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CHAPTER 14:
COGS OF ARMED MILITANCY
.
Al kept his attention on lifting one armored limb, and placing it in front of the other in the snow drifts they were striving through, then the next one, as well as on Winry's, and his, surroundings in a now howling blizzard.
Self hate, and guilt, for far too uncountable in number matters, cleared at him not to do this.
If he didn't, however, Winry, currently safe within his armor, wasn't Teacher.
Furthermore, for their second attempt at this idea to work, this time, Lin, Lan Fan, and Foo needed to keep their distance, for the time being.
With the gusting snow obscuring all of their surroundings but the ones closest to them; the drifts so deep, and heavy, they were pushing, and dragging, so greatly against Al's limbs as he lifted them progress towards Fort Briggs was a slog; with how much the snow kept giving out below his feet even with how solid the purchases appeared to keep his positions; and with how hard Al could hear particularly large clumps of ice clang off his armor; it was even harder than usual to believe Teacher, even with her martial arts skills, had beaten a Briggs mountain grizzly.
"My name is Winry Rockbell!" Winry called, as loud as she could without straining herself in weather that must even be affecting her by now.
"I am the automail mechanic for the Fullmetal Alchemist, and I'm here to request the soldiers of Fort Briggs take me into custody!
"Without a sufficient explanation as to why, save to inform me he believes the military seeks to claim too much oversight of my private practice, he no longer wishes to employ me as his automail mechanic!
"I am of the professional opinion this is ill advised, and it will significantly reduce his ability to perform his duties as a State Alchemist, so I am here to go over the Fullmetal Alchemist's head, by requesting the military nationalize my services, and no services but those of this person, herself, under whatever oversight it sees fit!
"If you are skeptical of my honesty, I am aware the Fullmetal Alchemist is currently in some kind of legal trouble with the military, and, although I am in the company of his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, he refuses to disclose much information about this!
"This is part of the reason I see Edward Elric's course of action, regarding my services, as ill advised!
"As a citizen of Amestris, I am, thus, willing to submit to whatever interrogation you see fit to corroborate this story, until such time as you are willing to nationalize my practice!
"I request, please, at your convenience, to be taken into the custody of the soldiers of Fort Briggs!"
They'd been traveling through what was supposed to be governmental military property for much longer than an hour, by Al's best judgment.
Perhaps even, over, or far over, two hours, by now.
Yet, even though Al was all but sure they'd gotten lost, and left the official road leading to Briggs, they still hadn't seen a single soldier from it, even with what Winry said was their reputation for effectiveness.
That told Al the soldiers from Briggs most likely really were as good as their reputation maintained, and they were already busy placing calls, to ensure when Winry turned herself over to them, she would be remanded along the proper channels with smoothly sure, and clockwork, efficiency.
That also meant that it was almost certainly too late for Winry to back out of this, assuming it hadn't been from the second the horse carriage had driven them within sight of the barbed fence walling off the Briggs property, itself.
The sooner they showed themselves, wherever they were, the better, however.
Even inside Al's armor, he knew the temperature must be getting to Winry, by this point.
Alphonse knew better than to believe they had much of a chance of actually penetrating anywhere within Fort Briggs itself, other than a heavily guarded cell, like this.
However, that was what the next segment of Winry's plan was for.
They needed to get inside its confines, to some extent, however, or, failing that, within a subsidiary outpost nearby, in order for the next stage of Winry's idea to have a chance at working.
Alphonse, once more, pushed away his terror at even implementing this plan a second time.
Their last attempt at it had caused big brother to become a prisoner within his own flesh body.
That body itself had remained unaltered, but he was a prisoner inside it, nonetheless.
He was very possibly even in a coma.
Furthermore, the Homunculi knew they were willing to resort to that tactic now.
That they knew about it might catch them unawares Alphonse was willing to attempt the same trick a second time, even more so as the snare hadn't worked, the first time around.
"Big brother! Bring him b"
"And now the other Ed has taken bi"
No.
Al could not let his misgivings cause him to second guess himself, this time.
If he hadn't given up on big brother, so quickly, the first time, maybe big brother wouldn't have had his body wrested from him by a façade who appeared to be determined to use the body big brother had fought so hard, and long, for to ruin much, if not all, of what big brother had been striving for with such debilitating and excruciatingly strenuous effort.
Al was going to back Winry up, this time, no matter how crippling, and drawn, his terror, and self hate, and despair, and his growing disl
"And you can't fight any Ed.
"Not for real, not when it's not just a spar or a sibling squabble."
nowaynono
he didn't dislike the bi
Ed
from the other side of the Gate
Ed was still Ed
Al couldn't dislike an Ed
Al could neverfornotnever
neverforever wouldhadnotmaynothavewouldn't
dislike an Ed
"And now the other Ed has taken big brother from me, and I don't know for sure he's not aware in there and we can't protect him from everything that just happened."
"It's most likely just how useless I feel."
It was just how useless Al had felt, since everything had gone wrong since big brother had accused Scar of murdering Winry's parents right in front of her, disregarding Al's attempts to warn him to stop running his mouth off
just like this Ed is disregarding what he's doing to bi
he's willing to throw aside big brother's dreams, and our promise to fulfill them together, as though they're supposedly nothin
he doesn't care about big brother, or his automa
he's willing to let big brother rot in his current b
"And you can't fight any Ed.
"Not for real, not when it's not just a spar or a sibling squabble."
"It's most likely just how useless I feel."
That was correct.
This was nothing more than the selfsame hatred of Alphonse's own uselessness that had accompanied him since big brother had first given up his additional arm for Alphonse, and even before then, since Mom had died, and Winry's parents had.
Al pushed the reflections, and the sentiments, as distantly away behind as many walls as he could justify.
Come what may, this time, Al was going to back Winry up.
Along with both Eds, wherever they now were.
An expanding lattice of thick netting soared out of the blizzard in front of them, spreading out to enclose Al, from his lower torso to the top of his head.
Al sighed as exhausting relief lightened a self that couldn't perceive that lack of weight, or the aches that should have accompanied it.
He shifted the balance of his feet to brace for the impact of the strands, and he let the net wrap tightly around him, one that, even with its appearance, was far more confining, and heavily restricting, than Al had believed it would be.
A large, and thick set, male, with a black uniform coat, similar black hair over a head that was mostly bald, with the exception of a mohawk, a mustache that drooped deeply on both sides of his mouth, and an unusual contraption on his automail arm sprinted out of the blizzard before them to level its point at Alphonse as, about them, a number of soldiers garbed all in white, with white masks, run with an economized precision out of the flurries around them, moving so silently, and adroitly, and with such little wasted motions, or movements, it was as though they'd separated from the blizzard itself.
Alphonse didn't know whether to believe he felt lighter, even without a physical body, or wish he could have problems breathing.
Unless the soldiers surrounding them were special forces deployed in unusual situations, Winry had been wrong about the reputation of the soldiers of Briggs.
They weren't as good as she'd heard they were.
They were better, by a lot.
"Your armor matches the description we were given of the set Alphonse Elric prefers to wear," the large male spoke.
"However, I don't see anyone here other than you."
The large male raised his voice higher, and he directed it all around them.
"Reveal your position, and quit with the tomfoolery.
"The soldiers of Briggs are well drilled to shoot first, and ask questions later."
Al, Winry, Lin, Lan Fan, and Foo had tossed ideas back and forth for how to best ensure there were enough worrisome, or potentially worrisome, holes, and contradictions, in their story Winry had a larger chance of ending up under the oversight of one, or more, officers who were in the know about the Homunculi, and at least part of their goals.
"Trust me on this," Lin informed them with a hard edged, and self depreciating, grin.
"I've been learning deception as an art form since my earliest years.
"The longer you two remain in each other's company, the harder it will be, not just to keep from contradicting your falsehoods, but to keep from providing evidence to those trained to look for it just how much, to how little, your acts don't corroborate each other.
"If the forces of Briggs are as good as they say, they're going to have surveillance forces analyzing your mannerisms all but literally down to the slightest twitch of your pinkies, and the slightest shift of your hairs, for evidence to prove, or disprove, your claims.
"If Briggs takes the bait, you two need to get yourselves split up, as soon as possible."
"Not precisely.
"This is his body, but there are different worlds similar to this one beyond the Gate, and I'm the soul of a double of his who the Gate threw into his body, without hurting your Ed's soul and just trapping it inside his body, as an unanticipated price for me giving the Al who I know his own human body and mind back."
"Big brother! Bring him b"
"I do want to be part of your dreams; so much that I'm upset when you don't want me to be part of them, not when you do."
He wasn't useless.
He wasn't on the verge of losing Winry the way he'd lost big brother.
He wasn't putting Winry in danger.
He wasn't.
He wasn't.
Correct?
Right?
That was right.
Correct?
He hurt Winry when he refused to let her into his life, not the opposite.
He was doing the right thing.
He'd be useless if he didn't keep it together, and do this.
Big brother, please, tell me I'm making the correct choice.
Tell me I'm not about to do to Winry what I did to you.
If Al wrecked this because he gave up, though, he wouldn't have learned a single thing from what happened with Gluttony, and their attempt to reuse this ploy would meet the same end as it had then.
Even if all the forces of Briggs are this well drilled, Lin, Lan Fan, and Foo can still keep an eye on her.
Lan Fan is about to turn herself in for detailed analysis of the injury to her arm, to back up my story Bradley did that to her to defend the Homunculi.
If all else fails, she should be in a position to watch over Winry.
Lin kept big brother safe until Edw
Ed
hijacked his body.
He trusts Lan Fan with his life, and she just demonstrated that trust was founded.
Winry will be okay Winry willbeokaypleasebigbrotherpleasenothertooshe'sgottogetthroughthis
Al walled away the terror that flooded all throughout what he, and anywhere that hadn't could be about him, were, and weren't.
He opened his chest plate.
To their credit, what Al could see of the faces of the soldiers of Briggs didn't alter, even a little.
Winry carefully wiggled her way out of the inside of Al's armor, to swing her legs out, and jump lightly down into the snow.
She then walked towards the large male, with her arms held out in front of her, and her gloved hands palms forward.
Alphonse closed his chest plate before the blizzard could get on his blood seal.
Winry inclined her head forward politely.
"Thank you for taking the time to retrieve me," Winry's words didn't possess a single amount of unsteadiness, or worry.
"Are you the ranking officer in charge of this company, or all of Fort Briggs?"
"Neither," an older female voice, hard and sure with a gravel edged unfeeling remove to it Al hadn't heard anyone but the most experienced veteran officers, or soldiers, he'd met in Central City, East City, or anywhere else big brother, and he, had traveled, utilize, sounded from somewhere nearby.
"I'm the ranking officer who heads Fort Briggs, and that's all you need to know.
"I'm willing to take Miss Rockbell into protective custody, but even though your name is known to me, Alphonse Elric, I make my own judgments about people, and I don't base my impressions of them on the perspectives, or opinions, of anyone other than myself."
"And you can't fight any Ed.
"Not for real, not when it's not just a spar or a sibling squabble."
Al suppressed the urge to cringe.
"Thusly, the sole way I'm letting you in here with her is with a hood without eyeslits over that helmet of yours, and its eyes.
"And, as I have no way of knowing whether whatever human transmutation the Fullmetal Alchemist must have performed to leave you like this actually causes you to see out of them, or elsewhere, solely, also, if you're okay with the rest of you entering in pieces, and covered in similar obstructions to your potential vision.
"Otherwise, my forces have orders to carry you out of this area, whether you want to be, or not, before a stray gust of wind even gives you a glimpse of our fort, itself.
"Are we agreed?"
thiswon'tgetbigbrotherinanymoretroublethanhe'salreadyin
"So be it, as long as the blood seal on the inside of my back torso plate is untouched," Al answered.
"If that's damaged, I'll either die, or get thrown out of this body to somewhere a lot farther than the Briggs Mountain region.
"I'm not sure which, and that's not the kind of thing I should be talking about in the open."
"I'm the judge of what information is too sensitive to be made public outside, or within, the confines of my fortress," the woman responded with sharply, and distantly, solid wholly set certainty in her reproach that nevertheless sounded slightly familiar to Al, if somehow in a polar opposite way of how he was used to hearing it, although he couldn't place why, or who the woman was reminding him of.
"I see no purpose in refusing that condition, at this time," the woman responded.
"In that case, I leave myself, and Al, in your hands," Winry interjected.
"Big brother! Bring him b"
"I do want to be part of your dreams; so much that I'm upset when you don't want me to be part of them, not when you do."
Winry believes in me she's not saying this because she believes I'll back out
"Me, too," Al spoke, himself.
The large male shifted his head at the white uniformed soldiers.
One of them strode with crisp business in Alphonse's direction, taking a large black hood out of a military backpack slung over his shoulders.
Within seconds, he'd reached Alphonse and extended his arms to slide it over Al's face, and then Al could just see the black cloth.
Edward suppressed the rush of disappointment, and his last hopes the Homunculi here would let him meet this Amestris' Mustang any time soon, when the door Kimblee was opening into the office revealed a dark skinned military officer Ed recognized as Major General Cremin, or whatever his rank was on this side of the Gate, with this Amestris' Pride seated in a chair in the near corner of the room, on Edward's right, innocently swinging his legs back and forth as though he was Selim Bradley having a blast spending time with a high ranking military officer who was currently off duty while still in the governmental, and military center of Amestris.
Ed had more than enough reason to believe the Mustang here shared enough similarities with the one he knew that he could trust this Mustang would find a way to contact him, even if through one, or more, intermediaries, soon enough.
On the opposite side of the desk Cremin, or whatever his name was here, sat on, a male in a white labcoat with short blonde hair, and a golden tooth in his upper set, was gazing at Ed with an open mouthed, smug grin that reminded Ed so much of Tucker Edward needed to suppress a well worn slight urge to punch the stranger in his golden tooth with his automail fist hard enough to knock it right out of his mouth, preferably with more than one of his other teeth simultaneously.
For that matter, while the composed set to Cremin's face didn't betray much, there were enough traces of Archer in it Edward wasn't sure which face he'd have knocked the smirk off first, if he had the chance, and he was still the person he'd been before both Liors.
But he wasn't even going to blink, any longer.
Kimblee walked in last, and he closed the door behind him.
"Entirely, and unreservedly, marvelous," the golden toothed researcher, if not alchemist, commented with a breathy eagerness that once more reminded Ed of Tucker, and that somehow sounded even more unfeeling and sadistic than Dante.
"This is the State Alchemist who defeated Father."
Selim, or, rather, Pride shifted slightly.
Ed smirked himself, then, letting the golden toothed con artist know he was aware as Kimblee, and Cremin, if this poser wasn't as useful as he must be, he would now be dead, or in a large amount of pain, for having made that comment in Pride's presence.
The golden toothed male stiffened, and scowled.
Pride bristled violently.
"We'll have recovered him before long, I assure you of that," Pride spoke with the smug, reverberating echo to his voice that let Edward know this room must have reinforced walls, if it wasn't totally soundproof.
Edward knew better than to query if Cremin, or whoever, was stationed in High Command, and, whether or not he was, whether most, or all, of High Command honestly were in on the Homunculi's ploys in this Amestris.
"Wrath, and I, talked it over, and I decided Wrath should personally oversee Mustang's surveillance, while I address the first segment of your exam."
There were slight tinges of uncertainty in Pride's voice now, though, that told Ed he wasn't used to handing down orders without any kind of oversight from his master, at all.
They had vanished in their totality when Pride spoke his next words, ones that brimmed with a contained, sure fury Ed hadn't even heard from either Envy, or the Wrath he'd known.
"Understand this, however.
"As you made your offer, in part, for Father's sake, while I have little doubt he would have dismissed it out of hand had he been in a position to receive it, until such time as he overrules me, for his sake, I am willing to work with you to investigate the possibility of an alternate method for him to perform his transmutation."
Cremin's, or whoever's, face shifted with slight irritation.
Ed suppressed another urge to smirk.
So Cremin, and Ed chose to just think of him by that name until he was told the name was off here, whatever the officer's position was in this Amestris, was at least enough out of the loop that he didn't know all the details about what that transmutation constituted.
The golden toothed researcher, however, didn't react visibly, and Kimblee's face remained unaltered, so Edward had no way to glean what the two of them did, and didn't, know.
"That does not mean, in any way, he, or any Homunculus, requires your assistance to initiate it.
"We've spent centuries laying the groundwork for the upcoming transmutation without requiring any assistance from you, State Alchemists, civilian alchemists, or any meager humans," Cremin's face shifted once more, and this time, the gold toothed researcher's did, although Kimblee's was unruffled, "And we are entirely capable of performing it, within a small matter of months, without any assistance from you, or any human, at all."
Ed slouched backward where he stood, crossed his arms behind his head, and he turned the corners of his lips downward in a sneer.
"Funny, that's not the way I heard it," Edward responded sarcastically.
"The way I get it, you'd still be dragging boulders, or whatever you're using to set up your large scale transmutation circles, and repairing defenses keeping anyone from damaging them, while hefting whatever humans you need to sacrifice in the vicinity over your shoulders like heavy sacks, all of this redundantly and arduously, while most likely not even decades near over with, if the here humans looking for a cut of your ill gotten reconstruction weren't assisting you with doing it."
Pride scowled blackly.
"I very much doubt those circles would even stay in one piece for that long, as much of an eyesore as they'd be if no one was keeping their presence secret, even if the people in their vicinity didn't have any idea what they're for.
"Just because you accomplished what you have of your tasks on the backs of us mewling beasts of burden doesn't mean you could have done it without those backs.
"And let's not forget what Philosopher's Stones are transmuted from, when you get down to that one, itself."
Kimblee's face shifted through a multitude of sentiments.
Cremin's lips curled in a slight smirk of his own.
The researcher with the golden tooth emitted a single, short, derisive laugh.
Pride swept feeling off his face, and gave Edward a furious glare he then swept over the entire room, beginning with Cremin, and ending with the golden toothed researcher.
Ed blinked.
There was something off about the derision the researcher had laughed with, at the concept of the Homunculi here not being as superior to humans as they believed.
This wasn't the time to worry about whatever internecine jockeying the top brass in the government, and the military, was attempting to implement for position, and prestige, though.
He also had no better of an idea how to attempt to reach Pride than he had before he'd returned to this capital, if it was even something within the realm of potentiality for Ed to accomplish, at least by himself.
No time like the present, then.
He couldn't even blink now.
Ed ensured his voice was stable, and cordially level.
He suppressed the rush of guilt at betraying both the memory of the Scar he knew, and the one he'd briefly met on this side of the Gate.
If all went well, he might be able to support the Scar here somehow, but Ed wasn't going to risk the lives, and happiness, of the Als, Winrys, Grannys, Mustangs, Hawkeyes, Roses, and anyone else on any side of the Gate for this Scar, with how much he'd followed the path the late Scar of his Amestris had, without a lot better point in doing so than the ones Ed currently held.
"But I've made my points about this to Wrath, already," he said.
"So I'm willing to get this moving, and see if I can locate Scar for you.
"Would I be correct to assume you want me to share my intelligence about him, before you put yours in the open?"
Kimblee gave an amused snort, and then the same interested approval appeared on Kimblee's face.
Cremin scowled.
The golden toothed researcher scowled blackly.
Pride clenched his teeth.
"Ask a stupid question," was all Pride said in reply.
There were three other chairs in front of Cremin's desk, but there was no point to take any of them, at this time.
He pointedly turned his head so Cremin, and the golden toothed researcher, weren't in his field of vision, and he said, still keeping his voice steadily cordial, "The information you might be able to make the best use of isn't anything I can verify, but given the similarities between the histories of the Amestris on my side of the Gate, and the Amestris here, it's entirely possible Scar's vendetta against State Alchemists is personally directed against Kimblee, as it was against the Kimbley on my own side."
Kimblee's eyebrows rose in interest.
The Truth needed to be confronted with open, unblinking eyes.
"When you were in Ishbal, over here, did you engage an Ishbalan who matches Scar's description in the vicinity of a thinner male who was older than him, who wore glasses?"
Kimblee's brow furrowed, and it remained that way for seconds.
The victorious smile that then spread over Kimblee's face, albeit one mixed with deeply knifing irritation that one of his victims had survived, caused Ed's stomach to warp sickly.
"I did indeed," Kimblee commented, sounding as though he were a feline who had just caught the scent of a prey he was going to particularly relish toying with.
Kimblee then frowned in deep, cutting rage directed at himself.
"To think I missed it until now.
"They were in an argument about a book the older male was attempting to convince the Ishbalan who I assume to be Scar to take with him."
"Disappear into the air."
"I killed her while she was wearing the face of my own mother!"
Ed suppressed the urge to look at his hands, and arms, even though the reminiscence of the clumps of dirt from Mom's grave weighed them down so vividly he needed to struggle to breathe.
Ed suppressed another urge, to sigh.
"That was very possibly the alchemic research that gave Scar his current right arm," he spoke, not making the effort to keep the weary resignation out of a voice sounding from a body where even his automail limbs now pulsed with exhausted, phantom aches.
"It's entirely possible all we need to do, then, is to cause it to look like you know what happened to that book, disseminate a convincing general story that covers all the possibilities about what could have happened to it from Scar burning it, to leaving it totally intact, claiming you're off to dispose of surviving pieces of that book, and then wait for Scar to show himself."
Pride pursed his lips slightly, considering the proposal.
Kimblee crossed his arms, waiting.
After a number of seconds passed, Pride nodded.
"I'll request Wrath hand that order down, but as that is to be our strategy, I'd like to give Scar the chance to lead us to anything that survives of that potential research first."
That meant Pride was worried, given where this possible alchemic research had been performed, Scar's brother had stumbled onto something Pride didn't want to risk becoming available publicly, whether, or not, it was something Edward himself had learned, by now.
"You're worried about an Ishbalan alchemist?" Cremin remarked derisively.
On the other side of things, Edward wasn't sure how long he was willing to tolerate this kind of attitude from his current company, before he very clearly made his idea of it known.
Edward thinned his lips together, so he could clench his teeth behind them.
"Even if one of those waste caked barbarians could gain a real grasp of alchemy, the Ishbalan intelligence is no greater than that of a plodding, braindead gorilla.
"That explains why Scar's transmutation circle can't reconstruct, though.
"It must have been assembled from Xingese coconuts, and Aerugo bananas."
The edges of Pride's lips curled up slightly.
Kimblee spread his arms, and hands, out to his sides dismissively, with a pleased, and amused, smirk on his face.
The golden toothed researcher snorted derisively.
Once more, though, there was something off about it, in regards to the notions of Kimblee, and a Homunculus, denouncing the Ishbalans, but not Cremin.
"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to see him."
"As I just did for Marcoh, I need to see what I can do about that."
Ed did need to force himself to breathe, then.
Pride frowned slightly, and his eyes shifted in the direction of the golden toothed researcher, a motion that looked so ordinary Ed was almost certain he'd have missed it if he hadn't spent enough time with Dante to identify a small amount of the methods she used to act without letting anyone know her expressions, and body language, weren't totally regular.
Edward dropped, and threw himself to the side.
Pride scowled once more at how Ed had given him this opening, but a single strand of black nevertheless curled out from behind a left shoe that had a heel now back against the front left chair leg, and rocketed at the golden toothed researcher to wrap vertically around his arms, and body, pin them to his sides, and lift him up.
Cremin's mouth dropped open.
Then he dove under the desk.
Kimblee snorted derisively at the armchair conquest maneuver.
The golden toothed researcher's mouth bent in a derisive sneer.
"Don't waste your time mouthing off to me, baboon," he commented, and now his voice was dripping with revulsion of Pride.
Pride's mouth opened slightly.
"What use have I for Homunculi who are full of themselves, or theories about merely reconstructing yourself as the Truth, when I've now been gifted by a Homunculus who knows his place in the ecosystem of the one and all with the chance to be present at an alchemic demonstration where he proves a theory he's begun developing that hypothesizes that the Truth, and Philosopher's Stones, themselves can be decomposed, and reconstructed, at will the way any other substance can?"
Pride's mouth opened.
Kimblee breathed out, once.
Reality departed.
No
Ican'tblink
It returned.
"The Envy from this Edward's side of the Portal is still developing the initial stages of his hypothesis, and he refuses to tell me what the rest entails, or how much of what, and what other theories, it could entail, he's also uncovered,"
Reality departed.
I'mnotblinking
It returned.
"but all I need to know to have become willing to assist him in proving it is, to develop his own ingredients for the hypothesis he has begun to believe in, he intends to decompose, and reconstruct, Philosopher's Stones, and the Truth, as though they were ordinary substances themselves.
"Why should I stand on the shoulders of God when I can hold my head high astride the shoulders of someone who will create God?
"Yes, I will be walking out of here, alive, to do so."
Crimson coursed out from the golden tooth in the alchemist's face.
A net of additional strands arced out from behind Pride's shoes to soar in the direction of the golden toothed alchemist, as the strand constraining the alchemist turned roughly horizontal, and began to close inward.
Strands of similar blackness, but with hands at the end, rather than points, rushed out from beneath the shoulder blades of the golden toothed alchemist to grip the strand constricting into his skin, and the ones approaching him.
Pride fell back against the chair he was sitting in, the horizontal strand about the alchemist slackened, and Pride's eyes now appeared to be looking at another location even as the black hands yanked the strands that weren't approaching the golden toothed alchemist down into the floor violently enough to carve narrow openings in them.
Ed scrambled backward on his hands, and knees as the floor fell out between the golden toothed alchemist, and Pride.
A spray of stone fragments, threaded with blue, was already sailing at the gold toothed alchemist, clearly sent by Kimblee, but the black protrusions with hands at the end shifted into a curtain between him, and the fragments.
They descended into the floor, vanishing after the gold toothed alchemist.
.
"I will slay the Gods, bind them with humanity, and through the sacrifice of Angels, enable the deification, and the same instrumentality, of humankind."-Gendoh Ikari
EVANGELION 3.00 PLUS 1.01: THRICE UPON A TIME