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Drabble the Twenty-fourth: 5th Lab: Rescue

Scar stared up at the homunculus crouched before him, fighting to quell the panic which threatened to consume his mind. It stared back, looking slightly confused, then turned its head to look at something else, "Hey, Martel, I'm not that scary, am I?" The look on its face was almost amusingly plaintive, and in a normal setting, a normal person would have smiled at it. But Scar was not a normal person, and this was definitely not a normal setting. His eyes turned to where the homunculus was looking, and saw quite a few other people, none of them even remotely normal looking.

"I think it's the tattoo on your hand that scared him," answered a lithe blonde woman with twining scarlet tattoos running across her right shoulder and up the right side of her face. Scar assumed that she was 'Martel'.

"Oh?" the homunculus lifted its hand and gave it a brief glance, then gave a short, barking laugh and grinned down at Scar; its pointed, shark-like teeth completely nullified whatever small reassurance the grin might have given, however, "So, you know what this means, do you?" it brandished the tattoo in front of Scar's face, and the Ishbalan gave a small nod, "Met the others, huh? Judging by your expression, I'm thinking that you don't get along too well with 'em."

Scar shook his head slowly, hoping beyond hope that it wouldn't get him killed. The creature grinned wider and reached a hand down towards his head. Thinking that he'd just given the wrong answer and was about to die, he closed his eyes tightly and silently offered a prayer to Ishbala. But he felt no pain, only a light pat on the top of his head. Confused, he opened his eyes to see the homunculus grinning down at him.

"Not much of an optimist, are you? Don't worry; any enemy of the others is a friend of mine," it laughed again, "But, I've been rude, haven't I? The name's Greed. And you?"

Scar replied hoarsely, "I have no name," although his fear was subsiding, he remained wary. To trust a homunculus so quickly would be foolish, especially when he was unable to defend himself. But still, he had to wonder…it seemed as though Greed and the other homunculi were anything but allies, which was curious. It didn't make sense, not with what little he knew about the creatures…of course, right now not much made sense at all. Black spots danced at the corners of his eyes and everything started going blurry…he could feel himself slipping back into unconsciousness, but this time he fought it with everything he had. He couldn't afford to fall asleep, not in his present company. But his effort proved ultimately useless, and before long everything had gone black once more.

When he next awoke, there was someone carrying him. It was one of the others…a huge man with wild grey hair. The giant looked down at him when he shifted, rumbling, "You shouldn't move," he looked back up, "Greed, he's awake."

"Ah, good," the homunculus slowed his walk until he was standing beside Scar, looking down at the Ishbalan with his shark grin, "Hey there, kid."

"I'm not a kid," Scar growled, not at all happy with the present situation.

Greed just laughed, "You are to me, kid, and you didn't exactly give me anything else to call you. Lighten up, we're almost out of this hellhole."

And so they were; within a few minutes the group was outside. Scar breathed deeply, savoring this air that wasn't stale and foul-smelling; for a while he'd thought that he would die in that lab, in that choked, unnatural environment.

"Well, kid," Greed patted him on the head again, "I don't think you'll last long on your own with injuries like that. We'll find a place for you."

Scar didn't reply; he was unconscious again. Greed just laughed, and went back to the front of the group. By the time the Ishbalan would wake up, the nightmare that was the Fifth Lab would be some distance away. He'd survived Hell.

A/N: And thus ends my little mini-series-thing! For all of you who might've liked to see more of Scar interacting with Greed, I'm going to be writing a one-shot about what happened after this up until Scar was left at the Ishbal camp.
Scar: -grumbles- Bloody homunculus keeps calling me 'kid'.
Well he is about 200 years old, Scar-san…possibly older…
Scar: I'm not a child!
Envy: -smirk- You sound like O'Chibi-san.
Scar: -unintelligible angry mumbling-
Hey, no fighting. Anyway, thanks everyone for all your reviews! Till next time.