Chapter 5: A Gathering of Clouds
A/N: Thanks once again to Mint Pizza Queen for beta-ing, and to Shiburu Neko (I'm too tired to look up how its actually spelled, so please forgive me if I spelled it wrong) for loving it, and plugging it. We are engaged in a mutual love fest here. Now if only the rest of you gentle readers would review... :picks up the Hellspork:
The room went quiet as Scar entered a few steps behind Alphonse. All heads, save four, turned towards the Ishbalan, watching him intently.
Two of the heads that did not turn belonged to Izabel and her brother, who was seated at a low table with the owners of the other two heads. Both children, though both older than Abraham. One was a dark haired boy of perhaps ten, the other an older girl with dishwater blond hair and a pair of wire-framed glasses. Slowly, she turned her head to look at what had caused the sudden quiet. Her eyes were green. There was something faintly familiar about the face.
"Elysia, I don't get this one." Abraham said, still not looking up as he slid a piece of paper across the table towards the girl. She blinked, her attention once again gone from Scar.
Alphonse hadn't stopped walking towards the door at the other end of the room, and Scar wisely decided to keep following him.
Heads turned as they went, silently accusing. He had no friends here.
Alphonse opened the door to the quiet office. A dark haired man was sitting behind the desk, light reflecting off his glasses. "Wait outside, Al, and shut the door." He said, folding his hands on top of his desk.
Alphonse's back stiffened, and he looked like he was going to protest. Scar moved past the younger man, and into the dark office. The door shut behind him, and he was immediately aware of someone very large taking up a lot of space against the wall behind him. However, he didn't turn to look. The man looked up at him, then slowly raised a hand and pointed to a chair. His expression was utterly unreadable.
Scar remained standing, waiting
The man picked up a folder on his desk and tossed it at the Ishbalan, who caught it easily. He glanced at the name on the filing tab and felt his blood run cold. Of course, they would have a file on him. It only made sense. Nevertheless, to see it, to feel the weight of it in his hands, that was something different.
"I trust Al's judgement." The man said, his tone soft, but his eyes hard as they met Scar's. "I think he knows what he's doing. But he is a very forgiving soul. A good person."
A large, heavy hand came to rest on Scar's shoulder. It was covered in alchemic tattoos.
"I'm going to let you walk out of this office for his sake. I recommend you remember that. Let him go, Grace."
The hand slipped away, and Scar heard the door opening behind him.
"Take the file with you. I think you should find it… fascinating."
The hand came to rest on Scar's shoulder again, but lightly this time. "Time to go." the owner said in badly accented Ishbalan. He turned to look into the owner's face, but found himself face to chest instead. He had to look up. A Xianian, but an unusually tall one. He'd never heard of any of them coming this far west. Her dark eyes flashed for just a moment with something resembling sympathy.
On the other hand, maybe it was just a trick of the light. She was certainly unsympathetic when she shoved him out of the office.
He could see the worried look on Alphonse's face replaced by one of relief, then annoyance as he caught sight of the folder. "Lovely."
The girl was watching him through her bangs.
A man – really little more than a boy – came running in, red faced and out of breath. "Another—" he gasped, looking towards Alphonse. "Tree… Just outside of Tully's."
It was Izabel who was out of the door first, leaping over her desk and nearly running over the messenger. Alphonse didn't take long to follow, stopping only a moment to grab Scar's hand and drag him along. Despite her much shorter legs, Izabel remained well in the lead, though whether this was because she was just faster or because Alphonse had to lead Scar, the Ishbalan did not know. The military complex gave way to Central's well-ordered streets, then to the dirty, winding Warrens, the poor sector. Here was where the Ishbalans who came to Central lived.
"How… does she-" Scar gasped. How long had it been since he'd made such a mad dash? It felt like his chest was on fire.
"Less talking. More running." Alphonse gasped out, still holding on to Scar's hand. Izabel was no longer in sight, but the Alchemist knew where he was going.
Izabel ignored the corpse for the moment, and the other officers, and everything else. Now there was only the work. She drew out her chalk and crouched in front of the bar's door. "Everyone back," she said, pressing the chalk to the cracked flagstones. A part of her mind noted that nobody argued. These men knew what happened when they argued with her.
She walked slowly, bent over so the chalk made a solid line. The circle encompassed the corpse ('He's got a little boy in Abe's class.' The non-Alchemist part of her mind pointed out) and the spreading pool of blood. She stepped into the circle and began filling in the complex array. She had to work quickly, before the resonance faded. This time, she would catch the killer's face.
She heard Alphonse and Scar arrive, but that didn't matter.
The array was done.
Scar watched with a kind of horrified fascination as Izabel pressed her fingers to the array she was crouched in the middle of. It flared briefly, and a shadowy shape appeared at the edge, by the door to the bar. The shadow bore more than a passing resemblance to a corpse.
The shadow turned towards the door and waved, walking away. Another shadow, a large, cloaked shadow, approached the staggering one. As the first reached where the corpse laid, the cloaked shadow's arm lashed out, and a large hand caught his face. There was a flash, and a spray of gore, and the shadow man fell where the corpse lay.
The glow of the array faded completely, and Izabel swore foully in Ishbalan.
Alphonse released Scar's hand. "Damn." He murmured, pulling out a cigarette.
"He used my…" Scar said softly.
"Yeah." Alphonse stepped into the array and crouched next to the body. "Adolph Wallick, Tree Alchemist. Specialized in plant alchemy. He was working on a method of urban farming."
"He's got a son." Izabel added.
Scar looked down at the corpse. The trauma had burst one eyeball, and blood was congealing around the other eye, mouth, nose, and ears. A livid bruise spread out from the shattered nose and across the cheekbones. It was very familiar to Scar.
He looked so very young. He would have been a child during the Ishbalan campaign.
"Scar. Hood." Alphonse hissed, standing up straight.
Scar immediately put up the hood of his jacket and looked around.
The approaching man was someone important. His uniform was ostentatious, covered in medals and braid. He looked at Izabel and sniffed derisively, and he didn't even bother to acknowledge Scar. "Major Elric, I believe it is time you and your…" he sneered, "friends were off."
"Brigadier General Wagner?" Alphonse said, his eyebrows drawing together. "I am the investigating officer, sir."
"Not anymore." Wagner said. "You've wasted enough time with your idiotic theories and your Ishbalan sympathies. Of course, it is only to be expected, I suppose." He sneered again at Izabel, who had her back to the General. Scar could see her face. It bore the kind of look that could have boiled lead. Her hands were shaking as her put her chalk away. Suddenly, Scar felt a bit more sympathy for the young heretic. How much was this job really worth to her, that she would tolerate this?
Alphonse was rather clearly displeased with the general and his tone as well. His knuckles were white, and there was something about the way he smiled with his cigarette clenched in his teeth. "Is that so?" he said coldly. "And to whom should I give my case files?"
"I will send my aid by to pick them up directly. Dismissed, Major."
"Yes. Sir." The 'sir' came out very forced. Something about the way Alphonse said it made Scar's hair stand on end. "Major Ishtar, are you ready?"
Izabel walked past the general without a word to anyone, bracelets and bangles chiming musically as she went. Alphonse put a hand on Scar's shoulder and jerked his head in the direction she had gone, and then followed. Scar followed slowly behind the Alchemist, studying the general. Something about the man was familiar.
The two Alchemists and the Ishbalan walked back to the headquarters in silence, Izabel still visibly trembling with rage, right up until they saw Lt. Colonel Fury and his Xianian shadow standing on the steps of the building.
"He's only going to make things worse." Alphonse growled.
"I didn't have a choice, Major." Fury said. "You know that."
Something in Alphonse's tone made the Xianian giant step in front of Fury. This was a good thing, as Izabel chose that moment to loose what control she had left. She launched herself at him, screaming obscenities that managed to surprise even Scar with their venom.
She was fast.
Grace and Alphonse were faster.
Scar didn't even have time to react before the Xianian giant caught the Ishbalan woman in the stomach with a kick that sent her flying back. Before she had time to recover, Alphonse had grabbed both her hands and forced them behind her back. With careful calculation, he knocked her legs out from under her, laying her out flat and knelt on her back. Fury cleared his throat, keeping Grace between himself and the still struggling woman.
"What is she saying?" Fury asked.
"I don't know." Allophones said.
"You don't want to know." Scar added quietly. Grace nodded.
Where had she picked up that kind of language?
Scar thought it wise to keep well away from Izabel and to just listen. He was actually picking up quite a lot of information by doing that. In addition, he was even expanding his vocabulary.
He began putting things together as Alphonse tried to calm Izabel down.
Brigadier General Wagner did not like Ishbalans. In addition, he had done his best in the past to make sure Izabel suffered. Moreover, his parents were a she-dog and a drunken camel that had not married. Now he was going to foul up her case.
"Izabel, will you please calm down?" Alphonse pleaded.
"Bastard…" Izabel growled. She stopped struggling, going limp suddenly. "He doesn't care what he does to us…"
"Izzy?" The clear tones of a young boy's voice rang out. Abraham walked down the steps, his red eyes wide as he looked at the gathered adults. Alphonse released Izabel, who got shakily to her feet. The boy was at her side in a flash, a hand wrapping around hers.
"Abraham, akushla…" she murmured, stroking the boy's black curls.
"What happened?" the child asked in Ishbalan.
"The Beast makes things worse, as always." Izabel replied. "Alphonse, may I impose upon you to watch my brother tonight? I fear I require some time alone to collect my thoughts." She was still stroking Abraham's hair, but there was a far off look in her eye that boded no good for anyone who got in her way.
"Sure. No problem." Alphonse said. "Right, Abe?"
Abraham looked up at his sister, then to Alphonse, and nodded slowly. Reluctantly, Izabel planted a kiss on her brother's forehead. "All is settled, then. My apologies, Lt. Colonel. Major Choi." She rested a hand on Abraham's head a moment longer before leaving.
She was not headed towards the Barracks.
Scar saw Fury and his bodyguard exchange looks, and saw the man nod. The Xianian took off after the Ishbalan with the kind of speed and quiet one would not normally attribute to someone so large.
"Brigadier General Wagner's brother was a State Alchemist, you know." Fury said to Alphonse. "Killed several years ago. The killer was never punished." His dark eyes caught Scar's.
'I am not ashamed of what I've done.' Scar thought, knowing that his thoughts showed on his face. 'And nothing you do will make me ashamed.'
"Let's go." Alphonse said, putting a hand on Abe's shoulder. "I'd rather not get rained on."
Scar glanced up at the sky and noticed for the first time the gathering rain clouds.
Abraham Ishtar was eight years old, and his world was one of absolute certainty.
Ishbala was in heaven, and Imandote was his prophet upon the earth.
His sister was the prettiest girl in the world.
Elysia Hughes, the second prettiest girl in the world, would one day be his wife.
Azazel was the earthly incarnation of Satan.
And Alphonse Elric was the perfect man for his sister.
Scar threw this last certainty into doubt.
Now, Abe was considerably more observant than most people gave him credit for. Just because he didn't blab about every little thing he saw (unlike that annoying baby Klaus) didn't mean he didn't notice things.
Like how Al watched Scar. Or how Scar watched Al.
Or how Azazel had been banished to the balcony. Al never banished Azazel to the balcony, not even for his brother.
And this told Abraham many things that he did not particularly like. These were things that threw off all his plans.
"Okay!" Al said, clapping his hands together. "We're having 'serve yourself' finger food. Dig in." He waved a plate and gently swept an inquisitive kitten off the table.
Abe looked at Scar. The old man was sitting very still. Claudia had wrapped herself around his shoulders, and was currently contemplating biting his ear. Abe could tell by the way that her tail was twitching. Scar was ignoring her. He was watching Al eat.
'What,' Abe wondered, 'is so interesting about how he eats?'
"It's gonna get cold, you know." Al pointed out. This seemed to startle Scar out of whatever he was thinking.
Abe decided that what he needed was a sounding board for his thoughts, someone who could help him. He looked around, more for show than anything, as he put the idea forming in his mind into words. "You know, Mrs. Hughes has a guest bedroom, and this place is so small with everyone…"
Scar had been in Central almost four days now. He had spent most of those four days noticing things. One of the things he had noticed about Alphonse Elric was that he paced when he was thinking.
And he always had a lit cigarette on hand. However, he'd only get in a couple of puffs. The rest of it burned away as it dangled from his fingers.
That was what one was doing now, as the Alchemist was talking on the phone with this 'Mrs. Hughes'.
"If you're sure it's no trouble… Yeah, it was somewhat sudden for me too, but it was a bit of an emergency… She's with Grace... No, she didn't... I was there, Gracia, and I assure you, she would never do something like that… no matter how badly she wants to... Well, I do too… You have no idea how huge a help this is… Why does everyone keep saying that? Honestly. Thank you, Gracia. I'll see you later."
Scar glanced at the cause of the conversation, who was staring at him intently, a slight frown on his face. "What?" Scar growled, turning his full attention on the boy.
"Nothing."
Scar scowled. The boy was lying. He carefully removed the beast that had attached itself to his neck and let it rejoin the rest of the infestation.
"Elysia's going to pick you up, Abe." Al called from near the kitchen.
That got an interesting reaction out of the boy.