He Who Searches for Himself - Chapter 36
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All things considered, Ed's birthday had started out okay, yet somehow the day ended up with Winry at a piano with Albrecht Haushofer and his younger brother Heinz, and Ed upstairs in the spare room being poked and prodded by the doctor Rudolf Hess had shown up at the Haushofer house with. Ed had just assumed that when the Haushofers found out about his injuries, they would have postponed the idea of a birthday dinner - no such luck. Though it wasn't so much a dinner at this point, it was more like a kidnapping.
Professor Haushofer stood guard on the room, making sure Ed obeyed the instructions of the doctor, and signalling for his wife when Ed was less than cooperative about a physical examination. Ed had no problem arguing with the men in the room, but Mrs. Haushofer would show up with a ladle in hand and Ed's protests would turn to moderate pleas. Mrs. Haushofer seemed quite certain she wouldn't lose an argument to this blonde young man, and sure enough, she never did.
A pen scratched down on a sheet of paper, and the plump old doctor - a former medical instructor from the university - glanced up to eye Ed from above the rims of his glasses. The pen scratched a little more, "What time did you wake up and get out of bed this morning?"
Ed adjusted the neckline of his undershirt after he'd slipped it back on over his head, "Woke up at eight-ish, got up sometime around eleven."
"What time did you go to bed last night?"
"I lay down at about seven thirty," Ed snatched up the red dress shirt given to him at Christmas, "don't know what time I fell asleep."
"And how are you feeling now?" the doctor tapped his pen on his sheet.
"Tired," Ed grumbled. It felt like his mind was trudging through waist deep mud and he'd been doing it all day; the frustration continued to grow.
"Why don't you spend the night, Edward?" Professor Haushofer watched Ed react warily to the suggestion, "my wife'll give you a nice, relaxing evening, the family will entertain Winry, and you can recuperate."
"No," Ed swatted away the 'helpful' hand of the doctor reaching forward to assist Ed with re-buttoning his shirt, "no thank you Professor."
"You really should, Edward," Hess added to the professor's plea.
Ed let the intrigued doctor watch him masterfully finish doing up his own shirt buttons one-handed without a second thought, "No, I'm sorry. Thanks for dinner, but I'd rather stay home."
Hess's arms refolded, his frown worsening and chin dimpling, "Edward, you were lucky to come out of your encounter the way you did."
It took a vast amount of the strength Edward had to refrain from pointing a finger at Hess and accusing his political cohorts of being the ones who'd attacked him.
"If someone is after you and Winry, shouldn't you want to stay somewhere safe?" the professor continued, "After your father, and now this, what if you're attacked in your home while you're so ragged?"
Ed gave a tug to his shirt and stood up. He didn't know which irritated him more, the fear of a home invasion being used to goat him into agreeing to stay with the Haushofers, or the fact that Ed hadn't even considered the possibility that these people would have the balls to attack him in his own home. It suddenly became a real fear, and he really didn't like the incursion of unease.
A disastrous melody of piano key strikes intruded, followed by a loud chorus of giggles and laughter that echoed into the room from the floor below.
Ed's uniquely golden eyes shot back to the doctor, "Can I be excused for a moment?"
The doctor looked back with interest, "I suppose…"
With a lowered brow, Ed made his way wordlessly out of the room uncontested - but it felt as though every eye followed him on his way through the hall and down the stairs.
Ed caught a full view of the open sitting room of the Haushofer house from the stairwell rail. Ed's frown struck, and sharply worsened as he eyed Albrecht and Heinz flanking Winry on the piano stool fronting the oversized instrument. Both boys had saddled up tight, and the hand Albrecht had placed on Winry's back gave Ed's right eyebrow fits.
Ed made his way down the remainder of the stairs and into the core of the house. "What are you giggling at?" a question asked in English, but everyone turned to look at him.
Winry grinned brightly, looking childishly amused, "Albrecht and Heinz are showing me how to play… uh… this!" her finger pointed to the single sheet of music that entertained them.
"Ode to Joy," the younger Heinz shrugged, his English well enough to understand, but not enough to reply, "it's easy enough."
Ed could only shrug as Winry swung back to her playing task; he didn't know how to play. But Elric eyes abruptly narrowed, holding the older Haushofer brother in contempt of his physical involvement with Winry. Ed had expressly forbid such a thing on at least three different occasions, the only exception being the Christmas party because of dancing - when Ed had brought that issue up with his father, Hohenheim had abruptly told his son to grow up. The Christmas party was not, however, a life time exemption. To make matters worse, Albrecht knew Ed was giving him that look for that reason. Albrecht used his own dwelling as a safety net; he smiled quaintly at Ed, snuggled an arm around Winry's back, locked his hand onto her shoulder, and returned to involving himself with Winry's hands to educate her in the piano.
If Ed had any desire to stay at the Haushofer house, it instantly became less.
Ed's hand slipped into his pants pocket, his chin sinking into his shirt collar, and he watched Albrecht guide Winry around on the ivory keys.
Son of a bitch; Ed wanted to pull his own hair out. The Elric could feel his ability to peacefully co-exist with the inhabitants of the entire planet run on empty. Ed felt like a five-year-old in need of throwing a really good tantrum to feel better, except he didn't have the energy to put into it. It was a struggle just to keep his mouth shut… he was a guest in this house after all, he had to keep some dignity about him.
Footsteps were heard coming down the stairs and Ed looked back to see Professor Haushofer making his way down. Hess was already standing on the stairs, three quarters of the way down, eyeing the room.
Drying her hands off with a dishtowel, Mrs. Haushofer made her way into the room. She applauded her husband and the other men from the upper floor for having enough sense to know when to come down. Dinner was almost ready and they should be seated. She smiled at Ed and patted him on his un-bruised cheek. Much to Ed's delight, she also swatted Albrecht's arm off of Winry, telling him to show more respect, and then took him by the ear into the kitchen to set the table. Professor Haushofer gave a pat to Ed's shoulder as he passed, and then took the escort mission - leading Winry into the kitchen. Ed moved to join the procession, but Hess stopped the Elric from following. Ed glanced back.
"I think you should take Karl up on his offer."
Ed took one of his deeper breaths of the day and sighed, scratching his fingers through his face.
Hess's words strengthened, "Look, if you're worried about Winry, don't let jealousy over Albrecht mar that-"
"Woah, who's jealous?" Ed stopped the conversation.
Hess blinked, "You're jealous."
"I am no-" Ed had to lower his voice, "I am not jealous over Albrecht for anything."
Again Hess blinked, his words coming out flat, "Edward, apparently you need to be told you're jealous, so I'm telling you, you are jealous."
"No," an unfathomable amount of frustration circulated through Edward's veins. He was one thin thread away from punching something. Perhaps if he weren't so wound up, Ed might have managed to sound a little more composed, "Why does nobody listen to me? Winry's not one of the social club girls that Albrecht can just pick up and cozy up with whenever it's convenient for him!" Which wasn't exactly what had been going on, but that wasn't the point.
The proclamation managed to break the blank look Hess had worn on his face, and the man began to laugh, "Every young lady needs a knight in shining armour, it seems," a hand fell heavily onto Ed's shoulder, "fine, have it your way, but whatever threat you view Albrecht as, weight that against your ability to take care of her right now. You're out of sorts and you know it."
Ed's hand rubbed over his face. What a mess. Both Karl Haushofer and Rudolf Hess were members of this manic Nazi party, and it was this party's goon squad that had attacked him. Neither of these men knew, and now they were trying to shelter Ed and Winry from their own superior's wrath. These people had no idea what insanity was brewing above their heads and Edward wasn't in any position to tell them… and even if he tried, they wouldn't believe him. He'd probably get shot for defaming Adolf Hitler. To make matters worse, Envy was out there somewhere. Ed's motivation to get the measurements from the Thule Hall - like he'd planned to do the night his father had died - and leave town came back to him in a flood.
But Hess was right, and Ed wasn't able to hide it; he was lugging this awful feeling around like a ball and chain and it was exhausting. The Haushofers could keep them for one night.
Izumi acknowledged that she had a similar behavioural problem than Edward Elric did - she had instances where she would act on instinct first and consider the ramifications of her actions at a later point. Or just simply not care about the consequences of her actions… that happened once in a while. But Izumi thought of herself as being someone of good judgement and wisdom, so for this exercise she would display her ability for stealth; a task far harder than going in with alchemy blazing. With Dante around, Izumi didn't want to engage her without knowing more.
So the teacher found an excellent perch for herself in a broken down ventilation shaft overlooking things from the corner of the prime minister's office. She even had a little ledge for the coffee she'd gotten from the tax department's lunch room. Izumi's strategy for finding the room Mitchell, Dante and company had been holed up in was sound - follow the flocks of people. People reported to people, who reported to people, who reported to the top eventually. Here she was - literally at the top of this room.
For the majority of time that Izumi had watched, little Dante sat perched on the centring desk either cross-legged or with feet dangling over the edge. She spent most of her time playing with her little red-gem necklace, and Izumi could guess what that stone was made out of. What a terrifying thought. It made any idea Izumi had of quick-use alchemy null and void. If that was either a Red Stone or a Philosopher's Stone fragment, her alchemy would be disastrous - Izumi could compensate her actions and alchemy if it was a Red Stone, so she could work intuitively against it, but a Philosopher's Stone fragment was beyond what she knew how to handle. Since Izumi had no idea which one it was, it was best not to use alchemy at all.
Beyond the terrifying little demon's shiny toy was the frightening display of control she had over the room with four men in suits and ties, and of the Prime Minister especially. The ancient alchemist didn't do much; in fact she barely involved herself with anyone at all. But she had sleight of hand and suggestive words that changed the course of action for all of them. For the discussion of the Drachma letter, Dante childishly voiced an opinionated comment of 'I think its fake' and every man in the room concurred with each other that yes, it was a fraudulent letter. None of them ever turned to Dante for her opinion, she simply voiced that particular thought and the thought became fact. It looked suspiciously like brainwashing, except that the men in the room with Mitchell behaved incredibly normal. Even the incorporation of Dante's lies seemed to flow smoothly. It was terrifyingly unnerving.
And then there was Aisa. Izumi had never paid much attention to Aisa at any point in the journeying, and the teacher figured she knew why: Aisa didn't do anything. She sat in place, or stood to the side, or did as she was instructed, but otherwise she did nothing. Izumi would have thought someone that potentially bored would have a book, or knitting, or something homey to keep herself occupied. As someone who was apparently designated to look after 'Nina', Aisa didn't do much by way of caretaking either. She simply existed, and did little more than that.
By mid afternoon Izumi had lost track of how many people had come and gone from the office. One of the only things she really kept note of was that there were few men beyond those who seemed highest in rank that appeared affected by Dante's selective wording. She only spoke with any effect when certain people were present. Beyond that, not a single military officer had entered the room all afternoon, which was odd considering the military personnel were predominantly being used to counter Mustang's advancements.
Oh, and she also had a counter going for how often Aisa fetched coffee. This was trip number four. It took Aisa fifteen minutes to go and come back from wherever she needed to go for the drinks, and Izumi would make sure to catch the woman early enough that she would not extend the fifteen minutes - she did not need Dante coming out.
Izumi slipped out of her hideout. Her observational patience had run out ages ago.
Coming down from an overhead panel in a private washroom, Izumi hopped to the floor. She took a peek out into the hall to confirm Aisa was on her way, and then waited behind the door as the nurse's footsteps passed, before she slipped out into the hall behind her.
"Haven't they had enough caffeine by now?" Izumi's low call came out, pulling the woman to a stand still, "a few of them seem a little wired."
Nina Mitchell's nurse turned, "Good afternoon, Izumi."
Izumi replied without a greeting, "Where's Alphonse?"
"Excuse me?" Aisa blinked, "if you wish to speak with Dante, she's just down the hall."
"No," Izumi shook her head, her arms folding crossly, "I'm here to talk to you. Where's Alphonse?"
"He's missing," was the blunt answer.
Izumi's thoughts stumbled over the two simple words, "Missing? How can he be missing?"
"Circumstances occurred that cause the misplacement of Alphonse," Aisa shrugged, her hands clasping in front of her.
"What a load of bull," Izumi snarled. With a flash of rage in her eyes, Izumi's hands flew out - she would get an answer out of this woman.
"Stop!" Aisa raised her hands, holding them out in front of her body cautiously.
Izumi's motion stopped, her shoulders loosening.
"We've never been properly introduced, so unless you're prepared, it's not safe to do that around me," Aisa's hands retreated, "I don't advise clapping your hands."
Well, that was one of the stranger statements Izumi had heard over the last while. Her dark eyes slipped from one side of the hall to the other, "Why not?
It took a few moments for some kind of answer to be brought forth for Izumi's question. Aisa had stood motionless for quite some time, looking as though she'd thought over the question more than once. The seemingly insignificant woman extended an arm, and a hand, for Izumi to take. The teacher looked back at the nurse like she'd lost her mind.
"Go on," Aisa encouraged without a tinge of emotion to her words.
Again, Izumi's gaze shot around the empty hall, before she did take the step forward and gripped down onto Aisa's wrist, watching as the woman let her hand fall limp. Izumi looked at Aisa's complete indifference and then her dark eyes dug into the cool skin of the wrist she held. Izumi felt the heat of her own heartbeat skyrocket. She re-gripped her hand again and again around the wrist and forearm, her fingers digging in or holding gently, until finally Izumi drove forwards, her left hand gripping the cooled flesh of this woman's throat. The alchemy teacher stood silent in the hall, her fingers again shifting and resettling on her skin.
With the thrust of both her arms, Izumi threw herself back from Aisa, taking a few uneasy, wary steps backwards, "What…?"
Aisa's hands re-clasped in front of herself, "The blood in my body was consumed and my veins emptied. I've been embalmed with Red Water and Red Stones to sustain my existence. I have no heartbeat and no pulse."
Izumi shook her head, like she hadn't been able to understand what had been said.
"So I'm asking that you do not perform any rash transmutations around me. There will be consequences if you do."
"What?" Izumi choked; that was absolutely ridiculous, "wha... did Dante do this to you?"
"Dante executed the procedure," Aisa nodded.
"WHY?" Izumi raged much louder than even she'd realized.
"Research," Aisa answered with a shrug to her shoulders, "and necessity. So, if you're not as skilled as Dante and you clap your hands, you could blow a crater in the side of this structure. Please be careful, Izumi."
Being lectured over due diligence and care by… by this woman was not something Izumi would even consider accepting. The teacher's words flew out, the rage in her voice hugged by concern, "What makes you so important that Dante would do this to you?"
Aisa remained static, without an answer.
Izumi's teeth clenched, "What about all this makes Wrath so afraid of you?"
"You should calm down, Izumi, before Dante hears you," Aisa offered the warning.
Izumi would have none of it. Bursting from her stance with her left shoulder down, Izumi barrelled down on Aisa, running her shoulder into the woman's chest and continuing her charge down the centre of the hall with the woman. The farther Aisa was away from her power structure of Dante, the less danger she posed. The further away Izumi was from Dante and her little red necklace, the safer they would be. If this woman's body - her flesh and bones - were being preserved and sustained by Red Stones, then every action Aisa took, every motion she made, depleted the stones further. And if this woman was truly sustained by Red Stones, she would be able to withstand a massive assault and recover from it, showing no signs of damage, wear, or tear.
The two exploded through the window at the end of the hall, Izumi throwing both herself and this woman off of the sixth floor and into the air. Izumi's hands flew out as the ground shot towards them; if it was Red Stones and Red Water she was contending with, she knew exactly how her alchemy needed to be controlled. Izumi crashed her palms down for a handclap intended to soften their fall and ensnare Aisa into the earth.
That didn't happen.
The simple act of clapping her hands had rebounded on Izumi with more force than she'd ever felt or known possible - even her own failed human transmutation hadn't backfired like this. The transmutation spark Izumi generated reacted so violently it exploded with a shock wave. Amidst the blinding reaction, Izumi lost her feeling of the world around her. There was no concept of up or down, left or right, depth, width, or height - she should have hit the ground long ago. Izumi thought it was one of the strangest sensations she'd ever experienced. The teacher never saw the surging torrent enter the space she was in, and Izumi felt her entire existence become swallowed by the black, filthy flood with an intolerable crush. The pressure devoured her and the overwhelming sensation pounding her body became unimaginable. She couldn't force herself to scream if she'd needed to.
But for a moment, and only a moment, the alchemy teacher knew everything.
And then it was gone.
"WAKE UP!" Alphonse gripped her shoulders.
Laying flat on her back, Izumi's eyes flew open, "What?"
"You're okay!" Alphonse squealed, flopping on top of his teacher and wrapping his arms around her neck.
"What?" Izumi looked around madly, feeling her body become free from the torrential pressure of everything. She sat up slowly in the white space with the young Elric clinging to her. In the corner of her eye, she saw Aisa laying motionless on the sensation-less white surface. Izumi's heart raced with panic, existing within a nightmare she'd never wanted to revisit, the fear alone able to make her sick. The woman who had desperately wanted to be a mother and barely had her chances, wrapped her arms tightly around Alphonse, fingers digging into his hair and shirt. She looked over her shoulder to the black monstrosity of the Gate and its wide open doors, wondering what the hell she could have possibly done to deserve being back here again with another one of her children.
To Be Continued…
Word Count: 11,087
A/N:
Hoory! I got my portfolio done. Sorry this chapter was slow because of that
This chapter hated me… a lot. More than a lot. It was a struggle. AmunRa did a great job trying to fix it. Any errors left are my own.
I do believe the idea to give Ed a concussion was courtesy of Kristina Groves and Sidney Crosby. Get better you awesome people!