Chapter Seven: What the Hell Happened

This chapter was a total blast to write… gotta love backstory! XD

speedfanatic05: Yeah, Roy has a lot of negative feelings about his sister, but he can't in good conscience let another Ishbal survivor suffer the flashbacks alone. He knows what she's going through all too well!

lilaclily00: Mwahaha I admit I feel very pleased to know you're freaking out! XD


"Kate, you have to talk to me. You've been hiding it, but I have to know what I saw last night."

It was later than I always left for work, but for once I didn't care. I'd been at Kate's side the moment she woke up. She knew right away that something was different; I wouldn't have been waiting for her otherwise. Once I'd told her, she hadn't said a word, just locked herself in the bathroom. I couldn't hear anything coming from inside.

I pounded on the door again. "Don't make me call someone."

Kate threw the door open a moment later. "Don't do that."

"Why shouldn't I?"

She was still for a minute. "Bring me a bowl of warm water and a rag. Then I'll talk."

She sat down on the couch while I went to get the water and cloth. I set them on the coffee table and sat beside her. She was beginning to undo the bandage, exposing the shredded flesh beneath. It looked worse than I remembered now that I could look at it in the daylight, all puffy and red.

"It happened in Ishbal."

I tore my gaze from her wound to meet her eyes. "But Ishbal was ten years ago... That's not possible."

"Let me talk, Roy." She dipped a corner of the rag into the bowl and began wiping away some of the blood. "My squadron followed Solf Kimblee in Ishbal once they started getting the state alchemists involved. Our job was to go into a city after he'd had his way with it and search for survivors so we could eliminate them." I couldn't see her face because she was looking down, focused on cleaning her wound.

"I met an Amestrian alchemist there, Dr. Keirs."

"I don't recognize the name."

"He wasn't state certified. They didn't even know he was there. He moved to Ishbal to smuggle civilians to safety. When I met him he had about a dozen soldiers helping him, and I became one of them.

"With Keirs's alchemy, we were able to be more secretive with our operations – digging tunnels underground and breaking holes in walls. That kind of thing."

Kate paused to lean down and pull a little bottle out of one of her boots on the floor. She opened it up and poured a little on the rag. Hands shaking, she gently pressed it to one of the gashes, wincing in pain. Iodine, most likely.

She took a deep breath and continued. "But whatever we did wasn't enough for him. Dr. Keirs wanted a way to get a lot of Ishbalans to safety quickly. So he started experimenting with human transmutation."

"He should have known better than to fool with that," I muttered.

"He thought he could do it," Kate said. "He was sure of it. He thought if he wasn't using human transmutation to mess with souls… it would be all right. His plan was to move, not to change or create.

"Dr. Keirs had been experimenting with long-range transmutations before Ishbal. He'd succeeded in moving small objects distances of half a mile or more – rocks, books, even house plants. But that's nothing like moving humans."

"The bastartd tried it anyway, didn't he?"

Kate nodded. "We didn't have time to be scientific. We were trying to move a group of schoolchildren out of a city with Amestrian forces closing in. He had to try it right then." Her voice started to shake. "I don't know what happened, I don't know if his circle was wrong or his method… or if such a thing just wasn't possible. I was one of the lucky ones because I was on the edge of the circle. I just got some of my insides junked up and my stomach split open. The others… some were separated from body parts, got turned inside out… All those kids."

She broke down at the mention of the children they'd been unable to save. Her hands covered her face and her shoulders shook. I let her cry for a minute until blood started dripping from her stomach as a result of her tensed muscles. I took both her hands in one of mine, laying the other on her back. "Kate, you're hurting yourself." I kept my hands on her for comfort until she calmed down. She started using the iodine on the gashes after a few minutes.

"How did that scar happen?" I asked. I knew I was probably pressing her farther than she wanted to go right now, but I had to know.

"That was Dr. Keirs," she whispered. "He cut the circle and used alchemy to seal the wounds. Or at least he tried. They don't heal."

"But if he used human transmutation methods for his theory… that means you've been through the Portal. Kate, have you me the Truth?"

"I wouldn't say we've met. But yes, I've been through the Portal."

I grabbed her hands again because they were shaking so much and it made me nervous that she was moving them near her torn skin. She met my eyes and I could see terror shining out of hers. She leaned against me, trembling. I could feel the heat of her blood soaking through my shirt, but I didn't pull away. For the first time in years, I just held her.

"Have you been through too?"

I nodded. "I was forced through, but it's all the same I guess."

"It was all white… it was like I was falling but not going anywhere. And the Truth… it was just mouth, a mouth on an empty face that was whiter than the whiteness."

She was rambling, but I understood every word. "It's okay, don't talk." I could tell she was on the brink of panic, and I wanted to avoid dealing with more flashbacks if I could.

It was a while before she leaned away from me. Her body had stopped shaking and her eyes were calm. Her hands were still shaking as she wiped away the fresh blood, but she had more control over them now.

"It didn't take anything from you – the Truth... didn't take a toll?"

"It's not what he took… it's what he gave. I have a wound that will never heal. I'll never be able to forget what happened in Ishbal because I have to see this every day. I have to feel it every second."

I watched her as she began to rewrap the wound with the same bandage. I wondered how many times she'd done this before so that even when she was on the edge of a panic attack, it came naturally.

"After our plan failed, we didn't have much choice but to go our separate ways. The war was over in a few weeks anyway. I was discharged from the army then, and you know why. So that's it."

I was silent as I watched her hands work. I didn't speak until she had secured the wrapping and pulled her shirt back down over her stomach. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I don't tell anyone, Roy. No one really knows the truth about me. What would they do if they found out? Amestrians didn't belong in Ishbal back then, everyone knows that now, but that doesn't change the fact that I betrayed my army and helped the enemy. I fired on my own people. And to top it all off, I took part in an unethical experiment involving human transmutation that resulted in the death of half a dozen Ishbalan children. My record already has black marks, and I don't want to add any more."

"Won't you at least let me take you to someone? A doctor can treat you without knowing the whole story."

Kate was shaking her head before I was done talking. "It won't do any good. I've been to doctors, surgeons, alchemists… they all have to know the truth eventually when they realize they're dealing with a wound that will never fully heal."

"Is that why… you did it because of the pain, didn't you?"

"I won't use that as an excuse. It was for the pain, yes, but also the war and the Portal and the nightmares and those children. I wanted to escape from everything that'd happened. That's all."

I looked at my hands because I couldn't meet her eyes. I knew if I did I would finally see the pain shining out of them. Maybe she didn't see it as an excuse, but I couldn't blame her so much for the past ten years when I thought of the constant pain she'd dealt with all that time. And yet she'd brought it on herself hadn't she? Human transmutation was illegal for a reason; she wasn't an alchemist, but almost anyone knew that. She should have known better.

The silence was broken by a knock on the door. I recognized the solid sound, like whoever it was meant business.

"That's Hawkeye," I said. "I'm way late for work."

"Go if you have to. I'll be fine."

I glanced back at her as I went to answer the door. I didn't doubt she'd be okay, but for once I didn't want to get away from her. Maybe I could send Hawkeye away without too much suspicion.

"Sir." Riza saluted as I opened the door. "Are you all right?" She looked me up and down, observing the fact that I was in a t-shirt and sweats. "You really should get a phone, sir. It would have saved me the trip."

"Sorry, Lieutenant. I'm… something's come up."

"I'm sorry Sir, but I'm afraid this is more important." She lowered her voice and stepped closer. "There's been another incident in Ishbal."


Later on there will be a chapter told from Kate's POV telling the whole story in detail... but that'll have to come later.