Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ The Wicked Side of Alchemy ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“ED BEHIND YOU!!!”

My warning was too late. A chimera emerged from the darkness and latched its fangs onto Ed’s already injured shoulder. He managed to get it off after a struggle, only to turn, at a cry from me, to see another one running to attack me. He quickly freed me and I fell to the ground, rolling out of the way just in time do dodge the attack. The chimera that had attacked Ed before was once again attached to his shoulder. I looked around desperately for anything I could use as a weapon, and my eyes fell on the bloody dagger that Ed had pulled from his shoulder. I dove for the dagger, and upon turning back towards Ed I saw the chimera that attacked me was now latched onto Ed’s flesh leg. Abandoning all reason and doubt and ignoring the searing pain in my shoulder, which was now covered in dried blood, I allowed my rage to take over and threw myself at the creatures. It was thanks to my angry determination to help my friend and a pure adrenaline rush that I managed to kill both of the chimeras, stabbing at them wildly and covering myself with their blood.

Immediately after I killed the second chimera, I saw three more approaching us, also catching a glimpse of Tucker behind them, a mixed look on his pale face that showed anger, amusement and insane determination all at the same time.

I stood my ground in front of Ed, determined to protect him as best as I could. I knew that even in ten years I could never compensate for what he had gone through in the last ten minutes, but the least I could do was fight for him as he had done for me.

The three chimeras lunged at me, but only one made it through. The other two were stopped by metal bars rising out of the ground towards the ceiling. I had little time to wonder as to the source of them as I struggled to keep the bloodthirsty chimera away from my throat. I sliced down its side and stabbed at its back and shoulders, its blood drenching my body, but it continued to fight, leaving four parallel gashes from its claws along my arm and torso before it was picked up and thrown against the far wall.

I looked up and saw that my savior was none other than Alphonse. Without any hesitation or questioning, for which I was extremely grateful, he picked up both me and Ed and ran for the exit, leaving a screaming Tucker and fuming Envy behind.

“I’ll get you for this! I swear you’ll regret interfering with me!”

Tucker’s infuriated words were the last thing I heard before exhaustion and pain took over, plunging me into darkness.

I woke up on cold wet grass to shouts, the sound of clanking metal and a severe pain in my shoulder and across my stomach. My hair was matted with dried blood and my clothes were stained scarlet from it. I had no idea if I had been out for ten minutes or ten hours.

With great effort I rolled onto my side and saw Ed and Al fighting all three homunculi. I could tell Ed was having a difficult time staying on his feet. Envy and Gluttony were both focusing on Al, the latter apparently trying to take a bite out of him, while Lust ruthlessly attacked Ed. His moves were getting sloppier, and I struggled to get up. Lust finally succeeded in creating a huge gash in Ed’s side, and he fell to one knee. His arms wrapped around the wound and his face contorted with pain. That was the last straw for me. I was sick and tired of seeing my friend in pain. I forced myself to stand up and charge at her.

I was unarmed, injured, and unskilled in hand to hand combat, but I kept going even as this realization hit me. I remembered Ed’s promise that he would teach me some basic fighting skills, and wished more than anything that he‘d fulfilled that promise earlier.

I threw a clumsy punch at Lust and she dodged it easily. I thought I noticed a blue glow behind me, and sure enough Ed was conjuring me up a weapon. To my own amazement I dodged Lust’s next attack and jumped back to grab the spear that Ed was holding out to me, now back on his feet and obviously enduring intense pain to remain so.

Even though I really had no idea how to use it, the spear helped immensely in blocking the relentless attacks from Lust and keeping a space between us. But both of us were tiring quickly and Ed’s shoulder wound had reopened. Between that and his injured leg I have no idea how he managed to stay upright.

If the military hadn’t shown up at that moment, I don’t think we would’ve made it. Even if they couldn’t kill the homunculi, they outnumbered them at least ten to one and the state alchemists that came along could at least succeed in trapping the homunculi and rendering them harmless. The three of them apparently realized this, because they fled as soon as they saw the huge procession raging towards them.

Al and I caught Ed just as he collapsed. An officer led us to a car and Al gently laid Ed inside it, and I slid in after him. He told me he’d come in the next car and stayed to explain the situation to the officers, who I guessed were informed by someone after the people Ed had released made it back to town and raised the alarm. Seeing our injuries, one of the officers hurriedly jumped in the car and started driving towards town.

I kept quiet, sure that Ed was in no mood to talk, and was surprised when he was the one to break the silence. “Thanks Marie,” he said in a near-whisper. I could tell from his voice alone that he was in pain, but he had experienced so much of it in the last few years that he knew how to deal with it. Enduring prosthetic surgery when he was only ten had provided him with a tolerance for it.

I lifted my head from its resting place against the car window and saw him leaning against the opposite door, looking at me with his eyes half closed.

“For what? You don‘t have anything to thank me for.”

He answered me in a voice strained with exhaustion. “If you hadn’t attacked those chimeras and prevented that third one from getting to me, I’d be in a lot worse shape than this right now.”

I wanted to cry. He was actually thanking me, when I was the reason he was ever in that position in the first place. I tried to answer but was denied the ability to do so as a lump rose in my throat and tears came unbidden to my eyes.

Ed laboriously sat upright to face me and pushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The gesture surprised me greatly. Ed never did things like that. “Please don’t cry. You may very well have saved my life tonight.”

I forced myself to look him in the eyes. I didn’t deserve to hear anything he was telling me. I managed to clear my throat enough to speak. “Don’t thank me for it, Ed. Any lack of action on my part would have been unacceptable. In case you forgot, you had just saved my life minutes before.”

He positioned himself so he sat next to me, and looked up at the roof of the car as he laid his head back against the seat.

After a moment he spoke again. “I’m sorry.” I thought I saw signs of tears forming in his eyes, but he managed to hold back any that tried to escape. “It’s because of me that this happened to you. I can’t imagine how scared you must have been.” He turned to face me. “I’m sorry let it happen.”

I wanted to kiss him and punch him at the same time. He was taking on guilt and responsibility that should have been my burden, not his. Why did he always do that?

“I told you to stop doing this Ed. None of it is your fault. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine for falling for that stupid trick.”

He shifted his eyes to me. “He turned into me, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. I fell for it too.”

Silence. This time it was me who broke it.

“I didn’t mean for you to have to go through that again Ed. Thinking you had to make that decision again, I mean. Not that I had any doubts about you making the right one. I…I really thought I was going to die today. But I underestimated you, as did the homunculi.”

He closed his eyes. “I really don’t know if I could have made the right decision, Marie. When you’re in a situation like that sometimes your heart makes the decisions instead of your head.”

We reached town before I had a chance to respond. Not that I could think of anything to say to something like that.

We stopped at the hospital and walked inside, Ed refusing help until I told him he was being a stubborn jackass and to just suck it up and lean against my good arm. To my astonishment he obliged. I think he was just too tired to argue.

The officer that was escorting us went up to the front desk, and when the clerk saw us she immediately sent for a nurse. We were ushered down the hall by an alarmed nurse with frizzy brown hair, who stopped questioning us at a glare from Ed.

“I hate hospitals.” I told him.

“I do too. We’re just in here to get bandaged up and then we’re catching the first train out of here.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We were taken into different rooms and I was examined by a middle-aged doctor who was wearing an exasperated, annoyed expression, almost as if our showing up was some kind of inconvenience. She put some kind of ointment on my shoulder, mumbling something about ‘reckless kids’ and then bandaged me up. She was surprised when I thanked her and started to leave the room.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To get my friend, pay the bill and go home.” I answered, as if this was the obvious thing to do.

“You need to rest so your shoulder can heal properly.”

“I’ll have plenty of rest on the train home.”

I walked down the hall until I reached a door that sounded like there was arguing going on inside. The next thing I knew Ed stormed out with an angry doctor on his heels.

“You need to stay here for at least two days to let your injuries heal!”

“I don’t need to do anything. The only reason you want me to is so you can charge me extra.”

The flabbergasted doctor failed to come up with a response, and Ed put his hand on my back and urged me forward. “Let’s get out of here.”

We paid a confused looking clerk at the front desk and caught Al walking inside the hospital. Ed grabbed his arm, turned him around, and headed for the train station. Al already had our bags, probably expecting to stay in the hospital a day or two.

“Brother, what are you - ”

“We’re going back to East City to report to Mustang and be done with this damn mission once and for all.”

Al wisely decided to go along with it.

Ed and I slept the whole way there. We were met at the station in East City by Lieutenant Ross, who told us the Colonel wanted to see us immediately. I was surprised at how fast the news had spread, but I suppose when you‘re the Colonel you‘re one of the first to know.

Ed grumbled the whole way to Mustang’s office. “Why can’t he wait until morning? If he starts going off about how we handled things wrong and what we should have done and all that other bullshit he loves to complain about I’ll make him regret calling me in. If he doesn‘t like the way I handle things then why doesn‘t he get off his ass and do it himself?”

“I agree, but try to restrain yourself Ed. I don’t think you should kill him, but maiming usually works well enough to get your point across,” I advised. That got a laugh out of him.

Al laughed too. “Seriously though brother, try to stay calm so we can get in and out.”

The Lieutenant stopped us at the door to Mustang’s office and knocked.

“What is it?”

“They’re here sir.”

“Send them in.”

We entered Mustang’s office and saluted, Ed obviously having trouble making himself do so.

The man standing before us was handsome and young, probably somewhere in his mid or late twenties. He was similar to Ed in that he had a fairly high military rank at a young age. The problem with this was that it often earned him the resentment of his fellows. He had raven hair and onyx eyes that could make any woman swoon, and unfortunately this only added to his already inflated ego.

“Sit down.”

We sat, and there was silence for a while until Mustang broke it. “Tell me what happened.”

I told Mustang the major points, how Tucker and the homunculi were behind the disappearances and that the missing people were either used for experiments or to be saved for the creation of the Stone. When he asked me how we were injured I simply told him we had a scuffle with the homunculi before the military showed up.

Mustang just looked at us for a while, his features unreadable. “Good work. I’m glad you’re alright.”

I almost laughed at the expression on Ed’s face. He had his mouth open, ready to argue against whatever Mustang said. He was completely taken by surprise when he had no reason to.

Mustang stood up and escorted us out of the room. “Go get some sleep. I don‘t want you two out of commission any longer than is necessary.”

Al and I gave Mustang another salute before we left the room. He returned it and we headed down to the barracks, Ed still gaping in astonishment.

“No complaints, no sarcastic remarks, no telling me I’m a reckless idiot, there’s definitely something wrong with this picture.”

I laughed and told them good night as I headed for my room, but a sense of guilt took over and prevented sleep from coming for a long time. I realized that the kidnappings in Haden were partially our fault. The homunculi wouldn’t have bothered to gather them unless they were sure that Ed was capable of creating the Stone and that I was capable of making him do it.