Light spilled forth from the circle, covering the hut, but before it could meet its completion, the circle exploded.
"Damnit!" the woman cursed stepping away from the bloody remains in the circle, "It went too fast again!" She spit on the remains hiding in the circle and wiped the markings out of the dirt with her toe carefully. A few moments later, she was out the door, a cloth covering her hair.
"I need to adjust the resonance rate..." she mumbled, slinking through the war-fraught town, "How do I accomplish it? Something with the third rune... An explosion sounded off to her right and she cursed before speeding ahead.
"He's there again! Why does he insist on following me?"
"Come on out little Birdie!" He called over the sounds of his explosion, "I know what you've been up to! It's not nice to blow up the little Ishvalans when you really want to make them lose their minds!"
Another explosion sounded and she dove sideways to avoid the blast. Shrapnel impacted with her side as her neck collided with the corner of the building and everything went dark.
When she woke, there was no pain. There was only a little feeling of bliss that spread across her mind and relaxed her body. She knew she should be on guard, but it felt nice to just let it go instead. After all, she knew that he had taken her, there was no sound of war and the violent conflict was always heard, no matter where she slept. So she continued to lay there, eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness once more in order to gain time.
With small movements that could be misconstrued as slightly heavier breathing, she tested the bounds he had set upon her figure. Her forearms were held apart in what felt like a solid block of iron. The rest of her arms were tied against her torso and as far as she could tell, her knees were tied together and held against her chest by a thick band that wrapped under her knees and around her neck.
What a coy man... She thought to herself, realizing that the knife she kept strapped to her right shoulder blade was gone. But how did he find it? She took a chance and shifted a little more only to find the one in her left boot was gone as well. Actually, the entire boot was gone. Both of them were. I guess he's familiar with all of the classic hiding places... She shifted again, and this time his voice greeted her ears.
"I see you've finally awaken, my dear little Cardinal..." It took her a moment, but when she responded it was not the voice of a song bird that answered him.
"Get away from me, you vile creature!" she spat, finally opening her eyes to glare at him. Something intercepted her gaze first though.
Her blood ran cold and she felt her heart skip a beat. The floor beneath her was covered in long arcs and swirling lines, dotted with symbols of complex and immense power. It was a transmutation circle.
"What is this?!" she breathed, cringing away from the floor as best she could. As she pulled up, she noticed that the band around her neck that held up her knees was chained to the floor. "What do you want from me?!" she shouted.
"Well," the man replied, stepping to the edge of the circle, into the light, "I do believe that I want to hear my Cardinal's cries."
"You're a sick man," she hissed, "Kimblee!"
"If I'm a sick man for turning this ugly world into a cacophony of beautiful screams of pain, then I don't want to be a healthy man."
"W-wait," she stammered, "I... I can show you what I'm working on! It'll help!" Kimblee knelt down, palm hovering over the edge of the gargantuan circle.
"How would that help me?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"How many times have you wished to see others fall to their inner demons and to hear the cries of the damned while they roam the Earth? When have you not wished to savor the moment when they break, when the pain becomes too much, and even Gabrielle can't withstand the sorrow so that he sends tears streaming to the Earth?" She went on, and Kimblee listened, his smile growing larger with every word that 'Cardinal' spoke. Her plan was magnificent!Though... There would be no explosions and the screams of the dying men toplease his ears, but instead he would get to hear their moans, their dying sobs of mental agony as they ended themselves... He would have to consider the offer. It certainly was tempting...
_linedeviderofawesomeness_
"Leave me alone, Mustang!" Edward shouted at his commanding officer. The Flame Alchemist only continued staring and Edward glared at the man as blood began to seep down his own chest. He coughed again and when the taller man began to move forward, formed a blade as fast as he could, not very fast through the shaking, and pointed it at his CO.
"We just want to help Edward-"
"Then why the hell are you still wearing your gloves?!" The man looked down at his hands and noticed that he was indeed wearing the white ignition cloth. He tried to pull off the articles only to find that they were no longer his gloves. They were his hands! A spark came as he tried desperately to remove them and the flames raged high with his panic.
"Edward!" he shouted, "Edward, where are you?!" He foraged through the flames and smoke to find the half-dead alchemist and fell from a ledge. He fell hard, screaming the whole way and plunged into water. Still though, the flames burned on and he was unable to move. The heat centered on his hand and he was finally able to move, to jerk away only to send a loud snap through the suddenly dry air. With every move, flames spurned out away from him and screams reached his ears.
"Edward!" he screamed again, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
There was no response and suddenly all Roy could see was bloodied gold, engulfed in flames.
He jerked awake, flailing in the sheets that ensnared him and fell from his bed. The floor greeted him with a loud thump and the shock of the abrupt collision caused him to lay still. His heart continued to race, making such a clamor that he was certain it was making a desperate bid for freedom. After a few moments, he sighed heavily. That damned dream. The people in it were usually different, but it was all basically the same. Hurt someone close to him in an argument then kill them and drown in his own flames as all of creations burned to ashes.
He let out a chuckle as the first tear began to slip from his eye. "I'm letting my ego get the best of me again..." he muttered, pulling himself back to his feet,"Like I can really light everything on fire like that..." He stumbled down the the stairs and into the kitchen. Quickly, he got the coffee maker going and checked the clock. Three in the morning. No more sleep for him tonight...
"There must be something wrong with me..." he muttered, "Why else would that be my dreams? Fullmetal, he didn't deserve it. But Roy... Roy thought this was not bad enough. The younger alchemist should have achieved his goal, he defeated the humunculi and were posed to defeat Truth, but the Bastard cheated. Edward learned his lesson and he knew that he shouldn't challenge the rules set by nature. Roy didn't know that lesson though. He knew that human transmutation wasn't right... But Roy also knew that if the right person died, he would do anything to give them back to the world.
"I'm such a baka... Edward is always right when he calls me those names. I don't deserve this life..." Roy stood from the table and stumbled over to the counter where he kept his liquor. He knew it was wrong, but it hurt to feel. And he didn't want to hurt anymore. So he drank himself into oblivion and sat at the kitchen table, ignoring the world for all his worth.
AUTHORS'S RAMBLING WHATNOT
I had to reformat this. Twice. ON THE iPAD!I HOPE YOU LOVE ME ENOUGH TO KNOW APPLE SUCKS AND I AM ALLERGIC TO PITCHFORKS BECAUSE THEY MAKE ME BLEED! Be amused, I command you!
AUTHOR'S RAMBLING REPLIES
QueenCari1129: Sorry if I already answered you, but thanks! And look! More Japanese terms!
199: Now I gotta remember what I said... That's the formal way to say I'm hungry. And I still have cookie dough. But not on me... Because I'm in evil... I mean math class...
DON'T KILL ME AND THERE'LL BE AN UPDATE TOMORROW! I ACTUALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME!