Disclaimer: I no own.
I intended to have this chapter up over a week ago, and I am infinately sorry for only just posting it now. I now have to wonderfully horrid distractions in the forms of a PS2 and online gaming that have kept me away from my writing, but I shall try better to divide my time more evenly. The next chapters will probably be out sooner than this one- again, so sorry! But a big thanks once again to all my readers/reviewers/alerters/favorites! Especially Mage of Hope, whose ideas and inspiration have greatly helped me through the worst of writer's block, and yyh-ygo-fma (who may have changed her name at this point) for giving me the idea to have Rae nickname Colonel Mustang Pony Boy. Still makes me laugh! Anyway, thanks again to everyone, and I hope you all enjoy this next installment!
A sharp clang rang through the air, and Raven nearly keeled over as a familiar cutlass shot into her line of sight. Ling's sword was hovering mere inches from her face, intercepting Bradley's blade and deflecting the blow to the side of her head. She wasn't entirely sure if the cool breeze brushing her cheek was imagined or not as the Xingese prince parried both their weapons away from her face. He landed a solid kick to the Fuhrer's stomach, sending the man skidding far enough backward so Raven could catch her breath and attempt to restart her heart.
"Are you alright?" Ling questioned breathlessly, glancing at the pale girl over his shoulder.
Taking in a shaky breath, she replied tightly, "No time to be alright! Watch out!" she shouted as Bradley swooped in for another attack. The prince met him head-on with his cutlass, shoving him back and luring him away from Raven, going toe to toe with the Fuhrer of Amestris in a battle of swordsmanship.
Reminding herself of a second hostile presence nearby, Raven turned her attention toward Gluttony, who continued to look on at them with a sick smile. "Time to eat now?" he asked enthusiastically, almost stumbling as he began to rush at her.
Gritting her teeth, Raven danced to the side just as he collided with the spot she'd been standing in. "Eat this!" she spat, swinging her fist in an arc around her and smashing her spiked knuckles into the homunculus' nose as he passed her. She heard rather than felt it break and ignored the blood that poured over her fingers. The fat homunculus shuffled backward, and Raven took advantage of his distraction to kick him in his gut and send him flying.
Relaxing a bit, Raven took a deep breath and prepared to move in on Gluttony when something smashed into her back, nearly knocking her off her feet. Glancing over her shoulder, she found herself staring face to face with Ling, still locked in combat with Bradley. "Move!" he shouted, yanking her to the side with him as the military leader swooped in for an attack. Holding her arms up in front of her face, she managed to deflect the blow of his sword as she stumbled back behind Ling.
This doesn't make any sense, she thought desperately. Back in Lab Five, they told me that I was a 'precious sacrifice' for their plan. So why are a homunculus and the Führer trying to kill me? Why are they even working together? Unless... She dreaded the mere thought of their nation's leader allied with the homunculi, but to consider the possibility of the man actually being a homunculus himself was worse. It meant that she and her comrades were in for a load of trouble.
Just as she opened her mouth to voice a question, the Fuhrer called out to his fat friend for assistance. Raven prepared to jerk them out of the way at the last second as she had done earlier, but Gluttony anticipated her move, stretching his beefy arms out and smacking Ling squarely in the chest. Trapped behind him, Raven was sent hurling through the air along with the Xingese prince and nearly unconscious bodyguard still slung over his shoulder.
Her breath left her in a great whoosh as her back slammed through a glass windowpane, shards slicing through the fabric of her jacket and digging into her skin. She landed in a rough heap, smacking the back of her head against the cold cement floor of a tiny room across the street from the building they had previously been dueling on. Black spots danced at the edges of her vision, obscuring her view of a roughed-up looking Ling who had somehow- miraculously- managed to keep a firm hold of Lan Fan and his weapon. Their image blurred and all sound became muffled as if cotton had been stuffed in her ears. She half heard him shout what sounded like her name before her heavy lids fell closed and darkness engulfed her.
"Raven!" Ling prompted urgently for the third time, trying to shake the girl awake with his foot while still retaining a firm grip on Lan Fan over his shoulder. As strong as he may have been, he knew he couldn't carry both of them and his cutlass while fending off a homunculus and his super soldier friend. The Amestrian girl needed to wake up, and she needed to wake up now.
"Come on, Rae," he tried again. "Get up!"
The sound of glass splintering under a boot made Ling's blood run cold. He turned toward the window apprehensively to see the dark haired man cloaked in an Amestrian military uniform step calmly through the gaping window, his obese partner hovering just outside. "Excellent," the soldier noted, "we should have some privacy in here. If you don't mind, I have some questions."
Ling's jaw set, not about to reveal a single piece of information to the man, when Raven stirred at his feet. She blinked uncomprehendingly as her mind registered the sight unfolding before her, and then gaped in fear and astonishment as her eyes came to rest on the military man. Ignoring her, the man continued, "I'd like to know who you two are and how it is that you're acquainted with Miss Guardel," his eyes narrowed as they locked on the dark haired girl slowly rising to her feet, flinching a bit under his gaze. "And also, can I assume that it was you who told these foreigners about what's inside Gluttony?"
Positioning himself in front of Raven so that neither of their adversaries could see his face, he quietly breathed, "Think you can make a run for it?"
Nodding numbly, she tore her eyes away from the uniformed man to scan the room. Ling inclined his head slightly to her right where an open door stood, their only possible escape route besides the window. Her eyes zeroed in on the exit, then flashed back to Ling with a slight incline of her head.
Despite their attempts to be discreet, the military man seemed to notice their every action. "You're looking for an escape? Even now?" he scoffed laughably. "You don't give up, do you?"
From the corner of his eye, Ling saw Raven's expression darken as she glanced at the barely conscious Lan Fan over his shoulder. He didn't need to look himself to know that the girl's situation was dire, but their options were just as limited as the time she had left before her condition worsened.
"You might stand a fair chance of getting away if you'd only abandon the injured girl," the military man continued in a tone that made the prince's blood boil. "Because she's just excess baggage at this point."
Glaring venomously at the man, Ling practically spat the words back, "'Excess baggage'?" Nodding toward the man's shoulder, he hissed, "I can see all those stars on your uniform; you're the ruler here, Fuhrer King Bradley unless I'm mistaken." He shook his head in disgust. "A ruler's duty is to his people. Without them, he is no king at all! King Bradley," he nearly scoffed at the man's mere name, "you're no true king. Not now or ever!"
"Naïve boy," Bradley reprimanded in a condescending tone. "Don't you know that there are no true kings in this world?"
A muscle ticked in Ling's jaw. He opened his mouth to respond, but a high, metallic tick noise just beside his ear caught his attention. Just as it sounded, a small green cylinder flew over his shoulder, bounced once on the ground, and then burst in a flash of blinding light.
Clenching his eyes shut at the harsh brightness, Ling further tightened his grip on his weapon and Lan Fan, readying himself in case Bradley or Gluttony made an attack and briefly wishing he had a free hand to keep tabs on Raven. As if reading his mind, a cold hand grabbed his arm and yanked him in the general direction of the door he had spotted earlier. "It'll hold them off for a little while," Raven's voice, tight with worry, shouted above the fading din of the flash bomb. "The exit should be a few steps ahead, but we have to be-" she abruptly broke off and stopped dead in her tracks, nearly causing him to plow right into her, as the sharp sting of metal clanked in the air, and Ling momentarily felt his stomach drop. To his relief, her grip of his arm did not lessen, so he safely assumed she hadn't been hit.
As the burst of light dimmed however, he opened his eyes to see her standing midstride just outside the threshold of the door, one of Bradley's swords firmly implanted in the frame not inches from her face. Pulling the frozen girl slowly back from the blade, Ling glared over his shoulder at Bradley, still on his knees with a hand shielding his eyes. He seemed slightly different however, and the Xingese prince immediately noticed the distinctions. Firstly, his black eye patch now lay on the floor at his feet. Second, the corners of his mouth were turned slightly upward.
"Nice try," Bradley leered, lowering his hand and exposing his now open left eye. Beside him, Ling heard Raven suck in a gasp and felt his own breath leave him in a sharp exhale. It was entirely white, devoid of both pupil and iris, save for a small yet intricate red design. Though it was slightly difficult to make out entirely, Ling could clearly distinguish the shape of a serpent devouring its own tail, a symbol Edward had informed him to be an Ouroboros- the mark of a homunculus. "But your flash bomb didn't succeed in blinding this eye."
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, a loud bang that Ling recognized to be a gunshot sounded beside him, and once again the room was alight with retina-searing intensity. Reaching behind him, the prince gripped a metal casing, pulled the pin, and let the grenade fly as he darted out the door with Raven in tow. In less time than he anticipated, the bomb detonated, sending sharp gusts of wind to lash at their backs as the three were propelled through a window at the end of a hall.
As they flew from the three story building, the ground rose up to meet them at an alarming rate, but Ling managed to land in a low crouch with only a small sting in his knees and ankles. Raven appeared less lucky, though she landed in a similar fashion and rolled forward with her momentum, her arm flew to cradle her stomach and her face contorted in pain.
Opening his mouth to voice his concerns, Ling was immediately cut off by a fierce glare from the black haired girl. "Let's go!" she ordered breathlessly.
Nodding wordlessly, Ling winced a bit as he hauled himself upright and broke out in a dead sprint down the street with a grimacing Raven trailing closely behind him. Ignoring the burning stares of curious pedestrians, the Xingese prince concentrated on putting as much distance as possible between them and the homunculi.
Darting off the main road and into a section of deserted buildings, Ling was all too aware of the bleeding girl slung over his shoulder, her breath coming in shallow, uneven gasps. Though he hadn't had time to thoroughly inspect her wound, he assumed it was a fairly deep gash judging from the amount of blood slowly streaming out. He could already feel it soaking through the fabric of his jacket and worried how much blood she had already lost since being attacked.
The wound needed immediate treatment, he knew, but the obese homunculus clambering along the rooftops after them made it difficult to do so. Raven had said she could treat Lan Fan's injury, but somehow the prince doubted that the homunculi would simply sit back and oblige to the alchemist's demands. Even if the Amestrian girl stated that the homunculi would refrain from killing her, Bradley had nearly cut her head off on more than one occasion and Gluttony had mentioned something about eating her. They seemed more than willing to kill her, so Ling doubted that the immortal pair would show a speck of compassion and allow her to heal the catatonic Xingese warrior. These beings were just annoyingly relentless in that way.
"Damn it," Raven muttered, snapping Ling out of his thoughts. Peering over his shoulder at her, he frowned as he noted her somewhat clammy complexion and narrowed eyes. She was clearly having difficulty keeping pace with him, her old wound returning to give her grief, but this did not appear to be the reason for her cursing. Her eyes were trained on the rooftops above them, and following her gaze, he saw Gluttony slowly limbering after them at an almost leisurely pace as if he were enjoying the chase. "They won't give up, will they?" she commented gravely.
Gritting his teeth, Ling affirmed, "We have to keep moving. With a little luck, they'll loose our scent and we can get away."
The other girl remained silent, though Ling suspected he knew what she was thinking. It was naïve to hope that they could somehow outmaneuver the homunculi; no matter where they ran, the two homunculi would track them down. A trail of blood followed in their wake, marking their every twist and turn as Lan Fan's arm continued to bleed.
A quiet gasping in his ear caught Ling's attention, and he felt Lan Fan begin to stir. "What happened to me?" his subordinate breathed laboriously, as if she were still having difficulty remaining conscious.
His brow furrowed at the hysteria creeping into her tone. "What's wrong?"
"My arm," the warrior responded, her voice rising. "My Lord, I'm useless to you now."
"What are you talking about?" Ling demanded.
"You cannot burden yourself with me," she continued, ignoring his question. "If you do, they'll only get you too. A king is no king without his people," she said, "but a people without their king would be lost as well. You can't do that to them! My Lord, think of our clan! You must live for their sake!"
He *was* thinking of his clan. Lan Fan was just as much of part of that clan as he himself was. "I won't leave you," he said firmly, silently wishing her unconscious again so as not to hear her protests.
Lan Fan was quiet for a moment, and Ling thought perhaps his wish had been granted. But then she spoke, "Sometimes someone must be left behind." She began to shift around over his shoulder, and when she spoke again her voice was muffled. "For the greater good."
Raven, who had kept strangely silent through their exchange, finally said something, though it made Ling's blood run cold. "Lan Fan, what are you doing? What's-" she abruptly broke off, then took in a sharp intake. "Stop!"
The familiar sound of a knife slicing though air reached his ears, and Lan Fan's intentions suddenly dawned on the prince. "No! Don't do it!" he shouted, though he knew it was already too late. Kunai tore through flesh and bone and blood, and Ling didn't need to look down at the ground to know what had fallen with a sickening plop.
Lan Fan had cut her own arm off.
The girl's scream was greatly muffled by the mouthful of her sleeve, but her pained cry still managed to set Ling ill at ease. He stopped dead in his tracks and glanced at Raven, whose eyes were wide and panicked, trained on Lan Fan's shoulder that was now gushing blood. "Here!" he said, snapping her out of her daze as he gently slid the Xingese girl off his shoulder. She held the barely-able-to-stand Lan Fan on her feet while Ling ripped off his jacket and tied it tightly around the girl's stump of a shoulder, wincing as Lan Fan gasped at the sharp pain.
What now? he thought desperately. Lan Fan was certain to bleed to death if they didn't make it out soon, but how would they slip past the trailing homunculi? Ling bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as he considered their situation, running through their limited options. Even with Lan Fan's shoulder wrapped tightly with his coat, the makeshift tourniquet was quickly soaked through with crimson blood and the girl was becoming paler by the second. It was only a matter of time before the homunculi caught up with them, and they were hardly prepared for a counterattack. Casting a glance at Raven beside him, he could tell from her expression that her old injury was taking its toll on her. She'd been able to hold her own against Gluttony for a time, but judging from her weary expression she didn't have much energy left.
The prince grit his teeth. He absolutely could not afford to loose both of them; his best bet would be to sneak them out of the line of sight and allow them to make their getaway while he held up the homunculi and joined back with the Elrics.
As he considered how to throw the homunculi off their scent, a stray dog wandered down their path, pausing to gape at the strange and bloodstained trio. An idea occurred to him. Making a split-second decision, he grabbed Lan Fan's discarded arm- still dripping blood- and ripped off the linen wrapping around his stomach. Moving calmly so as not to spook the animal, Ling knelt beside the grungy mutt and carefully strapped the limb to its back. The dog shifted uncomfortably, trying to shake the thing from its back, but it held on. Shooing the animal away, he almost let out a breath of relief to see blood specks clearly marking its path.
That should keep them off our scent for a while, he thought, returning to the girls and gathering Lan Fan back up in his arms. Ignoring the questioning look Raven gave him, he resumed sprinting in the direction opposite the route of the dog, and heard the alchemist quickly fall into step behind him. Keeping his eyes peeled and trained on the ground, he made a sharp turn down an alleyway off the main path and dragged Raven into the shadows beside an abandoned warehouse. A sewer cap lay slightly ajar atop the hole leading underground just in front of them, and Ling knew he was looking at their getaway ticket.
"Take Lan Fan and go," Ling commanded, gently sliding the barely conscious girl off his shoulder and passing her to Raven. "Go underground, find a place to hide and stay there; I'll be back."
Being careful so as not to jostle the Xingese girl's injury, Raven shouldered Lan Fan against her. It was clear from her slight grimace that the additional weight was agitating her abdomen, but she wasn't about to comment when the girl at her side had just cut her own arm off. "What about you?" she asked the prince. "What are you going to do?"
"As soon as the coast is clear, I'm going to find Ed and Al. I have a feeling those homunculi are going to start looking for them soon enough," he added grimly. "I will come back for you two as soon as I possibly can." She nodded, which he took as encouragement, and sprinted back toward the distant sound of explosions.
Ling was already gone by the time Raven murmured quietly, "Just make sure to come back."
What was probably minutes stretched into what felt like hours as Raven half-carried, half-dragged Lan Fan through the sewers of Central City. They had traveled for at least a good half mile before the alchemist deemed them far enough away from immediate danger to stop and rest. Gnawing her bottom lip as she laid the Xingese girl down on the cleanest patch of cement she could, Raven assessed Lan Fan's wound.
Despite the immense pain she must have been in coupled with the situation, the cut had been made fairly cleanly, no doubt a result of combat weaponry training and a high pain tolerance. For such a small knife, Raven was amazed that the kunai had been able to slice through skin and muscle and bone without leaving a massive trail of disaster in its wake. Then again, cutting a limb off was a disastrous situation itself- one that she did not approve of. Nevertheless, the tool had served its purpose well, and made Raven's job slightly easier.
"Okay," she began, keeping her voice as calm and even in hopes of soothing the Xingese girl, "this may hurt a bit, but I need you to bear with me." Lan Fan inclined her head weakly, which Raven took as encouragement to continue.
Ripping a long strip of fabric from her jacket, she soaked the material in the murky sewer water and set the wet rag on the ground before her. Taking a deep breath, she dipped her finger in a small pool of blood gathering on the floor at the other girl's shoulder, and traced a small circle around the rag. As the transmutation progressed, she made slight adjustments to the levels of hydrogen and oxygen found in the water, uprooted all other wastes, and in seconds, the fabric was soaked in hydrogen peroxide.
Turning back toward the open wound, Raven warned, "I'm going to disinfect it before I can do anything else, but this is going to sting."
"I... cut my own... arm off," Lan Fan muttered through clenched teeth, already anticipating the burn. "I can... handle this."
Raven bit her lip to keep from smiling. It was strange how she and the Xingese warrior were so different personality-wise, and yet held the same determination when it came to hiding and managing pain. Casting the thought aside, the alchemist picked up the rag and began to dab gently at the wound. White foam immediately bubbled up wherever the cloth touched, and Lan Fan's already uneven breathing became hissing gasps as she continued to clean the wound. "I'm almost done," she reassured, moving as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
By the time she was finished, Lan Fan's shoulder was nearly coated in white bubbles- now turning pink from the blood- which made Raven's stomach twist unpleasantly. The reaction indicated that potentially harmful bacteria came into contact with her open wound, but hopefully the antiseptic would wash the stuff out and prevent an infection. Exhaling a breath of relief that the worst part of the job had passed, the alchemist removed her jacket and tied it tightly around the Xingese girl's shoulder. She winced as Raven did so, but relaxed as the immediate sting began to dull.
"How bad?" Lan Fan breathed.
"You probably won't get an infection and the bleeding is starting to slow," Raven informed her, "but that was a risky move. Had you cut any differently, you would have hit an artery and bled to death. You're lucky to be alive."
Shaking her head, Lan Fan responded breathily, "You don't understand. My arm... it was useless. I have to protect... Master Ling. I need my arm... to accomplish that."
Raven frowned, her brow furrowed. "You're still short one arm. Unless..." the other girl's intentions dawned on her. "Automail?" she guessed. The warrior nodded, causing Raven's frown to deepen. "Are you sure you want to go down that road?" she asked gravely. It had taken her months to decide whether or not she would go through her own surgery, and she worried that Lan Fan was rushing into a decision without entirely understanding the consequences. She supposed, however, that the girl saw no other option; how could she continue to perform a duty she had known all her life with a handicap such as a missing limb?
"I am certain," Lan Fan said finally, her eyelids fluttering as they fought to stay open. "I must... For the Young Lord..." She lost her battle and was soon unconscious.
After checking to make sure the other girl still had a steady- though slightly uneven- pulse, Raven exhaled in exhaustion, sat back against the cold and moldy stone wall, and assessed her own injuries. Running through the streets had been taxing enough, but the encounter with two homunculi- one of which was the leader of her country, she thought in dismay- had done quite the number on her mental and physical health. Gingerly prying her wet shirt, soaked with sweat and sewer water, away from her skin, she inspected her old injury.
The massive burn scar showed no signs of fading, but the contracting skin that had, until recently, been greatly improving looked red and irritated after the strain she had put on herself. Thankfully, her abdomen wasn't bleeding, but she could feel several small cuts stinging her back from crashing through a glass window, and had she had flesh and blood hands they would have been scraped raw from jumping out of a building. As it happened, her automail was thoroughly scratched up- especially her palms- but even more pressing was the disjointed feeling in her wrist as she rotated the joint. She hadn't grasped an opportunity to re-screw her arm since before her encounter with Lust, and now she was certain that if she continued at this pace, her arm would be in pieces by the next day. Yet on top of everything, her head, though feeling light, was pounding unbearably; probably a side effect of overexertion. That, or hitting her head against cement as she'd been tossed through a building.
Sighing, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall as she considered the recent turn of events. If Lan Fan indeed chose to go through with automail surgery, then she would be gone for a handful of years as she underwent rehabilitation. This could be a good thing, depending on the time frame the homunculi needed to work their plan; while it did mean that she would likely be back in Xing and safe from any immediate harm, the loss of an ally might prove troubling. And based on the fact that the Fuhrer of Amestris had revealed himself to be a homunculus, allies would be much needed in coming events.
Things were becoming a mess. Their list of allies was dwindling while a new enemy- possibly the entire Amestrian military- emerged. While keeping their eyes trained on an Ishvalan hell-bent on murdering State Alchemists, they also needed to monitor the homunculi's movements. Their key to salvation, the Philosopher's Stone, was unreachable. People were getting hurt and it would only be a matter of time before bodies began to pile up. Raven's own clock was ticking and she began to consider if she would die before her body gave out on her.
Sighing, a wry smile curled on the edges of her lips. Looks like it's started. Soon enough, everything's going to crash and break.
"You just let this girl wander around alone in the sewers with her arm cut off like this?" the 'good doctor' Knox chided harshly at Raven, not for the first time.
After retrieving the two girls camping out in the sewers, Ling had escorted them along with the help of a disguised Riza Hawkeye to an abandoned cabin on the outskirts of Central. It was far from the eye of danger- or so Raven hoped- and would keep them fairly well hidden, but it had still been a great distance from a hospital or doctor, any form of medical care for the injured Lan Fan. When Raven arrived at the conclusion that there was no amount of treatment she could manage, the Lieutenant had set back out into the city to retrieve a doctor- an old war comrade of Mustang's. Upon the woman's return, she was accompanied by the Colonel, the Elric brothers, and an older man with dark brown hair graying around his temples, deep frown lines, and glasses. He introduced himself as simply as Knox, and the niceties ended there. As his wrinkled face suggested, he was a rather grumpy man and seemed to have little patience or tolerance of the younger crowd around him. This fact had become blatantly obvious the instant he had opened his mouth to inquire about the nature of Lan Fan's injury and the minimal treatment Raven had administered. He had slipped in a few snide comments as she relayed her story, all the while working on the Xingese girl's wound. Raven wondered if his thoughts were focused more on thinking up sarcastic remarks rather than the task at hand.
Shaking his head in disproval, Knox continued in the same berating tone, "Don't blame me if she gets lockjaw."
Scowling deeply, Raven crossed her arms over her chest and shot back defensively, "First of all, she wasn't alone. I was there with her the whole time-"
"And you're an alchemist, right?" the man continued, dropping a bloodstained instrument into a pan of cleaning solution. Raven nodded hesitantly, to which Knox raised a critical eyebrow at her. "Then why didn't you use medical alchemy and close up the wound? You could have tried transmuting the proteins in her blood to make her blood clot faster and slowed, if not stopped the bleeding."
"Hey!" Edward interjected, speaking up for the first time since he had arrived. "Give her a break. Sounds to me like she did the best she could with the little knowledge she had. Give her some credit at least."
Blinking in surprise, Raven wasn't sure how to respond to the boy's statement. Given the constant bickering the two of them had been locked in for the past week and a half, she was shocked to say the least to hear him speak up on her behalf and defend her.
Doctor Knox however, was quick on the draw. "Sure, I give her credit for trying, but some real effort would have greatly helped."
Setting her jaw, Raven responded tightly, "I administered first aid; I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and bound it up as best I could. I only know enough medical alchemy to heal small cuts or maybe stab wounds, but this?" she gestured toward the mess that was Lan Fan's amputation. "I'm not going to mess around with a field I barely understand and risk making things worse."
Turning his back to her to dig around in his equipment bag, Knox muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "A kid shouldn't be messing around with alchemy of this caliber to begin with."
Deciding she'd had enough of the crotchety man, Raven left the room before her temper took over and she would have to apply medical alchemy to a certain individual after smacking him around a few times. No one moved to stop her as she made her way out into the dark hallway. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, she resisted the urge to bang her head against a wall or perhaps punch it. Neither option would prove advantageous to the small wooden home, so she took her anger out on herself.
As much as she despised admitting it, Knox had been right; there was always more that she could have done. As an alchemist, so many options and tools were at her feet that she should have had little problem healing the injury. Completely closing the wound, probably not, but just as the doctor had described, she could have done something to the other girl's blood to keep her from bleeding out. Even with her sketchy-at-best knowledge of medical alchemy, there was always something… something she could have thought of that might have spared Lan Fan a lot of pain.
Apparently Raven was not the only one pointing all of the blame inward. As she moved to continue down the hall, she nearly tripped over Ling's foot while he sat brooding on a low bench. Light from the other room did little to illuminate his face, but Raven could clearly see worry and regret etched into his features. "S-sorry," she mumbled lamely.
Glancing up at her as if just noting her presence, Ling responded tonelessly, "Don't apologize. It's fine."
Clearly, Raven bit her tongue to hold the word back. His stiff posture and furrowed brow made it obvious things were not fine. "Do you mind if I join you?" she asked somewhat timidly, not knowing how he would react.
"Feel free," he said without much enthusiasm. With a quiet sigh, she settled into the seat beside him, drawing her new coat around her tighter. With her own jacket thoroughly stained in blood, the Lieutenant had offered the girl hers, what almost looked to be a white lab coat as part of the woman's civilian disguise. Though how a doctor's coat was inconspicuous, Raven wasn't sure of; she was too grateful for the warm clothing to question it.
From the corner of her eye, Raven cast a sideways glance at the prince and frowned. A contrite Ling was definitely not something she was used to. And as if comforting others wasn't difficult enough for her, she was extremely hesitant in speaking or moving in a way that might only further upset him. How to best handle a situation like this? She rapidly racked her brain before deciding to take a direct approach. "What are you thinking?" she asked outright.
Sighing, Ling rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "I'm thinking how weak I am."
She blinked, not anticipating his answer and trying to formulate a response. "How are you weak? You fought off two homunculi all while protecting me and Lan Fan. You squared off against the Führer of Amestris and probably would have won if I hadn't gotten in your way. How can you say that you're weak after all that?"
Ling shook his head. "It's more than that. I wasn't strong enough to protect Lan Fan in the first place, and then I was too weak-willed to make the decision she did. If I had been stronger, I would have been able to protect her from Bradley. I would have been able to protect her from this," he nodded toward the other room, where Lan Fan's muffled cries of pain could still be heard.
Glancing down at her hands, Raven responded quietly, "You can't always save everyone."
"But why not?" Ling demanded, vexed. "Why can't I be strong enough to protect them?"
Raven chose her next words carefully. "Because it's too much of a burden to put on yourself alone. Also," a ghost of a smile played at the edges of her lips, "it leaves no point for the rest of us to get stronger. What Lan Fan did… what she plans to do… it's all because she wants to be strong enough to protect you. If you want to be strong enough for her, then stop being angry at yourself over 'what if's." She paused, suddenly unsure to whom she was giving the advice to anymore.
When her pause became more pronounced, Ling glanced over at her with a question in his eyes, but he remained silent. His dark orbs were surprisingly soft, devoid of the childish spark that usually inhabited them and replaced with something she couldn't quite identify. It was an odd mix of understanding and vulnerability and perhaps trust.
She was suddenly very aware of her staring, and directed her gaze to the open room across from them. Inside lay Gluttony, hogtied with what appeared to be steel cables, though it was difficult to tell as they were sunk deeply into his bloated flesh. She found it shameful to admit that this thing, this blundering, obese idiot, had nearly eaten her. Ling spoke of his own weaknesses, while she felt to be the weakest of all. "You're not the one who needs to worry about being strong," she murmured quietly, not taking her eyes off the squirming homunculus. "It's the rest of us that do."
From her peripherals, she saw Ling opening his mouth to comment, but closed it as the sound of nearing footsteps drifted to their ears. The light of a lantern spilled into the hall and illuminated the figure of Roy Mustang as he made his way over to the two teenagers. Completely disregarding Raven, he stopped before Ling and offered the Xingese boy his hand in introduction. "I'm with the State Military," he said formally. "Name's Colonel Roy Mustang."
Instead of accepting the open hand as Raven expected he might do, Ling rose to his feet and made an even greater formal gesture with his hands. She vaguely recalled it was an honorary form of greeting in the eastern country Xing. "My name is Ling Yao, the twelfth son of the emperor of Xing." Finally, he extended his hand and gave the Colonel's a shake, a small smile gracing his features.
Raven raised a somewhat bemused eyebrow at their exchange, unused to the formality emanating from either of the two. True, Mustang was a man of uniform and therefore expected to behave in such ways, but she had difficulty picturing the miniskirt-infatuated pyromaniac giving a genuine, pleasant greeting. As for Ling... she had seen the prince be stone cold serious when necessary, and not moments ago he had been in such a remorseful state, but a fifteen year old giving an adult that he had known for all of five seconds a formal introduction? It was odd to say the least, but also somewhat entertaining.
Clearing her throat, Raven commented, "And I am Raven Guardel, neither a Colonel in the Amestrian military or a child of the emperor of Xing."
Rolling his eyes, Mustang continued to ignore the dark haired girl's presence. "I apologize in your misfortune of knowing Iron Haste," he remarked, earning him a sharp glare from said alchemist.
"She's fairly easy to handle," Ling responded, casting a side glance at the annoyed girl still sitting on the bench. "Anyway, I appreciate you finding a doctor for Lan Fan."
The corner of Mustang's mouth turned up in a reassuring half-smile. "It was no problem. Thank you for helping us with the Ross incident." His expression turned stonier as a rustling noise sounded from behind him. "And also," he continued, turning around and holding the lamp out in the open room to illuminate Gluttony's bound figure, "for bringing this thing in."
The light's appearance caused the homunculus to squirm against his steel trappings, but the taut cables refused to give. They squeaked under the pressure working against them with every move the fat thing made, but thankfully showed no sign of loosening. At the end of the hall, Edward, Alphonse and Knox joined the trio gazing at the homunculus, each one trying to formulate a plan as to what to do with it now that it was in their possession.
"Well," the older man said as he appraised Gluttony with the calculating and curious eyes of a scientist waiting to cut open a new test subject. Raven shivered at the thought, recalling an earlier comment that the doctor spent most of his time working as a coroner. "What do we have here?" he inquired.
"That's Gluttony," Ling answered simply. "He's a homunculus."
Knox gasped in surprise, and Raven expected him to accuse the Xingese boy of lying. But when no one else reacted to the information, he had to face the reality that the thing in front of them was indeed a homunculus. And as if that piece of news wasn't startling enough to the man, Mustang added, "He and his friends appear to have connections among some of the military's senior staff."
"Just 'some' you say?" Ling remarked sharply, catching everyone's immediate attention. "It goes far deeper than that. Your Führer, King Bradley... I believe it's possible he's a homunculus too."
The house seemed to hold its breath from the onslaught on new information. Edward, being the first to recover- or perhaps first to doubt- stared at Raven for affirmation. "Is it true?" he demanded.
Nodding tiredly, Raven explained, "His left eye, the one hidden under the eye patch, it was marked with an Ouroboros symbol. Also, went we were attacked by Gluttony, Bradley was with him. The two of them were working together."
"No way," Ed breathed.
Shaking his head, Alphonse murmured disbelievingly, "Our ruler? A homunculus?"
"Although," Ling said, "Bradley doesn't have the same sort of inhuman presence that you get from Gluttony. At his core, he still feels like a regular person."
"Another thing," Alphonse added, "if the Führer is a homunculus, how can he possibly have a son? It said in that book that the homunculi have no reproductive capabilities."
Raven's brow furrowed at the observation. She had never given much thought to the anatomy of a homunculus, but she supposed that he was right; how can an artificial being possibly be able to reproduce? But Knox shook his head. "No... The Führer's son, Selim, is adopted. There's no direct blood relation between him and his father."
The room was silent for a while as the fact of the matter sunk in. As much as any of them wished to deny it, the leader of their nation was not human, and he was working fiercely against them. After what felt like an eternity, the silence was shattered as Mustang scoffed. "Whether he's monster or human..." he shook his head as if he still could not grasp the concept. "Either way, these new developments will make it easier to remove him from the seat of power." A confident grin began to stretch its way across his face that Raven didn't like. "First we can get information out of this one," he nodded back toward the fat homunculus, "and I'll take his Stone. It may prove useful in treating my man."
Treating his man? Raven questioned, then a terrible thought hit her. Something must have happened to Havoc, she deduced. Just as she opened her mouth to voice her concern, Ling shouted, "Hey, you! Lan Fan lost her arm to get him! He's our captive! We're taking him back to Xing!"
"Hold it!" Edward interjected. "It could help us get our bodies back! We've been working on that for a long time! I'm not going to let you just waltz off with him!"
As the group burst into full argument, Raven felt her jaw drop in bewilderment. "Hang on a second!" she demanded, jumping to her feet and moving to stand between the bickering Mustang and Ling. "Are we really having this conversation?" Raven vented in astonishment. "The homunculi have infiltrated the military- the Führer is one of them- and you're arguing who gets to take home the fat slob over there!" she jabbed a finger at the roiling mass of flesh for emphasis. "You can't be serious!"
"In case you haven't noticed," the Colonel remarked, "we have a Philosopher's Stone in our possession. If you're that unconcerned about it, I assume you don't mind if I take it," he said with a cocky smirk.
Immediately, three voices rose in shouts of disagreement, with Raven's voice adding a fourth. It quickly escalated into a thunderstorm of who was most entitled to stake a claim on the Stone, and Raven even found herself vying for its ownership. Voices rose, tones became more and more desperate, and no one thought to notice the homunculus viciously straining against his bonds until the sickening sound of tearing metal reached their ears, instantly silencing all bickering.
And then all hell broke loose.