(Photo above does not belong to me!!)
Chapter 14 - The 5th Laboratory
"If what it says in the documents is true, then the raw materials to create a Philosopher's stone are living humans," Edward explains through pants of anger and gritted teeth. "And it takes millions of lives just to make one stone..." His hand clenches tighter onto his jaw in aggravation.
The Second Lieutenant and Sergeant begin to yap away in annoyance at how this could be let to happen under the military's watch. But I don't care about what they say, all I care about is staying out of something I have gotten myself almost too into to get back out again. To protect my remaining family and the friends I have found again, I must not dive too deep into the depths of the military. At least, not any further than I already have. As much as I want to - need to - I shouldn't. But, regardless of my wishes, I know that wherever the Elric brothers go, I must follow so to fulfil my duties as their guard. The only option then would be to leave my siblings behind.
"Can you please not tell anyone about this?" Edward pleads the adults. He's still squatted and slouched over on the floor with the research notes scattered around him like the rest of us in the room. As the two soldiers start to protest the boy cuts them off as he continues. "Please act like you never heard this."
They don't protest anymore. Instead, they stand up in silence and proceed to remove themselves from the room. A small click as they close the door tells that the lock has been turned, and we can be safe in the silence we hold.
I stand up and walk over to the small couch in the room. "It seems God really does hate us." I snarl. "Every time we get close to finding a way to get your bodies back, it seems to slip away as soon as we have it in reach."
Marcus coughs quietly from the perch I placed him in on the table. "I've been observing the notes while you have been deciphering them, I can examine them further to see if anything has been left out. All of it has been stored in my memory banks - my pages - so it will be possible."
"There's no point," Edward grumbles as he proceeds to lay himself across the couch as I lean against it on the floor. "We poured over them for days. You won't find anything new."
"Edward's right Marcus. There's nothing left to find." I say, the monotonous tunes back in my voice.
"What do we do now?" Jacky stammers quietly.
"There's nothing to do, Jacky. We've hit a dead end. This time, there's no getting around it." I pull myself off of the ground and straighten my cloak. I sigh indignantly and pull my sister out of my earlobe. "I'm going to take a shower. Maybe mull things over in hot water. I suggest while I'm gone you four do something productive, rather than grieve in this pitiful silence." I wave over my shoulder as I walk away.
The bathroom is only a room or two down from where we are in the apartment, so it doesn't take long for me to get there. I enter the small room and immediately head for the shower. I turn the taps and watch as the dripping water turns into a constant gushing, the heat of it making vapour rise and fog up the room. I take off my coat and black attire and fold them neatly on the toilet seat lid, my pocket watch resting gently on top. I step into the shower cautiously to test the temperature. When I decide that it's hot enough, I step in wholly, letting the water wash down my body and through my unkempt hair.
-
It's easy to lose track of time when you're enjoying a peaceful and relaxing shower. I lose track of time so much so that I don't even realise that the hot water has almost run out. I sigh dejectedly as I turn off the taps and see the water dissipate into a small drizzle, then to nothing.
The water had been so loud that I hadn't heard the steadily growing commotion outside, that is until I hear the door break down in the main room.
I hurriedly grab my towel and sling it around my body. I rush out of the bathroom and through the chilly apartment. I reach the main room where the boys are, now ready to attack anyone who has come. But to my displeasure the Major stands at the door with its handle in his hand, being completely detached from the frame. Sergeant Brosh and Second Lieutenant Ross stand in the background with tired and scared looks on their faces. The Elric brothers are cowering behind the couch in tears, scared half to death by the muscled man before them.
"What a tragedy!" Armstrong announces, sparkles encircling his head and tears streaking down his face. "To think that the Philosopher's stone would hide that horrible a secret!"
I lean against the side hall entrance as I watch the Major go on about the tragedy, amused slightly by the looks on the other officers' faces. When I move to a comfortable position, I feel my hair stick to my shoulders, and I shiver slightly at the cold, watery touch. I adjust the towel on me and cross my arms over my chest.
"It is a situation if this hell-like research was committed by an organisation under the military. I cannot do nothing and allow this to pass!"
In a matter of seconds, Edward is towering over the two, not very innocent officers, looking at them with one of the creepiest face known to man as they stammer their apologies.
"I'm s-s-sorry..." Ross stutters as she backs away slowly into Brosh.
"When a guy that annoying got that close, we had to talk..."
I lift myself from the wall and entangle a finger in my hair in boredom. I walk over to the small huddled group as I secure the towel around myself with my auto-mail arm. As Edward hears me coming over, he stops glaring the two adults down and turns to me. His eyes widen at first glance, and he gives me a quick once over, before becoming a strawberry and a stuttering mess.
"E-E-Elleah! W-what are y-y-you doing?!"
At his yelling, the rest of the group turns to look at me. I see Brosh hold his nose and abruptly turn away, Ross looks at me with shock, Armstrong still has tears down his face but looks away politely, and Alphonse just begins to stutter with his brother. I swear I even hear Marcus chuckling quietly from the table.
I give my brother a small glare before addressing the group. "I heard the door break down. I thought something happened." I say, glaring swiftly at the Major who still has his head turned. "What would you expect me to do, stay in there and risk you guys getting hurt? I don't think so. I'm a State Alchemist and your bodyguard for the time being."
"R-right." Edward stammers.
"So, Ed... you have an auto-mail arm as well as Elleah, huh?" Brush asks after wiping his nose clean, changing the subject to the best of his ability. When the comment is made, the brothers look at each other nervously as they make up an excuse.
"Oh, er... during the East area civil, there was a little..." Edward trails off.
"Yes, yes, and we needed the philosopher's stone to restore his body." Alphonse finishes up as he indicates his brother's arm.
"Oh, I see..." Brosh sighs. "It's too bad it had to turn out this way."
In the back of their conversation, Armstrong stands with his hand cupping his chin, the other supporting the elbow connected. Tears are streaming down his face like the past few minutes, and his sparkles still shimmer around his head. He sniffs before speaking in his low, rumbling voice. "Sometimes the truth can be cruel..."
At that very comment, both Edward's and my heads perk up. A sudden realisation comes to mind, and I look to the pipsqueak in the baggy, black singlet.
"The truth..." Edward mutters as he holds his chin.
Alphonse hears his brother and turns to him. "What's wrong, brother?"
"Do you remember what Mr Marcoh said?" The brother asks quietly. Alphonse tilts his helmeted head to one side in confusion. "Come on, what he said at the station."
It's my turn to step forward to remind the youngest Elric. "The truth behind the truth..." I quote. I turn to Edward with a straight face. "You get it, don't you... There's still something else."
Edward nods his head curtly to my statement. "Yeah, something..."
"Well, while you are having fun figuring that out, I'm going to go get changed," I say over my shoulder as I walk away, my hair sticking to my back and moving with the motion of my hips.
"Y-yeah." Edward stutters as he keeps his eyes off of me.
-
When I return to the room the group has now moved to, Edward leans over a large map of Central resting on the table, now entirely dressed again. Armstrong, Ross and Brosh are opposite him on the other side of the table, examining files, while Alphonse stands to Edward's left at the long end of the table.
"This one is the most suspicious." The Major exclaims as he points to a laboratory on the map.
"Yeah..." Edward mumbles. "I passed through all of them after I got my national licence, this one didn't look like they were doing research that was all that important, though..."
I waltz over to the huddle of people and lean over Edward's shoulder, pushing on his auto-mail arm slightly as I place my finger on the abandoned laboratory in Central. "What about there?" I question. "It used to be the 5th research institute. Due to the danger of collapse, entry is prohibited, and it is now an abandoned institution." I lean back from over Edward's shoulder and address the group. "I've been passed there a few times in my State Alchemist career. Every time I go past, something seems off about it."
"Its this one.." Edward concludes. "There's a prison right beside it. Giving them an endless supply of raw materials... It's like a shopping centre full of human lives." He grits his teeth at the thought. "Now that I think about it, executed death-row inmates don't have their remains delivered back to their families. They're told they're going to be put to death, while secretly they are transferred to the laboratory. From there they're used for experiments for the Philosopher's stone."
"It is suspicious that the closest facility to the prison is the research institute." Al remarks.
"The inmates are raw materials..." Ross' teeth chitter as she speaks, an expression of horror and depression dawning her features.
"Don't give me that look," Ed complains. "Just explaining it makes me sick."
"Considering that this is a prison, I wonder if this means the government has a little involvement in it," Brosh states, a hand pressed against his chin. "We don't know if the ones involved are Warden level or government level."
"Somehow I think we poked our necks in too far into something too big..." Ross and Brosh say together, both wearing pitiful expressions.
"That's why we told you to act like you didn't hear anything," Alphonse exclaims with slight frustration. I sigh solemnly and lean up against the wall, the one behind the Major and two lower-ranking officers.
"However, that is ultimately speculation at present." The Major declares. "The nation may have no connection to this. This research organisation may have acted independently."
Edward and Alphonse nod in agreement before the youngest brother speaks. "Who's in charge of the research organisation?"
"That would be the 'Iron-blooded Alchemist', Brigadier General Basque Gran."
"Well, then we'll try talking to this Brigadier General Gran and-" Edward begins before being cut off by Armstrong.
"You cannot." He states sternly as his face moulds to one of anger. "He was murdered by Scar the other day."
My eyes widen slightly as I stare off into space. I can't wrap my head around why this Scar person would go around killing all these high ranked officers. It might be because they know about the truth. But then it comes back to something he mentioned about getting rid of all Alchemists when we fought him. It had something along the lines of him fulfilling God's will.
By the time I regain my conscious mind and focus in on the other conversation in the room, the Major is holding the rolled up map under his arm, yelling at the Elric brother as they protest about being told to stay put.
"You were thinking of sneaking inside and investigating, were you not?!" He yells as he points at the map in his clutches. His face then darkens with shadows cast over it, a few popped vanes dotting his forehead as he stares down the helpless siblings. "You may not! Even if there may be a way to restore your bodies at that place, a child should not do such dangerous things!!"
Edward waves his hand protectively in front of himself. "I get it, I get it!!" He panics before regaining composure. "We won't do anything dangerous like that."
"We'll just wait for what the Major has to report." Alphonse steps in to back up his brother, a fist clenched in front of his chest plate in determination.
'Why do I get the feeling they're still going to leave after all the Major's threats?' I think with a grumble or two. 'But no matter, I must follow where they lead. That is my job after all - even if I reject the idea of such a location to search'.
With a stone face, the Major mulls over the boys' response. "Very well. And, Elleah." The man now addresses me with his words. "The Colonel told me to inform you that he wants his ignition glove back that you stole several weeks ago."
I slide a hand into my pocket and grip the glove protectively. "Of course, Major. I will see to it immediately." I state, the lie unnoticeable through my monotone voice.
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You guys and gals don't know how much I loved writing this one. Especially with the few extra things I added in... hehehe.
Don't forget to vote, comment and follow me for more chapters. So, until next time my storybook friends, bye~