Nightmare Update
Kiefer Sullivan was nervous as he went down into the cave. “Tristan, I don’t like it here,” he said to his older brother who was several steps ahead of him with his friend Peter.
“Be a man,” Tristan called back. “It’s just a cave, but I heard there’s a whole city down here once you get to the end.”
“And I heard there’s a monster that lives down here who likes to eat little boys.”
“Tristan…” Kiefer said, voice as shaky as he felt.
They could hear noise now, the loud sound of something crying out. “Lust…”
Tristan stopped where he was. “Let’s go back,” he said.
“We’re not going back,” Peter said. “Someone’s gotten there ahead of us and is trying to scare us.”
“Brother… Anton…” the voice said. “Hate… Want Lust….”
Kiefer only moved onward by the force of his older brother’s hand on his shirt. They looked up at one another, and the young boy saw a look of fear on his brother’s face.
“We need to arrest him now,” Olivier told the generals who surrounded the table. “The man was involved in one of the worst scandals of recent years.”
“He was following orders,” one general said. “Under those same rules, you would have us arrest Roy Mustang or your own brother. With more about Ishbal out in the open, their actions will come under question.”
“But Laboratory Five wasn’t an official military action. It was a secret lab created by the fuhrer…”
“Who was the leader of this country at one time.” An elderly general stood and looked at her. “The country is making a drastic shift from what it once was, but there were good people who got caught up in the mix.”
“And are any of you prepared to defend de Havilland as being good?” She snapped.
“Are you prepared to have to defend your brother as not being wrong?” another said.
“We do not have the evidence necessary to prove he did anything other than follow orders at Laboratory Five. If we find out that he performed any acts that so go against humanity that even under great duress the average person would not do them, then we can do something about it.”
Olivier was furious, not just because what she’d wanted to happen hadn’t, but because she knew they were right. The military was working to set itself apart from the old administration and just going after the head of JAG without just cause. She had seen his record, aside from the fact that he took the cases that no one else in his department wanted to deal with and a memo that showed he knew about Lab 5. There was nothing more than a few sentences assuring the fuhrer that guards would be posted at the lab.
The man’s record, even the darker spots, only showed him to be someone who had the fuhrer’s confidence. He was someone who was trusted, but they couldn’t prove him to be the monster that the Major General suspected he was.
“Hey, Ed,” Roy said, bringing in a basket of sweets. “Seeing as you aren’t a prisoner here, it looks as though you can receive gifts from your adoring public.” He set the basket on Ed’s lap. “I didn’t look to see who it was from, but the soldiers outside said they already checked it for anything dangerous. I think they might have gotten away with one or two bites as well.
“Who is it from?” Ed asked.
“Read the card,” Roy said with a chuckle as he ran his hand through Ed’s hair. Ed didn’t know why, but he’d found that he liked when Roy touched him, looked at him… kissed him. They had done that twice since the first time, and Ed had to admit Roy was good. Not once did Roy do more than that, and for that, the teen was grateful. He wasn’t ready yet to face anything beyond the light kisses and gentle touches.
It was strange for Ed, because the thought of touching others or vice versa still took effort and willpower to manage. But with Roy, as long as he didn’t surprise the teen, the touches were welcomed, even craved.
“Izumi and Sig Curtis,” Ed read with a smile. “I thought maybe they had forgotten about me.” The smile faltered, but as he read the note on the back, his teacher railed about how the military wouldn’t let her visit because she wasn’t an approved guest. The smile returned.
“No one has forgotten about you,” Roy said. “Apparently, Falman and Fuery have been placed on fanmail duty. We’ve all been getting them, but you more than anyone else. People are grateful you’re well and there have even been a few marriage proposals in there.”
“Not interested,” Ed said, beginning to rip through the basket. “Anything in here that you like?”
Roy grabbed a candy bar. “This will do.”
Ed smiled at him. “Be glad that isn’t one of my favorites.”
“Hey, you offered,” Roy said as he took a seat at the end of Ed’s bed. “How’s the leg feeling?” He began unwrapping the chocolate bar.
“Better,” Ed said. “Auntie Pinako thinks I can have the leg attached tomorrow. That will be a relief. Just to get it over and done with. Then maybe once my left arm’s strong enough I can manage some crutches.”
Ed knew as well as Roy did that he wasn’t likely to get to use them, but it was easier to pretend that he might.
He looked through the basket full of candy and sweets. “I can’t believe teacher would send me something like this.” He really was surprised at the amount of junk food that was in the basket from the woman. She was too much of a mother to him to give him so many things that had no nutritional value. Did she simply do it out of pity? Did she feel sorry for him?
“The military won’t let anything be brought in that isn’t already wrapped because you’re being housed with the rest of us, and we’re still criminals of the state.
“Oh.” Ed looked up at Roy curiously. He’d all but read the teen’s mind.
He found a piece of cinnamon candy and popped it in his mouth after removing it from its plastic wrapper.
The older man began tearing open his own candy bar. “There’s talk they’ll drop the charges against your brother,” Roy said, taking a bite of the chocolate and trying to prevent any of the peanuts inside from falling down his shirt. “Hohenheim apparently has some friends and managed to pull a few strings to Al.”
“How?” Ed asked. “Isn’t that lawyer de Havilland trying his case as well?”
“He is,” Roy said. “But thanks to some well-placed articles in the paper, your brother is now viewed as a hero. So am I, as a matter of fact, but no rumors are out yet that anyone has any intention of releasing me.”
“They should,” Ed said. “You’re a hero.”
Roy just shook his head as he chewed a bit more of his candy bar. It was a common stumbling point for them both. Ed felt that Roy deserved recognition for everything he’d done. For saving him. He’d talked to the older man enough to know that he was still trying to redeem himself from Ishbal and none of Ed’s arguments would convince him that he’d long since done that.
Then, a thought struck Ed, one that he wasn’t pleased to realize. “What happens if Al’s released?”
“He’s a free man,” Roy said with a tight-lipped smile. Ed knew that look. It was Roy’s attempt to be reassuring when there was much more going on that he just didn’t want anyone to know.
“And…” Ed said, expectantly.
“And, you will both likely be removed from the house if he is.”
“They can’t,” Ed said, eyes searching Roy’s face.
“They will, Ed. Al is your brother and they will not be able to justify you both staying here when you aren’t being charged with anything. And even if you get to stay, Riza and I will be thrown into jail, I’m sure.” Ed opened his mouth to protest that suggestion. “Not necessarily permanently, but they would treat us more like a normal prisoner. It was only because of my health condition at the time that they let me stay here. You were an easy excuse to keep me here rather than trying to put me in jail where I may have died from my injuries.”
“But… I don’t want to go. I don’t want you to go,” Ed said.
“I know,” Roy said. “But you’ll have your brother and your father with you. And I’ll only be in jail a short time.”
“If you don’t end up killed in the process. Since they’re filling the prison with the fuhrer’s supporters, I wouldn’t think you’d be very popular there.”
Roy smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes and it was in no way as comforting as he obviously intended it to be. “I will be fine.”
“Do you have any comment, Captain de Havilland, on the Elric, Mustang and Hawkeye cases?” “Are rumors true that you plan to drop all charges in the case of Alphonse Elric?” “What is the Philosopher’s Stone and why was it a crime for Mr. Elric to use it?” “Are claims true that Brigadier General Mustang saved Major Elric from imprisonment at the fuhrer’s hands and repeated assaults on his person?” “Was Lieutenant Colonel Archer really out of his mind by the end of his life due to extensive and painful automail surgeries?”
Anton finally turned on the reporters, the expression on his face cold and calculating. “There are all ongoing cases. I cannot comment on any of them. So, regardless of what you ask or how you ask it, it would go against my license as a lawyer to speak of any of them.”
He turned on his heel and headed up the steps to the JAG office. The reporters were turning on him, and it wouldn’t be long before they found out his own history. Anton was well aware that he was living on borrowed time.
“Messerschmitt has been arrested,” he was told the moment he entered the door to his office.
“I’m honestly surprised it took them so long,” he said, voice calm. “Lieutenant, I’ll need someone to sign some changes in my estate, my will. With the number of people who are finding themselves incarcerated or who died in the battle a few months ago, I find a reordering of my priorities is necessary.”
“Yes, sir,” the young woman said. “Are you certain you want me to do it, Captain?”
“Absolutely.” The woman, who was probably around twenty-eight was a good lawyer, the type that would never have made it under the old administration. One that Anton was sure would do well under this new one.
Riza was going stir-crazy in the house. She needed out, with fresh air and other company. She didn’t know how either of the Elric brothers could stand it. But then again, Ed wasn’t quite the same as she’d known him before, and he had Roy. She smiled at that. The two hadn’t outright been caught, but the smiles on both of their faces showed more than enough that something had taken place to make them both inordinately happy. She was glad for them.
She and Alphonse were a different story. He was an attractive young man, but he was so young. He would do better with someone closer to his own age. He’d realize this if he was out amongst the rest of the world and Riza herself would feel less torn if she wasn’t facing him day in, day out.
He was a wonderful young man and there were so many redeeming qualities that he possessed. She couldn’t deny that there were plenty of reasons to have an attraction for him, but also doubted that given different circumstances she’d feel the same.
So lost in her thoughts, Riza was, that she was actually startled when she felt a warm hand lightly wrapping itself around her wrist.
“Riza?”
She looked up into the face of the very man she had been thinking about. “You looked lost in thought, and the water’s running.”
“Oh,” she said, immediately going to turn off the water.
“You know, I think my father may be working overtime to redeem himself,” Al said as he leaned against the counter. “All the newspapers are reporting are stories of how we all saved Amestris and that keeping us locked in this house is cruel and unusual punishment for such an act.”
“There’s talk they’ll release you,” Riza said.
“I know,” he said with a frown.
“You can’t tell me you’re enjoying being cooped up here like this.”
“It has its benefits.” Al smiled at her, pushing back some of his brown hair from his face. “And if Brother and I are gone, then I have a lot more to worry about with you and Roy in jail.”
Resolving herself, Riza looked over at the young man. “Alphonse,” she said. “We have been stuck in this house for weeks. And, I think that you need a chance to explore the world and yourself that you simply won’t find here. I know how you feel about me, and I know that currently, I find myself confused. I want time when we both know we have other options to see if this,” She gestured between them. “is really worth anything.”
“So that’s not a rejection, but a wait and see?” Al asked.
She nodded, grateful that the younger brother was more understanding than the elder. “Think of it for both of our peace of mind. Wouldn’t it be better to know we chose one another because that was how it was meant to be rather than because that was what was convenient?”
Al smiled faintly and nodded. “Would you mind if I at least kissed you again? As a reminder?”
“No, you can’t,” Riza said, ignoring the somewhat abashed look on his face just before she put her hand on his neck and pulled him down to her height so she could kiss him. He responded tentatively before she ended it.
Hohenheim was discussing another form of media work that they could do to change the public’s opinion of his son as well as Roy and Riza. Heymans had doubted him at first, but it was obvious that the man’s years of experience taught him more than just alchemy.
“So, do you think we could try to find some evidence on Lab 5?” Heymans suggested.
“I think a smear campaign on de Havilland should be a last resort,” Hohenheim said. “At least at the moment. Men who have nothing left to lose become desperate, and we’ve already seen that he seems to have a grudge against my sons.”
Heymans nodded, remembering how Anton had reacted a few days back. He couldn’t prosecute Ed and knew it was a losing battle with Al, but somehow, there was a need to hurt them both, and Mustang especially.
“We already suspect he performed the human transmutation to create Gluttony,” Hohenheim said.
“But that landed him as the fuhrer’s unseen right-hand man,” Heymans added.
“Did it?” Hohenheim asked. “The young man that Winry said they describe in Rush Valley is not the same one that the people here describe. Perhaps de Havilland had no option.” Hohenheim looked into the window of a book store, one that carried alchemy books. “Do you mind if we go in here?”
Heymans shook his head, expecting that the books were going to be for Ed. Hohenheim had gone back and forth over whether to get something for his eldest son and what it should be for days. The man obviously feared that any contact he might have could damage Ed.
“Someone can appear to be the closest confidant but in fact be their most captive prisoner,” Hohenheim said as he browsed through some of the titles. “And if that is true, I can guess at why he’d have some resentment toward them all.”
The lieutenant had never considered before that what Anton had done in the past had been anything but his own choice. If Hohenheim was right, he had to approach things with the older lawyer in a totally different manner.
The two men walked through the store and Heymans was glad to see that Hohenheim was finally making a purchase of some kind for his son. The lieutenant left the store to wait on the sidewalk and had been there only a minute before he heard screaming coming from what seemed like below the streets.
He searched for the source and found two boys yelling at the top of their lungs for help.
“It’s going to get us!” the youngest one yelled as the eldest just looked like he was struggling to stay coherent. Heymans suspected he was injured.
“Hohenheim!” Breda yelled as he struggled to get the grate off of the drain. The older man ran from the store and used the alchemy that only those who performed human transmutation could do. With the grate now cleared, thanks to Hohenheim, Breda lowered his arms into the sewer to lift the youngest boy out.
“Tristan’s been hurt, and Peter, that thing ate him…” the young boy, only about eight or nine, said.
“What ate him?” Heymans asked as Hohenheim used alchemy to get the elder boy, who looked about twelve, from the sewer.
“This big thing. Had three heads. The heads looked like bald human heads. It was big and scary.”
“Let’s get this boy to the doctor,” Hohenheim said as he pulled the boy out finally. “He’s lost his hand.”
“It ate it,” the little boy said. “He hasn’t talked since. Another boy saved us. If he hadn’t…” The young boy shuddered.
The two men exchanged looks. “The blood flow was stopped by crude alchemy,” Hohenheim said. “But we still need to get him to a doctor. Now.”
“He’s killed a little boy,” Wrath said. He looked at the lawyer. “Doesn’t that bother you? He killed a boy. He’s your responsibility.”
“The way he is now is Dante’s fault. I created him, but not to be like this. Not even to be like he was, but at least then he was manageable,” Anton said, pacing around the room.
“Now that Gluttony knows he’s got a new food source, how long do you think it’s going to be before he tries to come up here? He’s been eating rocks and cement for weeks now. He’s huge, but not as big as he’s going to get, and when he does… No one’s going to be able to stop him. Except maybe you, and you aren’t doing anything about him.”
The boy eyed the other man with anger, anger at all of the ones who made the others like him. He was angry at his creator, at Ed for creating and then destroying his mother, at Dante for how she manipulated them all, at Hohenheim for creating the thing that made Wrath realize the difference between full homunculi strength and the draining he was feeling now as his powers diminished, and now at Anton for not doing something about his own creation.
“They’re going to send down troops. Plenty of food for Gluttony, and they won’t know how to stop him. But you won’t go along, will you?”
“I’ll keep them from sending anyone down. You just keep doing your patrols. You’ve said yourself that he’s all but mindless in this form. He’ll forget and go back to eating the rock and mortar.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Wrath said as he stood again in the open window. “And you’re an idiot if you think he’s going to forget the one thing that drives him on, his hunger.”
“I told you I won’t let anything happen. I meant that.” The lawyer approached Wrath and slammed the window shut on the other side of the boy.