He Who Searches for Himself - Chapter 39
Chapter: XXXIX (39) - The Crimson Charm - Part 2
Rating: M
Word Count: 12,003 / 391,144
Warning: This chapter is dark, violent, bloody, and contains numerous f-bombs (thank you, Ed). Envy was created to scare people.
Beta: AmunRa
Previous: Chapter list for Part 1 thru Current
Alternative: located on fanfiction.net
Chapter Summary: Ed finally comes face to face with Envy beyond the Gate and is cornered into a handicapped confrontation. Al stands at the Gate back home and tries to figure out what kind of message it was that his brother had just attempted to send home.
Author's Notes: Bet you didn't expect to see this so soon! Happy weekend! One art piece, enjoy!
Part XXXIX - #90 - The Crimson Charm - Part 2
Two shots sounded before metallic silence was reengaged. Ed fell forwards with Winry's weight in his arm, hearing her scream as they landed in a heap; it was one of the most horrid sounds he'd ever heard someone make. She flailed frantically beneath Ed as he scrambled off, the piercing shriek of her voice rippling through the hall. The sound was muffled when Edward grabbed Winry again and buried her face in the front of his jacket. For the brief few moments Ed was able to smother her screams, his wide, panicked eyes shot around frantically - he saw, only for the moments needed to understand Winry's uproar, a set of red holes in her left calf. The sight froze Ed where he sat, body aching while everything in his mind inexplicably derailed and came crashing to a stop in the form of a burning, mangled train wreck.
"Would you deal with your garbage, Envy?" Hitler looked to Hess, speaking like a parent instructing a child, his hands firmly clasped behind his back, his chest large and his shoulders stiff, "and Rudolf, if the Envy creature in your head asks for your fingers, let him feel them. He certainly enjoyed being able to touch the world properly again when he killed Hohenheim."
Hess's hand grabbed Edward's ponytail, holding tight near the elastic band as the man yanked Edward backwards, "On your knees."
The command hadn't a hope of being obeyed.
Ed roared to life in a world where value was in death and the Elric brother beyond the Gate turned on a ghost from his past. With a raging clenched fist, Edward rose and spun around, slamming his knuckles heavily into Hess's cheekbone, attempting to plough his entire arm through the man's face. Hess was thrown back, not given enough time to yelp before Ed struck him again, and then Ed sent the firearm flying out of the man's hand with a swift kick of his right boot. Hess staggered again when Edward crashed the base of his foot hard into the man's stomach. He finally drove the terror off his feet, rushing Hess backwards when Ed's left shoulder slammed into the monstrosity's chest. Edward rammed their bodies into the immovable stone wall encasing the hall and the enclosure spat dust back at them in protest of the assault. The pair bounced back from the wall, Hess taking a wild swing at Ed that connected only with air. With all the pent up, indelible rage in his eyes, Ed's left hand grabbed the face of Envy's new flesh shell and slammed Hess into the cement wall. Ed reared his left arm back, his fist quickly flying in and charging through Hess' face, throwing him aside. Ed reached out and grabbed Hess by his shirt before he could fall away and returned him to an upright position against the wall, his fist striking again but not registering that the combatant had become unresponsive. Edward's arm reared back once more. The unplanned attempt to destroy the man Adolf had addressed as Envy with his single left hand was spoilt when an auxiliary gunshot rang out.
Ed felt his left ankle slip out from beneath him at the force of the shot and he heard the mechanical joint crack. Staggering to regain balance, Edward collapsed with a frustrated wail when his left ankle broke beneath him. Both men collapsed in separate heaps on the floor.
"That's poor sportsmanship, Edward."
Adolf stood at the precipice of the room lowering his own firearm. As Ed lifted his head and looked at the scene at the centre of the hall, Adolf's shoes began scraping along the floor and he walked up to the edge of the transmutation circle. Edward's brow rose and his eyes widened, watching as the commander of oppression produced the doll Ed had given Winry for Christmas from within his coat. With the tilt of his head, Adolf compared the little thing to the reeling girl on the floor, before letting the gift carelessly fall from his hands and land limp on the ground. Adolf gave the doll a light kick along the floor as he walked towards Winry, setting the hammer of his revolver.
"NO," Edward screamed, stumbling to his knees, unable to rise to his feet on a shattered ankle, "Don't touch her! Don't fucking touch her!"
Adolf stopped Ed in mid motion and looked at him hotly, pointing his firearm at Winry on the ground. With an abundance of smug prowess in his eyes, Adolf made an effort of keeping Edward in his vision as he knelt down beside Winry, "I'm a little torn, Edward. Though I am disgusted with the kind of plague you've besieged my Germany with, it is quite fascinating to converse with Envy when he's not literally talking in my ear. He's as good a conversationalist in words as he is in thought. Imagine my surprise at his sheer audacity to seek me out after what he'd done to me." Adolf moved with precise calculation and the man's left hand came down over the bloodied wound on Winry's leg.
Digging the heel of her good leg into a groove on the floor, Winry tried to push herself away. She choked and stopped when Adolf's hand put pressure on the wound and then tapped the barrel of his weapon on the floor as a reminder. Even after she'd stopped, Adolf still took a moment to stare Winry down, before lunging in and crashing his grasp down around her throat - pinning her to the ground.
"Adolf!" If Edward could fly like the wind, Adolf would have never touched her again.
"Envy understands the ways of man so magnificently, as much as what you've done repulses me, the fact I'm allowed access to such a resource… well… it is an asset." Adolf caused Ed to tense as his right hand took a secure hold of his weapon. The man's heavy eyes dug into Winry, watching her breathe frantically as his oppressive presence pinned her to the ground. The left hand at her throat moved and pushed heavily through Winry's face, brushing through her hair, and prying her eyes open. The world moved at his command, controlled by the rhythmic metallic sound made every time Adolf's thumb tapped the poised hammer of his revolver. "Envy had two burning things he wished to accomplish while he was with me, Edward. One was to see your father dead - and I must say I have never encountered any sort of animal with such a desire for wicked vengeance. It was as terrifying as it was fascinating."
The conductor of this nightmare sat back from Winry abruptly and Adolf's arm tore out, sinking his hand into the front of her jacket. Winry's fingers snapped to Adolf's wrist as the man hauled her upright.
"Secondly, he wanted to watch you lose everything," every word that Adolf spoke drove the rotation of the room, and he spun it wildly around Edward, leaving him nauseous, "I don't disagree with that, since I'm of the opinion that you deserve nothing. A man as disgusting as you - born to a sinful family, guilty of sin himself - doesn't deserve anything of value. You somehow found the gall to use this nation as a shield to hide your sins to further your efforts to escape this world."
The air had become so cold that Ed found it hard to breathe in, "That is not what I did!"
Adolf scoffed, his breath leaving a white puff in the chilled air, "You are nothing more than a disease ridden parasite on this earth, eating the food that some far more deserving German child should have eaten. Criminals and sinners and others like them lose their right to privileges and have to relinquish items of value, but this appears to belong to you," Adolf shook Winry, watching Ed's teeth grind; words were delivered cold and emotionless, without a sneer or glimmer of satisfaction, "Is this something that has value to you from a life you're not permitted to have?"
Edward Elric had clapped his hands to revive his younger brother, and for this act he'd deprived himself of his family, his friends, people he could trust, and a safe place to be. He'd given up his home, everything he knew, and all the things he valued. He felt himself drown in this world he couldn't stand, felt himself choke on their morals, watched himself become a shadow of the person he'd thought he was, and exist as a figment of the person he wanted to be. Yet when Edward could see himself at the bottom of the abyss this world was for him, those times he felt himself dying in the shadows, Winry still looked at him, spoke to him, and treated Edward Elric like he was still the person he thought he'd sacrificed. He didn't believe he could qualify that with value.
"My answer's not going to matter; it won't to change your reaction, will it?"
"Ultimately I want to know what a man will do to keep what little he has and how his morals change to accommodate preservation. I'd like to find out how to control that," Adolf glanced to Winry as the cold explanation filled the room and again Winry was rattled, "Edward Elric, you must answer the question: is this something that has value from the life you are not entitled to?"
Ed's pinpoint eyes stared at the firearm in Adolf's right hand; no matter what he did, he was nowhere near close enough to prevent it from firing at anyone. The mere seconds that began ticking by were not enough time to find the wherewithal to breathe in the cascading horror that crashed down around him, let alone begin to compose an answer.
Before those first few precious moments even finished passing by, a sick sensation lurched into Ed's throat. He broke free from the distance Adolf held him at when the monster disengaged his weapon and flipped it in his hand, grabbing the revolver by its barrel. Edward scrambled forward on hand and knees before he even realized he was doing it. Adolf's arm snapped to his backhand and swung to strike Winry with the butt end of the gun. The attack derailed when Winry's arms flew out and she grabbed Adolf by the wrist before he could land a blow. The tips of her fingers dug sharply into his flesh and Adolf jerked his arm, unable to free himself from Winry's grasp. Edward hit the scene and slammed his right foot to the floor, quickly rising up onto the one good leg. His body swung with all his forward momentum and Edward put the left knee Winry had constructed into the side of Adolf's face with a loud crack. The wretched man fell back on impact and Ed came crashing down between the pair.
Flying to his knees, Ed turned to face Adolf, balancing on the fake left knee and anchoring himself with his right foot. Edward's eyes caught Adolf re-grip his weapon and Ed lunged forward, grabbing hold of the barrel of the revolver before it could be properly pointed at anyone.
With no interest in fighting his way through Edward's strength, Adolf made use of Ed's one-armed handicap and he grabbed his opponent by the throat with his free hand. There was nothing Ed could do to fight it off, all options relinquished control of the firearm to Adolf, so Edward was forced to close his eyes and deal with the nearly intolerable sensation of this man's one hand attempting to strangle him. The struggle swung sharply Adolf's way when his left thumb dug into the hollow of Ed's throat.
Without warning the captor hastily threw Edward back. Ed opened his eyes with enough time to see the pencil Winry brandished barely miss the stab she'd taken at Adolf's hand. Discarded by Adolf and weakened by the chokehold, Edward fell back onto Winry in a heap.
The man who looked mightily down upon them straightened himself and stood up, rising over everything like a cataclysm. Furious golden eyes looked at him from below as Edward came around on his backside between Winry and their armed predator. Winry compacted herself behind Ed while he tried to tuck her away, the still-bleeding wounds on her leg smearing across the stone flooring each time she moved. Adolf tilted his head a little and cocked his gun, watching Ed tense and expand his chest with a deep breath. The monster gave a laugh at the effort, pointed his weapon, and shot the little plush doll lying harmlessly on the floor.
Once the imprint into the Gate had been fully set and shock of seeing the transmutation circle appear wore off, Al was frustratingly left to his own devices. The last time the Gate had filled with blood, Diana cried and the rumble passed through; now there was blood and an alchemy sigil. None of it made any sense. Left with only sleuth techniques, Al wandered around the spill of blood, which by now stretched as far as the eye could see. It was also upgraded from a skim to a slick; Alphonse shut down the part of his brain telling him the stench he smelt and surface he walked on was litres upon litres of spilt blood from the world beyond.
What needed to be focused on was how his brother's transmutation circle had become stamped into the backside of the Gate. Alphonse inarguably concluded it was his brother's, because the chance of it being someone else's, or even entirely random, was laughable.
"How could something like that show up?" Al asked himself aloud. From everything that Alphonse Elric knew, from everything that Brigitte's information from beyond the Gate had taught him over time, what did he know and was any of it important?
Al's thoughts turned first to what Wrath had said after Alphonse had left the comforts of Mustang's protection and gone chasing after him on his own: Dante had severed his father's bonds, which would make alchemy impossible. If Al tied that together to the absence of his brother, it would make sense that if both his dad and his brother were beyond the Gate that they'd be in the same situation - completely unable to perform alchemy, explaining why Ed hadn't brought himself home. Obviously, they hadn't befriended anyone beyond the Gate who would assist them in getting home, so Ed and his father would be flying solo.
The youngest Elric rubbed his eyes, trying to think - his head swimming with what felt like answers on the tip of his tongue. Alphonse drew his thoughts back to the imprint on the Gate; how did this happen? What would trigger the transmutation circle that was sent? Who would do it?
"Probably my brother," Al answered his question aloud - it was the most logical answer considering what the symbol was. If his brother's bonds were separated, then how would he accomplish this? Al didn't know.
The boy's next train of thought turned to their visitor from beyond the Gate. From what Al had gathered, Brigitte was alchemy illiterate - she showed no aptitude for it or understanding or even interest in the materials she had in her possession when she'd come over. She never once attempted it, which Al thought might be a little strange for a girl who came from an supposed alchemy utopia. From Brigitte's pictures that they'd looked over while in Maria Ross's lake cabin, there was a dangerous transmutation circle carved into the stone floor - if this girl from beyond the Gate did not have any interest in alchemy, why would she photograph it? Why would anyone let her get close to it? Why would utopian alchemy allow something so bastardized to be created in the first place? Al questioned the world beyond the Gate - shouldn't they know better than that? Brigitte obviously had ties to his brother, so maybe it wasn't that it was Brigitte who was actually interested in the circle, perhaps her photos were taken because of his brother.
If that was the case, the younger brother had to seriously wonder what his older brother could possibly want with a transmutation circle that gross… beyond mock it or keep a safe distance from it. For some reason, a young girl with ties to his brother thought the rebounding transmutation circle was important enough to be photographed and let herself get close enough to it to photograph it. Didn't Brigitte realize the danger? Surely, Ed wouldn't have allowed her to go to this location - he would have recognized how badly something like that would rebound if anyone took a single misstep around it. He couldn't possibly have encouraged it, since Ed knew better than anyone the kind of damage the rebound would cause.
Alphonse's voice suddenly aired out, his words escaping him before his thoughts fully came together, "Wait... it rebounds…"
A little light lit brightly within Al's thoughts.
Oh.
Oh.
Al examined some fallen mental dominoes and stepped up closer to the Gate, "A rebound is caused by an improperly constructed transmutation that cannot be balanced because a part of the equation is wrong - a portion of the alchemist is used to make up for the discrepancy. It rebounds to the Gate because that's the power source, attempting an exchange…"
A single eyebrow fell heavily and Alphonse stared intently at the open Gate. Transmutation circles are the mediator between an alchemist and the power source for alchemy, so if the Gate doors were open then transmutation circles on both sides had access to the power. So, how did this new bit of knowledge explain why a transmutation circle would be stamped into the Gate? Al folded his arms. What did he know so far about the Gate? The power to perform alchemy came from the Gate, it was a source of knowledge for alchemists, its doors opened towards his side, and there was a back side of the Gate for the other world. There were angry black creatures within the Gate that were greedy and devoured their offerings without equivalent exchange or any remorse. Then there was the Gate itself that refused to facilitate communications between the two worlds, like they were forbidden to meet.
Tightening his arms at his chest, Al searched his mind for what might be missing. He had to be missing a connection. His face scrunched, arms fell apart, and the heels of his hands pushed through his eyes as he tried to think harder; Al could feel some kind of answer sitting right there.
"Got it!" Al right index finger flew out, "when we perform alchemy and draw power from the Gate for it, the doors crack open and allow the power to be pulled through. Alchemy is a power draw from the Gate, we PULL power, we can't push it. But if I was standing on the other side, I can't draw power from the Gate because I'd have to push open the doors first because of the direction they open, then do a transmutation! They don't open the right way beyond the Gate to draw power. You can't get to the Gate without alchemy so you can't open the doors and you can't do alchemy!"
But a rebound would push 'material' to the Gate.
Al's hands fell and arms slapped down at his side; stubbornly he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and returned to glaring at the Gate. Al's theory explained why no one beyond the Gate had attempted to access his side of the Gate - they couldn't. Unless the doors to the Gate were opened from his side, the world on the other side couldn't do alchemy. At all. The realization left Al feeling a little sunken, turning his entire impression of the world beyond on its head. That mean the alchemy utopia couldn't practice alchemy. Dante's motives were flawed. The entire Theory of Beyond the Gate, what Dante's entire motivation was based off of, was flawed.
Taking a deep breath, Al stood at the Gate with the doors open for everyone. He had to swallow this information and move on. The breath was exhaled swiftly and the younger Elric brother shook his head - if the doors were open, energy should be allowed to flow back to the other side of the Gate… shouldn't it? Obviously someone was trying to do alchemy beyond the Gate, since his brother's transmutation circle was printed right in front of him. There had to be more that was flawed.
"If the doors only swing one way, maybe the energy current only goes one way too?" Alphonse's thumb rubbed his left eye as he looked at his brother's sigil.
What was the energy an alchemist took from the Gate anyways? What kind of energy was he taking from beyond the Gate that allowed the people of Amestris, heck his whole world, the power to perform alchemy? Why did it seem like the Gate structure only allowed for a one-way flow of that power?
Al's brow rose as he began to slowly pace in front of the Gate, "Maybe the flow really does only goes in one direction - like a river." Like the slow flow of blood at his feet. With everything the young man knew, that made a surprising amount of sense. Why bother having a Gate with doors swinging both ways when there's no reason for the doors to open in both directions. What Alphonse Elric wouldn't give to know just what exactly that power was that they were taking from beyond the Gate, it would certainly help him a lot. For some reason, the world beyond the Gate had no way of recalling its own pool of power, yet his side could draw from it.
"So my brother's symbol was able to recognize the Gate, get to the Gate, but it has no way of getting power from the Gate. That's why it's stamped like that; it's trapped on the other side like he is."
That still didn't explain how it got there. Something else was missing. The young Elric sighed, taking a moment to mentally sort his thoughts so far. Not only were his father and brother's bonds disconnected beyond the Gate, but there was no energy flow as well. If this was his brother's sigil, he would have had to find some way to take a minute amount of power and then initiate a transmutation.
How in the world would Edward Elric have done that?
The pile of Envy's new flesh on the floor finally stirred and Edward shot his focus over to the scene. With a lengthy groan, a curse, and a careful rub to the back of his head, Hess's body slowly rose to his knees. Ed watched with uncertainty, fallen on his backside and propped up by his only arm with Winry behind him as the man picked his head up.
"Hess, you ignorant son of a bitch," Ed's voice found an outlet, "did you just let Envy walk right into your head?"
"I had to do a lot of convincing to get Adolf to consider this situation," pulling to his feet and dusting off his pants, a calamity with the face of Rudolf Hess gathered his bearings, "Despite his drawbacks, the gift you describe as Envy is a wealthy source of information and knowledge we would be foolish to simply discard…"
The bitter and resentful sound of Ed's sarcastic laugh cracked into the cold hall, "The gift…"
Hess moved about the hall silently for a few moments, forcing everyone to listen to the clap of his shoes on the frozen ground before finally locating his weapon. A smile peeked back into the room, "You're trying pretty damn hard to take care of your own little gift, HalfMetal."
Edward paled at the sudden onset of English words coming from Hess' tongue.
The man's arm swept down emphatically, catching the ring around the trigger in his index finger, "But you don't get to have those kind of things here."
Ed stiffened, his shoulders rising, shifting his position to keep between Envy within Hess and Winry as her fingers again curled into the fabric at the sides of his jacket, "You can fuck off."
"Gonna need soap for that," Envy's borrowed eyes rolled as he sauntered his way back to the sigil's outer ring. The influx of Envy into the persona that had been Hess completely transformed how the Nazi officer came across - Hess stood square, evenly balanced, strong and proper; Envy was loose, casual, slouched and nonchalant. The sin's eyes were emphatically flat and uncaring towards the scene of two people on the floor and, without a moment's notice, the firearm dangling from a finger snapped cleanly into Envy's right hand and a deafening gunshot sailed past Edward's left ear.
There hadn't been time to gasp and Winry's shriek sounded as though it came long after the fact; Ed sat trapped in mid-reaction, unable to fully realize the fear of looking down the barrel of a gun and unable to release himself from the shock that it had been fired without thought or hesitation. His left ear rang and the stalled reaction crumbled as Envy laughed, echoing in a new voice saturated with cruel delight.
"I love that look on you, HalfMetal. Did you piss yourself too?" Envy had a sneer that could rip any man's grin wide, "I'd love to see what other faces I can get out of Hohenheim's bastard kid." The satisfied grin grew through Envy's new face, feeding off of the reactions invading Edward's eyes. Moving to stand at the elder Elric brother's feet, Envy abruptly dropped to his knees causing Edward to lean back, though not far or quickly enough to escape from Envy grabbing hold of the front fall of hair framing Ed's face. Envy yanked him forward, forcing Ed to sit up tall. Envy's eyes fell contently and he put himself nose to nose with his new Elric toy. The new face of man's oldest sin smiled, "Not much left of you, eh?"
Edward's left hand charged in, taking Envy by the throat. The amount of force Ed had desired for his grip was never realized; the cold, circular tip of the firearm in Envy's right hand touched down on Ed's temple to dissuade him.
"Imagine what happens to things of value if you force me to make sure you're not able to take care of them."
Edward took a few moments to breathe before his hand cautiously withdrew from Envy's neck and the satisfied sneer that sat nose to nose with him beamed.
"As I see it, the reason you are here is because you offered yourself in exchange for your baby brother; that's really the only conclusion I can come to. He went poof when he used that Philosopher's Stone on you, am I right?" Envy grinned as the question went unanswered, "So you gave it all up just for him, aren't you the hero," the cold metallic weapon slowly traced down from Ed's temple, crawling along his jaw line, pushing harshly into the bone behind the flesh, "Now you're here because you have become nothing, you get nothing, and you gave up everything. You made a decision HalfMetal; sure, you might have saved your kid brother, but you did that and the consequences deprived you of the right to anything you used to be," a single brow peaked in Envy's expression, examining the raging golden eyes drilling through him as the weapon traced Edward's facial features. Envy tapped the revolver on the bridge of Ed's nose, "Oh that's fun, but what I want to see is how fear eats you alive."
"I hope you start to rot in this hell someday," angered words rumbled deep in Ed's chest, and his eyes stole a glimpse of Adolf casting his dead gaze over the unfolding scene.
"Rotting was that old bastard's problem, not mine," Envy returned the tip of his weapon to Edward's chin, pulling the path down slowly along his throat - his words continued, "Let's see let's see… so, you gave them all up. You don't get those discarded things back, HalfMetal. You don't get your little brother back, you don't get your little family back, and you don't get your little world back," the course of Envy's gun stopped at the centre of Ed's chest and the creature holding him in submission watched while the deep and heavy breaths swelled through his plaything's body. More delicious than watching how Ed fought against showing fear was watching Winry's arms wrap around his waist from behind, fingers gripping tight into the fabric at his midsection. Envy peered around from Ed's open right side, eyeing the girl clinging tight with her face pushed into his back. The round tip of the revolver pushed harshly into Edward's chest and the only reaction Ed gave was the tightening of his jaw. Envy grinned, reaffirming his grip in Edward's hair.
The monster leaned in close, the elbow of the arm holding his prey by a fist-full of golden hair hooked around the back of Edward's head, the weapon digging into Ed's chest was removed and the wrist controlling the trigger came to rest lazily on Ed's good shoulder, pointed who-knows-where behind him. Envy's amusement at the situation was ecstatic by how Edward stiffened and tensed the closer the sin came and the more invasive he asserted his presence. Envy abolished Ed's entitlement to personal space, drawing in tight and putting his right cheek against the side of his toy's head for a moment, able to feel Edward's jaw clench, before the voice of sin filled the alchemist's head and Envy made sure Ed could feel the movement of warm lips against his chilled ear when the nightmare whispered.
"You aren't entitled to anything like that here, not even gifts that fall through the Gate; and you know what, I think even you know that."
The trigger on the firearm was pulled a second time, a deafening noise at Edward's left ear. Ed's body jerked sharply at the sound, abruptly locking his motions and losing his breath. Golden eyes flew about madly while Envy kept his presence tight to ensure Edward remained still. The subtle sound of the giggling sin remained pressed against Ed's ear, clearly feeling the full extent of how the grin tore into the monstrosity's face. Ed found distraction to Envy's invasion in the claw of Winry's fingers into his abdomen, knuckles surely turning white, and the push of her forehead into his back. The bullet had found a home somewhere in the far reaches of the hall.
Envy picked his head up suddenly, "How ya doing back there, princess? Still bleedin' all over my floor?"
"Shut up," Winry's voice rattled.
"Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, doesn't it?"
"SHUT UP."
Ed threw his shoulders and upper body forward, pushing Envy away and out of any conversation with Winry. The grip the sin had in Edward's hair became fierce and Ed was jerked back into place, the firearm returning to perch on his collar bone. Everyone with ears could hear the anvil of the weapon being set in the ice cold silence. Ed forced himself through a dry swallow as his heart raced faster than his breathing could keep up. He grit his teeth again as Envy returned to being nose to nose with him; the sin's hungered eyes devouring the panic, nerves, and fear breaking free into Edward's eyes.
"Well, that's more like what I want from you, that's good… but you can do better than that," Envy's excitement began to bubble happily in his words, "we're just getting warmed up, I want to see you absolutely terrified of what I'm going to do to you, because despite what you might think, you aren't superman here, kiddo. When I know you're aware of the kind of pathetic man you are, I'll make you tell me how it feels to be some useless, helpless human all beleaguered and broken and shit," Envy mused playfully, refocusing from his current entertainment to the longer term plan, "since you're all that's left of that bastard's blood, I'll let you live long enough to watch how I take everything that you have left," Envy's gun slipped quickly down, the tip of the weapon deliberately catching Winry's fingers and giving a half hearted effort to pry them off, "then if I feel like it, I'll keep your shell alive to live with the consequences. How's that sound?"
Ed jerked quickly - Envy had leaned in so close that there wasn't time for him to react against Ed's movements, and the blonde cracked his forehead against Envy's. The creature reeled back in surprise, releasing Ed's hair as his hand came to his face. Edward fell back and was able to lean far enough away that Envy missed the wild swat his armed hand took at his rebellious toy. Lunging forward, Ed went to capture the firearm locked in Envy's right hand, but his fingers missed the flesh wrist as the sin moved, only catching the ends of the shirt sleeve. Though he saw it coming, Ed had no way of defending himself against the heavy backhanded strike of the metal weapon Envy slammed through his cheek bone. Winry shrieked at the sight and sound, losing her hold as the attack threw Ed aside, leaving him hunched over his left arm on the ground. A quick stream of blood ran through his face from a torn gash, dripping to the floor as he tried to breathe.
"Save your energy HalfMetal, the sun hasn't even started to set, so we still have all kinds of time to play," Envy's heavy feet stomped on the floor as he stood up, "First game we play goes to Adolf here - he's got a little somethin' for ya. I have a hefty bet riding on the outcome, so don't disappoint me, a'right?"
Edward rolled his jaw, eyes peeking out from beyond the hair fallen in his face. He watched as Adolf popped open the barrel of the revolver he carried and dumped out the remaining bullets into his hand.
For this purpose alone, Adolf ensured his spoken language remained German, "Here are three options, please teach me something useful about yourself, Edward. We have company waiting upstairs, so let's not have them sit idle for more than fifteen minutes," Adolf requested with a chill in his words and stare. He glanced at Winry as Ed struggled to reposition himself as her shield, knowing full well that she would have no understanding of his words, "if you come up those stairs to the church, within the walls of our God's place of worship, you two will be put out of your misery. Quick and simple: one shot for each of you to the back of the head."
"Are you people fucking insane?" Edward's sharp voice finally re-surfaced.
Adolf paid no attention to the outburst, "However, if you do not emerge within the fifteen minutes, our company will come down here to retrieve you," his emotionless eyes sliced into the golden Elric, "what is done to you, how long it lasts, and what becomes of you will not be my concern. Both of you might even survive."
Before Ed's voice could rise again, Adolf took to the mastery of show once again and held out his hand with the five bullets. With sharp and precise movements to every motion he made, three of the five bullets were slipped into his pocket. Like a magician showing his magic trick, the remaining two bullets were returned to the chamber of the revolver, clicked shut, and Adolf placed the weapon down at the edge of the transmutation circle.
"And if you choose neither option, then I leave you the option of taking your own lives. You have fifteen minutes to make a choice, use it wisely."
Hitler's words burned like acid spilt over raw, open wounds, destroying the flesh and corroding the golden Elric as he watched the two men turn to walk away. Envy's smile peeking back at them brightly, no matter how far into the darkness the men ventured.
Alphonse glanced up at Diana. The infant lay silently and motionless up in the stone hands of the Gate. The thought that a defenceless infant was being used for such a diabolical purpose was beyond maddening. Disgusted wasn't quite the word Alphonse was looking for, but he didn't think there was a better one out there. Diana had cried last time the Gate space had filled with blood; she'd been unsettled and upset, yet for some reason Al couldn't identify, this instance didn't upset her. He was quite thankful that there was no rumble.
Walking up to the front of the Gate, Alphonse sunk his finger into the black tar and pulled them out again - no new red stains, no black remnants; they came out exactly as he'd put them in. He submerged his entire hand to do the test again and came up with the same result. Al tried it twice for argument's sake and again got nothing for his efforts. He sighed.
The youngest Elric, now with sixteen years of life up his sleeve, gave the Gate a twisted look. With a glimmer in his eye he thought of something new and Alphonse wrote his name in the black tar of the Gate, and then watched as it slowly vanished. The twisted look became a stubborn frown - he was kind of hoping something would happen; this Gate was bleeding and had a transmutation circle printed on it, there had to be something going on or something he could do about it. The last time this had happened, the rumble had come through and his eyes had changed colour. Dante had even mentioned a prior time when a rumble came… which ultimately had been Brigitte. So if the Gate rumbled when something was coming through, why had the Gate rumbled and bled the last time? What came through the last time? Did anything come through at all? Maybe something did and that's what took Dante? If so, what caused all the blood?
There were a million impossible questions for Alphonse to sort through and he was going to have to narrow them down to the ones most relevant to the here and now.
Alphonse's ears picked up a strange sound. His thought process stopped and he listened to the sound, almost certain he thought he was hearing raindrops. That couldn't be right. Al looked around quickly, looking down to his feet to see tiny particles hit the blood at his feet, plop into the liquid like a raindrop and then vanish. Looking up, Al had to shield his face when a few small pebbles hit his cheeks. A crack tore through the silent space at the Gate and a chunk of stone from above crashed down to the surface. It had landed so close to Alphonse that he'd felt the breeze as it went by and found himself covered in the red splash up to his waist. He scrambled back as he watched the top ornament of the Gate's magnificent structure begin to crumble and break.
Alphonse's eyes flew wide in alarm, "NO STOP!"
Diana was cradled by the crumbling structure.
"NO, YOU CAN'T," Al yelled at the Gate as though it were responsible for everything, realizing that he was simply dancing in circles, completely unable to get anywhere near the front of the Gate as the entire stone ornament atop the massive doors began to come crashing down, infant and all.
"STOP!"
Helplessly, Alphonse was forced to turn away and cover his face, wishing he'd covered his ears instead, because he received an earful of sound as the stone hit the red ground with a bang.
The young Elric stood with his hands over his face for some time as the silence reasserted itself, afraid to turn back and see the consequences. No sound came from Diana - she gave no cry, no wail, no sob, not even a peep. Of all things in the world, a dead baby was not something Al wanted to see, and the simple thought of it twisted everything deep inside his chest. Though, once Alphonse wrangled his thoughts together cohesively to begin to rationalize what he'd just seen, he realized that he hadn't heard Diana at all - she hadn't cried as the structure crumbled or while she'd fallen either. Alphonse's hands slid slowly off his face, pulling his skin tight as he did. With nerves and trepidation on high, he turned around and looked at the mess at the foot of the Gate.
Something squawked.
Alphonse froze where he stood, eyes wide. It was a strange sound that was too coarse to the human and was accompanied by the strangest echo. Diana was an alchemically engineered child, a victim of bastardized human transmutation techniques. As Alphonse believed it, she was a 'hermaphrodite' mix of a human child from his side and some infantile creature Dante had managed to scoop out from within the Gate. Diana hadn't been fused with something from beyond the Gate because Dante couldn't reach that far, so Al's theory was that Diana was part Gate creature, which would explain why she kept the eyes and arms of the Gate from appearing.
Al finally moved closer, peering over the fallen chunks of stone, listening to the horrid sound, and he finally caught sight of the baby squirming beneath the unravelled blanket she'd once been wrapped in. The noise the baby made amongst the mess was like fingernails on a chalk board. Alphonse ordered his stomach to stay calm as he reached down for her. Cautiously uncovering one of Dante's most heinous crimes, Al scanned the child that no longer bore any resemblance to the human child she'd once been. Her skin had turned midnight black and her features had warped from head to toe. The tiny distraught existence wiggled unhappily on the ground and told Alphonse's eyes that he had indeed been correct - Dante had used some kind of creature from the Gate to fuse with Diana. The more Al thought about it and the more he stared at what Diana had become, the more it seemed as though the Gate creature fused with Diana had either taken over or her humanity had died off.
"I'm sorry," Alphonse let the statement slip softly. Stepping around and moving aside the fallen debris, the young man knelt down and collected the remaining portions of Diana that had been stolen from the Gate, re-bundling her body in the blanket.
"I honestly don't know what happened to you, but I'm sorry no one ever gave you a proper chance," he wrapped the baby blanket tight around Diana, begging his nerves to stay focused on the task at hand and not sink into the concerns he had for the blackened infant - he would mourn the baby later when everything wasn't literally falling apart, "and I'm sorry if what happened between me and Aisa caused this. I had no idea it would." With a tight jaw and stiff upper lip, Alphonse took the baby into his arms and stood up. He kicked aside some of the debris, took the few steps needed to be standing toe to toe with the Gate, and came down to his knees. With a deep breath Al put Diana on his forearms and secured her with his hands, he slid the remains along the surface of the Gate, and Al pushed her darkened body back beyond the Gate, "and thank you if you've helped keep me safe all this time. Now I think you should go home."
In the thickness beyond the Gate, Alphonse slipped his arms out from under her and returned what was left of the infant to the darkness a part of her had once come from. He sat back on his knees for a number of endless moments, trying to ensure he remained composed - this wasn't a good time for him to lose his composure - before the younger Elric brother finally infused enough strength into his veins to stand up again. His feet kicked aside some fallen chunks of stone, his hands throwing the larger pieces, before Alphonse boiled over with frustration and he turned to face the Gate.
"Goddammit Dante!" his soiled hands clenched and his voice scratched, "what have you done? How can you live with yourself after doing things like that? I just…" the tightly gripped hands came apart and fell loosely at his sides, "I just don't understand how someone can do these things to people. To innocent people! This is wrong! This is all WRONG."
Golden eyes fell distraught to the mess at his feet, eyeing the red stains saturating his clothes, looking at his hands that he had nowhere to wipe clean. Al again tried to breathe and calm himself from the situation that was growing overwhelming.
"Why are the doors still open?" Al voiced the thought as it hit him and he looked up to the Gate once more. Minus Diana positioned as the Gate's crown, everything was exactly the same as it had been before she came tumbling down. Why was the Gate still open and calm? The Gate was held at bay by Diana, but now Diana was out of the equation - where were the eyes or reaching arms? Al's eyes glanced from side to side; there was too much information to sort out. His hands scratched feverishly through his hair.
Something had to be causing this situation. From what he'd heard of the Gate and what he understood about Diana, what element present now was different than any other point in time if Diana was removed from the equation?
The blood.
The blood flowed in from beyond the Gate and it was still flowing, making it a constant element linking both sides. It was nearly up to Alphonse's ankles now, a fact he tried to shove out of his mind as quickly as he'd recognized it. So, the blood was flowing in from beyond the Gate; perhaps it was acting like a doorstop of some kind? Maybe the infusion of the red swell had locked down the Gate to a moment in time where both sides could share this material - which meant if it ever stopped or went away, at that point the Gate would reset. For Alphonse's situation that would have to make sense. Which meant when whatever was causing the run of blood ended or dried up, so would this relative peace at the Gate.
The long, dark shadows in the hall vanished before the sound of footsteps did. Edward's eyes remained on the darkened escape Hitler and Envy had taken, but heard Winry shift on the floor. Cautiously, Ed looked back - uncertain which was more frightening, taking his eyes off of the vanishing point of their predators, or facing the wounds and damages left behind. Ed's stomach sat at his collarbone as he turned to the veil of long, soiled blonde hair Winry was behind. Her left leg was stretched out awkwardly at her side, stained in crimson red, and her upper body turned away from it. Winry's breathing shivered, but other than that, she was silent. The heels of her trembling hands pushed in under the messy veil of blonde that fell everywhere and Ed reached out, sweeping the hair out of Winry's face. Watered-down blue eyes eventually looked up to the muted golden gaze as Edward's hand held her hair away, neither one saying a word. Both sets of eyes shifted when Winry's fingers came down onto the deep, bloody gash high on Edward's cheek.
There were only fifteen minutes to work with to undermine a dictated future, but a precious sixty seconds of that was stolen by Edward - he hid his grip in the mess of Winry's hair, brought her forehead into his shoulder, and sat silently with her as he attempted to regain some kind of control.
Though Ed wasn't sure if he was meant to feel relieved or sick that she wasn't crying.
Trembling fingertips slowly curled into the fabric of Ed's coat and the sound of Winry's shivering breaths were hidden as he held onto her. A wounded voice eventually sunk into Edward's jacket, "My leg really hurts."
"I'm so sorry," the most inadequate three words he'd ever voiced.
He couldn't be in this place in his head; Ed had to get out - now. There wasn't time to succumb to the catastrophe unfolding. He couldn't look at Winry and see failure, he couldn't continue to hear Envy and feel worse, because the bar of failure was set for them: fifteen minutes into the future. There wasn't time to feel remorse and regret. Edward couldn't let himself feel anything that would take up more of their time. He abruptly and hastily worked on shutting enough of himself down to pick his head up and begin creating a way to move forwards.
Ed turned and glanced to the wounded leg that Winry had extended as the emptiness set in and then sat back when Winry picked her head up off of him. The words out of his mouth were taking longer to be voiced than his teetering jaw was prepared for, "We should look after your leg."
Ed fumbled around on the floor, collecting a scarf from the winter wears they'd discarded earlier in their day, and Ed slipped one end of the garment into Winry's hand, asking for her to hold it. Ed glanced over to Winry as he began to wrap the leg, watching fragments of blue eyes peek at him, trying to find their own level of composure. Ed pulled the scarf tight, cringing when she flinched, but had to ask Winry to help him tie it off since he couldn't do that on his own with only one hand.
The most unbearable silence preceded Edward's subsequent attempts at composing sentences.
"I need your help," Ed waited for Winry to look at him. He hesitated before sticking out his own left leg and taking the shoe off, letting the broken shards of the shattered ankle fall out of his footwear while the foot hung ajar, "I need you to take off the foot piece."
"Okay…" she neither asked what for nor why, though to Ed's relief she showed moderate disgust at the sight of her broken work. Winry slowly reached out, stretching herself along the ground, the tips of her fingers snagging her discarded bag - it always had tools in it.
"Do you have a screwdriver I can use?" Ed rolled up his pant leg. A screwdriver abruptly landed in his left hand. Edward straightened his leg, eyeing the crack he'd put in the kneecap, but finding no other functional damage. The screwdriver head slipped into a notch and Ed began to tighten his knee joint amidst the sound of Winry's cutters as she set to work. From the corner of his vision he watched her fumble between cutters, pliers, and a second screwdriver as she fought with the mangled foot piece. Ed glanced up when Winry reached hastily into her bag, watching in concern when she produced a hammer and slammed it down one handed, then two-handed on the joint, dumping the wooden handle from her fingers once she was done. Winry feverishly attacked the mangled ankle with her cutters once more, finally discarding her tool upon hearing a definitive 'snap'. She swept the mess away, folded her arms, and looked back at Ed with an unsettled flush through her face.
"It's off," she announced hoarsely, "now what?"
Ed sat silently, the seam of his mouth undone, poised to speak and finding it hard to choose what words to say. His eyes shifted away, "I'll find a way out for us."
What happens to Alphonse when this stops? The last occurrence of anything at the Gate stopped fairly quickly, so how much time was he running on right now? Would the Gate swallow him? Would it send him away? If he got back to Amestris, how in the world would he get back again to retrieve his brother if Diana couldn't hold the door? Al began to walk himself in a circle. He had to calm down, he had to think on his feet, and he had to act in the now; there were too many divergent futures to approximate multiple choices based on a mountain of unknowns.
What was he trying to do?
Al's finger flew out again, "How'd that get there?" he pointed at the transmutation circle, "and why is it there?" The youngest Elric grabbed all of his thoughts tightly and threw them out before his mind's eye, "I need something from beyond the Gate that would reach for the open Gate, that could send something to the open Gate like this - what do I know about the world beyond the Gate that can send something to the doors?"
Brigitte's rebound transmutation circle could do that.
Alphonse thought up that sigil with an abundance of fear in his heart. The inherent rebound in Brigitte's photographed transmutation circle would be the strongest thing beyond the Gate that he knew about to connect back to the doors. If he looked at it from a design perspective, as opposed to an alchemy perspective, the circle was designed to throw information at the open Gate to compensate for an incomplete transmutation. A reaction beyond the Gate wouldn't be able to do that if the doors were closed, since that world would have no way of accessing the Gate at all - they needed to be opened first in order to draw any kind of power. How would one transmutation circle 'throw' another to the Gate like this?
"Wait a minute."
Alphonse drilled his thoughts through the design perspective of everything available to him from beyond the Gate.
"Brigitte's rebound circle was a permanent marking engraved in stone… which means it'll always reach for the Gate if it senses the power at the doors," Alphonse's brow rose and the light glow in his golden eyes brightened, "so if you superimpose something…"
A single eye narrowed at Ed's sigil upon the Gate.
The young man's arms dropped limp to his side, his jaw fell slack, and the boy gave his brother's transmutation circle his most astounded stare. Had his genius older brother just hopped a transmutation off of the rebound and let the broken circle toss his sigil against the backside of the Gate? The rebound must have thrown Ed's transmutation circle against the backside of the Gate like a child flinging mud on a window. What an absolutely astounding feat.
Withholding praise until he'd worked it through, Al needed to figure out two things: one, the power needed to initiate the transmutation would be very minimal, so where did it come from? Two, the circle needed to be activated in some way - what had he done to activate it? Better yet, Alphonse wanted to know how his brother had managed to activate it and not wound up with something like a gust of wind blowing through instead. Something was wrong with the transmutation because it left the sigil slapped onto the Gate and no alchemical reaction had taken place.
"Maybe because the doors are open, that rebound is able to pull some kind of energy runoff, but not enough to do anything. It is possible to swim upstream if you try hard enough," Alphonse narrowed his eyes and thought aloud.
If the young alchemist accepted a theory that there was a very minimal amount of power reversal, what was the trigger? An alchemist needs his mind, body, and soul to be linked in order to perform a transmutation, so how would a broken alchemist half-ass one like this? Alphonse looked around the reddened horizons on his side of the Gate then looked down to his feet submerged within a substance. Al was trying desperately hard to tell himself that he could not possibly be sinking into a sea of blood.
His heart suddenly dropped like a rock into the pit of his stomach as he looked out into the reddening world. Amidst the crimson sea Alphonse watched the memory of two young Elric brothers each take a knife and slit their fingers, offering drops of blood to the transmutation of their mother - components for the soul.
... Continue (2nd half)...
Rating: M
Word Count: 12,003 / 391,144
Warning: This chapter is dark, violent, bloody, and contains numerous f-bombs (thank you, Ed). Envy was created to scare people.
Beta: AmunRa
Previous: Chapter list for Part 1 thru Current
Alternative: located on fanfiction.net
Chapter Summary: Ed finally comes face to face with Envy beyond the Gate and is cornered into a handicapped confrontation. Al stands at the Gate back home and tries to figure out what kind of message it was that his brother had just attempted to send home.
Author's Notes: Bet you didn't expect to see this so soon! Happy weekend! One art piece, enjoy!
Part XXXIX - #90 - The Crimson Charm - Part 2
Two shots sounded before metallic silence was reengaged. Ed fell forwards with Winry's weight in his arm, hearing her scream as they landed in a heap; it was one of the most horrid sounds he'd ever heard someone make. She flailed frantically beneath Ed as he scrambled off, the piercing shriek of her voice rippling through the hall. The sound was muffled when Edward grabbed Winry again and buried her face in the front of his jacket. For the brief few moments Ed was able to smother her screams, his wide, panicked eyes shot around frantically - he saw, only for the moments needed to understand Winry's uproar, a set of red holes in her left calf. The sight froze Ed where he sat, body aching while everything in his mind inexplicably derailed and came crashing to a stop in the form of a burning, mangled train wreck.
"Would you deal with your garbage, Envy?" Hitler looked to Hess, speaking like a parent instructing a child, his hands firmly clasped behind his back, his chest large and his shoulders stiff, "and Rudolf, if the Envy creature in your head asks for your fingers, let him feel them. He certainly enjoyed being able to touch the world properly again when he killed Hohenheim."
Hess's hand grabbed Edward's ponytail, holding tight near the elastic band as the man yanked Edward backwards, "On your knees."
The command hadn't a hope of being obeyed.
Ed roared to life in a world where value was in death and the Elric brother beyond the Gate turned on a ghost from his past. With a raging clenched fist, Edward rose and spun around, slamming his knuckles heavily into Hess's cheekbone, attempting to plough his entire arm through the man's face. Hess was thrown back, not given enough time to yelp before Ed struck him again, and then Ed sent the firearm flying out of the man's hand with a swift kick of his right boot. Hess staggered again when Edward crashed the base of his foot hard into the man's stomach. He finally drove the terror off his feet, rushing Hess backwards when Ed's left shoulder slammed into the monstrosity's chest. Edward rammed their bodies into the immovable stone wall encasing the hall and the enclosure spat dust back at them in protest of the assault. The pair bounced back from the wall, Hess taking a wild swing at Ed that connected only with air. With all the pent up, indelible rage in his eyes, Ed's left hand grabbed the face of Envy's new flesh shell and slammed Hess into the cement wall. Ed reared his left arm back, his fist quickly flying in and charging through Hess' face, throwing him aside. Ed reached out and grabbed Hess by his shirt before he could fall away and returned him to an upright position against the wall, his fist striking again but not registering that the combatant had become unresponsive. Edward's arm reared back once more. The unplanned attempt to destroy the man Adolf had addressed as Envy with his single left hand was spoilt when an auxiliary gunshot rang out.
Ed felt his left ankle slip out from beneath him at the force of the shot and he heard the mechanical joint crack. Staggering to regain balance, Edward collapsed with a frustrated wail when his left ankle broke beneath him. Both men collapsed in separate heaps on the floor.
"That's poor sportsmanship, Edward."
Adolf stood at the precipice of the room lowering his own firearm. As Ed lifted his head and looked at the scene at the centre of the hall, Adolf's shoes began scraping along the floor and he walked up to the edge of the transmutation circle. Edward's brow rose and his eyes widened, watching as the commander of oppression produced the doll Ed had given Winry for Christmas from within his coat. With the tilt of his head, Adolf compared the little thing to the reeling girl on the floor, before letting the gift carelessly fall from his hands and land limp on the ground. Adolf gave the doll a light kick along the floor as he walked towards Winry, setting the hammer of his revolver.
"NO," Edward screamed, stumbling to his knees, unable to rise to his feet on a shattered ankle, "Don't touch her! Don't fucking touch her!"
Adolf stopped Ed in mid motion and looked at him hotly, pointing his firearm at Winry on the ground. With an abundance of smug prowess in his eyes, Adolf made an effort of keeping Edward in his vision as he knelt down beside Winry, "I'm a little torn, Edward. Though I am disgusted with the kind of plague you've besieged my Germany with, it is quite fascinating to converse with Envy when he's not literally talking in my ear. He's as good a conversationalist in words as he is in thought. Imagine my surprise at his sheer audacity to seek me out after what he'd done to me." Adolf moved with precise calculation and the man's left hand came down over the bloodied wound on Winry's leg.
Digging the heel of her good leg into a groove on the floor, Winry tried to push herself away. She choked and stopped when Adolf's hand put pressure on the wound and then tapped the barrel of his weapon on the floor as a reminder. Even after she'd stopped, Adolf still took a moment to stare Winry down, before lunging in and crashing his grasp down around her throat - pinning her to the ground.
"Adolf!" If Edward could fly like the wind, Adolf would have never touched her again.
"Envy understands the ways of man so magnificently, as much as what you've done repulses me, the fact I'm allowed access to such a resource… well… it is an asset." Adolf caused Ed to tense as his right hand took a secure hold of his weapon. The man's heavy eyes dug into Winry, watching her breathe frantically as his oppressive presence pinned her to the ground. The left hand at her throat moved and pushed heavily through Winry's face, brushing through her hair, and prying her eyes open. The world moved at his command, controlled by the rhythmic metallic sound made every time Adolf's thumb tapped the poised hammer of his revolver. "Envy had two burning things he wished to accomplish while he was with me, Edward. One was to see your father dead - and I must say I have never encountered any sort of animal with such a desire for wicked vengeance. It was as terrifying as it was fascinating."
The conductor of this nightmare sat back from Winry abruptly and Adolf's arm tore out, sinking his hand into the front of her jacket. Winry's fingers snapped to Adolf's wrist as the man hauled her upright.
"Secondly, he wanted to watch you lose everything," every word that Adolf spoke drove the rotation of the room, and he spun it wildly around Edward, leaving him nauseous, "I don't disagree with that, since I'm of the opinion that you deserve nothing. A man as disgusting as you - born to a sinful family, guilty of sin himself - doesn't deserve anything of value. You somehow found the gall to use this nation as a shield to hide your sins to further your efforts to escape this world."
The air had become so cold that Ed found it hard to breathe in, "That is not what I did!"
Adolf scoffed, his breath leaving a white puff in the chilled air, "You are nothing more than a disease ridden parasite on this earth, eating the food that some far more deserving German child should have eaten. Criminals and sinners and others like them lose their right to privileges and have to relinquish items of value, but this appears to belong to you," Adolf shook Winry, watching Ed's teeth grind; words were delivered cold and emotionless, without a sneer or glimmer of satisfaction, "Is this something that has value to you from a life you're not permitted to have?"
Edward Elric had clapped his hands to revive his younger brother, and for this act he'd deprived himself of his family, his friends, people he could trust, and a safe place to be. He'd given up his home, everything he knew, and all the things he valued. He felt himself drown in this world he couldn't stand, felt himself choke on their morals, watched himself become a shadow of the person he'd thought he was, and exist as a figment of the person he wanted to be. Yet when Edward could see himself at the bottom of the abyss this world was for him, those times he felt himself dying in the shadows, Winry still looked at him, spoke to him, and treated Edward Elric like he was still the person he thought he'd sacrificed. He didn't believe he could qualify that with value.
"My answer's not going to matter; it won't to change your reaction, will it?"
"Ultimately I want to know what a man will do to keep what little he has and how his morals change to accommodate preservation. I'd like to find out how to control that," Adolf glanced to Winry as the cold explanation filled the room and again Winry was rattled, "Edward Elric, you must answer the question: is this something that has value from the life you are not entitled to?"
Ed's pinpoint eyes stared at the firearm in Adolf's right hand; no matter what he did, he was nowhere near close enough to prevent it from firing at anyone. The mere seconds that began ticking by were not enough time to find the wherewithal to breathe in the cascading horror that crashed down around him, let alone begin to compose an answer.
Before those first few precious moments even finished passing by, a sick sensation lurched into Ed's throat. He broke free from the distance Adolf held him at when the monster disengaged his weapon and flipped it in his hand, grabbing the revolver by its barrel. Edward scrambled forward on hand and knees before he even realized he was doing it. Adolf's arm snapped to his backhand and swung to strike Winry with the butt end of the gun. The attack derailed when Winry's arms flew out and she grabbed Adolf by the wrist before he could land a blow. The tips of her fingers dug sharply into his flesh and Adolf jerked his arm, unable to free himself from Winry's grasp. Edward hit the scene and slammed his right foot to the floor, quickly rising up onto the one good leg. His body swung with all his forward momentum and Edward put the left knee Winry had constructed into the side of Adolf's face with a loud crack. The wretched man fell back on impact and Ed came crashing down between the pair.
Flying to his knees, Ed turned to face Adolf, balancing on the fake left knee and anchoring himself with his right foot. Edward's eyes caught Adolf re-grip his weapon and Ed lunged forward, grabbing hold of the barrel of the revolver before it could be properly pointed at anyone.
With no interest in fighting his way through Edward's strength, Adolf made use of Ed's one-armed handicap and he grabbed his opponent by the throat with his free hand. There was nothing Ed could do to fight it off, all options relinquished control of the firearm to Adolf, so Edward was forced to close his eyes and deal with the nearly intolerable sensation of this man's one hand attempting to strangle him. The struggle swung sharply Adolf's way when his left thumb dug into the hollow of Ed's throat.
Without warning the captor hastily threw Edward back. Ed opened his eyes with enough time to see the pencil Winry brandished barely miss the stab she'd taken at Adolf's hand. Discarded by Adolf and weakened by the chokehold, Edward fell back onto Winry in a heap.
The man who looked mightily down upon them straightened himself and stood up, rising over everything like a cataclysm. Furious golden eyes looked at him from below as Edward came around on his backside between Winry and their armed predator. Winry compacted herself behind Ed while he tried to tuck her away, the still-bleeding wounds on her leg smearing across the stone flooring each time she moved. Adolf tilted his head a little and cocked his gun, watching Ed tense and expand his chest with a deep breath. The monster gave a laugh at the effort, pointed his weapon, and shot the little plush doll lying harmlessly on the floor.
Once the imprint into the Gate had been fully set and shock of seeing the transmutation circle appear wore off, Al was frustratingly left to his own devices. The last time the Gate had filled with blood, Diana cried and the rumble passed through; now there was blood and an alchemy sigil. None of it made any sense. Left with only sleuth techniques, Al wandered around the spill of blood, which by now stretched as far as the eye could see. It was also upgraded from a skim to a slick; Alphonse shut down the part of his brain telling him the stench he smelt and surface he walked on was litres upon litres of spilt blood from the world beyond.
What needed to be focused on was how his brother's transmutation circle had become stamped into the backside of the Gate. Alphonse inarguably concluded it was his brother's, because the chance of it being someone else's, or even entirely random, was laughable.
"How could something like that show up?" Al asked himself aloud. From everything that Alphonse Elric knew, from everything that Brigitte's information from beyond the Gate had taught him over time, what did he know and was any of it important?
Al's thoughts turned first to what Wrath had said after Alphonse had left the comforts of Mustang's protection and gone chasing after him on his own: Dante had severed his father's bonds, which would make alchemy impossible. If Al tied that together to the absence of his brother, it would make sense that if both his dad and his brother were beyond the Gate that they'd be in the same situation - completely unable to perform alchemy, explaining why Ed hadn't brought himself home. Obviously, they hadn't befriended anyone beyond the Gate who would assist them in getting home, so Ed and his father would be flying solo.
The youngest Elric rubbed his eyes, trying to think - his head swimming with what felt like answers on the tip of his tongue. Alphonse drew his thoughts back to the imprint on the Gate; how did this happen? What would trigger the transmutation circle that was sent? Who would do it?
"Probably my brother," Al answered his question aloud - it was the most logical answer considering what the symbol was. If his brother's bonds were separated, then how would he accomplish this? Al didn't know.
The boy's next train of thought turned to their visitor from beyond the Gate. From what Al had gathered, Brigitte was alchemy illiterate - she showed no aptitude for it or understanding or even interest in the materials she had in her possession when she'd come over. She never once attempted it, which Al thought might be a little strange for a girl who came from an supposed alchemy utopia. From Brigitte's pictures that they'd looked over while in Maria Ross's lake cabin, there was a dangerous transmutation circle carved into the stone floor - if this girl from beyond the Gate did not have any interest in alchemy, why would she photograph it? Why would anyone let her get close to it? Why would utopian alchemy allow something so bastardized to be created in the first place? Al questioned the world beyond the Gate - shouldn't they know better than that? Brigitte obviously had ties to his brother, so maybe it wasn't that it was Brigitte who was actually interested in the circle, perhaps her photos were taken because of his brother.
If that was the case, the younger brother had to seriously wonder what his older brother could possibly want with a transmutation circle that gross… beyond mock it or keep a safe distance from it. For some reason, a young girl with ties to his brother thought the rebounding transmutation circle was important enough to be photographed and let herself get close enough to it to photograph it. Didn't Brigitte realize the danger? Surely, Ed wouldn't have allowed her to go to this location - he would have recognized how badly something like that would rebound if anyone took a single misstep around it. He couldn't possibly have encouraged it, since Ed knew better than anyone the kind of damage the rebound would cause.
Alphonse's voice suddenly aired out, his words escaping him before his thoughts fully came together, "Wait... it rebounds…"
A little light lit brightly within Al's thoughts.
Oh.
Oh.
Al examined some fallen mental dominoes and stepped up closer to the Gate, "A rebound is caused by an improperly constructed transmutation that cannot be balanced because a part of the equation is wrong - a portion of the alchemist is used to make up for the discrepancy. It rebounds to the Gate because that's the power source, attempting an exchange…"
A single eyebrow fell heavily and Alphonse stared intently at the open Gate. Transmutation circles are the mediator between an alchemist and the power source for alchemy, so if the Gate doors were open then transmutation circles on both sides had access to the power. So, how did this new bit of knowledge explain why a transmutation circle would be stamped into the Gate? Al folded his arms. What did he know so far about the Gate? The power to perform alchemy came from the Gate, it was a source of knowledge for alchemists, its doors opened towards his side, and there was a back side of the Gate for the other world. There were angry black creatures within the Gate that were greedy and devoured their offerings without equivalent exchange or any remorse. Then there was the Gate itself that refused to facilitate communications between the two worlds, like they were forbidden to meet.
Tightening his arms at his chest, Al searched his mind for what might be missing. He had to be missing a connection. His face scrunched, arms fell apart, and the heels of his hands pushed through his eyes as he tried to think harder; Al could feel some kind of answer sitting right there.
"Got it!" Al right index finger flew out, "when we perform alchemy and draw power from the Gate for it, the doors crack open and allow the power to be pulled through. Alchemy is a power draw from the Gate, we PULL power, we can't push it. But if I was standing on the other side, I can't draw power from the Gate because I'd have to push open the doors first because of the direction they open, then do a transmutation! They don't open the right way beyond the Gate to draw power. You can't get to the Gate without alchemy so you can't open the doors and you can't do alchemy!"
But a rebound would push 'material' to the Gate.
Al's hands fell and arms slapped down at his side; stubbornly he hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and returned to glaring at the Gate. Al's theory explained why no one beyond the Gate had attempted to access his side of the Gate - they couldn't. Unless the doors to the Gate were opened from his side, the world on the other side couldn't do alchemy. At all. The realization left Al feeling a little sunken, turning his entire impression of the world beyond on its head. That mean the alchemy utopia couldn't practice alchemy. Dante's motives were flawed. The entire Theory of Beyond the Gate, what Dante's entire motivation was based off of, was flawed.
Taking a deep breath, Al stood at the Gate with the doors open for everyone. He had to swallow this information and move on. The breath was exhaled swiftly and the younger Elric brother shook his head - if the doors were open, energy should be allowed to flow back to the other side of the Gate… shouldn't it? Obviously someone was trying to do alchemy beyond the Gate, since his brother's transmutation circle was printed right in front of him. There had to be more that was flawed.
"If the doors only swing one way, maybe the energy current only goes one way too?" Alphonse's thumb rubbed his left eye as he looked at his brother's sigil.
What was the energy an alchemist took from the Gate anyways? What kind of energy was he taking from beyond the Gate that allowed the people of Amestris, heck his whole world, the power to perform alchemy? Why did it seem like the Gate structure only allowed for a one-way flow of that power?
Al's brow rose as he began to slowly pace in front of the Gate, "Maybe the flow really does only goes in one direction - like a river." Like the slow flow of blood at his feet. With everything the young man knew, that made a surprising amount of sense. Why bother having a Gate with doors swinging both ways when there's no reason for the doors to open in both directions. What Alphonse Elric wouldn't give to know just what exactly that power was that they were taking from beyond the Gate, it would certainly help him a lot. For some reason, the world beyond the Gate had no way of recalling its own pool of power, yet his side could draw from it.
"So my brother's symbol was able to recognize the Gate, get to the Gate, but it has no way of getting power from the Gate. That's why it's stamped like that; it's trapped on the other side like he is."
That still didn't explain how it got there. Something else was missing. The young Elric sighed, taking a moment to mentally sort his thoughts so far. Not only were his father and brother's bonds disconnected beyond the Gate, but there was no energy flow as well. If this was his brother's sigil, he would have had to find some way to take a minute amount of power and then initiate a transmutation.
How in the world would Edward Elric have done that?
The pile of Envy's new flesh on the floor finally stirred and Edward shot his focus over to the scene. With a lengthy groan, a curse, and a careful rub to the back of his head, Hess's body slowly rose to his knees. Ed watched with uncertainty, fallen on his backside and propped up by his only arm with Winry behind him as the man picked his head up.
"Hess, you ignorant son of a bitch," Ed's voice found an outlet, "did you just let Envy walk right into your head?"
"I had to do a lot of convincing to get Adolf to consider this situation," pulling to his feet and dusting off his pants, a calamity with the face of Rudolf Hess gathered his bearings, "Despite his drawbacks, the gift you describe as Envy is a wealthy source of information and knowledge we would be foolish to simply discard…"
The bitter and resentful sound of Ed's sarcastic laugh cracked into the cold hall, "The gift…"
Hess moved about the hall silently for a few moments, forcing everyone to listen to the clap of his shoes on the frozen ground before finally locating his weapon. A smile peeked back into the room, "You're trying pretty damn hard to take care of your own little gift, HalfMetal."
Edward paled at the sudden onset of English words coming from Hess' tongue.
The man's arm swept down emphatically, catching the ring around the trigger in his index finger, "But you don't get to have those kind of things here."
Ed stiffened, his shoulders rising, shifting his position to keep between Envy within Hess and Winry as her fingers again curled into the fabric at the sides of his jacket, "You can fuck off."
"Gonna need soap for that," Envy's borrowed eyes rolled as he sauntered his way back to the sigil's outer ring. The influx of Envy into the persona that had been Hess completely transformed how the Nazi officer came across - Hess stood square, evenly balanced, strong and proper; Envy was loose, casual, slouched and nonchalant. The sin's eyes were emphatically flat and uncaring towards the scene of two people on the floor and, without a moment's notice, the firearm dangling from a finger snapped cleanly into Envy's right hand and a deafening gunshot sailed past Edward's left ear.
There hadn't been time to gasp and Winry's shriek sounded as though it came long after the fact; Ed sat trapped in mid-reaction, unable to fully realize the fear of looking down the barrel of a gun and unable to release himself from the shock that it had been fired without thought or hesitation. His left ear rang and the stalled reaction crumbled as Envy laughed, echoing in a new voice saturated with cruel delight.
"I love that look on you, HalfMetal. Did you piss yourself too?" Envy had a sneer that could rip any man's grin wide, "I'd love to see what other faces I can get out of Hohenheim's bastard kid." The satisfied grin grew through Envy's new face, feeding off of the reactions invading Edward's eyes. Moving to stand at the elder Elric brother's feet, Envy abruptly dropped to his knees causing Edward to lean back, though not far or quickly enough to escape from Envy grabbing hold of the front fall of hair framing Ed's face. Envy yanked him forward, forcing Ed to sit up tall. Envy's eyes fell contently and he put himself nose to nose with his new Elric toy. The new face of man's oldest sin smiled, "Not much left of you, eh?"
Edward's left hand charged in, taking Envy by the throat. The amount of force Ed had desired for his grip was never realized; the cold, circular tip of the firearm in Envy's right hand touched down on Ed's temple to dissuade him.
"Imagine what happens to things of value if you force me to make sure you're not able to take care of them."
Edward took a few moments to breathe before his hand cautiously withdrew from Envy's neck and the satisfied sneer that sat nose to nose with him beamed.
"As I see it, the reason you are here is because you offered yourself in exchange for your baby brother; that's really the only conclusion I can come to. He went poof when he used that Philosopher's Stone on you, am I right?" Envy grinned as the question went unanswered, "So you gave it all up just for him, aren't you the hero," the cold metallic weapon slowly traced down from Ed's temple, crawling along his jaw line, pushing harshly into the bone behind the flesh, "Now you're here because you have become nothing, you get nothing, and you gave up everything. You made a decision HalfMetal; sure, you might have saved your kid brother, but you did that and the consequences deprived you of the right to anything you used to be," a single brow peaked in Envy's expression, examining the raging golden eyes drilling through him as the weapon traced Edward's facial features. Envy tapped the revolver on the bridge of Ed's nose, "Oh that's fun, but what I want to see is how fear eats you alive."
"I hope you start to rot in this hell someday," angered words rumbled deep in Ed's chest, and his eyes stole a glimpse of Adolf casting his dead gaze over the unfolding scene.
"Rotting was that old bastard's problem, not mine," Envy returned the tip of his weapon to Edward's chin, pulling the path down slowly along his throat - his words continued, "Let's see let's see… so, you gave them all up. You don't get those discarded things back, HalfMetal. You don't get your little brother back, you don't get your little family back, and you don't get your little world back," the course of Envy's gun stopped at the centre of Ed's chest and the creature holding him in submission watched while the deep and heavy breaths swelled through his plaything's body. More delicious than watching how Ed fought against showing fear was watching Winry's arms wrap around his waist from behind, fingers gripping tight into the fabric at his midsection. Envy peered around from Ed's open right side, eyeing the girl clinging tight with her face pushed into his back. The round tip of the revolver pushed harshly into Edward's chest and the only reaction Ed gave was the tightening of his jaw. Envy grinned, reaffirming his grip in Edward's hair.
The monster leaned in close, the elbow of the arm holding his prey by a fist-full of golden hair hooked around the back of Edward's head, the weapon digging into Ed's chest was removed and the wrist controlling the trigger came to rest lazily on Ed's good shoulder, pointed who-knows-where behind him. Envy's amusement at the situation was ecstatic by how Edward stiffened and tensed the closer the sin came and the more invasive he asserted his presence. Envy abolished Ed's entitlement to personal space, drawing in tight and putting his right cheek against the side of his toy's head for a moment, able to feel Edward's jaw clench, before the voice of sin filled the alchemist's head and Envy made sure Ed could feel the movement of warm lips against his chilled ear when the nightmare whispered.
"You aren't entitled to anything like that here, not even gifts that fall through the Gate; and you know what, I think even you know that."
The trigger on the firearm was pulled a second time, a deafening noise at Edward's left ear. Ed's body jerked sharply at the sound, abruptly locking his motions and losing his breath. Golden eyes flew about madly while Envy kept his presence tight to ensure Edward remained still. The subtle sound of the giggling sin remained pressed against Ed's ear, clearly feeling the full extent of how the grin tore into the monstrosity's face. Ed found distraction to Envy's invasion in the claw of Winry's fingers into his abdomen, knuckles surely turning white, and the push of her forehead into his back. The bullet had found a home somewhere in the far reaches of the hall.
Envy picked his head up suddenly, "How ya doing back there, princess? Still bleedin' all over my floor?"
"Shut up," Winry's voice rattled.
"Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, doesn't it?"
"SHUT UP."
Ed threw his shoulders and upper body forward, pushing Envy away and out of any conversation with Winry. The grip the sin had in Edward's hair became fierce and Ed was jerked back into place, the firearm returning to perch on his collar bone. Everyone with ears could hear the anvil of the weapon being set in the ice cold silence. Ed forced himself through a dry swallow as his heart raced faster than his breathing could keep up. He grit his teeth again as Envy returned to being nose to nose with him; the sin's hungered eyes devouring the panic, nerves, and fear breaking free into Edward's eyes.
"Well, that's more like what I want from you, that's good… but you can do better than that," Envy's excitement began to bubble happily in his words, "we're just getting warmed up, I want to see you absolutely terrified of what I'm going to do to you, because despite what you might think, you aren't superman here, kiddo. When I know you're aware of the kind of pathetic man you are, I'll make you tell me how it feels to be some useless, helpless human all beleaguered and broken and shit," Envy mused playfully, refocusing from his current entertainment to the longer term plan, "since you're all that's left of that bastard's blood, I'll let you live long enough to watch how I take everything that you have left," Envy's gun slipped quickly down, the tip of the weapon deliberately catching Winry's fingers and giving a half hearted effort to pry them off, "then if I feel like it, I'll keep your shell alive to live with the consequences. How's that sound?"
Ed jerked quickly - Envy had leaned in so close that there wasn't time for him to react against Ed's movements, and the blonde cracked his forehead against Envy's. The creature reeled back in surprise, releasing Ed's hair as his hand came to his face. Edward fell back and was able to lean far enough away that Envy missed the wild swat his armed hand took at his rebellious toy. Lunging forward, Ed went to capture the firearm locked in Envy's right hand, but his fingers missed the flesh wrist as the sin moved, only catching the ends of the shirt sleeve. Though he saw it coming, Ed had no way of defending himself against the heavy backhanded strike of the metal weapon Envy slammed through his cheek bone. Winry shrieked at the sight and sound, losing her hold as the attack threw Ed aside, leaving him hunched over his left arm on the ground. A quick stream of blood ran through his face from a torn gash, dripping to the floor as he tried to breathe.
"Save your energy HalfMetal, the sun hasn't even started to set, so we still have all kinds of time to play," Envy's heavy feet stomped on the floor as he stood up, "First game we play goes to Adolf here - he's got a little somethin' for ya. I have a hefty bet riding on the outcome, so don't disappoint me, a'right?"
Edward rolled his jaw, eyes peeking out from beyond the hair fallen in his face. He watched as Adolf popped open the barrel of the revolver he carried and dumped out the remaining bullets into his hand.
For this purpose alone, Adolf ensured his spoken language remained German, "Here are three options, please teach me something useful about yourself, Edward. We have company waiting upstairs, so let's not have them sit idle for more than fifteen minutes," Adolf requested with a chill in his words and stare. He glanced at Winry as Ed struggled to reposition himself as her shield, knowing full well that she would have no understanding of his words, "if you come up those stairs to the church, within the walls of our God's place of worship, you two will be put out of your misery. Quick and simple: one shot for each of you to the back of the head."
"Are you people fucking insane?" Edward's sharp voice finally re-surfaced.
Adolf paid no attention to the outburst, "However, if you do not emerge within the fifteen minutes, our company will come down here to retrieve you," his emotionless eyes sliced into the golden Elric, "what is done to you, how long it lasts, and what becomes of you will not be my concern. Both of you might even survive."
Before Ed's voice could rise again, Adolf took to the mastery of show once again and held out his hand with the five bullets. With sharp and precise movements to every motion he made, three of the five bullets were slipped into his pocket. Like a magician showing his magic trick, the remaining two bullets were returned to the chamber of the revolver, clicked shut, and Adolf placed the weapon down at the edge of the transmutation circle.
"And if you choose neither option, then I leave you the option of taking your own lives. You have fifteen minutes to make a choice, use it wisely."
Hitler's words burned like acid spilt over raw, open wounds, destroying the flesh and corroding the golden Elric as he watched the two men turn to walk away. Envy's smile peeking back at them brightly, no matter how far into the darkness the men ventured.
Alphonse glanced up at Diana. The infant lay silently and motionless up in the stone hands of the Gate. The thought that a defenceless infant was being used for such a diabolical purpose was beyond maddening. Disgusted wasn't quite the word Alphonse was looking for, but he didn't think there was a better one out there. Diana had cried last time the Gate space had filled with blood; she'd been unsettled and upset, yet for some reason Al couldn't identify, this instance didn't upset her. He was quite thankful that there was no rumble.
Walking up to the front of the Gate, Alphonse sunk his finger into the black tar and pulled them out again - no new red stains, no black remnants; they came out exactly as he'd put them in. He submerged his entire hand to do the test again and came up with the same result. Al tried it twice for argument's sake and again got nothing for his efforts. He sighed.
The youngest Elric, now with sixteen years of life up his sleeve, gave the Gate a twisted look. With a glimmer in his eye he thought of something new and Alphonse wrote his name in the black tar of the Gate, and then watched as it slowly vanished. The twisted look became a stubborn frown - he was kind of hoping something would happen; this Gate was bleeding and had a transmutation circle printed on it, there had to be something going on or something he could do about it. The last time this had happened, the rumble had come through and his eyes had changed colour. Dante had even mentioned a prior time when a rumble came… which ultimately had been Brigitte. So if the Gate rumbled when something was coming through, why had the Gate rumbled and bled the last time? What came through the last time? Did anything come through at all? Maybe something did and that's what took Dante? If so, what caused all the blood?
There were a million impossible questions for Alphonse to sort through and he was going to have to narrow them down to the ones most relevant to the here and now.
Alphonse's ears picked up a strange sound. His thought process stopped and he listened to the sound, almost certain he thought he was hearing raindrops. That couldn't be right. Al looked around quickly, looking down to his feet to see tiny particles hit the blood at his feet, plop into the liquid like a raindrop and then vanish. Looking up, Al had to shield his face when a few small pebbles hit his cheeks. A crack tore through the silent space at the Gate and a chunk of stone from above crashed down to the surface. It had landed so close to Alphonse that he'd felt the breeze as it went by and found himself covered in the red splash up to his waist. He scrambled back as he watched the top ornament of the Gate's magnificent structure begin to crumble and break.
Alphonse's eyes flew wide in alarm, "NO STOP!"
Diana was cradled by the crumbling structure.
"NO, YOU CAN'T," Al yelled at the Gate as though it were responsible for everything, realizing that he was simply dancing in circles, completely unable to get anywhere near the front of the Gate as the entire stone ornament atop the massive doors began to come crashing down, infant and all.
"STOP!"
Helplessly, Alphonse was forced to turn away and cover his face, wishing he'd covered his ears instead, because he received an earful of sound as the stone hit the red ground with a bang.
The young Elric stood with his hands over his face for some time as the silence reasserted itself, afraid to turn back and see the consequences. No sound came from Diana - she gave no cry, no wail, no sob, not even a peep. Of all things in the world, a dead baby was not something Al wanted to see, and the simple thought of it twisted everything deep inside his chest. Though, once Alphonse wrangled his thoughts together cohesively to begin to rationalize what he'd just seen, he realized that he hadn't heard Diana at all - she hadn't cried as the structure crumbled or while she'd fallen either. Alphonse's hands slid slowly off his face, pulling his skin tight as he did. With nerves and trepidation on high, he turned around and looked at the mess at the foot of the Gate.
Something squawked.
Alphonse froze where he stood, eyes wide. It was a strange sound that was too coarse to the human and was accompanied by the strangest echo. Diana was an alchemically engineered child, a victim of bastardized human transmutation techniques. As Alphonse believed it, she was a 'hermaphrodite' mix of a human child from his side and some infantile creature Dante had managed to scoop out from within the Gate. Diana hadn't been fused with something from beyond the Gate because Dante couldn't reach that far, so Al's theory was that Diana was part Gate creature, which would explain why she kept the eyes and arms of the Gate from appearing.
Al finally moved closer, peering over the fallen chunks of stone, listening to the horrid sound, and he finally caught sight of the baby squirming beneath the unravelled blanket she'd once been wrapped in. The noise the baby made amongst the mess was like fingernails on a chalk board. Alphonse ordered his stomach to stay calm as he reached down for her. Cautiously uncovering one of Dante's most heinous crimes, Al scanned the child that no longer bore any resemblance to the human child she'd once been. Her skin had turned midnight black and her features had warped from head to toe. The tiny distraught existence wiggled unhappily on the ground and told Alphonse's eyes that he had indeed been correct - Dante had used some kind of creature from the Gate to fuse with Diana. The more Al thought about it and the more he stared at what Diana had become, the more it seemed as though the Gate creature fused with Diana had either taken over or her humanity had died off.
"I'm sorry," Alphonse let the statement slip softly. Stepping around and moving aside the fallen debris, the young man knelt down and collected the remaining portions of Diana that had been stolen from the Gate, re-bundling her body in the blanket.
"I honestly don't know what happened to you, but I'm sorry no one ever gave you a proper chance," he wrapped the baby blanket tight around Diana, begging his nerves to stay focused on the task at hand and not sink into the concerns he had for the blackened infant - he would mourn the baby later when everything wasn't literally falling apart, "and I'm sorry if what happened between me and Aisa caused this. I had no idea it would." With a tight jaw and stiff upper lip, Alphonse took the baby into his arms and stood up. He kicked aside some of the debris, took the few steps needed to be standing toe to toe with the Gate, and came down to his knees. With a deep breath Al put Diana on his forearms and secured her with his hands, he slid the remains along the surface of the Gate, and Al pushed her darkened body back beyond the Gate, "and thank you if you've helped keep me safe all this time. Now I think you should go home."
In the thickness beyond the Gate, Alphonse slipped his arms out from under her and returned what was left of the infant to the darkness a part of her had once come from. He sat back on his knees for a number of endless moments, trying to ensure he remained composed - this wasn't a good time for him to lose his composure - before the younger Elric brother finally infused enough strength into his veins to stand up again. His feet kicked aside some fallen chunks of stone, his hands throwing the larger pieces, before Alphonse boiled over with frustration and he turned to face the Gate.
"Goddammit Dante!" his soiled hands clenched and his voice scratched, "what have you done? How can you live with yourself after doing things like that? I just…" the tightly gripped hands came apart and fell loosely at his sides, "I just don't understand how someone can do these things to people. To innocent people! This is wrong! This is all WRONG."
Golden eyes fell distraught to the mess at his feet, eyeing the red stains saturating his clothes, looking at his hands that he had nowhere to wipe clean. Al again tried to breathe and calm himself from the situation that was growing overwhelming.
"Why are the doors still open?" Al voiced the thought as it hit him and he looked up to the Gate once more. Minus Diana positioned as the Gate's crown, everything was exactly the same as it had been before she came tumbling down. Why was the Gate still open and calm? The Gate was held at bay by Diana, but now Diana was out of the equation - where were the eyes or reaching arms? Al's eyes glanced from side to side; there was too much information to sort out. His hands scratched feverishly through his hair.
Something had to be causing this situation. From what he'd heard of the Gate and what he understood about Diana, what element present now was different than any other point in time if Diana was removed from the equation?
The blood.
The blood flowed in from beyond the Gate and it was still flowing, making it a constant element linking both sides. It was nearly up to Alphonse's ankles now, a fact he tried to shove out of his mind as quickly as he'd recognized it. So, the blood was flowing in from beyond the Gate; perhaps it was acting like a doorstop of some kind? Maybe the infusion of the red swell had locked down the Gate to a moment in time where both sides could share this material - which meant if it ever stopped or went away, at that point the Gate would reset. For Alphonse's situation that would have to make sense. Which meant when whatever was causing the run of blood ended or dried up, so would this relative peace at the Gate.
The long, dark shadows in the hall vanished before the sound of footsteps did. Edward's eyes remained on the darkened escape Hitler and Envy had taken, but heard Winry shift on the floor. Cautiously, Ed looked back - uncertain which was more frightening, taking his eyes off of the vanishing point of their predators, or facing the wounds and damages left behind. Ed's stomach sat at his collarbone as he turned to the veil of long, soiled blonde hair Winry was behind. Her left leg was stretched out awkwardly at her side, stained in crimson red, and her upper body turned away from it. Winry's breathing shivered, but other than that, she was silent. The heels of her trembling hands pushed in under the messy veil of blonde that fell everywhere and Ed reached out, sweeping the hair out of Winry's face. Watered-down blue eyes eventually looked up to the muted golden gaze as Edward's hand held her hair away, neither one saying a word. Both sets of eyes shifted when Winry's fingers came down onto the deep, bloody gash high on Edward's cheek.
There were only fifteen minutes to work with to undermine a dictated future, but a precious sixty seconds of that was stolen by Edward - he hid his grip in the mess of Winry's hair, brought her forehead into his shoulder, and sat silently with her as he attempted to regain some kind of control.
Though Ed wasn't sure if he was meant to feel relieved or sick that she wasn't crying.
Trembling fingertips slowly curled into the fabric of Ed's coat and the sound of Winry's shivering breaths were hidden as he held onto her. A wounded voice eventually sunk into Edward's jacket, "My leg really hurts."
"I'm so sorry," the most inadequate three words he'd ever voiced.
He couldn't be in this place in his head; Ed had to get out - now. There wasn't time to succumb to the catastrophe unfolding. He couldn't look at Winry and see failure, he couldn't continue to hear Envy and feel worse, because the bar of failure was set for them: fifteen minutes into the future. There wasn't time to feel remorse and regret. Edward couldn't let himself feel anything that would take up more of their time. He abruptly and hastily worked on shutting enough of himself down to pick his head up and begin creating a way to move forwards.
Ed turned and glanced to the wounded leg that Winry had extended as the emptiness set in and then sat back when Winry picked her head up off of him. The words out of his mouth were taking longer to be voiced than his teetering jaw was prepared for, "We should look after your leg."
Ed fumbled around on the floor, collecting a scarf from the winter wears they'd discarded earlier in their day, and Ed slipped one end of the garment into Winry's hand, asking for her to hold it. Ed glanced over to Winry as he began to wrap the leg, watching fragments of blue eyes peek at him, trying to find their own level of composure. Ed pulled the scarf tight, cringing when she flinched, but had to ask Winry to help him tie it off since he couldn't do that on his own with only one hand.
The most unbearable silence preceded Edward's subsequent attempts at composing sentences.
"I need your help," Ed waited for Winry to look at him. He hesitated before sticking out his own left leg and taking the shoe off, letting the broken shards of the shattered ankle fall out of his footwear while the foot hung ajar, "I need you to take off the foot piece."
"Okay…" she neither asked what for nor why, though to Ed's relief she showed moderate disgust at the sight of her broken work. Winry slowly reached out, stretching herself along the ground, the tips of her fingers snagging her discarded bag - it always had tools in it.
"Do you have a screwdriver I can use?" Ed rolled up his pant leg. A screwdriver abruptly landed in his left hand. Edward straightened his leg, eyeing the crack he'd put in the kneecap, but finding no other functional damage. The screwdriver head slipped into a notch and Ed began to tighten his knee joint amidst the sound of Winry's cutters as she set to work. From the corner of his vision he watched her fumble between cutters, pliers, and a second screwdriver as she fought with the mangled foot piece. Ed glanced up when Winry reached hastily into her bag, watching in concern when she produced a hammer and slammed it down one handed, then two-handed on the joint, dumping the wooden handle from her fingers once she was done. Winry feverishly attacked the mangled ankle with her cutters once more, finally discarding her tool upon hearing a definitive 'snap'. She swept the mess away, folded her arms, and looked back at Ed with an unsettled flush through her face.
"It's off," she announced hoarsely, "now what?"
Ed sat silently, the seam of his mouth undone, poised to speak and finding it hard to choose what words to say. His eyes shifted away, "I'll find a way out for us."
What happens to Alphonse when this stops? The last occurrence of anything at the Gate stopped fairly quickly, so how much time was he running on right now? Would the Gate swallow him? Would it send him away? If he got back to Amestris, how in the world would he get back again to retrieve his brother if Diana couldn't hold the door? Al began to walk himself in a circle. He had to calm down, he had to think on his feet, and he had to act in the now; there were too many divergent futures to approximate multiple choices based on a mountain of unknowns.
What was he trying to do?
Al's finger flew out again, "How'd that get there?" he pointed at the transmutation circle, "and why is it there?" The youngest Elric grabbed all of his thoughts tightly and threw them out before his mind's eye, "I need something from beyond the Gate that would reach for the open Gate, that could send something to the open Gate like this - what do I know about the world beyond the Gate that can send something to the doors?"
Brigitte's rebound transmutation circle could do that.
Alphonse thought up that sigil with an abundance of fear in his heart. The inherent rebound in Brigitte's photographed transmutation circle would be the strongest thing beyond the Gate that he knew about to connect back to the doors. If he looked at it from a design perspective, as opposed to an alchemy perspective, the circle was designed to throw information at the open Gate to compensate for an incomplete transmutation. A reaction beyond the Gate wouldn't be able to do that if the doors were closed, since that world would have no way of accessing the Gate at all - they needed to be opened first in order to draw any kind of power. How would one transmutation circle 'throw' another to the Gate like this?
"Wait a minute."
Alphonse drilled his thoughts through the design perspective of everything available to him from beyond the Gate.
"Brigitte's rebound circle was a permanent marking engraved in stone… which means it'll always reach for the Gate if it senses the power at the doors," Alphonse's brow rose and the light glow in his golden eyes brightened, "so if you superimpose something…"
A single eye narrowed at Ed's sigil upon the Gate.
The young man's arms dropped limp to his side, his jaw fell slack, and the boy gave his brother's transmutation circle his most astounded stare. Had his genius older brother just hopped a transmutation off of the rebound and let the broken circle toss his sigil against the backside of the Gate? The rebound must have thrown Ed's transmutation circle against the backside of the Gate like a child flinging mud on a window. What an absolutely astounding feat.
Withholding praise until he'd worked it through, Al needed to figure out two things: one, the power needed to initiate the transmutation would be very minimal, so where did it come from? Two, the circle needed to be activated in some way - what had he done to activate it? Better yet, Alphonse wanted to know how his brother had managed to activate it and not wound up with something like a gust of wind blowing through instead. Something was wrong with the transmutation because it left the sigil slapped onto the Gate and no alchemical reaction had taken place.
"Maybe because the doors are open, that rebound is able to pull some kind of energy runoff, but not enough to do anything. It is possible to swim upstream if you try hard enough," Alphonse narrowed his eyes and thought aloud.
If the young alchemist accepted a theory that there was a very minimal amount of power reversal, what was the trigger? An alchemist needs his mind, body, and soul to be linked in order to perform a transmutation, so how would a broken alchemist half-ass one like this? Alphonse looked around the reddened horizons on his side of the Gate then looked down to his feet submerged within a substance. Al was trying desperately hard to tell himself that he could not possibly be sinking into a sea of blood.
His heart suddenly dropped like a rock into the pit of his stomach as he looked out into the reddening world. Amidst the crimson sea Alphonse watched the memory of two young Elric brothers each take a knife and slit their fingers, offering drops of blood to the transmutation of their mother - components for the soul.
... Continue (2nd half)...