THE WATERS OF LETHE
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, I just like to play around in its world and torture Ed for a while.
Warnings: Bad language; implied EdxWin
Beta: Took-baggins
Chapter 78: I Woke In My Nation (Ich erwachte Herein Mein Volk)
Central was enjoying a spell of what Amestrians called "Ishbalan summer", and a window next to Edward's bed was halfway open when he finally woke up. He first heard faint sounds of footsteps and people talking underneath the gaara-gaara-gaara of wheels turning, and this perplexed him because they were so different from the sounds around the cell he'd been imprisoned in. His nose twitched at the smells of dust, and of food cooking coming through the window from outside; and the scents of antiseptic and weak bleach from inside made him wrinkle his nose. By now almost fully conscious, he listened hard while still keeping his eyes closed. An experimental movement of his left foot brought a rustling of bed sheets redolent with bleach, and stiffened with a bit too much starch to his ears. The discordant racket of truck gears clashing outside made his body jerk with surprise.
The sun shone full on his face and he felt its warmth, like fingers of a lover caressing him. A soft breeze played across his cheeks and ruffled his hair, tumbling long bangs across his nose. Edward sneezed lightly, and then grumbled under his breath before he buried his face into the pillow. He wanted to sleep; he needed to sleep, so why was the whole world being so noisy? Something wooden creaked behind him, followed by a sigh breaking and he stiffened. Someone was close by and watching him, and he wondered if it was the soldiers Eckart had assigned to guard him. Edward's eyelids fluttered open; he closed them again and smacked his lips together. Feh. He'd drooled in his sleep again, and his lips, plus his entire chin felt sticky with dried liquid.
He rolled over to his left side, reluctant to wake up because the siren call of sleep still beckoned to him. It offered soft and warm oblivion, far from the mental stress and pain of daily life. Then the unknown person who watched him cleared its throat and all thought of taking up sleeps offer flew out the window. He blinked, once, twice, and then three times before he opened his eyes and beheld the person who sat quietly in a straight-backed wooden chair right next to the bed. Edward stared in complete and utter amazement, mixed with a touch of bewilderment.
He opened his mouth to say a name, but his voice box was rusty from months of non-use, and the single word came out forced and cracked. The two syllables ended in a high-pitched sound of query as he never expected to see this person again.
"Winry?"
'You were unconscious for ten days, Ed."
Edward flicked his eyes up towards her and he managed to look surprised despite the awkward position. He lay on his stomach, left arm flung straight out from his body while Winry sat on the bed next to him, carefully poking a probe through the delicate innards of his machine world made arm. Edward opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and he snapped it shut before a new conversational thread suggested itself. "Ten days, Win?!" He swallowed hard to push back the lump that suddenly arose in his throat. "It feels more like ten YEARS to be honest."
Winry's hand paused the movement of the probe briefly, and looked up from her work. She didn't want to miss an inch of this strange technology, yet she also wanted to study every plane and curve of Edward's face. He'd been gone for six long years, while she grew from a girl into a woman. Even when she was trying to convince a suddenly ten year old Alphonse that Edward was dead and gone for good, she hadn't wanted to believe it herself. The pain had been indescribable, although it faded somewhat over six years. Yet, in the middle of the night, Winry felt it was still there. Pain that felt like a partially scabbed over wound, one which stubbornly refused to heal.
She'd thrown herself into automail work down in Rush Valley, spending five years apprenticed to old Dominic until he abruptly retired himself from mentorship, saying he'd nothing more to teach her. Winry had been at a loss to know what to do, after talking it over with Paninya, she'd taken a train back to Risembool, to ask Granny for advice. Winry had to change trains in Central and while walking through the echoing cavern of Central's main tran station, she remembered the times she'd been here before. She'd come alone the first time, it was a spur of the moment visit to surprise the brothers. That trip almost ended badly when she'd been kidnapped by that insane serial killer, Barry the Chopper, who'd nearly made a "Winry-roast" out of her.
The second time through this train station, she'd accompanied the brothers on their way to Dublith, and she'd conned Ed into making a side trip to Rush Valley - "Boomtown of the Broken Down". They hadn't known about the murder of Maes Hughes at the time, and that tragedy would always tinge her memories of the trip. They washed around in her brain like her fellow passengers washed around her body, and Winry was surprised suddenly to discover tears were leaking out of her eyes and streaming down her face. A friendly porter, thinking she was an out-of-towner who'd gotten lost came to her aid just then. He offered her a clean handkerchief, and personally escorted her to the correct train; he'd been so kind, Winry didn't have the heart to tell him she knew exactly which track the train to Risembool was leaving from.
Winry had just settled herself into her seat when she saw a flash of red coat in the Departure Hall; she stood up and stared hard. The figure was small and for a moment, just for a moment, she thought it might be Ed. Then she remembered: Ed was dead. He was gone. He wasn't coming back and his body lay only the sky knew where. The train began to move soon after, gathering momentum before it hurtled itself out of the station and onto the main line that stretched like metal ribbons towards Risembool. Winry closed the window only partially, so she'd know she was close to home when the air changed to the sweet smell she associated with her childhood.
She fell asleep somewhere between Central and New Optain, her head pillowed on one palm and swaying with the train's gentle movement. Winry's mind descended into darkness and she began to dream.
Three Days Ago...
The phone rang and Winry raced Paninya to the instrument. As usual,the other girl's prosthetic legs gave her an unfair advantage and she snatched the headpiece off the cradle two strides before Winry's fingers were even close. Paninya stood there with one hand on a hip, eyes bright and mouth stretched open in a thousand-watt grin as she delivered her rehearsed sales patter into the mouthpiece.
"Rockbell Automail - Rush Valley division!" she chirped brightly. "Offering customers Risembool quality and service, with Rush Valley flair. This is Paninya speaking, how may I help you?"
Facing her, Winry jigged from foot to foot, impatient to find out who was calling and from where. Paninya gave her a mock frown, and shook a finger of her free hand at her friend. "Uh, huh, is that right?" her brow furrowed and her frown deepened as she strained to hear over the weak, static-filled connection. Phone service to and from Central had just been restored that morning and the people of Rush Valley, far enough from the battle zones, were anxious for fresh news. "What's your name again? Al - Alfred? Albert? Aloysius? What's that? Oh - ALPHONSE! Sure, she's right here, and - "
Paninya squeaked in surprise when Winry yanked the phone out of her hand and pressed the headpiece to her ear, and then wished she hadn't. A loud whistling sound had abruptly joined the static and the noise pierced right through her skull. "Hello? HELLO? Is that really you, Al?" Winry clapped a hand over her left ear and it helped her hear better - but just a little. She shushed Paninya forcefully and concentrated on listening. "Go ahead, Al." His voice was faint, but enough came through Winry could tell it was deeper; his voice must have broken, she thought. Yet beneath the maturity, her ear caught hints of the ten year old Alphonse. Suddenly, an abrupt burst of static wiped out a whole sentence.
"What? Say it again, Alphonse. The static - ".
He repeated it, slowly and as articulately as he could, despite the circumstances. Winry's jaw dropped and the hand holding the headpiece began to tremble, the phone began to slip through her fingers. Then, suddenly, Al's voice, and the static were gone, replaced by the high-pitched hum of a dropped connection. Winry growled deep in her throat and jiggled the cradle, "Operator? Operator! I've lost the connection, can you get it back? What? Telephones are for 'Official use only'? That's not fair! Oh, all right, operator, I understand. Thanks."
Winry stuck her lower lip out in a pout as she set the headpiece back into the cradle with rather more force than her deferential tone towards the operator indicated. She knew she was being childish, but this was vitally important and she HAD to find out more. She wondered if the railroad line to Central was clear and if so, could she get to the Rush Valley station in time to catch the last train?
"I know that look on your face, Winry, you've got news!" Paninya was nose to nose with Winry, a serious look on her face. "Don't hold out on your friend, now - uh, Winry?" Paninya said this some concern because Winry had suddenly collapsed into an armless wooden chair next to the phone table, her own face a couple of shades paler than before. She looked up at her friend and partner with tears brimming in her eyes, the blue sparkling like a late summer sky.
"He's back, Paninya, he's back!" Al just called to tell me, and - "
"WHO IS?!" Paninya interrupted, curious to know everything right away. "Is he cute? Is he rich? Does he need automail?" The other woman was in her "all business" mode.
"Ed, Paninya." Winry said in a soft voice filled with wonder and hope. "It's Ed, Edward Elric. I - I thought he was dead, but he's not. He's back and in a hospital in Central and he's sick. Al said he was exhausted and just needed rest, he seemed to be getting better, but now he's very sick."
Central Military Hospital #1
A semi-conscious Edward groaned, and then thrashed wildly against the leather straps that bound him to the bed for a few minutes before he fell back with a loud moan. His head rolled left and right and he whimpered, deep in the grip of delirium caused by a skyrocketing fever. His legs kicked a few times, and the leather groaned, but continued to hold him down.
These symptoms had appeared barely three days after his last dose of the Puppetmaster drug. Now he was free of the drugs influence, no one had given any thought to the concept he might need to be weaned slowly off of it. The side effects started with complaints about a dull headache that throbbed behind his eyes, followed by a mild fever, not serious, but bad enough to make him refuse his dinner. His temperature rose and rose until his skin was almost too hot to touch, and his hair and pajamas were soaked in sweat. Edward descended into delirium and he didn't recognize anyone, not even Alphonse. An orderly brought the leather straps and secured him early the next morning after he tore the needle of an intravenous tube out of his left arm.
Alphonse stood next to Edward's bed, his teeth clenched and hands clasped so tightly into fists his fingernails scored red half moons into the palms. The old Edward, the Edward he remembered was just coming back and re-connecting when he was pulled away again. All Alphonse could do was stand there and watch his beloved brother suffer. That strange man, Alex Armstrong had left two days ago for the Cselkcess ruins, in hopes of finding a Xingese healer among the trading caravans that stopped at that desert oasis for water. He'd promised not to return to Central without such a person.
In his right pants pocket were forty half pills, twenty doses of the Puppetmaster drug. He was debating with himself if he should give one of those halves to Edward, if it would alleviate his pain. Alphonse reached into the pocket and felt around in the jumble of pills, his slim fingers separated one out and he brought it into the light. He stared at it sightlessly for a moment before he turned to the bedside table, picked up a pitcher of water, and poured a splash into the glass that stood next to it.
Alphonse dropped the half pill into the liquid and watched it dissolve before he picked up the glass and swirled it in a lazy circle to make sure the entire pill was gone. "Here, brother." He reached for the strap which bound Edward's left wrist, the buckles were designed so they could be opened or closed with just one hand. Just a little twist and...
His fingers were just a fraction of an inch away from the buckle when Roy entered the room and cried out in his 'obey me or else' voice, "No, Alphonse! Don't open that!"
Alphonse leaped easily six inches into the air, the glass jogged from his suddenly nerveless hand, fell, and struck the table, the water sloshing out when the glasses side broke, and some of it soaked a small potted begonia. Then the remainder of the glass toppled over and hit the floor, shattering into hundreds of pieces. Alphonse had come back to earth by then, and he turned and stared at Roy with a wide-eyed gaze, his startled brown eyes seemingly twice as large. He babbled his reasoning in a rush of words that tumbled out of his mouth like panicked kittens, "But, Mr. Mustang! It was just half a pill; I wanted to ease Brother's pain! He can't take any more of the withdrawal symptoms!"
Roy countered Alphonse's logic, he lowered the volume and made his voice was a little softer. But Alphonse could hear the steel in it,that once enabled him to command hundreds of soldiers "We agreed, Alphonse, 'cold turkey' was the best way to wean Edward off this drug."
Riza walked softly into the room just then, she was wearing civilian clothes, a lavender blouse, and a dark grey skirt, her left arm in a sling. Her voice was even softer than Roy's, but just a little. She must have heard Roy's shout because she finished his thought for him. "Alphonse, I know it's killing you to see your brother in so much pain, but it's almost over. The healer from Xing has arrived."
The healer is here?! Mr. Armstrong had kept his promise!
Alphonse's spirits soared as he looked down at the puddle of water dotted with glass shards on the floor, and then he shuddered. He'd nearly given this poison to his brother! "Thank you, Mr. Mustang." He nodded at Roy before he impulsively walked up to Riza and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Roy's eyes widened briefly before they narrowed as a scowl passed across his face, but then it was gone, replaced by a smile at Alphonse's retreating form. The boy had walked out of the room, back straight and shoulders squared, with a hopeful smile plastered to his face.
"I hope he won't do that to Armstrong," Roy chuckled in a warm tone he'd saved especially for Riza, his good humor restored by the sight of her blushing face. "He'd be so overcome with emotion, there's no telling how hard or how long he'd hug Alphonse."
He looked over at Edward, who still struggled against the leather straps, and his smile faded just before he said curtly, "Excuse me, Riza" and he walked out of the room, as if also in search of Armstrong with the Xingese healer. Riza was left alone with Edward and she wasn't quite sure of what to do. She was officially on medical leave because of the injuries she'd suffered in the strafing attack at New Optain, but she felt restless and wanted to do something. Except now there wasn't anything to do but hurry up and wait.
Riza wondered if she should find a broom and dustpan and sweep up all the broken glass, and then mop up the water, but her mind quickly rejected that idea. The sling on her arm made handling tools impossible and her eyes ran over the bedside table which now had a tiny chip taken out of its edge by the glass. That potted begonia...
Riza froze in place. The plant was dead, the once blue flowers turned brown, the leaves wilted and the stems drooped over the sides of the pot. A shiver ran through her at the realization Edward had been fed that drug for months. If the drug had done that to a plant, what had it done to Edward's body and mind?
Alphonse's original intent was to find Alex Louis Armstrong and hug the stuffing out of him, but when he finally located the gigantic alchemist, he realized there was no way his arms would come close to encircling the man's body. In the end, he merely smiled at Alex and mouthed his gratitude before hugging his right arm as hard as he could.
"You kept your promise, Mr. Armstrong, just like Brother kept his. Thank you."
Alex smiled back and the pink sparkles around his head surged in anticipation of an emotional outburst. His teeth were huge and square and looked frightening, even when softened by the gentle blue glow coming from his eyes. "Alphonse, may I present Kong Qian, the man who will heal your brother."
Alphonse let go of Alex and turned to face the man, bowing low as he said, "I'm very pleased to meet you, Mr. Qian." But a frosty silence greeted that remark and he looked up to meet the unreadable face of a delicate looking man dressed in a suit of what looked like pajamas.
The healer wasn't much taller than Alphonse, and he was quite thin, his face a slightly yellowed mask stretched tightly over a bird-like bone structure. His feet were very small in a pair of pale yellow slippers, set primly right next to each other. He looked old, but his face was strangely unmarred by lines or wrinkles, except for a few crow's feet radiating from the lower corners of each eye. His clothing draped silkily over his frame and it was decorated with the shapes of exotic flowers embroidered in rich shades of red and yellow. The sleeves of this strange outfit flared out over his clasped hands, hiding them under a fall of blue.
His face didn't betray any expression, but his eyes did the talking for him. Narrow and so dark they looked black, tiny glints of light from the pupils radiated disapproval at Alphonse. He looked helplessly up at Alex who had stopped smiling.
"Alphonse, the Xingese use their last names first."
The boy processed this information quickly and he bowed again. "I apologize if I gave offense, Mr. Kong."
He looked back up, but Kong Qian's expression hadn't changed in the slightest, although the glinting eyes seemed somehow less steely when they raked over him. He spoke now, his Amestrian surprisingly good, if heavily accented.
"I have come a long way; please show me to the patient now."
Alex raised one eyebrow and he looked over at Alphonse who just shrugged. "Please come this way, Mr. Kong."
Kong Qian was glaring again at Edward who thrashed against leather straps. He clicked his tongue with annoyance. Tch! This will not do!
The array was drawn in chalk on the floor of the hospital room, but Edward was too restless, and he would need to be stilled for the healing transmutation to work. The healer bent to the open wooden box set upon the bedside table and rummaged around in it for a moment before he located the item he needed. He made a pleased sound deep in his throat after he pulled it out, a small red velvet bag tied with a black ribbon. A quick flick of two fingers released the ribbon and the bag opened like a flower in the sun. Kong Qian dipped his first two fingers inside and the tips came back out tinged with a purple dust that shone as if wet.
After he reclosed the bag and replaced it in the box, Kong Qian hopped up onto the bed and straddled Edward, who bucked convulsively and nearly threw him off. But the healer seemed to have anticipated the move and he locked his knees tightly against Edward's side, and he waited patiently for a lull in the young man's thrashing. Edward tired eventually and lay still for the briefest moment. Now!
Kong Qian moved quickly, while his left hand held Edward's head still, the two stained fingers of his right hand quickly traced a design on his forehead. He worked with spare, but decisive strokes before sitting back and examining his handiwork: two concentric circles, bisected with arrows that aimed in four directions: North, South, East, and West.
Alphonse, who sat quietly in a chair against the far wall thought it looked like a compass. He leaned forward;, his brown eyes narrowed, and memorized the circle, committing it to memory. He wasn't very familiar with the healing alchemy of Xing and he'd watched Kong Qian like a hawk, fascinated by the differences between it and Amestrian alchemy. A particular feeling was growing by the minute and Alphonse decided he wanted to learn more about it. If only he could summon up the nerve to ask the poker-faced little man if he wanted to take on another apprentice. Because Kong Qian had mentioned he already had one who was working healing a badly injured patient elsewhere in the hospital, but perhaps he wouldn't be adverse to two?
Edward was working up to another episode of thrashing just about when Kong Qian touched the edge of the outermost circle with the first two fingers of his left hand. A soft blue light, accompanied by the subtlest of hums, lit up both circles and the arrowed lines. Edward stiffened suddenly and sank back into the mattress; he now seemed to be in an exceptionally deep sleep. His chest rising up and down was the only movement and Kong Qian actually looked pleased as he climbed nimbly back to the floor. "I have caused a temporary paralysis of his voluntary muscles", he announced in satisfied tones to Alphonse and Alex, the only people in the room. Roy was not there as he'd gone to "escort" Riza back to her room, saying she also needed to "rest"; a pronouncement which didn't fool Alex in the slightest.
The healer wiped the residue of the purple powder off his fingers with a large white handkerchief he produced from a hidden pocket of his pajama-like clothes before making a circuit of the bed and unbuckling the leather straps. Edward continued to lay still, his face relaxed and free of the tiny grimaces he'd been making just moments before. "Please to lift him up and on to the array. Carefully now, do not smear the chalk lines." Alex leaned over the bed and scooped up Edward, who looked like a small china doll cradled in Alex's massive, muscle-bound arms. The big man moved with exquisite delicacy as he carried Edward over to the array and laid his unresisting body in the exact center, somehow not so much as smudging one line or rune.
He stepped back, giving way to Kong Qian, who nodded his approval. He reached back into the pockets of his clothing with both hands and each came out holding two odd looking metal devices apiece. Alphonse thought they looked like large arrowheads, the fronts coming to sharp points attached by short shafts to rings decorated with red ribbons. Kong Qian flung his hands into the air and these sharp devices flew up towards the ceiling before they flipped over, points down, and thunked deeply into the wooden floor, one at each of the four compass points.
I get it now, Alphonse thought. Not North, South, East, and West, but Earth, Air, Fire, and Water!
This was something Alphonse understood, the bringing together of the Four Elements and grounding them. It was a basic preparatory step before attempting any sort of transmutation; and one of the first lessons he'd learned from reading his father's alchemy books.
Kong Qian knelt on the floor next to the circle and placed his hands upon the chalk lines. A subtle hum began and the first tendrils of the alchemic reaction began to hiss and spit like a sack of cobras from arrow point to arrow point. This was also something Alphonse recognized, he'd seen this reaction many times before, but then the sound took on a pitch he'd never heard. It made his skin prickle and the fine hairs at the back of his neck stand up. His entire body had begun to resonate with the hum, a sound that went down to his bones and then deeper still, to the very nuclei of the cells that made up Alphonse Elric. The effect was similar to the failed human transmutation that had taken his body into the Gate and this feeling made him very uncomfortable.
When his eyesight began to darken and he realized he could see objects in the room and the very walls resonate and vibrate in rhythm with the hum, Alphonse started to feel a little afraid. He shot a look over at Alex, who didn't seem perturbed, but his blue eyes had widened a little bit. The pink sparkles about his head danced with the hum, they darkened and lightened and even changed size in time with the rhythm of the healer's alchemy, and Alphonse decided their movement was almost like - heartbeats.
Kong Qian looked over his shoulder at the entranced Alphonse and smiled for the first time. "This is the rhythm, the flow of the energy under the earth's crust. We Xingese call it the "Dragon's Pulse" and have learned how to harness and channel it to perform our alchemy."
Alphonse only had the strength to nod because he felt strangely rooted to the floor, like a sapling tree. Pale blue and dark red lights rose into the air, like writing snakes on either side of Edward's body. They began to bend towards one another, coiling around and around like living helixes before suddenly diving down and into the young man. The lights surfaced occasionally, flashing between his hands and feet before diving back down into the skin, as if Edward was a human-shaped dynamo. Then, to Alphonse's amazement, black vapors, like undulating streams of ink issued from his body, and Alphonse guessed these were the remnants of the Puppetmaster drug still in his system. The atmosphere inside the room darkened, like a premature night had fallen inside just this area.
A cold aura, like a chilly wind emanated from these vapors, as if to symbolize this was a sort of poison being forced out by the healing alchemy. The alchemic lights continued to chase them out of Edward's body until they coalesced into a floating pool of toxins above his head, while the blue and red lights concentrated just above his chest. The lights blended and formed into an arrow shape, as if echoing the metal points on the circle, then they pulsed once with a sharp burst that hurt Alphonse's eyes and made them water. A sound like a small explosion was heard and the dark vapors scattered, before they faded with an unpleasant hissing sound and a chemically odor.
The air began to lighten, until the sunlight streamed in, bright and cheery through the single window again. Alphonse's skin still prickled and he realized it was goose pimpled by a strange freezing cold. The returning warmth of the early fall day began to sink in again until he stopped shivering and the fine hairs on the back of his neck ceased standing up on end. He took a deep breath and the air smelled pure and almost too sweet, he supposed it was a delayed reaction to the stress he'd been under since Edward had fallen ill. He looked down at his brother, who still slept peacefully and Alphonse noticed his face didn't seem as red.
He stepped carefully over the chalk lines and touched the back of his hand to Edward's cheek. The skin was still a bit too warm, but no where as hot and clammy as it had been. A breeze coming from the open window stirred Edward's hair, and some of the strands swayed slightly. Alphonse ran his fingers through his brother's hair, yes, he hadn't imagined it, the outer strands were drying; only the hair close to the scalp was still damp with sweat.
"Here, boy," Alphonse looked to his left, Kong Qian who held out a white handkerchief. "Wipe the symbols off his forehead and he will awaken." The healer was still crouched at the edge of the circle, his face a little paler and sheened with sweat. Alphonse took the offered piece of cloth and gently rubbed at Edward's forehead, folding and re-folding the handkerchief to get all of the purple substance off.
Edward began to stir almost immediately, he moaned softly before he slowly opened his yellow eyes, the blinking lids puffy and lined with crusts of sleep. "Hello, Brother," Alphonse whispered, a smile was crawling across his face and he was helpless to stop it, so he just let his joy shine though. Edward frowned slightly and grunted a sort of reply, before his larynx woke up and he was able to answer in proper words.
"Hey Al, I'm starved. What must I do to get something to eat around here?"
He's hungry! Brother is hungry! Alphonse couldn't help laughing at this, and he did so until he started to cry.
Roughly about an hour later, a tired Kong Qian wandered down to the Intensive Care Unit of Central Military Hospital #1. A low pitched hum and flashes of light issued from the doorway of a room just off of it, and his body began to resonate with the so familiar hum. The closer he came to it, the stronger the reaction and the middle-aged man began to feel the aches and pains just melt away into mere distractions. He came to the door of the room and watched approvingly as his apprentice finished the healing ritual.
The patient, a blond man with pale skin, lay unmoving in the middle of the circle. Alex had told him this man was from the same country as the invaders, but not as an aggressor. He'd been a prisoner too, just like the Amestrian Kong Quan had recently healed, but his injury was more serious, a near-fatal gunshot wound to the chest. The man was one of the few survivors from the large army that had cut such a swath of destruction through eastern Amestris, Word was he could speak their language and Military Intelligence was very anxious to question him as to the technology of the world he came from.
Kong Qian was intrigued too, because there was a an old Xingese legend about a parallel world, but, he'd always supposed it was just old alchemist's tales. Now to find out this story, like the tale of Xerxes, the city that vanished in a single night, had a grain of truth behind it was almost too exciting for words.
The apprentice ended the transmutation, and the hum and the glow faded while the room grew brighter. The young man hadn't so much as twitched, but he had more color to his skin and his chest movement was more pronounced, as if his breathing had improved. The apprentice nodded at two orderlies who stood against the far wall as if paralyzed, both of them jerked into motion like puppets brought to life with harsh yanks. They bowed to the apprentice and murmured thanks in their ungraceful Amestrian language before they carefully picked up the young man and set him on a gurney. They wheeled it through an open doorway and back into the Intensive Care Unit, not that the patient would need such care anymore.
The apprentice stood up and faced him, staring with unblinking coal black eyes before she closed those eyes and bowed. Kong Qian bowed back, a mark of courtesy to an accomplished student. "Well done, Mei Chan."
That was all he said to her, because that was all he needed to say. Kong Qian was an economical man and he did not believe in waste, even of words. The girl turned and began to clean up the room, first retrieving her arrow-like quoins and then sweeping up the chalk lines of the array. A careful alchemist always disabled the circle in order to protect non-alchemists from its power. Footsteps sounded behind him and the girl froze, her face a carefully arranged unreadable mask turned towards the intruder.
Kong Qian didn't turn around at first because he knew the steps belonged to the brown-eyed brother. He turned slowly and deliberately and raked his steely gaze up and down the boy who stood, frozen and indecisive, like a bird hypnotized by a snake. The child trembled, his eyes wide and his expression candid. He wasn't surprised when the boy dropped to his knees and begged Kong Qian to make him his apprentice. Because he knew the boy would come to ask him from the first moment they'd met.
The healer carefully considered the question. From his demeanor in the hospital room, the boy knew about alchemy, more importantly, he also knew how to keep his mouth shut and watch, listen and learn. On the other hand, he was an Amestrian, a barbarian, one of a people who (supposedly) delighted in bringing strife and misery to the people of other nations. Was this uncouth child even capable of learning the ancient and noble Xingese alchemy? The boy stayed down on his knees, head bowed, until he suddenly looked up, those dark brown eyes pierced Kong Qian to the quick with their naked determination. He made his decision in an instant and the boy's face fell after he spoke the first sentence.
His intravenous tubes re-connected, Edward slept peacefully on, unconscious to the drama that had just gone on around him. Alphonse, however, was not peaceful, and he jigged nervously in place. Alex had sat down in a wooden chair close to the bed, his head down and blue eyes closed, as if mentally digesting the recent events. Alphonse felt he would watch over Brother and he muttered "excuse me" before going to the door and opening it.
It was now or never and he sprinted down the hallway at a half-run, his breath coming in quick, anxious bursts. He slowed to a walk if a nurse or orderly walked by with a clipboard or a patient n a wheelchair, but he was moving on the double once that person was past and out of earshot. He didn't know where to start looking for Kong Qian and he peeked into each half open doorway he passed in hopes of seeing him. But, his previously high spirits began to vanish like smoke in the wind, as the number of rooms empy of Mr. Kong increased.
Not until he got to the third floor and smelled the slightly ozone-y air did he know he was on the right track. Only the after effects of a transmutation could give the air that particular tang and he just had to follow his nose. Alphonse followed it right into a room off the Intensive Care Unit, and walked in without knocking. The healer stood with his back to Alphonse, but a few feet away and facing him was one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen.
The girl was dressed similarly to Kong Qian, but in a pink outfit embroidered with a sinuous green dragon and trimmed with piping in a darker green. She was very slight, her head barely reaching to Alphonse's chest. Her hair was black, glossy and very long, gathered up into two large braids twirled on each side of her head. From each braid cascaded three smaller and more tightly wound braids which reached down almost to her ankles, Alphonse thought she looked exquisite, like a perfectly sculpted little porcelain doll. Her face was a blank mask, the only signs of personality coming from her black eyes that snapped at him like firecrackers.
Alphonse shook his head, he wasn't here to admire a pretty girl, but ask the healer a very important question. He dropped to the floor and bowed low after the man finally turned his way.
"Please Mr. Kong! Make me your apprentice!"
Alphonse stayed still and waited, he could feel Kong Qian's eyes boring a hole in him, and also felt like a bug under a microscope. Maybe the healer thought he was just kidding? I'm serious! Dammit! He threw his head up and his wide dark brown eyes met Kong Qian's narrow black ones. Their gazes locked and made silent conversation, now Alphonse couldn't have looked away, even if he'd wanted to.
"Yes, boy, I will take you as my second apprentice. But not right now. Your brother will need you, and your duty lies in helping him recover. Study hard for one year; absorb everything there is to know about your country's alchemy. Come to the place you call the Cselkcess ruins, in one year's time. Mei-Chan and I will be waiting for you." The healer nodded once before he turned his back on Alphonse and began to address his apprentice in Xingese.
As before, Alphonse felt a smile crawling of its own volition across his face, but he refrained from bursting into laughter, or even tears. He somehow felt those reactions would not do as befitting an apprentice-to-be of the dignified Xingese healer. Instead, he stood back up and bowed again in his direction before turning smartly and walking out the door. Alphonse looked outwardly calm, but inside his heart thudded against his ribs and his thoughts scrambled around like stampeding mice inside his skull. The enormity of his decision almost took his breath away, but he felt he'd done the right thing.
Author's note #2: Too late for Christmas, but will this do as a Happy New Years present? Here is to a 2010 full of great fan-fiction!