Worlds Collide

A/N: xXxHyuugaNejixXx, ah, yeah. Like I said, I wasn't familiar with that phrase and got a little confused when I saw it. MustangsHavoc, thanks. Sorry for the cliffy, but hopefully since I'm on vacation I can get more done. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, I'm afraid poor Ed's just too trusting of his daughter. And yes, Sloth/Nina messed up that detail, but it was Wrath's mistake for repeating it that way.

Chapter 58

Suffering

The brat was actually returning her embrace! It took everything in Dante’s power not to laugh at that moment. Some military man he was. He was finding “Aideen” in Dante’s lair and when she runs to him, he hugs her. He just simply couldn’t believe his little girl could be possessed. Really, it was amusing.

And, after all, wasn’t that exactly what Dante had counted on after all these years?

It seemed that no matter how strange the behavior was for the girl, the two fathers would always dismiss it.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” the brat said as he clung tightly to Dante’s shoulders. “I was so worried.” He pulled back and looked up into Dante’s eyes. She looked down at him after noticing they were very close to the wall. “Aideen, I need you to tell me if you’ve seen Dante. Did she do anything to you?”

Carefully, in her tearful state, Dante maneuvered Ed closer to the wall, clapping her hands behind his back. “Oh, Ed,” she said, her voice lacking all signs of distress she’d put into it when she’d first seen him. “I’m right here.” She pressed her hands to the wall, and before the brat could react, he was restrained by the stone wall, gaping at her in shock and horror.

It was enough to make her smile.

********

Russell pulled out his gun and began ordering troops. He wasn’t as skilled a marksman as General Havoc or some of the other men in the military, but the simple fact was that a bag of seeds would only go so far in the mostly dark city. He also knew that if what was coming toward him was what he thought, then he was certain the creatures growling as they approached ever so slowly had a definite advantage over him.

Despite the risk of halting his retreat, Russell stopped and drew a transmutation circle on the ground, trying to create a barrier that might, with any hope stop, or at least delay the approaching monsters.

He wished he’d had some skill at the incorporation alchemy Wrath had practiced and Nicholas had so easily learned. Maybe then he wouldn’t feel so defenseless. As it was, Russell felt as though he might as well have been facing down a lion with nothing more than a twig or a slingshot. Lingering in the back of his mind as he ran off, prepared to create another barrier after a few more feet of cobblestone street, not to mention a few straggling soldiers from one of the side streets.

Watching them run behind hew newly created barrier to the barricades where the chimera—because Russell had very little doubt that was exactly what the things were—would be easier to fight off and would almost certainly come, as these things seemed to be tracking for human blood, Russell couldn’t help but think of Wrath, despite himself. If he held onto the faith that Wrath had survived the initial attack of the Thules, that meant there was a strong possibility he was down in the city. When the first of the screams started, the sign that the chimeras were finally killing the soldiers who hadn’t made it to a fortified area in time, Russell listened for the familiar deep voice.

A loud shriek above him startled the alchemist, making him turn his gun upwards to the stone ceiling. He could see the form of something, just a moving shadow in the darkness above him. The thing shrieked again as he began firing his weapon at it. As the splatter of something warm hit his face, Russell didn’t have to guess if he’d hit the thing. Still, he guessed he’d not dealt a fatal blow, as the creature still moved in the air above him. He needed to strike a vital organ, or at the very least one of the monster’s wings. He continued to fire as the thing drew closer.

A sharp talon tore into his arm, but Russell continued to fire, trying to ignore the ripping sound and excruciating pain as he brought the thing to the ground. With his good arm, Russell slid the gun back in the holster, moving to the bag of seeds and activating them. They wouldn’t last long here, but if he could make them ram through the chimera before the lack of sun and forced rapid growth expended them too quickly, he could kill the thing.

As the seeds hit the ground and began to grow into vine spikes that pierced the flesh of the thing, they soon died and were nothing more than wooden stakes going through the creature’s lifeless body.

Unfortunately, he could hear more of the things coming closer, drawn by the smell of fresh blood, both the chimera’s and Russell’s.

********

Frank ran back into the tent where the girl sat, still dressed in Wrath’s uniform coat and shirt. There were reports of chimeras coming near this part of the city, and he wasn’t sure if the young thing would know how to defend herself.

“Come with me,” he said, opening his arms and offering to carry her.

She held her arms outstretched, and leapt into his, something he knew she wouldn’t have been able to achieve if she had been fully human.

“Those monsters are here, aren’t they?” she asked. “The ones from below here?”

“Yes,” he answered, wrapping her legs around him. “We’re going to try to find you someplace safe.”

“No. I can fight. I fought her.”

“Who?”

“The woman with the redstones. I bit her.”

“Well, biting is entirely different than fighting chimeras.” He stepped out of the tent, cradling the girl to him. “Kain, we need to get Nina out of here, send her with Riza.”

“I told you I want to fight. I can fight.” The girl in his arms was adamant.

“Frank,” Kain said as he emerged from the tent, “we’re going to have to get the girl out of here now. There’s something more going on here. One of the radio operators’ messages was ended abruptly.”

Frank could guess there was more to this, maybe something the younger man didn’t want to say in front of the girl. Rather than say anything that might disturb the child in his arms, Frank only nodded in response.

“Really, I never thought I’d see the day that Frank Archer cradled a little girl,” a snide voice said from nearby. Frank and Kain turned to see a major, one who would likely stall exactly in the rank, looking at the suspected homunculus intently as he held a gun, aiming it right at Frank. “I need to ask you to hand over the girl.”

“Upon what authority?” Kain asked.

“One higher than you. That’s all you need to know.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to need a bit more than that,” Frank answered, turning the girl away from the man.

“Let me go,” the girl asked, calmly. “I’ll fight.”

“I’m not going to make a little girl fight, Nina.”

“Colonel Archer, I’m asking you to hand over that child in your arms.”

“If you think I’m going to listen to you, you really are kidding yourself.”

There was noise coming from the car where Riza had been waiting, gunfire, yelling, just enough to make the major panic and fire the gun into Frank’s right shoulder.

Though he hadn’t intended on it, his grip on the girl loosened and she slid from his arms, launching herself at the major. Kain had suspected she wasn’t entirely human, but to watch her fight now, it seemed very obvious that was the case. She moved fluidly, to put it mildly, as she leapt at the other man, her arms wrapping around his neck more times that could be humanly possible. In pain, Frank fell to his knees, watching as the girl forced the man to collapse, unconscious.

“Release him,” Kain ordered her.

“But he hurt your friend.”

“Yes, but we can’t get any answers from him if he’s dead.”

“Please, let him go. If you keep squeezing, he’ll be dead.”

The girl’s arms unraveled from the man, and she immediately went to Frank’s side to look at the bullet wound. “Why did he want me?”

“Because you’re very special.” Frank looked into the very familiar violet eyes, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear before glancing up at his husband. “Go check on Riza. I’m okay.”

“With just the girl—Nina?” Kain asked, though whether he felt he was leaving a poor defender with Frank or he was concerned that the little girl might harm him, the older man didn’t know.

“I’ll guard him.” The violet eyes looked as serious as the tone in her voice.

With that, Kain nodded and left.

********

Fletcher began running back to the center of town, near the fuhrer’s home. He could see the beginnings of the brick wall that protected the Mustang family from intruders, but despite feeling he was so close to where Aideen was, the noise he heard froze him in his tracks. He’d heard that noise once before, and he’d hoped he’d never hear it again. Working in the greenhouse and arboretum next to the Central Zoo, he was familiar with the noises that normal animals made. Nothing he was hearing at the moment fell into that category.

The pained cry of something unnatural, something that knew it wasn’t meant to be pierced the air and sent an involuntary shiver down Fletcher’s spine. Moments like that, when he was certain his nerves would give out on him, Fletcher felt ashamed and questioned why he’d gone from being freelance, as Al still was, to being a full-fledged State Alchemist. He’d have gotten the state funding, and his brother had decreased his work with plants for research and gathering the history of alchemy in Amestris—which would be why he’d earned the title the Tome Alchemist, a fact that Russell still despised, being essentially “the book alchemist”—making him the only one what the skill and knowledge to do the work with plants as he’d been doing.

But, despite his doubts, Fletcher didn’t care, military or not. He was going to be here and he was going to find Aideen, if for no other reason than to know that she was still very much alive and safe.

Reaching into the sling-style bag at his hip, Fletcher grabbed a handful of seeds, wishing he had some method of fighting that was a little more intimidating than tossing seeds at his enemy. He saw a flash of brown run past him, down to the next road. Following the thing, Fletcher saw the fuhrer and two of his guards putting up a fight against the thing.

Throwing the only weapon he could use properly, Fletcher captured the hairy thing in the vines that slowly squeezed the life out of the chimera. Roy nodded his thanks as Fletcher ran to his side.

“If I can manage to hold them off, we need to get you to Aideen,” Fletcher yelled to the fuhrer. Again, there was a quick nod.

********

Ed watched as the face of his own daughter was twisted into a very self-satisfied sneer. “Really, you should be ashamed of yourself, not recognizing my presence here.”

“How long have you been in there?” He managed, letting out his anger, rather than the grief that was rising with the knowledge that Dante’s presence had to surely mean his daughter’s was gone. “How long?!”

Dante said nothing, but looked at his automail hand. “You know, it is really amazing to think that a few years ago, were I to do something to your automail, you would never have felt it. How beneficial for me now.” She smiled as Ed struggled against his restraints.

“Talk, damn it! How long have you been there?”

“Oh,” she said, tracing her fingers over Ed’s still unfeeling automail arm, “do you really think that I am going to make the stupid mistake of telling you my ever plan from the beginning? I mean, I’m willing, but that isn’t going to stall for you.” She reached near the juncture to his shoulder and smiled wider. “Ah, here it is.” She sounded much too delighted. She pressed her finger to the transmutation circle, activating the connection to every one of Ed’s nerves. “And to answer your first question and, I’m sure, your second as well, I know about that circle because I’ve been here since the very beginning. There has never been a day of her life when I’ve not been able to observe your every movement.”

“No,” Ed yelled out. “My daughter. No.”

“Already incoherent, Ed? But I haven’t even begun to torture you. You’re spoiling my fun.” She sighed, clapping her hands before wrapping a hand around his index finger, destroying it on contact. It felt as though it was being ripped off by the Gate all over again. Not crying out wasn’t an option, but as she clapped her hands to do it again to the next available finger, keeping from whimpering was.

“My, I wonder how much you could withstand before you beg me not to do it again. Would you be interested in wagering a guess? Hmm?”

“Fuck you!”

“Oh, my how familiar and unoriginal.” She disintegrated yet another finger, and he cried out again. “Now, I wonder, do two fingers hurt worse than one or does it all equal one excruciating pain in the end? Because really, I would love nothing more than to see you suffering.” She clapped her hands again, and prepared for the worst, Ed closed his eyes. Instead of disintegrating more of his automail, she pressed them to the wall again, this time a collar coming out to restrain his neck to the wall and a second piece reaching out to hold his head to his right side to watch her do her work. Once there was a clap and the feeling of cool lips pressed to his forehead. “Does it hurt more to feel this done to you or to witness your own daughter doing it?”

“You’re not my daughter!”

Dante chuckled again. “But you’ve all but raised me, Daddy.” She enclosed his ring and pinkie finger with her hand. Again, there was blinding pain, and a scream ripped from Ed’s lips. “Oh, my, that sounds like it hurt worst than the last time. I wonder what the agony would be for the remaining piece of your hand and thumb. Let’s find out, shall we?”

“What does torturing me get you?” Ed asked, his voice hardly more than a croak from the last scream.

“Well now, that nearly sounds like a beg for me to stop.” She chuckled. “Actually, Ed, it gets me a lot of fun. You have no idea how much I love the idea of hurting you. I have chimeras running through the city, I have troops who answer to me over your husband, and I have Thules preparing on the other side of the Gate. I can take my time with you because my orders have already been given and are being carried out as we speak.” She wrapped her hand around his, and in that flash, it was gone, drawing not only the stinging tears or the shout of agony, but the whimper as Ed watched her hand. “I know I shouldn’t get this much enjoyment out of this, and the fact that I am seems to only prove that I’ve lost my mind, but to tell the truth, I don’t think I care so much. You and your pathetically soft-hearted brother are the reason that Hohenheim stayed away, and you nearly got me killed. Though, I suppose, I should thank you for providing me with such an athletic, beautiful and powerful host.”

“Now, for the arm. Perhaps, we’ll start at the wrist.” Her hands clapped together, and she hovered over Ed’s remaining piece of arm for several seconds, her face seemingly blank.

Then a cry, not Ed’s own, rang out through the darkness. “No!”

Had his head not been restrained, Ed would have looked for the source of the cry. He looked down at his arm, and saw that Dante had stopped her assault at least momentarily. “Oh, Dad. I couldn’t… She was too strong… I’m so sorry.”

********

Kain hated leaving Frank and Nina together, alone, but he really felt as though he had no choice. Gun drawn, he approached the car where he’d left the Earth Riza, expecting to find her injured, possibly dead, at the very least captured. Some of the troops had knowledge that Nina was unique, obviously. They would have to see this once-dead woman and suspect the same. They would see this dead woman, assuming they could get some kind of reward for having found her from their leader. A leader, who was most likely Dante.

But to Kain’s surprise, he found a man with his right shin shot out from underneath him and the figure of a woman in brown pants and a white shirt standing over him, foot to his throat and gun to his head.

“Riza?” Kain yelled. “He attacked you?”

“Yes,” she answered, never taking her eyes off the man who had tried to harm her. “But he’s going to cooperate. Aren’t you?” she asked the man on his back.

“Y-yes.”

“Very good,” Riza said to the trapped man in a tone that sounded so like her counterpart Kain could little help the strange feeling it evoked. “You see, I debated staying out of this battle, but since their side’s the only one that’s going to guarantee I get to see my boys and husband again, looks like I’m fighting against you.’

********

“Slow down, will you?” Hohenheim yelled out to his grandson.

“I can’t afford to,” the teen yelled over his shoulder as they charged out of the building. “Run faster.”

Hohenheim was about to remind Nicholas that he wasn’t a sixteen-year-old when the boy opened the front door of the house, and the sign of yet another battle obvious outside. “The chimeras!” Nicholas said. “They’re back.”

Hohenheim was aware that the teen had lost his hand three years before when chimeras had first attacked the city. He’d thought the teen would look frightened at the sight of these creatures again. Instead, that seemed to be the opposite case. Nicholas appeared to be steeling himself for battle once again, a fact that was all but proven by the clap of his hands that transformed his arm into a spike.

“You can’t fight like that!” Hohenheim yelled, looking at the teen, still clad in nothing more than a pair of pajama pants.

“I’m not wasting time like that,” Nicholas said. “A bullet or a set of claws will cut through a shirt as easily as it would a bare chest.” He ran down the steps and charged toward a bear-like thing that was climbing over the brick wall. “Are you coming?”

“Somehow, I think you have a slight advantage,” Hohenheim yelled as he clapped his hands and rammed a spear of stone through a flying chimera that was approaching Nicholas.

“Thanks, old man,” Nicholas yelled back as he sliced through the arm of the bear chimera.

“It isn’t wise to insult the man who is covering your back,” Hohenheim replied as he watched the young man fighting with more skill than seemed right in someone of his age.

********

Phillip Armstrong had been part of the group allowed to remain in Central. Many of the cadets were first generation, and despite his inexperience, Phillip was given the interesting position of being in charge of a unit of his own. There was a risk, of course, but he was not frightened. He’d prepared for this, not only in the short time he’d been at the academy, but from watching his father and the fuhrer.

However, while their commands had come from General Breda, a first lieutenant came running up, trying to get Phillip to relinquish command.

“I come on direct orders from the general.”

“What general?”

“General Havoc.”

“Oh, because I don’t recognize you from his command. If I remember right, you’re a lieutenant that falls under my father’s chain of command, though somewhat indirectly.”

“Your father?”

“Yes,” Phillip said, hand itching over the gun he had been given to use. “Do you know him?” Phillip watched the man’s hand hovering over his own weapon, but had not drawn it yet. “General Armstrong? I also happen to know, that as General Havoc is a friend of our family, he never sends a troop who isn’t a member of his own chain of command. So, why are you here, Lieutenant?”

“You aren’t to question me, cadet.”

“Perhaps not, but with dissention in the ranks occurring at the moment, it would be prudent.” There were a lot of mistakes he’d made, many moments of insecurity, but there was no room for error here. This was a delicate situation, and it was all Phillip could do to signal his troops to make contact with superior officers to help.

********

The restraints were now gone, but Ed couldn’t remember how it happened. Ignoring his confusion at that moment, he launched himself forward, clapping his hands and painfully transforming what remained of his arm into a spear that he held at the throat of his attacker. He saw something in those gold and bronze eyes, something that hadn’t been there moments before. With his hesitation, the steel pierced the skin

“Please. Do it.” He looked into the eyes again, seeing the pleading look in those eyes. “Please.”

“Aideen?”

“Please. I’ve tried so hard to make you hate me, can’t you just remember how terrible I was? Dad, she won’t let me do it myself. Kill me.”

“Aideen?”

“Dad, kill me. Finish it before she hurts you more, before she hurts anyone else.”

“We can save you, Aideen, we can.”

“Dad,” she said, grabbing hold of the metal weapon at his neck and holding it firmly. “Maybe if we had all the research that I tried to collect, but there isn’t time, and she’s getting stronger. I wouldn’t even be able to do this if Fletcher hadn’t taught me how to meditate.”

Yes, that was a rather obnoxious lesson for me.

“Dad, she’s getting stronger. She’ll be back. Please. Kill. Me.”

Ed closed his eyes, unsure if he could manage the resolve to do as she asked. He felt her other hand move to the metal, clasping at her own, but that was followed by blinding pain as his entire arm was ripped off.

“Too late, Brat.”