A/N: Hey! I've been writing ahead so I can now tell you there's only four chapters on the Ishbal War. I'm currently working on Chapter 10 so maybe I can post two chapters next week or the week after if you want. So here is . . .
CHAPTER 5—The Ishbal War, Part I:
Naminé leaped for cover from a barrage of bullets. The other soldiers in the area were doing the same thing to avoid being taken out. She found herself behind some debris of what used to be the wall of a building. The Lightning Alchemist hated war since the first time she entered a fight against some Ishbalans. Her memories, however, didn't recall any firearms being used. She heard footsteps on the dirt before someone jumped over the huge chunk of wall and joined her.Naminé grinned when she saw who it was. "Kimblee, nice to see you."
"Nice to see you, too, babe." His mind was set on bombing that area and any Ishbalans that would happen to run by but the bullets prevented him from doing so. It was then, sitting next to a fellow soldier, that Kimblee decided that help would be nice. His golden eyes glanced over at Naminé. "Hey, can you help me blow up some Ishbalans?"
Her eyebrows rose at the directness of his question. Then she rolled her eyes and peeked around the wall to see if she could move closer to the enemies. She saw a soldier that was running fall down after getting hit repeatedly with bullets. "You're insane," she muttered to him.
In return, he smirked. "You're not the first person who told me." Naminé went back to peering while he went to examining the female's body, trying to take in as much as possible. The uniform makes her look a lot less curvier that she is, he thought. Before he could let her know, another soldier joined them—Thaddeus Romberg.
"Those crazy Ishbalans!" He yelled at them as if they could have heard them over the open fire.
Naminé turned around and smiled when she saw it was her boyfriend. Then she pulled him closer and pecked him on the lips. "Hey, Thad."
"Hey, Naminé."
Thaddeus "Thad" Romberg was not an alchemist like his friend and his girlfriend. He was a soldier who could use a firearm, any firearm well but specialized in hand-to-hand combat. He wasn't as muscular as Major Alex Louis Armstrong (Naminé didn't mind) but he had a good physique nonetheless. His eyes were brown and he had mahogany-colored hair which his girlfriend was now running her hand through. Romberg kissed his girlfriend on the lips roughly, not caring if anybody was looking.
The Crimson Alchemist watched them, thinking how pointless it was. They could die together for all he cared. His eyes caught an Ishbalan woman running to safety. He left the two lovebirds and moved quickly. In no time, he already had the woman by the arm. "Hello," he grinned maniacally. "You'll make a great bomb."
Naminé stopped kissing for a sec and turned around to see what Kimblee was up to. Apparently, he was forcing a woman against a building that might be holding other Ishbalans as well. She gritted her teeth and was about to shock him when her eyes caught someone coming into the open field. She saw it was an Ishbalan man holding a rifle, the barrel of the gun pointing in Kimblee's direction. Without hesitation, she moved out from behind the wall and snapped her fingers.
The Crimson Alchemist heard a scream and turned his head away from the woman. He saw a man on the ground, the rifle by his side and Naminé glaring at him. He was almost distracted by this, amused that Naminé had helped him. If the woman hadn't made a sound in her mad scuffle to get away, the Crimson Alchemist would have forgotten her. But she did and Kimblee soon had her by the hair. Swiftly, not giving a damn that he was hurting the lady, he threw her back in front of him. "If you weren't the only one around, we could have had so much fun." The mad bomber then clapped his hands and pushed the woman against the wall. Then he walked away with a sadistic grin as the woman's eyes rolled to the back of her head.
BOOM!
The Ishbalan and the whole building exploded right before Naminé's eyes. Bodies, lots of bodies lied amongst the debris contorted in some way and covered in blood. Her hand slammed over her mouth because she didn't want to scream. Slowly, she took in the damage. Could have been worst, she thought, hoping that was a lie. It could have been more people . . . more families . . . more children . . .
Romberg raised his eyebrows at the damage and whistled. "Damn," he said, surprised about the damage Kimblee did with one bomb. "Won't Gran like the sight of this . . . Naminé, are you okay?"
She nodded as her eyes followed Kimblee who was now approaching the unconscious Ishbalan. Kimblee reached the body and then dragged it away from the doorway until it was against the building. Then the Crimson Alchemist clapped his and performed the same trick he did to the lady.
BOOM!
The whole building blew up and pieces of it that had flew into the air was now coming back down to earth again. One piece was going to crush the oblivious Naminé. Kimblee saw this and tackled her out of the way. They landed into the ground and it was more painful Naminé because of the way she of his weight on top of her body.
"We're even," he muttered, still lying on top of her.
"You're heavy." Naminé had a feeling the way they were positioned was just wrong. She knew that Kimblee had his legs on either side of hers and that his head was resting on her chest. What made it worst was her boyfriend was probably just staring, wondering when they would separate which they hadn't yet. The truth was she felt too tired to be moving now but she should have because a shadow was over them both. "Colonel," Naminé said in a surprised voice.
"What?" Kimblee looked up and saw Gran glaring down on them. At once, he got off Naminé and helped her up onto her feet. He saw the building where most of the enemy fire was coming from had stopped. That could explain why they didn't get killed like they would have. "We're done here, Colonel."
Gran narrowed his eyes at the soldiers. "When we're handling your assignment, you two we're lying on the ground with one another!" Naminé winced at how wrong that sounded but he didn't notice. Colonel Gran found someone else to yell at. "And you!" He walked passed the subordinates to get to Romberg who was finally coming out into the open. "What were you doing?"
"I had their backs, sir," Romberg said, unsure of the answer himself. He grinned when he saw Naminé attempting to stifle her giggles.
"What's so funny?" Gran's voice boomed.
"Nothing, sir," Romberg said, not wanting to upset his superior. He wanted to leave the area as soon as possible, maybe get a bite or two to eat. Anything was better than dealing with Colonel Basque Gran.
"Kimblee," Romberg was saying as he took a bite out of a sandwich, "if you're so lonely, why don't you get back with Sonia?"
"Who the hell said I was lonely?"
They had already gotten back to camp two hours ago and they were now eating dinner. Later, the state alchemists would go into Ishbal to see if they liberated one area properly. Romberg wouldn't be there but other guys would be. He hoped Naminé could handle herself pretty well in that situation and none would try to hit on his girlfriend.
Romberg sighed. "No one. You just seem to be hitting on girls who are already taken."
Naminé who was sitting next to her boyfriend raised an eyebrow at his suggestion. She loved Romberg and she had said it to him at least a dozen times. Why was he considering that she was possibly cheating on him, she did not know. It pissed her off though yet she calmly listened to their conversation.
The Crimson Alchemist raised his eyebrows. "I don't want Naminé," he said, ignoring the fact that she was there.
"I didn't say you want her."
"You hinted it."
"I'm just saying you need someone to entertain you. Sonia did a good job of that."
"It was just a physical thing between us. It got boring after a while."
"Okay then. How about . . ." Romberg looked around and spotted a female officer speaking with the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang. She looked happy to be talking to him but before she could be infatuated, maybe his friend could still get her. "That one over there?"
Kimblee looked to see who Romberg was talking about. His golden eyes saw the brunette flirting with the major. "I don't know. Her figure's okay."
"Her bust isn't that bad either, and that ass---Ow!" Naminé had smacked him on the back and it had hurt a lot. Romberg had forgotten that she was there the entire time. He watched her walk away and sighed, not understanding what he did wrong really. Certainly she looked at other men despite the fact she has one. Sometimes, he couldn't understand what goes through the mind of a woman nonetheless his girlfriend's.
Another female officer came to join them. "Hey, boys." Her name was Isabelle Stonewall. She was a first lieutenant and worked under Tim Marcoh. Her hair was a platinum blonde and her eyes were emerald. Isabelle sat next to Kimblee and crossed her legs. "So, why did your girlfriend take off like that, Thad?" Her green eyes went over to Romberg, waiting for a response.
"Jealousy," the Crimson Alchemist explained. "The dumb ass was checking out other girls in front of her."
Isabelle giggled. "Kimblee, you're the dumb ass for getting caught this afternoon. Now the military is wondering how Naminé is playing two boys at once. Or at least the soldiers who saw you anyway."
Golden eyes shifted in Romberg's direction and saw the incredulous expression on his face. "I tackled her because I was saving her from death."
Thad didn't believe that was all it was. "Then how long does it take to get off my girlfriend? Until you're done feeling her up and down?"
Isabelle sighed. Her intuition hinted this may have happened. Kimblee was denying it now but she knew that he wanted Naminé. They had always flirted with each other before Thad asked Naminé out. After that, they (the two alchemists) had restricted themselves to a platonic friendship. Now after Thad and Naminé had been in a relationship for a year, Kimblee was slowly making moves on her. Isabelle nodded to herself that whole thing was going to end in disaster if Naminé does anything wrong and Romberg finds out.
Kimblee didn't bother arguing this time since no point was in it. Instead, he got up from the table (much to Isabelle's dismay) and said, "I have to go." Before Romberg could comment on that as well, he left.
Later that night, Basque Gran led the state alchemists into Ishbal, giving directions the whole way. "I selected the ten of you because I know you can handle yourselves," he explained. "I don't want any casualties on our side. If any rebels appear, you have my permission to kill them. We can split into groups—we'll cover more ground that way." Then he looked over his shoulder to see the arrangements of the group just incase he didn't approve of one. His eyes rested on the Crimson Alchemist and the Lightning Alchemist. "You're not going together."
Kimblee looked up and grinned. "We're not. I'm going alone."
After they split into groups, Kimblee met with Naminé as they had planned. She was waiting by the destroyed buildings like he had told her. Her military jacket was off during the cool night and her light blue shirt was tight on her form. "Hey, babe."
Naminé looked up and saw Kimblee gazing at her. "Hey," she said with a smile, unsure why she felt happy. Her eyes studied him as he walked to her. It wasn't long before the distance was closed between them. She felt her face turning red so she faced another direction. "Let's start checking out the area. You know, before Gran arrives and says we're doing nothing again."
They started to walk down the road, looking around the area. The two of them didn't see the point in any of this—the area appeared deserted. Until a ball rolled out into the open and an Ishbalan child came right after it. His small hands were about to grip the ball when he saw the blue uniforms. After seeing the military personnel, he didn't move or try to run away.
"So, there are more of them in the area," Kimblee smirked. He moved in, his mind set on blowing the kid. He might even get lucky and more Ishbalans would run out only to get blown up one by one. When Kimblee was about to turn the kid into a bomb, Naminé spoke.
"He's only a child. He didn't do anything."
"That's the problem with soldiers like you," Kimblee said and clapped his hands anyway. "You just don't get it. You let them live and eventually they come back to kill you. They always do."
"I'll kill you if you blow him up," she threatened, her voice coming out cold.
Kimblee stopped moving and started to think the situation over. He sighed. "Fine. I won't." He had a feeling Naminé was watching as he approached the petrified kid. He picked up the ball and handed it over to the kid. "Here," he said grimly. The kid looked at him before running off, the ball in his hands. The Crimson Alchemist looked at Naminé. "You're happy?" Zolf asked.
"I guess . . . but what about the ball?"
The smirk was back on his face again. "What about it?"
BOOM!
It was some distance away but they could still hear the screams. Naminé was about to snap her fingers at Kimblee out of rage but he was faster. His fingers laced between hers and pinned her against a nearby wall.
"You said you wouldn't!"
The Crimson Alchemist smirked. "Did you really believe that?" She didn't say anything after the sentence and she didn't bother struggling out of the pin. Instead, she glared at him because he had killed a kid and who knew how many others. Despite the glare Naminé was giving him, Kimblee continued. "What difference does it make anyway? They were bound to die. If I didn't kill them, Gran would or even that Armstrong guy. I was just doing them a favor so they wouldn't have to wait anymore."
"Oh, and I suppose that makes it right? Don't think that bullshit will make me honestly believe you!" Her voice had come back to argue with him again. Naminé didn't believe in this genocide the fuhrer was leading the military into. It was just too extreme. Nevertheless, there always have to be the few who trust their leader's judgement without question no matter how wrong it seems.
"You don't have to. Just follow orders like a good dog . . . I don't want them calling you some traitor of the state." Kimblee didn't know why he had added that but that statement seemed to help Naminé become a little bit calmer than she was seconds ago. Trusting her, he gave her back control of her hands and was pleased to see that she didn't attack him. His eyes concentrated now on the smoke raising into the air. "You hear those screams?"
" . . . I've heard them since the explosion." Although that was true, the screams seemed louder than they were minutes ago and it would make sense for the Crimson Alchemist to notice.
"Well, they're a lot louder now. Gran and his men are probably there. Want to go see what's going on?" He had that maniac grin on his face because he knew what he wanted to do once he got there and he was sure Gran wouldn't mind.
She looked at Kimblee serenely although she was still hurting inside a bit. "Let's go. The colonel probably wants us there anyway." What surprised Naminé that night was when Kimblee's arm wrapped around her shoulders reassuringly and led her to where the action was taking place as if he knew she might turn away from the reality of war.
A/N: One down and three more to post. About this chapter, I may have exaggerated on Kimblee's alchemic powers. But in Episode 15 (I think), he can destroy many buildings all at once with the red stone. The name Thaddeus came from this character named Thaddeus Beaumont in The Dark Half by Stephen King. Good book, too. Anyway thanks to Evil Palm Tree Envy, Synette, kimimaros-angel, and crimson-nightwind for reviewing my story. Till later.