Alright, just as we said last time, here's the next chapter!
{Nothing for us to to say, except, thank you so much for your time! Enjoy!}
Gone.
Yes, he'd managed to get away without anyone noticing. The plan was we keep him there, keep an eye on him, but nobody did.
I wondered if I should go after him myself.
Looking back at the rest of the group they were all very intensely focused on the battle. Brows crease, bodies tensed. The soldiers on the other side had guns raised, ready to shoot with the order from the highest rank. Scar crouched, tense, occasionally sending a warning crack of alchemy, but never hitting them. My father and mother never directly hit the soldiers either. Merely warning shots to get them to stay back. They had things under control here.
I ran up the stairs after Maliki.
Shots were fired, alchemy used, and chaos roared. There was some minor shuffling in the ranks of the soldiers, someone moving their way through.
Jason stepped forward causing all of the soldiers to cease fire.
"Lieutenant General, what're you doing?" Was heard through the ranks.
"Lieutenant General Lund, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Someone called out, clearly high in rank. Of course they'd known Jason was high in rank…but a Lieutenant General? Damn.
"Sorry General, I'm with the alchemists," Jason shouted back.
Gasps echoed throughout the chamber.
"And if you give me a minute to explain, I'll tell you why." He'd continued.
There was silence for a moment before this General responded, "You can't be serious boy."
"But I am General. I am because we've all been corrupted by a bitter man!" He shouted, gesturing to all of them with a sweep of his hands. "Corrupted and lied to. President Maliki is an Ishvalan!"
More gasps echoed through the hall.
"What's your evidence?" The General called out.
Jason turned to him, "Have you ever seen his eyes? They're slightly tinted red, because he's covering them up with alchemy. He's hiding that he can do alchemy. And yet there's signs of it all around the palace! And look what he's done to the Alchemists."
By the time he finished speaking, most of the soldiers had lowered their guns and nodded, seeing the logic he had. He was right. However, there was one person in the very front row who looked extremely offended that he'd even suggested that his ruler was something he wasn't. Conflict ran over his face. His gun trembled. His finger tightening on the trigger.
Time seemed to slow, as the shot ran out.
"TERRIN!"
Alphonse jumped into action, sprinting towards Rin with lightning speed. The bullet, racing in Rin's direction, would have hit Rin right in the stomach, potentially causing death.
With a mighty shove, Al pushed Rin aside, who yelped in surprise as he ended up sprawled on the floor.
Al let out a grunt of pain, as the bullet entered his lower chest, causing him to collapse in a heap.
"What are you doing, Boy?" The General shouted, "You just shot a man!"
Rin looked over at his Uncle, and crawled over to him, "Uncle…" Gently, Rin rolled him on to his back and sucked in a breath at the sight of the blossoming red staining the front of his shirt.
Alphonse gave Rin a gentle yet pained smile, then frowned, his eyes scanning the group behind him,
"W-where's Pace?"
Rin looked around but Pace was nowhere to be seen, and nor was Maliki…
"Oh god…" Rin whispered, "She went after him…"
"Alone?" Roy asked, worry riddling his face.
Jason looked over at the group, "Rin, what's wrong?"
"Pace's gone…"
Jason raised an eyebrow, not connecting that Maliki was gone too…
"And so is Maliki."
Jason turned to the soldiers, his eyes wide, "Fellow Soldiers of the Amerstrian Army, will you join me in fighting against this tyrannical and disillusioned President and restore the way the world had been when Alchemists and non-Alchemists lived together? Will you help me rejoin family members with their loved ones and free the Alchemists in the re-location camps?"
There was a long pause of silence before the crowd of soldiers started applauding with excitement.
"He knows how to make one hell of a speech" Alphonse said through gritted teeth.
"Dad!" Rin shouted.
Ed went to his son quickly and got down, looking at his brothers wound.
"I'll need to get the bullet out before sealing the wound. That won't be easy, Al." Ed told his brother, warning about the pain.
"Do it, brother." Alphonse gasped, gripping the sides of his shirt.
Ed drew his circle around Al, put his hands together out of habit, and forced them to the ground. The bullet clashed to the ground and blood flooded out of the wound, Alphonse strained not to cry out, and before they knew it the wound was sealed. Although the wound was closed, he let out a wheeze, and continued struggle to breath.
"Mr. McAnderson will have to look at that later just to make sure, but this will do for now." Ed said, standing and holding a hand out for Al to take.
"Thank you, Ed." He wound an arm Ed's shoulder and leaned heavily on his bother.
"Can we go find my daughter now?" Roy asked, clearly antsy and worried.
Everyone nodded, "Let's go find Pace."
Panting, I hauled myself up the last set of stairs that Maliki had disappeared up.
As I pushed through the large doors at the top of the stairs, I was surprised to feel wind whip at my hair, and the sun to bare down on my face.
We were on the roof.
Maliki was standing across from me, panting heavily.
"YOU!" He yelled, whipping around to stare at me with wild, red eyes.
"President," I answered, as he backed away from me.
"B-Back away! Don't come any closer!" Maliki's voice had a slight crack to it, as he continued to shuffle backwards. He let out a quick yelp as his foot caught on a ledge, causing him to fall backwards. He threw out a hand to catch himself, as he collapsed in a heap.
His shoulders shook as a broken sop escaped Maliki. Huge tears fell to the ground as his hands balled into fists, his fingernails scratching at the pavement of the roof.
"SHE WAS MY SISTER!" His voice cracked slightly, as he scrambled back again. "SHE WAS JUST A CHILD!"
"W-who?" I was afraid to ask, even though I had a pretty good idea who he was talking about.
"THEY. YOU. KILLED HER!" Maliki's eyes glistened with tears, as age-old pain glowed within the Ishvalan-red. "S-she was just a child…an innocent child. My baby sister…"
"I-it…it was my fault," His voice continued to crack, as he suddenly started to speak. "I had to study. For my exams. She was just trying to spend time with me…if. If I hadn't sent her to go play in the market she wouldn't have died. I'M ALONE! I KILLED HER! YOU KILLED HER!" Rage filled Maliki's voice, as he stumbled up, his eyes blazing with a touch of insanity. "ALCHEMISTS KILLED HER!"
Feeling desperate I shifted, and felt the small bottle of Life Water that Al had given me slosh in my pocket. Deciding that this was as dire as I could get at the moment, I pulled it out and pored it onto the ground. To my shock it glowed momentarily, before morphing into a graceful silver knife. As I quickly stooped to pick it up, I found that it fit in my hand perfectly. The handle was made of a white gem like substance, with swirling lines of blue, green and red dancing through it. Pulling it out of the smooth black sheath I could see the shining silver blade. Upon closer inspection I saw that there were delicate silver designs along the blade, and a deadly sharp blade.
For a moment I panicked. I didn't want to kill anyone! That would just defeat the whole purpose of trying for a peaceful change! Enough people have been hurt.
"MONSTERS! AS FAR FROM HUMAN AS YOU CAN GET!" Maliki was shouting, oblivious to what I had been doing. "ALCHEMISTS' AREN'T HUMAN! TAINTED! DIRTY! INHUMANE"
As he continued to yell, Maliki gestured wildly, causing blood from a cut on his hand to fly out and splatter on the ground and my shoe.
Glancing down at the blade in my hand, I realized what I had to do.
"Inhuman?" I spoke quietly, yet loud enough that Maliki cut off his shouting and stared at me with wild eyes. "You call alchemists inhuman? Yet, don't we think? Do we not feel? Don't we love?"
Maliki continued to stare at me with wild eyes, as I braced myself, and drew the blade against the palm of my hand. I winced at the burn, but pushed away the pain. Holding my now bleeding palm up towards Maliki I continued, "Do we not bleed? How are we inhuman? How are we tainted? How are we dirty? Is my blood black? Does it look any different from yours? Blood consists of red and white blood cells, and plastids within plasma. Break us down enough and you end up with the same components: water, carbon, ammonia, lime, phosphorous, salt, saltpeter, sulfur, fluorine, iron, and silicone."
Squeezing my burning hand I felt blood slide between my fingers, and drip off of my hand to the ground. Maliki's eyes followed the drop, as it descended, only to land next to his own blood, and mix.
As the red droplets mixed and became one, I continued in a soft voice, "I'm truly sorry about your sister…but you need to understand that it wasn't the alchemists that killed her! Yes, alchemists played a major part in the war, but believe me, they regret it! I can hear that regret every night in my father's pleas to make it stop. You said it yourself, you grew up without parents! Moving alchemists into those camps just did the same thing! It tore families apart. Lives!"
Maliki's eyes snapped up to my face, as I shouted.
There was the thundering sound of footsteps coming up the stairs behind me, along with the distance shout of my name.
Drawing in a final breath, I met eyes with Maliki, and saw a shine of tears, "Why tear apart families? Why punish those who have done nothing but want to help?"
The door behind me crashed open, as a large group burst through them, just as Maliki feel forward onto his knees.
As a few soldiers rushed forward to restrain him, I was pulled in to a set of strong, familiar arms.
"Daddy," I whimpered, feeling all the strength I had in my body drain away.
"Shhh, baby girl," My father tucked my head under his chin, as his strong arms supported me. "It's all gonna be okay. It's over."
"It's all over," the soft sound of Terrin's voice broke the flood gates, as I was passed off into his arms. "It's all over…" slowly we sunk to kneel on the ground, entangled within each other's arms. I could feel the wetness of his tears, as he buried his face in my hair. Pulling away slightly, I sniffled and laughed slightly, as the sight of his handsome face covered in joyful tears.
As I clutched at his arms, Rin noticed that his arm was covered in blood. My blood.
"What happened?" he gently inspected my hand, before quickly tearing off a strip of his shirt to cover my hand and gently wound the ribbon of fabric around the wound, staunching the blood.
His molten eyes shined with pure joy, as he gently pulled my face to his in a loving kiss, "I love you…so much."
"I love you too, Rin," I smiled back, before leaning back into his arms to rest my head on his shoulder.
Glancing behind him, I met the tortured eyes of Maliki, who was pulled to his feet by a couple of soldiers. As he was lead down the stairs I watched as he closed his eyes, and look many years older.
Turning back to my group, I scanned the group, counting faces.
"Rin?" I glanced up into his golden eyes. "Where's Ed? And Al?"
His eyes darkened, before shifting away.
"Rin?" I placed my uninjured hand on his face, coaxing him to look at me. "What happened?"
"Al was shot," My dad spoke for him, as Rin's eyes took on a tortured look. "They took him to the hospital for emergency treatment."
"He saved me," Rin's voice shook slightly. "He pushed me out of the way."
"And he would do it a thousand times over again, if it meant to keep you unharmed," My dad spoke firmly, as he placed a large hand on Rin's shoulder.
"Al's gonna be just fine!" Riza spoke up, from where she had backed off to speak into a communication device. "They've gotten him looked at, and he'll make a full recovery!" This caused Rin to sigh in relief and go limp in my arms, a muffled sob escaping him. Gently I ran my uninjured hand through his hair, which had fallen out of its band.
"You know, I think this is the start of a new era," looking up I met eyes with Jason, who was sporting a large bruise on his face from his fight with Scar. He winked at me playfully, before turning to look out to the city. "And a good one at that."
You know, this chapter feels really short…
{That's probably because the last chapter was gargantuan…9000+ words I think}
Well! All that's left is the epilogue! {I think we'll post it tomorrow or the day after, depending on the response!}
Quote Time:
"How sad it would be, if laughter should disappear."