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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST:
THE LAW OF EXCHANGED TRUTH
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PROLOGUE:
POISONOUS REVENGE REPULSES THE INFERNO OF VENGEANCE
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Author's Notes: As always, I dedicate this story, from its first incomplete draft begun in 2014 until its hopefully last draft, begun today on February 15, 2021; to the now Account-Deleted Mirriem, one of the truest friends who a person could hope to have, whose friendship and writing are among the largest reasons I'm the person and the writer who I am today.
"The left eye of this once nameless test subject had rotten and fallen out, but because of my new superhuman powers I was able to maintain control over my body," Roy continued to listen as Führer King Bradley, the leader of the entire nation who he had once followed, although extremely skeptically since the Ishbalan Extermination Campaign, and who had now led everyone who Roy had loved and cared for the most to their deaths or virtual death with it hanging over them in a literal form that could descend at any second, continued to share his origins and past with the Colonel who he had now thoroughly outmaneuvered.
"Of all the souls that had warred within me, only one was left. Just one soul which felt but one emotion – Wrath."
That confirmed Roy's belief, from Bradley's story, what his Homunculus name was.
What he still didn't understand was why the mysterious alchemist who had transmuted them kept naming them after the seven deadly sins.
"Whether the remaining soul was one of those transmuted into the Philosopher's Stone, or whether it's my own, I will never know."
Bradley, or, rather, Wrath, said nothing further for a number of seconds, so Roy assumed that his tale was over at last.
He brought his clasped hands up in front of his midsection while keeping them together, trying to calm all the feelings and thoughts whirling and coalescing together and in conflict inside of him; and suppress the familiar fury and hatred at what had happened to Hughes and Havoc as much as he could justify pushing it down, fury and hate that was now joined by new fury and hatred about what the Homunculi and High Command had just done to Hawkeye, Breda, Fuery, and Falman.
But perhaps he still had one last means left of keeping what had happened to Hughes and Havoc from happening to them.
Roy stood up, moving careful so Bradley wouldn't believe that Roy might intend to attack him by surprise.
"If you used to be human, isn't there a way for you to live as a human being again, and not as a Homunculus, sir?" he queried.
Bradley frowned slightly in anger and irritation, but his hands weren't shaking as they had at Hughes' funeral, so the Colonel held his breath that his question had meant something to the Führer.
"You're suggesting I become human again?" Bradley asked in return.
"Now, why would I do that? We are different from you humans. Superior. My strength and eyesight have transcended that of a mere human's. We are not the product of chance. We Homunculi were created for a purpose.
"And just as you humans take pride in being human, we Homunculi are proud of what we are."
Roy's stomach plummeted.
That was it, then.
He'd just failed everyone who he'd sworn to protect, and enable to protect those below them in a descending chain, starting with Master Hawkeye before he'd even enlisted and ending with his four closest friends, including Master Hawkeye's daughter herself, the person who Roy wanted to protect most of all.
What had it been all for?
He understood what Scar had become and how self defeating it was, to everyone around him as well as to himself.
But if Roy had a valid reason to believe that trying wouldn't almost certainly just result in the Lieutenant's, Fuery's, Falman's, Breda's, and perhaps Havoc's deaths; or if Bradley was willing to tell Roy whether he'd specifically been the one to murder Hughes; Roy saw practically no reason left to not just try to recover one or both of his gloves with his Flame Alchemy transmutation circles and then incinerate Bradley, and then the entirety of the High Command, even if it meant mowing down every soldier in Central City Headquarters into ashes who tried to stop him even though those soldiers honestly believed that Roy was the traitor, and they were just attempting to fulfill their duties to maintain Amestris' safety and relative stability.
"That woman you murdered, died with her pride intact, didn't she?" Bradley questioned.
Before Roy could react, internally or externally, an unexpected voice interjected.
"Her pride in what, you farcical phantom of a Homunculus?"
Bradley started slightly.
The next second, blue coursed throughout Bradley's office, revealing a gigantic primarily light green serpent with the head of a dragon coiled together to their sides.
Roy whirled to take a number of strides backwards and moved into a hand to hand defensive position, unsure if this new creature, apparently a difficult Homunculus, was willing to be as merciful as Bradley had been.
"Envy?" Bradley questioned.
The Homunculus who could shapeshift at will?
"Did you recover Gluttony successfully, then?"
Roy clenched his teeth and snarled.
If something had happened to Fullmetal and Alphonse, as well, he might try to incinerate Bradley and High Command, regardless of the cost, anyway.
But Envy's draconian head just sneered in disgusted derision.
"Seeing as this appears to be a different Amestris, on the other side of the Gate,"
Roy's eyes flew wide,
Bradley's visible eye rose,
"And you sorry lunatics who call yourselves Homunculi actually want to remain Homunculi, I wouldn't tell you the answer to that question even if I knew.
"As far as I'm concerned, the Gluttony from this side of the Gate is better off thrashing in whatever sorry fate just befell him, whether he's the same as the Gluttony I know; or, as you said that your name is Wrath, and not Pride; he's a different Homunculus.
"Just tell me where I can find the city of London, and Hohenheim, and then get out of my sight."
Roy wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure whether that would endanger his surviving loved ones, and friends, in this new situation, so he held his tongue.
"I have no idea where a city named London is located, as yes, this is the Amestris of this side of the Gateway of Truth.
"But if you're willing to accompany me to see my overseer, we'll assist you in searching for whichever Hohenheim you're looking for, be it the one from this side of the Portal, or the one from yours."
"As much as I'd love to strangle whatever crackpot you're serving who has convinced you that you should take pride in living with what I assume is just a shred of someone's soul, I really hope that wasn't a threat."
The Colonel suppressed a surge of pained dismay.
He'd intended to try to convince Bradley to recover his humanity, but he hadn't wanted Bradley to take the polar opposite stance and start seeing himself as inferior to natural born humans.
Which was worse, if either?
Believing that living as an artificial human being made you superior to humans, as natural born humans saw them as superior to other natural living beings?
Or believing that living as an artificial human being made you inferior to them, because you didn't have a full soul; or even, for all Roy knew, any?
Roy wasn't convinced that the other Envy was correct, and that Bradley believed himself incapable of feeling anything but anger because his soul was nothing but a fragment of a complete soul and it wasn't a whole one. But that didn't change that the other Envy likely didn't have a total one, or any at all.
"If you have the Ultimate Eye, giving you the extreme reality check that you need will most likely involve a lot of pain that I'd prefer to do without, but whatever the Envy on this side of the Gate can do, I assure you that I'll be the victor at the end of this scrape."
Roy suppressed the urge to smirk as Bradley's eye widened slightly, and a small amount of concern flickered briefly over his face.
Whether the Envy from whatever the other Amestris was was this Bradley's better, or not, Roy had no guarantee that he'd be a formidable enough enemy for Roy to regain the advantage in this nightmare, and protect his surviving companions and comrades.
And he had no idea what the toll had been for Envy to be sent here as the result of what had almost certainly been a human transmutation on his side of what Fullmetal called the Portal of Truth.
Roy had never seen any hypotheses or theories of a different Amestris on the other side of the Portal of Truth that mirrored his own, and the people within it, in a flawed way. But whatever the reason was that it existed, the Law of Equivalent Exchange and human transmutation were human transmutation and the Law of Equivalent Exchange.
If Roy said or did anything stupid now that the situation had just turned another acute corner, Hawkeye, Havoc, Falman, Fuery, and Breda might end up drowning in even deeper waters than they already were.
"I can call for assistance from the entire Central City military, and one or two other Homunculi, with little difficulty," Bradley replied.
"Even if you can defeat me, an outcome that is by no means certain, you're drastically outnumbered.
"I advise you to do as I say, or, at worst, depart before you lose the ability to salvage whatever pride you retain as a Homunculus while you obviously do wish to obtain natural humanity."
Envy shifted, and although crimson didn't crackle over him, within a number of seconds, his form had morphed and contracted and condensed into a human shape.
The Flame Alchemist felt his blood drain away as it solidified into the features and clothing of Cordelia Bradley.
This was low even for a Homunculus.
Bradley's visible eye now narrowed with actual strands of hate.
Roy started.
Perhaps Bradley did care for his family, on one or more levels.
"Parlor tricks like that might work on humans, as they have on many humans the Envy of this Amestris has used them on," Bradley spoke, his tone filled with contained, but mostly calm, fury.
The foreign Envy snarled with more hate and derision and disgust and fury of his own at the confirmation the Envy of this nation could shapeshift as he could.
"But Homunculi, such as myself, are above such pointless sentiment.
"As I said, we were created with a purpose from the beginning.
"We don't struggle to find a place to belong, as most humans do, so we have no need for fleeting bonds with anyone other than each other, and one another.
"You will accompany me to visit Father," Envy started violently as Bradley at last gave a title to the alchemist who must have transmuted him, "Or you will successfully depart at considerable cost, or try to do so and see Father afterwards, regardless.
"I have no further patience for your demands, or your willingness to mock many of the core values that the Homunculi of this side of the Portal stand for."
Envy then smirked in a vicious, savagely triumphant way that didn't suit Cordelia at all.
"Assuming that your supposed father is who I believe that he is, since I can't trust you to tell me the truth about his identity, I'll see him, all right.
"But not unless you keep your delusional arrogance, at how artificial intentional creation qualifies you to have the same pride in themselves that haphazardly naturally created humans have valid reasons to have over other living beings, out of my sight."
"I can agree to that," Bradley responded.
"You'll find the entrance to his laboratory in the corner to Colonel Mustang's left."
The Flame Alchemist wished that he could make use of that revelation, somehow.
"Once you're below, keep heading mostly south and slightly east, and keep descending level by level.
"You'll encounter his quarters sooner or later.
"But I advise you not to try to kill him, if that's your intention."
That Bradley's creator had one or more extremely effective cards up his own sleeve that he could utilize to defend his research, and himself, was no surprise.
"The information about why is too sensitive for you to know, but I recommend that you take my advice."
But, for whatever reason, Envy just sneered derisively and disgustedly at Bradley once more, and then he turned to the Flame Alchemist.
"I'm not surprised.
"I never got a chance to become acquainted with the Mustang of my Amestris, just some worm who craved his family like a drug named Hughes who I shot dead in the form of his wife."
Roy felt the familiar hatred and fury surge up to consume him once again, so blinding this time that he almost lost most awareness of the reality around him; because any dead Hughes who was a decent person who loved his family was one dead Hughes too many, particularly if someone had shot him in the form of a different Gracia, or whoever his wife was.
But, as much as Roy wanted to sprint at this Envy and attempt to snap his neck with his bare hands as many times as necessary until he stayed dead, or the Flame Alchemist discovered another way to keep him dead, Roy had no certainty that the Envy of this Amestris had murdered the Hughes who had married Gracia, fathered Elicia, and ceaselessly supported Roy through the nightmare of Ishbal and the Extermination Campaign and the years afterwards.
As Hughes was one of the most likely people to die from a ploy of someone imitating Gracia, Roy could very easily believe that the Envy of this world had been the one who had murdered the Hughes who he knew, and Roy now very much intended to locate him and find out.
Preferably when Hawkeye, Breda, Falman, and Fuery had left to their new assignments, so Roy didn't need to involve them in what he knew that he needed to do if Envy was.
But this Envy was clearly trying to maneuver him to run interference with Bradley so he'd be less capable of alerting anyone that Envy was on his way down.
Roy knew better than to take the bait.
So he contended himself by smirking with vicious, savage triumph when Envy sighed heavily in hate and exasperation and fury of his own and told Bradley, "I'll find my own way.
"If I discover that anyone is trying to tail me, you'd better hope that it's someone who you see as expendable."
Bradley just inclined his head in acknowledgment.
Envy shifted into the form of the young male with long, dark green hair falling down his back in strands who Fullmetal had showed him, and then he sauntered with eager confidence towards the wall that Bradley had identified and felt over it until a section slid away.
Then Envy walked into it in the same manner, and vanished from sight.
Roy was now back to square one with Bradley.
But he still sighed heavily himself, in relief that his attempt to ally with Lieutenant General Reven hadn't been a full waste of time.
If the Envy from this side of the Portal had murdered Hughes, and had done so while resembling Gracia, the Flame Alchemist had no idea how he could avenge Hughes without Hawkeye, Falman, Fuery, and Breda dying after he did, and perhaps Havoc, too.
But Roy had struggled too long and too hard to identify who had murdered Hughes to let what might happen to them deter him.
If Envy had murdered Hughes, and as Gracia, Roy would find a way to force the Envy of this side of the Portal of Truth to pay his own toll, and in soot and blood and ashes.
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Begin
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BOOK ONE: THE CRIMSON WARS OF THE SANGUINE STONES
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"Preen and strut as you like, in the end, we are the same. Blood-thirsting carrion birds, h-ll-bent on revenge."-Judge Magister Noah 'Gabranth' Fon Ronsenburg
FINAL FANTASY XII