"NOOO!" The shadow yelled. "THIS CANNOT BE!" It looked down at Alice, breathing heavily with pain on the stone. She was beginning to bleed out, and her body wouldn't last much longer. It once again picked her up by the throat and roared in frustration. Alice writhed futilely in an attempt to move from its grip. Elisa stood up numbly, weak from the fall and wobbling on a broken ankle. She dragged herself across the room without attracting the shadow's notice; it was far too absorbed in its attempt to kill Alice. She once again picked up the dagger and slashed wildly at the creature. None of the blows landed upon the shadow, but Elisa kept trying. The shadow noticed her efforts and lowered Alice back towards the platform, now unconscious. With another swing of the blade, Elisa landed a slash across Alice's face, from her left eyebrow and down across her eye and cheek. "Begone!" The shadow commanded, slamming Elisa backwards into the wall. Elisa's head smacked into the wall, and she slumped onto the floor. The shadow laughed maniacally as he turned back to deal with Alice.
"How…dare…you hurt…my friend?" Alice panted as she clapped her hands together. She slammed her hands onto the stone, throwing javelins of her own blood at the shadow. Her left eye was bleeding profusely and her vision was blurring, but she managed to pierce the shadow.
"How can that BE?" it roared. "You cannot harm me!"
"It's my blood that was in that stone…You used the stone, my blood rejects you…" Alice panted desperately. She dragged herself onto the floor and over to the candles. With the last of her strength, she transmuted her blood into the candles, creating a strong fire. The fire surged across the blood paths in the room, consuming the dead creature on the floor as well as every drop of blood on the stone. The fire raged, and the light started to pierce the shadow. It roared in pain and tried to escape; with the light all around there was no longer anything to cast a shadow. The fire licked at the shadow's form, causing it to erupt in howls of pain and anger. Alice dragged her bleeding, dying body to Elisa and tried to pull her out of the burning warehouse. There was a slamming at the door to the warehouse, and Alice heard voices. The door burst open and Alice saw blurry figures burst in just before she succumbed to the blackness.
Alice awoke five days later in a very bright room. There was the smell of flowers nearby, and wonderfully cool breeze blowing in from a window across the room. Every part of her body ached and screamed in pain. She gasped and tried to open her eyes. Her left eye was taped shut and covered with a layer of gauze, but her right opened and her vision focused slowly. Next to her bed sat Colonel Mustang and Jonathan, who was asleep in a chair against the wall.
"Ah, you're finally awake?" Mustang said, with a chuckle.
" 'Finally?' What do you mean?" she asked quietly.
"You've been asleep for five days." Mustang replied.
"Five days? How can that-" Alice tried to sit up, and her words were cut off by a gasp of pain.
"No, stay still. You should not be moving yet." Mustang gently pushed her shoulder back down onto the pillows. "You have a severe wound in your back, third-degree burns everywhere, a dislocated knee and fractured wrist."
"…I can feel that," she responded, letting her attitude take over. "but what do you mean five days?"
"Exactly what I said. You've been asleep for five days. Your body needed to heal, and sleep forces you to stay put and let your body do its work. Like you should be doing now." He added with a stern glance.
"But I need to know what happened!" Alice protested. "The children! Elisa! Those creatures…" She shuddered at the memory. "What was going on? There was a stone…it called it 'The Philosopher's Stone.' It destroyed-" She broke off suddenly, letting herself dissolve into a torrent of tears. She let her body flop back onto the bed, once again causing herself to cry out in pain. "My-my-wings," she stuttered between gasps. "they're-ah-pressing-" She sat up again and asked Colonel Mustang to tell her what happened to them.
"You were dropped a few times…" he trailed off.
Alice tried to turn, eliciting another few spasms of pain. Ignoring the torrents of pain wracking her body, she reached back and gently pressed her fingertips to her wings. They were twisted and mangled, barely recognizable to her own fingers.
"Oh God, no…" Alice whispered. "How… how is this possible?" She touched her palms together, gently, slowly. Carefully, she reached back again and tried to straighten her wings out. Her efforts were unsuccessful, though she managed to adjust them enough to cause her less pain. Sitting back against the pillows once again, Alice took a deep breath to steady herself. "Colonel, please tell me what happened. It is of the utmost importance that I be informed."
"Even we don't quite know what happened in there. Jonathan's daughter is dead. You are the only survivor from this entire incident. Only you can tell me what happened." He folded his hands carefully in his lap. Jonathan was still asleep, a new grief tucked into the deep set lines on his face. Alice noted that even in sleep, he looked deeply troubled.