It was mid-morning and Edward, Greeling, Darius, Heinkel, and I arrived in some rural village on the search of Hohenheim. According to some information provided by Winry, he was last seen residing here so we decided to check this place out first. The people were milling about, minding their own business and getting what they needed to do done. Edward walked up to one man to was shoveling the dirt and asked, "Excuse me, is this Kanama?"
The man nodded and Edward explained the situation to him. He stopped digging and offered to help us, which we accepted. He lead us to a small campfire where a blonde man was roasting his food over it. "Mr. Ho," The man who offered to help us called. "You got a visitor."
The man turned around and I got to see his face. He strikingly resemble Father, but he wasn't Father. It was Hohenheim, the real Hohenheim. He and Edward locked eyes for a few seconds before Hohenheim put down what he was roasting, stood up and held his hand out for a shake. "It's nice to see you again Edwa--" He started before Edward punched him across the face.
Hohenheim flew back a few feet before sliding across the ground on his back, stopped with his legs up in the air. Edward turned back around to us, rubbing his metal fist. "Ah, that felt good," He said.
I had a dumbfounded expression on my face and held my hands out in a confused manner, about to speak up and question Edward but Hohenheim cut in. "You didn't have to haul off and slug me out of nowhere, you know!" He groaned, sitting up and rubbing where Edward had punched him. "And with your right hand too!"
Edward turned around, making a 'hmph' noise. Hohenheim stood up and brushed the dirt and dust off his legs. "You've made some new friends," He glanced before looking up and taking in who we were. "Whoa..."
"It just works out that we're all in the same boat," Heinkel objected.
"And incidentally, I'm the boss of these guys," Greed smirked as he scratched the base of his neck.
"I'm just Ed's bodyguard," I raised my hand, adding on to the introduction.
"Well, well," Hohenheim approached Greeling and I. "Thank you both for looking after my son."
"Not at all," Greeling humbly accepted.
"Doin' my job," I gave him a thumbs-up.
"And a damn sassy son he is," Greeling added with a smirk.
"Shut up!" Edward jabbed at him.
Hohenheim scanned Greeling and his eyes fell on a distinctive tattoo on his hand. "That's an unusual tattoo," He remarked.
"Ah, this?" Greeling lifted his hand up that had the tattoo on it."I suppose there's no sense in hiding it. But Pops, don't keep back anything from us either."
Hohenheim glanced at Edward. "Tomorrow is the 'Promised Day', right?" Edward reminded. The 'Promised Day' is this special day Edward has been talking about for months that has to do with the Homunculi and this big plan that they have.
"Yeah," Hohenheim sighed. "I'll tell you everything."
*~*~*~*~*~
Nightfall came and as all the people came closer to town for the light, we sat around Hohenheim's campfire and he began to tell us what we needed to know; his entire past. He was a slave of Xerxes where he met Father in his weakened form and together they eradicated the entire populuse of Xerxes, excluding Hohenheim.
Darius, Heinkel, and I had shocked looks on our faces, Edward yanked his hair in despair, and Greeling kept a straight face. "I guess you can't accept this as readily as Alphonse did," Hohenheim sighed. "He probably has his own take on some of it, but he accepted it. I am the Philosopher's Stone that you wanted. Will you use me?
"Don't be ridiculous!" Edward shouted, standing up. "Those are the lives of people that have nothing to do with this! There's no way we can use you, when it's our own fault we lost our bodies!"
"Ed, calm down!" I cried. "You're going to tell the entire world your story if you don't calm down a bit!"
"I'm glad my son would say so," Hohenheim gave us a small smile. "Tomorrow, there will be an eclipse. He's planning on exploiting it."
"Exploit the eclipse? That's his plan?" Edward repeated.
"Edward, will you help me put a stop to his scheme?"
"Help you? Don't get the wrong idea. I'll knock that bearded bastard's block off without teaming up with you! It's just that right now, it looks like banding together assures our victory, which is the only reason why I'm listening to you!"
Edward began to storm off and one by one, Heinkel, Darius, Greeling, and I followed but in a much more calmer manner. "Good," Hohenheim smiled. "Whatever your reasons are, you'll still fight alongside me."
Edward stopped as we continued onwards but we stopped as well to let Edward catch up to us. "Granny asked me to give Mom's last words to you," Edward took a shaky breath. "'Sorry I couldn't keep my promise.' and 'I'm dying first.'"
Hohenheim gasped. "There, I told you!" Edward shouted, craning his head back but flinching in pain. Tears dripped down Hohenheim's face as he began to sob softly, remembering his long deceased wife.
*~*~*~*~*~
Heinkel, Darius, Edward and I stopped a nearby food stall to grab a quick bite. Edward and I had some soup with Darius and Heinkel snacked on some kabobs. Greeling, having no interest to eat, went off to explore the small village. "Don't you think you should talk more heart-to-heart with your old man?" Heinkel remarked.
"Yeah, yeah," Darius added. "At least call him 'Pop'."
"There's...a lot that happened with each other in the past," I chose my words carefully as I informed them. "But, seeing how he is, I can't imagine him leaving his wife."
"I'm sure a lot has happened to him," Darius sighed. "Go on, hear him out."
"Aw geez, shut up!" Edward exploded, tiring of ignoring us coddling him. "A lot has happened to me, too!"
"Like what?" Heinkel asked.
"I'll bet you're just being stubborn," Darius said.
"You're not sure how to sort out your feelings, huh?" Greeling smirked as he leaned against the wooden stall. "I can't blame you. He's a Philosopher's Stone in the form of a live person. And what's more, he also happens to be your father."
"It's not just that," Edward growled. "He's not quite who I was expecting."
We finished eating in silence before Edward got up and went over to another stall, purchasing a whole roll of red fabric as we followed him. "What's that for?" Greeling asked.
Edward said nothing as he placed the fabric on a barrel and clapped his hands and placed them on the cloth, turning it into his signature red coat. "Are you planning to wear something that flashy again?" Heinkel rolled his eyes.
"Why does it have to be red?" Greeling sighed.
Edward lifted his coat up and began fold it over his arm, "This will probably be our last battle against them. I have to make sure I'm all fired up for it."
We began to leave the village and head unto the woods, The woods seemed darker than usual, probably because of how bright the village is. "Look, you guys don't have to tag along with me," Edward assured. "I think it might be better for you if we parted ways here, fellows."
"Can't," I reminded with a glare. "It's my freaking job to be here with you."
"Hey, now, you can't decide that for yourself," Greeling smirked. "You work for me."
"Or, do you, you know, what to get your original bodies back, or..." Edward trailed.
"I don't know," Heinkel shrugged.
"There's a lot about these bodies that comes in handy," Darius smiled. "I wouldn't really mind staying like this."
"That's more like it!" Greeling laughed.
"So then, why?" Edward asked.
"Well, you know, we don't have anywhere else to be," Heinkel remarked.
"My animal instincts tell me that if I stay here, something good will happen to me," Darius tapped his forehead.
"What about you?" Edward sighed at Greeling. "Didn't you say you'd split from the Homunculi?"
"Are you asking why I've returned to Central?" Greeling smirked. "I'm not telling."
Suddenly, Heinkel stopped, stopping the rest of us. "What's going on?" Edward jumped to see what was happening.
Heavy metal footsteps echoed throughout the forest and out of the darkness came Alphonse. "Al!" Edward joyfully yelled pushing past us to run up to his armored brother. "Oh, it's you," He sighed with relief. "Don't scare me like that. I'm glad we managed to link up again. How have you been?"
"Brother, you're all right too," Alphonse spoke.
"Huh?" Edward asked with confusion. "I thought you were with Major Miles. Is everything all right with them?"
"I need to speak to you about that," Alphonse said. "Come here a minute."
"Okay," Edward raised a brow and Greeling flinched and began to quiver a bit. I glanced at him in confusion. Edward sensened something with Alphonse. "Hey Al, are you feeling alright?" He called.
Alphonse stopped, "Why do you ask?"
"No reason, it's just that..." Edward stammered.
"Ed!" Greeling shouted, except now he sounded like Ling.
"Ling?" Edward said.
"Get away from him!" He yelled clutching his face in pain. "That's...He's..."
Suddenly, the shadows, yes the SHADOWS underneath Alphonse's feet rose up and shot at us. We all dodged in a nick of them before they stabbed us between the eyes. As they retracted, Edward panted, "What is that?"
"So, you've gone over to their side, Greed," Alphonse remarked, except he had a different voice. Alphonse's head jerkily turned to the side and I could see the spiked shadows that attacked us earlier sticking out through the openings on Alphonse's armor. Alphonse's body turned around to face us. "To think you'd let the human take you over again," Alphonse sneered. Alphonse's head tilted upwards and the shadows that surrounded Alphonse were covered in thousands of wide-open eyes.
The shadows crawled all over Alphonse's body, making him spasm out of control. "Al!" Edward cried.
"It's Pride," Greeling informed, the control going back to Greed. He was still quivering with his hand over his eyes.
"Pride?"
"Yeah I guess you could say he's our older brother."
"A Homunculus?"
"You're going to betray us, no matter what, aren't you, Greed?" Pride asked within the armor, his voice having that echo effect similar to Alphonse's whenever he spoke. "At this point, you are nothing more than an obstacle to us."
"Damn it, how did you know I was here?" Greeling cursed.
"How dare you disguise yourself as Al?" Edward clenched his teeth.
"It is not a disguise," Pride cackle as the shadows within the amor began to lift Alphonse's helmet off the armored body. "This is, indisputably, your brother's body." He bent over and the shadows thinned out, revealing the blood seal at the nape of the armored neck.
"You bastard!" Edward shouted.
"I'm going to deal with Greed now," Pride ignored Edward. "Fullmetal Alchemist, would you be so kind as to come with me?"
The shadows underneath Alphonse's armor formed into thin, long, skinny black hands and crept towards us. "Hey, Mr. Gorilla, you guys better run--" Edward warned and turned around to see Heinkel and Darius behind a tree. "You guys move fast!"
"Our animal instincts are telling us not to fight with that thing," Darius alluded to what he said earlier.
"Are you going to be all right?" Heinkel asked with concern.
"I'll be fine," Edward smirked coyly. "They need Al and me, so they won't kill us. But I can go all out against them! I won't hesitate to take them down!"
"You are correct," Pride remarked. "I will not kill you. I might slice up two or three of your limbs, though."
The shadowy arms retracted before coming at us like a snake. Edward and I dodged and rolled away from the oncoming shadows. "We can't afford to run towards the slums!" I warned, reminding of the helpless people that were residing just a mile away from us.
Edward transmuted a wall between us and Pride but he sliced right through the wall. "Guards won't work against this guy!" Greeling informed as he dodged the oncoming attacks as well.
He shadows sliced Greeling underneath his jaw but he had activated his grey armor to harden himself from the potentially fatal attack. Pride took the chance of Greeling recovering from the attack to bind him with the shadows. "Now then, I have captured your friend, as well," he said. "What will it be? Will you do as I say, if I capture the slums' people as well?"
"True to form, he goes right after the last thing you want," Greeling grumbled.
More shadows came from the forest and slithered up to us. I drew my sword and cut the ground in attempt to stop the shadows but to no avail. Edward and I stepped a couple steps back to avoid the shadows. "I can't stand to keep losing my fights," Edward remarked as he used his alchemy, sending his sparks towards the slums. They climbed up the power lines and cut them, cutting electricity to that town. The entire forest went dark as I gulped and gripped my sword with both hands, despite the dull ache from the still healing arm. I can't see anything, I thought anxiously. I hope Ed knows what he's doing...
I heard soft voices near us but I couldn't make out the conversation. "Hey Ed?" I gulped. "How's cutting our light source helping us?"
"Pride can't cast his shadows without any light," Edward explained as he made his way to me. Together, we groped through the darkness until we reached where Heinkel and Darius were. By that point, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could make out silhouettes of our allies. Darius was there, but no sign of Heinkel or Greeling. "Hey Ed?" Darius asked.
"Is that you, Mr. Gorilla?" Edward replied.
The three of us stepped out from behind the trees into the clearing. "Where's Al?" I said.
"He hasn't moved," Edward explained. "Whenever he moves, he clanks."
"All right, for the time being let's move away from here," Darius suggested.
"And leave Al behind?" Edward snapped.
"I know how worried you must be, but what if we get close to him, and it's a trap? We have to stick together, at least until Heinkel deals with Pride so we can avoid attacking each other," Darius reminded.
Again, we went into the forest and began to grope through the plants. In the distance, I could hear Heinkel's roars and the crashing of underbush, at least informing me that he isn't far from here. "That sound is the lion guy fighting?" Edward asked.
"When it's dark, leave the fighting to the nocturnal animals," Darius said. We reached a tree and I could make out Greeling's figure leaning against it.
Suddenly, Darius gasped, "Get down!" He scooped us up and tackled us to the ground. A figure that resembled Gluttony jumped from the darkness and bit a huge chunk of from the the tree we were just at, causing the tree to fall over. Scratch that; it WAS Gluttony.
"I smell the Fullmetal Alchemist," He grinned, gnawing on the chunk of bark he pulled out. "I smell the Clockwork Alchemist I smell Greed."
"That voice, it's Gluttony!" Greeling gritted.
"Him?" Edward cried.
"I get it," Greeling nodded. "So they used Gluttony's sense of smell to track us down."
"I also smell someone I don't know," Gluttony sniffed. "I can eat them, right?"
"You're up, Darius," Greeling grinned,"He's a Homunculus too."
"How am I supposed to handle a monster-class opponent like him?" Darius replied.
"He's only relying on his nose to move around. If you take him now, you'll be evenly matched, won't you?"
"My animal instinct is telling me not to. But, hey, a man's gotta have nerve! Victory favors he who strikes first!"
Darius puffed out his chest and transformed into his gorilla form and sprinted towards Gluttony. He punched him in the guy and smashed their faces together before grabbing him by the legs and flinging him into the air. "Now for the final blow!" Darius shouted as he swung his arm around and struck Edward in the gut.
Edward buckled over, grabbing his stomach, groaning, "Hey Mr. Gorilla. I thought we were sticking together so we could avoid attacking each other."
"Sorry," Darius rubbed his head.
"I guess fighting in the dark has its downsides for both parties," I laughed nervously as I rubbed the back of my head.
Gluttony leapt back at us from the shadows again and I drew my sword, ready to slice through the thing before Greeling jumped in the way, literally taking an arm for me. The arm quickly regenerated and Greeling punched Gluttony to the ground. "Gotcha!" Greeling laughed, now with Ling's voice.
"Is that you, Ling?" Edward quickly got up.
"That's right!" He grinned. He began to talk to himself, as if he was having a quick conversation with someone all of us except him couldn't see.
"I'm mad, I'm hungry, but you won't let me eat you right away!" Gluttony growled as he got up, rubbing his head."So I am going to swallow you all!" Gluttony's stomach ripped open, revealing the artificial gate.
"I sense something bad," Darius gulped.
"Bad like what?" I asked.
"Something's coming," Greeling added.
"Something like what?" I asked again in a more high-pitched tone, getting more confused at the vague answers.
"It's the same as that time earlier," Greeling explained.
"Hey, what is it you guys are looking at?" I cried. "Explain it to me, the idiot here!"
A quick breeze blew past us, making me shiver. What was that? I saw quick flashes of something reflecting off something as it surrounded Gluttony. I heard flesh tearing and Gluttony screaming in pain. "What is that?" Edward asked when Darius pressed us both down with his hands.
"Stay down!" Darius warned.
"Is there someone else out there?" I asked.
"I don't know," Greeling replied. "I don't know, but that's..."
"That smell..." Gluttony staggered, the red regenerating sparks illuminating his body when suddenly he was cut by something again, stopping the healing process. "I know it."
A knife was stabbed right on his bald head as the figure was on top of Gluttony jumped over him and slipped him over just using the knife was leverage. As Gluttony gurgled in his blood and the red sparks flew again, it illuminated the figure and their automail arm that had a knife sticking out the elbow joint which they had used to attack Gluttony, revealing to be a familiar person that I met while we were hiding out in the cabin. "Thank goodness you're okay!" Greeling grinned. "I was wondering when you'd find me, Lan Fan!"
Lan Fan turned around towards us, their masked face looking at us. As soon as Gluttony fully healed and back on his legs again, Lan Fan dashed through the forest and cut him up some more with her elbow knife. "Geez, because of you, I'm dying again and again," Gluttony cried as he lumbered about.
Lan Fan cut down his face and Greeling punched him, sending him flying into a tree and knocking it down. Lan Fan landed in a branch near us. "Young Lord!" She cried.
"Exchange greetings later," Greeling yelled as he dashed through the forest. "Let's pour it on."
"Right!" She nodded as she leapt back into the darkness once more.
We heard more of Gluttony's cries through the forest. "How are they so good in fighting in the dark?" I breathed in admiration.
"The ruler of our land Xing has control over the dragon's pulse, or chi, by which he governs the kingdom," An elderly man's voice informed behind us, causing us to jump and go in to our fighting stances as a masked man stepped out from the dark. "Those of us who serve our ruler are able to read the flow of chi! Moreover, our role being what it is, we can see well at night."
"That voice..." Edward squinted.
The man took off his mask, having the appearance of an old man who's voice matched the age seen on his face. "Long time no see, kid," The man greeted.
"It's old man Fu, all right," Edward smiled. "But how? How did you know where we were?"
"We'd snuck into Central for a while to see what was going on. When we detected several large chi moving toward here, we followed them. There are two huge chi clashing with each other right nearby."
"That would probably be Greed and Gluttony."
"Greed, the one who swallowed up the Young Lord. And then, there's another huge chi out there in the forest."
"My companion is fighting a Homunculus right now, named Pride," Darius explained.
"Hmmm..." Fu contemplated. "And finally, there's one more in a nearby settlement. There's something unparalleled about that one."
"That's probably Ed's old man," Darius replied.
"Him?" Edward asked.
Fu turned to us suddenly, eyes widened, "Your father is not human?"
"For now, we can leave him alone," Edward gulped. "First, we have to do something about these Homunculi."
"Don't worry about Gluttony," Fu assured. "Let Lan Fan take care of him."
"Let her take care of him?" I asked.
"She's only had her automail for six months, hasn't see?" Edward yelled in concern. "That's crazy, old-timer! If we don't go help her, she'll be in hot water."
Edward ran into the forest for to assist her and I was about to follow, and I'm glad I didn't. Edward was blown back by an explosion and landed in the grass beside us. "Don't worry," Fu smiled. "Hand-to-hand combat is not our only weapon."
"Give us some warning before you use those!" Edward shouted into the forest darkness before another explosion blew Edward back some more. "Geez...well, if that's the case, I guess we can relax. Old man Fu, what else do you have besides bombs?"
"Hmm?" Fu replied. "All sorts of things. Tear-gas bombs, flash bombs, flares."
Edward glanced back out to the small town and small pockets of lights began to flash. "The lights in the slums gave started to come back on," He noted. "Those snarky things are going to start appearing again."
"If we don't do something fast, Heinkel will be in deep trouble!" Darius gasped.
"Yeah," Edward nodded. "Old man Fu, would you take me to where Pride is? There's something I'd like you to help me out with."
Fuu pondered, "As you wish."
As Edward, Fu, and I stepped back out again Darius interrupted us, "Ed. Watch yourself. Remember, Pride, the guy Heinkel is fighting, is..."
"I know," Edward nodded as we ran into the forest.
As we were running, the air became smokey, making it hard to breathe. I coughed as we ran, thinking maybe it was from running so hard. Edward detected the smell and stopped himself, "Oh no, a fire!" Edward cried before bolting even faster, making it harder for Fu and I to keep up with him.
Just as we reached a clearing, I saw a shadow slithering up and about to strike Heinkel, who was covered in a good amount of lacerations before Edward jumped into the way and deflected it with his automail arm. "That was a close one, pops," He sighed as I ran up beside Edward. "Imagine, this little kid being a Homunculus."
As I squinted at the figure, my eyes widened, recognizing this as this little boy sometimes would accompany the Führer to explore the multiple military commands I was stationed at with Colonel Mustang. "Is that you, Selim Bradley?" I gasped.
"Outward appearances are only symbolic," Selim-or rather, Pride-smirked as he closed his eyes. His voice had that echo effect, similar to when he was in Alphonse's body and he sounded much older than usual. he shadows continuing the slither behind him. "Isn't that right, my little alchemist?"
Edward gritted his teeth as Pride sent his shadows after us. Using his automail arm that was transmuted into a balde, Edward deflected the shadows while I used my sword. It became clear to me that using one sword wasn't going to suffice anymore. "Sorry, arm," I grunted as I drew my other sword with my healing arm, sucking up the pain, and used both swords to deflect Pride's shadows, making it much easier to do so. I also began to attack back at the shadows, but they drew back quick enough so I couldn't do any real damage on them.
Pride sent all his shadows at Edward, who blocked it using his arm before flinging it, sending the shadows in the opposite direction tomus. "Looks like keeping my northern automail was the right decision," Edward grinned as he panted. "This carbon fiber is proving quite useful." Pride stood still, staring at us with a straight face.
"What's the matter?" Edward taunted, flaunting his metal arm. "Is that all you've got?"
"Sure enough, I'll have to..." Pride cackled.
Clanking footprints came up and Alphonse's body emerged from the forest darkness. "Al!" Edward cried.
"Using your brother to fight you should give me the advantage."
Edward smirked before shouting, "Old Man Fu!"
Fu jumped through the flames and jumped into the air, dropping a flash bomb above Al's body. As it went off, the shadows controlling it retracted. "Oh no!" Pride cried.
Al's body began to stagger with nothing to support it and Darius came out to catch the body. "Al!" Edward yelled as he approached the two. "Mr, Gorilla, tale Al and get away from here."
"You're sure he's not still possessed?" Darius asked for confirmation.
"The parts that get cut off from the Homunculus' main body disperses and disappears," Edward assured. "Now that Al's insides are cut off from the main shadow body, Pride is no longer in there."
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!" Pride shouted as he sent his shadows quickly at us.
"Have another one!" Edward threw another flash bomb into the air as Gluttony emerged from the forest, whimpering, "Pride, did you see that bright flash of light?" The bomb went off and I turned away to avoid getting blinded. Once the light show was over, Pride that uncovered his face, squinting while Gluttony was rolling away, covering his face and sobbing in pain as a long laceration on his abdomen was healing.
"You've really done it now," Pride glared. Lan Fan and Greeling joined us as Pride turned back to Gluttony, his shadows curling beside him again. "You're a real mess, aren't you?" He snarled.
"Well, it's because that girl and Greed were acting funny," Gluttony explained. "They knew where I was, even when it was so dark."
"They what?" Pride asked. He stared at us some more before licking his lips and grinning, turning back to Gluttony, who was sucking on a finger as comfort. "Gluttony, how many times have you been killed?"
"I don't know," He replied. "I've been killed a lot, though."
"I've been beaten up pretty badly myself," Pride remarked as shadows began to creep around the clearing floor. "The way things are headed we could be wiped out by them."
"Then, we could have Father fix us--" Gluttony smiled hopefully before noticing that Pride's shadowy tentacle-hands were slithering around Gluttony, surrounding him. "No!' He begged, trying to step around the shadows. "No, Pride."
A huge shadow emerged behind Pride, one with a mouth and it opened its mouth, revealing sharp teeth as Pride smirked as he licked his lips. The shadow with teeth behind him attacked Gluttony, biting down on him and throwing him up unto the air and biting him in half. I covered my mouth as my pupils dilated at the horror that was unfolding in front of me. "No!" Gluttony begged mercifully. "Pride, don't eat me! It hurts! Help me, Lust!" He sobbed as his voice became a mere echo. As soon as Gluttony's lower half landed in the floor, the shadows began to attack, eating the entire thing, but more importantly, consuming the Philosopher's Stone inside of him.
As we stared, shell-shocked at what Pride had done, Greeling gulped, "He devoured his own kind."
"Ah, this is more convenient," Pride sighed with pleasure. "I can detect your scents quite well now. I could do without the feeling of hunger that comes with it though." He stopped and sniffed the air. "That scent," he smirked. "Are you nearby, Hohenheim?" He turned back towards our direction. "Edward Elric!" He shouted. "If I capture you, Hohenheim will be forced to come forward."
His shadows stabbed towards us in the dirt ground as an attempt to separate us. Edward was separated from our group and Pride surrounded him in rows of shadows. They split apart, showing Pride smirking as he sent a shadow with a muth after Edward. "Ed!" I shouted from my side of the battlefield.
Edward quickly bent forward and the shadow chomped on a tree that Edward was leaning against. Edward darted away as Pride's shadow slithered back and the tree fell over. Pride, not amused, glanced at the rest of us and sent shadows at us. While Greeling did backflips back to avoid the shadows, occasionally hardening his arm to block the shadows, I darted backwards, deflecting oncoming shadows with both of my swords.
I scrambled up a tree in hopes to dodge any more of Pride's attacks but the shadows that chased me slithered as one behind me and using the multiple jaws it possessed, bit the tree in chunks. As I fell from the tree, a shadow appeared underneath me and opened its jaw, ready to bit me in half. I spun in mid air while holding my swords, doing a bladed spinning attack and quickly cut through the shadows so they do any harm.
Greeling and Lan Fan copied my idea of hiding in a tree, but Pride scoped them out and bit their tree into chunks. As Lan Fan was free falling, a shadow appeared underneath her and was about to bite her as well before Edward jumped in the way and kicked her to the side, using his momentum to avoid the shadow as well.
As they landed, Lan Fan regained her fighting stance. "Who asked you to help?" She demanded.
"Shut up!" Edward snapped.c"Your arm still isn't at its best yet, right?"
"That's none of your affair!"
"Right now, you just worry about yourself. We're going to need your help down the road."
Fu assisted Heinkel to the side but the shadows sensed a weakness at tried to snipe them but Greeling jumped in the way and blocked the attack. "Get out of here!" He shouted, with Greed now in control.
"Sorry I couldn't bag the kid," Heinkel apologized.
"Don't worry about it," Greeling smirked. "Can't fault you f0r not being able to defeat him. He's a monster, even by my standards."
As Fu and Heinkel scrambled away, Edward, Greeling and I took shelter in a tree in an attempts to use it as a temporary shield but Pride cut through them once more, sening us flying into the air as we skidded onto the ground. "There," Pride smiled. "The view is much better now. Buy it won't do much good to hide behind anything. Your smell gives you away."
"Damn!" Greeling grunted. "Hey, you two still alive?"
"Ugh...I'm alive," I was face first in the dirt but I lifted an arm with a sword to gesture that I was alive still as I rolled over.
"More or less," Edward gave a thumbs up.
"Is this any time to be worried about others, Greed?" Pride taunted. "I wonder how much longer it will be before you are dead?"
"You monster..." Greeling growled.
"That's a rather rude thing to say about your brother, Greed. Msy I eat you now?"
"You'll eat me and you'll upset your stomach, brother."
Pride smirked but paused to sniff the air. Foots approached us and Hohenheim made an appearance, hands in his pockets. "You're finally making an appearance...Hohenheim," Pride said.
"Heroes always arrive late, you know?" Hohenheim shrugged.
"Hero? Are you saying you mean to defeat me?"
"No, I couldn't do that. You really are a fright, after all."
Hohenheim and Pride stared at each other as Pride retracted his shadows to prepare for any incoming attack when Alphonse leapt through the forest and charged at Pride, ready to attack him from behind before the shadows retrained Alphonse before he could even land a single finger on his hair. "Oh, what a pathetic strategy," Pride sighed as he glanced backwards at the struggling Alphonse, who now had his body back in control. "You don't know when to give up." Pride's shadows tightened their grip on Alphonse, forcing him down on his knees as his helmet fell off his body.
"Al!" Edward shouted as he got up to rescue his brother but was blocked by Hohenheim stretching out an arm in front of him.
"To think that you would come back here to be my hostage," Pride sneered. "What a curious boy your son is."
"Don't you put...my son down," Hohenheim glared as red sparks exploded underneath Hohenheim's feet. The sparks cut through the ground before it lifted up, closing around Alphonse and Pride like a hand clasping into a fist.
"HOHENHEIM!" Pride screamed as he sent a shadow after Hohenheim but the barrier closed up on Alphonse and Pride in a sphere-like shape. The shadow didn't even nick Hohenheim before it crumbled away into dust as Pride didn't have a light source to use.
"Amazing," Greeling breathed at what Hohenheim did. "He confined him." He ran into the forest, disappearing into the darkness.
"What is this?" Edward shouted. "You trapped Al in there, too, you know? What are you thinking?"
"It wasn't my idea," Hohenheim explained as he turned around, the flames reflecting off his glasses. "Al suggested we do this. It's too difficult to try to defeat Pride right now. However, the way things were going, there would be too much damage done to the surrounding area. So instead of fighting him, we used me as a decoy, and pinned him down. Now we've bought ourselves some time to put together some countermeasures."
"So without even discussing it with me--"
"He said, 'If we tell Brother, he'll definitely be against it.' This is what came of him thinking up a way for everyone to survive. Try to understand. Now, let's get these fires out."
As Hohenheim walked away, Edward ran up to the barrier and pressed his hands against it. "Al!" He shouted. "Al!"
I could hear a faint voice of what must be Alphonse responding to Edward. "I'm sorry," Alphonse apologized. "Here we were finally reunited, too.But then, I was the reason why all of this happened to begin with. Besides, I only have to put up with this for one day. I'll be fine, Brother."
Edward clenched his fist against the dirt wall before turning away and following Hohenheim.
*~*~*~*~*~
As I sat around a small campfire along with Lan Fan and Fu, Hohenheim was treating Heinkel's wounds while Darius was out to get more wood for us. Loud voices came from the distance and in came Darius with the wood along with Zampano and Jerso arguing about Darius receiving kill orders from Kimblee while Edward was screaming about watching where they were going and was accompanied by Dr. Marcoh. Yoki and Scar. Once everyone settled down and had a small bite to eat, Darius and a now-bandaged up Heinkel were filling in Jerso and Zampano about what had happened during the seperation. The same went with us and once we were done, Fu went off on his mission. "Where did the old guy run off to?' Darius asked as he approached us.
"He went to check out the city," I informed.
"By himself?"
"Yeah. He said he was the only one among us whose face hasn't been shown to the enemy so it would be better for all of us that way. He said he would also get a handle on Colonel Mustang's movements. He's probably also wondering what Greeling is up to."
"Ah, that makes sense."
"Is your meeting with Scar and the others over?" Jerso asked as he came up to us.
"Yeah," Edward replied as he joined the conversation. "We've set up our mission."
"You have, huh?" Darius remarked. "Then it's almost time."
Edward went back into the woods and Darius, Jerso, and I followed him until we reached the dome that held Alphonse and Pride inside. Edward picked up his red coat he made and had discarded during the fight with Pride, brushed it out. "Your younger brother is a real piece of work," Jerso complimented.
"Staying in the darkness with that monster like that," Darius admired. "If it were me, I'd be flipping out."
"Al's really giving it his all, huh?" Edward sighed. "The rest...is up to us." He slipped on his coat and stared off at the horizon, watching the sun rise. It was the dawn of the Promised Day, and our day has only just begun.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm sorry I haven't updated in months! >_< I started school back in October and things have been super hectic for me so I haven't had very much time to write anymore! I finally put some time aside this weekend and I just binged it. I'm going on another break for a week next week so expect more updates to pump out!
Oh, hey. It's my birthday tomorrow.