When Adrienne returned to the house, no one seemed to be around. That was fine though, he wanted to snoop around for a bit. “Hey Jeffery, do you know where my father is?” he asked before he completely dismissed him.
Jeffery thought for a moment. “I believe the master had business at the Academy this afternoon. He should be home again later this evening as he’s asked me to pick him up around four.”
Adrienne thought about this for a second. It was about two now so that would give him roughly two hours to look around before his father got home. That should be enough time to at least see if the suspicions were founded or not. “Perfect, thanks Jeffery.”
“You’re welcome Young Master. Is there anything else you need?”
Adrienne shook his head. “Nope, you can go. I know you have other things you’d probably rather be doing than bothering with me.”
“You’re never a bother Young Master but thank you,” Jeffery said as he took his leave to park the car and get back to whatever it was he did when he wasn’t driving them around. Adrienne actually had no clue what that might be. He made a mental note to one day ask him but for now he had some work of his own to do.
Making his way down to the basement level of the mansion, Adrienne found the door to his father’s lab. He knew it probably wouldn’t be left unlocked but it worth a try. To his surprise though, when he turned the handle the door swung open. Right there an alarm bell went off in Adrienne’s mind, something wasn’t right but it didn’t bother him enough to stop him from going in. Looking around, he saw what he expected to see, organs and limbs in liquid, all of which were at various stages of development, nothing out of the ordinary. Walking over to the desk Adrienne looked over the papers and books his father had sitting there making sure not to move anything. Again, there was nothing there that seemed out of the ordinary.
At this point, he figured if there was anything his father was up to that he shouldn’t be, it clearly wasn’t hidden here. If there was anything it would then be somewhere else in the house but where? Adrienne started back for the door he’d come in when he noticed another door off to his left.
“Probably just a storage closet…” he muttered to himself but just as he was going to dismiss it, he thought he heard a voice through the door. What would someone be doing in a storage closet? Going over, he tried the handle. This time he wouldn’t be as lucky, it was locked. He heard the voice again, it sounded like someone in the distance calling for help. He had to find a way in there. Quickly, Adrienne went back over to the desk and started opening drawers hoping he could find the key for the door. When he came up empty he went back over to the door to see if there was some way he could break through the lock without completely smashing the door in but he came up with nothing. His only other choice now was to use alchemy. He grabbed a pen off the desk and drew a transmutation circle around the lock. Putting his hand to it to activate it, the lock instantly crumpled into a ball of metal and the door swung open.
“Oh my god…” Adrienne said, his breath catching in his throat in horror as he saw what lay in this room. Lined up on both sides were cages of half animal, half human looking children. “What is all of this?”
Walking past each one, tiny eyes stared up at him, each pair looking so desperate and broken. There was no life, no spirit in any of them. From some of the cages, tiny hands or paws reached out to him as if they were silently crying for help as he walked by them. This sight was absolutely heart wrenching. Had his father created all of these things? There was no other explanation as to why they’d be here though. The realization made Adrienne’s stomach turn so bad he thought he might actually vomit there on the floor. He managed to keep it together though. Then he heard the voice again but this time it sounded far less distant but still not in the room he was in.
At the opposite end of the room, Adrienne noticed another door. The voice had to be coming from behind there. He hesitated for a moment before going over to it. There was no telling what he would find behind that door and if it was anything like what he’d seen in here, well he wasn’t sure he could handle it. What if it was worse? What would he do then? Now wasn’t the time to delay though, there was someone back there that needed help and he couldn’t ignore that no matter what it all meant.
Going to the door, he tried the handle but found it was locked just as the one before had been. Not messing around, Adrienne drew his circle and made the lock turn into another ball of metal. Slowly, he pushed open the door. There were more cages in this room but these looked more like prison cells. At first, Adrienne couldn’t see who or what was within the cages but a few steps into the room fixed that. He wasn’t sure if he was more or less horrified but what he saw in here though. In the first cell was a girl, very much pregnant and looking like she couldn’t be any older than seventeen, same as he was. He went up to the bars and put his hand on them. The girl looked up at him, her long chestnut hair falling in her face, her deep brown eyes looking distant and lost. This girl looked so broken and withered, just like the children chimeras in the other room. His father really was a monster. How could he do things like this?
Adrienne was lost looking at the girl when he heard the voice come up the hall again, clear as day and very angry. “HEY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!! YOU ASSHOLE! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU YOUR ASS IS SO GRASS!!!!”
He knew that voice, knew it well actually, it was Amy. Adrienne ran down the hallway until he got the cage she was in. “Amy!” From the look of her it didn’t seem like anything had been done to her yet but then she’d only been here a short time and wouldn’t like the others but there weren’t any obvious signs she’d been hurt of anything of the kind, Adrienne was thankful for that. “Who were you yelling at?”
Amy’s looked back at him surprised. “Adrienne? What are you doing here? I thought that ignoramus that brought me here had finally shown his face. I swear, when I get my hands on the dumb fuck…”
Adrienne wanted to laugh though he knew there was nothing funny about the situation, it was just he’d never heard Amy’s mouth get THIS bad before. He shook his head to shake the thought of laughing from his mind. “How much do you know about what happened?” he asked.
Amy put her forehead against the bars and thought for a moment. “Well the last thing I clearly remember was coming out of the bathroom at the tavern and being ambushed by some guy with this nasty smelling cloth that he put over my nose and mouth just after I screamed. After that the few things I do remember are really hazy until I woke up in this cell a few days ago. No one’s really been here but some servant guy that brings food and water. Every time I try to talk to him he just leaves the food and doesn’t say anything and he won’t get close enough to my cell for me to ‘make’ him talk though with my hands bound like this…” Amy held her hands up to show Adrienne that they were shackled together and she could barely move them. “You still didn’t answer my question though, what are you doing here?”
“You have to promise not to flip out if I tell you…”
Amy narrowed her eyes and looked at him. “Tell me Adrienne…”
He took a deep breath and a step back so he would be just out of her reach, just to be safe. “You’re in the basement of my house where my father’s labs are.”
Amy’s face turned angry. There were a million and one things going through her mind right now and Adrienne could almost see every one of them.
“Wait, wait! Before you flip out let me explain more… I had no idea this was even here, you gotta believe me… it was only after talking with Fuhrer Mustang and your dad that I even had a reason to suspect my father so I came to see what I could find. I honestly hoped you WOULDN’T be here but anyway… now that I have my answer, I gotta get you out of here…”
“You’re damn right you do!”
Adrienne walked up to the bars and looked around. He wouldn’t be able to open this like he had the doors since there was nowhere for him to draw a circle on the lock. Maybe on the floor would work though. He took the pen and started to draw on the floor but to his dismay the ink wasn’t taking. What the hell could he do now? The only other option was to let his chimera self try. He was stronger when he let his wings out after all, and given the extra strength he might be able to get the leverage he needed to get the door free.
He was just getting ready to go forward with this plan when he heard the sound of someone coming, a voice. The voice was male and it sounded angry as it made its way closer and closer to the cell room.
“I have to hide,” he whispered to Amy. “Once whoever it is leaves then I’ll try again to get you out of here.”
Amy nodded as Adrienne took off back up the hallway to try and find a place to hide. He was too late though. Standing in the doorway was his father glaring at him.
“What are you doing here Adrienne?” he asked as he looked over his glasses down at Adrienne. The look in his eyes was piercing and almost violent, a look that Adrienne had never seen in his father’s eyes before. “Haven’t I told you that my labs are off limits to you?”
Adrienne tried to keep his breathing steady and calm though he knew he was in a lot of trouble. He had to think of something to say but what could he say? He couldn’t exactly tell the truth could he? “I know but…” he started. No, he couldn’t waver, not now. “Dad, what are you doing? How could you do this to these girls… what have you done to Amy?” Adrienne straightened his shoulders and made it very clear he was going to stand up to his father.
Dr. Rothstein just shook his head. “Edward and the Fuhrer have filled your head with nonsense while you were away with them haven’t they? I knew I shouldn’t have let you be around them. Even allowing you around Nina was a mistake. Can’t be helped now… Rogers get in here…”
“Yeah Boss?” said the man as he sauntered in hearing Rothstein’s summons.
“My son has found us out and sadly has seen too much. I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him to help us either. Dispose of him…”
“Wait a minute!” Adrienne yelled. “You’d just… but… I’m your son! I’m what you and Mom wanted more than anything! You would just…” He started to back down the corridor getting closer to Amy’s cell once again. As he did, Rothstein and Rogers came closer and closer to him until he was backed up against the far wall.
“I’m sorry Adrienne, but yes… besides; I’m on the verge of being able to create many more just like you. To lose a piece of your mother, I admit, hurts but I also can’t let anything, even you, get in the way of the dream we shared.”
Rogers grinned and took a bottle and a cloth from inside his coat. “Now come Adrienne, be a good boy and make this easy,” he said as he poured a small amount of the bottle’s contents on the cloth and closed a bit more of the distance between him and Adrienne.
Adrienne looked over at Amy, his eyes scared but determined none the less. “I’ll be back and I’ll bring help,” he said to her as he then ran head long at Rogers knocking him over into another of the cages as he went by. Dr. Rothstein put himself between Adrienne and the door making like he intended to stop Adrienne but Adrienne plowed through him just as easily as he had Rogers and ran out the door.
“Don’t just sit there you idiot! Go after him!” Rothstein yelled as he and Rogers both got to their feet. “Grab him before he has a chance to get outside!”
Rogers took off after Adrienne as Rothstein went down to Amy’s cell. “I wouldn’t count on that help coming Amy Elric. Adrienne won’t live long enough to get to anyone that will believe him. Now, I have great plans for you and your sister once she joins our little party, and she will either willingly or by force and when she does, everything will be just as my wife and I always dreamed it would be…” He then reached out and put his hand on Amy’s cheek looking at her like a man looks at his adulterous lover.
Amy just glowered at Rothstein, her stomach feeling ill from his twisted words and the weird look in his eyes. “Like hell, you heartless perverted bastard. My father and my sister will come for me and when they do we’re ALL going to kick your ass.”
Rothstein just laughed and walked away. “Keep believing that Amy.”
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