How to Get What You Work For Chapter 40: The Promised Day: The Battle Begins, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

General Cremin walked calmly down the hall as his lieutenant rushed up to him with the latest news. They had put out a BOLO on Mustang and his men after hearing about the disappearance of his subordinates from their posts and the Fuhrer's wife. As much as he didn't want to admit it, General Armstrong had made a good call in predicting the Colonel's next move. But her troops were too much of a wildcard to allow them to let their newest member move about freely for this day. Generals Fox and Gardner were watching her in the main conference room as they received reports of the kidnapping of the Fuhrer's wife by Roy Mustang and his subordinates that they had separated from him, now rejoined in this effort. With everything they knew now, he couldn't see how anything he did would hinder their progress, just like the good gentleman had said. She was expendable to them, and a pointless hostage, and he couldn't help but agree with the wisdom of the man who had orchestrated the birth of such a great nation to help elevate all of them into the status of godhood. "Cedi squad is currently engaged in combat with Mustang's group in the western sector." His lieutenant began, "However, it appears that they have taken the Fuhrer's wife hostage, which has left us unable to retaliate, sir."

"So? Go ahead and attack." Cremin said. He could hear his younger lieutenant stop in his tracks.

"Sir…?" He wasn't sure if he had heard him correctly.

Cremin turned around to face him, his expression like that of stone, "The only one we need alive is Roy Mustang. The Fuhrer's wife is expendable. Eliminate her along with Mustang's subordinates." His lieutenant looked at him with wide eyes, as if unable to believe what he was hearing, stunned into silence at the orders given by his superior. "Is there a problem, Lieutenant?"

"Uh… no, sir." He said, "I'll inform the battalion of your orders."

"Good," Cremin let him leave, making his way to Central Operations to get updates as they came on Mustang's status.

As the morning went on, everyone prepared in their own ways for what was to come. They made themselves a quick, simple breakfast as the sun rose up higher in the sky until it was about 9 in the morning. At the edge of the forest, the group all stood looking out to Central in the distance. Amelia was the first to notice that something seemed off about the city beyond, "Is that… smoke?" Her words caught the attention of the others, Lan Fan moving up into a tree to look and listen to what was happening as well as she could.

"There's smoke rising from within the city," Lan Fan confirmed, "And I can faintly hear a siren as well."

"I think it's safe to say the Colonel and the Briggs troops have made their move," Edward said, looking out to the city skyline ahead of them, "The city's got to be in complete chaos by now."

"I guess that's the perfect time to head in…?" Amelia asked, looking over at Edward. She saw him glance up at the sun, knowing they only had so long before the solar eclipse began and their enemy's plan was set in motion.

"We should get going," Edward agreed.

"Yeah," Hohenheim spoke up, "I do have a countermeasure for his transmutation circle, but I'd rather prevent him from activating it in the first place." He glanced back towards the city, "He might have gotten too big for his old one, but he's still inside a flask. And if we destroy his container, we might be able to kill him. And not only that, we might be able to free all the souls that he has trapped inside of him."

"Well, how do we find the bastard then?" Zampano asked.

"We can use the same tunnel that May and I discovered," Scar said, "It's guarded by a pack of vicious chimeras, but we should be able to handle them."

Darius turned to Heinkel, still sitting down next to Doctor Marcoh, "Can you watch things here, Heinkel?" He asked.

"Of course," He answered, "I owe you one." Amelia saw how Darius smiled softly at the comment, though hid it before anyone else could catch on to what they meant to one another, at least not just yet.

"Don't mention it," He responded, "And you just steer clear of the military, Doc." Doctor Marcoh nodded in agreement.

"Yoki," the little man jumped at the sound of Jerso calling his name, "I think you should stay behind as well."

"Fine with me…" Yoki said, his shoulders slumping in relief as he agreed.

Edward looked over at Amelia, "Hey, let's go say goodbye to Al," She nodded, the two of them heading back towards the earthy dome that confined him and Pride. The two had been surprisingly calm and quiet over the last couple of hours, aside from Pride playing with Al's head like any bored kid might do. They came up to one of the seams along the side, Edward looking up at the massive structure once more before he began to speak. "Hey, Al!"

After a moment, they could hear Alphonse's muffled voice come through, "What is it, brother?"

"We're heading out now, and we're gonna kick that bearded bastard's ass," Edward said.

"Just be careful," Alphonse warned.

"We will," Amelia promised, "You stay sane in there, okay? We'll come back for you once everything is over."

"I know," Alphonse responded, and she could hear that hopeful smile in his voice as he spoke to them, "I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, see you soon." She stepped back, watching Edward as he smacked his fist up against the dirt, hearing the gentle tap of Alphonse's armor doing the same on the other side before they turned around and left to begin their trip into the city.

In Central Operations, Cremin could hardly believe it had taken them so long to hunt down Mustang, only for his entire battalion to report back not only had Mustang gotten away, but that there had been an additional attack. He slammed his fist down on the table, "Why the hell aren't they dead yet?!" He demanded, "It can't be that hard, they've only got five men!"

"Their numbers have increased, they appear to have a full platoon of soldiers now, sir." A communications officer reported, much to Cremin's displeasure.

"How many have we lost so far?" Cremin asked.

The soldier reached for his notes, "We have 59 men injured, zero casualties." He reported.

He was a little surprised to hear the numbers were at such a great difference, "Zero…?" He repeated, his lips curling around the cigar in his mouth – he often smoked on stressful days, and today was the day to be stressed. An attempted insurrection on the day they were going to become gods? It seemed too perfectly timed to be a coincidence. And the fact that no one had died… it didn't make any sense at all. Mustang was an Ishvalan war hero, known for his explosive flame alchemy that decimated dozens in a second, not to mention the fact that one of their better snipers, Riza Hawkeye, was among his subordinates. She was notorious for her expert aim and skill and had among the highest number of kills in the war that had been recorded. So, what gives? They should have corpses piling up high, but they didn't have one single fatality in all that had happened?

"Reporting, sir!" Another soldier came in, he recognized him from the Cedi squad, "I have an update on Roy Mustang and his platoon."

"Tell me," Cremin ordered.

"Intelligence suggests that Roy Mustang and his men are indeed working towards a potential invasion of Central Command," he reported, "But we're not entirely sure if it's for the purpose of an insurrection. We're uncertain of his motives, but as it stands Colonel Mustang is taking a non-fatal approach to his insurrection. We don't have any deaths to report in any instance of combat from Sam squad or Cedi squad."

"What do you mean they're not killing anyone?" He demanded.

"Well… we have a high number of wounded, but not a single fatality." He reported, "At last check, none of those injured were even critical."

The words stuck with Cremin more than he cared to admit, it made no sense for them to do this, but knowing what they were doing now, and that they were doing it purposefully, enraged him, "They're mocking us…!" He growled out, taking his cigar out of his mouth to resist the angered temptation to bite down into it, "Send in Dimitri and Kim squad! I want their dead bodies stacked in front of me, and I want it done now!"

General Armstrong sat in the same seat she had occupied at the beginning of the meeting, listening as reports came in here and there about Mustang and his men moving about the city in their attempted insurrection. She was pleased to hear that Mustang had enough sense to throw them off their usual trail by surprising them with a platoon of men where they had thought they only had enough for a handful of people. Though she had to think he was moving about this too gently. They had reported back dozens of injuries, but nothing fatal, which was just a stupid move in her mind. He couldn't be expected to overthrow the office of the Fuhrer without eliminating the enemies that fight for him. Still, she knew that her people were working and prepared for today, it was only a matter of time…

So, she sat and waited as General Fox and General Gardner received their latest report on the situation, all the generals remaining in Central Headquarters as it was the most fortified building in Central City. She could see from the expression on General Fox's face that the latest report was more of the same, and clearly displeasing as he sighed and put the sheet of paper down on the table as he paced.

"They still haven't apprehended Mustang?" He asked aloud, "What the hell has General Cremin been doing over there?"

"They're systematically whittling down our forces," General Gardner commented, "And they aren't even killing our men to do it."

"There's no way they can outlast our numbers while keeping this up," Fox sternly assured himself. And he was right, their numbers were only so much, and they were facing an entire army. They couldn't keep it up forever, she knew that. Mustang knew that, too.

"Colonel Mustang must've gone soft," General Armstrong said.

"Obviously," Fox agreed, "He can't possibly think this will work." She knew he didn't, which is why she volunteered her own help.

Her mouth curled upwards in just the slightest hint of an icy smirk as she remembered their upcoming plan, knowing they had to unleash it soon, "If there's one thing softer than Mustang, it's the men under your command," She said, "You might as well send in children."

"Excuse me?" Fox turned to her with an angered glare.

"Central Command was nearly iced over by a single dissident," Olivier continued, reading the mistakes of the Central forces that she had noticed over the years, "That doesn't inspire too much confidence in your troops. Central has never endured a full-scale assault – at least not by a large, organized enemy force." She looked up at Fox, that smirk growing as she saw the fierce indignation in his eyes as she called out his leadership for what it was – inexperienced and insecure, "So then, your men are lacking in proper experience, making their defense a joke. Simply laughable." Fox didn't respond, though she could see the gears turning in his head. Men like him always had something to be angry about, and he was clearly trying to come up with something clever to say to save his ego as she openly discussed his failings as a general. "How about this: why don't you let me step in and take command of a battalion?"

Fox marched over to her, slamming his hand down on the table in front of her, "Have you forgotten why you're here, Armstrong?!" Her expression steeled as he leaned closer to her, that anger present as he tried to muffle it with his reminder of why they were keeping her here and not allowing her to be involved in the struggles of the day, "Your leadership skills have nothing to do with your presence in this office. You are being held here as a detainee and nothing more." He growled out, and she didn't respond so he continued calmly, feeling like he had more control now that she had stopped talking, like she expected, "I'm aware of your troops' undying loyalty to you as their commander. Holding you here as our prisoner helps to ensure that the soldiers of Briggs won't take it upon themselves to stage a coup d'état."

Olivier couldn't help but burst out laughing at his comment, surprising both of the older men as a deep belly laugh erupted from her, both of them unsettled by the sound. General Armstrong was never one to laugh, "You don't understand a single thing about the resolve of my troops!" She laughed, calming herself before she began again, "Your plan is useless, the only law the men of Briggs know is survival of the fittest. They know to abandon me if confronted with a crisis." She spoke with a calm, cool confidence, knowing exactly the men she's molded and the lessons they've learned in her 10 years at Fort Briggs, "Even if you were to murder me in cold blood, my troops would simply write me off for being too weak. They don't need me. Those men can act as their own force. That's the strength of the Briggs army." She glared up at Fox, watching as a chill went down his spine at the sight of meeting her intensely freezing anger, "Don't even begin to assume that you know the soldiers that I've trained!"

As if with perfect timing, a siren began to go off outside of Central Command. It was one warning of impending danger, saying that any and all civilians in the area needed to immediately find shelter. It was normally used for storm warnings, but on a clear day like today, in the middle of an attempted insurrection, it could only be one thing. She couldn't deny she took a bit of smug pleasure in seeing Fox's expression flash with genuine fear at the sound, "And here they come," She announced, "Every single one of my men is capable of defeating a grizzly bear in combat." She glanced over at General Gardner, the man who had introduced her to the immortal legion at the very beginning, "I wonder if your dolls are as strong as my men. What do you think?"

General Gardner couldn't form the words to respond, the indignation and anger clear on his face as he looked down at the woman that had outsmarted both of them by doing nothing but sit in her chair and keep them occupied. There was an entire battalion hidden in her mansion, using renovation trucks to hide them all in her cellar, the place where they had prepared everything they would need going forward with this day.

In the face of this sudden turnabout, Fox pulled out his pistol, aiming straight at General Armstrong, who glanced at the gun and his stance, getting a read for him. "Call off your soldiers, right now!" He ordered. She glanced over at General Gardner, seeing he had come closer, but not drawn his weapon.

"You stripped me of my command of the Briggs soldiers, remember?" She taunted.

"Why you…" He growled out, "Do you really think you can get away with this?"

"I'd like to ask you the same question for what you're doing," Armstrong replied, "This Father guy must've told you his plans, all that he intends to sacrifice and what he gets from it."

"Sure, of course he told me." Fox answered, "The select few of us that he's chosen will ascend to even greater heights, and the nation of Amestris will change the world! All of the sacrifices made are an unavoidable part of it. Why don't you understand that?!"

She could hardly believe these men were so gullible, but then again given General Fox's clear Napoleon complex and General Gardner's proud need for power, they would have been easily manipulated by one such as the father of the homunculi. She let out a sigh as she realized that this would have to be the way it was, though she was sure that would upset the fullmetal alchemist and his friends, there was no other way this could go, "You bastards are beyond hopeless."

"What?" Fox asked, gasping as she drew her sword quicker than he could respond, the blade piercing through his wrist and forearm, forcing him to drop the pistol he had been holding. She caught it mid-air, turning it and facing it to General Gardner before he could have a chance to reach for his weapon, all while General Fox screamed in pain as she held him in place with her sword, seeing his uniform sleeve stained red with his blood.

"You scum sit back and safely watch the battlefield as if it were some kind of spectator sport," Olivier growled out, keeping Gardner in place as she held the weapon on him, "You don't know anything about sacrifice and yet you're the first to talk about its necessity." The hypocrisy of Central soldiers had always infuriated her. She couldn't deny there was a cathartic relief in being able to not only voice those complaints clearly, but also do something about it.

"You're betraying your country!" General Gardner warned, standing stiffly as he looked down the barrel of General Fox's gun.

"You think so?" She asked, pushing herself to stand up from her seat, keeping the pistol pointed at him, hearing Fox scream as her hand turned and forced his hand to turn with the blade in his arm, "Our country could very well regard me as a hero once this is all over. However," She cocked the pistol, "I'm still not as merciful as our celebrated 'Hero of Ishval.'" Gardner's expression paled as he realized what she was saying.

"No! Wait!" He pleaded but that icy gaze was enough to tell him begging wouldn't get him any mercy. He ran past her, heading for the doors, but she managed to get a shot through the back of his head before he had the chance, watching as his body collapsed onto the ground, pushing open the doors in the process and alerting the guards outside of the disturbance. The two soldiers ran over, looking over the general's body in shock as he sat face down in a growing pool of blood.

"He's dead!" One exclaimed, the two looking back into the conference room to see General Armstrong's blade still pierced through a writhing General Fox, with the smoking gun in her hand, her blue eyes an icy gaze that glared at both of them as they stood in the doorway of her first kill in Central.

The sirens wailed all around Major Armstrong as he set out his forces to work against Colonel Mustang and his men. He had an inkling of what he was doing, he had been kept somewhat informed of everything that was happening thanks to Bernice telling him that their efforts to hide Briggs soldiers inside their home was working well. Still, he made sure to keep his men to areas where Mustang and his men would either be found or avoid, the worst thing they could do is come into contact with the Briggs men. They would show no mercy to anyone they found, and he didn't want to risk losing anyone in his department.

They were mainly corralling the civilians that had come outside, telling everyone to go home and stay there, even escorting some people, but not many thankfully. Crowd control was one of the safer jobs they could have been assigned, and he was grateful that they had this chance. His mind worried about the others though. He knew his younger sisters were all away at that time with their parents, enjoying the exotic locales of Xing and its unique culture so they were safe. That didn't say anything to the safety of Amelia, who was undoubtedly still traveling with Edward Elric. He was sure the fullmetal alchemist would make an appearance in Central soon, and she would be alongside him. It had been months since he last heard from her, and he couldn't help wondering if all was well, but he hoped that it was.

He was directing some soldiers from Kim squad to the medical staff that had come by via truck, getting updates on their situation and their attack as their men were brought in. Most had been shot in the foot, or had an eardrum burst, but otherwise all were perfectly fine. "Hey Major! Major Armstrong!" A voice called out to him, getting his attention as he turned and saw Sergeant Brosh hopping over the fencing they had put out to keep civilians safe.

"What are you doing here, Sergeant? Isn't this supposed to be your day off?" He asked. He remembered that he had put in the request months ago, he wanted to spend the day with his family to watch the solar eclipse together. He had made sure it got approved.

"I saw the smoke from my house," Brosh explained, "What's going on down here, Major?"

"Colonel Mustang and his former subordinates have chosen the path of dissidence," Major Armstrong began, "They're attempting to flee with the Fuhrer's wife as their hostage."

"What?!" Brosh gasped, looking over at the smoke as it towered up from their attacks, his face contorting in rage, "That devious coward…! First, he murdered Lieutenant Ross and now he's kidnapped the Fuhrer's wife? The man has got to be pure evil!"

As much as he wanted to defend Colonel Mustang's actions against the thought that he murdered Lieutenant Ross, he couldn't say anything. He had been sworn to secrecy for the Lieutenant's sake and knowing what lay ahead of them wasn't helping things, but he had to play his part for now. There would be a time where he could jump into the fray and help in stopping the nefarious plans of the senior staff, but that time was not now. Unknown to him, an elderly Xingese man had joined the crowds of civilians watching soldiers get carted off in medical trucks, able to listen in on their conversation as he calmly walked through the city.

"Excuse me, sir," Another soldier came up to Major Armstrong, who turned and looked at the man, leaning down as he gave the gesture to, hearing him whisper his message, "Major, I have just received word that General Armstrong shot and killed General Gardner at Central Command." His eyes widened at the news, and Fu's did as well.

"She killed him…?!" He could hardly believe she would already do something like that. He knew that her position among the senior staff was still a bit shaky overall, but he never expected that she would kill someone that quickly. He looked back to Central Command, knowing this kind of attention on her could only bring about the worst. He looked over to the last of the soldiers, looking back at the messenger, unaware that the Xingese ninja had moved on and disappeared into the crowd with his information. "Thank you for informing me, now come help me get the last of Kim squad into this truck."

"Yes, sir," the man saluted and the two got to work. He needed to finish this quickly and make his way to Central Command. As capable as Olivier was, she could best any man in combat, but the enemies they were facing had monsters at their disposal and she would need the help.

Meanwhile, Fu walked on in the city as he mentally noted the quick progression of the insurrection, going faster than he expected. His focus was still on Ling and making sure he was well, but it was impossible to sense him out with the presence in Central blinding every other form of chi. He paused for a moment as his senses told him that the presence had changed somehow, and he grew a little worried as it felt like the presence had tripled in size since yesterday.

Hiding behind a raggedy fence with a few openings, it was a decent enough hiding spot with a field of view of the tunnel Ed and the others were planning to enter through. It was the same tunnel Gluttony had led Amelia and Alphonse through so many months ago. They could see the area was swarmed with military officers, three trucks had all parked around it and blocked it off. She had to imagine Father had somehow sent out the order to specifically block off that space to make it that much harder for someone to find him.

"Not getting in there, the military's got it completely blocked off," Edward sighed, "So much for that."

Amelia looked over the number of men they had, and while their own numbers and manpower had grown significantly with the inclusion of Scar, Lan Fan, Hohenheim, Jerso, and Zampano to their little group, they were still down a homunculus and another chimera. And there were at least two dozen men around the entrance, moving quickly as they were directed to different spots, "We don't have enough people to force our way through, not without doing something drastic that would call attention to us." Amelia quietly conferred with him, not liking that their entrance was blocked, but her mind couldn't recall another way to Father's lair than the path that Gluttony had shown them.

After a moment to think carefully over their options, Amelia had to wonder if they would have to sneak into Central Command to try and find the elevator that led them down to his underground home when Edward gasped, "Wait, there's another way we can get in!" He exclaimed, "The third laboratory!"

"The third laboratory?" Amelia repeated, then her eyes widened as she remembered, "Oh, right! When Al and the Colonel went underground and fought Lust…!" She could hardly believe she had forgotten, "But is that the best idea? Al described that door, but he didn't go through it."

"It's the best one we have right now," Edward said, standing up to look over at the others, "Come on, we need to get moving." They had to move quickly.

Thankfully, the distance to the Third Lab wasn't far from that tunnel, only taking them a few minutes as they moved across parks and cut across streets in alleyways. It made for some surprisingly easy shortcuts that they took advantage of until they came to the building itself. Amelia looked up at it, seeing the white walls standing out against the blue sky behind it, remembering the last time they came here to investigate Alphonse's experience only to find that they had hidden it behind a transmuted wall. Looking over at the front gate, the lab was clearly not an area of focus like the tunnel near the industrial district had been, seeing very few guards at the front gates casually talking amongst one another, unaware of their presence across the street.

"They've only got three MPs guarding the entrance," Zampano commented when he saw it.

Darius stood, bringing his hand up to pop his knuckles in preparation, "Now that's a number I'm comfortable with."

"No," Edward looked back with a mischievous grin, "This is perfect for me to throw some weight around and use my title." Amelia worried about that glint in his eye, but before she could say anything, he was already making his way around the fence to run up to the guards in his red coat and braid, silver pocket watch yanked out of his pocket and on full display as he called out to them, "Help me, please!" He rushed up to them, and Amelia looked at him in confusion from their hiding place.

"How is crying for help using your title…?" She muttered as she watched him show them his pocket watch and introduce himself.

"My name's Edward Elric, I'm a state alchemist!"

"Wait, what was that? You said you're a state alchemist?" One MP asked, clearly on edge now that he had given that title to them.

"I need you to help me, Scar is trying to kill me!" Edward pointed directly at the spot where everyone had been, Scar's place exposed, looking at Edward with wide eyes as he pointed at him, seeing the 3 MPs look over and see him hiding.

"That guy's on the wanted list!" That same MP exclaimed as they all armed themselves, pulling out their guns and pointing it at Scar, not seeming to realize there were others hiding in the bushes and trees at the edge of the road, "Hands up!"

Before anyone could debate about complying or not, Edward attacked all three of them from behind, hitting each one in the perfect spot on the backs of their heads and sent them all toppling to the ground, unconscious.

"Dude, what?!" Amelia exclaimed, the others all seeing the opportunity and standing up, jumping the fence and making their way to the lab now that they had an unguarded gate that Edward pushed open for them, "That's what you call using your title and throwing some weight around?"

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Edward replied as Lan Fan ran past them, followed by Scar and the chimeras.

"That was a mean thing to do," Hohenheim said as he looked over the three guards on the ground.

"Oh, shut up. C'mon," Edward ran in with the others, heading straight into the lab with Hohenheim trailing behind them. He quickly ran to the front of the pack as the others all had gathered in the front foyer, waiting for him to lead the way. It was surprisingly easy to walk around inside the lab, it was filled with alchemists and scientists, all who were working diligently, though there were plenty that gave them strange looks and didn't know what to do about all of these people suddenly making their way through their halls. But just as quickly as they found them and gave them attention, Edward would dismiss it with a "Pardon us. Coming through." As if it was all perfectly normal to march through so briskly with a group of men as he looked for the transmuted wall, "It was around here somewhere…" Amelia looked with him, curious to see if she could find it before him. Just as she spotted a wall with some half-done transmutation marks near the bottom of the floor, Edward stopped right in front of it, "Found it!"

With a clap of his hands and a new transmutation, he turned the wall into a door, Amelia grimaced slightly at the design of it, studded all the way around with the face of an ogre in the middle, but it opened easily enough, and they moved inside. It didn't look like a direct path before them, seeing a tunnel that went into two separate directions. Edward walked in and the others filed in behind him, each looking down the tunnel and how each one slowly curved off into the darkness. "Should we split into two groups?" Edward asked.

"Sounds good," Hohenheim said, "I'll take a team this way," He pointed to the right tunnel, "And then you and Scar can lead a team the other way."

"What?!" Edward whipped around, face contorted in anger, pointing at Scar, "Why do I have to go with him?!"

"It's best to divide the groups based on their skill in alchemy," Hohenheim explained patiently, "Now remember, you told me that he was somehow able to turn off your alchemy. Scar was still capable of using his, but you were rendered helpless." Edward's jaw clenched, but he glanced over at Amelia and it relaxed slightly. He hated that helpless feeling from the last time, remembering as Father threatened to turn her into another homunculus and there was nothing he could have done to stop that from happening. If Scar hadn't come when he did, he wasn't sure Amelia would even be here by his side right then.

"Fine…" He grumbled, letting it go as he resigned himself to fighting alongside the man who murdered Winry's parents.

"Alright, I guess that means these two are together," Jerso said, looking to Hohenheim, "So who are you taking?"

"My alchemy is a little unique, so I'll be fine on my own," Hohenheim said, though he turned to look at Lan Fan after a moment, "On second thought," He gave her a friendly smile, "It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a bodyguard, so I might as well take this young lady with me." Amelia was a little surprised to see him being what she could only describe as a kind of flirtatious. After hearing what he had said about Trisha, she didn't think it was possible for him to love another woman that same way.

"So… it'll just be you and Lan Fan and then I'll go with Ed and…" She looked over at Darius and the other chimeras, "Everyone else comes with us too, I guess?" Darius shrugged, seeming not to care either way, and Jerso and Zampano seemed to share that feeling.

"If any of us discover the enemy, do everything you can to destroy him." Hohenheim warned, reminding them of their plan.

"Roger that," Jerso replied.

As Hohenheim turned to walk down the right tunnel, leaving Edward and the others to explore the left tunnel, Zampano called out to them, "Are you sure that you're gonna be okay with just the two of you?"

"Of course, I prefer it this way," Hohenheim turned with a grin and Amelia could see that he was putting on an act as he continued to speak, waving goodbye as they walked, "I'd rather keep the young lady's company for myself than share her with the lot of you." She wasn't sure what he was planning on doing, but it clearly wasn't to spend time with Lan Fan as he continued down that tunnel, like he suggested. Still, though she could see it, his act was enough to fool the others, Zampano left stammering in surprise at the sound of his intentions.

"Pervy old man," Jerso muttered, letting that be the explanation for his behavior.

"Let's go," Darius said, the other stunning to walk down the left tunnel, Amelia glancing over at Edward as he looked at his father's back as they continued to walk until they were out of sight.

He glanced over at her, feeling her gaze on him, "What is it?" He asked.

"Just… making sure you're okay," She said, the two of them turning and walking down the tunnel. She glanced back at Hohenheim once before she continued to walk with Edward, "I don't… think he meant that." Edward looked over at her curiously, "I think Hohenheim has something else in mind than just flirting with Lan Fan all the way to Father's lair." She looked over at him, "Think about it, she and Fu have been so worried about Ling this whole time… Maybe he's just giving her an opportunity to go look for him."

"You think so?" Edward asked, his brow furrowing a little, "I don't know how helpful that can be."

"Your dad is a pretty amazing alchemist, not to mention the fact that he's a human philosopher's stone, he could probably take on a whole army and survive." Amelia said, "What would he need a bodyguard for?"

Edward shrugged, about to come up with his own response when something interrupted him. A chorus of blood-curdling shrieks filled the tunnel, it was muffled, showing that it wasn't too close, but it was loud enough to reach them and send chills down their spine. They didn't sound… right. Something sounded off about them, Amelia couldn't tell if it was men, women, or children who were screaming, but… it was very much a large group of screams all sounding off at once. It lasted for a few long seconds, everyone freezing in their tracks when they heard it, and the silence that followed felt incredibly heavy. Everyone all looked to one another, as if to confirm they had all heard the same thing and make sure they hadn't been imagining such a horrific sound.

"What the fuck was that…?" Amelia asked, eyes wide.

"Sounded like nails on a chalkboard…" Darius muttered.

"...Maybe it's the pipes," Edward offered, "We're underground, they might sound a little different down here."

"I don't think even the most rundown of pipes sounds like that. That sounded like… like people." Amelia couldn't help but worry, this day would carry plenty of challenges, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the challenge that sound would present to them.

General Harris pushed his key into the heavily bolted door that guarded the Immortal Legion. As the lock popped open, he pulled on the handle to open the door, seeing the first line of soldiers hanging by their feet lifelessly as he marched into the room. Central was in an insane panic, Colonel Mustang had gone rogue, somehow tripled his numbers without them knowing, not to mention these troops from Briggs coming in and ambushing them by surprise. They were losing the fight, and they needed more men to call upon to help defend Central Command and keep everything in place for the Promised Day. He could hear the frantic footsteps of the scientist in charge of the project running after him as the mechanical door slowly rose up to allow him inside, "What a pathetic excuse for an army…!" He growled out, "They can't even handle those Briggs Mountain Monkeys."

"Please, sir, don't!" The researcher rushed in, "We still haven't finished the soul-bonding tests!"

"Shut up! When else are we going to use them?" Harris defended, reaching for the levers that would activate the bonding process. It was a rather ingenious design, using a solvent infused with philosopher's stones to travel through and give each one of their soldiers a soul and a desire to fight, to fight for them and not for Colonel Mustang and his dogs. Their blind loyalty was exactly what they needed to win this battle and decimate the enemies' forces. "This is the exact kind of situation we worked so hard to make them for!" He pulled one lever after another, watching as the containers for the solvent switched on, lighting the water red as the liquid pumped through the pipes on the floor below them, going to each one, activating and waking the entire legion. When it was finished, he turned to look back at the dolls, a part of him thrilled to be able to see them awaken for the first time. "Go! Now! Teach those treacherous rebels a lesson!" The Immortal Legion was the thing that brought him into this agreement, he couldn't care less about being immortal himself, but an army of perfect soldiers, undying, unmatchable? That kind of power was something he couldn't ignore.

He and the researcher looked on, watching as their bodies slowly started to shift, veins forming on their pale skins as the spots on their head grew, bulging out into a single eye. He grinned widely at the sound of their shrieks while the researcher covered his ears at the deafening sound. It was the sound of life entering their bodies, it was something he found both chilling and thrilling as he looked at the dummies as their mouths opened for the first time, breathing, and moving for the first time. As each one filled with their share of the infused philosopher's stones, they were dropped from their hanging positions, falling to the floor. When they landed on their hands and knees, groaning, it was hardly graceful or thought out, but it was clear they were unhurt and unbothered, the sight only exciting him more. He watched as they all came to stand, looking around the room, hearing them all mutter different things as they moved around.

"It hurts…!"

"Save us…!"

"I'm hungry…"

He laughed to himself, filled with energy at the thought of being able to command such a powerful force, turning to the researcher with a maniacal grin, "So you were saying that the tests aren't done yet?" He gestured to the group of dummies, "Well then here is your test! I'd say it's successful!" He looked out over the moaning group of pale soldiers, "Undying, obedient, invincible soldiers who will fight whoever we order them to. We have our Immortal Legion at long last!"

The dummies all crowded the halls, looking around, one of the dummies looking to the general calling out in a gravelly, inhuman voice, "Pa… pa…?"

"Haha! Indeed! Yes, I am your father, son!" General Harris called to him, embracing the affectionate term from the dummy. He watched as they all turned to look at the sound of his booming voice as he spoke to them, "And now, I want you to listen closely." As he spoke, the dummy that had first called out for its father started to walk closer to him, its single eye trained on his form, "There are many renegade elements and they want to take us over."

"Papa…" The dummy called out, its mouth drooling as he came closer to General Harris, a smile growing on its face.

"You men have a job to do–" Before Harris could continue his orders, the dummy rushed up, biting him in his neck, a stream of blood shooting out from his body as it pushed him to the ground, the General feeling the intense pain of the teeth still sinking into his skin to rip out his jugular from his throat, his eyes wide in horror as he watched the dummy pull back with a reddened mouth, chewing and swallowing his flesh. Within seconds, he was surrounded by dummies that brought their mouths to his flesh like animals to a fresh kill, his mind barely processing his feelings of regret as they began to feast on his limbs, body, and brain before he died.

The researcher stood back, horrified as he watched the dummies feast on the man that was supposed to be their commander. He watched them dying their lips and teeth red with blood and flesh, eating through his clothes as if every part of him was an edible delight. It was only after a few moments of disgusting feasting that they all turned to look at him, realizing their meal didn't have the potential for only this single course. He reached for his gun immediately, holding it out and firing at the dummies, he could barely hear his own screams of terror as he kept shooting, watching them react to the pressure of the shot that would land in their bodies, but they wouldn't fall or cry out in pain. They simply all moved to stand, slowly, with intention, he continued to fire off every round he had until his gun was empty and he could hear the clicks of the trigger every time he pulled it. He could hear their moans and vague phrases in the single room, looking down at his empty gun with wide eyes, realizing that he had lost his only means of defense… and now he was left alone, the only human in a room full of hungry, man-eating dummies.

He trembled uncontrollably as he looked up, watching the dummies walk towards him, some of their flesh missing from the shot that went through them, but they still walked and moved unharmed. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes as he began to realize there was no way out, cornered against the wall of machines that gave these monsters life. He screamed as he watched one opening its mouth wider before it silenced him with a sickening squish as its teeth drove deeper into the flesh of his neck and pushed him down into the floor. The dummies all began to eat him, the ones too numerous to join left wandering in the dark hole in which they were trapped, some slowly filing out through the already open door before them from General Harris. Others made their way back further still, looking through the pipe-covered walls until they came upon a pair of great stone doors, all of them beginning to crowd around it as they searched mindlessly for something to ease their incessant hunger.

General Olivier held the blade to General Fox's neck, a gun pointed outwards as she escorted him out of the conference room they had been detaining her in. Stepping out, walking over the corpse of General Gardner, she watched as the men that had been assigned to keep watch on their hall look at her with pale horror, seeing that she had taken hostage one of the higher generals. She marched calmly, coolly, completely in control as she held General Fox's gun outward. A blade and a hostage only took her so far, after all. The men she dealt with needed to know there would be greater consequences than one single death of her hostage if she wasn't heard. Still, she couldn't deny she took satisfaction in hearing Fox's shuddering breaths, holding back the pain of his injury from where she had cut through his arm and rendered his dominant hand useless.

She looked over the 6 other officers, all varying in rank, but presumably under Fox's command. They should be able to organize exactly what she was looking for, pointing Fox's pistol at his jaw, "Order the Central forces that are engaged with Mustang and the Briggs men to pull back," She commanded as they marched on through the hall together. She looked up at the other officers, seeing that they had all pulled out their guns and pointed them her way, "What? You're going to shoot?" To prove she had no interest in being threatened, and to prove she meant every ounce of her will in getting the right things done, she stopped marching, took her sword and plunged it through his right foot, hearing the general scream in agonizing pain as a result, the sound shocking the other officers, though they didn't quite lower their weapons. She kept her blade pinned in his foot, the pistol still pointed at his jaw, "Your subordinates are lacking in discipline." She said as he finished screaming, digging the blade in and wriggling it, watching him shudder in pain.

She almost felt a bit sadistic in doing so, but she had very little interest in how much pain he was in if it meant he wasn't able to do what she needed. She pulled her sword up, putting the blade back at his neck, watching as the officers in front of her started to drop their guard as they realized how serious she truly was, unsure of the path they needed to take. It was too easy, these Central Forces were so soft and so wishy-washy. They could never make up their minds. "Pull your forces back now, my Briggs men will not hesitate to wipe them out. You don't want to lose all of your troops, do you?" She repeated her command, trying to incite him to make the decision she wanted him to make with a pointed dig of the pistol into his skin. She watched him stiffen, growing pale, and she could tell the words were bubbling up in his throat as he continued to tremble in intense pain.

After a long moment, and a deep breath, Fox loudly commanded, "Close all the gates! Seal every entrance to the command center! Understand? Don't let them in! No Briggs soldier or Mustang!" Olivier's eyebrows raised slightly. She had taken Fox for a coward, hiding away in his ivory tower while his men went off to fight for him. It seems she had made a miscalculation in her judgment.

"Ah… so you do have some mettle, twisted though it might be." She said, owing him at least that compliment.

"Oh, you shouldn't get too cocky!" Fox snapped, and as he spoke Olivier could suddenly feel a familiar sensation of an eerie, looming presence like she had felt in the conference room before the arrival of Father and the homunculus that had invaded her fort. She glanced back, seeing a shadow coming up from behind her, "We'll kill every last one of you! All you mountain savages!" Fox continued his rebellious tirade, holding onto that bit of energy he got from surprising her, unaware of what was happening. Olivier jumped out of the way before he could strike, just in time to watch the giant homunculus's hand slam down on Fox's body, pushing him down into the floor, watching as it cracked mercilessly under his force and undoubtedly mangled Fox's body in the process.

She stood back, somewhat shocked at the suddenness of the attack. If she had moved only a second later, that could have been her… It was a feeling she hadn't experienced in a long time, the chilling sting of being so close to death but not letting it reach her quite yet. She watched as the homunculus slowly lifted up the hand he had used to push Fox down, looking into his palm now soaked in blood, "Oh dear…" He sighed in that baritone, monotone voice, "Mess… I made a mess…" He looked up at Olivier, speaking slowly and reminding her of their last encounter, his speech was slow and his strength immense, but his mind didn't seem to match his body, "You cannot… interfere… See, I was told… to kill you…" He let out an exasperated sigh, "It's such a pain…"

She couldn't help letting out a single laugh, remembering that she had bested him once before, and she felt confident she could do it again, even here in Central where she didn't have the advantage of her usual freezing home, "Ha! It looks like another seat has just opened up," She swung her sword, watching the last of Fox's blood fly off of the steel blade, "Thanks Homunculus, you have my gratitude." She pointed her pistol at him, smirking as she couldn't deny the satisfaction of knowing her blade was clean once again, prepared to face him once more, "This sword was passed through the Armstrong family for generations. Now, I don't have to sully it with his filthy blood!"

The homunculus only had a blank stare on his face, as it always seemed to have, and she took the opportunity to move, heading into the banquet hall and leading the homunculus in behind her, just barely managing to dodge as he threw out the heavy chains that weighed down his wrists like a metal whip, hearing them crash into the stone floors. She continued to run, using what strengths she had over the monster as she dashed around the room, watching the dust kick up from behind her, feeling the wind of the attack as it missed her by only a foot or so. She landed in a crouch, avoiding another swing from his other hand as it flew over her head and crashed into the white pillars along the walls, creating a long line of cracks from where it had touched.

"Why bother running…?" The homunculus asked as he threw his arm again, the chain rising forward like a heavy wave, bringing up her blade to deflect it enough to break its path, and jumping back to avoid the worst of it. She could feel the weight from that small break, the Armstrong sword was a strong blade she had cared for over many years, but she knew she couldn't use it in place of a shield against iron that heavy. She ducked down again, avoiding another swing from his other hand as the chain went flying just above her, hearing the dull whistle from the heavy chain as it missed her. She stood up when he seemed to finally stop constantly moving his arms, aiming Fox's pistol and unloading the magazine, 7 shots all hitting him on his shoulder, his chest, his head, but he stood there like a statue. He brought a hand up to a spot she had hit along his skull, scratching at it as he tilted his head, "What's that…?"

"Hmph," She threw the pistol away, not working as an alternative option for her own defense in this fight, "I should have known that wouldn't work." She drew her blade again, pointing it forward as she prepared to fight him with that as her main defense.

"That's far enough, General Armstrong!" A voice called out, she turned and looked back to see an officer standing at the back entrance of the banquet hall with 6 other soldiers holding shields, kneeling down in front of him, "We have our orders, and we're prepared to shoot you for the traitor you are!" She glanced at their formation, and then looked back at the homunculus, he was the greater threat in this moment and deserved her attention more than the Central soldiers who had already made a poor decision in their formation. There was a brief pause from the officer who had spoken, likely more just out of surprise that she had ignored him, but then he spoke again, "Take aim, men!" She heard their rifles cocking as they prepared to shoot, watching as the homunculus's blank stare began to focus on her and the soldiers behind her, dashing away as she heard the officer yell, "Fire!" but before a single round could go out, the homunculus's chain came crashing down on their group, disrupting the formation and breaking the floor underneath them, sending a few flying in the air and one deathly injured.

Olivier managed to find a pillar, hiding behind it for a moment to catch her breath to try and work on a plan. For all her discipline, her strategies often worked towards defense, and turning offense into defense was something she was familiar with doing, though figuring it out in a one-on-one battle with an inhuman monster was something she would need a moment to concentrate on, but as she looked over the remains of the attack, she couldn't help but click her tongue in disappointment, "You idiot," She ran out from behind the pillar, seeing heavily artillery she could use in the fallen soldier's corpse, grabbing his grenade from his belt, "You shouldn't have concentrated your men!" She grabbed it, pulled the fuse with her teeth and tossed it towards the still-standing homunculus, who looked at it with a confused stare before it exploded in his face, the explosion breaking the windows of the banquet hall, her ears were ringing as she ran in the shaking rubble of the room, watching as pieces of the plastered ceiling began to fall as the explosion came to an end, gunpowder filling the room and giving her a bit of cover, enough to give her a moment to think as she hid behind another pillar, trying to listen in the resounding silence, hoping that grenade did some kind of damage to that beast.

She watched as a looming shadow suddenly came closer, her eyes wide, before she could react, his massive hands gripped her body from around the pillar, pinning her to it. "Hey, look… I caught…. you…" She looked down at his fingers, each one as long as her arm and twice as big, feeling as they began to press into her, her eyes widening as she realized he planned to crush her to death, struggling with all of her might to get out of his grasp, "And this time… I won't… mess up…" She grunted as she struggled, feeling him pressing down harder and harder on her torso, pinning her back against the pillar, hearing the stone starting to crack under the combined weight of her body and his strength, "Must kill her… The woman… general…" She could feel something snapping inside her, her eyes widening as she realized he was starting to break her ribs, grunting in anguish as she tried to hold back the urge to cry out in pain.

From around the corner of the back entrance, a huge form that nearly rivaled the homunculus's came out, taking a metallic gloved hand and delivering a clean punch to his face, knocking him back several feet, sliding back towards the front entrance at the other end of the hall. Olivier felt her body collapse, taking shuddering breaths as she looked up at the figure that had come, seeing a familiar face.

"HELLO, SISTER!" Major Armstrong stood there, fist victoriously clenched in the air, his arms coming down to flex his proud muscles in several poses, revealing that statuesque Armstrong figure, "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!"

She glared at him from her place on the floor, her arm still covering over her ribs, "Who do you think I am…?" She growled out, "Of course, I'm alright."

"I'm just glad to see that you're okay," Alex replied, doing nothing to suggest otherwise as he looked over at the monster he had just thrown back with his fist, "Now then, could you tell me what the hell that is?" It still hadn't risen, though his head came up and slowly started to stand again, but there was no sign of weakness on the enemy's part.

"A homunculus," Olivier answered, "Bullets don't work on him." She pushed herself to stand up as well, stepping out from behind the pillar as she looked at the enemy alongside her younger brother, "Maybe if we had some heavy artillery…" Her Briggs tanks seemed to do enough damage to beat the monster back, she recalled that well enough.

"You don't say…" Major Armstrong's hand went to his chin, "Fortunately, dear sister, that is my specialty," he brought his hand back, his alchemical gloves ready as he looked over the stone floors and at the monster ahead of them that was starting to get back on his feet, "Why don't you let your brother have a crack at it? I'll take this atrocity down." He dug his feet into the ground, calling out to taunt him, "Come on, you monster!"

From the other end of the hall, he could hear Sloth let out an exasperated sigh again, "Ugh… what… a pain…" It was one thing to have to kill only the woman general, but now the homunculus was facing two children of the illustrious Armstrong family line.

It wasn't a very long walk down the hall, though it was eerily silent in the wake of that chorus of shrieks, all of them waiting to hear if another wave of it would come through only to hear their footsteps echoing against the walls as they continued on. They found a few different rooms, one that had been thoroughly burnt and filled with plenty of painful-looking medical equipment, and a boiler room, but they eventually came to the one they wanted. Amelia only had a vague recollection of how Alphonse had described the room to them from his battle with Lust so many years ago, but the door fit the description exactly. It stood at least 30 feet tall, and looked to be made entirely of cement, the room lit by a window up above that pointed to the sky, likely the roof of the laboratory itself. It had to be to have a door this tall in a building only a few stories high. On the ground, there were signs of battle, ashes and scorch marks along the floor in one spot from where the colonel had burned Lust alive, a single alchemical wall brought up from the stone floor, and the remains of a suit of armor, and a few bones from a body.

"That's quite a doorway," Zampano said as he looked up at the intricate design that had been painted and carved into it, circles all showing unique symbolism that Amelia recognized but couldn't quite translate. It certainly wasn't a traditional alchemic circle made there.

"The air here seems foul," Darius commented.

"Could be what's left of this poor guy," Amelia said as she looked at the broken skull on the floor next to the rest of the corpse, seeing mummified skin still clinging to it after all this time.

"You're sure this is it?" Darius asked Edward, looking over at him as he stared up at the door.

"Yeah, it's exactly like Al told me," He confirmed.

"And who is this?" Jerso asked, looking down at the corpse and the armored remains.

"Number 66, Barry the Chopper," Edward said, "One of the guardians of the fifth laboratory." Amelia looked over the armor, seeing the glove was still clutching a massive cleaver. She reached down to pick it up, removing Barry's armored hand from the handle. She felt eyes on her, looking over at a shocked Edward.

"What? It's not like he's going to need it." She defended, "Besides, it helps to have something like this we can transmute into a weapon."

"Fine, but I'm not carrying that for you," Edward muttered, as he stepped closer to the massive doorway.

"I didn't ask you to," Amelia replied as she went to stand behind him, she watched as he put his hand on the door, and then tried to push his fingers into the small seam where it opened, grunting with effort as he tried to pull them apart. She sighed a little as she looked at him trying, watching him put his foot up against the door to try and pry it open with his grip strength, which didn't seem to be working as everyone else looked on as he struggled.

"Oh, please!" Edward growled out in frustration, "Come on…!" He kept putting all his effort into it, his fingertips the only part of him able to fit in between the doors, "Damn this stupid thing…! How do you open this…?!"

"Ed, that door's got to be at least three feet thick," Amelia reasoned, "I don't think we're going to be able to pull it open." As she said that, she looked up at Scar who came forward with his right hand tensed.

"Stand back," He warned, and she and the chimeras began to do just that. Before Scar could reach the door, however, it started to slowly creak open on its own.

Edward smiled as he felt it moving, "Ah, it's open…" He trailed off as he saw a group of white hands on the other side reaching out for him, a mass of strange, white, cyclops all crowding together and crashing through the open door. Amelia screamed at the sight of them, as did all of the chimera men, Darius quickly grabbing her and pulling her away as Edward jumped back as the crowds of white cyclops men all began to walk through, hands outstretched, mouths open, growling and shouting out wordless nonsense.

Suddenly, as the crowd surged, they found themselves surrounded by the pale humanoids, eyes all trained on them as they started to charge forward, mouths open, making it clear their hunger was insatiable. Amelia kicked one back, everyone beginning to crowd together as the mass of one-eyed men began to wander around them, soon their pale white bodies were all that Amelia could see as they all began to fight them off. Any that charged were pushed back or knocked back. As one came to attack Scar, she watched as he brought his right hand onto their skull, the transmutative light shining as he destroyed its brain from the inside, as he always did with humans, seeing its green blood sputtering around it as it staggered back. It stayed that way for a moment, and Amelia thought they might be able to take these things down if Scar led the way, only to see the eye move again, focusing on Scar once more and charging him again. He dodged, watching as it trembled and tried to deal with the onslaught of pain that came from moving, but otherwise it was perfectly fine.

"So they don't die?" Scar asked, another charging towards him and he punched it back.

Amelia took the brunt end of her cleaver, knocking it against one that charged at her, finding her and Ed soon in the middle of the group of chimera and Scar, surrounding the two youngest as these creatures came around them. It almost reminded Amelia of the zombie apocalypse she had seen fictionalized a dozen times in games and movies and tv shows. But these things weren't zombies, they didn't have brains they could destroy. They could hear their strange moans as they continued to surround them.

"It hurts…"

"So hungry…"

"It hurts…"

"The pain…"

"So hungry…!"

"Big brother…!"

The last voice was what caught Ed's attention, his eyes wide as he remembered hearing it once before, this cacophony of anguished moans in the skin of Envy's true form that he and Ling had to fight against in Gluttony's stomach.

"There's no way…" He felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at them all, "They used human souls to make these things…?!"

"Damn… they just keep coming!" Zampano said, watching as more and more still filed out of the open doors. From where Amelia was standing, she could easily count several dozen, maybe even a hundred, of these things as they all moved around them in crowding, hungry droves. "What are these things?"

"How should I know?!" Darius snapped at him, "And why won't they die?!"

"These things might be powered by philosopher's stones," Amelia warned, seeing the group of them all still reaching out "They're not going to go down easy."

"This is bad…" Scar muttered, "If these things escape outside…"

Before any of them could even begin to picture the horror of a pale humanoid apocalypse being unleashed on the people of Central, one shouted out, charging straight for Jerso who grabbed his arms before he could grab him. "Get off!" He shouted, throwing the creature back with a grunt.

"Now what…?" Edward muttered, trying to think of a plan as he looked around at all of them.

"We had something like these back home," Amelia said, getting his attention, "They weren't real, but we called them zombies. Mindless, hungry bodies of the undead that ate people."

"How did you kill them?" Edward asked.

"Well… they were originally human, so you had to destroy their brains," Amelia said, gasping as one charged her and she knocked it back with the blunt end of the cleaver, "I'm pretty sure decapitating these guys should work, too!" Even though it was a risky strategy, being able to decapitate these things meant getting a bit too close for comfort and missing would almost certainly mean these creatures taking a chunk out of you. She looked out over the crowds, her eyes widening as she saw a few wandering towards the open door, "Oh, no! They're gonna get out!"

Edward took care of that instantly, clapping his hands together and bringing them down onto the floor, the ground growing up and sealing itself against the wall of the open door they had come in through, trapping the creatures inside and preventing them from going anywhere else.

"Sorry, I guess I just cut off our exit," Edward said as he stood back up.

"Don't worry about it," Darius replied, "If you hadn't done it, I would have slammed the damn thing shut myself."

"And now we can really take these guys on," Zampano said with a grin as he looked out over the crowd of pale dummies. With no one from the third laboratory able to see them, they had the privacy needed to transform into their more powerful chimera bodies and fight them off.

"Yeah, you said it, Zampano!" Jerso exclaimed eagerly, "Now that all these things are trapped here with us, we can really show our stuff. This is gonna be good!" He flexed, his body changing from the dark-skinned man to the yellow-skinned frog monster, Darius transforming into his ape-form, and Zampano taking a deep breath before his body grew his snout and quills, all eager to unleash themselves in a proper battle.

Edward let out a deep breath looking out over the swathes of dummies, "How could they even think to create these monsters?" He sighed, readying himself for a fight and Amelia turned the cleaver, the blade facing outward. She had no idea how much force it would take for her to cut off their limbs, but at least if she got their arms out of the way they wouldn't be able to grab and grapple them into submission. For such skinny little things, they had a surprising amount of strength. "Well, it looks like we'll just have to plow through them so we can get to that bearded bastard!" He turned and charged, letting out a yell as the others all rallied behind him, "Let's take these things down!" They all charged into the thick of it, spearheaded by Edward to take out each of these monsters as much as they possibly could.

"I wonder if the others are doing alright…" Heinkel stood up, looking at the smoke rising up from Central City in the distance. "It's aggravating not being able to fight with them. Who knew that sitting around waiting could be so painful?" His wounds still ached, and he hated to be left behind like this, but there wasn't much he could do. Darius was off risking his life, leaving him behind, and as much as he wanted to fight by his side, he was in no shape to do so and now that he was left alone with his thoughts, it didn't help that they were so self-deprecating. Marcoh and Yoki had gone into Kanama to investigate some kind of arrival that was happening, cars pulling in from down the road. It was unnerving, and considering the fact that they had Pride confined, they needed to make sure it wasn't something for them or for Alphonse. Still, he couldn't help feeling so useless, watching as the city was undoubtedly in turmoil, all sorts of battles going on, and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop it. The thoughts weren't pleasant, and he had tried to ignore them by focusing on other things, only to find that he was being constantly distracted by a strange metallic sound coming from inside the earthy dome Alphonse and Pride were in.

He walked up to the edge of the wall, frowning a little as he heard those metallic noises ringing out again, "I've been hearing that damn sound since yesterday…" He took in a breath and shouted, "Hey, Alphonse! What's all that racket in there?"

"Selim's been playing with my head!" Alphonse's voice called back.

"Huh," Heinkel muttered, "Whatever else he might be, he's still just a little kid." He turned to walk away, but something stuck out to him now that he was able to hear it more clearly. He paused, hearing the sound ringing out in three hits, and then muting in two. He frowned, his brows furrowing as it sounded too familiar. He looked back at the earthy dome, listening carefully, his military mind already picking up the patterns. Two long ringing hits, two dashes. Three muted, quick hits, three dots. His eyes widened and a chill ran down his spine as he suddenly realized Selim was tapping out morse code. He ran back to the edge of the wall, pounding his fist on it urgently, "Stop him, Alphonse! Stop him from making that sound! Dot-dot-dash! It's code! He's sending out a signal!" He could hear the clanking metal of Alphonse's body suddenly moving. "He's been broadcasting our location!"

As he managed to deliver his message, he felt a sudden tingle move through his body, his instincts telling him to run, that death was coming for him. He turned just in time to see a grinning Kimblee bringing his hands to the earth, the light from the transmutation surging forward in a massive blaze towards him before he could do anything. He was engulfed in it, his cry drowned out in the massive explosion that undid the ground that held the dome up in place, creating a large wall that let the sunlight easily carry through in the aftermath of his expert destruction. As the hole crumbled and the dust began to settle, Pride made his way out into the light, the smile of an innocent child on his face, carrying Alphonse's helmet by the remains of the tassel that he called his hair.

"Hey, thank you for coming to get me, Kimblee. I appreciate it," He beamed at the taller man, who came down from his higher spot to come closer to him.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said, stepping over the remains of Heinkel's glasses, hearing them crack under his white boots, "But please, don't give me any more extra work to do."

Pride laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry about all the trouble," He said, his hand coming behind his head, his shadows rearing up behind him with a vengeful anger burning in their red eyes, "I won't let my guard down again."

"Ah, so you're alone then?" Kimblee asked, "I thought that Gluttony was out here with you as well."

"Yes, well in the end I had to consume him," Pride said casually.

"You ate Gluttony? Your own kind?" Kimblee asked, a brow raised in mild shock at the admission.

Pride shrugged, spinning Alphonse's helmet around, "It's not like it's cannibalism…" He began, "We are a collective," He let the helmet fly from his grasp towards the hole he had exited, Alphonse coming to take it, having been left in shock from the sudden explosion once it was over, "We were both born of the same father, and now we've gone back to being one form."

"So that's how it works, huh?" Kimblee commented idly, Alphonse looking around the outside, glancing over to see Heinkel laying down, his body against the wall of the dome, bloody and clearly unable to move.

"Mr. Heinkel!" Alphonse exclaimed upon seeing him. He worried that he was dead, seeing so much blood, but he saw his chest moving, hearing him gasp in a breath only to cough out his blood.

"Oh?" Kimblee turned to the chimera that had once served under him, "Still alive? What a pity for you." He paused, "But then, you are a chimera. The life force is strong in you."

Alphonse stood, his hand outstretched as he ran towards Heinkel to try and offer him aid now that he knew he was still alive. Seeing this, Pride acted immediately, his shadows snaking out and wrapping around Alphonse's feet, stopping him and forcing him to fall. He looked back to see the homunculus had his grasp on him and started to try to crawl, "Damn it…! Let me go!" Even as he fought, Pride still pulled him back with his own strength.

"You're not going anywhere," Pride said, glaring at the suit of armor, still holding a grudge for the stunt he had pulled with Hohenheim.

"Why you…!" Alphonse growled out, his hands coming together in a transmutation, pressing them on the ground and creating a massive explosion, the dust cloud that burst up blinding Pride and Kimblee, but otherwise doing nothing to them. The homunculus's brow furrowed, not seeing a point to such an act.

"Why bother fighting?" He asked, his shadows pulling the legs that he still had in his grasp closer, his eyes widening as he pulled them out of the dust cloud, seeing that they suddenly weighed much less than they did a moment ago. Alphonse had transmuted them off of his body, his tentacles pulling up the hollow armored feet, glaring back out into the dust cloud as he realized that Alphonse had given him the slip and the cloud was just a distraction to try and hide him from Pride's sight. He let out a small, frustrated huff of breath as he threw the feet into the air, hearing them clatter to the ground not too far away from him. In the meantime, he looked out into the cloud, waiting to see a sign of Alphonse that he could grab onto.

Alphonse was taking as much advantage of the cloud as he could, his legs gone below the knee, but he could still move, and he picked up Heinkel's injured body and started to slowly walk, dragging the man with him along the ground to try and get him to safety and back to Doctor Marcoh, the man who would probably be able to best heal his injuries. It was very slow going, he could feel the metal in the remains of his legs chipping away from where he had separated them, pulling along the full weight of a bloody and battered Heinkel, who could barely move and was frankly lucky to be alive right next to an explosion like that. Still, Alphonse was determined, putting everything he had into every step, not caring as he felt the remains of his knees slowly chipping away in the rough texture of the dirt.

"Just leave me…" Heinkel said, "Get out of here." He was dead weight, and he knew it, he had been risking his hide for Darius back when they were fighting, but he was strong and able-bodied, he had been able to carry him. Alphonse was struggling to move without him, adding his weight into it only ensured that they would have a hard time moving on. Alphonse didn't respond to his command, so he spoke again, "Listen to me…! Go…! Quickly!" His voice rasped, and it was getting harder to breathe, but he wasn't at death's door, not quite yet. It certainly felt that way, though.

"No way!" Alphonse stubbornly refused.

"Don't talk back to me…!" Heinkel weakly snapped, "At this rate, we'll both die." Alphonse didn't respond, still pulling him along, "Leave me behind… you might be able to save yourself." Though there was a part of him that felt his heart breaking at the thought of leaving Darius alone, he knew that they couldn't think about sentimentalities right now when they were up against two powerful enemies, and he was literally dead weight being dragged along the ground.

"I told you – Not happening!" Alphonse insisted, "Now think about something useful instead, like staying alive!" He could hear the dome crumbling, some rock and earth tumbling down to add to their dust cloud that he had made, providing them a little more cover as he slowly moved along the ground.

"You dumbass…!" Heinkel rasped out, "Think about it, we're facing Kimblee and Pride both–!" He coughed, the dust clinging into his throat, as well as some of his blood that had been making its way through his body in places it didn't need to, Alphonse stopping as he saw him suffering, seeing the way his body trembled as he recovered from the waves of pain that came from coughing so harshly, "Now leave me here and get moving." He could start to feel that pain weighing down his limbs all the more, it felt like it was impossible to get up, everything ached, and his body was barely able to fight off the worst of it.

"Don't give up!" Alphonse kept moving along the ground, "I swear, I'll save you–!" He cried out as his left knee gave way, the plate shattering and leaving him with only his metal, hollow thigh. The imbalance was enough to knock him on his back, releasing Heinkel onto the ground as he pushed himself up to look at the damage. It wasn't going to be as easy to move now, only having one leg that could bend and push along the ground, "Oh no!" He couldn't help being frustrated, his gloved hand turning into a fist that came down onto his broken leg, "Come on legs, move it!" He hit it again, "We've come too far…! We can't afford to be beaten now! I won't let it happen!" He could feel that little bit of despair moving in, the part of his mind that told him to face the reality of the situation. That he really was better off leaving Heinkel, so that he might live and be able to see his brother again, do his part to stop the homunculi from activating their circle, live and continue to fight until he got his body back and restored Edward's. He wanted to show Amelia what his face looked like…! She deserved to see it, she was someone who had given him so much hope, finding that new alchemy that brought her there, seeing her kindness in helping them out, giving up her own journey to help them in theirs. And Winry and Granny needed to see him restored, he needed to go home with flesh and blood again, he couldn't let this stop him, and he wouldn't.

His resolve steeled, he stopped punishing his broken leg and went back to Heinkel, reaching for him and picking him up under his shoulders, "Mr. Heinkel, grab on…! We're not giving up!"

Heinkel couldn't help grinning to himself as he heard Alphonse's words, feeling him still grabbing him and pulling him along, even in this hopeless situation where he personally would have abandoned the dead weight, but here Alphonse was, a leg short and too slow, but still refusing to leave him behind, "You kids… are really something else." Alphonse looked down at him in confusion, "You're still determined to help another person, even when you're falling to pieces yourself." It reminded him of all that time he had spent with Amelia, how she was barely able to keep herself together with her own love, but still helping to keep theirs a secret from the others. And there was Edward, the boy who rescued them in the mine, stabbed through with a piece of scrap metal, but still helping them at the risk of them abandoning him to die. They had their own strengths and immeasurable kindness with their determination.

Alphonse was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, "I promised…" He began softly, "I promised my brother I wouldn't let anyone else die, no matter what."

Heinkel listened, hearing Alphonse's vow as he took in rasping breaths, and then grinned again, "I guess you're right…" He began, remembering the secret he had kept from those kids and Greed all this time. "Wasn't it Kimblee who said the true test of winning was surviving? Which reminds me, I have something that might be useful." After hearing Edward talk about the philosopher's stone when they were all in that sketchy Briggs hospice together, he knew better than to tell him he had it but considering so much was on the line… maybe it was time to reveal it. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the little red stone, and revealing it to Alphonse, hearing him gasp at the sight of it.

"Mr. Heinkel… why do you have that?" Alphonse asked, staring down at the little red crystal in his palm.

"I happened to pick it up," He answered, "I got it when Kimblee abandoned us in the mine."

"A Philosopher's Stone… With this, we might actually have a chance at winning but…" He knew how it was made, and every part of him wanted to prevent that suffering further for the souls trapped within.

"Yeah, I know. These are made using human lives, aren't they?" Heinkel could see why he would hesitate, "Your brother told me… He said you'd rather not use one of these to get your original bodies back. In that case…" He had to pause to take a raspy breath in and out, "In that case don't use it for yourself, use it to save the entire world instead." Alphonse looked down at him in shock, "You deserve it, because even though they've been put into that stone, you still recognize them as people. I know…" He took another breath, his eyes still fixed on the armored boy's helmet, his determination mirroring Edward's as he offered him this incredible power, "Those people… even though they're trapped in stone, they still want to fight to protect what matters to them. Let them fight…" He lifted his hand a little higher, though he could feel his arm trembling from the effort, "They deserve the chance."

Alphonse wasn't sure what to do, everything in him told him that he didn't want to help people suffer anymore, but it wasn't like he could restore them to their bodies now that they were in that stone… And it was true, if things continued as they were, he and Heinkel were both likely to die. Those people… he had no idea who they were, who they wanted to be, it felt wrong to use their energy without knowing that will, but at the same time Heinkel was probably right. These people would want to fight back against the ones who had trapped them in the stone in the first place, a chance for vengeance and retribution. He nodded, holding out his hands, "Alright"

"Now you give them hell for me, Alphonse," Heinkel said, bringing the stone over and dropping it into his open palms, watching his gloved fingers curling around it.

He brought his fist up to his helmet, hoping that he was making good on the wills of the people inside, "We'll fight… together." He promised. He looked down at Heinkel, "Mr. Heinkel… When I approach Pride and Kimblee again, I'm going to make another dust cloud. I'm sure Doctor Marcoh and the others will have noticed the smoke by now. Try to stay downwind of Pride and his sense of smell until they can get here, okay?" Heinkel nodded slowly, and Alphonse was careful to put him down on the ground, giving him time to recover as he looked down at the remains of his legs that were no longer there, glancing once more at the red stone in the palm of his hand.

All while this was happening, Pride and Kimblee were waiting outside of the dust cloud to see if Alphonse would reappear as it cleared, though one was growing somewhat impatient. "This dust cloud is a nuisance," Kimblee said, "Shall I blow it away with a blast wave?"

"No," Pride quickly responded, "The two of them are still trapped somewhere in the bowels of the cloud." He looked down at the dismembered metal feet he had near him, "And without his legs, how can he possibly escape?" In his mind, there was no need to spend energy like that in a case like this. All they had to do was be patient, just as he was the night before when the lights went out and all he could do was wait. It did eventually work in his favor, the lights did come back on.

However, before he could say more, he and Kimblee both were shocked to see a red transmutative light shining in the darkness of the cloud. It was impossible to make out what it was, Pride's eyes going wide as he watched it go on for a few seconds, and then stop. He could see red sparks, flickers of the result of the transmutation still taking effect, hearing the metal footsteps of someone coming forward.

"Ah, well, what do you know…" Kimblee said, Pride's expression turning into a suspicious scowl as he heard the smile in his voice, "He isn't exactly running." They both watched as a silhouette started to grow, each step bringing it closer to reveal Alphonse's body, with newly transmuted legs to hold him up. Kimblee's mouth turned into the snake-like grin his body was so comfortable making, "Good! There you are. Very well done, Alphonse Elric." The stone in Alphonse's hand shimmered in the sunlight, catching Kimblee and Pride's attention. "A philosopher's stone…!"

"But where did he find one?" Pride wasn't sure how Alphonse could have even had that unless he had been hiding it somewhere in his armor the entire time, but how did he miss that when he possessed his body? And how could he have found one out in the middle of nowhere like this? He couldn't get an answer from the suit of armor as he brought his hand down, red transmutative light shining as a cloud of dust and dirt burst from the ground around them.

"Dust in our eyes again?" Kimblee asked, readying himself for the fight that was to come. Alphonse used the visual cover well, moving within the cloud until he was behind Kimblee, delivering a solid punch to his jaw hard enough to throw him back. He tumbled and turned around with a maniacal grin as he realized this was going to be a challenge, his tattooed hands coming to the ground to send another explosive transmutation towards him, the ground lighting up as everything grew hotter in a second. As quickly as he was able to conjure it, Alphonse was just as quick to make a barrier from that same dirt, stopping the damage from hitting him and hiding behind it. The armor cried out as a black tendril cut through his barrier, falling back as Pride diced up the small wall Alphonse had created.

He shot more of his shadows towards Alphonse, the armor nimbly dodging each one, though not perfectly. His arm was cut off from one shadow, but it was quickly replaced thanks to the philosopher's stone he had. As his arm transmuted back onto his shoulder, the lost one left behind he charged forward towards Selim. He took Alphonse's discarded foot, taking a shadow and flinging it at him, watching as Alphonse caught it, transmuting his old foot into a simple but sharp double-edged sword that he used to knock away the next shadow that shot towards him. He kept using it as his means of defense, dodging as well as he could from Pride's shadows, watching the ground break apart and fling upwards from every strike, showing the strength that Pride had. He had no intention of holding back when it came to attacking a body that couldn't feel pain, needing to pin down the armor and hold him in place so they could successfully capture him. They still needed him alive, though having him in pieces would be just as well.

Alphonse came forward, deflecting Pride's shadows with his blade, getting closer and closer until he was right near his body, his sword coming to strike him down, only to be blocked by Pride's shadow, the homunculus glaring fiercely up at the suit of armor. A red transmutative light shone on the blade, and before Pride could realize what was happening, the blade had extended and curved, creating a hook that knocked him back and left him tumbling on the ground in his small body.

Kimblee, now having recovered from Alphonse's surprise attack, brought his hand to the ground in another explosive transmutation. He watched as the light shot out towards the ground underneath Alphonse, all to create an explosion to send him flying. In the dust of the blast, he looked to see that Alphonse had used the stone to create another quick, but sturdy, transmutation, having turned the earth into a tower to take him away from the worst of the hit, shooting up higher and higher until it started to turn back around, heading straight for Kimblee. The alchemist did what he did best as a response, creating another blast to send Alphonse back before it could strike him, running away as it acted as his own visual deterrent, seeing a stone fist aiming for the place where he had been standing just as he moved away.

Alphonse turned his attention back to Pride as he saw the homunculus moving to stand from his last hit, still in motion from Kimblee's explosion, his hand gliding along the ground as he slid, the light moving to the ground around Pride to start to push it up around him in an effort to trap him in again. The homunculus saw it, acting quickly as his shadows cut through what would have been another earth container, rage sparking in his eyes as he glared at Alphonse, "I won't fall for that again!" He declared through clenched teeth, sending his shadows forward, instead of letting them reach Alphonse's blade, the shadow cut through his hand, stitching through his arm and his helmet with a hollow sound ringing as it echoed through his armor. Pride's eyes widened as he saw Alphonse's other hand opening to reveal something he didn't want to see, transmuted from thin air. "A flash bomb!" Before it could go off, his shadows cut through it, revealing the device to be hollow as it fell to the ground, useless.

"A decoy!" Alphonse proudly declared as another flash bomb was transmuted from the ground, going off and destroying Pride's shadows that had pierced through Alphonse's armor. The ones around him started to disintegrate, the homunculus's eyes squinting as he looked at the bomb, trying to keep his eyes on his opponent.

"That's the stone… A tricky thing," He muttered to himself. His eyes went wide as he saw the earth moving around him when he couldn't produce his shadows, defenseless as Alphonse encased him again, this time in a spiraled pyramid that sealed shut, keeping out all the light and effectively removing Pride as a problem. In that moment of silence following his imprisonment, Alphonse felt a wave of relief at knowing he managed to trap him a second time, and he was one less problem to deal with in the moment.

"Yes, the power of the philosopher's stone is truly something to behold," Kimblee's voice reached him and he stood up, ready for another fight but the other alchemist made no moves to attack him. "Having used one myself, I suppose I know that better than anyone." He looked over the pyramid that Alphonse had made so quickly to trap Pride, and then looked back to the armored soul, "That's why I'm puzzled by you." It wasn't just Alphonse that puzzled him, but also his brother, and their apprentice friend Amelia, "What I'd like to know is why you don't use that power to get your original body back." Alphonse's form relaxed somewhat, but he didn't respond at first to what Kimblee was saying, knowing the answer was that he didn't want to use the stone to bring his body back if it meant sacrificing more souls. That's not how he wanted to become whole again, not at the expense of so many people, "With the stone in hand, you wouldn't have any trouble fleeing from us. And once you had gotten away, you and your brother could use the stone to restore your bodies and then your journey would end, wouldn't it?"

"If I did that, then I couldn't save everyone," Alphonse replied.

Kimblee frowned, his brow furrowing with his confusion still, "It's in accordance with your ideals. In order to obtain something, you give up something of equal value." To him, it seemed like an equal enough trade. Their journey would end, though at the expense of the lives of everyone else, but they would have what they wanted. Amelia had been like this, too. He had been told that offering the stone to her would be an effective way to change her mind, after all she had been looking for it as the Elric brothers had in the hopes that it would help her in her own journey to return home. But she had refused it when he offered it to her, the toll being that she became his apprentice for a few weeks. Was it that they considered the toll to be too high?

"Tell me, why do I have to choose?" Alphonse asked, piquing Kimblee's interest. Alphonse held up the stone, looking at it as he presented it to Kimblee, "It isn't right. I have to choose between returning to our original bodies or saving everyone. But why can't we have our real bodies back and save everyone? It isn't fair!"

Kimblee's eyes narrowed, contemplating Alphonse's question for a moment before speaking again, "But it's the law of equivalent exchange." It was something every alchemist knew and even lived by. Actions had reactions and consequences, everything had a price to be paid, you couldn't get something for nothing. It was a law they both knew well, and one they would do well to abide by in all of their pursuits, pure-hearted, selfish, or otherwise.

"Well I say searching for possibilities that aren't bound by rules or laws – that's how humanity advances." Alphonse firmly declared.

"I see," Kimblee said, beginning to understand his point of view a little more as he put his hand to his chin, thinking aloud as he began to seemingly pace, "So if you can discover an exception to the rule, you can effectively rewrite the laws of nature as we understand them." He looked over at Alphonse, "Is that how it's supposed to go?" He couldn't help but find the idealism just a touch naive, but then again Alphonse was only 14, and his companions only 15 and 16. They likely didn't think about the potential consequences of their actions, at least not as far ahead as they should. Kimblee took a seat on a stump left over from Pride's attacks on the trees to make the clearing they were now in, one hand going to his stomach, feeling the space he had left for the stone inside, "Because there is another possibility, you know." He looked up at the suit of armor, a smug grin showing on his face as he remembered his trump card, "You don't get your bodies back, and you don't save everyone. That could certainly happen." It took a moment but soon enough the stone came up through his throat into his mouth, opening it to reveal the round bead-like stone to Alphonse, who gasped at the sight of it. It seems Edward never mentioned to him that he had been in possession of two philosopher's stones from their fight at Fort Briggs.

He brought his hands down to the earth, another explosion going off, much bigger and faster than his last ones – enough to send Alphonse flying back into the dust clouds created from the blast. The subsequent vibrations were enough to destabilize the small spiral pyramid that Alphonse had made to trap Pride, Kimblee didn't really notice at first as he took a deep breath in, hearing how his ears still rang from the sound of the blast he had made.

"Mmm… I love that sound," He sighed, finding that unique satisfaction in feeling how his body still trembled with the vibrations of the earth in the aftermath of his explosion, "There's nothing more beautiful than the sound of two strong souls colliding against each other in battle."

Pride stepped out of the darkness of his trap, his brows furrowed with his ego damaged from having been trapped twice now by the same trick, more wary than ever now that they were facing an alchemist with a philosopher's stone. Then again, with Kimblee using his, it evened the playing field immensely and brought things more into their favor. Though, the homunculus could still only see the dust clouds made from their fight, unable to see the armor anywhere, "I assure you, Alphonse Elric is still close by."

"Indeed, I think he is," Kimblee said, reaching for a handful of small stones, "It will take more than that to kill him." He looked at the pebbles, throwing them up into the air, watching as they came undone, breaking apart from an explosive transmutation that sent them scattered around the area, waiting until he heard one hitting metal rather than the ground. He grinned, facing that direction instantly, "There you are!" He once more brought his hands to the ground, watching as it lit up with the red power of his stone, sending another blast in that direction. As the cloud plumed forward with a fiery light, they could see Alphonse's armored body leaving the cloud and coming down to the ground. The armored boy brought his own hands down, his transmutation creating a small blast of its own, though to bring up the dust rather than make anything explode like Kimblee had done. Kimblee's eyes squinted as the cloud of dirt hit him, blinking as he stood up and rubbed it out of his eyes.

"That trick again?" Pride grinned, starting to see the desperation in Alphonse's actions, "How artless… It won't work." He took in a deep breath, his nose tracking all the scents in the air, finding the metallic smell that undoubtedly led to the armored alchemist, his shadows creeping forward in the clouds towards the source, finding him and grabbing his arms and legs, lifting him out of the dust cloud as he cried out in shock. Pride couldn't help grinning, looking up at Alphonse as he struggled, "Remember? I can tell where you are by smell." He looked up at him, unable to help feeling a bit smug as they had him finally. Stone or no stone, it wouldn't be easy for him to keep going like this. "I think that's checkmate."

"Are you sure?" Alphonse asked, "I still think you're giving us humans too little credit."

Selim's smug grin fell into a frown, scoffing as he heard the comment. His shadows moved quickly, yanking him down from his elevated position, pinning him down more as he brought other shadows to pierce through his armor, making it impossible for him to bend his elbows or knees. "Even with the stone, there's no way you'll win this all by yourself," Selim said, reassuring himself of their own strategy. The stone gave Alphonse an advantage in a two-on-one battle between himself and Kimblee, but Kimblee's stone evened it out, outnumbering and outmatching Alphonse. It was checkmate. He was certain.

"I'm not alone!" Alphonse declared, Selim's brow furrowing as he heard him speak, watching his hand clenching around the stone only to open it and reveal that the stone was gone. His eyes widened, gasping as he realized he had done something with it.

"Where did the stone go?" Kimblee asked, his concern growing as well.

Pride looked around them, Alphonse wouldn't have been careless enough to drop something as valuable as a philosopher's stone, so he must have done something with it, but who could he have given it to? He looked around them, still seeing only the clouds of dust and dirt made from Alphonse's transmutations, Can it be…? He thought to himself, starting to wonder if there was a purpose to this dust beyond hiding his chimera friend and hiding himself in the fight. The purpose of this dust cloud was to let him know the direction of the wind? It must be. He's set something downwind where my sense of smell won't work. His eyes narrowed, his mind trying to think of all the things it could have been that he might have used the stone, but before he could even really begin to consider his options, they heard the sound of quickly charging feet heading straight towards their backs. It was an attack from behind!

Pride turned in time to see the lion chimera charging forward, teeth sinking gruesomely into Kimblee's throat, clawed hand wrapped around the man's arm to prevent him from using the transmutation circles tattooed on his palms. Pride's eyes widened, how could that chimera move with his injuries?! With a quick glance into the dust cloud, Pride could see the faint, red gleam of the philosopher's stone, held by none other than Doctor Marcoh, who looked at them with a smug grin of his own. A medical alchemist could potentially bring back the dead with a philosopher's stone… and now Pride would have to deal with this battle alone, watching blood sink down from Kimblee's throat as he was pushed to the ground, staining his white suit. It wasn't the checkmate he thought it was, but that didn't mean these foolish humans had any chance of winning against him.

He looked over at Heinkel, the chimera now completely healed that had gotten the jump on them before. He still held Kimblee's throat in his mouth, the man's body limp as he bled like a dying prey. His shadows reared up, some still holding down Alphonse as the others reached out towards Heinkel. He saw this coming, and released Kimblee from his mouth, holding his body up by his collar and watching as the sharp tendrils suddenly stopped in their charge. It was an unusual move, and Alphonse could hardly believe it himself as he watched Pride's shadows slowly begin to withdraw.

He stopped? The armored alchemist thought, He's reluctant to endanger Kimblee… but that's not like him at all.

"I see now," Pride said, his voice calm, and his smile back on his face, "You humans are indeed tenacious however, you have no hope of winning." He turned back to Alphonse as he spoke, looking down at the alchemist that had planned this drop on him, a surprise attack that, to his credit, had worked well. But everything was still in their favor, "You should know," He pointed towards Central, "Our father is just over there." His reach still came out this far in the country, if he so wished, and he could sense everything that was happening, assuming Alphonse already knew this. "But of course, before we get to that… we're going to have to do something about your current situation, aren't we?" His shadows reared up again, his sights set on someone different. Marcoh was still a potential sacrifice, provided that everyone they needed was still in the country, and that philosopher's stone he took from Alphonse would undoubtedly be useful.

His shadows charged forward to the lone man, the dust clouds clearing away completely as the wind blew, giving him a clear target. Before they could land, they heard the roar of an engine, a car rushing forward into the clearing. Pride's eyes widened, unable to react in time as the car came charging forward to him, hitting him and Alphonse, knocking them both into the air, and Alphonse out of Pride's grasp as his container was suddenly separated from the shadows he made on the ground.

"Who…?" Alphonse looked down at the car, falling to the earth. Heinkel took advantage of the momentary stunning of him and Pride, grabbing the armor by the boot as he ran towards the car, Doctor Marcoh just behind them.

"I got you…! I really got you…!" A sniveling, bawling Yoki with tears streaming down his cheeks was driving the car.

"Yoki?!" Alphonse cried out, surprised the man even had the courage to join in this fight at all, knowing he was a notorious coward from their time spent traveling together.

"All right! Way to take him out, fuzzy lip!" Heinkel praised as he ran back to the car, Kimblee's limp body under his arm as he dragged along Alphonse, letting him get up as they came to the car, letting the armored boy go in first as Marcoh came around to the passenger side, his eyes wide.

"You're the last one I expected!" Marcoh exclaimed, grateful, but still shocked to see the cowardly, crying Yoki trembling at the steering wheel.

"I'm not gonna let you guys play hero all by yourselves! I want some glory of my own, damn it! Do you hear me?!" Yoki shouted, his voice trembling as much as his body, turning to Marcoh, still trying to keep up that facade as he shouted out as if to try and shout away his fears, "How about that?! I landed a shot and it was on the strongest homunculus of them all! I got him big time!"

"Where'd you get the car?" Heinkel asked as Alphonse tried to climb into the backseat as much as possible.

"It's the one Kimblee rode here in," Marcoh said, "The guys who drove it here are taking a little time out."

"Okay! Well done, Doctor Marcoh," Heinkel praised, glad that the doctor and Yoki (of all people) managed to come through for them at the last moment when they really needed it. He suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, looking back to see Pride was slowly recovering, glaring up at them as he began to stand again. He took advantage of the moment, tossing Kimblee's body towards him, watching as the child barely managed to dodge him as the chimera climbed into the car with everyone else. "Move it! Let's go!" Now that Pride was able to stand again, he was able to fight and they wouldn't have much of a chance with him at his full strength.

As Yoki sped off, that urgency was proven as Pride's shadows came for the car, cutting off the roof as they kept driving farther and farther away. Yoki screamed like a woman as they drove over a ditch, that jump giving them enough room to dodge the worst of Pride's attack, "Shut up! Quit whining and drive!" Heinkel demanded, the hardened soldier knowing better than to let his fears and emotions get the better of him in tense situations like these. "I have no desire to attempt fighting that monster head-on!" He looked to Yoki, who still whimpered as he drove, "Get us to Central on the double! We need to meet up with Ed and Amy and get rid of this "father" guy before that thing can catch up to us!" Yoki, now being given a direction to drive, turned the car in that direction, speeding off towards the city and leaving Pride behind with Kimblee's corpse.

The homunculus stood up, hearing the echoes of the engine as it drove out of his reach, knowing that they would likely run straight to Central, and he didn't need to worry about them. Still, it would be nice to take a moment of reprieve now that the battle was over.

"They may well be tenacious creatures, but humans are easy to dupe." Having them head straight for Central was his goal, so having them go there without his needing to drag them benefitted him all the more. He could hear very faint wheezing now in the silence of the clearing, and he glanced over to Kimblee's body, seeing his chest slowly rising and falling as he struggled to keep breathing, "Oh, that's good. So you're still alive, then." He said, walking over to Kimblee's body. The man was staring blankly up at the sky, weakly breathing where he could, his neck was dyed red, as well as a good portion of his once-white suit. The dark red of his blood-stained the pristine fabric he wore so proudly and kept so clean. He couldn't help but allow himself a moment of superiority with him, "I think that color suits you very well, don't you?" Kimblee didn't respond, he didn't know if that was because he couldn't hear him, or because he was too weak to care, "Lions are called the King of Beasts for a reason. He followed the law that said the fittest survive, and accordingly he was able to bite right through your windpipe." Still, Kimblee could say nothing, only weakly wheezing for breath as he still barely could. "One can be sure, in this world, humans are of little consequence." If left here, he would most assuredly die within the hour, but he couldn't help thinking that was such a waste, and the insatiable hunger in his stomach begged for yet another option.

He licked his lips as he could feel his mouth already salivating, Gluttony's hunger was quite demanding and Kimblee was an excellent breakfast, "What was it you were always saying? That you wanted to see which way the world would choose?" As he spoke, his shadows slowly grew outward, a smile on his face as he looked down at the man, "And here you are, dying like a pathetic wreck. It must be humiliating." His shadows reached over his body, moving around Kimblee as a greater one grew up higher, taller, bigger than all the rest, sharp teeth extending from the darkness as they looked down at his body, bringing it up closer to that massive mouth. "But don't worry too much, because you will continue to live… inside me." With a gruesome, wet crunch, Pride began to consume Kimblee's body, giving himself some more strength to face the remainder of this important day.

Major Armstrong watched with satisfaction as the rubble pulled up from the broken ground transmuted into heavy steel artillery, aiming straight for the massive homunculus and pummeling into his body at breakneck speeds, crumbling apart as they made contact with him. Even with his artistic alchemy, the homunculus still stomped forward, letting out a long, exasperated groan. "I'm not finished yet!" He declared to the homunculus, tossing up some more rocks into the air, his other fist, gloved with his transmutation circle, punching them, and hitting them forward, watching again as they transmuted into those sharp bullets that aimed straight for the monster that kept slowly marching forward. He watched as he was hit each time, one knocking into his head and forcing it to crack open, seeing the blood spurt out like a water fountain, hearing the monster cry out in pain.

Olivier saw her moment and took it, charging forward as Sloth was shocked from the sudden pain of having his skull cracked open, leaping up against a pillar to launch herself higher to thrust her blade into his head, watching as more blood was quick to pour out, and he cried out in pain once again. She fixed herself to stand on his shoulders, managing to use her sword as leverage to stay upright as he began to flail, unsure of what to do as he felt that pain hitting him. It was the first attack that they had managed to break the skin and make him bleed, so that was all the more valuable to her to stay on him as long as possible to do as much damage as she could. Still, it only lasted a few seconds before she had to leap off of him, just missing his massive hands grabbing the air where she had been, pulling her sword from his skull and going back to join her brother at his side.

"Good! He has weak spots," They had been aiming for his body continuously with no luck, it seems his skin was too thick around his chest and arms to really do anything, but his head didn't seem to have that protection. She watched as Sloth marched forward again, groaning weakly as his hands held his injury on his head, not really walking towards them, more just walking to find some distraction, watching as the light from the philosopher's stone inside of him worked over his wound, slowly healing it.

"Ow…" He moaned, "I'm dying… I hate dying… It's such… a pain…" He slowly straightened from where he had hunched over, groaning again, "Ahh… Coming back is a pain…" He held a hand to his head, looking between his fingers as he still nursed the last of the pain as his head healed completely, looking out at the siblings with one red eye, "But then… fighting all out is the biggest pain of all…"

"Say what?" Major Armstrong wasn't sure he heard right. Had the homunculus been holding back this entire time?

Before they could even ask what he meant, they heard the clatter of booted feet, the two looking back to see two soldiers running in, rifles pointed at Olivier, "All right, General Armstrong! Throw down your weapon!" One ordered. The other looked up at the homunculus, his eyes widening at the sight of him.

"What the… what the hell is that huge thing?" He asked, shocked by Sloth's appearance, he stood at least 3 feet taller than Major Armstrong, who stood at a formidable 7 feet.

Sloth only let out an exasperated sigh, as if he was so tired of everything, and then suddenly before either Armstrong could realize it, a gust of wind flew by them, and the homunculus was no longer standing in front of them. They could hear the wall crumbling behind them, and they looked back seeing the enormous frame of the homunculus hidden in a dust cloud, the wall caved in where he stood, lifting his head from the middle of the impact.

"What was that?" Armstrong gasped, his gaze focused on their enemy, seeing that the two soldiers who had run in had been pushed back, one a bloody mess on the wall outside the banquet hall from being hit at high speeds.

"Looks like… I missed…" Sloth's voice came from the cloud, they watched as his body turned to face them, and then suddenly another gust of wind. Olivier cried out as she felt a sudden pain in her right arm, and in that same second, they heard the wall crumbling again, looking back behind them to see that the homunculus was once again pressed up against a wall behind the pillars, the stone cracking under the impact of what had just happened, another cloud of dust blooming up as they turned to see the results, but not the act itself.

"He's fast! What incredible speed!" Major Armstrong gasped, looking at the silhouette of the homunculus in the dust cloud.

"Sloth the Indolent, indeed," General Armstrong huffed out, the Major looked over at his sister, his eyes widening as he saw blood dripping down her hand, staining the sleeve of her uniform.

"Olivier!"

"It's just a scratch," She dismissed his concern immediately, watching as the homunculus struggled to pull his face from the wall he had just charged into. "Just then… Did you see what he did?"

"Only the blur," Alex admitted, watching as he pulled his head from the wall, starting to step forward towards them, though just as slow as he had done before, "For him to have that kind of speed at his size. It's just–"

"I know," Olivier grinned dryly, "It just keeps getting better." They were in for a long, heavy battle now that the homunculus decided not to hold back.

"Yes… I am… the fastest homunculus of them all." Sloth confirmed, his body tensing for only a moment, and suddenly another gust of air, Major Armstrong crying out as he felt his body being knocked back from the force of it. It didn't hit him directly, but even that little sideswipe was enough to send him down on his back, hearing the creaking and crushed sound of the wall coming apart as he hit it yet again.

"Are you alright?" Olivier asked, watching as Alex got up with a grunt, glaring down at the homunculus, seeing that he had once again gotten himself stuck from moving too quickly, his face trapped in a stone pillar this time, "Luckily, he's too fast to control his movements." He yanked his head from the wall, turning towards them. She readied herself, blade pointing forward, but as she tried to gain her footing, her heel hit against a piece of rubble and she lost her stance, "No!" She knew this would be too much of a weak point, she wouldn't be able to recover in time to defend herself, and Sloth would be fast enough to hit her as soon as she hit the ground. Just as she managed to stand, back to the wall, she could see Sloth charging forward with his immense speed, shoulder forward, ready to crush her into the wall as he had done with everything else. He felt his shoulder collide with flesh as he finally had to stop against the wall, feeling how it crumbled under the impact.

"Finally… I hit you…" He said, though as he looked down, he realized he hadn't hit the woman general like he had intended. Instead, her bigger, beefier brother was struggling to keep him away from her, using his foot to pin himself against the wall to take the worst of the damage, his foot in the middle of the crushed stone that crumbled over Olivier's head, her eyes wide at the sight of her brother coming to her defense so quickly, using all of his might to keep the homunculus back.

With a passionate yell as he pulled all of his strength into one more move, he lifted his right hand, bringing the spiked glove down onto the ground, transmuting and deconstructing it, watching as the ground crumbled under the homunculus's feet and sent him through down to the next floor, leaving him and Olivier well on the outside of the new hole in the floor. He winced in pain as he stood up, his right hand going to his left shoulder, panting for breath. It had taken everything he had to get there, just barely in the nick of time to save his sister from being crushed against the wall like a fly, letting out a breath of relief as the space gave them a moment to take a brief rest, though the fight was far from over.

"Alex?" Olivier looked over at where he held his left shoulder, the one that had taken the impact from Sloth's hit, asking if he was well.

"Oh… it's just dislocated," He said, brushing it off in that familiar way she did, "And how about you?"

Olivier grinned, seeing her brother's strength in a way she hadn't before, "Heh, a few fractures, that's all." She said, turning her head and spitting out the blood that had made its way into her mouth. Their moment of rest quickly came to an end as the ground began to crumble underneath them, the homunculus's fist moving up through the ground towards them to bring them down to his level, both of them crying out as the ground suddenly gave way beneath them.

As they hit the floor of the next level, Major Armstrong managed to stand up, grunting as he still felt the pulsing pain of his dislocated shoulder, coughing away the dust from the cloud of rubble that fell around them. He looked up, seeing the hole he had made in the ground before now all the bigger as a hole in the ceiling of the room below. He looked around, gasping as he saw his sister on the ground, unconscious after the fall, "Olivier!" He heard the long, tired groan of Sloth, looking to see the homunculus staring them down. He stood up, his right hand ready to fight, his left hand hanging limply at his side. Even if he only had one hand, he still had to do everything he could to protect his sister.

Sloth only looked more annoyed than anything, "I'm gonna kill you quickly, and then sleep." He declared, his hand charging forward as he reached for Major Armstrong, the alchemist acting quickly to defend himself and his injured sister. With a quick transmutation, he was able to produce a massive spike from the floor and wall, watching as it went straight through the homunculus's outstretched hand, and into his mouth all the way through his skull, his speed pushing him through as his arm was forced apart in a gruesome mess, the skin as thin as paper as it came undone, barely holding onto the remainder of his hand as he groaned in pain, his brain slowly beginning to heal as he died there from his attack.

Olivier slowly came around, looking at their surroundings, seeing armed soldiers standing to her right in shock, looking up at the monster that Alex had stopped with his quick transmutation, "What… What happened?" She asked as she started to slowly come back to her senses, pushing herself to sit up. She could feel blood running down her face from a nasty hit on her head that she got when falling, but otherwise she could still fight, "Alex…"

"I knew he was going to come charging in, so all I had to do was wait for him," He said, rather glad that his plan worked so well, seeing the red sparks around the homunculus's body as things slowly started to heal and fix themselves. He turned around, coming to his sister, kneeling down to meet her at her height as she sat on the floor, "Olivier, are you able to stand?"

Before she could answer, they heard the sound of guns cocking, and the pair looked over to see all the soldiers aiming their firearms at Olivier, and she let out a slow breath through her nose at the sight of it. They all stood nervous, but clearly still wanting to follow the orders they had been given.

"By the way, there are orders to shoot me for being a traitor," Olivier informed her brother.

"What?" Alex gasped, "We can't have that! I'll be the one to inherit the Armstrong household! You can't die until all of the paperwork is in place!"

"There's nothing to worry about there," Olivier quickly responded, "If I die, the entire estate will be passed along to Colonel Mustang."

"You decided that without consulting the family?!" Alex asked, aghast and angry. She couldn't give it to one of her younger sisters?

"He's still just barely preferable to a good-for-nothing like you!"

"So that's how you treat someone who just saved your life?!"

Their bantering went on for a moment, until a soldier asked, "Hey… what is this?" while looking up at Sloth's massive form. He was still pinned against the stone spike that the major had transmuted, and he was quite the monstrous sight. Before anyone could give him an answer, they began to hear the sound of rapid automatic gunfire from outside of the room, some soldiers turning to look towards the door while the ones nearest the Armstrong siblings stayed with their guns trained on them.

"We're under attack?" One soldier asked.

"It can't be… Mustang's soldiers?" It was the only logical line of thinking, but that seemed too extreme. Even if it was Mustang and his men, surely fully automatic gunfire wasn't needed? Not in the volume that they were hearing?

Their answer soon came as the doors were pushed open by the remains of a body, a soldier with a chunk of flesh taken from his head, another soldier firing off his ammunition, face pale and eyes wide as he tried to fend off whatever was coming his way, crying out in fear as he turned towards the door. As he did, a pale dummy came up behind him, teeth sinking into his neck as he knocked him down to the floor. That single dummy was soon followed by more, all starting to walk into the room that held the soldiers and Sloth, singular red eyes all training on the men. As they charged forward, the soldiers fought back with their guns, filling the dummies with plenty of holes, knocking them back but they didn't stay down. As the hole-filled monsters slowly began to rise, the soldiers all looked on in horror as they didn't even seem fazed by their bullets.

"What are those things?!" One soldier fearfully exclaimed.

"Even when they're shot, they don't die!"

"Are they soldiers from Fort Briggs?"

"Idiots!" Olivier snapped, getting their attention, "How dare you compare my brave men with such disgusting specimens as those?!" She pointed her thumb to the still-pinned Sloth, "I'm guessing they're the same as this guy. The one who gave you your orders must have sent those things out here for the attack."

The commanding lieutenant turned his gun back on her, "Look, we don't know anything about these creatures, understand?!"

She scoffed, "Well then, I guess they don't care. It doesn't matter to them whether you know or not." She looked up as she heard the gunfire going off again, watching as dummies leapt forward and managed to grab two of the soldiers, quickly starting to bite into their flesh and silence their screams as they feasted. Things were getting tense, and Olivier knew they wouldn't be able to fight off the soldiers, the dummies, and Sloth all at once, "All right soldier, what's it gonna be? My brother and I can take care of these monsters."

"Maybe so, but…" The lieutenant hesitated, unsure of what to do. He had his orders, he had been trained to take them under any circumstances, but at the same time he didn't know that he and his men could take on these strange creatures. They heard a thud, watching as Sloth's hand finally separated from his body, disintegrating on the ground as his hand began to regenerate from his wrist, watching as the bones, the muscle, the veins, all regenerated in the red light of the philosopher's stone at work. His new hand gripped at the stone spike, the material cracking under his grip as his mouth slowly tightened around the piece that went through his mouth and head. It broke apart, and he stood with a low, pained groan as he still tried to bite through what was left inside of his mouth. Time was running out, and Olivier was beginning to lose her patience.

She grabbed the lieutenant's pistol, pointing it directly at her forehead. "Well, what's it gonna be?!" She demanded, "Do you plan on shooting us and then fall prey to the monsters after? Or are you going to work with us and bring them down together?! Make up your own damn minds now!"

The dummies kept coming towards them, even though they were doing all they could just to keep them back. Amelia was using the cleaver she had borrowed to keep them at a distance, crying out with effort as she brought the blade down on one's shoulder, the sharp edge cutting through its neck and all the way down. She stepped back, watching as the head rolled to the ground, feeling the blood drain a little from just how human it looked to see. She cried out as the body that was decapitated still moved forward, if aimlessly. "How?! Decapitation is supposed to work on zombies!" She spun the dull edge around, using the force to knock it away and back into the others. At least taking off its head meant it couldn't eat her, but that didn't stop it from trying to attack her somehow.

She looked over at the others, watching as Zampano fired off his quills into their bodies, Jerso using his spit to stick them together, making it that much harder for them to move, and Darius was knocking them back one after another in his gorilla form. Scar was still trying her tactic of taking out their brains and finding it about as useless as she did with decapitation. She supposed that was her own fault, assuming these pale dummies were anything like the zombies she had seen in stories back home. Zombies were the dead risen again, or just horribly corrupted people, they had been alive in one way or another once. These things had never really lived but were given the souls of people who once had. They ran on soul power, they might not even have a working heart, let alone a brain to control what they did with their bodies.

One dummy came up, managing to attack Darius from behind, but only enough to bite down at the meat on his neck. It was enough to cause some pain, but he could feel that they didn't break the skin. Edward jumped up, kicking the dummy off of him and watching as it tumbled back. Darius rubbed at the spot where the dummy bit him, "A good thing I'm so beefy." He said, knowing that tough muscle must have prevented the dummy from doing any serious damage.

Still, even with all of their efforts, the dummies only kept coming, marching forward and groaning out, hands outstretched as they moaned various phrases of hunger and pain, calling out for loved ones that weren't there anymore. "Nothing's really working with these guys like I thought it would…" Amelia admitted, apologetic since her plan had fallen through.

"I guess that shows you what a philosopher's stone can do for you, huh?" Darius asked wryly looking out over the growing army of dummies.

Scar charged forward, but instead of aiming for their heads as he had done before, he went for their legs, deconstructing them and leaving them crawling on the floor helplessly, relatively harmless in comparison to when they stood. "The legs! Go for the legs!" He said, and the others all joined him with a renewed energy at this tactic. Amelia took the borrowed cleaver, grunting with effort as she ran forward, sliding herself down as she watched it cut through the right thighs of two dummies, running back into the middle with the others as Zampano, Jerso, and Darius all worked together to render their legs useless. She looked down at the borrowed blade, seeing it stained a sickly green shade, but at the same time she was a little impressed.

"Barry must have sharpened this thing every day, it's cutting through these guys like butter." It took a surprisingly small amount of effort to cut them up, even though the man was a psychotic murderer, she had to admit she was grateful to have found his weapon and make use of it in this moment. Still, hearing the dummies moan as they were pinned down by Zampano's quills, or Jerso's saliva, there was still something unsettling in seeing them, watching them writhe like animals. It sent a disgusting shudder down her spine, and when she looked at Edward, she could see he felt similarly as he looked at them all.

Still, he hardened his resolve, watching as he transmuted a spear from the ground, charging forward and using it to cut through the legs of all the dummies, running over to Amelia's side and staying close to her as the two started to cut the dummies down together. She worked with him the two back-to-back as they cut off their legs at the ankles, the knees, sending them down to the floor in a splash of green blood. She saw how Darius struggled, not really having a way to pin them down with just his sheer might, "Darius!" She tossed the cleaver over to him, and he grabbed it. She quickly transmuted a sword for herself from the ground as Edward fought off the ones that came closer to them. Once she was armed again, the two charged in once more, doing as much damage as they could. Still, even for all of their efforts, the stream of dummies was endless.

"They're really still coming?!" Darius frustratedly cried out, "Why won't they die?!"

They all began to move back into a group, Zampano and Jerso panting for breath as they kept fighting, "I'm running out of quills!" Zampano said.

"My spit's starting to dry up, too," Jerso added.

Even with their weakening ammunition, it was clear their enemies were still marching onward, moaning with growing numbers that didn't seem to decrease no matter what. "We need a new plan…" Amelia muttered to Edward, "We can't keep fighting these things forever." They were all getting tired, and adrenaline could only keep them going for so long before they ran out of steam and collapsed from exhaustion.

Edward knew this too, and she could see the frustration on his face, but they didn't have much choice other than to carry on at this point, "Damn it…!" He started to charge forward, only to stop. He gasped, looking down as he saw one of the incapacitated dummies had crawled close enough to grab ahold of his ankle. Other dummies started to see how he was being held still and moved closer to him, "Stop it!"

"Edward!" Amelia cried out, watching as one dummy leapt into the air, mouth open wide in the hopes of getting a good chunk of him in its mouth. Before the monster could land, a massive wave of heat and a huge explosion blew up the wall Edward had made at the door, the blast pushing back a few of the dummies and knocking them down before they could do any more harm, "What…?"

In the silence following the blast, a voice rang out, "Things do always seem to get messy whenever you're around." They watched as a figure came through in the smoke following the blast, another silhouette behind him. Amelia's eyes widened as she recognized the pair, "Maybe I could lend you a hand, Fullmetal?"

"Colonel?" Edward gasped. The others were still fighting off the dummies that charged forward, not letting the blast deter them any further from trying to sate their impossible hunger.

Colonel Mustang looked out over the chimeras and smiled amusedly, "You just manage to make new friends everywhere you go… hm?" His smile disappeared as he recognized someone else among their group, "Is that Scar?"

Amelia looked as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, gasping as one dummy came towards her, barely managing to block him from biting her as she put her blade up, pushing him back with a grunt, "Asshole!" She growled out, going to cut down his legs next.

"I can't help but think of the last time we were here, Lieutenant." Roy's voice carried over the battle, "As I recall, you were crying over me. A shame I don't get to see that softer side of you more often."

"The last thing I'm gonna do is cry for you now," Lieutenant Hawkeye said, cocking her pistol, "Water makes you useless."

Amelia cut through another dummy, feeling her arms burning from the effort, "Hey!" She shouted at the two of them, seeing them look over at her, "Save your flirting for later! Help us kill these things!"

"Hey, you don't give orders to me!" Roy snapped back.

"She's right," Hawkeye said, undermining Roy's words, "Just start shooting at these white guys!"

"No! Save your ammo!" Edward shouted as he pushed another dummy back, "Bullets won't even slow 'em down!"

"Not again!" Hawkeye groaned, pulling her gun back, "How else do we kill them?"

Roy looked around at the army of pale dummies, "They're homunculi? …No, they aren't healing themselves." But they're not dying either. They've got to be powered by philosopher's stones. Still, it was a weakness he could make use of as he watched a small group of them start to come closer to him and the Lieutenant. He looked over the group of them, his mind doing a quick survey of how large the room was, how many there were, who he would need to avoid, it was all a matter of some quick math for his transmutation. Soon enough, he snapped his finger, watching as the air lit up with flames that quickly scorched through the room. Edward gasped as he saw them, feeling their heat, grabbing Amelia's hand and keeping her close as they watched the fire explode around them. Amelia winced as she felt the intensity of the heat, everyone hearing the sound of the flames throttling, the dummies crying out in agony before being quickly silenced.

It was a massive, deadly fire that swirled around the pair of them, eyes wide as they took in the sight of the burning bodies. The fire raged on for only a few seconds but seeing everything as it happened felt like a small, horrifying eternity to Amelia. When the fire finally died down, she looked around and saw that all of the white dummies had turned black, their bodies slowly disintegrating into ashes. She felt a chill run down her spine at the sight, looking around the room and seeing that everyone else was fine, but the dummies had been completely decimated in a single attack, all from the snap of the Colonel's fingers. It was like when she first saw his flames that night when Central was nearly frozen over. At that time, she had been amazed at the sight of the flames, awed by their power as they melted away the towers of ice. This seemed… worse. She never considered the intense power from such an act against people, her mind remembering the stories about him, Colonel Mustang the hero of Ishval… Was this what he did? A snap of his fingers and a crowd of dissidents were turned into ashes? Just like that?

She reached for Edward's hand, squeezing it just a little tighter as she felt like she had just been introduced to the fear of God looking at the Colonel and his incredible alchemy. Edward's face held a similar horror as he looked out over the ashy remains of the dummies that had been taken out in seconds, "They were the enemy." Roy's voice carried over to them as he stepped forward, "It had to be done." Spoken like a true soldier. Edward looked back at the Colonel, that horror slowly fading as he began to realize the weight of what all the Colonel had truly done in his past, his eyes narrowing as his hand gripped Amelia's just a little tighter, being careful to put himself between her and the Colonel as he stood up straighter. The Colonel's fire had saved their lives, and they were glad for that, but at the same time… it was hard to see him the same way now that they had seen its might firsthand.