Operation Exchange - Wind_waker38 - Fullmetal Alchemist (2024)

Chapter 1: Twilight

"Welcome aboard," the well dressed officer in the standard Amestran blue waved his hand as the passengers began to board the massive train. The smoke from the great engine began to plume up above the body of the machine, and the whistles were slicing through the conversation of the passengers both boarding and departing the many platforms. The crowd was so large, that the guards didn't take notice of any one particularly interesting, "Express Train to East City!"

Though even if the guards were paying attention, they would not have been focused on a relatively plain man walking onto the train with a well made but not terribly expensive coat. The man's blonde hair was slicked back underneath a stiff hat, and though if one were to look at his face, it would be hard to deny that he was handsome, it was not so immediately striking that one's head would turn. On his side was the Central City Gazette, a financial magazine based in the Capital of all of Amestris. Everything marked this man as a relatively wealthy, though not obscenely, man, likely a doctor or a banker, who was simply returning from the small vacation town of New Optain to his place of business in East City. No, one would merely look at him, and then turn their attention back to the rest of the world, to see if there was something more interesting.

Like a giant suit of armor running towards the platform of the train.

The guard who had been about to ticket the blonde man as he boarded moved his eyes over to the armor, and pressed down on the ticket as allowing the unassuming figure to board. He looked over at the giant man in his armor. He was about to stop, when suddenly he remembered something he had been informed about by his officer.

"Oh, of course," he then stepped to the side, making way for the armor, "The State Alchemist. We heard you might be taking the train back to East City," State Alchemists were not only very high ranking, all of them at least a Major in the Amestrian military, but were famous for their own quirks and weirdness, "We don't have a specific car, but it shouldn't be needed for a ride that will take less than a day."

"Oh, thanks," the guard looked over, and noticed a young blonde man, with a long red coat covering his shoulders. The boys suddenly grew a large smile, and then hit the suit of armor on the side, "You know, sometimes they do know to show respect," he then stepped onto the train, "Come on Al, let's get our seats and get ready to go back and see the Colonel."

"Right," a far too high pitched voice came out of the massive suit of armor. The guard stared as the two boarded, and then heard the conductor's final whistle, signaling the train was about to depart the station. he scratched his head for a moment, and then sighed.

"Maybe the alchemist is brining his kid brother along," he said out loud as the train began to pull from the station, "Afterall, I heard that Edward Elric does travel with his younger brother. And that kid was so short, it might just be him."

The guard did not realize just how lucky he was in saying that beneath the sound of the whistle and with the train already moving away from him. But he also did not realize that he perhaps should have been paying closer attention to the sharply dressed blonde man who had boarded just before the Alchemist had arrived.
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'Code Cipher H,' The blonde man remined himself as he sat down at his seat, a small thermos of coffee he had brought on board the train steaming beneath his face as he pulled open the Central City Gazette. Or at least, he pulled open the paper that was mocked up to look like the Central City Gazette. While the paper did contain the front page of that periodical and all the listed articles and later continuations, there were around a dozen other articles in the piece that were exclusive only to this particular paper.

Not that any one would be able to tell by just reading it of course. Most of them were financial advice or sales information that would usually appear in the Gazette, but these articles were not meant to be read for their insights into money. the man's eyes wandered over the paper, and a message began to form as it did so.

Greetings Agent Twilight

That message was for the greatest spy of the nation of Cresta, Twilight.

Your information allowed us to destroy a huge stockpile of communication equipment. It will cost the Amestrian military a good deal of money to repair it's southern communications again.

Twilight sighed. He placed his hand on his right shoulder, an old pain returning as he remembered the smells of gun powder and the sounds of guns all around him. He then shook himself from that memory, and returned his attention to the paper.

Unfortunately, Agents Wilting and Style were discovered and killed las-

Twilight felt the paper crunch up in his hands, 'Damn. They were competent agents too.'

However, they did discover vital information that will probe key in Cresta's national security. The last message they sent was of a massive planned event in the middle of next Spring. We don't have much more information, but we do know that the planning is being placed by Fuhrer Bradley and his closest military advisors. Your mission is to integrate yourself into the Fuhrer's graces and find out exactly what the plan is, the specifics of it's goals, and to give this information to us as quickly as possible. Cresta's survival, or the survival of our comrades is Aerugo may depend on the discovery of what the plan for next year is.

"

To accomplish this vital mission, your first step will be to get married and have a child-

SPLURT

"Excuse me?" coffee slipped down his lips, as the ink barely held together from the spit up hot drink all over it.

It has been determined that the Fuhrer doesn't speak to anyone outside the military besides his family. His son attends a small school that will be letting in a new students starting in the fall. You will have four months to form a family and succeed in having a child that becomes the classmate of Selim Bradley.

"A child needs nine months to be born," Twilight seethed beneath his breath, before shaking his head. Headquarters were clearly wanting him and his prospective wife to adopt, and then have the child get in. But that was still so little time. Especially since he would have to move from his usual stomping grounds of East City to Central, the hive of the Amestrian military that had just claimed the life of two of his fellow spies.

'Calm down,' Twilight considered, 'The months I have in East City will allow me to find a wife, and build up a relationship, and then I can move after having established everything. It will provide some more opportunities.'

This is Operation Strix. Remember, this could be vital in slowing the Amestrian war machine before it destroys either ourselves or Aerugo. The fates of thousands of people rest on your success.

'Fine then,' Twilight considered his options, 'If I must be a father and husband, I shall be one. Just another role I shall play if it leads to a brighter world.'

"Hey!" Twilight stopped, looked up and suddenly realized a long rifle was up in his face, with a large man pointing it in his face. Twilight almost felt his world stop.

'Have...have they found me already?'

"Get up out of your chair fancy pants," the man said in a thick accent, "This train is now under control of the Blue Group."

'Oh thank god,' Twilight kept himself from releasing the sigh of relief that he clearly felt at the moment. The Blue Group was a separatist group in the middle of South Eastern Amestris that had been fighting a guerilla war ever since many of it's members had returned from the last real Aerugo-Amestris conflict some fifteen years ago. It had been dying off, but weapons and veterans of the Ishvalan revolt had refilled its ranks, and now the group was launching another attempt at breaking up the massive country. Twilight was not a fan of terrorists, but he would not shed a tear for the Amestrian military being tied up in internal conflict rather than external conquest.

Or at least, now that he again realized that a gun was in his face, that he would not mind so much if he was not about to become a hostage of the group. He then began to seethe, realizing he was only going to be delayed by the difficulty in getting out of this situation, and dealing with any kind of interrogation from the military when they recaptured the train would be a massive issue. That was, he would later admit, also meaning he actually survived being a hostage of these separatists.

"Hey, this kid is still just laying here," the terrorist with the rifle said out loud. Twilight looked over at the bench at the middle of the car, where a young man with a long red coat and blond hair was, in fact, just laying there, snoring. Even more shocking was the large suit of armor sitting right across from the sleeping boy. Twilight hadn't even noticed the armor come in, let alone the boy in deep red with long tied back hair. He considered how the kid could sleep through this sort of thing, when he saw the separatist place his gun barrel on the boy's cheek. Twilight nearly felt himself rise out of his seat, his hand heading towards the small knife he kept at the back of his right thigh, when he heard the man shout, "WAKE UP YOU LITTLE RUNT!"

A second later, the boy was standing up, glaring at the man with the rifle. He then brought up his hands, and then placed them on the barrel of the gun. Twilight nearly shouted for the boy to stop, when suddenly a great flash of light illuminated the whole of the room. As the light returned to normal, Twilight and the man holding the guns suddenly realized that the barrel had twisted into something that looked like a toy horn. A second later, a leg shot out, and the separatist was flung backward from a kick to the jaw.

"WHO YOU CALLING AN INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE MITE YOU JERK!"

'Oh,' Twilight considered, happy as the suit of armor suddenly grabbed the other man and held him in a chokehold, all the while the blonde boy continued to smash the face in of the man with the rifle, 'I forgot how much I'm going to hate having to look after a kid,' the boy turned around, and roundhouse kicked his bleeding victim with a square hit to the nose. He then turned toward the remaining opponent, who was still somewhat conscious man held by the suit of armor began to quiver as the blonde boy stalked towards him while cracking his knuckles, 'kids these days,' the boy's fist rammed into the restrained terrorist, 'are nothing but trouble.'

"So, wait," the boy finally stopped as the captured man let out a groan from his pummeled stomach, "Who are these guys?"

'Nothing but trouble at all.'

A halogen lamp fizzled between on and off, the street beneath it flicking from light to dark. It was a run down street, with cracks spidering along the pavement, and some rolled up papers laying alongside the edge of the sidewalk, which lead themselves to more cracks in the walkway concrete. There were no benches, no covers, and the only sign post was one that said "Grey Line: 18 END". There was a low smoke that hung over the street, and the distinct smell of chemical production wafted in the background. And in the background, one could hear the horns of trains. But not the whistle of passenger vehicles, but the loud thunder of mighty freight engines.

The light, continuing to blink on and off, showed much of nothing besides the sign, the street, and the small steel door that was the lone blemish along the blocks long concrete wall on that side of the street with the lamp. It was solid, band far too heavy. There was no name above the door, no identification for what this was. However, one could see the massive square of concrete behind the sturdy wall, not to mention the barbed wire covering the top of the barrier, and if one had come earlier in the day, when men had come into work, they would have seen a mix of white long coats and blue military uniforms enter. And most days, had they come later, they would have seen those same uniforms come out, but that had not happened today. Had one actually been listening closely, one might have actually heard screams earlier this day.

This is the Fifth Laboratory.

No one really knew what it's purpose was, compared to the open secrets such as mechanized vehicles at the Second. There were rumors, some claiming that it was where the darkest Alchemic experiments the government would approve would occur. But when most of those who said those rumors didn't actually disappear, they were laughed at. People weren't actually missing, and these supposed lunatics weren't being dragged away like protestors during the Ishvalan conflict were, so it must be false.

That these thoughts never considered the close proximity of the largest penitentiary in the country to the lab was perhaps why investigation had never been more thorough into the lab itself.

But now, there was nothing but silence around the lab. It was nearing nine o'clock, and the sun had already been down for hours. Everyone should have already gone home. There weren't even any guards at the front door this night. It was unusual, as usually one would be stationed there, but there wasn't this night.

The light from the lamp continued to flicker on and off, continuing to illuminate the door in the wall. But the gaps in the light continued to grow longer and longer, as the old lamp light struggled to keep running. Soon, the light would flick off for a full second before turning itself back on.

Then after a minute, it would turn off for two seconds.

Then a minute after that, three seconds.

Four Seconds.

Then five.

And so it continued to deteriorate, and the time between bursts of light continued to grow longer and longer. If anyone were around, they would be having a harder and harder time seeing anything around this piece of the street. And the buzz of the lamp as it strained to remain alight would also overwhelm the normal sounds of the city life, the slight rustle of the wind picking up the litter and spreading it about.

But as the interval reached ten seconds between lights, a new sound emerged above the background.

CLANG

Something had hit the door. Not from the streetside, but from the inside. It was not too loud, but it was clear that something had reached the door, and slammed into it. As the darkness returned, one could hear smaller hits on the door itself, as well as the small pitters after each hit. And then, just as the light came on again, there was no follow up pitter to the clang, but a new sound.

SHIRRK

Metal was being moved. The door's front handle, once stiff parallel to the ground, was slowly beginning to angle downward. Only at around a thirty degree angle, but it had noticeably moved. The sound continued in a low whine, as the darkness returned. It was a slow sound, as the gears within the door continued to be moved by the handle, but it was low, and could only be heard by someone very close. Which as established, no one was.

POUGHGH

When the light next came on, for but a split second, it was clear that not only was the handle now perpendicular to the sidewalk, but the door itself was slightly ajar. But the light almost immediately went out once again.

WHOOSH

The final light that came on that night, some twenty seconds later, the door was shown completely open. Someone, or perhaps some thing, had opened the door to the Fifth Laboratory. Anyone who looked inside would see a fairly standard concrete courtyard, nothing too out of the ordinary. And soon, a gust of wind would hit the free standing door and shut it back, which automatically shut itself into a closed position. For only a brief moment, a minute at most, would anyone have realized that the door had been opened, and something had left the Lab.

That morning, the newly assigned day guard would arrive, and take his post as the sentry for the newly derelict Fifth Laboratory. He would notice that the door had not been locked, but thinking that the entire building had been cleaned out the night previously of anything too important, he would lock it himself, and move on, not realizing that something that would help bring about the end of the reign of Fuhrer Bradley had just left the lab itself.

_______________________________________________________

Her name was Experiment 007, but she liked to call herself Anya.

She pushed her small legs forward as as she rounded another corner. Everything was so dark, she couldn't tell what she was running by, and a few times already she had tripped over weird stuff that had been lying on the ground. She had never experienced long metal tubes just lying around on the floor, rather than being held up near the ceiling. Nor could she remember the weird, softer material that felt different from all the other floors and walls around her when she was in the place.

She felt herself shiver, and only slightly from the cold. She stopped, looked around again for the dark people, and then ran. She couldn't hear the dark people at all, so she was probably safe for a minute, and even when they had passed by before, they hadn't seemed to notice her.

The Place. That was all she could remember about the hard cold room she had stayed before. It had always been so cold, so gray. Not like what she knew other people saw when the left the place. She had never seen an open sky, even though she sort of knew what it was. Lots of the people she had met had thought about the sky, some missing it when they were down there in the place with her. She had, on her initial exposure, been disappointed to see it black instead of blue, but then she had remembered that this was night, and everything was dark out.

How did she know this?

Why, she could read minds.

She didn't remember when she had learned she could do it. In fact, she didn't remember a time where she didn't know what people around her were thinking. She could remember hearing the Doctors and the Soldier all thinking about her. Most of them weren't very nice, but they weren't really mean either. A lot of them seemed sad when they saw her. Some thought of other girls who they considered daughters, and other thought about maybe having daughters themselves with grown up girls that were much taller. Most thought she was weird, but almost all of them tried to say nice things to her, even if they didn't think them.

Originally, she would respond sometimes to what they were thinking rather than what they were saying, but she had stopped doing that when she had met Dr. Gold Tooth. For some reason, , that one never thought about his name, and no one else seemed to know it either, most calling him Gold Tooth or even meaner names. But she had listened to his thoughts, and how he wondered if he should cut her up to look at her brain.

She didn't know how she had been able to overcome her fear in that moment, but she had kept herself from gaining his interest. He had moved on, and she spent the next bit not dealing with anyone too bad.

But then the Dark People had come. Maybe a week ago, from what she had picked up about time from the Doctors. A tall grown-up girl with a big chest called Lust, a round little man with a large nose and mouth, named Gluttony, and a thing girly boy, named Envy. She didn't get close enough to read their minds on the first day, the doctors didn't even introduce her, but she had seen them from her cell meet with the head doctor and the head soldier. When she had asked the doctor who they were she had learned they were called Homnoclos from reading his mind, but she just called them dark people because that was easier.

He revealed that they were going to have an experiment, and reading the Doctor and Soldier's minds, none of them seemed happy about it. Some of them thought about leaving, some of them thought about shooting the dark people, but most of them accepted it wouldn't work, and they were going to make a Phosphorus Stone. She had wanted to ask what that was, but she remembered one of the doctor's thinking about Phosphorus as this Science Chemical, so she just assumed it was that.

But it wasn't until about three days ago she got close enough to read the mind of one of the Dark People. Lust, the large chested lady, and come by and talked to a doctor only a few feet away from her cell. She didn't even notice Anya at all, but listening to Lust's mind was scary. She heard not just one person, but a full room of people. Though it was in one voice, and it had looked at the doctor, it had thought.

'You don't need to worry about that. Afterall, in three days you and everyone here will be dead.'

Anya wasn't sure what being dead meant, but it seemed bad. So, she decided she would leave the Place as soon as she could. She listened to everyone's thought, and used her memory, had managed to remember where they would be leaving their keys. When everyone else had been called away for a bit, she snuck out of her cell, which usually wasn't locked, and then found the keys.

As she was going up the way she knew to escape, she ran by a massive room.

Anya stopped, and stared at the ground. She pulled her hand up to her mouth, all to hold everything in.

She heard what happened when people were Dead. She heard the minds of the doctors and soldiers as they were twisted by that weird magic, all killed in a horrible way. She then remembered a specific order from Lust, who had been there, to search everything, and kill anyone else.

She had used what she remembered from the minds of the doctors to get out, and now she would run as fast as she could away from the place, and away from Lust and the other Dark People.

...but she really wasn't that good at running. She looked around, and listened carefully for any thoughts. For a second, her breath hitched, but ultimately, she was sure she was alone. She sighed, and took in her surroundings. She had run so far, she had ended up near these weird metal beams along the ground. There were big boxes that were on the tracks, and and there were large metal structures around the boxes, with smaller boxes being held up by long metal chains.

"This really weird," she said aloud, to no one in particular. She began to look around, and then noticed that one of the boxes was open. She stared at it, and then looked at how high the box was off the ground. But she also noticed that there was a set of steps that lead up to the opening to the box. She pushed herself up the steps, and then looked inside the box.

Sitting in the box were a large number of packages piled all around the box. A few of them were spread all around the bottom of the box, and she went over, and felt them. She smiled when she realized they were soft beneath the outer brown paper. She grabbed at the brown paper of one of these packages, and saw it was a long dress folded up. She felt herself shiver again, and then looked back at the big door to the outside. She walked over to the door, and then pulled it, so it shut the box from the world. She then grabbed the dress and another package. She placed the package down, and covered herself in the long dress, making sure that she was not directly visible from the door itself.

'I can hide here,' she thought, suddenly feeling very tired. It had been a long time since she had slept in her room, 'I can go somewhere else when I wake up.'

Making sure she was behind a stack of packages, she arranged her makeshift bed, and went to sleep.

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FWWEEEEEEEPPPP

Anya felt herself jog awake. She let out a groan, before twisting her head, trying to get comfortable. 'Sleeping out of a bed wasn't as comfortable,' she thought, pushing the dress off. Just as she was about to stand up, she felt the box around her move.

"AH!" she nearly fell over, and then felt the box moving to her right. She reached out with her mind reading, but felt nothing. After a minute, the box around her began to shake and rumble, as though it was rumbling all the way along. Anya stopped, and, pushed herself into a seated position. She grabbed the dress, and covered herself, wanting to hide incase anyone was looking for her.

Anya kept this postion for several minutes, all the while waiting for the trip to end. Finally, still not hearing anyone else, and having gotten used to the movement of the box, she went over to the door. Carefully, just to make sure no one was outside, she inched it open, and peaked out with one eye.

All she saw from that was a blur of movement, of brown and green and blue shooting by. At first, she was not sure what to do, but then, she felt a massive bump, and lost control of the door. The door flung open, and suddenly Anya could see everything. In front of her was a large green low place, with lots of plants, trees if she had to guess, flowing up the sides of the bowlish area. That all lead up to the pretty blue ceiling of the outside, what Anya guessed was the sky she had read in those memories. Everything was so...

Open.

"I"m glad I left the place," she said aloud, before looking down to where she felt the motion from. There was a long line of the boxes, lead by a long black box in the front, with white dust coming out of the top. Anya remembered the term "train", and guessed that was what she was on. She then looked out and admired the view.

At the very least, where ever she was, she was going far away from those Dark People.

Chapter 4: Night in East City

Twilight smiled as he looked swept his hand over the counter. He raised his hand to his face, and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, and smirked. 'No dust,' he thought, and he smiled as he turned back his head towards the door. Standing in it was a middle aged man with a paunch for a belly and wire frame glasses, smiling happily as a ring of keys were held out in towards Twilight.

"I told you," the man chuckled, the flab of his belly bouncing slightly, "these rooms have been cleaned every week."

"I shouldn't have doubted you," Twilight made a motion of shrugging his shoulders, before reaching down into his pocket, and pulling out a small notebook. He looked at the landlord, before asking, "If I'm correct, the two bedroom and one washroom are worth seven hundred per week?"

"Ah ah," the landlord waived his finger, "This is two bed room, one and a half washroom," he walked over to one of the doors in the hallway, opened it to reveal an extra seat and toilet, "750 per week."

"Of course," Twilight, rubbing the back of his head in fake embarrassment, laughed off, before writing it down within the checkbook. The older man snatched up the check, and placed it in his right pocket, before Twilight continued, "I will be here for about ten weeks or so until I have my new position in Central. My wife and child will meet me here soon, and we can go go there after these next few weeks."

"Oh, that would explain why you need such a large set of rooms," the landlord said absentmindedly. Twilight wrapped his arm around the older man, slowly guiding him towards the door to the apartment, keys to these new rooms in his hands. He smirked as he twirled the key in his hand, the landlord finally adding, "I had thought it strange that a single man had come asking for family lodgings."

"Why would you think that I am single?" Twilight said in the most hurt voice he could conjure.

"Well for one thing, you don't have a ring on your finger."

"Oh," Twilight laughed, "Yes that might lead you to a different conclusion," he patted the shoulder of the landlord as they exited the room into the stairway of the apartment complex, "It doesn't fit that well unfortunately, I had a bad habit of overeating slightly ahead of my wedding, and now that I have lost those pounds, I've also lost the ability to keep the ring on my hand. I still have it in my suitcase though."

"Oh, I know something about a few extra pounds!"

'I'm know that,' Twilight then laughed aloud, saying, "Don't we all," Twilight then smiled as he began to separate from the landlord, and reenter his room. He gripped the door handle, and brought the door close to a close, "If you'll excuse me, I will be starting my new position at the Military Hospital tomorrow. I need to get my things ready before I have to leave in the morning."

"Of course," the landlord said, waving him off, and beginning to walk down the stairs toward the lobby of the hotel. Twilight quickly closed the door, and let out a sigh. It hadn't been easy to make everything about his new life up so quickly but he had faith in the Crestan Intelligence Agency in setting up his new identity. It would have been better perhaps had they already had a wife and child for the mission to begin as swiftly as possible, but he could not look a gift horse in the mouth. A position as a Psyciatrist, a relatively new field, would allow him to mingle with many important figures in the military, and would take advantage of his already vast experience from his spy work. He looked down at the checkbook, and at the name he had been given for this new mission.

Lloyd Forger.

"Doctor Lloyd Forger," he said to himself, almost tasting it. The Forger last name was a bit too on the nose, but he supposed that actually meant that some people would look over the possibility of him being a spy. Besides Lloyd Forger had extensive records that showed his long history in Amestris. Born in 1888 in Grumand, he had been a normal boy who had seen his father and mother killed in a terrorist attack during the outbreak of the Ishvalan Civil War. That terrorist attack had conveniently destroyed the town's central hall, and all the records of Lloyd's existence. He had served in a militia during the war, though had never seen the front. He had spent a few years studying Psychology from a Doctor who had been serving in the frontier of the East, though unfortunately his master had died quite recently after that. He had passed the initial exam some two years ago, and had been serving as a Psychiatrist in Tun, a small town far off the beaten path, and had gotten good reviews. All that together had earned him the right to take the full test for his official government license, which he had passed only a few weeks ago, and then applied for the position here in East City, which he had approved to start tomorrow.

None of it was true, but there was enough subterfuge and faked documents that even most intelligence officers could tell it was faked. It would take weeks of investigation, and hopefully by then, he would already be in a position to have figured out what the plan was for the next Spring. Then, he would send that information out, escape, and...well, he'd figure that out later.

"I should probably begin to scout out the city," 'Lloyd' said to himself, "See if I can't figure out anything in particular before I start at the hospital tomorrow."

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Lloyd had spent the last several hours surveying East City. It was a very large place, but not like the tight planned district he had seen in Central or the carefully arranged streets of the Capital of Cresta. East City was a great sprawling mass, coming somewhat from it's status as a boomtown. Before the Ishvalan conflict, East City had only been the capital of the Eastern quarter of Amestris by default, while the largest city had been the more economically developed and more advantageously located city of New Optain to it's north.

The Ishvalan conflict had sent tens of thousands of soldiers down towards the South-Eastern area of the country, and the two years of consistent troop movements had been enough to introduce many from across the country to the beautiful landscapes of that area. The excess of land, some from before the war, and some from the damage caused because of it, had caused the Military to offer plots to distinguished retiring soldiers. And with more soldiers, came their families. And that influx of people, had meant business had boomed, causing East City, which served this area, to boom itself, with streets now stretching a mile outside the old city limits. Lloyd had been taking in and comparing the outer buildings, like his rooms, to the more formal and older structures of the inner city. It was honestly kind of inspiring.

Lloyd would always like new buildings being built up over old buildings being blown down.

"I heard he drowned in Lake Shireem."

Lloyd looked over, and saw a short stocky man sitting at an small little steel table. It was outside, and it was getting dark, though the light from inside the restaurant illuminated this table and all the others, though no one else was quite out there yet. He saw a man with a large black mane of hair curling upward in a near round shape. He had boxy glasses, and a small stubble along his chin. He wore a basic white shirt, though Lloyd could only make out the most of it while seeing he was reading a large copy of the Central City Gazette.

"Was he swimming on his own?" Lloyd said off handedly, taking time to look over at the menu.

"No, fishing," The man flipped a page in his paper.

"I suppose he was looking for Trout?"

"Bass."

Lloyd smiled. He knocked on the front door of the restaurant, and almost immediately he saw a young woman begin to pick herself up from the main counter in the store. Twilight pointed at a table next to the frizzy haired man, and the waitress inside nodded, before fumbling around beneatht he counter for what was likely a menu. Twilight walked over to the table, pulled out his seat, and sat down. A second later, the waitress came out, carrying the menu.

"I'll take a Medium Roast," he said to the girl who had come out. Lloyed noticed the slight pink above her nose, and smiled at her, causing it to deepen, "I'll have an idea of the food in a moment."

"Yes sir," she squeaked, before running back inside. He heard a slight groan next to him, and looked over at the man at the other table. The frizzy haired man was just shaking his head at Lloyd, massaging his left temple with his fingers.

"Of course, they always go for the pretty ones," he snapped himself out of it, before looking again at Lloyd, "So, I'm Franky Franklin. And yes, that is my real name."

"Doe-"

"Yes, everyone asks that," Franky deadpanned, pulling up a cigarette, and pulling in a puff of the tobacco, "I have a store a down where Ninth meets South street. A lot of people come by during the day, but by this time it usually get's really slow, so I come here sometimes when no one looks like they'll come by."

Twilight's mind took in the information as quickly as it came to him. This Franky was obviously his informant, the Tobacco shop was where they would meet for intelligence briefings, and the best time of the day to come get the information. This was probably as far as they could go discussing business in public, but this would be enough for setting up a future partnership over the next few months, at least until he was able to move to Central. They could discuss plans later, hopefully tomorrow, after he introduced himself at his job, and hopefully he would be able to get some leads on finding a child to adopt to move forward Operation Stryx.

"Oh my word," Twilight turned around, and suddenly saw two new customers arrive at the front of the cafe. One of them was in a formal military uniform, obviously a high ranking officer. The man had dark black hair, and a well put together face. Next to him was a woman in a long sundress, with long red hair and a wide pair of sunglasses. She laughed from between deeply red lips, "I haven't ever been to this place," she smiled, and rubbed her gloved hand on the man's face, "You spoil me so much Roy."

'Roy,' Twilight considered the pair as they moved forward to another one of the tables near by, 'Colonel Mustang?' He looked over at Franky, who saw his attention. The shorter man was grinding his teeth together, but he nodded, clearly sensing the question that Twilight was about to ask him. So this was the infamous Flame Alchemist. He had heard that the upstart officer had been something of a flake for women, but...

"Well I only give the finest things for my dates," he laughed aloud...and for some reason Twilight just had a desire to strangle him, "You know that Elizabeth."

"Oh your dates," Elizabeth seemed to be quite flighty, "I thought you said I was the only one you were interested in?"

"Of course, I was only talking about past dates," Mustang waved his hand off, "You know you are the only woman in my eyes."

Twilight had to place a hand on Franky's shoulder to keep him from getting up and causing a scene. If this was how Mustang acted...well this assignment had just added another problem to his pile.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anya slide her head outside the cart she had spent the day in, and tried her hardest to listen for thoughts of anyone who might be trouble. When all she heard was quiet, she nodded to herself, and inched her way down the steps of the car. It took her only a few seconds, and soon, she was back on solid ground. It had been fun to be on a train, but it was definitely nice to be on real ground again. She jumped up and down, giggling slightly as she felt her feet land on the dirt beneath her.

She looked around the yard, and then listened again with her mind. She could determine that no one was around, and thus, she had a chance to get out of there without anyone noticing. She quickly headed towards the lights she saw coming from outside the yard, all the while continuing to make sure she didn't hear anybody that might notice her being where she wasn't supposed to. It only took a couple of minutes, but it had been pretty far, and she was tired when she had made it to the exit to the yard.

Once she had made it to the yard, she noticed that things looked different. The lights on the lamps were a bit yellower here than around the old place, and as she moved about the streets, she noticed that there were fewer cracks in the road and street. She wondered why that was, but she also saw that there was more light around her in general.

Still, she had to be careful. She knew that if the dark people ever found her again, it would be bad, so she needed to find a way to make sure they could never specifically guess she had been at the place. She had already gotten away from there, so that should help...

'I just need to keep far away from that place,' She thought as she marched by glowing windows. She slipped down the streets, there were some people, but most didn't seem to pay her too much mind.

'Oh, I hope that little girl's mother is nearby,' One man shook his head, his big belly moving back and forth as he did so. He looked older, but ultimately seemed to be nice.

'Hmmm,' one was a thing woman, hiding behind big glasses, 'that girl's too thin...too long an investment.'

'I wonder if that girl would like to play jax,' a boy sitting at his window stared down at her. She almost shouted she didn't know what jax were, but she'd like to, but remembered that most people really don't like to be told that their thoughts had just been read. She pushed herself forward, street after street.

All the while, her stomach was growling. She hadn't eaten anything since she had escaped, and she was really hungry now. She hadn't liked eating too much at the place, they mostly gave her "porridge" a white slop that filled her up, but never tasted too good. Though sometimes they would add white powder called "sugar" to it, and made it a whole bunch better. She tried to listen to any voice that might say if they could give her food, but she couldn't hear anything that sounded like they would.

She then stopped, and sniffed the air.

'That smells good,' she thought to herself. She sniffed in the air again, and began to follow where the smell was the strongest. After a bit, she found herself outside a place that had a bunch of chairs and tables. For a minute she saw four people sitting around three tables. Two men sitting on their own, and one man and woman sitting together.

'I missed this so much,' the man with the woman thought, his thoughts were thinking of a woman with blonde hair though, but Anya could tell almost immediately from the same thought that his was the same woman, 'I don't deserve this, but I missed it. Just being here with her...I...no, I wouldn't be the one Riza loves if I really suggested we just run away.'

'Roy is relaxing,' Riza, Anya guessed, was looking at the man across from her, stirring something in her that seemed to calm her, 'I'm glad he's doing better,' A small little evil appeared though, 'though hopefully this teaches him about being so fast and loose as a ladies man.'

'Stupid handsome man who-' she stopped almost immeadiatly, not liking the angry thoughts from the guy with fuzzy hair.

'This might be fortuitus,' the last one thought.

'What's fortuitus mean,' Anya thought, massaging her temples from all the listening in. She could tell none of them had noticed her, and she continued to inch forward, hoping to grab one of what she could tell was good smelling food from one of the tables before they noticed her. As she inched over, she heard the last man continue to think, 'I can use this opportunity to spy on Mustang's date after they leave. Mustang will probably have guards, but finding out the details of his relationships might be useful.'

'Wait,' Anya thought, 'Spy...'

She remembered. Lots of the scientists were always worried about spies. She didn't know what a spy was, but she knew they were against the doctors and that likely meant he was against the dark people too. She needed to talk to him. But how...

'This will give me something to do, but I will have to go hurry to get ready for tomorrow,' the man continued, 'I've got to go to the hospital to take up my new profession. Then I'll have to go pick a kid to adopt from an orphanage...'

'Adopt...'

Anya did not know the specifics, but she could piece together what this all meant. This Spy wanted to pick up a kid without a parent, then become the parent of the kid. This meant, all she had to do was to get a spy to take her and protect her from the dark people, was go to the Orphanage, and then make sure he chose her. She felt the edges of her mouth begin to widen out a bit.And then they widened quite a bit more than that.

'Heh,' she laughed inwardly. She looked up, reached up quickly from and snatched up the sandwich on the curly guy's table, since he was the most distracted, and burst out of there. She didn't stop running until she was around the corner. She then pushed the sandwich into her mouth, and almost collapsed.

'Food so good!' she declared inside her head. Certainly better than the porridge she had before. She stopped for a second, taking in everything that had just happened. Then she pushed herself upward, and smiled.

'Now, just to find the Orphanage, so I can get adopted,' she smiled.

"HEY, WHO ATE MY SANDWICH!"

Anya quickly began her search.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Riza groaned a bit as she walked down twelfth street. The very nice evening she had been having had been disrupted by the missing sandwich. It had probably been for the best, as any longer might have lead to undesired questions, but it had been the first time in years she and Roy had gone on anything approaching a date.

'Might be the last time we ever do too.'

That was the guilt coming through again. Both of them were aware the fates that were likely coming their way because of Roy's plan. Either they failed, and they were put to death as traitors, or they succeeded, and then they might meet the hangman's noose as mere war criminals.

It was a sad fate, but she was walking with the only man she'd ever want to share hers with. She couldn't say she was happy, but she could take the term fulfilled without a hint of discontent. They had first come together as teenagers while dealing with her deteriorating father, they had parted after that man had finally gone off the deep end, and they reunited as monsters in the blasted deserts of Ishbal. If they were to go to hell, at least it would be together.

"Wish it didn't require a wig though," she knew why it was important, both to keep their relationship at least somewhat under wraps, and also to help assuage some of Roy's wounded ego. The man had been raised by prostitutes, you'd think he was better prepared for minor questions of sexuality, but for some reason it had struck a nerve, 'Though maybe he thought it was insinuating he wasn't interested in me,' she added, a small smile growing on her lips again.

And then she stopped.

It wasn't a sound, or a sight that caused this...no just a feeling. Like she was being watched. She stopped for a moment, and looked behind her. No one in clear vision, but...well, she couldn't be too careful. She took a left turn at the nearest alley, and then took off in a full sprint, making sure to place her hand on her head, all to keep the wig from flying off. She then took another turn, and then another, twisting and turning all the way through a dozen blocks. All the while she could tell that the presence was following her, always making sure to never give her a good view of it, but also close enough to keep an eye on her.

Finally, she came to a door, and pulled out a key. She entered the key, opened the door, and slid her way inside, before locking the door behind her. She sighed.

This was one of the apartment complexes that were around the city that she and other officers had keys for. They weren't exactly safe houses, but rather diversions. If they were being followed while in disguise, they were to sneak in, hide, and then come out a bit later. These were large tenant apartments, so it would be easy to have their tail think they had discovered their home, and then be misled when that disguise never actually could be found.

Riza pulled down her wig, snuck into one of the rooms they knew wasn't currently being used, and planned her next move. It would be a few hours, but she would be home soon. And the next morning, she would have to meet with Roy, to discuss what to do with this new factor they hadn't been planning on.

Chapter 5: Finding a Child

Lloyd Forger smiled and waved at a passing orderly as he marched beside an older woman in wearing the deep blue uniform. She was Lieutenant Marsha Strauss, a woman in her late fifties who was in charge of the hospital's third floor. Meant for treatment that was less severe, after all, it was hard to get badly injured up three flights of stairs, it was a place where general medical check ups, illness recovery, and newly introduced to East City, Psychiatry. Twilight followed the woman, who had sharp eyes but a small smile, through the top floor, all the way down one of the corridors, near one of the emergency exit stairways.

"This is your room dear," she opened the door, and saw what was a fairly plain doctor's office. There was a desk on one end of the room, with a set of two chairs on the other side of the room, where he would speak with his patients. Alongside the room opposite the window was two large bookcases, filed with books that Twilight recognized were related to the practice of Psychiatry. He smiled and nodded at the lady, before walking over to the desk, and placing his briefcase there.

"Thank you so much Lieutenant Strauss," he said, nodding back at the older woman. She smiled at him, before looking at his hand, "Oh, you are married are you?"

Twilight inwardly grinned to himself. He had remembered to keep the ring on his left hand this morning, as it would do to build up his reputation and backstory. He was going to need a wife and child after all, and having a relationship that had actually resulted in a child over the age of six, the minimum age for the tutoring group that Selim Bradley was said to be joining, was going to be an important cover to allow him to get closer within the ranks of the military. That meeting with his temporary landlord had reminded him that having a ring on would be a way to build up his history, and make it harder for people to think of him as anything other than a friendly doctor.

Lloyd Forger frowned, looking down at his hand ruefully, "It actually would have been our anniversary a few weeks ago..."

"Oh dear," Strauss suddenly covered her mouth, before reaching down, and placing a hand on Lloyd's shoulder, "I'm so sorry to hear that. I should have been more considerate."

"No, no," Lloyd nodded at her, "I probably should put this away," he looked back at his hand, "There are times I just can't help but think of her-"

"Ah, no need to put it away," the older woman waved her hand. She then raised her left hand, showing a ring on her finger as well, "I've been married for thirty years. If my husband were to die, I don't know what I'd do," she waved her hand, "And to think, looking at you, your wife must have been so young..."

"The plague came through," Lloyd admitted, which Strauss nodded at.

"Yes, there are still pockets of it," she shook her head, "One of the State Alchemists lost his mother too it a few years ago. Tends to strike young healthy people."

"Wasted away," Twilight had been looking at diseases that had been around the Eastern province of Amestris while building his background, and was struck by the luck of an unnamed plague taking hundreds of rather youthful women in the past five years. He'd actually been struck by it when reviewing the boy alchemist who had been taking his train.

Fullmetal.

Twilight felt his stomach drop. They were turning a teenager into a weapon. He'd been sixteen when he had joined the Crestan military, but he'd forged his papers to get in two years early. That they made a thirteen year old a weapon of mass destruction here in Amestris was...chilling.

"Well," Strauss said, clearly a little shaken by the conversation. Twilight wondered internally what it meant for a hospital worker, especially a military hospital worker, to be so shaken by a death, but he'd let it slide. She was an older woman, had likely been away from any real conflict for a good while, and was probably trying to connect with the new young doctor working on her floor, "I'll leave you to your office. Once again, I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you for your concern," Lloyd helped her out of the room, all the while Twilight kept considering what would the best option be. He'd originally been hoping that the Agency would have a wife at least, but they were low on female operatives already, the Handler was already known as a member of Cresta's ambassadorial staff, and agent Nightfall was busy with a task in the North, finding out strange communications between Drachma and several corrupt colonels in Amestran military. Being a widower would explain why he had a current child, after he adopted one, and would allow him to pursue some of the single women as his cover wife.

'Now,' Lloyd said, pulling open his briefcase, he began to flip through the papers inside. Twilight noticed that the document was created on March 3rd, meaning Code J, 'The only orphanage in East City is a little outside the city limits to the north. They don't have much paper work due to some damage sustained to the records during the Ishvalan conflict, so it should be easy to pick out a child, and move forward with Operation STRIX."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anya didn't like the orphanage, but she knew if she was going to get away from the dark people, she was going to have to get someone big to take her in. And the spy was the best to do that.

Anya shook her head as she listened to the other kids around her. They were often think about how hungry they were, how tired they were. And how miserable they all felt staying there. It didn't seem pleasant, which meant Anya was going to have to play this as well as possible. She rested as close as she could to the front of the orphanage, continuing to wait for the spy. There weren't many people coming in today, no new adoptions starting up, and most of the children were just moseying around the building. Just as she was about to get up from the boredom of waiting so long, she heard the front door open.

"Hello," the fat man at the front desk, the owner she had learned from reading his mind, said, "Welcome toe East City Home for Disadvantaged Youth."

'Please let it be someone rich,' he inwardly groaned, Anya feeling her back shiver from his greasy tone, 'I need to get one of these mouths out of here. I'm not running a charity.'

Anya didn't understand what a charity was, but tried to focus on the one who had entered.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Lloyd Forger," a familiar voice carried across the room, and Anya almost smiled as she recognized the spy's tone, "I am new in town, and I had heard that this was where I should go to."

'Disadvantaged Youth,' there was almost a sneer in the Spy's internal voice, 'Just trying to give a more respectable cover to your racket. Still, this is an ugly business, but not a fully illegal one. And you should be amenable to allowing me to adopt a child as quickly as possible.'

"Hello Mr. Forger," the owner of the orphanage laughed, 'Oh man, a doctor. He must be rich,' the slime seemed to drip from the man's thoughts, 'can't wait to see what I can get from you,' the man then thought about putting together the most cheerful face he could, "What brings you here? Are you looking to start the process of adoption?"

"Start and end if you don't mind," Lloyd continued, 'Might as well be as direct as possible,' he didn't seem to be happy, "I was hoping to adopt a child by the end of the day really."

"My word doctor. Adopt a child in less than a day, surely you understand that I can't just do that," he put on a sad face, but inwardly was cackling, 'Oh, he must be desperate,' he then controlled himself, "Of course, we can at least introduce you to the children, and then we can start the process, and see if we might be able to extradite the process."

'You mean bribe you,' Lloyd inwardly sighed, "That would be wonderful. Thank you for your assistance."

The two then shook hands, and walked began to walk forward, towards where Anya was sitting. She was in a room with around a dozen children, most of whom she had managed to push out of her head to listen to the more interesting conversation with the owner and the spy. She shook her head, and continued to listen in on their thoughts, all the while realizing they were getting closer.

'I"m going to need a child around 6,' Lloyd considered in his head, 'That is the minimum age for the tutoring group for Selim Bradley.'

"Six," Anya repeated to herself. If she understood, she was four, but four and six were pretty close, and she was pretty sure she could make that lie pretty easily.

'Also, they'll need to be smart,' Lloyd continued, 'at least able to read, but do so at a high enough level to earn the right to sit alongside the finest tutors in the country.'

'Read...' Anya could read. She'd seen the doctors and the military men read books, and had learned from reading their minds that scribbles meant specific words, and she knew a lot of them. It was hard, but she at least had some idea. She looked around quickly, and then spotted a small bookcase on the side of the room she and the children were staying in. She moved as fast as her legs could carry her, and picked up one of the larger books she could see from a high shelf, and on the front she saw a dark skinned man with his hands holding a bright orange circle. She then ran over, and placed it on a small table that several other were playing on with puzzles and blocks. She opened it up to a short way in, and began to read.

"The," she groaned, not knowing the next word, but continuing on, "smile at the new day. The true had show him. He," she skipped another word, and continued, "the sands around him, and the water-"

"Any of these ones catch your eye," Anya was snapped out of her attempt to read the book, as she realized that the two had come into the room, and were looking over her and the other children. It took everything in her power not to look back, but she had to make them think she was smart, since that was what he was looking for. Slowly she felt Lloyd's gaze come onto her, and then look at the book beneath her.

'That is a pretty large book for such a small child,' Lloyd suddenly returned his focus to the owner, "What about the girl with pink hair, the one reading the book?"

"Oh her," the owner inwardly smiled as he looked at her too, "She is one of our best. She," he was looking at her, and yet she could tell he was inwardly frowning, 'I don't recognize that one,' he then moved quickly, "She is a smart cookie. You can see by the book she's reading of course," he then shouted out, "Dear Miss, would you please come here for a moment."

Anya then took this chance to look up from the book, and her eyes met Lloyd for the first time. He was tall. Really tall. Unlike many of the scientists he stood straight, and she could see he was constantly looking around the world. 'This girl is probably too short, she looks like she might be four at best...'

"My name is Anya," she said, suddenly bowing at the two men, before picking up her head quickly, "And I am six years old."

'Six...' Lloyd seemed to be stumped at the speed of the answer to his question. Anya almost felt fear she had pushed too far, but then she heard, 'likely something they are often drilled to say to prospective parents.'

'Prospective?' Anya kept that thought in her mind, and continued to listen.

'Good girl,' the owner had pushed past any questioning of her, clearly glad she was making progress, 'Somehow managed to save my ass, and answer one of his questions.'

'Small, but could just be short for a six year old,' Lloyd internally nodded to himself, before looking at the book on the table, and walking over to it. He looked over Anya's shoulder, and began to examine the book, 'And the book is clearly for nine year olds. That should be far above her reading age. And yet...'

"Anya," Lloyd asked, "Could you please read this for me?"

'I need to see if she is as capable as she seems...'

Anya looked at where Lloyd was pointing, and then smiled. Because, since Lloyd was looking at it, he was reading it. And if he was reading that...

"The Sage smiled at the new day," she began, and she could feel the worry in Lloyd begin to disappear, "The Truth had shown him the way. He tamed the sands around him, and the waters flowed towards the people. As the water began to wash over the crops and fields, he fell to his knees and declared, "Truth of Creation. You have granted me this miracle. I am whole again, and shall spread this to all your chosen people."

'Impressive,' Lloyd nodded, 'but maybe a little more just to make sure this isn't some memorization,' Lloyd's eyes then moved, and Anya continued to read aloud the book.

"Then the Truth said, "Sage, you have been granted the truth, and you will spread waters to quench the thirst of your people. But forget it was not you, but the Truth that quenches your thirst. Knowledge of the Truth can wet your throat, fill your belly, and raise your mind, but be not arrogant, for you do not know the full Truth. Only the Truth itself knows the Full Truth, the whole of knowledge eternal. Seek knowledge that the Truth has not granted to you, and your hosannas of praise will only be filled with lamentations of sorrow.""

"Excellent," Lloyd said aloud. He then turned back to the owner, 'I need to get her as quickly as possible, and moving this quickly will allow us to forge papers quickly,' he nodded at the man, "I would like to adopt Anya if that is possible."

"Well," the owner himself was actually a bit in shock, 'I didn't know I had a kid who could read like that,' he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, you know it's a bit hard to let an adoption go forward so quickly. I mean, you saw this child, how smart she is," he waved at the girl, 'I might be able to push this sale up a bit. Plus, I need to get in contact with my guy down at the record office to build out papers. I don't even know if I have this one listed on any registry,' he sighed, "To sign all the paper work-"

"Sir," Any spoke up. She needed to get adopted quickly, and that meant helping Lloyd get past thig guy, "Didn't you say I don't have papers?"

"What?" Lloyd and the owner said at the same time, one in sudden terror, and one in mild shock.

'You BRAT!'

'Really, no papers,' Lloyd looked over at the owner, who suddenly was waving his hands back and forth, 'That may make this easier than I thought.'

"I can assure you Doctor Forger," the owner began, "I certainly have papers related to little Anya her-"

"May I see them?"

_______________________________________________________________________________________

It had indeed been surprisingly easy.

Lloyd began to walk down the steps from the orphanage with his new "Daughter". The lack of papers had basically been enough of negotiating tactic to allow Lloyd to get away with controlling the negotiations. He and the owner had spent thirty minutes alone in different room, all with Twilight in complete control. He had had to spend a pretty large sum of money to get the adoption all covered and for him to buy off the owner so he'd never claim to have had her, but the money had been so good, and the child already so disconnected, that it had been relatively smooth. Especially since he and Cresta had more than enough money to buy any sort of anger away.

"Papa," the girl said aloud, as she walked beside Lloyd. The spy sighed, 'I'd rather her say father, but Papa will probably be better for a girl of six. More believable.'

'Still, besides everything,' Lloyd nodded to himself, 'Operation Strix is proceeding as planned,' he looked forward, staring down towards the setting sun, 'I have secured the child that will have to enter the school. And without her having any papers, it should be easy to forge brand new certificates to cover for any questions that might arise. And this child appears to be a genius. This is going to be a lot easier than I thought.'

GRRRWWWWLLLL

Twilight looked down at the little girl next to him. She then looked up, with one hand sitting on her stomach, and another hand wiping away her face.

"I'm hungry," she said aloud. And it was proven again as another growl roared from her stomach. Twilight looked down at her, and then felt sweat begin to roll down the back of his head.

'Please let this be easier than I thought.'

Chapter 6: Edward Elric

"Dr. Forger, you look terrible."

Lloyd looked over at Lieutenant Strauss, and tried to set up a comforting smile to the older woman. It was technically only his second week, and he was supposedly coming off a weekend, but in reality, he honestly felt more relaxed here in the hospital than he did in his rooms. He rubbed the back of his head, and let out a small laugh.

"I just had a rough weekend," he said, though in reality it came out far more like a groan, "My daughter arrived last week, and she's having trouble adjusting to our new life here."

That was an understatement. The success that Anya had initially shown in reading appeared to have been some sort of mirage. She certainly could read, about as one could expect of a six year old, but the near genius level of intelligence was no where in sight. It was an issue he had been forced to deal with throughout the week since he had adopted her. He had brought all the necessary materials and tutoring tools to prepare the girl for joining the special classes of Selim Bradley, but she had shown almost no aptitude for it. She consistently got most of those practice tests wrong, and instead of focusing on the books in front of her, she would usually just stop reading after a while, and just stare out the window.

She did seem to do better on everything when he was specifically watching over her, but he that wasn't going to work. He didn't think that stress was what was causing her to do better on the tests, but rather simply having him there. He needed her to improve working on these things, and he couldn't just have her promise to study while he was at work. She was six after all, and she would likely just goof off or get distracted.

There were times he got so frustrated, he contemplated going back and trying to get a second child from the orphanage. This was obviously an impossibility, he was already known, the papers that declared Anya to be his legitimate daughter had already been snuck and filed into the official census records in East City's main building, and the land lord already recognized the girl. But there were moments where it entered his mind. And worst of all, Anya could almost seem to sense when he was thinking this, and would begin to tear up, and promised to work hard enough, and beg not to be sent back. For all his experience on the lines of Cresta had hardened his heart...that still managed to make him feel like crap.

So after an exhausting weekend of attempting to tutor her himself, and making only the faintest of progress, (For what it was worth, she did actually seem to have a knack for basic algebra for some reason), he needed to keep a closer eye on her this week if only so he could enforce her training, and build on what was necessary for Stryx. As well as hopefully have a distraction so he would not be as harsh with the young girl, who after all, was only six.

"Papa and I studied a lot," he heard the little voice of the girl declare next to him. Suddenly, the older woman in front of him looked over, and noticed the pink haired girl. A second later, her hand fell over he chest, and she smiled warmly at the young girl.

"Papa?" she said, before looking up at Lloyd in a knowing way, "Well, I'm glad to finally meet you. I'm Marsha Strauss."

"I'm Anya Forger," the young girl declared, holding out her hand, which the older woman reached out, and shook in a slightly exaggerated manner. Lloyd let out a smiled at that and a small laugh. At least, for whatever her faults, his daughter seemed to have the child like ability to cause older women to let their guard down. Would help keep the Lieutenant from being too investigative into his history. It took him a few seconds to suddenly recognize a frown develop on the older woman's face, and her eyes looked sadly down on Anya.

"I'm so sorry to hear about your mother Anya," she said with a restrained but kind voice. A panic began to develop inside Lloyd as he realized he might have brought the girl to his office too soon, "Losing her when you barely knew her."

'CRAP!' Twilight screamed, realizing he hadn't fully disclosed the cover story to Anya, 'I haven't told her what to say when talking about her mother. She knows my wife died, but nothing else! I haven't told her to cry about it, to mention the sickness a few years ago, or even to mention that she doesn't remember a lot other than her pretty singing voice. Just enough to build a tragic picture.'

Lloyd was about to interject, when suddenly, he saw Anya begin to shake a bit. For a moment, he wasn't sure what was happening, but then he heard a gasp from the girl, and then a bit of a cry. Lloyd got a good look at her face, and saw tears begin to well up on the sides of her eyes, and then flow down her cheeks. Almost immediately, Marsha's hand went to her mouth, covering a small gasp of shock.

"mama," Anya just barely allowed a gasp. Quickly, the older woman threw her arms around the girl, and held her in her arms. The girl began to let out a few strange gasps, all the while pushing out the water works. Most of the staff around the hall turned their attention to the trio, and for a moment, Twilight felt a bit of worry from the idea that he was getting too much notice, but then he saw an opportunity. He coughed, and then said, while loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I...I try to not bring up her mother too much. It was very hard on a girl so young," many of the orderlies and nurses nodded at that, a few staring down at the bawling girl. Inwardly, Twilight took in their sympathy, and was happy to have another reason to talk less about his past. He then looked back at his "daughter" and the officer, and considered the next move.

'Hopefully, she stops pretty soon,' he considered, 'Nothing too abrupt,' and as if as magic, the girl began to stop crying. He then placed a hand on her head, and helped Strauss up off the floor.

"I'm sorry about that," he then motion his head towards his office, "I think it would be better for the two of us to get to my office. We'll be in there all day, you know?"

"Of course," it was only now, that Lloyd noticed that the Lieutenant had tears around the bottom of her eyes as well, "What ever you need. You have one preliminary evaluation today, but otherwise, it will just be normal file management."

"Will get ready for it," Lloyed nodded, though Twilight grimaced. These were the evaluations of the State Alchemists he had been given as his main assignments. They were to be psychological support for some of the Military's most important assets, and to test and root out any sort of dangerous behavior before it could balloon into a disaster like with the rather infamous pair of Kimblee and McDougal. He inwardly groaned at the thought of being in a room with one of these monsters, but steeled himself. It was for the mission.

'I wonder how Anya was able to pull off that performance,' Twilight considered, beginning to move down the hallway towards his office, his little daughter holding his hand as the walked towards their haven, 'Perhaps she has experienced some kind of loss before? She is an orphan after all.'

"Oh, do be careful Lloyd," he heard Marsha shout down the hall, "This Alchemist you are meeting has something of a temper. Avoid triggering him however, and you should be fine."

"Oh," Lloyd replied back, "What should I avoid?"

"Well...Don't mention his height."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Edward groaned as he saw a young girl sitting at a side table, a massive book in front of her. He'd already had to deal with Nina Tucker and her massive mountain sized dog yesterday, and seeing this other little girl just reminded him that he was wasting his time in this hospital instead of doing more research in Shou Tucker's library.

'I don't have time for this,' he seethed inwardly, 'I should be studying with Alphonse right now, not wasting time on a "Mental Health" evaluation,' he thought of all the more useful work that his little brother was doing in that library, while he was stuck here, 'Stupid McDougal.'

Edward Elric had actually been partially responsible for helping bring the Ice using Alchemist down during his terrorist attack in Central. It had been a bit of a shock to discover that one of his fellow State Alchemists had gone rouge, but he thought it wasn't too strange. To have it change policy so every State Alchemist had to get a psychological evaluation before their license could be renewed. His renewal wasn't for a few months, but the Colonel had decided that he had wanted to have Ed go in to meet the doctor right now.

"I don't want some quack to run his weird mental experiments on me first. Better send you in, Fullmetal, so I can make sure it's safe."

'Stupid Mustang,' Ed gelt his teeth grind. He looked over at the main desk, and saw that this Dr. Forger was currently looking at him expectantly. He was about the same height as mustang, maybe a bit shorter, with blonde hair, green eyes, and a soft smile. His outfit, in contrast with every other person he'd seen in this hospital, was not the usual Military Blues. Rather, it was a green coat over a plain white button down shirt, and a bright red tie. On some level, Ed appreciated that he wasn't the only one breaking protocol a bit with his choice of attire. Still, wouldn't be good to let his guard down. His Master's warnings about the military and Mustang's flippant description of this sort of science as "Quackery" didn't set him in too accommodating a mood.

"Greetings Major Elric," the doctor spoke in a calm voice, all the while matching Ed's Golden eyes with his own green pair, "My name is Dr. Lloyd Forger, I hope you are looking forward to our discussion today."

"Maj-wait," Ed held up his hands, "Please don't use my rank. It makes me a bit uncomfortable," Ed could almost feel the glare of his Master Izumi Curtis from across the hundreds of miles to here from Dublith, "I really don't consider myself so much a soldier," and then Ed felt a slight bolt of embarrassment as Lloyd blinked at him from behind the pile of documents.

"Really now," the Doctor raised his hand to his chin, and began to rub it, all the while looking over a set of documents that Ed guessed was his profile. He then gave a glance that Ed guessed was studying him more closely, "That's interesting. Why would you join the military if you don't consider yourself a soldier. That seems a bit necessary to the position, wouldn't you think?"

"Well yeah," Ed let out a strained laugh, "Kind of is."

'Damnit, this is going to suck,' Ed felt a sinking feeling. He considered exactly how much this Doctor might know about his past. It wasn't like he knew exactly what had cost he and Alphonse so much four years earlier. The human transmutation in an attempt to bring their mother back to life. He was sure his mother's death was in his file, and they would have to dig up that old wound, and then he would ask some crap about some kind of trauma, and how that relates to what he's doing. Heck, even saying he didn't want to be a soldier was probably pushing it, since it showed that he was using the military more than serving in it, 'And who knows who this jerk is reporting to.'

"Well, we can get to that topic later," Lloyd cut Ed's train of thought off, causing his head to suddenly fall down to look at his lap. He hadn't been expecting to get out of that topic quite so easily, "We will have several more appointments to go into actual issues for discussion. We're just here for a half hour introduction, to set up some expectations for how our meetings will go. You are so young, getting to pick your brain in our later discussions should be illuminating."

'Well, that went from helpful to creepy in fifteen seconds,' Ed felt sweat develop on his head from the end of that statement, 'Pick my brain, make it sound more like I'm some kind of lab rat to you, jerk!'

"Afterall, our later sessions will be private," the doctor waved his hand towards the desk to his right, "Since this is a preliminary meeting, I thought it okay to bring my daughter to work today. She isn't in school yet, so she is trying to study for the exam right now. It isn't for a while, but it is important to be prepared."

'Isn't that a bit too big a book for a girl that age,' Ed asked in a bit of shock, 'Just what kind of crazy school is this that makes a girl that young study so much.'

"Do four year olds usually have to take entrance exams?"

"Actually, she's six," the Doctor countered quickly, before adding off handedly, "She's just a bit short for her age."

...

'Calm down, he called her short, not you,' Ed was able to quickly tap down on the developing anger in his belly. No use to blow up on this doctor, especially if he was going to have to have several more meetings with him. Finally, the little girl turned around, and looked at Ed. It was only now, that Ed realized, her eyes were only half open. Had she been asleep this whole time, 'I thought I slept too much,' He considered, before suddenly realizing that the little girl was staring at him. For a moment, he was confused, but then he realized what was about to happen.

'Oh no,' he began to panic inside his mind, trying to brace himself against his spring loaded temper. He couldn't afford to have a blow up now, especially when Alphonse wasn't here to restrain him from causing some kind of real damage. He might actually hurt this girl if he got too angry, 'Please don't call me short. Please don't call me short. Please don't call me short.'

"Tall."

The little girl's voice hung in the air for a second. If Ed was able to pay attention to anything but that word for a moment, he would have seen sweat develop in several large droplets on Lloyd's forehead, and a look of pure shock at the brazenness of the lie that his daughter had uttered. It was so false, that the whole world seemed to bend on such an incorrect statement being said.

But you see, that wasn't what was important at the moment.

A second later, Anya Forger was swept up in a massive hug. The little girl was swung around for a moment, all the while Edward let out a victorious chant.

"TALL! TALL! TALL!"

Ed then snapped his attention back to the doctor, who was staring dumbly at the sight before him.

"You sir, have raised a genius."

Anya just blinked dumbly from within Edward's hug.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

'Well, that was certainly an event,' Lloyd closed the file that contained the information on the Fullmetal Alchemist. The young man had just left, and had departed to return to his research at Shou Tucker's, the Sewing Life Alchemist, house. His younger brother was apparently there while Ed was here having his appointment. Lloyd furrowed his brow, trying to piece everything he could together.

He had actually met the young alchemist on the train into East City during the Blue Group attack. While he had remained inside the last train car while Edward had pushed down to free them from the separatists, Lloyd had taken time to take in the young man. What he had been able to gather during that few moments was that he was a co*cksure young man who had enough skill to defeat an entire train full of terrorists. The experience had left him with the distinct impression that the boy was actually some kind of super soldier. The profile he had gotten later had seemed to corroborate that. No living parents, brought into the state military at a young age, exceedingly talented. All of those pointed to a weapon of war in human flesh, what many observers of the Ishvalan conflict had called, "Persons of Mass Destruction".

And yet the young man he had met was almost too normal.

More driven than usual? Yes.

Smarter than usual? Obviously.

Talented? Undeniably.

And yet, he didn't seem too different from most teenage boys his age. He talked about his younger brother with a great deal of affection, probably more than most young men his age. But that made sense, considering they were likely the only family they had left. He also did seem to have friends back home, and even seemed to have some kind of friendship with Colonel Mustang, despite his denial too it. Honestly, Lloyd Forger would probably have written him off as normal, just a bit of a sad back story.

Twilight didn't. Twilight could see that Ed was not only reluctant to talk about his dead parents, he absolutely stonewalled any avenue to that topic of conversation. It wasn't just normal trauma there, but some kind of horrific scar. He also avoided giving Lloyd much information on anything revolving around his home town of Resembool besides having "friends" there. Nothing specific, not even addresses, like he was trying to hide the people there. Even his brother, who was in the same city Lloyd and Ed were currently sitting in, was mostly just talked about as his brother. No real personal details other than a shared interest in alchemy.

'He clearly doesn't want to talk about anything that might give too much personal information away,' Twilight considered, rubbing his chin, 'Almost like he doesn't trust the military at al-'

"Sniff"

Twilight stopped thinking, and Lloyd looked over at Anya. She was still sitting at her chair, where Edward had deposited her after the small dance he had taken her on. She was staring at the book, but on the page she was working on, was some drying droplets that had splashed along the pages. Twilight looked, and saw the trails of dried tears on the girls face.

'Is...is she sad because she can't get the answers?'

"Edward's...edward is very sad Papa."

Lloyed stared at his daughter for a moment, before nodding. Despite everything, he could also tell that there was a bit of sadness about the boy he had been working with. Slowly, he pulled his daughter into a hug, to let her try and get a hold over herself.

'It's strange,' Twilight considered, 'She seems to oscillate between being mildly unintelligent to very perceptive,' he felt her shake a little more, and pulled her more deeply into the hug, 'What a strange little child you are, Anya.'

"Oh my," Twilight almost jumped, but held on to Anya to keep his reflexes from overreacting to the sudden voice, "I am so sorry. I did not mean to interrupt you."

Lloyd turned, and saw a young woman standing in the door way. She was in her late twenties, wearing the standard Military Blues, though for some reason she had a mini-skirt instead of pants. Her face was framed with long black bangs that flowed out of a bun on her head, and in that frame was a pair of red eyes and a mouth that was currently shaking in embarrassment. Lloyd held up one of his free hands, and shook it at her.

"It's okay, I'm not too busy," he said quickly. The young woman nodded, before grabbing from beneath her arm a set of files. She walked over, and handed it to him, all the while he watched her closely.

'I've been able to tell every single person whose passed by my door today,' Twilight considered the young woman carefully, wondering just who she might be, 'But this woman got into my room without alerting me to her presence. It's been years since any one was able to slip past my senses so easily,' he looked her over, all the while keep himself in a position to fall back to his desk and retrieve his gun if necessary, while at the same time taking the file from her hand, 'just who is this woman?'

"I work at Colonel Mustang's office," she stood straight up as she said this, the exchange of the documents just having occurred, "I was sent here to deliver you documents for tomorrow's meeting. These are on the background of Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist," she nodded at him, giving a strange slight bow.

'Shou Tucker,' Edward Elric had mentioned the older man. The only man to make a Chimera that could talk. The story that Twilight had heard unnerved the spy a bit, but he'd deal with that in the future. Right now, he had to deal with this woman.

"Thank you...," Lloyd left a pause in the air. A second later, the woman recognized the social cue, and then almost completely bowed again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself," she said quickly, before raising up, and looking him dead in the eye. Twilight in the back of his mind noticed this, if only because it was so rare for a woman to actually be his same height.

"I am Yor Briar. I am sorry again for the intrusion."

"It is no problem," Lloyd nodded at her. Yor nodded back, and then twisted on her heels, and quickly walked through the door. A second later, her presence was once again gone. For a moment, he tried to keep his senses up, to see if he could still find her, but she had already disappeared.

'This mission just keeps getting stranger and stranger,' Twilight just shook his head.

"She seemed nice, huh Papa?"

Lloyd looked down at the young girl sitting in his arms. Her face still had tear stains, but they were mostly dry. And she almost seemed to be following something down the hallway a bit. As though she, unlike him, could still sense the strange woman. Of course, this was nonsense, so Lloyd Forger nodded at that, and gave out a small smile.

"Yes, I suppose she did seem nice."

Chapter 7: Shou Tucker

"So, a Psychiatrist, huh?"

Roy nodded as he stared down at the papers along his desk. He had been pushing through a lot of documents as he considered this new piece on the board. A mental health doctor showing up was a new wrinkle in his time monitoring East City. There were new personnel coming in and out of the region's capital all the time, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for a new doctor to show up.

'But a therapist,' Roy inwardly groaned, 'Sure, now you give us one. Know a lot of people who would have needed it in Ishval,' and then his frown deepened, remembering intrinsically the hot sun beating on his back as he sent hundreds of Ishvalans to their god, 'Not that I deserved one.'

"Yes," Roy answered, to which Maes Hughes whistled on the other end of the line, "He showed up last week. I haven't met him myself, but I sent Fullmetal out to him first."

"Test to make sure it was safe?" Roy almost smiled at the intelligence officer Maes clearly was. He nodded to himself, while making sure to say his next few words carefully. He knew that Maes was likely in a phone booth right now if it meant he was speaking so openly about the military possibly investigating him.

"Only to set the stage, I'm still not going for a while either. Shou Tucker is going to meet him today, and then have a full evaluation starting next week," he remembered the quiet man being slightly perturbed by the order to meet Dr. Lloyd Forger, but had acquiesced to doing so in order to meet the requirements for his license. The man had always taken a great deal of pride in his status and money and opportunities it granted him, which Roy could not fault him too much for. After all, were it not for Ishval, he'd probably have the same attitude towards his rank and the access it granted him, "I should be a bit after that."

"So did Fullmetal say anything about the guy?"

Roy felt his teeth grind for a second.

"SHE CALLED ME TALL!"

"It took a bit," Roy had to consistently remind himself that his soldier was still a teenager, a young one at that, and little petty things like height mattered a lot more to him, "But he did give me some warnings," he then remembered the more thorough intel that Edward had provided after their conversation had developed. Rather in depth biographic questions, questions about military hierarchy, any interpersonal issues with fellow officers," he let the information hang in the air for a moment, "Sounds like..."

"Investigating for dissention," and Roy nodded at his friend's observation. It was clear that this Doctor, who he could nothing but the most standard stuff for, was likely a government agent sent to monitor for possible treason among the Alchemists. After the McDougal incident, it made all the sense in the world to do it. Heck, he might have had the same idea if he was the Fuhrer right now. But still, it just made life for him more difficult.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to go in prepared to work the answers for the best possible result," Mustang sat back, and looked out the window of his office onto the parade grounds. They were lit up with the small lamps that surrounded the long courtyard, and illuminated the comings and goings of his staff and soldiers as the night grew to a close. He looked down, and suddenly saw Ms. Briar leaving the office, and he felt his jaw tighten again.

'Thank God Maes didn't hear her theory,' Roy could barely stand how Riza had taken more than a few jokes at his expense. The thought of his best friend making jokes about his sexuality alongside continuing to show off pictures of his wife and child was perhaps just a bit too much to bear. He shook his head, and sighed, 'Though I guess I have probably pushed a bit too much of the playboy stuff. I left too much up to interpretation,' he then smiled to himself, 'Besides, it might mean I can go out with "Elizabeth" a bit more.'

"Roy, you still there?" Meas's voice cut through Mustang's concentration.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Roy answered, thoughts of the blonde woman being pushed out of his head. Maes had never quite gotten why he hadn't asked Riza Hawkeye to marry him over the past half decade. The obvious answer about fraternization laws had been ignored, and Roy had understood why. There were still times where he thought about leaving the military, about heading out with Riza and just running away to a different country, away from all the thoughts and sorrow that came from Ishval. But he couldn't do that. The dead needed to be given justice, from both Amestris and from himself. And he couldn't abandon the comrades whom he had saved. Leaving would be spitting on everyone in that war, both the living and the dead, "Just thinking about how we're going to have to pull this off. I really don't like dealing with the government spying on me."

"Sounds about right," Maes then stopped, and then added, "Speaking of spying, I've been given a new assignment, and I was thinking it might mean I have to spend a couple of days over in East City."

"Really," Roy added, "Usually you just come and bother me, don't even have to give me an explanation."

"You heard about Agent Twilight?"

"The Crestan Spy?"

"That's the one," Maes's voice was deadly serious. For all their issues with the military, they were nothing if not patriots. Foreign spies, especially from near peers like Cresta, were things they had to take seriously, "He blew up a new set of radio communication equipment down in the lab outside South City."

"Damn," Roy was almost impressed, "That's a big problem," Communication was difficult in the south, with it's many valleys and canyons that caused issues laying telephone lines. Radio Equipment was proving more useful, but it was in constant need of production and innovation. A major loss of equipment could set military operations in the sector back months, "But why would you be coming here to deal with somebody who was last seen in South City."

"I got a tip that there was a strange man spotted catching a ride on a fruit truck one night across the sector border," Roy was again amazed at the information that Maes was able to use, "Might just be something, but we checked everything we know in the South, and can't seem to find anything on him. That tells me he's probably jumped to a different province."

"I can see that," Roy thought about the few reports he'd heard about Agent Twilight, "Any description on this guy?"

"Unfortunately, beyond light skin, not much," Maes sighed, "I mean, I have a few things, about our height, though he seems to have worn different sized shoes to make him appear in a range from an inch shorter to an inch taller. Most commonly he seems to have green eyes. He's been seen with other colors, but green seems most common, and I bet most of them are some kind of contact lense...and that's about all I'm pretty solid with."

"Really, not even hair color or accent?"

"Guy seems to have a real knack for hiding his hair," that did make sense, since hair was such a good way to identify individual humans, "any kind of accent he might have had he seems to have trained out of him. I don't even have a facial structure, since he seems to either hide his face, or use some kind of make up or fake fat thing to make his face look different in different situations."

"Impressive," Roy then tapped his cheek, "What about communication. You know who the head of espionage for Cresta is in Central, right?"

"Sherwood," Maes reminded him of the name of the woman who currently served as the secretary for the Crestan embassy, "It's tough. I know she's the handler for all espionage in Amestris. She knows I know. And she knows I know she knows. So she keeps almost everything under wraps. I keep an eye on her, but if I look away for a second, something will almost certainly go off. Most of my staff just isn't as observant about this stuff."

"Yeah, and most of them aren't capable of killing a spy one on one either," Roy offered.

"That's supposed to be classified," Maes groaned, "But yeah. I couldn't connect him to anything from Sherwood, but I almost had him on actual espionage on troop movement schedules for Fort Briggs. That could have been vital for Drachma. Just as I was about to get away, he got the drop on me. Luckily he thought I was just a pencil pusher, and didn't see the knife in my boot, or..."

'Or I wouldn't have gone home again,' Roy answered for him. Maes had signed up for a lot of danger, especially in supporting Roy in his plan to become the Fuhrer. But he was keenly aware how close he came at times to leaving his wife a widow.

"But, that's enough fun thoughts for today," Roy nodded as the conversation drew to an end, "I'll see you in a couple of days Roy," Roy made to set down the phone, happy to chat with his best friend, when suddenly heard from the other line, "Oh yeah, and one more thing," he picked the phone back up to his ear, "When are you going to get marrie-"

"GOODBYE!" he shouted, and slammed the phone back on the receiver.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"It's nice to meet you Major Tucker," Lloyd Forger shook the short man's hand. He was middle-aged man with receding brown hair, a large nose, and reflective glasses. He looked, even less than Ed, as though he was not at all part of the military. He seemed to be shaking slightly, as he brought his back down, and brought it to his side. This was going to be a bit less hectic, of course, because he wasn't going to have Anya here. The young girl was going to continue to study at home today, and hopefully, she'd complete her book on Amestrian history by the time he got back.

"It is nice to meet you as well," Shou responded, all the while rubbing his hands together. Lloyd knew that some people just didn't like talking, especially with new people, so this would be even harder than working with Edward, who was a fairly normal kid, who just so happened to be trying to hide some things. Shou had seemed like an extreme introvert in his profile, but some said his decision to keep to himself allowed his genius to work.

"So, this is just a preliminary evaluation," Lloyd said, making a show of flipping through the file. Shou nodded, "Please, don't stress out too much, this will be mostly setting the stage before our full evaluation soon. Feel free to be open with everything you need to say."

"Yes, of course," the fidgety man just continued to look away from Lloyd.

'This might be a bit difficult,' Twilight felt some sweat build up on the back of his head, dropping down along his hair. He was going to have to be careful not to push too many buttons if he wanted to get anything, 'What could be causing him so much stress?'

"So, is there any reason you seem so nervous?" might as well get out in front and ask it.

"I suppose, I should be honest," Shou Tucker nodded, "I suppose that it might be a bit strange, but I'm honestly nervous about the entire process. Edward mentioned speaking with you, but I am far more nervous because I just feel like I'm about to drown," Tucker stared into his hands, "I've been trying to match my success but everything I try just keeps failing."

"That can be difficult," Lloyd offered.

"I mean, most alchemic experiments are inherently failures, that's just what happens when you are pushing the boundaries of the truth," he man continued to shake, "But nothing I've done can compare to my first experiment, the one that gained me everything I have. If I don't pass this examination, I'll lose everything, my research, my funding, my house," he rubbed his head, "My house, oh, what would I tell Nina?"

"Nina?"

"She's my daughter. She and I live alone ever since my left left," Shou Tucker just shook his head, "She's the only person in the world I have left, I've devoted so much time to my research, I just haven't made many friends or connections. I think those Elric boys might just be the people I've spoken to the most over the whole of the last year besides her, and they've been researching in my library for a week."

"Well, that does seem odd," Lloyd nodded at his patient. Extreme Introversion could be a major problem for some especially for those who were afflicted with it. It was okay to prefer to be by yourself, but one couldn't allow it to dominate your life so you had no connection with other people. It lead you to appear strange, and appearing strange could lead to even further isolation from people just avoiding you. It was a dark spiral that could be extremally harmful if allowed to continue.

"Yes."

The two of them sat there for a few moments, neither of them saying anything. The only thing Lloyd could hear was the consistent ticking fo the clock behind him, and the scuffs of boots outside the door as military men marched back and forth along the hallway. Twilight decided to allow Tucker some time to let the conversation breath, hopefully, it would give him some space to lead the conversation himself. And yet, the Alchemist remained stubbornly quiet.

"I'm sorry," Shou Tucker finally added, "I'm just...I'm just so worried about my assessment. This job means so much to me, I feel like I'm really pushing myself beyond what I am, that I'm living up to my potential," He just shook his head, "And all the time I've been studying just feels like a waste. My current chimeras just aren't performing up to the request."

"Anything you feel comfortable sharing?"

"When I created the talking chimera," Shou explained, "I was able to mix enough genes from enough different creatures to create it in such a way it could form thoughts."

'"I want to die",' Twilight thought inwardly a shiver down his spine. Nasty thought, brining some creature into such a painful existence that it's only hope was the sweet release of death, 'Just terrible.'

"But I can't match it," Shou Tucker continued to shake, "And, I worry that if I can't then I never will again. I have to keep pushing myself, it's the only way I can keep up."

'Is he thinking of this like some kind of competition,' Twilight considered, 'I suppose many scientists are in competition with one another, but...this does seem even more unhealthy than the introversion.'

"I mean, you've seen the Elric brothers," Shou Tucker said, an admiration beginning to seep from his voice, "For two men so young to have already experienced so much in alchemy, to have such knowledge," a strange smile appeared on Tucker's face, "It's almost as though they have seen something that I can't even comprehend, some kind of fundamental truth that's hidden from us mere mortals. We are all watching mere shadows on a cave wall, while they have seen the fire, and are on the path to freedom beyond our mortal shakles."

"Yes," Lloyd felt the need to change the subject quickly. When people started using grandiose language like this, it tended to mean there was some kind of trouble afoot, "I actually haven't seen so much of Edward's alchemy. I've seen him change the composition of some metal, but not much beyond that."

"What he's doing isn't that unusual," Shou said with a vacant stare, "It's how he does it. He does not seem to need the symbols of the alchemic circles like the rest of us do," he seemed to get a bit closer, "Even Roy Mustang must use the symbols on the back of his gloves to perform his fire alchemy."

"That...is true," Lloyd nodded, "I always supposed that he had it on the inside of his gloves."

"Or perhaps you considered it on his Automail arm," Shou Tucker said absentmindedly. Lloyd nodded.

"Well, this will be something I have to discuss with Edward during our next session," Twilight again pulled up Tucker's file, "How about we..."

"Dr. Forger," Shou Tucker stood up, "I must get going back to my house. There is very limited time before my next assessment. I hope you do not find this too rude, but I must begin preparations before the evaluators arrive here to judge me."

"Wait," Lloyd suddenly reached out, but Shou Tucker was already moving out the door into the hallway. The man, who had only a few seconds earlier, seemed so meek, now was stubbornly refusing to listen to reason or a set up schedule, "We still have fifteen minutes."

"We can talk after the assessment," the man waved without looking back, "Once that is over, I will be in a far better headspace for a discussion."

'...Should I tail him...,' Lloyd considered, before shaking his head, 'No, not now. I have to keep up appearances. I'll go by sometime tomorrow to check in. Right now, I have to go back and check on Anya. Hopefully she has done better on her newest test.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Lloyd felt his hands shake as he looked down at the paper filled out in front of him. It had been a worksheet he had left for the girl on Amestrian history, one that she would hopefully do better on after studying all day. It was rather simple, with a final score of a number out of 50. It had been used by the same school they would be trying to get in in a few months. She'd probably need to score around a 30 to qualify...and Anya had gotten-

"A SEVEN!?!"

"Studying boring," Anya was seated beneath a radio, all the while some kind of radio play about a spy investigating a gold mine owner played over the staticky machine, "Radio Fun."

Chapter 8: Night of the Chimera's Cry

"She got a seven," Twilight growled, waving the worksheet in front of the tobacco store counter, "A seven. If you literally on guessed the same letter for all the multiple choice, you would get at least a twelve! How am I going to have any chance of getting that girl into Selim Bradley's class with scores this low on practice exams? Did WISE know it would be this hard? Did I do something to earn their contempt?"

"You done?" Franky flipped through the paper he was holding in front of him, a look of disinterest all over his face. He had been sitting here for the past few minutes, allowing Twilight to vent about how hard it had been to teach his daughter to complete his mission. Of course, he wanted to bring up again that he was teaching a six year old with material that was far beyond what almost anyone should expect from a child that age. He had brought that up, but that didn't mean that the spy was willing to take that information in.

Twilight groaned, before rubbing the ridge of his nose in frustration. The past ten or so days had been nothing but one problem building on another. This mission was likely his most important ever, and yet so much of it pushed him out of his comfort zone. He had to create a family in a few weeks, and while he had a "daughter" now, he was still behind on getting a wife, which he would need to mingle in Central. And with Nightfall still on her north, so he was going to have to chose a woman that wasn't one of his colleagues. He had barely ever had to rely on others during any of his missions, and even when he did it had always been with another spy.

'I've been so busy, I still haven't even had a chance to go on date yet,' he inwardly sighed. He had gone on dates before, and he knew how to get women to talk to him, but asking someone to marry him, he'd never had any experience with that, 'I don't know what to say to build that kind of relationship,' he then looked up at Franky, 'Maybe he migh-', he looked at Franky more closely and remembered the anger he in his voice when talking about Mustang, 'I'll have to figure this out on my own.'

"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "I'm done."

"Good," Franky smirked, folding up his paper, and placing it on the counter. He then walked over to the back, and pulled up a carton of cigarettes. He then pushed the box across the counter to Twilight's open hand, who then picked up the box. As second later, he opened up the carton, however, instead of seeing a dozen or so packs of cigarettes, inside it was a set of papers. He opened it up quickly, and he was greeted by the face of Shou Tucker, "As you requested. Took me making a call late last night, but I got everything I could on his time that is "official", birth certificate, marriage license, you know the drill."

"Right," Twilight flipped through the papers, making sure to block the view from the door as he did so. If someone came in, he would be able to close the carton quickly and hide the documents without any real worries of someone thinking this was anything other than him picking up a fortnight of tobacco. The store was a hole in the wall, with constant but not overwhelming traffic, and dozens of posters relating to different brands and advertising campaigns, and an entire back wall covered in cartons of those different brands. It was perfect, and even better, Franky had already managed to get a lease in Central for when Twilight was able to get Anya to pass the exam and into the academic program. If he could.

'Everything is ready except my family,' Twilight seethed inwardly, looking over a picture of the wife that had left Shou two years ago, Ana Tucker. She had pretty blonde hair, that flowed down along her shoulders. He wondered awkwardly how a man as nervous as Shout Tucker managed to get a woman to marry him, but he pushed it out of his mind. She clearly had regrated it, considering she left him, 'Though,' he turned the page, and saw a the same woman holding a little girl, likely no older than three in her arms, 'to leave your daughter like that.'

He shook his head, and then turned another page, and then saw the thing he had least wanted to deal with when working on Shou Tucker. Flames and metal, for all that they appeared at times to look like magic, were at least foreign enough to feel acceptable for some reason. Using alchemy to effect living breathing creatures turned his stomach in another way. What stood there was a yellow colored creature that looked like a mix between an ape and a canine, with strangely proportioned arms and sad sunken eyes, 'What could drive someone to experiment with a living creature, to create something that is only unique for how it is able to ask to die?'

"Freaky thing isn't it?" Franky said, a bit too comfortable for Twilight's liking, "I had to review some of the notes a bit more myself. I kept some of the gross stuff out, and I didn't include pictures of the dissection of the corpse."

"Thank you," Twilight smiled, and Franky saluted him. The short, curly man had proven to be an acceptable partner for this. His knowledge of working the system had been impeccable, and this was the sort of information he was glad he didn't have to sneak into the archives to find, "So, he got funding starting two years ago?"

"Yup, after he created the chimera," Franky nodded, "You can see the approval for the license and everything," Twilight looked at the paper, and saw that it had been signed by Fuhrer Bradley himself, "Of course, there is a yearly evaluation, so he got really bad marks last year because the chimera he tried to pass off was a complete joke. Nothing really special. There have been a lot of questions going around that he was just some amatuer who got lucky with one creation, and fleeced the government to pay for his hobby."

"Would certainly explain why his wife left him," Twilight offered up, "Some guy who was too obsessed with his interests to properly take care of his family pushing her away."

"Don't know how good you have it till you are gone," Franky shook his head, "Still, two years without even coming up to see your daughter. Seems ki-"

"Two years?"

Franky stopped, and nodded. Twilight looked at him, and he looked back, and suddenly Franky's eyes widened behind his glasses. He looked down at the carton, and Twilight suddenly pushed back through the files, and then slapped down the picture of the chimera. And then Tiwlight followed that up with the picture of Ana Tucker. They stared at them for a moment, and Twilight felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"No way...," Franky began to shake, holding his hand to his mouth, "There's no way."

"Do you have anything else on Ana Tucker," Twilight said that far faster than he had previously. He felt an unusual desperation in his voice, one he hadn't heard since before he agreed to become a spy, "The census happened a year and a half ago, right, was she found in her hometown."

Franky rushed over to another one of the cartons on the wall, and opened it up. He then cursed, put it back down, and then opened another one. He then pulled out what Twilight could tell were census files, and he began to furiously flip through them. Twilight could see the sweat begin to build along the back of Franky's white shirt. Finally, Franky turned his head back, and shook his head.

They stood there, staring at one another for a few seconds. And then Twilight remembered something.

"He...he said he was going to be able to get a better result this year, he seemed like he had a plan."

"What could he do!" the shorter man shouted, there minds having already connected on what had happened, and what creatures had gone into that first talking Chimera, "It's not like the guy got married again. The only person he even hangs out with is..."

"...his daughter."

Franky reached beneath the counter, and then tossed Twilight a standard issue military grade handgun. Doctors in the military were allowed to carry side arms like this, so it wouldn't bring up any questions, but Twilight had liked to keep it at his office, since it would make him seem less threatening as he wandered the city. No one would question him with this gun however, and he needed a weapon stat.

He burst through the door, onto the cobblestone streets of East City. The Tucker household was only a few blocks away from here, and if he ran, he would be there in only a few minutes. As the storm clouds began to rumble with thunder, he could only think one thing.

'I hope I'm not too late.'

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Edward walked through the door to the Tucker house without much of a fuss. It was another morning to use the time to try and study how to rebuild he and his brother's bodies back, and also to spend time with Nina and her giant dog Alexander. The two had become constant companions to Ed and his brother over the past few weeks, and despite their inability to find any good information through all the notes, they had actually come to enjoy the constant companionship with the child.

"Mr. Tucker," Alphonse called out, as they entered the large two story building. They couldn't hear Nina or Alexander, but a couple of times she had been out, so it wasn't anything too unusual. Still, in those situations, at least Shou Tucker would usually meet them to welcome them into his house, "We're here for our research."

"Mr. Tucker?" Ed added, a bit put off by just how many of the lights were out at the moment. He shook his head, and then stopped, when he heard a bump upstairs. He looked over at his Brother, and then pointed upward. Alphonse nodded his helmet, and the two began to climb the dark stairs. They had only gone up here a few times, where Shou Tucker's most important lab was, and where he held the many animals and chemicals he used in his experiments.

"Mr. Tucker!" Alphonse called again, and yet all they heard were the sounds of a few angry animals that resided in the cages within this floor and the sizzling of chemicals being cooked for experiments. As they stepped towards the main office, where Shou had spent most of his time while they had been in studying at his house, the heard rustling. For a second, Edward almost got into a fighting stance, but then he heard something familiar.

"Who's there?"

"It's us Mr. Tucker," Alphonse called out, and Ed felt some relief. At least they hadn't accidently borken into Shou Tucker's home when he wasn't around. Didn't need to worry about causing any more problems...well, for Shou Tucker. Making the Colonel's life harder was something of a pastime for Edward Elric.

"Oh, Edward, Alphonse," the Sewing Life Alchemist's voice carried outside the alchemy room, "It's good to see you," his voice seemed more dreamy than before, and almost giddy really, "Come on in, I want you to meet my newest creation."

Edward opened the door to the office, and there sat Shou Tucker, sitting in front of a dog like creature sitting on it's hind legs. Shou Tucker waved his hand to bring the brothers closer, and was smiling. This was the first time that Edward has seen Shout smile in almost a week, and he felt a sudden giddiness enter him as well. He was going to be able to see some new alchemic discovery.

"It is another Chimera that talks," Shou Tucker waved his arms, and Ed could see a large dog like creature with a long tail and hanging blond hair that flowed all the way down it's back. The creature, with sunken eyes and a long nose, turned stiffly to look at Ed, and twisted it's head at him. Edward felt most of his giddiness disappear, the creature was a bit more disturbing than he had anticipated, but he still looked over the beast in front of him, "go ahead, this boy is named Edward. Can you say Edward."

"E," the thing opened it's mouth and a stilted voice suddenly emerged from it's throat. Ed almost wondered what part of it's body the voice box was in, but he slowly became stunned as the creature began to form human speech, "Ed...edwa...Edward," it began to look Ed directly in his eyes, "Ed-ward. Edward."

"Wow," Ed felt like he should take a step back, like there was something distinctly wrong with what he was seeing and hearing, "It does totally talk."

"Man," Shou began to rub the back of his head, as Alphonse looked down on the creature, though he remained stone cold quiet, "I am so lucky I got this done before the asses-"

SLAM

Beneath them, they heard the door to the house be smashed open. Ed and Al had been sure to close it, so someone must have been in a rush to get inside. They heard rustling around the bottom, and Shou Tucker looked deeply perturbed by the unexpected intrusion into the house. Finally, they heard a shout that sounded almost familiar to Ed, though he could not quite place where it was from.

"TUCKER!" a distinctly male voice screamed from beneath them. Alphonse stared darkly down the hall, and then turned his attention back to Shou Tucker, who began to shake a bit, "TUCKER!"

"Edward...edward."

All the time, the creature continued to say Ed name. Yet it seemed to almost be in pain. For the first time in a while, Ed remembered the fate of the first Chimera that Shou had created, and he felt...shame. Alchemy had brought a creature to life, and it had only ever known pain. What a miserable fate, and maybe this creature was in a lot of pain too.

"Hey there," Edward held out his hand, and patted the creature's snout. Instead of recoiling like Ed feared, however, the creature pushed itself further into the palm of Ed's Automail hand, "That's right, I'm Edward."

"Edward," it said, "Bi...," it was trying to say something new, all the while the ruckus from downstairs seemed to be getting closer, and both Shou and Alphonse were staring down the hall to where the stairs were, with distinct sound of feet ascending a staircase traveling into their room, "Big...big-bro..."

"Big...Brother."

The world stopped.

Edward looked into the creature's eyes, and suddenly realized where he had heard that before. He looked over the chest of the creature, and noticed that it was quite similar to the chest of the creature that had a habit of jumping on top of him and nearly crushing him on a nearly daily basis. And he noticed that the hair color along the back of the creature was a familiar shade of yellow.

"Mr. Tucker...," the door to the room burst open behind him, but Ed was now too focused on his fellow alchemist not ten feet in front of him, "Where are Nina and Alexander?"

"God in Heaven," he heard the familiar voice of Dr. Forger behind him. The shouting was so distinct to the calm voice the doctor had used during their appointment, but the voice was no even more distinct than before. Where he had previously seemed to always in control, now the voice was one of complete despair. Ed didn't look back, not while he was glaring into the eyes of the monster standing before him.

"I really hate perceptive brats like yo-"

Edward slammed the much taller, but luckily much weaker man, back against the wall, so hard that he saw the man's head bounce on the wall behind him. He felt his rage begin to build up within his gut, as he shouted into the man's face.

"So that's what you did?" it was a shriek more than anything else, "You turned your wife into a chimera two years ago to get your lincense, and now you turned your dog and your daughter into one to keep it!"

"Why are you so mad?" Edward felt his blood freeze, and then boil not a second later, "Medical experimentati-"

POW

"Shut up!" Edward screamed, not caring as Shou Tucker spit out some blood from the strike to his left cheek, "Shut up! Don't give me that sh*t!" He then pulled back his free fist once more, "Did you think you were going to get away with it! You can't just go around transmuting humans. IT-"

"Where do you get to say such things," Shou countered, laughing though the broken jaw that Edward's fist had delivered, "Isn't your arm, and your brother's body, proof what liars you are."

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"You played around with peoples lives too, even if it was your ow-"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

"You and I are the sa-"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"SHUT UP!"

POW

"SHUT UUUUUPPPPP!"

Ed went to throw his fist forward, but felt it get caught. He grit his teeth, and glared back at what was holding his arm, only to see his armored brother. For a second, he stared into the eyeholes of that suit of armor, and they stared right back at him. The suit of armor then shook it's head, and Ed felt some of his current rage flow out of him.

"Ed, if you keep hitting him, you are going to kill him," Alphonse said. Edward looked back at Shou Tucker, and saw that his jaw was already slightly misaligned, that his glasses had been smashed and some of the glass was implanted around the socket, and that his nose was twisted at an odd angle. He released his automail hand, and the monster fell to the ground in a heap. He felt Alphonse's hand on his shoulder, and turned away from the disgrace of a father, alchemist and man.

"He," he heard Tucker begin to speak through his smashed teeth, "You know it's tru-"

"Mr. Tucker," Alphonse spoke simply, "If you say one more word, I will kill you."

Edward looked up, and tried to force himself towards the door. He heard Alphonse in the back ground walk towards where the Chimera that had been Nina had last been, and heard him speak with it, all the while, he looked up, and saw Dr. Lloyd Forger, gun in hand, staring at the whole seem dumbly. The man's green eyes had sunken into his head, and his mouth was held tightly together, as though trying to keep from speaking, and possibly losing control himself.

"I'm so sorry Nina," he heard Al's voice over the sound of the pitter patter of the rain above the roof top above their heads.

"Wanna...play."

"We...we can't fix you. We aren't skilled enough to turn you back to normal."

"Wanna...play."

"We," Dr. Forger finally seemed to regain his voice, and looked Ed in his eyes. For the first time, Ed thought he saw a real sadness within the older man, "We are going to have to speak about this in our next session."

"Wanna Play."

"Yeah," Ed nodded, "Yeah, we probably should."

"WANNA PLAY!"

Chapter 10: ...Vengence of God...

"Sometimes, I just don't know what I'm go do about that girl," Lloyd forger said aloud as he walked climbed up into hospital. He had come home late, after everything he had been through the previous day. He had said hello to her, apologized about being late, and brought her a sandwich for dinner. At first she had been happy, and started eating the dinner. Seeing her smiling face, he wondered what would drive a man to turn their own daughter into a science experiment. He had remembered the site of what had been Nina Tucker as he looked at Anya, and thought what she might look like as a chimera.

The girl then threw up the sandwich, and ran to her room. He spent the next ten minutes cleaning up, and had just gone to bed. Everything had just been too much, and he had actually woken up a bit late this morning. Anya had been up to, ready to study, but here eyes were sunken into her head, and the rings underneath them were incredibly large. She probably hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. He had managed to put her down to bed, and locked the door, while also taking the study materials for the day.

'No use having her study when she would clearly be bad at it," he thought, before checking to see the previous days work, "Huh," it had been a chemistry test, like the previous one out of fifty, 'Twenty-One?'

"How can a little girl be so bad at spelling and history...but be actually fairly advanced at math and science?" He asked himself. She would still misspell stuff, but she seemed to have a fair understanding of things like basic chemistry, and a near teenage understanding of mathematics and geometry, "Was she raised in a lab or something."

"Dr. Forger," Lloyd was taken out of his musing by the sound of a familiar voice. He placed the files of Anya's work back under his arm, and smiled as he saw Edward Elric standing there. The boy, yesterday had reminded Twilight that was undeniably what Edward still was, raised his hand weakly in a short wave. Next to him stood the hulking suit of armor that he had only just learned was Edward's little brother, Alphonse. He had been expecting Al to actually be...shorter, but he supposed this might partially explain Edward's issue with his height. Being an older brother but much shorter could not be good for a young man's ego.

"Ah, Edward, good to see you," he waved back. He walked up to the two, and slowly took his coat off, "Thank you for coming in promptly. I know it might have been difficult with everything that happened yesterday, but seeing you this early should allow us to discuss...yesterday with the time and care that it deserves."

Ed nodded at that. He wasn't smiling, and his strange gold eyes, something that Twilight had noticed before but only now recognized as truly strange, were cast downward in apparent defeat. From the familiar circles under his eyes, Twilight could guess that Edward also hadn't a good night's sleep. Which, considering what they had just been through, made complete sense.

'Must have been some awful nightmares.'

"Thank you for helping us yesterday Dr. Forger," Twilight was still offput by how high pitched Alphonse's voice was. It didn't seem like it should be physically possible for something that size to have such a childish tone, but he would have to ask about it later. In all honesty, from their small amount of interactions, the mix of the voice and the armor made Alphonse quite endearing.

'From what Twilight could remember from Shou Tucker's ranting, these boys had also performed human transmutation,' he looked over the boys for a moment, a small fear building in the back of his mind, 'But the way they acted...' he wondered, looking the boys over as he opened the door to the stairwell up to the third floor, 'They clearly didn't do something like make a human chimera,' he looked over Alphonse, 'Perhaps they tried it on themselves, and caused disfigurement? That would explain Alphonse having to hide his body in armor.'

'...Well, I'll guess I can get more answers upstairs.'

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So," Lloyd said "I want to first thank you for beating Shou Tucker yesterday."

"What?" Ed's eyes opened slightly more widely, as he sat in the chair right in front of Lloyd's desk, as Alphonse moved slightly to get a better look at Lloyd. On the chair at the window desk was Alphonse, who Lloyd had allowed to join the session upon Edward's request. It was not exactly professional, but it would probably help Edward open up after the previous day "Aren't you a doctor. Isn't "Do no harm" your most sacred oath."

"It is," Lloyd nodded, opening up his drawer, and then placing a hand gun on the table. It was the exact same make and model as the one he had borrowed from Franky, standard issue side arm, and would be close enough in every detail that there was no way Ed or Al would have been able to spot the difference, "I am saying thank you because had you not done it, when I arrived yesterday I would have shot Shou Tucker."

The room was silent for a moment, both Ed and all moving back slightly at the announcement. And for all that Lloyd Forger was a lie for his country, Twilight meant every word of it.

"Shou Tucker's crimes are unforgiveable," Lloyd continued, squeezing his knuckles, "Had I been alone, surrounded by nothing but horror, I would have reacted violently in a way a doctor such as my self shouldn't. Your actions and presence gave a secondary outlet to allow me to regain my self control," he then looked specifically at the giant suit of armor to his right, "Of course, it was very good that you were there too Alphonse. You kept Edward from also going too far."

"I just wanted to keep Edward from doing something he would regret," Alphonse said, and Lloyd nodded at that.

"You protect each other, that's a very healthy thing for you both to do," he then looked out over the two brothers, "And don't worry, I'm not saying that Shou Tucker's life is precious or anything," he waved his hand, "he committed a horrific crime, and he will likely die for it after he is court-martialed in Central. No one else will be harmed by his experiments."

The two brothers remained silent. They both tried to avoid looking Lloyd in the face, and Twilight made a guess about why.

"You aren't sure it would be good even if the military kills him?" He asked, and noticed slight jumps in the two's postures. They looked at one another for a moment, before returning their gaze to Lloyd.

"No, its not that," Alphonse seemed at a loss for words, "It's just, we are worried about Nina..."

Twilight felt something shift in the pit of his stomach, and Dr. Forger nodded his head at the question. Of course they were worried about the chimera that was once Nina Tucker.

"From my understanding," Lloyd finally said, she will first go to Central for the Court Martial to be used as evidence against Shou in his trial. One look at her and the rest of the evidence should be enough to convict him immediately," he then shook his head, "But after that...I don't know what the military can do. Reversing a transmutation like that must be very difficult," he had to force himself to look both of them with conviction, "It is...it is likely that with the amount of suffering she is experiencing in her form, and with no knowledge of how to return her to her original state, they will put her down in an act of mercy," and as much as Lloyd hated to defend the Amestrian military, he couldn't help but believe that was the only humane thing they could possibly do. The way poor Nina could barely move besides her mouth, the strange way the back of the creature twisted, to let it live with no hope of recovery would be inhumane.

"Put her down...kill her," Edward spat out. Lloyd recoiled slightly, but readjusted, as he looked Edward in the eyes. For a moment, the three just stared at one another, before a great frown covered his face, one not of anger but of sorrow. And from the posture of the suit of armor, Alphonse was likely in the same mood.

"Sometimes, its so easy as an alchemist to just smash things together carelessly," Ed finally spoke aloud, his eyes focused on his knees while his fists clenched tightly as the tried to contain himself, "Dr. Forger, our Alchemy teacher taught us something very important about alchemy. It was the thing drilled into us more than anything else," and then, as if from memory, he recited a mantra that he was sure their teacher had made them copy down line by line. In this recitation, he was joined by his brother, and together they said in unison, "Alchemy is the deconstruction and reconstruction of matter in new forms based on the comprehension of natural laws. These world flows by obeying these laws. Death is one of these laws."

"You must respect the flow."

'Accept death,' Twilight looked over the boys who were by all rights still children. He had become a spy to make sure that war would cause no more children to have to have this lesson drilled into them like he did by the death of his parents, but it seemed that even now there were children learning it despite his best efforts, 'How young were you when you learned this. Eight, Nine?'

"But it's still so hard," Ed moaned, "To accept death, that the world is cruel and that good people will suffer and die and disappear forever," Lloyd nodded as the boy rested his face in his hand, "I just don't want to accept it...but because we didn't..."

"Does this have to do with what Shou Tucker was saying yesterday?" Lloyd asked, and immediately, the two sat up in shock. Discomfort was clear across Ed's face, and, despite the fact that he couldn't actually see Al's, he guessed that he was uncomfortable about the question too, "If you don't want to share, I understand. This is a process, and we can talk about it later when you both become more comfortable," he lowered his arms to be open towards Edward, trying to coax him into giving him more information, "Of course, we can try and make it more comfortable for you to discuss it now, if you would like that?"

Ed stopped looking at the ground around his feet, and turned to look outside the window. There were a few raindrops hitting the window, but they weren't coming down too hard. For a moment, he just continued to watch as the rain began to fall, and then he looked back at Dr. Forger.

"Could we go outside," he finally asked, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "I think the rain might help a bit, wash away some of this crud."

'Perhaps a bit crudely put,' Twilight considered, remembering the text of the psychological books he had read as part of his training for WISE, 'But giving him support will continue to build trust, and will continue to build up the agent as a person of comfort to relay information that will be valueable in the future.'

"That sounds fine," Lloyd got out of his seat, and so too did Ed and Al. Lloyd led them outside of his office, and began to walk to the main staircase. As they did so, they passed the main desk on the third floor. There were only two people working at the desk, Marsha Strauss and the lady who Twilight had met the last day he had had a session with Edward, Yor, "Hello, back delivering files again, Ms. Briar?"

"Yes," she answered flatly. Marsha smiled when she heard Lloyd's voice, and she looked up as Yor continued, "It seems the hospital was short staffed for today, and there was a request for someone from headquarters to come and assist her with some administration issues," she barely even blinked at that, "I thought it would be good and try to make some new connections."

"Very nice dear," Marsha said quickly, before leaning forward, and whispering in his ear, "This one's just a bit strange. Nice, but strange," she then leaned back quickly as though to make it seem like she had said nothing at all, "What are you three dears doing out right now. I thought your session was supposed to go to the top of the hour."

"Edward would like to get some fresh air," Lloyd pointed back towards the shorter of his two patients, who nodded. Marsha's face assumed the look that many older female relatives always gave their younger male wards. One of exasperation at the foolishness they were about to undertake.

"Really, when it's raining," she groaned.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, trying his best to be polite to this older woman, "I just think it would be good for the rain to wash away some of my doubt."

"...," the older woman stared at Edward for a moment, and over the seconds, Twilight could see that her exasperation was being replaced by a slight indulgent sadness. She then shook her head, and said, to her self more than any one else, "Boys," she then reached beneath her desk, and said, forcefully, "I insist you take an umbrella out there, I won't have one of my doctors catching a cold."

Lloyd took the umbrella, and nodded an affirmative. He then waved as the three of them headed through the doorway to the main staircase out of the hospital. Just as the door closed, Lloyd could hear the third floor hallway begin to ring with the sound of the floor's telephone.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So, is the rain washing away your doubt?" Lloyd asked, it not having been but a moment after they had gotten outside.

Lloyd himself held the umbrella as they stood out in the rain, while Edward and Al stood without its protection. The giant in armor and the teenager just stood there for a moment, allowing the water to drip over them. They had actually walked out fairly far from the front of the hospital, so far that they were standing on the sidewalk of the main street rather inside the courtyard. There were almost no passer byes however, and the rain did seem to offer some kind of calming presence to the brothers. Finally, Edward turned to Lloyd, and, while remaining sad, looked him directly in the eye.

"Thirty-five liters of water," Edward began, like before, reciting from memory something that had likely become a mantra for him, "Twenty kilograms of carbon, four liters of ammonia, one and a half kilograms of lime, eight hundred grams of phosphorus, two hundred fifty grams of salt," Twilight felt his guard loosen suddenly from the shopping list of materials, "One hundred grams of saltpeter, eighty grams of sulfur, seven and a half grams of flourine, five grams of iron, three grams of silicon, and trace amounts of fifteen other elements," throughout the whole list, he never stopped looking Lloyd in the face, "That is the elemental make up of an average adult human body."

"It seems," Lloyd tried to process why he had been told that, and then remembered where their conversation had ended in his office, "That you might have some experience with this formula."

"Yeah," Ed looked to the ground, shame dripping along with the rainwater from his body, "We do have some experience with-"

"EDWARD ELRIC!"

The conversation stopped, and Lloyd turned back to see Marsha Strauss running out of the hospital, with a pistol in her hand. Right behind her was Yor Briar, who was keeping up remarkably well while wearing high heel shoes. The two women ran up, Marsha clearly not used to still running around, her gun still held to her side.

"Edward Elric," she panted, looking at the young alchemist, "Please come inside. There is an emergency."

"What's going on?" he asked, and Lloyd slowly placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. He didn't speak up yet, but if Marsha, a woman he had only ever seen riding a desk had panicked and run out wielding her service pistol, then something must really be wrong.

"There's a killer on the loose," Yor spoke up, in more control than the woman she had joined in running to meet Lloyd and the Elrics, "He's reported to be targeting state alchemists like e-"

"Edward Elric," the voice was low, but somehow loud and clear for the entire group to take in, and Twilight could feel a chill run up his spine, "The Fullmetal Alchemist."

Somehow, Twilight just noticed the extremely tall man standing but two feet away from their group. He had dark skin and a jet of white hair sticking out of his head. He wore a plain shirt, with a brown jacket over a pair of black pants. On his face was a pair of sunglasses that were by every measure completely useless. Firstly, because it was raining, and there was no need to block at the sun. And secondly because the large X shaped scar upon his forehead meant that no one would actually need to see his eyes to create some kind of profile for identification.

But that didn't matter, because the presence of the group had changed, where once there had been only a slight worry, now there was a blooming panic that Twilight could see around him, particularly in Marsha Stauss. She quickly pulled up her pistol and aimed it directly at the the man. However, before she could even attempt to pull the trigger, a large brown hand suddenly slammed into her face, and a flash of blue lighting sliced across Lloyds vision. And then Marsha exploded in blood, here eyes gone and blood erupting from her mouth and sockets. Her body fell to the ground in a heap, as Lloyd finally came to register what had happened.

"Lieutenant Strauss!" Lloyd screamed, as Yor stepped back in horror, and Edward and his brother froze in shock. He then saw the assailant pull back his hand, and then take aim at Edward's head. Realizing what was about to occur, Lloyd snapped at the closing lever of the umbrella, and immediately cause the top to collapse into a thinner weapon. He then swung it in an arc towards the murderer's head, trying to catch him before he could hit Edward. Unfortunately, the scarred man dodged the strike, sliding away from the strike. Fortunately, it had meant that he hadn't been able to attack Edward.

"ED! Come on!" Alphonse suddenly pulled his brother back, giving Lloyd more room. He charged forward kicking, right over Stauss's corpse. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught where the pistol had landed. He maneuvered his foot, and caught the pistol with the toe of his shoe, before kicking it up into his hand. He then moved his arm to aim it at the scarred man-

Who was right on top of him. It took all of Twilight's instinct to jump in a mix of backwards and to the side, and thus, he was able to get out of the arc of the murderer's swing. However, the swing caught both the umbrella and the gun, and blue lighting again shot across these objects. Suddenly, both of them were in pieces, and the change in weight caused Twilight to mistime a step, and suddenly fall backward over Marsha's corpse. He quickly began to force his way up, only to feel a shadow come over him.

"All who stand in the way of the vengeance of God," the man's right hand again began to shine with blue light, "Will meet the sting of his venge-"

And then the scarred man was flying backwards.

Lloyd blinked.

"Wh..."

He looked upward, and saw a deeply muscled leg sticking out. He followed the leg upward, continuing to crane his neck, until the leg came down and Lloyd was almost looking backwards at Yor Briar, standing there, a look of rage upon her face.

"What?" Lloyd Forger looked at this woman, who had seemed perfectly normal before, land a kick that he hadn't seen many trained spies manage to pull off. Just as he was thinking about that, however, he saw the scarred man return to his feet. That man was then, in less than a second, again charging forward. Yor got into a stance, and then just when swung a kick out. This time, the killer was the one dodging an arc of an attack, and then, just as it seemed he would have another opening to strike at Yor, Yor planted the foot of the first kick, and then followed with the second. This time, while the scarred man was still able to dodge the flow of the kick, he was kept away.

'Incredible,' Twilight looked over the woman's form, 'she must be some kind of master of martial arts,' he watched as her fluid movements allowed her to control her body perfectly to keep herself in this fight-

"WAAHHHAA!"

Until she slipped as the second leg landed. Twilight felt his eyes widen, wondering if the water had caused her to lose her grip, only to have his jaw drop as he looked at her foot. The heel of the second kick had completely disappeared. During the second kick, the scarred killer had used his destruction capability to destroy Yor's heel, and cause her to misplace her balance and fall over.

'This kind of fighting,' even after everything, Twilight couldn't help but admire the skill of both of these fighters, 'is beyond anything I've ever experienced before.'

And for the second time in two days, Agent Twilight felt very small.

Before Twilight could allow his pity to overwhelm him, however, he saw that the murderer was charging towards Yor, blue lighting shooting all through his right arm. Thinking quickly, realizing there was no way Yor could dodge, Twilight dove, wrapping up the surprisingly muscular woman, and rolling the both of them away. They rolled several times, and kept rolling as Twilight felt the ground rumble after seeing the Scarred Man's hand slam into the ground where Yor had been laying not a second earlier. The ground and cobblestones shot upwards into the air, pieces of debris flying as the destruction spread around in a spider web fashion.

"If that had hit me..." he heard Yor question out loud, and Twilight couldn't help but agree. Perhaps, despite everything he had seen, this woman was still just operating on some innate instinct, and not prepared for a real fight like this. After all, she had just seen a colleague murdered, she had probably been operating on adrenaline and rage, and was only now coming down to Earth. It wasn't like Yor fought people with any regular occurrence or anything.

"Fools that lack a fear of God shall be shown the-" and again, the murderer was interrupted. This time it was a column of stone shooting out of the ground all the way from the main road. The scarred man destroyed the column without a second thought, and turned to see Edward Elric standing there, with Alphonse standing behind him.

"This guy is after me!" Edward shouted, "I'll lead him away from the hospital. If we go inside we might get other people hurt!" and then the young man turn and ran. And as Edward had expected, the scarred man charged after the brothers, his targets clearly more important than Twilight and Yor. For a moment, Twilight simply laid there, holding Yor in the position they had rolled away from the strike in. And then he realized that, and quickly let go.

"I...uh," he said, finally feeling the adrenaline leave his body. He noticed a bit of a blush on Yor's face, probably because his hand had been around her wasted during the roll, "Thank you for saving me back there."

"It was...no...," Yor looked away for a moment, her eyes on the ground, "I was running on instinct," she shook her head, "I was so mad when Marsh-," she stopped, and looked at the body of Marsha Strauss, laying there. Yor's eyes constricted to pinpricks at the sight of the body.

"What happened!?!" one of the other doctors from the bottom floor had come out to see what the commotion was about, and his eyes were filled with horror as they focused on the corpse of his colleague laying in the middle of the entrance courtyard. Twilight got up, and then looked back.

"The Alchemist Serial Killer attacked us and killed Lieutenant Strauss!" he turned, and listened to distinctive sounds of crashing, "You all bring Marsha's body in, and alert the authorities. I'm going after them, to make sure I can identify where he and the Elric Brothers are."

The other doctor gulped, and then nodded as he looked over the body. A few other orderlies emerged, and they rushed to retrieve their colleagues corpse. Twilight pushed himself to the main street, and then followed the chaos as best he could.

"I'm coming with you," Twilight looked back, and saw Yor Briar next to him. She looked back at him, and then reached into her coat on the side, and pulled out a standard issue pistol, "You don't seem to have yours and Marsha's was destroyed by that killer. If we need to reengage him, I will have a weapon to try and protect us."

Twilight nodded, and only just noticed that Yor had taken off her shoes to allow her to avoid the awkward task of running with one foot in a heel, and one foot without. Despite everything, the sounds of the fighting meant that Edward and Alphonse were likely still alive, and that meant that he still had a chance to save the two young men he had just become surprisingly attached to.

'Hang on Ed,' Lloyd Forger thought, 'I'm coming.'

Chapter 11: ...Spirit of Man

Charging through the rain as it began to come down harder made it slightly slower going than Yor had hoped. That, mixed with that she was wearing no shoes while on cobblestones that were slick with the rain, meant she had to keep at least some focus on her balance as she followed Dr. Forger forward towards the continuing sounds of battle.

'If it hadn't been for Dr. Forger,' She thought, 'I would have died.'

It was, honestly, something Yor had never really thought about before. Her entire time as an assassin, she had been either so much stronger, or in so greater an advantage, that she had never been quite as close to death before. During her previous fight with Scar, the serial killer that was hunting alchemists like the Elric Brother's she had been overconfident. Also enraged with one of her colleagues being killed, but still overconfident. She had treated Scar like he was just another man, rather than a warrior who had engaged in likely dozens of battles with other skilled warriors. She had allowed herself to be brought into a false sense of security with her landing of that first kick, and in how quickly she had sent him backward with her twin kicks.

But she had underestimated his strange ability to breakdown matter, and been caught off guard when he had destroyed her heel, causing her to lose balance. The only reason she hadn't ended up like Marsha had been the Doctor's quick thinking.

'I would have died before coming to love the world,' she considered, before thinking about the look on the Shopkeeper's face not a day earlier.

She shook her head, as they continued along the main street, and then her eyes caught a flash alongside an alley only a block away.

"Dr. Forger," she pointed forward, and Lloyd's eyes shot toward the alley she was pointing. He pushed himself forward, and then Yor looked down at the gun in her hand. She then stopped, and said, "Please take this!" and then tossed him the gun.

Dr. Forger, showing the same strange agility that he had had in grabbing and rescuing her, caught the gun out of mid air, and then co*cked it. That a doctor was this capable of using a weapon, and as athletic at all, was impressive. She doubted most regular soldiers in the military would be as capable as Dr. Forger was clearly showing himself to be.

He looked back at her with a quick look.

"I don't really have much practice with guns," she answered honestly. She found they were too crude a tool for a proper assassination, "I only brought it because it is standard issue. You probably have shot more than I have."

"Fair enough," he said, before slamming himself into the wall next to the alleyway's entrance. He looked back at her nervously, though she couldn't tell if his forehead was covered in sweat or in rain, "Stay behind me, I'll go and provide fire for Ed and Al."

"Yes," Yor nodded, not wanting to draw too much attention. Now that she was still alive, it was honestly lucky that she hadn't been able to actually fight to the fullness of her ability. If she had, there would be more questions about the fighting skill of an administrative worker than she as an assassin should probably be comfortable with. She wasn't as good with dodging questions as one might think an assassin would be, which meant that her relatively low profile was very good to allow her second career to continue. And defeating a specialized Alchemist Serial Killer was not a way to maintain a low profile.

'Need to play the part,' she thought to herself, as Dr. Forger suddenly rounded the corner, and arms fell forward with his gun pointed down the alleyway.

"Free-ehagh!" he suddenly fell backward, as Edward Elric slammed into him, and the two tumbled backwards. It was actually incredibly lucky that Dr. Forger had such good control of his finger, other wise he might have shot he might have shot the young alchemist. Quickly, both Edward and the doctor were back to their feet, and only now did she realize that Edward Elric was falling backwards away from something.

And of course, that Edward Elric was missing his right arm. Along the shoulder where the arm should have been attached, was a metallic hinge, with a spray of wires and anchors sticking out and hanging there. It took only a second for Yor to look and see the rest of what had clearly been Ed's arm, gears, hinges and plates scattered around along the edge of the alley.

"Automail," he heard Dr. Forger say in shock, and while she had long known about it, she had seen the boys around a dozen times, and the fact was that Edward's presence had always been uneven, his gait just slightly different than a normal human body. It had been relatively unnoticeable to anyone who was not paid to understand the minute details of human movement and how to make sure those didn't stop you from making that person dead, and was certainly less notable now then it had been when she had first seen Fullmetal a year earlier, but she had known. What was far stranger was the feeling that she had gotten from Edward's brother. Even though he was much taller and wore a suit of armor, he had always seemed unusually light.

And her answer came when she looked down the alley, and saw Alphonse laying there, in pieces. The right side of the torso of the armor had been disintegrated, and the damage had slipped down the body of the armor, causing both legs to fall off. Yet despite these clear openings, she could see no human body, and even more surprising, the armor was still moving, using its arms to try and push itself up. As she stared, Yor suddenly realized that Alphonse Elric didn't wear a suit of armor.

Alphonse Elric was a suit of armor.

"EDWARD!" she heard Alphonse's boyish voice carry across the alley. He likely hadn't quite realized that she and Dr. Forger had arrived. She heard a gasp from where Lloyd was sitting, and realized he must have just seen Alphonse's state as well, and was trying to piece together what was happening in his head.

"What on God's Green Ea-"

"You two," she heard Scar's voice carry over the patter of rain and the metal scraping sounds of Alphonse, "My quarrel is not with you, leave Fullmetal to himself, and I shall allow you both to live. I am here for the state alchemist," it was only then that she realized that Scar had been talking to both Lloyd and Yor herself. She had allowed herself to become seen in the open, and any surprise she might have had for a sudden strike disappeared. Dr. Forger looked for his gun, only to see in the collision it had fallen over three yards away. Before either of them could reach it, even Yor with her great speed, Scar would be on them, and use the same power he had killed Lieutenant Strauss with and had dismantled the Elrics with.

'If only I had a weapon to throw with,' Yor inwardly growled. She saw Dr. Forger slowly, almost unknowlingly, readjust his arm to be under Edward's remaining flesh arm, and saw an angle for a roll he was about to perform. He was going to try and perform a similar roll to what he had done with Yor in the courtyard, 'If he can pull it off, just right, while Scar is distracted I can probably catch him on the side, then we ca-'

"Scar guy," Edward suddenly spoke up, "You're after State Alchemists right?"

'...what is he-'

"Yes."

"My Brother isn't one, even though he uses alchemy," he looked up to Scar, his Gold Eyes filled with both fear and yet a strange resolve that felt...familiar. For but a moment, the alley way disappeared, and all there was was a small blackhaired boy with bruises around his legs, surrounded by three much bigger children with sticks and rocks in their hands. And in the back of her head she heard her own voice from across the playground, and almost felt her little feet fly in a charge forward.

"LEAVE YURI ALONE YOU MEANIES!"

"If I don't fight anymore, will you let him live?" Edward was going to protect his little brother, with his life if he had to. Yor felt her lower lip tighten around her teeth as she bit down.

"Edward!" Dr. Forger shouted into the young man's ears, "You can-"

"Anyone who strays into the path of God's Vengeance will be eliminated," Scar stated, and yet...something had changed in his voice, "However...I only have business with you Fullmetal Alchemist."

'I'll let your brother live if you let me kill you,' and Yor knew in that moment exactly what Edward Elric was about to do.

"Alright," Ed suddenly pushed his remaining arm out of Dr. Forger's hold, and then forced himself to his feet. He wobbled, still clearly not used to walking without his arm, but he managed to get to his feet. Dr. Forger, in shock about what was happening, only barely fought the push, "Then promise me you will let him...all of them live."

"Ed?" Yor could hear a pleading from down the alleyway. It was quieter than before.

"I promise," was the serial killer's response to the Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal, slouching forward, suddenly fell to his knees, his body no longer able to keep itself upright from the strain.

"Edward, what are you doing?" Dr. Forger was suddenly gritting his teeth, and swishing his eyes back towards the gun. Yor looked over, and realized he was planning for one last desperate gamble. It would be hard, and he would have to wait for the exact right moment, but if he could make a quick dive right in the middle of Scar's reach, he could probably get it, and try and shoot Scar before he activated his weird power on Edward.

"Big Brother!" she heard Alphone scream, "You have to run away!" Yor quickly felt with her toes around her body, being careful not to make any noticeable movements. Finally, after a second, she found what she was looking for, and picked up a small piece of rubble, and lodged it between her two biggest toes. If she could time this right, she might be able to hit Scar in the face with it right as Dr. Forger was to go for the gun. It wouldn't do much damage, not with the precision she would need to even hit him with a rock this size with only her toes to maneuver. With the right timing though, it would add a half second to Dr. Forger's time to grab the gun, and to save Edward.

"GET UP EDWARD!" Alphonse was now screaming, and it was only enhanced from the clear shearing of metal coming from the armor as it began to collapse upon itself. The sound would provide some distraction, but it was only allowing her to focus on the rock, and the angle she needed to toss it at him, all while Scar came closer and closer to Fullmetal, "PLEASE DON'T DIE! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME! RUN AW-"

BLLAAAM

'Dr. Forger?' she thought, thinking he had gone early in the confusion, only to see the Lloyd himself had just jumped back, and the gun wasn't even in his hand.

"Good thing you wear such a distinctive outfit Ms. Briar."

"Colonel Mustang!" Yor shouted, looking back, and seeing the Colonel standing in just outside the passenger side door of his car. A standard issue pistol was smoking after Mustang had fired it into the air, causing the whole scene beside himself to grow quiet. Suddenly coming around from the driver's side door was Lieutenant Hawkeye, another pistol in her hand as well. She soon saw 2nd Lieutenant Havoc, and over a dozen other soldiers suddenly appear, rifles in hand, all standing at the ready for the coming fight.

"We were about to head to the hospital, but the Lieutenant here," he twisted his head towards Hawkeye, who had her eyes and gun strictly on Scar, "saw one of our staff uniforms, and we realized you would probably be trying to get to Fullmetal before Scar could," the Colonel looked over the wreckage of the alley, and the wreckage of the Elrics' bodies, and shook his head, "And it looks like we got here just in time."

"Colonel?" Ed said weakly. And yet...she could almost hear relief in the back of his voice. As though, a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"As you have probably already guessed," Mustang began to swagger forward, his gun still held in the air. He was getting closer, but, from his slow gait, not to much closer. He was likely trying to get into a position for him to have a controlled shot of flames right at Scar, but with enough distance so the serial killer couldn't reach him before he could activate it, "This is the famous alchemist serial killer," he then stopped, and glared at the scarred man, "I suppose it is you who murdered Shou and Nina Tucker this morning?"

"Nina?" Yor turned, and saw Edward's face drop again. He hadn't known...she hadn't known, she had been out of the office, and they hadn't explained anything beyond Scar being after Edward. She thought back to the one time Shou had brought his daughter to the main office, and her heart sank at the thought.

"Alchemists pervert the world of God with hubristic intent. Creating in their manner is to deface the perfection of his work," Scar declared, now fully focused on the Colonel, "I am Divine Judgement on the sins of man," he then began to stalk forward, his right arm alight with blue destructive power, "And I will punish you for your sins, Flame Alchemist!"

"You know who I am, and still insist on fighting me," Mustang tossed the gun in his hand back, and the Lieutenant caught it. The move surprised Hawkeye for some reason, whose eyes went wide as she caught the gun.

'What could she be surprised about?' Yor considered, 'To properly use his alchemy, he was going to need to have his hands free.'

"Come then Roy Alchemist," Scar screamed, charging at Mustang with a full head of steam. Roy smirked, and brought his hand in front of his face, about to unleash his flames-

when suddenly he fell down. Yor stopped, and felt her jaw drop when she saw that the Colonel had fallen because Riza Hawkeye had kick out Roy's knees from behind, causing Roy to fall. Scar's hand was now where Mustang's head had been, but it wasn't for long, as Scar was forced to retreat back into the alleyway as Riza Hawkeye was firing both her and Mustang's gun at the killer.

'Why would she?'

"What's the meaning of this Lieutenant!?!" Mustang screamed as he sat on his ass on the street. Riza, didn't even look back at him, as she reloaded one of her pistols, and two other men were trying to help the Colonel back to his feet.

"It's raining sir, you're useless when it rains."

"...Seriously?" Yor looked over, having forgot about that particular fact for a moment, and focusing on Dr. Forger. Or should she say, Dr. Forger and Edward Elric. The doctor had used the few seconds between Mustang and Scar, to reach out, grab up Edward, and pull him away from the edge of the alley, and now the two of them were over twenty feet away from Scar, with Lieutenant Havoc and two other men with guns around them. He also looked as though he wanted to slap his face, and was only not able to because his arms were holding up the teenage alchemist, "You mean to tell me Roy Mustang, the great Flame Alchemist, is literally useless in a light drizzle?"

"Pretty much sums it up. I mean he can't make sparks in the rain," Havoc added, and Yor could almost feel the despair begin to build around the Colonel.

"So many sinners surround me," Scar finally spoke up, "Fullmetal has been disabled, and Flame is useless in the rain."

"Even the serial killer calls me useless," Yor could hear in the background as she watched the serial killer with as much caution as she could muster. They were now clearly in an advantage, but taking down Scar would be difficult, especially since he would be able to use the alleyway as a way for the Colonel's men to bring their superior firepower down on him/

"I'll destroy every single one of you!" Scar screamed, "Alchemists, sympathizers, anyone who gets in my-"

SMASHHHHHH

Scar barely had enough time to dodge backward, further into the alleyway. Where previously there had been a wall into a building, suddenly there emerged a large shadow, with massive shoulders, looking in fact bigger than Alphonse was when he had still be a complete suit of armor. Yor was taken aback by the new entrant's size, and then almost fell down as she heard the voice.

"I have had enough of you, you Brazen insurrectionary murderer!" the voice announced in both the most booming but also the most formal way imaginable, "You think you will kill everyone here! Well you will have to get through me first! These muscles of mine shall form an impenetrable wall between you and my comrades, and you shall know defeat at the hands of," the man was made of complete muscle, all seven feet of him. He wore the standard military officer blue uniform, though along his fist was a bronze gauntlett with spikes at the end. He had a large blond moustache and a dip of blonde hair at the front of his mostly bald head. Finally, there seemed to be a...sparkle next to his right eye...for lack of a better term.

"ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG!" And suddenly, the coat flew into the sky, carried by the wind of the storm away, until it somehow landed on the defeated form of Mustang, who just let the overly large coat cover him up completely. Armstrong's sudden upper nudity showed nothing but muscle on muscle, from his chiseled abs to his incredibly defined triceps. Yor didn't think she had ever seen anyone's muscles like that, and she had been in an extensive body building program to become an assassin. Now, with his chest free of any obstructive clothing, Alex Louis Armstrong twisted himself and forced his his forward, all the while flexing his muscles in the most obvious manner possible, "THE STRONG ARM ALCHEMIST!"

...

"Why did he did take of his shirt?"

Dr. Forger's comment seemed to bring everyone out of their stupor, including, incredibly Scar. Apparently the entrance had been too much even for the zealous serial killer, and he was only able to regain his mind as he heard that, no, he wasn't the only one shocked by Major Armstrong's behavior. And, as he regained his mind, suddenly the dark skinned man gritted his teeth, all the while the rain continued to beat down on his shock of white hair.

'Wait, white hair?'

"You dare mock me!?!" Scar shouted, preparing to pounce forward, "I'll sho-"

"Mock you!" Armstrong suddenly slammed his fist into the cobblestones beneath him, and suddenly spikes jutted out towards Scar. The serial killer, jumped back, before settling his feet, and catching one of the range of spikes with his right arm. He disintegrated the upturned concrete of the alleyway, and readjusted himself so he would not fall over. However, before he could readjust, Armstrong had thrown up a small brick into the air, and slammed his fist into it, causing a massive spike to emerge and hurtle towards scar. Scar had to adjust his head to dodge, and then did so again a second, and then a third time, all the while falling back from the edge of the alley way, and further and further back.

"Don't think I don't see what you're doing Scar," Alex was suddenly quieter, as though he was planning his next move as he moved down the alleyway, "you may consider my work blasphemy, but how can you say that when you are performing alchemy as well?"

"What?" Yor heard Lloyd say, only for him to be cut off by Edward.

"I thought so," Dr. Forger looked down at the boy, who continued to explain, "Alchemy has three concrete stages of application. Analysis, Destruction and Reconstruction," Dr. Forger's eyes widened, as though he was remembering something, "He's just using the second stage, and deconstruction everything his right arm touches when it has that blue glow around it."

"That make sense," Lloyd nodded as he looked down the alleyway at Scar. All the while Major Armstrong continued to push forward.

'He is an amazing fighter,' Yor nodded, watching as she saw his quick feet and constant framing of his body, 'He's not just relying on his strength and his alchemy. Rather, he is using his speed to continue to push Scar backwards. Controlling the fight, and keeping Scar from being able to launch any kind of attack on anyone else,' she thought back to the man's declaration not a few moments earlier, 'He's not a wall, he's a tank!'

And during that tank push, Scar was always on his back foot. Armstrong used both alchemy and his fists to continue to push scar closer and closer to the back wall of the alley. With that back wall, he would finally be able to corner Scar and hit him. But he would have to be careful, if he got to close, Scar might be able to use his smaller frame to get under Armstrong an-

'Why is Armstrong turning and running?'

It only took a second for her to realize what he was doing when suddenly Armstrong's arms were around Alphonse Elric's armor body. With barely any kind of stress, the mighty man lifted the shattered armor over his shoulder, and was charging down the side of the alley. Scar, only now realizing that he had been corner, tried to charge forward, when suddenly, Yor saw Lieutenant Hawkeye step forward with a rifle in her hand. The woman aimed the barrel towards Scar, and Yor saw comprehension dawn on the serial killer's face as Hawkeye pulled the trigger.

BANG

'He's too fast,' Yor could see that Hawkeye had only grazed Scar. Yet she had hit him on the side of the head, and knocked off the sunglasses. And finally, as Scar looked up, she could see why the serial killer was wearing shades while it rained.

Red eyes.

"I never realized how much I loved Ishval until it was gone," tears were now flowing down his face, "I didn't have enough love for it, and because of that the world burned."
The Shopkeeper's words hung in the front of her mind. One of her master's people stood there, hate and rage over his face as he looked on the members of the military that had committed a genocide on his people. She could hear a few gasps from those around her, and she could tell from a lack of a second shot, they were just as shocked as she was...and perhaps, a bit more hesitant about putting this man down.

"Perhaps," there was an exhaustion in Scar's voice. Perhaps the adrenaline of the hunt was finally disappearing. Perhaps he had decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Perhaps he saw that over two dozen rifles were being lined up to shoot him. Whatever the case may be, he placed his hand on the ground beneath him, "There are too many to bring to justice today."

CRRRIIISHHSHHAKKKKK

And the ground beneath him collapsed. A whole the size of the width of the alleyway opened up, and Scar disappeared downward. For a moment, they all stood in shock at the event, before a few soldier went and looked down into the hole. Finally, she heard Lieutenant Havoc curse aloud.

"sh*t! he got into the sewers!"

"Sorry," Mustang said aloud, looking over at Major Armstrong, "We should have moved up more quickly, if we had-"

"You did all I could have asked of you," Alex replied, grabbing the coat from Mustang and hanging it over his wet, and as she could tell from the slight shivering, cold shoulders, "I was barely able to push him like that. Any closer, and he likely would have killed me."

"HEY!" Yor looked back, and saw a glasses wearing man with a strong jaw and a fuzz of a beard walk out from one of the cars, "Is it over?"

"Where were you?" Mustang asked.

"Hiding until it was safe. If things went bad, someone had to relay it to command."

"What, you could have helped us!"

"And get in between monsters like you all fighting, no thank you!"

Mustang and Hughes bickering was suddenly cut off by the sound of footsteps. Ed ran from Dr. Forger towards Major Armstrong, and Al on his back. He placed his hand on the armor's hand, and looked at the suddenly comatose suit of armor.

"Al?"

And then that suit of armor swung a mighty fist into Edward's face. Yor almost jumped back, the human like movement of an empty suit of armor still causing her to feel a bit strange. And as she jumped back, she fell into someone's arms, catching her from falling on the slick cobblestones. She looked back, and saw Lloyd Forger, having tried to catch up to Edward after his rush towards his brother. She was about to apologize,

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU IDIOT!?!" Alphonse shouted at the top of...well as loud as he possibly could.

'Does he still need to breathe?' Yor considered.

"I told you to run away!"
"I wasn't going to leave you!" Yor almost felt herself nod at Edward. Were her brother in danger, she'd have rather die then leave him to perish on his own.

"If you left, you might have survived!" Al countered what Yor thought was very obvious sibling affection.

"But you might have died!" Ed responded back.

"But I might not have, and you surviving would be much more important than me living."

"...don't say that," Edward seemed to fall at that declaration by Alphonse.

"I'll say whatever I want to say," Alphonse's arm reached out, and grabbed Ed by the shirt, and lifted him up to where his eyes met the slit for the armor's helmet. Which, being that Alphonse was still being carried by Armstrong, was quite high up for the short alchemist, "You have to live, so you can continue your research," Ed seemed to sag at that declaration, "You're so much better than me. You're the one who is going to have to figure out how to get back our bodies. And the one who is going to be able to find ways to use alchemy to protect little girls like Nina!"

SCRREK

And then Al's arm fell off, causing Edward to fall to the ground in a heap. Yor felt the arms holding her let her go, and for a second she felt a pang of disappointment. But, she allowed herself to watch Dr. Forger walk up towards Edward, and place his own jacket along the young man's shoulders. The taller man placed his jacket along Ed's shoulders, and he looked down at the Fullmetal Alchemist.

"Look at what you did," Alphonse began to whine, still hanging on Armstrong's shoulder, "I'm falling apart!"

"Yeah," Ed began laughing, and he rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks for earlier Doc."

"It was my honor Edward."

"We're kind of a mess, aren't we brother," the adrenaline, or the closest thing Al had access to, was beginning to come down in the suit of armor. Ed just continued to laugh.

"We are a mess," and finally, a small smile sat fully on his face, "But..."

"We're alive."

Chapter 12: Ready-

"So that's the long and short of it," Mustang said, sitting back in his chair, "Our target is a man who is avenging the atrocities of the Ishvalan conflict by using alchemy to kill State Alchemists," Twilight sat upright, keeping eyes on the officer corps, from Mustang relaxed in his chair, to Maes Hughes leaning against a desk, to Major Alex Armstrong standing at attention, to Edward Elric slumping over as he sat next to Alphonse's ruined body on the window seal. And there he sat, a doctor who was seen as a close ally for the Elric brothers, and being given access to information that almost any spy would kill to have.

'Why would a doctor be allowed into this meeting, I'm not a standing officer,' after all, Yor Briar wasn't in here. She was actually part of the staff, yet she had been able to go home after the ordeal, while he was allowed into a meeting where the lowest ranking member was 2nd Lieutenant Breda. As a doctor, he would only qualify as a Warrant Officer, higher than sergeant, but lower than anyone else in the room besides Alphonse, who clearly was of such interest that he had to be in here. This went against standard military procedure, in both Cresta and in Amestris, 'They even asked me to be here. Is it because I'm their doctor. But I'm a psychiatrist, what good am I right now?'

As he considered his place Twilight looked over to Edward. The young man seemed depressed, the high of his survival from a serial killer clearly wearing off, as he considered the history of Ishval. In the end, Twilight couldn't help but consider that war continued to wound long after the last bullet was shot.

"So," Maes Hughes got in-between the view of Twilight and Edward, and looked down on him, "Anything you would know about this...Dr. Forger?"

"...what?" Twilight looked up, trying to maintain Lloyd Forger's façade.

Maes bent his knees down, so he was looking Twilight directly in the eyes. The man, who he had seen as something of a coward when he had arrived late to the fight with Scar not an earlier, had a sharp stare behind his glasses. Twilight could almost feel the eyes of everyone in the room begin to move over to him. and realized that he wouldn't be able to get out of here if he tried. He continued to look Hughes in the eyes, and then steeled his eyes back.

'Maes Hughes, Lieutenant Colonel of Intelligence,' Twilight noted in the back of his head. The great enemy of WISE's operations for the past two years, and the man that had personally killed Agent Style three weeks earlier. That he had arrived, and was now focusing his attention onto Lloyd Forger, said nothing good, 'Has he found out already?'

"What brought you to East City? Was there some kind of information about Scar's movements?" Maes began to ask, and once again, Twilight was bewildered, though he kept his eyes and features unmoving to the question, "Are there accomplices assisting Scar? Is there any kind of network of sympathizers helping him move through the country? Why wasn't there a greater presence of officers to deal with Scar if you knew he was coming?"

'Why would I-'

"Wait, why are you asking Dr. Forger if he knew about Scar?" Ed asked, a slight panic in his voice. Twilight, still too shocked by the new path of questions, kept up his composure, all the while monitoring the movements of everyone in the room. There was steel from Hawkeye, concern from Armstrong and growing apprehension from Havoc and Breda. And yet...Mustang seemed to still be relaxed as he laid against the back of his seat.

'Do they think Cresta is moving a terrorist around to kill State Alchemists?' he thought to himself, as he kept his eyes directly on Maes Hughes, 'Or may-"

"Because Fullmetal," Colonel Mustang said aloud, and all the officers in the room returned their attention to him, "He isn't really a doctor," he then stared at Twilight, his dark eyes focused, "He's an agent of Central Command."

'Wait, what?'

"Central Command?" Major Armstrong seemed to be taken of guard as well, as did everyone besides Mustang and Hughes. Edward's eyes lit up, as though something had just clicked in his mind. He then looked back at Twilight, some of his worry gone, but a bit of sadness still there.

"Like you were warning me about before I went to an appointment?" He asked aloud, and Twilight caught the nod from Mustang, and Twilight tried to pull in all the information as quickly as he could. They had already suspected him of something, that much was now obvious. Twilight could see why too, he had only just come a week ago, and managed to get appointments created that let him speak with several important figures in private, including two important State Alchemists, with future access to a third.

"Exactly," Mustang continued, observing Dr. Lloyd Forger lazily, "Honestly, I originally thought you were here to evaluate the possibility I would go off the deep end like Isaac McDougal," a look of comprehension crossed Edward's eyes.

"You mean that ice guy that tried to crush Central?"

"The exact same," Mustang nodded, before fully concentrating his eyes on Twilight fully, looking him up and down, "It makes sense, we both served in Ishval, might as well check if I was having similar thoughts."

"But his focus on both you Ed, and Shou Tucker, made me consider that he was looking over alchemists who hadn't actually seen actual battle," Maes added, looking back at Edward, "Why give so much attention to all the alchemists?" he then pointed his finger up into the air, "Unless you were in fact, trying to keep an eye on all of them, if all of them were a target?"

"Dr. Forger?" Twilight heard Alphonse say aloud, and then felt all eyes in the room back on him. He kept his eyes locked on Mustang, all the while having to contemplate how he was going to push through this. He had one chance to get out of this without being thrown in the Brig, and brought in for questioning, but he would have to be careful.

'Showtime.'

"I'm impressed," Lloyd Forger's voice became a bit deeper, a bit closer to Twilight's inner monologue, "Mustang, Hughes, you both clearly live up to your reputations."

"So we are right," Mustang nodded, seemingly glad that to be given the confirmation that his suspicions were correct, "You are an special agent of Central Command."

"Well, better to say you that you were right," Twilight pointed his finger back in Mustang's direction, causing Roy to blank for a moment, "I am here to monitor you and your loyalty to the military, Colonel Mustang," he said, trying to push the conversation in his direction. Don't let these two have to much control, "I knew nothing about Scar's whereabouts, and neither does Central Command."

"...wait, really?" Maes was also taken a bit aback, loosening his stance for a moment in a bit of shock. Twilight inwardly smiled while maintaining his straight outer appearance.

'Good, keep them off balance.'

"Yes," Twilight nodded. In all honesty, it would be better for them to think he was more antagonistically disposed towards them, rather than as some shadowy agent using them as bait to lure out a serial killer. Would make Mustang more cautious, as any push against him could be a push against the Central Government.

"But, then, what about Scar?" he heard Lieutenant Breda ask aloud. The rotund officer's head was resting his his hand, as he was seeming to consider everything that was happening around him, "You meeting with all the alchemists doesn't make sense if you are just here to test the Colonel."

"That would make it too obvious," Twilight cut in quickly, understanding he had to control the conversation before it could take him in a direction he did not want it to go, "I started with Edward and Tucker because that would hopefully build a false sense of security for you Colonel, and allow him to let his guard down, and maybe provide some insight into his loyalties," he then made to look to the ground in disgust, "However, I moved up Edward again after the incident with Shou Tucker because in my judgement Edward needed it," he then looked over at Ed, who stared him back in the eyes, a mix of hurt, but also thankfulness mixed together there, "Despite being a government agent, I am also a psychiatrist. I do have that duty to my patients."

Twilight could see Mustang let loose a bit of a scowl. He could also hear a silence descending over the room, as the considered everything that had just been said. He could even see Breda nodding at his explanation. Hawkeye and hughes looked back at Mustang, who shook his head, and then nodded, at them, and they both took a more relaxed stance. Finally, Mustang spoke again.

"So, should we have our session now or..."

"I wouldn't be able to get anything out of you, and both of us know that," Twilight answered quickly, and almost smirked himself when he saw Mustang's lips curl upward slightly, "I had a recommendation for court martial for Shou Tucker, but clearly that is no longer necessary," Twilight left a grim pause for a moment, and then finished, "And I will be recommending that Edward Elric be honorably discharged."

"What!?!" Edward shouted, jumping off the sill of the window, his eyes boring into Twilight. The other officers were looking at Forger with shock on their faces, "Why the hell would you do that?"

"Edward, you should never have been let into the military in the first place," Twilight stared Edward down in his eyes, "You are fifteen years old, and you still have the maturity of a fifteen year old," and Twilight could feel suddenly felt the eyes of his father looking down on him again, a fury evident from his face as he observed a young boy with a toy gun, "Being a soldier is something that you are still not mentally and emotionally capable of being. It would be better for you and your brother to be as far away from the military as possible, especially now knowing that Scar is specifically hunting military alchemists."

"...," Twilight watched as Edward looked to the ground for a moment. The young an then shook his head, and looked back up at Twilight, directly into his eyes, "Sorry Doc, but I'm going to have to say no."

"What do you mean?"

"The only way I can get access to research to get Al's and my body's back is if I'm a state alchemist," Edward answered, conviction returning to his voice, "I appreciate what you are trying to say, Lloyd, but I need the military right now. It's as simple as that."

Twilight finally moved his head over to the still stationary body of Alphonse Elric. That made sense. If alchemy was what caused the loss of Al's body, and Ed's arm, then the military would give privileges that would better allow Ed to try and find out a way to get them back. That meant, that the boy hadn't chosen to come on because of some selfish desire, but rather to help his younger brother recover from some past mistake. He then raised his hand, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that," he confessed, "There would be no way that that recommendation would work without getting your approval, or the approval of Colonel Mustang," he looked over at the man behind the desk, "Who I suppose isn't going to give it."

"Not on your life," the Colonel had a small smile. He then let out a laugh, "Besides, I still have use for Edward, can't let an asset like him go wandering off to who knows where."

"Shove it up your ass!" Edward yelled back, and Lloyd had to rub his head even harder.

'So much for saving another child from the damage of war,' Twilight couldn't help but see another blonde boy standing where Edward was currently yelling at the Colonel from. That boy had green eyes, and was yelling at a Crestan recruitment office, shouting at them to let him join the army, 'The losses we experience seem to only drive us further into more loss.'

"So," Maes Hughes, no longer in interrogation mode, walked over to Edward, causing the teen to stop committing insubordination, "What are your plans now?"

"Well, Al's body's a real mess right now," Edward said aloud, considering his next option, and Twilight had to agree. It seemed that every minute or so, some sliver of metal would continue to fall from Alphonse's body, "And I can't fix him up without a second arm to use alchemy."

"I could fix him!" Armstrong somehow sparkled with that declaration, the light of the bulbs above him reflecting off his muscles.

'Why did he take off his shirt?' Twilight asked again, the strange giant aristocrat only being slightly less disturbing than the experiments of Shou Tucker.

Slightly.

"No," Ed and Al said together, and then Ed continued, "I'm the only one who knows how to transmute the armor while keeping Al attached to it. I need to get my alchemy back," he groaned, and placed his hand over where his arm should be, "I'm going to have to head back to Resembool, and meet with my mechanic."

"Resembool," Twilight said aloud, remembering the file he had read on Edward's home town, "But that's at least a days ride from here, perhaps two," he then looked over at Edward, "And without Alchemy, and your brother immobile, how are you supposed to get to get there."

"Why it's quite simple," Twilight felt sweat develop on the back of his head. Slowly, he turned around, and saw again the mass of muscle flexing as he looked down over the rest of the group, the twinkle around his eye still dancing far too close for Twilight's comfort, "I shall be your guard for this Edward Elric!"

"What!?!" Edward almost fell backwards, before pointing at the Major while shaking, "Why him?"

"I've got a ton of work to get back to in Central," Hughes stated plainly.

"So do I here in East City," Mustang added.

"I have to make sure that the Colonel actually does his work," Hawkeye noted.

"I have no confidence that I could protect you from that insane monster," Havoc almost laughed.

"My thoughts exactly," Breda added.

"So it's decided!" Armstrong declared, placing a hand on Edward's head. The young alchemist just looked back and forth, trying to look for someone to save him from the giant. He looked at Lloyd, who shrugged his shoulders.

"I unfortunately also have to get back to Central," he answered honestly, "I have to report to my superiors about my evaluations, and I will be starting a new position in Central monitoring their hospital," he then, as an added push, "And you met my daughter, she has her test soon for the new student position in the fall. I need to get everything moved there by the end of the week to set up."

"Wait..."

Suddenly, Twilight was turned around, his chair moved violently. Standing in front of him was Hughes, whose glasses seemed to shine brightly as he was only a few inches away from Twilight's face. Twilight, suddenly wondering what he could have said to give himself away.

"You have a daughter huh..."

"...Yes."

"Well...SO DO I!" And suddenly, a wallet full of photos of a young girl, no older than three, flopped out. There were pictures of the daughter with her mother, pictures of her with Hughes. Pictures of the girl on a rocking horse. Pictures of the girl jumping hopscotch. Pictures of her face covered in ice cream. Twilight couldn't imagine the sheer number of photos in his view. All the while, Hughes was blushing, his ass moving back in forth in a strange wiggling motion as he laughed about the girl, "Her name's Elicia. She is two and three quarters. Isn'tshejustthecutes-" he then proceeded to continue to flip through more and more photos, all the while Twilight fell further and further back in his chair.

'How...how does he afford to develop all these?' the cost of getting photos wasn't something he thought was cheap at all.

"Well, good luck with all that Doc," Ed groaned, both from the fact that he was going to have to have Armstrong take him to Resembool, and from Hughes sudden outburst.

"If you are ever in Central," Lloyd forger spoke up to the younger man, "Don't hesitate to give me a call. I am still a psychiatrist, if you need to speak about something, I'll be glad to talk it through with you."

"Pfft, whatever," Ed looked to the ground, and Lloyd could see that the young man was in fact hurt by the revelation that his doctor had been spying on him. Twilight killed whatever sympathy was building, and then nodded at him. Dr. Forger got up off his chair, and then marched out towards the final door. Just as his hand gripped the door handle, he turned back, and looked at the crowd.

"I don't suppose you'll let me know how you caught on to me?" Twilight asked. Roy Mustang just smirked back at him.

"Not unless you tell me the name of your superior."

"Oh well," he then opened the door, and walked into the hallway.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Dr. Forger was lying."

Mustang sighed, looking over at Hughes, as they and Hawkeye were lounging around a small table in the Colonel's office. There were three short glasses, with a decanter of fine liquor sitting in the middle. Hughes had just taken a sip of the drink, and placed it back down on the table.

After Forger had left, they had made final travel arrangements for Major Armstrong and the Elric brothers. The larger man had then escorted the two to a hotel near the train station to provide a closer guard incase Scar returned, and then they had begun to deal with the rest of the fall out from the attacks over the past two days. Damage reports, repair bills, funeral arrangements for the military policemen and Lieutenant Strauss, it had been a busy, and depressing, rest of the afternoon. So, as the last three still in headquarters, Mustang had pulled out his finest drink, and decided to celebrate with his closest allies while they were still alone. This was meant to be a place for private discussion, and Hughes had taken the conversation to the topic that Mustang most wanted to discuss.

"What about?" Hawkeye said. Her voice betrayed no confusion though, she had likely noticed something off too, though she was having trouble placing it.

"Not sure exactly," Mustang's best friend groaned, and Mustang felt like groaning along with him, "He gave in too quickly for one thing. He could have fought a bit more about it, but he seemed more than willing to give away he was working as some kind of spy for central command."

"Like he was using it as an excuse," Mustang noted aloud, and Hawkeye nodded, before lifting her glass, and sipping a bit down as well, "He was also careful not to reveal who he was working for."

"A guy like that would usually use the biggest name they could think of to intimidate us into backing down," Maes added, swirling the drink in his hand, "I'm with General Raven, I'm with General Klemmin, I'm with Fuhrer King Bradley. He made sure to only give us enough to let him get out of here."

"Wouldn't he have strict orders to hide it though," Mustang said, "I mean to keep it from coming out that Central is spying on alchemists?"

"No Alchemists, alchemist," Maes pointed out, and then pulled up his drink again, "His mission was for you, and since he's heading back to Central..."

"Do you think Command might have some idea of the Colonel's goals?"

"Wouldn't shock me in the least," Maes nodded, "But there was something else, that really bothered me about Lloyd. Something that almost certainly shows that he is not who he says he is."

Roy and Hawkeye looked at one another, and then back at Hughes. The glasses wearing man just continued to stare at his drink, all the while Mustang began to lean in closer, as though waiting to hear what revelation truly gave Forger away. Just as he was almost all the way over the table, and within striking distance of Hughes himself, Hughes revealed his clue.

"He didn't show many any pictures of his daughter."

SLAM

"Next time," Roy mustang had fallen backwards over his chair, his fine glass laying next to him, the contents spilled into the carpet of his office, "I'm going to have to remember that no matter how serious you are, you are a fundamentally ridiculous man," he looked at his empty glass, "Aw, do you know how much this alcohol costs," then he saw the developing stain on the carpet, "Do you know how much this carpet costs!?!"

"Never the less," Hawkeye's only blemish was a slightly bulging vein on her forehead, "I agree that Dr. Forger was suspicious," she then looked over at Mustang, "But, if I'm guessing correctly, you are hoping to use that to our advantage."

"We know he's working for Central, right," Mustang pointed out his best friend, who nodded at that. He was back to his chair, and he had grabbed the decanter and was pouring another drink for himself, "And with his daughter settling into a school there," he ignored the little twitch in Hughes, who was trying to keep control of himself, "We can bet he's going to be there for a while. Hughes, you're in intelligence, why not keep an eye on him while there, just check in on him and his family when they are around the hospital, and see if he slips up, see who he meets with, and whether they might tell us who sent him to observe me."

"I can probably do that," Maes nodded, before frowning, "But it might mean I'm not able to call you as much."

"You say that like a bad thing," Maes turned in horror, not to Mustang, but to Hawkeye, who had said it at the exact same time as her commanding officer. She looked him up in the face, "I have to keep the Colonel disciplined and working, and you calling him up is an excuse to dodge work."

"Anyway," Mustang nodded at Hughes, "Do that, keep an eye on our good friend, Dr. Forger, and find out who is so suspicious of me," he then forced himself to a more upright position, "And with that, we'll know who I need to watch out for when I get brought back to Central, and with that, we'll be one step closer to our goal."

"...," Maes smiled sadly, and for a moment, the constant sadness at the back of the Intelligence Officer's eyes receded, as he raised a glass into the air.

"To Peace in Amestris."

"To Peace in Amestris," Hawkeye and Mustang clanged their glasses into his, and all brought their glasses to their lips. It was a promise to one another, that they had made when they got home from Ishval.

And Mustang wasn't going to let some wannabe psychiatrist stand in his way.

Chapter 13: Steady-

It was a really bright and sunny day out, and Anya was glad that she was going to be outside for it.

She was less glad that it was because she was going to a funeral.

Anya hadn't spent much time around Lieutenant Strauss, but she had been a nice lady, and it was sad to hear she was gone. It was even worse when she saw how Mrs. Marsha had died when she had read her Papa's head, but she was getting more and more used to that. She had put on the nice clothes alongside her daddy, and that morning, after breakfast, they had gone to a big open field just outside the city, where there were a bunch of roundish stones sticking out of the ground.

"We just need to be here to say our condolences, and then we will go get some lunch," Papa said as they walked up to the front of the cemetery, holding her hand to guide her up the hill towards a crowd of people. He was wearing his military clothes today, unlike his usual greener outfit, which was weird to Anya, but she understood he had to wear it as part of his spy gig, and because it was more formal. Half the crowd was wearing the same blue uniform, while the other half were wearing black.

'I can't believe she's gone, we just got coffee on Monday,' one woman they passed with a blue uniform looked over the funeral crowd.

'Aunty no,' A girl a few years older than Anya herself was crying inside and outside.

The service itself wasn't too long. The head of the hospital and Colonel Mustang spoke, and then several men in blue uniforms carried a box that Anya understood to carry Mrs. Strauss's body. She didn't want to see what was inside the box, her Papa's memories of the lady's death were so bad she had nightmares.

Which was honestly happening a lot lately.

'This is way too hard,' Anya kept a groan to herself, and tried to only focus on her Papa, who was scanning the crowd for spy reasons she didn't quite get, 'I didn't know being adopted would mean I'd just keep seeing scary stuff.'

'I need to see if I can find the Lieutenant's husband,' Lloyd said, 'I should at least offer my condolences to him, and thank him for the kindness that she showed my daughter. Better to leave on as friendly a set of terms as possible.'

'Find Mrs. Strauss's wife, got it,' Anya began to scan the crowd, and then opened her mind.

And then she closed it immeadiatly.

'Too much,' she groaned, placing a hand on her head, and then feeling tears form in her eyes. She had tried to read too many minds at once, and the overload from that many people had overwhelmed her. It was almost like when she had read the minds of that Dark Lady Lust while she had been back in the bad place. She shook her head, while tears still poured out of her eyes.

She then felt a light hand tap her chin, and then a small piece of cloth wipe away the tear. She looked up at her father, who was smiling sadly down at Anya. She opened her mind again to try and hear his thoughts.

"-obably never been to a real funeral,' Twilight thought, 'She hasn't experienced anything like this since her mother, so this is probably the first time she's had to take in feelings like this in a long time,' he focused on wiping away the rest of the tears.

"It's okay, Anya," he said, placing a hand on the top of her head, "It's okay to feel this way when someone dies. It is very sad, but that's life, and we should recognize we are sad because of the happiness that person shared with us while they were alive."

And for the first time, Anya recognized he said the exact same thing that he thought. Most of the time, he was always doing two different things, probably because he was a spy. But, if he was doing both at the same time, it meant it was something that she should pay attention to. She nodded up at her Papa, and her Papa continued to give her a sad smile.

It only took a few minutes for the casket to be placed down into the hole, and for the earth to begin to be placed over it. After a moment, most of the military people in blue began to go away, while the people in black gathered around together. As the crowd continued to gather around in a group, Anya followed along with Twilight, her hand held in his, as they walked up to an old man who was standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Ah, hello," Both Yor and the man looked over at Papa when he spoke up, sticking his hand out to shake the older man's hand, "I'm Doctor Forger. Your wife was my supervisor for my time here in East City."

"Oh," the older man nodded at that, "Thank you for coming," he then looked down, "Oh, is this Anya? Marsha did say something about a new doctor with a sweet daughter."

The older man then looked up, and looked in Lloyd's eyes. He shook his head, and thought, 'I suppose I am lucky, I got to have a full life with Marsha and our children. She said he lost his wife when he and his daughter are so young...I'd hate to think about not having my memories with her to get me by.'

"Mrs. Straus was a really nice lady," Anya nodded, "She was really nice, and said nice things to me when I was sad about Mama," she added, before finishing with, "I'm really sorry you're feeling sad right now."

"...Thank you Anya," the older man sighed, tears threatening to well up again, 'What a sweet child.'

'Excellent Anya,' Papa looked around, taking in the sights, 'We can thank him for all his wife did, and say goodbye. We need to start getting ready to go to Central.'

"You're welcome Mr. Strauss," Anya then reached up her hand, and grabbed the older man's leg, holding it for a second, "Thank you for your wife being so nice. You must be really nice too."

'Excellent Anya,' Twilight thought, and Anya almost felt like smirking.

She was really good at this when she had Papa for instructions.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Anya and Papa spent a few more minutes with Mr. Strauss, before they finally headed back down the hill that the funeral they had just finished up. Lloyd was holding her hand, and then looked out into the road, 'She did really well with this, before we head to Central, why don't we go have something nice to eat?' And then Anya shouted the first thing that popped into her head, a tasty treat she had heard about in the lab but never really had.

"Ice Cream!" Anya shouted excitedly, before covering her mouth with her hands. Her father looked down at her, and blinked and then looked up, before falling down a bit with a sigh.

'Thank God we are already outside the cemetery,' Papa was relived, and most of the possible anger had disappated, "Sure, that sounds like it might be a fun time," he said to her, causing Anya to smile, 'Sometimes, it's like she is able to read my mind.'

"Now," Papa looked out onto the road, "I wonder..."

'I don't know where an ice cream shop is...' Papa began to have sweat drip down his head, a slight panic taking over him, 'This may be harder th-'

"Dr. Forger, were you here for the funeral too."

Anya turned around, as did Papa, and standing, right at the edge of the gate they had just left, was Ms. Yor. The weird lady that Anya had read the mind of while she had walked by when she had gone to the office and met Mrs. Strauss and Edward.

'I really hope no one sees the blood from last night on my socks,' she had thought, 'I didn't have enough time to change them. Nobody seems to notice. But that little girl might see it, and it might scare her! I don't want to scare a cute little girl. GAH!'

Anya thought she was silly. But she was nice too, since she seemed to want to be nice to Anya herself, and that was always good.

"Oh, Ms. Briar. Yes, I was, I only knew Lieutenant Strauss for a short time, but she was kind to my daughter Anya and I, and I wanted to make sure we paid respects to her," Papa said, looking Yor in the face for a moment, his mind remembering everything that happened the day before, and for the first time in a while, giving Anya a bunch of cool things to see.

Like Alchemy.

And big Kicks.

And Giant Muscle men.

'It is still surprising how strong her kick was,' Papa considered, rubbing his chin a bit, as he thought back to her kick. Anya saw Yor Briar land a kick directly into the stomach of the tall bad guy and send him flying.

'COOOOLLLLLLL,' Anya thought, her hands still luckily around her mouth, and thus keeping her from being too open about her opinion of what Yor just did, 'She's super strong.'

"It is good to see you are in good health," Papa tipped his hat to Yor, who nodded back, "I take it you experienced no damage from the fight with Scar yesterday?"

"No," Yor Briar said, and then slowly looked at the ground, away from Papa's eyes as she answered his question, "I was fine. The only thing hurt were my shoes."

'I nearly died,' Anya then saw Papa, with sparkles in his eyes, suddenly grab, up Yor, and twirl her away from Scar, 'If he hadn't saved me, Scar would have killed me.'

'Wow! Papa's cool too,' Anya thought.

"I'm glad to hear that," Papa continued, smiled, "I'm also very glad that the Colonel and the rest of the officer corps arrived when they did," he rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not sure how we would have been able to get Edward out of there in one piece, especially when he was as depressed as he was when we got there."

'If I wasn't able to get to the pistol Yor gave me in time, I would have had to pull out by secondary derringer in my left leg pocket,' Twilight considered, and Anya suddenly saw a diagram of the small one shot pistol beneath his leg, 'Of course, that's not standard issue. Any use of the smoke bomb I hide in my false tooth,' another diagram appeared in Anya's head, at one of the back top teeth that suddenly popped open, 'would have almost certainly blown my cover as a spy.'

'I would have had to hope that Lloyd would be able to get the pistol and not notice the rock I'd hit Scar with,' and Anya suddenly saw a pebble being tossed with her toes, and Anya's eyes widened, 'but if he failed, I would have had to go behind, and likely aim at the right temple,' and then Anya's eyes widened further, as she saw that strike, and then the image of Scar's eyes popping out in eruptions of blood, 'But if I did, they might realize that I'm an assassin.'

'AN ASSASSIN!'

'...'

'What's that?' the scientists always thought about spys, but they didn't ever think about assassins, 'it sounds cool though.'

She had only a radio to grant relief to her boredom. Perhaps this lady would sate her appetite for excitement.

"I am glad to hear you are doing well as well," Yor bowed her head slightly, "I need to thank you for saving my life. Scar nearly killed me yesterday, and had you not pulled me away, he would have used that power on me, and I would likely be in that funeral service as well."

"It was no trouble," Papa waved his hand, "Besides, you saved my life before that," he smiled at her, "I also suppose I should use this opportunity to say goodbye. Anya and I will be leaving for Central tomorrow to start getting ready for her schooling next year."

"Oh, well then it's good I caught you to say goodbye."

'He's leaving,' Yor seemed to get really sad at that, and then looked at the ground, 'I just met him. He seemed like he'd be a good connection to make, but I guess this is just going to get harder and harder.'

"Ms. Yor," Anya spoke up. She remembered Papa thinking in frustration about lacking a wife for his family appearance, and how it was going to make his mission harder. And this Lady did seem like she might be a good choice, since she was nice. Plus she had a cool job and big kicks, so if anyone could be a good Mama, it might be her, "We were going to go get ice cream before we go, but Papa doesn't know where ice cream is," she then looked up at the tall woman with her biggest, softest eyes, "Do you know where ice cream is?"

'Anya,' Twilight looked down, and then looked at Yor's hand, and recited Yor's history that he had had Franky give to him after they had met, 'Yor Briar, Civil Servant. Younger Brother, but only known family. No marriage history,' he then went into what he knew about her, 'Strong for an office woman. Brave,' he then looked at Yor's face as she looked away, 'Naturally good looking, likely able to pull off elegance if required for a social event,' he then thought about the times that Anya had heard him complain about the need for a wife to get into Selim Bradley's academic program, 'Did Anya just help start my mission?'

"Yes," Yor said suddenly, and Anya felt a smirk cross her lips, "There is a small one three blocks down, take a left, and it should be on the right side."

"Well, that sounds nice," Papa smiled, before thinking, 'Okay, time to pull some spy charm,' and then sticking out his hand to offer to it to Yor, "Would you like to join us Ms. Briar."

"What?" Yor looked down at the hand calmly, while inwardly, Anya could hear Yor screaming slightly, 'Is he asking me on a date!?! I've never been on a date!?!'

"I insist," Lloyd smiled at her, "Afterall, you saved my life. The least I can do is take you for some ice cream."

"I...I...," Yor's blush was now emerging around her nose, "You saved my life as well, there is no need for you to pay for any ice cream for me."

"There's no need to worry," Papa pushed just a little further, "You gave me directions, I give you ice cream. You saved my life, I saved yours. I give you something, and then you give me something," Papa's mind blanked, and an image of Edward Elric suddenly appeared in his head, "I guess you could call it the Law for Equivalent Exchange."

________________________________________________________________________________________

The three of them, Anya, Papa and Yor, were seated outside the ice cream shop at a small round café table. Anya had two scoops of peanut ice cream in a small bowl, as Lloyd had decided that he didn't trust her to have a cone, while Yor had a small cup of strawberry sherbet, and Lloyd himself had a cup of vanilla. For a few moments, the three of them just sat their, eating their ice cream. At one point, an older couple passed by the shop, and the old lady looked over at them.

'Ah, the days of a youthful family,' she smiled and continued to walk on, 'They should cherish these days while the last.'

"I hope it wasn't too sad being at the funeral," Yor said while looking up from her sherbet. She was a remarkably clean eater, and was in complete control of herself. She had been looking down sadly at the girl.

"...," Anya thought, and then remembering her meeting with Mrs. Strauss those days earlier, said, "I am sad Mrs. Strauss is gone. And when I'm sad about Mrs. Strauss being gone, I get sad about Momma being gone too."

"Your moth-," Yor suddenly shot up, looking him in the eye, "Oh goodness, I had no idea you lost your wife Dr. Forger."

'Anya, I'm not sure whether to berate or kiss you,' Papa thought, almost finishing his own small treat up, 'Anyway, show time.'

"Natasha died about a year ago," he shook his head, "I was just getting my certification to work with the government as a military doctor, and it was challenging," he then looked out, forlorn, "Raising a daughter as a single parent. But Anya and I got through it."

"That's very admirable Dr. Forger," Yor said aloud, 'Ah, he's such a good man. Caring for his daughter even though he lost his wife.'

"Please call me Lloyd," Papa waved his hand to the side, and Anya could actually see Yor's face becoming a color closer to her sherbet.

"Of course, Lloyd," she said aloud, and nodded. Anya grabbed another spoon full of the treat, and aimed it at her mouth, but then, by being so focused on the blush on Yor's face, she missed, and accidently slammed it into the side of her mouth. She let out a small gasp, and then both Yor and Lloyd's attention was dragged to the young girl.

'Darn it Anya, I was really-,' Papa's thoughts were instantly cut off when suddenly, Yor reached out, and with one of the cloth napkins left on the table, wiped around Anya's lips, clearing away the spill.

'This is much easier than clearing up the blood from clothes,' She thought, and suddenly Anya's eyes widened.

'Blood,' Maybe this was going to be a worse idea than she thought.

"You seem good with children," Papa interjected, bringing Yor's attention to him again, "Do you work with children often?"

"No," Yor then looked away, her blush growing a bit larger, "I actually don't work people very often at all beyond my usual coworkers," she looked back towards the cemetery, "The only reason I was working at the hospital was because I'd realized I don't have many connections with other people in my life," she thought of a tall man with dark skin and red eyes, "I felt that maybe I wasn't appreciating life enough, so I thought it would be good to work with other people to push myself."

Papa nodded, 'She doesn't have many connections,' then he looked back down at Anya, 'And she is more than willing to spend time with Anya,' he then looked back at her, 'And she is willing to try something new by hanging out with people she wouldn't before,' he then stopped, and considered the whole of the thing, 'Oh what the hell, if she says no, I'm leaving for Central tomorrow, and start over there.'

"Yor," he reached over, and put his hand near hers, "I was actually planning on leaving the military when my wife died. It wasn't ever my dream to join the military," he then looked her in the eye, "However, my wife had a dream for our daughter. She had always loved Central City, and she had been looking at programs. And then she found out that Selim Bradley was the same age as Anya."
Yor nodded, though she asked herself, 'Where is he going with this?'

"So, I have continued to work with the military, so I can be there for Anya in Central while she works in the school," he continued, and Anya continued to listen for when it would be best for her to inter into the conversation, and help move it all forward, "It looks like she is ready to take the test," Anya felt sweat drop at the back of her head from the obvious lie, "But there is a problem. The program needs both a father and a mother. And with my wife dead, we may not be able to fulfil her dream for my daughter."

"I am deeply sorry to hear that," she said, and then thought, 'What a terrible tragedy. Losing a wife, and not being able to fulfil her las wish.'

"I was wondering," Papa sighed, and then looked Yor in the face, "If you would be willing to be Anya's mother."

"...what?"

Papa held his hands up defensively, quick to try and keep any kind of outburst down, "Nothing physical would be required of you," he looked, and saw her blush cover the entire top half of her face, "All you would have to do, would be live in the same building with Anya and I for a year or so in Central," he waved his hand quickly, "We could have different rooms, different sleeping arrangements, if you need to come back to East City, I can pay for it."

"Why would you think of me for this?" Yor's voice shook as she spoke up.

'I see she isn't saying no,' Papa seemed a bit pleased inwardly, 'Need to keep pressing...and this part's pretty honest.'

"Well, you are the woman that just saved my life," Yor looked at him, and then her mouth closed and she nodded.

'And...I suppose he saved my life,' Anya still had to keep waiting. She had to wait for the right moment.

"I suppose that makes sense," Yor said aloud, "But, I'm not a very...social person. What if we end up not liking this?"

"Then you and I can get a divorce," Twilight said quickly, 'need to offer her a way out of the relationship so it doesn't seem like a trap, "If you don't like me, or just don't like being a spouse, we can divorce after Anya has become a student for such a long period that they won't try and remove her for that. We only need to be a family for one year."

"One year," Yor said aloud, "With two people I barely know for a whole year."

"You did say you were trying to make more connections," Papa added, trying to make one last push, 'Come on, we're almost there. Get this, and Operation: STRIX will have completed the first phase,' he then spoke aloud again, "With Lieutenant Strauss's death, I suppose I just am more willing to try and live life out with as few inhibitions as possible. Enjoy the air in my lungs as long as I have it."

'This would be an chance to make more connections,' Yor considered, again, her mind returning to a large green garden, with a pretty house, and a dark skinned man looking at her with sad eyes. She then looked back at Papa, 'And, he is a nice man. And he is trying to live up to his dead wife's last wish. He doesn't seem like a scumbag liar at all. And it is only for a year, so if I don't like it, I can stop,' she then looked over at Anya, 'But...could I really be a mother. I don't even remember my own, and now I'm taking over that position for this little girl...'

"So you might be my new Mama?" Anya finally asked, connecting her eyes with Yor. The tall woman seemed a bit off guard, and then stammered for a moment.

"Well...maybe...I do-"

"I'd think you'd be a great Mama," Anya stated.

'...' Yor then looked back at Lloyd.

"Okay, I will marry you," she then held up her hands, while turning her head away while blushing, "As long as we understand we can drop it if we need to."

"Whatever you need to be comfortable," Lloyd nodded, and then placed his hand on Yor's. She smiled, while also turning her face slightly away from him, clearly still getting used to the idea of being married. He inwardly smriked, as Anya read his next thought.

'Operation: STRIX is a-'

Chapter 14: Go!

"-Go," Lloyd smiled as he looked over at Franky Franklin. The last boxes of the shop had been packed up, and had been loaded on a truck, to be sent to the new store in a district not too far from his new apartment in Central. Franky would be leaving on the over night train hopefully so no one might see them together while unloading in Central. Having the same information broker, one who had proven his skill already quite clearly by the file on the Tuckers, would be quite useful. That he would have an established relationship with someone this skilled would make the possibility of STRIX being a success far more likely.

Though at the moment, he was rather sure that Franky was unhappy with him. He honestly couldn't figure out why, but the shorter man had refused to even look him directly in the eye as he had finished packing up.

"So, let me get this straight," Franky was packing the last carton of "Cigarettes" into one of the moving boxes, making sure to secure both so no one would look in and see recent military communications inside them. If nothing else, the short, curly haired man was a thorough information broker, "You managed to get a woman to marry you after only knowing you for maybe, two days?"

"Correct."

"She just so happens to be not only willing to marry you," Franky continued, a look of irritation as he began to fasten the top of the moving crate, and locked the whole thing into place, "but to move over hundred miles into a new city, where she will likely have to stay at home because her job is here, and due to leaving that position, she won't be able to transfer easily?"

"She says she has a secondary occupation she uses to earn a side income, and she can continue to do that while based in Central," Twilight answered. Yor had said that she would at times be required to head out of the house to meet with her secondary employer, but that was fine. He had checked the file, and she was an assistant for a wealthy man at an estate outside of East City, so it didn't seem to be too hard. She would perhaps have to leave central every week or so, and with how much he would be gone, he could not begrudge her that.

"And not is she willing to move to a new city without a job," Franky was rubbing his temples with his hands, "This woman will actually spend most of her time looking after your "daughter"?"

"It will be very useful to be able to have more time for information gathering on my own," Twilight had gotten a lot as his position as a psychiatrist, but it be good to try and use some of his other skills. Stakeouts, tailings, break-ins. He was good at those things. Much better at them then being a father for what it was worth.

'Curse you Detective Bond,' Twilight thought of the hokey radio show that Anya continued to listen to whenever he didn't have her specifically focused on her studies, 'Curse you.'

"And not only will she be looking after your daughter while you seem to be gallivanting off to who knows what-"

"It will be spying, not gallavan-"

"Shut up," Franky lifted the crate onto a hand cart, and after a few seconds of intense effort on his part, made sure it was secure, so he could move it without much issue. He puffed slightly from the lifting, something he clearly wasn't used to, "She will then be willing to dress up, and attend whatever fancy social function you might need her for?"

"The plan is for us to meet with the Fuhrer and his family," King Bradley was known as a military man, but his wife was known to throw some dinner functions. Any time he could be close to the Fuhrer's family would be a chance to get more information, so of course he and Yor would have to go to that sort of function.

"And alongside all of that, she looks like this?" Franky threw down a picture of Yor. It was of her in her uniform, though it was not as formally military, rather with a lighter blue. She was looking away from the camera, likely in conversation with someone else. Honestly, it would have been kind of creepy in any other context, but having been of her at work in a public space, it seemed rather normal.

"That's the long and short of it," Twilight nodded.

Franky took off his glasses, and began to rub the bridge of his nose while shaking his head, "All I can say is that some guys have all the luck."

Twilight blinked for a moment.

"So," Franky finally said, having placed his glasses back on, "Has your wife let her employers know she is moving."

"She informed East City command of her resignation earlier today," he rubbed the back of his head, "They were sorry to see her go, but she was given honorable discharge. She'd been working there for a nearly a decade, and almost everyone was perfectly happy to hear she had some new goal to get to take on a new opportunity," it had honestly been shocking on some level to hear how willing they had been to let someone leave the military. He supposed Yor had really only been a civil servant, and with the military dictatorship in place the military was the only place she could go. So the ease of the discharge was likely because of her real lack of rank.

"And what about that second employer, the one she'll still have to come out and help every so often?"

"She said she will be meeting with him now."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Shopkeeper, you must talk her out of this at once."

Yor flinched at the words of Matthew McMahon, an older gentleman whose day job was as the owner of a taxi company in East City. His real job was to be the coordinator for the Garden in the Eastern Province, and to provide transportation and communication across the sector to allow the assassins of the Garden to "harvest their crop". She had actually met with him far more than she had met with the Shopkeeper, and to hear his harsh words for her plan was...distressing. She had only revealed to him an hour ago her plan, after she had revealed why she wanted to come meet the Shopkeeper, and had spent the next hour drive hearing him complain about her foolishness.

And yet, despite the older man's complaints, the Shopkeeper was busy tilling a small patch of dirt. He opened a hole into the fresh black soil, and pulled out a bulb from a small cart next to him. He then placed the bulb down inside the hole, and then covered it with the spread out dark dirt. He compressed the topsoil down, and then picked up the watering can, and sprinkled the newly planted bulb with some fresh water. All the while, he remained silent, a serene look never leaving his face.

"Shopkeeper?"

"I have been listening," he said, his voice completely even. He forced himself to his feet, and wiped the dirt from his pants. He then turned around, and looked at Yor, before rubbing his chin.

"Do you love him?"

"I...I don't believe I do," Yor said, looking down a bit of shame in her voice. She always hated to disappoint her mentor, and starting a relationship like this on some level seemed the wrong way, "No, not at the moment."

"Could you love him?" he continued, while removing the garden glove from his right hand.

"I...," Yor thought for a second, and saw the handsome man grabbing her and saving her life, putting himself in danger to help those around him, and the kind caring way he looked after his daughter, "I think if I spent enough time, I might love. I'm not sure, I haven't spent enough time, but I think it could work."

"Then I have no problem at all."

"Really?" Yor felt her heart jump for a moment.

"REALLY!?!" Matthew screamed, his hands up in the air.

"Matthew," the Shopkeeper chided. He rubbed the side of his neck with his now glove free hand, the bent position having clearly caused him some issues, "I think Yor has a smart head about this in all honesty."

"She's marrying a man she just met?" Yor felt her shoulders slink a bit at that observation.

"And she clearly recognizes it is strange," the shopkeeper walked over, and grabbed a jug sitting on a nearby table, the condensation causing the outer surface to appear quite slick. He then began to pour the drink into a set of three different clear glasses. The yellow liquid sloshed into the cups, and Yor could smell the distinct waft of light alcohol inside them. He then picked the three glasses up, and brought them over to them, "She isn't acting like some school girl with their first teenage crush. Had she come in blushing and declaring eternal love, I would have agreed with you Matthew. But she is being a professional, who is taking an unusual but perhaps fruitful opportunity to expand her horizons."

"But sir..."

"I've always had a bit of a low opinion of true love," the Shopkeeper continued, sipping his drink, and almost certainly consciously ignoring every little thing Matthew said, "But a successful relationship is build on time and positive feelings. You have a chance to build a good one, and if not, you and your partner have already agreed to an out if that makes you both comfortable," he then raised his free hand and pointed at Yor, "and as you said, this Doctor saved your life, so this relationship will start with some starting base. Yor clearly likes him in some manner, and the most beautiful flowers always start off as the most humble seeds," he then nodded at Yor, the smile clear upon his face, "It is fast, and I would have preferred you to start slower, but I don't see why this arrangement can work out."

"...I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise, am I?" Matthew sighed, taking a sip to try and reduce the headache he was likely experiencing at the moment.

"Not in the least," he raised his glass, and then declared loudly, "Now join me in a toast to Yor," he smiled at her, "May her life continue to be a path to love the world."

"Huh," Matthew finally slumped one final time, having accepted that he had been defeated utterly, "To Yor."

"To...me?" Yor raised her glass, and they all clinked together. The three of them all sipped from their glasses, and then just stood there for a moment. The tension had seemed to disappear from Matthew's shoulders, and the Shopkeeper continued to just smile. The sun was finally setting, but the lights from the chateau were beginning to illuminate the main courtyard of the estate.

"Besides," the Shopkeeper spoke up once more, "If this Lloyd Forger does hurt you-"

"I'll break every bone in his body."

"Excellent," he then coughed, and placed his glass down. His soft eyes disappeared, and for a second, Yor could only see her master's silhouette illuminated by the lights from the house behind him. That, and the crimson of his irises, "So now...you ran into another Ishvalan yesterday. I'd like for you to describe him to me. Don't leave out a detail."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So train cars can have seats?"

"...yes Anya, they have seats," Papa answered, looking down at her strangely. They had just past the ticketing office, and were walking onto a big platform, with lots of people wandering around, all thinking about different numbers or different places they were going. And Anya had been shocked when she looked inside her father's mind, and suddenly saw that he was thinking about taking a seat for a while and reading the paper.

Her only experience on a train had been a little over two weeks ago, when she had been escaping the bad place to here to East City. And then, she had been stuck in an industrial cart. She hadn't ever thought about there might be something like a passenger car. Though, now that she thought about it, it the cart she had been on hadn't been comfy at all.

'Honestly,' he shook his head, 'I don't know what I am going to do with this girl.'

It was early morning, and they were meeting her new Mama here at the station, so they could all load their things together as a group, and then take the train to their new home. Anya, for everything, was just glad that Papa was taking her far enough away from the orphanage that he probably couldn't return her there. He was her Papa now. And there was nothing that would separate them.

'Now, we are on engine 007,' Papa was remembering the exact number on his ticket, and looking out for the sight that would lead to that train, 'On platform 16," he looked over, and then pointed at the big number 16 almost the total way down the station. He then looked down at his watch, 'Fifteen minutes until boarding,' he thought and began to look around, with Mama's face suddenly popping into his head, 'I hope she arrives soon, with as much as she is probably carrying...'

"Dr. Forger!" Anya turned back, and saw Yor running up behind her, with a small cart holding her things like she and Papa had a cart holding their things, "I hope I didn't arrive too late," she didn't seem tired at all, and she was wearing those tall shoes that ladies often complained about wearing when she read their minds.

'I spent so much time last night preparing for my next mission,' Yor thought, and Anya listened closely, 'I only got home at three in the morning. Good thing the train ride will be so long, so I can get some sleep there,' Anya nodded at that, thinking that seemed like a good idea, 'Though, would that be a good idea, sleeping in public leaves you vulnerable and someone might try and kill us.'

'Kill us!?!' Anya felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop.

"No problem at all Yor, though please, call me Lloyd," Papa laughed as he smiled at her. Yor blush deepened in color as she stared at him.

"Of course...Lloyd."

Papa's smile widened, before looking over at the large clock across the wall, "You made it with over ten minutes before boarding. We will have time to spare, even with all our luggage," he looked down and inspected the cart. There were less than half the total things that were on their cart, "Did you ask for a staff member to help you with the rest of your things, or are they in the taxi outside?"

"Other things?" Yor's head tilted to the side, "These are all my things. I don't have anything else."

"Really?" Twilight's eyes began to scan Yor and her boxes, 'For a grown woman with a relatively stable job, this seems like a very small amount of possessions. I would expect at least twice as much, at least so there is enough room for how many dresses and shoes I'd expect from a woman of her status and age.'

"Yes?" Yor answered with a hint of fear in her voice, 'Did I do something wrong. Am I too poor to be his husband. If that's the case,' Her mind suddenly flashed with the image of her slamming her fist into his face, 'I'm going to have to break all his bones.'

'What! ALL HIS BONES!' Anya was stunned into silence as the image of her Papa crumbling to dust crossed her mind's eye.

"That's very economical," Twilight finally spoke up. At the sudden hint of praise, some of the sadness that had begun to invade Yor disappeared, and then Lloyd continued, "You clearly don't waste money on frivolous things, and have packed only the essentials. That make moving into our new apartment far easier and cheaper."

"Yes," Yor said, before looking down, slightly in shame, "I'm...I'm sorry if I'm not as sophisticated as you might have bee-"

"Yor, that's nonsense," Papa seemed to swoop in at that moment, all to comfort his wife, "You are doing me a favor with this relationship. You should feel no shame in who you are, or how your feelings develop during this entire process," he then reached down, and grabbed her hand, "We are partners in this relationship, a half and half split. Don't ever worry about voicing your concerns or needs."

"...," Yor was just staring at Lloyd for a moment. Her blush was almost covering the entirety of her face, 'Oh no...keep control...keep control...'

"Mama and Papa are flirting," Anya finally said. The two jumped at that, and then looked down at Anya.

"No we're not!"

"Where did you learn that word?"

"You shouldn't think about your parents that way."

'We need to start boarding,' Anya thought, as her parents seemed to be sputtering a bit as they dealt with her accusation, 'I hope they have peanuts on the train...'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Peanuts!" Anya laughed, grabbing up the small bowl of nuts her Papa had ordered when they had finished getting settled on board.

It had only taken a few minutes to put their bags away inside the caboose of the train. The loading had been helped by a few workers, and after a few moments of waiting before boarding, they had gotten on board, and taken their seat in one of the front cars. The three were seated around a small table in one of the nicest carts in the train, Papa on one side, Mama and her on the other. They had waited there for the engine to take off, and after a half hour of waiting for the other passengers to board, they had left the station, on their way to their new home. Anya had spent a few minutes staring out the window, seeing the outskirts of East City disappear, and then seeing them enter some big mountains.

"Waku waku," she grinned as she shoved some of the nuts into her mouth. Papa looked down from his newspaper, and gave her a small glare.

"Be careful. We don't want to leave a mess for the crew to clean up," this caused Anya to stop, and look up at him.

"Ms. Anya, could you show me your face please?" Yor said aloud, looking down at Anya, and pulling her away from the train as it took off, and instead towards her new Mama. Yor bent down, and rubbed Anya's face with a handkerchief, gathering up a few crumbs around her lips, and then twirling it deposit the nut shavings in the small wastebin at her side. She smiled down at her, "There we go. Just please eat a bit more slowly."

Papa nodded at Yor, his nicest smile on his face, and then he then pulled up his paper, and then went back to reading, 'Cipher R, twelth to the right...Agent Twilight. Good work on securing your family. Your first meeting with your Handler will be later tonight, after you drop your things off. Go up North East Boulevard. You will see a car with a dent midway along the rim of the back right tire. Get in the back of the car, and the driver will take you to-'

'Cleaning up Ms. Anya's face was really easy," Yor thought looking down at the young girl who was to be her daughter.

Anya was glad to have as nice a lady as Yor as her new Mama. Papa was great, but Mama already seemed to be more willing to let her get away with things. She was just so much less scary-

'Though, I guess peanuts are far easier to clean then blood. No need for extra chemicals, or to pay attention to splatter along your clothes from a sliced vein. Like that case out in Lisen a decade ago. I cut that politician's jugular so poorly that it sprayed my face in a complete rain of blood. I was soaked down to my underwear. I was so lucky when Yuri was willing to believe that i-'

'EXPLODING BLOOD!' Anya had truly been blessed by her previous experience in the lab, as without having already learned such self control, she probably would have shouted this out, and caused something of a scene. She felt herself shake a bit, and then Mama placed her hand on Anya's shoulder, and bent down to look her in the eyes.

"Are you alright Ms. Anya?" she asked.

"Ju-," Anya stopped, trying to find a way to keep from saying something stupid, "just a bit scared."

"That does make sense," Twilight said from behind his newspaper, pushing it down slightly to look at Anya, trying his best to give a comforting smile, "This is a big move for us. Going all the way to Central is new experience. You've never been outside of the the Eastern Province, and Central makes East City seem small," Yor nodded at that, and then placed a hand on Anya's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I haven't ever been outside the Eastern Provinces either," she said, rubbing the young girl to try and soothe her, "It's going to be a new experience being in Central," she then clapped her hands, "But I do know someone in Central. My brother Yuri lives there," she smiled at Lloyd, "I'm sure he'll be glad to meet you."

'Yuri Forger, twenty-four,' Twilight considered as he continued to read updates on goings on on the Crestan front, 'Lieutenant in Central. Member of the Intelligence division. Been part of the military for six years, moved up ranks quickly.'

"I'm sure it will be great to meet him as well...though maybe we should keep our arrangement about this a bit of a secret," Twilight rubbed his face a bit in embarrassment, "Just to keep up appearances as a loving couple?"

"Yes, that works," Yor nodded back, before laughing, "I actually forgot to call him yesterday, so it will be a surprise when we get there I'm sure," she nodded.

'Good thing too,' Twilight nodded to himself, 'That might give me time to prepare for when this intelligence officer arrives at our home. I can't let someone that high up into the system have any kind of inkling I'm a spy.'

"Why don't we invite him for dinner this weekend," he pulled out his wallet, and flipped to the calendar inside, "What do you think about Saturday?"

"...I might actually have to come back to East City on Saturday," Yor blushed, rubbing the back of her head, "My old work might need me then."

'Saturday is when the Shopkeeper said they should have information on when I can go after Scar,' she thought, and Anya then saw the image of the dark scary man who had nearly killed her Mama and Papa again, 'I'm going to need to keep that free.'

"What about Friday then?" Lloyd offered.

"Yes, Friday sounds good," Yor nodded, and Lloyd marked it in his calendar, and then considered, 'Might be easier to make it seem like we are both tired from the trip, any kind of incongruities might be better excused that way.'

'Incon-what?'

Anya just shook her head. Just another long word that probably meant something much easier to say, but was used because it's a grown up word. She then turned her head, and began to look out the side of the train, through the window into the outdoors. They came down from one of the sets of mountains, and suddenly Anya saw a river in the background, with nothing but green fields all around it. As the slowly descended the mountain, the twisted a bit, and yet throughout it all, they continued to see the river as it flowed towards them. As they made a turn, she suddenly saw the river come right beneath them, and also that there was a green bowl through which the river traveled.

'...Bowl?'

She looked again, and harder. And it was then, and only then, that she realized that she was passing through the same place she had traveled on her last train trip. Only...they were going in the opposite direction.

The train was going in the opposite direction...

Through the same place she had come from...

That meant...

'I'M GOING BACK TO THE DARK PLACE!?!' she inwardly screamed, feeling her heart begin to pitter patter as she considered it. But she shook her head, trying to regain her composure, 'No, Papa is against the people in the Dark place. We're going to another part of town...'

"Anya, are you feeling sick?" Yor placed her hand on Anya's forehead, "You feel a bit warm," she shook her head, "Maybe it would be best if you lied down for a minute."

"I guess the excitement could get you a bit ill. And I understand that it is possible to get sick from the constant motion of a train or vehicle if you focus your vision outside it too much," Twilight added. Yor readjusted Anya for a second, so she was laying her head against her Mama's lap, and her legs out and towards the center of the cabin. She could only see now what was on the opposite side of the cabin from her, and couldn't stand up to look back, or move her head much to look forward.

'It'll be okay,' she repeated in her head, 'It'll be okay.'

And then the door to the cabin opened, and Anya felt a presence she hadn't felt in a long time.

'Itllbeokayitllbeokay,' she began to scream inside her head, as alot of voices seemed to come from the entrance. But they weren't from many people, but just from one, with one particular voice on top of the others. And the others were screaming, all in pain. Anya could even feel some blood begin to drip from her nose.

'Just a half a day more and I can deal with those notes,' the main voice thought, not paying attention to the rest of the world, 'I need to get to the 1st branch library if I'm to keep our sacrifices in the dark about the Philosopher's stone,' Anya didn't know what she was on about, but she recognized the thoughts. The thoughts that had promised to kill everything inside the Dark Place, and had only just missed her.

"Anya," Mama was panicking, looking down at her face, pulling out her handkerchief, and placing it along her nose, "Lloyd, Anya seems to be having an attack of some kind?"

"Let me see it," she felt her Papa's hand on her head, "She does seem warm," she then heard the sound of liquid on cloth, and then felt a cool rag on her head, "This should relieve some of the stress. Why don't you go to sleep Anya? You'll probably feel better."

'What is this?' The voice seemed to turn, and then was focused on her, and memories of the dark place flooded that mind too, 'Well what do we have here?' it was a bit of a laugh, as Anya finally saw Lust's face, a small smirk on it, 'I was wondering where you got off to...subject 007.'

And then, everything went dark.

Chapter 15: The Center of Everything

Anya's next sight was nothing but white. Or rather, absence.

Because white didn't describe where she was, or what she was seeing. Everything was just...nothing. She looked around for a moment, into the sky, down to the ground, and there was nothing there. Even though, she was clearly standing on something.

"Hello!" she shouted.

No sound returned her call.

"Hello!" she called again, and again, there was no answer.

"What's going on!" she screamed, and began to fidget as the world around her seemed to stretch forever, she began to twirl around, and finally, she saw something.

That something, was a massive door. The door was taller than her. It was taller than Mama and Papa, even if they were stacked on each other's shoulders. It was probably taller than even the building where their apartment had been. On the door were a lot of squiggly lines, and they were made to look like a tree. But it was silly, because the roots of the plant were at the top, and the leaves were at the bottom, and their were giant circles all around the plant. And those circles along it couldn't be fruit, since they had weird words on them.

And was even more weird was that the door was split in two. In fact, as she stopped forward towards the door, she saw something strange about it. What at first seemed to be just one door was two doors. The tree was split in the middle, from top to bottom...

And any could see a small space between the doors. Only enough for a finger to slip through, but the doors were cracked open.

And once she could see that the doors were cracked open, she could see a dark mist coming out of the doors. She didn't know why she didn't notice it before, but the mist was all around her, and where all she had previously seen, besides the door, had been white nothingness, this fog...was a dark something. Something heavy, and she could feel it twist around her head, and then, almost seem to push into her ears. As she began to feel a bit sick from the miasma surrounding her, seeming to almost go up her ears, she looked back into the crack, and then saw a deep, grey eye looking out at her, watching her every movement.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" she screamed, and fell backwards. She began to push herself back, away from the door, away from the miasma, away from whatever was staring at her from within that door. And then, as she slid across the nonexistent floor, she bumped into something, and stopped. She had run into somebody, a person from how her body felt, and then she heard a new...strange voice speak up to her. A girls voice, but with a lot of boy voices behind it too. And it sounded really familiar too.

"What do we have here?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Anya," Anya awoke with a start, before looking up, and seeing Papa staring down at her, concern over his face. Anya stared at Papa, and then coughed. She felt awful. Like she had fell down a hill and had a bad stomach ache at the same time, and her head felt like she had rammed it into a wall. She tried to push herself up, but felt a hand old her down. She moved her eyes upward, and saw Mama staring down at her, concern obvious over he face.

'I never had to deal with a sick child before,' Mama was panicking, her inner eye bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball, 'Yuri never got sick as a kid, and I never got sick as a kid. I don't think I've ever been sick at all. What am I going to do...,' she then looked down at Anya, 'Please be okay, please be ok-'

"I'm okay Mama," Anya said aloud, and then felt her eyes close again. the pain and the sickness making her woozy. Her mother's eyes widened, and then she began to get tears in her eyes. The three just sat there for a few minutes more, as they let the time and train continue to pass.

Every few minutes, Anya slowly but surely became more in control of herself, and the pain and ache began to recede. Soon, after about half an hour, Anya was able to sit up on her own again. As she did so, she looked down, and saw that her hands were really sweaty. Her throat was also really dry, so she turned to Papa, who was looking at her with great concern, his newspaper having been placed beneath his seat, and his heat sitting on the free chair to his side.

"Can I have some water?" she asked, and Twilight's eyes shot open.

"Of course Anya," he tried to smile, but inwardly thought, 'Of course, water. That will probably deal with any dehydration this sickness is bringing. How could I have not thought of that before,' he then got up from his seat, and walked to the small little counter at the end of the car. Less than a minute later, he was back, and handed the cup of water to Yor, "Here we go."

"Thank you," Mama then grabbed the cup, and placed the side near Anya's lips. She began to take down the cool drink from the water, she felt herself almost instantly start to get better. Perhaps it was the water quenching her thirst. Perhaps it was that her body's temperature was going down.

Or perhaps it was her finally realizing that Dark Lady Lust wasn't in the car anymore. Anya had made a quick mental sweep of the car as she took her first sip, and she couldn't feel any multi-mind presence. And if there wasn't a multi-mind presence, then she wasn't likely to die. For some reason, Lust had decided to leave her and her family alone.

'I wonder,' Twilight considered, as Anya continued to drink more and more water, slowly pushing herself to her seat, and resting against the back of the chair she was seated on, 'what could have caused this. This wasn't just motion sickness. Something must have gone terribly wrong for a moment to throw her equilibrium off so much in such an acute manner.'

'I hope I didn't bring a disease that got Anya sick,' Mama began to worry, glad that Anya was getting up, but worried about her place as a mother, 'I never get sick, so what if I am carrying a germ that spreads disease, but my constitution is too strong. I could be killing Anya just by being here. Maybe this is a bad idea, maybe Matthew was right, maybe...'

"Thank you Mama," Anya said again, placing her hand on Yor's leg. Yor almost let out a little gasp, before her eyes shined as she looked down at Anya, "For taking care of me."

Twilight stared at Anya and Yor for a minute, and then Anya could hear his thoughts, 'Perhaps this will go better than expected after all. If Anya is taking to Yor this well, then the chance of her pulling off being a caring mother go up. Any kind of social interaction with the Fuhrer's family will be far easier if we all come together as one unit.'

'Right,' Anya considered everything around her for a moment, 'we aren't interacting with Dark People,' she nodded to herself, causing a bit of water to spill out of the cup, though Mama was quick to clean it up with her handkerchief, 'We're not going to the dark place. We're going to the palace.'

'There's no way we'd run into more Dark People in the palace.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

It was two hours after Anya woke up when they disembarked from the train. It was two hours after that, all the while checking to make sure Anya was okay to move, and to make sure they had all their luggage, that they arrived at their new home. It was a two story tall town home, in a large row of town homes for the upper middle class. The bankers, the business owners, the military officers were the sorts of people who owned these sorts of places. A doctor like Lloyd Forger would just be the sort of man to buy one of these homes.

Afterall, not only were they larger than the usual apartments Central City, but they conveniently located. The hospital where he would be staying was only a fifteen minute walk from the front of the home, and it was only a ten minute walk from there to the Central palace. It would give Twilight further access to the comings and goings of the military in the hospital. And it would make it easy to take Anya to school in the fall once the plan got into motion.

'The perfect home,' Lloyd thought inwardly unloading the boxes and bas from the small van he had hired to take his "family" to this place. He had considered the map of Central that had been hidden inside his newspaper during the time on the train, and had planned out his walking route and schedule perfectly, as well as his other plans for the rest of the week, 'WISE never fails to consider anything in their planning.'

"Do you need any help Lloyd," Yor looked over. She was currently holding Anya's hand, making sure to keep her eyes on the small girl. Lloyd was thankful for how quickly the woman had taken to the girl, as it would make leaving them together a far easier request. Still, she was seeming to want to come towards the trunk and help him unload the boxes, which he had already half removed, "I can help get my things out, no need to carry any of them."

"It's no trouble, dear," he said aloud, as he noticed that several people were walking by. Better to build the impression of a loving couple as quickly as he could, "I have these," he looked down, reached into his pocket, and pulled out one of the pair of keys he had been given for their new home. He tossed it towards Yor, who snatched it out of the air with surprising speed, especially with one hand still firmly holding Anya's, "Why don't you all go inside. There should be furnishings for the three of us. I'll unload, and pay the nice driver for getting us here."

"Ri-right," Yor's seemed to be a bit off, and for a second, Lloyd saw that she had a tint of red on her cheeks, "Come on Anya, let's get in and get comfortable."

"Alright Mama," the little girl offered up groggily, her voice a bit stuffed up with sick and snot, "We can go pick out our rooms."

'Yor must have caught the same thing as Anya,' Lloyd mused as he considered the blush on Yor, 'Children can be vectors of highly contagious diseases, and being so close to her while ill could not have helped avoiding it.'

"Hey, bub, done flirting, and about to actually clear out my van?"

"In a minute," Lloyd grabbed the last of the boxes, and placed it on a the sidewalk in front of the townhome. He then closed the doors of the back of the van, hearing a satisfying shunk. As he did so, he heard the front door of the house unlock, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Yor and Anya push into their new abode.

"IT'S SO BIG!" he heard the little girl cry. Despite himself, he felt the edges of his lips tip up in a smile, shaking his head as he walked back to the front of the vehicle, and looked through the open passenger window, all the while pulling out his wallet. He looked at the older man sitting in the drivers seat, with the large bushy beard and sunglasses on.

"So, how much is this worth," he said aloud, pulling out the wallet.

'Any information on the meeting tonight,' was what his mouth said. The Wise technique of saying something outloud while speaking what you actually meant with your lips was a hard to practice thing, and was obvious to anyone who was actually looking at a face. But if you were both secluded, your voices would be enough to cast away suspicion on yourself. And that was all that would be needed for a private conversation.

"Fifty two, sisteen," the driver answered disinterestedly.

'Nothing concrete, but the Handler says she will be preparing you for the beginning of the main stage of the infiltration. She's looking forward to seeing you again. It'll be in about an hour.'

Twilight nodded at that. Sylvia Sherwood was currently seen only as the secretary for the Deputy Ambassador from Cresta. In reality, she was a legendary spy, who had spent the past five years controlling the operations of all of WISE inside Amestris. Getting to see her again and discuss how their new operations should move forward would be exciting. He'd have to find a way to sneak away from his family, but he could offer to go pick them up something to eat, make a quick meeting, and be back to feed them after they unpacked.

"Here you go," Lloyd said.

'Go ahead and tell her I'm looking forward to seeing her too,' the driver nodded, and took the bills.

"Hey," the driver said aloud, "This is sixty two straight."

'You sure everything is good here. Anything I can alert Handler about before you arrive?' Lloyd shook his head, and smiled at the older man, the fake beard and glasses likely hiding a man from the Crestan embassy.

"I must insist. You did such a good job, what with my sick daughter and everything, I must insist on you taking a ti-"

'Nothing to report, I'll give her my findings so far as soon as I arrive. Though, let her know WISE has outdone itself again. The house is absolutely perfe-'

"I don't believe it," a voice suddenly came out of the blue from behind him. A very familiar voice, "Is that Dr. Lloyd Forger I see?"

Lloyd pulled his head back, and suddenly, standing in a casual outfit, a black coat with grey pants and a deeply purple button down shirt in the middle, was Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, waving his hand, a massive smile on his face. The older man walked up to Twilight, and slapped his hand on the spy's back, causing the spy to nearly fall forward in a mix of shock and force. Lloyd barely managed to regain his footing, before standing back up, and looking Maes directly in the eyes.

"Oh, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," he said aloud, alerting the driver to who he was speaking to, "It's such a surprise to see you."

"Yeah, a surprise to me too," Maes laughed, rubbing the back of his head. The light seemed to reflect of his glasses, as Maes Hughes leaned his hand back, and slammed his palm into Twilight's back once more, again knocking him off balance. Almost as though he was doing it on purpose, "I didn't think I'd see you for a while. I knew you were coming to Central, but I'd have no idea we'd run into each other in only two days. Quite a coincidence, huh?"

"Ye-yeah," Twilight felt himself begin to sweat, desperately trying to figure out how to get away from this intelligence officer that already knew his face, "Why are you here," he stopped, trying to compose the question in a less accusatory way, "I mean, not in Central, I know you probably live in Central, but right," he pointed down to his feet, "Here."

"Well, I live right there," Maes pointed at the town home just one door down from the one they were standing at, towards the back of the van, while he had come from the front of the vaehicle.

...

"...wh-what?"

"Hey," Maes seemed to be rubbing his bearded chin just a bit, before pointing his thumb at the luggage sitting on the steps up to Lloyd's town home, "I'm guessing that's your luggage, and with all that there, I'm supposing that means you live here," he then threw his right hand out, "that means I'm your next door neighbor!"

...

Weakly, Lloyd Forger grabbed and shook Maes Hughes hand. It was a strong shake, and for a moment, he almost felt like he was being shaken by a jackhammer. Finally, after the moment passed, Twilight just stared at the smiling intelligence officer, who then looked over at the many bags on the ground.

"Hey, need some help getting your things in?" Maes offered, and then Lloyd looked over at the bags, "Gracie and Elicia won't be home for an hour, they had a play date at the park today, and I wanted to get home early to surprise them. Might as well use the time I got to help a new neighbor out, ya know. Also get a chance to finally meet your family."

"...Actually my daughter is sick. She had a bad fever on the train ride here, and got violently ill. I think my wife might have caught it too," Twilight never thought that a bad virus would save his ass so completely, but he was going to use it while he had it, "She might be contagious, and I don't think exposing you would be a good idea, especially, if it might spread to your daughter."

"Oh, that's...," Maes blinked, and for a second, Twilight realized he had just been knocked off guard. He hadn't expected the sick child, and was trying to process the change in the momentum of the conversation. That meant...

'He's been trying to get information out of me,' He thought, 'but he doesn't want to risk his daughter getting sick.'

"Why don't we do something tomorrow," Lloyd offered, and Maes blinked, before nodding, "Perhaps my family and I can come to your place and have dinner. That might be a good time for us to get to know each other, especially since Anya and Yor will hopefully be feeling better by then."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," Maes nodded, before turning towards his door, "Good to see you pal. Glad to be your neighbor."

Lloyd forger then waved back, as Maes turned around completely, and then opened the door after fiddling with if for a few seconds. As Maes closed himself in his house, Twilight turned back to the driver, and said, "And now, I insist you take the sixty -two and have a good night."

'Tell Handler I might be a bit later, need to make sure that Maes isn't following me,' he returned to his mouth speaking skill. The shaking driver nodded, clearly not expecting to run into a real intelligence officer out on this drive.

"Thanks man," he said aloud, the voice still gruff, but a hint of fear in it, "I appreciate it."

'Anything I should say besides that?' The driver began to pull the drive into active, and let loose his foot from the brake.

"You have a good night sir," Lloyd laughed aloud, waving as the driver and van began to pull away from his new home.

'Tell her next time to check who the neighbors are for safe homes!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, well," a spindly little thing laughed, looking from the shadows directly at her, cackled, "Look who finally made it back to Central," the voice was cruel, and full of malice and jealous rage, "Finally get done stalking those two little boys for a couple of days?"

Lust was staring directly over central, from a roof top of one of the gates that lead to the Fuherer's residence. It was well guarded below them, but the angle allowed anyone up there to survey the whole of Central, without being able to be seen themselves. It was a common meeting spot for the hom*onculi, almost certainly where one could run into another whenever they returned to their home. Lust had specifically come up here, because she was fairly certain she would run into another of Father's children if she did so, and as the creature emerged from the shadow, long slick back hair, a strange set of tights around both the bottom and top, and a large headband covering most of the forehead, she knew that she had made the right choice.

"Hello Envy, I'm glad you are doing well," Lust felt a vein in her forehead twitch, but ignored it. Envy could be frustrating, but she'd heard his barbs for centuries. This was nothing really, "No, this does have to do with our human sacrifices," she thought back to her time on the train, and on the little stop in a small town in the East, "I got to meet someone very familiar while out following Edward and Alphonse."

"Oh," Envy giggled, contorting his back as he bent over and looked at Lust. He always moved like this, likely as an attempt to relieve some of the stress caused by going around in a body far smaller than his true form. Lust didn't begrudge Envy his usual appearance, though she did sometimes wish he would at least try and be less conspicuous, '"Who might that be?"

"Dr. Tim Marcoh."

"Tim Marcoh," Envy wasn't asking a question, he was laughing. Her fellow homunculus had always had a rancid sense of humor, "The coward. The little stool pigeon," he let loose several more cackles, "What was he doing out there?"

"He is currently a doctor for a town out in the East," she sighed, thinking back to the short man who had actually managed to take one of her lives. She had been careless, and had that little girl not come in when she had, she almost wondered if she would have been able to get the information on where Marcoh had kept his notes, "Trying to soothe his shattered conscience."

"Would be something like that," Envy spit. He was still outwardly laughing, but she could tell that whatever humor had been in him had disappeared, "f*cking coward. Thinks he has the right to a peaceful retirement. Doesn't he know his place?"

"As a Philosopher's stone?" Lust asked, remembering what they had just done to all of Marcoh's old assistants.

"Exactly!" Evny pointed directly at Lust, who just shook her head at the needless pettiness. She didn't like humans, she was their superior after, but there were times where she questioned if perhaps she was closer to them than to something like Envy. Especially when one took to account Envy's true form. She wasn't a monster.

...well, not in the same way.

"Well, the good news, is that I caught him giving information on the creation of the Philospoher's Stone to the Elric Brothers," Envy's eyes widened, and he twisted himself to look at Lust more closely.

"And?" he said, expectantly.

"The good news is he didn't tell them what goes into it, but rather where they can find the information," she leaned back, and then looked a little to the south, "The Amestrian Central Library, first branch."

"So, you're going to have to spend tomorrow looking for all his books and notes?"

"Nah," she puffed, resting herself against the wall of the tower, her back up against the bricks, "I think I'll just burn the whole building to the ground. Not like there is anything too valuable in there."

"Ha, that's great. Are you sure you shouldn't be named Sloth?"

Lust thought of the giant muscle creature tearing apart the tunnels beneath the country. He was constantly complaining about his part to play in the coming Promised Day, and had been an aggravation every time she had actually had to deal with him. She rubbed her temples, and then shot Enby her most withering glare.

"Oh, I'm way too good looking to be Sloth," she gave a little smirk, and heard another snicker from Envy. Lust knew she was beautiful, and was more than happy to be the object of human desire. Honestly, it was better in her mind to be defined by other's sins, not her own.

"Well, can't say I disagree with the plan," Envy joined her, leaning back against the wall, "Sometimes, better to just burn everything to the ground. Wipe it all from the face of the Earth."

And then the other thing clicked in Lust's mind.

"I did meet someone else today," she said aloud, catching Envy's attention once more. The monster to her right opened one eye to her, as she continued to explain, "Subject 007."

"...who?"

"A little girl experiment from Lab 5," Lust explained, inwardly groaning at the lack of awareness her sibling had. They were in charge of the single greatest conspiracy in the history of known thought, and yet besides Wrath and Pride, she was sure all her fellow hom*onculi had the emotional maturity and observation skills of children. And Pride was actually a literal child.

"Wait, you were supposed to wipe out everyone from Lab 5," Envy was looking at her with more interest, "Don't tell me you let some deeply dangerous experiment get out?"

"Hardly," Lust rubbed the back of her neck, "Subject 007 was from a completely line of failures. She was from the attempt to grow sacrifices from the embryo, but she was the only one to survive childbirth," she shook her head, "and after all that, she didn't seem to know any alchemy. With the Promised Day coming so soon, and with other sacrifices available, we had a better set of candidates from living breathing adults."

"Oh, huh," Envy stared out for a moment. Honestly, if they had just started the program later, there would be less points of failure to deal with, but sometimes time surpasses science, "So, you iced the brat, right?"

"No," Lust sighed, already knowing where this conversation was going to go, "She seems to have gotten herself adopted by a wealthy couple," she remembered the image of the doctor and his wife. For some reason, she had been more taken aback by the wife, as though she recognized her from somewhere, "Would have caused a scene, and maybe led to some issues moving forward."

"Are you kidding me!"

Envy was standing up, pointing its finger directly into Lust's face. There were plenty of times like this, where Envy would look at decisions that Lust made as the unofficial leader of the hom*onculi, and then rebel against them. That she had always been proven right was besides the point. Envy was always such a jealous thing.

"Have you gotten soft?"

"No, I just don't waste time on something that isn't worth it," she said aloud, "Like I said, Subject 007 was a failure, no reason to waste any more thought on an ordinary little girl, even if she did escape from our lab."

"Raggh!" Envy yelled, throwing its arms into the air in disgust, "Pathetic, what kind of hom*onculi would allow some failed human experiment to walk free when they know where they are."

"One with impulse control."

"Shove it," Envy then turned, and began to walk away. Lust didn't even need to ask, already sure Envy would declare, "I'm going to kill that brat by the end of tomorrow. Then we'll see who knows how to deal with humans!" the creature then jumped down the wall, and from the sound of lighting, Lust guessed he'd turned into some kind of little climbing creature, all to make the descent easier.

"Sometimes," Lust groaned, rubbing her temples, "I wonder if I'm the only one that ever got a brain with their sin."

Chapter 16: Under The Stars

"How did you not check and see if an intelligence officer was going to be my next door neighbor?"

Twilight was usually much better about this sort of thing. He rarely got angry about an assignment, a task, or a situation he had been placed under. That he was expressing his frustration this openly spoke to the issue of what he was facing. Sylvia Sherwood, sat there and accepted the criticism, if for no other reason than she wasn't actually sure if it was wrong of her to receive it. The instant the driver had informed her exactly what Lloyd had discovered about the house when he'd moved in, she knew she had possibly set Lloyd up for a possible discovery.

'It just had to be Maes Hughes,' she thought to herself. The man was the greatest menace to WISE faced in all of Amestris, a undeniably brilliant mind that had spent the past five years being nothing but a thorn in her side. Or rather, a whole thicket of thorns.

Sylvia had arrived seven years ago, and had been running one of the most successful departments in all of the Crestan military. They had been disrupting supply chains, sabotaging military equipment, and discovering military operations along the Crestan border for half a decade before she had arrived, only only increased there success rate after she had. They had been so successful, that the Long War, the name in Cresta that had been given to the conflict with Amestris that had been happening for going on four decades, actually reached a lull where the active fighting had been reduced to a few scattered skirmishes. Of course, just of much of that could have been that Amestris had been focused Ishval, but the disruptions certainly made life harder for the Amestrian military.

'If only we had started a bit earlier,' she saw a young girl running towards her father, a small little apartment neatly put together, over her minds eye, 'Wellebly had been a good place, once.'

And yet, now WISE was by almost every measure crippled. It had started four years ago, right after the completion of the Ishvalan War. A young major arrived from the East, and was given a position in the Intelligence Department. Well connected with General Basque Grand, the head of the Alchemy Department in Amestris after his victories in the East, that young major had been assigned to bust up what had been a supposed gambling ring. Instead of simply arresting the saloon owner and accepting it on face value, Major Hughes had dug deeper, and discovered that it was instead a cover for information peddling for WISE, a secret location to exchange tips and equipment. Hughes then used the saloon as a sting operation, and captured a half dozen spies.

Not only did this massively disrupt WISE's operations, but the public reveal of Crestan duplicity reignited the conflict in the West, and began another hot period of the conflict, with several thousand Crestan and Amestrian soldiers having died over the past four years in moderately sized campaigns fighting over towns like Soporor. The captured spies had then been locked away in prison, and were never seen again. Sylvia didn't want to imagine what tortures they had been put through.

The bust had been enough to send Hughes Reputation through the roof, and the man had been given a promotion, and had spent the next four years sniffing out everything WISE had been doing in Central. His work had lead to the capture or killing of a dozen other agents, and left Sylvia frazzled from her collapsing ability to maintain operations in Amestris's capital. Even worse than that, she was sure that not only did he know she was in fact in charge of WISE, he knew she knew. And he thought so little of her that he let her stay free, all the while taking out her agents.

"We needed to get you into a position that would makes sense for your cover story," she stated flatly, trying to remember she was in a conversation with the best of her agents, "As a doctor, there is not better place in the city for you to walk to work from. It is also in a good enough neighborhood that no one will suspect you are inherently doing anything shady, like if we used a home further out."

"I don't disagree with that," Twilight, wearing a brown wig and a fake mustache, alongside stilt shoes and a fake jowl and gut, growled, "I just thing that maybe there could have been a warning about that little fact at least," That he had been able to pull off this disguise with little to no time since arriving very publicly with his family. Honestly, no one would have imagined that he was the same man as Lloyd Forger.

Of course, no one could have imagined the old Caroline Stenten was Sylvia Sherwood either. To finally get out of the embassy without giving up any kind of suspicion, they had actually brought an older lady from Cresta who was the same height as Sylvia, and then used enough make up to disguise Sylvia herself. Twilight had said that Hughes had been loudly welcoming his family home when he had left as Lloyd Forger, but they couldn't be too careful.

"I'm sorry," she rubbed the bridge of her nose, making sure to avoid damaging the fake wrinkles up her face, "Though I will say, that he recognized you has more to do with your own sloppiness than mine," she looked at him, and he at least lacked the temerity to continue pushing, and then she added, "Really, you should have realized that admitting you saw Tucker's files would give you away."

"...I was in a bad mental state," Twilight admitted, fidgeting his hand a bit. Sylvia could almost here a little girl's giggle in the back of her mind, and nodded in return. For a moment, they sat there, before she sighed in frustration.

"Agent Twilight," she had to be firm here. He was her favorite student, and that he was in this state meant that things were really starting to get out of hand, "You need to focus. Operation STRIX is the most important mission in all of WISE at the moment," she could tell he was taking in her words as best he could, "IF there is going to be another major offensive towards Cresta, we need to know. We can't take another surprise attack like at Wellebly or Pendelton. Another offensive like one of those might mean the whole of Cresta is wiped from the map."

"I know," Twilight nodded. Of course he knew, everyone from Cresta knew just how much territory they'd lost to both Amestris and Drachma during the Long War, from active conquest by the former and coerced partition from the latter. If Cresta was going to survive, understanding where the next major push would come from would be critical.

"It's only a miracle that they happen to be more suspicious of their own government than of a foreign one," she shook her head. It wasn't that she couldn't see Cresta doing that, it was just that she knew that doing so at this moment would be a massive waste of time and money, when Cresta needed everything ready for the next major conflict.

"That they think I'm a secret agent for Central Command could be useful," Twilight added, "Especially since it will mean they won't try to bring that I am an agent up to command itself. They probably think that I might be spying on them, and that they don't know who else they can trust besides themselves about that."

"We have to hope so," Sylvia said, and she could hear her own exhaustion. She could feel everyone of her thirty-five years on her body, the aches of beginning to reach the end of her youth. And speaking of youth and a familiar sobriquet, "Also, I need to talk to you about that boy. The Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric, why were you with him?"

"Because he was a good introduction to Colonel Mustang," Twilight answered immediately.

"That's not what I was talking about Twilight, and you know it," the Fullmetal Lady stated, her eyes boring into Twilight's face, "Why did you meet with him a second time? I know it wasn't to gather more intel. You continuing to meet with him exposed you not only to the possibility of revealing possibly damaging information to one of our enemies, but also nearly killed you," she almost growled, "You nearly got yourself killed twice trying to help Elric, and if you died, then Operation STRIX would be dead as well."

"...," Twilight just stared at her for a second, and then shook his head, "I suppose, I just saw another young man in him. Another boy who went off to the military because it was the only thing he thought he could do, and I didn't want him to damn himself for making a mistake like that."

"Agent Twilight," Sylvia could barely contain her rage, "Your own past has nothing to do with this mission. Any guilty feelings you may feel for that teenager being a soldier need to be silenced immediately," she sat up to her fullest height, regaining her advantage over the shorter man in front of her, and declared, "The soul of one boy isn't worth the lives of thousands of people that might be saved by the success of Operation STRIX. If anything comes between you and the completion of this mission, you must push past it without any hesitation. And if that means you have to shoot Edward Elric in the head, I want that trigger pulled. Understand me?"

"Yes Mam," Twilight said coldly. And then, for a moment, they just sat there, looking at one another.

For all of his control of his emotions, however, the Fullmetal Lady could tell that she had hurt Twilight. And, for as much as she hated it, she understood. After all, it was hard for her not to see a younger blonde man standing in Lloyd's place, eyes filled with both sorrow and resolve. She almost imagined Edward Elric's eyes looking nearly the same. But...they couldn't let their personal emotions get in their way. Not with innocent lives at stake.

"So," she had to push the conversation forward, to at least keep everything moving along. After all, it would be better to get Twilight back to his home as quickly as possible, if for no other reason than to keep any suspicion of where he had spent his evening to a minimum. He had only said he would be out to get groceries to make dinner, "Is your child prepared for the test to get into the program? The test is in two days."

Twilight was very good at hiding his emotions. That it took him less than a tenth of a second to hide the horror on his face was a testament to his control over his body. It was also no where near enough to disguise that from her. She caught her face in her left palm, and shook her head.

"Anya will be ready," he said, again not betraying the anxious thoughts within his mind. He looked her in the eye, "She has been a bit sick, but I believe she can pass the test, and be accepted into the program," he then, as a final statement, almost as much too himself as to her, "I believe in her."

"I wish you were giving me a bit more concrete hope in it," she continued to rub her temples, "But considering our time table, I will have to trust you," there was only a two month period between now and the beginning of the semester for Selim Bradley's new class, and only one test to take to get in. If this was going to work, they were going to need Lloyd's girl to succeed.

"I thank you for that trust," Twilight pushed himself to his feet, "When should I next be able to speak with you?"

"You probably won't be able to speak with me until the completion of Operation STRIX," Sylvia shook her head, "Maes Hughes is on to me, which means that Amestris is most likely using me as a way to check and see who is a spy. Mrs. Stenten was a good one time disguise, but if she keeps coming in and out of the Embassy and meeting with you, they'll become suspicious."

"That makes sense," Twilight nodded at the plan.

"Instead, you will be remain in contact with Franky Franklin," Sylvia remembered the short, squat Amestrian. That they had managed to get an Ishvalan War veteran as a broker had been an undeniable coup for WISE and Operation STRIX, "His shop will be a bit further out, but it will be the only shop to carry these."

She pulled out a box of cigarettes with FLEMING in big bright red letters, with a smoking gun on it. Twilight took the box, and then opened it, and pulled out one of the cigarettes. He observed it for a moment, and then twirled it in his fingers.

"Make sure to actually smoke a few every so often, so you have an excuse to keep going to the shop," Twilight nodded, and then produced a lighter. He sucked in a drag, and blew some smoke out to his side, away from Sylvia. Honestly, it was a good thing Twilight had puffed out to his side instead of her face, otherwise she might have had to break one of his fingers, "the shop will not only be the best way for you to communicate with me, but it will also be the best place to request for more equipment and information."

"What kind of equipment?"

"Anything you might need," Sylvia began to count hold out her fingers as she ran through the items she thought might be useful, "weapons, explosives, make up, fake fat, tools, books, cars," she then shrugged as she finished, "all that, plus whatever you think will help complete OPERATION STRIX. Our checkbook is open."

"That's a lot," Twilight as blinking in shock, comparing this mission to his previous experiences. Most of the time, agents only had to a few items they could scrounge together.

"Nothing you have ever undertaken has had nearly the importance of this mission," she had to be firm. She must drive it into his head how important this was, and if giving him a blank check was how to do so, so be it. Besides, it wasn't like he would be able to come up with a set of requests that was too outrageous.

"Any chance for back up?" Twilight continued.

"Not for a while," Sylvia shook her head, "The only agent who might be able to be spared is Nightfall, but she is still working in the North. I could probably get someone else, but most of them are currently working in the West, trying to sabotage the Amestrian military as it is actively operating," she nodded to herself, "Besides, more agents might tip off someone like Hughes that something big is going on. I don't want to be more obvious about working here than I absolutely have to be."

"Understood."

"Any other questions?" she asked, trying to make the most of their last few moments together for perhaps a full year. Her best agent then shook his head, and she nodded in response.

"Agent Twilight," she said finally, "I know this is a difficult mission, but please understand, you are the best agent in all of Cresta. We are entrusting this to you because you aren't the best person for this mission, but the only one. Any move you make must be informed by the fact that it will impact hundreds if not thousands of lives. No one, not Edward Elric, not Maes Hughes, not even your new family members can get between you, and discovering what the Amestrian Goverment's plans are for next Spring. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Mam."

"Good," Sylvia smiled, "You are dismissed Agent Twilight. And good luck."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hamburger Steak," Lloyd Forger said aloud, "Where did she learn about these strange foods?"

Twilight was leaving the bodega that he had found on his way back to his family. It was a relatively small place, but it had been open, and he had been able to get all the food he would need to feed his family. The conversation with the Fullmetal Lady had only taken ten minutes, but the cars had added an extra half hour to his time. Still, he had found everything he needed here, and would only take him ten minutes to get home. That, alongside mentioning how far he had had to go for his new cigarettes, would be more than a proper excuse for why he had been gone for an hour.

Twilight looked up into the sky, and saw that now, with the sun having set, that he could begin to make out the outlines of the stars. It was harder than it had even been in East City, what with the many artificial lights surround him. But he could still see some of them. It honestly reminded him a bit of his time on the front, whenever he got a chance to take them in.

Not that those were good memories, but they were his. And, he supposed they were more than anything what drove him as Twilight. To make sure that hopefully, one day, there would never again need to be a sixteen year old boy fighting and killing in some god forsaken trench. That a young man wouldn't grow up without his parents, and would able to know that there was more to life than being a soldier.

'Some job you've been doing,' he'd been a spy for five years now, and yet it felt further away than ever. Honestly, it felt like Operation STRIX was more of a one-in-a-million gamble to try and save Cresta, rather than a well planned out operation for undermining the power of Amestris. Which made sense, even from his time on the front. And even then, he was also being shown that despite everything, some people joined the military because of more than revenge or survival.

He turned onto his block, and saw the lights coming out of his new home. He quickly made for his door, making sure to move as nonchalantly as possible past the lights in Maes Hughes window, and then pulled out his key. He quickly unlocked the door, and announced, "I'm home!"

"Papa!" Anya shouted, jumping up and down, "Do you have dinner ready?"

"Alright, alright," Twilight waved one of his free hands, "Give me a minute, okay, I'll get the food ready in less than half an hour."

'How has she recovered from her sickness so quickly,' he thought, looking over the bouncing little girl that had only recently fainted, 'Perhaps it was just a fever?'

"It is good that you are back Lloyd," Yor was standing there, having changed our of her work clothes into a long red sweater, likely to clean up from her having taken care of Anya. She still had a strange redness to her face, so she might still be a bit sick.

"Sorry to leave you alone with Anya," he said, "I know she can be a bit of a handful."

"Oh, it was no problem," Yor waved her hands quickly, "I was glad to do it. I'm going to have to be the Mom after all."
"Yes," Lloyd nodded, before continuing, "But even as the mother, you shouldn't be left with all the difficult duties," he began to walk towards the kitchen, "Why don't you lie down, you do look a little feint. I'll make dinner, and then, after we are done, we can finish unpacking for a bit."

"Oh, tha-" Yor seemed to stop herself, before looking at the bag in his hands. She seemed to be thinking about something, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anya's eyes widen for some reason. Perhaps the illness was returning? "That sounds nice. I'll go and lay down for a minute. Anya, the radio is plugged in the living room if you want to listen to it."

"Agent Bond!" the little girl shouted, again seeming to overcome her sickness. A second later she had zoomed out of the room, and towards the radio on the mantle.

'Kids will be kids,' he groaned, 'At this point, no need to keep trying to study. With only two days, she either knows it, or she doesn't.'

"I'll call you all when I'm done," he announced, before entering the kitchen. Slowly he removed the food from the bag, and while he was washing his hands, he looked out the window again. Once again, he could see the stars in the night's sky, and wondered to himself about young teens becoming soldiers.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Alex Louis Armstrong leaned against the outside wall of the Rockbell Residence, and contemplated the stars in the sky above him. Honestly, he had spent most of his life in Central, so he had rarely seen the sky be so clear at night. The only other time it had been like this had been in Ishval, and that only brought back other unhappy memories. But, at least tonight, it was a much happier occasion to be beneath a natural night sky. He had met two very bright young men who were clearly in need of some guidance. And who better to provide such guidance that someone who had had such topics passed down through his line through generations.

"Ed," he heard Alphonse, still confined to his box, ask aloud from the small room they were staying in until the Rockbells' repairs could be completed, "Do you think Dr. Forger was right?"

"What about?" Edward barked dismissively. Though he had tried to hide it beneath some kind of teenage snark, Major Armstrong could tell that the reveal of Forger's true position as a spy for Central Command had hurt his feelings. It hurt to give someone your trust and then have it thrown in your face that you shouldn't have done so.

"About you leaving the military," Alphonse said plainly, not even bothering to acknowledge the attempt at deflection, "That you don't have what it takes to be a soldier."

"What the hell does he know," Edward responded, a bit too quickly, "I've been a member of the military for two full years now. I've been through way more than that arrogant wannabee doctor knows," he then added, "Plus, like I said, the only way we're going to get our bodies back is if I'm still in the military. Whatever he may think, we have more important things than to do than to knock us off our path."

"But I don't think he's necessarily wrong," the younger brother responded, a bit of a crack happening in his voice, "You've been part of the military for two years, but you've never killed anybody. Don't you think that's a bit strange for a soldier."

"Yeah, if I was a soldier, it would be. But, I'm not. I'm an Alchemic Researcher."

"As a State Alchemist, you're both," the counter had come swiftly. Alex then heard a cough, and guessed that Edward didn't have any real response. And that was because there wasn't really one. In fact, it sounded a bit like what he had said when he had requested his father allow him to go to the academy to train up his alchemy. What he had thought would be a place to build up his own unique legacy as an Armstrong, had ultimately only been a one way ticket to hell.

"WHY!?! WHY MUST WE FIGHT LIKE THIS!?! WHY MUST WE KEEP FIGHTING THIS WAR!?!?"

A young man, crushed by the life of a soldier. The life of a weapon.

"Well, I really don't care if everyone else thinks I'm a soldier," finally came from Edward, who had been thinking about his answer to Alphonse's question, "I consider myself an alchemist. So I'm going to get our bodies back, and then I'll leave the military. Bam, problem solved before it's even a problem at all."

"But-"

"Al," Edward said, this time more softly, "I know you're scare for me. But I promise you, I'm going to get your body back, and I'm not going to kill anybody to do it," he seemed to be making that as a promise as much as a declaration, "I got you into this mess, and I'm going to get you out of it. And I'm going to do it while making sure we don't hurt anybody to get it done," he stopped, and a silence hung over the house again. For a long moment, nothing all anyone could hear was the wind.

"Okay, Big Brother. I trust you."

"Ha, knew you would," Edward Elric's laugh was genuine, though tinged with sadness. At that, the room became quiet once again.

"Good night Ed."

"Good night Al."

'Goodnight Elric brothers,' Alex had begun to cry as he stood there, with his back to the wall of the house. He had known for a few days about the boys sacrifice to try to bring their mother back to life, and had considered them to be such tragic young children. Clearly, he had been wrong.

These boys continued to show such strength for men so young. They knew what they were searching for was almost certainly impossible, but they would seek to do so anyway. And the would attempt to do so while maintaining their morality, something that Alex always wondered why he was incapable of five years earlier.

'I swear to you, Edward and Alphonse Elric,' he made a silent oath, a technique passed down the Armstrong Line for generations, 'That I will do everything in my power to allow you to maintain your goal. If there is any assistance I can provide, I will not hesitate to support you.'

'I promise that to you, on my life.'

Chapter 18: Pass or Fail

"That was delicious," Maes Hughes laughed as he patted his belly.

"Delicious!" Elicia shouted, parroting her father exactly. Just as he was about to turn and declare how adorable she was, LLoyd coughed, and then grabbed reached out held his handout in front of Maes. Maes blinked for a second, before picking up the plate, and handing it to Lloyd, who grabbed the plate and added it to the dirty stack. He then turned on a dime, and walked into the kitchen, and felt his shoulders jump when he heard Maes jump into another one of his gooey tangents about his daughter.

'Does he use this as technique during interrogation?' He felt more pity for his captured fellow agents, who the man currently at his dinner table had almost single handedly brought into custody, 'because I wouldn't blame them at all for spilling everything they knew about WISE if this is what he did to them,' he then shook his head, 'don't think that Twilight,' he placed the dishes inside the sink, already filling up with warm water, 'his daughter is only two something, most of the agents he caught were before she was born.'

"Lloyd," He nearly jumped out of his skin, and turned to see Yor only a few feet away from him.

'How does she keep doing that?' Twilight considered his "wife's" tendency to slide under his notice, before shaking his head, and asking, "Yes?"

"You helped Gracia cook," she said bluntly, grabbing up a sponge from the hot water, and placing a hand on his side and pushing him away from the sink, "I will clean the dishes."

"I can stay and help you," it would be good to appear to share the domestic work for the Hughes benefit, make the relationship appear more real, "I didn't do that much cooking, I can-"

"Lloyd, please let me do this," She seemed to puff up slightly, her voice a bit pleading. She looked back behind her shoulder, "I wasn't...I wasn't very helpful with cooking earlier, but I know how to clean well."

'Oh,' Twilight looked back over his shoulder himself, and could see Gracia smiling as she talked with her husband, 'She's comparing herself to Gracia. It doesn't help that Yor's actually a year older, probably makes her feel like she's behind her junior,' he looked into his "wife's" eyes, and then nodded to her, 'Best to give her some support moving forward.'

"Okay, I'll go join our guests for a bit," he turned around, and walked out of the kitchen, as he heard his "wife" begin to work. As he exited, he threw back one last bit to Yor, "You're doing great," and then walked over to the table, and sat down.

He could see that both Anya and Elicia had left the table and were likely playing together somewhere else. That just left him with Maes and Gracia. The Lieutenant Colonel was currently being lightly scolded by his wife for his outbursts, but he seemed to have calmed down fully from earlier. And yet Lloyd could tell that Maes's eyes were following Lloyd, and were observing everything he was doing. It didn't seem like he was bracing himself for some kind of fight, but Lloyd was smart enough to know that sometimes you weren't ever going to be given even a fraction of a second of a warning. He pulled out his seat, and smiled

"So," Lloyd asked, trying to keep the focus on the two, not yet sitting down, "Is there anything else I can get you all, drinks, dessert?" he offered, trying to keep them focused on themselves.

"No, no," Gracia waved her hand, "I've been trying to watch myself lately," she turned her head towards the Lieutenant Colonel, "What about you Maes?"
"I'm good too," Maes rubbed his eyes, "Honestly, I'm kind of tired right now, long day at work," he gave a far too exaggerated yawn, "Any drinks beyond what I've had already might give me a hangover in the morning. Have a lot to do at work."

'He wants to head out soon,' Twilight's eyes then swung for but a second over to Gracia, who gave a small smile, 'Her smile means either she knows he wants to leave soon...or she's happy he's not getting drunk. Either or really.'

"Yes, I actually we will have to leave soon," Gracia said, confirming it was the first of those, "Elicia's almost past her bedtime, and she can be really cranky if she doesn't get enough sleep," she knowingly raised her arms, and Lloyd nodded quickly.

"Yes, it will probably also be good for Anya to get to sleep soon too," Twilight added quickly, glad for any reason to get the intelligence officer out of his house, "She has her exam tomorrow."

"Oh," Maes's eyes widened, clearly knowing what was going on, "So you're trying to get your daughter into the new High Amestrian Academy next year, huh?"

"Yes," Lloyd nodded, "My wife, my first wife," he corrected, "She was hoping Anya would have a better education than she did out in the countryside. When she was going through her sickness, she saw that this program was occurring, and decided that it was the best way for her daughter to rise up in society. I promised her I would help Anya reach her potential."

"Well, then it is probably time for us to head out," Maes remarked aloud, and Lloyd nodded at that. He then called out, "Elicia, we're about to go now, come on, let's get ready!"

"Actually, I wanted to run something by you two for a second," Gracia spoke up, and both Lloyd and Maes blinked at the smaller woman's interjection. She looked between the two of them, and then said, "Do either of you have any idea of who was behind the attempt to steal my daughter?" She specifically looked at Lloyd, "Maes explained that you work for the military too, so maybe you have some clue of who might be willing to attempt to kidnap a little girl?" She then looked back over at her husband, "Maybe it was Cresta, their spy organization?"

'Was afraid of this,' he looked directly into Gracia's eyes, 'Of course I know WISE wouldn't kidnap an innocent child, but I can't just go defending a foreign spy organiza-

"Honestly doesn't sound like their M.O.," Maes said aloud, rubbing his chin. Twilight was only able to put down his shock at being somewhat defended by his enemy because he had already been in the process of steeling his facial features. He just looked over at Maes, who was continuing, "This was too out in the open for that organization, they would have stolen Elicia from her bed at night or something," or, well, at least have thier competence defended, "This sounds like Drachma more likely, I hear there is a lot of consternation going on their right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if they thought they could come smash and grab an important officer's daughter and shove it in Amestris's face. As a peer power, they might feel they have the ability to get away with it more, where with Cresta, well..."

'A dying nation has to be worried about possibly inflaming Amestrian rage,' Twilight finished for Hughes in his head, 'I think he doesn't understand WISE's moral code,' Twilight for one would never accept a mission to kidnap children, 'but I can't say he doesn't understand Cresta's geopolitical situation.'

"I suppose that makes sense," Gracia nodded, "Though I don't know how a Drachman agent could get into Amestris."
"I'm just more surprised he got away so quickly," Yor said aloud, having finished the dishes, and walking in quickly, still wiping her hands with a dish towel, "I should have knocked him out with that kick, especially when he landed on the pavement, but it only took him a second to get away," after finishing drying her hands, she put the rag beneath over he shoulder, "Honestly, it was like he disappeared."

"At least everyone is safe and sound," Maes laughed, before standing up, "Now, it's," he looked over at the clock on the wall, "Seven Twenty-Seven, and Elicia's bed time is Eight," he then shouted, "Elicia, time to go home!"

"But, I don't want to go home!" they heard from the other room, and were soon greeted by the puffed out face of two and three quarters year old girl, stamping her feet as she marched into the hallway. Gracia frowned, but Maes smiled.

"But if we don't go now, we won't have enough time for bubble bath!"

"BUBBLE BATH?"

"BUBBLE BATH!"

'Urge to kill myself rising once again,' Twilight blinked as he stared at the officer pick up his daughter, who was now acting as excited as she possibly could about her next activity. The little girl clang to her father's arm, and then turned back to Anya, and began to wave.

"I got to go Anya, see you later," and then Anya waved back too.

"Bye Elicia," she said aloud.

Quickly, the Hughes family was moving out the door, the night's sky a collage of orange, purple and yellow. The sun would be down fully pretty soon. Twilight's three neighbors were smiling as they left. At the same time, Lloyd had managed to get his family together to wish them goodbye, standing right next to Yor and right above Anya, though making sure to not touch Yor since she might not want to be touched by her "Husband". Better not cause any disturbance be being too close.

"Great to meet you!" Elicia shouted as they walked down the stairs, and over towards their place. Twilight shut the door and let out a sigh of relief.

'Thank God that's over,' the thought, before turning back to the rest of the house, 'After everything else today, I feel like I have to sleep for a week to get my bearings again,' but he inwardly shook his head, 'Need to get ready for tomorrow.'

Twilight walked over towards the living room, and walked over towards the side table. He pulled out the chair that was sitting right beneath the table, and sat himself down. He grabbed the study book, flipped it open towards the answer sheet. He sat there for a moment, grading through the answers as best he could.

'Sixteen,' she'd have to get an average of twenty-five across five different subjects, 'she's improved,' Anya had regularly passed both Math and Science with nearly thirties, but still, even with her improvements on history and language, 'probably not enough, especially since that last test subject is hidden.'

It had been strange to Lloyd, that one topic was hidden. What reason could there be for a hidden topic? Still, it shouldn't have been too much of a problem, provided that a student even just averaged a thirty on the other four, they could probably just guess on that last topic and still pass with the required average.

'Still,' Lloyd looked over at Anya, who was walking towards her room, the day having exhausted her as well, 'We're probably going to need a miracle.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So what did you think?"

Gracia turned to her husband, dragging her attention away from the book in her hands. Maes was sitting against the back of their bed, arms folded behind his head. He was looking off into the air, mind clearly elsewhere. She flipped down the side of the page, and closed her book, before giving it a thought.

"I think, you may have a point," she said, "There is something going on with the Forgers. I'm not sure what, but you can tell something is off, and not just because they only got married this week."

Maes usually didn't talk to her about work. He liked to keep it separate from his home life, and from what she'd heard about Ishval, she understood why he thought this way. It meant at times, that Gracia often felt like she had no idea what he was doing half the time, and were it not for his tendency to be so open when he got home, she might have been suspicious.

Yet yesterday, he had told her that a secret government agent had moved next door, and was quite possibly investigating him. Why the Military would investigate one of it's best intelligence officers was beyond her, but she was ready to help as soon as she asked for it. When she heard that originally this Lloyd had been investigating Maes's old friend Mustang, she recognized why it was worrying that he'd moved right next to their house. Especially when he told her about how this agent hadn't been entirely truthful about why he'd been in East City to investigate Mustang in the first place. So, Maes and Gracia had hatched a plan to go over and invite their new neighbors for dinner this weekend, and separate them out and find whatever information they could.

Of course, then she'd met Yor this afternoon, and there had been the kidnapping incident, and somehow they'd ended up spending the afternoon and evening at their targets house.

"I really wonder why he'd choose Yor as a wife," Maes rubbed his chin, "I mean, she was part of Mustang's command, he knew her pretty well, and so I knew her pretty well too. If he's trying to investigate me, why would he marry someone who I already know."
"Maybe he really is focused on getting his daughter into the schooling program," she offered, shrugging. She'd heard about it for a long time, as many parents with children a few years older than Elicia were trying to get their children to become Selim Bradley's classmates. It was a pretty obvious way to secure their place in the politics of Amestris, with an almost direct line to the Fuhrer himself.

"That makes sense," Maes ran his hand through his hair while letting out a sigh, "Though...wait, that's it-"

"What?"

"We know this guy is meant to observe "problems" for Central Command, right?" Maes had made sure to put quotes around the word problems, and with Roy Mustang having been the previous one, Gracia understood what he meant, "So, what if Command wants to have someone who might be able to keep an eye on the parents of the children in this schooling program. You never know if their might be some dangerous element that might try to use the access having a child in the same class as Selim Bradley as a way to gather secret information about the military or the Fuhrer himself."

"That makes sense," she then stopped, and thought about it for a second, "But, he was specifically observing Roy, right? Who could he be investigating in the program?"

"That's what confuses me too," Maes groaned bending over slightly to the side, "The test is tomorrow, they don't know who will be in the class yet," he shook his head. He then groaned, removed his glasses, and placed them on the side table, "I just don't have enough information to go off of. I'd need to see a list of the actual participants to know who Lloyd is investigating."

"I know you'll figure it out," Gracia leaned over, and delivered a quick peck on her husband's cheek, whose face broke into a small smile. Gracia then turned back, grabbed the lamp's chord, and smiled to herself, "Good night Maes."

"Good night Gracia."

________________________________________________________________________________________

'For great peace.'

Anya continued to have to tell herself that as she sat in the wooden desk, surrounded by a whole bunch of other kids. And they were all beaten.

'Four down,' she began to shake, an actions that had already over come many of the children around her, 'just one more, just one more.'

First had been the writing exam, then the math exam, then the history, and then the science. There had been no breaks, no stopping except for a few minutes to pick up the finished sections, and then hand out the new ones. They hadn't even been allowed to go to the bathroom. She was pretty sure that one other little girl had left screaming after wetting herself. Another little boy and just begun to cry.

'I thought,' Anya felt her eyes go blank as her science test was picked up by a passing adult, 'I thought It'd be easier to get answers with so many people around me. But-'

It had been too much. Too many other test takers. Too many other little kids trying and, in many cases, failing to get the right answers for their test. It had been a shock when she realized that she was much better at the math section then the some of the other kids she'd been getting answers for, and it had taken her only a moment to realize that she probably had been getting wrong answers for almost the entirety of the first written exam. And if Papa was right, that meant she was really behind where she needed to be if she was going to pass this exam, and help Papa's mission.

'Papa needs me,' she felt herself shake even more, and tears coming to her eyes, 'If I fail this, then everything has been useless,' she actually felt some of the tears begin to pour down her cheeks, 'Then, I'm useless.'

She thought of her time in the dark place. About the disappointment all the scientists had when she didn't do anything special, and how they had, in their own minds, called her a failure. That's all she was, a failure. The dark people, when they had come by, had been worse. They had just outright called her worthless. Worthless. And now, even when her Papa had helped her, she was still a failure, still worthless. She couldn't do anything right, and she never would.

'Will Mama and Papa leave me then?' she could see both her Mama and Papa, walking away from her. Leaving her alone again...

'No,' she gripped her hand around her pencil, 'I'll just have to get a good score on the final subject. If I do, then I'll have enough to get in.'

She wiped away her tears, as one final packet of papers was placed in front of her. Unlike the others, this one's front page was blank, no mention of the subject inside. She remembered that this test was supposed to be a secret, so she guessed it made sense not to have what the test was about on the front. Still, she felt the need to reach out, and grab the front of the packet, and flip it open to start her test, but she stopped, and waited for the proctor at the front to announce the start. A tall man with a large white beard and moustache watched out over the Anya and everyone else, and then, after a moment, pulled out a watch.

"You may begin the final portion of the exam," he pressed down on the button on top of his watch, "Begin!"

Anya grabbed the front of the packet, and flipped it open. This was her last shot, and she knew it. If she was going to help her Papa bring peace to the world, she was going to have to pass this test with everything she had. She glared down at her final chance at completing her mission, full of determination.

ALCHEMY

Anya blinked. She then rubbed her eyes, trying to rub away the clearly wrong title for this section of the test.

ALCHEMY

It was still there. She reached over and pinched herself. She was clearly having a bad dream, but the good news was, that she would have a chance to take the whole test over again once she-

ALCHEMY

...

'I don't know anything about Alchemy!' she internally screamed. How could she. Alchemy is cool Science-Magic. She was a little girl. How was she supposed to know anything about this strange thing she'd only ever heard about on the radio or in the heads of scientists at the Dark Place. But she'd never even worked with it, how was she supposed to know what to do.

Defeated, she looked down at the first question, and the four bullet points beneath it. At least she knew that her task had been impossible. There was no way she was ever going to pass.

1) Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of:

'Equivalent Exchange,' Anya answered in her own head, robotically filling in B out of the four possible choices.

...

'What?' she thought, realizing she had actually known an answer. She then shook her head, 'that's really easy. Maybe I can get enough points here to score high enough to get in,' she then looked down to the second question.

2) The use of energy to break down the physical structure of the identified material into a more malleable state so as to be easily reshaped into a new form is known as:

'Deconstruction,' Again Anya knew the answer and again she filled in the bubble with that. Anya stared at her first two questions, and then she slowly moved her eyes further and further down the page.

'Gold,' for the third question.

'Flesh, Mind, Soul,' for the fourth.

And with every passing second, Anya was filled further and further with two undeniably opposite feelings, that were swirling around her. And with each correct answer she continued to get on this final section, she would attempt to read the minds of those around her. And every single time, she realized that no only was she getting these right, but almost no one else was even close to her. And that only further fueled those warring feelings inside of her.

When around twenty minutes into the final period, she had already finished the last question. She stared at the last few answers, and realized that while she knew what the answers were for the questions, she had no idea what a lot of the words or the answers actually meant, but she knew what the answers were. She had no clue what an "Electron Cloud" or a "Diana's Tree" even were. "Yesod" couldn't even be a real word, as far as she knew.

'I know this,' she though considering the questions as she looked them over again, 'But I don't know how I knew this.'

And for some reason she was really scared.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So you burned down the Library's First Branch?" Fuhrer King Bradley looked over at Lust, who gave off a satisfied smile at the question.

"It did seem to be the best option, instead of having to go through every book in the damn place to find Marcoh's notes," she leaned against the wall, relaxing her body as she mused about her last mission, "We can't afford for the Elric brothers to discover what goes into the creation of the Philospher's Stone. They will be arriving here on Saturday, from what we can guess, so I had to move quickly."

"True enough," he was glad there was this private tower on his residence that he could retreat to for a little seclusion. He was not at all fond of the constraints that his role placed on his freedom of movement, with the Fuhrer always needing to be constantly guarded. It kept him from action, and deprived him of the ability to express his Wrath. But, they all had their place, and this was his, "I would have liked you to have at least given me some sort of warning about your plans, there were important documents in that building."

"Like what?"

Wrath couldn't help but sigh as he prepared himself to explain some very basic facts to his older sister. Lust, for all her cunning and careful planning, did at times have a blind spot for bureaucratic rules and regulations that human beings used to run a national state. She could handle human interaction, but the ins and outs of paperwork always seemed beyond her.

"Like Court Martial Records," Wrath groaned, "Prison sentences, intelligence briefings, certain penal codes were all there," he closed his one normal eye, "I'm not going to hear the end of it about the delays the loss of those documents will cause my intelligence division. I have to deal with those complaints and excuses, and they tend to cause my blood pressure to go up."

"Just remember they'll all be dead within a year," Lust shrugged. Wrath knew that was the plan, but considering they had only one sacrifice ready for use, there were times he wondered if the plan was going to go off as anticipated.

"Then there were many other alchemists' notes," he thought of a titan of a man with a very pointy moustache, "I'm pretty sure with the loss of those notes, we lost everything we knew about Iron-Blood Alchemy. It might still have proved useful."

"A bit concerning," Lust was always more interested in Alchemy, so it made sense she would feel a bit more remorse here than before. Perhaps it was that she had been fully birthed from the process, rather than the paperwork he was going to have to deal with on a daily basis.

"Lastly," Wrath finally was going to be able to bring up why he was so aggravated, and why he had asked to meet up here, "The test papers for this morning's exams were in there."

"Exam?"

"Wrath thought it might be fun to see about sticking me in a room full of brats."

Lust turned on her heal, and saw a red eye sticking out of one of the shadows. If had had any sort of human reflex to danger, she might have jumped at the sudden appearance of their oldest sibling. But she had long ago transcended the need of that particular characteristic of human frailty, so she just glared into the shadow.

"How are you doing Pride?" she asked. For all that Lust and Pride tended to be the closest of the hom*onculi to father, the two had never liked each other. There had always been a strange friction between the two, one that Wrath had noticed over the past four decades that he had been given his name and purpose. It wasn't out and out rivalry, but there was a distinct desire in each of them to out do the other, to prove that they were the most capable of Father's children. Honestly, the squabble irritated Wrath, but he'd let it lie. No reason to get between two Monster's like them.

"I honestly was feeling a lot worse until I heard that you burned down those stupid exams," that Pride was being complimentary of Lust almost certainly meant that he actually was pleased. As long as he wasn't taking on his role, Pride was almost always honest, "I'm glad that Wrath's little scheme to humiliate me was burned to ashes. Without those scores, there is no reason for me to go to that school."

"I'd like you to know that it was your mother's idea to have you spend more time with your peers," Wrath offered indignantly. And that was the undeniable truth of the matter, "But who said you weren't going to be going to be going to that school?"

"What?" Pride's eye moved off Lust, and stared directly at Wrath, "You said the tests were burnt up."

"The final scores were tallied," Wrath remembered speaking with one of the examiners, a tall bearded man named Henderson, "We managed to know that twenty-two out of the two hundred applicants passed the exam. You'll be starting in a few weeks."

"I refuse," Pride growled, "I have better things to do then spend my days hanging out with some spoiled brats."

"Not really," Wrath kept complete control of himself, as he saw Pride's shadow slowly begin to spread around him, sharp angles pointed at his body, which the First hom*onculi could easily use to shred Wrath apart, "Especially since this will be important to prepare for the Promised Day."

"How would spending time with a bunch of six year-olds help with that?"

"One of the students that passed," Wrath said aloud, "Managed to get a perfect score on the alchemy section of the exam."

"There was an alch-perfect score?" Lust's eyes widened, "If it's true that this was done by a bunch of children, the only way someone could get a perfect score on an exam like that-"

"Would be if they had opened the gate," Wrath finished for her.

That meant, by complete accident, they'd come across a second ready sacrifice for the Promised Day on accident. They already knew about Edward Elric. That meant, alongside Alphonse Elric and Roy Mustang, that meant they only had to look for one more to complete the ritual when the eclipse occurred in less than a year. With all the concerns about having enough worthy sacrifices to pull off the country-wide transmutation circle, to have another one just fall into their laps was a coup.

"So let's just keep an eye on that one," Pride finally interjected, recovering from the revelation before his younger sibling, "It's not like I have to spend time with nearly two dozen different brats. We just grab this one, and lock them up for a year. Simple as that."

"It would be," Wrath nodded his head, "If we knew which "Brat" was the one that got that high of a score," at the look of confusion on Lust's face, he continued, "To keep anyone from paying off the proctors to get a better grade for their child, each child was given an anonymous id, and graded by multiple different individuals. The final tally was only a pass or fail. At the end of it, all the proctors knew was that twenty-two of them had passed, and that one of those children got a perfect score on the Alchemy exam."

"This wouldn't be a problem though," Wrath continued, "Since we would easily just check the tests themselves, and find our future sacrifice," he then turned his attention to Lust, "Had those tests not just been burnt out of existence."

...

"Oops," was all Lust could offer, as the shadows of Pride seemed to abandon Wrath, and began pointing at her, "I had no idea."

"It was a one in a million mistake," Wrath admitted, nodding his head at her, "And it is also deeply important for us to keep the Elric brothers from discovering too much about our plans, so I think you made the best decision you could have knowing what you knew," he shook his head, "Luckily, we already have a plan in place to find this sacrifice, since they will be joining Selim Bradley in school," he waved his hand towards Pride's eye, "You can observe these children, and find which of them is our next sacrifice."
"Wha-no," Pride was sputtering, sputtering. It took all of Wrath's fortitude to keep from bursting out laughing, "Father would never-"

"I already ran the plan by Father, and he thought it was a good way to respond to such a sudden shift in the winds," Wrath answered, before adding, "You can ask him yourself, if you want?"

Pride stayed silent for a moment. And then a second one. Finally, the shadows began to receded from around Wrath and Lust, and the glare of the eye had taken on a certain resignation. The wound to Pride was great, but he would always listen to his Father, "I will complete this mission," Pride agreed, before retreating down into the shadows, "Though I don't appreciate your candor, Wrath. If I should ever be given the chance, don't think I won't take an opportunity to show you how damaging pride can be."

"I would expect nothing less," Wrath admitted, as Pride finally disappeared. He turned to leave, before he heard a cough, and turned to look back at his sister.

"Do you need my help for this?" she asked.

"No," Wrath shook his head, "You have enough on your plate with the Elric Brothers and Mustang. You even have to head back to East City to deal with that Ishvalan thorn in our side," he waved back as he turned to head back down into the palace, "Besides, I think it will do Pride some good to interact with people on his level of maturity."

...

"You little sh*t," he heard Lust laugh, as he descended back into his role.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"It's here," Twilight felt his future in his hands. In his hands, he held the paper that would determine if Operation Strix would continue, or that he had failed his country and hope for Peace in the world. Anya and Yor were staring at him as he walked into the den, the closed envelope just waiting to be opened. That they had managed to grade the test so quickly was honestly impressive, though part of him worried it meant a lower class girl like Anya could never make it in.

"Well," Yor looked at Lloyd, her eyes filled with a bit of worry. She had uprooted her life for this, if this was a failure, she'd probably have to uproot this new one too.

"Open it," Anya was fidgeting. For all that she might have failed, it was undeniable that she had put in an extreme effort for a six year old. She probably remembered how important this was to get her adopted, so she was probably worried too.

Lloyd looked down at the envelope, nodded, and then ripped the opening clean. He then pulled out the paper, and read aloud.

"Dear Dr. and Mrs. Forger, Thank you for your interest in our Central Advanced Education Program. This is one of the most difficult education attainment offerings in the world, and to even attempt this exam is an impressive accomplishment," Twilight really hoped this wasn't an attempt to let their failure down gently, "It is thus our pleasure to invite your daughter Anya into our Prog-"

"MS. ANYA DID IT!" Yor shouted, suddenly picking up Anya, and twisting her around, while Anya began to giggle aloud, ecstatic at her victory. Lloyd looked over at the two triumphant girls, and felt his heart leap.

And then he felt his limbs give way. As he began to fall down, he could catch a glimpse of his family suddenly realize what was happening, and rush over to him. With one arm still around Anya, Yor managed to place a hand behind his back, and slow his fall, to where he never his the floor. He looked up, and suddenly saw Yor's panicking face.

'All this stress,' Twilight though, 'As soon as I relaxed, the fatigue I've been feeling so long overcame me,' Twilight continued to look up at Yor, as he began to feel consciousness drift away from him, 'Something must be wrong with me.'

"You're beautiful, you know that?" Lloyd Forger said as he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 19: On the Road Again

"You're beautiful, you know that?"

Yor felt her cheeks warm again as she thought of the words her "husband" had said before collapsing. She had managed to place him on the couch for a while, and he had woken up an hour or so later, but it was clear that he was till exhausted. She hadn't realized how hard being a doctor had to be, but she felt sorry for the poor man. Of course, she had also been horrifically embarrassed.

'Why did he say that,' she rubbed her cheek in embarrassment at the whole thing. Maybe he had just been delirious with victory, but it had still been really embarrassing. In fact, when he had woken up, they had insisted that the man take a break, and try and get some real sleep. That had unfortunately taken up most of the rest of the day, as despite his protests, he had actually fallen asleep, and had slept until the evening. He had woken up almost so late that it was dinner time.

"Let me take you both out to dinner,"he's said as an apology. The three had then gone out to dinner, a fine little restaurant that specialized in Aerugean food, full of pastas and imported sea food. They had then gone home, and but not before stopping to buy Anya ice cream as an initial reward. Still, he had promised for an even bigger reward for Anya later, probably the next weekend since it would take time to plan and would allow Yor time for her trip.

That trip was why, on this Saturday morning, she had taken the first train to East City, leaving her new home for her old one before the sun had even risen in the sky. It had allowed her to pack enough of her things for her "job" and get on the train with relatively little issue. She had boarded it around three hours ago, and she only had around three hours left until she would finally return to the station that she had left only a few days earlier.

Her hand wiped across the outside of the suitcase in her arms. She had managed to fill the suitcase with her Thorn Princess outfit, as well as her standard needles. There had been a bit of concern about the possibility of a baggage check, so she only brought the needles, which could easily be said to be a hair decoration. She had four with her, two she would use initially, and two as back up if anything went wrong. And as the Shopkeeper had said not a week ago, during their conversation, even he was worried about a confrontation with the man known as Scar.

"I am afraid it is worse than you think," the shopkeeper had commented, the light from his chateau illuminating his form as he rubbed his chin, "Not only does this Scar have the power of destruction in his right arm, but he also seems to have once been one of the Warrior Priests of Ishvala."

"I thought they had been wiped out during Order 3066," Matthew McMahon had commented. The Shopkeeper remained deep in thought, looking down at a sketch that the other man had made in a few minutes of the description of the serial killer. Yor had given a very detailed description, and her closeness to the fight had been enough to get both Shopkeeper and McMahon interested.

"I suppose I should be grateful that one of them survived," the Ishvalan groaned, "And yet..."

"He is destabilizing Amestris," Matthew nodded, "The murder of several high ranking officers in the military not only causes a lack of faith in the institutions of the country, but it also reinflames the mindset of separatists and other malcontents that might lead to more civil wars, and more Amestrians dying."

Yor had never really understood the politics of these discussions, but she was able to add, "Not to mention, he is killing people out in the open, and also doing so to relatively innocent people," she looked down, away from her commanders, "Like Lieutenant Strauss," The kind older woman's face appeared in her eyes once again, and she felt her fists tighten again.

"Quite right," Shopkeeper nodded, and then stared at Yor, "I have some contacts throughout East City who should be able to locate some of the paths Scar is taking to keep from being discovered by the military. We should be able to locate him by Saturday, so Thorn Princess, please be ready to arrive as early as you can on that day, so we can begin the operation to deal with him."

"Yes sir," she then turned on her heels, preparing to head out for her last night in East City, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw a great deal of sadness in the Shopkeeper's eyes. He shook his head for a moment, before sighing.

"Yor, this man is dangerous," the red in his eyes was no longer crimson, now it was more tart, "He has been fighting and killing some of the best warriors in Amestris for nearly a decade and a half if he was actively involved in the conflict in Ishval. You will be fighting the closest thing to another member of the garden that you might face, you must go in with a clear mind," he shook his head, before adding, "I do not want you to die. If it comes down to it, run. We can regroup for a future assassination."

Yor felt herself audibly gulp. She'd engaged in several dangerous missions, but she'd never received a warning like this before. Every other time, even when she had been far younger, the Shopkeeper had emphasized precision and stealth, get in and get out. Scar must be dangerous...and she knew that, she'd nearly already died to him in a short fight, had Lloyd Forger not twisted her away from Scar's blow.
"I will."

Yor really hoped that those weren't her last words with the man who was like a father to her. And, as she looked into the window, and saw that there were still a tinge of red on her cheeks, she also thought about the man who was her "Husband". She thought about the compliment she had received, and about saw her cheeks continue to redden as she did so. And this caused her to frown.

'You can't let these new feelings get in the way of your job Yor,' she thought to herself, brushing her hair to the side of her head. She thought about Lloyd, and Ms. Anya, and then shook her head, 'I'll have to push them out of my mind if this mission is to go the way it needs to. I can't allow myself to be distracted.'

She had learned from the report she had received by the phone that her target would probably be passing by the sewers later in the day, having used the cavernous old subterranean canals to escape not only from the initial gathering of Colonel Mustang's forces, but also to keep hidden from the constant patrols of military police. Scar was brazen, but he didn't seem to want to kill anyone that wasn't a State Alchemist, and the only man in East City that now fit that description was the Colonel himself. That the Colonel was now permanently staying on site at Eastern Headquarters meant he wasn't an active target, and Scar was simply waiting for the Colonel to get so bored that Scar could actively hunt him.

"You're beautiful, you know that?"

"Ah!" Yor's train of thought was cut off once more, and again she saw Lloyd Forger smiling as he looked up at her. She then slammed her head into the glass of the window, causing a large crack to appear in it. She pulled back, looked at the crack, and blushed, and then sighed as she remembered that she was the only one on this car. She sighed, and shook her head.

'It might be easier said than done to clear my thoughts,' she mused as the train continued on it's way back to East City.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So the little brat actually did it," Franky Franklin was laughing, a cold can of beer in his hand. He held it up, and Twilight sighed as he toasted with the shorter man. What had originally meant to be the starting meeting for the next phase of Operation: STRIX, had instead morphed into a...brunch celebration? Twilight's eyes couldn't help but focus on the fact that five cans were laying around Franky, while he hadn't even finished his first, "Never thought it'd happen, but I guess that's why they put you in charge of this Mission."

"You know it's Ten in the morning right?"
"Five o'clock somewhere!"

'Did everyone really have so little faith we'd get this far,' Twilight couldn't help but consider as he looked over at Franky, 'Though I guess I don't have much of a place to talk, considering what I was planning on doing.'

"I am glad that she managed on her own," Twilight sighed, remembering his late night activity on the last Thursday, the scaling of thew walls into the library complex, the watching out for the guards, and the strange inferno that had taken the entirety of the building, "Considering I had actually been planning on sneaking in and giving her the correct answers on her tests the night after the exams."

"Wait, hold up," Franky began to chuckle uncontrollably, "You were going to sneak in to the government's library, past whatever security they had for those locations, and change your daughter's grade on the examination?"

"Of course."

"What about all that stuff about having faith in Anya?" he waved his hands out.

"Clearly, I had faith in Anya to get close enough that it wouldn't be to hard to change the grades to make a believable passing score," Twilight stared up at the ceiling, "But, I guess you are right, I should have had more faith," he closed his eyes, remembering flames dancing across the sky as he was about to sneak over the wall into the Military's library district, "It's all I had when I saw the 1st Branch go up in smoke."

"Any idea what might have caused it?" Franky was trying to be serious, though the blush on his face caused any serious observation to become less so.

"They are saying it's an electrical fire," Twilight shook his head, "They supposedly installed electrical lighting to allow for more reading during the night, but a fire started after closing hours. With everyone already gone, no one was there to alert the fire department of anything until it was too late. Just a faulty mishaps that happens sometimes."

"But..."

"That's bullsh*t," Twilight nodded at Franky, who had clearly gotten where he was going in the conversation, "An electrical fire might have caused the initial spark, but for a fire to spread that fast over the whole of a three story building would be more than just some kind of short circuit," he leaned forward, remembering the whole building already being in flames when he was climbing the wall to sneak in two nights earlier, "That place was burned to the ground in a few hours, and by the time the fire department arrived, every single inch of that place had been left as nothing but ash," he stared at Franky in the eyes, "That fire destroyed everything in that building. And I think it was made to do so."

"Arson huh?" Franky groaned, "Probably got in, lit multiple fires and had enough gas spread about to allow it to accelerate before the firefighters could arrive. Make sure not a single record got out."

"Exactly," Twilight leaved onto the counter, "I'm just wondering what they could have been looking for..."
"Sorry buddy," Franky shook his head, "I haven't got copies of any of that information. If that thing had stayed up a month, I'd probably have some copies of some records, but I just got here, and I hadn't had time to get in and start copying the data."

"Damn," Twilight cursed, before sighing, and asking, "Any idea what the arson might have wanted to burn away?"

"Well, there were court martial records," Franky was looking up at the ceiling for a moment, sipping on his can of beer as he did so, "Maybe someone wanted to get rid of any kind of investigative evidence against them...but that wouldn't make sense, since almost everyone in the court martial office is an internal issue, and I don't think they were keeping anything that related to our spying operation," Twilight nodded, as Franky continued to think, "Maybe someone wanted to force a retaking of the tests?"

"Probably too extreme, don't you think?" Twilight asked.

"Says the guy who was going to sneak in to change his daughters answers," Franky shot back, before shaking his head, "no, you're right, getting into this program probably isn't worth burning down a military facility, especially if you somehow got caught."

"Anything else that might have been in there?"

Franky tapped the tip of his chin, rubbing against the stubble that was seemingly permanently stuck there. He lifted up his beer, and tried to take another sip, and then stopped, and looked angrily down at it, as the can was likely empty. And then, his eyes widened, and he snapped his finger, and pointed at Twilight.

"It was also the location of files on alchemic research," Franky was smiling, "Destroy that library, and years of research on the ins and outs of the science are gone," and then, he stopped smiling, "With so many of them dead after Scar when on a killing spree, I guess someone took the chance to burn all their knowledge so no one could ever use it again."

Twilight nodded, and then thought about it for a moment.

"That makes sense," Twilight couldn't help but agree, honestly sounds like something WISE would try and do. The focus on no casualties almost seemed out of their book, but he was pretty sure Sylvia would have told him if they were going to do that, "I guess it is better to get rid of this sort of research before it ever hurts someone again," he thought of the men who likely had all their notes burned, "LIke that General Grand. Probably better everything about him is lost to history."

...

THWACK

"OW!" Twilight's hand came up and rested where the beer can in Franky's hand had slammed into the side of his face, "What was that for?"

"Don't ever say anything about like that about Basque Grand," Franky growled, his face now fully red, a mix of his anger and his drunkness, "That man's the only reason I'm still alive," He then turned around, and glared down at his little fridge, before pulling out another beer, "If it wasn't for him, I'd have been just another corpse coming home on the train from Ishval."

'Ishval,' Twilight had seen war. He'd seen death and destruction. But even he knew that he hadn't seen anything like Ishval. There were very few things that are like a genocide after all, 'I didn't know that Franky had been in Ishval...though I guess it does make sense, he's from the East, and new recruits would like be shuffled down to the fiercest area of conflict.'

"You know, I see what Cresta says about the Ishval conflict," Franky hands were fumbling as he tried to open the next beer can, and beginning to guzzle it down, "All it is is Amestrian's shooting kids," he coughed, and some of the beer splattered on the table before him, "And yeah, I can see why."

'The Ishvalan war was started when an Amestrian officer shot and killed an Ishvalan Child on the holiest day of the Ishvalan calendar,' Twilight remembered from his briefing on the conflict, 'Any sort of peaceful solution died in the crib, even after the officer in question was executed after he was court martialed. Ultimately, after nearly a decade of war, all of Ishval was subjugated and nearly the whole of that nation was wiped from the face of the Earth.'

"Well, let me tell you, I didn't see any kids," Franky was continuing to rant, "I was only there for six months, but out of the original one hundred men in my company, only seven of us made it home with all our limbs attached," he shook his head, before putting his right leg on the table, and ripping up the pants leg suddenly. Twilight's eyes widened when he saw some very distinctive metal, "And I wasn't one of them."

"You have automail?"

"Yeah," Franky groaned, taking a second to try and pull down his leg from the counter. Twilight slowly reached over, and lifted it up, pulling it down and placing it on the ground, "Thanks," Franky then took another sip of beer, "But I was lucky, that was just a random shot from some lone sniper during the last days of the war. A few days before that, some insane bastard named Fessler was about to order our unit to attack a dozen machine gun nests. He'd already lost like nearly a full regiment of soldiers the previous day attacking the same spot."

"He kept attacking even though he knew it was a meat grinder like that?" Twilight asked, his eyes widened. Cresta wasn't known for it's generals skills, but that seemed careless even for them.

"Of course, f*cker thought he was the greatest military mind in history," Franky groaned, "My unit was up next, but then Basque Grand showed up," Franky seemed to puff up for a moment, "And he goes straight to the front lines, and smashes the Ishvalan line himself, using his alchemy," he threw his fist, and for a second, Twilight wondered where this rage was coming from, "But even after that, Fessler wanted to keep pushing. And just as we were about to make the push to the center of that town, we see a white flag."

"It was Logue Lowe," and then, a true sadness came over Franky's eyes, "The head priest of the Ishvalan religion. Looked straight out of central casting," he waved his hand to show off a massive beard, "And then, he asks to speak to the nearest officer. He was surrendering himself to try and offer himself up as a way to end the fighting, to stop the destruction of Ishval," he then laughed, though Twilight could begin to see tears in his eyes, "And you know, the officer that took him up on that, that was Captain Maes Hughes."

"No," Twilight still couldn't quite wrap his head around the goofy Maes Hughes being the most dangerous intelligence officer in all of Amestris, let alone a veteran of the Ishvalan campaign.

"Yes," Franky was really starting to cry, "And then I helped escort Lowe and Hughes to Fessler," he then spat some of the beer he had been sipping to the ground, "And you know, that fat son of a bitch told us to keep fighting despite the truce," he shook his head, "But then, BANG!" he made a gun motion with his hand, "Someone shot him."

"Lowe?"

"Not Lowe, Fessler," now Franky was both laughing and crying, "It was Basque Grand. The hardass. The monster," he began sipping his beer more quickly, "He just up and shot Fessler, and then he escorted Lowe to go meet the Fuhrer himself."

"Did i-"
"Of f*cking course it didn't help!" Franky pointed to Twilight tears messing up his glasses, "We still had five days of fighting after that. The Ishvalans were beaten and I lost my leg," he then tried to right himself, before falling backward over his stool once more, "Ow."

Twilight got back off his feet, and rushed behind the counter. He grabbed Franky by the shoulders, and pulled him up to the counter. The man stunk of alcohol, and from the many cans around him, Twilight couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been drinking. At the same time, Franky was still both laughing and crying at the same time.

"Do you wanna know why I started working as an information broker?" Franky laughed, "I wanted to show the world that I'm not just a statistic," he shook his head, "Not just, Franky Franklin, Wounded," he tried to wipe his tears and snot away with the arm of his shirt, "That Basque Grand made the right decisions, and that Fuhrer Bradley made the wrong ones," he just shook his head, "And, I guessed I hope, if we can finally stop the next battle before it begins, dozens of other young men won't end up needing to get metal legs or metal arms."

"...That's a very good reason," Twilight nodded. He began to open up the back of the store, and carried Franky to the small room in the back with a cot in it. Twilight would have to come back later for any kind of information, but at the moment, he wasn't going to get anything remotely good out of Franky. Better to let him sleep it off.

"You know," Franky said, as he was laid down on the cot. Twilight endeavored to listen, as he walked over to a small sink, and poured the frizzled man a glass of water, "I nearly thought I should just lay in die after my wound," he then began to laugh, "I thought, what good was living, if I was going to have so much pain?"

"So," Twilight walked over with the glass, and handed it to Franky, who took it up, and guzzled it down, "What was the reason you decided to live?"
"...," Franky took a second for the water to settle, before looking back up at Twilight, "I told myself, "You don't want to die a virgin, do you?""

"..."

"..."

"PFFFFTTTHHHAAAAHHHAHHA!"

"Oh, come on," Franky pointed with accusation, "You don't know what it's like to have never experienced the pleasures of a woman."

"I'm a virgin too."
"What?" Franky's eyes seemed to widen, before his mouth bulged, and he began to laugh out loud as well. And then, seeing Franky laughing, Twilight couldn't help himself, and he began to join in the laughter. For the next several moments, they just stood there, and laughed with one another, before finally the laughter died, and they were just there, in the same room again.

"Take care of yourself Franky," Twilight patted the information broker on the shoulder, "I'll come by tomorrow for briefing on information."

"Sounds good," Franky waved as Twilight left his room, "Take care of yourself, Mr. Super Spy!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Excellent form Edward Elric," Ed dodged to the left, as Major Armstrong's mighty arm zoomed past him.

This was the first sparring he'd been able to get in days, and while he was grateful he had been able to practice with Al, another opponent would keep him from being sloppy. Ed then rolled forward, along, the Major's arm, and then slammed his fist directly into the Major's chin. It did not seem to cause the amount of damage that Edward had been hoping for, as the Major only slightly fell back, but neither was the Major completely unharmed. For a second, Edward smiled, glad to have slain the giant, only for the Major's arms to surround Edward, and crush him within a massive bear hug.

"YYYAAAHHOIYW!" Edward screamed, before falling limp. Major Armstrong then pushed him over his shoulder, and then turned to face the suit of armor near him.

"I believe that is enough sparring for one afternoon," he said happily, patting Alphonse on the head, "Wouldn't you agree Alphonse Elric?"

"Yeah," Edward felt his pride begin to waver when he saw Al look over at him disapprovingly, "Ed just seems kind of worn down."

It took only a few moments to walk back to the center of the Rockbells home, to get off their dirty clothes, and to be changed enough to join the two women for lunch. They were having a stew, the only way Ed would ever have something as disgusting as milk, and it had been a night of celebration. After all, this afternoon, they'd be off, taking the train back to East City, and then a train from there to Central. And there, they'd be able to get into the first branch, and finally use Dr. Marcoh's notes on creating a Philosopher's stone.

"So, you'll finally have your bodies back," Winry seemed to be a bit sad, but a bit happy too. It was kind of weird really, but she was a weird automail nerd, so what the heck did she know, "Guess a new chapter of life, huh."

"More like getting back to an old chapter if you ask me," Ed smiled. He slipped down another spoon full of the stew, and slurped it loudly. He then specifically dodged a strike from Granny Pinako's wooden ladle, and then pointed at her an laughed, "Ha, faster now, aren't I you ol-OW!"

"It's not polite to slurp loudly at the table Edward," Armstrong had slapped Edward across the back of the head, and then returned to having his stew, "The correct manner to eat stew has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations."

"...There is no way that's real," Winry offered, only to turn and look away when Alex glared at her. Alphonse just looked down at the stew, and sighed, before looking up into the ceiling dreamily.

"I can't wait until I can get my body back, then I'll finally be able to eat whatever I want again," he then rubbed the sides of his helmet, "Stew, baked goods, fries, sandwiches, milk," he then shook himself, "It'll be fantastic."

"Won't be the only thing we can do once we get our bodies back," Ed laughed, slurping up another spoonful of Granny's soup. As he went for another spoonful, Al scratched his head for a moment.

"So like leaving the military?"

"Yeah, like," Ed stopped, thought about it for a second, before continuing, "Yeah, like leaving the military," he then turned to Major Armstrong, and waved slightly, "No offense, but I really only joined to help get our bodies back."

"Completely understandable," Alex Louis Armstrong nodded, before he suddenly stood up, and began to flex, "Your devotion to your brother shows great spirit and honor. The use of the military for such a noble aim is one of the most worthy I have ever heard," his muscles cleamed in the mix of the light above his head from the lamp and the sun from shining inside from the window, "I have no problem with you leaving the military as soon as you have completed your quest!"

"...why did he take off his shirt?" Granny Pinako and Winry asked simultaneously.

"I'm glad you are listening to Doctor Forger though," Alphonse cut in. That caused Edward to spit up the stew he was putting into his mouth, and did so right into Winry's dog Den.

"I'm not doing it because that quack told me to do it!" he yelled, pointing at his metal brother, "I'm making that decision on my own!"

"Wait," Winry began to look between the two brother, her eyes wide with curiosity, "Who's this Doctor Forger."

"He was a psychiatrist that Ed and I met while we were in East City for a bit," Al interjected quickly, before Ed could make his point, "Ed met with him twice, and he seemed to find a lot of his advice helpful."

"That was before I found out he was an agent of Command," Ed stated flatly, "Turns out, he was just there to spy on the Colonel."

"But he did offer you good advice," Al then added, before pointing at Ed again, "Plus he saved your life when we fought Scar. That at least has to count for something, doesn't it?

"That is true Edward Elric," Major Armstrong added.

"A psychiatrist, huh?" Granny Pinako rubbed her chin, "One of those head doctors right," when the three military men nodded, she then burst out laughing, "Ha, what do you know. I think that sounds just likes something you'd need shrimp. I think you should go let this Forgery guy go and pick your brain a bit more. Maybe find out what's wrong in that little head of yours."

"DON'T CALL ME A SHRIMP!" Ed pointed angrily at Pinako, "I'm an adult, I can make my own decisions."

"Ed," Ed then turned to look at Winry, who was looking down at the table. She wasn't looking him in the eye, but Ed could tell she was being as honest as possible with him, "I think you should go see this Doctor Forger again."

"Oh don't you start too," Ed groaned, rubbing his temples. He then looked up, and his gold eyes met Winry's pale blue ones. And instantly, most of his impudence retreated backwards, as she tried to get him to work with her, "I just don't trust this guy. He lied to me about who he was, and then acted all high and mighty about me joining the military."

"I just think," Winry said, "If his advice helped you, and it makes sense to leave the military once you get your bodies back," she shook her head, "Maybe it would be good to talk to him again."

"...okay fine," Edward sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "If I see that guy again, I'll see if I can set up another appointment."

"Thank you," Winry nodded at that, a smile returning to her face, "That's all I was asking for," she then looked down at her watch, and then stood up, "Sorry, I have to get back to the shop. The metal for the anterior tricep cable needs to be turned!" she then bolted from the dining room, leaving the other four members of the household to look at the empty doorway as they heard her charging up the stairs.

Then the other three occupants all turned to stare at Edward.

"Brother is feeling the springtime."

"Make her cry and I'll make you have to get automail for your other two limbs."

"She will be a fine wife for you, Edward Elric."

"Don't you all start with me!"

Chapter 20: Smackdown in the Sewers

He was a Scar on the World, for the World had scarred him.

Slowly, Scar slunked along the sewer's small walkway. Likely these had been designed to allow cleaning crews to lower themselves into the mire and waste of East City, and remove whatever blockages or detritus that had somehow flowed into the waterways that were meant to clean away the filth of the city. They were wider than necessary, but it allowed for safe passage through the underground of the city, and it also served as a place for vagabonds and criminals to retreat during the night. Despite the smell, Scar felt comfortable down in the sewers.

'And why wouldn't I,' he thought, hands in his pockets, shades still on so some random passerby didn't catch sight of his identity, 'Am I also not a man who cleans the filth of the world away,' he thought back to the weaselly man he tore apart not a week earlier, 'Do I not clean God's world of the waste and the excrement of the people that so defy him. This is my proper place,' he looked up, and stared at a nearby manhole cover, 'Until the coward's guards relax, and I may bring the judgement of Ishvala upon the arrogant who believe they have the right to God's domain.'

Scar had never understood his brother. Perhaps it had been his own early entrance into the priesthood, or perhaps it had just been a trick of God, but he had never been able to connect with his brother while the young man had been alive. They had been born into the holiest people on the planet, and yet, instead of devoting himself to communing with Ishvala, he had pursued alchemy.

Alchemy!

'Work of the Devil,' Scar growled.

Alchemy, the art of creation from God's matter, was a sin. It was the height of pride to suggest that mere humans could warp and create using matter with such ease and arrogance. And Alchemy did not just do so, but did so in ways that lead to nothing but death and destruction. Bullets, blades, flames, all manner of monstrous alchemy did nothing but slaughter the people of Ishvala. Even his brother's compatriots were only studying alchemy in order to turn it into a weapon to kill the Amestrians. It was just more proof of the arrogance of human beings.

'And yet,' Scar looked down at his right arm, and saw the massive tattoo that spiraled up from his hand to his shoulder, 'My brother's sins were passed down to me with his sacrifice,' Scar remembered seeing his brother, his little brother, blocking the blast in front of him, as the alchemist from Amestris rained fire down on his family, 'Now, it is only through his knowledge, and his arm that I am able to bring judgement down on the sinners of the world.'

Clip-Clip

Scar twisted on his heal to the new sound, and looked down the dark sewer corridor. The darkness that came with being in an underground tunnel cut off his vision of what might be coming, so he forced himself against the wall, and readied his hand.

Clip-Clip

The sound was certainly getting closer, he tried to figure out why it sounded so strange. Whenever there were workers down here, most of them wore large, metal bottomed boots, all to allow them to retain traction on the often wet and slick walkways. He tried to place where he had ever heard shoes that seemed both less heavy, but more pointed...

Clip-Clip

'Wait,' Scar remembered the few times he had snuck through the upper crust of Amestrian society, and in particular the sound of many of the women walking in those circles, 'Are those heels?'

And suddenly, a woman appeared out of the darkness. She was, at least from Scar's admittedly less than experienced opinion, beautiful. She had long black hair that framed a pale face, with red lips and well done makeup. She wore a long black dress, that flowed along her body, and eventually off her legs right before the ankles. And yes, Scar noticed, looking down at the woman's feet, this woman was, in fact, wearing a pair of black, high heeled shoes, ones with sharp enough backs to make the distinctive clipping sound he had heard before.

'Why would a woman this well dressed be down in a sewer?' he then looked over at the woman, who was looking at him with a blank expression, 'Haven't I seen her before?'

He pushed that thought from his mind, while shaking his head. He then stopped, and looked directly at the woman, "Are you lost?" he asked, his eyes watching her. He pushed his mind beyond the initial shock, and readied his body, his eyes waiting for the first sign of movement.

"Scar," the woman said, and Scar further readied himself. Anyone using his name was obviously looking for him, and if they were looking for him, that could mean nothing good. And he knew this was the correct move, when suddenly he saw a long metal instrument shoot out into her hand, and her eyes seem to flash.

"May I have the honor of taking your life tonight."

SWISH

Scar had long known he had been blessed by God, if for no other reason than the instincts Ishvala had delivered to him in combat. What at times people had called paranoia had saved him more times than he could count, and once again, it saved him here. That he had readied himself for battle against this woman was the only reason he had missed her slash, as she had managed to close the nearly ten meters of distance between them in the blink of an eye. He managed to sweep to his right, as the needle was in the attackers own right, and that would allow him to be on the opposite side of her weapon. Recognizing this woman was his enemy, he then readied to shoot his right arm to deal with her.

'Almighty Ishvala, may y-'

SWPLACH

'What?'

Only to feel a pain along his chest. His eyes refocused, and he saw a needle had come up, and there was a trail of blood droplets following the upper arc. He pushed his feet back further, and fell into the sewer water. Just as he recognized that he was under water, he threw down his feet, and bounced up, pushing himself out of the water, and further away from the walkway that the assailant was still on.

SPLASH

And as he did so, he realized that that had been the best decision that he could have made. Right where he had been floating after the wound, the woman had dived down with her needles. She then turned her red eyes up, and was glaring at him, and again, Scar kicked down, pushing himself out of the water, and onto the walkway on the other side of the sewer, regaining his footing. The woman stared at him, seemingly readying herself for another push.

'However,' Scar thought quickly, glad as he readied himself for the next attack, activating his right arm's destruction, and feeling the lighting of his brother's soul course along his arm, 'She was too aggressive,' staring at her as she stood in the middle of the water of the sewer, 'She jumped in, and gave me a more solid footing. That water will hamper he-'

And then she jumped out of the water, tossing one of her needles at Scar. Scar's instincts barely pulled him out of his thoughts with enough time to dodge the toss, and then, on instinct, he shot his right arm towards the needle, and the metal disintegrated in a second. However, the dodge had given enough time for the woman to suddenly land a few short feet on the causeway from Scar, and allowed her to turn back towards him, her one remaining needle in her left hand.

'She's at leas-'

And then, reaching back into her hair, her right hand returned to view with another needle.

'sh*t,' Scar inwardly groaned. This woman was pushing him around. If he continued to allow her to dictate the flow of the battle, she'd likely manage to catch him in a mistake. She'd already managed to wound him, and Scar was likely lucky that it was only a glancing wound to the chest. He looked as she began to methodically began to advance towards him, needles directly pointed at his heart.

He then slammed his right hand of destruction into the walkway they were both standing on-

CROSSUSHSH

-and then the brick and the mortar burst apart, filling the air with flying debris. The woman's eyes widened, her clear path towards Scar suddenly filled with dozens of rocks. And Scar, lighting up his arm of destruction pushed forward, cutting through the debris field, the rocks and pebbles dissipating beneath his strike. He aimed directly at the woman's head, and shot his right arm towards it. The woman pulled her left needle up between the strike and her face, but the metal disintegrated from his destruction, and his strike nearly connected.

But it didn't, as she kicked out, and threw herself all the way across the sewer, and her back soon collided with the wall on the other side of the sewer. She coughed, for a second, but didn't fall down, landing on her feet, and turning with her right handed needle still pointed at Scar, but slightly off balance. And then he saw why, as the woman's done up bun was gone, and her long black hair was splayed out over her body, some of the hair covering her face. He then looked down, and saw that he had managed to catch one of the long shocks of hair that had been resting over her ears and framing her face, likely meaning her had undone her bun with his strike.

'Wait, wasn't her hair where she was hiding her other needles?'

And the woman seemed to confirm that, as she glared at him, with only a single solitary needle remaining in her grasp. She seemed to twist it slightly, and then ready herself for another strike. He readied his arm again, and prepared to deal with that last weapon. If he could destroy that, then he would have a full advantage of his assailant no longer having anything to attack him.

TWACK

A pain came over his head, as for a second his sight left him. When it returned, he saw a pebble falling away from his forehead. He looked at it, and then saw that the woman was jumping at him again. He also saw that the woman's high-heeled shoes were gone, and that she was bear-footed, no socks or anything else. And then, he remembered that she hadn't moved any part of her upper body while he had been looking at her, and he asked himself.

'Did she throw that at me with her foot?'

That question disappeared quickly, as he then felt a sharp pain along his lower right arm, and a sudden gust of energy that threw him back against the wall of the sewer. His eyes turned for a second to his right arm after he regained his composure, and then widened. Sticking out of his right tricep, was the last needle. She had thrown the needle with such power and precision as to use it to impale his arm of destruction to the wall of the sewer!

CRACK

"AAAGHH!" Scar could not help but scream, as he felt his left shoulder nearly break inward. He looked back over, and saw that the woman had struck it with her bare hands. He could not believe such a petite woman could have such strength in her body. While remaining on his left side, she readied another strike, and this time, he could tell she was aiming for his head.

'If she hits my head,' he thought, his mind racing to keep up with the flow of the battle, 'My skull could cave in,' his right arm erupted into destruction, and he could begin to feel the metal needle disintegrate from the energy, but it wouldn't be enough time before she would get at least one debilitating strike into his head, and end his ability to fight, 'Then there is only one thing I can do.'

And he slammed his right hand into the wall behind him, and pushed out as much destruction as he could muster.

CRREOAOUDUOGGHHHHSHSHSHHSHSHSHSHSHHSHSHBOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM

Scar didn't know what was happening. The pain in both his arms and his chest was still there, but he couldn't open his eyes. He felt like he was being carried away, by something strange. Perhaps he had failed, perhaps he had died, and he was being carried by the waters of Ishvala to the next life.

His mission a failure.

'I'm sorry,' he thought, as he drifted, both with the waters around him and from consciousness.

'I'm so sorry, my brother.'
________________________________________________________________________________________
"I'm sorry," Yor looked down at the ground, the sounds of the garden filling the background as she sat in the small steel chair that the Shopkeer liked to use as a place to read. She then winced, and looked over at McMahon, who was applying a cotton swab with hydrogen peroxide to her arm, washing it over the cuts and bruises she had sustained.

Scar had gotten away. It had been a tremendously difficult fight, like the Shopkeeper had warned her. It was almost certainly the closest she had come to death on a mission, especially during Scar's attack through the rubble that had ruined her hair. But it she had been close. Achingly close, in fact. But the serial killer had slammed his destruction into a wall of the sewer, and doing so, managed to catch a gas line. The resulting explosion had forced Yor to jump away before she could finish him off. Scar had then disappeared beneath the resulting smoke cloud and the spray of water, and by the time Yor had regained her bearings, she had been forced to retreat from the sewers to avoid detection from the arriving police.

No matter what, the Garden could not afford to become common knowledge of the public. It would bring too much instability to have anyone know there was a massive organization of assassins.

"Are you sure he escaped," the Shopkeeper was rubbing his chin, a small frown on his face.

"I'm not sure," Yor shook her head. She'd never failed a mission, and the thought of letting Shopkeeper down like this was distressing her. The man had been like a father to her, and she had just let him down, "But, I can't guarantee he is dead. I wasn't able to strike a killing blow, and he more than likely fell into the water, and was washed away."

"Well, then perhaps the mission was handled anyway," McMahon offered, his voice trying to be as soothing as possible, "He was heavily wounded from his fight with you correct. Floating in sewage and waste water would almost certainly lead to infections. Mixed with the damage you caused him already-"

"That's not good enough," Yor shook her head, and felt her frown deepen when she heard McMahon sigh. She couldn't let excuses become part of her work, that would only lead to more failure, and more instability in the future, "Our duty as the Garden is to prove that we have completed our jobs, and without a corpse, how can we prove that Scar is dead."

"We can't," the Shopkeeper sighed. His red eyes didn't really resemble Scar's at all, after getting a full look at them, but she couldn't quite describe it. And then he jumped, as he looked down at his watch, and seemed to curse underneath his breath, "And, unfortunately, we have another issue."

"What's that," McMahon asked.

"The client has just arrived to ask about this missions completion."

The door to the Chateau opened, and out into the Garden walked one of the most beautiful women that Yor had ever seen. She had long, silky black hair, which seemed to float like a cloud over her head. She had red lips, that highlighted a soft and pleasant face. She was tall, even a few inches than Yor, who was unusually tall herself. She wore an elegant, black dress, with a purple coat on the outside, that covered her all the way up to her neck. And her smile was pleasant, though her eyes were looking at the three hitmen with calculation.

"Hello there," the woman walked up, with a voice that caused Yor to blush. She then reached out her hand to Yor, who then took it up, ignoring the pain as they shook hands, "My name is Solaris, and I was the one who hired you to kill Scar."

"Ah!" Yor's mind finally caught up to what was happening, and she gasped out, "I'm so sorry. I didn't kill Scar."

Solaris blinked for a second, "But you are alive?"

"Well, yes," Yor admitted, looking down, "I did wound Scar, and I almost had him, but he managed to slip away at the last second after he blew up that sewer in East City," the woman's shock seemed to dissipate for a moment, and then her smile returned. She let go of Yor's hand, and then rested her back up against one of the trees of the Garden.

"So how badly wounded was he?" she asked.

"I impaled his right arm, smashed his left shoulder," she repeated, "And also sliced up his chest."

"Sounds like he took a beating," Solaris laughed, and Yor blinked, "And you say, he was washed away by the sewer most likely, right?"

"Yes," Yor nodded, and then she looked over at the Shopkeeper, who blinked back, looking as confused as she was. The woman across from her continued to smile, placing one finger on her chin, and then looking up at the sky for a moment in contemplation.

"So, I guess he's likely out of commission for a while then," she then clapped her hands together, "Okay then, here's the deal," she pointed at the Shopkeeper, "I know our agreement was originally for you to deliver me a corpse, but I think you've done enough work for at least half the payment, wouldn't you say?"

"I...believe so," the Shopkeeper was trying to maintain his composure, still not sure about how to exactly handle what this woman was getting at. The woman smiled, and nodded. She then walked over, and began to play with a rose bush that was sitting in the middle of the garden, feeling at the petals of the flower, and then breathing in.

"We'll just say, you managed to kill Scar, but since you didn't bring me the body, you can't prove it, and we'll have to accept I might never get proof of it," she continued, continuing to play with the flower as she talked, "He's likely dead anyway, so what I wanted probably has happened, even if we can't be sure."

"But what if Scar returns?" Yor asked, and then the woman burst out laughing. She let go of the flower, and walked over to Yor. She smiled, leaned down so she was looking at Yor directly in her eyes, and placed her hand on Yor's cheek, just like she had done for the flower a moment earlier. Yor's felt her face heat up considerably, but was too worried about insulting the client to pull away.

"You're very honest," Solaris laughed, pulling her hand away from Yor's cheek, "Not really a trait you'd expect in an assassin," she then leaned forward next to Yor's ear, "But I like it."

"I'M MARRIED!" Yor shouted suddenly, and then placed her hand over her mouth. Solaris just laughed as she back, throwing her head back as she did so.

"I see I still have the touch," her head then leaned down, and she looked Yor directly in the eyes once more, "Back to business though," Yor heard a couple of coughs, and looked back and saw McMahon resting his face in his hand, "I needed Scar removed from active hunting, and you seem to have accomplished this," she then looked back, "If Scar does come back, I'll just call you up, and then you can earn the second half of the contract that way," she then looked over to Shopkeeper, who was still eyeing her wearily, his face having not moved from contemplation, "Deal?"

"...," The Shopkeeper took a second to stare at Solaris, clearly trying to size her up, before nodding, "I believe that is a fair payment for the services provided, and services that might need to be provided," and yet, despite his acceptance, he didn't seem to be getting less tense. He kept his eyes on Solaris, and Yor could see his hands getting stiff.

"Perfect," Solaris stood up, and then turned around towards the house, before looking back over her shoulder, "I'll be in touch if Scar reappears, okay?"
"Of course," The Shopkeeper said.

The woman's smile finally fully set, and then she waved at Yor, "Maybe I'll see you again dear," and Yor felt herself blush once more, before turning back, and walked back into the chateau. When she closed the door, suddenly, the Shopkeeper fell over, barely catching himself on the table, his shoulders shaking as he looked at the door.

"Sho-"

"Shush," he put his lips to his mouth, and then they all stayed quiet, as the house remained still. For about five minutes, the only thing Yor could hear were the background sounds of nature. Finally, Yor could hear the distant sound of an engine start, and then it slowly disappear, as the car that Solaris must have taken to arrive drove away. Even once the sound of the car was gone, however, they still stayed quiet for a moment longer, before the Shopkeeper finally spoke up, "We are lucky she likes you, Yor."

"I suppose getting half payment is an acceptable result for only the idea of a completed job," McMahon began, before suddenly the Shopkeeper slammed his hand down on the table, causing both Yor and the older man to jump, as the looked up at his shaking eyes.

"I don't care about the payment!" the Shopkeeper yelled, barely containing his emotions as he screamed, "I care about the fact that she could have killed all of us if she had wanted."

"Shopkeeper?" Yor looked at her mentor for a second.

"Didn't you feel it," Shopkeeper said, his hands still shaking, "That overwhelming sense of death. That woman's killed more people than all of us combined," he brought them together, and began to sit down in one of the chairs next to Yor, "If she had wanted to, she could have killed us for our failure, and we would be dead before she tried."

"But," Yor spoke up, "I didn't see a weapon on her," she remembered the woman being completely unarmed, and that her stance was more relaxed than anyone planning on killing a person could possibly be, "How could she have killed us?"

"I don't know."

And that was that. For the next few moments, they just sat there in silence. McMahon went back to treating the light wounds that Yor had, all the while, the Shopkeeper just sat there thinking about what had just happened. Occasionally, he'd rub a hand through his long white hair, before shaking his head. Finally, he looked back at Yor.

"Well, prepare to be on call if she needs you," he offered, some relief finally in his voice, "We will let you know as soon as we can if we hear from her," he then pointed at her again, "Also, if you hear about Scar, find him, and bring me his head," Yor nodded at the seriousness of this order. Then the Shopkeeper sat back, and let out a long sigh, before adding, "I'm glad you are alive Yor."

"I'm glad to be alive too," Yor agreed, and she heard the Shopkeeper bark a small laugh. He placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to wince and pull away.

"Sorry," he said, before shaking his head, "You'll have to stay overnight. We should have a replacement dress and replacement needles for you to return tomorrow. Your wounds are light enough that you should be able to explain them away easily," Yor nodded at that, "Just say you fell down in some gravel, and wanted to stay overnight to get cleaned up."

"I think that will work," the shopkeeper smiled.

"So tell me," her mentor said, "How goes family life."

"You're beautiful, you know that?"

"Well...ummmm..."
________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight looked out over the platforms, smoke emerging from the mighty engines as they were offloading their passengers from East City. Yor had called the previous night to let him know she wouldn't make it back until this afternoon, and he had appreciated the thought. Anya was holding onto his hand, as he looked over the dozens of people getting off from the trains.

"Where's Mama?" Anya asked again, and Lloyd sighed. Dealing with his daughter's shot attention span had been perhaps one of the greatest challenges he had encountered while running Operation STRIX.

Besides Maes Hughes of course.

'Little children just have less patience,' he thought to himself, 'Besides, Yor should be here-'

"Look!" Anya shouted, pointing at a familiar tall woman with long black hair, "It's Mama!"

And indeed, it was Yor. And as Anya rushed over towards the woman, Twilight began to take stock of his "wife". Her hands were covered in bandages, and it looked like something had happened to her hair, as part of it was missing, though one would have to look carefully to notice with it having been rearranged into the same hairstyle as before. His eyes widened as he took in her appearance, and rushed over as Yor snatched up Anya into her arms.

"Anya," Lloyd warned, his voice even as he approached, "You shouldn't be having your mother pick you up like that, her arms are hurt," he pointed down to the bandages, though Yor just waved her hand slightly."

"It's no problem Lloyd," Yor said, smiling as she held Anya with her arms, "I was just working in the yard with my employer, and I took a tumble with some gravel," Lloyd remembered Yor's explanation on her late return, "My cuts are mostly healed," she then held up Anya closer to herself, "Honestly, it feels good to hold Anya like this. Makes me feel like I'm back on my feet."

'Ah,' Twilight considered her words, 'I suppose she has become closer to Anya than I initially thought,' he looked at the two, both smiling at one another as Anya burst out about how cool her mother was. He ignored her as she seemed to talk about explosions or whatever, and continued to consider the woman that was Yor Forger, 'It's good that she has become so motherly so quickly. There is something inherently attractive about a woman who acts such a way around children.'

"Are you gonna kiss Mama, Papa?" Anya asked outloud, and then Lloyd felt himself jump, though part of him was exceedingly glad when he saw Yor jump a bit too.

"You can't just reach out and kiss someone, Anya," Twilight said.

'Not that it'd be wrong. I've kissed much lesser women than Yor.'

"That's right," Yor suddenly looked at Lloyd for a moment, "It'd be rude to something like that now."

Anya looked back between Twilight and Yor for a moment, before her face settled into a strange look.

"Don't you look at your parents like that," Twilight warned, though Anya's face didn't change. For a moment, they just stood there as other people walked by, and Twilight had to be glad at all the background noise saving him from any kind of embarrassment. Finally, he sighed, and placed a hand on Yor's shoulder. When she winced for a second, and pulled away, Twilight's eyes widened, "Are yo-"

"I'm okay," Yor nodded, "Just a place where I fell," she nodded, and then Twilight nodded back. Twilight, trying to find the right way to help with this, shook his head, and then just sighed.

"What do you sa-"

"Hurry up Al!"

"Wait for us Brother!" Twilight turned on his heels, and suddenly, from the back of the train, saw a familiar trio of individuals. Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, and Major Armstrong were all waltzing onto the platform. On Ed's back was a large Suitcase, and he was pushing forward, clearly determined to get a move on to his desired location.

"We're finally in Central," Ed seemed to giggle, eyes still focused, "Now we just have to get to the libra-"

"Edward?" Lloyd said aloud, and suddenly, the young man came to a stop. His feet were planted in the same place, and he then looked back, and then stared at Lloyd. He then pointed a finger accusingly at him. Before turning around, and waving. At the rather immature display, Twilight felt some sweat develop on the back of his head.

"Come on," Ed said, "Let's ge-"

"Edward Elric," Major Armstrong declared, and the young man stopped. Both Alphonse and Armstrong were standing where they had been, looking at Edward expectantly. The young man seemed to glare at them for a moment, before sighing, and turning on his heels, and walking back up to Lloyd. He groaned, and then looked Lloyd directly in the eye.

"Do you have another time for an appointment for me?"

"Don't be rude Edward," Alphonse said, but Twilight held up a hand. The metal suit of armor fell back slightly as Lloyd nodded at the younger man, who was still clearly uncomfortable talking with him again.

"Of course Ed," Lloyd smiled, "I'd be glad to have another session with you. How about this Thursday?"

"Four days from now," Edward thought for a moment, then smiled, "Yeah, that should be perfect," Lloyd smiled to himself, glad to see he would have a chance to see if he couldn't help this young man a bit more so he didn't have too many problems, "Will give me plenty of time at the library."

"Wait..." Lloyd couldn't stop himself, thinking out loud, looking at Ed for a moment, "Which library?"

"Military Library's First Branch," Ed said simply, looking at Lloyd with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Twilight blinked for a second, and then shook his head.

"That just burned down."

...

"WHHHHHHAAAATTTTTTT!?!"

Chapter 21: Peanuts and Penguins

Lloyd sighed as he walked down the sunny sidewalk, past a small bench that looked awfully cozy. Even though it was just a normal wooden bench. Yet his desired rest soon slipped from his fingers, as his hand was taken up by a little set of fingers down at his left side. He looked down, and saw Anya staring up at him, a bright smile on her face, as she was pointing to some other exhibit.

"I wanna see the penguins!" the little pink haired girl shouted, pointing at a sign that showed a large black and white bird with short flappy wings. He had heard of these creatures, flightless birds from the far south. They swam instead of flew, and ate fish.

'They also naturally live so far away,' Twilight thought, 'How is it possible they were brought all the way to Central, a landlocked city in a land locked country hundreds of miles from the nearest sea, that would allow them to be picked up and brought here?'

And just as though he had heard them, his "Family's" "Guide" stepped into the picture, posing strangely as he slide into view.

"Ah yes, the penguins," Alex Louis Armstrong flexed as he pointed towards the sign with the flightless birds, "A fine choice young Anya," the muscles of his biceps reflected the rays of light off to give him a shine, "That family of penguins is a third generation, after two dozen of the birds were brought up to Amestris from the great frozen south by my Great Uncle, Julius "Storm-Cutter" Armstrong, one of the greatest zoologists in Amestrian history," he then changed his pose, allowing more light to relfect now off his pecs, "They are one of the many animals that my family has provided to this establishment," he laughed loudly, sparkles seeming to emerge for every word he said, "That is why, after all, this is known as the Armstrong Central Zoo. This place has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations!"

"...why did he take of his shirt?" Twilight heard Gracia Hughes whisper to her husband, who gave off a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head, making sure to avoid little Elicia sitting on his shoulders.

'I see now,' Twilight just looked up at Alex Armstrong, who continued to pose as he pointed towards the penguins, with all the members of their party staring at the massive aristocrat with large beads of sweat rolling down their heads, 'I see that I owe Handler an apology. Instead of Maes Hughes, Armstrong could have been my next door neighbor.'

It had all started yesterday when Lloyd Forger asked his daughter what reward she would like for passing the exam to make it into the Fuhrer's educational program. She, listening to the radio, had remembered an advertisem*nt for the Central Zoo. Honestly, Twilight had at first been thrilled. A reward that was relatively cheap, with the benefit of also being educational? Perfect.

But then, when they had been leaving for dinner the night before to go get more Hamburger Steak, they had run into the Hugheses as they had been returning home on that Saturday afternoon from the park. And before Lloyd could manage to get away from them, Anya had told Elicia they would be going to the Zoo. Upon hearing that, Elicia had declared that she'd like to go to the zoo too, and before long, Maes had invited his family along, and Lloyd Forger couldn't say no, because Maes had offered to pay for all the tickets and snacks they would have. Twilight couldn't afford to turn down such a generous offer, not if he wanted to keep any extra suspicion off himself, so he had been forced to agree.

That had been bad enough, but he had thought it would be something he could handle. Just pick up Yor from the train in the morning, go with the Hughes to the Zoo, and then be done with it. Not too much, not too little. But while there to pick up Yor, they had also run into Edward and Alphonse Elric. There, he had had the displeasure of informing Ed that the library that was his goal had just burned to the ground. After a few moments of discussion, Edward and Alphonse were able to get a car to go with two other lower level officers, Lieutenant Maria Ross and Sergeant Denny Brosh, two go speak with the head librarian to see if there was any chance the records he was looking for weren't in that library.

The reason it was those two lower officers was because, during the discussion, Anya let slip they were going to the zoo. The massive major who had been guarding the brothers suddenly revealed that his family was one of the major benefactors of the zoo, and thus offered to give a guided tour, at a discount. Remembering that Maes and Alex were coworkers, and would likely talk about him turning down such an offer, Twilight had had not choice but to accept Major Armstrong's generosity.

So now he was here, in a zoo, still trying to recover from his exhaustion from the past month or so of constant movement. With his two least favorite people in the country.

"So your uncle discovered these penguins, huh?" Maes Huges said, trying to pull his colleague out of his flexing and posing. This proved futile as, even while walking, Armstrong was able to strike another pose with his left arm.

"Quite right," Armstrong answered, "Though again, it was my Great Uncle, Julius. He was the third son, born in 18-" Twilight pushed the converstion out of his head as he, Anya and Yor followed the Amestrian Military Officers towards the enclosure. Yor herself seemed quite tired, and Anya was being quite accomadating as she snacked on a package of peanuts.

'Had you told me a month ago,' he thought to himself, remembering his spray of coffee on the train, 'That my daughter and wife would be the least stressful people I'd encounter while assigned to Operation STRIX,' he then stopped, and looked down at his daughter, 'Then agai...oh come one Twilight,' he scolded himself, 'After how well she managed to do on that test, you should give Anya a break,' he he shook his head, 'That girl did better than hundreds of other children with only a three weeks of studying. You couldn't ask for more.'

Twilight blinked when he saw Anya skip a step, a big smiled on her face. Then he felt his face fall, when she began coughing. He got down, and slapped her back, causing the girl to suddenly cough up a peanut shell. She looked down at it for a moment, before looking back up at him with a bit of a dumb look.

"Anya, what have we said about skipping and eating at the same time?" Lloyd said aloud, and Anya finished coughing, and shook her head, "You don't want to choke on your food."

"Ye-yes Papa," she coughed, before reaching up her hand and grabbing it. Lloyd sighed as he turned around, and started following the rest of the party. Doing so, however, he saw Yor look at him with a smile.

"You are doing a very good job with your daughter," his "Wife" said, before getting on the other side, and grabbing Anya's other hand, "Ms. Anya, may I hold your hand as well?"

"Yes Mama."

'Well,' Twilight inwardly nodded to himself, as they continued over to the large pool like structure with several dozen massive birds swimming through the water, 'At least we manage to look like a family.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So," Maes Hughes said, watching his wife, daughter, and the Forger family looking out over the penguins, "That's the conclusion I've managed to arrive to," he kept his eyes on Lloyd Forger, who had allowed his daughter to take a seat on his shoulder to get a better view of the exhibit, "What do you think?"

"Hmmm," Alex Louis Armstrong rubbed his chin, contemplating the theory, "This Lloyd Forger is possibly investigating the loyalty of the parents in Selim Bradley's school," instead of his usual bombast, he had only said this at the level of a whisper, "That makes a good deal of sense. There were rumors that Isaac McDougal was able to get into Central with help from a major benefactor, so perhaps Central Command is worried about that benefactor possibly attempting a more covert attempt at a coup?"

"If that was what got Roy to be investigated," Maes added, trying to further explain his logic, "Then it likely means that's why he was brought on in the first place."

"Yes," Alex nodded, "I do believe you have a point."

Maes smiled. Even he knew he didn't have the most professional reputation in the Military, but he also knew that he was one of the best men Amestris had in intelligence. He took a great deal of pride in figuring out the machinations of the plotting that went around Central, from covert foreign operatives like Sylvia Sherwood to internal struggles between departments.

"Do you have any idea who they might be interested in then?"

However, major political families weren't something he was quite as familiar with. He needed a source who knew how upper society in Central functioned if he was going to be able to figure out exactly what Lloyd's assignment was, and how best to keep an eye on someone who might try and oppose he and Mustang in the future. And he had a guy right in front of him who had been part of the uppercrust of Amestris for generations. Better to take advantage of this opportunity before the school would start on Tuesday.

"Well, it shouldn't have been obvious who was getting into the school," Armstrong admitted, "That examination was very difficult for young children, so the idea of any specific families making it in should be hard enough," he then shook his head, "Though if I had to guess, I'd say he is probably going to be investigating Donovan Desmond."

"The Parliament Member?" he'd heard about Desmond, "He's one of the biggest critics of the Fuhrer in polite society," before adding with a bit of dismissiveness, "for all that parliament is considered polite society," the weakness that parliament had experienced in the past half a century was something of a joke to the members of the military, "why would he even be trying to get his kid in the same academy as Bradley's son?"

"The family Desmond is nearly as ancient and wealthy as my own," Armstrong continued, "And Donovan has a keen sense of his own place in that history. His family has been near the top of Amestrian Society for centuries, and he likely sees that having his son develop a bond with the Fuhrer's son will be another way to maintain that grasp on power into the next generations."

"I guess that makes sense," Hughes remembered the Desmond speech he'd heard only a few months, "but still, for a guy who hates the military to be trying to ingratiate himself with the Fuhrer-"
"Remember, he doesn't hate the military," Maes could hear a bit of exhaustion in his voice, "Donovan hates the Fuhrer. His party has a platform that believes that the military is being wasted," He paused and sighed, "I'm sure you remember his speech on the same day as Order 3066?"

"That was him?" Maes shook his head as he remembered listening to the radio from an Eastern supply depot, ""Why use the power of God to slay ants when we could use them to slay bears,"" he felt himself shiver at the thought of that, "He wanted us to invade Drachma. Thousands more of us would have died invading that barren wasteland."

"As I told you, no dove," Armstrong rubbed the bridge of his nose, "He opposed the Ishvalan Extermination campaign mostly because he thought it a waste of supplies and soldiers that could be better used on greater conquest," he then looked down sadly, "Still, only man in parliament to offer any criticism of Ishval at all. Rest were either for it, or too frightened to oppose the popularity of Bradley."

"Maybe his warmongering with other nations put him above reproach," Maes offered, before continuing, "But how would they know that Donovan's son was going to get into the school?"

"Donovan's first son, Demetrius, is a genius currently studying to become a State Alchemist," Armstrong added quickly, causing Maes's eyes to widen, "Donovan himself actually has a military record, he served in the south during the second Southern War, so he expects his sons to live up to his ideals of service," Maes felt his stomach drop, as he absolutely wanted Elicia no where near the front lines, "And it has been widely accepted that his second son Damian, would be nearly as smart as well. That was proven correct, as he managed to pass that test."

"Results have already gotten around about it, huh?" Maes whistled while thinking about the gossip networks that must exist in throughout Central's upper society.

"Yes," Major Armstrong then smiled, "But it makes sense, have an agent on standby as a parent to investigate anything Desmond might be planning, and perhaps serve as a way to see if he was behind the McDougal incident," he then added, "There has bee no proof that he could be the one, but he is at least one suspect."

"Yeah," Maes noticed that the Forger family was about to finish up with the penguins, "Still, I wish there was a way I could keep an eye on Lloyd to see if that is actually what he's doing," Maes shook his head, "I just feel like something is staring me in the face about him, and if I could just get all the pieces together, it'd point out what this guys all about."

"Well, maybe I can offer some assistance," Armstrong offered.

"Oh really?" Maes gave a quick look up, "How so?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

'Glad that's over,' Twilight laid down on his couch, placing an icepack on his head. Just across from him was Yor, who was resting her arms and legs against the chair as she sat down, nearly completely exhausted as well.

They ultimately spent over three hours walking around that massive place. They saw everything, from lions to tigers to bears. The pure number of animals they had seen had only been surpassed by stories from Major Armstrong on how each animal was one that had been captured and provided to the zoo by his illustrious family. Then, after that, they had gone to the shop on the exit, and bought both Elicia and Anya massive toys, an Elephant for Elicia and a Penguin for Anya. Twilight was simply glad that Armstrong had been able to get them half off, because the price for them had been astounding.

Then, after they had finished up there, they had all gone to dinner out at a restaurant. Well, they and the Hughes had all gone out, as Armstrong had admitted he needed to get back to his office to fill out some paperwork. That had at least relieved some of his stress, as he wasn't continually assaulted by the sight of the man's massive pecs, but that had meant he had been forced to more or less speak with an intelligence officer and his wife for another hour and a half. With how much he had been going, adding yet another meal where he could tell that Maes Hughes was subtly grilling him for information had only been more exhausting. Even after that, because they were next door neighbors, they had taken the same taxi home together to save money, and that had only added another fifteen minutes of being observed by the enemy.

Now, he was at home, and he was again feeling the overwhelming weight of his exhaustion covering him. He could only lay on the couch, and hope tjat everything would be over soon.

'How is it that parenting is the hardest job I've ever had?' he asked himself, 'I've infiltrated military bases, climbed up sheer cliffs, and swam across flooded rivers, but I've never been as itred as I am right now.'

He looked over at his "Wife" who looked equally as tired. He looked at her bandages around her arms and legs, and inwardly groaned.

'What are you saying Lloyd,' he chided himself, 'Your wife clearly has had a rougher few days, and yet you are acting like you've been hit by a truck,' he looked her over, 'Though...I wonder if that's what happened to her,' he studdied the cuts along her legs and arms, 'just falling down into some gravel wouldn't be enough to cut her up like tha-'

"Papa," Lloyd was cut from his thoughts by a small voice. He forced himself up on his elbows so he could look over the arm rest of the couch to see his daughter, night cap and pajamas on, staring at him, "I'm going to bed now."

"That's great Anya," he remembered sending Anya to go get ready for Bed, and seethed slightly as he realized what was expected, "Let me," he seized for a moment, as a shot of pain erupted through him as he tried to force himself to his his feet.

'Have to make sure I put her to bed,' he thought to himself as he tried to push past the pain, 'If I can't put her do-'

"It's okay Papa," she said, patting his shoulder for a minute, smiling at him as she walked over towards his head, "I'll go to bed, you don't need to come put me down," she then leaned forward, and placed her lips on his forehead, before pulling back, and finished up by saying, "I love you, Papa. Good night."

...

'Did my heart just skip a beat?'

While he was trying to regain his composure, Anya had run over to Yor, and hugged at her leg. She then smiled, and declared, "Love you Mama. Goodnight."
"Any-" Yor seemed to be caught off guard by the affection as well, trying to push herself forward so she could kiss the little girl on the forehead, before stopping, sighing, and laying back down, "I love you too, Anya."

"We both love you Anya," Lloyd finally said, trying to keep himself cognizant, "Good night. See you in the morning."

"Bye!" Anya was quickly off, and after only a moment, Twilight heard the sound of a door closing from down the hallway. He let out another exhausted sigh, before looking back fully at his "Wife". She looked absolutely flabbergasted by the whole show of affection from the little girl.

'Honestly,' Lloyd thought, 'I can't even really blame her.'

"So," Lloyd spoke up, "Been about a week of married life," might as well try and get a review of the process while it looked like she was in her best mood, "How is it treating you so far?"

"It's been," Yor seemed to consider everything for a moment, trying to place her hand under her chin, but freezing, and placing it back down after some discomfort, "It's been...different," she then stopped, and sputtered for a second, "It's been good! Very Good! You're daughter's great," she then stared down, "But...It has been making me do things that I normally wouldn't."

"Like the zoo?" Twilight had seen a glimpse of exhaustion when she'd been told they were going straight to the zoo instead of back home from the train station. Clearly her Saturday hadn't been easy, and the thought of walking around with a daughter for a full day hadn't been that enjoyable for her. And Yor confirmed it with a nod, and Lloyd could see the exhaustion all over her face, though he could also almost detect some guilt.

"I like the zoo," she said, somewhat absently, "Though, I was kind of hoping that I'd have a bit more time to rest after the job this weekend," she looked away for a second, a bit of a blush on her face, "It was really difficult, and I needed some time to think about it."

"...Anything you can talk with me about?"

'Might as well offer while we are stuck here,' Twilight thought, really not wanting to move a muscle. Yor looked at him, before shaking her head.

"I don't think you'd understand it too much," she laid back on her chair, "I was just given a difficult assignment, and I don't know if I succeeded or not. I don't guess I'm just questioning my worth a bit," she groaned, "I mean, not only did I fail at my work yesterday, but," her eyes seemed to wander next door, "I guess...I just see the way Gracia just seems to glide through being a Mom, the cooking, the planning, the constant presence and control," she looked back down, "And I can't help but feel..."

'Inadequate,' Twilight finished for her in his head. Honestly, it should have been obvious that she was comparing herself to Gracia, the only other wife and mother she'd ever really interacted with, what with being an orphan and all. Yor was experiencing natural anxiety, and that shouldn't have been too much to worry about, 'I'll just try and help calm her.'

"Yor, there is no need to compare yourself to Gracia," Twilight said aloud, catching Yor up and getting her to look at him instead of at the floorboards, "Gracia has been a mother for two years, you haven't even gotten to your second week. I understand that it's a bit of a confusing situation I've put you into, but you are doing great so far. We wouldn't have them as friends if it wasn't for you," Twilight thought about how if he had had another wife, he'd probably have had to be neighborly to Hughes, but to have actually ingratiated themselves with the information officer's family wouldn't have happened, "And Anya adores you. You are still learning to cook," he could hear Yor wince, as "learn" was probably a bit too generous a description of how Yor was doing with cooking, "But no mother is good at everything. You just need to keep trying to learn and grow, and you'll become a better mother than you already are."

He could see Yor relax the further he went on. Her eyes seemed to dilate slightly, and the tension in her shoulders seemed to release. She let out a sigh, and then pushed herself up from her chair. She stretched her arms above her head, trying to push out some of the stress in her body, before smiling at him, and walking over.

"Do you need help getting to bed?" she asked, offering a hand to him. Lloyd smiled back, and took her hand, and she firmly pulled him to his feet, "Upsy Daisy," she almost laughed, catching him before her surprising strength could put him off balance, "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure," Lloyd Forger smiled, as the two of them got to their feet, and walked towards their separate bedrooms. Lloyd was thankful they didn't share a room, having some space to think would be a good way to just let himself space out in privacy for a bit. Just as he was about to open his door to privacy, however, he heard a small cough. He turned back, and saw a blushing Yor, whose hand was firmly on the door knob to her own room.

"Lloyd...do you reall-I mean, do I loo-" Twilight blinked. Finally, the woman just sighed, before saying, "Never mind, it's a dumb thing to ask anyway."

"Whatever it is," Lloyd answered, trying to maintain his mind from his exhaustion, "I'm sure remember what it was soon."

"It's not that I'm forge-"she stopped and tapped her bottom lip, "Huh, I think I am forgetting something," she stared at the ground for a moment, trying to think of what she had forgotten, before sighing, and saying, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure if I can't remember it now, it wasn't anything important," she then opened her door, and quickly pushed her way into her room, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Lloyd answered, finally pushing his way into his own room, and soon, into a restful sleep.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Good morning Maes," Captain Focker said as Maes Hughes wandered into the intelligence office. Maes couldn't help but smile as he waved at the dark skinned man. They'd been working together for over two years now, and they'd both more or less adopted one another's work schedules. Both up bright and early, both out early and often. Maes never pried on why Focker acted this way, but it was ultimately a good base for a work relationship.

"Morning," Hughes sighed, before picking up his coffee, sitting down, and reading through a report, "Anything on that Twilight case?"

"Nothing really," Focker sighed, clearly as frustrated as Hughes was, "Last check was he was in the East, but we haven't heard about anything in particular in almost a month," Focker sipped his own coffee, "Sly bastard just won't give himself away to us."

Maes groaned. One of the reasons he'd gone out East was to try and dig up any intel on that Crestan spy, yet with everything with the Elric Brothers, Scar and Lloyd, he'd never had any time to really investigate Twilight. He'd been run ragged by the different balls he was having to juggle, and he was beginning to worry he was letting a fox hang out in a hen house.

'And yet...,' he thought, 'something's changed in his pattern,' he looked down into a file he had on Twilight, almost all of it only on the missions he had completed, rather than anything about his appearance or personal history, 'His behavi-'

"Ah, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, Captain Focker," a young voice cut through the room, and Maes felt himself smile. He looked up, and saw one of his favorite subordinates, 2nd Lieutenant Yuri Briar, entering the office after taking a week of leave for extra training in the South. Only in the military for eighteen months, he was a hard worker, who had adopted Maes's schedule in order to advance as quickly as possible. The sort of go getter who actually was competent, rather than just using energy to push himself up the ranks for their own sake, "How are you doing this morning?"

"Doing fine," Focker said, and Maes nodded in unison. Yuri, his eyes widening, caught the file in Maes's hand.

"Sir, any breakthroughs in the Twilight case?" and Maes just sighed, shaking his head at the question, which caused Yuri's expression to fall.

"Nothing really," Maes flipped through it, "Just feeling like I had the guy, and yet, he's changed up the pattern," he said aloud, and got looks of confusion from his colleagues, so he elaborated, "Twilight is probably the hardest working Crestan I've ever seen. The man just won't stop working, it's insane. A week couldn't go by without him blowing up some supply depot or stealing security communications. And yet now, he's been quiet for almost a month," he shook his head.

"Think he might have been caught and just shot without anyone figuring out it was him?" Yuri offered, "It's not like anyone knows his name. Maybe there was just someone that a random guard or citizen thought was a thief, and they shot him themselves?"

"I wouldn't bet on it," Maes shook his head, "No...more than likely, something big is coming up," he stared at the file, "I just don't know what it is..."

"Well, I just hope it isn't in East City," Yuri growled, "My sister is there. I'd hate for her to get caught up in one of Twilight's schemes."

At that, Maes blinked. He looked over at Yuri at Yuri, and could tell from the younger man's expression that his face was showing some kind of disbelief. After catching himself, he looked Yuri in the eye.

"Don't you remember?" Maes asked, "Your sister moved here with her husband and daughter."

Maes could tell from the way Yuri's eyes first constricted into prinpricks, and then bulged almost out of his skull, that he had just said something very, very wrong.

"MY SISTER'S MARRIED!?!"

Chapter 22: Last Days Before School

"What do you think Mama?"

Anya smiled as she twirled around in her new school uniform. She and Papa had gone and picked out the special dress on Saturday, and she was now proudly showing it off to Yor. But Mama was very excited, as she clasped her hands to her cheeks while watching Anya twirl around like a dancer...until she fell over and hit her head.

"Ms. Anya!" Mama shouted, jumping over and picking Anya up so she was right again. Anya herself felt kind of dizzy from the fall, but she shook her head to get her head back to normal. Mama still looked down at her scared, and finally asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Mama," Anya groaned, rubbing where she'd managed to bonk her head, "I just hit my head a bit."

"That's good."

'I hope Anya didn't hit her head too hard,' Mama thought, her eyes watching the small bruise on the little girl's head, 'A concosion, even a light one, can cause massive damage to the brain. It's why if I can-'

'Brain Damage!' Anya thought in horror, the image of a pink organ appearing in her minds eye. Then a large bat appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the pink think, that began to richochet all around her mind. She fell to the ground, and held her head a bit, as the image alone was enough to cause pain in Anya's head. She felt tears well up in her eyes, and began to rub her hands against her head.

"Maaaammmmaaaa," she whined, and soon was scooped up in her mother's arms, who did her best to hold her up. Yor began to walk into the kitchen to the icebox, and pulled out a large chunk, placing it on the spot where Anya had hit her head. It stung a bit at first, but it soon began to hurt a less.

"There," Yor smiled, rubbing the ice in circles around Anya's head, "This should get rid of most of the pain.

'Ice is always good at bringing down swelling,' Mama was now remembering a time when a big guy grabbed her arm and slammed it into her side, 'It can even heal broken ribs after a massive wound.'

'Mama's scary,' Anya once again confirmed to herself. Yor continued to rub the ice on Anya's head, while walking back into the living room.

RINGRING

"Oh, who could that be?" Mama asked herself, looking over at the phone as it shook on the small side stool next to the chair Papa usually sat in. She was about to walk over to pick it up, when she looked at her arms, and recognized that Anya was still in them. She looked around for a moment as the telephone rang again, and then looked at the couch, "Ms. Anya, I'm going to have to set you down for a minute while I get to the phone, okay?"

"Okay Mama," Anya nodded.

Mama sat Anya down on the couch, and then pulling up Anya's hand so it was holding the ice to her forehead. After a second, Anya nodded at Yor in understanding, and Yor smiled back at her. She then turned on her heels, and, nearly jumped for the phone, since it was already on it's sixth ring. It would be rude to just leave the caller waiting.

"Hello," Yor said aloud, "This is Yo-oh, Yuri, it's so great to hear from you!"

'I haven't been able to talk to my little brother in weeks,' Mama thought happily. Anya felt her jaw drop.

'Mama has a brother!?!' she thought, before stopping and thinking blankly for a moment, 'Wait, did I know that already?'

While Anya considered whether she actually had heard her mother really think about her brother before, her mother was smiling as she nodded, with the phone in her hand. She let it rest on her shoulder for a minute, as she walked over to Anya, stretching the chord that attached the phone to the receiver as she came back to Anya. She pulled up the ice, and nodded, and Anya could see that the swelling for the bump where she had hit her head was going down from her Mama's point of view.

"I'm glad you took a bit of a vacation," Mama said, responding to her brother telling her about his last couple of weeks and why he hadn't been able to get a call, "You've been working so hard, getting up to be a second lieutenant," Mama was smiling, "You deserved a break for a while. Did you have a good time in West?"

She nodded for a few seconds, her smile maintaining itself as Anya could hear the scrambled sounds of a voice on the other side. Once the voice stopped, she continued.

"That's great to hear. It must have been really exciting to get to go on that hiking trail," she then stopped, and her smile became a straight line across her face, "You did bring enough to eat, correct," the voice spoke up again, "Oh, that's great, glad to hear that."

Mama then picked up the ice chunk, and tossed it through the door into the sink. She had accidently tossed it a bit too hard, as it slammed into the back of the container, and Anya could see a small dent in the back of the bowl from the impact. Mama raised her hand to her face, and covered her mouth in shock for a moment, before looking at it more closely, and sighing.

"At least it's not too noticeable," she said offhandedly, before suddenly jumping as the voice on the other hand spoke up again, "Oh, it's nothing Yuri, I just might have damaged the sink a bit," the voice seemed less frantic, "Yeah, you know, I can be a bit of a klutz at times."

"Oh, how have I been doing?" she repeated the question, "Well you know, I've been great," she stopped, and began to sweat, "Have I been up to anything? Well I-"

'Has he found out about my job as a hitman?' she asked herself, her shoulders shaking and suddenly thinking about herself in her assassin dress and what Anya guessed was her brother in front of her, pointing a finger at her while in the blue soldier clothes, 'If he's found out something like that, then he-'

"Oh," she was caught off, and suddenly some of the fear in Mama's eyes went away, "Oh, yes, I am living in Central now," she nodded smiling, "Of course, I'd love for you to come and meet my husband. I'll have to find a time later this week, maybe Friday?" the voice seemed to accept that, and then a last set of words came from inside the phone, "Okay, I'll let Lloyd know we're having you as a guest this Friday. I can't wait for you to meet him," she looked down at the coach, and blinked, "Oh, and Anya to, of course."

There was another burst of sounds from the other side of the phone, which caused Yor to nod once again, "Yes, he has a daughter. I'm actually with her right now," she smiled, "Well I'm trying. I had a lot of practice with you," she laughed, before nodding one last time, taking a second to twirl her front hair part with her fingers, "Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing you too. Bye!"

She did a small wave as she hung up the phone. She then stood there, completely still for a minute, her hand still on the phone as her mind was completely blank. Anya slowly peaked inside her Mama's mind.

'IFORGOTTOTELLHIMIFORGOTTOTELLHIMIFORGOTTOTELLHIMIFORGOTTOTELLHIM' her mind was just one long burst of sound, that almost threw Anya herself back on the coach. After regaining her bearings, Anya couldn't help but shake her head at her Mama, who she could only now see was shaking from remembering what she had forgotten.

'Mama might be scary,' she sighed, 'But she's kind a dumb too.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Man, good thing we found Sheska," Ed nodded as Alphose walked beside him. They had just hired Sheshka, a ex-employee to of the 1st Branch Library with a photographic memory to copy down all the notes he could remember from Dr. Marcoh's notes. Honestly, it was a miracle they'd found her, especially since she'd been stuck under a pile of books that might have eventually crushed the poor woman.

"Yeah, but if she really knows her stuff," Edward said aloud, taking in the breeze as he and Al made their way through the park, "Then we have a real chance of getting our hands on a Philosophers Stone."

"And with that stone," Alphonse added, gripping the gauntlets of his metal body incredibly tightly, "We'll be able to get our old bodies back."

Ed couldn't help but laugh. They were getting close. Really close. And once they found out, he could finally return his brother to the way he should be, and make up for the mistake he made back then. Honestly, he had to say, it was actually happening a lot quicker than he might have thought. While he'd always been feeling like he should have found the answers to the truth by now, he knew that it actually was a massive undertaking, and that the fact he might get his brother back in his body before a full five yeas had passed would have to be classified as a miracle.

'You hear that you blank bastard,' he cackled inwardly, 'Don't think you can look down on me anymore. I've figured out the "Truth",' he then stopped, 'Or at least, I've almost got it figured out. Just need to get that set of notes.'

"Brother?"

"Oh, it's nothing Al," Ed waved his hand, "Come on, let's head across the courtyard and-"

"Edward Elric!" the two brother stopped. And then the looked over their shoulders. Ross and Brosh, the two guards that Major Armstrong had left them with were only half dozen yards behind them. Edward growled to himself.

'I'd thought we'd managed to ditch them,' he cursed to himself, increasing the pace of his gait as he tried to get further away from the two of them, 'Darn busy bodies. Scar hasn't been seen anywhere near Central, and I have my arm back. Why do we need guards now when we aren't in any real danger?'

The two Elric Brothers quickly picked up their pace, zipping along the sidewalk, and taking a turn down the nearest alley. It was unblocked, so the two made their way through it quickly, though from what Ed could hear, he knew that the two junior officers were still right on their heels. He slammed his hands together, and then into the wall to their side, and created a small wall behind them,. This caused Maria Ross to scream as she was suddenly cut off from her charges. Ed smirked at Al, who just shook his head.

"That was really mean, Brother," the armored boy said, continuing to run, though his pace was slowing, "They're just trying to do their jobs."

"And I don't care," They quickly turned onto the next street, and he turned to his left, looking back at Al, "Come on, if we run do-woah!" and before he could charge down that block, Ed suddenly felt himself be picked up by the coat. He looked back, and was about to yell at Alphonse, when he heard a cough.

"Excuse me," Ed looked back, and saw a woman with bright orange hair and sun glasses looking over at the two brothers, with one eyebrow raised over one of the lenses. Her hair was done up in a ponytail, and her dress and coat were fairly in season. She was tapping her foot on the ground, a small bag at her side, "I believe you were about to run into me."

"Ah," Alphonse still holding up his Elder Brother, waved his free hand, "Sorry about that Mam," he said rubbing the back of the helmet that served as his head, "We were just in a rush."

"Hmmm," the woman looked them over for a second, staring intently at the Edward as he hung from Alphonse's grip. She then pointed at Edward, her expression remaining neutral, "Oh, I was wondering where I recognized you from before," she said aloud, "You must be Major Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist."

"Oh yeah," Ed smiled, glad for a second that she was certainly pointed at him, and not at Alphonse. The term Fullmetal just seemed to cause people to think it was the guy in the armor, and at times Ed wondered if Fuhrer King Bradley had chosen that title specifically because it would so easily cause people to confuse his younger brother for himself, "That's me. How'd you know?"

"Well for one thing," she said aloud, adjusting her glasses, "You are rather shor-"
"Who are you calling a little maggot you arrogant jerk!" Ed suddenly felt himself have to be grabbed from around his waist by Alphonse's other free hands. He knew he was making a scene, but just couldn't help himself. He only go angrier when he saw that the woman in front of him got a little smirk on her face as she watched him struggle, "What are you smirking about. You shouldn't make fun of people for things they can't control you heartless monster!"

"Oh," she let out a laugh, but even in Ed's induced rage, he could tell there wasn't much mirth in her voice, "I was just laughing at what this country calls it's greatest weapons," she held up her face, and suddenly, Ed could see her pupils even through the tinted lenses of the sunglasses, "Some power Amestris is, when the next big thing is nothing more than a childish brat."

Edward grit his teeth, and not just because he'd been implied to be short again. This woman was really starting to piss him off. He banged on Al's arm, and the giant let him down. He looked over at the exceedingly tall woman, and glared up at her as she bent down to look him straight in the eye. He felt a blood vessel bulge, but he kept his cool.

"Weapon huh," Ed countered, looking over her, "What makes you say that?"

"That's just what you are," the woman stated, "That's what all you alchemists are. That's what all the state alchemists are. You may have the blood of a human being, but in reality that's just the oil keeping a bunch of new tanks running," she adjusted her glasses, allowing Ed to see the glare of her eyes, "You're just one more gun that Fuhrer Bradley has pointed at the world."

"You sure are a ray of sunshine," Ed spat out, making sure to not give an inch, "And yeah, I'm part of the military, but I'd never use alchemy to hurt innocent people."

"Ha," the woman barked, "I'm sure the alchemists said that before they went to Ishval," Ed growled at the implication, "But I can assure you that didn't matter to the women and children who were killed there," her glare became pointed, "But that's just what the military is. They're people who kill to enforce their vision of the world on everyone else. When you sign up to be a soldier, that's ultimately what you are doing. Signing up to be a murderer."

In his mind, the faces of Armstrong and Hughes, both of whom went out of their way to help him and his brother, flashed across his vision. edward gritted his teeth, and gripped his automail hand tightly together.

'This woman's really starting to piss me off,' he thought, not even bothering to look up at her, 'What the hell gives her the right to talk about them like that.'

"Ed," Ed felt Al's hand on his shoulder, "We should be getting a move on-"

"Oh, and what's this," she bit further, this time her eyes directly on Alphonse, "I guess you must be his brother I've heard so much about," she looked him up and down, "I suppose he must be dragging you along so you can smash anyone your brother needs to," Ed could feel Alphonse step back for a second, "Just another attack dog, doing whatever your tells you to do. At least your brother has the guts to actually sign away his soul. You on the other hand will commit the same acts as he does, but resign yourself to simply being his tool," her glare became even harsher, "You might as well just be a third arm of hi-"

"Shut up!" Ed shouted, advancing towards the woman, pulling free of Al's grip. Part of him wanted to slap his hands together and call up his blade from his hand, but another part wanted to punch her, and that seemed easier, "Don't you dare talk about my brother like that."

"Brother," The woman began to advance to, the distance between them disappearing, "You don't treat this thing like your brother," her face was a full on sneer, "If that was your brother, you'd never have brought him along into military missions in the first plac-"

"Halt!" the two stopped, and Ed turned around, and saw Maria Ross standing a few feet behind Alphonse. She was panting, obviously having run around the buildings considering that the previous alleyway had been blocked off by his alchemy. She was clearly angry, but she wasn't looking at Ed or Al, but rather at the woman standing across from her. Ed looked back at the woman, who was if anything even angrier than she had been. The two stared at one another for a second, the entire road becoming quiet.

"Sergeant Ross," the woman's voice was as like a particularly unpleasant belch.

"Administrative Assistant Sherwood," second lieutenant Ross responded. Ed could see the woman's eye twitch, "It has been a while."

"Yes, one year, eighteen months, since you were assigned as the guard of Cresta's embassy?"

"Only eleven months actually," Maria marched her way forward, and before long put herself between Ed and this Sherwood woman, "Of course, you don't pay attention to such things, do you Sylvia?" she then smiled, "Though one would think a secretary would actually care about dates and things like that."

"Oh, not for things like the last time I saw you."

Ed and Al slowly began to back off, the tension overwhelming the street as the two women stared at one another. Maria continued to glare directly into Sylvia's eyes, before smiling, "Well, I suppose information was never your strong suit," she then smiled, "Afterall, if it was, you might have been more helpful in our investigation of Stirrup," she put on her kindest smile, "Good thing you were there, your confession helped up put him away on espionage charges."

Sylvia stopped, and her eyes flared in rage. She opened her mouth to say something before turning on her heels and marching down the street the opposite way from Ed. He blinked for a moment, and then looked at 2nd Lieutenant Ross, who glared at the woman retreating from their view. Finally, when Sylvia turned the corner, the tension dissipated from Maria Ross's shoulders, and she slumped over, only to be caught by Alphonse.

"Thank you," she sighed. Ed was stunned that the panicky woman who had been following them around had been able to project such fierceness, and while this was closer to what he would expect from her, he still quite couldn't put the woman he just saw together with the Lieutenant. After she caught her breath, she added, "Please stop running from us, we're just trying to do our jobs."

"Who was that woman?" Ed asked, looking down the street where Sylvia had just disappeared.

"That woman is Sylvia Sherwood," Maria stated flatly, some ice returning to the back of her voice, "She is officially the assistant administrative attaché to the ambassador from Cresta. Mostly a secretary, like I said," she stopped, then added after thinking it over while looking around to make sure no one was listening in, "Unofficially, she's the head of all Crestan espionage in Amestris."

"Huh?"

"Shhh!" Maria pulled her finger over her mouth, "Only a few people know that," she looked down at the ground, "Hell, I only know it because of bad luck."

"Bad luck?"

"About twelve months ago, during an ambassadorial meeting between the Fuhrer and the representatives of Aerugo, Cresta and Drachma, there was a bombing."

"What!?!" Ed felt his shoulder jump, "Someone tried to kill the Fuhrer?" the image of the eye patch wearing man entered his head.

"Yes," Ross nodded, "Didn't get too close though, the bomb went off outside the meeting room, and it didn't manage to get anyone inside of it," she shook her head, "Did kill two military policeman that were guarding the entrance when it went off though," Ed could see something drop in Maria Ross's eyes, "I'd served with both of them for a few months."

"I'm sorry," Ed said.

"Not your fault," Maria's eyes then hardened, "No, really it was that woman's," she groaned, "We found that a Crestan agent by the name of Stirrup had been the one to plant the bomb in the car that was supposed to kill the Fuhrer. It took some digging, but we found him out," she shook her head, "We arrested him, and brought him before the whole of the Crestan staff, and every single one of them declared him to be a rogue terrorist. We didn't have any proof of actual government connections, just rumors, so we arrested and executed that spy and went on our way."

She lifted her right hand to her mouth, and bit her thumb, "I was the guard during the interrogation of the Crestan staff. We had roughed up the spy, and put him in front of Sylvia, and asked her if she recognized him. We told her if she had any information, we might be willing to reduce his sentence. I was actually helping Colonel Hughes on the case, and let me know right before the interview that she was the one who actually ordered the assassination attempt."

"And she just stood there, looked at the man she'd ordered to plant the bomb, and said she'd never seen him before in her life."

Ed looked down. That meant, when the chance had come, Sylvia had allowed one of her spies to be taken into custody and killed as a terrorist, when she might have been able to save his life.

"So," Maria Ross continued, "I don't want you to ever take any sh*t about being a military dog from that bitch again," the harsh language caused both Ed and Al to flinch, they'd never heard 2nd Lieutenant Ross use language like that, "Anyone who would so callously toss away their comrade like that...doesn't have a place to talk about morality."

...

"Lieutenant Ross," Alphonse spoke up, looking down on the woman who was resting on a stair from one of the apartments on the side of the road, "I'm sorry you lost your friends."

"Yeah," Ed sighed, "It couldn't have been easy keeping your cool when the person responsible was standing right in front of you."

"...," Maria sighed, before smiling, "Thank you both, that means a lot," she forced her way back to her feet, and looked down at her watch, "It looks like we're almost past five. Brosh should have the car ready, so we can go to dinner pretty soon if you two would want."

"Yeah," Ed looked back over his shoulder, wondering where Sylvia Sherwood, if she was a spy, had been going when they had run into her. He looked up, and saw alonside the apartments, a general store, a cigarette shop, and, if he had to guess the most likely location, a seedy bar near an alley way. The bar would likely be a good place to meet people without anyone noticing. He glared at it, and his mind turned to the woman who he'd just met, "Let's get out of here."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So you forgot to tell your brother you got married?"

Yor nodded, a sweat over her forehead. She'd been nervous all day, since the call had happened only an hour after Lloyd had left for work. After it, she'd kept wondering how she would tell her husband about it, and also how best to plan for what was going to be an unusual confrontation.

"It just...slipped my mind," she finally admitted, her body shaking, "Everything's been so busy, what with moving here, and then my job this weekend," she groaned, "I meant to call him last week, but..."

Lloyd was rubbing his chin, clearly in thought about how to handle this new curve in their relationship. Yor began to groan, rubbing her temples as she looked down sadly at the ground, 'I'd thought I was getting the hang of this. I'm so stupid!'

"I can see how it would be hard to deal with," Lloyd finally said aloud, relieving at least some of the stress in Yor's head, "Still, this might be a problem."

"I can't just tell him I was trying to expand my social circle," Yor groaned, tightening her fists together as she imagined her younger brother's shocked face, "The way he acts, I think he'd panic if I married someone I didn't actually plan to marry," her mind went to the image of her brother in his Amestrian Blues standing over Twilight tied to a chair, "He might go to far with interrogating you if he thought you were taking advantage of me with this relationship."

Her brother was wonderful. A kind and diligent young man. She'd been very proud when he'd been accepted into the military, and relived when she had learned that he'd been sent into intelligence instead of the front lines. The thought of her little brother being shot and killed in some far off trench terrified her, even with all her experience as an assassin, so the thought of him as desk clerk in Central had given her quite a bit of hope. But now that she was in Central, she could imagine her younger brother, in the spirit of defending his elder sister, going too far with his power to interrogate her new husband.

"Hmmm," Lloyd's expression changed, though instead of a frown like she'd been expecting, it was a small smile, "Don't worry, I have an idea," he walked over to a nearby map, and pulled it up, "When Anya goes to school tomorrow, we'll go take a few romantic pictures with a photographer nearby the school," he pointed on the map, "to make the whole relationship seem more realistic."

"Pictures might help," she nodded, "But Lloyd, we're married and sleep in different rooms."

"We'll lock your room and say it's still storage," Lloyd smiled, "My bed is big enough that he'll probably believe we sleep in there together."

'Sleep...together,' Yor thought.

...

'SLEEP TOGETHER!' She screamed in her head, feeling heat rush all over her face. For a second, she could almost see a blush on Lloyd on for what he had said, but he seemed to quickly push it down, 'Don't just say things like that Lloyd! I'm not ready for this. I'm an innocent flower, and I'm not ready to deal with dirty stuff!' She almost felt a need to pull out a needle and stab him.

"He'll be gone by the end of the night, and we can sleep in our own rooms once it's over," Lloyd nodded, and most of Yor's internal freak-out died. Still, she could feel the heat along her cheeks, and she could tell that Lloyd was trying his best to accommodate her. Realizing that, almost made her cheeks heat up more.

'AH!' she internally screamed, 'Stop acting weird body. Stop acting weird! You shouldn't blush because he's saying you don't have to have sex with him!'

"And best of all, we have three full days until he arrives," Lloyd placed a hand on her shoulder, "This will be easy. We just need to keep a clear head about it, and it'll all be fine."

"Are you certain Lloyd?" she asked, finally regaining her voice. She wanted to make sure she hadn't already managed to blow up this "connection". She honestly really like living with Lloyd and Anya. Lloyd was an incredibly polite man who was always sure to offer support in what she had to do, and Anya was an adorable little girl that she couldn't help but love.

"Positive," Lloyd nodded, he then looked at the clock, "Oh, eight fifteen, let me go make sure that Anya is in bed. We have a very busy day tomorrow," he smiled at her, and she smiled back. Honestly, with all that she was worrying about dealing with her brother, meeting the rich families tomorrow suddenly didn't seem like that big of a deal. Most of these people were just rich. They weren't family like Yuri or Lloyd.

...

'Oh no,' Yor's blush heated up again as she watched her husband walk down the hallway towards Anya's room, 'I'm starting to think of him as my family,' she began to shake her hands, 'I think I may have already gotten in too deep.'

Chapter 23: First Day of School

"Ready Anya?" Twilight looked down at the little girl, who was doing her best to stand straight.

"Ready Papa," she answered. She patted down her new skirt, a black outfit with a gold rimmed edge, and then looked up and smiled at Twilight. He had made sure to iron and press the school uniform the night before, and had made sure to have a proper breakfast ready for the day. He'd also gone out of his way to pack her up with all the supplies for the day, new notebooks, fresh pencils. She was absolutely all set for the biggest day so far in Operations Strix.

"Ready Yor?" He looked at his "wife". She smiled at him and nodded.

"I am ready Lloyd," she adjusted her head band. She was wearing a tasteful but clearly well made pale pink outfit over a blue blouse. It wasn't too expensive, didn't want to possibly seem to gaudy, but it was clearly also what one might call, her Sunday best. It was also what would look good for pictures on a date, so when they would take a brake during lunch to go and get pictures for showing off their relationship.

"Great," Lloyd smiled, taking Anya and Yor by their hands, and marching out into the street, to the car he'd rented to take them to the center of Central, and to the school where Operation STRIX would come to a head, "Then we're off."

The ride over was fast, less than ten minutes, but spending the money on this was important. It would mean they would arrive early, a full twenty minutes before the school was supposed to start up, and would avoid any kind of disruptions that could smear their appearances. Making a good first impression was as high a priority as there could be, so he was going to take no chances.

Once they'd arrived, they got out, and looked over at the school house. It was just outside the East Gate of the Central Command Complex. Honestly, that it was this close in was surprising, but he imagined that it was easier and safer to have Selim Bradley be within shouting distance of a platoon of Central Soldiers. The building of the school itself was three stories tall, about one full block in size, surrounded by an eight footwall, with a wrought iron gate out front. There was a courtyard with several playing surfaces in the front, plenty of trees. Ultimately, it fit perfectly with the image of a highly specialized schooling environment. Probably enough room for students from ages six to twelve, one class of two dozen students for each age grouping.

Outside the gate stood a very tall man, with a long goatee, dressed incredibly formally. His hair was white with age, and he was observing the cars as they drove in. Students older than Anya would simply bow and go into their class, while those that were Anya's age were joined by their parents, and pulled to the side alongside the exceedingly tall man. Before long, the Forger's car pulled up besides the group, and the three of them got out onto the sidewalk. Lloyd made sure to do his best to help Yor get out as gentlemanly as possible, and they both lifted Anya out.

"Anya Forger, I presume," they stopped, and looked at the exceedingly tall man, "And you must be Lloyd and Yor Forger," he held out his hand in front of Lloyd, "I am Doctor Henry Henderson, Headmaster of Central Academy," Lloyd took the hand, and made sure to give a strong but not too overwhelming grip, "I will also happen to be your Daughter's instructor this year."

"Oh," Lloyd said, not pushing too much. It would be rude to pry, and obviously it was better to let Doctor Henderson explain.

"Yes," the man nodded, "It was a special request of the Fuhrer himself," there was a hint of pride...though also some trepidation, "With Selim Bradley arriving here soon, it would be a shame to not give him the fullest attention possible," he then looked down at Anya, "Of course, I will strive to make sure that equal attention shall be given to your daughter and her other classmates as well," he then stood up straight, and though he couldn't see it beneath Henderson's massive moustache, Twilight guessed he was smiling, "To do other than that would be quite inelegant."

"We appreciate the opportunity to be here," Twilight gave a slight bow, and smiled inwardly as headmaster's muscles constrained his approval of the gesture.

'Need to make sure that the Headmaster has a positive opinion of us,' Twilight considered, taking in the surroundings, including some dozen or so different students around Anya's age, 'Will make it far easier to ingratiate ourselves into this group of aristocrats and millionaires.'

Operations STRIX had a huge budget for a singular operation, and it had meant that any of the costs that he encountered during the mission could mostly be written off. But the simple fact was that their family was designated as part of the middle class of Amestris, it was easier to fake someone not from high society, and because of that, it meant that he and his family were entering a situation far outside their current social status. All of these students would come from highly connected or super wealthy families, the ones who could afford the best tutors and could devote the money to supporting pushing their children into this program. As the lowest member of this group, he was going to need to form as many favorable relationships as possible, and having one with the head teacher would at least offer a connection to the other families.

'Still,' Twilight smiled as he saw Anya curtsey like she'd been instructed, and Henderson nod in approval, 'This is only step one,' they marched up to the other students, and stood next to them, 'We need to be ready to charm anyone who shows up.'

"Ah, Mr. Desmond. It's a pleasure to see you once again," the name immediately pulled Lloyd out of his inner thoughts. His fears were confirmed when he saw a tall , exceedingly thin man with a squarish hair cut above shaved down sides. He had a massive moustache that seemed to cover his entire mouth. Yet it was his eyes that were undeniable. They seemed both to sink into his head, yet always be open, like one was looking at the eyes simply sitting in Donovan's skull itself. They mixed with the scars along his temples to make him appear as though he were a corpse.

'Donovan Desmond,' Twilight remembered the man's dossier from an earlier mission, "Retired Captain from the Amestrian Army. Honorable discharge after a grenade nearly blew his head off during the Second Southern War,' the scars on his body certainly seemed to indicate that he still hadn't fully recovered from the ordeal, 'Former Head of the National Union Party before disbandment of all political parties by Fuhrer Bradley in 1907,' it was a fairly obvious power move by the Fuhrer to declare all factionalism dead, one that allowed him to rule Amestris with an iron fist, 'Still the most vocal critic of Fuhrer Bradley due to this issue, and his own imperial nature,' he glared at the man, 'Wants to invade and conquer both Cresta and Drachma, declaring Amestris as the world's greatest Superpower.'

"Your school has proven to be an institution capable of guiding skilled youth to their potential," Donovan's voice was quite deep, and even Twilight felt like her was hearing the sound of the reaper himself, "Demetrius was able to master his skills enough to become a state alchemist after studying in these halls," he then waved his hand down at a small boy next to him, "This should be the correct place for Damian to find his talents moving forward as well."

The boy next to Donovan was thus surprisingly normal. Well, normal for an exceedingly wealthy and well dressed boy, but normal all the same. He had somewhat curly black hair, and a small smirk on his face. Yet Twilight could tell he was doing his best to be disciplined next to his father. The comparison to Demetrius, Donovan's first son, caused Damian to stand just a bit straighter, to make sure he was measuring up to his older brother. His father didn't seem to look down, but the two marched over, and stood next to one another. And in one of the most unusual moments, Twilight noticed something.

For all that it was Damian who was trying to measure up to a standard, he could see that it was Donovan who was actually stiffer. His walk was stiff, he eyes were constantly moving back and forth, and his fingers were gesticulating back and forth slightly. He was doing his best not to look anyone directly in the eye, but it wasn't because he thought he was better than them...well not fully. Rather...

'He's nervous,' Twilight could see the stress in Donovan's movements, 'He's not comfortable being out in the open like this,' he remembered what he could of Donovan's profile, 'He's actually famously private. Yet it's also a reason he is unable to make allies, especially since most people who he would ally with get most of they want from the far more gregarious Fuhrer,' he almost sighed to himself, 'Trying to form an opposition is hard enough, but even harder when it turns out you are an introvert.'

"Ah, welcome," Once again Henry's voice cut Twilight out of his thoughts, and his eyes widened, as Operation STRIX's target was finally in his view. A small boy with short black hair and a big smile was walking alongside an older woman with tied back brown hair and a few wrinkles around her mouth. Selim Bradley and the Fuhrer's wife were standing in front of Doctor Henderson, "I must say, it is a pleasure to finally meet you Lady Bradley."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," the woman gave him a small nod, her smile remaining in place. Her son followed her motion, and smiled up at the tall man, "Selim, will you introduce yourself?"

"Yes Mother," the boy's voice was earnest, and inherently respectful. His expression didn't change at all, before raising his hand up to Doctor Henderson, and shaking it when the old man took it, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm looking forward to this school year."

'What a polite young man,' Twilight was pretty sure that the kid had been instructed to say that, but he managed to say it with what seemed to be complete sincerity. Still, he had to wonder-

"I must ask," Henderson spoke up, looking around, "Where is the Fuhrer. Will he be able to make it today?"

"Oh," the Fuhrer's wife spoke up, a frown forming over her face, "Unfortunately, my husband is busy this morning. There is currently an investigation of the burning of that library, and he's been working on it for a bit," she looked to the ground in disappointment, "He's been working so much lately, I'd wish he'd take some time off, he's not as young as he used to be," she then forced a smile, "Still, I think he will try to catch up as soon as he can."

"I hope he will as well," Henderson nodded, and then waved his hand, and Selim and his mother walked over, and joined the group. Twilight looked specifically at Mrs. Bradley, and tried to comprehend this woman as the wife of one of the most vicious dictators in the world. She seemed so much like an ordinary, if rich, woman you would encounter on the street.

However, he was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts, when he felt something shaking in his hands. He looked down at Anya, whose eyes were glued to Selim Bradley. And they were filled with fear. Twilight felt his eyebrows raise. He was about to reach down, and ask Anya what was wrong, when suddenly he was interupted.

"I believe we have ever-," Henderson said aloud, only to stop, and look over the crowd, "We are missing one student."

And then the single largest limousine of the entire day showed up. It was almost as long as two other cars, and on it's front, was an ornament of a very muscular figure with a cowlick on it's for-

"Oh no," Twilight said, only to blink, and turn to face someone who had said the exact same thing. It had been Donovan Desmond, who was looking at him with shock.

"You to-"

Donovan was caught off, when suddenly the door opened, and out came the most unusual boy. His face was actually quite normal, short brown hair and well made but common glasses. What was shocking about him was the rest of his body. He was as tall as most ten year old's, and it wasn't just height, but actual muscle. Twilight could almost swear he could see the creases of the uniform clinging to the boy's arms. He looked up at the headmaster, and stuck his hand out.

"Good morning, I am William Watson," the boy stuck his hand out, and spoke with a voice far too deep for a child his age, "Though my friends call me Bill."

Twilight almost felt the weight of the world come off his shoulders. Watson, so he wasn-

"Hello William," Henderson said without even seeming to consider to use the shorter version, looking around, "May I ask where the major and your mother are?"

"They unfortunately couldn't make it today," Bill said, also ignoring that the professor had ignored his request to use his shorter version. He then grew a massive smile, "However, my uncle was able to be here today. Uncle Alex!"

"Oh g-"

Twilight's curse was cut off as out of the limousine came the familiar massive hulking frame of Alex Louis Armstrong. He was in his military blues, and looked quite presentable, but there was not mistaking that man. He smiled, and reached out and grabbed Henderson's hand for a shake, who was clearly somewhat stunned to have run into a man who was taller than he was.

"I must offer my family's gratitude for taking Bill here into your program," Major Armstrong said aloud. Twilight could see that Bill was actually looking up at his uncles, and the trademark sparkles were reflecting off his eye glasses now, "My sister couldn't make it, but I am always proud to spend time with my nephew, and make sure he gets the best schooling he can," and then he was flexing, the sun shining off his massive pecs, "High Educational Attainment is a value passed down the Armstrong Line for Generations!"

...

"Why did he take off his shirt?" Twilight heard Mrs. Bradley asked while he held his face in his hands.

'And just when I thought I'd finally made it past the hard stuff.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

Anya wasn't doing well.

She really wasn't doing well.

Why?

'I can't believe I'm still stuck here with these brats,' she heard one mind in particular speak behind her, as they were shown to their main room, where she would be expected to be studying for the rest of the year, 'If I could, I'd slice them all up and end this whole charade right now. But I can't until I find out which brat opened the Gate...'

'No one said I'd have to go to school with a dark person!' she internally screamed at her Papa, who unfortunately couldn't read minds himself, so he couldn't realize just in how much danger they were in, 'He wants to kill us!'

The instant Selim Bradley, the one her Papa had always wanted her to befriend, had stepped into view, she had realized that he was just like those other two she'd run into, Lust and Envy. This one called himself Pride, and he was bigger and scarier and darker than either of those other too. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to run away. She wanted to cry.

But if she did...

'He'd kill me if he found out,' she thought, desperately clinging to her mother's hands, as she knew she was probably the only one in the whole room who might be able to get away. Not even her Papa spy could stop that, and Mama could only probably take her away, 'And...he'd probably be able to find me and kill me as soon as he could.'

"Hey," her mind was pulled away by a new voice. It was a little girl's voice, rather than the voice of the dark person that was pretending to be a child. She looked over to her right, and saw a young girl with brown pigtails and a nice hat, "It's okay to be nervous. You don't look like you're used to this sort of thing?"

"Th-this sor-" Anya blinked as she looked at the other girl, who gave her a big smile.

"I mean," she said quietly, pointing at Anya's shoes, "Those shoes are nice, but they also are really out of style," Anya looked down at her black shoes, and then over at the girl's own pure white ones. She looked around, and realized that all the other little girls had the same white shoes, "Your parents aren't in the know about Central Fashion, so I'm guessing your lower class."

"Ummm..."

"It's okay," the girl flipped her hair back, "I may like fashion, but I'm not stuck up about it," she then smiled, "I'm Becky Blackwell, nice to meet you."

"I'm Anya," Anya tried to smile back, and the way that Becky nodded, she must have pulled it off.

'Blackwell,' she heard Papa's thoughts, 'The arms manufacturer,' he looked around, 'We really are surrounded by the elite of the elite.'

'Papa,' Anya wanted to scream at him, 'Focus on the dark person who can kill us.'

"Are you okay?" Becky asked, before pulling up at Papa's arms, "Excuse me, Anya's Da-" when Papa turned around to look at her again, she stopped.

'He's gorgeous!' she shouted in her head. Anya blinked a few times.

"Did you need something?" Papa asked, looking at Becky intenstly. The girl blushed, looking away.

"Um...Mr. Anya's dad," she then pointed to Anya, not looking Lloyd in the face, "Anya doesn't seem to be doing well."

"Really," Papa looked over at Anya, his eyes growing wide, "Is something wrong?"

'Is she sick again,' his mind seemed to race so fast that Anya could feel her head spin, 'Maybe stress causes her to get sick. Like getting on the trai-but what about the exam. She got through that just fine. Someth-' Anya, desperate to get away just for a second from the Dark Person who was mere feet away from her, leaned forward to her Papa.

"I have to go to the bathroom," she said as secretively as she could. Lloyd blinked, and then slapped his head.

'Of course, I forgot to make sure she went b-never mind,' he then looked over and was about to reach out to the tall teacher, when Becky pulled again at his coat.

"I know where that is," she said shyly, not wanting to look Anya's papa in the face. Her Papa smiled, and then nodded at her, which suddenly caused Anya to hear a massive string of symbols and numbers. Becky then grabbed Anya by the hand, and dragged her down a hallway. Anya, while not feeling better, did at least feel a little better as the thing known as Selim Bradley disappeared from her view. It took only two minutes, but soon they were inside the girls bathroom.

"How are you so lucky to get such a handsome dad?" Becky complained from outside the stall as Anya sat inside it. She still felt woozy, and honestly a little sick, "I mean, I want to have a dad that good looking...okay, I don't want a Dad that good looking," honestly, Anya couldn't tell exactly what the girl was getting at, so she just ignored it.

She finished up, cleaned herself, and then got off the toilet. She flushed, and for a moment, she just stared at the whirlpool that occurred when the toilet was flushed. As she stared at it, she felt her head begin to spin. A second later, she fell forward, too dizzy and sick to stop herself.

________________________________________________________________________________________

When Anya woke up, she was back in the white place. The great void, where she had gone the last time she had gotten sick.

No Place.

And as before, she could see the door, the still open door, hanging in the air. She felt herself shudder, and quickly turned around.

"Hi there!"

And in front of her, was a little white girl. No, not a girl with light skin color, but a literal girl made out of white. The girl waved her hand for a moment, and on her face was a big smile. It was too big, much too big. Anya felt her stomach drop, and was really glad that she had already peed. She took a step back, before suddenly the smiled disappeared, and the girl held her hand forward.

"Wait," the voice was high pitched...but also deep. It was like nothing Anya had ever heard before. Even the thoughts of the dark people hadn't sounded like this, "Just stay still for a moment. I need to talk to you."

"Who are you?" Anya finally spoke up, pointing at the white girl, "My Mama told me to not talk to strangers."

"No she didn't." the girl said, the smile returning, "And even if she did. Our Mama's an assassin who lies about her job. I'm not she's the best person to ask about proper behavior."

"Don't talk about Mama like that," Anya snapped, before covering her mouth. The thing just stood there for a minute, before it burst out laughing, slapping it's knee, and continuing to smile. And yet...Anya was feeling better. Despite this thing being as creepy as any of the dark people, she felt like she was okay. Like she wasn't in the same danger as before. But just to be..., "I can't read your mind."

"Of course not," the little girl pointed up to Anya, look at your ears.

Anya blinked, and then twisted her head. Where her ear had been, was a black cloud, that seemed to follow her ears. She twisted again, and again she saw the miasma around the sides of her head. She then turned around, and saw that the cloud extended from her ears, into the middle of the door. She stared at it, before remembering what she had seen the last time in the door, and turning back around. The thing was smiling, but different now, smaller, and...sadder.

"You see little one," suddenly, the form began to morph, where once was a little girl, now just existed a great white cloud. The smile was gone...but it felt better to look at it now, because it just seemed more right, "Your gate of truth is stuck open. Everyone has a door, but most of the time it's shut. By some accident of birth, you were born with it open, and that allows you to have constant access to the Truth."

"The Truth?"

"Or rather, a connection to it," the thing continued, not bothering to explain, "This open connection allows you to connect beyond the normal parameters of a human being. You can hear their mind and soul through the Gate. You can connect to the minds of other humans, and doing so you can see how they interpret the truth. So you read their mind."

"So...was that what they were trying to do in the Dark Place?" she asked. For her whole life, she'd always wondered why she could read people's thoughts. If this was the reason, she had to know more, "They made it so I can read peoples minds by going through this thing?" she pointed up at the Gate again. The blob of white seemed to smudge, like it was seeming to consider the question.

"They were trying to open the gate, but in a different manner than you constantly having access to it being open. Such a thing has not happened before...at least in your time," Anya stopped, and nodded. So something strange had happened. That's why the scientists had considered her a failure at the dark place. So...they'd probably gotten really close to what they wanted.

"Wait," she then added, "Is this the gate Selim was thinking about. Were they looking for me?"

"Yes."

"But I don't want the Dark People to look for me!" Anya shouted. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes, "I want to have a family. I want to go to school. I want to make friends. I want people to like me, and to never have to deal with these stupid jerks ever again," her tears were flowing freely now, "I just want to be left alone."

...

"I know."

And then the cloud grew, and for a second, it got so big, that it filled the whole void. Anya began to look around, but the door was no longer there. The big blog suddenly picked her up, and surrounded her. But it wasn't scary...okay it was scary, but not scary like it was when Pride or Lust looked down on her. No, just that there was something this big.

"I know this is far too much to ask of a child like you," the voice wasn't just big any more, but it suddenly sounded different. There was Papa talking, and Mama too. There was Edward and his brother. There was Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, and little Elicia too. Becky, Henderson, Armstrong...Lust, Selim, Envy? There were so many voices, like every person there was was speaking to her, and just to her, "You asked for no part in this. There was no ambition. No arrogance. No hubris...just a small girl, born to an unfair world."

"That is the Truth," the infinite voice continued, "And the Truth is unfair. You are owed nothing...," Anya felt her heart break in two.

"But neither are those "Dark People"," the infinite continued, and she blinked, "At this moment, they are committing crimes that deserve justice. Their victims deserve retribution...and you deserve to survive away from them," she blinked, "This is an opportune moment girl. For the first time in millennia, I am able to speak to someone who has not earned divine punishment. Whose hubris hasn't lead them to arrogantly claim the throne of God," and then, a smile appeared in the massive void around her. But it was not a massive creepy smile, but a content, sad one, "I shall help you."

"Really!"

"I said I would, didn't I," it laughed. Suddenly, a hand seemed to appear, and grabbed the cloud around her ears. It twisted and turned it, and then slowly inserted it into only her left ear. She blinked.

"That should concentrate it so it won't mess with your equilibrium," the All declared, "You will be able to read their thoughts without getting sick again."

"Awesome!"

"These things are looking for you, for their Father's plan revolves around access to the Gate," it continued, "You must ensure they do not discover it is you that has access. The Gate being still open gives you a window into the secrets of alchemy that they crave."

"Was that why I was able to pass the test?" Any couldn't help but ask.

"Correct. That test is why they know to look for you. You must be careful. You have not seen the truth, so you do not have access to the powers of alchemy beyond mortal comprehension. You are unable to use the alchemic skills to defend yourself, and must not give them information they may use to capture you."

"Okay," Anya had already been planning to not reveal that she knew any of the alchemy stuff, it was weird, and she didn't want to be noticed.

"Finally" the infinite added, "Do not fear the thing calling itself Selim Bradley when you are in the open. He is attempting to remain passive, and should news of his existence get out, the "Dark People's" plans would be made far more difficult. If you feel the need to confront him, do so, but without alchemy."

"Ummm...," she took a step back. She hadn't been planning on even getting close to Selim. She'd already had enough of them, and the thought of maybe fighting the worst of them made her feel a bit sick.

"I understand your fear," the voice continued, "But what they are planning will destroy all you hold dear. Be prepared to oppose them when the time becomes right, and strike him."

Anya still felt fear, but she nodded. If this thing, who helped her not be sick anymore, said she would have to strike out at Selim, "She would."

"Now go," the voice said once more, and Anya felt herself be pulled from the back of her neck, "And say hello to Edward Elric for me. I should be seeing him again soon."

"Wait, I don't even know your name!" And once again, a massive smile appeared before her eyes, one that seemed to cover the whole of the horizon. It opened it's mouth, and laughed one last time.

"I am the Truth!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Uh," Anya groaned, holding her head just where she had landed on the toilet. She rubbed the spot, and groaned. Yet she was still standing, like hitting the toilet had bounced her back up.

"Are you okay?" Becky asked, worry in her voice, "You sound like you hit yourself."

"I'm fine," she said, turning around, and coming out the door to the stall. She walked over to the sink, and washed her hands. Becky walked up and joined her, looking over her for a second, before shaking her own head. As she finished washing her hands, Anya looked over at Becky, and asked, "How long has it been?"

"Oh," Becky looked up for a second, and thought, "About five minutes since we left the group," she looked back at Anya, "You were pretty quick in there."

'But I was speaking with the Truth for a long time,' Anya thought, 'Was that all in my head?'

"Come on," Becky grabbed Anya by the sleeve, "We can go and try and find everyone else."

"Right," Anya nodded.

It took a few minutes of searching to find the rest of the new class. Because the group had been moving, they had made it to the main classroom. The two girls opened the door, and Dr. Henderson looked over, and nodded at them. He pointed up a flight of stairs to two desks, where both their sets of parents were standing. Becky nodded, and then grabbed Anya by the sleeve and dragged her up the stairs, and to their desks. Following Becky's lead, Anya quickly pulled out the chair, and sat down. She looked over to her Papa and Mama, both of whom nodded as she sat down. She sighed, and looked forward.

Sitting down, still maintain his outward composure, was Selim. He was in the front of the classroom. He was smiling, his mother keeping a hand on his shoulder, all the while he was raging inside, 'Shut up old man. Let us go on break so I may begin my interrogation.'

Anya gulped, but tried to force herself to sit up straighter. Truth had already helped her, and she was probably going to have to deal with Selim anyway, she would need to be strong. She tightened her hand into a fist.

She would be ready for him.

Chapter 24: First Day of School Part 2

They would remain in that room for around two hours, with Henderson giving an overview of the topics they would discuss throughout the next year, having dismissed the parents so they could finish their business for the rest of the morning. What sort of grades were expected of them, the daily schedules, specific school behaviors, and other things like that. Honestly, it was way too much for Anya to care about, especially when she was sitting a few yards away from Selim Bradley.

When the clock stopped at eleven, Henderson clapped his hands together, and he took the students to the lunch room so they could get food to eat. After about a five minute walk, they were in a massive cafeteria.

"Your class shall eat every day at eleven in the morning," Dr. Henderson stated, walking the children along a long counter, "You will then be allowed one hour to eat, though I would recommend you get your food quickly, the second set of students will be coming in at eleven twenty, and you don't want to have to wait in line and have less time to eat," he pointed behind the counter, "There will be three choices of entree every day. Today we have Turkey Sandwiches, the pork stew, and of course," he adjusted his monocle, and looked over at a type of pasta that looked quite green, "The quite elegant Chicken Aerugo."

The children all lined, up and soon they had filled their trays with their choices of food, alongside a drink and either fruit or a salad. It took only a few minutes before Anya and Becky were sitting at a small table, close to one of the windows so Becky could look outside. Anya enjoyed her stew, it wasn't as good as Papa's food, but it was better than Mama's so she was fine with it.

"They really do only give the little kids the cheapest food huh?" Becky said offhandedly, playing with her sandwich, "This sandwich bread is clearly a couple of days old, I wonder if they even baked it in a proper oven?" When she looked over at Anya, Anya just blinked back at her in surprise. Becky herself blinked a few times before almost jumping a bit.

'Oh crap, I forgot she's middle class,' she said aloud, before coughing, and composing herself.

"Of course, it still tastes good, and besides," she gave a glance back at the counter that had held the food, Dr. Henderson staring at the still untouched pasta dish, "At least we weren't forced to eat that Aerugo stuff. It's mostly just vegetables, I swear the last time I had that there wasn't any chicken in it at all."

'Why do these children have such inelegant taste?' Anya could hear the professor inwardly weep. She might have tried to get some of that...but the stew sounded better, and she like pork more than chicken anyway. She slurped up the next spoonful of stew.

"So," Becky finally cut in, "Did you hear about the kid who got a full score on the alchemy exam?"

"Uhhhhh," Anya's mind nearly cut out, and she was just glad that she didn't have any stew currently in her mouth, "full score?"

"Yeah," Becky leaned in, whispering in Anya's ear, "I hear that one of our students is actually a genius when it comes to alchemy, cause that's the only way they'd get a score that high."

Anya gulped, 'If Becky knows that someone got that high a score...then everyone probably knows,' she looked over at Selim Bradley, who was surrounded by a big group of students, easily over half the class, 'and he definitely, knows...I have to find out a way to make sure he doesn't realize it's me,' she looked at him closer, and her eyes widened as he looked directly at her, sweat pouring down the back of her head, 'Does he think it's me?'

'Obviously not the pink haired brat,' she heard the monster in Selim think aloud, quickly turning it's attention elsewhere, 'A child that dense looking couldn't possibly be the one who opened the gate.'

'Oh thank Truth,' Anya thought, sighing.

"Yeah, Selim Bradley huh?" Becky was smiling as she looked over at the group, a mixed look on her face, "My Dad kind of wants me to try and get close to him, for the good of the family, you know," Anya stared at Becky as she said that, before Becky sighed, "Right, middle class. Most everyone here was desperate to get in because they wanted us to be friends with the son of the Fuhrer," she looked over at him, "But...well, he just seems so phony to me. Like one of those guys putting on an act to make everyone like them. I hate people that fake."

'You...noticed?' Anya thought, looking at Becky. She never would have guessed if she couldn't have read minds.

"I mean, and some girls say they want to marry him," Becky continued, flipping her hair, "As if...why would anyone want to marry any boy at all. They're all just squat little losers," she then caught herself with her hands, "Not like real men, like your dad," she placed the back of her hand on her forehead, "He looks just like what my radio soap heroes."

'Mama has competition,' Anya just stared dumbly at her new friend, before shaking her head as she watched Selim get up from his chair, and begin to walk towards her table. She felt herself freeze up, only for it to vanish as he passed their table. She took a chance to read his mind as he passed.

'It has to be that boy,' Selim's eyes were pointed forward, 'His family's history and his loner attitude mean that he is the only one would could possibly have gotten through the gate.'

Anya stopped, and looked up towards where Selim was heading, and saw a single boys sitting by himself at a table next to the exit, a sandwich half eaten as he was looking at a book. He flipped through a page in the book, and was far too engrossed to noticed that the Fuhrer's son was approaching him.

'To move electrons between matter,' Damian, if Anya recalled, read from the book, 'One must be able to break the bonds of the at-'

'He's reading an alchemy textbook,' Anya realized, her mind recognizing exactly what those words meant. The gate was still open, so she kind of knew alchemic knowledge...she then thought about it, and inwardly she threw her arms up in triumph, though she had enough self control to not do so with her real arms, 'He is suspecting someone else completely. I'm safe!'

She pushed further into the boy's mind, 'Gah, he shouted inwardly in his mind. How does Demetrius know this stuff. I can barely understand any of it, and yet by the time he was my ag-'

"Hello there," Selim said aloud, smiling as he walked up besides Damian. Damian blinked, and quickly shut his book. The boy looked at his classmate standing over him, giving him a soft glare, "It's nice to meet you. Your Damian Desmond, right?"

"Yeah, what about it," Damian shot back, and Anya heard Becky give a small gasp. Anya looked over, and she quickly leaned in to Anya's ear, while keeping her eyes on the two.

"I know the Fuhrer and Damian's father hate each other, but I would never have expected Damian to just be that rude to the Fuhrer's son," she shook her head, "I understand not sucking up to Selim like the other kids, but being rude to him. It's like he's wasting the only opportunity to get on the next Fuhrer's good side," Becky seemed to shake for a second, "My parent's would kill me if I talked back to Selim like that."

'Father needs me to be the best student this year,' Anya read Damian's thoughts as he looked Selim dead in the eye. The scary image of Damian's father staring down at the boy appeared in his head, but he didn't flinch, rather glaring harder, 'So I'm going to study so hard, I'm going to make my eyes bleed. I will surpass you Selim, and I'll show you Bradleys what strength there is in the family Desmond.'

"I see you have an alchemy text book there," Selim continued, not changing his friendly tone as he looked over the closed textbook, "An introduction to the Alchemy, by Nicolai Flamei," he returned his attention to the boy still sitting down, "A bit of light reading then?"

"Yeah," Damian looked down at the book, his mind trying to catch up to the question, "Just something I'm trying to pick up."

'Fool,' Selim cackled on the inside, and Anya was really glad Truth had fixed her mind reading abilities, or just hearing all those voices mixing screaming and laughing would have hurt, 'You've already revealed yourself,' he nearly licked his lips, 'Now just to get you to admit you were the one who got the full marks on the alchemy test, and I can get Father to end this whole charade and lock you down in a cell beneath the streets. I'll finally be free,' Anya saw dozens of eyes and rows of teeth in her minds eye, all laughing as the twisted through Selim Bradley.

"Now, that seems silly, that's a really advanced book," Selim laughed. Damian looked down, and for a second a smile came over his face, "With how much you are reading already, you probably did really well on that alchemy section of the exam, huh?"

"Oh, I did pretty good," Damian smiled.

'I think I got like, thirty of the questions right,' Damian thought. I had no idea about the sections of the tree of life or things like that, but most of the elementary stuff is stuff my brother showed me,' he then seemed to get darker, 'But I can't just keep following my brother. I have to do better. And the only way to do that i-'

"I knew it," Selim pointed at Damian's face, his smile growing, and Anya could tell that he was barely containing his inner glee, "You must be the one who got the perfect score."

"...I don't know what you're talking about," Damian said, looking away immediately. He let out a growl as Selim walked over to that other side, and continued to stare at him, "I didn't get a perfect score. I did well," he held up his hands, "But, I didn't know some of the harder stuff."

"Oh, come on, don't be so modest," Selim laughed, though she could tell there was some anger in his words, "You're clearly the only one in this class that has exposure to that level of alchemy. Your brother is almost a state alchemist. He just has to pass the final exam for it, and my father will be giving him his watch."

'I know,' Anya could suddenly see a scene in Damian's mind. On one side was Damian, and another his father, 'Father seemed excited when he heard that someone got a perfect score. But when I told him I didn't...he just said it was disappointing,' he gripped his hands together, 'I'm just a disappointment to him,' he then looked Selim Bradley directly in his eyes, 'So that's why I have to beat you. If Demetrius couldn't be the youngest state alchemist, then I will. I'll beat Fullmetal, and show Father I am no disappointment. And the first step towards that is being number one in the class with the Fuhrer's son.'

"My brother is certainly successful," Damian said aloud, "And I'm going to do my best to be like him. But I won't do that by spending time chit chating with you. So if you'll excuse me-" Damian pushed himself to his feet, and grabbed his book. He made for the door behind him, likely to return to the classroom, when Selim's hand landed on the door too, keeping Damian from pulling it towards him.

"I guess your brother's successful," Selim said aloud, clearly not letting Damian out of this conversation, "Though, I guess he's always dealing with being number two huh?"

"Wha-"

"I mean," Selim laughed, "It can't be fun to always be compared to the Tiny Alchemist," Anya could hear the laughing continue inside Selim's mind, "Fullmetal's already achieved everything Demetrius set out to do, and did it three years younger. Despite being a guy from the country, and your brother having some of the finest tutors in all of Amestris."

"Don't you talk about my brother like that," Damian snapped, raising his hand a bit, before putting it down to his side, "My brother's career has nothing to do with anything."

'Can't lose my cool,' Damian thought, 'Father always tell us that Desmond's are always in control of themselves. Letting this little punk get under my skin woul-'

"Oh, I believe it does," Selim continued, "After all, that's what your family is always obsessed with," he almost poked his finger into Damian's face, "Your father and your brother are always trying to climb up above their natural place, beyond their talents, because they think that their family name gives them the right to that honor," Selim twisted his head to the side.

'He's right,' Anya turned her head, and looked at Becky, who was staring at the whole confrontation, 'The Desmond' are a powerful family...but they've always been trying to reach the top. They've always come late or early to anything that matters, and they've never even had a member of the General Staff.'

Anya looked around, and saw that the entire crowd was looking at the confrontation between the two boys. Many of the other children, including the massive Bill Watson, were similarly looking nervous, all of them looking around. Anya herself tried to look back at the counter, to see if Dr. Henderson could help, only to see there was no adult in sight.

"So here you are," Selim continued, and Anya could tell he was actually giving Damian a sneer, "Trying to climb, just like the rest of your pathetic family. Just another little parasite on Amestris."

"SHUT UP!" Damian shouted, "Don't you dare look down on my family!"

'Got him,' Selim inwardly smirked, 'Now for one final push. Just ask him to show you the alchemy, and when he calls on the gate's power, you can let him take it out on me. Once he's arrested for assaulting me, I can just go ahead and hide a way for a while, while we lock this little brat up,' she could hear the screams in his head grow louder as Selim's voice laughed, 'And if your family objects, we can just arrest them, and kill them. I'd love to see your face when we tell you, Damian, you stupid little cretin.'

Anya felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

'He...they're going to kill them?' now that she thought about it...they'd killed the scientists at the dark place. So...maybe they'd kill that whole family to, and take Damian away and lock him up.

Her body moved before she realized what was happening.

"So why don't you show me why I shou-" Selim's cackle was suddenly cut off, as a fist impacted his cheek, and his head slammed into the door he was holding closed.

The room was silent.

Anya's fist was currently where Selim's head had been not a few seconds earlier. She stopped, and realized what she had done immediately as she pulled her arm back, realizing she had just punched Selim Bradley. Part of her was happy. Truth had said she should be ready to confront Selim and the other Dark People...yet for some reason, she couldn't help but feel a bit like she was forgeting som-

"ANYA!" she heard a scream, and turned back, and stared as she saw Papa standing in the doorway at the front of the cafeteria. She blinked for a second, and then saw what looked like Mrs. Bradley staring in horror at the sight of her boy on the floor.

"Uh oh."

________________________________________________________________________________________

For the past two hours, he and Yor had been busy at the photography shop, taking pictures to create the image for Yor's brother of a loving couple. They'd put on multiple outfits, been in numerous poses, and basically made it look like they'd been dating for almost a year. It had only taken an hour or so of their time, and they were quickly ready to return to the school, photos in hand.

They'd been told to return to the school so they could pick their children up, to surprise the children with only having to be in school for one half day as a reward for paying attention. It had seemed like a nice policy, one to allow for a slow integration into school life. He and Yor had managed to pleasantly meet with the other parents, and he'd even managed to greet the Fuhrer's wife politely.

"Really," she said as they all walked down the corridor to the cafeteria, "You're a psychiatrist?"

"Yes Madame Bradley," he gave a tilt of his head, doing his best to not only meet the behavior of a gentleman, but also one from Amestris from around two and a half decades earlier, as a way of making himself seem more appealing to this older woman, and likely a font of information. She laughed slightly, though she seemed in complete control, not fluttering like some other ladies of a similar age he'd had to flatter while on other missions.

"Please, call me Dana," she laughed. Twilight suddenly felt Yor get closer to him for a second. He looked back at her, and she had a slightly uncomfortable look on her face. He quickly filed it under her feeling uncomfortable near someone of such a high rank, and he inwardly knew what to do.

"This is my wife Yor," he introduced, and waved with his hand at his "wife". Yor blinked for a second, before nodding, and holding out her hand, which Dana Bradley took and shook.

"It's nice to meet you dear," she smiled, "You two look like such a darling couple," Yor seemed to blush at that, and Twilight was simply glad that someone like the Fuhrer's wife bought their relationship. Meant it was believable to normal people, "Though, if you are a psychiatrist, I must get you to meet with my husband sometime."

"Really," Lloyd Forger nearly choked. Twilight's mind began to race through the possibilities of getting to directly interview the Fuhrer in a doctor's office. The chance at such knowledge couldn't be passed up.

"Yes," the older woman frowned, rubbing the side of her cheek, "I'm worried about him. He seems..." she stopped for a second, "Melancholic."

"Ah," Twilight was furiously stuffing any personal knowledge he could manage into his skull for later. Lloyd nodded, "That can happen to men as they get older. They feel their bodies begin to give way, and they feel like they are no longer the same person. Especially if they were physical, active men earlier in their lives."

"Is there anything you can do?" Mrs. Bradley asked. They were coming up on the door to the cafeteria, with Dr. Henderson only a few feet behind them, making sure to keep an eye on the whole of the group as it approached their children.

"If you can get me a time on his schedule," Lloyd pushed open the doors into the cafeteria, and was greeted by a mostly empty room, with only a group of around 20 children against a door further back in, "I am sure I ca-"

SMACK

Lloyd stopped at the clear sound of a fist connecting with flesh and bone, and turned towards the children, where the sound originated. The fear in the back of his head grew, as though he already knew that the worst possible thing that could of happened had. And as he looked at the exact location of the sound, he saw a little girl standing with her fist outstretched, and Selim Bradley lying beneath her.

Oh, and she had pink hair.

"ANYA!" Twilight could see the whole of Operation STRIX die before his very eyes. Months of work, ended by a childish fight. If he was lucky, Selim would be okay, and they'd just be kicked out of the school. If they were unlucky, he'd be arrested, and they'd investigate him so thoroughly that they'd probably find enough to arrest him. Wouldn't that be a great joke, that they caught the great spy Twilight on such a stupid little thing.

"Selim!" Lloyd was pushed out of the way as Dana Bradley charged over to her downed son, who seemed more shocked than anything, "Are you okay!"

"Mother," Selim said aloud, again, mostly in shock rather than pain. He looked over at Anya and glared at her. His secondary hope, Operation: Best Buddies, was surely dead even if Anya did remain in the school. And with the anger that would surely emerge from Mrs. Bradley, he could probably kiss his session with her husband goodbye.

'It only takes the failure of one second for months of successes to come crumbling down,' Twilight considered in his despair.

"Anya," he saw that Yor was up next to their daughter. She was looking at Anya's stance, and then asked, "Why would you go and punch Selim. You aren't supposed to attack your classmates."

"Bu-"

"I believe I can spread some light on that."

Twilight had heard that voice before. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight, and a cold sweat cover his hands. The door to which Selim had been hit opened, and out stepped a well built man in a blue uniform. Twilight recognized the man instantly, the straight black hair, the massive moustache, the slowly developing wrinkles, and the eyepatch over his left eye. Mixed with the unmistakable voice that every resident of Amestris had heard over the radio, there could be no doubt that Fuhrer King Bradley was right in front of him.

Right after Twilight's "Daughter" had punched his son.

'I'm going to die,' Twilight nearly felt his knees buckle, but the shock managed to keep him upright.

"School yard fights are unacceptable behavior," the Fuhrer began, "While martial skill and grit are important qualities of the people of Amestris, they should not be displayed in school," he stood directly over Anya, and he could see the girl begin to quiver while his shadow was cast over her head, "Do you understand Ms. Forger?"

Anya, still quaking, nodded her head, and said, "Yes sir," Fuhrer Bradley continued to look down at the girl for a moment, his eyes boring into both the little girl, and Yor, who was doing her best to try and inch between the country's ruler and her daughter. He then coughed into his fist, and turned around, now facing his son.

"However," Selim seemed to be shocked as his father now faced him, "That does not mean I don't understand your actions Ms. Forger."

"What?" Twilight couldn't help but ask aloud.

"Dear?" Dana looked up towards her husband quizzically, any anger in her face having disappeared for confusion. And Selim Bradley seemed even more befuddled.

"What was it you called Mr. Desmond's family?" Twilight could hear a rustling as out of the corner of his eye, he saw Donovan Desmond stand a bit straighter. Only now, did Twilight realize that Damian Desmond was standing only a few feet away from the confrontation, "Pathetic? Social Climbers? Untalented?"

"Uh," Selim blanked. Twilight felt his jaw drop. Had anyone else been accusing the perfectly obediant boy from earlier talking in such a way, he'd have declared it obviously false. But if the Fuhrer himself, the boy's own father said it-

"He said what?" Donovan asked aloud, now standing at his full height.

"You see son," Bradley continued, not even bothering to look back at the other parents, "I was just outside this door, waiting to surprise you and your class for your fist day of school," he moved his head backward towards the alley way, "And just as I'm about to open the door, I hear my son bullying his classmate for simple disagreements between me and that boy's father. You were pushing this boy, trying to get a reaction from him, to make him fight you or say something stupid."

"Selim," Dana Bradley said aloud, and Selim turned his head around, and looked at his mother for a second, the confusion still over his face. The older woman looked quite cross, folding her arms around her chest, and staring down at him, "What's gotten into you?"

"I-I," the boy stammered. He'd probably never been reprimanded like this before, at least not in such a public manner.

"If you are going to be a future leader in this country," the Fuhrer continued, "You are going to have to learn to work for other people, rather than simply order them around and belittle them. You went out of your way to insult your classmate," Selim looked up, and for a second, Twilight thought he caught some kind of defiance, "And you insulted me."

"Wh-how did I-"

"You said that Demetrius Desmond is an unworthy member of the State Alchemists," Bradley cut the boy off before the question could be finished, "Do you have such a low opinion of my ability to evaluate my people, that you'd think I'd let a mere social climber into the most valuable branch of our military?"

Twilight gave a quick look back at Donovan, who seemed to be clenching his fists together. He could almost get why. Donovan Desmond was Fuhrer Bradley's political enemy, and yet right now, both of his sons were being defended by the man he hated so much. The thought of having to have your family's honor defended by your opponent was likely humiliating.

"So, you were bullying your classmate, trying to get him to fight you," Bradley was finishing his explanation, "But then this little girl came and hit you instead," he looked back at Anya, "And while that was very inappropriate," he returned his attention to Selim, "I also can't say that you didn't earn that strike to your face."

"Bu-"

"Dr. Henderson," the Fuhrer announced aloud, and the stately gentleman stood even straighter than usual, "Is there an empty room with a chalkboard?"

"Of course sir," the man placed a hand to his chin, "We have many such rooms, and with this being a half day, we could probably be able to find such a room very quickly."

The Fuhrer nodded, before reaching down, and grabbing both Selim and Anya by their arms. He finally looked over at Lloyd and for the first time in his mission, Twilight felt like he could touch his goal. The Fuhrer walked with the two children over to Lloyd, and then stood in front of him. The near half head in height the dictator had on him only served to make Twilight feel more intimaidated.

"Mr. Forger, if you will have your daughter follow me, I believe I know how we can make sure our children do not misbehave like this again."

________________________________________________________________________________________

It was thirty minutes after that, and all the other children and families had gone home for their half day. Only Lloyd, Anya, Yor, and the Bradley's still remained in the classroom the Fuhrer had dragged them to, and it would still be a few more minutes before they could go home. After all, it was always going to take some time for the children to write one hundred lines each.

Anya was forced to write, "I will not hit people" one hundred times, which would have been a bit harsh to Lloyd's mind, if Selim hadn't been forced to write, "I will not bully and belittle my classmates". Clearly, the Fuhrer was attempting to teach Selim a lesson about starting the whole incident.

'I should just be glad he is trying to be just in his punishments,' Lloyd couldn't help but sigh as the Fuhrer was still watching the two children like a hawk. Perhaps the Fuhrer believed he needed to have his family live up to his expectations for the country, and that meant enforcing punishments on Selim that were harsher because he failed to meet expectations.

Finally, Selim and Anya finished their last lines around the same time, Anya may have had much less to write, but Selim was clearly the faster and better writer. The two turned back to Bradley, who looked over the filled chalkboards, and nodded at them. Twilight vaguely wondered what would happen next, only to be surprised when the Fuhrer's face was transformed by a massive grin.

"Alright, I think you two have learned your lesson," he said aloud, and somehow the tension in the room seemed to dissipate instantly. Twilight took a second to glance at Dana, who seemed to let most of the tension fall from her shoulders as well, "Now, Ms. Forger, I think you owe my son an apology."

"Ah," Anya gasped, looking over at Selim for a moment, before bowing her head, and saying, "I'm sorry for hitting you."

"Very good," then Bradley looked at Selim himself, "And since the other students went home today, I will expect you to apologize to Damian Desmond tomorrow, do I make myself clear Selim?"

For a second, Twilight could swear he saw white hot anger in Selim's eyes, but it was only for a moment, and Selim nodded as well. For a few moments, the room was quiet, and then Bradley turned on his heels, and faced Lloyd directly. He smiled softly at Lloyd, and for a second, Twilight couldn't see the dictator that was smashing Cresta to pieces, but just a friendly older man.

"Now then," the Fuhrer chuckled, "I do believe I haven't been formally introduced to you, Mr. Forger?"

"Right...," Lloyd stuck out his hand, and the Fuhrer took it up, "Dr. Forger actually, I'm a psychiatrist" he corrected, and the Fuhrer nodded his head as they shook.

'Wait,' Twilight observed as their hands moved, 'This grip...it's so strong, and he isn't squeezing.'

"I remember you," the Fuhrer pointed his free hand at Lloyd's face, "From the profiles of all the families, you were the only one I didn't recognize, from around here in Central," Bradley let go of Lloyd's hand, and clasped his hands behind his back, "Very impressive for you to have made it this far with your background," Lloyd nodded at the implication, "Besides this incident, is Central treating you well?" he then twisted his head to look at Yor, "What about you, are you enjoying Central?"

"Yes," Lloyd and Yor said simultaneously, before looking at one another for a second, and then Lloyd took the lead, "It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, with how much as happened, but it's been good for us."

"Glad to hear it."

"Dear," Dana spoke up, and King Bradley looked back at her, and for the first time since he'd blasted into Twilight's view, the Fuhrer seemed a bit taken aback, "Since Lloyd here is a psychiatrist," her voice was demure, but firm, "I think it might be good for you to set up a meeting for a discussion with him."

"Dear," there was mostly exasperation in Bradley's voice...though also a bit of shock, "I don-"

"King, you've been working so hard, and there are nights I don't even see you, you are staying up so late working with the staff," her eyes were both fixed in Bradley's one remaining one, "You have to learn to relax more, or at least talk to someone who can identify if you are over stressing yourself at your age."

"Dana," Bradley clearly didn't want to do this, but as she kept her gaze on him, he seemed to buckle for a moment, before sighing, "Fine," but he held up a finger, as he looked at the clock, "But I'm going to need you to set it up," he then began to look around, before looking up at one of the windows higher up, and marching up the stairway to the window. Bradley then opened the window, and to Lloyd's shock, he looked out of it, as though he was about to jump, "My guards were on break for an hour, and they should be coming in here any moment now. If I'm going to have any peace of mind for my meetings later today, I'm going to have to have some privacy."

Then Bradley flipped out the window...which was likely on the second story.

And just as Bradley had predicted, four men with black police coats over their military blues burst into the classroom right after Bradley had disappeared from view. One of them looked around, and then approached Mrs. Bradley, who didn't seem at all phased by what had just happened.

"Mrs. Bradley, do you-"

"Out the window," she stated, not a hint of an apology as she pointed back with her thumb.

"Ah, he's already outside," the four officers charged out the room, "We need to get to him before he gets away. He can disappear for hours!"

'...Is everyone in this country crazy?'

Twilight considered the family obsessed Information Officer, the Massive Musclebound Major, the Genius Teen Alchemists, and now, the slightly flighty military dictator.

'Yes...yes they are.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Why did she have to ask that?" Wrath groaned rubbing the back of his head as he turned down an alley way. He quickly dived behind a trash can, and hid for a moment, as he heard the very distinct steps of his military officers charge past the opening, and soon heard them disappear. He smirked to himself, glad to have some time where he wasn't constantly being hounded. Though with that request from his wife, "I don't need to speak to a head case doctor. I have more than enough people watching my every move already."

"PERHAPS NOT ENOUGH!"

"Ah, Pride," Wrath felt the tips of his lips turn upward, as he turned around, and saw massive red eyes and rows of razor sharp teeth emerge from the shadows. The body of Selim Bradley was likely still in school, but Pride was still able to come out as his shadows while keeping up appearances for short bursts, especially now that his "mother" likely thought he was embarrassed into silence, "So, how was your first day at sch-"

"SHUT YOUR INSOLENT MOUTH!"

"Quiet," Wrath held a finger up to his lips, "We don't want any bystander to see you."

"You humiliated me," Pride continued, the shadow tentacles slowly but surely surrounding the Fuhrer, "You came in and made me look like a foo-"

"Because you were acting like one," the tentacles were only inches from him now, "Did you really think you would be able to get someone who opened the gate to react to some little bullying like you showed. Honestly, it was rather pathetic if you ask me," he could feel the tentacles climb up his legs, "You were so ready to try and get out of this mission, that you almost ruined your reputation, and perhaps cut us off our next sacrifice."

"I had him!"

"No, you didn't," Wrath snorted, "Honestly, it was actually impressive how that little boy kept his cool," if Bradley could have had an actual son, he might think that one like Damian wouldn't have been too bad, "And can you even be sure it's him?"

"It has to be him," Pride declared, "He's the only one with any kind of background who might have been exposed to a the gate," Wrath nodded at that. That did make sense.

"Well, you will be able to try and build up a relationship with him tomorrow," Wrath continued, before saying, "At least that way you might have a chance to get him to reveal it to you naturally if he really is our sacrifice."

They stood there for a moment, youngest and oldest hom*onculi, before finally the shadows began to recede.

"I swear Wrath," he heard Pride's voice declare as the shadows returned to normal, "I will get you back for this."

Wrath was then left alone in the alley, with nothing but his thoughts. He tightened his fist, and then turned and left the alleyway, checking to make sure the guards still weren't around. When he saw he was still alone, he pulled his sword and cut through the nearby trashcan, causing the contents to spill out. Wrath looked over his handy work, before sighing, and returning his blade to it's scabbard. He then looked back at the shadows, the desire to reveal his ultimate eye and look for any sudden movements building within him, before he shook his head, and finally walked out.

"I'm sure you'll try Pride," he said to himself, glad to just have a moment of a solitary stroll, "I'm sure you'll try."

Chapter 25: End of the Beginning - Part 1

After the hectic first day of school, it had been surprising how normal it had apparently gone for Anya and the rest of the class the next day. No issues had cropped, up, apologies had been given, and by the end of the day, Yor picked up Anya at three. That was the story Lloyd got when get got home at six, and the one he believed because he had used his lunch break to go and spy on her class. When it had seemed to simply be a normal school day, Twilight had rushed back to his office, and completed his appointments for the day, no one the wiser.

He had made sure to punish Anya with no dessert on the night of the first day, but he'd gotten her one on the second, and so they were more or less back to normal by this morning, when once again, Yor would take Anya to her school, while he would be off to his job as a doctor.

'Honestly, he thought,' reading through the file of a captain in the military police who had just left from his appointment, 'Yor seemed to be taking it worse that Anya did.'

Yor had profusely apologized about introducing Anya to self defense, but honestly, he knew she had only done so after a literal kidnapping attempt, so it was hard to blame her. He'd told her as much, but he wondered if it had actually managed to get through to her. She'd seemed so worried about upsetting, and that mixing with her brother coming over the next evening, caused her to be unusually melancholic this morning.

'Maybe I should buy her something nice on the way home from the office today,' He thought, leaning back in his chair, playing with a pen sitting between his teeth, 'She's been trying really hard to be a good mother, and I don't want to discourage her and Anya from building a relationship.'

"Dr. Forger," he heard a small intercom speak up from beside his desk, "You last appointment is here to see you," he heard his nurse's voice come from the other side.

"My last appointment," Twilight turned back to his calendar. He'd forgotten who it was fo-

"Alright, alright!" a familiar voice barged into his office. Lloyd didn't have to look up to know that a short, blond kid was marching into his office, and that he was likely carrying a scowl on his face. Once he looked up, he confirmed that was exactly what was going on, as Edward Elric glared over at him.

"Good afternoon Edward," Lloyd chuckled, as Twilight observed a young woman with short dark hair, a mole, and a military blue uniform standing outside the front door. Second Lieutenant Maria Ross, he believed, "I'm glad to see you again."

"Yeah, yeah," Edward growled. He marched over to lounging couch that he'd set on the right side of his office. The teen kicked his feet up, and was laying with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as he laid there.

'I wish he'd take off his boots before putting his feet up like that,' Lloyd sighed, though part of his wondered if this was an attempt by Ed to punish him for being dishonest earlier about his position, 'Rebellion is the permanent mindset of the young,' he shook his head, before his mind wandered to another young blonde man, 'though my rebellion was a bit different.'

"So Mr. Agent," Edward spoke up, breaking Twilight from his reminiscence, and for a millisecond he became worried, before remembering that Edward thought he was working for someone in Central command, "What's the plan for today? Going to try to keep asking questions about my past, like before we fought Scar?"

'Probably wouldn't be good to go down that path,' Twilight considered, remembering seeing Edward's missing limb and Alphonse being nothing but a suit of armor, 'It's probably not something he's willing to consider divulging. Especially,' he thought back to the accusation Shou Tucker gave to Edward, and Edward's discussion of the parts of a human body, 'If he thinks it might be something that could possibly incriminate him and his brother to Central Command.'

"We don't have to," Lloyd smiled, walking over and getting in the chair next to Ed, wanting to allow the young alchemist to lead the conversation, "You should speak about what interests you. That's what these sessions are meant to help with."

"Fine," Edward finally arrived at, before twisting himself to the side, and looking over at Lloyd, "Why is everyone so insistent that I talk to you?"

"Yes, that can be a tough question," Lloyd rubbed his chin, "I think it's because you've just dealt with a fairly traumatic experience, what with fighting and nearly dying from a terrorist," Ed was willing to give a nod to that, "They probably just want to make sure that you are operating mentally as well as you seem to be operating physically."

"Yeah, physically," Ed said aloud, and Lloyd had the decency to wince. Perhaps it wasn't good to mention physical wellness to a boy who was missing an arm and a leg. Ed then held up his right arm, the one Twilight new to be automail, and squeezed it tight, "I just wish they'd understand that the best way to help myself mentally would be to get a move on. Sitting down like this just makes me antsy."

"Get a move on with what?" Twilight asked, trying to see if he could coax out a bit more. Ed looked over at him for a second, and then Lloyd added, "It might be good for me to understand, because," he looked over at the door, "I might be willing to cut our session short if it seems like doing that work would be better for your mental health."

"...," Ed looked at the door, before nodding slowly at the offer, "You kind of know I joined the military to get me and Al's bodies back, right?"

"Not really, but it makes sense," that would be a good explanation for why a twelve year old would be willing to join the state at such a young age. Take advantage of what the resources the military had to discover the secrets necessary to restore your body and your brother's body. Better reason than he had had when he signed up for service, "So...do you have a lead."

"We think we do," Ed nodded, "The most likely thing to help us get our bodies back is something called the philospoher's stone," Twilight nodded. The philospoher's stone, a supposedly legendary jewel that could both turn any material to gold and provide the elixir of life. It was decided to be nonsense by WISE's classification, though from what Twilight had seen, he wouldn't put out the possibility of it existing, "We managed to find out that the notes to create a stone were in Central's Library."

"Were," Lloyd said, Twilight knowing exactly where the end of this conversation lead to.

"Yeah," Edward formed a similar face to the one he had shown on the platform earlier in the week. It was replaced quickly though, with a small smirk, "Though, we managed to find some copies."

There was a story behind that. He didn't know what it was, but Edward was only giving him the bare minimum of detail. He probably thought that Lloyd would try and investigate where these notes came from, and if he could get access to this important lost knowledge. Which, to be fair, Twilight absolutely would have begun to investigate had Edward said the information's origin.

So, point to Edward.

"But, it took until about an hour ago for the notes to get set up for us..."

"So Marcoh's notes are all like a recipe?"

"That's right," Edward smiled as Sergeant Brosh held up one of the pieces of paper. Sheshka had just finished delivering the notes to them, and now they had set themselves up in a small annex of the third branch library, not far from where burned remains of the first branch still smoldered, "Like I was saying, every alchemist uses a code to hide their secrets."

"Right," Alphonse spoke up, as he set a huge stack of papers on another table nearby, "Brother keeps his notes as a travelogue, and I can't make out heads or tails of them," Edward seemed to stand up in a bit of shock at his own brother's difficulties, "A recipe though, that's relatively simple. Alchemy is said to have started as cooks in kitchens, after all, and it's far more replicable once you start breaking parts of the cipher."

"Still," Ed continued, "This isn't going to be easy, there isn't some accepted shared code for any of this," all the while flipping through the first set of the notes, "It's going to take a lot of inspiration."

"And even more perspiration," Alphonse added, though Ed snorted, mostly because Al couldn't sweat anymore.

"Alright!" Ed shouted, getting out a small pencil, "Let's get to wo-"

"Edward?"

The two brothers turned their heads to Lieutenant Ross, who stood at attention. Despite the time they'd spent together, Ross still tended to fall back to formal protocol when interacting with her "superior". Ed was mostly uncomfortable with it. After all, what fun was it to boss around nice people. Being in charge was only fun when you got to torment jerks, and after their confrontation with the spy lady, he knew completely that Maria Ross wasn't anything close to being a jerk.

"Do you remember that you had something on your schedule this afternoon," she said aloud, not looking Edward directly in the eye, though maintaining a calm demeanor, "You set up a time for today to go to your psychiatrist appointment with Dr. Forger."

"Oh...pft," Ed snorted, before turning his head back to the papers in front of him, "This stuff is way more important. I can go visit that stupid doctor when we have our bodies back."

Ed continued to read for a moment, before he noticed a shadow cover his head. He turned, and saw Alphonse staring over him, crossing his arms as he looked down on his older brother. Ed felt some sweat drop down the side of his face as he looked up at his "Little" brother, and could already guess that this was not going to be a positive discussion.

"Brother," Alphonse said, "You are going to that appointment."

"Al-"

"Don't you "Al" me, Edward," Alphonse continued to hover over Ed, "It's important that you talk about your problems. These notes will be here when you get back, and I can work on them and get things ready while you take an hour to go help yourself."

"I don't need it," Ed whined, and then, as was his right as elder brother, he turned his back to Alphonse and began to read through the next document.

"I'll call Winry to tell her you ski-"

"I'll right, I'll go!" Ed threw his hands into the air, the papers being flung above him. Alphonse took the time to catch the flying notes, and place them back in order, "Can't even get my little brother to not tattle on me anymore."

"If it's what it takes," Alphonse responded. Ed got up, and matched out the door, with Maria Ross walking alongside him. They turned back just outside the door, and Ed gave a small salute to his brother, who gave his own little salute back. They then stopped, and closed the doors, and began to march out of the library. Maria Ross looked down at Ed, who looked back.

"So...is this Winry a girl frien-“

"NO!"

"Well, I understand your frustration," Lloyd nodded, "To be on the way to finding your bodies, and then have it delayed by our appointment must be extremely frustrating."

"Yeah," Ed sighed, continuing to lay on the couch, his eyes on the ceiling, "But...I know they're just trying to help," he kicked for a second, and Twilight was glad to see that the boots were now off of his rather expensive couch, laying on the floor where Ed had thrown them off to, "I just..."

"Go on."

"I can't afford to keep stopping and starting like this," Ed groaned, his frustration seeming to boil over, "I have to keep moving forward, to keep pushing for our bodies," he looked down at his right hand, the automail wrist visible through the glove and sleeve, "If I don't keep pushing, if I spend too much time talking about what I'm thinking and feeling...I'll let myself get caught in the mud, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to climb out of it again."

'The need to be moving,' Twilight considered, trying to categorize Ed's issue, 'Speaks to an extreme guilt, likely to do with his and his brother's bodies. He feels the need to try and make up for it...before he drowns in the guilt.'

"I understand," Lloyd nodded, before deciding to try and offer more support to the young man, "Why don't we make this only a half hour, and you can get back to the library and more important things then?" he then waved his hand, "I have a dinner party tomorrow night," he thought of the image of Yuri Briar entering his home, "So I need to start getting everything prepared. You can tell Al it's my fault."

"Really?" when Lloyd nodded, Ed's smirk returned, "Well thanks Doc. You know, you really aren't half bad...for a government spook."

"I try not to be," Lloyd laughed, though Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Edward would think if he ever truly discovered who Lloyd Forger was.

It likely wouldn't be pretty.

"So," Ed smiled, "Any other questions?" he looked over at the clock, "We still have fifteen minutes to make this seem believable."

Lloyd rubbed his chin, before thinking on it for a moment. Then he remembered something, and looked at Edward, and remembered that the alchemist was still a teenage boy.

"So this Winry girl," he noticed Ed's face heat up, "If you are in a relatio-"

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So," Becky leaned over to Anya, both of them working on a set of math problems from their desks which sat right next to one another, "Why do you think Selim is so interested in Damian?"

Anya looked down, and listened into the thoughts from the dark child, and again shook her head when she heard the monster inwardly curse about the idiot children he was surrounded with. Just because it no longer hurt her, didn't mean she liked to read Selim's mind. Most other minds could be interesting in how much they fluctuated, but Selim seemed to only have one thought process, how much better he was than everyone else around him, even the teachers.

"I don't know," Anya answered, and Becky quickly nodded at that. After their first day, Becky had decided that from then on, she and Anya were best friends. Anya had been rather shocked at this declaration, but since it gave her someone to talk to, she had accepted it quite quickly, and had come to really like it when Becky was talking, because usually it meant there was something to focus on besides her problems.

The first of these problems was Selim. Despite her confrontation with him, Selim didn't even seem to pay Anya any mind. And while Anya liked not being the target of the dark people, she still was constantly dealing with his dark thoughts, and his annoying inner voice. It only got worse whenever he spoke out in the open, and said things that were completely different from what he thought. No one else Anya knew was like that, lying as easily as they breathed.

...Except her father, who was a spy who lied about everything in order to cover for his super secret mission.

...and her mother, who was a hitman who constantly lied about how she'd killed people for a living.

...and Mr. Hughes, who was lying about why he was hanging out with Mama and Papa, all to try and monitor them to make sure they weren't planning anything against him.

...and then there wa-

Okay, so a lot of people lied around Anya a lot. But most of them weren't so obviously smarmy. When Papa lied, it was like he was writing a story for a novel. When Mama lied it was like she was juggling, with many knives that she had to hold up in the sky or they'd fall and stab her. When Mr. Hughes lied, it was like he was putting together a puzzle, and using his words to discover the edges. Selim just lied and shrieked in rage at her perdicament.

...but that wasn't her main problem. She gave a sideways glance over to her right, towards a young boy with black hair.

Damian Desmond was staring angrily down at the chalkboard, before looking back, and noticing Anya.

'Why won't she leave me alone,' he thought, 'I already had everyone think I was week when Selim was attacking my family, but now they think I'm a priss who needs girls to fight my battles,' he kept looking at her, 'And what's with her eyes? Why do they seem toshine.'

'Shining eyes,' Anya thought, 'Is he seeing me read his mind?'

She just groaned, before placing her head on her desk. She was just glad there was only one more day until she was free, and able to have a whole weekend not studying. It was nice to hang out with students her age...but she just wanted to go somewhere and not have to think about whatever stupid thing Professor Henderson was going on about.

"Pay attention Ms. Forger."

"Sorry!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So...you think he's working directly for the Fuhrer himself," Mustang looked at the school picture, taken with the Forger family standing in the same crowd as some of the highest ranking people in Central City. Including the Fuhrer's wife and son, who were a few rows down.

"That's what Armstrong and myself were able to piece together," Hughes voice came over the phone. It'd been almost a week since they'd last had a call, and while Mustang appreciated he hadn't had a discussion of Elicia's potty training the whole time, it was good to finally hear his best friend's voice again, "Why else would the Fuhrer take the time to publicly humiliate his son for the benefit of Donovan Desmond. It probably got them in a room to discuss plans without the chance of a leak going out into the rest of Central Command."

The stories he shared about the Forger family were interesting. From saving Elicia from a kidnapping, to the several outings they had had as families, it painted the picture of a strange but relatively happy family. Which was likely a lie, considering how Yor had been brought into that family only two weeks ago, but that only made the real connection the two adults seemed to have even more shocking.

Mustang had been shocked to discover Yor would be leaving. He may have found her flightiness and denseness a bit of a problem at times...especially when she somehow undermined him in front of the whole staff, but she had been a responsible and well put together employee. And to see her run off on a whim with a man she'd only known for a few days didn't match with she his image of her. That it turned out that Lloyd was an agent for the Fuhrer, and likely had shared that with Yor as a way to ask her to accept the marriage made it far more easy to understand.

"No, you're right, it makes everything about this Dr. Forger make more sense if he's actually the Fuhrer's personal investigator," Roy groaned, "Honestly...I kind of think Bradley's being smart about it. Have a few personal agents who are only loyal to him, rather than to Central Command. Means there's a set of agents he can rely on to not give out any information on his personal plans."

"...," Roy considered his team. Havoc, Breda, Falman, Fuery...Hawkeye. One of the reasons he had specifically created this team was so his plans could be kept secret from the rest of the staff. He shook his head...just another way he shared uncomfortable connections with the Fuhrer.

It made him uncomfortable.

"Any plans to further investigate him?" Roy rubbed his temple, trying to keep himself from going down his path of continual guilt. It would only slow him down from his goals if he let himself get stuck in Ishval again.

"Actually, remember Yor's little brother?" Mustang's eyes widened, as he remembered a conversation he'd overheard between the office girls at the front of his office.

"Yeah, he's an officer in your unit, right?"

"Right," Maes confirmed, and then smirked, "Yor forgot to tell him she and Lloyd were getting married, so they're having a make up dinner tomorrow night to try and make it up to him," Maes paused for a moment, before adding, "He was really upset about the whole thing when I was the one who told him his sister was married."

"Well, that makes sense," Mustang acknowledged, "Your sister gets married without telling you. I'd be upset too."

"It's a bit worse than that," Maes's exasperation was clear, and Roy felt his eyebrow raise, "Yor isn't just his sister, she's his only family. She's about five years older than him, so I think she more or less filled the role of mother as well as sister for him," Mustang nodded, "So...this isn't just like his sister got married, it's like he got a new step dad too, at least from how it looks to me as an outsider."

"Ouch."

"Yeah," he could almost hear Maes nodding in commiseration, "Good news is he agreed to wear a wire once I told him my suspicion of who Dr. Forger really is," Hughes paused, as though considering something, "He seemed a bit conflicted. I don't think he wants to even think about investigating and possibly arresting his sister, but I told him it's important to discover what is going on with Lloyd's investigation, and learn if Yor might be getting in over her head."

"Play into Yuri's protectiveness."

"Exactly," Maes then began to laugh, "We're actually looking after Anya that night, so she and Alicia will have a lot of fun together while Yuri gets to do all the hard work, good night for me, thank you very much."

"Anya is Lloyd's daughter correct?"

"Right. Honestly, it's kind of amazing how well she get's along with a girl four years her junior. She almost doesn't look like a six year old, but hell," he was probably shrugging his shoulders in acceptance, "What are ya gonna do. No one under six could have passed that exam. Most ten year olds can't pass an exam like that."

"Well," Mustang looked back up at the clock, and smiled as he saw his shift was almost over for the day, "I'll have to talk to you later. I'm heading out."

"Wait Roy!"

"Maes, I swear to god, if you make this another crack about me getting married-"

"It's not that," Maes cut him off, "I just wanted to ask if you'd found anything on the Twilight case like I asked?"

"Oh," Roy groaned, before laying back in his chair, and picking up a file, "Unfortunately, I don't have much else. From what I can gather, you were probably right about him jumping across the sector border in the south. We spotted a strange man twisting along the outer sectors of Eastern Territory, before turning back in," he shook his head, "The last known guess for him would be entering New Optain about a month ago, but no one could tell where he's gone to since."

"Crap," Maes groaned, before continuing, "With guys like Twilight out there... and with the Fuhrer using people like Dr. Forger, and with violent killers like Scar wandering around, not to mention the violence in Liore...everything just seems so dangerous now."

"I hear you," Mustang hadn't been happy to hear that Grumman's Seventh Eastern Regiment had been pulled from Liore for the Nineteenth Central. There were already reports of the violence in the city getting worse, "Things really do seem to be getting dangerous. And it should only get worse when I'm finally called into Central, to help replace some of Scar's victims," Old Man Grand hadn't been the only alchemist in central that the Ishvalan Terrorist had managed to kill over the last six months.

"Yeah, and with how dangerous it is, you have to make sure you have people you can absolutely trust," Roy nodded, and his mind immediately went to Riza Hawkeye, "So that's why you should go ahead and get marrie-"

"GOOD NIGHT!" and Roy once again slammed the phone into the receiver.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Everything set up?"

It was eight o clock, and Yuri Briar would be arriving at there home in an hour. The preparations for Yor's brother's arrival had taken nearly half the week, but they seemed ready, as the house was fully decorated to show a loving couple. From the pictures on the mantle, to the color coordinated sets of clothing they were wearing, to the bed in Lloyd's room made to look like a bed they shared...everything gave off the impression that they were incredibly intimate.

'It was enough to get Anya to needle us again,' the sound of Anya asking if they were going to kiss ringing in his ears, 'That girl really needs to learn to respect the privacy of others. It is a key part of living a normal life, to respect other people's privacy.'

"I think so," Yor came out from Anya's room, smiling happily as she walked down the hallway. She'd just put Anya to bed. The little girl had tried to insist to join her her parents in meeting her uncle, but she'd been sent next door for a sleepover at Maes Hughes house. Honestly, it was probably better for Lloyd to not have Anya as a distraction, but he was getting uncomfortable with how close his “family” was getting to the intelligence officer.

It would just make the whole thing too complicated.

"Good," Lloyd smiled at his wife, whose hands were fidgeting as the two of them stood right at the opposite end of the entrance hallway from the front door, "You know there is no need to be nervous. I'll do my best not to embarrass you."

"Lloyd," Yor turned her head down, looking away for a moment, "I'm worried about embarrassing you. I already forgot to tell Yuri about you, so what if I say something wrong."

"Then we'll get through it together," Lloyd laughed. Twilight considered his "wife" and tried to wonder why Yor seemed so nervous, but quickly pushed it from his mind. Yor always had a strange outlook on some things, but it wouldn't be too hard to get through this.

"Just be yourself, and I'm sure your brother will just be happy to see you and meet me," Lloyd smiled. Yor looked him in the eye, and smiled back, only for her head to snap back, as they both could hear the knob of the door begin to turn.

Chapter 26: End of the Beginning - Part 2

Yuri was skipping down the side walk, he really couldn't help himself.

"I finally get to see Yor again," he thought, a bouquet of flowers in his right hand, his briefcase from work containing the bottle of wine in his other. He was getting the chance to see his sister for the first time in over six months. It had been the longest he'd been away from his sister in his entire life, and part of him was simply gald that he was finally getting the chance to see his beloved sister once again.

"Yuri," Yor, then only fifteen, grabbed him up in a massive hug, "I just saw your grades from the teacher. You did so well!"

"Reall-acccccchhhhh!" he screamed, as her hug tightened so greatly that it almost caused his ribs to crack under the strain of the hug. After a few seconds, eleven year old Yuri went limp in Yor's arms, who looked down at his flopped over body.

"Yuri?"

Yuri's hand came up to his side, and rubbed his right ribs. He smiled to himself, once again reminiscing about the time he and his sister lived together as children. They were all they had, and Yor had been so wonderful, devoting herself to help raise him. He would say, if ever asked, that if it wasn't for her support, he'd never have made it as far as he had.

'These cracked ribs are proof of her love,' the fresh second lieutenant of Intelligence smiled to himself shook his head, before looking up. He then looked over at 1908 Main East Avenue, the home his sister now occupied. With her husband...

'No,' Yuri shook his head, 'remember what Lieutenant Colonel Hughes told you,' he regained his mental footing, 'Your sister seems to be on a mission to sniff out treason for Amestris, she's doing her best to serve our nation just like you are.'

Honestly, when he'd first heard that Yor had been married, Yuri had been utterly flabbergasted. When he learned her "husband" had moved her across the country to a new city, even if it the same one he now lived in, he had been about to get in his car to go rough u-confront this man. But, in private discussion with his mentor, Hughes had managed to talk him down, revealing what he had learned about this Lloyd Forger.

What he had learned should have been comforting. This wasn't some scummy lowlife forcing Yor into a relationship with some kind of emotional blackmail. This was an agent of Central Command, and likely from what Hughes suspected, a direct agent of Fuhrer Bradley. This was likely a major mission that Yor was a part of. And that meant that in some ways, this Lloyd Forger was very much like him, finding out information to protect their home from subversives and spies.

'So why do I still want to strangle him?' Yuri gripped his hand tighter, 'I was worried that Yor had gotten tricked into a relationship, but the thought of her being in a relationship with a man she doesn't love seems just as bad too, especially if this creep tries to take advantage of her,' before finally shaking his head, 'Though I suppose Colonel Hughes is right, we need to do our best to discover what exactly is going on with him. Doing so will let me know if this Forger character is taking proper care of her, and will give us a better idea what their mission actually is.'

It was a wire under Yuri's shirt. It was easily hidden enough, especially since this was a short distance wire. It could only go a hundred yards or so, but that would be more than enough with Colonel Hughes listening in from inside his own house while he was babysitting the Forger's daughter-

'Daughter,' a shiver went up Yuri's spine. Sure, it looked like Lloyd Forger was a comrade of theirs, but still, it irked him that this man seemed to dump his child on Yor's doorstep, and make her give up her career. It was true there wasn't much more room for advancement in the administrative sector, but still, it was a good job that paid well, and she served the state loyally. She should have been more frustrated to lose it.

'Calm down Yuri,' he made his way up the steps, glaring a hole into the doorway as he ascended them, and preparing himself for the warmest greeting he could muster for this scumb-comrade who was usi-married to his sister, 'If you're going to investigate what this Lloyd Forger is up to, you're going to have to get him to let his guard down. He might be on guard with a high ranking officer like Colonel Hughes, but with a family member of his "Wife" he should be more willing to divulge the details, and then we can make our next step once we know more,' he looked down at his sleeve, and remembered, 'just need to be sure to shake with my left hand, the wire has a small receiver that can be seen on my right arm when it sticks straight out.'

He pressed the doorbell, and stood tall. He made sure to hold the bouquet in his right hand, so that he could plausibly shake his hand with his left.

'Okay, Lloyd Forger,' Yuri's face morphed into the friendliest smile he could muster, and he raised the bouquet to up, 'Let's see who you really are.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

'So he's here to investigate me, huh?'

Twilight had suspected when he had shaken Yuri Briar's right hand upon his entrance into his home. It was customary for short wires to be partially along the right arm, so it was a relatively common technique to use the left hand for the hand shake greeting, all to keep the subject from possibly knowing there was a second monitor. He had then simply done a quick glance along Yuri's back to see the small indentation of what was the wire's harness to confirm it.

'I already suspected that this would be a way for Hughes to try and get some more information on me,' Twilight thought of his neighbor, who was right now looking after his daughter, 'Yuri is my brother-in-law as far as anyone knows, so he would have the ability to get in with less general suspicion, even if he is an intelligence officer,' he shook his head, 'It wasn't a bad plan, and one that'd probably have worked if I was just a Central Agent, rather than a spy whose had to deal with wires and hiding them for years on the job.'

"So," Yuri said aloud, looking straight at Yor as she sat on the couch while he was sitting on the large armchair, "How did you to meet?"

"Ah," Yor blanched. Twilight inwardly cursed. He knew that he was going to have to rely on Yor to actually take the lead on speaking with her brother, but he also knew that she wasn't the swiftest in conversations. Hopefully she would hav-, "I was working for a bit in the hospital in East City and we ran into each other while I was giving him some paperwork."

'Good,' Lloyd nodded as he turned his attention to the steaks he was searing, and peered his head to the potatoes roasting, all the while keeping a third eye he must have found somewhere checking the asparagus that was being steamed in a pot on the side, 'That's a more than plausible way to introduce our relationship. That it happens to be true, and seen by many witnesses, makes it harder for anyone to fact check it.'

"And you decided to get married right then?" Yuri was asking questions about their relationship, clearly trying to unearth some kind of information, or at least, try and find some kind of contradiction that would force some kind of information out.

"No," Yor answered quickly, trying to keep any kind of embarrassment under control, "You see, I was also at the hospital the day of the Scar attack. When the fighting occurred, Lloyd pulled me away from one of Scar's attacks, and...well we went on a date after that, and hit it off."

"So then you decided to get married?"

"...Yes," Lloyd sighed. It was the honest way their relationship had occurred, so it wasn't like he could be too mad at what Yor was saying. It's just that-

"So you decided to marry a man after the first date?"

"More like during the first date," Yor admitted.

"Yoooorrrr," he could hear Yuri whine, and Twilight honestly could understand where he was coming from. As he flipped over the steak once more, her could hear the argument about throwing yourself into a marriage with a man you basically just met, "You could have at least told me about it? Why didn't you tell me over the past few weeks."

Twilight looked expectantly at Yor from behind the kitchen window as he began to plate the baked potatoes. For a moment, Yor seemed to have frozen completely, as though despite the week of preparation, she was still trying to come up with an explanation for why she hadn't told her brother she'd been married for two full weeks.

"I forgot."

Twilight felt the need to facepalm, though Lloyd's hands were too full to actually do anything like that.

"You forgot?"

"Yes..."

"Okay then, I can understand that, you are very busy."

Twilight had to work very hard to not slam his face into his palm. He was lucky he was busy with the food for the moment, or he would have, and likely alerted Yuri and Yor he was listening in. That Yuri bought such a pathetic excuse was alarming, if for no other reason then it was so obviously a completely unfair one. Yet somehow, Yuri was willing to let his sister get by with an explanation that unsatisfying. He shook his head as he plated the steaks, the dinner almost ready.

'What is with this family?'

________________________________________________________________________________________

'What is with this family?'

Maes was massaging his forehead, where not a moment ago, he had slapped his head in frustration. That Yor had forgot wasn't that unbelievable, Yor had always been a bit...spacy, during the few times he had met her while he was in East City. But that Yuri Briar, one of the finest intellegence officer he had ever trained was willing to buy it was inexplicable.

"I knew he had a soft spot for her, but this is ridiculous," he sighed, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. He'd told Yuri and worked out this plan for interrogation for several days, and while nothing had gone wrong yet, he could already tell that this might not go the way he'd been hoping. Lloyd Forger could probably just let Yor handle most of the questions, and then he wouldn't have any chance of possibly revealing some kind of incriminating evidence of his plans, "Of course, maybe this might cause Forger to underestimate how far we are on to him."

"Mr. Hughes," Maes turned quickly, to see Anya Forger standing only a few feet away from him, Elicia only a foot behind her, "Ms. Gracia said Elicia and Me can get dessert out, but she wants to know if you would like some cookies?"

"Hmmm," Maes smiled at her for a moment, making sure to get in a thinking pose. When Yor had asked Gracia for the two of them to have Anya for a sleepover, he was glad to do it. It made the chance that the Forgers would let Yuri into their home more likely after all, and Anya was such a sweet kid, it was hard to say no. He'd gotten home early, and set up his listening device in his small study, only a few yards away from the wall separating his home from the Forgers. It was out of the way, so when Yor had dropped Anya off, she hadn't seen it.

So, after a couple of hours of him taking the lead with the girls before and during dinner, he'd then left to go back to the study so he could listen in during Yuri's infiltration. He hadn't seen the girls for about twenty minutes, and it had been an hour since dinner had finished...

'If I'm going to keep listening in on the Forgers, to see if I can learn anything,' Hughes thought, 'I could use a snack.'

"Sure girls," he laughed aloud, "I'd love some of those cookies," he smiled, though he noticed for a second a bit of nervousness on Anya's face. He bent down, and smiled at her, "Everything okay Anya?"

'I hope she's alright,' he thought, looking at her for a moment, 'I'd probably have to call it quits if anything happened to her,' he considered the metal box behind his chair, 'I'd hate to have to turn off this thing. I need it to listen in, and even turning the dang thing off can disrupt it for hours.'

"I'm good," she said, continuing to look him straight in the eye. For a second, they stared at one another, before Maes smiled as he saw a small hand reach out and grab at the sleeve of Anya's dress.

"Anya, we need to go get the cookies," Elicia whined, and Anya turned back to Maes's daughter, and nodded. As the two ran off, Maes brought the earpiece back up to the side of his head, and tried to listen in.

"So, how has life been in the city?" he heard Yuri ask his sister from the other side of the wall, "It must have been a bit of a culture shock when you got into Central, with it being so much bigger than East City," Yuri put out a little laugh, "It certainly was for me."

'Good,' Maes said, 'Try and make them lose a bit of their footing, and reveal something...'

"Oh, it's been an experience," Yor spoke up, a little fake laugh at the back of her voice. Maes could tell she was trying to put up the friendliest and most earnest front she could, and while it would work on Yuri, it wasn't going to work on him.

"Yes, it has been something," Lloyd spoke up, and Meas could here the clattering of silverware as dishes were likely being put out for their dinner, "But...I think it's been a positive overall. I hadn't been here but a few times before, and to actually live here is something new. We've made some good friends already."

Maes scowled to himself, and hoped beyond hope that Lloyd was lying through his teeth. If not...darnit, it didn't feel right to be taking advantage of people who considered you their friends. He shook his head, and adjusted the volume, as he heard the distinct sounds of cutting and chewing. The three must having finally started to eat. He felt tempted to put down the receiver, after all, the didn't want to spend the whole night listening to his neighbors masticating.

"So," Yor spoke up, causing a momentary pause of the chewing, "How was your vacation?"

"Oh, it was great," Yuri responded, "I went to South City for some sightseeing. I was able to observe the canyons around the area, and had a good time swimming in Moon Lake."

Maes nodded. Yuri had actually been training in the intelligence core in the proper detection of spies and counter intelligence operations. Hell, this wire trick was literally something they practiced down there. South City was well enough known for the sights that it served as a useful training ground because it was easy to form a cover story.

"Oh, South City," Lloyd's voice spoke up, "I've been there, it's a great place," Maes nodded to himself, as many people from the East did go to South City for vacations, "There's this great little place called Kalpatia, near the train station. Have you gone there?"

'What?' Maes's eyes widened, before sitting straight up and staring at the box. Kalpatia...was the restaurant that had been chosen by intelligence for the cover story.

"Yes," Yuri continued, following the script he had been given to cover for his training mission, enthusiastically speaking about his time there, "The old man who runs the place. He makes a stew that is to die for," he seemed to take a moment to bite, "The beef he uses is some of the finest in all of Amestris."

"And," Maes felt his back straighten as he heard Lloyd's next question, "That bottle of wine you brought, was it from there to?"

"Yes," Yuri clearly wasn't realizing that Forger was basically reading from the same cover story he had been given, probably his inexperience and the wine was mixing.

'He knows our training,' he felt sweat cover his brow, 'I suppose it makes sense for an agent of Central Command to know this...but still, it's like bringing this up is coming too naturally to him, especially if he-'

"Mr. Hughes," Maes turned, looking back to see the little pink haired girl standing with a small tray of cookies and three glasses of milk held high above her head. Maes was about to smile at the gift, when the little girl surged forward, and he saw the glasses on top of the tray begin to sway. His eyes widened, as he saw her lose her footing, and her suddenly fall forward, the milk and cookies flying forward. Before he could even move himself, the mass of liquid was spilling through the air-

And onto his listening machine.

ZZZRRRTTTTTT!

"Oh Come on!" he screamed as he looked over at the sparks suddenly flying out of the machine. He reached down, and pulled out the plug from the wall, before turning and shouting at at the little pink haired girl, "What Were You Thinking!"

"I...I," the little girl herself was covered in the remnants of their snack. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes, and her lower lip began to quiver. Behind her, Elicia was looking up in shock at him, her own eyes beginning to tear up as she stared at him, "I didn't mean to fall. We just wanted to share our snack with you."

His shoulders sagged, before placing his hand on his forehead, and saying, "Sorry, sorry," he shook his head, looking at the now disabled device, and winced as he thought about the amount of money that would have to come from the department's budget to get it replaced. He then shook his head, and lifted up Anya and Elicia into his arms, the two girls still in the midst of crying, "Let's head down to the kitchen and clean you up. We should have some more milk and snacks down there after that."

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, Anya," he pulled out his most conciliatory voice, "Accidents happen," he slowly walked out of the room, the spilled snacks covering his study, "You just are going to have to learn to be more careful, okay?"

"Okay."

'Eh, the mission seemed like a bust anyway,' he thought, pushing Yuri from his mind as he walked out the room, the two slowly recovering girls in his arms, 'So he knows our cover story, that's probably something he'd learn as an agent...'

'Right?'

________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight had been able to parse out just how well trained in counter-intelligence Yuri was. He brought it up in natural conversation, and had slipped through it well. If Twilight hadn't been studying the training manuals during his short time in South City during his previous mission he would have missed it. But he hadn't so he was able to get an insight into just who this man was.

'Still though,' he looked over at the brother and sister finishing up their plates, almost empty bottle of wine laying at the side of them, 'Tonight has been a success I'd say,' he and Yor had successfully managed to create the veneer of a lovey dovey couple. And with that out of the way, he could continue planning for the rest of the infiltration of Ame-

"Yor, I have to ask," Yuri had a large red blush on his face, clearly the alcohol was effecting him. He'd had four glasses of the wine, though he seemed only to drink more when he spoke directly to Lloyd. Probably because he was nervous with the wire on his chest, so it wasn't completely unexpected.

"Go ahead Yuri," Yor had an even larger red blush on her face, one that seemed to pass her ears and fall down onto her neck. She'd had a mere two glasses, yet he could tell the alcohol was overpowering her faculties to a certain degree. Though at least the wine hadn't actually loosened her lips, just made her waver back and forth a bit.

"Have you and your husband," he seemed to stop at the word, like he had spit out something quite foul, "Kissed yet?"

...

'Oh sh*t.'

"I mean," he waved his hand around the room, towards all the pictures and decorations he'd put up, "For a pair who seem to be so close, I don't think you two have even touched each other since I got in here," his eyes had been very observant the whole time, and Twilight couldn't help but curse at the young man's observation skills.

"Oh," Yor shaking for a moment, eyes twitching back and forth, her mind clearly racing to try and come up with an excuse, "You see.-um, well-you know-kissing in pu-It isn'-don't want to make anyone unco-"

"Lloyd," he turned his head towards Twilight, and Yuri's eyes bored into him, "You say you love my sister," his rage seemed absolutely genuine, "You say you love her with your whole heart. But you always seem so detached from her," he pointed his finger directly at Lloyd's face, and then declared, "How can you love her, when you treat her not as a woman to be touched, but a porcelain egg to be observed."

"Look at these pictures," Yor suddenly reached to the side table, and showed a picture of Twilight and her holding hands while walking through a park, "We touch all the tim-

"I don't believe it," Yuri slammed his foot into the ground, "I won't believe it until I see you two kiss."

...

"Okay, we'll kiss," Lloyd Forger said straightly. Twilight could see the panic suddenly burst over Yor's face, before turning back to her, "Though a kiss isn't any real proof of true love, if that is what it takes to prove to your brother I love you, then I will gladly do so."

"Oh," Yor stared at him for a second, and for a second, she looked like she was about to explode from the suggestion. She shook, her pupils bouncing back and forth across the whites of her eyes like tennis balls in a particularly fierce match. She looked at him for a moment, and then her arm shot out, and grabbed the bottle of wine as it still laid there. A second later, the cork that had been sloppily placed back into it was popped out, and the lip of the bottle was resting in her mouth. Lloyd's mouth stood agape as she leaned back, and swallowed the rest of the bottle in one gulp.

'Oh my,' Twilight observed, before returning his attention to Yuri, who was looking in shock, 'Come on Lloyd, you've kissed plenty of women for your missions, this will be easy for you.'

Bottle empty, Yor tossed it behind her, and leaned forward. She pushed Lloyd backward, slowly brushing aside the bangs that hung over her forehead, her blush beginning to cover the entirety of her face. Lloyd felt his own face begin to blush, as he saw her rosy cheeks get closer and closer-

"Wait," Yuri's voice suddenly cried out, his arm reaching out towards them as they laid over the couch, "I changed m-"

POW-WAM

Lloyd's jaw drop as he saw Yuri's body slam into the chair he had just jumped from, causing the back of it to break off, and for him to tumble into a heap on the floor. Lloyd's eyes were focused on the long leg of Yor that was now hanging wear Yuri had just been, and with a quick glance, he could see that embarrasment had again overcome Yor's face.

'She has really strong legs,' Lloyd thought, staring at the outstretched limb.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, that really could have gone worse," Lloyd said, having just escorted Yuri out the front door, the obvious cuts and blood apparently not too much of an issue for him, "Your family really have such amazing abilities physically."

"Aw," Yor, hanging from his shoulders, the alcohol having once again overcome her, laughed while waving her hand in dismissal of his comment, "We aren't that special," she let out a small hiccup, covering her mouth with her free hand, "Anyone can be as strong as us, as long as they have the right experience."

'No,' Twilight thought, trying not to look down at her and give his thoughts away, 'No they can not.'

"Though, I'm sort of glad that Anya is sleeping over next door," Twilight made a quick glance over the wall towards the Hughes household. He hoped that Maes Hughes hadn't discovered anything that might lead him to further investigate him, and with the wire likely destroyed by Yor's treatment of her brother, he likely hadn't, "she might have been woken up by some of the yelling."

"Oh yeah, that is good," Yor nodded as sagely as her current state allowed her. Twilight sighed, lifting his drunk "wife" towards her room. He pulled out the key, they'd locked it to hide they were sleeping in separate rooms after all, and got it to open the door, "We don't want her to not get any sleep."

'Though with how loud you two were being,' Twilight considered, not even bothering to turn the light on in the room, before walking his "wife" over to her bed, 'I wouldn't be surprised if the whole neighborhood didn't know what had been going on here tonight. I'm just glad it's only a chair I'm going to have to replace.'

"It's good you managed to leave on good terms," he said, pulling back the covers on her bed, hopefully allowing her to simply go to sleep in her casual clothes. Yor may be his "wife", but he didn't need to see her naked, "You to seem like really great siblings. I'm glad to be part of your family."

"I'm glad to be part of your family too," his "wife" said, falling onto the mattress with her buttocks, and flipping her legs up, shoes having been slipped off during the march here, "He was acting like a jerk. But you were really nice, and I'm sure he'll get to like you the longer we're married. He just needs more time."

'More time,' Twilight considered. It'd be less than a year until the so called "Promised Day" so likely it meant they wouldn't be married even that long. He had his mission to complete. Yes, he had lied to Yuri and Yor about being part of their family, but he'd said so many lies as a spy to women who had fallen in love with him, that it had come easily, 'Sorry, Yor, but there probably won't be much more time.'

"I look forward to spending more time with him," Lloyd smiled at her, and his "wife" smiled back. Seeing that she was secure, her whole body on the bed, he turned to leave, he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. He looked back to Yor, whose face was only barely illuminated by the open door of the hallway, "Is everything okay?"

She lunged towards him, and before he knew what was happening, he felt a strange sensation on his face. It took only a few seconds for his mind to register that Yor's lips were on his, and that she had pulled him in for an intimate moment. Twilight was stunned, as every other kiss he'd taken, through all the relationships as a spy, he'd always initiated it. Now, for the first time, the woman he was with had physically come on to him first. It was an undeniable loss of control...

And for some reason, it made his face heat up.

A second after this realization hit him, she smiled, leaned back, and waved.

"Good night Lloyd," his wife fell backward onto her pillow. By the time she'd made impact, she was already snoring, a bit of drool hanging down her lip as she slipped off into dreamland. Lloyd blinked for a moment, before returning his fingers to his lips, pressing them against his mouth for a moment.

"Good night Yor," he stammered, before turning on his heel, and walking out the door into the hallway. He'd spend the next half hour checking the house for listening devices and cleaning up the messes. He did so robotically, quickly moving from task to task, Twilight doing his best to keep his mind blank. Finally, after it was over, and past ten, he marched down the hallway, making sure to be as quiet as possible to not wake Yor. He got the light switch, turned off the hallway, and then twisted into his room-

To see it decorated in lovey dovey decorations.

Twilight's eye twitched.

'I'm too tired for this sh*t,' he thought, pushing himself to the bed, throwing off the cover, and falling face first into the mattress, 'I'll just burn this crap in the morning.'

He gave one last look up, to a small photo on his nightstand. It was a photo of his family at the zoo, with Anya and her penguin being held up by Lloyd and Yor as they stood in front of the Elephant exhibit. Maes Hughes had insisted on taking it for them, and had had it developed. For a moment, looking at it...they looked so real.

'Well,' Lloyd thought, 'Maybe I don't need to burn all of it.'
________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 27: The Philosopher's Stone

"It...it just felt weird," Lloyd let out a small burst of smoke from his cigarette. He put out the tobacco stick into a small ashtray on the counter, before fully turning his attention to Franky, "It was as though I...I don't know. It was like I lost my footing."

"You're here...talking about kissing your wife making you feel weird?" Twilight looked over at Franky. The portly man's deadpanned face, and raised left eyebrow was clearly meant to convey condescension. Twilight felt his shoulders stiffen at the mockery, and he slammed his hand down on the counter, hunching over the shorter man.

It was honestly lucky that it was early afternoon on a Sunday, because no one was besides them was in the shop. The normal foot traffic through the nearby shops was undone by over half of them being closed for the weekend. This combined with the summer heat dissuaded almost any random passersby. So Lloyd had been able to come to the shop, and just discuss what had been going on recently, and start up a new plan he had been considering for a few days, ever since his last meeting with Edward Elric.

Somehow, instead of actually discussing the plan, Franky had brought up a rejection on a date that had ended with a slap instead of a kiss, and that had lead Twilight to muse out loud about the strange event that had capped the visit with Yuri Briar. He was still thinking about it now, and he just had to get it off his chest.

"You don't understand," Lloyd said quickly, "I've kissed plenty of girls-"

"Course you have."

"Oh get off of it," Twilight snapped, massaging the bridge of his nose, before having the hand fall down and touch his lips once again, a slowly becoming familiar habit of his, "But this is the first time it felt weird. Every other time, dozens of times, it was just the feeling of flesh on flesh. But this time-"

"Dozens," Franky growled, pointing at Lloyd's face, a red rage beginning to overtake his skin, "You are just here to brag, aren't you!"

"No!"

"That's all you good looking spies do," Franky continued, "You trapeze from one woman to another kissing with them, getting compliments for your nice suits and your fancy words and being six feet tall, ready to hop to the next one that you need to cover yourself. You have no understanding of the pain that comes from the short man, the shy man, the man with an abundance of back hai-"

"Enough," Twilight coughed, getting Franky to end his rant. The afroed man just looked over and glared at him, "Enough, I'm sorry. But this is something new to me, and I needed to talk to somebody about it."

"Oh yeah," Franky said, crossing his arms and giving Lloyd the side eye, "Why would you want to talk about it with me? What makes me," he gestured his hands to himself, and Twilight could see the sweat developing underneath Franky's white shirt, "Someone who you thought would be good to talk about you getting a crush on your wife with?"

"It's not a crush," Lloyd fired back, "It's simply a new experience that I needed to relay to someone in order to discuss the possible detriments to the mission that it might cause. I've never felt this way after even kissing someone, and certainly not after a week since I kissed somebody."

"Riiiiigggghhhhttttt," Franky didn't seem impressed, before adding, "Also, it's been a week, and you're obsessing over this."

"And secondly," Twilight sighed, cutting off that particular line of inquiry, "You're probably the only one I can talk to about this sort of thing," Franky blinked for a second, before waving his hand for an explanation, "The only two men I have anything resembling a close relationship with right now besides you are an Amestrian intelligence officer and the only male heir for one of the most ancient houses in this whole damn country."

Even worse, to Twilight's mind, would be the reaction the two would have to him confessing his issue.

"Love is a wonderful thing. It breaks down the cold hard shell around men's hearts, and causes them to grow in magnificent ways. When I first met Gracia, I knew I had been changed the moment she first winked at me. A world of shadows disappeared, and one of a bright son was born! You must share your love with your Yor, and you can perhaps one day have as great a relationship as I have with my wonderful wife."
"Ah, yes...courtship. This is one of the most ancient rituals in all of history. Fear not, the ways of love have been passed down the Armstrong Line for Generations. I shall be able to advise you on all aspects of a relationship with a woman, from first meeting to the important goal of procreation!"
Twilight would rather die than tell them. Franky still looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"And I don't really have contact with anyone from Cresta either. I can't be in personal contact with the Handler, and I don't think she'd be very supportive on trying to figure out why I get weak kneed with my wife," he stopped himself for a second at how naturally the word had come to him. Franky didn't seem to catch that nodding at him about that.

"Yeah," Franky nodded, "The Fullmetal Lady certainly has some ideas about how to handle things like that."

"Fullmetal...," Twilight smiled, glad to see a way out of this aspect of the conversation and towards his actual goal, "That reminds me...I've been speaking with Edward Elric lately."

"Oh really?" Franky leaned forward, clearly glad to be moving on from the previous conversation as well. For all that he had been giving Twilight a hard time, talking about his own lackluster love life was probably wasn't something he was keen to spend much time on either. Twilight smile grew into a smirk as he tapped on the counter again.

"I'm going to need a few things though, as soon as possible."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Big Brother," Alphonse was looking down at him from behind his set of notes, "I think you need to get something to eat."

"Come on Al," Ed whined, only to have the whine of his mouth joined by the whine of his stomach, which cried out in anguish for food. He'd skipped breakfast today, and maybe Al had a point. He shook his head, and glared at his brother, "Al, we're almost there. We just have to figure out what the main ingredient is, and we'll have broken the code."

They'd come so far over these past ten days since Sheska had provided Marcoh's notes, and he could taste it. They were so close to figuring out what how to make their own Philosopher's Stone. There had been some issues...some of the language that Marcoh had used for his code was more graphic and darker than they'd normally expect, but they were almost there. Once they cracked the last main piece, they'd be off to the races, and then it'd only be a short hop, skip and jump to getting their bodies.

'Who cares if I miss a couple of meals,' Ed flipped over the seventh page of the code again, trying to see if he could maybe catch something one more time, 'I'd rather my next meal be one I can share with Al,' he looked over at his brother, who seemed to be sagging as much as his massive body would allow, 'I know it's what he's probably missed most about not having his body.'

So, the two returned to their work. Al returned to the recipe on stew, and the proper straining method, which they'd already guessed was about channeling energy through whatever the main ingredient was, while he again returned to page zero, zero, seven, the final page of the introduction. It was mostly an introduction to the recipes, and on the importance of-

"Good Afternoon."

"Waaagh!" Ed fell back in his chair, looking over at the door that had once again been opened by an intruder. He'd specifically asked Lieutenant Ross to keep out unwanted guests (he didn't think Sergeant Broush had the stomach to actually stop anyone), but she would usually let in anyone who was of clearly higher rank.

'So why?' He asked as a familiar blonde man in a green suit pulled off his hat and bowed slightly for a second, 'Did she let Doctor Forger in?'

"I was just here to perform a quick mental health check in," Dr. Forger gave Ed his usual smile, "Word has been going around that some alchemists have been stuck in the upper floor of this library for almost ten full days, and I needed to make sure the isolation wasn't getting to you."

"Sorry Edward," Maria Ross was shrugging, doing her best to not look directly at him as he gave her a glare, "It's just...he's your doctor, so I didn't want to possibly stop a check up, especially if it might be important for your health."

'Traitor,' he thought, as Lloyd stook his hat off and bowed to Al.

"It's good to see you again too, Alphonse," the older man said warmly. Alphonse seemed to slink back a bit, before nodding at the doctor.

"It's good to see you too Doctor Forger," the suit of armor began to rub the back of it's helmet, "Thank you for caring for my brother, I know he can be," Alphonse looked over at Ed for a second, "blunt at times," Ed felt a twitch on his forehead as he recognized his little brother had just replaced a far harsher critique with that shorter word, "But it's really good for him to get some time to talk to someone about things that isn't me."

"Well, I'm always glad to help my patients," Lloyd laughed, pulling out a chair, and sitting down, "Though Alphonse, I was wondering if maybe you'd like a session with me," Alphonse reared back for a second.

"Oh no," the metal suit of armor said while waving his hand, "I don't need it. I don't have nearly the amount of problems my brother has."

"What you say!"

"Alphonse, I think it would help you," Lloyd cut off Edward before he could scold Al for his disrespect. The serious look on Lloyd's face made them both stop and look at him, "I know you don't like to talk about your condition," Alphonse seemed to shrink at the mention of his body, "but...talking through it in a safe manner might allow you to get better control over the yourself."

"Um..."

"We don't have to do it," Twilight smiled raising his wrist to his hand absentmindedly, "Whatever is most comfortable fo-" his eyes seemed to widen, "Oh sh*t, I have to get home," he quickly stood up, and grabbed Ed's to shake it, "So sorry Edward, but I'm going to have to cut this meeting short."

"That's quick," Ed felt his eyes widen a bit. Lloyd bowed while rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm sorry Ed," he then turned to Alphonse, "Alphonse. I was just in the area, and I didn't realize the time," he then leaned forward, "I have a package to pick up later today, and I need to be at the store before it closes at five," Ed looked up at the clock, and saw it showing four thirty, "I will have to run to make it," Dr. Forger sighed, before blinking, "Though before I go," he pulled out a small slender box, with a small bow attached to it, "I got this for you Edward, as a little peace offering."

Edward looked down at the small box, and quickly unraveled the small ribbon around the box, and popped the top. It was a long golden pen, with blue letters along it, saying "Connery" on it's side.

"One of the nicest pen makers in all of Central," Twilight nodded, "You never know when you might need to write something formal," he then bowed, and turned out the door, "I hope the rest of your studies go well Edward, Alphonse."

"Nice to see you again," Ed heard Alphonse say as he heard the doors shut. He played with the long pen in his hand, twisting it, to reveal the point with ink at the end, and then twisting it back. He then stood up, and walked towards the door. He heard Alphonse shuffle for a second, following behind him as he got up, "Brother, is something wrong?"

Edward opened the door, and the two guards on the outside suddenly turned around, and looked back at him, both blinking in surprise, "Is something wrong Edward?" Maria asked.

"Would you mind holding onto this pen for a while," Edward handed it to Maria, who took it and pocketed it in coat. She nodded at him, before both of the two young officers turned around and monitored the hallway. Edward nodded, and then closed the door, Al looking at him in confusion before Edward grabbed him and quickly pulled him back towards the main table.

"Was there a reason you just gave that expensive gift away?" his younger brother asked, and Ed nodded.

"We know Forger's working for Central Command Intelligence, right?" Al nodded. While Al was more open to working with Dr. Forger than Ed was, that didn't mean he hadn't taken Hughes and Mustang's information on who Lloyd was to heart. Ed smiled, continuing to keep his voice low, hoping that the big wooden doors would keep any residual sound from escaping, "So, I think he's investigating what we're looking for, to see what secrets Dr. Marcoh opened for us."

"Really," and then it seemed to dawn on Alphonse, "Wait, do you think that pen was some kind of listening device?"

"Probably," Ed nodded, before smirking, "But that guy still thinks we're too much like kids. Just because he gave us an expensive gift, doesn't mean we aren't going to check and make sure we can keep our secrets," he then smiled as wide as possible, "Right Al?"

"Of course," it was actually amazing how easily he could tell when Al was happy just from the tone of his voice. Al had probably gone out of his way to learn to exaggerate his tones slightly, but Ed would always be glad to hear joy in his little brother's voice.

"Alright then," he then turned to the stacks of papers spilled around the tables of the library, "Got to get back to the grindstone," he laughed, stretching his arms, "This code isn't going to decode itself."

"Right!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"You were right," Twilight nodded as he held the phone's receiver in his hand, Franky's voice scratching through the line, "They were completely fooled by the pen trick."

It actually was a fairly easy sort of deception to pull off. Draw the attention of your opponent to something, and away from what you were actually trying to hide. Lloyd had placed the transceiver of Franky's listening machine on the bottom of the table he'd sat at for a moment while speaking to the brothers. He'd then offered Ed the incredibly expensive pen as a diversion. Ed, being suspicious, would think that Lloyd had underestimated him, and gladly latch onto the pen as the listening device, not bothering to check underneath the table.

Edward was a smart teenager, but still just a teenager. Once he thought he'd outsmarted his opponent, he'd be more careless and not ensure that he'd actually won the engagement. So now, Franky, who'd just closed up his shop, had direct access to whatever was said in that room. And that might prove an extremely fruitful bit of espionage.

"I told you it would work," Lloyd had a small smile on his face, giving a quick glance over to the pot of corn that was boiling. He was still trying to find vegetables that Anya liked, after her rather poor reaction to carrots last time, "Now, since you said you have the next few nights off," he heard a bit of a grumble from Franky, but ignored it and pushed forward, "I want you to write down whatever you can get from them about the Philosopher's Stone."

Twilight had become quite interested in the Philosopher's Stone when he heard that Edward was almost about to discover how they were made. On the one hand, the stone was supposed to be just a legend, and part of him wanted to dismiss it. But after what he'd seen Ed and Armstrong do with Alchemy, he wasn't about to overlook that they may have found a weapon that could be very deadly in the upcoming "Promised Day". He'd already done similar spying jobs when looking at other military equipment, to learn how best to sabotage it, so this really wasn't that different.

'And that they already kind of suspected me of spying on them makes it a bit painful,' he shook his head, and for a moment, Edward's previously hurt look from back in East City crossed his mind, 'No trust to betray when you already aren't trusted.'

"I'll do it chief," Franky probably had given a mock salute on the other end of the line, "I'll also make sure to record what I get, don't want to possibly get some of the details wrong in the process of translating it to text."

"Good thinking," Twilight nodded, before Lloyd let out one final sigh, and loudly saying for the whole of the flat to hear, "Okay, I'll be on standby, just call me if anything urgent comes up, and I'll be right over."

He then placed the receiver back onto the phone itself, and walked from the parlor into the living room. Anya and Yor were going through some of Anya's homework. He could already see that three of the four worksheets for the weekend were done, and he'd have to review them when he got the chance. Right now, they were working on the fourth booklet, the science one, and he could see that Yor was legitimately struggling with one of the problems, here eyes bouncing back and forth trying to solve it.

"Do you need any help?" Lloyd said, and Yor suddenly bounced up, a blush on her face.

"Um...yes," she sighed, her shoulders sagging, shaking her head. He stared at her for a moment, before sighing, and pulling out a chair to help with it.

'At least she doesn't remember kissing me,' He sighed. They were already rather awkward being physically close to one another, and getting more physically intimate might make it difficult to keep STRIX operating smoothly, 'especially if she decides we are too close and,' the image of Yor's leg shooting out and slamming into Yuri crossed his mind, 'she reacts.'

"So let's see," he looked over the problem.

In an Alchemic Circle, what does the outer ring of the circle represent, and how does it func-
"Ah, an Alchemy question," he spoke up, before nodding at the two of them, "This is relatively hard, especially since it's something you haven't had any time to study in any of your notebooks."

"I got all the questions on the test wrong," Anya seemed to fall out of her chair, exuding misery from her voice. Lloyd nodded at that.

'I really couldn't have asked her to do much better,' he thought, looking over the question, 'I mean, so much of alchemy is just bunk anyway, some shut-ins tossing out newer and vaguer ancient lore that really doesn't matter.'

"I think it's actually a trick question," Lloyd declared, pointing down at the circle, "It's simply a design that got decided on in basic , and it was chosen because it can be drawn out and created easily. The inner runes are what are important for the circle. "

"Ah, that makes sense," Yor nodded. Lloyd looked at the paper, and then gave a quick look at Anya, who was staring at him...as though she couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"Anya?" he asked, looking at the girl as her disgust almost overwhelmed him, "Is something wrong?"

"...," she just shook her head, and then said, "Nothing's wrong Papa," before pointing down at the next problem, "we need to get the rest of these done before tomorrow."

"Right," Lloyd said. Twilight was glad she was working to push through the question, as he was sure that he'd just been seeing things. There was no reason for her to be reacting in disgust after all. Besides, there was a pretty good chance that his answer was the right one.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Anya glared down at her notebook at the red x around the alchemy question. The weekend homework had just been handed back, and it was quite clear, the purpose of the circle was both to represent the constant changes of the flow of the Earth, and to also contain the energy of the transmutation into the actual runes. In other words, no, it wasn't just a design someone had come up with.

'Pretending to not know Alchemy is hard,' Anya groaned. She found school hard enough, but to fake being worse at the subject she was good at...it wasn't fun. her eyes turned to Selim, who was gazing about the classroom, trying to see who got the answer correct. When he saw a big fat x on hers, his eyes immediately moved past her, and continued to try and take in the rest of the class. He immediately saw Damian's paper, and his focuse again targeted the Desmond boy, 'At least he doesn't suspect me.'

Though if her Papa was going to keep making up stupid answers like he did earlier...she might go crazy.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"It's alright Anya," Yor was consoling their daughter as she brought home the results from the weekend's homework, "You at least passed, and now we know which chapters to cover more."

Lloyd sighed as he looked over the packets. Anya had passed the homework, but barely. He wasn't sure how to react. She was willing to put in the time and effort to study, but it wasn't making her the best in the class. Originally, that had been the goal of phase two of Operation STRIX. Have Anya be so good that there was not reason not to meet with the Fuhrer. That had been his best option, especially since he wasn't sure that Operation Best Buddies wasn't going to work.

And yet, with the promise of an interview with the Fuhrer himself...it really wasn't that much of an issue as long as Anya kept up enough to keep her head above water. He just needed her to stay in contact, just as a back up plan, and to serve as his background for the interview. His job was to figure out what Bradley was planning, and if he could gain Bradley's confidence, it shouldn't be too long to figure out. Honestly, he could probably just try and be a normal father, and keep his profession as a psychiatrist, and he'd be fine for the rest of Operation STRIX.

RINGRING

"Oh," Lloyd looked over at the phone. He quickly headed over to it, and picked up the phone, "Hello, Forger Reside-"

"LLOYD!" Twilight had to pull the phone back form his ear, "GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW!"

And then the man on the other side of the phone hung up. Lloyd took a second to put his little pinky finger into his left eardrum. He looked back at Yor and Anya, who had almost jumped back at the scream that he'd just heard from over the phone. Yor in particular looked nervous, as she placed a hand on Anya's shoulder.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Just having a few issues at the hospital," he smiled, nodding at Yor, as he walked over to put on his coat, "I might not get in until you two go to sleep," he pulled out some cash from his wallet, and handed it over to Yor, who took it hesitantly, "Why don't you two go out for dinner. Go have a good night for all the hard work Anya's put in."

"Hamburger steak!" Anya shouted aloud, and Lloyd nodded at that. Yor looked down at Anya, who seemed to have had any gloom from her poor homework showing pushed out from her, and then nodded, and smiled at Lloyd.

"Be careful out there," she said, as Twilight turned towards the door, "It's dangerous out when it gets dark."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So, what was so bad that you had to shout at me to get here?" Lloyd marched inside Franky's cigarette shop. He had made sure to walk towards the hospital on his way out the door in case Yor had been watching him leave, and then change into a second coat and hat to make his way to Franky's shop in case they somehow went out close to where he was going. It had been quite a bit of work for a simple visit, but he couldn't take any chance of Yor finding out he wasn't going to the hospital.

"Why the hell do I keep working with you," Franky was pacing around the room, rubbing his hands into his curly afro, sweat stains covering the sides of his shirt, and a half dozen cigarette butts sitting in an ash tray on the counter, "It's nothing but trouble and horribleness."

"What are you talking about?" Twilight looked at his pacing form, and Franky stopped, and glared at him, before shooting a finger forward towards Lloyd.

"I thought I was done with the creepy stuff when Shou Tucker got arrested," Twilight grimaced at the reminder of that monster wearing a man's skin. He'd managed to mostly put the Sewing Life Alchemist out of his mind, and if Franky was saying this was as bad as that-

"What did the Elric Brothers do."

"It wasn't what they did," Franky seemed to panic, waving his arms around, before he sighed, and suddenly marched behind the counter.

Franky pulled out the a small circular disc. It was one of the recording disks, small little pieces of vinyl that would be placed near a sound, and be turned on for around an hour, and allowed to capture what the recording device picked up. It was crude, but effective, as long as the user had two devices so information wasn't lost in the transition. Franky placed the disk in the nearest player, and then arranged for the needle a bit into the recording. He then flipped the switch, and sound began to play.

"This can't be!" Edward's voice came through. It was a bit patchy, but it was clearly the teenage major who Ed had been meeting with.

The sound of a door opening came up next.

"What's going on," it was the voice of Denny Brosh, one of the boys' two guards. He could hear steps as the guards got closer to their wards, "Did you to have a fight or?"

"Did they?" Twilight hit the off button on the player, and Franky just glared at him.

"No, I didn't even know what was going on until this moment. It certainly wasn't a fight, and since I don't have a visual, I had to just try and listen in to what they were saying," he then flipped the switch, "Now pay attention, I don't want to be the only one to hear this."

"Are you frustrated because you can't decipher the code," Maria Ross's calm voice was still evident even through the scratchy recording. He then heard shuffling of papers, likely because of the boys looking over the pages of work. For a second, there was nothing but silence.

"No," It was Alphonse's voice, and he sounded awful, "We did manage to decipher the code."

"Really then," Brosh spoke up, a bit of a pop in his voice, "Then that's good."

"IT ISN'T GOOD DAMNIT!" Edward's voice seemed to nearly break under the strain, though it held together at the last moment. Lloyd noted the sound of Edward falling to the floor, and could imagine the boy laying down on the wooden planks, "This really is the work of the devil."

'Work of the Devil,' Lloyd could remember the description that Edward had given to Shou Tucker's transformation of Nina, and felt his stomach drop. If this was really that bad, then yes, he could see why Franky was in such a panic.

"Damnit Marcoh," he could hear a sadness to the boys plea, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Edward," Maria Ross's voice seemed to hold down the growing tension inside the room, "You have to tell us why you're panicking like this. It's the only way we can help you."

"...," Edward and Alphonse remained silent, before the eldest Elric brother finally spoke up, "The main ingredient in the creation of a philosopher's stone, is a living human being."

The conversation continued for a moment, but Twilight quickly reached over, and disconnected the needle from the disk. Franky, not wanting to lose their place in the recording, turned the machine off. They sat there for a moment, looking at one another. Twilight then leaned back, and stared at the ceiling, before letting out a sigh, and grabbing one of the cigarettes from the open pack on the counter. He lit it with a lighter Franky quickly provided, and took in a long drag, before putting it out in the ash tray that Franky had been chugging his cigarettes into. He made eye contact with Franky one more time, and said the only thing that came to his mind.

"I f*cking hate alchemy."

The now closed Fifth Laboratory had been officially out of operations for several years now Being in the outskirts of Central, it was little remarked upon that this facility was no longer in active use by the military. It was so far out of the way, that there was only one sentry assigned to guard the whole of the derelict facility. This shouldn't have been a problem, since the only entrance was the main gate, and the twelve foot high concrete barrier with barbed wire on the top. The lack of a massive security detail only made the facility less interesting, as if there was something important, there surely would be a full company of soldiers patrolling the yard. One would have to be either slightly crazy, or have a very good reason, to try and snoop about this place.

'Of course,' Twilight thought as he laid across a nearby roof, wearing an all black cover, using a pair of binoculars to watch as a small man and a large suit of armor snuck along the concrete wall, 'that describes the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric quite well,' he then placed a hand along his side, and felt the rope and grappling hook attached at his hip, 'And I suppose me as well.'

He watched as Edward, making one last glance around to make sure no one was around, placed a foot into Alphonse's hands held together close to the ground. Then, with as much might as that suit of armor could muster, Edward was flung up to the top of the wall. Twilight watched as the elder brother unraveled the barbed wire using his automail hand, and slowly let it down beneath his feet. Then Alphonse grabbed at it, and climbed up the side of the wall. They were in in less than twenty seconds, and they'd managed to pull the wire behind them so no one could notice their makeshift rope.

'Not bad,' Twilight thought, as he saw the boys disappear into the yard, 'Didn't even use alchemy so they wouldn't be spotted by the guard. Though I suppose I should be a bit peeved,' he could feel the wire cutter sitting in his left pocket, 'that I wasted time getting this thing on me,' he stood up, and descended down the metal gutter, and landed on his feet. He made a quick check of the road, before running over, and slamming into the concrete. He then pulled out his rope and hook, and twirled it before sending it to the top of the wall, 'Of course, perhaps you should have left someone to be the look out,' he thought, before he shimmied up the side of the wall, and on top of it, stared down into the yard as the boys ran to the front of the lab, looking for the entrance.

"So," he said beneath his breath, "I don't want any chance of them trying to see me," he pulled up his rope, and smiled as he looked over towards the building of the Fifth Laboratory. He rubbed his chin, before spotting a window on one of the top floors, and smiling to himself. He twirled the hook, and then threw it across the yard. It landed right above where the window was. He then pulled, making sure that the hook had secured into the roof, before falling down.

His feet never touched the ground. Instead, he caught himself on the wall of the lab itself. He smirked and smiled as he looked up, and saw the window. He climbed up that wall as well, and grabbed at the window. As luck would have it, it was unlocked, as many windows on upper levels were, especially in heavily guarded derelict facilities.

"No one ever checks these things," he thought as he pushed his way inside. He stopped, and then listened. He heard nothing, but he needed to be sure that there wasn't an interior guard or perhaps one of the Elric brothers. When he didn't hear anything, he looked around. It was completely empty, just some old desks that had been completely covered in dust, "Suppose it has been a long time since anyone came in here," he turned back, closed the window, and twisted around the desks, "Need to be careful to make sure no one notices me."

He opened the door, and was shocked when he realized that the inner hallway wasn't completely dark. He looked along the bottom of the walls, and saw small electric lights shining down onto the floor. He stared at them for a moment, before looking around.

'If they are pumping electricity in here,' he thought to himself, looking down the hallway, 'Then I'm guessing there is something still valuable in here,' he looked at a massive pair of doors at the end of corridor, 'Must be the stairs,' he skulked his way along the wall, towards his way down further into the facility.

'To believe they were turning people into...,' Twilight couldn't help but shiver. Once he and Franky had heard what Edward and Alphonse had discovered, they'd spent a few hours arguing, before returning home. Twilight had returned the next day, and had managed to hear the discussion the boys had had with their fellow officers. That this place was likely a military project had been unsurprising, who else had the power to do something like this.

Far more troubling had been the discovery that the Fifth Laboratory had been the location of the experiments. Not that it was this place, but rather why.

'Edward has a good head on his shoulders,' Twilight had to admit, as he neared the stairwell, 'The idea of a prison being a resource for the creation of these stones was a good deduction,' he still felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, 'Though that means...'

That there was a good chance that the executed Crestan spies hadn't just been killed, but turned into these Philosopher's Stones. The thought that men like Stirrup...men he'd trained with...might be turned into massive weapons of death and destruction bothered Twilight. The thought if he was ever caught that might be his fate as well only bother him further.

'No time to think about that,' Twilight had appreciated that the Elrics would be investigating despite the warnings from Armstrong not to approach it, and had realized that using them as cover might be his best chance to see if he could find anything of use here as well. Those boys might distract any kind of higher security that might be station in the lab after all, 'I need to find what I can. This might be my only chance.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"I can't believe those damn brats," Maria growled as she slammed the brake. It had only been a moment ago when she and Denny Brosh had discovered a set of sheets tied into a rope leading out of the library Major Armstrong had left the Elric brothers. Luckily, she had an idea of exactly where they were going considering the discussion earlier, so it had only taken a few moments to get to the car, and for her and Brosh to arrive outside the Laboratory.

"I don't see them," Denny said, getting out of the car, "Do you think they were pushed back?"

"No," Maria scowled, her eyes on the door to into the wall hanging slightly ajar, "Something tells me they are inside. The guard likely went in to check out any ruckus he's hearing," she groaned, pulling out her standard issue pistol, "Keep close Sergeant, let's go check."

Slowly, the two approached the door. They were trying to be cautious, because there was no use getting caught by a guard trespassing. Maria pushed it open, and then nodded when she saw it was clear. The two, still keeping as queit as possible, twisted through the gate before slowly returning it to what it looked like before they had arrived. Better to do that than tip off the guard the facility had been infiltrated...again.

"Cover me," Maria twisted her head towards what looked like a side door. Brosh nodded, placing himself against the wall, still making sure that the guard wasn't coming by. Maria rushed over to the door, and grabbed at it. She smiled as she did so, glad at least this door was unlocked. If it hadn't been there was a chance she'd have had to try a window, or perhaps some kind of ventilation. She even looked to her right, and saw one of those ventilation staffs and grimaced as she looked at it.

'Yeah, no way I'm getting through one of those,' she shook her head as she pushed the door open, 'I'm not short enough to fit inside that.'

"Ross," she heard Denny call out, though he tried to keep his voice low, "I'm hearing something from the other side of the building," Brosh pointed down that way, and she indeed heard what sounded like metal hitting metal. Maria bit the side of her lip, before shaking her head, and pointing down that way as well.

"You go investigate that," she said quickly, "Keep out of sight as much as you can. But that might be important, and if it's metal," she shook her head, "I wouldn't be surprised if Alphonse Elric is involved."

"What about you?" Brosh nodded towards her.

"I'll get in here and investigate further," she wasn't happy about splitting up, but if she had to guess, there was a good chance that something was going on in this laboratory, and she needed to make sure that if either of the Elric brothers had gotten into the lab, that she might be able to get in there and keep them from getting themselves killed.

Hopefully so she could get the chance to kill them herself.

"Okay," he then got up off the ground, and began to slide towards the sounds of the fighting down that other way, "Be careful he said with his head facing back to her, before continuing on his way.

"You too," she said back. As Brosh ran off down the other way, Maria turned her attention to the door. She let out a deep sigh, and fully pushed it open, and then quickly closed it behind her. She let out a sigh, as she had managed to at least hide her infiltration for a moment, before realizing that the interior hallway was far more brightly lit than she would have expected, "What the..." she looked around, gun at the ready. She swept the area around her, before beginning to advance down the hallway. As she did so, she continued to notice that the lights we not only still running, but for all the damage to the building itself...it looked like there had been some movement. Not terribly recently, but at least in the past few months, people had been here, "Abandoned...yeah right."

Dundun

She stopped, and turned. She had thought she had heard movement. She pointed the gun at a pair of double doors. She tried to picture the layout of the laboratory in her head, and then nodded as she came to a quick conclusion.

'The stairs,' she thought. She stayed still for a moment, before slowly inching her way over to the doors. All the while, she kept listening to hear if she heard more movement. She placed her hand on the handle, and then listened for one final second.

She opened the door, and saw an empty staircase. She walked over carefully, and looked at the stairs going up or down, and there was nothing on either of them. She made to get closer, to go and look at the other floors-

"AL NOW!"

"What was that?" she heard the very distinct sound of Edward Elric's voice carry down the hallway of the floor she was on. She raised her weapon again, and turned on her heel as quickly as she could racing outside the stairwell. She was here to protect the Elric brothers after all, no need to go sticking her nose when her charges were so close.

Of course, has she managed to actually look down the stairwell, instead of just at the steps themselves, she might have seen that hanging from the edge of steps of this floor was a man hanging by the bear strength of his fingers, just alongside a small cable beneath the edge of the landing she was on. That man let out a small sigh, before pulling himself up just enough to see the door had closed behind Maria Ross. He then pulled himself up fully, and wiped the dust off of himself.

'Sometimes,' Twilight thought, thinking about Ross had only been inches from having him cornered without a weapon, 'You just get lucky.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"What if your Personality and Memories were fabricated by your big brother?"

The words were haunting Al. He hadn't thought about the possibility before...but he certainly didn't remember what had happened to put him in this armor. Ed had mentioned he had something he had wanted to speak about to him, but he hadn't said what.

'Is it that I'm artificial?' he thought staring at his hands as he grasped them together, 'That I'm just some make beleive brother he shoved in a suit of armo-"

CLANG

He barely caught the slice of Barry the Chopper's cleaver. It had been aimed at his head, not directly where his seal was, but close enough to it to be dangerous. He took a second to stare down at where the metal blade had sliced into him, and was a bit shocked. The strike had made a small metal cut into his arm guard, more physical damage than he had thought possible. He then heard the other being in armor chuckle, stepping past the pool of blood that was coming from the half decapitated body of the guard of the Fifth Laboratory.

"You're slowing down," the mad chuckle from Al's opponent continued, "Starting to worry about it aren't you," Al flinched at the prodding, and almost cursed when Barry's cackle doubled, "Oh, you are starting to realize it, aren't you," Al's arm shot forward, only for Barry to catch it with his free hand, and pull Al face to face.

Or more accurately helmet to helmet.

"Just accept it," Barry slammed his hand into Alphonse's chest, and knocked him to the ground, "It'll work better for you that way," Alphonse was about to get up to fight again, but Barry's armored foot collided with his chest, and sent him supine on the ground, "Well, it's been fun kid," Barry raised his cleaver high above his head, "But I'm going to to finish you of-"

BAM

Chunk

Alphonse stared as he saw Barry's hand suddenly shudder. The massive meat cleaver was now stuck into the ground, and there was a smoking hole inside Barry's hand. The bestial mask looked over, and Alphonse joined his motion, to see a familiar blonde man in Military Blues standing with a pistol in his hand.

"Step away from the suit of armor," Denny Brosh declared, continuing to point the gun at Barry.

...

"I mean," he kept his gun trained on Barry, but he was clearly embarrassed by the faux pas, "Shorter guy, step away from Alphonse Elric!"

"Sergeant Brosh!" Alphonse had shared Edward's evaluation of the lower ranked of their two guards, but even with all the worry that had build up inside of him, he was glad to see a familiar face. A human face. Alphonse pushed himself back to his feet, and took a few steps away from Barry, glad to have regained some distance, "You need to watch out, he's just a suit of armor too. You shooting him won't do much damage."

"Are you serious!?!" Alphonse could hear the complete shock in Brosh's voice. He was brave to come here, but he was clearly feeling a great deal of anxiety from having to be moving on his own, without Ross their to provide a more experienced voice, "This is getting way too crazy for me."

"Huh," Barry looked over at Brosh, and then back at Alphonse, as though he was planning his next move, "Two of you huh?" Alphonse saw Barry's head turn slightly, and stare down at the cleaver only a few inches away. It took a second, because Alphonse hadn't been expecting it, but as he saw the armor of Barry the Chopper tense, he realized that the serial killer trapped in the armor had been weighing his options, and planning for - "Well I can handle two of you just fine!"

Another attack. Barry dove down, and rolled, grabbing the cleaver as he twirled. Brosh fired another shot at the rolling suit of armor, but he missed, and before he could line up another shot, Barry was back on his feet, and charging forward. Brosh, lined up his pistol once more and pulled the trigger again, but this time Barry brought up the cleaver and held it with both hands, blocking the bullet before it could reach him. Alphonse, seeing the charge, chased after Barry, but Barry was ahead of him, and before Alphonse could even get to where Barry had been from the first shot, Barry was right on top of Brosh. Barry raised his blade above his head, and brought it down.

"Guah!" Denny, somehow, had managed his own role away from this strike, but he hadn't been as fast. Alphonse heard a squelch, and a slicing sound, but he did see Brosh roll away from the strike. It took a second for him to realize that Brosh's right shoulder had been cut into. Had the Sergeant not rolled when he had, the blade likely would have cut directly into his clavicle and killed him. Instead, it had only managed to cut directly at the shoulder bone itself, slicing up the flesh, but bouncing off the dense bone. From Denny's screams though, it didn't sound like a light wound though, "AAAHHH! IT HURTS!"

"Oh," Barry began to stalk towards the wounded man, who was stuck on his knees against the wall of the lab, "Not bad. Not every day an ordinary human can dodge one of my strikes," he then raised the blade over his head once more, "I can't wait to see what your made of after I chop you u-" Alphonse cut him off by slamming a punch into the left side of the killer's torso, sending the suit of armor sprawling from the strike. The mad creature then turned it's head towards Al, and waved his cleaver at him, "You again! Stop ruining my fun!"

"Sergeant Brosh," Al could ignore the Chopper for a moment. Right now, Brosh's health was more important than whatever this killer had said about his realness, "We need to get your out of here," he grabbed up the young man, who screamed as he was moved, "Sorry, but we can't stay here, not when Barry the Chopper is trying to kill us," he then sprinted back around the front of the laboratory. He thought for a moment of Edward, and possibly going inside to meet up with his brother...but decided against it, "I need to get you to a hospital," he said to the wounded man on his shoulder.

The wound wasn't life threatening at the moment, but it might get that way. Blood was still flowing from the cut. So much so that from the angle he was holding Brosh, he could feel some of the blood leak through the opening between his helmet hand the rest of his armor, and begin to cover part of his insides. Feeling this, he charged towards the door that had been guarded, and smashed it open with his other shoulder.

"Oh come on!" Al heard Barry the Chopper yell from behind him, still in pursuit, "I just want to chop you all up!"

'Got to get out of here,' Alphonse broke into a sprint, Brosh still hanging onto his shoulders, and the man was still making very audible gasps and moans, meaning his health hadn't collapsed yet, 'I can't afford to let that guy catch up to us,' especially with how much blood was still leaking into his chest cavity, 'I need to get out of-'

And then, as he was about three hundred feet from the lab, the world went dark.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So this must be where they held test subjects," Twilight kept his black ski mask on, looking over a group of cells lining a small hallway. He'd made it down into the basem*nt, which he was glad to have done so since he had managed to dodge the gaze of Maria Ross. He advanced slowly, though he still hadn't heard anyone else down on this floor.

He had heard what had sounded like fierce fighting above him, but as far as he was concerned, that only meant he was going to have an easier time with Security being more focused on whatever was going on upstairs.

'Once again, thank you Edward Elric,' the boy had proved to be nothing less than a distraction machine through this little mission of his, and if they both somehow made it out of this lab alive, he might have to get the teen an actual present. Maybe a melon or something, those were nice. He shook his head, and started walking through the cells, looking them over, and shaking his head.

'Unfortunately,' he thought, 'Either these things were cleaned out, or there just weren't many test subjects in active use,' most of the cells still had made up beds, no personal effects or signs of life, 'I suppose...wait,' there was one cell that wasn't as clean as the others. He walked up slowly, removing his revolver, and keeping it at the ready as he approached. He didn't need to use it, luckily, but he found that not only was this cell more used, with an unmade bed and small little stains along the inside sink, but it's door, unlike the others, was unlocked, 'Bingo,' he turned his attention upward, and for the first time saw a little sign above the door, 'Subject 007, huh?'

Besides that cell though, everything else was pristine. Which, if Edward was right, probably wasn't that much of a stretch. If the ingredients for the Philospher's Stones were being taken from the prison, they were likely left there, and then transported. Probably less chance for these condemned to try and escape it they were confined in a place with more stringent guards until they were to be used.

'I hate how much sense so much of this makes,' Twilight thought, further advancing down the hallway, 'They may be evil, but they clearly aren't idiots,' he pointed his gun towards the exit of the hallway, until he came to a small room. Just like the room upstairs, this one was filled with desks. Unlike upstairs, however, these desks didn't look as abandoned. Most of them only had a few weeks of dust over them, instead of the full coat from the room he had entered in, 'I suppose there was more work going on down here even if officially the lab was out of use.'

He began to open some of the cabinets, trying to find anything. Most of them were empty, or filled with junk and left over equipment, like beakers and clamps and burners. There were some minor personal effects, a watch or some left over change, but nothing that related to any of the people actually here.

Just as he was about to finish the desks, he pulled out one cabinet, and felt his eyes widen. A small smirk covered the agent's lips, and he smirked as he saw dozens of files laid out in it.

'Jackpot,' he thought. He began to lay out the files, and then cursed to himself as he looked them over. There were files, certainly, but nothing in them. Oh, there were some odd papers, but nothing with any actual value. He cursed himself, as he continued to flip further and further through the papers, trying to see if he could find anything. Yet that drawer proved to be full of nothing, 'sh*t. Must have cleaned anything that might be useful out of here.'

He then looked down, and saw another filing cabinet directly beneath the previous one. On the outside of it, it actually had a small label, that said something that gave Twilight pause.

It said "Failures".

"How useful could that be?" he asked himself, before sighing, "Well, I can't find anything else," he then pulled it out, and began to flip through the files, and felt a small smile come up to his face, "Well what do you know?"

This cabinet was filled with full files. Whoever had made the cleanout had probably either forgotten this set of information in the hurry to clean everything up, or had simply decided that failures weren't worth the effort. Either way, at least Twilight was going to get some information on what was happening. He began to flip through the papers, when he spotted something a little over halfway through. A file sitting in the back, with a familiar label on it.

"007," He grabbed that file, and pulled it into his hands. He placed it on the desk next to him, and smirked at it, "Okay, let's see who you are," he turned the file open.

He felt his jaw drop.

On the front of this file was a small photo covering up almost everything else. A small photo of a little girl with pink hair and big green eyes staring directly into the camera. A little girl who Twilight had only this morning waved goodbye to before she was off on her way to school. Twilight shook for a moment, not really believing what was in his eyes.

"Any-"

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!

The room shook, and the ceiling above him began to spill debris. Twilight, hearing a cracking sound and seeing stress on the tiles above him, rolled away from the desk, as that part of the ceiling came down, and crushed the cabinet, the desk, and the file he had just been reading. He cursed under his breath, as he saw the information he'd snuck in here for disappear, before watching the rest of the room shake.

"sh*t," he cursed to himself, turning on his heels and charging back down the hallway, "sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*t!" he was running as fast as his feet could carry him. He made it to the stairwell quickly, and was soon charging up the stairs. Behind him, he heard the basem*nt begin to be destroyed, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"EDWARD!"

Maria Ross was shocked as she saw Edward in the middle of a massive circle, beaten to a pulp. To her right, she was a cut up set of Eastern armor. To her right, she saw two people, both in completely black clothes, with dark hair, and holding dark expressions, staring over at her in confusion. The smaller of the two was nearest to Edward, and Maria had just seen the creature slam it's fist into Edward's stomach, causing him to collapse from the strike.

"Looks like we have company," the other dark figure, a voluptuous woman, Maria Ross wasn't interested, but she also wasn't a liar, seemed to roll her eyes as Maria raised her standard operations pistol, "Told you to hurry it up."

"Shove it," the smaller one, with a slightly more boyish voice, raised a middle finger to its compatriot, "You also want this one alive," he pointed down at Edward, who was coughing in pain, "So I was going easy on him. You don't want me to kill one of our sacrifices so early," he then sneered the last word with emphasis, "Riiiighhhht?"

"I suppose you have a point," she turned around, and faced a massive dark hallway, before looking back, "You, girlie," she pointed at Maria, and the second lieutenant gripped her pistol tightly, "take the boy out of here, this place will be blown up in the next few minutes," Maria felt her eyes widen, and she saw a similar look come over Edward's face, "We don't need it to make stones anymore anyway."

"Anymore?" Ross heard Edward ask, only for the thin one to grab Edward by the head, and slam it into the ground. Maria turned her gun towards...him, and glared as Edward's face was rubbed into the concrete floor.

"Yeah, anymore," the thing laughed, as Edward let out a groan, "Why do you think this place was abandoned. No need for it when we have all we need for it," he then pulled Edward's head back, and slammed it into the ground again, "get it pipsqueak?" He then began to roll Edward's face around, and Ross began to prepare to squeeze the trigger.

"That's enough Envy," the woman declared, and Envy, the thing attacking Edward, snorted, before getting up and following her.

"See you later pipsqueak," he waved as he walked out of the room, Maria's gun following Envy as he followed "And you too, Second Lieutenant."

The entered into the dark hall, and within only a second disappeared into the shadows. Maria didn't take her eyes off the hall for a second, her gun constantly pointing at the corridor as she slowly walked up to Edward's prone form. As she reached the teen, she leaned down, all the while keeping her pistol pointing directly where Envy and the woman had gone. She took her left hand off, and rested it against Ed's throat, and sighed, glad to see that hadn't in fact killed him.

"Edward," she said aloud, sweat beginning to build on her brow as she remembered them say something about blowing this building up, "Are you able to walk?"

She got a low moan in response. She let out a curse under her breath, and bent down further. She used her left hand to slowly lift Edward's mechanical arm over her shoulder, and then, slowly, stood up, dragging the boy up with him. It was lucky he was small for her age, as much bigger, she probably wouldn't have been able to lift him on her own. With her gun still pointing directly down the corridor, she began to step backward, dragging Edward's body with her as she retreated. After a moment, she had made it to the entrance she had come through, and was about to turn around, when she heard a-

BOOM

"sh*t!"

They had started the demolition of the lab. She could see several large cracks begin to cover the columns of the room around her. She dropped her gun, guessing that they were no longer coming back, and grabbed up Edward so she could pull him over her back. Now with her charge on piggy back, she began to hoof it out of there. The building was beginning to come down, but luckily it was only a hundred or so feet to the side door she had come in. She kicked it open, and ran out.

"Have to keep running," even if she was away from the building itself, it wasn't safe to be near it, "Hold on Ed."

"I'm sorry."

'You better be,' she thought to herself, adjusting Edward by picking him up some, all to make it easier to run with this teen being held up on her back, 'with everything you pu-'

"I'm sorry...Mom."

...

"God Damnit."

________________________________________________________________________________________

He could see Edward.
Not as his brother was now, but as he was in his memories. He could see his brother reaching out to him, tears in his eyes. He saw long shadowy arms reaching around him, picking him up, and tearing him apart. He could see his mother, his father, all of his memories from when he had a body...he then saw the circle they'd used, the chemicals piled up.

He saw a white silhouette, sitting in front of a door. He saw the door open, and he saw another silhouette, this one with long hair. Mom, he thought, and he reached out to her. He would feel her hand again.
Then the silhouette reached out, and grabbed his hand. And where once there had been nothing but white, a form began to take shape. But it wasn't his mother's face. No it was his own. Slowly, as though being pieced together, the arm gripping his began to be his own, the face smiling back at him was his own. And realizing that, he realized his own body was coming apart.
He saw so much.
He saw the Truth.

Alphonse pushed himself to his feet, and slammed his fist directly into the the helmet of Barry. This knocked the shorter armor off balance, as he reached back to grab at his head. Alphonse jumped between Barry and Brosh, and assumed his fighting stance.

"Oh, trying to play dead huh?" Barry groaned, getting back to a fighting stance of his own, pointing his massive cleaver at Alphonse, "I suppose it's harder to tell when I can't see a living body. I got used to seeing who was pulling stunts like that when I was still alive," he shrugged, before beginning to march forward, swinging his cleaver, "Well might as well finish you off you artifici-aaaaaghghhh!"

Alphonse had reached out, and grabbed the arm. He then twisted his body, and flung Barry over both Al and Brosh, and onto the other side of the street. Barry, shocked at the sudden change in position, seemed to sputter on the ground for a moment. Al looked down at his hands for a second, and then, if he had had a mouth, would have smiled.

"I'm not artificial," he announced, stepping over his guard, his hands balled into fists, "I can't believe I ever thought about listening to a guy like you," he stopped in the middle of the street, "I mean, you admit your a serial killer. What was I thinking?"

"Oh come on," Barry waved, "You can't just judge a person by their profession."

"I don't know how," Alphonse continued, ignoring Barry's interjection, "But somehow, I got my memories of being put in this suit back," he stared down at his hands again, before slamming them together, "And not just that," he felt an energy course through him, and slammed his now lightning covered hands onto the road.

A moment later, the pavement had turned into a long stone scimitar. All the while Barry seemed to take a step back, clearly unprepared for a use of circleless alchemy. Alphonse then twisted the sword around his body, getting a feel for it's weight, and how it would interact with his armored body. And yet, even with all the danger he was in, he couldn't help but be happy. He'd regained his memories. Yeah, he hadn't discovered how to get back their bodies, but he wasn't some fake creation of his brother.

"You think this is funny!" Barry seemed to be angered by the casual way Alphonse was practicing. He jumped into the air, high above Al, cleaver raised to strike at Alphonse's head, "I'm going to chop you up."
Alphonse raised his sword, and then the two clashed.

For a moment, nothing happened.

CLANG

Then Barry the Chopper's right arm fell off. He stared over at Alphonse, his animated behavior disappearing. Alphonse turned around, and pointed his scimitar back at Barry, preparing to continue the fight. Barry looked down at his lost arm, and then jumped down, grabbed his cleaver with his free hand, and dashed off down a nearby alley. Alphonse would have blinked if he could, but shook his head. He tossed the sword to his side, and rushed over to Brosh.

"We need to get you to the hospital," the armor said. Brosh looked up at Al, though his face had begun to get paler.

"What about that thing?"

"Right now, it's more important we get you better," Alphonse said, lifting the officer into his arms, "Wait, if the facility has fallen apar-oh, here they come," he stared as he saw Maria Ross carrying his brother on her back. He was glad that they were alive, though part of him wanted to chastise Edward for being reckless.

'Though considering I had thought he had been lying to me,' Al just shook his head, 'I can let it slide.'

"Sergeant Brosh!" Maria shouted as she saw Denny's bloody shoulder, "What happened?"

"We can explain on our way to the hospital," Denny tried to laugh, though it turned into a cough. Maria just looked at the two, sighed, and nodded. It would be only a few moments before the three would be back to their car, and soon close to a hospital nearby.

But while going back to the car near the now destroyed laboratory, they missed one other figure, also escaping the destroyed Fifth Laboratory. The destruction of the lab had gotten rid of any evidence that he'd been there...

But Agent Twilight had quite a lot to think about.

Chapter 29: Sick Day

"So we're having a birthday party in two days," Anya saw Mr. Hughes wiggle as he stood on their front door step, "You've become such a close set of friends to us, that we would love to have you all over for it."

"That sounds really nice," Mama smiled and nodded at the man, who gave her a thumbs up, "It's been so long since I've been to a birthday party," she placed a finger to her lips, "Maybe sometime with Yuri," she shook her head, "But that does sound exciting, of course we'll come," Mr. Hughes smiled at Mama, before looking down at Anya.

"So you didn't know Anya during her last one huh?" he said, before asking, "Well Anya, do you like Birthday parties?"

"Yes Mr. Hughes," she said, realizing that saying otherwise might be bad or give something away, "Had one last year."

"We'll," he kneeled down and patted her on the head, smiling, "Let us know when you're having a party, and we'll come on over then too," Anya nodded quickly at that, and Hughes then stood up, and began to walk away, "Tell Lloyd I said hi!" before finally turning fully, and walking right off to his home. Anya and her Mama waved as he began to move into his place, and then they closed the door.

"I hope Lloyd get's home today," Yor looked up at the clock, "He was out all night for work," she shook her head, looking at the clock, "I didn't even know that psychiatrists could work that late."

Papa hadn't come home last night. He'd told them that there had been some emergencies down at the hospital and they had needed his help with basic triage and medical aid. Of course, Anya knew that Papa was really out with his spy friend, and they were researching some weird alchemy stuff. She hadn't seen him last night since he called in, but she was sure that Papa likely had gone to work right after his spy stuff. Sometimes, it was nice to have a bit of a break from Papa's spy stuff too, so if he needed to be gone for a while, that would be okay.

"Hey Miss Anya," she looked over at her mother, who was smiling brightly, and holding her fists together in determination, "Since Lloyd isn't home, why don't I try and make dinner tonight?"

"..."

'Please come home soon Papa,' she thought, as she remembered the attempt her Mama had made at cooking last week. She and Papa had gone to bed sick, and neither of them had been quite able to get through the whole thing in tact, 'Otherwise, I might not make it to the birthday party.'

"I'm home."

Papa's voice was warbly, and even without seeing him, Anya could tell he was exhausted. This was only confirmed when Papa walked into the living room. He had massive bags under his eyes, frizzled hair, and his clothes knocked around him so he barely looked straight. He was slumped over, his fingers barely holding up his briefcase, and his eyes bouncing back and forth across his face. As he entered the room, he fell to his side, and had to hold himself up by using the wall as a brace.

"Lloyd," Mama rushed over to Papa, and grabbed him up by the shoulder, "You look terrible," she placed a hand on Papa's face, and tried to wipe away some of the crust that had begun to develop around his eyes, "We need to get you to bed," she began to lift him towards the hallway to the bed rooms, "Anya, we can make dinner later."

"Anya!" Lloyd suddenly said aloud, his breifcase dropping to the ground as he seemed to make a snapping motion, and Anya stood up straight. He then looked at her for a moment, and Anya did her best to read through his sporadic mind, just as Mama made to pull him further away, and disconnecting their eyesight.

'Anya,' was the first word at the front of her Papa's mind, 'Collapse-experiment,' wait...was he, '007.'

'How does he know!' she felt her jaw drop, and was lucky that her father had already been pulled from looking at her, 'I have been really careful to not say anything about that!'

'Fifth Laboratory,' he thought, and Anya knew. Her father had been at the dark place, where she had escaped from in order to escape being killed by the dark people, like Lust and Envy. He must have been doing sneaky spy stuff there, and so he must have run into something that made him realize she was from there.

'What do I do?' she began to panic, rubbing the her cheeks. She had thought she was in the clear after Lust had left her alone and Truth had helped her figure out her plan. She just had to get through school, and let Papa deal with what was coming up. But now, her Papa was going to be focused on her. She began to spin around as she heard the door to her father's room open, 'I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!'

After nearly a minute of spinning around, she became so dizzy that she fell over, and laid down on the carpet at the center of the room. She stared at the ceiling above her, the pure white void of the plaster, and she thought about the only one she'd been able to be honest with since she had gotten free from her cell.

'I wish I could talk to Truth,' she thought, before rubbing her forehead with her arms, 'He'd know what to do.'

But she didn't know how to get to Truth. She'd only met him twice, and both times she'd run into the Dark People who made her really sick. She didn't want to get sick again, and she didn't think there was a way to contact Truth besides getting to the void. So...she was most likely on her own to try and get her father from investigating her too much.

"Why is everything so hard?" she asked, as Mama appeared above her. Her face was scrunched in worry, as her eyes seemed to flow all over Anya's body.

"Miss Anya?" Mama asked, "Are you okay?"

'She looks like she may be getting sick again,' Mama's mind was back on the train car when Anya had been knocked out by Lust, 'Oh no, what if she's getting sick too,' she shook her head, 'I don't know what foods to make for a child getting sick,' her mind immediately shifted to Mrs. Hughes, 'Gracia might know, though I won't be able to cook my special recipe tonight if I-'

"Feeling sick," Anya said, trying to both calm any worries from her Mama, and to make sure that Mama was not cooking for them.

"Oh dear."

________________________________________________________________________________________

It was the next morning, and Mama had insisted that both Anya and her Papa take the day off. She had made soup for the both of them, and let them both rest in bed. It had given time for Anya to think about what she was going to do to try and make sure Papa didn't think too much about where she had come from.

"Miss Anya," Yor said, resting her hand on Anya's temple, "You don't seem warm, but I don't want to take any more chances with you being sick," she rubbed Anya's head a little, "With your father so warn out, I'm going to need to run to the store so I can get more of those soup ingredients that Gracia was talking about," she smiled as she stood up, and prepared to leave the room, "We need to make sure you are feeling well so you can go to Elicia's birthday party tomorrow."

Anya nodded quietly, not wanting to speak and possibly give away she wasn't really sick. She laid her head down, and listened for a while. At first, she heard Mama's footsteps move all about the house, both ways down the hall to her room and to the rest of the house. Finally, after what felt like forever, Anya heard the front door open and shut. She decided to wait for a few more minutes, just to make sure Mama was gone, before slowly slipping out of her sheets, and placing her feet on the floor.

'Have to see what he found,' she said, remembering that Papa had dropped his briefcase in the hall. Maybe he found some papers or something that said she was an experiment. Hopefully, she could find that, and get rid of them before they explained more. She stopped as she hit the door, and tried to read the mind of anyone out in the hallway. When she couldn't sense anyone, she opened her door as quietly as possible, and scurried around the door towards the front hallway.

She got to the front hallway, and saw Papa's briefcase had been put up on a chair. She silently climbed up the chair, and looked at it. She smiled when she saw that it wasn't locked, and she pulled the thing down so it was beneath her. She popped it open, and stared at the papers inside. Then her smile disappeared, because there wasn't anything spy related in there, but a bunch of stuff that looked like doctor notes.

'Papa really needs to work on his hand writing,' she thought, seeing how even her own writing was easier to read than his. She shook her head, put them all back in the suitcase, and closed it up so it was in the same spot she left it. She sighed, sad that her best idea for figuring out how Papa had managed to figure out she was an experiment had failed. She marched back towards her room, at least to try and give her some time to thi-

CREEAACKKK

That had come from Papa's room. Anya, feeling a panic as she heard Papa getting up from his bed, rushed into her room, and underneath her covers. She sighed as she rested her head away from the door, and listened as he passed her.

'I'm so thirsty,' and Anya sighed even more as her Papa was clearly not thinking about her at all, 'I didn't get a chance to drink anything since I went off two nights ago,' his thoughts disappeared as he entered the kitchen, outside of her range of mind reading. She did hear the faucet turn on and a cabinet open though so-

'Wait,' Anya thought, 'How can I hear stuff in the kitchen,' she turned in her bed, 'I usually can't hear anything while in be-' to see that her door was halfway open, 'Gah!'

She was about to get up to close the door, when she heard the faucet turn off. For a few seconds, she heard nothing, but then she heard the sound of something being placed down on the counter. And then she heard what sounded like the steps of someone coming down the hallway, so she quickly turned away from the door, hoping that her Papa would just go back inside his room. She heard him get up to his door, but also that he stopped right in front of it, rather than go in. Then she heard more steps getting closer.

'Darnit,' she thought, as she suddenly heard her door squeak as she suspected her Papa had come into her room. She desperately tried to keep her eyes closed, as she heard him take several steps closer to the bed, and then felt the bed shift as a new weight fell on the other side of the bed, 'Please don't be mad at m-'

'Anya,' Papa's thoughts didn't sound angry, so that was good. She could see in his mind's eye his hand reaching out towards her, but stopping a bit away from her, and then pulling back, 'I'm sorry I didn't look more deeply into your past,' if Anya wasn't pretending to be asleep, she would have blinked in surprise, 'Though...I suppose the orphanage didn't have any papers for you, so what could I have used for research.'

For a moment, Papa just sat there, looking down at her. The only thing in his mind was a picture of her face, the name 007, and the word failure slapped on top of it. Then, he reached out again, and rubbed the back of her head.

'I guess this country just has a habit of using little girls for experiments,' an image of a dog-like creature, Nina Tucker from her memory, flashed across his mind, 'I'm so sorry. I have no idea what they did to you, yet you must have spent years in that cell.'

The image of her cell, where she had escaped from all that time ago, passed through her Papa's head. It had been so long, and she had been out so much, that she had forgotten how small it was. Her room right now could hold like four of those cells in it, and maybe five if you really squeezed them in.

'God in heaven,' Papa slowly reached his arms around Anya, and she did her best to remain limp as he picked her up and held her in his arms for a moment, 'I can't imagine being a little girl in a room like that,' he looked down, and Anya was glad to see that there was nothing in his head that made him think she was awake, 'How did you get-I guess it doesn't matter,' he sighed, 'At least for once, there was enough negligence to allow for some kind of small mercy.'

In Papa's mind, they were back at the orphanage, 'to believe you got all the way to East City from here,' he shook his head, looking at the mirror as he held her, 'I guess all your time there is part of the reason you are sick so much,' Anya felt his grip tighten around her, 'You really won't have any place to go after Operation: STRIX is completed.'

...

'I'll take you with me to Cresta,' he nodded to himself, and Anya felt herself blink, 'After this operation is over, I'll be able to take a break, and maybe set up some apartments there. I'll make sure you have a good life, and you will never be-'

"Papa," Anya said out of habit, only for her eyes to open up in shock.

"Oh," Papa pulled her from his embrace, and looked at her, "Sorry Anya, did I wake you up?"

"Ummm," Anya said, trying to think of the best way to keep him from asking too many questions, "I think so."

"Well I'm sorry," and in his head, he did seem sorry. Anya had to guess that learning she was an experiment had meant he had suddenly come to see her a bit differently, and now he couldn't just keep acting the way he had been, "I should have been more careful, especially since you are sick," he laid her down, and pulled the covers up to her hands, "Can I get you anything? Some water maybe?"

"No," she answered, just wanting Papa to go now, and let the conversation die. She was glad he wasn't mad, but still, she wanted to move on so the chance of her giving something more away would go with him, "I just need to lay down Papa."

"Of course."

Papa got up from the bed, and Anya watched as he went to her door. He grabbed it as he walked out into the hall, and began to close it behind him as he left. Only, with only a few more inches left before the full close, it stopped, and then, Papa stuck his head back into the room, and looked over at her as she laid there.

"Anya, you know you can trust me, right?" He seemed worried, even in his head, "If you ever need to tell me anything, don't worry that I might be mad at you, or be scared about me not loving you, okay?"

Anya, looked up, and frowned. Part of her wanted to say she could hear his thoughts...but that would probably be too much. Better to just let him think she wasn't anything special other than where she had been raised, and hope that nothing else came up. That way, she could get through this year, and get out of this country filled with Dark People like Lust and Envy.

"Okay Papa," she nodded, "I trust you."

"Good," he smiled at her, "I'll let you get some sleep," and then he closed the door.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Wait," Ed felt his eyes widen as he looked at Alphonse, his cheek still stinging after the well earned rebuke he got from Maria Ross, "You say you got your memories back. You remember going into the gate?"

"Yes," Alphonse said, sitting in a chair, next to Denny Brosh, who was leaning up against the back of the chair, his wounded arm in a sling, "It was all," somehow, someway, Alphonse was able to make his arms go wobbly, "And I saw you, and I saw my body get pulled apart and taken by some...thing, and...then I remember seeing you lying in the blood."

Maria Ross had managed to get Ed and Denny into a nearby clinic to get their wounds taken care of. In order to keep the whole thing a secret, the Fifth Laboratory was marked off limits after all, they had been checked into a non-military clinic and Maria Ross had used Ed's bank account to pay for the two to share a room. She had been standing on watch all night to make sure they were okay. She was currently about to fall over, the exhaustion of the whole thing about to knock her out, but still, she had managed to pull of quite a lot to keep the whole thing together like she had.

'Totally deserved that smack,' Ed remembered her fury after he woke up, and her dressing him down for putting he and Al in danger against the orders of Major Armstrong. He had acted like a little punk going forward like that, and after the beating he took, he was lucky to be alive after facing those things.

"PIPE DOWN SHRIMP!"
Ed placed his left hand along his gut, remembering the pain of that thing's knee knocking the wind out of him.

'I really could of died,' he shook his head, before smiling as his attention returned to Al, 'Though that doesn't mean we didn't get anything from this little misadventure.'

"Yeah," Ed then did the same wobbly arm motion, once again showing a great deal of skill to turn his automail into such a twisty thing, "I remember that too," he shook his head, looking at Al, "I wonder how you got them back."

"Well," Al tapped where his chin should be, "I remember we were trying to escape from Barry after Sergeant Brosh got injured," Al pointed back at Denny, who waved weakly, "So while we were running, I just lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I had gotten my memories back," he let out a sigh, falling over slightly, "There really isn't much more than that."

"Wait a second," Ed stopped, waving his hand upward slowly, "Could you take your helmet off, I have to inspect the seal."

"Oh," Al pulled his helmet off, something he probably should be more concerned about becoming normal than he was.

"Huh," Maria said from the other side of Edward's bed, moving forward so she could get a better look at the circle with a strange symbol inside, "So that's what's keeping Al's soul attached to that suit of armor, huh?"

"Yup," Ed leaned forward, and looked at the seal. He suddenly felt his eyes widen, "Al, there's splash of extra blood on the seal."
"What," Al almost seemed to jump up, "Really?" He then stopped, and thought, "Though, when I was carrying Sergeant Brosh, I did feel some of his blood leak into my armor," he then pointed at Ed, "Do you think that the blood-"

"Maybe it managed to complete the seal when I couldn't back when we tried to bring Mom back," Ed rubbed his chin, "So you were able to get a fuller memory of what happened, where you weren't able to before," he shook his head, before laying down further into the bed, "Unfortunately, I'm guessing you didn't get any extra information on how to get our bodies back from that memory, huh."

"No," Al placed his helmet back on, giving it a short twist to make sure it was locked into place and wouldn't fall off, "Though I guess we should be glad that it didn't cause any permanent damage to the seal. If something had happened there, I wouldn't be able to stay connected, and I would basically be dead."

"Wait," Brosh spoke up, pointing at his shoulder, "So, I just so happened to bleed enough to give you back your memories, but not enough to completely cover and destroy your seal."

"Thanks for bleeding the exact right amount," Ed gave him a thumbs up.

"We couldn't have done it without you," Al joined his brother with a similar gesture.

"Wow," Denny felt a large amount of sweat build up on the back of his head, his arm suddenly hurting more again for some reason as he sat there, eye twitching at the brother's chipper attitude, "I'm touched by your support," he let out a groan and laid his head back on the pillow, "Glad I was useful."

"Ahem," the three men turned their attention to Maria Ross, who suddenly returned to her formal military pose, "Now that it appears that the Fifth Laboratory is no longer a pathway to investigate the return of your bodies," Ed felt his shoulders sag at remembering that they really didn't appear to be any closer to completing their mission, "What are your plans for your next steps."

"Man," Ed laid back into his bed, staring up at the ceiling, "I don't know," he stuck his metal hand out toward the ceiling, "Every time it feels like I'm about to get some where," he gripped his hand together, imagining a hand of veins and muscle instead of wires and steel, "It just gets away from us," his hand opened, and there was nothing but air.

CHINK

And then his automail arm lost control, and fell to the bed. Ed stared at the arm for a second, and tried to lift it up. When it wouldn't move, he blinked furiously. He brought up his still human left arm, and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. He'd foregotten that his arm had collapsed in his fight with those weird guys at the lab, so now...

Now...

"Well, first," he said in defeat, as all three of the others in the room stared dumbly at the busted automail arm, "I'm going to have to make a phone call to Winry."

"Winry? Is she your girlfriend?"

"DON'T JUST MAKE ASSUMPTIONS!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Of all the times for the store to be out of chicken broth," Yor sighed, shaking her head as she walked down the main boulevard, "It had to be the time I have two sick people in the house."

She had just gone to the store she had been going to ever since she had met Gracia Hughes, only to find that the most important ingredient for the soup was actually not there. There had been an offer for her to take a normal chicken and make broth from scratch, but knowing her current skill at cooking, she wasn't about to take the chance at making that from scratch. Especially if she couldn't ask Gracia to come over so the woman wouldn't get sick before her own daughter's birthday.

"Now I have to go ten blocks out," she groaned, a place that took her well outside of the Center of Central, and into a place with several empty buildings, and less well maintained streets. This would not be the sort of place she would ever take Miss Anya, but Yor supposed that since the little girl was back home, it wasn't too much of a problem to come alone. No danger when it was just her.

'Even if there is a dark killing intent over there,' her eyes wandered over to a dark alleyway.

Yor had been trained to sense the desire of her enemies to murder her. She wasn't certain where it had come from, but it had been one of the shop keepers best techniques to teach her. It wasn't perfect, if her opponent was hunting someone other than her, like Scar had during the attack in East City, or wasn't actively planning her death, like Solaris at the chateau, then she wasn't able to use it. However, against someone as hungry for blood and death as whatever this one was, she knew he was coming.

She entered the store that the other owner had said still had the broth, and bought it and placed it in the bag. She smiled, thanked the clerk, a nice young lady who had seemed a bit nervous. Understanding that perhaps she was feeling the dread that came from having that sort of monstrous intent around her, she made sure to give the girl a bit of a tip, before walking out-

And turning down the alleyway where the dark feeling was originating from.

For a moment, she walked down it, not bothering to let this stretch out any longer than it needed to. Besides, going further down the main street might lead to either an attack where civilians might be involved, or perhaps let this likely murder continue to hunt the streets unimpeded. Yor couldn't allow a serial murder to just walk free after all.

'I wonder when my next assassination job will come next?' she thought as she continued to walk, all the while using each step to stretch her limbs to get them ready for the fight. She was lucky she had come in walking shoes, since even though she could fight in heels, she wouldn't want to have to explain to Lloyd why she would have to go get them repaired.

"Hello there Missy," her eyes shifted left, and she saw a short, rotund figure emerge from behind the trash cans. It was a suit of armor, with a bestial head and and a long flowing main of hair behind it. It had only one arm, but in it was a massive cleaver, resting at it's side. She stopped, and noticed something strange. Even lacking one arm, this thing was far too light for it's size, "Out for a little stroll?"

'This is like Alphonse Elric,' she noted, noticing that it was walking around far too agilely for a a creature that size, 'So perhaps this is just a soul bound to a suit of armor?'

"Well, I'm sorry to say that this is the last stroll you are ever going to go on," the armor began to bounce as it cackled, pointing the cleaver right at Yor, "Because you have been chosen to be the first in the second line of murders under the artful swing of Barry the Chopper!"

The armor didn't wait for another second, and shot forward, as quick as Yor expected. It held the cleaver high over it's head, and began to bring it down. Yor gave a quick twirl as it came in along the side that didn't have an arm, and got behind her attacker. She looked down for a second, and was glad to see that she had managed to keep everything inside the brown paper bag from the store. She jumped backward again when another swing, this one horizontal nearly cut the bag open. She came to a sliding stop, and then dove left, as Barry brought down the cleaver again where she had been.

"Oh your fun!" Barry laughed, his cleaver swung again as Yor hopped over a trash can, the metal lid caving in from his strike, "Been a while since a lady has managed to dodge any of my attacks like this!"

"Your swings are too wide."

"Wha-" with another horizontal swing, Yor leaned backwards, and as the blade sung right in front of her, she readjusted herself, and placed her leg on Barry's shoulder, and then gave it a mighty kick, "AGHGH!" sending Barry colliding into the wall. He quickly popped back up, and turned around, only to see Yor's foot only inches from his helmet.

CRUNCH

A helmet that was smashed to pieces from the kick, the metal caving in from her heel, and Barry letting out a massive scream as he realized what had just happened. He then swung his cleaver again, and Yor managed to jump back, feeling that Barry had managed to get pretty close this time. For a second, they just stood there, staring at one another. Or rather, Yor was staring, while Barry was probably somehow looking at her despite no longer having a head. She noticed a strange red symbol on the inner part of Barry's neck, and her eyes focused on it for a second.

"I see," she nodded to herself, "So that is where your soul is tied to your body."

"Yeah," Barry again brought up the cleaver, pointing it at her, "That's right," he let out a dark chuckle, "I guess you probably have run into that Alphonse kid, huh?" Yor didn't say anything. No reason to, really, "Well, I guess," he was outright cackling now, "I'll bring him your head! I need a new o-"

Yor hopped onto Barry's arm. She had moved so fast, that the soul in the armor clearly had no idea what had just happened. But really, despite it's strange lightness, this fighter was no where near the level Scar had been on, so this wasn't too dangerous an attack. Especially since she was already past his only defense. She then threw her right hand back, her left arm still holding the grocery bag, and threw it forward, her fingers smashing through the small opening between the strip of armor with the seal on it and the rest of the suit. She then pulled back, and-

RIIIPPPPP

Ripped the piece of armor off the rest of the body. As she hopped back, she saw the now souless armor act as she expected, falling apart to the ground. She flipped in the air, before catching herself on the alleyway. She stopped for a second, and then held up the piece of armor containing the seal.

"How di-what the," she could still hear Barry's voice coming through the piece of armor, "Let me go and put me back on my armor!" it screamed, the piece of metal somehow twisting and turning at his scream, "I need to get back there if I'm going to chop you u-"

"No you don't"

CRUNCH

"GYA"

Yor took a second to stare at the crumpled metal in her hand. The seal had been broken apart by her muscle grip and with it's destruction Barry the Chopper was killed. For a moment, she stared down at the ruined alchemy, and then at the broken metal body. Her mind tried to process the applications of this.

'This probably won't work for Alphonse Elric,' she admitted to herself, 'If I ever have to kill him, the armor is too put together to just rip it out,' she thought of how this one had openings that didn't exist on the younger Elric, 'I would probably have to-' She felt something wet on her left arm. For a second, she felt a panic in her heart, 'Wait, did he cut me?' she remembered that she had just gone out for groceries, 'Ah, I only said I'd be out for groceries, I'll have to explai-'

She stopped, and then held out her left arm, which had no pain. Instead, she finally realized that in Barry's last swing, he'd managed to cut her bag of groceries open. She blinked at it for a second, contemplating that she hadn't been quite as agile as she thought, before her mind finally put two and two together.

"AH! I have to go get more chicken broth!"

"Mr. Hughes," Winry Rockbell looked from behind the massive teddy bear she was carrying. The man who had shanghaied her from the hospital where she had been met with Ed and Al didn't even bother to look over to her, all the while whistling away as a stack of boxes swayed in his arms.

"Yes?"

Winry felt the undeniable desire to get out her wrench and thwack the man, even if he was offering to let her stay at his place for the evening. She kept control over herself, however, gripping ever more tightly onto the bear as she walked forward.

"I was wondering," she looked down at the great stuffed beast, and then again to the pile of boxes, "Why are you buying all these things?"

"Ha," Maes Hughes let out a laugh, before giving her a sly smile, and looking of wistfully into the distance, "Well you see," he acted as though he was telling her some great secret, even though his voice was as loud as normal, "Today is my daughter's birthday," his smile only grew larger, "She's turning three years old."

"Congratulations!" Winry laughed. That certainly did explain all the gifts. Maes Hughes just laughed in response, and then gestured for her to continue to follow him.

The two of them made a quick turn down the next main street, and Winry could see the Lieutenant Colonel focus his eyes on one house in particular. Before they had even made it to the steps of that house, the door was open, and a woman and a little girl, Hughes's wife and daughter, came out, the little girl waving frantically at them as they approached. Maes's smile grew even bigger, as they quickly made their way up the steps of the house. While still holding the boxes in one hand, he scooped up the little girl in his other arm, and pulled her up for a quick kiss on the forehead.

"Elicia, my little angel," his voice went squeaky, as though the joy was bursting out of his chest, "How was your day today?"

"Great Papa" Elicia shouted, reaching up and throwing her arms around Colonel Hughes's neck. The bearded man laughed, before handing the boxes over to his wife, who swiftly put them down on what looked like a small table inside. She then stopped crawling all over her father, and turned her attention to Winry. For a moment, the little girl was observing her with eyes without any sort of recognition. She then pointed at Winry, and asked, "Who's this Daddy?"

"Ah," Maes nodded, this is clearly being something he had prepared for, before resting his now free hand on his wife's shoulder, "Elicia, Gracia, do you remember the Elric brothers?" The wife, Gracia if Winry had to guess, nodded, but for a second Elicia just placed a finger next to her lip, before her eyes widened.

"The little guy with the big metal brother?"

"Yup," Winry answered, laughing, glad that Edward wasn't here to cause a scene. Sometimes his temper was as short as he was.

"Ha, ha, yeah, that's them," he shook his head while chuckling likely imagining exactly what Edward would have said at that description, "Well, she's their old friend from when they were your age," Elicia looked over at Winry, as though she were trying to imagine Winry ever being as small as herself, "She's in town to help them for a bit, but she got called on short notice, so she doesn't have any rooms called up," he turned to his wife, who was nodding along, "I offered to let her stay here."

Gracia nodded along quickly, and she didn't seem to mind. Their apartments did look big though, so they probably had a guest room or two. Winry leaned down as Elicia crawled off of her father, and sat there, completely unfazed by the older girl standing right in front of her. As she leaned down, it was hard not to admire the absolute confidence the girl gave off, especially when someone so much bigger than her was getting so close.

"Hey Elicia, I'm Winry," she said. When Elicia nodded at that introduction, Winry continued, "I hear it's your birthday today," again, the little girl nodded, "Can you tell me how old you are?"

"I'm tw-"

For a second, Elicia just stood there, two fingers held up on her pudgy little hand. Slowly, WInry could see the gears in her head turn, as though the rote older pattern was fighting with the new instructions placed into it. Finally, a third little finger flew up, and the smile on the tiny girl got even bigger somehow.

"I'M THREE!"

"She's so cute!" Winry couldn't help herself. She didn't care as she stood up and waved back and forth at the thought of the little girl's fingers moving to show her age, and how quickly she had learnt her new age. She also didn't care that she was doing the exact same motion as the little girl's father. She didn't even care that Gracia was looking at them with a slight roll in her eyes, or the sound of exhaustion coming from behind her. Finally, regaining her wits, she looked back, and saw three more people standing right below them.

They were a tall, handsome blonde man in a formal green suit, a raven haired woman in a long red sweater, and a little pinkhaired girl in a black dress. The three of them were standing, just staring as the whole thing went about, though from the look on the man's face, she could tell he had found the exchange to be exasperating.

"Oh, hi neighbor!" Maes waved his hand at the family behind Winry, "Winry, this is our next door neighbors. That's Dr. Lloyd Forger, and his wife and Daughter, Yor and Anya," the man in the green suit dropped his frown quickly, and gave her a polite bow, followed by the same motion from his wife and daughter, "They agreed to come and help us set up," Meas then leaned forward, "Shockingly, not only is Lloyd a doctor, but he's a pretty damn good cook as well."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Maes then waved back at the Forgers, "Come on in everybody, let's get the party started!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So, are you enjoying the party?" Winry looked over, and smiled as she saw Dr. Forger pick up her finished plate, and put it on a stack of similarly cleaned dishes. The part had been going on for an hour and a half, and they'd already finished up dinner and dessert, and the gifts were being opened up. As she looked over at Elicia playing with her teddy bear, Winry nodded to herself.

"Yeah," she answered, "This has been really fun," she then saw Dr. Forger walking towards the kitchen, "Hey," she then walked up behind the man, his suit coat having been long hung up in the closet to keep it from becoming dirty, "Let me help you clean up."

"Are you sure?" Lloyd asked, looking back at her as she followed him, "The party is still going, and I can handle this perfectly well."

"I don't know anyone here besides the Hugheses," she answered as honestly as possible, shaking her head, "I really didn't do that much to prepare, so at least I can help out a bit by cleaning up some," she pulled up her sleeves, "Besides, I'm sure Elicia can show me all the gifts she got from her birthday later, since I'm spending the night and all."

"Well thank you," Lloyd nodded at her, as they walked into the kitchen, a sink full of bubbles already waiting for them, "it's so nice to meet young people who show such consideration for others."

For the next few minutes, the two began a quick process. Lloyd would wash the dishes, methodically scrubbing the residue from the plates, and then rinsing them. He'd then toss them quickly to her, where she'd dry them as quickly as possible before stacking them. Working together, the two managed to get it done in only a few minutes. Indeed, soon, all the dishes, both from the eating and serving, were dried and ready for Mrs. Hughes to put away, while they were in the process of wiping the effort of their cleaning off.

"So he's always been sensitive about his height, huh?" and during the whole time, Winry had been asked questions about Ed. Dr. Forger was the psychiatrist who had started taking care of Ed after all, so it made sense for him to start asking her ideas about how Edward had grown up. And wanting to help her friend, she'd obliged as long as it didn't seem too personal.

"Yeah," she shook her head, "It's always been a bit of a sore spot. He wants to be tall so much, but he won't even drink milk to help grow his bones," she looked up at him with pleading eyes, "Maybe you can talk to him about it?"

"And ruin the medical relationship I have with one of my most important clients," Lloyd laughed, shaking his head too, "I'm sorry, but there are some things I just can't do," he then looked out, and stared at the crowd, "Before we head back, is there anything else you'd like to talk about concerning Edward? At least so you don't reveal anything in public?"

"Yeah," Winry held her hands together, and in her mind she saw two blonde boys still standing tall together, declaring they would learn alchemy, "Dr. Forger," she then remembered seeing the two laying up in bed, Edward in particular, "I'm really worried about how much they won't tell me anything," Lloyd seemed to consider what she was saying for a moment, before nodding, "I keep trying to be an open door for them to come home to, but they never seem willing to talk to me about what they're facing, and it worries me," she placed her face in her hand, "I get really worried that one day, they're going to go out, and they're never going to come back."

"I think I understand," Dr. Forger nodded. For a moment he just stood there, trying to think of a right response, before finally saying, "Ms. Rockbell," he looked down, "You lost your parents in the Ishvalan War, correct?"

"...Yes."

"I suppose I lost my parents in a war as well," Winry blinked, staring at the man, especially at him revealing something so important so openly, "I still wonder at times what would have happened had I gone out the door with them, but then I realize, that I wouldn't have my wife and daughter if I had."
"Okay," Winry tried to follow along the logic, "But-"

"But I also worry at times that when my wife and daughter go out, they might not come back," Winry blinked, "I know what you're thinking, we're here in Central. But you never know what might happen. A car could jump the sidewalk and they could be gone in an instant," Winry cringed as she looked over at Anya and Yor, who were sitting and laughing alongside Elicia, "That's just the way life is," Winry nodded slowly, the image of a brunette with a ponytail replaced Yor, "But that means I just have to value them everyday. To love them and to seize every second I have with them," he smiled at her, and Winry smiled back.

"So your saying I should just go be with them more," Lloyd nodded.

"As much as they are willing to let you," he rubbed his chin, "Perhaps they will be heading out of Central soon. Why not go on a vacation with them for a bit, spend some time with them. Being part of their trip might make them more willing to open up to you."

Winry thought about it. The two had been mentioning having to go south for a bit. Something about their teacher. Well, maybe she could go meet that teacher too. It'd be nice to meet the lady that the two respected so much, and maybe see why they came home so scared after that trip they had taken as kids.

"Alright," she smiled at the doctor, "I will."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"And after this guy," Maria Ross held up a picture of the man known as Envy for the whole room to see, "Tossed Edward away, we had to run away. That's the last bit of info I have about that damn place."

Maes Hughes rubbed his temples. He really shouldn't have had those few extra drinks last night. He had been too giddy, and now this hangover was making him pay for it. He pushed his glasses up, as he stared at everything that Ross and the Elric brothers had been able to write down, alongside a huge number of notes on names of those attached to Dr. Marcoh's alchemic program that Major Armstrong had gathered. The whole thing was just a damn puzzle. And even five minds being pulled together, his, the major's, the Elric Brothers, and Lieutenant Ross, just weren't able to make much headway.

"So an ouroboros tattoo," Edward held up the strange dragon circling the six sided star, "and the transmutation circle for the philosopher's stone," and the thing that made humans into weapons. Honestly, it looked relatively simple, two pentagons with one inside the other, at least in comparison to some of the stuff he'd seen Roy working with when they were in the academy. Just basic geometric shapes inside a circle, rather than a complex tapestry of symbols. If he'd seen it without context, he would have thought it was created by a novice, "They're just a lot of mysteries about all this, and with the fifth lab in rubble, we got no real leads."

There was a collective sigh from the whole of the group. This was a massive scandal, one that could shake the foundations of Amestris, yet they were all stuck, flying at best half-blind, but more like nine-tenths blind. They were just missing something big, something crucial. Major Armstrong walked forward, grabbing up his papers, and lifting them up.

"I will see if we can find any information from Dr. Marcoh's lab assistants," he said, holding up the list, "Surely some of them might be willing to talk. Or at least lead us to where we should be going."

"And I'll look at the criminal records," Maes rubbed his chin, "Maybe find out if there is come kind of pat-"

"I hope I'm not interrupting something."

Maes felt his heart drop. He knew that voice. It was the most well known voice in the whole country. He saw in the shocked expressions of all of his compatriots that he was right before turning and seeing that, yet, the man who had just entered was in fact-

"Fuhrer King Bradley!" he and everyone else gave a quick bow. Maes wasn't sure what to do. He knew Central command was likely related to this. And if Bradley was in on it.

"At ease gentleman," the Fuhrer walked up, and picked up the pieces of paper from their pile on the table. Maes could feel himself begin to sweat as the Fuhrer's expression grew more and more severe. This was the man who'd ordered the genocide of the Ishvalans. It's not like he wouldn't have it in him to have them all arrested and killed if he was trying to protect himself. As the seconds ticked on, Bradley's face only grew more sour, before finally, he placed the papers down, "I've heard you all have been doing some snooping around."

'Forger," Maes's thoughts immediately went to his blonde neighbor. Of course the man had been keeping tabs on Armstrong even as they'd been trying to keep tabs on him.

"And you, Elric brothers, have been investigating the Philosopher's stone?"

For a moment, Edward stayed silent, a look of shock on his face. The Fuhrer looked over Edward, and then moved his eye towards Hughes and towards Armstrong. Finally...

He smiled.

"Ha! Got you," he pulled up the papers and continued to flip through the notes, his grin not leaving his face, "You all need to be less uptight, I was just yanking all your chains," at that, Hughes felt the tension that had been gripping his shoulders disappear, and he nearly fell over at the change in the attitude by Bradley. Giving a look over to everyone else, they all also seemed as shocked by the sudden collapse in the tension in the room.

'This is why he's managed to keep so popular,' Maes thought, watching the Fuhrer regain a frown, though this one was less angry and more contemplative as he flipped through the notes, 'Despite being famous for being a war monger, the guy's just really personable,' he didn't dare shake his head, but he continued to try and understand the man he and Mustang were planning on overthrowing, 'Every soldier whose ever met him always says he's the most considerate commander you could ask for,' the Fuhrer then placed the notes on the desk, and then his hands went behind his back, 'And as much as I don't want to, I really believe it.'

"I see you are like me," Bradley nodded at the papers on the desk, "You've all been noticing that there has been suspicious activity in the military recently," the group were at first stunned, but soon they all nodded, "I've been investigating it on my own time as well, but it's been slow going," he turned to Armstrong, "Major, you were very thorough in your list of names to ask about this, but in the past month, every single one on that list has been reported missing."

"Missing," Armstrong was taken aback. The Fuhrer nodded, all the while Armstrong placed a hand on his head and shook it, "To believe we are all too late."

Maes felt a vein twitch on the side of his head. The Fifth laboratory was really a dead end now. The lab was gone, the former head had already given as much as he probably could, and everyone else was gone. And to make that many people disappear would likely take someone with a high enough rank to know who was part of Dr. Marcoh's taskforce. And that was with Basque Grand already dead too...

"The enemy seems to be a step ahead of us, if not a full three steps," Bradley growled, "And even with my vast information network, I don't know anything about what they want, what there plan is...anything really," his hand gripped, "And I certainly don't know who is part of it or how high up in command they are. All I know...is that they are willing to do anything to get what they want."
"Wait," Maes thought through that observation, "So you mean, you think they are ready to kill us if they think we continue to pursue this further."

"Not just us," and suddenly, the rage was back in his voice, "But our friends and family as well" Gracia and Elicia flashed through his eyes, soon followed by Roy and Riza. Honestly, from what Maes knew, it was likely he was also thinking of his family at the moment. The Fuhrer's voice then got dangerously low, "The thought of anyone hurting those important to me enrages me."

Maes nodded. He could see similar apprehension in every one else. They were all thinking of people who this conspiracy might hurt.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," Maes snapped to attention at the call of his name, "Major Armstrong," so did the musclebound alchemist, "Elric Brothers," Ed and Al both sat straight from their beds, "Second Lieutenant Ross," for a moment, the woman seemed to hesitate, but she nodded, though there was still apprehension there, "I am giving you an order for your own safety," Bradley's face became etched in a grimace, "Do not mention the details of this to anyone outside this room. This is for your own safety. You must, from now on, consider the whole of the military to be your enemies."

They all nodded as a group.

"However," and then the smile was back, and wider than before, "The time will come, when we will know who the enemy is, and that is when I will call on you to help me bring these monsters down," the group looked at him, before smiles began to return to their faces, and they nodded in response, "Do I have your support gentleman," he then stopped, looked to Ross, and for a second Maes thought he caught a slight blush on his cheeks, "And ladies, of course."
"YES SIR!" the group all saluted, even Alphonse, who wasn't even part of the military.

"Hey, could he be around this way?"

The Fuhrer flinched, and his head turned back towards the double door he had just come out of. They could all hear rustling as though several men were walking through the corridor. Slowly, carefully, the Fuhrer slipped next to the window, and opened it. He then swung his foot through the opening, and raised a hand up at the confused looks the group was giving him.

"Those are my bodyguards," Maes never thought he'd see the Fuhrer acting sheepish, but as he hiked himself outside, there was no better word to describe the leader of Amestris, "I had to slip away from them earlier. They never give me any privacy," he shook his head as he began to walk away, "It's like no one thinks I can take care of myself."

For a second, the five of them just stared as the Fuhrer walked away. Maes didn't have to look back to guess that everyone was as flabbergasted as him. And yet...something clicked in his mind, and he followed the leader of Amestris out the window.

"Hey, I need to ask him somthing," he waved back as an explanation, and then tore off after the Fuhrer. He raised up a hand towards the Fuhrer, though he made sure not to call his name so there was no attention drawn to them. Finally, the Fuhrer looked back, and stood there, "Fuhrer Bradley, one last question."

"Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," he nodded, "Do you think there might be some clue."

"Not yet," Maes sighed as he leaned over, "I actually wanted to talk about communication."

"Communication?"

"Yes," he then pointed at the hospital, "I know Dr. Lloyd Forger is one of your agents sir, so I was wondering if I should let you know if I found anything through hi-"

Maes stopped as he saw the Fuhrer's one eye widen. Part of him hoped it was the Fuhrer being impressed with how he had deduced that Lloyd was his agent, but the sheer shock of the insinuation seemed to suggest something else. For a moment they just stood there, before the Fuhrer took the cue to respond.

"I can assure you he isn't one of mine?" the Fuhrer rubbed his chin, "Why do you think this psychiatrist might be a member of a network?"

"Well, he admitted he was an agent after working with Central to investigate Roy Mustang," Maes admitted, and slowly, Bradley nodded at that. Maes mind was racing, everything about what he was planning thrown for a loop.

"He might be working for the enemy," Bradley mused, "Our opponent does seem to be part of Central Command, afterall, so it wouldn't surprise me if they had an agent like Forger," he then shook his head, "I even may have walked into a trap, what with agreeing to be his patient for a meeting."

"I honestly thought it was when you were meeting him to discuss your plans," Maes admitted, and Bradley only nodded some more, "But...damnit."

"We can't let the enemy recognize we are on to them," the Fuhrer said forcefully, and Maes couldn't help but nod at that, "I can't change my schedule," he then smiled, and placed a hand on Maes's shoulder, "But I must thank you for getting me to be on alert. I might have let my guard down too much had I not known," he then stared at Maes directly, "Keep an eye on this Lloyd Forger, you never know what our enemies might be trying to do, or what they may be trying to uncover."

"Yes sir," he saluted one last time, before his mind turned to the blonde man who was his next door neighbor.

'So if you aren't working for them...then who are you working for?'

________________________________________________________________________________________

"So your guest is gone?" Maes finished up his sip of coffee, and nodded at Yuri.

It was the late afternoon, and Maes was going to have to stay late. The amount of time he'd spent shopping for Elicia and looking after the Elrics had meant he'd fallen behind on what he needed to get done for the week. There was a good number of court martial records he needed to sign off on, at least if they wanted trials to commence. Beyond that, there was also military reports from the frontiers to file, especially with new conflicts seeming to pop up all the time. And of course, there was the Agent Twilight fiasco, but that was always hanging over his head.

'Tall man, educated, from Cresta,' the initial profile he had to go off of, 'also came to the East from the South in the past six months,' he added, along with some conjecture on past behavior, 'Disappeared from active missions for several months, completely out of MO,' and then finished off with a few wild guesses, 'Likely in his late twenties to early thirties, very short on connections to those around him.'

"Yeah," Maes responded to his junior, "Winry's gone off with the Elric brothers to the South. Alongside Second Lieutenant Ross," there were rumors Scar had been killed in a gas explosion, but there hadn't been anything beyond those. No hard evidence or anything. So the orders for Elric Brother's protection remained in effect, though the were relaxed enough to leave them with one bodyguard to go to Dublith in the South, "They were nice to have, but I think it'll be nice for everything to be a bit more relaxed."

"That makes sense," Yuri looked down at one of his reports, and winced, "Ah, there's been more fighting in the south," he held up a casualty report, "Nearly half a regiment was killed by an attack by Aerugo two days ago, just outside of South City," the younger man shook his head, "Despite how beautiful that place is, it has such a history of violence. Though at least it isn't as bad as Fezzett."

"Yeah," Meas nodded, "You did go there for training," he remembered then how Lloyd had cut through the cover story of the training, "You had to..."

'Wait a minute.'

Maes took a small look at the map. Lloyd had said he had recently come from South City...to go to the East...

'No, you're being conspiratorial,' Maes chided himself. Just because he'd already had his image of who Lloyd was thrown into the air by the Fuhrer earlier today, didn't mean he wasn't an agent from Amestris, just that he wasn't the Fuhrer's man. It was likely he was just an agent trained in a similar situation, 'Especially since he went straight to East City.'

...

'Except he didn't,' during the interrogation of the guards on the train in New Optain, a man matching Lloyd Forger's description was seen boarding, and the name Lloyd Forger had appeared on the way out when the military was checking for possible terrorists escaping as civilians. That meant that Lloyd Forger had, in a similar time frame to what they supposed for Twilight, made a trip from the south up along the border of the east, before heading south to East City itself, the same general path as Twilight.

'You're being ridiculous,' Maes rubbed his temples, and he could see Yuri looking at him strangely, 'There is no way Lloyd Forger could be Agent Twilight,' his mind immediately turned to the image of his neighbors at the party the day before, 'He has a wife and daught-'

A wife who he'd only married in the past two months.

A daughter who, despite their long history supposedly together, he didn't have many photos of, and did seem to have a strange distance from.

'You're being ridiculous,' Maes finally admonished himself, 'If Twilight is Forger, why would they put him as my neighbor. They'd be stupid to put him so clo-'

Unless it would mean he wouldn't expect it.

...

'sh*t,' Maes groaned. More than likely, he was being ridiculous. It'd been months on this case, and his brain was likely reaching for whatever lead it could dream up. There was almost no way that his neighbor was Agent Twilight, the famous Crestan spy. It would be too ridiculous to even appear in one of those corny radio programs that Anya Forger enjoyed so much. He needed to drop this, and get back to the rest of his work.

'Though on the safe side,' he thought, his eyes on a map turning to the Crestan Frontier. Ever since the Long War started in Pendelton, Cresta and Amestris had been enemies. He'd heard about the massive casualties at that battle, and how their western neighbor had never really recovered from the loss there. That was why they had to rely on spies like Twilight, 'I guess I can see if Lloyd Forger has any connections in the West. Or if he's been spotted with anyone Crestan.'

"Hey guys," Captain Focker arrived with two cups of coffee in his hands. He handed one off to Yuri, before sitting down at his own desk, "Did you all here, tomorrow, we're getting some reports from Leore tomorrow."

"Leore?" the place where the Elric brothers had exposed a false priest to the people. They'd told him about that adventure when discussing their attempt to find the Philospoher's Stone, at least before they found out what it really was.

"Yeah," Focker shook his head, "There was a massive uprising over the past couple of weeks," he shook his head, "Everything is calm now, but, well look at the initial estimate," Focker handed Hughes over a short initial notice of casualties, and Maes cringed.

"Nearly five thousand dead or wounded," he shook his head, "The East hasn't seen that many casualties since Ishval."

"Man, the East seems so violent these days," Yuri spoke up, before shaking his own head, "Though it's not just the East. The South is just as ugly right now, with Fezzett having casualty reports in the triple digits daily," he sighed, "I suppose that's what happens when your nation is born surrounded by enemies."

"Yeah," Maes said offhandedly. He looked at the map. Honestly, it was strange. There seemed to be an almost straight line from Leore down to the former capital of Ishval, and a straight line from Ishval to Fezzet. They looked sort of symmetrical shape. Especially if you drew a line up from Fezzet to Pendelton. And then, you could make a square from there, or, with still symmetrical lines, make a...

Make a pentagon.

And if you used Amestris's border as a circle.

SLAM

"Sir?" Yuri stood up in shock. Maes looked at the young man, before he remembered the Fuhrer's warning, and calmed himself. He then placed all the papers he had under his armpit, and pushed himself up from his desk. Yuri, Focker and Sheska all continued to stare at him, as he pointed to one of the back rooms.

"I need to check something, don't wait up on me," he then left the room, and he felt his throat tighten.

If he was correct about this...then the conspiracy of the Philospher's Stone went deeper than he had ever imagined.

Chapter 31: Equivalent Exchange

Hughes frantically twisted the rotary of the phone with his right hand, all the while the left was pressed up against the wound from the strange woman who had attacked him. If he hadn't recognized the tattoo on her chest, he wouldn't have been prepared to fight back against, her, and he would probably be dead now. He had managed to slam a knife into her head, and that had allowed him to get away.

'Got to talk to Roy,' Hughes groaned, using all his strength to maintain his consciousness as he got past the digits for the eastern region. He had to call Roy from out here, on a non-military line. With what he had just seen in the records office, he could not take a chance that someone might be listening in on their conversations. If that happened, then both of them would be dead before the morning.

Afterall, they would have to die for knowing that the country of Amestris was an Alchemic circle.

'The constant riots, the unending wars,' He thought, remembering his conversation with Yuri and Captain Focker, 'The slaughter of Ishval,' painful memories of sand and blood, 'All to make an alchemic circle...for the creation of a Philosopher's stone,' the violent incidents on the map matched the circle that Edward had drawn for him during their meeting earlier in the day almost perfectly.

"Hello, East City Headquarters?" came the voice on the other end of the line suddenly spoke up, and Hughes felt a bit of of tension leave his chest, though he was hoping that it didn't have anything to do with the amount of blood that he'd lost from the shoulder wound.

"Yes," he said with as much controlled voice as he could muster, "I need to speak with Ro-Colonel Mustang immediately!"

"Sir," it wasn't a familiar voice, perhaps a new girl that had replaced Yor Forger when she had moved into Central after marrying Lloyd, said with a bit of a rote script, "We have a policy against connecting calls to officers from an outside li-"

"I'm using an outside line because it's an emergency," Hughes screamed into the phone, his hands shaking from the frustration and blood loss, "This is Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, Intelligence Division. I'm calling in from Central."

He heard a pause on the other side, then a muffled rumbling from there as well, likely the woman covering the phone so he couldn't hear. After about ten seconds, her voice reappeared, and asked, "Can you please give me your Code."

"Fine," Maes sent his left hand, the one with the wounded shoulder, into his coat pocket, and pulled out his wallet. He pulled it out so fast, that several pictures and bills flew out behind him, but he only barely noticed them as he flipped to the back of his identification card, and began to recited, "Uncle, Sugar, Eight, Zero, Zero."

It took two seconds for her to respond, "I have verified your code, hold a minute while I transfer you."

"Please hurry," Maes said, though the dial tone for the transfer had already begun, "The military, the whole country is in grave danger!"

CRUNCH

"Please hang up the phone, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes."

Maes felt his blood run cold. He knew that voice, he had heard it only a few hours earlier while saying good bye to the Elric brothers. He turned around, and then looked back to see a short haired woman in officer blues pointing a gun at his head. Her brown eyes, usually so earnest, were now staring a hole into his head...one that might become literal if she pulled the trigger of the weapon in her hand. Maes felt his stomach drop, remembering Fuhrer King Bradley's words from earlier in the day. Anyone could be their enemy, they couldn't trust anyone.

"2nd Lieutenant Ross?" he continued to stare her in the face, looking directly in the eyes to try and connect with the woman he had trusted...and then he looked down a little further on her face, and almost felt a bit of glee as some of the despair of betrayal left his body. He barked out a laugh that caused the "Lieutenant" to raise an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" she asked, the gun still pointing at Maes's head.

"You aren't her," he finally laughed, as the thing still stood their like a statue, the gun pointed directly at his temple, "Who are you? Because I can tell you right now I know you aren't 2nd Lieutenant Maria Ross."

"No," the imposter said, not moving an inch from the accusation, "I am Lieutenant Ross. We have met sever-"

"The disguise is pretty good," Maes felt his teeth grind together for a moment, trying to buy himself time as he moved his left arm slightly in it's coat, and felt that his other hidden knife was still in position. He then gritted his teeth, preparing for the next few seconds that he knew would determined if he would live or die, "But the 2nd Lieutenant has mole under her left eye."

The imposter continued to frown, though the eyes widened slightly. But then, that frown disappeared, as the edges of the mouth twisted upward, and it seemed she was barely containing a laugh. The figure then pulled it's left arm up to it's face, all the while keeping the right arm pointed directly at Hughes, though the movement had caused the gun to lower from his forehead to his throat, and then placed a finger directly beneath her left eye. In a flash or red lighting, the skin of the imposter began to move. Flakes seemed to break off from the skin of the creature, dissipating in the red light, and then, where the flake had previously been, a new mole had grown directly where it would normally be on Maria's face. Hughes felt his stomach drop at the sudden transformation, as the woman closed her eyes, the cruel smirk that didn't seem to belong on the 2nd Lieutenant's face staring him directly in the eyes.

"Thank you for pointing that out," the figure laughed, still using Maria Ross's voice, but with a venomous bite within it. Anyone who had met Maria could not hear that in her voice, as the creature behind Hughes laughed about the whole thing, "I guess I've gotten kind of complacent these days. Most people aren't usually so observant, but that could cause a problem in the future if I'm not more careful."

"...what are you?" Maes growled, and this time the imposter did bother to hold back it's laugh. And while there were still elements of Maria Ross's voice there, there was another voice their too, and there was more cruelty in that voice than Maes could ever imagine coming from another human being. Maes couldn't even bring himself to look at it anymore, looking away, back at the phone, all the while still hearing the tone as the transfer was happening to Mustang, The figure settled down, and answered Maes.

"Oh, I'm your worst Nightmare," it finally said, before pausing. Maes sighed, and then let loose his own little smirk as he looked down at the phone. He let his left arm hang loose, and began to move his arm within the sleeve of his left shirt to unhook his knife, "Your quick wits may be helpful to me Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, but they are going to be why you die tonight."

"Die," an image of Gracia smiling at him while holding Elicia was held in her arms flashed through his mind, "Sorry about that, but I've got a wife and kid at home," he released the final mechanism holding the knife to his arm, and caught it in his left hand. He twisted suddenly, his left arm filled from pain from his shoulder wound armed with his short throwing knife, with every intent on stabbing the imposter Maria Ross in the face.

Except...

It wasn't Ross's face that was looking back at him when he finally could see the form again.

Gracia Hughes was now standing there, smiling at him with the same smile she had when he had left for work in the morning. Light blond hair framed her gentle smile, all the while her body was still highlighted by the fading light of red that was slowly wrapping downward along the imposter's legs. Hughes stopped his motion to release his knife, and stared for a second, all the while the figure still had the standard operating side arm pointed at his head.

"You wouldn't stab your own wife, would you?" the figure asked, and Maes Hughes felt tears well up in his eyes and his jaw begin to tremble. And then the figure smirked, a sick laugh as it added, "Pretty good acting huh?" as slowly it pulled the trigger in it's hand.

BA-BANG

...

Hughes felt pain.

'God, so much pain,' he thought, his eyes closing when he heard the gun shot.

The world was a flash, and he couldn't see anything, and all he felt was anguish and pain.

'Am I dead?'

And then, the second was over, and he began to regain his senses. First, was his sense of touch, and the pain came through harder and faster than before. However, he felt himself suddenly smirk as it happened as he could feel that somehow, someway, the bullet hadn't ripped into his face.

It had hit his left shoulder. That was still bad, as it had also managed to reopen the wound from earlier, but it meant that somehow the thing had missed a killing blow to him.

The next sense to return was his hearing. And what he heard most, was static. This caused him to lose his smirk.

'sh*t, the bullet must have gone through my shoulder and into the phone,' he considered, 'I can't get to Mustang now.'

Of course, he then remembered that he was trying to stay alive, and considered the lost phone a necessary sacrifice. Still, he didn't know what had happened, and for the briefest of seconds, he still couldn't see.

And then his eyes finally returned to full function, and Maes was greeted with the sight of his wife's head bent over it's left shoulder, blood pouring out from the side of the head. Red lighting indicated that this wasn't his wife in the slightest, and Hughes looked over the spray of blood over the right shoulder, indicating that someone had shot his wife's doppelganger from his left.

"What the-" the imposter declared, red lighting still pouring from where the shot had landed-

BAM

Only for the body of his wife to bounce to the side, an eruption of blood this time from the shoulder. Once again red lighting sparkled from the wounds, and the thing pretending to be Gracia Hughes turned, and then aimed the gun away from Maes, rage so hateful across Gracia's face that he wondered how he ever could have mistaken it for her.

"Come out you-"

BAM-BAM

Two more shots slammed into "Gracia" again, one in the stomach, and then another in the head. All the while, the magic red sparks were still running, and Maes caught the view of a bullet hitting the ground, as the wound from the side of the head healed away. Despite the hits that should have caused the imposter to collapse, it was still screaming angrily, and then raised it's gun in defiance.

'You can't kill this thing with one shot,' Maes considered, and then looked down at his left arm, and cursed. He'd lost all feeling in it, and when that happened, the knife had fallen to the ground. It was now sitting next to a spray of blood, and some of the lost papers that had fallen out of his wallet...including a picture of Maes, Gracia and Elicia, 'So that's how he knew what she looked like,' he thought for a moment, before looking out at the crazed figure, pointing it's gun towards where the shots had been coming from. He then took one last look back down at the picture, and then pushed himself from the booth.

'I'm going to get home,' he gritted his teeth, and was back on the sidewalk. The enraged imposter caught him as he moved, however, and then returned the gun it was wielding back towards Hughes, pulling the trigger as it did so.

BAMBAM

It had been too wide an arc, and the shots were in no way accurate, but the second bullet did catch Maes in the side of his left leg. He kept his footing, but felt himself slow down even further.

"You're not goin-" BAM

And again, the imposter's head was thrown back, before in a final rage, the creature fully committed itself to one shooting at it. Maes, almost immobile from the second shot, barely managed to keep himself upright, looked back, and saw where the firing was coming from. A medium sized car was sitting on the road, it's lights out, but a man clearly visible, firing a pistol from the left side of the vehicle. Whoever it was, they had to have a great shot, since he was hitting the imposter with almost fifty yards of distance between them while using a side arm.

BAM

Again, the imposter fell backward, this shot hitting it's left knee cap and causing it's leg to buckle, before, in it's rage, raising it's gun, and firing back at the car.

BAMBAMBAM

All three had hit the car, but the first two only seemed to strike into the full metal of the body of the vehicle. The third managed to hit the mirror next to the shooter, and force him back inside. And then, for a moment, the entire street was quiet again.

VRROOOMMM

The lights on the front of the car suddenly lit up, and the spotlight was directly on the imposter. The figure was still recovering from the last few shots that had hit it, trying to recover the stability in it's leg, so it couldn't do anything, as the engine of the vehicle roared, and was closing the distance as fast as the gas powered machine could go. Within a moment, the front of the vehicle was only inches in front of his wife's imposter. And on the imposter's face was a look that, were it not currently wearing his wife's Maes might have actually laughed at.

CRRAAUUGHSSASSSHHHHHH

The vehicle did knock the imposter to the ground, and left some ten feet behind the vehicle that had just ran it over, but somehow the imposter had given as good as it got, with the front where the collision had occurred slightly caved in from the impact, and a large spiral of cracks on the windshield from the impact. For a moment, Maes wondered how a human body could do that to a car that size, but he was brought out of his stupor, when suddenly, the right side door was open into the car.

"GET IN!" came a male voice from inside, and Maes, at this moment running on only instinct and adrenaline jumped into the seat. He twisted himself into a seated position, and then he heard the engine roar once again. He took a moment to look over, eyes passing the gun that had been used to save his life sitting only inches from him between the driver and passenger seats, and felt his eyes widen.

There sat Lloyd Forger, a mix of anger and terror over his features. Maes quickly closed the door, then the doctor slammed his foot onto the acceleration pedal.

RRRREEERRREEERREEEERRRRRR

"COME ON!" he heard Dr. Forger scream, and then he looked backward, and he saw the blonde man's jaw drop, "Oh my God."

Maes looked back, and felt his stomach jump to his throat. The car was being held in place by a tentacle, that was wrapped underneath around the trunk and allowing the wheels to screech as they made contact but could not move. Maes's eyes followed the mass of flesh to the body of the imposter, standing defiantly in the streets. Gracia's head was mangled beyond all recognition, but it was slowly reforming, with red lighting dancing all across the creature's body. It opened it's mouth, and the second voice, the one that he had heard hidden beneath the fake Maria Ross's screamed out at them.

"YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE YOU ROTTEN HUMANS!"

BAM

Maes saw the head of the thing roll backwards from another shot, and he felt the car drop, and then move. He heard what sounded like screaming metal as pieces of metal flew off the back of the car. The screeching dissipated, and in it's place was the hum of an engine firing the whole of the car forward at the fastest speed possible. Within a second, they were a hundred yards down the street.

Then two hundred.

Then three hundred.

Maes kept his eyes the thing as it receded into the background, but they were already too far away for any more retaliation. He felt his shoulders suddenly relax, but then he felt the pain return to him. On the edge of his vision, he could see a bit of darkness, and he shook his head. He was feeling so tired.

"Nice work there," Maes looked over. Lloyd looked calmer than before, though clearly his nerves were still frayed. He was focusing his eyes forward, on the road, and clearly trying to understand what the thing he just saw was.

"Nice wo-" Maes looked down, and suddenly realized he had the gun in his right hand. He must have grabbed it, and shot the thing, going completely on instinct. He shook his head, and then groaned, as he felt the pain begin to push around him again. He looked over at his shoulder, he could see more blood beginning to flow out. He'd need to get to the hospital, he'd have to call Mustang...

He had to see his family...

He felt his eyes grow heavy.

"Please get me to a doctor, I think I lost a lot of blood."

"Will do," Lloyd nodded, clearly thinking about the hospital he'd need to arrive at. Still, despite that, he was beginning to lose his consciousness, he needed one last bit of information. He'd already learned the answer to one mystery tonight, might as well see if he could go two for two.

"Thank you," he said, a smile on his lips as he drifted from the waking world, "Agent Twilight."

The last image he saw before he drifted off was Twilight's shocked face marked by his jaw dropping in an instant.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Humankind cannot gain anything...

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Damnit Lloyd," Franky took in another breath of his cigarette, tapping his free hand on the desk, eyes straining under the one lamp he had on, "Where the hell are you?"

It had supposedly been a quick little surveillance plan. Twilight, after the party the previous night, had learned that the Elric Brothers were going to be heading out of town from his conversation with that Rockbell girl had been frustrated he hadn't been able to learn more about the Fifth Laboratory, he had decided to try and spy on them one last time before they left to see if they had found anything. He'd snuck into the hospital they were being housed at...

Only for Fuhrer Bradley and his entourage to arrive before he did. With the extra security, he'd been unable to break in to get in a good position to spy on the brothers before the brothers had left. Twilight had missed was had probably been an important meeting between the Elrics and a gaggle of other officers who they considered confidants. By the end of the afternoon, Ed, Al, Winry and one of their remaining bodyguards had already gotten a train to the South. Lloyd couldn't follow them obviously, since everything important to Operations STRIX was still in Central itself, but Twilight had admitted that he felt like he'd let a great opportunity slip through his fingers when they left.

But Twilight had had an idea. Maes Hughes had been working with the Elric Brothers on their investigation, and so he decided that for once, he'd go and spy on Maes Hughes at his office, rather than have Hughes spy on him. Twilight had asked to borrow Franky's car, and to use it to allow him to monitor the Intelligence Office for a night while they waited for another car to come in.

"Five hours," Franky's eyes were affixed to the clock at the top of the room, showing it was almost midnight, "and he's still out using my car. Mr. Super Spy was supposed to call in every hour."

Twilight's plan had been to wait until Maes left the office, and then take advantage of his leaving to try and sneak in. Every hour, he'd call in to let Franky know what was happening from a nearby payphone so the calls couldn't be traced, just in case the military knew something was going on. Yet in the third hour, between 8:15 and 9:15, something had happened. The calls had stopped coming in. The different scenarios continued to play in his head. Had Hughes found him out? Had he been picked up by a military police officer? Had he skipped town with Franky's car?

"I just don't know what to do," the portly man sighed, before taking in another puff of his cigarette, and watching as the minute hand swung up to signify there were only ten minutes left in the hour, "I don't know what the h-"

RINGRING

"Finally," he coughed, and threw his hand to his phone. He pulled the phone off the handle so quickly it caused the receiver to fall over, and he placed it next to his head, "You have some explainin-"

"Shut up and listen," Twilight said. The man on the other side of the phone was panting, "I-"

"No, you shut up," Franky pointed back at the phone, "Do you know how long I've been having to wait for even the-"

"This is serious," Twilight cut back, "I'm at the night clinic on Seventh an-"

"You're in the hospital?" Franky felt his blood run cold. Damnit, now he felt bad. Twilight had likely gotten hurt pretty bad if he had to go to one of those. Normally, with a few small wounds he could just come to the shop and they'd be able to stitch him up and put some medicine in him to keep him going, "What happened to you?"

"Not to me," Twilight's voice was strained, "But Hughes got shot," Franky immediately wondered if Twilight and the Intelligence Officer had gotten into a fight, but quickly dismissed it, considering there would be no way that someone like Twilight would let a man he considered an enemy live if he could help it, "He was attacked by..."

"What?" Franky asked, his curiosity piqued, "Did the military turn on him? He turn traitor or something? Uncover some rock he shouldn't have?"

"I'd guess," in the background, Franky could hear the sound of a car rolling by. Despite everything, Twilight had been smart enough to probably go out to a public phone before making a call again, "I don't know what he found, he was still out when the Doctor finished stitching him up and they put the IV in, but," Twilight then stopped, "Wait, you are writing this down, right?"

"Oh sh*t," Franky growled, putting out his cigarette, and then grabbing for the pad of paper beneath his counter. Just as he had it, he knocked it over, and cursed to himself as he heard it hit the floor. He bent down to pick it up-

TINGLING

And while he was down there, he heard the bell over his front door ring. Someone had just come inside the door itself. For a second, Franky felt a rush of panic, but he calmed himself, before looking under the counter, and reaching for the pistol he carried there for emergencies. He picked up the pad in his left hand, and reached with his right toward the gun.

"You know," he said aloud, pulling himself back above the counter, "The closed sign means someth-"

And standing in the open front door was Fuhrer King Bradley. The older man was smiling at Franky holding the door barely open with his hand. Franky felt sweat begin to pour down his back. Slowly, he set down the pad on the countertop, and slowly reached his hand over to the phone sitting out. He reached it up to his face, all the while keeping his eyes on the Fuhrer and his hand concealed with the pistol.

"I'll call you back."

He then hung the phone back on the receiver. The Fuhrer's one visible eyebrow raised slightly as he looked at Franky, who shrugged to himself.

"What can I say," Franky admitted. He was so scared that he could barely keep seeing straight, but he did what he could to keep his eyes focused, "The girls love me."

"Of course they do," the Fuhrer remained standing in the doorway. Franky's eyes went down to the sword on the older man's waist, his mind racing to plan a way out,

'Should I just try and shoot him?' he asked himself, trying to see if the Fuhrer had another weapon besides the blade, 'He still needs to close, and if I can get him before he get's to me...,' Franky looked outside, 'I don't see any bodyguards,' but his mind was quick to take everything in, 'But he probably has this place surrounded if he's coming right now,' he felt his hand tighten around the gun, which he slowly raised up, still not revealing above the top of the counter, 'Need to see if I'm gonna have to take him down or I can get out of this.'

"So," Franky laughed, as the Fuhrer still just stood there, "What brings the Fuhrer out to my humble shop this late at night?" he undid the safety on the pistol as it rested in his hand, "I'm honored, but I wouldn't think a man like you would need a smoke this late."

"Actually, I don't smoke," the Fuhrer waved his hand, keeping the fatherly voice he maintained whenever he spoke in public. Franky had never liked that voice, and he had grown to hate it after he had gotten his leg blown off in one of Bradley's wars, "I did previously, but my wife hates the smell of the stuff," the cyclops's one eye was directly on Franky, "Rather I am here on an investigation into active sedition going on in my country."

'"I know you are a spy",' Franky filled in the blank. Still, even if he was dead, at least he'd try and give him some time.

"Then why have you come here?" Franky felt his glasses begin to fog up, the sweat beginning to steam them.

"Because," the Fuhrer reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a piece of thin metal. It was about a foot long, and only a centimeter or so thick. He tossed it, quite ably for a man his age and with only one eye, onto the counter top. Franky gave one last look down, and felt his blood run cold when he saw a license plate with the numbers 05252019.

That was his license plate number.

"I think we're going to have a bit of a cha-"

Franky pulled out the gun, aimed it at the Fuhrer.

And Bradley was gone.

And then Franky felt his neck erupt into pain. his left hand reached up, and he felt blood gushing from around his throat. He lost control of the pistol, having it drop from his hand and clatter to the floor. As he tried to keep himself upright, he blinked, and looked around, his attention finally turning behind him, to see Bradley standing behind the counter, returning his saber to the scabbard, blood dripping from the blade.

'sh*t,' Franky lost control of his feet, and his head slammed against the top of the counter, 'He's fast.'

"Honestly, had it been a normal human," the Fuhrer continued, not even bothering to look back at Franky as he felt his life pouring from around his throat, "You might have actually been able to shoot me before I could get to you," the Fuhrer looked back into Franky's personal quarters, and the curly haired man couldn't help but curse at his growing helplessness, "Though, I suppose this is why when you want someone dead, you send someone you know will finish the job."

"Ack," was the best that Farnky could respond. He could feel his vision blur. He glared at the man who had ruined his life. Slowly, he reached his hand beneath the counter again. His free hand rubbed up against the back of the counter one last time, and he smiled as he felt the switch there. With one last bit of strength, he gave a smirk at the Fuhrer, and flipped the switch.

BOOM

The Fuhrer jumped backwards, again over Franky, as a small explosion happened in the back rooms. It was an emergency to cover up any evidence, but since he probably wasn't making it out, this was probably the best he could do. Still, he had hoped he might take the old man out with the bomb as well, but with how fas...

'God,' Franky thought, 'I can't see anymore.'

"Not bad," he heard Bradley's voice begin to disappear into the background, as everything got darker and darker, "Bombing so I can't find any more info about what you know...that makes things more difficult," and then, after a pause, Frank Franklin heard the last words he ever would.

"You humans can be so troublesome."

________________________________________________________________________________________

...Without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.

That is the law of equivalent exchange.

Chapter 32: Blue Hour

"You Incompetent Fools!"

Lust winced, and she noticed that Envy had done the same. Pride's shadow danced along the wall, the many different red eyes glaring down at them as they sat on the large pipe, only a few hundred meters from their Father. Pride had been unable to show up to the emergency meeting physically, but he had managed to do so with his shadows while his body remained up in his "room". Gluttony was also there, sucking on his finger, as he looked worriedly at Lust.

'He hates it more when I get yelled at than when he does,' she thought to herself, 'Poor little fool.'

"Maes Hughes should be dead now," Pride continued to chastise them, drawing Lust's attention back to the amorphous shadow of teeth and rage, "But because you two couldn't kill one pathetic little human, centuries of planning might be revealed any moment now."

Lust felt the urge to rub her forehead, the thought of Maes's knife cutting through her skull...exciting her, but she pushed it down. Such feelings could be dealt with later, when the chance of punishment was less severe. Still, the strike had been enough to knock Lust out for a a moment or so, and let Maes escape into the main hallway. She hadn't pursued because she had taken a fatal wound, and had she gotten up it might have been enough for Maes to alert more about the homunculi. Better to let Envy handle clean up duty.

Of course, then Envy had been tossed around by a car, and suddenly Maes Hughes was alive in a hospital somewhere. They had no idea how much information had got out, and where he might even be. They'd put out a slight call for where the Lieutenant Colonel might be, but nothing too major so as not to alert anyone something was wrong.

And Lust couldn't help but feel some shame in this. All this planning, all this work, and by the morning it could be nothing but ash. She'd often considered herself superior to her fellow hom*onculi, that she had better control over her emotions. But she'd contributed to the groups greatest failure. And as she looked towards the massive chair in the middle of the room, the shame only grew heavier and more disgusting in her gut.

"Calm yourself Pride," and Lust suddenly felt her eyes widen, before looking up and seeing Wrath emerge from the shadows. There were a few singe marks on his uniform, but overall, he appeared to be the pure picture of calm. He waltzed into the room, and raised his hand towards the rest of the hom*onculi, which out of habit Lust returned.

"Don't think you have the right to order me Wrath," the shadows that made up Pride swirled in rage, something that was quite...ironic, "Why are you so late. Do you not reali-"

"Realize that Father's plan may have been compromised," Wrath cut the swirling morass of eyes and teeth, his face not even changing at the pressure the monster he was talking was exuding. As he finally walked into the circle of the hom*onculi, he smiled, and then added, "Not to worry though, I've managed to take care of it."

"Is this so Wrath?"

Lust felt his spine snap straight. She didn't dare look around to the voice that had just spoken up. The tall blonde figure merely slouched along his chair, his eyes still closed and several massive pipes steaming as they stuck out from his back. He was tapping his right index finger into his cheeck, and despite everything, he seemed completely serene to the world around him.

"Of course Father," the man known as Fuhrer King Bradley nodded, before pulling out a small beaten up sheet of metal, and tossing it on the ground, "Using the license plate number from the car, I was able to locate our enemy's safe house, and eliminate one of his allies and whatever assets he had there," Lust was able to recognize the clear numbers on the steel plate that clanged to the concrete ground beneath them, "Thank you for that Envy, could not have done it without your tenacity."

Envy nearly threw back an insult, clearly considering that it wasn't actually a compliment, but kept his mouth shut. The thought of angering father was enough to cow even the mouthiest of the hom*onculi, and the fact he had helped in the end would probably mean his failure would be less likely to result in a harsh punishment. Though Lust could still see he was seething at having the youngest of the hom*onculi having to save him from humiliation.

"That is a positive development," Father continued, again, not opening his eyes, "But I'm afraid that while eliminating our enemy's resources is a victory, the survival of Hughes is a great danger to our goals."

"Which is why it was good I was able to use the phone records of the last call to find out what phone was calling the man at the safe house," he then pulled it up, "It was a phone booth, and using a bit of guesswork, we were able to identify the clinic that Maes Hughes is located at. I have called into that clinic, and confirmed a man in his late twenties came in with multiple gunshot wounds with the help of another man, and a couple of bribes later was able to determine that we have Maes Hughes, and the identity of our little gunman," he pulled out a small little photo from his pocket, and showed it to the hom*onculi. It was of a tired looking man in a green suit with some blood specks dripped over the coat, "A Dr. Lloyd Forger," he then smirked over at the morass that was Pride, "The father of that girl who gave you quite the punch that first day of school."

...

Lust had to do everything in her power not to snort out loud. She had failed after all, and feeling the rage from Pride, she knew he wouldn't hesitate to devour her for her insolence if he could. Pride simply growled, and all that anger and rage was squarely placed on Wrath's shoulders, which was honestly just fine for Lust.

"I know of the man," the oldest hom*onculi growled, "So, I take it you've already had them dealt with then?"

"Oh, I haven't killed them yet, if that's what you are asking."

That caused Lust and the other hom*onculi to nearly jump up. Lust just stared at Wrath, who remained calm as his fellow hom*onculi began to interrogate their youngest sibling.

"You haven't iced them yet?" Envy nearly shrieked, pointing a finger at Wrath, his teeth gnashing together in frustration, "They know about the Country-Wide Transmutation Circle."

"If they are allowed to live, they could reveal it to the whole of the country," Pride cut in for Envy, "Such a revelation would be the end of centuries of planning. We will not be able to obtain the power of God if they discover it and interfere in the circle's operation," the eyes began to narrow, "What sort of foolishness are thinking Wrath?"

"The sort of foolishness," Wrath continued, "That allows us to actually meet our goals."

The room became silent, as Wrath looked over at Father, ignoring the rest of the hom*onculi. The others, noticing his gaze, followed it to also look at Father, who remained slouched on his stone throne. For a few moments, he sat there, with his eyes closed, almost appearing to be asleep. He then waved his hand, and Wrath nodded, allowed to continue to explain his plan. The other hom*onculi returned their eyes to the Fuhrer, who began his explanation.

"We are still missing the five candidates to be sacrifices for the Promised Day," Wrath began, before raising a fist to the air, "We already know we have Edward Elric as a completed sacrifice," he raised one finger to the air, "And we are fairly sure that Alphonse Elric will be able to be a sacrifice as well, considering his circ*mstances," a second finger raised into the air.

"The brats," Envy snarled beneath his breath, though one look from one of Pride's massive eyes quieted him.

"Then there is the mystery child that already opened the gate in Selim's class," Wrath ignored the comments around him as he raised a third finger. His one visible eye twisted over to Pride, and his mouth grew into a far too large smile, "Now, unless I missed something, you still haven't found out the identity of this child, have you Pride?"

The massive pile of shadows seemed to convulse. Small, razor edges seemed to ripple along the black cloud, and the red eyes stared at Wrath with hate. Lust did the best she could to pull herself away from the "Father" and his "Son" because if they came to blows, she was quite sure she would end up as collateral damage.

"I'll take your silence as a no," Wrath continued, "And then we have guesses about three different possible sacrifices. The first of these three would be the woman known as Izumi Curtis. She was the Elric's Alchemy Master, and has seemed to already have opened the portal. I've been trying to recruit her for years, but she remains out of my grasp," he sighed, the fourth finger was now raised, "But, we at least know where she is, and should push comes to shove, we should be able to nab her. She's only a housewife after all," he then looked over specifically at Father, "The second of these possible sacrifices would be your brother, Van Hohenheim."

The room stopped, and once again all attention returned to Father. Their source finally opened his eyes, though they still seemed mostly disinterested in the whole thing. Though Lust could see that Father was actually quite interested, from the increase in frequency of tapping his finger on his cheek, and the sudden slight growth in the length of his frown.

"We know he would be a good sacrifice," Wrath continued, a fifth finger raised, "But we have no idea of his whereabouts, and without knowing it, he might not even be in Amestris itself. We cannot rely on him being our fifth sacrifice," he then raised his thumb, "And so, that brings us to our project, Colonel Roy Mustang."

The Handsome genius that had been Amestris's greatest weapon in Ishval. He'd long been proposed as a supremely high quality candidate to become a sacrifice. They had been trying to get him to Central for ages, but he seemed to be for the moment content in his space," he shook his head, "I thought his ambition would bring him to us, but he's been remarkably hard to wrangle."

"And why does Roy Mustang matter at the moment?"

"He matters because Maes Hughes is Roy Mustang's best friend," Wrath said simply, "Why would we get rid of an asset that might help us get one of our precious sacrifices? As long as Maes Hughes is in our hands, we can control Mustang's movements, and keep him ready for the Promised Day."

"And what happens when Maes Hughes reveals to Roy Mustang our plan?" Pride shot back.

"Well, first and foremost, my men have already isolated the two of them in their hospital room, only allowing one nurse to see them," Bradley said, "And from what I've heard, Hughes still hasn't woken up from his wounds, so he the chances of anything of actual note being shared are close to as low as they could be," he then smiled, "As for how I'll manage to keep Maes Hughes and Lloyd Forger in line, I have some ideas," he then returned his attention fully to Father, "I can use Maes Hughes to deliver you Roy Mustang, Father. Just allow me to implement my plan."

Father remained quiet for the next few moments, still clearly thinking over the situation. Finally, he sighed, and then looked Wrath directly in his one good eye.

"As long as you know what you are doing Wrath," he said finally.

"FATHER!"

"Pride," Father cut off his oldest child, "At the moment, it is true that we need to begin to build up our sacrifices," Pride seemed to wince at the rebuke, "And at the moment, only Wrath has made actual progress in his goals at an acceptable level. If he believes that this is the best way forward, then I shall trust him to undertake it."

"Bu-," yet Pride withered under Father's eyes, before finally saying, "Yes Father," and beginning to slither away into the shadows. Then, taking that as a sign to leave, the other hom*onculi began to withdraw from the group too. Lust and Envy looked at one another, and sighed in relief that the whole meeting had ended without either of them getting in too much trouble. As they began to walk out, Lust couldn't help but look over at Wrath, who was beginning to walk back to his palace with his hands behind his back.

'What could be your plan?' she asked herself, as they all slowly retreated to their current missions.

________________________________________________________________________________________

'God,' Maes Hughes groaned, his eyes surrounded by darkness, 'What I wouldn't give for some water,' his throat was incredibly dry, and it mixed with the blackness of his vision to remind him of the time he'd been in an Ishvalan Sandstorm, 'I wonder, have I died. Is this hell I've been sent back to?"

Slowly, however, light began to creep through his eyelids. He groaned for a moment, desperately wanting to reach up and cover his eyes now that it was beginning to hurt to see. Finally, after several moments of laying there, he forced open his eyes, breaking through what felt like a crust of sleep keeping his eyes closed. Though even when his eyes were open, he was only able to see a bright light up. It took several more moments for the light to begin to have any kind of definition, and once he did begin to see, it was only a bunch of squares above him. Finally, after far too much time trying to figure out what had happened, he could see he was staring up at a ceiling, a fluorescent light and a bunch of tiles above him. Though, without his glasses, he was really only able to make out the shapes, rather than the details.

"Where am I," he barely croaked out, his throat undeniably dry.

He twisted his head, and looked down, and saw that his head was on a pillow. He then saw that he was covered in a hospital blanket, and that location was only confirmed when he looked over, and saw an IV stuck in his left arm. The IV was continuing to drip, the sound of the dripping telling him more than the sight of the bag, and he saw he was being kept alive from the infusion of fluid.

And then he felt the pain. His side where the strange woman had pierced him was hurting, but that wasn't as bad as his shoulder. It felt like it had almost been split in two, and that it was barely being kept in place. As he tried to keep from yelling in pain, he pushed himself up, and managed to get it so he wasn't applying any pressure to that upper wound. It took him a moment, now sitting, to finally regain control of himself, he looked up, and saw the only other occupant of the room. ANd while he couldn't see all the details on the man, he could see the blonde hair and the green suit.

Lloyd Forger, Agent Twilight, was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, his head laying back against the wall. With the lack of movement, Maes would have to guess he was asleep at the moment. His hand was laying on the chair next to him, and Maes could make out a metal device laying in his palm, most likely a gun. For a few moments, Maes just stared at the younger man.

'So this is the guy I've been looking for for the past few months,' he thought to himself, rubbing his forehead, 'Man, I thought I was good at this, but I had a spy literally as my next door neighbor, and I only just got it,' he stared at the young man, 'I mean the Forgers just moved in about two mon...'

"Forgers," he croaked out.

...

"GOD DAMNIT!"

"Wah!" Lloyd had woken up from the shout, but Maes couldn't say anything, as he was now having to place a hand over his mouth to try and containe the coughing. Lloyd looked around, and waved the pistol for a moment, before seeing Maes sitting up, and lowering it back onto the chair beside him. He let out a massive sigh, before rubbing the back of his head, "Oh, good, you're awake."

"COAgh, cuh, Hack, CU,COugh!"

"Yeah," Twilight pushed himself to his feet, and walked over toward the side of the bed. He grabbed up a pitcher on the small table, and a glass of water, and handed the glass to Maes. Just as Maes though he'd managed to catch his coughing, Twilight nodded at the glass, "Drink up, after everything you've been through, you're going to need to rehydrate."

Maes nodded, before doing his best to quiet his throat. After a few moments, the coughing was over, and he began to sip on the water. The liquid quickly began to spread down his parched throat, and whatever need to cough he'd had before began to dissipate. Over the next couple of minutes, he would stop, drink a few sips of water, and then wait for himself to make sure he didn't accidently cough and send the water down the wrong pipe. Finally, after an eternity, his throat was feeling normal again, and he was able to shake his head. He rubbed the back of his head with his good remaining hand, and then blinked when he saw Twilight's hand extended forward, a thin metal frame sitting in his palm.

"Ah, thanks," Maes smiled, as he picked up his glasses, and put them on his head. He blinked, and smiled as all the details came into view...and this certainly was Lloyd Forger. Maes could tell it was him, and not another shapeshifter, mostly because he already hadn't been shot, and because he'd seen Lloyd when he was tired and exasperated, and this was too perfect a copy for even the monster he'd met at the phone booth.

"Glad to help," Twilight nodded.

They stayed there for a moment. Maes looked into Twilight's eyes, and Twilight looked back, and yet...neither could quite find what next to say. For a solid minute, the only sound in the room was the dripping of the IV.

"Okay," Maes finally said, "Might as well get this over with," he smirked, "Am I the first one to figure our you're you?" making sure to not use the name Twilight in case anyone outside was listening in.

"Now Mae-"

"Don't try to bullsh*t me," Maes groaned, and Twilight sighed, "Besides, after last night, it's not like I'm going to turn you over. I'm not about to stab the guy who saved my ass in the back that easily."

"Fine," Twilight groaned, before walking back to his chair, "The answer your question, yes, you are the first one to have ever figured it out," he sat down, and slouched over, allowing his body to rest even if his mind couldn't, "Though I must ask what was it that gave me away? This is the second time I've been found out, and I wasn't doing anything with records this time."

"You mentioned you'd been in South City," Maes said, and when Twilight blinked, "During your conversation with Yuri, you more or less let me know you'd started in the South, and then I sort of combined that with what we knew about your travel," he then gave a smirk, "But really, if you'd just kept your face better, I probably was only able to pull off the question because you let your guard down."

"Damnit," Twilight rubbed his temples, "Well, when you see something like that...thing," Maes cringed at the thought of the monster that had attempted to kill him with his wife's face, "You'd be pretty out of sorts too," he then stared down at his gun, "I put nearly a dozen bullets in that thing, and it was like I was hitting it with a pillow."

"More than that," Maes added, "Clearly, it did damage to the thing," he winced, remembering how the bullets had ripped into him as well, "Though yeah, that thing could regenerate itself with some strange energy," he shook his head, "Alchemy, ya know?"

"I f*cking hate it."

"I get that," Maes laid back against the pillow, "So, where are we?" He looked around the room, "This doesn't look like the main hospital, so I'm guessing you did took me to a clinic that was closer, right?"

He was asking if he'd been taken to a non-military doctor. Best to not even speak like this had anything that might damage the military, since they would still likely be after him.

"Yes," Twilight nodded, "You were losing a lot of blood, so I made a decision to go to the nearest one, which was only right."

Yeah, Lloyd had decided to do so to avoid the military. Good, they were thinking on the same wavelength. If this was going to work, they were going to have to speak like this, only vaguely hinting at what they were actually trying to get across. Even if they weren't in a military hospital, they could avoid any kind of incriminating evidence against them.

"So," Maes sighed, "Last night, the research I was doing was really kind of tough," he said, and Twilight leaned forward, his eyes sharpening. He was clearly ready to get across whatever Maes was about to tell him, "I was dealing with spies and conflicts around Amestris, let me tell you, staring at a map makes the whole thing a pain in the ass."

"I can imagine so," Twilight nodded, and then began to dig into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small little booklet, and then opened it, showing Maes a map of Amestris. Maes nodded, and then smiled as Lloyd turned the booklet around, and raised a finger over the map, "What were you doing that needed you to look at a map?"

"I was helping the Elric brothers," Twilight's eyes widened a bit, "You know those boys, always traveling around. After all, they are trying to figure out the philospoher's stone," and then Twilight went stiff.

'Okay, good, he knows enough about the stone to sort of guess why this might be important,' Maes thought nodding to himself as Twilight stared down at the map, a bead of sweat beginning to fall right along his brow, 'Need to pull this off right.'

"Kids like that, they don't know how lucky they are to still see travel as something to enjoy, rather than something to just serve as another bit of work or misery," he stared directly at Twilight, "When I was in Ishval," Twilight's finger came down, and Maes nodded, "It basically killed most of my love of travel. Though even when those boys end up in a place with a lot of conflict, they come out well. Just look at how they handled Liore," the finger slide upward, and Maes nodded more, "Though, I have to tell you, if they ever headed up to Briggs, the cold would probably set them straight," and the finger went diagonal, "Though, I could understand that Pendelton out west," Twilight cringed, and then Maes winced remembering what that city would mean to a citizen of Cresta, "Might have similar impacts," the finger went down in a diagonal, "Of course, even Fotcett in the South would be trouble for a group of kids like that," and straight down again, "That's just how Amestris is though, all those places besides Briggs have had massive losses of life, that's what happened in Ishavl after all."

Twilight's finger came across, and he stared down at it, blinking for a moment. He mouthed "A Pentagram" before shaking his head, he looked over at Maes, who blinked. Maes thought it was obvious, but...perhaps if it was as obvious as he thought, someone would have noticed it. Even without knowing the exact pattern of the Philospher's Stone Circle, he would have thought that the battles being so evenly spaced out would be noticable. Of course, you would need to know that the border was a circ-

"Ever notice how strange Amestris's border looks?" he said aloud, trying his best to sound loopy, "Like it's almost a complete circle?"

Twilight pulled the map back, and then his eyes widened again.

"sh*t," he said beneath his breath, "The philosopher's stone?"

"Yeah," Maes nodded, "I guess Ed and Al are going to go to wherever they can to find a way to get back their bodies, though with everything that's going on," he shook his head, "I guess there are just some things that seem like normal humans just can't achieve."

Twilight continued to look at the map. He then got up, and stared at a small medicine cabinet on the side of the room. He opened it, and pulled out a large cylinder of moisturizing cream. He looked over at Maes, and walked over to his left side, and then opened the top of the cylinder, and looked at Maes, before announcing.

"You look like you are beginning to chafe a bit, let's use this to get your arms less dry," he then slapped a massive glob of it onto Maes's forearm. Maes blinked for a moment, before Twilight then reached down with his right index finger, and began to twist and turn it around in the glob rapidly. Finally, Twilight pulled his hand back, and suddenly Maes could see words.

The Entire Country a Circle?

'Probably means a Transmutation Circle,' Maes thought, before putting his own finger into the glop. It made sense, if anyone came in now, they'd be able to rub the message away into Maes's skin, something that wouldn't work if they used paper and pen.

Yes, for PS.

sh*t!

Maes almost laughed at the cursing in writing, before shaking his head, and watching Twilight write in another thought.

We get you to Cresta.

That...was likely where this was going to have to go. Maes couldn't stay in Amestris anymore. Not with the military likely to be out to get him. His information was too terrible, too shocking, too horrific to not put him on the hit list for whoever was orchestrating this plan. Hell, he wasn't even sure who might be orchestrating these things. It certainly could be the Fuhrer, but some of the conflicts he'd researched began before King Bradley had ascended to the throne. Though he certainly wasn't doing anything to stop it.

'Still, need to set the ground rules,' Maes then stuck his finger back into the gloop.

Not without my family.

Of course.

Maes sighed in relief. Twilight nodded, and continued to write.

As soon as I can get to my contact, I'll be able to arrange a train for you to the West by tonight.

Maes was about to ask about a train, but Twilight continued.

We'll disguise you up and give you fake ids. You'll be out of the country in three days.
Maes partially winced, after all, he was about to betray his country. To an enemy he'd personally been fighting and bringing down for the past five years. But with everything he'd seen, he'd need to get out of Amestris, with his family, so he could provide the intel to the world, and then use their resources to spread the word around as much as they could. It was risky, but at the moment, it was the only way to make sure that he'd be able to try and save his country and his family.

When will your contact get back to you?

Don't know. Got disconnected, but he should pick up when I next go out for a call.

Maes nodded. Twilight grabbed his wrist, and furiously rubbed the rest of the gel into Maes's skin. Now, their writing was gone, and no one would be able to see their planning. Twilight quickly darted over and placed the cylinder back inside the cabinet, and then placed his gun into his coat. As he did so, he kept his eyes moving. He was clearly somewhat nervous about going out again, but for their plan...okay, general idea, calling it a plan was too generous, but for their idea to work he needed to get in contact with his assets. That meant Maes was going to be alone again.

'Still,' Maes looked at his wounds, 'I guess I should just be glad to be alive at this point,' he then cringed as he again felt pain through his body, now down in his leg too, 'Though this will make it harder to jump the train when we need to,' he then gritted his teeth, 'Come on Maes, after living through last night, you can handle a few pains and stitches no problem,' he closed his eyes, 'Just...just think of your daughter, and how happy you will be to see her, to hold her, to hear her scream-'

"DADDY!"

The door opened to their room, and Elicia Hughes rushed through. She was clearly upset, with barely dried tears along her eyes, as she ran up, and nearly tried to jump up into his bed. For a second, Maes could only stare in shock, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Twilight's jaw had dropped open too.

"Elicia?" Maes asked, barely able to get the word out.

"Daddy!" she was now doing a mix of crying, laughing, and hiccupping. It would be really cute if it wasn't so shocking.

"Elicia!" suddenly, Gracia rushed into the room too. She looked barely put together, a coat over her night gown. It was only at noticing this that Maes could see that his daughter was in her pajamas. He suddenly realized that it was still likely morning, and that his wife and daughter had jumped out of bed and rushed over to see him, "Oh god, Maes," Gracia raised her hands up, and placed them on Maes's face, "I was so worried when you didn't come home last night," she was about to reach over to hug him, but then saw his wounded body, "I, um."

"Don't worry," Maes laughed a little, "Just being near your beauty is all I need."

"Oh god."

Maes finally returned his attention to Twilight. The spy's face was in his palm. Well, while this may be unexpected, at least they were all in one place. Once they could get in contact with

"Well, if it isn't one of my favorite officers."

And it was only then, as that very familiar voice carried into the room, that Maes realized that Twilight hadn't been reacting to his family. Because right behind Gracia, standing at the door with several guards on each side, was a tall mustachioed man with one eye, smiled at Maes as he stood in the doorway of his hospital room.

"As soon as I heard you were injured," the Fuhrer said, his arms held behind his back, "I came as soon as I could," he then opened his eye at Maes, their gazes fully meeting one another.

"After all, I couldn't risk anything happening to you."

________________________________________________________________________________________

AN: Okay, finally back...for a chapter. This will be coming much slower than the first thirty or so, but that's just where life and obligations have me at the moment. Hope you enjoyed it though.

Chapter 33: Birds in Cages

Twilight's world stopped. For a moment, he could feel his lungs and heart skip, and the sweat come over all his body. His eyes barely could focus on the man who walked through the hospital door, and he had to suppress the need to pull out his pistol.

'Even if I put one in his scull, his guards would get me in a minute,' he thought, trying to keep his itching fingers under control. Twilight's eyes shifted over to Maes, and he could see the exact same look on his face as Twilight knew he had on his own. Maes's hands slowly began to twist around both Gracia and Elica, pulling them in an attempt to provide at least a scant amount of protection, for all the good that would do, 'He has to know that he wouldn't be able to protect him if Bradley wants to kill them. Especially when he wasn't even able to stand up on his own.

"Goodness me, it's good to see you are up and at um," the Fuhrer's voice was his usual calm and welcoming tone. At the moment, it was more terrifying than anything else Twilight had ever heard, "When we heard that you had been attacked at the office, and found the blood spray at the phone booth, we were worried we wouldn't find you among the living."

"Well," Maes said, gulping. For a second, he fidgeted, and tried to raise his arm into the general salute, but he winced audibly.

"Don't feel the need to salute me now," the Fuhrer said calmly. At the same time, both Gracia and Elica tried to hold onto Maes, attempting to give him comfort from the pain, "After taking wounds like you did, it would be a gross overuse of my power to demand that you risk injuring yourself further over such a silly formality."

"Yes sir," Maes nodded. Twilight kept his eyes on the Fuhrer, only now noticing that King Bradley was holding his hands behind his back. Part of Twilight wondered if it was some kind of weapon...though...if it was, why would he not have already used it.

"Maes," Gracia's voice suddenly cut into the conversation. She stopped, and looked back at the Fuhrer, who simply smiled and nodded at her. With that affirmation of her place in the conversation, she looked back to her husband, "What happened last night. You stayed late, and didn't come home. It was only an hour ago we heard there had been an attack, when the Fuhrer and his chauffer arrived in front of our house?"

For a second, Twilight's mind went back to his own home, right next door to the Hughes' home. He had told Yor that he would be late that night, but he hadn't said he might miss the whole evening. Would she and Anya be worried about not seeing him. Would the commotion that had come from the Fuhrer arriving to pick up the Hughes's have woken her up as well. That was even ignoring the questions he might receive if he ever got back to

"Honey," Maes seemed lost, just as Twilight was feeling lost as well. He looked to Twilight for a second, before turning his eyes to the Fuhrer, "Well, you know my position, everything I do is classi-"

"No need to worry about that sort of thing," the Fuhrer said firmly, "If I'd been injured like you had on a mission, and I didn't tell my wife what had happened and why, she might rip my ear off," he seemed to give an almost knowing wink to Gracia, who, though flustered, almost giggled at the gesture of the older man.

'God I feel like I'm going to vomit,' Twilight shook as he watched the Fuhrer. Still, Maes said nothing, his hands shaking as she stared at the man who could have both of them killed at the drop of a hat.

"Well," Maes rubbed the back of his head, "You know, I was working on that case I was mentioning earlier," he was trying to keep it vague, to not give too much away.

"Now don't be too shy," Bradley cut in, "This is about the Agent Twilight Case.

And once again, Twilight's heart stopped. For a second, he could feel the need to reach down and grab his pistol. His cover was blown, he was a dead man walking, so taking out the Fuhrer might be the only thing he could do to help Cresta. But he quickly caught himself again. It would only lead to a larger war, with the accusation that Amestris's beloved leader had been cowardly killed by a spy in a hospital room. All he could do was sit there, and watch this little game play out.

"Yes," Maes gulped, before looking at Twilight. He looked back to the Fuhrer, but the movement was enough to catch Gracia's eye. She seemed to blink, and finally she gave a look towards Twilight as well. Her jaw seemed to set to the side, and was clearly realizing something else was going on beyond the surface. Maes just continued to stammer, "I was investigating the Twilight case-"

"And while doing so, Agent Twilight attacked you."

'Oh god,' Twilight shivered at the announcement of the event from the Fuhrer. The older man was still smiling the same, jovial grin. He could almost imagine that the men outside were preparing to arrest him and take him away in chains any moment now.

"You were staying late because of some information you found of him coming from East City, and he managed to sneak in to ambush you most likely," the Fuhrer continued, "And doing this, he managed to wound you badly, and nearly kill you. You were forced to flee the intelligence HQ to a payphone to try and alert command, but the wounds were far worse than you feared."

'I'm being set up as the attacker,' Twilight seethed. All this, with the threat to Maes's fam-

"And you would have died while trying to alert us," and then the Fuhrer finally acknowledged Twilight by turning his head towards him, "Had Dr. Forger not been coming by around the same time and discovered you, and taken you here."

'...what?'

"Lloyd!" Gracia shot off the bed, and suddenly Twilight felt a strong pair of arms clasp around his neck, "Thank God you were there," she leaned back, and Twilight saw tears pouring from her eyes, "I can't thank you enough for saving him."

"I-I," Twilight stammered, looking back at Maes, who was just as shocked as he was. They then looked back at the Fuhrer, who continued his telling of the previous night.

"Once you were in competent care, we took what information you were able to give us," the Fuhrer's smile was big and full of teeth, "We were able to find out who the bastard was, and hunt him down and terminate him last night."

"Wonderful!" Gracia clapped her hands, not realizing she was standing directly next to the actual agent Twilight.

"Re-really?" Maes's jaw was nearly halfway down his neck, but he had managed to keep from blurting out that Twilight was actually alive, so he at least had some control of his wits, even if not of his jaw. The Fuhrer nodded, and Twilight could tell it took all of Maes's willpower to not give a look to Twilight himself.

"Of course," the Fuhrer said, "Saw the body myself."

'Someone,' Twilight could feel his eyes widen, 'Someone was killed instead of me,' and for a second, shame overcame Twilight. Even if he got out of this, an innocent man was likely dead.

"Yes, I went to the cigarette store myself-"

...

'What?'

"Short fellow," the Fuhrer continued, and Twilight could feel the older man dragging a knife across his belly, "Very hairy, actually a former veteran of ours," he shook his head in some sheepish display, "Really, never would have imagined that someone like him could be Twilight."

'Noooooooooo...'

"Name was Franky Franklin," the Fuhrer rubbed his chin, "And would you believe that wasn't an alias," he shrugged, "Probably why he was so hard to find really. Just too obvious."

"You never know who it could be," Gracia nodded, not realizing just what distress Twilight was feeling next to her. He gripped his pants as tight as he could, before shaking his head. However, before anything could happen, Gracia then asked, "Well, it's good to hear this all resolved itself so well," she smiled at the older man, "And I really appreciate that you allowed me the honor to knowing these details. It sets my mind at ease knowing that Maes isn't in any further danger."

'Lady,' Twilight allowed himself to be very flippant in his thoughts, 'You have no idea.'

"Well I was glad too," the Fuhrer chuckled, "After all, you are the wife of a gener-"

He stopped, and then closed his eyes. Then, after a second, Twilight, Gracia and Maes all had their eyes shoot open very widely. The shared reaction was enough to even get Elicia, still clinging to her Daddy's arm, to look up in notice.

"I wasn't supp-bah, what the hell, you are going to find out anyway," the Fuhrer laughed, "Congratulations Maes Hughes, for you consistent and admirable work at Central Intelligence," he brought forward his right hand, and in it, a gold pin for Maes's chest, "You have been promoted to Brigadier General of Counter Intelligence."

"Brigadier General!" Maes shrieked, his eyes nearly popping through his glasses, "How...what?"

"Congratulations dear," Gracia then reached out, and grabbed the pin from the Fuhrer, who gladly handed it to her, "We'll make sure to attach it to your uniform when you get back home," Maes just continued to stare at the Fuhrer, who then let out a little cough, and all returned attention to him.

"You'll be expected at Central Command once you have healed," The Fuhrer explained clearly, his eye wandering onto Elicia as she clung to her father, "Your knowledge of Crestan subterfuge will prove invaluable," He continued to smile, "Of course, in order to offer you protections from further attacks such as this, we will need to have you and your family moved to a secure home in Central itself."

"What?" Lloyd finally managed to pull Twilight from his stupor, 'That...they are litterally bringing he and his whole family into the main Central command to have them under constant surveillance!'

"I am sorry Dr. Forger," Bradley nodded at Twilight, though his eye never really left Maes, "You unfortunately won't be neighbors with the Hughes anymore. Though to offer you protection, we will be moving a few guards next door for the time being to make sure that you and your family don't catch any stray retaliation that might be aimed at our new brigadier general."

'I am not only holding Hughes hostage, I'm holding your family hostage too.'

The words didn't need to be said out loud, as both Maes and Twilight knew directly what that meant, and Gracia seemed to be picking up on the strangeness that was being stated. The evidence was clear as day, that Twilight hadn't just been caught by the state of Amestris, but that they were holding him hostage. Somehow, that almost seemed more humiliating in a way. At least if they killed him it would feel like he was a threat...but no, he was now just another little bird in a cage for Amestrian Central command to show off.

'Of course, I could be...can't think about that right now.'

"Now then, I brought one last surprise," and then the Fuhrer pulled out a box with his left hand, "I think a celebration should have some cake after all!"

"Cake!" Elicia shouted from bed, suddenly bringing her full attention to the Fuhrer as he lifted thye top of the box, revealing...well a cake, with pink frosting.

"I unfortunately wasn't able to get it more decorated," Bradley said, "Had to have this ordered this morning. One of the aides here had it to give," he smiled at Gracia, who chuckled slightly.

"I was wondering why we didn't see that box in the car," she laughed while rubbing her head. Then, a few aides rushed in, and suddenly a bunch of small plates and utensils were laid out, "Oh, this will be great," she then stopped, and stared at Maes, "Are you sure my husband can have this though, he is in the hospital."

"A man as strong as your husband, should be more than capable of having a little cake," the Fuhrer laughed, before placing the cake down on the side table. He handed two plates over to Maes, who, after pausing for a moment, gave one to Elicia, alongside a knife and fork. However, before he could turn back and to hand out plates to the other two occupants, he stopped, and then declared, "Of course they forgot the cutting knife."

"Oh," Gracia said, suddenly beginning to make her way toward the door, "I'll go get one fr-"

"No need."

And then the Fuhrer's right hand shot down and grabbed his sword. Twilight didn't see him pull the blade out, but he heard it's movement through the air. Then, there was silence, though Twilight could see a look of terror crawl up Maes's face. Bradley turned on his heel, and Twilight saw what had shocked Hughes so badly.

Sitting on the tip of the sword was a slice of white cake. The Fuhrer's smile didn't drop, as he slowly leaned the sword over, and set the slice of cake down directly on Elicia's plate. The girl's eyes widened at the cake, and her smile got massive as she readied her fork and knife. Gracia's eyes went wide as well, but from the way she was covering her mouth, Twilight could tell she wasn't smiling. This was only confirmed as Gracia began to shake while her daughter used her fork to pull the first piece away from her slice, all the while the Fuhrer kept his sword right above the little girl's head. Finally, she downed the piece and smiled at him.

"Thank you so much Fuhrer Bradley."

"You're welcome dear girl," the Fuhrer placed his blade back into the it's sheath. He then turned directly to Gracia, "I suppose that is the last bit of business you will need me here for, Mrs. Hughes."

"I-wh-," Gracia was panicking, shaking as her eyes watched the blade. Slowly the Fuhrer brought his hand back to the sword, and she shouted, "Yes!" Elicia looked up, but Gracia stopped, and more calmly declared, "Yes, thank you so much for your attention and assistance my Fuhrer."

"Excellent," he declared, before turning back to Maes Hughes. Twilight thought he saw Maes about to pop a blood vessel, the bearded man gritting his teeth together, glaring at Bradley with almost uncontrollable hate. Almost, because Maes managed to keep from making any stupid moves, but Twilight could see he wanted to jump out of his bed and strangle King Bradley, "You will be expected to join me in my office for your official promotion by Monday," he said, giving the younger man a deep glare with his one open eye, "Do I make myself clear?"

Maes just continued to grit his teeth, a whole variety of profanity likely locked away behind the man's teeth.

"Do I make my self clear?"

"...Crystal."

"Wonderful," the Fuhrer then turned his attention to Twilight, "Dr. Forger," Twilight became stiff as a board, "Would you please join me in a short walk, you and I have some discussions about classification that will be important for a man outside the military itself."

"Yes, Fuhrer Bradley," Twilight hung his head, and pushed himself to his feet. He gave one last look at Hughes, whose rage was slowly collapsing into sheer disbelief. He marched up next to the Fuhrer, who slowly patted him on the shoulder.

"Daddy," Twilight heard Elicia speak up, "You should have some cake, it's really good."

"I-I know sweet heart," Maes choked out, barely keeping himself together, "I'll have some cake in a minute."

"I think this family needs some time together," Bradley said, slowly leading Twilight through the doors of the room, "After all, after what Maes has gone through, we shouldn't disturb their privacy."

As the door closed behind Twilight, the last thing he heard was the barely contained wailing coming from Gracia Hughes, and her daughter suddenly asking why her mother was starting to cry.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"This should be good enough," Bradley didn't need to push Twilight into the room. It was an empty office, with two chairs, though with how the Fuhrer remained standing, Twilight could guess he wasn't about to be allowed the right to take a seat, "We'll need to set some ground rules going forward," his smile grew far too wide, "Agent Twilight."

"How long did you know?" It was too late now, especially if they had had any time to investigate the goings on at Franky's store.

"As a fair assessment of your ability, I'll tell you I wasn't sure until I heard that you had been out of the room to speak on the phone at the exact time I came into your friends store," at that Twilight growled to himself, and the Fuhrer just laughed, "Don't be too hard on yourself, you managed to keep a very difficult secret for far longer than anyone I've ever sent counter intelligence after," he then just continued to stand there, "Now Agent Twilight, let's be quite clear about how this is going to go."

'Of course he chose an office without a window,' Twilight growled inwardly as he checked his surroundings, 'Probably better to keep me from trying to escape and to keep any sound from getting out of here-'

"You are going to do nothing."

At that, Twilight stopped considering his next move, and stared at the older man. For a moment, he was about to ask why, when suddenly there was a knock on the other side of the door. The Fuhrer reached back, and opened the door. And the man who stepped through the door almost caused Twilight's jaw to become unhinged.

"Hey Bud!" Franky walked forward, looking more formal in a full suit, "How are ya doin?"

"Wha-kuf!"

Franky then walked up directly in front of Twilight, and socked him in the gut. Twilight reached down to cover his stomach, and then fell to his knees, the shock overwhelming him. He then slowly fell down to the ground, and took a second to glare up at the apparent traitor. He reached out, and grabbed the tubby man by the leg.

"You," he then blinked, as he felt the flesh of the leg beneath his grip, "You aren't Franky..."

"What?" that question, a bit too sarcastic for his contact, only confirmed it a bit more, "Of cour-"

"Franky lost his leg in Ishval," Twilight said firmly, glaring up at the two men looking down at him, though he could not keep a small smirk covering his face, "You really didn't do a good enough job being a body double."

"A f*ck," now a new, far more shrill voice came from Franky's mouth, and Twilight felt sweat begin to pour down his face, "You're the second clever bastard to show me up the past couple of days," suddenly, he snapped his fingers, and a strange lighting poured down around the leg Twilight was gripping. Within a moment, the leg felt more like steel, and Twilight let go in shock, "There, see, now it's all what it's sup-"

"Envy," the Fuhrer finally cut in, causing the shapeshifter to turn his head in frustration towards the taller man, "No need to act like a brat, just be here as my back up and to do the demonstration when we need it."

"You c-," however, the look Bradley gave the smaller creature was enough to get him to stop, and growl, "Whatever you say, Wrath."

'Wrath...Envy...,' Twilight considered while lying on the ground, 'Just...just a bit pretentious.'

"Now let's propose a hypothetical," the Fuhrer spoke up, "Suppose, for example," he clasped his hands together, "That there was an Crestan agent by the name of Stirrup," at that Twilight felt his eyes widen, only for them to open even further, as suddenly the body that had been Franky transformed into a tall brown haired man with a slight moustache, "Let's say that he was getting a bit too dangerous for his own good, and we decided that he had to be dealt with."

"If, if you can turn into Stirru-"

"Let me finish," the Fuhrer continued, all the while Stirrup's face was covered in a cruel smirk that Twilight had never seen on his fellow agent, "Let's say there was a peace meeting between Amestris, Drachma and Cresta that we felt was going a bit too smoothly, and we wished to keep things...in their current state," the Fuhrer smiled, "Why, it was simple as all could imagine for our good friend here, to disrupt that."

"The bomb," Twilight stammered in shock, "You...you killed your own people, and yo-"

"Blamed Stirrup by showing "Stirrup" being responsible for setting it up in a security photograph," Bradley nodded to him, "Yes, I'm afraid that's what happened," he then smiled, "Why, with that evidence, even your Fullmetal Lady let one of her precious agents be handed over to us, all to keep the whole incident from becoming a flashpoint of course," he then smiled, "Why, it must have eaten you all to think that such a noble man could do such a thing, didn't it?"

Twilight gripped his hands together. He and Stirrup had not been close, but-

"So then, imagine what could happen, if say, Agent Twilight," and then there was a crackling of lighting, and Twilight shook as he saw his reflection begin to stand before him, "Got funny ideas about communicating with his country, about certain events that are about to happen," the thought of the country wide transmutation circle swallowed his whole mind, "Well, I'm sure we could find something for Twilight to bomb," he rubbed his chin, "Enough orphanages or refugee camps, just something to catch you," he then leaned down, and whatever kind demeanor that he had ever exhibited was gone, "And then, well you've seen what Cresta would do to keep themselves from being implicated by one of their spies. Though I'd say such an act might be enough to really start a war."

"You wouldn't," Twilight growled while laying supine, almost wanting to push his way up to grab the man, "You-"

"Really?"

...

"You would."

"Glad to see you understand how this is going to go. Now, you will cut off all contact with Cresta, but maintain your cover. If Ms. Sherwood ever forces a meeting, you will say you have nothing to report, and then move on," he bent down to look Twilight directly in the eyes, "Are we clear on this?"

"...Yes," it was all Twilight could say. He knew that even if he shot the transforming creature, Envy wouldn't die. He'd put nearly a dozen bullets into him the night before, "I will not meet with Sylvia Sherwood."

"Excellent," Bradley then turned, before placing a hand on the Twilight's standing doppelganger, "Make sure to rough him up a bit, just to get the point across."

The look of glee that crossed Envy's face was horrifying. The creature wearing him like a skin suit nodded, and then slowly stalked towards Twilight as he laid on the ground. Twilight nearly felt the need to push to his feet, but even he knew that wouldn't help. However, just as Envy was about to throw his first fist, the Fuhrer said one last thing as he closed the door.

"Make sure to not hit his face, we don't want any questions."

"Aw," the creature in front of him groaned, "Take all my fun," still, the beast slowly shrugged, and then smirked while looking down at him, "Oh well, I can at least get a little payback for last night!"

Then, while still using Twilight as a disguise, Envy reared back one of his legs, and then kicked it forward, slamming into Twilight's gut. The strike nearly knocked the wind from Twilight again, while the sickest smile Twilight could ever imagine crossing his face came over Envy.

"Oh, I needed this."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Is papa back home yet?"

Anya looked up at Mama, who was doing her best to clean up the different tables around their house. She looked quickly down at Anya, and gave her a frown and a shake of the head. Anya had been at school all day, and she had begun to grow worried about her father, especially when she had heard something from Pride about Wrath meeting her Papa.

"No, your Lloyd hasn't come home Ms. Anya," Yor rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "It is strange, he would usually call."

'Is he okay,' Mama wondered inside her head, 'I hope he hasn't gotten hurt,' she stopped, and held her arms, 'What if someone got out and mugged him,' she then stopped, and suddenly an image of a blonde lady in a skinny dress showed up, 'Or what if he's seeing another woman. Have I failed so much as a wife. Oh, I'm so worried. If he left me and is seeing anot-'

"I'm home."

'I need to get to bed.'

"Lloyd!" Yor suddenly shouted, turning on her heels to stare at her husband. Anya gave one look at her Papa, and she had to grab her forehead, the feeling of his pain almost overwhelming her. Mama almost made her way over to Papa to hug him, but stopped. They didn't like to touch each other too much, so it wasn't too weird, "I'm glad to see you're home."

"Thank you," Papa said.

'I really just need to lie down for a while,' he thought, 'I'm in so much pain from that beating that Envy gave me, I need to-'

'Envy!' Anya shrieked in her head, the image of the thin creepy creature covering her mind, 'Envy attacked Papa!'

"Lloyd," Yor asked, "Can you tell me why you are so late?"

"I," Lloyd didn't make a move, slowly lurching past his wife as he made his way over to his room, "I have been through a lot these past two days. I'll...I'll tell you in the morning."

"Lloyd," Yor spoke up, "You'd tell me if something was going on, right?"
"Of course Yor."

'I can't let them find out,' Lloyd thought, 'Right now, only I'm thought of as a danger to Wrath and Envy, so I need to do what I can to keep them from getting involved.'

Papa took much longer than usual to get to his door, but he was able to push it open and nearly fall inside rather quickly. As he did so, Yor brought her hand up to her face, and quietly began to go through her thoughts again and again. There were thoughts of the weird lady, but now there were more thoughts about Lloyd possibly being injured. Anya, realizing she might need to get closer to Lloyd to find exactly what had been going on, gave her Mama a look.

"We need to help Papa," she said firmly.

"Miss Anya?" Mama asked, her eyes blinking at the suggestion.

"Papa's sick," she declared loudly, "We need to help him. He was moving all like," Anya then did her best to move as stiff as possible, like Lloyd had been moving as he had come in, "So he must be sick. Or," she stopped remembering how Papa had been thinking about being beaten up, "Maybe he fell down some stairs, and got lots of scrapes and cuts and stuff."

"Cuts and stuff," Yor rubbed her chin for a moment, before nodding at that, "Yes, that might be happening," she caught her right fist in her open palm, "Okay, I'll go get some ointment and bandages."

It took only a second for Mama to come back with some medicine and wraps. Soon, they got to Papa's door, and pushed it open.

"Lloyd!" Mama shouted, nearly dropping her supplies as she stared at her husband. Papa had taken off his shirt, and without the shirt, Anya nearly felt sick looking at him. He was covered in red splotches of soon to be bruises, with some already beginning to go black and blue. He was clearly wincing as he was sitting down, with his hand rolling through his hair as he clearly was absorbed in what had happened. And of course, he was looking at her ins shock, as both Anya and Mama really hadn't come into Papa's room before.

"Yor, Anya?" Papa asked.

'What are you doing here,' Twilight was in shock, 'I need some time to consider that King Fuhrer Bradley is a mon-'

"Papa, we thought you were sick," Anya decided that right now, it would probably be better to get Papa to feel better than to try and figure out more about Wrath. He was scary, and had one eye, which just made him scarier, "So we brought medicine to make it all go away!"

"Oh," he said, "I'm ok-"
"No you're not Lloyd," Mama cut in, using her harshest voice, "Goodness, it looks like a gang beat you up!" she pushed forward, opening one of the ointments along the way, "How could you say you are okay when you have been hurt like this?" she then popped off the top, and suddenly began to put it on some of the large bruises on Papa's belly, "How could you lie to my face and say you are okay?"

"I didn't want to worry you," he said, and Mama gave him a look.

'Well...I need to tell her something.'

"I was helping Maes on one of his missions," Papa said carefully, all the while, Mama stopped being as angry, "But Maes got badly hurt, and he needed some more physical hel-"

"I could hav-"

"It was late at night," he said, "And...I couldn't risk having you get hurt."

"Oh Lloyd."

'Well Papa's safe,' Anya thought. She'd try and get more answers tomorrow, but she didn't want to push her Papa after he gotten beaten up so badly. Probably would only make things worse. Besides, Papa was only barely thinking at the moment, so she couldn't get a clear picture until he got some rest. So Anya turned quickly, and made to go back to the kitchen. Dinner would have to start being made soon, and if Papa wasn't making anything, she was going to have to start on sandwiches to keep Mama from cooking anything.

'If I ever find out who hurt you like this I'll rip their head off,' Mama thought while Anya made for her hopeful avoidance of bad cooking, as she began to apply more and more of the ointment. Suddenly, she got behind LLoyd, and began to try and bandage him up with tehelong wrappings, "Now hold still," she pressed up against him," This will only be a moment."

"Um," Papa suddenly stopped thinking, and his thought were a lot warmer now, "Have you worked in medicine before?"

"Well, I had to bandage up Yuri a lot when we were younger," Mama said, "I wrapped him up all the time, so I have some experience, so this shouldn't be a problem at all."

'Oh,' Papa thought, again focusing on Mama pressed up against his back, 'I can think of a couple of problems,' and then Mama seemed to push harder up against him to gain better reach, 'A couple of big problems.'

Anya began to hurry to the kitchen.

'Mama and Papa are so weird.'

"Um, Colonel," Havoc's voice carried through the din of Eastern Headquarters, with dozens of secretaries, policemen, and soldiers rushing to and fro. Riza wouldn't have been able to make it out if she wasn't so used to the specific pitch of his whine, "I'm pretty sure it's against protocol for you to be leaving for Central without any orders."

"Aren't you supposed to be looking for Scar right now?" Roy shot back, not even bothering to look up as he was stuffing several papers into his briefcase. Jean's jaw suddenly creaked to the left a half inch, the thankless task clearly effecting his attitude, but Jean remained silent, continuing to glare at his superior. Finally, Roy sighed, before nodding, "It is against protocol, but after last night, Havoc, I'm going to need to be in Central as quickly as possible."

Riza had been woken up by the phone at just a little after ten. Normally, she would have been up alongside Roy, mostly to keep him focused on his actual work, but she'd been given the night off. She had a new puppy after all, and she needed to make sure Black Hayate had been comfortable. She'd had to give Roy one of her usual threats about the work he needed to finish while she was away, and she was then able to head home, take her dog out, eat dinner, and head to bed early.

Roy had been panicking when she'd finally picked up, saying something about Maes Hughes being cut off before they could talk. Maes often called East Headquarters, if for no other reason than to gloat over his family to Roy, but he wasn't the sort to call and then hang up. No, it would always have to be Roy who hung up the phone, almost always after Maes had pushed just the right button to knock him for a loop. But a dial tone on the other end meant that somehow, as the phone was being patched through, Maes had been cut off. That something was wrong was only further emphasized when it was revealed the call had been an external phone, explaining why the call had had to be patched through, rather than automatically going to Roy's desk from the military's phone office.

Fearing something had happened, Roy had spent the whole night pacing, wondering what had happened. He had made several calls to Central Police, but no one could give him any kind of answer. Unfortunately, the office appeared to be understaffed, especially that late at night, so no one was able to help him until after midnight. While that eventually lead to patrols being formed of Military Police, it wasn't much comfort to Roy, who spent the rest of the morning shaking, hoping beyond hope his best friend was okay.

Finally, after six in the morning and another unsuccessful call, Roy had decided he'd be going to Central to help with the search. Northing RIza could say would dissuade him...so she stated she would be going to, and set aside the work they would need to do on the ride over so they could be productive. Though, she gave a side eye at Roy, who was tapping his pen against his desk at such a speed that she almost thought he was trying to talk to her in morse code, she doubted they would get any real work down with the Colonel's worries on such display.

'I'd hope we'd get some news about Maes,' she sighed, before shaking her head, 'But considering what that new might be...'

That, was something she wasn't going to consider.

"We've been digging through that mess for weeks now," Havoc groaned, the conversation pulling Riza from her thoughts, "We've found some blood, and Scar's jacket, but I'm telling you, if it was him, his body's probably been blown into scraps by the explosion."

"Well, my orders were for you to not stop going through the rubble until I saw a body," Riza winced at the spite in the Colonel's voice, but sighed, as Havoc simply groaned, and began to walk away from the desk. Havoc knew that something was up, and was just trying to help, but when Roy got like this, there wasn't anything that could be done.

"The train leaves the station in half an hour," Roy's voice was quieter, but it was no less intense. Riza nodded, making sure she had both her standard issue pistol, and her secondary light revolver loaded for a confrontation. They couldn't be sure, but at the moment, this was all they could do. Roy stood up, making sure to pick up his breifcase, "Let's get heading toward the stat-"

"COLONEL!" it was Millie, one of the office girls, "THEY FOUND LIEUTENANT COLONEL HUGHES IN THE HOSPITAL!"

"WHAT!?!" Roy shouted back. Riza turned to see the young blonde woman standing in the door, waving at them to follow. Roy nearly knocked over his desk as he charged toward the phone room, Riza right on his heels. She could hear Havoc behind her, as well as plenty of the soldiers who had been meandering around the office. After a few seconds, they were in the main room, with Camilla currently speaking on the phone, and Sharon doing her best to transcribe everything that was being said. Their eyes lit up as Roy rushed over to him, and the blonde woman tossed the phone to her commanding officer.

"Colonel Mustang is here!" she shouted into the receiver as it entered his hands. Roy quickly placed it against the side of his head, and took a deep breath in.

"This is Colonel Roy Mustang," he said firmly. For a moment, his face was a solid rock, as he took in the call. Finally, after about twenty seconds, he let out a great sigh, as his shoulders slumped in relief. Riza felt her own shoulders loosen too, and could see looks of relief over the office girls and most of the staff currently around them. Roy finally spoke up, "Good to hear that he's conscious," at that, a couple of shouts went up from the staff, and Riza couldn't help but smile. For all that Maes could annoy the staff with his constant calls, he was still well liked by almost all of Eastern Headquarters. Maes then rubbed his shoulder, "Shoulder injury and blood loss," he frowned, "Sounds like he took quite the beating," he then looked over at Riza for a moment, and she nodded at him, to which he nodded back, "Okay, let me know when he is able to call me again, I'll remain by my phone until he is capable of getting on call."

At that, Roy handed the phone back to Camila, who began to make the last few necessary by protocol comments to end an official call. Roy gave out a sigh, before turning back to the staff. At first everyone, who had been on edge to learn about the popular Hughes, tensed at the thought of having dropped their duties to hear what had happened. He then smiled at them, and raised his arms up.

"He's okay!" and again, a cheer went out from the rest of the staff.

"Ha, man, he's going to be calling you up again talking your ear off pretty soon then?" Havoc laughed, some of his exasperation gone, "He rubbed the back of his head, "And just imagine how much of a pain he's going to be when he learns how worried about him you were."

"Yeah," Riza could see a vein pop on Roy's forehead, "And just imagine how much of a pain it's going to be for you having double shifts on the Scar search."

"Wait-Colonel!"

Riza sighed. More than likely, they would try and get Maes on the phone later today. They'd need to reach out and hopefully manage to get him to explain exactly what had happened that had landed him in the hospital. She'd have to call and cancel their tickets, but it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Really, she was just glad that her worst fears had not been realized.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"I freaking hate jobs like this," Jean Havoc squawked, something that most of his fellow soldiers likely felt like joining in on, but they were too low to get the privlege of calling out this crappy work, "We're going to break all our backs digging through this rubble," Jean leaned backward, and groaned as he looked up in the sky, "and of course, the chance of us finding that guys body are well under half. Just a sh*tty situation all around."

Weeks since the explosion that supposedly had ended Scar's life, and no new information to go off at all. Really, it was just the sort of sh*tty job that guys like him, young commissioned officers with mid level prospects, got assigned to. It was important, but not so important that they were going to actually have Mustang himself do it.

"Still," he sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "Need to take the good with the bad," he looked down at the pistol on his right side, "Chances are, I'm not about to get my brains blown up fighting him. Considering how long it's been, the chances of us actually getting into a fight a miniscule."

It's not that Havoc didn't like fighting, or that he was some kind of desk jockey. He had even come to Mustang's attention due to his skill as a covert operator. But he wasn't a monster like all the others around him. Hell, even Hawkeye was terrifying on an unbelievable level. So he was perfectly happy with never seeing that crazed serial killer ever again, thank you very much.

"Eh," he sighed, just shaking his head, "Might as well get working on the northern quarter," he began towards some of the part of the investigation zone, towards where there was still buildings and a relatively active road, "the buildings will probably give us some shade, so that might make today slightly less sh*tty," he then turned back towards the Military Policemen behind him, "You here that! To the northern quarter today!"

"Sir!"

Less than fifteen minutes later, Havoc and dozens of his soldiers were picking through the remains of what had been a small cab rental office. It had been one of the only buildings hurt in the explosion, and luckily no one had been in it at the time. They hadn't been able to take apart this one because of some kind of request for the owners to dig throu-eh, it wasn't worth thinking too much about.

"Just one more crappy part of the job," Havoc rubbed the back of his head, sweat already covering his palm as he leaned forward on his shovel, waiting for some assholes to go through their files so nothing confidential was lost. Hell, that Matthew McMahon had seemed like such an old codger, insiting that his cabinets be removed so "No one's personal information was lost."

'No one cares who rents your cabs, you old coot,' Havoc groaned, returning his shovel to his shoulder, and walking back towards the rubble, 'Just meant if Scar was here, we might have los-'

"Oh, excuse me sir!"

Havoc stopped, and turned toward the street that had once run up along this former building. Standing there was a tall man in a white suit with a white bowler hat covering the top of his head. He had long curly white hair flowing down his back, and deeply tanned skin that was made even darker by the shade of his wide brimmed hat. Despite his apparent age, in his mid-fifties at least, he was remarkably solid in his footing, waving at Havoc while standing taller than the Lieutenant was. Havoc let out a short groan as he waltzed on towards the older man, not really happy to have his work delayed again.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked, his left hand instinctively making towards the pack of cigarettes in his pocket only to stop to try and keep military appearance in tact.

"Why yes," the man had a deep voice, though it was surprisingly calm. Havoc couldn't really make out was going through this man's mind, his eyes were covered by the glasses, but the strength in the voice was clear, "You see, I am a business partner of the Mr. McMahon, and-"

"Shi-," Havoc nearly shouted, but caught himself, and did his best to regain his composure. He then quickly bowed towards the taller and older man, "Sorry sir, it's just been," he remembered seeing the persnickety old fella with glasses glaring at him with contempt as he explained the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of the files in his office, "It's been a bit difficult to assist your partner in making sure that his business is protected as well as complete our search for the man who caused this disaster."

"No, no," the taller man was chuckling, and for a second, Havoc wasn't sure whether that was something good or bad, "You see, I am actually here to apologize for my partner."

'Oh, what do you know, Good,' Havoc felt relief suddenly come over him, 'Honestly, just getting an apology just makes this whole sh*t show a bit better.'

"Hey, it happens," Havoc decided it would be best to be conciliatory, "I can't imagine what it's like coming back to work on a Monday and suddenly seeing your whole business blown sky high. He was probably just trying to cling to the little control he probably felt he had."

"Still, that does not excuse how he behaved," the man's wide brimmed hat shook to the side and back, "Honestly, the man is older than I am, but he still will act like a self important school boy at times," Havoc couldn't help but five a little smirk, "Once he told me about your interactions, well I thought it might be best to bring a bit of a peace offering," and then the older man removed form his wide coat a glass bottle, at least twice the size of a usual one, "I own a vineyard out in the country side, so I thought it might be good to...wet the thirst of the men who he made life so much harder."

At that, Havoc didn't even bother to hide his grin.

It was only five minutes later when Havoc and his dozen or so men had joined the older gentleman sitting behind some construction equipment to hide they were slacking off. The man had brought cups for all of them, and so Havoc and his boys were getting the ability to enjoy just a bit of a break from all the digging.

"Ah man," Jean laughed, wiping his lips, "This is some good booze here," he stopped, and then rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry, it is a really fine wine sir."

"Oh, a mighty good booze indeed," the older man chuckled, causing all the soldier around him to cheer. Havoc almost shook his head. How could a guy like this be the partner of an asshole like McMahon, he'd never know, but he wasn't complaining. Still, the older man looked over at Havoc, and then a small frown appeared, "So I suppose you haven't found the body of the terrorist who set off the explosive, am I correct?"
'Ah,' Havoc could feel the mood dampen slightly, but still, the free drink was more than enough to push the negativity to a minimum, 'Guess he would be interested in that.'

"Yeah," Havoc shook his head, "That guy, Scar," the older gentleman didn't react, so he clearly was somewhat in the know, "We haven't found anything beyond a bloody jacket, and that was reported in the paper a week ago," the older man raised his hand to his chin, "We've been digging ever since, but we still can't find anything to identify him," Havoc couldn't help but shake his head, "We've found some bodies, but most of them were too charred to tell anything."

"And anything you could tell probably leads you to believe those aren't him," it wasn't a question.

"Right on the money," Havoc nodded, taking another sip of the wine, "I can't tell if he was blown up, died in the river, or if he's now a hundred miles away making his next move," he shook his head, "Just a big old mess."

"Yes," the tan man nodded his head, and Havoc almost smirked a bit as he leaned forward, "This is truly a mess."

"Though I am glad to know that he isn't with you right now," at that, almost everyone looked over at the man, though the gentleman didn't even seem to move.

"You figured it out then?" the older man said more seriously now, most of the humor lost in his voice. Suddenly, an aura of danger came over the man's thin frame, even though not a muscle had yet moved.

"Well, it's not that hard," Havoc shook his head, "I mean, dark skin, long white hair, sunglasses," it was just really a richer person's version of Scar's own costume from back when Havoc had last seen him, "I was actually wondering if you were here to scout for him for a minute, but I'm like ninety percent sure you are just a concerned citizen now, and a hundred percent sure you aren't working with Scar."
"Not bad," a slight laugh was in the background of the gentleman's voice, but only slight, "Though why do you say that?"

"You clearly don't like him for one," Havoc had noticed the older man's actual disappointment on learning Scar wasn't dead, "But more importantly, if you were looking to find if we'd found anything out, you would have acted like you were just coming here for more of your business partner's notes, and not to shoot the sh*t with us," Havoc leaned back for a second against the equipment, as most of his men seemed to take that as good enough, "Though I have to ask," Havoc looked over, "Do you have any clue where that asshole may have crawled off to."

"I'm hoping it's straight to hell," the older man said, before rubbing his chin, a sad look on his face, "Though if I had to guess..."

________________________________________________________________________________________

"You're awake!"

Scar's eyes went over a small blonde boy, with soft brown eyes. They boy was smiling at him, as he pulled off an old rag from his head. Then, a new wet one was placed on top of it. Scar could only barely see the boy as he seemed to turn on his heel.

"You...you healed me?"

"Yeah," the boy laughed, turning back from the opening to smile again at Scar. Scar couldn't help but blink at the Amestrian just giggling at him, "We pulled you from a sewer, that was really weird."

"You helped an Ishvala-"

"Why not," the boy leaned forward a bit closer, and suddenly that brown became tinged with red, "My Mom's Ishvalan."

...

"Hey gramps! He's awake!" the boy finally shouted out.

Suddenly, there was a great deal of activity, when several hands grabbed at the edge of the tent, and the flaps were flipped open. In walked a short man, but he was clearly fully Ishvalan, with deep tanned skin and a long white beard. The man was giving Scar a smile, as he pushed into the room, and kneeled down next to Scar.

"My goodness, we were worried you never wake again young man," the old man chuckled, walking in with his hands held behind his back, "Especially since the military itself also happens to be looking for you."

"...and you aren't going to report me?" Scar asked, in muscles tensing, but real fear growing as he couldn't feel his limbs move at all despite him using all his will to try and command them to push.

"Of course not," the old man gave Scar a massive smile, "This little shanty town," he stopped, and thought for a moment, "Well, shanty city more likely," he chuckled, "has thousands of Ishvalans."

"Thousands," Scar nearly jumped up. That couldn't be possible. The genocide of Ishval had been-

"Yes thousands," the old man chuckled, "There are thousands of us all across Amestris, in colonies and ghettos and communes," suddenly, behind him, the flaps opened once more, and a half dozen clearly Ishvalan men pushed their heads through. They ranged from being as old as "Gramps" to as young as Scar himself, but they were all healthy, and none seemed to have the wounds of battle, "But even with that many, there is no reason to abandon a kinsmen in need."

Scar, for the first time in what felt like ages, allowed himself to smile. He laned backward, and felt a great breath of guilt suddenly push itself out of his lungs, and into the open air.

"Hey," one of the men in the background asked, "Is there anything else he needs?"

"Yeah," another said loudly, "maybe some water or new clothes."

"I am well my brothers," he said as loudly as he could, and then coughed, before calming himself. The old man was leaning over him, smile still on. Scar, in control once more, began the Assurance of Ivana, "The Entire world-"

"rests in the bosom of Ishvala," the crowd around him, even the little boy with white skin, said aloud, and for the first time in years, Scar felt like he was home.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"...yeah," Havoc nodded, "I wouldn't be shocked if he's there," Havoc looked over at the river, "Just float on out of the sewer, get picked up in the river, and then about three or four miles until your in Little Ishval," Havoc shook his head, "And once he's there-"

"The chance of finding him are near zero," the older Ishvalan agreed.

"Couldn't we send some patrols through that town then?" one of the younger men, Stephens, barely enlisted, asked. Havoc let out a groan, as several of the older men just shook there heads.

"Sending a military patrol into a place with over ten thousand Ishvalan refugees," Havoc said aloud. The young man stopped, thought for a moment, and then nodded. Havoc shook his head, "And since there are tens of thousands of them, going through each one of those hovels, tents, and cabins would take weeks, with hundreds of men we don't have," he sighed, "Certainly not without calling in more men from General Grumman's command."

"Well then," Stephens then offered, looking over at the gentleman, "What about you sir," the older man looked at Stephens, who seemed to wither under his gaze, "Wouldn't you maybe be able to go and ask since," he stopped, and rubbed his head, not really wanting to say it, but Havoc was glad that the kid had implied it.

"No," the gentleman shook his head, "My clothes would mark me as an issue as much as your would," he sighed, "My manners and distance to the community of my people make exploring that place difficult for one such as me," he stopped, taking in a sip, "Certainly if I were to try and go in and out of the city multiple times to report information."

"So the best we can probably do is just keep our eyes peeled for anything suspicious coming out of that town," Havoc nodded, "Maybe keep a bounty up for Scar's head, and then hope that he really just got incinerated here," he sighed, leaning his head back, "Not a fun result, but probably the best we can hope for."

"Well then," the older Ishvalan stood up, "I shall hope that someone with better eyes than I is looking into the that town," he turned, but Havoc couldn't help but think he was promising to have someone do it by himself. Maybe he was going to pay for some kind of private detective, "But, thank you for indulging this old man's need for closure."

"Thank you for the booze!" Havoc shouted toward the retreating man, who seemed to laugh, and wave as he walked out of the construction area, and back onto the main street. Havoc and his men continued to wave at the retreating gentleman, more than happy with the little break the older man had provided them. Still, after a few minutes, Havoc looked back towards Stephens, who was busy, looking inquisitively at the ground, "Something wrong private?"

"Sir," Stephens asked, clearly a bit perturbed, "Did...did he ever tell us his name?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hughes is on the phone Colonel Mustang!"

Sharon's words cut through the office, the room now far emptier than it had been all those hours ago in the morning. Sharon, nor any of the other girls were here. Only Roy, Riza, and Sargent Fuery, who had set up a small recording device just to make sure to see if something was wrong. And it was that recording that was playing again, with the four of them staring at the recoding machine as it played.

"It is strange to hear your voice played back like that," the glasses wearing officer said aloud. He had been chosen to join Roy's team for his communication equipment skills, so he was going to be key in telling if anything was going on with the lines as the recording played.

"I got it," Roy's voice cut in, "Hello, Maes, are you there?"

"Yeah, Roy, I'm here," Maes's voice sputtered through, "I'm a bit worse for wear right now."

"No problem," Roy's voice was there again, though the relief was palpable in the recording. For a few seconds, there was silence, as the air seemed to be allowed to clear from the shock that Roy had been feeling, "So, anything you can tell me about why you got shot last night?"

"Well, remember the Twilight case?" Riza felt herself nod at that. It had been a topic of discussion for the two of them when they weren't just shooting the sh*t, "Well, we got him, but he kind of got me too."

"sh*t," Roy seemed worried, "Any specifics on the guy or-"

"Eh, ya know. Got him when he wasn't looking, but he was armed, and managed to hit me when I wasn't expecting it. It was lucky that Dr. Forger was here to help, or new on who Twilight was wouldn't have gotten out, and I might be in a pine box."

There was a click, as Roy had hit the stop on the listening device. He leaned back, and began to rub his chin for a moment. Fuery looked at him for the moment, but Roy just kept waiting for a second, still thinking about what was being said.

"He's not saying everything," Roy concluded, and Riza couldn't help but nod. It was clear enough. There were certainly some major details that were being shared, but it was very vague, like stuff had been scrubbed. More importantly was mentioning something with Lloyd Forger. The agent of Central had been a common topic of discussion between Roy and Maes, and that there wasn't anything else being said there meant that, "if Dr. Forger was involved, then Central Command had to be involved," Riza continued to nod, "So more than likely, something happened that got him wounded, and it had to deal with Command itself," he then reached down and clicked the start button.

"Well, glad to hear you had a doctor on hand," Roy's voice said, "So...guess Elica and Gracia are really happy to see you alright."

"Yeah, they're doing great. But anyway, I need to bring up a couple of thi-"

That had been the real tip off though. Maes had just talked about his wife and daughter for a second, and instead of his usual diatribe, he'd been exceedingly curt. Riza knew, and Roy knew for that matter, if Maes was strong enough to talk on the phone in a circ*mstance where something dangerous wasn't going on, there would have been two and a half minutes at least of descriptions about how beautiful and wonderful his family was. That hadn't happened, and had been enough to cause every red flag to go off in both of their heads.

The rest of the conversation was nearly as curt as mention of Maes's family. An announcement of Maes's promotion, and a request by Central with Maes's recommendation to come and serve as the new head of the Alchemical Research division. The offer had been there before, but with Maes now as a general, it was seen to be even more important. Roy had said he would call back in the morning, and give his official response to the offered promotion then. All told, the conversation had been less than three minutes, and while to most that would be understandable for a man who had been sent to a hospital, to them, it meant that.

"Something is definitely wrong here," Roy said, as the recording of their conversation ended. Fuery just nodded. Even as the youngest member of Roy's team, he was very attuned to the underlining planning and scheming that defined how their team operated.

"Yeah," the young man said, "I kind of wish we had more time," Fuery tapped the recording device, "Might have been enough to stretch this old baby out and see if we couldn't detect some other voices in the background."

"Probably why they ended the conversation so soon," Riza offered, and then Roy nodded. For a second, the three of them just sat there, before Riza looked up at the ceiling, "So, we know that Maes is being promoted for stopping a spy, but something really fishy is happening."

"That that fishy thing is probably why he can't say more, and why," Roy groaned, "He was on a non-military line last night while he had a military one forced on him today, Riza nodded at that.

"I hope he wasn't too sore after being dragged around like that," Fuery sighed.

"And we know," Roy concluded, "That it has something to do with Lloyd Forger," he blinked for a few seconds, "Maybe Lloyd Forger got some kind of hold on him," but then he stopped, and closed his eyes, "No, there would be no way he'd be approved to say even mention the name if it was Lloyd Forger who was pulling the strings."

"So maybe Lloyd Forger was caught up in the same thing?" Riza offered, and the Colonel nodded. After that, the three of them sat silent, before finally Roy kicked his feet, and was standing straight.

"So," Roy said, "I suppose our only recourse is to head off to Central then," Riza blinked, as suddenly a bit of panic came over Fuery's face.

"But sir," the young man's voice shook, "You said yourself, General Hughes," at that Roy's face almost formed a pout out of boyish jealousy, "Is currently being held hostage by Central Command somehow," Roy nodded, "Aren't we just walking into the same sort of trap going to Central, and having that trap sprung on us?"

"Maybe," Roy shook his head, "But Hughes is clearly in danger, and after last night, there isn't a chance that I'm about to leave him with a noose hanging around his neck," he then pulled up his confident smile, "Besides, if I'm going to become Fuhrer, I need to take whatever opportunity presents itself," his smile then became a smirk, "This is a chance to find out exactly what's going on in that city, and maybe figure out just why Command wants me there."

"I'm with you sir," Riza said aloud, and Roy's smirk returned to being a smile again, "I'll start packing up for our move."
"So will I sir," Fuery saluted Roy, who nodded at him too, "And I'll tell the others," the images of Falman, Breda and Havoc crossed Riza's mind. Then Fuery blinked, and then said, "Ah, but Havoc might be a problem."

"Eh, he'll be able to leave that crappy job looking for Scar," Roy shrugged.

"But sir," Fuery was a bit disjointed, but he continued, "He just was bragging about this new girlfr-"

"Have him dump her."

'Why does anyone think you are some kind of ladies man?' Riza couldn't help but shake her head, as poor Fuery began to cry at realizing he was going to have to relay that to his superior officer.

Chapter 35: Going South - Part 1

"Everything okay Anya?"

Anya blinked, before turning her head up to look at Becky. The pig-tailed girl was looking at her with a slight frown, her jaw set to the side as the rest of the class were getting out of their seats, 'She's been really quiet the past few days,' Becky thought, and Anya could only blink dumbly before reaching up, wiping her eyes, and sighing.

"I'm okay," she said, nodding her head at Becky.

'She's lying to me.'

"I'm not lying," Anya snapped, and then nearly slapped her forehead, but she then added quickly, "Papa's been super busy and tired, and he hasn't been able to help me on work as much," she then looked away with an exaggerated scowl, "I didn't do well on the last homework sheet, and I'm worried I might get held after class."

'Oh, considering her grades, that makes sense,' Becky didn't stop frowning, but her mouth softened. Anya internally sighed, just glad that Becky hadn't thought to even consider Anya's little outburst. She was so tired and so nervous, but she just couldn't help herself right now. Not with how quickly everything had been going these past few days.

It had all started when Papa had gotten back from the hospital. Anya had almost immediately discovered that Papa had saved Mr. Hughes from Envy. That Papa had thought of Envy by name, and include his ability to change his face and body, was enough to almost get Anya to talk to her Papa about that. Until she had learned that Papa had been more or less trapped by Envy and the rest of the hom*on-hom...dark people. That both she and Elicia and Gracia and Papa and Mr. Hughes were in danger of being killed by them.

Mama...well, the hom*onculi thought they could kill her.

But she had learned that, and had been a nervous wreck ever since. Especially the first day back to school after it had happened. When she had walked up near Selim, she had nearly screamed, but when Pride had turned his many eyes toward her, she was lucky to hear-

'Too bad Wrath wants you as a hostage. Gutting you would at least be a bit of fun.'

They wouldn't attack her because they wanted Papa to be following orders. They also didn't know she was the "sacrifice" they were looking for. So, she hadn't messed up yet, so Truth wouldn't be mad at her, which was good.

But the Hughes were forced to move only a few days ago. Mama had offered to help, but the movers had been Central Soldiers, who were explicitly told not to allow anyone to get too close to the Hughes. Anya hadn't even been able to say goodbye to Elicia, instead just having to wave at each other through the windows of their house and car. Anya really liked the Hughes, even if Mr. Hughes had been hunting for Papa, and she was going to miss Elicia and Gracia now that they were in that big blocky building.

It got even worse that night, when Anya had felt Envy get inside the Hughes old home. 'To Believe I have to stay in this wretched place and follow that fool around,'he'd thought, as she sensed his presence come up through a tunnel beneath the next door apartment. Maybe he'd come up through the sewer? That was how he'd showed up before.

Envy had been a constant presence, at least when at home. Or, when papa had been home. When Papa had gone off to work on his own while she'd stayed home, Anya could not hear Envy anymore. When Papa had gotten home, Envy had returned. The next time she'd left from the house with Papa, she'd heard him following them, and had been able to see a rat constantly following them. All the while, Envy had constantly been thinking, 'Go ahead you little human, go and make contact with your boss. I'll then get to reach out and snap your neck.'

Since Envy was always following Papa, that meant that Anya was always having to hear his thoughts, which made it harder to concentrate, and harder to sleep. She was doing worse on her worksheets, though Papa hadn't noticed because he looked like he was so tired too. He even seemed sadder when he was looking at Anya, not because of his sheets, but, 'I promised to get you away, but I only managed to trap you again.'Only Mama was doing okay, but she was nervous because Papa seemed so tired. Everything at home was just so stressful this past week, that it was getting exhausting.

"Well," Anya was brought out of her musings by Becky speaking up, "Maybe," and suddenly, her face turned into a large smile, "Maybe you need someone else to help you with your homework," she then pointed at herself, "And, well, I don't mean to brag, but I got a six out of ten on my last Alchemy worksheet," she then huffed up her chest a bit, "I even knew that salt-"

'Helps the crystallization process in alchemic reactions,' Anya repeated dumbly. Part of her really resented knowing all this stuff, but not being able to put it down. Papa and Mama did their best, but they couldn't hide that they were slightly disappointed on her scores in that, and she wished she could use her good scores there to make up for not having strong writing and spelling scores.

"And if you come over to my place," Becky continued, her cheeks getting a bit pinker, "Then you can tell me more about your Dad," Anya blinked for a moment as Becky began to fidget, "You know, profession, work hours, salary, birthday," she stopped, noticing the way Anya was looking at her, "Just to help figure out the best way to make him feel better."

"Suuure," Anya nodded. She'd need to call Mama and Papa...but maybe being out of the house would be better. She could try and see about sleeping away from Envy for a night, and maybe if she wasn't there, Papa could have something less to worry about.

At least, that was what she could hope.

________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes was shot!?!"

"He's okay, he's okay," Maria Ross raised her hands up, as both Edward Elric and Alphonse were leaning over at her. Edward looked as though his eyes were about to bulge out of his skull, half a sandwich nearly falling out of his mouth, while Alphonse...looked exactly the same, but considering everything, even seeing him lean forward like he was was unusual. As the two seemed to lose just a hair of the tension in their bodies, and leaned backward, Maria sighed, and wondered for the thousandth time how she had gotten stuck with this as her job.

They had just arrived in Dublith about fifteen minutes ago, and she had gone to the station's front desk to call in on the Elric brother's successful arrival. She was their guard after all, and she was supposed to report what had been happening on regular intervals so Central did not think the two had been intercepted by Scar. She had been preparing to explain just how Fullmetal and his brother had gone on a warpath chasing a thief around Rush Valley, how somehow they'd gotten stuck helping deliver a baby for one of the town father's, and how Winry Rockbell was now apprenticed in the home of Automail, when she got the message that Maes Hughes had been shot.

'And now I have to explain a classified event to two teenagers,' she sighed to herself, as both the Elric brothers remained agitated.

"Well, like I said, he's out of the hospital now," on hearing that, almost all of the remaining stiffness left Edward, and Alphonse lost any of his lean forward, "He was shot on mission, and while I was not able to get the specifics, the mission has been completed and the target has been neutralized."

"That's...good," Ed had paused for a moment before nodding at that. Ed, for all he was part of the Military, still hadn't quite gotten that yes, being part of it meant that even good people would have to kill. Maria found it somewhat endearing in the boy, though found it disconcerting in the soldier.

"Yes," Maria nodded, "It is good," she then smiled, "He should be available if you go back to Central, and you can get what happened directly from him," Edward nodded at that, though Maria could see that he was mildly disappointed in the lack of concrete details. She then looked over at the clock on the wall, "So, is there a specific time we are going to meet your Master?"

"Oh, right," that Edward's voice broke to a high pitched squeal caused Maria to blink. She turned to Fullmetal, and saw him sweating nervously, "About our Master," he pressed his index fingers, both metal and flesh, together, and hung his head apologetically, "We were thinking, that it might be best if you just hang out here while we go and meet Master."

"What?" Maria stopped, and grit her teeth together, "No way," she had only barely managed to keep up with the boys when they'd been tailing that thief in Rush Valley. She wasn't about to have gone through all that and abandon her post now, "It's my duty to guard you two, especially with Scar still considered on the loose," she didn't need to mention that on some level, she also considered she was there to protect the citizens of Amestris from whatever shenanigans the Elrics took up.

"You really should consider not coming with us," Alphonse said, waving his arms, "Master...Master really doesn't like members of the military," Maria stared at Alphonse, who gulped.

"But," she then pointed at the boy in red, "Edward's a Major."

"I'm gonna die," Edward said piteously, falling to the ground and holding his head in his hands. Alphonse fell to the ground and embraced his elder brother, almost cocooning the short blonde boy with his metal form, "Teacher is going to be so made with us. I won't live to get breakfast tomorrow."

"I really wanted to get a chance to kiss a girl brother," Alphonse added, and for a moment, Maria could swear she saw tears pouring out the sockets of the helmet.

"Oh come on Major Elric," she stood at attention, using all her strength to try and pull the two brothers up, "Don'y you think you both are being dramatic?" the two stared blankly at her, "I'm sure your Teacher will be very understanding about what happened, and will be more than willing to hear you and, and suppo-"

"We're gonna get our heads ripped off Al!"

"I haven't even gotten to hold a girl's hand!"

"I'll be six feet under and Al's body will be turned into a cast iron stove."

"Would you two be quiet," Maria shushed, "You are causing a scene," and indeed, the entire platform of riders were now staring at the boys. Maria then raised her hands, and said, "No need to worry citizens, this is official Military busine-"

"Excuse me."

Maria stopped, turned her head, and saw in confusion a young man standing out from the crowd. He had medium length black hair that came down to the back of his neck, where they met a standard issue, though very well pressed and immaculately taken care of Amestrian Blue uniform. But more than anything else what stood out about him were his eyes. They were wide open, with tiny prinpricks as pupils, and locked directly onto Edward. For a moment, Edward could only stare up at the strange looking young man, before twisting his head in confusion.

"Hey," Edward said, looking over the uniform, and finally nodding when he saw a pair of simple wings on his shoulders, he added, "Major," he then smiled, "Anything I can do ya for?"

"Would," the young man spoke stiltedly, and Maria could only guess he was twenty at most, merely five years older than Edward himself, "You happen to be Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag," Edward began to massage the bottom of his chin in mock thoughtfullness, closing his eyes in faux consideration. Alphonse nearly seemed to fall over, and Maria felt like doing the same, "I am the Fullmetal Alchemist," he then pointed his index finger at the the other young major only a few feet ahead of him, "At your service?"

"Excellent," The young man nodded, though his face did not change from its blank appearance. He then reached into his pocket, and lifted out a silver watch, "My name is Demetrius Desmond, the Encyclopedia Alchemist," He then snapped it back, and placed it back in the exact same pocket. Maria Ross nodded to herself, finally recognizing the alchemist who had originally supplanted Roy Mustang as the youngest to have ever passed when he was fifteen...only to be the beaten one year later when Edward Elric had passed at age twelve, "I am sure you have heard of me."

"Um...," Edward blinked.

"...," Demetrius continued to stand there. Staring directly at Edward. Who had a growing frown and a large bead of sweat flowing down the back of his his head.

"..."

"..."

"What my brother means is," Alphonse stepped forward, attempting to end the awkwardness, "It's great to finally meet the alchemist who helped pave the way for him to take the test at such a young age."

"Wait, I thought that was the Colonel?"

"Brother..."

"No, this makes sense," Demetrius said, his face never wavering, "In fact, it is totally justified," he continued to stare directly into Edward's Golden eyes, "When someone has done what you have done, Edward Elric," he said, and for a second, Maria Ross thought she almost caught a hint of admiration, "There is little place for someone who cannot match up to you. Certainly when you have already surpassed their accomplishment in degrees of magnitude."

Edward continued to stare at older Alchemist, and he honestly seemed somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing. What Demetrius had said made Edward seem quite rude, but he didn't say it in a way that was meant to be an insult. It was as though that was a fact of life. Demetrius then pointed out of the Station.

"Edward Elric," he said plainly, "My next alchemist's assessment is in two months time. As a battle focused alchemist, I am testing and improving my combat style alchemy. You would be an excellent test subject to determine whether my work on the field has proved adequate for the examination."

"Woah, woah, woah," Edward stuck his hands out, attempting to stop the conversation before it moved any further, "Listen, buddy," Demetrius continued to stare blankly at Edward, "I'd love to throw down with you," and considering everything Ross had seen, he probably would, "But right now, I have some other things to attend to, and getting into a fight with a Military Officer in the middle of the street would only make that way more difficult," he then looked over, "Tell you what, I should be back in Central sometime before two months are up, we can fight then, and get you ready fo-"

"The only way to prepare properly is to test my abilities now," Demetrius cut of Edward. That caused a slight bulge on one of the veins of Edward's forehead. However, Edward sighed, before shaking his head, and turning to Al and Maria.

"We're heading out," he then walked past Demetrius, the opposite of the way Demetrius was pointing, "See you later, Dictionary Alchemist."

"...," Demetrius continued to stand there, unmoving. Alphonse looked between Demetrius and his brother, only to quickly rush off behind Edward. Maria gave one last look, Demetrius's blank face not changing, and was about to join them, when suddenly he spoke up once more, "If you wish to avoid fighting, it does appear that you really are a runt."

'Oh no,' Maria flinched.

"Oh No," Alphonse said. Edward had stopped mid stride. Alphonse reached out, grabbing Ed by the shoulder, "Brother, it's not wor-," but Edward turned around, gritting his teeth tightly as he walked past Alphonse, and then past Demetrius, then past Maria, until he arrived at where the Encyclopedia Alchemist was pointing. He then looked back, and waved his hand, and Demetrius walked off the spot towards the shorter teen. Alphonse ran up next to Maria, and looked over at her, "Lieutenant Ross, is there anything you can do to stop this fight?"

"Me?" she asked, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Your older than both of them," Alphonse said. Then he stopped, and sighed, "But as a lower officer, you can't, can you?"

"No," she moaned.

Only a minute later, the two were standing out in a small open lot. No one was using it or even that close around it, but it was out in the open, so not only were the two State Alchemists able to stand there unimpeded, but there was plenty of room for other to watch what was about to happen. Ed and Demetrius stood only a few yards apart from one another, Edward visibly if quietly seething while Demetrius's face was as blank as any time before. Alphonse, as always, looked the exact same in his features, though his posture screamed exasperation. Maria could only share in that. This wasn't that jackass with the overly complicated automail, it was a fellow State Alchemist Edward was about to throw down with.

"Thank you for agreeing to this test," Demetrius said, remaining rigid while placing one of his hands in one of his coat's pockets.

"Shove it," Edward looked over at Alphonse.

A clear sigh came from the suit of armor, which finally raised it's arm up into the air. Then, it brought it down, while a great shout of, "Begin," cut through the air of the lot.

"Take this asshole!" Edward slapped his hands together, and slammed them into the ground. A fist shot out of the ground, a long snaking arm behind it as it careened towards Demetrius's head. Demetrius remained where he was standing, seemingly uncaring about the strike. Just as it was two feet away from his head, he stepped to the right, causing the stone fist to miss his head by less than an inch. The fist continued, until it collied with the wall behind his head. All the while, he kept his right hand inside his coat pocket. Edward growled on seeing the dodge, and yet despite getting under the younger man's skin, Demetrius didn't crack a smirk.

"As expected, you would lead with a long distance strike," he commented, pulling his right hand out of the pocket, and placing it on the arm only a few feet from his head, "Most likely an attempt to coax out what my fighting style is," then, alchemic lighting shone, and suddenly, out of that arm, another fist came and hurtled towards Edward. Maria could see that as this second fist hurtled towards Ed, the remains of the first fist were thinning and disappearing.

Ed's eyes widened, before slamming his hands together, and hitting the ground. A small wall jumped up, and the second fist collided with it, a small crash happening. However, the wall did not budge. As that happened, Demetrius jumped straight into the air, barely even moving his knees to do so, and then running mechanically towards the wall, as though his arms were pistons moving up and down. As he approached the wall, Maria saw his left hand slip strangely from its mechanical motion down beneath the coat along his right side. Part of her worried that Demetrius was about to pull out a weapon, only for no gun to appear, and him to slam his hands down onto the wall when he arrived at it.

SCHUNK

"Yaahh!!" Edward suddenly jumped back, when a half dozen spikes suddenly thrust out of the wall he had used to block Demetrius's first attack. Then, he dodged to his side, when Demetrius landed where he had jumped. He then place his left hand down again on the ground, and suddenly more spikes came out of the ground, jetting towards Edward. Edward slapped his hands together, and slammed them into the ground, causing a pilar to shoot up, and send Edward into the sky. However, the pillar was pierced, and crumbled, sending Edward careening wildly into the dirt, only barley managing to roll to his feet.

"Wow," Maria allowed herself to say. She certainly hadn't expected the other alchemist to already get Edward off his spot so easily.

She was about to look over to Alphonse, but Demetrius kept moving forward, trying to refuse Edward a chance to catch his breath. His right hand was covered in the obvious lighting of alchemy, as it hit one of the spike, and suddenly a straight sword of sand stone was in his hand, and charged toward Edward. Ed, in response, raised his own right arm, and used it to catch the blade.

SCHHRRKKK

"Good," Alphose said, "Brother managed to slow him down."

"What?" Maria asked, not willing to pull her eyes away from the fight.

"See," Demetrius pushed down for a moment while Alphonse explained, "Brother realized with how fast Demetrius was using his alchemy, he was going to have to slow him down," however, Edward remained in position, and Demetrius couldn't even cause the automail arm to fall an inch, "So, he let Demetrius get close, and then trust his own body to overpower Demetrius.

"Impressive."

It was another voice. Maria jumped, as did Alphonse from the sound of heavy metal hitting the ground. Standing next to them was a an who appeared somewhere in his early thirties. He was tall, only about half a head shorter than Alphonse himself, though that was perhaps because of some spiky black hair. He had quite a prominent nose, and was in a leather jacket over a tight black shirt that had an extended collar up to his chin. He was looking on at the spectacle, hands in his pockets as he observed the fight.

"Never had any talent for it, but man, alchemy is just fascinating," his grin grew wider, showing sharp teeth, "Man, I'd almost say I'm jealous, but really, I've never understood that. Envy only turns in on itself."

"Who are you?" Alphonse said, his arms out in a martial artists stance. Maria felt the need to reach for her pistol, but stopped herself. This guy could have killed them easily, so no need to provoke something if he clearly thought it wasn't necessary.

And she was proven right when right behind this man walked up another. A brute of a man stood taller than the first one, even taller than Alphonse, with long white hair flowing down his back and into sideburns along his cheeks. He Glared down at Ross, giving a snort as if daring her to try and pull a weapon. That dare was backed up by massive hammer resting along his shoulders. He then looked over at the first man, and said, "Boss, everything good?"

"Sure thing Roa," the sharp toothed man chuckled, gesturing towards the fight, "I was just taking in the show."

"Hmm."

At the mention of the show, Maria turned back, and saw that finally Demetrius was pushing his blade down toward the hand of the automail. With one massive push of his weight, he cut the blade along Edward's metal wrist, before Ed used the momentum to twist away, and get out of the strike. Demetrius had seemed that the only damage he had done was to Edward's Red cloak, as scraps of the fabric floated around the blade. Demetrius pointed the blade at Edward.

"Your physical strength supersedes my estimation," he said, "Certainly considering the differences in our frames," Edward's smirk, for some reason, grew larger than before, "Yet it is clear that when it comes to the use of alchemy in battle, I am more agile."

"Nah, you just had a bit of a knowledge advantage," Edward smirked, "But, well, now that I've had time to think about what you were doing, I can say that this won't last too much longer," he slapped his hands together, and then slammed them into the ground, spikes shooting out of the ground towards Demetrius, "Now get ready you jerk, you aren't gonna last one more minute!"

"Very well," Demetrius pulled his hand out of his left trouser pocket, and hit it into the ground, causing his own set of spikes to go and collide with Edwards. However, just as the two spikes smashed together, Edward's suddenly shattered far more easily. Maria thought at first that Demetrius's attacks were stronger, only to realize that suddenly a dust cloud was now covering where the collision had been. Then, there was more cackling inside the cloud, and then Edward shot out of the dust, hurtling towards his opponent.

Demetrius, seeing the shorter fighter flying towards him, mechanically jumped to the right. As he did so, Edward slapped his hands together. He then collided with the ground, lighting of the alchemic reaction covering the ground, and then, right where Demetrius was about to land, a spike rose out of the ground. It shot right up along Demetrius's back, and then, with a sudden edge on the spike, Maria saw the back of Demetrius's coat split open, and the two halves of the uniform fall to the ground, leaving Demetrius only with a standard cotton undershirt.

Demetrius began to reach for the uniform, only for Edward to shoot forward, an alchemic reaction firing and turning his automail arm into a blade. Demetrius's left hand twisted along his right side, only for the young man's eyes to widen, and suddenly, he was forced to jump backward yet again, eyes locked on Edward Elric.

"Sucks now that you don't have access to your sword huh?" Edward smirked, before pushing forward once more, and then slamming his left foot directly into Demetrius's stomach, sending him tumbling backward, "Especially since you've trained your instincts to use those, without them, your body isn't ready to respond."

"What?" Maria asked, before she looked at Edward reach down, and pull up half of the coat, the right side of it. He reached into one of the inner pockets, and pulled it inside out. On that inside pocket, was the intricate design of a transmutation circle, "That-"

"It's a pretty standard sword circle you got here," he then pulled out another pocket, with another transmutation circle, "And this one is for a massive weight," he smirked, "You've filled all your pockets with transmutation circles for different problems, that way you have an answer to whatever you are facing," his smirk grew, "Like an Encyclopedia."

"FWEEEW!"

Maria didn't need to turn her head when she heard the whistle from the man to her right. This intruder, most likely a criminal considering the giant man serving as his body guard, was clearly impressed with how Edward had figured that out. Not that Maria wasn't but she had come to expect such things from the Fullmetal Alchemist by this point. Though when she gave a quick glance over at the intruder, she saw that he was actually not looking directly at Edward, but rather, at the metal suit of armor on his right.

Demetrius remained as stoic as before, his hands hanging over the pockets on his pants. Maria could guess, against standard pocket placement in an officer's uniform, that Demetrius had gone from anywhere from a dozen to sixteen circles, to perhaps four.

"You know you can give up," Edward said, "You might need to get working pretty quick, if you want to work on fixing up your presentation before your report," Demetrius did not seem to mind the implication before finally, he reached into his back pocket. However, instead of a new set of lighting, he instead...pulled out a small journal. Edward blinked as a small pen came undone from inside the journal, and Demetrius began to write in it, "Uh, hey, wha-"
"Wait while I write this down," Demetrius then began to mumble a few words as he wrote out, "Consider extra straps to maintain integrity of jacket..."

"HEY!" Edward shouted, "Don't ignore me!" he activated his alchemy once more, and sent a pillar directly towards Demetrius. And then, as he had done at first, Demetrius dodged robotically from the attack, moving only a few inches to cause the cylinder of rock to miss and collide with the wall behind him. Demetrius then looked over at Edward...and smiled.

"You must learn to control your temper," he then opened up the book...to show another transmutation circle on it's pages. Demetrius pressed it on cylinder, and the stone began to morph. Suddenly, the stone began to mold with the ground, the long shaft opening up and hollowing out, and by the time the lighting disappeared, Demetrius was standing on a cannon. He stood over a small lever, and gripped it, "Now then, time to move on to phase two of te-"

BZZRRTTT-CRASH!

And another set of lighting shot out from beneath Maria's feet, encircling and running up the gun. Within an instant, the weapon was tumbling to pieces, the whole thing disintegrating, sending the Encyclopedia Alchemist sprawling to the ground. Maria blinked, and turned to her right, and first saw that their intruder and his guard were gone. Only Alphonse was to her immediate right, though somehow a massive piece of paper had been stuffed into his helmet. He had been fighting to pull it out, but once her turned with her, he immeadiatly fell to the ground, his helmet slamming to the dirt.

He was bowing...to a moderately attractive woman. Mid to late thirties, thin frame, pale, almost anemic, skin, but long, black braids sprawled all over her head, with a long white smock falling down to her ankles. On her face was a clear scowl, as she locked her eyes on the figure of Demetrius. He gave her a more calm scowl, though he was more upset than before.

"You dare interfere with Government business?" he shouted, getting to his feet, "You have no rig-"

POW!

A second later, the woman's fist collided with Demetrius's face, and he was hurled back into the nearest wall, causing the wall to crack from his impact. Maria felt her jaw drop as she stared at this rail of a woman demolish a young man in his physical prime. The woman then turned her head towards Edward, who Maria finally saw, had slammed his hands together, and then activated a massive burst of alchemy. Within seconds, the walls, the spikes, the fists, the swords all disappeared, causing the lot to appear as new again. He then looked up, hands shaking at the woman.

"T-t-teacher," he stammered, and Maria only could remember his attitude being this way when he had confronted Miss Rockbell after wrecking his automail, "See, I put it all back together, no one will ever know that this place got messed up," then the woman began to walk towards him, an even, confident stride, "Wa-wa-wait, I-I didn't mea-he-I'm so sorr-"

And then the woman put her shoulders around Ed's head, and let out a sigh, "You still let that temper get the best of you, huh Ed?" she asked, in a mature, and frankly understanding tone. Ed blinked for a second, clearly not expecting this. He then raised up his arms, and wrapped them around the woman, the teacher he had come here to see.

...

"ACK!" and then the woman's arms tightened, and she suddenly threw her hips, and pulled Ed's head into a headlock, "TE-ckllc-teac!"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!" the woman shouted, "YOU COME HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE GOD DAMN YEARS, AND DO YOU COME SAY HI!?!"

She tightened the headlock.

"GAH!"

"NO! YOU START RUNNING OFF AND GETTING INTO A FIGHT WITH A STATE ALCHEMIST!"

She tightened the headlock once more.

"Teacher!" Alphonse had finally taken to his feet, "Please stop!"

"Oh, Alphonse," the woman's voice suddenly became incredibly light and cheery, "Wow, you grew! I'll come give you a hug as soon," she tightened her headlock once more, and Maria could see that Ed's face was becoming red, "Edward and I finish our little discussion on proper deference to one's teacher."

"That-that's okay!" Alphonse waved his hands in deference.

"You are coming over and letting me hug you!"

"Yes Mam!"

Maria could only stare at the scene. Already the world had been becoming so strange for her, but then, in a blink of an eye, it had only become weirder. This woman had thrown around two young men who seemed to be expert combatants...and it wasn't like it was even mildly difficult for her to do. As Edward's face turned from red to blue, his mouth desperately gasping for air, she finally spoke up at the woman, "Excuse me," the woman looked at her, and the glare she received nearly caused Maria to step back, "Um...who are you?"

"Well, dog," Maria felt a hitch at the back of her throat, "My name is Izumi Curtis," she then let go of the headlock, and Edward Elric fell to his knees, hungrily gulping down as much air as he could. The Woman pointed her thumb proudly toward her chest, and with a massive grin, declared.

"I'M A HOUSE WIFE!"