Chapter Twelve "Hate"

Winry was shaken to the core, her insides were screaming out yet she could not say a word.

"Ed was a failure anyway; he never brought Al's body back, just died on the floor with a hole in his chest. If I'd been in his place-" Pride's sentence was interrupted by Winry's fist and complete rage.

He was shocked she could be so violent; her fist was like a truck hitting him in the jaw. What surprised him the most though, was that she held him by his shirt; this time he was the one who was going to listen.

"Don't you DARE talk about Edward that way!" Her words could move mountains and her hands were shuttering back and forth yet the grip was so strong.

Everything she felt and everything she and Ed had, was proven by the tender and somehow great strength in her voice. "I'm going to have to live with the fact those people died for the rest of my life but at least I have a life to live! You're not fit to have his voice let alone abuse it to get to me!"

Pride did not expect this from her, he thought he had made a dent in the other Edward's memories and had been able to shed his deepest thoughts and desires but they were still hidden in him somehow. Sloth herself said she remembered being Ed and Al's Mother, it was why she wanted them dead so badly so she could stop being reminded that she could never be the real Trisha. Pride hated to think that's what he was doing now, he honestly could care less about all the people he killed so why then did Winry matter? What was different from before?

Winry was angrier than she had ever been in her life, she did not know how Ed died or how it was to see him lying there and in the cruelest way this imposter dared to speak with his mouth and have the same tone Ed would use for simple jokes back when he was alive. There was no forgiving this person now, if he was even a person, all the resolve to endure anything was shattered as she starred at him while he laughed at her.

He looked so innocent right now too, like he was trying to figure her out. His newly regenerated hand was on his cheek feeling the bruise she left and acting like he did nothing wrong his entire existence. It was a mistake to forget that he was not human and that he was no substitute for the real thing, there was another sin to set on her shoulders for she had started to forget the real person she grew up with and cared for all this time.

Wrath and Izumi was in her thoughts, she hoped they got away but she did not want to go and check; for if the worst was true she might actually try to destroy Pride herself out of anger and she couldn't bare to be stirred up any more.

Her blood was boiling and she wished she could do something about it, rewind time to where she never knew what happened to Ed and Al or what kind of creature they made in desperation. "If you don't bring them back, I'll kill you myself."

"You really mean that, don't you?" He tilted his head in curiosity. "You get so mad when other people die and you're willing to take a life yourself? Humans really are a big contradiction."

"Keep talking and I won't wait to keep my word." Winry was not being gentle any more; all she wanted now was for him to die right now and then.

Gluttony was still trapped under the metal but it was not going to take him long to get out. There were no people to kill now but Winry wasn't going to take that chance, not after what happened.

"Pride, you need to stop him from taking any more lives." Winry called him by his new name now and took Izumi's words from before. She was firm and honest and masking her great desire for vengeance on this monstrosity.

Pride didn't understand why but he was almost amused by her, the way she ordered him around without regard to the fact it would be simple to end her life as much as those on the train. He liked it, the lack of any empathy for him anymore. The pity was gone and so was the hope of him being anything like the real thing, just how he wanted it.

Gluttony was sick-looking with his necks under scrap metal and various other thing all over him. It took Pride a good five to ten minutes just to walk there let alone find himself standing where he wouldn't get blood on him. Winry was there, she was the one with the eyes in the real Edward's place, another face that judged him. It looked like a war zone, charred bodies were everywhere and the night sky was not providing enough light for him to walk about property. His bare feet were pressing into all sorts of things and nothing made it easy.

If there was any justice he would be the one in his own blood and not the civilian and his wife he noticed to his right. It almost would have been better if he transmuted them, saved him the trouble of looking for any more stone fragments. He had only eaten two; he couldn't imagine how many more he would need to continue in his current state. If he never found the first one, he might not have been able to accept who he was.

At last the hold on Gluttony loosened and with his strength he lifted it up and grabbed him by one of his heads. It was large and heavy even with the strong arms. His right arm had been switching a lot when he touched the other things and now it stayed the same as ever. He was holding something very dangerous with his two arms and if he regained consciousness he would have another fight on his hands, what he deserved was to be ripped apart by this thing but instead he dragged it along and signaled to Winry to follow.

Much time was made up, the Church was not too far off and they might actually make it because of the increased speed of the train. But no amount of talk would sway Winry's hatred now, no matter how much time they gained.

"We should be able to take him without being seen in with the night as cover. There's a Church, inside it is a passage down to the underground where Dad and Dante met up and where the real Ed and Al had their last breath." He said it this way on purpose and waited to speak it until Winry caught up to him.

The grin was still on his face and red liquid was all over his feet from where he walked, unaware of the eyes of Wrath that peered up at him from the wreckage as they walked along the way.