Chapter 10 - Aftermath

I apologize for have kept you waiting once more. But I get very busy here and there you know. But I wont keep you waiting any longer so let us continue. We last left off with the gang fighting off hordes of undead, not to mention finding the source of the problem. However before Edward would fall victem to Vegeta, a darkness long dormant awoke in him, unleashing the homunculus known as Pride. Let's see if Vegeta can fair against sin itself when it comes to who is the darkest warrior.

Vegeta glared, trying to surpress his unease. "I..impossible! Y..you were a mangled sorry mess moments ago; how can this be?!" the proud saiyen prince barked out in disbelief. He couldnt even see a scratch or bruise on the youth. And to make matters worse the automail arm he had torn off had been replaced with a new flesh one. But what really was unsettling was the way the blonde was looking at him. His eyes werent fierce, or angry. They were lifeless and blank....like a doll's eyes. They just gazed at him with that listless expression.

"You awoke me. I am Edward's counterpart. I got tired of your boastfull comments and decided to take over from where my other half left off. Besides I was yearning to shed blood for awhile now. So rejoice, you'll be my first victem." Pride stated calmly, walking forward now with his scyth raised. Vegeta glared then, not amused by the brat's know-it-all attitude.

"You think so? I doubt that!" Vegeta roared, blasting a round of ki energy at the spot Pride stood, soo much soo that dust had kicked up making it hard to see for a few minutes. "Ha, arrogant lil punk. All bark but no bite." he then said while getting to his feet as he wiped the dust from his armour.

"Dont be soo quick to celebrate." Pride whispered, standing right behind the saiyen, but before he could react, he felt a mind numbing pain shoot through his body, the sin's hand having penatrated his armour and was sticking out of his abdomen. "Pity, the way Edward fought against you, I mistook you for a threat. You are just a chatty monkey though, how droll." Pride then stated, yanking his hand out roughly as the saiyen howled in pain, collasping in a writhing heap on the ground, hacking and coughing up blood.

"You..you wont be soo confident when I do thi..this!" Vegeta hissed out, having spotted the moon outside. Damn; it wasnt entirely full but it would have to suffice. He attempted to change into his demonic saiyen ape form, only to scream when he felt his tail get hacked clean off. Who did it he did not know, until he heard the person's voice that was.

"Nice try Vegeta...but im not in the mood to fight off king kong tonight." Shadow stated, tossing the wriggling tail off to the side as the prince glared daggers at him. "So this is Ed's other half. Thought I felt something off about him when I first saw the runt. That was you it appears." the raven haired male stated, looking to said homunculus who gave a nod.

"Yes, I was created when Edward stepped into the red water in lab five and temporarily gained immense inhuman power. However I wasnt able to fully awaken until Sarah turned him immortal." Pride said calmly, staring out the window now before he began walking. "Let's get going, the other's might need assistance." he then added as Shadow gave a nod. Both however stopped when they heard Vegeta laughing.

"What's soo funny?" Shadow asked the wounded male, who only grinned.

"You arent leaving this place alive. If I am going to hell, im taking you two with me!" The prince roared out, putting all his energy into the last galic gun he could muster, shooting the ray up towards the support beams. The already weakened beams gave away in no time, the building beginning to shake and rumble as debris began to fall towards the three.

Deidara and Louis after a good hour or two of flying, managed to find the entrance of the portal. "There it is un, that place is giving off a massive evil energy that only a portal of darkness could give off yeah." Deidara called to Louis over the wind gusts as they flew towards the one old warehouse.

"That must be how they are sending the dead beats through to this world." Louis stated, glancing to Deidara then. "How we going to go about this holms?" he then asked, Deidara thinking for a few moments.

"Hmmm you could take out the freaks since you know them well yeah. Meanwhile I'll go to close the portal since im familier with that method of transportation un." Deidara then said, Louis nodding to this.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go!" Louis said, leaping off the bird without warning as Deidara flailed. Sighing he jumped off after the other male. Once landing safely on the roof, Deidara wasted no time and blew a good sized hole into the roof. Once inside they then went to work, Deidara covering Louis by having a fleet of his explosive grasshoppers take out a good amount of hunters as the latino mixbreed fired away at the two witches that had barely managed to make it out of the large black hole in the center of the room.

"Keep em busy un, I have to concentrate for this!" Deidara yelled towards Louis, turning his attention towards the large swirling black void, sending two shadow clones to assist Louis as said male ran about keeping the remaining hunters on their toes. Doing a few handsigns the blonde bomb expert began to mutter something inaudible, eyes closed as the portal began to shake and twist.

"Hurry up, there's a tank trying to get through!" Louis yelled, ducking out of the way of a hunter that leapt his way, before busting the back of his gun into it's mutated face to stun it before he then kicked it into three others. And as he stated, the tank's hand was reaching out towards Deidara, the blonde opened his eyes and called out something in latin, the portal diminishing as a scream rang through the air, the large muscular arm being sliced clean off as it fell to the ground.

"That was close yeah." Deidara muttered, sweatdropping as he and Louis watched the arm wriggle about like a beached whale for a few moments before going completly limp.

"Indeed. Try not to let it happen again buddy. Now let's get moving, there's still more clean up to do outside." Louis said, picking his shotgun back up before he turn and headed for the exit, Deidara close behind him.

"Damn where are they? I dont see them." Roy said, squinting as he tried to find Shadow and Edward amongst the smoke that was billowing from the building.

"We cant risk going down closer or we'll get pulled in from the force of the collaspe. You sure they are still in there?" Sarah yelled to Roy as the owl did it's best to keep above the violently shaking building. Sarah could only worry as she bit her bottom lip. Dammit that runt had best get out of there alive, he didnt sacrifice his humanity just to die at the hands of that damn monkey prince. Plus the absence of Shadow made her nervous too.

"Wait...I see them! They're coming out the side balcony!" Roy yelled, pointing to said spot as sure enough Edward and Shadow both came into view. There was something off about Ed though. Sarah knew right away though, his darker half was in control it seemed. She couldnt risk Roy seeing him like that though. Making a quick handsign she purposly elbowed the colenol in the face before sending her nirvana temple jutsu towards the homunculus. Sure enough it hit it's mark as the sin toppled over out like a light. Seconds later Edward's body reverted back to normal, right arm vanishing along with tattoos of blood red color. After this took place, Sarah steered the owl over towards the balcony, Shadow sending a glare the ravenette's way.

"Get on before the place caves in!" She called, Shadow nodding as he picked up Edward and leapt with ease onto the back of the owl before it flew up, and just in time as the large factory crumbled like a house of cards.

"He took a beating, but other than that he'll live." Shadow said, nodding to the unconious form of Edward as Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Roy smiling a tad bit too.

"Good, let's go see if the other's are doing any better." Roy said calmly, while the owl swooped over the town, it's riders checking to see if they could find anymore of their comrades. They all looked to see Deidara's clay owl fly up beside them, Louis riding unhappily behind the blonde looking as if he needed a doggie bag.

"Did you get rid of the portal?" Sarah called, Deidara giving a thumbs up.

"Yup, all thanks to mister trigger happy over here un. You get rid of the monkeys yeah?" Deidara called back, Shadow and Sarah nodding to this.

"Good, let's head to the tavern un, we picked off the rest of the small fry after we got rid of the portal. The town should be somewhat calm now un." Deidara called back as the group did just that.

Alphonse wasnt too thrilled to see his brother unconcious and lacking an arm. "W..what happened to him?!" Al yelled out, flailing as he ran over to his brother's side. Shadow murred before patting the suit of armor on the shoulder.

"Relax kid, he may look like he lost; but he managed to best the bobblehead. He's going to be ok, he'll just need some rest and then he'll be good as new." The dual haired male stated calmly as Alphonse stared uneasily at Edward before giving a nod.

"Um..ok. But im still going to give him an earfull when he wakes up! We made a promise to be careful and not die before we get our bodies back to normal." Al then said before he took a seat next to his older sibling on the couch while Sarah went about treating his wounds with the first aid kit Tifa provided her.

"Did Vegeta make it out of there? We saw the building collaspe from here." Sasori then asked Shadow who gave a shrug.

"Doubt it...but knowing that sneak he probly managed to get out and run off. Which isnt good since he'll be even stronger now thanks to that royal beating he took." Shadow said with an annoyed expression on his features as he stared off out the window.

"Well, since everything looks secure here; I'll be rounding up some troops to help clean up the rest of the city. We cant risk assuming there isnt anymore of those lifeforms running about. Let me know when Fullmetal is up and ready to battle again considering we might be needing him." Roy then stated, turning as he walked out swiftly, Louis snorting at the male.

"Tch, acts like he did all the @$$ kicking when in reality we had to save his ungreatful hyde when he got soaked." The dual eyed latino muttered as Shadow patted his shoulder.

"Easy Lou, be thankful he didnt recognize you due to your habit of money making." The older male informed as Louis murred looking away, Tifa quirking a brow.

"He better not swipe anything from me, less he wants a fist in his groin." Tifa said calmly while helping Itachi pick up the tossed over tables and chairs. Louis sweatdropped, quickly shaking his hands up infront of him.

"Sorry no ma'm I may be greedy; but I aint loco. I saw how ya clocked Shads and I really wouldnt want to be on that side of your fist." he said with a weak laugh, Shadow twitching some at this. But of course this got a smile out of Tifa who chuckled.

"Well that's good to hear. However this wont be your hangout to hide your stash either. So how about a job? I need some extra hands around here; and less clumsy ones." She said, Alphonse mewing upon hearing this.

"H..hey! I dont mean to knock the bottles over sometimes, it's just that im soo big!" The armor explained whilst waterfall tearing, the brunette bartender laughing to this.

"Easy Al I didnt mean it that way. It's just that I need some more helpful hands around here and to prevent him from stealing; Louis can cut out the middle man and get a paycheck working here. How does that sound?" Tifa explained, looking to Louis then who thought for a few minutes.

"Hmmm...does sound good. Plus no risks. Ah what the hell, sure I'll be glad to help ya. I hope you pay well." Louis then said with a light grin as Tifa smiled.

"Oh I do. And maybe you can be a bouncer big guy." Tifa then said to Shadow to just murred.

"Maybe, but I'll just lurk around since Louis is no doubt going to stay here. After all he goes where there is money." Shadow muttered as he looked off to the side.

Sarah meanwhile sweatdropped. She really didnt like the thought of grumpy ol Shadow lingering about. But he did help get Edward out of that factory...so she guessed he could be trusted. She looked down at the alchemist, frowning while she inspected his arm, or lack of arm that is. "Yeesh, Vegeta did a number on this thing. Luckily he didnt do too much major damage, just tore it clean off from the looks of it." she said while inspecting it as Alphonse looked down at his brother.

"Looks like Winry will have to pay us a visit. She wont be happy with this." he said with a light sigh. He could imagine it now, Winry ranting up a storm about how Ed ruined her perfect automail in another suicidal battle and then clonking him with her wrench and telling him she'd charge him out the @$$ again.

"Tch dont bother, I'll do it. I do make puppets for a living after all." Sasori then said, causing both Sarah and Al to look up as they saw him also looking over Edward as he stood infront of the couch. "Doesnt look too hard; just enough of the previous material I can use to make a new arm from scratch." the puppetmaster then said, his tail poking lightly at the shredded parts of metal that hung from Edward's shoulder.

"Wow..you mean it? But why?" Alphonse then asked in surprise as Sasori shrugged.

"Call it a whim, besides I like to challenge myself against other people's workmanship. I had to admit when I saw the arm it looked quite intriging, indeed someone with great skill could only muster up such a work of ark. I want to see if I can top it, besides I need to work with this material more anyway since wood and clay is growing dull to me. I'll do it free of charge too. However if he complains about the results im going to make him flat broke." Sasori then stated, getting a light chuckle out of Sarah as she patted Edward on the forehead while the cloaked male scooted off already thinking up new redesigns for the arm.

"Guess his training will have to wait til he get's his new automail. Though I'm glad he's alright." Sarah stated, Alphonse nodding to this.

"Yeah me too. However...im curious Sarah. What exactly...is brother now?" Al then asked the female ravenette, she tensed some at this and remained quiet for a few moments.

"I think you should ask Edward yourself. He would want it that way rather than you ask someone behind his back." Sarah then said as she sent a smile the suit of armor's way. Al sighed some before giving a nod.

"Yeah..you're right."

"But dont worry Al, he's still the same big brother." she then said, patting Al's large hand as he then managed to chuckle.

"Yeah, I dont think he'll ever change, especially in size..ack!" Al meeped out, being nearly kicked off the couch due to Edward's foot that moved out of reaction to the statement. This of course got the two laughing then, settling their uneasy feelings for the moment. Though as the group settled down in the tavern, a loud hoarse roar rang through the city, a hulking beast, bigger than most of the tanks looking over the city as it snarled before heading deep into the nearby forest.

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