Chapter Text
It had to have been at least ten minutes of walking. Ten horribly stressful, nerve-wracking minutes of dead silence. The stranger's hand moved from Edward's wrist to his shoulder as he pushed him forward, keeping the switchblade out of obvious sight. Al walked next to his brother, stiff as a board. He clearly wasn't going to try anything with a threat hanging over Ed's head.
Edward thought about giving some sort of signal to anyone who happened to glance in their direction but doing so ended up being much more difficult than anticipated. They were guided to a side of town they had never been too before, edging closer to the city's outskirts. Less people were walking around like in the center of town, and anyone they did happen to cross was usually on the other side of the road, too far to see their distress, or just not paying attention.
They approached a mostly empty lot on the edge of a quiet neighborhood. It looked to have once been claimed by construction that must have been canceled before the land could become anything. Among the piles of abandoned steel beams and construction tools was an old, dingy trailer home with a dusty tan paint job that fit into the decrepit plot of land well. Had he merely been passing by, Ed would have thought nothing of it. But now that he was being forced in that direction with a knife behind his back, he was terrified of it. He wanted nothing more than to take Al and run far away. But the cold hand on his shoulder was a steady warning to comply.
Part of him was convinced he could slip out of the man's grasp and make a run for it before any damage could befall him. But with Al in the mix, he wouldn't dare risk it as things were. If they were not completely on the same page and everything was pointing towards their favor, something could go wrong and he could end up causing something much worse to happen. But with that said, he had no idea what they were being shoved into. Which outcome was really worse?
Regardless, he wasn't in any position to gamble with his and Al's well being.
"Open the door and go inside." Ed paused when they reached the trailer and took a moment longer to realize that it was Alphonse who was being addressed. He glanced at his brother and mustered up a frail smile when he took in how terrified he looked. The gesture seemed to help somewhat. Alphonse nodded slowly and climbed the steep steps allowed him to open the door, as ordered. But his brother just stood there for a moment, gazing inside the trailer, paralyzed by the fear of walking into their own cage.
"Hurry up," the man said urgently, almost with a hint of nervous tension. Unbeknownst to Al, his grip of Ed's shoulder tightened. He refrained from reacting to the pressure, if only to make him feel a little less powerless.
Alphonse jumped out of whatever thought he was having and reluctantly stepped into the trailer, giving the inside a cursory glance, and holding the door open for Ed and his assailant.
This was bad. This was really, really bad.
Only vaguely aware that he was holding his breath, Edward climbed up the steep few steps to get inside when the man released his shoulder but followed closely. Ed and Al automatically strayed over to a corner to get a better look of the trailer and the person who apparently owned it.
It was horribly average looking. Nothing that screamed kidnapper or murderer or anything else that their paranoid expectations wanted to paint for them. Just a normal trailer home with a small kitchenette, small counter space, and a compact door that led into the other half of it. He supposed something more daunting could have been behind there, but at that point, Edward couldn't help but expect the whole thing to appear just as normal. Still, that did little to ease their festering worries.
The man stared at them for a long second, then took a few steps closer, causing them both to back up further into the corner. Al grabbed into Ed's sleeve nervously. The kidnapper dropped his narrowed hazel eyes onto Al and extended a hand.
"Give me your phone."
The grip on Ed's sleeve tightened. "I- I don't-"
"I know you have one; give it to me!" he demanded with a single fervent shake of his hand.
Alphonse flinched away from the loud tone and nervously fished into his pocket and gave up his phone. Now he had both of them; the phones Roy had bought for them to keep in touch. Edward felt his stomach churn.
The man gave the device a quick glance before stealing it away in his pocket, likely along with Ed's phone. "Good. Now sit down and don't try anything." Not given much of an option, they did just that.
Edward hated complying with the guy. Every fiber in his being screamed at him to stay on his feet and do something. He had faced selfish, callous people before. He had been hurt before. He wanted to reason that this wasn't any different, but it abjectly was. He was terrified; so much that he couldn't trust himself to act. If he tried, he could freeze up and only get the two of them in a worse situation. He had to constantly remind himself that he would be facing off of a grown adult who was armed, while he was a child with nothing to defend himself with.
He tried looking around for any makeshift weapon, but as to be expected of a mobile home, everything in sight was either bolted down, or stored away, not to mention far out of arms reach from the corner they sat in.
The kidnapper tensely sat down at the semi-compressible table, facing the two, and pulled out his own phone and made a call. He nervously tapped his foot as he waited. "Hey," he eventually said into the other line. "I uh… I got them." There was a pause. "Yeah, two." The faint, muffled voice on the other end rose in volume, and the guy grimaced slightly. "…whatever, just get down here." Edward had the sneaking feeling that he was being terse only because Ed and Al were listening. There was another long pause. The man's frown deepened. Eventually, he made a quiet sound of acknowledgement and hung up the phone without another word. Immediately following, his narrowed eyes fell on the two almost as if he was suddenly upset that they were there.
They said nothing.
He said nothing.
The nameless kidnapper looked back down to his phone, occasionally tapping the screen in silence.
Alphonse was still keeping close to Ed, holding onto his arm like a lifeline, his fear painfully evident. Edward hated to see it, but he was just relieved Alphonse was able to stay close to him. He would not stand for it if anyone tried to split them up.
But even so, the lack of information they had was unbearable. Why was this happening? Why them? Who was this guy, anyway? Edward desperately wanted to find some answers and was hastily thinking up ways to do so. But Al took one look at him, and quickly knew what he was thinking, and shook his head.
Ed considered his brother for a moment, then trailed his attention back to the other man. Maybe it was the lack of anything happening what allowed some of his usual bravery to return. Regardless, he disregarded Al's silent warning.
"Hey," he said boldly from the corner as Alphonse tensed besides him. "What do you want with us?"
"Shut up," the man responded quickly, not even sparing a glance from his phone.
Well that didn't quite go as planned.
Something told him that any more attempts to talk would end in similar failure. It looked like they just had to sit there and hope whoever was called would clear things up upon arriving, instead of making things worse for them. From the one-sided conversation he and Al were able to hear, it didn't seem like the third party was very happy. In fact, for a kidnapper, the guy who had brought them there didn't seem all too satisfied either. Which was… good?
At the very least, he didn't seem eager to hurt them. If that were the case, then Ed had to assume their presence here as hostages served some kind of purpose. Blackmail, maybe?
God, the lack of information was infuriating.
The uselessness; complete and utter lack of power.
He exhaled irritably and shifted his weight subtly enough not to draw any attention to himself, finding a more comfortable position against the trailer's wall. For the time being, he had no option besides keeping his eyes open and ensuring he was always between his brother and the stranger.
Minutes passed uneventfully. For a while, it almost seemed anticlimactic with how frightening everything up to that point had been. And still, there was no denying the abject fear of the situation. Especially while they had no idea what fate was intended for them. But it started to get almost boring, waiting for something to happen. Not like Ed was complaining; he would easily take boring over the alternative.
He tried to think productively, but they really had no options there. Again, he couldn't help but wish he understood more about alchemy. He could have carved a circle into the ground behind him to… do something. Something awesome. But as things were, that currently felt like nothing more than a pipe dream.
They could only sit there and wait.
He hated waiting.
These cycling thoughts kept him preoccupied for a while, at least. Between glancing back to make sure Alphonse was alright every few moments and trying to come up with some elaborate escape plan, it didn't feel like much time had passed before something finally happened.
The door into the trailer home was suddenly jostled and both Ed and Al stiffened, eyes darting to it as panic flared. The door was pushed open with a sense of urgency. But their rising fear was put on pause when they saw who it was.
Coach Mercer stood in the doorway. And for a moment, a disorienting wave of impulsive relief flooded over the two kids.
The older man's wide, almost frantic eyes landed on the two and remained there for several excruciatingly long seconds as there was an exchange of recognition. His shoulders then slouched, and his expression softened into one of disappointment. And curiously enough, there was not an ounce of surprise or shock.
Their relief started to fearfully draw back.
The coach pried his eyes away from the blonds and onto the other guy to look at him despairingly and spoke with an exasperated sigh. "You idiot."
"What?" the stranger snapped as he stood up to face Andrew Mercer.
The coach looked back to the two kids as if he was wary of their presence, then turned back with a withering glare. "These were the worst two you possibly could have chosen," he growled, then continued in a more hushed tone. "Their father is a State Alchemist."
The stranger's desire to argue diminished as if a switch had been flipped at the mention of the infamous title as he blanched. "Seriously? Shit- you were supposed to warn me about something like that!"
"You were the one that acted ahead of schedule!" Mercer said coldly with a finger pointed accusingly at the kidnapper.
"I had too! The military just caught the rest of the rioters!"
"This isn't worth the risk anymore," the coach replied, casting the brothers another quick glance. "I don't want any part in this."
"It's too late for that," the other shot back quickly. "These brats know you're involved now. Besides, the military will be knocking on our doors soon anyway, so we didn't have a choice to begin with!"
"No, the military will be knocking on your door, and you dragged me into this."
"You were just as involved as I was at first."
"That's not-"
"Uhh hi!" Both of the olden men paused their argument to look over to Ed when he abruptly cut in, currently far too confused to fear the situation at that point. "What the hell is going on!?" he asked frantically, primarily looking at the coach as he still had a hard time understanding why he was involved in their kidnapping.
"I told you to be quiet," the stranger snapped, but the coach waved a weary hand dismissively at him, unaffected by his tone besides looking a little annoyed.
He took a hesitant step closer to the two kids, expression remorseful and nervous. "I'm sure it doesn't mean much now, but I'm sorry you two got caught up in this," he sighed as the other glared at his back.
Ed glanced at his brother, who was unsurprisingly just as shocked and confused as he was. "What is this? How do you know that guy? What are you doing here?" he asked hastily, the questions that had built up all spilling out at once. He had to hold himself back from asking them all in a single breath.
The coach pursed his lip for a moment then looked back to the other, who just shook his head disapprovingly. He sighed and continued nonetheless. "This is my younger brother."
Edward blinked, mouth gaping as he looked between the two. Now that it was pointed out, he could see the similarities. Same hair and eye color, except the coach had a more fit build, while the brother was leaner- almost scrawnier. He quickly thought back to when they were all at the park and he noticed a suspicious figure in the distance, drawing the coach's attention to it at the same time. He must have known it was his brother who was skulking around all along.
And perhaps that explained the man's reluctance too- that maybe getting involved in all of this was out of a sense of obligation to his sibling.
But what kind of brother would allow it to escalate this far?
"…what?" Ed eventually breathed, mind still reeling too quickly to make as much sense of this as he would have liked.
"It's… complicated," the coach sighed.
"Enough of this," the younger brother growled as he stepped between them to crouch down in front of the blonds with Edward's phone in hand. He presented the device, through with his grip still firmly on it. "Unlock it."
Edward squint at him. "What for?"
His question earned himself a very pointed and impatient glare. "Don't think anything will change just because you happen to know Andrew. He's not going to help you. Now unlock the phone." The coach looked away with a grimace.
Not a good sign.
Ed, once again given no other feasible option, nervously punched in the four digits for the kidnapper, who withdrew it immediately after to start snooping around inside.
The appearance of a familiar face at least shook some of the paralyzing fear out of him; enough of think somewhat without being overwhelmed with panic, at least. But still, there was nothing good about this situation. Maybe if he could somehow reason with Coach Mercer to let them go, but with that said, Ed understood the determination to do anything for his brother all too well. He couldn't help but doubt his chances.
He watched with apprehension as the stranger poked around his phone. The man paused, looked confused for a second, then showed the screen to the older brother, who glanced at it somberly and pointed at something. As the younger pulled it back to continue, the coach turned away and sat down at the table with a heavy sigh and slackened shoulders, head bowed to avoid looking at the two kids.
After a moment, the kidnapper rose the phone to his ear and waited, nervously tapping his foot. Several beats passed in silence, then cleared his throat. "Not quiet," he started in response to an unknown question from the other end of the line. "We have your sons. Bring five million cens to the location I'm about to send you. No military buddies, no alchemy, no tricks." He paused and knelt down a little too close to Ed and Al again. "If you don't follow these demands to the letter, your kids might get hurt." Without warning, he reached out his free hand to grab Ed's bangs and tugged hard enough to make him gasp from surprised pain into the phone's speaker, much to his immediate chagrin. He knew in an instant who was on the other end of the line.
"Hey!" Al cried out from behind him. The kidnapper let go and stepped back before either could try to fight back. Meanwhile, the coach cursed under his breath.
Again, the man addressed the phone. "You have one hour," he said without allowing more than a beat to pass, then hung up. Once the call had ended, he quickly typed something into it and put the stolen phone back into his pocket. With a heavy breath, he went to lean against one of the kitchenette's counters.
Edward gingerly combed his hand through his bangs, scowling as the mild pain lingered for a moment. "That was a bad idea," he warned, looking at them both as he remained positioned protectively in front of Al. "Our dad is going to be mad."
Roy sat motionless as his desk with his phone still held up to his head, blankly listening to the repetitive, empty dial tone. His ears were ringing as his heart frantically pumped blood, driven by a raging burst of adrenaline. For a moment, his vision was fogged by static as his brain was somehow both racing and frozen in a sheet of chilling ice all at the same time.
He spared a moment to make sure he was breathing as his thoughts began to organize somewhat. He slowly lowered his phone and stood from his desk, keeping his open palms on the cool oak surface for a moment, almost as if he wanted to give himself a moment to double check that this all wasn't a strange dream.
Then with a sharp exhale, his eyes narrowed and he walked out of his office, prepared to bring down hell on the people who dared to touch his kids