slayers_desire | trying to make the pieces fit ((Buffyverse plot))

She glances, startled, up at the creature Greed became. She's used to really being in a place, for needing to have escape plans, and this is sort of unnerving. She gives his hand another squeeze, silent moral support.

Real-Ed is shaking, still holding tight to Victor's hand. "How the Hell am I supposed to make peace with the fact that I killed a man?" he asks, his voice shaking as much as his body is.

Greed takes the first strike, swinging several punches at Memory-Ed which Ed blocks with his raised Automail arm. After four blows from the homunculus, the steel prosthetic loses several bits and pieces, the cover plate on the forearm coming loose and exposing the wires and steel 'skeleton' inside the arm. Fortunately, none of Greed's strikes to Ed's right arm actually hurt. But then Greed socks Memory-Ed right in the jaw, cuing a gasp of pain and a little bit of blood and sending Memory-Ed reeling a bit before Greed follows it up with a second punch with the other arm.

Memory-Ed staggers a bit, recovers, and takes a couple of steps forward, delivering an upper-cut to Greed's jaw. Greed is so much taller than Ed that Ed had to fully extend his right arm to deliver the blow. The blow doesn't even faze Greed, and more of the Automail shatters, this time Ed's thumb. That is also going to feel a bit odd to Clark—suddenly, he has no right thumb to control, but it doesn't hurt at all.

The lack of any kind of response to the blow startles Memory-Ed almost as much as losing his thumb does. He stares in shock for a critical moment, while Greed laughs a little. "You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you?" He hits Memory-Ed again with a clawed right hand, a palm strike that sends Ed flying. He hits a nearby table with his back, then falls to the floor on his stomach, lying there for a moment, starting to ache a little. "Didn't you say I was a mistake you were going to correct?" Greed demands as Ed starts to stir and push himself on to his hands and knees.

Greed's skin is so hard... how the Hell is he supposed to break something with a diamond's strength?

Wait! Diamonds! Carbon—that's the answer. Memory-Ed lets out a small gasp as the realization comes to him—how he can break through Greed's Ultimate Shield and defeat him.

"This is the last time I'll say it," Greed says, voice as hard as his skin. "If you really wanna stop me—"

Memory-Ed looks over his shoulder, still on his hands and knees, and finishes Greed's statement before Greed can. "I'd best be ready to kill. I know."

"And you think you're ready for that, kid?"

Memory-Ed rises to his feet and flexes his right forearm up and down, experimentally. "Remind me to thank my mechanic, wouldja? Even though it's busted to Hell it still functions just fine." He curls the remaining four fingers up into a fist. "Let's go!" He growls, then lunges forward, full of fight again.

"The weight of death on your hands is never easy..." April whispers to Ed. She glances at her mother, who just smiles sweetly at her. As sweetly as she did the day April killed her.

"But this part of your life had an impact. You learned something from it. Your life changed because of it."

"Can you accept that it was a defining moment? That it can't be changed?"

If he needs more encouragement, tell him about me and Titan, Clark says to April through the bond. Whether or not Clark killed him, he's had to accept that it happened, and move on. He never could have become Superman if he hadn't learned how to let go.

She never considered herself brave. For the longest time she was just apathetic. Closer to numb. But she's seeing bravery, now, through Clark's eyes, through Ed's eyes, and April's. "It's hard to make peace," she whispers. "But if J never got ahold of me, I'd never find it in me to be a hero. If this never happened, what would change?"

Real-Ed refuses to take his eyes off the fight, still shaking as he tries to come to terms with what's happening. Memory-Ed/Clark has thrown a couple of punches at Greed, both of which missed, and Greed has him by the collar. "If I hadn't killed Greed..." he begins, voice very quiet. "If I..." He has to trail off as he realizes what's coming: his first use of Alchemy in the fight. Clark's about to experience what it's like, and it's not going to be easy to handle. "Oh.... dammit, I'm about to transmu—"

He cuts himself off as Memory-Ed, arms hanging limp, claps his hands together, and grabs Greed's right wrist. When he clapped, something had... come alive in him, power and energy coursing through his mind, and once he grabs Greed's wrist, there's a tidal wave of raw information flooding into his mind, all of it technical. But fortunately, Ed's mind is capable of interpreting it, and what he's getting confirms his hypothesis: Greed's skin is registering as diamond to him. But beneath that is ordinary muscle, bones, and tendons.

Ed's perception, at least in his mind, shifts slightly; he can still physically see the fight, but mentally, part of his brain is perceiving all of the molecular carbon in an area of skin on Greed's arm, including all of the homunculus's hand and a third of his arm. And Memory-Ed changes that carbon, adjusting how tightly bonded together the atoms are: from diamond to graphite. All of that happens in under a second. It's an extremely intense process, mentally speaking, and this is the first time a non-Alchemist has experienced what goes on inside an Alchemist's head during a transmutation.

The small discharges of static electricity from the transmutation cause Greed to drop Memory-Ed and stagger back, staring at his arm for a moment. Greed can't seem to tell that anything's different, and he tells Ed, "Your Alchemy's worth nothing when you're fighting me!"

Memory-Ed rises to his feet again, teeth gritted. He's only got a small window of time to act... but he's got enough of it to try and deliver a sucker punch.

Greed steps back over to him and says, "Now it's my turn for fun." He brings his arm up to punch Ed's skull in.

Memory-Ed claps his hands together again and jerks his left hand up over his right a little. There's enough metal in the 'knuckle' joints on his Automail and surrounding area to make a set of spikes—and with the second transmutation comes that shift in perception again, only this time it's the atoms of iron, nickel, and chromium in his arm that he's seeing and modifying, and he's only changing how they're arranged. As Greed throws the punch, Ed reacts with lightning speed and meets Greed's fist with his own, the new spiked knuckles on his Automail connecting and burying themselves into Greed's fist.

There's a shower of sparks, yellow this time and completely unrelated to any transmutation. But Greed's skin does start to flake off from the impact, exposing the muscle and tendon and bone beneath his hand. Greed staggers back once more as Memory-Ed rises to his feet, expression still set to grim determination, but inwardly very triumphant. Greed clutches at his arm. "What...? What the Hell is this? What have you done to my Shield, you little bastard?!"

"It's easy when you realize one thing," Memory-Ed replies, calmly. "There are no unexplainable events. Everything results from scientifically measurable actions, even your precious Shield." And Memory-Ed starts explaining to Greed what he's done: he figured out that Greed's Ultimate Shield was made by making the carbon in his body diamond-hard. How Ed exploited the sheer versatility of carbon to turn Greed's skin into something much less resistant to attacks.

Real-Ed takes the moment of reprieve that the lecture his memory-self is giving to gather himself and answer his friends' questions. "If I hadn't killed Greed..." he finally continues, taking a deep breath, "I wouldn't have learned how to kill the other homunculi. There were seven of them, and with the exception of Greed, they were all working together, pulling strings and manipulating the government and the military. Al would've been fine, since Greed had already let him go... but how long would it have taken for me to find that out? Greed refused to tell me where Al was until I delivered a fatal blow." He tries to calm his breathing, remembering what happened a bit further into the fight: another transmutation like the one he did on Greed's hand just now, this time on Greed's abdomen, and a blow that sent Greed staggering. He'd tried to get Greed to take him to Al after that. Greed refused. "I tried," he says, quietly. "I tried everything to prevent it from coming to that. But Greed wouldn't budge, he wouldn't tell me where to find Al until I killed him..." His lips part for a moment. "He manipulated me. He wanted me to kill him... so I would know how to kill the others." Somehow... knowing that helps. The guilt eases a bit; it's still there, but it's no longer overwhelming. "He wanted to die," Ed repeats. "He wanted me to do it because he believed I was the only one who could bring down the other homunculi—and knew that in defeating one homunculus, I would learn how to defeat any other. Thanks to this fight... I had the knowledge I needed to destroy the thing that Al and I created the night we tried to bring our mom back to life. This... this was the only option."

April hugs Ed tightly to her. "And you learned to transmute. You tried to prevent the death... but he manipulated you. And you became stronger because of that."

Ed facing the memory causes it to stop. And a white door appears. The last one.

April looks at it. She doesn't feel strong enough to face her 'wolf', even though she knows that she will have to. But at least, she is not doing it alone. "I will need you Ed and Victor... to help me deal with what is behind that door. My memory."

Despite being prepared to take on the entire memory if he had to, Clark is relieved when it ends. Ed's learned what he needs to learn from this, and that's more than enough.

He doesn't immediately move towards the door though, waiting for April to be ready. She's shared some of her darkest moments with him, and he's not sure which one lies beyond. Though he has his guesses. I love you, April. I'll gladly do this so you don't have to. He just wishes she didn't have to see it again.

She wraps her arm around April's waist, ready to lead her there, ready to support her (physically and otherwise). "This is the last one. After this... we're getting the magic rock or whatever. You can do this."

What is it with Clark's involvement in magic rocks. Everything in his life is a magic rock.

Ed leans into April's shoulder gratefully. Then he pulls away and mirrors Victor's gesture, wrapping his own arm around the other side of April's waist. "You helped me shoulder my burdens," he tells her quietly. "Of course I'll help you shoulder yours. That's what family does for each other."

He adds to Clark a moment later, "I'm sorry, Clark. For putting you through that. Thank you."

I love you too... I know you won't judge me... April answers mentally back at Clark. Then she accepts the support by both Victor and Ed.

With a deep breath, they open the last door.

It was strange seeing Clark in memory-Victor and memory-Ed's bodies. Even stranger to see him in her memory-body.

Memory-April is chained to table, that looks quite sacrificial. However, she is not the one that is going to be sacrificed today. There are a group of vampires watching over her and protecting her. They are praising her as the mother of the 'Blessed One'. Her memory-body is pregnant during this time.

A time that both Clark and Victor will remember, as they were the ones who rescued her.

But this memory comes before the rescue. The vampires have brought the 'mother' children, pleading with her to drink of their blood to feed the 'Blessed One'. April refuses... of course... but the vampires don't accept that as an answer. They tell her, "if you won't feed, we will feed you..."

And they bring out knives, their intent to sacrifice the children...

April feels her knees weaken... her very spirit weaken at this memory. She is leaning on Victor and Ed right now... sobbing from the memory. For those lives that are about to be taken.

Clark had been afraid it would be this one. She was in such bad shape when they rescued her, even if it wasn't physical... she had nightmares from this experience. And he doesn't fault her for it, not before, and certainly not now.

He wants to be able to close her eyes to this as he sees the glint of the knives in the vampires' hands, feeling her fear and grief like it's his own. The helplessness of being chained down, and unable to defend the children with her powers.

No. Not this one, no. Not the children.

It's going to be really hard to be strong for April. She had a breakdown the first time she came across the scene, and to actually watch it unfold.... But if this is about having courage, she needs to look. Or try.

It's different when you have children, to see something like this. Each part of her is aching to run and take them in her arms and protect them.

Ed hadn't met April when this event happened. He'd been fighting his way through the Vortex Traps at the time. And when he sees what's going on here... he's immediately filled with so much rage that he starts shaking again. He wants to protect the children just as much as Victor does, and he wants to rush over and break the chains holding April's memory-body. But this is another situation in which he can't do anything except be there for his friend. So he beats down the rage and hugs April again, holding on to her tightly.

The vampires don't go for a kill right away. They try to tempt memory-April with the smell of blood. A smell that is very tempting to her, especially carrying her child.

Memory-April is sobbing. Trying to break free of the magical bonds. It is a cruel game... her powers can sense the children's fears... but she can't use her powers to protect them.

April, in real-time, is breaking down again over this. She doesn't know what she should be learning from this... and she is sobbing again. "Why did this happen? Why did I have to..."

It wasn't your fault. Even though he's swamped with her memory emotions, Clark still reaches out to her in any way he can. You were stronger than them. You still are.

She starts crying, too, something she didn't do even during her own worst memory. She rubs April's back gently, but she can't give her a satisfactory answer. The only thing she thinks, but can't vocalize, is that terrible, evil abominations occur every day, everywhere, and that she was unlucky enough to be forced to be there.

And as soon as she thinks that, she's sure that that's the answer. "The fight against evil isn't... i-isn't a winning battle, a-all around the world there's genocide, ch-child death, and, and you were just there, April. The fight against evil is... it's walking with the best of you, it's doing everything you can, but no one can save the world. No one."

"You had no control over this," Ed tells her, quietly. "They forced you into this situation. I wasn't there, but I know you, and I know you did everything in your power to avoid hurting anyone, and to get out of that situation. This isn't your fault."

"I didn't know you back then... but I wish I had, so I could've helped you through it."

April takes a few sobbing breaths, trying to calm herself. She embraces the words of support from her husband and her friends. This was a moment of evil...

And she has to face it... so Clark and the other's won't have to.

"I had no control." She speaks. The images flicker. So she says it again, with more conviction. "I had no control. It wasn't my fault!"

"And I am still going to fight with all my heart to bring hope back into this world."

Her words stop the memory, right before one of the children was actually killed. There is a bright flash, and the four of them stand in the white room again.

A glowing blue ball floats in front of Clark. Courage shines from it.

Clark reaches up and takes it with only a moment of hesitation. "Courage..." They've gotten two 'rewards' so far, but he has a feeling that the pattern will continue until they each have one. Which means there is still more to come.

"Are you all okay?"

Oh thank you thank you thank you. She goes weak in the knees with relief that she won't have to watch this slaughter, leans her head briefly against April's shoulder, kisses her cheek. She feels her pulse hammering against her temples, the swish of blood in her veins.

"You're good. You did good," she tells April, as she wipes her eyes on the side of her wrist. She hadn't realized she was still crying.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm holdin' up okay. How's everyone else?"

Ed hugs April again and pulls away, taking a few deep breaths, eyes closed for a moment. He has a strangely serene expression on his face for a moment before he opens his eyes and smiles at Clark. "I'm good. I'm fine." He pauses, then adds, "Thank you again. For enduring all of that for us."

April gives a few more squeezes to both Victor and Ed... but right now she just wants to be in her husband's arms. And rushes over to him, to hug him tightly.

"You were so brave..." She whispers. In a way, she is glad that they didn't have to endure those memories on their own. That he was willing to experience them all, so they could stay together.

Meanwhile, for those who are paying attention to her, Drusilla is currently sitting at a small pink table in the middle of the room. Her doll, Miss Edith, is there with her. They are having a tea party (with no actual tea or cookies in sight)

Clark wraps his arms around her securely, and kisses the top of her head. "I'd do it again if it meant you didn't have to go through it." That goes for all of them, of course.

"I'm really sorry you all had to see that mess, but especially that Clark had to go through it," she says.

She approaches Drusilla's table, glancing at the teacups. She plays pretend with her daughters all the time, so she's not thrown by this sort of thing. "What kinda tea do you have there?"

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