Chapter Ten
Now, Red Riding Hood had gone much farther from the path than her younger sister, and only now approached the cottage. She looked inside and saw the wolf sleeping on her mother's bed, with a bulging stomach, and guessed what must have happened. She cut open the wolf's stomach and helped her younger sister out, and together the two of them filled the sleeping wolf's stomach with heavy stones, sewing her stomach back together.
When the wolf woke up and saw the two sisters standing over her, she panicked and tried to run out the open door. The stones in her belly weighed her down, however, and she fell down dead.
- from the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"
"Dirk," Lieutenant Colonel Mustang said as he and his subordinates walked briskly through the halls of Central Headquarters, sounding like a miniscule army marching about the parade grounds. "Go immediately and inform General Mustang of the situation, follow her every order, and see to it personally that the Fuhrer hears of this as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir!" Dirk saluted, then turned and rushed off to the Fuhrer's office.
Mustang led his remaining two subordinates to his car. Nina sat in the front again, as the backseat was currently occupied by Bones sorting out the weapons they would need, his wide berth and all the weapons spreading out across the seat and filling up all the space. Under normal circumstances, she would have been surprised that so many guns of different shapes and sizes could all fit on one person, and the mingling scents of lilac and oil would have interested her; as it was, she was much too busy staring around in every direction for the slightest sign of her little sister. "Hurry up!" she demanded, clenching and unclenching her fists on her knees.
"If we hurry too much, we won't be able to see her even if we passed right by her," Mustang pointed out, though he sped up a little.
Nina clamped her teeth on her lip, straining for a glimpse of wavy gold hair, a flash of brightest red, anything. What was happening to Trisha at this moment? Had she reached the Homunculus' hideout? Was Lydia Farland threatening her? Maybe... What if she had... Tears welled up in Nina's eyes, making the buildings around them bend and dance like the grass coating the hills of her countryside home. She tasted something sharp and metallic, and realized that she had bitten down so hard on her lip that she had drawn blood. As she sucked on her lip instead, tangy blood piercing her tongue, she tried not to imagine Trisha with that same blood pouring from a dozen wounds. You have to be all right, she said silently, wishing that Trisha would be able to hear. 'Cause if you're not- But that thought brought even more tears to her eyes. She hurriedly blinked them away; she needed to be able to see their surroundings. Twin tears snaked down her cheeks, but the men were too busy to notice.
"What's going on?" Mustang suddenly began to slow down. "Look!"
Nina impatiently turned to look out Mustang's window, then felt a cold sliver of dread run through her. Two streets down, a vast mob of men, shouting at the top of their lungs, marched in the direction of Headquarters.
"The Sect," Bones grunted from the backseat.
Mustang slowed down even more. "We need to do something! There hasn't been a riot this big for years. With the Fuhrer gone-"
"No!" Nina cried before he could brake. "You can't! We have to go save Trisha!"
Mustang turned on her furiously. "Is the sacrifice of this city worth saving one girl's life?" he demanded.
Nina gritted her teeth and snapped through them, "Her death could sacrifice this city! Homunculi can't do alchemy. If Farland uses Trisha, she could blow up the entire city!"
Mustang held her gaze stubbornly for a few moments, then turned without comment back to the front and sped up again, a groan from the engine voicing his reluctance.
Nina had little time to celebrate her victory, for soon they were pulling into the city square, and she saw exactly what she'd been longing and dreading to see all this time. Standing in the center with two other women, Trisha looked small and afraid, but alive. "Stop!" she nearly screamed at Mustang. "That's her, that's her!"
Almost before the car had come to a stop, Nina threw open her door and started running towards the three figures. Her heart went cold as she recognized one of them – Lydia Farland, who was laughing at the top of her lungs. Even as she rummaged in her pocket for her chalk, the third figure, someone she didn't know, suddenly sprang to life. This woman clapped her hands, then thrust them at Trisha and Lydia. Forgetting her chalk, Nina put on a burst of speed as she witnessed this, a wordless shout of terror and anger ripping itself from her throat. She reached out with both hands for her sister, ignoring Mustang calling her name behind her.
As soon as Nina's fingers touched her sister's arm, the whole world was thrown into chaos. From the cobblestones beneath her feet to the overcast sky above her head, all the world was whisked away, leaving nothing but an endless white expanse. Nina's heart quailed within her as she looked up at the only thing to be seen in this void other than the few people around her: tall, double stone doors completely covered with strange words and carvings. There was no wall for these doors to be attached to; they floated in midair above the unblemished expanse of white.
Before anyone could do more than stare up at this strange gate, the doors creaked open. They did not open on more of the blank whiteness; within the gate was nothing but impenetrable darkness, a thousand times worse than the white void outside. Even as the doors opened, hundreds of eyes appeared in the blackness, staring out at the intruders with unreadable emotions. Tendrils of the darkness suddenly shot out, grabbing the small cluster of people and pulling them into the gate itself.
The black tendrils pulled them through a golden whirlwind, dragging them inexorably towards a far-off point of blinding white light. Somehow, though they seemed to be rushing forwards, the air was still and unmoving, neither hot nor cold. As Nina flew through this whirlwind, a torrent of dazzling images flooded her mind. A thousand images, a thousand memories, a thousand emotions filled her from the inside out. Every image was seen, understood, and instantly forgotten, leaving only an imprint where the next image would impress itself upon her mind. Nina felt as if her mind was so full of information that it would explode. It was too much to take in, too much to process, but the stream of information would not cease. Her ears were filled with a rushing sound, but that might have been a thousand combined sounds all blaring together into her ears, so convoluted she couldn't distinguish any one from the rest.
Somewhere in that flood of images, Nina became aware of an odd tingling in her fingers. Looking down, she saw the black tendrils were wrapped tightly around them. She realized that each tendril ended in a small hand, no larger than a baby's. After a moment, she realized she couldn't feel the hands; instead of a feeling where they touched, all that was there was an odd numbness. Then she looked around and saw that there were little black children in the dark mass of tendrils. Their eyes stared at her from every direction, their little hands clamped around her own hands. Nina realized she still clutched Trisha's arm, and Trisha stared around at the little children fearfully. There was something terrifying about their cheerful little smiles.
Everything else, even the endless series of images, was blotted out in a sudden burst of pain that tore a scream from Nina's throat. The little children were laughing now, laughing with tiny, unreal voices, pulling on her hands as though playing tug-of-war. With mounting horror, Nina realized they were pulling her hands right off her arms, the skin splitting and blood spurting up. Nina screamed again as the muscles and bones began to tear as well, and still the children continued to pull.
Through her agony, Nina realized that the little black children were tugging at the others as well. Lydia and the other woman were almost completely engulfed, their faces covered in a black mass so their screams could not be heard. But Nina heard a scream that was all too familiar, and turned in terror to find Trisha screaming as both of her arms were slowly pulled off. The little hands began to reach farther, tugging at Nina's arms and starting to pull at other parts of Trisha's body.
"No!" Nina howled, ignoring the pain in her wrists. "You can't have her!" Struggling against the hold of thousands of tiny hands, she grabbed Trisha with both arms and pulled with all her might in the direction they had come from, struggling to turn and face the gate. Her legs worked furiously, but there was no ground to run on, and the tiny hands tried desperately to pull her back. Nina bumped into something that grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her with much greater strength than she possessed. She didn't care who or what this was; it was pulling both sisters back towards the gate, back to freedom, back towards the pure, white light, and that was all she cared about at the moment. As the three struggled together, Nina noticed the little black hands grasp the last few fingers of the hand on her shoulder. They started to tug, but then the gate began to close behind her, and the black tendrils retreated back into their abode.
Nina collapsed onto the cool ground, pain rising in a feverish wave, threatening to blot out the world again. Gradually, she became aware of a great many voices shouting, and guns firing all around her. Closer to home, she heard a weak whimpering that she instantly identified as Trisha. Before she could crack open her eyes, a strong arm lifted her off the ground. She was bounced and jostled around violently for a short time, then set back onto the hard ground. Finally, Nina managed to open her eyes and found herself staring at two bloody stumps of flesh. It took a long time for her to realize that they were her own arms, cut off at the wrists.
"Trisha?" said a familiar voice above her. "Come on, Trisha, talk to me!"
A weak groan drew Nina's gaze several feet to the left, where Trisha lay at her side, her face grey and tight with pain. A blue military coat had been tied tightly about her shoulders, and Nina suddenly realized why: Trisha's arms were completely gone, shedding copious amounts of blood that already stained the blue cloth a sickening shade of purple, like a body-length bruise.
Feeling something wrapping around her wrists, Nina looked up and saw Lieutenant Colonel Mustang feverishly tying a cloth of some kind around the stump of her arm. Even as she watched, he tied it tight, tore off the remaining sleeve of his white shirt, and proceeded to bind it around her other arm. Nina dimly noted how well-muscled his bare arms were, then croaked out, "Sir?"
Mustang looked rather relieved as he finished his work and turned his gaze to her face instead. "Don't worry; we're out of that...that white place now. Just stay here until the fighting's over, and we'll get you two to a hospital. You'll be safe here!" he called over his shoulder as he grabbed his pistol and rushed away.
As if to contradict his words, a huge creature suddenly appeared mere feet away. It looked vaguely like a lopsided spider, but some of its legs were made of arms, with splayed hands for feet; others ended with feet too large or too small, as though they belonged to someone else. Two heads jostled about on top of its body comprised of two women's bodies fused together. Lengths of brown hair fell down the creature's back, matted with blood and nearly hiding the massive red tattoo of a snake eating its tail. Both heads shrieked at once, their voices clashing together into one terrifying cry, "Where is she?! Curse that child! What have you done to us?!"
Trisha let out a soft sob at Nina's side. "That's Lydia and Miranda," she whispered, tears of pain and regret pouring down her face.
Nina forced herself to sit up, awkwardly pushing herself up on her elbows since she couldn't use her hands. I have no hands, she reminded herself. Panting from the amount of effort it took, she rested her back against something that had provided cover for them from the dozens of gunshots that had been going off until just a moment ago. She glanced behind her and realized it was Mustang's car. Then she looked around at their surroundings.
Men in civilian clothes and military uniforms were scattered all about the city square, and apparently had been fighting fiercely until the hideous creature had shown up. Now they all stared up at it with disgust and horror, their weapons forgotten in their hands.
"Where are you?" the dissonant voice of the Homunculus called out over the silence of the square. "You can't hide from us! We'll find you, wherever you choose to hide!" The Homunculus started forward, its hands slapping against the ground, twin heads swiveling around to look at every corner of the square.
Someone screamed as the Homunculus came their way, and suddenly everyone was firing at it, Sect and military alike. Hundreds of bullets peppered its body, but it only laughed as its body regenerated again and again. Men yelled and fled from it as it charged around, laughing and swiping at them with an arm that had too many fingers.
"Trisha," Nina murmured, looking over at her sister, who was gasping with pain, "we have to stop it! We have to draw the circle!"
With difficulty, Trisha looked up at Nina and said, "You're right."
Nina awkwardly helped Trisha sit up, and the two of them set to work. They soon discovered it was much harder than they had anticipated, for neither of them had hands to hold chalk anymore. They immediately saw that they would have to draw it in blood, so they used their teeth to pull off the makeshift bandages Mustang had given them. Trisha set off, dragging the stump of one arm along the ground to make the main circle, while Nina used the blood from her wrists to make the designs in the middle. Tears ran unnoticed down her face as she worked, ignoring the incredible pain as she dragged her open wounds across the rough, dirty stones. What they were doing was more important than the agony it caused.
Finally, they finished the circle and carefully stepped away from it; Trisha was swaying as she knelt at the edge. In all this time, the men in the square had continued firing at the Homunculus, to no effect except that it had been distracted and not seen either of the sisters. Almost as soon as they finished the circle, there came a lull in the shooting, and the Homunculus sniffed the air. With a cry of, "Blood!" it charged towards Mustang's car. Thrusting the vehicle to the side with a crunch and a crash, the Homunculus loomed over the sisters, cackling an eerie hyena's laugh with its two voices. "I have you now!"
But the sisters were waiting for it. As soon as it stepped onto the circle, Trisha fell on her face, Nina on her forearms, onto the edge of the circle, activating it with the last ounce of their strength. Nina's sight blurred till she could only see wavering blobs of color, but she could smell the blood close to her face. The scent of her own blood mingled with her sister's was somehow reassuring and satisfying. She heard a horrible retching sound over her head, heard something splattering onto the ground, and knew that the circle had worked. The Homunculus was sealed, even now expelling the Stones inside it, making it mortal.
Nina's face was pressed against the blood on the ground now – she could taste its sharp, metallic tang – and she could feel herself drifting away into a warm, dark void. Just before she lost consciousness, she heard Lieutenant Colonel Mustang's voice say calmly into the dead silence, "Die, Homunculus."
A single gunshot, and then Nina knew no more.