Chapter 9: The Intrepid
I felt my eyes blink open, though I felt nothing but the cold, damp stone floor of a small dungeon cell. I sat up to see Edward and Alphonse right next to me. They didn't seem to be panicked at all.
A pain shot through me as I tried to scrunch my legs against me, and that's when I saw my jeans were covered with dry blood. The last thing I had remembered was running blindly toward Edward in the sewer, but then how had I gotten here? I also remembered hearing distant voices, seeing blurred images, and feeling cold the whole time through it all, but I couldn't put what pieces I had together to make the sequence of events that would lead me here.
As Ed and Al watched me I finally decided to ask, "Where are we?"
Giving me a distressed glance, Ed said, "We're in the old temple of Menouthis—in the dungeons to be more accurate."
My eyes widened.
"You mean the huge red building on the top of the hill that I saw when we first came?" I blurted leaning forward with a start though it hurt.
Al blinked. "You saw this place when we first came? Why didn't you say anything?"
I flushed. "Because I didn't think I was right," I muttered.
"About what?" Ed inquired, cocking his head to me.
I sighed. "Well I thought there was something weird about this place as soon as we came here—I mean, how is this the only building left standing and untouched? So I thought about saying something, but then I thought it was just me." When they continued to stare I said, "I know it's stupid, but that's just what I thought. And now it seems I should have said something." I gave another sigh as I looked to the floor.
"It's not like you knew," said Ed. "We all aren't perfect."
I could see Alphonse was wondering why we were talking to each other so fondly, but I decided to break the silent tension by asking, "How did we get here, anyway?"
Edward sat back against the wall again. "Al said after we fell down that hole he came looking for us only to be caught by some soldier guys made of metal that apparently knocked him out." Edward said this so cynically I didn't think he fully believed it, but why would Al lie? "And of course I have no idea what happened in the sewer after…"
"After you made me cry," is what he refused to say, especially since Alphonse was now with us. He just said, "After your little speech." Alphonse didn't know what he was talking about and I could tell he wanted to ask, but didn't.
"But when I woke up I was also being carried by some metal soldier, and then I was put in a room with some guy who was actually Hashimoto. He said he wanted to know the secrets of Al's body. Since I refused you and I were sent down here with Al, who said he also met with Hashimoto before being sent here too."
After grasping everything Edward had just said, I asked, "And why aren't we finding a way out? Couldn't you just make your own door with your alchemy?" I knew he must have a reason for not doing so, so it was best to know it sooner than later.
"Because even though this guy is a pain in the ass we are still on a mission and have to capture him. And it's kind of hard to do that when we aren't even anywhere near him, so actually here is the best place to be to capture him." I didn't fully understand.
"How is being locked in the dungeon below him the best place to be?" I asked raising my eyebrows.
"Because if we just ran away, then what? It would be much harder to get in, than be taken in," he said. I saw his point.
"So what are we going to do, then?"
"We'll wait until Hashimoto's guards come and get us, and then make our way to a position where we can confront him on his own," Ed explained. It was a quite brilliant plan except for one thing.
"Suppose Hashimoto's guards don't come for us? Then what?" I asked. Ed closed his eyes, lines of slight irritation gathering in his face.
"They will," he said plainly. And he was right. They would.
Three guards came in not too long after to collect the three of us and though that was what we had wanted, we pretended not to do so willingly. One picked Ed and I up with no trouble at all and the other two were meant for Al.
I watched the soldiers' feet fuse into the ground below as he walked up a dark stairway. Ed winked at me and I tried to smile back, though it was hard to do so when I couldn't feel the lower half of my body, and my head was hitting against the hard chest of a metal soldier.
I wasn't given the comfort of being let off of the soldiers back, but as soon as we entered Hashimoto put down his pen to face us as he stopped writing. He started talking immediately as Ed was dropped on the floor, though immediately snatched around the neck by the guard also holding me.
"You," he said pointing at Ed. "Are to tell me how to bind the soul, or—"
"Or what?" Ed spat, though the guard chocked him before he could say anything else.
"Or I'll keep you and your companions here until I find out by taking your brother apart," Hashimoto finished looking toward Alphonse. Edward struggled, though I couldn't tell if he was faking or not anymore.
"Well?" Hashimoto said watching Ed's expression.
"Why do you want to know the secrets of binding the soul?" Edward asked through the guard's iron grip. I could do nothing but dangle there next to him. "Haven't I already told you enough? All you need is the equivalent exchange for it. As long as you are willing to sacrifice something of equal value to get it then you'll do fine," Edward said coldly.
"Ah, you see, it isn't how to bind the soul that I want to know," Hashimoto said with his eyes closed, arms crossed. "But more so how to make a soul to bind. You wouldn't know how to do that, would you?" he asked, looking into Ed's red face. Red with both blood and emotion.
"Nope. I don't know how to make souls," Edward stated. "Only God knows that."
He'd said too much. Hashimoto blinked.
"Why… why do you say that?" Hashimoto had an unbelieving look that he exchanged between Alphonse and I. "How would you know? It's not like you…" He didn't finish seeing the look in Edward's eyes. Hashimoto looked at his own chest. "You mean… you did it?" he asked, though he was never answered. That was Ed's queue.
Edward clapped his hands together and twisted around in the guard's grip smashing his hands into its chest making it disintegrate into pieces of metal and rock. It dropped me with a thud and I felt another shot of pain as I hit the ground.
"A transmutation without a circle?" I heard Hashimoto marvel as he shot out of his chair and grab his own glove. Even through the immense pain I chuckled to myself as I struggled to get on my feet.
Though the other guard had been reduced to dust, the other two guards holding Al now left him to fight against Edward and more rushed in. Alphonse blocked all he could from coming but there were too many to keep all of them out.
The moment Edward had destroyed the first guard—now going along with killing the rest—he had made straight for the door and reached it. I saw Edward dash after Hashimoto, but I couldn't stand on these legs of mine. I didn't care. I kept trying. Alphonse tried to make his way toward me, but there were now so many guards in the room we could barely move.
A soldier unexpectedly swept me off the ground but I could nothing to his metal body to make him let me down. For some reason he went for the doorway Edward and Hashimoto had just disappeared through.
"Nayru!" I heard Al scream as I searched my pockets in vain for a transmutation circle. Any transmutation circle. But I found none. Only the feeling of an iron fist hitting me.
Edward followed Hashimoto through halls, doors, and labs, but was not even stopped once by any of his guards, as though there were none in this part of the building.
'How stupid can you be?' Edward asked himself, though he was getting farther and farther behind as his leg started to ache. "Not now!" Ed moaned, but as Hashimoto made a turn he disappeared into a tunnel he had made himself, which then closed behind him, forcing Ed to halt. He quickly made his own tunnel through the stone but when he reached the other side of it he saw a sight he wished was not true.
Alphonse smashed all of the soldiers he could, but now he was left in this room full of clanging, brawling metal by himself. Why couldn't he have stopped them from taking Nayru?
'Ed had better return soon…' he thought as metal arm against metal arm bashed him from all directions, but suddenly to his surprise the battle ended and all of the soldiers literally melted into the ground. The room was empty. Bewildered, Alphonse launched out the door Edward and Nayru had disappeared to, but was unknowingly followed.
Alphonse did his best to find which way they had gone by following the sounds and occasional disturbed dust through all of the tunneling halls, but got off track many times. Only when he finally saw transmutation marks on a wall did he know he was in the right place. It wasn't as though Alphonse could follow, though. He didn't have anything to draw a transmutation circle with. But it didn't matter anyways because he was knocked out by the blood seal from behind. His metal body clanged to the floor.
"What are you doing here?" I asked the man in front of me with a confused look, though I gazed past him upon the plains of Resembool.
"I've come here to find someone," replied the man mysteriously. I could not see his face for the sun was glaring behind it.
"Who?" I still watched the grass sway. The man's face twisted into a long smile and he became level with my face. It suddenly became deathly dark and icy cold there on the road in front of the Rockbells' house. I shivered, seeing he had no face, only that smile.
"Someone you desire but will never have."
My eyes shot open. It had only been a nightmare, but I only awoke to be in another. A gun barrel was pressed to my aching head and I saw Ed's blurry outline ten feet below me—my glasses were long gone.
"If you want her to live you must tell me what you know," said the man holding a gun, with a long smile on his face.
Ed grinded his teeth but only shouted to me, "I'll find a way to get you out of this!"
Hashimoto cocked the gun. There was a rush of fright through me but I didn't make a sound or move. Slung over the metal guard's shoulder I couldn't.
Edward took a small step forward and I felt the barrel press closer.
"One more move, Fullmetal…" Hashimoto didn't have to finish, but Ed didn't heed his words. He stepped closer and an ear splitting bang was heard around the arena.
