Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ The Unforgivable Sin ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Rurouni Saiyan 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Drama / Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.14.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 259 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Mystery / Drama / Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.14.2005 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 259 | Status: Completed
Chapter 13
Things had been relatively quiet in Central City for months now, but if I was expecting the train ride to Serra’s Point to be uneventful, I was sorely disappointed. Most of the trip passed by in peace, but about three hours before our expected arrival in Serra’s Point, the hijackers made their presence known.
“Ladies and gentlemen, stay calm and in your seats,” boomed the voice over the PA system as several of the passengers in my car stood up and revealed guns. “This train is now under the control of the Riverdock Gang. Just do what we say, and no one will get hurt.”
Everyone around me cowered in their seats as the thugs took up positions at the car’s exits, but I merely sighed in exasperation and began wracking my brains for a plan to foil the hijackers and capture them, or at least their leader. But everything I came up with seemed certain to end in disaster, so I settled in and waited to be robbed of what little money I was carrying. I was just one person, even if I was a State Alchemist, and unless there were other military officers on board, I couldn’t take the risk.
A little girl was crying somewhere in the car behind me, and I closed my eyes, trying hard to ignore it. I should be doing something about this, I couldn’t help but think. But what could I possibly do that wouldn’t get anyone killed?
The door at the front of the carriage banged open, interrupting my musings, and through it stepped a giant of a man whom I presumed was the leader of the bandits. “All right, folks,” he boomed, brandishing his shotgun. “Just pass all your jewelry and money to the person closest to the aisle and drop it in the sack as my buddy passes by. If everyone cooperates, we’ll soon be out of here without a fuss.”
He stepped aside to let a grinning lackey with a large, half-full sack get by. The lackey started down the aisle with the bag held open in front of him, and I smirked to myself, thinking how easily all the passengers could hide most of their money and give the hijackers only part of the loot. At least, that was what I planned on doing.
The train passed into a tunnel, and suddenly the only illumination came from the lamps set into the walls. Almost at the same time, the door at the front banged open again, and a harsh, high-pitched voice filled the car.
“Out of my way, meathead! I’m still searching.”
I ducked instinctively, a cold stab of fear shooting down my spine. Oh, God, please tell me it isn’t him, I prayed, but I knew it was in vain. Greed’s voice was unmistakable. He was here. On this train.
Probably searching for me.
“Oh little State Alchemist,” came his softly mocking voice. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
I gritted my teeth and shuddered, knowing that he’d find me sooner or later, but unable to muster the courage to stand up and reveal myself. Then the lackey came to my seat, and he looked at me and grinned wider.
“Oi, Greed!” he called back down the train. “I think I found your–“
His words were suddenly cut off as I lashed out, landing a brutal kick on his chin that snapped his head back and sent him stumbling into the seat across the aisle. The man who sat there yelped and squeezed himself closer to his window, but the thug landed on top of him anyways.
With a sigh, I decided it was best to get this confrontation over with. He knew where I was now, and I wasn’t going to risk him harming anyone else on this train just to get to me. I stood up and faced him.
He was a quarter of the way down the carriage, wearing his sadistic grin, his red eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Ah, Ryou,” he sighed. “What were you planning to do? Surely you wouldn’t jump out the window. We’re in a tunnel; you’d be squashed against the wall!”
I took a shaky breath and ignored his jibes. “Why do you have to drag all these people into this?” I demanded. “Your quarrel is with me!”
He shrugged carelessly. “Free money is a good reason. Besides, these fellows were planning to hijack a train even before I joined up. When I saw that lady General bring you to the station, I merely convinced them that this would be the perfect train to target. So what are you going to do about it?” He walked closer until he was only three feet away, but I didn’t dare back away. “The Fuhrer was stupid enough to send you away from Central, where you were under the military’s protection, and now you can’t get away from me, Ryou. Why do you try?”
“Who said anything about trying to get away from you?” I retorted. Just then, the train hurtled out of the tunnel and back into the broad daylight, and the sudden brightness made everyone on the train wince and shield their eyes. I, however, had been anticipating it; many were the times I had traveled to Central City and other towns south of Serra’s Point, and I knew the lay of the tracks almost by heart. Even as Greed and the bandits closed their eyes and looked away, I was moving, whirling back to the window I had been sitting beside and kicking it.
The glass shattered and blew back along the train, and behind me came Greed’s surprised gasp. But before he could do anything more, I twisted around, grabbed him, and pulled us both back out of the window.
The sharp edges of the broken glass cut into my back, but I ignored it, my mind focused on only one thought. I can’t do anything about the stupid bandits, but I can get him away. I have to get him away!
For a heartbeat, Greed’s twisted, furious face filled my vision as we both tumbled out the window, and then he pushed me away, and I was faced with the ground rushing up to me. Okay. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. Automatically, I flipped around to land on my feet, but I had underestimated the speed of the train, and as I landed, the force was enough to make my automail buckle at the ankles and knees.
My scream of agony was muffled and broken as I pitched forward and began to roll. Sometime during the chaos of those few seconds I slammed my head into a rock, and the pain of that distracted me from the pain in my legs. Then my uncontrolled roll stopped short as I ran into something hard and unmoving.
Something that kicked me hard as I laid there and tried to reorient myself.
“You fool human, what did you go and do that for?!” Greed yelled, and I cringed, grabbing at the stumps of my legs where the automail was connected. He only ruthlessly kicked me again. “You can’t tell me that hurts. It’s metal.”
“And it’s connected to the nerves in my legs,” I snapped back, in too much pain to think about my fear of him. “The synapse rebound is what hurts.” I glared up at him with red-tinged vision and realized then that my head was bleeding, probably from hitting that rock.
He chuckled, apparently amused by my show of defiance. “What a pitiful sight you are, Ryou. I could kill you right now, and there’s nothing you could do about it. Why, you can’t even walk with your legs mangled like that.”
As I reached up to wipe the blood off my face, I realized that he was right. Not only was I pathetic, but I was now totally incapable of escaping him. Well, at least I got him away from the people on the train, I thought dimly, turning my eyes to the direction the train had disappeared in. But we were on a hill, and the tracks were a good twenty feet above me. Even if I had been level with them, no doubt the train would have already passed out of sight.
“No use looking for the train; it’s not going to stop just because you were stupid enough to jump out.”
“Fine!” I said, wiping at my face one more time in exasperation as the pain in my head intensified. “Kill me then!”
Greed blinked, and then laughed, clutching his sides and soon falling over. I stared at him, and eventually he calmed down enough to talk again. “Kill you?” he gasped, still holding his sides. “Kill you? I said I could, not that I would! You still have to make the Philosopher’s Stone for me, Ryou.”
“Make the Philosopher’s Stone?” I shook my head and instantly regretted it as dizziness joined the pain and my vision split in two. “I don’t…I don’t think…no…”
“Ah, poor Ryou,” he crooned, getting up and walking over to crouch beside me. Cold fingers brushed my forehead, and I tried in vain to flinch away. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You’ve bumped your head again; it’s a miracle you’re still awake. There now; I’ll take you home. And I’ll tell you the secrets of the Stone on the way.”
He tried to pull me to my feet, but they were no more than twisted scraps of metal now, and I wasn’t inclined to stand up in the first place. More than anything, I just wanted to pass out, to escape the pain and the dizziness and the still-lingering fear of his presence. But he tugged viciously on my arms, pulling me up and rolling under me and lifting me up until he was carrying me on his back.
“Rest easy now, Ryou,” he said, and he started walking.
* * *
There was no telling how long he walked, tirelessly, unerringly, following the railroad tracks to Serra’s Point. I lost consciousness at the beginning of the journey, and when I next became aware, the air was filled with the golden light of the sunset. But it didn’t seem real; it seemed like a dream, this carbon copy of my brother walking across a railroad bridge, the deep canyon of a mountain river yawning below as he carried me steadily onward, the way Akira might have carried me had I been hurt when we were children. Maybe it was that feeling, that surrealism, or maybe it was the strength and closeness of Akira’s memory that drove me to ask a question that I had wondered secretly ever since learning about Greed. A question that I never would have asked at any other time.
“Do you…remember anything? Of the time before…Akira died?”
His step faltered, and I half-expected him to throw me off the bridge. It wouldn’t be the first time he reacted violently to a personal question. But he kept going, keeping his silence until he had reached the end of the bridge. As he stepped onto the ground beside the track and kept going, he finally answered, “We’re not supposed to have memories.”
“But do you?” I persisted.
He didn’t answer, and eventually I drifted back into unconsciousness.
* * *
Night had fallen, and in the valley below, golden specks of light dotted the darkness. Lights in windows. Streetlamps. The small tourist town of Serra’s Point was just as picturesque in the dead of night as it was in broad daylight. It was the first sight that met my eyes when I awakened again. Greed was still plodding on, stepping carefully down the last slope that would lead us into town, and vaguely I wondered if he had stopped to rest at all.
The pounding in my head was still there, a now-familiar ache that I had long ago learned to tolerate. Thankfully, my vision seemed to have returned to normal, though I couldn’t be sure in the darkness, and I didn’t feel quite as dizzy. But even as I assessed my condition, I couldn’t push reality away.
I was coming home. And I doubted I was welcome.
Another hour passed before we reached the outskirts of town. Greed automatically turned down the lane that led to my old house, but I stopped him with a rough jerk on the collar. “No, I can’t go there.”
He paused and looked over his shoulder, annoyance gleaming in his cat-like red eyes. “Then what exactly were you coming home to, idiot?”
“The automail shop,” I replied, ignoring the insult. “Fifth intersection down this road, turn right. The shop’s two more streets down. You can’t miss the sign.”
Greed snorted, but he started down the road to the shop. “I remember,” he said suddenly, startling me. “We…we were playing cards. I kept winning.”
I blinked in confusion, and he turned to give that annoyed look over his shoulder again. “Your question from earlier, idiot.”
It was then that I remembered waking during the trip. The cool, crisp air and deep canyon. And the question. The question that I wouldn’t have dared voice had I not had a concussion. And now I could do nothing but keep a shocked silence as he continued.
“I remember…being afraid. For you. And there are others, from better times. You…you liked transmuting illusions, especially ones of kittens. I liked it, too.”
The automail shop was in sight, and he spoke no more, instead quickening his pace. I gritted my teeth as my head complained about the extra jostling, but I was struck numb by his words, unable to speak, much less ask him to slow down. Then he stopped abruptly and raised a hand to knock on the door.
No one answered at first, and Greed growled softly under his breath in irritation before raising his hand to bang on the door, and bang again after a couple of minutes.
“Be patient, I’m coming!” called a voice thick with weariness, and I couldn’t help but grimace. Sorry, Atemu. Didn’t mean to wake you.
The elder Mutou brother pulled open the door, wearing only a pair of trousers and rubbing his eyes sleepily. “Couldn’t you have waited until–“ he began. His voice seemed to fail him in mid-sentence when he saw us on his doorstep, and his eyes grew rounder than I thought they could become.
“Atemu,” I said weakly, trying to call his attention away from Greed. “Sorry, but I…kind of jumped out of a train and…busted your automail.”
His eyes probed my face, as if searching for all the answers to the questions he undoubtedly had, and then they flicked down to take in the mangled mess of my legs, and he snorted. “Busted? That’s an understatement.” He held the door open wider to let us in. “Yugi’s in the shop out back,” he said as he led the way down the hall to the patient’s room. “He’s having to pull an all-nighter. I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“I’m sorry about this, Atemu,” I called as he started out the door. “I didn’t mean to trouble you when I came home.”
He paused long enough to give me a reassuring glance, and then he let his eyes drift over to Greed, who merely crossed his arms and glared back defiantly. “It’s good to have you home again,” he said at last, and then he left.
Greed continued to glare at the open doorway for all of three seconds before his face melted into its customary insane smirk. “Interesting hair.”
“Why are you still here?” I asked.
“I’m considering whether or not to kill him. Just by seeing me, he knows too much.”
My eyes widened, and something inside me tightened, threatening to snap. If you dare hurt them, I’ll kill you.
The expression on my face must have told him exactly what I was thinking, for his smirk dropped away as he glanced at me, and his face took on a dangerous look that usually meant pain for me. But before he could say or do anything, hurried footsteps ran down the hall outside, and Yugi burst into the room, wearing his greasy mechanic’s uniform and a jubilant expression. “Ryou! Atemu told me you were–“ He skidded to a stop, staring wide-eyed at the scene before him. “A…Akira?!”
Time seemed frozen as the three of us stared at each other. Then Atemu appeared in the doorway behind Yugi, giving Greed the kind of intense stare that makes you feel like he can see into your very soul, and the Homunculus’s face hardened into a scowl again. But instead of attacking them, which I had fully expected, he walked back over to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear.
“Remember what I have said, Ryou. I remember. Maybe if you make the Philosopher’s Stone, if you make me human, you will succeed. Maybe you’ll have your brother back.” Without another word, he straightened and walked out, pushing Atemu out of the way and turning down the hall towards the front door.
The sound of the door opening and closing as he left was the only thing that broke the silence that descended upon us. I dropped my gaze to my lap as Atemu turned his scrutinizing stare on me, suddenly finding ruined automail far more interesting than the best friends that I hadn’t seen in months.
“Ryou?” Yugi said at last, taking a couple steps towards me. “Was that…was he really…”
“No,” I said before he could speak Akira’s name again. “He’s…no one. It’s not important.” I kept my head ducked and reached up to wipe away a tear that spilled down my cheek.
Atemu’s disbelieving snort told me more than any words could, but he decided not to press. “You might want to run and get the doctor, Yugi,” he said instead. “That head wound looks serious.”
The younger brother nodded and reluctantly left, casting one last worried look over his shoulder as he went. Atemu made a point of closing the door behind him, and then he turned to face me.
“Okay, Ryou. A train came into the station with twenty hijackers aboard yesterday. The local garrison managed to catch all but one; one that the passengers say got pulled from the train by a State Alchemist. And they say the two who fell out looked exactly alike. Now, I don’t care if it’s top secret military business or a random fluke of Fate. I want to know what’s going on.”
Things had been relatively quiet in Central City for months now, but if I was expecting the train ride to Serra’s Point to be uneventful, I was sorely disappointed. Most of the trip passed by in peace, but about three hours before our expected arrival in Serra’s Point, the hijackers made their presence known.
“Ladies and gentlemen, stay calm and in your seats,” boomed the voice over the PA system as several of the passengers in my car stood up and revealed guns. “This train is now under the control of the Riverdock Gang. Just do what we say, and no one will get hurt.”
Everyone around me cowered in their seats as the thugs took up positions at the car’s exits, but I merely sighed in exasperation and began wracking my brains for a plan to foil the hijackers and capture them, or at least their leader. But everything I came up with seemed certain to end in disaster, so I settled in and waited to be robbed of what little money I was carrying. I was just one person, even if I was a State Alchemist, and unless there were other military officers on board, I couldn’t take the risk.
A little girl was crying somewhere in the car behind me, and I closed my eyes, trying hard to ignore it. I should be doing something about this, I couldn’t help but think. But what could I possibly do that wouldn’t get anyone killed?
The door at the front of the carriage banged open, interrupting my musings, and through it stepped a giant of a man whom I presumed was the leader of the bandits. “All right, folks,” he boomed, brandishing his shotgun. “Just pass all your jewelry and money to the person closest to the aisle and drop it in the sack as my buddy passes by. If everyone cooperates, we’ll soon be out of here without a fuss.”
He stepped aside to let a grinning lackey with a large, half-full sack get by. The lackey started down the aisle with the bag held open in front of him, and I smirked to myself, thinking how easily all the passengers could hide most of their money and give the hijackers only part of the loot. At least, that was what I planned on doing.
The train passed into a tunnel, and suddenly the only illumination came from the lamps set into the walls. Almost at the same time, the door at the front banged open again, and a harsh, high-pitched voice filled the car.
“Out of my way, meathead! I’m still searching.”
I ducked instinctively, a cold stab of fear shooting down my spine. Oh, God, please tell me it isn’t him, I prayed, but I knew it was in vain. Greed’s voice was unmistakable. He was here. On this train.
Probably searching for me.
“Oh little State Alchemist,” came his softly mocking voice. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
I gritted my teeth and shuddered, knowing that he’d find me sooner or later, but unable to muster the courage to stand up and reveal myself. Then the lackey came to my seat, and he looked at me and grinned wider.
“Oi, Greed!” he called back down the train. “I think I found your–“
His words were suddenly cut off as I lashed out, landing a brutal kick on his chin that snapped his head back and sent him stumbling into the seat across the aisle. The man who sat there yelped and squeezed himself closer to his window, but the thug landed on top of him anyways.
With a sigh, I decided it was best to get this confrontation over with. He knew where I was now, and I wasn’t going to risk him harming anyone else on this train just to get to me. I stood up and faced him.
He was a quarter of the way down the carriage, wearing his sadistic grin, his red eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Ah, Ryou,” he sighed. “What were you planning to do? Surely you wouldn’t jump out the window. We’re in a tunnel; you’d be squashed against the wall!”
I took a shaky breath and ignored his jibes. “Why do you have to drag all these people into this?” I demanded. “Your quarrel is with me!”
He shrugged carelessly. “Free money is a good reason. Besides, these fellows were planning to hijack a train even before I joined up. When I saw that lady General bring you to the station, I merely convinced them that this would be the perfect train to target. So what are you going to do about it?” He walked closer until he was only three feet away, but I didn’t dare back away. “The Fuhrer was stupid enough to send you away from Central, where you were under the military’s protection, and now you can’t get away from me, Ryou. Why do you try?”
“Who said anything about trying to get away from you?” I retorted. Just then, the train hurtled out of the tunnel and back into the broad daylight, and the sudden brightness made everyone on the train wince and shield their eyes. I, however, had been anticipating it; many were the times I had traveled to Central City and other towns south of Serra’s Point, and I knew the lay of the tracks almost by heart. Even as Greed and the bandits closed their eyes and looked away, I was moving, whirling back to the window I had been sitting beside and kicking it.
The glass shattered and blew back along the train, and behind me came Greed’s surprised gasp. But before he could do anything more, I twisted around, grabbed him, and pulled us both back out of the window.
The sharp edges of the broken glass cut into my back, but I ignored it, my mind focused on only one thought. I can’t do anything about the stupid bandits, but I can get him away. I have to get him away!
For a heartbeat, Greed’s twisted, furious face filled my vision as we both tumbled out the window, and then he pushed me away, and I was faced with the ground rushing up to me. Okay. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. Automatically, I flipped around to land on my feet, but I had underestimated the speed of the train, and as I landed, the force was enough to make my automail buckle at the ankles and knees.
My scream of agony was muffled and broken as I pitched forward and began to roll. Sometime during the chaos of those few seconds I slammed my head into a rock, and the pain of that distracted me from the pain in my legs. Then my uncontrolled roll stopped short as I ran into something hard and unmoving.
Something that kicked me hard as I laid there and tried to reorient myself.
“You fool human, what did you go and do that for?!” Greed yelled, and I cringed, grabbing at the stumps of my legs where the automail was connected. He only ruthlessly kicked me again. “You can’t tell me that hurts. It’s metal.”
“And it’s connected to the nerves in my legs,” I snapped back, in too much pain to think about my fear of him. “The synapse rebound is what hurts.” I glared up at him with red-tinged vision and realized then that my head was bleeding, probably from hitting that rock.
He chuckled, apparently amused by my show of defiance. “What a pitiful sight you are, Ryou. I could kill you right now, and there’s nothing you could do about it. Why, you can’t even walk with your legs mangled like that.”
As I reached up to wipe the blood off my face, I realized that he was right. Not only was I pathetic, but I was now totally incapable of escaping him. Well, at least I got him away from the people on the train, I thought dimly, turning my eyes to the direction the train had disappeared in. But we were on a hill, and the tracks were a good twenty feet above me. Even if I had been level with them, no doubt the train would have already passed out of sight.
“No use looking for the train; it’s not going to stop just because you were stupid enough to jump out.”
“Fine!” I said, wiping at my face one more time in exasperation as the pain in my head intensified. “Kill me then!”
Greed blinked, and then laughed, clutching his sides and soon falling over. I stared at him, and eventually he calmed down enough to talk again. “Kill you?” he gasped, still holding his sides. “Kill you? I said I could, not that I would! You still have to make the Philosopher’s Stone for me, Ryou.”
“Make the Philosopher’s Stone?” I shook my head and instantly regretted it as dizziness joined the pain and my vision split in two. “I don’t…I don’t think…no…”
“Ah, poor Ryou,” he crooned, getting up and walking over to crouch beside me. Cold fingers brushed my forehead, and I tried in vain to flinch away. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You’ve bumped your head again; it’s a miracle you’re still awake. There now; I’ll take you home. And I’ll tell you the secrets of the Stone on the way.”
He tried to pull me to my feet, but they were no more than twisted scraps of metal now, and I wasn’t inclined to stand up in the first place. More than anything, I just wanted to pass out, to escape the pain and the dizziness and the still-lingering fear of his presence. But he tugged viciously on my arms, pulling me up and rolling under me and lifting me up until he was carrying me on his back.
“Rest easy now, Ryou,” he said, and he started walking.
* * *
There was no telling how long he walked, tirelessly, unerringly, following the railroad tracks to Serra’s Point. I lost consciousness at the beginning of the journey, and when I next became aware, the air was filled with the golden light of the sunset. But it didn’t seem real; it seemed like a dream, this carbon copy of my brother walking across a railroad bridge, the deep canyon of a mountain river yawning below as he carried me steadily onward, the way Akira might have carried me had I been hurt when we were children. Maybe it was that feeling, that surrealism, or maybe it was the strength and closeness of Akira’s memory that drove me to ask a question that I had wondered secretly ever since learning about Greed. A question that I never would have asked at any other time.
“Do you…remember anything? Of the time before…Akira died?”
His step faltered, and I half-expected him to throw me off the bridge. It wouldn’t be the first time he reacted violently to a personal question. But he kept going, keeping his silence until he had reached the end of the bridge. As he stepped onto the ground beside the track and kept going, he finally answered, “We’re not supposed to have memories.”
“But do you?” I persisted.
He didn’t answer, and eventually I drifted back into unconsciousness.
* * *
Night had fallen, and in the valley below, golden specks of light dotted the darkness. Lights in windows. Streetlamps. The small tourist town of Serra’s Point was just as picturesque in the dead of night as it was in broad daylight. It was the first sight that met my eyes when I awakened again. Greed was still plodding on, stepping carefully down the last slope that would lead us into town, and vaguely I wondered if he had stopped to rest at all.
The pounding in my head was still there, a now-familiar ache that I had long ago learned to tolerate. Thankfully, my vision seemed to have returned to normal, though I couldn’t be sure in the darkness, and I didn’t feel quite as dizzy. But even as I assessed my condition, I couldn’t push reality away.
I was coming home. And I doubted I was welcome.
Another hour passed before we reached the outskirts of town. Greed automatically turned down the lane that led to my old house, but I stopped him with a rough jerk on the collar. “No, I can’t go there.”
He paused and looked over his shoulder, annoyance gleaming in his cat-like red eyes. “Then what exactly were you coming home to, idiot?”
“The automail shop,” I replied, ignoring the insult. “Fifth intersection down this road, turn right. The shop’s two more streets down. You can’t miss the sign.”
Greed snorted, but he started down the road to the shop. “I remember,” he said suddenly, startling me. “We…we were playing cards. I kept winning.”
I blinked in confusion, and he turned to give that annoyed look over his shoulder again. “Your question from earlier, idiot.”
It was then that I remembered waking during the trip. The cool, crisp air and deep canyon. And the question. The question that I wouldn’t have dared voice had I not had a concussion. And now I could do nothing but keep a shocked silence as he continued.
“I remember…being afraid. For you. And there are others, from better times. You…you liked transmuting illusions, especially ones of kittens. I liked it, too.”
The automail shop was in sight, and he spoke no more, instead quickening his pace. I gritted my teeth as my head complained about the extra jostling, but I was struck numb by his words, unable to speak, much less ask him to slow down. Then he stopped abruptly and raised a hand to knock on the door.
No one answered at first, and Greed growled softly under his breath in irritation before raising his hand to bang on the door, and bang again after a couple of minutes.
“Be patient, I’m coming!” called a voice thick with weariness, and I couldn’t help but grimace. Sorry, Atemu. Didn’t mean to wake you.
The elder Mutou brother pulled open the door, wearing only a pair of trousers and rubbing his eyes sleepily. “Couldn’t you have waited until–“ he began. His voice seemed to fail him in mid-sentence when he saw us on his doorstep, and his eyes grew rounder than I thought they could become.
“Atemu,” I said weakly, trying to call his attention away from Greed. “Sorry, but I…kind of jumped out of a train and…busted your automail.”
His eyes probed my face, as if searching for all the answers to the questions he undoubtedly had, and then they flicked down to take in the mangled mess of my legs, and he snorted. “Busted? That’s an understatement.” He held the door open wider to let us in. “Yugi’s in the shop out back,” he said as he led the way down the hall to the patient’s room. “He’s having to pull an all-nighter. I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“I’m sorry about this, Atemu,” I called as he started out the door. “I didn’t mean to trouble you when I came home.”
He paused long enough to give me a reassuring glance, and then he let his eyes drift over to Greed, who merely crossed his arms and glared back defiantly. “It’s good to have you home again,” he said at last, and then he left.
Greed continued to glare at the open doorway for all of three seconds before his face melted into its customary insane smirk. “Interesting hair.”
“Why are you still here?” I asked.
“I’m considering whether or not to kill him. Just by seeing me, he knows too much.”
My eyes widened, and something inside me tightened, threatening to snap. If you dare hurt them, I’ll kill you.
The expression on my face must have told him exactly what I was thinking, for his smirk dropped away as he glanced at me, and his face took on a dangerous look that usually meant pain for me. But before he could say or do anything, hurried footsteps ran down the hall outside, and Yugi burst into the room, wearing his greasy mechanic’s uniform and a jubilant expression. “Ryou! Atemu told me you were–“ He skidded to a stop, staring wide-eyed at the scene before him. “A…Akira?!”
Time seemed frozen as the three of us stared at each other. Then Atemu appeared in the doorway behind Yugi, giving Greed the kind of intense stare that makes you feel like he can see into your very soul, and the Homunculus’s face hardened into a scowl again. But instead of attacking them, which I had fully expected, he walked back over to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear.
“Remember what I have said, Ryou. I remember. Maybe if you make the Philosopher’s Stone, if you make me human, you will succeed. Maybe you’ll have your brother back.” Without another word, he straightened and walked out, pushing Atemu out of the way and turning down the hall towards the front door.
The sound of the door opening and closing as he left was the only thing that broke the silence that descended upon us. I dropped my gaze to my lap as Atemu turned his scrutinizing stare on me, suddenly finding ruined automail far more interesting than the best friends that I hadn’t seen in months.
“Ryou?” Yugi said at last, taking a couple steps towards me. “Was that…was he really…”
“No,” I said before he could speak Akira’s name again. “He’s…no one. It’s not important.” I kept my head ducked and reached up to wipe away a tear that spilled down my cheek.
Atemu’s disbelieving snort told me more than any words could, but he decided not to press. “You might want to run and get the doctor, Yugi,” he said instead. “That head wound looks serious.”
The younger brother nodded and reluctantly left, casting one last worried look over his shoulder as he went. Atemu made a point of closing the door behind him, and then he turned to face me.
“Okay, Ryou. A train came into the station with twenty hijackers aboard yesterday. The local garrison managed to catch all but one; one that the passengers say got pulled from the train by a State Alchemist. And they say the two who fell out looked exactly alike. Now, I don’t care if it’s top secret military business or a random fluke of Fate. I want to know what’s going on.”