Here we are, surprisingly, at the last chapter. Wow. What a ride this has been. Thank you so much to everyone who has been a part of this. My dear friends and sister who have been so very impatient and nagging about the lack of updates. Their nearly-daily threats of bodily injury have really kept me going. Please remember though, dear readers, that this end is a new beginning. The next installment, taking place in the lovely land of Firefly, will begin very soon. For those of you leaving off here, thanks for your support, and for those not, I hope to hear from you soon in the next arc.

Welcome to Hell: Chapter Twenty

Plot Twist

The creature that Buffy was pretty sure was not a homunculus took another swipe at her, and she barely managed to duck underneath the long claws. This thing looked nothing like the description she'd been given. Deathly thin and covered in dark grey scales, reptilian eyes glared at the Slayer. The only thing that matched up were the ten deadly claws, about a foot in length each. It hissed at her when she blocked the follow-up blow with her axe.

The fight had already been going on for several minutes now, neither side giving any slack to the other. Buffy wasn't sure what this thing was, but it wasn't slowing down any time soon, and even she might not have the stamina to compete with this.

"So I take it you aren't Lust, then?" All she received was a particularly feral snarl and another double swipe and her face. "Guess not." She jumped back to avoid the blows and swung her axe around, glancing off one of the monster's claws.

She really hoped that the Elrics decided to show up soon.

The sounds of battle helped Ed find his way through the sewers and toward Buffy. His heart was pounding. He had a strong feeling in his gut that something wasn't right, that there was still something he was missing. All he could do now was hope it wasn't a flaw in his formula or an error in Willow's magic. They would only have one shot. The amount of energy the mix of alchemy and magic required to perform the task needed was already dangerous enough that he was worried using it once might cost more than any of them were willing to pay.

With everyone at his heels, they charged through the tunnels, hoping they weren't too late to save Buffy from Lust.

What awaited him was certainly not what Ed expected when he rounded the last corner and had to leap out of the way to avoid getting hit in the head by Buffy's axe as it swung around. Whatever that thing was, it certainly wasn't Lust.

"What is that thing?" He called out to the Slayer, running around to flank it.

"I was hoping it was your homunculus, but it didn't really fit the description." She called back, countering the wicked claws and pressing the monster back so Ed could get around to its side.

A quick flash of alchemy and Edward had his signature blade swinging in an arc, only to have it clang off of the creature's scales, not leaving a mark. Spike was upon it next, coming in low and tackling it to the ground with his vampire strength. The thing thrashed violently, trying to throw off its assailant and hissing. Ed could hear someone loading a crossbow behind him and shouted back.

"Don't bother, it'll glance off the thing's scales!"

There were too many people in such a small space. Any second everyone was going to start tripping over each other and then someone was going to get filleted. Alphonse was one step ahead of him and started moving Willow, Xander, and Giles back so that Ed, Buffy, and Spike had room to fight and dodge. It was just in time too as the monster threw Spike against the wall and managed to clip his shoulder with a claw. Buffy rushed in only to be swept away by the long tail. He didn't have a lot of room to work with, especially with Spike up against the wall, but with a clap of his hands he managed to form a good sized fist out of the concrete floor and shove the creature back down the tunnel and away from the others.

Spike and Buffy were with him, ready for a headlong rush. The monster raised its claws and bared its fangs, preparing a charge of its own.

Everything changed.

There was something else in the tunnel with them. Suddenly Ed was aware of it. Spike noticed too and pulled Buffy back. The scaly monster hissed at them from its defensive position, unaware as to why its opponents were suddenly backing off.

Alphonse cried out in warning, but Ed had already spotted it. A figure emerged from the darkness behind the creature. Two large, meaty hands appeared and reached out, taking hold of the now-terrified monster. The thing let out an unearthly squeal as in was lifted into the air and flailed about, trying desperately to escape.

Then the figure spoke, and all of the fears inside of Ed that had suddenly surfaced were proven true. He knew that high-pitched whisper anywhere.

"Lust, is that you? Are you my Lust?"

Ed was the biggest idiot in the history of idiots. It wasn't that Lust had some big plan that was going to kill all of them. It wasn't Lust at all. It never had been in the first place. Just a monster with claws and a separate one that left zero traces of its victims.

Gluttony.

Shit.

It was Gluttony.

Double shit.

"Fall back! Now!" Edward screamed, backing slowly away from the homunculus. There was no way to predict what Gluttony would do. They needed to come up with a new plan, and fast.

"You aren't Lust! Where is she?" The poor monster screamed in agony as Gluttony sunk his mouth into its shoulder. Ed could see the acid eating away at the scales and flesh beneath.

"Dear God!" he heard Xander shout. The monster fought valiantly: scratching and clawing and screaming as its own bones crunched and disappeared into the gaping maw. Soon it was just a twitching mass of meat and the absence of unearthly cries was occupied by the sounds of slurping and smacking as everyone froze in horror.

Half a minute. It couldn't have taken more than half a minute. Then Gluttony licked his lips and lifted his head to stare right at Ed with his beady black eyes. "You! You took her! You took my Lust, didn't you! Give her back to me! Give me Lust!"

He was fast. Ed barely dived out of the way in time. One moment the homunculus was standing eight feet away, and the next moment Ed was ducking a huge fist by centimeters. It crashed in to the concrete wall behind him, leaving a crater.

"She isn't here!" He stumbled back, avoiding the second fist that followed.

"Because you took her from me!"

Spike jumped up and tried to tackle Gluttony to the ground. Instead he just bounced off of the homunculus, managing only to get his attention. The vampire scrambled out of the way, barely missing the click of white teeth.

"If he grabs you, you're dead!" Alphonse called out to the others. "Ed, we have to set up the circle!"

The alchemist ran around until he had Gluttony's focus back on him. It wasn't hard since the enraged creature thought Ed had his companion. "I know! I'll keep him busy! Spike, Buffy! Cover them in case I can't contain him." Ed somersaulted over the rampaging homunculus and headed further into the sewers. "Let me know when it's done!"

Gluttony thundered after him, teeth snapping when Ed sailed over his head. "Tell me were my Lust is! Give her back!"

Edward had to leap into a dive-roll to avoid resembling a pancake as Gluttony threw his whole body at him. He spared a glance toward his brother, who was scribbling furiously on the floor and wall with chalk. He just needed to buy a couple of minutes of Gluttony's time—distract him long enough for Willow and Al to set everything up. The homunculus was just so angry and volatile. His rage was what him so dangerous.

"I don't have Lust!" Ed tried, dodging snapping jaws as Gluttony charged at him, mouth first.

A plan was forming his mind. Would it work though, or was the homunculus already too far gone to be reasoned with? He had to get some more space between Gluttony and himself. It was too hard to dodge him at close range, and in a constricted environment. So far he'd been lucky, but soon he would get tired while his opponent would not. Every time he tried to head further down the tunnel though he was pressed back by a flurry of attacks, and he couldn't lead Gluttony back toward the others. Long shot or not, he would have to try something look.

"Okay Gluttony, listen to me! I don't have Lust, I swear. But I do know where she is! Listen Gluttony I know where she is!" The dance of dodges and blows continued, but he could tell that Gluttony was paying attention to him, no longer going in for a kill. He pressed on, "I can even take you to her! But hey I can't take you to her if you kill me! Do you understand! If you kill me you won't ever see her again! You want to see Lust, don't you?"

The fighting ceased so abruptly Ed was taken aback. One moment, Gluttony was trying to flatten Ed into the concrete, and the next moment he was rocking back and forth on the balls of is feet, staring at Ed like a lost puppy. A very terrifying, soulless puppy. "You can take me to her? I've missed her. I don't know where Lust went. Why did she leave me here? Where is she?" he whimpered.

"She didn't want to leave you, Gluttony. You two just got separated. She's in another world, on the other side of the Gate. If you stop trying to kill us, I can send you to go see her again."

The homunculus was nodding along with the information, but then his demeanor changed again. "Why would you help me, Fullmetal Alchemist? Don't trust you."

Crap. Ed scrambled to come up with a believable answer. All of this was just talking through his teeth. "Because. This is my world now. And I don't want you here. I don't want any homunculi here. Since I can't kill you anyway I might as well just send you away. Then I won't have to deal with you anymore. It just so happens that the other world I can send you to is the one Lust is at. It's all just a coincidence that it's convenient for you too." Seriously? That was the best he could come up with? He just hoped that Gluttony was dumb and desperate enough to fall for it.

Gluttony stared at Edward, expression blank. The seconds ticked on. Ed didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breathe: afraid to disrupt whatever was going on in the homunculus' head. He could hear the others trying to figure out what was going on. If they came over everything could fall apart. Silent panic as the creature deliberated.

"Send me to Lust."

If Edward Elric believed in God, he would have thanked Him. He almost did anyway.

"No hurting or trying to eat any of the people here, and we have a deal. Equivalent exchange and all that. I send you away, you don't eat my friends."

"Yes yes just send me to her now."

"Hey Al is that circle ready yet?" Ed called out to his brother.

"Yeah!"

"Okay! Gluttony and I are going to start heading over to you guys. Everyone else back up so he doesn't get nervous. We're gonna send this homunculus where he wants to go." Everyone complied, stepping away from the circle. Gluttony just followed him over to the circle without a word, a bright excitement in those soulless black eyes. "Stand in the middle of the circle. My two friends here," he indicated Al and Willow, "Are going to assist me. Now this might hurt, but before you know it you'll be back with Lust and eating whatever you want."

Gluttony clapped and let out a sick squeal of glee. At least things were going well. He looked at Willow. He didn't know her, not really, but he hated putting her in danger like this, asking her to help fix their problems. Then he looked at his brother, who gave him a smile that reminded Ed why he was doing this in the first place. This was it. He beamed back at Al, and in unison they set their hands on the array.

The effect was immediate and dramatic to say the least. Red and purple flashing lights, an ominous wind caused by the escaping energy. Sheer, raw power surged through every cell of his body. This could work. He felt rather than heard Willow's part of the ritual begin. There was a sudden addition to the mix—exotic and untamed—that pulled at him, twisting and tangling into his own alchemical power. He knew she was chanting something, but it was lost to the wind. He could see her mouth moving, eyes glowing green with no trace of pupils or whites. It was like he was going to explode at any moment from the sheer ferocity of the force the three of them were channeling. Something began glowing, dark and red, within the core of Gluttony. Edward knew that it had to be the Philosopher's Stone within the homunculus. That meant everything was working.

The red glow began to pop and sizzle and the homunculus looked down at his chest in confusion. The first soul burst forth from the stone and disappeared up into the swirling vortex with a terrifying wail. It was followed by another, then another, and another, until they boiled forth in a froth of screeches and sick crackles, flying off into oblivion. Souls ripped free of their prison at an alarming rate, a cyclone of magic and alchemy combined to unmake the stone and release the souls that created it.

Blood dripped from Ed's nose and into his mouth. He could see the same happening to his brother and Willow. If this took much longer, they would pass out from the strain. They were so close-

Willow screamed and through the chaos Ed's heart turned to ice as he watched a frothing hand reach out and grab her by the neck. She choked, blood spattering on her lips, and the chanting stopped. Dark streams of energy surged up from the circle at the sudden lack of magic and thrashed about, barely missing the Elric brothers.

"You lied! You lied to me!"

Without the magic element, the ritual was falling apart. Ed tried to move, to help Willow, but it was as if his hands had bonded to the array and he could not move. He watched, helpless, as she was thrown from the circle and caught by Giles. More dark energy emerged every moment and Ed felt it sear up his flesh arm, leaving burn marks. They had failed.

"I'm sorry, Al." He whispered into the wind of the disaster he had caused.

"It's not over yet, big brother."

The words echoed in his mind, clear as if Al had said it from a foot away. Ed looked across the array at his sibling. Alphonse's eyes were glowing like Willow's had, and Edward could see his mouth moving, chanting something. He didn't have time to figure out what had happened when the magic was suddenly back. The dark energy vanished and souls exploded from Gluttony with a force that rocked the alchemist to his core. With one last cry for his beloved Lust, the homunculus called Gluttony detonated in a shower of glowing red, and simply was no more.

Falling back against the floor, Ed stared at the ceiling. It felt like he'd been struck by lightning. Ten times. He could barely breathe, and his arm hurt like a bitch, but they had done it. He gave himself two more breaths before he got up and went over to his brother who was lying, just as stunned, on the floor.

"What the hell was that?"

"Honestly? I have no clue." Al shrugged at him, too exhausted to say anything else.

"So that's it? Boom, no more big bad?" Xander asked, helping a thankfully-still-alive Willow to her feet.

"Boom." Ed smiled.

"So now what?" Buffy stared at the brothers.

"No clue."

"Say bye to Dawn for us. It was really great to meet all of you, and I wish you the best in your lives! Kill lots of monsters!" Alphonse beamed at Buffy and her friends.

"We will. You take care of each other." If Ed didn't know better, he would say Spike looked almost embarrassed.

Suddenly, the world turned upside-down, and Ed grabbed Alphonse's hand just in time for the world to go white.

The end. Or at least, an end. Thanks so much to all of you who hopped aboard this crazy train. Unanswered questions? Why the hell was Al doing the magicy thing? Most of these will be answered in the next section of the story: Welcome to Serenity. The first chapter of that will be up soon-ish. You will find that one under Full Metal Alchemist/Firefly crossovers. I hope you stay with me, cause we have a long way to go. Hope you enjoyed this part!