Chapter Two – The Two Alchemists Part II

"Please, come this way," the dark haired priest said leading the two brothers and Rosé through an open door. "His holiness is very busy so it's not easy to get an audience with him. You two are very lucky," he added.

"I'll try not to talk for too long," Gilbert said as the door slammed shut.

The priest had an open smirk on his face as he reached inside his jacket for something. "Yes, let's end it right away," the priest pulled out a gun and pressed it to an opening in Ludwig's armor that he saw out of. "Like this!"

He pulled the trigger on the gun and the helmet was blown off and Ludwig fell to the ground. At the very same moment that Gilbert was going to move towards the priest two guards put their spears in front of the albino blocking his way.

"Brother Cray! What are you doing!" Rosé asked, yelling at Cray.

"Rosé, these are heathens that were trying to entrap his holiness. They're evil," Cray replied.

"What! But his holiness would never let you this … let you …"

"He did allow it!" Cray said, a gleam in his eye. "The words of his holiness are the words of God. This is the will of God!" Cray said aiming the gun at Gilbert's head.

"Hmm …" A hand gripped the gun, "guess there's some really bad God's out there," Cray looked in shock at Ludwig who had stood back up not bothering to put back on his helmet. But there was one thing. It looked like there was nothing in the suit of armor.

"Wha …?"

At that moment Gilbert grabbed one of the spears with one hand and gripped the tunic of the man holding the spear and threw the man to the ground as Ludwig punched Cray in the face.

The other guard yelled and tried to get away but Gilbert threw Ludwig's helmet at him, knocking him out.

"All right! Strike!" Gilbert said, giving a thumbs up.

"My head …!" Ludwig said annoyed.

"Wh … wh … wh … What is this?" Rosé asked pointing at the younger brother.

"Nothing special …" Gilbert said, knocking on the empty suit of armor that was his younger brother.

"It's just what it looks like," Ludwig finished.

"Th … there's nothing inside … it's empty!" Rosé asked, looking horrified.

"You might say …" Ludwig started putting the helmet back on, "… that this is what happens when you commit the greatest sun … when you trespass in God's domain. MY big bruder and I both …"

"You too … Gilbert?" Rosé asked turning to the State Alchemist. Said alchemist scratched the back of his head.

"Well, let's just save that story for another time … anyway I guess your God showed his true colors," he finished casting a glance towards the unconscious priest and his guards on the ground.

"No! It has to be some kind of mistake!" Rosé said.

Gilbert looked annoyed. "Aww, man … she's seen all this and she still believes in 'his phoniness'? That's totally unawesome."

The alchemist turned to Rosé. "Rosé … do you have the courage to face the truth?" He asked.

XXX

"This is Cornello's room? The one that Rosé told us about?" Ludwig asked.

"Let's see …" Gilbert said and as soon as he said that, the door creaked open.

"Hmph. I guess that means 'Come on in.'" He added, smirking.

The brothers stepped into the room and as soon as they were in, the door slammed shut.

"Welcome to the Church of Leto," Cornello's voice rang out from where he was standing on a staircase. "Did you come to hear me preach? Hmm?"

"Yeah, by all means teach us …" Gilbert said, "… like about how you use your lame alchemy to deceive you followers!"

"Well … I'm sure what you mean," Cornello said, "please don't confuse my miracles with alchemy. If you saw yourself you'd believe …"

"Yeah, I've seen it all right … and what I couldn't understand what how you're able to do transmutation that goes against the laws."

"That's why I'm telling you it's not alchemy …" Cornello said tapping the side of his head with a finger.

"Then it came it me," Gilbert interrupted. "The Philosopher's Stone," he finished smirking. "That's how you do it, right? Like maybe … just maybe … it's that ring?"

Cornello just tapped his head. "Heh … the government get their money's worth out of you, don't they? I guess you saw through the whole thing. Correct! The Philosopher's Stone, the legendary catalyst, the amplifier of all alchemical processes. With this I can conjure at the minimum price, for the maximum result!"

"How long I've searched for that …" Gilbert said a gleam in his eyes.

"Hmph! What's the jealous look in your eyes?" Cornello asked. "What do you want the stone for? Money? Honor?"

"What about you?" What do you get out of founding this phony religion? If it's money you want you can make as much as you want with the stone."

"It's not about the money. Well, I do what money, but I can get that with almost no effort in the form of donations from my flock. What I really need are followers who will happily give their lives for me.

"Think about it! An invincible army of fanatics with no fear of death! Soon I'll have more than enough people! Just watch! Within a few years time this entire nation will be mine! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Cornello got a crazy gleam in his eyes as he told Gilbert his plan.

"Well, fine, but I don't really care about that … let's move on," Gilbert said, looking bored.

"WHAT! Don't belittle my ambition by saying you 'don't car'! You'd better care! You're a member of the military after all!"

"You know to be honest, I could care less about my country or the military," the teen said. "I'll be blunt! Give me the Philosopher's Stone! If you do that, I'll stay quiet about the scam you've been pulling on everybody."

"Hmph! You'd try to bargain with me …? My followers would never believe the words of an outsider like you! The people of this town love me! They think that my words come from God! No matter how much noise you make, no matter what evidence you have, they'll never listen to you! Those idiots will believe anything I tell them! I've completely fooled them!"

"Wow … you are smart," Gilbert said clapping. "Thanks for telling me how you do it. You're right. You followers will never listen to a word the awesome me might say."

Ludwig broke a strap off the chest plate on the armor as his brother was talking.

"But!"

Ludwig slammed down his chest plate onto the ground to reveal Rosé who was hiding in his chest captivity the whole time.

"But what about her words?" Gilbert asked.

"R-Rosé! What is the meaning of this …?" Cornello asked, shocked.

"Whoa," muttered Ludwig as Rosé scrambled to get out of her hiding spot.

"Father! Is everything you said just now true!" She asked. "Were you fooling us this whole time! Your miracles aren't real? The power of God can't grant my wish? You can't bring my darling back again!" Rose asked, with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hmm … it's true that I'm not God's emissary … but with this stone, it may be possible to transmute living being, which so many alchemists have tried and failed. Rosé, I will resurrect him!" Cornello answered.

"Rosé, don't listen to him!" Ludwig warned. "He's lying!"

"Rosé, be a good girl and come here," Cornello extended his hand for the girl to take.

"If you go, you can never come back," Gilbert warned.

"What's the matter? You belong with us."

"Rosé!" Ludwig said.

"I'm the only one that can grant you your wish. Isn't that so? Thank about your darling. And come!"

Rosé started to walk to Cornello.

"I'm so, sorry you two," she said and turned to face the brothers. "But this is the only choice I can make."

"You truly are a good child …" Cornello said. "Well then … now we must eradicate these heathens who threaten the future of our faith," he added pulling a switch.

A door opened in the room and a long snake like tail was revealed. A head of a lion growled at the brothers who watched as a creature appeared out of the room.

"This Philosopher's Stone is truly incredible … it can even create a new life … like this. Have you never seen a chimera?" Cornello asked as the creature revealed itself.

It had the head and upper body of a lion while the bottom half was of some sort of large lizard.

"Whew boy!"

"So …" Gilbert said, clapping his hands and then kneeling on the ground. "Looks like this one might be tough to play empty handed."

Cornello looked confused onto the sound that came when someone was using alchemy sounded.

As Gilbert stood up, he brought from the ground, a spear that he had made out of the ground.

"Ergh …! You made a weapon from the floor without using a transmutation circle? So you deserve the title of State Alchemist after all!" Cornello said. "But that still won't be enough!"

The chimera moved towards Gilbert who used to spear to block the attack but instead the chimera's claws cut through the spear and his left leg causing him to grab said limb looking down.

"Oh no …" He muttered.

"Wa ha ha ha ha! Well? How do you like the taste of claws that can cut through iron?" Cornello asked.

"Gilbert!" Rosé yelled, horrified.

"… Psych!" Gilbert said, a smirk on his face as the chimera's claws fell off the paw. Cornello looked shocked as Gilbert used his left leg to kick the chimera in the chest knocking him back.

"Sorry, these are custom made," Gilbert said, his torn pant leg showing metal through the ripped cloth.

"Wh-what's the matter! If your claws won't work then bite him to death!" Cornello yelled.

The lion chimera growled at Gilbert before charging at him. The red eyed teen caught the chimera's jaw with his right arm, allowed the teeth to wrap around said arm. The chimera tried his best to bite Gilbert but it failed repeatedly.

"What's the matter, kitty? Tastes bad?" Gilbert asked as he kicked the chimera in the jaw, which was knocked off him.

"Look at me, Rosé," Gilbert said to the girl. "This is what happens when you use alchemy on humans … this is what happens to sinners who trespass in God's domain!" He yelled, as Cornello and Rosé looked shocked at Gilbert who ripped of his now ripped jacket.

"… Auto-mail …" Cornello started, "full steel prosthetics …" the fake priest's eyes narrowed. "'Fullmetal' prosthetics … so what's why … THE FULLMETAL ALCEHMIST!" Cornello yelled as Gilbert's right arm was shown to be just a metal arm that connected to his shoulder.

"Come down here and face me, you third-rate fraud," Gilbert said as he made the 'come here' motion with his metal arm. "I'll show you there's no comparison between us!"

To be continued …

I'm so happy! I've finished the second chapter of this story in less than two days! *Happy Dance*

*Coughing* Onto other matters.

A big thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited this story or put it on story alerts. It means a lot to me! I know chapter was actually that long compared to the first one, but I promise that the next one will be longer.

I just got one small problem when writing this story – I still need find some APH characters to fit the FMA characters. If anyone has an idea for King Bradley/Wrath or Breda it would be very helpful.

I'll try my best to have the next part up by Friday.