OMG I am soooooooo sorry that I didn't update sooner! (Hides from fans and angry readers.) I've been really busy with school and summer stuff, and now that I have free time in classes (preferably when I'm supposed to be taking notes...) I have time to write again.
Okay, so now that I've apologized, let's get onto the story! I've gotten a ton of reviews asking where's Riza? Is she okay? Oh, and I've also gotten a few asking where Winry is, so to answer all of your pending questions, here's chapter 6, which focuses our favorite female heroes! YAY!
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, and unless Hiromu Arakawa spontaneously dies and gives me the rights to the greatest anime/manga on Earth, I never will. But I do own Kaese, Isaac, and anyone else that isn't in the series! Oh, and I don't own Jell-O either.
Chapter 6: The Truth Behind the Games
The Alchemist Games
When Riza regained consciousness, her mind was swirling in a gray fog. Shaking her head a bit to wake herself up, Riza peeled open her heavy eyelids to see where she was. Everything she saw was out of focus and blurry. Riza felt like she was underwater, and her body was made of Jell-O.
Squeezing her eyes tight, she tried again to see where she was. This time things were a little clearer, but not by much.
'Where am I?' the blonde sharpshooter thought as she scanned the room. Riza tried to lift her arm to rub her eyes, but found that she couldn't move. 'That's weird…'
Riza tried to move the other arm, but the outcome was the same.
Blinking again, Riza's vision began to clear, and her eyes slowly came into focus. Now she could see where she was.
Riza found herself in a small, stone-laid cell with bars in front of her for a wall. On the other side of the bars was a hallway lit by dim florescent lights.
"Wait, what? Where am I?" she whispered loudly to herself.
Riza tried to move again, but failed and jerked back as she tried to walk forward. She then noticed that her arms were involuntarily above her head. Looking up, she saw that her hands were shackled to the stone wall.
"Oh no…no, no, no. This is bad…" Riza muttered.
'Wait, what the hell happened? Where am I? Why am I here?' she thought as she put the pieces together, now remembering parts of the fight from last night. 'Oh…wait…I'm here because of…' "Roy!"Riza yelled out loud. It was all coming back to her now. 'Last night those men said that they needed me because they wanted to meet with Roy…But never said why…hang on!' she gasped, remembering the red eyes she saw on one of her kidnappers. 'He was Ishbalan! Damn it…' she thought, banging herhead against the wall. 'If they're an Ishbalan rebel gang, then they're doing whatever it is that they're doing to get back at the military…' she calculated as she continued banging her head against the wall. Hitting a sharp edge of stone, Riza gasped and bit her lip in pain as she mentally scolded herself.
Riza leaned her head against one of her raised arms. Taking a deep breath, she tried to find a happy, relaxing thought to ease her nerves. To her surprise, Roy popped into her head and she suddenly began to calm down. 'Well, that's a surprise…' Riza thought, and laughed to herself. Usually Roy was the cause of her stress at work. But now that she was thinking about him, and remembering the last few days that they had spent together, Riza found herself becoming calmer. In addition, she also found that her stomach was doing flips at the thought of her superior officer.
'This is so weird…I never used to think of Roy this way. I mean, I guess I've always loved him, but it was in a different way. Like the kind of love that you have for… a best friend. Well, maybe it was a little more than that, but still, he never seemed interested- besides the countless attempts to put me in a miniskirt. I guess it was only natural, after all of the time we've spent together over the years. But still, it's strange that I would begin to really like him now…and even after knowing that's it's against the rules…' she admitted to herself as she became giddy. Now taking another deep breath to stop the rush of hormones, she quickly snapped back to reality when she heard footsteps echoing down the hall.
A man wearing a men's black tank top and brown baggy jeans walked past her cell, whistling as he flipped though the pages in his clipboard.
Shifting her weight nervously, Riza accidentally rattled one of her hand shackles.
The man stopped walking when he heard the sound. Riza held her breath as he looked at her and smiled.
"Well, well, well. Looks like one of our captives is awake! G'mornin' Pumpkin!" he said, walking back to her cell door and taking out a ring of keys.
As he tucked his clipboard under his arm, he began to fumble with the keys, trying to find the right one. Riza eyed him suspiciously. 'Who is this guy? I don't remember seeing him from last night…'
"Ah, found it!" exclaimed the mystery man, holding up the right key. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside and walked towards Riza.
The two looked at each other in silence for a few moments before either spoke or moved. Suddenly, the man quickly reached up and grabbed Riza's chin. Jerking back in response, Riza hit the wall and cringed with pain as her head began to throb. With nowhere to go, she was forced to stand her ground.
Riza clenched her jaw as the 'mystery man' turned her head this way and that, inspecting her face. While he did this, Riza scanned him up and down, studying him. She took into account his red eyes and tan skin. 'He's Ishbalan as well…'
Suddenly, his expression lightened and he let out an evil chuckle.
"You're cute- for being a Dog of the Military! I think you're probably the sexiest hostage here! Maybe if we were under different circumstances, I'd offer to buy you a drink…" he said, flipping though the papers attached to his clipboard.
'What the hell does that have to do with anything!' Riza thought as she glared at him with amber eyes. 'I wish that I had one of my handguns right now…'
Continuing to flip through papers, the man glanced up at Riza, and noticed that she was giving him an evil eye. "Oh don't be like that. It was just a compliment," he said, still paying attention to his papers. "Ah, here we go," he said, stopping at one of the pages. He skimmed it over, and then began to read it out loud. "First Lt. Riza Hawkeye; originally stationed in the East, but recently positioned in Central under direct command of Colonel Roy Mustang. Served as a sniper in the Eastern Ishbalan Rebellion, granddaughter of…"
Riza's eyes widened as he continued to read parts of her personal file. She recognized every word that he was reading. 'How could he have gotten hold of my confidential military records? Those are only accessible to the higher ups!'
Finally the man finished, paused, and then his face brightened. "So you're Colonel Mustang's hostage! We must make sure to take very good care of you," he said slyly.
Riza stared at him with a confused look on her face. 'What the hell is he talking about? Why would they take special care of me? And what did he mean by 'Mustang's hostage'?'
The man continued, as if he had read her mind and the question that she was thinking. "You see, I'm especially excited to meet your superior officer."
"Okay, hold it. Who are you, and what are you talking about?" Riza asked sternly.
"Oh, I totally forgot. It's rather rude of me to stand here babbling to you and not introduce myself. The name's Kaese," he said, bowing elegantly. "I'm the leader of this little operation," he said, waving his arm around as if to show off the dungeon.
"What operation?" Riza asked coolly, narrowing her eyes and cocking her head slightly to the side.
"Oh, why the Alchemist Games of course. You remember the invitation that the Colonel received about three weeks ago, don't you? Well, yeah, that was us."
'I knew that thing was a fake!' Riza exclaimed in her head. "So you're the reason that those men broke into my house, drugged my dog, and then attacked me!"
"Yeah, well, actually no. That wasn't my idea. That was Isaac's idea," Kaese said smoothly.
Riza scowled. "Damn it, stop acting so casual! What's really going on? Why did you send out invitations to all of the State Alchemists?" Riza asked in a demanding tone of voice.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down Pumpkin! There's no need to get so pissed off…although, I guess you do have reason to be upset…we did kidnap you after all. Okay, I suppose the least I could do is answer some of your questions," Kaese said, stroking the stubble on his chin.
Riza shot a demon glare at him.
"I guess your nickname isn't the 'Hawk's Eyes' for nothing…you were right. This isn't just a friendly alchemy competition. Unfortunately for you, I don't think you need to know anymore than that at this point."
Riza's eye twitched. This guy was really starting to get on her nerves. "Okay, fine. Before, you called me 'Mustang's hostage'. What did you mean by that? Why did you really kidnap me, and then what are you planning to do with me now?" Riza demanded.
"As you know, we kidnapped you to get Mustang to come. Oh, and you're not the only one. There are others here too. We needed to make sure that all of the State Alchemists came, and this was the easiest way that we could think of to make sure that those who were... un-willing… to come decided to participate. It's as simple as that. And, well, I guess we don't plan on doing anything with you right now. You're just here for leverage," Kaese said, shrugging his shoulders, placing his hands on his hips, and shooting an evil grin towards Riza.
"You son of a bitch! You're insane!" Riza cried.
"Hey, shut up! Do you want to wake up the rest of the prisoners?" Kaese yelled at Riza, putting his face close to hers.
Riza glared at him, and then in an act of courage, spit in Kaese's eye.
"Ahhh!" he yelled, recoiling back and wiping the glob of spit from his face.
"When everybody finds out what you're really doing, then you're going to be in serious trouble with the military!" Riza yelled as loud as she could. If enough people woke up and started yelling together, then maybe someone else would hear them.
"Be quiet!" Kaese whispered loudly. Kaese stepped closer to Riza and tossed aside his clipboard. He then grabbed her chin as Riza turned her face away from him, and he forced her to look back into his spiteful eyes.
Riza struggled in his grip and tried to jerk herself free from her hand shackles. Unfortunately it was no use; the chains were tightly bolted to the wall, and his grip was just too strong. Kaese pushed her up against the wall even harder. "Shut your mouth woman. You're not in Central anymore. You're in my house, and you'll follow my rules," he spat between gritted teeth. His hand then moved from her face to her neck, and he began to tighten his grip, as if to make his point.
Riza couldn't breathe. Kaese stood there and laughed as she struggled for oxygen. Without anywhere to move, Riza quickly thought of things that she could use to defend herself. She would pass out soon if Kaese didn't let go. Luckily, even though her hands were bound, her captors had failed to chain her feet to the wall.
Riza raised her knee up and kicked as hard as she could at him in her only defense. Her leg was right on target. There was a subtle crack as she kicked his kneecap in.
Kaese howled in pain as he clutched his left leg and fell onto the floor in fetal position.
"You bitch, that really hurt!" he yelled, clutching his broken knee.
While Kaese was rocking back and fourth in pain, Riza faintly smiled. She had made her point. Even though she was their hostage, she wasn't going to show that she was afraid of them.
After rolling back onto his knees and panting rapidly, Kaese slowly stood up, clutching his good knee for support. He was still hunched over in pain as he stood.
Kaese staggered over to Riza, and sternly looked her straight in the eyes. "You bitch…you'll regret ever doing that…" Then without blinking, he punched the wall right next to her head. The force of the impact dented the wall, causing cement pieces to crumble out onto her shoulder. Riza winced and then continued to glare back at Kaese. If that punch had hit her, she surely would have been knocked out with a broken skull.
Kaese grabbed the collar of her brown t-shirt and spat on the floor.
"Well, you're a feisty one, aren't 'cha? I like that in a woman! But know your place girl. Remember; you're the hostage. I could have you killed in a few seconds if I wanted too. Unfortunately, I need you for a few more days, so you and I are going to have to learn to get along," he said, grinning manically.
Riza readied herself for another kick if he tried to choke her again.
Noticing Riza's stance, Kaese backed up and smiled maliciously. "Hey, I don't want another knee kicked," he said, laughing and putting his hands on his hips, taking caution to put as little weight on his left leg as he could. "And I suppose because I like women like you, maybe you're worth sharing our plans to. You're a smart girl anyway, so you've probably already figured out at least half of what's going on."
Without letting her guard down, Riza gave him a puzzled look and raised an eyebrow at him.
"So tell me Pumpkin, do you really want to know what our plans are?" Kaese said, smiling evilly at her.
Riza shifted her feet nervously, but didn't say anything. Kaese interpreted this as a 'yes'.
"This 'Games' setup is obviously just a front. This was just a way to gather up all of the alchemists in Amestris into one place. I'm actually quite surprised that so many of them fell for it…"
"Why are you doing this? What is this setup for?" Riza quietly and cautiously asked, already predicting what he was going to say. If this was an Ishbalan rebellion gang gathering all of the alchemists together, then that could only mean one thing…
Kaese laughed manically. "This is all for one big massacre. We're going to kill 'em. All of the State Alchemists will be dead after our fun little 'Games' are over."
Riza's mouth dropped open in horror. "What? Why! That's crazy!"
"Oh, come on. Don't play dumb. You know very well why we'd do this," Kaese said sarcastically.
Taken aback, Riza clamped her mouth shut and shot a glare at him. He was right, she was just playing dumb. Everyone knew that the Ishbalans had tried to get back at the military countless numbers of times for what happened during the Eastern Rebellion, and she was no exception.
"No? Not going to answer? Fine then, I'll humor you. This is only for revenge. This is finally going to be our payback for what you military bastards did to us in the Ishbalan Rebellion. This is for when your lot came in and almost wiped out our entire race," he said, taking a few deep breaths.
"We've tried to attack the military before, but because our resources are so poor, every attempt ended in failure. So, with the help of a few of my associates, we set up this little charade. We're finally going to get some retribution. We're going to kill every State Alchemist one-by-one after the fights when they're tired and exhausted from beating each other up. That way, they won't have the energy to defend themselves. And we'll continue to do this until I finally get to meet the ones who took part in that massacre."
Riza interrupted him. "Listen, you can't just blame the military! Things were-"
"The hell I can't! I don't know how much of the battlefield you saw on the day that they brought in 'the heroes for the people'. I was right there as they massacred my friends right in front of me." Kaese shuddered and trailed off. "They say that the alchemists are 'for the people', but it didn't seem like they were a big help when they were killing us off."
Riza stared at him with sadness in her eyes. She too, remembered the blood bath that the military had called 'keeping the peace'. At the time, she couldn't understand why the higher ups were encouraging the war either, but as a soldier, she had a duty to fulfill. Just like now, she had to quickly remind herself, whose side she had chosen.
"What? You can't kill all of the alchemists for what happened in Ishbal! A lot of the alchemist's weren't even in the military when the war started! And you're going to kill them anyway? Revenge won't stop the fighting, or take back all the lives that were lost."
Kaese jumped over to her and pressed his body up against hers, forcing her into a position where she couldn't kick him. He then grabbed her collar again. "No, revenge won't fix anything, but it'll make me feel a hell of a lot better." he said, shoving his face closer to hers and baring his teeth. "And as for the innocent alchemists, as far as I'm concerned, just belonging to the military means that you deserve to die."
Riza took a sharp breath, realizing the danger that everybody was in.
Kaese backed away and continued. "As I said before, we won't stop killing until I find the four alchemists that I personally want to kill," he paused and raised his other hand, holding up four fingers. "Armstrong, Kimbley, Grande and…"
Riza knew what was coming, and her eyes widened in horror. "No!" she yelled.
Kaese laughed. "Yes…and the last one is your special friend Mustang. I have personal matters with him."
"What did he personally do to you? Roy's a good person, and he was only following orders! He didn't even want to be there-"
"That doesn't matter on the battlefield! It only matters what you do, and that man killed my wife and only son in an explosion during one of his patrols."
"What!"
"That's right. Four years ago, he murdered my family! I could never forgive that rat-bastard for what he did. Our only crime was trying to escape certain death from the military."
Riza's eyes were transfixed on Kaese in horror as she listened to his story.
"I remember it like it was yesterday. As we were trying to evacuate the town through one of our alleyways, he came around the corner and found the women and children leaving. All the men were loading supplies into trucks that we'd need to camp out in the desert at the time when it happened. And then suddenly, with a simple snap of his fingers, I had to watch my wife and son burn before my eyes when I ran to see what had caused the giant explosion," Kaese said, and looking down at the floor, remembering what had happened.
"I knew from that day on, that I'd have to kill the Flame Alchemist to get my revenge. But first, before I kill him, I want to make his life as miserable as he's made mine. I want to hurt the people that are close to him, and make him suffer just like I've done for the last four years," he said, stroking Riza's cheek with two of his fingers, implying that they kidnapped her to hurt Roy.
Kaese then jerked Riza's collar, causing her head to slam up against the wall. "And in my opinion," he said, gritting his teeth together, "you deserve to die too for participating in the murder of thousands of my kin. In fact, as I said before, I'd probably kill you right now if I didn't require your assistance to make sure Mr. Mustang behaves while he enjoys his stay here," he said grinning maniacally at Riza.
"No, you can't-"
Just then, two of Kaese's men walked by the cell and Riza cut herself off.
Noticing them, Kaese turned around and called out to them. "You two; take Pumpkin here down to solitary confinement. She doesn't seem to understand her position here. You might need to remind her that she's not the one calling the shots. But keep your guard up. This one's feisty."
The two men looked at each other, chuckled, and went to take Riza away. While they held her arms, Kaese unlocked the cuffs around her wrists.
"Now Riza," he said, stroking her cheek. "Since I told you what you wanted to know, I need you to be a good girl for my men," he said, repositioning himself in front of her. "Here, let me help you calm down," he said, suddenly kneeing her in the stomach.
Riza gasped and doubled over, wheezing.
"That was just a little payback for earlier!" he said, laughing.
She gritted her teeth and looked up at Kaese as his two guards bound her wrists together with some spare rope that they had been carrying. They then hoisted her up on her feet, and practically dragged her out the cell door. Riza turned to look at Kaese once more, ruggedly breathing.
"Loved chatting with you Riza. We'll definitely have todo it again sometime soon," he said, sarcastically smiling and waving at her. Nodding to the men, they then dragged Riza down the corridor of cells.
During her march, Riza looked into each of the cells they were passing as they made their way down the hall.
As they continued walking and nearing the end of the corridor, Riza's mind was in hysteria with the information that Kaese had shared with her.
'Kill all of the State Alchemists? They can't! They can't kill Roy- I won't let them! I have to get out of here; I have to make sure they don't hurt him! I have a promise and a duty to fulfill -'
"Okay, here we are!" said one of the two men, opening a solid iron door with a small barred window in it. Riza looked inside. The room was tiny, with just enough room for a bed and a toilet in it. There were no windows in the room either.
"Welcome to solitary confinement!" they said, hurling Riza into the room. She landed on her front side, and immediately struggled to get up. Before she could turn over, one of the men jumped over and straddled her back, forcing her back down against the floor.
"Now we don't need any of that, do we?" he asked rhetorically, putting his lips close to her ear. Riza glared at him through the corner of her eye. "Kaese said to behave, so listen to his orders or else you might get hurt," he said, taking out a knife and cutting the rope that bound her wrists.
The other guard started laughing and stood in front of the door opening. "Yeah, be good girl," he said as the other man got off of Riza.
They then shut the door and left, leaving Riza in a world of darkness, except for the small pool of light entering through the barred window on the door.
Riza sat up and rubbed her head.
"First Lt. Hawkeye, was that you that they were carrying down the hall?" came a voice from across the other side of the door.
The voice sounded familiar to Riza. "Winry? Winry, is that you?" asked Riza, standing up and peeking through the window on her door. Sure enough, it was Winry Rockbell, chained up in the cell that was across from the solitary confinement chamber.
"Yeah! Oh my gosh, it's good to see someone that I know here!"
Riza looked around at their surroundings. "The circumstances could have been better though."
Winry looked down. "I know what you mean." she said quietly.
A few moments of silence passed between them before Winry said anything else.
"1st Lt. Hawkeye, what's going on? Last night a bunch of guys came to the hotel that I was staying in and attacked me. I remember walking in, and they jumped out of the closet. I hit a few of them with the wrench that I was carrying, but then everything else that happened is blank. Next thing I knew, I wake up here. Do you know why we're here? The men told me it had something to do with the State Alchemists. Does that mean that Edward's involved? Is he in trouble?"
Riza sighed. "The only reason why we're here is because of Edward- well that's in your case. In my case, I'm here because of Colonel Mustang."
"What? Colonel Mustang's here too?" Winry asked.
"Yes- or is going to be here. Did Edward ever mention an invitation to something called the Alchemist Games?"
Winry shook her head. "No, he never said anything about that."
Riza then proceeded to tell Winry about the invitations that they had received a few weeks ago, Ed and Roy's refusal to participate, and then the reason why they were kidnapped.
"What! How could they do this to us? Using us just us as hostages to get the Colonel and Ed to cooperate!"
Riza took a deep breath. "And that's not the worst of it," she said before telling Winry about the Ishbalan's true intent.
Winry's eyes suddenly widened. "No…they can't kill Edward…I know he's always getting into trouble like this, but this… this seems serious…" Winry continued to mutter quietly to herself about Ed as her eyes filled up with tears. She never knew how much danger Ed and Al always seemed to find themselves in, and now that she was in one of those situations it scared her.
Riza's stern expression softened. She felt bad for Winry, but now was not the time to break down. Roy and Ed weren't dead yet, and she needed to keep a cool head if they were going to get out of here to warn everybody about what was going on.
"Winry, it's okay. Edward's not hurt yet, and we all know that he can take care of himself. Right now, what we need to do is get outta here."
Winry looked up and sniffed.
Riza continued, looking down at the ground, and then back up again with a newfound sense of determination in her eyes. "Right now, what we need…is a plan."
Alright! That was the long awaited chapter six! I hope you all liked it! I'm sorry that I made you all wait so long to read it. I promise that my updates will come MUCH sooner, and I'll try to update every two weeks at most. In fact, chapter seven should up and ready to read soon.
Anyway, I'd like to take this time to thank everybody who's reviewed my story so far:
Thanks to Kohaku of the Ice, blaufeurer, yourmaster, Cles, redsoul, Misao, tear drops of flaming darkness, KTRose, Riri senpai, Elemental Transmutation, theslayerslayer, Bod 'm Cariad, don'tbreakme, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, Anicka, FruitsBasketFreak44, Italian Charms 587, Noel, ashely, Royai109590, BlondeVeo, skatterkat, Shadow Dreamer 27, Patience Halliwell, Hawkeye Chuui, The New Fullmetal Alchemist, PrincessLuckyCML, Mawk, Gatester, Robingirlwonder, Suki dah Turtle, ZRBxSTITCHES, LuciousLadyLucius, LuSt for SlOtH, and of course, my editor and friend, Fuhrer Allie! I also have to thank her for helping me with some of the dialogue for this chapter. I had some issues with it in the beginning when I wrote up my first draft…it was really cheesey….
Sorry if I forgot anybody's name or misspelled something! You guys are great!
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, whatever, then feel free to review! Reviews are always loved, and are motivation to update sooner! And sorry if Riza or Winry were out of character, but that's sorta what fanfictions are for, right?
PEACE OUT!
-Fullmetalfan