Fullmetal Alchemist: The Way To The Top

Chapter 28: Imprisoned

When Havoc woke up, he found himself chained to the wall with his wrists and ankles. He looked around. He was in a small room. Most probably he has been like that for a long time. He felt that the rings of the chains cut the skin around his wrists. His muscles were becoming stiff after hanging there for a long time. Havoc looked around the room he was in. He tried to get as much information as possible, so that he didn't think about his aching body. There was a little bit of light coming from under the door. Slowly, his eyes got used to the darkness in the room. He began to see what was around him. He recognized the person, who hang next to him. "General!" There was no answer. Havoc continued with the examintion. There was another person hanging on the other wall. "Captain!" Riza moved a bit. Then she moaned. "Lieutenant. What are we doing here? Where are we?" Havoc shook his head. "I don't know." Riza began to look around. When her eyes got used to the darkness, she noticed that Roy was chained to the wall, too. "General!" There was no answer. For a few minutes, Havoc and Riza remained silent. Then they saw that Roy was waking up. Riza called again. Roy said with a tired voice: "Captain. What is this place?" Riza answered: "I don't know, Sir. The Lieutenant and I woke up only short before you." Roy looked around. "We must be in the old prison." Havoc asked: "What do you think, what do they want this time?" Roy didn't hesitate with the answer. "They want power. They want the old military." There was an uncomfortable silence.

A sound of steps came from the corridor. The door opened and one man entered the room. "I see all of you are awake. Great. Now we can start. I am very pleased to welcome you here. You are in an ishvalian prison. What a nice place, isn't it? Now the reason why you are here. I am very glad to have a guest of your rank, Brigadier General. I thought very hard to find out, who should make you company. Then I learned that those two are the closest to you and that you work very much together. I hope they know something important, too. But first, I want to gain information from you. You will answer my questions and I will know everything about the military. Then I will go to the top. I will be the Fuhrer and everyone will have fear of me. The citizens will work hard for me. And I will stand on the top of everything with power and money." He laughed.

Roy, Riza and Havoc exchanged horrified looks. They can never let it happen. Roy asked with his strongest voice: "Why do you think that I will tell you anything?" The man laughed even harder. "Because you are doing a great mistake, Brigadier General. I will get the information from you with strength, when there is no other possibility. I already know that torturing you makes no sense. You can endure very much. But your subordinates are something different. That is the reason, why I brought here your closest ones. They are your greatest weakness. We will make an agreement. You will answer my questions and I will let those two alive." Riza and Havoc looked at Roy with looks clearly saying, what they thought. They would rather die, than letting the country to come under lead of a person like that.

Roy refused to let them die. He wanted to protect his subordinates. But there was no other option now. He looked at the man. "Nothing will make me speak." The man laughed. From outside, three other men came. Their leader stood in front of Roy. The others stood in front of Riza, Havoc and at the door. "So, tell me, Brigadier General. Do you want this one dead?" He waved at Havoc with his hand. Roy looked angry. "No!" The man continued. "And what about this one? So you want the beautiful face buried?" He showed at Riza. "No!!" The man looked satisfied. "Then tell me,why do you want Ishval back? Is the military planning to have a base here? What strategy are you following?" Roy looked at the man with his face straight. "I will not tell you." Havoc and Riza looked relieved.

The man nodded shortly. A guard hit Havoc with the shaft of his dagger into his chest. Everyone heard a crack. Havoc gasped, but then he managed to keep his face straight again. The man smiled and looked at Roy again. "Now. Either you will speak, or he will get it with the other end of the dagger." Roy knew that it were only empty words. As soon as the enemy gets all the information, he will kill all of them. Roy didn't want to let his friends suffer. The only possibility was to remain silent. Maybe it will cost him, Riza and Havoc their lives, but it is the only possibility to save the others. The man in front of Roy was becoming inpatient. "So? You don't have to speak about Ishval. You can tell me anything about the military, what would be helpful." Roy knew that it will result in much pain, but he called: "I refuse!" This time, another man hit Riza with his fist in her face. Her nose started bleeding immediately, but she hasn't moved.

When the enemies saw, that they will get no information, they turned to leave. Their leader stopped in the door for a short time. "I will come back, when you will be more talkative." With those words he shut the door. Roy asked: "Are you alright?" Havoc nodded. "Just a broken rib. Nothing serious. I can survive." Roy looked at Riza: "And what about you, Captain?" Riza smiled. "It looks much worse, than it is really." Roy let out a sight of relief.

The scenario went on on the next day. The enemies came several times, always hitting Havoc and Riza. They were careful not to cause them pass out. After two days, both of them started to feel bad. But they kept acting as if everything was alright. Not only for the enemies, but also for Roy. Bad for them was, that they couldn't lie to him. Even though it was dark there, he could see that it was starting to be very bad for them.

When Roy couldn't stand it anymore,after both Havoc and Riza were beaten, he said: "We have to get out from here." Riza said: "I am sure the others are searching. They will find us." Roy shook his head. "We can't wait for them to find us. Do you remember the old prison? It will take long hours until they will go through the defense. And before they can do that, they have to find out, where we are." Havoc said: "Yes, we have to escape, but if you haven't noticed, we are chained to the wall. We can't just walk away." Riza bowed her head, lost in her thoughts. Then she said: "I have got an idea. You will not like it, but I am sure it will work." Havoc asked: "What is it?" Riza answered: "If I can get one hand free, I could take a gun of one of the guards and let the General escape. Then he could come back with backup." Havoc said: "You will have to break your hand." "I know." "I will do it." "No. I have smaller hands. It will be easier for me." Roy, who was silent until then, said angrily: "No one will break their hands! There must be another way. I will think about it." Riza and Havoc exchanged looks. Riza said: "Sir, there is no other way how we can do this. Havoc and me are in no state to run around and fight. But if we want to win here, then we need you to take the lead. Do not think about us now. Think about the reason, why we came here. We came to get Ishval back to its citizens." There was a great fight in Roy's mind. Then he said: "I allow you to do that, but it is no order." Riza nodded. "Thank you, Sir." She took a few deep breaths. Roy and Havoc watched her with horror, but they knew this was the only way. Then Riza moved her hand quickly and with all of her strength through the cuff. With a crack, her hand went through. Riza gasped in pain. First, she had to breathe deeply. Than she put her hand carefully back to the cuff. "Alright," she said, "now we will wait." Roy watched a strain of blood running down her arm.

In about half an hour, the door opened. There were again four men entering the room. Luckily, they haven't noticed anything. One of them stood in front of Riza. She waited for her chance. Havoc promised he will help. As always, he was the first one to get beaten. When the man hit him in his stomach, he let out a scream. The effect took only a few seconds, but it was enough. The man, who stood in front of Riza, turned around. Riza pulled her free hand out from the cuff and took the gun from a pocket on the back of the man's trousers. It was difficult with the broken thumb, but she could do it. She knew she had to act very quickly. She shot the four men. Then took a deep breath and shot Roy's cuffs very carefully. In a moment, Roy landed on the ground. Riza let the gun fall to the ground. Roy came to her. "I am not good in medical alchemy, but I can try to do something." Riza shook her head. "Someone could have heard the shooting. They can come here at any moment. Don't care about me. Just go!" Roy clapped his hands and at least he stopped the bleeding. Then he went to the door. There he turned around. "I will come with some backup as soon as possible. And remember: whatever happens, don't die!!!" Riza and Havoc said unisono "Yes, Sir!" Then Roy left.

Havoc and Riza were silent at first. They listened carefully, but they heard nothing suspicious. "It seems that the General was successful." Havoc said. Riza nodded. They didn't speak much. It wasn't very comfortable to be in one room with four corpses.

On the other end of the corridor, they heard surprised voices. Riza said: "It is coming." Havoc watched her. There was enough light coming from the open door to see how pale and tired she looked. Havoc didn't look much better, though. There were fast steps echoing in the corridor. Five men entered the room. They watched the scene with horror. The one, who seemed to be the most intelligent among them, looked around carefully. He examined the chains,where Roy had been before. Then he looked at the gun laying under Riza. He ran to her and hit her hard in her chin. The last thing she heard, was Havoc screaming: "Captain!"