Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan
Chapter 20: The Most Valuable Thing
Alphonse Elric
After being dragged in, the leader peered down inside me.
"(Gasp) Cool, you're actually hollow" he states as he puts my head back on.
"The names-" he begins
"Greed, and you wanna be my friend right?" I say as I finish his sentence, causing him to laugh.
"Now how did you know I was about to say that? Its like you've seen the future or read my mind! Do you have other hidden talents?" he laughs as he hides his shock.
"No, but my brother might; he warned me I might be kidnapped at some point during our journey, likely in Dublith, by a man named Greed, who would try and get the secret to soul-bonding out of me for immortality, and if you can't get the information from me, you'll try to get it from him" I explain, causing his jaw to drop.
"How much do you know about me kid? I'm beginning to get suspicious" Greed says with a chuckle.
"Everything, You're a homunculus created by Father, almost 200 years ago near the end of the 1700s. Greed the Avaricious, you want everything you can think of; money and women, power and sex, status, glory, you demand the finer things, and one of the biggest things on your list, you crave eternal life. Am I right?" I say succinctly, causing the mouths of all present to hang open like rusty hinges, Greed's included.
"How the hell could your brother know all that?" Greed asks angrily.
"You'll find out soon enough when he arrives with an old friend of yours" I reply, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
"An old friend? Well this oughta be interesting, I love meeting old friends, so you just sit tight" he laughs with glee.
Edward Elric
After having explained to Izumi and Sig that we wouldn't have time for any training from me just yet, I went outside to check on Al. Envy decided he'd join me, he was getting bored of just sitting in there talking. Couldn't blame him, I liked action too, Saiyans just began to boil over with cabin fever after a short period, the species was simply unable to sit still for long when they were bored. As we reached the entrance to the meat shop, I saw his broom was just sitting there on the sidewalk.
"Hey bro, where are ya?" I shout as I look around, unable to find any clues to his location. Leaping onto the roof with his usual old man disguise, Envy began to scan the area too.
"He's not in the surrounding area Fullmetal, not a trace" Envy shouts.
"I don't get it, this is totally unlike him, where could my Buns of Steel brother have gone?" I sigh as I put the broom away, knowing full well Izumi would get dragged into this mess if I left it out like I had in the anime.
"I'd be happy to tell you where you could find him" the sneaky and unmistakable voice of Bido the lizard chimera says from the shadows of an alleyway. Envy jumped down from the roof and landed beside me, both of us staring at him angrily.
"But first you tell me what his secret is" Bido continues from the shadows as he looks at us. Looking at each other for a moment, Envy and I turned our attention to the little weasely reptile man and slowly approached him with a twisted grin on our respective faces.
Alphonse Elric
As the girl continued to restrain me from within, I shouted, "Brother, I'm sure you can hear me if you concentrate, just follow my voice!"
"Oh please, there is no way he could hear you down here, he'd have to have superhuman senses for that" Greed laughs.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open, my brother holding the lizard man's body by the scruff of his neck effortlessly. Then he tossed him to the floor roughly.
"Brother!" I shout happily, glad that he was finally here to rescue me as he'd promised he'd do if I was ever abducted.
"Honestly Al, I warned you all about these guys, even how crafty they were, and yet you still managed to get kidnapped by them? (Groan) It just doesn't pay to explain things to little brothers sometimes" he sighs as he walks over, twisting his arm flamboyantly as he makes his big red coat twirl like a cape as he removes it, tossing it to the ground, revealing his black outfit underneath.
"Whoa…you seem tense, are you upset at us for kidnapping your little bro Fullmetal?" Greed says casually.
"Not really, he wasn't in any real danger; just dismantling him won't cause any harm, that was your plan if none of us would talk right?" Edward replies with a smirk.
"How do you know so much damn it?" Greed snarls, his cool demeanor quickly dissolving as his frustration mounted.
"Well, the main reason is a secret, but this is one of the sources" Edward smiles as he holds his arm out over the door then lowers it dramatically as Envy in his old man disguise walks through.
"You gotta be kidding me, an old geezer? How would he know anything, its not possible, he's ancient" Greed says with disbelief.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh really, I thought nothing was impossible? You used to toss that one around like it was your catchphrase" Envy laughs with his own voice, as he began to change back to his default human form. Greed began to grimace as he realized who he was talking to.
"You change your mind or something?" Envy says with a toothy grin as his head finishes reforming and his hair falls down around his neck.
"(Gasp) ENVY!" Greed stammers as he backs up a step.
"Hello there brother, long time no see" Envy laughs as he steps toward the frightened man.
"S-Stay away from me! I was serious all those years ago, I' m not going back to him, I have bigger plans than being a pawn!" Greed continues as he regains his cool.
"Who ever said I was taking you back to him?" Envy snickers as he keeps going closer.
"I see, he sent you to silence me then, right? Guess he finally decided I was too much of a loose cannon to let live" Greed says as a shiny grey coating begins to morph over the skin on his arms and hands.
"No, actually something far more different" Envy says as he extends his right hand. With a snarl, Greed suddenly began to become completely covered in the coating.
"OH NO! You're not absorbing me into yourself Envy, I don't go down like that" Greed starts as the coating begins to creep up his neck.
"Certainly not without a fight!" he continues, his voice now gaining a slight echo as the coating covers his whole head, his facial features changing as his hair vanishes and the eyes and mouth reform, with fangs coming out of the lower jaw.
"Hold on, I never said I was gonna absorb you dumbass, look more closely at my hand idiot!" Envy snaps, holding his right arm out again as he shakes the palm slightly. Suddenly Greed relaxed tremendously and shook Envy's hand, the coating covering him vanishing just like his anxiety.
"Oh wow, you're here against orders just to say hi, I wasn't sure you'd ever get my hint" Greed laughs.
"Well, took me about a century, but I did figure it out when none of the others did, not even Father" Envy says as he releases Greed's hand.
"So why are you here? You know father will have your stone if he finds out you went behind his back to see me" Greed chuckles.
"I'm already in that position, I defected too Greed" Envy sighs.
"No way! You finally came to your senses and decided to join me and my crew?" Greed says enthusiastically as he holds his hands out. In the background, I saw the girl helping the lizard man up.
"First, introductions; the girl is Martel, part snake, Dolcetto, slick hair, he's part dog, Bido is the cue ball, part lizard, Roa, he's uh…what were you made with again?" Greed remarks as he pauses, having forgotten apparently.
"Cow" the large man replies as he holds his hammer.
"Right, Cow. We've also got a Crocodile, he never said his name, doesn't talk much, but he's very grateful, does whatever I say. Croc (Snaps finger) fetch me and our guests something to drink, mild stuff for the Fullmetal Alchemist, he is just a kid, has to learn to hold his liquor before he can get the good stuff" Greed continues as he rambles.
"SHUT UP! Let me talk little brother!" Envy yells as he stomps the ground, his incredible mass making the room shudder.
"Careful! We're not exactly in a bomb shelter, this could collapse with too much stress Envy, and I'm sorry, what were you trying to say?" Greed says calmly as Croc brings a tray of wine glasses.
"I'm not interested in a drink just yet bro, and don't waste your time on Fullmetal, he hates alcoholic beverages, says he once saw his father drink them as a kid, and old man, he started rambling. Add to the fact that he used to hate him, you can see why he'd rather smash a glass of beer than take a single sip" Envy replies with a chuckle. He was right about that, my brother currently disliked booze with a passion.
"I see, so…the thing you wanted to mention bro?" Greed continues as he sips on a glass of red wine.
"I didn't come here to join you, me and Edward Elric came here to get you to join our crew" Envy states as he walks over to me and rips my chest plate open, then yanks Martel out who promptly screeched due to the rough manhandling.
"HEY, LEMME GO YA JERK!" she yells angrily as she wriggles in his grip.
"Part snake huh? You're a bit too pretty to be a real serpent" Envy says while I re-attach my hooks for the chest plate and close myself up. Then, using his free right hand, Envy turned it into a snake and made it hiss in Martel's face, causing her to whimper.
"That's right, a real snake, and this one is very venomous" Envy chuckles.
"Envy! Put her down, she didn't do anything that was that wrong, she was just following her bosses' orders" I say angrily as I get angered at his rough treatment of the girl.
"Awww, do I have to? I wasn't gonna hurt her-" Envy states as he leans in close and looks her straight in the eyes.
"-Just make her scream in terror a little" he says with a grin.
"Put her down, now!" I say firmly, causing Envy to frown.
"But…-"
"You heard my brother, you gotta start changing; that kind of behavior isn't acceptable to use on innocent victims of tyrannical authority" Edward states authoritatively as he walks up behind Envy and looms there menacingly.
"Ok" Envy sighs as he sets Martel on her feet and returns his right arm to normal.
"I'm sorry Ms. Martel, I'm trying to work on my manners, I'm still not used to acting like this, its very out of character for me" Envy says as he bows.
"Yeah ok, I accept your apology Envy; and for your information Elric brothers, I' am not a victim of tyrannical coercion, I joined up with Greed willingly after he freed me from a government lab in Central, that's where I was turned into a chimera. I want to stay with him" Martel replies bitterly.
"That's right, Martel is my girl, so you keep her hands off her bro. Also, join up, what makes you think I want to risk being caught by Father? He knows you defected, and he's got more eyes now, just like me. More importantly, why join with you losers? Minus you Envy, you're just a tiny bit lame, not a loser. Point is, why would I go anywhere under with you and your goon squad?" Greed remarks with a derisive chuckle as he removes his glasses.
Immediately, me and Edward began to bust out laughing, and fell to the floor in hysterics.
"What are you twerps laughing at!" Greed roars.
"HA HA HA! You think that Envy?…HA HA!" I manage to wheeze between laughs.
"Tell me why you're laughing, usually my brother hates being mocked!" Greed continues angrily.
"They're not mocking me moron, they're mocking you! HA HA HA!" Envy adds as he begins to chuckle at his brother too. Greed and his men promptly gave us funny looks of confusion.
"(Sighs and wipes his eyes) Oh Greed, you think that just cause Envy is one of the strongest homunculi, that means he's automatically the leader? Ever consider that there is a race of beings so much more powerful than your kind, that it makes them seem less than fleas in comparison?" Edward asks as he removes his gloves.
"What are you talking about?" Greed asks with an irritated tone of confusion.
"Just watch, and those of you with weak constitutions might wanna be prepared, this sight can make people lose control of their bodily functions" I say as I back up a few steps. They promptly began to stare at my brother.
Edward Elric
As I deactivated the alchemy formula rearrangements on my body, I began to get taller again. I thoroughly enjoyed the looks of horror on their faces as I saw them slowly realize who I was.
"Holy shit, it's the monster that destroyed central!" Bido screams in horror, leaping behind Greed and cowering there.
"It is him, he has the monkey tail" Martel whispers as she notices my blonde appendage.
"N-No way, what kind of chimera is he? Just being part monkey couldn't make this dude strong enough to tear down the gates to Central Command, what is he?" Dolcetto stammers as he backs up some. I chuckled as I saw Greed's mouth hanging open.
"You tricked us! You even tricked your own family, you impersonated Edward Elric so you could get to me!" Greed says as he forms the Graphene Ultimate Shield over his arms.
"Impersonate? HA! You don't seem to be getting the clue "avaricious". Here, let me spell it out for you" I laugh as I form the ground at Greed's feet into a large, diamond, raised letter stamper. Then, I sent the column with the set typeface mold into his forehead at supersonic speeds, the force of the blow making his neck snap a little as he fell over.
"Owwwww! What the hell, how did he do that?" the spiky haired homunculus snarls as he sits up. Martel seeing his forehead gasped.
"Greed?" Martel says nervously as she points to his brow.
"What, Something wrong with my face?" he asks dumbly.
"Your forehead boss, that thing Edward hit you with left an impression that spells words out, a phrase" Bido whimpers, having scrambled away the instant Greed began to fall over.
"Words, what do they say? Tell me!" he yells angrily.
"It reads…"Edward Elric is the monster" that's what's on your head" Martel says quietly as she walks over to him and reads the statement imprinted on his skin. Greed promptly gasped with worry.
"That's right, but I'm much worse than a monster if you piss me off, I tend to lose my rational mind when I get really mad these days" I respond with a chuckle as I begin to power up a little, a bright blue aura blazing all around me like a fire.
"Y-You, what the hell are you, what the fucking hell are you!" Bido shrieks with terror. Narrowing my eyes at him, I discharged a little Ki into the sockets and made both of them glow pure white with life force energy.
"I'm a Saiyan, proud and strong, and I'm the leader of this group, I hold command over Envy and all the others too" I state as I begin to slowly walk toward the tall homunculus.
"At least that would be my position if I was a selfish dirt bag, but Al, Envy, and anyone else affiliated with me aren't my subordinates, they're my friends" I say as I get closer.
"Hey, that's close enough, you gotta go through me if you wanna get any closer to Mr. Greed" Roa says stiffly as he smacks the flat end of his big hammer on his palm.
"How about I just push you aside wimpy?" I taunt as I curl up my index finger and hold it to his forehead.
"Huh? OOF!" he screams as he is sent through the wall when I flick my finger against his forehead.
"There, now then Greed, I'd like to have a little chat with you about joining up with us" I say as I make the gloves I'd tossed to the floor transmute into energy, then reformed them back on my hands, where I promptly stuck out my right palm in anticipation of a hand shake. Greed began to laugh.
"You have all that power, and yet you say they're your friends? Dude, why would you want friends when you're this strong and skilled, and also, what makes you think they'd hold any allegiance to you, you're too dangerous, if you got mad nothing could stop you" Greed says smoothing, causing me to stop mid-stride.
"What do you mean?" I ask suspiciously, wondering what he was up to.
"I know about Central all those weeks ago, you could have reduced it all to rubble with a single blow, but something held you back then. A simple fact though, apply enough of the right stress to anything, people included, super powered or not, they'll crack under the pressure. What happens if you crack and go mad with power…or rage?" Greed laughs, my eyes widening as I envisioned his statements.
"Yeah, that's the face, you'll have that if you lose control, after you've destroyed everything you hold dear, or after its been taken from you, you'll set the world on fire, I can tell, you got plenty of power to spare to do the deed, and ain't nothing that could stand up to your might. So you think it's a good idea to have people close to you, considering how often they'll be targeted once your secret is out?" Greed laughs as he points out my contorted face of horror, for he had spoken some truths.
"You know I'm right kid. That's why I have possessions, not friends" Greed says as he curls a finger, beckoning Martel to walk over to him, where he promptly wrapped an arm around her waist.
"You see, possessions are much better than friends, when they betray or hurt you, it doesn't matter, cause they're things, not people, that's the way it oughta be, no emotional attachments" Greed says with a grin as he uses his other hand to trace a finger under Martel's chin. I was about to mention something that might serve to fuel his arguments further, but then I saw a tear fall from Martel's right eye as he traced his finger across her skin. It was then I realized that she had considered him and her at least friends, and possibly hoping for more.
"Is that what you really believe Greed?" I say with a low voice, clenching my fists with anger at his callous, heartless attitude.
"Well sure, besides, I mean, who would ever be friends with a freak like me? I'm not even a real person, so who could possibly care about my life? To humans, it means nothing in their eyes, cause I'm not a real man, just a thing made from alchemy, not nature. So how could a guy like me have any real friends, who would ever stand by me through thick and thin, no matter what?" he replies with a grin, causing Martel to begin to cry. This finally got his attention, and he turned to face her, his face showing shock as he realized how hard she was sobbing.
"Martel, why are you sad?" he asks, genuinely confused by her behavior.
"(Sniff) Greed…I always considered you a friend, my best friend; I'd so anything for you, all you'd have to do is name it. So then…why don't you think of us as such?" she sniffles as the others gather around her too. All Greed could do was look at them with a baffled stare.
"Dude, I may be part dog, but that's not why I'm so loyal to you man, its cause I consider you my friend. You think I'd have hurt anyone on your word if I didn't consider you a friend?" Dolcetto adds.
"If I didn't trust your judgment and consider you a friend, I'd have smashed your head in a lot whenever I had the chance, so what do you think it means when I didn't do that unless you ask me to?" Roa says as he sets his hammer on the ground.
"Yeah, and I'm pretty cowardly, but I follow you cause I consider you a true friend Greed, you've always watched out for me" Bido says with a smile.
"Y-You really consider me a friend, all of you?" Greed asks with disbelief.
"Of course we do, why wouldn't we?" Dolcetto continues.
"You may not consider us friends, but you sure treat us like them, and that means you care whether you believe it or not, you have all the qualities of a good friend" Martel says as she pats his back.
"I…I…No, it's a trick, you just want me to give up my ambitions, to be tied down. Well I'm not gonna be that kind of sap, you can't add me to your collection, I'll make sure my other siblings learn of this; Lust, Gluttony, Pride-"
"Too late" I reply, cutting him off and causing his face to contort with confusion.
"You seem to be at a loss, ok then here's what it means; you're too late, they already joined up with us!" Envy laughs. Greed promptly growled and activated his full shield again.
"Well then, regardless, you won't trick me. I'm not joining, you'll never take me alive!" Greed shouts with the hollow echoing tone of that form as he leaps at me with his claws. I easily sidestepped the attack and snapped his tripped him on his feet.
"Well then, shall we take this outside?" I ask as I wave my hands, causing pillars to drag everyone else close to me, with all of them in contact of my body. Immediately I used Instantaneous Movement and we appeared way out in the desert a few miles from the ruins of Xerxes.
"What the fuck…where are we!" Greed snaps angrily as the teleportation completes and he jumps to his feet.
"We just traveled over 2000 miles, we're in the desert. Oh, by the way, that reminds me" I smirk as I use my alchemy to transmute a good pure oasis from the sands behind us for the others.
"Now no one will die of thirst" I remark as I keep my attention on Greed, who eyed me suspiciously.
"Why did you bother to drag me all the way out here alchemist?" he says with a raised eyebrow as he lowers the shield over his head.
"To give you one last chance to join me Greed" I say solemnly as I begin to create an entire castle with the sand beneath his feet. After several minutes, he stood atop the structure, hundreds of feet off the ground, Al, Envy, and the chimeras all stared in awe at this display of unparalleled alchemic might.
"Whoa…reforming Eastern Command was one thing, but just creating an entire building with alchemy from sand…" Al comments quietly.
"Now Greed, let me put my terms on the table, my ultimatum. If you join with me, I promise you complete immunity from Father, and a way to make you human yet retain your powers. But if you choose to be my enemy, you won't be around for long" I say as I compress my feet and prepare to jump. Leaping high into the air, I took flight and once I was several miles above the ground, I began to zoom back toward the earth below, stopping just inches from Greed's face, startling the homunculus and almost causing him to lose his balance.
"So how about it pal, friend or foe?" I ask with a smile. His response was an attempted slash to my face. Missing me by miles, I flipped backward and emitted a Ki pulse through the structure, causing it to instantly crumble back into loose sand. Floating in the air, I watched Greed land on his feet and scream at the sky.
"I'll not be tricked by you ya freak!" he shouts indignantly.
"Very well, then that makes you a fool" I say calmly as I clench my fists and raise them to my sides, two glowing purple spheres forming in my grasp.
"And Fools…-" I shout as I begin to emulate Raditz's voice.
"MUST DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" I bellow as I point them at the moron, and let them loose. As he realized what he was facing, he barely dodged in time, losing a leg in the process, and promptly screaming in agony from having his flesh atomized.
"What the hell was that?" he moans as he waits for his leg to reform.
"Pure energy, life force energy, its called Ki" I state flatly as I float down to look him in the eyes.
"Yeah, and believe me, it can kill you (Snaps fingers) like that, he has enough raw power to destroy entire planets with but a finger, so what do you think that means for you?" Envy adds with a straight face. Greed immediately became more fearful as he figured out just what he'd gotten himself into.
"Bro, I highly recommend you make the choice to join us, because believe me, Edward won't hesitate to turn you into a grease stain if you don't change" Envy says with a sigh.
"That's right, so what will it be Greed the Avaricious?" I state as I raise an eyebrow.
"Come at me!" Greed roars as he reactivates his ultimate shield over limbs and neck, then charges me. I sighed and charged him too, hoping he'd change his mind before it was too late.
5 Minutes Later
Lying in a pool of his own blood, Greed panted heavily, having been killed 10 times before he would stay down. As I slowly walked toward him, he snarled and looked at me viciously as he regenerated, his shield having been smashed long ago just after the curb stomp battle began.
"So Greed, have you reconsidered my generous offer?" I ask calmly. Responding my snorting his sinuses, he hocked up a bloody glob right into my eyes. I instantly became enraged and my energy spiked, causing the secretion to boil and vaporize off me in moments.
"Alright then, your funeral; so how should I kill you?" I ponder as I rub my chin. Having finished healing, he attempted to trip me, but I easily jumped over it, then stomped my foot onto his stomach to immobilize him. After a few moments, I came upon a fitting way to kill the homunculus that embodies avarice.
"Alright Greed, here's how you'll die; first, I'll be shooting you through the heart, like so-" I start as I hold up my right index finger and form a pink tip of Ki, then pointed it at his chest and emitted a death beam straight through his aorta, popping and melting the whole organ like a laser through a water balloon. A huge spurt of blood immediately gushed from the wound and onto my clothes. The others behind us winced at this, even Envy.
"-Until your regenerative powers run out and you're down to your last soul, your own. At that point, the only life left will be yours, and I'll be boiling you alive in molten tungsten metal of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit; seems fitting for a selfish greedy bastard like you doncha think?" I say with a wicked grin as I form another death beam and prepare to fire it as his wound finishes closing. All he could do was groan in agony, as the severe pain of having his heart burst likely almost made him black out. Firing another one, I heard him scream once again as his sanguine pump was once more ruptured completely.
Martel
After letting Greed heal a second time and reform, Edward once again fired that pink and red beam through his chest, and I could feel it was rather malevolent, somehow filled with dark and negative power, my animal senses said it was deadly, and that just being grazed by it could cause severe damage to any part of the body it touched.
"You want everything one can imagine? We'll I'm gonna give you all the pain you can imagine, and then some" Edward says with a low wicked chuckle. As the energy reformed on his fingertip, he once again pierced Greed's chest with the lethal light, and Greed screamed with agony once more. This time after he regenerated, Edward didn't immediately begin to charge up the attack again, allowing Greed to coat himself with his ultimate shield.
"(Pant Pant) What now? I know you're strong, but I doubt that you'll be able to hurt me now. All the pervious times you injured me, I wasn't fully covered, you just had a speed advantage and got me where I was vulnerable. But now that I have no more weak points, lets see if you can take down" Greed wheezes, slowly regaining his breath. I sighed with relief, feeling grateful that Edward had been dumb enough to let my friend gain the advantage so he wouldn't be slaughtered.
However, confusion entered my brain as Edward began to laugh maniacally, throwing his head back as he cackled madly with glee…but why?
"Wha…STOP LAUGHING! In this form I'm invincible, and clearly you're not!" Greed roars as he reaches up with his arm and scratches Edward's stomach. I was worried we might soon see the boy's guts spill out soon, but then Edward aimed his head back down to Greed and directed his gaze straight into his eyes, this time I could tell he was enjoying the glare he gave Greed, because he was smiling, and not in pain at all.
"Ouch…that almost tickled" he replies with a dry tone, but keeping the sadistic grin. As I pivoted where I stood a little, I saw why Greed had such a look of horror on his face. In the area he'd slashed at, the only damage, were tear marks in Edward's shirt, he didn't even have a scuff mark on his skin! Moments later, Edward began to push his boot even harder into Greed's chest, which caused him to gasp as his lungs were emptied of air forcibly, and momentarily.
"My dear friend, how could I make this even more painful for you?" Edward remarks as he puts his hands on his hips for a moment. Then, Edward suddenly snapped his fingers, apparently having figured out another way to torture him.
"I know! How about I start by proving that your so called "Ultimate Shield" is little more than dried shit-" Edward begins as he leans down and begins to push on Greed's chest with his finger, and loud cracking and screaming began to be heard as his armored skin began to break.
"-even in comparison to but the smallest fraction of my power!" Edward laughs as he applies more pressure, and instantly shatters Greed's shield like glass, plunging his hand straight through his chest and tearing out his stone, then tossing it away, while Greed's body slowly disintegrated into black dust that quickly vanished into the wind. However, before anyone could scream in horror, Edward walked over to the stone and kicked it lightly.
"Get up, I'm not done with you, and I know it takes more than that to kill a homunculus!" he yells, causing my confusion to rise; had we not all just witnessed Edward brutally kill my leader and friend?
My answers soon came, as flesh began to sprout from the stone and quickly reformed into…
"(Weak groan) Damn, that was the most intense pain I've ever felt man, I'm beginning to think you're enjoying this twisted game" Greed moans weakly as he rubs his forehead slowly. Edward quickly grabbed him by the throat and tossed my friend back into the sand, placing his boot back on his stomach.
no way, I'd seen him recover from some crazy stuff, but reforming his entire body, that was just insane. Still, it didn't seem even that kind of healing ability would save Greed from Edward.
I was beginning to become worried; I'd heard a lot about the great state alchemist Edward Elric, and also about the monster. But now having learned that Edward and the monster are one and the same, I wondered which person he was really inside. Having done more research on the boy after the incident in Central, I learned he really was a kind guy deep down, but with an obviously troubled past, as he had after all burned down his own home, but he'd never acted like he did in Central before his makeover into whatever these Saiyan things I'd heard him mention he'd become are. I had a hunch though, and I needed to test it, not only to learn who the real Edward is, but also to save Greed's life…even at the cost of my own.
"What I enjoy, is giving scum like you the beat downs you deserve since you either have no heart to try and change, or are too stubborn to do so" Edward says with a mixture of both coldness, and strangely, hesitance.
"Am I really that bad?" Greed says tiredly as he pants.
"I think we all know the answer to that" Edward states flatly, apparently too consumed with rage to even think straight. Suddenly he raised his hands and a blood red orb of pulsating energy began to form in his hand, and he put it straight up to Greed's nose, just inches away from his flesh.
"You know, the best way to make a comparison of how much raw power this thing holds, would be to call it a miniature star Greed; I wonder how long you'll last, even with your Ultimate Shield active when you're inside a sphere with temperatures exceeding more than a million degrees?" Edward says as he begins to push the orb closer, its size slowly growing larger as it got closer.
Without warning though, Edward just stopped and lowered his hand then got back up, removing his foot from Greed as he took a few steps back.
"No…you know what, that's too easy; using that move will ensure your death is instant and painless, much too good for the likes of you wicked homunculus" Edward says as he rubs his head, pondering a new idea.
"You know what, I'm gonna go back to the original plan, making your heart explode till you can't reform It anymore, then boil you alive" Edward laughs with that sadistic grin returning as he charged up the piercing blast again. I knew it was now or never, I had to try and snap Edward out of this; somehow I could feel that this was wrong, no one, not even Greed deserved to be tortured, not like this. Taking a deep breath, I ran and leapt right between Greed and Edward, just as he fired the light. The beam shot straight through my stomach, just below my liver and lungs, and as I felt the searing hot, agony of my flesh being boiled and vaporized, I saw up into Edward's face, and watched as his pupils contracted to pinpoints, his eyes glassing over with horror with his mouth forming into that shape made when one does a small gasp, as though he'd just noticed what was going on and what he'd done, just before I blacked out.
Edward Elric
Up until I saw Martel get struck with my beam, I'd been enjoying this, punishing the unrepentant Greed who wouldn't get a clue. But upon seeing the snake girl get struck through the abdomen, I snapped out of my saiyan battle lust induced sadism, and became horrified.
"No…Martel…this wasn't supposed to happen, I was gonna prevent her, and all of the other chimeras from dying" I say as I fall to my knees in shock upon seeing the dead girl. I just stood there with an aghast expression, my eyes stuck on the terrible scene before me; an innocent girl killed, all cause I let my saiyan nature control me again. My master was right, I had to get a handle on it, I'd not been properly trained in controlling the desire to kill and maim, I'd barely convinced him to teach me how to retain my intelligence as an Oozaru. How would I teach myself from ever letting this happen again? As I stared at her unmoving body, I began to cry, I now hated myself for letting myself down, and worse, Winry; I'd begun acting just like Scar, only without the prejudice.
Greed
When Edward fired the beam at me a third time, I'd anticipated he'd begin to spam me with them and then quickly boil me. But then, the last thing I expected to happen was Martel rushing up to me. Before he could hit me, she somehow made it in time and intercepted the beam, taking a fatal blow.
The fool, why would she throw away her life like that? It made no sense, I was fighting a hopeless battle to stay alive, and then she had to go and sacrifice herself for me. I just couldn't get it, why, WHY?
As Edward sat there with a glazed glassy look in his eyes, I couldn't stop thinking about what Martel had done. I was a thing, not a person, a monster, not a human, I was selfish, vain, greedy, and rude; why would she just take the hit meant for me when she could have let me get what was coming and survived?
"Why?" I ask out loud as I crawl over to Martel's corpse and crawl up onto my knees where it lay. The others began to slowly walk over to us, Envy seeming to have an uncharacteristically sad face as he knelt down beside me. Alphonse joined us too, his metal body creaking as he bent down.
"Why?" I repeat, as I grab Martel's right arm, then try to cradle her lifeless body, hoping she'd wake up.
"Because she was a true friend, like all the chimera's you cared for" Alphonse says softly as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
"What?" I ask, my eyes beginning to water.
"Bro, don't you get it? This is the kind of stuff I've always been jealous of, to have friends like she was, friends who'd sacrifice themselves for you, that's how much they care, that's what makes humans strong, their emotions and feelings, Ed helped me realize it before it was too late for me" Envy starts, then he clenched his free fist and slugged me with it.
"This is all your fault! Why didn't you just accept his offer, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't pissed him off, now look at the torment he has to suffer! How is he gonna face his girl back home now that he's a real murderer, Fullmetal just killed a civilian in cold blood, even if it was an accident, how will he face her now!" Envy finishes as I rub my left cheek where he struck.
"Martel did that…just to save my sorry ass?" I drone hollowly, barely able to comprehend an act of such finality.
"Dude, she was as crazy about you as we are, maybe more so. We're your pals, your buddies, friends to the end. We'd all have gladly thrown ourselves at that blast if we weren't so paralyzed with fear, which means she was an even better friend than us" Dolcetto says as he begins to cry, the others were crying silently too. As I raised my hand to rub my face of blood and dirt, I found I was leaking tears too! As I pondered why this was happening, Edward started to cry, stifling loud moans.
"No…its my fault" Edward says quietly as tears begin to fall down his face too.
"If I'd only focused more on training to fight my vicious saiyan blood, this wouldn't have happened, I could have…" Edward sobs, his coherent words dissolving into hysterical weeping. I could understand me choking up a little since I knew Martel personally, but, to see a grown man sobbing like that over someone he didn't even know, that continued to puzzle me, but regardless, since it was my favorite, my Martel, I didn't try to stop crying, even though the sensation felt strange.
Suddenly, I felt Martel stir for a moment. Quickly putting my ear to her chest…I heard a faint heartbeat. Martel, she's still alive…
"SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" I scream, getting everyone's attention instantly, even Edward.
"What?" Edward asks, wiping his eyes.
"Her heartbeat, its faint but I know I heard it, someone do something, get a doctor!" I yell, becoming more desperate.
"Greed, its too late, we're out in the desert, the nearest doctor is hundreds of miles away, and that's if we're not too far from the border" Roa says solemnly.
"But with Edward's teleportation ability, distance is no consequence, he can go anywhere quicker than a blink, he can get her to a doctor!" Alphonse says cheerfully, causing my hope to rise back up.
"No, even then its too late; I can feel her vitals dropping fast, she's got maybe 2 minutes tops before she bites the big one. Even if he got her to a doctor with a stone, like Marcoh, unless they had it on their person, she'd be dead by the time they fished it out of storage" Envy counters, smashing my optimism to bits just as fast as it had gone up.
"You're all wrong, its not too late and we don't need a doctor" Edward states seriously, rising to his feet and looking down at Martel with a face of intense concentration.
"You were close Envy, but its more like a minute and fifteen seconds before she's gone, but that hardly matters cause I can heal her right now, even with her Ki this low; Greed, hold her still, everyone else step back!" Edward says authoritatively.
"Hang on, what the hell makes you think I'll trust you anything involving her anymore? YOU ALMOST KILLED HER!" I snarl as I turn my back to Edward.
"Well I may have fired the beam, but it was due to your stubbornness this all happened in the first place, so we're both at fault, but none of that matters now; do you want to see Martel die, DO YOU!" Edward asks angrily. I quickly looked at her face, slowly becoming more pale by the minute as her blood pressure began to drop. I bit my lip, unsure of what to do.
"Greed, trust him, he's the only one who can save her, DON'T LET HER DIE JUST CAUSE YOU CAN'T TRUST SOMEONE FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" Envy shouts hysterically, his own face filled with tears.
Before I could add anything, Edward put a hand on my shoulder and turned me around to look in my eyes.
"Please Greed…let me fix my mistake before it becomes permanent, before I become a murderer" he pleads desperately.
I wrestled with the decision for what seemed like ages, unsure of whether I could let Edward just willingly touch Martel. Then I looked down at her face, and had an epiphany, like a complex puzzle that you couldn't figure out where the last handful of pieces went, just suddenly assembled itself in my head. I knew then I had to risk it, cause now I knew, I knew for sure…what the most valuable thing in the whole world was.
"Please…save her-" I choke as I look at Edward's face, who gasped when he saw it.
"-Save my friend, and I'll join your group" I weep as the tears flow freely. Edward surprisingly began to chuckle and opened up his palms like flowers, pointing them at Martel with a smile.
"Greed, I would have done it even if you'd continued to refuse my offer" Edward says cheerfully. Suddenly sparkling, golden light began to slowly emit from his hands in waves over her still form, but with a steady, pulsating series of beeps accompanying it.
In no time at all, Martel began to stir, and as the seconds passed, she became more active, till finally, after several minutes, she was completely healed, and began to awaken. I could still hardly believe that this energy was related to the same thing that had almost killed her less than 5 minutes ago, yet now, it was as if she'd never left the hideout this morning, all her injuries, minor and major were gone as well. After another minute, her eyes fluttered as she returned to us fully.
"Greed…tell me, are you dead like me?" she moans, apparently still weak from this dilemma.
Shaking my head, I felt myself smiling as I held her in my arms, gently saying, "No, Martel, we're both alive; Edward brought you back with some healing power, he almost went insane when he saw you seemed dead. But he did it, he saved your life"
Martel, surprisingly began to smile too, and she looked over at Edward with her warm face.
"That means I was right…deep down, you're not a monster, you're a true hero" she says gently.
"What?" Edward asks, his eyes still leaking like the rest of us.
"That move was dual purpose, to both save your life, and find out if Edward was really a hero, living through it was a bonus, thank you Fullmetal, for proving me right, and thank you Greed, for showing you really do care" she says softly as she turns back to me.
I could no longer contain myself, and hugged Martel tightly in my arms. The other chimera friends joined in too, making it a group hug. They'd been right, I was wrong; I'd somehow become convinced that I didn't need friends, that I could fill those wants with other stuff. But I'd only fooled myself, this was what I had truly craved, It was all I'd ever really wanted, people who love me and care about my well being, true friends, they were the most important, most valuable thing that existed.
"So what do you say now Greed, you wanna join up with my family? All your friends are welcome too" Edward says as he begins to shrink back to his small size again, holding out his hand once more in a peaceful offer.
Looking at Martel, I saw her and all the others nod, and so I set the girl down and shook Edward's hand.
"Buddy, anyone who can help open my eyes up like that can call me their dog, sign me on Fullmetal" I say as I use my other hand to wipe my eyes.
"Welcome to the team man, glad to have you on board; now, we'll go over all the details once we're back in the safety of-"
BANG!
After hearing the gunshot ring out, another one came immediately after, and we turned around to see a most disgusting…and saddening sight.
There on the ground, with bloody bullet holes in their forehead, were my friends Croc, and the ordinary human who'd joined up with me willingly to help with whatever I asked him to.
They were both dead.