Chapter 93: Storm over Barley

Edward watched in terror how Nerissa went down, coughing blood like his former Teacher. Her body betrayed the pain she didn't want to show and even though she was hurt badly enough to be in real danger, she still dragged herself back on her feet and wiped away the blood that was running down her face with the back of her hand. Edward could also see the pure anger in her sapphire eyes and he wondered if he should help her but when she glared at him, he backed off once again. The problem was hardly her skill. She was – like she had proven herself to be more than once before – an extremely skilled fighter but she was still weakened from her fight against the Ishbalan assassin and he saw that her shoulder was acting up. He cursed under his breath before he saw a familiar flash of red when Victoria appeared between the trees, right next to Jade and Alain who were still out cold.

He wanted to warn her that this guy who was beating Nerissa with brute force was probably a little bit too dangerous for her but he saw the warm, golden light that surrounded the injuries of the both Air Alchemists and Edward saw how hard Victoria was working.

She had dedicated herself to a goal and would reach it. She was a lot like him in this age, minus the obsession of bringing her dead mother back. She didn't care about her own injuries as long as the others were alright.

Nerissa gasped in pain as she felt how some of her ribs broke under the pressure of the kick the stupid bastard had just given her but she forced herself to get back up. She wasn't weak. She would fight back as long as she could and she was used to pain. She had so many scars on her body hidden under her neat clothes that she had stopped counting a long time ago. She felt a little bit dizzy due to her blood loss but she forced herself to concentrate. It would be over soon enough; she would make sure of this.

She stood strong; she was the oldest one, the most experienced, the one who had never sold her soul to the military – the one who had made it out alive so far. She coughed blood once more and her vision was blurring as she took a step forwards, realising that her ankle was broken.

The attacker turned around to face her. "Still on your feet?" he asked amused. "My, my, the Hawkeyes are really stubborn people." He picked up one of her kunai which lay around all over the field. "I really wonder why you don't give in, Miss Nerissa. Your mother wouldn't have wanted your genius to be wasted away. She expected more from you than taking attacks that aren't even meant for you…"

Nerissa, however, stood her ground. "My mother never knew me," she said calmly while blood dripped onto her previously white blouse. She ignored it. "The only one who could consider calling herself my mother would never be the one who carried me for nine months. And from what I remember from my sisters' rants, I believe that she has no one who would want to be her child."

She took another step, wincing at the pain running through her leg. Well, it was safe to assume that more than just the ankle had suffered. Especially judging from the funny angle her shin showed. But she was Nerissa Hawkeye, the oldest daughter of General Peter Hamilton, first and best student of Catherina D'Artagan, and she refused to accept that she couldn't order around her body like she would like to. She had to keep herself together even though it was difficult.

But in the end, she was fighting a lost battle. Before she could even transmute a new weapon, she fell down and this time, she knew it, she would not be able to get up again. Her power had left her and she secretly wondered if she would have enough remaining energy to transmute something in first place.

But right when the former student of her mother wanted to kill her to make sure that there would be no remaining daughter of Reine Hamilton would be in the future, some kind of punch threw him away from the unfortunate young woman on the ground. Nerissa looked up and saw that Jade and Alain had both returned to consciousness and like true fighters they had celebrated it with a combined attack which had saved her life. The blond alchemist vowed that she would thank them later on.

"You…" The made student of the late but equally insane Alchemy Master stepped towards the both weak and injured Air Alchemists. "You dare to interfere with my fight? You are way too low!"

A flying kunai interrupted him as a livid Abigail Mustang made her appearance. "How can you even dare to speak with my husband and my daughter this way?" she hissed.

"Shut up, granny," the young man replied. "I don't fight against old ladies."

Little did he know that Abigail didn't take it kindly when someone called her old and that she would always have to say something about it even though she wasn't her always annoyed sister Izumi who would beat up every fool who would even dare to imply that she wasn't the youngest anymore. The Air Alchemist crossed the field with fast, energetic steps that embodied strength and rage. Her hands were in the pockets of her dress and her glare was already more than enough to kill. "I am sure that you didn't really call me old right now," she smiled while she picked up another one of Nerissa's kunai. "I am not in a mood to kill at the moment, you know? But I believe that you just changed that."

Edward used the temporarily distraction to hurry over to Nerissa and to pull her across the field to Victoria who seemed exhausted. "I am sorry that we are asking you for so much, Vicky," he said, "but it would be great if you could patch her up a little bit. We can't have her dying here, right?"

Nerissa leaned against a tree and closed her eyes for a moment. "There is one last thing I have to do," she said before she coughed once more and winced in pain. "Elric, draw this circle somewhere close to the fool, will you? This wounds … there is a good chance that I won't make it – no offence, Vicky, but that is some hard stuff – and if I go down, I will take this bastard with me."

Victoria's face was pale and it was hard for everyone to see her confronted with death all over again but she was probably the only alchemist who would be able to fill the gap her mother had left one day. No one said something about these thoughts to her for obvious reasons but they were in all heads. The girl bit her lower lip as she carefully applied pressure on Nerissa's side and exhaled. "Eight broken ribs but that's nothing a true Hamilton wouldn't survive," she stated in indifference. "And for the record, the lung isn't pierced as far as I know. Still, as soon as this is over, we need to get you to a hospital."

Alain looked at his daughter while he stood up again. "Well, Jade," he grinned. "I don't know how you feel about this but I believe that we should help Abbs a little bit before she can get hurt too."

Edward groaned in frustration. "Vicky just patched you up and you want to return into battle?" he asked with a frown. "Honestly, you are exactly like the chancellor."

Jade grinned widely as she stood up and wrapped one arm around her father. "That's the spirit," she stated. "Extreme bravery that borders to foolishness and suicidal tendencies is typical for us."

Reine Hawkeye's former pupil was annoyed by the speed and the power of the old woman who had stand up against him. She was certainly a problem and he would get rid off her as fast as possible. But suddenly, he saw how the both Air Alchemists which he had knocked out at the start of the fight were back. They didn't look good but they certainly looked far better than before their sparring or his attack. He wondered for a second how this could be possible as he saw a little girl, as red-haired as the second oldest daughter of his late master, who was healing the wounds of the blond bitch.

'Well, well,' he thought. 'As long as they have a healer and my attacks don't hit them lethally, they can stand up again and return to battle. At the moment, the little girl is the main problem…'

He dodged another flying kunai of the old lady and disappeared in the woods for a second.

"Wait a second, Jade!" Abigail ordered as her daughter seemed to want to follow the man. "Don't follow him. It's too dangerous, darling, and I don't want you to run straight into a trap. Let's wait for his return and hope that we will notice him before he can hurt someone."

Edward used the break to draw the array Nerissa had asked for on the ground, much bigger and much more effective if he had been able to if the man had stayed. "Why did he leave?" he asked confused.

"There are many possibilities," Jade said. "Probably he realised that he can't win against all of us and the fight against Nerissa should have taken a lot from him. Or maybe he reorganises himself because he has picked out a new target, someone he didn't paid any attention to before because he or she didn't seem like a potential problem. Or maybe he hopes that we would follow him and he could take us out one by one in the forest where it is harder to fight."

Her father nodded. "My guess would be that he realised that someone is a risk for him," he said.

Nerissa sighed deeply before she forced herself to open her eyes beside the pain. "I need to stay," she said. "The array is connected with the one on my hand. If I leave, everything was in vain. But maybe should Vicky leave. I am just worried that she could get hurt if she stays here."

Abigail shook her head. "As much as I hate to say this," she muttered, "we can't afford to separate. If Victoria leaves, Elric and Owen go with her. We aren't taking any risks today, understood?"

"Understood," Jade said while she watched the dark forest with a frown. Her shoulders were pressed against her parents' shoulders and all three Air Alchemists seemed to be listening to every little sound in the forest. "I don't hear anything," she whispered.

Edward walked over to Victoria who seemed exhausted. "Climb on my back," he said. "We are bringing you back to the house. Nerissa and the airheads will take care of this."

Owen bit his lower lip. He was in his own way handsome with his reddish hair and his green eyes. He looked a lot like Claudio who had stayed in the mansion because he had been tired from the journey. Looking back, this had been probably a good idea. The student, however, tapped Edward's shoulder. "It would be probably better if I would carry her," he said. "You are the better fighter."

"Boys, I can run on my own!" Victoria scolded while she glared at them. "I won the Amestrian Masters and you still doubt my ability to put one foot in front of the other? That's mean!"

"She's right," Owen said calmly. "Anyone who can win the Amestrian Masters can run on her own. And if one of us would carry her, it would slow this person down."

Edward nodded. He was ten years older than Victoria and six older than Owen but he had to give in. They were right. It would be the best to let Victoria run on her own. "Let's go," he said before he grabbed one of Victoria's hands. "It isn't that far. We should make it."

Izumi could smell the fact that something on the estates of her sister was terribly wrong. She didn't have an Air Alchemist extended senses but she could feel that something was off. In the distance she was her sister's trademark red transmutation glow, her brother-in-law's green light and even Jade's customarily green light. If the whole family minus Phil was in a battle – and the blue light showed her that someone else was fighting there as well, so it wasn't just a little sparring round – the things were bad with the tendency of becoming worse.

The black-haired alchemist sighed deeply before she headed towards the scene of the fight as she suddenly heard Jade yelling "Where did that bastard flew to this time?" and Izumi froze. It meant that something had gone wrong and that their opponent had gotten away. She would compliment him for being able to get away from three Air Alchemy Masters but this person seemed to be a problem.

Izumi decided that she would keep an eye on people who didn't belong to this estate and just as she crossed another field, she ran straight into her old pupil Edward who was accompanied by the little redhead she still knew from Roy's wedding, Victoria, and her older sister's newest student called Owen. But in their mutual haste, they bumped into each other and tripped to the ground.

"Crap, oh crap," Edward cursed. Blood ran down his face once more because he had hit his head.

"Ditto," Victoria muttered darkly while she sat up again. "Did we lose him?"

"No, girl, you don't lose me," an icy voice said, "and even though you are probably the granddaughter of my late master, I am still going to kill you because I made you out as the main problem."

Edward sighed. "Of course," he muttered. "Like Ling said: If you want to shoot the leader, shoot his horse. In this case: If you want to win the battle, kill the alchemist with the talent for healing alchemy first because she is the main problem since she can bring everyone back to his or her feet again."

"Hundred points for Blondie," the man grinned. "Yes, I am sure that Miss Nerissa would have already died if a certain red-haired bother wouldn't have the nerve to heal her, so that she could injure me slightly." He gestured towards his side that looked like someone had embedded a hook into his flesh and ripped off a good deal of his skin and flesh. Very appetising. "So I decided that the redhead dies first before I finish off the rest one by one."

At this point, Owen had been the student of Abigail Mustang and Alain Tempest for more than half a year and he had memorised how his masters dealt with situations like this. Like Miss Jade had said: the spirit was to fight for the comrades, the family was about bravery to the point of suicide and as a student, Owen had made these ideals a part of his own beliefs. He wasn't much of a fighter and had never come even close to holding his own against one of his teachers but he was stubborn and he would not allow this sick person to hurt the little girl. He got quietly up and sneaked up behind the man. No matter how strong he was, Owen knew that he wouldn't have been much of a problem for his teachers if they weren't tired from a long day. And Owen's strength was still fresh because he hadn't taken part in the previous fight and the run hadn't taken much from him.

Edward saw the pupil – what had been his name? Olaf, Owen? – sneaking up to the lunatic and his jaw dropped as he decided that he should distract the rogue alchemist. "Hey, pumpkin-head!" he called out to the man. "If you want to get Vicky, you need to pass me and my Teacher first!"

Izumi nodded fiercely while she lifted her fist. "C'mon if you dare to!" she shouted, covering Victoria's trembling form. "We won't allow you to hurt a little girl. We will fight to our last breath!"

Victoria used the trembling of her body to sketch arrays into the earth to her feet. She was scared and she would never deny it because no one would believe her that she would stay calm when confronted with a rogue alchemist who had studied under her grandmother. She had read Jade's notes on him while Breeze Soul had been asleep and Jade had noted that this man wouldn't hesitate to kill for his goals. She inhaled deeply as her violet eyes widened as she saw how Owen attacked the man from behind. The fight between the both males was hard but soon enough, Victoria saw more blood – Owen's blood – than she ever wanted to see.

Her anger, however, was calmed a little bit as Izumi knocked the man out with a single punch before she used alchemy to tie him up properly while Edward removed all the weapons.

Victoria crossed the field and bound her hair to her usual twin tails once more before she sat down next to Owen. The injury had been on his neck, just like she had feared it would be. She closed her eyes and for a second, she remembered her mother saying that healing neck wounds were different from healing usual wounds. However, she would do everything to save her comrade's life.

When Owen awoke, he lay on the bed in the room where Madame Abigail kept the health equipment and when he looked around, he noticed that he wasn't the only one. The blond alchemist, Miss Nerissa, was still out cold and it wasn't surprising, judging from the injuries she had taken. The little redhead, Miss Victoria, was also still sleeping but while she was hardly injured, it was probably more exhaustion than anything else. So many transmutations always took a certain toll and she was still so young… On the last bed, however, lay – and that was not really a surprise – Miss Jade. Owen could darkly remember Madame Abigail yelling out for her daughter in the background, meaning that Miss Jade had taken quite a blow at one point in the fight.

"Ah, you are up," Madame Abigail said calmly as she looked at him. "How does your neck feel?"

Owen's hand moved upwards and his eyes widened as he felt the bandage around his neck. "I don't feel anything but I believe that I was injured, right?" he asked.

"Yes," his master replied. "The freak nearly killed you – he would have been successful if Victoria would not have been able to patch you up. She is, however, a little bit tired and we would prefer it to monitor her a little bit before we are sure that everything is alright."

"And your daughter, Madame?" he asked carefully.

Abigail's face hardened for a second and regret appeared in her eyes. "She was too fast for me," she said and maybe there was hurt pride in her voice. "She went after the man, alone, after he ran away and we picked her up in the forest, unconscious and bleeding. She overexerted herself once more." Her dark eyes closed for a second and she extended one hand to stroke her daughter's sweaty hair. "She is a very brave girl," she whispered, probably not even caring if anyone was listening. "She takes after her daddy … and I guess she will always be daddy's little girl."

"Abbs," a woman who looked a lot like his master but who was a little bit younger and slightly smaller entered the room. "Shall I start healing the injuries or will you do it?"

"You may, Izumi," Owen's master said calmly. "I'll talk with your old pupil. He seemed disturbed."

"Edward? You of all people want to speak with someone who has no interest in Element Alchemy, the thing you are basically living for, Abigail?" The younger woman with the dreadlocks asked in slight confusion. "I never thought that you would overcome your pride one day, my dear older sister."

"Pride or no pride, Iz, this isn't about pride. This is about respect," the Air Alchemy Master said, "and I believe that there should be a way to reconstruct his gate. I am going into the library right after my conversation with him. I expect you to report back to me in two hours."

Owen was used to his master's strict orders and he saw in her sister's face that the younger woman knew that it was pointless to argue with Madame Mustang about these things.

Jade winced in pain as she felt cool hands on her temples and tried to draw an array, somehow, somewhere it had to be possible when she heard her aunt's calm voice. "You are save now, Jade," Izumi said slowly. "You don't have to fight anymore. You are back in the mansion. You lay in a bed. I am going to heal your wounds. You don't have to fight back. I am not going to hurt you. You will be alright."

Jade's body relaxed and she slowly opened her eyes. "I thought it would be over with me," she said softly. "The last thing I remember is a rock flying towards me. Afterwards, everything is black."

Her aunt sighed deeply while warm light appeared as Jade's wounds closed. "You will never learn it, right?" she asked. "Why didn't you wait for someone to back you up? Didn't they teach you in academy that it is foolish to enter unknown territory without a plan or reinforcements?"

"I had to slow this guy down," Jade said. "He was interested in me in first place. He came for me … and Dad first and later Nerissa just stood in his way. I don't even believe that he wanted to let this fight grow in such an outrageous way. Well, as soon as you patch me up, I am going downstairs."

"Please don't tell me that this house has still its dungeon," Izumi sighed while her alchemy closed an especially deep cut across Jade's left cheek. "Really, and here I thought that Abbs grew up a bit."

"Oh, usually dad stores his wine there but technically, it is still a dungeon."

"I told her that she should use it for something else," Izumi muttered.

"What?" her niece chuckled as she stretched her arms, making sure that everything was alright. "We are a prestigious, extremely rich and influential family with the tendency of getting in fights and you tell me that we cannot have a dungeon? So, do you want to have that person in my mama's salon?"

Izumi rolled her dark eyes while she quickly checked Jade's eyes for any signs of a serious injury before she threw some pills into the younger woman's mouth. "You are clear," she said, "but I hope that it was the last time that I need to patch you up, Jadelina."

Jade knew that Izumi's improved skill on Healing Alchemy came to a certain degree from the research she had done before her failed Human Transmutation but she forced herself not to care. Any skill of any person that helped her was a good skill, no matter how and why he had come to be.

Edward sat in the living room, uninjured and relatively calm. He watched the female air alchemist with a little frown as she put down a mug with hot cocoa in front of him and sat down on a chair.

"I don't drink milk," he told her with a little frown while he wrapped his arms around himself.

She huffed. "You will drink it," she said calmly before she raised an eyebrow. "Just by the way, Elric, was this the first time you were confronted with the real danger of dying in a serious fight?"

He nodded quietly. "And the first time that I felt really useless," he said darkly. "I saw Nerissa getting up after no matter how many blows she took and how your daughter and her father returned to battle even though they were tired and still hurt. Even Victoria was more useful than I … and your student was the one who attacked this psycho first to protect a girl he just knew for some hours beforehand. I travelled with her for a day and know her for more than a year and I just sat there and did nothing."

"Ah, I see…" Abigail nodded wisely. "My nephew had the same problem when he was younger. We all tried to raise him as a gentleman and when he was regularly beaten by Jade, he felt like he was failing her every single time because he was – in his world – supposed to protect her and not the other way around." She chuckled while her dark eyes narrowed. "I will speak with Izumi about this. I believe that it would be the best for you if we were able to push you back onto your former level. I take it that you left out to a certain degree, right? It has to be hard to be the only useless state alchemist…"

"Your daughter can mock me far better than you, Madame Mustang," he replied collected.

"That's one of the many things I taught her when I trained her," she smirked. "And it's typical for the student to surpass the master sooner or later. Furthermore, she takes more pleasure in annoying you than I do. That results in the actual situation, Elric. In order to get the respect and the appreciation you want so much, you need to become stronger than you are at the moment. At your actual rate, you wouldn't last three seconds against anyone who means it." She glared at him. "You aren't drinking."

"I told you that I hate milk, Mrs Mustang," he said.

"You need power if you want to protect the people you care for," she muttered while she tapped her chin. "And power is difficult to attain these days. The old families who have power hardly share with the others because they like to keep everything to themselves. There are few alchemists who gladly share their knowledge." She huffed. "But I offer you the best training you can get in the Eastern Area."

"You have already a student," Edward said, trying to get his thoughts back into the right order.

"There is nothing I could still teach him," Abigail replied. "Owen will continue his training under Jade and Phil, like I said: sooner or later, the student always surpasses the master when he is willed enough – and since it would be difficult to find someone as strong willed as my twins, so it is just the right thing to do to give Owen a master who can still teach him something."

"So you are handing down your students to your children?" Edward asked.

"Owen is the first student in eight years who proved himself as worthy enough to learn Air Alchemy," she said collected. "A technique that allows you to kill without leaving any traces requests a really calm alchemist to learn it, someone who doesn't want revenge for anything. We don't want to be responsible to allow someone to go on some killing spree. You have until tomorrow to decide."

Edward watched how she left and as he looked down, he noticed that the mug was empty.

Jade's footsteps were soft on the marble floor beneath her as she hurried towards the dungeon of her family. What she had told her aunt was right: the dungeon wasn't used any longer but it was also no surprise that Alain and Abigail had found a new use for the rooms.

Alain, however, stood in front of a former cell and had his arms crossed. "There you are, Jade," he said without turning around. "I hope you know what you are doing."

"Did you already call the police?" she asked while she tapped her chin.

He nodded. "And your brother is also on the way, darling," he said while he wrapped one arm around her waist and hugged her tightly. "My foolish little girl … you had me worried…"

She bit her lower lip. "I am sorry, daddy," she whispered while she rested her forehead against his chest while her fingers grabbed his shirt. "But I needed to buy them more time…"

"That's why you are my little girl," he said and kissed to top of her head.

Bea's eyes were focused on Phil's darker orbs as they travelled eastwards along with her parents, the Duchesse and the Duke of Volana. The call they had gotten from his father had disturbed Phil deeply and she wished that they would be alone, so she could ask for the details without the ear range of her over-protective parents. Whatever had happened, it had to be very serious for him to be that nervous because after so many years, Bea had come to the realisation that there weren't many things in the world that could make Phil nervous and usually the few things who made him nervous were connected to his twin sister who was on a vacation at the moment.

She laced her long fingers – made to play the piano, not to kill people like her father would complain – through his and smiled before she kissed him softly. "It will be alright, Phil," she promised.

He sighed before he hugged her tightly. "Jade and the others got attacked," he whispered. "And from what Miss Nerissa said before she passed out, this guy was probably the one who attacked you and a former student of her late mother what makes the thing more complicated."

The police man looked at the young woman in front of him before he looked at the slightly older man who sat on a chair, hands cuffed and glaring at the woman. "…so, just to make sure that I am not messing up any facts, Miss Mustang, you and your father were sparring after diner, right?"

"Yes!" the woman growled while she crossed her arms. She was injured and seemed exhausted.

"And why did you and your father spar after diner, Miss Mustang?" the police man inquired.

She groaned in frustration before she slammed her palms onto the counter. "I believe you have no idea who I am," she hissed. "The full name would be Jadelina Christina Mustang Tempest and yes, I am the Minister for Science. I am a state alchemist, young man, and my father is also a very skilled alchemist. I am used to spar with him after diner. Since we didn't spar in a long time because I was a little bit busy with work and suffered an injury on a mission, we fought with a lot of power, meaning that we were pretty exhausted when we walked back to the mansion. And on our way back, this freak of nature suddenly appeared and attacked us. We had no choice and were knocked out until a … friend patched us up, just in time, so we could protect another friend of ours who came to help us." She grabbed her handbag and threw a stack of photos on the table. "The blonde is the one who took most of the blows," she said after calming down a little bit. "Oh, and the little redhead was nearly killed because she was the one who patched me and the rest up during the fight."

"Miss Mustang, madam, that's a child," the man said surprised.

The slightly small man who had accompanied her sighed deeply as he stepped closer. "You know, it's not about the size of the body, Mister," he said. "Vicky is a damn good alchemist and – I might add – a really good girl. If it weren't for her, we weren't here right now because we were dead."

"You look familiar, Mister…"

"Elric, Edward Elric," the blonde said while he patted Miss Mustang's shoulder. "I and … um … Jade are here for a vacation because the missions took a toll on us and we…"

"…we wanted to meet up with my parents and my aunt who is his teacher, yes," Jade added. "Edward is one of my best state alchemists and we have a lot in common…"

"…like being incredibly stubborn and reckless," he piped in.

"…so we decided to go on a trip together," she smiled before her smile froze as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "We are really good … uh … friends, yeah."

They looked at each other and both knew that they couldn't call the other a hypocrite or a liar afterwards because they had both lied like there would be no tomorrow.

Izumi glared at her older sister who wore a red kimono and had her hair bound to a low ponytail had lay on her left shoulder. "It's like back in school," she muttered while she wrapped her arms closer around herself. "You are still stealing everything from me, big sister…"

"Are you upset because of my offer towards Elric?" Abigail asked calmly.

"Yes, I am," Izumi muttered. "You need to realise, Abbs, that life isn't a place where you can take nearly everything you want to have. I mean … we are sisters and I love you but … I don't want you to get in trouble … and Edward means trouble, Abigail. You have retired years ago. You wanted a peaceful life. That's why you never became a state alchemist. That's why you play the good wife, write your books and take care of the enterprise. You didn't want any action, Abby. You declined so many students over the years … and now you took on the most troublesome student ever? What's going on with you?"

"Edward needs someone who offers him more power. He is a lot like Roy. Too many dreams, you know? And without a lot more power, it will be a fiasco."