A wave of rouge drifted across the horizon on it's purposeful path to banish the stubborn grey clouds blanketing the sky as dawn broke, it was seven in the morning and the traffic flow was light. Like a sunroof being slid open over the world, the morning sunlight speared through the clouds in places, creating pockets of heavenly shafts reaching out to bless the land below. The waves of bright then dim shining in strange thick bars across the road, making it appear like a manicured lawn of some posh house and the glint off the vehicle roofs shot sharp blinding light into the eyes of the drivers who were out at this early hour of the day. One such driver had been on the road for two days straight, his focus so defined so utterly driven on his quest, his goal to find those who had humiliated him..not once, but twice now. That girl was going to pay, he thought as his face contorted into a cruel snarl, she would pay for making his job that much more difficult. No matter how much he loved to mess with her, a very entertaining little wildcat indeed, he was unaccustomed to his targets getting the better of him, and for that he was not going to go lightly on her...not anymore. In his mind he was deciding on her suitable demise and the many vile thoughts he came up with gave him a thrill, but he knew this time, he could not risk playing around. He had to dispose of her for good this time, so far as to do it himself, to make doubly sure that she would not interfere again. Of course that is what he wanted to do and if it were his choice he would do just as he pleased, but his boss Helena Kinzaan, would not be at all pleased if he got rid of the young girl. Especially as she had ordered the girl be taken alive and brought to her as well as the Elric's, much to Max's disappointment.
"Damn." Max muttered to himself, as he bit down on the end of his cigarette, a line of ash falling to the floor of the foot well. "Damn that woman."
His subordinates were all dozing lightly in the truck after having spent yet another uncomfortable night in the Hummer truck, as their leader had an uncanny way of going without sleep for long periods of time. When Max was this determined, nothing but nothing got in his way, not even the need to rest or desire to eat or even the urgent need
use a restroom. His military training had been extensive, all those years ago, and he had learned the hard way how to control his body, to condition his mind into thinking only of the task ahead of him. The morning was in full bloom now, the sun was up with it's bright light over the land, more cars and trucks were now on the road making it a bit more difficult to manoeuvre to the exit turn offs. The next one was coming up, he was sure this would be the right stop, he swerved in front of a large eighteen wheeler as he made for the turn off. Passing the few moderate buildings of the small area, he noted a motel at the far end, heading to it for his next line of questioning and his men no doubt would need food, the restroom and a lot of coffee too. He pulled the Hummer into the parking lot of the motel, parking in front of the run down diner shutting the engine off, turning his head he roused his men and they all got out of the truck. His men were all rubbing their eyes to remove the sleep, Max indicated the diner, giving the order that they were to refuel themselves and he made his way to the motel office. Pushing the door open causing the small bell to ring, Max stepped into the small room and waited for the manager to come, a moment later the man arrived.
"What can I do ya for buddy?" The man asked, looking as though he had just woken up.
"I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a man, two teenage boys and two teenage girls?" Max said matter of factly.
"Hmm, lets see now." The man thought about it then said, "Nope can't say that I have buddy. Sorry."
"Wrong answer." Max said with a glare, leaning over the counter to grab the collar of the mans t-shirt, pulling him roughly against the counter. "I'll ask you again, have you had any new arrivals in the last twenty four hours?"
"Argh! O-only one! A girl!" The scared man said, fear in his eyes, as he trembled.
"Description." Demanded Max.
"Uh, I dunno...like about eighteen or so, tall-ish, brown hair. I didn't really look buddy!" The poor man protested, beginning to shake.
"Not good enough!" Max bellowed, as he drew one of his pistols and pressed the tip of it to the mans forehead, the silencer digging into his flesh. "Now, what did she look like?"
"I swear that's all I know!" The man shouted in fear, the gun at his head. "I, p-put her in room 16! She asked for two rooms! So I gave her 16 and 17! I swear, that's all! Honest!"
"Your pathetic, the world would be better off without people such as you." With that statement, Max pulled the trigger, "Incompetent, asshole." He muttered.
Max released his grip on the now dead mans shirt collar and the body slumped to the floor, revealing the large spray of blood and brain matter on the wall behind the counter, he then turned as he re-holstered his gun and walked out the office as though nothing had happened. The poor motel managers body was now crumpled up behind the register
desk in a pool of blood as the office door slowly closed with a click. Stopping outside the door, Max pulled his cigarette pack from his coat pocket, removing one and lighting it..he took a long drag before the white smoke billowed from his lips in a foggy haze. He glanced around the virtually empty car park, seeing his own vehicle in front of the diner,
the only other car in sight was a red and black Dodge. He pondered if this could be the car they were travelling in, as they had no descriptions of the vehicle that had occupied the garage at the Taylor house, it seemed a safe bet that if they were here..that would be their car. He stepped toward the diner, long purposeful strides as he left a wave of smoke behind him and upon reaching the door, pushed it open and strode inside looking about the dishevelled space. It wasn't the best in the world, but Max had seen a whole lot worse in his time with the military, this was by far one of the loneliest places in his view. His men had just gotten started with eating and Max settled himself on one of the
stools at the long counter. A waitress came over to take his order, an older woman than had been in the night before, with greying hair pulled up in a hair net. She had crows feet at the corners of her eyes and her skin was paler than it might once have been. Max asked for a coffee, black and then looked over the faded, slightly torn menu on the
counter..his eyes roved the printed words till he decided simply to have toast. The waitress headed off into the kitchen to fetch his order, after she had gotten his coffee, returning after a few moments with a small plate. She set it down in front of him, Max gave her a little nod, then set about eating his food and sipping his coffee. It was all very civilized...for
a cold blooded killer that is. The four men sat in silence and ate their food, all the while waiting to see if their targets were indeed at this motel and once they were sure, the next stage of their mission would commence.
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Bright swathes of light filtered into the room around the edges of the heavy curtains, causing streaks of golden illumination across the carpet, giving a halo effect around the entire window. It had taken a further hour for Jessica to fall back to sleep after those nightmare memories had woken her in the early hours of the morning and caused her to
sweat from the sheer shock of the images that had replayed themselves in her mind. A blinding spear of light hit her closed eyelids and she groaned her disapproval at the stinging it caused. She pulled the covers up over her head to block out the unwanted intrusion of the new day and tried to get back to sleep by turning over to face away from the window. She was in no mood to rise from bed just yet, after the night she had experienced and the subsequent lingering images, there was no way she could bring herself to find the energy to get up right then. Jennifer was up and moving around the room getting herself dressed, stopping before the mirror over the vanity, to do her hair and check her appearance. Once happy with it, she moved to where her older sister was stubbornly and defiantly trying to ignore the dawning day, in favour of staying hidden beneath the covers. Jennifer leant over to place a hand to her older siblings left shoulder and gently shook the still slumbering brunette, trying not to be too pushy about how she woke her up, but also wanting to be sure she got her attention.
"Jess, hey come on time to get up big sis." Jennifer said in a sweetly.
"Go away Jen." was the groggy reply Jessica gave her sister.
"Hey get up lazy bones, it's already morning.." she shook her insistently this time "..come on we have to get going remember." she said.
"I said go away Jen!" Jessica snapped, digging herself deeper into the covers.
"Urrghh, Jess come on..this isn't funny ya know." Jennifer complained "I mean seriously, your meant to be the one getting me up..not the other way around."
"Look.." came the angry voice from under the covers "I had one hell of a night Jen, I'm tired, I'm achy and I just a minute ago got blinded by the damn light..so excuse me for not being in the best of moods or wanting to get up yet!" Jessica was not in the mood.
"Hmph! Well there's no need to yell at me Jess!" Jennifer shot back, folding her arms across her chest and stomping to the adjoining door between their room and the guys room. She would at least find out if Hohenhiem and the boys were up and ready, maybe one of them could suggest a way to rouse Jessica out of bed too, she knocked on the door and
waited for a reply.
Moments before Jennifer knocked on the adjoining door, Hohenhiem was up already and sat at the small table in their room, once again reading through the paper. He had his left elbow leaning on the table itself as he held the paper before him and his right leg was laid across his left. He was always an early riser, even after all these years and all his travels to so many places, he had still never really gotten out of the habit. Alphonse was sat on the end of the bed her and his older brother had shared the night before, it may have seemed odd to other people, but to Alphonse it was perfectly normal..he and Edward had shared sleeping space many times before. It was nothing new to him. He was at that moment flicking through the TV channels finding mostly news and weather reports which to him weren't all that interesting to watch. He let out a puff of air, mostly due to boredom at the lack of things to look at on the screen before him, but also due to the fact that they were waiting on the girls to wake up. Edward was at the vanity pulling his long golden locks into his usual ponytail and making doubly sure no one could see his automail from under his clothes at all. He was still conscious of that, even more so now that they were in this new world, where people acted the same way as back home in Amestris. He looked at his reflection in the mirror above the sink and didn't immediately recognize the look on his face, he had spent so many years of being driven on his quest to return his younger brother to his body, he had forgotten what it looked like when he was happy. That was it in a nutshell. Edward was happy, with being himself and even with having artificial limbs too, all because of the brunette he now knew he was falling in love with. His thoughts were interrupted by the soft knock on the adjoining door and he half turned to look towards the door as his brother sprang up from his seat on the end of the bed to answer it. Alphonse rushed to the door, opening it he smiled brightly and stepped aside for the guest to enter, Jennifer walked past him smiling.
"Morning Al, I came to see if you guys were up yet." she said, settling on the end of the bed where Alphonse had been sitting.
"Yeah we're up. Did you sleep okay?" Alphonse asked her sweetly, moving to sit beside her on the bed.
"Yeah I did.." she smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then turned to greet the other two men "Morning Uncle Hohenhiem, morning Edward...have you guys been up long?" she said, looking pretty happy she wasn't the only one up so early.
"Good morning Jennifer, Oh we've been up a while. Is your sister up yet?" Hohenhiem asked her, folding his paper back up and setting it down on the table.
"Morning Jenny." Edward said, with a pleasant smile "Yeah is Jessy up yet?" he added his query.
"Noo, she is refusing to get up..snapped at me too..something about not having a good nights sleep or something." Jennifer replied, sighing a little out of frustration "She can be so lazy sometimes."
"Now Jennifer that isn't very nice, speaking of your sister that way." Hohenhiem told her, though he was smiling softly at her.
"I know, but she can be such a pain when she wants to be." Jennifer replied, then turned to Alphonse "So, what were ya doing when I knocked? Oh and do you guys have any ideas on how to wake up a stubborn sister? I tried but no luck."
"Haha, well there isn't much we can do if she refuses to get up." Hohenhiem said, with a small chuckle.
"I was just trying to find something good to watch while I waited for you to get up. But your up now so I don't need to do that anymore." Alphonse smiled at her, then lowered his eye lids to half closed and kissed her lips sweetly, his hand taking hers to hold lightly.
"I'll give it a shot, if she is as stubborn as I can get..I should know how to get her up." Edward said, moving from the vanity and heading into the other room, though oddly he closed the door behind him.
"Hmm, I wonder what he plans to do that requires the door to be closed?" Hohenhiem pondered aloud, though he was sure he knew it had to be something a bit romantic.
Jennifer closed her eyes as Alphonse kissed her so sweetly, Hohenhiem smiling at the tender little gesture, he started to picture how he used to be around Trisha his late wife. As the kiss ended and they sat there smiling at each other, Alphonse and Jennifer began to chatter away about stuff they would like to do together, once all this mess was over with for good. Hohenhiem decided it was time to check on the current news of the day, he moved to the bottom of the bed he had slept in, picking up the remote from where his younger son had left it he flicked to one of the local news channels.
"So I was thinking, it might be nice once all this business is over..we should go to the Grand Canion and Yellowstone National park too..they have Guizers there that shoot out hot water at regular times..it'd be so cool." Jennifer said excitedly, while looking into Alphonse's eyes and holding his hand.
"Oh wow really? That sounds really interesting, I'd love to see that with you Jenny." Alphonse smiled right back at her "I say we do that for sure..hey do they have museums in all cities? I'd love to go to another, see new stuff, learn new things." he said.
Back in the girls room, Jessica was still buried under the covers of her bed, still attempting to get back to sleep..though her mind was starting to wake more and it was battling her aching body to get up. She grumbled a little under the cover and shifted her position, wrapping herself up more in the slightly rough sheets, managing to at the very least block out the light that bothered her so much. Her body was curled up, almost in the fetal position with her knees up to her stomach, her hands curled up beneath her chin clutching at the sheets.
Edward walked into the room, shutting the door behind him quietly and looking over at the bed, seeing nothing but a mass of covers with a big bulge somewhere near the middle of the bed. He chuckled internally at the sight before him, thinking it must be pretty comfortable in that bed all wrapped up like a bug in a rug, as he moved carefully towards the bed. However his left foot, being metal and not exactly all that quiet, made it's usual clinking sound as he walked toward the bed. Jessica barely noticed the sound, she was still fighting that internal battle with her mind to get some extra sleep, so she wasn't paying too close attention to approaching foot falls.
Edward settled himself on the edge of the bed and tilted his head curiously to try and figure out where Jessica's head would be located in the mass of covers. He tentatively reached out a hand to rest it upon the bulge, feeling a body beneath it and still not fully sure what part of her body it was, he blushed a bit at that thought. He would just die of embarrassment if he accidentally touched a part of her that was too intimate. Thankfully though he had in fact touched her left shoulder and she moved a small amount feeling the light pressure upon her.
"I said go away Jen." she mumbled from her cocoon, not sounding at all happy.
"I'm not Jen." Edward said softly, as he moved his hand to run along her form a little.
"Ah..Ed? What are ya doing in here?" Jessica asked, sounding somewhat stunned to hear his deep smooth voice, instead of her sisters.
"I came to wake you. Is that not okay?" he said, still running his hand calmly along her arm, course he didn't know that what he was touching was her arm..though he put that to the back of his mind.
"I really, really don't want to get up yet..I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Jessica explained, moving a bit more and finally peeking out from under the covers.
"Hmm, ya had a bad night huh? What was it? Too much stuff on your mind? Or was it something to do with what we were all talking about last night?" Edward asked her, then he suddenly felt like he had a golf ball stuck in his throat "Jess, did any of what we told you last night bother you?" he asked her.
"No, nothing about what you guys explained bothered me..it's just...well..." Jessica seemed to hesitant to say exactly what was bothering her, she just couldn't think of how or where to start, it just all sounded so nuts.
"Just what?" Edward probed a bit, hoping she would open up to him.
"Mmnn, nothing..don't worry about it..just, let me sleep a little longer kay?" Jessica finally said, after along pause.
"Well we do have to get going, plus get something to eat before we hit the road..I think.." Edward started to say, as he leaned over and using his left hand moved the cover a bit more, so that he could see all of her face "..it would be best if ya get up now...for me?" he said.
"Urgh, do I have to?" Jessica hadn't even opened her eyes the whole time they had spoken, seemingly trying to have a conversation and sleep at the same time.
"Yes I'd like you to..please?" Edward insisted and pressed his lips gently to hers in the hopes a good morning kiss would perk her up somewhat.
"Mmnn..." Jessica moaned softly as his warm soft lips connected to hers, further waking her brain up and making it impossible for her to go back to sleep.
"Mmnn..." Edward responded with a small moan of his own, it felt so good to kiss her and he didn't think he would ever tire of it, as he pulled his lips from hers and hovered them close he said "Ya feeling a bit more awake now?"
"Well..." Jessica smiled a little, closing the gap between their lips, kissing him right back before pulling away "..what do you think Ed?" she even giggled a bit too, she was awake for sure now.
"Hehe, I'd say your awake.." Edward smiled, gazing at her eyes "So ya feeling like talking about what was bothering you? Or are you going to hold it all in again?" he asked, looking concerned.
"I really..am not in the mood for that okay..can it wait? Least till I can figure it out for myself so I know how to say it to ya?" Jessica said, with a pleading look in those steel blue eyes.
"Alright, I'll let it go for now...but ya will tell me at some point right?" Edward replied, giving her a stern sort of look.
"I will I promise...now, can ya give me time to shower and dress? I must look a total mess right now." Jessica told him, not daring to expose more of herself, she was pretty sure her hair was a tangled mess that closely resembled a tumble weed.
"Sure, just be sure and let me know when ya want the bags taken to the car..I'll take them down, maybe Al will help too." Edward told her, chuckling and smiling.
"I will, scouts honour." Jessica smiled, moving a hand out of the covers to shoo Edward away "Go on, I don't want you to see me all messed up." she said.
"Okay okay, I'm going.." Edward stood and headed for the door, he turned as his hand settled on the door knob "Though I think no matter what...your pretty to me." he told her, smiling and then opening the door to leave the room.
"Ah!" Jessica was stunned he had said that, no guy had ever told her she was pretty before and the mere compliment made her blush a little, as she watched him leave the room and close the door after him.
After the door was closed and she was alone again, Jessica drew herself from the bed, heading to the bathroom to shower and shedding her clothes as she went. It didn't take her long to shower and dress, she stood at the vanity doing her hair, before making sure everything in the room was packed into the duffel bags.
Upon entering the room where everyone else was, Edward smiled and went to sit at the small table where his father had been sitting before. He picked up the paper and glanced at it, not really too bothered about reading it so intently, like his father had done. Alphonse and Jennifer were still going on about things they both wanted to do when all this mess was over and done with. Hohenhiem was watching the news and listening out for any reports that could tip him off that Rygger and his cronies were still after them or nearby. Though it was mostly about local events, weather and the occasional vehicle accident, along with some other miscellaneous news stories. Some thirty minutes after he had left Jessica to shower and dress, the adjoining door opened, Jessica came in and started to pick up items of clothing to place in the bags.
"Oh yeah I would so love to go on one of those Ranch vacations. You actually get to be like real cowboys Al, riding horses and cooking around the campfire..it'd be so cool.." Jennifer was saying as her sister walked in, she looked up at her "Oh so your up now huh? Guess Edward convinced you to get your butt out of bed." she commented.
"Yeah yeah Jen, I'm up." Jessica replied, collecting the things "Morning Alphonse, uncle H..I'm just making sure we got everything before we put the bags in the car." she said.
"Morning Jessy." Alphonse greeted her cheerfully, then turned his attention back to Jennifer "Yeah that sounds like fun, I would also like to go see some ruins..like maybe ancient stuff..is there anything like that not too far away? I know of the pyramids but that's about it." he said.
"Yeah they have the ones in Mexico..right Jess? But I forget what civilization they were from.." Jennifer said, looking like she was trying to think of it.
"Oh really? I would be interested in seeing those myself..where are they?" Hohenhiem commented, even though his eyes never left the TV.
"Your talking about the Incan ruins right Jen? Or was it Mayan?" Jessica said, as she headed for the door again "Anyways yeah they have temples and such down in Mexico..they are a tourist attraction." with that she wandered back into the other room.
"Oh Interesting, perhaps someday we'll go see them..eh boys?" Hohenhiem said, as he switched the TV off and set the remote on top of the set.
"Yeah that would be cool." Alphonse said enthusiastically "Right brother?" he added turning to look at Edward.
"Uh huh, yeah Al..we could do that." Edward said, his eyes still gingerly scanning the paper in front of his face.
Once the bags were packed and all their things accounted for, the group made their way to the elevator, Edward and Alphonse each carrying one duffel bag. They followed the girls, with their father behind them and their little conversation seemed to have picked up pace, Alphonse and Jennifer now talking seriously about going someday. Even in the ride down in the elevator, the two youngsters continued to talk about it, making Hohenhiem smile at their enthusiasm, Jessica just laughed and shook her head. Upon reaching the ground floor and exiting into the car park, Jessica handed the keys to the Dodge to Edward and headed off to the motel office with her sister to drop off the room keys, while Edward lead his father and brother to the car to load the bags in the trunk.
Edward, Hohenhiem and Alphonse reached the car before the girls reached the office, Edward putting the key in the lock..as per Jessica's instructions..and opened the trunk up. He and Alphonse then put the bags into the space, making sure that nothing was protruding from the trunk to interfere with the lid closing. Edward then moved around to open the passenger side door, so they could all get in the car, ready to leave. None of the three men were aware in the slightest, that parked outside the diner, was a black Hummer that looked out of place. Had they seen it, they would have at least been suspicious of it and it would have drawn their attention to the diner itself, making them aware of the three men sat by on of the windows keeping watch. But they were blissfully unaware of it and the impending trouble coming their way.
Jessica and Jennifer were chatting about the planned trip, it was nice to see her sister happy and cheerful about something, anything to keep her from constantly being scare or upset. Jessica was greatfull for that, even if it were only a small thing that made her younger sister smile, a mere dream to go on vacation to somewhere new...it was a start..something to shoot for at the very least. As they got to the office door, Jessica pushed it open and allowed Jennifer to enter first, now reaching into her pocket for the keys to give back to the clerk. When Jennifer walked in the small room, she stopped dead in her tracks mere feet away from the counter, her eyes wide and filled with terror. Jessica turned to head to the desk, still looking in the direction of the floor, she had yet to see what had her sister so terrified..though she was about to hear about it. Jennifer let out a blood curdling scream, making Jessica look up and in her direction, with a stunned look on her face. Before she could ask what the heck that had all been over, Jennifer raised a shaking hand and pointed to something behind her older sister, that had her scared out of her mind. Jessica turned to follow the direction Jennifer pointed in and was shocked to her core when she saw what had made her sister scream.
"Oh Shit.." Jessica uttered in complete shock.
There upon the wall behind the desk, was a large still dripping blood splatter pattern, the blood streaking down the wall where it was still quite fresh. Jessica knew this couldn't be good, she had seen enough on TV and in movies too to know, their efforts to put distance between them and their attackers...had been in vain..they had tracked them down and now another innocent person had died because of it. Jessica dropped the keys on the floor, she cautiously approached the desk and peered over it, reeling back with her hand clasped to her mouth and gasping. The man whom she had gotten the keys from the night before, a guy who had done nothing to no one, was slumped lifeless on the floor in a vary large pool of his own blood..with a bullet wound to his forehead. Jessica turned and walked to her sister, grabbing her arm to swivel her towards the door again, ushering her out into the car park again.
Of course that one scream of terror from Jennifer, was loud enough to alert everyone in the vicinity, letting them all know something was going on. Max Rygger and his men heard it, jumping to their feet instantly, leaving their food and beverages behind to rush out the diner door. The Elric's heard it too, Hohenhiem only then noticing the Hummer and the four men coming out of the diner, Edward and Alphonse getting a sinking feeling in their guts as they too spotted the men...just as the girls came out of the office. The following events moved so fast no one could have warned the girls or gotten to them before Max Rygger and his men did. All the Elric's could do was watch in horror, as Jennifer and Jessica Taylor were once again, grabbed and restrained by Rygger's men. Each girl this time, had a knife to their throats and Max Rygger had an evil smug grin upon his face, feeling very confident he had found his quandary as he drew one of his pistols and aimed it at the Elric's. His one remaining henchmen also aimed a hand gun at them and it seemed to be a stand off..
"Don't even think about trying anything Hohenhiem, that goes for your boys too..if you do.." Max said, reaching out to stroke the side of Jessica's face tauntingly "Then my men will slit their throats and these pretty young things will bleed to death like a cow in an abattoir. Now you don't want that..right?" he said, that smug grin only getting more evil.
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