Chapter 12: Reunion

Hikaru gazed at the transcript written on the steel wall before her. She struggled to get back on her feet, but managed and slowly limped her way closer to wall. Even with all the debris covering most of it, the transcript could still be read at a closer glance. There was an image at the center of a scientific diagram of a small human child with its arms fully spread outward. A thin circle perfectly surrounded the child, matching every tip that was outwardly exposed. Numbers, variables, and long chains of equations seemed to take up most of the area. Behind the child, were two immensely large, mechanical wings. There were many equations and instructions of how to construct the wings. Most of it was related to using Alchemy to create the most ultimate fighting machine of this era.

Hikaru brushed off dust from one of the corners, and there appears to be a small message written at the bottom. It read:

"Lord, have mercy

On my soul. I

Vow never to kill again,

Even if you have to

Cut off every limb of my body.

And if I have mentally and physically lost all control, I suddenly have the

Need for bloodshed.

Killing was what

I was created for. That was what my

Life was all about. But I never want to kill again.

Living like this, pains

Me so much. I'm so sorry for

Everything I did. Please find it in your heart to forgive me. I'm so sorry..."

Hikaru placed her hands on the writing and began to analyze it, when suddenly the wall from the side exploded. Rocks flew in every direction, so she had to quickly duck for cover. When the smoke finally cleared, a girl about Hikaru's height and age came running in. Behind the girl was a samurai suit of armor chasing after her, trying to decapitate her for trespassing in Laboratory 5. With her pain disappearing, Hikaru quickly went to the girl's aid and gave her foe a few jabs and kicks in the torso. That way she can create a distraction, and the helpless girl could just run for her life. However, she remained. It made Hikaru wonder why she hadn't fled yet. Did she want to stay to see if Hikaru survived? Or was it of another reason?

The girl hastily ran behind the armored samurai, who was still fighting with Hikaru. She pulled out a small piece of white chalk and drew a quick transmutation circle on a large chunk of rock. And right out of the white circle a huge stone spike ejected and struck her enemy straight through his back and right through the center of his chest. Hikaru was surprised that this defenseless girl actually knew how to protect herself, as well as aid her in combat. But she was also stunned to see that the armor she fought felt empty inside just like Al.

"There's no time for me to be wasting on you kids." Their foe spoke. "There are more dangerous intruders that lurk in the darkness of this hellhole. Forget everything you've seen here and be gone!" He then took off through the blasted hole, leaving Hikaru and the young girl confused for a moment. Hikaru wondered why an abandoned lab would need guards like him. Why did he spare them in the end? And as she was exchanging jabs and kicks, the armor felt hollow when struck. But the most important question is who is the girl that stands in front of her. She had violet-blue colored hair and lavender eyes. She was holding on tightly to a large Alchemy book. It seems that she may be only a beginner in Alchemy.

"Who are you?" Hikaru finally asked.

"My name is Luna." She softly answered. "And who might you be?"

"The name's Hikaru. You did pretty well for novice Alchemist."

"Oh, thank you…"

Hikaru could tell by how frail Luna speaks towards her, shows that she's unconfident about herself and wasn't used to being strong. It seems that she didn't even want to be here, but was forced to come. Who can blame her? Laboratory 5 isn't the world's happiest place. Matter of fact it was filled with the ominous scent of death lurking about. She always kept that thick Alchemy book close to her chest, probably for a quick access in case of danger.

"Why are you here?" Hikaru asked in concern.

"I was instructed to come here and-" Luna began, but a sudden voice quickly cut her off.

"Don't say another word, Luna."

Hikaru and Luna turned towards the blasted hole and there stood a young woman in her twenties with thick glasses and long, beautiful dark green hair. She wore a gorgeous forest green kimono and wielded a giant bamboo umbrella.

"I don't want you to be leaking information about our organization to strangers." the woman finished and took a closer look at Hikaru. She looks like the girl Ayumi described that has the possibility of being Tsubasa. I have to admit she is rather odd. No one possesses crimson eyes, and the closest are the Ishbalans, but even they do not have crimson. She is one to keep an eye on. She thought.

"I'm sorry, Midori." Luna apologized. "It won't happen again."

"Good." Midori replied and stared at Hikaru straight in the eye. "I have to thank you for saving my comrade, however. Maybe I can lend you something." She then tossed a small folded Japanese iron fan over to Hikaru. "Use it wisely. Trust me it's a really useful weapon." She then towards Luna and asked, "Did you record all the useful information about Tsubasa in here?"

"Yup. All recorded and complete." Luna answered as a flashing light came from her crescent moon necklace. It was if her necklace acts as a camera.

"Good, then let's go." But before they actually left, Midori turned around and faced Hikaru again. "By the way, have you ever seen a man who went by the name Scar?"

"I faced him in battle once." Hikaru honestly replied. "There was transmutation symbol written all over his right arm. Is that the man you're looking for?"

"That is correct. Rather unique fellow, I might add."

"I haven't seen him recently, but I can tell you this. I last spotted him in Central and the military is on the hunt for him, since he's been killing off their State Alchemists."

"That's plenty of information for me. Now what is your name?"

"It's Hikaru."

"Hikaru, huh. I'll be sure to never forget that. Thank you for what you have done and take care."

Soon Midori and Luna quickly left the scene and Hikaru was left alone in the room, thinking of her next maneuver. It was best for her to regroup with Ed, so they can finally leave this dreary, ominous place. Before she left the room, Hikaru wrote down everything that was written on the giant transcript on the wall, and even drew out all the diagrams. She then took off to find Ed.

A sudden nervous feeling struck Hikaru. It was something that made her feel uneasy, but caused her to rush towards Ed in a much faster pace. She knows from her instincts that he might be in serious danger, and needs her aid. But the black-haired alchemist was also concerned about the younger Elric brother. She hopes that he can manage himself outside with the guards discovering the invasion.

At that point Ed was clashing blades with the same samurai armor Hikaru and Luna fought. The samurai consistently swung his thin blade at the young alchemist with swift speed, but Ed managed to avoid every swing. This time the samurai's sword managed to pierce into Ed's right arm and slammed him into the floor. The armor twisted his blade and dislodged a screw in Ed's mechanical arm. It was difficult to force out, but it managed to leave his entire arm disjointed, making the alchemist go on the defensive. With his right arm immobilized, Ed's ability to dodge the speedy blade wings became a much more difficult task to do. He quickly ran as fast as he could to avoid the attacks but accidentally tripped over old debris and fell to ground near an illuminated wall. Again, the young alchemist was at the mercy of his foe, just like in the battle he had with Scar. However, this time he can't guarantee that Hikaru would come here and save him. But he also doesn't want to depend on his mysterious new friend for every tight situation. He had to think fast, even if most of his body has grown weary from battle. The samurai swung his blade and struck Ed at the left side of his stomach. Blood splattered on the illuminated wall and it seemed that the armor landed a clean on Ed. But the young alchemist managed to evade from a deathblow by quickly rolling off to the side, even if it did strike him in his sides. This time Ed was almost out of energy and feeling a bit dizzy from his hemorrhage. There was nothing for him to do. He was helpless and facing death in the face. The samurai took his blade and prepared for a final blow and then swung his blade at rapid speed. Ed quickly shut his eye, ready for the pain to strike him or for someone to come to his aid.

As the blade was speed towards the alchemist, the samurai knew that this battle was his. But suddenly his blade was blocked by tiny, blunt weapon carried by small, dark figure. The samurai quickly figured out that the blunt weapon was a sturdy iron fan called Tessen. Its wielder hastily swung the Tessen beneath the blade and used it to knock to sword forward, causing the samurai to lose his balance. The figure then swiftly came behind him and pinned him down against the floor with his helmet rolling off towards Ed. Ed finally managed to open his eyes and saw that he was no longer in danger and the figure who saved him was sitting on the back of the armored samurai, who was helplessly pinned to the ground. The old fading light shone over the dark figure and Ed was so happy to see who saved his life. The Tessen wielder was none other than Hikaru. She looked over at Ed with a caring smile to show that she'll always be there for him in any tight situation.

Placing their minds back to the battle, Ed suddenly noticed that there was no head on the armored samurai. However neither were that surprised by the headless warrior as he had hoped.

"Why are you both not surprised to see that there is no body inside this armor?" the samurai asks.

"To make it simple," Hikaru explained, as she walked off the motionless body and held up the helmet, "Ed spars with someone who is just like you, so he should know the feel. For me being a good friend of them, I also happen to know what fighting a moving, empty armor feels like."

Ed notices a crimson blood rune inside the helmet and said, "It makes me sick to see that another idiot would a bind a soul into a suit of armor, like me.

"Then allow me to explain more about myself," the warrior spoke, "I was No. 48 on Death Row, but when I still had a flesh, human body, I was a killer known as Slicer. The military wanted to execute me a couple years ago, but figured that they needed my strength and did experiments on me. Soon I became their guard dog and was instructed to protect this place from intruders, along with another Death Row inmate whose soul was also sealed into a suit of armor. He's probably fighting another intruder outside this facility."

"Hikaru has the advantage of you." Ed remarked. "Tell us more about the Philosopher's Stone."

"Never." Slicer laughed.

"Cut it with the tough guy act. You're in no position to argue."

"That's what you think. There isn't just one Slicer."

Suddenly Slicer's body got back up on its feet and crept up behind Hikaru. Ed shouted her name, warning her about the headless body. The body hurried in for a stab, but with Ed's warning Hikaru managed to avoid a direct hit with a huge cut on her left side. Blood splashed onto the blade, as Slicer began to cackle.

"I forgot to mention that when the military caught Slicer they never expected that the killings were done by two brothers." The head continued to laugh. "So we're two souls in one armor."

"The head and the body are separate. You lousy cheat." Ed argued.

"All's fair in the fight to death. Besides, you seem to have brought in an ally in our previous match. It's only fair if it's two-against-two, right?"

Ed noticed that Hikaru's wound was actually worse than his, but he was badly injured in other places than his left side, as well as his arm being disjointed. Hikaru still had her hand over her gushing wound, trying to slow the bleeding.

"Hikaru, are you okay?" Ed looked at her with concern.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." she answered. "You should be more concerned about your wounds. You're bleeding from multiple places, especially your head and your stomach."

"I feel really useless to you. I'm terribly injured, but I also disjointed the auto-mail arm you made for me."

"That's all right. I can always make a new one."

Ed was relieved and surprised that Hikaru was nothing like his mechanic over in his hometown, Resembool. If Ed were to break one tiny bit of his auto-mail, she would be smashing a wrench down on his head. So it was no surprise that Ed would be shocked at Hikaru's forgiving manner.

"Before we begin round two," the body said, " I must show you where my blood rune is, since you happened to discover my older brother's. If you want to destroy me, I would suggest for you to aim well."

"Ed, stay down." Hikaru instructed, "You're too injured to continue fighting."

"You planning to take him on by yourself, with a badly bleeding would like that?" Ed questioned.

"Pretty much. I'll be fine."

The younger Slicer brother swiftly ran at Hikaru with his blade, ready to carve it right into her torso. She quickly got out her Tessen, ducked down a bit, and used it to block the weapon. But he wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice. He knows that she plans to throw off his balance with his own strength and then pin him to the ground. This time he let Hikaru follow the same maneuver to lead her into believing that she'll have the advantage. But instead Hikaru's true plan was to flip him over using her Tessen. The younger brother quickly caught sight of this and was forced to do a quick jab in her stomach with the handle of his weapon. However, that quick jab only worsened Hikaru's wound. She fell to the floor close to Ed, as she tightly gripped her left side in pain.

"Hikaru, do you still have any energy left in you?" Ed asked while he held her up with his left arm.

"Maybe." She answered. "What's your plan?"

"Follow my lead."

The younger Slicer noticed Ed and Hikaru both clapped their hands doing a transmutation, so he quickly hurried over, trying to stop them. He couldn't let them do one, or else he'd a toast. The armor charged with his blade pointing directly at them, ready for the kill. However the first handclap was nothing more than a mere trick. Hikaru put Ed's dislocated, auto-mail arm around her and leaned over to where both her right hand was at the same level with Ed's left. The two quickly slam their hands together and unleashed an immensely powerful transmutation. A light fired from both their hands, as it shot, like a cannon, straight through the armored body. The light collided into the wall on the other side of the room, causing a heavy amount of debris to fall.

Ed and Hikaru fell to the ground, both exhausted from the whole battle. The younger Slicer cried from his body being split in half and also from the fact that he and his brother lost the match.

"You guys better not say that you're actually three brothers." Ed remarked.

"No, no," The older Slicer brother laughed. "This time you two really won. I'm impressed. Well done."

"So now tell me what I wanted to know before we started this whole battle. Tell me everything you know, about this place, about the Philosopher's Stone, and about Tsubasa."

"We Slicer Brothers are only mere guardians of the wretched place. We probably would know nothing of what you seek for. Hurry up and destroy us and this lab."

"I can't kill you two. You both are still human, even without a real body. My younger brother is just like you guys, humans."

Both brothers laughed hard at the irony of someone not wanting to murder them, yet they've killed so much. "As a farewell gift to both you, kid, and the quiet girl besides you, I will tell you all that I know of this place. I don't know anything on alchemy and the Stone, but I can tell you that this place was once a special lab only meant for creating weapons for military aid. The military needed a weapon that can easily win them wars and help them create the Philosopher's Stone. I don't know the rest from there, but I do know who is trying to create the Stone."

"Who are they?!" Ed shouted, feeling in reach of his answers. Hikaru sat quietly next to him, taking every word into careful detail.

"They are-"

Suddenly to black needles pierced through the blood rune inside the helmet! Ed and Hikaru were in complete shock. It just came out of nowhere! Now with the elder Slicer silenced, the answers to their questions easily slipped away.

"Now that was too close." A slender woman spoke, as she stepped out of the shadows, along with a thin, bony male figure. Both possessed an Ouroboros tattoo each, representing that they're both homunculi. The woman then spoke to the dying Slicer. "You shouldn't talk about things that don't concern you."

"Hey Lust," the male homunculus called, "what's the Fullmetal runt doing here?"

"That sure is problem, Envy." Lust replied. "He may get in Ira's way. You know how angry she gets."

"She's a real brat at times, but we must at least let her feel a bit reunited."

Ed and Hikaru sat watching everything with confusion and bewilderment going on in their heads. What is there to do? They were already badly injured from their previous battle. There was no way they can last through another one. So all that's left for them to do is to simply watch and see how the story unfolds.

Soon another mysterious figure walked from beneath the shadows. She wore black clothing just like the other homunculi and had an Ouroboros tattoo on her left shoulder. The figure revealed herself to be nothing more than a ten-year old girl, but her eyes tell a different story. Her eyes were a cold, icy blue with glacial bitterness. In her eyes, everything to her was anger, rage, and hatred. She wore a beautiful, lacy black and red dress and crimson ribbons in her long doll-like hair. If she were older and tied her hair in a high ponytail, the girl would completely resemble Hikaru. However she was nothing like Hikaru; the girl is purely evil.

The doll-like homunculus slowly walked over towards Ed and Hikaru. The two were still both confused at the whole situation, but the girl didn't make any notice of it. She glared into Ed's eyes, giving him a stare filled with hatred, and then hastily brushed him aside. She instantly turned her horrifying glare towards Hikaru and her fist trembled with fiery rage. Hikaru looked back the insanely angered girl with a strange feeling of fear going through her mind. Soon Hikaru, herself, began to tremble. The small homunculus gave her an evil, demented grin and said.

"Finally, after all this time…we meet again…"