Chapter Nine: Nightcrawler

A/N: Heh. I bet a bunch of you are mad that I didn't actually write out a battle scene. ~__~; I'm not good at writing battle scenes. Sorry. As for the title, well, you'll see where I got it from soon enough. If you can't come up with an answer, I'll explain in the next chapter.

"Really?" Kimbly mocked. "Are you really Fullmetal's brother? You don't fight much like him."

The Crimson Alchemist gave the broken body on the ground a kick, causing the misfortunate soul to yelp. Winry, who was beside herself with horror, ran to Al, and threw herself over him in order to protect him from further injury. She glared up with angry blue eyes at the golden eyed killer.

The fight had not ended well for Alphonse. He put up a valiant effort, but Kimbly had far too much experience for Al to successfully contend with. After all, the man had survived through the war and genocide that was Ishbal. Al, he had always hid behind the fact that he fought as a nearly immortal suit of armor. Now he knew the pain that his brother had to go up against.

He was bleeding. He was bleeding a lot. He felt as though he was just a mass of pain and broken bones. Despite all of that, he still wanted to fight; he couldn't lose that coffin or its contents. Not to a mad man like Kimbly, or his boss, Edo.

"Enough," came a firm voice.

Al, Winry, and Kimbly all looked, only to see Edo leaning against the nearby tree. His green eye that wasn't covered by the eye patch was glued to the coffin, and a smirk lit up his face when he realized it was definitely in Kimbly's possession.

"Very good Kimbly," he said.

Kimbly backed off from Alphonse, but kept his grin. "Don't bother with lifting it. I doubt you could."

"So says you," Edo growled. He then glanced from Kimbly to Alphonse with a sadistic smirk. "Why, Al, you look horrible. What happened?"

"You know damn well what happened," Al growled angrily. "How did you get here?!"

"It's my homunculus power," Edo said proudly. "I can teleport from place to place as long as I have it pictured in my head. I wanted to see how Kimbly was doing with mother, so I came here."

"What do you plan to do with her?!"

Edo pushed himself away from the tree, and walked over to Al. At this motion, Winry glared up with teary eyes, and attempted to shield Al the best she could.

"Don't worry Winry," Edo purred, causing the auto-mail fanatic to feel sick. "I wouldn't dare hurt my own brother. After all, we are family."

"You and him aren't related!" Winry yelled angrily, tears now streaming down her face. "His only family is Edward Elric. The real Edward Elric. Not some...look alike!"

Edo's expression darkened. "Watch who your talkin' to Missy, or you'll end up like little Alphonse."

"You wouldn't dare," she tested.

Instead of a direct response, Edo turned on his heel, and walked toward Kimbly who was lifting the coffin.

"To answer your question, Al, I plan to resurrect her," the blonde said without turning.

Al could not retain a gasp. His eyes were wide, and his skin was bleached white. "R-Resurrect her? Hasn't she gone through enough already, Edo? She's been dead twice now! Leave her be!"

"You know nothing!" Edo yelled, finally turning. His green eye burned dangerously. He then pinched the bridge of his nose in order to relax himself. "I'm staying up north at a laboratory. If you want to try and stop me, feel free; I feel like having a bit of fun."

"You truly are evil."

Edo wagged his finger at the younger alchemist. "There is no such thing as good or evil, Alphonse. Just opinions."

Edo stood beside the taller Kimbly who had successfully lifted the coffin, and gave a short wave back to Edward's brother and friend.

"See ya. It's been a real pleasure," he snorted.

He placed a hand on Kimbly's shoulder, and in a swirl of black dust, the two of them disappeared.

"Oh...god..." Al whimpered.

Winry slowly removed herself from her defensive position, and kneeled beside her friend.

"Don't worry Al! I'll take you to grandma, and everything will be alright!"

She attempted to pick him up causing the least bit discomfort she could, but no matter how she tried, he was still in pain no matter what. And slowly, she made her way back to her house with an injured Alphonse in tow.

***

Back at the northern lab, in Edo's secret room, Kimbly propped the coffin up against the wall. The room was rather dark, all except the light that Edo was holding.

"Don't you think you were a bit too chatty with your host's brother?" Kimbly asked. It didn't matter to him one way or another, but his boss' actions seemed to contradict what he had said on other occasions.

"It doesn't matter one way or another anymore," Edo replied as if reading Kimbly's thoughts. He seemed unworried about the fact that Al now had a slight understanding of where they were located. "Al has never been this far up north before, and with the injuries you dealt him, it will be a long time before he himself can come up here to reclaim her. In the meantime, he'll tell Roy all about what happened, and like a good Colonel, he'll look up the information for the only abandon lab up here...And then he'll head an expedition to save Edward."

"You've planned on them interfering, and yet..."

Edo smirked. "You don't understand Kimbly. I need them to butt in. It's just how it is. How boring would it be if they just let me take Ed's body for my own, and let me resurrect the dead? It would be incredibly dull. I need some action. It doesn't matter really if Roy and his buddies try to stop me, because I have enough power to stop them. And enough leverage."

"Edward and his body, right?"

"Yes. And now I have mother. Al would never hurt her, corpse or no."

Kimbly and Edo began leaving the room in silence before it was broken yet again by Kimbly.

"Don't you think you're putting a bit too much faith in your homunculus body? I mean, your host- who is still technically alive I might add- was born human y'know. What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing can go wrong," Edo boasted. "I've planned everything out, ran alternate solutions in my head to every situation that could be thrown at me. Face it: I can't lose. And if it comes down to it, I'll take my own life rather than giving it up."

"Does that mean I have permission to shoot you if things go belly up?" Kimbly asked with a wide grin. "Or maybe I could blow you up?"

Edo smiled wickedly, enough to make Kimbly pause. "You're my right hand man. You're the only one I would trust with such a task."

"And Erik and the others?"

"They won't be useful much longer."

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A/N: With Edo always saying "mother", he almost sounded like Kadaj from FF7: Advent Children. |o| I'm not too pleased with this chapter. I felt as though it kind-of ended up lame. I do like the last part between Edo and Kimbly in the secret room however. Especially that last comment. Poor Erik, Darik, Marik, Karik, and Zarik. If only they knew what was in store for them. *evil laugh* Review please.