Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Fullmetal Fraud ( Chapter 14 )

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

Ed pulled me up and heaved the cover back onto the hole.

I squinted at the sudden light and enjoyed the caress of the midday sunlight on my wet skin. But a glance at Ed brought back my worry; he looked even worse in the light. His skin was paler than I’d thought, and he was sweating and breathing heavily. He laid back on the grass and covered his eyes with his arm, letting the warm sunlight cover his body.

After a moment he moved his arm up to his forehead and looked up at me with tired eyes. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Ed, was that another chimera?”

He stared up at the sky. “That’d be my guess. Same goes for whatever it was that poisoned me. I never knew there was anyone who could make a chimera so human like.” He turned to me once again. “I don’t know how you did all that by yourself, being in the condition you’re in.”

“You’re the one I’m worried about,” I said, moving his arm and pressing my hand to his forehead once again. “Your fever’s gone up.” I sat back and cast a worried glance over him. “Is there anything I can do?”

“You’ve done enough,” he said, slowly trying to sit up. “Has the bleeding stopped?”

“Sort of,” I answered, dismissing the question and helping him to a sitting position. “Ed, what kind of poison do you think that was?”

Just the process of sitting up had taken a lot out of him, and he waited a moment before answering. “I really have no idea. But whatever it is, it’s effective.”

“If you‘re up to it, I think we should try to get back to Central so you can see a doctor.”

Looking around me, I knew that wasn’t going to be an easy task. We were in the middle of a dense forest surrounded by trees and brush, and miles away from the city.

His eyes flickered over to my bloody clothes, and he answered in a strained voice, “Same goes for you. If we can find the river then we should be able to follow it back to the city. I think there’s a road near it too. Maybe we can find someone to give us a ride.”

I stood up, and a few drops of blood dripped onto the grass from my shirt. Ed looked from the ground up to me, concern in his eyes. “I thought you said it stopped.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, reaching out a hand. “We have to leave now either way.”

I pulled him to his feet and helped him steady himelf. “Ed, are you sure you can do this?”

With difficulty, he started walking. “I’m just a little dizzy from standing. It’ll pass.”

We kept a slow pace, but Ed was still panting and sweating as if he were running a marathon. I finally persuaded him to put an arm around my shoulders, so I could help him walk. The sound of rushing water met us after awhile, and we started walking along the bank of the river.

“I wonder what Al’s doing,” Ed said after a while.

“If I know him, he’s looking for his brother,” I answered, smiling at Ed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already got a search party going.”

“You’re probably right,” he said, a small smile appearing on his weary face.

The tunnel had taken us at least four hours away, and the walk back was a grueling one. We had to stop several times to rest, and Ed’s condition was worsening.

Finally, a road came into few. It came at us from the left and then turned to follow the direction of the river. We stumbled onto the road, hoping for any sign of someone who could help.

After only a few minutes I could make out a distant rumbling sound coming from behind. As it drew closer I saw a couple of horses pulling a cart filled with boxes and crates. We waved down the driver, who immediately stopped and jumped down off the cart.

The driver, a middle-aged man with a weather-beaten face, ran over to us. “Are you kids alright? What happened?”

I waved off his questions. “I’m sorry, but do you happen to be heading towards Central? We need to get there as soon as possible.”

“Of course, of course! Let me help you…” He helped the two of us into the back of the cart, apologizing over and over again that there was no room up front.

“It’s no problem, really,” I assured him. “Thank you so much.”

We settled into the back and I realized I was still wearing Ed’s coat. It was still damp, so I took it off and leaned back against the wall of the cart next to Ed.

“Are you cold, or is it just me?” he asked weakly.

“Just you I think. Chills almost always follow a fever.” A cold sweat had broken out on his face and he looked thoroughly miserable. I finally noticed he was still wearing his wet jacket. “Well there’s one of your problems,” I said, pointing to his jacket. “Take off your jacket, dummy. It’s still wet.”

It seemed to take a minute for this to register. “Oh…I guess I forgot I was still wearing it.” I helped him peel off the sodden jacket and scooted closer to him. “Just try to hang in there. Hopefully the ride’s only an hour or so.”

The poison must have been getting to his head, because he leaned against me - not very Ed-like at all - and fell in and out of an uneasy sleep for the rest of the ride.

When we reached Central, the driver took us directly to the hospital and helped the two of us inside. I thanked him and he left us with the same nurse that had bandaged me up just the day before.

She seemed unsurprised to see me again. “You know, I didn’t exactly appreaciate that stunt you pulled yesterday.”

I ignored her. “My friend’s been poisoned. He needs to be examined NOW.”

Her gaze switched to Ed and she immediately led us down the hallway into one of the patients’ rooms.

“Wait here. I’l be right back with a doctor.”

She hustled out of the room and not three mintues later a doctor rushed in. After taking a quick look at Ed, he began asking questions.

“Do you know what type of poison it was?”

“No.”

“Did you ingest this poison?”

“No, it was injected into my neck.”

“By whom?”

I rounded on the doctor. “That doesn’t matter right now! It‘s none of your business anyway!”

He glared at me. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”

“I don’t give a damn. Your job is to find out what’s wrong, nothing more.” I was surprised at my own daring. Ed was looking at me with something that resembled admiration.

The doctor seemed to notice I was there for the first time, and called over the nurse, who was standing near the door. “Take this girl out and tend to her injuries.”

“I want to know what’s wrong with Ed first!” I protested.

Ed put his hand on my shoulder. “Go, Marie. You need to. I’ll tell you everything when I get out.”

I sighed in defeat and started for the door, which the nurse was holding open. As I made my way towards the door I heard a little more of the doctor’s interrogating.

“How long did it take to go into affect?”

“Almost immediately.”

“Been having headaches?”

"Yes."

"Soreness?"

"Yes."

“Blurred vision?”

“Yes.”

The door shut behind me and I follwed the nurse to the same room as before, where she started to clean and bandage the same wounds.

“Now what did I tell you?” she lectured in an obnoxious tone, as if she were speaking to a four year old who’d misbehaved. “I told you to stay here so your wounds could heal and wouldn’t reopen, but you left anyway and look what happened.”

“It wasn’t avoidable,” I said impatiently. “You don’t know what happened so don’t lecture me.”

She gave me a sour look and continued in silence, wrapping my arm more tightly than I thought was necessary.

I stalked out of the room the moment she finished, and she let me go without much protest. I think she just wanted to get rid of me.

I shoved open the door to the room Ed was in and found the doctor scribbling something down on a piece of paper. He handed it to Ed then turned to face me.

“I’m afraid we’re currently out of what he needs, but I’ve contacted a colleague in East City and he’s informed me that they have it there. I’ve written the name and all the information you need to know about administering the antidote and what the boy will need to do while he’s recuperating.” He turned back to Ed. “If you want to recover, you will follow these instructions exactly. I advise that you leave now, you need to start treatment as soon as possible.”

The doctor walked us to the waiting room, giving us instructions on where to go once we reached East City. His casual attitude in a situation like this bothered me, but I thanked him nonetheless and Ed and I started for the inn to pack up.

“We really need to find Al…”

As if he’d heard me, the sound of metal footfalls came at us from behind. Ed and I turned to see Al sprinting towards us.

“Where have you two been, I’ve been looking everywhere! What happened?”

Ed looked up at him with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry Al. It’s kind of a long story.”

Al took a step back in surprise when he saw Ed. “Brother! What’s wrong? You look terrible!”

“Al, we need to leave for East City right now. Ed’s been poisoned and that’s the only place that has the right antidote. We’ll explain on the way.”

Al carried Ed on his back and we explained everything tha happened, from the human chimera to the underground river and the hospital visit.

“I can’t believe this,” Ed exclaimed in a feeble voice. “That quack wants me to stay in bed for a week!”

“To tell you to truth Ed,” I said sympathetically. “You look like you need to rest for at least that much time.”

He scowled and sighed.

“Brother, how long do you have to take it for?”

He dug in his pocket and pulled out the doctor’s note. “Says I have to take it morning and night for four days, and then it will take another three to four days before I’ll really start to feel a difference.”

“Damn, that’s longer than I thought,” I said.

“My thoughts exactly,” he continued. “He said the antidote will make me sleep most of the day, and I’ll have to be woken up in the morning and at night to take it and eat. Not only that, he told me that patients he’s had in the past that were infected with this poison all said that they suffered from constant nightmares during sleep. No one knows why that happens, but he said it was likely to happen to me as well.” He seemed out of breath after he’d finished.

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “Great. With that interrupting your sleep you’ll need to recover from recovering.”

Ed groaned and rested his head on Al.

We managed to make it to the train seconds before it departed. Ed collapsed wearily on one of the red-cushioned seats, closing his eyes. As usual, I sat down next to him, across from Al.

The train started moving and I glanced over at Ed. Beads of sweat were rolling down his face and his breathing was raspy. Before long he was asleep, but I could tell it was troubled.

The movement of the train caused him to eventually fall agasint my shoulder. When his head started to slip down onto my chest, I grabbed him gently by the shoulders and laid his head in my lap. Al snickered and I looked up, blushing.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said innocently, looking out the window.

I scowled at him. “It’s only because he’s sick.”

“I know,” he answered, not removing his gaze from the window.

I brushed some stray strands of hair out of his face, and he seemed to sleep somewhat soundly the rest of the way.

A few hours later, the train finally pulled to a stop. I gently shook Ed’s shoulder, getting only a groan in response. I lowered my face to his and whispered, “Ed, we’re here.”

He slowly opened his eyes and sat up, blushing, when he saw me. I’d never seen him blush before.

He rubbed the back of his head nervously. “Uh…sorry about that…you could’ve pushed me off you know.”

“Don’t worry about it. I was hoping some sleep would help but you don’t look any better. How do you feel?”

“Shitty.” He groaned.

I squeezed his shoulder sympathetically and we plodded off the train. Al took Ed’s note and ran to pick up what he needed while I walked him back to East H.Q.. He was exhausted by the time we got there, and collapsed wearily on the bed.

He closed his eyes. “Never thought I’d be glad to be back here.”

His appearance made the seriousness of his condition evident, but I could tell he was trying to downplay his misery.

I quickly prepared a cold, damp cloth and a glass of water. I moved his hair out of his face and laid the cloth on his forehead, setting the water on the side table. “Drink as much of this as you can, alright?”

He barely nodded his head, and I was happy to see he was finally resigning himself to accept some help. He fell asleep quickly, and I went to find Al.

“Ed must be sicker than I though if he‘s actually going to let us take care of him. He‘s usually so intent on doing things himself.” I told Al when I found him.

“I know.” Al sighed. “But his excessive independence has just been his way of coping after what happened with our mom. He doesn’t feel comfortable having to depend on people. He hates it enough that he has to depend on Winry when something goes wrong with his auto-mail.”

I’d never met Winry, but was sure I would since Ed would eventually have to go in for a tune-up or an extension. All I knew was that she had been a childhood friend of Ed and Al‘s, and was now also Ed’s auto-mail mechanic.

The next four days were hell. After the second day Ed had been on the medicine, I decided to just move into the same room. I was always in there anyway.

Just as the doctor had predicted, his sleep was constantly plagued with nightmares. I don’t think he was even aware of me, but when I could tell he was having a particularly bad one, I sat by him and stroked his hair, offering words of comfort. That usually made them subside, if only for a short amount of time.

I hardly got any sleep the entire time, kept awake with worry. I stayed by Ed’s bedside, constantly resoaking the cloth I kept on his forehead and trying to lessen the vigor of the nightmares. Al and I woke him up in the morning and at night, and the medicine he had to take was so potent he seemed barely aware that we were even there. He didn’t say anything the entire time he was on the medicine.

On the last night he had to take the antidote, his nightmares were worse than usual. He kept shaking his head and mumbling incoherently. I nearly fell out of my chair when he suddenly screamed my name during one.

I sat up on the bed, putting a hand to the side of his face. “Ed, it’s alright, calm down…”

His eyes suddenly shot open, something I wasn’t used to. They looked clearer than they had been in days.

He brought his hand up and put it over mine.

“Don’t scare me like that, Ed! Are you okay?”

He nodded and slowly removed his hand. His eyes were back to being half-closed, as they usually were when he was awake. Thinking he was going back to sleep, I stood up to move back to the chair so I wouldn’t disturb him. To my astonishment, he grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to the bed. I sat back down and gave him a confused look.

“Stay, please,” was all he said, in a voice I could barely hear.

I nodded and he closed his eyes again, falling asleep within minutes. I wondered what he had been dreaming about.

The next afternoon, Al stormed in the room and dragged me out towards the main building. “You’ve hardly eaten anything in the last four days. Havoc, Fuery, Falman and Breda are all in there now having lunch, and you’re going to eat with them whether you like it or not.”

“But, Al,” I argued drowsily, “What if he wakes up and needs something?”

“This is Ed we’re talking about, he’ll be fine. Just take a little break, you need it.”

Al lead me inside and sat me down next to everyone, walking off to go get me food. I laid my head down on the table. “Hey,” I said dully. I knew the four of them pretty well; Jean Havoc was constantly losing potential girlfriends to Mustang. Kain Fuery was the softie of the group, a technician who had a thing for animals. Heymans Breda was the opposite, due to his deathly fear of dogs. Vato Falman was your typical military man; he was always uptight and seemed to know a little bit about everything. They were all Mustang’s subordinates and fiercely loyal to him.

“How’s Ed?” Fuery asked.

I lifted my head so I could face them, keeping my chin resting on the table. “Better I think. Hopefully he’ll be fully recovered in a few more days.”

Falman looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Well he better be, for your sake. You look exhausted.”

“I am,” I answered, yawning.

Al walked back and set down a plate of food in front of me.

Havoc glanced slyly at me. “Isn’t that adorable how she won’t leave poor Eddy’s bedside?” He leaned a little closer and added, still loud enough for the rest to hear, “You’ve got a thing for that runt, don’t you?”

I shifted my eyes and glared at him. “Shut up Havoc, or I’ll tell everyone what I heard you saying about that brunette at the front desk the other day.”

Havoc’s entire face reddened. The other three officers looked curiously at him. Breda grinned coyly.

“I just remembered, the Colonel wanted to see me,” Havoc said nervously, and quickly left the room.

The three of them turned back to me. “C’mon Marie, tell us what he said. It’ll make for good blackmailing.”

The smell of the food made me realize how hungry I really was, and I started wolfing down everything on my plate. “No, I better not.”

Amidst the protests of the others, Al leaned over and whispered, “Really Marie, what did he say?”

“I don’t know,” I answered through a mouthfull of food. “I made it up, but figured I’d be right since he’s always flirting with the poor girl. Anyway, at least that’ll keep the others teasing him for a while. Stupid jerk.”

A commotion coming from near the door caused me to turn around, and I saw a blonde boy, probably around my age, stride into the room. He was followed by the brunette from the front desk, the one I’d teased Havoc about. She was nagging the boy and trying to convince him to wait at the front.

The boy ignored her and stalked directly over to Al.

Al recognized him immediately. “Russell! What are you doing here?”

The boy named Russell looked desperately at Al, putting his hands on his shoulders. “You and Ed have to help me, Al. It has to do with Fletcher…” He glanced around the room, noticing every officer’s eyes were on the two of them. He toned down his voice. “Can we go outside?”

Al nodded, and I quickly devoured the rest of my food and followed them outside.

Once outside, Russell seemed to notice me for the first time. “And you are?”

“Marie,” I answered. “I’m a friend of Ed and Al’s.”

He glanced at Al. “Is she…?”

Al nodded. “She’s cool. You can tell her whatever you tell me.”

Russell nodded. “I’m afraid I’ve got a big problem and I need your help. I’m sure you remember the incident in Xenotime,” he waited for Al to nod, and continued. “It seems there’s still someone who think Fletcher and I are you and Ed.”

I suddenly remembered something Ed had told me, about two boys who had impersonated him and Al in order to have access to facilities that would allow them to create the red water and, ultimately, catalysts of the Philosopher’s Stone. Their father had begun the research, but after he disappeared his sons, particularly the older one, were determined to carry out his work. The red water, however, was making the inhabitants of the town deathly ill, and Ed and Al finally convinced them to stop manufacturing it and they relinquished their false aliases.

“So what happened? Is Fletcher alright?” Al asked. I guessed that Fletcher was Russell’s little brother. Ed had never mentioned the names.

Worry was etched on Russell‘s face. “He’s been kidnapped. The kidnapper left a note, addressing me as Edward Elric, saying that they wanted me to help them ‘accomplish a goal only I am capable of,‘ but it also said that I had to come alone and not to address authorities if I wanted him to live.” He looked at Al with pleading eyes. “Please, Al you guys have to help me get him back,” he begged, obviously struggling to hold back tears.

Al put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we will. But I’m afraid Ed won’t be able to get out of bed for at least the next three days.”

“But I don’t have that much time!”

“Ed’s been poisoned,” I informed him. Both turned to me. “He’s going to be fine, but he’s been really sick and he won’t be much help to you in the condition he’s in. How many days can you afford?”

Russell pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. “They said to be there within four days. I got the note yesterday.”

I tried to sound reassuring. “Let’s give Ed two days. The doctor said it normally takes four after the first four days of taking the medicine, but since it‘s Ed we‘re talking about here, I’m sure he’ll be up in half that.”

Russell reluctantly nodded. “Alright. Two days then.”