Leave A Scar

I didn't notice it. Like before, I only caught a glimmer before everything kickstarted. Ed saw it first, flicker of some stone. Red.

"That's...!" He was already a quarter of a mile ahead, transmuted earth supplying pathways up to a tall building. "The Philosopher's Stone!"

It...

Was here?

Al and I reached the roof; three Homunculi greeted us, and the nightmare I had came flooding back. The rooftop was similar, but no portal was opening up. I briefly glanced around, noticing there was a door nearby, one that led to the building's top floors. An escape, if we needed it.

And looking out to each Homunculus, the ouroboros tattoos on their skin... We just might need it, that escape.

I paused, breathing in the air. This was it.

The Homunculus in front of us grinned, stone glinting in the sunlight. Still held with one hand.

We had this.

The attacks came all at once; lines made of fingers from the left, a charge with a hand made out of a cleaver to the right. Both attacks blocked by Edward's transmuted spikes. Sharp tunnels that either disintegrated or continued on only to be blocked.

The main Homunculus, a tall creature with an ouroboros tattoo on the side of its face, just laughed, and it was a sound that cut deep within my bones.

The attack that came next was one I didn't expect. It was caused by one reach of the hand, and the rooftop's ground responded, the earth exploding in a tidal wave that pulsed out. I transmuted the earth in front of me into a spike, enough to send me up, get high enough to avoid the attack.

I was alive, for another moment, and then my physical stability crumbled.

The tidal wave had passed, and Ed was already recovering from the platform he'd constructed. Falling and transmuting a javelin. But this weapon, although thrown, was simply caught and discarded off the rooftop. Thrown away like trash.

I ran a few steps forward, raising my knee to my ċhėst and slamming it down. Right on the side of a Homunculi's knee, where the kneecap connected the femur to the bone. The joint broke in half under my weight, my foot continuing on enough to feel the limb subtly pinch me

I thought I had him, and then before my foot could retract, the break molded back together, trapping my foot inside.

I tried to yank my leg back once, twice, three times. And then my foot appeared with red lightning. The lightning skittered around my shoe, as I ducked a hook. I could only guess Ed had saved me with whatever strange power he had.

A soft confirmation, a yell to me. Was I okay?

I couldn't respond to such a question. I just slammed my foot again, nailing the Homunculus in the ċhėst.

"Your foolish attacks have no affect against me."

I hesitated, for a moment, that word hanging me by the throat internally. I... it was right.

My muscles moved on their own, body sprawled out in order to dodge a kick, and I twisted around, hooking foot to ankle and sending my enemy down to the ground.

I stomped their knee, before they could get up. But with cracks of red, the wound just healed once again.

And then, in slivers of lines, he disappeared. I sensed movement behind me, bȧrėly catching long black hair before dark brown smoke quickly filled the air, covering my sight. Coughs shook the bones of my ċhėst, and I forced myself not to put up a hand. I kept my fingers tight and wrists loose, right thumb to my jaw and left out with the rest of that hand. Out and ready to block if needed.

They would come, in time.

It came as a flash.

I had no way of knowing it beforehand, but I saw the bullet and I felt the graze of my skin splitting open. My upper arm, slicing through shirt and sweater.

So they weren't aiming to kill. They were aiming to bȧrėly hit.

Why?

Holding my arm, I tried to squint past the smoke. Nothing.

I heard the sound of Ed fighting. Scrapes and slams of metal upon solid flesh. Human bone probably bruising. Things I wouldn't be able to heal.

I almost tapped my heel, wanting to transmute, but realized that nothing I did from my shoes could help. I didn't have the sight to draw anything, either.

I'd never felt so helpless.

Hands clapped, the sound ringing out and bringing clarity to my sight, my mind. for a split second, both of them worked right. And then the smoke faded and my gunman had disappeared. The roof's edge a few yards away, the floor desolate. Did they jump off, or was the bullet my imagination? Something I had given myself, some broken counterpart—

I ducked just in time, and pivoted around, curve of my foot and ankle sweeping the back of a foot.

He fell, and I looked around for Edward.

I found him ducking as well, eyes gravitating to me. Giving a small smile, a curve of the bottom. Words rang out in my head, speaking in his voice.

Glad you're okay, and my name was shortened. I felt my lung crack.

My attacker scrambled up, and I quickly bent backwards and flipped upright, getting at least a few feet away.

"Hate to hurt a pretty face like yours." A knife flashed, but my kick was faster.

I faked twice; a sweeping hook that started from the left, knife digging into ankle but falling away from the man's hand; a flick of the foot on the opposite side, and finally—with the smallest of hops forward—a pounding sidekick that led with the heel. Successfully crushing his face.

More smoke came, and the ringing sound of two hands coming together was my savior.

I kept my hands up, eyes watering and blinking furiously. Trying to rid the pain and the panic, trying to clearly see the Homunculi in front of me.

He attacked. Instincts kicked in once again, and I slid to the side. A quick dodge, and I sensed his presence begin to pass by me in a lunge. My leg snapped out, hands holding back and shin repeatedly ramming against rib cage until I felt the bone splinter.

Ed would be worried, if a limp showed.

My leg was grabbed, and my entire body was spun once twice three times before strong hands released me.

I never fell so hard so fast.

Time was speeding up, or at least it felt like it. And the pavement below was getting nearer and nearer, gravity taking my organs to my ċhėst and throat and the speeding heartbeat in my temples.

And like always, a hand caught me.

I landed on the transmuted building-side, and opened my eyes.

A large hand was holding me.

Ed never said anything; no "are you okay?!" with my name after. Nothing but sounds of metal against spiked shadow.

So I used my shoes and climbed up, spike by spike.

I hated the distance between myself and the ground far below.

I should've fallen. Ed should've known better than to save me again, like he did the day he went blind.

He should've known.

I returned to the rooftop, seeing a large alchemic transmutation circle.

From what I could see... It wasn't equivalent. They were missing another sacrifice, to cause that much pain.

Or maybe my old self was reaching for nothing. Maybe it was another excuse to get hurt.

I started moving, quickly producing a thin spike and breaking off the tip of it.

I pivoted my heel, switching the modes of my shoe. And then, backing up as far as I could, until my feet were nearly at the roof's edge, I ran forward and produced a spike-catapult with my last step.

I flew forward, sailing over the Alchemic circle before stabbing myself.

Blood flung, trailing my movements. Flinging the fresh liquid that made up myself, pattering it in a line, drops across the entire alchemic composition. Ruining the lines, but maybe it'd be enough...

I rolled to a safe landing, feeling the lightning strike before seeing it. It was... an immensely powerful one.

I tried to drown out the screaming from the last remaining Homunculus, body bowing and hands coming to my ears.

I tried to breathe right, tried to not buckle my hurt leg. I didn't deserve to be in pain so laughable.

Ed called my name, wanting to make sure I was okay. But with the main Homunculus still there, oroborus tattoo on the side of his face and body untouched, I couldn't answer.

"That's right, run." The voice rippled out, causing some ripple in the dimension of sound. Ed's eyes closed in pain, his body skidding to a stop near me.

"What's your problem?" A shout, a cry for an answer.

I just tried to focus, tried to hear the words around me. But it was hard, with the blood raining down to the concrete. Blood caused from my wound. I tried to twist on my heel, the bottom of my shoe wheeling through mediums of attack. I pressed my foot down, and spikes shot out of the rooftop, another one snaking up and nailing him in the ċhėsts.

He only laughed once, as my spikes disintegrated. Even the one that had landed...

"You've been selected."

Ed repeated the word, just as confused as I felt. He kept himself quiet though, and I remained silent, listening as the body rose up, regenerating the wounds we had tried to cause him.

"Is it really that complicated?" he asked, his head tilting forward, dark eyes training on us again. His mouth setting into a grin. Chills ran down my back, and I wanted to step away. Just move my foot back, a bit closer to the door... Anything...

"You've been hand-picked with golden hands," the Homunculus continued, laughter riding on the very edge of his words. "Someone is very eager to have you. I have yet to meet them, but I can't say I'm not the least bit jealous."

"What..." Ed struggled for words, and I wanted to look at him. I wanted to look at his face and see the paleness, see the fear because maybe then I could reach out and try to soothe it away. As much as I could. I wanted to calm him down in whatever way possible. He finally found some sort of strength, enough to continue speaking.

"What're you talking about?"

The Homunculus just smirked, arm raising to his face and sharpening into a fierce blade.

"Come," he said. "See for yourself. You won't have any more questions by the time we're done."

"Like hell I will!" Ed clapped his hands, slamming them to the ground and creating a wall as the Homunculus darted forward. It was enough, the height of the concrete, for Ed to pick me up, hunch over and sweep my legs with his arm, hold me with his other across my back. The bouncing of his steps shot a brutal pain into my leg, the wound splattering blood onto the path we were creating.

"Sorry about the roughness," Edward said, holding me a bit closer to his ċhėst. Trying to protect me again. "Wish I could run a bit smoother, but with external wounds it's a little hard."

Why was he apologizing? THIS WASN'T A TIME TO BE SAYING SORRY!!

I didn't get to yell at him though, never finding the strength to even open my mouth before my vision suddenly spun and I was staring up at the sky above and behind us. A Homunculus quickly closing the distance from above, elbow transmuting into a long, narrow blade.

I felt my entire body leave, never hearing Ed's breath catch but feeling—some part of me recognizing—how his ċhėst flinched and how his arms held me a bit tighter. And then I saw the flash of red, the lightning crackling and snapping and beginning to tear the stone right out of the Homunculus's ċhėst.

The monster screamed, finishing the jump he had started and hands raising to his ċhėst. Ed continued stumbling away, some part of him asking if I was okay before some distant part of me replied that I was. We watched, some horrible fascination driving us, as the monster kept screaming, his ċhėst continuing to be ripped apart with cracks of lightning. That red color shredding through skin and muscle and bone, digging through everything like a thorned drill. But as soon as I saw the destination, the glimmer of rose-red, that lightning stopped. Diminishing to nothing but a few pops, and then disappearing completely.

"Ed..." I tried to say something more, my face expressing every second of fear as I raised my hand to his ċhėst. Injured fingers burning with cracks of pain as they curled, grabbing his shirt in hopes to get his attention. "Ed... Do something."

He didn't. I just felt him stand there, dead weight in his arms as the Homunculus rose again. One foot sliding closer to his other, body tilting and straightening his posture, squaring crooked shoulders. A narrow, evil grin came to his face, and his eyes became thin as well.

"What," he asked, "you couldn't finish me off? How pathetic. Your stupid friends have more guts than you do."

I tried to move, wanting to wiggle or grip Ed's shirt tighter. Something to get his brain back in his head. But I just remained weighted with fear and pain, a paralysis no amount of thinking could break.

And then it happened.

I just heard the scream, feeling Ed's grip on me tighten as the red came even quicker, almost covering the sight of the stone.

I never heard the shattering "pop", and I never noticed the flakes of stone drift down from the Homunculus. Every part of me was watching how the Homunculus' legs nearly gave out, almost stumbling before one foot stepped to the side, catching his balance. He just grinned at us, parts of his body beginning to disintegrate in flakes of pure black.

"I knew you had it in you."

His laughter rang out, even when he was gone and the last remaining fragments disappearing into the air like the wind wanted to carry them somewhere.

I heard Ed breathe again, his body curving towards me, the height he held me from dropping a little as his knees buckled in.

"Al," he gasped before adding my name. "You alright?"

His arms were shaking, the tremors enough to quiver his hands and shake the surface of my skin as well. I reached up, one hand going to his face. Sweeping past the bangs wanting to hide closed eyes from me, fingertips finding spaces beneath his eye, to the side of his cheek, above his temple. I slid the thumb that rested above his brow, and the motion was enough for him to open his eyes. The stare still strained, still struggling. But it was focused on me, focused on the sight of my face and the brain behind that stare focusing on the sensation of my touch.

He needed to know I was okay. Even if my wounds were re-opening. I owed him that much.

His hold on me tightened just a little bit, and Al's voice faded into the background. Soft yell saying some confirmation, some question back. He didn't say anything more, or perhaps I didn't hear it because instantly Ed's face was near mine, buried against the corner of my neck as he brought us closer to the ground. Strength leaving him, or maybe he was just converting whatever he had left to make himself like this. Speak against my skin in a pained whisper.

"I can't lose you," he said. His words shook, body trembling even further. "I can't..."

His hold tightened, hands curling against my arm, my leg. Arms moving towards himself as well, cradling what he could against him. And I stayed there, no part of my mind focusing on the pain I deemed entirely unimportant. Only focusing on bringing my hand to his hair, parting my fingers against the beginning of his braid and gently pushing his face closer to mine. Closing the distance between us a little more.

He needed me here.

And it was here I would stay.