Crossover Together ~クロスオーバ 一緒に~

"I know they're here somewhere ..."

Out in the forest, Gluttony was still maintaining his own little search. Even with his little, and embarrassing defeat before, he still felt he had to find Twilight and Aladdin again. As far as he knew they were the only people who knew where Envy was, and being a fellow Homunculus as, not to mention everything that had happened, he just had to find him! It didn't help Gaara and Nagisa attacked him (something he was also curious about), thus cutting his time a little short until he was sure he would be safe enough to find them again.

"They know where he is. Envy. They have to tell me, and maybe then I can eat them!" Gluttony thought, licking his lips on the thought. As hungry as he was, finding out where Envy ended up was a bit more important (shocking as that may be). Following what scent remained of them, Gluttony marched on through the forest.

"Hello?! You here?! I promise I won't eat you until later!" Gluttony called, but no response from anyone. Or anything for that matter. All the sound was left was some distant birds, but that was about it. He could smells birds, pine sap from the trees, the faint scent of the humans, though according to that faintness they had been and gone for a while. That surely didn't deter him though, and he continued his scent tracking ...

Then he fell over a tree.

"Oof! Where'd that come from?" Gluttony wondered, looking back at the tree, only to see a particular bite mark on it. ...

"Oh."

Well, after getting himself back up, he went back to sniffing and tracking, his nose immediately getting to work. back on the trail. He kept his eyes shut as he tracked down the smells, but as he walked on forward, he ended up walking into something else, making him step back and opening his eyes, just to find ...

"Look where your going, buddy."

"T-TIREK!" Gluttony gasped, falling back in shock. Tirek was hanging up in another tree, but rather hanging by a noose around his neck and right hand. Seeing a demon basically fail at suicide surely had some mixed feelings. Tirek cut the rope holding him up, and landed with grace right on top of Gluttony. The Homunculus was now on the ground, eyes facing up to his dominator, Tirek standing on his stomach.

"Still looking for Envy are you?" asked Tirek.

"Uh ... Yes?" Gluttony replied. Tirek took a step off of him, letting Gluttony sit up.

"And you're pretty hell-bent too. Sombra forced your ass down, yet you still snuck off to find Envy. And here I thought I'm ballsy enough to just go for it."

"B-But no one's seen Envy since Pluton attacked! ... you haven't seen him, have you?" Gluttony insisted, feeling worried sick over him. Tirek though smiled to him on hearing that.

"Interesting. I could tell him about Envy ... oh, but what fun is that?" Tirek thought, his grin widening. Seeing Gluttony vulnerable in this situation made it all the sweeter.

"Might have. ... or rather what's left, anyway." That was a full lie, but Gluttony felt humbled on his answer. Considering what kind of being Tirek was to begin with, that was a bit of a problem. Gluttony looked up to Tirek.

"Where is he? where's Envy?" he asked, more humbled this time, Tirek walking over to him.

"There, there. I'll show you where he is ... just one little favor. ..."

Next thing Gluttony knew, Tirek had his hand shoved into his mouth! Rather than digging in for a stone, Gluttony's tongue was pulled out, Tirek's thumb on the Oroboros symbol. In this situation, Gluttony couldn't move, at risk of pulling his own stone out. As for Tirek, he focused onto the symbol itself. As he did, the symbol started to glow blood red, some sparks starting to fly off of it for a good bit. Just what Tirek wanted to see.
Gluttony stayed completely still at first, but little by little, his body started to feel a sort of pressure around him, head to toe. He started to tremble and twitch, a dull growing pain beginning to take over him. sparks started to fly from all over him, his whole body started to alter in front of him.

"Wha- WHAT DID YOU DO? AAHHH!" Gluttony screamed, loosing more and more sanity every second from his pain.

"Doing me a favor.~"

~~

"Any sign of them yet, Sebastian?" asked Yoroi.

Back at Central, things seemed to be a little tense since Twilight and Aladdin had gone off on them. Sure it had been settled down for the most part, but the rest of Team Harmony weren't thinking on just ditching Twilight and Aladdin to their search. Yoroi felt more troubled about it himself (Twilight was his sister, after all). Sebastian was standing on the roof of the Central building, but on the word he jumped right back down, landing right in front of Yoroi. Yoroi wasn't alone though: Karasuma, Edward, and Alphonse were outside too.

"They've grown rather elusive, I must say. disappointing, really," Sebastian answered. This was a bit concerning.

"I know: first the king goes missing, and now our only true angel flown off. What a time to be gone," Karasuma groaned, not enjoying the trouble anymore than the others are. The only one who could call heaven for help, and he happened to be the one to fly off.

"So I assume you hadn't found him either."

"No; he and Salim hadn't been seen since the attack. I'm starting to think they might've not made it," Karasuma informed. And with what they've gone through, that's not too far off. ...

"They have to be! No one can replace him, who knows what'll happen if he's dead," Yoroi said, worried for the king.

"Chaos, and perhaps a major chance for the demons to takeover, whichever comes first." figured Sebastian. Though, that didn't really help them.

"Thank you, Sebastian," groaned Ed. It was then Alphonse turned to Sebastian.

"Eh, Sebastian? Is that demon something regular where you're from?" Alphonse asked, Yoroi, Karasuma, and Edward turning to Sebastian, as he went on thinking a little bit. They knew about his demonic identity after a while, though Sebastian still didn't say too much on what he once was, or anything about the Underworld.

"I'll need to consort with my master first, but I'll say this: ... your kind will need more preparation for even the lowest of demons."

The response, accompanied by the red glow in Sebastian's eyes was enough to give them a few shivers, excluding Karasuma that is. With that remark, Sebastian started to walk back inside, leaving Yoroi, Edward, and Alphonse a bit shaken up. If Pluton alone could do that much, how much could an actual group do? The very thought was a bit scary. However, Karasuma then took a step over to Sebastian.

"If I were you, I'd talk. If you're planning anything against us, we can all take you down," Karasuma warned. Though, Sebastian didn't feel very intimidated, but not wanting to fight, all he did was nod and walk away. It was gonna be a while before they'd get him to say anything. ...

"HEEEYYY!"

Good timing: calling up from above, the group below looked up to see the very people in question flying in ala magic carpet: Aladdin, and Twilight at first. Aladdin had a big smile on his face, waving down to them to get their attention. From where they were, Aladdin and Twilight were the only one's visible, but seeing them was still something good to see.

"There they are!" Alphonse shouted, happy to see that they were alright. As he looked up though, one particular pink girl was suddenly on top of his shoulders, looking up as well. Surprising to Al, but Pinkie Pie was especially pleased.

"HORRAY! THEY'RE BACK EVERYBODY!" Pinkie yelled in joy, waving up to them herself. Al found his balance after a bit though, and Pinkie wasn't alone either. The other members of Team Harmony, hearing her, came outside themselves along with Sebastian just to find them landing in front of them all. Then they saw it wasn't just Twilight and Aladdin with them.

Nagisa was back.

"Hey everyone," Nagisa said, hand raised. Reactions were very quick: It didn't take too long until Pinkie jumped down from Al's shoulders, and tackle Nagisa with a tight hug.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!! I THOUGHT WE LOST YOU FOREVER!" Pinkie wailed, fountains of tears out of her eyes.

"This has been a while," Nagisa thought, feeling her chest push down on him. Some things never change apparently. Still, Nagisa actually managed to get up to his feet, lifting Pinkie up a little bit to see the others.

"You crazy son of a bitch, you saved our world and then go off hiding, don't do that," Blair said, though she was just as happy to see him as the rest were.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I got a lot of explaining to do," Nagisa said, rubbing the back of his head, as Karma got Pinkie to let go of him. Many of them were around Nagisa, but Ciel then cleared his throat.

"Pardon me for interrupting this little moment ... but who is this?" Ciel finally asked, not sounding too enthused by the subject matter. It wasn't exactly Nagisa though he was talking about: Twilight, Aladdin, and Nagisa had an extra passenger brought back with them. Standing there, Gaara had come along as well, and he'd been rather quiet and observing up to this point. He was not very thrilled about the crowd himself, arms crossed and eyeing them all down. Nagisa went over to him.

"Oh right. Everyone, this is Gaara. He's going to be joining us for a while," Nagisa introduced, though any sort of friendly introduction was not in Gaara's motives.

"Oh, a new recruit! Awesome! Welcome abroad friend!" Pinkie said, popping up in front of him and ready to hug him. Gaara though easily dodged her with a simple lean and step, making Pinkie tumble forward onto the ground. Gaara cleared his throat and stared daggers at the others.

"Let me make this clear: I'm only with you so I can get even with Tirek. No more, no less. Understand?" Gaara made clear. He wasn't there to make friends, that was for sure.

"... Who?"

"I'm the only one who saw him, Gaara," Nagisa whispered. That just made Gaara a little frustrated, a rough sigh escaping his lips.

"Well, perhaps we should take some time to bring everyone up to speed before we discuss our next course of action," suggested Ciel.

~~

In little time, Nagisa and company were all back together again, good as they were before, maybe even better with the new recruit. The whole group got together within the lobby of Central, and Nagisa wasted no time in catching up with his friends on what he had gone through, going into the same amount of detail as he did with Twilight and Aladdin. The two already heard the story, but it was just as engaging as the first time, and the rest took their moment to explain what had happened. Twilight and Aladdin also added in their own bits on what happened to fill them all in from their end as well, including their encounter with Gluttony. much of the group kept keen ears with each word they put in, getting the overall picture on the situation. A pretty good story Nagisa and Twilight were crafting for them to be sure.

"A rather intriguing story, I must say," Ciel commented, taking a sip of his tea, courtesy of Sebastian.

"You're telling me. Gluttony probably would've eaten us if it wasn't for Gaara and Nagisa," Twilight said.

"Yeah, by the way, why don't you show us some moves, Nagisa? Show us what you got," Karma suggested, interested in Nagisa's training and exactly how far he'd gone since they last met. Nagisa took a look over to Gaara, who was silently standing over by the wall, and all he did was give a little gesture for him to do so.

"Can I see that cup, Ciel?" Nagisa asked. Ciel paused, and simply gave Nagisa the now empty cup of tea. Pulling out his Halo Blade, he placed the cup up on Karma's head, the redhead seeing where this was going. Nagisa took a few steps back, got himself ready, and soon a green blur went through the air, and the tea cup disappeared off his head, a notable stabbing sound heard on the wall behind him. Karma placed a hand on his head.

"That it?"

"Turn around," Nagisa simply stated. So he did. Funny though how none of them heard a bit of breaking glass, but that wasn't Nagisa's intention. What REALLY colored them impressed was what the end result was: the tea cup was not only in tact, but hanging off the blade! The Halo Blade managed to slip right through the handle, and caught it on the holder, hanging there like it was nothing with a few little sways.

"Well shit," commented Blair.

"Quite useful too," added Ciel.

"Great job with him, Gaara. Can you teach me next, pretty please?" Pinkie then asked, but Gaara just gave her the cold shoulder in response.

"... Please?"

"Don't expect any of my charity," Gaara hissed. This did bum Pinkie Pie out a little bit.

"You do want to help us, don't you?"

"I want to get even with Tirek. I could care less about the rest of you."

"Ok, Pinkie, leave him alone. If we can handle Envy, I'm sure we can handle him," Karma commented. Pinkie reluctantly understood, but that little tid bit of dialogue caught Nagisa's attention. Twilight and Aladdin didn't tell him about that yet, and it left Nagisa especially confused. One look at Nagisa's face got the message across to them soon enough.

"Oh, right you don't know what happened," Alphonse said.

"What're you talking about?" Nagisa asked, more intrigued this time around.

"Um. ... You know Envy, Nagisa?"

"Yeah what about him? Did you take him down?" Nagisa asked. Karma gave the wrong idea in Nagisa's head, but luckily the others were quick to correct him. It would be good as far as Nagisa knew for envy to be out of the picture, but he wasn't prepared for what they had to say.

"He's our buddy now!" Pinkie revealed.

.......

"... What? Envy. The Homunculus? You sure?"

"It's a long story, but the short version is: Al and I found him powerless and passed out after Pluton's run around, so we took him in and healed him up, and now he's basically with us," Blair answered. for Envy's sake, she left out the final main detail of him being a human now, for Envy might as well tell him himself if it made things easier. Nagisa needed a moment to take this in, but after thinking, it did sound a lot better.

"So ... where is he?"

"Korosensei put him in his class back home. He figured he should teach Envy a thing or two about our world if he's gonna stick around," said Karma. So not only was Envy with them, but he was now back in Japan as Kotrosensei's extra student for 3-E. Sure, Twilight and Aladdin gave him a bit of a low down, but this extra thing with Envy was a bit to take. Especially considering how much Envy tried to slaughter them since all this started, it was surely a surprise for Nagisa to hear. He just sighed.

"Guess if anyone's gonna handle him, it might as well be Korosensei," thought Nagisa. It was then that Ciel Phantomhive spoke up again.

"Now that we got the pleasantries out of the way, we've yet to figure out our next step. Have any of you any ideas?" Ciel questioned, bringing up the main subject matter. Yeah, catching up with everyone was pretty good, but the future was just as important as the past, and they needed to plan ahead. Nagisa took a seat down in between Edward and Twilight.

"What'd you guys do so far?"

"We've been stuck searching and recovering for days," said Ed.

"I think you're the only one we actually found," added in Al. Not the best news Nagisa had heard all day.

"It doesn't help that the king and his son is missing as well. If we don't find him soon, it could mean disaster for Amestris," Ciel said. A hard truth that they all pretty much had to face, though Gaara could care less about it. Nagisa thought about what he'd gone through, trying to think of some sort of clue to his disappearance, but then something came up in mind.

I'm afraid you've been ... well ... teleported.

"He may not be dead," Nagisa realized.

"What was that?" Karasuma asked.

"After Pluton, I ended up teleported away to that forest. You think something like that could've happened to King Bradley and Salim?" Nagisa wondered.

"It is a possibility," Sebastian stated, thinking about it. However, as they thought of it more, Twilight then got another thought in her head.

"Wait ... did he even show up during the attack? I don't remember seeing him," Twilight brought up. Many of those involved in the fight didn't really had time to think about that.

"Wait, where was he? He could've helped us during that fight!" Edward said again, realizing the absence. Not any point in Pluton's attack did Bradley even remotely show up and try to help them out. His whole city under siege and Bradley just left it apparently, him with his son.

"Maybe he's trying to save his family?" Aladdin wondered, but Blair shook her head.

"Nah; why would he leave his own wife behind?" Blair reminded, still remembering how distraught his own wife was shortly after the whole Pluton event occurred in the first place. She wouldn't be crying her eyes out if Bradley was with her (maybe).

"Does it matter why he wasn't out there? The point is that he's missing, and we need to find him before the public start wondering where he'd gone to," Karasuma confirmed.

"But where do we even look? Our troops had covered practically all of the capitol already," Yoroi asked, which was true. Karasuma wished he had some sort of answer, but he just came up empty. Aladdin, Blair, and Sebastian didn't have too much of an answer either. As they were trying to think, Blair's eyes saw Gaara again.

"Hey, Gaara, you've been quiet. Got anything to say?" Blair asked. Gaara stayed quiet and stared daggers at Blair again.

"This isn't my problem," Gaara coldly stated.

"Well can't you at least try to help us?" Ed asked.

"Why should I bother over something so small?"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SMALL - MMMPH!" Luckily Al quickly covered up Edward's mouth before anything could occur.

"Brother, don't, please calm down," Alphonse insisted, trying to keep his brother from blowing a gasket. Then Yoroi tried his luck.

"This is not small, Gaara, this is nationwide! We need Bradley back, and if you know something -"

Suddenly the tension was stacked up high when Gaara aimed a throwing knife right at Yoroi's head. The tension rose up high, even more so when Karasuma readied a pistol, though Gaara wasn't so intimidated by either of them.

"I'm only here to take down Tirek. And I have no problem taking down anyone else along the way." that was all Gaara needed to say to keep Yoroi quiet, Twilight pulling her big brother back so he wasn't inches from the blade. Karasuma then spoke, pistol still raised.

"You better watch it, kid, or -"

"Or what? You'll kill me?"

Karasuma felt humbled by that remark, especially how casually he said that, but he still kept his pistol raised just in case Gaara would try something even more threatening. However, it was Ciel who stepped in between Gaara and Karasuma.

"Ballsy, aren't you?" Gaara remarked.

"Gaara, listen to me. We're not going to force you into our group by any means, yet if you do wish to defeat Tirek, then cooperation with Team Harmony is a must for you. You may be strong on your own, there's no denying that, but -"

"Stop right there. I'm perfectly capable of killing the bastard myself. I'm only with you because for some reason he's after your heads. Following you will make it easier," Gaara made clear, blade aimed at Ciel instead. Ciel didn't feel too intimidated himself, and kept himself calm with a sigh, even if the others looked ready to jump in.

"So that's it. ... To be honest, I'm pleased that someone else had actually met Tirek apart from myself. He took everything away from me, you see: my mother, my father, my aunt, all burned in flames back at my home. Now I can say that I'm not alone in achieving that goal."
Well that was interesting, something it seemed that no one else there even knew about. Gaara was quiet at first, but got back to his own senses.

"Why should I care about that? ..."

"... Because you and I aren't too far apart. We may be different, but our interests are aimed the same way. If you do help, I promise, we'll all help you. I want only what's best for you in that regard, Gaara," Ciel finished. Gaara stayed silent after all of that, looking to this stranger with uncertainty. It took him a little bit, and a lot of reluctance, but he eventually backed down.

"Fine. ..."

"Thank you, Gaara."

~~

After some more time in discussion, Ciel took a step off outside with Sebastian, Nagisa, and Edward for some alone time on the situation. Weather was clear, and while Ciel felt successful about the situation, it was Sebastian who seemed a little bit confused about what just happened there. And, since no one else was around to really ask him, he decided to get the answer from him.

"You didn't tell us you met Tirek before. So he's the bastard who burnt your house down?" Edward questioned. However, the answer caught them off guard.

"Never met him in life."

"Wait, what?"

"If I knew he'd made me suffer like that, he'd be dead by now."

"Then what was with that story to Gaara?" Nagisa questioned.

"It's far better to have him on good terms than him trying to kill us. And his current status in the art of ninjutsu and sand manipulation could be quite handy someday. In the very same vain as Envy, wouldn't you think so?" Ciel explained, giving Sebastian a smirk near the end of it.

"That was quite a lie you told him," Sebastian sighed. Ciel just smiled deviously and looked on ahead.

"I find that if you keep up a lie long enough, it becomes the truth. ... And if things do go to hell, I'll have you to clean things up for me."

Nagisa felt uneasy. It wouldn't be too long until Gaara would figure anything out from Ciel's end, if his experience was anything to go by. However, Sebastian gave a smile to Ciel, fully understanding his master.

"Yes, you do with that. ..."

"How'd you and your company deal with him, he's starting to get devious again," Ed whispered to Nagisa.

"Yeah, he's like that," Nagisa quietly replied. Even if Ciel heard them both, he'd probably not bother with them too much.

.......

*clap**clap**clap**clap*

A slow, audible clapping. Nagisa's skin began to crawl the very second that sound emitted and echoed around the empty area. Up above the Central door where they exited, a little visitor was there to see em. He sat comfortably on the door top rim, his smile and eyes the first thing they caught.

Tirek.

"Well, well, well, Phantomhive.~ You're adorable if you really think that'll work," Tirek cooed, jumping down from the building top and landing on the ground.

"Tirek I presume," Sebastian noted. Tirek went over to him first, his eyes taking in the dashing butler.

"None better. And you must be sweet Sebastian. Sombra mentioned in his grumbles about you. Oh, you do look lovely.~" Tirek cooed. Even for a demon, Sebastian found it unsettling, giving him a little shiver.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Ciel warned. Tirek leaned in dangerously close to Ciel, enough to make Ciel back up.

"And lying will? ... Oh, what am I saying, you've made it worked wonders, haven't you? How can someone say no to this little face," Tirek said, pinching Ciel's cheek. Nagisa had enough, and brought out his Halo Blade, bringing it up to his throat to get him to back up and back away.

"Nagisa Shiota. Our last few encounters were fun, haven't they?"

"You better back off if you know what's good for you," Nagisa warned, but Tirek could sense that he was still trembling. The demon stuck out his tongue, and gave Nagisa a good lick on the face, making him step back and get the saliva off. Tirek shivered.

"MMMMMMM, very well done! Tangy, with a touch of spice," Tirek cooed, licking manically at the very taste of him.

"Get out of here!" Edward demanded. If the stories were anything to go by, then Ed wasn't taking chances with Tirek here.

"Awwww, widdle bitch needs his milk? You could use some to gain a foot or two, you cute pipsqueak," Tirek mocked. NOW it was getting personal, Edward feeling a stab at his anger being dealt with those words.

"Don't call me pipsqueak," Edward warned.

"Then how do you want me to call you? A pipsqueak?"

That did it: with a clap and a hit to the ground, metal pillars started to launch at Tirek, narrowly missing the others, and missing Tirek. The loud blast of metal launched got the attention of other staff from inside, but none of them noticed just yet. This included Team Harmony too.

"What's going on?!" shouted Yoroi.

"Well damn it. That must be Tirek," thought Blair when she saw him.

"Easy, pipsqueak, you might kill someone. You really want a fight with me?" Tirek mocked.

"Well, it's a fight you started!" Edward snapped, readying for another attack on him. Tirek thought it over a tiny bit, but then he remembered something. His hand hit the side of his head. Before Edward could go in though, Nagisa suddenly moved in between him and Tirek.

"Don't start with them. It's me you're after," Nagisa stated. That simply amused him more than anything.

"Oh, well look who decided to jump in? Cus that worked so well before Pluton blown you to bits."

"Shut it. I'm not going to standby and watch this happen!"

"HAHA! you mean like you've done SO MANY TIMES before?! Like I said, you're nothing without your pathetic lap dogs to fight your fights for you! by the way, were you crying when you told them your little story, or did you hold back that too?"

"QUIT RUNNING YOUR MOUTH," Nagisa demanded. just to humor him, Tirek stayed quiet to let him talk, the boy aiming his Halo Blade at him with pure determination on his face. Yet, Edward was still stuck back on Tirek's earlier comment.

"Pluton? ... Wait, THAT WAS YOU?!"

"Guilty," Tirek cooed, apparently proud over what he did. That just made them all even more angry at Tirek: not only was he screwing with them, he started this deadly problem in the first place! Eventually though, Nagisa sighed.

"... You're right about that, Tirek. I have kept myself back. All I did was just allow them to make the calls whenever hell decides to come up at us. But as I said, I'm not standing by anymore. ... Fight me. Just you and me. ..."

Almost as if on cue, something else then came up in Tirek's head.

"And to think I forgot your parting gift."

"Parting gift?"

Their answer came in fairly quickly, as Tirek them brought up a portal behind everyone, the farthest off away from them. Soon, something huge started to pull itself out into view of everyone present. A gigantic, hellish abomination staggered out from the portal; pale, colorless skin, a set of gigantic arms and hands and two sets of extremely tiny feet attached to a grotesque lardy body, a human-like head, and three fleshy tails dragged behind it. Each step shook the ground, and the tiny head sniffed around for its latest meal, finding them all standing in front of it. The sight of this abomination made many of them shiver, but Tirek was surely pleased. When the creature sniffed them out, it grew a very large, and creepy-looking smile, its mouth full of human-like, giant, blunt teeth for crushing.

"That's disgusting!" shouted Blair. As true as that was, the details on the creature's face was what unnerved Nagisa the most. ...

"W-Wait ... is that ... Gluttony?!" Nagisa thought. The resemblance between the face and Gluttony's head was all too close for him not to be Gluttony himself.

"Like him? I gave him a little enhancement before showing up. OH DAMN, did he want to see you so badly. 'Where is he? Where's Envy?' The bitch boy!" Tirek mocked. Gluttony didn't understand what he was saying for the moment, which was probably a good thing for Tirek's sake, but now the rest had this monstrosity to deal with. Nagisa was unnerved, but he didn't run.

"And just to make things interesting, coward, I'll let you pick your fighter: Me, or him? Think carefully now, whoever you don't pick will charge after your friends. Nothing different for you, isn't it?" Tirek then laughed good and loud, again stabbing him where it hurts. Nagisa said he wouldn't standby anymore, but regardless now, his friends would end up fighting another fight again. ... But then, a thought came to him.

"Then I'll take on both of you."

"What?!" Twilight gasped. Tirek laughed himself silly.

"You're joking, you pisshead! You think some fancy ninja moves can take on both of us?! WOW, you're just desperate to prove me wrong, are you?!"

"You mean you'd rather fight fairly?" Nagisa quickly pointed out. Tirek saw the point, cracking his knuckles and readying for a two-on-one rumble.

"You crazy?!" Edward said.

"Sebastian," Ciel then instructed. Nagisa thought he was gonna fight, but instead, Sebastian actually grabbed Ed and pulled him back. After a bit, everyone stayed back. Aladdin was ready to go out and try to stop him, but Gaara stepped in the way to keep him back. Now he was all alone. him, with a monster and a demon lord. Tirek knew he'd crumble him over the weeks, but this was simply stupid of Nagisa to do far as Tirek was concerned.

"What did that Gaara teach you to act so stupid? K, BOY, LET'S SICK EM!"

With a mighty roar from the Homunculus, the fight began. Nagisa was ready for anything and everything Tirek had for him. The first one to make the charge at him was gluttony, rushing directly for him with jaws wide open. Nagisa ran forward, and gave a jump, using Gluttony's own head as a launching platform. As Nagisa ran over gluttony, he sliced his blade through his back, red sparks flying everywhere as Gluttony groaned in pain. Tirek did a similar strategy, and met Nagisa half way, Nagisa barely dodging the first kick. However, Tirek made a connection with a second back kick to knock Nagisa off, Nagisa spinning mid air and landing nearby. The kick stung him, but he was not out by any means.

"Those brutes will kill him. Come on!" Twilight said, the others ready to run in, but Gaara wasn't having it: using his own sand, he quickly forced them all back and actually crated a cage-like barrier to keep them in there.

"Gaara!" shouted Aladdin.

"It's time he fended for himself for once. No wonder he was so weak when I found him," Gaara remarked coldly, no sense of tact nor anything to lighten the blow of his words. They were angry, sure, but Nagisa wanted to fight him himself and Gaara wasn't gonna make it easy for them to stop him.
As for Nagisa, Gluttony swung his tails at him, but Nagisa jumped just out of the way, and actually slicing one of the three tail tips off of him. He spun around and met with Tirek, the demon creature blocking the blade's sizzling heat with his own chains as a sort of armor. Nagisa and Tirek then went at it face to face, the training Gaara giving Nagisa surely showing with how fast and quick he was attacking Tirek. Tirek dodged many of them, the only main damage was a finger being cut off, but that was about the best of it. However, Gluttony gave a charge at him, Tirek jumping aside, and launched Nagisa with a whack of his head, sending him flying! The hit launched Nagisa at the sandstone cage wall, crumbling a small part of it before landing down on the ground.

"Damnit. I'm not going to last much longer this way," Nagisa thought, and everyone else was thinking the same thing.

"Gaara let us out! He's going to die if this keeps up!" Alphonse pleaded, but Gaara wasn't listening. If anything, he mended the cage wall where Nagisa smashed up pieces to be sure they stayed put. Nagisa got up to his feet, tired and hurting all over, blood seeping from his mouth. Gluttony had fully healed up at this point, giving another roar at him, as Tirek readied to charge again. Nagisa rushed aside as best he could to avoid their charges, but he can't keep dodging them all the time to stop them.

"Come on, wimp! To think the gods picked you as their little fighter!" Tirek laughed, Gluttony charging forward again. Nagisa rushed underneath Gluttony this time, his Halo Blade slicing at his large stomach. The blood gushed out onto him as Nagisa raced out, just for Tirek to kick him in his side. Nagisa tumbled head over heels, but he eventually got back onto his feet, just in time to see Tirek standing a foot away.

"You've been a wimp your whole life, Nagisa, you think one tiny training session with that half-demon's going to save you from that?! YOU'RE TOO LATE TO SAVE ANYONE!" Tirek bellowed, grabbing Nagisa and holding him up high. He meant for this to torture the others, but gluttony rushed towards him and tried again to eat Nagisa. Nagisa had to act fast: his blade finally made a strong hit on Tirek and sliced his hand in two, but gluttony finally took a bite into him by his own arm, thrashing him around in the air before tossing him over his shoulder. The bite was deep, blood seeping out from his shoulder too. The landing wasn't as graceful, but he still was on his feet after that.

"OK, that's it," Karma decided, drawing out his sword, and slicing the barrier down. He, Edward, and Alphonse tried rushing out to help Nagisa, but that only gave Tirek the greenlight to attack them instead. Alphonse jumped in the way, and punched Tirek in the face to send him flying off a good ten feet towards Gluttony, catching his attention.

"No, stay back!" Nagisa yelled, but it was too late: Gluttony roared at them and was ready to go after them, but this distraction did give Nagisa a moment to jump at gluttony. He ran up from behind, and with a jump, sank his Halo Blade right into Gluttony's head! The beast roared and bellowed, bucking like crazy to get Nagisa off of him, as Tirek gleefully went over to them.

"Ah, more little snacks."

"WHY YOU!!" Ed roared, sending his alchemy to work and making the ground tremor. Tirek jumped aside from their attack, but at this point, Gaara actually used his sand to conceal them in sand barricades to keep them still. Tirek would try to kill them, but Gluttony's thrashing ended up whacking him back instead, sending Tirek off a good twenty feet. After that, Nagisa jumped off as Gluttony dealt with the blade in his head. Tirek got up to his own feet, and Gluttony managed to shake off the blade, the bloody item landing on the ground.

"Gaara!" Alphonse shouted. But Gaara didn't answer.

"Come on, give up! You got miles to go before you can kill me!" Tirek mocked, laughing like a maniac towards Nagisa. However, Nagisa did see Gluttony hit Tirek like that. And that gave him an idea. ...

"You don't stand a chance. Not even close!" Nagisa shouted.

The first thing Nagisa did was rush over towards Gluttony and grabbed his Halo Blade again. Gluttony roared to Nagisa, yet missed his bite again. Gluttony had tasted human blood, and he wasn't going to letup on him. it was then that Tirek became Nagisa's prime target, the boy running right towards him. Tirek readied to dodge him, side-stepping aside, but Nagisa followed him. however, instead of attacking him, Nagisa actually ran past him, literally back to back with tirek. Tirek tried to get to him, but Nagisa kept in his step, and stayed behind him.

"The hell're you doing, bitch?!" Tirek demanded, getting frustrated a little bit, but Nagisa didn't answer him, as gluttony charged at him again. The giant beast moved fast this time in his charge, but seconds before Nagisa could get grabbed, he jumped aside, and Tirek ended up clamped in Gluttony's jaws! Tirek felt his body get crushed in Gluttony's teeth before Gluttony threw Tirek aside and reappointed his targets. Tirek felt shaken up, but the wounds, despite looking horrendous, was minor on him. Next, Nagisa jumped back up onto Gluttony's back, sinking the blade into Gluttony's back again. Tirek, now angry, jumped up onto Gluttony for a final blow, but Nagisa planned ahead and actually jumped on Tirek's head, pushing Tirek's sharp horns into the Homunculus far deeper than his blade did.

"Damnit! My horns are stuck," Tirek thought, trying to pull his horns out, but with little luck,. This left Tirek a sitting duck, and Nagisa took his opportunity, the Halo Blade now in Tirek's back! Tirek roared in anger, forcefully ripping his horns out of Gluttony's back, taking out a good chunk of Gluttony with him. Nagisa's moves left Gluttony hurting, but this was the move Gluttony couldn't stand. Weak, hurting, Gluttony collapsed to the ground in defeat, falling unconscious. The momentum flung Tirek forward, the stinging blade wound making him less graceful this time. Now on the ground and in pain, Nagisa rushed over for him, and finally pinned him down with his Halo Blade aimed directly at his head.
It just. Stopped. The fight came to a halt at that moment. Nagisa breathed heavily, tired, determined, and feeling ... triumphant over Tirek. Tirek stayed quiet and looked over what just happened. ... Only one more message was left for Tirek to place, as he smiled towards him.

"... So. ... Now what? You're going to kill me? I'm sure heaven would love a killer to join them when this is over. ... funny thing: to have a place in heaven you have to go through your entire life without any wrong-doing. and yet look at you now. Your fate is purely sealed now. ..."

"... Fine then," Nagisa simply said. Nagisa kept his eyes closed, and with one more motion, pushed his blade into Tirek's neck. A fine, clean cute that went right through his neck. Nagisa made sure to keep his eyes closed the whole time, hearing Tirek gagged and twitch on feeling the blade finish him off for good. Everyone else watched Tirek's body started to wither away, leaving nothing behind but the chains that kept him locked away for so long. ...

"I ... I won ..."

When the fight was finally over, only then did Gaara lower the blockade, and allowed everyone else to finally move around to the arena. First thing the Team did was went right over to Nagisa, Pinkie, Aladdin, and Twilight hugging him on a job well done.

"You were incredible, Nagisa, you did it!" congratulated Twilight. Nagisa smiled, but he still felt his injuries creep in on him.

"Ow, ow, ow, hurting," Nagisa said, the others letting him go as Nagisa examined the injuries he got in his fight. He knew for sure he might've broken a bone or two, at the very least, but things could've gone a lot worse than that. Especially considering what he had just fought against.

"Well, color me impressed. You took on both Homunculus and Demon freak by yourself, and somehow made it work. Props to you, Nagisa," Karma said, playfully fluffing his hair. Nagisa was surprised he did that himself, but seems he had what it takes now.

.......

"Color me impressed, indeed," groaned a voice as he observed the entire event. It wasn't just Team Harmony going through some crazy times: Sombra too kept a closer eye on the situation from his Underworld palace, his own magic giving him a view from Gluttony's eyes. There was a reason why he left Gluttony to roam around by himself, but after seeing this happen it was a bit of a misstep. it was convenient that Gluttony's currently unconscious eyes were aimed at Nagisa and Tirek, seeing Tirek's last breath play out in front of him. After seeing that, Sombra removed his spy spell and left to his thoughts again.

"Well ... On one hand, they've handled Tirek for me. Makes my situation easier from now on. ... But, on the other, now the world knows we exist. Damnit, Tirek, you had to be so reckless." Sombra's thoughts showed with his hands clenching on his knees. Still, he can't change what had been done. If anything, it would make the secrecy situation even worse. He then got up and moved over to the balcony. His frustration was interrupted when a little bat flew over to him, the same blue twin-tailed one who reported about Hellgar's demise before. The news this messager left this time didn't make Sombra feel any better, and all he did was crumble it up.

"Oh, you Zubat, tell me something I'm not aware of, will you?" Sombra groaned. Luckily for this Zubat, it had another extra message at the ready and dropped it in front of him. Sombra wasn't in the mood for reading though, thinking more about the situation more than any extra message. Sombra gave the message a lookover for a little bit, but it wasn't exactly a message, but rather a info sheet. A identification report, and only then did the Zubat fly away. However, Sombra didn't have time to look it over for now, so instead of checking it, he folded it up and left it by the balcony. As he did, Chrysalis strolled on in.

"Ah, there you are.~ Stressed over everything, again?"

"Not now, I've got enough trouble," Sombra said sternly. But Chrysalis moved on over to him, her nimble hands gently massaging Sombra's tense shoulders.

"Come on, Sombra, why don't you take a rest for a while? A grand leader needs a rest once in a while, and I'll be happy to help you in anyway I can,~" Chrysalis cooed, taking the moment to push her bust into Sombra's back. Normally Sombra would be upset, but he was too stressed over everything else to really bother her much.

"You never let up, do you?" Sombra sighed.

"Even you need to rest, Sombra. And I've just heard Tirek was killed recently? Less stress on you."

"First good news I've heard in weeks, yes. But now thanks to that bastard, our very existence is known to the human world. You may not think it's a big deal, but in the long run it may prove -"

"Ssshhh,~" Chrysalis said, massaging him again. "There you go again, troubling over the future again. Look, why don't you and I go off and have some fun for a while, take some time off," Chrysalis suggested. Sombra took a moment of silence to think about what she was suggesting, and after some consideration, the demon lord sighed and turned to Chrysalis.

"Well, I've been meaning to go around the country for a little bit. If you want to come, then fine. We'll go tomorrow," Sombra finally decided. Chrysalis was satisfied with that response and strolled off to get herself ready. However, sombra still had some business to take care of.

"... Credit where credit's due. ..."

~~

"Well, it's time to go."

It took a few more days of recovery, but eventually the whole group agreed to go off. Nagisa healed up fairly well, still a little sore though regardless which was surprising for a few. They were outside, Nagisa, Pinkie, Aladdin, Karma, Twilight and Blair all on Aladdin's carpet, and with Ciel, Sebastian, Edward, Yoroi, Alphonse, and Gaara standing nearby.

"You're sure then you want us staying behind?" questioned Ciel.

"It's okay, Ciel, you got your stuff to do here and back in England. You helped us a whole lot already, thank you for that," said Twilight.

"That and if we do need any of ya, we can just get Korosensei to fetch ya," added in Blair.

"Sounds fair. couldn't hurt to check in on the manor, anyway," sighed Ciel. Oh, the very thought on memory of the manor, and the staff he was probably sure would make things sloppy when he would come back home.

"I'll be sure to make amends when we return home my lord," Sebastian made clear. Meanwhile, Yoroii hugged his little sister.

"Take care, sis," Yoroi said.

"You too Yoroi. Try to come by home soon, will you?" Twilight asked. Yoroi smiled.

"Count on it," Yoroi promised, Twilight sitting down on the flying carpet. Before they could go though, Nagisa had one more thing to present to those staying behind.

"Wait, there's one more thing. Here." Pulling out from his pocket, he gave Edward and Ciel a little something for the road: a slip of paper with some detailed writing for each.

"What's this?" asked Ed. Nagisa smiled.

"I've picked up on a few things while I was away. I figured if we're gonna be away from eachother, I might as well give you both a heads up for the future. It's the least I can do," Nagisa answered. Ciel looked to the list first, and it listed off some basic instructions for a number of things for the future as Nagisa had said, some details rather intriguing to the young earl, though most of these seemed pretty confusing, not to mention unlikely in normal circumstances. The same thing could be said with Ed's list of future highlights. Nagisa had one more, and he went on over to Gaara. Gaara was over by the wall, just standing there and acting like he wasn't interested.

"Here, Gaara, this is for you too," Nagisa said, presenting a piece of paper to him as well. Gaara didn't feel very charitable.

"Go bother someone else. You already took my kill from me," Gaara said. However, Nagisa took his hand, and gently placed the paper into it.

"Just take it," Nagisa simply stated, smiling to him. Gaara didn't answer, but he just took it so he could go. After that, Nagisa felt ready to go, and took his seat on the flying carpet. With some heads-up towards the future, it could give them all the advantage they needed for what could be up ahead. Even with that, just before they could go, Nagisa paused and felt another shiver go through him. Rather than worry though, he started to check around him.

"There you are," said a voice. And one none of them would recognized, but Nagisa felt a familiar aura come up from not too far away. As for whatever was coming, the whole group looked off to the building, just to find an unknown figure walk out to confront them. It didn't look to out of the ordinary, mainly an armored humanoid in red, though seeing it as well, Nagisa moved up to it before it could try to hurt the others.

"Don't bother, I'm not here to fight any of you," the figure said, sounding grumpy really.

"And who're you?" questioned Twilight.

"King Sombra we presume?" Ciel guessed.

"I'm a friend of Sombras'," said the knight. From the sound of it, it didn't want to really be here, though Karma took initiative and drew out his sword.

"What do you want?" asked Ed.

"Nothing much. Sombra, for some reason, sent me up here with a message for you. you all want to hear it, or no?" A message? A bit of an odd time to be getting a message from Sombra, but in the end, they nodded to him. On that, the knight cleared his throat and began to relay the message.

"Very pleasant, Team Harmony. Nagisa Shiota, word of Tirek's defeat had gone around pretty quickly down here in the Underworld. Normally, I'd try to hunt you down, but considering Tirek was a criminal and prisoner of mine, you actually saved me some trouble. A bit ironic, I'm know. As for the rest of you, I've decided to allow you all a bit of a break. You did defeat a demon lord and a dragon-class by the skins of your teeth, so even I have to give credit where it's due. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to halt my own plans, so don't get too comfortable. Our little game is still going, the rules have just changed as all. Course, you'd probably guessed that by now, and you'd probably know why as well. Until next time, let's see what the future holds. Sombra."

After the message was properly relayed, the knight turned and started to walk away, slowly disappearing. A break surely sounded nice for them after everything, though Nagisa figured that Sombra would find out eventually.

"Ok, Aladdin, let's fly home."

"Got it," Aladdin said. Soon, the flying carpet flew up in the air, and with a wave goodbye, they all started off towards home. With all they did in both England and Amestris, perhaps it would be time to head back to familiar territory at last.

Time to go home.