Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Tortured Souls ( Chapter 16 )

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

Aida’s chilling warning was last thing I heard before I was forced through the door. Only one of the puppets came through to the other side with me. By the light of one lone torch, I was able to see something of my surroundings. I was in a small, cylinder shaped area, only three feet or so in diameter. I was standing at the top of a spiral staircase that took up the entire space, the bottom of which was beyond the reach of the light.

He prodded me down the steep staircase until it was almost pitch black. Without warning, the stairs suddenly stopped. I faltered for a moment at the edge, trying to keep my balance. But my efforts were pointless; the puppet’s hand suddenly shot out, pushing me off the edge. I screamed and plummeted into the darkeness below.

I landed with a groan on a hard stone floor. I slowly stood up and brushed myself off, glancing warily around me. There was no light, but when my eyes started adjusting enough to where I could at least make out my surroundings, I noticed I was standing in the middle of a walkway, with walls on either side. There was another path in front of me, running perpendicular to the one I was on. I started walking to the left, but soon the path stopped again and forked to the left and right.

“Is this…a maze?” I asked myself, looking down one hall and then the other. Both paths were shrouded in complete darkness. Panic-stricken, I slid down against the wall, Adia’s words echoing in my mind; ‘Where they’re going, they’ll be fighting for their very survival.’

I finally willed my legs to move, and started slowly down the left path. I wanted to call out to Al and Russell, but didn’t want to attract the attention of whatever else might have been down there with me. I kept my hands out to the sides to watch for turns, every once in a while taking one. I was vaguely heading in the direction of a corner where one of the others would
have come in.

I kept telling myself my mind was playing tricks on me, but it was difficult to ignore the sound of footsteps coming from behind. I stopped suddenly to make sure it wasn’t the echo of my own that I was hearing. It was only the difference of a split second, but I was sure there had been another step after mine. I whipped around, jumping back in time to avoid the downward slash of a scimitar.

I barely deciphered the outline of a figure before scrambling to my feet and sprinting down the path. I was too scared to look behind me, but the swift footfalls that followed told me that I wasn’t very far ahead of my attacker.

A hand suddenly shot out from my left, gripping my arm and pulling me into a side passage. We sprinted down the path, taking as many turns as we could to lose our pursuer. Finally we rounded a corner and stopped with our backs to the wall, trying to catch our breath. A glance to the side told me it was Russell.

He held out a sword that looked exactly like the ones the puppets were using. “I managed to get a hold of one of these. Take it.”

“But don’t you need it?” I replied breathlessly.

He placed the sword in my hand. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, Ed would kill me if I let anything happen to you.” He took my hand. “Let’s try to find Al.”

I smiled a little at what he said and nodded. “Right.”

We wandered around the seemingly endless labyrinth, riddled with turns and splits in the pathways. We came to a four-way split and were debating on which way to go, when we heard rapid footfalls coming at us from behind. We turned around in time to avoid yet another slashing scimitar. I looked up in horror at the wielder of the sword. This one was more frightening than any of his allies. He was taller by about two feet, broader in the shoulders and had a much larger arsenal; there was a mace strapped to one of his sides, a battle axe on the other, yet another sword on his back and metal claws attached to his left hand. After he had separated me from Russell, he seemed to forget about the latter completely. With frightening speed and accuracy he slashed at me with his claws. I managed to avoid a direct hit by a slim margin; escaping with only four parallel slashes in the bottom of my shirt. The other three puppets were now attacking Russell, and I could see it was impossible to get to him. There was no way I could fight this guy, even with my sword. My attacker seemed to be the leader of the group. He left the others to deal with Russell and continued to go for me.

I sprinted around turns and corners, trying to lose him. He was relentless; he chased me for nearly ten minutes, getting closer as my energy started to drain away and I got progressively slower.

I could feel him right on my heels when I saw what could have only been Al’s outline running towards me. Al caught the leader’s wrist as he slashed at me again, and I was horrified to see that the leader seemed to have the upper hand in strength. The strange thing was, he didn’t seem to want to fight Al; he kept trying to get past him to me.

Al suddenly threw a ring of keys at me as he struggled with his opponent. “One of those is the key to Fletcher’s cell; he’s not too far ahead, take the next two rights and you’ll find him!”

I screamed as the leader knocked Al to the ground and dove for me again. Al grabbed his ankle, pulling him down once again.

“Al, I can’t just leave you!”

“GO!”

I turned and sprinted down the path, tears beginning to trickle down my cheeks. I followed Al’s instructions and came to a section of the maze that seemed to be a dungeon.

“Fletcher!” I yelled, unable to see which cell he was in in the darkness.

The response came in the form of a terrified little boy’s voice. “I’m here!”

I found his cell and, setting my sword to the side, began trying the different keys, wiping away tears so I could see.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name‘s Marie, I’m a friend of Ed and Al’s. I came here with your brother.”

Fletcher seemed releived at this, but a look of terror came back to his eyes as he pointed behind me.

“Watch out!”

I grabbed my sword and turned onto my back, holding it out in front of me to block whatever was coming. Holding the hilt firmly with both hands, my eyes followed the blade until I saw it was wedged between two metal claws. I looked up into the expressionless face of the leader. He withdrew his claws and slashed again. This time I rolled to the side and stood, holding my sword out in front of me. I knew I didn’t have a chance, but running obviously wasn’t doing any good.

Al came towards us again. The fact that this thing had escaped from Al showed just how strong he was. He grabbed the leader around the middle and threw him down. The leader seemed unaffected and stood up instantly after hitting the ground. Once again, he ignored Al and came after me.

“Al, can’t you use alchemy?”

Al kept attacking the leader, trying to provoke him to fight him instead of coming after me. “I’ve tried, it won’t work! It‘s something to do with the structure and composition of the surroundings, I can‘t figure them out!” He locked hands with the leader, each one trying to push the other back. If this went on very long, it was clear who would win.

“Run, Marie! I don’t know how long I can hold him! I’ll get Fletcher, you just get away from here!”

I complied, feeling a bit cowardly but eager to get away all the same. It wasn’t long before I heard the all-too familiar sound of the leader’s weapons clanging against one another as he ran. I sped up as much as I could, fumbling my way through the maze as more tears poured down my face.

I was disgusted with myself for crying so much and told myself I was being a coward. Ed wouldn’t act this way, feeling sorry for himself. But I couldn’t help it; I knew that if I let the leader get close enough he could easily kill me.

I looked behind me as I turned another corner, and saw him coming at me again. I tried to take the most confusing route as possible, but his heavy footfalls were never too far behind.

I felt so helpless as I stumbled through the passageways, positive he was going to catch up to me.

A hand suddenly closed over my mouth, and something hard and cold wrapped around my waist. I was pulled into a side passage, struggling and clawing at the hand around my mouth, too scared to even consider it might be an ally.

Sure enough, there was a whisper in my ear to stay quiet, and I realized the coldness around my waist was Ed’s auto-mail arm. He released his hand from my mouth and I turned around, pressing my shaking body against his. He held my head to his chest with one hand and rubbed my back comfortingly with the other. I tried to stifle my crying and breathing, which was loud and raspy from running so much. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest.

I tried not to scream as I heard the footsteps come closer. Ed sensed my fear and held me even tighter, which helped to ease the fear some.

The leader passed by the opening and his footsteps finally began to fade away. Ed relaxed his hold. I, on the other hand, didn’t. “Ed,” I whispered between sobs, “That thing - is trying - to kill me - and I don’t - know why - ”

Ed stroked my hair gently. By then he was probably used to having to provide comfort. I recalled with embarrassment how many times I’d run ro him, wanting reassurance. “I know, I’m sorry I took so long.”

“Y-you k-know?” I stuttered.

He waited a little before answering. I could tell by the way he held me that he had been doubtful of finding me in one piece, and was overcome with relief.

“She knows who you are,” he finally answered.

I looked up at him, his face blurry through my tears. “Aida?” I managed to steady my voice enough so I could speak normally. “How could she have possibly figured that out?”

He wiped away my tears with a gloved hand. “She kept asking me about you, asking for your name. I didn’t tell her, and I think staying quiet about just convinced her she was right. She said she recognized you, that she could tell by your face that you were her friend‘s descendent.” He glanced warily around before continuing. “When she found out, she sent that thing after you. She’s got a small army of those puppets upstairs, but not as dangerous as that one. I managed to get down here so I could find you guys, but without alchemy I don’t know if I can beat him. I already ran into him once before and tried, but he overpowered me trying to get to you. He doesn’t show any interest in fighting anyone else.”

The fact that both Ed and Al were having trouble with him scared me. Ed must have sensed this, because he gently took my chin in his hand and whispered, “But there’s no way I’m letting him hurt you, so don’t stress, alright? You have my word.” I stiffled back a sob and nodded.

After he’d received my approval, he held my hand tightly and we continued silently down the path. “I’m pretty sure these things depend mainly on hearing, so watch your step. That‘s why when you stopped running, he had trouble finding
you.”

He glanced over at me, and I tried to mask the fear on my face. “What’s the situation down here?”

Keeping my voice, which was still shaky, as low as I could, I answered, “I met up with Russell once but lost him, and Al’s been trying to keep that thing off my trail. We found Fletcher locked up, I’m sure Al’s freed him by now.”

We reached a fork in the path and took the one I thought led closest to Al and Fletcher. Russell kept popping into my mind. “Ed, we need to find Russell, I’m really worried about him.”

Ed kept a wary eye on every turn. “When’s the last time you saw him?”

“He gave me a sword right before the leader attacked me. Some other puppets went after him and I was forced the other way.” I tugged anxiously at him arm, remembering how the sword had spared me from certain death when the leader attacked me. “Ed, he saved my life and risked his own when he gave me that weapon. If he’s hurt somewhere it’s my fault…” I tried desperately to hold back another river of tears that threatened to release itself, but failed miserably. Ed’s grip on my hand tightened. “Don’t think that way. We’ll find him.”

The problem was, it wasn’t just finding him I was worried about, it was finding him alive.

We were tiptoeing past an opening to an alternate path, keeping to a straight route, when Ed suddenly shoved me to the side, turning to face the opening. He held up his arm and there was the sharp ring of steel against steel. A scimitar flew through the air, landing with a loud clang on the stone floor.

The disarmed leader charged at me wildly while pulling his spare sword from his back, with nothing but Ed standing is his way. Ed pushed his palm into the torso of the leader in an attempt to slow him with alchemy, but nothing happened. Evidently, the structure of the puppets was as unreadable to Ed as the surroundings were. The leader swung at Ed with enormous speed and power. Ed barely had time to raise his arm in defense, but was thrown backward from the blow in the opposite direction of where I was.

Having ridden himself of his obstacle, the leader charged at me again. I held out my sword to meet his own, and was disarmed at the first contact our weapons made. I knew all we had to do to stop him completely was cut off his head, but his hearing was so good from being in the dark all the time that it was nearly impossible to get that close.

Ed snatched up the abandoned scimitar and hurled it at the leader’s back, hoping to take him by surprise, but he turned around in time to block it with his other sword. I took the opportunity to retrieve my weapon while Ed kept attacking him, forcing the leader to keep his focus on him instead of me. He succeeded in knocking Ed back again, and started back toward me. I stood my ground, holding the sword in my shaking hands.

Ed was recovering from the blow, struggling back to his feet. “Run, you idiot!” he yelled from behind the leader.

I ignored him. I was sick of running.

I could sense someone come up behind me, and turned to see Russell come to my side, also clutching a weapon. The leader charged, and the two of us stood at the ready to meet his attack.

Russell jammed his sword between the metal claws, while I parried the sword slash the leader made at my throat. The impact from the contact of our weapons left my arms throbbing, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it again.

While the leader had his attention on Russell and I, Ed charged at him swiftly from behind. In one blinding movement, the leader withdrew his claws from Russell’s sword and brought them down across his chest, leaving four parallel gashes in their wake. Russell sank to the ground in pain, giving the leader the opportunity to spin around and defend an attack from Ed.

I ran to Russell, putting my arms under his to help him away from the struggle. When I was satisfied with his distance from the fray, I ran for my weapon. I looked up in time to see that Ed had succeeded in disarming his opponent, who was frantically reaching for his mace to replace his lost scimitar. I decided this was the time to aim for his throat, but suddenly realized just how tall the leader was; my target was out of reach. Ed saw this, and dove past his opponent, skidding to a kneeling position behind him. Seeing his plan, I jumped onto his shoulders. Ed stood up, raising me to the height of my enemy. Just as the leader had retrieved his mace and was in the process of turning to face us, I swung the sword with as much force as I could and sliced through his throat.

The head tumbled to the ground, revealing the hollow inside of the body. It toppled for a moment before finally sprawling to the ground as well.

Ed kneeled back down and I jumped off, and the two of us ran to Russell. Before we even reached him Fletcher and Al came running from the other direction. Fletcher’s eyes widened in worry when he saw Russell. “Brother!”

It was funny how much the Tringham brothers were like the Elrics. Al and Fletcher were both the polite ones, even using an honorific title when speaking to their older brothers. Ed and Russell on the other hand, were almost the opposite of their siblings in personality and more alike than they cared to admit.

Russell forced a smile as Fletcher approached him. “I’m so glad you’re alright. I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

Fletcher hugged his brother and Al helped him to his feet. Ed tried to lead us back to where he had come down,
saying he’d extended the stairway and we could get out.

“You gonna be alright Russell?” Ed called back. He apparently had a vague idea of where he was going, every once in a while stopping to determine which direction to take next.

“I’ll be fine, they’re not that deep. Lucky for me you guys beat him so fast, you two make a good team.”

Ed turned his head and smiled at me, and I returned the gesture.

It didn’t take too long to find the staircase, and once we got to the top Ed stopped us before we opened it. “I destroyed a good number of the puppets when they tried to keep me from coming down here, but she still has more so be on your guard.”

We cautiously opened the door, half expecting an army of puppets to charge at us, but there was no one standing there but Aida. By the time we noticed she was standing next to a transmutation circle with a currently lifeless dummy inside it, it was too late.

Something grabbed me by the arm and hurled me into the circle next to the dummy. Before I could even recover from being slammed to the ground, Aida was kneeling next to me with her hands on the circle.

The feeling of your soul leaving your body is almost impossible to describe in words. At first I just couldn’t move my body, and then there was a brief period where my soul didn’t seem to be bound to anything. It was not a pleaseant feeling, but even worse was when the transfer was complete and my soul was in the body of the previously lifeless puppet that was in the circle with me. I don’t really understand how it worked. I’ll forever remember the look on everyone’s faces when it happened, especially Ed’s. His expression, which I was able to comprehend and register in my mind just before the transfer was complete, was not at all reassuring. I wondered briefly if it was even possible to reverse the transfer, and everything that happened after that is nothing but a vague blur.

I rememer the feeling of being torn in two, linked both to my own body and the shell of the one that held my soul. I thought I heard and saw fragments of a fight, but was otherwise unaware of what was going on. I have no idea how long this went on, only that I was desperate for it to end in the deep corners of my mind that still seemed to be functioning somewhat.

I suddenly felt a similar sensation to the previous one, but it had the opposite effect. I felt my former feeling of emptiness slowly fade away as my soul was returned to me. Things started to come into focus, and I realized that my eyes had been open the entire time. Once the transfer back was finished, however, I couldn’t stop them from closing. The last thing I saw before they closed was Aida, lying dead on the ground with a knife in her chest, and Ed. The feeling started to return to my body, and even though I couldn’t see, I could feel him wrap his arms around me.

I suppose my paralysis was induced during Aida’s transmutation of my soul, and my ability to move hadn’t returned yet. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t open my eyes, but for some reason I could hear.

“Al, why did her eyes close?!” came Ed’s panicked voice.

“I don’t know, brother,” Al’s quiet voice was full of doubt.

I felt someone hold my wrist, and heard Russell’ voice. “She still has a pulse. Maybe it takes a while for conciousness to return.”

I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think Ed might have been crying. “But when I performed a soul transmutation on Al, he was up right away!”

I heard Al move closer. “But this is different, brother. You just transferred a soul from something tangible to another body, and a real one at that, not a metal one. The result is sure to be different from what happened with me.”

So Ed had performed the transmutation. I wanted so bad to to tell everyone I was alright, but I couldn’t make any part of my body operate the way I wanted, couldn’t even open my eyes.

Ed pulled me closer to him, whispering so only I could hear, “Don’t you dare leave me.”

I wanted nothing more than to return his embrace, but realized I’d just have to wait until I was able to move again. Exhaustion suddenly caught up with me and I drifted into a deep sleep.

I didn’t know how long it had been since I drifted off, but I finally woke up again to a heated discussion between what sounded like Ed and Mustang. Once again, my hearing was the only thing I could get to work right.

“Ed, you can’t keep moping around like this. You have to accept the fact that she might not wake up.” Mustang’s voice was sympathetic but firm.

Ed responded in a low, defiant tone. “She’s a strong girl. She’ll wake up.” I could tell he was trying to convince himself more than he was Mustang.

“Ed, it’s been three days…”

There was a little more volume in Ed’s voice as he replied heatedly, “I’m aware of that Colonel. Now will you leave? I’m not really in the mood to talk.”

Mustang’s voice was more stern this time. “There’s a mission coming up in which a certain number of State Alchemists, including yourself, may need to participate. If and when this does happen you need to be prepared to leave, so I’m just warning you.”

“If I get called to leave and she’s not awake yet I’m not going,” he stated defiantly.

“If one of your superiors orders it, you have no choice. Unless you’re willing to give up your State Alchemist certification, that is.” Even though I was unable to see him, I could tell Mustang was having a hard time sounding harsh.

“Just leave,” Ed replied coldly.

He did so, and when I still couldn’t get my body to obey the orders I was giving it I fell asleep in the silence that ensued.

The next time I woke up, I was pleased to find that my eyes opened. I was even more excited when I tried to move my arm and found that it worked. Across the room, Al was sitting on the other bed reading.

I was stiff and sore, but forced myself to sit up. Al, hearing the movement, turned to face me and leaped out of the bed and over to me, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug.

“Marie! You’re awake! We’ve been so worried about you!”

I responded with difficulty, considering my air supply was nearly cut off. I think he just forgot his own strength sometimes. “Sorry to worry you.”

He finally released me, and I tried not to make my relief too evident.

“Ed’s going to be so happy! It really hit him hard when you didn’t wake up.”

I really didn‘t want to be reminded of what had happened, but my curiosity got the best of me. “Speaking of which, Al, what happened? Back at Aida’s, I mean.”

He sat down on the bed. “Do you remember anything?”

“I know Aida performed a soul transmutation on me and that Ed did another one to get me back, but I don’t know what happened during that period or after we left.”

“Well,” he began, apparently also a little reluctant to recall the event, “We destroyed all of Aida’s puppets and got her to a point where she couldn’t fight back. Ed begged her to bring you back, since she was experienced in that sort of thing and he wasn’t sure if he could do it right. She said she would if he brought back her fiance, and I think he finally convinced her that it was impossible because she pulled out a knife and killed herself. We spared the puppet that had your soul, and Ed performed the transmutation.”

I slumped against the pillows, taking all of this in. “Whoa…”

“Since then we’ve all just been waiting for you to get up. Russell and Fletcher are still here, and everyone at H.Q. is worried about you.”

I got out of bed, wincing a little at the soreness in my legs. “By the way, where is Ed?”

“He’s barely left this room the last four days, but he left for a walk just a little while ago. I think he just needed to try and clear his head. I tried to get him to wait until the rain stopped, but you have to be crazy to argue with him right now.”

I noticed for the first time the sound of rain hitting the roof, and looked out the window into a steady downpour.

“He’s really that upset?” I started to pull on my jacket, which I found hanging on the edge of the bed. I suddenly realized what Al had said and whirled around to face him. “Wait a sec, did you say four days?”

“Yeah, that’s why everyone was starting to get doubts about your recovery.”

It seemed like such a long time. I couldn’t wait to see Ed again, and wondered what his reaction would be.

Al normally would have said something about me going out in this weather, but I think he understood that under the circumstances, it was necessary. I opened the door and stepped out into the drizzle to find my friend.