Stand by You

XXXVIII

We kept on running until we were stuck by a literal roadblock. There was a giant mass of a dark purple blob covered in huge bumps in front of us, with no way over, under, or around it. We all stopped at stared at the thing, stepping back cautiously to see if it was a trap. The blob shifted around, as if it was something alive. "What is that?" Darius asked.

"Is the good gentlemen, or Father, or whoever it is, in there?" Zampano wondered. Now that he just pointed it out, he did have a point. Lieutenant Hawkeye tensed, remembered Wrath's words on Colonel Mustang before relaxing a bit.

Darius set Lieutenant Hawkeye down as he stretched, giving his arms that he held her in a rest. We all sat down for a quick breather. I stared at my still bleeding hand that Wrath had stabbed. Testing to see if I could use it, I clapped my hands and placed them on the ground to see if a spark formed. Nothing. "Damn it!" I cussed before curling up, doing my best to not cry.

"Can't use your alchemy?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked.

"Yeah," I sniffed staring at my wounded hand again. "At least he didn't take out my automail arm. Once this heals over, I probably have to get it redone. Until then, I'm down to my swords." I remembered that scar on the back of Colonel's hand where he told me that when we fought Lust, she tore his gloves and he carved a circle on the back of use hand and it worked just as fine. I turned my hand over, relieved that Wrath didn't stab all the way through so the back of my hand wasn't affected. I drew my sword and carefully began to cut my transmutation circle onto my hand.

"Hey, what the--" Darius started.

"This is no time to be cutting yourself!" Jerso scolded.

"It's fine," I glanced at them. "It doesn't hurt, actually. I know what I am doing."

"Are you cutting your transmutation circle onto your hand?" Zampano asked.

"Yup," I nodded. "I got the circle memorized. It's the first thing I see every morning."

I tested to see if it worked or I have to cut deeper. I clapped my hands and placed them on the ground. A spark traveled to the shifting blob and a clock appeared, ticking three times before exploding. It did no damage to the blob, but at least I knew that my alchemy worked. "Yes!" I pumped my fist into the air.

Just as I did that, the blob receded, revealing a giant, open hole. Just as we were about to look down, we heard the sound of guns being loaded to see men in Briggs uniform aiming their sniper rifles at us. "Freeze!" They shouted. "Take it nice and easy."

More Briggs men, including General Armstrong with her arm in a sling, a shirtless Major Armstrong, and a tan man with black hair who was just as muscular as Major Armstrong. "Lieutenant Hawkeye?" Major Armstrong gasped.

"Major," She sighed before someone on a piece of rock riding literal lava as it sot upwards and out of the giant hole above us, which was covered by the blob earlier.

Suddenly, a column and a giant hand rose up as well, revealing a woman in a white dress and braided black hair in a similar fashion as cornrows with Colonel accompanying her and Alphonse on the column. It stopped when she spotted us. "Dear?" The woman shouted.

"Izumi!" The muscular man with black hair cried as he jumped into the giant hand she transmuted to hug her,. She must of been one of the sacrifices as well if she was down there. As they parted, the woman of Izumi said, "This is no time to relax. Look after the Colonel."

"Right," nodded the muscular man as he helped Mustang off the giant hand.

"Colonel!" Lieutenant Hawkeye created.

Izumi and Alphonse transmute their hand and column to rise up even more. "There's someone up there that we have to eliminate, so we're off," She shouted.