What Lurks Beneath

Four

Edward flopped on his bed and groaned. Everything felt stiff and he ached. Alphonse sat on the opposite bed and looked at his brother. “Are you okay?”

“I swear, I think we should’ve come in with the military behind us.” Ed said, boneless on the mattress. “At least then I wouldn’t have to draw circles on everything I fix.”

“But then Raymond might run.” Alphonse reasoned. “Or he’d attack all these nice people, like Lani and Mato. And we haven’t seen any of his friends, so they could be watching for the military.”

Ed turned his head to look at his little brother. “I just want to get this over with. I want to get back to our own search.”

“I know. Me too.” Alphonse replied soothingly. “But we have to do this for the Colonel. He hasn’t asked us for much.”

“I know, I know.” Ed rubbed his eyes. “Anyway, I think I have a plan. It we can get Raymond out of Cantos on the pretense of looking for another way into the cave, we could capture him in a cage. Haul him back to Mustang that way.”

“Sounds difficult.”

“I didn’t say it was perfect.” Ed groused. “Ray’s so paranoid. He’s never in one place for long. Catching him is going to be hard.”

Alphonse shifted to fetch his oil and a rag, and began to clean the dirt and grime off his armor. “We’ll figure it out. As long as he’s here, we can take our time.”

Ed gave a little grin. “Then we can take him back to Mustang and complain about how hard it was to catch Raymond and how much he owes us.”

“That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking, Ed.”

“Well, that bastard deserves it.” Edward grumped. “I’m gonna try to get some sleep. We’re going deeper into the mine tomorrow and I need all the energy I can get.”

“Ray’s working you hard, huh?” Alphonse asked.

Ed mumbled something pithy and rolled over to give Alphonse his back. Alphonse chuckled quietly and continued cleaning his armor so it wouldn’t rust. He paused when he heard a scuff outside their door and stared at the portal for a while. When nothing happened, Alphonse went back to cleaning his armor. It probably wasn’t anything important anyway.

Raymond set the lamp down on the floor and knelt by the small niche in the rock where he’d hidden the dynamite. He pulled out the bundle of sticks and set them away from the flame of his lamp. This precious bundle was meant for the Elric brothers, meant to be the last thing Mustang’s little prodigy ever saw. It was getting tiring playing the fool and he was positive the brat and the armor-wearing brat with the blonde pipsqueak knew who he was. It was only a matter of time before the military showed up to take him off to prison.

Raymond stood up and picked up the lamp and dynamite and began setting the charges, rolling the fuse out of the cave as he set the sticks in niches above the cave mouth and along the first few yards of the walls. He examined his work and grinned.

“What are you doing?”

Raymond turned to face his little bird, and grinned wider. “Impatient or not those little brats want to take me back to the military. They’re here for that bastard Mustang. Well, I won’t let Mustang make a fool of me again! I’ll teach him to take something important from me!”

Those black eyes narrowed far too dangerously. “I told you not to do something like this. Those boys are far more important than you are.”

“And what are you going to do? Stop me?” Raymond grinned, teeth bared in a violent display. “I told you when we started this little project if any military showed up I’d dispose of them.”

“And we were perfectly willing to let you do that. But those boys belong to us.” The skinny creature’s hands shifted, nails becoming sharp like a cat’s claws. “I won’t let you kill them.”

“And who are you to stop me?”

“None of your business!” The skinny creature lunged for Raymond, lips split in a murderer’s grin. Raymond twisted as the skinny man came at him and dodged to the side to avoid those deadly claws. Raymond nearly activated the transmutation circle that was inscribed on the leather cord around his neck but stopped at the last second. Instead he reached behind his back and pulled out his pistol.

The skinny creature laughed hysterically. “What do you think that’s going to do? Kill me?”

Raymond grinned, eyes wide in glee. “Well, of course.”

The skinny creature threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, you only wish, human.” The creature lunged for Raymond again, only this time Ray was faster. The alchemist brought his pistol up and pulled the trigger. Thunder crashed as the bullet burst from the barrel. The skinny creature tried to dodge, but the bullet was moving at too fast a speed to really avoid. The bullet crashed into the creature’s forehead and impacted with enough force to throw the body back. It hit the ground hard enough to send up a cloud of dust.

Raymond stood over the body of the skinny man and pulled the trigger three more times to ensure the creature was really dead. He grinned widely. Now it was Mustang’s turn to bleed.