Chapter 3
Several minutes passed while Mustang and Fuery awoke with Riza’s violent efforts, aka smacking them until they roused. After she successfully got the two to rise, although groggily, she heard a surprisingly quiet, “Uh.. Riza?” from Havoc. She looks over to him and notices that he hadn’t gotten up yet.
“Havoc, why haven’t you surveyed our surroundings yet?” her tone stern but laced with concern if you knew her well enough to notice. Havoc shifted uncomfortably and said, just as quiet which was heavily out of place for him, “Riza… I can’t move. I can’t move my legs anymore.” Havoc was trying to keep the panic out of his voice but he really hated not being able to walk again; he didn’t feel as defeated as before but he was definitely close to it. ‘I could really used a cigarette right now.’ Havoc thinks as he tries to shift his weight when Riza immediately goes over to help him.
Looking at her in order to distract himself, he notices Riza’s hair. “Hey Hawkeye, when’d you learn to grow your hair so fast?” he tries to joke but falls offkey as his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Riza lifts her hand from where it was placed on Havoc’s shoulder and touches her now long, blonde hair. “What the fu..
---
“Al! Hey, can you hear me, Al?” Ed shifts his frail brother gently onto his back, trying not to cause any bruising on his body. Al groans in response causing his brother to release the breath he was holding. Ed looks up to Lan Fan who was frozen at Al’s other side, hands hovering over his brother’s body. “Hey, we need to get him out of here and into a hospital soon or he’ll freeze in this shithole.” Ed says to Lan in a strained voice, looking her in the eyes as she looks up from Al. She acts like she is about to say something, worry written all over her face, but she all too quickly closes her mouth with a blank expression and nods, getting up to tell Ling about the big, unconscious problem they have now.
Leaving Ed to tend to his brother, Lan Fan finds her prince near the only doorway, staring at it with a complex expression. As she stands at attention next to him, she lets him know about Al’s condition and Ed’s new-old appearance. Ling nods slightly to indicate he heard, still staring at the door, asking Lan Fan if she can sense any chi signatures behind the door.
Lan Fan stiffens, Ling noticing right away that their situation is not good— they were definitely not alone. Ling looks to everyone else, even with the numbers it looked like any confrontation right now would be grim. At least two men are down; everyone is in some way disoriented (some more than others). Ling looks to Lan Fan again, noticing a distinct look of confusion and cautiousness at the door. “What is going on, Lan?”, Ling says, snapping Lan Fan out of her trance-like state.
“My lord, it just seems that more chi signatures.. I- They just instantly popped up.” Lan Fan quietly tells Ling, glancing his way then back to the door. ‘Popped up??’ Ling thinks. ‘Chi can’t just instantly pop out of nowhere.’
“What do you mean by ‘popped up’?” Ling asks in a neutral tone, looking towards the door, but his nervous shifting suggests his calm state is a facade. “Exactly what I mean. It just instantly blinked into existen-“ Lan Fan cut herself off, silencing anything the Prince was going to say by taking out her blade, getting into a fighting stance. Ling immediately follows her lead and they both back away from the door.
This gains the attention of the officers. “What’s going on? Did you guys hear something?” Fuery asks, clumsily trying to stand up after having been knocked out. He immediately gets lightheaded but he is able to stabilize himself. ‘Oh man, I hate being out in the field like this.’ Fuery thinks solemnly to himself.
Mustang, on the other hand, gracefully stands and positions himself in a pose that could be taken as nonchalant if it weren’t for his dangerous hand position causing his two fingers to rub together in anticipation. Before Mustang can ask as well, Lan Fan replies in a low, dangerous tone, “I see at least 3 large chi signatures headed our way. Be prepared.”
In the next minute, everyone quietly shifted to defend their fallen and prepare for battle. Mustang and Hawkeye maneuver themselves in a parallel stance, positioning their bodies between Fuery, who is helping Havoc stay calm and comfortable, and Havoc, who is currently trying not to freak out over his broke-ass legs. Lan Fan and Ling also position themselves in the space from the door to the Elric brothers, who weren’t really doing so well in the ‘Calm’ department. Ed looked like he was going to keel over with worry and Al looks like he actually did keel over. Neither really good for a high stress situation like, say, teleporting into a dark, macabre basement where several powerful unknown chi signatures were about to go into.
A collective inhale of breath was taken from the room as the door opens with a great force. In walked four drastically different looking individuals, odd enough that even Lan Fan the professional assassin hesitates to make the first move. It was almost like a bad “Walks into a bar” joke; a very rough looking dude with a shifty eye and peg leg comes in first with a stick pointed at Ling and Lan Fan— like a crazy pirate if pirates did crack; another man with scars littering his face and drabby clothes, who also wields a tiny stick, walks in and points said stick in Hawkeye and Mustang’s direction; behind them both a man with black hair and even darker eyes comes up wielding a — can you guess? — another tiny stick, pointing it in both directions as if these obviously sad, homeless men were going to hurt them with it.
Ed looks up, because his one-track mind doesn’t recognize the tensity of the situation, has him calling, “GUYS, Al really needs a doctor. It’s like the Promised Day all over again. He’s dying.” Edward’s eyes finally shift over to the now confused but still visibly hostile men at the door. “Who the fuck are these raggedy shits?” Ed’s voice loses the edge of desperation, confusion shifting into his tone. Hearing Al make another groan in his lap, Ed’s desperation kicks back full force as he looks to his brother again, saying, “SHIT, it doesn’t matter! We need to get him help!”
After a moment of silence, Scarface is the one who finally caves. He lowers his very frightening stick with an unreadable look— perhaps a mix of confusion, sadness, and a little bit of relief? “Moody, Padfoot, I reckon these were some type of prisoners. They don’t look to be death eaters.” The man says, glancing towards Ed and Al’s bodies on the ground. “I think we should get them some help.”
This oddly heartwarming comment definitely defuses some tension between the homeless men and mix of foreigners. The shifty dark horse homeless guy also drops his stick to his side. However, some tension is still there as the crackhead pirate doesn’t lower his stick. Scarface looks between Mustang and Hawkeye, addressing them in a soft tone, “We don’t mean any harm. We have already detained the death eaters. We’d like to help.”
Both Hawkeye and Mustang look at each other then look to Lan Fan and Ling, who were also were still frozen in confusion and looking to the soldiers for any type of plan. Mustang nods his head to the duo and they drop their weapons. Not releasing his fingers, Mustang graces the men with a soft look, trying for grateful hopefulness, “Please, we could use the help. Two of our men are injured, one needing immediate assistance.” He shifts towards the men slightly, eyeing the gruff crackhead pirate who still had his stick up. The guy pausing, getting a good look at Mustang that gives him a chill down his spine, and grunts softly as he too lowers his stick. “Fine. It looks like they are already weak enough. We should take them to a safehouse where we can get a healer to look at the other two.” He rasps out, but ending with a threatening look towards Mustang, “If any one of you do try something, we won’t hesitate to detain every one of you…”
—
After a cautious dance of paranoia between everyone, another man in less shabby clothing with a head of hair the color of a shocking red literally pops into the room with everyone. This sets the foreigners on edge again, but seeing as the ‘wizards’ (at least what they said) seem friendly with the man then what else do they have to lose? The desperation to get Al and Havoc help, and to get out of the cold, dark basement was enough to distract everyone’s sense of danger.
The wizards talk amongst themselves quickly before coming to an agreement. While still dazed with the man's sudden appearance, Havoc and Fuery are being grabbed by the red-head who smiles at the kindly and says, “ Up you go!” and promptly pops off with the two. Without time to think, Pirate is doing the same with Mustang and Riza, again disappearing into thin air. Scarface extends his hand out to both Ling and Lan Fan. Ling shrugs at his companion and both the Xingese travellers take the man’s hands, popping out of existence. Ed gently lifts his brother’s body up enough to where the dark-haired man is able to grab onto them both and vanish like the others.
—-
Ed releases an unconscious sigh that he was holding in. Finally, Al was stabilized and getting treated for his malnutrition and muscle atrophy — again. Next time he saw Truth, he was going to go apeshit on their ass for putting his brother through this. Al had enough trouble the first time, even with all the support and medical help; now they were all stuck in a weird-ass alternate —universe? dimension? — place with a bunch of weird-ass people. ‘Like, wizards? Are you fucking kidding?’ Ed thinks to himself as he scrubs his flesh hand down his face. Another reason why bonking Truth’s head would be great right now would be for his newly acquired arm — or is it oldly acquired? No, that’s stupid…
Ed, lost in his head, doesn’t realize the new guests in his and his brother’s room. “Fullmetal..”, shakes Ed out of his thoughts and he looks over towards Mustang and band of not-so-merry subordinates, adding on Ling and Lan Fan who head straight to Edward’s side. Lan Fan looks critically at Al’s prone form and says, “He’s looking well.” in a bland tone, stiffly sitting next to Al’s other side.
Ed leans back, arms crossed, and snorts at Lan Fan’s attempt at comforting words. “Yeah, I’d say so. His recovery time with the-“ Ed scowls as he works his to saying ‘potions’ but he can’t get himself to do it — it’s too stupid. “-wizard medicine is a lot shorter. Whatever they used on him, sure as hell is doing a good job.”
Edward was skeptical about the wizards using some weird potion, hoodoo shit on his brother but he was honestly getting desperate, considering Al’s temperature drop and the whole not breathing thing. Plus, they also saved their asses back there even if they were shady as fuck.
Ed stares at his brother’s face, squeezing his hand lightly. If Edward ever sees Truth again, he swears that he’ll punch the bastard in it’s non-existent face for putting his brother through this shit again.