The Water Alchemist

Revelation

Welcome back to The Water Alchemist. I don't own any of the intellectual property of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Chapter Fourteen

Revelation

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"You... know who my father is?" I asked shakily. Elias gave me a strange look, turning up his nose.

"What are you talking about?"

"I– I," I stuttered. Nessa came to my rescue, pulling Elias back.

"Give her space," she said sternly.

"You know your own father, don't you?" he asked. I shook my head. "What do you mean? You have to. You're his daughter!"

He began for the middle of the room, pacing back and forth, mumbling to himself. Nessa walked up to me and gently wiped away my tears with a cloth.

"I'm really sorry about him. He's just earnest," she said softly. If I weren't so terrified, I would have probably laughed in her face.

"Did they tell the truth, then? Did they really wipe her memories?" I overheard him mumble.

I shot a glance over to him. He looked directly into my eyes, and a shiver shot down my spine. He broke the look and started digging around in his pockets. He pulled a wadded piece of paper out and unfolded it as he moved closer. I slunk back into the corner at his approach.

"Look, Elias, you need to leave," Nessa said. "I think you've done enough."

"Not until she tells me where he is," he said, casting her aside. He shoved the unfolded paper in my face, and I realized it was a photograph. In it was a small family of three. A young woman smiled brightly, holding an infant, and a young man looked at them both fondly. His blonde hair and blue eyes were mirrored in the child. "You remember now?"

"I don't," I said. My heart started beating faster in my chest, and my head began to hurt. I knew the familiar feeling of my memory migraine, but this one was different.

"You have to remember," he said, more aggressively. Their forms spun in my vision as I collapsed on the bed. My breathing grew labored as I tried to ease the pain. Ross taught me a technique to combat my spells with deep breathing, but inhaling was sharp and difficult. My migraine grew to an intensity I had never felt before, in no time at all. I abandoned the breathing exercise and started screaming as my head seared in pain. I writhed as Elias and Nessa watched in confusion and panic. "What's happening?"

"How should I know?" Nessa shot back.

"You just said she was fine!" he yelled.

"She was!" she yelled back.

I began to sweat profusely and tried desperately to move my hands to my head. My shoulders burned as I attempted to pry my hands apart. I felt like I was out of my body. I screamed out in pain as flashes of Marcoh's early life that were fuzzy before cleared. Two conflicting visions emerged. One was of my physical body, thrashing around restrained in the room I was just in. The other followed Marcoh into a room that had an ominous red glow.

What's going on? I've never had a migraine this extreme without passing out, I thought. And I've never been both aware of my physical surroundings and within the dream before. I looked back at my physical body and realized I could no longer feel whatever pain she felt. I turned from the physical vision to focus on what I assumed to be Marcoh's past. I followed him through the corridor and stood by as a man convened quietly with Marcoh while men in lab coats gathered around. I looked around the dreamscape and noticed that an intricate transmutation circle lined the middle of the floor. The red glow was emitted by tanks of flowing red water that sloshed around occasionally. Soldiers in the familiar blue uniform threw shackled dark-skinned men into the circle haphazardly. The man and Marcoh talked briefly after their gathering before he approached the circle and placed his hands on the floor. In a flash of blue, the transmutation circle began to glow, but the blue sparks of light quickly transitioned into a crimson red as the water from the tanks drained and flooded the floor in the pattern of the circle. Through the screams of men and the flash of light, I could see the man who cast the transmutations' face. The red light reflected in pools of blue as he watched the Philosophers Stone come to life, and wonderment turned to horror as reality struck, and bodies fell to the floor. In an instant, I was in front of him, but I hadn't moved. He looked up as if he could tell that I was there – as if this weren't a memory – and our eyes met. He was horror-struck as he looked beyond me, and the screaming of dead men echoed in our ears.