The Frost Alchemist

Chapter 23: Survive

It was hopeless. 

It had been days or what I assumed was days since I was locked up, but thankfully we hadn't been joined by any other alchemist of our caliber which meant that they had found a way to protect themselves. 

"No ideas yet?" Izumi asked from across the room. Her comment sparked a fire in me.

"Ideas?! Are you kidding me?! Yeah, I have ideas but I can't do anything with no hands and one leg! They didn't even bother chaining me up because I can't even manage to really crawl! So no I have no ideas! Why don't you try something!" I screamed at her.

"Didn't think an Armstrong would give up so easily," she commented like I hadn't just yelled at her.

"Well maybe if I was really an Armstrong I could do something, but I'm not. I'm a poor substitute because Olivier didn't have any kids. I'm the product of a father who couldn't handle his one damn job and a woman who wasn't strong enough to stay alive for her kids. I'm the girl who couldn't even save her little sister or manage to bring her back to life. Hell, I couldn't even die properly. I'm no Armstrong," I said. Izumi said nothing for a few minutes and I took that as her finally giving up.

"You stayed alive right?" she finally asked.

"Excuse me?" I replied.

"No money in the freezing North, no support. Three limbs replaced with automail. You lost so much blood and nearly froze, but you didn't die. You survived the procedure. Excelled in rehabilitation. And from what Olivier said you were an excellent soldier and a superb alchemist. A psycho tried to kill you and yet here you are. Seems to me that God isn't ready for you yet and trust me he takes whatever the hell he wants. So it sure as hell isn't time for you to give in and accept whatever fate these crazy people have in store for us," she explained. 

In an annoying way, she was right. I didn't have any automail, I couldn't move properly or use any alchemy. But Izumi... she was only chained... if I could free one of her hands then she could do the rest. But how to free one of them? I couldn't pick the lock. I needed hands for that. The metal is too strong to try to bend free with my weight. There had to be another option. 

Just then my other option came through the door holding food. They would throw my plate on the ground in front of me and watch me eat like a dog while Izumi was fed. They wanted us alive for some unknown reason. The guard tossed my food to the ground before going over to Izumi. I had to act now before I lost my courage. I leaned against the wall and moved my leg until it was under me and then I began to push myself to stand, sliding against the wall. Once I stood I stay prompted up on the wall as I began to hop over to the other side of the room. It wasn't long before the guard heard me. 

"What are you doing?" he asked as he approached me.

"Was does it look like? I'm walking," I said and he walked over to me.

"They said you were hard to take down but you're just down right pathetic Frost," he said and I headbutted him, making not only him move back but me fall forward as I lost my balance. I ended up back on the ground and he kicked after recovering. He grumbled something before leaving. 

"Levy?" Izumi asked. And I looked up at her, the keyring. It had a couple keys on it. Someone else locked and unlocked the door, so he wouldn't notice the missing keys for a while, or at least I hoped he wouldn't. 

Still holding the keys in my mouth I crawled over to Izumi using my elbows and one good leg to move semi-easily. Once I got to her wall I leaned on it and pushed myself to stand again. Where her hand was chained was only a little higher than I was so I had to reach for it, manage to get a key in the lock and try to push it in and turn it. It was harder than it sounds. The first key failed and I grunted in frustration and tried again, it was a little easier because I actually had the key rather than the key ring in my mouth. This time the key worked and I dropped to the ground as the lock unlocked. Izumi used the key to unlock the rest of her limbs and dropped to the ground alongside me, rubbing her sore body.

"Okay let's give you something to walk with until we get you automail," she said before placing her hands on the stone wall behind us and came out with a bottom half of a leg, the fake limb barely fit over the remaining metal on my body, but it should at least stay there until I could get a real replacement. Next was my arm and hand. She finished my right arm with the metal from a couple of her chains, but instead of giving me a left hand she used the other two chains to make a long pole that went over my metal on my left wrist.

"You'll need a cane, that leg is useless and heavy, but you can put weight on it," she said before standing and helping me stand. 

"We need to get out of here," she said.

"Not until we find the others. We're not leaving them here Izumi," I said.

"I'm not the alchemist I once was and you still can't use alchemy," she said. 

"We can't leave them. I won't leave them," I stated.

"What was that about you not being an Armstrong? Pretty sure that stubbornness was passed through the Armstrong line," she joked and I rolled my eyes. 

Olivier Armstrong's Point Of View

"We have to find her!" Maes shouted. The entire Elric family had come up to the fort after being attacked and losing Levy to the attackers. Selim was their prisoner, I was still trying to understand what happened.

"We shouldn't have come up here in the first place," Ed commented angrily. 

"Mom is still sick and nowhere is safer than here," Sarah argued with her father. They all began arguing and I went over to Selim. 

"Why are you in chains?" I asked and he looked at the ground.

"I used Pride's power to try to save her," he said quietly.

"I thought you weren't Pride anymore." My comment brought attention to us.

"I'm not, but I remembered him about seven years ago and with my memories came his power," he explained. "I don't use it. I don't like it. But Levy was in danger."

"Lock him up. Total darkness, no shadows in the room," I ordered and Selim was taken away. 

"I'm not him! I was trying to help her! I am not Pride!" he screamed. 

"In the meanwhile, Levy will be okay, she's an Armstrong, she'll survive whatever they are doing to her," I said to the others.

"She's not an Armstrong," Levy's father argued. He showed up a few weeks ago. 

"She sure as hell isn't your daughter. My men and I pulled her bleeding out of the snow. I sat with her while she cried at the loss of her sister, screamed at the pain during surgery and rehabilitation. You left her. Levy is an Armstrong. She is my daughter and if anyone is going to make it out of wherever the hell she is, it's her," I stated.