Mash-Up AU

[milkisgross]

Ed's eyes flickered open and it took them a moment to focus in the winter sunlight that was streaming down through the wrecked mine shaft. He must have been knocked out after falling inside after Kimbley used his Philosopher's Stone. Speaking of...

"Where'd that bastard go-"

He was slowly picking himself up off the ground when a jolt of pain ran through the core of his body. At the same time, a coppery taste filled his mouth and he coughed up blood.

"No way..."

Eyes wide, he turned his head to find a steel bar where it definitely shouldn't be. The sight coupled with the sheer pain of it all was too much for him to handle and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell back to the ground.

He didn't know how long he had been unconscious before he came to again. For a while he just lay still as he tried to think through the fog. Memories bubbled up of Al and Winry and everyone he had met while on his journey to restore his and Al's bodies.

"I can't let...all those people....cry over me...yet."

It hurt to talk. It hurt to breathe. He had to shift himself, as the way he was on the ground now he couldn't clap his hands to transmute anything. Slamming his left fist into the ground, he slowly picked himself up just enough to slide his right arm underneath him so he could bring his hands together. He clapped before getting himself up on his knees to reach behind him and transmute the metal bar so the excess sticking through his back fell off and clattered to the ground. He let himself fall to his side and tried to catch his breath.

Comments

[usedwatergun]

The clang of metal hitting the ground woke her first. It was dark when she first came to. She could hear the echo of pebbles falling from high up as little bits of debris finally began to settle. The sounds of her own moving and breathing were much too clear, like she'd been trapped in a small space with walls all around. It took some time to figure out that she was trapped under a bunch of rubble, but it looked like she was fortunate. Despite the aches and pains she felt it didn't seem she'd been too badly hurt by the fall. Gradually the details of the moments leading up to said fall were coming back to her.

She'd tracked down and trailed two alchemists after catching a glimpse of the short one's pocket watch. Realizing it marked him as a State Alchemist she'd decided to follow for answers, because he looked to be about her age and for some reason she felt that he'd be an easier target than any of the others.

On their journey to the North she'd finally seen an opportunity to make her move, attacking them in the midst of a blizzard. The fighting had gone on for a while before finally being interrupted by the appearance of soldiers. Everything had gotten a little crazy after that. None of that had much to do with why they were here now, why SHE was trapped under piles of stone. What else?

That man... another State Alchemist- or former, she didn't care. Kimblee was his name. He'd ordered they search this mining town for someone and an opportunity had presented itself. In the ensuing battle he'd caused an explosion, one that caught his henchmen, Edward, AND Katara all in the blast.

Ah! The little alchemist, where had he gone??

Suddenly motivated, almost panicked at the idea that she might've lost her best lead, Katara drew on the water from her canteen and began to cut away at the stone, meticulously. It was a painstakingly slow process to make sure she didn't get flattened under any larger slabs, but eventually she managed to cut enough apart to push away, create an opening big enough that she could pull herself free to stand. Her stomach gave a sickened twist at the sight of the chaos and destruction all around them. To think that a single alchemist had done all this... That he'd used the souls of her people to do it only added insult to injury.

Before the anger could boil back to the surface blue eyes caught sight of a glimpse of blond. The water bender had emerged just in time to see the young alchemist laid out on his side struggling to breathe, and suddenly all that anger left her in a rush, replaced by horror.

"Edward!?"

Katara skidded to a stop and dropped to her knees beside him, trying to see but- oh gods... there was so much blood...!

"Hey...! HEY! Edward! Can you hear me??"

[milkisgross]

Oh good. The water-whip girl was still in one piece. That was one less thing for Ed to have to worry about. Right now he'd take what he could get.

And what he could get right now was a bit more help. Kimblee's goons were stuck under the rubble too, but it looked like they were still alive.

"Yeah," Ed grunted as he clapped his hands together to transmute the ground to lift the rubble off the chimeras. They pulled themselves out and made their way over.

"What'd you help us for? You're the one in worse shape."

"Don't get...the wrong idea. I need help...getting this...out of my stomach."

[usedwatergun]

Later, in retrospect, Katara would probably marvel at Ed's ability to bring people together without even really trying. Sure, Kimblee had certainly helped things along by acting without thought for their safety, but Ed didn't even try to attach any conditions before freeing the two. They could easily have decided to take the freedom and run with it, or finished what they started. Katara might not be a sitting duck, but Ed more or less was.

Instead, though, they actually seemed ready and willing to hear him out. In fact, the only reason none of this was occurring to her right then was Ed's words snapped her attention to the circumstances at hand.

"Wait- if you do that you're going to bleed out! I'm a healer. Let me help, Edward."

She didn't wait to hear any arguments, not that he was in any sort of condition to make them, but somehow she didn't think it would stop him trying. Her voice seemed calm on the surface but there was just a hint of a quiver there for the astute, or their two "companions" with their animal senses. They couldn't have been heartless because Katara caught the glance shared between them while they probably thought she wasn't looking, as she moved closer to Ed's side, ignoring the blood soaking into the knees of her pants as she knelt down.

"You two are going to have to help me move him. Carefully. I can't help with this metal but I can close the wound and stop the bleeding."

[milkisgross]

Katara might not want to hear any arguments, but she's in the same vicinity as Edward Elric, so she's going to hear nothing but. The chimeras didn't seem any more sure of Ed's request than Katara, but you didn't exactly need medical training to guess how fast he'd bleed out when the metal bar was taken away.

"I can...use alchemy...to connect the...the undamaged tissue." He was still going to argue to get the damn thing removed from his abdomen. For one thing, it wasn't as if there was a proper hospital anywhere around. Second, he didn't have time for what he understood what would be a lengthy recovery process. He had to patch himself up and start looking for Al and the others now.

The chimeras, while injured themselves, weren't much worse off than Katara. They knelt down next to them. Heinkel added, "Sorry kid, but we're gonna listen to the one who knows what she's doing."

Daruis meanwhile looked over to Katara. "Where are we movin' him?"

[usedwatergun]

Ultimately it wasn't much of an argument, and she knew that he was right in that the bar needed to be removed. But rather than seeing him expending more energy that he really didn't have to spare she fully intended to take over.

She'd thought herself prepared, had seen worse carnage than this at the tender age of four during the raid on her village, but those memories- horrifying as they were -were a long way off from the here and now. She found her stomach churning with a mixture of anxiety, fear, and unavoidable unease. Even if she managed to stop the bleeding, even if she let HIM stop the bleeding, there was no assurance he'd recover. The thought of him dying- it didn't matter that they'd been at each other's throats since first meeting, or that he was probably the rudest person she'd ever met. He was a person. He was a kid- just the same as she was. What was more, even without knowing his story Katara could tell enough to know that he was a kid who, like her, had been made to grow up far too fast, who had seen horrible things no one their age should ever have to see.

She'd be DAMNED if she was going to let him die.

Eyes glassy, but determined, she turned her attention to the chimeras. Heinkel- the one that had turned into the werelion -she started by giving him direction first.

"I need him on his back, try to make him comfortable if you can. One of you is going to have to hold him and the other is going to have to pull this out."

No time for hesitating. Her hand moved to the flask at her side and she flipped the cork open with the flick of her thumb, her other hand moving to stream the contents free.

Darius had taken the task of holding Ed still, once the two managed to shift him onto his back- surprisingly gentle for their size and all the strength they'd displayed earlier. He seemed skeptical, animal instincts telling him something unnatural was happening, but he didn't think she meant any of them any harm. Hell, she'd had plenty of opportunity to take off, or attack them while they were all three trapped. And these two were just kids at the end of the day, no matter how skilled they were as fighters. "Alright, little miss, I've got him. Now what?"

Heinkel, already preparing, had reached to take a hold of the metal piping but didn't dare until the waterbender had given the go-ahead. He knew enough to figure it'd be a bad idea to jostle it around more than strictly necessary. He watched her work in silent awe as she coated the area of Ed's wounds with the water from her water skin, and it began to glow. He, like Darius though, had noticed the way that her hands trembled, like she was just barely holding it together. With a low, rumbling tone he murmured an encouraging word or two.

"You'll do fine, miss. Just tell us when you're ready."

"Right... Thank you. I'm ready." And she meant it, though she still looked a bit shaken she was also focused.

The process would be painful, no matter what Katara did she could only soothe so much of Ed's discomfort, but bit by bit they managed. Katara's primary concerns were not letting him hemorrhage from blood loss or sending his body into shock. Her secondary concern was the wound becoming infected, meaning she had to act quickly to clean it as she healed. It pushed her to her limits to do both at once, brow knitted in concentration. She put all the strength and focus she had into mending the damage. By the time they finally had finished seeing to the worst of it sweat had broken out on her brow, and she discarded the water, contaminated as it was with blood and bits of metal.

"He still needs to see a doctor. We have... we have to get him to a town, but..."

She looked over his face, unsure if he was even still conscious after all of that. He'd proven that he had a far larger threshold for pain that she could ever hope to claim. Just what in the hell kind of ordeals had he gone through in his life to make him THAT resilient...?

[milkisgross]

Ed wasn't happy with being ignored like that, but there wasn't really a whole lot he could do about it. He groaned as the chimeras rolled him over to his back, but otherwise remained quiet while Katara took charge. She was directing the chimeras to do exactly what he wanted them to do, to get that piece of metal out of his stomach.

It was what came after that Ed had issues with. With the way he was being held, he couldn't very easily clap his hands together to transmute, and Katara had her water placed over the wound doing whatever it was to make it glow, not that he could see it very well.

And then Heinkel started to remove the bar. Ed had wanted it to be done as quickly as possible, but he wasn't the one calling the shots. Thankfully for both him and Katara, the Heinkel and Darius were plenty strong enough to keep Ed pretty still. His head snapped back and his back arched from the pain. A scream escaped from his mouth he had no control over and his eyes rolled back again. He was no stranger to pain, but this was something on a while new level of anguish.

It felt like an eternity, but the pain eventually subsided. He went limp. The chimeras looked at him, then at each other, then at Katara. "He's not dead, is he?"

It came out as an unintelligible mumble first, but he managed to repeat himself. "-not dead." He tried to push himself up and out of the chimera's grasp. "Don't have time...for a doctor."

[sifukatara]

She knew there was a risk of him going into shock, or causing lingering damage if they just ripped the thing out, but Katara still hated herself just a little bit for drawing out his pain. If she were in Edward's place she didn't personally think she'd have been strong enough to endure it. She grimaced as she worked, but once started she couldn't simply stop, and so instead she forced herself to tune out the pain.

She worked as quickly as possible, but seeing Ed slumping back once she'd finished, she first had a moment of panic. At their question she was about ready to search for signs of life, but Ed spared them all the worry when he began to move. Relieved, both to see him stubbornly still going and still conscious enough to form coherent sentences, Katara let out a quiet breath of relief.

"Make time, Edward, you won't be of any help to your brother or your friends if you're dead!" She scolded softly, voice trembling still. She hadn't even realized how much blood there was until she moved to stand and realized her blue robes had taken on a sick, dark hue where said blood had soaked in. She ignored it for the time being and looked for something they might be able to fashion into something to carry Edward with, but nothing was in sight, meaning they'd have to carry him out.

She relayed that information to the two chimera with a worried but determined tone, and began turning snow to water to refill her water skin, and to clean the worst of the blood before it dried. They had a long way to go.​

Time Jump Incoming

[milkisgross]

Edward grumbled something incoherent as he was hauled up onto Heinkel's back. He had to turn his head to the side just to be able to breathe since his damn mane was so thick and suffocating. It was just moment after that that his body had apparently had enough and he went limp, passing out...

...and waking up who knows how much later in what looked like a little clinic with an IV in his left arm. Looks like Katara and the chimera guys made time for him to see a doctor for him. He wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Wait you mean you meant an IN CHARACTER time jump not an OOC one? > >;;

[sifukatara]

( It hath been an age so I promise I won't be offended if you've lost interest. I know I have some nerve tagging this over 2 years later. )

They had found this little town after traveling for a little while, thankfully. At first Katara was wary of the two traveling with them, unsure if they would take an opportunity to leave-- it wasn't even that she'd blame them. Kimblee wanted them dead, so it would ultimately be safer not to stick with the people who were likely going to run into him again soon. They'd put her worry rather quickly to bed, though, by pointing out that they owed Ed their life, and their instincts were still saying that sticking with him was the best option. She suspected there was a little more to it than that, but she hadn't said so, had only given them a grateful smile before they forged on.

As they traveled she learned a little about the two. They were victims of Amestris' military experiments as well, being given those bodies against their will. They were making the most of it now, but unsurprisingly Katara felt anger on their behalf. She explained how her village had been used to create a philosopher's stone, and that she was one of the few who'd managed to survive and escape.

That turned their questions to Ed. Heinkel and Darius gave what information they knew but ultimately it was decided to let Edward answer for himself whenever he came around, if the opportunity to converse arose.

The little alchemist was in... not the greatest shape, but better than he would've been without any treatment. She'd managed to clean the wound and repair the worst of the damage, but he absolutely still needed medical attention, so here they were at this small clinic.

The couple seemed kind on first glance, but it soon became apparent that they weren't so charitable as to do anything for free, let alone welcome trouble at their doorstep. The chimeras had been forced to barter for their silence in exchange for their fee.

They'd also then had to talk Katara out of blowing her cover by healing Edward herself.

They were just debating the topic of how to pay said fee when Ed seemed to finally be coming around. Katara, looking over from where they were seated, got up to come closer and have a look.

"Edward, you're finally awake. How are you feeling...?"