Sorry to keep you all waiting….
Disclaimer: same as always.
12 Gravel Earth – Part Two
The door at the other end of the room rattled on its hinges as a fist pummeled it from the outside. "Mr. Edward! What's wrong?" Mugear's voice permeated the now silence of the room.
"It's nothing," the fake Edward yelled back. "I told them not to interfere."
"It looks like you're not trusted," Ed smirked. "Maybe you'll feel better if you just reveal your identity."
Al ignored his older brother and found his attention drawn to a soft scratching. Fletcher knelt in front of the door Mugear was behind, scratching a transmutation circle on its surface. Placing both palms over the chalk, he closed his eyes in concentration.
An enormous tree trunk burst from an explosion of green light.
"Run! Hurry!" he pleaded with the real Elric brothers. "If you two get caught, we'll be in trouble as well. We'll clear up this matter soon."
The large door rumbled again with Mugear's impatience.
Ed assessed their options in a split second. "Al, let's go." The glass window shattered on impact with his shoulder and he tumbled to the ground. Al drew up his knees in midair, then followed his brother.
The two boys watched from the broken window as the alchemists dashed across the lawn and nimbly vaulted over the iron-gate. Russell turned to survey the pool of red water on the ground and the large tree currently obstructing their boss' entrance.
"I'm sorry, Niisan," Fletcher apologized quietly
The red stone glowed a warm ruby as it healed Fletcher's wounds and absorbed the excess red water. "You promised not to use alchemy," his brother admonished quietly. "Father didn't like it when you did."
The pitter-patter of feet invaded the room as two men finally made their way in, brandishing rifles. Mugear followed close behind. "This is horrible…" he breathed, surveying the damage done to his precious laboratory.
"Mr. Mugear."
Mugear turned to face the two boys. "Oh, the two of you are safe. The stone, is it safe?"
"There's no need to worry," the teenager reassured him, holding up the red stone, "it's here."
The older man reached for the stone as if it were his only salvation, his eyes devouring the small rock. "Well done growing it to this size," he gushed. "But we don't have any more time. Please use that method soon."
The blond alchemist was taken aback. "We don't have to use that method for the stone to…"
"You're not going to follow my orders?"
"No…" He looked away, his long bangs hiding the anxiety in his gray eyes.
"There was a man who said something similar to that a while ago." Mugear rummaged around behind himself and produced a large round device. The gold handle wrapped intricately around a spherical main container that was filled three-quarters of the way with red water. "He was a loser who ran away, though." He dropped the red stone into the opening at the top.
On immediate contact, the red water began to glow. The boys' eyes widened. "As long as I have this," Mugear took aim with the device, "I can do anything, even if I'm not an alchemist."
Red light shot out from the center of the sphere, crept along the floor, then in a swirl of brilliant light surged upwards and encircled the two young alchemists. The red light dissipated leaving thick bands cocooning them from shoulder to knee.
"Wondeful, isn't it?" Mugear marveled at his new toy. He fixed his beady eyes on the two bound boys. "The real Elric Brothers have blonde hair and gold eyes," -- both brothers' apprehension were reflected in their gray and green eyes at his next four words – "sons of Nash Tringum."
Ed and Al cautiously crept back into the house, painstakingly careful to close the door with no noise and padded across the wooden floor.
"I heard a lot of noise from the mansion."
They stopped mid-tip-toe. "Really?" Ed scratched the back of his head in confused innocence.
"You went there again, didn't you?" Belsio didn't move from his seat at the dinner table. "You guys just can't be helped."
Although he was a hollow suit of armor, Al still had exceptional sensory radar and homed in on a soft coughing. "Is Elisa still here?"
"Yeah. The grape tree is about to wither, so she doesn't want to leave its side." Belsio's tone softened slightly. "But her coughing's still bad. I just put her to bed."
The fire burned bright in Belsio's hearth. Ed relished in its warmth after a long night of creeping out in the cold and took a sip of the steaming mug he held. In his years as a dog of the military, coffee had become his salvation.
"Red water?" Belsio sat forward.
"Yeah. They were trying to crystallize it to make a stone," Ed explained. "But then again, the red water is merely an imitation compared to the Philosopher's Stone." Ed mentally brushed it aside and took another sip of the heavenly brown liquid.
"What did he mean by his father's dream?" Al wondered aloud.
Ed shrugged the question off. "That must've just been some excuse." What did he care? They stole his identity. And to add insult to injury, one of them was taller than him.
"Those two… Could they be Nash's sons?"
"Nash?" Ed repeated. "You mean the one who discovered the red water, Nash Tringum?"
"He was from this city," Belsio confirmed. "He went to Central to do research on the red water. But on that day, he came back to this city."
A lone figure, clad in drab gray, hunched over from the rain and solitude entered Belsio's consciousness.
"Nash! Is that you, Nash?" Belsio peered at the stranger in the alley. "You came back. Are you doing well?"
Nash gave his old friend a small smile.
Belsio escorted Nash back home and the two settled down, a bottle of brandy between them.
"This city is declining. I think everyone should stop relying on the gold as their way of life," Belsio said to his subdued friend. "How's the research on the red water? Is it going well?"
"I quit," Nash stated quietly. "I will never research it. I won't go back to Central either."
"What? What about your family?"
"I failed as both a husband and a father." He stared unseeing at the amber liquid in his glass.
"Nash…"
"He left everything behind. And he never spoke of what happened in Central. Then Mugear, this city's greatest landowner, came to speak with him. He proposed research on the red water."
"The answer is the same no matter how many times you ask me!"
Belsio turned in the sweltering heat to the voice behind him. Nash stood no more than seven feet away. Mugear, dressed in his city finery, suit, tie, hat and all, stood on the other side of the rock wall.
"Are you going to abandon this city, then?" the landowner demanded. "Only your red water can create gold now. If we have gold, this city will live once again. Nash, only you can save this city," he appealed. "I beg of you."
Belsio watched in silence as his friend's shoulders began to shake, his weary eyes shaded by his faded hat.
"He confined himself in one of Mugear's mines where he began the research," Belsio continued. "The city became prosperous with gold again. Furnaces were filled with fire; merchandise filled the streets. Life returned to the people."
"But at the same time, an unknown sickness began to spread. Many babies who were just born died because there was no way to cure it."
"Elisa is from that," Ed surmised.
Belsio nodded. "After a while, Marco, an alchemist doctor, came here."
A man sat beside the bed of a two year old girl, her tiny body wracked with violent coughs, her small chest heaving with the exertion of forcing air in and out of her lungs. Her parents stood at the other end of the bed, her mother anxiously leaning forward, hoping for a cure for her baby girl.
"The cause of this is a poison that has spread into the earth. The red water," he diagnosed. He reached into a leather doctor's bag and removed a red stone no bigger than the size of his palm. He raised it to Elisa's forehead and a bright yellow light enveloped the room.
Ed jerked forward on the sofa. "It shined?"
"Yeah."
"Could that light be…" Al trailed off, turning toward his brother.
"Anyway, it's certain that Elisa was saved thanks to his treatment," Belsio brushed off the subject of the stone. "I pressed Nash for answers."
"Answer me, Nash. This place will become a city of death at this rate." Belsio took a step closer to his old friend. Nash once again wore his gray trench coat and hat, shoulders hunched over from fatigue. "What did you do?"
"I was wrong." Nash didn't even turn. "Again." His shoulders hunched over further, as if he were trying to shrink in on himself, to disappear. "It happened again." He straightened. "I will end everything. I will end it."
With that he continued down the path leading out of his hometown.
"No one has seen him since. Eventually, less gold was mined and the city began to decline again."
"If those two are Nash's sons, they must have come after their father." Nash's words rang in Ed's head. He sat cradled in a tree branch staring up at the full moon, the cool night breeze a soothing balm to his troubled thoughts.
"Niisan." Al stood next to the tree, the top of his helmet almost touching Ed's elbow.
"What?"
"It can't be helped, you know. Those two only have their father."
Ed bristled. "Those two are just justifying this by using their dad as an excuse."
"That may be true, but we're doing the same thing," Al pointed out quietly. "I understand their feelings."
Two brothers. A missing father. Otousan. Ed didn't answer, his golden eyes intently fixated on the moon as if it held the answer to their dilemma.
Mugear swore at the thick door. "Really, you should've just listened to me and used that method," he said to the two boys locked on the other side.
Both brothers sat on the cold stone floor of the makeshift prison, their wrists manacled in wooden clamps.
Fletcher leaned over to whisper to his brother. "Niisan, what's that method?"
"It's simple." Mugear's voice bounced around the hollow room. "We make pregnant women drink the red water. Eventually the water will flow into the placenta and crystallize."
"You mean…"
"Stop!" Russell yelled.
"Then we borrow it when the time is right and transmute it into a stone," he continued as if neither of them had spoken. "It's an easy method that would definitely work."
Fletcher recoiled at the inhumanity and ruthlessness it suggested.
"My, my, you two are indecisive just like your father." Mugear turned away from the tiny barred window and started up the stairs to the main floor, completely dismissing them from his mind.
"Wait!" the elder Tringum shouted.
Mugear paused.
"Tell me one thing." He hesitated. "Did Father use that method?"
"He backed out at the last second. He would still be alive today if he'd done it."
The teenager gritted his teeth. "But you said that he died from an illness."
Mugear scoffed and continued on his way out.
"Wait!" he screamed at the man's back. "Hey, wait!"
The outer door fell shut with a loud clang, leaving the two enshrouded in the dark.
The fumes of the red water filled the underground canal. A woman clothed in a dark brown peasant dress perched atop the fountain as the potent red liquid cascaded around her.
"I have done everything needed," Mugear reported. "Now we just need to use the real Elric Brothers and put this into action." His voice was muffled by the brown mask covering his mouth and nose. He stood at attention, a soldier for his commanding officer's approval.
The woman tilted her head slightly, the heavy weight of her hair falling into her porcelain perfect features. "Will it go as planned, though? They're not easy opponents." Her husky voice rippled through the air, sending chills down Mugear's spine.
He balled one fist. "Dealing with one or two kids like them won't be hard," he assured her. "Please be patient for a while."
"Understood. Go." She raked her violet eyes unemotionally over the small tunnel. "This place will fall soon," she murmured.
"I am very sorry for the trouble those fakes caused. I was also deceived by them," Mugear apologized profusely to the boy and suit of armor before him. The real Elrics stood in the laboratory they had wrecked the night before.
"It is very hard for me to ask you this after all that trouble, but I think of you as high-class alchemists, so there is something I would like to ask your assistance with."
"Research on the red water?" Ed stood with his arms crossed over his chest, boredom and skepticism written across his face.
"Oh, you know? This will make things easier." Mugear took a few beseeching steps toward the brothers, his fingers laced together in front of his chest. "I heard a rumor that you have a great interest in the Philsopher's Stone." He produced the small red stone and held it up before them. Ed didn't so much as blink.
"Does this interest you? It's something made by crystallizing the red water. It's like a prototype of the Philosopher's Stone."
Ed arched an eyebrow nonchalantly. "And what am I supposed to do with it?"
"I want to save Xenotime," Mugear eagerly explained. "If we can recreate the gold vein, everyone won't have to leave the city."
"I see." Ed's eyes were focused on the stone. He finally shifted his attention to the pitiful excuse of a human standing before him. "So, where are the fakes?"
"I put them in the underground prison."
Satisfied for the moment, Ed turned his attention back to the stone. He clapped quickly and placed a gloved finger on the stone proffered to him.
Before Mugear's horrified eyes, it dissolved instantly. "What did you do?"
"I have no interest in an incomplete object." Ed placed his hands on his hips, ready to get down to business. "The punishment of the fakes comes first. I tend not to forgive liars," he added pointedly.
The hint was mostly lost on Mugear. "Does this mean you will accept my proposal?"
"This is nothing if we do it," Ed said. "More importantly, I haven't punished anyone in a long time," he grinned, a maniacal gleam glossing his eyes. "I'm getting excited." He shifted his famed gold eyes to the older man. "Would you like to watch?"
Mugear flinched at the boy's suggestion. "Um, I'll pass."
Al leveled a frown at his older brother. Ed could just hear the reproachful 'Niisan…' echoing in his head. But there were just so many delightful possibilities running through his head.
"Niisan?" Fletcher leaned toward his brother who was bent over his up-drawn knees. They'd been sitting in the dank cell for what seemed like hours. Fletcher had lost all perception of time.
The heavy door clanked open. Both brothers looked up to see the real Elrics silhouetted in the now open doorway. Al waved.
"Alphonse?"
"Nash Tringum is your dad, isn't he?" The brothers' sharp indrawn breaths answered his question. "What were you trying to accomplish by continuing his research?"
Russell bit back his pride. "That was Father's water. It's my duty to continue his research."
"You really are an idiot." Ed's piercing gold eyes never left the taller boy. "Do you know what the people in the city are going through because of the poison in that water? Your dad knew. That's why he tried to stop the research. You can't gain happiness if you try to rely on the red water or the Philosopher's Stone."
He stalked forward into the room, bringing his palms together. He placed one hand on each set of wooden restraints and transmuted them. Perfect wooden rectangles clattered to the stone floor.
"Move forward." Ed straightened and looked down at the two fully human brothers. "Don't do anything stupid since you've used my name."
He turned. "Al, let's go." The two Elrics ran out of the basement, their footsteps echoing in the now partially lit room leaving the Tringums still seated on the floor.
Mugear smirked at the red stains on his hand. Tiny particles of the red stone that Ed had pulverized still clung to his palm. "All is well. If the research goes well, they can --"
"And who is this 'they' you are referring to?" Ed stood in the doorway, arms negligently crossed in front of his chest. The suit of armor stood beside him. "There was something that caught my attention. The red water's researcher, Nash Tringum… Where did he go?"
"Nash? Oh I fired him since the research wasn't going well."
"You don't look like the kind of person who'd let someone go if they knew everything, though."
Mugear's beady eyes narrowed even further. "What are you trying to say?"
Ed's eyes hardened. "I'm not lending any help to a murderer, Mugear."
"You…" Mugear dropped all pretenses. "Fine," he reached behind him and pulled out the transmutation converter, "then I won't let you leave here alive. There are plenty other alchemists I can use." He held up another stone between his fingers.
Al started. "A rock?"
"There was more than one?"
He laughed at their dismay. "This one isn't as complete as the last one, though." He dropped it into the device and it transmuted a gun barrel. "Die!" He fired off a blast in their direction.
Ed flung himself and Al out of the way and rolled to the side of the room. "Is that it?"
With a scoff, Mugear dumped a handful of partially crystallized stones into the transmutator. "I still have more."
Six more gun barrels joined the first. Mugear leveled it at the State Alchemist.
"No way!" Ed and Al took off in a run, barely dodging the onslaught of transmuted bullets. They ran past the bookshelves and Ed stuck out a hand to catch a nearby pillar, swinging himself behind it. Al joined him on the other side.
Mugear laughed. "It's useless. Useless." He poured in another handful. The device reactivated and glowed red once again, pummeling the stone pillar with more bullets.
"It looks like equivalent trade doesn't apply to him." Ed shrank behind the pillar further. "Shit."
The bullets stopped. Mugear frowned and reached for more. But just as his hand reached his pocket, it was yanked back in the air. Strong vines wound their way around his arms and lifted the landowner high into the air.
Ed peered around the chipped plaster. The Tringum boys knelt at the other end of the room, their palms placed on a large potted plant that currently held Mugear hostage. He yelled for Al, and the two simultaneously pushed at the pillar.
It toppled over with a resounding crash, smashing the older man beneath it.
The dust cleared and Russell stood up. "Ed," he called, "looks like you needed my help after all."
"What?"
He ignored the furious glance Ed shot him. "I'm going to stop following my father." He raised his gaze to meet the State Alchemist's. "We'll find our own path."
Fletcher's mouth widened into a smile.
"Niisan." Al brought Ed's attention back to the matter at hand. He followed Al's line of sight to a huge hole in the wooden floor. Where Mugear's inert figure should have been, there were broken boards and a staircase leading down.
"An underground passage." Ed set his teeth. "That bastard got away."
The four boys ran down the dimly lit narrow underground tunnel.
Ed's voice was muffled behind the protective brown masks they wore. "Russell, are we there yet?"
"Almost there," he shouted back. "There's a spring that the red water flows from."
The boys came to an abrupt halt before a wall in the middle of the path.
"Mugear," Russell confirmed. "He blocked the route."
Ed walked up to the wall, irritated beyond measure. "I'll drag him out of there!" He clapped and quickly retransmuted the offensive barrier.
The blue electricity cleared, leaving a hole large enough for the four of them to go through. Ed's eyes widened. On the other side, Mugear crouched behind a cannon.
Flattening themselves to the sides of the tunnel behind the remnants of the wall, they barely avoided the hurling missile.
"I'll never hand this spring over," Mugear stood protectively in front of the fountain. "As long as I have this water, I can continue the research. I fear no State Alchemist." Mugear's speech ended on a gasp.
"Ed," Russell hissed. The State Alchemist in question stood belligerently in the hole he had created, his trademark gold eyes flashing with anger.
"Well said, Mugear," praised Ed. "Don't underestimate State Alchemists!"
He brought his hands together again just as Mugear launched another cannon. Ed rematerialized the stone barrier just as the missile exploded off of it, ricocheting the effect back toward Mugear. The force of the hit crumbled the wall and the boys choked back hacking coughs of dirt and dust.
Mugear groggily looked up from his position on the floor. He followed the black boot in front of his face upwards to a very annoyed State Alchemist.
"Do you understand now?" Ed towered over the prostate landowner. He could kind of get used to looking down on people. Too bad he was much to pissed off at the moment to enjoy the experience. "You're dealing with someone way above your level."
The tunnel walls around them began to shudder and shake. Bits of debris began falling from the ceiling. Mugear raked a terrified gaze around the trembling cave. Larger chunks of rock had fallen into the spring and half the fountain had caved in.
"Ed, this doesn't look good!" yelled Russell. "Get out!"
"Niisan!"
Ed used his right arm to ward off more falling bits of rock. He spotted Mugear crawling up the pile of rubble toward the fountain.
"I'm not handing this spring over –" Jets of red water spurted out from cracks in the pile of rocks. Mugear struggled to keep his balance on the precarious rocks. A rumble from above drew his attention. He screamed and futilely raised his hands as a large boulder came crashing down on top of him.
Ed spun and ran back to the other boys and the four of them madly dashed down the tunnel. They came to a stop. The sounds of rushing water were approaching faster from behind them.
"It's the red water," Ed stated.
"It's gushing out."
Ed ran to the nearest set of wooden supports and quickly erected another wall. "That should stop it for a while."
"Do you think the other places are okay?" Al asked worriedly.
Russell considered it. "With that shock, this place may fall apart soon. Let's go." The others followed him down the tunnel.
From the outside of the mansion, they could see rivers of red water trickling down the sides of the mountain. The spring would continue erupting until the entire village at the base of the mountain was flooded.
Ed skidded to a small open clearing and slammed his palms to the ground. Immediately, thick walls rose from the ground, effectively surrounding the volatile mountain and shielding the outside village. The red water gushed down the mountain and crashed into the moat-like valley Ed had created with a tremendous roar.
"Now if the flow would just stop…" Ed cast a dubious glance at the water still pouring from inside the mountain.
Fletcher rushed down the hill, skidding to a stop before one of the large pine trees of the forest that surrounded the mansion. With sure, swift strokes, he drew a transmutation circle onto the bark. Closing his eyes, he placed his small palm beside the circle and bent his head forward. He could feel the slight warmth through his green headband.
The trees of the mountain forest light up a luminous green and gradually began taking on an orange, then red tinge.
"The trees are absorbing the red water." Ed watched amazed as the tree after tree turned red, soaking up the flood of red water through their roots to the tips of the leaves.
"Niisan, I saw plants like this in the laboratory."
"He's trying to make the trees absorb the red water and leech out the poison?"
His blue eyes snapped open when a larger hand covered his own. The elder Trigum smiled at his little brother. With a silent nod, they both closed their eyes and concentrated on righting their wrongs.
The circle burned brighter and the red trees around them stretched even higher into the sky.
"They did it." Ed watched, absurdly proud of the two brothers, as the last of the red flood disappeared.
The brothers exchanged a glance. Fletcher looked back at the tree. "Thank you," he whispered. "I'm sorry."
The transmutation circle glowed once more, and the dark red of the trees turned to an ice blue. In brilliant bursts, each tree exploded into a firework of miniscule bits, scattering sparks throughout the sky then vanishing into nothing.
Elisa held up a basket of lemons to the two boys through the train window. "Here, these are from Mr. Belsio."
Al accepted the basket and thanked her with a laugh.
"Niisan-tachi, take care okay?"
Fletcher spoke up from next to her. "Come visit us again."
"Of course we will," Al promised.
Ed turned his attention to the other blonde teenager. "Are you sure you can make it in this city?"
"I'll accept whatever punishment we receive," Russell assured him. "My skills will come in handy if I work with Mr. Belsio." His tone sobered. "Ed, are you going to continue to search for the Philosopher's Stone?"
Ed's eyes betrayed his surprise at the question. Would he? After he had just told the two brothers that chasing after such a dream wouldn't bring happiness? His eyes cleared. The answer was simple. "Yeah."
"Should I teach you how to crystallize the red water?"
"It's not an apology or anything," Russell continued quietly so as not to be heard by the younger children, "but I think you should know."
Ed smiled slightly at the solemn offer. "I don't need to know. We'll figure it out on our own. That's for sure."
"Mr. Ed," Fletcher popped up on his side of the window. "Please come again. We'll make this city a better place."
"When that happens, I hope you're bigger," Elisa chimed in innocently.
"What'd you say!" Ed jumped to his feet. "That wasn't nice!"
Fletcher and Elisa giggled.
The train gave one final whistle and began pulling out of the station. "Bye!" Ed and Al leaned out the window, waving back at the three on the platform.
"Goodbye!"
Ed watched the sunset once again from the train window, a slight smile on his face. For all the bad things alchemy wrought, some good did come of it.
A piece of paper sticking out of the lemons caught Ed's attention. He leaned forward and plucked it out of the basket Al held in his lap.
"A letter? What does it say?" Ed opened the envelope and began to read. Midway down the page, his eyes bugged out and he strangled a yelp.
"What?"
"It's nothing," Ed replied quickly, curling his body protectively around the letter.
"Really?" Al's helmet took on a distinctly mischievous look. He lunged at his brother. "Show me." Ed darted out of the seat and around the tiny compartment. "Show me, come on," Al wheedled as he chased his brother around, yelling over his brother's squalls. "Niisan!"
Ed,
You've done a lot for us. Thanks. I'm sorry I got cocky when I was a year younger than you. I'll use you as an example to help me become a better brother for Fletcher.
Have a nice trip,
Russell
"Shit," Ed complained. "He's taller than me and a year younger? That's funny in a weird way."
"Those two will be fine, won't they?"
"Yeah. The had good faces that showed their determination." With people like that, maybe this world wasn't so hopeless after all.
A/N: Sorry the updates are pretty spaced out. I'm in the middle of midterms and work is just piling up. So I'm trying to drag out the updates to give myself time to finish incomplete episodes.
As always, thanks for reading & please review.
WildfireDreams, FlowerKid, and Ronya: Thanks for the great reviews.
lebragirl25: hey welcome to the story. Like I said, I'm kinda bogged down with work now, but I'll make it a point to check our your story soon.