Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Old Rivals Resurface ( Chapter 6 )

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

Finally, after about seven hours of practice, Ed decided it was a good time to stop. I had wanted to stop hours ago, but promised myself I wouldn’t ask. Even if he hadn’t meant anything he said earlier, I still wanted to assure him that none of it was true.

As we were walking back to the barracks I noticed Ed looking over at me. I wished he would stop, it was hard to keep my face from going scarlet.

“What?”

“Good job today.”

I smiled at him. “Really?”

He returned the smile. “Yeah. You hung in there a long time. If I hadn’t stopped us you probably could’ve gone all day.”

I didn’t tell him I had been ready to quit after the first hour. “When’s the next one?”

“I was thinking every other day, as long as we have the time. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” I said, relieved he wasn’t planning on doing this daily.

“Good, ‘cause even if you didn’t like it we’d do it anyway.”

I sighed. “You’re such a smart ass.”

He grinned. “But a good teacher, right?”

“I don’t know, I don’t have a basis for comparison. But I’m sure there are better ones out there.”

“I taught you more today than anyone else would’ve taught you in a week, and I taught it better,” he protested.

I shrugged. “I don’t know about that Ed. If your arms and legs were longer you could probably fight better and therefore teach better.” He had that one coming all day.

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE MISTAKES A MOLEHILL FOR A MOUNTAIN?!!!” He suddenly looked full of energy and ready to take me on again.

I had trouble suppressing a grin. “Where do you come up with this stuff? You really need to get over your height issue Ed.”

“Well if people would stop mentioning it then it wouldn’t be a problem!”

“You idiot, they tease you to get that exact reaction out of you. If you didn’t freak out people wouldn’t make fun of you.”

He hated admitting I was right, so was silent the rest of the way. The sun was already setting and both of our growling stomachs were breaking up the silence that ensued after Ed’s little outburst.

We had almost reached the door to the mess hall when Al ran up to us.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you two! Where have you been?”

Ed was in a bad mood from my teasing, so I answered. “Sorry Al. We ended up training a little longer than we planned.”

“Well Mustang wants you and I in his office, Ed.”

If Ed looked annoyed, it was nothing compared to me. “What? What about me? It’s not about another mission, is it? I don’t want to stay here while you guys go!”

Al started to turn back towards H.Q.. “I don’t know, but if we don’t get up there soon we’re gonna get torched.”

Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, was named after his ability to produce flames with a snap of his fingers. He wore special gloves made out of a kind of ignition cloth to create a spark, and then used alchemy to change the oxygen density in the air and create a flame.

If possible, Ed looked even more annoyed than before. “Al, why are you running Mustang’s errands for him? If he wants to see me so bad he can get off his ass and find me himself.”

“Just hurry up, will you? He really sounds worried this time. I think it’s urgent.”

Ed grumbled and reluctantly followed Al. I did the same and Ed glanced at me before looking forward again, still wearing the same scowl. “Why are you coming?”

“I want to see what’s so important. And if it’s a mission I don’t want to be stuck in this boring place while you guys go without me. If it’s Mustang’s intention to leave me here I have a couple things to say to him.”

Ed gave a short laugh. “Good luck reasoning with him. Around here it’s his way or the highway.”

I rolled my eyes at him and continued to follow Al until we reached that all too familiar door on the second floor of the Eastern Command Center. Visits to the Colonel seemed to be getting much to frequent, and a glance at Ed told me that he felt the same way.

A voice from inside responded to Al’s knock with an impatient “Come in.” Al and I saluted as we entered to see a very frazzled, distressed looking Colonel Mustang.

“As you were. Now sit down, I’ve got something important to tell you.” He looked over at me, then to Al. “Alphonse, I thought I told you to get Edward only.”

I rescued Al from having to provide an answer. “What can you tell them that you can’t tell me?”

Mustang massaged his temples in frustration. “Marie, this is a mission for Ed and Al. I don’t want you going.”

I raised my arms in protest. “Why the hell not?”

He glared at me with coal black eyes. “Because it’s too dangerous and because I am your superior and I said so. Now please leave, as you will have no use for the information I am going to give these two because you’re not going!”

I sat down defiantly on the sofa in front of his desk and Ed and Al did the same. Ed had a smug look on his face, obviously enjoying how distressed the Colonel was.

Mustang looked like he was about to argue, but something made him change his mind. “Fine, stay. But you’re still not going and I’m going to tell every officer in this building to keep an eye on you to make sure you don‘t.” He folded his hands behind his back and redirected his gaze to Ed and Al. “Think back to four years ago. Do you remember Bald, the man who hijacked the train you two took on your way here for the first time?”

Ed once again gave Mustang an icy glare. “You mean the train you tricked us to get on, putting our lives at risk just on the off chance that we might be able to stop the hijackers and you could get in a good word with the Fuhrer for ending what could have been a horrible tragedy? Not that you did anything, it was all Al and Hughes and I. Yeah, I remember.”

Al sighed and Mustang went on as if Ed’s last sentence was all he had heard. “Well it turns out he escaped from prison recently.”

Ed snickered. “Wow, you guys are really on top of things.”

I could tell Mustang’s attempts at controlling his anger were growing more difficult. In a strained voice he continued. “The point is he’s out, and I have reason to believe that Kimbley is the one who helped him.”

I joined in at this point. “He was a State Alchemist, right? But wasn’t Kimbley dismissed from the military due to war crimes during the Ishbal rebellion?”

“Yes, but the Fuhrer let him back on not too long ago. Why he ever believed Kimbley’s pleas for innocence, I’ll never know.”

Al finally spoke up. “What makes you think Kimbley did it?”

Mustang glanced at the door, as if to make sure no one was listening. “The lock on Bald’s cell was blown up.”

Ed, who had been sitting back with his eyes closed and hands folded behind his head, lazily opened his eyes halfway. “Kimbley’s specialty is making bombs using alchemy, right? But that’s still not near enough evidence to confirm that it was him.”

Roy leaned back in his chair. “That’s not all. I heard him on one of the phones outside near the training grounds. He said, ’H.Q., sixth, 2300 hours. Make sure I get what I want first, then you can take all the revenge you want.’ Then he hung up. I’m guessing he was talking to Bald. As you know, Bald always hated the military after he was discharged, and I’m sure since we imprisoned him he wants revenge more than ever. There’s a good chance he’s after money as well. I don’t know what Kimbley wants, but I’m hoping we won’t have to find out.”

Ed was slightly more interested now. “So let me guess, H.Q. is obviously headquarters, the sixth is the date and 2300 hours the time. An assault on military headquarters. The question is, here in East City, or Central?”

Mustang rubbed his chin in thought. “That I can’t figure out. The phone call was made here, but I just heard a rumor about Kimbley being transferred to Central. But on the other hand, he would have less of a chance getting caught here in a smaller city, and there’s plenty of officers, including myself, that are stationed here I’m sure Bald would love to get his hands on. But there’s one more thing that’s making me lean toward Central; The Fuhrer is currently absent and has left Lieutenant Archer in charge.”

Ed looked surprised at this. “What? Archer? Why the hell would he leave him in charge?”

“Believe me, I’ve been wondering the same thing. The point is, I’ve never trusted Archer or Kimbley and I think, now that Archer is temporarily in charge, he might be willing to help Kimbley get in and do whatever it is he wants to do, and that’s why Kimbley is choosing now to do it.”

Mustang stood in front of Ed and Al, completely ignoring me. “I want you two to go to Central and make sure nothing happens. I already know I won’t have much support on this, so I’m keeping it quiet. There’s a very good chance we could be wrong and there is no attack planned on H.Q. However I can’t ignore what I heard and I want you to check it out. I’m staying here on the off chance that an attack, if there is even one planned, occurs here instead. Tomorrow is the sixth, so I want you to leave at least by that afternoon.”

He turned to me with a stern look. “If something does happen this could get very dangerous. You will not accompany the Elrics on this assignment and you will keep quiet about everything I have told you, and that’s an order. Is that clear?”

I glared at Mustang and got up to walk out, Ed and Al following. I flinched when Mustang shouted my name.

“Marie! I asked you a question!”

I answered without turning around. “Whatever.”

We ate in silence until Al broke it. “You know he’s just looking out for you.”

I rarely got angry with Al. In fact this was the first time I remembered doing so. “Bullshit Al! He just doesn’t want me to go because if I got hurt and one of the higher-ups found out he had sent me he’d get in trouble. You need to learn that all he cares about is his reputation, his next promotion, and keeping up on his quota of never having less that ten girlfriends at a time.”

Ed chuckled, obviously satisfied that one of us finally saw things his way. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

The following afternoon Ed and Al went to catch their train and Mustang made me take my belongings to one of the rooms inside the building. He said he could ‘keep and eye on me that way.’

I don’t know why I obeyed. He made it tough, but I probably still could’ve snuck out and caught the next train. I guess I told myself that there would be no attack and Ed and Al would just come back tomorrow after a boring night watch. But that reasoning was less of an excuse for admitting defeat and obeying Mustang and more of a way to convince myself that the boys would be okay.

At around eleven o’ clock after nearly everyone had gone home, save for Mustang and a couple other officers, I got up to get a drink. That idea was abandoned, however, when I continued past my destination and peaked around the corner of the hallway to investigate what sounded like hushed arguing.

I had to cover my mouth to muffle the scream that was trying to force itself out at what I saw. Around the corner, Bald, Kimbley, and someone I didn’t recognize were interrogating an officer, probably on his way out. Bald was a huge, muscular man with greasy brown hair and burns covering his body, courtesy of the Colonel. Kimbley on the other hand was quite good-looking, but had the eyes of a killer. It fit, considering that was his favorite hobby. The reason he’d been discharged during the rebellion was because of his overzealous enthusiasm in what he considered ‘crowd control.’ In reality, this meant blowing up large groups pf people and having fun while doing it.

“Where is Mustang’s office?” came Bald’s gruff voice.

The officer fumbled with his words in a timid voice, his eyes wide in fear. “You’re…I can’t…give you that information…”

Bald stepped forward and pounded his left fist, which I saw was auto-mail, into his right one. “Bad answer.” He raised his arm toward the officer and I was horrified to see bullets shoot out of it. An auto-mail machine gun. The officer fell to the floor, blood pooling underneath him. Bald unceremoniously kicked him into a side hall, leaving a trail of blood smeared across the floor.

They stood in the middle of the hallway, and farther down on either side were turns to the left and right, that went down until they met in another hallway parallel to this one. The hall they were in now continued down a little further to the left, then turned into another hall; the one I was in. I was facing an office door, the only one on the wall before it was interrupted by the hall that ran perpendicular to the one the men were in.

After they were out of sight, Kimbley heading down the hall closest to me to look for Mustang and the other two searching the one to the far right, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I ran into the office straight ahead of me and climbed into the ventilation shaft in the ceiling, standing on a desk directly under it to get up. I crawled along as fast as I could while trying to be as silent as possible until I reached Mustang’s office. I was overwhelmingly relieved to find him sitting at his desk alone. Kimbley was still searching the rooms. Mustang looked frantically around his office when he heard my voice.

“Colonel! Kimbley and Bald are searching for you. You can’t take them alone we need to go get backup!”

I was relieved when he didn’t waste any time asking me stupid questions. He quickly got in the vent and we covered it back up just in time to escape being sighted by Bald and Kimbley, who simultaneously burst through the door.

We hurried along the vent until we reached the office I had entered through. We pushed open the door, ready to run for it, but instead of an empty hallway before us, two of our three pursuers stood there. Kimbley was missing.

Before we had a chance to do anything Bald grabbed Mustang and his assistant grabbed me. Kimbley was standing to the side and ordered Bald to search for and remove Mustang’s gloves. He found them in his pocket and stashed them in his own.

Kimbley gave Mustang a smug smirk. “Not so tough without your gloves, are you Mustang? Now I’m going to make this quick and I expect you to do the same if you value your life and that of the girl.” He quickly glanced over at me before continuing. “I want the location of Tim Marcoh’s research and prototypes of the Philosopher’s Stone. I know you kept his location hidden for him after he went AWOL during the Ishbal rebellion.”

Mustang struggled in Bald’s grasp. “Him and his research have been relocated. I no longer have that information.”

Kimbley stepped forward, his smug face reverting to a scowl. “Don’t play dumb Mustang. I’ll only ask you one more time - where is he?”

Mustang was spared from answering by two stone pillars shooting out of the floor and hitting both of our captors square in the chin, knocking them to the ground. Roy grabbed my arm and sprinted down the hall, diving around the corner at the end just in time to avoid a blast from Kimbley. We both peaked back around the corner just in time to see Ed, who was holding Kimbley at knifepoint with his auto-mail arm transmuted into a blade, receive a harsh blow to the back of the head by Bald. His assistant was still unconscious behind him. I briefly wondered how and why Ed was here, but decided now was not the time to worry about tit.

Bald held Ed up against the wall with his real hand by the throat, and Kimbley readied another bomb for Mustang and I. He hadn’t seen me come back around the corner yet, and I used this to my advantage. I ran along the connected hallways until I was opposite of my former position, now staring at everyone’s backs. Kimbley was still interrogating Mustang. I grabbed a stray 2’ x 4’, a result of the wreckage of Kimbley’s earlier bomb, and snuck up behind Bald. I slammed it as hard as I could into the back of his head. It was enough to make him drop Ed.Kimbley spun around at the sound of Bald’s cry and Mustang took the opportunity to tackle him. While they were struggling Bald quickly recovered and grabbed me by the throat, pushing me into the wall exactly like he had done to Ed. Ed threw a punch at him with his auto-mail arm, but Bald stopped Ed’s fist with his own. A sheen of sweat formed on each of their faces from the exertion of holding the other back.

“The more you resist, the more pressure I put on her throat.” He squeezed harder, causing a cry to emit from me to prove that he was serious. Ed must have eased his resistance, because Bald apparently felt he was no longer under threat of getting hit and released Ed’s fist so he was free to punch him. Ed flew backwards from the impact, and Bald threw me against the opposite wall. He then proceeded to pry Mustang from Kimbley and throw him against the wall next to me. Ed was up again and running at Bald, this time succeeding in hitting him up against the same wall as Mustang and I and forming more walls around him. Kimbley frantically sent another explosion Ed’s way. He managed to avoid a direct hit, but was still thrown back from the explosion.

Kimbley approached Mustang, who was semi-conscious against the wall, grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him against it. He was fuming and obviously hadn’t expected this much difficulty in obtaining the information he wanted. “Last chance Mustang! Give me a fucking answer!” He repeatedly rammed Mustang against the wall until I finally picked myself up from the ground and punched him as hard as I could in the face.

If the situation hadn’t been so grave, I would’ve laughed at the expression on his face. He hadn’t been expecting that from me. I suddenly forgot all of my qualms about the eight hour training session Ed had put me through and was eager to put my new skills, however undeveloped they might be, to good use.

He released Mustang and jabbed at me. I quickly ducked and moved behind him, kicking him hard in the side. He stumbled but quickly whirled around with another bomb ready. Someone grabbed me from behind and dove into the side hallway just in time to avoid a huge blast. I quick glance told me it was Ed, and he shielded me until the debris from the blast had settled.

He quickly stood and helped me up, and we ran back into the main hall in time to see Roy and Kimbley fighting again and Bald break through the walls, which he had been hammering at with his fists ever since he was imprisoned.

Three more men burst through the door at the end of the side hallway and appeared behind Ed and I. Bald yelled at them to grab me and demanded Ed to stop when he started towards my captors. Ed halted with his back to Bald, facing me. Sweat ran down his face as Bald threatened, “You try anything, and I’ll have them kill her.”

Bald nodded to the man who was now holding me, and I felt a knife against my throat. Being held at knifepoint was really getting old.

“Call it payback,” he continued, “For ruining my plans on that train four years ago. My men will let her live if you cooperate. All I want is a rematch.”

He signaled to his men and they started to leave, with me in their possession.

Ed’s eyes swiveled frantically between me and Bald. “Where are they taking her? You have to let her go if I win!”

Bald just shrugged. “I said I’d let her live, I didn‘t say anything about letting her go.” He grinned maliciously. “And also, if you make any move to help her or Mustang, I’ll give my men permission to do whatever they want with her. I doubt I need to elaborate any more on what that could mean.”

Ed glared at Bald and stood ready to fight. “You son of a bitch.”

Bald cocked an eyebrow. “Hey, I’m being more than generous here. I’ll tell you what, your cooperation guarantees that she’ll live and if you win I’ll let her go.”

The last thing I saw before I was carried through the door was Ed screaming and running at Bald.