"Accept that your life will be painful, bite back your grief and find the power to stand again."

**********

As much as Aiden was connected to her feelings and acted in the best logical manner, the team thought she would take a few days to recuperate. Instead, she dove into her work with a ferocity that almost frightened them. When she wasn't in the office she was tracking down any leads to the whereabouts of the Elric brothers, more specifically Ed, as she knew Alphonse was in an Ishvalan refugee camp in the North and there were few to pick from that she knew about. Though, according to one of her men, there was a report of a suit of armor in the one closest to the Briggs mountains, Asbec was the name.

From his distanced place, Roy could only watch as she began to isolate herself from both her team and him. They were already under watch and getting close would put them under more scrutiny, endangering her more than she already was. So he kept to himself and watched her suffer as he slowly broke seeing her in such a state.

Other times she was getting reports from her informants keeping track of Roy's unit. Breda, who had been on the front lines against Creta in the West, had broken his arm from a stray piece of metal hitting him. He was on temporary leave to heal his injuries. Falman was doing just fine in the North, though he complained about the cold once a week. Kain was thankfully still alive in his fight against the soldiers of Aerugo. She knew the men to the South fought just as hard as the Ishvalan people when they heard the State Alchemists were coming in and he was too close to the front lines for her comfort. But she knew he was too stubborn to die, almost like her in that regard. From what she had been told Kain had kept to her empty threat.

Her current whereabouts were unknown to her subordinates, but that was only due to a request from an informant. She was to meet her at a bar in one of the less busy districts of Central. As usual, she pulled on a top and jeans that fitted her curves well followed by a pair of flats.

When she arrived she took up residence at the counter, shifting her gaze to the barmaid. The women around her served the men already there but she paid them little mind and they did the same. The room lighting was warm and the women were welcoming at the door, tables and booths were clean and relatively worn but not at all old or tattered and gross. The place was charming in its own right.

"What'll it be?" the woman asked gruffly.

Aiden smiled politely, "The usual." She slid a thick envelope across the counter.

The woman grunted and took the envelope, hiding it below where one couldn't see or reach. Then she grabbed a shot glass and filled it, leaning over the bar slightly. "The only thing I got for ya are whispers that the men in the bank had planned their attack."

Aiden tilted her head slightly and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. That was a given. People don't rob a bank on a whim. She gestured for the woman to continue and downed the shot, the glass being refilled almost immediately.

"I heard that they were hired to do so."

"Someone hired them to rob a bank? Why? If they could hire them for such a job then they should have money aplenty." Unless they didn't have money. Whoever hired them could've promised a share of the money for their services.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but they're saying those men were hired to rob the bank and kill an officer." Aiden's heart stalled and her eyes snapped up to meet the woman's. "They weren't after anyone specific, but they were told not to shoot the woman. At the very least they weren't targeting you."

Aiden's mind left the earthly plane in an effort to piece together her thoughts. She wasn't the target, her men were. But who could've orchestrated such an event? MPs weren't normally called 'officer' unless they were being spoken to by a civilian. There were no civilians who had a vendetta against her, at least, none that she knew of.

Bradley and the rest of the homunculi, however, did. But who of them? Greed wouldn't stoop so low and it wasn't his style, Lust was dead, Gluttony didn't have the mental capacity, and Sloth was busy digging under Amestris. She hadn't personally angered Pride and she doubted Father would send out his best homunculus to threaten men into taking the job so the creepy shadow demon was out as well. That left Bradley and Envy and both were complete possibilities. The Fuhrer was untouchable so she couldn't confront him even if she had the guts to do so. Not to mention that the thieves would've let something slip at some point if Bradley had been the one to hire them considering how green they were.

Envy was the last of the seven homunculi who could do anything. He could assume the identity of anyone at any given time. It wouldn't surprise her if he had staged the robbery as a show of power -

The sudden thought whizzed through her mind and she gritted her teeth. That son of a bitch!

"No, they were targeting me," she spat, anger lacing her tone. "This was a show of power to make sure I stayed in line."

"Why?"

Could be her missing alchemist. Maybe her search for Ed and Al had been found out. For all she knew it was her existence altogether. "Because I pissed them off."

The woman eyed her carefully, "And what are you going to do now?"

Aiden downed the drink, stood, and slipped on her coat. "Now they're going to realize how I earned my rank back in my country."

She exited the bar, feet stomping angrily against the sidewalk as she made her way home.

That asshole! That Truth damned homunculus had killed off one of her men just to remind her that she was on a leash? When the war began she was going to try to spare him but oh no, not now. He'd signed his death warrant and she was out to collect. That loathsome little -

"What's got your panties in a twist? Bad date?"

Aiden stopped and she slowly turned to glare at the homunculus leaning rather disinterestedly against an alleyway wall. "Excuse me?" she snarled.

"I asked what's got you so uptight. Mustang take you on a date and not show up? Or was it someone else? Are you cheating on the dear Colonel? I never thought you to be someone who got around much." Envy's delighted tone grew dark as a smirk curled on his lips. "Oh wait, I forgot, you have to be in a relationship with him for it to be considered cheating."

Her glare hardened and she spun around and resumed her walk home. But Envy wasn't done as he followed her and continued spouting this and that. "But then again, Mustang goes out with girls all the time! Everyone knows and I can only assume you do as well, after all, you do follow him like some lost dog. Just perfect for someone like him, don't you think? A dog of the military with his own dog? Ha! How original!"

She gritted her teeth and breathed deeply, her hands foisting and wishing so desperately for the gun she'd left at home. If anything it'd shut him up.

Envy cackled to himself. "You're so useless to us that I don't see why Father keeps you around! He says you're a hostage but I see you as nothing more than a nuisance." He sighed to himself and his voice lowered, "To think I ordered those men to kill a random soldier when I could've just gotten rid of you so much earlier. We have plenty of hostages as it is and it would've saved us a lot of trouble."

Her feet stumbled to a stop and a wave of heat washed over her. Envy watched her with a raised eyebrow as her frame shook ever so slightly.

"What did you just say?"

"I said we should've killed you earlier," he shrugged. "Though why that bothers you more than everything else I've-"

"No." He stopped and frowned at her interruption. "Before that you said a little something about ordering men to kill an officer. Care to elaborate on that?"

There were things Aiden was willing to look over when a person was trying to get a rise out of her. Plenty, in fact. Her strange mannerisms due to her origins? Done, over with, she forgets it by lunch. Taunting about her love life? Even she makes fun of herself for that. Roy's constant dates with other women? Sure it hurt at first, but when she found out he only went on dates to get information then she let it be and accepted it. The underhanded insult calling her a bitch? Well fuck you too Envy, but you have to be more creative than that. Being called useless? She actually had problems with that word but the only problems were Roy's feelings hearing it.

But almost confirming her theory as to who was behind her First Lieutenant's murder? Being the one to say he ordered someone's death after Jack's had happened not even two weeks ago? She'd hold up a damn train to get answers.

A groan was her answer. "If this is about that Hughes guy-"

Aiden whirled around and planted her feet. "It's not! Now tell me who you're talking about!"

Envy's expression was flat until it twisted into a grin. "Why, Lieutenant Jack's of course. Wait, it'd be Captain now, wouldn't it? They did promote him after his... untimely demise."

"You son of a bitch," came the quiet response. The homunculus became wary of the woman in front of him. "You... Asshole!" The words were given impression with each action she took, starting with the clapping of her hands, throwing them to the ground, and sending a beam of pavement into the shapeshifter.

Envy was sent careening away with a shout of complete shock as Aiden returned the sidewalk to its original state. The names of compounds and minerals and equations she'd never seen before ran through her mind as she pulled a long metal rod from the ground, quickly advancing on the alarmed homunculus. It was heavy; plenty of material for a sudden transmutation. One of his arms snapped out, elongating into a sword and she acted before she thought, twisting to the side, clapping, and creating her own sword before slicing off the arm.

Envy shouted in pain as the arm disintegrated and another grew in its place. In a sudden movement Aiden struck out and slammed the pommel of the sword, still dense with material, into his side followed by a quick blow to the head from her fist. Acting in desperation Envy transformed into some slick animal she couldn't hope to identify in the dark night and scurried off.

"Coward!" she shouted after him.

In a moment's silence her actions caught up to her and she dropped the sword in horror. What had she done? That wasn't supposed to happen, she was supposed to... That wasn't the plan. They were screwed. It was all her fault.

Aiden took off down the street in a panic. In her haste to get somewhere - anywhere - she almost tripped four times when her legs moved quicker than her mind could process. A familiar gate slammed into her vision as she rounded a corner and she didn't hesitate running through and pounding on the door.

"Roy? Roy!" She cast a quick glance around to see if Envy had followed. The five seconds she waited for an answer was too long as she burst through the door. "Roy!"

A figure blurred around the corner and came into focus. Roy was holding a gun in his right hand while a flame glove was on the left and he looked around wildly until his eyes settled on her. He lowered the gun and took in her panicked state.

"What's wrong? What happened?" He asked urgently, closing the distance between them with large strides.

"Envy - circles - me," she squeaked out. Her words hit her and she cleared her throat. "Envy knows I can transmute without circles!"

His face paled several shades. "What?"

"I got intel that the homunculi may have been the ones who ordered Jack's death so I left for home but Envy was there and I didn't have time to process and he taunted me until he confirmed it! And then I acted without thinking and attacked him and now-"

She cut herself off mid-rant, a look of horror dawning on her face. "I have to go." She glanced up at him. "Roy I have to go, if they find me here you'll be charged with who knows what!"

He slipped the gun into the holster on his side and held out his hands in a placating manner. "Aiden, no. Slow down for a moment and think."

She shook her head impatiently.  "You can't lead a revolution against Father and his cronies if they have me around. And you especially can't do it if I'm in their clutches as a sacrifice!"

His head turned left and right as she placed back and forth on his floor. "I'll figure something out."

But there was no chance she heard him over her own mutterings and curses to the homunculi. She stopped in front of him once more and growled. "Damn it all! If Envy hadn't-" she paused and Roy's eyebrows rose. "Envy."

Aiden's gaze snapped to his and he noticed how it had become speculative and hesitant. What was she thinking? Just a moment ago the woman was hysterical and ready to bounce at a second's notice.

"Aiden?" Roy said.

She bit her lip and fidgeted under his stare. What if Envy came to him? "I need to go."

"What? No!" 

Aiden's immediate change in demeanor threw him but he shook it off. Wordlessly she stepped forward and enveloped him in a hug, memorizing the mint and ashy scent. Then she leaned up and whispered in his ear before turning and leaving. Roy called out her name but she ignored him and when he tried to grab her she avoided him and slipped out of his house at a sprint. As he took off after her he had only made it to the gate before she was out of sight in the dark night.

She charged home and made it there in record time. Taking the steps two at a time and slamming her front door open and closed, the adrenaline slowly left her body as she slumped against the door for any respite she could get in the seconds it took to catch her breath. Then she took a deep breath and rushed around the apartment, haphazardly grabbing this and that and throwing them in her suitcase knowing full well she didn't have time to pick and choose like she was going on vacation. She was getting the hell outta dodge before one of the homunculi came calling.

The moment she slammed the case closed she grabbed Sebastian and placed him in the bathroom with a large bowl of food and water to last until Roy came around, placing a kiss to the orange tabby's head before heading out. Aiden skipped steps on her way to the garage, slamming the door and screeching out of the lot in her haste to put the apartment building behind her.

For a brief moment she entertained the idea of stopping to say goodbye to Roy but the thought was quickly dismissed from her mind. It would only make leaving harder and she knew he was the only one who could convince her to stay. So she continued to drive, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. Aiden almost has a panic attack seeing the patrolling squad car but they passed by without so much as a bored look. The man in the passenger seat was snoozing and she felt an ounce of tension loosen, but she wasn't out of the ballpark yet.

She wasn't fully relaxed even when she pulled to a stop in the driveway to her cabin. There was a gun trained on her the moment she stepped from the vehicle.

"I'm from another universe!" she exclaimed, not caring about their codes in the slightest.

Maes sighed and let her in, to which Aiden promptly began pacing just as she had at Roy's. "We have a problem. Envy knows about my alchemy and before long Father and the rest of the homunculi will too. I'm heading North to find Edward, Alphonse if I can't. Are you coming?"

"Aiden, what-"

"Are you coming?" she repeated. Maes was silent. "Look, you have very little time to reply. If you're coming I'll explain on the way, if you're not I'll tell you when I can call."

It wasn't that he didn't want to go with her, it was due to the fact that he knew Envy would be around that he wanted to stay. Of course, he was reverted back to his original form but Envy did return to normal for a time and he wouldn't take the chance of that shapeshifting going after his girls. He'd love to help his friend but he had other priorities. Besides, he knew she could handle herself well enough to stay out of trouble.

So he shook his head and sighed. "No," Maes said. "I'll stay here and relay messages to Riza. Jean too if your voice modulator works. How does it work again?"

She wasn't all that saddened knowing her friend wasn't hiking through the wilderness to find a couple of boys, yet she respected his decision and didn't dare dispute it. "You need to turn the knob on all the way to the right and after a few seconds, it'll start working. It should shift the fundamental waves of your voice into something different yet realistic. If it works correctly, not even Roy would be able to recognize your voice." She glared at him as a dangerous tone left her. "That does not mean you can call the girls Maes, I mean it. I haven't gotten a chance to inspect their wires so I don't know if they're tapped or not and I'd rather not take the chance."

He nodded seriously though the hurt in his eyes suggested that though he had considered it, her final words on the matter was what he needed to make up his mind. "I know. Stay safe?" 

Aiden cast him a side grin as she stepped out the door. "Always."

**********

I'll be honest, none of this went according to plan except for like, one thing, and I'm probably going to get an angry phone call in the morning because of it. Thoughts? Comments? Angry rants?