Chapter Title: Hostage
Characters: Scar, Al, Ed, Winry, Pinako, Armstrong, 'the man'
Pairings: None! I can't write romance for the life of me!
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Cursing, blood
Disclaimer: I don't own it! Waaaaah!
A/N: I got the new FMA game (Curse of the Crimson Elixir) the other day, and it is GREAT. Simple battle system, interesting story (so far it's been kind of this weird AU mix of the anime and manga storylines, with a whole bunch of new stuff thrown in), really nice graphics, and Scar. Even if he's an enemy/boss. But I've only had to fight him once so far, and that fight you aren't SUPPOSED to win; I got knocked out in three hits, and didn't have to hurt him once (first time I've ever actually been happy about this happening in a game…). And then there was a really cool scene thingy. So that was real neat. Anywho, I really recommend this game; it's a lot of fun.
Once the quartet had gotten back to the house, Scar had been thoroughly dried off, wrapped in blankets, and given some tea. They had offered to do the same for Armstrong, but he had declined. Later that night, Scar found himself in deep thought. This made twice that he had been saved by his 'enemies'. The first time, of course, being when Al had brought him here. Scar had tried to kill his brother, and nearly killed him…he had known the great danger involved in helping the Ishbalan the way he had, but had done it anyway. He could have easily turned him in to the military, or even simply left him there to die. And now, a State Alchemist, not to mention one whose life Scar had nearly taken, had saved him from drowning at the risk of his own life. And, from what he'd heard from Alphonse on the matter, had done it without hesitation. It was…confusing, to say the least. Such thoughts as these chased each other around and around his mind many times before sleep came.
By the next morning, he was feeling a bit lightheaded, and his throat ached, but Pinako assured him that they would probably have vanished by the end of the day, and that he was lucky that this was all that had happened to him after falling into the river like that. And she was right; both symptoms were gone by the start of the afternoon. He was getting stronger, but he realized that this meant that his time here was drawing to a close. A small part of him wished that it wasn't, but there was no stopping the flow of time. By about two o' clock, his clothes were dry, and despite what had happened the day before he got up, put them on, and went outside after telling the others where he was going. He didn't go as far as the river; but the house was no longer in sight when he stopped and sat down in the waving grass a short ways from the road. He sat there for hours, lost in thought, until a voice behind him brought him out of his reverie.
"Ah, here you are," Winry knelt down about a foot to the side of him, "I can see why you came out here; it's so quiet and pretty."
"Hnn," he replied noncommittally.
"You know…" she smiled, "you'll always be welcome here, if you ever wanted to come back."
He gave her a surprised look, then turned back to stare into the distance, not saying a word. He'd assumed that once he was healed, it would be 'get out and never come back'. The pair sat in silence for a short while, but the silence was interrupted by a gruff voice.
"Hey, girl, are you Winry Rockbell?" a tall man with narrowed eyes stood behind them, surrounded by a group of six other men.
Winry stood up, "Yes. Who are you?"
"Oh, nobody important," the man shrugged, then drew a pistol, aiming it directly at her, "Just cooperate and come with us, and nobody gets hurt. You too," he gestured the gun at Scar, "Since you were unlucky enough to be hanging around. Stand up and walk on over here with her. No funny business, now."
Scar narrowed his eyes, slowly he standing before turning to face the men. A glance at Winry showed that the girl was afraid; his frown deepened, and he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, saying one word, "Run," before shoving her back behind him and racing towards the tall man with the gun. The man only had time to fire once before Scar had knocked the gun out of his hands to fly about fifteen feet away; the shot had only grazed Scar's shoulder, but the wound still burned with pain. But there was no time to stop, because now he was outnumbered seven to one and there was no time to do anything but fight this one-sided battle. He managed to last a full minute before something hard smashed into the base of his neck and he blacked out.
Once he was down, one of the men looked over his shoulder in the direction Winry had gone, "Should we go after her?"
"No," the leader growled, spitefully giving the unconscious Scar a small kick, "She's long gone. But if even if we lost her, we've still got a hostage. We'll have to modify our original plan some, but I've got an idea."
Winry was running towards the house faster than she'd ever run before in her life. She had to get someone; Scar couldn't possibly last long on his own, not in his condition and without the use of his arm. He needed help, and she was the only person right now who could get it.
Finally she reached the house, and hurtled through the front door, "Ed! Al!"
"Hmmm? What's the matter, Winry? Did you bring Scar back?" Ed gave her a questioning look.
Winry, tired from the mad dash, put her hands on her knees, gasping out the message, "It's Scar…there were these men…they were trying to…kidnap me…but he's…fighting them…you have to help!"
"WHAT?" Ed shouted, "Al! Armstrong! Get in here, we've got a problem!" he turned to Winry, "Tell them what's happening. I'm going on ahead," and with that, he ran out the door.
When the others found Ed, he was standing in front of a small patch of bloodstained grass, a pistol held tightly in his hand. His voice was stony, "I was too late. They're gone, and they've got Scar with them…if he's even still alive. I found this," he tossed the gun at their feet, "over there in the grass," he clenched his teeth, "Dammit…"
"Niisan…what are we going to do?" Al's voice was filled with worry.
"We're going to find him, Al. And when we do, I sure wouldn't want to be the sorry bastards who did this."
Scar regained consciousness slowly, and the first thing he was aware of was that the back of his head hurt like no other, and that his shoulder burned like it was on fire. The second thing was that there was a large, foul-tasting piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth. And then came the realization that he was lying on a hard surface, with his wrists bound tightly behind his back and ankles bound as well. His hands were completely numb, so he knew he must have been bound, and therefore unconscious, for several hours at the least. An icy feeling of dread settled in the pit of his stomach as he slowly opened his eyes to find that he was lying on the floor in the kitchen of the Rockbell home, and that all around him were the men who had taken him captive.
One of them looked over at Scar and saw that his eyes were open, "Hey, boss, he's up!"
The leader of the group walked over to where Scar lay, "So, the noble knight awakes," he saw Scar's blazing look of fury, and kicked the Ishbalan in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, "Such a bold look for someone in your position. Know your place, Ishbal rat."
Scar felt a low growl rise in his throat, but suppressed it, instead giving the floor a narrow-eyed glare of pure death.
"I suppose you're wondering where your friends are, hmmm? Well, they're out looking for you. Ain't that sweet? It's getting pretty dark…they should get back soon." There was the sound of a door opening, and footsteps coming inside. The man gave a smirk that Scar didn't like at all, saying quietly, "In fact, that would be them now. Time for the show."
The man grabbed a fistful of Scar's hair and hauled him up onto his knees, then drew a large knife from his belt and pressed the blade to the Ishbalan's throat. That was when everyone came around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks.
"Nobody move. Any alchemy, and he'll be dead before you can blink. All of you, sit on the floor and put your hands out in front of you where I can see them."
Ed clenched his fists tightly, "What the hell are you doing?"
"No asking questions," the man yanked back hard on Scar's hair, eliciting a small sound of pain from the back of the Ishbalan's throat, "Just do what I tell you, or your buddy here suffers the consequences."
Ed didn't move for a few seconds, looking torn, until slowly he sat down on the floor and held out his hands.
"Yeah, that's right, and the rest of you, now. Don't doubt that I'm serious here," the man pressed the knife a bit harder, drawing a small amount of blood, and the others quickly followed Ed's example. The man gave a nod to his followers, and they moved forward with rope and began to bind the wrists of their new captives. The man gave a barking laugh, "So, the life of an Ishbal rat is all it takes to capture the famed Fullmetal Alchemist. I'd been worried that it wouldn't be enough, when the girl got away. But it turned out all right in the end, didn't it? And now that I have two of the military's precious State Alchemists, they'll have to accede to our demands!"
"You're insane," Ed said softly.
"Maybe I am, kid, but I'm still getting my way, aren't I?"
Scar wasn't listening anymore. He could only pay attention to the horrified looks on the faces of the people who had helped him, and to the cold fury that was quickly rising in him. He was being used. Used as a tool to hurt those whom he did not wish to hurt. And he did not like it. He didn't even notice the faint red glow that was emanating from his right arm.
Al noticed it, "Niisan…"
"Yeah, Al, I know," Ed had also seen, but was pointedly looking in the other direction so as not to draw attention to it.
"Hey, quit whispering!" the man yanked on Scar's hair again, "You'll all shut up, unless you want me to start really hurting him."
Scar's right arm was beginning to glow more brightly, although the trenchcoat obscured most of the light. And his rage was mounting right along with it. He would NOT be used! He twisted his wrists around and grabbed onto one of the man's legs with his right hand, and before anyone knew what was happening there was an explosion of blood and crimson light, and everything dissolved into chaos. Blood everywhere…the man screaming…Scar didn't know what was happening anymore; since he was no longer being held up, he had fallen face-first back onto the floor, into the widening pool of blood spurting from what remained of the man's leg. It was everywhere…in his mouth, his nose, his eyes…he couldn't get up out of it and the screams filled his ears, drowning out all else. Then he was lifted from the ground, and carried away from the fighting and the blood and the screams.
"It's going to be all right now, Scar-san. Niisan and Armstrong-san have it all under control," Al's tone was comforting as he lay the blood-covered Ishbalan on the couch and untied his wrists and ankles and removed the gag from his mouth.
Scar's face wore an unreadable expression as he brought his right arm up, staring at it with an almost sad expression, "Am I so welcome here now, Alphonse Elric?"
A/N: -rants and raves at the computer screen- Nobody calls Scar-san that and gets away with it, not even my own characters! Burn and die, scum!
Scar: Oo; It's not that big a deal…I mean, I've already blown his leg off…
But he yanked on your hair and called you…called you…oh, I can't even say it…anyway, I don't think I've hurt him enough.
Envy: And you said you would make a terrible Homunculus because you weren't very violent!
But I'm not! Most of the time, anyway…Anywho, I'm having some trouble deciding what I'm going to do with the next chapter, so once again, I'm not sure how long it'll take. But I'm slightly calmer now, so I'll answer reviews.
crazyanimefreak15: I think he might have been a bit too busy afterwards, what with all the repeated savings of Ed and Al's sorry butts (well, Al was grateful, but Ed sure wasn't...). To Ed: Quit laughing, or I'll bring out the Chopsticks of Punishment again!
Anasazi Darkmoon: -collapses with laughter- That's so funny! And about those swimming lessons...(Scar: Only if Azzy over there doesn't come along...-glare-)
D.C talk: There should be, yes. There aren't nearly enough.
Moonglitter2: Well, this took a little longer, but I hope it was worth the wait.
no one's friend: XD May I quote that on my profile?
Darkness Shadow of Hatred: Hehehe...drowned rat boy...sounds like some kind of odd super hero/villain's name.
LadyRiona: It's working now, but you already know that. Ed's such a hypocrite, but I'll still be as careful with the awesome-awesome jacket as I can.
candidus-lupus-full Moon: Thanks much!