The Butterfly and Flame Alchemists: The Healing Flower

Chapter Six: Out of the Pan

Marcoh raced up the steps, taking two at a time, before bursting through the door. Joseph had practically stood guard waiting for him, rushing him through the halls bringing him up to speed.

"Mr. Havoc said she seemed fine, then suddenly looked pale and lost consciousness when she stood up," one would think that he was on the verge of tears with how upset he looked, "she still hasn't come back to us,"

"Thank you Joseph," he nodded, stepping through the threshold, taking in the scene.

The last time he had seen Aileana this bad was after the battle with Father and the Elrics had returned from their time in the Portal of Truth. Mei had patched her up from where she was stabbed, but she had still lost a lot of blood and in her condition could have been life and death for her and Russell. They had taken nearly everyone who had substantial injuries to the hospital, Aileana among them. He could still hear the sound of Roy's voice as he asked him once more for help; see the look on his face as he looked down at his wife in fear. Though she was had been in the hospital for some time, before of her preexisting illness and the combined stress of her pregnancy and the fighting, her condition had worsen and there wasn't much else the doctors could do. In all the years he had known Roy, he had never seen him as vulnerable as he was then. He still didn't know if Roy had ever told her about what he had done.

"Marcoh!" Havoc turned away from Aileana, releasing her hand, "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Joseph told me what happened. I have no doubt that it's from the attack the other day,"

"You can heal her right?"

"In all honesty, I'm not sure," he shook his head, "I don't even know what poison was used,"

"But you still have a philosopher's stone right? You can just use one of those,"

"Unfortunately no, all known philosopher stones were destroyed years ago. Not that it would matter in this case; the Madam Fuhrer wouldn't allow it,"

"Wait, what do you mean?" Havoc looked frantic, "what do you mean destroyed? This could be the only thing that saves her!"

"I mean just that – when Mustang took office and everyone he needed healed was healed, he ordered each and every stone destroyed. Of course, if someone outside the government has made one, we have no knowing of it. That's why order 664 came out; it passed into law that any individual known to have created a philosopher's stone would be arrested and face a life sentence,"

"That's right,' the hope was slowly slipping through his fingers, his body sitting heavily in his seat, "what about this about her not wanting to use it? You used it on her before,"

"Yes but that was, at least to my understanding, without her knowledge. Both she and Russell would have died since she was not responding well to treatment in the hospital,"

Havoc could remember that vividly. Roy had sent for him to return to Central at once, despite his initial protests, and had just had his legs returned to him. The doctor overseeing her recovery had pulled Roy out of the room, a look of despair on his face. When he finally returned to the room, he asked Havoc for a moment alone, the sound of muffled tears reaching his ears as he shut the door.

"We have to figure this out before Mustang finds out," he had to protect his friends. It was the least he could do after all they had already done for him.

"We'll need to call Mei," Marcoh nodded, "at this point Alkchestry is the only thing we haven't tried. But we must make it apparent that she cannot tell anyone that Aileana has made a turn for the worse; not with their daughter being there,"