Chapter 4: A Trail of Blood.
Disclaimer: Here is what I own: Vashov and Guile. Nothing else at the moment.
She awoke from the eternal slumber that had claimed her before, bringing with it an eternal bliss that she had wanted, craved for, but there she was, alive and naked before the man in black that stood before her. He had long dreads with a greenish tint to it and his skin was deathly pale with some looks of decay so that he looked like he had just come back from death as well. (Think Rob Zombie in Dragula.) The man stood before as his eyes looked over her body, noticing every one of her curves in a manner that wasn't perverted, but was more as if he was measuring her talents and abilities, to see if she was worth bringing back. He slowly popped his neck into place as he walked over to pick her up by the arm and looked her in the eyes, his cold grey eyes searching into her soul.
"Do you remember who you are," asked the man, his voice as emotionless as his facial expression.
"Lust, that was my name," said the woman as she gasped in pain and he loosened his grip.
"Sorry, I forget how strong my body is, but do you have any knowledge of why I would bring you back," asked the man as he watched her respond by shaking her head no. "I brought you back because a friend of mine thought you could be useful and that friend is an old lover of yours. I am just one of his creations, but I have an ability that he doesn't have because of the incomplete philosopher's stone inside of my body. I can do transmutations and bring you back, body and soul, but I can only bring you back, not that human you were before."
"Why would he bring me back in the form I despise, tell me is he a friend or lover," asked Lust, the answer would tell her who it was and explain why she was brought back.
"A lover," replied the man as he set her down on her own two feet. The man was seven foot seven and had very long arms. "You'll meet him when the time is right, but for now he asks that you stay at the mansion. Right now he's trying to moniter his enemies from the safety of the division of the East, under Roy mustang's comand."
Bellock Rijahd, an Ishvalan connected with many assassination attempts and anti-government groups, but never captured, managing to elude his pursuers for a long time. Now he was facing two State Alchemists, both were infamous to the Ishvalan people, but he was only scared of one of them. The red headed man with blood red eyes looked at his prisoner, studying each movement with great interest, as if he was looking for a crack in the Ishvalan's mental armor, but Bellock wouldn't be taken so easily. He knew the man who sat before him was the infamous Archangel Alchemist, Guile Stryker, and he knew that the man was a very good interrogator from the stories of comrades whom he rescued from prison camps during the war.
"Are you working with other Ishvalans or were you just a part of a group," asked Guile as he shuffled his fingers in a calm cool manner.
"I'm not saying anything about my compatriots no matter what you do," replied Bellock turning his head away from the Alchemists, but he could still se Guile pulling something from his pocket. It was a paint brush oddly enough. "What are you going to do?"
Guile didn't respond to the Ishvalan's question as he continued to take out a bottle of red ink and dipped the brush into the ink. Roy looked over at the colonel he was working with, feeling a bit worried about the actions of the man and the actions that he knew were about to happen, which were worse than the actions he was doing now. Not wanting to be a part of the interrogation, Roy left this seat and walked out, but not before turning his head back to see Guile panting a transmutation circle on the Ishvalan's leg. He pitied the man with all his heart, but it was a necessary evil that only the colonel could do.
"Now then, who are you working with," asked Guile as he touched the leg with one finger, causing a burning sensation in Bellock's leg.
The report on the information was on his desk, but he feared reading it in case the colonel put in some of the details about the interrogation, details that would only make Roy more worried about working with the colonel. Right now he put his thoughts into his Lieutenant General who was away at the moment to check up on the brigadier general's assassination and he couldn't help but think back to the day he had seen her in non-military clothes. Fantasies had often been going through the general's mind, but right now he was thinking about going back o colonel and having her back as his lieutenant. They had more time then instead of now when he had the occasional report or check up to do, but in truth she wasn't gone for that long, he just felt that something had changed between them from when he was her colonel and she was his lieutenant. Maybe it was him that had changed and he was just unable to cope with having the thing he wanted so close, but still have her out of his reach. A person cannot gain something without giving something of equal value in exchange, that was what all Alchemy was based on, but Roy wondered if it was really the law of the world. In order to gain the woman he loved, did Roy have to give up everything he had worked hard to get, his hopes his dreams, and everything that he held dear to himself.
"The moon never meets the sun," said Roy to himself, letting the sound bounce around in the empty room. "They must stick to their orbit and pass by each other, the sun goddess and the moon god. Will I be forced to live the life of Tsukiyomi and she will be my Amaterasu or must I give them everything I have to escape that fate that looms ever closer? Should I tell her how I feel?"
As he was musing over his love life when the object of his thought opened the door to his office and walked over to his desk with someone waiting at the door. Her red eyes met his dark black eyes, showing off a hint of affection in them as they stared at him with adoration, and for a moment the world faded out, leaving only them to stare at each other in their waking dream that could never be. He had heard her words to Al when she fought Lust and she thought him dead. At first, he felt so happy that she was so devoted to him, but then his happiness became remorse as he realized how much pain he had caused her by pretending to be asleep and he promised himself that he would never keep her out of the dark like that.
"Edward Elric is waiting outside to speak with you sir," announced Riza as she turned her head to the paper in her hand, breaking the illusion of the other world that they wanted to live in. "He's heard some word of a group of Alchemists called the Philosophers, which was supposedly destroyed by the State after its members diverted their activities of bettering Alchemy, to using it for personal gain and at one point, the leader of the group was mixed with an assassination attempt on the Fuhrer. At the time of their high point in power, it was believed that some of the members of the group still existed in the military."
"I see, get me all the names of suspected members after you let Full Metal in," said Roy as he took a look at the report of the crime scene and the many of the inscriptions written at the crime scene were all some form of occult symbols mixed with Alchemy, the type of symbols used for a taboo.
"Hello, General Bastard," said Edward Elric as he walked into the room, letting Roy see him for the first time in a long time. "I hear that you found some occult symbols at the crime scenes and it just happened to coincide with a book that I found in my father's possession on an old order of Alchemists."
"Yes I've heard about this group, but they were towards rebellion and bettering alchemy, not occult practices," replied Roy as he looked through the short document that Riza had left on the group.
"Well during their final years, the Philosophers were getting into a lot of taboos," said Edward as he leaned closer towards Roy. "They were dissolved after they claimed to have made a new Alchemic item that had the ability to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange or in other words, they were the group that made the Philosopher's stone. A lot of what the military was trying to do during the Ishvalan rebellion was based off of the work of the done by the Philosophers. I think that there is a new group rising from the ashes of the Philosophers and is trying to reestablish the name, they even left the Philosophers' insignia on the walls of the brigadier general's room."
"I think it might be headed by some of the people in the military, a general, colonel, and at least one member in the council."
"Why would you think it goes that far," asked Edward as he looked at the Flame Alchemist and he could see that the answer wouldn't be very pleasant.
"Only those up as high as a general knew that the brigadier was moving to his home," replied Roy as he looked at the list. "This is a very short list and it includes some of the names of the Fuhrer's advisers and the Fuhrer himself. Even I, the general of the eastern division, was not informed until later about this."