Riddles In The Dark
His shoulders remained slumped forward, his hands concealed in his pockets in a charade of nonchalance. Black strands of hair that hadn’t been trimmed in months fell over his eyes because he kept his head bowed; he didn't want to see his friend's shock at the sight of scattered papers and numerous alchemical arrays drawn in the entire study. He wasn’t sure if he could stand it.
He knew this would happen the moment that he beckoned his friend to enter the house, and yet he allowed it to happen anyway. He wasn’t sure why. It certainly wasn’t because of the apple-pie that Maes brought – the excuse that brought the man to his doorstep in the first place. No. Perhaps he expected him to understand or maybe he didn’t want to be alone. Or maybe Roy hoped he would be able to get distracted from the emptiness that was gnawing at his insides.
It didn’t matter now anyway.
“What is this?” Maes finally asked, but it was obvious he was already suspecting something.
Roy didn’t answer. It didn’t spare him Maes’s wrath though. Maes grabbed him by his collar and looked at him straight in the eye.
“I said: what is this?”
Roy shook his head and pried himself off of Maes’s grip in a tired manner. “I didn’t do anything, Maes. Just forget about it.”
“You were going to! And I’m not going to let it go as simply as that!”
“Why aren’t you? Would the world miss a murderer?”
His voice was so soft that he wasn’t sure if Maes actually heard it. Yet the small sound of disbelief that escaped Maes’s lips was indication enough that he did. Strong hands reached for Roy’s face this time and cupped it firmly, forcing Roy to look up again into the green-gold eyes that seemed ablaze in a wish to help the young man understand, to make him see reason.
“It was war. There was nothing you could do. Just be thankful you didn’t die along with them and get on with your life!”
Roy let his gaze drop sideways. “I don’t think I can.”
“You will have to,” Maes insisted. His tone sounded softer, almost comforting in the man’s lecturing. “The dead remain dead no matter how many alchemic tricks you’ve got up your sleeve. If you want to make a difference, make sure that their deaths weren’t in vain. Otherwise, there are easier ways to die.”
As though on their own accord, Roy’s eyes locked on the pistol that was on his desk. He knew what Maes was telling him.
“I had it in my mouth, Maes. I had it in my mouth and I could taste the damn metal and all I wanted to do was end it, but I couldn’t.”
“I would hope so. No sane person can.”
“Then why does it feel like I’m losing my mind?”
Surprisingly enough, Maes smiled and winked.
“No insane person wonders that.”
For the first time in a long time, Roy’s lips tugged to smile. And as he finally saw some light in the darkness of his despair, Roy sat on a chair with a sigh.
“You’re right, you know. My life, however detestable, can have some use.” He paused momentarily, looking at Maes with a new fire burning in his eyes. “I have another plan.”
Maes nodded and sat down across the young state alchemist.
“Let’s hear it, Roy.”
“Roy…”
Roy’s reminiscence was cut off at once at the sound of his name, though it was quite weak. Recognising the voice and still unsure if it was his imagination or not, he snapped his head up and looked at Maes.
Who looked back at him through drooping eyelids.
“Hey.” He walked up to Maes and sat at his bedside, scrutinising him in case he needed to call Knox. “How are you feeling?”
Maes blinked a couple of times, as though trying to process the question before answering. “Dizzy,” he finally said hoarsely. “Where am I?”
“A good friend’s house,” Roy answered. “We brought you here after you got shot.”
There was a small pause again. “Okay,” Maes replied.
Roy registered the hesitant tone and he understood. His friend was still quite dazed and probably confused. That meant some things wouldn’t make much sense to him for the present.
“What do you remember?” he asked.
“The office…” Maes answered after a few moments. “…Scieszka… A call… I was…”
It was then that he swallowed hard and his eyes grew wide. “No…”
“Maes?”
But Maes was now close to panicking. Worse, he was now almost hyperventilating in his attempt to push himself as far away from Roy as possible.
“Keep… away…”
To say that Roy was surprised would have been an understatement.
“Maes, what--?”
Maes just kept on through gritted teeth.
“Don’t… pretend…”
Pretend? Roy thought, not sure what the problem was. That is, until he recalled what could have been the last thing Maes had seen before getting shot. He leaned forward as calmly as possible.
“Maes… look at me.”
Maes didn’t. He got ready to pull out the IVs instead, and Roy had to cup both his friend’s hands into his own securely.
“Maes, listen. On our first year in the army, you suggested we go fishing to a river about three hours away. You got us the day off; I got the car; and so we returned a day later and told everyone that we caught about a dozen fish. Do you remember?”
Maes nodded, though he was still nervous. “We… didn’t catch… any.”
Roy chuckled. “That’s right. In fact, we stopped at a small bar and got so drunk that we never went fishing. We just stayed at the bar, where we found some excellent company. Lucy and…”
“…Josephine,” Maes completed. He closed his eyes, letting out a breath in relief. “I’m sorry, Roy.”
“I understand.”
“No,” Maes whispered, his eyes still shut. “No, you don’t…”
“I know about Envy, Maes.”
“It’s not just him, Roy…” Maes voice said, his voice becoming softer by the minute. “The whole military is in trouble...”
“I know,” Roy said again, but Maes didn’t listen to him.
“We’re pawns, Roy… pawns used… by a woman who’s dead…”
And with that Maes slipped away into sleep, exhaustion from his wound – and his fright – catching up with him. All Roy could do was stare at the sleeping form in thought, trying to figure out what could Maes possibly want to tell him. The only woman that could have used the military was Douglas, something that Roy himself had figured out so far. She, however, was very much alive.
Wasn’t she?
Unless…
Roy now realised that he had to find more answers and soon, or it would probably be too late.
It was all quiet in Dublith. Night had settled quite peacefully, and everyone was lying on their beds, sleeping – that is, except for two young alchemists in a butcher’s house. The one was trying to pick a chained lock that kept the door of their room shut, while the younger one was wringing his metal gauntlets tensely.
“Stop fidgeting, Al, you’re distracting me,” Ed whispered. He narrowed his eyes and continued on with his work.
Al was still nervous though.
“When I agreed that you should find things out, this wasn’t what I had in mind, Brother,” the suit of armour whispered back. “Besides, Teacher locked the door with alchemy. If she finds it open, she’ll know just whose head to pound.”
Ed stopped at once. His brother had a point.
“Okay,” he agreed and put the pin back in his pocket, “Then we’ll have to get out through another way.”
It didn’t take him long to figure out another solution. In the next moment, he clapped his hands and placed them on the floor in order to create a hole.
A sigh reverberated through the armour. “That wasn’t what I had in mind, either.”
“It’s either that or nothing,” Ed reasoned. “If you’re that worried, just fix it once I get down.”
Al shook his head. “No way, I’m coming, too. Someone has to make sure we’re over and done with this before we get caught.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Ed said, rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, he lowered himself down the hole and landed softly on the ground floor. If his calculations were correct, he was now in the room where the wild kid was sleeping. All he had to do was wake the kid up – without alarming him – and ask him the questions he wanted.
He was quite surprised to see the bed was empty and the boy was nowhere in sight. But, then again, he didn’t think of looking up. It was Al who found him first, and he tapped Ed on the shoulder so that he could see for himself that the boy was hanging upside down from a light on the ceiling as though that was the most natural thing in the world.
“Um… What are you doing?” Ed asked, uncertain.
“Everyone’s dead and I got bored,” the boy said with a smile. “Did you come to play with me?”
Edward frowned. “No one’s dead, they’re just asleep.”
“Oh,” the boy replied, accepting the answer without argument. “So what are we going to play?”
Neither Ed nor Al found the chance to say anything, because the boy beamed instantly and exclaimed: “I know!” Moving with the agility and speed of a cat, the boy landed on the ground and rushed to a corner in the room. There was a squeaking sound, and then the boy hurried back to Ed and Al, showing them his prize: a small grey mouse.
“We can play with this!” he said with a grin. “I watched you guys play with another one yesterday!”
Ed and Al exchanged a glance at once before looking back at the boy; they both realised what the latter had just told them.
“You’ve been watching us the whole time? Even while we were hunting?” Al asked, his shock audible.
The boy just nodded proudly.
“What were you doing in the island in the first place?” Ed asked in turn.
The boy didn’t listen to him though. He was too busy watching the mouse squirm violently in his hands in an attempt to escape. The boy tightened his grip on it; something that, of course, made the mouse squeak in agony.
“Don’t do that!” Ed said. He tried to take the mouse away from the boy, but the boy jumped back with a teasing smile, apparently thinking everything was part of the game.
“Come on, let it go!” Ed said in frustration, reaching for the boy’s hands again.
“No!” the boy replied happily, dodging Ed easily.
“You shouldn’t play with an animal’s life,” Al reasoned, deciding to interfere. “Please, put it down.”
“No! I play! I play! I play!” the boy cried out, his excitement increasing ten-fold. Soon enough, he was jumping up and down from the bed to a nightstand nearby and back on the floor in a meaningless childish dance, letting out squeals of laughter.
It didn’t take a great mind like Edward Elric’s to realise things were getting out of hand. The boy was making enough noise to raise the dead from their graves!
“Keep it down, will you? You’ll wake everyone up!” Ed said; his tone was torn between shouting at the boy and trying to stay low in case Izumi heard the commotion.
It was still to no avail. The boy just kept jumping up and down and laughing, making Ed more than just exasperated.
“Okay, that’s it! No more Mr. Nice Guy!” he finally declared, snapping. Not caring anymore who heard or saw the alchemical reaction, he clapped his hands and placed them on the bed.
By the time the boy had realised that something was going on, it was too late. The large rope that was transmuted out of the sheets had already tangled itself around his ankles, making him trip. The boy fell on the bed with a soft thud, letting go of the mouse in his surprise.
Even so, he didn’t see anything wrong with the rope, still thinking it was all part of the game. He grinned in Ed’s direction.
“That was fun! Can you do it again?”
Ed regarded the boy in a hard manner. “You can do that too, can’t you?”
The boy blinked, not expecting the question. “No.”
“Don’t lie!” cried Edward. “You transmuted your hand! And you transmuted those leaves into clothes, didn’t you?”
“Brother, calm down,” Al said in an attempt to smooth matters.
“Calm down?!” Ed turned around and faced Al. “I saw him perform alchemy without a transmutation circle; he didn’t even clap his hands, like Teacher and I do! Beregond is about the only one we know who can do that! Don’t you think that’s weird?”
“I do, but you should let him go. You’re upsetting him.” Alphonse replied.
Sure enough, the boy was now trying to get the rope undone, an expression of frustration and a rising panic on his face. Ed watched the boy struggle for a moment, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s the matter? Just use your alchemy.”
The boy only started trying to kick his legs free. “Untie it! Untie it!”
That was a sight that Al’s gentle nature couldn’t stand.
“Brother, I realise you have your reasons to suspect that boy, but does that give you an excuse to treat him this way?” he asked, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“I’ve already told you I’ve seen his face somewhere before,” Ed answered, his eyes still relentlessly locked on the boy. “I’m not leaving before I find out where.”
“Brother…”
Al never completed his sentence, because it was then that blue light filled the room. Both brothers watched aghast as the transmutation took place, and they felt horrified when they realised that the boy’s legs were gone, replaced by the whole bed.
The boy screamed in terror.
“Ed, what did you do?!” Al asked, his red flickers of eyes brightening in shock.
“I didn’t do anything!” Ed answered at once. “I couldn’t transmute a body to a bed even if I wanted to!”
“Well, fix it before--!”
It was already too late. The door burst open and a very cranky-looking Izumi entered the door.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, DISRUPTING MY SLEEP LIKE THAT?!”
The brothers knew that they were doomed, so they just cowered in a corner, stammering apologies and waiting for their inevitable punishment. But Sig, who had followed his wife closely behind when they heard the noise, pointed out to Izumi the real problem.
“Please!” the boy cried to Izumi. “Change it back! Change it back!”
“We didn’t do that!” Ed said at once.
“It’s true!” Alphonse seconded. “Brother is a frequent liar, but he’s telling the truth this time!”
Ed cast a sidelong glance to his brother’s direction. “Gee, thanks, Al...”
Izumi sighed and walked up to the bed, examining the results of the transmutation from up close. “I know neither of you did that. I never taught you such senseless alchemy.”
“Put me down! Put me down!” the boy cried, nearly hysterical.
“STOP CRYING!”
It worked like a charm. The boy stopped at once, looking at Izumi with wide open eyes. Izumi, however, just smiled kindly and took his hand in one of hers.
“It’s going to be fine,” she assured him. “Just close your eyes and try to remember your own form.”
The boy nodded and did as he was told. He closed his eyes and, soon enough, there was another alchemical reaction and he was free. He immediately wrapped his arms around Izumi, bursting into tears once more.
It was then that Al noticed something very strange about the boy’s right arm. For there was a large scar on the bicep that looked awfully much like…
“YOU STUPID APPRENTICES! WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO TO THAT CHILD?!”
Al and Ed nearly jumped. Such was their fright that they almost didn’t dare say anything.
“We were worried,” Ed finally said shakily. “We wanted to be sure he meant no harm to us.”
Izumi glared at Ed. “And why would you be worried about that?”
It was Al who decided to answer that. “Teacher, there are some things we didn’t tell you.”
“Al…” Ed started.
“No, Brother. They need to know.”
“Know what?” Sig asked then.
Ed sighed. There was no turning back now.
“It’s a long story,” he said.
“I see,” Izumi said thoughtfully, still holding the boy comfortingly. “Very well, we’ll talk about it in the morning. But…” and at that her voice became a snarl, “you’d better say everything this time!”
TBC...
He knew this would happen the moment that he beckoned his friend to enter the house, and yet he allowed it to happen anyway. He wasn’t sure why. It certainly wasn’t because of the apple-pie that Maes brought – the excuse that brought the man to his doorstep in the first place. No. Perhaps he expected him to understand or maybe he didn’t want to be alone. Or maybe Roy hoped he would be able to get distracted from the emptiness that was gnawing at his insides.
It didn’t matter now anyway.
“What is this?” Maes finally asked, but it was obvious he was already suspecting something.
Roy didn’t answer. It didn’t spare him Maes’s wrath though. Maes grabbed him by his collar and looked at him straight in the eye.
“I said: what is this?”
Roy shook his head and pried himself off of Maes’s grip in a tired manner. “I didn’t do anything, Maes. Just forget about it.”
“You were going to! And I’m not going to let it go as simply as that!”
“Why aren’t you? Would the world miss a murderer?”
His voice was so soft that he wasn’t sure if Maes actually heard it. Yet the small sound of disbelief that escaped Maes’s lips was indication enough that he did. Strong hands reached for Roy’s face this time and cupped it firmly, forcing Roy to look up again into the green-gold eyes that seemed ablaze in a wish to help the young man understand, to make him see reason.
“It was war. There was nothing you could do. Just be thankful you didn’t die along with them and get on with your life!”
Roy let his gaze drop sideways. “I don’t think I can.”
“You will have to,” Maes insisted. His tone sounded softer, almost comforting in the man’s lecturing. “The dead remain dead no matter how many alchemic tricks you’ve got up your sleeve. If you want to make a difference, make sure that their deaths weren’t in vain. Otherwise, there are easier ways to die.”
As though on their own accord, Roy’s eyes locked on the pistol that was on his desk. He knew what Maes was telling him.
“I had it in my mouth, Maes. I had it in my mouth and I could taste the damn metal and all I wanted to do was end it, but I couldn’t.”
“I would hope so. No sane person can.”
“Then why does it feel like I’m losing my mind?”
Surprisingly enough, Maes smiled and winked.
“No insane person wonders that.”
For the first time in a long time, Roy’s lips tugged to smile. And as he finally saw some light in the darkness of his despair, Roy sat on a chair with a sigh.
“You’re right, you know. My life, however detestable, can have some use.” He paused momentarily, looking at Maes with a new fire burning in his eyes. “I have another plan.”
Maes nodded and sat down across the young state alchemist.
“Let’s hear it, Roy.”
“Roy…”
Roy’s reminiscence was cut off at once at the sound of his name, though it was quite weak. Recognising the voice and still unsure if it was his imagination or not, he snapped his head up and looked at Maes.
Who looked back at him through drooping eyelids.
“Hey.” He walked up to Maes and sat at his bedside, scrutinising him in case he needed to call Knox. “How are you feeling?”
Maes blinked a couple of times, as though trying to process the question before answering. “Dizzy,” he finally said hoarsely. “Where am I?”
“A good friend’s house,” Roy answered. “We brought you here after you got shot.”
There was a small pause again. “Okay,” Maes replied.
Roy registered the hesitant tone and he understood. His friend was still quite dazed and probably confused. That meant some things wouldn’t make much sense to him for the present.
“What do you remember?” he asked.
“The office…” Maes answered after a few moments. “…Scieszka… A call… I was…”
It was then that he swallowed hard and his eyes grew wide. “No…”
“Maes?”
But Maes was now close to panicking. Worse, he was now almost hyperventilating in his attempt to push himself as far away from Roy as possible.
“Keep… away…”
To say that Roy was surprised would have been an understatement.
“Maes, what--?”
Maes just kept on through gritted teeth.
“Don’t… pretend…”
Pretend? Roy thought, not sure what the problem was. That is, until he recalled what could have been the last thing Maes had seen before getting shot. He leaned forward as calmly as possible.
“Maes… look at me.”
Maes didn’t. He got ready to pull out the IVs instead, and Roy had to cup both his friend’s hands into his own securely.
“Maes, listen. On our first year in the army, you suggested we go fishing to a river about three hours away. You got us the day off; I got the car; and so we returned a day later and told everyone that we caught about a dozen fish. Do you remember?”
Maes nodded, though he was still nervous. “We… didn’t catch… any.”
Roy chuckled. “That’s right. In fact, we stopped at a small bar and got so drunk that we never went fishing. We just stayed at the bar, where we found some excellent company. Lucy and…”
“…Josephine,” Maes completed. He closed his eyes, letting out a breath in relief. “I’m sorry, Roy.”
“I understand.”
“No,” Maes whispered, his eyes still shut. “No, you don’t…”
“I know about Envy, Maes.”
“It’s not just him, Roy…” Maes voice said, his voice becoming softer by the minute. “The whole military is in trouble...”
“I know,” Roy said again, but Maes didn’t listen to him.
“We’re pawns, Roy… pawns used… by a woman who’s dead…”
And with that Maes slipped away into sleep, exhaustion from his wound – and his fright – catching up with him. All Roy could do was stare at the sleeping form in thought, trying to figure out what could Maes possibly want to tell him. The only woman that could have used the military was Douglas, something that Roy himself had figured out so far. She, however, was very much alive.
Wasn’t she?
Unless…
Roy now realised that he had to find more answers and soon, or it would probably be too late.
It was all quiet in Dublith. Night had settled quite peacefully, and everyone was lying on their beds, sleeping – that is, except for two young alchemists in a butcher’s house. The one was trying to pick a chained lock that kept the door of their room shut, while the younger one was wringing his metal gauntlets tensely.
“Stop fidgeting, Al, you’re distracting me,” Ed whispered. He narrowed his eyes and continued on with his work.
Al was still nervous though.
“When I agreed that you should find things out, this wasn’t what I had in mind, Brother,” the suit of armour whispered back. “Besides, Teacher locked the door with alchemy. If she finds it open, she’ll know just whose head to pound.”
Ed stopped at once. His brother had a point.
“Okay,” he agreed and put the pin back in his pocket, “Then we’ll have to get out through another way.”
It didn’t take him long to figure out another solution. In the next moment, he clapped his hands and placed them on the floor in order to create a hole.
A sigh reverberated through the armour. “That wasn’t what I had in mind, either.”
“It’s either that or nothing,” Ed reasoned. “If you’re that worried, just fix it once I get down.”
Al shook his head. “No way, I’m coming, too. Someone has to make sure we’re over and done with this before we get caught.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Ed said, rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, he lowered himself down the hole and landed softly on the ground floor. If his calculations were correct, he was now in the room where the wild kid was sleeping. All he had to do was wake the kid up – without alarming him – and ask him the questions he wanted.
He was quite surprised to see the bed was empty and the boy was nowhere in sight. But, then again, he didn’t think of looking up. It was Al who found him first, and he tapped Ed on the shoulder so that he could see for himself that the boy was hanging upside down from a light on the ceiling as though that was the most natural thing in the world.
“Um… What are you doing?” Ed asked, uncertain.
“Everyone’s dead and I got bored,” the boy said with a smile. “Did you come to play with me?”
Edward frowned. “No one’s dead, they’re just asleep.”
“Oh,” the boy replied, accepting the answer without argument. “So what are we going to play?”
Neither Ed nor Al found the chance to say anything, because the boy beamed instantly and exclaimed: “I know!” Moving with the agility and speed of a cat, the boy landed on the ground and rushed to a corner in the room. There was a squeaking sound, and then the boy hurried back to Ed and Al, showing them his prize: a small grey mouse.
“We can play with this!” he said with a grin. “I watched you guys play with another one yesterday!”
Ed and Al exchanged a glance at once before looking back at the boy; they both realised what the latter had just told them.
“You’ve been watching us the whole time? Even while we were hunting?” Al asked, his shock audible.
The boy just nodded proudly.
“What were you doing in the island in the first place?” Ed asked in turn.
The boy didn’t listen to him though. He was too busy watching the mouse squirm violently in his hands in an attempt to escape. The boy tightened his grip on it; something that, of course, made the mouse squeak in agony.
“Don’t do that!” Ed said. He tried to take the mouse away from the boy, but the boy jumped back with a teasing smile, apparently thinking everything was part of the game.
“Come on, let it go!” Ed said in frustration, reaching for the boy’s hands again.
“No!” the boy replied happily, dodging Ed easily.
“You shouldn’t play with an animal’s life,” Al reasoned, deciding to interfere. “Please, put it down.”
“No! I play! I play! I play!” the boy cried out, his excitement increasing ten-fold. Soon enough, he was jumping up and down from the bed to a nightstand nearby and back on the floor in a meaningless childish dance, letting out squeals of laughter.
It didn’t take a great mind like Edward Elric’s to realise things were getting out of hand. The boy was making enough noise to raise the dead from their graves!
“Keep it down, will you? You’ll wake everyone up!” Ed said; his tone was torn between shouting at the boy and trying to stay low in case Izumi heard the commotion.
It was still to no avail. The boy just kept jumping up and down and laughing, making Ed more than just exasperated.
“Okay, that’s it! No more Mr. Nice Guy!” he finally declared, snapping. Not caring anymore who heard or saw the alchemical reaction, he clapped his hands and placed them on the bed.
By the time the boy had realised that something was going on, it was too late. The large rope that was transmuted out of the sheets had already tangled itself around his ankles, making him trip. The boy fell on the bed with a soft thud, letting go of the mouse in his surprise.
Even so, he didn’t see anything wrong with the rope, still thinking it was all part of the game. He grinned in Ed’s direction.
“That was fun! Can you do it again?”
Ed regarded the boy in a hard manner. “You can do that too, can’t you?”
The boy blinked, not expecting the question. “No.”
“Don’t lie!” cried Edward. “You transmuted your hand! And you transmuted those leaves into clothes, didn’t you?”
“Brother, calm down,” Al said in an attempt to smooth matters.
“Calm down?!” Ed turned around and faced Al. “I saw him perform alchemy without a transmutation circle; he didn’t even clap his hands, like Teacher and I do! Beregond is about the only one we know who can do that! Don’t you think that’s weird?”
“I do, but you should let him go. You’re upsetting him.” Alphonse replied.
Sure enough, the boy was now trying to get the rope undone, an expression of frustration and a rising panic on his face. Ed watched the boy struggle for a moment, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s the matter? Just use your alchemy.”
The boy only started trying to kick his legs free. “Untie it! Untie it!”
That was a sight that Al’s gentle nature couldn’t stand.
“Brother, I realise you have your reasons to suspect that boy, but does that give you an excuse to treat him this way?” he asked, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“I’ve already told you I’ve seen his face somewhere before,” Ed answered, his eyes still relentlessly locked on the boy. “I’m not leaving before I find out where.”
“Brother…”
Al never completed his sentence, because it was then that blue light filled the room. Both brothers watched aghast as the transmutation took place, and they felt horrified when they realised that the boy’s legs were gone, replaced by the whole bed.
The boy screamed in terror.
“Ed, what did you do?!” Al asked, his red flickers of eyes brightening in shock.
“I didn’t do anything!” Ed answered at once. “I couldn’t transmute a body to a bed even if I wanted to!”
“Well, fix it before--!”
It was already too late. The door burst open and a very cranky-looking Izumi entered the door.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, DISRUPTING MY SLEEP LIKE THAT?!”
The brothers knew that they were doomed, so they just cowered in a corner, stammering apologies and waiting for their inevitable punishment. But Sig, who had followed his wife closely behind when they heard the noise, pointed out to Izumi the real problem.
“Please!” the boy cried to Izumi. “Change it back! Change it back!”
“We didn’t do that!” Ed said at once.
“It’s true!” Alphonse seconded. “Brother is a frequent liar, but he’s telling the truth this time!”
Ed cast a sidelong glance to his brother’s direction. “Gee, thanks, Al...”
Izumi sighed and walked up to the bed, examining the results of the transmutation from up close. “I know neither of you did that. I never taught you such senseless alchemy.”
“Put me down! Put me down!” the boy cried, nearly hysterical.
“STOP CRYING!”
It worked like a charm. The boy stopped at once, looking at Izumi with wide open eyes. Izumi, however, just smiled kindly and took his hand in one of hers.
“It’s going to be fine,” she assured him. “Just close your eyes and try to remember your own form.”
The boy nodded and did as he was told. He closed his eyes and, soon enough, there was another alchemical reaction and he was free. He immediately wrapped his arms around Izumi, bursting into tears once more.
It was then that Al noticed something very strange about the boy’s right arm. For there was a large scar on the bicep that looked awfully much like…
“YOU STUPID APPRENTICES! WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO DO TO THAT CHILD?!”
Al and Ed nearly jumped. Such was their fright that they almost didn’t dare say anything.
“We were worried,” Ed finally said shakily. “We wanted to be sure he meant no harm to us.”
Izumi glared at Ed. “And why would you be worried about that?”
It was Al who decided to answer that. “Teacher, there are some things we didn’t tell you.”
“Al…” Ed started.
“No, Brother. They need to know.”
“Know what?” Sig asked then.
Ed sighed. There was no turning back now.
“It’s a long story,” he said.
“I see,” Izumi said thoughtfully, still holding the boy comfortingly. “Very well, we’ll talk about it in the morning. But…” and at that her voice became a snarl, “you’d better say everything this time!”
TBC...
Subtitles
- Brother's Debt
- Fullmetal Body, Fullmetal Heart
- A Quiet Day
- In The Night
- Two Men's Faces
- Transfer
- Making Plans
- Shadows Of The Past
- Underworld
- The Price Of Immortality
- Departure
- The Key
- Enemy Revealed
- A Step Back
- A Step Closer To The Truth
- A Race
- Rush Valley
- Responsibility
- Izumi
- Time To Stand Still
- Wild Child
- Encounter
- Riddles In The Dark
- In Search For Answers
- A Teacher's Mistakes
- Complications
- Visits
- The Nature Of A Homunculus
- Dante Of The Deep Forest
- Kidnapped
- Fight At The Devil's Nest
- Innocence Lost
- Blood Spilt
- Recovering
- Bearers Of Ill News
- The Flame Alchemist
- True Colours
- Markings On The Ground
- The Mission
- Heading To Liore
- Change Of Plans
- The Scar
- Holy Mother
- A Mother's Face
- Final Moments