So, I don't have internet at my house, which is why it took me so long to get this chapter up. I have to now go to the library to do it! But anyway, I hope you all aren't getting TOO impatient with me!
This chapter is extra long, so I hope you like it! I tried to keep it close to the episode as much as possible. Things will be getting pretty intense from here on out, I think. I only have the next two chapters written out at the moment, and it'll get good (I hope you think so too!) But, I have finals this week so I can't work on it. Yeah for summer!
Anyway, like always, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review and let me know what you think!
Chapter 10 Created Human
***Mustang's POV***
"What are you doing calling me this late?" Maes asked from the other end of the phone. I could tell he was groggy, and I knew he needed the sleep, but this was important; I needed him.
"There's something that's been bothering me for awhile," I started, unsure of myself. But Hughes was my best friend. I could tell him anything.
"What? That we haven't caught Scar or is it about Dr. Marcoh being taken into the Fuhrer's custody?" he interrupted me before I could complete what I had been trying to say.
"Ya ok, well, there is that too, but it's about Lara," I confessed.
"What about her?" he asked, suddenly curious. I wished I could grab his collar through the phone and shake him around a little bit. I knew what he was thinking, and I didn't like it at all. He had been badgering me lately about her, and I didn't want anymore of that nonsense. Lara and I were friends, nothing more. Besides, I didn't like getting involved with women at work. If something didn't work out, there would be way too much tension between us.
"Well, tell me what you know about laboratory 5," I ordered him.
"Lab 5?" Hughes sounded surprised. "That place has been shut down for awhile. What's going on?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think that's where Lara is."
"Why do you think that?" he asked suspiciously.
"Because I happened to see it circled on a map on top of her desk," I answered uncomfortably. I felt as if I was a little kid caught in the act. I had nothing to be ashamed of; the red marker had caught my eye. Besides, I could be dead wrong here. I just needed a confirmation.
"Well, maybe she went on a date or something. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Speaking of which, why are you worried. For being only friends, you sure are passing over the boundary line that would be don't go through her stuff."
"I know, but I couldn't help myself." I didn't have the energy to explain to him how innocent my finding the map was. "Look, if you hear anything, keep me posted, alright?" I said, wanting to end this conversation before he was able to go on about getting me a wife. Placing the phone in its cradlem I sighed.
Laboratory 5 was closed as far as we know. Why would Lara go there? For what purpose; what was her interest in it? A part of me wanted to go and show up to see what she was doing, but I didn't want to push her away by being brash. It was her life, she could do what she wanted. Grabbing my coat, I decided I was going to head home.
***Lara's POV***
"I think I get it now," I said, breaking the silence as Ed could only stare in wonder at everything. "What this facility was being used for. It was an operation to develop large scale military applications for alchemy, or more specifically how they could harness human alchemy to the military's advantage."
Ed nodded in agreement. "That explains what they were doing with these incomplete philosopher's stones." We exchanged glances, unsure of what our next move should be.
"If you wanted to, you could use them to forge a complete philosopher's stone," Shou Tucker whispered to us.
"Does that mean you know how these fragments were made?" I asked, curious. There was so much I wanted to know, and so few answers being given. I'd take any little piece of information I could get my ears on.
"Not quite. By the time I came, this room was already here. Created and abandoned, most likely by the man that had run this place before. A doctor Tim Marcoh. I can only guess his methods."
Ed was furious. "They're made of-"
"Does it honestly matter what they are made of any more? Even if they were in fact created using live human beings, are you capable of restoring them back to life? Using what's left of them to create a complete stone is the only way to give their sacrifices meaning." Tucker felt no remorse whatsoever over the death of 'innocent' people.
Meaning? No. That wasn't right. They didn't die to become a part of some stone. That wouldn't be honoring their deaths. They were killers that needed to stay dead, not be sacrificed for a stone or transmuted into armors and being bonded together to make chimeras. They deserved to be buried properly.
"I couldn't agree more." Slicer cut in.
"You're agreeing?" Ed asked, shaking his head. Ed was so adamant about not using the stone if human beings had been used to get it. I agreed with him and would stand by him no matter what, on this particular subject anyway.
"More like sympathizing. There lives carry no meaning in this disembodied state." Slicer explained. He was also referring to himself. He meant he himself held no meaning so long as his soul was attached to the armor.
"No value? I don't buy that." Ed stood up and after staring at his reflection in the cylinders, he crawled on top of one. "But, Al. Your life has value. Even in this state, doesn't it remain?"
"Yes, Ed. His life has value. You both have each other, and that alone should be enough," I assured him. "Your love for each other, your bond is all that matters. You two are valuable to the human race. You both belong here as much as the rest of us."
I frowned. Wait, what was I saying? I wanted this stone too, as much as they did. But, after all I had seen, it didn't seem worth it anymore. After all this death and human transmutation, I don't want to bring back anyone. The chances of it actually working is slim to none. What I wanted now, was to help these boys. They were now my priority.
Somehow, Ed started to believe what they were saying. After Ed made an array, he and Tucker left for a moment. Ed wanted to see for himself the storage tank that was supposed to be directly above the ray he had made. I stayed behind in the red water room. The blood loss was getting dangerously low. I needed to get out of here.
Before I knew it, Ed and Tucker were back. Standing in the center of the room, Tucker asked, "You are going to transmute both rooms at once?"
"That's the plan. Even combined there isn't enough pieces of the stone in this room alone. In Dr. Marcoh's research journal, he suggested using two transmutation circles. I'm hoping to take all the leftover materials from above and collide them with the fragments in here through the two circles smashing them into one. But, I'm going to need a serious explosive charge to make all that happen. I better beef up the array." Placing his hands along the circle, the lines shifted.
"An array with a heptagon circle circumscribed in it," I said in awe. "I've never seen something like that before." I grabbed the cylinders full of the red water and repositioned them at the points of the heptagon.
Suddenly, an explosion cut through the air; it was loud, almost as if it was right above us. I no more than thought that then the ceiling collapsed and a bunch of prisoners fell through. Debris falling on top of me, though I was unable to get up on my own. Ed had to crawl his way over to me and unpin my legs.
Coughing from the dust, I looked around. Ed gasped and started yelling at Tucker. I sighed, knowing full well why they were here and that Tucker knew all about them. He wanted Ed to have performed the transmutation, killing those prisoners. I stood up defiantly. "Who brought you all here?" I demanded.
"I did!" a voice from behind me answered. Turning, I was face to face with Bas Gran. I frowned. I thought he had been killed by Scar when we had been at Marcoh's. I rushed forward, swinging my fist at his head. He backed up and changed his appearance into something smaller, more puny. He had long black hair and wore black, tight fitting clothes.
"Who are you?" I asked as I backed up. I had no idea what he was capable of. "What's your name?"
He shrugged. "I can be whomever you want. So, who would you like?" He turned to Ed. "A taller version of you?"
Ed, angrier than ever, rushed forward, trying to deck him in the face. I noticed his shoulder give out. Uh-oh. This didn't look good. If Ed's arm was useless and I was in this bad of shape, we were in real trouble. The shape shifter attacked Ed and kicked him to the ground.
"The only reason I haven't killed you is because we were told not to! But I can never forgive you, and I there'll never be a time that I'm able to forgive you. For caring that bastard's blood in your veins!" He was about to kick Ed again.
"No!" I was about to rush forward, to come to Ed's aid, but a woman came through the hole in the wall stopping the shifter was attacking Ed.
"Envy, don't take it out on him because you were unable to screen the ingredients thoroughly enough," she said. "If you don't want to suffer any more physical punishment, then I suggest you get on with the transmutation. We had a minor, unexpected set back, but the ingredients are still fresh."
I frowned. "You want us to use these convicts to create a philosopher's stone? Do you really think we would these people?"
"I'm afraid you have no choice," the woman sneered.
Suddenly, a fat man came in behind them, throwing something to the side. It clanked when it hit the ground. Al. It was Al. Ed started freaking out. "Al!"
"Brother, these people, they're homunculi!" Al informed us.
"They are indeed homunculi, perfectly created artificial humans. They promised to share with me the secrets to generating a homunculus so that I can create my Nina." He went on and on about her spirit living in all his memories. He was going to implant his memories of her into the artificial body so that she seemed as real as the child he missed.
I shook my head. This was horrible. How could so many people have been corrupted so much? No one deserved this. Not even Tucker, not after what he did. He deserved to be dead, like the papers claimed he was. Did Mustang know what was happening here? No. I couldn't believe that. Mustang wouldn't allow this to happen, not if he knew. I had to believe that.
Envy knelt down to our level, as both Ed and I were sitting on the ground. "I suggest you two get to work performing the transmutation. Start by fixing the ceiling."
I looked away. "And what's the point of us being here? Why can't you yourselves do the alchemy? Why go through all this trouble just for us? Unless, you can't use alchemy!" That explained then why they hadn't killed us yet.
"I'm embarrassed to admit that you are right. Our group is unable to perform alchemy on our own. We need others to do it for us." the woman answered. Even though they looked like humans, they still weren't the real deal; they came up a little short.
"Then what's the point of the stone? You can't use it," Something still wasn't clicking for me. Something more to it.
"I want to become a human," the woman looked down. "Nothing more." She seemed to be lost in her own little world for a fraction of a second, probably dreaming of what it would be like. They were so close to their goal.
I stopped short. Human? They wanted to be human? They didn't have a God complex? They didn't want to be the most powerful people in the world? They wanted to be the weakest?
"We dropped some bread crumbs to some eager alchemists who wanted to create the stones, and then advise some eager alchemists on how to go about constructing the stones for themselves." the pretty young woman told us matter-of-factly.
"You mean you were the one who told all of this to Marcoh and the secret ingredient?" I asked. Finally, everything was falling into place. More and more things were starting to make sense.
"We laid the fake bait and everyone came flocking," Envy sneered, looking down on us. I wanted to lash out and kill him, but in my current state, everyone knew that wasn't going to be happening.
"And that's the way we found you boys. You found us," the woman smiled at us, as though happy with how their plans have been played out.
"You mean us coming here was all part of your plan?" Ed looked to be a loss for words. "We aren't just some puppets for you to control!" Ed was getting too riled up. We both needed to settle down and think things over. We needed to plan a way to get Al back and get out of here.
"It's an equivalent exchange. I tell you all you need to know about creating this philosopher's stone and you turn us human," the young woman told us as if it was no big deal to kill all of these convicts. It wasn't that simple. As much as I wanted the stone, I was not going to kill these people, and Ed wouldn't either.
"And why should we trust you?" I asked heatedly. I didn't like this, not one bit. I couldn't think of any way out of here. Running was out of the question, as was alchemy. I didn't see any way around this.
"But, we aren't asking," the woman paused, "we are telling." She held up Slicer's helmet and opened it so we could see the blood seal. "You have any idea what will happen to an attached soul when you do this?" She took her finger and began running her finger along the markings before slicing the helmet in half, killing him. She seemed pleased with herself upon having done so.
Getting up, she walked around behind Al and took off his helmet. She was going to do the same thing to him unless we cooperated. "This won't take long," she said, placing her finger on the seal, waiting for us to say something.
Tears of fear starting forming in Ed's eyes. "No! Please don't hurt him! He's my little brother! Please don't take him away, I'm begging you!" Ed was begging for his brother's life.
"It's ok," Al assured us. How was he ok with just dying?
"Don't give up on us now, Al!" I cried, using alchemy to fix the ceiling. I was at a loss. What should we do? I couldn't bear the thought of losing Al, but I also didn't think I could bring myself to killing these convicts.
Ed was up and moving the pillars of red water in place. It seemed we had no other option. We would have to complete this to save Al. I couldn't move from my spot on the floor, so I could only watch, and listen as Al begged Ed to stop. When he had finished, he helped me move to the front of the circle so we could finish our job.
The convicts were murmuring amongst themselves, and Al was going off, trying to get us to stop telling us he didn't want to be brought back if we had to sacrifice these people. I was torn. Al, I couldn't let you die, and Ed wouldn't let you die. But, this was what Al wanted, right? His life was hanging in the balance. I made the mistake of looking into the convicts eyes. They were scared and afraid. I couldn't kill them.
Ed clapped his hands, prepared to start the transmutation. "Ed, no!" I cried. "We can't do it. We can't kill these people." I shook my head, tears forming in my eyes. Ed stopped and just stared.
"Sorry, Al. I can't do it," he said.
Suddenly, the room started shaking and the walls, which I hadn't noticed also contained red water, burst. The pillars started cracking before the red water poured out onto the ground, splashing all around us, soaking my skin. Ed started dragging me to a dry section of the floor.
"Fullmetal Alchemist," came a voice. I turned. Scar? Anger and fury welled up within me. "Take your brother and get out of here!"
"We don't need your help!" Ed yelled up at him. I couldn't say anything as I was too angry and upset. All I wanted to do was jump up there and put him in his place for killing Damien and Jane. He didn't deserve to be walking this earth.
"Maybe not, but your younger brother needs you," Scar replied. What? Since when did he care? What was it to him? Don't tell me he had grown a heart in such a short time. I refused to believe he was up to anything good. Why would he save us when he had tried so hard to kill us?
"Let's go," Ed cried as he picked me up and started helping me towards the exit.
"Oh no, you aren't leaving until you finish what you have started," the young woman yelled at us.
Suddenly, my body started to react with the red water. I don't remember much, just that I started going crazy and attacking the homunculi without a second's thought. I could feel all of my power increasing and swirling all around me. I was numb, unable to feel anything. I had no idea where anyone was, nor did I care at the moment.
The last thing I remember before blacking out is someone holding me, and I felt a sense of love and that seemed to calm me down. I was a peace, suddenly forgetting what had caused me to become that way. All that mattered was that I was in someone's arms and that they loved me, and I loved them.
Please Review!