Chapter 11 – Of soul and love part II
Disclaimer: Ok Ok...I don't own anything..geez...stupid disclaimer always reminding me that I don't own any FMA characters...
A/N: Here's the next chapter….
Music filled the whole town square accompanied by the background whispering and voices of the people who happened to attend the festival being held at the town. Foods are everywhere and all didn't give up the chance of the delicacies served on each table.
Apart from everyone, were two brothers sitting on one table, which is seemed isolated from the others. Both were silent and just observing everybody buzzing from one place to another. Edward was busy locating Majahal and other suspicious things around them. While Al…well, he was worrying over Catherine. She's been gone for more than an hour now.
"Brother? Why is Catherine not back yet?" Al asked to Edward who just quirked at him for a moment then ignored him to go back on investigating the place.
"She's not back for almost two hours." Al inquired and glanced over Majahal's house with worriment.
"Don't worry about her. Maybe she doesn't want to go here in the first place, so she probably just stayed in our room instead." Edward replied briefly and tried to look over the towering heads of the people passing by. And, in a glimpse, he saw a white glow from behind the trees. The blond alchemist widened his eyes from what he saw and stood from his seat in a split second, knocking his chair off.
"….think we should look for…brother?" Al cut himself off when he saw Edward's perplexed expression, like he saw a ghost or something. Edward continued to glue his golden eyes on the spot where he saw the light. After moments, the white light returned and Edward can make a silhouette of a person from it.
A ghost?
No. Edward doesn't believe in such irrational things like that. Being the curious child he is, he made his way to the trees where he found the mysterious light that he, himself is sure that it has something to do with alchemy. I mean, come on, aside from alchemy, what else could glow like that?
"Brother! Where are you going?!" Al followed suit with the sound of his clanking armor.
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Light slowly invaded her eyes as she tried to open it halfway.
"Ughhh.." Catherine groaned as the pain in her head welcomed her as she came back to reality. She cautiously glanced around and all she can see were mannequins splattered everywhere in the room. She noticed that she was sitting in a sturdy wooden chair with her ankles tied together. She tried to move from her place to untie the rope only to be pulled back to her position.
Catherine turned her head to her back to see her hands tightly joined by a rope behind her. She tried to struggle herself free but only find it useless.
"Damn it. He caught me." She whispered to herself and tried to find something around her to escape. There must be something she could do to get out from this mess. She tried to clap her hands behind her but found it difficult because it was tied in a back-to-back position, wherein the back of her hands are facing each other, making it impossible for her to connect her palms. All she can reach from her other hand were her bangles she wore even before she came from the gate.
"Does that guy know I can do alchemy without circles?" She asked quietly in an annoyed tone as she gave up on using alchemy. Darkness was reduced when someone opened the entrance to the room, revealing a dark figure making his way to the red – haired alchemist. The shadow lit a candle and Catherine confirmed that it's no other than Majahal.
Catherine grinded her teeth in sheer anger, red eyes stabbing the old man before her.
"What do you want, you creep?" She spat bluntly. Majahal didn't protest on her bad mood and just smirked slyly.
"You are very unique indeed. You're perfect for the next soul attachment." He stated mildly as he walked over to her until he bent down to her level with her face.
"So that's what you were planning. Mind if I know why?" Catherine said with venom in her voice. He smiled at her and stood up straight. Catherine looked up at him as he approached the dolls sitting at one of his wall cabinets and got one before turning back to her.
"Do you know who this face is?" Majahal questioned, cupping the face of the doll for the girl to see.
"How should I know?" She spat back.
"This is the most beautiful face ever existed, and her name is Carin. My beloved Carin." Catherine widened her eyes in the forming conclusion in her mind. Each piece coming to her one by one. She didn't let shock take over her that long and glared at him even more.
"So…that Carin you're talking about earlier was your sweetheart. And you're planning to attach my soul to that filthy rag so you can relive your days together? You're pathetic." Catherine snapped. This easily angered Majahal and grabbed Catherine's face violently, pressing his nails hard on her soft cheek so she could feel pain.
"I tried human transmutation but found it out of my potential. So I tried something that I can do and may bring Carin back….alchemy…" Majahal breathed to her face, continuing to held it tightly as she gasped heavily at the nails pricking her pale face.
"So I began to use these mannequins I made out of obsession to see my beloved back, and stole souls of any girl I snare." Majahal said to her maniacally, his eyes glowing with evilness.
"And what does that had to do with me? Why me?" Catherine choked out, finding difficulty to breath at the close distance of the old man.
"Because you're different. You're soul is strong enough to endure the transferring process for some reason. Unlike others who lost their control and mind and filled the rumors for the town." Majahal replied snidely, grinning from ear to ear.
"So it's your toys who played the role of zombies in this place. You…truly are a sick lunatic." Catherine gasped, gritting her teeth in fury and pain.
Majahal laughed hysterically and pulled out a sharp knife which glowed in the moonlight filtering throught the rooms thin glass window.
"Yes. You are a smart girl indeed." Majahal said as he shown her his weapon.
"You're not going to succeed." Catherine argued with her remaining strength.
"Oh yes I would. With the help of the sons of Hohenheim, I'll certainly perform it perfectly. The tin can brother is assurance enough." The girl growled at the man's petty scheme. With Ed's help, this man can surely achieve the soul attachment. But, those two will surely decline to obey Majahal's orders. Ed and Al are not that idiotic as far as she knows. So she doesn't need to think about that.
All she needs to do is to find a way out of here. She didn't agree to go with Ed and Al to die like this. She traveled with them to help them regain their lost. So she can get rid of the visions somehow. Yes. That's her priority and nothing can get in her way. Even a crazy obsessed bastard like Majahal.
Catherine, who still have her face in Majahal's gripped hand, laughed slightly, confusing the man a bit.
"So are you telling me, that you don't care if it's not Carin's soul living in that doll? That…you chose her face over her soul?" Catherine stated more than questioned. Majahal flared with rage at the girl's words and sliced a deep cut across her right cheek.
"Ahhhh!" Catherine grimaced in pain at the long cut made on her face. Blood soon escaped from the wound to stain the cold floor.
"You must be thankful that I can't kill you, so just shut your big mouth." Majahal warned in a low voice then let go of her face before exiting the room, leaving the girl to suffer in the agony of the opened bruise he made.
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"Brother? Why are we here?" Al whimpered as he and Edward ventured the dark cemetery of the town with nothing but an oil lamp for light.
"I saw something here and wanted to check out." Edward reasoned out as he continued his tracks with Al behind him, cautiously watching his every side for anything scary. Because he was so busy lurking for any "ghosts", Edward was walking way ahead of him.
"Wait for me!" Al squeaked with fear and quickly ran to Edward's behind.
"What are you? Scared?" Edward asked with an arched eye brow.
"Uh…well…" Al stuttered with fear and embarrassment.
"All the rumors here are obviously just the cause of someone using alchemy in the wrong way. Just…like what we did." It was difficult for him to say as he lowered his voice. Al noticed this and began to consume his brother's sad reminisce.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Ed and Al screamed as the ground they were stepping on turned into a hole and they awfully fell on the dug ground.
Unfortunately for Ed, Al was on top of him.
"Yeah! We got her! We got her!" Clause came running towards the pit hole trap, calling for her friends for them to see. By the time she got there, she noticed that she got the wrong prey.
"My….back….again?" Ed squirmed under Al's huge armor crushing his backbone even more he had them earlier.
"You again?" She asked, irritated. Clause sighed in exasperation and placed her hands on her hips.
"False alarm!" She announced snidely and walked away, not bothering to help the brothers out.
"L—ook!" A boy mused in terror, pointing a shaking finger on a certain direction. Clause swiveled her head to see a glowing woman before her sisters' grave. The black color in her eyes turned to dots.
"AHHHHH!!!!" The other boys screamed in horror and stormed out of the scene. Ed and Al, on the other hand, managed to get half of their bodies halfway out of the hole but stopped dead when they saw the woman with white light like a ghost.
"She's…the one I saw earlier." Ed whispered to himself.
"You killed my sister…you killed my sister!!!!" Clause yelled and charged after the glowing woman with pure rage.
"Clause! NO!" Ed called for her but she ignored him and continued to run towards the woman and stopped a few feet away from her.
"You killed my sister."Clause said in a low dangerous voice, balling her fists tightly. The woman glanced back at her in response, with blank features visible in her colorless eyes. The woman was like gonna attack Clause but before it can happen, Majahal magically shielded Clause and burned down the creature before them with the fire in his lamp.
The woman was helplessly barbequed alive in the large fire engulfing her whole body, and slowly fell on the ground with nothing but ashes, making a weird, screeching sound before it was with the wind of nothingness.
Edward narrowed his gaze at the burning form of the lady, recording the sound he just heard in his memory.
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Catherine remained silent and stiff the entire time Majahal left her, the wound he left in her face still streaking with fresh blood. She can't do anything right now. All she can do now is to wait and think of something.
Cutting her eerie peace in the isolated room, a light emerged from one of the dark corners of the room. Catherine got her eyes blinded by the sudden brightness and looked up closely as to where it's coming from.
From what she saw was one of the mannequins moving out of her place with life. Catherine tensed at the terrifying sight she got.
The white woman, probably Carin as Majahal had said, glued her blank eyes to the tied alchemist on the center of the room. Everything became spookier for Catherine when Carin stepped slowly to her direction, each inch closer to her steals her every heart beat.
Sweat trickled from the side of her head as the woman was glowing with white light in front of her, but even with the frightened feeling she was in now, she can feel that there's a living soul inside the lifeless doll.
Carin raised her arm and Catherine automatically closed her eyes in fear and anticipation of something despicable the ghostly woman might do. She remained that way for agonizingly long moments but was surprised when nothing came. The red haired girl slowly opened her eyes to see that the woman's arm was not on something to harm her, but was pointing on somewhere beneath her.
Curiosity grown on her and she gazed down at where the finger was directed and was stunned to see a wide alchemy array drawn under her and found out that she's in the center of the circle.
"What the?" Catherine appalled, her enlarged ruby orbs glazing down the transmutation circle made under her feet. She only had seen it because of the light the woman was providing her as she stood there.
"Be…careful." An echoic voice escaped from Carin's mouth, startling Catherine a bit. She lifted her eyes on her, trying to presume her message.
"Be…care-" The mannequin was cut off when it's lively glow slowly drained from her body then fell limply on the floor. Catherine widened her eyes on the doll laying dead at her feet, breathing heavily. As the final sparks of light faded completely from her body, a squeaking sound sounded from the lifeless body.
She gasped at the familiar noise.
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The brothers chose to go back to their room after the tiring excursion they had in the cemetery. Both of them have put on their thinking faces, trying to figure out something about the mysterious lady back in the graveyard.
"Catherine didn't show at the festival. I wonder where she is…" Al thought loudly. As he said this, Edward turned his head at the sound he heard from Majahal's house.
"Brother?" Al asked at his sudden spacing out.
"Did you hear that noise Al?" Ed asked, his eyes never leaving the structure where the sound came from.
"Hear what?" Al asked curiously.
"The sound the woman back in the cemetery made, did you hear it?" Ed asked once more.
"No. Why?"
"But did you hear it now?"
"No. What's going on brother?" Al asked with growing confusion.
"Let's go." Edward walked out towards the house with speed, leaving Al with even more growing confoundment.
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An ear was pressed on the wooden wall and after hearing nothing a white gloved hand knocked it once to hear a hollow sound.
"Brother what are you doing?" Al asked with slight irritation of not telling him what's going on.
"The sound the woman back in the cemetery, I also heard it from here." Ed replied.
"Majahal will not be pleased if he finds out here you're snooping around his household." A female voice came.
Both heads turned to see the old woman who gave a strawberry jam to Majahal earlier this night.
"Well maybe he'll be mad if I found out about what you're hiding in this house!" Ed shot back heatedly. The woman didn't respond and held the candle closer to Edward's sight. It didn't take a second before Edward's world spun and he held the wall opposite from him for support, only to have it opened like a hidden passage.
He looked up with his blurry vision to caught a glimpse of Catherine tied up in a chair placed in the center of the room.
Soon darkness ate his mind…
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Not long after, Ed and Al were tied up too, only with metal chains and were placed on the side of the room, not far from where Catherine is bounded. And as lucky as they are at the moment, Ed is still out cold.
"Catherine, what are you doing here?" Al asked his companion.
"Shouldn't it be me who must ask that?" Catherine asked back snidely. Al sighed. She can be stubborn at times.
"Ed and I got caught from sneaking here. How about you?" Al answered, looking at her for answer.
She sighed as well. "Long story short – I also sneaked up here and got caught and now the lunatic is going to use my friggin' soul to bring his toys to life." She told like it's-just-as-simple-as-that tone.
"Well…that was a little long." Al confined, earning a snide smirk from the girl.
"Not funny. So not the time for jokes." She remarked with sly eyes perking at his armor.
"But you laughed." Al corrected.
"No I didn't." She defended with a slight chuckle, turning her head fully to him, making him see the long bruise that decorated her cheek. Catherine stopped smiling when she felt the burning eyes of Al on her wounded face.
"Don't worry. It's just a little cut." She assured, abruptly turning to face away.
"Is Ed still out cold?" She asked timidly.
"Seems to be." Al answered, looking over his unconscious brother.
"Try waking him up." Catherine ordered. Al obliged her and shook Ed slightly.
"Brother! Brother wake up!" Al called for his older sibling. He only stirred a little when Majahal came to view.
"Well well well, now that everyone's here, let's get started. Shall we?" Majahal boomed with the displeasure of the two conscious hostages.
"Forget it asshole. They're not going to do it. You're just wasting your time." Catherine sneered at him with bitterness.
"Ughh…" Ed stirred awake exactly to see Majahal talking to them.
"Brother, you're awake!" Al said with relief. Edward glanced around to see Catherine in the same condition there are in.
"Cath?" He asked for confirmation.
"Edward, you've awaken." Majahal greeted to him, earning a scowl from the young blond.
"You…sick old geezer." Edward growled at him. Majahal smiled at him evilly which turned into a sophisticated laugh.
"So, what are you exactly doing with your toys?" Ed asked coyly as he looked around the doll display decorating the room's cupboards.
"Toys? They're mannequins specifically designed for soul attachment. And with that, I just want you to know that you'll be helping me so I can bring my Carin back. I hope you don't mind using your little friend here for the soul." Majahal stated. Edward gritted his teeth in anger.
"You BASTARD!" Edward shouted in fury.
"Hahahaha! What a loud child you are." Majahal mused with bitter enthusiasm. Edward hardened his glare, his golden orbs flaring with hot anger.
"You'll get nothing from us, so let us go." Edward warned dangerously which only answered by a cackle.
"You're pretty brave I must say. But you're not leaving. Not until you helped me bind her soul to the body of my beloved Carin like what you did to your little brother there." Al gasped at the mention of his name and Edward's flowing hate towards the man continued.
"So….you chose body over soul." Ed stated.
"Don't talk nonsense. You're just a foolish child and know nothing about love." Majahal snapped dreadfully and walked over to Catherine to cup her face hardly like what he did earlier, only to give more ache to the girl's face because of the fresh cut on her cheek.
"Catherine!" Al called out.
"Stop it you greasy bastard!" Edward yelled.
Majahal flashed them both a dark smile and focused his devil eyes to Catherine, who widened her red orbs in fear of what the man was going to do.
"Be ….careful…" The doll's voice echoed through her mind.
Catherine's conscious mind began to panic as she tried to shuffle her tied hands behind her to escape this scenario someway. But the only thing she could grab a hold on was her hanging bangles in her left hand. She's hopeless in escaping.
"Sir Majahal…" A girl's voice said in excitement fading into a small scary one. Majahal turned slowly at her, the eyes of danger coming her way.
"I just wanted to say thank you…" Clause whispered in awe.
"Foolish child."
"RUN CLAUSE!" The three called in unison but before the girl made any move, Majahal knocked her unconscious in one bang of his hand on the back of her head.
"AL! Do something!" Ed ordered hastily. Al took the move and elongate the metal chains tying them up through his strong metal arms.
"Just a little more…Got it!" The chains then broke free from them and the first move they took was to help Catherine out.
"Don't you even try to think about it!" Majahal's booming voice halted them into a stop. He was holding an unconscious Clause in his arms, a sharp knife neatly placed inches away from her neck.
"Or I'll cut this girl's neck into half." Majahal threatened. The two, considerate of the girl's life, stayed back obediently.
"You coward. Picking on children. Maybe you are some sort of sadistic pedophile." Catherine grunted.
Majahal just smirked at her then carried Clause in bridal style. Both of those actions were not good signs at all.
"I want to make your soul transfer perfectly, so I'll have some practice with this little girl first." He simply said and made his way to do so when…
"Stop this! I can't take this anymore!" The old woman who made Edward doped out cold earlier shouted in and grabbed a hold of Majahal.
"Then get the hell out of here! Old hag!" Majahal pushed her off him and continued on his outrageous plans.
Edward quickly came to the woman's aide and bent down to her level to help her, when he noticed the blue rose tucked in her hair like a clip. He didn't notice it before because of the hood she's always wearing.
"Blue…rose." Edward gasped in realization.
Al tried to move his way to Catherine when she herself stopped him.
"Don't. Just help Clause. I'll be fine." Catherine commanded as she struggles with the ring bracelets hanging in her other hand, attempting to break them into pieces somehow.
"But-"
"Just do it!" Catherine ordered angrily and Al found no chance to argue with her. So, he proceeded to where Clause has her sleeping form and badly, Majahal already started the transmutation and the array beneath the girl's feet glew with life.
The old man started to chant words of ritual as he performs his alchemy, holding a book in his arms as he did so. But before anything could get any further, Edward's alarming voice stretched to Majahal's ears.
"Stop this craziness Majahal…!"
Majahal stopped the current task at hand to deal with the blond kid bothering him since he came in this town.
"The one your looking for…is only under your nose for years. Because of your blindness to see the beautiful face of Carin, you didn't recognize the real one." Ed stated, bringing all the confusion to the wrinkled old alchemist.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Majahal demanded with silent disbelief.
Edward didn't answer his interrogation and just pulled off the gray robe the old woman beside him wears, revealing the blue rose clipped neatly between her grayish hair.
"This is Carin. She lost her memory after an accident, but twenty years later, she recovered her memory and came back straight to you. But you were to blind to see it was her." Majahal stepped back a little at the young blond's words, dropping the book he was holding with disbelief.
On the other side of the room, Catherine watched the scene happening between Edward and Majahal and solved some mysteries in her head as she successfully broke the bangles in her wrist into pieces. The shattered pieces fell to the floor with a small tinkle and she managed to catch one of the pieces, the one with the sharp edge on it.
She grinned in her own way as she gripped the pointed piece in her fingers. Even she couldn't see anything from her behind, she placed the pointed edge against her arm and began to cut through her flesh wrist, carefully keeping a hairline away from her pulse, creating a rather thin but deep line of blood along her skin. She quietly winced in pain as she continued her way to draw on her own skin.
After a minute of enduring the small pain, an circle lined with blood was seen in her wrist. By the looks of it, she made her wound to shape like an alchemic array.
"It's true, Majahal." The old woman, or rather Carin, confirmed.
"This is impossible! Are you telling me that this wrinkled old woman is Karin? Karin was a woman of incomparable beauty...just like a rose." Majahal muttered quietly everytime his eyes grew more on the old woman gazing on him.
"Exaclty like a rose. Flowers wither Majahal." Edward breathed, truth tied in his strong words. But on the contrary, Majahal flared in anger by this and crouched his face with hatred.
"Don't talk nonsense anymore!" He yelled and withdraw a sword by transmuting one of the random metals in the room. He wildly slayed it towards Edward's direction but even before the lethal weapon wounded the alchemist, Alphonse blocked it with his armor body in time.
Catherine saw the phenomenon before her and quickly touched the bloody circle on her hand which instantly glew with life and broke the ropes she was immobilized with.
"DIE!" Majahal screamed with pure hatred in his dark eyes and backed his sword to strike Edward to death. As if on cue, a sound of clapping came to fill the room and soon a giant fist came in and punched Majahal across the wall opposite to him, making the cement crack at the force, knocking him completely out cold. Blue light from the transmutaion was still eliciting from the dirt fist and all eyes ventured to the source, only to be surpirsed to who saved them.
"Cath?" Al asked wonderly, still having a hard time believing that the girl is the one who actually wiped the enemy out. Edward, who was not ignorant that she didn't use any circle for alchmey, stared at her questioningly.
The red haired girl soon straightened for her bent position on the floor and smiled at them confidently. She palmed one hip and gave them a thumb up.
Al beamed at her a glad gasped escaped from him(probably his way of smiling) and Edward, despite his assortment, gave her a lopsided smile of his own.
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It was a hot morning and the trio were already outside waiting for the carriage that will carry them back to the train station. Edward stood in the middle of the road, waiting for the ride to come while the other two were sitting on a bench near their companion.
"Is your wound fine now?" Al asked in his usual gentle voice.
"Don't worry too much about it. It's just a simple cut." Catherine shrugged it off just like that.
"Your wound, it's shaped like an alchemic circle." Al mentioned, making the girl's eyebrows furrow a little. She doesn't like it when something about her that she doesn't want to tell anyone just being blown up like that. But it was pretty obvious so...
"Well, I need to do something to untie myself from there, right?" Catherine replied with a sigh as she placed both of her hands on the back of her head. Al sighed in defeat at her stubborn subtleness.
"Catherine." Edward called her name, making the girl open one of her closed eyes to give him some of her attention.
"What?" She voiced boringly. Edward has the face of seriousness as he asked,
"Back in Majahal's house…you did alchemy without circles, didn't you?"
Catherine's attention was driven to him and she shot up to look at him square in the eyes. Ed did the same thing to her and an uncomfortable wind of silence passed them for a moment.
She gave up first and bowed her head, and smirked in weird amusement that Edward easily broke her little secret that she was about to tell them sooner or later.
They will know it eventually…so why keep it? Catherine thought smugly and turned her eyes once again to him.
"So…what if I can?" She answered in her usual cold voice that masked her very feeling and emotion.
Edward shot her a dirty look and was about to shout at her when their ride came. They hopped on the carriage without any word passing, even Al badly wants to break the tension growing.
"HEY! WAIT!" A girl called as the group finished placing their belongings on the back of the wooden carriage.
Three heads jerked on her way and all they can see was a girl with shoulder lengthed dark hair wearing a neat off – shoulder flow dress. She was a total stranger to the trio.
"I…just wanted to say goodbye and thank you for all you've done." The girl stammered shyly to them.
"And your great alchemists after all!" She exclaimed with sparks in her eyes. Regardless that, Ed, Al and Catherine looked at her blankly.
"We know…but who are you?" Edward asked, pointing a finger towards her.
"Call me crazy brother but..." Al started.
"I think that's…Clause." Catherine continued, her voice still dazed with surprise. The girl nodded simuntaneously in return. When the response registered in their minds, they screamed in terror.
"Will you guys grow up!" Clause demanded offendedly. After the aftershocks of the old papergirl now dressed as a true, pretty girl, Catherine stepped towards her and placed a hand over her shoulder.
"You sure look girlier than me now." She said jokingly and gave her a small smile. Clause blushed a little as the trio went back to their seats on the ride.
"And…" Edward shortly said to Clause and drew her attention back.
"…you're definitely much prettier when you're not dressed like a paperboy." Edward commented at her, making her blush again.
Clause waved her arm goodbye as the carriage moved its way to the dirty road towards the train station.
Where should they head now?
A/N: Ok sorry for the delay…with all the homeworks and all….next chapter will be…I really don't know when…this story isn't like by the many after all…oh well…