The Ties That Bind
Chapter Nine:
Reparations
The little green-haired one stood over me as I tried to steady my breathing. The ribs he had fractured with those kicks were already healing over, and the stray cuts I got when I fell were already gone, I could tell. He glared at me as I looked up at him, and transformed his arm into a spike. How did he do that?
"I don't know how you keep coming back, but this time I'll make sure you don't." What was he talking about? He raised his arm and was about to cut me to ribbons when the doors slammed open. The four of us turned as one to look to see who had intruded, and the sight made my blood run cold.
Standing there was a woman no older than thirty, I guessed, with long black hair pulled up on top of her head and wearing a white trenchcoat. I couldn't remember who she was, but just the sight of her made me want to run away and hide somewhere far far away. She glanced over me quickly before turning her attention to the one standing over me. She clapped her hands and slammed them onto the ground. Bright blue light surrounded her hands and raced across the ground, straight toward us. The ground shifted under me, and a wall formed between me and the green-haired one. I quickly rolled over and up, backing away from him a bit.
"Ed, get Al out of here." She yelled. Was that my name? Ed? She clapped again, and this time the wall and part of the ground shot out around the green-haired one, capturing his feet and arms. He growled at her, and tried to break the stone holding him, when a dark-haired kid entered the room from behind the woman. He also had a metal arm and leg. He leapt at the green-haired one, and punched him.
"Wrath! What are you doing?" The green-haired one growled out, trying to avoid the boy's next punch unsuccessfully.
"Helping them!"
"Why?"
"Because you don't deserve to win."
"ED!" The woman yelled, and got my attention. She had already gotten the boy free from the large man who held him, and was now fighting him. I hesitated for a moment. "GO!" She yelled, and I started moving. I ran over to the boy's side and, seeing that his left ankle was broken, slung his left arm over my shoulder and helped him to the stairs that started right outside the door. I paused for a moment, looking back over my shoulder. The lady was still fighting the large man and the boy was fighting the green-haired one, who had escaped the stone by this point. I continued helping the boy up the stairs, and we came out in an abandoned factory of some sort. I helped him get just outside the building, onto the grass outside, before he collapsed.
"Are you all right?" I asked him, kneeling next to him.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." He was lying. I could tell. But I chose to ignore it.
"You know who I am, obviously, but I don't. I don't even know my own name." He looked at me sadly for a moment.
"You're Edward Elric, my older brother." I nodded, and closed my eyes for a moment. I tried to remember past the pain, but everything was foggy. I couldn't remember anything still. It hurt too much. "I'm Alphonse."
"Who are those people? The lady scared me." Alphonse smiled a bit.
"She's our alchemy teacher, Izumi. The boy is Wrath, the green-haired one Envy, and the fat man Gluttony. Those last three are Homunculi, the products of human transmutation."
"They're like me, but they're murderers."
"Yeah." He said it quietly, almost like he didn't want to believe, but he had too. I could tell something was hurting him, but it wasn't his ankle. If I really was his older brother, that meant that I forgot about him, and that would hurt. It would be like I died. I wanted to comfort him, but I couldn't, not now at least. I stood up, and turned back toward the building. "Wait! Where are you going?"
"I have to go help them." He fell silent, and I took a few steps toward the building before he spoke up again.
"Wait! You can help more by staying out here. I need you to go search the floor up here and look for a giant array carved into it." I turned back to him. Array? He must have caught my confused expression, because he added an explanation. "It's a giant circle with a bunch of lines in it."
"What will a circle do?"
"It's a sealing array. It'll help Teacher. I need you to find it and take me to it, then lead Envy and Gluttony up here into it." I still wasn't sure how a circle could help, but I nodded and set off into the building, looking for the circle on the floor.
--
I watched Brother nod before he started searching the factory for the sealing array. I sighed before looking at my foot. It stuck out a strange angle, and it throbbed painfully. I had to keep going though. I pried my boot off carefully before rolling up my pant leg. It wasn't a pretty sight, but luckily I didn't see any blood or bone. I turned away from it and looked at the ground I was sitting on. I was too far away from the concrete to transmute any of that, so I would have to settle for what the ground offered. I placed a hand on it and figured out the chemical make-up of it. It was a simple enough trick for me and only took a few days of practice to get it right. Any experienced alchemist could do it, because it was the first step of transmutation; analyzing. I quickly found out that there was enough iron in the ground to transmute two small splints for my ankle, and I did so after clapping.
I tore off the bottom of my pant leg and set to work. First I had to move my ankle back into place. I took a deep breath to ready myself and quickly pushed it into its right spot. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but it hurt worse than the actual break. It took me a few minutes to compose myself so I could finish setting the break. Okay, so I wasn't a doctor and was probably doing more harm than good at this point, but I couldn't walk anywhere unless it was supported. Plus, I had seen Winry's parents set Brother's broken leg this way before, and it couldn't be any worse than trying to walk around on it unsupported.
I placed the two iron splints on either side of my ankle and started wrapping it tightly with the torn cloth. I winced, but continued. After a minute I was done, and now all I could do was wait on Brother to get back. I knew the transmutation circle was still there, dug deep, since it was originally carved by Lust to seal Sloth, and no one else had been out here since then, except for the rest of the Homunculi and Tucker. I sighed a bit.
"Hey, I think I found it." Brother said, returning to my sight from inside the building.
"Good, take me to it." I said, trying to stand. He quickly made it to my side and finished helping me up before throwing my arm around his shoulders again and acting like a crutch for me. I took a tentative step, placing just a little weight on my broken ankle, and found that the brace held. He led me through the maze of factory machines before stopping in front of the giant sealing array.
"How will a circle help? And how did that lady do all that?" He asked me.
"Through alchemy. It's the science of rearranging matter into different forms and substances. It's based on the founding principal of..." He cut me off.
"Equivalent exchange." I looked at him in shock.
"Yeah. How'd you know?" He shrugged a bit.
"I just do. I can't really explain it, but it's like how I know you but don't. It's confusing..." I nodded.
"I think I get it. Anyway, do you think you can lure Envy and Gluttony here?" I asked him. He thought for a moment before nodding.
"I think I can."
--
"I think I can." I told him. I probably wouldn't be able to, but I had to give Alphonse some hope. He pulled his arm out of my grasp and steadied himself against the surrounding machines. I turned and took off back to the basement, and I tried to be as quiet as possible. Hopefully the lady and that boy - Izumi and Wrath, right? - had held them off or else captured them some sure-fire way. I made it to the bottom of the stairs silently, and peeked into the open doors. Envy and Wrath were still fighting, but Izumi was just standing over a small puddle of red goo. She looked to be in bad shape; there was blood all over her face and jacket, and she was holding her ribs with one hand while the other hung limply at her side. She was close to collapse, I could tell, and Wrath and Envy seemed to be doing nothing to each other.
I took a deep breath before stepping inside the room once more.
"Hey, Envy!" I yelled, catching his attention. "Why don't you stop wasting time and come after me?" He glared at me, and I let him bat away Wrath and start coming after me before taking off back up the stairs.
"GET BACK HERE!" He yelled after me, and I heard his footsteps following after me, but I didn't pause to look over my shoulders. I bust out of the small hallway the stairs were on, and I quickly ran toward the machinery. I paused, glancing back over my shoulder to see Envy run up the stairs. He looked around a bit before spotting me and running after me, arm-spike swinging. He yelled at me some more, but I didn't pay attention to it. I was too busy running for my life.
I zigzagged around the factory, not letting him know I was actually leading him somewhere with a purpose.
"BASTARD! STOP RUNNING AND FIGHT ME!" I found the circle, finally. I quickly stopped, and turned toward Envy. He raised his arm to slash me as soon as he was near enough, but I grabbed both his wrists. I used his energy against him and pulled him over my head, slamming him down on the ground behind me. I slammed him straight into the circle. I ended up on my back as well, but I quickly flipped over and moved back.
"NOW, AL!" I yelled, and saw him slam his hands down onto the edge of the circle immediately. That blue light lit up all the lines of the circle, and I saw Envy struggle to escape it. He couldn't even make it to his feet.
"Damn you..." He gasped before he was forced to throw up. Red stones were forced out of him, and I figured that was how we regenerated. I heard two sets of footsteps somewhere behind me, and I knew it was Izumi and Wrath, looking for us. I looked away from Envy and over my shoulder, and saw the pair was nearby already. Wrath was supporting Izumi, who looked close to falling over at any moment. Alphonse kept his hands on the circle firmly, trying to block out the sound of Envy retching with his mind.
"I told you this was a stupid idea, Envy." Wrath said quietly as he and Izumi made it over to us and they stood right outside the circle from us. He finally stopped heaving, and Wrath stepped forward a bit. He looked at Izumi, who clapped and touched the forearm on his metal arm as he held it out to her. The blue light encased it, and it rearranged into a deadly blade. "Any last words?" He asked coldly.
"...I'll... I'll see you in hell!" Alphonse lifted his hands from the circle, and the light faded immediately. Wrath stepped up to Envy quickly, and stabbed him through the heart. A soft white light encased him and when it faded, he looked different. He had golden hair just like mine and Alphonse's. Was this Envy's real face? Was he related to us? I turned away from him; I couldn't watch. It just didn't seem right. All right, so the guy had tried to kill me and the rest of us, but did he really deserve death? I glanced over at Alphonse, and he was looking away too. He didn't like this any more than I did, apparently.
"And then there were two..."
To Be Continued
And so it ends. Well, kinda. There's one more chapter, and if anyone wants me to, I'll post the bonus/eleventh chapter after that.
Thanks so much to everyone from this week: kim carol, xXDeidara-chanXx, BlueRyuu, mrawgirl09, XxHouranxX, Lost In A Dark Wood, Yugisrose, demonalchemist5, and PrincessofYoukia!
One Year Later shall be posted this Saturday, May 24th, 2008.
Also, I'm going to go ahead and say this, but if anyone has any questions about the plot/Red Stones/Ed's Ouroboros/ect. please let me hear them! I'm not the best when it comes to explaining everything, and I don't usually do inner-monologe stuff. It just doesn't really fit with anyone who knows anything, anyways.
I had reasons behind everything that Ed has went through, but they never really made it in... So, I have answers at the ready for anyone who wants them! (I hate it when author/ess have stuff like this happen to people and it never gets explained or anything.)
Like always: Be kind! Feed plot-kitties! Review!
Shadow Kat-Lyn