Worlds Collide

A/N: Kisa, thanks. MustangsHavoc, yep, she's a bitch, isn't she. And as for your question about the whole opening the gate, no comment. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, it is definitely going to break Ed and Roy's hearts. Dante's attach was tied in to the use of the philosopher's stone, the Gate encounter, and her struggling not to die. (I'll repeat that later in the story, but just to answer a little, thought I'd mention it.) And you know, you keep glomping Roy, Ed's going to be on your case. xXxHyuugaNejixXx, I know you're upset about Wrath. I didn't want to kill him, but in order for the story to carry on, it had to happen. As for the second part, well, I must say, that is the strangest thing anyone's ever included in a review, and I'm note entirely sure of your intention in what I suspect is a wiccan spell/incantation, after talking to friends.

Also, sorry, no Roy, no Ed, no... a lot of people in this chapter. And sorry it's so short. It just worked this way, and my grandfather was hurt on Wednesday, so I've had problems getting this to work. (still not 100% it does).

Chapter 56

Wrath

“How the hell long are you going to keep me here?” he yelled with three successive pounds to the doorway of the Gate. “I’m getting bored damn it!”

For what felt like the hundredth time since he’d ended up here, Wrath paced the area before the Gate. “Are you ever listening? Can you listen? Look, not that I want to be dead or anything, but this…”

Wrath waved to the blankness around him. “I have watched people who were killed go by me one after another, and you won’t let me go through. Because I’d just as well go back to Russell to be with him and tell Roy and Ed that little bit of information that really, you should have shared if you’re just going to keep me here.”

Admittedly, he didn’t want to cross through the doors he’d kicked, punched and cursed at for the last… however long he’d been there, but Wrath was growing frustrated with being kept in this state of limbo.

“If I’m dead, then why the hell are you keeping me here?” He had someone he loved that he wanted to be with.

He didn’t understand it. A battle, a rather large one, had taken place, and numerous Thules had been killed. He knew this because he’d seen the spirits of the dead pass through the Gate as he’d still been unable—and unwilling—to do. He also failed to understand why he felt so much more cognizant of everything around him when the other spirits had not. He’d seen them, even taunted the hell out of that bitch Eckhart when he’d seen her headed toward a fiery-looking end on the other side of the Gate.

Was there hope for him to go back? Was it possible because he wasn’t as far gone as the others? Was he waiting here for a reason, for someone to bring him back?

He shook his head. There was no point to hope.

Wrath had heard of the stages of mourning, which he supposed he’d gone through in his solitude here, and he’d be damned if he’d go back to denial. He was at the Gate because Aideen… NO, not Aideen. Dante. Dante had killed him.

Dante had used him to open the Gate and bring the Thules through.

But he’d never shake the look on her face when she’d done it, as she stood over his body for just the slightest of moments, he’d seen remorse in those copper and gold depths. He knew from experience that Dante was not capable of such an emotion.

“So, are you male or female?” he asked the Gate. “I just want to know whether to call you a son of a bitch or just a bitch.”

“So, you are resorting to names now?”

Wrath fell on his ass, unceremoniously and rather embarrassingly. “You, you talked. To me! I thought Ed was the only one who could manage it because he was so powerful during the pregnancy.”

“That is part of it,” the voice said impassively, its tones somewhere between male and female. “But his power came from two beings not yet of the world, one of whom never really solidified his own attachment to it.” If it was possible, Wrath would have expected the Gate to sigh. “Which is why you are able to communicate with me now.”

“In other words, I’m dead,” he said, his voice raspy with that statement.

“Yes.”

“There’s no going back? I mean, I have a form here. I’m not, not like them.” He pointed to another arriving spirit, this one a military cadet Wrath had seen once with Armstrong’s son. The young man’s spirit was barely cognitive of its surroundings. The Gate opened to this one, revealing a light that seemed to engulf the spirit waiting at the doors. Despite himself, he thought how pleasant that light looked, how embracing.

At that thought, he mentally berated himself. He would not give in, would not relinquish himself to merely accepting this, even if that meant he was once again in denial. He was too strong for this.

“There is no going back for you, I’m afraid. However, there is a great risk on the horizon for those in your home. Another like you is to be created.”

“Another… you mean a homunculus?”

“Yes.”

“And you know this already?”

“The girl’s father is preparing a transmutation circle as we speak.”

“So, if you’re so all-knowing, why didn’t you warn Ed about Dante?”

“He was warned. He was told the girl would give him trouble.”

“‘Give him trouble?!’” Wrath asked, leaping to his feet. “She’s possessed by an evil soul!”

“And if he was told that? What would have come from it? You have only a few years’ experience. Certainly not enough to understand the ramifications of a child being raised, if she would have been at all, with that over her head. Had you been treated differently by those young alchemists, what would you have become? Do you believe you would have made the sacrifice that allowed you to become human? Do you think you would have become the person that managed to find love twice?”

“Wise asshole, aren’t you?” Wrath groaned, exasperatedly. “So why am I here?”

“The remaining portion or essence of yourself could be beneficial to incorporate into the girl’s makeup.”

“So you want to use me for spare parts?” Wrath asked, incredulous.

“That is a crude, but accurate description, yes. As you were human when you died, it would make it easier for her to achieve her own humanity, just as Ed’s arm and leg aided you.” The Gate was too damned calm, and Wrath would have given anything to face it in a human form just so he could punch it in the face.

“What about me? Can’t I use the spare parts, essence, whatever, and her homunculus body to go back? I have someone I love that’s down there, damn it!”

“You are dead. There is no changing that. The only way you could come back is if one of those alchemists on your world commits a crime against alchemy. And you know the risks involved and the sacrifice they’d ultimately be making.”

Wrath huffed a bit, trying to show he was still angry, while his thoughts were drawn to an image of Russell missing a limb or dying the process of trying to give Wrath life.

“I am giving you the chance to protect Russell. He is the one you love back on that planet, or at least the one you love that way.”

“Protect him?” Wrath scoffed.

“A somewhat human homunculus, rather than a totally inhuman one on that world with him. Consider it.”

As Wrath was, he felt the sensation of strong alchemic power opening the Gate from Amestris. The doors opened, and he saw a silver object making its way toward the sea of tiny hands and eyes. Snatching the piece of metal before it could sail through the Gate, Wrath looked at the thing, twisting the cap open and revealing a letter from Dante, pondering for just a moment that the Gate might have had other reasons for giving him the corporeal form.

“That is the other reason you were kept here,” the Gate said, as though reading his mind, voice louder as the doors remained open.

“‘Dear Thule Society Members,’” Wrath read aloud. “‘I write to inform you that those who have not been killed were captured by the fuhrer in this world, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds.’” Wrath lowered the paper for a moment. “That bitch!” He began reading once again. “’The only way I can expect you to be able to stop him is for you to send your reserve troops through the Gate. If you will not do it for the sake of Shamballa or for your troops, do it for the two women now at his will, the woman Riza and your leader Frau Eckhart.’” Wrath crumpled the piece of paper and pitched it into the void of white that surrounded him. “Complete and utter bullshit! That woman Eckhart came through here. You accepted her into what looked like flames.”

Wrath tried to focus on the here and now and not on how much his heart he no longer had ached for the man he still loved. “Do you have a pen and paper? I’d like to send a different message through you, if you don’t mind.”

“Your real clothing is laying just beside you. I believe you will find some in your right hand breast pocket.”

Wrath looked down at what appeared to be his clothed body, but looked back over to the uniform laying haphazardly on the white floor, which he hadn’t noticed before. “Good. Now, just to send the Thules a message of success and the absolute unnecessary nature of bringing further troops into this battle. As long as I have to sit here, they can just stay where the hell they are. I don’t want breathing in exhaust fumes from their planes.”

“Actually, you—”

“I know, I can’t breathe. Just… shh…. while I write this letter.”

********

Dante looked down at Tucker, trying to reign in her need to taunt the man. He had nearly cost her the cover she’d had a year ago with that training dummy he’d used to teach the chimeras to obey her voice and person.

“What do I do?” Tucker asked, looking at her pleadingly. “I need human blood to complete this. I am very hardly human, and even she,” He looked over at the doll he’d created of Nina. “was made from animals with only the tiniest piece of Nina in her; it might not be enough.”

“And even your Nina wasn’t human entirely when she died, thanks to you.”

Couldn’t resist the opportunity to taunt him, could you?

Dante reached into her pocket, ignoring the sudden inner dialogue, retrieving a vial of bright red blood. “I hope it will be enough. I ‘borrowed’ it on a visit to the hospital with ‘Auntie’ a few days ago. Keeping it hidden and refrigerated wasn’t the easiest of tasks.” She handed it to Tucker.

I hope it was infected and you die from some nasty disease.

Tucker looked at the vial curiously; Dante could only smirk. “You didn’t think I was giving you any of mine, did you?”

Really he should have expected this, but it didn’t stop Dante from finding it amusing that he hadn’t. He began to pour the blood onto the pile of chemicals that also contained a tiny bit of the doll’s blood, for the fact that the thing had been created from Nina’s remains.

Stealthily, Dante slipped from the room as Tucker’s hands connected with the transmutation circle.

Coward.

Dante was a pragmatist, not a coward.

The light from the transmutation was filling the room along with the sounds of pain from the chimera that had once been Shou Tucker.

********

Wrath stood, watching the formation of the tiny body, his uniform coat and shirt lying in front of her. It was a grotesque sight to behold, and it was all the more disgusting to think that he had been formed the same way. Yet, because he had approved that his body be able to help her formation, she did not appear as something sub-human. She had brown hair, large violet eyes—which he felt certain were somehow his influence—sickly pale skin, and appeared to be no more than six years old, younger than even he had been when he’d been a homunculus.

“Little girl,” he said, kneeling in front of her and wrapping his shirt then coat around her body, noticing now it seemed harder to move that a part of himself was in the girl. “Do you understand me?”

The enormous and endearing violet eyes looked terrified but comprehending. He noticed the mark on the left side of her chest. “Sloth,” he said, his voice as lost in thought as his mind. “Little girl?” he fastened the much-too-large-shirt and coat as best he could, his fingers even feeling weak now. “There is going to be a young woman there when you leave this place, I’m certain of it. Right now, she isn’t to be trusted.” He ran his hands over the girl’s hair as comfortingly as he could. “Seek out Frank Archer of Kain Fuery.” He’d considered Ed or Roy, but they’d had too many encounters with homunculi and might not trust the girl. “Tell them Wrath sent you. Tell them that Dante is in Aideen, but I’m sure Aideen is still in there somewhere, fighting. I saw it in her eyes. As for their help. They’re two of the best guys I know. They’ll make sure you’re safe if you ask them for help.”

The tiny head nodded. She understood.

“Have them tell Russell that I love him and miss him, and that I’m gone. I’m dead and he can’t bring me back.” His words nearly choked him as he struggled not to sob.

Little brows furrowed, seemingly at both Wrath’s words and attempts not to cry.

“I know that this doesn’t make much sense to you, death and all that. Just trust me on this.” He could tell he didn’t have long before she was pulled into Amestris to confront Dante? “The redstones,” he said aloud. “She will probably feed you redstones. Try to resist if you can, but remember no matter what they’re made of, or how you were created, you’re not a monster, and you can get a soul if you try hard enough. That young woman will try to tell you otherwise.”

The large eyes looked up at him as he could feel her pulling away to the world from where he’d come. “Bye,” she said in a tiny voice.

“Remember, go to Frank Archer or Kain Fuery and tell them Wrath told you Aideen is still there but Dante has her. That’s the most important thing.”

********

Dante enjoyed the silence in her own mind as Tucker’s body was ripped apart. It seemed that as a chimera, his organs and limbs were not worth so much as Ed’s and Izumi’s had been. She was at enough of a distance and had not touched the transmutation circle, that she felt no fear of being pulled in, herself.

To her surprise, a clothed figure emerged as Tucker became very little more than the original Nina’s corpse had been.

“Hello, my dear,” Dante said, as she stepped out from darkness.

Two very knowing violet eyes looked up at her. Dante couldn’t help but think it was strange, since the girl’s original and even the doll had aqua eyes. “Eat these,” she said, thrusting her hand with the redstones out to the girl. “I’m sure you will find you enjoy them, and there will be far more where they came from.”

The girl tried to fight. No new homunculus ever fought receiving the stones, save for Wrath. “Eat them,” Dante commanded.

Prying the girl’s mouth open with her fingers, Dante was prepared to shove them in when the tiny set of teeth bit down on her, creating enough of a distraction for the girl, her body seeming nothing more than a single fluid movement, leapt up to a crevice in the ceiling and disappeared.

Dante’s plans were slipping out of her fingers, just as the homunculus had, and perhaps that meant it was time to alter them.

She looked around her at the release to the chimeras’ cages. Yes. It was definitely time to alter them.

********

Wrath could hardly move he felt so weak.

“It is time, Wrath,” the Gate said.

“I don’t want to go. Russell…”

“Will be with you one day. You merely need to learn patience.”

“You’re all-knowing. You should know that I don’t do patience.”

“I know.” The Gate’s doors opened, revealing blinding light so warm, so comforting, Wrath could hardly help but step toward it, though Russell was on his mind all the while. He’d sacrificed any chance at going back, even through an alchemic crime, but it meant Russell wouldn’t be in danger from a homunculus.

Looking into the light, he saw a figure, features so similar to his own, hair braided, but a head shorter than himself. The woman had her arms outstretched.

“Mother?” And before he was actually thinking, he found himself in her arms.

“He will be here for you one day,” her voice said as she clung to him. “You’ll miss one another, but he’ll be here.”

Wrath nodded, pulling away from her slightly when he saw a small blond standing behind her, a hand extended in friendship. “It’s been a few years, Ulysses. You made a huge sacrifice. You must have loved him.” Though Wrath was nearly crying, Edward seemed in awe of his actions for Russell’s sake and safety. Even as he took the small hand in his own large one, Wrath sensed only an overwhelming feeling of care and camaraderie from the man who’d once been his lover.

As he turned, hearing the doors to the Gate closing on him, he felt his mother’s strong hand rubbing at his back, comforting him as he allowed the blinding whiteness enveloped him.