Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ The Scheme of the Ice Alchemist ( Chapter 11 )

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

I woke up the next morning in complete darkness, laying on the floor with a horrible headache. The walls were much closer than they should have been, and I realized why when I finally found the door and saw that I was in a closet. I wondered briefly why I was in there, before a feeling of hopelessness overtook me as everything came rushing back. The only thing I could do now was find out what Thomas had done to me, and hope that I could prove it to Ed and Al.

I descended the stairs, still confused on how I’d ended up in the closet but now with new determination, even though I had no idea what I was going to say or do. Instead of finding Thomas in the kitchen as usual, there was a note in his place.

Marie, I have something I want to show you in the basement. It’s the door at the end of the hallway from the kitchen.

Wondering what he could possibly want to show me, I followed his directions and opened the door.

Behind it there was another set of stairs that led to another door at the bottom, and another hallway after that one. Finally I reached a door that was left slightly open, and upon inspecting the front of it I saw why he’d left it that way; there was a blood seal on it that was just like the one Ed and I had found in the other house. This must have been Thomas’s blood, so I would not have been able to get inside had he closed it.

A burst of cold air met me as I opened the door further, and I saw that everything was covered in ice. I stared in wonder at my surroundings. It was actually very beautiful and well made; there were sheens of ice covering the walls and pillars stretching all the way to the high ceiling. Ed had been right all along; this guy was definitely more than he said he was.

I wandered through huge rooms that looked like they’d fit right in in a palace if they weren’t made of ice. Each room was separated by a narrow hallway, and it got colder the further I went it. I wondered what the point of all this was. What was Thomas up to?

Finally I heard voices coming from a room up ahead. I ran as fast as the slippery floor would allow, and entered to find Ed and Al bound to the wall with restraints, also made of ice, around their wrists. Their hands were held far enough apart so they couldn’t use any alchemy. All three turned to face me.

Thomas’s expression was as cold as the surrounding air. “Marie, you finally made it. I was just telling these two how grateful I was to you. I couldn’t have gotten them down here if it wasn’t for your help.”

I looked confusedly from him to Ed and Al, my eyes pleading for an answer. Al was the one who finally spoke. Ed wouldn’t even look at me. “He told us he was holding you captive down here. Let me guess, you hid so we wouldn’t find you in your room and we’d believe him, right?” He was speaking in the same voice from the night before, the one that was so unlike him.

I suddenly understood why I was in the closet, and who had put me there. “Of course not, Al! You know I wouldn’t do that!”

“Give it up. Between this and what happened yesterday, we know you’re on his side.”

I rounded on Thomas, tears of anger stinging my frozen cheeks. “You son of a bitch! Tell me what you did to me yesterday! I know you did something!”

He smiled at me, but it was not his usual glittering, handsome smile. It sent shivers down my spine. “Why don’t you just give it up and admit to them that you’re on my side? They’ve already figured it out.”

I whirled around to face Ed and Al. “He’s lying! You have to believe me!”

I felt a hand on my shoulder, followed by Thomas’s icy voice. “Stop trying to play both sides. It won’t do you any good.” His hand moved under my chin, and he lifted my face to look me in the eyes. “When all of this is over, I’ll let you be the one to help me change the world. Isn‘t that what you want?”

I punched him as hard as I could in the face, satisfied to see that I’d bloodied his nose when he moved his hand.

He grabbed me by the arm and threw me against the wall. When I struggled to my feet and saw the looks of confusion on Ed’s face, I was almost glad he had done so. Ed looked as if he was finally doubting whether I really was on Thomas’s side.

My hope was shattered, however, when Ed’s face suddenly took on a whole new appearance. He shot a murderous glare in my direction, and his restraints disappeared. Without warning, he transmuted his arm into a blade and lunged at me.

I guess I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that Ed would actually harm me, and I stood there in shock until a pain in my arm brought me back to my senses. He had made a huge gash in my arm, and was already slashing at me again. I dodged a couple of his attacks, but I was no match for his speed. His blade ripped through my torso and I fell to the floor in pain.

Suddenly Ed was on top of me, straddling my waist and clutching my throat with his hands. I held onto his wrists, trying to hold him back, but his grip only tightened.

It was unbearable, looking up and seeing the one who was trying to kill me was someone I cared so much about. But then I noticed his eyes; they were glazed over, the pupils dilated. Ed was not choosing to do this. I suddenly realized that Thomas was doing to Ed what he had done to me.

“Brother, what are you doing?!” Ed paid no heed to his brother’s words as his grip on my throat tightened even more.

Just as I began to weaken to the point where I could barely hold on to his wrists, his eyes suddenly went back to normal. They widened in horror when he saw that the hands clutching my throat were his own. He quickly let go and backed off me. I slowly sat up and massaged my throat.

“Marie…I…” was all he managed to say.

When I tried to move, I winced in pain from the gash in my stomach. Ed’s eyes moved to the wound and then to my shoulder. “Did…did I…?” He asked in a shaky voice.

“You don’t remember, do you?” I said with difficulty. It was hard to breathe, let alone speak. “Do you believe me now, Ed? The same thing happened to me. I had no control over anything I did, and I couldn’t remember anything afterwards.”

A platform of ice suddenly shot up underneath Ed, and then descended back towards the wall in a kind of slide. He slid down and slammed against the wall where he’d been held before, and the restraints reappeared around his wrists.

“It’s amazing what the Philosopher’s Stone can do, isn’t it?”

I turned to see Thomas pull out a red stone from his pocket. The very thing I’d been looking for nearly the past five months, Ed and Al the past four years, was right there in front of us.

He looked fondly at the Stone in his hand. “I take it the three of you didn’t know it could be used for mind manipulation.”

I couldn’t help but be satisfied at the guilty look on Ed’s face. Despite the situation, I felt relief knowing that Ed and Al knew the truth now.

“It makes it even easier, however,” he continued, “ when the person you’re controlling is either not expecting it or, this most likely being Edward’s case, he already has a hidden desire to do whatever it is the manipulator in ordering.”

My heart sank. Ed had actually wanted to attack me?

“Now I’m sure the question you all have,” he continued, “Is whether or not this is the Stone that woman created over a century ago. And the answer is yes.” He pocketed the Stone once again, and gave me the same strange look he had when I first met him. “That being said, I’m sure you all understand why you’re here and what I want,” he gestured to the surroundings. “In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m and ice alchemist. Because of my talents, I am able to use the Stone’s power to a certain degree. However, I need you,” he nodded in my direction, “in order to get what I really want.”

“Which would be what?” I asked, trying to mask the fear in my voice.

He rubbed his chin in thought. “Well, there’s a number of things, actually. If I used you to bring out the Stone’s real power, I could extend control over one person to a sizeable amount of people, maybe even an entire city. Once I hade control, I could extend this magnificent architecture further, even into the cities.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Eternal life wouldn‘t be bad either.”

“What’s the point of all that? What do you plan on doing with people under your control?” Al asked. Ed was looking at me, shock and guilt still plastered on his face.

“What kind of question is that?” Thomas looked at Al as if he’d just asked what color the sky was. “I don’t exactly like the way things run around here. With people out of the way, there’s nothing left to stop me from running things the way I want.” He walked over to me, pulling me to a standing position by my injured arm. The ice was stained red where I had been sitting. My cry of pain snapped Ed out of his stupor. “What are you doing? Get your hands off her!”

Thomas gave Ed an annoyed look. “She’s going to help me use the Philosopher’s Stone.” He glanced at me maliciously as he added, “If she doesn’t comply to my every order, you can say goodbye to your brother.” A sadistic smile spread across his face. “I know where his blood seal is.”

He grabbed my arm and started to shove me towards the exit. Glancing back at Ed and Al, he said, “You two will just have to hope she does everything I say. If not, then I have the pleasure of deciding whether I should leave you down here to freeze, or whether to have Marie kill you herself.”

Despair and hopelessness took over as I realized I was in a similar position to the one Ed had been in during the incident with the homunculi. It was either let Thomas have his way and assure my friends’ safety, or try to stop him. But even if I did obey, he would most likely kill Ed and Al anyway, or make me do it for his own personal entertainment. The way I saw it at that point, there was no way out.

I jumped as Thomas‘s cold voice suddenly echoed around the walls. “I’ve decided I’ll make you do it. If you don’t want to stain your hands with the blood of your friends, you will obey me without question.”

I agonized over what to do, and regrettably admitted that I was leaning towards the option Ed would surely turn down; to just give up and obey Thomas.

I tried to convince myself that Ed had just not been expecting Thomas’s take over of his mind and body, that it wasn’t his desire to hurt me that led to his attack. The idea that Ed harbored any such feelings towards me caused me to sink even more into despair. I was just too devastated to really concentrate on what I should do. Surrendering was so much easier.

However, as we made our way out of the basement and eventually outside, I realized that turning us against each other was Thomas’s plan from the beginning. We’d be easier to control that way. Ed’s belief that I had betrayed them just made it easier to take over his mind and make him attack me. He probably thought, because Ed had done so, that I was angry with him and it would therefore be easier to force me to help him kill Ed and Al if they got in the way.

With this idea pushing me forward I followed Thomas outside to a detailed transmutation circle drawn a short distance away from the house. I still clutched at the gash in my torso. The bleeding just wouldn’t seem to stop.

“For a large number of people, a circle is needed to make mind control successful. The Stone will go in the middle, and all you need to do is place your hands on the circle at the same time I do, so the Stone’s real power will be released.”

I was fully anticipating what he did next. I could almost feel the energy from the Stone passing into me, attempting to take control of my mind once again. I knew Thomas wouldn’t let go of the Stone unless he was sure I wouldn’t try to take it. The threats to kill Ed and Al had been empty ones; he could simply force me to do what he wanted. I think he just enjoyed playing with people’s emotions.

But this time I was ready for it. I closed my mind to everything, concentrating only on keeping the penetrating energy from doing its job.

The energy finally ceased, and Thomas looked at me as if to make sure he had gotten the desired result. “Once again, just place your hands on the circle when I say, alright?”

I nodded, trying to look as convincing as possible.

He was apparently satisfied, because he took out the Stone and laid it in the middle of the circle.

As soon as he was kneeling in front of the circle, he motioned to me to do the same. Out of ideas, I quickly snatched up the Stone and sprinted towards the house, concentrating on my destination to keep my mind of the pain in my leg, arm and stomach.

I was only about halfway there, slowed down by my injuries, when a blue glow coming from behind distracted me. I whipped around and dropped to the ground just in time to avoid daggers of ice flying directly at my head. I put my hand, the one holding the Stone, underneath me to push myself up. But a burning sensation in that hand caused me to drop back down and release the Stone. I looked down to see what had caused the burn and barely saw the last part of the Stone dissolve into the blood that was on the ground from the gash in my torso. The small pool of blood now glowed a pinkish red color, the same way red water did before it was turned into a Stone. Somehow, the contact with my blood had caused the Stone to revert back to its previous red water state.

Thomas had caught up to me by now, and pushed me onto my back. When he didn’t see the Stone in my hand, he looked around desperately, his eyes finally landing on the glowing liquid next to me. He grabbed my shoulders, a sheen of sweat covering his face and a depraved look in his eyes. “What happened to it! What the hell did you do?”

My shoulders were already throbbing from his desperate grip. “I don’t know, it just…dissolved.”

He shoved me back and ran his hands through the blood and Red Water, as if hoping to find some remnant of the Stone. There was none.

I took this opportunity to run the rest of the way into the house. I made it in and locked the door behind me, more to buy time than anything. I barely had time to grab a small chair and hide around the corner of the wall before I heard the sound of the wooden door snapping.

I couldn’t see him, but I knew Thomas was coming in my direction. Just when I thought he was close enough, I jumped out from behind the corner, swinging the chair as hard as I could in his direction. It hit him square in the head, and I quickly turned and ran to the basement without checking to see the damage I’d done.

I ran through the freezing rooms, leaving a trail of crimson in my wake. The blood loss was starting to make me dizzy.

I could finally see Ed and Al up ahead, both kicking at the walls behind them, causing cracks to run up the wall to where their wrists were bound to it. Ed finally succeeded in freeing one hand, but just as I reached the room he and Al were in I heard something behind me. I turned around to see Thomas slamming his hands to the ground, and suddenly the ice underneath me disappeared and I plummeted into the freezing water below. I thrashed around wildly in the icy water, trying to make my way to the top. But when I reached a hand up to the surface, it met a thick layer of ice instead of the open air I’d been expecting. I could barely make out Thomas’s figure on the other side. He’d closed the opening.