Chapter 20

"Damnit!"

"Brother?! What's going on? Why aren't you telling me anything?"

"I- I don't have time!" You yank on some of your unbraided hair momentarily before turning to face your brother. "Al, I can't explain right now, but I need you to believe me. Nothing right now is more important then you getting the military here as fast as you can. It doesn't matter what they say, make sure they come."

"Wha- why?"

"Just- just say that Nina's in trouble, okay?"

"Nina's in trouble?!"

"Al!"

"Right! Sorry!"

"I know how Tucker makes his human chimeras – he's transmuting humans. He transmuted his wife, and now he's doing the same with Nina. I can explain how I figured this all out later. Now go!" Your voice raises a few pitches as you shout the last word, before running out the door. You hear Al running behind you, but the two of you have different destinations. You're going to go stop Tucker and save Nina. He has to go bring in the officials who are gonna deal with everything once you've finished beating Tucker's head into the walls a few times.

You're already worried about how long you took to explain the situation to Al. You should have explained the situation to him earlier, so you didn't need to waste the extra time now. Stupid, stupid! Nothing good has ever come from keeping each other in the dark about something.

You skid across the hallway as you try to control your momentum, knocking into the wall at the bottom of the basement stairs before continuing down the hallway to the lab. When you finally arrive you waste no time at all in kicking the door wide open. In fact, you kick it so hard it flies right off it's hinges.

You allow yourself only a second to take in the scene in front of you before being moved into action. Nina and Alexander are both in cages on the floor. Alexander is pawing at the floor anxiously and whining loudly. It the sort of deep, throaty whine that sounds like it could turn into a howl at a moment's notice. Nina is sitting against the back of her bars, wiping at her eyes groggily, and trying to talk to Tucker. He is ignoring her completely.

In fact, he is sitting at the edge of a finished transmutation circle, leaning forward to-

You stop taking in the scene. You've seen all you need to. You run past Tucker, pushing him to the side just enough to knock him off balance, and make a beeline straight for Nina. You didn't think he'd be this far along already. You clap your hands as you run and grab the bars of her cage, yanking them apart using both the strength of your automail limb and your transmutation. Tucker is already sitting back up as you pull Nina from the cage roughly. You don't have time to be gently.

Tucker hardly seems phased as the light of transmutation is already flickering around the edges of the circle. You won't have time to get Alexander. You don't care. Human lives are more important. You try to stand with Nina but the light of the transmutation has just reached you, and both legs give out simultaneously. There is a terrible, electric power shooting up your flesh leg and through your body, and your automail ports feel they're cauterizing your flesh where they're attached. Neither metal limb is responding at all anymore. Worse then that though, is Nina's screaming. It's loud and piercing and you can't think straight with it.

You curse and throw Nina away from you, trying desperately to get her outside the walls of the transmutation. But it's a large circle, and you're losing strength. You fall further downwards as you see her land only a few feet away, still closer to you then the outer ring. You crawl towards her, hindered by the sporadic seizures being sent up and down your limbs, automail only serving to weigh you down. You grit your teeth to keep from joining in the wild shrieking in the room. The girl is screaming in pain. The dog is howling. The man is crying with mirth. You don't plan on joining in any of the awful noise making. You just want it all to stop.

You're only inches away from her when the last of your strength gives and you find your face flat against the concrete. You don't remember why you're here, or why half your body seems to be on fire. You could swear you feel what limbs you have left burning off to join the others when finally, your vision goes black.

The noise and the fire in your blood continue on for a little while after that, but thankfully, they end too.

END