Yippee! I'm baaack! Readers beware! Okay not really, but I'm wondering how mad you guys are that I haven't posted in like three weeks. It took me forever to find the dialogue for this scene, and I had homework and projects on top of that. High school is just bleh. :P
Anyway, I'mma gonna respond to reviews now:
TaIoFoReVeR523- your terrible memory is excused and I really can't blame you: I can't remember my own name half the time; people are hitting on EJ because she's a sexy beast. EJ: *blushes* Sady: Edward. . . you know it's true. . . Ed: *also blushing* I am so evil like that.
DoctorWhotaliaandtheOlympian s: *epic fist bump*
Angelic Toaster: And an update you shall have!
Flame-chi: Thank you so much for sticking with me!
On with the show!
Chapter 33
I pressed a hand over my mouth in shock. Human lives . . . human . . . Oh god. I shuddered to my knees, almost passing out from the shock, but Lt. Ross caught me before I could hit the floor. I waved off her look of concern but I could feel my lunch making a subtle move into my esophagus.
I barely heard the buzz of voices above my own jumbled thoughts. The two halves of my mind were battling it out in my head.
"This can't be possible!" Left Half protested. Right Half only watched how agitated Left was becoming, knowing he was knocking around in his owner's head and giving her a massive headache.
I clamped both hands over my ears to keep my head from splitting open.
"Shut up. . ." I muttered to the voices in my head. I wanted to shut down and fake amnesia for not having heard any of this; I wanted to bang my head against the wall and forget I'd heard the news; I wanted to so many things right then that my body couldn't make up its mind.
I ended up taking deep breaths in time to my returning heart pace. Ed took a shaky breath.
"Do us a favor: Don't tell anyone about this." His voice was quiet with despair. I knelt down next to him on opposite side of the sergeant.
"But sir-" Brosh started to reason with the blonde alchemist, but if I knew Ed, he wasn't going to give in on this. I was right.
"Please; just pretend you never heard any of this."
The Hughes family knew something was up with me. For the next couple of days, I would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares and empty the contents of my stomach in an incredibly violent manner that made my stomach hurt worse and sent my tear ducts into overdrive.
Ms. Gracia gave me something to settle my stomach each time, which helped a little; it still wasn't able to chase away the memory of what I saw in my mind at night. I realized why there were so many people at the gate waiting to go inside and achieve their either paradise or hell; their souls were trapped. I would flash back to how those people died and scream along with them as they clutched their throats and fell to the ground where they stood.
A boy about my age once fell at my feet, and before his eyes rolled back in his head, he pleaded: "Help me."
I would sit bolt upright and grip the sheets in a virtual stranglehold.
I stumbled around in a daze during that time, occasionally running headfirst into the door to the Elrics room . . .
Repeatedly.
Which accounted for most of the headache I was dealing with until Ed opened the door, I stumbled in, and ended up flipping over the couch like a limp noodle gymnast.
"You okay?" Al asked me. I gave him a sideways handshake: sort of; not really.
"So you're upset about this too huh?" Edward's face appeared in my line of vision despite how I was currently positioned on the couch. He didn't seem to mind that I was in an extremely awkward position.
"Obviously; I haven't been able to keep anything down the last couple of nights." I replied, my legs succumbing to the laws of gravity and flipping me over onto the floor, where I lay unmoving and staring at the ceiling fan going around in a slow lazy circle. I finally pulled myself onto the opposite couch and lay on my back with my face pressed against the cushions.
I saw Ed recline on the other couch out of my peripheral vision. I felt so bad for him: getting his hands on the secrets to the most powerful alchemical catalyst known to the world, only to find out what was at stake to create one.
Bradley had said that Ed and I had the same moral values; neither he nor I were willing to kill someone for our personal gains. Surprisingly, I admired him for that and got the feeling that Al was like that too. As much as I wanted to smile, my mind kept drifting to the really pressing issues.
When my mind was busy thinking, I couldn't hear anything else except the beehive that called itself my nerve center, but Ed was saying something and using his automail hand for emphasis. I let out a sigh and my head settled down.
"You know Al: there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time. But I guess I've been too afraid to say it." Something in Ed's voice told me it wasn't good. I pushed myself up onto my elbows.
"What is it?"
"I-"
Whatever Ed was going to say was interrupted by a pounding on the door. I flailed and fell off the couch with a noise like a startled mouse, and then pulled myself up via the armrest of Ed's.
"Elric brothers: I know you're in there! Open up! This is the major!" Armstrong yelled.
"What do we do?" Al panicked. Ed sat up and looked away from the door in annoyance.
"We ignore it; that's what."
I was inclined to agree with him, but no sooner had he made up his mind than Major Armstrong burst into the room in all his sparkling glory.
"I know what it said Edward Elric!" he exclaimed, which sent me and them into a panic. " How tragic: to think the legend of the Philosopher's Stone is built to such a terrible secret!"
Ed and I turned our icy gazes on the military officers. I made my feral growling noise that was a usual warning signal that I was just the tiniest bit pissed.
"We're-we're really sorry." Lt. Ross apologized, attempting to keep me and Ed placated.
"It's hard to keep quiet when someone like him asks you." Brosh's reasoning only made sense to me later. It wasn't until Ed broke his concentration on not obliterating his escort that I realized that the Major had spoken at all.
"Hey Samuels: you ever heard the phrase 'the truth within the truth'?" Ed asked of me. I thought about it.
"Sorry; no. Why?" I responded. I thought I'd heard it before somewhere though.
"I didn't have a clue what Marcoh was talking about then, but now. . . it's the same as with alchemical notes." He mused. I gasped.
"What you can see on the surface is only a portion of the truth!" Ed pointed a finger at me.
"Exactly; there's still more to find here. There has to be." I could hear the desperation in his undertones.
"But even if there is, what if it's worse than-?" I started, but Ed swung around to look me in the eye.
"We still have to try, don't we? Have you ever wanted something so badly that you'd go to any lengths to get it? That's what Al and I have been trying to do for the last three years. I'm not about to rule out any possibilities." I didn't dignify that with a response; I averted my gaze from his fiery one. His question made the cavity in my chest ache. Of course there was something I wanted badly: I wanted my family back together. But to do that, I would've had to commit a sin I wasn't about to commit.
~~Third Person~~
EJ's jaw clenched and her bright blue gaze dropped to the floor. Ed must've struck a nerve with her; she was just so unpredictable that way.
That didn't matter at this point. Asking for a map of the city, Ed spread it over the table in the room. EJ knelt next to him and rested her elbows on the wooden surface. She wore a white camisole and denim shorts, leaving her shoulders exposed. The way she was leaning, Ed could easily see the deep purple lines along her skin that she had claimed was a birthmark.
"There are currently four operational alchemical research facilities with connections to the government. We can narrow it down even further: Marcoh was working at the third laboratory. We should start there, it being the most suspect." Armstrong pointed it out on the city map.
"Well, I've been to all the labs in the city; none of them were doing any remarkable research that I immediately counted as suspicious." EJ mused, nibbling the edge of a nail. "What about this one?" She placed one slim fingertip on a building with a big red X over it.
"It was designed for the fifth lab, but it isn't currently in use." Ross explained.
"Weren't there some structure problems or something? It was deemed off limits when I was exploring." EJ was speaking feverishly now, like she was onto something. It clicked in Ed's mind.
"That's it." He half exclaimed, feeling a surge of hope. "EJ: you're a genius!"
"What makes you say that?" She raised an eyebrow.
"There's a prison right next door." He directed her attention to the diagram and the construct right next to the lab. "Remember the main ingredient in a Philosopher's Stone?"
"You said it needed live humans. . ." Brosh realized what was happening and made a disgusted face. EJ placed a hand over her mouth like she was going to be sick.
"Don't gimme that look; I don't like talking about this anymore than you." Ed protested, trying anything to get EJ to stop making a face.
"Why do I get the feeling we're getting involved in something really dangerous?" Ross inquired rhetorically.
"That's why we told you to pretend like you never heard anything!" Al and EJ shouted in unison.
~~EJ~~
After the major's command to the lieutenant and sergeant to stay quiet, the trio left the room, satisfied at Ed and Al's empty promise to "behave themselves". I put my hands on my hips and looked over my shoulder at the older Elric.
"You're not planning on staying here are you?" I queried rhetorically.
"Like he** we are." Ed retorted, crossing to the bed and transmuting a rope out of the sheets. I slipped my jacket on.
"I'm going too." I argued, tugging the fabric taut around my shoulders.
Oh-h-h no you don't!" Ed pushed me back against the wall, and a transmutation later I found my hands pinned to the wall.
"Hey!" I objected.
"You're staying here."
"I wanna come!"
"It's too dangerous; I'm not about to get my head bitten off by Colonel B**d if you get hurt." Ed met my gaze with his and I felt my anger spike.
"I have to agree with Brother on this one, EJ." Alphonse said. I looked at him incredulously and indicated my current situation.
"Et tu, Alphonse?"
"Sorry about this; we'll be back soon. Just stay quiet, okay?" And he slipped out the window after his brother.
I waited until the sound of Al's clanking armor disappeared, and then grinned like a Cheshire cat.
"You may wanna disarm me next time, Edward." I commented to myself, remembering my bracelet and undoing my entrapments. I scaled the rope down and made my heading the direction of lab 5.
Getting over the barbed wire fence wasn't that hard; evidence of the Elrics being there was on display. But sneaking past the dejected suit of armor known as Alphonse Elric was tricky. I managed to get past without him seeing me, and the whole time I could only wonder why Ed thought he needed to be the hero. I snuck in through one of the windows, feeling a chilling presence that I wasn't able to pinpoint. I made my way through the dark halls, stopping at an unlocked door that had been used for experiments.
Or something worse, my mind suggested. Shut up, I told it.
"It's certainly been a long time, hasn't it Princess?" said a voice behind me, and the ground was literally yanked from under my feet.
I am currently working feverishly to get the next chapter done; I swear to the Truth. Hopefully with the Thanksgiving break coming up soon I will be able to update again much sooner and satisfy your appetites for the story!
You know the routine: review and keep the author and hyperlink happy campers!
~~Sady Mordan