Winter Sonata
Chapter 9
The Cause and Effect of one Edward Elric
Disclaimer: In no way do I own Fullmetal Alchemist. This is just my version of the story with a twist.
Warning! Major spoilers for recent chapters! That is, if you know where to look.
Alphonse Elric, now age 20, was enjoying the company of his childhood friend, Winry Rockbell, and the twins Roy and Lee. Winry squealed at the sight of the two children, like she would of at the sight of automail, and immediately ordered the twins to address her as older sister. In the middle of a mock snowball fight (mock because it was impossible to pin down where Al was half the time), there was a huge explosion behind them where the military headquarters was situated. As they turned around to look, they saw Edward running at them with a sheepish look.
"Hey! Al! I need your help! Could you come-" his words were cut off as Al punched him. "Hey! What was that for?"
"You come up north and you don't say 'hi' to your own brother?!"
"Well…I…" Suddenly Edward sprung up and attacked Al. Al retaliated, in a matter of seconds, the fight was over. "I'll never beat you, will I?" asked Ed.
Al just grinned while Winry wondered at the stupidity of the two brothers. Behind them came another explosion, Roy and Lee just clutched her jacket.
"Hey! Keep them safe!" Ed yelled over his shoulder at her as he and Al were running towards the military HQ.
Winry sighed. Boys. She would never understand them.
"What's with all these explosions, Brother?" Al yelled over the noise. "What happened here?"
"Mrs. Hughes!" Ed shouted at her. She was looking around frantically, wondering what was going on. "Take your daughter and go out that way." He pointed at where he and all had just come through. "Winry's out there with the twins, hurry!" He sent her off before turning back to Al to narrate what had happened that morning.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Drachmanian leader stormed through the doors to the room which Roy was using as an office. "An assassination attempt?! I'm calling this treaty off!"
"What are you talking about?" demanded Mustang, instantly on his guard. "An assassination attempt? By whom?"
"Don't play innocent with me, young man, I've been in enough conspiracies in my lifetime to know an-" he was cut off as Roy snapped his fingers. The shot of flame went past the Drachamanian and hit a shadow in the hallway. It started screaming, and Armstrong immediately went to apprehend it. There was silence for a moment until they heard Edward's voice through the window. Both turned around and saw the Fullmetal Alchemist at the window holding up an unconscious man.
"Hey Colonel," he said to Mustang, "Do we know this guy? 'cause I don't remember this gun being military issued." He held up a familiar looking gun. It wasn't military issued but it still looked familiar. Roy glanced at the other man inside the room. He was as white as a sheet and trembling furiously. Then it hit him.
"Isn't that one of those Drachmanian guns?" He looked at the man, "Assassination, eh?"
That was when the first explosion was heard.
BOOM!
Lizabeth Hawkeye was making her way towards the Fuhrer's office when she spotted several black figures running around trying to stay unnoticed. Instinctively she grabbed her gun out of her holster and shot at one of them. From the angle she shot it at, the bullet injured the figure's arm and leg. It fell unconscious. However, it's partner wanted revenge. The other black figure launched itself at Lizabeth, knocking her over. They grappled for a minute before someone knocked the other person out.
"Are you alright?" came a muffled voice. She looked up and saw a pair of familiar eyes. Lizabeth couldn't remember where she saw them, but they were familiar and comforting.
"Yes," she whispered, "I'm fine."
"Sorry about this…" the figure said before pressing a few points in her body to knock her out.
Her last thoughts before darkness claimed her was, 'two different parties.'
The leaders of the two countries hurried to where the explosions were occurring. At the bottom floor of the fort, close to where Sloth had once dug its way through, were five men in Drachmanian uniform setting off bombs.
"Seize them!" cried the elder of the two men who had just entered the scene. Immediately his personal guards advanced upon them to attempt to capture the imposters. One man was instantly cut down as one of the imposters had an automail arm with a hidden blade.
Mustang sensed movement behind him. Their footsteps were too light to be military issued boots of either country. He held both hands behind his back and snapped simultaneously.
"YOU BASTARD COLONEL! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?" shouted a voice behind him. Mustang turned around to stare at Ed and Al. "Because you know," he said, between he and Al, they held up six unconscious men in the suspicious color of the day, black. "we did just knock these guys out for you."
"Ah." Mustang looked thoughtful. "Thank you, pipsqueak."
"What did you just call me?" Edward said dangerously.
"I said pipsqueak."
"You dare call me that," Ed said advancing on Mustang, five more assassins were knocked to the ground as Ed tried to get to Mustang, "Even though I am taller than you?!" He clapped his hands together.
"Big brother," began Al, "I don't think you should…" He was cut short as Ed's transmutation began to take place.
Al lost his balance due to Ed's transmutation. Several dragon shaped objects flew from the ground around Mustang. They were headed his direction, but all of them missed. Amused, he watched the dragons go after all the assassins in the room, where were quite many of them too.
The dragons 'swallowed' the assassins, after being swallowed, the assassins turned up in the middle of the dragon's body, arms locked the sides of his or her body, only the head and legs sticking out.
Ed had a steely glint in his eyes; his face was serious as it ever was. He was furious. All the assassins had been collected by this time, and Edward sent the dragons against the walls and floors, their legs being dragged and cut by the various object littered around from the previous fight, their heads banging against the walls.
BOOM!
There was another explosion as one of the bombs set up exploded. By this time Olivier Milla Armstrong and most of her men had come down to see what was behind the explosions.
Edward directed his anger towards the remaining bombs also. A few of the dragons crashed into the bombs, causing many a explosion, but not as much as if it had gone off naturally. "You dare, you dare!" he kept repeating to the people stuck in his dragons.
"Edward Elric! Stop this at once!" General Armstrong ordered as she watched the destruction of the ground level of her beloved fort. She didn't dare go near him though. The sparks from constant alchemy was warning enough.
"Fullmetal!" Mustang warned. It was pointless, none of their voices reached him, not even Al's.
The Drachmanians stood in horror and awe at the power a single Amestrisean could wield when threatened.
"YOU BASTARDS DARE KILL A DREAM THAT'S ALMOST ACHIEVED?! YOU DARE TO KILL THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY?!" He was unstoppable until…
"Edward!" Winry Rockbell had come down to the bottom level to see if she could do anything. While the sound of her voice did nothing, the hug she gave him did. She braved the alchemic sparks, something no one else did, to reach him. The pressure from her hug broke his concentration.
The assassins fell to the floor limp, many of them knocked out, the others too afraid to try anything. The dragons were reabsorbed into the ground and there was silence as everybody visibly relaxed.
As General Armstrong barked orders to her men, Roy surveyed his surroundings. The floor they were on was almost destroyed. Fullmetal was slumped down on the floor with Winry Rockbell, tears streaming down on her face. Military men were trickling through the doorways with tied and gagged assassins. He counted a good thirty to forty men and women. He thought about it. That was quite a lot of people to kill one person. Who was their man target? The Drachmanian leader, or himself? Why had both men been targeted? He glanced around again. Five soldiers had died, many more were wounded. He saw Glacia enter with Elysia and Leslie at her side, and a small body in her arms. Maes Hughes was following his wife's footsteps, noting everything he saw.
Where was Lizabeth Hawkeye?
Hours later there was a final count. There were 37 assassins, 28 wounded, and 7 dead. The assassins were tied up, gagged, and then led to Hughes for interrogation. The wounded had their injuries treated, out of the 28, there were 2 civilians injuried, Mrs. Hughes and Miss Rockbell. Of the dead, 6 were in military of uniform of either country, 1 was a civilian, Roy Windsor.
The bottom floor of the northern fort was trashed, the Fullmetal Alchemist was scheduled the next day to rebuild everything with his alchemic skills. He was not court marshaled, the injured, dead, and the tears of his childhood friend, even if they weren't his fault, was punishment enough for him. Anything else would have no effect, the movements would all be mechanical.
And there was one missing, Melissa Elizabeth Hawkeye.
She woke up in the corner of a darkened hallway. She couldn't remember anything, not her name or who she was, or anything. But she did know that she was alive, and that there were moving, talking, shadows heading her direction.
A buried memory surfaced in her mind at the idea of a moving, talking, shadow. One of pain and fear. She was paralyzed in fear, a droplet of sweat rolled off her face. It was getting closer and closer. Her heart beat faster, it sounded so loudly in her ears that she was surprised that no one else had heard it. As the shadow turned the corner, she did the first thing her mind ordered her to do. She screamed.
She screamed so loudly, that the whole fort heard. She saw the shadow still at her scream, and adrenaline coursed though her veins, but she was paralyzed. She kept screaming, screaming because she knew this time around, it was ok. It was ok to scream this time. Why was it ok, she didn't know.
But she was still screaming when hands grabbed her wrist and jerked her head upwards so she met a pair of eyes.
The eyes were dark and warm, but she saw a shadow behind that person. The short shadow had cold malicious eyes, eyes that pierced souls, eyes that had seen much, eyes that nothing could faze, for it had already seen all. Eyes that sent her once again spiraling into unconsciousness.
Maes Hughes gathered the two leaders into a meeting room to discuss with them the recent events that had happened just a few hours ago. Amidst the chaos and pandemonium that had followed, the two governments had sent their replies on the treaty. Hughes gave them his report.
"It's a very strange affair," he started. "The two of you were targeted, while neither one had ordered an assassination attempt. Because of this, it has been concluded that that there were two parties, neither aware of the other, attempting to assassinate a leader of a country, while trying to lay the blame of the other country. The assassins are Amestrains, all amateurs.
Each group has been very well informed of Mustang's movements, one group has already been identified as the 'separatists', a small society of people wishing to revert Amestris back to the smaller countries it swallowed up in the past centuries. The other group apparently, just wants power. And apparently, they don't care which way they get it. But both parties have their eyes on the Fuhrer's position."
They talked longer about the day's assassination attempt. Drachma would not press charges, as long as Amestris recompensed for Drachma's dead soldiers, since they had been killed by Amestris's citizens. They were about to move on to discuss the final outcome of the treaty when a hair splitting scream was heard.
Maria Ross had plenty of help getting Miss Hawkeye to the Hospital ward of the fort. She dispatched a man to inform Mustang that she had been found and another to inform Mrs. Hughes and the other civilians.
What worried her was the single word that Hawkeye had uttered before falling unconscious.
"Seylim."
A/N: Ah, another chapter down. Even though I didn't get the chapter out in three weeks like I said I would, I would say that two months is a vast improvement from six months.
So, we have two parties after the Fuhrer office, and Hawkeye has managed to recover one memory. Of course, I'm still not quite sure if she remembers anything else at this point though… And we have a dead person, incase someone didn't catch that.
Ah, if you have time, please check out my newest story The Roman Society, it's not under FMA but Harry Potter, which is part of the reason why this chapter took so long. I'm really attached to the idea I thought of for that fic and I'd like some feedback…
But fear not, Winter Sonata is not to be abandoned. I plan on updating at least one more time before school starts. Either that or at the beginning of the school year.
Thank you for your patience!
First draft June 23-August 7, 2007
First post August 7, 2007