Chapter Fifteen "The Gate"
After consuming the stones himself he had taken in the added strength to heal his throat and the energy to combat any weakness he had in his missing limbs. When Pride looked back there was a hand through his back, the same way Envy had formed a spike to stick through Edward, and Wrath had done so with his ability to form different things with his limbs. Envy snorted, seeing the irony in this and loving it.
Pride looked back, the pain was not as vibrant in his current state but the flashing memories were the worst torture of all. Edward had died in this way, that was embedded within him from his very birth at Allophone's distress.
He fell into Winry's open arms, blood overflowing from his mouth the same way Ed's did. He was literally reliving the same moment without the end of death to satisfy him.
Even knowing this was not Edward it was hard on Winry to see this powerful image, Edward dead in her arms gasping for breath.
Wrath moved back upward, sticking his hand into his pocket. There were three strands of Edward's golden locks… all that had survived after the transmutation. Wrath had taken down Lust using their own weaknesses against them and he was about to do the same with Pride.
It made Pride unable to move an inch as he slid to the floor from Winry's chest. There he was, a pathetic creature stunned by the Original.
"What… what's happening to him?" Winry said and received no reply.
Wrath was not able to stand up at all but he carved a circle around them crudely and in haste, it was a lame imitation of Ed's alchemical circle but it was enough to harm Pride greatly. Nobody did anything as he took the time to carve it out in Pride's own blood on Wrath's fingers.
He and Winry were in the center of the circle, stunned by what was happening. Winry was hit with every possible tragedy she could stand and by now she was unsure how to take it anymore. Among her were the creations that longed to be human and hated humans all the same were fighting and playing with lives as tools and enjoyment. She was just one of them that happened to still be living. She wondered if her parents were this strong before they met their end and if they truly hated Mustang for it, the way she should be pleased with Pride's agony as she found she could not be now, seeing him there.
Sympathy was something Winry had been given in spirit and though she despised him and wanted him dead it was hard when he had the face of somebody she cared about.
Envy had enough of this, it was boring him now. He needed a way to find Hoenheim and the way to him was through The Gate.
Reaching his hand out from the ground Pride called out to Envy, his blurred image seeing him as his last hope. "Please… Brother… please…!"
Edward's voice came out from him again and pleaded with everything he had yet Envy just stood there with an unsympathetic sneer. He called out again and again and nothing changed, Wrath was almost finished with the writing now. Pride's scream rang out when Wrath placed Ed's remains in the transmutation circle.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry I did this to you!" He screamed, Envy fading from within him. "AL!" Images and feelings were violent within him, vivid and clear like The Gate was being pushed open.
He saw a bit of it, loud hammering at the door with Edward's voice on the other side screaming. "LET ME OUT!"
Creatures clung to Pride's arms and gripped tightly around them, laughing at his misery. He was not dead yet but he was moments before the real world would slip out of his grasp. He turned his head back and Winry was trembling. Had she heard Edward's voice? The real Edward?
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Pride felt as though hot acid was being poured down his throat, the stones poured out of his mouth as he coughed them out with a mixture of his own blood. He was dying now and Winry was too afraid to move.
Nothing could kill him fully, Wrath was not an Alchemist and neither were Envy or the still immobilized Gluttony. Pride was starring right up at Winry but it was clear she was not looking at him right now; her head was still turned upward, where she heard Ed scream from The Gate.
And this was when Pride remembered something, something that the stones had forced him to forget. Before he took of them he had a resemblance of what might be considered… happiness towards this girl. After being rejected flat out by Rose and spat on by those around him the one he thought to look for from Edward's memories was Winry.
He didn't question it at all, still denying who he was and trying to find a purpose but she accepted him a little. After he did all those horrible things she was still there for him until he drew the line in the sand himself. There she was, all the things that he caused to happen to her wearing down on her and forcing her hand and still she was looking up, he hated this, she was not looking at him at all; she was still vainly searching for Edward. She always had waited for him and never got around to breaking that off, even after he had died for his brother she still was there, waiting.
Pride closed his eyes and shed tears, wearing a smile, no longer delusional from the stones and holding in the searing pain from the transmutation circle. "Winry… pick up the stone."
Winry shuffled, slowly taking the stone had had tried to force on her. He was clearly unable to move so she was not as scared of it but she was elsewhere right now, stunned by what she had just seen though for half a second; what Ed and Al had seen trying to bring their mother back.
Wrath moved upwards, expressionless and worn out from all the cruelty in his life, satisfied in imprisoning Pride forever but now at the same place he started without Izumi. He ended up collapsing right next to the door at the end and passing out willingly.
Envy was moments away from leaving himself, not fascinated by all of this and still driven in his own goal. Gluttony would awake a towering monstrosity driven only by pleasure but that would never change, Dante took away his mind.
Pride blinked and his voice was teary, something Edward only got when things were out of control, as it was for Pride right now. She was shivering, looking everywhere for something that was not there, that Pride could never be. That could be what made him want to drive her away so much and seeing her like this reminded to him once again that there were just some things out of his reach. He wanted to believe he could beat him and become something he was not, he thought he might have already outdone him with both his arms and legs and the knowledge stolen from him but now he was on the floor in the middle of a cage, as his pride came before his fall.
"Winry, I want you to use that." He took her arm softly but firmly, the way she did for him a long while ago. "I want you to transmute me, and bring him and Al back."
Both Envy and Winry flinched hearing that, Pride would be sure to be dead forever; wandering the inside of The Gate for his transgressions unable to make it to either side. "But then, you'll…"
Pride interrupted her. "I never was to begin with." He moved her hand to the floor on the circle. "Let me think for you, but this time there won't be any tricks."
Winry was stunned, not wanting to do it but with a part of her still resenting him. The stone was set next to her just waiting to be used for this new immorality.
"Come on." Pride moved his hand across her face with no wrongful intent anymore. "I'd rather be remembered doing something… that the real Edward would do, at least."
With that he pulled her down so that both her hands touched and closed her eyes to the alchemical reaction.
Envy said with delight. "YES!" He jumped into the center, ready to see The Gate to find the other side; see his no good father once again.
Pride opened his eyes to a bright light and he stood in the middle of a clear white existence, standing there before The Gate and... the original Edward with his hands still in his pockets.
"You were trying to lead me on the right path the whole time." Pride scoffed.
"I wouldn't say that, that's more Al's job." Ed said with an honest look on his face.
This was the last proof that Pride was a Homunculus but although that was true right now, remembering Winry he felt, strangely human. What was being a human about anyway? He guessed he would never know the answer but at least he found an idea of what it might be.
Pride touched Ed on the shoulder and Ed's arm glowed a little, as if he had been given something special in that. "Have a safe trip home I guess. Though I'm guessing you'll give what I gave you to your Brother."
Edward shook his head yes as he spoke but his tone was soft, not as angry with what had happened, moved by all the gentleness in others that reflected upon you when you die. "I appreciate it."
Pride glanced back one more time before he'd go through The Gate and smiled, mirroring the look Ed returned back to him. "And for what it's worth, what you did for Winry, was something you did yourself."
Ed had given Pride the best farewell gift, he knew Ed would have done the same for Winry, but it was still Pride that did it; he had found his own soul. Pride closed his eyes as the light covered him and the door opened, with that he left that world forever. "Thanks, Ed."
Envy appeared at last, though there was no real sense of time right now. "What's going on? Where am I you worm?"
"The Gate." Ed said.
He walked up to Edward threateningly but Ed was still overcome with calmness, the world opened up to him now. He was going to send Al back to the other side, back to Winry and everyone else but that's really what he wanted to do for his brother all along, helped a bit by his other self that went through The Gate before him.
"For me it was a place called London, if I remember right. At least that's what my old man said." Ed said.
"Old man? You mean Hohenheim of Light? You're telling me he's still alive?" Envy showed a bit of excitement to think he still had a shot at killing Hohenheim.
"Yes." Ed answered simply.
Envy came to the end and stuck his hands in the door, grunting as he tried to pull them apart.
"I wouldn't do that, there's no way to know where that'll lead for you." Ed warned him still quiet and easy-going.
"LIKE HELL THERE ISN'T!" Envy said beginning to get some progress on the mighty doors of The Gate. "I'll tell it exactly where to take me!"
"I've come to kill him. Take me to Hohenheim of light!" The door came open and as he spoke the black arms from the door wrapped themselves around Envy's arms.
The children of the gate in their black forms all grabbed him as he came closer into the light. "Stop messing with me! You're taking me to see-" As he spoke his image shifted to Edward's. "Hohenheim! To that BASTARD!" in his last effort he changed into a mighty dragon and ran towards it and vanished to the other side.
Winry opened her eyes, laying there was Al in the middle of the circle, the same age as he was when Ed and Al first started their journey. But it was clear he was no Homunculus, there were no remains to have brought him to life. He grunted, his eyes heavy but innocent, starring up at Winry.
"Winry." Was all he said but it was enough to bring Winry to cry.
She grabbed him and hugged him, letting it all out. Pride gave Ed the means to, and she knew deep down that of course Edward would bring Al back instead. She did not know if he was on the other side of The Gate or gone for good but all she could think about now was how proud she was of him and of Pride for his one good deed.
Al did not know how to react, for him everything went black after they tried to bring their Mom back. But Winry was older now and she was hugging him in her arms happily so he guessed there were things he still did not know yet.
She stood up and wiped the tears from her face, honestly happy for the first time since she found out about everything. Passing by Wrath who was barely awake she mentioned to him. "If you want, I can install some Automail for you. Come by any time."
Wrath blinked a few times in bewilderment but understood that was her way of telling him that he was not a monster in her eyes anymore. Winry walked out as the next day finally came, they would both have to wait for Edward now and neither of them were sure if he was alive or not; but they figured his pride wouldn't let him forget them either way.
The End
