Chapter Nine
Where the author fits way too much plot advancement into one chapter just so she can write what she wants the next!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
"Winry…?" Sara wondered, her eyes still lidded. She kept still, knowing there were still others in the compartment. There was clear suspicion in the men's voices, but Edward was playing the situation flawlessly. "Winry Rockbell? What the hell kind of name is that?"
She tossed gently on the bench, fidgeting to shift her legs. With her eyes remaining lidded, she sat upright and stretched her legs out across the floor, wringing tension from her muscles. Sara could feel multiple pairs of eyes on her, even without looking. She blinked, clearing any traces of her sleep from her eyes. The swastika pin shown prominent on each of their uniforms, as she had suspected it to; they had said that they were looking for her after all. Her limbs began tingling with fear as she realized that there was practically no way of getting away free now; there was no way to back up Edward's excuse formally.
"What is going on?" asked Sara, glancing around the compartment with a mask of cluelessness on her face. She caught the gleam in Edward's golden eyes, almost apologetic, and turned quickly to the Nazis. Although she had nothing to say, she opened her mouth as if about to speak.
Luckily, she was cut off by the man closest to her. "Sorry to disturb you, miss, we were simply doing rounds on the train," he explained with a slight bow of his head.
Sara forced herself to look at the Nazi with lightened eyes, as if she understood of him. "Certainly alright," she dismissed, while thinking, "He is doing a damn good job of playing polite for a Nazi." In order to avoid further questioning – or in attempt to – she closed her eyes tiredly and rested her head on her shoulder.
"May I inquire as to where you are heading?" he asked, before placing a hand on the doorknob. He was not going to leave until their stories matched up, Sara could tell.
"Paris," she sighed with a thick French accent coating her voice, an accent that was hardly necessary to talk with. "We are being married a week from tomorrow." Beryl eyes flashed as she glanced at Edward, a faux smile crossing her lips.
The Nazi nodded. Something about his light eyes told her that she was getting off easy, with just the bare minimum. The compartment door slid open and the three men stepped out. Their gruff voices could be heard conversing lowly outside in the hallway, no doubt about them.
"We are getting off at the next stop," announced Edward firmly, meeting Sara's asking eyes. He rose to his feet and began taking down the tattered suitcase that had been stored on the shelf above his head. "They are more than suspicious and are going to come back in at any moment."
"Shouldn't it look like we are staying then?" she asked, her eyebrows knit together. "Since I told them we were going to Paris?"
He shrugged his shoulders and spat back at her, "They know who we are; they should think that we would never have told them the truth. If we hop onto a train heading to Paris at the next station without them following, we should be clear for the next few days."
"That's a relief," Sara sighed, suddenly feeling at ease. She hated feeling so wishy-washy all of the time, but whenever Edward told her something, it was hard not to believe him. "Do you think that is going to be enough time to get everything done?"
"It should be," he replied. "Opening the Gate itself is the easy part; it is managing to get past it that is difficult. We cannot afford to have anything taken."
Sara nodded. She saw no signs of worry on his face, but she could not help but question him. She had next to no idea what he was talking about.
They were able to escape the train at the next stop, just as Edward had planned to. The three left everything behind in the old compartment, not bothering to take any of their belongings with them. Sara had not brought anything of value with her, so it did not matter much, but she knew that all Edward and Alphonse had in this world had been packed away in their suitcase. It was a strange concept to grasp that they were so unattached to just everything. With nothing besides the clothes on their backs, they did not ask for a compartment; Edward insisted that it would be suspicious and that there was no need. He, Sara, and Alphonse ended up cramming onto a single bench, across from a man with his face hidden in the pages of a newspaper.
"Brother," whispered Alphonse under his breath, leaning over to see around Sara. The young woman had somehow found herself sitting between the brothers, and with no elbow room. "If we are heading straight into Paris, why will we need several days…?"
He trailed off quietly, keeping eye contact with Edward. Alphonse's dark golden irises flashed, finishing his question wordlessly.
Sara's hand shot up in front of Edward abruptly, just as he had begun to answer. "We don't even know if the old laboratory is still there," she told the younger Elric softly. "It was dangerously infected when I left it, the university may have had it demolished over the summer. In that case, we would have to do some snooping around the chemistry labs across the campus."
The man sitting on the bench across from them flipped several pages of his newspaper, lowering it just enough to peer over at the trio. He caught Sara's wary eye and soon held the paper to hide his face again.
"Snooping around is Brother's expertise," noted Alphonse with a smirk.
Edward tensed on Sara's left side. "Alphonse," he chastised under his breath, sounding more nervous than Sara had ever heard him. He was almost defensive about the topic, but that was not exactly how it could be described. Sara had never seen a person act that way, not around her. "Let's just hope that it won't come down to that."
"Please, Edward," sighed Sara, playing on the fact that he was distressing over something. "Realistically, that is what we are going to have to do anyways. Radioactive substances tend to lose their luster over several weeks, and it has been four months since anyone has been in the labs. I am just glad that you are good at sneaking, so Alphonse says."
"He doesn't know what he is talking about," grumbled Edward.
Sara rested her head on his shoulder playfully, soon finding it uncomfortable after she realized she was leaning on his automail port. "That's too bad," she murmured, "it would be helpful in our situation." Sara grinned up at him.
Edward frowned, obviously disgruntled. He tried to shake her off of him, but instead found her clutching to his prosthetic arm. "Saraphine," he scolded, prying her fingers off of his forearm. "I would appreciate it if you took this seriously instead of tap-dancing on my nerves."
"I am taking this seriously," she spat defensively, lifting her head from his shoulders. Locks of brunette hair still clung to her face, matted down after that short period of time. "But there is clearly a difference in our definitions of serious. I don't need to act like someone just died all the time."
Thin pages of the man's newspaper ruffled again. He folded it and placed it in his lap, revealing his raven hair and oriental onyx eyes. "I believe you have said that to me before, Saraphine Amsel," he said, a smile pulling on his lips.
"Mustang," gasped the Elric brothers in unison.
"Isaac," corrected Sara, her own beryl eyes lighting with excitement.
Isaac had been the first to show signs of radiation poisoning in the lab where Sara had conducted her research. Now, though, his skin hardly showed any traces of the burns and blisters whatsoever. She found herself staring at him in awe. His skin was clear, just as it had been before ever stepping inside the radiation lab. Sara stole a glance at her own hands, whose skin was still wearing the fading red scars of acute radiation poisoning. Isaac was clearly the lucky one.
In Edward's eyes, Isaac was a mirror image of Roy Mustang. He was certain that Alphonse was seeing the same person he was, especially after his reaction. The smile that was gracing Sara's lips was taunting him; he had never seen her smile like that before. He knew that she had not had many reasons to smile after knowing him, but seeing her beam like that at the mere sight of Roy Mustang struck a chord inside of him. It was easy to say that without knowing him, Edward was already developing a hatred of Isaac.
"You were always so stern all of the time," exclaimed Sara, throwing her head back in a laugh.
It was clear that she was friends with the man, and that was what was irking Edward. Saraphine was not as capable as, say, Riza Hawkeye when it came to handling Mustang. He knew that he was judging him by his Amestrian counter-part, but if they were anything alike, Sara was in trouble.
Edward caught Alphonse's eye, and was able to drown out Sara and Isaac's chatter. His younger brother gave him quite a wary look, giving Edward a sense that his brother was feeling the same way about this Isaac character that he did. Edward shook his head.
"What business on earth do you have going back to the laboratory?" asked Isaac curiously, cocking his head to the side.
Sara had no answer, at least not one that she was free to tell him. She could not say she was going to open a portal to cross into a parallel world without expecting to be thrown into an asylum. "Do you know if it is still standing?" she inquired, quickly changing the topic discretely.
"Last I heard," the raven-haired, Mustang lookalike answered. Edward watched disgustedly as the charming smile spread across his lips, the smile he knew was specifically used for womanizing. "Why? The entire place is crumbling into ruins and is going to be cleared out sometime before the beginning of the semester."
Edward was suspicious of the man, and was wondering how he knew so much about the old laboratory if he had not been there. He was playing low at the moment, but he would jump at the chance to expose Isaac the minute his story did not add up. "Sara was actually going to show me around the campus," explained Edward. "I am transferring there as a chemistry major from Munich University."
Isaac chuckled. "Why would you want to study in the old laboratory? The school just spent a great deal of money on a new chemistry lab in another building."
The elder Elric recognized the smirk of the Amestrian general all too well. He scowled, not bothering to hide it.
"Edward has just heard so much about the old lab from me, he was dying to see it," Sara explained with a smile.
"I don't have a class until later this evening, I would be happy to go back with you," announced Isaac happily. Sara appeared to be delighted with the decision; Alphonse had no preference either way, but Edward was seething with rage. Roy Mustang or not, the man was tap dancing on his nerves.
By the time they had gotten off of the train and found their way from the station to the university campus, the foursome was walking the sidewalks under a dusk sky. Edward was trailing at the back of the group, staying out of sight and out of mind. Alphonse, however, periodically glanced over his shoulder at his brother, as if to reassure himself that he was still there. The much to chipper voices of Sara and Isaac were giving the older Elric a headache, but there was nothing he could do about it if the young woman was only acting so cheery to keep him from asking questions.
The campus itself consisted of towering gothic buildings, some that resembled churches and others like reminded them of the boarding schools that were scattered across northern Europe. All biology and chemistry majors were directed toward the back of the university, which is exactly where they headed first. Sara had pretended that she had forgotten the entire layout of her old school and followed Isaac around like a puppy, sticking closely to his heels. Watching her terrible acting skills, Edward thought he was going to be sick. He soon found that the true nausea did not set in until they found the old laboratory.
A small, one story building tucked away between two larger buildings – the biology labs and newly built chemistry labs. The brick walls were crumbling in on themselves and the glass windows were either shattered or coated with a thick layer of dust, giving Edward a sense of what was to expect once he was inside. Isaac and Sara were already snooping around the entrance of the laboratory, poking their heads in the doorway and peering in through the windows. He had not given it much thought before, but seeing her so eager to step inside of the building again was slightly out of character, and it was worrying him what could happen if she dared to expose herself to more dangerous substances.
Sara casually strode over beside Edward, making sure she was close enough that only he could hear her whisper, "There are still substances in the lab. We could set up tonight if you want to, as soon as we get rid of Isaac for ten minutes. That is about how long it will take, right?"
Edward nodded. "More or less," he confirmed. "And it is not as if I was the one who was shamelessly flirting with the man and have him attach to me."
Blue eyes flashed in the dim twilight, glaring at him. "I can't help it if my memory is not serving me justice."
That was a line that Edward did not buy for a split second. He studied her suspiciously, her glare on him intensifying as he did so.
"Well," announced Isaac, "it's open. You are welcome inside until morning."
"This was too easy," murmured Edward to Sara. "There has to be something else going on here."
Well…that's that. Isaac isn't just a useless Mustang lookalike, I promise! I also had a comment on the languages used from last chapter, and for those of you who are wondering why Ed and Al don't speak Amestrian with each other, for the sake of the story I am going to say German and Amestrian are deathly similar. (And, since I was a bit lazy, Isaac was speaking German.)
Another note, I have posted a LingxOC, Mirage, story on my account. There is only one chapter up so far but I would appreciate it if you took the time to read it and review Poisoned.