Winry, now sniffling, since she had recovered from crying so hard, held my hand as I escorted her back to the hotel she was in. Suddenly, a car pulled up to where we were and the driver rolled down the window. There was Colonel Mustang. "Clockwork!" He barked. "What are you doing here instead of guarding Fullmetal's life? It hasn't even been a full hour since I issued out the order and you're going against me already?!"
"Apologies, sir!" I saluted him. "My best friend was in danger and I am helping her back to her hotel safely!"
"Hm, I guess I'll let that slide. Anyways, I need you here with me now. There has been a change of plans."
"Plans? What plans?"
"Fullmetal had the crazy idea to pick a fight with Scar to attract attention of the Homunculi and capture one of them. It backfired terribly. Although we do have a Homunculi, we have a critically injured soldier who needs medical help."
"Colonel, I need to take Winry--"
"NOW Clockwork."
"But..." I argued but Winry placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face her and she smiled softly, her eyes still red from crying. "It's okay," she assured me. "You done enough. They need you now; more than I do. Go. I will be alright."
I sighed, "Promise me you will head straight to your hotel room and wait there until further notice?"
"Promise," she nodded.
I nodded as well as Colonel opened the car door and I climbed in. He rolled up the window and dove away and Winry wove goodbye at me weakly as I waved goodbye at her while inside the car.
*~*~*~*~*~
After driving around Central to find Dr. Knox's house, we ran into Edward and Alphonse along the way. He stamped on the breaks in front of the two. "Colonel..." Edward started.
"Get in," he ordered.
Edward and Alphonse got into the car and Colonel Mustang drove for a bit more before stopping in front of a house. "Wait here," he ordered as he got out of the car and waited in front of the house. Dr. Knox appeared and Colonel saluted him.
"I've got a badly injured person," Colonel informed. "I need a doctor."
"Gone out on another limb, huh?" Dr. Knox sneered as he pushed open the metal gate. "You little punk."
"I know you have a family," Colonel dropped to a whisper but was still pleading with the doctor. "If this is a problem, you can decline."
"...Wait here," he sighed. "I'll get my instruments."
"You sure?" Colonel, asked, surprised at how quickly he agreed.
"My wife and I broke up soon after I got back from Ishval," Dr. Knox stated.
*~*~*~*~*~
We were stationed at a lone cabin in the woods as Dr. Knox was preforming surgery on a Xingese girl who had her arm amputated. Lieutenant Hawkeye was in the room with him. From the other side, I could hear her screaming through the gag and Dr. Knox cursing.
Edward sat down next to me. "Hey, Eve," he mumbled.
"Hey," I mumbled back, exhausted. My whole body ached from all the action today and from the lack of time spent in recovery. All I wanted to do was lay down on the wooden planks and sleep until all this crap was over. I could feel my head swooning like a drunk as I leaned on Edward's shoulder. He held my hand and brushed aside the long strands on my matted hair off my face, kissing my forehead. A small gesture, but I appreciated it.
Then, a door opened as I snapped my head back up, thinking it was the Colonel as I was pretending to be awake. A Xingese man stepped in and Edward and I stood up. He came over to where we were and sat down in defeat, looking grief-stricken and anxious. "I'm sorry..." Edward started.
"Don't misunderstand," he snapped. "I'm the one who propositioned you. It was in both our interests, so I worked together with you, that's all. I left the country knowing that if I was going to seek immortality, I would have to be ready to make certain sacrifices."
"I'm assuming that she is an accompanying soldier...?" I whispered to Alphonse.
"Bodyguard," Alphonse corrected.
Hearing that, I stepped in to comfort this man. "That girl in the room has promised her life to protect you," I told him. "She knows of the consequences and pain that will come with her job. Do not blame yourself for everything that happens to her. We bodyguards know very well that we sacrifice everything until we have nothing left to protect the ones we have to protect."
The man gave me a pained look and I knew I only made things worse. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "That probably sounded cold--"
"No, you're right," he clenched his bandaged hand. "Lan Fan was, and will be, more prepared for this then I ever will."
*~*~*~*~
After a few hours, Lan Fan, the Xingese's man bodyguard began to regain consciousness. She opened her eyes weakly, a cool rag on her forehead as she took in her surroundings. Her left arm was completely removed, save for a stump, and covered in bandages. Dr. Knox was cleaning his tools, glad his patient had survived the extreme surgery as Colonel and Lieutenant Hawkeye talked amongst each other. "Are you alright?" Alphonse asked her.
"Is there anything we can do?" Edward asked as well.
"Your trap wasn't all that bad," Alphonse comforted her to ease the pain of missing an arm.
"But I'm useless now," she sighed. "I need a replacement arm."
"I can set you up with a great automial mechanic!" Edward offered.
Lan Fan smiled gratefully as I stepped outside to let the Xingese man know his bodyguard was awake and alive. Colonel was already out there and he held out a hand for him. "State Military Colonel Roy Mustang," he introduced himself. "This young lady here is one of my subordinates, State Alchemist Evelyn Joyce."
He stood up and clapped he hands together as if he was praying. "Ling Yao, twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing," he introduced himself before shaking his hand with Colonel . "I'm grateful to you for providing a doctor."
"Not at all," he smiled softly. "Thank you for helping out with the Maria Ross incident. As well as this one."
He opened the door, revealing a writhing bald man. He wore a skintight dark brown-black suit just exposing his arms, which had lines with circles on them. He was struggling, stuck in a literally ball, tied together with wire. Edward, Alphonse, and Dr. Knox arrived looking into the room as well. "Huh, what is that?" Dr. Knox asked.
"A Homunculus, named 'Gluttony'," Ling explained.
"Apparently, these guys have connections to a portion of the military senior staff," Colonel informed.
"Just a portion of it?" Ling scoffed. "There's more to that. There's a possibility that Führer Bradley is a Homunculus, too."
Everyone gasped at such heavy news. "There was an Ouroboros tattoo on the eye under his patch!" Ling justified. "He came after us, together with Gluttony!"
"It can't be!" Edward sputtered.
"The head of our country is a Homunculus?" Alphonse gasped.
"Then again...Bradley doesn't have the same sort of inhuman presence as Gluttony," Ling muttered. "His is the same presence as a regular person."
"But then...there's one thing, if the Führer is a Homunculus, how is it that he has a son?" Alphonse gasped. "It said in that book that Homunculi had no reproductive abilities."
"No, his son is adopted," Dr. Knox informed. "He is not the Führer's blood offspring."
"Whether monster or human, either way, this makes it easier for me to drag the Führer out of his seat," Colonel scoffed. "First, we get some information out of this one. I'll take his Philosopher's Sone, too. It may be useful in treating my man."
"Hey, now, Lan Fam lost her arm to obtain him," Ling shouted, grabbing Colonel by the collar. "He's a lead to gaining immortality! We're taking him back to Xing!"
"Just a minute!" Edward piped up into the argument, pushing his way between the two. "We want to get our original bodies back for a long time, ourselves! There's no way I'm letting you run away with him!"
Everyone began to argue. Dr. Knox and I didn't want to take part in this so we wet outside. I escaped first and saw Lieutenant Hawkeye stationed outside the cabin, rifle in hand, keeping guard. When she heard the door open, she turned around and saw it was me. "I can hear them arguing all the way out here," she sighed.
"Seriously?" I laughed.
Suddenly, it became very quiet. Hawkeye, getting suspicious, approached the door only for us to see a giant wind vortex out of nowhere create a hole in the cabin. A giant circle appeared in the cabin and it trembled, wood planks collapsing. The vortex even made an mark on the ground. "What is this?" Lieutenant Hawkeye yelled. "Colonel? Where are you? Col--"
"Lieutenant!" He yelled from the inside. Another wind vortex appeared, this time taking half of Lieutenant Hawkeye's rifle and undoing her hair in the process. Suddenly, Gluttony stumbled out, except he wasn't normal. A giant hole connecting from his mouth all the way to the base of his stomach was there, along with sharp, curved teeth and a giant eye in the center of the hole. Lieutenant Hawkeye pointed her handgun a him and sounds of shifting planks was heard. She pulled out another handgun and held it at the source of the noise. Geez, how many guns did she have on her...?
Alphonse pushed the planks off him, Dr. Knox, Colonel, and Edward. Ling and Lan Fan were nowhere to be found. "Colonel!" I yelled.
"Lieutenant...Clockwork..." Colonel grumbled, ripping off a tiny panda that someone latched itself onto his face. Where did it come from...? "Don't provoke him!" He yelled. "He's out to get me!"
"I LEAVE YOU FOR FIVE MINUTES AND THIS HAPPENS?!" I screeched at the top of my lungs.
Gluttony roared some more, red eyes glinting as he searched the through the rubble. Alphonse helped everyone that was stuck with him out and Colonel pulled his glove off with his teeth and slipped on his ignition gloves. "We have no choice but to bring him down," he said.
"But we went through so much just to catch this Homunculus!" Alphonse protested.
"Our first priority is to survive," he stated. "Besides, he knows our names and faces. There's no reason for us to let him leave here alone."
He snapped his fingers, bringing a wave of flames at Gluttony. He screeched in pain of being burned alive but suddenly, he summoned a wind vortex up and swallowed the flames, leaving not even a spark behind, finishing the move with a burp. "He swallowed it...?" Edward sputtered as Colonel looked baffled.
"Uh-oh!" Alphonse warned.
Gluttony sent the giant mouth at the three to clamp down on them and they jumped, running straight into the forest. Hawkeye and I followed them into there and I could hear them yelling as they crashed through the branches and under bush. "Hey, that worked well!" Edward yelled.
"Think you can do better, be my guest!" Colonel fired back.
"Why don't we leave you behind?" Alphonse cried. "You're the one he really wants!"
"There's trees over there! Split up!" He yelled. More crashing and they grew fainter. Suddenly, I got a glimpse of Colonel running along with Gluttony trailing just close behind. Lieutenant Hawkeye began to fire her handguns, distracting Gluttony and slowing him down. I clapped my hands and placed them on a tree, bringing it down as Gluttony tried to swallowed Colonel but got the tree instead.
Colonel dashed off and I tried running but my side, now, of all times, decided to be an inconvenience. It seared the entire side of my body, causing my to trip on my steps and fall down, clutching my side. Why now? I cursed as I began to crawl with one hand as fast as I could.
Edward came crashing through the forest. "Eve!" He shouted, helping me up and slinging my free arm over his shoulder. "Quickly!" He said.
As I fast as I could, I stumbled through the forest and out of it, just seeing Lieutenant Hawkeye forcing Colonel into Dr. Knox's car. Suddenly, we could hear Gluttony screaming through the forest. "He fell for the Mustang dummy, huh?" Edward scoffed.
"Sounds like he's ticked off now," Alphonse noted.
"You're making me leave with my tail between my legs under these circumstances?!" Colonel protested.
"Well, we do need someone to investigate about a Homunculus being head of military, right?" Edward pointed out.
"Wait...head of military...you mean Führer Bradley is...?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked.
"Well talk later!" Dr. Knox yelled. "Get in!"
Edward peered into the car before stepping back, joins me, Alphonse and Ling. "Hm...car looks full, huh?" Edward smirked.
"You can't possibly be serious!" Colonel cried.
"You dumbasses!" Dr. Knox groaned.
"We can't have you children going out into the battlefield!" Lieutenant Hawkeye shouted.
"We need someone to question the senior staff," Edward pointed out.
"We'll get the information we need out of the Gluttony guy," Ling assured.
"Us being children has nothing to do with this," Alphonse added.
"This is our mission," Edward reminded. "We appreciate all the help you gave us."
Lieutenant Hawkeye hesitated before reaching into her pocket and handing me something. "Evelyn, you know what this is?" She asked.
"Are you serious?" I rolled my eyes and the handgun in her pocket. "It's a gun. It's meant for killing people."
"You'll need it," Lieutenant Hawkeye added, stretching her hand out further.
Just as I was going to saw no, a wind vortex surging from the forest got our attention. Lieutenant Hawkeye, not wanting to waste anymore time, shoved the gun into my hand and leaned back into the car. Dr. Knox drove off, and we could hear him cursing loudly at us. We turned back and ran into the forest.
*~*~*~*~*~
We followed the path of destruction made my Gluttony swallowing everything and we finally found him, strumbling around, cursing Colonel Mustang. "Yeah, we said we'd fight, but that thing is seriously freaky," Edward mumbled as we hid in the bushes.
"His personality is different, too," Ling noted.
"How are we going to catch him?" Alphonse asked.
There was a crash in the forest and we turned around, Ling and I whipping out our swords. There was a dog perched at the top of the hill, eyes glowing red. "Stop, Gluttony!" It barked, sounding very familiar.
"It spoke?" Edward asked, clearly confused.
"Hey, long time no see," it smirked at us. It shape shifted into a familiar Homunculi. "Hello, Fullmetal Pipsqueak." Envy smiled at us.
Edward lost his shit. There was no holding back. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU DON'T CALL ME SMALL!!!" He roared, leaping up and kicking a tree where Envy's head was.
"Hey, calm down!" Envy yelled. "I'm here to get Gluttony, nothing more than that. I don't want to fight you pipsqueak--"
Edward ignored him as he punched the tree, again, where Envy's head was. "That's the seventh time now!" He yelled.
"What do you mean?" Envy asked, jumping into a tree branch.
"You called me pipsqueak two times now, and five times at the laboratory! Don't tell me you've forgotten already!"
"What a pinpoint memory you've got there."
"Hold it!"
Envy ignored Edward as he turned to face the whimpering Gluttony that approached him. "You're becoming bothersome!" He scolded.
"Mustang was here!" He whined. "Must avenge Lust! Swallow, swallow, swallow him up!"
"Not the Colonel, nor the Elric brothers."
"No!"
"I sensed it before too," Ling smirked as he stepped out behind us, sword drawn. "How many people are inside you, Homunculus?"
Envy scrunched his face slightly as he leaned on Gluttony. "So, you're the kid who crossed sword with Wrath, huh?" He asked, unamused.
"What do you mean, 'kid'?" Ling shouted, offended. "I am the twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing, and my name is--"
"Eat him," Envy patted Gluttony on the back not wanting to hear any more of this.
Gluttony got excited and bounded after Ling, who ran away. We could hear Gluttony begging, "Wait! Wait! Wait!" As if that's going to work.
"I get it now..." Edward smirked.
"Huh?" I asked, confused.
"They can't hurt us brothers, huh?" Alphonse answered.
Edward clapped his hands and placed them on the ground, creating a wall between Ling and Envy and us and Gluttony. "You, take him!" Edward shouted as we fought Gluttony.
I drew my sword and jabbed Gluttony, who easily dodged them, despite being so large. Edward transmuted a hole and dropped him down in it. "Got him!" He cheered but Gluttony jumped right back out with no problem as well.
"Whew, that was a close one," he sighed with relief.
"Why you..." Edward jumped onto him and began to punch and kick him, and he, again, dodged all of them.
"Go away, I'm not allowed to eat you," he begged. "I wanted to eat that closed-eye guy earlier."
"Not today!" Alphonse brought his arms up behind Gluttony and held him in place but he grabbed Alphonse and threw him over his head, crashing into us and destroying the wall Edward transmuted as a barrier between us.
"Hey, now, stay out of my way--" Ling shouted.
Envy pounced over him but Ling ducked, swiping his sword over his head and slicing Envy up. He yelled as he crashed onto the ground and he held the sword up at him. Envy shifted into Lan Fan and Ling gasped shortly, unable to move. Envy smirked before yelling, "Now Gluttony!"
Gluttony roared and his teeth extended, preparing to create a wind vortex. "Ling!" Edward shouted as he and I tackled him and Envy, in the form of Lan Fan, grabbed onto Edward's leg. "Brother!" Alphonse shouted as he extended an armored hand.
But it was too late. Gluttony had swallowed Edward, Ling, Envy, and I and we fell down into the endless hole of his stomach, until we reached some bottom to this bottomless pit.