Chapter Text
It had been like every other day since arriving at Winry and Granny’s place. Ed sits in Winry’s old room, watching out the window to keep watch in case anyone from Central or any Homunculi (other than Greedling) show up. Greed, Darius, and Heinkel usually play cards with Granny or fight outside if they’re not busy planning for the Day of Reckoning.
It had been that way, until in the distance, as dusk started to creep in, there’s a flash of sickly orange light. Ed moves towards the window, not even sure if it was real or just a hallucination. There’s a heavy few moments, until an absolutely soul-piercing shriek sounds out from where the light had appeared, followed by a plume of black and white that looks sickeningly familiar. His stomach drops as he realizes just where the scream came from.
Panic starts to make its way through Ed’s chest as he jumps down the stairs and sprints out the door, ignoring the questions of Darius and Heinkel behind him.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?!” Greedling yells as he starts to chase after Ed.
“I’m checking something out!” Ed yells back as he makes his way to the burned remains of his childhood home.
He doesn’t slow down until he’s in front of the familiar rubble. It’s darker than it had been when he left, so it’s hard to make out for sure, but in the middle of what once was a home is a trembling figure. What makes it easier to see is the bright, almost luminescent white mask it wears, with two horns curling up from the sides, and the strangely shaped sword that gleams on its back.
It’s no bigger than a young child, and wears a dark cloak that moves with the faint breeze in the air. Its body shakes and trembles as it faces away from Ed.
“What the hell-” Greedling grumbles as he finally catches up, but quiets as he sees the thing sitting there. It’s still, not even breathing, as it slowly stands up. It turns around, showing two inky holes for eyes in its mask. Only the slight tilt of its head shows that it looks at Greeling first, then Ed.
As Ed stares into the abyss of its eyes, the air around them starts to get heavier. It crouches ever so slightly, and Ed only has enough time to raise his arm as shadow cloaks itself around the figure and it suddenly is right in front of Ed, swinging its sword (not-sword? It’s so round) and hitting his automail.
With no hesitation, it jumps above him, and shadows start to coalesce around it’s small, inky fist (it’s made of shadow, oh God) and Ed has barely enough time to raise the ground around him as the shrieking of souls spreads out in shockwaves as it crashes into the ground, destroying the barrier but leaving no mark where it landed.
“Hey! What the hell?!” Ed yells as it turns to him again. It tilts its head again, and puts its not-sword sword in the dirt and starts to write in symbols that don’t make any sense.
Greedling walks up as his Ultimate Shield starts to recede, and looks from the symbols to the thing. “What the hell is that? And why did you attack us?”
Its hand leaves its cloak, and Ed can’t tell if it’s just really dark or if the thing is made of shadows as it points at his eyes. It goes back to drawing in the dirt, and draws a sort of moth thing, then an arrow to the eyes of a . . . bug drawing.
“That still doesn’t make any damn sense.”
The thing shoves its not-sword sword in the dirt, throws its arms in the air, and Ed really wishes he didn’t get to see its previously paw-like hands separate into five distinct fingers as it starts to move its hands. Greedling watches intently, and nods.
“You shoulda signed the first time, y’know?” He says as he stretches and starts to walk back. “C’mon, we’ll talk more where it’s not dark. Plus, those two Chimeras weren’t too happy to hold down the fort.”
Ed stares in disbelief as they start to walk away before jumping up and running to catch up. “I still don’t get it.”
Greedling laughs. “The thing is mute, but it knows sign language. It thought you were ‘infected’ or something, so it attacked. Don’t really know what that means, but it must’ve come from some sorta hell if it fights first and asks questions later.”
The thing just tilts its head down in agreement. It moves its hands again, and Greedling sighs.
“That still doesn’t make any fucking sense, but alright.” He looks at Ed. “Something about a ‘radiance’ or something, and it wants to be called Ghost.”
Ed nods. “But how do you know sign language?”
“I might be a new Greed, but the old one was around for long enough he picked it up. It just sorta clicked.” Greedling pauses for a moment. “The pissant thought it would be good for the future emperor of Xing to know, in case he ever needed to talk to a subject who couldn’t hear.”
“Makes sense, I bet you never expected to use it like this.”
“Ha! You think you’re funny, don’t you, kid? Now c’mon, let’s get back. Can’t risk anyone seeing us, eh, fugitive?”
Shock hits Ed in the back of the head as he remembers he really should be the last person outside. “Shut up!”
Greedling just laughs and continues walking, with Ghost following silently behind.
-
Ed knocks on the door, and it opens to show Granny looking up at him.
“You find any soldiers out there, Edward?” She asks him, and Ed jolts.
“Hey!” He starts to protest, but Greedling pushes past him.
“Nah, just found this little thing.” He moves both him and Ed enough to show Ghost, who is the same height as Granny. “Its name is Ghost.”
Granny sighs. “You always seem to get into trouble, don’t you? Come on in.”
They walk in, and see Darius and Heinkel walk towards them and start to ask questions, but fall short when they see Ghost.
“What . . . what is that thing?” Heinkel asks as he starts to take a step back.
“My animal instincts are telling me to run as far away as possible.” Darius takes a few steps back as well.
Ghost tilts its head in confusion and turns to Greedling to sign. Whatever it is, Greedling starts to look increasingly confused. Instead of responding, he pinches his nose and starts to move towards the table.
“I think we all need to sit down, and you ,” he points to Ghost, “need to explain where you came from and what the fuck you are.”
Ghost jumps on the table and sits down as everyone either takes a chair (Ed and Granny) or leans against the wall (Darius and Heinkel). It starts to sign rapidly, and Greedling keeps a surprisingly stoic face, right up until near the end, where it starts to contort in horrified surprise.
“What do you mean- how many?” Greedling says in Ling’s voice.
Ghost signs again, and Greedling covers his mouth and starts to shake, before going stoic again. Then, he turns to everyone else.
“Uh, there’s a lot, but the general gist of it is this. Ghost here comes from this place of bugs. This guy, uh, the Pale King? He turned the entire land into his kingdom, which I have to say is exactly what I would do.” At this point, Ghost turns its head sharply to Greedling, who rolls his eyes. “Anyways, that pissed off this moth thing called the Radiance who infected the entire kingdom through dreams. To counteract that, this King had millions of kids he then threw into a pit with the purpose of being completely empty and hollow of everything. This thing is one of them, and they have a sibling who was taken out and trained to contain the Radiance. Didn’t work, everything got infected again, blah blah blah. Ghost here jumped ship and ran away for a bit, and went back after hearing its sibling scream for it, and has been, apparently , going through a Pantheon within some sort of Godseeker’s head and fighting the strongest creatures in the dead kingdom to free its sibling. It had almost beaten the true version of the Radiance when she sort of hit it with pure light and now it’s here.”
Greedling looks at Ghost again. “I get everything there? And stop glaring at me.”
Ghost stares for another few seconds before nodding and signing again.
“Geez, lay off. I’m Greed , I gotta respect anyone who takes what they want for themselves.” He groans.
The rest of the table, however, is frozen in shock.
“M-millions?” Ed chokes out. “What- what happened to them?”
Ghost stands up, and walks to the other end of the table where no one is, and twitches. Suddenly, a large black mass that looks like a shadowed bullet rushes out from it, and the house is filled with screaming. Ed is reminded of Envy, and feels sick.
He trembles with either anger or agony, he’s not sure. “You . . . use them? You use their souls to make yourself more powerful?”
Ghost turns quickly and signs. For once, Greedling, while controlled by Greed, looks horrified.
“They don’t have souls. They’re . . . vessels for the souls of Gods.”
Everyone turns to Ghost as they continue to sign, not knowing how to feel about the small, soulless being.
“It says it screams for them all, where everyone can hear the pain they were born into and died into. A combined voice of suffering.”
Ed leans over and holds his head in his hands. “Then that means . . . that you’re the exact opposite of a Homunculus.”
Ghost tilts its head in confusion again.
“Constructed beings using a Philosopher's Stone, something made by sacrificing human souls.” Ed says weakly, not moving from his position under the table. He points to Greedling. “Greedling over there is a Homunculus, not a normal one though. He’s a human body with a Homunculus’s Philosopher’s Stone inside of him.”
Ghost keeps its head tilted as it signs some more.
Greedling groans. “The body’s name is Ling, he’s a very persistent soul who won’t ever shut up. I’m Greed, and this pipsqueak is too stupid to tell the difference.”
“WHO THE FUCK YOU CALLIN A PIPSQUEAK?!” Ed yells at Greedling, who laughs and leans back in his chair.
Darius and Heinkel stand away from the wall, still looking at Ghost warily. “I’m still not too sure about this, but maybe it’ll be helpful for the Day of Reckoning.” Darius says.
“It still freaks me out.” Heinkel grumbles as he heads out of the dining room.
Granny just sighs loudly. “It just keeps getting more complicated, doesn’t it?” She says. “Either way, it’s late now, we should all sleep on it.”
Everyone grumbles their agreement, and makes their way out, except Greedling. He looks at Ghost with a vicious grin. “You wanted to show me something?” He asks.
Ghost nods and walks towards him. When it stands in front of him, it takes a step back, and Greed has no time to react as a not-sword sword made of pure light appears in its hand and it hits him directly in the head before disappearing entirely.