A/N: I do not own FMA, nor the characters. I just play with them. I do, however, semi-own the almost-original characters.
"And all the lies everyone's told you, And the love you never knew, It was the things they never showed you, That swallowed the light from the sun, Inside your room, Coming down the world turned over, And angels fall without you there, And I go on as you get colder, Or are you someone's" – The Goo Goo Dolls, "Black Balloon"
It wasn't her words that shocked me. It was the sight of my brother's head. I knew that helmet better than I knew my own heart. No-one but me could duplicate it so completely–it was no fake. When the threat registered, I knew I had no choice. They had my brother. My brother. What else could I do but go with her? And so I went. There are times when I wish...when I wonder...what would have happened if I hadn't gone?
Edward Elric walked almost meekly in front of the woman Amie. Almost meekly–there was little about Edward that could be called meek. He hesitated, brought up short by a large wooden door. She leaned around him and opened it, a flick of her wrist gesturing for him to enter. He did, and his boots echoed on stone flooring. His gaze fell on a suit of armor, kneeling in the middle of the large expanse of the floor. Standing behind it was a slender woman, dressed in white stained red by the sun beginning to set.
What really caught Edward's attention was the woman's slender hand...a hand poised directly over the array of blood smeared in the back of the armor. "NO!" he shouted, forgetting himself, any sort of plans he'd had, seeing those fingers so close to Alphonse's tenuous hold on this world.
"Brother?" Alphonse's high, thin voice asked.
"Ah, Edward Elric. So good of you to come!" exclaimed the woman dressed in white. Her dark eyes glinted in the sun's setting rays. "I am the Lady Joceline Bhaer, and I have a proposition for you that I think you will not refuse." Her smile was sweet and beautiful, as her voice was soft and warm. "But please, call me Jo."
"Get your hands off my brother," Edward snarled, tensing where he stood. He quickly calculated the distance between them, how close her hand was to the blood-seal, and what his chances were of attacking her without damaging Alphonse. "Right now."
"But without him, you will not listen to me, or do what I want," Joceline replied, airily.
"But...but how?" Alphonse asked, and Edward's attention latched onto his brother's confusion. "If this is Ed, then who was that before?"
"What do you mean?" Edward asked, frowning.
"That was my trump card against you both. Now, Edward," here Joceline smiled at him, "do us all a favor and agree to behave."
"Why should I listen to you?" demanded Edward, once again judging the distance between them.
"Because your dear younger brother's life is in question," Joceline purred. "And if you attack me, he will die as well." She smiled, and the edges of it were sharp as crystal. "Put your hands behind your back, Edward, and let Amie have them."
"If you think I'll–" Edward cut off as Joceline's hand moved a fraction. He glared up at her smiling dark eyes, and swallowed his protest. Angrily, slowly, he put his hands behind his back. Amie, the resourceful handmaiden, folded his arms so that his left hand touched his right elbow, and vice-versa, and proceeded to tie them there with what felt like rope. Silence, save for the rustle of cloth and rope, reigned until she was done.
"Excellent. Amie will take you to a place better suited for our little...chat. Alphonse shall be well taken care of, don't you worry. And no tricks, my dear Edward...if you misbehave, your brother will pay for it. The same goes for you, Alphonse," Joceline warned, with her sweet smile and gentle voice.
Edward bared his teeth at her in a snarl, but the hand hovering over his brother's life forced obedience into him as Amie carefully steered him away by a thin hand on his shoulder. He was taken down two halls, a flight of stairs, and another door. The room behind the door was simple, boasting a table and two chairs, a wad of blankets on a small mattress on the floor in a corner, and a single window high on the wall, far out of reach. It resembled a dungeon cell more than an actual room.
"My mistress will be here shortly. Please, have a seat," Amie murmured, stepping back and standing by the door. "And do not think of escaping. Your brother will not last long if you try."
"I think you are bluffing," Edward replied, turning to face her. He wriggled his hands. The bonds were tight enough to hold, but not painful.
Amie smiled, and the expression looked far out of place on her sharp face. "You can't take that chance, can you?" she asked, softly.
Once again, Edward found himself without a plan. "...no..." he muttered, after a moment. Temporarily thwarted, he stalked over to a chair, hooked a foot around its leg, pulled it away from the table, and sat down roughly to wait.
Joceline was not long in coming. Her white dress gleamed in the light of the candle she held. Edward squinted at her–this room was very dark, and the candle-light was almost painful. She smiled at him, and shaded the flame with a slender hand as she came to the table. She took the chair opposite his, and waited a moment before taking her hand away from the candle. Edward flinched a little, but it wasn't so bad this time.
"Forgive my brutish treatment, but I knew no other way to get you to comply," Joceline began, her voice dulcet.
"What do you want," Edward growled, shifting his hands. His left arm was beginning to fall asleep.
"A favor, my dear Edward. I'm afraid there is little I can give you in return, unless it be your lives." She smiled, and angry though he was it still touched Edward. "Will you agree to help me?"
"You have the gall to ask me when you have my brother?" Edward demanded, annoyed. "As if I could refuse!"
Her smile never wavered. "You have spunk enough. I like that. Edward Elric, this is what I want you to do." She looked him directly in the eyes, and told him five words that shocked Edward's mouth open.
"You–you...want...what?" he spluttered. "Why?"
"The reasons wouldn't matter to you, and you're a tad young for the details." She laughed a little, but it was a bitter, hollow laugh that cut at him. "If you mean why I've chosen you...well, I have long planned this plot, and you, my dear, are the best pawn I could use."
"If you think I would–" he began, voice rising on every word. He stopped, however, as he remembered whose life he held in danger by denying. He shut his mouth and swallowed the protests yet again. "I can't just do that, you know. They wouldn't let me live."
"Yes, they would, my dear Edward, because they wouldn't catch you." Joceline smiled.
Edward snorted. "As if! I'm pretty well known. They'd catch me within a minute."
"And that is where my trump card comes into play. Amie, tell Beth to come in." Joceline smiled towards the door.
Amie nodded, and opened the door. Edward looked over as the door opened, and caught his breath. For a moment, he wasn't sure if the candlelight was deceiving him. The form walked in, cradling a white cat in its arms, smiled a crooked smile, and said, "you called, mother?" in a voice that could have been Edward's own. Eyes of pale blue met Edward's own golden-chestnut, and he shivered.
"Beth, this is Edward Elric, in the flesh," Joceline proclaimed, gesturing towards her stunned prisoner.
Beth, a golden-haired form no taller than Edward himself, nodded to him. "Pleased to meet you, Edward sir," and the voice slipped from the roughened echo of his own into the high register of a very young female. She smiled, and now the smile was straight, with a dimple in her right cheek.
"You..." he breathed, stunned, unable to say more.
"A startling resemblance, wouldn't you say, my dear Edward?"Joceline's smile was once more crystal-sharp. "Most of this was her idea, my wonderful daughter Beth's idea. And it is she who will help you."
"But she...but you...why?" Edward asked again, bewildered.
Beth smiled again, and it was in the sharpened manner of her mother. "Perhaps you understand, Edward, sir, for you were also abandoned by your father."
For the third time in as many minutes, Edward was shocked speechless. The women were quiet, apparently waiting for him to comprehend all that they had told him. He saw Beth begin to say something, only to be silenced by Joceline. And he waited, let all that he had been told sink in. It was very, very hard to believe. "...I know him. I didn't...I don't think he's like that. He can't be."
"Perhaps not to you. I have tried to contact him, and he has not responded." Joceline smiled a smile to match her laugh–hollow, hurt. "And you will do as I ask, Edward Elric. For your brother's sake, if not for mine."
"And I," said Beth in a low, quavering voice, "if I cannot have the responsibility, then I will take the blame, and gladly." The look she cast upon Edward made his heart hurt–no one that young should have such hatred or anger, he felt.
He thought of refusing. The whole of him wanted desperately to refuse. But he knew, in his heart, that he could not. For his brother's sake, he could not refuse at all. Slowly, Edward Elric lowered his head, and sighed. "I...I'll do it," he whispered. "Just...don't hurt my brother, please."
"Done. I'm glad we can make such a good bargain, Edward." Joceline smiled her crystalline smile, and blew out the candle.
Inez: Well, here we are, second part! Only one more left! And yes, here is little Beth to complete the four women of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
Edward: I sense...character death! (Glares) NOT MY BROTHER!
Inez: No, not your brother. But someone else! (Singing)
Roi: I sense doom. Well, read, review, flame...(Pulls out gloves) Let's have at it, then!