Ed- Bandit's currently in shock…
Bandit- (on floor in fetal position) So… many… reviews…
Roy- She better get writing or she'll have a riot.
Bandit- So… many… reviews… (passes out)
Ed- Does that mean you're gonna have to do the shout outs again, Roy?
Bandit- (wakes up) LIKE HELL HE IS! EXTRA TORTURE FOR YOU! YOU DON'T DISS MY REVIEWERS YOU DUMBASS!
Roy- … Oops.
Disclaimer- FMA is not mine, but Shayla, Mark, and Stanford are products of my messed up mind, so kiss my penniless butt!
(A/N) Finally! This is like a milestone for the story. Things are gonna get a bit strange, but you'll just have to be patient. Onward!
Ed literally felt his brain hit the side of his skull when thrown against the wall for the fifth time. He could no longer tell where one ache started or ended. His whole body was a bruised piece of flesh, and everything hurt.
The drunk, or actually the Dream Alchemist, now beating the shit out of him smirked, and walked up to him, cruel intentions in his eyes. "Still awake? I'll give you credit. A little fucker like you really knows how to entertain a guy." He chuckled and leaned next to the hopeless boy. "Why don't you just give up?" He whispered in his ear. "I know you keep hoping that bitch and Mr. Hughes will come and save your ass. Or maybe the Colonel? Get real. They don't care about your sorry life." He grabbed Ed's bloodied neck and turned it so Ed had to look him in the face. "It's easier to just give in."
A choking sound emerged from Ed's lips, bringing blood gushing out and he coughed before resuming the noise, his attempt at laughter. "I-if a guy like you h-has to t-t-ry and lower my self esteem to-" he struggled to go on, "m-make me give up, g-guess it shows you how effective your methods are." He panted rapidly, but held the man's gaze. "Y-you might as well kill me, c-cause there's no way I-I'll give up to.." he smiled gruesomely, "a fucker like you."
The grip on his neck tightened and Ed felt himself sailing through the air again, landing on his back with at thud. Pain raced up his spine, and Ed realized he could not move his legs. 'Great. I'm paralyzed. My lucky day…' He coughed up more blood.
"You must think your funny, Mr. Elric." Ed, despite his predicament, took some delight in the fact he'd pissed off his attacker. "But I'm afraid you can't die. I need your body to realize my new dream, because you fucking alchemists took my old one…" The Dream Alchemist's borrow face twisted into an ugly grimace, hate flashing in his eyes. "You all took everything that was important to me, and I'm just here to return the favor!"
In a fit of rage, he walked swiftly towards Ed, kicking the boy in the side repeatedly. Ed no longer cared if it was feeding his captor's ego; he howled him pain, eyes squeezed shut and tried to twist away. This only served to upset the Dream Alchemist more.
"You stupid fucker! You think you can just crawl away? After all the shit you did to me? That I'll let you get away, you nasty fuck? I hate all you fuckin' dogs, and I swear I'LL TAKE YOU ALL TO HELL!"
/Enough! Anymore and you'll kill the boy/
'I don't care! I hate them all!'
/Robert, enough! Let me take over. You're losing control. We need him. We need his body, his power…/
Ed's mind fogged up, no longer in any position to escape the horrible pain. The burning feeling in his left side crawled through his body, leaving him immobile, and probably, he guessed, close to death. 'I… can't believe it's gonna end like this… I didn't even get to clear things with Mustang…' Ed smiled weakly at the thought of Roy. 'Figures the bastard would be on my mind at a time like this.'
"Having a nice nap, Mr. Elric?" Ed didn't bother and try to open his eyes. He felt himself being lifted gently off the ground, and cradled in strong arms. (1) "I'm afraid I… lost control there for a moment, but I'm sure a prodigy like you will be fine." A hand stroked his cut up cheek. If he'd had the strength, Ed would have bitten him. The touch sickened him. 'Get your lousy hands off me!' "Besides, your friend the Angel Alchemist will fix you, well actually me, up." The wall collided with Ed's back, and he realized he'd been carried back over to the wall. "So there's no need to worry. Of course, you can't hear a word I'm saying, hm? That idiot really did a number on you."
Ed heard the Dream Alchemist shift around, then a trickle of alchemic power tickled his senses. 'What the hell! Is this what that boy was doing?' He might be in immense pain, but he could still sense the alchemy right in front of his head. 'Shit! I can't let him do this!' Ed willed anything to move, to give him a fighting chance, but his body had abandoned him, instead trying to keep him alive.
"Don't worry, Mr. Elric. I'll be sure to take very good care of your friends…" Ed's head was lifted up passively, while his mind screamed in anger and misery.
'No! Shayla, Havoc, Hughes, Fury, ROY! I can't let him win!'
He didn't register the noise of the gun, too focused on what was happening inside of him. He didn't even notice the Dream Alchemist scream.
The searing heat inside his mind took him by surprise, until it took up entire residence, spreading everywhere, and no where at all. He couldn't pinpoint where it came from now, but he started to lose feeling. First he couldn't sense his legs, then his hips, his stomach, chest, arms, neck, lips, nose, eyes… and then nothing. There was nothing left to feel.
It was like he didn't have a body anymore.
Shayla was tempted to ask Havoc for a cigarette later, but decided against it. If she started now, she'd almost certainly never stop the habit. And turning her lungs black wouldn't help Ed right now.
She glanced at the teen, watching his chest rise and fall to make sure he was still alive. It was all she could do at the moment. 'Damn Stanford to the lowest pit of hell!' The damn Fuhrer had made good on his promise, having a guard watch her like a hawk, insuring she wouldn't make a move to save the boy until the Fuhrer arrived. 'I will kill Stanford if Ed dies and I can't do a damn thing about it.' She scowled darkly at the young guard, who obviously was a bit wet behind the ears, and smiled evilly when he squirmed.
"Any change, Shayla?" She turned and looked to the door, feeling sad for Roy as he stared hopefully at Ed. 'This is hurting him more than it is me…'
"I'm sorry, Roy, but there hasn't been a change at all. Ed's still comatose from what I can check. Idiot here won't let me do much else." The young guard gulped a backed away from Roy's glare.
"I-I'm sorry, sir, b-b-b-but the F-f-" He couldn't even form a decent sentence in front of Mustang. He really wished he were somewhere else.
"Don't worry about it." Roy ignored Shayla's pouting as she sulked in her chair and continued. "We're both just a bit anxious to help our friend. You're just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"And working for the wrong guy," Shayla muttered. Roy shook his head and bit back a smile.
"That too." Roy nodded at the guard. "You may have a break. I'll make sure the Angel Alchemist doesn't do anything." The boy shot him a relieved grin and made his way out, with Shayla glaring at his back. "Shayla, you know he's just-"
"Following orders. I've heard that one already." She dropped the anger act and went back to gazing at Ed. "I'm just worried, that's all. He's been like this since you found him." Roy walked over to the bed and looked down at Ed's sleeping face.
"It's my fault," Roy said quietly. "If I hadn't upset him when I did, he wouldn't have been out in the streets."
"Don't you start that again," Shayla warned, glare back on full force. "It's my job to feel sorry for myself, and you're job to kick me in the ass and tell me to get over it, not the other way around." A grin broke out on his face, despite his depression.
"You have a way with words, Shayla."
"One of my many talents… now, ummm… are you sure I can't persuade you to join the dark side and let me heal Ed?" Roy sat down on the bed, brushing a piece of Ed's hair away from his closed eyes.
"Shayla, I'd give up my position as Colonel if I thought it would get us out of trouble for direct disobedience of the Fuhrer's orders. However…" Roy pinned her with a stern stare, "we both know he'll have our heads if we do anything to Ed unless he's hear. Might as well wait it out."
"That would be the smart thing, Roy." They both looked up to see Hughes, Hawkeye, Fury and Havoc crowding inside the room of the hospital wing, all with solemn eyes and grim faces. "I'd rather not have you two laying in a bed next to Ed."
"I think that's a givin', Hughes," Havoc said, patting himself down. Shayla fixed him with a very homicidal look.
"If you even think about smoking in here, you will be in a bed. Permanently!" That got an uneasy chuckle out of everyone, except Havoc, who just pouted.
"So…," Fury started nervously, "How's Mr. Elric doing right now?" Shayla shook her head.
"Same. He just won't wake up. And I'm not really surprised. Two gunshot wounds, multiple side and head injuries, plus the fact he got his metal arm ripped out of the socket. I wouldn't want to wake up either." She sighed and glared at the wall. "But if that impudent, retarded, power hungry, bastard dick face would just let me heal Ed, he'd be up and about by tomorrow… hopefully."
"What's with the hopefully?" Roy questioned.
"I don't know exactly what happened…" Everyone turned to Roy. "Sorry Colonel, but I need more details." Roy raked his hand through his jet black hair. He didn't want to go into it anymore, but if it might help Ed…
'You owe it to him. It is my fault, no matter what anyone says.'
"There's not much else to tell. It was pure luck that I searched the right place. There were some voices coming from an alleyway, and it reminded me of where both the little boy and Mark Summers were attacked, so I went in and found some man leaning over Ed. I didn't think much about it. I just…" Roy shrugged his shoulders and looked back at Ed's face, "took out my gun and shot him. Right before I did there was some light in between their heads, but other than that…"
"Light? What light?" Havoc asked with interest.
Roy frowned, getting a little irritated. He was tired and worried and probably looked like a pile of shit; the questions weren't helping either. "I can't say for sure, but I think it was the product of alchemy. So it's my guess is if the person I shot was indeed the Dream Alchemist, he was getting ready to take Ed's body."
"So that settles it," Shayla stated. "He's dead, thanks to Roy, and all we need to do is get Ed recovered so we can hear his side of the story."
"I wouldn't say this is the end." Hughes crossed his arms, a thoughtful look passing his face. "Not yet, anyway. What if the Dream Alchemist succeeded in taking Ed's body, but since the body's so bloodied up he can't wake up and cause a panic?"
"Don't say that!" Roy snapped, and everyone jumped back a bit. It was unusual for the Colonel to show such raw emotion, and it startled everybody. "Let's concentrate on getting Ed up before we make assumptions." Hughes looked hurt at Roy's tone, but knew his friend didn't mean to sound so uptight.
"Colonel, sir. Hughes is right," Hawkeye said with a slightly disapproving tone. "We need to be prepared for anything… even if that means killing Edward." There. She'd said what everyone was thinking about. "If Ed's gone and his body has been taken over, we will need to make a choice between him and many others. You need- no, we all need to be prepared for the worst case scenario."
The room filled with a heavy silence as the occupants took in Hawkeye's words.
'I won't give up on him! He's like my brother… NO! He can't be gone!'
'The boss? I don't know if I could kill him… It's not right.'
'Edward. Don't be gone. Not when Roy needs you… when we all need you.'
'Mr. Elric… you can make it. I believe you can…'
'Edward. I don't want to kill you, but if you're already gone… then maybe it will take away some of my guilt afterwards.'
'Ed… No… Don't… leave me…'
'Heh. What sniveling cowards. They will do what is necessary and no less.'(2)
"I know you're right Hawkeye," Shayla started, "but if we have to kill Ed… I don't think I can help. Call me a coward but…" she shrugged and looked dejectedly at the ground. "My life is dedicated to helping people. Even with my whip, I've never killed anyone. I just don't think I have it in me…"
"I understand," Hawkeye said, but then her eyes turned hard. "But do not get in my way or…" She let the threat hang in the air, and the room became extremely tense.
"Ladies!" Hughes jumped in before a catfight stated. "Can't we all get along for a while? I know we're not in the best of moods, but please. We'll get to that bump in the road later."
"Actually, you'll deal with it now." The Fuhrer stepped in the room, not looking extremely pleased especially when no one saluted. He glared at Shayla first. "Angel Alchemist, you will do exactly as I tell you, or have you forgotten already?" He smirked. "You report directly to me now."
Shayla returned the glare, but said nothing.
"By your silence, I'll take it you agree with me?"
"May I heal Fullmetal, sir?" She put extra spite on the last word, but Stanford ignored it.
"In just a moment; we have much to discuss, since Hughes brought up an excellent point. I'm just going to assume that our Dream Alchemist can hop bodies, correct?"
"Yes sir," Fury spoke up meekly. "We think he uses alchemy to somehow switch bodies with his victims, mostly alchemists. And he will kill anyone extremely close to the body he occupies…"
"Hmm…" Stanford digested this, and then turned to Roy. "Very well. I will allow the Angel Alchemist to heal the boy, and when he wakes up… I want you to kill him."
Roy's head snapped around fast to stare in horror at the Fuhrer's face. "Sir?" He wasn't the only one shocked. Fury leaned heavily against Havoc as though the news might bring him to his knees, Havoc grabbed Fury's hand for comfort, Hawkeye actually flinched, Hughes went dead white, and Shayla brought out her whip. "I'm not sure I understand sir," Roy said, trying to keep the shock and anger out of his voice.
"I don't see what's so hard to understand. We can't know for sure if the boy's been taken over."
"Then why heal him?" Hughes asked that question and began moving toward Shayla, who seemed intent on murdering the Fuhrer. She might have claimed to never have killed anyone, but she might fix that little problem if not stopped. He also kept an eye on Roy, since he saw the man silently slip on his gloves. 'If Stanford doesn't leave soon this whole room will kill him.'
"Quite simply, it wouldn't look good to the public if they knew the boy had been exterminated without a fighting chance, so to speak…" He grinned at them all. "All they will know is that the boy went stark crazy and was obviously the last effected by the Dream Alchemist."
"But sir! Why?" Havoc asked.
"I'm disappointed in the lack of commitment and progress in this unit. You've all been prancing around, chatting while many innocents could have been killed. Some of you have shown extreme rudeness ," he pointedly looked Shayla's way when he said this, "and others no true value. I give you money and men, and you all sit around. I, on the other hand, will nip this in the bud with Fullmetal. This has gone on long enough." He began to walk out into the hall. "I'm sure you all know the consequences for disobeying my orders. You will be stripped of your power, and killed most likely by gunning." He walked down the hallway. "Have a nice day."
Hughes covered Shayla's mouth until he was sure Stanford was a good distance away. Then he intelligently stepped back and let her go off.
"NO! THAT FUCKER! I WON'T DO IT! I WON'T KILL ED!" She glared hatefully at where the Fuhrer had been standing. "I'd rather die than kill him in cold blood!"
"Miss Shayla," Fury said gently, "Calm down." Shayla rounded on him.
"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND! WE HAVE TO KILL ED NO MATTER WHAT! EVEN IF HE'S FINE!" Tears began to fall from her bright orange eyes, and she fell to the floor, sobbing. "I can't… I won't!" She glowered at everyone from behind her bangs. "And I will fight you all if you try to kill him! You'll have to kill me too!"
"Shayla," Hughes started, moving beside the distressed woman, "just calm down. We are not going to kill Ed." Heads shot up and looked at him. "At least if I can help it."
"Yeah! The boss is one of us," Havoc declared. "I don't give a royal shit about what Stanford says."
"Same here," Fury agreed, though his voice trembled a bit. He squeezed Havoc's hand. "I could never forgive myself if I did something like that."
Shayla looked Hawkeye in the eye and waited. If she decided to follow the Fuhrer…
Hawkeye sighed and grabbed her gun, clicking the safety off. Shayla readied her whip.
"I only want what is best for everyone as a whole. If killing Ed would save the world, I would gladly kill him for humanity. However…" The corners of her mouth turned upwards slightly, "I do not believe in killing Ed, who is like a brother to me as well, without giving him at the very least, the benefit of the doubt." Hawkeye examined her gun carefully. "And I follow only Colonel Mustang's orders, so to hell with Stanford." She returned her gun to the holster and smiled a bit. Shayla grinned happily and everyone else sighed in relief. At least no one would die today…
"Roy, I have a feeling you won't be following regulations as well?" Hughes questioned, but Roy was already thinking about it.
'Is Ed worth it? My one day becoming Fuhrer? My position as Colonel? This life I live? Is he, who probably hates me anyway, worth everything I've strived to become, all those years of working to the top. Is he?'
What a stupid question to ask himself.
"We won't give Ed up without a fight," Roy stated, trademark smirk firmly in place and a glint in his eye. "And if you ask me, I think it's time we got ourselves a new Fuhrer…" Everyone else smirked with him and sharply saluted.
"SIR!"
"Shayla, heal Ed."
"You got it Colonel!" Shayla bounced off the floor, all her previous glum gone, and made her way toward Ed. "Hughes, I need one of your knives."
The tall Lieutenant did as requested and produced the knife. Shayla took it, quickly cutting a thin long wound on her arm, then gave the knife back to Hughes. The occupants watched with interest, since this was the first time anyone had seen Shayla perform her alchemy. No one had seen Hughes being healed, after all.
She began by dipping her finger in her blood, then drawing her elaborate array on Ed's forehead. Then she placed her hand on his head, breathing deeply to calm her heart and clear her mind before beginning.
Just like before, the array began to glow hotly until a liquid, flowing light flew out, covering Ed before retreating to the ceiling and then settling on Shayla's back, almost like a pair of wings made of light. Her breathing continued to come out calmly, but she started to sweat and concentrated harder on staring at Ed's face.
The light filled Shayla's body, and rippled through her hand to Ed, filling him with the light as well. His body glowed, beams of light shooting out from many different parts of his body, most likely his gunshot wounds and any other scrapes. The beams thinned out until they disappeared, and Ed's body was healed, leaving only Shayla glowing like a goddess. Roy, who was closest to her, admitted to himself how impressive her alchemy was.
And then all hell broke loose.
The light in Shayla pulsed and turned red, causing the woman to scream out in pain, and she began to glow like a red lantern. He body jerked and twisted in a gruesome fashion, startling everyone around her. And she couldn't take her hand off Ed's head, even though it appeared she was trying. The bright red light in her now was seeping out of her and into Ed, turning him red as blood.
Roy shouted in alarm and grabbed Shayla's arm, trying to help her pry it off of Ed. That was a mistake.
His gloves began to glow with the red light, and his eyes fogged up and became distant. The light spread over him like a wave of pain, until he was screaming along with Shayla, their voices bouncing around the room.
"What the hell is going on!" Havoc shouted in alarm. He, like the rest of them, had been paralyzed, not sure if they should help or if this was apart of Shayla's alchemy. One moment he was seeing Shayla perform one of the most beautiful displays of alchemy and next the room was lit with a strange red light, Roy and Shayla screaming their lungs out, and Hughes racing toward them.
Hughes grabbed Roy's arm, wrenching it off of Shayla's. Immediately Roy stopped screaming, his body dead weight as he collapsed against his friend. Shayla continued to scream, until finally Hawkeye broke out of her trance and ripped her arm off of Ed's forehead in much the same manner as Hughes did to Roy. Shayla swayed unsteadily until she fell over backwards and onto the floor, landing hard.
"Roy! Roy! Damn you, wake up!" Hughes shook the raven haired man forcefully. The man's head rolled from side to side until it was apparent he would not be roused. Fury, Havoc, and Hawkeye were having the same bad luck with Shayla on the floor, whose eyes were open and staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Shayla! What is wrong with you? Get up!" Havoc smacked the woman on the cheek, a bit harshly, but nothing happened. She continued to stare past him, unseeing.
"Havoc… is she okay?" Fury asked, worry thick in his tone. He glanced up at Roy and Hughes, noticing the same had happened to Roy as well. "What happened?" Havoc didn't have an answer for him.
"They're alive," Hughes said slowly. "I can see them breathing, but… something really bad just happened right now…"
Hughes had no idea how bad.
Roy noticed the darkness first, so his obvious assumption was that he was home in his bed, and it was night still. He kept his eyes closed and ignored the tingling sensation occurring all over his body.
The sharp slap on his cheek was hard to ignore though.
"Roy! Get the hell up!"
'What's Shayla doing at my house? I know didn't invite her to a sleep over…' That thought made him want to laugh, but Roy still refused to open his eyes. Why should he? It was his house, damnit, and he'd wake up when he wanted to. He body was too comfortable anyway; completely weightless and relaxed. Nope. No reason to get up.
"Roy, I know you're awake, you dumbass! You need to take a look around!" Roy drifted deeper into the realm of sleep, disregarding Shayla's plea.
The pinch was entirely unfair.
"What the hell was that for?" Roy rubbed his now bruising ass, glaring darkly at big orange eyes. She met his glare calmly.
"Would you look around, please? I think this is something you should look at…" Roy glared at her for a bit longer, then did as told.
He didn't trust his eyes after that.
(1) Grrr… bastard! Get your paws off Ed! He belongs to Roy!
(2) Can anyone figure out what's the order of the thinkers? Just curious…
Well, I have to admit I'm a bit proud of this chapter. And that is really rare folks! And you should be proud of me! It's almost 4:00 in the morning, and I'm typing so you guys will have the next chapter! Praise me! Praise me! And now for the shout outs! (This is gonna take a while…)
yinan- thank you! I know she seems kind of Mary sue in the beginning, so I'm glad she improved! I try to keep a good amount of humor in the story so it doesn't get too dark, and I luv my action! Thanks for the review!
Shingo-sama- The chapters do get a bit long, don't they? I just can't bare to cut anything out of the story, so it gets a bit lengthy… hehehe… Armstrong makes me laugh. He's such a freak XD
Anonymous- Wow! Heavy praise! I luv it! You think I have good literature? I'm always criticizing myself, but I guess all authors do. As for Angie, she wasn't in the white room when she made the call, she was probably in the bedroom and Mark was going to attack her. I hope that answers your question! And thank you for praying for my teacher. I means a lot to me
arynna- I know! I'm really slamming on my characters Jessica and Stanford. Don't know why… but the torture must continue! (laughs maniacally) Oooo… chocolate! ;p
Akumako- You might be the only one who liked that part. Others really wanted that kiss, but they're gonna have to wait! If you love cliffhangers, you'll die for this chapter!
Dea Lunae- I'm sorry about the confusing parts. I have to remember just because I know who's speaking, that doesn't mean the reader does. I hope I did better in this chapter… Yes! I got cookies! (bites one) Ummm… I think that was Roy's head… oops
Hallahello- Here's the next chap! And my brother had to inform me about the arm… he made fun of me all day because of it… little bugger
Seeker Carter- (hits Roy with a whip) WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT DISSING MY REVIEWERS! THE NEXT CHAPTER YOU WILL SUFFER! (continues to hit Roy) Oh, and thanks for the review!
Kyliah- Yes. Angst makes the world go round. And don't worry, I update pretty often, so you can save the screaming for when I really shock ya! ;p
LegacyRBluesummers- AHH! Don't hurt me! My plushies made me write it, I swear! (runs away form LRB's wrath)
Torii- Ed, in deep shit? Hmmm… Nope, can't tell ya! You'll just have to keep reading.. BWEHEHEHEHE…
Uniasus- You liked the dialog? I love those parts, myself. Good time for a bit of humor! And I wouldn't kill Ed… not intentionally of course.
catey- Ignore Roy. He's just jealous because everyone loves Ed! Keep reviewing and I'll keep updating!
Wow. That was a lot of reviews to answer! But keep reviewing! Click that button that says go, and you might get a plushie surprise!