Chapter Seven

"Good, hurry up and get back here." Ed sat up some from where he was sitting. Had he heard someone? It sounded like his teacher but it was hard to tell. His mind must have been playing games on him he told himself leaning against the gate again. It started to open, causing him to fall backwards on the ground. He stared in shock but only for a second. As fast as he could, he got to his feet and bolted for the opening. He stopped short when he saw Izumi coming towards him.

"What are you doing here," he asked her in a low tone.

"Don't question your teacher!" She raised her hand at him. He panicked, placing his head down quickly.

"Um..sorry..." She placed her hand on his shoulder lightly.

"You need to get back. Winry needs your help. It's Dante." She spoke to him in a soft tone, getting his attention.

"But what about you? You're not staying here are you," he inquired, straightening in front of her. She moved forward and hugged him.

"Ed, you can't save everyone. I've lived long enough and I'm done with it. Alphonse needs you now. I can't teach either of you any more. You've grown up already. Your mother would be proud." She knew he would be upset as he pulled away some.

"You can come back with me though, you don't have to stay here." He was trying hard to control his tone. It wavered despite his effort. She shook her head, still smiling softly.

"You are always so stubborn. Never listening to what I tell you. You've already sacrificed enough, now it's someone else's turn." With that, before he could say anything else, she moved out of the way and shoved him outside the gate.

"No, wait...you can't stay here!," he yelled back at her but she ignored him. "Teacher!" The gate closed, separating them. There was nothing else for him to do here now. She had done what she knew was right. "Goodbye...Teacher. I...I hope you trash Envy," he said, hanging his head.

oOoOo

Lyra walked back over to the bed, weakly. Her body was failing her now faster then ever.

"It's not too late, I still have time." She only wished she still had her last stone. Straightened up as much as possible, she clapped her hands together.

"What are you doing," Al asked from the doorway. She turned and glared at him. He was another factor that she didn't need right now. Placing her hands on the ground, she sent spikes in his direction. He jumped out of the way, landing hard on the floor. Even though she missed, she still managed to block him from getting to her. By this time, Winry was starting to wake up, after hearing all the commotion.

"Al, is that you?" Winry rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Lyra turned and grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the bed. She didn't even have a chance to respond.

"You're both complicating things," Dante growled. Winry was having a hard time breathing now as her grip tightened.

oOoOo

Ed slowly opened his eyes, trying to focus on his surroundings. He recognized where he was all too well. As he tried to sit up, he had to stop. His whole body ached and he inhaled sharply, trying to get his barings together. Finally, his memory kicked in and he realized he needed to move. He got up on his right foot and went to put his weight on his left leg. He fell over fast and let out a loud annoyed sound.

"I have to get to Winry's." He struggled to get up again. Finding a long stick nearby, he used it to lean on. He was going to get up one way or another. After a couple of stumbling steps, he managed to stay up. It was a long way back to the Rockbells from here. "Yeah, this is great, I finally get my limbs back and for what, they don't seem to be working too well right now," he grumbled as he went. It felt like this was going to take forever as he pushed himself further. What hadn't occured to him yet was what would he do when he got there? How could he help like this. Although maybe the thought had entered his mind but he chose to ignore it. He just had to do something.

oOoOo

Al quickly drew a cirlce on the floor and pressed his palm against it. The floor shook under Lyra's feet, causing her to release her hold in Winry. She coughed, rubbing her throat. Lyra turned angrily towards Alphonse.

"You don't know what your getting yourself into. I'm a lot stronger then you think I am," she slapped her hands together again. The entire floor started to cave in under Al. Winry let out a yell as her furniture started falling. Her bed landed hard with her still on it. Now they were in the living room. Al got up slowly, his legs hurt from the fall. Glancing over, he checked if Winry was all right. She seemed to be but she still wasn't sure what was going on. Lyra pushed some broken pieces of wood off her. "Guess I overdid it. Now where were we?" Her hands came up, ready to clap. Something hit her in the face, causing her to hesitate. Al looked back over at Winry in shock. She had thrown one of her smaller wrenches that she slept with.

"I knew you were no good," she shouted. Lyra reached up, holding her face. The glare she gave Winry was icy.

"You're gonna regret doing that," she clapped and the floor launched the wrench back at Winry fast. Al brought his hand down on the transmutation circle he had been working on. Alchemy sparked to life and a wall came up, blocking the wrench. Lyra turned back to him, surprised that he could move that quickly. He finally got a good look at her face. Where the wrench had hit her, the skin was all rotted away. It made him feel sick.

"Don't you know," she smiled at him. "This is what happened to your father." She realized she was almost out of time.

"No, that's not true! How would you know anything about him"

"I loved him and he loved me. Your mother was just a fling."

"But you didn't know anything about Alchemy when we met you first. How could you know him?" He obviously didn't know her as anything else but Lyra. She was enjoying all of this too much. Just as she was about to continue, the front door flew off the hindges.

"Izumi," Winry yelled happily, but stopped when no one was at the door. A couple of seconds went by before someone limped in slowly.

"Dante,...don't you dare say another word to him!" Edward took in several deep breaths. It was obvious he was mad and heard some of what she was saying.

"Ed," Winry said, surprised to see him there. "You really did get taller."

"Is that all you have to say? Sheesh!"

"My other love has finally come back," Lyra said sweetly. That ticked him off even more.

"Shut up, I'm not as depraved as my dad. You'd better leave while I'm giving you the option." Suddenly she grabbed hold of Winry again.

"I just need another body. One more time and then we can be together." Ed looked almost dumbfounded before he snapped out of it.

"Are you crazy? I don't want to be with you!"

"You say that now, but it would be different if I was her." She pointed at Winry. "You care more for her, don't you?" Ed opened his mouth but nothing came out. Winry pulled away from Lyra, getting into the conversation since she was somehow part of it now.

"You'd have to be crazy to say something like that. The reason he doesn't want anything to do with you is because of your personality," she interjected. Dante turned, leveling her with a glare. "I mean sure, I'm flattered that you would think so highly of me but please, you could never have my talent or personality so easily." Winry let out a mocking laugh. Ed released a sigh, and hung his head in shame.

"Yup, no one could ever be Winry."

"Who said I needed your talents anyway. In case you hadn't noticed he doesn't have auto-mail anymore. So I guess he really doesn't need you anymore either," Dante shot back. By this point, Edward and Alphonse were no longer needed in the conversation.

"Maybe we should leave the girls to fight," Ed suggested to Al.

"It does seem to be a bit tenser in here now." The Elric brothers continued to listen to the argument as it became more ridiculous.

"Yah think so, he can't stay out of trouble if he wanted to. He'll always need me, auto-mail or not"

"It's so nice, she thinks of me like that. See if I ever come to save you again," Ed muttered to himself as he shifted him weight some, still balancing on the stick. He was already tired and all the arguing was only wearing him out more.

"Winry, would you stop already. This is taking too long," he finally growled at her.

"Oh I'm sorry I was such an inconvenience," she arched an eyebrow. Lyra was fed up with her mouth and finally smacked her across the face, knocking her back onto the bed.

"You're really starting to tick me off," Edward brought his left hand down to his right. The floor around Lyra moved up quickly, surrounding her. Before she realized it, there was a cannon right in her face.

"You should have died a long time ago. You're just as much a mistake as the homunculus you created." She closed her eyes and let out a low laugh that grew into an even more annoying one.

"Now what's so funny," he demanded with a huff.

"You are. Acting all noble now, correcting all the mistakes in the world. It's actually kinda pathetic. You are one of those Alchemist who caused the mistakes, isn't that right?" Ed moved back slightly, letting every word she said sink in farther then it should have. He shook his head, trying to ignore her.

"You're wrong. When it really comes down to it, you're the real reason everything happened"

"Really? Was I the one who tried to bring your mother back? If I was suppose to die, doesn't that mean the same for her? You did the same thing I did." He hesitated even more now. "All I wanted to do was make you forget all of that though and have a life here with me. No more regret," she offered. He was too shocked to respond so Al intervened instead.

"Ed, don't think about this. She needs to be stopped." He shook his head again. It seemed to clear his thoughts.

"No, not like this," he said under his breath, and clapped his hands together again. The cannon vanished. He staggered over slowly. The smug look on Lyra's face showed that she thought she had convinced him.

"I've already accepted my mistakes. And since I don't necessarily have the right to kill you, I'll just have to do something else."

"Yes that's right, Edward, you really can't kill me. You still need me. I knew you would never harm me anyway. You're so good."

"Don't kid yourself. Where do you think I've been all this time?" He clapped his hands together one last time.

"You wouldn't dare"

"Oh wouldn't I? Stop trying to figure out what I'm gonna do? I've had a lot of time to learn even more then you." Before she had a chance to respond, he placed his hand out and she vanished. Al stood up and took a couple steps forward.

"Ed, what did you do," he asked. His brother wouldn't make eye contact with him as he replied.

"Al, fix the house," his voice came out in a low tone. Al nodded and in no time the upstairs was back where it belonged. Winry walked over just as Al did, but still kept her distance from Ed.

"Where did you send her," she inquired.

"The only place she can't use Alchemy," he told them both.

"If that's all it took then why didn't you just do that to start with. Then we could have avoided the whole arguing part and everything," Winry placed her hands on her hips as she complained.

"I had to figure out how to do it first!," Ed yelled back at her. He went to take a step only to fall forward. "Oh great, I knew this was going to happen," His vision became blurry.

"Edward! What happened? Are you okay?"

"Maybe he overdid it," Al suggested.

"We'd better get him back upstairs then. This whole thing was crazy," Winry leaned down to make sure Ed was okay. He was out cold again.

"I'm surprised no one else woke up. All that noise"