The Truth Within the Truth: A Fullmetal Alchemist RP

[sage42]

"Both at once, about 15 years ago. My Father was an auto-mail mechanic up in North City. I was studying to take over when he retired." Tasha said with a smile. "One day, we began a trip to one of the smaller towns up north. We were off to perform the surgery on a farmer who had lost his arm in a mill accident. I fell asleep on the seat of our carriage, it was all we could afford at the time. We hit a rock or something, but it bumped me off. I had tried to grab something so I wouldn't fall, unfortunately I missed and hit the ground. The wheel crushed both my hands, my father blamed himself."

Tasha frowned, she could still remember her father's face, twisted in pain over what had happened. "I was in a lot of pain, so he gave me a dose of the antistatic we had brought along to numb the pain, and I passed out. When I woke up I was in a bed at the farmers house. My Father had performed the surgery on the farmer and was sitting by my side. He hadn't slept since I fell. I won't go into details but after a long discussion I was able to convince him to give me the surgery." She pulled back her sleeves, revealing automail forearms.

"There wasn't enough muscle and nervous tissue in my wrists, so he had to amputate my arms from the elbow down." She said before pulling her sleeves back down. "He told me afterward that it was the hardest surgery he had ever performed. He said it nearly killed him seeing his little girl in so much pain. He wasn't the same for a few months after, I guess he kept blaming himself." She said as a small tear rolled down her cheek. "I even hated myself there for a few weeks afterward, I didn't want my father feeling like that." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. A smile returned. "But he returned to normal during my own rehab, and so did I. Course after I was fully recovered I had turned my attention to alchemy, but that's another story all together."

 

[CJ1145]

The Alchemists of Amestris' Special Forces team all filed into the truck, one by one. Once they were all safely in, Banagher and Grand climbed back into the front, and started up the transport. They rolled out of the town just as night hit. On the way back, Victor watched the others silently, too exhausted after the day's events to speak. He smiled a bit, though. He tried not to think of the old man Torul, and the suffering that his people had endured. He focused on the happier bits. All of his newfound companions were alive. That was something to be enjoyed. But he wondered just how much longer something like that could last. He remembered all of his old friends, from his old squad. He'd known them for four years, and now ever last one of them was dead.

It was dark, but the sun wasn't all gone just yet. So Victor could only pray that the others didn't notice the tears streaming down his face as they returned to relative safety.

[hr]

Later that night, the team was all gathered around the center of the camp as the survivors of the Amestrian company finally returned from the village. Most of them all threw themselves into their tents to sleep off the exhaustion, while a few others went off to the medic's tents, or gathered around the fireplace to enjoy a bit of peace with their friends. Leo recognized the man that had rescued him earlier approaching Colonel Grand, and saluting him.

"Sir!" the young soldier said, drawing himself to sharp attention. "We did a full sweep of the town; all Ishvalan resistance has been pushed out of the region. The squad you sent up to the monastery completed their sweep as well, sir, and recovered Torul's remains. No other Ishvalans were found, though, and any attempt to dig through the rubble will take at least a week's effort."

The Colonel patted his man on the shoulder. "Excellent work, Captain Hughes. We'll worry about sorting out the destruction later. Right now, you and your men get some rest."

Captain Hughes saluted him again and walked off like a man on a mission. He was probably looking for someone specific. The Colonel, on the other hand, approached Kallu and pulled him away from the others. Once he was certain they were out of earshot, he dropped a key into his hand.

"I saw the way you treated that monk earlier. Teole, was that his name? He's being shipped off to Central tomorrow with the other prisoners. If you'd like to speak with him before that happens, he's in Cell Block B in the Northwestern corner of camp. And this meeting never happened."

Colonel Basque Grand walked out back into the open, surrounding himself in subordinates to order around before the Stone Alchemist could even question what had happened.

 

[Redryhno]

Kallu nodded his weary head at the Colonel's gesture. Though he was almost gone from the day's events, he knew he needed to talk tot the kid again, Central was a place prisoners either were never seen again or ended up dead in attempted jail breaks.

Arriving at the Cell Block he asked for the boy and was taken to his cell, after handing over his Alchemy gauntlets, of course.

"Thank you, Private, you are dismissed, take a break. If they ask you why you're not on duty, tell them it was an order. Now go," He said, leaving no room for argument from the kid.

He turned to the kid in the cell, unlocked it, and locked himself inside. The building was made of concrete, well built, but a quick inspection of the walls confirmed his theory, the building had been constructed of cheap cement and weak stone, two things he could use to his advantage here.

"I figured you should know, Torul is dead by all accounts," He pulled the piece of the robe he had taken from the ground around what had been the temple,"Here, Teoule, this is yours. Orders are that you are to be taken from here to Central Command at dawn," He dropped his voice to a whisper, "But orders are always not being able to be followed. We found Torul, your use to Amestris is done. Which is why, in approximately three hours, you will leave this place, kill no one, and find your way back to your people. The soldier I captured with you can't be helped at the moment, now, I have about fifteen minutes before a patrol comes back to watch me. So let's get this over with."

Kallu pulled a handful of sand from a pouch on his belt and created an Alchemy circle on the ground in front of the wall facing the outside. He quickly transmuted the concrete, weakening it considerably, enough for even a weakened initiate Ishvalan monk to dig his way through it. Finishing the simple transmutation, he scattered the sand to the corners of the cell, mixing it with the other dirt and sand that had made its way into the building.

"Don't leave until around midnight, that's when the guards change, both patrols will be tired, and miss much in the night. Remember what I said, you will kill no one, if you do, I will be forced to hunt you,I love my home just as much as you do," He paused for a moment, determining whether or not his words had had any effect on the youth he decided to add one last thing, "not everyone gets a second chance at life Teoule, live it not just for yourself, but your brother as well." The fire in his eyes - a rare thing - confirmed his stance on the young man's choices.

"One more thing, this never happened," He went back to the door, again unlocked it and re-locked it as he left, recovering his gauntlets at the security station on his way out.

He returned to his cot, but was unable to sleep that night, worried that Teoule would again be caught, this time he would be held under both gun and key. He got a few hours rest that night, enough to keep him going the next day, and decided to spend the rest of the night among an outcropping of stone in the center of camp, visible to all should they look out of their tents, but relatively silent for his purposes.

 

[CJ1145]

At midnight that night, all was too quiet for anyone to hear the sounds of an Ishvalan monk scraping his way to freedom.

Out at the edge of the camp, as Kallu sat amongst his stone, a figure joined him. It was Victor, looking very sullen. "Hey, do you, uh, mind if I join you?" The words sounded rehearsed; he'd been psyching himself up for this for a few minutes, at the least. The Corporal sat himself down next to Kallu before the Alchemist could even reply.

"I, er, hope I'm not intruding." Victor said, looking up at the stars. "It's just, I was kind of curious what the view was like over here. Away from the noises of the camp. It's... pretty peaceful, actually." He leaned back against a rock, looking up at the sky. Neither of them spoke for a while.

Then, they saw it. A figure darted out of the camp. No alarms were raised; he was unseen. He dashed by the rocks, but stopped for a brief second as he caught sight of Kallu and Victor inside. Teole had been the one sprinting by. He looked at them in a moment of shock and fear before he registered the Stone Alchemist's face. Mustering a bit of courage, and a bit of the resentment that had not yet left him, he nodded in appreciation and continued off into the distance as fast as his feet could carry him.

Victor looked at Kallu like he was crazy. "What are you doing? Should we stop him?!"

Kallu only shook his head, and watched as the figure darted off. His shadow grew further and further into the distance, until it was nearly out of sight.

BOOM.

A torrent of fire and shrapnel erupted into the air off in the distance, the smoke ball rising hundreds of feet up. Victor's mouth dropped wide and he let out a squeak in shock. Alarms sounded within the camp, as a search party was quickly formed to figure out just what had happened out there. Soldiers dashed by, a good distance away from the pair's rocky outcropping. They were so distracted that neither of them noticed the figure that had joined them until he spoke.

"Those Ishvalans are getting crafty." The man said in his low, sort of gravelly voice. His hair was tied back into a neat ponytail to give his shifty eyes a clear view of the devastation. "That one slipped right past you two. He might have gotten away with vital information; in the end, though, he was part of a much greater symphony than his escape would have ever been."

Victor felt a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. Standing next to him and Kallu was Solf J. Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist.

 

[Redryhno]

Kallu sighed, both for the loss of Teoule and that the silent night had been broken by Kimblee. He slowly turned his head towards and replied,"I admit that they are getting better, I suspect that had they wanted to attack Amestris before now, we would have been powerless to stop them, Solf, though I doubt that he would have had much information to get away with, he's been a POW since this afternoon. The price of secure borders is growing, reconciliation is going to be much harder with each life lost, on both sides. Victor, I believe that you had questions you wished answered. Come with me, disturbances are quite distracting."

Kallu nodded to Kimblee, and walked off in the direction of his tent, expecting Victor to follow, whether he did or not mattered little to him, he had had his peace with the stone. He was content for the time being. Victor being that close to that man was not good for his health however, Kimblee had a reputation for his Alchemy, very little good could come of explosions.

 

[Jedoro]

Elias silently nodded at Tasha's story, deciding that later, he might tell her about his other arm.

When they all returned to the camp, he thanked Ken before heading for the medic's tent after stopping by supply for a new coat and sling to go on his machine gun. Elias had the privilege of getting the chief medical officer to properly treat his arm, due to officers' slightly lower rate of divulging sensitive information.

When the explosion went off, Elias' hand shot for the sidearm in its holster, which was soon aimed at the medic's tent entrance. Hearing no gunfire to follow it, he holstered his weapon and looked around at the other patients to see if any of his team had also spent the night there.

 

[sage42]

Tasha jumped from her stool as the explosion went off, ready to move. After a few minutes of silence she sat back down and refocused on her work. A variety of wrenches, measures, screwdrivers, files, and pieces of Elias's arm spread in front of her. She pulled her eyepiece back down and zoomed in on a joint on the end of the arm.

After she had visited the medical tent to have her nose examined and re-set, she had grabbed what parts and tools the camp could spare. She had set to work on the arm right away, with luck she would be done by morning and would be able to set the arm back in place before they set off for East City.

She slowly sled the file along the joint, wearing it down the perfectly fit it's slot. She stood up from her work and set her eyepiece down and stretched. A good number of the pieces missing had been replaced, now she need the measurements to make sure they fit Elias. She grabbed a couple of measuring tools and walked out of her tent towards the Medical tent, hoping to find Elias.

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Roland was roused from his nap by a cacophony of gunfire that was proceded by a large explosion.

He knew that sound anywhere, and it only made sense that he would be in the vicinity, he was after all, one of the most dangerous alchemists he'd ever known.

"Kimblee..."

Roland stood up and gave a stretch accompanied by some strange noises.
He gathered some static and directed a small shock through his synapses, that immediately made him more alert.

I should research the benefits of manipulatiing bio-electricity more...

He wandered around the camp, uninterested by the sounds that had woke him, he wondered to himself where Tash was, but decided that she might not appreciate his presence, as she had seemed busy, as she rushed around camp gathering tools for something.

Roland went over to Tash anyway, promising himself that he'd try to not be a distraction.

 

[nuba km]

Ken was searching the camp for a spare pencil and a note pad, just after getting a note pad from some random soldier, he heard an explosion go off. Ken turned to face the direction the explosion came from, while the soldier he was standing next quickly drew his rifle, a few seconds past before ken said 'What ever cost that explosion probably isn't any kind of porblem, so holster your rifle'.

Ken then went to find the deep blue alchemist, after a bit of searching ken saw found the deep blue alchemist and asked 'could I take a look at your jug?'.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

After returning to camp for the night, Marlin spent most of the night by the fire. He pulled out his research journal and began taking notes about the events of the day, recording both notes on the performance of his jar and notes on Torul's last words should he need to look into them later. For someone like Marlin, keeping a journal like this was essential since he tended to go off on tangents and lose focus easily. While he found he simply couldn't solve that particular problem, taking constant notes helped him at least pick up where he left off at a later time.

Marlin's focus was disturbed only by an explosion in the distance. He thought to investigate, but decided against it. There were plenty of soldiers around who were probably more suited to that sort of thing than he was. Shortly after, Ken approached and asked to look at his jar. ".... Of course. Look all you like..." He answered quietly, pointing to the jar sitting at his feet before returning to his journal.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Leo had found an empty lot between the medical tent and the living querters of the officers where he could train in peace. He had already preformed twenty three exercises when he was about to finish his daily routine. He threw his shirt aside and trained barefoot. Every exercise was demanding and made Leo sweat and sometimes have him gasping for air.

A deep breath.

Leo spread his legs and leaned back on his right leg with his left leg stretched out forward. His behind was almost touching the ground. He tapped his right leg on the desert soil and transmutated the ground underneath his right leg to push him up. He then delivered a powerful kick forward with his right leg and continued forward with an onslaught of strikes with his fists. He moved to the right and almost fell to the ground, sweeping his leg on the soil and then pulling himself up.

He ran forward and leaned to the left. he stopped his right leg on the ground and planted it on the soil. He turned around quickly and before he was about to jump he transmutated the earth to form a strange pike. He jumped and used his left leg to kick the pike forward, smashing it against the small dune that was near his training grounds.

He transmutated the soil again and launched himself in the air, preforming a somersault and landing on both of his feet held together and his arms spread sideways. He pulled his hands forward and then down to his knees and slowly bowed down.

Before he could open his eyes and end the session he heard a loud explosion in the distance. Alarmed by the attack, Leo pushed himself away from the corner of the camp towards the entrance of the camp, unaware of his sweaty and naked appearance.

 

[nuba km]

Ken picked up the jar and started making notes on all the alchemic circles, flicking between different pages of the note book as he did so. The Only noises coming out of ken as he switched between staring at the jar and the note book were a series of grunts, ranging form confused, to impressed, to surprised. After ken was done making notes, even drawing the parts of the uncompleted circles on some pages of the notebook, ken with out raising his head form his notes in a hushed voice asked the deep blue alchemist 'Was there something odd about the artillery fire to you?'

 

[sage42]

Tasha's head swiveled back and forth looking for Elias. Where....? Tasha stopped looking and pinched the bridge of her nose. "OW!" She yelped remembering her broken nose. "Great, good thing I was heading towards the medical tent anyway. She turned and saw Roland heading towards her. Se raised a hand in a small wave. "Heya, Roland. If you plan on chatting better follow me. I gotta find Elias if he wants to have his arm back by morning."

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Roland heard Tasha and made a swivel on the spot with his heel whilst whistling nonchalantly.

"Ahhh, I see, so is that what's been keeping you away from me?" he said with a wink and a cheeky grin.

He glanced over at the prosthetic arm with a feeling of intrigue, it was dented and worn, clearly having seen a lot of action, Roland made out the slot which he assumed the blade extended from.

"I just came to say hello; that damn racket woke me up and now I'm bored"

He gave an annoyed look and then pouted like a child.

 

[CJ1145]

Victor had his eyes fixated on Kimblee as Kallu stood up and walked away. "Victor, I believe that you had questions you wished answered. Come with me, disturbances are quite distracting."

He had heard the Stone's words, but was unable to do anything as he walked away. The Alchemist staring him down commanded his full attention and more than a healthy amount of his fear. Kimblee knelt down in front of him and looked at Kallu, walking away. "Quite the company you hold, there, Mr. Kendrall."

Victor's eyes widened a bit as he heard his surname being used by this man. He tried to put on a tough face, but the nervousness shone through like a flame. All he could think of were Tasha's words to him, never to spend a single moment even near this man. He was off his guard. Crimson picked up on this, and leaned in. "H-how do you know my name? Victor asked in a shaky tone. All Kimblee did was smile and pat you on the shoulder.

"You're a war hero, Corporal. Men on the frontline need stories of men like you to get them riled up, keep them going when it all seems too much. It's only natural I hear about the man who killed thirty Ishvalans with a single strike! If you don't mind, in fact.." he sat down next to Victor. The feeling in his gut was now nothing but terror. Kimblee looked up at the night sky and continued speaking.

"I'd like to commend you on work, actually. There's only so much a man can do without alchemy, but I have it on good word that the explosion you made that day was marvelous. Perhaps you saw a bit of the glory in it all? The beauty in an explosion?"

"Uh... yeah." Victor said, blatantly appeasing Kimblee to get away. "Look, I would, er, really love to stay and chat, but Kallu and I were discussing some important, uh, tactical layouts to try out in the future. So, I should really go and find him. Maybe w-we can chat some other time?"

As he stood up to leave, Kimblee stood with him and grabbed his shoulder as Victor tried to walk away. He was swiveled about and forced to stand and look up into Kimblee's dark eyes. They looked deadly serious.

"Listen to me, Victor. Something you should know..."

[hr]

A few minutes later, as Tasha and Roland chatted, they spotted a figure walking up to them. As he got close they recognized him as Victor, but he was acting odd. His face was frozen in what looked like a half-scream, his eyes were unblinking and as wide as they could be stretched, and air-dried tears left a faint trail down his cheeks.He swallowed before trying to speak to them. "T-the explosion... it was the Crimson Alchemist."

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

As Ken looked over his jar, Marlin continued to make notes in his journal about the jar's performance that day. Using it in live combat for once had given him plenty of food for thought, such as his instinctual use of the jar as a shield against the monk. Iron was originally chosen to make it difficult to destroy, but it was surprisingly useful for blocking incoming attacks. Perhaps a remaking it out of a stronger metal may prove useful? May need to bulk up a bit if it gets any heavier though. Possible materials include...

Marlins thoughts and writings were then interrupted by Ken speaking to him. "....Artillery fire....?" He muttered quietly, thinking back to what he had heard. His combat experience was minimal though, so he didn't have much to compare it to. ".... Not particularly... Don't know much about that sort of thing...." He eventually replied, not taking his eyes off of his journal.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

James fired shot after shot down the firing range, emptying the clip, he pulled back on the slide, released the empty magazine from the gun letting it drop to the ground, grabbed a full magazine and inserted into the gun and started firing again.

James repeated this three times before putting the gun down. He walked down the range to check his target dummy. It was riddled with bullets, mostly from the waist up. He ripped the target down and left the firing range, returning the gun as he left the make-shift range.

That mission was a disaster. If it wasn't for that artillery strike from the Colonel we would have died. We needed to get better as a whole. Make sure that we have pairs that match up well. Make sure we can play to each others strength and cover each others weaknesses.

James made his way to where Vlad was and sat down beside him.

"So. What did you think of that last mission?"

 

[nuba km]

Ken keeping his voice low said 'well to do that much damage would require serious fire power, and form my experience the military tries to avoid using resources were possible, and this was a target that was being attacked by a squad of state alchemist which could have been easily killed by that artillery fire. So not only did were they quite liberal with their resources they also ran the risk of killing a large number of state alchemists, they really wanted to kill that monk, and the monk was willing to use alchemy, something that would damn him and is seen as one of the greatest taboos of their religion, to stay alive. That monk may have known something that drove him to that, that the military didn't want him to know. Though this could just have been someone doing a terrible error with their use artillery, but I am just saying to keep on your toes encase more suspicious things happen.' Ken then got up and before walking away said 'just saying you might want to be careful who you disgust this kind of stuff with' Ken then started to walk round the camp to see if he could find anything of interest.

 

[Jedoro]

Elias had left his coat on his cot in the medical tent as he walked around, examining the other patients while silently easing their concerns of an Ishvalan attack through his peaceful demeanor. The lucky ones had bandages around their torsos; the fact that they survived the day meant they'd make a full recovery. Some soldiers were missing arms, others were missing legs, and one was missing one of each.

"Hey, Sarge?" a soldier asked from behind him. Elias turned and approached the man, who was missing almost his whole right leg. He knelt down as the soldier sat up on his cot.

"What is it," he paused to look at the man's rank, "Corporal?" The Corporal was quite visibly in pain, but held it in while he spoke to a Sergeant First Class.

"How is it you're mobile when you lost an arm today? Doesn't it hurt?" Elias smiled as he looked to the Corporal's neighbor who was also sitting up, a female Private who'd lost her right arm below the elbow.

"Hell yes it hurts," he began, "but when you've been in as many wars as me, you welcome the pain. It tells you you're not dead yet. And in this case, tells you you're going home. Unless you want to spring for some automail, but even then, it's your call."

"Going home..." the Corporal muttered, looking at the Private. "I wish more were coming with us." He turned back to Elias. "My team got hit by a grenade. Stokes and Martin died in the blast. We...didn't."

"We came under fire," the Private took over. "I couldn't shoot, he couldn't move, so I dragged him behind cover while he and the rest of the squad suppressed the enemy." The Private was unable to hold back all of her tears, but the Corporal could by blinking rapidly and remembering the senior NCO in front of him.

"Guys are alive, complaining, laughing in the morning. Then the patrol barely starts, and they're just...dead. How do you deal with that, Sarge?"

"If you're lucky, you never really do. You get used to people close to you dying, you may as well join them." Elias stood up and began walking back to his cot.

"Sarge, you lose someone today?" the Private asked, but Elias didn't face them as he sat back down.

"Lost my whole platoon a few days ago, even the LT. Lost my arm today. I'm sure you can figure it out." With that, he laid down on his back and stared up at the tent ceiling.

 

[sage42]

Tasha's eyes widened as she heard Victor. She quickly looked him over, checking for any sort of injury. Physically he seemed fine, mentally.....well his face gave that. "Oh shit! Corporal are you alright?"She said grabbing him by the shoulders. She looked him in the eyes hoping to find a shred of sanity left in him. "Shit, Roland help me get him to the medical tent. Looks like the medics are gonna have their hands full tonight." She said as she began to lead Victor towards the Medic tent. Damn it Kimblee! This is why I warned Victor