FMA Fanfic: Unconditional – Five
Unconditional – Five.
by arcanewinter. R 2522 Roy*Hughes. Fullmetal Alchemist. AT, pan-series spoilers.
Pride’s betrayal threatens everything.
These characters do not belong to me. I do not profit from this.
He wasn’t sure how much more it would take for the garish ballroom to collapse. He almost wished it would: a few tons of debris would quickly take out the swarm of blue uniforms without doing the Sins any lasting damage.
But that wouldn’t stop Pride. Pride would only bring more soldiers; Pride with his Eye would continue the righteous assault on the homunculi wherever Dante took them.
Shoulda seen it coming, Greed thought scornfully, swinging another soldier away from him and using him to clear the area around him.
But it was like trying to push away water. Pride had brought so many . . .
You don’t lead an entire country with a sin like pride–
Greed spied the large array on the floor behind him and cursed, rushing back into the line of men so naively trying to push him towards it.
–and follow some woman’s orders forever.
They’d tried to dispense of the alchemists first. They were easy to pick out: they looked too privileged, too pampered, too educated to fight alongside the lower ranks. And for the most part they didn’t.
But for every alchemist they quashed, another scrambled forward to continue the complicated sealing array. By now, they’d managed to complete at least a dozen of the fatal designs. Some of them were so quick with that art . . . It was as though the rest of the soldiers were merely there to pave the way for the real weapons.
Greed growled as he threw off another human net, involuntarily scanning the battle for someone he couldn’t pick out anyway. He almost felt sorry for them: they led such fragile lives. And yet, they all seemed so damned eager to throw them away–for what? For Bradley? For that god damned traitor?
Just as Greed was beginning to wonder how much longer he’d have to put up with this useless onslaught, a message traversed the blue sea, soldier-to-soldier until it reached him.
The woman was dead.
Greed would have grinned if his shield hadn’t been grinning for him already. They had put up a fight for her: they’d done what was necessary to stay in her favor. But they were pretty much free to go, now. Show was over.
“ENVY!” he roared, barreling his way towards the center of the ballroom, avoiding the etched arcs on the floor whether they were complete or not. “LET’S GO!”
He wondered briefly if Envy had been the soldier to land that final blow. It wouldn’t have surprised him. Greed knew a lot about wanting everything for himself, but when it came to being selfish, that bitch took the fucking cake.
“Give it up already,” he growled at his attackers, impatiently shoving them away and forcibly parting the mass of them as he pitched ahead. He scanned the many rushing soldiers, searching for the one that changed, listening for it even above the guns and the shouting.
But the transformation was far closer than he expected.
His indestructible shield splintered away as though struck by a shock wave. It may as well have been.
Knocked to a standstill, he tried in vain to rebuild his protection, but he could barely remain standing. What the hell?
“Move aside, men,” a voice commanded pleasantly. “I’ll take care of this one.”
Greed sneered as the uniforms crowding his blurring vision obediently made way for their leader. Though he could make out nothing different about him, there was only one explanation for Greed’s sudden weakness.
Pride probably came prepared for all of them.
He was just about to growl out a lewd greeting when Pride’s elbow connected with his gut, sending him many paces back and stealing the breath from him. He had barely seen Pride move.
This couldn’t end well.
He’d barely found his balance when Pride shoved him again, forcing him through the ranks of the military’s lap dogs. Pride could have chosen the nearest working circle, but didn’t. He could have unsheathed one of his swords, but didn’t. It was as though he’d rather make a spectacle of his power, and the monotonous faces that passed him as he plunged by were indeed watching, for there was no shield to hide him now.
He tried putting enough space between them to gain some energy back, but Pride never gave him the chance. If he wasn’t falling or back-peddling, Pride’s hands were already on him.
He’d been so stupid. He’d been so stupid not to have noticed where Pride was at all times, stupid not to have realized that Pride would not have attempted this without some advantage. But Greed had been too busy at the time, too worried about what Envy was doing to worry about saving his own skin.
And now he was going to pay for that.
He heard the quick shuffle of boots behind him. He knew without turning that they were clearing away from the finished sealing array in the corner, though he was the only one who’d be harmed by it. Maybe they didn’t want a homunculus vomiting on their boots. It was hard to say.
“You’re a damn traitor,” Greed jeered. He watched the way Pride was standing, waiting for him to make his move.
“And why would a homunculus have any reason to call me that?” Pride took the necessary steps forward, his manner relaxed as always. Greed wished he could say he was overconfident, but at the moment . . .
“As a matter of fact,” Pride mused, “weren’t you about to abandon your comrades?”
Greed could only narrow his eyes in response. He watched as Pride smirked with satisfaction, his body bending into a slight crouch before he lunged forward, his hand pressing solidly on Greed’s chest.
But Greed wasn’t going alone. Not if he could help it.
He gripped Pride at his wrist, using his momentum to pull him towards the etched lines with him. Pride wouldn’t win entirely. And if he were lucky, he could switch places just in time–
Greed only knew Pride had drawn his sword by the sound it made. It pierced him in his right side, its tip soon catching on the inside of his ribs on the left.
Pride used this anchor to fling him past the outer line of the array, himself just stopping a pace from it. He sneered, triumphant, as though he had never been worried at all.
If words accompanied that triumph, Greed didn’t know it. His insides paid the injury no mind as they convulsed, twisting and wrenching, expelling the very substance he needed. He couldn’t even haul himself to the edge of the sinister design to find he could not cross it a second time.
He couldn’t tell whether the gunfire and explosions continued on the other side of the ballroom or if that thunder was only in his head now. But somehow, Pride’s voice slipped in again. Why did it have to be the last thing Greed heard?
“Lieutenant,” he was saying, “why don’t you finish this one off. I’ll continue with the others.”
“Sir!” came the affirmative response, further away. But her boots sounded quickly as she approached. He heard the cock of her gun.
Greed laughed weakly. “Can’t come stick me again, can you, Pride.” He rolled heavily to his back, eyes focused on the other homunculus, his grin almost wild. He wanted more than this, more than what he had, more than what he lived. He wasn’t ready to give up that accumulation yet–Greed would never give anything up–but it was too late to be anything but angry. So angry.
“You’re delusional already,” Pride assessed, smiling beneath his mustache. He sheathed his sword, but his malice remained. “Is there a problem, Lieutenant Hawkeye?”
“No, Fuhrer, sir.”
Pride’s smile was a little more pleased than usual as he turned and disappeared past the other soldiers, leading them away and towards the next unlucky Sin.
It was only now in the relative quiet that Greed paid the officer any mind despite the role she was playing. She still held her gun aimed for his head, probably between the eyes, but her severe hesitance was written all over her pretty face. Greed smirked. Hadn’t she ever killed anyone before?
“Pull the damn trigger,” he grumbled. “I feel like shit.”
The soldier paused. She lowered the gun a few inches, but it soon snapped up again.
“Yes, sir,” he heard her whisper.
Her finger tensed. Greed closed his eyes, tired of keeping them open.
But all he heard was the officer’s cry as she hit the floor. Another soldier had attacked her, knocking her hard off her feet. She wasn’t moving as the soldier straightened, turning with a wide, almost panicked expression.
“Greed?!”
He started running.
“DON’T!” Greed yelled, mustering the strength to sit up, but Envy was already against him, looking very much like Envy as his eyes darted around the array beneath them.
“Oh, FUCK.”
The officer wasn’t down for the count. She rose to one knee, trying to steady herself until her gun was perfectly still. A gash in her forehead sent blood trailing toward one eye, but that didn’t seem to be the one she was aiming with.
“You’re a god damn idiot,” Greed rumbled. Envy might survive her first round of shots, but after he lost the stones, he’d be done, too. And what for? Stupidity? He was already beginning to tremble against him, turning his face away with the exertion.
Circumstances what they were, Greed hardly noticed the way his arms tightened around the other Sin. He only knew that Envy was close, that Envy was where he wanted him to be, if this was it. Envy was his; it had always been that way.
This time, the gun fired.
But all Greed felt was a sudden freedom, as though the weight binding him had been lifted.
He opened his eyes to see that a good chunk of the marble floor had been shattered along the outer rim of the array.
She couldn’t be that bad a shot.
“Go,” he thought she said, and Greed could only watch her turn on her boot and hurry towards the other soldiers.
Greed was confused enough to be angry. So he’d been terrified for nothing? So he’d had his ass handed to him–first by Pride, then by some little girl soldier– for nothing?
“What the hell was that about?” he growled, pushing Envy away from him even as the other Sin pulled him to his feet.
“How should I know?” Envy retorted. “I’m not complaining.”
Greed wanted to continue his disagreeableness, but Envy was already pulling him towards the doors to the east wing, away from the throng of soldiers. Greed didn’t like to notice it, but Envy was supporting most of his weight.
“Shit,” Envy muttered suddenly, and he tugged Greed behind one of the room’s great pillars.
Greed leaned heavily into the marble support, knowing only through reason that the pillar was upright and that he was not tipping over. “What’s the problem?” he panted gruffly.
“The doors are gone.”
“What?”
“I said the fucking doors are gone!”
Greed swung his gaze from Envy to the wall. Just as he’d said, the whole thing was flat paneling from corner to corner, floor to ceiling.
The fucking doors were gone.
“If I ever come across an alchemist after this, I’m gonna rip his fucking head off.”
“Well, don’t get too excited yet,” Envy muttered. “They’re coming back this way.”
Greed quieted, staring at the wall that was going to be–was supposed to be–his exit to freedom. He was getting tired of this. First he’d been on his way out of here, then he’d been about to die, then he’d been on his way out of here, and now–
“Just get out of here,” he muttered.
The chorus of boots on marble grew louder. They were searching for their remains, if not them. Did they have to be so thorough?
“What about you?”
“Don’t get stupid,” Greed hissed. Pressed to the pillar, he peered along the very edge of his sight. Any second now. “I can’t run and you can’t carry me out of here.”
“I can’t just–”
Greed reached back to silence him, his pupils narrowing as the first officer broke into view. All he’d have to do is turn around. He’d turn his head. He’d alert the others. He’d fire, and if his aim wasn’t any good, the others would make up for it.
All he had to do was turn around.
Greed stepped in front of Envy, using everything he had left in him to call the shield back just one more time, just long enough. It made no difference at the moment that Envy could survive the firing squad; it made no difference that Greed wouldn’t.
It was the principle of the thing.
The shield, though, wouldn’t budge past his elbows, and when it fell away, so did he. The attempt had drained him.
Envy came down after him, an arm catching him around the side. Greed looked up, smirking with a sort of relief as Envy’s form rippled downward into that of an officer. Now just get out.
But the rippling transformation didn’t stop with Envy. He was holding so tightly to Greed that Greed could feel him shaking, even through the blue uniform that now clothed them both.
“What is this?” Greed slurred.
Envy merely shook his head, his face a troubled mask of control, though someone else’s face now.
“Lieutenant General?”
One of the soldiers had called out toward them. Greed listened as his boots hurried closer. What now?
“This man needs a medic! Get that wall open!”
It took Greed’s failing awareness a moment to realize those orders were coming from Envy. Maybe there was hope. Despite his careless bravado, he didn’t really feel like dying.
“We need a State Alchemist!” the soldier shouted, obediently relaying the order. “Open the wall!”
“Wait!” another voice interrupted. Greed heard more boots shuffling in their direction. “How do we know that’s not them?”
Figures. Shoulda left me. Greed smirked weakly, but his eyes widened through the haze as Envy stood up with him, bearing him like a true fallen comrade. Greed didn’t even have the strength now to hold onto him. It was pathetic.
Envy still trembled with the exertion, but his voice boomed loud enough in the near silence to make Greed wince.
“IF HE DIES, YOU’LL ANSWER TO ME.”
The other soldiers remained quiet in the impasse. Greed guessed they were vacillating between what would happen if they were wrong about either assumption. But Envy couldn’t prove anything, and he probably couldn’t keep this up forever.
Greed couldn’t stay awake forever, either. His eyes were closed before he realized it. He’d only know the outcome if he woke up again. If.
“Open it,” a soldier finally commanded. Either his voice was low, or Greed was already losing consciousness.
“Only one of them can change his shape.”