DISCLAIMER: -spokesperson is tired of his job and instead holds up a sign- "M.C.E.Black doesn't own FMA or anything related..."...I'm not being paid enough for this...
A/N: Okay, I'm just whipping these chapters out there. This chapter is more informative than anything. There will be more action (both Royai and destruction-like) next chapter, I promise. (Trust me, I've been dying to write that.) Well, this chapter's still a bit short, but guess what, to go along with the short chapter, how about a short character? Ed is back! (Haha, I love making fun of Ed. I can too, seeing as I'm the shortest in my family...which is strange since I'm 5' 7") Anyways, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 11: A Bloodsucking Alchemist? RM.
It was becoming increasingly harder to focus on my work and the pile of files on the corner of my desk showed no signs of getting smaller. It seemed like the more I stared at it, the taller it became.
Hawkeye was constantly on my mind. We'd come dangerously close twice now and it would only be a matter of time before we actually-
I shook my head furiously. I had to stop thinking about that. Unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it to happen. I wanted to hold her in my arms again. I wanted to feel her body next to mine. My eyes closed as my mind started to wander.
My thoughts were interrupted when someone knocked on the door. I straightened up quickly and cleared my throat, making myself look somewhat busy.
"Come in," I said.
Ed entered my office and I stared at him. It had been a while since I had actually seen him around. The past week had flown by so quickly and so much had happened in so little time.
"Ed..." I acknowledged him slowly. "How can I help you?"
He closed the door and moved toward my desk. "I want to know why I haven't been involved in all the casework lately..."
I had completely forgotten that Ed had any part in this case. He hadn't been to any of our small informational meetings since the attack. Then again, he hadn't bothered to approach us about it either.
"I'm sorry," I said calmly, not looking at him. "We've been very busy lately."
"I noticed," he said bitterly. "Two dead suspects in less than a week? How come you didn't tell me? I had to hear it all from Lieutenant Hawkeye yesterday."
The truth was...I forgot. I was a bit more concerned about other things at the moment than Ed's involvement in some crazy murder case. He shouldn't have been involved in the first place. I had specifically given orders to keep him out of it.
But now he was in, I couldn't tell him to go, because I knew he wouldn't listen to me. He was going to get himself hurt.
"He thinks he's immortal, that's all. Someone needs to teach him a lesson."
"Maybe you should do it, sir..."
I took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than anyone could imagine. Ed hated me and I knew it. He would probably think I was paid to say this to him or something.
"Ed, I think you need to be careful..." I said slowly.
"Careful?" he scoffed, sitting down in the chair nearest to my desk. "Why are you suddenly worried about me?"
I didn't answer him. I was worried, because I didn't want another death on my conscience. And even though I hated to admit it, the little brat was starting to grow on me.
"Ed, I-" I started.
"Just forget it, okay?" he butt in. "If you guys aren't going to tell me anything, I'll just handle this on my own, like I always do!"
He started to stand up, but I stopped him.
"Ed," I said sharply. "Sit down! I'm not finished."
He sat down and stared at me. There was a strange look in his eye and it looked almost as if he was going to tear me to shreds.
Ha, I'd like to see him try.
"You haven't been acting very rational lately, Ed..." I told him, sounding like a complete and utter hypocrite. "You seem to think that you can defeat anything, or anyone, you come up against..."
"And...?" Ed asked, eyeing me curiously.
"And..." I fished around for something to say. I should have probably thought this out before speaking to him. I couldn't say "You can't", because then he would go off and try to prove me wrong. (And if he did, that would be incredibly embarrassing.) "There are some things out there, that are bigger than you..." I paused. "Actually, there are several things. Like an ant, for instance."
I could see Ed tense up. His hands began to curl into fists on the arms of the chair. I smirked and congratulated myself on stalling for a little while. However, putting him in an even worse mood would result in making my task a bit harder.
"Listen," I continued. "I'm only looking out for your safety. You need to keep doing your research. This case only ties into the Philosopher's Stone a little bit. You don't have to-"
"A little bit?" He blurted. "Did you even listen to me when I told you about my dream? They wanted the Stone! They wanted it all for themselves and would do anything to get it."
I smiled weakly and he stared back at me. I wanted to tell him that he was the exact same way, but I wanted him to figure that out on his own. It was strange how two people on complete opposite ends of the good and evil spectrum could think so much alike. It always seemed to turn out that way.
A sudden look of realization washed over him and he looked away. I knew that look. I had received it on several occasions when I came out on top of an argument.
"Perhaps you should wait until we have more information," I said coolly. "Once we figure a few more things out, we may well be on our way to finding our murderers."
I knew that he didn't want to wait any longer. If he had any choice in the matter, he would have been out that door and halfway toward the criminal's lair in a heartbeat. Instead, he nodded shortly, not speaking.
"Very well," I concluded. "Now that that's settled. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
He remained silent for a minute. Slowly, he turned to look at me. A devious grin crept across his face. I feared what was coming next.
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something..." he said.
"Ask away," I said, immediately regretting it.
"What's going on with you and Lieutenant Hawkeye?" he asked, his eyes gleaming.
I froze. Wow did word spread quickly. I made a mental note to tell Maes and Havoc to learn how to keep their mouths shut. I narrowed my eyes and returned the grin.
"I don't know..." I answered softly. "Why don't you tell me what's going on with you and your automail mechanic?"
His cheeks turned red and he avoided looking at me. I chuckled lightly to myself, feeling once again, victorious. It was none of his business what was going on with Riza and I, and I honestly didn't care what was going on between him and that automail mechanic of his, but it certainly got him to shut up, didn't it?
"Nothing," he said quickly. "Why do you all think she's my girlfriend? She's just a friend. That's all."
"Well, then..." I said to him. "Hawkeye is just a friend. That's all."
At least, that's all she was at that point in time. He didn't need to know of our little near misses, nor did he need to know about the strange daydreams I'd been having all morning. (Especially the ones involving miniskirts...)
Hesitantly, Ed stood up. He crossed to the door and left. I smiled, contentedly and turned back to my work. Though my mind had gone back to where it was before Ed had shown up, I had the strangest motivation to actually get my work done.
XXXXX
"Roy, you might want to check this out..." Maes said, arriving in my office later that afternoon. He had been making frequent trips back and forth from Eastern Headquarters to Central almost daily. "It's a report from the doctor that examined all of the victims' bodies."
I took the folder from him and opened it. There were several pages filled with information on the status of each of the bodies from the murders. I didn't see how this was going to be any help. I was certain that the Führer had said that they were all in perfect condition when they died.
"But Maes," I started. "How does this-"
"Read the first paragraph..." he instructed.
"'Victim shows no signs of being strangled, stabbed, shot, or in any way brutally attacked. All vital organs were in perfect working condition at the time of death and show no signs of probable cause of death. However, victim seems to have been drained of all his blood...'" I stopped and looked up at him. His eyebrows were raised as if he thought it were insane as well. "How is this possible?"
"Beats me," he answered. "You're the freak, not me. You're supposed to be the one to explain it all."
"Are you saying you think it was done with Alchemy?" I had never heard of an Alchemist who could drain someone of their blood supply.
He shrugged. "That's what the Führer seems to believe. That's why he sent it over here immediately. He wanted you to look through it to see if you found anything interesting."
The door opened and Hawkeye entered. She didn't notice Hughes at first and smiled lightly. I smiled back, a strange feeling starting in the pit of my stomach.
"What am I missing?" she asked, clearly taking notice of my guest and the file in my hand.
"New evidence," I said, holding up the folder.
"Great," she said. "What have we got?"
"Apparently, all of the victims were drained of their blood at the time of their murder," I told her.
The look on her face was one that I had expected. It was a mixture of confusion and disgust. "How do you know it happened at the time of death, sir?" she asked.
I shook my head. "I don't, but it was said that none of the bodies had been touched since they had been discovered."
"But before they were discovered...?" she continued.
I knew what she was getting at. It was certainly possible that the victims had been killed in another way and then drained after that, but it was the only lead we had, so I was going with it.
"It doesn't matter," I said. "It has to be someone involved. People don't just go looking around for dead bodies to steal their blood. And if it were someone who wasn't involved in the murder itself, we would hear of more cases like this, which we haven't. Every single one of them has been an Alchemist, or a scientist working with the research of the Philosopher's Stone."
She nodded. "So, are we looking for some kind of Vampire Alchemist?"
"It would appear so," Maes answered. "But what would they need the blood for? And why so much of it?"
I frowned. I knew what they could use it for, but I didn't want to think about it at a time like that. They could bring it up, because I certainly wasn't going to. Hadn't they been doing research on taboos recently?
"At this point," Hawkeye said. "I don't think it's very important 'why' something happened. We just need to stop it before it happens again."
I nodded. "Yes, and now that we have this information, Maes I need you to do some research on Alchemy with blood. Or even Alchemists that deal with blood. I need a list of names. We'll visit every single one of them if we have to."
"But, sir," Hawkeye interrupted. "Do we really have time for all this?"
"We have to make time," I said. "One wrong move can cause more innocent people to die. We can't risk that."
"But, if we wait, they might-" she said.
"Hawkeye," I stared at her. "We can't risk it. You remember what I told you about Alchemists, right?"
She stared back at me and nodded slowly. I tore my gaze from her and looked back at Maes, who had been watching both of us with intense curiosity.
"Did you hear what I said, Maes?"
"Yes, sir," he saluted and left.
The room was silent for a minute. Finally, I decided to speak.
"I spoke with Ed today," I told her.
She glanced up at me. "And?"
"He's not too happy that we've kept him out of the case," I said honestly. "He wants to be involved."
"What did you tell him?" she asked.
I sighed. "I told him that he wasn't always going to be able to beat everything he came up against. Things are much harder than they seem and he is only human." I stopped. "Well, okay I didn't say it in those exact words, but it was something like that."
She smiled. "And did he listen to you?"
I shook my head. "Not a word. I told you he wouldn't."
"I bet he did," she said knowingly. "It may not have seemed like it at the time, but I bet he heard everything you said to him. And even though neither of you would like to admit it, I bet he really took it to heart."
We stared at each other. I thought over what she had said. It sounded good, but that's not how Ed was.
"I have a feeling we're getting close, Hawkeye," I said absently.
She nodded. "I do too."
"We don't have much, but they're closing in," I continued. "I think it's time we had a little surprise attack of our own."
She smiled a little and I could tell she liked that idea. I stood up and filed through the papers on my desk.
"As soon as Maes returns with that information," I said. "We should be ready to close in on them."
"And Edward, sir?" she said, suddenly looking serious.
"I'll leave this up to him," I decided. "If he wants to be involved, I'm not going to stop him. If he wants to fight, more power to him. If he gets hurt, it's no one else's fault but his own. He needs to start taking more responsibility for his reactions."
She moved closer to me and placed her hand on my arm. "I know. I'm worried about him too."
Neither of us spoke as she headed toward the door. When she was gone, I frowned. How could she read me so easily? Was it that obvious I was concerned for the kid?
I stared at the wood of the door for God knows how long, thinking over what she had said.
She really was an incredible woman.
A/N: And yet another end to another chapter. Like I always say, REVIEW! I still love hearing from you guys. I hope you're still interested. I'm shooting for a couple more chapters. I think the story itself will have roughly 16 or 17...which is very short for a story written by me. Usually they're much much longer than that. (And usually much more detailed.) But anyways, thanks a lot for reading. I will be updating AQAP, since I have the next couple of days off, but I still have some work to finish. I hope to update by Friday! If I'm not...you can hunt me down or something. -hides under bed- Okay, well...see you then!
