scriveyner | Fullmetal Alchemist/Supernatural

Title: Untitled Nano 2008 - 9
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist, Supernatural
AU: Mashup
Characters/Pairing: Ed, Al, Cas, Bobby, Ruby
Rating: T
Length: 3224
Summary:

One a.m. came and went. It was well past a quarter after two when Ed balanced carefully against the side of the building, jimmying the window lock. "I still don't see why we couldn't have just gone through the door," he hissed at Al, one foot braced against his brother's back.

"Security guard sleeping in the foyer," Al said, not for the first time.

Ed swore under his breath as he finally got the knife through the window partition. He lifted the latch with only a bit of trouble and then raised the window. "This is more difficult than it needs to be," he announced, pulling himself up onto the sill and over into the dark room.

Al jumped, grabbing hold of the sill with both hands and pulling himself carefully up and over. Ed had hit the ground and rolled, gun drawn by the time he was on one knee and scanning the room alertly. He covered Al as Al jumped down and drew his own weapon.

Ed glanced around the room, trying to pinpoint where they were but he had been in a funk most of the time they were here. He glanced at Al and Al jerked his head to the left. Ed nodded and let his brother take point, following him noiselessly through the museum after-hours.

No lights were on save the security lights, and the life-like figurines made Ed jumpy. Every time he looked out of the corner of his eye he swore he saw something moving, but if he turned it was just another wax figure, cast in weird relief against the lights. Ed bit his lip but didn't say anything, they were here for the seal first.

Al led them unerringly to the room that Ed had wandered off into earlier in the day. The door was still unlocked and left partially ajar, and that didn't seem right at all. Ed watched Al edge the door aside and took a deep breath, following him in.

The room wasn't lit at all, and Al clicked on a flashlight. The two wax mannequins stood there, same as they were before. Ed swallowed, the strange feeling was ebbing at his consciousness again. Al didn't seem affected like Ed was, he edged toward the display, casting dubious glances back at Ed. He swallowed his fear and stepped forward, trying to pinpoint what exactly had caused his brain to try to break loose from his skull.

Al stepped over the barrier, walking in to the display carefully, doing his best not to disturb anything there. Ed watched him move, wanting to get closer to help him but not wanting to risk a meltdown while there was still a (sleeping) security guard on duty.

His brother shone his flashlight over the books, then the wax figure who was holding the strange stone aloft. It shimmered and looked almost alive in the wan light, and Ed frowned. Something familiar about all this - something very, very wrong.

Ed saw the mannequin's eyes move as Al reached for the stone. Before he could open his mouth in horror, the mannequin moved, faster than Al could react. He grabbed Al by the wrist with a hissing shout, hand closing around the stone. He jerked Al forward, toward him, as Ed reacted immediately.

The gun was up, level with the mannequin's head. Ed didn't hesitate, and put a bullet right through where the figurine's head would be.

Except it wasn't there any more.

The mannequin, the stone, and Al were all gone.

Ed stood frozen for a long second, the retort from the gunshot still echoing in his ears. The display hadn't changed at all except for the man vanishing - the pages of the book were still fluttering at his departure. Ed didn't let the development stun him for long, he realized that book had real pages and grabbed it on reflex, kicking the door aside and bolting into the hallway.

The now not-so-sleepy guard was at the end of the hallway. He spotted Ed, pointed and yelled something but Ed ignored him, head down and running full speed. He slammed around corners and out the front of the building, and was two full blocks away before the guard even made it to the door. He was five blocks away when he heard the sirens.

#

It was closing on four by the time Ed made it back to the motel by himself. He unlocked the door, and then drew his gun before stepping into the dark room. The gun up and safety off, he flipped the light with his elbow.

Castiel was sitting on the edge of Sam's bed.

"Where the hell have you been?" Ed's voice was gruff.

The angel stood when Ed entered the room. He frowned at the book under Ed's arm. "You have the key, but not the seal?"

"What?" Ed flung the book at the dresser. "Something - something took Al and you're still worried about the damn seals?" The book skimmed the top of the dresser as it landed, knocking some of the other books as well as Al's duffel bag to the floor.

Castiel's blue eyes were impassive. "The seal. Where is it?"

"Was it the damn rock after all?" Ed wanted to punch something, he wanted to hit Castiel so badly his arm was shaking. "Was it?"

"It was."

"Where were you then, huh?" Ed closed the distance between them in a few strides. "Where the hell were you when my brother just got kidnapped by, by, I don't even know what and they've got the seal! They've probably broken the damn thing by now!"

Castiel watched him, expression never wavering. "The seal cannot be broken without the key."

Ed threw a glance at the book he had thrown against the dresser, the only book on the table that hadn't been made of wax. "The key, when were you going to mention that little fact?"

"Lilith will want the key in exchange for your younger brother," Castiel said, turning toward the dresser. "We must destroy it."

He moved without thinking about it, grabbing Castiel by the shoulder and throwing all his weight into it. If only by chance it caught the angel off guard enough to throw him off balance, staggering sideways. Ed scooped the book up, flipping it open to the pages that had been creased and sitting open to. "What's in this book that's so damn valuable anyway, or can't you tell me that either?"

Castiel had staggered back upright, clearly startled by Ed's blatant attack. "It must be destroyed so that this seal is not," he said, reaching toward Ed.

"You are not destroying what might be my only chance at getting my little brother back," Ed growled, his hackles rising.

The arm hesitated as Castiel stared into his eyes. "You are serious," he stated flatly.

"You can torch it three ways from Sunday once I've got Al back," Ed said. "But if it's the only bargaining chip I have I'm not going to throw it away so easily."

"So be it," the angel murmured.

Ed didn't move but this time he felt the wind of Castiel's passage. The angel was pissed, but that was fine, he was pissed too. Ed threw his crap together quickly, gathering Al's at the same time. He loaded it into the Impala in record time. Bobby's phone rang through to voicemail once and he left a succinct voicemail that boiled down to "I need your help, call me."

He had no idea where to go from here, or where Al could be. He spun in a circle in the hotel room - he hadn't put the book down for a second, paranoid that Castiel or his 'friend' would appear to forcibly relieve him of it. After turning two circles he sat hard on the bedspread and opened the book again.

It wasn't written in any language he recognized. There were plenty of symbols and with a start Ed recognized them from the alchemy books Bobby had loaned him. He flipped through the pages and repressed the urge to throw the book against the wall. It was useless to him. He didn't want Lilith to have it, but he didn't want to just give up on Al either.

He felt like a kid having a tantrum and he took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He wanted to just go off, half-cocked after whatever the hell this thing was but he had no leads, nothing to start him in any direction.

His phone rang, right on cue.

"Bobby," Ed said, opening the phone. "Something's got Al, I don't know what and-" Pause. "It was, it was a wax mannequin. It just came to life and grabbed him, then they were gone." He took a deep breath and ran his hand over his face. "It was, it was - hell, I don't know, he had a stone and a beard and was..." Ed turned to the book on the floor. "It was Nicholas Flamel, Bobby, it was a wax mannequin of Nicholas-goddamn-Flamel. Yes, I know what I'm saying."

The wax mannequin had acted on its own. It wasn't possessed, it couldn't be. But it could have been...

"Sounds like a golem to me," Bobby said through the phone. "Was his mouth open or closed?"

Ed closed his eyes and thought hard, palm pressed to his forehead. "Can't remember," he murmured.

"It was probably open then; it's an old fairy tale, golems could be controlled by orders written on a special sort of paper and put in their mouths."

"Who could be controlling it, though?" Ed stood up again and paced the room. "I don't-"

"Kid," Bobby interrupted him. "Stay put. I'm comin' to ya. I'll be there in half a day or less, you try to figure out that book that seems to be the key to everything. Keep a low profile."

"Low profile, right," Ed muttered.

"I'm serious! Anson, right? I'll be there as soon as I can."

Ed acknowledged, hanging up the phone. He wasn't quite as frantic as he had been just a little while before but this was still gnawing at him in a ridiculous way. He cast a glance at the book, then grabbed it to flip through it again.

#

"What are you still DOING here? Hell, is this a man thing or a Winchester thing?"

Ed came out of his doze jerking, grabbing for his gun half-awake. He had left it on the dresser on the other side of the room. "How did you find me?" He staggered to his feet and glared at Ruby, who was picking up the other bits and pieces he hadn't thrown in the Impala yet.

"Doesn't matter," she snapped. "You know they've got Sam, right? Why are you still sitting here, they're going to find you in no time, that-" she pointed at the book that Ed had fallen asleep trying to decipher, "-that is giving off magic vibes like nothing I've ever seen, I'm surprised you don't have a demon or three beating down your door."

Now Ed was awake enough to snap back. "I didn't ask for you to come help me."

"Yes, because your friends upstairs are doing such a stellar job of it," she said, throwing his duffel at him. Ed caught it with a whoomph, it was heavier than it looked with all his crap in it. "Why am I the only person who ever sees the bigger picture here?" She stood there expectantly, apparently waiting for him to acknowledge or something.

"Do you know where they're keeping Al?"

"No," Ruby said.

"Then what the hell good are you?" He dropped his duffel on the table beside him.

"That's not the point," Ruby said. "I don't know where he is now, but I can help you find him." She pointed at the book. "That thing is leaking an aura that any half-blind demon could scent from three counties over, we either have to get rid of it or seal it."

"We can't get rid of it," Ed said.

"Do you know how to seal it?"

He was at a loss. "Do you?"

Ruby threw her hands up in the air. "Winchesters," she exclaimed to the ceiling, as if that would solve everything. She marched over to him, as if to take the book.

Ed didn't like Ruby on general principle, the whole demon thing was hard to get past and all, and he immediately backpedaled, keeping the book away from her. "Oh for fuck's sake," she growled. "I'm not going to take it and run back to Lilith like a beaten dog. How many times do I have to explain this?"

"I don't care," Ed said. "You're not touching this book and if you can't take me to Al then you need to get the hell out, now."

Ruby put her hands on her hips. "Why are you making this so difficult?"

"What does it matter to you anyway, bitch?"

"Hey, if the world ends it's my ass on a platter too, thank you." She apparently gave up on appropriating the book and sat on the bed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ed stood with the book held just out of reach for another few moments, quite aware that if Ruby had really wanted to take the book, she would have taken it already. He exhaled and tucked it under one arm. "I don't like you," he growled at her.

"The feeling is so very mutual," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Forget the whole end of the world thing, why are you so keen on helping me rescue Al?" Ed said.

"Because," Ruby said, "and I know how hard it is for you to wrap your tiny simian brain around this - he's useful. Same reason your angel buddies hoisted you out of the pit."

Ed eyed Ruby. "Tell me what you know, and then I'll decide."

"Oh for fuck's sake-" she growled.

"Ed!" There was a banging on the door, and Ed was absolutely relieved to hear Bobby's voice. It meant he had dozed longer than he thought, but still - sanity!

"I'm coming," Ed called, shooting a glance at Ruby. She stood up.

"Fine, I get the hint, you don't want me around unless I'm feeding you information you should be smart enough to be getting for yourselves." She glared at Ed. "Don't ask me for help, ever."

"Don't worry about it, I won't."

Ruby stalked to the door, opened it to a surprised Bobby and slid past him. Bobby looked over his shoulder at her, then back to Ed.

"I am so glad to see you," Ed said.

"Who was she?" Bobby gestured over his shoulder.

"No one important. What have you got?"

Bobby closed the door behind him. "Golems can't just disappear, so obviously he had help from someone, or, more likely, something."

"Probably whoever created it, yeah." Ed nodded. "Makes sense. Can we track it?"

"That's the good news," Bobby said, as he set down his duffel. "Help me clear some space, we'll need room for this one."

Between the two of them they pushed the beds against the far wall, even going so far as to flip one up on its headboard to make more room. Ed was pulling the dresser out of the way as Bobby started shaking salt in a circle in the middle of the floor.

Ed didn't say anything, just came and stood beside Bobby. "We're going to summon the golem here," Bobby said.

"Then what?"

Bobby pointed to his duffel bag. "There should be a sheaf of old paper in there. You need to write out instructions on the paper because we'll only have a few seconds to try to take over the golem before things start to get hairy."

Ed looked at the paper and grabbed a pen, writing a few things out and tearing them into strips, folding them up as he did so. Bobby, meanwhile, kept drawing out a summoning seal on the carpet of the motel room.

"This thing is going to be fighting mad when it comes through, isn't it?"

"Yup," Bobby said. "We're only going to get one chance at this, the thing will probably be powerful enough to rip both of our throats out if we botch it."

Ed picked up a spray can. "Tell me what to do."

#

It was lunch time by the time they finished the summoning circle. Bobby tugged the blinds closed and lit candles. "You ready?"

Ed fingered one of the many scraps of paper he had inscribed to try to take control of the golem. "We can't kill it, right?"

"Nope. Hell, we could probably melt the damn thing and it would still keep coming at us unless we can take it over."

He met Bobby's eyes. "Let's do this."

Bobby opened an old book and started intoning in a language that sounded a lot like Hebrew. There was nothing for a few seconds, then one of the candles flickered, followed by the rest of them. Ed glanced around, then glanced at Bobby, knife in one hand, scraps of paper in the other.

The summoning circle started to light up as Bobby kept reading. The air itself was crackling with energy and Ed could actually see it, see the strands of energy as they were sucked in to the circle, to help aid in the summoning of a wax golem made to look like Nicholas Flamel.

Then there was a crack, and the golem stood in the middle of the circle, looking around as confused as a mindless creature could be.

Bobby threw the book to the side and Ed leapt forward. The golem turned quickly, unsure of who it needed to attack first. Ed came at it quickly, jamming his knife into its shoulder. The golem didn't even look at him as he tried to monkey over its back, it just twisted quickly; slamming Ed against the far wall. Bobby leveled his shotgun at it, a single blast took half the golem's shoulder out.

It walked stiffly toward Bobby and as Ed was woozily getting to his feet, it threw him into the bed standing on its headboard. Ed sprinted forward, head and shoulders down and he hit the golem mid-torso. The combined force of Ed's acceleration and body weight barely made the creature stagger.

That didn't matter, though. Ed shoved his arm up into its face, ball of paper in his hand. He shoved it into the creature's open mouth and here it hesitated, the moment the paper touched its lips it stopped moving entirely and Ed was able to cram his entire handful into the creature's mouth.

When it didn't move again, Ed slid down to his knees, breathing hard. It felt like he could have bruised another rib, that was always useful. He staggered to his feet and moved to check on Bobby.

"Did you do it?" Bobby grunted as Ed tugged him to his feet.

"I think so," Ed said, eying the golem. "Hey, uh, you. Turn around."

Without a word or acknowledgment the golem turned a half-circle, putting its back to them.

Ed glanced at Bobby, impressed. "This might just work, after all."

Fullmetal Alchemist/Supernatural - (Nano 2008) [9]