Chapter 25 – Close Call

The day before…

AJ surveyed the shop one last time. Everything was set. He'd seen to it that his mother and aunt had taken any important belongings with them when they'd left. All that was left behind were things that could be replaced or done without. With this in mind he had carefully planted explosives within every room in the house. All that remained was for someone to open the shop door from inside the house and the entire place would go up in a ball of fire. Blowing up his lifelong home would likely appear a desperate measure to most people. But this was something he had already been considering as a possibility for some time now. The Aerugans showing up in force to seize the shop had been a worst case scenario in his mind, and the solution he'd come up with for it was precisely what he was putting into place now. There were no other realistic avenues to take. Even if he didn't go ahead with this, the Aerugans would be sure to destroy the place; or worse, take it over to use for their own benefit in their war against Amestris. He'd be a dead man before he allowed his equipment and shop to fall into the hands of people who would use them against his country.

With a sigh he grabbed the pack of supplies resting on the work bench next to him and slipped it on over his shoulders. Then he crossed the shop to where his ride was parked and yanked off the dusty sheet which had been covering it. Before him stood a very familiar, shiny motorcycle. He'd built it himself back when he'd still had the time to pursue such hobbies. While it was far from one of his most recent inventions, it had always been one of his favorites. A faster bike wasn't to be found for miles around.

Moments later the motor roared to life beneath him, snarling loudly within the confines of the shop. Then he took off out the large, already open door. He tore down the old dirt road away from the house. The sun was lower in the sky than he would have liked. Rigging the house had taken longer than he had expected. Well…there was no helping it now. It would be dark before long. He would just have to keep going and hope that the headlamp on his bike wouldn't draw any unwanted attention.

A while later he had managed to put several miles between himself and the town. He was beginning to feel a prick of relief that his plan had come together without a hitch. It was at that moment that the engine began to make an odd, sputtering sound. Shortly thereafter, much to AJ's alarm, it began to decelerate. For a few moments longer it sputtered along in a jerky manner before the engine cut out entirely and the bike began to slow further.

"No, no, no…" AJ glanced down at the fuel gauge and found the needle resting on empty, "Dammit," he muttered. Of all the times for this to happen….he shook his head, a frown creasing his brow. This made no sense. He'd left the bike with a full tank last time he'd used it. Where on earth did the fuel go? He would have noticed if the bike had sprung a leak back in the shop. A puddle of fuel spreading across the floor would have been rather hard to miss…

As the bike came to a complete stop he let out a heavy sigh. Well damn. There wasn't much he could do about it now. With a feeling of resignation he put down the kickstand and dismounted. Not wanting to waste much time, but feeling thoroughly puzzled over why the bike had died, he gave it a brisk once over. Sure enough, the tank was empty. But he couldn't find any sign of a leak anywhere… He shook his head. Well obviously it had gone somewhere and his bike wasn't going to run without it. Gas stations weren't exactly plentiful in this part of the country, and any that he might happen to stumble across would likely be abandoned at this point. Not to mention dragging the bike along would take far too much time.

He straightened up, glancing down the road. Well, what now? It was a very long walk to East City, and he somehow doubted he'd run into anyone to hitchhike with. He shook his head. When it came right down to it, there was nothing to do now but keep moving. He needed to put as much space between him and the Aerugan forces as possible. But now that he was going on foot, staying on the road likely wasn't the wisest course. It would be easier to avoid notice if he was off the beaten path. Plus, eventually he was going to have to stop for the night. He didn't want to make camp out in the open. With this in mind he settled the pack on his shoulders more comfortably. Then he set off across the field, aiming for a patch of trees in the distance.

The next day…

Winry and Elsie were driving in silence, as they had been for much of the trip. It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. They were too worried to talk much. They had taken turns driving throughout the night and now they had almost reached their destination. East City could be seen on the horizon.

"We're almost there," Elsie spoke up finally. She was driving for the time being. She glanced at her friend, sensing the growing concern radiating off of her. "I sure hope AJ is ok," Elsie murmured, speaking the thought which she knew was on the blond woman's mind. Winry nodded tiredly. Silence reigned for a time. Then suddenly Winry let out a gasp. Elsie glanced at her in alarm. A look of horrified realization was painted across the mechanic's face. "Winry, what is it?" she dark haired woman demanded. There was silence for a moment while the mechanic stared into space. Finally she found her voice.

"I'm such an idiot," she whispered. "Back in that busy period a few weeks ago I ran out of fuel for one of the machines I use. I didn't have time to go out and get more, so I just took the stuff in AJ's bike… but I never remembered to refill it again," the horror was plain in her tone. Elsie stared at her wide eyed as the implications of her friend's realization sank in. So AJ was stranded? She pondered this for a moment. It would take far too long to turn around and go back for him at this point. They'd never make it in time.

"Don't worry," Elsie told the blonde woman finally. "AJ is a smart young man. He can take care of himself. We'll call Mustang when we get to the city. Perhaps Mania can be persuaded to go pick him up," she suggested. Winry considered this for a moment. Finally she nodded.

"Alright, let's hurry." Though her features were pinched with worry, her voice was firm. With a renewed drive to reach their destination, the two women continued on toward East City.

Elmina was pacing slowly up and down by the riverbank. She'd already worn a slight path into the grass. Despite the fatigue she simply couldn't sit still any longer. The anxiety was just too bad. She desperately wished she could do something more useful than just sit around waiting. She felt like she had been doing nothing but waiting lately. She'd never felt so useless in her life. Her father, Uncle Wrath and Uncle Ed were headed straight into the heart of the enemy encampment. Who knew what could happen? Plus Mania was going with them. There was no way things would stay peaceful with him in the mix stirring things up. Would they all make it out safely? What if they didn't? What would she do if something happened to her dad? She covered her face with her hands and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. The suspense was killing her.

Suddenly she felt her heart plunge dramatically. Her eyes widened as a heavy, sick feeling invade her core past the anxiety already fizzing there. Her pacing slowed to a halt. She stared straight ahead for a moment, frozen in place by the unexpected intensity of the emotion. Was this…? No…No, no, no… Not now! The possibility of this happening hadn't even occurred to her. This feeling of hopeless dread was far too familiar. She couldn't face this again! Not again… But the horrible inevitability of it was impossible to get around. She stood stock still, terrified to turn around and have what she already knew to be true confirmed.

"Getting you alone shouldn't be this hard. Mania is starting to annoy me," the chilling voice spoke up not far behind her. Elmina swallowed hard, trying to gather her courage to turn around and face the speaker. This just couldn't be happening. She wasn't ready for this. What was she going to do? It was a moment before she was able to force herself to move. Sure enough, she turned and found the frail girl she recognized as Despair standing there waiting for her. Her grey hair hung limp and dull despite the sun's rays and the gentle breeze wafting past them. For a moment Elmina was struck by just how unhealthy the humanoid creature looked. Her pale skin was stretched tightly over her prominent cheekbones, giving her face a gaunt appearance. What was visible of her arms and legs past the bandages was alarmingly bony. She seemed painfully fragile, but Elmina knew from experience looks were deceiving. Despair was far from weak. Even so, she really was Mania's opposite. The energetic vitality which radiated off of the red haired creature was evenly matched by Despair's sickly appearance.

Elmina let out a shaky breath, trying to steady herself. There had to be something she could do.

"Now is a really bad time," she spoke up, hoping upon some distant hope that maybe she would be able to reason with her. Perhaps if the creature would just being willing to put this off until after everything was over then she would actually stand some chance of surviving it. The look Despair fixed her with was positively contemptuous. Her black eyes froze the dark haired girl in place, cutting off any hope of escape. Elmina clenched her teeth. Well then. Apparently that approach wasn't going to work…

"You're mine now. Your little blond friend isn't here to save you," Despair informed her coldly. Elmina's eyes narrowed to a glare. She hated this creature's voice.

"That doesn't matter! Mania will just take me back to her and she'll fix me again," she retorted. Despair rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't put too much faith in him. He's never been very reliable," she informed her, "And I wouldn't put much faith in your friends either. They'll get tired of you before long." Elmina's expression grew incredulous at the bluntness of the girl's statement. How could she say something like that? It was just utterly absurd. "Think about it," Despair continued, "How long do you think Blondie will put up with being used? Sure, the first few times she'll be glad to help you, but what about the tenth time, or the twentieth? Even if she doesn't become embittered, eventually she'll burn out," the black eyed creature's tone was matter-of-fact. Elmina stared at her wide eyed. She wanted to object, but she was suddenly finding the girl's words hard to deny. She was making a valid point.

"But…it won't be like that," she protested weakly. Despair snorted derisively.

"Sure it will. How long do you think it'll be before everyone gives up on you? Just wait and see. They'll abandon you," she replied.

"They'd never do that," Elmina snapped, hands clenching into fists. The black eyed creature raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I find that hard to believe. How long do you think they'll be willing to put up with an emotional freak? You're useless. You just drag everyone around you down," her voice was cold and unyielding. The dark haired girl's jaw clenched as she dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands. Despair was a liar, nothing more. But why did her words seem to make so much sense? "What can the future possibly hold for someone like you?" Despair continued, beginning to saunter towards her slowly, "You'll die miserable and alone." She came to a stop directly in front of the dark haired girl, before raising a hand to cup her cheek in a mockery of tenderness, "Might as well give up now and stop prolonging the inevitable. No one likes a rain cloud," she whispered, face uncomfortably close to her captive's. Elmina shuddered at the icy touch, the skin of her face going numb as Despair's breath tickled across it. Her heart wavered, clenching painfully at the words which seemed to cut into it like daggers. A surge of frustrated anger washed through her mind. This was just ridiculous.

"You are such a fucking hypocrite! You're the one doing this to me! Why won't you leave me alone?!" Elmina hissed, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, you are alone. And you always will be," Despair's voice was pitiless. The invisible knife in the dark haired girl's chest twisted, causing a gasp to escape her lips and tears to spring to her eyes.

"Shut up! You're a liar!" She cried, voice halfway between a sob and a yell.

"You just keep telling yourself that," The black eyed creature sounded bored, letting her hand slide from her victims face and stepping back away from her to observe as the dark haired girl slowly began to fall to pieces. Tears had begun to stream unchecked down Elmina's cheeks, poorly hidden behind the curtains of hair that had fallen forward as she lowered her head. She wrapped her arms around herself, desperate for some way to relieve to pain tearing through her core. It was all she could do to remain standing past the crushing weight bearing down on her.

"Dammit. You're such a bitch," she whispered through clenched teeth, hating how pathetically weak she felt.

"Perhaps, but at least I don't hide my head in the sand. Do the world a favor and die already. You're a waste of space," Despair retorted caustically.

"You're the only one who believes that!" Elmina cried, raising her head to glare at the creature through the tears.

"Not true. You believe it too. You know I'm right. Just give up," The mocking disgust in the creature's tone struck a nerve deep inside her. She wavered, battling internally with herself. Why did she want to agree with those spiteful words? What on earth was wrong with her? Despair was wrong…she was wrong… She had to be wrong. But she just seemed so right. She let out a shaky breath, still wavering on the edge of what to do. What if Despair really was right?

Don't you dare believe those lies. Do you hear me?

The memory of AJ's voice echoed clearly through her mind, startling her. Why had he said that to her? She couldn't remember just then, but it didn't matter. She latched onto the words, feeling a distant glimmer of hope past the pain. Even if she was just a burden, he'd made her promise not to give in. She couldn't break that promise. People needed her.

"No!" She snapped defiantly,"You can't make me! I don't have to answer to you," as she spoke her voice grew stronger. Her dimly flickering will blazed up again. Despair cocked her head slightly, sensing the emotional shift in her victim. She actually appeared rather annoyed to find she was losing ground.

"Don't act as if you have any choice in the matter. You will give in," there was a harsher than normal ring to her voice.

"Make me, you old hag," Elmina spat. Perhaps calling a girl who didn't appear much older than herself a "hag" was slightly ludicrous, but she suspected it was an accurate description. Mania and Despair had likely both been around as long as humanity had been in existence. Elmina straightened up; finding that despite the pain and the weight pushing down on her she was no longer battling with doubt. Despair was a liar, even if her words did seem to make sense.

As she came to this conclusion she saw the entire attitude of the creature standing before her shift. The transformation was shockingly dramatic. Despair's expression darkened alarmingly, black eyes narrowing and thin lips pulling back in a snarl to reveal teeth as unnervingly sharp as Mania's. Elmina's eyes widened in surprise. She'd never seen that much emotion on the creature's face before. She looked downright pissed. Black tentacles erupted from the ground at the creature's feet, rearing up into the air as they formed into clawed hands. Elmina let out a gasp and staggered backwards. She saw the dark hands shoot towards her and she jerked backwards away from them, only to trip over her own feet and fall heavily to the ground, knocking the wind out of herself. In a panic, she desperately attempted to scramble to her feet, gasping for air and well aware that she stood absolutely no chance of escape.

Just when she expected the claws to latch onto her she was hit by an unexpected blast of air. She lost her balance and fell back to the grond. Still feeling desperate to get away, she began to scramble up again, but at the same time turned in confusion to look behind her. She froze in surprise, utterly taken off guard to see a tall figure standing almost on top of her, facing the black eyed creature attacking her. Despair let out an angry hiss, disappearing and reappearing a short distance off so as to put some space between herself and the new arrival.

"It isn't terribly polite to kill off your partner's host," Mania's tone was bland.

"Stay out of it," Despair snapped, the writhing tentacles around her showing her annoyance quite clearly.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It seems to me that killing your victims by your own hand when they refuse to give in to you is breaking the rules, is it not?" the red haired creature raised an eyebrow.

"There are no rules in this world. I would have thought you'd have figured that out by now," she retorted coldly. Mania regarded her with an unreadable expression for a moment, clearly pondering something. Elmina leaned away from him nervously, reluctant to put any distance between them in case Despair tried to take advantage of that, but not terribly comfortable with the vibes coming off the red haired creature. Despite the calmness of his voice, his body language was decidedly aggressive. His hair was fluttering about in a much more agitated manner than usual. More than that, he almost seemed to be glowing from the amount of energy radiating off of him. Despite the transmutation Adele had done on him, her skin was prickling from his proximity. She suspected if his powers had not been modified that just being this close to him would be enough to relieve her of her sanity. It was rather unsettling.

"Well then. I suppose our partnership is at an end. If we are no longer tied to each other then there is little need for us to share our hosts," Mania spoke up finally.

"I couldn't agree more. Now stand down and let me have what's mine," Despair ordered, expression still decidedly displeased.

"She's yours?" Mania raised his eyebrows, "Oh, I don't think so. I had her first and I'm the one who found her in the first place. Besides, you're terribly wasteful. If you're in the mood to break something I suggest you go pick on one of your other toys. You won't be touching this one again," there was an edge to his voice. Despair's tentacles lashed menacingly and she leaned forward slightly as if intending to launch herself at him. The red haired creature cocked his head slightly, the slight smirk pulling up one corner of his mouth not reaching his eyes. "Is one little human really worth getting in a fight with me over?" His voice was a threatening purr, eyes glinting. Despair hesitated, appearing to reconsider her actions. Then after a moment she made a sound of disgust before her form shimmered and vanished.

There was a brief silence as they stared at the spot where she'd been.

"Well that was a close call," Mania stated finally, tone much more amiable as he turned to glance down at her. She blinked several times, a little dazed by how quickly the swirling pain in her chest had vanished.

"Uh…yeah… How did you know to come?" She asked, staring up at him in puzzlement. He smirked faintly.

"Well for one, your fear level spiked quite noticeably, so I suspected there was a problem," he replied. Elmina let out a shuddering breath.

"Well that's one way of putting it," she mumbled, still feeling rather shaken. Mania cocked his head, a slight frown creeping onto his face as he stared into space. "What is it?" Elmina asked uncertainly. He was silent for a moment.

"We have another problem," he stated finally, expression grave as he met her gaze. She blinked in surprise.

"What is it?" She demanded.

"It's your father. Something's happened to him," he replied grimly. Elmina shot to her feet in an instant, her eyes widening in panic.

"What?!" she demanded in alarm. He shook his head.

"I can't say for certain. Come on, let's go," he replied briskly. She staggered slightly as she was grabbed and pulled into his arms. A moment later the two of them vanished.

-Author's Note-

*sheepish* Um...sorry for that cliff hanger... *hoping I don't get stoned to death for the events of the next chapter*

*cough*

Anyway...

I'm currently typing this with one hand. I've been struggling with an injured left arm for about a month now as it gets better and then regresses. (I'm left handed...so resting it...is challenging...lol) Right at the moment typing isn't something I can do much of sadly. Pray that I'm able to type again before I run out of chapters to upload. x'D I just have half of the last chapter and the epilogue left to write. Aside from that it's done. So yay!

Ugh, I've gotta stop typing like this. *shakes out cramping up right arm* My best friend suggested that I should learn to type with my toes. XD Sadly, I don't think I'm quite that skilled. But hey, I suppose I can use that as my fallback plan worst case... *sweatdrop*

Thank you to my ever loyal reviewers! *glomp hug* You guys are awesome! ^^ With any luck I'll actually be able to respond to you individually next week. For now though I've gotta call it quits on typing for a bit. x'D