"There are many theories on why some people can perform alchemy while others can't. Some people believe it to be hereditary, but there have been cases where two alchemists have had normal children and vice versa. Others believe it to be completely random, of course there have been a few cases of entire families being able to perform alchemy. Some people believe that everyone is capable of performing alchemy, but lack the knowledge, ability to focus, etcetera. Then there are cases where religion forbids the use of alchemy, such as in the Ishvalan religion, so it is unknown how many of those who follow such religions are capable of using alchemy. There is a good chance, since we are fugitives. However with such a low recruitment rate, I'd have to say that we probably won't have to deal with many, but those whom we do encounter, will be quite skilled." I stated.
"All I asked was, 'What are the chances that we'd have to deal with State Alchemists?' I didn't ask for a research paper." She replied.
"Sorry about that." I apologized, shivering despite the fire that burned just outside the construct. I leaned my back up against the half dome that I had created to shield us from the snow which still fell from the sky. The construct was just big enough to fit 3 people, and barely tall enough for me to sit in without hitting my head on the roof. A thin layer of snow had formed on the surrounding area already, and it continued to get heavier. "If it gets any worse, we may have to wait it out." I informed her, as I stretched my legs out in front of me. I was already getting uncomfortable and my legs falling asleep didn't help either. She let out a sigh of defeat.
"Great… could you at least make this thing bigger? It's a little cramped." She stated, reaching up and pressing the palms of her hands against the roof of the construct.
"Yeah, yeah." I responded, transmuting the half dome and the ground around it so that it took the shape of an octagon, which stretching around the fire with a few feet of space between each wall and the small fire and extending up past 6 feet tall with a sloped roof with a hole in the center to allow smoke from the fire to escape. On the wall opposite from me, due to the wind coming from my direction towards the flames, was a newly constructed door. "Better?" I questioned. She nodded in response. "My turn, what is it you do while I sleep? I would think that just sitting around waiting would be pretty boring." I asked. I had come up with the idea of both of us asking each other questions back in forth in an attempt to get to know each other better, considering how little we actually know about each other. She humored me for the most part, albeit it was probably just to avoid passing the time in a perpetual awkward silence. However, it's been mostly questions like that thus far, not very personal but involved the person being questioned.
"I meditate." She replied matter-of-factly. "I've been able to silence the voices for the most part as a result." She added.
"That's good…" I paused, remembering how psychotic it was inside the stone last time. "I don't envy you. Had I been in your place, I would have been driven mad a long time ago. Yet you've dealt with it as though it's little more than a nuisance. You're strong, and I admire that about you." I complimented, admittedly with an ulterior motive. She murmured a response, while turning away in a poor attempt to hide the blush that crept onto her face. I attempted to silence the laugh that escaped from me at her response. While Felicia may have taught me alchemy, I picked up from observing Cynthia how to influence people, flattery being one of the methods she used most. Cynthia is can be quite manipulating when she wants to so there was no better person to learn such a skill from other than her. Felicia's reaction was all the proof I needed to know that it worked against her. "Your turn," I added, trying to hide my amusement.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked, seeming to have noticed my shivering.
"I grew up in Liore, remember? The coldest it got was at night and it was never anywhere near this bad." I replied, pulling my cloak closer around me.
"Here," Felicia spoke, leaning forward and handing me her cloak. I suspiciously took it in hand, holding it just above the ground.
"Why are you giving me this?" I asked, although I was fairly certain her response would be along the lines of, "I can't let my dog freeze to death."
"So you'll stop the damned shaking." She replied. It wasn't too far off from my prediction.
"Do you really think of me as a dog?" I asked. "I would really prefer for you to consider me your friend instead."
"I consider you a… friend." She replied, her face gaining a shade of pink.
"Huh?" I murmured, taking a moment to comprehend what she said.
"I said, I consider you a friend." After a moment of pause she spoke again, the redness in her face having disappeared. "In all truth, I'd rather just sit in silence than do this. I already admitted that I consider you a friend, so can we please just go back to the normal silence." She admitted
"Yeah, you did give up being human for my sake." I commented, watching as she turned a darker shade of red than before.
"I told you it wasn't my decision." She denied, turning up her nose as though she were offended by the notion of that I was insinuating. I laughed in response. I must have been considered a friend to be able to push her buttons like that and not get killed. "Flattery doesn't suit you." She commented.
"So where are going?" I asked, following the hooded Felicia as she scanned the streets of Dublith in search of something. Lining said streets, was a wide range of businesses each competing with each other for potential customers.
"You'll know as soon as I find it." She replied, still searching for 'it'. Keeping pace with her, I considered persisting with trying to figure out what she was searching for. I dropped that thought, when a small cemetery caught my eye; it was on a neighboring street so I could only see it by looking down an alley that connected the two roads, so it was only visible for a short time. It seemed out of place, being located this deep in the city, but it wasn't that about it which caught my eye. No, what caught my eye was the small group of people who appeared to be visiting a particular grave. I could make out three blonde adults, a girl with black hair, who appeared to be the same age as them, a large tan man with brown hair, and a couple children. After only a couple of moments, they disappeared from view behind a building. I snapped back to reality, before rushing to catch up with Felicia, who had gotten much further ahead of me. I continued to follow her, the buildings seeming to get more worn down and less maintained as we entered, what appeared to be the bad part of the town. I nearly fell over in an overly comical fashion, while attempting to stop just as abruptly as Felicia did. I followed her gaze, catching sight of a pale yellow sign with a blue border, written on it in red was 'Devil's nest'. "Here it is." She informed me. "Don't leave my side unless I tell you otherwise."
"This place is that dangerous?" I mentally asked myself. I shifted my puppet on my back, trying to be ready in case things take a turn for the worse, like Felicia seems to think it would. I grunted an affirmative, following her as she took the first step down the stairs leading to the entrance. Upon first entering the building it became apparent to me that it was a bar. Behind the wooden top bar the barkeeper kept watch over the place with the one eye that wasn't covered with a patch. There was a purple couch off to the side and a couple tables, each with enough seats for five people. There were patrons scattered throughout; I counted 9 people in total. As soon as we stepped into the room, I got the sudden feeling that everybody was looking at me. I glanced over to Felicia, getting somewhat nervous at all the glares being received. I followed her closely as she walked straight across the room, if she was anxious I couldn't tell. I mimicked her to the best of my ability, but still keeping watch on the room's populace. I accidentally brushed up against someone and before I could react, I'm being pinned to the wall by my neck.
"You trying to mug me?!" He snapped. He was a bulky man, with black hair, green eyes and it appeared that he was missing a couple teeth.
"Do I look that stupid?" I asked sarcastically, using my hands to hold me up to my greatest extent, in an attempt to relieve the pressure on my neck. Looking past him, I could see everyone in the bar watching us, waiting for an outcome. I quickly realized, he had something to prove. "Sorry," I mentally apologized, planting my feet against the wall. Pushing off the wall, I landed a solid kick to my assailant's cheek, causing him to drop me. Now free, I quickly slipped a glove on my right hand.
"You little punk!" He shouted, bringing his gargantuan fist towards my head. I leaned to the left, causing the attack to just graze my right ear. As soon as my head was out of harm's way, I brought my own hand towards his face, taking a step forward in order to reach it.
"Tell me, do you see the circle on my palm?" I asked, having caught his head in my hand. "It's a transmutation circle, which means I'm an alchemist. So tell me, do you wish to experience firsthand every molecule in your head being forcefully ripped apart from one another, or would you rather sit the fuck back down and shut up? Your choice." I bluffed, attempting to keep my voice as calm and threatening as possible. Needless to say, he chose the latter of the two.
"Just go," the barkeeper spoke to Felicia, "I'd prefer it over you and your friend causing a commotion in my bar." He gestured to the door to his right, allowing Felicia and I to go through it and into the hallway beyond.
"A bar?" was all I said to Felicia as soon as the door shut.
"A bar is just its cover. It's also an entrance to the Amestrian underground." Felicia replied. "Although I wasn't expecting you to get in a fight that easily." She commented dryly.
"I just think he was an aggressive drunk. What did you expect a room full of Cynthias?" I remarked, trying not to laugh at the mention of the Lieutenant. "I wonder how she's doing anyway."
"Cynthia's POV"
"I wonder how the lovebirds are doing. I mean, they up and disappeared just as quickly as they appeared," I said, taking a long swig of my beer. Rosalia smirked before brushing her brown hair off her shoulders.
"It seems someone is a bit jealous," Rosalia said. I rolled her eyes, leaning forward onto the table and pointing at the brunette with my hand holding the beer. "What?"
"I'm not jealous of some 15 year old kid. Let alone my own friend's son. Pluh-ease, I'm fine. Just worried." I sneered. Loud yelling overtook the laughter, making everyone turn their drunken attention to the bar. A somewhat heavier set brunette was fighting a thin, average blonde. And from the looks of it, the fat man was winning. "That's pretty surprising." I thought. "I'm really not in the most patient mood. I'll be back in a second." I said, slamming the glass down and stood up. Quite a crowd was forming, and had it been any lesser of a woman pushing through, I suppose getting to the front would be a challenge. But then again. These were mostly middle aged and old drunken men. Seriously, who the hell gets drunk at six at night? Anyhow, by the time I had gotten to the fight, the blonde had turned the conflict around and he was in control. "Hey asshole." Both men stopped and turned to me.
"What do you want, bitch?" The fat man snapped. If this guy wasn't halfway to drunkville, then I'm sure he would've noticed the vein practically sticking out of my forehead. And let me tell you, everyone took a step back.
"I would personally like to stop your pathetic and childish behavior. I'm trying to enjoy a beer with my friend, thank you very much." I said, placing my hand on my hip. The fat man sized me up, and from what I'm guessing, assumed I was some secretary or something and decided to turn his anger onto me. Which I gladly accepted. It had been a while since someone let me fight. He cocked his fist back, and for a moment thought I had given up before actually throwing it at me. Worse mistake of his life.
"You know, you didn't have to take it that far." Rosalia said, pinching the bridge of her nose. I just leaned my head back and let out a hearty laugh.
"It was funny. At least for me. I think the military uniform should've told him to check himself before he wrecked himself." I retorted, shrugging. It was probably the most interesting thing that had happened all day. "I think I'm gonna head home. I'm a little off, next time we both get an off day, we're gonna practice."
"Whatever. See ya tomorrow." Rosalia spoke in a bored tone, turning down a separate street and walking away without a second look. "I was anticipating a lecture of some sort." With a sigh, I slid my hands into my pockets and headed home.
After arriving home, making myself dinner, and changing into more comfortable clothes, I plopped myself onto the couch. For once, I felt like reading something. You'd actually be surprised by how many books I had, and today, one stood out to me. A book by the Elric brothers. I had just about every book they had written, but not this one and there was a bookmark on one page. Something seemed off about this whole situation. Had Yamato or Felicia left it? With a shrug, I picked it up and flipped to that page. The page in question was mostly theoretical stuff about artificial life, but I remembered Felicia having the Ouroboros on the nape of her neck. You know, I think I'm right about that whole "something being off" thing.
"Yamato's POV"
"What's up with all the doors?" I asked aloud to nobody in particular. Lining up and down both sides of the hallway were a ridiculous amount of doors.
"Yamato," Felicia called, peeking into a room. She gestured for me to follow her, which I did. Upon entering the room, we were greeting by boxes stacked up in the corner of the room. The most notable thing about the room was the terrible smell that appeared so suddenly, it felt like being punched in the face.
"What the hell is that smell?" I asked, holding my nose. I followed Felicia, who was also holding her nose, over to the nearest crate. We managed to get the top of the crate off and was shocked at what was inside the box. I took a few steps back, not having expected the deceased human body that was inside the container. It didn't appear to have decomposed much if at all. I both wanted to leave and find out if the other boxes contained remains as well. A strange sense of determination overriding disgust, I quickly went over to the next box and opened it with both hands, ignoring the horrid smell. It too, contained a corpse. "Damn, none of them are alive. Who the hell would do this?" I asked, going from one container to another, each containing human remains.
"I think I've got an idea." Felicia absentmindedly replied, checking another of crates. At the sound of the door opening, I had dropped my puppet to the floor, ready for combat. Light flooded in from the brighter hallway into the darker room, making it difficult for me to see the one who was holding the handle. "Speaking of which. I take it you're the one who did this." She added, directing her statement to the man in the doorway. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I began to make out the form of the man who stood in the doorway. He had long black hair which reached down to his lower back, black eyes, and appeared to be somewhat short, around 4'8". He was dressed like he were a priest, wearing tan robes with an intricate pattern running along it in purple all of the lines would meet up right at his chest stopping just short of the area above his heart.
"What are you children doing in here?" He asked, before he caught sight of the opened crates. He narrowed his eyes as he continued to speak. "I see… you two know too much." Another person, this time a female, stepped into the doorway. "Please forgive me…" He muttered under his breath. As soon as he'd finished speaking, the woman charged towards me. Swinging her fist at me, she left me barely any time to react. I held up my left arm, reinforcing it with my right, in an attempt to block the attack. Now that she was this close, I could make out the details about this woman. She appeared to be around her mid-40s, her black hair was tied in box braids. She had dark eyes, maybe black or at least fairly close. Tattooed just below her left collarbone was a cross with a snake coiling around it. She was wearing a long white blouse and gray pants that reached down to her ankles. Deceptive of her appearance, she was abnormally strong. If I hadn't been more careful, she could have easily broken my arm or worse. Taking advantage of his partner's distraction, Felicia attempted to slice the priest lookalike, managing to cut out a large gap in his side. "That was rude." He commented dryly. "Too bad it won't work." He shot us a grin, as his wound started to close with red lighting flying from the affected area.
"So you're a homunculus." Felicia observed, giving an appearance of not being affected by this information.
"As are you." He responded, parting the clothing where the purple lines didn't venture over his heart. "This is my Ouroboros mark." He stated, as the woman who attack me backed away. "Let me introduce myself. The name is Laurence."
"I take it you're the homunculus working created by the AEM." I stated.
"How did you find that out?" He asked, before realization dawned on him. "Are you the ones who killed Pasternak? Well I guess that makes sense. He never would have stood a chance against a homunculus, but…" he paused, turning to me with a pointed finger, "how did you survive?"
"What does that mean?" I questioned, feeling somewhat offended by his remark. Dropping the question, I turned my attention to his subordinate. "Who are you?" I asked, receiving a response from Laurence instead.
"I don't know." He replied.
"What the hell do you mean 'you don't know'?"
"I don't find it necessary to learn the names of my puppets." He responded, as though it were common knowledge.
"A puppet?" Felicia inquired.
"Yes. The human body uses electrical pulses to control its movements. It's an easy task for one such as myself to hijack that system and use my own electrical pulses to control the body. I like to think of them as my own human puppets. This one is my personal favorite out of all my collection here." He stated, seeming to take pride in his 'collection'.
"I see…" I began, having created a theory on how he came into ownership of his 'collection'. "So, you parade around as a priest while using said guise to take possession of bodies of peoples whose families wanted buried in a religious cemetery. As long as you 'take care of the body' and keep it a closed casket, nobody suspects a thing. And if you're working for the AEM you can add any people you've killed to your 'collection' as well." I finished explaining my theory as I unfolded my puppet, the false priest watching on.
"Not bad kid. I'm surprised you picked up on that much from just my outfit alone." He commented.
"Actually, on our way here we passed a cemetery. It heavily influenced my hypothesis, but it fit into it nicely." I admitted, remembering the group I saw earlier. I transmuted a portion of my soul into my puppet, letting it come to life. "Disrespecting the dead, eh? I'm not going to stand for that." I admitted, finally letting my rage show. With a quick transmutation, I took up my favored weapons, a short sword in my left hand and a curved long sword in the other. I rushed him, ducking past the woman who sought to interrupt my advancement as my puppet intervened in her attempt. Dragging the tip of the blade across the ground, I swung upwards attempting to cut Laurence from his left hip to his right shoulder. He backpedaled just enough that the only damage was a thin cut, before he continued out the doorway with the woman, who had broken free of her clash with my puppet, following him.
"God damn it Yamato, wait up!" Felicia shouted, trailing me as I pursed the man.
"He's not going to let me get past her." I mentally observed, as the two in question stopped in the middle of the hallway, which left me little to no room to get past the woman. "Why didn't he just use a pincer attack on me in there? Between him and the puppet, I wouldn't have been able to fight on both sides effectively. An even better question, how is he controlling her? Anything separated from the body of a homunculus turns to dust, so he's using some form of physical contact." I scanned the area between the two for something, but found nothing. That was the key, and I had come up with an idea. Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to find a fuming Felicia by my side. "I have an idea," I whispered to her, "When I cut him, grab the girl and take her back the way we came." Before she had the chance to reply, I was on the move. Running towards the woman, I dropped to my knees, smiling as my puppet jumped over me. As she jumped to grab it, I slid barely making it past with my left side against the wall. Now past the human puppet, I rushed Laurence, the blade of my long sword grinding against the left wall, while I guarded my head with the other hand. Leading with my right leg, I swung the long sword in a wide arc, cutting through his neck and clanging against the opposite wall. As his disembodied head flew away from the rest of him, it turned to dust. The removed head immediately grew back on the decapitated torso, smiling until he realized how defenseless he was thanks to Felicia dragging the woman away by her foot.
He ran towards me, hoping to get ahold of his puppet before Felicia could escape. I repeatedly attempted to stab him with the shorter blade once he was in the vicinity of its reach. He didn't bother to dodge, before I swung the longer blade at him. Jumping just as he was cut in half, he propelled himself over my head, before landing on hands and pushing off the ground again to jump over my puppet as it attempted to catch him with his jaw. By the time he landed, most of his lower half had regenerated and he was running down the hallway. Instead of continuing after Felicia, he stopped in front of his room before a giant mass of black with razor sharp teeth that resembled jaws erupted from the ajar door. Laurence looked just as shocked as I was before they bit down on him with a sickening snap.