For Her. For Him.

A/N: I know the last chapter was all angsty, but hopefully this resolves that. Also, as much as I like Greed, I know I dispatch of him pretty fast, sorry. Also, beginning is a lot of explanation. Most fans probably know this, but I included the explanations anyway.

To my reviewers: Nomme de Plume, I had to have them fight, everyone fights, but even I want some fluff. TrulyWished, Ed is progressing into month 6. 4thcry, I know, I'm being mean to Roy and Ed, but I wanted to send Ed out on his own. Liloyaoilover, I am so happy that you like my store enough to create an account. Thanks so much for the compliments. kikiko, I know, he shouldn't be going out like that, but he's angry and he's Ed. animecrazd, I'm glad you liked the lime, not my strong point, and that you thought pregnant Ed was realistic. As far as the giving birth, I figured growing the exit would make more sense since his body was adapting, so don't feel bad, most stories don't use it.

Chapter 26

Greed

Roy awoke as he slammed into the floor from the force of somebody shoving him off of the kitchen table and chair and onto the tile below. He had a splitting headache and a throbbing in his chest that he knew a painkiller wasn’t going to take away. Even though he was in pain, he knew he’d been pushed, which surely meant that Fullmetal had gotten over what had taken place the night before, at least a little, enough to touch him, even in a shove.

“Absolutely pathetic,” a young voice, younger than Ed’s said. Roy blinked blurry eyes and tried to make out the dark-haired figure above him. The boy was young, had long black hair, large violet eyes and the distinct look of not being entirely human. “After observing you humans for the last few months, I wonder why I even bother trying to become one of you.”

Roy jumped to his feet, his head angrily pounding at the quick action. “What are you?”

“Call me Wrath,” the boy said.

“You’re the one with Ed’s arm and leg.” They boy smiled mischievously and held out the mismatched palms. “What do you want here?”

“I came here to get help for Ed.” Roy furrowed his brows. “Well, with the information I have, I would rather pass it on to him, but seeing that he’s on his way to Dante’s house, I figure I’ve got to tell you.”

“On his way…What do you mean? He’s upstairs.” Wrath only shook his head as Roy ran from the kitchen and up the stairs to the second floor. He opened the door with ease, finding the room empty. Stepping inside, he saw the closet was open and nearly every shred of clothing was gone from the closet and drawers. A blinding light appeared near the bed and in near horror, the colonel watched as the boy began to appear from the floorboards.

“Told you he was gone. Envy saw him go, said he looked pretty fat. He’s also been tapping your phone line. He heard mother telling Ed that he might find information on Greed at Dante’s house, being that there was some connection between those two, and Greed supposedly killed Dante.” The boy scowled. “I would beg to differ since the woman in her new form likes to toss me behind the gate when I ‘misbehave.’ She is very much alive, but if you could remedy that, I’d appreciate it.”

“Tell me how to get to Ed.”

“Not just yet. You have to hear me out, or you’re not going to be any more use than he is against Greed. Greed prefers to appear like a man, but his true form he calls his ‘Ultimate Shield.’ I know because Envy likes to make fun of him. His power makes his body almost unbreakable and undefeatable, since it takes the form of black diamond. The other homunculus really want to see Greed gone, and Envy would be happy if Ed and Greed destroyed one another, so he called up Greed to tell him that Ed was going to be at Dante’s home, but Greed’s farther away that we are and it’s going to take the better part of a day longer for him to get to Ed.”

Roy began to walk out of the door, charging to get to Ed, whether he knew for sure where this Dante’s house was or not.

“But before you do go, hear me out. They don’t entirely trust me, and I don’t know when the next time I’m able to talk with you or Ed will be.” Then, the boy began to list, using his fingers to indicate each sin. “Sloth is a woman and is in the military, but I don’t know as what. All I know is she tries to be motherly with me and most of the time, I just let her since she sometimes keeps me from being tossed into the gate by that cold witch Dante. I’ve never met Pride, but I get the impression he is in the military too. Envy is a ruthless killer and would just as soon turn into someone you care about just before he shoots you in the back. He also calls Ed his little brother. I don’t know why but it’s slipped out once in a while. Lust can turn her fingers in to knives and likes to use the way men look at her to her advantage. Gluttony really only listens to her. He’s like a devoted puppy to Lust, but he can eat through anything and his hunger can get the best of him. A couple of times the fatso has threatened to eat me just because he’s hungry and Lust doesn’t even make an attempt to stop him.”
Wrath pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “If you want to destroy a homunculus, this is the array to do it. To weaken them, you need this array and a piece of the person they were created from . The only person with a piece of Greed is that Archer, and he’s being sent to Dante’s by Sloth as we speak.”

Then, the kid proceeded to give Roy instructions and tell him the fastest routes to the house, ones that not even Archer would know. Roy took the paper from the boy, looking down at him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t think it’s because I give a damn about Ed, but of all the people and things I’ve met in my short life here, he’s the only one who’s been honest with me and made me a promise to make me human that I actually believe. I’m an angry little kid, but I’m selfish too, and if he can make me human, I’m definitely not letting a sick psycho like Envy hurt him.” The bright light appeared as Wrath grabbed hold of his leg and began sinking through the floor. “I have to go. Evny promised to take me to see the showdown between Ed and Greed, and I sure as hell better see you there too.”

********

Two days on a train, trying to keep track of when to take his pills, sitting in the bulky fat suit he had created had been absolute hell on Ed and his body. His back hurt, his legs hurt, and worst of all, his boobs hurt. The damn things had been bound beneath the fabric and were feeling ridiculously constricted and painful at the moment as he stood in front of the large mansion that had once belonged to Dante, teacher to his own, a grandmother of sorts. It was large and secluded, but there was something about it that gave him a sense of foreboding. Something that made his intuition go haywire.

As unnoticeably as someone who appeared all of 200 pounds at five feet tall could, Ed snuck around the back of the property, not wanting to disturb anything out front. He’d heard there was an ongoing debate on the ownership of his house, with Dante’s previous student, whoever she was, claiming to be the rightful heir according to the old woman’s will. Ed had picked up that much of his journey to the mansion. Apparently in such a small area, a legal battle was big news. Luckily for Ed, such a battle also meant that nothing in the house had been allowed to be touched and any research that Dante had ever done was still within. Ed walked through the strange house, trying to find the room most likely to house her research.

“This feels like breaking and entering,” he mumbled to himself as he opened a door to what looked like a large library.

“Maybe because it is, Fullmetal,” said a familiar deep voice. Ed looked back at the desk, where Mustang sat, going over papers, which he folded and placed inside of his uniform coat.

“So you managed to pull your ass out of the bottle?” Ed asked. “Just go the hell back home. If you wanted to stop me, then you shouldn't have passed out on the table. You were so out of it, I walked right by you.”

“No, I can’t do that.” The colonel stood. “Not until I tell you I’m sorry.”

“How did you know I was here?” Ed asked, still angry.

Roy recounted as much has he could of his encounter with Wrath, but never once tried to approach Ed.

“Okay, you gave me the information I need, now go.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I believe the boy asked you to leave,” someone said from the doorway. Ed turned, looking at a man, taller than either himself or Roy, wearing black with a fur-collared vest. “Allow me to introduce myself. They call me Greed.”

Ed decided to use his anger at Roy to good use. “Where the hell his my brother?” He started to charge at Greed only to have Mustang run ahead of him and stand between himself and the homunculus, his back facing the young alchemist. “Get out of my way, Colonel Bastard!”

“This is between the shrimp and I,” the homunculus said. “I want to know how a soul can be bound into a suit of armor. I want immortality. Give me that and I give you your brother back.”

“Give us his brother back,” Roy said, extending a hand, “or I light you on fire.”

The creature smiled broadly, almost literally ear to ear as his arms turned black, moving toward Ed’s commanding officer. With a swipe, he moved to hit Roy with his large black fist, but Roy ducked, snapping his fingers as he did. As though he was made of gasoline, the homunculus’s two arms caught fire.

“No one ever warned you that diamond burns, did they?” Roy said, standing up once again. The sin transformed his arms back to their human form and smothered the flames against his legs.

“You son of a bitch!” Greed screamed, not even waiting for his body to heal before backhanding Roy in the face, sending him flying to the other side of the room. “You can just stay the hell out of this. It’s between me and the kid.”

Ed clapped his hands. “If that’s the way you want it, that’s how it will be.” Ed transmuted his hand into a large spike and stood ready to attack.

“How fast do you think you can manage to fight? I was told you were a martial artist. What do you do, sumo wrestle?” Ed’s eyes narrowed as he ran at the homunculus. He’d called him fat. "Look at you. How the hell are you supposed to manage to fight anyone like that? You're supposed to be the one to take out my brethren, but just one look at you tells me you've never managed to kill. What a joke."

"I'll do what I have to," Ed said, practically growling as he made his attack.
He managed to make contact with one of Greed’s still burned arms. Only momentarily, Ed realized that the homunculus’s body wasn’t healing. It was a brief thought before blocking one of Greed’s attacks and hearing yet another snap as Mustang was in the corner struggling to make it to his feet.

Greed’s entire left arm was on fire. “Damn it, I hadn’t even transformed yet! And I told you to stay out of this.” He batted at his arm, yelling in pain as he did. He transformed his other hand, keeping it out of view of the Flame Alchemist and smacked at Ed’s metal hand, snapping off a piece of its edge. “I need to know how to transmute me into a piece of armor.”

“I can’t,” Ed said, beginning to feel extreme exhaustion in every one of his limbs. “You need a soul to do it. You don’t have one.” Greed approached closer, threateningly as there was another snap and Mustang was on his feet, once again standing between the fiery homunculus and the pregnant alchemist.

Screaming, Greed began to put out the flame, he walked away from Ed and to the window. “You had better find a way to do it, or I swear to you, I will tell a certain young woman wearing a suit of armor just outside of this window that she should begin poking at that nice red design.”

With his last ounce of effort, Ed ran as quickly as he could to the homunculus and stabbed him with his spike in the gut. Greed collapsed to his knees and began coughing up blood.

“Now you have it,” Greed said. “You have the ability to take out the other homunculi. You’ve killed somebody in cold blood. You’ll need to be able to do that. You should find your brother out in the courtyard with Marta. Take care of her for me.”

Ed clapped his hands, transforming the arm back, and looked down at Greed’s lifeless body. Without any control of his own, he was collapsing on his knees. He’d killed someone. He’d stabbed him and was now watching him die. Ed curled up into fetal position, or as close as he could between his stomach and his fat suit as the homunculus’s body disintegrated. Angry as he had been with the pyromancer before, he didn’t put up any kind of fight as the older man pulled him into his arms, grunting to pick him up and carry him out of the room.

********

Before boarding the train to Risembool, Roy was on the phone with the fuhrer.

“I trust that Fullmetal escaped unscathed.”

“His automail needs repaired, but physically, he’s fine.”

“It was a risk bringing him out.”

“I know sir. I felt it was a greater risk not to. With his brother in danger, he might have tried to do this on his own. As it was, I went ahead and was able to ensure both his safety as well as that of Major Armstrong.”

“And Major Armstrong is unharmed?”

“He went up against one of the chimeras, but was successful.”

“Were the remaining chimeras destroyed?”

“To the best of my knowledge, Sir. When I discovered that Colonel Archer was there and it was his investigation, I deferred that to him.”

“Very good, Colonel Mustang.”

Roy had managed to get a brief leave to take Ed to see Winry in Risembool, as he had also worked out for the young mechanic to meet them there.

The Flame Alchemist walked onto the train, walking by Al, who was sitting in a bench seat one car ahead of where his brother was.

“Everything okay in there?” Roy asked.

“Yes, sir,” Al answered, as there was a light tapping inside, a signal from Marta, the snake chimera, that she was fine. Because the young woman was still inside of his armor, Al had to stay at the front car of the train, rather than allowing her to see his older brother. Roy walked by and back into the car housing Ed’s private compartment. Roy entered, finding Ed laying on the bed, curled around the bulging stomach. Roy knew that if the teen weren’t so completely exhausted from trying to fight Greed while pregnant he probably would be putting up a brave face, getting on with his mission, but fatigue had taken over, even if it didn’t allow him to sleep.

Cautiously, Roy sat on the bed beside the teen, whose gold eyes looked up at him warily. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry about everything.” Ed said nothing, only slid back on the bed, still cradling his stomach. At first Roy thought this had been a move of fear or disgust, but when he looked down at those gold eyes, eyes that had lost their glimmer, he realized it was an invitation. Instead of standing and moving to the tiny bench across from Ed, Roy tucked his own legs up on the bed, wrapping his arms and legs around the teen.

“He wanted to die,” Roy said. “He wanted to die, and he wanted you to do it. That’s why he pushed you to do it, Ed.” Roy sighed into the blond hair. “I just wish he’d have been satisfied with me killing him. I hate to see that cold stare in your eyes, Ed.”

“I wish Al could be here,” said a voice buried in his chest.

“We can’t let Marta out in the open, Ed.”

“I know.” Then, Roy felt Ed’s flesh hand and wrap around his waist. “Why’d you come here?”

“Because, I’m a stupid ass who said stupid things to the person I love. And I was afraid I’d never get to tell him that.”

There was something muffled from below.

“Ed?”

“I said, I’m still mad at you, but I love you too. Colonel Bastard.”

Roy squeezed onto the blond tighter, content to never move from this spot.