His tormented screams rent the air, ripping it like a knife in flesh. He was painfully aware that the fighting had stopped and everyone was watching the spectacle. He was also aware of every little thing Katsumn and Izumi were doing inside his body.
"Are you sure you're healing him? The way he screams, you'd think you were vivisecting him." Pride said.
"There was no time to get to the pain-killers or sedatives when we started, and if we give them to him now, it could make his condition critical, since we're already working! Maybe if you had looked before spearing him, he wouldn't be in this bad of condition!" Katsumn snarled, using Alchemy to patch up another section of his muscles that were too shredded for her to fix.
Everyone was silent. The only noise now was his screams of pain.
Finally, it stopped. He looked at them the best he could. "Is it… over?" he panted.
"Almost, Edward. Almost. We just need to sew up your skin now." Izumi told him softly.
"Violet. You pinned him, please unpin him now." Katsumn said softly.
The little girl nodded, pressing her hands to the ground. The earthen tendrils holding him down withdrew themselves, slithering off of the sheet and back into the ground. Slowly, Katsumn and Izumi sat him up. The pain wasn't as bad now. The most their stitching got out of him now was pained whimpers. When they finished, Katsumn carefully cleaned off all of the dirt and dried blood from his skin and wrapped his midriff with a long white linen strip. "There. All done. But you're in no condition to do any fighting or activities that take more energy than walking. And, because of that, it's kind of risky to move you around too much."
"Well, that complicates things even more. Our orders were to bring you Alchemists back to Central, but if he's in no condition to be moved around, we can't." Wrath said.
"Yeah, well, you might wanna beat it 'fore you guys get your asses whupped! We know how to beat you. If your Stones are worn down enough… You die. For real." Nmutua snarled.
The Homunculi glared at her.
"True. All of our tomes and scrolls say so. That's fifty-two primary sources, and roughly a hundred secondary sources. Maybe if you scram now, you can live a little longer. Beat it. Scum." Katsumn nodded.
"Woah, you're calling us scum?" Envy laughed.
"Only with human lives can a Philosopher's Stone be made. And only through a Philosopher's Stone can a Homunculus be made. So… Who's the lower life-form? You're lives are basically created by humans, so you're inferior to us. Homunculi are lower life-forms that are only created to be a child's toy!" the empress snarled.
"She's right, actually. You may be doing yourself a favor be leaving." Hohenheim said, standing up.
"If Hohenheim is agreeing with her, then she's probably correct and we should leave." Pride said.
"Yes, it appears so. Let's go." Wrath nodded. The Homunculi turned and went back to Central.
Katsumn sighed, and then turned back to him and Hohenheim. "Now, who are you? Ed seems to know and dislike you, so I want an honest answer!" she pointed.
"This is my father." he answered quietly.
"Dad!" Al came running up. "Dad, it's nice to see you!"
"Hmm. We'll leave you to catch up with each other. Warriors! Help repair the camp and tend to the wounded!" Katsumn yelled.
The place burst into activity as everyone started repairs and fixing tents, up-righting wagons, and bandaging wounds. "So, boys, why don't you explain what's going on here?" Hohenheim asked.
"I'm leading an army to attack Central." he answered shortly.
"Why is that?"
"He and the other Rainbow Alchemists discovered that this country is the base for a giant trans-mutation circle that will turn the country into a Philosopher's Stone. We've allied ourselves with the Ishvalan survivors, Briggs soldiers, a bunch of human-Chimeras, some Xingese warriors, a few Central soldiers and rebels, and a race called the Invisible Warriors from an archipelago off the coast of Xing called the Invisible Islands. We're hoping that with these numbers, we can conquer Central before they put their plan in motion." Al elaborated.
At the sound of approaching foot-steps, they looked up. Scar and Cathrine were approaching them. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Katsumn sent us to guard you. She said that there was too big a risk that the Homunculi would try and abduct you." Cathrine said.
"Why just you two?" Al asked, puzzled.
"Possibly because of our past reputations." Scar said bluntly.
Cathrine sat down with a huff. "So… Who are you?" she asked, opening one eye to look at Hohenheim.
"I'm Ed and Al's father, Hohenheim."
"Hohenheim… Where've I heard that name before? I know I have." she said, shaking her head. "Whatever, I'm Cathrine Honeywater. I'm also the Orange Alchemist. Nice to meet you."
"My pleasure." Hohenheim nodded.
"Hey, guys!"
Everyone jumped. Looking back, they saw it was just Karina and Violet. Karina was grinning ear-to-ear with her delight at making them jump. Violet wasn't really paying attention, day-dreaming again. "Boy, you look like crap, Ed!" Karina said, leaning down to look him in the eye.
"Shut up…" he growled.
"I take it these two are more of the Rainbow Alchemists." his father said simply.
"Yeah. The dirty-blonde that scared us is Karina Ren Suzuki. The space-case is Violet Thompson." Cathrine nodded, glaring daggers at Karina.
"How'd Violet wind up over here, though? And with that space-case expression, I'm guessing she has no clue she's over here!" he sighed.
"Nmutua told us we were too little to help rebuild the tents and that we should come over here or we could be crushed by someone dropping something." Karina said resentfully.
"You both are rather young to be helping when everyone else is an experienced fighter, hardened to the experience of fighting." Scar nodded, sitting down.
That snapped Violet out of her day-dream.
"Hey!" both she and Karina whined.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Violet asked with a pout. "I just prefer healing to fighting!"
"And I fight plenty! Do you think I spend all my time twiddling my thumbs? If you wanna see me fight, then I'll gladly fight you right now! I know martial arts!" Karina objected loudly.
"Just sit down and shut up already!" Cathrine snapped angrily.
"You certainly have an odd assortment of friends, Edward." Hohenheim commented.
"And what does that mean?" he snapped.
"Brother, calm down!" Al sighed in exasperation.
But it was too late, and now they were all squabbling.