Here we are, chapter three.
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Chapter Three.
Ed woke up to find himself back in the hospital. He groaned. His wound was aching a lot. He turned his head to his right to find the Colonel lying on his stomach on the bed next to him. They were both in light turquoise hospital clothes.
"You need to listen to us doctors, Sir, your subordinate nearly got himself killed by going outside yesterday." A doctor in his fifties was sternly lecturing the Colonel.
"We weren't planning on getting caught up in an explosion, though." Mustang was both annoyed and ashamed?
"That may well be, Sir, but what were you thinking when you brought a thirteen-year-old child with such a critical arrow wound out of the hospital less than twenty-four hours after he got injured?"
Ed could feel the man's scolding affect him and even he was cringing from guilt although the doctor wasn't even aware that Ed was awake.
"As his elder and, not to speak of, his commanding officer, you should never have done such a thing."
Mustang wasn't saying anything, he was actually looking shameful, looking like a little kid being scolded by a parent. Ed would probably have enjoyed the sight if it hadn't been for the fact that the reason for Mustang's scolding was Ed himself.
"Hey, give him a break, I'm the one who insisted that we'd go," Ed said, startling the two men.
"Ah, so you're finally up, young man. You know, you did a really stupid thing yesterday and you're lucky to be alive."
Ah, crap, so now he's having a go at me?
"Yeah, yeah. I know, I won't do it again."
"What on earth possessed you to leave the hospital in the first place?"
"That is confidential as it's part of an ongoing military investigation," Mustang said, saving Ed.
"But still, in your condition." He tsk-ed. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Colonel Mustang."
The man left.
"Colonel, did you read the note yesterday that the man gave me before he knocked me out?"
"No, he took it from you as he left, I'm sorry I was unable to stop him."
"It said something about letting things be fair, and that he was going to make us suffer for calling his sister insane, which I think means that he's that serial killing maniac's brother."
"Grace Hopkins is coming back to haunt us, in other words. It makes sense that he would want revenge, I'm the reason she's dead after all. And anyone who read that report would know that she was burned to death, which explains the bomb."
"But what does he want with me?"
"He does seem to have an unhealthy fixation with you, but so did his sister. If he has read her notes, which I guess he did judging by the "Golden Boy" title, it is possible that he's trying to fulfil her final wish which was basically to torture you to death."
"Sounds great," Ed said exasperatedly.
"I guess he's planning on slowly torturing us both before he kills us."
"Lucky us. I really hoped that knowing who's targeting us would help us stop this from happening, but it doesn't seem like it."
"And it could be that he has been planning this for as long as two-and-a-half months. That's a lot of time to gather information on us. If he has informants, it would be very easy to know about Anthony, and someone could have heard about my "nickname" from anyone who works at that hospital. Could even be from corrupt soldiers at East HQ."
"That's a cheerful thought."
"Believe me, I know." Mustang sighed.
"How's your back, by the way?"
"Painful. What about you?"
"Yeah, same."
"They're not exactly happy with us, you know." He gestured his head towards the door.
"Kind of got that."
"But they're right. I shouldn't have taken you with me."
"Yeah, and then that bastard would have shot Anthony!"
"Fair point."
"Listen, Colonel? … Uhm… thanks for shielding me yesterday."
Mustang just nodded.
"How do you think Al and the rest of your team is doing? Do you think they've left the office?"
"They heard the instructions. Most likely they've been living off of cafeteria food and only been moving inside HQ just to be safe."
"Well, that's good I guess."
They grew quiet after that, and Ed sunk back into his pillows and tried to get some more sleep.
What the doctor had said had stuck with Roy long after Fullmetal fell asleep. He hadn't really thought about how this looked to anyone outside this situation. Parts of him were quite frankly disgusted with himself. He somehow had a habit of forgetting that Fullmetal was in fact just thirteen. And Mustang was the one who had convinced him to join the military. He had basically convinced an eleven-year-old child to go through automail surgery. Had convinced him to join a military that put him in danger no kid should face. He had been on assignments that had nearly killed him. Hell, Mustang had been in the same city as him when he had been tortured to the point of temporarily losing his voice from screaming. It didn't really matter that the military was probably the only way for the kid to try and find a way to regain his and his brother's bodies.
Life can really be cruel as hell to people who don't deserve it.
Roy shouldn't have agreed to take Fullmetal out of the hospital.
But then Anthony would have been killed.
I don't care what happens, I will burn that man just like I did his sister.
That shit had already hurt his subordinate, hurt Roy, and he planned to keep on doing this. For how long, he didn't know.
God how he itched to burn that man to a crisp.
The door suddenly opened, and two pairs of feet entered the room, one pair taking much lighter steps than the other.
Roy turned his head around, and his heart caught in his throat. Anthony was standing next to a tall man he had never seen before. And he was holding a hand on the boy's shoulder. Anthony was terrified.
"Good evening, Roy." The man spoke in a light, slow voice. It was almost sensual.
"You!"
"Ah-ah-ah, Roy, it wouldn't be a good idea to shout for help. I could easily shoot every single one of the room's occupants before anybody has time to even get here. You wouldn't want that now, would you?"
The man had red hair like his sister. He also had the same mad glint in his eyes. What worried Roy the most, though, was the way he was smiling, like he was taking immense pleasure in seeing them in such pain.
The man suddenly rushed forward, leading Anthony in front of him, before he hit his gun hard against Roy's back. Roy bit down on his lip, barely holding back a scream. "I asked you a question! Now answer!"
Roy cursed inwardly. "No, I wouldn't," he said through gritted teeth.
"That's more like it." The man took a deep breath before he returned to his usual way of speaking. "You burned my sister to death. I will make you pay for that. I will make you pay by making you feel every single twinge of pain that it caused me when I heard about it." He leaned down to his ear. "You understand?"
When Roy didn't answer immediately, he gripped him by the hair, forcefully making him nod. "Good."
Fullmetal suddenly shifted in the bed next to him, but he kept on sleeping. The madman shifted his attention to him. "Ah, and here he is, the Golden Boy." He was savouring the words as if he was the world's most desirable piece of confectionary, tasting each syllable hungrily.
Roy really wanted to get the man as far away from his subordinate as possible.
The man stretched out his hand, cupping Fullmetal's cheek. "My, my. This is a special one. I may not have my sister's special talent in hearing the song that this boy emits, but I still have a talent of my own. I can recognise true beauty, and what a beautiful boy this is. This truly is a special one."
The man started stroking his fingers through Fullmetal's hair.
"Don't you touch him!" Roy exclaimed.
"Or you'll do what exactly? There is nothing you can to stop this, Roy. You are in no condition to fight me, and if you decided to try, I could shoot you before you even had the chance to do anything. You are completely at my mercy. You are useless, Roy."
Roy hated to admit it, but the man was right. And it scared him. If Roy made a single move that this man didn't like, he could shoot both him and Fullmetal, as well as Anthony for good measure.
The man suddenly held out a pair of handcuffs. "Anthony, dear, please fasten Edward's hands to the bed with these. We can't have him using his annoying little alchemy, now, can we?"
Anthony looked at Roy fearfully. It was very obvious that he didn't want to do that. Roy gave him a slight nod. For now, they would just have to play along. Just as long as this man had a gun much too close to his subordinate for Roy's liking.
Anthony took the handcuffs, first fastening Fullmetal's right wrist to the metal railing on the side of the bed. Then he walked around and did the same to his left wrist.
The movement of his flesh arm seemed to wake Fullmetal up slightly, and the kid tensed immediately as he looked up into the maniac's face. He tried bringing his hands up to attack him, but to no avail. The handcuffs just clanged against the railing.
"Who are you?"
"My dear boy, I am so glad you asked!" He cupped both of Fullmetal's cheeks with an eager smile on his face. "My name is Charles Hopkins and I have waited so long to meet you dear boy! And I have to say, you are such a beautiful specimen!"
"What the hell are you doing here?! Get off me!"
Charles suddenly drew back his right hand, punching Fullmetal right where the arrow wound was, making him gasp in pain.
"I do not appreciate such language, Edward! Young boys like yourself should speak properly to their elders."
"Go to hell!"
Charles then suddenly started leaning his weight on Fullmetal's wound with his right hand, placing his left over his mouth in order to silence the screams of pain.
"You bastard! Let go of him!" Roy said.
Charles turned swiftly around, punching Roy hard in the back.
Roy bit back a curse and a scream, provoking this bastard obviously wasn't a good idea.
"Anthony!" Fullmetal suddenly exclaimed.
Roy looked over at the two friends, as did Charles.
"Go on, Anthony, talk to him. This is their reward after all."
"H-hi, Ed."
"Are you alright!? Has he done anything to you?"
"I'm alright, he hasn't done anything. He said you'd done as he instructed, so I'm fine."
"I brought him here as a reward for solving the last riddle so quickly," Charles added.
"I'm s-so sorry, Ed! He took me as I was w-walking home! He plunged a needle into my neck, and next moment he had me write all these poems and riddles and he said he'd kill you if I didn't, but then he hurt you all the same, and he says he'll kill Mum if I do anything I'm not supposed to! I'm sorry!" He started crying.
Roy felt like strangling the man who was responsible for this.
Charles suddenly put his left hand behind Fullmetal's head, stroking his neck with his thumb. Fullmetal immediately tensed.
"And now that you know that Anthony is doing very fine, we will leave you two in peace." He put his right hand on Fullmetal's cheek, tilting his head towards him. "And so, my dear, it was very nice meeting you in person. My Golden Boy. I'll be seeing you again soon."
He removed his hands from Fullmetal's head before he swiftly elbowed Roy in the back, making him shout out in pain.
"Come along now, Anthony." He turned as he was about to leave through the door. "The game resumes in one week, I suggest you two stay at Roy's place, or who knows what will happen." He placed a hand on Anthony's shoulder to demonstrate his point. Then he turned around, leaving the room.