Chapter 21: Struggle

Roy sighed as he removed a shredded pair of gloves.

The ground was littered with chimera corpses, along with various projectiles several of the chimeras could utilize.

"The war did us some good… we would have been dead from being out of practice if it weren't for the west's ambitions." He said in a weakly bemused voice.

Riza and Havoc looked over their remaining guns and ammunition. "Wow, I'm amazed… considering how many attacked, we've still got a fairly good supply of guns and ammo." Havoc said as he and Riza opted to abandon the suitcases.

They pocketed as many remaining clips of ammunition and guns as they were able to carry.

Roy followed suit by pocketing his remaining gloves and ammunition for the single gun he carried.

The sudden blaze of a flare caught their attention.

"It looks as though our break is over. Let's go." Roy said gravely as he began running towards the source of the flare.

Riza and Havoc snatched up a few more clips of ammunition before running after Roy.

"Knowing their luck, they ran into the source of all our troubles." Roy said with grim amusement.

Suddenly, a winged serpent appeared out of a nearby building and launched itself at Havoc. Before he could react, the chimera dropped to the ground dead, a precise hole where an eye once resided. Havoc glanced back at Riza in appreciation before they resumed walking.

This time they were more careful in case any more chimeras attacked.

Ed awoke to a scene of absolute destruction.

Several broken spikes, cracks in the earth, broken walls and various transmuted weapons littered the ground. Several buildings had been damaged or destroyed.

He found it hard to get his eyes to focus, but when they did he quickly paled.

Pain was holding a struggling Al by his neck above her head with a watery tentacle in place of her arm. One of her extended nails was mere inches from his temple.

He cursed as he stood, knowing he would have to move fast to save Al. He noticed the flare gun nearby and grabbed it as he slipped amongst the ruins.

Pain was speaking to Al, neither person noticing him as he slunk up behind Pain.

Quickly firing off the flare gun, he transmuted it into a throwing knife similar to one of the ones Maes Hughes used to use and threw it at her.

The knife hit its mark, striking Pain squarely in the back of the neck, causing her body to collapse as the spine was severed.

Al quickly ran to his brother's side, gasping for air. "I was worried she had really hurt you, brother. You hadn't moved at all." Al said, grateful that his brother was alive.

"I just hope General Mustang and the others will get here fast." Ed growled.

Al lowered his head worriedly. "She said she sent the entire chimera army she forced the alchemists to create for her after them. She says they couldn't have survived facing that many chimeras…"

"And why should we believe anything she says?" Ed growled, although he was secretly just as worried as Al was about them.

Pain stood, her body fully recovered once she pulled out the knife, and glared back at them. "That was very impolite, Edward." She said icily as she tossed the knife away.

"Heh… I've always been told I'm pretty rude." He retorted as he transmuted his arm.

Al transmuted a spear similar in likeness to the one Ed had used on multiple occasions.

Ed quickly put aside the questions that had suddenly burst into his head over his brother's odd transmuting habits and pointed his blade at her. "Sorry, but I don't intend on being anyone's puppet."

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm glad to hear that… I hated following Dante's orders without knowing the reason… Now I'll just kill you both…" She said as her shadow lunged at them.

The brothers separated just as the shadow would have struck them and moved away as it split to try and get to them. The brothers regrouped in front of the ruins of the theatre as Pain advanced on them.

"You humans are a tenacious bunch, I'll grant you that." She said in irritation. Her eyes drifted to Ed's left leg. "That automail is so troublesome…" She said as her tone shifted from irritation to pure anger.

A tendril of water snuck away from her and made its way towards Ed. Before Ed could react, the tendril rapidly slunk into the cracks between the skin plating of his leg.

"What the-?" His words were cut off as he suddenly lurched sideways. He had lost all feeling in his leg, which then collapsed at the knee, causing him to overbalance and fall.

"Sloth truly was lazy if she couldn't even destroy the internal structure of your mechanical leg." Pain said loftily.

"Brother!"

"Run Al!" Ed yelled as he saw the shadow once again rushing towards Al.

Al cursed as he tried to move, but was caught by a tendril that had lunged ahead of the main body.

He was thrown hard into the ruins of the theatre, trying hard not to cry out as severe pain gripped him. His right leg had been broken as he landed on some pieces of a ruined wall. He could hear his brother screaming his name, but the pain threatened to overwhelm him and he couldn't reply. He almost wished he was a suit of armour again as the pain seared through his body; however the pain reminded him that he was human, and for that he was surprised to find that he was grateful to the homunculus.

Pain began to slowly advance toward Ed, her arm shifting into the same spike-like object that had killed him before.

Ed paled as the scattered memories of that moment before he died flashed before his eyes. Fear gripped him and froze him more effectively than the disabled leg could ever have hoped to.

She smiled. "Ah, so you remember this… I saw it in a small corner of your mind and filed it away should this occasion arise…" She said gleefully. She was enjoying the mental trauma that Ed was experiencing as he stared blankly at the instrument that had once caused his demise; the instrument that would certainly be the cause of his demise once again.

A shriek of pain snapped him out of it as she erupted in flames.

"General!" Ed said in surprise as Roy, Riza and Havoc walked swiftly towards the homunculus, weapons pointed at her as she lay on the ground motionless.

"What happened?" Roy snapped.

"The bitch disintegrated the inner workings of my leg, and then she threw Al into the theatre. I don't know if he's all right." Ed growled as he transmuted his leg, stiffening it so that it would support his weight, but it would drastically reduce his speed.

Riza and Havoc helped him up as Roy kept a watchful eye on Pain.

"Be careful, she can use the others' abilities. Her ability is shadow manipulation." He growled. He transmuted a pipe into a staff to help him walk before limping off to find Al.

Pain began to quickly regenerate, using her shadow manipulation to distract Roy, Riza and Havoc from the real threat that was reviving behind them. She brushed the charring from her shoulders and aimed her elongated nails at Roy.

An intense desire to kill him was vivid on her face as she readied to pierce his back while he fought off her shadow with Riza and Havoc. Her expression quickly turned to shock as a large spike ripped through her abdomen. She slumped over it, and her nails returned to their normal length as she died again.

The shadow immediately vanished as they turned to see why.

Ed was supporting Al, who was limping with a makeshift splint wrapped around his broken leg. "Did you forget about their regeneration?" Ed growled angrily at Roy.

"I didn't, but her shadow was giving us hell. We need to get away from her before she revives. Distance will have to be our weapon."

Ed nodded as Havoc and Riza took over supporting Al so they could move away quickly.

Pain revived quicker this time, as it wasn't a full body injury. She slashed away the top of the spike and casually slipped off what remained, brushing herself off just as casually as her shadow returned, lunging after the fleeing humans.

"General Mustang! Edward! Alphonse! We need cover until we can reload!" Riza yelled as she emptied the last of her clip into the quickly advancing shadow.

Roy quickly complied by turning and snapping quickly. Explosion after explosion rend the ground as the shadow tried to continue its advance.

Al and Ed created a large crack just behind the fire line in case it split to try and slip through the explosions that were raining down in it.

"Clear!" Riza called as she aimed beyond the explosions and fired. Suddenly, the shadow vanished.

Once the smoke cleared, Pain was standing with a hole in the middle of her forehead. The hole vanished and she charged at them angrily. Suddenly, it was as though she was launching a full assault against the humans: her shadow split and lunged at the same time her one arm turned into a torrent of water that shot at them while the other extended its nails to the fullest extent.

"Scramble!" Roy yelled in horror as the onslaught approached.

Without any hesitation, the group split and ran with the occasional retaliation to keep Pain's attacks at bay.

Havoc cursed as he rolled to dodge the torrent of water that had followed him. Aiming the two guns he was carrying, he unloaded the clips into Pain's body, striking all the lethal points with ease.

All attacks ceased as she died again.

"How many more deaths does she have in her?!" Havoc asked indignantly as he stood, reloading his gun quickly.

"We don't know! Who knows how many red stones Dante fed her before sealing her away?" Ed called from across the square.

The scramble had separated them and the distance between each fighter was too great to close fast enough to beat her regeneration speed.

"Damn… she's got us right where she wants us…" Roy growled beneath his breath as he saw this.

As he tried to figure out who she would go after, he paled suddenly. "Havoc! Run!" He roared.

The realization came too late as Pain stood up suddenly.

Havoc aimed his gun at her again, but the homunculus was too fast for a human's reaction speed.

Her extended nails pierced through him easily. The stunned look on Havoc's face froze as his legs gave out beneath him.

Roy and the others stared in horror before charging at the homunculus, enraged at the sight before them.

A small trickle of blood slipped from Havoc's mouth as her nails shrank. It was apparent that the nails had been the only thing holding him up as he collapsed, face down into the rubble, once they were removed.