He had heard the explosions, seen the smoke, and heard the yells. He knew those sounds well enough—The sounds of a battle being fought.
"Warriors! The lights!"
The lights? Why would one want the lights put out during a battle? You wouldn't be able to see then. He made up his mind to go investigate.
As he walked through the trees towards the sounds and smoke, he noticed evidence that people had been sleeping in them. They had been careful, and tried not to leave any trace, but he caught small things. There, the scuff-mark of a soft shoe. Here, threads from a green hair-ribbon. Chipped bark on the tree next to him.
"Stop! Stop!"
He froze in his tracks. He knew that voice! Only it was much older, and full of pain. He started walking, quickly now.
"Not a chance if you wanna keep living, Elric!"
He emerged from the trees now, and saw the battle. Four of the Homunculi were battling a small army of mixed races. He saw Ishvalan, Amestrian, and Xingese warriors all fighting together. He also saw Chimeras and another race he didn't quite recognize. Half-way between him and the battle was a small group of people. A young girl and four men were pinning someone down, and a young woman was operating on the one they were pinning. As he approached, one of her hands whipped up. "And if you're one of the Homunculi, you'd better make like a rug and beat it!" she snarled.
"No, I'm the boy you're operating on's father." he said.
"Ho-Hohenheim!" Edward gasped as he passed out.
"Don't relax your grip!" ordered the woman operating.
"We know!" the other four replied.
"And why not?" he wondered.
"The second I go back in, he's gonna wake up!"
He shot back awake, screaming as Katsumn worked her way around his organs. He tried to hold back on the tears. He didn't want to cry, not in front of this bastard!
"Hold on… Just need to… Edward! Stop squirming!" she yelled. "You! Hold his head! I can't see if any damage was done to his spinal cord with him thrashing like this!" she ordered, pointing to Hohenheim.
Nodding, Hohenheim knelt next to his head and took it gently between his hands. "Don't touch me!" he tried to hiss, but it only came out as a whisper.
"If only it was that easy, Edward."
"Ohh…" Katsumn sounded worried. "Ooohhhhhhhh... Not good…"
"What is it, Mother?" asked Nmutua.
"Several of his nerves have been damaged, but the cat-gut I have here is too thick to stitch them up!"
"Oof!" Violet landed near them, thrown by one of the Homunculi.
"Vi! I need you to go into the woods! One of the trees has a brown ribbon tied around it! In the lowest branch of that tree is a small white bag that I need you to bring me! Quickly!" Katsumn ordered.
"Ah! Right!" Violet jumped up, running off.
"Piccaru! Can you hold his arm and cut his shirt off?" the empress asked.
"Probably, but why?" the man answered.
"His blood is starting to clot, which will make the shirt stick to his blood-vessels and other inside parts. It'll be painful for him if we have to rip it off of his body, but we can't sit him up right now!"
"Yes, ma'm!" Piccaru knelt on his arm so he couldn't move it, unsheathing a sizeable knife. He carefully started to cut his shirt. "Hold still or you'll get cut too!"
"Katsumn! Katsumn, here!" Violet ran up, handing a small white bag to the empress.
"Stay with us! We may need you!"
Katsumn pulled out a small spool of white thread. When she unwound the thread and put it through the needle, he realized he could barely see it. Then she plunged back into him.
He strained against the five holding him, but it was harder now that Hohenheim had his head. The pain! It was a million times worse! He shrieked, not bothering to try and hold the tears of pain now.
"Wait! Katsumn, I know a way to restrain him while these guys help you!" Violet said.
"Then do it!"
Violet performed a quick trans-mutation, and he felt long, thin tendrils of earth wrapping themselves around his arms, legs, and neck. "There! He can't struggle now, and these guys can help you!"
"Okay then… Piccaru, Nmutua, go fetch a tub of water from the near-by river! Joa, Hi-Yah, sort the instruments! Violet, fetch Izumi, I may need the help of another Alchemist! You… just stay there! I don't care if he hates you, stay there!" Katsumn snapped out orders rapidly.
"Don't worry. She's almost done, Edward. As soon as she reconnects your nerves, she just needs to sew up your blood-vessels, muscles and skin." Hohenheim told him.
"Yeah, but it still hurts!" he whimpered.
"You're a strong boy, Edward. You endured auto-mail surgery, you can endure this surgery."
"And pain is to be expected. That's what you get for recklessly diving at a shadow-beast! I've had to do this kind of operation more times than I care to count!" Katsumn snarled.
At that moment, everyone returned from the job Katsumn had sent them to do. "Violet told me you may need my assistance?" Izumi asked.
"Yeah. I hope you're not squeamish." Katsumn said. "I kinda need two people doing this job at once so we can get it done quickly and get him somewhere safe on the double!"
"What? You mean—Arrgh!" he yelled.
Now both Izumi and Katsumn were working in his gut. "Use Alchemy there, on the muscles that are really broken up." the empress grunted, nodding.
"No—"
He was unable to vocalize anything but agonized screams after that.