Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ The Guardian ( Chapter 13 )

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

We all took it easy the rest of the day and went to bed early. I woke up the next morning before the sun was up, and decided to leave early for the house in the woods. I wanted to look through the research one more time, and see if there was any hint of an alternative way to produce a Stone. I was also curious as to why the Stone had dissolved in my blood and hoped I could find the answer.

I quietly changed and rummaged around in my bag, searching for a jacket. “Damn it all, I must’ve left it back in the barracks in East City,” I whispered to myself.

I felt something being draped over my shoulders, and looked up to see Edward straightening after laying his trademark red coat over me.

He folded his arms and looked down at me, raising an eyebrow. “You weren’t actually thinking of going back by yourself, were you?”

I stuffed my clothes back into my bag and stood up. “Maybe, if you weren’t up by the time I left.”

He sat down on the bed and pulled on his boots. “Why do you want to do this anyway? You don’t really think you’re going to find anything worthwhile, do you?”

“I don’t know, but we might as well check while we’re here. It’s possible we missed something. What if she has information on an alternate processing method for the Stone?”

He looked at me doubtfully. “Don’t you think she would’ve used a different process if she knew one?”

“Maybe the other way is more difficult or something. I just think it might be worthwhile to check. It’ll bother me if we leave without going back.”

Ed sighed and stood up. “Fine, but let’s make it quick. I have a bad feeling about that place.”

Al suddenly appeared at our side, and I wondered briefly how something so big could be so stealthy. We locked up and left, eager to get the search over with.

We started down the road and I pulled Ed’s coat tightly around me to keep out the chill morning air. Once we reached the house, Al stayed outside to make sure no one came - if the police convinced Thomas to reveal any information to them, they could come to investigate at any time - while Ed and I hurried inside and down to the basement. We were prepared with an oil lamp this time.

We rummaged through records and notes, most of which contained complicated formulas and hypotheses. I finally found some notes related to the cause of the Stone’s destruction.

“Ed, she wrote here that she wasn’t exactly sure if it would happen, or if it did, why, but she had an idea about the Stone disintegrating in her blood. She wrote that since the Stone contained her blood on the inside, coming in contact with it on the surface could cause it to become unstable and revert back to red water.” I laid the dusty paper back on the desk. “Turns out she was right.”

Ed sighed an continued to dig through piles of papers. “Too bad we didn’t know that before.”

We continued to search until I heard a scuffle outside the door, which I’d left slightly open. I stepped back in alarm and Ed moved protectively in front of me, ready to attack.

Two familiar yellow orbs appeared in the darkness on the other side of the door. I muffled a scream as the creature moved closer. I could still only see an outline, but it was enough to make me back up even more.

Ed eased up slightly. “You’re the one who helped us before.”

The creature’s eyes narrowed slightly and it rasped, “Yes.” Its voice was like nails on a chalk board. “But that was only so you would leave.”

“What do you mean?” Ed asked.

“My mistress created me and put me in charge of protecting this room and the Stone she created. I helped you before only so you would leave, but if you’re going to keep coming back I have no choice but to get rid of you.”

I built up enough courage to speak. “Hold on a sec, I’m her descendant, I have a right to this information! Besides, we’re not causing you any harm.”

“He is an alchemist,” he said with a glance at Ed. “The man that stole the Stone was also an alchemist, and I learned that they are nothing but trouble. My mistress was the same way, as are all alchemists. You all try to play God and concern yourselves with things that humans should stay out of. But I have no choice but to obey her orders until the day I die. This is how she created me. I failed to keep the other one from the Stone, but I will not lose her life’s research to the likes of you.”

Without warning the creature brought forward a bony hand that held in it something long and thin. He raised it to his mouth and sent a burst of air through the end. Ed suddenly slapped a hand to his neck.

“Ed, what’s wrong?” I hadn’t even seen anything in the air, the action had been so fast.

He pulled a tiny dart out of his neck and transmuted his arm into the usual steel blade. He stared maliciously at the miserable creature, poised for an attack. “Tell me what that was before I rip out your throat.”

It backed away from the door until it was up against the back of the stairwell. It waited until Ed had come a certain distance, then pulled out the shooter again.

“Don’t come any closer or I’ll hit the girl,” it hissed.

I had been approaching it as well but stopped where Ed was at his threat. We were underneath the hole in the stairs we‘d created on our last visit. I glanced over and saw Ed was sweating much more than was normal, and his breathing was heavier. I was overtaken with rage and worry.

“What the hell did you do to him?” I demanded of the creature. Its foot seemed to be moving toward something, and I noticed that there was a slight rise in the floor. The part Ed and I were on was an inch or two higher that the area of the floor where the creature was standing. In one rapid motion it kicked something that was hidden in the small step that was the cause of the uneven floor and I felt the familiar feeling of the ground disappearing beneath me.

This time, there was no chute or slide; only open air. It seemed like I’d been falling forever when I heard the sound of rushing water below.

I was swept away the second I hit the water by the swift current. I had little control over my direction and could barely make out the reflection of the water on the stone walls on either side of me. I desperately called out Ed’s name, my mind racing. What if he drowned? It was nearly impossible for him to swim with auto-mail. What about the dart? It had undoubtedly contained poison; what if he lost conciousness in the water?

It was hard enough keeping my own head above water, I couldn‘t imagine the trouble Ed was having. I wasn’t exactly in the best condition for swimming and the current kept ramming me against the walls. I had to shield my head with my arms, and the extra beating they took made it that much harder to swim. I squinted in the dark for any sign of a platform or foothold or ladder, but found none. Just a straight tunnel filled with cold, rushing water.

I felt tears coming to my eyes as I continued to call out Ed’s name. This was one situation I didn’t think he could get out of alone. I glanced nervously around me, afraid to find his lifeless body carried along by the current.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard the muffled echo of a shout parading along the tunnel. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from ahead or behind. It could be Ed, I told myself hopefully. But the more practical side of me said that it was most
likely something else.

I suddenly saw something up ahead; it looked like a platform of some kind. It was narrow and undoubtedly slippery, and I only had a few seconds to make a decision before I reached it. I’d never be able to pull myself up on the side. It rose up out of the water against the side of the left wall, and I knew the only way to get up would be to climb up at the edge and to use the current to help propel me on top of it. I braced myself for the impact, but was immensely unprepared for it. The current slammed me brutally into the platform, and I had little time to gain my composure before I had to use my battered arms to pull myself up onto it.

The pain was intense. The wounded area of my torso had received most of the impact, and I writhed in pain on the narrow, slimy stone platform. When I finally removed an arm from where it clutched at my stomach, the blood on my arm and shirt told me the wound had reopened.

I painfully got up on my knees and peered down the narrow platform. It was a pathway and stretched far into the tunnel before it was swallowed by the darkness.

I pushed myself as close to the wall as I could to avoid the water that was licking at the sides ominously, as if trying to pull me back in.

I yelled Ed’s name a few more times, only to be answered by the echo of my own words and the sound of the rushing water.

I had nearly lost all hope when I finally heard something; a shout similar to the one I’d heard earlier. But now I could tell it was coming from behind. I searched the water and finally saw something in it that didn’t belong. It bobbed in and out of sight, and as it came closer I could barely make out a face.

Ed was looking frantically from side to side, calling out my name.

“Edward!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. He whirled around and started to make his way towards the platform.

I moved farther down the path so I could reach him at the exact point he hit, and when I thought I’d reached it I kneeled down and reached out my hand.

The tunnel was fairly wide, and I would have never been able to swim from one side to the other without drifting way farther downstream. But Ed’s powerful arms took him across the entire way without drifting more than a few feet, and within seconds he was reaching for my hand. Not able to do much more with my aching arms, I acted as a hand hold, and he pulled himself up the rest of the way.

His strength seemed to leave him completely after that, and he collapsed to the side of me the moment he was out of the water.

I waited for him to catch his breath, then asked, “Ed, how did you stay above water?”

Eyes closed and chest heaving he answered, “I transmuted my auto-mail into aluminum to make it lighter.” He heaved himself into a sitting position, and I noticed his skin was extremely pale. It had to be an effect of the poison. I raised my hand to his forehead. “Ed, you’ve got a fever. We need to get out fast, it’s not healthy for you to be down here.”

His arm bumped against mine, and I winced in pain. He apologized and did a double take when he looked over at my arm. “Marie, it’s bleeding again!” He gently lifted my arm and scrutinized it. “You have bruises everywhere; is it just from being knocked around?”

I nodded, and he then noticed the new bloodstain on my shirt. “How did it open up again?”

“I slammed into the edge of the platform. My arms are too weak right now to beat the current, so it was the only way to get up here.”

He leaned his head back against the stone and sighed in frustration. “Damn it all…”

After a couple more minutes of rest I started to nag him to leave. “Let‘s go, Ed. It’s not good for you to stay down here.”

He slowly rose to his feet, and I did the same. He was trying his best to hide it, but the strength was leaving his legs and he was having trouble standing up. I wasn’t doing much better, but the poison was slowly gnawing away at his remaining strength, and would continue to do so until we got him somewhere warm and dry where he could rest.

He started along the path, keeping close to the wall and using it for support.

“How’re you holding up?” he asked after awhile. His voice was more strained that it had been only minutes before.

“You just worry about yourself Ed, I’m fine.”

In truth, every part of my body was screaming, but I kept quiet.

After at least two hours of walking and no sign of an escape, the two of us were barely able to press onward. Ed swooned a few times, and I had to steady him to prevent him from falling back into the water. His skin was clammy and a sheen of sweat covered his face.

Another half hour passed and Ed suddenly stopped, leaning an arm against the wall and his head on the arm.

I smoothed his bangs back from where they were plastered to his face. I tried to make the panic in my voice as subtle as possible. “Ed, what is it?”

“I just got a really bad headache all of a sudden.” He moved his head from his arm and turned to lean his back against the wall. Pain was etched on his face. “Give me just one sec, maybe it’ll pass.”

I decided right then that this moment replaced the time I’d been alone in the basement of the house as the scariest moment of my life. And this time I couldn’t run into Ed’s arms and depend on him to make everything alright.

I stood there helpless, wanting desperately to help, but I had no idea what to do. He finally told me to forget it and contuned to walk.

“I think it’s the strain on your body that’s giving you the headaches. I don’t know if we should stop and let you rest or if it’d be better to press on.”

“Let’s keep going,” he said resolutely. His tone stated clearly that there was no room for argument.

When we were well into the third hour, I saw something interrupt the endless darkness we’d grown accustomed to. Upon closer inspection, we saw it was a ladder. “Ed! We found it!”

He was trying to force a smile, but looking up and seeing the climb ahead of us wiped away any trace of one.

“You go first,” he said, looking up the ladder. “I don’t know if your arms can hold you right now and I need to be able to catch you if you fall.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “Even if I did fall, there’s no way you could catch me! You’re in worse shape than I am, you go first.”

His eyes narrowed and he tried to make his weak voice sound stern. “Go now.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to sway him, and the important thing was getting out, so I started climbing. It was torture on my body, especially my arms. By the sound of Ed’s labored breathing, I could tell he wasn’t having an easy time of it either.

We hadn’t gotten very far when Ed suddenly screamed. I looked down and saw something wrapped around his ankle. Tracing it back down to the water, it looked like a tentacle. I moved back down the ladder as fast as I could, and did the first thing that came to mind; I squeezed the slimy tentacle and bit down on it as hard as I could.

The attacker screeched, and withdrew it back into the water. Three more took its place. “What the hell is that thing!?” I asked incredulously.

Ed quickly wrapped his arm around the ladder and transmuted it into a blade. I ducked as the snake-like appendages whipped wildily around the tunnel, looking for a target. He slid back down the ladder, sliced all three of the tentacles and quickly created a spear. He threw the weapon to me, and I could tell from a mere glance at him that the alchemy he’d just performed had taken a lot out of him.

By now there were too many to count. Ed and I took the remainder of our strength and fought them off, slicing at everything in sight.

We were getting nowhere. Slicing the tentacles was doing no good; we needed to get to the source. “Ed, start climbing!” I yelled as I dodged another attempt to pull me in and sliced through three more.

He gave me a quizzical look while fighting off more attackers. “Are you crazy?”

“You’ll have to climb fast. Get high enough to where the tentacles can’t reach you. Whatever it is that is attacking us will most likely come out of the water in an attempt to reach you, and then I can throw the spear at it. We have to kill, or at least subdue the source; doing this will get us nowhere.”

“But - “ He stammered.

I looked at him impatiently. “Just do it! I’ll try to fend them off while you climb.”

We were both stil slashing at what seemed to be and endless field of them, and I wondered if I would be able to keep them at bay long enough.

“I can’t let you stay down here alone!” he argued. I could see the last of his strength was beginning to fail him.

“START CLIMBING DAMN IT!!!”

Realizing there was no room or time for argument, he glanced doubtfully at me before ascending the ladder.

I climbed a couple of rungs to reach the tentacles that were grabbing for Ed. I looked anxiously up the ladder, wishing he would hurry. My body couldn’t keep this up much longer.

I finally saw something nearing the surface, and prepared myself to throw. Missing was not an option. The tentacles were starting to ignore me and move to Ed, apparently aware that he was trying to escape.

“Get ready I’m about at the top!” I heard him yell. The sound was much more distant than I though it would be.

I was both glad and terrified that I’d been right; the owner of the tentacles did finally break the surface, though not its whole body. What I could see revealed a frightening creature with, as far as I could tell, only one eye. I decided to aim for the eye, deducing that a deprivation of sight would be enough to subdue it, at least until we could get out.

I knew I had to get closer to make sure there were no mistakes. Abandoning all reason at this point, I waited until it was as close as it could get and dived into the water. I grabbed at the slippery tentacles and pulled myself towards it. It rolled back slightly, and I froze at what I saw.

Invisible to me before, I now saw a huge, gaping mouth filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth. Without warning it opened its mouth even wider, and threw itself at me.

Stricken with panic, I hurled the spear into its mouth, stabbing through the back of it. The creature shrunk back and shrieked in pain, withdrawing its tentacles.

I whirled around and started for the platform, using the tentacles that were still being flung back to their owner as handholds to keep from being swept away by the current. The path was narrow enough that I could reach the base of the ladder while still in the water, and I used it to pull me up. But before I was even fully standing, the last retreating tentacle tried to pull me along with it, wrapping itself around my waist. I dug my nails into the soft flesh as I pulled at it.

It finally let go, weakened by its owner’s injury, and I hurried up the ladder as fast as I could. There were a few more attempts to drag me down, but the creature had slowed down significantly and I was able to avoid them fairly easily.

After climbing for what seemed like hours to my aching body, a small circle of light and a silhouette appeared above me, and I forced my exhausted arms to move faster to reach it. A hand reached down for me, and I grabbed it eagerly.