You all just about gave this poor author a heart attack! I just got home and saw my inbox with lots of reviews that I thought I really did irritate the lot of you! Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but what the hell…Let's do it tonight…
I do hope I was able to describe the range well enough in this chapter...I actually had to draw a blueprint for it when I was writing this!
All I have to say to everyone who wanted to see more of William: You got it!
I think this one will throw you ALL for a loop (evil laughter)…
I can already hear the mass WTF in the background!
Chapter Twenty-Two
The sun shone high in the midday sky as the teenage girl stepped off the train. Winry looked around at her familiar settings and happily sighed; she never thought she would be so happy to return to Central Headquarters. The past few weeks had been hard on her. As the train she rode on to Rush Valley stopped in a small town to pick up new passengers, Winry hid herself as best she could when she realized the brothers boarded. Of all the luck! That is why she also pushed her way past them in the train station and didn't turn around to apologize; she would be found out even before she could begin. Edward did not give up his search for the 'girl who knew too much' during her time in Rush Valley, and it seemed everyday ended up in a chase through town. She refrained from using alchemy each time, as she didn't want to give him any ideas as to who she could be, but apparently it didn't deter him from pursuing her. She was able to get away almost every time with the help of Al, who would usually cover up for her. At one point during one of their last chases, Winry thought she was done for when she fell on one of the rooftops. Edward grabbed her right ankle, but was unable to do anything as she quickly kicked at him, landing a nice hit to his face. She felt bad as he sat there and cursed her, holding his face, but she knew he would be okay as she ran off.
Shortly after came the rumor of the loud woman and her large husband taking the boys from the city. The moment Winry heard the rumor she cringed, knowing that their sensei would give the brothers hell. Finally, though, Winry would have some decent time to do some research on the Philosopher's Stone, without the interruption of Edward and Alphonse. There wasn't as much information as she would have hoped, but was finally directed to a small house north of Dublith; home to a woman named Dante. Winry made the trek there, concealing her identity in case the boys were still around the area, but was disappointed when she arrived at the empty house. Asking questions to nearby neighbors resulted in no new information; just that the woman was killed not too long ago. Lyla, Dante's apprentice, was nowhere to be found. Many were worried she may have been kidnapped, and wished for her safety. Winry assured many of them that if she found the apprentice that she would help her in any way she could.
"Lady, could you move it? You're blocking the exit…" came the voice of an irate man behind her."Oh, sorry," Winry blushed as she apologized and walked further into the train station. She quickly hailed a taxi, and directed the driver to drop her off at the headquarters.
Winry stepped out of the taxi and dropped off her bag in her room before she proceeded to Colonel Mustang's office with her report. She arrived at the double doors minutes later and knocked lightly. Second Lieutenant Havoc answered the door and smiled when he realized who the visitor was. Winry reached up and gave the man a large hug, and walked into the office to face the Colonel and the rest of her fellow soldiers.
"Winry! Good to see ya!" called out Breda, standing up and giving the teenager a hug. Both Sergeant Fury and Warrant Officer Falman approached and hugged the teenager, as Black Hayate, First Lieutenant Hawkeye's dog, barked happily by their feet.
"Your hair! I knew you had cut it, but when did you dye it?" questioned Fury, as he cocked his head to look at the girl's changes.
"I did it a few hours before I left for Rush Valley. What are you trying to say, Cain, do you not like it?" Winry said jokingly, holding up a fist in the soldier's direction. He quickly held up his hands in defeat and took his seat. Winry looked up to see Hawkeye approaching her, and she quickly retrieved all of her guns and placed them on a nearby desk. Hawkeye smiled at the girl's actions and quickly inspected each weapon, dismantling them and rebuilding them in a matter of seconds.
"Better than I expected. You really did learn something, didn't you?" the older officer laughed as she handed the guns back to the teenager. Winry replaced all of her guns in their holsters and walked up to Mustang's desk, who had been watching the whole ordeal with amused interest.
"Interesting choice of color. You weren't joking when you said you were changing a few things…" he said, commenting on the girl's hair. Winry blushed slightly; she never knew when he was complimenting or teasing her. The girl quickly went through her report, telling him everything from the chases at Rush Valley to the empty house and murder of Dante near the town of Dublith. The colonel sat quietly for a few moments after Winry finished her report, contemplating the amount of information that he had just received. The phone rang while he deliberated, surprising everyone in the room. Lieutenant Hawkeye quickly answered it, and turned towards the Colonel as her face became serious.
"Colonel, the tiger has made his move."
Mustang looked over to his next in command and realized what she said. He quickly stood up, nodded to her, and walked out of his office to the direction of the Fuhrer's office. Hawkeye saw everyone look at each other in confusion, "Don't even ask. I'm not telling you anything."
Winry opened the door to her room and smiled to herself as she saw her bag still sitting on the bed. Well, at least I won't have to pack, she thought to herself, as she lifted the bag and set it on the floor. She remember sitting in Mustang's office, chatting with her friends, when he finally came back from the Fuhrer's office. He looked around at the group and announced that they would be heading to Eastern Headquarters by train early the next morning. Winry didn't really know what was going on in Eastern, but she trusted Mustang and would follow him under his lead.
Walking over to her bookshelf, Winry picked up some tools, sat down at her desk, and turned the light on. For the next hour she checked out every single aspect of her automail, making sure there were no problems. Finally finished with her inspection and repairs, she gently squeezed oil from a small container into her joints, helping to prevent them from freezing in place.
Winry leaned back in her chair and stared outside the window to see it was late in the afternoon. She really didn't have anything else to do in this town. All of her supplies for her automail were good, so she didn't need to go shopping. She had tried to call the Hughes' residence only to find that the two girls must be out shopping. Winry sighed to herself in boredom before letting her gaze drift to her bed to where she had laid her guns. A little gun practice wouldn't hurt, she smiled to herself as she quickly holstered them and bounded out the door.
The outdoor gun range was pretty much empty except for a few soldiers showing off their guns to each other. They were by one of the two rectangular tables that sat on each end of the shooting range, which were usually used for cleaning guns after practice. The men turned and frowned when they noticed the girl walk into the range, and quickly returned to their boasting, ignoring her. Winry snickered to herself at their actions; she would really rather not speak to them anyway. She walked up to one of the empty stalls towards the back tall wall and removed her guns, setting them on the available ledge in front of her. She could barely hear the everyday activities happening on the other side of the twenty-foot wall, which had been erected for safety reasons. Pressing a button on her right side made a small mechanical hook zoom towards her, and she attached a piece of paper with an outline of a person onto it. Pressing the button again made the hook and paper zoom back to a distance away from the shooter.
Winry left her guns momentarily to retrieve a pair of goggles that hung on poles placed by every few stalls. She quickly returned to her guns and slid the goggles onto her face, and stared calmly at the paper that gently waved in the wind. Seconds later, the teenager snatched one of her guns from the ledge and quickly shot six shots in a row, slammed down her gun to retrieve another one, and continued shooting until she went through all four guns. As the echoing sounds of gunfire settled, she pressed the button to send the piece of paper zooming back towards her as she slid the goggles to the top of her forehead. Unhooking it, she examined the bullet holes, noticing that she still needed some improvement, though not very much.
"Nice job, I'm glad I wasn't the target," came a familiar voice from behind her. The distraction startled the teenager as she whirled around to find it was William looking over her shoulder. She roughly pushed him back, surprising him slightly, and caught her breath.
"Jesus, don't do that! What if I would have had a gun in my hand?" she yelled at him. The conversation she had with Maes the night he died rang through her ears, as she stared at the soldier. The painful memories brought tears to her eyes, though she would not let them fall.
"Well, I guess I'd be dead then, wouldn't I? With shots like that, I would definitely be a goner," he joked as he scratched the back of his head. Noticing the girl's change in attitude surprised him slightly, "What's wrong? Did I really scare you that bad?"
Winry glanced to her side to see the group of bragging soldiers were gone. She began to regret her decision to come out to the range today.
"Winry, what's wrong?" William asked quietly. He had never seen his friend act so strange.
"It's nothing," she mumbled, as she turned around to reload her guns, keeping her eye on him the entire time, "don't worry about it."
"Well, I like your hair. It's kind of a shock to see it at first, I almost didn't recognize you, but it looks good nonetheless…" he said quietly after a few moments of silence. Winry heard him shift slightly behind her, shoved the cartridge in her last gun, and quickly whirled around pointing it at his face. The soldier threw his hands up in the air as a sign of surrender, "What the hell has gotten into you?" he yelled at the teenager.
Keeping the gun in her hand pointed at him, Winry quickly felt behind her for her other loaded guns and holstered them in their places, then returned her hand to the gun. She stayed silent, studied the soldier's surprised face, and narrowed her eyes.
"Just who are you…" she sneered at the man, keeping her aim at his head.
"What are you talking about? Are you crazy?" the soldier became slightly worried. With her having him in her direct sight, it would be difficult for him to pull his own weapons out to defend himself.
"I just find it kind of funny," Winry began, "that when I visited Rush Valley a few weeks ago, I did some research on the Ishbal conflict. You're aware of what it was, aren't you?"
"Yes, I've read about it, I was still a child when it happened though…"
"Did you know that the rebellion was caused," she continued, not paying attention to his response, "by a soldier who was staying there? He shot a helpless Ishbal child. The interesting thing about this is that the soldier should've been dead two years before the rebellion…"
"Yes, I agree it's strange, but would you please put down the gun?"
"Here is another curious thing. The soldier should've been dead, but the name was never removed from the military records, and is supposedly still in active duty," Winry saw the look in William's eyes become less worried, and it frightened her. "So, I looked you up in your hometown of Rush Valley, Chadwick, and realized you no longer sport the small scar on the left side of your neck that you got when you were a teenager. What happened to it?"
William looked at the teenage girl and began to slightly laugh, surprising her. "You are just like your friend I got rid of," he said as he moved his hand over his neck, and with a flash of light caused a small scar to appear on the skin, "you notice too many small details."
Winry narrowed her eyes as anger began to flow through her veins, "You were the one who killed Maes…"
"Of course I killed him," he said, as his blue eyes glimmered in the setting sun's rays, "though it's too bad. I was told I couldn't kill you, but they didn't say anything about having fun with you first." Winry fired a shot as William lunged towards her. The shot went straight into his forehead and he fell back into a lifeless heap. Winry gasped for breath as she realized what she had done and braced herself against a pole for support. She turned away from his lifeless body and holstered her gun. She had never killed anyone before, not even during the nighttime brawl in New Heissgart. Her nerves were making her body shake. As she tried to calm herself down, a hand came from behind her to cover her mouth, while another one wound around her arms and waist, and pulled her back into a body. She struggled against the person, but wasn't strong enough to break free from their grip. Her arms were down by her side, and she was unable to free them to swing back.
"You won't kill me that easily, kid. Your friend found that out the hard way," came William's voice from behind her as he placed his chin on her shoulder. Anger coursed through her veins at the thought of Maes's death. Without warning, Winry bit down on the hand that held her mouth, and used her hand to free one of the knives strapped to her legs. William yelled as he yanked his hand away from her mouth and loosened his grip on her stomach, giving her enough space to move. She quickly grabbed the knife strapped to her right leg and shoved it behind her, slicing his gut. She heard him gasp and step back, as she twisted her body from his grip.
Winry whirled around to see the long gash across the soldier's stomach bleeding down his uniform. She quickly grabbed the other knife from her left leg and prepared to fight him. She saw him look up at her and smile, "You're more stubborn that I thought," he sneered as his gash began to mend itself.
"You know, I find it funny that a lot of people say that!" Winry yelled as she ran towards the soldier. He quickly dodged her attack and landed ten feet or so away from her; the gash on his stomach now fully healed.
"What are you?" she asked, as she noticed his fast healing. She saw him produce two knives equally as big as hers and smile at her.
"I guess the little girl wants to play instead of run, eh? Not that I'd let you run anyway--" A noise caused William to turn his head towards the front of the shooting range to see Sergeant Fury staring at them; the young soldier's eyes were wide with surprise and confusion at the scene before him. "Looks like I've got another one to play with…I can kill this one though…kind of makes up for not being able to kill you," he laughed as he began to run towards the surprised Sergeant.
"NO! CAIN, RUN!" Winry yelled as she ran after William. Just as he was about to reach Fury, Winry threw one of her knives at him, sinking it in his back. This stopped Chadwick long enough for Fury to regain his senses and run out the door. William turned back towards Winry and sneered, pulling the knife from his back and tossed it to the side, "Oh, dear me. Now you've only got one knife to my two. Whatever shall you do?"
Winry looked to the knife that had been thrown by a pole to her left. Without wasting any time she took off full speed towards the pole, surprising William. Realizing she was running for her knife, he quickly leapt towards it, but was met with an automail foot, as Winry instead grabbed the pole with one hand and swung around it to kick him. The force of her kick caused him to fly back into one of the rectangular tables used for cleaning guns. William slowly stood up next to the table and stretched out his arms, "Well, that was a surprise now, wasn't it. How about another one, eh?"
Winry cocked her head at the weird statement, but was surprised when a light began from the top of his head and worked its way down to his feet. When the light finally disappeared, she saw a completely different person standing in the same spot. He, as she guessed it was a man, was very slender and had a very tight fitting black shirt and shorts on. His black hair was long and spiky underneath the headband he wore.
"Ahhh…" he said as he stretched some more, "I can fight much better like this than being in those heavy uniforms…I just don't see how you guys can do it all the time…"
Before Winry could react, the man ran towards her with lightning speed and knocked her into one of the shooting stalls. Her back slammed into the ledge, causing her to yelp in pain. She sliced the area in front of her with her knives, hoping to slice her attacker if he was still too close, but felt them go through thin air. She quickly stood up and looked around, not seeing the man anywhere around her. She quickly sheathed her knives and withdrew the two bigger guns, and pushed herself against one of the stall walls.
Breathing heavily, Winry glanced around without moving too much, trying to locate her enemy. A few moments passed with no incident. Winry was hoping he might have gone away when she heard snickering above her. Perched on top of the thin wall was the man, crouched down while he was looking at her. She quickly moved from the wall and shot a few shots towards her attacker. Three of the shots hit him and stopped him for a few split seconds, but she could see his wounds healed faster than the gash she gave him earlier.
"Awww…you make it look like you don't remember an old friend! How heartless…" he pouted.
"What are you talking about?" Winry yelled to him as she backed towards the table. She would have rather run for the door, but he would have caught her in no time with his speed. Suddenly, images from her faded memories flooded her mind, causing her to lean back slightly on the table.
"Wait…You are….you're that guy…" Winry said quietly, trying to remember who her attacker was. Her automail limbs itched with a slight pain. "You're the guy who showed up at my house that one day…" her eyes narrowed with anger as she holstered her guns; she now knew they would be of no use in this fight.
"You're the one who took my arm and leg…It's because of you that I have automail now…" she sneered. The man yawned in boredom as the girl became angrier with him. "You're a…a homunculus…"
"Geez, it took you long enough. Well, let's get this over with. Pretty soon it will be dark, which will make fighting you no fun…" Smiling slightly, the attacker ran towards the girl with his knives. She was able to jump up on the table to dodge his attack, but had to back up quickly as he followed her onto the table. The two stood within arm's reach of one another and stared at each other. Winry backed up quickly as he slashed at her with one of his knives. She reached the end of the table and used her automail arm to deflect one of his attacks. Another got by and barely sliced her cheek. She felt the blood trickle down her face as she back flipped off the table, and quickly jumped on the next one.
"You really think you can escape me? I was able to get you last time, wasn't I?" he said as he jumped down and up onto her table. She again retreated to the edge and kneeled down, lowering her head.
"Finally, I thought you were never going to give up!"
He heard Winry chuckling slightly as she kept her head lowered, "Who said anything about giving up?" Before he had a chance to react, she clapped her hands together and slammed them to the wood of the table, then jumped off. The wood instantly began to wrap itself around her attacker's limbs, preventing him from moving. He seemed surprised and tried to pull himself out of his bonds.
"Nice work, I'm somewhat impressed. But you are forgetting one thing…" the homunculus said as he laughed slightly. Within seconds he transformed himself into a child small enough to wiggle out of the wooden bonds, and back to his prior look. He walked to the edge of the table that hadn't transformed and kneeled down to look at the surprised teenager, "I can change shape."
Winry gasped as he jumped down instantly and grabbed her by the wrists, "Maybe I should try a look more to your liking. It might even make you more cooperative," The light overtook his body again, though he still held his grip on her. When the light disappeared, Winry was shocked to see Edward holding her wrists. She tried pulling her wrists away, but was unable to.
"So, how do you like it," Edward's voice rang through her ears. This couldn't be happening to her.
"Winry!"
Both Winry and her attacker looked to the front of the shooting range as Mustang, Hawkeye, Fury, Havoc, Breda, and Falman burst through the double doors. She sighed in relief at the sight of her friends as they all pulled their guns out, except for Mustang who had both of his gloves on.
"Edward, let go of her at once!" Commanded Mustang as he raised his hand, ready to attack if necessary.
"It's not Edward!" the teenager screamed towards her friends, causing a few of them to look surprised.
Winry saw as her attacker looked back down to her and sneered, "So, you're friends want to die as well? It can be arranged…" Winry began to pull her wrists away from him again to no avail. "What are you going to do now that you don't have your hands to use?"
"Just because I don't have my hands, doesn't mean I'm helpless, homunculus," Winry sneered as she stomped her foot to the ground, causing a blade to spring from each side and meet in the front. She quickly sliced both of his knees with her boot, causing him to loosen his grip on her wrists. Clapping her hands together, she turned her arm into a blade and lunged for him, but missed as he moved at the last second. A piercing pain was felt through her body as his elbow connected between her shoulder blades, causing her to fall towards the ground. She landed hard, and rolled out of the way as Mustang sent fireballs and explosions towards her attacker. They knocked him back a few feet, though his wounds still healed fast. Between the gunfire from her friends, her own lightning attacks, and Mustang's fireballs, the homunculus was finally pushed to the back wall.
He quickly changed back into his original form; the one Winry remembered from her memories, and sneered at the girl, "Don't worry. This isn't over. I'll have my playtime again soon." He quickly jumped to the top of the twenty-foot wall and disappeared behind it.
Winry continued to kneel as she heard her comrades run up to her from behind. Havoc kneeled down in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, checking to see if the girl was all right. Breathing heavily, she slowly lifted her head to see him staring at her; they all were staring at her. "You okay, Winry? Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked.
Winry nodded slightly, and saw her tears slowly blur her vision, "Thank you for everything, guys. I don't know how much longer I would have lasted against him…" she quickly wiped her eyes with her hand. She was trying to refrain from being so upset in front of everyone; she wanted to act like an adult for once, but her body wouldn't cooperate with her mind. Winry looked up to see Colonel Mustang kneeling down next to her, and more tears began to build up, "I'm so sorry Colonel…I didn't mean for him to get away-"
"Don't worry about that," Jean interrupted her. "There will be plenty of other times to get him." He always hated the way she blamed herself for everything that went wrong.
"You don't understand though," Winry said quietly as she lowered her head. She didn't want to see anyone's reactions to her next statement. "He was the one who killed Hughes…"
The sharp intake of air around her didn't surprise the teenager, as her friend's death was still fresh in everyone's mind. She felt Havoc's hands grasp her own, and he helped her to stand up, though she kept her head down, not wanting to look at anyone. He lifted her face with his hand and wiped away the tears that were beginning to flow down her cheeks, being mindful of the cut on the side of her face. Winry smiled slightly at the kind gesture as she reached forward and gave the man a hug. His body tensed at first, but quickly warmed up to her as he wrapped his arms around the smaller woman.
"Winry, I want you to stay with First Lieutenant Hawkeye tonight," Mustang said quietly after a few moments of silence. "And I want you two," he said, indicating Fury and Breda, "to stand watch outside the room in case that thing shows back up. Falman, I want you and Havoc to pull the reports from the Fifth Laboratory, along with Edward's drawings to me as soon as you locate them."
Winry left the embrace of her friend to face her superior officer, "You mean this thing also had something to do with the Fifth Laboratory incident?"
Mustang nodded in agreement, "Yes, Edward drew some pictures of the homunculus he encountered there…from what I saw tonight, I believe he may be the one responsible for impersonating the late Brigadier General Basque Gran, though I want to make sure."
Winry nodded at the new information, "Colonel, during my last conversation with Hughes…he, uh, he mentioned for me not to contact or be around the soldier William Chadwick, who I just discovered was the homunculus. But he also said there was another person impersonating a soldier who should have died years ago, at least before the rebellion. He told me that right before he went to meet up with the Fuhrer's secretary. Apparently she had arranged a meeting for him with the Crystal Alchemist, Dr. Marcoh," she said quietly at the memory. "That was the last time I spoke to him."
Mustang stared at the teenager, and rubbed his chin slightly as he thought. "Okay, I'll get Scieszka to pull all of the books he had out the night of the meeting. She may even know something as well."
Winry jumped slightly as something covered her shoulders, but relaxed when she realized it was Havoc putting his coat over her. The night had settled, and the chilly night air blew slightly around the group as they continued to talk to one another. She smiled in thanks back to her friend as the group finally exited the shooting range back into the safety of the building. As they were leaving, Winry turned around to look at the shooting range once more before they departed in the morning. Her heart felt heavy at the loss of what she had thought was a close friend, which caused her to sigh heavily. A hand on her shoulder brought her from her thoughts, as she turned around to see Havoc looking at her with concern in his eyes. Smiling to herself, she placed her hand on top of his as the two caught up to their group of comrades. Winry realized then just how many friends she had in her life, and she vowed silently to help protect them in any way she could.