For Her. For Him.

A/N: milky, yeah, tension building. Exotic Rose83, this chapter, you'll see the reason for their relationship. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, Glad you're still reading. Sorry it's been so long since I updated. nette, hope you like how this much is resolved. Hikaru_9(hikaru!) The action is getting ready to wrap up with this chapter. kuragari75, action scenes are killers for me, so I know this one took longer to get, but I hope it was worth it. michelle, glad you reviewed, but I thought I always had it set so you could, but they keep changing things here. Anyway, WAFF means Warm and Fuzzy Feeling (Didn't know it until I was selecting all of the stuff for my InuYasha Fic, first fanfic I'd ever done.)

Hope everyone likes this. It took a while to get it all written and be satisfied with it.

Chapter 40

Showdown

Al ran after Gluttony who held Ed like a baby, just as small and as light in his thick arms. The homunculus looked as though it was actually crying as it charged ahead, occasionally muttering about its Lust. It was so determined that it was all Al could manage to do to keep up. The created man was short and his legs seemed to be poorly designed for speed, but yet the thing managed to outrun Al by several steps.

Occasionally, Al could see Ed, when he wasn’t looking at what was ahead of him, turn around to ensure that his younger brother was keeping up. Al ran along from behind, trying not to lose too much ground, looking at the golden eyes that continuously glanced back at him, determination and actual concern hidden in them. Knowing his brother like he did, Al was sure Ed was weighing whether the younger brother should really be following or not. Ed didn’t have a choice in the matter, Al wasn’t going to leave his brother and soon to be family to the hands of a woman who had controlled the homunculi and thus far only managed to cause pain and hurt in her wake. They both know what the consequences could be, but took them willingly.

Until Dante was dead, there would be no peace for either brother, not for their families, not for the country.
Through the forest, then underground through a tunnel, the two Elrics and Gluttony made their way until reaching a cave deep below the world of Central, revealing an entire city, left intact as it must have appeared centuries before.

“Gluttony, where are we?”

“It’s the city where they made the first philosopher’s stone,” a child’s voice said, sounding very somber, said. “It killed your father when he did it. Dante had to use the stone to put him into another body, and the town was buried, and Central built over top. That’s the story that I heard from Envy, when he wasn’t trying to beat me up.” Al turned to find Wrath clinging to the side of the cavern wall, hand imbedded, literally, in the rock. “Gluttony, you take Ed down and I’ll show Al the easiest route down. Stay quiet and let Ed think before you charge in like a stupid bull.”

“Wrath?” Ed asked.

“Mother isn’t sleeping right now.”

Al looked to both Wrath and Ed for some explanation.

“Not sleeping, Al, but all the signs of it,” Ed answered before Gluttony began hopping and climbing down the cavern wall.

Dead. Their teacher was dead.

“Follow me, Al.” Wrath said as he showed Al the path that lead down the cavern wall, slowly reaching what appeared to be an enormous dance hall. It was the only building in the decaying city that had any sign of life, lights glowing through the windows. Gluttony set Ed to his feet outside.

“In there.” Ed and Al looked through cracked windows at the scene of Rose twirling on the floor, baby in her arms, talking to her baby. Though Al had to admit it was nice to see the woman again, and hear that she had regained her voice, it was rather disturbing to hear what she was saying. She was telling her little boy that he was going to be a big brother. That she was soon going to have a little girl. Al looked, nervous, over at his older brother, whose arms had gone protectively around his midsection.

What had been done to Rose? How had she come to this?

“Go,” Gluttony whined.

“Give them time to think,” Wrath ordered the older homunculus.

“Brother?” Al hissed. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Looking to the front of the room, Al could spot Dante in Lyra’s body, standing not far from an immobilized Lust, who continuously coughed up something red. “She doesn’t have long. I think we’re going to have to wing it.”

“Wing it? Brother!”

Ed clapped his hands together and blew apart the wall.

********

Faced with the fuhrer, Roy found himself raking the defensive immediately, getting in a few fire blasts only when it seemed the homunculus felt inclined to allow it. It was as though he was being toyed with. Roy was grateful for his time with the Elrics, improving his skill in this kind of battle. More than once, he’d have he'd have found himself on the wrong end of Pride’s blade, but had managed to evade it, though older-looking homunculi managed to nick him once on his face and twice on his arms.

Roy fought using every technique he knew, even some of those that he’d discovered in some of Riza’s belongings, written by her father. Fireballs, pillars of fire, this homunculus, with his eye patch removed and ouroboros revealed, there was nothing that he couldn’t dodge. Not even a gun Roy had brought seemed to work.

As though seeing Roy’s frustration in their battle, the homunculus chuckled. “I call it the ultimate eye. You can’t beat me. It anticipates each and every one of your movements.”

Once again, Roy shot at the fuhrer with a blast of fire, only to have it dodged, setting a nearby chair ablaze.

“Once again you missed.” The man’s only working eye gleamed malevolently, while the other one, blank save for that red symbol that nearly glowed with the fire around it illuminating it even further. With a cocky grin and determined expression worthy of Ed, Roy smiled. He snapped his fingers once again, praying that the redstones still contained in his state alchemist watch helped him perform this transmutation in more than theory. From the blazing chair, a long, serpentine dragon appeared, curling its body around the fuehrer, giving Roy the opportunity to toss the blade Ed had given him directly at the fiery monster. With a scream, the fuhrer’s body exploded, Roy leaning against the wall. It was over. He’d assassinated the leader of the country, a homunculus. He’d done it.

********

In the streets of Central, the usually meek Fuery was fighting for his life, desperate not to kill men he had considered comrades up until a few nights before. He was trying to make his way to the government radio station, one that insisted to continue transmitting even with the horrors surrounding it. With a small guard of troops behind him, including Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh, Fuery stormed the radio station, a stack of papers and documents buried under his arm, Sheska not far behind with more, herself such a resource, she was buried amidst the soldiers, protected like a rare jewel.

“Under the command of Colonel Roy Mustang and for the sake of the people of Amestris,” Kain said, holding a gun to the man at the front desk, “I am taking control of this station.”

Cocking her own gun, Ross pointed it at a reporter, who sat at a desk, microphone in front of her. “If you want the interview and story of a lifetime, I suggest you listen up.”

The reporter, clad in a corporal’s uniform looked up from the mike nervously.

“Sheska,” Fuery said, looking for the brown hair in the midst of the crowd, “I believe it is time for the two of us to be interviewed.”

Sheska had the facts to back up the story that the master sergeant had been instructed to give by his commanding officer. In order to prevent others from trying to copy the attempts at the philosopher’s stone, Edward’s pregnancy, or to create more like the fuhrer and the other homunculus, certain items needed to be omitted or glossed over in the story.

Sergeant Brosh continued to point a weapon at the man at the front desk, while Fuery joined Sheska beside the reporter and both went into a discussion that left the woman reeling, and it seemed realizing why she had gone into journalism in the first place.

********

Collapsed against the wall, exhausted from the battle, Roy could hear a chuckle emanating from the fire the alchemist had created in the mostly fireproofed library. “I so rarely get to use my abilities as a homunculus,” the shadowy figure emerging from the flames said. “I always wondered what would happen if I were blown up.”

“But the dagger.”

“I will give you credit for your aim, Mustang,” Roy watched as the fuhrer’s body re-formed itself, attempting to snap his fingers for new attacks, but finding that even while trying to restore his body, Pride was able to avoid each assault. “but the dagger shot just a few centimeters off. Really, the blade is much too big to actually strike the center of my rather small ouroboros. Why do you think I gave it to that useless woman and her buffoon sidekick?”

The man’s left eye glowed as Roy attempted to get away, only to feel the sensation of having a blade made hot by his own fire jammed directly into his left shoulder, pinning him to the wall. With a scream of pain, Roy tried to raise his hand, to blast the monster away. Instead, Pride grabbed hold of both of the pyrotex gloves, pulling them off of Roy’s hands.

“I admire your efforts, but I’m afraid they are also making me quite angry.” The fuhrer twisted the blade in Roy’s arm, and the former colonel could feel the muscles being torn and manipulated beneath his skin. Much as he didn’t want to, Roy cried out in pain. “Tell me, do you really think this is going to get you anywhere? If you destroyed me, were you really planning to becoming fuhrer? And of course you have those babies to take care of, don’t you? It’s such a shame you had to interfere in things, Mustang. If you hadn’t, you might actually get to see them grow up. Humans find that important, if I remember right. You are all so emotional.” Another twist of the blade, that by some grace had started to cool from the fire, and another scream followed.

The homunculus tossed Roy’s gloves into the fading fire, turning back to the shorter man, pulling out a second, shorter blade. “You are also so easy to kill.”

“Daddy,” a tiny voice called.

“I’m in here son,” the homunculus called.

“You would let him watch as you kill me?”

“Of course not, but I don’t want him to walk in when I do.”

“Daddy,” the little boy said as he walked in. “Are you okay? The soldiers captured mother.”

“I’m fine. I’ve even caught myself a little rat. Now, I need you to leave the house. Mr. Mustang has destroyed most of the library, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“You care about him,” Roy said, struggling somewhat against the sword, which was released by the homunculus as he turned to his adopted son. “How can you dismiss emotions so easily?”

The fuhrer put his hands on his son’s shoulders. “Go back outside. Wait on the steps for me…” Pride froze in place. “What did you bring?”

The little boy reached into a satchel at his side, pulling out a wrapped item. “You said it was really important. I took it out of the safe when mother and I tried to leave.”

“You fool!”

In horror, Roy watched as Pride tightened his grip around his son’s neck. Grabbing the sword and screaming out as he removed it from his body, Roy grabbed the item the boy had brought, suspecting what it must be as the fuhrer’s son dropped it to the floor. Realizing that Roy now had the object that could destroy him, the fuhrer attacked his former colonel, only to find himself speared with the sword still covered in Roy’s own blood. Grabbing the object in his left hand, straining each of those injured muscles, Roy revealed the skull of the man that Pride had been created to duplicate. Roy moved his right hand up to the wound at his shoulder, wincing as he dipped a finger inside, coating the digit in his own red blood. He brought the hand back down to the left, which still clutched the skull, drawing his alchemy symbol on the back, then pressed the symbol, watching as the weakened homunculus who had been struggling to retaliate, incinerate, his body eventually liquefying as Greed’s had done those months before.

Roy tossed the skull into what remained of the fire, watching as it burnt into ashes as he strained to gather the barely breathing boy into his arms and take him out of the mansion and to someone who could help him, treat his injuries.

He walked through the open front door to find the most horrifying sight he’d think he’d ever see: Frank Archer, half a battered robot of automail, half still the man he’d known from the time he’d been a teenager.

“Give me a kiss, Roy,” Archer said, struggling to raise a useless automail arm, and instead opening his mouth.

********

Beneath the battle above, Ed now faced Dante.

“Let her go!” he shouted.

“Why, because you had a deal with her?” Looking at the other two homunculi and Al, she smiled, twisting Lyra’s lips upward almost unnaturally. “I cannot believe you actually brought me your brother as well. You’ve just delivered to me everything I need.”

As Ed stood on the dance floor, Rose twirled by him, holding her baby out from her, smiling. “A new baby. I’m going to have a new baby.” Ed grabbed her arm, stopping the twisted little dance. “Hello, Edward. I’m going to be a mommy again. I’m so excited.”

With his left arm, the one that hadn’t been holding the older woman, he smacked her across the face, sending the dusting of pink bangs flying. “Listen to yourself Rose. You had this boy because you were raped and won’t let anyone near you now. How the hell do you think you’ve managed to have a second child? Look at me, Rose, you are not going to have another baby, and though you might make a great mother for them, I have no intention of letting you raise mine.”

Stunned, both by Ed’s uncharacteristic physical move as well as his harsh words, Rose stopped her dance, clutching the black-haired boy to her chest. “Rose, she’s trying to control you, trying to manipulate you. You can’t let that happen. Use those damned strong legs, Rose and get the hell out of here before she tries again.”

“You let her leave, I’ll kill her!” Dante shouted.

“No! My Lust!” Gluttony leapt through the hole that Ed had created in the wall, grabbing hold of Rose’s arms.

“The redstones are gone,” Lust said, wiping her mouth. “I can die now.” In shock, Ed watched as she made a strenuous attempt to extend her fingers. “Gluttony, let the girl go.” Gluttony obeyed the woman who he saw as his true master, letting Rose go to run away in horror, only to watch as Lust impaled herself. “You won’t use me as bait,” she said with a smile.

“No!” Gluttony cried out as he charged toward Dante, followed behind by Al and a much slower-moving Edward.

“Ed, Al, don’t!” Wrath shouted.

“Gluttony, obey your master!”

“You killed my Lust.”

“She killed herself,” Dante answered as Ed struggled against Wrath’s grip, watching in horror as Dante clapped her hands, calling forth a large spear, hurling it at Al, cracking his armor. “How many of those attacks do you think he can take?” Within Al, the swirling red substance glowed brighter than before.

With strength that should have been beyond him had it not been for the need to protect his little brother, Ed pulled free of Wrath’s grip, managing to run toward Al a few steps more.

“You should just accept that you are going to lose your brother and your daughter,” Dante said. “I’m going to take them both. Just accept it and get out of here. Maybe I’ll let you and your little boy live.”

“You aren’t getting either of them, you bitch.”

“You killed my Lust!” Gluttony said, looking ready to pounce on the dark-haired woman. Ed ran at her as well, as fast as he could move, Wrath following behind, still shouting at him to stop. Even Al was moving closer to the woman.

“Transmutation circle, Ed! Don’t move!” Wrath shouted, but as Ed finally stopped, understanding finally what the boy had been trying to tell him, he watched as Gluttony attempted to engulf the woman, while she tried to blow him apart, their shared blood spreading onto the barely seen circles that covered the floor and walls, activating Al and drawing Ed and Wrath into the transmutation.

********

Raine heard the sound of gunfire from the fuhrer’s mansion, and ignoring all else, she ran up the hill, finding a half-man standing at the front gate, looking to be reloading his automail guns. She leapt at the monstrous man, activating her transmutation circles as she did. She could just barely see the figure of a dark-haired man and a child on the front steps. In her anger, she yelled out unintelligibly, clasping onto the tall man’s shoulder.

The man turned his face to her, and she realized in horror that it was the same man she had saved at Lior.
“You bastard!” she yelled. Her onyx eyes grew cold, and as she began forcing the man’s body to reject and separate from his automail. “I’ve heard that automail rejection is the most painful thing a person can experience. I hope that’s true, you son of a bitch!”

Watching as he collapsed in pain, his body pulling away from metal, Raine released her hold and ran to her little brother, trying to hold back stinging tears as she saw that he’d suffered a blow to his head, one that had created a growing puddle of blood around it.

********

Ed stood beside his brother and Wrath once again in front of the gate.

“Hello again, Edward,” a voice said from nowhere.

“Who are you?” Ed yelled out.

“Brother, who are you talking to?”

“You didn’t hear that?”

“They cannot hear me, Edward. Only you because you have triple the alchemic power you did the first time you visited.”

“The babies…” Ed said, while Wrath and Al looked at him strangely--as strangely as a suit of armor can.

“It takes a great deal of power to be able to communicate with me. For the moment, you possess that. Tell me Ed, what is it that you want? Were you unhappy with the results last time?”

“You brought a monster back and took my brother’s body. Now we have the philosopher’s stone, and we want his body back.”

“Brother…”

“I can hear the gate. I can’t explain now.”

“And what of the little homunculus?” the gate asked.

“He wants a human body.”

“I cannot give him a human body and just plant him back on Amestris. Equivalent exchange, you know, and a homunculus’s body is not equivalent to the creation of a human one. You should know that as well as anyone”

“What do you mean you can’t give Wrath a body?” The young homunculus looked at Ed as he spoke those words.

“What of a soul, Edward? What do we do for a soul?”

“It isn’t fair,” Ed answered.

“Of course it isn’t. But in the case of your brother, perhaps we can give him back his body for an equal exchange. You are carrying two babies? Why not one of those. The girl seems like she could be a handful for you and her other father.”

“My babies are not sacrifices!” Ed yelled out.

“No, they’re not! I’d rather stay in this metal than lose my niece and nephew,” Al yelled out, as though he hoped he could be heard if not hear.

“I need a sacrifice to bring back your brother, Edward. You know that. The stone brought you here to make this exchange with me, but isn’t the sacrifice.”

“Not my babies!” Ed said again. “Find some other sacrifice.”

“Me.” Wrath looked to the gate. “Take me. You get a homunculus and the arm and leg of an alchemist for the price of Al’s body. But if I make that sacrifice, no tricks. You bring him back completely intact, got that, bastard gate?”

“Wrath, you can’t,” Ed said, hearing Al say nearly the same.

“I can.”

“Acceptable.” The gate opened. “A homunculus who’s developed a soul is so much more valuable than a shell of a body.”

“Wait! A soul! But you said--”

“The trade was accepted.” The gate pulled Wrath forward.

“Goodbye. Maybe I’ll find Mother here.”

“Wrath no!”

With that, Wrath was gone, and Ed was reawakening in the large hall below Central, the naked body of a taller teenager beside him. Tears streaming down his face, Ed walked over to the tattered curtains on a nearby window, then draped the cloth over the naked body. He then knelt beside his brother, ignoring a growing pain in his back, which he was surprised was all that was hurting after what he’d been through this night, clapped his hands, creating a platform beneath himself and the unconscious form of his brother. He forced the platform to rise as he watched his brother shift, brown eyes opening.

“Brother,” Al said, his voice somewhat deeper than it had been in the armor, “what happened? Where are we?”

“Beneath Central, Al.”

“Why are we here?” Al looked at Ed strangely as he moved to press his hand to the ceiling, breaking through the stone roof. “And why do you look so much older?” Al’s eyes shifted down to Ed’s stomach. “What happened to you?”

The stone parting above him, Ed looked at his brother. “Al, how much do you remember?”

“We were trying to bring mother back. Did it work?”

“No, Al, it didn’t work.” Ed could feel tears continuing to stream down his face as he pulled his brother into an embrace. He was intact, whole, but his memory, the years they’d spent were missing.

“What happened to you?” Al asked, returning his older brother’s hug.

“I’ll explain later,” Ed said, releasing the sandy-haired teen. “But, first, I’ll need your help. We have to get to the surface.” Ed knelt down again, grateful the pain in his back seemed to have reached its intensity and was dying down. He pressed his hands to the platform he’d created. “When we reach the cave ceiling, can you carefully break through while I raise us up?”

Al nodded. “You’re crying.”

“I’ll explain that, too, but not now.” Not now, not when he needed to get to Roy, to make sure he was safe, to get Al to a doctor who can make sure he was healthy.

********

Above them, Havoc could hear Sheska and Fuery being broadcast in radios throughout Central, the story of the monsters who had been in control of the country being aired for all to hear. As the story began to make more sense and each accuaation Kain made was backed up by evidence from Sheska. The effect of the broadcast was obvious on the crowd as other soldiers began to stop fighting agaisnt the rebelling ones, all of the facts and statements making sense.

A/N: Anyone wondering why I felt bad for Archer, it's because I knew I was going to kill him this way, and it was going to be even more painful than the bullets.