Chapter 9 : Attack

After at least half an hour of limping Ed finally made his way to the more inhabited part of town again. The going had been slow and Ed cursed his injuries trying to push himself harder and harder even as he felt time slip away. Luckily for him an old woman had still been sitting on the veranda despite the late hour and had quickly called for her grandson, a young man, to help the poor stranger that was so obviously in need.

At first the two had wanted to bring Ed to the local hospital but Ed knew that would take too long, so instead he'd insisted they bring him back to his brother. When they'd still seemed to hesitate Ed had flashed his pocket watch and identified himself as a state alchemist on a mission. Reluctantly, and obviously trying to hide their surprise that such a 'young one' ,as Ed had heard the woman whisper, was already a dog of the state, the two had finally given in and the grandson had helped Ed to Al.

The armored alchemist had immediately come running up to them and taken his brother of the helpful man as soon as they entered the street the inn was located in. The poor boy had been worried sick and had been pacing the street up and down for over an hour now, when it became apparent his brother and Ivy were not coming to the meeting point. In true mother hen fashion he'd immediately started looking Ed over , growing worried at the bloody and bruised form of his older brother. So caught up in his worrying had he been that he hadn't even noticed Ivy's absence until Ed had finally managed to assure him that 'he was just fine, Al' and that they had 'bigger things to worry about'.

Startled Al had looked around only to notice that indeed, Ivy was missing. Getting the account of what happened from his brother he immediately started blaming himself, saying it was his fault and that if he hadn't insisted the boy would have still been with them. Ed was quick to snap him out of his daze though, telling him it was not his fault and that they may still have time to get him back. That had worked surprisingly well and now, after a quick visit to the female alchemist who specialized in medicine so they could get Ed patched up, the two were hastily making their way to the old and dilapidated mansion Brutus had apparently inherited from his parents along with their considerable debts, or so the townspeople said.

The mansion was located to the west of the inn on a large hill that overlooked the town. It's age old walls, as well as the humongous garden spoke of a forgotten splendor and if Ed didn't know any better he would have said it must have belonged to royalty once. Such was the appearance of the manor.

Silently the two walked down the winding cobblestone path leading up to the mansion, stepping over vines and carefully evading wayward twigs that had made the path their home. Coming to a stop at the large double doors that had once guarded the mansion from trespassers but now hung from their hinges sadly, the two shared a determined look before Ed nodded and they made their way inside. No words were needed.

The inside was quite a surprise to the two alchemists. While the outside had obviously been abandoned a long time ago, someone still seemed to at least have made an attempt at taking care of the inside. The entrance hall they now found themselves in was brightly lit, something that had been hidden from the outside by large, if a bit ratty, crimson curtains, and seemed relatively clean. Walking up the grand marble staircase the brothers found themselves with a choice, in front of them the hall split up into two corridors, one to their left which was brightly lit and another which was cloaked in darkness. Before coming they had agreed not to split up anymore as it had only brought trouble when they last did so. Now however it almost seemed like they didn't have a choice.

Luckily for them, if it could be called lucky, a loud scream came from the hallway to their left. "Ivy." Al whispered, horrified. Not sparing another moment the two quickly started sprinting down the corridor, no longer bothering with stealth at the sound of their friends cries.

After what could have been minutes but was in reality only a few seconds the screaming stopped, but still the brothers continued running. Following the flickering flames of the candelabras that illuminated their way. When they'd been running for about five minutes they finally came upon a large room that had probably served as a grand ballroom at some point. Greek columns lined the sides of the circular room and a part of the floor was raised higher than the rest, creating a small dais that once a band might have stood upon.

Neither of these was what caught the boys attention though. What did was the large alchemic circle located near the middle of the room, drawn in a suspicious red ink. Small animal corpses were thrown together in the far corner of the room and more of the suspicious red pooled beneath them. The siblings took all this in in mere seconds before their eyes finally remained focused on the middle of the alchemic circle, or more precisely the two children bound there.

One of them was a small boy, looking about four or five years of age, with brown hair and bright blue eyes. The other had hair the most peculiar shade of light green and startling golden eyes, the alchemists recognized immediately.

"Ivy!" They both yelled and immediately ran over to free him and the other kid, which Ed now realized was probably little Marco Coulson, the child that had gone missing a while ago.

The boys looked up at them with frightened eyes though Ivy soon realized who they were and the fear made place for relief. "Ed! Al!" he answered their calls and immediately started struggling against his bonds. Marco still looked quite scared at the new people, he couldn't be sure that they wouldn't hurt him like the other people that came after all, though the other boy seemed to like them well enough and he had been nice to Marco. Mind made up Marco offered a hesitant smile to the big one in armor that came to free him.

"Hi," Al said as he crouched down besides the bound child carefully. "My name is Alphonse, though you can call me Al and that's my big brother Ed. We're here to save you."

Marco's eyes lit up when he heard that, 'They were here to save them!' Then he thought everything over and his blue eyes clouded over a bit in thought.

"Al?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset his savior.

"Yes Marco?" Al answered, curious as to what the boy would want.

"If he's the big brother," Marco began, his head tilted and childlike curiosity shining from his bright eyes, "then why's he so small?" He finished.

Al winced when he heard that before quickly looking at Ed, luckily his brother was so distracted talking with Ivy that he hadn't heard.

"Well," Al trailed off, not knowing how to explain without alerting the chibi-monster, "I'll tell you another time, let's escape first, okay?"

"Okay." The boy nodded and went back to watching Al trying to untangle the mass of knots that kept him bound and anchored to the floor. He'd have done it alchemically but he didn't dare draw a circle, lest it upset the bigger circle they were already standing in. His brother was trying to free Ivy the same way and if the curses he could hear were any indication he was having just about as much luck as Al himself was having. None.

Ed was just about to clap his hands anyway in frustration but was stopped as a knife came flying by. A knife he only narrowly avoided. Turning around he saw the alchemists that had attacked Ivy and him earlier that day.

"You." He growled out and glared at the two.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Mr. Elric." Brutus said, seemingly completely undeterred by the less than enthusiastic welcome. "That circle is highly unstable and it wouldn't do to set it off now, would it?"

Ed ignored the mocking words but did lower his hands slightly, he did not want to risk the boys. "Let them go."

"I'm afraid we can't do that." The man answered, mock regret in his voice. "Our boss wouldn't be pleased with us if we did."

"And who is your boss?" Ed asked.

"I'm afraid you'll have to figure that out for yourself. It wouldn't be fun if we told you, would it?"

"Then we'll just have to beat it out of you." Ed said before looking at Al and nodding to the smaller alchemist. "You take that one, this one's mine."

No more words were needed as both alchemists sprinted from the circle, Ed clapping his hands as soon as he passed the edge. Feeling the familiar weight of his automail blade he nodded to himself and looked at his opponent. "Now where were we?" He asked before sprinting at the taller man as fast as he could.

The other man just grinned and lifted the same war hammer he'd been using earlier that day and meeting him halfway. The two clashed and once more Ed could feel his arm give in under the power of the man's blow. Jumping away he quickly sidestepped another blow before going in for a jab himself. Brutus evaded the blow skillfully and used the opportunity to take a swing at Ed's unprotected back. Luckily for Ed he saw the blow coming and managed to roll away before it could connect.

Coming back upright he suppressed a wince at the pressure the action had put on his still hurting ribs, but ignored it in favor of dodging another skull cracking blow. Luckily for him Brutus was still hurting as well or else the decrease in speed his own injuries caused him would have been the end of him. As it was now the two were once more evenly matched.

Clapping his hands together Ed put them to the floor and concentrated. Not soon after pillars of stone started sprouting from the ground under Brutus and the man was forced to jump away to evade the stone columns, but not before one of them managed to clip his side. It was only a glancing blow but there was enough power behind it that it took the large man a minute to recover. Ed used this time to take a look at how Alphonse was faring.

Al was having a bit of trouble with his fight. His opponent had not given him any time to use alchemy so he was forced to rely on hand to hand combat only, while Mark wielded the same short sword he had earlier. Several cuts littered the armor but they were all shallow and none did any real damage, one of the pro's of being a walking armor Ed supposed. Mark had a couple of fresh cuts and a particularly nasty bruise on his cheek, though whether that was Al's doing or his own he did not know, he had given the kid a pretty hard blow to knock him out after all.

Ed was forced to stop his observations as Brutus finally recovered and came after him with a vengeance. The two exchanged blows for awhile, neither really getting the upper hand. That changed though when a flash of blue light suddenly came from their right and Brutus found he could not move anymore. Startled Ed jumped away and looked to the right only to see Al with his hands on an alchemic circle, an unconscious and bound Mark laying near him. Looking back at Brutus he saw he was covered up till his waist in stone, Al having managed to catch him while distracted. Brutus was not to be deterred though and was slamming his hammer on the stone trapping him, trying to break free.

Ed, thinking quickly, ran up to the trapped alchemist and, evading a vicious hammer blow, clapped his hands together before slamming them on the alchemists hammer. A blue light filled the room once more and the hammer twisted and turned until it stilled once more. Only it was not a hammer the alchemist was holding now, instead a pair of handcuffs now wound around his wrists keeping them together and preventing him from freeing himself.

Seeing the alchemist was now securely bound Ed walked around till he came to a stop behind him and, with a quick chop to the neck, knocked him out.

Panting Ed limped over to Al and the circle in the middle of the room. All the fighting had aggravated his wounds and it hurt just to breathe, let alone walk. They needed to get out of here though, and fast. His pain could wait.

Al seeing the trouble his brother was having trouble hurried over to help him. Putting one large, armored hand on his back he quickly checked his brother over for injuries, feeling incredibly relieved when it seemed there were no new, life threatening, injuries.

The two were about to turn around and walk over to Ivy and Mark when they heard something that made their blood freeze. Ed in particular couldn't help the chill that went down his spine when he heard a sickeningly familiar voice comment from where the boys were trapped.

Turning around slowly Ed felt horrified when he saw he had heard right, he was here.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? If it isn't fullmetal Chibi-chan. How nice of you to stop by."

Ed paled drastically and Envy smirked, shaking of the remnants of the rope he'd been bound with, even as his hair darkened and golden eyes bled violet.

'Free at last...'

An/ And tada! Envy reveals himself, finally. Poor Edo-chan. Next chapter will probably have some of vy-chans pov and reasoning for kidnapping himself and yes we will finally get the big confrontation everyone's been waiting for, till then you'll just have to make do with this ;) Okay no lengthy review reply's this time I'm afraid. I'm posting this in between studying for my exams and I don't really have time for 'em now, hope the update makes up for it though :) . Also it seems I forgot in previous chapters but a big thank you to everyone that faved, alerted and reviewed it's what keeps my lazy ass going ;) xXx~4ever