Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Unknown Sacrifice ❯ Replacement ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Uniasus

Unknown Sacrifice

AU from Manga chapter 35

Chapter 6 - Replacement

Needing something to amuse himself, Scar strode over to the bookshelves. A lot of it seemed to be alchemic texts with a few scattered novels. All of them had seen better days and had gained weight due to the vast amount of dust. Eventually he came to a thin leather bound book with no title. And while curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back as Scar realized what the volume was.

The book was a simple journal that recorded different experiments. Most of the early entries looked something like Experiment 7 - failed. The middle ones seemed to house some success with entries like Experiment 38 - animation, but soul rejection at 4 minutes or something similar. What really caught his eye the first success, Experiment 48 - animation, and later no rejection after a year. While 49 also seemed to work Scar noticed that the next successful one was 66. Flipping to the back of the book the Ishvaran saw a list of numbers and names. By chance, his eyes fell on Inmate 66 - Barry the Chopper.

Scar dropped the book. This place had been a site of alchemic research on human beings. It seemed that despite all his hard work people still acted out against god. Needing a vent for his anger the marked man picked up the journal and proceeded to tear the pages from the spine. Looking at the loose pages on the floor, Scar realized the punishment was too nice. With a laugh he tossed half the pages in the air and deconstructed them on their way down. Up went the rest, only to flutter down like torn butterfly wings. Caught up the vandalism, he continued the procedure with the other books starting at one end and working his way, laughing the entire time.

When Genyou arrived to fetch him a couple hours later, she found him with his head thrown back and laughing maniacally. Bits of paper littered the ground and more where drifting to ground.

“Um…ahem!” she voiced to get his attention.

“Hmm?” seeing Genyou Scar snapped back into place. Stepping out of his paper nest he resettled his glasses on his nose. He rubbed his hands together. Nothing sounded so sweet as killing Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric right then.

“Ready?” Genyou had to wonder if Scar had lost it, with the trama of the war and all. She shrugged it off, he was of use and as of yet, controllable.

“Yes,” Scar followed the red head out of the rooms and down to the lower floors.

They entered a room lit solely by small green light embedded in the walls. This far underground, the room was made entirely of concrete which lowered the temperature. Along one wall there seemed to be a covered balcony and below it either the lights did not reach or the ones there had stopped working. What caught Scar attention though was the transmutation circle on the ground. Someone was so worried it might get messed up and have drastic results that it was carved into the cement, deeply. And the thing was huge. It consisted of two circles with in triangles at opposite ends with lines that could be used as a henna pattern connecting them. This in turn was surrounded by a circle which lay just inside an octagon.

Hearing footsteps Scar looked up. His guide had left him and strolling out of the darkness were the two he fought the other day at the library, Gluttony and Lust. Immediately he tensed, prepared for a fight as the fat one asked “Can I eat him?”

“No,” the gifted woman replied. “We need him.”

Seeing that Scar was still poised for battle she said “relax. We aren't going to kill you. Like I told Gluttony, we need you to do something for us. Right now we are just waiting for Envy.”

She ended with an exasperated tone, as if this Envy was always doing things his way at his pace even if it threatened the common good. It was obviously she was not fond of him but rather put up with it because of his uses.

“What exactly does this transmutation circle do?”

“It will turn us human. The sacrifice is used as raw material to construct our original bodies.”

God's Angel of Death cocked his head at her. Their goal was similar to the Elric brothers', to return things to normal. Wasn't he opposing changing things, and therefore help these people set things back the way Ishbala wanted it? His thoughts were interrupted by someone was approaching them while singing.

“Shrimp for dinner, shrimp for dinner! Yay, yay for shrimp! They fit in your mouth `cuz they are so small, shrimp, shrimp for dinner!”

The fourth member of the party entered the room leaving his vocals to humming. He carried a box that Scar could have sworn was emitting a low growl. Walking toward the transmutation circle, it was obvious Envy, for Scar was assuming that was who the newcomer was, had long, spiky, green hair kept from his face with the aide of a black headband. (Wow, that's a lot of commas. Hope you can follow all that.) While he looked male, judging by the tight, black midriff top he wore, his loins were covered by a black skort.

Once at the right most inner circle, Envy opened the box and upturned it. What fell out of it was not what the Ishvaran was expecting. Out tumbled a beat up, unmoving, Edward Elric. Looking close, one could tell that he was alive, due to the fact that his chest was barely rising. It looked like he was having trouble breathing and his eyes were closed in pain. Scar looked questioningly at Lust.

With a grin she beckoned Envy over. When he was close enough she thrust her hand through his center and pulled out a stone pulsing with a red light. She then turned around and placed it in the center of Scar's palm. Scar glanced at it briefly, and then clutched his wrist in pain. His brother's arm was reacting to the rock, so it could not be anything but the alchemic Philosopher's Stone. Grimacing in pain, Scar ground his teeth as the Stone entered his blood stream and the souls of another people were added. Once the assimilation was completed, he looked up at the beings before him.

Somehow he was not surprised to see the Envy had somehow regenerated himself. Looking from the boy to the woman beside him, Scar could not help but voice his thoughts.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“To use,” Lust sighed. It was if she was speaking to a cow. “Use it for the transmutation; kill Edward Elric with the very thing he desperately wants and what the military used to destroy your kin. It is a very fitting demise for a state alchemist, don't you think?”

Scar clutched the stone in his fist and walked to the circle's edge. He barely noticed that the other circle was occupied by Envy. He saw the children of his land die before his eyes; young ones not old enough to go to market by themselves, old ones who could not run away, his peers who tried to save all they could by taking up arms or shuttling people to safety. He closed his eyes as he relived the reason for his mission, and this alchemist was the next one to go.

“Yes it is,” he dropped to his knees and pressed his tattooed hand and the Philosopher's Stone to the circle's outline.