Chapter 2:
Conflict
Five weeks have passed since Edward and Alphonse were stationed at Grove Village, and there's still been no signs that the strange creatures are chimeras. The two were constantly reading in Mirielle's Alchemy Library but there's still nothing that's of good help.
"Damnit! You think with a three story Library there'd be at least something in these books that would help us figure out how to detect if those creatures are chimera's."
Al sighed and just kept reading while he spoke to his frustrated brother.
"You just have to look closer Edward. We can't expect the answer to just pop up"
Ed shut the book that was in his hand and grabbed another one as he put it back.
"I know that Al, but I'm asking is to find one thing ,one thing that will help us detect if those creatures are chimeras."
The two continued reading through the books in Mirielle's Library. Night and day they searched until they finally found the answer when Ed came across a journal of research written by an old researcher. He and Al examined the book reading through it carefully.
"This proves it Al, those creatures are chimeras..." "But how do we get rid of them?" "One by one Al..." "So we take them as the come?" "Exactly. But first we have to report this to Mustang."
They put all the remaining books back and left the library for their room. Once they had arrived Ed went straight to the phone and called Mustang's office.
"Colonel Mustang? Yeah it's Edward Elric, those creatures are definitely chimera's...Alright I won't let you down. You'll have a full load of chimeras at the lab real soon."
He hung up the phone and looked at Al.
"C'mon, back up will be here any minute" "That soon?" "I know sounds strange but back up includes the military personal that are already in this house." "I see."
The two left their room and went down stairs where all personal were lined up at the door way. Armstrong stood firm and spoke for the crew.
"We await your command." "Alright then, has the rest of back up arrived yet?" "Not yet, they should be here any moment." "Alright then, in that case I want everyone to surround the village and keep watch for the other back-up. When they arrive" "Sir!"
Armstrong turned around and commanded the crew to move out.
"Armstrong!" "Yes Edward sir?" "I want you to guard Mirielle." "Shouldn't you be letting her help? She's an alchemist after all." "She may be an Alchemist but if anything happens to her Hughes will have my head." "Sir!"
Armstrong left Ed and Al and headed upstairs to Mirielle's room.
"Al, we're taking the roof." "Why the roof?" "That way we can see everything." "I see, well then let's go."
They went outside and jumped onto the lowest roof then to the higher level roof and kept jumping until they got to the top roof. They stood on different ends of the roof and watched for any unexpected guests. Suddenly but quietly, chimeras of different sorts came out from all over the place. Ed and Al stayed on the roof and watched to see if they needed to step in but from the looks of things it was going to be alright.
"These guys got under control pretty well. How many is that so far? 1,2,3..." "That's 7 so far. But I think we might need to step in."
Ed looked back at Alphonse.
"Why do you say that?" "Because we've got flyers coming in." "What!"
Ed looked back over at his side to see that the flying chimera's weren't small at all. These chimeras were pretty big. Ed and Al stood up and looked back at each other then nodded jumping off the roof the way they went up. They split up going to different parts of the village and took control of the flying chimeras as they came.
"Looks like the Colonel will have some more specimen to work on."
Ed clapped his hands together and slapped them on a tree making a set of wooden spears. He grabbed them one by one and threw them at the flyers missing here and there but managing to get some of them down and causing the others to fly off. Al soon arrived after taking care of his business on the other side and helped ed with getting the chimeras caged.
"Hurry Ed! If we don't get these guys caged quickly they'll find a way to destroy anything in their path." "So you had a problem with them on the other side?"
The both of them jumped and tackled remaining chimeras that were close by and struggled with them as they got them into cages.
"These guys are pretty big wouldn't you say so Al?" "Yeah but at least we've got most of them in cages and away from the villagers."
Ed took off his gloves and gave them to one of the back-up personal for testing.
"Why are you sending your gloves in for testing?" "They've got some skin from a few of the chimeras we caught so that might help find a way to stop them." "Don't you think we should check on Armstrong and Mirielle?" "Yeah, the outside of the house doesn't look damaged from here but we should check anyway."
They headed off towards the house and when they arrived they found the front door smashed and broken off. At seeing this they ran inside to find the house trashed.
"So the chimeras got in here...Let's go Ed. We need to find Armstrong and Mirielle."
They took searched the kitchen and found broken glass, dishes, pots and pans, and even utensils all over the floor. They slowly walked through the kitchen and found no sign of life so they left and went to search else where. Searching the rooms one by one not everything was in tact, some things looked like they were knocked over by a chimera and some looked as if it were attempted robbery. Soon they came across the library which was completely trashed. Some of the books were scattered, some were torn, and some were hidden under the knocked down shelves. Still there was no sign of anyone in there so they continued the search further and then they came across the back section which had been completely blown. The two ran to the debris calling out for their missing companions. Then a voice called out.
"We're over here!"
The two ran in the direction of where the voice was coming from and started digging around. After a while of digging Armstrong sat up out of the debris. Unable to see Mirielle the boys panicked.
"Where's Mirielle!" "Not to worry...She's right here..."
Armstrong turned around with Mirielle in his arms. She had her face buried against his uniform and was holding onto him tightly. Al was concerned and reached out to Mirielle but she flinched and held onto Armstrong tighter.
"Mirielle...Al's not going to hurt you..."
Mirielle slowly turned her head to look at them revealing tears streaming down her cheeks. They were shocked to see her crying so much and just looked at her with concern. Armstrong set her down gently and spoke softly.
"You don't need to cry anymore Mirielle...They're gone...Nothing and no one is going to hurt you."
Ed became suspicious and questioned arm strong in a serious tone. "What do you mean no one? Are you saying there were others besides the chimeras?"
Mirielle spoke up from under her broken breathe. "Yes...The-y were...horrible...aw-full men...Th-ey...they..."
Ed was becoming infuriated and Al just felt more concern for Mirielle as she cried and spoke of these men that made her so upset and scared. She couldn't help but cry even as she wiped away tears yet she still spoke. Ed pounded his fist on the ground and stood up.
"That's enough Mirielle...You don't need to say anymore...I can tell what they did from those marks and cuts you've got."
Arm strong looked up at Ed. "Edward I suggest you stay here. You should transmute the house back to the way it was."
Al stood up and cleared the debris that was restricting Armstrong and Mirielle from moving. Mirielle still refused to get close to Ed and Al. Ed just sighed and took off his jacket then placed it on her shoulders. She looked at him and managed a semi-smile as she stood up. Armstrong took her aside and left the brothers to fix up the room. As they fixed up the house hours passed and morning came quicker than expected. Once they were done they went to the front and got a full report of the village status. The only person left to check on was Mirielle. When they found her she was asleep and under the care of a female officer inside the back of a military van. They were relieved to see her being taken care of and resting. Now all they had to do was get everything cleared up through Mustang and get some rest themselves.
"Edward Elric."
Ed jerked his head between his shoulders and looked behind him and sighed in relief.
"Phew. It's only you Armstrong. You gave me a scare for a minute." "Am I really so scary?" "Only when you sneak up on me like that." "Forgive me." "Um, sure why not. But is there anything else you need to say?" "I have a message from Colonel Hughes." "WHAT! Ummm...Why did he leave me a message anyway?" "You'll find out in a minute. Now read this."
Armstrong pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to him. Ed looked at the paper then took and unfolded it hesitantly. He took one look at the paper and sighed in relief before reading it to himself.
Edward ,
You most likely are wondering why I sent you a message. Well to answer that question I sent you this message as a warning. You've already gotten your instructions from Mustang so you know what to do. But I want to warn about Mirielle, if anything happens to her you are fully responsible no matter what the situation. And just so you know, Mirielle reports your actions to me so watch what you do. You are to take extreme caution under your living conditions. Now If I were there I would be telling you more but it's just paper so it wouldn't be the same. But before I end this unfortunately short letter I have to say one more thing. Don't fall in love.
Colonel Hughes
Ed folded the letter and stuck it in his pocket. He stood there for a moment and those four last words started repeating in his head once more. Armstrong walked off to leave Ed to compensate among himself. Soon everyone had cleared out and the order of the house had restored itself. Yet Ed was still standing there outside the house. All day he stayed out there and he'd even missed dinner. Al finally went outside and spoke to his older brother.
"Hey Ed, are you ok?" "I don't get it Al..." "What don't you get?" "Everyone keeps telling me not fall in love but with who?" "Isn't it obvious Ed?"
Edward turned around to face Al. "What are you talking about Al?" Al looked at Ed with a smile.
"Gee Ed, you really are dense." "WHAT HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!" "Nothing, nothing, just calm down." "Tell me Al, who are you talking about?" "You don't see it? Everyone is talking about Mirielle." "But I'm not in love with her." "Oh really? Then why did take her out to dinner last week on Friday and Buy her a huge teddy bear with a red bow on it two Saturdays ago-" "Ok, Ok you can stop. Geez." "Ed.." "Yeah what is it?" "You're blushing."
Ed turned around embarrassed at what Al just told him. Al just stood there laughing at his brother's antics of denial until it was dark. They both went inside and headed straight for their room.
"For once we made it without running into Armstrong." "Cut him some slack Ed, you know he's just looking out for us." "Well it gets creepy o-"
A sudden knock on the door cut off the conversation and Al answered the door. It was no surprise to Al that it was Mirielle but he was surprised she was up by herself.
"Um...?May I come in?" "Of course but are you sure you should be up on your own?" "I'm fine but thank you for your concern. I just wanted to thank you both for helping me." "Al and I are just doing our job." "Yes but you never left, not even once." "Why would we do that?" "Because...I thought you two would be like the others, stay for a while then leave for good."
Ed and Al looked at each other then back at Mirielle like curious little children. "Others? Leave for good?"
Mirielle nodded.
"Well all the others just stayed because they thought if they suck up to me I'll send in good reports and they'll get promoted but once they found out I wasn't falling for their tricks they quit the assignment and left." "But Al and I wouldn't do that. We finish what we start." "Yeah, it's what we do. Besides Mirielle, we like you and not because you're Hughes' niece but because you let us get to know you as a friend." "The same goes for the both you. Well...I'll leave you two alone now. Good night."
Al shut the door after Mirielle and sat down on his bed. Mirielle leaned against the wall next to their door and spoke to herself.
"A friend...I guess...That's all I can be to him..."
She pushed herself off the wall and walked to her room with her bangs shadowing her eyes.
"Just...A friend..."
Two more weeks pass and Al is still teasing Ed about his denial.
"Al would you give it a rest already?" "I can't help it Ed. It's so funny how you deny things."
A knock on the door disturbed the conversation. This time Ed answered the door and there was Mirielle standing there with the phone. She seemed to be upset.
"Here Edward...It's Colonel Mustang..."
Ed took the phone and looked at Mirielle with concern but before he could say anything she ran off. Ed placed the phone to his ear and shut the door.
"Edward here. Yeah...But that's...Yes sir...No I understand."
Ed hung up the phone and stared down at the floor. After a couple minutes he looked at Al with a serious and empty expression.
"What's wrong Ed?" "We've only got a week left here Al..."