yes, I changed the title, somebody told me the title might catch more eyes if it was named after a song. so, no, you're not crazy, it is no longer "a new breed" it's "animal I have become" anywho, I think it's a catchier name now... I hope.
well, maybe I AM updating too fast, but I'm impatient, and don't like making the oh... (counts on fingers) thirteen readers I have wait for the next chapter. besides, the prelude really dosn't say much about the rest of the story so I figgured I should get the first actual chapter up as soon as possible.
so! here it is, I hope you enjoy it!
(and yes, I apologise... I just HAD to add a created character... sorry)
January 1, 1916
It was dark, probably around midnight. A group of four men walked down the street, some walking a bit straighter than others, depending on how much they'd had to drink that night, it was New Years' after all. The two walking the straightest were a short man with a boyish face and large glasses, and an older man with greying hair and squinty eyes. They had the unfortunate job of supporting their other two friends. The younger man with glasses, Cain Furey, struggled under the weight of his much larger, and much more intoxicated friend, Jean Havoc.
"I told you not to drink so much, now you can't even walk straight" Furey said.
"whaddya talkkin about? I'm fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" Havoc slurred, smiling incoherently. "yer full of it, man," Breda said from over the older man, Falman's shoulder, "Yer even more wasted than I am!"
"NUH-UH!" Havoc yelled, making Furey flinch, "I AM NOT!"
"YER JUS' SAYIN THAT CUZ YA DUN WANNA ADMIT THAT YER PLASTERED!" Breda retaliated.
"I swear to drunk I'm not god!" Havoc yelled back.
The two, more sober, members of the group looked at each other uneasily. "how much farther to the apartments?" the younger man asked. Falman sighed, "not too much farther I hope, I think only a few more blocks, see? There's the Lab 5 ruins right there." he said, pointing. "It's odd," Furey said, "it's been two years since Ed disappeared, two and a half since the place was blown up, I wonder why they haven't fixed it up yet…"
"I guess it's just like Ed used to say…" Havoc murmured, staring into space, "some things just aren't meant to come back into being…" there was a pause among the men. "geez, Havoc," Breda said, "you're more profound drunk than sober… Maybe you should drop the dinner and a movie date you got next week and take her to a bar."
Suddenly, Havoc's feet stopped moving, making it impossible for poor Furey to move under his comrade's weight, "uh… Havoc? You okay?" he asked worriedly. Havoc stared up at the ruins blankly. "Havoc?" Falman asked, stopping as well. The man simply stared.
"hey… since the place got destroyed… it doesn't have any security anymore right?" he asked. "well, I guess not…" Falman said, thinking for a moment.
No sooner had the words been said had a wide grin stretch across Havoc's face and he pushed Furey away and sprinted drunkenly toward the destroyed building. "WAIT A MINUTE!" Falman yelled
"YEAH! WAIT FER ME YA JERK!" Breda called, shoving Falman away as well. By the time Falman and Furey had gotten to their feet again, their comrades had already rounded the corner, through the gate into the ruined courtyard. Furey sighed, "well, I guess we've got to go get them huh?"
"afraid so." Falman said, "the structure's unstable now, it might collapse on them if they're not careful."
"yeah…"
"yeah…"
The two men looked up at the huge, ominous, dark, deserted building then back at each other. Furey swallowed hard "well…l…let's go…" and shakily began to follow the sound of Havoc and Breda laughing asininely in the distance.
OoOoOoOo
Havoc laughed stupidly as he rounded the corner, every drunken "hyuk" echoing off the desolate stone walls. Breda followed quickly after, missing the turn and running headlong into a pile of rubble with a loud, clattering crash. After a moment or two, he reappeared around the corner and ran down the corridor, swaying even more than he previously had been.
"you okay, man?" Havoc asked, only slightly concerned.
"I'm fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, there's no need to worry about me, Pamela! NOTHING CAN INJURE THE MIGHTY SHAMUS!!!"
Falman looked down the stone corridor and sighed, "oh boy, he's on Shamus the invincible and Pamela the well-endowed… next it'll be-"
From down the hall echoed, "FLY MY PRETTIES! FLY! WAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHH!"
The two unfortunately sober men sighed, "the army of flying monkeys…"
Havoc suddenly stopped dead and stood, dumbfounded in front of a vacated room. Not expecting the sudden halt, Breda ran into him, bouncing off his shoulder. "hey!" he yelled, nursing a lump that formed when his head hit the floor, "what's the big idea???"
"I coulda sworn… I saw…" Havoc muttered, letting the end of his sentence trail off. Without another word, he walked through the doorway into the room. Breda got up and looked in; there wasn't anything really special about it.
In the corner there was a rusted bed-frame, covered by a moth-eaten old mattress. Along the walls were shelves and cabnets full of broken and dusty bottles; of what, he'd never know, most of the labels had peeled off or the ink had faded on them. The only outstanding detail was the giant hole in the wall opposite the door, which seemed to have crumbled in the explosion. A small portion of the wall remained attached to the floor, creating a little ledge It offered an incredible view of the city
Havoc stood in the threshold of the gaping space. The wind whistled eerily around the room and pulled at his clothes, tugging him toward the gap. In front of him, a small group of rats huddled together on the crumbled wall; just inches from the drop off. Every once in a while, another rat would climb out of the shadows under the ledge and join the little group.
Havoc didn't move at all, it was hard to tell if he was even breathing. Breda took a step into the room, "Havoc, man, what're you-" The sound of footsteps cut him off, "There you guys are!" Furey yelled as he followed Breda into the room. Falman followed suit, "you know, for a bunch of drunks, you two run fast." but now Breda and Furey were in the same state as Havoc, "hey, what're you guys…" he followed their line of vision and saw what was the problem.
From the shadows that the rats scurried out of; something much, much bigger was moving. The black mass rose up to be at least six-foot-nine. Pointed ears twitched at the top of its sleek head, amber eyes shone bright and alert through the gloom, and long sharp teeth sprouted from it's muzzle as black lips pulled back into a malignant grin. It stood, arms outstretched, palms turned outward; multiple smaller rats scurried over its body, clinging to its fur like it was their mother. On its palms were two light gray markings, circles, one with a crescent moon and the other with an upside-down triangle.
Havoc's lips finally moved, "it…can't…be…" he whispered. The gleaming white smile stretched further and formed one, single word,
"boom."
with that, the rats detached themselves from the giant figure and charged in waves at the four men, who (finally broken from their stupor) forgot their masculinity and screamed in terror as they sprinted into the darkness of the hallway.
After a few moments, the screams told the beast that the men were on the level below. It blew air between its teeth and let out a shrill whistle. The swarm of rats returned to his side obediently. It sank back into the shadows and listened to the wind whistling through the room.
OoOoOoOo
January 8, 1916
Alphonse Elric walked out of the newly re-built central library. He had, yet again, gotten side-tracked and forgot what time it was. He was supposed to be studying, re-learning the skills he had forgotten when Ed brought him back.
In the transmutation, Al had lost all memory of the four years he and his brother had spent searching for the philosopher's stone; including any experience that would make him a better alchemist. He couldn't even ask Ed what happened because, along with his memory, Al's brother had also vanished. And so, in order to find his brother, Alphonse was collecting all the clues he could and piecing them together in an effort to learn what happened and where Ed could have gone; and how to bring him back.
From down the street a familiar figure waved to him, "Al! There you are! We were starting to wonder if you'd fallen asleep in there." He looked up and smiled. Thankfully, he wasn't alone in his search. Winry was holding multiple shopping bags on each arm yet somehow managed to jump and wave energetically at him. Beside her was Rose, considerably more calm and with considerably less shopping bags hanging from her arms; mainly because one of them was occupied holding the tiny hand of a two-year-old Daniel.
Winry, Rose, and Izumi had volunteered to stay with Al and help him any way they could; even if sometimes it was just keeping him company while he traveled. Even though he didn't remember it, apparently Rose had become friends with Ed and Al in their travels. That wasn't hard to believe though, she was very easy to get along with, she was also kind enough to tell him everything she knew about the role she played in his and Ed's journey… no matter how painful it was, including how the military had made her the mother of a child at the age of seventeen.
Rose smiled kindly, "Izumi told us to come get you after we finished shopping. And besides that, Daniel's starting to miss his playmate." she added as the toddler at her side began tugging away from her and towards Al. He smiled as he walked up to them and picked up the kid, "yeah? I'll bet he's tired after a day of shopping with Winry." he said lifting the little boy over his head, getting a high-pitched squeal of laughter out of him, then putting the boy on his shoulders and following Winry down the street. Rose smiled, "he won't admit it, but he's about due for a nap" she said.
"no sleepy!" Daniel insisted, fighting a yawn.
"yeah yeah, whatever you say, little guy." Winry laughed over her shoulder.
The little boy put his arms on top of Al's head and nuzzled his face into the dirty blonde hair, "Daniel no sleepy…"
OoOoOo
When they got to the hotel, they were greeted by a large group of men in military uniforms. Al could see lights from camera flashes blinking rapidly down the hall. There were reporters there too, scribbling away as they shouted questions at the official.
"no, we can't confirm anything yet, now please, I'm going to have to ask all of you to get back, this is a restricted area." he said, shooing them away. They didn't listen.
"What's happened?" Winry asked confusedly. "I don't know…" Al said looking around. In the crowd he saw a familiar eye patch, "but I can sure find out." He gently lifted Daniel off his shoulders and handed him to Rose before running off into the crowd. He pushed through the mass of people until he found the coat sleeve of Roy Mustang and tugged on it to get his attention. "Colonel- I mean, Major Mustang!" he kept forgetting that Roy had been demoted.
Roy turned and looked down at him, but only offered a feeble smile, which was all he could seem to muster these days, "hello Alphonse, what're you doing here?" he asked politely. Al didn't expect anything more from him. according to winry, Roy had once been rather cocky and vibrant; But ever since Al had known him, he was always very solemn and quiet. Nobody really knew what had happened to him.
"I could ask you the very same question, Major." Al said, "I thought you were stationed up north, why're you down here in Central?"
Roy looked down the hall, towards the commotion, "they think… an old friend of mine might've come back…" Al blinked, by the tone of his voice, it was obvious that whoever he was talking about was most definitely not on friendly terms with him.
"you shouldn't be here, there's been a murder… go back, Al. you don't need to see this." Roy said, before he walked toward the yellow tape that was blocking off the hallway. Al's eyes grew wide. Despite the Major's warning, he followed a little ways behind Roy into the bloodstained hallway.
As he walked, Al could hear the men murmoring to each other,
"God, this is the third one this month!"
"do you think it's really him?"
"why would he have come back after all this time?"
"I thought he only attacked State Alchemists…"
"Doesn't he know that there is no State Alchemist rank anymore?"
"I thought he was dead."
"Maybe the dead can come back…"
OoOoOoOo
"tell me what you've got." Mustang said as he approached the cloth-covered figure. A jumpy soldier turned to him abruptly and whipped out a clipboard and read the notes off of it, "uh-uh-uh, well sir. Th-th-the body has multiple lacerations that seem like they were made from the inside,"
"and who was the victim?" Roy said, lifting up the imbrued sheet and looking under it.
"-a-a-and there's no sign of a struggle," the jittery soldier continued.
"but who was the victim?" Roy repeated.
"a-a-a-nd the cause of death seems to be excessive bleedi-"
"I CAN SEE THAT, SOLDIER, I'M ONLY BLIND IN ONE EYE, THE OTHER SEES PERFECTLY FINE, NOW TELL ME: WHO WAS THE VICTIM!!!!!" Roy finally screamed, losing his temper.
The boy whimpered, quickly whipped out another file, and handed it to him. "S-S-Salina T-T-Tanimura, sir," the soldier stammered, "sh-she was twenty-two years old, Amestrian female, a hotel maid, approximately five-foot-four, green eyes, blonde hair, graduated from westwood high school in-"
"enough," Roy cut him off, "you don't have to say anything else." he said as he continued to read the profile silently. The young soldier fidgeted while he waited for Roy to finish. Finally he couldn't stay silent anymore, "do you think it's him, sir?"
"who?" Roy asked listlessly.
"you know…" the young soldier looked around nervously like he was about to say some horrible curse word, "Scar…"
"absolutely no chance." Roy answered without hesitation.
"what?! B-but, it looks just like-"
"I know." Roy said, handing the clipboard back to the soldier, "Whoever did this was a very good impersonator, but definitely not him."
"and how are you so sure, Major?" a female voice said from behind them. Mustang snapped his head up to look at who had spoken; his expression soured, "hello General Estele" he said with an undertone of distaste in his voice.
Anna Estele was the youngest general in the military. She apparently liked to stand out for she had torn the bottom of her military skirt and the sleeves of her jacket off, often wearing very little beneath it. She wore black, leather boots that came up to her calves and her jet-black hair was gelled up into a Mohawk with a long, thin ribbon hanging down her back. Her face was ashen white and painted with black lipstick and black eye shadow that make her amber eyes seem to glow unnaturally. She was all of twenty-seven years old and was already a master martial artist, an incredible alchemist, and a feared name. Since the fall of the fuehrer and the rise of the democracy, she had been climbing the ranks at an alarming speed. She was now of a higher rank than Roy ever was after only three years of service, two under the fuehrer and one under the new regime; but always a rather eager supporter of the Fuehrer, though. Needless to say, she and Roy did not see eye-to-eye.
"maybe you've spent too much time away from civilization, Roy," Estele said deviously, "or maybe you've forgotten the case completely; but might I remind you that we never found Scar's body. As they say; 'breathing until proven dead.'" The woman walked up to him and put one elbow on his shoulder, resting her weight on it, Roy scowled but did not react.
"even if he lived through the Lior incident, this isn't in his pattern." Roy said tersely, "He only attacked State Alchemists and the off military personnel who tried to stop him, all of which were male; he never went after women, or anybody outside the military."
"oh, Mustang, you foolish, foolish man, you." Estele snickered, shaking her head, "allow me to explain something to you…"
OoOoOoOoO
Al watched silently from around the corner, peeking out from behind the wall. Again, they were all talking about something big and important and he had almost no idea what was going on. He had heard about Scar from almost everyone so he knew the basic public knowledge.
Scar was an Ishbalan serial killer with an X-shaped scar on his forehead. He used some kind of "destructive alchemy" to break apart a person's flesh by only doing two of the three steps of transmutation. While most would analyze, deconstruct and reconstruct, Scar stopped at deconstruction; therefore, not breaking the law against using alchemy in the Ishbalan religion.
He was also approximately six-foot-two (about a foot taller than Furey); had white hair like Falman yet, unlike Falman, somehow managed to attract a small group of fan girls; used very long words that Havoc had a hard time comprehending; moved so fast that Riza was only able to shoot him once in the shin; was somehow smart enough to give Breda and his team the slip every time he was being chased; had only slightly less muscle mass than Major Armstrong… and had apparently saved Al's life, then disappeared. other than that, very little else could be told about him. At best, newspapers described him as a vengeful psychopath, at worst: a wrathful demon.
So far, Al had found only one person who seemed to have thought of Scar as an actual person rather than some horrible monster. Rose was the one who had been closest to him, so Al decided to believe her more than anyone else… the Amestris newspapers were famous for exaggerating.
A hand touched Al on the shoulder, making him jump a little. He whipped his head around and saw Rose standing behind him, "nobody out there is saying anything and I got tired of waiting for information." she said quietly as she could, peeking around the corner as well, "what're they talking about?" she whispered retreating back behind the wall.
"something about that Scar guy…the woman talking to Roy thinks he's come back and killed a woman who worked here." Al whispered back to her
"WHAT?!?!?!" Rose quickly scrambled back to the corner, practically standing on top of Al to listen in.
"you don't explain anything to me, General, I've been on this case longer than you've been in the service." Al heard Roy growl.
"well, in all that time you were on the case he was never caught was he? And now, he's come back. And now, you've been demoted to the rank of major and spend your life in a barren wasteland up north… fantastic job, Mustang." the woman sneered, "and besides that, you can't predict this man's actions, he was a maniac, after all."
Rose had one hand on Al's shoulder and the other on the wall to stabilize herself while she stood on her tip-toes to see. He could only see her out of the corner of his eye and… she almost looked angry from his angle.
"frankly, a murderer is a murderer, through and through. Any reason he gave was just an excuse so he could justify his own actions. If you take away his cause, he'll just find another one. Like a rat in a maze. If you close off one path to the prize, he'll just find a way around it, or plow right through it." Estele said simply.
"frankly, General," Roy spat, "A murderer is a person, and people and rats are very different beasts, so it's no use comparing them. Besides that, even rats have a pattern. So did he. Even if he decided there was some other wrong God had called him to right, it simply wasn't in him to kill women, he had every opportunity to kill Hawkeye but he never even tried." he was beginning to raise his voice and finally turned to meet Estele's smirk with an intimidating glare, "Nor was it in his nature to attack an unarmed victim. unsuspecting, but never unarmed. And besides that," now he had shrugged her arm off his shoulder and was beginning to advance on her, making her take a few steps back, "there would be NO way for him to justify killing this woman; she had no link to the military, to Ishbal, to alchemy, to him AT ALL. Now are you going to start looking for this woman's murderer or are you just going to keep chasing a ghost while the real killer slips through our fingers!!!" he was little less than an inch from this woman's face now.
There was a momentary pause. Then another smile twined across Estele's face, "my my, Mustang… for a war hero, you sure are fooled fast." she laughed then moved away from Roy and strode over to the cloth-covered body. "I'll admit, I've always heard he was convincing, very good with words, a fantastic speaker… even got an entire city to revolt just like Ishbal all by himself… but you must understand something," she knelt down beside the bloodied cloth and ran a hand over it gently, "a man does not always kill for revenge or justice… sometimes it's just a bit more…" she suddenly grabbed hold of the fabric and whipped it off the body, "carnal."
The photographers at the front of the mob let out a collective gasp and began snapping away at the sight before them. Rose took a sharp breath and the hand that had been on the wall flew to her mouth. Al hadn't been facing the scene and turned around quickly, "what? What happe-" he stopped in mid-sentence as he saw the gruesome scene in full.
The woman was beautiful… or… at least she would have been in life. Now her pretty face had a cloth stuffed in her mouth and was distorted with absolute terror; her green eyes frozen wide open and staring at whatever unseen ghost had killed her. Her arms were tied. Deep gashes were carved into her previously flawless skin. Her limbs: bent at irregular angles. Neck and back pulled into an unnatural backwards arc. But worst of all was the fact that the poor woman was also stripped naked, her clothes lay in a neat, folded pile behind her.
"you see, Roy," Estele said, smirking once more at Roy's expression of complete horror, "the life of a criminal can get very lonely, a problem I'm sure you never had to worry about… and, well… when a man gets too lonely, he can do some crazy things…" she crooned, mockingly patronizing.
Al looked up at Rose and saw her standing on her own now. She clasped both her hands over her mouth and shook her head, eyes wide, "no…he wouldn't…he couldn't…" she breathed.
Roy shook his head slowly, "why did you leave this out of the report you sent me?"
Estele looked at her nails lazily, "because I thought it would be so much more pleasing to give you a little surprise, Roy."
Roy shook off the shock, "It doesn't matter anyway! I told you! He never went after women! He just wasn't like that!"
"oh-ho! You still think he was fighting for good but just had his heart in the wrong place, don't you? What a cute bedtime story that would be, but I'm afraid the rest of us graduated kindergarten some time ago." she stood and began to walk towards Roy again, "need I remind you of the last young woman he came in contact with? A miss Rose Thomas?"
Al felt the hand on his shoulder suddenly tighten. Again, he had been so absorbed in what was happening, he hadn't realized Rose's hand was back.
"she was only sixteen at the time, such a beautiful, loving, trusting young woman…"Estele crooned, circling around Roy, "her home was torn apart, think of how vulnerable she was; alone, scared, confused… she was probably so desperate for help that she'd trust anybody who said they could protect her… no matter who they were…" the woman stopped behind Mustang and put her lips to his ear, "She became mute and pregnant in practically the same hour Scar appeared in Lior… take a moment to nurse on that idea, Mustang." she smirked wider, "a man that manipulative and a girl that trusting; it would have been only a matter of time before-"
"SHUT UP!" the suddenness of Rose's voice and the uncharacteristic force behind it made the entire corridor go silent and made Al jump about three feet in the air before falling on his backside. "Miss, you have no idea what you're talking about so I would very strongly suggest that you shut up." Rose whispered, shaking in, for the first time Al had ever seen, rage. He scooted a few more feet away.
Estele blinked for a moment, then recognizing who this impudent little girl was, she smirked. "I'm sorry, dear." she said, very obviously snide, "had I known you were listening, I wouldn't have brought it up… after all, I wouldn't want to be reminded of a betrayal like that either…"
"he never touched me…" Rose growled dangerously. At this point, Al, the reporters, and even Roy began to inch further and further away from the two women. From the way they were looking at each other, it wasn't unlikely that one would spontaneously burst into flames at any moment.
"oh? Well, then lets think on this one, dear, if he didn't do it… then who did father that child of yours? It's not like kids just fall from the sky." Estele said, folding her arms and looking at Rose expectantly.
Rose said nothing.
"what was that? I couldn't quite hear you; speak up, dear, or you won't be heard over everyone else." the older woman said, putting a hand to her ear sarcastically like the room wasn't so silent one could hear the gods of war whimpering in fear of these two women.
Rose said nothing.
"what's the matter? Name won't come to you? I know, it's so hard to figure out, there's just so many it could have been…"
Rose said nothing.
"or maybe you've just gone mute…" that struck a nerve, and Estele knew it. Her smile curled foully on her cheeks.
There was a pause, nothing moved, nobody was so bold as to take a breath, even the flies on the ceiling stopped buzzing; anything that made itself known to either of the two women were in grave danger of being eaten alive.
Rose spoke, "Truly, the Major is right… you're so busy chasing after a dead man that you can't see what's right in front of you." the younger, and much smaller woman began to stalk toward Estele; if looks could kill the woman would have died nine times over. "THERE ARE ALL SORTS OF HORRIBLE PEOPLE AROUND YOU AND YOU CAN'T EVEN SMELL THE SQUALID FILTH RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE!" she took a moment to regain the air it took to force all that out of her body then spoke again, "you… have no idea what you're talking about… so I suggest that you shut up."
There was another long pause. Al closed his eyes tight and waited for an almighty explosion… it didn't come. Estele looked at Rose for a long moment then let out a small laugh and strode over to another soldier, "I think the investigations crew has all the photos they need, you guys can take the body now."
Hesitantly, the crowd began to move again. The reporters scratched down cautious notes at first then began to scribble furiously in their notebooks and photographer cameras began snapping away again as the clamor resumed.
Al shakily rose to his feet after a while. Mustang strode up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "The two of you should go. This is no place for civilians." Without another word, he turned, and disappeared into the crowd.
"Rose?" Al called timidly, "Rose, let's go back to Winry… she's probably worried by now…" Despite the fact that Estele had turned away from her, Rose gave the beck of her head one, last, lingering glare then turned on her heel and began to walk away.
Coming from seemingly nowhere, Estele appeared behind Rose and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her back. Putting her painted black lips to Rose's ear, the older woman whispered in a vile tone, "I am the squalor."