Iserlohnn - continued

Sorry no imaginative titles for thsi chapter. It\'s late and i\'m tired.
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Chapter 21

When the bright light clears Tenshi opens his eyes to find he is in the corner of a back room in what he thinks might be a home. He looks at the small disk in his hand. He remembered Edward made these Port Keys as quick escapes that would send them to the safe house. He hadn’t personally been to the safe house so he could only assume that was where he had wound up. He got up from a sitting position – he had been sitting on the cot in his cell when he Ported – and went to the door.

It was silent. He opened the door as quietly as he could and stepped out into the hall. It was dark and it looked like he was the only one there. All of them were supposed to meet up at that house – that had been the plan. He wandered in the dark for a little while until he slipped on something wet on the wooden floor and almost landed on his butt. He made it over to the light switch and the lone gas bulb in the hallway ceiling cast its bright yellow glow on the narrow corridor.

Tenshi saw what had made him lose his footing. Blood. There was a blood on the floor. It was a trail of blood drops actually and he followed it into the dining room where he found one of the dining room chairs sitting on top of the center of the table beneath the chandelier. There was smeared blood on the chair and more scattered drops of blood leading into the kitchen.

A sinking feeling overcame him as he realized whose blood that had to be.

Edward.

The fact he was alone in that house meant Edward got whatever he had hidden in that chandelier and took off for parts unknown. He knew Edward was wounded – he had been there when both Lust and Kenton had taken turns skewering him – but he had no idea how bad he was hurt until he saw the evidence all around him. Losing that much blood was bad. He hoped after Edward got whatever he needed from the house he had the sense to get himself some medical help.

He wasn’t sure if he should stay put or go out and look for Edward. If he had an idea of where Edward would have run off to at that hour he would have gone out without a second thought. However, Tenshi had no clue even to know where to begin to look for his Sempai. He decided the best thing to do would be to wait until morning and THEN go and search for Edward. Maybe by then some of the others will have made it to the safe house and they might know where Edward went.

Tenshi turned off all the lights and walked up to the second floor with only the moonlight streaming through the windows to illuminate his way.


Havoc slammed on the brake so hard both Al and Mustang almost wound up in the front seat with him.

“What the hell-” Mustang began but stopped short when he saw the reason for the sudden stop. In the middle of the road was Edward and he was kneeling over a body. Without thinking Mustang exited the car and went to Edward’s side.

Al was one step behind the Colonel. He took one look at the bloody body and gasped. “Ed what have you done?” Alphonse breathed.

“It’s not…what you think…” Edward’s voice was stricken. He couldn’t look up at them because the glare from the car’s headlights hurt his eyes but both Mustang and Al could see he’d been crying.

“Ed, she’s still alive,” the Colonel told him. “Al, give me a hand.”

Al helped the Colonel get the wounded Princess into the car. Edward seemed barely aware of them as they got her situated. Al came back and got Edward to his feet and loaded him into the car as well. Havoc hit the gas and they sped off towards the hospital.

“Tenshi,” Edward said distantly as they drove. “He has Tenshi.”

“Who has Tenshi?”

“Kenton.”

“Shit,” Mustang swore. “Where did you see him last?”

“At the Furher’s Palace,” Edward told him as his wits began returning to him. “He’s being held there.”

“And the Furher?” Mustang dared to ask.

Edward looked up at him. “He’s with Kenton.”

Mustang sighed heavily. If Kenton was controlling Furher Bradley then he had access to pretty much anything in the Amestris arsenal. Things had just gone from bad to worse. “You are certain the Furher is on that thing’s side?”

“The Furher demanded I give him the Iserlohnn disk,” Edward said. “The only way he could have known about that is if Kenton or the Sins told him. And since I saw both Kenton and his homunculus goons while I was there-“

“Okay, I’m convinced,” Mustang stated cutting Edward short.

“And forget the safe house,” Edward added. “Envy somehow got in and ransacked the place.”

Mustang hung his head. “How the hell did he manage that?”

Edward cast the Colonel a pointed look. “Those things are as inhuman as Kenton. Maybe we had to Ward against them the same way we did their master.”

“Technically that isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” Mustang corrected. “The house was keyed to the spiritual essence of those people who were part of the Casting Circle. Yes, we did defend against Kenton but we also defended against anyone who was not US.”

“Envy is a shape shifter,” Alphonse reminded them. “Maybe he came in the house disguised as one of us.”

“A disguise can’t hide your true self,” Mustang pointed out. “THAT is what the alchemy was keyed to read.”

“Hey Colonel,” Havoc called back. “Could someone’s brother or sister slip in?”

Brother or sister?

Mustang thought on that for a moment. Siblings would have a similar aura or essence. If he hadn’t been a part of the casting Circle, Alphonse could have had a chance of beating the Ward because of his spiritual closeness to Edward. Havoc brought up an interesting point but it was not applicable in this situation. None of them were related to Envy. Mustang was guilty of many sins but THAT one wasn’t on his list!

“Theoretically yes,” Mustang told him. “But it was not a relative of ours that got in. We’ve all committed our sins but Envy isn’t one of them!”

Edward snickered at the Colonel’s attempt at humor. But he sobered quickly saying, “But that doesn’t change the fact that he somehow got past that Ward.”

“Could have been something Kenton did,” speculated Mustang. “Who knows what sort of alterations he made on those creatures.”

“Are homunculus like chimeras?” Havoc asked. “I mean, are they made using Alchemy?”

Mustang stiffened visibly at the question. That was one subject he had hoped wouldn’t come up in front of the present company. How could he tell Edward all failed attempts at human transmutation resulted in the creation of a homunculi? That somewhere out there was a soulless creature that looked exactly like his dead mother? That this was one of the reasons human transmutations was forbidden? Edward had suffered enough from his horrible mistake. The Colonel didn’t think he needed to add to the boy’s burden of guilt.

The Colonel noticed Havoc looking at him through the rear view mirror. He met the soldier’s gaze saying, “Yes, homunculi are made through Alchemy. Which is one of the reasons they are so difficult to fight.”

“There has to be a way to destroy them,” Edward stated. “They have to have a weakness. Chimera can be killed. I know. I’ve taken down my share of those monsters.”

“When you’ve recovered you can research how to kill Kenton’s inhuman allies,” Mustang told Edward. “You are to stay in the hospital and not leave until you are allowed to go. Is that understood?”

Edward nodded mutely. He didn’t argue with the Colonel this time. He was in too much pain to put up much of a fuss.

The emergency room staff hustled the Princess off so quickly that Edward didn’t have time to find out where she was being taken. Edward was brought into a treatment room and the overly efficient staff wasted no time in relieving him of his bloody clothing. Edward managed to field his silver watch, the Port key and the Iserlohnn disk from a rather befuddled young nurse before his ruined clothes were whisked away. When they tried to take off his bloodstained boxers, Edward knocked them back using a low-level alchemically created concussive windblast.

The flash of light created by Edward’s attack caught the trained eyes of his friends and they came into the small examining room. The Colonel and Al helped the surprised nurse and doctor up from where they had been knocked to the floor. The Colonel shot Edward, whose expression was a combination of embarrassment and anger, a hard look.

“Edward you are to cooperate with these people, that’s an order!” the Colonel snapped.

Edward glared at him. “I am cooperating,” he replied through gritted teeth.

Al interposed his rather large form between Edward and the Colonel. “Ed, let them take care of you,” he said gently.

Edward shoved the two disks and his watch into Al’s hands whispering, “Hide the Iserlohnn Disk. My other stuff just keep until I get out of here.”

“Okay Ed.” Al replied aloud as he stowed Edward’s things.

The Colonel grabbed Edward and forced him to lie flat on his back on the bed. “Quit fooling around Fullmetal. We don’t have time for your crap!”

Edward grabbed Mustang by his uniform jacket stating sharply, “Yeah, and you’re wasting time here when you could be out there looking for Tenshi!”

The Colonel removed Edward’s hand from his uniform saying, “He will be found. In the meantime…”

Mustang let the thought trail off as the doctor managed to slip in and give Edward a shot. The sedative took hold before the blond Alchemist could get in a word of protest.

“He’ll be fine,” the nurse reassured the Colonel as both he and Alphonse were ushered out of the room.

Once the door to the examining room was closed the Colonel looked up at Alphonse and said, “Ed’s right. We have to get Tenshi away from Kenton.”

“But if he’s at the Furher’s Palace-“

“I know,” Mustang interrupted. “But there is a chance Kenton may have moved him since he knows Edward would have told us about Tenshi’s capture.” Alphonse nodded his understanding and the Colonel continued, “I can go to the Furher’s Palace and see what I can find out there. I’ll have the rest of my unit search Central City and you can help in that capacity too.”

“You are going to the Fuhrer’s alone?” Alphonse asked concerned.

“No, I’ll have some friends along,” the Colonel assured him a crafty look gleaming in his dark eyes. “Kenton Ares won’t catch me off guard THIS time…”


Tenshi gasped when he heard the front door opening. He listened for voices but there was only the sound of someone’s footfalls as they walked around the first floor. Whoever had arrived probably didn’t know he was there because he had left all the lights off. He noiselessly tiptoed out of his bedroom and crept down the stairs. The old stairs creaked slightly under his weight, which was more than would be expected for someone his size because of the Automail, but Tenshi didn’t think the sounds were loud enough to be heard outside of the hallway.

When he arrived on the first floor he gazed around nervously for a glimpse of whoever it was that made it to the safe house. He hoped it was Edward. However, he had a feeling it wasn’t him. Edward had been badly injured and was probably in the hospital by now. That is if he survived long enough to get himself to a hospital.

No, Tenshi thought, Edward is still alive. He has to be for Al’s sake. Tenshi listened and heard footsteps lightly padding on the floor of the kitchen. From the sound of it the person who had arrived wasn’t wearing any shoes. He looked by the front door to see if they had left their footwear there, as was the custom in Xing, his homeland. There were no shoes by the front door. The person in the house had arrived shoeless.

He walked quietly down the hall toward the kitchen. As he peered in, the new arrival was stepping out into the hallway and the two of them nearly collided with each other.

“You!” Tenshi cried out in unison with the person he nearly bumped into.

It was Envy and Tenshi had no idea how he got in, since the front door had been locked, and Tenshi fled up the stairs before the Sin had a chance to grab him. Envy cursed under his breath as he tore up the stairs after the fleet footed Tenshi. He was two steps behind the fleeing alchemist, who was too frightened to do anything but run, and he managed to catch Tenshi before he could lock himself in an upstairs bedroom.

Envy didn’t hold onto Tenshi very long. The fabric of the boy’s shirt gave way and Envy was left holding a hunk of cloth as Tenshi scurried off. The small alchemist hid under the four-poster bed whose bed skirt camouflaged his presence. Envy looked in the room and didn’t see Tenshi anywhere but he knew there were many places a small boy could be hiding himself.

“I won’t hurt you,” Envy said to the seemly empty room as he began poking into closets and searching other equally likely hiding spots. “I just want to talk.” He kept looking making sure he was close enough to the door to grab Tenshi if the boy suddenly appeared and made a break for it. “Pretty clever trick you did there back at the Palace,” he commented. “That’s some old Alchemy. Didn’t know anyone still knew how to make a Port Key let alone use one. Guess they still do all the Old Arts in Xing. That is where you are from, right? You’re from Xing?”

Tenshi huddled under the bed barely breathing. He heard every word Envy was saying but he didn’t believe any of it. That creature was under Kenton’s control. He was only there because Kenton ordered him to go after Tenshi.

“I know you’re still here,” the Sin went on. “If you tried to Port your way out of here I’d see that. So…where are you hiding little one?” He opened the chest at the foot of the bed and let it slam shut when he saw there was nothing in there except for some quilts. Envy glanced at the bed and then bent over to look under it.

“There you are!” the Sin said in a voice that sounded like a mother who had found her child during a game of hide and seek. Envy reached in to try and pull Tenshi out but Tenshi scooted away from his probing hand. The Sin utilizing his shape shifting abilities to stretch his arm to reach fully across the width of the double bed forcing Tenshi to come out from under the bed on the other side to avoid his grasp.

Tenshi made a dash for the door but was grabbed by the Sin’s other arm that stretched like it was made of rubber to envelop him in a vise like grip around his slim waist. Tenshi tried to break free but he wasn’t strong enough to pry the snake like arm off himself. He concentrated on summoning up what electrical energy he could from the air around himself and got off one alchemical burst before his hands were restrained at his sides. The ambient air didn’t have enough latent static electricity for him to get off much of a charge, which meant his attack had no effect on Envy.

“Bet you’re a real powerhouse on a stormy day,” the Sin remarked as he closed the distance between them. His unnaturally elongated arms reverted to a more human shape when he got close enough to whisper in Tenshi ear, “Good thing I came here when it was nice out, hmmmm?”

Tenshi glared at him. “That is only a fraction of what I can do.”

Envy grinned casting an appreciative eye on him. “I can see that.”

Tenshi flushed pink as the realization of what the Sin was implying dawned on him. He was not going to let that thing touch him. He tried to wriggle free of Envy’s grasp but that wasn’t happening. Unless he could figure out some way of escaping, Tenshi was once again going to be Kenton Ares prisoner….
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There will be more later this week I promise!