Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Right Back Where We Started ( Chapter 12 )

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

Panic set in quickly. I was already losing feeling due to the freezing temperature of the water, and the layer of ice was too thick to break through. I tried to keep moving to maintain blood flow, but it was getting more difficult by the second.

I squinted through the ice, and saw that Ed had finally gotten out of his restraints. The second he was free he jumped to the side to avoid something coming at him from Thomas’s direction; I guessed it was more of his ice daggers.

Holding onto the hope that Ed would find time to break the ice, I willed myself to hang on a little longer. Finally I saw a crack spreading in the ice above me, a blue glow shining through it. It quickly expanded and I broke the surface just in time to see Thomas kick Ed in the head before he had even raised his hands from the place where he’d started the opening in the ice. I struggled to lift myself out of the water, but between the slick surface that was my only hand hold and the pain in my arm, I wasn’t exactly making progress. Ed kept trying to get to me, but Thomas was doing everything in his power to prevent it.

Al finally broke free of his restraints and started toward me. Thomas whirled around at the sound of Al’s footsteps, distinguishable from every other sound in the room, and shoved Ed into the wall. He hit it with a sickening thud and slid to the ground. Thomas took the seconds he had before Ed recovered to create a large pillar, twice the size of Al, in the ceiling and sent it racing down at Al.

Al barely had time to react, but managed to block the column of ice with his hands. But Thomas was still giving it force with alchemy and Al was rapidly getting pushed closer to the ground by the weight. Ed was starting to recover from the blow, but I didn’t know if Al could last that long. I summoned all the strength I had in me and relied on rage and adrenaline to help me pull myself out of the water. There was not one part of me that didn’t ache, but I ignored the pain for the moment and dove for one of the ice daggers that remained after Thomas’s attack on Ed. I grabbed one and plunged it into Thomas’s calf, who was kneeling with his hands pressed to the ground to perform the alchemy on the ice pillar.

I got the desired result when he ceased his alchemic control over the ice and turned to his injured leg. With surprising speed that I wasn’t expecting he pulled the dagger out of his bloody leg and thrust it at me.

It was stopped inches from my chest, and I looked up to see Ed holding back Thomas’s wrist. The latter was glaring at me with murderous intent and thrashing wildly in an attempt to get free of Ed’s grasp.

Al rushed over and took control, restraining Thomas with relative ease.

Ed kneeled in front of me, taking off his jacket and putting it around my shoulders. “Marie, are you okay?” He asked, guilt and concern evident in his voice and on his face. He carefully pulled me to my feet and put his arm around me when I continued to shiver.

I nodded and moved closer to him, the tears already starting to fall again. “Ed, Al, the Stone is gone. It‘s all my fault…”

“What happened?” Ed barely had time to ask before Thomas started yelling.

“That bitch destroyed it!” He tried to free himself from Al to get to me, but instead met Ed’s fist.

“You stay the hell away from her!”

Al gained control over Thomas once again, who had blood running down his face. “Marie, what’s he talking about?”

I looked up at him, teary-eyed. “I don’t exactly know. I took it from him and dropped it when I was running, and it landed in some of my blood that was on the ground. Once it came in contact, it just…dissolved. I’m so sorry.”

I could hear the disappointment in Al’s voice. “It’s not your fault. You had no idea that would happen.”

Ed started to guide me towards the exit, Al leading the way with an angry Thomas under his control.

We walked slowly through each room due to my condition at the moment, Al staying ahead to keep Thomas a good distance away from Ed and I. He looked like he would enjoy nothing more than to strangle both of us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ed glance over at me, and I turned to meet his gaze.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, knowing full well what was bothering him.

He turned away when I looked at him, as if afraid to look me in the eye. I noticed him glance at my bloodstained shirt and my neck, which I saw was bruised in the reflection of the walls of ice.

“If he hadn‘t stopped me,” he said in a barely audible whisper, “I would have killed you.”

I couldn’t see his face; it was downcast, causing his bangs to hang down and conceal his eyes. I wanted to say something, something comforting, but before I had a chance to do so three police officers burst through the door of the basement just as we were emerging from the last room.

“Everyone freeze!”

Under other circumstances, I would’ve laughed at this comment due to our current surroundings.

All three officers were pointing guns at us, looking incredulously from the ice-covered room, to Al holding a struggling Thomas, to the bloodstains that covered both me and the floor.

After the initial shock, one of the officers spoke up. “We have reason to believe that the residents of this house have something to do with the disappearance of Lieutenant Colonel James Williams.”

Ed, Al and I all looked at Thomas. He shot all of us dirty looks through narrowed eyes.

One of the officers walked briskly over to Ed and I and proceeded to try to separate the two of us while another officer did the same to Al and Thomas.

I clung tightly to Ed, and he pulled me closer. “We have nothing to do with this.” He gestured to Thomas, now handcuffed and in custody of one of the officers, the third of which looked too intimidated by Al to do the same to the him. “He’s the one responsible.”

The whole picture was finally coming together. After finding out about me Thomas had faked his relationship to Williams in order for a chance to get to us. To prevent him from saying anything he must have killed him after he forced him to make the call to Mustang. How the officers knew to come here, I didn’t understand.

The officer looked unconvinced. “The three of you will be taken in for questioning until we can determine whether that‘s true or not.”

Ed was getting angrier by the second. “I’m a State Alchemist and was sent here by Colonel Roy Mustang.”

“I don’t care who you are, I have strict orders from the Colonel; I am to take everyone to the station until further notice.”

Ed scowled at the officer and protested when he roughly pried me away from him and started to lead me away. The third officer stopped Ed when he started towards me. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Her injuries need immediate attention!”

The officer gave Ed an exasperated look. “That’s why she will be taken to the hospital first.”

“It’s Mustang’s fault we’re here in the first place, take it up with him!” I glared angrily up at the officer. “And I don’t need to go to a hospital. I can bandage these up fine by myself.”

“The Colonel himself is coming here. I’ll leave it up to him to identify you and assess the situation.”

I glanced back at Ed and Al before he pulled me through the house and shoved me, much more forcefully than necessary - and I complained the entire ride to let him know it - into one of the two cars that were waiting outside.

It was similar to my last hospital visit, but even more unpleasant. Every person I passed stared and I was ushered into a room by a surprised nurse.

She cleaned and bandaged all my wounds, shaking her head in disapproval the entire time. When I stood up after the bandaging, she looked at me oddly and pushed my back to a sitting position. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Leaving. The military will pay for the bill, I’ll just leave you my name and a person you can contact.”

“With your injuries, you’ll need to stay here a few days,” she said in a stern voice.

She turned towards the door. “I’ll go get you some clean clothes.”

The moment she was out of the room, I found some paper and wrote down my name and ‘Colonel Roy Mustang, stationed in East City, will take care of the bill.’ Normally Ed could just pay for it, but he kept all of the money we got from the military when we went on their little escapades.

Thankful that I was on the first floor, I climbed out the window and started for the police station. It was an embarrassing trip; I could barely walk and every time I had to stop and ask someone for directions they started asking all kinds of questions at the sight of my wet hair and bloodstained clothes.

I finally reached my destination, ready to collapse, when I ran into none other than Colonel Mustang at the door. He did a double take when he saw me and looked me up and down. “Marie! What the hell happened? Are you alright? Why aren‘t you with Ed and Al?”

I sighed and continued through the door. “It’s a long story.”

“But how - “

I shook my head. “Please, not now Colonel. I just want to get Ed and Al and go somewhere where I can sleep for the next two weeks or so. By the way, you’ll be getting a hospital bill within a couple days.”

He continued to stare at me dumbfounded, trying unsuccessfully to get an explanation out of me.

I was relieved to finally find Ed and Al, but not so happy to see them behind bars. The brothers were in one cell and Thomas was in another. I rounded on Mustang. “Now hurry up and clear up this mess and get them out of there!”

Both officers and prisoners looked up at Mustang and I. The officers saluted. “Sir, the dark haired boy has confessed to the murder of James Williams.”

Mustang managed to mask the sadness in his voice, but it showed on his face. “Good work. Let the other two out, I’ll take it from here.”

“But - “ one of the officers protested.

“Don’t worry, they work for the military. It’s my fault they were in that house in the first place, they have nothing to do with what happened.”

“See? Didn’t I tell you that?” I said angrily to the officers.

They looked annoyed but nodded and opened the gate. Mustang motioned to them to leave the room. Once it was empty, he approached Thomas’s cell and growled in a chilling voice, “You’re going to pay for what you did to James.”

“Not as much as she’s going to pay for ruining everything,” he sneered, glaring in my direction.

Thomas was sitting close enough to the front of the cell for Ed to storm over and grab his shirt through the bars, ramming him against them. His voice was frightening. “If you ever lay a hand on her or my brother again I’ll kill you, do you understand me?”

He flashed an icy grin. “You wouldn’t have the guts to kill me.”

Ed roughly pulled him harder against the gate. “If we ever meet again, I think you’ll find yourself sorely mistaken.”

“Edward, let it go.” Mustang sounded as if he was reluctant to stop him. I sure as hell wasn’t going to.

Ed shoved him into the opposite wall, a fairly easy task with the strength of his auto-mail arm.

Mustang ushered us into the lobby at the front and sat us down, facing us. “I found out about Williams’s disappearance last night. When I called authorities and asked where his nephew was, since the three of you were supposed to be with him, I was informed that he had no nephew. I told them to investigate the house at the address I had. Mind telling me what’s going on?”

Keeping our voices lowered, we explained everything to Mustang. The situation with the Stone and my ancestor, why Thomas needed me and how it was destroyed. He listened intently to our story, and was silent for a long time afterwards.

“So it’s gone then,” he finally said.

“Yes,” I answered timidly, still feeling like I’d destroyed Ed and Al’s only hope of getting their lives back in order. The fact that this meant that I couldn’t go home either didn’t really even register at the time.

“Marie, how’d you get those injuries?”

We’d left out the part about Ed and I falling under Thomas‘s control. Without looking at Ed, but sensing his eyes on me, I answered, “From Thomas, when I refused to help him.”

I caught Ed’s eye for a brief moment before he looked away again.

Mustang straightened and looked back towards the room that contained Thomas. “I will see to it personally that he is severely punished.” His face softened and he looked back towards us. “Are you three coming back to H.Q.?”

“I’m not yet.” I answered quickly. All eyes turned to me. “I have something I need to do first.”

Mustang raised an eyebrow and looked to Ed and Al. They both nodded. “We’ll stay a couple more days.”

Mustang nodded and looked at me sternly. “It’s in your best interest to take it easy for the next little while.”

Turning to the boys, he added, “I take it you’ll make sure she does so?”

Al put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll keep an eye on her.”

Mustang smiled. “Alright then. Unless something comes up I’ll expect you back within a few days.”

We all headed out the door, Mustang heading for the train station and us for Thomas’s house to get our luggage. Just as we parted ways, Mustang, without even turning to face us, said, “And be careful when you go digging around in her research. Make sure that information does not get out to anyone.”

I swear, nothing gets past that guy. He knew immediately why I wanted to stay longer.

Ed was quiet the entire time, and Al and I both deemed it wise not to bother him for awhile.

Once we got what we needed we headed back to the inn we were going to stay at originally, before we met Thomas. Al volunteered to go get Ed and I something to eat while I jumped in the shower. Ed still wouldn’t look at me, let alone speak to me.

It was a relief to get all of the blood off, even though, due to the events of the past couple weeks, I was getting used to it.

I re-wrapped my wounds and walked out of the bathroom, still drying my hair, to find Ed lying on the bed closest to the window, his back turned to me.

I sat down in a chair at the foot of the bed and started to brush my hair. “How do you feel? You took a pretty good beating.”

“Fine,” he said in a monotone.

“You’re not injured or something and just not telling me, are you?”

“No,” he returned in the same tone as before.

I hated when he was like this. “I know something’s bothering you. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

I was answered with silence.

“Is it something I did?” I asked him. “I wish you would tell me if it is.”

His voice conveyed a hint of annoyance this time. “It’s nothing. I just don’t feel like talking right now.”

I stood up, slammed my brush on the table next to me and stormed to the side of the bed, facing Ed. He didn’t raise his eyes to look at me.

“Are you angry with me for what happened to the Stone?” I asked, scared of what the answer might be.

This time he looked up at me with something that resembled remorse in his eyes. He slowly sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, finally rising to stand in front of me at a much closer distance than I’d expected. He raised one hand and brushed it gently against the side of my neck, where the bruises were. The ones he had put there. “I’m angry with myself for what I let it do to me.”

As was my tendency when he got this close, I felt a blush rising to my cheeks.

He looked at me sadly. “Why would you think I was angry with you? What happened to the Stone wasn’t your fault.”

“I don’t know, I thought maybe that was why you didn’t want to talk to me.”

He sat down on the bed and I did the same. “To tell you the truth, I really didn‘t think you‘d want me to,” he glanced at my bandaged arm, “after what I did.”

I put my hand on his shoulder and he raised his eyes to mine. “Ed, I don’t blame you for anything that happened.”

His hands clenched into fists. “I should have believed you though. If I hadn’t been so blind I could’ve kept everything from happening. I should have known you would never betray Al and I.”

Relief swept over me, and I laid my forehead against his shoulder. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that. I would never want you and Al to feel like you couldn’t trust me.”

“I trust you and Al more than anyone else in the world, Marie. After being controlled by the Stone, I understand that you had no choice in the matter.”

He moved his head slightly and I thought I saw something on his face, hidden by his bangs. I raised my hand and pushed them back, revealing a long cut that was still open and bleeding slightly.

I scowled at him. “Liar.”

He raised his hand to the cut and scowled at the blood that remained on it. “Damn, I thought it stopped bleeding.”

I ran to the bathroom and got a wet cloth, and Ed rolled his eyes when I brushed away his hair and wiped away the blood. “It’s not a big deal.”

I ignored him. “What else aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing, just a huge bump on my head from getting slammed into the wall,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Really nothing you can do about that, unless you think you can kiss it better,” he added sarcastically.

“Oh shut up, I’m just asking because I’m worried about you.”

He squeezed my shoulder gently before standing and moving over to the window. “I know, and I wish you wouldn’t be.”

“What, you’d rather I didn’t care?”

“No,” he said without turning around. “I just think don’t think you should be worried about me when you’re the one that looks like you just tangoed with a meat grinder.”

“You jerk, I don’t look that bad!” I exclaimed angrily, peering into a mirror that was on the wall behind the bed. Besides my major injuries, there was a scratch on my cheek and above my eye and a few on my arms, not to mention the bruises on my neck. Okay, so maybe I did look a bit beat-up.

Ed laughed and touched my shoulder as he walked past me to answer a knock on the door. “You know I’m kidding.”

It was wonderful to hear him laugh.

He opened it to reveal a big jumble of paper bags, behind which I guessed was Al. A wonderful smell drifted into the room, and I realized I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before.

“I hope you guys are hungry,” said a muffled voice from behind the mountain of food.

The three of us talked while Ed and I ate. We avoided mentioning anything about recent events, and kept the conversation pleasant. I knew they were both disappointed by the loss of the Stone, but were trying to hide their disappointment for my sake, and I was grateful to them for that. The three of us were just happy that we’d gotten out of everything alright.

For the moment, I was happier than I ‘d been in a while, but I wondered how long it would last. Bad things just seemed to follow the Elric brothers wherever they went, and despite everything we’d gone through we were back to square one. I still felt partly responsible for the loss of the Stone, and was now more determined than ever to help Ed and Al find one.