I sat in front of the car with our soldier driver and Edward and Alphonse sat in the back. Suddenly, the car door opened and a tool box came flying in as Winry stepped into the car with us. "Come on, move over Al!" She yelled as she crammed herself into the car as Edward was being crushed between him and Winry. "Make room for me!" She whined.

"What are you doing here, Winry?" Edward gasped for air.

The car door opened again and Kimblee leaned in. "I'm sorry Winry, please wait at the fort," Kimblee apologized. "We aren't going for the fun of it."

"I know!" She said."But I just switched Ed and Eve's automails, right? We don't want them to have any malfunctions, and if I don't come along to perform maintenance, it would tarnish the Rockbell name if anything were to happen."

Is this what she meant by an excuse? I decided to play along and keep silent. "You're as earnest about your work as ever, huh?" Edward sighed. "Workaholic!"

"You bet I am!" Winry snapped. "We've been a highly-trusted operation since my great-granddad!"

"I know you're a family of gearheads!" Edward yelled.

"'Gearheads' is fine!" She growled.

"All right, very well," Kimblee groaned, talking over their arguing. "I will permit you to accompany us."

The car door closed and we began to drive slowly through the snowy roads. "This could turn out badly for us all," Edward mumbled.

"Yeah..." Winry sighed, looking thoughtful.

*~*~*~*~*~

"Someone matching Scar's description was seen on a nearby mountain road," Miles informed. "He was probably headed here."

"An abandoned mine?" Kimblee asked.

"That's right. Nowadays, Baschool is a ghost town. It's a perfect place to hide."

"That will be problematic."

"Which is why we're splitting up to search. All squads, if you find Scar, contact us here at once."

"Yes, sir!" Soldiers saluted.

Edward, Alphonse, and I turned our heads to look at the accompanying soldiers with us, named Darius and Heinkel. Both were tall and extremely buff, but Darius had tan skin and dark hair while Heinkel had blonde hair and blonde mustache and wore glasses. "We will accompany the Elric brothers and their bodyguard," They stated.

"Yeah, yeah," Edward waved them off.

The soldiers, Kimblee, Alphonse, Edward and I began to trek through the thick snow of the abandoned town when suddenly Edward and Alphonse shrieked in unison, "I just saw someone!"

"What?" One of the soldiers asked.

"This way! This way!" Alphonse yelled as he yanked me along as he and Edward ran off into a building.

"Hey, hold on!" One of the soldiers shouted at us.

As we ran further into the building, I could here Heinkel shouting, "Wait for us!" Once we gained a large amount of ground, Edward stopped and quickly transmuted a wall to block the way so they would have to detour.

"They're gone?"

"They went this way!"

"They turned down this all, right?"

"They went inside that room, didn't they?"

"Damn, they're scampering away from us!"

We ran away from the wall and up the endless flights of stairs before reaching the top of the building. We leapt from one top of a building to another. "And that's that!" Edward cheered. "Looks like we managed to give them the slip."

We began to explore building by building, jumping rooftop to rooftop before Edward sighed, "But this place is...too damn big!!!!"

We explored another building before Alphonse sighed, "Where could Scar and that girl be?"

"Guys, can we stop for a moment?" I was bent over my knees, feeling overheated in the fleece I wore.

"Unless they come to us, finding them will be quite--" Edward grumbled.

"Alphonse...!" A girl squealed. "Alphonse!" She squealed again, getting closer to us. Her voice sounded familair.

"It can't be..." Alphnse gasped.

"No..." Edward groaned.

"Alphonse!" A small girl tackled Alphonse to the ground. I recognize her-she was with us when we fought Father!

"She really did come for us," Edward chuckled dryly.

"What are you doing here?" The Xingese girl giggled.

"May!" Alphonse sighed. "Thank goodness! We really did manage to find you!" Obviously these two had some time to get close with one another.

"You mean, Al, you were pursing me?" She blushed.

"I wanted to see you again," Alphonse nodded.

"Oh, Al..." She squealed.

"I wanted to see you, and learn more about alkahestry," Alphonse explained.

"What do I do?" She sighed dreamily. "What do I do? Am I dreaming?"

"Hey now, little girl!" Edward yelled. "Al is after me! I've missed you! You're not getting away again! Now tell us about your alkahestry, right now!"

"Both brothers are after me, to steal my love!" May held her face and began to shake, caught in a daydream. "No, Edward, you are not my type."

"Stop playing dumb!" Edward gritted his teeth.

There was rapid knocking. "Let me out, Al!" Winry shouted from inside.

Edward, May and I gasped. Winry? What was she doing here? "Sorry, sorry!" Alphonse apologized as he opened his chestplate and let Winry out.

She rubbed her head gingerly, "Yow, I bumped my head."

"Alphonse, who is this woman?" May demanded. "How mean, Al! You've already got me!"

"Oh, she's just a friend from childhood," he assured.

"May, you shouldn't go running off like that," A gruff voice spoke. In stepped in a man dressed in a cloaked hood. "The Elric brothers?!" The gruff voice gasped.

"Who are you?" Edward asked.

"It's me! It's me!" The hooded man took off his hood, revealing a deformed face. "Marcoh!"

"Eh? Dr. Marcoh?" Alphonse gasped.

"What happened to your face?" I asked.

"What about you?" He asked. "What are you doing here?"

Another man stepped in. He had black hair that was hidden in a skin-tight white cap and had a mustache resembling those comical villains in stories. "The Elric brothers!" He shrieked.

"Who are you?" Edward asked.

"You can't tell me you've forgotten me!" He shouted. "Not me, Yoki, the great colliery proprietor of Youswell!"

"We've forgotten," Edward sighed. "Or I should say, we never knew you."

"How mean!" He cried. "After what you did to me!" He began to remember the past and recalling everything. "The coal mining town of Youswell. I, Yoki, was both military governed and operator of the coal mine. Thanks to me, the people of the town lived in happiness. That's when the greatest criminal of all time, the State Alchemist, Edward Elric, suddenly appeared. You offered me gold bars in exchange for the town's title and I accepted. However, it was an ingenious trap! That night, all the gold given to me turned into coal and when I came to demand why, I saw you with the townspeople. They had set this up together behind the scenes. And so, having the mine defrauded from me, I was treated cruelly by the ungrateful townspeople, and branded person non grata by the military. Planning my comeback, I expanded my ventures all over. But they all failed. My fallback investments...also all failed. As a last resort, I went to seek a goodwill loan from a millionaire family. If it weren't for them...if it weren't for those Elric brothers...that's when I swore an oath. Yes, I would take my revenge against the ones who had done this to me! A vengeance far worse than death! I won't be outdone by a thieving hussy like you!"

"Who are you calling a thieving hussy?" May shrieked.

"I told you, there's nothing between us," Winry assured.

"That's right," Alphonse nodded. "So don't get upset."

"Can we hurry up and get to the alkahestry?" Edward sighed.

"You guys listen to me!" Yoki screamed.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Edward rolled his eyes. "It must have been hard on you pops. I know how you feel."

"Don't go brushing me off!" Yoki ordered.

"QUIET!!!" I screamed, tired, frustrated, and cranky at how off-topic we've become. Everyone turned to see me, sitting down criss-crossed, both hands on my knees, and pouting. "Don't we have far more important things to worry about than a sob-story of how a town turned on you because you were a jerk to them and your huge debt and the romantic melodrama?!"

"Eve, are you okay...?" Edward asked.

"Sorry," I pinched the bridge of my nose. "What happened over the last few hours has set me in a serious mood."

"No, no, your bodyguard is right," Dr. Marcoh agreed. "We have bigger things to worry about. Edward, can you fill me in on what happened since our last encounter?"

"I've learned a lot since then," Edward explained. "Starting with how to create a Philosopher's Stone, as well as the history of this country, and that there's something odd about alchemy. That's why, seeking possibilities of Xingese alkahestry, we came looking for this girl."

"Impressive," Dr. Marcoh nodded. "Actually, there us someone who realized this sooner. These are the research notes he left behind. We suspect that there are clues to sorting it out in these pages.

"Then, once we're able to decipher what's written in there..."

"Yes, perhaps. However, we will need Scar's help to do it."

"Why do we need him?"

A huge explosion echoed throughout the building and May jumped, "What was that sound?"

Dr. Marcoh looked out through the window. Not so far away, there was a building where smoke rose out of it. "It came from where Scar is!" He gasped. "Is it the military?"

"Winry, Dr. Marcoh, and you guys, hide here," Edward ordered. "Al, Eve, and I will go see what's going on."

We ran in the direction of the smoke through the snow and up another few flights of stairs until we reached where Scar us. He had one of his arms pinned down by some slime while two hulking creatures overlooked him. One of them was a large, light-green creature with thick lips and the other was was grey, boar-like creature with spikes protruding from his back. "We got here in the nick of time again," Edward sneered.

"The Elric brothers?" One of the creatures spoke.

"That voice..." Alphonse started. "Brother, these are the flunkies Kimblee brought with him from Central."

"What?" I said.

"I see," Edward nodded.

"You just stay there quietly and watch," He spoke. "We're just about to round up Scar--"

Alphonse punched and Edward kicked him, sending him flying in the air. "Strange monsters!" They cried.

"What are you doing?" The creature yelled, holding his swollen cheek. "We're all on the same side!"

"I don't know anything about inhuman allies!" Alphonse punched him again.

"Help us!" Edward cried. "These guys are pretending to be on our side so they can eat us!"

"That tubby one behind him has a huge mouth!" Alphonse whimpered. "He's gonna swallow me whole!"

"You little brats!" The creature behind the one Alphonse punched. "Sit still!" He spat multiple wads of spit at us. We separated to avoid the projectiles as Edward got up in his face and began to punch him. Taking advantage of his massive size, the monster put his arms up in an "X" to block the blows, sliding back a bit from the force of the hits.

Edward began to laugh as if he was in a state of ecstasy. "Brother?" Alphonse asked.

"What's so funny?" The massive creature demanded as he lobed more spitball projectiles at us.

Edward dashed up to the creature and punched him across the face. Edward began to punch the air, laughing, "They're so light! They're so light! My arm and leg almost feel like feathers! How magnificent this cold-weather automail is!" Edward began to dance around, jumping in the air and clicking the heels of his boots together.

"Why you...mess with me, will you?" The massive creature got back on his feet and and spat at Edward and the glob landed on his arm. The creature laughed, "You won't get out of my saliva that easily!"

"This is drool?" Edward grimaced. "How vile!"

"Take this!" He spat more projectiles at us.

"If this is saliva...if you break it down, its mostly water, isn't it?" Edward slid underneath it and clapped his hands and placed it on the saliva wad, swinging his arm to throw his transmuted creation on the creature's back.

"So cold!" It cried, rubbing his back.

"Take this!" Edward kicked Alphonse so he landed on top of the creature's back. As Alphonse got up, the creature was stuck to him.

"What are you doing Brother?" Alphonse yelled.

"Stop!" The creature attached to Alphonse wailed. "My skin is gonna peel off!"

"'Wet Hands Freezing to Cold Metal When Touched' attack!" Edward grinned.

"Jerso!" Spikes flew through the air and Edward jumped, dodging them. "Stay out of this Fullmetal Alchemist!" The other creature got up, recovering from the last attack. "You're supposed to be on our side!"

"You shut up pig!" Edward shouted. "I don't know anyone that looks anything like you! Any way you look at it, you're the enemy! If you're on our side, prove it!"

"All right," The other creature sighed. "I'm about to transform back, so watch closely!"

As the creature began to retract its spikes from its back, I did a huge circle around him so he didn't notice me, drew my side, flipping it around so the hilt was facing him and jammed the back of his neck with it. He cried out from the pain, I leapt up and swung my automail arm, punching him in the back of the head and causing him to fall down, knocking it unconscious.

"Zampano!" Jerso cried.

"You're a fool to put away your weapon in front of your enemy!" Edward tsked.

"Damn it!" Jerso struggled. "Let me go, you...!"

"Okay, okay," Alphonse sighed. "Lights out for a little while." He wrapped his armored arms around the creature, holding it in a choke hold before cracking its neck, causing it to slump and peel itself off of Alphonse.

"Wow!" I gasped, swinging my arm around. "You weren't kidding Ed! My arms don't feel as weighted down! On my ordinary automail, that monster would've still been conscious!"

"Told ya!" Edward laughed as we high-fived each other with our automail limbs.

Scar turned the slime that held his hand down into water, seeing what Edward did and got back up. "He's back in action," Edward sighed. "Stay caught already, would you?"

"It's time to answer for what you've done, Scar," Alphonse threatened.

"Anyone who gets in my way will be eliminated," Scar growled, twitching his arm of destruction.

We separated and ran at him from three different directions. "Your steel right arm...is mine!" Scar shouted as he grabbed hold of Edward's arm, sparks flying but seeing nothing happen to it, becoming confused.

"Aw, too bad!" Edward taunted. "It's not steel anymore!"

Edward yanked his arm away, pulling Scar who was still gripping onto his arm and kicked him behind the leg, causing Scar to cry out as he hobbled back onto his two feet. Scar slammed his arm on the ground bringing the ground up below us. Scar jumped through the flying debris, about to attack us again. "Stop!" Cried a voice.

In shock, we all turned our heads to the doorway to see Winry peeking out. Distracted, we kicked Scar in the stomach, causing him to fly back and land on a huge piece of fallen debris. Using his slow reaction time to our advantage, Alphonse ran up to him and transmuted a bind that held his destruction arm ins place. "You dumbass!" Edward shouted. "Why did you come here?"

Winry took a step forward but was stopped by a gloved hand to her shoulder and out came Miles from the shadows. "Stay back," He ordered.

"Major Miles?" Edward questioned.

The mountain guards began coming in and they examined the unconscious Jerso and Zampano on the ground. "What are these things?" One of them asked.

"Those folks in Central appear to be doing some ungodly experiments," Miles explained. "Tie them up to that column."

"Yes, sir!" They saluted and went right straight to work.

"Now then, Scar," Miles walked up to the retrained killer and pointed a pistol at him. "I hate to come down on one of my own people, but I can't allow you to go around doing whatever you please."

"Your own people?" Scar sneered.

"Elric brothers and their bodyguard, we'll take it from here," Miles dismissed.

Winry began to mrach up to Scar and we all ran to her, holding her back by the shoulder. "Winry!" Alphonse cried.

"You idiot!" Edward scolded. "Stay away from him!"

"It's all right," She croaked. "Let me see him."

"How is it all right?" I cried.

"Miss, stay away from him!" Miles ordered.

"Please, let me talk to him," She pleaded. "I want to speak to him, face to face."

What is this woman thinking? The last time she faced Scar she was practically drowning in her tears and couldn't even think straight the last time she faced Scar, and now she wants to talk to him? Like, "let's sit down and have some tea" kind of talk? Is this woman insane? Hypocritical? We let her go hesitantly and she stood in front of Scar as if this time she had all the power. "Why did you kill my mom and dad?" She demanded.

"Anything I say would be only an excuse," Scar answered. "The fact remains, I killed the Rockbell doctors. With his hand." He fisted the retrained hand, closing his eyes before slowly reopening them. "Young girl, you have every right to pass judgment on me."

Winry stomped away and rummaged through some boxes, pulling out a white piece of cloth and tying the bleeding wound on Scar's arm. "Your arm...you're going to bleed to death if we don't do something," She whispered.

"Winry..." Edward cried in disbelief.

"I know," She interrupted. "But this is probably what Mom and Dad did, too. Mom and Dad saved his life, after all. I think there's some sort of meaning in that."

"You are forgiving me?" Scar asked.

"Don't get me wrong," Winry snapped. "I'm not forgiving your wantonness."

She stood back up. "Winry..." Edward started.

"It's all right," she sighed. "I'm not going to cry. I promised you the next time I cried, they'd be tears of joy."

Edward hugged Winry for her bravery before approaching Scar. "Hey, Scar," He growled. "That may be what Winry says, but I still want to beat you to a pulp and drag you out to the Rockbell family grave!"

"Should we contact headquarters?" A soldier asked.

"Yeah," Miles responded.

"Miles, wasn't it?" Scar remarked. "Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" Miles asked. "You called me one of your people."

"That's right," Miles approached Scar, still holding the pistol out at him. "I'm Ishvalan, on my grandfather's side." He took off his sunglasses to prove his point. "I wish we didn't have to meet like this, my red-eyed brother."

"Why do you take part in the Amestrisian armed forces?"

"In order to change the minds of the people in this country regarding Ishvalans from the inside."

"I doubt it's going to be so easy to change minds."

"There's so telling how it will take. But there's something I can do because of my mixed blood. I am an Ishvalan pebble, tossed into the Amestrisian armed forces, and in time, perhaps my small ripples may become great waves. And ironically enough, it was a native-born Amestrisian who told me this."

"I am the festering discharge if hatred, born of that civil war. I am glad that there are those like you."

"Major..." A soldier spoke, handing him a phone.

Miles put it up to his ear. "Headquarters?" He said. "This is Miles. We've captured Scar in a building in Area D. Inform Kimblee.

Footspes filled the room and May and Dr. Marcoh appeared. "May!" Alphonse said.

"Dr. Marcoh!" Edward said.

"Please don't take that man away," Dr. Marcoh pleaded.

Dr. Marcoh pulled out a journal and began explaining the problem to Miles. "Disciplining research notes?" Miles asked.

"It's ground-breaking research that attempts to fuse Amestrisian alchemy and Xingese alkahestry," May explained.

"But all of the critical parts are written in ancient Ishvalan," Dr. Marcoh added. "Scar is the only one who can read it. So you can see..."

"You're the alkahestry girl, aren't you?" Miles pondered. "I have orders to bring you back to the fort."

"Me?" May cried as she hid behind Dr. Marcoh.

"Don't worry," Miles assured. "You're to receive a warm welcome. Well now, if Scar can't be captured and it would be bad if they found out that Marcoh is here...it might be best to hide all of you together at Fort Briggs."

"Hold on a second," Edward asked. "What do you mean? Are you telling me we're bringing him, too?"

"We need him to decipher the research notes, right?" Miles pointed out.

"To think that we need this guy's help...just hand him over to Kimblee already!"

"The countrywide transmutation circle and the origins of this country...I heard all about it from General Armstrong. Something is about to happen that is going to engulf all of Amestris. Deciphering the research notes is more important than anything, isn't it? I heard that the Rockbell girl and your bodyguard are being kept as their hostages. If we act now, we can disgrace Kimblee and hide the Rockbell girl away away."

Edward sighed in defeat as Miles spoke to Scar once more, "Scar, is you work with us, I will postpone your judgement until later. What do you say?"

"It appears that I don't have any other choice," Scar answered. "I promise to work with you."

"You're sincere?"

"I swear it on my Ishvalan blood, my red-eyed brother."

"That's that. I'm sorry, miss, but you'll have to wait a short while for him to be punished."

"Okay," Winry nodded.

The two bounded creatures began to regain consciousness. "Come to think of it, I forgot about these guys," Miles added. "Dispose of them."

"Yes, sir," The soldiers saluted.

"Wait!" Edward yelled.

"You don't have to kill them!" Alphonse cried as the soldiers circled them with rifles.

"There's no value in leaving them alive," Miles commented. "Kill them."

"No, it's not about value," Alphonse argued. "Is there any way to let them live?"

"Are you showing us mercy?" Jerso mocked. "Is that it?"

"Who asked you, you sentimental know-nothing?" Zampano remarked.

"In the bodies we have, we know what lies ahead of us anyhow," Jerso added. "If you're gonna kill us, then do it."

"Misters, don't you have any families or loved ones?" Alphonse asked.

"Sure we do," Jerso shrugged.

"But once we got these bodies, they were told that we were dead," Zampano explained. "We haven't seen them since."

"Don't you want to see them again?" Alphonse replied.

"Even if we do, there's no way we can, in our shape," Zampano replied.

"Then you don't want to go back to your original bodies," Alphonse sighed. "You're content with the bodies you have?"

"No way we could be!" Zampano shouted.

"Of course we want to go back!" Jerso yelled.

"There's your answer, right?" Alphonse snapped, sticking a finger in front of Jerso's face. "Don't go talking to me about 'anyhows' or 'no ways'. Not without investigating the possibility of getting your original bodies back."

"What could you possibly know about us?" Jerso scoffed.

"What possibility us there of going back?" Zampano added.

Alphonse took off his helmet to prove his point and Zampano and Jerso gawked at the empty suit. "I'm going back," Alphonse proved. "No matter how many years it takes. I'm not going to give up."

"Major!" A solider cried.

"What is it?" Miles asked.

"This is bad. There's going to be a storm."

"We can't conduct a snowbound march with the equipment here. We won't be able to reach the fort at this rate."

"What do we do?" Winry asked.

"This is a mining town, right?" Yoki pointed out, scaring us with his sudden appearance. "Why don't we use the underground tunnels? What? I mean, as large as this mine is, there has to be a tunnel that goes beyond the mountains...I think."

"That's it!" We all cried in realization.

"Mr. Yoki!" May cheered.

"Give a little credit to the former mine proprietor," Yoki puffed his chest out in pride.

Dr. Marcoh read a map that a soldier provided for him, tracing a pat on it. "We can make it," he nodded. "The tunnels come out past the mountains."

"All right," Miles wrote on a piece of paper from a notepad, tearing it off, and handing it to the doctor. "Once you meet some soldiers from Fort Briggs give them this. I've written down what's going on outside, so they will provide you with shelter."

"Thank you," Dr. Marcoh bowed. "That leaves the matter of the young lady. Assuming she comes with us, when it comes out that she's gone missing, the Elric brothers will be the first ones they suspect, won't they?"

"We can handle ourselves," Alphonse assured.

"I don't mean to brag, but when it comes to having a smooth tongue..." Edward grinned.

"No, this is the skeptical Kimblee we're talking about," Miles shook his head. "If you try anything half-cocked, it will just make him more suspicious."

We all began to put our heads together to find a solution around this. "I hate to be the one to suggest this, but...what if I were taken to be hostage by Scar?" Winry proposed.

"...kidnapped?" Alphonse gulped.

"So what you're saying is, let him go?" Edward rephrased.

"Yes, Scar will run away, carrying me," Winry added. "Ed, you and the others will try desperately to stop him, or so it will look like to those who are after us."

"How can you do anything so dangerous?" Edward yelled.

"My life is in their hands!" Winry countered. "So unless I risk my life to escape, I won't get away!"

"But it go together with Scar..." I reminded.

"Yeah!" Edward agreed. "There's no need for you to risk your life!"

"You guys, stop, always taking everything upon yourselves!" Windy shouted, causing us to cease our arguing in shock.

"Make up your minds quickly," Miles interrupted. "The storm is closing in. Soon, we won't be able to set one foot out of here."

"Kimblee's forces are within sight!" A solider warned.

"DAMN IT ALL!!" Edward screamed at not getting his way and that he isn't given the time to think. "Scar, if you pull anything..."

"I know," Scar nodded. "I will keep my promise."

Edward destroyed the restraints on Scar and he got up, swinging his arm around to regain blood circulation. "Us too!" Jerso begged. "Please take us too! I know you don't trust us, so we don't mind if you take us in cuffs."

"Mr. Kimble is merciless to troops who can't do their jobs," Zampano added. "One way or the other, we're dead. Se here, we don't want to give up, either."

Alphonse gasped happily that his speech was taken into consideration. "You're sure we can trust you?" Dr. Marcoh hesitantly added as he approached the two. "If you do anything to obstruct us, the country could be destroyed. Including your loved ones."

"Hold on a minute!" Jerso demanded. "What do you mean by that? The Centeral forces weren't told anything about this!"

"Tell us more!" Zampano yelled. "What's going on?"

Dr. Marcoh began to retell a shortened version of basically what Jerso and Zampano were kept in the dark about as he untied the two. Once they were freed, a solider cup the ropes they were tied into in half as Jerso and Zampano began to transform back into two familiar soldiers I saw accompany Kimblee when he first arrived here. Just what we're they exactly...? They reminded me of Chimeras. A solider took the two ropes and tied Jerso's and Zampano's hand stigether with it. "You sure about this?" Miles asked.

"Yeah," Jerso nodded. "You'll be able to rest easier this way, too."

"Scar, give us a good show," Miles said.

"All right," Scar replied.

"You keep your oath on your Ishvalan blood," Miles reminded as Scar nodded.

As we began to get into position, a soldier called to Winry. "Miss, your earrings!" He yelled. "They're made of metal right? If you don't take them out, your ears will get frost bitten!" Winry nodded as she quickly took apart her earrings and pocketed them. Winry and Scar continued their way up as May, Dr. Marcoh, Yoki, Jerso, and Zampano were escorted to where they will go once Winry has been taken to safety while Edward, Alphonse, Miles, the soldiers and I prepared an act to fool Kimblee.