JKH - Would you expect anything less of me? After all, cliffhangers are my specialty. natch Roy-Fan-33 - Sorry about the delay last time and this time. I kind of forget about it, I'm busy back to writing some of my favorite and original stuff and this doesn't get daily attentiion like they do. Miss Mustang - Thanks! Lady of the Storm - Thank you very much. Again, sorry for the long absence. I'll try to update more often. Anne Packrat - Thanks. And the Grasmere Park thing, it just sounded like it fit. ThatLittleBlondeAngel - Grown? Oh this is nothing, I think there's still about thirty chapters left to go.
The Damned
"Lieutenant Havoc!"
Oh no. Maybe if he kept walking, just pretending not to hear, he could escape. Yes, that was a good plan, Havoc thought as he picked up his pace slightly. Though he tried to look casual as he walked down the long corridor, he could hear the echo of approaching footsteps off the sterile walls of main building of Eastern HQ.
Every fiber of his being, wanted to break into a mad sprint.
Surely he could outrun Lt. Col. Hughes.
All the air in his lungs exploded out of him sending his fresh cigarette flying, bouncing over the tiled floor thanks to a powerful slap on the back. "Sir?" he gasped.
"You're just the man I want to see."
Havoc braced himself ready for a deluge of dozens of pictures of an admittedly cute little girl. "Something I can do for you?" he asked, fishing in his pocket for another cigarette. To his surprise, Hughes shoved a brown paper bag toward him. "Thanks but I've already eaten—"
"It's not for you."
"Oh."
Looking very serious, Hughes straightened as Havoc took the bag. "Could you take this to Ed in holding? I've got to leave, there's been another sighting of Rhodes."
"Where's the Colonel?" He was surprised that Mustang was not mobilizing everyone to go after her right at that moment. Not that he was complaining; he had no desire to go facing off that mad woman or the Hareti with her.
Hughes shrugged. "He's off at some local affairs meeting."
"You mean a date?"
Scratching the back of his head, Hughes took on a thoughtful expression. "I'm pretty sure he said it was a meeting. Hawkeye was driving."
"Oh well then—"
"Whatever, I've got to go. Just try to calm Ed down."
The cigarette clung to Havoc's lower lip as his jaw dropped. "Are you sure you don't need help?"
Hughes laughed as he took off the way he had come but paused and glanced back. "I'll pay you back for this favor by sharing pictures of Elicia later!"
"Great," Havoc said with a wave and an empty blink. "Just shoot me," he said through gritted teeth. Once Hughes had vanished down the corridor, he headed for the stockade where hopefully the Elric brothers were waiting.
Out of the central building, across the commons, passed the warehouses, through the housing area to the farthest point from where he had started, Havoc approached the stockade. He was relieved that everything looked in order, which was always a good sign. Bright overhead lights left the area well lit and he easily worked his way through security, offering smokes and cigarettes as he went to ease his journey. Of course, it also helped that he was known as one of Mustang's subordinates.
Entering the corridor leading to the holding area, it occurred to him that Ed tended to listen to Lt. Col. Hughes before he would Mustang. Then again, after he thought about it a little more, he decided he could kind of understand why. Hell, if it had not been for Medes or all the years that he had chosen to serve under the Colonel and just met him out of the blue, he would have thought Mustang was an arrogant ass not worth any respect or loyalty. Even knowing better, he knew the Colonel was a cocky bastard.
That was what kept things interesting.
His footsteps were loud, reverberating against the stone and metal that made up the row of holding cells. Other than two youthful voices at the end of the corridor, all was quiet. At first, he thought it was a bit odd, but then decided it was the middle of the week after all. Things usually did not get interesting around there until the weekends. Drunken soldiers and a civilian population with a few days of respite from the work grind often did not mix well.
The voices fell silent.
"Don't stop on my account," he teased as he stepped in front of the last cell on the block and leaned against the bars.
"Lieutenant Havoc," Al said happily from his place on a cot.
"Oh, you mean the Colonel didn't come to apologize in person for locking us up?" Ed asked in his characteristically sarcastic tone. He was sitting on the floor opposite Al, he back pressed firmly to the grey wall.
"He doesn't have anything to apologize for," Havoc said.
"What?" Ed bellowed. "He had us locked up for no good reason."
Offering a shrug as his response, Havoc chose not to get into an argument over Mustang's reasons. He thought he knew the Colonel's reasons but he certainly was not going to speak on his behalf. Sighing, he pushed the brown bag through the bars and tossed the sandwich at Ed, landing it perfectly in the blond haired boy's lap. "From Lt. Col. Hughes."
Ed just stared at the bag, and then broke into a smile as he quickly dug a sandwich out.
"Careful," the Lieutenant warned as he knelt down to be almost eye level with the elder Elric. "That probably came from the mess hall."
"It's food and I'm starving." The boy bit into the sandwich and grimaced. "I've had better," he whimpered.
Al looked toward Havoc. "Do you know when we will be set free?"
"Well, if the Colonel has his way, not until Rhodes is caught."
"Oh."
"What's he afraid of?" Ed asked between bites. "That we'll clean up his mess?"
"Whoa," Havoc said, unwittingly sounding more defensive than he would have liked to. He caught the brief look of surprise in Ed's golden eyes. "You don't know what you are talking about."
"Oh yeah? What am I talking about then?" Ed challenged.
Havoc looked down the long corridor and saw no one nearby and then shifted, sitting cross-legged on the cold stone floor. He reached up and took a hold of the cigarette in his mouth. Holding it out, he just stared at it for a moment, decided not to light it and put it back in its place. "How familiar are you with the stories of the Eastern Rebellion?"
"A little," Al said, speaking for both in a decidedly less biting tone.
"You've heard of the Ishbal Rebellion?"
"Yeah," Ed replied through a mouthful of sandwich.
"Have you heard of Medes?"
"No," Al answered.
"It was about 50 or so miles north of Ishbal."
Ed stopped chewing and looked at Havoc. "Was?"
"Probably all that's left are a few scattered ruins sticking out of the sand these days." He leaned up against the bars.
"I don't like talking about that place, so don't ask me about it later. Don't even talk about it. Hawkeye doesn't want to hear about it and certainly don't go yapping about it in front of the Colonel." He reached up and grabbed the cigarette dangling from his lower lip and looked at it. Once again, he replaced it. "If there is a hell, I've seen it and it is ruled by Odessa Rhodes."
"The Healing Touch Alchemist?" Ed asked. "I've never heard of her."
"You probably never will. She was a traitor and probably erased from the records. The military doesn't much like them." He rubbed his shoulder, feeling the light ache bite into him. "She was a doctor. Real good at healing wounds with her alchemy." He noted Ed brighten slightly. "I don't know what happened. Just one day, I guess she cracked. Stormed out of the camp hospital and was not seen again." He shook his head. "Well, maybe that's not entirely true. I guess the brass knew what happened to her. She ran off to help to Ishbalans but they didn't want her alchemic medicine since it's forbidden among their people. She found friends among some of the Ishbalan exiles, the Hareti. I guess she wormed her way into the heart of the rebel leader by offering up supply train information. She knew when the medical supplies came and on those trains were food and weapons to sustain the military."
Ed closed his eyes and looked away. "I see."
"You lose a few supply trains and things get damned hard on the front. Needless to say, the brass wanted to make a very public example of her. The got their wish when intelligence found her hiding with a small group of the Hareti in the ruins of Medes."
"I bet." Ed had placed the remaining half of his sandwich on the bag on his lap.
Havoc laughed. "The then Major Soham had persuaded some of the higher ups to let him take her alive. He thought it would boost his career. Old Basque Grand wasn't about to let Soham screw up and let her escape. He wanted her dead and sent the Colonel along with execution orders and a clean up squad to finish off the remaining Hareti."
Al shifted on the cot. "Clean up squad?"
"Yeah." Digging his fingers into the muscle and knot of scar tissue in his shoulder, Havoc grimaced slightly. "Part of the job is to pick off people escaping and part of it is to see that the alchemist in charge of the elimination doesn't get shot full of holes. Grand wasn't too forgiving of losing one of his weapons."
"You were a bodyguard?" Ed asked.
"Something like that." He stole a glance at the two boys and realized he had their complete attention. Withdrawing slightly, he glanced down the corridor to make sure there was no one else riveted by his tale. "Hawkeye and I worked together a lot back in those days. She's one of the best sharpshooters in the field."
"Yeah, she's good." Ed smirked. "Surprised she hasn't shot the Colonel yet."
Havoc arched a brow but decided to hold onto that memory. Even with time and all the smoke and dust that had choked the air in Medes, he could still see their silhouettes atop the debris. Hawkeye was pulling the trigger, the empty clicks, and the Colonel just standing there, letting her fire at him.
How different everything would have been if he had been right and that gun had a few shots left in it.
"Lieutenant?" Al's hollow voice snapped the older man out of his daze.
"Yeah?"
"Thought we had lost you there for a minute," Ed said.
Smiling as he rubbed the back of his neck, Havoc then sat up. "No, I was just thinking about something." He sobered slightly and continued with his story. "They were waiting for us. I swear they must have used her like bait just so they could pull a few of us away from the main forces and take us out. I don't know what they thought that would accomplish but that had to be their goal." He shook his head. "It should have been an easy mission, just capturing a doctor and taking out a few rebels. It was supposed to be easy. They hid in the buildings, everyone armed, leading us into the village, down the main street. We were sitting targets."
After a moment, Havoc laughed. "I wasn't green. I'd seen my fair share of fighting but even I was stupid. I almost fell for the worst trap of all."
"Sir?" Al asked when Havoc said nothing for a time.
"Do you know why the Hareti are so dangerous?"
The boys shook their heads.
"They have been exiled from their people. Means they can't live with the other Ishbalans. They are treated as non-entities. Denied by their families. They might as well be dead and that's how they see themselves. They have nothing left to lose." He shook his head and spoke softly, "I knew the danger. I knew they would use tricks to divide us, to take us out. And yet," the words drifted into silence.
Take cover.
"She was running towards us. Maybe she was scared. Escaping. I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to help her. She was just little girl."
snap
"If she had gotten any closer, she would have killed us all." He looked at Ed and Al and for a moment felt embarrassed. He tried to smile but it just was not in him. "They had strapped bombs to her, sent her running to us, to get close and then explode. The Colonel saw her for what she was. If he hadn't stopped her, we would have let her come running in." He reached for his cigarette but caught himself mid motion and put his hand back down. "After the smoke cleared there was just nothing left except a burned spot on the ground where she had been. Then they started firing. Soham's men were unprotected. They were ripped apart."
"But killing is against their religion," Al said sounding almost panicked.
"Against mine too, but war, it breaks all the rules. These rebels they didn't care, they just wanted to take as many of us with them." Havoc laughed. "And that's when it got ugly."