Dear Roy,
It's not even the fucking Promised Day yet, and I'm already having a hell of a time. Figures.
I'm outside Central now, just right on the outskirts of the city in the slums. You'll never guess who I saw there—my dad. He actually wanted to talk to me for once, and damn did he have a lot to say.
As it turns out, he knows Father. Originally, Father was a homunculus created by the people of Xerxes (there's a good reason you haven't heard of this place). My dad was the one whose blood was used to create him. Father tricked my dad and the king of Xerxes, and he used the whole nation as a transmutation circle (sound familiar?) to build himself into a living Philosopher's Stone. I guess he felt grateful or something to my dad, because he did the same to him.
My father…is a Philosopher's Stone. Wrap your head around that one. He actually offered to let me use his Stone to get me and Al's bodies back, but I couldn't accept. Regardless of the form the Stone has taken, it's still made of human souls. And I just can't justify using them for my own gain. I guess it was nice of him to offer, though.
As if that wasn't enough, Al came by. Great, right? Wrong. Apparently, Pride is a homunculus that can control shadows, so he was controlling the shadows inside my brother. It was like…it was like Al was a walking, fighting hostage.
It was awful.
Thankfully, Greedling—that's what I'm calling him/them now—realized it was Pride. Some other old Xingese friends came by to help us fight him, and Gluttony too, when he showed up. The trick is to immerse Pride in total blackness, so there's no shadows for him to control.
We had them almost pinned down, when Pride did the most…ugh, disgusting thing. He ate Gluttony. His own brother. I could never. But the whole point was, he absorbed Gluttony's Philosopher's Stone. All that work we'd put in fighting him, and he was recharged just like that.
This part is hard to think about. Alphonse came back to himself, thank goodness, and he hatched a plan with my dad. Essentially, Al used himself as bait. And while Pride was distracted, my father closed them both in a dome of solid rock. No shadows in there.
Of course, Al is stuck, which sucks beyond belief. I'd just gotten to see him again, after these months, and now he's gone. But it was for a good cause—now Pride can't help Father out. One less person to fight.
So…I'm run a little prematurely ragged. Already fighting and already without my brother again. Hopefully we've evened the odds a bit, though.
You better have a hell of a welcome party waiting for me. And you'd best let me at least say hello before you do anything crazy.
-Ed