Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Treaded Steps ❯ II. ( Chapter 2 )
Incidents can happen, but memories and thoughts can only bring more harm then what you, yourself have caused.
Anime/Manga: Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Psychological / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 11.28.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 14.9K | Visits: 299 | Status: Work In Progress
So once again!
I do not own Kingdom Hearts, nor do I own Full Metal Alchemist.
Also there is no real Kairi bashing in this fanfic, just what may seem like the character's thoughts, and you can't stop someone's opinion about someone. Though I will admit, I have something bad happening to her in the future, so her personal will go off a bit, but that will be when we reach that point.
The warnings that were in the first chapter still apply.
And again, we go!
Treaded Steps
II.
If it had just been only he and Edward on that bumpy train ride, it would have been very deadly quiet...luckily there was a very curious Sora who looked like he was struggling not to get up and ravage throughout the whole train. Riku had to admit that he too was curious, having never been on a 'train' as the Elric brothers had called it, but he had much more self-control then the child-brained Sora. Riku almost smiled, but he kept his guard very quietly.
"Where are we headed?" Riku finally asked though, now realizing that he was stranded with the Elric brothers and whatever destination they were going. Edward seemed to frown at this and he turned his head away furiously while Alphonse looked a little more uncomfortable.
"We're headed towards Aquroya," Edward simply replied, as though that was supposed to make perfect sense. For once, Riku wished he was in Sora's position, that way he wouldn't look so odd if he asked what kind of city Aquroya was. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you saw the situation, Alphonse seemed to recognize the unfamiliarity in Riku's face,
"It's the City of Water capital. It's a large city built on an island that is more likely to sink to the bottom very soon." Riku nodded, accepting that easily, so that's where they were headed...
"Is that where you think the Philosopher’s Stone is?" Riku asked though, as he couldn't help out his curiosity. Riku blinked very slowly as he saw a twitch at the hand from Edward, and his eyes narrowing as though he was being taunted. Alphonse looked over at his brother with an armed (pun not intended) nervous look and Edward seemed to blow up, holding his head angrily with his temper tantrum voice,
"There's no way in hell I'm going back to him! He'll probably say "Oh so you've returned half-pint, let's see, destroyed half of the city and a false lead of the stone, great job, midget!" He's evil! He's pure evil!" Riku watched Edward, amused slightly as the boy overreacted about a certain someone. Although Riku did not know this man, he had a feeling that he had to be something good to get Edward riled up so easily.
"Eee...veil?" Sora tried to copy Edward's stature and the blonde stared at him for a second before giving up and collapsing back in the seat. People stared over at their cushioned seats for awhile, terrified to defend themselves at any given moment.
"Niisan, you shouldn't say that about Colonel Mustang." Mustang? Was this man some kind of horse-fella? Riku wouldn't be surprised, with all that strange stuff he had seen in just a span of a few days, he really wouldn't be surprised...
"Mustang?" Riku voiced his question, as he couldn't help his curiosity for this moment. Sora also seemed to be nodding to try and find out more about the man who upset Edward in such a way.
"Colonal Mustang, he's the one who commands over Edward's missions, basically Edward's boss." Alphonse tried to say lightly but from the angry twitch from his older brother, Edward did not approve of these words. Riku frowned inwardly as Edward started an argument with Alphonse, missions? Boss? Ranks of a war-bringer? Riku recalled sitting in his father's lap with Sora sitting by the side as they had listened carefully to a story his father told. A story of worlds at war, that there were ranks that commanded over others easily and the highest rank got to control whatever they wished, stories of treachery, pain, and the mind-filled angst of a solider killing their first innocent person. Riku's eyes narrowed darkly, was this a world of war? A terrible thought, and if that was true, Riku would have to move out of the world as fast as humanly possible, but who knew if that could be possible or not...Riku didn't like where this was going, no, he didn't like it at all.
"...Wa...waaa...ter...Water." Sora spoke slowly, drawing Riku's focus away from his thoughts as the train started to slowly come to a stop and was amazed to see the familiar glint of a sea outside the windows. As the train came to a complete stop, he started to pick up Kairi from her seat from the side but Alphonse beat him to it and although Riku started with a protective glare but his glare was slowly let off as Alphonse apologized,
"I just thought that she may have been a bit heavy for you...I didn't want you to carry her if it would difficult...I'm sorry." Riku stared blankly at the large full-plate and just nodded slowly, accepting his help, very cautiously as the heartless jumped at the thought of good will. A small smile even spread to his face as Sora grabbed his hand fiercely as they started to step out from the train. It was soon when Riku grew grumpy with Edward as they both realized they were going to have to walk a few extra miles in water-based land because the train could not travel any closer to the large island based land.
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"I SWEAR TO ALL THE HOLY FORCES IN THE SKIES THAT I WILL KILL WHOEVER MADE THESE ROADS!" Riku covered his mouth to cover the smile that was going to consume his face very soon. Edward was so hilarious, yes they had been drenched in water from traveling the shoddy roads that attempted to lead them to their destination. The only reason Edward was complaining so much was because he was drenched all the way to his neck-line, and because everyone was taller then him, they didn't get quite as wet walking through the lands.
"At least we're here now Niisan." Alphonse politely put in, and Riku could feel a cheerful optimistic smile coming from the piece of armor if there were a body still in it.
"Yeah, yeah," Edward didn't seem any less discouraged from his grumpy mood from these kind words, but Alphonse also didn't seem to be put off so Riku took it as though it was a brother thing. Though he wouldn't know, nobody on Destiny Island had any siblings...well except maybe Selphie, but she never said anything about her private life, so nobody really thought about it.
"Pretty." Riku looked back a bit at Sora who seemed bent on playing with the draining water, splashing his legs and bending foreword to play with his hands, it was a good thing they weren't in their normal clothes, Sora had a curse on those things Riku swore. Every time the boy would go playing in the beach with the water he would get a terrible cold, of course the damage of the cold wore off as time went on, but it was still annoying when Sora had a sniffle in his speak. Another part of Sora that had not changed, his love for water. But still, he would have to get Sora out of those clothes as soon as possible if the boy were to catch a cold, it would hinder their traveling.
"Come on Sora, we're almost to land." Sora looked up at Riku with a glowing blue eye, though the bandage that covered his right eye was drenched and almost showed a scar on Sora's skin...but it wasn't that leaked but Riku could tell that it was still in bad shape, he would also have to change the bandage otherwise it would get infected, especially with this kind of water around, who knows what someone could have done in it? Sora stared at Riku with a sad look but nodded slowly as he saw Alphonse and Edward had continued walking. Riku couldn't help but stare at the very wet Sora for a bit, as the boy seemed to be concentrating on something, that look was just cute in the most strangest ways. Perhaps because Riku hadn't seen Sora concentrate in a thought pattern, just in sparring, and even then Sora was a bit thick in the head,
"Kai..." Riku grew a bit surprised as Sora started to speak the syllables for their dear 'little sister', his heart actually grew a bit in hope, "Rei?" Riku didn't know how to describe it...but he had actually fell into the water, his entire body flying up and his legs in the air. Riku then took a few moments to try and compose in his mind on what the hell had just happened, and he was now completely drenched because of the strange fall. Riku then glared up to Sora who had pointed at him and started laughing...strange kind of laughter though, Riku noted. Or perhaps it was because he hadn't heard the brunette laugh for a long time, and the boy seemed to remember what laughing was...that made Riku feel extremely warm on the inside. Riku soon followed in laughter, standing up slowly as his white shirt clinged to him in a sticky mess, and patted Sora on the head carefully,
"Close...very close..." Riku muttered from his lips, a strange smile edging on his face.
"Hey you two! Keep up!" Edward yelled back to them, swinging his automail arm, which reminded Riku of the early worries he held for the brunette earlier, now added with the creaky limbs of automail, from what Riku could know about metal, it would probably rust if he didn't give it a good rub-down. Riku turned back to Edward,
"Alright, we're coming!" Riku grabbed Sora's warm, yet very wet flesh right hand and encouraged Sora to move with him, of which the brunette seemed to pout but they moved faster to catch up to the Elric brothers. It was very soon, drenched in water, that they stared up at the large city full of buildings and it was growing dark.
"Wow!" Sora was the first to say, though Riku was a bit surprised as much as Sora, thinking of how it was possible for such large buildings to even stand on this type of island, it was as though the buildings were all crowding at the edges of the island...Riku didn't think it was very possible, but here it was, living proof of the fact he was wrong. The darkening sun started to close in and as they were about to continue their journey...Edward was pushed away harshly into Riku, making both of them fall from the action as Alphonse and Sora stared after the person who had passed them.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Edward got up immediately, appearing very angry as it was a woman that had pushed them both down. The woman laughed charmingly and waved off,
"Sorry about that!" The woman was dressed in a strange black-grayish tight leather and she had a strange hat on her head, covering with a white mask. Riku numbly got up, feeling more sticky for some strange reason and there was a stunned silence as there was the echoing sound of several footsteps echoing throughout the streets. The older boys slowly turned their heads and couldn't help but yell in a panic as a group of policemen and a man carrying handcuffs in the air charged out after the woman. Screams overtook the city as Edward and Riku were run over by the yelling officers, nevermind that Riku could actually think that someone could not see him in the way, but to completely run him over!? There was something very drastic about this world that was not at all right! ((A/N: Importing anime is fun XD)) It must have either been the pain in Riku's lower back, or the pain of slowly realizing that he was melding into the strange physics of this world, but it took Riku quite a few minutes for him to even attempt getting up. The stunned faces of Alphonse and Sora were also not helping.
"Niisan..." Alphonse started but the evil glare emitting from Edward's golden eyes made Alphonse stop his sentence completely. A few more minutes of angered silence surrounded the two when Sora held out his left arm to Riku, looking semi-concerned. Riku gave a loud sigh and took his hand and climbed up, staring down at the angry Edward.
"Hey, we have to get to shelter, unless of course you plan on getting phenomena." Riku said with a slight sneer, recalling the terrible time when Sora had first got that evil disease. Edward sighed a bit, getting up and cracking his back, which made even Alphonse wince as the older Elric stretched a bit,
"Good point, though I don't see what you two are going to change into, you brought no luggage."
"Neither did you." Riku countered, his eyes narrowing angrily. Edward just shrugged and started to walk foreword, intent on finding them a place to stay.
"I wonder what that was about though..." Edward mused, looking up to the growing path of Worlds in the sky, Riku followed the blonde's gaze, hoping almost loudly that he would get off of this World soon...
"Achoo!" Riku froze as the terrible omen of a cold came from directly Sora's mouth. Riku slowly turned, as though afraid to confirm his thoughts, he even had very small, small hopes that it had actually been Alphonse but probably like the heartless, Alphonse did not get colds. And so with a slow twitching of the face, he stared carefully at Sora, who was now holding himself with a whimper. Oh God, WHY!? "Cooo...ld..." Sora whimpered, actually looking like a lost puppy.
"Oh Sora..." Riku moaned loudly, hitting himself on the head, blaming himself as the boy started to shiver pathetically as the shirt clinged to him, not embracing any warmth for comfort. Edward stared at Sora with a slightly sad look and grabbed the boy, starting to lead him off, now even more determined to find a resting-place. Riku and Alphonse followed after, having to dash at a very fast speed to reach behind Edward. "Oye, Edward! Don't run so fast!" Riku demanded, trying to follow after the quick and equally fast moving teenagers ahead of him. Edward just looked back and grinned as they came to a sudden stop in front of a large inn,
"This should do." Edward commented, leading Sora in easily as his brother and caretaker of Sora walked in, Riku looking a bit exhausted. It was probably because he was the only member that was walking that had two basic human legs. Edward just grinned as he got a room for the four, not the cheapest but with a big city, Edward had expected it. When they had reached their room Edward grinned at Alphonse as he placed the girl on a separate bed to sleep on. Riku groaned miserably and sat on Kairi's bed, took off his shirt and wringed it tight on the carpet floor (gaining a protest from Edward) and looked over at Sora, doing a teaching look and wringing out more of his shirt. Sora just stared at him blankly as Edward sighed a bit angrily. Alphonse seemed to grin and snapped his clasps for the front of his armor-piece and Riku stared blankly as Alphonse drew out a trunk.
"I see..." Riku glared at Edward, kindly not taking it lightly, as Edward could have said something earlier.
"Come on Sora, let's get you out of those rags." Edward grinned at the confused brunette, holding up one of his black tang-tops for the sticky boy. Sora stared blankly for a second then passed Edward, pulling out one of Edward's coat, grinning cheerfully and holding it up. "No way! My coat is off limits!" Edward started to chase Sora around the room as the boy was running around with the hoodie attached to his head.
"It's not like it would fit him." Riku muttered and was surprised as Sora and Edward stopped for a second, and Edward faced Riku with a very twitchy face. Riku rose an eyebrow...and yelled as the blonde attacked him, he was even more surprised when Sora joined in cheerfully, the three boys rolling around in a wrestle-maniac and Sora was winning badly. Alphonse just stared, looking desperately like he wanted to stop the mess that Edward had created when Sora rose as victor with a strange work of his human hand, a large 'V'.
"I give, I give!" Edward moaned, as Sora had comfortably settled on Riku and Edward's backs. Alphonse just sighed as Sora made no motion of moving from his winning stance. Riku took that short moment to think about the two who had let them accompany them, there were still very strange things about them but Riku would have to guess they weren't that bad. In the meanwhile, who knew that Sora could beat him so easily with such crappy automail? It almost made Riku feel ashamed of his skills as a fighter, but it was very pleasing that Sora could know enough self-defense if he ever needed it.
"Sora, Sora!" Sora stood up finally, giving relief to the two older ones, hugging his new red coat that he refused to let go of. After a few moments of settling down, Riku had managed to force Sora into Edward's black tang-top that the blonde had offered earlier and make the coat cover the boy comfortably, now trying to clean Sora's automail for the sake of the worry he held earlier. Riku noticed Edward and Alphonse watching him,
"What?"
"Are you an automail engineer? You seem to know how to handle such crafty pieces." Edward asked, somehow a smirk built its way on his face. Riku rose a skeptic eyebrow,
"Crafty is hardly the word..." Riku looked back down at Sora's automail arm, cleaning its surface carefully, "No, I don't know anything about the mechanics of automail..." His father had been a mercenary, had done many jobs and knew many things, most of which Riku used to think were fairy tales. It was kind of funny how Riku could remember it all now, and he felt extremely lucky to have had such a father as his..."Why?"
"It's just you remind me of a friend of ours, she likes cleaning my automail like that whenever she gets the chance." Hm, nice to know that no matter the type of iron or steel, it would go through the same cleaning process. Riku then sighed,
"Did your friend also make your automail?" Edward nodded carefully, though it seemed to be slightly guarded, noticing the tone of voice Riku started using. "Do you think she would make some automail for Sora? I may not know much about automail, but even I can tell these could be a lot better." Riku simply said, going back to his previous mission and cleaning Sora's automail.
"Who knows?" Edward shrugged, not looking like he really cared. Riku stared at the suggested pose, recognizing the tensed position but didn't say anything about it, grinning as he finally finished his job. Sora stood up and stretched and frowned a bit, the Elric brothers and Riku watched as he went out of the room, they waited for the brunette for five minutes. Riku tensed up, frowning darkly as he stood to follow after the path of the brunette, the Elric brothers right behind him. Almost immediately there were cries of pain, yells of panic surrounded the inn. Riku growled, forcing the heartless to sense the trouble around, had they really traveled so fast? The heartless were known for being tenacious but this was ridiculous! It must have been the heartless in Sora's shadow, pulling and taunting the heartless to come absorb the pure heart of Sora. Riku's heart tightened as the screams stopped, and a body flew in front of their vision, the caretaker's face blank as the body disappeared into a flouting glowing heart. Riku did not stay to see the heart become a shadow, but continued in a faster pace, expecting to see the worse.
"SORA!" Riku yelled, demanding to hear the boy’s voice and he was glad to see the boy. But...something was wrong, Sora was staring down. Riku followed his blue eye's gaze and fear tightened in his heart. A little girl was lying on the ground, gashes dug into the girls side but the biggest wound was in the shape of a very blunt object...And no heartless had the power of a blunt object to bash anyone, besides they preferred to torture their victims with sharp gashes that appeared physical but was actually always targeted at their heart...but that blow. "Sora?" Sora looked up to Riku, startled and he held out the Three Wishes,
"Riku...death..." Sora dropped the keyblade, it disappeared immediately as Sora dropped to the ground after it, "I DIDN'T DO IT!" Riku stared, wildly surprised as Sora screamed out a comprehendible sentence.
"What the hell are these things!?" Edward came running with Alphonse right behind him, shadow heartless trailing after them. Riku growled, knowing he didn't have any time to deal with this, imitating the stance Edward had held earlier when he first saw Alchemy, he clapped his hands and pulled his wicked blade from the ground, shocked to find the alchemic lightning flashing around him as he easily ran through and destroyed the shadow heartless.
"Sora, are you alright?" Alphonse asked, bending down to the terrified brunette while Edward summoned up his blade to help fight Riku fight the heartless around.
"I didn't do it..." Sora yelled again, holding his head tightly as he curled himself into a little ball. Edward growled, backing up to Riku until they covered each other’s backs,
"Why the hell aren't I hitting these things!?"
"How should I know?" Riku yelled back, blocking as one the shadow flung to him, very strange...he couldn't quite grip control over these heartless, probably because they were heartless made of this new world. But surely they had a strong weakness...The two fighting looked up as the lights of the inn started to dim and Riku heard the loud sound of Sora's gasp, instantly during the darkness, Riku summoned a fireball right at the edge of his blade, and shot it directly at the shadow heartless easily from the light of the fire. Riku smirked confidently as the familiar glow of the light pink and purple disappeared into the air, he then held up his blade, preparing a multi cast of fireballs when for a strange instant, the battle stopped. It grew deadly quiet as the lights flashed back on in full force and there were no signs of the heartless, the only sign of a struggle was the strange rolling glass bottles around the tile floors. Edward and Riku kept up their guard, glaring around while trying to check up on the others. Riku sighed as it seemed Sora somehow managed to fall asleep during the strange battle...must be a strange strain on Sora's (now) short mind.
"Put your hands where we can see them, now!" Riku and Edward's gazes immediately went defensive but flinched as it was the detective and his shogun of police from earlier. After sparing a few glances at each other, both sighed and held their hands up high, waiting for the consequences of their self-defense.
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So that was how they got into their current situation in this cell, Riku thought blankly as he adjusted the two sleeping persons on his shoulders. In retrospect, fighting the heartless in that inn was definitely not the smartest thing to do...and Sora was probably still getting a cold, especially now when they were buried in a cold dank and dark prison...at least they didn't have anyone else in there with them. Riku looked up to Edward, a dull look upon his face,
"Are you ever going to stop that...dancing?" In actuality, it was Edward complaining a bit to let out, something about a State Alchemist within the rant, but Riku didn't care enough to listen. Edward faced back at him and sighed, rubbing the back of his head,
"They didn't even give us a questioning! What kind of crappy police-force is this?" Riku shrugged at the question, not being able to answer it either, in fact, before they ever started on this crazy adventure, he wasn't aware there was a force called 'pole-lease'. Now that Riku had thought about it even more, why didn't Edward just clap his hands and transmute the bars into something else? These police must be some power to reckon with.
"Achoo!" Sora sneezed for a second in his sleep and turned a bit to nudge Riku's side, which made Riku a little off balance and made Kairi accidentally hit the cold bench he was sitting on. Kairi's body had actually reacted to that with a loud hiss, but remained incoherent otherwise. Riku sighed in an aggravated state as Sora stood up, looking around while rubbing his eyes. It took the brunette a few more minutes to realize that they weren't at the inn and he panicked, though Riku had to admit, it was amusing to see Sora hug at Alphonse's waist, crying out 'Niisan' as Alphonse was also now at a worrisome state. Riku continued to stare as a sound of a certain metal door opening came to his senses and the detective that had earlier arrested and ran he and Edward earlier came in, looking very well ashamed.
"I am very sorry, sir alchemist, I had no idea you were the Full Metal Alchemist, please forgive us. But we have had our hands full lately." The detective stepped out of the way and Edward shoved his way through as Alphonse kindly took Kairi and Riku helped Sora move. They were dragged off into a room, with very dim lights, a small table, and very uncomfortable chairs. "I am sorry, really. It's just that the circumstances were against you." Riku kept his mouth shut, and decided firmly to let Edward handle it, the blonde-haired boy already seemed to look foreword to talking, so Riku would let him.
"Yeah, but you didn't even let us in for a questioning, that's just a crappy excuse." Sora sneezed at this moment, looking more miserable by the minute. The detective looked at him for a quick second with slight sympathy, seeing as how they were all just children (physically that is, mentally, he wasn't so sure). "By the way, which Headquarters did you call to confirm that I was a part of the state?" Edward said casually, though slipping a bit in his tone that he may be worried about the answer.
"Well I tried Central first, but they transferred me to the East, made me talk to your superior, a one Colonel Roy Mustang." Riku was fascinated by the twitch in Edward's eyes as the detective continued, "He confirmed that you were a part of the state, and has orders for you to help us capture our thief, Psiren." There were a few moments of silence and of which Riku was well aware that Alphonse seemed to stare at his brother.
"He...did what?"
"Gave you orders to help us, and it's really the least you could do really, especially with the evidence and circumstances again-..." The detective was trailed off by his sentence as he looked up to see Edward's ultimate fury.
"He did this on purpose!" There was a stunned silence as Edward went into a terrible rant, most of it was somehow killing Mustang because of his evil 'I-know-all-ness'. The detective then sighed and faced over to Riku, simply starting back from where he had been interrupted.
"So, you are going to help us, right?"
"Don't look at me, I'm a civilian." Riku muttered back, shrugging in a slightly bored matter. The detective opened a mouth to put his thoughts in about this when a very loud and uncomfortable,
"ACHOO!" The occupants of the room paused as Sora rubbed his nose irritably with red eyes and looked terribly tired. "Cooollld..." Sora moaned, and leaned against Alphonse as though this was a comforting motion.
"Uhh...is this kid okay?"
"I would think not. You kept him in a cold cell and he hasn't been able to rest at all since we've got here." Riku scorned, finding himself becoming extremely angry for some strange odd reason, but his anger was somehow overwhelmed with distress, "Can't you get him to a hospital?"
"It's not that bad is it?" The detective laughed and held out his hand as though to pat Sora's head, but surprisingly, he got bit instead. The detective yelped as Riku thoughtfully said that,
"He hasn't had anything to eat either." A few minutes later, they were all sitting down, all eating food (excluding Alphonse who offered his food to Sora, who eagerly took it) and staring up to the sore detective.
"So what's this about a thief?"
"Ah yes...Miss Psiren has eluded us for the past couple of...months." Riku coughed and hid a smile as Edward muttered a 'Not surprised' as they continued to eat contently.
"So why have you been having so much trouble capturing this...Psiren?" Edward asked, stopping from his outrageous metabolism for that moment. Riku was rather surprised by how much the older Elric brother could eat, of course that surprise was only surpassed by the fact they were using a foreign tool to eat this strange food.
"We're not sure, she's just always slipping out of our grasp." Riku had to bite back another smile, as Edward scoffed angrily. Edward then just sighed as Sora sneezed once again, rubbing his nose miserably.
"Do you know where she's going to strike next?" Alphonse helpfully asked with a hopeful tone in his voice, snatching Sora's chopsticks as he had started to chew on them. The detective squirmed as Alphonse said this, which made the older two glare suspiciously. And if you were prone to be under the glares of one Edward Elric and Riku, you would be as nervous the detective was at that instant.
"Actually, yes, we know exactly where and when she's going to strike."
"Then what do you need our help for?" Riku and Edward both yelled, looking as angry as their tones had suggested. The detective flinched from their gazes, amazing how two boys whose bodies obviously said child could instill fear to run down his spine. The detective then nodded casually,
"We're not sure why, but she just...escapes us! It's like she's using magic or something against us!" At the word magic, Edward and Riku looked over at each other with exactly one thought: Alchemy. Even though Riku had done alchemy only once, he could understand that this world's use of 'magic' was through the use of alchemy. Poor fools, no wonder why they couldn't capture this 'elusive thief'.
"Right, well just give us the time and place, and we'll be there." Edward then finally commented, seeing as there was no way out of this in the first place, especially with an order from his 'superior'. Riku smiled almost sympathetically for Edward, but had no real reason to really care, for all he knew, Edward was probably used to stuff like this happening. The detective nodded and gave Edward the time and place, while also handing a map to the short blonde and the four stood up and walked out of the station. Riku frowned though as they slowly started to leave, his stomach started to feel very strange...like a terrible cramp was starting at the edge but slowly working its way up. There were two loud THUNKS to the ground as Edward started to complain loudly and Sora just moaned in straight pain.
"Niisan!" Alphonse panicked especially as Riku also finally fell, the strength of pain in his stomach was overwhelming! Riku had sordidly placed in his mind never to eat foreign food for a long time.
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Riku had found himself awoken in a very strange place with a strange ceiling made of tile. Riku couldn't help but fear standing back up, afraid of maybe his stomach collapsing on him again, he hadn't even eaten that much! But Sora had...oh that poor boy, Riku knew he could take the pain but Sora? Riku's vision was replaced with a woman with blonde hair and enchanting blue eyes who touched his forehead.
"Ah, you seemed to have made a full recovery." The blonde smiled cheerfully and Riku stood up at those words, feeling much better. Riku then looked up to the blonde, narrowing his eyes as he read a nametag that was labeled 'Clara'.
"Where are-?"
"Oh, the other two who had food poisoning as well? They're resting in a different room, they had a severe case." Clara sighed simply at what Riku could describe at tsking. Riku wasn't surprised but at least he knew it wasn't a common thing, and nothing life threatening either.
"May I see them?" Riku asked carefully, his gaze switching around to the small room he was in, carefully seeing if anything was wrong.
"Sure. Not sure if they'll be awake or not, but no reason you can't see them." Riku was annoyed by the blonde's attitude, it was...perky. But whatever, she had helped him get over the evil case of food poisoning and he would withstand such a stupid disposition for awhile. Riku followed her as she led the way to Sora and Edward, as they entered the room, Riku was pleased to see Alphonse in there as well, right by his brother's bed-side.
"They really shouldn't have ate so much," Riku noted outloud as he looked over to Sora whose face was in absolute misery. Riku was thankful he didn't have a high metabolism rate as it seemed to have saved him from the torture of cramps.
"Riiikuuu." Sora moaned, peering one eye open and Riku sighed as a reply as Sora held up his human hand and tried to make a grab at the boy. Riku was displeased to think it might have been in blame for the older one, but oh well. He let the poor boy grab at his shirt and watched as the boy relentlessly tugged it, as though it was going to stop the pain. Riku couldn't help but give Sora a sore smile and patted the boy’s head, it was then he noticed that Sora's bandage had been taken off. It was an ugly, furious burn mark, spread from his forehead to the edge of his blue eye. Even his blue eye seemed to be burned almost shut with a taunting itchy look to it. Riku felt immediate guilt as Sora kept tugging at his long sleeve, this must have tortured the boy far worse then his own limbs.
"Lousy Aquroya food." Edward moaned and Riku ignored him, grabbing at a gauze and another bandage that was very helpfully in the room and started to wrap it around Sora's head carefully.
"It wasn't so bad, was it?" Alphonse asked and Riku took a frustrated bite to his lips as he was failing in wrapping Sora's bandage. Rose had made this look a lot easier then it really was.
"I guess it could be worse." Edward finally realized and looked over at the two that were accompanying them. Edward stared long and hard, he had the whole night of pain to think, and he was very curious about Riku as of right now. The boy had performed alchemy without using an array, and even made a flame! And he had done it very easily. There was something that made the two far stranger then Edward had given them credit for, and eventually, he would delve into their minds to find out, but for now...
"So you all seem to have made a full recovery." Clara had walked into the room, checking on their temperatures with her hand with a clear smile. Sora pouted as Clara checked him though, as though he was thinking of something serious and was interrupted by the blonde's entrance.
"Yeah, thanks for the care." Edward interrupted though as Sora opened his mouth as though to complain and surprised the nurse and his accomplice's by getting up with ease, while stretching his flesh arm. "So what's the bill?" Clara smiled simply and produced a slip of paper and Edward stared at it very calmly...then he twitched dangerously. Riku was almost fascinated by the ugly grimace on Edward's face, but was surprised as the boy grumbled and asked angrily for a pen, of which the nurse supplied and signed the bill. Well that was awfully nice of Edward to sign for their own expenses. Riku stood up and helped Sora up, and followed after Edward as the blonde boy left. Alphonse looked a little on helplessly before bowing politely to Clara and thanked her for the services.
"So are we going to back to that crappy detective?" Riku then realized the sentence that came out from his own mouth, he was starting to talk like Edward! That was very strange!
"Nah, we'll report to him later, he's more then likely going to be at that annoying thief’s new target at night." Riku stared quietly then couldn't help but voice,
"Then what are we going to do?" Edward grinned and patted Sora, who was currently playing with the hoodie that came with the coat,
"I'm very curious on Sora's memory loss, that and I have to research up on another subject, we're going to be going to the library in this overpopulated excuse for a city." Riku blinked, very slowly. What did the library have to do with Sora's memory? Then again, perhaps there were some books that focused on memory loss? Although Riku wasn't much of a fan of reading, he would read if it could do anything to help his current situation...like a way out of this world...
"I see." Riku simply replied as Edward took off with Sora, Sora laughing as though it was a game, which it probably was, oh how nice it would be to be as ignorant as Sora. Riku sighed slightly but stopped his complete course of action as Alphonse had settled to walking with him. A slow but sure pace. Alphonse was carrying Kairi once again and Riku frowned as Alphonse timidly asked,
"Riku, why hasn't your friend woken up? I haven't seen her awake...and I stayed up all night..." Alphonse's voice sounded as tired as Riku knew his body would be if he had the ability to stay up all night. Alphonse probably never fell asleep, like the heartless in the back of Riku's mind.
"...Human transmutation...it's the reason why you're stuck in that body, isn't it?" Alphonse seemed to be quieted from this sentence as both boys continued to follow after the sure path that Edward was leading them too.
"Yes." He finally replied back, and his cold tints of highlight in the armor stared back, "Did you...?"
"Yes." Riku lied easily, this would probably make the boy's stop trying to question on their position, especially if it had something to relate to something as treacherous as human transmutation. Although Riku didn't know what the magnitude of this simply brought, he knew that it would probably stop the conversation completely.
"Is that why Sora's...?" Alphonse trailed off even more, especially as some woman giggled to them and waved to the two very charmingly. Riku sighed, and looked away, that he wouldn't be able to lie about.
"I don't know, we were away from each other...for all I know, he could have just bumped his head very hard." Alphonse didn't speak about it anymore, perhaps it was the strange way Riku was looking down at the streets with a small smile. It was true, Riku didn't know the truth, and it felt very strange not to know it either, even though he had unlimited power at his fingertips, it still wasn't enough to bring him the answers that he wanted or needed. They finally made it to the library and Riku was a little surprised that the library wasn't extremely huge, probably enough room for a couple of children's books and some philosophical adult books, but still, Edward seemed relieved to wonder into the steps of the library and enter in the strangely smelled library. "So Edward, where do you plan on searching first?" Edward just smirked confidently back first and dragged Sora with him as the two went into darker shelves of the library. Riku sighed and just wondered around by himself, he didn't have a too good feeling of the library, perhaps there were heartless somewhere he could deal with quietly without causing a commotion.
Edward stared at the way Riku walked off and frowned lightly, he wasn't too sure of the silver-haired other, but he couldn't keep his eyes off of him permanently...but for now, Sora's own problem called to his scientific mind. There had been many people before in the past that had a supreme memory loss, but a complete and total case of forgotten memory like Sora's was very strange. The mere thought of speculating how he reacted to learning and even maybe remembering things from other situations taunted Edward's scientific mind. But as a human, he also was curious on finding answers from Sora while helping the brunette.
"Ed?" Sora asked, almost cutely as he poked at the many books on the shelves, fingering the spines as he took the steps through the halls. Sora stared at Edward for an answer, Edward just smiled back anxiously, also looking through the spines, only for titles and not for beauty purposes.
"Sora, try and find something labeled 'Memories: Scientific Theory'." Edward tried, hoping that maybe Sora could help him. Sora pouted and Edward just laughed back, he should have known better that reading would be just as hard for the brunette. That was really terrible though, Edward would hate it if he was in Sora's position, but luckily he was not. So instead, Edward joined Sora's side and smiled as he grabbed one of the books from the shelf to study. Sora stared at Edward with a curious look, bending his head down to look over the blonde's shoulder to try and understand the language in the book. Unfortunately the brunette could not distinguish one letter from another, therefore appearing a lot like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. Sora grew frustrated at himself as it seemed Edward could read it very easily, especially with how the boy was turning the pages at a fast-pace.
"Ed..." Sora tried to voice in, but Edward ignored him for the moment, staring quietly at the many thesis of memory loss. Sora frowned and walked off by himself, looking around for something that he may have understood. The place had a creepy familiar feeling to it, but Sora didn't know how or why it seemed so very important. Sora cross paths deeper into the many halls and blinked as he saw a girl, looking at him with sad green eyes.
"Sora..." Sora couldn't help it, he ran to the pathway the woman was, as she walked off. Sora felt a little upset as he turned to find that she had disappeared, how very strange.
"Hey Sora, did Squall hit you too hard on the head again?" Sora moved his head to see who else knew his name, this time it was another girl, though she seemed far younger then the green-eyed woman from earlier. The girl winked at him and gave him a brilliant grin and walked off with a wave. Sora felt torn as he followed after her, the pathways growing so much darker.
"Kind of funny...the Keyblade chose you as it's wielder, but your heart is strong, isn't it, Sora?" This time it was a man's voice, and it was from another darker hallway, but he followed without questioning, wanting to know who these mysterious people were. Really...this was ridiculous!
"Don't worry, You'll find your light...as I will." A blonde...Why was he familiar, Sora took another turn and stared helplessly as the four mysterious people stood there, in front of a door, the girls were smiling in a very strange way while the men looked away, as though they were embarrassed.
"...Why...?" Sora asked, as though the illusions would answer back, but he thought better. The illusions disappeared into a mystic air and Sora somehow felt incredibly sad. "Why?" Sora questioned the halls, staring up to the dark pathway that lead to the ceiling of the library, Sora trembled as though he felt like he was in pain. And he felt so deeply in pain, but then he shook his head, "I didn't...!" Sora then became alarmed as the door in front of him trembled in a roar and Sora felt frozen as the strange creepy yellow eyes opened up and the strange heartless started crawling closer and closer. Sora started to shake angrily, why were they attacking him!? Why wouldn't they leave him alone, he did nothing to deserve this! ...Did he?
"Sora!" Sora moved to see his savior as Riku slashed his way through the heartless that had surrounded Sora, "Are you okay?" Well the truthful answer was he was definitely not, but he did not know how to put this in a normal form. So Sora just whined a little and clinged to Riku that one instant, not wanting to bring out the weapon of d e a t h...? Death? Riku slashed through the heartless fairly easily and Sora, although he was in a slight mind crisis, he couldn't help but stare in admiration as Riku's eyes glazed brightly against each slice he made in the air, and the heartless cooing down into the floors, disappearing completely as Riku placed his weapon away. Sora frowned and stared up at Riku sadly,
"Riku..." Sora then looked down, as though in shame and Riku stared back down in a little curiosity.
"Sora are you okay?" Riku asked, bending down just a bit to touch the top of Sora's forehead, Sora continued to frown, a new question arising in his mind.
"Death?" Riku froze at those words slightly, a careful look came across his face as he bent down a bit more to help Sora stand up straight, as he tried to explain what death meant to the amnesia boy.
"Death...when someone...or something," Riku tried to choose the words carefully, what had Sora's mother said to him? Sora's mind was very much like an infant's, no concept of the more terrible pangs of reality, so he would have to break it across to him carefully. Riku then wondered slightly if the girl in the inn was really dead or not. "When they stop...completely stop. They don't wake up, no matter what you do, death is a deep sleep." Riku tried, but saw Sora grip his right hand tightly and Riku sighed as he saw the frustrated look in his friend's blue eyes.
"Riku...Death?"
"Yes Sora...I...I can die too." Sora seemed alarmed by these words and Riku wasn't too surprised to find Sora cradling him, hugging him tightly as though that would stop the cold scythe of death. Riku looked away, trying his best not to think of the subject, after all, there was no way he was going to die now.
"Riku..." Riku sighed and separated from the hug that Sora had seemed to have so tightly on him, and gave Sora a firm look,
"I won't be dying soon though, okay? We're going to get out of here and then we'll find Kairi's heart..." What would they do after that though? Riku didn't know, but he really actually didn't care, Sora was going to stay on his side and everything would be okay as soon as Kairi woke up, right? Sora blinked into Riku's determined set of eyes, and he slowly nodded, as though being able to read the pattern in Riku's head. Sora was then amused to see Edward's face pop out, his braid swinging below him and Edward grinned at the sight of the two.
"There you are!" Edward continued grinning and walked to the two, and Riku couldn't feel inclined to be suspicious as Edward got closer.
"We were just looking for a book." Riku replied, turning to the blonde to stare directly into the golden iris, imitating the other's grin.
"I see." Riku recognized that suspicious tone, but said nothing against it as Edward folded his hands behind him and he looked over at Sora, actually giving a friendly grin and Riku couldn't help but feel just a little annoyed, "Did you find it?" Riku shook his head as Sora nodded. This made Riku slightly surprised as Sora walked into the room the heartless emerged from earlier and brought out a medium-sized book that said, "Alchemy for Beginners."
"Ed..." Sora seemed to ask, pushing the book slightly into Edward's hands, looking like he wanted someone to read it to him. Edward looked just as surprised as Riku and stared at the book, almost a gentle look appeared on his face.
"Maybe later Sora," Edward handed the book back and Sora seemed very saddened by this, "We need to capture that thief, remember?" Edward grinned at Sora and the boy grinned back, liking the sound of the sentence. Sora then skipped off, book in his hands, ignorant to the fact that it belonged to the library and Edward was about to move after when Riku coldly asked,
"Did you find your book?" Edward faced back to him for a second and answered the truth.
"Nope." Riku was slightly stilled by these words but nodded with a slight twitch to his lips, but ignored the feeling as he walked after Sora, to make the boy put the book back.
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There the four sat, around a carefully guarded artifact in a glass case, Sora was bored and playing a bit more with his hoodie, Alphonse was quiet as were the older two, though they were quiet in a very thoughtful way, but also looked bored out of their minds. Edward sighed in a really agitated way and Riku couldn't help but sigh after him...it had already been half-an-hour since the scheduled date on Psiren's note...and Riku could tell Edward's patience was quickly running out. Riku was almost grateful for the interruption from the detective, who was grinning as though he won a battle.
"Aha! She must not be showing up due to the threat of the great state alchemist!" Edward sighed once again and looked away from the artifact.
"She may have just lost the time..." Alphonse put in slightly, trying to calm down his brother slightly, as the other seemed to be getting slightly anxious.
"Or maybe some heartless got her." Riku muttered underneath his breath, and for some reason was hoping that this the case. Who knew why though? Such ridiculous thoughts.
"Yeah, those heartless are a real pain in the butt." Riku nodded once, and couldn't help but freeze slightly and turn to a grinning woman, holding the so-called artifact in her hand and waving with her other. Everyone gaped as she leapt out of a quick and easy escape and she continued leaping, while most of the boys stood there stunned.
"GET HER!" The detective screamed, tears nearly pouring out of his eyes from another failed case. Edward stood very still for the second the detective ran out the room,
"Heartless?" Riku faked innocence and shrugged,
"Who knows?" Edward glared slightly, but took out to the window that Psiren took, more then likely to follow the woman. Alphonse seemed to moan at this and followed after his brother, though at a rather slower pace then the angered Elric. Riku stared into the empty space then looked over at Sora, who blinked innocently and Riku chuckled, leading Sora out of the building and on his little quest to find the Elric brothers.
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"Edward...please explain to me...how it is possible to hit your head that hard on a wall?" Riku couldn't help but ask skeptically, folding his arms at the angry alchemist. Though Alphonse seemed to be happy with the fact that his brother got hit in the head, Riku couldn't help but think it maybe had to do with something that had to do with that preppy nurse.
"Well when you're chasing after a thief in an alleyway without any lights, I'm certain that you would bump your face into a wall too."
"Actually, I would have enough sense to stop chasing her in an alleyway." Edward glared at Riku and Riku glared back, they installed a glaring match but Sora interrupted pulling on Riku's sleeve,
"Riku..." Sora whined and Riku was stumped on what the boy could possibly want...at least until a grumpy growl erupted from his stomach and the boy looked at him with bright blue puppy dog eyes. Riku held back his moan and sighed, grabbing Sora's hand to lead him to dining hall. On the way, Riku stopped to find a very interesting sight. Clara was standing by some plants that were bathing in the sunlight, when there was a brilliant familiar light that Riku recognized as alchemy taken throughout the room. Riku rubbed his eyes and looked at Sora, to see a stubborn determined look on his face and Riku nodded back, he would have to tell Edward it seems. Riku moved out from the room's point of view and continued on his quest to help Sora for food. They had cheerfully found the dining area and as fate seemed to have it, Edward was chomping down hospital food in such a fast way, Riku thought of comparing him to a pig and its slop. Riku sat next to Edward as Sora cheerfully ran off, giggling and the nurses cooed over his cuteness and gave him food.
"So...that nurse, Clara..." Riku started, his voice sounding careful, as though not to give out his position to the other people within the business. Edward actually stopped from his eating, and nodded to acknowledge Riku's sentence.
"Yeah, I've had my thoughts on her too, of course, Alphonse doesn't agree with me." Edward grinned and Riku couldn't help but grin either, although he wondered what made Alphonse even like the preppy nurse, it was a nice feeling to think that someone in Alphonse's position could even comprehend the simple emotion of liking someone.
"Poor guy."
"That's the way it is." There were a few moments of silence then Riku asked,
"So, are you going to bust her?"
"...Not yet..." Riku couldn't contain his surprise, but he managed to limit it to his eyes. Edward saw this look easily and just gave a soft smile back,
"I found her out last night, she was taking the energy source of plants to perform her alchemy, she said she was doing it for the hospital." Riku furrowed his gaze, not believing it. "You see...this hospital’s going to get demolished soon, very soon. But she says she steals to keep it alive, so other people don't die." Riku understood that, stealing for others to live sounded like a right cause, but there was still something fishy about it.
"So what are you going to do then?"
"I guess I'll wade it out." Riku rose one eyebrow,
"Wade? That doesn't seem like something you would do."
"Oh, and you've become an expert on me?" Riku folded his arms and shrugged, no of course not. It takes years and years for someone to know everything about one whom they would call a friend...years that he was going to have to repeat when it came to Sora...and what about Kairi? What if she woke up with no memories? Those years would be very long and tiresome...
"Sora!" Sora came into the conversation and Riku yelled as Sora dumped a pudding cup into his hair. Sora was sucking on a spoon that was probably the pudding before and Riku glared at Sora. Edward laughed at Riku and Riku ignored Edward for the rest of the time they were in the hospital. It was not something like Riku, he knew, but for some reason he could feel himself changing...and not just because of the slow control of the heartless in his own heart.
The night had passed as another eventful night of Edward chasing Psiren (though, this time, wisely avoiding the direct path of an alleyway). Though Riku couldn't understand for the life of him exactly why Edward had let Psiren go. Earlier on, Psiren had actually been captured in a primitive trap known as a cage, and Edward had a small discussion with her and after a few minutes of silent thought, he let Psiren go. Alphonse was overjoyed, but Riku himself was irritable, but he let it be as in the morning, they all stood in front of a demolished hospital. Edward and Alphonse seemed stunned from the fact that they had been gypped, when Clara walked up, and even Sora seemed surprised as she adorned a nun attire, she sadly proclaimed that she could not save the hospital and she said she had become a woman under God, to help save the after-lives of people. Riku didn't have to see the torn down Church the next morning, as Edward got in an even sorrowful mood.
"THAT IS IT!" Edward yelled, he wasn't going to believe another word that...that...COW said. Alphonse seemed timid against his brother's anger, and Riku couldn't help but finally feel a little happy as it seemed they were finally going to go on...After all, this island was really getting on his nerves. They received Psiren's calling card and almost immediately Edward dragged everyone to the said place of thieving and Riku had to admit, it was rather nice watch Edward chase after her in the full moonlight, and perform alchemy left to right. Psiren was running for her life as she even jumped into a lake to probably swim peacefully away from Edward's grasp...A very laughable thought, especially as Edward clapped angrily and the alchemic ray of light appeared and Sora oohed as a stone hand emerged from the water and in the grasp of it was Psiren, who was struggling unhappily. Edward smirked at her confidently and Psiren looked just miserable as she admitted defeat.
"Thank you so much for capturing this thief," The detective saluted Edward and Edward did the same back as Psiren pouted in her wet leather and both hands tied back together. Psiren then grinned at Edward in a seductive way and winked,
"Yeah, it was fun playing with you. Oh and about that Philosopher’s Stone, I heard a rumor that it was being made in Xenotime." Edward seemed pleasantly surprised by this and grinned once again. Alphonse even seemed to be smiling as the brigade of cops carried Psiren, or better known as Clara, off. Riku looked over at Edward, who just simply held out a hand as though a peace treaty.
"I'll let you follow us until we get back to Headquarters...and get Sora some better automail parts." Riku felt a little surprised by this, but a small smirk answered back Edward's own,
"Alright." Riku and Edward were off in a standoff for a few seconds, but reached an agreement. With that small annoying adventure, the four with unconscious girl walked the path to another pathway for what they wanted.
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It had been quite a few days until they arrived in Xenotime, most of the reason why was because Edward had to send out a report to his 'superior' and mysteriously the next day Edward would get a note back, in which he would burn into little bitty pieces and bury the ashes under three feet holes. Riku was continuing to grow in interest to this odd Mustang character. For someone for Edward to seem to loathe entirely, and from the temper-tantrums that he had seen the state alchemist go through before, Roy Mustang had to be a very interesting person. Though, he would also probably be a person that Riku would end up hating in the end as well...but no matter.
"Riku!" Sora pouted up at him, shoving a book in his face, as though demanding the other boy to read it to him. Riku sighed and stared down at the book that Edward decided to graciously buy, Riku swore Edward had done it just to annoy him. Riku stared at the cover, which was labeled "Alchemy for Beginners" and also had Sora's name in a very hard to read text. Riku knew it had been Sora to write this, glad to know that someone was teaching Sora how to write...now if only that someone would teach Sora to read.
"Okay, okay." Sora grinned and jumped to the seat next to him, leaning against Riku so he could see the text as well. Riku sighed and opened the book, frowning as he found hard equations and a mass of symbols only on the first page. Riku hoped that it may have been an intro page, but he quickly flipped through the book and was disappointed. "Damn you Edward." Riku grimaced, trying to make to and from the other arrays and all the understandable text.
"What was that?" Edward asked and Riku couldn't help but jump as the voice came drifting from behind him. Riku then glared up at Edward and Sora grinned at him cheerfully,
"You heard me." Edward laughed, and ignored Riku's angry position and turned to Sora,
"We're just about to Xenotime." Riku nodded in acknowledgement then frowned a bit,
"What's Xenotime like?" Edward shrugged, never having been there himself. Sora seemed to smile at that thought strangely, especially as the train very soon came to a stop. Alphonse came thunking up behind his brother and Riku immediately noticed something different. "Where's Kairi?" Riku was astonished at Alphonse's response, if armor could blush, that was what Alphonse was doing. Edward grinned in a strange grin Riku never thought he would see on his face,
"He's carrying her inside," A pointed thumb gave Alphonse even more embarrassment, "After all, it would seem weird if we carried an unconscious female everywhere we went." Riku nodded but he couldn't help but join in Edward's lecherous grin in teasing the younger brother.
"Niisan! It isn't like that! Riku, don't encourage him!" Alphonse seemed so embarrassed and Sora tilted his head in confusion as Edward and Riku actually joined each other in a laugh, starting to board off the station. Alphonse followed, complaining of Edward and Riku's recent behavior and Sora also just followed after, and curious on what had happened. Almost surprisingly, it wasn't that long of a walk to Xentotime. But when they arrived, the Elric brothers and two were slightly surprised that it was similar to a dust city, at least in the retrospect to the fact that it seemed empty. At least if not for the mansion and trees surrounding in the distance. When they had reached villager's sight distance, they were all surprised to watch some villagers with mining picks running by them, yelling about someone got caught in the minefields. Edward narrowed his eyes immediately and ran after the other villagers, Sora following right behind as though sensing the same kind of danger that was being said.
"Help!" There was a dark muffled voice within the mineshafts, severe coughing followed soon after. The people stood there, helpless, though many were trying to get rid of the great big clumps that had fallen. It seemed that she was also stuck under a fallen mine cart, and she was crying in fear. Edward frowned and ran foreword, clapping his hands immediately and touching the cart. What surprised Edward was that Sora was trying to do the same thing, and the huge cart disappeared into two iron blocks, popping easily on each side of the girl. Elisa stared up with wide bright eyes, her face stuck in her sob but then she jumped up and hugged Edward, continuing to cry.
"Elisa!"
"Papa!" The two were met together again and Edward couldn't help but grin. All the people who had came to help looked at their heroes with praise. Edward continued to grin, although in the back of his mind wheels were turning more and more about Sora. How very strange, the boy had clapped his hands, perfectly imitating him and they both had the same intention in mind, turning the cart into iron. How very strange.
"Ah, you're welcome." Edward suddenly burst, as several thank yous and praises came his way. Sora blinked as the same things went his way, but he wasn't sure how to react, so he ran behind Riku, looking that same curious look but afraid to ask the question. Riku sighed and just bowed his head in every time they were thanked. Sora was maturing a bit at least, Riku thought. Though Riku also found it strange that Sora could just clap his hands and perform alchemy just like Edward. But no matter, as long as Sora was happy and for once wasn't getting into trouble.
"No, no, please, we should thank you for helping Elisa, please, come have a treat with us." Edward grinned warily,
"I'm sorry but we really should get go-"
"Nonsense!" Edward yelled as he was lifted over the older and taller man over his shoulder, Edward complained massively while everyone just followed faithfully, that including Alphonse, Riku, and Sora. When they had reached to a homely inn there was a large gathering around where the man had forced Edward to sit and food brought to the tables, everyone was eating and drinking ale or other types happily. Edward sighed, looking actually grateful for food. Riku prepared himself for strange food and strange ways to eat, but for once there were no too foreign of food and Riku could finally eat without being too suspicious. Sora of course was digging in it when there was a loud slam of a door.
"Elisa! Elisa! Is she alright!?" The party quieted down coldly, everyone was giving the man cold glares. The man had strange blackish type of hair while it covered his left eye, and he seemed to be out of breath for traveling. The man calmed himself and stared around, happily spotting Elisa but her father marched up, staring at him with a set glare.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to see if Elisa was alright!"
"You're the one who sent her to the mines in the first place aren't you? Bastard!" The man started to draw out his fist but was stopped as Elisa came up hugging her father, begging for her not to hurt her uncle. The father heaved a sigh and banished the other to go away. The other nodded and bid Elisa a happy good-bye, happy to see her in good condition and walked out of the tavern. There were a few moments of silence because of the anger and tension there was earlier, but soon the party started again.
"I heard the Philosopher’s Stone is going to complete soon." Riku knew Edward listening by the peak of his eye contact, slightly moving towards whom was speaking.
"Ah, you seem interested in the stone." The father came to sit next to Edward, grinning almost eagerly, "Are you here to help aid Doctor Magwar?" Edward tilted one eyebrow up and Riku couldn't help but notice the look of intrigue, however there was also a slight frown on his end. Edward was seeing something that Riku was not.
"Yeah I suppose," Edward finally replied, looking away for a second to drink a cup of juice. Riku almost coughed out his juice as Alphonse prevented Sora from eating a fork once again.
"That's great, Doctor Magwar could always use new minds to help with the research for the stone...by the way, what are all of your names?" Riku frowned, hearing a bit of a testy tone in the voice, but only showed his concern through his frown. Edward grinned cockily however,
"I'm Edward Elric, and this is my brother, Alphonse Elric." The tavern seemed to pause once again, throwing glares towards the brothers. The man held a firm fake grin on his face, as though waiting to find out the remaining names. Riku frowned and sighed as Sora proclaimed cheerfully,
"Sora!" But Riku refused to give his name and put this firm thought across his face, waiting for the man to make his move.
"But that's not possible." One of the people in the crowd muttered coolly, and Edward blinked, this time in pure curiosity.
"And why not?"
"Because the real Elric brothers are already helping Dr. Magwar." This stunned Edward and Alphonse into a deep pause, a pause of pure shock. Even Riku had paused from his set frown, that was very, very strange. Riku was then very surprised when they found themselves outside of the tavern, thrown out and all over each other. Except Sora, Sora was escorted in a kind way, which irritated Riku to no end. Riku wasn't then to surprised when Edward moved from his ground position and started to yell on the top of his lungs at the tavern, and Riku surmised that, that was pretty loud.
"I'M GOING TO FIND THOSE DAMNED BASTARDS AND RIP THEIR THROATS OUT!" Riku got up from the ground, dusting off the dirt, really not used to the physics of this strange land, and he continued to stare at Edward while Sora looked quite surprised. Alphonse also got up, and Riku helped him check if Kairi was okay, which she was but Riku noticed something before the helmet was placed back on, a strange kind of symbol just below the armor set. Kairi was fine, still in her coma state. The three then stood there, waiting for Edward to stop being so pissy, and when Edward finally did turn to the three, Riku and Alphonse found themselves growing increasingly nervous. The strange smile on Edward's face did not help this state.
"Ed...?" Alphonse asked nervously, as the boy then started to move towards the pathway for the mansion they had seen earlier.
"Ed?" Sora actually questioned, walking right next to him, therefore leaving Riku and Alphonse no choice to follow as well, both continuing to grow nervous. They had soon all reached to the mansion, however, not the front entrance.
"Niisan! Don't tell me you're thinking of breaking in." Alphonse almost whined, but Edward told him to shush, looking through the side-way bricks, grinning a vicious grin as he found one that seemed slightly moveable. Edward clapped his hands softly and surprisingly there was just a little light from the alchemic array and a new door was made.
"That really is your motto isn't it?" Riku couldn't help but say sarcastically as Edward ignored him and went straight through. Creeping through the clumped hallways, Riku couldn't help but think they were all on some kind of wild goose chase. As much as Riku wanted to, he could see Sora right next to Edward, walking almost eagerly, as though there was a dangerous anxious smell of adventure nearby. Riku stifled a moan, Sora was slowly becoming more and more troublesome...
"A-ha!" Edward proclaimed cheerfully as he finally encountered a door. Riku had to blink slowly to comprehend just why Edward had just...walked through the door...without any sort of precautions at all. Riku then just sighed and followed after, hating the fact that Sora seemed to be following Edward quite faithfully. Damn Sora's childish mind. So when they had entered the room, Riku was surprised to find it relatively peaceful, just with a lot of plants on counters. Riku watched out carefully as Edward and Alphonse looked at the plants and research left lying around. Sora had wandered off a little bit, staring at the plants as well, though looking determined about something, Riku could only guess what.
"What do we have here?" Riku turned immediately, tensing himself and for once he couldn't feel the heartless for that second. Right from another door, was a straight standing blonde with brown eyes, he was staring directly at Edward, smirking a strange smile. Edward turned back and smirked right back, Riku couldn't help but feel as though he was in the middle of something that would not be very pretty.
"Heh, so you're the bastard pulling off the imposter trick, eh?" Edward asked, and Riku's feeling couldn't but build up inside and the heartless found themselves once again to relish the strange feelings.
"What are you talking about?" The other boy smirked back, "I am Edward Elric." Edward really got pissed about this and Riku wasn't too surprised when the boy charged, throwing out punches and kicks like crazy. However the imposter was doing a best job of running the hell out of Edward's range. There were loud groans of sighs as Riku prevented Sora from helping the frustrated blonde. But, Riku thought, admitting it to himself, this imposter of Edward was doing very well in the physical fight with Edward. Especially as Edward swung his automail arm, and the other used the wall as leverage to kick Edward in the chest. Edward growled, but he was smiling an incredible smile.
"You're not bad."
"You as well." The other replied, smiling the strange smile that Edward was. Riku couldn't help but frown as Edward clapped his hands together and formed a blade with his automail arm and charged. The other didn't seem to shocked, but he reached into his back pocket and clapped unto the wall to bring out a blade for his own purposes. The clash of metal and very hard stone clanged in the background as Sora was struggling in Alphonse's hold. Riku stood still, as he couldn't help but sense the hidden cheeriness as the two battled each other, as though they were learning from each other within the battle. How very strange...
"Brother!" There was a grunt as Edward had grazed the imposter's shoulder by surprise as a little one with bright blonde hair, while dressed in green ran out of the door that the imposter had came out of earlier. Riku frowned, tightening himself as he saw gashes at the sides of the intruder.
"What are you doing!?" The imposter yelled, holding his shoulder as he jumped away from Edward's more penetrating graze. The other younger boy started to look like he was panicking but Riku knew that was more out of fear from what caused the boy's damage to him. Heartless were around...Damn, what took him so long to sense them?
"Ed, no time to argue with the idiots! We got to get out of here!" Riku demanded, and Edward looked back for a second, and his gaze went wide. Riku turned around quickly and yelled as an air soldier heartless crashed through his stomach. Riku yelled out in pain, having never felt the crash of the heartless first hand like this. However, he had managed to keep balance and clapped his hands, forcing them to the ground and taking out his own blade and quickly slaying the enemy. Alphonse was no longer holding back Sora, and Sora joined Riku in the ranks of fighting off the heartless as Alphonse tried to fend off the heartless that came his way with a form of martial arts.
"DAMN IT! Not these things again!" Edward screamed, clapping his hands once again and drawing an array of light within the stones, the heartless shrieking almost immediately and went back to regroup. Edward growled and looked back at the other two, then back at his group, growling as he joined them.
"Sorry about our hasty retreat, but-" Alphonse started but the chaos all stopped when Sora clapped his hands and placed them on the ground. Stunned looks appeared on every face, even Riku's, as keyblades popped from the ground and the heartless all in range, disappeared in the purple haze. But the keyblades looked different, Riku couldn't see how they looked different as the purple mist covered the area in a second as the keyblades disappeared, but he knew there was something different about them. The stunned looks continued but Riku was the first to move, growling and running to see the state of the town. If there were so many heartless...they probably got all those towns people! That would be terrible! Although Riku didn't know why he was so concerned, especially after haven received such rude treatment earlier...but, there was still something that was wrong. There were too many things that were out of place, there was just too much chaos!
What the HELL is going on here!?
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"..." A dark-haired looking youth stared up at the ceiling of the underground facility, and with a very annoyed look on his face.
"Is...is something wrong?" The youth scoffed, just simply pushing back his dark green hair in even of an annoyed way, but looked straight at the man who looked slightly terrified of him. Then again, he could never blame him, humans were so weak.
"No, there's nothing, however...you need to finish the Philosopher’s Stone. Soon." The man twitched a little, looking very nervous but the other didn't care, and looked away, frowning as more debris fell from the ceiling. There was something big going on upstairs, he couldn't help but wonder for a second what could it be, but he didn't care.
"Ah...Ma...Master Envy, why would you need it so soon? We have gotten closer yes, but we haven't been able to focus on making the red water into anything but red rocks, and while these are great catalysts for power increa-" The doctor was soon cut off by Envy, the other had brutally against the wall with one hand spread out against his throat. The doctor started to choke immediately and Envy stared up with one pure purple eye that highlighted in the darkness as an evil glare,
"I could care less about that, however, I'm giving you orders, and you will fill them out, or else." Envy gave the man a longer glare to the choking man and released him coolly, a grin that didn't seem to fit the man measured upon his face, "Got it?" The man nodded, choking as he coughed brutally through his covered mouth. Envy simply moved away, with superior speeds and was soon on the surface. However when he reached the top, he found something incredibly strange. A strange physical form that looked like it was from the shadows, but...Envy stood up even taller as several of the strange shadow things crawled over around him for a second, and as an amusement for himself, Envy kicked one of them. It surprised him just a bit when the shadow disappeared into a pinkish-purple mist, but what interested him even more was the fact that the other shadows didn't attack him, in fact...they just passed him. Envy folded his arms, and shrugged, not really caring about said situation, even if it was weird.
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The town...it was...all okay? Riku frowned darkly, how could this have been possible? There were so many of them, and that would require the hearts of so many people, but the town was untouched, and the heartless were no longer crawling around. Just around the mansion...and Sora had rid of all of those, or at least from what Riku could have sense. Riku growled, and wasn't surprised when he heard Edward mimic the same motion.
"Those things are really starting to piss me off!" Edward yelled as he sat on a rock on the ground. Riku nodded, these forms of the heartless were starting to annoy him too...in fact, he had to get himself healed soon if he didn't want that a bruise on his stomach.
"Sora..." Sora managed to put in, staring down at his hands with a strange fascinated look. As though he just realized that he performed alchemy...a strange form, but alchemy no less. Edward looked over at Sora, a strange look spreading across his face that Riku did not like at all. But then again, Riku couldn't blame him entirely, Riku wanted to know how exactly Sora was able to do that. Riku knew that the physics of the other worlds magics and this worlds 'magic' were merging together, soon he would probably become limited like Edward had said, forced for the rule of 'equivalent trade', but Sora...all those keyblades in the same array of light that Edward has used in less then a few moments. Could Sora really have learned something like that technique just by instinct? But that wasn't possible...was it?
"I wonder why those things haven't followed us..." Alphonse silently put in, breaking the thoughts of Sora's new ability. Edward looked back on the moonlighted road to see the truth of the fact that the strange creatures were indeed no longer following them.
"Sora got all the ones that were there." Riku simply replied, groaning as he felt over-exhausted for some reason. Everything was starting to finally catch up to him, even the heartless in his heart seemed tired and begged Riku to rest the body. "In the meantime, where are we going to rest?"
"I really don't think there's even a safe place around here." Edward scoffed and Riku shook his head, pointing to the many undisturbed houses,
"Those things have a strange attack pattern, haven't you noticed? When they attack a place, they will leave every other place alone." Edward frowned and folded his arms,
"Yes, but what I've also noticed is that they appear around us, every single time." Riku twitched slightly, but left it to Edward's imagination to figure out what the body language meant.
"But we really need to find a place to rest." Riku sighed, sitting next to Edward on the over-sized rock, for once not minding if he looked weary to the others. "I haven't been feeling well."
"Riku!" Sora looked concerned and Riku just laughed him off for once. It always felt strange to feel as though you were out of strength, but there wasn't anything else he could do, was there?
"You're the Elric brothers, aren't you?" The two looked at the startlingly figure they had not expect to appear at all, after all, he had made no sound at all. It was the man that Elisa said was her uncle. Edward tensed up though, seeing the exhausted forces of his team,
"And what of it?"
"You saved Elisa today, didn't you?" Edward nodded to confirm this, staring at the man with the dark-hair. "Do you need a place to stay?" The man asked almost kindly, looking over at Riku, who was struggling himself to keep awake. How very strange, he was so active a few minutes ago...what had changed energy so quickly?
"...Yes..." Edward admitted, not looking ashamed, but very open to the man. The man sighed and continued to look over at the tired group,
"My name is Dr. Vercio, you can come stay with me."
/Yelps as she hears the shrieks of everyone/ I know! I know! I'm so sorry! I had to stop right there, the chapter was long enough! I nearly cried myself to sleep every night because I couldn't finish this chapter's ending for so long! Eriku-kun, you know how I feel! Anyway! I bow to you all once again, and I'm terribly sorry it took awhile, but it's worth it, isn't it? I hope it is...and yes, if you want, you can kill me from tearing the canon from the anime. I have been attempting to make it as different as possible...go me! /Cries/ Anyway, if you are curious about the girl that Sora knocked out earlier in the chapter, no she is not dead. In fact, she just has a concussion, and is treated by a supreme doctor and meets the doctor’s son and falls in love with him and in the future they grow up, get married, and have five children. So she's okay, poor Sora though. I'm so mean! GAH! I know that some of Sora's abilities will not make sense right now, but they will in the future, and more expos will come later. Also, I decided to include Axel and the rest of the Members in the story...why? Because Axel is the awesome, that or I have a thing for redheads. ANYway! That was chapter two, forgive me for my lameness and laziness...and stopping at a terrible place I guess. But I had to save it, otherwise I wouldn't have much except the funny 13th episode! I'm very sorry, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you again for reading!
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Update: 07-16-05 to 11-25-05
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