greed… He'd have to do just that.
"Cadet Caito?"
Lissa jolted to a stop, her senses jamming up with the faintest nudge of Al's soul, very close now—and the chilling sense of a homunculus, writhing like worms under her skin. It made her sick. She squinted ahead in the dim light, trying to see… Only to rear back in shock when she recognized the figure kneeling over Al's prone body. "F-Führer Bradley!" she stammered, suddenly overwhelmed with panic. "What—sir, what happened? Is Al okay?"
He rose to his full height and gave her a curious look. "I'm not quite sure. I admit, I'm a bit…baffled here, Cadet. I don't suppose you can shed any light on why Alphonse Elric is, in fact, a hollow suit of armor?"
She felt cold all over. He knew. He knew. "It's…not my place," Lissa deflected, unwilling to give up the boys' secrets herself. She summoned up her courage, reminding herself that she'd fought a damned homunculus earlier, and crossed to kneel beside Al's body. "I'm sorry, sir." Worried beyond belief for the poor boy, she traced her fingers over the armor, feeling for anything, a sign he was there… In three years, Lissa had never seen Al anything but conscious and alert. This was terrifying.
There! Just faintly, she could feel the thrum of his soul, parchment and ink, a fireplace crackling in wintertime… Warm and gentle. So he was still attached to the armor, just…absent, somehow.
"I'm afraid he might have suffered quite a shock," Bradley continued, oblivious to what she was doing. "It seems one of these creatures—chimeras, as I understand it—had taken refuge inside him. She attacked me, using Alphonse as a weapon, and I dealt with her. It wasn't the cleanest method, but it had to be done." Belatedly, Lissa realized the Führer was in combat gear, with scabbards crisscrossing his back and blood staining his forearms. He'd been down here fighting, apparently. Then… What had happened to Greed? To his chimeras? And…why had one of them been inside Al?
Once again, Lissa had too many puzzle pieces without any clear way to fit them together.
"Ah, Major Armstrong. Can you assist me with this?"
Lissa turned to see Alex had come up behind her, looking deeply troubled, battered from a fight… She felt a twist of worry in her stomach, but her primary focus was Al. He still hadn't come back to himself.
Between Alex and Führer Bradley, they managed to carry Al's nonresponsive body further back into Greed's lair, where there was sufficient light and soldiers still about, clearing rooms and checking for any other exits. Lissa didn't think they'd find anything else. She didn't sense hardly anything in this building. Not anymore. It was as if all the life had been sucked out.
She sank down beside Al and smoothed her fingers over his chestplate, unable to tear her gaze from his empty, lifeless eyes. Even though he was really just a hollow suit of armor all the time, she never really saw him that way… He was just…just Al to her, a friend, someone like family, like a little brother… And even though the armor was hollow, his soul and the brightness of his spirit seemed to fill it out somehow. He never felt empty to her.
Not until now.
Lissa bowed her head and rested it against the cool metal, her throat burning as she held back tears. Alphonse… Come back… Please, come back…
A heavy hand rested on her shoulder. "Lissa. The Führer has informed me of Alphonse's… Of what he still carries inside him. I believe it would be best to remove her before he wakes, or he might suffer another shock."
Remove…the chimera, from inside him.
"Yes," she agreed softly, sitting back on her heels. "I think that's the right thing to do." Lissa searched around the hall, looking for a soldier who seemed…appropriately pliable. She found her target in a younger soldier standing at such an angle that he could keep shooting glances at Bradley, who was busy discussing something with a couple higher-ranked soldiers, his own personal guards.
She pointed at the soldier to get his attention. "Excuse me. You."
He gave her a startled look. "Er—yes, Cadet Caito?"
"I need you to find the Fullmetal Alchemist for me, and bring him here." Lissa kept her tone stern, no space for argument—channeling Izumi, she thought.
The young soldier gave her an anxious look. "B-but I… We're not really supposed to…"
Lissa folded her arms over her chest and stood up, jutting her chin out. She'd fought a homunculus. She could convince one twenty-something soldier to do what she wanted. "It wasn't a question, soldier. His brother is here, and he needs to be as well. Unless you'd like to explain to him personally why he wasn't taken to his brother immediately?"
His eyes shot wide as the threat worked—maybe a bit too well. He even saluted her before scampering away down the hall.
Lissa didn't rest on her laurels. She turned back to Al's armor, which Alex was currently trying to figure out exactly how to undo. "You've got to unhook the epaulets first," Lissa explained, sliding her fingers under the worn leather and unhooking the first of the two. "Otherwise the chestplate won't detach. I've seen Ed do this enough to know how to handle it, Alex—I can do this part."
Thankfully, he trusted her enough not to argue, and merely sat back to let her work.
Though it pained her to physically take Al apart like this, Lissa thought of his reaction if he awoke with a—a dead chimera girl inside him, and that was enough to spur her on. She unhooked his second epaulet, letting the strap drop from her fingers, before moving to the side buckles as well. All of it was familiar enough that she didn't fumble it, not even once, and it wasn't long before she'd lifted the entire chestplate away to reveal…
Lissa shut her eyes a moment. That was horrible.
She carefully set the chestplate on his left, leaning it against the wall, while Alex and a couple other soldiers began the arduous task of removing the corpse from within his armor.
"Lissa! Al!"
Her instincts kicked in as Ed came racing down the hall, displacing air as he sprinted—and she darted forward, transmuted herself into his path, and caught him around the middle with her arm. "Wait a second," she cautioned him softly, digging her heels in and refusing to let him go any further. She could see someone had bandaged him up, looked after him, which was comforting… But only slightly. It did nothing to soothe her fears about Alphonse. "It's…not great, Ed… Al's not conscious right now."
"Not conscious?!" He grabbed at her jacket in a moment of panic, staring down at his brother's motionless armor. "But he's…he can't…"
His whole body jolted when the soldiers pulled the chimera girl's body out, his breath catching in his throat. "That's… She's the one who was sitting inside Al the whole time, wasn't she?" he whispered, mostly to himself. "But what happened to her? How did she…"
Lissa inclined her head ever so slightly towards Führer Bradley.
Ed's jaw clenched. A muscle spasmed beneath his skin.
"Come on," she murmured, releasing him and finally letting him stumble his way over towards his brother. "He's still in there, I know it, but he just…isn't…here…"
He sank to his knees in front of Al, heedless of the blood, and grabbed onto his shoulders for a moment. "Al? Al, come on…" Ed's voice cracked. "Please, Al… Wake up…" His voice rose, desperation increasing the longer his brother stayed away, something that just hadn't happened before, not once. "Al! Say something! Al! Alphonse!"
With a gasp, Al's eyes lit up reddish-white, his armor coming alive again as he returned with a rush of warmth straight to Lissa's senses.
"Brother?" he murmured, looking at Ed in confusion.
Ed reached up a bit shakily and touched his shoulder lightly. "You okay?"
But Al had other concerns, thinking of everyone but himself of course. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously. "You're covered in blood."
Ed's shoulders slumped, his expression crumpling, misery seeping in through the cracks. He averted his gaze, unable to keep his eyes from straying towards the chimera's body, now covered with a tarp—and as Al became aware of the situation, his open chestplate, the blood stained all inside him, down the cloth he wore around his waist, soaking into Ed's trousers…he too crumpled, overcome.
Alex crossed and knelt beside him. "We thought it best to open you and remove her before you awoke," he explained gently. "Lissa ensured you were taken care of."
Al choked out a sob, a weak sound, and pressed his face into his hands. "I couldn't save her…"
Lissa crouched down next to Ed and touched Al's leg just softly, even knowing he couldn't feel it… Her heart was just breaking, seeing him so distressed, so upset he sobbed when his body couldn't even cry…
"You can't blame yourself, Al," Ed told him softly. Then he forced a smile, all for his brother's benefit, and suggested, "C'mon, let's go home. 'Kay?"
But Al didn't budge. Edward murmured his name, worried—and though Alphonse lifted his head, he still couldn't seem to speak. Lissa didn't blame him. She felt shocked to her core, completely overwhelmed, and she hadn't even witnessed it… She couldn't imagine how awful it must have felt to go through that…
"Hold it, you three."
Lissa turned, her hand still resting on Al's leg, to see Bradley striding towards them with his arms crossed behind his back. What the hell did he want now?
"There are a few questions I need to ask the three of you before you can leave," he intoned, coming to stand above them. Out of a sense of respect and duty, Alex moved out of the way—but that left Lissa, Ed, and Al completely exposed to Bradley's wrath. Not that she could fault him for it. "Have you had any previous dealings with the man who referred to himself as Greed?" the Führer began, going right to the point.
Ed rose to his feet and faced him down, defiant. "'Course not."
"Did you happen to trade any manner of information with him?"
Lissa stood beside Ed, wary, her hackles raising at this line of questioning. She didn't like where it was going. "We traded attacks, but not information," she told him truthfully.
"The military wasn't even mentioned, not once," Ed added on, speaking from his experiences before Lissa arrived—not that anyone really knew how long she'd been there, she noted. That would be best kept to herself.
Yet the Führer shook his head. "That isn't my concern. Let me be more specific." His voice darkened, rumbling in his larynx. "If you arranged a deal or shared any knowledge whatsoever with him…then I'll execute all three of you, right now."
Lissa only barely managed to keep from flinching. Execute them?!
All around, the soldiers she didn't know, the ones who had flooded the building, raised their weapons like they'd been given an order and pointed them straight at Ed and Lissa, the easiest to take out and the ones who weren't semi-disabled at the moment. The threat was clear—these men would carry out that execution order without hesitation.
Out of sight of the Führer, Lissa felt Ed's hand press into her lower back, the only sign he'd reacted at all.
"I'll ask again. Did you share any knowledge that might affect the military?"
Ed faced Bradley as though he weren't afraid. "No," he told him firmly, the same answer as before. "Can we go now?"
Yet the Führer's eye narrowed. "I am curious about your steel arm and leg, and your brother's armor body… Cadet Caito seemed to think it wasn't her place to explain your situation, so it did make me wonder… Is there any connection between the two?"
Lissa's throat went dry. Ed recoiled beside her, Al's helmet clinked as he jolted too—and the damage was already done.
But Edward somehow found it in himself to stare the Führer down, even looking as unsettled as he did, battered too, still bleeding sluggishly… He narrowed his eyes and turned defiant again, shoulders square, refusing to back down.
Somehow, impossible, the Führer smiled. "You really are an honest kid."
He turned then and paced away as thought the whole thing had never happened. "All right, men. Pull out," he ordered. It seemed as though he was finished, finally releasing them… But then he called back one last parting shot. "And you make sure to take good care of your younger brother, Edward."
As he strode away, Lissa realized with a sick stab of horror, that the writhing sense of a homunculus hadn't faded until Bradley left. But then…what did that mean?
—
"Is that it?" Lissa asked Ed softly, surveying the assortment of clothes lying in front of her. She'd collected everything they'd worn that day—including the cloth Al wore around his waist—because by the time they returned to Izumi and Sig's house, the bloodstains had set in and she didn't think any amount of scrubbing would get that out. So it fell to her, then.
Ed nodded a bit dejectedly. "Yeah. That's everything." He sat beside her, seeming overwhelmed by his task as well. He'd taken it upon himself to clean Al's armor, which meant scrubbing every bit of blood not just from his chest plate but inside Al as well, where some of the worst was.
Lissa thought it was sort of…breaking their spirits, somehow. It was an awful thought.
Alex had refused to leave them alone since the events in the Devil's Nest, apparently feeling protective—he'd begged out of his duties to Führer Bradley and accompanied them back to the house, and now stood nearby, sort of hovering over Edward, what she knew to be his preferred form of silent comfort. She appreciated his presence, and she knew the boys did too, even if they wouldn't voice it. Sometimes it was nice to have somebody looking after you.
"Okay… I'll test it on my shirt first, just in case, since I've got extra fabric for that lying around." Lissa touched her fingertips together thoughtfully, missing her gloves a bit, and then pressed her hands against the stained fabric. This was Greed's blood, she knew, and it disgusted her to think that. The sooner it was gone the better.
She closed her eyes as her hands crackled with blue energy, focusing on the tiniest molecules within the shirt—separating out cotton from iron and the foreign particles that accompanied blood. Anything that didn't belong she harnessed for her transmutation, deconstructing the molecules and freeing them from what did belong, the fabric and stitching in the shirt. Slowly she opened her eyes and watched, keeping the transmutation firmly in check as the blood fell away, split into its separate parts.
"There. Works like a charm." Lissa dusted her hands off and picked up Al's little drape, the piece he was so fond of. "I'll fix this for you next, okay, Al? I just didn't want to experiment on it, that's all."
"It's okay, Lissa," he told her softly. "You don't have to rush."
She looked up at him, worried still—he'd sat down on the steps leading into the house and hadn't moved almost at all since they'd gotten back. "It's important to you, so it's important to me," she explained, gently as she could. "Nobody's rushing me."
It took several minutes, but eventually Lissa got the blood cleaned out of everything. She was glad to be useful in something at this point, because since they'd come out of the Devil's Nest, she had felt…painfully useless. The boys had stuck close to each other, not really talking but still having some kind of understanding between them, while she was still recovering from something she couldn't explain, that nobody could empathize with or understand. Those feelings… That extrasensory ability of hers… Lissa felt the divide it carved between her and everyone else so acutely then that it made her whole being ache with the separation.
"Oh, Major…" Ed scrubbed his cloth over Al's chestplate, not looking up from his task. "There's something I forgot to mention earlier." Between the Devil's Nest and the house, they'd all filled Alex in on what had transpired there—they trusted him, after all. "Greed had an ouroboros tattoo."
Alex looked down at him in confusion. "I'm not sure I follow," he admitted.
Ed turned to face him, finally pausing in his work. "Think back. The Fifth Laboratory? The Philosopher's Stone? Remember, the guys who attacked me and Lissa—the ones we told you and Lieutenant Colonel Hughes about?"
Lissa's interest piqued as Alex stiffened. "Colonel Hughes? I…" He cut himself off sharply, bowing his head, visibly struggling with something. She had no idea what it could be. Then, looking very fierce, he knelt down between Ed and Lissa and grabbed onto one shoulder each. "Listen, you two. Do not…do anything rash."
"Sure," Ed murmured, looking stunned.
Alex stood up abruptly and began walking off. "Well then…goodnight."
Lissa leaned back onto her palms and watched him go, wondering. He wasn't usually one for quick farewells like that… Something was bothering him. Something big. She just hoped he's share in time.
A tiny voice startled her from her thoughts. "They're back," Al murmured.
"Huh? What's back, Al?" Ed asked, turning back to him and frowning.
"All the memories from when my body was taken away. I remember it all now." He sounded…troubled, unsettled by what he'd recalled.
Ed sat up straighter. "What'd you see?" he asked urgently.
"Well…" Al shrugged faintly. "It was definitely weird," he admitted, wiggling his fingers halfheartedly like he was trying to turn it into a joke. "But unfortunately, I didn't find out anything about how to get our bodies back."
With a reassuring smile, Ed told him, "That's okay. Don't worry about it." He hefted Al's chestplate up, and, mindful of his injuries, Lissa hopped up and helped him carry the big piece over so Al could latch it back into place. She preferred him whole like this—it had to feel very exposed, sitting around with his body open like it had been. When he had the chestplate back in place, Lissa passed his little waist cloth back and helped him tie it, tucking the loose ends underneath so they wouldn't catch on anything.
"So…" Al sighed deeply. "I guess we haven't made any progress, after all that."
"No, that's not entirely true," Ed denied, rather optimistically. "You remember what the Führer told us back in Central? About the unrest in the ranks of the military?"
Lissa crossed her arms thoughtfully. "That's tough to forget. He warned us away from prying."
"And he told us it all had something to do with the Philosopher's Stone and the people with the ouroboros tattoos," Al mused, nodding. "He said he was trying to gather info on them."
Ed swung the bucket of water he'd been using absently, dangling it from his half-busted automail hand and twisting his mouth up as he considered it. "Well, Greed was obviously connected to them somehow. But if so…why'd the Führer think it was necessary to slaughter everyone?" His brows furrowed at the thought. "If he was trying to figure out what they're up to, why didn't he just catch them and make them talk?"
"Yeah, good point," Al admitted quietly. "It also seems a little weird that the Führer himself would lead an attack against such a small group."
"Sure does," Ed agreed, sounding weary. "No matter how you look at it, none of this adds up." He looked between Al and Lissa, his expression darkening. "We've been warned…but we need to get closer."
Lissa nodded slowly. "We need more pieces of the puzzle. But…" She twisted her fingers together, staring at her tattoos as she tried to arrange her mind. "I've been thinking a lot… And… I sensed something weird down there. Something I still can't make sense of. I know this…ability of mine is strange, even for an alchemist, so I understand if you don't think this means anything, but… Well…"
Al looked up at her, seeming earnest. "We trust you, Lissa," he reassured her. "You know we don't doubt your abilities."
"Even so, this is really weird. I don't even know what to make of it." Lissa snagged up her gloves from the ground and slid them on, just to give her fingers something to do other than fidget. "I've said before how everything has a specific feeling, right? Fear is salty, like the ocean. Sulfur indicates death or suffering. Some of it is very clear, and correlates pretty clearly to what it means. But…not all of it does." She couldn't meet Ed's eyes, couldn't look up at him or Al for a moment. "Individuals have particular feelings, too. When you were unconscious earlier, Al, I knew you were still attached to the armor because I could sense you—there's a particular set of things I always feel from you. Both of you, actually. Anyway… At the Fifth Laboratory, I had plenty of time to sense those ouroboros creatures as well, so I got pretty familiar with it."
"And…what do they feel like?" Ed asked softly.
Lissa swallowed dryly. "Like…hundreds of worms wriggling in the earth. It's disgusting. And really particular. Earlier today, I sensed it near Ms. Izumi and Mr. Sig's shop, while you were still with Greed and his chimeras, Al. And… I sensed it from Greed himself, once I went down to the Devil's Nest. That isn't surprising, I guess—if we really believe Greed was a homunculus, then the two we encountered at the Fifth Laboratory have to be as well, since they all felt the same. That's got to be what the ouroboros tattoo symbolizes. But…" She screwed her eyes shut. "I felt it one more time tonight."
Al gasped faintly. "What? When? Who did you feel it from?"
But Lissa's words had suddenly run out. How could she voice this? How could she possibly say this, give it substance through sound?
A hand touched hers—fingers sliding between hers, palms pressing together as Ed took her hand and tugged her in closer to him. "Liss. Tell us. Al and I know better than to doubt you by now—whatever it is, we're not going to dismiss you."
"Just…confirm something for me," she whispered. "Greed was killed back in the sewers, right? Once he went back there, he never came out again?"
Al nodded, his armor clanking with the motion. "The Führer fought him there."
Lissa's throat burned. "Okay. So…it has to be that, then." She forced her eyes open, forced herself to look at both Ed and Al, to ground herself before she spoke. "I sensed it…around Führer Bradley."
Ed sucked in a sharp breath. "Around him? But—he can't be a homunculus. There's no way."
"I'm just telling you what I felt," she snapped, upset he'd gone back on his word so quickly. "I can't control where this stuff comes from, Ed, or where I sense it. All I know is I sensed it at the shop, when the Führer was there—and again, in the tunnels, until the moment he walked away. If Greed was left all the way out in the sewers, or even killed out there, then there's only one common denominator. I found Al with the Führer, just them, before I knew Greed was gone, and I sensed only two things at the time. Alphonse, and a homunculus."
"Brother… We should at least give it some thought," Al cut in, rising and touching Lissa's shoulder lightly. "I don't know why you sensed that, Lissa, but it had to be for a reason. We'll figure out what."
"Of course," Ed agreed softly. "I'm sorry, Liss. That was just…kind of shocking. But Al's right, you didn't sense it around him for nothing. He was already doing strange things tonight, killing all those chimeras and then Greed himself… Valuable sources of information just…gone. And even if Greed wasn't a homunculus, if he was lying or mistaken, the others definitely were chimeras. Teacher confirmed it, and so did Major Armstrong. Why kill them?"
Lissa softened—he'd just been caught off guard, that was all. Stupid of her to lash out. "The chimeras felt different, so I know Greed wasn't a chimera. There's a certain sense of…of fruit, rotten fruit, that I get from chimeras."
"When I mentioned the ouroboros tattoo to Greed…he said a couple other names, too." Al looked at Ed a bit guiltily. "I forgot until now, but he mentioned—somebody called Lust, and another one called Sloth."
Ed wrinkled his nose. "Weird names."
"They're part of the Deadly Sins," Lissa murmured, waving him off.
Both boys looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean, Deadly Sins?" Al asked her curiously, tilting his head ever so slightly.
Lissa blinked. "Er… Did you never have any classes on old Amestrian religions?" she asked, baffled. It was pretty standard curriculum in Amestrian primary schools, albeit with a cautionary tone.
"We did," Ed admitted, smirking, "but we were too busy studying alchemy to pay attention."
"Idiots," Lissa muttered in amazement. "I'm surprised you've made it this far. Well." She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "There's a concept in some older religions that there's a series of original sins, ones that lead to all other possible sins. Like cardinal sins. They're called the Seven Deadly Sins—and you just listed off three of them, Al. Greed, Lust, and Sloth. There's also Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, and Pride. I doubt it means anything, but it's still weird that he named two other homunculi with names from the Seven Deadly Sins."
Ed gave her a curious look. "It's something to keep in mind, for sure. At the very least maybe they have some kind of weird naming convention for the ouroboros gang and we'll be able to spot them if they have one of those names." He sighed and stretched his back, raising his arms over his head—and then grimacing at his wrecked automail. "Shit. Winry's gonna kill me over this," he muttered.
Lissa smiled ruefully and squeezed his shoulder. "She really is."
"Um, Lissa…" Al wrung his hands together. "Can I ask you something? It—it might be kinda weird, I dunno… I just…I can't help but wonder."
She looked up at him in surprise, unsure what he might want to know. "Of course, Al. Ask me anything you'd like."
He nodded tentatively. "You said…that every person feels differently to you, right?"
At that point she thought she might just know what he wanted to ask—but she didn't want to jump ahead and risk upsetting him or being wrong, so she stayed patient. "Yeah, everybody has their own individual feeling. It can take me a bit to separate it out, especially if there's a bunch of people around, but it's all very different from person to person."
"So…" Al shifted anxiously on his feet, and Lissa noticed Ed staring at him, contemplating. "I…wondered…" He met her gaze then. "What does my soul feel like?"
She smiled at him gently. So she'd been right about what he had on his mind—he wanted to know what she sensed from him. It was sweet, really. "Well… You always feel sort of like…parchment and ink, like the feeling you get when you open up one of your favorite old books… And the feeling of sitting in front of the fireplace in wintertime, that sort of warm, comforting sense…" Lissa blushed faintly and shrugged, intensely aware of how strange it must sound. "Sorry… That's gotta be weird, I bet, to hear me go on like that."
"No, I…" Al giggled faintly. "I kinda like it, actually… Somehow it feels sort of…right, I guess. I dunno." His eyes glowed a bit brighter, like he was smiling at her. "Thanks for telling me, Lissa."
"Hey, what about me?" Ed's cheeks turned faintly red as he spoke. "What do I feel like?"
Lissa curled her fingers into the sleeve of her jacket absently, recalling it in her heart, focusing on where he stood only a few inches away. "Yours is…amber," she began slowly. "Warm amber like molten gold… The feeling of sunlight gleaming through water, flickering under the waves…" Her heart swelled, tight in her chest. "And…the sky at nighttime, the way you feel so small, yet so enormous sitting underneath a clear night's sky, looking up at the stars…" She broke off and flushed, biting her lip to keep herself from making it worse. "I know this has to sound bizarre… I mean, it is, none of it is normal in the slightest. I'm sorry."
For a moment, something strange passed over Ed's face like a shadow—but then he brushed it off and grinned at her. "Nah, it's kinda cool, actually. I wouldn't have thought of that stuff." He ran his fingers through his ponytail and jerked his head at the door. "C'mon. Teacher's gonna put us on the menu if we don't go inside for dinner soon."
Why did he react that way? Did I say something wrong?
But Ed just slipped his hand into Lissa's and pulled her towards the house, chattering away to Al as though nothing was wrong. So she stored the moment away, tucked it into her memories to worry about later—right now, she just wanted to appreciate that she had her boys back.
(Oh, we wanted to see Lissa being a little more badass in combat? Welp.)
