So, this chapter took me about three days to write. I hope you really are liking this story, because I'm loving writing it. I'm keeping all you readers in mind as I write this, and you guys keep me going! Thanks for all the continued support, guys. Please enjoy my next few chapters, which, if I write the way I'm planning, will be completely heart-wrenching. This is the beginning of the chapter series. Enjoy!
Ian woke up with the early morning sun licking his face with an orange light. Eva was breathing lightly next to him, Ian's legs crossed with hers beneath the bed sheets. The mess that had already accumulated on the floor had added both Ian's and Eva's clothes from last evening to its collection. Deciding the leave Eva to her peaceful sleep, Ian rolled the covers off of himself and stood up. He tucked Eva in a little more and started the shower. The water eased his mind and awakened him in the morning. He got out and dried himself off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he entered the kitchen. He could still hear Eva sleeping in the other room, and decided to make her breakfast. Unfortunately, Ian had nothing in his cabinets that was impressive enough to cook for her. Grabbing a pen and a pad of paper, he scribbled a note down in case Eva woke up.
"Eva, went to the store to get food for breakfast. Be back soon. Love, Ian," he mumbled as he wrote.
Ian got dressed and darted out of the door, grabbing his keys as he exited. The sound of the keys jingling and the door slamming jolted Eva from her sleep. Slowly, she stood up and trudged into the kitchen area. She noticed Ian's roommate wasn't in his bed, and that the bed was still neatly made. In the kitchen, she found the note Ian had written only moments earlier.
"Ian…" she sighed, followed by a quiet chuckle.
Noticing the wet footprints in the carpet leading away from the bathroom, she decided that she needed to take a shower as well. She turned the faucet in the tub, which was still very wet from Ian's shower. As she touched the plastic knob, a sharp pain came from her finger. She jerked away and examined it, quickly remembering the prick she received from the payphone last night. The small wound had healed but strangely still hurt when pressure was put on it. Most of the time, this implied an infection. She brushed the subject off, and got into her lukewarm shower. Ian apparently had taken all of the hot water, and so her shower was cut off early. She walked back into the bedroom after drying off and picked her clothes off of the catastrophe of a floor. Normally, she'd mind, but this time she didn't. Eva heard a door open and realized Ian had returned. She walked out of the bedroom. Ian was unpacking a small grocery bag.
"You do realize we don't have time to eat breakfast now, right?" Eva asked.
Ian looked at the clock hanging on the nearby wall and sighed.
"I'm sorry!" he shrugged.
"It's fine. We'll just get coffee sometime, alright?" Eva suggested.
The two finished up getting ready for work and left Ian's apartment. As Ian locked the door, two familiar figures approached them from just down the hallway. One was male and one female. The female tapped him on the shoulder. As she did, a strong aroma licked Ian's nose.
"What? Not going to say hello to dear old Juniper? Such a disappointment, Ian!" the woman chuckled.
Ian turned around to see the bright, smiling face of the Vinegrowth Alchemist look down to him. Behind her was Vincent, the Aromatherapy Alchemist, with his arm holding Juniper's. Juniper looked over at Eva.
"Eva? What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Ian, are they neighbors of yours?" Eva questioned.
"Juniper is, but I can't explain Vincent unless- oh," Ian started, cutting himself off.
Juniper understood his assumption.
"We won't tell anybody if you don't rat us out. Deal?" Juniper said.
Ian and Eva had no choice but to nod. Neither had evidence of anything, yet there was an understood double-blackmail situation here.
"So, you guys going to work too?" Vincent asked, trying to change the topic.
"Yeah, seems like you guys are at our pace today. You're normally gone by now, Juniper," Ian noted.
"Vincent is just really slow. He took forever to get ready, so now we're behind," Juniper answered. Vincent shook his head behind Juniper.
"I hope we're not all late. The Board is getting bitchy about that lately," Eva told.
"I know a shortcut to the HQ. I always run behind, so I use it constantly," Ian said.
Juniper looked at Vincent, who did not move.
"I think we'll just go the normal way," Juniper said, "The Board can kiss my ass. If I'm late, they'll live."
She left quickly, leaving Ian watching Vincent chase after her. Eva and Ian then walked to the garage of the complex and got into Ian's car. His shortcut took them down multiple dark and dreary back roads and alleyways. The pungent odor of sewage waste stung Eva's nostrils and the taste of the air surrounding her almost caused her to gag. After only fifteen minutes of this, the heavenly sight of the HQ came into view. It was strange for Eva to think of it as heavenly, considering all the death and problems the HQ caused, but Eva had a problem with creepy alleys. It was the last place she'd ever want to be, especially if she was alone. Ever since the intruder incident, any place strange and unfamiliar frightened her. If she were attacked or hurt, nobody would be able to help her.
Ian pulled through the gates of the headquarters, where they briefly searched both of them and the car before letting them pass into the building. As normal, when they found Eva's armory of weapons attached to her hips and shins, they requested her ID card. The ID had a certain code on it allowing her to carry weapons in and out of the building, calling them "work materials" that were necessary for her position. Ian remembered why she really kept them around. She was smart, he thought. She had gotten a job where they allowed her to carry weapons on her person at any time.
After the security check procedure, Ian and Eva both flashed their ID cards in front of a small machine hanging from the wall just inside the building. This was the newly evolved form of the "timecard" method of ensuring a worker performed all of their hours. Now, Ian and Eva said a word of good-bye and started towards their offices, which were in opposite wings of the building. Ian's in the Physics Wing and Eva's in the Armory. After a few steps, Ian remembered something that he'd failed to tell Eva. He called and she turned to him.
"Yes, Ian?" she questioned.
"I forgot. I have your equation done. If you use it right, you can increase the power of your shot!" Ian explained quickly.
Eva nodded and took the paper from Ian.
"If there's anything I don't understand, I'll send a courier your way. Good-bye Ian," Eva told, smiling brightly.
Eva embraced Ian and then quickly pulled away when she realized she was at work. Inter-office dating may have been acceptable, but only barely. Eva was almost positive that sex would get her fired. She walked away from Ian, giving him a wink, and then disappeared down the hallway leading to the Armory.
Ian breathed out strongly, and turned towards a bustling hallway. This hallway led to the Electric Alchemy Dept., full of hyperactive alchemists and electro-scientists. And if they weren't hyperactive, they were busy enough to pass as it. Ian had to cross through this every day to get to the Physics Wing.
On his way through, Ian always made a stop in to his friend Rusty Longborough. He was the head of the Electric Alchemy Dept., which Ian thought was ironic due to the fact that his electricity was the weakest. It wasn't really that ironic though, because of the effect: a human puppet. The way Rusty's alchemy worked was that he would create a very weak jolt of lightning with the free electrons floating in the air and make contact with a target. When the jolts of electricity hit the person, they would instantly be registered within the body as brain impulses, and the nervous system would accept them. It would travel to wherever Rusty desired, and stimulate the muscles to move, allowing Rusty to control the person. An extra benefit of the technique was that if a target knew alchemy, he could force the person to perform their alchemy. Also, he could trigger transmutation circles by imitating human touch on the circle. All of this got him the respect he had. Rusty was on the Board of Directors, which had accepted him after his research in every branch of elemental alchemy was effective towards the military. His genius was just extraordinary.
Peeking into Rusty's office, Ian found him sitting behind his desk, which was covered by paperwork.
"Rusty!" Ian shouted, startling Rusty. Momentarily, Ian lost control of his body, and spasmed wildly. This was expected, though, so Ian didn't freak out. Rusty's reflexes had merged with his alchemy.
"Ian, you faggot! Don't scare me or you could seriously get hurt. I can't control my reflexes. I could make you shove your hand up your ass or something stupid if you're not careful," Rusty shouted back at Ian. His mood quickly brightened back up. "So what's up buddy?"
"Just getting in. Probably going to have a ton of paperwork today."
"Oh, that reminds me… what time is it?"
Ian checked his cell phone. It displayed that it was 7:36 A.M. Rusty paused, and then looked at the phone once more.
"Three, two, one," Rusty counted down.
Almost scheduled, three younger alchemists, about Ian's age, came into the room. Two of them swept up all the papers on Rusty's desk.
"We'll take care of all of this for you!" the other said.
"Thank you! You're helping me out so much," Rusty replied, patting the man on the shoulder.
The alchemist smiled falsely, and rushed out of the room with the other two.
"Gotta love the brownnosers," Rusty laughed, "So, I heard you and Eva went out last night?"
Another thing about Rusty was that he was Eva's cousin and best friend. She told him everything and anything. Eva trusted this rough man in his mid-thirties with absolutely anything.
"Yeah, we did," Ian replied vaguely.
"How'd it go?" Rusty questioned.
"It went pretty well… why?" Ian asked in return.
"Oh, I just from one of her neighbors that she didn't come home at all last night."
"She asked to stay with me for awhile."
Rusty leaned over and shut the door at this statement.
"Ian, you do know that inter-office sex is against policy here, right?" he asked.
"Of course. You're not assuming we had sex though, are you?" Ian sneakily questioned.
"Hell yes I am. I know that you like Eva, and I was pretty sure Eva would do anything for you if you didn't think she was crazy after what she told you last night. Yes, I know she told you. And do you know how hard it is to hide a secret from our entire family?" Rusty rambled.
Ian knew what he was talking about. Eva had explained it in the car on the way to work. Rusty was actually Christine's cousin. Witness Protection had faked Christine's death when they gave her the identity of Eva. Christine's entire family believed she had committed suicide by driving her car into the ocean off of a bluff. Apparently, Eva had trusted Rusty enough to tell him that she was still alive.
"I can imagine," Ian quietly said, "Okay, yes, we did have sex. But I swear I wasn't planning on taking advantage of her or using her or anything. I love Eva, okay Rusty? I just can't stop thinking about her at all. I was actually planning on asking her to date me when she was comfortable. I've been trying to get her to for awhile, but I never did it the right way. But I swear, I wouldn't do anything to hurt her ever," Ian explained.
Rusty nodded and clutched Ian's shoulder.
"I trust you on that one. And I don't care if you guys have sex. I'm just more worried about her losing her job. She needs this job, and I could say you could sure as hell afford to keep your position. So just never tell anybody. Well, you can talk to me about it. I can shoot down any rumor that goes around this building, and I've got everybody on my side. Just keep it a secret. If you admit it, I can't back you up. And regarding Eva… don't do anything God would consider disgraceful."
This was the final mystery of Rusty Longborough, the God Alchemist. He was extremely religious. This was never seen in the HQ other than him, because so many believed religion was evil and corrupt, and should not be present in the art of science. So many people followed the science and religion battle that they had secluded the two even more. But Rusty had combined the two, and perhaps this was the secret to his prowess. Making a hybrid of two potent studies. Two studies that hated each other. It was similar to the bond between sodium and chlorine. The two separate are highly dangerous, but when put together, form a strong, stable bond and a product that is necessary for life: salt.
Rusty wasn't always religious though. In fact, he used to be a strong believer that science was higher than God. Rusty used to believe that he was God. He used to study the science of controlling life and death. He believed that with the proper methods, he could bring people back to life. This was human transmutation, and was forbidden by all: science, religion, and government. The reason was because it was impossible to know how to follow the law of Equivalent Exchange for the soul, a necessary component of a living organism. Many people that attempted human transmutation died in the process and failed in their reaction. So it was banned.
Despite these limitations on the alchemy, Rusty pursued it. He studied for years and years, believing that he had the proper method for the alchemy. He believed he could actually successfully perform a revitalization of a human. When the time came for his first human transmutation, he felt he was ready. But only a few moments after he started the reaction, he'd realized he had failed terribly. The yellow light that showed an alchemic reaction was occurring in the area had turned to a purple light. The purple signified something that every alchemist never wanted to have happen: a mistransmutation. It means the reaction was unstable and instantly began trying to stabilize itself. It meant the alchemist did not have enough materials to sacrifice in order to follow Equivalent Exchange. The reaction would go furious, sacrificing anything in the area to stabilize.
Rusty was knocked unconscious, and when he awakened, he was astonished to discover that he was unharmed. The room was completely destroyed, and he was lying in feet of debris, but the circle was still clean. On top of it was a living human being. The human transmutation was a success. But how, Rusty quickly figured out. The spectator in the room had been slaughtered mercilessly. Some bones were strewn randomly throughout the debris, and his half-mutilated skull lie just outside the circle. The spectator was the man who was trying to bring his dead wife back to life. He had been killed to bring another life back. Equivalent Exchange had followed through. A life for a life. Rusty, for the first time in his life, prayed to God for forgiveness. He had overstepped the boundaries that he was not meant to even be near. He stepped into God's territory. He then killed the product of the transmutation, unable to let the woman live with herself knowing her husband died in the process of bringing her back to life. Rusty could not let her live long enough to feel bad and kill herself from despair. Once again, Rusty prayed to God for forgiveness, claiming he did it in God's will. She was supposed to be dead, after all, he said.
Months after the mistransmutation, Rusty began wondering why he had been spared. He soon began to believe God had spared him because he was God's messenger. That Rusty still had something to do for the world. And so Rusty created his own system of beliefs, since he still hated the Catholic Church's idea of what God's will was. Rusty had specifically been saved from God's wrath, after all. So he should know better than those who fail to teach the generations of the world about God.
This is what made Rusty so amazing. He had been the first person to ever successfully complete a human transmutation and survive. But nobody knew this. Nobody except Eva. If anybody knew, Rusty would have to be carried away and locked in prison. And the greatest gift of surviving human transmutation could not be shown to the world by Rusty. When you survived a human transmutation, you would see what was called by many ancient scrolls "The Gate". Nobody knew what this gate was, but the scrolls claimed it was the gate to the after life. To heaven or perhaps hell. But once a person has seen the gate, they were able to perform alchemy even without a transmutation circle. And one other thing happened to the alchemist. Rusty was always lucky that nobody could see the light of his alchemy, because when an alchemist has seen the gate, the light let off to signify their reactions is blue instead of yellow.
All that Ian knew about this man was that he was a modern marvel. A living hero to all alchemists. He secretly wished he could have the success that Rusty has one day, and be just as good a man.
Rusty gave Ian a tight hug before sending him on his way. Ian thanked Rusty on his way out for his understanding to his situation, and then shut the door, leaving the Electric Alchemy Dept. and entering the Physics Wing. After opening his door, he saw the paperwork on his desk, and quickly got to work. He'd have no time to think about all of Eva's words from their car ride to work this morning for awhile.
I need a break already… Ian thought.
