Chapter 19
December 29th
December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
There were six constants in the raging battle. Riza and Al were facing Gluttony, Ed and Joeseph were fighting Wrath, and Roy was facing Envy. Earnest, Jade, and the others in Winry's posse were fluid, sliding between fights like water – whenever they saw someone being beaten back, they moved in to help.
But no one joined in Winry's fight against Father.
Winry sent her white fire roaring through the air, and she saw Father flex his hands as though trying to use alchemy. It did no good – Winry had already disabled it. His alchemy, not anyone else's. So he sent what looked like solid black shadows licking from his fists to intercept her white fire.
Winry had expected some sort of explosion, but the reaction was just the opposite. When his black shadows and her white fire collided, they simply...neutralised. Both fizzled out in a small puff of smoke.
Never one to be discouraged, Winry leapt forward, her skin flashing to metal and her fingers elongating into claws. Father spun out of the way, and Winry had a moment to think how surreal it was to see middle-aged man moving as lightly as a dancer.
She swiped at him as he passed, but the gashes healed almost as soon as they opened. A rope of black shadow caught her across the shoulder, and Winry cried out as her flesh sizzled. She didn't have to worry, though – she felt her flesh already working to repair itself.
Winry spun in a circle, letting her claws slice long ribbons of blood across Father's torso. He gasped, falling to his knees briefly with pain. Winry suspected it had been a long time since Father had engaged in this kind of fight.
But with Father on his knees, Winry wasn't about to waste one moment of her advantage. She hurled her white fire at him, a column of pure energy that screamed through the air. Father couldn't react in time, and the blast sent him through the nearest wall.
Winry flew – literally – after him. All she needed was a few moments of physical contact...
The solid darkness hit her like a wave of poison. Winry screamed as she was sent to the floor, her flesh – steel though it was – bubbling and melting as though she had been plunged into boiling water. She saw Father step through the ragged tear in the bricks, his skin peeled from his body like skin from an orange, but already regenerating.
And Winry realised with a start that their clothes were unharmed. Her white fire wasn't reacting with his clothes, or the objects around them. It was reacting with Father himself. Just as his black shadow was reacting with her, and her alone. But she didn't have time to ponder that mystery.
Winry struggled to her feet with effort – her healing rate might repair the damage at superhuman speed, but it did nothing for the pain.
But Father had taken advantage of her weakness. Another blast of black shadow hurled her across the room, and Winry felt her bones break like toothpicks with the force of the impact even as her body melted and burned.
Winry fought desperately against unconsciousness as the pain threatened to make her pass out. The wounds would heal, she just needed to keep the agony under control long enough to fight back.
She could tell by the startled look on Father's face that he hadn't expected her to get up again.
Another blast of white fire, and this time Winry saw Father's body cave in on itself as though about to disintegrate. For the first time, it occurred to her that Father was getting the worst of this battle – her skin was steel, and harder to breach, but with his alchemy disabled, he had no hope of producing a similar shield.
He was too slow, and this time Winry saw the blow coming. She flapped her wings once, flying up and out of the range of the blast. She flipped gracefully though the air, sailing over his head and striking from behind.
Winry had hoped that this contact might be enough to rip the Daemon from him, but Father was too quick. He spun away, and laid his hand on her face.
It was like being directly in front of a shotgun when it went off. Winry was thrown backwards, and she could feel the metal-flesh of her face dissolving, peeling away, the bone beneath it crumbling...
Then, quite suddenly, a wall shot up from the floor, between her and Father. Winry's head turned (as she knew Father's was doing on the other side), and she saw...
Ed. His hands pressed to the floor, apparently having noticed her predicament.
'Ed,' Winry thought in despair, 'Ed, you idiot...'
But there was no help for it. She could survive Father's attacks, Ed couldn't.
So Winry threw herself forward, tackling Ed to the floor, her wings rising over them in an effort to shield him..
She'd known Father was gunning for Ed, but she hadn't expected him to be so quick. Her wings were barely halfway in the air before she felt the blast of black shadow. She watched, slightly nauseated by both the sight and the level of pain accompanying it, as her metal wing melted away to reveal muscles and tendons. They too, burned away, until her bare bones were exposed to the air.
Winry screamed, she couldn't help it, even as she could see muscles and tendons and skin regrowing over her skeleton. Ed was gaping at her, looking horrified, but now was not the time for small talk. She whirled, facing Father once more, sending out a snake of white fire to keep him occupied.
The black shadows neutralised it, and Winry threw herself into the fight once more.
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December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
In a moment when Wrath was beaten back, Ed risked a glance over at Winry...only to find Father approaching her where she lay crumpled on the floor.
He reacted without thinking. He clapped his hands, letting a wall spring up between them. Both turned to him, Father's eyes filled with contempt, and Winry's filled with...fear?
Ed was given no time to react. He saw a burst of what looked like solid darkness pour from Father's hands, just as Winry tackled him to the ground. She raised her wings, obviously trying to shelter him as the blast caught one of the feathered limbs.
Winry screamed, and it was only sheer horror that kept Ed from joining her as her entire wing melted down to her bare bones.
And Ed realised, like a slap to the face, why he should keep out of this fight – at all costs.
Because he would be a liability.
It was clear that, with whatever it was the Father was throwing out, Winry was the only one who could take a blow like that and live. If he joined in, Winry would be forced to protect him. And in protecting him, Father had the best chance of being able to kill her.
So when Winry whirled away and rejoined the fight, he didn't make a sound of protest. He couldn't fight this battle.
Lesson learned, Ed turned back to Wrath.
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December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
Deception was Envy's very nature. While he ducked and dipped away from Roy's flames, he was switching shapes with almost blurring speed, trying to strike upon the one. The form that would make him halt in his tracks.
And since he'd been spying on the Colonel in the first place, Envy knew a variety of shapes that might throw the Colonel.
The pretty woman at the reception desk.
No luck.
The last woman he'd gone on a date with – all those months ago.
No reaction.
The shape of his friend – Maes Hughes.
A reaction, but not enough of one to satisfy Envy. There was a flicker of hesitation, yes, but Roy still snapped his fingers, and the fire still danced towards him.
But now Envy had an idea of what might throw the Colonel.
He tried them in quick succession – the shapes of those who had been stolen from under his command. Havoc, Breda, Falman, Fuery.
There were reactions, but not enough. So Envy concentrated, and tried his final idea.
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December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
Roy continued snapping his fingers, struggling valiantly not to hesitate as Envy shifted his form from one friend to another. The homunculus was just trying to throw him off, and Roy kept up that mantra, telling himself firmly that the people in front of him were not his friends – he was not burning his friends.
But then...
In a snap of white light, Envy's shape shifted once more.
And this time, Roy froze.
Riza Hawkeye stood in front of him, her blonde hair tousled, her uniform ripped, bruises and streaks of blood splotched across her skin as though she had been in a vicious fight.
"Roy...?" she whispered, that single syllable laying in his heart like a lead weight.
Roy's heart rate soared, his breath became shallow and gaspy, and his hands started to shake. He knew it was Envy in Riza's form. His logical mind was screaming him that this was just what Envy wanted.
But it was currently in combat with one of Roy's most deeply hidden instincts. The one that screamed that Riza Hawkeye must not be harmed, at all costs.
And as heart and mind clashed in outright war, Envy seized the moment. Roy found himself hurled backwards, his ribs stinging from a spinning kick to the chest. Envy was back in his natural form, and Roy raised his hand...
But then it was Riza in front of him once more.
Another long moment of hesitation gave Envy the opportunity to deck him before the homunculus was distracted by Jade's blow to his back.
If Envy continued to use Riza's shape, Roy didn't see how he was going to be able to harm the homunculus, much less kill the monster.
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December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
Wrath jumped forward, brushing Riza's neck with his fingers.
"Turn your gun on yourself," he hissed, obviously planning to use the Daemon's essence to control her and hold her life hostage once more.
He seemed completely floored when she spun away from him, firing at his head.
"Obey me!" he bellowed when he regenerated.
Riza smirked as Ed rejoined their battle. "It looks like you've been outmaneuvered, Fuhrer."
The expression of rage and disbelief on his face almost made all those months of hideous uncertainty worth it.
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December 29th – Father's Laboratory, Central
Another spurt of black shadow barely missed Winry as she hovered in mid-air, raining white fire down on her opponent. Father was taking the aerial assault badly, but not badly enough to be incapacitated. And she needed something to keep him quiet while she took the Daemon from him.
Winry knew it was only a matter of time before the black shadows dancing in the air like cobras brought her down, so she was prepared when one finally hit her in the ankle. It acted like a lasso – dragging her back to the ground, and Winry rolled with the impact in a tangle of hair and feathers.
She was peppered with short, sharp blasts of black shadow like bullets from a machine gun. Winry knew there was no way she'd be able to fight back effectively if he kept this up. So she took what she knew was a cheap shot, throwing her white fire right into Father's face.
Father screamed as his skin burned away and his eyes melted in their sockets, blinding him. And Winry decided she'd had enough of dancing around him. She could probably take anything he hit her with, anyway, and she knew that prolonging this fight was only putting her friends in danger.
Winry charged, tackling Father to the ground and grasping both sides of his face, digging her fingers into his flesh to resist any attempt to dislodge her.
Father felt what she was doing and grabbed her arms, trying to force them away from him, using his black shadow to scorch and burn her flesh. Winry gritted her teeth against the pain, holding on grimly.
Father was beginning to howl, though Winry suspected it had more to do with frustration than the pain she was causing him by forcibly removing the creature from his body. A tight scream scraped its way past her throat as the flesh of her arms began to fall away.
But then...she felt it. The Daemon was torn from Father's body (and Winry made sure to rob him of that part of him that allowed him to perform alchemy) just as a dark shadow flickered at one end of the room. Father went perfectly rigid, then collapsed, as though completely drained of energy.
Around the room, the remaining homunculi screamed and simply dissolved, falling away into nothing, the Philosopher's Stones that had held their bodies together cracking into dust. As the dark shadow at the end of the room joined them, Winry realised it must have been another homunculus.
'Probably Pride,' she thought, standing wearily.
She looked around the room, noting the injuries sported by her friends and the way Ling was still shaking.
"Jade," she said softly, looking at the woman who had come to stand by her side. "Let's get everyone patched up. And help him-" she nodded to Ling, "-his system is probably in shock."
Winry dusted herself off, moving away from Father, disregarding the man stumbling to his feet.
"Winry..." Al said weakly, "Winry, he's right behind you..."
Winry turned, and spoke to Father for the first time. "I have taken the Daemon from your body. I have also altered you in the process – you will never perform alchemy again."
She ignored the gasps that resounded around the room. She would explain, or at least try to, later. Right now, Winry was just too tired.
"I have let you live." Winry didn't glare, but her stare was a hard one. "Only because I know that, from this moment on, you are no longer a threat. You are insignificant...and I know it will be the worst possible punishment for someone like you."
And Winry knew it was true. For centuries, Father had held all the cards in his hand – a word from him could break entire empires. And now, he was just an ordinary man. Brought down by a girl not even eighteen.
Winry turned, preparing to walk away, but his voice stopped her.
"What are you?"
Winry chose to deliberately misinterpret the question. "My name's Winry Rockbell...for all the good it will do you."
"I asked what you were, not who you were," Father corrected. "I've seen Mangeli's chimeras and I can say, without a doubt, that you're not his handiwork."
"Really?" Winry shivered her wings. "Certainly feels like it."
"Oh, the wings are Mangeli's, alright," Father said, altogether too cocky for someone alone in a room of enemies. "But I doubt anything else is. Mangeli doesn't have the finesse, the skill, to make something like you."
Ed's nerves were already strung out by the battle, and Father's words weren't helping at all. "Listen!" he snarled, "That psycho didn't 'make' Winry-"
"It's okay, Ed," Winry said calmly. "He has no idea what he's saying, not really."
"Oh, but I do," Father all but purred, like a cat playing with a mouse. "I know powers like the ones you have don't come from chimera transmutations. They come from something very different, don't they? How far gone were you during his experiments, that you ended up there?"
His voice was confident, condescending, sure of his power...but the illusion of power was swiftly shattered when Winry turned and walked away.
"Go see your brother," she called over her shoulder, "And maybe he'll give you some tips about living a normal life."
Not Winry held out much hope. Father's world had just crumbled around him, all the power robbed from a being who had always prized power above all else. Winry suspected he'd suicide as soon as he could. While she felt a bit of regret, she bolstered herself with the knowledge that it was his choice – she wasn't killing him, she'd let him live. What he did with that life wasn't her concern.
"By the way, Colonel," she said as she passed her puzzled friends. "Envy was the one who killed Hughes."
Winry touched Riza's arm, pulling the remnants of the Daemon's essence from her body. It wouldn't have actually done anything to the lieutenant, but Winry just wanted to tie up every loose end.
She could read the questions in everyone's eyes, but didn't have the strength to deal with them at the moment.
Winry left, and the others simply followed.
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AN: We don't know much about Pride, so I decided to leave him out of the larger battle, and only have him just coming in at the end, to confirm his destruction. I just didn't feel comfortable writing him when I know so little about him (at least, I'm assuming it's a him).