Invader Shawn: Thanks a lot, and don't worry, you'll come back to plenty.
Rika: Awwah, feel better! I'm glad you enjoyed catching up on chapters, now you catch up on your health!
mutantpenguins: Oh yes... those "hormonal reunion activities"... they'll get around to that eventually. I'm glad you're eagerly awaiting all of that, including the end. I'm still not sure though how long this will end up being. I've actually written their reunion ahead of time, but I've yet to fill in all the in betweens.
Paon: Yeah, he's got guts for sure. He's very determined.
Rose: Hehe, I'm very pleased to hear that.
Nini: Gosh, haven't seen you in a while. I'm glad you enjoy the action... maybe I'm not as bad as I think I am.
Okay... and shift... -cackle-
Chapter Twenty-One
Roy Mustang walked out into the main office to quite the scene.
Breda and Falman were clustered around Levien, who was lying on the floor. The Chief Magistrate's skin was sickly pale, and he was convulsing in random spasms as sweat poured from him. Breda looked concerned, and Falman looked to be suffering from conflicts of interest.
"What the hell happened to him?" Mustang snapped as he hurried over. "Breda, lock the doors. No one comes in. Falman-"
"It took me almost an hour to get him here without us being spotted. But no one saw us." He assured his boss, already knowing what he would have asked.
Breda meanwhile had jumped up and locked the doors to the office to ensure no one would stumble in upon this scene.
"But what happened?" Roy asked as he caught the extra uniform jacket that Breda lobbed over at him on his way back to the group. Levien had begun to have trouble breathing, and Roy bundled the jacket up and shoved it under his head. It helped.
"I don't know." Falman admitted, "I'm willing to bet most of my ridiculous salary though that someone slipped something into his coffee. He normally drinks it all, but he only got a sip in before he was interrupted. About five minutes later the convulsions started."
"Go get the coffee." Mustang ordered quickly and bit his lip. "It won't do to have the Chief Magistrate die here."
"That would look rather bad." Breda managed a small, worried smile.
Falman was already out the door, and had locked it behind him.
"So, the question is, who's after him?" Mustang wondered as he watched the magistrate flail about as his skin became even paler.
"It could just be normal job unrest… someone wanting his position. But with everything that's been happening lately…" Breda trailed off with a shake of his head.
"I know." Mustang was concerned too. "We need to get him to the hospital."
"How do you plan to do that without implicating any of us?" Breda asked with a worried frown.
"Luckily I know a few doctors and nurses who will keep things quiet if I ask it."
"You mean, a few doctors and nurses you've bedded."
"You make it sound so unfortunate." Roy rolled his eyes. "Call the hospital, ask for a nurse Gisela. When she's on the phone pass it over."
An hour later, Roy was still mapping out the chemical makeup of whatever had been slipped into the coffee.
Chief Magistrate Levien had been transported in a very impressive feat of secrecy to the hospital, and Falman was once again a shadow on the man. The last word that Mustang had heard was that the magistrate was stabilized, but deteriorating gradually. The hospital itself was running tests, but Roy knew that he needed to perform tests himself. He could work faster than their machines anyway.
He tapped his pen briefly before filling in another carbon to the map he was creating. It was taking him longer than it would have Edward, and he seriously was wishing the blonde was here now for this reason. Edward would know in an instant, even just looking at half the molecular structures. Roy actually needed to do the whole thing completely by hand. But he was still quick by all respects, even some of the alchemists working at the labs would have had trouble keeping up with him.
When he finally saw what he had in front of him, he blinked in surprise. He'd expected something entirely different, and hardly so… organic. But the way it had been processed into an extract, and probably made even more potent in the process, he'd not seen something like this done before. Unfortunately, depending on how far the magistrate had progressed in symptoms, he was beyond help. If he'd ingested a low enough dosage and not hit the paralysis or coma stages yet, then he might yet recover with a system flush and some charcoal.
Roy snatched his phone up and quickly dialed the hospital. Once Gisela was on the line he quickly rattled off what he'd found out, and hung up so she could rush off and try to salvage the patient.
"Sir, what's going on? Breda won't tell me anything, but the court is trying to find Levien. The whole court system right now is all in disarray and they ended up closing session for today. What did you do to him?" Hawkeye asked as she strode in, not even bothering to knock first.
"Trying to save his sorry ass." Mustang growled and shoved the evidence of his research to the middle of his desk and snapped his fingers. It exploded into nothingness, and left not even a charred mark on the desk. "They'll find him eventually."
"Where-"
"No, it's not important right now." Mustang cut her off and looked up to meet her eyes. "Those two alchemists who were killed like Ed would have been. I need you to go down to the morgue and see if you can't procure some autopsy results."
"How morbid." Hawkeye remarked dryly.
"But needed." Mustang insisted and leaned back in his chair, kneading at his temples with his fingers. "I need to know what is linking, and what isn't."
"I'll go down there then and poke around. What's my cover story?"
"That you have a fascination with the dead and especially dead alchemists. Use your military position to get in."
"That's even more morbid, sir." She shook her head with a bit of a sigh. "Anything else?"
"No."
"Good, because I need to talk to him now." Havoc said as he entered.
"Does no one knock anymore?" Roy groaned aloud and nodded to Hawkeye as she saluted and left. He then turned his attention to Havoc. "What is it?"
"You're aware that Ishbal does not sit on any known fault lines?" He began with a bit of a smirk.
"What is this, geography class? Don't make me have flashbacks to high school, or I'll shove you into a locker." Mustang grouched but waved his hand in acquiescence . "Yes, I am aware of that fact."
Havoc's smirk did not face, and he placed a sheet of graph paper on Mustang's desk. "Just about ten minutes ago seismic readings came in. Apparently it looks like near central Ishbal there was quite the seismic activity for almost a full minute. Aftershocks were felt as far as East Central. No damage was done, but doesn't this seem odd?"
Mustang picked up the paper and studied it closely. "More like worrisome." He muttered. "Thank you, you're free to go."
As soon as Jean was gone, and he was once again in peace, Roy turned to examine the graph paper again that had been ripped from the meter. Central Ishbal… he knew that Edward was probably in that exact area right now.
Had Ishbal been prone to seismic activity, Roy would have merely been worried and hope that Ed was safe. However, knowing that Ishbal did not sit on any fault lines, and knowing that Edward was in that exact area… well, it wasn't a stretch for him to believe Ed had something to do with the tremors.
But just what the hell was that guy up to now?
Causing something of that magnitude, Roy doubted that Edward had done it just for kicks. What had caused him to push himself to the extent of causing unnatural nature acts to occur? The amount of energy that this would drain from him would put any lesser alchemist into a coma.
It would be like him forcing a dormant volcano to erupt. He could do it, if he wanted to. There would be nasty side effects, especially to himself. If he did such a thing, in theory, he'd probably be exhausted for days afterwards. Were he not as strong as he was, such a transmutation would kill him. But messing with nature like that, true, alchemists messed with it all the time. But messing with it to this extent was a dangerous task to undertake.
It caused him concern for Edward. If the blonde alchemist had indeed been the cause of those seismic tremors, something must have happened to cause him to need to disrupt the ground in such a way. He would definitely have to discuss it with Edward later tonight.
At the hospital…
Falman was a shadow lurking just on the other side of the privacy screen of the patient's bed. The other occupant of the room was an elderly man who was slumbering quite soundly. It provided him the opportune place to hide and still keep an eye on things.
Had he not been following Levien, the man probably would have died there in his office. It had been fortunate that he was the man's constant shadow now. Though he doubted Levien would be grateful for his spying, even if it had saved him.
The nurse Gisela had finished administering the treatment to Levien, and he was slowly coming around.
Falman knew that Levien was awake when he heard the man speak in a raspy voice.
"Shoulda just," wheeze, "let me die."
"Now that's not a bright outlook." Gisela admonished. "I'll have you know a lot of hard work went into discovering what you'd been poisoned with. You're very lucky you ingested such a small amount. You only progressed to convulsions."
"This only makes it worse now. They'll find out I'm still alive, and next time they won't screw it up." Levien rasped out at her, and Falman heard shuffling in the bed.
"Who?" Gisela prompted, knowing Mustang would be wanting information. He may have broken up with her, but she was not bitter about it. She'd known his reputation going in.
"Oh no," Levien laughed in wheezing breaths, "you don't want to know that. Oh no, no, oh no."
"But I do." Gisela pressed the magistrate.
"No, no, oh no." Levien repeated, "they'll come and finish the job. I knew it would happen. When we've outlived our usefulness it's all over. I knew that when I took the job."
"What job?"
"Now if I told you that, you'd be dead too." Levien laughed bitterly, his voice gaining some more strength. "You are too pretty to die so young."
Gisela frowned at him. "What did you finish to make your life forfeit?"
"I never did, but it was finished as far as they were concerned apparently. I failed three times, and I shouldn't have failed even the first time."
"Failed at what?"
"It's too late for that. Now leave me in peace, and when they come for me, you'd best stay out of their way. They will not discriminate between their target and those who get in their way."
Gisela watched as Levien fell asleep, exhausted. Her brown eyes were thoughtful, and worried. "What the hell have you gotten mixed up in, Mustang." She whispered as she pushed a lock of amber hair out of her eyes and behind one ear.
Gathering herself together in a deep breath, Gisela walked over to the privacy curtain and yanked it back. "Did you hear everything?" She asked a startled Falman.
"Yes." He said quickly, and eyed the woman up and down. She was a delicate thing, and pretty as he'd said. But he sensed a strong presence in her, she had to be, to be a nurse with a high stress job. "How did you know I was here?"
"I was a soldier before I was a nurse." She explained with a half smile. "It comes with the territory."
"I see why Mustang asked for you." Falman smiled back at her.
"Perhaps, but I can keep a secret too. He knows I won't be swayed, I know where my loyalties are." Gisela said softly and glanced towards Levien. "It seems he lost his way, and is paying the price."
"You've no idea." Falman shook his head, "the past few weeks have been nothing more than a strange mess. He's just one piece of it I have a feeling."
"A pawn?" Gisela studied Levien for a moment, "yes, he does seem the type. But this is not a good situation even just as is."
"With Levien out of the way the justice courts are going to become quite hairy." Falman sighed. "Other magistrates jockeying for his position."
"It always gets rocky before it gets smooth, provided we can stay on the tracks long enough to reach the end." Gisela noted and ran a tired hand through her curly amber locks. "I need to be getting to the rest of my patients for the day. I doubt anyone else will notice you being here, I wouldn't have if I hadn't had the suspicion of it, and known Mustang would probably send someone."
"Ah, right," Falman said, and extended a hand. "Vato Falman."
"Gisela Corminns." Gisela replied, shaking his hand with a smile. "Let me know if you need anything yourself." She said, and turned to hustle away with a short wave behind her.
"Right." Falman said, looking after her with a slight smile. He drew the privacy curtain closed again and continued to wait.
He had to admit, Mustang sure knew how to choose even hospital staff for things like this. He liked Gisela well enough, she wasn't easily intimidated and obviously knew her medical stuff if she'd managed to so promptly get Levien on the path to healing. "And yet you let her get away," Falman smiled, "you must have your sights set on someone pretty special then, Mustang."