My thanks to all of my reviewers, who have all been a great inspiration to me. Thank you for taking the time from the beginning to read this story, and I hope that you have all enjoyed it to its fullest.
"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." - Isaac Asimov
Chapter Twenty-Two:
The Last Time
"Annora, why is your dog sitting on my foot?"
Annora looked up from the book that she was reading and stared at her friend, arching an eyebrow in question before she went and peered under the table that she, Ed and Al were all sitting at. She stared at the blissfully napping Twilight before she looked back up at Ed with a slight glint of mischief in her eyes.
"I don't know, maybe you have comfy feet," she joked, causing the alchemist to roll his eyes in exasperation as he shifted his feet in an effort to dislodge the dog. Instead, Twilight just slumbered obliviously on, not even twitching in her sleep.
"She sleeps like a log," Ed grumbled as he finally managed to slide his foot out from underneath the young Collie, wincing slightly as his foot tingled. "And she weighs a ton."
"Brother, anything that falls asleep on you weighs a ton," Al said with a slight chuckle, causing the older Elric to give him a supremely dirty look. Annora grinned and shook her head before she returned her attention to the alchemy book that she was currently browsing through for a few seconds before she decided that the current line of conversation was more interesting.
"So have you ever told Winry this?" the girl asked with an evil grin. "I'm pretty sure that she'd have her own opinions-"
"NO!!" Ed shouted, his eyes wide in panic as he cut Annora off. "Don't even go there!"
"Do I detect a hint of panic in your voice?" the sixteen-year old asked slyly as Ed glowered at her.
"More like flat-out terror," the alchemist grumbled darkly as he shot the other teen a warning look. "That's not funny Annora."
"I though it was."
"Well I didn't. Even I know that you don't say something like that to a girl, not unless you have a death wish. Winry would kill me."
"Nice to know that you at least have some common sense."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
"Annora, Brother, do you have to turn everything into a fight?" Alphonse asked nervously, to which Annora gave him a crooked grin while Ed crossed his arms over his chest and gave a huff of annoyance.
"Sorry Al, but it's just too much fun to yank his chain sometimes," the girl admitted with a shrug, making no attempt to conceal the smile on her face. "Annoying; it's not just for Mustang anymore."
The possessed suit of armor just shook his head and sighed as Annora went back to her book, and caught a glimpse of her watch in the process. The teenager stared at the time for a few moments before she let out a low whistle of surprise.
"Whoa, it's already after one," she muttered as she looked up at Ed, who gave her a suspicious look. "Hey, do you guys want me to run down to the mess hall and grab something for lunch before the kitchens close and bring it up here, that way we don't have to take a break?"
Ed opened his mouth to say something, only to have his stomach let out a loud rumble. The alchemist frowned as he glared down at his stomach before he looked up at Annora, who was trying her best not to smile.
"Anything's good, just as long as you don't try and get me any milk," he grumbled as he returned to his reading.
"So you want a sandwich and a big frothy glass of milk. Okay, I got it," she said with a grin, only to have Ed blow up in her face.
"I said no milk!! That crap tastes like vomit!!"
"Gee, thanks for ruining it for the rest of us who actually like it."
"Why the hell would anyone want to drink an opaque white liquid that was secreted by a cow?! It's disgusting!"
"Milk's loaded with vitamins you ninny, which is why you drink it. And you wonder why you're so damn short."
"Who did you say was a super-ultra short kid?!" Ed raged as he tried to lunge for Annora over the back of his chair, only for it to tip over and land on the floor with a loud 'crash', as well as dumping the alchemist flat on his face. The teenager decided to make herself scarce before Ed could recover, and headed down the hallway towards the stairs, which would eventually lead to the kitchens.
As she left behind the commotion ensuing in the room as Al attempted to keep his brother from going ballistic, Annora couldn't help but smile fondly at her friends actions. It was so odd to think that three months ago she had been completely oblivious to this world, and when she had first met Ed she never in a million years would have thought that they would end up being friends.
"I wonder how Katie's doing?" she mused suddenly, and shame flooded through her as her thoughts drifted towards her anime-obsessed friend.
When had she stopped thinking about what Katie, and all of her other friends at school, were doing? When had she become more focused on what Ed and Al were planning, and their frequent trips out in search of the Philosopher's Stone? When had she started to discard the tattered shreds of who she had been at school, Annora Thomas, the resident tomboy and smart mouth, in favor of accepting the foreign concepts of being in Amestris and alchemy?
"I've changed," she realized as she gave a short, harsh laugh, a wry smile crossing her face. "I've changed a lot."
Annora let out a slow sigh as she ran a hand through her hair, a faint shadow crossing over her face as she did so. She had grown up a lot in these past few months, and it was only now that she was beginning to realize it.
The person she had been three months ago didn't know how to fight homunculi while using alchemy combined with kicks and punches, nor did she know how to push Mustang's buttons just right to get him to go ballistic. She had never been chased through the city by a meat-cleaver wielding serial murder encased in a suit of armor, nor had she ever been kidnapped. The girl she used to be still had an older brother, and was naive enough to think that things would go on unchanging forever, and that no one she cared about would die.
"Ed's right," she muttered as she rounded a corner, not noticing the person up ahead in the hallway. "Growing up sucks."
The sixteen-year old sighed as she looked up, and her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of Ed walking down the hallway away from her, a stack of files tucked underneath his arm.
'Wait a second, I just left Ed behind with Al in the research room,' Annora thought with a frown before realization hit her. There was no way that Ed could have left the room, gone to the file room on the other side of the building, and be headed back before she had even made it to the stairs.
"Envy," the teenager growled low under her breath before she broke into a run, her hands automatically clenching into fists as she bolted after what looked like her friend. As she drew near, Annora ducked low and performed a sweeping kick that knocked 'Ed's' feet out from underneath him, threatening to send him flat on his face. With an inhuman grace that Annora knew he didn't possess, the person disguised as Ed did a front flip in mid-air before landing cat-like on his feet, sending the folders he had been holding flying everywhere.
"Hello ugly," Annora spat, and Envy scowled as he assumed his usual shape.
"What gave me away?" he grumbled, clearly not pleased with the turn of events. The teenager rolled her eyes upwards as she fixed the homunculus with a look that plainly said 'just how stupid are you?'.
"Try that it was that fact that I just left Ed in one of the research rooms, you moron."
"Watch your mouth brat. I am not a moron."
"You're right. You're gay."
There was dead silence for several moments as Envy turned a very intriguing shade of puce before he exploded.
"I am not gay!" the homunculus shrieked, and Annora couldn't help but smirk as she fixed him with a disbelieving look.
"-Cough- BULLSHIT!! -Cough-"
"I'm going to kill you for that."
"You and what army?"
Envy scowled as he glared at the teenager for several moments before his expression twisted into a maniacal smile, and Annora felt a chill run down her spine as she took a precautionary step back.
"How about I just tell everyone who you are, and where you're from?" he asked as he smirked at the girl, amethyst eyes shining with a predatory gleam as he bared a set of pointy teeth. "Wasn't it someplace called Flagstaff?"
The teen's breath caught in her throat as she stared wide-eyed at the homunculus, a numbing chill spreading throughout her body as she tried to think straight.
"Who… who told you that?" she gasped. Envy sneered mockingly at her as he planted his hands on his hips and leaned forward, a smirk planted solidly on his face.
"I have my ways of finding out," he said scornfully. "And the thing is I can be anyone. I can find out where you live, where you go to school… don't try to deny it either, because I know that most brats your age go to school, who your friends are, and everyone else that you hold dear. And I can kill them all one by one, until you fall to your knees broken, begging me to stop and kill you instead just so those few other pathetic worms can go about with their miserable lives for a few more moments."
Annora stood there frozen as she listened to the homunculus, stunned horror incapacitating her as she stared incredulously at Envy. Emboldened by her silence, the androgynous Sin continued with his dark threats, a sadistic gleam in his slitted eyes.
"Or, I could make you decide who matters more to you, your precious mommy and daddy, or the Fullmetal Pipsqueak and his tin can of a brother, and kill the ones that you didn't choose, letting them know that you wouldn't save them because you thought that the other ones were more important to you. I wonder how long it would take for me to completely break you, in body and soul, before you would do anything for me, even kill the brats that you call your 'friends'."
The sixteen-year old forced herself to snap out of the stunned state that she was in, and immediately looked around for some sort of weapon as she tried not to lose her temper. Annora knew that there was no way in hell that she could ever hope to take Envy on all by herself, and she couldn't help but grin in relief when she caught sight of the fire alarm.
Without a moment's hesitation, the girl sharply drove her jacket-clad elbow into the glass pane covering the fire alarm, completely shattering the covering, before she pulled the alarm.
The loud blaring sound that erupted before the sprinklers went off startled Envy, and Annora used this opportunity to nail him a good one in the balls.
"Don't you ever threaten my family, you stringy-haired son of a bitch!!" she snarled, fury seeping from almost every pore in her body as she glared hatefully at the downed homunculus, ignorant of the water that was spraying from the ceiling onto her. Envy scowled up at her before he staggered to his feet and dashed towards one of the large picture windows at the end of the hall, obviously intending on escaping.
"Oh no you don't!" Annora growled as she bolted after him, ignoring the puddles that were starting to build up on the tiled floor as she took a deep breath before shouting out at the top of her lungs, "Homunculus in the building!! There's been a security breach!!"
The reaction was almost instantaneous.
People came running out of offices armed with their service pistols or any other weapon that was close at hand, and Annora was rewarded with the sight of Mustang come skidding out into the hallway just ahead of her before she blew past him.
"Colonel, Envy's here!!" she called out over her shoulder. "Please, get Ed! Hurry!!"
Up ahead, Envy crossed his arms in front of his face as he jumped out of the window, shattering the numerous glass panes as he flew out into the snowy afternoon. Without even thinking about it, Annora followed him, remembering only after her feet propelled her out of the windowsill that she was up on the second story. The teenager cursed colorfully as she landed with an undignified 'crunch' in one of the numerous thick hedges beneath the windows, but was silently relieved that she hadn't killed herself for being so impulsive.
"Ouch, okay next time think before I jump," she muttered as she extracted herself from the bush's interior, wincing slightly at the dead branches that tugged at her hair and clothes, as well as jabbed her in the face. A mocking cackle resounded off to her right, and Annora scowled as she glared over at Envy, standing up and pulling some chunks of bark out of her hair as she did so.
"That was pathetic," he said with a smirk before he arched a greenish eyebrow. "And now you look like a drowned cat."
Annora gave the homunculus a deadpan look as she ignored her dripping-wet hair hanging limply about her face. Fortunately, that was the only thing that was really wet since her jacket had repelled most of the water, and it would probably be dry soon enough.
"And you look like a rat that had an intimate encounter with a brick wall," the teenager shot back, knowing that she had to stall for time until Ed or Mustang got out there. "Man, the ugly tree really doesn't like you."
"What… what was that?"
"Okay, since you are obviously mentally retarded, let me spell it out for you: You fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every single branch on the way down. And you definitely don't have an alibi."
Envy stood there, completely frozen, as he stared at Annora with a flummoxed expression on his face and his jaw hanging a good six inches away from the rest of his face. The teen arched an eyebrow before she let out an annoyed groan.
"Looks like the ugly tree also doubles as the stupid tree," she muttered with obvious sarcasm, and this time it didn't take very long at all for the homunculus to register that he'd just been insulted. Envy let out a wordless shriek of rage as he flung himself at the girl, and Annora was forced to scramble out of the way, barely avoiding getting pummeled.
The green-haired Sin skidded to a stop on the slick ice coating the pavement and spun around to fix the teenager with a maddened glare just as a cool voice rang out overhead.
"Well now Envy, is this really any way to behave? The master will be very disappointed to hear about this."
Annora jerked in surprise as she whirled around to face the speaker, and was astonished to see the lady she had seen back in Dublith when she had been abducted by Greed standing up on the roof of one of the military buildings with the rotund little man from before crouched next to her. The sixteen-year old froze when she caught sight of the bright red Ouroboros tattoo emblazoned right above the dark-haired woman's bosom, and what the woman had said to Greed came back to her.
"From what I've been told, you've already met Gluttony. As for me… well can't you tell? I'm the new Lust."
"Oh great, there's more of them," Annora groaned in frustration. "Wonderful. This has just gone from damn near impossible to flat-out suicide. Hurry the hell up Mustang, otherwise there's not going to be enough left of me to burry in a matchbox."
"I really don't think that's any of your business, Lust," Envy retorted as he glared up at the buxom homunculus, completely unmindful of Annora's unwitting prediction. "All I want to do right now is make this little bitch squirm in agony like a worm on a hook before I kill her right in front of the pipsqueak's eyes."
The teenager froze for one moment in shock before she thrust her hand into her jacket pocket and pulled out her transmutation gloves, yanking them on hurriedly just as a much younger voice broke the chilling silence permeating the snowy afternoon.
"So she means something to him?" a black-haired boy piped up with obvious interest as he popped out from behind Lust and fixed the girl with an inquisitive look that was anything but childish, sending chills down her spine. "Is she his girlfriend or something?"
"Ed is NOT my boyfriend you cat-eyed moron!!" Annora snapped angrily up at the three homunculi, outrage automatically overwriting the sane part of her mind that was currently screaming at her to shut up. "Good God, why is it that so many people are stupid enough to think that we're freaking dating each other?! I don't even like him like that!!"
"Denying it that loudly usually means that it's true," Envy commented smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest, only for the teenager to fix him with a disgusted look.
"Oh just shut up," she growled as she glanced up at the amethyst-eyed boy positioned in between Lust and Gluttony before she returned her attention back to Envy. "Oh great, you've spawned. Thanks, as if I wasn't scarred for life enough as it already was. The thought alone of you procreating is enough to make me want to gouge my eyes out."
The homunculus blinked in astonishment as he stared at Annora for several seconds before he was finally able to speak.
"You think… that Wrath… is my…?" he paused as though the very thought caused him physical pain, pointing shakily up at the younger homunculus. Wrath, catching the meaning of the teenager's comment, let out an indignant cry of horror while Lust pulled a face, and Gluttony just stood there with an uncomprehending look on his face.
"Well you both kind of look alike, and you have the same crappy sense in fashion," Annora reasoned with a shrug, although a slight smirk twitched across her lips at having freaked Envy out. "How was I to know?"
"Homunculi can't have children you stupid brat!!"
"Oh, well that's a relief. At least you can't bring any little homosexual palm trees into this world to horrify the rest of us with your ugly face."
Envy made a low snarling sound deep within his throat before he lunged at the sixteen-year old, who tried to back away before her foot caught on a rock, sending her sprawling flat on her back.
"Die you little pain in the ass!!" the homunculus shrieked as his right arm transformed into a lethal-looking spike. Annora stared up at her attacker from her prone position in wide-eyed terror as she tried to scrabble away, her fingers clawing frantically at the sheet of ice that encased the paving around her. The teenager's breath caught in her throat as she stared up into Envy's maddened lavender eyes, her body paralyzed from fear as it refused to her frantic commands to move, right before a stone block erupted from the ground right next to her and hit the homunculus square in the chest.
"Annora!!" a familiar voice roared out, snapping her from her petrified state just as Al darted forward and snatched her up from the snowy ground before running back towards the entrance to Central HQ. Annora let out a strangled squeak as she forced herself up into a sitting position in her friend's arms and managed to get a glimpse of Ed sending spike after spike at Envy before something exploded nearby, sending her and Al flying head over heels into the snow.
The sixteen-year old forced herself to her feet and wiped the slush from her eyes before she started spewing furious curses that burned the very air, at least until a metallic blade was pressed up against the side of her neck.
"I wonder if he'll give me his remaining arm and leg if I threaten you," Wrath chuckled from behind the teen, and he smirked at her when she glanced over her shoulder at him. "Do you want to see the look on his face when he realizes that you're in danger?"
"No, actually I don't. I will tell you one thing though," Annora stated calmly before she promptly performed an emotional about-face as she mule-kicked the younger homunculus in the knees before whirling around and snapping her right leg up expertly, planting her foot forcefully in his face. "This is my reaction to your face!"
Wrath fell away from her with a loud cry, and the sixteen-year old used this opportunity to grab Al's hand and haul him to his feet before running back to where Mustang and the other soldiers were assembled. Once Ed noticed that the two of them were safe, he dealt Envy one last blow before he darted out of the way, leaving the Colonel clear to signal for the other soldiers to open fire on the four homunculi.
"You idiot!!" Ed raged as he shoved his way through the crowd of gunmen and soldiers by the front steps before seizing Annora by the shoulders and shaking her violently. "Were you dropped on your head at birth?! Or does this terminal stupidity just come to you naturally?!"
"I-if I said it's hereditary, w-would you stop y-yelling at me?" she stammered out. Ed scowled, but stopped shaking the girl as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave her a supremely dirty look.
"The Colonel said that you jumped out of a window up on the second story when you went after Envy. ARE YOU INSANE?!"
Annora let out a nervous chuckle just as the soldier nearest to her swore loudly, and almost immediately the rest stopped firing their rifles.
"Jesus Christ," Eric gasped, his eyes wide and the blood draining from his face in a hurry as he gaped at the homunculi, his rifle hanging limp in his grasp. "They… they're not dead."
Envy smirked as several bullets fell out from his flesh, baring his pointed teeth at some of the shaken soldiers.
"What's wrong worms? Never seen something that can't be killed by your little toys before?" he asked mockingly before looking over at Gluttony. "Get rid of them Gluttony."
"I can eat them?"
"I'm not going to stop you."
The obese homunculi's stupid grin transformed into a ravenous leer as a thick rope of drool slithered out from the corner of his mouth. Even the soldiers who had fought the homunculi before looked unnerved, and their grip on their guns shook noticeably.
"Any time now Mustang," Annora muttered warningly as she eyed Gluttony with barely repressed anxiety. The Colonel's dark eyes flickered over towards the teen for one split second before a grim smirk crossed his face and he brought his right hand up in one swift move, snapping his fingers together and sending a tongue of flame blazing around the Sin.
The resulting explosion was nothing short of a miniature inferno.
As the cloud of choking smoke cleared, and everyone's ears stopped ringing, they were all treated to the sight of Gluttony's charred body lying right on top of Envy, pinning the other homunculus to the ground.
"You moron!" he growled as he shoved at the obese Sin's limp form. "This is no time to let yourself get roasted like a pig!!"
"… that was a disgusting analogy," Annora said quietly to Ed, who nodded in agreement as Gluttony staggered to his feet, his body healing as they watched. Envy fixed the girl with a venomous glare, his face twisted into a hideous mask of rage as he clenched his hands tightly.
"I wouldn't start shooting your mouth off yet you little bitch," he snarled before moving right behind Ed, electric-blue sparks swirling up his body as he spoke. Within seconds, what could have passed as Annora's identical twin stood right behind the Fullmetal Alchemist with a pistol pressed up against the back of his head.
"Brother!!" Al yelped as he tried to dash forward, only to have Envy press the gun up against Ed's head even harder.
"Don't even think about moving," 'she' stated coldly, brown eyes narrowed in malicious glee as she smirked at Ed. "So pipsqueak, how does it feel to be the one in trouble?"
The teenage alchemist didn't get a chance to answer as Annora suddenly lunged forward and tackled the Sin, pinning him to the ground before driving a furious punch right into her double's face.
"I don't think he needs to answer that one!" she spat angrily. Envy sneered in her face before he kicked the girl off of him and resumed his usual shape, watching Annora intently as she stood up and wiped a bit of blood away from the corner of her mouth where she had bitten her lip with a knuckle before she fixed him with a heated glare full of loathing.
"You're pretty cocky for a brat who can't do much of anything," the androgynous homunculus scoffed as he gave the teen a condescending smirk. "All I'd have to do to kill you is snap that pretty little neck of yours, and it will all be over. What do you have to say about that?"
Annora just stood there with a neutral expression on her face before a mocking smile crossed her lips, and she let out a short, sardonic chuckle.
"Oh no, a cross-dressing, homosexual palm tree. I quiver with fear," she drawled sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest as she fixed the stunned Sin with a triumphant look.
"A what?!" Ed yelped from behind her, and the sixteen-year old turned around as she arched an eyebrow at her friend's shock.
"You've never heard me say that?" she asked with a grin, and the alchemist shook his head.
"No, that's a new one for me."
"Well, look at him! It fits!" Annora protested as she pointed at the quietly fuming homunculus. Ed looked thoughtful for a few seconds before he nodded in agreement.
"Actually, you're right. It does fit. So what was it? A 'cross-dressing, homosexual palm tree'?"
"Yep."
Envy twitched violently as he stood there on the icy pavement watching the two teens, the look on his face indicating that he was about ready to kill something. The murmurs of agreement coming from the soldiers around them wasn't helping much either.
"That's it. The next person who calls me anything with the words 'palm tree' in it will have their neck stabbed with a steak knife!!" he shrieked, spraying saliva everywhere, much to Lust's obvious disgust.
"Envy, get a grip on yourself," she stated coolly, her purple eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at the older homunculus. "Your lack of self-control is becoming annoying."
Envy opened his mouth to say something, probably an obscenity, before Annora said something that caused him to absolutely lose it.
"What about 'faggot'?"
Envy lunged for her with an ear-splitting shriek of fury, and everything else went straight down the toilet. Lust intercepted Alphonse before the younger Elric could come to her aid, and Wrath attacked Ed, saying something about taking the rest of his limbs, while Gluttony went after the rest of the soldiers.
Gunfire and explosions rent the air as Annora clapped her hands together and slammed them down on the ground with all the force she could muster, sending a gigantic stone spike straight through Envy's abdomen. The homunculus spat out a mouthful of blood before he wrenched himself free and glared at the teenager, hatred and loathing plastered firmly across his face.
"It'll take a lot more than what you can dish out to defeat me, you scrawny little human wench!" Envy growled. Annora just arched an eyebrow before she rolled her eyes upwards, a clearly dispassionate expression on her face.
"Oh wow… what an amazing comeback. How long did it take you to think that one up?" she asked dryly before she frowned slightly, and her tone turned insulting. "When are you going to realize that I'm not scared of you? If you haven't figured it out by now, you're not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, now are you?"
"I've had enough if this!!" the homunculus hissed, his cat-like eyes narrowed almost to the point of being slits. Annora gave a harsh laugh as she fixed the Sin with a skeptical look.
"Good, because so have I. Why don't crawl off now and hole up in your little emo corner so the rest of us don't have to look at your face anymore."
Envy let out a low growl before he shifted into something at caused Annora to take several steps back, her brown eyes widening to an impossible degree as the color drained from her face. There, towering a good twenty feet above her, was the head of a gigantic serpent with a set of lethal-looking fangs bared and a homicidal gleam to its eyes.
"Oh my God…" she whispered hoarsely before she whirled around and ran as fast as she could, darting from side to side, and scrambling over rubble left from previous alchemic attacks as Envy tried to snap at her.
"Stop scrabbling about, you little rat!!" the homunculus roared as he tried to scoop the teenager up in his mouth, only for Annora to erect several crisscrossing stone pillars in front of her, causing the snake to slam its head into the unyielding rock.
"Up yours!!" she shouted back, a shrill note of fear in her voice before she transmuted more pillars all around her, forming an immense stone tent. Envy let out an annoyed snort before he turned into something that the sixteen-year old had only seen in movies; a dragon.
The homunculus sneered at the girl from in between the gaps of the stone pillars as he slid a massive paw in between one of the gaps, obviously intending on ripping apart Annora's little fortress. The teenager let out a wordless cry of panic as she slammed her hands down on the pillar closest to her, causing lethal spikes to erupt from every inch of her homemade fortification.
Envy jerked back as he let out a snarl of anger, baring all of his teeth in annoyance at the fact that a mere teenage girl had just prevented him from ripping her to shreds.
"Gluttony, chew that brat out of there!!" he snapped over his scaly shoulder before he stomped over towards where the other soldiers were assembled. "I'll take care of these worms."
"Can I eat her?"
"Go ahead. Make sure that you start with her arms and legs first though."
Almost instantly after he was given the go-ahead, Gluttony barreled for the homemade fortress and started to chew on the stone protecting Annora. The sixteen-year old didn't wait for him to break through, but instead blasted a hole in the opposite side of the fort and crawled out before she broke into a run. Unfortunately, she didn't make it very far before Gluttony seized her by the wrist and slammed her up against a nearby brick wall, grabbing her other hand in his meaty fist when she tried to swing at him.
"Girl meat, so tender and sweet," he drooled stupidly, and Annora immediately jerked her head back and shoved her feet into the homunculi's gut in an attempt to push him as far away from her as possible.
"Let go of me!!" she raged, squirming about wildly in a futile effort to wrench herself free of the tubby Sin's grasp.
"Envy said I could eat you."
"Well I'm saying that you can't!!"
"But why?"
"Because I taste horrible! Trust me, I'll make you sick."
"You still smell good.'
"Stay the hell away from me!!" Annora snapped as she kicked Gluttony as hard as she could in the stomach, but the blow didn't even faze the homunculus as he leered at her hungrily. Terror flooded through the teen's system as a chilling realization dawned upon her for the first time in her life.
She was completely helpless.
--
Ethan muttered a continuous stream of profanities as he fired shot after shot at the homunculus that was terrorizing the soldiers, even if they seemingly had no effect. He knew that the moment he stopped firing and really took in the improbability of the situation that he was in at the moment he would completely lose it. As it was, it was all he could do not to throw down his rifle and run yammering like an idiot back into the relative safety of Central HQ.
"Why the hell won't these sons of bitches die?!" he snarled out the corner of his mouth at Havoc, who was standing right next to him and shooting as though his life depended upon it.
"They're homunculi, some sort of thing created from alchemy gone wrong," the older man replied as he popped out an empty clip and jammed a fresh one into its place. "The bad part about it is that they don't die no matter what you do to them."
"Shit."
"Kid, that doesn't even begin to cover it."
Ethan gritted his teeth as he tried to cover up his extreme unease from the four people around him using what Havoc had called alchemy, but to him it looked more like magic. All of a sudden his attention was directed elsewhere when a terrified shriek pierced through the chaos around them, and he caught sight of Annora struggling with the fat homunculus that they had been shooting at earlier.
"Ed, Mustang, anyone, HELP!!" she cried out, her voice cracking as she tried not to show just how scared she was, using all of her strength to keep Gluttony away from her.
For one split second everything seemed to freeze as something clicked inside Ethan's mind, and a torrent of images flooded his mind.
"Ethan you need to be nicer to your sister. She's only three, so she doesn't know any better, but you do."
-
"I have the coolest big brother in the world!! He plays with me all the time, and last weekend he took me hiking with him and the rest of his friends!"
-
"Brother, I can't see. Can you put me on your shoulders?"
-
"Junior high sucks. How did you ever make it out of there alive?"
-
"Ethan, what on earth possessed you to tell your sister that blowing up the jack o' lantern was your science project?"
-
"Ethan, are you really going into the army?"
The eighteen-year old froze as he slowly turned around to look at his younger sister, who stood in his bedroom doorway with an accusing look in her wide brown eyes. The boy gave her an embarrassed smile, and she let out a soft sigh as she turned around to leave.
"Hey, why don't you take a seat and we can talk about it?" he suggested as he sat down on his bed and patted the spot next to him. The fourteen-year old stared at him for a few moments before she walked over and flopped down next to him, a slight frown on her face.
"I don't want you to go," she said suddenly, staring fixedly at her knees. "You'll get hurt."
"And why do you say that?" Ethan asked with a slight chuckle, an understanding smile on his face. "You heard Mom and Dad talking to me didn't you?"
His sister nodded hesitantly, and the older boy grinned as he ruffled her shoulder-length brown hair affectionately.
"You worry too much kiddo. I'll be fine, I promise."
-
"You better stay safe, Ethan."
The eighteen-year old paused as he looked back at his younger sister before ignoring the airport screening checkpoint behind him and setting his kit bag down in front of his family. Without hesitation, he pulled off the silver ring that was around his right index finger and placed in gently in the younger girl's hand, wrapping her fingers around it protectively as he smiled.
"Why don't you keep that safe for me, at least until I get back," he suggested as he straightened up, a reassuring smile on his face as he re-shouldered his knapsack. "You might want to get a chain or something to put it on though, since your fingers are way too small for that ring."
"But-"
"Don't worry about me, kiddo. I'll be fine, I promise."
-
Ethan frowned as he leaned back in his chair and looked over his shoulder at one of his friends, Private Ben Morado, as he ran over to him with a huge grin on his face.
"Well I'll be damned," Ben said as he slapped Ethan hard on the back and smirked. "I never would have thought that you would've surfed the Internet on your precious free time."
"I have no clue what the hell you're talking about," the young man said stiffly as he glared at Ben. "I was talking to my sister. Actually, I was talking to one of her friends and his teacher to be precise. Apparently she's pretty sick right now, and since there's no one home at my house to keep an eye on her, they moved her to their teacher's house."
"Bullshit," Ben said as he ran a hand over his cropped short black hair. "You my friend have finally been bitten by the anime bug."
"You mean that crap that you keep talking about and reading all the time?" Ethan asked incredulously as he gave a muffled snort of derision. "Get real. I'm being serious though; I was talking with a friend of my little sister."
"No, you were watching Fullmetal Alchemist," the Hispanic man insisted as he gave Ethan a pitying look. "You can't fool me, amigo; I would know those faces anywhere. You need to stop denying yourself and come out of the closet… wait, that just sounded wrong."
"No shit," Ethan grumbled as he gave his friend a distinctly sour look. "If you're that desperate, there are a couple of camels out by the officers' tents that you can have a go at. They might kick your teeth out your ass before you can try, but hey, they're still there."
"Wow, it sounds like somebody is suffering from caffeine depravation," Ben remarked before he turned around and headed towards the mess tent. "I know when I'm not wanted. Enjoy your self-denial."
Ethan frowned at Ben's flippant remark before he returned his attention to the computer screen and checked his watch. He still had about twenty minutes left until his free time was over.
Immediately, the soldier opened up the Internet link and went straight to Google, where he typed Fullmetal Alchemist into the 'search' box and hit 'Enter'. When he saw some of the image results that came up on the topic, Ethan's lower jaw damn near hit the ground in shock.
"No way," he whispered hoarsely as he stared at a picture of a boy around his sister's age, with the words 'Edward Elric; the Fullmetal Alchemist' emblazoned along the bottom, who looked exactly like the one that he had been talking too not fifteen minutes ago. "There is no way that this is even remotely possible."
-
"I have got to be losing my mind to even be thinking that this is possible," Ethan muttered in annoyance as he massaged the bridge of his nose, pacing nervously back and forth out a few meters away from the tents. "People don't just suddenly pop into some other world without warning. That kind of crap only happens in movies and books, and besides, even if it somehow was true, someone would have noticed that she was missing by now."
Ethan groaned and shook his head as he let out a sigh. Just thinking about all of this was making his head hurt.
The twenty-year old muttered something indistinguishable under his breath as he pulled his dog tags out from under his shirt, flack jacket and vest, running callused fingers pensively over the engraving of his name. The repetitive motion helped to calm him down a bit, and he slowly began to relax. He was overreacting, that was all; there was just no way that his sixteen-year old sister was in some stupid Japanese cartoon. Thinking about it now, it sounded like the plotline to some idiotic B-movie, or a soppy romance novel.
Ethan snapped out of his calm state as he accidentally sliced his finger open on the jagged edge to one of his dog tags where he had once been nicked by shrapnel. The young man swore darkly under his breath as he fought the instinctive urge to put the injured digit in his mouth to stop the blood now flowing freely.
"God dammit, I need to get that taken care of!" he hissed angrily as several drops of blood dripped down onto the sand by his feet. "I don't need my dog tags to be a weapon as well."
A shrill whistling sound pierced the nighttime quiet from overhead, and the young soldier just barely had time to look up before the mortar impacted with the sandy ground right in front of him. He had a split-second glimpse of the explosion, which all seemed to go in slow motion, before he was seemingly whisked away to some unending golden void with a set of gigantic stone doors planted directly in the middle.
"Well, this is most certainly interesting," a voice remarked from behind him, and Ethan immediately spun around to face the speaker. To his shock it was a humanoid black shape with large blue eyes and an eerily wide grin filled with large white teeth.
"Who are you?" the soldier demanded as he stared at the figure uneasily. "What is this place?"
"This is called the Gate."
"Am… am I dead?"
The Gate creature fixed the young man with a scrutinizing look before it started to chuckle, the sound echoing oddly around the void, even though it should have died off.
"No Ethan Thomas, you're not dead… at least not yet."
"What do you mean?"
"If I were to return you to your plane of reality, in Iraq, you would definitely be dead from that explosion. Since I tore you away from there right before the explosion started, you are still alive, at least for the moment."
Ethan froze as he stared at the creature with wide hazel eyes, confusion and unease evident on his features. The soldier opened his mouth to say something, only to have the Gate child cut him off.
"What is it that you value most?" it asked, fixing the young man with an unnervingly serious stare. "What is it that you wish to see and protect the most?"
The twenty-year old remained silent for several seconds, thoughts of his family running though his mind before a single word slipped from his lips unbidden.
"Annora."
"Ah, your sister," the Gate child chuckled in understanding as an unnerving smile crossed its face. "Well then, you shall see her."
Before Ethan could ask what the thing meant, the Gate opened up behind him, and he was seized by a series of black tentacles that yanked him in before he even had time to shout. The entire series of events was too much for the young soldier, and he felt a disjointed sense of relief as he blacked out.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up in a filing room.
Fury surged through the man's veins as he slammed a fresh clip into his rifle, his usually friendly eyes narrowed in hatred as he coldly aimed straight for Envy's head. His shot nailed the homunculus right in the eye, piercing his brain and causing him to totter unsteadily for a few moments.
Those few moments were all that Ethan needed.
Without a word to Havoc, the young soldier jumped off the front steps and barreled straight towards Gluttony like a juggernaut, his knuckles white as he gripped his rifle tightly. Ethan let out a wordless cry of rage as he stopped right behind the homunculus and clubbed it mercilessly upside the head with the butt of his rifle, slamming the metal end of the stock repeatedly against its skull. The twenty-year old kept attacking the obese Sin until it finally let go of Annora and staggered away from the two of them, leaving the bruised and gasping teenager slumped up against the wall that she had been pinned to.
"Careful," she warned as she staggered to her feet, wincing slightly as she straightened up. "I don't know what it takes to kill these things, but a couple of blows to the head aren't going to do it."
"Then it's a good thing that I have something better than that," Ethan muttered grimly, a humorless smirk crossing his face as he slung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder and pulled a grenade out of his pocket. Without even waiting for the homunculus to react, the young man pulled the pin out and lunged forward, stuffing the explosive as far down Gluttony's throat as he could before jerking back and pulling Annora with him, dragging her as far away as he could.
Needless to say, Gluttony exploded with a shower of blood, and other bits of unidentifiable gore, raining down on Ethan, who had Annora pulled close to him in an attempt to protect her from the blood spatter, and anyone else unfortunate (or stupid) enough to be in the area.
"Ha hah!!" the twenty-year old exclaimed as he glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of the ghoulish remnants of what had been the obese Sin. "How do you like them apples, fatass?!"
The triumphant laughter died suddenly in Ethan's throat as his eyes bugged out, an a faint chill of terror crawled down into the pit of his stomach as the scattered bits of what was left of Gluttony slowly began to piece themselves back together right before his eyes.
"I told you, they don't die," Annora whispered uneasily as she watched 'Eric's' barely repressed terror. The older man hesitated for a few seconds before he grabbed her around the waist, slinging her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and bolted away from the scene like a rabbit.
"That's it; we are outta here!" he yelled, running for the front steps to Central HQ like they would somehow protect them from the seemingly immortal monsters that they were now confronted with. "I've had enough of this shit!"
"Oh believe me, there's a lot more where that came from," a chillingly familiar voice hissed from behind them, and Annora let out a strangled moan of fear as she lifted her head up to look back into Envy's enraged lavender eyes.
"Run," she said hoarsely before she started pounding on her older brother's back. "Run, you idiot!! RUN!!"
Ethan didn't even get a chance to put her frenzied command into effect before something slammed into them from behind with all the force of a runaway semi, sending the young soldier sprawling, and Annora flying from his arms. The twenty-year old lay there sprawled in the snow, trying not to black out as he struggled to suck air back into his winded lungs
His little sister needed him; without him, she was going to die, that much he knew already. Ethan struggled to come up with a plan, anything, before a single sentence came to mind, something that Mustang had said not too long after he had signed up under the older man's command.
"To gain the initiative in war, first take away your enemy's mobility. And whenever possible, use the element of surprise."
--
"That's so sweet," Envy crooned mockingly as he stalked over to where Annora was trying to stand up, the badly worn tread of her sneakers and the icy ground causing her feet to slip out from under her each time. "And here I thought chivalry was dead. I didn't even know that there were still men out there naive enough to try to play knight and rescue the girl."
"Shut up!" the teenager snapped as she managed to finally get to her feet, positioning herself right in front of the fallen soldier. Envy sneered at her as he continued to speak, each word dripping with scorn and bile before he reached out and effortlessly knocked her away into a nearby pile of slush.
Annora forced herself up to her knees as she spat out some of the snow that had accidentally ended up in her open mouth, glaring up at the approaching homunculus defiantly. The rebellious gleam in the girl's eyes caused Envy to laugh out loud, an unpleasant sound that caused the hair along everyone's necks to stand straight up.
"Although it just proves how truly pathetic you really are, since you need some big strong military lunkhead to come and save your ass," he mocked. "In fact all I have to do to end your life is-"
BLAM!!
Annora jerked backwards instinctively as a bullet hole suddenly appeared in the middle of Envy's forehead, accompanied by the familiar sound of someone manually ejecting the spent shell from a bolt-action rifle. The teenager caught sight of Eric standing behind Envy with his rifle in his hands, a look of unparalleled fury on his face as he aimed directly at the homunculus. Envy managed to grunt out a curse as he turned around to face the sandy-haired soldier, his slitted eyes narrowed dangerously.
"So you want to play hero, eh?" he growled before a cruel smile crossed his face, showing his pointed teeth. "Well that's fine with me. I'll just kill the little bitch after I've ripped you to pieces in front of-"
BLAM!!
The next shot hit Envy right in the groin, and 'Eric' ejected the used cartridge with more force than necessary as he glared murderously at the Sin.
"Don't you ever talk about my sister that way, you mother-fucking son of a bitch!!" he snarled, his greenish eyes narrowed dangerously. "You say something like that to her again, and I swear to God I'll blast your fucking jaw off!"
Envy froze and stared at the young man in front of him, shock evident on his face.
"You… you're her brother?" he managed to say. Ethan smile thinly at the homunculus, a chilling gleam entering his usually friendly eyes.
"You got that right asshole. And nobody ever hurts my sister without me kicking their ass 'till they can't sit down right for a month," the Private growled as he gave Envy a look that would have made Freddy Kruger piss his pants. Before the homunculus could react, Ethan fired three successive shots into the Sin's brain, killing him for the time being. Thinking for a moment, the soldier stuffed a sizeable wad of C4 that he had taken from his old flack jacket into the homunculi's mouth, along with a detonator.
"Chew on that one for a bit, bastard," he muttered darkly as he turned around to face Annora, who was sitting there limply in the snow, looking for all the world as though she had just seen a ghost.
"E-Ethan…?" she whispered hoarsely, a faint glimmer of hope in her eyes as she looked up at him. "Is that… are you really…?"
"Somehow 'Nora, I don't think I could have shot that stupid faggot if I wasn't here."
The sixteen-year old let out a choked sob as she lunged for him, wrapping her arms around her older brother and burying her face in the front of his blue Amestranian uniform.
"You idiot!" she bawled, a few hot tears falling from her eyes as she clung to him. "I-I thought you were dead! Ben told me that you got blown up!"
"Well Ben saw wrong," Ethan said simply as he ran a comforting hand over Annora's head, even though on the inside he was cringing at what his sister had probably gone through after hearing about his so-called 'death'. "I'm here Annora. It's gonna be okay, I promise."
The sibling reunion was broken up by Mustang's shout from by the front steps, irritation obvious in the Colonel's voice.
"Thomas, would you hurry the hell up and get over here?!" the Flame Alchemist demanded as he sent tongue after tongue of fire at Lust and Gluttony, the two homunculi having ganged up on the soldiers after Wrath went after both Ed and Al. Ethan hesitated for a moment as he looked at his sister nervously, and Annora let out an annoyed groan as she rolled her eyes upwards before she gave her brother a slightly reassuring smile.
"Ethan, they need your help," she pointed out seriously before a slight frown crossed her face. "I have friends that I need to help too."
"But-"
"Don't worry about me you dork. I'm a big girl; I can tie my own shoes and everything. We're just going to have a lot of explaining to do once this whole thing is over."
"Why do I have a feeling that the Colonel's not going to be too happy with us?"
"That's putting it mildly. Mustang's gonna have a shit fit when we tell him that you're my brother."
Ethan arched an eyebrow speculatively as he looked down at his younger sibling, who just gave him an innocent grin in response. Before further words could be exchanged, Ed let out a furious yell, accompanied by several loud curses.
"I believe I'm being paged," Annora said as she turned around and ran off towards her friend. "Do me a favor and don't get killed!"
The twenty-year old gave a slight roll of his eyes in response as he shifted his rifle into a firing position, his expression turning grim as he lined up his sights on one of the homunculi terrorizing the soldiers. Right now his comrades needed him more than his sister did.
Annora felt like she had just chugged half a dozen sodas all in a row as she ran towards Ed and Al, nervous energy thrumming through her veins and mingling freely with the adrenalin already there. Her brother was alive! Nothing, not even the homunculi attacking them, could kill her joy.
"Ed, he's alive!!" she called out enthusiastically as she jumped into the fray, swiping Wrath's feet out from underneath him as he charged towards Al.
"What?" Ed asked as he turned around partially to face her, confusion evident on his face. "Who's alive?"
"Ethan, he's alive!" she said, an infectious grin crossing her face as she stared at her friend.
"Annora, are you feeling okay?" the teenager asked uneasily, concern flashing momentarily in his odd-colored eyes. A few meet away from them, Al also fixed the older girl with a worried look.
"I'm fine Ed. I'm just so glad that Ethan's okay!" Annora said as she flashed her friend a reassuring smile. The Fullmetal Alchemist seemed a little unnerved at her statement, and opened his mouth to reply just as Wrath got to his feet and alchemically fused an abandoned rifle to his arm.
"I will become human, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" he hissed at Ed, aiming the gun right at the blonde boy's automail leg.
"Brother, look out!!" Al yelped as he threw himself in front of the older Elric, causing the shot that Wrath fired to rebound off of his armored chest. Annora was immediately snapped out of her euphoric state as she spat out a furious curse, whirling around to glare at the small homunculus.
"You leave him alone, you freakish little monster!!" she snarled as she clapped her hands together and slammed them down on the slushy ground in front of her, intending on skewering Wrath with a barrage of ice spikes. Sensing her intentions, the homunculus threw himself down on the cold ground and started a transmutation even larger than the one the teenager was attempting to do, somehow swallowing up all of the alchemic energy she had pulled together in the process.
At first there was nothing, save for a sinking feeling that made itself known in the pits of their stomachs, before the wind started to kick up. Faster and faster it started to whirl around the four adolescents, pulling at hair and clothing as it gained speed, the core of its vertex right in the middle of the where they were all standing. Then the light started, flaring a bright gold for a few brief moments before turning a sickly, dark purple.
"Noo!! Make it go away!!" Wrath suddenly shrieked as he clamped his hands over his ears, curling up into a small ball in the snow with his eyes clenched shut. "Don't let it take me!!"
"What the hell?" Annora said as the wind continued to increase in strength, her brown eyes wide as she looked about her. "What's going on?"
"I don't know, but I sure as hell don't want to stick around long enough to find out," Ed growled as he and Al started to jog for the edge of the reaction. "Let's get out of here."
Annora started to go after them, only to be jerked to stop as Wrath suddenly threw himself at her and wrapped his arms around her leg.
"Don't leave me!!" he begged, tears streaming out of his eyes as he stared up at the older girl in obvious fear. "Don't let it take me back!"
Annora opened her mouth to say something, only for the words to die in her throat as she stared down at the ground below her in abject terror. There were little black hands coming out of the now-glowing ground.
Wrath let out a fresh shriek of terror at the sight of the hands, and the teenager faintly heard Ed drop several curses from where he was over the howl of the wind. Before Annora could do anything, Envy suddenly appeared inside the transmutation and wrenched Wrath away from her, throwing the younger homunculus unceremoniously out of the circle before he too tried to get out.
"Annora, run!"
The sixteen-year old snapped around to stare at Edward, ignoring what was going on behind her as she stared in horror at the sight that surround her. Faintly glowing lines were slowly beginning to converge around the whirlwind, forming the outline of a transmutation circle.
Without a word, she ran as fast as she could in an attempt to get out of the massive circle that was surrounding her. Ed and Al were both standing just outside of the glowing circle, the older Elric entering a level of panic that he had never known before as he watched Annora try to escape from within the glowing violet lines, and Al struggling to hold his brother back.
"Dammit Annora, run!!" Ed roared out just as an odd tingling sensation became present on the teenager's feet. A cold feeling of dread crept over Annora as she forced herself to dash forward, even though her legs felt as though they were moving through molasses. She didn't need to look down, or have anyone one tell her that the hands from the Gate were impeding her progress.
"Annora, grab my hand!!" the teenage alchemist shouted as he extended his automail hand towards hers, obviously intending on physically hauling her out of the transmutation circle. "Take it, now!!"
Annora reached for him as the numbing feeling began to spread, the small black hands ripping away parts of her arms, and face as she watched, leaving nothing behind but empty spaces that used to be occupied by flesh and blood. Terror surged through her as she strained to grasp Ed's offered hand, fear wrenching at her heart.
Her fingertips were only a fraction of an inch away from his when everything around her seemingly exploded into millions of fragments, the Gate sucking her straight into its endless abyss right before the very eyes of her friends.
The last thing that Annora ever heard was Ed screaming out her name.
