Demons Only One

Chapter 8: It's a shame, but it's your honor

Lavi avoided demon by twisting in the air. He landed on a roof that was still partially intact and immediately rolled into a stand while smashing another demon with his hammer. Behind him, he heard multiple explosions as Yu destroyed a small hoard of them.

As the red-head studied the situation around him trying to decide the next best course of action, he heard Yu softly land behind him. "Even though we expected there to be a lot of demons, this is much more than expected! Do you think there could be..?"

Innocence?

"Maybe," was the gruff reply. A silent understanding passed between the two of them and they jumped apart as another demon came careening at them.

Lenalee jumped, stomping on another demon before flipping in the air. Using her arms, she slowed down her rotation and took a moment to study the city around her. Oslo… She had heard that it was a beautiful city, and really, if one looked hard enough and had a vivid imagination, one could probably tell, but it was hard to focus on something like that when her mind was preoccupied with other thoughts.

Allen…

She came crashing down on a particularly round demon and then launched off of it to kick a hole through another one that attempted to fire some sort of missile at her. Flipping around, she noted where Krowly and Marie were before looking to see where she should go next.

She couldn't help but notice that almost every building in sight was demolished. There were cries of panic from those alive and screams of pain from those dying; something in Lenalee's heart started to shatter and it felt like her world would break into a million pieces. She knew what it felt like to lose someone close to one's heart…

Allen…

She could feel the tears start to fall, and yet, something still bothered her…

Wasn't this more demons than they expected?

Ed tried in vain to keep his mind from wandering, but it was hard when dark thoughts would cling to the edges of his consciousness and pull him deeper and deeper into his nightmares.

At first, the dreams were only vague shapes that were barely discernable in the dark, but the feelings that they left behind once his eyes were open were of dread that sunk to the bottom of his stomach and stayed there long into the day and would carry into the next nightmare. These feelings made him feel antsy and drove him from his hospital bed to the library, much to Al's chagrin.

He tried to hide the fact that he was having these nightmares, but felt that he was undoubtedly failing: the dark circles under his eyes got darker and darker and with each following day, he slept less and less.

As soon as Ed was in some semblance of order and had Al's reluctant permission, he would spend long hours "recuperating" in the library under the strict surveillance of Link and Al; Link would calmly scrutinize his every action from a nearby table scribbling in a notebook while Al would help him get books and chastise him muttering that he needed more bed rest, but nevertheless fetching the desired book. Al understood that Ed wanted to crack their father's code as soon as possible, but if Ed were to fall ill because of his haste, then what was the point? Yet there was no way that Al could get Ed to listen to him, not on something like this.

Focusing on the papers before him, Ed frowned. He felt a sense of foreboding, but he wasn't sure why… it almost felt like when they had finally decoded Dr. Marcoh's research…

There was definitely something going on… and Ed was pretty sure that he wasn't going to like it one bit.

A little less than a week into the decoding, Link's head snapped up as the Noah suddenly stood, sending his chair clattering to the floor; his eyes were wide as he stared in horror at the page before him. Blood seemed to drain from his face making the dark circles stand out more starkly against the pale skin. "No way," he gasped softly, then louder, "No fucking way."

He passed the papers slowly to Mana as his eyes stared blankly down, trying to digest whatever information he had discovered. He gulped, which seemed to Link that the Noah was trying not to hurl, as Mana gasped and quickly turned to look at his brother who was now staring at his abnormal left hand. "Y-you can't be serious!"

"It explains so much," he said softly, in horrified wonder. "The screaming, the pain…and.. even the circle."

Link quickly got up, allowing his own notes to fall forgotten to the floor, but before he could approach them and demand to know what they were talking about, the Noah and the suit of armor were out the door. Hastily, he chased after the brothers, head whipping around to see what direction they ran. Why is he so fast? Isn't he not fully healed yet?

In their blind haste, he watched as they turned down the wrong corridor and swore loudly: they were headed straight for the Arc, the one place where he was forbidden to let them go. Chasing after them, Link knew that it was futile; they would reach the Arc before he could stop them.

When he had finally caught up with the two, they were staring slack-jawed at the Arc. If anything, it seemed that in the short time Link didn't see the Noah, he had managed to get paler. Thinking quickly of a way to get the two to leave, the Crow carefully approached the brothers, but as the two looked on, several men walked out of it.

Fullmetal seemed to snap out of it before his brother did and stomped angrily over to Komui. "The hell do you think you're doing?" Suddenly, everyone in the area was aware of their presence and was on high alert, silently slipping out weapons. The few exorcists in the area activated their Innocence.

He grabbed Komui's collar. "Are you stupid?" He gestured towards the Arc. "You have no idea what you're playing with! The Arc is not something you can just glibly use with no consequences!"

"What do you mean?" Link had to give it to Komui; even under these circumstances, he was still calm.

The Noah roughly shoved the Supervisor away in disgust and the Chinese dropped his clipboard as he tried to regain his balance. "Are you kidding me? Why do humans always use things so carelessly without knowing the consequences?"

For a split second, Link saw an expression of pain on the Noah's face just before he quickly masked it with anger. Interesting. He wondered what that was about.

"Brother…" The suit of armor clanked as he stepped forward to put a comforting hand on the Noah's shoulder.

"Al… what have I done?" he muttered softly. The two exchange a soft conversation; all Link could hear of the conversation was:

"I know my handiwork when I see it…" and something about a "Gate."

After a few more hushed words, Fullmetal resolutely turned to face the Arc.

"I made it; I have to destroy it." He took a step toward it but was immediately faced with a small army as everyone in the near vicinity moved to protect the Arc. "You're kidding me, right? You're going to protect the stupid thing that's been slowly killing you?"

Their weapons lowered a fraction of an inch. Fullmetal took a deep breath trying to reign in his temper; his eyes studied the people who were blocking his path, and then he continued softly. "The Arc may be able to take you from one place to another almost instantaneously, but it's not for free; there's always a price. In this case, the price is the time remaining on your life. You're shortening your lives and killing yourselves without even realizing it!" He took a step forward and the weapons were once again immediately raised.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," he growled; his eyes flashed molten gold. "Are you all so willing to win this war that you would just throw your lives and innocent lives away?"

"Innocent lives? We don't kill the innocent."

"Fucking liars! You know exactly what I mean! After all, the Earl would have no need of such a plan! This whole fucking plan has to be your idea! Are you all so desperate to win the war that you're willing to kill thousands – no – millions of people?"

"What are you-?" Komui took a step forward but was interrupted.

"You-" The Noah moved forward preparing to punch the daylights out of the Chinese man, but was stopped by a metallic hand on his shoulder and a soft warning.

"Brother, he may not know anything about it. You know exactly what it can be like. After all, that time, we didn't know either, did we?" He paused and lowered his arm when his brother no longer looked like he was going to kill Komui. "It's probably someone higher up in the brass."

"Then, we'll have to find that person… but it could also be someone working from the shadows… it could even be another Noah for all we know, though, why it would be, I have no idea…" he muttered thoughtfully, brow creased in thought. "But then, it's not like they have all the screws in their heads… although, if I think of it that way, it could be the Earl's plan from the beginning…"

Suddenly, he clutched at his head and fell to his knees. "Shit, no, not now! They're- How did he even-" There seemed to be an internal struggle and everyone held their breath. Was this…? Could it be?

Allen?

"Brother! BROTHER!" The armor was clanging about frantically but no one in the room took notice. All attention was centered on Fullmetal.

However, when the Noah looked up, it wasn't with golden eyes, but with blank grey ones.

"A-allen?" Komui stepped forward uncertainly. There was hope in his voice, but it was carefully veiled.

The light seemed to come back into the grey eyes and they widened in realization. "Komui!" His head whipped around to look at the man. "You have to know he – Ed's -"

There was another brief struggle and molten eyes snapped up, locking eyes with Mana. There was a sheen to his brow, maybe from the effort of containing Allen? Though, if they shared the same mind, couldn't Fullmetal just destroy that portion of the mind? Or was there something else going on? Some risk or some other plan?

He took a deep breath. "Al, they're coming…"

"What?" Clank. His head snapped up to study their surroundings. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. It-" He struggled to get up. ("Brother! You shouldn't move too much! You aren't healed yet!") "It won't be long before they arrive… a day at soonest, half a week at latest… But knowing them…" He left the sentence hang as he turned to stare at the Arc. "We need to destroy it… If they take that back, the damage they could inflict will be immeasurable."

However, despite everything that had been going on, there were still many people standing between them and the Arc.

"Al, you're going to have to throw me."

"Are you stupi-"

"Dammit, Al! THROW ME!"

"Fine!" He picked up the Noah and began to spin as the world around them jumped into action. However, before anyone could reach the two, Fullmetal was sailing over them, avoiding arrows and other weapons with ease.

With a resounding clap, he collided with the Arc in a blaze of blue lightening…

…and then there was white.

It felt like someone was calling him...

Lenalee?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa..ha…ha.. Oops.. Sorry.. It's been awhile, hasn't it? Myyy bbaaddd….

No one probably cares, but I didn't fail the exam! Yay!

Anyway, see you again in a year! *shot* (Note: I may or may not be kidding… *shotgunned*)

But I hope that this chapter was interesting enough for you and whatever~ (And hopefully it didn't fail what with my long absense... OTL)

Thank you all for your support and sorry about the lack of updating!

~razra

Title is The Fray - Enough for Now