Okay, so how about that thing that has forced me to eventually change all chapter breaks to something that’s supported by the s

Okay, so how about that thing that has forced me to eventually change all chapter breaks to something that’s supported by the site? Great, huh?

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS.

Ed didn’t wake up until late the next day. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, not noticing that he had an audience until he looked at the door. Indy’s boss was standing there, and he approached with a friendly smile.

“Well, I heard from Dr. Jones that you’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately,” he said. “Are you having troubles adjusting to the climate? It is rather hot here.”

“I dunno,” Ed replied. “My life’s been pretty stressful lately; it’s probably just catching up to me.”

The man smiled. “It must be stressful working with Dr. Jones. How is that going for you?”

Ed shrugged. “Better than what I was doing before.”

“Is that so? I would have guessed the opposite, judging from my past experiences with him,” the man joked. “Where are you from again?”

“Nowhere, really,” Ed replied. “It’s been a while since I’ve had somewhere to call home.”

“Ah, yes, but you at least know who you’re descended from, I hope?”

Ed shrugged. “My parents never really talked about it.”

“What a shame. I’m sure many people would like to know where you got your eyes.”

Ed scowled. “From my father.”

“Oh, so it runs in the family? That’s even more peculiar,” the man commented.

Ed rolled his eyes. “You know, most people who comment on my eyes are either old ladies or people who ultimately end up attacking me. Which are you?”

The man laughed. “I’m an old lady. Well, then, I should get to work. I’ll see you around.”

Ed watched quietly as the man left before getting up. His breakfast was standing on the table, and he closed the door tightly before taking it to the bathroom. The smell was driving him insane, and he just wanted to get rid of it before he did something stupid. Once he had disposed of it, he went back out to the main area and sat back down on the bed. He could feel his body getting weaker, but there was nothing he could do about it, unless…

He was quiet when he went into town with Zalin (it feels so good to use a real name…) that day. There was a lot he had to think about, and he was debating whether to bring the maharaja into this. It didn’t seem like a bad idea, but he didn’t want to risk putting someone else in danger. Besides, even if it was small, there was a chance that he was in on this as well.

“You’re staring off into space again,” Zalin remarked after a while, snapping Ed out of his reverie.

“Oh, sorry,” Ed muttered. “I guess I’m just tired.”

“You seem to be always tired, and more so with each day.”

“It’s probably the heat,” Ed lied.

“Heat would not make you tremble like this. Are you sick?”

Ed felt a pang of guilt. He hated lying like this, but he knew how careful he had to be. “I’m not sure.”

“If it’s this bad, then you shouldn’t have to join me. We can go back to the palace if you wish.”

“No, it’s fine,” Ed replied. “I would have said something if this was too much for me.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Zalin replied. “You would have stayed silent out of respect for me.”

Ed made a weak attempt at a laugh. “No, I really would have said something. I never was one for respect.”

“Then tell me,” Zalin said, sitting down on a box. Ed noted that he had been taken into a deserted alley while they had talked. “I realize Dr. Jones’s reputation has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. Have you been dragged into his affairs as well?”

Ed stared at the maharaja for a moment before sitting across from him. “Yes, but I’m not supposed to know about it.”

“Have they done something to you to cause this?” Zalin asked, gesturing to Ed’s left hand, which was trembling.

Ed began to nod, but then he paused. “Not exactly…”

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

“So that’s the only reason you’ve agreed to come with me every day?” Zalin asked once Ed had finished explaining everything, half joking, half serious. “Because otherwise you would be poisoned or forced to starve to death?”

“That, and I like your company,” Ed replied, giving the other teen a wry smile.

Zalin laughed. “I’m glad to hear it. We should return to the market, though. My escorts are bound to notice our disappearance soon.”

Ed nodded, and they walked back to the market together, acting as though their previous conversation had never happened. The rest of the day was spent in silence, though this one was more or less comfortable.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Three days later, Indy stopped by Ed’s room to check up on him, and to give him a very brief update on the situation. So far, he was still very confused on what he was supposed to do, but he was glad to see that Ed wasn’t looking much worse. If anything, he was looking slightly better.

Ed was currently sitting quietly on his bed, leaning back against the wall. Indy walked up and looked out the window before turning to him. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. How’s work?”

Indy sighed. “How do you think it is?”

Ed shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’m not an archaeologist. Did you come up with anything?”

“No. Did you?”

“Maybe.”

That perked Indy’s interest. “Really? What is it?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Ed–”

Ed cut him off with a warning glare and pointed at the door. Indy looked up, just as the door opened and Indy’s ‘boss’ came in.

“Sorry for intruding, but I just thought I’d let you know we’re having a special dinner tonight. It’s the maharaja’s final evening here.”

“Huh? I thought he wasn’t leaving until next week,” Ed said curiously.

“There’s been a change in plans,” the man said. “His Excellency has decided to leave early. Didn’t he mention it to you while you were out today?”

Ed shrugged. “He might have. I can’t remember, though.”

“Well, that’s the plan. Dinner is at six.”

Once he had left, Indy frowned and looked at Ed. “Looks like we’ll need a change in plans, kid.”

To his surprise, however, Ed didn’t seem too worried. “Yeah. Guess so.”

“Shouldn’t you be a little bit more worried?” Indy asked.

“Should I be?” Ed asked in return. “I figured out the first part of their plan on my own, what makes you think I wasn’t expecting this?”

Indy didn’t reply to that. It seemed like Ed was doing better at this than he was. “Then what about tonight? Do you have a brilliant plan that you’ve already put into action?”

Ed shrugged. “Not really. The best I could come up with is not going at all.”

“And how would you pull that one off?” Indy asked.

Ed scowled at him, pushed himself off the bed, and began walking around, only to fall halfway without bothering to push himself back up again. Indy walked around and looked down at the alchemist; Ed was pulling a pretty convincing fainting spell.

“Well, I guess that explains that,” Indy said as he held out a hand to help Ed up. Ed took it and sat on the bed.

“Think it’ll work?”

“I don’t know, it might be hard to pull off without them getting suspicious,” Indy said.

“Good point. What time is it?”

Indy checked a nearby clock. “Four. Maybe you should get some rest before tonight.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” Ed agreed.

“See you later,” Indy said before leaving the room.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Once he was alone in the room, Ed flopped back on the bed and closed his eyes. It felt so good to just relax…

He was startled back into the waking world almost two hours later when Indy and his boss entered the room, both dressed in relatively formal clothing.

“Come on, Ed, time to go,” Indy said.

Ed grunted in response and pushed himself to his feet. The sudden movement was almost too much for his legs to handle, but instead of toughing it out, Ed let himself fall. Of course, he wasn’t expecting to hit his head on the way down.

To his relief, he was told to stay in his room for the evening, and after his head had been tended to, someone stopped by with a small meal. After Ed had disposed of it as usual, he received a visitor. He was relieved to see that it was Zalin.

“How did it go?” Ed asked.

“Pretty well,” Zalin replied. “Even Dr. Jones thinks I’m leaving.”

“You sure you want to do this?” Ed asked.

“Well, if I did return to Pankot early, I wouldn’t have anything to do. Besides, Dr. Jones helped us a long time ago. I wish to return the favor.”

Ed blinked. “He did?”

“Yes. It’s a long story, but you should ask him sometime.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ed muttered as he felt the bump on his head.

“Well, I should be going now. I’ll stop by again tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, see you,” Ed said as Zalin left.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

It was about five days later that Indy faced the first major issue with the current situation. The plan was for him to go to a nearby village the next morning, but considering what he was supposed to do there, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go. And so, he spent most of the evening in Ed’s room, trying to come up with a plan.

“We could just run away,” Ed said for about the third time.

“And just leave him to do whatever he wants?” Indy asked for the third time. “No, we can’t do that.”

“Why not? Can’t you just tell one of those important people you’re friends with what he’s doing and have him arrested?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Ed,” Indy said. “By the time anyone will be able to do anything, it’ll be too late.”

“Oh, so it’s a matter of timing. In that case, just find some way to stall him.”

“Look, if you’re so smart, then why don’t you come up with something?” Indy snapped, having lost his patience with the alchemist.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll have something by tonight,” Ed said sarcastically. “Look, I don’t really care what happens anymore. I just want to get the hell out of here and get on with my life.”

Indy was about to retort when he saw the haunted look in Ed’s eyes. It seemed to be exaggerated by the effects of his self-imposed starvation on his body, and any argument he’d had against this seemed to be rather stupid by now.

“Look, I’m going back to my room,” Indy said finally. “I’ll see you tomorrow before I leave.”

And with that, he left the room.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Once Ed was alone, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to keep his plans from Indy, but come 4 am, assuming everything went well, they would be well on their way from this place. He just had to concentrate on what was to be done next.

He slept uneasily for a few hours before waking up, just in time to begin his plan. He made sure he had everything, opened the door to the hallway, checked to see if there was anyone around, and went into Indy’s room.

“Hey,” he said none too quietly as he shut the door behind him. Indy started, but it took a moment for him to be at all coherent. Finally, the archaeologist was able to sit up and ask Ed what the hell he was doing in his room.

“There’s something happening outside that you should see.”

That seemed to wake Indy up. “Outside? Where? What is it?”

“You’ll see. It’s out in front.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Indy said, pulling on some clothes and placing his Fedora on his head. Ed followed him down the hall for a while before turning around and walking through the empty halls to a certain bedroom. He entered quietly, closed the door behind him, and walked straight to the bed.

“Wake up,” he muttered, just loud enough to wake up Indy’s boss. The man started and looked up in surprise at Ed.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Ed clapped his hands, placed them on the bed with an evil grin, and said, “I’m here for revenge.”

The man let out a scream, which was quickly muffled by the blankets that Ed had deftly transmuted to create a cocoon. “Scream all you want. When they find my body, you will be taken where you belong.”

And with that final threatening note, Ed ducked out of the room and ran down the hall, stopping when he got to the front door and ducking through it quietly, almost running into Indy in the process.

“What the hell kind of joke is this?” Indy asked moodily.

“No joke,” Ed replied. “In two days… no, tomorrow afternoon, this place will be undergoing an investigation. I don’t want to have to explain how I got a metal arm that works just like a real one.”

Indy stared incredulously at Ed for a minute before shaking his head and walking down the front steps. “I suppose I should be grateful that I don’t have to save your ass this time.”

“Yeah, that and the only reason I didn’t just leave after the first few days is that I don’t have much of a choice when it comes to getting out of this country.”

They met up with Zalin a few blocks down, and the maharaja ushered them into a carriage that took them to the airport. After a brief farewell, they boarded a small plane, on which Indy’s things had already been placed.

“Damn, you really got this all set up, didn’t you?” Indy commented as they took off.

“I figured you wouldn’t mind leaving a few days early,” Ed replied. “But I didn’t really think about what would happen after we got out of there.”

“I don’t know, I was thinking about ditching you somewhere in east Asia,” Indy said as he leaned back his seat. “But we might as well go back to America first.”

Ed grunted and leaned against the wall, pulling his feet onto the seat as he did so. “I guess I’ll just follow along like a little puppy again.”

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Okay, short chapter this time, but whatever, I just wanted to finish this storyline and move onto a new one. Next one will be spectacular, I promise.

Also, I am not using the ‘official’ line break that Word automatically inserts. Why? Because the one time I did use it, it didn’t work. I’ll work on putting up chapter breaks in my other fics, but because there’s so many of them, it’s going to be a while. Probably a long while. I apologize if this causes any confusion while reading, but I really don’t want to deal with all that.

So yeah, I bet you weren’t expecting an update after that brilliant April Fool’s prank, eh? Well, I updated. So there ya go.