Chapter Three: Going North

The path before the horses was blurred with snow drifts that had spilled down from the hills, and yet more snow was raining down from the heavens. The evergreens held white on their branches, making the mountainous region look like a land of white and dark green. Plowing through his white winter land was a group of black stallions with mounted riders with their hoods drawn up, pulling along a single carriage. The men galloped along, a couple straying ahead to survey the area, while the other two pulled the carriage. None of the men looked happy in the least, and yet they continued through the harsh conditions ever present in the northern country. They wore black coats, with their hoods drawn, and gloves preventing hypothermia clung to their hands. Heeled boots kicked into the sides of their horses with nasty force, trying to get them quickly through the dark woods that they were about to enter.

Darik and Karik were in the front, surveying around every corner, their guns ready to be pulled at a moments notice. Zarik and his brother Marik rode on the horses pulling the carriage with the precious cargo inside. If they took one wrong turn, they would be dead, whether they survived the actual wrong turn or not. Erik sat across from their new master, Edo, in the carriage, facing away from where they were going. Edo on the other hand looked deep in thought with his elbow resting on the door of the carriage, and his golden eyes hazy as if he wasn't really there. He had replaced the clothes that Ed had been wearing, and slipped into something a little more...homunculus like. It was a sleeveless black shirt that exposed most of his stomach, tight black pants with red suspenders that wrapped around his knees. He even got rid of the shoes his host had been wearing, and replaced them with silky black shoes that he had bought from a vendor back in Xing. Edo wore the same sort of coat that Edward used to wear, but this one was black with white fur around the hood, and instead of Fullmetal's infamous Flammel's Cross, it bore the sign of the homunculi.

Edo had been silent for hours, ever since they had left Xing in fact. Erik wanted to ask why, although he decide to ask with a bit of tact. "So, Edo, this is rather...sudden, you wanting us to move you up north that is."

"Not really," he replied with a bit of frost to his voice. "I was planning to move north from the start. It will be harder for them to find us up in a vast land like this."

"I'm also curious as to why you are not out riding," Erik added. "You don't seem like the type to just sit back and-"

Edo cut him off. "I would love to be out there," he growled. "But if I do, this body will feel the effects of metal in the cold."

"Oh right. The prosthetic limbs. I had forgotten all about them."

The two blondes slipped into another period of silence where Edo merely gazed out the window without much interest. Wolves could be heard howling in the distance, although sounded a bit different than wolves at times. Sometimes they would sound much more aggressive.

"Where are we going exactly?" Erik finally asked.

Edo snorted into his black gloved hand. "You really don't know?"

"I was never informed," he replied. "I think you only told Darik and Karik..."

"I did. They had to study a military map I had to find it, but I'm confident that we'll get there before this night has ended. Besides, if I wait to long he might think something has happened."

Erik cocked his head to the side slightly. "He, Sir? Who?"

Edo laughed at this. Not a chuckle, no, more of a maniacal laughter that was muffled my his glove. "Oh, just another mistake of Archer's that I took advantage of."

"Mistake?"

Suddenly the carriage came to an abrupt stop, causing both to jerk forward.

"Those damn fools!" Erik hissed angrily.

Edo glanced from Erik to the landscape beyond the window. A grin slowly lit up his face. "We're here," he declared.

Erik leaned forward to look out the same window as Edo. The snowy lands still stretched to the horizon, the conifer trees still dotted the landscape, but now looming before them at the top of the long faded path was a dark building made of stone. Windows panes were missing, and parts were crumbling away, but to Erik, it looked like a building that had long since been abandoned, and gave off a menacing aura of dread and evil. Only moments after stopping, Zarik was pulling open the carriage door, bringing in the cold whipping winds of the outside. His face was crusted with snow, and his cheeks were blood red and raw looking.

In broken speech, Zarik informed them, "We're here, Sir."

"Excellent," Edo replied with a grin. Once Zarik moved out of the way, Edo hopped down into at least a foot of snow, followed by Erik who closed the door behind him. Pride grabbed a lantern that Marik had been holding during their journey, and led that group of men away from their horses and up towards the building that loomed before them.

"Is this really really the place?" Darik asked in the same annoying fashion as he hopped back and forth for warmth.

"Indeed," Zarik replied for Edo. "I've heard rumors about this place. But from what I've read, this place has been abandoned for over twenty years...and yet..."

Erik gasped at the sudden realization he made. "There are lights on inside the building!"

Edo grinned. "Good. That means that he made it here okay."

Instead of elaborating more, Edo led the men up to the front door, and pushed it open without another thought. The men all entered slowly, taking in the inside of the building. The inside lobby looked no different than the outside. It was dark with cobwebs over everything, broken floor tiles, and the walls were half falling apart from age and lack of maintenance. There was a stair case a little ways across the room that led upwards and to the left, but it was too dark to see much else. Suddenly, from behind the stair case, Erik became aware of a low pitch growling noise. Slowly, two wolfish creatures with gleaming eyes immerged from behind the stairs. At first they appeared to be normal wolves, but upon taking a closer look, revealed that their legs were far thicker, as were their claws and fangs that had scarred their lips from slicing them. They growled menacingly at the group, and advanced with a slow stride. Each of the men glanced to their leader wearily, wondering what they should do- it would be rather easy to shoot them, but if Edo had led them to this place in the first place, he may know something that they did not.

"So this is the guard dogs?" Edo laughed with a rather nasty tone. "I suppose this is alright."

"Guard dogs?" Marik asked. "Guards for what?"

Edo grinned, but didn't turn to face his subordinate. "For my base of course," he then glanced up the steps and called out, "Crimson! Call them off."

Up on the stairs there stood a rather tall man, dressed in black pants, and a red jacket. His black hair was left long and unbound, and like Edward, he had golden eyes, although his held no peaceful qualities. A grin had captured his lips, and slowly he clapped his hands twice. Upon hearing this, the two beasts gave one last growl, and slowly retreated back behind the steps.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here," the man called Crimson sneered bravely. None of the other men would ever dream of talking with Pride in such a manner. After all, his homunculus power was still unknown to them.

"Well you know how the weather is," Edo responded with a shrug.

Crimson descended the stairs slowly, and Erik was able to make a couple assumptions about the man. He definitely wasn't outwardly afraid of Pride, and he must have some sort of strength if Edo had gotten him on their side. The question was, who was he really? Erik doubted that the man's name was really "Crimson".

Once he had come to a stop in front of the homunculus leader, Crimson smirked, surveying the men behind Edo. "So these are the men that Archer hired? Looks like a sorry lot to me. Couldn't he get anyone but a group of pathetic rebels to do his dirty work?"

"I'm not complaining," Edo replied. "They do what they're told, and they know where their loyalties lie. I'm hardly asking for more."

"Anything to keep Mustang guessing, eh?" Crimson laughed. His laugh too was rather maniacal like Edo's.

Edo nodded, then addressed the men behind him. "This man you see here is the infamous Crimson Alchemist, Zolf J. Kimbly. He served with our favorite Colonel Mustang in the Ishbal Annihilation. Crimson, tell them how you got your name."

"Gladly!" he replied with a smirk that made the men shift uneasily. "I'm an alchemist that enjoys blowing people up!"

"He transmutes the substances making up people's bodies into a gunpowder-like substance then induces it to explode by rapidly compressing it," Edo explained, just like his alchemist host probably would have.

Zarik being the smart on put it in dumb man's terms for the rest of this fellow subordinates. "He makes people into bombs."

"But if you were in the Ishbal Annihilation as an alchemist, why are you a rogue now?" Karik asked curiously. After all, Roy Mustang was a murderer too, and yet he was still in the military.

Kimbly gave a nasty laugh. "You really don't know? I have a problem with following orders. When they sent me to Ishbal, I blew up every Ishbal resident I could get my two hands on. My superiors didn't like that, so I blew them up. After I repeatedly violated my military orders, a rumor surfaced that I had been executed, but in reality, I was sent to a nice little place called Prison Two."

"And you came to work with Archer...how?" Karik pressed.

"Archer promised that he would be able to blow up people again," Edo replied with a roll of his eyes. "So he was sent to Liore to fight." Edo then turned to Archer and grinned sadistically. "Too bad Scar killed you, eh?"

The men fell silent. Archer took this silence to motion them to follow him deeper into the building, closer to the lights in the other room. Walking down the hallway that led back further from the main lobby like area revealed man faded portraits of higher ups from the military from years before. The only person who looked relatively the same was the last president who was actually the first Pride. Gradually the hallway became lighter until it opened up into a large room that was lit up with large light fixtures that were hanging from the ceiling. Metal tables were placed throughout the room, as well as many objects that looked like cells in which to place large things in order to preserve them...or experiment on them. These pod like cells were made of relatively new glass that contrasted greatly to the overall old appearance of the buildings. All the windows in this fairly large room had been replaced, and yet it seemed even colder than the lobby that had holes through windows.

"Why is it so cold in here?" Erik wondered aloud.

Kimbly glanced toward the right, which made the men realize there was another rather heavy looking door on the other wall that was ajar. "Shit, I left the freezer open."

As Kimbly walked over to close the door, Erik turned to his superior and asked, "A freezer for what exactly?"

"Oh just some animals we use to make chimera guards," was the casual reply.

Each of the men shivered. Kimbly soon joined back up with them. He however did not look like he was affected at all by the fact that there were dead things in the freezer.

"Thank you for cleaning up the place Crimson," Edo praised. "It looks much better than I imagined."

"You haven't yet seen the other rooms yet, runt," he said.

Edo glared, but unlike his host, he didn't explode. "What do you mean the other rooms?"

"I created the one room that you insisted on," he said, not giving the others any clues as to what it might be, "and I am also preparing to go and collect your beloved."

Erik glance over to Edo, only to find his green eyes wide with excitement. "Then make haste! I want my plans to be complete soon," Edo demanded.

"I'll leave in the morning," Kimbly informed them. "But for now, Pride, I want to show you to that special room you asked for..."

Kimbly took a dark blue map from off a nearby table, and laid it out before Pride. It was blueprints to the building. It showed the main lobby that they had came from, the hallway that led to the room, that they were currently in and was labeled "deep freeze room", and several other rooms. Connected to the deep freeze room were two other rooms, each on opposite walls. The one on the far right was labeled "control booth". Inside that room ran all of the equipment that fueled the rest of the building. On the far left was a room titled "waiting room". There was apparently a lot of furniture in this room, where people could wait around, but for what had yet to be decided. From the main lobby and up the steps were bedrooms, and that was it. However, under the stairs, guarded by the chimera, was a secret door that led to a descending staircase. At the bottom there was a hallway that forked off into two. The one to the right was labeled "secret room", that left all the men but Kimbly and Pride confused, and as if to add to that confusion, the remain room read "ballroom".

Marik gave a questioning glance in Pride's direction, "A...ballroom?"

"Yup."

Karik ran a hand through his hair. "Alright, so we go from a room made for freezing critters, to a ballroom."

"Is that a problem?" Edo asked.

"No, it's just...what the hell is up with that?"

Edo laughed and pressed a finger to his lips. "It's a secret. But I will say this..."

Pride's eyes shone dangerously, and the men felt the air still like death itself. In a quite serious tone, Pride growled, "No one is to go into that other room. If you do...well, let's just say you will have seen your last day."

"What's such a big big secret?" Darik asked boldly. Each of the men sucked in a breath as Edo turned his harsh gaze to Darik.

"That, Darik," Edo growled, "is none of your business. I've warned you to stay out, and I mean it. Now, anymore questions?" The men remained silent. "Well then, we'd best be getting something to eat, lest you all die on me. Kimbly, would you be so nice as to whip us something up...?"

"Certainly."

Each of the men shivered, hoping Kimbly wasn't going to cook something from the freezer.