lucetilogs | a monster at heart...

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a monster at heart...

Who: Edward (Pride), Winry, Sokka, Korra, and Aang
What: Playing Homunculus in the Hole
When: Thursday, March 21st (today~)
Where: The plaza
Summary: Winry and Sokka have figured out that there's something seriously wrong with Ed, so they'd like to get him into the tunnels to confirm it. Whether or not Pride, still possessing Ed's body, will cooperate is another thing entirely.
Rating: Pg/13 for violence probably? 8D;

When Winry had said that she wanted to go on an outing with him, Pride had been somewhat surprised and suspicious, but really hadn't thought much of it; things had been strange and a little awkward between them since his outburst during that stupid Valentine's Day experiment, but he'd tried to brush it off once it was over. He hadn't initiated anything... intimate since then, though, either. Considering Fullmetal's rebellion - and how many close calls they'd had since then - it isn't something he has any desire to risk. Not that he's particularly inclined to sleep with her without an experiment's influence, but long-term relationships have certain expectations.

Honestly, he'd seriously considered breaking up with her a few times, but he's also had a hard time coming up with an acceptable reason for it, one that Edward would actually come up with. "Chemistry", maybe- humans like that word. It's simply getting harder to pretend to enjoy her company when he honestly couldn't care less about her.

As they approach the plaza, he gives it more thought. Maybe he should just get it done and over with, before this "date" goes too far. He could slide right into the habit of treating her platonically and his life would become so much simpler...

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"...We couldn't have done this back at the house?" His eyes narrow even further, focusing on her expression. There's something about the way that she's looking at him that bothers him. Like she's searching for something, and he has no idea how to show it to her. She can't... how could she possibly know he's not Ed? His only slip-up was in the hotel, and that's excusable... unless...

...No, his acting is perfect. He's had hundreds of years to practice this. She's just being weird again.

"Why don't you sound so sure of yourself, Pride? She's never looked at me like that."

He scowls, fighting the urge to avert his gaze. Stupid alchemist... "Isn't this something you want to talk about in private?"

"I was afraid Elicia might hear us," she tells him without hesitation, "but I do want you to know it's okay. I'm not angry with you."
Yes she is. She's angry with this thing, but she's not angry with Ed. She has to talk beyond it - to him. Again, can Ed see her? Can he hear her? She's doing this for him. Winry's hand reaches up to cup the side of his face.

"I understand. You weren't feeling yourself that night. I want to apologize for not doing this sooner."
I'm sorry for not realizing sooner, Ed. However her apology on the surface is supposed to be for keeping her distance, and not trying to mend the tension in their relationship sooner. Her expression softens as she thinks to herself about how this is almost over.

The way that Edward goes unnaturally quiet at that is an alarm bell, and the final straw of suspicion that Pride needs. He lifts a hand to wind around her wrist, holding it there, not painfully, but not exactly gently, either.

"...Not doing what?" he responds quietly, tilting his head slightly. It would look almost curious if not for the way he's looking at her- there's a darkness in his eyes that is decidedly unlike Edward Elric's usual expression, at least when it comes to Winry. "You're not making any sense."

The woman flinches when he takes her hand, but her eyes don't break away from his gaze.

"Not resolving this weirdness that's been in the house. I didn't mean to pressure you so much that night. I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you?" As she speaks her last sentence Winry pushes herself up on her tip-toes to get her face closer to his. It sort of terrifies her to be this close to him while he is like this, but the fear only fuels her determination to end it.

He fights the urge to lean away from her, standing his ground despite her being so close; he's not intimidated in the slightest, but something about her being so near to him when things are obviously uncomfortable just bothers him. Like he knows that all is not well, but doesn't know the nuances of their relationship to recognize what he's supposed to do in this situation. Is she expecting him to kiss her? The idea seems a little ridiculous.

Well, Elric is awfully clueless most of the time anyway, when it comes to women. It never hurts to be sure. Reluctantly he releases her wrist, dropping his arm back to his side, but keeping ready just in case. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"I was thinking," she tells him as she brushes his cheek with her thumb, "that maybe you could tell me. But first let's kiss and make up."

For one last time she looks deeply into his eyes. Her expression looks like a mix of sincere apology with a small flicker of determination. She is sorry that she has to do this, and determined to pull it off without a hitch. Do you trust her, Ed? To set things right? To save you from whatever might be possessing you?
She leans her face in, and tilts it to the side so that their lips may meet. From here all she needs to do is stall for Sokka, right?

If this is her idea of working out a problem, it's a terrible idea, is what he's thinking. He's tempted to push her away - lately whenever they get close, the alchemist soul within him starts freaking out and telling him off, so it's been much easier to avoid it. Awkwardness is an easy enough excuse to use, after all. Right now, though, he's staying quiet.

Well, whatever. Maybe it'll shut her up. He shrugs carelessly, closing the distance and pressing his lips against hers. It's not what anyone would be able to call a loving kiss, more tolerant than anything else, but it's better than nothing, right?

Better than nothing is all he needs. Sokka had considered a lot of options for this plan. Tying him up, trying to restrain him, or some other way of disabling him. In the end, he settled for something brutally efficient. Something he hadn't quite agreed with Winry on. Sokka abruptly stepped out from behind Ed and with the butt of his sword, proceeded to aim a blow at the back of his so-called best friend's skull. This would be much easier if he was just passed out. They could figure out the headache later.

The reaction is immediate- violently so, in fact. He shoves Winry back, away from himself, and shadows rise up from his feet to lash out at Sokka, razor-sharp and lightning-quick. It isn't aimed to kill - death is pointless here, he knows, and a message clearly needs to be delivered here - but he won't be bothered in the least if injuries happen.

He looks up slowly, his eyes dark, glowering at Winry - though his other eyes (and teeth) are trained on Sokka, dozens of them spread out around his body. "...Did you honestly think it would be that easy to take me down?"

After Winry is shoved away she stumbles, and falls back onto the fountain. She looks up to see the unpleasant expression on Ed's face. Horror creeps into her own as she stares at this thing possessing Ed. The woman knows who this is, and it isn't good. A new found terror has a hold in her heart as she tries to stand back up.

With her voice shaking in disbelief she speaks his name, "Pride?"

Sokka swore under his breath as he tries to dodge the shadows. He's not fast enough. One gets him along the side, shredding his clothes and his flesh. Fresh blood is drawn from the same side that he suffered the bite of a Shift Hunter. It hurts like hell, but he's learned he can live through worse.

He backs up, turning his sword around. Damn, he wonders if maybe it's not too late to leave. Ditch Winry, let her deal with this, and go back home. Their friendship wasn't worth getting himself killed over.

He grit his teeth.

"I was kind of hoping it would."

He can taste blood in the shadows, and he licks his lips, letting a slow smile crawl across his face. He doesn't take his eyes off of Winry, doesn't move, though his shadows begin to stretch outwards, seeking to encircle the both of them. Hostage or victim? Both at once? Either way, he intends to toy with them a little.

When he speaks, his voice carries the echoing tone characteristic of his true form, only with Edward's voice instead of Selim's. "Hello, Miss Rockbell. I didn't expect you to know my name. And Sokka. Were you trying to attack me before you knew what I was? Such a good friend."

Instinctively Winry takes a step away from the shadows creeping toward her. Her hands tremble, but she does her best not to let that spread to her whole body. With a mixture of fear, disgust, and anger she glares at him. Damn, she didn't expect to be dealing with a homunculus much less Pride. Winry's hands clench into fists, and she stares him down in the eyes. She's not going to run away. What would be the point of running? There's nowhere to hide.

"Don't you Miss Rockbell me, you monster," she growls at him through clenched teeth.

"I figured anyone who wouldn't want to make out with Winry had to be some kind of monster. Now I just wish I had brought something harder to hit you with."

Damn, he was still bleeding though. He didn't have much on him to deal with Pride. He had flash bombs in the smithy, but he'd never make it there without some backup. And if this Pride was anything like the illusion they fought before, his sword and boomerang weren't going to be doing a whole lot. This was a hell of a time for the plaza to be quiet and empty. Maybe doing this in the evening was a bad idea.

Aang happened to be walking by with Korra in search of Sokka. What better expert to solve their boomerang debate? He idly talked to her before noticing the scene, "I'm telling you, Korra, I'm pretty sure boomerangs work just fine underwater even without using bending."

And then he freezes for a moment as he sees the scene going on before him. Ed, surrounded by shadows. Sokka, bleeding. And Winry, standing up to him.

Aang was rushing forward in a panic. "Sokka! Winry! Ed! What's going on?"

Pride doesn't turn - he can see fine with the eyes in his shadowy tendrils, which stretch out towards Aang and Korra as well. The numbers against him are growing, and he doesn't know the woman, but he doesn't particularly care, either.

"Nothing that concerns you. Just a little... disagreement."

Any arguments she had about the properties of boomerangs in water are abruptly cut off at the sight in front of them. She recognizes Sokka among them, two unfamiliar people and shadows - shadows gone out of control. The signs of conflict are obvious, Sokka is bleeding, and instead of wasting time asking questions, she goes for the one at the heart of the shadows.

Rushing forward, she firebends a burst of flame in Ed's direction. It isn't meant to hit him, only scare him off.

Using the distraction Korra provides, Winry quickly back-steps to get some more distance between herself and Pride without showing her back to him. When she feels like she has a good distance without being completely out of the range of the fight she raises her voice.

"Aang, that's not really Ed! It's a monster using his body, so be careful! Pride uses shadows to fight!"
Honestly she surprises herself with how much she knows. It's a new feeling, but not a bad one. She remembers Ed sitting on the porch steps with her, and telling her about Pride. She didn't get much of the details on how is powers work, or how to stop him, but she knew he was dangerous. At least she had that much she could convey to her friends.

Aang. Korra. He knows Aang can handle himself in a fight. Probably Korra too. Worst case scenario, Aang's Avatar State could wrap this up easily. But if that didn't work, they needed another way to fight. Korra was already charging into battle, which meant Pride was going to be busy.

"Aang, keep him busy! Korra, watch your back!"

And then just like that, Sokka ran away.

Aang glares at Ed's words. It's clearly not Ed speaking, and Winry's words confirm it. Aang's first priority was to check on Sokka - he was bleeding! - but Sokka ran off to the sidelines with those orders. He'd have to face Ed, especially with Korra throwing herself headlong at the danger.

Shadows. Like Shikamaru? That gave him reason for fear, if the shadows could be used to control people like his. Aang runs up close to Korra in order to keep her covered following her firebending attack and tries earthbending at Ed's feet to trip him up.

"Sounds like it does concern us. Let Ed out!"

Pride doesn't move, merely lets his shadows withdraw from around Sokka and Winry - they're fleeing, the cowards, so they're not worth his time - to curve around his host body, deflecting the flames. He doesn't particularly care that Winry's let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, though he does shoot a glare in her direction. Let her enjoy that hateful expression on her lover, if nothing else. She asked for this by seeking out his true self.

And to think, he'd been about to politely break things off with her... now it's all going to hell.

When the earthbending twists the ground at his feet, he backflips away, the growing darkness beneath him lashing out to retaliate against the both of them, teeth bared. Maybe if he slices off a few limbs they'll understand how interested he is in talking things out.

A flash of panic strikes through Korra at the sight of the shadows racing towards her. She’d never fought anything like this before - what if they were resistant to bending? She would have to focus on the source: the vicious-looking blonde man.

Thanks for the support, Sokka, she thinks as she glances at Aang. They had to end this, whatever it was, if only to save themselves from getting hurt. She earthbends the ground under her feet to launch herself to the side before the shadows could reach her. When she lands, she aims another blast of fire at the shadow man, and this time, she aims right for him.

Aang pays little mind to Sokka's absense - he was hurt after all, he needed to get treated. He does panic as Korra shoots fire at Ed.

"Korra, don't hurt him!" It was still Ed, after all. His friend, even if he was possessed. Aang opts to use airbending-assisted hops to avoid the shadows and gets close enough to Ed to blast a wind that could he hopes will push him over.

Well. This is an advantage he's never experienced before; while it's true that in his previous body, people had been hesitant to attack him due to his appearing to be a child, but he's never experienced the advantage of possessing the body of a friend of his attackers. It's an advantage that he feels he can certainly get used to.

The wind makes him stagger, but with the support of his shadows he manages to stabilize himself, arms lifted instinctively to block. The boy is less of a threat- Edward's friend, of course he wouldn't want to cause any damage - but the woman is an unknown. Better to take her out.

He stretches one hand out to snake a shadow blade behind her, aiming to tear through whatever part he reaches first. An arm will do, maybe a leg. Enough to take her down. He feels a ripple within him, however - the alchemist is fighting again - and it causes a split-second's hesitation.

"Don't hurt him?" Clearly, she was not a fan of this option when the shadow man didn't seem at all concerned with offering them the same mercy.

A shadow races towards her, and she gasps as it curves like a knife poised to sting. She shouldn't have time to get out of the way, but she does. He must have hesitated. She doesn't stop to wonder why; there wasn't any time for that. Instead she jumped back, bent low, and pulled a sizable slab of earth out of the ground, throwing it with a frenzied kick towards the blonde.

Sokka about fell over as he stumbled into the smithy, seething as he felt the sting at his side. For a moment, the couch looked inviting. He could ditch them, let them handle it, and be fine. Except he knew that he couldn't. It was not that his friends were in danger, it was that he was in danger. He suspected Pride liked his secret and would be willing to kill the four of them and use the ensuing week to plot his next move. No, his best shot was to take Pride down now, while two of his most powerful friends were still alive to help him. So, he buried the pain, and made his way into the workshop. He kept most of his stash of explosives at home, but he always had a few here, just in case, tucked away safely. He retrieved his sling of bombs and raced back outside.

They were still alive. Wlel, that was good. With Aang and Korra's back to him, he took advantage of the moment to let loose a flash bomb on the ground between them. With any luck, it wouldn't blind them, though Winry might not be so lucky. That didn't matter, she wasn't in the fight anyway.

The moment the light flashed, he shielded his own eyes and called out.

"BURY HIM!"

"Korra!" he gasped when she was nearly attacked by that particularly sharp-looking shadow. But it almost looked like she was spared. "He's - he's just possessed!" he tried to call out to her as he crossed the distance between them.

And then the flash bomb went off. Aang himself wasn't blinded, and he started trying to use earthbending to sink the ground beneath Ed's feet. But he was still confused by Sokka's order. "What do you mean, bury?"

The sudden footsteps from out of nowhere catches his attention, and he barely has a moment to look around for the source before the bomb goes off, and he's suddenly surrounded by a blinding bright light. Hastily he flings his arms up to shield himself, but it can't save his shadows, and they're already dissolving around him. He hears the shout - Sokka, that's definitely Sokka - and as his feet begin to sink into the ground, he snarls and tries to make a break for it, stumbling blindly away to try and escape the crumbling ground. Flash bombs don't last long, and as soon as the light fades he is going to kill them all, dammit...!

"I won't give you the chance!" Like hell he's going to let them trap him underground. Once was bad enough, twice was embarrassing, and he can't allow it to happen here, without Kimblee around to free him.

Korra doesn't take any further prompting. Once the shadows disappear, she jumps forward and lands with a solid earthbending move to dig earth out from under the blonde's feet. It's a sizable effort that pushes the limits set on her bending by Luceti, and she's hoping he won't be able to keep his footing. She and Aang had to get him buried before the shadows returned, so she didn't think twice about putting her all into it.

"You should have waited for someone else, Pride. I've tussled with you before."

Once he saw the shadows forming again, he sent another one flying in the air overhead. The explosion of light epuild hopefully be enough. He only had one more.

"Sang, we need a dome! Just enough to hold him!"

"Okay!"

Aang struggled as well against the limit. But he had the advantage of a year's worth of Luceti training helping him - especially since many of those months' training were with the greatest earthbender in the world. He helps with the sinking effort a little more but, with Sokka's orders, he shifts his focus on making the dome to encapsulate Ed.

"No....!" Pride snarls as the dome closes in around him, still blinking blindly in the light of the flash bomb, feeling his shadows fizzle and crumble into dust. His legs are half-buried by now, his attempt to escape no match for the channeled power of the earth swiftly swallowing his body. Out of desperation he moves to clap his hands together to attempt a destructive transmutation, but before he can connect with the earth it's already swallowed him entirely.

Hand scrambling uselessly for a grasp of the ground before it collapses beneath him, he releases an angry shout as his support finally vanishes, and he finds himself falling, fading...

...And when his back hits the ground, breath escaping his lungs in a pained, startled cry, he's Edward again, stretched out on his back in the dark, with only the sporadic light of the tunnels and the sunlight filtering down from the main entrance, or at least what little is visible around Aang's earthbent dome. He stares blearily at the ceiling for a long moment before grimacing and sitting up, rubbing at the back of his head. It's pounding from more than just the impact, but at least he finally, finally feels like himself again. He can't feel Pride's presence at all.

God, it's been so long. And it feels great, even with his body aching, even with how humiliated and angry he is after being literally trapped in his own mind for a month. Even with how guilty and heartsick he feels for what Pride had done with his body, hurting Winry, fighting and trying to kill his friends.

Even so, he can't remember the last time he felt this relieved.

Though now he owes everybody one hell of an explanation. Rolling over to sit up on his knees, he faces the tunnel entrance, waiting to see what they do next. He doesn't dare go near it and risk Pride regaining control.

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a monster at heart...

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