I never again suggested sleeping inside to Sister. Instead we traveled far south and spent the winter months in the towns down that way (except Dublith) where it wasn't as cold. It's funny but I almost think whatever it was that happened in that factory was a good thing for Sister. I mean it wasn't good that it happened but something good came out of it. I guess now that I think about it, it was an equivalent exchange. She had to go through something bad but she got something for it. While Sister had always been the talkative one telling me all sorts of stuff, there was some stuff about her life before she met me that she'd kept secret. For example, aside from the time she told me her parents were farmers in exchange for me telling her about that lady, she'd never mentioned her parents to me. But after whatever happened in that factory, she started mentioning her parents. Not very often, just every once and a while she'd tell me something about them.
One day after it had been getting warmer, we were walking along the road heading off to a new town (Sister had nearly gotten caught stealing so we had to change towns) when I suddenly announced, "I want to go to Central."
"Central?" asked Sister, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. We don't have to stay but there is something- there is something I have to see." I'd been thinking a lot about it lately, I come to the decision that I had to go see what was left of that underground city. More specifically I had to know if Master or Gluttony were still alive. I didn't think Master had survived but I wasn't so sure what had ever happened to Gluttony.
Sister was kind of nervous during our trip North to Central, but at the same time I knew she was really curious about my past. She'd learned not to ask me about it but she couldn't hide her curiosity anytime anything related to my past came up. I didn't have the same curiosity about her past. Between how she acted, the stories she was opening up and sharing with me, and her sometimes talking in her sleep I'd figured out some of her past. I think her family was normal and her parents really loved and carried for her, but I think they're dead now. I think they died before she left.
While she thought about what from my past might lie in Central, I thought about the future: what I might find in Central. If Master was still alive and not too weak from dying what would I do. She would want me to serve her again. Would she force me to serve her again, even though I now knew she could not give me what I wanted? I wasn't sure anymore what I wanted. Did I still want to be human? Did I want to die like what Lust wanted? I still couldn't figure it out. Right now it was enough to wander the world with my Sister. I was afraid master would likely take sister away. I knew it was dumb of me to go back to Central. I should have stayed far away. But like Sister's curiosity about my past, I had a burning curiosity that I couldn't ignore.
The other thing that occupied my mind was how I was going to get into the underground city. I knew about two entrances: one from a special elevator in the Fuhrer's mansion and one from a staircase in an old abandoned church. The one in the church had been alchemically sealed by the Trigham brothers after Rose had carried me up the stairs. The older brother had said that if Ed needed to get out he'd be able unseal it with his alchemy. But Ed never returned. So I decided I'd have to sneak into the Fuhur's mansion and use the elevator. It was easier that way. Sister is not as strong or flexible as me and she would get caught if she tried to sneak into a place like that. I could convince her to stay behind and then if Master or Gluttony were down there she would be away from them and safe.
Because I'd spent so much time in Central I was expecting it to be familiar. But, even when I lived with Sloth mommy I'd never actually explored very much of the city. So when we reached the outside of the city it stuck me how foreign it was. Sister was excited. She'd never been before and she wanted to find out about my past. It didn't take long for me to discover the old Fuhrer's mansion had burned down.
Sister and I had walked all the way to Central, so we decided to stay awhile. We spent our days exploring every corner of the large city we could. One day we ran into the Trigham brothers on one of our walks. They could unseal the entrance for me with alchemy. I waited till the younger brother and Sister were distracted then I told the older brother, Russell, that I wanted to get into the underground city. He didn't think I should go down there, but eventually I convinced him by telling him I'd see if I could figure out what happed to Edward. (I already had a good idea what had happened, but I didn't tell Russell that.)
I convinced Sister and Russell convinced his younger brother to stay behind so it was just Russell and me in the church. "Look Wrath," he started, "I know I don't know you very well but I'm going to tell you what I told Ed." I stared at his hands- he had them jammed in his pockets. I didn't want to hear what he was going to say. "I told him to come back, to just come back alive." Russell paused. I kept starring at his hands. "That what I told him, but he never came back." Russel took his hands out of his pockets and gestured with them. "I don't know exactly what happened to him but I'm going to have to assume that there is something dangerous down there. If that is the case- I can't let out. So I'm going to tell you come back alive and do so in less than three hours because after that I will have no choice but to seal the entrance. Do you understand?"
I nodded. He was right there might very well be something dangerous down there. Three hours should be enough time. Russell drew a circle and activated it. A crude entrance tunnel formed leading to the steps. "Be careful," Russell told me as I descended the staircase.
At first view the underground city appeared unchanged. It was sort of reassuring to see that nothing had changed. "Anybody here?" I called hoping beyond hope that nobody would call back. Please I pleaded let them be gone. Let my past stay buried here beneath the city. But although no one called back I got an answer of sorts. I heard a noise from behind me, heavy breathing. I whirled around to find...Gluttony?
He looked different than when I'd last seen him but it was still Gluttony- there was no one else it could have been. He was wider too, he'd have trouble fitting through doors. His mouth was open and he was slobbering with hunger. He had the same mad look in his eyes as when I'd last seen him. Was there hatred in his eyes at me for killing Lust or after whatever Master had done did he even remember her? Was there nothing but hunger in those eyes? Either way wasn't so good for me. I took a step back. "What happened to Master?" I asked him.
He didn't answer with back with any words I could understand. His breathing got a little heavier. He made a funny noise that sounded almost like "heh heh heh." Gluttony charged me. I did a one handed cartwheel out of the way. I'd barely regained my balance when he came at me again. He moved pretty fast for something his size. He was faster than I realized and I failed to get away in time. He knocked me with his giant belly and I flew into a wall. He came at me again, full charge with his mouth open. I pushed myself out of the way between his feet. There was barely enough room for me to slide through. He was making funny noises. I could have sworn I heard him going "kill" but it could have just been in my head. I'd gotten my answers or at least as of much of them as I was going to get. Master had to be gone. There was no way Master would have let Gluttony go on like this. I don't think even she could control him anymore.
Gluttony had hit the wall when I dodged. It came down on him and left him dazed and for a moment. I used the change to try and come up with a plan to get away from him and back to the surface. I couldn't risk leading him that way. If only I could still perform alchemy. How else could you stop a homunculus? Watching Gluttony emerge from the wrecked wall gave me an idea. Maybe I could get Gluttony to bring down one of the really large buildings on himself. If the wreckage was really heavy it would take him some time to work or eat his way out from under it- long enough for me to make it back to the surface and have Russell seal the entrance.
I took off around the city looking for a good building. Gluttony was right behind me. Luckily I found a large building made out of stone. It would take some work to get the walls down but it would be worth it. It was a dangerous job, I had to run from wall to wall staying at each one long enough to ensure Gluttony hit them full force. I had a bunch of close calls. After a few hits I'd weakened the building to where I figured all it would take is one more hit to the left wall to bring it down. I ran toward the window as fast as I could and leapt through. Gluttony couldn't fit through but his mouth could. He stuck his mouth through after me and bit off the lower half of my automail leg. I screamed in pain as somehow losing part of the wires caused what was left to shock me where they attached to my skin. Gluttony got shocked too.
My plan had worked. While he was biting off my leg, the building collapsed around him. His mouth disappeared into the wreckage. All that I could see was his tongue sticking out at the end. I had no idea how long it would take him to make his way out. I couldn't waste any time in getting back to the surface. I couldn't walk or run normally with part of my leg missing, but lucky for me I'm a good acrobat. For awhile I made my way by flipping or cartwheeling, alternating landing on my whole leg and then one of my hands. Once I got too dizzy I resorted to crawling. I crawled up the whole staircase wishing the elevator still worked.
"Wrath!" Russell was a little surprised to see me crawling. "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay," I told him emerging from the tunnel on my hands and knees. "Seal it- hurry!" He did as I told him. "There's something dangerous in there. Don't ever go down there."
He nodded. "And Edward?"
"He isn't down there. I didn't see any sign of what happened to him."
"I added some extra stone to the seal. That should hold it." Russell turned to face me, "What the...?" he exclaimed as he got a good look at me. "Shit Wrath, what the hell happened down there?" I shrugged. He sighed, "If you don't want to tell me fine. As long as it stays down there. Come on kid, I can't alchemize fully functioning automail but I can give you a stand in till you can get that thing fixed." He helped me up. I put my arm around his shoulder and he helped me walk out of the old church. We made our way outside where, although we didn't know it at the time, his younger brother and Sister were waiting for us. I'll never forget the look in Sister's eyes when she first saw me or the scolding that followed either.
This was not an easy chapter to write. Action and fight scenes are not my forte. It is however, an important chapter to the plot.
Gluttony's appearance is supposed to be somewhere between his appearance in the series and the mutated form he has in the movie.
No matter how many time I read through this chapter and proofread it I keep noticing lots of mistakes. I've done my best but if any of you notice any glaring typos or grammar errors please mention them in a review so I can correct them when I upload the next chapter. Thanks.