Disclaimer: Hmmm… let's all take a moment to pretend I own FMA………ok, now that that's done, I feel better. (No!)
A/N: Starting chapter 3 the same day I posted two. I'm obsessed. Lol, well it's just because I can't work on my other stories. (Cry). Well, I wanna thank you all for the reviews, and since I haven't gotten any asking me to change it from 1st person to 3rd person, I'm going to post this chapter as 1st person. Hope that doesn't bother any one. Well that's all for now. Bye!
Chapter 3: A Mirror Image
Al walked along the busy sidewalk, carrying sacks of groceries in his arms. Arkilus was lying towards the bottom of a sack, covered by two loaves of bread. As he walked, he hummed along to a song that his mother had taught him as a child, and ignored the looks he received.
"I hope brother likes broccoli… Oh well, he's eating it anyway," he snickered as he thought about Ed's reaction to the vegetable. Ed never liked vegetables, but Al wanted to try.
Suddenly his thoughts of Ed chocking down broccoli were interrupted as people began screaming at the end of the street. He hurried down the street, passed the people that were screaming and trying to hurry away.
"Excuse me," Al asked a lady he stopped. "Can you please tell me what's going on?"
The lady stared at him with wide eyes. "You're one of them! You're one of them! Be gone foul demon!" With that last comment she ran off, shouting how more were coming and that people should evacuate the city immediately.
"Demon?" Al asked himself, looking around at the dozens of people running away from the crowded main street where City Hall was. He waited a moment before walking again; ignoring the angry stares people shot his way.
"AL!" Al heard the voice of his brother from among the crowd. "Ed?" he asked, finally seeing the alchemist push past the people.
"Al… it's terrible… It's Ash… she's been kidnapped!" Ed said between breaths. He almost collapsed on the street, but Al hauled him off the ground before he could, leaving the grocery sacks forgotten; except for the one that held Arkilus, which he grabbed in his other hand.
"Where is she? Who kidnapped her? Why are all the people running away? Are you okay?" He fired question after question, but finally noticed the slash in his brother's stomach through his torn shirt.
"I'm fine. We have to find Ash!" Said Ed, being carried under his younger brother's arm. Al began running down the street, bumping into various people in the busy town. Each muttered hushed whispers that the demon had abducting a small boy, which sent Ed on a rampage.
X
Roy Mustang sat as his desk, his head lying on a stack of papers, his eyes closed. All night he had stayed up, waiting for a reply from Hawkeye, but she had never returned. It must've been only seven a.m., and usually Mustang would be in his office, busy working towards his promotion.
A bird landed on a branch outside the window, busy singing a song to bring in the morning, but Mustang didn't hear any of this-he was busy heavily sleeping while having an odd dream…
"Full Metal? What do you mean?" Mustang asked, looking at the boy in front of him and staring wide eyed.
"Exactly what I said Roy, and you may no longer call me Full Metal. I am Edward now," retorted the alchemist haughtily.
Mustang looked down at the pocket watch before him, the lion figure staring up at him. Inside he was confused, but on the outside he would never show anything other than strength…especially when women were around.
"Is this what you want Full Metal?" asked Mustang, ignoring Ed's earlier comment about being called Edward. "To leave and never return…what about the stone?"
Ed looked to his feet then back at Mustang. "I'll find another way. Me and Al and Ash will find it and we'll do it without sacrificing people. But after the last few weeks of this living hell, I refuse to be a dog of the military any longer."
And with that final comment, he turned away and walked out, leaving Mustang, open-mouthed, at his desk…
Roy awoke with a start and looked around his office. He sat up, wiping the drool from his mouth, and looked to the end of his desk for the pocket watch left there from his dream.
"It's just a dream, it won't be there," he told himself but he felt his heart jump up to his throat when he laid eyes on a pocket watch!
X
"ASH!" Yelled Ed, looking around for you. Al searched deeply into a dark forest, while Arkilus checked an abandoned house. Ed looked everywhere he could…but not traces could be found.
The burning question on his mind was who the woman was and why she wanted you. But he shook those thoughts aside so that he could look for you. He didn't know why, but finding you was a top priority, only in a different way than Al's thoughts.
"Thanks, Full Metal, for your little girlfriend. I believe she'll be quite useful for us," said the voice of a woman, and she snatched you in her arms and jumped out the window…
The very thought of what happened last night rang through his mind, and he busily tried to find an answer to it all. But he couldn't figure it out- you were just one girl, how can you be important to someone's plans?
"Brother! Hurry, quick! Arkilus found something!" Yelled Al with delight, and Ed immediately let his thoughts fall and followed his brother to the place where the chimera sat. In his mouth was the scrunchy that held your hair.
"She must've come this way! Come quickly Al!" Ed rejoiced, running down the first path he laid eyes on, hoping it was the right way.
X
A man stared into a crystal ball in a dark room. He snickered. "Good, they took the bait… Hawkeye set up the trap…" He said.
A woman with blonde hair saluted him with a quick "yes sir" and walked out.
"It's only a matter of time until the Full Metal Alchemist is out of my way and I can finally have those freaky powers she possesses. This plan will work perfectly." He said aloud, laughing again to himself, before he cleared the crystal ball and walked towards the window of his hut.
"Hughes!" called the man, and immediately a man rushed to him, carrying a picture in his hands.
"Here sir, and look at this cute new picture my wife sent me. Look at little Elicia isn't she so-"
"If you don't shut up about that brat and pay attention I'll send you to the gallows!" yelled the man, and immediately Hughes straightened up.
"What do you need me to do sir?"
The man turned away from Hughes and stared out the window. "Bring me the little wench, and make sure that the guards didn't leave a scratch on her. If she does not come willingly, you may drag her, but do not hurt her!"
Hughes stood in his place. "You mean Ash?"
"Yes Ash! Now go!"
Hughes saluted and turned away. "Yes Mustang." He said, and walked out the doorway and towards your room.
X
"Brother, we've been walking for hours… are you sure we're going the right way?" asked Al. Ed was dragging his feet along; the heat was getting to him.
"Um, I'm sure Earl. This is right." He said, making Al look at him weird.
"Who's Earl?"
But before either could say another word, they both stopped and listened, because they could have sworn they heard Ash's voice.
"Ed! Al! Is that you?" Ash asked; her voice barely audible from so far away.
Ed started running towards the voice. "Yes Ash, it's us! We're coming! Stay there!" he yelled.
He arrived to where she was and rushed to her side. She was tied to a tree, and her skin was a light red.
"Ed! Thank goodness you're here! Please get me down," she said, and he walked up the tree's roots and reached towards the ropes that bound her.
X
"Here you are sir, I brought Ash, just as you requested. And she doesn't have a scratch on her," said Hughes, leaving her there and saluting before walking out. She stood in front of the man that had told the woman to kidnap her, and tried to soak it all in.
"What do you want?" Ash finally found her voice.
He smiled and walked closer to her, but the darkness still concealed his face. He took a strand of her coal colored hair (which was down for the first time ever) and ran it between his pointer and middle finger.
He finally stepped into the light, and she gasped. "But…you're…Mustang!" she yelled. Although she had only known the Elrics for three days, Ed showed her a picture of the man he was working for- Mustang.
"Yes, and to answer your previous question…we need you because of the blood you have flowing through your veins…" He smiled again, but a twisted, evil smile.
"My blood?"
X
What's with her blood? Why is Mustang kidnapping Ash? Who did Al and Ed find? Find out soon!
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Fox Kitsune :Savannah: