Desideratum
by ApostasyII
Chapter 1: Awake
Perfect clouds glided effortlessly across the peaceful shining of the blue sky. Ed stretched his arms up over his head and yawned, leaning back against the bench he sat on at the train stop. Just a few more train rides and he'd finally be home. After nearly three years of discovery and research in the West he was finally ready to return to Resembool and converge his findings with Al's. He'd learned much in his travels and couldn't wait to share some of his new discoveries with his brother. He'd been home to Resembool several times to visit Winry and Granny Pinako but never at the same time as Al. He and his brother had kept in contact through numerous letters and phone calls but this was the first time they'd all finally be together in years. He was excited to find out what his brother could do and what findings from Alkehestry he would bring back from Xing in the East and how they would connect with his findings in the West.
"Hello there, young man." A voice cut through his thoughts. "Would you mind if I sat here for a while?" Ed looked up to see the kind face of an older man smiling pleasantly at him.
"Not at all." he slid over to make room for the chipper elder man. His movements were slow and choppy as he settled carefully onto the bench then pulled a pipe from the depths of his jacket pocket and lit the end. He puffed thoughtfully on it for a moment then turned and reached his hand out.
"The name's Alaric Talered."
"Edward Elric. Nice to meet you." Ed reached out and shook the man's hand.
"Its such a lovely day out. Where are you headed?" he pulled the pipe away from his lips to blow out a long cloud of smoke.
"The next train that will get me to Resembool."
"Ah. Resembool. I hear its beautiful out there in the country."
"Yeah it is." Ed smiled thoughtfully.
"Made even more so by a special someone I bet? Mm?" he looked down over his nose at him with that knowing gleam in his eye that only the elderly teasing a young person about their love interest ever could
"Uh yeah something like that." he could feel his face starting to heat up and looked away, crossing his arms.
"Ah no need to be so shy. We all need someone we care about. Even the most wicked need someone to love them."
"I dunno about that."
"Eh everyone wants love. Its only human. Will you be passing through Central on your way there?"
"Probably. Its the stop with the most connections and the most direct route from here to Resembool."
"Ever been there before?"
"Yeah. I used to live out there. I was a State Alchemist."
"Wow." the man looked impressed. "You must be quite something to be a State Alchemist especially so young."
"You could say that. I'm not a state alchemist anymore though. I just do research on my own now."
"How interesting. What exactly are you researching?"
"I'm looking into new forms of Alchemy besides what's classically practiced in Amestris. I've been doing a lot of digging on Alkehestry."
"Alkehestry? What's that?"
"Its another form of Alchemy mostly practiced in Xing in the East. It can do a lot that Alchemy can't like be used to heal wounds."
"Wow! Well if you're an alchemist conducting research on medical uses you may want to go check out that new Biologics Institute for Innovative Technology and Research. They were set up as a specialized institution exclusively for alchemical research with medical applications. A sort of bio-alchemy subset. I hear they've got quite an interesting find down there."
"Oh?" An institution exclusively for medical alchemy? When did that happen? I wonder if they use forms of Alkehestry too. "What did they find?"
The man leaned closer to whisper surreptitiously. "You didn't hear this from me but they say they've got a doctor down there who may may have discovered something that resembles the Azoth."
"The Azoth?" Ed looked at him skeptically, brow furrowed with suspicion.
"So you've heard of it then?"
"Of course. Azoth is a legendary substance said to come from Philosopher's Stones. Its known as the Great Solvent, the Universal Cure, or the Elixir of Life. Its said to be the very life source which resides in all living beings. Its the substance which makes transmutation possible. It can unify any two substances no matter how contrasting and divide any no matter how strong. It is a 'synthesis of opposites'. It can cure any illness or stop any disease."
"They say they've got some down in that lab and they've been using it to to work their own private miracles."
"I've heard that before..." Azoth was closely related to Philosopher's Stones. It wasn't magic but it could probably still look to the untrained eye like miracle work. Ed wondered if someone was using a slight of hand to fool people again just like Liore years ago. Could someone really be looking into philosopher's stones again? Could someone even be trying to make them again? To make homunculus again? Or worse to bring back the homunculus that were dead?
"It might be worth checking out if that sort of thing interests you."
"Well, I guess I'll have to go see this mysterious elixir myself. Hopefully this great weather keeps up." He jumped up from the bench stretching his arms up over his head.
"I wouldn't count on it. The weather here can be rather unpredictable lately."
"It was nice talking to you Mr Talered. Thanks for the info!" He smiled and waved to the old man then turned back to head towards the train ticket booth. He had a few phone calls to make. Winry and Al are going to have to wait just a little bit longer.
"Bye kid. Make sure you get back home to that girl of yours. Don't leave her waiting too long..."
Black. Black was the only thing he knew. It closed in around him, pressing down on his consciousness like a heavy weight, the blank nothingness cocooning him into the comforting embrace of oblivion. It was warm and pleasant and he didn't want to leave its peace but a dull sound was slowly thrumming in his ears disturbing the serene slumber. The next thing he registered through the black haze was something cold and hard pressed up against his entire body. He quickly realized it must be the ground beneath him. He was lying face down on a dirty floor. His senses were slowly coming back to him. The only thing he could hear above the ringing in his ears was the faint buzz of an electric current and the steady drip of water as it leaked from pipes overhead onto pavement with a wet slap. The air was cold and filled with a dank, musty smell that suggested stagnant water had been sitting somewhere nearby for quite some time.
He was dead wasn't he? No that couldn't be true. He was aware. He could think, he could feel so he must be alive. Something had happened. A gate? Blank empty white? Something about truth and souls? He couldn't remember and it was making his head hurt. His eyes fluttered open and he pushed himself up off the ground to take in his surroundings, one hand pressed against the side of his head as he squinted through the darkness. There was very little light illuminating his surroundings and dark shapes blurred in and out of focus in the gloom. He could just make out the shape of long rusty pipes stretching out in front of him.
Was this Central? Yes it must be. There were long black scorch marks burned into the wall with blood spatter and the ground around him and the air still smelled faintly of ash and metal. This must have been the last place he had been. A sick feeling ran through him at the thought as memories started flooding back immediately. The last thing he remembered was the fire, the humiliation, a crushing defeat, ripping his own heart out in front of the alchemist runt and his gang of misfit toys... It was the most nightmarish death he could've imagined for himself. His body shook with anger that rose through it like a heat wave. The humiliation still burned through him more painfully then the fire. It shouldn't have happened. It was impossible. How? How had they been able to defeat him? The Alchemist runt was going to pay and so was that damn colonel. As soon as he could find them he was going to hunt them down like the dogs they were for what they did. But he wasn't dead. There had been more. Something had happened after. Something about a white gate...pain throbbed fiercely in the back of his head.
A sound caught his attention through the darkness, a dull thrumming like footsteps followed by soft murmurs like whispers. People were coming. His hatred and anger immediately dissolved into fear. What if the Flame Colonel was coming back? He suddenly felt like a wounded animal lying exposed in the open here, sending the scent of blood into the air for predators to find him. He scrambled to his feet, eager to escape discovery. He stumbled and nearly fell back down immediately. He still felt disoriented, and his muscles felt weak and stiff with disuse as though he had been lying there for quite some time. He hastily straightened himself again, leaning one hand against the wall for support.
He tried to transform his body into something less conspicuous like a dog but as he reached for the energy to do so there was no familiar surge of power coursing through his body. He pushed again but was met with resistance as the cells stubbornly refused to change shape and the metallic taste of blood suddenly filled his mouth uncomfortably. He was so weak he could hardly control his own body, shifting wasn't an option right now. He fumbled clumsily down the long hall and melted into the darkness behind one of the thicker pipes running down the wall.
He could hear footsteps quickly approaching the place he'd been laying just moments earlier.
"I thought I heard something over here." A man's voice called out into the dark reverberating harshly through the long skinny hallway.
"What is it?" A second voice called. The beams of their flashlights arced around the room like missile beacons seeking their targets. A pipe groaned, quickly releasing a small stream of air with a hiss. Both people jumped and whirled around at the sound their lights illuminating each other for a moment. They were dressed in long formal blue coats with gold buttons and silver trim and thick black boots. Amestrian soldiers. Envy breathed a sigh of relief. Not the Flame colonel or the Fullmetal brat.
"Who's there?!" one of the soldiers yelled, his flashlight swinging around in a sudden wide sweep.
"Its nothing probably just a rat." his comrade reassured him though he didn't sound overly confident. He shown his light out down the isle again, the end of its beam edging closer to where Envy stood in the dark.
"What's this?" the soldier's light stopped at a spot where the floor was marred with little, shiny splotches of crimson. "Blood?" He walked closer to the spot, kneeling down and touching it with his fingers to examine it. He looked worriedly to his companion.
Envy touched one hand to his face then looked at it, surprised to see it sticky with dark red. He realized blood had poured earnestly from his mouth and nose and now coated his face and down his chest where it must have dripped onto the floor earlier. Well shit. When had that happened? He rubbed the back of his hand across his face.
I wouldn't worry about it. There's dried blood all over down here. This place is seriously creepy. I'll be glad when they stop making us patrol down here. Look at all this." he shown his flashlight down the walls which were scorched with burns and stained with dried spattered blood. "Its from the Flame Alchemist." They both stared in silent reverence at the gruesome scars.
"I feel sorry for the poor bastard who was the victim of all this."
"They say it was some monster. It had to die a hundred deaths before it would stay dead."
"That's probably just an exaggerated rumor. I don't know how anything could survive this." They both stared uneasily at the walls.
"C'mon let's go. Monsters like that could easily still be here lurking in the dark just waiting for a couple of sorry suckers like us to wander into their lair. And I'm certainly no Flame Alchemist. I couldn't kill a creature a hundred times."
"Let's get out of here."
heir voices faded away into the distance and Envy breathed a sigh of relief. He waited until their footsteps faded out into silence. The vertigo in his head was terrible and his legs were shaking with the effort of not falling, so he let himself slide to his knees then sat back on his heels. He leaned his head back against the cool metal of the pipes in the wall behind him and closed his eyes. His head must be injured somehow. That's probably why he couldn't shift. Head injuries were always such a pain in the ass to heal. They always took much longer to fix due to their more complex nature and even still often hurt for several days if not weeks after. He didn't understand why he was so useless.
Father would know what to do. He could fix this. He just needed to get up and find him. He grit his teeth together in determination forcing his eyes open again. He reached for one of the higher pipes above him then heaved himself to his feet again. The dark room spun dizzyingly for a minute but quickly righted itself and he started making his way forward down the long hallway. He just needed to get to Father. He just needed-
He faltered for a moment as a new thought occurred to him. Or would he be angry? Father would think he was weak. He'd let the Flame Alchemist nearly defeat him. Hatred burned through him. He hated the Flame Colonel even more for taking that away too. Father wouldn't be proud or understanding or sympathetic. He was going to be angry. He would punish him severely for this failure.
He shook his head trying to clear his thoughts. No that wasn't right either. The Promised Day. It was here. Father was finally going to complete his transmutation circle and usurp God. That's why he'd been fighting Mustang. Father was busy... No... His mind felt like it was wading through mud. Everything was thick and foggy and his thoughts were clumsy. Another memory came back to him, fragmented and bleary, shooting painfully through his mind like lightning illuminating scant bits of memory before fading back into the confusion.
You were once a part of the creature called Father but he is dead now and has since passed to face his Judgement.
Father was dead.
There was no point in trying to find his way back to the underground atrium he'd once called home because Father would not be there. He was gone. The world suddenly felt like it was tilting again but this time it had nothing to do with the disorientation or distorted balance.
Father was dead.
He could hardly even process such a thought. No impossible. Father couldn't be defeated. He was invincible, omniscient, omnipotent. He was going to surpass God. He was better than God. His creations, his children, the Homunculus were far superior to all of God's creations. He was smarter, stronger, more powerful than God. His plan was going to succeed. He was going to rise and swallow the power of God himself to become the most powerful being in the universe! Everything was perfect. He couldn't possibly be defeated. He couldn't be dead!
So many emotions flooded through him he didn't know what to feel. He was angry with Father. He'd promised. He'd promised. He was going to tear apart this violent loathsome world of cowardly worms and build a new one. One filled with his creations, the Homunculi. They weren't going to be alone anymore. There would be others like them. They would reign as superior beings in a superior world and the humans would become a relic of the past. How could that all be taken away! How could Father let the humans take that away from them! From him. How could he let them win?!
A small part of him felt relief. Father had been his captor. He'd been his torturer for as long as he could remember. His lessons were harsh and his punishments ruthless. He'd never dare defy him. But without him...the things that had now been taken away...
It filled him with despair and hopelessness. A crushing pain of emptiness, of loss, of loneliness. He felt lost. What was he supposed to do now? He was alone. Completely and utterly alone. He had no purpose. What was the point of his life without Father's plan? Without the hope of their perfect Utopia? He couldn't be alone. How could Father leave him? Abandon him like this?!
"No!" he slammed his fist into the wall beside him, breathing sharply through his teeth. A sharp pain ran threw his hand and up his arm but he hardly registered the feeling. "No, no,no, no,no, no." He ran his fingers angrily through his hair in distress, tugging at the ends of it. "He can't be gone... he can't..." he rubbed a hand down his face then hit the wall again. "No damn it!"
No. Father had to come back. There had to be a way to bring him back. He refused to accept this. He was going to fix this. There had to be a way to bring Father back. There had to be. He was going to find a way.
How could he do it? He couldn't exactly do alchemy himself...An alchemist would be the best way to start. He would go find one of the researchers from the third laboratory. They were trustworthy enough. He knew where several of them lived, in fact most of them were only a short walk from one of the exits to the underground tunnels. He picked himself up and, with renewed vigor, set off down the long hall towards the third laboratory.
He made his way out of the tunnels and into the coolness of the fall night air. He pulled the dark cloak closer around his body. He'd picked it up from one of the small store rooms in the tunnels where they'd often kept dark cloaks and other clothes to hide in the shadows with when leaving any of the buildings. All of the homunculi were rather conspicuous when looked at directly in plain sight and the dark clothing helped them sneak through the public unnoticed. Envy had, obviously, not had much use for it, being able to change his face, but was grateful for it now. He pulled the hood farther over his head to keep his face in shadow and kept his eyes down to not draw attention should someone see him.
He was walking through the shadows down a small secluded alleyway headed towards the main street. Old things littered the ground along with dirt and trash. It was a place no respectable person would be caught walking down especially at this time of night.
A man stood under one of the overhangs in the darkness of the shadows, arms crossed and one leg propped up against the wall behind him. He had an unkempt appearance with his shirt unbuttoned, no tie, and his hat tilted at an angle over his eyes. He was tapping his foot anxiously against the wall as he looked down at his watch, then took a swig from the bottle in his hand and peered nervously down the alley entrance.
Envy pulled the cloak tighter around his body, melting quietly in with the darkness. The alley was narrow and the man heard him approaching, shifty blue eyes suddenly following his movement. The man stopped jiggling his leg and let out a long whistle as he walked past him. Envy just ignored him. If things were normal he would have transformed one of his hands into a long blade and skewered the man where he stood like Lust or Pride would or at least turned and kicked the living shit out of him for being so disrespectful but his head still hurt with a piercing pain and the thought of moving too quickly made it hurt tremendously more. The human was lucky tonight.
"Hey there, where are you off to at this hour, darling?" The man suddenly began walking next to him, matching their strides. He obviously had assumed, likely from his small size, that he was a woman walking alone at night. Envy still didn't say anything but the fuse on his patience was quickly going to run out if the little bug didn't leave. He didn't have the time or energy to deal with obnoxious ants.
"Ooh the silent treatment. Playing hard to get? I just want to get to know you, that's all. Why don't you let me see your face, baby." The man reached out to try and brush the hood of the cloak back. Envy snarled at him and sidestepped away but the hood still fell back some anyways, revealing his face.
"What happened to you?" The man's face looked surprised for a minute but then quickly curled into a smile again. "You're awful pretty under all that blood aren't you sweetheart? Boyfriend hittin' ya?"
"Fuck off. I don't feel like dealing with you."
"Theres no need for language like that." he took another swig from his bottle. "C'mon darling, come with me. Let's go get some coffee at my house. I promise I'll treat ya real nice."
"You have three seconds to get out of my sight or I'll crack your skull against the wall like an egg and use your blood to decorate the ground like fingerpaint."
The man hesitated for a minute as though sensing the reality of the threat but the drink in his veins seemed to numb any sense of self preservation. "Oh. Fiesty. You're just words though. You're so small and fragile. You'd be easy to overpower. I doubt there's much you could even do if I decided to-"
In a sudden flurry of limbs the man was knocked backwards off his feet onto the ground. Before the man could even process what had happened Envy kicked him hard in the side. Headache be damned he was going to crush this insolent little worm.
"You cunt!" the man shouted trying to shield his face. "Do you know who I am?! Do you see this?!" The man pulled the hat from his head and pointed to the heavy lettered tattoos scrawled illegibly across his shaved head.
"I don't give a fuck what shitty group you belong to." Envy kicked him again.
"They'll come after you! They'll punish you for this!"
"After I'm finished with you maybe I'll come after them." he hissed, standing threateningly over the man and angling his head in just the right way to make the low light reflect off the back of his eyes and shine red through the darkness.
"M-monster!" The man trembled in sudden fear and Envy wanted to laugh at how stupidly easy it was to frighten humans with something so simple.
"That's right. Now leave before my hands find their way around your neck."
A shimmer of silver suddenly flashed from nowhere. Envy put a hand up to try and catch the blade, but he was still a little slow and his fingers couldn't quite close fast enough. Instead of catching the blade it stabbed straight through his palm breaking through bone and tearing through tendons. He ignored the pain, expecting it would heal in a minute. If he could shift he might have turned into the man himself and watched in glee as the man had to grapple with the idea of stabbing himself. Instead he just laughed and tore the blade from out of his hand, letting the blood spatter out violently and drip down his fingers dramatically.
It didn't immediately occur to him what a grave miscalculation he had made until it was too late.
He watched as the man clambered to his feet in a panic and backed away then darted down the alley disappearing into the night. His hand was starting to burn like fire and he was immediately reminded of the sensation of burning alive. He shuddered away from the memory. Why was it hurting? He couldn't understand why this was happening. It should've healed by now. Even if his head was injured, a serious injury should have at least closed itself. It was one of the homunculi's strongest defenses; they could never bleed out. He brought his hand, now pulsing blood thickly into the black gloves around his wrist, up in front of his face. The black cloth wasn't particularly absorbent and was quickly starting to become saturated and heavy streams of red were starting to drip down his forearm. He tried to see what damage had been done, by slowly uncurling his fingers and immediately regretted it.
His entire body went rigid from the action and sweat immediately beaded on the back of his neck. His vision tunneled like black shrinking down around his surroundings until the only thing he could see was the blood spitting out of his hand concerningly quick.
He distantly heard the voice of another person calling out but he was too preoccupied with this predicament to take note.
It hurt. Why did it hurt?! Damn it, it fucking hurt! That simple action of moving one finger was enough to bring him to his knees on the ground. It hurt so much he could barely think of anything but the pain. He cradled his hand to his chest, squeezing instinctively at the base of his wrist with the opposite hand. This didn't make sense. His body was supposed to regenerate itself. He was a homunculus. He was supposed to be immune to pain like this. Why couldn't he heal himself!?
Another memory suddenly came flying back to him.
You don't have a Philosopher's Stone this time around.
Damn it.
No Philosopher's Stone meant no more regeneration. It wasn't the homunculi's own intrinsic abilities which allowed them to regenerate, it was the Philosopher's Stones at their core. Pain truly hurt now. It hurt so much more than it should have. Why wouldn't the pain stop? Is this how the mortals felt? Their pain lasted longer than just a few seconds initially? This was horrible. The agony was relentless and unending. No wonder they could hardly stand to be toyed with.
This was so humiliating. So pitiful. How could these little worms get the better of him so easily? It made him angry, filling him with a renewed hatred for the despicable creatures. As if he needed more reason to hate them. He could suddenly feel the metallic taste of blood gathering in his mouth again. He spit it onto the ground in frustration then leaned his back against the wall trying to catch his breath.
He stared down at the bleeding hole in his hand, trying to decide the best thing to do about it. He'd never really been injured before and he had no idea what he was supposed to do to get it to stop bleeding or to heal. He heard a voice again and nearly startled as he noticed a woman suddenly rushing towards him to kneel down in front of him.
Are you okay? Let me help you. I'm a doctor." her voice was gentle but held a note of urgency and alarm to it. She held her hand out as if expecting him to offer his own injured one to her.
He stared at the woman blankly from underneath the hood of the cloak. She was peculiar. She was covered in a ridiculous amount of dirt like a common laborer though, oddly, she was dressed professionally. Her mousy brown hair was a mess, falling from its pins and tangled wildly around her shoulders. She wasn't particularly beautiful, at least not classically, but she was pretty enough to get by. Her round eyes were a pale shade of icy blue placed slightly too close together but they held a calm, softness to them. There was a strange energy to her like the glimmer of a buried diamond catching the light and shimmering for a moment against dirt.
She mistook his silence for fear. "Its okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm a doctor. I'm from the Institute. I just want to help." her voice was kind and her face open and honest. It irritated him. He hated that this dumb little human was here to witness his weakness, to mock it.
"I heard you the first time." he spoke coldly and condescendingly and her face fell a little.
"Oh." she looked slightly put off. "Well here let me look."
She reached out to try and pry his hand away to examine it. He was about to yell at her not to touch him and to leave him alone or go away but she already had her fingers around his wrist, pulling it away from his chest.
The moment her fingers touched him he felt an immediate, inexplicable sense of intense calm rush through him like a wave clearing every feeling away and leaving behind only a tranquility in its overwhelming recession. The feeling of peace was so intoxicating he immediately forgot his anger and the retort died on his tongue.
"Ok." he muttered quietly, if not just a little uncertainly. He couldn't explain why he'd suddenly lost his resolve but he found himself letting her unfurl his hand. She smiled gently then very softly reached out to hold his arm and begin examining it. The pain seemed to dull under her fingers. For once he didn't feel the need to fill the quiet space with words. He just sat quietly, letting this strange girl look closely at his hand. She was extremely gentle, turning it carefully this way and that as she looked at it.
"What's your name?" she asked gently. He had no idea why but for some bizarre reason he trusted her and decided to be honest. She'd already seen his true face, what difference did it make if she knew his name too?
"Envy."
Envy?" she repeated skeptically with a brow raised. "That's a strange name."
He should have been offended but he he just stared at her as though dazed. The sense of calm she brought with her was almost like a sedative inhibiting him from thinking right.
"Sorry I didn't mean to sound rude. My name is Dr. Claraline Hegel. But you can call me Clara if you want." She wrapped her small fingers around his wrist, pinching hard over two spots on either side which immediately slowed some of the flow of blood from his hand. "Well that's a pretty good cut you got there isn't it?" she smiled lightly. "Lucky for you I think I can fix it well enough. Will you let me?"
He nodded his head demurely. "Ok. Good." She reached her free hand deep into her pocket and pulled out a folded up white silk scarf. It was covered in little black markings and symbols which vaguely resembled transmutation circles. She carefully wrapped it lightly over the wound in his hand then wrapped and tied it tightly around the base of his wrist where her fingers had been. He watched the blood bleed into the silk, marring the delicate material like ink stains across butterfly wings. She was extremely careful not to force his hand any direction or to harshly touch anywhere near the wound itself. She then placed one of her hands softly around his injured one, the other grasping his wrist. She rounded her fingers and touched them together like she was holding a sphere around his hand. She pulled her fingers apart and as she did a small blue light appeared, and with it came the familiar feeling of flesh knitting back together and the disappearance of much of the pain.
"There. That should hold for now. I've temporarily stopped the bleeding and roughly closed it but it'll need more work to fix it properly. Can you stand?" He nodded again. She put a hand under his elbow and tried to help pull him up. She had no idea that she really wasn't capable of helping at all but he didn't say anything, still drunk on her intense calm. Once he was back on his feet she let go of him completely, her hands falling away and breaking the strange spell of tranquility.
His anger flared back to life again immediately, the desire to hold his tongue disappearing with it. He was angered by whatever witchcraft this was that had manipulated his thoughts so easily.
"What did you do?! Don't touch me!" he hissed at her, snapping his hand back against his chest protectively, and backing away.
"Ok, ok, I'm not. Whatever you want. All I did was temporarily close the wound. Its just a little bit of Alchemy." she held her hands up non threateningly.
"That was not Alchemy! Tell me what you did!"
"Ok, yeah technically you're right. Its not exactly Alchemy but its very similar. I promise it won't hurt you. Its a new technique for healing. Its already helped a lot of people."
"What are you talking about?"
"Its based around an ancient form of energy channeling called hermetics. It has very sound scientific support. It's the result of research from the Institute. I know its probably not what your used to seeing but I promise you its very good. You don't need to be afraid of it."
A new form of alchemy? Ancient energy channeling? Her answers were only leaving more questions. What was she talking about?!
"The Institute?" She seemed to mistake his confusion for distaste.
I know thats probably not the thing to say to get you to trust me. Most people don't like the Institute. But I assure you we're not conducting human transmutation experiments down there like everybody thinks. We're just conducting medical research. Everything that comes out of the Institute is real research. Its very safe. There's no reason to be mistrustful."
Was that all this was? New medicine he just didn't understand? He'd certainly never experienced anything quite like whatever it was she had done and her words didn't make him trust her any more. In fact it made him more suspicious. He most assuredly decided he did not like this new form of alchemy she used. It made him wary, the way she had so quickly been able to alter his thoughts. But perhaps it was just as she said. Unfamiliar energy. His wariness must have shown on his face because she sighed and spoke again.
"Look, I know you don't trust me or the Institute and that's ok but please give it a chance before you decide to go off and tell everyone you know how awful it is. I've tacked your hand together and it will hold temporarily but you're still going to need more serious medical care to completely fix it. You can go to someone else if you really want but I can do it for you completely, free of cost, if you'll just come with me..."
He looked down at his injured hand. She was right. She'd stopped the serious bleeding but only just. There was still a thick, ugly gash in his palm through the back of his hand. He tried to move his fingers but to his great dismay he couldn't move them at all. He needed her to fix this.
"I don't like what you just did. Don't ever try to do that again. You're going to fix this. And no alchemy." he growled at her.
"Ok that's fine. I have better equipment in my office." she took a step back, seeming to shrink down from his harsh tone, eyes sinking to the floor. "Sorry. I don't need to use any sort of alchemy if we can go there." she mumbled. "C'mon. This way." She gestured towards the road then turned to lead him down the alley through the darkness.
A/N: That turned out way longer than I anticipated. In the future chapters are probably not going to be as long as this one because its way too massive to edit. Anyway, I rewrote this like a bazillion times and I could still keep rewriting it over and over to make it better but I'm spending way too much time and I just need to move on to the next piece. Hope you enjoy it. If you do please write me a quick review even if its just a :) if you like it. And thank you so so much PeytonHelix for being the first to review. I deeply appreciate it.
Thanks!
-ApostasyII