Ed and Manami juggled fighting Greed for a while, but it all seemed to be of no use. At the very least, Manami was able to recover the fan that had been knocked out of her hand earlier. But still, they couldn't so much as make a scratch on Greed. And any hand-to-hand combat was dangerous because he would just grow his freakish black skin to harden and hurt them more than him.
Ed had even flipped him using his legs and slammed his head into the concrete, and Greed just recovered with a simple crack of the neck.
What were they supposed to do?
"You guys give up yet? You're not going to win this."
"What the hell are you, anyway?" Ed panted.
"Well, you could say I'm kind of like a human," Greed shrugged. "I have the same body structure and composition. I just have a higher regeneration rate, along with the Ultimate Shield."
"So that's the freaky black skin." Manami clarified.
"Hey, you haven't even seen freaky yet, girl!" Greed went to throw off his coat. "Sorry to say, I've been going easy this whole time..."
Ed and Manami's eyes widened as the blackness devoured his skin, and even went over his head.
He was a monster.
"?!" Both Ed and Manami flinched in shock.
"I'll make it abundantly clear. Neither of you are laying a scratch on me." Greed said.
"... Manami," Ed whispered to her. "You see that?"
She followed his glance upwards, seeing an open vent.
"I need you to get Al."
"What..? I thought you said no more splitting up!"
"What are you kids chitchatting about? I thought you wanted a fight!" Greed lunged at them, and Manami and Ed dodged in opposite directions.
As Ed predicted, Greed went after Ed.
"I got this guy! I promise!" Ed said, as he deflected his blows. "But I don't know what they're going to do to Al!"
Her eyes widened... he was right.
She looked up to the open vent, then back down to him.
"Y-You keep that promise, or I'm kicking your ass!" She said, remembering that was what she said at Lab Five, before...
Ed thought of the same thing. "Ten minutes!" He joked anyway.
But, thinking of what happened last time made her hesitate for a moment.
Enough for Greed to catch on.
"No you don't!"
Manami quickly waved her fans as if they were wings, launching herself up into the vent before he could reach her. She had no idea where to go, so she just picked a direction and started crawling.
"Bad move, shorty. Now I really can't go soft on you." She heard Greed from behind her.
Manami prayed in her mind that she wasn't making a mistake.
She crawled for a while, listening for any commotion under her. It was quiet for a while, until she suddenly heard gunfire under her. "?!"
"Get down now! You're under arrest!"
The military? What were they doing here?
She turned a corner and kept crawling, but then yelled out as the vent suddenly fell out from under her.
"Gah!"
Splash! Manami immediately noticed that she fell in a shallow pool of water.
"Wh-What the..?" She immediately stood up and looked around.
It looked like she was in a sewer.
"Ah, my first opponent!"
Her head whipped around towards the voice of... Major Armstrong?!
"Guess we have no choice..." Another voice spoke. He sounded familiar.
Manami quickly got out of the water and went to hug the wall in a dark corner before peeking around it. There was Armstrong, as she had heard, but he was with... was the guy who took Al!
But... Al was nowhere to be seen.
Before she could blink, she saw him lunge at Armstrong, swinging a giant hammer in his hands.
CRASH!
She flinched at the loud noise, looking up to see a cloud of smoke.
She heard them coming towards her. If she planned it right, she could sneak through the smoke to get past them.
But it had to be perfect timing...
She ducked down low, listening to them carefully as their fight approached her.
Now!
She bolted, slipping under them and the smoke to get by, and then bolted down the long path.
Now what..?
"Al..!" She called out, hearing no response.
She bit her lip. She was totally lost, not knowing if she was even close to where he was or not...
But she had to keep going. Going somewhere was better than staying here.
She ran in whatever way she thought of first, as long as she didn't run in a circle. The commotion of Armstrong and Roa's fighting had faded, and she began to wonder if she had run too far away, until...
"BRADLEY!"
"?!" Manami whipped her head to look where that scream came from. It sounded like a woman, but more importantly...
Bradley?
She ran as fast as she could towards it. She turned a corner but froze as she saw Furher Bradley, having shoved a sword inside Alphonse's armor.
She saw blood spurt out of it.
"!" Her eyes widened in horror.
"ALPHONSE!" She screamed.
She knew that he didn't have a body inside that armor, but still... seeing the blood come out of his armor, and seeing him fall to the ground.
It tricked her brain enough to throw Manami into a panic.
Manami ran over, falling to her knees beside him. The knees of her jeans immediately got stained in the pool of blood. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him desperately.
"Al! Wake up!" She cried, continuing to shake him with trembling hands.
But, then she realized... if this blood was someone else's, and it had gotten inside his armor... did it touch his blood seal?
And... if it did, what did that mean?
Would that have... killed him?
She glared up at Bradley, her eyes burning.
"Bradley! What did you do to Al?!"
"An enemy was hiding inside his armor. I simply eliminated them." Bradley went to turn and walk away. "I will bring reinforcements to recover the body."
"And what are you going to do if Al doesn't wake up?! What are you going to do if you killed him, too?!" Manami shouted.
Bradley came to a stop. "I understand that this may have been horrifying to see, but I have to insist that you learn to keep your composure. This won't be the last time you see something like this, so if you can't handle it... I suggest that you resign."
Bradley turned his head to look back at her, and she couldn't help but flinch in intimidation at how scary he looked..
"I'm being gracious enough to give you one warning. I will not allow you to speak that way to me again."
"..." Manami found herself to be speechless, as he turned to walk away and disappeared in the darkness.
She had to swallow her pride. It wasn't about her right now.
"Al, please..! Say something!" She shook him again, a lump forming in her throat the longer he didn't respond.
Before she could do anything more, several soldiers came rushing to the scene, along with Armstrong. Two of the soldiers grabbed Manami by the arms and went to move her out of the way.
"L-Let go of me!" She thrashed in their grip.
"We apologize, Miss Kami. This was part of Furher Bradley's orders." Armstrong apologized as he bent down in front of Al.
She watched his back as went to open up Al's armor, and some soldiers went to pull out a body. She didn't really get to see it, not that she was trying to look either... she was moreso trying to see Al's blood seal from here... but she couldn't.
He still wasn't waking up.
She started to tremble... if Bradley killed Al too...
"Manami!" She heard someone call her name from behind, and she turned to see Ed.
He was alive..! He looked hurt, but he was alive...
"Ed..!" She cried. "They won't let me near Al! They..." She looked over, and he followed her glance to see the body being dragged out of Al. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of that, and all the blood.
"She was killed inside him... he wouldn't respond to me..!" Manami's voice was shaky. "If her blood touched his seal, would it..?"
Ed came to the same conclusion. "Out of the way!" He went to push past the soldiers, including the men who held Manami back. She struggled out of their grip to stand behind him as Ed fell to his knees in front of the suit of armor.
"Al! Alphonse!" Ed inspected inside the armor at the blood seal.
There was definitely blood that wasn't his on it.
"Alphonse! Answer me!" Manami could hear the panic in Ed's voice, and it only made her heart pound harsher.
"AL!" He yelled louder, and their hearts stopped when they saw the armor flinch.
"... brother..?" Al finally spoke, sounding drowsy.
"Are you okay?!" Ed asked, while Manami hung her head to breath a sigh of relief, one that brought her to tears.
"You're both covered in blood..." Al noted, but then looked down on himself.
Ed's lips pursed as he looked behind him to see the body, now covered in a white cloth. Al followed his glance, and gasped.
"We had to open up your armor to take her out on our own..." Armstrong said to him from behind Ed and Manami.
"... I-I couldn't save her..." Al went to put his hands over his eyes, trembling softly.
"It's not your fault..." Ed said quietly. "Let's get you home and cleaned up. Teacher is waiting for us."
"Just one moment." A voice spoke, and they looked back to see Furher Bradley. Manami's eyes narrowed and she went to wipe her teary eyes with the back of her hand.
"There is something I need to ask you three. Did you make any deals with the man with the Ourosboros tattoo?"
The three of them shook their heads.
"Did you obtain any information?" Bradley asked.
"Nothing that would benefit the military." Ed answered.
"Don't misunderstand; this is not for the military." Bradley frowned. "If you made any deals or exchanged any information with them, depending on the severity of the matter, I may have to execute you on sight."
Their eyes widened in shock.
"So, I'll ask again. Did you make any deals with those who meant harm to our military?" Bradley asked.
"No." Al said quietly.
"No." Manami shook her head.
"No." Ed answered last. "Any other questions before we go?"
"Your right arm of automail, and your brother's armored body. Are they related in any way?"
Both Ed and Manami's silence answered his question. It made him smile a little.
"Kids are always so honest." Bradley raised a hand as he turned to walk away. "Let's pull out. Keep good care of each other, you three."
Ed, Al, and Manami took apart Al's armor and cleaned the individual pieces in the backyard of the Curtis home.
Al was very quiet. Manami sat beside him as they watched Ed finish up cleaning the last part of the armor, the chest plate.
"All done..." Ed looked up to see both Al and Manami spacing out.
"... you guys okay?"
"Tired..." Manami murmured, her eyes still glued to the ground.
"I just have a lot on my mind..." Al answered.
"Listen, if you still blame yourself for—"
"No, it's not that..." Al cut Ed off. "I... got my memory back. I remember seeing the truth now..."
Both Ed and Manami's eyes widened as they looked at him.
"Wh-What did you see?!" Ed asked, going to hand Al his chest plate so that he could put it on.
"Well, you all were right about how scary it was... but... I didn't find anything about human transmutation." Al said quietly as he finished snapping his chest plate on.
"So after all that, we're still left with nothing." Manami sighed as she went to rest her chin in her hand.
"Not quite," Ed said, and her eyes looked up to him. "Do you guys remember at Central Hospital? The Furher talked about the unrest of the enemy being within the military?"
Al nodded.
"They're connected to the Philosopher's Stone and the Ourosboros." Manami added.
"Yep. And it was obvious that Greed was a part of that. So why is it that Furher Bradley slaughtered everyone instead of capturing them alive and making them talk?" Ed asked.
Manami thought for a moment before her eyes widened a little. "And the fact that he came here personally, with a whole platoon..."
"... for now, I think we should stick with the military." Ed said.
Al went to stand. "We need their resources to find more information."
"Exactly. We just need to be careful." Ed went to approach them. "And now, since that's all decided, let's eat dinner! I'm starving..."
Manami remained sitting on the small steps, making no attempt to get up. "You guys can go ahead. I'll be just a minute."
"You sure?" Ed asked.
"Yeah..." The brunette lifted a hand to wave. "Just too lazy to get up right now."
"Okay..." He nodded before turning to open the door.
Manami sighed through her nose and looked back down to the grass as she heard the door shut.
"... I'm sorry if I worried you."
"Gah!" Manami jumped, almost falling off the steps. She quickly looked back to see Al still standing there.
"I thought you went inside with Ed..! Geez..." She put a hand on her chest as she took some deep breaths to calm down.
Al couldn't help but chuckle softly. "Sorry..." He looked up to the night sky.
"I just... didn't want to leave you alone. You haven't seemed like you were okay."
"Today was just exhausting for all of us." She said quietly. "I'm pretty sure you got the worst of it."
"... I heard you scream my name, right as Bradley killed her." Al mentioned. "I thought it was just me, but... you saw it happen, didn't you?"
"..." Manami's lips curled into a frown. "... yeah. And I totally came unglued." She chuckled weakly. "I went off on the Furher and got real close to losing my job."
"Really?" Al blinked.
"It's just... even though I knew your body wasn't in there..." Her eyes narrowed as they trembled. "Seeing the blood... and you fall to the ground... it was just enough for me to think that he really killed you." She sighed and went to hold her face in her hands.
"And when you didn't wake up... I thought you..." She couldn't bear to say it.
He watched quietly, seeing her shoulders shake. He wished that he knew what to say.
"... look, I know it's hypocritical of me..." Manami's hands dropped from her face into her lap.
Before she could continue, Al sighed and went to sit next to her, looking up at the sky as he continued speaking.
"I won't deny that it was hard to lose you before... but... after losing mom, I can say that it's a little easier to be told someone is gone, than it is to actually see them go. Not much easier, but..." He paused. "... I wouldn't say that you didn't have a right to be scared. You're being too hard on yourself."
He looked down at her. "I think it's safe to say that the only one who hasn't forgiven you... is yourself."
Manami's eyes widened a little when he said that.
"... that's all I'll say." Al lifted his hand to give her a soft pat on the back. "As brother says... we have to keep moving forward... okay?"
"..." Manami nodded slowly. "Okay."
"Good. Now, let's get you something to eat."