Me: Yeah, it's time for the next chapter! Ed, do the disclaimer!
Ed: Why do I have to?
Me: (-lifts up hands ready to clap and lifts a wrench-)
Ed: GAH! Okay, okay, I get it, I'll do it! Kararu doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist, though she wishes she owned me, but she does own Kararu Rinamino, and Silvermoon15 owns Shikou Rinamino, we're just borrowing.
Me: Thank you! Now, on with the chapter!
Loosing the Sight
Chapter 5: Truth and Discovery
Ed groaned as he moved his body around feeling bruises and sore areas spring to life. He opened his eyes and expected to see darkness like usual, but light came straight into them, making him shut them quickly.
"That's right…I can see now…" Ed muttered. He turned away from the light and opened his eye a crack to see it was about ten in the morning. "I must have been out for at least ten hours…" He realized, then jumped when a voice behind him spoke.
"So…did you have a good nights sleep Edward?"
"What the hell are you talking about Mustang?" Ed questioned the man behind him. Mustang just smirked and pointed onto the ground next to Ed. Ed looked to see a sleeping Kararu on the ground next to him, her arm lightly wrapped around his waist. Ed started to blush furiously.
"Sh-shut up Mustang…" Ed muttered, then quietly stood and picked up Kararu bridal style, marveling at her dog ears and tails, then he had to tear his eyes away from her beauty that he had never set eyes on before. She still slept on.
"What happened?" Mustang asked, looking at the pile of wood that used to be the house.
"Homunculi." Ed replied, and that was all that needed to be said. Then, a thought came to his head. He blurted out frantically, "Where's Shikou?"
"What?" Mustang asked. "I thought you knew where she was! What happened to her?"
"Well Mustang…this may sound strange, but for the past two weeks, I didn't know who I was and…I was blind. Now, I can remember everything and see but…"
"At least that explains the blind person that was staying with Demon and Wolf…but you still didn't answer my question, Edward. What happened to Wolf?"
"Wolf?"
"Shikou."
"Well…I heard her lift off of the floor, a window smashed, a scream came from her, then the sound of something hitting a tree, then silence."
"Damn…the Homunculi must have taken her…we've searched the entire grounds and none of them were here…"
"I guess that means that Envy and Greed got away…" Ed muttered, then turned to Mustang. "Mustang, I-"
"Edward! She's bleeding!" Mustang said urgently. Ed looked at him confused, then looked down at Kararu to see fresh blood seeping out of her shirt around her midsection, her face twisted in unmistaken pain.
"We've got to get her to the hospital!" Ed said worriedly.
"Hughes!" Mustang yelled. There was the sound of crashing plants and breaking twigs as Ed saw Hughes running towards them from in the forest.
"Sir?" Hughes asked once he reached them.
"Where's the hospital?" Mustang asked.
"I can take you there…" Hughes said, then asked, "Why?" All Mustang had to do was point to Kararu, and that got him running. Ed and Mustang followed, and they quickly saw the small town come into sight. Hughes ran them to a small, plain white building. He opened the door and ushered the three inside.
"She needs help now!" Ed yelled as he ran in first.
"What happened to her?" A doctor asked as she ran over. "Ah…it's Kararu again…"
"What do you mean 'again'?" Ed asked coolly as someone brought over a stretcher for him to lay her on.
"Later. Again, I ask, what happened to her?"
"I'm not really sure…I think she was stabbed…" Ed said.
"We'll take her from here." The doctor said. Ed was about to follow, but a nurse held him back.
"I'm sorry sir," He said, "but I can't let you in here."
"Please, let me go in with her!" Ed said, but Mustang walked over to him, put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Ed sighed, then went over to one of the chairs they had set up in the small waiting room.
This was going to be a long morning…
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xxTwo Hours Laterxx"Shouldn't they have come and gotten us by now?" Ed asked, looking over at Hughes and Mustang.
"It may have taken them a while to figure out what happened to her and how to treat it." Hughes explained.
"Just calm down. They'll come and get us soon, I promise." Mustang said. Ed nodded and sighed. He just knew that the two knew something that he didn't, but he didn't feel like investigating right now. He sighed again and put his face in his hands. How much longer did he have to wait?
He started counting the floor tiles again. "One hundred two, one hundred three, one hundred four, one hundred five…"
A few moments later, the doors opened and the doctor walked back in, Ed's head shooting up to look at her.
"How is she doctor?" Ed asked, being the first one up and over to her.
"Please, don't call me doctor. Call me Karen."
"All right…Karen, how is she?"
"Oh, Kararu? She's fine now." Karen said as Mustang and Hughes walked over. "Would you like to see her?"
"Yes, please." Ed said, then Karen turned around and led the three through the door and down a small hallway.
"She'll be able to leave in a few days, but we need to keep her here to watch over her for a while." Karen said. "This is her room." She stopped in front of a door and pointed to it. "No more than three visitors at a time, okay? And right now there's a nurse in there checking on her."
"All right. Thank you for all that you've done Karen." Mustang said.
"It was my pleasure, Fuhrer." Karen said, then turned around and walked back towards her office. Ed reached a hand for the knob of the door, but pulled it back when someone on the other side of the door spoke.
"Miss Rinamino, you need to lay back down!"
Ed looked at Mustang and Hughes, then he jumped when he heard a loud crashing noise and the loud rustling of sheets.
"No! I refuse! I have to get out of here!"
Mustang looked at Hughes, who looked at Ed, who was looking at Mustang. Then, they all dove for the door, Ed making it through first. They all ran in to see Kararu laying on the floor with sheets wrapped around her, pointing angrily and baring her fangs at the nurse as she started to breath heavily.
"Miss Rinamino, please! You need to rest!"
"Like hell I do! I've got to get out of this place! I hate hospitals! This is hell, I have to get out!" Kararu yelled as she untangled the sheets from around her, and wasn't paying attention to where she was going. She ran straight into Ed, who pulled her into a hug. "Let me go, I-Ed?"
"Yes, Kararu, it's me." Ed said, who pulled her closer to him.
"Ed…I hate hospitals…please, help me get out!" Kararu pleaded as she buried her face into his shirt, Ed feeling it get wet as her tears started to seep into the cloth.
"Kararu, I can't. This is the only way you can get better." Ed said.
"But Ed…"
"No buts. You're staying here."
"All right…" Kararu said, then pulled her head away from his shirt, looking at his chest. "Ed…are there any bandages around my eyes?" She asked suddenly.
"No…" Ed said.
"Ed…I…" Kararu said, then looked up at him, making him gasp when he saw her eyes. "I can't see!"
XxXxXxXxXxXx
Shikou groaned as she opened her eyes.
"Damn it…whoever did this is so gonna pay…" Shikou muttered as she felt the bruises on her arm and side. She sat up and looked around, immediately knowing that she wasn't outside of her house. "Where am I?"
"Oh, oh, look Envy, she woke up!" An annoying child's voice cheered happily.
"Good." Another voice said, the tone full of pride and command.
"Who the hell are you?" Shikou asked. Out of the shadows walked four people, all dressed in black, one of them very familiar to her. "Arlic? Is that you?"
"Who is this Arlic I keep hearing about?" The commanding voice asked.
"It was my name, Envy." The person said. "Before I became a Homunculus."
"Arlic…you're a Homunculus? How?" Shikou gasped.
"Pride, could you leave so she'll shut up? Her voice gives me a headache." Envy said.
"Of course." Pride said, then it stepped back into the shadows. The loud creak of a door told Shikou that it had left the room.
"Oh, my voice gives you a headache now, does it?" Shikou asked, and tried to clap her hands, but found there were shackles around her wrists that only just prevented her from it. "You bastard!"
"Yes, I get that a lot." Envy said with a smirk.
"Envy, can I eat her? Can I?" The fat lump which Shikou hadn't expect to be able to speak did, and its greedy little eyes turned to her, a hungry, evil glint filling the stare.
Shikou started to breathe heavily as she started to get very frightened. Was she really going to be eaten?
"Well…"
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"What?" Ed gasped.
"I can't see!" Kararu said. Ed looked back into her eyes to see that they didn't have pupils, but just a deep crimson color, looking, yet seeing nothing.
"Damn it, Pride must have gotten to you!" Ed said, then Mustang spoke.
"Pride? What are you talking about Edward? I killed him two weeks ago." Mustang said.
"No, the NEW Pride. The one that got hold of me before I went missing. He can look into your eyes and make you forget everything but your name, and also make you blind. Apparently, he wasn't able to erase her memories, just her sight." Ed said.
"So, our military intelligence was indeed correct." Mustang said.
"Then that means that there really is a new recruit on the team." Hughes said.
"Arlic…" Kararu muttered.
"What was that?" Hughes asked.
"Arlic." Kararu repeated.
"Could you speak a little louder sweetie?" Mustang asked as he walked over and put a hand on her shoulder (no, he didn't call her 'sweetie' because he's cheating on Hawkeye, he's just her father figure, and he used to call her that when she was little, and not on duty in the military, so he's not a perv like I know that some of you were probably thinking).
"Arlic." Kararu repeated louder and clearer.
"Who is that?" Ed asked.
"He was the one that…" Kararu said, but trailed off.
"Ah. I see Kararu, there's no need for you to continue." Mustang said quietly. Ed looked up at him shocked.
"How can he show so much emotion when he's talking to her? I've never heard his voice so soothing or seen his eyes so soft…" Ed thought.
"What are you talking about Mustang?" Ed asked.
'Later.' Mustang mouthed to him. "Come on Kararu, let's get you back to the bed." Mustang said.
"Get that needle out of my elbow." Kararu growled. "I don't want to do it."
"Huh?" Mustang asked, then looked down at her elbow to see that there was indeed a syringe in it. "Oh, of course." Mustang reached down and without warning pulled it out.
She hissed in pain, then muttered, "Hospitals can go to hell…" then allowed herself to be led over to the bed by Ed, Mustang and Hughes pulling a chair over to the bed so they could sit down.
"Ed, what happened to the house?" Kararu asked once he had put her on the bed and put the covers over her. Before he answered, he pulled himself a chair up and sat down in it.
"It kind of blew up."
"Damn, that's the second one this year…"
"Really?"
"So THAT'S what happened to your old house in Central." Mustang said with a grin.
"Uh…heh, yeah?"
"Kararu, why do you hate hospitals so much?" Ed asked. She turned to him.
"Uh…well, I…um…when I was six…I had gotten really sick, and I had to stay here for a little while, and while I was here, my grandparents were staying with me because Mom and Dad had to go on a business trip for something. Two people came into the room in the middle of the night, almost killed my grandparents, and stabbed me in the midsection, almost killing me as well. They left, and then a few minutes later I was surrounded by doctors with needles and stuff, and ever since, I can't stand to be in a hospital alone."
"I understand." Ed said.
"Wait, hold the phone! Where's Shikou?" Kararu asked urgently.
"She was…taken by the Homunculi."
"What? Ed, I'm going to get her right now, and you can't stop me!" Kararu started to get up and shove the covers off of her.
"Actually, Kararu, I think I can." Ed said, grabbing her shoulder and pushing her back down on the bed gently.
"Ed, let me go get her!" Kararu said, pushing his hand off of her shoulder and tried to get up again.
"Kararu, I will not let you go! You need to rest!"
"No, Ed, I don't!"
Ed was about to give her a small piece of his mind, but suddenly the lights went out.
There was a surprised yelp from Kararu, somehow Ed's chair got flipped backwards and he was flipped back onto the cold, hard tile flooring, there were two loud thuds as two bodies hit the floor, and the sound of the window smashing ended the noise, and the room entered silence.
There wasn't any light from outside, as it had gotten very stormy in the past two hours, and wasn't an ounce of daylight streaming in through the broken window.
When the lights came back on, Ed looked around. Something was wrong.
VERY wrong.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
People who reviewed:
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Me: Well, that was it!
Ed: What's wrong?
Me: (-puts on an 'I-know-something-that-you-don't' look on my face-) Wouldn't you like to know!
Ed: Yes, I would!
Al: When do I come into the picture again?
Me: Um…I think you make an appearance next chapter, but I'm not sure…also, just so that everyone reading knows, AL WAS NEVER THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE!
Ed: He wasn't?
Me: Not in my story!
Ed: Oh…
Al: Huh…interesting…then, how was it made?
Me: You'll just have to wait and find out now, won't you?
Ed: You're hateful…
Me: I know! Al, do the disclaimer again!
Al: Why?
Me: Because there's a NEW CHARACTER! D-U-H!
Al: Oh…Kararu doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist, though she wishes she could own Brother, but she does own Kararu Rinamino and Arlic (Pride), and Silvermoon15 owns Shikou Rinamino, we're just borrowing.
Me: You got that right! Ed, give the reviewers their gifts!
Ed: Why do I have to do it?
Me: Oh, look, a delete key that says 'Edward Elric' on it! Gee, I wonder what would happen if I pressed it…(-finger hovers over key-)
Ed: All right, I get it, I'll friggin' tell 'em…
Me: Good!
Ed: All reviewers, you get twenty platters of cookies to keep you occupied until next chapter, you all get a Fullmetal Alchemist calendar and if you want, twenty pounds each of left over Valentine's Day fudge (made out of pure chocolate and sugar).
Me: Yup! Well, I hope you all enjoyed it!
Join me next time for:
Chapter 6: An Equivalent Exchange