Mustang: The Road to Redemption

Chapter 34: Nearly Out

As Akari stepped back outside of the building, she looked to the side and noticed Alphonse approaching her.

The suit of armor would then quickly bow and began to speak.

"I-I'm sorry for my brother's actions Ms. Akari." Said Alphonse a bit meekly as Akari smiled a bit.

"Don't worry about it Alphonse. Roy explained to me the whole situation so I understand how Edward felt about it." She said as she could tell Al still was a little uneasy about what had happened.

Akari would then grab onto Alphonse's hand.

"Here. Come with me." She said as after a couple of minutes, Akari had brought Al to a flower field nearby as she sat down with Al laying down next to her.

"Go ahead. Say whatever you want." She said which surprised Al.

"Back at the abandoned place, when we found the girl, she looked exactly like our mom." Said Al as Akari nodded, already knowing thanks to Roy.

"It must hurt doesn't it? Fighting a creature that has your mother's appearance." She said as Al nodded.

"Me and Ed don't know what to do. With her being a Homunculus, we know we have to figure out some way to kill her, but just the thought of technically killing our mom is weird." Said Al.

Akari smiled as she softly patted his metal head.

"Since I'm basically now wrapped up in all this, don't be afraid to come talk to me about this whenever you and Edward need help okay?" She said as Al nodded happily, standing up and thanking her for listening before walking away as she then got up and walked back home.

As she made her way back, her mind was clouded with thoughts about how this beef between Alex and Edward could potentially not be fixed.

Even though Roy had said that it was gonna be fine, Akari deep down thought that this was something that couldn't be fixed so easily.

Either way, she hoped for the best as she made it back to the complex and entered her room.

[TimeSkip: The Next Day]

It was rather early in the morning as Akari had already woken up as she was currently walking around the city drinking a morning cup of coffee just trying to relax as much as she could after what had happened yesterday.

As she was just walking by minding her own business, she saw Al in the distance oddly walking somewhere not looking out at who he was bumping into.

'That's, odd?' She thought to herself as she decided to rush and approach Alphonse.

She eventually did as she went and stood in front of him.

"Hey Alphonse." She said.

It seemed to have broken Alphonse out of a trance as he shook his head a bit and looked down at her.

"O-Oh hi Ms. Akari. Why're you here?" He said.

"I'm just enjoying a morning stroll through the city. What about you?" She asked.

"O-Oh, um, I'm going to a place the Colonel told me to investigate."  He said as he immediately went away in hurry.

This greatly caught Akari's attention as she decided to tail Alphonse to see where he was going.

After a couple of minutes tailing the younger Elric, Akari saw him enter another different abandoned base as she decided to watch Alphonse through the windows the place had.

As she trailed his location, he eventually made it to one window where Alphonse had stopped walking and began looking around for something.

Eventually Akari saw a puddle of water randomly form at the floor as she and Alphonse saw from the water emerge the Homunculis from before as she had arrived.

Akari fought the urge to immediately barge in and stop whatever was gonna happen.

That was until she saw girl slowly approach Alphonse, about to touch his head.

That was the final straw that broke the camel's back as Akari stepped back and immediately charged in, breaking through the window and slowing down time as she kicked her in the head away from Alphonse as she stood guard in front of him, panting a bit.

'D-Damn. I forgot how much energy manipulating time without the book takes.' She thought.

"A-Akari!? Why're you here!?" Asked Al who was shocked at her sudden arrival.

"Leave her to me and get out of here!" She said as in a split second she narrowly ducked to avoid a water whip attack from woman who had immediately regained their footing as she simply gave a small smile and looked straight at Akari.

Without speaking a word her arms turned into water whips again as she began trying to attack Akari as the latter began to charge at her, easily dodging the attacks.

As she was about to land a punch, the homunculus suddenly turned her entire body into water as she sunk into the ground.

This caught Akari by surprise as she was struck in the back by a water whip as the girl had immediately regained form and rose above the ground behind Akari.

Akari stood up after the hit and regained composure as she went on the offensive again avoiding some more attacks as she again time froze time before she could go back beneath the surface again.

She began to land punches and kicks by landing one hit, stopping time, and then landing another as she repeated that pattern before she kicked her away as the homunculus slid across the floor a bit battered.

The repeated process of altering tjme heavily drained Akari as she was panting a lot more now.

Despite the assault, the homunculus had simply got up like it was nothing, shocking Akari as it looked like no damage had been done to her at all.

"J-Just who are you?" Asked a tired Akari.

".........Sloth." Was all the woman would say, gaining a small smile as she turned to face Al who had been watching the battle unsure of whether to leave or help Akari.

Sloth began to charge straight at the younger Elric as Akari ran after her to stop it.

That was until at the last second Sloth turned back into a puddle of water again which caused Akari to bump into and off of Al's chestplate.

The collision woukd knock Al back and onto the ground as it dazed Akari.

Sloth would quickly take advantage as she emerged back above the ground behind Akari as she turned one of her arms into water as she flicked it at Akari.

Instead of getting whipped, the end of the whip would opened up and completely encase and trap Akari's head into an unbreakable water bubble.

Akari struggled to break free, refusing to breathe and avoid drowning as even if she had froze time, she still would be stuck in the water bubble.

Alphonse immediately tried to help only for the other arm of Sloth to turn into a water whip and hold Al back.

Alphonse began to panic, knowing time was running out as Akari struggles were getting slower and slower.

That was until Sloth would suddenly let go of Akari and turn back into a puddle as she went back behind Alphonse and held him back.

The reason why was because Edward had arrived.

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Chapter 34: Complete