Note Thingy: Before I start this chapter I'd like to say something, if that's cool with agent-san , I lobved chapter three! Yes, I review sometimes to my own stories (and sense this is my first co-authored story I guess I'll most likely be reviewing to the chapters that agent000 writes). Lets' see…was there something else I was going to say? Oh yeah! No wait…now I'm just wasting time typing randomness and not getting to the story…sorry! One last wittle thing, DISCLAMER! Neither agent000 nor I own FullMetal Alchemist, though maybe if we torture and torment Edu-kun with our insanity he'll give up all rights to himself D Ed: What? Me: D Ed: .o no –said with deep anguish- Whee! Just wanted to say that!
Agent000: Hmmm, Agent-san? That's a new one, hehe. Never been called that before. I don't mind it though. You're welcome to call me by my real name too, if you like. Heh. SakuraSagura calls me Mel-chan. I don't care what you call me, as long as it's not rude, hehe.
Just like when I first met the Colonel, I'd danced right in the palm of my masters' hand. By using alchemy in front of him, I just demonstrated my level of ability, this complicated things greatly.
"Well, well, well, it was true. You are a State Alchemist…tell me, why didn't you tell me?" the master said, all I could do was glare, the fact that he could easily kill Al faster then I could reach him kept me from ripping him apart.
"Not talking hm? If you're worried about being punished for keeping this from me then you have good reason to be, but, if you willingly allow me to use your 'aptitude' for my self then maybe it won't be so severe."
"I'm…not stupid, either way you're still going too." I hissed, no matter how I looked at the situation, someone was going to get hurt. I wasn't about to make that person Alphonse, he really did look unwell. My master looked me in the eyes, normally whenever he did this it almost always gave me a very disturbing feeling, but this time it made me hate him with every fiber of my being. I'd never really felt this way before, sure I'd been mad at loads of people in my past but never like this.
"If that's how you feel…so be it…" my master glared, he let go of Al and shoved him to the ground "You're actions will only get those you care about hurt." With this last comment he landed a swift kick into Al's ribs.
"Al!" I rushed over to him and turned him on his side, Al was gasping and wheezing, small sobs filled the spaces between each gasp of breath. I couldn't stop myself; I wanted to kill him, that's the only thought that existed in my mind. Jumping up, I charged straight at my master, all sense of reason was gone.
"Such a gullible dog…" my master sneered, he still had the knife out and proved to be much faster then I had first anticipated. Stepping to the side, he grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back; he then wrapped his other free arm around my neck. This would have been easy to escape from had he not ended it by stabbing me in the left shoulder. The arm that was around my neck also happened to be the same one holding the knife. Each time I tried to free myself the blade would either make the already unpleasant wound larger or go deeper into my shoulder.
"When given the proper 'motivation' you loathsome Amestrian dogs will do anything to save yourselves. Now, you are going to do everything I tell you to or your little brother suffers for you, do you understand?"
"I…hate you!" was all I could muster.
"Good, I hate you too. Now, do you understand!"
"…" The master started to move the blade around, which was incredibly painful, and said,
"You are already looking at another five lashes and a day and night in the shack, do you enjoy pain that much? If I'm not mistaken," still keeping my right arm in a tight grip, he jabbed his thumb into my back "you still haven't fully recovered from the last time you were whipped."
The knife in the shoulder was bad enough; with the masters thumb jabbed into my back the pain was unbearable. My eyes started to sting, another irritation to add to the list, and water.
"…" Clearly the look on my face was enough for the master for now; he let go of my arm and 'kindly' pulled the blade from my shoulder.
"Arg, you got blood all over one of my good shirts…now I'll have to burn it. Not to mention I'll have to sterilize this blade. You are nothing but trouble, consider yourself lucky that you can do alchemy otherwise I'd have shot you for being a useless klutz worth even less then your fellow Amestrians."
"Ngh…" I slumped to my knees and sorely clapped my hands and removed the arm blade. With that gone I was able to try and stop my bleeding shoulder, my master left the shack leaving me with Al and the other new slaves.
Al, who'd recovered slightly from the kick, crawled over to me and tried to see if I was ok. Mentally, I could have been better. Physically, beaten and bruised and greatly under the weather. My pride was shot completely, what little I had left anyway. I looked at Al, who was a somewhat sickly pale color and muttered,
"How…did it happen?"
Al looked down at the ground, he had a rather pained look on his face, I sighed and shook my head,
"I've…missed you Al, it's only been a year but still," Al looked up at me for a moment then looked off to the side as if he wanted to say something but, not because he had lost his voice, wasn't able to say it.
"You know…just yesterday…I met someone." I continued. Al looked at me with a raised eyebrow "Nothing like that Al, she said…" I stopped; this place probably wasn't the best place to talk about this "Say Al, have you seen Winry?"
He shook his head; it was strange though because when he did he didn't look me in the eye first. I shrugged it off for the time being,
"That's ok, I'm just glad you're ok." I carefully scooted back against the wall of the shack and looked around; I'd have to go back to the house eventually. I could only imagine what my master had in mind in terms of using my alchemy. From this point on I could only see both our lives being made more and more miserable. I couldn't let him hurt Al.
After reassuring Al I'd come back, I started back towards the house. My shoulder wasn't bleeding nearly as bad as it was a while ago but I still had to get it fixed up. That'd mean I'd have to go see the doctor that was hired by the master to deal with sick or wounded slaves. He wasn't paid much and he didn't do a very good job considering we're 'just slaves', but this wound still needed to be dressed so that it wouldn't get infected. It was funny, in a cruel ironic way, getting whipped doesn't count as getting hurt. So we're not allowed to come to the doctor after we've been punished.
When I came to the doctors 'house', a sort of makeshift hut, I sighed and tapped on the door with my foot considering my arms where preoccupied.
The doctor opened the door and peered down at me, he had a rather annoyed look on his face.
"Oh…it's you." He grumbled. He then opened the door some more and let me in, I sat down on the examination table in the far corner of the one room hut. "What did you do this time?"
"You don't want to know." I replied, he 'accidentally' snapped me with his special latex gloves and snapped,
"Hey! I deal with your kind almost everyday! Don't get cheeky with me."
I didn't answer that, personally I thought he was kind of off mentally. He then started to examine the stab wound.
"It's small but deep, here," the doctor handed me a gauze pad and some gauze to wrap it with "That should do it for now, if you have any complications…hesitate to return."
"Thanks…" I muttered getting up, this was exactly what I'd expected the check up would be like, I stuck the gauze in my pocket and left. When I got to the back door of the kitchen I paused for a moment, the thought of escape started to mull around in my head. I then opened the door and made for a back room to dress the wound, later on I was busy washing dishes when my mistress walked in.
"Edward…come with me right now." She said. I looked up from the dishes and looked at her; it was strange to hear her address me by my name. Normally she just says 'you' or 'slave' or something of the sort.
"Yes…ma'am." I dried my hands off and followed her out of the kitchen into the living room, my master was there along with another man and woman. They gave me questioning looks.
"Ah! Here he is!" My master said standing up and guiding me over to where he was sitting "Go on then, show them your alchemy."
"On what?" I asked. That was stupid of me. I got a very cold and venomous look from my master.
"On this," he said dropping the teacup he'd been holding on the ground, it shattered into many pieces. I couldn't help but heave a rather annoyed sigh, which was rewarded with another cold and venomous glare from both the master and mistress. I clapped my hands and fixed the cup, picking it up I handed it back to my master.
"That's quite impressive," the other man said "You have quite the little Amestrian there."
My eye twitched slightly at the 'little' comment but didn't show any other sign of emotion after that.
"Yes well, sadly that is all he's able to do. He's useless around the house, not to mention terrible at going out and getting goods from the market. He's really not good for anything else, that's why I intend to get as much as I can out of him and his little 'talent' before I get rid of him."
I jolted from my thoughts when I heard the phrase 'get rid of him', he lied! Why didn't I see it? He was going to exploit my alchemy until there was nothing left, and then get rid of me. When my master says 'get rid of' it either means he's going to sell me to someone else or he's going to kill me. I was leaning more towards the fact that he's gonna kill me because he was either going to get a good deal for me or just get rid of me because I was useless either way.
Another thought crossed my mind after all this, what if he found out that Al could do alchemy? He'd probably do the same thing to Al as he was planning to do with me. What a predicament, but I had two possible ways out of this, one of them was that girl I'd met in the market. The other was to meet with that little girls' brother, the one who had the visions.
"Boy, what is your name?" the visitor woman asked, I looked at her for a moment…that was strange, now that I thought about it…she looked kind of familiar. I shook my head trying to clear it for a moment before I answered but was interrupted when my master snapped,
"Answer!"
"Edward" I said hastily, if only I could figure out a way to make my master pay…he'd pay for hurting Al, hurting me, keeping us Amestrians as slaves and treating us like dirt.
"Well Edward, you seem to have an intriguing knack at alchemy." She said.
Feyu! That was kinda hard…couldn't think of anything…at first! What do ya think? Agent-san, you can continue to leave author notes if you want…I may leave one or two short ones…every so often…(head smacked of head board of bed…zzzzzz).
Heh, I'm always leaving author notes, you don't have to tell me twice! Hehe. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please review, and I'll try to update soon with my chapter.