Demons Only One
Chapter 4: 1825 Paper Cranes
He's good... Allen gritted his teeth. No matter what he tried, Fullmetal dodged all of his attacks, but there was something off about his movements: Why wouldn't he attack? If he really wanted Allen's body, wouldn't he want to kill Allen and get rid of any complications? He charged at the Noah, taking a swipe with his large sword, but the Noah back-flipped out of the way, easily avoiding strike.
Allen recalled what the Noah said at their last meeting, and hesitated. Why would he tell Allen about how his Innocence was protecting him and why wouldn't he just destroy the Innocence?
Suddenly, Allen was looking up at the sky with a mild headache; it seemed that while he had been distracted, Fullmetal had taken the advantage, quickly closing the gap and threw Allen over his shoulder. Currently, a gloved right fist was mere millimeters from Allen's nose. "What the hell was that? Do you usually get this distracted in the middle of a fight? You're going to die early at this rate..." Fullmetal scowled down his arm at the shocked exorcist.
"Wait, what do you mean? You don't... intend on killing me?"
The blond studied him for a moment before stepping back. "I never intended on killing you. I have.. enough blood on my hands." He studied his gloved hands for a moment before looking back at Allen. "Although, I guess I can see why you would think that I would kill you. I am a Noah." He rolled his eyes at the thought and scowled again.
"By the way, who taught you how to fight? You suck. Majorly." He plopped into the grass as Allen sat up, offended.
"Hey! I've been getting by just fine!" His gray eyes flashed and his fingers twitched toward his sword, which had fallen out of his grip.
The blond quirked an eyebrow, and Allen looked away. "It's not like General Cross actually taught me anything..."
The Noah laughed. "Yea, he's like that. How has he been? I haven't seen that jerk for awhile."
The white-haired frowned. "No one really knows where he is. He might be dead..."
"What?!" Allen explained the circumstances the night General Cross had disappeared.
"Hmm.. I see.." He could practically see the Noah storing that information away for later deliberation, when he suddenly vanished.
Something small and hard slammed into Edward's head, jerking him awake from his nap/conversation with Allen. "What the-" He whipped his head around looking for the source when his eyes landed on an angry golden golem who was, in all intents and purposes, hissing at him. The other inhabitants of the cabin were all watching the event with interest.
"You little brat." Fullmetal made a grab for it, but it dodged him and lodged its fangs into the Noah's hand, causing him to hiss in pain. He pried it off and started to pull at it, stretching its mouth to impossible lengths. "Hey, just because I tried to destroy you the first time we met doesn't mean that you get to hold a grudge," he growled. "Although, I guess I-" He stopped himself. He was going to mention how he had taken over Allen's body, but thought it wiser not to mention that in the cabin full of the exorcist's friends.
It was then that he realized the reason that Timcampy hadn't been around: He had been looking for Allen, but since Allen's presence could no longer be felt, he couldn't find him. After some time, he must have decided that Fullmetal probably had something to do with it.
His eyes darkened for a moment at the thought before they glinted with malice. "You know, I've been wondering why you appear to have a consciousness and how you keep regenerating even after being destroyed into a billion pieces. Maybe it's time to take you apart while General Cross isn't around to stop me." He grinned darkly.
Timcampy squeaked, escaped from his hands in a flurry of golden wings and hid behind Lavi, who was glaring at the Noah and reassuringly petting the golem. Edward looked away as if saying he was no longer interested in vivisecting the golem.
To Lavi, it seemed odd the way that Fullmetal quickly became disinterested in the golem, as if he were only chasing away the little critter and had no real intentions of hurting it. He studied the Noah for awhile longer as the Noah started to flip through his notebook again.
It was dark when they finally reached London. Miranda studied her companions after the long train ride: she felt that Lavi and Fullmetal looked haggard, as if they didn't sleep at all; on the other hand, Kanda looked the same as he always did, cold and distant with a hint of annoyance and arrogance.
The lamplight cast a dark shadow across everyone's faces. "We should find a place to stay for the night," she suggested softly. Movement in the corner of her eyes turned her attention to Fullmetal who looked like he was about to say something, but shut his mouth instead.
"Yea," Lavi said instead.
It took them about an hour to find a place that was suitable; unfortunately, they never got the chance to go in and relax. As they were entering the inn, the guys stiffened. Lavi grabbed Miranda and then they all jumped back from the building just before it exploded.
"Welcoming committee," Fullmetal growled. He suddenly whipped around, looking toward the roofs and scowled. "Rhode."
"Oh? Well, if it isn't the traitorous Fullmetal. What should we do, Lero?"
"Lero! Kill him, lero!" screamed the umbrella as Rhode idly swung him in a circle at her side.
"Hmmmm, I would rather not kill a brother, even if he betrayed the Earl. I would much rather make him regret his decision." She grinned maliciously at Edward, and he gritted his teeth.
This was not good. He had to think of something, fast! She was probably going to send him into one of her dream worlds, but then the problem would be finding her real body. If he could just do that, he could probably corner her and send her back through the gate... However, he didn't know who she was on the other side. Or what.
Suddenly, Kanda and Lavi appeared on either side of her, both attacking, and both missing as Rhode easily jumped out of the way. "Not fair!" She pouted childishly. "Teaming up on one little girl!" She waved an arm, and the sky was filled with demons. "So we'll just even the odds!"
Lavi swore; when did the Earl make so many demons? Then, thousands of spikes flew up from the ground and impaled the demons. Looking back behind him, he saw Fullmetal with his hands pressed to the ground. Snapping his eyes back to Rhode, he saw her glare angrily at the other Noah and wave a hand at him: Fullmetal had stopped moving. He was forced into her dream world, but Lavi had no time to worry about the Noah as thousands of other demons appeared in the night sky.
'Shit' thought Ed as he ran through the streets of what looked suspiciously like Central. 'What do I do now?' He turned a corner of the building and stopped, his eyes widening.
"E-edward… Beloved… Wh-why… couldn't you m-make… me per…fect?" a grotesque mass of blood, organs and bones pleaded at Ed, her misshapen hand trying to grasp at his feet, slowly pulling herself toward him while leaving a trail of blood and organs. The stench of blood and death was overwhelming and Ed nearly gagged.
"You aren't real," he growled stepping back. He could feel his heart racing; he knew what Rhode was trying to do. She was going to make him crazy by forcing him to relive all of his mistakes and kill his allies.
He clapped his hands and blue lightening raced around his "mother" and crushed her under a large slab of rock. The smell of ozone added to the blood did nothing to his nerves, but it was a slight comfort that even in her dream world, he could still use his alchemy. 'I have to get out of here…' He gritted his teeth and then prepared himself for the next nightmare.
He didn't know how long he was there, but it felt like he had faced every one of his own personal demons: Envy, Sloth, Barry the Chopper, Scar…Even his allies and friends were put up against him: the Colonel, Winry… Hughes.
"It's your fault I died. You got me involved! What will Elysia do without me?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get you involved. I never asked for your help!"
What hurt most and hit closest to home were Al's accusations.
"Brother, it's all your fault! Everything!"
He was starting to lose his mind, and he didn't know how much more he could take. It wasn't everyday that he got the chance to review every mistake he had made throughout his entire life and had to question the intentions and the inner thoughts of everyone he cared for.
What was the worst thing about the ordeal was that, in order to find Rhode, he had to attack everyone, even Alphonse.
"Big… brother…"
"Nina" he breathed.
"Want to… play?"
He closed his eyes for a moment, stealing himself, desperately convincing himself that he had to do it, and then rushed forward, clapping his hands and just brushed the wall beside him, transforming the brick into a blade. Flying forward, he slashed at her as she started to dodge. While he was unable to give her a fatal wound, he was still able to gash her deeply.
The world around him wavered, and then shattered as Rhode could no longer keep her focus.
He fell to his knees, exhausted and quickly glanced about to get his bearings; he saw Kanda furiously chasing Rhode through the sky, leaving in his wake the explosion indicative of destroyed demons. His eyes sharpened as he saw that Rhode had a horizontal slash across her body. 'So she was distracted by pain…'
Pushing himself off the ground, Fullmetal made a move to rush forward and cut Rhode off, but instead was cut off himself. "Tyki Myk…" He looked down the length of the other man's arm and noticed that his arm was inside his chest. He could feel the ice-cold fingers wrapped around his heart.
"Hello, Fullmetal."
"…Colonel."
Notes: So I took forever to update this story, and I want to thank you all for the reviews and the support!
Title is from Epik High's song, "1825 Paper Cranes." I love Epik High! I wish I could've seen them when they came to the states.
Concerning this chapter, I don't know if I'm satisfied with it or not, but it had to come up sometime! So here it is! Also, yes, I did forget about Timcampy. Oops. Haha.
Cheers, and please leave a review!