Chapter 13
Ed opened his eyes and looked around in a daze, but he couldn't move his head. The only thing he could do was push his eyes from side to side. He was spellbound to the bed by one of Al's Alchemy spells. The Mind Meld Technique.
He felt Al's hands closely pressed against the sides of his head and tape wrapped around them. They were there to secure Al's hands for the Mind Meld transference, or that's what Winry had told him when he had awoken during his waking hallucination for which Envy had concocted, made him believe was real. But for which it wasn't. It was another way for Envy to test his mental defenses and when he let his guard down, Envy attacked.
"Al, wake up," he called out to his brother. "Wake up, Al."
Al moaned out a tired groin and then opened his eyes in a daze, as if he had just awoken from a long sleep. Sharp needles of light penetrated his pupils like the morning sunshine through light curtains. He felt like he wanted to turn over, throw the sheets over his head and go back to sleep. But then he suddenly remembered he hadn't been asleep, but instead trapped inside Ed's mind.
The Mind Meld technique that Scar and an Ishbalan doctor taught him worked.
His hands were taped to Ed's head wrapped with black electrical tape. Winry had done that to hold Ed's head still so he could perform the Mind Meld technique, during one of Ed's violent waking hallucinations. Al later learned Envy was the cause of those attacks and it was a trick to lure him into Ed's mind in an attempt to immigrate and mind-swoop with Al's body. But it hadn't worked. Envy failed. But now, with the information given to them by Maes Hughes, who appeared as part of Ed's subconscious mind, or at least that's what he figured he represented, they know Envy's consciousness made its way into Winry's body.
"AL, wake up!" Ed now shouted loud, and Al jumped, startled.
"Ed, don't shout, I'm awake!" he said back, his voice hinting irate.
"Dispel this Mind Meld spell so we can go find Winry," Ed insisted with grave earnest. "There's no telling what that lunatic Envy has done to her."
"How did you know about that Alchemic spell, I never told you," Al wondered. Wondering if this was all a trick and Ed was playing dumb only for Envy to be still in control of him. "You were so disorientated with your waking hallucinations that there's no way you could know I bound you to the bed."
"Winry told me in a dream," he said. "No, I guess you could call it a waking hallucination before Envy killed her and then me."
"What?" Al said confused.
And he told Al about his waking hallucination where Winry had released him and how Envy possessed Al's body and killed him, by sticking a knife in his heart. "And that was when I found myself in that empty, dark void," Ed said.
"After I burned to death in Envy's ring of fire, I too found myself there," Al said. "The power of the mind is truly awesome, brother. Envy had me believing I was going up in flames. The pain was so excruciating that I couldn't resist but scream out in pain and anguish. It felt like my flesh was pealing from my body."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Al," Ed said sympathetic. "It's almost over now, Al," he said. "Release me and we'll go find Winry and finally put an end to all this. Envy will pay for what he's done."
"How do I know it's really you? I mean, you could be Envy."
Ed's was starting to get a little upset and his patience was running thin. He was thinking of all the terrible things Envy could be doing to Winry right now and he wanted to save her from that hell.
"Believe me, Al, I'm 100, truly your brother; who else could I be?" Ed said.
"That's not very convincing," Al said suspiciously. "Prove it!"
"How the hell can I prove it when I'm bound to this stupid bed!" Ed said angry.
"If you're indeed my brother, Ed, then you'd know how father defeated the real Envy. What happened on that fateful day?"
Ed had to think back for a moment. The imagery of what happened, or what he witnessed, all that he saw, was, to say the least, horrific and horrifying. But he wasn't witness to all of it. Only father was the last one to see Envy alive. "He slipped through the gate with father, but I don't know where he ended up."
"How was I rescued?"
"I went into the gate and brought you out," Ed said. "If I hadn't done so, your body would've been devoured by the spirits and demons inside. I was surprised your body even survived at all after everything that happened during our travels. There was a time there, that, I thought you'd never get your body back. Who else would know that?"
"Envy would, he knows everything you know," Al said.
"If that's so, then how am I to prove congruently that I'm your brother?"
Al sighed. "I suppose you can't," he admitted.
"Then release me, we have to go find Winry," Ed urged. "Winry!" he called out to her, but she didn't answer. He called out to her again, but still no answer. "Where is she? She should be here."
"Maybe she went out shopping for tools. You know how she is when there's a sale, and this morning there's supposed to be a merchant hardware sale in town."
"What time is it?" Ed asked.
"I think it's morning, we've been at this all night, nearly eight hours. Envy took us to hell and back again during the night. I'd call that a nightmare."
"I'm exhausted, but we've gotta find her," Ed insisted. "Now release this damn spell of yours so we can go look for her!"
Then a thought struck Al. "Oh-no," he muttered loudly.
"What Oh-no," Ed repeated.
"If Winry's gone, then there's no one to release my hands from your head. And if I can't free my hands, then I can't recant the Mind Meld spell."
A couple of nasty words bellowed through Ed's mind. "You can't be serious," he said. "You idiot!"
"Don't get angry with me, it's not my fault," Al said.
"Then who's fault is it, certainly not mine! And who gave you permission to tape your hands to my head anyway! This tape better not rip out any of my hair."
"Don't be so chauvinistic, Ed, you need a haircut anyway," Al chuckled.
"This is no time to be making jokes, Al," Ed said angry.
"You sound like a girl," Al then said.
Ed growled at him like a disgruntled she-devil. "I am not a girl," he said, struggling against the power of the Alchemic spell, but to no avail.
"Settle down, brother, or you'll give yourself an aneurism from all that thrashing around."
Ed suddenly stopped feeling the effects of an elevated blood rush. He felt woozy and his vision became a little blurry. "Okay, I'm not doing that again," he said, settling down, trying to sound calm. "Just release me, okay?"
"If I could, I wouldn't hesitate, but how?"
"Use your teeth to rip through the tape; anything."
Al tried it, but all he got was a sore jaw. The electrical tape was just too tough and rubbery to be pulled apart by the gnashing of his teeth upon it. "It's no good, brother, and now my jaw hurts," Al said. "Have any other ideas?"
"If only you had a metal leg like mine, you could clap your feet together and transmute it into a sharp blade or a pair of scissors to cut through the tape."
"That's not funny, brother," Al said frowning.
"Sorry, didn't think about it until after I said it," Ed said. "Do you see anything sharp nearby you could use to cut the tape?"
Al looked around. Winry's work bench was five meters away from them with a pair of scissors hanging in plain sight on a peg board, but nothing he could reach. "And how would you suggest I use it if there was anything nearby which there isn't? My hands are taped to your head."
"Use your imagination," Ed said snorting. "Use your feet."
"I'm a human, not a monkey," Al replied.
"If I could use Alchemy, I could perform the levitation technique and get those scissors from Winry's work bench," he said, seeing them out of the corner of his eye, "but I'd need my hands to do it."
Al looked at him surprised. "The levitation technique?" he said. "You never said you could do that. It's a well known, but forbidden technique. There is no true exchange for its use."
"Everything has an exchange, Al. It doesn't use a conventional transmutation exchange like Alchemy does changing base materials into something else, however. You know how it works, you've read the literature on it."
"But you never told me you could do it."
"I'll show it to you some time, but now we have a more pressing matter to deal with. But why am I telling you this, you don't even believe I'm your brother."
Al leaned over his brother and gave him a big grin. "I have no doubt in my mind that you're my brother, Ed," he said with a smile. "When our minds melded we touched a chord and we shared something very special. With my hands touching your head, I can feel that same predominance inside you. Alchemy is not only the ability to turn base metals or transmute objects and minerals into other things, it also has another exceptional property many people never discover or understand. In touching an object or another person there comes a unique synchronicity, a bonding, a moment in time, where you and it are fused together as one. Interrelationship is what true Alchemy is all about."
"You've been reading too many sci-fi comics, Al, but thanks." Ed said smiling. "Listen up, I may have an idea in how to free us."
And Ed told him.
Meanwhile, someone overheard their plans.
To be continued...
