Chapter 10: Chapter 9: Part Two
Chapter 9: Part Two of 'Continuance'
She opened her eyes to see his hand inches from her head.
She accepted her fate, closing her eyes, for the final time.
She saw sparks from behind her eyelids.
What's happening?
"Don't you dare touch her!" She heard a voice call out.
She found enough energy to open her eyes and see Scar retract his hand and back up.
She saw Alphonse as he propelled his armor forward.
"Trisha, you okay?" She heard a voice, resembling Edward's, ask.
She harnessed enough energy to look, wondering how she was still alive. She was running on empty.
"On no! Oh no, oh no, oh no! No! Trisha!" She knew she was injured but by the way Edward was reacting. Something was so very wrong.
"Al!" He shouted to his brother, eyes wide in panic, falling into a haze of distress.
He stood up and, with the quickest fluidity Trisha had ever seen from the young alchemist, strapped Scar down. Making sure to secure his arm in a position where his alchemy couldn''t take place.
Tucker was an unconsious heap next to Alexander, who had miraculously stayed asleep throughout the ordeal.
Al turned, seeing Trisha's state.
The extent of her injuries were finally taken in. It only took a second to actually understand.
She was dying.
She had a pipe, due to the extensive plumbing the Tucker residence held within it's walls, plunged through her chest.
She most likely had a collapsed lung, and for some reason her body wasn't healing itself like usual.
"Trisha!" Alphonse screamed, the metallic ring bouncing around her inner ear and making her wince. Alphonse ran to her, hovering over her like she was a wounded bird. "Al, what do we do? She's dying!" Edward said urgently, that's when she took into account the color of Edward's attire.
Usually, she wouldn't have thought anything out of place when she saw Edward covered in red, it was the color of his trademark coat. But no, this was different, he wasn't wearing his long red coat with the black flamel on the black. The particular shade of red he was clad in at that moment was deeper; crimson.
He wasn't wearing a cotton coat, he was wearing her blood.
"Don't you heal unusually fast? Why isn't it working? You shouldn't be bleeding this much!" Edward stated as he eyed the pipe, eyes looking as if they were ready to leap from his sockets.
"I, don't, know." She said, barely holding back tears. The pain was almost unbearable, it was increasingly hard to breathe, and each word felt as if someone were twisting daggers in her chest.
"We have to move her, get her to a hospital!" Edward said, finally making decisions. Alphonse looked to him, armor body trembling,
"Ed, please don't let the world take Trisha away too!" He begged, the disembodied voice inside sounded as though he was begging, bawling his eyes out. I bet his body at the gate is crying, oh Al. I can't die ye-her thoughts were interrupted when a searing pain etched it's way into her nerves causing her to cry out and convulse. Silent tears streaming down her cheeks.
"No, she's bleeding even more now!" Something was wrong.
"So God is placing the alchemists in my path, first the Sewing Life Alchemist and now the Fullmetal Alchemist!" Scar yelled from where he was pinned. "Oh just shut up, you murderer! Look at her, she isn't a state alchemist, she's a girl. She's innocent. She's a good person who is kind, honest and giving! Look at her, she's, she's beautiful! And she's dying!" Alphonse screamed at the ishvalan. Heavy desperation clear and thick in his metallic voice.
Edward's eyes started to water, he roughly wiped the beginnings of his tears away before anybody could notice.
"Edward, Alphonse! What's going on here!" Riza said as she entered through the gaping hole in the wall, gun in hand, eyes racking over the scene in front of her. A badly wounded civilian, an unconscious state alchemist, and two disoriented and unstable teenage boys, and the wanted serial killer. To say the least, Riza was surprised.
"Lieutenant, what's wrong?" They heard the Colonel shout, standing stock still as he finally entered the space, taking into account the situation.
His demeanor immediately changed he went from a regular military office man with rank, to a military commander, with rank of course. His features becoming hard and serious.
"Major, what's happening? Report." He turned to Edward and barked the order, because frankly he thought he might snap if he didn't put the situation into a militaristic perspective, make it professional, detach himself.
Edward turned to him, glaring daggers at the male, that if looks could kill, the Colonel would be six feet under. Anger melted from his gaze, turning into understanding.
"This civilian, Trisha Alrec is wounded. Myself and my companion have l have apprehended the man known as 'Scar' and The Sewing Life Alchemist is unconcious, injuries unknown. At the moment sir, that's all that's known." Edward said, spitting out the words 'this' and 'civilian' as if they burned.
Alphonse looked down pitifully.
"Edward." Alphonse spoke.
Alphonse never called Ed 'Edward' he almost called him 'Ed' or 'Brother', this was serious.
Trisha had been unconscious from the time Mustang entered.
"Yeah Al? What is it?" Edward said weakly, praying to whatever God could possibly exist, not that he really believed in one, that he wasn't about to say what Ed was fearing the most.
"Ed, Trisha's not breathing." With that, Alphonse moved faster than anybody though physically possible.
He was in front of Scar, transmuting something. As he clapped and placed his hands on the circle he'd scraped into the ground, spikes grew, stopping mere centimeters from the white haired man's face.
"What did you do to her? Fix her! Bring her back! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Alphonse screamed in a fit of raw anger and sadness.
Riza was the first to react. She ran and pushed Alphonse aside, breaking the stone formations with the back of her gun, she turned, deciding to take action.
"Colonel, I need you to get Hughes, he came with us, correct?" Riza turned to him, speaking quickly but clearly. "Y-yeah, hey Hughes! Get in here, now damn it!" He practically screamed out the opening in the lab's wall.
"What is it Roy? I'm not fighting anybody if that's what you're asking." His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. He took in Trisha's body.
"Hughes, get the boys out of here, now. Make sure no one comes in that opening." Riza said as she swept down next to the girl, urging the Colonel to follow suit.
"Boys, come on! We gotta move!" Hughes said as he pulled Edward away, as soon as the blonde teen was on his feet he went limp.
Alphonse didn't budge.
"Al, come on." Ed said as he put on that crooked smile, the one that made Alphonse cringe internally, that one his brother forced himself to wear.
"No, I'm staying." Alphonse said as he moved next to Trisha, clenching his large hands into tight fists.
"But Al." Edward started, "No." Alphonse interrupted.
"Leave him Edward, we don't have time." The Lieutenant snapped, looking at her superior.
Hughes slung Ed's arm over his shoulders and exited the small, copper scented place.
"Colonel, we need to stop the bleeding, and from what I can tell, this girl has an injury to the lung. A collapse maybe? We need to get her breathing again." She spoke with confidence as she looked around for a tube like structure.
Lucky for her, she was in a laboratory. She found a variation of a baster, it looked as though he didn't have any alcohol on hand, or none that she could find. She found a scalpel, or actually, a whole drawer full of them and different variations. That was unnerving but he is a scientist.
"I need you to get your gloves ready. Now, aim your flame at the very tip of this scalpel, we need to sterilize it. Now this baster, thing." She disregarded her use of amateur vocabulary, focusing on saving the teen's life.
He did as instructed, knowing that when Hawkeye got like this, it was best if he just stayed silent.
"Now I'm going to pull this pipe out, you're going to sear this wound closed as quickly as humanly possible." She spoke with conviction, confident the plan in her mind would work. The medical training all soldiers had been required to partake in in the ishvalan conflicts, had done her a great deal of good.
"Wait, what?" He said alarmed.
"Yeah, Lt. Hawkeye, are you sure that's okay?" Alphonse finally spoke.
Everybody was shocked when the innocent Alphonse had flown off the handle, talking about killing, but now he seemed more scared than angry.
"I know what I'm doing." She said, voice not revealing her thoughts. Focus unmoving. I hope this works, we can only hope.
"On 3, okay?" She looked to the man in front of her. He nodded.
"One." She took in a breath.
"Two." She held that breath.
"Three." She let the breath out and gave a firm pull, the pipe sliding out, the sickly smell of blood once again becoming dominant around them.
Immediately, Mustang reacted. Snapping his fingers and using pinpoint aiming to sear the flesh surrounding her wound, quickly sealing the opening. A loud scream was let out from Trisha, signaling the life her body still possessed within itself.
"Trisha! I thought she was dead!" Alphonse said in utter disbelief.
"She hadn't stopped breathing but her breathing is dangerously unstable. She looks as though her collapsed lung is causing her to go through phases of breathing and not. So that shock we just sent through her," she grimaced at the thought of how painful that must have been, hopeful she didn't remember this ordeal, "as to possibly rouse her from unconsciousness." She finished.
"Alphonse, I strongly suggest you not look at this next part." Colonel said, glancing at the sharp tool in his Lieutenant's hand.
"I'm fine, I've seen worse." The boy stated simply.
"Okay then, your choice. Don't say we didn't warn you." He held Trisha flat, in case she reacted to the pain again, if she moved this time it might kill her.
She made the incision between her fifth and sixth ribs and made a deep incision, Alphonse watched as blood pooled, the shirt she was wearing long gone being ripped away before they started.
She then took the baster and inserted it into the opening she created. Gently pushing, she felt some resistance, signaling she had found the air pocket pushing against the lung. She started quickly sucking the air pocket out, catching some liquid in the process.
She quickly but carefully took it out and the Colonel used a small flame to partly seal the cut and stop the bleeding.
"She won't be very comfortable when she wakes up, but she will be waking up." The older woman stated as she got to her feet. She went over to one of the bookshelves and tipped it over, dropping it's contents to the floor with a collection of loud thuds.
She then kicked it, grabbing one of the individual shelves from it.
She brought the board over and placed it directly next to Trisha. She then signaled to Roy to help her lift her.
They wordlessly lifted her limp body on the board, her feet hanging off the edge, and slowly stood up.
"Uhh.." Was heard from a pained Trisha.
"It's okay, we're here to help. Relax, we've got it covered." Hawkeye spoke softly as she started to walk forward.
"Mom?" Trisha let out, sounding strained, coughing following. Her eyes hadn't opened.
Alphonse let out a small gasp and the Colonel just stayed silent.
A small, almost invisible smile made its way to Riza's lips. She stilled slightly then relaxed before muttering,
"Yes, Trisha."
She then began to move forward once again.
Nobody talked about it afterwards. But, they saw a thin line of silent tears make their way down the girl's cheeks.
"Mom." Trisha let out, before once again allowing herself be consumed by the darkness.
A/N: Sorry, but I don't really have the energy to make a long author's note. I really hope you guys start reviewing. The more reviews I get the earlier I update. Also, just wanted to let you guys know that I'm going to rewrite this fanfic after it's completed. I won't change anything plot-wise I just want to clean it up and make it sound like it wasn't written by a drunk eight year old.
So please, review. Let me know if you'd even read the rewrite. :)
Thanks! Hope you liked it. I know I'm awful! XP