Yes, I finally got this typed up! Phew! I've even got the next chapter written up as well, though not typed up yet. Why am I actually a tiny bit ahead of you for once, you ask? Simply because the ending is now in sight. The story's got a few chapters left in it, but it'll probably end soon. Don't let that worry you though. There's a lot more stories floating around in this thing called my brain where this one came from, and many of them are equally weird. You'll never fail to be entertained if you keep up with my stories. Heh. Hey, actually following through and finishing stories is what you want me to do, right? So, whatever you do, don't complain when I do so! hehe

Disclaimer: I don't own FMA. I'm being lazy right now, and don't want to spell the whole thing out, even though I have enough energy to type out all these words explaining that I'm too lazy to spell out the whole name. Go figure.

Back at the circle, Aries was giving orders to the remaining signs. "The Fullmetal boy is on his way here. We mustn't allow him to get here before his weakest time, so I want you, Gemini, Libra, Virgo, and Capricorn, to go and slow him down. Keep him from getting here until he is at his weakest point."

"How will we know when he is at his weakest point?" asked Virgo.

"When he is weakest," said Aries, "Is when he cannot return to his human form, no matter what he tries."

"And...That's going to happen on his birthday, right?" asked Libra.

"Right," answered Aries, "When he is weakest, then we will go full force and capture him. But until then, I just want you to slow his progress so that he can't get here in time."

The four nodded, stood up, and then converted to their elemental forms. The air signs flew away, and the earth signs traveled by way of earthquake.

Aries turned to Taurus, who had been standing there the whole time, not saying a word. "Well?" she said, "Will you help me now?"

Taurus shook his head no, and said, "I'm never going to help you, Aries."

"Suit yourself;" said Aries, "You'll join me when I have the rest of them united." Taurus shrugged and walked away, without saying anything. Aries turned to him. "Are you telling me you actually care for that boy of yours?"

"I am his father, and he is my son. What's not to care about?" he said.

Aries laughed. "What are you worrying so much about, anyway? They're signs of the Zodiac, not human beings. They're not going to be as fragile and useless as your wife was. I have no plans on killing them."

"Scorpio is a stronger fighter than you realize," said Taurus, a.k.a. Hohenheim, "You might think differently once you actually meet him." With that, he turned and walked away; leaving Aries wondering what the heck he was talking about.

Back on the trail, everyone was getting a little bit worried. Edward was getting weaker and weaker each day, and having a harder and harder time maintaining his human form. He had to stop and catch his breath every few minutes. How was he supposed to fight Aries in this condition, especially since he was to get weaker each day?

"Edward," said Winry with tears in her eyes, "You can't fight in this condition! Wait until you get stronger."

"I can't wait," said Edward, "She's going to attack on my birthday if I don't get there before then, and that's when I'll be the weakest. I have no choice but to try and get there as soon as possible."

"But you're too weak to fight," she complained.

"No, I'm not," he said, "I don't think she has any intentions of killing me. She needs me too badly. All I have to do is stop her, somehow."

"But there's the same problem. How do you do that? How are you planning to do that when you're so weak?"

Edward just shrugged. "I don't know. I'll find a way when I get there."

"Oh, Edward," she said with a note of frustration in her voice while grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. He converted slightly into his watery form while she shook him, which made her jerk her hands back in fright. "You're so weak that you convert even when I touch you."

"I'm FINE, Winry," he said. "I'm not going to die just because I keep converting to my elemental form. Now come on," he said, standing up and pushing himself again, "Let's get going."

"Geez," she said, slumping and falling into step beside him. "I sure wish you'd plan things better."

Just then, an intense and very cold wind came upon them out of nowhere. Edward reacted by automatically converting to his elemental form. The winds then focused on him intently with their freezing cold breeze.

"Brother, don't convert!" shouted Al.

"I...can't...help...it!" said Ed, trying to speak though he was starting to get frozen. One could even see the ice crystals starting to form in his body.

Winry sent a pleading look to Sagittarius, who just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Okay, fine, fine, I'll handle it." She converted to her fiery form, and leapt to the center of the action, completely engulfing Ed in her flames. The winds quickly dissipated, since air feeds fire, and fire consumes air.

Then Ed, still in his elemental form, threw himself out of the flames. He quickly returned to his human form and was gasping and moaning, like he was in pain. He probably would have been, considering that he had just been engulfed in Sagittarius's flames.

When he caught his breath, he stood up and moaned, rubbing his arms. "Thanks," he said, "I think." Sagittarius laughed.

"You're welcome, weakling," she said. He glared at her and clenched and unclenched his fist. No, he wasn't going to lash out at her. Fire feeds fire, after all. If he took on a fiery personality trait, as was common to him, then she would just reply back with the same stuff.

Ed turned and looked back up the road that they were traveling on. "If those were the air signs," he said, "Then the earth signs are probably on their way. Come on, everybody, we need to hurry up. We don't have a lot of time. We have less time than I thought."

Everyone sighed and fell into step behind him. What was going to happen? He was too weak for this mission, couldn't he see that? What was going to happen? There was no way to know, as he kept pushing them onward. The only way to find out was to wait and see what happened for themselves. They knew one thing though; Ed was going to get weaker and weaker each day until his birthday, and Aries was going to see to it that he got as weak as possible before she attacked. They weren't particularly keen on taking Ed to the fight, but they didn't have a lot of choice, because Aries was going to attack him regardless. He needed their support and help right now. Whatever happened, they would be there for him.

Hope you liked that chapter. Yeah, it was shorter than I expected it would be. I'll upload the next chapter soon, once I get it typed up. Make sure that you give me lots of reviews though, or I'll hold it off longer. I've been known to do that. Heh.