Chapter 4: Was It Really A Dream? G.
Darkness filled the cavernous room. The only light was from the torches that hung on the walls, casting eerie shadows among those standing. In front of them stood a tall throne-like statue. One would believe it to be empty, if a voice were not emitting from it.
"You are proving useless, my friends..." a thickly accented voice drawled. "You haff not done vat I asked..."
"We are trying our best..." a voice stated. "It is not easy to track down all of the Alchemists at once..."
"I ordered for the best to be killed first," the voice from the throne continued. "And yet, they still live. The others mean nothing to me."
"We are only killing those you ordered to, my liege..." another voice spoke up, this time more high pitched and clearly female.
"The Flame Alchemist still lives!" the first voice said angrily. "I ordered him to be killed first! Vat is he doing still alive?"
"He is not easy to track down," another pleaded. "We have tried and he is always so heavily guarded."
The person sitting on the throne fell silent. A strange chill blew threw the room, causing several of them to shudder involuntarily. Their leader moved slightly, only their outline able to be seen in the dim lighting.
"Yes, I do believe that is true..." they said. "But ve are vorking on that. He vill not be guarded so vell very quickly."
"Are you planning on killing the other?" a gruff voice asked. The owner's face was easily seen in the light from the torch. It was rough and bore several scars, no doubt from a hard war. "The First Lieutenant?"
"If we haff to..." their leader replied simply. "I no longer care for keeping this clean. It is getting far to dangerous. Kill whoever gets in the vay."
"They have gotten the Flame Alchemist involved..." a voice from the back spoke up. "I saw him pull into the driveway of the Hawthorne place. He had his Lieutenant with him. They obviously are doing their research."
Their leader sounded pleased. "Then the plan is already in motion. It is best ve get him involved now. It vill make it easier in the end."
"What are you saying?" the gruff voice asked. "How will him knowing about us make anything easier? He will certainly have spies."
"I haff spies, do I not?" their leader's voice was becoming sharp. "But that is not the point. Instead of going out to find him, he vill come to us. Then ve vill finish him off."
"What about the one they're all talking about?" a younger voice asked. This came from a muscular male, with a strange tattoo across his forehead. "The Full Metal one."
"Kill him," was the response. "If any of you come across the one they call the 'Full Metal Alchemist', I vant you to kill him immediately, no questions asked. He is the most dangerous of them all."
"And the Homunculi?" the female voice asked. "What are we to do about them?"
Their leader fell silent again. The followers remained still, waiting for the answer.
"Ve leave them," the voice answered. "For now, they are our allies. They know everything there is to know about the stone. Once it is over, and every last trace of the stone is gone, ve vill destroy them like the others."
"How so?" a panicky voice asked, this time belonging to a frailer looking man. "You've seen them, oh great one. They are not easy to kill."
"I haff my vays..." the leader replied. "It vill not be so hard..."
"But, they cannot-"
"Do you doubt my power?" the voice rose furiously. "Do you not think that I am more powerful than them?"
"No, no..." he said quickly. "I didn't say that. I would never believe that! I was only saying that-" he began to bow quickly as a noise came from the throne.
Echoing through the room, heels clicked across the stone of the throne, stopping just before the light. The others moved aside quickly, bowing as well. The panicking man, lay as close to the floor as possible, begging for forgiveness.
"I am not a forgiving person, Berton..." the leader said bluntly. "Surely, you know that..."
And with a bright flash of light, Edward Elric shot up in bed, breathing heavily. He clutched his chest and squinted his eyes, feeling as if he had just been temporarily blinded.
Looking around the room, Ed tried to catch his breath. When he realized he was still in his room, he rubbed his eyes hard, trying to regain focus.
"Al?" he said into the darkness. "Al? Al, are you awake?"
There was no response. Ed pulled his knees up to his chest as best as he could, a sharp pain running through his leg. The words of the people in his dream still hung in the air, as if they had been in that very room when they said it. He couldn't seem to shake them off.
Come on, Elric...it was just a dream...
It was just a dream, but it had been about him. They had mentioned him at one point. They had planned to kill him. Whoever 'they' were. The voice of their leader chilled Ed down to his very bones, for it reminded him of his other enemies.
The Homunculi...
They were mentioned as well. Whoever had been speaking needed them, but planned to kill them in the end. If they weren't also planning on killing Ed as well, he would have been keen to side with them.
They had mentioned the stone as well. Whoever they were, they knew something about the stone and didn't want others to know about it. If they wanted to destroy the stone, Ed would have to get to them before they were able to. If they destroyed the stone and everyone connected to it, he would never get his old body back...
And Al...
Al would remain a living suit of armor for the rest of his life. Ed didn't want to see that happen to his brother. He would do anything to change them back.
Rolling over, Ed tried not to focus on what he had just seen and heard. Part of him tried to remember what the leader looked like. He had only seen a little of whoever it was, but it was not enough to go on.
The next morning he would tell the Colonel what he learned. They had been planning his death as well. It was almost certain Roy would laugh and shake it off as some silly child's nightmare. Perhaps he should tell Hawkeye first. She would understand better.
Yawning, Ed drifted back to sleep, fighting off the rest of the nightmares that seemed to be attacking his brain.
XXXXX
"It was just a nightmare, Ed..." Roy said, not looking up at the boy in front of him. "Nothing to worry about."
"I knew you were going to say that!" Ed groaned, irritated. "I don't know why I even told you!"
Roy didn't speak as Ed paced angrily back and forth in front of his desk. Riza watched, unsure of what to say. Ed seemed quite disturbed about the dream he had, and frankly, she was interested to hear more.
"You told me, because you like the feeling of knowing things that others don't," Roy told him bluntly. "It sits you a little higher on your throne of arrogance..."
"Arrogance?" Ed burst. "You're certainly one to talk, you damned-"
"Edward..." Riza spoke up cautiously.
Ed slammed his metal arm down onto the desk, causing it to rattle and shake. "Dammit, Colonel, they talked about you! They're planning on killing you too!"
"Be careful what you say, Edward..." Riza spoke again.
Roy stared at Ed for a moment, not sure what to think of what he had just said. He looked away, hastily. There were many people out there who wanted to kill him. How would this be any different?
"Are you planning on killing the other? The First Lieutenant?"
"If ve haff to..."
"Lieutenant Hawkeye!" Ed turned to her suddenly. "You believe me, don't you?"
She didn't answer him. He desperately look back and forth from each of, growing more and more infuriated. Al had been concerned when he'd mentioned it this morning, why weren't they?
Before he could say another word, the phone rang and Roy answered it. He spoke to the person on the other end for a minute, then paused.
"Maes, do you think you could come to my office for a minute?" he asked. "Before you head back to Central. Thanks."
He hung up and waited silently for someone to say something. Ed didn't speak, for he knew they would only shoot him down. A few minutes later, the door opened slowly and Hughes entered.
"What's up, chief?" he asked, staring at Roy.
"Tell me Maes," he started slowly. "In your research have you ever come across accounts of prophetic dreaming?"
Hughes nodded. "Certainly. All the time. Sometimes they'll see scenes of the past as well as the future. There have even been records of people seeing scenes while they're asleep that were happening at that exact moment, miles and miles away."
Ed shot Roy a haughty smirk. Roy avoided looking at him.
"Why?" Hughes continued. "Who's been having dreams?"
"Ed has..." Roy said calmly. "He claims he saw who's been murdering the state alchemists in his dream last night."
"I didn't actually see them," Ed corrected him. "I only saw a few of the followers. Their leader was sitting in the dark. I couldn't see his face."
"Leader?" Hughes looked at him, startled. "You mean, there are more than one of them?"
Ed nodded. "Maybe twenty or so. Some of them didn't say anything, so I couldn't see them."
Hughes sat down in the other chair, thinking deeply. "Do you remember anything about any of them? Anything that would help you recognize them?"
Ed looked at the floor. "One of them had a tattoo across his forehead, and another had a pretty scarred up face. I didn't get better looks at them though."
"And their leader?" he asked.
"They had a strange accent. It was low and thick, so I couldn't really tell if it was a girl or a guy..." Ed told him. "But that's all I can tell you."
"What happened in the dream?" Hughes said, sounding interested.
Roy and Riza exchanged glances. They weren't quite sure where Hughes was going with this interrogation. Ed had told them nearly everything.
"They were talking about the stone," Ed recounted. "The leader said that they weren't working fast enough. They needed to kill more Alchemists."
"Did they name anyone?" Hughes interrupted.
Ed glanced at Roy and nodded. "Lieutenant Hawkeye."
Roy had expected him to say his name and was stunned that instead, he spoke the name of his First Lieutenant. Riza stood in shock, but made no real reaction.
"The Colonel..." he finished. "And me..."
"Anyone else?" Hughes asked, showing no signs of alarm.
"Yeah," Ed said quickly, remembering it. "They were talking about the Homunculi! They said that they were allies for now, but when the time came, they were going to destroy them."
Finally showing some sign of emotion, Hughes frowned. "So clearly, we're dealing with someone very powerful. First of all, planning to betray and attempt to destroy the Homunculi is both foolish and crazy."
Ed looked insulted, for he had be planning on destroying each of them one by one for a very long time.
"Secondly, the Homunculi obviously trust them, which makes them, without a doubt, an even greater evil." Hughes continued. "Either that, or the Homunculi are using them they way they're using the Homunculi. Maybe they both have the same plan."
Ed shook his head quickly, trying to make heads or tails of what Hughes was saying. It didn't sound like he was really speaking to anyone. It was more like he was thinking aloud.
"Then again, if we go after them, they may side together and form an unbeatable group and destroy us instead of each other..." he said. "Which, ultimately, brings us back to their original plan."
Roy and Riza seemed to understand, but Ed was long lost. Roy nodded slowly, while Riza looked at the floor.
"So..." Ed said slowly. "You're pretty much saying we have to kill them before they kill us, right?"
Hughes nodded. "Exactly."
"Okay," Ed sighed. "That I understand. Let's go find them."
"Don't be stupid, Ed..." Roy said shortly. "You can't go and face all of them on your own. It would be considered suicide and honestly, I don't want to deal with the paperwork that would follow something like that."
"All you can think about is yourself," Ed shot back at him. "If you're so high and mighty, why don't you go after them? Or are you afraid?"
Riza opened her mouth to defend Roy, but Roy held up a hand to silence her.
"I am afraid," he said. "I'm afraid that we'll only get ourselves into more trouble if we go in there without all our facts straight. We may be faced with an Alchemist, or we may be faced with a monster. Either way, we don't know how to stop it."
"And we won't know, unless we get out there!" Ed was now standing, the color rising in his face.
"We will soon," Roy said, remaining calm. "For now, we must-"
The phone interrupted him and he answered it, ignoring the rude look Ed was now giving him. Roy sat up quickly as the person on the other end addressed him.
"Yes, sir." He said deeply. "I will, sir. We'll get right on it."
Hanging up, Roy glared in Ed's direction. They waited in silence for him to explain what was going on.
"You may have just gotten what you wanted, Ed..." he said. "That was the Führer. There's been another murder and they have the suspect cornered. They want us out there immediately."
