Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Disaster or Destiny? ❯ Mustang's Mistake ( Chapter 19 )

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

Al and I arrived in town a few hours later, but the three of them were no where to be found. We walked into a tavern, probably the one Mustang had called from considering we found a woman who’d seen them earlier. She told us there had been two men in military uniforms and a short guy in a red coat earlier, but they had headed south; the Ishbalan camp was in the south.

With a great amount of difficulty, I thanked the woman and refrained from losing my temper until we were outside.

“Goddamn you Mustang!” I shouted, pounding my fist against the tavern wall. “Why didn’t you fucking listen to me?”

My show of anger earned us quite a few stares from passersby and Al attempted to call me down.

“At least you warned him,” he pointed out.

I rounded on him, feelings of fear and anger clashing inside me and making it nearly impossible to stay calm. “Al, the fact that he went shows that he either didn’t believe me or didn’t care. We have to go there, now.”

I left no room for protest, and Al just nodded timidly.

“That jackass,” I mumbled as we headed south. “He’s going to get himself and everyone else killed. I’ll bet you anything the smug bastard decided the risk would be worth if it meant he’d get a good word in with the higher-ups. He probably didn’t even tell the other two what I said.”

After an hour of trekking through the desert, the desolate surroundings were finally interrupted by what looked to be an old run-down city.

“Someone actually lives in that place?” I asked incredulously.

“If it means keeping the government off their tails I think the Ishbalans will settle for pretty much anything,” Al replied sullenly.

“And now Archer’s trying to drive them out again. Selfish bastard.” I kicked at the sand as Al and I treaded into the city. “I’m starting to see why Ed hates being in the military so much.”

The moment we ran into people it was obvious we weren’t welcome. An Ishbalan man, evidenced by his red eyes and dark skin, approached us cautiously.

“Are you two with the military as well?” he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

I stepped forward. “We’re here to prove your innocence in the recent murder of an officer. I take it there are already officers here?”

“They claim to be looking for the body, but they’re not going to find it. No one here murdered that man.” He answered coldly.

My heart skipped a beat. Then they were here. “I know you didn’t. But the person who did is still here.” I approached the man with pleading eyes. “Please, tell me which way they went. How long has it been since you’ve seen them?”

He was slightly taken aback at my sudden change of composure. “Well let me think…they went deeper into the city only a few minutes ago to keep searching. The city’s quite big, there aren’t any people where they went.”

“Shit,” I mumbled, turning to Al. “Al, I’ll check the right side of the city and you check the left. We can only hope we find them before the assassins do, if they haven‘t already.” I took off running down the dirt path, earning surprised looks from the other residents of the town.

“Marie! It’s too dangerous for us to split up!” Al called after me.

“Just do it, Al!” I yelled back.

The number of people diminished as I ran until they eventually disappeared altogether. Once I got through the residential area, the city was completely devoid of people. In place of the houses were crumbling buildings and fallen structures that cluttered the dusty streets, probably a result of the eastern civil war that had taken place a few years ago. I slowed down and trudged through the debris, searching for any sign of Ed, Mustang or Armstrong.

After searching an entire section of the city, I approached a brick wall that was separating another division. I found a section of the wall that had been blown out and climbed over the pile of debris. I jumped off the rubble to the other side of the wall, only to dive behind a fallen pillar at the sight of a man who was sneaking around behind a small section of wall that was otherwise destroyed. He was only a few feet away, but fortunately seemed too preoccupied to notice me. I saw him eyeing something and fingering what looked to be a small throwing knife. I followed his line of vision to his target, and stifled a scream when I saw who it was. In a split second he had his knife raised and I was leaping over debris to get into his line of fire, calling Ed‘s name. By the time the man saw me he had already released his knife. I dove into its path and raised my arm to stop the speeding dagger from reaching its target, then landed and rolled across the hot sand, staining it crimson.

I yanked the knife from where it was still wedged in my arm as Ed raced towards me, transmuting his arm into a blade on the way.

The assassin came at me from the other side but was met by Edward before he could reach me.

“Are you alright? What the hell is going on?” Ed asked as he met the blade of the assassin.

I stumbled to my feet and cradled my bloody arm. Confident that Ed could take care of things now that he was aware of the danger, I started running toward the rear of the city. “Take care of him, alright? I need to find Mustang and Armstrong.”

Ed started to protest, confusion etched on his face, but he was too busy with his opponent to do anything.

I continued to run through the ruins, hoping to find the others in a better situation than I had found Ed in. Apparently this was too much to ask, as I soon spotted Mustang in a predicament of his own. He was locked in a stalemate with what had to be the other assassin. Roy had his right hand extended, ready to snap his fingers and burn his opponent at any moment. The other man had apparently disregarded his orders to avoid using guns in the face of such danger, and was pointing one straight at Mustang.

Neither had seen me yet, and I was determined to keep it that way until I could buy Mustang the few seconds he needed to make his move. I fell to my hands and knees, crawling among the piles of rubble and shards of rock until I got as close as I could. Still holding the bloody knife, I aimed for the man’s leg. Being as inexperienced in knife-throwing as I was, I missed my mark. But seeing a dagger whiz past his legs caught the man’s attention and gave Mustang the opening he needed.

A stream of flames burst from the Colonel’s hand, engulfing his opponenet. The man dropped his gun and screamed in pain, falling headfirst into the sand. Mustang’s stiffened shoulders relaxed a little, and he raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his brow as he turned to find the source of the knife.

His moment of relief didn’t last long. I stood up from my hiding place, marched up to him, and slapped him hard across the face.

He raised a hand to his cheek in alarm. “What was that for?!”

“What the hell were you thinking? Did you not understand what I told you over the phone?”

He seemed embarrassed by the situation. “I didn’t know what you were talking about! I didn‘t want to delay the mission, so we continued.”

“And look where it got you!” I yelled, raising my arms in frustration. “Do you know how hard it was to intecept that phone call? And after all that I still ended up saving your ass!”

Mustang‘s eyes narrowed. “Don‘t speak to a Colonel like that. I could’ve handled it on my own.”

I folded my arms and glared at him. “So that’s why you completely ignored me? You thought you could hanlde it?”

“Yes, I could have,” he answered crisply, quickly regaining his usual calm and confidence. He surprised me when he put a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry alright? If it means anything, I did keep your warning in mind as I searched.”

“Did you tell Ed and Armstrong?” I asked.

“Tell me what?” came a voice from behind me.

Ed was walking towards us, and I was happy to see him virtually unscathed.

“About my warning,” I said. “Did he tell you?”

Ed looked questioningly at Mustang, and I turned to give him a seering glare. “You didn’t tell them?!”

Mustand took a few steps back. “I didn’t know whether to take you seriously! All you said was ‘two guys are after
you.’ What was I supposed to think? There was no reason for me to believe someone was after me. Why would they be?”

Ed joined me in staring down the Colonel. “You told me you couldn’t understand her over the phone because the connection was bad!”

“Like I said, I didn’t want to delay the mission,” was his casual response.

“’CAUSE YOU’RE TOO DAMN OBSESSED WITH YOUR STUPID PROMOTION!!” I screamed.

The only thing that kept me from tackling him was the entrance of Major Armstrong and Alphonse. They informed us that they’d found the body and I explained why the Ishbalans were innocent, who had done it and why those same murderers had been after the three of them. Armstrong carried the unconscious forms of both bodies; one burnt to a crisp and the other we found knocked out and trapped in a stone cage made by Ed.

“I can’t believe Archer would resort to this,” Mustang mumbled on our way back to the inhabited part of town.

“You seem to have trouble believing much of anything,” I snapped.

He kept his voice calm, but there was an obvious underlying current of irritation in it. “Will you drop it please? You wouldn’t understand, I was in a difficult situation.”

I glared at him out of the corner of my eye. “Which, may I remind you, became even more difficult because you didn’t listen to me.”

His eye twitched and a vein throbbed in his temple. “Marie…”

Al, the peacemaker as usual, kept the argument from progressing any further. “Please stop arguing. Let’s just be happy that we all made it out, okay?”

The verbal abuse stopped after that, but we continued to exchange venomous glares.

When we explained the situation to the Ishbalans - we thought it better to leave Archer out and simply said it was the work of hired assassins - they were significantly less hostile. They thanked us for our help and offered to put us up for the night, but of course Mustang was in too much of a hurry for that. While he, Al and Armstrong readied the body of the dead officer to be sent back to the family for a proper burial, a woman led Ed and I into a small house and provided us with bandages, water and a towel so we could tend to my arm. I sat down in a chair as Ed knelt in front of me, dipping the towel in the water and wiping away the blood and dirt that covered the wound.

“I can’t believe you just jumped in front of that knife! What if you hadn’t raised your arm in time? It could have caused a lot more damage than this,” Ed scolded as he cleaned the gash.

“What did you expect me to do, stand there and let it hit you? Since you weren’t expecting an attack, thanks to that idiot Mustang, you weren’t prepared to block it.”

He smiled in spite of himself and began to wind the bandage around my arm. “I don’t recall ever seeing you this pissed off at someone.” There was a hint of satisfaction in his voice, most likely due to the fact that my anger was directed at the very person he harbored not-so-friendly feelings for.

“I don’t recall ever being this pissed off at someone,” I snarled.

He tied off the bandage and helped me to my feet. “Well I owe you one,” he said, pulling me in for a hug.

After wondering all day whether I’d ever feel that embrace again, nothing could have felt better. My anger at Mustang forgotten for the moment, I threw my arms around Ed and completely broke down, crying into his shoulder; something I’d been trying to avoid doing.

“Ed,” I said in a shaky voice between sobs, “I don’t want you to do this anymore.”

He stroked my hair and asked quietly, “You don’t want me to do what?”

I looked up at him, rivulets of tears leaving trails on my dust-covered face. “Everything! Everything you do is dangerous and I don’t want you to get hurt!”

He gave me a sad smile. “If I could avoid it, Marie, I would. But until I restore Al I have no choice, you know that.”

I pushed away, suddenly feeling extremely stupid. Hadn‘t I just told both Ed and Al that I would do everything I could to help them? I understood perfectly that there was no other way, but I wished more than anything that there was. “I know,” I said, turning my back to him and wiping my eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to break down like that. It’s just that I’m sick of always worrying, always feeling like I could lose you and Al at any given time.” I turned to face him again. “As long as I’m here, you two are all I have.”

He put both hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “And as long as you’re here, Al and I will be there for you. That’s a promise.”

Deep down I knew he really couldn’t promise anything, considering the danger he and his brother were always putting themselves in. But the sincerity of his voice was enough to reassure me, at least somewhat. I forced a smile and nodded, and the two of us went to meet the others after thanking the woman.

After only a few seconds of being threatened by Armstrong, the two assassins confessed to the murders. But they wouldn’t say who sent them.

“My guess,” I said as we were on the train back to East City, “Is that Archer probably threatened them with something worse than imprisonment if they exposed him.”

“Now you’re absolutely sure - “ Mustang began.

“YES MUSTANG!” I yelled, earning stares from nearly every other passenger. I forced myself to lower my voice, though it was difficult when all I wanted to do was yell at the man sitting across from me. “How many times do I have to say it? It was Archer, alright? Think about it, everyone knows he hates you, not that I blame him…” I was interrupted by Mustang pulling on one of his gloves threateningly. Armstrong placed a huge hand on his shoudler to calm him. Ed was too busy trying not to laugh to do anything.

“As I was saying, this way he could not only get rid of you, his main competition, but he’d be called in to take over after you were killed. After clearing up what would have turned into a big mess, he would’ve undoubtedly been promoted.”

“Sir,” Armstrong began, probably more as an attempt to calm down the now red-faced Colonel than anything, “what are you going to do about Archer?”

“There’s nothing I can do,” he stated, avoiding my gaze. “Unless those men confess, which I don’t see happening any time soon, we have no evidence. I just can‘t believe Archer would take that big of a risk.”

Mustang and I did everything in our power to avoid one another the rest of the ride.

For the remainder of the trip, Ed and Al explained to me why there were so many different styles of transmutation circles and what they were used for.

“Different shapes represent different things and once combined, can be used for specific transmutations,” Ed explained.

“For example,” Al added, “a triangle represents fire, but one with a line through it represents air and if it is upside down it represents water.”

“So you can change the pattern to act as a specific catalyst for whatever it is you’re trying to create, right?” I asked, looking from one to the other.

“Exactly. That’s why the circle I most commonly use - well, used to use anyway - looks a little different from Al’s, the Colonel’s, and the Major’s. The circle’s design is different depending on the desired result.”

“’The basic idea of the transmutation circle is the power of the circle. A circle represents the circulation of power. By drawing a construction equation on it, the power is able to manifest itself. By knowing the flow of this power and its laws, you can cope with many things. One who accepts all of that, understands it, and creates...that is what an alchemist does.’ That’s what teacher told us, right brother?”

The thought of his teacher brought a nervous smile to Ed’s lips. “Word for word.”

Roy refrained from interjecting this time, even though I think he wanted to at times. That was the great thing about my position; I wasn’t in the military, so I could talk back at him all I wanted and he couldn’t threaten me with demotions or anything like that. Though I sensed I would have to watch out for flames over the next few days.

We finally arrived in East City and after the assassins, who had been held in a separate car, were turned in, the five of us were happy to officially bring the assigment to an end. Unfortunately a final confrontation with Archer was unavoidable. He was waiting at the front doors of the Eastern Command Center as we approached, wearing his usual scowl. He was definitely not happy to see the alchemists alive, and was obviously wondering how much they knew. His already pale face became even paler when he saw that I was with them.

“I never received a call from you, Mustang,” he growled in his chilling voice. At least Mustang had followed some of my advice, he hadn’t returned the call. Not that it did any good, since Archer had contacted his men anyway.

“I apologize for that sir. I was unable to get through.” He was obviously having a difficult time being so polite. But we really had no choice; there was no way we could prove he was guilty and Mustang could get in trouble with the Fuhrer if he made such a harsh accusation against a relatively high ranking officer.

Archer relaxed slightly at Mustang’s behavior, but remained wary. “I take it the operation went smoothly, then? What did you find out?”

“The Ishbalans had nothing to do with the murder, sir. It was the work of hired assassins. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get them to tell us who hired them.” Mustang was unable to hide the hostility in his voice.

Whether Archer suspected that we knew or not I couldn’t tell, but he was evidently reassured by Mustang’s reply. As relieved as he was, I could still see his disappointment in the way things turned out. He offered no words of praise, but simply said, “The Fuhrer will be expecting a report.”

I froze as he glanced at me, extreme loathing in his eyes. I was almost positive by then that he knew what I‘d done. “I’ve been informed, Colonel Mustang, that this girl is your younger sister. Is that correct?”

I turned to Mustang and gave him a questioning look, but he acted as if the question was perfectly reasonable. Edward was wearing a similar look of surprise. Mustang nodded.

Archer’s cold eyes bore into mine. “Yesterday she pulled a prank on me and another officer, and I have reason to believe she snuck into my office.”

I stepped forward, trying not to show my guilt. “Sir, that wasn’t a prank. It was a misunderstanding on my part. And I swear I didn‘t go in your office.”

When he continued to look doubtful, Mustang chimed in. “I apologize for her, sir,” He leaned in a little closer and added, “When she lost her memory she suffered a severe blow to the head and she’s gets confused sometimes.”

I couldn’t help but think that telling him I was mentally unstable was a way of getting back at me in addition to bailing me out. I wanted nothing more than to protest, but pretended I hadn’t heard him.

Archer looked doubtful, but nodded anyway. “Well I suggest you keep a closer eye on her.“ He nodded to Mustang. “I’ll be returning to Central.” With that, he turned on his heel and walked briskly back into the building.

I waited until the door shut behind him to turn on the Colonel. “Your sister?”

“How do you think I got permission to let you live in military housing and live on our funding? You‘re not an officer, so I had to say something.” He chuckled as he added, “Of course I don’t really have a sister, so I had to make up this big story about how you were the illegitimate child of my father when he had an affair and left my mother. It was a brilliant idea on my part, if I do say so myself.”

Even thought I didn’t like being thought of as his illegitimate half-sister, I felt a little guilty that he had to make up a story like that about his family and appreciated the gesture. It apparently showed on my face, because Mustang added, “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t like my father anyway.”

With that he walked inside, and I felt some of my anger towards him fade away. For some reason Ed found the idea of me being Mustang’s “sister” extremely amusing, and on our way back to our rooms I had to smack him upside the head to stop his laughing.

I might as well have just moved into Ed and Al’s room, because that’s where I always was. Whenever there was a spare moment they’d teach me a little more alchemy, and I worked hard on my own to study it. I couldn’t explain why I was so into it all of a sudden, but the more I studied the more interested I became. The realization struck that this was a form of science on which scientists at home had not even scratched the surface, and the ones that had attempted to had been dead for centuries. Realizing that my being in Amestris made this rare art actually attainable, I wanted to seize my chance to learn
it.

One night, a few days after our return from the Ishbalan camp, I stayed up reading after a lengthy lecture from Ed and Al. Ed was sprawled out and snoring on the bed beside me, a book laying open and upside down on his stomach. I’d told him I was going to read a little longer and planned on returning to my own room to sleep. He’d said he was going to stay up and read until I left, but ended up falling asleep.

I wasn‘t exactly tired, but even if I had been I couldn‘t have slept anyway. The last few days I’d had a sore throat and a pain in my chest, and it was bothering me more than usual. I didn’t want to worry anyone, so I disregarded it as a cold and decided to just let it run its course.

I stopped reading only once when I heard Ed mumbling in his sleep and looked over at him. His golden hair was loose and spread wildly in all directions, his usually thoughtful face replaced by a rare, peaceful countenance.

I brushed his hair out of his face and returned to reading. I became so accustomed to the silence and absorbed in my book that I jumped when Ed muttered my name.

Startled, I looked down to where Ed was looking up at me with half-closed eyes and a tired grin.

“You’re going to sleep into the afternoon again,” he said groggily.

I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was four o’ clock in the morning. “That time already? I had no idea.”

Ed slowly sat up and peered over my shoulder at the book I was reading. “You’re really determined to do this, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Mind if I ask why?”

I layed the open book upside-down on the bed and stretched my arms. “It might seem weird to you, because you grew up knowing about alchemy, but I‘d barely heard of it until I came here. It’s sort of a forgotten science where I come from. It’s so different in fact, that it almost seems like magic to me. This is my only chance to learn it and I want to take advantage of that chance.”

Ed laid back down on his side, propping his head in his hand. “I can’t even imagine a world without alchemy. It’s the focus of so much around here; what do you do without it?”

I laid down next to him. “We get by okay. When you think about it, there’s a good side to having a lack of alchemy. It’s capable of just as much destruction as it is creation.”

Ed sighed and fell onto his pillow. “Yeah, I definitely learned that the hard way.”

We laid there in silence for awhile, and when I stole a quick glance at the boy lying next to me, I suddenly realized the biggest reason I wanted to learn alchemy.

I felt so many things towards him; love, friendship, admiration, sympathy, and maybe even a bit of inferiority. If I could further my knowledge of alchemy and the Stone, I had a better chance of finding a way to return to this place after I went home. I wanted more than anything to be able to come back to the two people I’d become so close to, and that was why I wanted to learn. The reasons I’d told Ed were true as well, but coming back was the biggest reason. I suppose I also felt that because alchemy was such a big part of Ed and Al’s lives, I wanted it to be a part of mine, too.

Ed yawned and closed his eyes. “Whaddya say tomorrow you give it your first real try?”

“Already? But I’ve only been studying for a few days…”

“For some people, that’s plenty. Let’s just give it a try and see if you’ve made any progress.”

I felt a mixture of reluctance and anticipation at the aspect of actually trying alchemy for real. I’d seen Ed and Al do it
so many times, but it still seemed impossible that I could be capable of doing what seemed to me like magic.

I sat up and picked up my book again. “Well then, I better stay up and cram.”

“Don’t stay up too much longer or you won’t have any energy left to do it.”

I nodded but ended up reading until I could see the first sign of dawn.

I didn’t wake until around two o’ clock the next afternoon, and even then it was only due to the increased pain in my chest and soreness in my throat. No one was there when I woke but Ed walked in while I was in the middle of a sudden coughing fit.

His face was contorted with worry as he sat down next to me. “You okay?”

I massaged my throat but forced a smile. “Yeah, just a sore throat.”

“You still up to trying alchemy?”

I stood up and started for the door. “After some food I will be.”

After the meal I followed Ed and Al to the front of the building, where there was a cement walkway leading from H.Q. to the main road. I suddenly felt aware of Ed and Al’s eyes on me and became extremely nervous, almost positive that my first attampt would fail.

Al apparently noticed. “Just relax. Forget that we’re even standing here and just concentrate on what you’re trying to transmute.”

I nodded and took a deep breath, then kneeled down to draw my circle. I took extra care in making it perfect, and even Ed complimented me on it.

Somewhat reassured by his words, I took a moment to think about what I was going to do and slammed my hands to the ground.