Cardinal sin (2) : A laugh in Vain

21 - Deicide

It did not take long for Ed to come to the following conclusion; if Granny was dead, then Winry had probably suffered the same fate, or soon would.

Fullmetal leapt over Granny's body, screwing up his face to banish the tears for the old woman who had done so much for him. He dashed through the hall and up the stairs.

The door to Winry's room was wide open, and droplets of Granny's blood covered the handle. They slithered down, and dropped to the floor, forming a minuscule puddle.

Cautiously, Ed inched forwards. He was afraid to see similar bloodshed and to behold his fiancée cold dead.

It looked like they had arrived just on time.

Winry was huddled beneath her working table, a hand clamped over her mouth to muffle the sounds of her sobs and terrified whimpers. Walking slowly around the room, peeking in odd places and blood dripping from his knife was no other than Vain.

He looked awful—the bullet to the stomach he'd taken from Rebecca really had done a number on him. His skin was pale, and almost a feverish green in the face. His clothes had obviously not been changed in days and they were red and brown from his wound, which refused to heal.

Ed and Winry made eye contact. The latter's frightened face brightened with hope and relief. She almost removed her hand from her mouth and whispered Fullmetal's name when Vain turned around abruptly.

This was the moment Ed chose to make his move. He stepped into the doorway.

"I thought you'd died, you shit."

Vain's head snapped his way. Instantly, hate and resentment spilled into his eyes, and, eyebrows lowered, he said, "Hello, Fullmetal. I came to get my revenge."

"And you think killing Granny is a suitable revenge?" As Ed said this, a rebellious tear escaped his eye and slipped down his face.

"You killed all of the people I worked with for years... you killed my friends. Whould you like to know how I was affiliated with those people? I suppose you do. Doesn't it bug you that we were followers of the homunculi but you don't know why? It's because we were lapdogs! We did their bidding when they needed some really dirty work done."

Vain leaned on his knee with one hand, and the other went to play with his tangled hair. He tugged at it harshly for no apparent reason. Yet, as he was pulling his hair, obviously hurting his scalp, Vain was grinning.

"Did I respect them?" continued the man. "I don't know. The others did. But me... I was never sure. Even now when they're dead or have betrayed us. I suppose revenging them was a good excuse to gain the support of the Cardinal Sin to accomplish my own goals. I couldn't become a god without them."

"Why are you telling me all this?" asked Ed. "What, do you want someone to know your story before you die? For all your efforts to live on in my memory?"

"Not in yours. They will live on in my own memories. I'm the only one who's going to leave this house alive!"

Upon the last word, Vain threw the knife towards the desk like he'd known Winry's hiding place all along.

It missed her by a hair.

"You're worse than trash!" Ed roared, stomping down with his auto-mail foot. "Leave Winry alone and let me kill you!"

"You think you will be to do that?" Vain let out a long, crazed, high laugh, which Ed determined was the most disturbing thing he'd ever heard. "Killing me will be like committing deicide—and you can't kill a god!"

Ed lunged forwards. He grabbed Vain's face with his right hand, digging his short nails into his enemy's skin. Then, without giving Vain time to react, Fullmetal slammed the former's head into the wall.

"God? I've killed a god before, so I guess this is all going to work out fine!"

He grabbed Vain by the hair and forced him up, then he raised his automail foot and metal met flesh. Vain howled, stumbling back and clutching his now-bleeding chin, allowing Ed to kick him again. This time, Edward's metal foot hit the Cardinal Sin's leader in the stomach, and hard enough that he crashed through the window behind him and fell.

Fullmetal what eager to see if the two-storey fall had contributed to Vain's already extensive injuries and killed him; unfortunately, it had not.

As soon as he poked his head through the sharp shards of glass still attached to the windowsill, Vain surprised him with a transmutation of the wooden exterior of the house. Little moving hands sprang out and their minuscule fingers grabbed onto his clothes, pulled his hair and pinched his skin.

It reminded him of a horrible experience from his past. The night when possession of his arm and leg had been taken away from him and Al lost his entire body. The little hands Vain was turning the wood into reminded him of those that dragged him through the Gate of Truth...

Ed jumped out of the window. The hands lost their grip on him, but not without tearing a few unlucky strips off his clothes and plucking some strands of golden hair. He sailed through the air, wind smacking his face, and suddenly he was about to land—the place was both unfortunate and lucky.

His feet made contact before anything. They slammed into Vain's open wound, tearing the poor man's flesh until one foot was buried inside his belly.

The rest of Fullmetal fell to the ground from both the impact and slipping on Vain's blood (and maybe his organs as well). He crashed hard on his elbows and chin, while his foot flew in the air, showering them both with droplets of crimson. Ed rolled over to see if his opponent was still alive.

Vain was crying.

"Son... of a bitch!" he moaned, his bloody fingers gently tracing his wrecked flesh. "Son of a... son of... bitch... It hurts."

"That was easy," Ed huffed. "Like killing a god? You went down much easier than a god."

"I couldn't even... even use it," Vain gasped. "The power... of the philo... stone. I just died... and you... killed me again?"

Ed got to his knees and placed one on Vain's heaving chest. Glaring down at the dying man, he said, "Your laugh was in vain, 'cause it looks like you're the only one going to hell today."