Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Unforgivable Sin ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter 17

 

I jumped back as he slashed at me, the knife clipping a few strands of hair where it would have sliced through my throat. Greed snarled and came at me again, but this time I was better prepared, and as he struck out again with the knife, I dropped into a crouch, kicking at his ankles with my left foot. He was quick enough to jump over the kick, but he couldn't avoid the blast of pressurized air I transmuted at him.

 

He cried out as he flew backward, hitting one of the metal girders with a resounding clang, but I paid no attention. I couldn't hope to win this fight; even if I killed Greed, he would resurrect only a few minutes later. And neither could I hope to get by Wrath and escape in those precious few minutes. All I could do what hold the Homunculi off as long as I could and pray Ed found me in time.

 

I was already moving as Greed hit the girder, running to the side and pulling another transmutation as I went. My vision clouded over and then faded to black as the invisibility transmutation took effect, and I silently moved forward another couple of steps until my outstretched fingers brushed against the wall. Then I settled against it and waited, listening to Greed as he groaned and pushed himself to his feet. He couldn't see me, but I couldn't see him either, so my advantage was a slim one at best.

 

“Where is he?” he snarled. Wrath didn't give a verbal answer, but I guessed that he pointed or something, for after a pause I could hear Greed's footsteps coming in my general direction. “Where are you?” he called softly. “There's nowhere to hide in here, Ryou.” He was coming close…too close.

 

I held my breath as he passed right by me, the stirred air brushing against my face.

 

“Dammit!” he yelled a few seconds later. “Where could he have gone?”

 

“I saw him disappear in that direction,” Wrath answered in an annoyed sounding voice. “There's nowhere for him to go; he has to be over there.”

 

“Disappear?” In the space of one word, Greed's voice went from disbelieving to curiously playful. “Disappear, eh? I wonder…how far do the limits of illusory alchemy reach?”

 

Something hit the wall close by me with a loud clang, and I winced, nearly losing the concentration I needed to keep up the transmutation. What was he up to now?

 

“I bet a knife can still stick someone who can't be seen,” Greed said with another accompanying clatter against the wall, this time farther away. My blood ran cold as I realized what he was doing—tossing knives at random on the chance that one would hit me. “I wonder if the knife would disappear as well,” he continued gleefully. “How convenient it would be! No one would ever find an invisible corpse.”

 

Another knife struck the wall mere inches from my head, and I dropped the transmutation in shock. Greed was standing not ten feet away, and he grinned as he saw me reappear. “Sorry, did I startle you?”

 

In response I bent down, grabbed the knife, and tossed back at him. It was a clumsy throw, and he dodged it easily, but it gave me the split second I needed to run towards the back of the room, putting some distance between us so I'd have a little more time to think up a plan. I didn't even know if Ed knew exactly where this hideout was, but I couldn't take the chance of trying to escape. He'd probably never find me if I did; the city was far too big.

 

Briefly I considered putting up a barrier, blockading myself from the Homunculi, but then I remembered Greed's ability to walk through walls. Damn it, I thought as I turned to meet Greed's furious charge. What do I do? What can I do? Colonel, please hurry up and find me!

 

The Homunculus had his knife again, and I had to move quickly to dodge it. “Would you stay still and let me kill you?” he snarled. “I have the right!”

 

“You don't have the right to play with life any more than I do!” I retorted, clapping my hands together. Greed was too close to avoid the blast of wind I transmuted, but this time he phased through a metal girder instead of hitting it, landing safely on his feet on the other side.

 

“That trick's getting old,” he growled, but I paid no attention to him. I had a better idea; I didn't have to fight Greed, and I could probably deal with Wrath as well. Even as the former was talking, I was preparing another transmutation. Bending down, I clapped my hands and placed them on the floor, watching as a transmutation circle sprang into view, spreading out from the point I had touched.

 

He was coming back quickly, and I didn't have time to finish before I had to dodge his knife. That was okay, though; I could easily expand the circle from any other point.

 

If I could reach any other point. Greed jumped in front of me and aimed a kick at my knee, forcing me back and away from the circle.

 

“Planning to bind me again?” he hissed. “That's not going to work!” He slashed again, and I had to back away again, closer to Wrath and the only exit and away from the circle. “You can't get away from me, Ryou!”

 

“I don't plan to,” I snapped, clapping my hands together and bringing a row of spikes out of the floor.

 

Greed instinctively jumped out of their way, and I used his distraction to run past him to the circle. I clapped my hands and touched its edge, barely managing to complete it before I had to whirl out of the way of Greed's overhead chop. One down.

 

Sneaking a glance up as I blocked Greed's furious barrage of attacks, I saw that there were too many pipes and girders poking through it. Not ideal for a circle. Well, that was okay, too. I could easily use the walls.

 

With that in mind, I jumped back towards the far wall as Greed struck at me, causing him to overbalance. Twisting around, I transmuted a second binding circle on the walls and skittered out of the way as the knife clanged against it.

 

“Damn you!” Greed yelled, but I ignored him as I ran to the next wall, transmuting another circle there. I turned to find him standing between me and the last wall, and cursed silently. I couldn't transmute any more spikes from the floor and risk marring the circle, and he would be prepared for the wind trick. I also noticed that he had retrieved his knife.

 

“Think you're smart, don't you?” he said with a grin.

 

Instead of replying, I simply feinted a punch at his solar plexus, and as he countered with the knife, I chopped at his wrist with the edge of my left hand. He gasped in pain and dropped the knife, and I kicked it away. Dodging away from his enraged kick, I aimed for his solar plexus again, this time going through with the blow.

 

He doubled over, gasping for air, and I ran past him to the last wall, clapping my hands together as I went. A second later, the last circle spread across its surface. Turning around, I saw that Greed was still doubled over, gasping for air, right in the middle of the floor's circle. Perfect, I thought, bending down to touch the circle.

 

It activated, glowing a blood-red light that in turn activated the three circles on the walls, and Greed froze, caught in their binding light. I backed away with a relieved sigh and turned to head back to the entrance.

 

Wrath was already walking towards me, hands in the pockets of his coat like he wasn't worried at all about me. “Smart boy,” he commented. “Perhaps too smart for your own good. Don't expect to catch me in a binding trap, Illusory. I've been around too long to fall for that.”

 

I was barely listening to what he said; I wasn't even looking at him. My eyes had drifted past him to the door—and the figure that stood there.

 

Ed was here. Ed had found me.

 

Even as I looked at him, he shifted Joshua to one arm, and with the other he threw something to me. Wrath stopped and narrowed his eyes as the packet sailed past his head, but I paid no attention to whatever he did next, instead focusing on the package. After taking just a second to make sure Akira's bone was still inside, I turned and threw it at Greed.

 

His face morphed into a look of pure terror as the packet hit his shoulder and fell to the ground at his feet. Then, slowly, his red gaze still locked on the little brown parcel, he sank to his knees and doubled over, heaving up the bright red stones.

 

I grimaced and turned away from the sickening sight to see that Wrath had gone after Ed. The Colonel, hampered as he was by Joshua, was having a hard time fending off the angry Homunculus. Even as I watched, Wrath grabbed his right arm—his automail arm—and twisted it, the metal screeching as it bent and broke under the pressure.

 

Ed shrieked aloud as the synapse rebound shot through his shoulder, and Joshua began to wail as well. Wrath backed up in a hurry, clapping his hands over his ears. “Shut up!” he yelled. “Make him shut up!”

 

“Colonel!” I yelled, running around Wrath and sliding down next to Ed. “Are you all right?”

 

“I'm fine,” he growled, working hard to keep the obvious pain off his face. “This is our chance, Ryou; don't blow it.” With his good hand, he reached down and pulled back Joshua's blankets, revealing a circle drawn on the baby's stomach in blood. “Go get him,” he whispered, and activated the circle.

 

Something about the atmosphere in the room changed in that instant. Nothing about the transmutation itself seemed special, but suddenly there was an air of wrongness. Something wasn't right; something wasn't natural. I didn't have to look around to know that the Gate was there. Or that it was opening.

 

“Go,” Ed hissed urgently, and I winced slightly before turning to face Wrath. I was sure he would furious, ready to attack us, or still cringing away from the baby. Yet he wasn't even facing us; instead he was staring at the Gate. I couldn't see his face, but I didn't need to. I was sure it held a look of utmost terror.

 

The Gate…it was there, where the wall should have been. Its doors, which would show a relief of a giant eye when closed, were now cracked open, a crack that was growing steadily wider. Beyond that was darkness. Not empty darkness though, not at all. Hungry eyes stared out at us from that darkness, though the rest of the creatures' bodies were invisible. I shuddered involuntarily at the sight. Those creatures…those demons…I had called them forth that night when I tried to resurrect my brother. They came through the Gate into the living world.

 

They took my leg.

 

“Ryou!” Ed yelled, once again snapping me out of it.

 

“Right, Wrath,” I murmured to myself. Running forward, I shoved the Homunculus in the back.

 

He wasn't going through so easily. “No!” he shrieked. “No, I don't want to go back there! Stop it!”

 

“You don't have a choice,” I told him, though I was sure he didn't hear me. He was too fixated on the Gate. But that fixation kept him from struggling very hard against me, and slowly I was able to push him closer to that awful darkness.

 

“Ryou! Look out!”

 

I heard the Colonel's shout, and I heard the footsteps coming up fast behind me, but all I could do—all I had time to do—was turn around. As I did, I felt a sharp, painless blow in my back.

 

Greed was there, leering inches from my face. “Shouldn't have looked away from me,” he hissed. “Now you pay the price. No one's going beyond that Gate but you.” He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me around Wrath to the Gate.

 

I tried to resist, to pull away from him, but I felt curiously weak. It was getting harder to breathe, and pain was beginning to throb deep in my back, where something had hit me. As Greed dragged me up to the Gate, I reached around with my free arm to that spot on me back. My questing fingers found wetness, and a hard object, cold stone, embedded there.

 

The knife. Greed had stabbed me.

 

My legs still worked—weakness didn't affect automail—but I couldn't seem to be able to keep them under me, and Greed almost had to drag me the last few feet.

 

“Don't stop!” I heard Ed call behind me.

 

Don't stop? I was right at the edge, mere inches from the pitch black beyond the Gate. I didn't want to go in there! Please…please, help me. Colonel…anyone…

 

“Keep pushing through!” he continued. “Get to the other side. Don't stop, or they'll get you!”

 

Greed's insane laughter drowned out any more words he might have said as he pushed me forward one last time, right into the waiting hands of the monsters who lived beyond the Gate.

 

* * *

 

I apologize for the shortness, but I couldn't resist the cliffhanger. The next chapter will be out shortly.