Totally Screwed Transmutation
Disclaimer: I assure everyone that FMA is not mine.
Now we continue. It's funny. I wrote chapter 11 on a certain day, and then posted it like, 5 days after that. I mean, what's the meaning of my laptop then? Haha… but in any case, I'm still writing at least. For this one, I have a new title. I don't know whether it's going to be long or not, because I may decide to stop halfway… Should I do so again? Hee-hee. We'll see…
Chapter 12 Let Me Help You Erase the Pain… Please…
A nice, hot bath seemed to calm her down, and Edward was now lounged on the sofa (she had just cleaned it up from the previous night's coffee stains), totally relaxed.
Well, not totally. Her eyes maybe closed, but her ears were all at attention to detect the slightest noise. However, the only thing that she could hear was the clock ticking away on the wall… The clock was soon ticking in time to her heart beating… and then her breathing…
CLICK.
That sound jerked her awake, and imagine her surprise when the whole apartment was all dark, except for the moonlight shining.
Not to mention shining on the silhouette seated at the window.
Leaping up, she snarled and lunged for the shadowy figure, who quickly jumped aside and landed with a very heavy 'thump' on the floor behind her. In the dim light she caught him smirking, and dodged just quickly enough as it was his turn to charge at her.
Landing on the sofa, she almost flew off it again as the springs beneath her feet uncoiled. Caught off-guard just then, she could not help uttering a cry as her assailant slammed into her and she flew into the wall. The attacker bounced away from the wall in time, though Edward managed to hit the wall with her back, and not her head.
Which meant that all her breath got knocked out from her lungs, and for a moment the sick feeling of floating in the air came to her. She had just managed to breathe again, when a hand closed around her throat and lifted her up the wall, until her feet were dangling a few inches of the floor.
"…Blast you… Envy… Let… me go…" she spluttered and croaked out, all the while trying to kick out at the homunculus.
Envy chuckled, giving no indication to the kicks his was receiving. When he stopped, he was smirking again.
"What if I say no?"
Kicks getting weaker, Edward had no choice but to stop. Struggling to break free of the grip around her throat, she tried to pry the fingers halving her air supply. Envy chuckled again.
"It's useless, o-chibi-chan! You can never over-power me, never." His grip tightened. What fun it was to see the little pip-squeak, gasping for air, totally powerless. Humans. Utter weaklings they are.
Edward's face was slowly turning blue. With the last of her will power, she managed to clap her hands together and slap them against the wall. Envy's face quickly changed from grinning to snarling as two brick fists slammed into his chest, sending him flying this time.
Just as he got up, he was hit again by protruding wooden blocks; from the floor this time. 'She recovers fast… little minx…' and he lunged at her, this time avoiding spikes from the floor. He crashed into the surprised alchemist, who couldn't dodge in time.
They flew across the floor, right into the moonlit area just by the window. Edward was utterly winded; that was the second time she lost all the air in her lungs. That being nothing to Envy, he hoisted himself above her and pinned her down, arms and legs. He thought he saw a glimpse of despair flash across her eyes, but they seemingly disappeared as she struggled against his weight. Chuckling once again, he said in a soft, sneering tone right into her ear, "I told you it's useless; I'm now more powerful than you, chibi-chan. And… OH no you don't!" he stopped Edward's hand as she had picked up a small part of the wooden flooring and was scratching a transmutation circle beside them.
Edward could not possibly reach for anymore; they were all too far away, and then she stopped struggling. Throwing her fiercest look at Envy, she spat, "Well, I can't do anything else; Kill me then. I bet you've been waiting to do that for so long now…"
Envy chuckled all the more. When he finally stopped, he gave her his most amused look (which still probably looked more like a sneer than anything) and said, "Since when did I say I'd kill you, o-chibi-chan? Did you hear those words from my mouth then?"
He spotted something else other that his finger marks around Edward's throat, and then he smirked.
"Looks like someone's been up to some hanky-panky too, huh? Is it with that half-wit of a replacement? Eeew… haven't you considered his age yet? He's definitely about twice your age… though mine should be about quadruple…" He snorted, then leaned down till' they were nose to nose.
"…Too bad your darling Fuhrer ain't here to interrupt us… I'll just take full advantage of the situation, shall I?" And he lowered his head further to kiss Edward full on the lips.
Edward was too stunned. She froze in horror as the lips of the homunculus took hers, until her anger kicked in that she turned her head away. She earned a slap for that though, as Envy took both her hands into one of his, leaving the other hand free to strike his palm across her cheek.
"I never slapped; I reckon fists should do the actual talking, but you should really stop trying to struggle against me. I've already said that it's useless." He used his free hand to hold her head in place and continued to kiss her, harder this time.
Edward winced. First of all, Roy would never, NEVER do this to her (would he?) and Roy would never kiss her this hard either. The sharp teeth that Envy possessed didn't do much to help either. In fact, when he bit on her lower lip to gain entrance, she was positive that the lip was bleeding, though she didn't taste the familiar metal-like taste of the red substance. When she didn't relent, he broke apart again.
"Look, I found the resistance from you fun, but ONLY in fighting. Will you cut this out? I wonder if all pip-squeaks are like you…" He tried again, this time biting harder on her lip. She relented, and was shocked to find how… un-human like his tongue was. It wasn't even warm; in fact, his body was a few degrees colder than hers. Proof that he simply isn't human.
And his tongue… simply too long. She almost choked when he slid his tongue in, but he didn't push down her throat that's for sure. It could definitely reach there.
Envy was enjoying himself. Here was his best foe, and he, for once, had total power over the alchemist. Though he knew who he ought to thank for transmuting his foe into what she was now, he definitely won't stoop to that level. No, thanking someone, ANYONE, was simply out of the question.
He decided to take it once step further. Without breaking the kiss, his hand released her face and slowly started to unbutton her shirt.
Poor Edward. She couldn't do a single thing. Now that Envy's tongue was in her mouth, she couldn't pull away at all, no matter how hard she tried. She screwed her eyes tight as her shirt came unbuttoned…
Time: 10.42pm. Roy tucked his pocket watch into his right pocket and then reached into the other with his left hand for his keys. Fumbling with them, he actually dropped them once before being able to fit the correct one into the slot. Though after he opened the door and took his keys out of the door did he drop them again. The house didn't seem right. For one, the lights should still be on. He flicked them on. And didn't stoop to pick up the keys, which he was what he wanted to do. He gasped.
His floor was torn in different places; the wall suddenly had two arms and were frozen in the act of punching someone, whereas in between the two arms lay a big crack where something must have smashed into it pretty hard. The sofa was over-turned by the floor, and… was that…? Just lying by the window…
The top of Edward's shirt, a little torn and dust covered.
Roy blinked, then took in a deep breath to remain calm. He assumed that the… er… the extra features of his living room came as a result of Ed's alchemy in attempt to defend herself if that was the situation, and that it should be no problem, since alchemy was her strong point.
Then why, of all things, was her shirt lying torn and dusty on the floor? The window was open; the cool air blew in and disturbed the shirt on the floor. Had Edward jumped out of the apartment to pursue the attacker?
No, he crossed that out. For one, Ed would definitely NOT run around with her shirt off. Second, this was the second floor. If she still had her auto-mail limbs, she would have jumped out right away. Besides, the attacker would probably think twice about breaking a bone or two. And last of all, the most obvious one: who in the world would attack her, right here in his apartment? Burglars were totally out of the question: his house barely had any antiques or valuable items worth stealing. A burglar would be very disappointed and for the first time in his burglar's life, walk away empty-handed. So…
Where was Ed? And what the hell happened?
He stooped to pick up the shirt, and just then caught a sound other than the quiet ticking of the clock, one of the few things that escaped unscathed from the unknown fray. It sounded… like it was the shower. Was Edward in the shower? But what a time! And, judging from the shirt that he was holding, she had probably bathed earlier already. So what's she doing in the very, very cold shower?
He walked quietly towards the sound; the bathroom in his room. Funny. She never used his bathroom before. She always used the one in the kitchen.
As he approached his room, he realised that she didn't even lock the toilet door. It was wide open. Not wanting to intrude, he knocked on his own door to alert her his presence and cleared his throat.
"Er-hem… Edward? Are you alright? What are you doing bathing at this hour? And by the way, what happened?"
Silence, except for the water running. No response at all, whatever.
Roy took a tentative step towards the bathroom, and spoke again.
"Ed? Are you alright?" He took another step, then another, and more steps till' he reached the open bathroom. Still no response.
He didn't know whether to worry that Ed was either hurt or unconscious, whatever, inside, or that he should just walk in to check whether there was anybody there in the first place. It could have been that Edward was bathing halfway when she got attacked… but that wouldn't really explain how her shirt would get so torn and dirty…
Risking it, he stuck his head slightly into the bathroom and looked to the left.
True enough, the teen girl was inside. But at the sight of her, Roy panicked. She was on sort of seated on the floor, water running from the shower to have her all wet through. She didn't even bother to take off her bottoms; which was all she had actually. Her head was bent low, water running off her hair, which was rather messed up. Braid wasn't even loosen. And… was she? Scrubbing away at something.
It wasn't until Roy approached her carefully did he notice what she was scrubbing. It was her left arm. And she had scrubbed so hard, it was actually red and bleeding slightly. She still didn't notice him.
"ED!" Roy shouted and rushed to her. She still didn't notice him.
He took her by the shoulders and gave a good shake, and was shocked. The water was cold. Very cold. She still didn't notice him. Roy was horrified. As he looked into her face, he was deeply aware that her eyes… her eyes…
Were terribly blank and opened wide.
He gave a small cry, then turned off the shower before snatching a big towel from the towel rack. He wrapped the towel around the soaked and shivering girl and hauled her off the floor. This was easy; even with wet clothes, she was still considerably light.
She was shivering in the cold. It was raining… and somehow she had managed to get herself very dirty and slimy. She panicked, not knowing where and how she got there, and tried her hardest to remove the dirt and grime. But no matter how hard she scrubbed, the stains just won't go away. There was one thing floating through her mind though; it repeated itself over and over: Envy. She found herself getting dirtier and dirtier, and scrubbed all the more to remove the grime, but it was getting worse.
Just then something wrapped around her; with a start, thinking it was Envy, she started screaming.
"Edward!" Roy sank to his knees.
She was screaming and thrashing about in the towel that he had wrapped around her; in order not to drop her, he sank to the floor and tried to shake her out of her trance. She was still screaming things, like "Let me go!" and "No more!"
Positively shocked, Roy tried shaking harder, using his voice to jerk her out of it.
"Ed! Edward! Come on! You're alright! Snap out of it! ED!" With the last word he hugged her firmly so as to stop her from struggling.
Amazingly, she did. Stop, that is. He peeled her away from his body; now his clothes were damp. Looking into her eyes, he saw with relief that the golden eyes were no longer blank, but they still looked wild. She was panting; her bleeding arm now staining his towel. But she didn't notice. She didn't even seem to recognise him as yet.
He used a hand to push one of her bangs, almost in her eyes, out of the way, then said to her in a soft, soothing voice, "Ed… It's me, Roy. Are you ok? What happened? Tell me."
A spark of recognition flashed in the golden orbs, as they started moving in their sockets to take in the face she was seeing. At last, she managed to fix her eyes on his black ones, and croaked, "…Roy…?"
Before he could nod or respond, she had thrown her arms around him and was shaking in his embrace. She was mumbling something; but speaking into his chest did not help make the words clearer. He heard things like "him", "came" and "could do nothing", and pulled her away.
"What are you saying? I couldn't hear…" he searched her eyes. They still looked wild, but it was better than being blank.
Edward was still shaking; tears were about to spill, but miraculously she could hold back the tears from flowing. Roy sighed; Edward needed to cry sometimes, and should let the tears go. But she always didn't.
"…It… it was… E-Envy… He… he came…"
She broke off as Roy hissed in a sharp intake of breath. "Envy, you say? What did he want? Did he do anything to you? Are you hurt? You fought him back, right?" He remembered the alchemical transmutations in his living room.
To his greatest alarm, her held back tears finally flowed; she hung her head low, not wanting Roy to see them and was now shaking harder than ever.
"…I tried… I fought… but he was… was too quick… he caught me… and… and…" She tried to continue, but the memory of it itself was far too painful. She broke off there, causing Roy to lift her face and question her, "What did he do?"
She stifled a sob; being unable to continue speaking, she pulled off a bit of the towel to emphasise her point. Roy actually snarled at what he saw. All across her shoulder were bite-marks – the homunculus had left them all over. By the look of it, though Envy may not have noticed, the bite-marks look rather painful; some were actually puncture wounds that were caused by sharp teeth. Roy painfully noted that Edward had been assaulted; he caught her in an embrace again, hoping that it would ease her shaking.
She was talking again; as she shaking subsided, she was talking into his chest, but he heard what she was trying to say.
"…I couldn't … couldn't do anything… I tried… can't… can't break free… held my arms… couldn't do alchemy… couldn't fight back… couldn't…" Then, as if a bit of anger spread through her, she started thumping her fist on him.
"WHY! I couldn't do anything! Is it because I'm like this? …No… I don't want to remain like this…I hate this… Change me back… CHANGE ME BACK!" She started sobbing again, and Roy grimaced as waves of guilt washed and slammed into him, as she continued to thump her fist on him.
"…Why… why am I like this… I… I don't know what I'm doing… why am I doing this…" her thumping grew weaker, and Roy caught her fist in his hand, then hugged her all the tighter.
It was his fault of course. He was the one responsible. The guilt in his stomach was so great, he felt like puking. But he knew he had to do something, something in return. He needed to protect the now vulnerable alchemist in his arms.
He pulled her away from him again; her head was hung low, and he lifted her face to look at him. The tears were still flowing; he used his thumb to wipe away the wet streaks across her cheeks. As he looked into those saddened and pained eyes of hers, he made up his mind. He had to do something.
"Ed…" he brushed the other bang out of her eye. "…Will you… will you let me erase your pain?"
LOL. I was typing this chapter halfway when I received the review alert from Shingo-sama. Man, you are VERY fast. Or do you actually stay online all the time? Haha…
And sorry, I realised I HAD to break off here. TOO LONG! I was thinking of making it a one chapter thing, but I realised if I continue to write, what with descriptions and everything, it's gonna hit 15 pages or over. I definitely don't want that. Besides, people should be happy; it is already 8 pages long! So… until the next chapter then. Poor, poor Ed… .