Worlds Collide

A/N: empress-eerian-sadow, I'm glad you finally reviewed. Though, I'm going to have to tell you that it's going to be a while before anything happy. Amethyst-eyed Koneko, thanks for reviewing, and I'm afraid we have another evil cliffy here.

Oh, and major pimp for hikaru_9, who does awesome fanart in general, but who did an incredible pic of Aideen and Nicholas at http://hikaru-9.livejournal.com/30413.html#cutid1

Chapter 59

Death

Hohenheim clapped his hands to the ground yet again, watching in gruesome interest as one more chimera fell to the ground dead. He’d never really been a fighter, but to know that Dante was once again threatening his family, something in him snapped.

“I see where they’ve come from. I’m going to follow them down!” Nicholas yelled. “Hold them off!”

“Nicholas, you can’t go down there alone.”

"Then you shouldn't have told me you're sure Aideen is Dante when we can't get through to anyone on the radio!"

"It will be dangerous. You can't face Dante by yourself, especially if she looks like your own sister!"

"She's tried to kill herself. It won't be hard to fight her if I know my sister's in there. Because that's the only way I know she's going to be safe."

"You can't face her alone. You won't know what you're up against!"

“See those fireballs, they’re my papa. I won’t be alone for long, but if Dad’s already down there, and Aideen’s still in there somewhere, I’m not going to risk it by waiting.” Nicholas was running off toward bushes at the edge of the lawn. “Just cover me!”

“Fine, but if you die, I’ll come after you myself when your dad kills me!”

“I didn’t know you could make a joke!” Nicholas yelled back before disappearing.

“I wasn’t joking,” Hohenheim mumbled to himself as he quickly made plans for the chimera he could hear making its way around the corner.

********

“Sir, I am not about to turn over these cadets to you. Their actions fall under the leadership of General Breda, not Havoc, not even my father. So most certainly neither they nor I will be answering to you.” Phillip looked the older man in the eyes, trying to make himself look intimidating.

“And, sir, your hand may hover over your weapon for hours. You may even use that gun at your hip to get rid of me, but I assure you that these cadets are loyal to the fuhrer and will take you out. I do question, however, where your loyalty lies. Is it with the same person that David Patterson sided with?”

“You are a fool to follow the fuhrer. He will go out the same way the one before him did.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. He’s a strong man. A good man." Phillip eyed the man opposite him. He'd meant the words he'd said about the fuhrer, and he could tell the man opposite him did not feel the same. "Tell me, do you take your orders from Dante?”

The man didn’t answer, but the silence and the momentary reaction on the soldier's face were enough. This man served Dante, the person who’d captured Aideen, the person who was possibly hurting the woman Phillip still loved, regardless of the last few months’ events.

“Traitor,” Phillip hissed, brown eyes narrowing.

In a quick motion, the lieutenant pulled his gun, Phillip doing the same only half a second later. He heard the two gunshots echo through the border lands, but for the teen, he saw only darkness.

********

Frank felt the girl’s cool hands on his forehead. “That really hurts, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“Doesn’t tickle,” he answered, teeth nearly clenched.

“I don’t know pain,” she said.

“Lucky you.” Knowing what this child was, Frank wanted to remain cold to her, but as she looked down at him, one hand gently rubbing at his head, another holding a piece of fabric over his still-bleeding shoulder, it was incredibly difficult.

“Why did you ask for us?” Frank asked.

“The big man told me to.”

“Big man?”

“With dark hair in funny strands,” she said, eyes looking so similar to Wrath’s as she tried to remember. “He told me to see you. The last thing he said was Dante had Aideen. Before that he told me to give Russell, whoever that is, a message, before that, it was just about the same message to you two, that Dante is Aideen, but Aideen’s in there. He also told me about redstones and that I can be more human, I guess that’s what you are.”

“Dante is Aideen?” Frank asked, having finally processed that statement.

“Yes, Dante is Aideen, Dante has Aideen and Aideen’s still in there. I’d like to meet Aideen. He said a lot about her.”

“Nina,” Frank said, “can you pull the radio from the holster at my side and press the button on the side, quickly.”

The girl nodded and obeyed, removing the thing and pressing the button. “Hold it to my mouth,” he said, as his own hand was now holding the rag to the wound. “To all who hear this, approach Aideen Mustang with extreme caution.” Frank was going to have to lie, but do it effectively enough that no one was put in danger. “There is an imposter posing as the fuhrer’s daughter. I repeat. Aideen Mustang may be an imposter, approach with caution.”

********

“Now that we’ve got that troublesome arm out of the way, let’s see what we can do about your leg.”

Dante watched as Ed tried to scramble away, still half-blind in the pain from his arm, and not moving nearly fast enough to get away from the younger body. It was amusing that in his agony, Ed seemed to have forgotten that he was an alchemist and could still draw a transmutation circle that could block her approach. Remembering the transmutation to activate the automail, Dante grabbed hold of the smaller man’s ankle with a quick lunge. The gold eyes widened in fear, real, true fear just before Dante clapped her hands and deteriorated the now-feeling leg in one swipe.

The small man threw his head back and arched his body as he screamed. Really, had she not been the creator of the circumstances of his pain, she’d have thought him in ecstasy to look at him. Despite himself and his foolish pride, Ed was crying now in his agony. Dante waited to hear any number of things from his lips, something about the pain or his limbs, but it wasn’t. None of his concern after all she’d put him through was for himself.

“Aideen,” he said, quietly, as though trying to call the girl out.

“I’m afraid I have control again, and I don’t plan on letting her out.”

“Stronger…” Ed gasped for breath. “than you.”

“Oh, that might have been true, but you’d be surprised what a little rape does to break the spirit.”

“You fucking…monster!”

“No worse than you! She tried to warn you, leaving all that information out about me, practically pointing to herself as the host, and what did you do? You threw it away, you removed the markers and destroyed more hope than I ever had.”

Ed was nearly reduced to tremors as his nerves were trying to recover from the pain. Even funnier was the fact that he was trying to fight his body’s natural reaction to the trauma Dante had induced. That only served to make him shake harder against the restraints, tears staining his dust-covered face. It was so deliciously pitiful.

Dante laughed as she clapped her hands and once again bound Ed, this time to the floor. “Oh, I’ve been called much, much worse. Now,” she said, “we’re out of parts that don’t bleed.” She clapped her hands and let her hand hover, prepared to retrieve the spear she’d just created.

“Keep your hands off of him!” Dante glanced to the shadows at one of the tunnel’s openings. “You want to fight, fight me.”

********

Fletcher was growing more and more frustrated. It seemed that for every two feet they gained toward the house, they lost one. And now, they weren’t dealing with solely chimeras, but a few defecting units, soldiers who had decided they had no reason to be faithful to their fuhrer and country. Attacking the chimeras on his own, allowing Roy to advance toward his home, had been easy enough, but chimeras only so intelligent. Fighting a human opponent was another story all together. These men were capable of dodging and fighting the vines the plant alchemist created, where they caught the chimeras off-guard.

So, instead, chimeras were mostly his territory, whereas he worked alongside Roy to go after the rebelling soldiers. Though neither man would admit it, thanks to their animosity over Aideen, they worked rather well together.

There was another blast, another capturing of a chimera, when Fletcher found himself now standing on the same block as the fuhrer’s home.

“Fletcher! Behind you!” Roy yelled, giving the younger man a chance to turn, throw more of the seeds that wrapped around the large chimera as it was about to attack. Though Fletcher still earned a scratch on his leg that knocked him to his knees, it was obvious the injuries could have been much worse. Roy ran over to him, helping him to his feet, all antagonism forgotten. “Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Yes, Sir. I was startled more than anything.”

Roy nodded and the two stood, nearly back to back as they inched closer to the largest source of the chimeras and Aideen’s reported location.

********

“We need to get back to Frank,” Kain said to Riza as he dragged the man she’d captured behind him. The woman nodded and followed, keeping the gun she’d apparently gotten from her dead guard trained on her attacker’s head. Along one of the side streets, there was a quick flash of something brown.

“What was that?” she asked.

“A chimera most likely, a mesh of different animals done through alchemy.” There was a momentary pause from Riza before the two continued on with their prisoner. Kain heard from the radio on the prisoner’s side the sound of Frank’s voice, warning the troops against Aideen.

“Why is he warning against Aideen? An imposter?”

“It’s too difficult to explain,” Kain said, his pace quickening to the front of the tent where the child was defending Frank as he shot the thing. The girl’s arm practically dissolved into a liquid, which she proceeded to force down the growling animal’s mouth, drowning it quickly and retracting her arm back to herself. She looked down at her hand with disgust.

“It’s covered in drool,” she said, as though that was the only thing repulsive about what she’d done.

Then, she looked up at Kain with a smile. “I told you I would protect him.”

********

Nicholas stepped into the cavern, trying not to immediately run to his father. If he did, it was almost certain that Dante would use that to her advantage.

“I said, fight me. At least it will be a fair fight. I’m coming into this knowing exactly who you are Dante, and knowing that my sister’s trapped in there. You really should have warned the Thules not to send through your former lover. He figured you out and told me.”

“And you have no problem fighting your twin sister?” Dante asked, spear in her hand.

“I’ve never had a problem fighting you. You look the same now as you did in the psychiatrist’s office.” Nicholas chuckled quietly. “And I felt guilty about that.”

He clapped his hands and transformed his automail into a spike, the glove he’d gotten from his papa already on his right hand. “So,” he said, circling the thing that was holding his sister captive, “I hope you’ve overcome your fear of death in the last 400 years because I’ll guarantee you’re not going to walk out of here alive.”

“And what about your sister? Do you think she wants to die?” Dante asked, making the first move and lunging at Nicholas with the spear.

“Of course I do. I found the gun in her room. She’s tried to kill herself to kill you.” He easily dodged her attack and parried with his own automail before firing at Dante with his glove, shooting out a fireball which she avoided. “Why do you think she stopped fighting me? She stopped making her body strong enough to fight when it came down to it.”

“Rather foolish of her,” Dante said as she swiped the weapon at him again.

Nicholas jumped and slashed through the red coat, cutting his sister’s body on the hip. “I wouldn’t say that.” The teen struggled to keep up the cool anger, tried to ignore that everything was telling him that this was his sister. Though he had to watch the body, whose prowess at fighting had been learned from Aideen’s own training and from the spars against Nicholas, the teen tried to focus on her eyes. Aideen had a fiery temper, a rage that was immediate and white-hot. Dante did not. Dante was cold, and so were her eyes, even when they were technically Aideen’s.

“Tried to make you all hate her too, but that didn’t work out quite the way she wanted,” Dante said with a smirk. “I was just too loveable.”

“Not to me,” Nicholas grunted, as he thrust the automail sword at her.

“No, not to you,” Dante ducked and rolled. “and not to that damned Fletcher, but in the long run, neither of you mattered.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Nicholas said, seeing that Dante had clapped her hands and then her stomach. It was glowing, and he knew he had to make his move now. “I’m the one who’s finally going to beat you!”

For just a second, she staggered as though suddenly light-headed, and Nicholas took his chance before her hands made their way to her chest. He couldn’t explain how he did, but he knew that this would open the Gate if this simple move were completed.

He took no relish as he watched the sword he’d created from the end of his automail pierced between ribs, watched the cruel face melt, and saw his sister’s eyes look at him in gratitude.

********

Russell was barricaded, still yelling out orders in spite of the pain in his arm. Drawing transmutation circles on the ground, he did what he could to attack the monsters coming through the underground city, but he was growing dizzy, certain he’d lost a lot of blood. Despite the fact that he might have to go on without Wrath, Russell wasn’t ready to die, not yet. He wanted to make sure his brother was safe, to find out if Wrath really was gone, to make sure Central was safe, to know Dante was dead before he was.

But, as he sat there, Russell could feel life slipping away from him. He silently hoped that someone would find him. His thoughts went to Wrath, wondering if he was in a similar position somewhere in the city, wondering if he was hoping for Russell or anyone to come and save him.

Russell’s thoughts returned to himself, to his situation. He knew that it wouldn’t do any good to worry about him until he could save himself. What good would he be to Wrath, if he was alive, if he, himself, was dead? How could he possibly help anyone, fight another day if he gave up now or made a mistake while dwelling on his grief?

********

The chimeras’ numbers seemed to finally be dwindling, and radio signals, sparse as they were, began reporting the same thing throughout the city. The battle was turning in their favor. Something hadn’t gone as Dante had planned. Roy could only wish that it meant there was some hope for his daughter. A second message had gone across the radio, a warning about Aideen. It was prudent really, with the realization that if Dante had Aideen, she could possibly be Aideen, a fact that made Roy’s stomach churn.

Roy left Fletcher standing at the front steps of his own house, Hohenheim not far away.

“I will be down after you if you are not back up soon!” Hohenheim yelled.

“Same here!” Fletcher yelled before capturing yet another chimera.

Roy charged through the opening in his yard, through the dank tunnels, hearing the sounds of screaming, Ed’s screaming.

“Nicholas, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing! You can’t bring her back!”

Ed was sobbing, and Roy could hear his heart pounding in his chest. Aideen? Bring her back? He was breathing faster, eyes stinging with tears that just waited to be shed.

He walked into a larger chamber, finding Ed bound to the floor, his automail gone, his head turned as far as it would go toward a nearby tunnel.

“Ed?”

“Roy!” Ed yelled out, his body twitching obviously uncontrollably. “Roy! Stop Nicholas now! And get me out of this!”

Roy glanced to the floor, finding an elaborate array spread across it, the body of his daughter bleeding onto it. Collapsing beside Ed, Roy struggled to once again get to his feet.

“Don’t break down now!” Ed yelled, his voice just as tearful as Roy felt. “Stop him! He’s going to make us lose them both, Roy! Stop him!”

“Nicholas?” Roy said, as his son emerged from the tunnel, holding what appeared to be a small child of ten in his arms. On Nicholas’s head, chest and hands were symbols drawn with what appeared to be Aideen’s blood. Roy stood to his feet, feeling as though moving through some tragic nightmare. He watched as Nicholas laid the girl’s body next to Aideen’s.

“Nicholas!” Ed said, his body still twitching in the restraints, his eyes wild and pain filled. The sound of the struggling voice startled Roy enough he moved toward his son, but Nicholas was too fast, clapping his hands and sending Roy hurtling backwards against the wall with a warm blast of air.

“Roy! Nicholas!” Ed’s shaking voice cried out as their only son knelt over their daughter and clapped his hands, touching them to his bare chest and enveloping the three bodies. Roy struggled from his place at the wall to find that they were all gone.