Chapter 9: Ice Queen Rising
The mining town of Buzcol was sprawling and, utterly abandoned. Sapphire was a little shocked at the sight considering she came from an island world where land was a precious resource and used to its full potential.
She watched as her ward exited the car, she could tell he was trying his hardest not to let on how sick he had been on the ride over. The fact that they had to stop delayed their arrival to the town so when they finally pulled up, they were greeted with unpleasant news.
"Ms. Winry is gone? What the hell happened you idiots?" Kimblee growled; this was really the last thing he need right now.
"I'm terribly sorry sir," one of the soldiers apologized, "apparently she disappeared while we were unloading the equipment."
"Great, one more person to search for," Miles huffed, "bring over two more men from Charlie squad."
"Major Miles." Kimblee warned.
"I know, I know," Miles said, "We'll contact you if we spot Scar."
Sapphire shot a wary look at her ward as they started off in a different direction.
"You need to be in a hospital or at the very least an infirmary!" she hissed about twenty minutes into traversing the empty buildings and snow mounds.
"I'm not going anywhere. Whatever was in my system has to be gone by now." Kimblee hissed back.
"This is the second time this has happened to you, and you're not running a fever or coughing. This isn't some stomach bug Stringbean." Sapphire replied.
Kimblee was probably about to answer back with something cocky when a harsh wind whipped through the street they were on; even Sapphire hunched against the snow blowing into them.
"Mr. Kimblee this isn't good," one of the soldiers said, "the weather's starting to turn. It's going to get pretty bad out here soon sir."
"Listen to the guy Stringbean," Sapphire warned, "I live in a place just like this, there's a blizzard on the horizon and believe you me you don't want to be outdoors when it hits."
"Fine then, we-" Kimblee was cut off as the wall of the building they were standing next to exploded.
"What the-what now?" Sapphire snarled, she was as fed up with all this as her ward.
"That's Major Miles' location!" one of the soldiers shouted.
Sapphire watched as a familiar blur of red was tossed through the hole in the concrete wall. It was that short kid Edward Cali was looking after.
"Fullmetal?" Kimblee said, as curious as his guardian.
"Kimblee you bastard!" Edward yelled, "Why didn't you leaved Winry at headquarters where you could keep an eye on her?" he pointed to the top of the building.
Kimblee looked up and his gaze immediately hardened, it was Scar, and he had Winry. Sapphire, although she didn't recognize Scar, knew something was off.
"That him then?" She asked.
Her ward didn't reply, only smirked and she took that as a yes, half unfurling her wings in case she needed to leap into action. The sooner they dealt with this guy the sooner she could get her ward the medical treatment he needed.
"Long time no see Kimblee." Scar said.
Sapphire met the strange man's gaze and something clicked, she was not the first griffin he had met. Still, she said nothing.
"It seems the tables have turned since we last met." Scar continued.
"How dare you." Kimblee growled.
"Kimblee you bastard!" Edward snapped again, grabbing him by his coat, "I thought you had someone to keep an eye on Winry at headquarters! Why is Winry even here? We finally had Scar cornered but we had to let him go because he took Winry hostage!"
"Kimblee!"
Sapphire's head snapped up and she squinted into the driving blizzard, it was Miles.
"Can't you keep an eye on one little girl? It was your job to keep Ms. Rockbell in protective custody!"
"Let me go." Kimblee said, his voice dangerously low.
Edward barely had time to react before Kimblee held out his hands. Sapphire watched as his aura shifted to a goldenrod, with the highest concentration of energy being around the tattoos on his palms. Edward grabbed him by the wrists to stop him and Sapphire reacted. She leapt on the smaller alchemist, tackling him to the permafrost with a primal snarl. Then, from out of nowhere, something small but hard hit her in the side, knocking her off of Edward.
"You will not harm him." Cali growled, her tail lashing the air.
"You think you can stop me?" Sapphire snapped, "he's not really your ward Cali. I can chew him up however you want and the rules won't apply!"
Cali bit her on the forearm but the larger, older griffin shook her off and straight into a nearby wall.
"He's warped your mind!" She squawked.
"Oh so that's what this is about!" Sapphire chuckled, "You can't stand that your big sister's working for the opposition! Who's to say you're on the right side eh? Look at Shadow! Karma's savior was once a Claw!"1
"His life's work was and still is his redemption! Don't you dare slander his name!" Cali growled.
She leapt into the sky and formed a fireball in her paws. Sapphire followed suit and took off in a single leap. She tried to tackle her sister but the little griffin was too quick and dodged the attack. Sapphire turned on a dime and hurled a ball of water into the air, turning it into icicles and raining them down on Cali. Cali swooped out of the way just in time and landed on a nearby roof, trying to form her swords that made her codename 'The Living Blade Alchemist'.
"Oh no you don't!" Sapphire shouted.
She went into a dive and landed hard on the roof, freezing the snow over so that her sister couldn't get to the iron beneath.
"You're insane!" Cali squawked, "are you really trying to kill me?"
"Of course not!" Sapphire shouted in reply, "I'm trying to neutralize you so I can get back to my ward!"
"You can't possibly care about him!" Cali scoffed.
"And why not?"
"He's evil! Just look at him!"
Sapphire snorted.
"Evil or not, he's my ward." She said.
"You can reject him," Cali said, almost hesitantly, "it's hard but, you can do it and come with me to Central."
"Who says I want to be a loyalist pansy like you?" Sapphire snarled.
"You'd really reject the light? You'd throw away your morals just like that?"
"Pfft," Sapphire huffed, "What have I got to go back to? A nowhere town in the middle of Obenjarl? I lost everything when I lost Phenix. I could care less where I end up at this point."
"You can't possibly care about that man!" Cali said, shooting a quick glance down at the ground.
Sapphire was silent for a moment. Then she bowed her head, her eyes glaring dangerously at her sister.
"That's where you're wrong Cali, I do care about him. He's my ward and, despite everything he's done and might do, I care about him."
"You've gone mad. If you keep this up we're going to be on the opposite sides of the battlefield! Come with me and I'll make sure you're forgiven of any association with him."
"So we end up fighting each other in the end. At least I'll die fighting for something I believe in."
She took to the air and Cali followed, creating a shield of fire around herself and trying to barrel into her sister to stop her.
"You can't stop me!" Sapphire screeched, forming a shield of water around herself and extinguishing Cali as she rammed into her.
They fell to the earth and it was only at the last second that they pulled apart. Sapphire watched from the ground as her sister winged away, probably back to her true ward. She watched until she disappeared and then when to go find her ward. She could feel where he was in her soul, the way she could tell who he was on that first day they met. On the way, she noticed that the snow had stopped falling and that the sun had come out, as much as it did in such a cold climate.
She followed her senses to one of the abandoned mine tunnels and almost stopped in her tracks. There was something evil down there. But gradually she felt the presence recede, immediately replaced by the sound of her ward gagging. She sighed and her ears drooped slightly. She trekked into the tunnel and found Kimblee leaning against one of the rock walls, gripping his stomach as he coughed. Idly, she noticed that he wasn't being as forcefully sick as before, it was as if his body was simply trying to reject any matter in his stomach for the mere fact that it was matter, not because he was nauseous.
"Hey Stringbean." Sapphire said kindly.
Kimblee couldn't even speak as he tried to control his coughing. Sapphire stiffened, he wasn't coughing because he had just been sick, although that had obviously irritated his throat. When he finally calmed down, wiping his mouth shakily, she broached a question.
"Stringbean, don't explode me okay? I need to listen to your lungs."
She stood up on her hind legs and pressed her ear to his back, listening to his breathing as it rattled. She frowned.
"Crap." she muttered.
"It's bad then?" Kimblee croaked, the stomach acid had done a number on his throat.
"I think you're developing pneumonia. You probably aspirated some food or something when you were being sick. We need to get you to a doctor."
Kimblee shook his head.
"Not yet," he rasped, "we have one more job to do."
1.From The House of Claw which is mine. All mine. Although actually the Traveler's Chronicles all take place half a generation to a full generation after the series.
So nearly all of this chapter is based on the song Defying Gravity from Wicked. Cali and Sapphire end up on opposite sides of the board and it's tougher for Cali than it is Sapphire. Don't worry, you'll find out who the mysterious Phenix is shortly. We're almost to the end of arc one! Trisha appears in arc two so anyone who's seen the art for this knows what she looks like already.
Also, that pneumonia thing is true. I learned it on Dr. G.