House of Echidna Ch. 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.

IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTES, PLEASE READ!

Dear readers, this is the last chapter. Although I'm stopping this story at a horrible spot, I'm marking it as complete on the site and I am not writing any more content for it. And before you call blasphemy on me, or try to encourage me to change my mind, please know that I'm doing this for several reasons.

One: I'm not driven to write any more content. I should have stopped as soon as I fixed Al, because that's literally all I wanted out of this story. After that I lost all motivation to write more, and I should've listened.

Two: Since the initial purpose of the story has been realized, the rest of it is slowly spiraling into chaos. The more I write, the more I realize this story is going nowhere. If I gave it my full attention and effort, and pulled plot lines out of my butt, this story would wind up taking itself somewhere I never intended it to, and at around 50 chapters probably. My ADHD brain just can't stick it out that long.

Three: I'm done writing fan fiction. It was a fantastic tool for developing my skills when I was but a small young lamb, but I'm older now. I've written a lot. Not all of it saw the light of day, but I posted enough to learn from mistakes and take critique. I'm ready to write original work now.

I sincerely apologize to each and every reader that followed this story. I know there are a lot of authors who do/did this and now I'm just another author who has broken your heart and betrayed your trust. I used to hate this back when I read fan fiction. But now I see how people can come to do this, and I sympathize with them.

Again, I'm sorry this story had to end like this. I hope the last chapter doesn't bum you out too much. :(

o.O.0.O.o

Fiona leaned up against the overturned automobile, breathing hard and clutching her weapon to her chest. The cold metal on her back sent shivers through her body, but the rogue street fire three feet away seared her arm and the side of her face. If she really concentrated, she could imagine being back home safe, maybe in her basement huddling next to a heat lamp with her remaining six chimeras.

The sound of static brought her out of her musings. She snapped her jaw shut in frustration and held down a button on the radio clipped to her belt.

"I thought we fixed this channel, guys," she whispered. "It's going to compromise me over here."

A few seconds later, Colonel Mustang's lowered voice came over the static. "We did what we could, Ms. Kuhn. This is the channel we were given, so we need to make the best of it."

"Our best isn't enough."

With that grim statement, she crouched down some more and steeled herself for another horrific sight. She gathered her courage and peeked around the car's fender. About twenty yards away down the street a wolf-moose stood facing away from Fiona. She didn't need to glance down to figure out what it was chewing on. To the right of the chimera laid another overturned vehicle, but this one had no glass in the windows. Inside the upside-down cabin a shadowed figure sat in a tight ball, wisely not making any noise as it watched the beast in paralyzed fear.

Fiona recognized the shadowed figure as one of the girls Ed used to play wreck-it ball with. Her reddish hair was unmistakable. What was her name? Karen? Keely?

Either way, it was Fiona's job to take down the chimera and escort the girl back to the city's fallout shelters. She took a deep breath and cranked the pump on her gun.

Immediately, the animal's head jerked up, but its evil beady eyes identified Fiona's position a moment too late. Three darts hit home in its back left leg, and five seconds later the thing crashed to the cement. It fell in a discombobulated position with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. Fiona would've laughed if the situation had been any less dire.

Wasting no time, Fiona scurried out from behind the car towards the girl. She would've made it, too, if it hadn't been for the second chimera. A wall of red tackled her, and her gun skittered across the pavement. Suddenly Fiona was on her back, a leopard-hawk that looked nothing like Buggie growl-screeching mere feet above her face. The thing planted a paw on her chest, slowly sinking its talons between her ribs. She wanted to scream, but she knew that would only excite the animal into killing her faster (and she'd seen that scenario play out enough times that week to know).

Out of the corner of her dimming vision, she saw the girl slipping out from under the car. Fiona wanted to yell at her to stop, and get back under the car, but she couldn't without giving her away. She watched helplessly as the girl crept closer to the chimera.

Meanwhile, warm foam from the monster's toothy maw dripped down onto her cheek. At first, she wanted to give way to instinct and upchuck her lunch, but then her skin started to burn. She couldn't hold back a light hiss as the substance sizzled atop her skin, as if it were acidic.

Venom, Fiona thought. This thing is a snake, too.

Sure enough, when she found the courage to glance up at its face, she saw the slitted yellow eyes and the triangular-shaped skull of a reptile.

Apparently, it saw her gaze as an invitation to finish her off, because it scrunched its snout up and drew its head back. Fiona shut her eyes and turned her head, expecting her throat to be ripped open, but nothing happened.

When she opened her eyes again, the animal tilted its head, its eyes half-lidded. Then before she knew it, the animal toppled over onto its side, taking its fifty-pound paw with it. Fiona sucked in a gasp and howled as the claws came out at last.

The girl stood about ten feet away, the barrel of Fiona's gun smoking in her shaky grasp. Fiona was about to grin and thank her, but suddenly a voice came over the radio.

"Fiona! Kelly!" came Edward's concerned tone. "Are you two alright?"

Across the street, the teen stood hand-in-hand with two young children, his own gun slung over his back. The little boy had a bandage wrapped around his forehead, but he looked fine otherwise. The girl on the other hand was incredibly pale, her arm in a makeshift sling stained with crimson. Edward's face was scraped up, and he stood with most of his weight on his automail leg, but he didn't seem any worse off than the boy.

To Fiona's surprise, Kelly bent down and took the radio.

"I'm okay but Fiona's hurt," she whispered into it.

She growled and tried to get up. "I'm fine, I just need to- AH! Nope. Definitely not fine…"

Fiona could see Edward's eye-roll from across the street. Within minutes, they'd dragged her behind another car and regrouped.

"I found a lead," Edward stated, though he didn't sound very happy about it. "I think I can stake it out for another night, but I'll need back-up. Downtown is already spread thin, and now we've just lost Fiona here."

The alchemist scowled but didn't say anything.

"I'll take her place," Kelly assured him. "I've got your back, Ed."

He thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Alright. We need to get these kids back to the base, and-"

His words cut off and he fell silent. Then his gaze caught something down by the subway tunnel. Fiona furrowed her brow and turned her head towards it. She had to refrain from making an audible gasp.

A lion-gorilla held something in its front paws as it hobbled over to the tunnel. The sight didn't give much away, but the sound did: it was a live human, sounding incredibly terrified but not necessarily injured. They watched it disappear down the stairs, and Edward narrowed his eyes.

"I'm going after it. That's exactly where my lead is."

Kelly opened her mouth to protest, but Edward was already half way across the road.

"Take Fiona and the kids back to the base, Kelly," he muttered over the radio.

Without another word, the teen disappeared down the tunnel, leaving Fiona and Kelly staring after him in shock.

o.O.0.O.o

Edward didn't remember much when he woke, but his body sure did. The space directly behind his eyes periodically surged with stabbing pain, as if someone had filled his sinuses with acid and steel nails. His flesh leg was almost completely numb, and what he could feel buzzed with pins and needles. His midsection stung with open (likely infected) wounds that looked suspiciously like claw marks. A horrible sour taste in his mouth nearly made him gag. Edward almost didn't want to open his eyes.

Almost.

He was in a small stone room. It had three walls and another side facing out into complete darkness. A series of rusty bars connected to a closed metal door was bolted to the two side walls, sealing the exit. A single torch fastened to the back wall flickered and sputtered, threatening to go out at the slightest draft. Somewhere to his right he heard the soft trickle of flowing water; probably some kind of plumbing or irrigation. He couldn't see much on the floor in the dim light and dancing shadows, but judging from the stench creeping up his nose he had some deceased company.

After taking all this in, Edward tried to stand. Before he could make it halfway upright, a force stopped him and he fell back onto his knees. That's when he noticed the nail in the coffin: he was chained to the floor.

"ARGH!" he all but screamed. "Whoever you are I'm going to pound you into the ground so hard they won't even need to dig a grave! Now come out and face me!"

His cries echoed a lot further than he expected. It took five whole seconds for them to get back to him, and in that time he got no response. Slowly, he sank back to the floor. Lowering his head and shutting his eyes, he tried not to let total despair overwhelm him.

It didn't work.

His heart pounded as he flitted through what he could recall from… whenever he'd last been conscious. He remembered meeting up with Fiona and Kelly at the F5 and G2 crossing, then some hazy images of him creeping through the subway tunnels following the gorilla chimera, and finally a bright green light overtaking his field of vision. After that… nothing.

The teen quickly took stock of himself, checking for his radio, his weapon, and his emergency flairs. Also nothing.

Edward cursed under his breath. Whoever (or whatever) had captured him wasn't stupid enough to leave anything useful on or near him. All he had now was his alchemy. He glanced up at the cracked ceiling and another wave of dread settled over him. He had no idea how much stone, dirt, water, or concrete laid above him; for all he knew he could be under the lake, or a city block packed tight with skyscrapers. Using his alchemy to bust himself out might be his last mistake.

"The C5 Street cathedral," a sudden voice said.

Edward jumped as high as his chains would allow. He whipped his head to and fro but he saw no one. The voice laughed, clearly amused with him. It sounded grated and rough, like a knife scraping against sandpaper. The voice was definitely a woman's.

"That's what's up there," she explained, "in case you were wondering."

"Who are you?!" Edward growled, remembering his rage from earlier. "And what do you want with me?"

"Who am I? I'm not all that sure anymore. It's been too long since I've visited the surface."

For a moment she was quiet. Then she cleared her throat and continued, "As for what I want with you, that's simple enough: I want you to stay down here for some time."

Edward reeled his head back a little. "Some time? Not… forever?"

"Goodness no. I've got enough corpses lying around, thank you. No, I only need you to stay long enough to lure one of my old projects back to me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Think of yourself like a mouse trap. Once I catch my pesky rodent, you're free to go. Unless, of course, she doesn't show up at all. I'll give her… let's say a month. Yes, a month. If she doesn't find you in that time, I can assume she's given up. And then I suppose I'll continue my project with you, since you're already here."

Edward clenched his jaw, and his flesh limbs shook. An ungodly amount of anger filled him. "Who? Who am I the bait for?"

When the woman spoke next, he could hear the wide grin in her voice.

"Why, your alchemy instructor, Edward. Fiona Kuhn."

o.O.0.O.o

Roy slammed the telephone down on its stand, making everyone in the room jump. Ignoring the stares he was getting, he leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with his hand. He wondered how many more calls he could take before he threw his hat in the ring. Despite how well they'd been doing these last few weeks, some international back-up sounded pretty good to him. At least then maybe they could get the mobs under control and focus on their search and rescue efforts.

He gave the apartment a quick once over. Not much had changed since the invasion hit. Pictures still hung proud on the walls, depicting happy memories of the family that used to live there. The original furniture, while rearranged umpteen times, was all intact and present. Even the atmosphere hadn't changed much. Wisps of cinnamon still hung in the air, as if any minute "mom" would call the family in for pie.

Honestly, Roy welcomed it. It kept his head on straight. It reminded him why he was here, and what he was fighting for. He hoped that, against all odds, the city would make it through this nightmare and the family could come back.

His men didn't appear to be so optimistic. Next to the window, Havoc had his nose buried deep in some reports from the East side, his lit cigarette abandoned in an ashtray on the window sill. Breda hunched over the coffee table, pulling at his collar as he ignored his half-eaten slice of toast. Falman crouched on the kitchen floor and threw a turkey leg in a little tin bowl for the Banner family's cat, Bear-Bear. Even the most energetic member of the squadron, Fuery, laid snoring over his table of radio equipment, the drool hanging out of his mouth threatening to soak the control panel.

All in all, it looked like just another day at their little makeshift command center. Roy rose from his chair and sighed. He'd been about to excuse himself for a restroom visit when a knock at the door stopped him short.

His men perked up, but not in the happy sense. They each grabbed a riffle and stood behind him. Roy carefully peered through the little glass peephole in the door, and his shoulders sagged.

With a wave of his hand, the guys let out sighs of relief before returning to their activities.

"Come in, Al."

When he kid came into full view, the Colonel had to resist the urge to wince. He looked like absolute shit. And that was saying something, since they'd all been living in a war zone for the last month.

Al's hair was a complete rat's nest, as it hadn't seen shampoo or even a brush in days. The natural blond was already sprouting from his roots, so it kind of resembled a root beer float if Roy really used his imagination (Get it? Root beer float?) His eyes were glazed and thoughtless, his clothes were ripped to rags and barely clinging to his battered body, and he was effectively barefoot. A dirty crumpled-up paper fluttered in his loose grip.

Roy swallowed. During the last few weeks, Roy sought solace in his own inner humor. But nothing he could think of muted the pure, unadulterated sorrow rolling off the young man standing before him.

"Hello, Colonel," he said with a forced-sounding lightness in his tone. "I have that report you wanted."

"Thank you, Al," he said, taking the crumpled paper.

There wasn't much on it. Just some disjointed sentences and a crude map of the city's D, E, and F districts. A smudged signature stained the bottom, but he couldn't make out the name.

"Anything to report yourself?"

"Y-Yeah. Yeah, let's see. I, uh, deconstructed Lander Memorial Bridge and barricaded the tunnel. Took a team to the canals and we neutralized the gator problem for now. Oh, and I found a troop of Acorn Scouts camping about a mile outside the city limits. I couldn't help them, but I sent the E10 escort team a heads up… I hope they made it to the shelters."

The kid spoke in a tight, quick voice, as if every word hurt to say. Now that Roy thought about it, speaking probably reminded him of his missing brother. Even though he'd made an effort to look different, he still sounded exactly the same as Edward. Roy cleared his throat.

"Well done. I'll see you in another few days. In the mean time, I… I found another lead for you. It's not much, and you don't have to take it if you don't want to, but-"

"Colonel," he interrupted, "we've been through this. I'm never going to turn down a lead. Even if it drags me through hell and back to come back empty-handed, I'm not going to give up. Whatever you have for me I'll gladly take it."

At first, all he could do was blink in mild astonishment. Then he managed a small, meager smile despite it all. "Glad to hear it."

He plucked a cleaner sheet of paper off the kitchen table and handed it to him, which the kid took gratefully and sat down on the couch to read it. As his gold eyes scanned the page, they widened more and more. Finally, he reached the end and looked up at him.

"Colonel," he said, his tone changing, "did you read this whole thing?"

Roy furrowed his brow. "Not really. Why?"

The kid stood up so fast he gave himself a bout of vertigo. "Ed's cloak… they found it! It's at the C5 Street cathedral!"