Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Metal and Tears ❯ Prelude to Good-bye ( Chapter 7 )

"Damnit!!" Scar slipped back around the corner and slumped against the wall.
"There are five soldiers blocking one cell door, that has to be where she's kept. Alphonse," He said motioning.
"You'll help me dispatch the guards, then we'll know for sure." Alphonse nodded and the two quietly ran out and quickly knocked out the guards. Edward soon joined them, he pressed his ear to the door and listened for any signs of life. He looked back solemn.
"Nothing." Scar leaned down and hauled him back.
"Move." He said as he placed his hand on the door and Edward saw the transmutation array start to glow.
Lust turned quickly to the door as the wall was blown apart. She watched the Elric brothers and the assassin she'd heard so much about as they stumbled into the room, coughing and blinded by the dust that had accompanied the blast. Edward was the first to regain his senses and spot the Homunculus.
"You!" He cried transmuting his arm.
"What are you doing here?!" Lust simply laughed.
"Wouldn't you like to know Fullmetal?" Alphonse came up beside his brother.
"Where's Kiri?!" He demanded.
"Oh, you mean our dear Judas? The Homunculus that would be Human? She's right here." Lust paused and moved aside. Alphonse started when he saw Kiri standing there with a blank expression on her face, eyes shallow and dark.
"Kiri!" Scar yelled as he ran to her.
"Yes, the Stone's effects aren't usual, but like all the others you're little friend had an unusually weak will." Scar had been shaking Kiri's shoulders, but now he turned on Lust with a vengeance. He tried to catch her off guard with a quick swipe of his arm, but Lust easily dodged his stiff attack.
"OO, I'll have to watch myself." She mocked, Scar started forward but found his arm locked in a vice-like grip.
"Ah, it seems the Judas has awakened. Good, I can leave these fools to you then." She started to walk off when a large wall of water rose up and spread from wall to wall cutting off Lust's escape. She looked back to find Kiri, her hands on the ground, her pale eyes fixed in a glare.
"Not me you idiot!!" Lust said slicing the wall, but to no avail, the slashes were whole in mere seconds.
"Attack the Elrics!!" Kiri, still holding onto Scar's arm, finally let it go to reach into her cheek, pulling the red stone from it.
"Attack my friends? Attack my family? You people are crazier than I thought! I'd never eat this thing, I just needed you to think I would so your master would leave, do you not think I know what they have?!" She threw the stone aside and leapt to her feet racing at Lust. As she ran the water from the wall swirled and then collapsed flowing across the floor the then swirl around Kiri's forearm. Suddenly the room began to get cold, and patches of ice formed on the walls as the air started to condense. The water that had encircled Kiri's arm cracked and stiffened until she had a short icicle that she used to block an attack from Lust as she tried to hit Kiri's heart with her razor sharp fingers.
With Lust's fingers caught in the ice, she couldn't help but be drawn to Kiri as she whipped around landing a backwards roundhouse kick to the side of her opponent's face.
"Aniki! Get the others out of here!! You shouldn't have followed me!!"
"But,"
"NOW ANIKI!!" Reluctant to leave, Scar nevertheless shoved the Elric Brothers back out the hole, but he stayed just inside the entrance to make sure that Kiri remained safe.
"You'll regret your action, our master controls all Homunculi." Lust said rising, Kiri let the icicle around her arm melt and splash to the floor and she took a fighting stance as the Homunculi advanced.
"Not this one." She blocked a stab and dodged another strike moving fluidly around her much stiffer opponent, much like Lust had done when facing Scar.
"And you can tell your master I said that. If any of you had really understood the pain Edward's words caused me, you wouldn't ask me to act against the kindness I was shown by Alphonse."
Scar could see Kiri's face flushing and beads of sweat begin to form and roll down her face.
"She's beginning to feel the affects of using her alchemy..." He thought worried, he watched as she stumbled backward and nearly list her balance trying to dodge another onslaught that Lust had been pressuring her with. He started forward but Kiri glanced over and the look in her eyes threatened him to stay put. Suddenly Edward came running back.
"Scar, if you want to save your Homunculus then do it, but the whole damn compound is in alert, we can't stay!!"
Kiri turned at the news and Lust saw her opening and took it, stabbing the first and second fingers of her left hand into both of Kiri's shoulders. She cried out as she was lifted into the air.
"You shouldn't let your guard down Judas."
"NO!!" Scar leapt to his feet and raced at the pair before Edward could haul him back. Lust sighed as she turned to watch him. She then took a single finger and thrust into Scar's side as he got within a few feet of her.
Kiri was pinned and felt helpless as she watched him hit one knee groaning in pain.
"Aniki.." She whispered, her vision growing blurry. Suddenly, she noticed a change in Lust, she stood there still, then all at once her fingers retracted and Kiri, unconscious, hit the ground with a thud.
Scar felt in his coat where Lust had pierced him and felt his brother's necklace, a small slit in the front of the locket.
"She can't touch this?" He thought, slowly he walked to Kiri and knelt beside her, keeping a wary eye on Lust who glared icily at the pocket where his trinket lay. Slowly he lifted Kiri like a child and backed out the blown wall where Edward waited. Reaching his exit, Scar turned and ran.
Instead of going all the way to the back door that they had come in, the group paused at a wall that had B-2 painted on it where Alphonse provided them a door to the outside. Then they headed to the outer wall where the stolen jeep lay waiting, all of them barely squeezed through before the guards started shooting at their backs. As gently as he could, Scar lay Kiri's limp body in the back of the jeep as Edward jumped in the front passenger seat and Alphonse took the back. The vehicle sped off into the early morning leaving a pale dust cloud in the rising sun's light.
They didn't go back to retrieve any clothes or supplies that might have been left at the hotel, but instead headed back toward Ishbal and Kiri's old home. During the hottest part of the day, they stopped under a rock that jutted out enough to cover the jeep while they took a rest out of the heat of the sun. Kiri hadn't stirred from her state since they left the Military base and the movement of her chest as she breathed was the only sign that Scar and Alphonse had that she was still alive. Edward usually kept to himself as they traveled not saying much, occasionally glancing over to where Kiri lay in a sudden fever that had arose and thinking...
As the group was making camp that night, Edward heard Scar speaking in a low voice as he poured water from a canteen onto a strip of cloth that he had found and lay it across Kiri's forehead.
"Your fever's gone up...Damnit!"
"So what happens now?" Edward asked quietly as he approached. Scar spun to face him eyes blazing, but he relaxed when he realized who it was.
"You. What do you mean 'what happens now'?" Edward shrugged and rubbed the underside of his nose with a finger.
"Oh nothing, but her little charade should be taken to heart. So she didn't eat the Philosopher's Stone this time, but what happens if she does? What happens if she becomes like that thing that you fought? Oh and God forbid I forget to mention she's a State Alchemist. You were the one who swore to kill all those who defy God's will, weren't you? Why do you pause now?" Scar glanced away and he noticed for the first time the undeniable proof that Edward wasn't lying. Somehow in all of the chaos, Kiri's sliver watch had gone unnoticed and she still clutched it in her pallid, white-knuckled grip. Scar's eyes quivered in the dark as they fell upon the lighted trinket.
"Well?" Edward asked expectantly. Scar's hand tightened in anger.
"Shut up Elric, you couldn't possibly understand the reason why I hesitate." He scoffed.
"You're reason is simple, you can't because you don't have the will to kill someone close to you." Scar's clenched fist fell open, limp and resigned.
"Maybe you're right." He said brushing a hand over Kiri's face feeling her fever flare.
"But can you really say that being able to is a strength?" Edward turned silently and then walked to the other side of camp, shaking his head as he went.
The two were completely silent when Alphonse returned with a few dry sticks to fuel their fire. He looked from one to the other and prodded the dying blaze to life.
"I wonder what's gotten into them?" He thought absently.
The fire was dead and the moon hung strangely high in the starry sky when Kiri woke from her state. She sat up in the back of the jeep holding her head between her hands. She yawned and looked around. Edward lay next to the cold embers wrapped in his coat, but Alphonse was nowhere to be found. She then looked down and smiled seeing the sleeping figure of Scar as he slept on his back, face still set in a determined countenance.
"You can't even relax when you're asleep, can you Aniki?" She quietly got out of the vehicle and made her way over to the fire, she took a single stick and nudged the coals trying to restore the light and heat when a soft voice spoke up behind her.
So, you’re awake” She whipped around and found Edward’s golden eyes staring at her calm and composed. Kiri nodded and watched as the fire flared.
“How are you feeling?” He asked quietly as he sat up and scooted close to the warmth that the flame offered.
“Tired, that’s all, I suppose that whatever of the Philosopher’s Stone fragment I absorbed made me think I could fight longer than I could, I just pushed myself too hard.” She looked away ashamed and then drew her knees up to her chest and sat in silence.
“I’m sorry Edward.” She said at last burying her head in her knees and squeezing her eyes shut.
“I-I should have just let them--“
“It’s Ed.” Kiri jerked her head up and stared.
“You don’t need to be so formal all the damn time, call me Ed.” He scratched the back of his head and then looked off to the distance. She smiled and nodded.
“Alright…Ed.” He turned back his face red from embarrassment.
“B-B-But don’t think this has changed anything, you’re still just a Homunculus!!” Kiri smiled wider and smiled.
“Of course, I would hate to ruin your standing in front of your brother. Especially when you’re trying to be strong enough to do what is needed.” Kiri chuckled when Edward’s face grew even redder than it had been. Then she grew deathly serious
“But our encounter with the others, while I was unconscious I began to think and I’ve decided. Edward, when this is all over, I want to ask you a favor… will you…do it for me, what I mean is…will you seal me away?” Edward suddenly recoiled and fell back shaking his head.
“NO!!” He cried.
“I can’t, I mean I don’t want--- don’t ask me to, Kiri please!” She merely looked into his wide frightened eyes with a calm expression and asked why.
“Because…I…you…you have someone to live for.” Kiri chuckled.
“That’s the reason I want you to do this, I know Aniki wouldn’t because he can’t bear the thought, I’ve asked him before and he refused, Alphonse won’t, so the only one I have to ask this of is you.” Edward’s eyes calmed a little as she went on.
“I started thinking back to all the people who have been a part of this half-life I have. Aniki, you and Alphonse, Granny, and the Ishballans I traveled with when we were on the move. I haven’t become like one of the others because I stayed with people my whole life, I’ve shared in their joy, pain and anger, this has caused me to gain as close to a soul as I can get…and the thought makes me sad when I think of all those who were hurt because of my actions.” Kiri paused as a shudder wracked her body. She placed a hand over her heart and then balled it into a fist.
“Edward, with every heartbeat, I remember, I remember everyone who was hurt because of me. I can’t stand it anymore, I don’t age or die so I’m left to watch as my friends do!!” Edward watched as she curled into herself bawling helplessly.
“If that’s what you want…but I won’t like it.” Edward stood and moved beside her looking up at the millions of stars that hung like a giant tapestry over the sky.
“You know if you had asked me this a few days ago, I’d have been more than ready to, but when I saw you trying to protect something…I suddenly realized that you weren’t the creature I made you out to be, but more human than some humans are. You have someone to protect and you’ll willingly give your life for that person, not too unlike me and Al.” Edward laughed embarrassedly and grabbed his ankles as he rocked forward toward the blaze. He quietly poked at the fire with a charred stick.
“I hope you’ll forgive me for the things I said to you.” Kiri shook her head.
“Edw…Ed, there was never anything to forgive, but at least we’re both alive to realize it, I was so scared when I was fighting Lust, but its not just her, I was frightened when I was faced with Envy too. Edward, you have to promise me some thing…” He nodded and she looked into the blaze the red fire turning her eyes a pale purple, Edward shivered at the unearthly look it gave her.
“If we are faced with a situation like that again…you have to…” Kiri paused and then jerked to her right, eyes wide.
“What’s wrong?” She stood and Edward noticed her eyes hard and focused, suddenly he heard soft laughter and from the shadows at the edge of the camp a figure started to emerge. It was Envy, Kiri whirled and found Lust advancing from the rear and on either side was the fat one and one more Homunculi that she had never seen.
“Sloth,” Envy said with a slight laugh.
“Why don’t you show our Judas here what it really means to use water.” The female advancing from the right nodded and then disappeared in a splash.
“Oh no…” Kiri jerked around and pushed Edward away as the ground began to sink, he landed just outside the sand trap and he watched as Kiri sunk lower and lower.
“Edward, now is when I hold you to your promise, take Aniki and Alphonse and run!! Get as far away from here as you possibly can!” She sunk lower and now only her head was above the dirt and grime. Edward couldn’t move, he watched as she slowly went deeper and at last disappeared from view.