Chapter Title: The Change
Characters: Scar, Ed, Clara, Al, Mustang & crew
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: Um…not unless you don't know who Scar is…
Warnings: Cursing, mild violence, mild lip-rape
Disclaimer: If I owned the show, Scar would be in every episode. Unfortunately, I don't own it. XP
A/N: Well…I had a plot bunny one day while I was drawing, and it turned into this. I hope I didn't inadvertently copy somebody else's plot…if I did, I'm really sorry. This is pretty much my first forray into the FMA section. Constructive criticism is always welcome and greatly appreciated! I'm going to be an author, so I'm always looking to improve my writing. :) Enjoy!
Edward Elric was not having a good day. Oh, it had started normally enough…he and Al had just been walking down the street, minding their own business, when out of bloody nowhere comes Scar. And Scar had been trying to kill him. Again. Now, Ed was not in the mood to get beaten up or killed that day, so instead of trying to fight, he tore off as fast as he could, after telling Al to go get some backup. So he had run for a while, cutting through alleyways in a futile attempt to lose the infamous alchemist killer, before discovering that he had run himself right into a dead end. And now they were fighting. Again. Nope, not a very good day at all.
The warm summer sun shone brightly down upon Central. Down upon the streets, upon the alleyways, and down upon a happily chirping bluebird perched on an alley wall. The bluebird was happy because it was a beautiful, peaceful morning. Unfortunately for the bluebird, it had picked a very bad wall to be sitting on; the reason for this became apparent as a bright red glow from below, accompanied by an immense dent in the wall the bird was sitting on, frightened it away. The poor bird was scarred for life, and would ever be afraid of the color red.
The source of the bird's fear was a certain 'cursed' arm, which was attached to a very tall man whose name was Scar. Scar was not happy. Actually, Scar was never happy, but at the moment he was even more not happy than usual. This was because Fullmetal had dodged his attack again. There was an advantage to being small and fast after all. But Scar knew that it was only a matter of time before Fullmetal got tired and clumsy, and then he would face the judgement of God.
Ed dove out of the way of Scar's Arm O' Doom, his thoughts running angrily through his head, 'This was supposed to be my day off!' He slashed his automail-arm-turned-blade at Scar, only managing to cut his leg before he was forced onto the defensive again. But at least he had scored some kind of hit against the alchemist killer, even though it didn't even slow him down at all, 'Dammit…Al better get back here soon with some help…I don't know how long I can last on my own…" And it was in that moment, that crucial moment, that he stumbled over a stone on the ground. Scar saw his chance and took it, and his glowing red arm came within inches of Ed's face…before an alchemical blast smashed into him, throwing him backwards about ten feet before he crash-landed into the hard concrete ground with a small, irrepressible grunt of pain. Ed was surprised; it certainly hadn't been his attack.
"Fullmetal…" Scar growled as he pushed himself up off the ground, eyes blazing.
"Oi, that wasn't me!" Ed wondered if Al and the requested backup had arrived, but there were no more attacks, no familiar shouting…it was as though the blast had come out of nowhere…
Scar got to his feet, albeit a bit unsteadily at first, and readied himself for another charge. Ed did likewise, and the two stood at a standstill for a moment. Just as they were about to resume their battle, they were distracted by two large rock spikes sprouting out of the ground, one directly behind each of them. They were even further distracted when those spikes spontaneously grew thick, rib-like protrusions that circled around each of them and bound them, arms to their sides and legs together, tightly to the spikes, which then proceeded to grow taller until the two confused fighters' feet were dangling nearly a foot off the ground.
"What did you do?" Scar shouted furiously, struggling against the tight stone bonds to no avail.
"I didn't do it! You think I'd tie myself to a rock!"
"This is alchemy, and I see no other alchemists around."
"Well obviously there must be one somewhere. It's not like there would be much point for me to do this. Can't you just use your arm to get rid of it or whatever?"
"You think I haven't tried?"
"Now, now, boys…enough of this petty squabbling," a silky voice carried through the alley from somewhere above them. They looked up to see a black figure jump down, catlike, from the roof of one of the buildings.
The figure stood up, revealing itself to be a tall, pale woman with short black hair and an outfit that reminded Ed very much of Psiren, the Aquaroyan theif…minus the ridiculous mask-hat. She might have been quite pretty, but it was marred by the cruel and malevolent smirk across her face. Ed didn't like her. Neither did Scar. Unfortunately for the trapped Ishbalan, he was the one she stalked over to, her eyes holding a glint of something…predatory. It made him reeeeally uncomfortable, and Scar did not like being uncomfortable. So, out of instinct, he attempted to use his right arm to blast away the stone bindings around him. It didn't work…it hadn't worked the first time he had tried, either. You could barely see the red glow if you looked hard at the stone over his right arm, but the woman saw it, and her pearly teeth glistened as she pulled back her lips in a twisted smile.
"None of that now, my little Ishbalan," her voice sickened him almost as much as her words did.
"Wha-" he began, but was cut off when a surge of energy traveled up the stone spike and ran through him. His nerves were on fire; he could feel every inch of him crying out in agony, but he refused to show it. Instead he clenched his teeth in a feral snarl, rivulets of sweat running down his face, glaring at the woman until the energy ceased to flow and he was left hanging from his bindings, breathing heavily.
Ed's eyes widened exponentially, and he couldn't help but feel a teeny bit sorry for Scar before he quashed the feeling down, thinking, 'This is Scar! Famed murderer of State Alchemists who's been trying to kill me all morning! Why should I be feeling sorry for him? I'm too sympathetic for my own good…"
Meanwhile, the woman turned from the glaring Scar, "Every time you use that arm of yours, that's what will happen. I would suggest that you don't do it again, and you'll listen to my advice if you know what's good for you."
"Just who the crap are you?" Ed, not liking the fact that he was being ignored, shouted at the woman.
"Oh, how rude of me," she smirked, "The name's Clara, otherwise known as the Altering Alchemist."
"Never heard of you."
"My dear little boy…that's because I went AWOL the year before you joined the military. They never found me, and they don't like to admit their mistakes. According to them, I don't exist."
Ed had twitched at her mention of 'little boy', but held his temper for the moment, "I don't suppose you still have your pocketwatch, then?"
"Of course I have it. I wouldn't have let them take it from me alive," she flipped her hand nonchalantly, "But, I digress…I'm not here to chat, boy. You and he," she nodded her head in the glowering Scar's direction briefly, "have been at the root of a great many difficulties for me lately. And today I saw my chance to kill two birds with one stone, and I took it."
"I've never seen or heard of you before…how can I have caused you any 'difficulties'?" Ed was stalling now…certainly Al and the backup would find them soon…
"Not directly, boy, but your actions have come in my way many a time since you joined the military. As have yours ever since you began killing State Alchemists, Scar."
"What have you been doing that I've been getting in the way of, then?" Ed was beginning to worry; this woman didn't look like she'd be doing anything pleasant with Scar and him.
"Ah, ah, boy," she waved a finger at him in admonishment, "I can tell stalling for time when I see it. I don't plan on going off on a monolaugue while you wait for someone to come to your rescue. I'll dispose of you both in a proper manner shortly. But first…" Clara whirled to face Scar, and began to walk over to where he was bound. He gave her a furious glare, but she didn't seem deterred at all. She stopped about a foot from him, and an array stamped onto the palm of her glove glowed as she touched the ground and caused a circular section of the ground in front of Scar to rise up. She used it as a stepping stool and Scar found himself inches from her pale face, much to his unhappiness.
"Ah, what a handsome devil you are," she whispered in his ear, "A pity that you won't be around much longer…" she lifted one of her hands to trace along the side of his face, and he jerked away with a growl. Then she began to lean closer, and an absolutely horrified expression crossed Scar's face as he realized what was about to happen. Eyes widening in panic, he thrashed against his stone bonds in a futile attempt at escape, but she snatched his face in her ungloved hand, her nails digging into his skin deep enough to draw blood. And then…she kissed him.
Ed's face turned bright red, his mouth dropped open, and his thoughts became a confused jumble as his brain could no longer do anything but scream 'What the FUCK?'. It was like some kind of terrible scene of gory violence had just occurred, and no matter how much it horrified him, he couldn't look away. But what struck him most about the whole thing was the fleeting instant when he saw Scar's eyes. The usually emotionless red orbs were wide and so full of desparation to be anywhere but where he was then, that the little twinge of sympathy that Ed had squashed earlier grew exponentially bigger, and when Clara finally moved away from Scar's face, Edward Elric snapped.
"WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT, YOU PSYCHO? THAT WAS…WAS JUST…WRONG!"
"Nobody asked you, boy," Clara snapped back at him before turning back to Scar and saying silkily, "That was fun, ne Scar-kun?"
He raised his now narrowed eyes to her, voice blazing with fury, "May Ishbala have mercy on your soul."
She only smirked cruelly before stepping back, "If that's the way you want to play, then…" and the alchemical energy once again surged up around Scar. The second time was much, much worse, and the already injured Ishbalan could not suppress a scream of agony. When it stopped, black spots danced in his vision and everything went fuzzy. In less than a few seconds he had fallen unconscious, his harsh, ragged breathing the only thing showing that he remained alive.
Al ran through the maze of alleyways as fast as a giant suit of armor could, followed by Mustang and his entire regiment. Why did Niisan always manage to wind up in some dark alley when he was fighting Scar? Why? Al then heard a welcome thing; Ed yelling his head off about something; it was too garbled by distance and walls to make out what he was yelling about, but at least that meant that he was still alive. A few seconds later, Al heard something else; an agonized scream that sounded like…Scar? This made him exceedingly nervous; Ed had never hurt Scar enough to make him scream before…actually he had never heard of anyone hurting Scar enough to make him scream before. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong. Just how wrong became painfully obvious a few corner-turns later, when the whole group screeched to a dead stop in utter surprise. There was Edward, and there was Scar, and both of them were bound with stone from their shoulders to their ankles. Scar was unconscious and looked like he was in almost critical condition, Ed looked like he was in a kind of horrified shock, and there was some woman whom Al had never seen before, standing in between the two and cackling like a hyena.
"Niisan!" Al began to run over.
"Al!" Ed turned his head as far as he could to see his younger brother, "Be careful!"
"So, your friends found you after all, boy," Clara had stopped laughing, "Looks like I'm running short of time. I'll have to settle for less than what I initially planned. But I can't have them interrupting the process, so…" the circle on her glove glowed again as she created a solid stone wall that separated her, Ed, and Scar from Al and the military, "That should hold them for long enough," she quickly began drawing a transmutation circle beneath Ed's feet, then when it was finished drew the same one beneath Scar. Meanwhile every alchemist behind the wall was hitting it with everything they had, and although they were making headway, it wasn't enough to stop the Altering Alchemist from activating her arrays.
The two arrays shone with bright yellow light, which began to creep up onto Ed's limbs, twining and shifting like smoke. The same was happening to Scar, but Ed was no longer concentrating on him. He barely even noticed when the stone pillar he was bound to released him to drop on the concrete ground. He was far too focused on the fact that as he was engulfed by the alchemical light, he had the oddest sensation of his bones shrinking, lengthening, changing position…skin stretching along with bone…it was, no doubt, the strangest thing he had ever felt before in his life. When it was over, he simply lay on the ground, and noticed fuzzily as Clara began to bend over him that she seemed so much bigger than she had before and his clothes didn't seem to fit him anymore…and then everything exploded around him as Mustang and his men finally broke through the wall in an immense blast that completely destroyed the alleyway and sent Ed (and Scar) flying; over the other end of the alley and into a pile of garbage that broke their fall and prevented them from breaking their backs. Unfortunately the explosion had sent quite a few large pieces of rocky rubble flying as well, and one of these smashed into the pile in a veritable explosion uneaten food and cans and other such things as you would find in a pile of alley garbage. The two were knocked from their temporary 'perch' and tumbled down until they were stopped by the rest of the rubble that had landed on the ground. Then they were buried by other pieces of rubble and thankfully avoided being crushed by a slab that had fallen over them and provided a sheltering 'cave' of sorts. Of course, by now Ed was knocked out as well. And so they lay, unresponsive, under the pile of rubble as worried searchers combed through the alleys searching for…well, they were looking for Ed, anyway.
After Clara had run off, using the explosion as cover for her escape, all they had found of Ed were his coat, shirt, and silver pocketwatch lying where he had been during the transmutation, and his pants and shoes a little ways away. Of course, this had pretty much sent Al into hysterics ("Niisan is out there somewhere without any clothes on?"), and Havoc and Breda had snickered until they had been smacked upside the head by Hawkeye for being tactless. They had found Scar's clothes as well, but they were more concerned about Ed's fate than his. And so they searched desperately for the missing Fullmetal Alchemist. However, they didn't search under the pile of rubble that was certainly too small to cover a human, even one so small as Ed. However, it was just the right size to cover two…cats.
A/N: I'm so sorry Scar-san! I didn't mean to be so evil to you, it just sort of happened! FORGIVE MEEEEE! T.T Yeah, if you hadn't noticed, I love Scar. He's the main character here (even though this chapter was from Ed's POV). He's the one I'm writing the story for. He's far too cool a character to be as ignored as he is (or to be simply cast in nearly every fanfiction as the random villain who has no motive other than to be evil).
