Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Descent ❯ The Meeting ( Chapter 17 )

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Descent

 

Chapter Seventeen

 

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The Meeting

 

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Winry gazed around the room in apprehension as the crowd began yelling and shouting at each other. The man from The People's Government had made many good points during his speech, but when it came down to the wire, whether or not Rizembool would join with the new rebel government, well…

 

Her eyes fell on Alphonse, who had sat quietly through the whole meeting. Not that he would act like those other rabble-rousers, but he was still injured and she had a feeling there were going to be quite a few fights after the assembly convened.

 

“My friends! My friends!” The man, whose name was Roland,(1) yelled. “Please listen to me! I know this type of a decision doesn't come lightly and of course we don't expect you to declare openly for us right away, but if you are for our cause, if you believe in freedom and are against being oppressed by the blood thirsty military leaders in Central, and I know you do, I see it in your eyes, hear it in your voices, please at least send us some support. Our soldiers need food, clothes, shoes, anything you can spare.”

 

A young man, no older than twenty stood up and yelled, “I'll do better than that! I'll go and fight myself!” A low buzz of murmuring began to fill the room. More hotheaded young men stood and yelled their support while women buried their heads in their hands and began crying.

 

Winry watched as the man, Roland, closed his eyes and pressed his lips together. She thought he looked very emotional, but felt skeptical that any of it was actually real. After a moment the man opened his eyes and raised his hands.

 

“Friends!” He shouted, and the noise faded. “Friends…” Roland said more softly. “Thank you. You are doing a great thing. It is people like you who will change this country. This land will be a place where your children will be able to lead happy lives because of your courage.”

 

Roland paused and looked around the room. “Now, I have one more matter of business to bring up with you. The People's Army is in desperate need of alchemists. Is there anyone among you who has a talent for alchemy?”

 

Winry frowned, noticing that he didn't add `who was willing to fight', and slipped her hand into Al's.

 

The murmuring began again. Then someone yelled loudly, “Best alchemists `round here are them Elric boys…”

 

Many in the crowd nodded, and once again Winry felt glad that they had taken a seat near the back. Her heart sank as she watched Roland's eyes widened slightly and he mouthed the word, `Elric'.

 

Here was a man who knew of the Fullmetal Alchemist.

 

A man near the front stood up and scanned the crowd. “There's Alphonse Elric right there.” The man said and pointed in their direction. The people sitting close to them turned to look. The tall alchemist grimaced slightly and a faint blush came to his cheeks. It seemed as if he wanted to shrink in his chair to get away from all the curious eyes. Winry wanted to take him in her arms and hold him, protect him from the others. The hand she was holding tightened around hers and she squeezed it back gently to let Al know she was there for him.

 

When her eyes returned to Roland she thought the man looked eager, like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse, but thankfully he only nodded, gave a few more remarks and turned the meeting over to the mayor who quickly convened it.

 

“Let's get out of here.” Winry whispered urgently to Al as the people began getting out of their seats. Al quickly nodded his agreement. He held tightly to her hand as they made their way hurriedly out the door.

 

Over the din of the crowd, Winry could hear Roland calling, “Alphonse! Alphonse Elric!” She didn't want to talk to the man. She didn't want Al to talk to him. What if he talked Al into joining up with this People's Army? Winry didn't know if she'd be able to handle it.

 

After leaving the town hall, the two of them began walking quickly away from the building, but moments later they heard Roland calling to them again. Al looked down at her and asked, “Walk faster?” She grinned and nodded.

 

Unfortunately, the other man was determined to speak to them because a moment later he was at their side, panting from having to run to catch up.

 

“Mr. Elric… Please…. Can I… just have… one word with you?”

 

The sixteen year old didn't stop. Instead he said, “I think you just had eleven words with me”, then picked up his pace causing both Winry and Roland to start jogging to keep up.

 

“Just five minutes! Please!” The other man sounded so desperate that Winry almost felt bad for him. Al must have heard what she did, because a moment later he slowed, then stopped.

 

You're just too nice Al... Winry thought.

 

Al sighed, then said, “I'm not interested.”

 

Roland chuckled, and wiped the sweat from his brow into his light gray hair. “I haven't even said anything yet.”

 

“Yes, but I already know what you're going to ask. I'm not interested in joining you.”

 

Winry grabbed onto Al's arm with her free hand and stood closer to him. She just wanted the other man to go away. Go away and leave them alone.

 

“You aren't, by chance, related to Edward Elric are you?” Roland asked.

 

Al didn't answer for moment, then said, “Yeah, he's my older brother.”

 

The other man blinked. “How… how many siblings do you have…?”

 

“There's just the two of us.”

 

Roland blinked again, then eyed Al up and down. Clearing his throat, the man said, “I've, uh… I've seen the Fullmetal and, uh… saw his brother too… you just don't seem… big… enough…”

 

The other man trailed off as Al started laughing. “Oh! Well, yeah...” The tall alchemist waved a hand vaguely. “I was going through this… armor phase...” When the man still didn't look convinced, Al shrugged and said more seriously, “Look, I don't care whether you believe me or not. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't believe me.”

 

The man seemed to think about it, nodded, then said, “You as good as your brother?”

 

Al sighed and looked up into the darkening sky. “Mister… My brother and I have different talents. He can do things I can't, and I can do things he can't.” The sandy haired teen looked back at Roland. “Good is a matter of opinion.”

 

The two men stood there staring at each other as the crickets began to chirp. The sounds of the people from the town hall drifted toward them on a slight breeze and little strands of hair tickled her face.

 

“We need you.” Roland said quietly.

 

Al looked toward the ground and kicked a pebble before looking up and saying simply, “The State Alchemists.”

 

The other man's lips pressed together and he nodded once.

 

The tall alchemist closed his eyes and swallowed roughly, as if his throat were dry. Small creases appeared on Al's forehead and she felt him squeeze her hand again. Holding back the urge to wrap her arms around him, she squeezed his hand back.

 

“I can't. I'm sorry.” Al whispered.

 

Winry could see the moisture forming at the corners of his closed eyes.

 

“Because of your brother.” Roland said simply. It wasn't a question.

 

Al nodded.

 

“I see…”

 

Roland moved his gaze down and looked at Winry. His eyes softened and he whispered, “Yes… I see very well.”

 

;-;-;-;-;-;-;

 

Vicky(2) leaned over and wiped down the empty table in irritation. The customers who had occupied this table had been demanding and rude, and in the end they had left her nothing for her trouble. But then, that wasn't to be helped she supposed. It was almost closing time and there usually weren't many people this time of night.

 

She looked over at her last two customers. They were military men, but she wasn't really sure if they were important or not. She didn't really pay much attention to ranks. They were all bastards. These two men had been talking for quite a while, but they had only ordered tea.

 

Vicky sighed as she moved to the next table and pulled out her washrag. She was tired and really wanted to go home. The two soldiers would no doubt leave her almost nothing for a tip, military men rarely did. They were all cheap.

 

Cheap bastards.

 

She had dated a few men who were soldiers and all they wanted was a good time at the cheapest price.

 

Bastards all of them.

 

As she moved to the next table, the men's conversation became easy to hear and she listened idly as she cleaned the tables.

 

“…and we've caught on to his little bug. Tapping into the phone lines…the little shit.”

 

“Now, now, let's not be hasty. The worker bees only do what the queen bee tells them to.”

 

“That son of a bitch upstart only wishes he were the queen bee. If we get rid of his little fucking bugs then he won't be able to tell them to do anything.”

 

“That won't work. They're drawn to him like moths to a flame.”

 

The first man snickered. “Moths to a flame. Better to say, `moths to the Flame', don't you think?”

 

“Indeed. And if we want the moths to scatter?”

 

Vicky looked over her shoulder and saw the first man grin. When he spoke, a chill ran through her.

 

“We extinguish `the Flame'.”

 

;-;-;-;-;-;-;

 

“You do know this is really irresponsible, don't you?”

 

Roy looked up from his stack of paperwork to where Ed was sitting on the other side of the table.

 

“You do know how ridiculous that sounds coming from you, right?” Roy countered.

 

“Are you saying I'm irresponsible?”

 

Instead of answering, Roy leaned forward and checked the teen's work. “You need the tops on the `M' to come to a point more.”

 

“Well, excuuuse me. I just fucking learned how to sign your damn name today.”

 

Roy grinned and scanned the next report. He should have thought of this sooner.

 

“Shouldn't you be reading these?” Ed asked. “I mean, what if there's important information or what if someone is requesting something that you shouldn't approve?”

 

Roy scribbled his name at the bottom of the report and flopped it in the `finished' pile. “Trust me Ed, Hakuro isn't going to give me anything of importance. He just gave me this big of a load right before the weekend because he's an ass.”

 

The blond boy looked up and grinned. “Who is the one always bitching at me about my profanity?”

 

“There's a difference.” Roy mumbled as he went over the next report.

 

“Yeah right. What's that?”

 

Roy looked up. “We're not at work.”

 

Ed blinked. “What?”

 

“Think about it. When have I ever told you not to swear when we weren't at work?” Roy could almost see the gears in the other alchemist's brain turning.

 

“Never I guess…”

 

Roy nodded, then started on the next report. It had been a pretty good weekend so far, well at least after all the drama on Friday night. Except for Ed moping around for a few hours on Saturday, that day had been good as well. In fact, it was the closest to the `old Ed' the teen had been since Roy had taken him home with him.

 

There were a few things that bothered him though. One was that he still didn't know how Ed had gotten Al's body back. This wasn't really his business, but he had an idea that it hadn't been something pleasant. He thought it was obvious that Ed hadn't used the Philosopher's Stone. After all, creating something like that would take… well, a lot of people and he was pretty sure he would have heard of something like that.

 

Another thing that bothered him was that although they had talked about what had happened with Alphonse, Ed still hadn't made any move to contact his brother.

 

“Ed, do you plan on calling Alphonse?”

 

The boy stared down at the report for a minute before shaking his head.

 

“Why not?”

 

“I… I can't. I mean not right now. I will call him… eventually… I just can't right now… I just need to think about it.”

 

Roy frowned. “What do you need to think about?”

 

Ed moved his gaze from the paper to Roy in frustration. “Just things, okay? I don't want you to push me. Just leave it alone.”

 

The dark haired man sighed, but nodded, then looked back down at his papers.

 

“And don't forget you owe me for all of this help.” Ed continued, still sounding irritable.

 

Roy flinched slightly. Why in the world had he agreed to do that? He looked back up and said, “Ed… You aren't really serious are you? I already told you I'm not a…”

 

But the young alchemist cut him off. “You promised.”

 

“But…”

 

“Here I am, saving your lazy ass, been forging your name on these documents for the last hour, and now you're trying to go back on our deal?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Ed's eyes narrowed.

 

“I mean, No. It's just that I think that someone else would be a better…”

 

“You promised.”

 

“You're going to be disappointed.” Roy mumbled. How did he get himself into these messes…?

 

 

 

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1) Roland is an original character

 

2) Vicky is an original character. She will not be seen again, she is only used to as a way for the reader to catch the conversation.

 

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Thanks to:

MasamuneReforged for being my beta.

 

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Well, what do you think Mustang promised he'd do?

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