Metallic Hearts -FullMetal Alchemist- Episode Twenty-One: The Red Glow

No Memo

Al's brought his arm up to dodge the butcher knife and he was thrown back.

Barry: "What's wrong? Your reaction time has slowed. I see that an artificial soul isn't perfect. All you found out was your real identity, and you're acting like it's the end of the world." Al looked down at his gloved hand, which was shaking.

Al: "No... I... I... I'm Alphonse Elric!" Barry slammed Al into the wall, making it crumble.

Barry: "I told you that you can't prove that. Just admit it. You'll feel better."

Al: "Then... What about you?" Barry jumped back a bit. "You have memories from when you were alive. Then..." A shadowed figure jumped off of the stone wall.

Barry: "What a nice day. Idiots keep coming in one by one. 'What about you' you ask? It's simple. I just love cutting up living humans. I simply love killing. I kill, therefore I am. That's the only proof I need to prove I'm me." He ran towards the shadowed figure. He gasped when the shadowed figure grabbed his arm.

Scar: "You have no need to prove your existence. Because soon. You won't."

Crimson Glow

Al: "You're..."

Barry: "No fair! You now him? You still had allies?"

Scar: "Ally?"

Barry: "Just pretending!" Scar squeezed his hand and Barry's left arm smashed. "What? What the..."

Scar: "You are also in the pitiful body? Gain eternal peace in the Kingdom of God." Scar lifted up his sleeve to show the markings on his arm.

Barry: "Huh? Why is that thing there?"

Scar: "What about this?"

Barry: "Hmm? You don't know what that is?"

Scar: "Tell me! What are you trying to say this thing is?"

Barry: "I see. You want to know so badly. Let's see..." Barry turned around. "I won't tell you." He pushed a panel to reveal a red button and bombs were set off. In a room inside the lab, the wall around a skull cracked, letting the skull free. Deactivating a Transmutation Circle. The man inside chuckled and ripped the restraints off his body. He stood up and stretched.

: "About 130 years, I'd say." He blew the door down, deactivating the locks on the cages of many Chimeras. "Do you want to remain lab rats here or go out and play in hell with me? Choose. Get out!" Back on the battle field Al and fallen ontop of Scar to protect him from the flying dubree. Barry was jumping and down laughing at the two.

Barry: "There is a secret mechanism that allows me destroy this place to hide everything anytime I want! Now then, I'm going to leave."

Scar: "Wait!"

Barry: "If you want to know about your arm, you're going to have to come in here!"

Al: "He ran away!"

Scar: "Hey." Al jumped off of Scar.

Al: "I'm sorry." Scar stood up and began to walk towards the building. "Where are you going?"

Scar: "Since you're are here, than Metal Cat must be somewhere inside."

Al: "Wait! Please, wait!"

Break

Ed: "What was that quake?"

Older Slicer: "I don't know. But this building does hold bombs inside of it to destroy any and all evidence. We don't know if those will be triggered because of the shock."

Ed: "I haven't learned anything new..."

Older Slicer: "I'll keep my promise. You came in search of the secret to the Philosopher's Stone, right? I don't know anything about it, but I can lead you to it's entrance." Ed walked over and picked up the armors head.

Ed: "What about your little brother? We can't just leave him here."

Younger Slicer: "Don't worry about it. Just finish me off already."

Ed: "I already said I won't kill anyone." The torso laughed and put itself in an upright position so it was facing Ed.

Younger Slicer: "You said we're human, right? Then let me hear... How am I supposed to live with this body?"

Ed: "Well, um..." Ed held up the head and smiled.

Young Slicer: "Don't connect us! You want us to remain guardians of this place, alone...with this empty body that doesn't age?"

Ed: "You don't have to keep doing that."

Young Slicer: "So you want us to go outside? Does the outside world allow guys like us to roam around freely?"

Ed: "Wait. My little brother has a body similar to yours. I'm looking for the Philosopher's Stone. So I can return him to normal. If I find it..."

Older Slicer: "If we return to our original bodies, we'll be executed."

Younger Slicer: "Do you understand now? If we become human again, we'll only be killed. Or are you saying that you'll let us, serial killers, go free?"

Ed: "But..."

Younger Slicer: "Treat us like humans? The words seem very noble...But do you know how cruel it is to call us humans when we can only live in this form?" He lifted his arm and placed his thumb on his blood seal, ready to crush it.

Ed: "Idiot! What are you trying to do?" He dropped the Older Slicer and ran to the younger one.

Older Slicer: "Just keep quiet and watch." Ed was pulling at the arm.

Ed: "What are you talking about? He's your little brother!"

Older Slicer: "He was happy you called him human. So, now he can't go back to being Number 48. That's the only thing he can do as a human."

Ed: "That's not true." Ed's hand slipped and he fell back.

Younger Slicer: "Brother, I'm going ahead."

Older Slicer: "Okay."

Ed: "No." The Younger brother broke his seal and the arm fell limp. Ed dropped to his knees infront of the lifeless torso.

Older Slicer: "I'll join you, Brother. After I fulfill my promise."

Ed: "What are you thinking...What are you two thinking?"

Older Slicer: "That was the only thing he could do."

Ed: "I...I treated you guys like human beings, and he chose death? What could I have done to keep him alive?"

Older Slicer: "There are many questions in this world that have no answer."

Ed: "I'm going to return Al to his normal body. I won't let Al do what he just did."

Older Slicer: "Let's go."

Break

Soldier: "Are we really going to let them out?"

Soldier 2: "Those were the orders we received. They're going to be used in some military research. They were sentenced to life in prison, but they could've been sentenced to death for what they did." The ground began to shake.

Soldier: "An earthquake?"

: "That was the sound of a building collapsing due to an explosion of some kind. It is a nice sound."

Soldier: "Kimbley."

Kimbley: "That brings back memories." A man with long dark blue hair sat in a dark room. "Of the Ishbal extermination." The soldiers opened the door.

Soldier: "Get out. They want you too...The mad bomber who killed the enemies as well as allies, Kimbley." There was another explosion and Kimbley chuckled.

Kimbley: "It's a nice sound that reaches deep inside you."

Soldier: "The former Crimson Alchemist has hit rock bottom."

Break

Lust: "Now Envy just has to gather the ingredients." Basque Gran lead a pack of convicts down the hallway. "How long have I waited for this moment?"

Gluttony: "Lust! He...He..."

Lust: "He? Could it be...Greed? We need to hurry...before we are interrupted."

Break

Ed: "There better not be any weird traps." Ed and the Older Slicer walked down a hallway.

Older Slicer: "No intruder has ever gotten this far before."

Ed: "You killed them all, eh? So who turned you two into these forms." Ed looked up at a weird growling sound, many pairs of yellow eyes glared at him through the darkness. "It was a lie that there were no more traps."

Older Slicer: "This isn't a trap." Ed threw the head into the air and cut through a lizard/dog Chimera. Each Chimera fell to Ed's blade as he swung at them. One knocked him down and almost jumped on him.

Ed: "Damn it!" There was a whistle and they all stopped and sat down, bowing there heads. "What happened? It's the one who made these Chimeras. There's still someone human here?"

Older Slicer: "If you can call him human, yes..." A huge figure walked up to Ed.

Ed: "A Chimera? He created the Chimeras?"

Chimera: "Not all of them, though. It's been a long time, Edward." It lowered it's head to reveal, Shou Tucker's face."

Ed: "Tucker. The Sewing Life Alchemist." He dropped Slicer and grabbed Tucker. "Why? Why are you here?"

Older Slicer: "We're still here, even though we were sentenced to death. It shouldn't suprise you that others were also kept alive."

Ed: 'That's not what I'm talking about. Nina. She died because of you, how could they allow you to live!"

Tucker: "For Nina's sake. I understand how you feel."

Break

Al: "Um, could you stop going after my friend?"

Scar: "This is Ishbala's will. She is a cursed Alchemist who seeks the Philosopher's Stone. And she lied to me, to safe her own life."

Al: "Why is Alchemy bad? Your right hand...Although I've never seen anything like it before, it's a Transmutation Circle."

Scar: "It's a brand I gained when I accepted my calling to destroy all State Alchemist."

Al: "Also, she's not trying to find it to use in battle. She's helping my Brother find it to return me to my body."

Scar: "You three don't know how dreadful the Philosopher's Stone is."

Al: "We do. You're referring to the legend that anyone who gets to close to it will die, right? But we can't gain anything if we're afraid! Come to think of it, I've heard a rumor that Ishbal perished because of the power of the Stone."

Scar: "That's wrong! Ishbal did not perish on it's own. It was destroyed by another." Younger Scar: "Brother! Brother, open up! Brother!" He banged on the door. "Brother, is it true that you experimented with Alchemy?" He looked down to see the floor covered in blood.

Scar's Brother: "I failed. This method won't work. But the Philosopher's Stone..."

Younger Scar: "Brother, Alchemy is a heretical sorcery that transforms all the things God gave us."

Scar's Brother: "But...Ishbala will not revive her."

Younger Scar: "Brother! The military is serious about...Brother! This place is dangerous!" He turned around to see his brother, his brother had a Transmutation Circle drawn all over his body. "Brother?"

Scar's Brother: "I can finally see what the Philosopher's Stone is. And why Ishbala made this taboo."

Younger Scar: "Brother, please stop! The enemy is trying to destroy us with that power of the devil!"

Scar's Brother: "Yes, that's right. Ishbal will perish." Tears began to fall from his eyes. "But that is something that is already predetermined. If I could gain the Philosopher's Stone, she would come back to life...And Ishbal would be saved. That is what I believed. But to do that...Ishbal will perish."

Younger Scar: "Brother...Brother!" Al laid his hand on Scar's arm, which was shaking.

Al: "Scar. I know that the Philosopher's Stone might be made from humans. We came to confirm that. If it's true, well..."

Lust: "Oh my. We sure are getting a lot of interruptions today."

Al: "You are..."

Scar: "You...Why do you have that face? Did brother...succeed?"

Lust: "What are you talking about?"

Gluttony: "Can I eat them!"

Lust: "The armor one might give you indigestion."

Gluttony: "I'll try my best!"

Scar: "Homunculus..."

Al: "Homunculus? Wait, are they..."

Break

Ed: "The military lied about executing you and instead made you make Chimeras here."

Tucker: "Not only Chimeras...There are many other research projects here that cannot be announced to the public. A normal Alchemist can't affix a soul to an object."

Ed: "You've become a Chimera, yet you still retain your memories. Who has the skill to do that? Dr. Marco? Basque Gran? Or...Answer me! Who?" Ed looked behind him at the blue curtain behind him.

Tucker: "Don't look. She's shy." Ed pulled the curtain off to reveal a glass container, filled with a liquid. A girl coffered in fur floated there.

Ed: "Nina."

Tucker: "It still can not contain form when it touches air."

Ed: "There is no way you can perform Human Transmutation. Did you create a Chimera that looked like Nina?"

Tucker: "I failed many times, and I ended up in this form. But...Almost...I'm almost there."

Ed: "Almost there?" Tucker pushed the door open and Ed ran into the room, staring at all the red water. Ed turned one of the nozzles and a bit of the water fell to the ground. "This is the stuff that Marco has...The incomplete Philosopher's Stone. Although it's incomplete, you know that it still has tremendous power. If I cam turn this enormous amount of incomplete objects into something complete. I can create the Philosopher's Stone."