Chapter Title: Things Fall Apart
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: For the 5th Lab (obviously…), and Greed's chimeras
Warnings: Cursing, Tucker (What? He ought to have a warning…)
Disclaimer: I wish I owned it, but I don't. Darnit.
A/N: Gah, I'm horribly late again. Oh college, why must you eat all my time and inspiration so? -sigh- At any rate, here it is. The long awaited chapter 11 of Brothers. Hope you enjoy it!

"Well, this is as far as I'll take you," Greed stopped in front of the door leading out of the large room. The group had been walking through hallways for what seemed like forever to the impatient Scar before reaching this room. Greed had kept asking him questions about who he was and what he was doing here, and quite a few about Edward and Alphonse. Scar had answered most of them, if only to keep Greed guiding him in the right direction, but several more sensitive questions, such as why his right arm had its tattoos and how Alphonse had become a soul attached to a suit of armor, were met with stony silence; fortunately the homunculus had not pushed those issues further.

"Do you know where to go from here?" Scar questioned, knowing that he'd easily get lost without some kind of directions in this maze.

Greed thought for a moment, then replied with a shrug, "All I know is that you just keep going down whenever possible. It's in the lowest part of this side of the building."

Scar frowned at the vagueness of the directions, but didn't push it further; there was no time to get into an argument with this homunculus. As he began to walk past the door into the corridor beyond, he spoke, "You have my thanks for guiding me as far as you did."

Greed grinned behind him, "Yeah, yeah, just don't forget that you owe me one."

Scar did not reply this time, and soon Greed, the chimeras, and the doorway had faded into darkness behind him. He walked for some time, alone in the silence and eerie half-light of the lab, going down whenever he could. He had quickly gotten turned around in the maze, so much that he didn't know even the general direction of where he'd started from. If he didn't find the Elrics, it was likely that he would wander in circles and never find his way out again; the thought was chilling, and he tried to keep it out of mind. After some time, however, he began to notice a deep ache in his right arm; it was a greatly muted version of the pain he had experienced when the Crystal Alchemist had thrown that red stone at him…it seemed like an age ago, but it wasn't even three months. But Scar remembered the pain as though it had happened just yesterday; it had been the worst he'd experienced in a long time. And this was the same kind…so there were red stones somewhere nearby. He was heading in the right direction.

It was some time later before he found the small window set into the wall, the increased pain in his arm and the sickly red glow emanating from the room beyond telling him that this must be the right place. He moved quietly to avoid possible detection, peering through the small opening onto the scene beyond. He'd found the Elrics, but it didn't look good.

Edward was moving what appeared to be tanks full of red liquid into indentations around the edges of a transmutation circle that looked eerily similar to the main part of his right arm, and inside the circle was a group of ragged and frightened men in prisoner's uniforms. Alphonse was there as well…but he was missing his arms, legs, and helmet, and the woman homunculus had her claws pointed at his bloodseal. Threatening him. Gritting his teeth angrily and fighting the urge to burst through the wall and stop whatever was going on, Scar continued to look around the room, trying to figure out what was going on. The fat homunculus was there as well, as was a grotesque creature that looked part human and held a small, furry child. And then there was…himself? Scar blinked, growing more confused by the second. It wasn't him, but it looked exactly like him! What was going on? It was obviously something to do with the Philosopher's Stone, but…

Clunk. The sound of the last tank being pushed into its place was all it took to interrupt Scar's confused and disorganized thoughts. The fact that the amount of red liquid present was causing him a great deal of distracting pain in his right arm only made things worse. And now Edward was kneeling before the transmutation circle, clapping softly and then reaching for it so slowly his arm was barely moving at all…Scar's mind was racing, trying to think of something he could do that wouldn't get them all killed. The moments seemed to stretch on for hours, and everything was blanketed in a heavy silence. And then…Ed's arm stopped moving, and dropped; the boy hung his head, and his whispered words seemed almost like a shout in the completely silent room.

"Sorry, Al…I can't…"

For about half a second there was a kind of shocked silence, and Scar's doppelganger frowned in annoyance and started forwards towards Ed. It was at this point when Scar finally made his move, knowing that if he didn't do something right now then he might be too late. Almost without thinking he brought his right hand against the wall, blasting it open in a shower of flying rubble. A few of the tanks of red liquid were smashed in the process, their contents splashing all over the floor and causing something of a panic amongst the prisoners; this also turned out to be an incredibly effective distraction to the homunculi. The woman had moved away from Alphonse, at least. Without pause, he jumped down to the floor, landing in a crouch and standing quickly and looking around, trying to take stock of the situation they all were now in. Alphonse wouldn't be able to stand, that much was obvious, and Edward didn't look to be in that good of a condition himself. The alchemist was gaping at Scar in disbelief, briefly turning back towards the doppelganger as if to confirm that it was still there.

"Scar…?" Ed turned back to the Ishbalan, and when Scar nodded, grinned and staggered to his feet, sending the homunculi a smugly triumphant look, "Well, it doesn't seem like he's all that dead after all."

Lust's only response to that was to stand up and narrow her eyes in frustration, while Envy sighed and transformed back into what Ed assumed was his normal form, "Well, there goes that idea," the homunculus smirked and continued walking forwards in a somewhat threatening manner. Ed moved towards Al, and then his foot landed in the incomplete Philosopher's Stone and the world dissolved into chaos.

The room was flooded with the bright blue light emanating from Ed's form, his automail warping and changing into a spear which launched itself into the wall, just barely missing Lust and Envy as the two homunculi dodged out of the way. Stone spikes grew from the floor and flew through the air in a deadly rain, taking out several of the scattering prisoners. Red liquid gushed from the walls where Ed's arm and the spikes had smashed the glass holding it back, and almost all of the tanks had been smashed open as well within a few seconds. And it was all going into Ed, fueling yet more uncontrollable transmutations. Scar was immobilized at first by the sudden flare of intense pain in his right arm at the presence of so much of the incomplete Philosopher's Stone being activated so close to him, but he soon realized that Alphonse was completely unprotected from the deadly stone missiles being shot through the air with abandon. Pushing as much of the pain to the back of his mind as he could, he ran for Al.

He only made it about halfway. He was so distracted by the pain and trying to reach his goal that he didn't see the spike flying towards him until it was too late; he only had enough time to get partially out of the way, and it grazed across his left side, the force of the blow knocking him to the ground with a strangled cry of pain. And now that he was on the ground, his right arm was close enough to the puddles of Philosopher's Stone to activate his tattoos. A puddle the size of his fist glowed bright red and flew onto his right arm as though drawn by a magnet, beginning the slow process of absorption the instant it touched his skin. From that moment, there was nothing in Scar's world except for the pain. Someone was screaming, and it took him almost a minute to realize that the sound was coming from his own throat. By that time, even more of the liquid Stone had flown to his arm, and the pain had intensified tenfold. He wasn't in a state of mind to do anything but scream and thrash and try to claw the stuff off his arm, but it wouldn't come off and more kept coming and coming and coming and he couldn't stop it. He didn't even know who he was anymore. And then his arm attracted the attention of one of the main streams, and when the pull of his arm wasn't strong enough to bring such an amount to him it dragged him across the floor to it instead, plunging itself up to the shoulder into the stream. Now the power of his arm was at war with the power pulling the liquid into Ed, and he felt like he was being torn apart. He was in too much pain to even scream anymore…he just wanted to die.

He was only aware that he'd been pulled out of the stream because the tug had felt like it had pulled his arm clear off, except he knew that couldn't have happened because it was still covered in the Stone that had been pulled out with it and therefore the pain of absorption was still continuing, and then there had been relief from the terrible feeling of being torn to pieces by the power war between his arm and Ed. He was distantly aware of being carried upwards and then set down, as though it were happening to someone else and he was merely watching. Even though the pain had lessened slightly now that he was out of the stream, he still could do nothing but convulse on the ground, eyes rolling wildly and foam dripping from his mouth as his arm slowly absorbed what had been pulled up with him. Every second he'd been in contact with the liquid, voices had been crowding into his mind and they were angry and shouting and they wanted blood and he was being overwhelmed make the voices go away please make them stop please please please. And then it was over, leaving nothing but an aching arm and the voices. Those did not lessen, still crowding his mind with their anger and hate, but eventually one very insistent and familiar voice began to rise above the others, desperately calling his assumed name over and over. It was Alphonse. He had to reach Alphonse. He focused on the boy's voice, pushing the others back into the recesses of his mind as best he could. Finally he managed to get most of them pushed back, and focused his eyes through the blurry haze of sweat and tears, trying to find Alphonse. The boy was right in front of him; he was no longer down in the room full of the liquid stone, but had been somehow moved back up to the hallway where he'd blasted the wall open. Alphonse didn't currently have any legs or arms, so how…? Realizing that the boy was still calling his name, he tried to reply, but all that came out of his mouth was a hoarse, strangled noise.

"Don't try to talk, Scar-san," Al's voice was full of worry for his friend and his brother both, "Niisan…he's still down there…his alchemy is completely out of control…" he trailed off as Scar attempted to push himself up, "Scar-san, what are you going to do? You're already hurt, and I saw what happened when the incomplete Stone got on your arm…how will you get to niisan?"

"I don't know," was what Scar attempted to say as he pushed himself shakily to his knees, but he didn't know how much of the pain-garbled speech Alphonse would be able to understand, "but I have to try."

He certainly did have to try, even if it meant more pain for him. The amount of power that was flowing through the boy now…it would be similar to what he had been going through, if not worse, and he couldn't leave Edward down there to suffer through it when there might be something he could do. Someone had pulled him out…he had to do the same now. He had to.

Alphonse nodded solemnly, understanding what Scar meant to do as the Ishbalan pulled himself over to the edge of the hole in the wall and prepared to jump back down, "Be careful, Scar-san."

Scar nodded, looking down for a moment to make sure there was nothing that would kill him if he jumped. The floor was broken, but nothing he could impale himself on, and almost all of the incomplete Stone was gone. Even the transmutations had calmed down somewhat, although Ed was still glowing with that eerie blue light and jerking around as much as he seemed to be able to; the sight of it made Scar's stomach twist unpleasantly. Without a second thought as to his own safety, he pushed himself off the ledge, landing in a crouch and collapsing with a grunt of pain as his legs gave out from under him. But he couldn't give up now. Pushing himself back onto his feet and trying to ignore the pain that shot through his body, he started towards Edward's glowing form. The sheer amount of raw power flowing out of him was enough for Scar to have to actually push against, as though it were a strong wind. His arm was hurting again, but after what he'd just been through the mere pain of being close to the power felt like next to nothing, even though it would probably have left him completely immobilized before. By now all of the Stone had been used up, but even then As he grew closer to the boy, he had to put up his left arm as though to shield him from the force of the outward spiral of power; his right arm hung useless at his side, the shoulder having seemingly been dislocated when he'd been pulled out of the stream before. He didn't know what he would do when he finally did reach the boy, but it would be better than lying uselessly on that ledge and watching his friend suffer.

And then he was there next to Edward, throwing his left arm around his shoulders and trying to wrench him away from where he stood frozen. He didn't know if this would help, but it was worth a try. For a moment Ed seemed glued to the spot, and then suddenly he moved, the abruptness of the release causing the Ishbalan to lose his balance and fall to the floor with the boy in tow. Instinctively he curled around the boy, as though trying to protect him from what was happening to him even though he knew such a thing was a useless gesture. Edward was still glowing, and he didn't know how to stop it.

"Edward…Edward, calm down, try to take control of it," he muttered, clinging the boy to him tightly in desperation, eyes squeezed shut at the blinding glow and the sound of the Stone's power roaring in his ears.

"…Scar…?" a tiny whisper, so soft that Scar could barely hear it, escaped Ed's mouth.

"Yes, yes, it's me, Edward. It's me, I'm here…" an almost overwhelming feeling of relief that Ed was still in there, could still recognize him, flowed through Scar. He was helping, he was protecting. Something he had barely thought himself capable of anymore.

Edward, meanwhile, seemed to be slowly calming down as Scar continued to reassure him, and the Ishbalan realized that this was what had happened when Alphonse had brought him out of it. He needed something familiar to focus on, to pull himself out with, and Scar's voice seemed to be doing the trick. So he continued talking, practically babbling by this point, feeling the power slowly but surely subside. The glow was gone now, and the sharp pain in his right arm had dulled to an ache. He slowly opened his eyes to stare down at Edward, only to find that the boy was already looking right back up at him with eyes that were exhausted and pained, but aware. He'd succeeded.

"You're all right…" a tiny smile quirked the corners of his lips upward for a brief moment. All that he'd put his body through was finally catching up to him, black spots dancing at the edges of his vision and his grip on Ed slackening.

"Scar…Scar! You'd better not die now, you stupid bastard!" Ed's exclamation was muted in his ears as his vision went completely gray, then black as he sank into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.

It was almost two hours later when a group of soldiers rushed into the room, and the sight that met their eyes was certainly a strange one. The room was completely torn apart, the floor cracked and buckling and spikes protruding from the walls and floor. Shards of glass and metal crunched underfoot as the group hurried towards the center of the room, where a small, relatively circular area of the floor remained had remained undamaged, like the eye of a storm. And lying inside this circle was one of the strangest sights they'd seen that day: the former serial murderer who had generally been believed by most of them to be a cold-hearted monster was curled protectively around one of the people he'd not only once almost killed, but should by all rights despise for being the one holding him captive. It didn't make any sense, but there was no question that the Ishbalan's posture was that of a protector; from what they didn't know, but they highly suspected that it had to do with whatever force had injured the two of them so badly and torn the room apart like this.

"Hey, did you come for us?" a desperate voice called down from somewhere above them; they looked up to see a large hole blasted near the ceiling, through which was another hallway and what appeared to be a mutilated suit of armor.

After a few seconds of staring at the empty armor that was talking, one of the soldiers regained enough composure to shout back, "Are you Alphonse Elric? We received a report that the Fullmetal Alchemist, his brother, and his charge had entered this building some time ago, and we've been searching in here for at least an hour."

"Yes, I'm Alphonse," the voice coming from the armor was filled with such relief and gratitude that the soldiers had to wonder what exactly had happened here. Whatever it was had taken out all three of the group, and anything that could do that was something to be worried about.

"Don't worry, we'll get you all out of here as soon as we can," the soldier called back up, then signaled some of the others to get the 'armor' and several more to begin moving the two on the floor.

It was slow going getting out of the lab; they had to be careful with Fullmetal and Scar in order not to worsen their injuries, and it took three of them to carry Alphonse. But eventually, finally, they made it out into the cool night air. Makeshift stretchers were assembled, and the trio was loaded into a truck bound for the military hospital. The three of them had barely survived their ordeal that had been meant as merely a routine inspection. But they were alive, despite everything. And that, Alphonse realized as the truck rattled on its way, was all he really cared about at the moment. Inhuman creatures, Philosopher's Stones, all of it…he could worry about that later. Living was enough for now.

A/N: And finally, the 5th Lab is officially finished with! Now I can go on to other, hopefully more fun things. Hooray! Poor Scar though…he absorbed like, a fourth of that stuff. TT I HAVE A REASON FOR IT I SWEAR. But isn't Scar an amazing big brother? I want him to be my big brother. It'd be great. Anyways, I hope you all liked it! The ending was kinda awkward, I thought, but I couldn't think of another way. XP Until next chapter! -waves-