Knowing More Than Recommended
Note: Hey everybody! Thank you for reading my story. I'm sorry if it gets a little dry, hopefully this chapter will spice it up. PS, go watch English voiced Brotherhood if you haven't started yet! FMA FOREVER!
This chapter features: Episode 30 "Assault on South Headquarters." Ed and Al find and begin to talk with the strange child, when Armstrong under Colonel Archer's command captures the boy for being a homunculus possibly tied with the ones from Lab Five. Izumi launches an attack on South Headquarters to get him back, the Elric's close on her heels, but Kimblee and Envy (disguised at the Fuhrer) show up to make a four-way fight.
This chapter features: Episode 31 "Sin." A lot of cool shit goes down in this episode but I change most of it by not letting Envy get a hold of Wrath and making him evil by feeding him red stones and fucking with his head. Archer offers Kimblee a chance to rejoin the military. Izumi, Ed and Al have a showdown with Wrath on Yok Island.
This chapter features: Episode 32 "Dante of the Deep Forest." The showdown with Wrath ends with Envy and Sloth capturing him during the battle against the Elrics and Izumi. Later, the brothers go to pick up Izumi's medicine from her teacher, an old woman called Dante, who may have answers to their questions about the Philo Stone. During the visit, Al is ambushed by Greed's chimera.
-/-/-
The Crimson alchemist didn't mean to make a noise when a bright light suddenly harassed his eyes.
The door to his prison chamber, more like a fortified closet, opened and a pale white figure in the navy military uniform stepped inside.
When Kimblee looked up, the figure was certainly not Mustang.
"Zolf J. Kimblee... I've heard reports that you're supposed to be dead and gone." The man who spoke was pale of skin and had a devious expression. Kimblee could sight another person as corrupt or deranged as he was without a second glance. "It's interesting, the records say you'd been executed yet you were on the list of escapees from Lab Five. I wonder what all you've been exposed to in that prison cell for nearly a decade."
"Yeah well, here I am. Haven't seen much besides a moldy wall. Mind letting me go?"
"You're much too valuable to just go free. I hear you're responsible for killing civilians as well as your own men in the Ishbal massacre with your... extraordinary technique. If you were interested, I could give you a chance to use your... art, again, and you won't have to worry about being locked up by the military."
Kimblee eyed the pale man who had an insincere smirk on his face. Reinstatement with the military? This guy must be... "Colonel Archer. Why should I believe a goddamn word you're saying?"
"So you've heard of me. I wonder what else you've heard, perhaps even, who you've been staying with after your escape from Lab Five." There was a rude silence as Archer kept prying toward what he wanted to know. About Greed, about homonculi, about anything to get him a sweet promotion higher toward the big wigs. "I want something, and I am prepared to go to any depth to reach it. That includes whatever you specialize in. You're a valuable asset I'd like to acquire, and I'd give you freedoms others such as Mustang would never allow." Kimblee grinned now. So this guy had found all his info from Mustang and wanted to keep him like an attack dog? "If you're not interested, you could always stay here, make a futile attempt at an escape and eventually be hunted down like a stray. The choice is yours."
This conniving man left no time to debate. Kimblee let his sickly grin stay on his face. He was thinking about the explosions as well as the freedom to produce them as he pleased now.
"Count me in if it'll get you to let me out of this hell hole." There was a small voice in his head who was telling him that accepting this contract was wrong... The voice disappeared the more he thought about getting the hell out of the chains around his wrists.
"Let's talk about a creature called a homunculus while we file your paperwork," Archer suggested, the insincere smile still there.
-/-/-
Kimblee felt whole again when he was out of the darkness and confinement of the chamber. He stood outside on the street and let the fresh air of the morning fill his lungs before he headed off. New beginnings were never unwelcome.
The deal struck between him and Archer would be as easy as detonating a pound of sulfur. Kimblee just had to hand over Greed's weakness, the skull of the homunculus when he was human. He would snatch this weakness when a military raid of the Devil's Nest would serve as a distraction. An in and out, never have to go back to the Devil's Nest after it was over, sort of deal. Kimblee liked it a lot, probably more than he should have considering Greed gave him a place to hide after he escaped Lab Five.
That small, annoying, nagging voice in the back of his head was back, telling him not to go through with it. He forced it to silence.
Without thinking about his destination, his feet had taken him to the hotel where he rented the room for Amy. Now that he realized, he wondered what she was up to. Since he didn't return yesterday after fighting Mustang, she was probably worrying, probably waited up all night for him. How cute would it be to see a sleep-deprived woman curled into the bed sheets, unable to rest easy because of him. That thought, that someone actually cared about his well-being, made the nagging voice in his head kick in at high gear.
The Crimson alchemist frowned when he came to the correct room in the hotel hallway.
The door was opened ajar.
Leaving the door unlocked and open was not a normal sign, right? He walked inside the room and looked around for her. Totally empty. The sheets of the bed were pulled from the mattress and yanked in a way that lead towards the door. A beat of his cold, crimson heart hammered unevenly as his mind conjured up a scenario for the scene- Amy struggled against an attacker on the sheets. Raped again? Kidnapped for sure. His hands started shaking when the nagging voice in his head started screaming now. What was the voice saying?
GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY.
The crimson alchemist was feeling guilt, as if this was his fault.
But wait, there was no proof the silly woman was even missing. She probably left the door open by mistake on her way out to visit her friends. Yeah, right. He'd go and check out the meat shop across town and see if she was there with Red and that other guy, Brandon.
-/-/-
"Wake, my young vessel," a soft voice commanded. Amy blinked her blurry vision several times until it adjusted. She was sitting uncomfortably on her knees, and when she tried to move her arms... they were tied firmly around her back. She struggled with panic- where was she? As soon as she focused at the woman in front of her with the soft voice, the brunette froze.
"You..." Amy narrowed her eyes at the sight of Lyra's young body. There was a foul look in the violet eyes of the maid.
"So, you know of me?" she inquired with a small smirk. A smirk that came from someone who felt they were all-knowing and on a higher level than petty humans like Amy.
"... No, where am I?" Amy changed the subject quickly. "Why have you kidnapped me? What could you want?" Amy saw she was back in Dante's mansion- back in the place she began when she landed in this world. She was playing stupid to seem innocent. How did she get here, anyway?
"Tell me, is this not your name in this curious book?" The woman who resided in Lyra's body held up an AP Calculus book. Amy's wide eyes and surprise gave herself away. "This date says published in 2004, almost a century ahead of this world here. Tell me, are you a time traveling witch, or perhaps something else? Something from somewhere else." Dante implied the answer she wanted craftily. Amy looked in a state of panic, but kept her cool by listening to the increased beating of her heart.
Now she remembered.
She'd been back in the hotel room with Kimblee, except it wasn't Kimblee. It was Envy. She realized it right as she sat on the edge of the bed… he'd sat next to her and offered a neck massage. Instead, his arms wrapped around her throat in an attempt to knock her out. The homunculus ended up dragging her from the room by her legs. Then she was here.
"I really don't know what you're talking abou-"
A quick and resounding slap crossed her face. Delivered by the evil woman in Lyra's body, Amy was truly shocked by the sudden pain. "Don't play stupid with me. You're here for a reason and if I find you are really no use to me, it will be all too easy to dispose of you." A cold look came to the woman's eyes; out of nowhere, a long glint caught Amy's attention. There was a sharp needle in Dante's hand, and she raised it to the place where Amy's neck met her shoulder. "It's something you humans are good at, dying." The needle poked Amy's skin, she squeaked but dared not move, less she made the pain worse. Amy held her breath, taking air in by sharp staggers of pain as Dante drew the needle across her clavicle and made a clean cut over the top of her breast. A small amount of blood leaked from the break in the skin. Dante touched the droplet and brought her finger to her lips. "You don't look or taste any different from a normal being. The difference must be within."
Amy shivered. This young woman dressed in a maid's uniform perfectly hid the cold, selfish monster Dante was on the inside. The blood pumped in Amy's cheek and a throbbing came to the place Dante slapped moments before.
"Tell me about your abilities, Amy Teller. Tell me what you've discovered once you crossed paths with the Elric brothers... after you came from wherever you come from."
"I'm originally from Dublith, actually." Amy told her bravely, or foolishly. "Father is a writer, he probably published that funny book you were talking about as a joke." Once Amy opened her mouth with more lies, Dante didn't hesitate to slap her again, harder this time. The brunette cried out.
"I'm trying to keep the desecration from your lovely face, but I won't hesitate to do what I need too to make you talk. Tell me about yourself. Can you perform alchemy, girl?"
Amy huffed to herself. What a great idea, why didn't she just make a distraction with alchemy and then run? Well, her arms were bound of course. But what if Dante suspected she couldn't do alchemy? She would be left unattended and then she could escape! Or disposed of because of her uselessness… Amy decided to take a chance. "Actually, it all makes sense now." Amy began, playing the face of false realization. Dante's interest seemed peeked. "I wasn't able to perform it when I learned about it. I just could not wrap my head around any of it. Someone tried to teach me, but I just couldn't understand anything about alchemy when I came here. Back there, we're bound by natural laws in nature, alchemy is impossible there."
"There, where?"
"I'm sure that if I'd been born here, grown up in this place, I could surely perform alchemy. It's just a matter of understanding it..." Amy continued, as if deep in thought.
"Where are you from, wench? Answer me!" Dante was more anticipating than furious at this point.
Amy tried to appear more naive than she really was. "I'm not sure how the world's exist, but before I woke up here, I remember dreaming about a white room with a large bronze gate... I don't know if that's relevant, but it's the only lead I have."
"And the others who came with you?"
Amy seemed puzzled, but there was a knot of nervousness in her stomach. She could lie, but how long could she keep it up, and believably? "I didn't come here with anyone else... The reason I am here in the first place is an accident, something went wrong with an experiment from my home... Then I was here."
"I see. Perhaps I could help you figure out how to get you back from where you came. What sort of experiment were you performing?" Dante asked with a false kindness about her.
Amy wanted to believe that she could talk her way out of this. Probably not. Amy kept the lie up. "Well, it's confidential..."
Dante, who had been leaning forward with total interest to what Amy said, now leaned back on the heels of her feet. She crossed her arms under her breasts and lost all remnants of kindness as she stared down at Amy. "Stupid girl, do you honestly believe I'd fall for anything that comes out of your mouth? I thought threats alone would be enough, but you're obviously much stronger than I anticipated..." Dante placed her hand on Amy's injured cheek and caressed the skin there. "Yes, very lovely indeed. Strength is good, it's just going to take a little more to break you down." Amy was sickened and jerked her face away. Did Dante actually... want her body as a vessel for her soul?
Dante clapped her hands twice and a figure appeared at the top of the staircase.
A man with a muscular build walked down the steps. His hair was navy, pulled back in a pony tail, his face was familiar and handsome, somehow... Amy gasped as Kimblee strolled casually toward her with his hands in his pockets.
The shock didn't last long. Amy realized that this was not Kimblee. She spit at the boot of the shape-shifter with disgust. "Works even less the second time, creep," Amy snapped at him.
"And I'm sure you would have rolled over on your back for me if I'd prompted it, you ungrateful little whore."
Amy pulled at her restraints with a blast of fury as Envy said this in Kimblee's voice. "You're going to fucking pay for that!"
He burst into laughter. "You're lucky I haven't killed you already! You're only alive because she told me I couldn't kill you." Envy was amused with her acute reaction.
Dante sighed at Amy's relentless fighting. She seemed to grow weary. "Tell me when she gets tired. I want you to get her talking, nothing more. Don't harm her face or leave permanent scars. Do you understand me?" Kimblee!Envy smirked toward his master. "See if she'll tell you more about her side of the gate. Natural laws you say... your world is what intrigues me the most."
"I thought you said you believed nothing I said."
Dante glanced at Amy just before she exited the large, windowed room. "I know when you're lying and when you're not, sweet vessel. You better pray that you can use alchemy, because if you can't... well, I have no use for you, and Envy here has a knack for digging holes."
Envy didn't seem too happy about her mentioning that. Amy gulped. She knew the threats were real, but she didn't want to tell Dante a single thing.
She would rather die than help her.
Amy turned toward Kimblee!Envy, a growing hatred in her eyes. Somehow, she noticed, his psychotic smirk was similar to the real Crimson alchemist's.
"Do your worst, you filthy piece of fake-human flesh."
Envy's head began to glow as he activated his shape-shifting abilities. Instead of smooth and long hair, spiky hair popped up from his skull and a familiar set of round shades rested over his eyes as he transformed into another male form. "Let's get started with the games, doll-face." Amy tightened her muscles for his first blow, all while thinking, only the real Greed was allowed to call her that. She was going to have a really easy time thinking ways to get revenge over Envy after this was over.
If she survived.