Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Unforgivable Sin ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Rurouni Saiyan 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Drama / Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.20.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.3K | Visits: 271 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Drama / Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 07.20.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.3K | Visits: 271 | Status: Completed
I must put another spoiler warning up for this chapter. I’m not sure how far FMA has gotten on Cartoon Network, but I’m sure there are more than a few spoilers in this chapter. So, there’s your fair warning. Thanks for all the reviews I’ve been getting; I love every one of them. Keep them coming. I don’t own Yu-Gi-Oh or FullMetal Alchemist.
Chapter 10
“Who…who are you?” I asked after several seconds of unbearable silence. My voice echoed hollowly through the room, and I forced myself to suppress a shudder.
He laughed at me, a low chuckle amplified in the stillness and gloom to a horrible cackle. He knew I feared him, and he enjoyed that fear, it seemed. “Who am I?” he mocked. “Don’t you already know?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to ignore the voice in my head that told me to get up and run, run, run as far and fast as I could possibly go. Get away from here. Get away from him. Return to Central City, return to Serra’s Point, go beyond it into the wild, cold country to the north where he would never find me.
Instead I stayed in my seat and answered his question. “No. I don’t.”
A hiss rebounded off the walls, a hiss not unlike that of an angry snake. He had been expecting a different answer. “Am I not Akira?” he asked, his cold voice drawing closer. “Am I not your dear brother?”
This time there was no way I could suppress the shudder that passed through me. “No, you’re not,” I answered, holding on to that belief with all the strength I possessed. “You’re not my brother. Akira…Akira would never do what you have done! He would never steal, or kill.”
“So he wouldn’t.” He was standing behind me, and I sat frozen with terror. “So tell me.” His voice was only inches from my ear; I could feel his breath on my neck. “Who am I?”
“You…” My throat closed down. I wanted to scream I don’t know! but I couldn’t speak; my voice refused to work.
Time stretched between us as he waited on words that wouldn’t come. After an eternity of silence, what seemed like hours though it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes, he got tired of waiting on me and snorted, moving past me to the altar. I ducked my head and stared at my lap.
“You know who I am,” he said, startling me into looking up at him. He was facing the altar, his back turned to me and candlelight through golden tints into his unruly hair. He chuckled again as he continued. “You do. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself.” He turned around to meet my eyes, and I shuddered at the insane grin he wore. “Have you ever heard of the Homunculi?”
“C-created humans?” I said, dropping my gaze to the floor. I couldn’t stand to look at him. “But…they’re just legends. They’re not real.”
“Of course they’re real!” His almost playful tone suddenly became furious, and I cringed back as the urge to flee grew stronger. But the anger vanished as suddenly as it had come, and his playful, secretive tone returned. “Because I am a Homunculus, you see.” Once again his laughter echoed through the room as he came closer, walking right up to me and grabbing my shoulders so that I was forced to look him in the face. “And do you know how a Homunculus is born, Ryou? No, of course you don’t. You don’t allow yourself to know.”
He let me go then and stepped back, whirling in a circle as if dancing. “We are born through human transmutation. We are made by the hand of alchemists like you. Alchemists that wanted, that tried, to resurrect someone. And inevitably failed.”
“No.” I didn’t mean to speak, and the word was barely audible, but this was too much. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to know the truth. Please…please stop. I stood up and edged to the side, making for the aisle while watching him, terrified and transfixed. “That’s not true.”
“Of course it’s true!” Again came the furious tone, and with it a terrible, murderous expression. I was backing down the aisle now, and he followed me, driving me back faster and faster. “You wanted to who I am? I am a Homunculus! I am a created thing, given a body and a psyche but no soul. I am Greed. Don’t you get it yet, Ryou? I am your sin!”
My back thudded against the large door at the back, and he planted his hands on either side of me, trapping me there. “You unforgivable sin. I’ll never forgive you, Ryou.”
You’re right…unforgivable…I am unforgivable…
“I could kill you now. I should kill you now.”
That’s right…kill me…end it all…
“But I can’t.” His face blurred, and I fought desperately to stay conscious. “See, there’s something you have to do, Ryou. You owe it to me.”
Something…to do… “Wh-what do you want from me?” Please…anything…to get away…
“The Philosopher’s Stone. I want you to make it.” He backed up at last, but I stayed pressed against the wall, using it for much-needed support. “It’s not a legend either, you know. It’s been made before, and it can be made again. By you.”
“Th-the…Philosopher’s Stone?” I sank to the floor as my knees gave out. “But why? What do you want?”
“Want?” He spun in another circle, arms outstretched. “I am Greed. It’s not just my name, it’s everything I am. I want everything. I want the whole world and all that it holds. I want the sun and the moon and even the far away stars. But most of all…” He turned back to face me and stopped, his face suddenly becoming very serious. “I want to become human.”
“H-human?”
“Yes. I want a soul, Ryou. That’s what I want. That’s what the Philosopher’s Stone–and you–can give me.” He crouched down, putting his face on level with mine. “I know you can make it, Ryou. You made me. All I have to do is show you the way.” He leaned closer, so close I could feel his breath on my face. “And if you do, I’ll let you live. Equivalent trade, right?”
It was all I could do to keep from fainting. Only the surreality of everything that had happened since I had arrived in Lior kept me awake. This is a dream. It’s not real. It can’t be.
“You will, right?” he asked, his face growing dark as he continued to speak. “You’ll make the Philosopher’s Stone. Or I’ll kill you here and now. It’s all that you deserve.” He stared hard at me as he finally finished, obviously expecting an answer.
I couldn’t speak at all; my voice had failed once again. The increasingly heated glare he was giving me didn’t help, either. I almost wanted him to kill me; it would be the end of this horror I had brought upon myself. And upon him. I couldn’t begin to imagine the torment he suffered just by being alive, and I didn’t want to. And it was because of me. I had created him. I had played the part of the fool, and now we were both paying for it.
Whatever he would have chosen to do next, kill me or hit me or hug me, I never found out. Even as the look on his face grew more enraged at my silence, the door behind me was pulled open, and I fell backwards against someone’s legs. I looked up, daring to hope that perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto had found out that I was gone and had come looking for me. My hopes were dashed, though, for instead I found myself staring into the face of the man called Wrath.
He kicked me away cruelly, and I fell forward onto Greed, crying out at the sudden sharp pain in my kidney. “Playing with worms, Greed?” the older man said, no trace of amusement in his tone.
“And what does it matter to you?” Greed snarled back, shoving me to the floor as he stood up. “We have someone here who possesses the capability to make the Philosopher’s Stone, to make us human, and you would throw it all away in name of petty revenge!”
“He is not the only alchemist that has enough talent for that feat,” Wrath answered in the same cold tone. “And personally, I would much rather see the pain on Elric’s face when I present him with the dead body of his favorite underling than waste time with dim hopes.”
The mention of Ed’s name was like a wave of ice cold water hitting me in the face. Suddenly the cloud of confusion and disbelief swept out of my mind, and I could think clearly. The pattern of the burglaries…it was meant to draw the Colonel himself here, not me! I’ve walked into his trap. I must get back; I must warn him!
Ignoring the blossoming argument above me, I stayed down on the floor and racked my brain in an effort to find a way out of the mess I was in. I still had my knives, but if I made any kind of move for them, the Homunculi were bound to notice and stop me, maybe kill me in the process. And I was lying between them, so the chances of getting to my feet and out the door were next to none. I could create some kind of illusion–the air was still enough–but nothing I could think of would help my situation.
But alchemy was really my only option, and I seized on the idea. If the air couldn’t help me, maybe the floor would. Both captors ceased their argument and looked down at the sound of my hands clapping together, but they were too late to stop the transmutation. As I placed my hands on the floor, the stone warped and bent, stretching up in two thick, lightning-quick tendrils to wrap around Wrath and Greed, pinning them where they stood. Both shouted in anger, but I wasn’t listening to them. As soon as the transmutation activated, I jumped to my feet and hurtled out the door.
But my freedom didn’t last long. Almost as soon as I had crossed the threshold, rejoicing to be out of the temple at last, something grabbed my collar, mercilessly yanking me back into the sanctuary, into the nightmare. That something pulled me around, and I barely caught a glimpse of Greed’s face before his fist slammed into my eye. Stars exploded in my head, and I reeled back, though the hand gripping my collar didn’t allow me to go far. It pulled me forward again, and I opened my uninjured eye to look into Greed’s murderous face again.
“Fool! You can’t get away that easily,” he sneered.
“H-h-how…” I started, too shaken to finish the question.
He stepped to the side, and I could see Wrath, still caught in the transmuted floor, and beside him the spiral of stone that had held Greed, unbroken or bent. “There’s truth behind those rumors that I can walk through walls,” he said in a gleeful tone, as if sharing a secret. “All Homunculi are gifted with an ability that would be impossible for normal humans.” He snickered and let me go, allowing me to sink back to the floor in a daze. “So you see, Ryou, you can’t trap me. I’ll simply walk through anything you try!”
“All very well and good,” Wrath interrupted with a snarl. “Now release me!”
“Why should he?” Greed shot back at him before I could do anything. “You’re just going to kill him.”
At that, Wrath smile, a very ugly smile that sent shudders down my spine. “No, I won’t kill him,” he corrected. “At least not yet. I wanted Elric down here, and if the robberies wouldn’t work, perhaps a hostage would. Now.” He glared down at me. “Release me before I change my mind and kill you.”
I cringed and did as he said, transmuting the floor back to its original shape. When I thought it over later, I realized it wasn’t a very smart thing to do; I was out of Wrath’s reach and I knew Greed wouldn’t kill me if he could help it. But after learning about the special abilities of Homunculi, I had no way of knowing if Wrath really could kill me right then, even though he was trapped seven feet away.
Once free, he took a minute to brush some imaginary dust off his clothes, and then he looked at me with the same ugly smile. “You look tired, young Godplayer,” he hissed as he stepped closer. “Too many shocks in too little time, I gather. Why don’t you get some rest?” He stepped right up to me, and before I could react, swung his hand in a horizontal chop. For the second time, stars exploded in my head, and I fell back into darkness.
* * *
The first thing I noticed when I returned to consciousness was the pounding in my head, and a similar throbbing in my left eye. I lay still, knowing that if I moved the pain would only get worse. Gradually I became aware that the air was hot and stuffy, as if in a small, mostly unused room, and that I was lying on hard ground. Also, the sound of breathing nearby alerted me to the presence of someone else.
I dared to open my eyes then and found that only one worked; my left eye was swollen shut. What little I could see of the room wasn’t impressive, either. My field of vision consisted of nothing but a stone ceiling with a golden shaft of light spilling across it.
“Oh? It’s about time you woke up. I thought soldiers were supposed to be made of tougher stuff than that.”
The voice belonged to Greed, and I turned my head to the side slowly until I could see him, grimacing at the increased pain in my skull. The small room must have been in the least used section of the temple, for the only furnishings were a couple of spare boxes and a chair. Dust covered everything except for the chair, which he was relaxing in, tipped back so that the front feet were off the ground and his head rested against the wall. In one wall was a thick wooden door, closed and probably locked, and in the opposite wall was a narrow window, the only source of light.
I didn’t bother to respond to Greed, instead choosing to reach up and touch my eye gingerly. It was sore, and probably black. Next I felt my head, finding a small lump with a split in the middle. When I brought my hand away, it was covered with dried flakes of blood. I made a face in spite of myself, wanting a bath more than anything else at that moment. “H-how long have I been out?” I asked at last.
“Almost a day,” Greed replied. “The sun will be setting soon, and when it does the last train of the day will come into the station. Elric will probably be on it; Wrath sent him a wire last night, saying that we have you.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Too bad for him.”
I scowled back as I sat up, steadying myself against the wall as a wave of dizziness flooded me. “What…what do you want with Colonel Elric?” I snapped as soon as I could see straight again.
Greed shrugged. “I don’t want anything with him. I couldn’t care less about him,” he answered. “It’s Wrath who wants him. Wrath wants revenge.”
“Revenge?” An uneasy feeling settled into my gut as I thought about that. “Revenge for what? The Colonel didn’t…”
“Create Wrath? No. Someone else did; he won’t say who. No, the elder Elric brother took Wrath’s arm and leg and denied him a chance to become human. That’s what he wants revenge for.” Greed laughed, sounding much more ominous in these close quarters than he had in the sanctuary. “Your precious Colonel once made a Philosopher’s Stone, did you know that? He made it, and he used it all up on some other purpose. And the Homunculi who had shown him the way were killed, one by one, until only Wrath was left. And now there’s me.” He spread his arms out. “You ask why Wrath wants revenge? The reasons are many. And I care for none of them.”
I sat in silence for several minutes, digesting this information as I stared out the window, at what little of the city I could see. The Colonel had made a Philosopher’s Stone…so it was real. If Greed was telling the truth. But he had no reason to lie, at least none that I could think of. And he wanted me to make one as well. He was right that I owed him that much, and perhaps he was right to want to be human, but everything about the Philosopher’s Stone and any possible way to make it was classified, forbidden. It was known as the devil’s research. Yet…
“You said…you could show me how to make the Philosopher’s Stone,” I commented softly.
“That’s right.” Greed sounded friendly, as if we really were brothers who had grown up together, and it sickened me.
“If you know how, why don’t you make it yourself? It would save you the trouble of forcing me to do it.”
“Can’t.” Greed leaned forward, and the front legs of his chair hit the floor with a hollow thump. “It requires an alchemist, and Homunculi can’t do alchemy. It’s a skill that’s utterly beyond us. Besides, you owe me, remember?”
“Oh…” I stood up, making my unsteady way to the window to look out as I pondered over the events of the past couple of days. “You say you don’t care about Colonel Elric,” I said after a minute. “So why are you going along with Wrath?”
“He has helped me a lot over the past couple of years,” Greed answered. “He had been hanging around Serra’s Point for quite a while when you made me, you know. All that tragic death…” He snickered again. “Wrath figured that sooner or later some ignorant fool would attempt a transmutation, and he was right. You left me for dead, but he found me, and cared for me. Gave me a name and a life, pitiful as this life is. Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to me, why you never saw me again until over a year later?”
“I…” I closed my eyes and suppressed a shudder. “I wondered. And I figured you had crawled somewhere and died.”
“That would have been for the best,” he agreed. “If I could die. But I can’t; you should know that by now.”
This time there was no suppressing the shudder as I remembered that night when I had killed him. Catching a dagger between the eyes normally does that to someone. But he had jumped out the window only a few minutes later, jumping from an impossible height and not getting injured in the least, and threw that same dagger at my feet. “Why?” I asked. “Why can’t you die?”
“One has to be alive before one can die,” he replied simply. “One has to have a soul.”
The sun had nearly set by now, and the sky was a blaze of beautiful colors, red and gold and violet, near the horizon, while in the darkness above the stars were coming out one by one. A solemn train whistle called, echoing through the city as its engine pulled into the station at the city’s outskirts, coming to a stop to let out the weary travelers. I bit my lip, but I didn’t worry too much about Ed. From what Greed had said, the Colonel had faced Wrath before. Surely he could defeat the Homunculus again. I couldn’t do anything for him, so instead I continued the conversation with Greed. “Is that why you want to be human so badly? So you can die?”
It was the wrong thing to ask. Before the words had finished leaving my lips, he was up and crossing the distance between us in one quick stride. This time I kept my wits about me and started to turn, one hand raised in a defensive position, but the sudden dizziness slowed me down, and he grabbed my hair with one hand and my upraised wrist with his other hand. Twisting my arm painfully behind my back, he shoved my head forward, forcing it out the window.
“It’s time you stopped asking questions,” he growled in my ear. “Else I’ll throw you to the ground. And it’s a long way down, you see.”
Indeed I could see. The room we were in was on the top floor of the temple, and ten full stories of nothing but air were between me and the stairs below. There was no way I’d be able to survive the fall, so I took the wisest course of action and clamped my mouth shut.
After letting me get a good view of the certain doom that awaited me down below, Greed pulled me back and threw me against the wall where I had originally been lying. “Don’t try any tricks, either,” he warned. “I’ll kill you if you try to warn Elric.”
His threat rang hollow after telling me earlier that he didn’t care about the revenge against the Colonel, but I wasn’t about to mention this. Greed was totally unpredictable, and I didn’t want to find myself flying out that window. So instead I settled back against the wall and tried to formulate a plan. Maybe I couldn’t warn Ed, but I could still help him somehow. The only key was to get away from Greed.
Ten slow minutes crawled by with both of us now silent and Greed watching me like a hawk. I guessed that he had been ordered to guard me despite the locked door. After all, I could transmute a hole in the wall as easily as he could walk through it. So I was forced to wait on pins and needles for any sign that Ed might have come on that train, that he might be here, battling the vengeful Wrath.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait much longer. A sudden light poured through the window from below, undimmed by the last dregs of twilight. It was a light any alchemist would recognize–the light born from a transmutation. Almost immediately a familiar yell floated up to us, and I knew that Ed had indeed come. Now it was my turn to act.
“Aw, look, he’s really–“ Greed started, turning to the window, but the sound of my clap interrupted him, and he gasped, jerking back around to look at me.
Just as I had intended. Even as his eyes turned to me, I ducked my head and squeezed mine shut, throwing my hands out in front of me and transmuting the air itself. Brilliant light, as bright as the sun, burst into existence between us, and I heard Greed shriek in surprise and pain as the light momentarily blinded him. That moment was all I needed, though. The light faded as I brought my hands together again, and set them on the floor. I wasn’t going to bother with trying to get up and dash to the doorway. I simply transmuted a hole in the stones beneath me and tumbled into the room below.
Somehow I managed to land on my feet, and I ducked into a roll to play out my momentum. I staggered when I stood up again, the dizziness returning and the pain increasing at the sudden motion. But the sound of Greed’s cursing from the room above reminded me that I was by no means out of danger, and I forced my eyes to focus and the room to stop spinning. The door in this one was wide open, and I dashed through it and turned to my right, running down the hall I was now in. I had no clue where I was or how to get to the ground floor and find Ed, but I couldn’t afford to stop and think about it now. I had to get away from Greed.
A thump sounded from the room I had come from, and I knew that he was finally able to see enough to take up the chase. Veering quickly to my left, I dashed into a small alcove and hid behind the small statue that rested there. Only seconds later, Greed came running past at full speed, cursing angrily with every step. As he disappeared down the hall, I slipped out of my hiding place and ran into the room across the hall. He wouldn’t be fooled for long, I knew.
I looked around and couldn’t help but laugh in relief as I closed the door quietly behind me. The room I had taken refuge in wasn’t a room at all, but a staircase, leading down to a landing and then twisting and continuing down to the next floor. It was a great stroke of luck, but I knew that luck wouldn’t last long. Greed was probably even now turning back to search the rooms.
I started down the steps, relieved to find that they didn’t stop at the next floor, but continued down into darkness, most likely all the way to the ground floor. Yet I was only halfway down, between the fourth and fifth floors, when I heard a door open far above, and Greed’s voice came floating down.
“Ah, silly fool, I have you now. Your footprints are too clear in the dust that lies around here.”
I choked back a curse, knowing that if he heard me he would probably allow himself to fall through the stairwell until he reached me, and then he would have me again. No, he didn’t yet know I was still in here, and that gave me an advantage, slight though it was. And thankfully, I had an idea.
My illusion alchemy had improved a lot since I had become a State Alchemist, and now I was able to make an illusion that would stay even after I ended the transmutation. At least, it would stay until something, a breath of wind or an object, disturbed it. Stopping at the landing between the floors, I put my hands together as quietly as I could and then held towards the corner, rearranging the air molecules as best I could in these shadows. When I finished, a person now appeared to be sitting in the corner, huddled in fright with his head buried in his knees. A person with pale hair and dark pants. I grimaced at the shoddiness of the illusion, but it was dark enough in the stairwell to fool him, at least for a few precious seconds.
And his footsteps were drawing closer. Turning, I leaned forward to grab the banister almost halfway down the stairs and swung myself down, alighting on the floor landing with only the slightest thump. I winced at that, but Greed’s pace didn’t get any quicker, though, and I figured he hadn’t heard it. Without wasting any more time, I pulled the door open and slipped through, not bother to close it again.
The area I was in now didn’t smell nearly as musty as the previous floors, and it had a good deal more decoration. At last it seemed that I was getting into the frequently used parts of the temple. I started down the hall at a run, reaching the open window at the end even as I heard Greed’s voice in the stairwell behind me.
“There you are! Silly Ryou, surely you didn’t think you could outrun me?” There was a short pause, and then he started cursing again. He had found my illusion.
But I was slipping onto the ledge right outside the window even as he spoke, and I faced back towards the hallway and reached down, grabbing that ledge and hanging on with all my strength as I jumped off and swung down to the window below. It was open as well–most of the windows in Lior stayed open during the summer–and I let go of the ledge as I swung through, landing and falling to my backside on the carpeted floor. After a hissed prayer of thanks that Ed and Malik hadn’t been around to see that ungraceful landing, I scrambled up again and darted into a room to my right.
It appeared to be a study or an office of some sort, but I barely paid attention to it as I fell to my knees and clapped my hands, transmuting another hole in the floor. This time I was able to take the time to land on my feet and stay there. The room I was in now was the temple library; I was between two long rows of book-filled shelves. Running to one end, I found the door, which was closed and locked. But that didn’t matter to me; after creating so many holes in the temple floors, making one in the wall didn’t bother me at all. So after only a second I was stepping out into the hall, and the sound of a fight reached my ears, echoing through the hallway. I recognized one of the voices as Ed’s, and I knew that I was only a few steps away from my destination.
This was the part of the temple that was used for grand occasions, and ten yards away, the hall became a balcony with a grand staircase leading down into the ground floor ballroom. It was from there that the fighting sounds originated, and I started towards it at a dead run.
Yet before I had gotten halfway there, a shadowy figure dropped from the ceiling, and I found myself face to face with Greed. “Boo,” he said with a sick grin.
I reacted on instinct once again, this time aiming a swift uppercut to his jaw. He never saw it coming, and his head snapped back as my fist connected with his jaw. I stepped around him and ran to the staircase before he could recover. Ed and Wrath were clearly visible now in the light of the ballroom’s torches and candles, locked in a combat so heated that I dared not interrupt it. Yet I could see that Ed had the upper hand. He had transmuted his automail arm into a sword, and Wrath was bleeding freely from several nicks and gashes. Also, he was trying desperately to stay away from one section of the floor, even as Ed tried just as desperately to force him to it.
Well, whatever tactic the Colonel was trying to use, I couldn’t afford to wait for him to pull it. Bending down, I quickly transmuted a bit of the staircase into a sphere of stone, just small enough for me to hold. It wouldn’t do to waste my daggers on someone who couldn’t die, after all. After taking a second to study the combatants’ moves and force my bad eye open, I reared my arm back. At that instant, they jumped apart, and I took full advantage of the opportunity.
My aim was dead on as usual, and Wrath dropped into unconsciousness as my stone hit him square on the side of the head. “Touka Koukan,” I muttered to myself. “Consider us equal.”
Ed, meanwhile, had jumped in surprise and whirled to face me. “Major!” he called in a tone that was half-annoyed and half-relieved. “Took you long enough.”
“Had trouble of my own,” I answered as I hopped down the last few steps to the bottom. “I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“I–“ Ed’s words halted on his lips as he looked over my shoulder, and his golden eyes grew wide in an expression of fear that I had never seen on his face before. “Look out!” he cried, and before I could react, he was shoving me to the ground.
The nasty sound of metal clanging on metal rang through the air right above me, and I cringed, rolling to the side and coming back to my feet to see that Greed had entered the fight once again. He had found a sword somewhere in the temple, and he had probably been aiming his first attack at me when Ed had pushed me aside. Even now, as he fended off Ed’s vicious slashes and stabs, he kept glancing at me, rage in his eyes and a trickle of blood running from his mouth, making a dark path on his unnaturally pale skin.
“C-Colonel!” I cried, angry and frightened at the same time. I could understand him fighting Wrath, but why bother with Greed? This was my sin, my battle. Greed could kill him, and it would be my fault! With that thought driving me, I drew a dagger from my sleeve and threw it. But Greed glanced at me right at that second, and he pulled his sword around to block. The dagger flipped harmlessly to the side, but it had done its work. Greed’s focus was on me now.
And Ed took full advantage of that fact. Even as Greed turned to me with a snarl, the Colonel grabbed the back of his shirt and hurled him, with the strength that only automail could have, into the area that Wrath had been trying to avoid. As he hit the ground, Ed bent down and clapped his hands together, touching the floor.
The floor around Greed began to glow, and I could see now that it was a huge transmutation circle, one that I had never seen before. Its glow also activated a second one, an exact copy on the ceiling above. Greed, caught in the middle of the circles, lay still as if paralyzed, staring up with unblinking eyes at the circle above him.
I didn’t move either. I wasn’t sure what those circles were or what they did, but I was certain that at any second Greed would stand up again and lunge at me, and I wasn’t going to be caught unawares, not this time. So focused was I on the Homunculus that I jumped out of my skin at a soft touch on my shoulder. “Colonel!” I gasped, whirling to face him.
“Come on,” he said wearily. “Those are binding circles; they’re meant to trap Homunculi. But Wrath won’t stay unconscious for long, and he may be able to free that one. So let’s go while we can.”
I could see now that he was injured; his hair, half out of its braid, was matted on one side with blood, and he cradled his real arm close to his body. Not that I looked any better. My hair was full of blood too, I was sure, and I had a black eye to top it off. “Okay,” I said with a nod.
Ed led the way, and together we ran out into the night, more than ready to leave the temple behind for good.
Chapter 10
“Who…who are you?” I asked after several seconds of unbearable silence. My voice echoed hollowly through the room, and I forced myself to suppress a shudder.
He laughed at me, a low chuckle amplified in the stillness and gloom to a horrible cackle. He knew I feared him, and he enjoyed that fear, it seemed. “Who am I?” he mocked. “Don’t you already know?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to ignore the voice in my head that told me to get up and run, run, run as far and fast as I could possibly go. Get away from here. Get away from him. Return to Central City, return to Serra’s Point, go beyond it into the wild, cold country to the north where he would never find me.
Instead I stayed in my seat and answered his question. “No. I don’t.”
A hiss rebounded off the walls, a hiss not unlike that of an angry snake. He had been expecting a different answer. “Am I not Akira?” he asked, his cold voice drawing closer. “Am I not your dear brother?”
This time there was no way I could suppress the shudder that passed through me. “No, you’re not,” I answered, holding on to that belief with all the strength I possessed. “You’re not my brother. Akira…Akira would never do what you have done! He would never steal, or kill.”
“So he wouldn’t.” He was standing behind me, and I sat frozen with terror. “So tell me.” His voice was only inches from my ear; I could feel his breath on my neck. “Who am I?”
“You…” My throat closed down. I wanted to scream I don’t know! but I couldn’t speak; my voice refused to work.
Time stretched between us as he waited on words that wouldn’t come. After an eternity of silence, what seemed like hours though it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes, he got tired of waiting on me and snorted, moving past me to the altar. I ducked my head and stared at my lap.
“You know who I am,” he said, startling me into looking up at him. He was facing the altar, his back turned to me and candlelight through golden tints into his unruly hair. He chuckled again as he continued. “You do. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself.” He turned around to meet my eyes, and I shuddered at the insane grin he wore. “Have you ever heard of the Homunculi?”
“C-created humans?” I said, dropping my gaze to the floor. I couldn’t stand to look at him. “But…they’re just legends. They’re not real.”
“Of course they’re real!” His almost playful tone suddenly became furious, and I cringed back as the urge to flee grew stronger. But the anger vanished as suddenly as it had come, and his playful, secretive tone returned. “Because I am a Homunculus, you see.” Once again his laughter echoed through the room as he came closer, walking right up to me and grabbing my shoulders so that I was forced to look him in the face. “And do you know how a Homunculus is born, Ryou? No, of course you don’t. You don’t allow yourself to know.”
He let me go then and stepped back, whirling in a circle as if dancing. “We are born through human transmutation. We are made by the hand of alchemists like you. Alchemists that wanted, that tried, to resurrect someone. And inevitably failed.”
“No.” I didn’t mean to speak, and the word was barely audible, but this was too much. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to know the truth. Please…please stop. I stood up and edged to the side, making for the aisle while watching him, terrified and transfixed. “That’s not true.”
“Of course it’s true!” Again came the furious tone, and with it a terrible, murderous expression. I was backing down the aisle now, and he followed me, driving me back faster and faster. “You wanted to who I am? I am a Homunculus! I am a created thing, given a body and a psyche but no soul. I am Greed. Don’t you get it yet, Ryou? I am your sin!”
My back thudded against the large door at the back, and he planted his hands on either side of me, trapping me there. “You unforgivable sin. I’ll never forgive you, Ryou.”
You’re right…unforgivable…I am unforgivable…
“I could kill you now. I should kill you now.”
That’s right…kill me…end it all…
“But I can’t.” His face blurred, and I fought desperately to stay conscious. “See, there’s something you have to do, Ryou. You owe it to me.”
Something…to do… “Wh-what do you want from me?” Please…anything…to get away…
“The Philosopher’s Stone. I want you to make it.” He backed up at last, but I stayed pressed against the wall, using it for much-needed support. “It’s not a legend either, you know. It’s been made before, and it can be made again. By you.”
“Th-the…Philosopher’s Stone?” I sank to the floor as my knees gave out. “But why? What do you want?”
“Want?” He spun in another circle, arms outstretched. “I am Greed. It’s not just my name, it’s everything I am. I want everything. I want the whole world and all that it holds. I want the sun and the moon and even the far away stars. But most of all…” He turned back to face me and stopped, his face suddenly becoming very serious. “I want to become human.”
“H-human?”
“Yes. I want a soul, Ryou. That’s what I want. That’s what the Philosopher’s Stone–and you–can give me.” He crouched down, putting his face on level with mine. “I know you can make it, Ryou. You made me. All I have to do is show you the way.” He leaned closer, so close I could feel his breath on my face. “And if you do, I’ll let you live. Equivalent trade, right?”
It was all I could do to keep from fainting. Only the surreality of everything that had happened since I had arrived in Lior kept me awake. This is a dream. It’s not real. It can’t be.
“You will, right?” he asked, his face growing dark as he continued to speak. “You’ll make the Philosopher’s Stone. Or I’ll kill you here and now. It’s all that you deserve.” He stared hard at me as he finally finished, obviously expecting an answer.
I couldn’t speak at all; my voice had failed once again. The increasingly heated glare he was giving me didn’t help, either. I almost wanted him to kill me; it would be the end of this horror I had brought upon myself. And upon him. I couldn’t begin to imagine the torment he suffered just by being alive, and I didn’t want to. And it was because of me. I had created him. I had played the part of the fool, and now we were both paying for it.
Whatever he would have chosen to do next, kill me or hit me or hug me, I never found out. Even as the look on his face grew more enraged at my silence, the door behind me was pulled open, and I fell backwards against someone’s legs. I looked up, daring to hope that perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Hiroto had found out that I was gone and had come looking for me. My hopes were dashed, though, for instead I found myself staring into the face of the man called Wrath.
He kicked me away cruelly, and I fell forward onto Greed, crying out at the sudden sharp pain in my kidney. “Playing with worms, Greed?” the older man said, no trace of amusement in his tone.
“And what does it matter to you?” Greed snarled back, shoving me to the floor as he stood up. “We have someone here who possesses the capability to make the Philosopher’s Stone, to make us human, and you would throw it all away in name of petty revenge!”
“He is not the only alchemist that has enough talent for that feat,” Wrath answered in the same cold tone. “And personally, I would much rather see the pain on Elric’s face when I present him with the dead body of his favorite underling than waste time with dim hopes.”
The mention of Ed’s name was like a wave of ice cold water hitting me in the face. Suddenly the cloud of confusion and disbelief swept out of my mind, and I could think clearly. The pattern of the burglaries…it was meant to draw the Colonel himself here, not me! I’ve walked into his trap. I must get back; I must warn him!
Ignoring the blossoming argument above me, I stayed down on the floor and racked my brain in an effort to find a way out of the mess I was in. I still had my knives, but if I made any kind of move for them, the Homunculi were bound to notice and stop me, maybe kill me in the process. And I was lying between them, so the chances of getting to my feet and out the door were next to none. I could create some kind of illusion–the air was still enough–but nothing I could think of would help my situation.
But alchemy was really my only option, and I seized on the idea. If the air couldn’t help me, maybe the floor would. Both captors ceased their argument and looked down at the sound of my hands clapping together, but they were too late to stop the transmutation. As I placed my hands on the floor, the stone warped and bent, stretching up in two thick, lightning-quick tendrils to wrap around Wrath and Greed, pinning them where they stood. Both shouted in anger, but I wasn’t listening to them. As soon as the transmutation activated, I jumped to my feet and hurtled out the door.
But my freedom didn’t last long. Almost as soon as I had crossed the threshold, rejoicing to be out of the temple at last, something grabbed my collar, mercilessly yanking me back into the sanctuary, into the nightmare. That something pulled me around, and I barely caught a glimpse of Greed’s face before his fist slammed into my eye. Stars exploded in my head, and I reeled back, though the hand gripping my collar didn’t allow me to go far. It pulled me forward again, and I opened my uninjured eye to look into Greed’s murderous face again.
“Fool! You can’t get away that easily,” he sneered.
“H-h-how…” I started, too shaken to finish the question.
He stepped to the side, and I could see Wrath, still caught in the transmuted floor, and beside him the spiral of stone that had held Greed, unbroken or bent. “There’s truth behind those rumors that I can walk through walls,” he said in a gleeful tone, as if sharing a secret. “All Homunculi are gifted with an ability that would be impossible for normal humans.” He snickered and let me go, allowing me to sink back to the floor in a daze. “So you see, Ryou, you can’t trap me. I’ll simply walk through anything you try!”
“All very well and good,” Wrath interrupted with a snarl. “Now release me!”
“Why should he?” Greed shot back at him before I could do anything. “You’re just going to kill him.”
At that, Wrath smile, a very ugly smile that sent shudders down my spine. “No, I won’t kill him,” he corrected. “At least not yet. I wanted Elric down here, and if the robberies wouldn’t work, perhaps a hostage would. Now.” He glared down at me. “Release me before I change my mind and kill you.”
I cringed and did as he said, transmuting the floor back to its original shape. When I thought it over later, I realized it wasn’t a very smart thing to do; I was out of Wrath’s reach and I knew Greed wouldn’t kill me if he could help it. But after learning about the special abilities of Homunculi, I had no way of knowing if Wrath really could kill me right then, even though he was trapped seven feet away.
Once free, he took a minute to brush some imaginary dust off his clothes, and then he looked at me with the same ugly smile. “You look tired, young Godplayer,” he hissed as he stepped closer. “Too many shocks in too little time, I gather. Why don’t you get some rest?” He stepped right up to me, and before I could react, swung his hand in a horizontal chop. For the second time, stars exploded in my head, and I fell back into darkness.
* * *
The first thing I noticed when I returned to consciousness was the pounding in my head, and a similar throbbing in my left eye. I lay still, knowing that if I moved the pain would only get worse. Gradually I became aware that the air was hot and stuffy, as if in a small, mostly unused room, and that I was lying on hard ground. Also, the sound of breathing nearby alerted me to the presence of someone else.
I dared to open my eyes then and found that only one worked; my left eye was swollen shut. What little I could see of the room wasn’t impressive, either. My field of vision consisted of nothing but a stone ceiling with a golden shaft of light spilling across it.
“Oh? It’s about time you woke up. I thought soldiers were supposed to be made of tougher stuff than that.”
The voice belonged to Greed, and I turned my head to the side slowly until I could see him, grimacing at the increased pain in my skull. The small room must have been in the least used section of the temple, for the only furnishings were a couple of spare boxes and a chair. Dust covered everything except for the chair, which he was relaxing in, tipped back so that the front feet were off the ground and his head rested against the wall. In one wall was a thick wooden door, closed and probably locked, and in the opposite wall was a narrow window, the only source of light.
I didn’t bother to respond to Greed, instead choosing to reach up and touch my eye gingerly. It was sore, and probably black. Next I felt my head, finding a small lump with a split in the middle. When I brought my hand away, it was covered with dried flakes of blood. I made a face in spite of myself, wanting a bath more than anything else at that moment. “H-how long have I been out?” I asked at last.
“Almost a day,” Greed replied. “The sun will be setting soon, and when it does the last train of the day will come into the station. Elric will probably be on it; Wrath sent him a wire last night, saying that we have you.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Too bad for him.”
I scowled back as I sat up, steadying myself against the wall as a wave of dizziness flooded me. “What…what do you want with Colonel Elric?” I snapped as soon as I could see straight again.
Greed shrugged. “I don’t want anything with him. I couldn’t care less about him,” he answered. “It’s Wrath who wants him. Wrath wants revenge.”
“Revenge?” An uneasy feeling settled into my gut as I thought about that. “Revenge for what? The Colonel didn’t…”
“Create Wrath? No. Someone else did; he won’t say who. No, the elder Elric brother took Wrath’s arm and leg and denied him a chance to become human. That’s what he wants revenge for.” Greed laughed, sounding much more ominous in these close quarters than he had in the sanctuary. “Your precious Colonel once made a Philosopher’s Stone, did you know that? He made it, and he used it all up on some other purpose. And the Homunculi who had shown him the way were killed, one by one, until only Wrath was left. And now there’s me.” He spread his arms out. “You ask why Wrath wants revenge? The reasons are many. And I care for none of them.”
I sat in silence for several minutes, digesting this information as I stared out the window, at what little of the city I could see. The Colonel had made a Philosopher’s Stone…so it was real. If Greed was telling the truth. But he had no reason to lie, at least none that I could think of. And he wanted me to make one as well. He was right that I owed him that much, and perhaps he was right to want to be human, but everything about the Philosopher’s Stone and any possible way to make it was classified, forbidden. It was known as the devil’s research. Yet…
“You said…you could show me how to make the Philosopher’s Stone,” I commented softly.
“That’s right.” Greed sounded friendly, as if we really were brothers who had grown up together, and it sickened me.
“If you know how, why don’t you make it yourself? It would save you the trouble of forcing me to do it.”
“Can’t.” Greed leaned forward, and the front legs of his chair hit the floor with a hollow thump. “It requires an alchemist, and Homunculi can’t do alchemy. It’s a skill that’s utterly beyond us. Besides, you owe me, remember?”
“Oh…” I stood up, making my unsteady way to the window to look out as I pondered over the events of the past couple of days. “You say you don’t care about Colonel Elric,” I said after a minute. “So why are you going along with Wrath?”
“He has helped me a lot over the past couple of years,” Greed answered. “He had been hanging around Serra’s Point for quite a while when you made me, you know. All that tragic death…” He snickered again. “Wrath figured that sooner or later some ignorant fool would attempt a transmutation, and he was right. You left me for dead, but he found me, and cared for me. Gave me a name and a life, pitiful as this life is. Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to me, why you never saw me again until over a year later?”
“I…” I closed my eyes and suppressed a shudder. “I wondered. And I figured you had crawled somewhere and died.”
“That would have been for the best,” he agreed. “If I could die. But I can’t; you should know that by now.”
This time there was no suppressing the shudder as I remembered that night when I had killed him. Catching a dagger between the eyes normally does that to someone. But he had jumped out the window only a few minutes later, jumping from an impossible height and not getting injured in the least, and threw that same dagger at my feet. “Why?” I asked. “Why can’t you die?”
“One has to be alive before one can die,” he replied simply. “One has to have a soul.”
The sun had nearly set by now, and the sky was a blaze of beautiful colors, red and gold and violet, near the horizon, while in the darkness above the stars were coming out one by one. A solemn train whistle called, echoing through the city as its engine pulled into the station at the city’s outskirts, coming to a stop to let out the weary travelers. I bit my lip, but I didn’t worry too much about Ed. From what Greed had said, the Colonel had faced Wrath before. Surely he could defeat the Homunculus again. I couldn’t do anything for him, so instead I continued the conversation with Greed. “Is that why you want to be human so badly? So you can die?”
It was the wrong thing to ask. Before the words had finished leaving my lips, he was up and crossing the distance between us in one quick stride. This time I kept my wits about me and started to turn, one hand raised in a defensive position, but the sudden dizziness slowed me down, and he grabbed my hair with one hand and my upraised wrist with his other hand. Twisting my arm painfully behind my back, he shoved my head forward, forcing it out the window.
“It’s time you stopped asking questions,” he growled in my ear. “Else I’ll throw you to the ground. And it’s a long way down, you see.”
Indeed I could see. The room we were in was on the top floor of the temple, and ten full stories of nothing but air were between me and the stairs below. There was no way I’d be able to survive the fall, so I took the wisest course of action and clamped my mouth shut.
After letting me get a good view of the certain doom that awaited me down below, Greed pulled me back and threw me against the wall where I had originally been lying. “Don’t try any tricks, either,” he warned. “I’ll kill you if you try to warn Elric.”
His threat rang hollow after telling me earlier that he didn’t care about the revenge against the Colonel, but I wasn’t about to mention this. Greed was totally unpredictable, and I didn’t want to find myself flying out that window. So instead I settled back against the wall and tried to formulate a plan. Maybe I couldn’t warn Ed, but I could still help him somehow. The only key was to get away from Greed.
Ten slow minutes crawled by with both of us now silent and Greed watching me like a hawk. I guessed that he had been ordered to guard me despite the locked door. After all, I could transmute a hole in the wall as easily as he could walk through it. So I was forced to wait on pins and needles for any sign that Ed might have come on that train, that he might be here, battling the vengeful Wrath.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait much longer. A sudden light poured through the window from below, undimmed by the last dregs of twilight. It was a light any alchemist would recognize–the light born from a transmutation. Almost immediately a familiar yell floated up to us, and I knew that Ed had indeed come. Now it was my turn to act.
“Aw, look, he’s really–“ Greed started, turning to the window, but the sound of my clap interrupted him, and he gasped, jerking back around to look at me.
Just as I had intended. Even as his eyes turned to me, I ducked my head and squeezed mine shut, throwing my hands out in front of me and transmuting the air itself. Brilliant light, as bright as the sun, burst into existence between us, and I heard Greed shriek in surprise and pain as the light momentarily blinded him. That moment was all I needed, though. The light faded as I brought my hands together again, and set them on the floor. I wasn’t going to bother with trying to get up and dash to the doorway. I simply transmuted a hole in the stones beneath me and tumbled into the room below.
Somehow I managed to land on my feet, and I ducked into a roll to play out my momentum. I staggered when I stood up again, the dizziness returning and the pain increasing at the sudden motion. But the sound of Greed’s cursing from the room above reminded me that I was by no means out of danger, and I forced my eyes to focus and the room to stop spinning. The door in this one was wide open, and I dashed through it and turned to my right, running down the hall I was now in. I had no clue where I was or how to get to the ground floor and find Ed, but I couldn’t afford to stop and think about it now. I had to get away from Greed.
A thump sounded from the room I had come from, and I knew that he was finally able to see enough to take up the chase. Veering quickly to my left, I dashed into a small alcove and hid behind the small statue that rested there. Only seconds later, Greed came running past at full speed, cursing angrily with every step. As he disappeared down the hall, I slipped out of my hiding place and ran into the room across the hall. He wouldn’t be fooled for long, I knew.
I looked around and couldn’t help but laugh in relief as I closed the door quietly behind me. The room I had taken refuge in wasn’t a room at all, but a staircase, leading down to a landing and then twisting and continuing down to the next floor. It was a great stroke of luck, but I knew that luck wouldn’t last long. Greed was probably even now turning back to search the rooms.
I started down the steps, relieved to find that they didn’t stop at the next floor, but continued down into darkness, most likely all the way to the ground floor. Yet I was only halfway down, between the fourth and fifth floors, when I heard a door open far above, and Greed’s voice came floating down.
“Ah, silly fool, I have you now. Your footprints are too clear in the dust that lies around here.”
I choked back a curse, knowing that if he heard me he would probably allow himself to fall through the stairwell until he reached me, and then he would have me again. No, he didn’t yet know I was still in here, and that gave me an advantage, slight though it was. And thankfully, I had an idea.
My illusion alchemy had improved a lot since I had become a State Alchemist, and now I was able to make an illusion that would stay even after I ended the transmutation. At least, it would stay until something, a breath of wind or an object, disturbed it. Stopping at the landing between the floors, I put my hands together as quietly as I could and then held towards the corner, rearranging the air molecules as best I could in these shadows. When I finished, a person now appeared to be sitting in the corner, huddled in fright with his head buried in his knees. A person with pale hair and dark pants. I grimaced at the shoddiness of the illusion, but it was dark enough in the stairwell to fool him, at least for a few precious seconds.
And his footsteps were drawing closer. Turning, I leaned forward to grab the banister almost halfway down the stairs and swung myself down, alighting on the floor landing with only the slightest thump. I winced at that, but Greed’s pace didn’t get any quicker, though, and I figured he hadn’t heard it. Without wasting any more time, I pulled the door open and slipped through, not bother to close it again.
The area I was in now didn’t smell nearly as musty as the previous floors, and it had a good deal more decoration. At last it seemed that I was getting into the frequently used parts of the temple. I started down the hall at a run, reaching the open window at the end even as I heard Greed’s voice in the stairwell behind me.
“There you are! Silly Ryou, surely you didn’t think you could outrun me?” There was a short pause, and then he started cursing again. He had found my illusion.
But I was slipping onto the ledge right outside the window even as he spoke, and I faced back towards the hallway and reached down, grabbing that ledge and hanging on with all my strength as I jumped off and swung down to the window below. It was open as well–most of the windows in Lior stayed open during the summer–and I let go of the ledge as I swung through, landing and falling to my backside on the carpeted floor. After a hissed prayer of thanks that Ed and Malik hadn’t been around to see that ungraceful landing, I scrambled up again and darted into a room to my right.
It appeared to be a study or an office of some sort, but I barely paid attention to it as I fell to my knees and clapped my hands, transmuting another hole in the floor. This time I was able to take the time to land on my feet and stay there. The room I was in now was the temple library; I was between two long rows of book-filled shelves. Running to one end, I found the door, which was closed and locked. But that didn’t matter to me; after creating so many holes in the temple floors, making one in the wall didn’t bother me at all. So after only a second I was stepping out into the hall, and the sound of a fight reached my ears, echoing through the hallway. I recognized one of the voices as Ed’s, and I knew that I was only a few steps away from my destination.
This was the part of the temple that was used for grand occasions, and ten yards away, the hall became a balcony with a grand staircase leading down into the ground floor ballroom. It was from there that the fighting sounds originated, and I started towards it at a dead run.
Yet before I had gotten halfway there, a shadowy figure dropped from the ceiling, and I found myself face to face with Greed. “Boo,” he said with a sick grin.
I reacted on instinct once again, this time aiming a swift uppercut to his jaw. He never saw it coming, and his head snapped back as my fist connected with his jaw. I stepped around him and ran to the staircase before he could recover. Ed and Wrath were clearly visible now in the light of the ballroom’s torches and candles, locked in a combat so heated that I dared not interrupt it. Yet I could see that Ed had the upper hand. He had transmuted his automail arm into a sword, and Wrath was bleeding freely from several nicks and gashes. Also, he was trying desperately to stay away from one section of the floor, even as Ed tried just as desperately to force him to it.
Well, whatever tactic the Colonel was trying to use, I couldn’t afford to wait for him to pull it. Bending down, I quickly transmuted a bit of the staircase into a sphere of stone, just small enough for me to hold. It wouldn’t do to waste my daggers on someone who couldn’t die, after all. After taking a second to study the combatants’ moves and force my bad eye open, I reared my arm back. At that instant, they jumped apart, and I took full advantage of the opportunity.
My aim was dead on as usual, and Wrath dropped into unconsciousness as my stone hit him square on the side of the head. “Touka Koukan,” I muttered to myself. “Consider us equal.”
Ed, meanwhile, had jumped in surprise and whirled to face me. “Major!” he called in a tone that was half-annoyed and half-relieved. “Took you long enough.”
“Had trouble of my own,” I answered as I hopped down the last few steps to the bottom. “I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“I–“ Ed’s words halted on his lips as he looked over my shoulder, and his golden eyes grew wide in an expression of fear that I had never seen on his face before. “Look out!” he cried, and before I could react, he was shoving me to the ground.
The nasty sound of metal clanging on metal rang through the air right above me, and I cringed, rolling to the side and coming back to my feet to see that Greed had entered the fight once again. He had found a sword somewhere in the temple, and he had probably been aiming his first attack at me when Ed had pushed me aside. Even now, as he fended off Ed’s vicious slashes and stabs, he kept glancing at me, rage in his eyes and a trickle of blood running from his mouth, making a dark path on his unnaturally pale skin.
“C-Colonel!” I cried, angry and frightened at the same time. I could understand him fighting Wrath, but why bother with Greed? This was my sin, my battle. Greed could kill him, and it would be my fault! With that thought driving me, I drew a dagger from my sleeve and threw it. But Greed glanced at me right at that second, and he pulled his sword around to block. The dagger flipped harmlessly to the side, but it had done its work. Greed’s focus was on me now.
And Ed took full advantage of that fact. Even as Greed turned to me with a snarl, the Colonel grabbed the back of his shirt and hurled him, with the strength that only automail could have, into the area that Wrath had been trying to avoid. As he hit the ground, Ed bent down and clapped his hands together, touching the floor.
The floor around Greed began to glow, and I could see now that it was a huge transmutation circle, one that I had never seen before. Its glow also activated a second one, an exact copy on the ceiling above. Greed, caught in the middle of the circles, lay still as if paralyzed, staring up with unblinking eyes at the circle above him.
I didn’t move either. I wasn’t sure what those circles were or what they did, but I was certain that at any second Greed would stand up again and lunge at me, and I wasn’t going to be caught unawares, not this time. So focused was I on the Homunculus that I jumped out of my skin at a soft touch on my shoulder. “Colonel!” I gasped, whirling to face him.
“Come on,” he said wearily. “Those are binding circles; they’re meant to trap Homunculi. But Wrath won’t stay unconscious for long, and he may be able to free that one. So let’s go while we can.”
I could see now that he was injured; his hair, half out of its braid, was matted on one side with blood, and he cradled his real arm close to his body. Not that I looked any better. My hair was full of blood too, I was sure, and I had a black eye to top it off. “Okay,” I said with a nod.
Ed led the way, and together we ran out into the night, more than ready to leave the temple behind for good.