Chapter 25 - Wrath and Avarice

Ling felt the other homunculus approach, this one filled with fury. It felt like thunderclouds washing up from the south.

Greed had ordered for all his people to go away, pretending to throw a fit as if he was in one of his moods.

Ling openly refused these orders.

"Don't you have any sense?" Greed asked.

Ling shook his head, "Do you know what this one wants?"

His answer was a grumble, "Wrath probably wants me to return to daddy, now that he's lost three of his children."

"Does he know what happened to them?" Ling asked, mentally preparing himself.

"Unlikely," Greed said, already letting his ultimate shield seep up his arms in black stripes.

"We should lead him away," Ling said. "We can't let him discover Ed's siblings."

Greed's purple eyes met his in quiet understanding.

The now human homunculi were closer to Edward's vulnerability than to Greed's.

To be human, was more than blood or creation. And the three siblings only existed because of Ed's bravery and intervention.

And outside of Al and Hohenheim, the only proof that Ed had been real and a part of their lives.

Of the people to be behind that storm cloud of hostility, Ling was not expecting Fuhrer Bradley to walk through the door of Greed's pub. But that didn't stop him from using the circle he had drawn to drop the floor out from underneath them into the sewers below.

Bradley, or should he say, Wrath, looked up as the hole closed above them.

"So you have something to protect," Wrath mused. "How interesting."

Greed snarled, "I'll kill you!"

"Your pet Alchemist died so you found yourself a new one." His good eye looked at Ling, "You have quite the exotic tastes, Greed."

"I'll show you tastes!" Greed roared as ran at his fellow homunculus.

Wrath's speed was incredible, while Greed's martial arts were…

Well, it showed that he had been practising with Ed for years, and now with Ling. Any of Greed's lapses were covered by his ultimate shield.

The two homunculi were evenly matched as they fought.

Time seemed to stretch on and on as they made their way through the sewers.

For a long time, as in, hours later, Ling finally had his opening to help when Wrath went at him, likely thinking he was the weak link.

Ling was happy to educate him in the reverse.

"Even as a Prince of Xing, I never thought I would cross blades with the King of Amestris," he said as the swords reflected off his knives.

Wrath was not amused.

Even less amused when Ling stabbed him through his "Ultimate Eye."

Wrath reeled back and Ling smirked at the outrage on the Fuhrer's face when the eye didn't immediately heal. Then Wrath charged.

Greed came at them, kicking Wrath into the wall. It was clear by the red sparks that the hit had hurt him.

From there, Greed and Ling worked together to great success.

Until it didn't.

Greed was forced to transform completely into his other form, skin blackened and teeth bared. Yet, Wrath still managed to get some strikes in.

It must have been the duration.

Ling was only keeping up because he joined the fight late.

He had seen Greed drink and eat, clearly, his body needed sustenance, maybe not in the same way as humans did, but they weren't as infallible as they pretended.

Enyo didn't seem nearly as disturbed by the needs of his new body as one would think for someone who was newly human.

It must be the fact that if they lived off only their philosopher stones, eventually the energy from them would be drained.

Drained as they appeared to be doing now as their scratches sparked away in red alchemic light.

"And here I was told you were weak," Wrath said.

"Envy tell you that?" Greed asked.

"Lust, actually," Wrath said.

"Ouch, that hurts," Greed said in mock concern.

"You wouldn't happen to know where they are, would you?"

"Now, wouldn't that be telling?"

"You are a traitor."

"What's your game, Wrath?"

"Father ordered you back home, but I'm beginning to have my own ideas."

"Well, that's a first, congratulations on attaining an original thought."

Wrath roared.

The fight continued, and Wrath was winning.

Ling saw it, the moment Greed would lose, and on instinct, forgetting that his friend wasn't human, Ling jumped between the Homunculi and was stabbed through for his trouble.

Greed's eyes had gone wide, impossibly wide as he looked at Ling, "No!"

Ling coughed blood as Wrath pulled his sword back out, having lost his other blade a while back.

Greed caught him with absurd gentleness, "You idiot Prince."

Ling smiled at him, "Just because you're not human doesn't mean you don't matter."

Greed was actually crying for him as he cradled him close, "No, this wasn't supposed to happen."

"Do you surrender now, fool?" Wrath taunted

"Shut up!" Greed roared.

Ling touched Greed's cheek, "Go on, kick his ass, you have something he never will."

"And what's that?" Wrath sneered

Ling kept his gaze on his friend, "People you love who are worth fighting for."

Greed shook his head putting a hand over Ling's wound. "I am not a healer."

"Go," Ling urged. "Before he kills us both. I made my choice."

"It was a stupid choice," Greed snarled. "I didn't give you permission to mistreat what is mine."

"I'll be okay," Ling said. "I'll see Edward soon."

Wrath who had been watching this little saga unfold snorted derisively. "Fullmetal is still alive, you pathetic worm. I don't know how he managed it, but he killed Sloth and Pride. But I wouldn't fret, I'll be sending your lover after you, Prince of Xing."

Ling and Greed looked up at the Fuhrer.

"Ed is alive?" Ling asked, he could see on Fuhrer's bloodied face that he wasn't lying.

Ed was alive.

Fuck!

And here he was dying before he could kick the shit out of him.

Greed looked down at Ling, "I can save you."

"What?"

"I can save you," Greed repeated.

"You said you couldn't heal me."

"I can heal myself and if you join with me—"

Ling stared into his purple eyes, "I don't understand."

"You are a soul and I am a creature made of souls."

Not fully understanding but getting the jest, Ling nodded, "We need to kick some sense back into these fools. Do it."

"No!" Wrath called, blade drawn back.

Greed's hand merged into Ling's wound and they morphed into the same being.

It hurt. It hurt more so because Wrath kept stabbing them as they morphed together.

But when Ling rose to his feet, Greed's thoughts and chi were a part of his own and were so much stronger than he had been.

And faster.

Ling's base form was younger and faster than Bradley's and they were both human made Homunculi.

Ling decapitated the Fuhrer with his own blade.

Collapsing against the wall, Ling asked out loud, "What's happening to us?"

"We're dying."

"I thought you were immortal."

"Too injured."

They sagged against the wall, the red light sparking and sparking until it faded, leaving them with superficial wounds.

But aside from Greed, it was quiet in his mind the poisoned chi released back into the world.

"What is this?" Greed asked.

"We're human," Ling said, dragging them to their feet. "We're both human, we just share a body. Two singular souls in one body."

Ling was exhausted but he didn't want to be found with the Fuhrer's body.

"Do you think he was lying? Do you think he's alive?" Ling asked between halting steps.

"If anyone could kill Sloth and Pride it would be Ed."

"We killed Bradley."

"Not to underestimate myself but I got lucky," Greed said with false cheer.

"No, we got lucky."

Greed mentally pressed against Ling's mind, gently, as if giving him a psychic hug, "No, I got lucky. You never should have been involved and without you Bradley would have killed me. Thank you."

"Why are you suddenly humble?"

Greed laughed, "I don't know and I shouldn't feel this way now that I'm in another body but I feel, free."

Content. He was content, Ling could sense it.

"I'm glad," he told his new soul-brother.

"How do you feel about this, Princeling?"

"I'm not going to lie, it's weird but, but I'm happy to be alive too. And I'm hopeful that maybe Ed is alive and we get to kick his ass."

Greed laughed uproariously.

Ling smiled even as he limped back to Izumi's house.

oOo

Edward didn't really know what to do with another baby, but he sort of figured he should return Selim to his parents.

He had destroyed a good slice of the circle, it would take months if not years to redig what he had destroyed. He had time to take off and return baby Selim to his parents, as well as inform his own father that he wasn't dead.

He was surprised he hadn't run into Hohenheim and Al yet, but he hoped it was because they were attempting to deconstruct the tunnels in the South and East.

Ed was already close enough to Central that it only took him a few days. He alternated his time travelling above and below.

With his hair dyed black and golden haired baby in his arms, no one recognised or even guessed who he was. Which was convenient when he used his alchemy to make jewellery, steel with basic coloured crystals, to earn some money for baby-formal and food for himself.

Finding the Bradleys should have been harder to find, but apparently, Fuhrer Bradley's body had been found in the sewers in the far South. An assassination with not a single suspect.

Personally, Ed could think of a number of people who wanted the Fuhrer dead, but that was neither here nor there. Selim Bradley was assumed dead with him, though his body had not been recovered.

Mrs. Bradley had retreated from the palace into a city apartment. A part of the city known for its wealth and its green parks. She still had guards, but it was easy enough for Ed to sneak in from one of the upper windows.

Mrs. Bradley was sitting in a sunroom, a cold cup of tea forgotten in her hands.

She didn't seem to hear him as he came into the room.

"Mrs. Bradley?" Ed asked.

She didn't look at him, staring out the window at the rising sun.

"Mrs. Bradley?" Ed repeated, but it was Selim's cooing that roused her.

Her expression was… exhausted. "Fullmetal Alchemist?"

Ed blinked, "You recognise me?"

He had only met her once at the ceremony where his dad and Mustang had been promoted.

"Your eyes," she said hollowly. "You have remarkable eyes. Golden."

"I have news about Selim," he said.

She stared at him, "If he were alive you wouldn't have come unannounced."

Ed approached her, "Did you know Selim wasn't human?"

Her expression hardened, "He was my son."

"He was born from alchemy," Ed said.

"He was my son," she repeated.

"So you knew?" he asked as he stopped before her.

"He didn't age," Mrs. Bradley said. "But he was mine."

"He was infested with stolen human souls," Edward said. "I used the energy released when I freed those souls to turn your son into a human." He held out the cooing bundle in his arms to her. "He won't remember you or your husband, but his soul, the thing that made him him, that part of him will have a chance at a normal life. Or at least, a human one."

"Selim?" she asked, holding out her hands. "My Selim?"

Ed laid the babe gently into her hold, "Yes, it's Selim. He's my biological brother. Along with Enyo, Ion, and Isa Curtis."

He deliberately didn't mention Al.

She cradled the baby to her, "Thank you, thank you."

Ed smiled, "I didn't think you would believe me this easily."

She tore her gaze away from Selim to look up at him, tears trailing down her face as she smiled. "Love doesn't need understanding to be true. I knew there were secrets my husband and Selim kept from me. But I didn't need to understand, not in order to love them."

"You are a remarkable woman," he said, glad that Mrs. Bradley looked as content with her baby as Teacher and Sig looked with Isa and Ion.

"I know you to be a remarkable Alchemist, and as you are said to be dead, I think it is time for you to return to your own home," she said pointedly.

He smiled, "Yeah, although, I think my father might kill me."

She rocked her baby in her arms, "Never discount a parent's will to forgive. It is a child's duty to challenge us, as it is a parent's triumph to accept them."

Ed smiled and pulled out his pack to give her what he had.

"What is this?" she asked.

He pulled out a bottle, "He's not eating solid foods yet."

She blinked back tears, "Thank you, Major Hughes. Thank you."

oOo

Maes was huddled around his cup of coffee when Edward's dog, Persephone, went wild.

Running up the stairs in a wild rush of paws and wagging tail.

Alexander followed as an oversized snowball after her.

Nina and Elicia exchanged a look before loudly pushing back from the table and together running up the stairs.

"Don't run up the stairs!" Gracia called after them. She sighed, "What has gotten into them?"

Maes sighed, sipping his coffee and almost choked on it when both girls screamed.

Then he and Gracia were the ones running up the stairs.

Neither of the dogs were barking and the girls' screams had turned to tears.

Maes' heart stopped when he saw who was in the upstairs living room. He had to hold onto Gracia to keep his legs from giving up on him.

Edward was on the floor, being tackled by the girls and the dogs. Ed was hugging Nina and Elicia to him, apologising to them over and over again.

Tears spilled down his face as he hungrily soaked in the sight of his children, all in one place, all alive, and together.

Ed looked up, catching his gaze. "Hi, Dad."

Maes remained frozen, it was Gracia who pulled him forward. He barely made it the few steps forward before falling to his knees on the rug. He pulled his three children and his wife into his arms.

Feeling the hole in his heart refill till it was overflowing.

"I'm sorry," Ed whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

Maes shook his head, there would be time for explanations later, and there would be explanations, but for now, it was enough to be reunited.

Enough to know Ed truly was alive and had returned home to him.

oOo

Maes allowed Ed and Gracia to deal with the herculean task of getting the girls down for bed. Needless to say, they were awake well past their bedtime.

Meanwhile, Maes secured all the blinds down and set up a mock party.

Not to celebrate Ed's return home, though that was certainly worth celebrating, but because Ed implied they were being spied on.

So what were they using as their excuse?

Gracia was pregnant, and though it was a bit early to tell people, it wasn't so early not to be believable.

Roy was arguing with him over the phone, —Maes, it's late, we will see you tomorrow at work.

"We are celebrating tonight, Roy. I expect you and your team to show up," Maes snapped.

Roy was quiet for a long moment, —Alright.

"Good," Maes said, hanging up on him before taking out his emotions unfairly on Roy.

"Do you want to talk before they get here?"

Maes jumped, spinning to face Ed. Looking at his son's golden hair and distinctive eyes, "How did no one spot you?"

Ed shrugged, "I travelled underground, mostly. But I also dyed my hair."

"Are the girls asleep?" Maes asked.

"Yeah, but Gracia is… taking a moment. Congratulations on the pregnancy," Ed said, voice strained.

Maes was angry about Ed's uncertainty, but maybe he was just angry because if Ed had assumed his place as if he had never faked his death, Maes would also be pissed.

He was just pissed.

And hurt.

"I don't care if you have to repeat yourself," Maes said. "Tell me what the hell has been happening."

"We should sit," Ed said, taking his own advice and sitting down at the table.

Maes followed stiffly. He didn't bother to repeat his question.

Ed didn't pull his punches, "I watched you die."

"What?" Maes asked.

"I watched you die, I watched your murder. I saw you bleed out and if I stayed, something just as bad might have happened."

"How did you see this?" Maes asked, not wasting time in disbelieving him.

Ed sighed, "When I tried to transmute my mother, I ended up in this place between. In front of my Gate, the place where alchemic energy can be used. I'm not entirely sure how literal that place is, or if it's just how our brains translate it. But in losing my arm and legs, I gained knowledge, and I met Truth."

"What is Truth exactly?" Maes asked. Ed had talked about the Gate and Truth before but that didn't mean Maes truly grasped all of it.

"Kind of like God, but more personal. I don't think they are fully omnipresent, but they—or it—is tied to the very fabric of reality, and I made a deal with it."

Maes blinked, "Maybe don't do that."

Ed huffed, "I didn't know what I was doing when I was a kid, and I didn't do it on purpose with Tucker."

"Tucker," Maes repeated. "Your tattoos."

"Tucker opened the Gate when he tried transmuting Persephone and me together," Ed explained, petting Persphone's head where the dog remained pressed to his legs. She refused to leave his side now that he had returned.

"But you were saved by Marcoh's stone."

"If I hadn't made a deal with Truth, then Tucker would have controlled the transmutation and you probably would have had to put me and Persphone down or damned us to a cursed life. That's how we got the tattoos."

"And Enyo, the one who looks like your brother but isn't?" Maes asked. That had been the night Ed had gone distant.

"Enyo was like Greed, a Homunculus, and they survive off of philosopher stones. Enyo was ordered by his maker to hurt you to hurt me. I used the knowledge Truth gave me—" Ed pulled up his sleeve to the scar tattoo that ran up his arm. A tattoo that Enyo had had too. "And I released the souls in the stones that fueled them, and I traded the energy those souls released by passing on to the next life to make Enyo human."

Maes blinked, "Have you done that with others?"

"Yes."

"Greed?"

"No, he didn't want it. Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Pride. I haven't gotten Wrath or their first Homunculus, the one Hohenhiem's slave owners created from his blood."

Maes was going to have a migraine at the end of this conversation. "You turned homunculi into humans?"

"They were born from alchemy, but only their bodies weren't human. A soul is a soul, and they were all born, even if it was from the malicious traits the Dwarf in the flask set aside. Lust and Gluttony got turned into babies, Isa and Ion, and adopted by Izumi and Sig. Sloth died in the cave-in, which I didn't intend but he would have killed whoever was in his way if I hadn't stopped him. Pride also got turned into a baby, he was Selim Bradley. I gave him back to Mrs. Bradley this morning."

"Selim Bradley was a homunculus?" Maes asked, shocked.

"Yes, and so was Fuhrer Bradley. He was part human, or at least had a human host. He's thankfully been confirmed dead, so yeah for us."

Maes stared at him.

Ed was unphased.

"The Fuhrer?" Maes repeated.

"Yep," Ed said. "So it's safer than it was for us now, considering how Bradley had it out for me. But I'm still going to play dead until we get the dwarf. I never found Al or Hohenheim, hopefully they have a plan."

Maes shook his head, "What were you doing underground?"

"The original philosopher stones were created from the souls of Xerxes."

"The nation that fell overnight," Maes said.

"Yes, and literally, overnight. The Dwarf in the Flask used a country-wide array to transmute the Xerxes populace into philosopher stones. Hohenhiem was the only survivor and the Dwarf forced immortality onto him. That's how he has lived so long."

Maes had a sick feeling in his gut, "So you've been underground…"

"Trying to dismantle the giant tunnels that make up the tunnels that would act as a human transmutation circle on all of Amestris. Ishval and basically every major military crisis has been to activate a blood crest, marking each point in the circle. The same thing, though on a smaller scale."

Maes stared at him, "The Extermination of Ishval took place in order to transmute the souls of the Ishvalans."

"No," Ed said, expression severe. "The Ishvalans and the Amestrian soldiers. Are souls are all the same and matter as little to those in power as any other."

Maes's eyes narrowed, "You mean other than the Dwarf in the Flask, the First Homunculus?"

"The other homunculi are his tools, but so are some of the higher ups. Like Grand and the Crimson Alchemist."

Maes stared at him, "Fuck."

"Yep," Ed said.

There was a long silence as Maes tried to wrap his brain around all of this.

"Do you want coffee?" Ed asked.

Maes nodded numbly.

Ed stood and went to the kitchen.

Maes listened to the familiar sounds, and despite how dire the information he had just learned, despite the horror of it, he was so grateful Ed was alive and home.

Ed came back with a hot mug of fresh coffee. "Did you get my message?"

Maes blinked, he wanted to ask, What message?

But, he knew.

"Your watch, it was still ticking."

"Yes," Ed said. "I know it wasn't enough, but I figured you might connect how rare it would be to find the watch and not a single other piece of me or my clothing."

Maes rolled his eyes, "I did think that, however, that didn't make your funeral easier."

"I'm sorry," Ed said.

Maes sighed, "I forgive you. One because I know you had the right intentions, two because you did leave me clues, but mostly, because the girls never believed you were gone."

Ed curled in on himself and repeated, "I'm sorry."

Persephone whined, resting her head on Ed's knee.

Maes put a hand over Ed's on the table and asked, "Don't forget, 3rd July 1911?"

Ed smiled at him, "The day you saved me."

Maes squeezed his hand, "It was the day you saved me as well."

oOo

AN: Thoughts, Crichtonsaurs, or feedback, pretty please?