Chapter 2 -- Manipulation
Sighing inwardly after a moment of thought, Ed walked up to Winry and grabbed her by the throat and lifting her into the air, a bit more than he had before, an emotionless look on his face, and he glanced back at Dante coolly. "I guess you could say that... but... I'm only doing this for fun... not because you brought the subject up… in fact…" he paused and threw Winry to the ground as if she were no more than a used rag doll.
After he'd done that he walked up to Dante, looking her over once as he moved to stand before her. "..You're human… and you're annoying, too… so... I decided that I want to skip her and go straight to you..." he said softly, moving his hand towards her as if he was going to grab her by the throat as well.
Wincing from being picked up and then thrown onto the ground, Winry sat up and watched Ed walk over to Dante coolly, as if he didn't care about anything else at that moment.
"Ah… but I wouldn't do that..."Dante said smoothly, as she swiftly clapped her hands together and placed her right hand on the Ouroboros symbol on Ed's neck, sending him faint memories of his past and his death…
As his hand nearly reached her throat, his movements were stopped at the hand that touched his throat, the symbol on his neck, brief but vivid images and flashes of old memories of his past and brief scenes of his own death passed through his mind, and his crimson colored eyes widened, involuntarily taking a few steps back from her, it taking a lot of effort to do so. Though as soon as he'd done that, he sank to his knees, a hand to his neck, trying to rid himself of those little bits of memories of his past and death...
He frowned and clamped his eyes shut, breathing heavily as he attempted to process what had just went through his mind. "wh-what w-was that? W-what did you do?" he asked in slight shock, looking up faintly at Dante, a mixed look of shock and anger on his features.
"Silly boy..." Dante cooed. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased, as she smirked down at the homunculus boy before her. "Want to know more?" she asked in a dark tone, as her smirk grew with an evil promise.
Winry continued to stare in mute shock. 'What... did she do to Edward? Why is he looking so... winded… all she did was touch his neck…' she wondered as she noticed the pain and shock the boy was in.
His eyes flashed with brief pain and curiosity for a second or two before looking down a little. 'I... I want to… but why? Why does that matter to me?' he thought briefly, before he clenched his free hand into a fist and looked up at Dante, his crimson eyes oddly... determined as he gave a faint nod in response to her question, half glancing to Winry and wondering just why those memories and such mattered so much to him.. And yet... they tormented him as he wanted to know more…
"Kill the girl." Dante urged. "I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy the memories a lot more if she's gone..." she smirked.
As Dante continued her conversation with Ed, Winry stood up shakily, her legs feeling like lead, as she then slowly backed away, fear of what might happen, since Dante seemed to be the one pulling the strings...
Ed's crimson colored eyes flashed briefly with anger for a moment, as he actually started to believe what she said… maybe he would enjoy them better if she wasn't around... hell... if Winry was all that stood in his way of knowing about his former life… and killing her was what it took to get to see them... he would do it… even though a part of him kept telling him it wasn't really true…
Pushing that little voice aside, he stood up, his eyes locked on Dante. "I… so…Dante... is it? If I kill the girl... like you say... do you promise me you'll let me see more memories?" he asked sharply, a serious note in his voice.
Without even a word, Dante nodded a yes and smirked at Winry, whom, at seeing what the darker haired woman was doing, dashed off into the demolished city as fast as she could, trying to get away from what Dante might have told Ed to do to her…
An Evil, but cruel smirk twisted Ed's lips at spotting Winry run off into the destroyed, empty city, and he gave a hollow laugh. "I LOVE it when they run…" he said with a grin, amusement in his tone as he sped after her, his speed from being a homunculus giving him a good advantage, knowing he'd catch up with the girl in no time at all…
Dante's smirk seemed to grow as she watched the homunculus boy give chase after Winry. 'Such a fool…' she thought in mild amusement, wondering just how things would go after Ed really had managed to kill off Winry once and for all…
Meanwhile, Winry continued running until she ran across a building that was still, amazingly semi-intact. Opening the door, she ran inside, hiding in the corner of the room, huddled up, hoping Ed wouldn't find her…
Ed's sadistic smile grew, as he easily caught sight of the young blonde run into the building, and in seconds, as he reached it, he stopped for a moment, grinning like a madman. "tsk tsk… what a foolish girl…" he said with an amused tone, before walking in… HIS style…
Seconds later, he re-appeared about a few feet off to the side of her, not even having made the slightest sound whatsoever. "Out of all the places you choose to hide in, you choose a place like this?" he sighed. "shame… you could have made this harder for me, ya know…" he added in a hurt tone, his red eyes glowing maliciously in the shadows he stood half submerged in, giving him a rather eerie look.
Trying to calm her rapid heartbeat, Winry looked to Ed, eyes narrowed. "Why are you doing this?" she shouted as she stood up, trying to cover up the fear in her eyes, though at the same time, she had picked up a small piece of glass from a broken window nearby and held it behind her back, just in case it was needed..
"Why?" he repeated with a hollow laugh, "weren't you listening? The woman, Dante… she told me... if I kill you... she'll show me more memories... supposedly of my 'past' life.." he said slowly, taking slow, but graceful steps towards her, a sinister look on his features.
"I could tell you about your past life! You were a nice and respectable person. You never hurt anyone and always did the right thing!" she shouted as tears streamed down her face. "Now… now all you are is a monster! Nothing more than a blood thirsty monster!" she spat angrily.
In truth it pained her to say something like this to her old and closest best friend but it was the truth…
For a second or two his eyes narrowed in contempt, before he rolled his eyes, hating humans and their stupid volatile emotions, as she began to cry, and about to start forwards he was stopped short at her words, his eyes widening and turning gold briefly, pain and hurt in his features.
"I'm not a monster…Dammit don't say that, Winry… I'm... a... Homunculus… not a damn monster…" he spat, his voice briefly sounding like his old self for a moment or two, before his eyes returned to their usual crimson color, and filled up with anger and hate as he sped forwards, standing before her, a furious, hurt look on his face. "You say it… call me anything again… and I'll go through with it… I'll kill you here and now… just so I can see what my old life was like… even though... from what I saw... I used to be such a pathetic little, do-gooder mortal boy..."
Winry couldn't believe she'd gotten her hopes up, seeing his eyes gold for a moment, but when they turned crimson, her spark of hope had left her, and she'd been concentrating on that so firmly that when she noticed Ed was in front of her, her eyes widened.
"Ed… the old you… was the one I loved…" she spat, as she instantaneously stabbed the shard of glass into his arm and made a dash for the door.
The blonde hissed in pain at the glass being embedded into his arm, but paying it no mind, he snarled in anger and sped forwards with inhuman speed enough to catch up to her and stand before her only exit, blood dripping from his arm and onto the ground.
A furious look was pasted onto his features, as he now yanked the glass from his arm, letting it fall to the ground, his hands clenching into tight fists, before he reached out with blinding speed and grabbed the girl's wrist, yanking her forwards ferociously. "That's it!" he spat. "I've had enough!" he finished, his other hand, turning into a razor sharp blade and he was about to slash at her throat, before stopping his motions abruptly, as the door opened, and in a blur, Ed cried out in undeniable agony, his hand returning to normal, instantly letting go of Winry and falling to the ground, his eyes falling shut, most definitely out of the pain's intensity, the smell of burning flesh in the air…
As he fell, he revealed Al, standing there, holding what looked to be a strange, glowing reddish gold amulet in his hand, it smoking lightly, as what it had been touching only seconds ago, had been where he'd touched Ed with it….
Smiling at her, and breathing rather heavily and looking way past tired, he sighed silently and looked down at Ed. 'Sorry I was late…' he thought with a sweatdrop
"Al!" Winry sighed happily, smiling at the youngest Elric before taking a glance down at the unconscious boy lying on the ground. "Just... what did you do to him?" she asked, her eyes trailing to the still, slightly glowing mark on Ed's neck. '..He... was going to kill me…' she couldn't help but think in dread as she looked back up at Al with the same question still lingering.
Al smiled briefly and held up the amulet for her to get a better look, and up close, it was now obviously in the shape of a circle... and not just any circle, a Transmutation circle to be precise, and little carved lines were there to show every detail in it, showing that it was very unique, obviously a creation Al had made his own. 'I... I made this using alchemy.. it was made using a bit of the soil from Ed's grave… and mixed together with some other elements…' he paused a little. 'It's to weaken homunculi… him in particular, should he touch it... it took me so long to get it together because I had to get everything together and run over town and stuff to create it first… long story.. but anyway... uhm...Winry... are you okay?' He looked down now at the homunculus he still called his brother with a hesitant, silent sigh.
Winry nodded. "Yeah... I'm fine… Is he… is he okay?" she asked, as she knelt down to look closer at Ed on the ground, letting her hand gently brush over his hair, savouring the fact his hair was still as soft as ever, even spattered with blood..
Al nodded firmly, looking up at her. 'Yeah… he'll be alright… this just knocked him out… he should be out for a while though....' he shifted slightly and looked away from the two. 'But we should go back to Resembool and deal with this before anything else happens and Ed wakes up…'
"What do we do with him then? Take him with us... or leave him?" she asked, standing back up with a sad look. "Also… there's a woman, named Dante here... she was trying to get Ed to kill me..." she said, remembering the other woman from before.
Al visibly froze as she mentioned Dante and his eyes widened. 'D-Dante?' he paused for a moment. 'We definitely have to take Ed with us… I don't want her manipulating my brother anymore than she has…' Fear and hurt filled his expression at this, as he then looked down at Ed, the homunculus boy looking a lot like he had before he'd died, as he looked so innocent while unconscious...
"Alright. Then let's get him out of here before anything else happens" she said as she bent back down beside Ed.
"I can't let you do that…" said a voice from behind Al, though it was obvious, that the voice, of course, belonged to the woman known as Dante...
Al's brown eyes widened as he heard Dante and whirled around to face her, a shocked, and hurt look on his face, and without thinking, he tried to yell out ' don't you dare touch my brother.. he's not going with you' but halfway, coming back to the realization that his voice box was gone, his attempt at speaking only causing a painful sounding cough to emit from his throat, a hand going up to it in pain, though managing to shoot the woman a dark glare.
Dante smirked, taking no mind to what Al had wanted to say, and smirking more so, she looked past him and to the knocked out Ed. "Oh... Edward... I know you can hear me… If you get up and take care of these two… I'll give you all of your memories and more" she said calmly, knowing that Ed could hear her through his knocked out state.
After a long moment or two, Ed's hazed over and still groggy crimson eyes opened after hearing her, her voice having awoken him, and for a second, her words went through his mind before they fully processed, and the hardened look returned to his eyes, and his body shot up in an instant, briefly shooting Dante a smirk before flinging his arm back towards Winry with sheer force that would surely knock her back into the wall opposite them, getting a wince from the blonde as she hit the wall..
Without hesitation, he gripped Al, who had turned to look at Ed, by the throat, not going easy on it in the slightest, before he threw the boy beside Winry, a dark, evil look in his eyes. "Dante… you better mean what you said… if I kill these two… you BETTER give me what I want..." he said in an icy tone as he walked towards the two of them
Dante nodded. "Of course I will. I'm sure your enjoyment of your past will expand with these two nuisances out of the way" she said softly, looking at Al and Winry with an amused look.
Naturally, Winry didn't say a thing, as she slouched on the ground next to Al, though she could hear everything and wanted so bad to yell that it was just a lie.
A smirk continued to twist Ed's features further and he glanced back at Dante. "Good to know… I'm sure it will... I'll be able to enjoy everything… with nothing to stop me…" he said slowly, coming up in front of the two, and in an instant, had Al up and against the wall by his neck, gripping it tightly, blood dripping from the edge of the younger boy's mouth and down his chin, a wince on his features as he struggled to make Ed let go, his grip unbearably painful and constricting his airway, causing him to cough up blood once in a while because of it.
"I'll deal with you first, brat... because of what you did to me…" he growled, glancing down at Winry shortly after. "Then I'll finish you off next... which, judging by your condition... shouldn't be a problem…" he added with an amused look, just as Al began trying to kick and hit Ed, which exactly wasn't working this second, though… even as a punch connected with the side of Ed's face, the homunculus boy seemed to not even be phased by it… in fact, he simply blinked and grinned in mild amusement
Winry fully managed to force her eyes open, but what she saw scared her for a moment, as what she saw, was Ed holding Al up by the throat, and without even thinking, she stumbled to her feet, and using her last bit of energy, ran up and crashed into Ed, causing the homunculus boy let go of Al as the two of them fell to the ground in a messy heap…
It may have been a reckless action, she knew that, but for now it likely saved the younger Elric's life… but as for her own, her action may have just caused her death to come by quicker and a lot faster….
End Ch 2 – Ch. 3 Coming Soon
(A/N: I apologize for the uber-long wait... but it took me ages to finish writing up this chapter... lol. Anyhoo I hope ya'll like it and I promise to try and update sooner... even though I now have to go back to school – my spring break ended... which sucks.. and btw.. sorry for the lame title.. I just thought it fit.. lol.)