Chapter 43

The robots here looked roughly people sized, but not people shaped. At least their upper half. They had no heads, and their arms were weapons.

Then they fired. Tourmaline and Greed scattered. Pride clapped his hands and brought a barrier up between him and the robots. He'd had a year to read up on alchemy. He knew what spaceships were typically made of now. It shielded him well enough, though the wall heated up.

Greed put his shield up over his fingers and ran towards the robots, but one fired again, and he had to dodge.

Tourmaline pressed herself against the wall and breathed heavily, looking around. She was probably looking for a puzzle, a way to think her way out of this. That seemed unlikely. This room was empty.

Pride clapped his hands and put up a barrier between Tourmaline and the robot. That would keep it busy for a while. And since there were two robots and three of them, Pride moved towards the door.

He made it about halfway before the robot attacking Greed spun and fired at him. Pride moved, but was still knocked off his feet. He put up another barrier, pushing himself up right.

Greed was close to the robot. If he got close enough, his unbreakable shield could slice through the machine. Then, of course, the robot turned around, and Greed had to move. He couldn't block the large blasts coming from those weapons with just his hands.

"Greed! Put your whole shield up!" Pride shouted. He slipped back out from under the barrier as well. Maybe he could move for the door again.

Greed's shield was designed to go over his whole body, and did he ever do so? No. Of course not.

"Don't tell me what to do! I'm not covering up this handsome face!"

Oh they were not dying here because Greed was being vain. "Greed have you been paying attention?" Pride asked, waving his hand around.

The only other living beings in the room were Pride and Tourmaline. Pride was (usually) far more inhuman than Greed, and Tourmaline? Well, she was a pink alien. Neither of them should care if Greed used his shield. If anything, they should be happy because it would shorten this fight considerably.

"Pride move!" Greed suddenly warned.

He grabbed Pride's shirt collar and yanked him back, his feet still dragging against the ground. Pride turned just in time to see a laser blast past him, to where he'd been standing before.

Greed let go. "You are heavier than before."

Pride just stared at him. "Why did you do that?"

Greed opened his mouth. And promptly shut it. "I don't know."

"Guys!" Tourmaline shouted.

It seemed she'd gotten injured somewhere in this mess. She was limping, and couldn't possibly outmaneuver the robot that had cornered her.

Greed didn't use his full shield. He used his claws to slice through Pride's barrier, and then flung it at the robot. It hit right between two metal plates. Pride could see the plates screech apart farther, and the wires inside rip apart. The robot fell to the ground.

The other one fired at them. Pride brought up a new barrier. Then it occurred to him that robots weren't alive, and he could attack them. He sent spikes of the floor up, one of them piercing the remaining robot.

For a moment, they were all still, catching their breath.

"See?" Greed asked. "I didn't need my full shield."

"That worked," Pride admitted. "But try to avoid needless danger."

"Oh? You know you could've used that alchemy trick sooner."

Pride could argue that. To launch an attack like that he needed time he hadn't had, and he'd forgotten he could attack the robots for a moment. But he didn't want to get into either of those reasons with Greed, with the weakness they showed, so he changed the subject.

"We should get out of this room," he suggested. "Unless we want to see if more robots are coming?"

"No," Tourmaline said. "But I think I'm going to need a hand."

Greed let Tourmaline wrap an arm around his shoulder and supported her as they moved to the next room.

"Has it occurred to anyone we're going in circles?" Pride asked.

"Come again?" Tourmaline asked.

Pride sighed. "We keep turning. The hall we were in before curved. And we frequently turn the same direction when we enter a new room. We keep going in circles. I doubt there is an exit to this place."

Greed looked concerned. Tourmaline did too, though she hid it better.

"We have to keep trying," Tourmaline said. "At least until a better solution presents itself. Let me . . . let me figure this room out."

She gripped Greed's shoulder a little harder to hop to the side, and then slid down against the wall, looking at the floor. It was glowing.

Unfortunately, she had a point. Pride could try using alchemy to create their own exit, but he could also open the wall to the vacuum of space. They had passed that window earlier, so space was close. So, he was quiet, letting Tourmaline work on this room.

Greed was watching him. Pride was trying to only look at him out of his peripheral vision, but it was obvious.

"What?" he finally asked.

"Huh? No, nothing. I was just thinking," Greed said. He looked away irritably.

"Thinking about what?" Pride asked, partially because he still wanted to know why Greed had been staring, partly to be intentionally annoying.

"I'm stuck in a spaceship death trap with a sibling who's not acting like himself," Greed answered. "Do you have any idea how bizarre that is? And why did it have to be you? You're one of my least favorite siblings."

"One of?"

"Wrath exists."

"Ah yes. How could I forget?" Pride looked at the ceiling. "For what it's worth, that feeling is mutual."

Pride did sort of missing his siblings. He knew that and there was no point denying it to himself. But he hadn't wasted time with the theoretical possibility of them still being alive. They weren't. If they were, he knew it would've been messy no matter who showed up, but especially with Greed. He and Greed had never gotten along, even before Greed turned traitor. He didn't understand Greed. He would've considered understanding any of his siblings unimportant in the past. It was amazing things were going as well as they were. Which reminded him.

"But," Pride said, "you're the one how pulled me out of immediate danger."

"Don't remind me," Greed said.

"Don't feel bad about that Greed," Tourmaline said, commenting out of the blue. "You two have history, you don't get along, but we're in a high stakes situation and disagreeing should be a natural inclination, not an obligation."

She went to press one of the buttons on the floor.

"Wait not that one!" Greed objected. "This looks like a piano. You probably shouldn't step on the black key first."

Pride looked at the floor. It was an odd pattern, and the 'keys' were a little discolored, but it could be a piano.

"How did you know that?" he asked Greed. "You've never played piano. Or used your brain."

Tourmaline sighed. "Greed? Do you have an idea about how to cross this floor?"