Here's the big climax chapter :D I hope it all makes sense (it's been a very strange week for me) and I hope you all enjoy it
Winry stood towards the back of the auditorium in 'The Dwarf In The Flask' Theatre feeling as if every single eye in the room was on her. They weren't; most of the audience were looking expectantly at the stage waiting for the show to start. She could feel an excitement in the air, an electric tension that had the audience buzzing with anticipation. She wasn't though. The whole atmosphere was making her feel decidedly ill. Why hadn't she just cancelled the show then she wouldn't have to be there.
"We're all ready and set up," Kian told her appearing beside her.
"Okay great," Winry said.
"We're ready for an arrest if they do expose him as well," he added. Winry highly doubted that that was going to be a possibility when the act who were supposed to be doing the exposing might not even show up.
"Fantastic," she said nonetheless. "He's going to put up a fight but we must have all exits covered in case he tries to escape. We won't get another chance like this again so we cannot mess it up."
"Roger that," Kian said and disappeared into the crowd.
Winry cast a glance over her shoulder to the box, at the very back of the theatre reserved especially for Father. He sat there glaring down at her menacingly. Whether he knew that she had bought a group of agents to try and arrest him she didn't know, although she could hazard a guess. He seemed to know everything else she tried to do before she did it so why should tonight be any different.
"You alright?" Yven's voice asked, brining her rapidly out of her thoughts. She jumped and turned to face him.
"Yeah totally fine," she lied
"You sure?"
"Well my entire career is on the line tonight; if 'The Brotherhood' don't show up there is a good chance that I might lose my job and a psychopath might kill me and make it look like an accident," she said.
"There is that," he said.
"So I can safely say that I have been better," she said.
"Anything I can do to help?" he asked.
"Wait down the front to control the riot for if they don't show up," she said. She didn't envisage that an entire theatre's worth of people, who had paid a substantial amount of money to see an exciting act, wouldn't take too kindly to finding out that the show had been cancelled at the very last second.
"Sure thing," Yven said and began to wind his way down to the very front of the auditorium next to the stage.
Winry took another deep breath to try and steady her nerves. She wasn't sure if she had preferred it when she had people talking to her but it had proved a rather nice distraction from the constant worry that this entire evening was going to go down in flames. If she only had a few more hours to live then she should be trying to think of a way to salvage the situation.
The stage lights began to flash in a strobe and the lights in the auditorium went down. Winry felt her stomach, her heart, her everything drop to the floor. This was it. This was the moment of truth to know if it was too far beyond repair.
"Ladies and gentlemen," a familiar voice, that sounded surprisingly like Hoenheim, boomed around the auditorium, "we present, for your entertainment this evening a show of spectacular proportions." Five screens suddenly lit up at the back of the stage, each with a black silhouette on a white background.
"We have the pyrotechnic prowess of Roy Mustang," a voice that sounded like Mustang's said as his face faded across the screen on the far right. Winry closed her eyes. The build up was killing her and to know that nothing was going to happen made it all the worse.
"We have the escaping genius of Izumi Curtis," Izumi's voice said as her face faded across the far left screen.
"We have the mind-blowing mind reading of Van Hoenheim," Hoenheim's voice said as his face faded across the middle screen.
"And finally, for the first time ever on stage," Al's voice said, "we have the illusionary talents of Edward and Alphonse Elric." Ed and Al faded across the screens either side of Hoenheim's before the screens just showed the silhouettes again.
The backgrounds on each screen suddenly faded to black and the silhouettes turned into a recording of each of them looking as if they were walking towards the screens. Each of them suddenly seemed to brake into a run, getting larger on each of their respective screens.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Central," Ed's voice said, "we are 'The Brotherhood Of Travelling Alchemists!"
At Ed's last word the screens seemed to shatter, sending confetti and smoke across the stage and out into the auditorium. Once the smoke had cleared all five members of 'The Brotherhood' stood on stage waving at the crowd.
Winry stared, her jaw on the ground, as she took in the sight of them all waving and lapping up the crowds cheers and attention. They are here... all of them... even Ed had actually shown up! How was this possible? Winry shook her head and closed her mouth, unable to believe what she was seeing but 'The Brotherhood' were on stage and performing, she wasn't going to complain too much that at least that had gone according to plan.
"Hello Central," Izumi said, "it's great to be here."
"And boy do we have a show for you tonight," Mustang added.
"So let's kick things off..." Al started.
"With a bang," Ed finished and a huge explosion of smoke surrounded both Ed and Al and once it had dissipated they were gone to gasps from the crowd.
Winry had to admit that, as much trouble as they had been, 'The Brotherhood' were very good at what they did. They all had excellent stage presence and they knew how to feed off both the crowd and each other to get everyone in the room bubbling with excitement. Their magic was very impressive too. Having seen some of it close up and first hand Winry was already relatively impressed but what they were able to do up on stage was amazing.
She really didn't have the presence of mind to relax and enjoy the show though. Despite that fact that the evening was proving to be a roaring success Father was still there, lingering in the back of her mind like a vulture ready to sweep down and attack at the first sign that something wasn't going his way.
The closer and closer it got to the end of the show Winry began to wonder if there was to be a grand exposing of Father's crimes. Why would there be? There hadn't been any headway on getting proof so it wasn't as if 'The Brotherhood' had anything that they could use as concrete evidence.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Al said, once the applause from the previous trick had died down, "thank you so much. You have been an absolutely wonderful audience this evening and we've all had an amazing time."
"We're going to leave you with one last trick but first we have to say thank you," Ed said.
"We wouldn't all be up on this stage for you tonight if it wasn't for Father," Izumi said and gestured up to the box at the back. The audience turned and a spotlight illuminated Father. He raised his hand and smiled as everyone applauded. Winry hoped to god that that had been planned otherwise he was going to be pissed and probably take it out on her.
"So thank you so much Father for letting us be here tonight," Mustang said as the spotlight clicked off and the audience turned their attention back to the stage.
"Now for our grand finale," Hoenheim said, beaming. "For this I would like the assistance of someone in the audience." He took his hat off before holding it out to Ed and Al. "Boys if you would do the honours." Both Ed and Al placed their hands into the hat and pulled out a ping-pong ball each. There was a murmur of excitement from the crowd as they looked at the numbers on the balls.
"Row A," Al said.
"Seat 24," Ed said.
"Fantastic so could the person in Row A, Seat 24 please make their way up on stage," Hoenheim said.
The audience clapped and cheered and Winry was very surprised to see Yven walking up the steps and onto the stage. He waved awkwardly at the crowd as he went over to stand next to Hoenheim who handed him a microphone.
"Hello," Hoenheim said smiling at him, "it's great to have you up here with us, for the benefit of the audience can you tell us your name."
"Yven Powell," he said.
"Okay well let's give Yven a huge round of applause," Hoenheim said and the crowd complied. Yven shifted awkwardly, he clearly didn't like being the centre of attention. "So I have already met Yven before," Hoenheim continued, "and you may be wondering if I planned for him to be in that seat. Well, Yven, did you know that this was going to be happening when you came here tonight?"
"No I didn't," Yven said truthfully.
"You just chose that seat without any idea that you might get called up on stage? Hoenheim asked.
"Yes," Yven replied.
"Fantastic," Hoenheim said. "Tell me Yven do you believe in hypnosis?"
"Can't say that I do," Yven admitted.
"So you don't believe that I could hypnotise you into telling this entire room of people something about you that no one knows?" Hoenheim asked.
"No," Yven replied, shaking his head.
"Would you like to test that theory?" Hoenheim asked. Yven seemed to stop for a moment, almost as if he were thinking it through. Even if he might have wanted to he would be unable to back out without looking incredibly suspicious.
"O... kay..." he said after a pause.
"Okay," Hoenheim said, "do you mind if I place my hand on the back of your neck?"
"Um sure..."
Hoenheim placed his hand on the back of Yven's neck and began to whisper in his ear. The audience watched with baited breath as Yven listened to whatever it was Hoenheim was saying. After a few minutes Hoenheim pulled back.
"How do you feel Yven?"
"No different?" Yven shrugged although his eyes seemed a little more glazed over than usual.
"Okay great," Hoenheim said. "So for the benefit of the audience, as I said before I know Yven and he is a federal agent but that's not all you do is it Yven?"
"No," Yven said. "I also work for Father." Pardon? That was news to Winry.
"So what do you do when you work for Father?" Hoenheim asked. He placed his hand to his temple theatrically. "Something to do with costumes?"
"I am the seventh member of Father's Suicide Squad and have been working undercover at the Bureau for the last three years in order to discover what they know about him and deter them from finding out more," Yven said.
Winry felt as if everything was moving in slow motion and she didn't even want to look round and see the thunderous expression on Father's face.
"Interesting," Hoenheim said, "and what else can you tell us about the kind of work that Father does?"
"There is a lot of import, export of hard drugs," Yven said. "He's also been stock piling weapons of mass destruction in a warehouse down the street and has been planning on bringing down the Amerstrian National Bank to crash the economy and steal money from the country's citizens."
"Okay thanks for that Yven," Hoenheim said clicking his fingers. Yven seemed to snap back to himself, blinking slowly and, as the realisation of what he had just revealed sunk in, looked horrified.
"So," Izumi said, "it seems we have quite the criminal mastermind on our hands. Maybe we should go and check out this whole import, export business."
"I've got a GoPro here," Ed said holding up a tiny camera so that the audience could see it and switched it on. He fixed it to the front of his shirt and the screens at the back lit up with a panoramic view of the audience. "I'm going to go and have a look, see if I can find some of these hard drugs but I think I might need someone to come with me." He jumped down from the stage, a spotlight and the feed from the small camera following him until he reached a dark haired girl with pink streaks in her fringe. "Lovely lady down the front here, what's your name?"
"Rose," the girl replied.
"Fantastic and what do you do Rose?"
"I work for a charitable organisation that gets underprivileged kids off the streets and helps them build lives for themselves," Rose replied.
"Well let's give Rose a round of applause, that's amazing," Ed said clapping, the rest of audience following suit. "So with your job you'd be able to identify, let's say, cocaine just by looking at it?"
"Most likely," Rose said. "We get a lot of kids come in who have been taking drugs or forced to sell drugs."
"That's exactly what I need," Ed said, "so will you come with me and look for Father's hard drugs?"
"O... kay," she said sounding uncertain.
"Don't worry," Ed grinned as he took her hand, "we'll be back before you know it."
There was another puff of smoke and both Ed and Rose disappeared. There was a gasp from the audience especially when, on the screens, appeared the image of a huge warehouse filled with rows and rows of white bricks. Ed took the GoPro from his shirt and turned it so that the audience could see him and Rose; him grinning like a cat who had got the cream and Rose looking very confused.
"Oh my god!" she said, her voice sounding slightly tinny through the camera.
"Now," Ed said picking up one of the bags with his other hand and holding it out to Rose, "in your professional opinion what would you say the street value of this whole warehouse would be?"
"I'd say we're looking in the region of about three billion," Rose said, "but depending on where it's from it might be higher."
"Can you hold this for me please?" Ed asked and handed Rose the GoPro. She turned it so that he lit up the screen and the audience saw him carefully open the bag he was holding and dip his finger into white powder before sucking it off. "Damn! And that's good stuff," he said dipping his finger in again, this time rubbing it around his gums to really let it take effect.
"Alright Brother, you've had your fun," Al laughed.
"Fine," Ed replied. He took the Go Pro from Rose and handed her the bag of cocaine. There was another puff of smoke and they both appeared back on the stage, Rose still holding the cocaine and looking terrified. "Let's give it up for Rose!" Ed said and the crowd erupted into applause. Ed took the back of cocaine from her. "Although we'd better keep that, they'll want to impound it as evidence."
"Now obviously we can't do anything with these weapons of mass destruction," Mustang said as Rose left the stage, "but what about getting inside Father's bank vault?" There was a cheer from the audience. "Thought you'd like that."
"Now under your seats one of you will have a gold envelope," Izumi said, "if you do can you hold it up please." The audience all scrambled to look under their seats before a man near the back held a gold envelope up. "Okay, come on down."
The man, a tall guy from Ishval with huge muttonchops and glasses, made his way down to the stage and was helped up by Al. He handed the envelope to Izumi and she handed him a microphone.
"What's your name fella?" she asked.
"Miles," he replied.
"Okay Miles can you please open the envelope and show us all what's inside it," Izumi told him, handing it back to him. Miles opened the envelope.
"It's four numbers and a King of Diamonds," he said.
"Okay, can you sign the card," Izumi told him handing him a pen. Miles signed the card and as soon as he was done Mustang took it from him.
"I'll take that," he said. He flicked the card and it disappeared.
"And if you can read out the number on the card please Miles," Izumi asked.
"0310," Miles said.
"And that, I believe just let us into Father's bank vault," Mustang said.
"But don't take our word for it," Al said fitting another GoPro to Miles' collar, "why don't you take a look for yourself." He clapped his hands and Miles disappeared in a puff of smoke. The screens lit up again with an image of the inside of a bank vault.
"Miles can you hear us?" Izumi asked.
"Yeah," Miles said, his voice tinny over the camera's microphone.
"Now on that huge pile of money in front of you there should be a card," Mustang said, "can you tell us what is on that card?"
Miles went over and picked up the card, the camera showed an image of the King of Diamonds with his signature on it.
"Well I'll be," he said. "It's the card that I signed."
"See," Al said, "it's men like Father who think that they can just take what they want regardless of who they hurt. So it's high time we take something back from him. Miles do you see the huge red button next to you?"
"Yes," Miles said.
"If you want to give that a press and you'll be back here," Al said. Miles pressed the button and in a puff of smoke he reappeared on the stage.
"But that wasn't the only thing that button brought back here," Izumi said.
"We thought it was high time Father gave something back to you all," Hoenheim said.
Suddenly money began to rain down from the ceiling. Members of the audience began to scrabble around to catch as much of it as they could, 'The Brotherhood' standing on stage enjoying the chaos they had created. In the commotion Winry looked up at the box and saw Father trying to get away. She pulled her radio out of her pocket and clicked it on.
"Kian stay on Yven, don't let him get away," she told him. "If any of the others are here bag them as well, I'm going after Father."
"Okay roger that," Kian said. "I'm sending a few your way."
Winry put her radio back in her pocket, pushing her way through the crowd to get to the back stairs that lead up to the box. She ran up the stairs, ignoring the other agents flagging her as she did until a door opened in front of her and Father emerged. He lunged for her but Breada and another huge agent with a thin black rat-tail, who was usually on Olivier's team caught him and forced him into submission.
"Iesama Williams,"she said as she slapped a pair of handcuffs on him, "you are under arrest for a number of crimes, the most significant being an entire warehouse filled with imported cocaine. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. With this in mind, do you wish to speak to me?"
"I'll see you hang for this," Father snarled.
"I'd like to see you try," Winry replied and tightened the handcuffs.