CHAPTER 1: Start of the Cycle

Ed and Al were walking down away from the building of the military. They got a mission from a certain isolated area where some mysteries happened and they were ordered to figure it out.

"Tch… another time-wasting stuff eh? I think an alchemist is hanging out in that city… another uninteresting task," Ed was looking up to his brother.

"Don't you want it? It will be easy for us to finish, without bruises or any major damage on us, unlike the previous missions that we did," Al replied.

"Oh? I think you should refresh a little bit of your mind Al. Remember all our works are safe you know, a piece of cake. That's why I hate Mustang, presenting us monotonous missions, and then we'll give him nice report in back which is really unfair. Then the dangerous part is lurking ahead. As we go along our duty, those homunculi are always with us. They don't choose their time when they will come out… I mean it's every time that they want to attack us. Before, during and even after our assignment., and we'll go back to central and some of our parts are missing, then Winry will be poking her favorite wrench on my skull and that old woman will be showering nasty words at me," Ed put his hands at the back of his head.

Al stopped on walking and so Ed too. He was about to ask his little brother why he did that when his eyes caught a glance of a girl in front of them. The girl was anonymous to the two. She was wearing a ruffled dress with a ruffled umbrella too. Her faced had a netted black veil, and inside of that piece of cloth, Ed could see that she was smiling. In a blink of an eye, the girl attacked Ed.

"Hey!!!" Ed's voice was quivering because he was protecting himself from the closed umbrella of the unknown girl.

The girl took a leap backward and ready to strike again.

"Who are you?!" Ed was shouting angrily at the girl. The teenager didn't respond. She opened her sunshade and pointed metals were flying out from it.

"You can't scare us by throwing things like that miss," Ed grinned and he transformed the road to a shield. To his shock, the metals were passing through the block he made.

"Brother! Needles and scalpels infiltrated the wall!" Al was astounded too.

"Run Al!"

"How can she do that? Is she another homunculus?" Al asked as they sprinted away from the girl.

"I don't know! She's wearing too much I can't find any symbol or anything at all!"

The girl left her spot and followed them. She was still attacking them on their back, until the brothers were cornered in a close barricade. Ed would destroy the barrier but his rival appeared amazingly next to him, holding his arm.

"Going somewhere?"

His eyes gone big and he tried to shake off her hand away from his arm.

"Miss I don't know who you are but let my arm out of your grip or I'll do something that you might be sorry of."

"Oh really, then what is that?" the girl said mockingly.

"You are really trying to piss me off huh?" his hand clapped and there was light come out from it.

"Brother…" Al was not looking on them but he was intimidated to see Scar walking closer to them. While Ed and the unrecognized lady were arguing to each other, Al was stepping back slowly and accidentally bumped at Ed's back. Meanwhile, Ed's arm turned to the standard sharp weapon and aimed it to the wall where the foe was laying her back.

"Going for a kill?" the girl questioned calmly.

"You be---!" there went the collision of Al, and Ed's lips found the girl's lips. They were stupefied without the awareness of Al who was frightened of the presence of another enemy.

"Brother! Scar is here!" finally he turned back to see the intimate scene. He didn't know how to act. Mixed emotions were written all over his face.

The kissing persons at last broke away. They were so quiet. Ed regained himself first, and realized that Scar was there, but the girl was left still unconscious.

"Oh! My mortal enemy just kissed me?! I-I-I won't forgive him! The veil didn't even help me! I can still feel his…" she cut that thought in her mind. She knocked the wall behind her and it was demolished for an instant with her fist.

"Where the hell is that Edward?!" she growled.

Ed and Al were fighting Scar together. The dark space was now an open field covered by smoke that blinded them.

"Where are you?!" it was Ed. He saw Al dropped down. He thought that Scar was hiding from the thick smoke and attacking them one by one.

"Here I am," and a blue light flashed. Ed blocked it.

The girl, who was Azureth Kruger, saw Al roasted. She went near him and as much as she could, she carried him away from the battlefield.

"What do you feel Al?" she could kill herself for that question. It was too late for her to apprehend that she asked it to an empty armor not to a body of a human.

"I managed to avoid it a little, but maybe it's a hurt if I was damaged by his attack completely," he answered.

"I-I'm sorry…" she apologized. Al stood up, "where are you going?" she continued and rose from the ground.

"…to help my brother. Scar is too way strong for him," and he ran going to Ed.

"Just this very time, I'm going to lend a hand on you Ed…" she buzzed and tagged along them.

"I didn't know that you are with an attractive lady…" Scar remarked.

"I'm not with him/her!" Ed and Azureth said on chorus.

"Can you get out of here? This is none of your business miss ruffled alien!" Ed became irritated.

"No one ever insulted me like that! But I'll forget what you said. We're on a fight! Focus more on your opponent please!!" she was irritated as well.

"Huh? You're my opponent too if you don't remember!" Ed shouted back.

"Brother! Listen to her, she's right!" Al inserted to their feisty conversation.

Scar caught Ed off guard and so he was his target. In a snap Azureth defended Ed. With her umbrella, she stopped the assault of Scar.

"Will you be a professional alchemist even for a while? You always let the heat in your head dominates you. How can you even save from harm your brother with that attitude?" she said while looking at Scar.

Ed was somewhat enlightened by what she pondered on him, he took a deep breath and posed himself for an attack.

"The military is here!" Al blurted out.

Scar and Azureth looked on the incoming soldiers.

"Need to evaporate," she used her umbrella to escape. Scar razed the road and made his way from there.

Hawkeye rushed to Ed and Al.

"Look at you two troublemakers… and Scar slipped away again," Roy said, "You're just a minute away from my office and you two are going to your death." He continued.

"It's not our fault if that Scar happens to terminate state alchemists," Ed was tapping his clothes to remove the dust. He got his torn coat and beckoned Al for them to go.

"Are you all right? You can rest for a while before going to your quest," Hawkeye told them but they already left.

"Forget about them. They won't listen anyway," Mustang said and commanded her to make a report about the wreckage happened.

"Are you okay?" Ed asked over.

"Fine here… your arm is not damaged?"

"This?" and he raised his right arm, "of course not, it shouldn't be, there is a mission waiting on us."

Al nodded. "Uhm…about the girl…" he paused.

"She disappeared when Mustang and the gang arrived. I doubt if they even saw her."

"I should start with the root of all. He's nothing without his other arm. Err… I'm really thinking twice if I should do this, but oh well, I want to be desperate once for a while."

Azureth was walking on rough road going to a particular place. It was night and she planned it for a long time to make it happen… to take a painful visit to Risembool.

"Need to make an entrance up there." She gazed at the window, "she's probably sleeping already… no lights, jackpot!"

She took big hops and arrived easily in Winry's room. She unlocked the half of glass windows and got inside. She turned her head to the single bed but there was no sign of Winry. The door creaked and Winry switch on the light.

"AAAAHHHH!!!!" Winry cried.

"What did you to her?"

Azureth didn't retort. She glared at the old woman from head to toe and then back to her eyes.

"I don't like people looking at me like that. Especially a stranger one," Pinako adjusted her glasses. She walked near Winry and removed the laces tied up on her. She noticed how her fingers were tortured. Even there were no scratches. Scrutinizing it, the color was pale as if it had frostbite which was subjected to amputation.

"I have to go."

"Why leaving already? You're afraid of me? If you leave me here, I can call people to capture you," she started to light her pipe.

"It's just that I can't beat up a helpless person, especially an old one… no other than that."

"See Al what I'm talking about? The task is simple but those homunculi make it action-packed for us. After giving this trash to Mustang we should depart again to fix this."

"Carelessness again?" Mustang greeted on them sarcastically.

"Don't ruin my day with your insults. We have to go," and he turned back, he opened the door. Al was standing on the doorway.

"I've got news that might interest you…" Mustang suspended his announcement. He swirled the swivel chair facing the windowpane where he could view the outside from his office.

It caught Ed's attention. "Hmm? What's that suppose to be?" he asked. Al was also there to listen.

"The Rockbell lass, she was attacked. There is no suspect, no one have seen it. She shut her mouth and didn't want to speak… but I know she keeps something."

"What happened to her? Why would someone attack her?" Al was taken aback by it.

"May be you two know the answer?"

There was silence before Ed spoke, "… let's go Al. there's something we need to solve about."

"I've been waiting to both of you. Why took you so long?" Pinako welcomed them on the stairs.

"Winry… is she all right?" Ed ignored what the old woman said.

She opened the door and let them inside. Ed and Al went upstairs. They saw her sitting on her bed. The dog was on the floor and took a short look on them and went back to its nap. Ed was baffled. He couldn't see anything wrong to Winry.

"Hi Al, Ed," she greeted.

"I learned that someone harmed you. Phew! I thought you were injured or something. I wonder if you used your heavy metal and smashed it to them like you always do whenever my automail has damage." Ed was relieved.

"Winry?" Al could see her eyelids were puffy and red.

The lass took no notice of Al. "Why Ed? Is your arm and leg damaged again?! If… if only I can throw my wrench to you but now… even fixing Al's armor…" she looked to Al.

"Winry?" Al repeated.

"Winry can't use her hands anymore, specifically her fingers," Pinako was appeared suddenly behind them.

"W-What did you just say?" Ed was dumbfounded.

"You heard me right."

The brothers were frozen. They didn't know how to react on it.

"Is there any way that it can be cured?" Al asked even he knew already the answer.

Pinako shook her head, "Doctors in town didn't see anything wrong with her, but there is one who said that it must be the tiny vessels. Complex capillaries were blocked. The blood doesn't flow to all her fingers on both hands. The incredible part is the doctor couldn't see any blockage, as if it is invisible." Pinako explained and blew smoke.

"… but that can't be! Winry is… who the hell he is to do this to Winry!!!" Ed punched the wall. There was a big deep blow on the wall. Al was still standing there quietly.

"She is not a he." Winry murmured

"Then who is she? Don't tell me it's the curly golden haired girl?" Ed guessed.

"You hit it. So you met her already? Did you do something bad… for her to do this?" Pinako took her seat.

"I didn't. I just met her when Al and I were leaving for our mission, just this last duty that we finished," his face was full of questions too.

"He is right. That's our first time to see her. I know that she is somewhat mad on us but not to the extent that she would do this to Winry, after all she helped us from Scar." Al was trying not to be biased.

"Because you trust people easily Al," Ed said truthfully.

"I'm with Al… she was leaving when I arrived in this room. Maybe during the time when she 'did' it to Winry I was on the graveyard. I heard her and came here as fast as I could but I was late. I saw Winry fainted already. She looked to me and said that she couldn't do to me what she did to Winry. I even threatened her to inform it to the authority… but then the damage has been done, even she did not hurt me, my granddaughter still a victim."

"Brother, we should report it to the Central."

"We won't. This is our problem. We'll do it by ourselves."

"There's nothing wrong of having the assistance of the military. She is not an ordinary person. If I'm not mistaken, she's an alchemist too" the old woman said.

"That thought crossed my mind too, but still, this is our problem. We don't need everyone's helping hands," Ed was firm to his decision.

"Ed, Winry was involved too. You may never know that girl may attack others, those are related to you. Just put in your head that the innocent people need help, the victims that she may point her attention soon," Pinako was forcing to change his assessment.

"Brother…"

"Okay, enough of this. If you're right that she s an alchemist then the Central may know something about that, but they will only lend a hand through their intelligence. No treading on each shoe. Information can help us already."

The oldest person on the room stood up. "I expected you to go home since Roy said it and I prepared our dinner. I guess tomorrow will be a busy day…" she went downstairs.

"Winry, we're sorry for causing you trouble. Don't worry I'll make things up to her. I'm just stopping myself to hurt her because she's a girl, but now I don't think that I can treat her again like that," Ed was so furious over the girl.

"Ed… stick to what you thought of. You shouldn't hurt her," Winry was scrubbing her pet's head with her palm.

"I won't let her do things that please her. I have to stop her or else she may do it to others."

"Ed…"

"I'll dump this foodstuffs that I cooked or you'll eat?!" Pinako was calling them down.

"We're coming!" and they all went down.

"Winry is now sleeping," Al said while going to Pinako who was fixing Ed's arm.

"Ouch!" Ed screamed.

"All right, your turn Al. it will take just few minutes to fix you. You've taken care of yourself, unlike your brother who is reckless as always," she let him to sit.

Ed was stretching his newly built arm. "Al and I will leave early tomorrow. As you've said we need to consult people who might know her and then second meeting with her after it." He was now making small circle sways with his arm.

"Do you think that we can find her easily?" Al asked.

"If we are her real targets then we don't have to look for her, she will be the one who'll make the chase."

"She's dangerous, I can tell. Never let your guards down." She reminded them.

"We'll never forget that," and his hand turned to a deadly weapon.

My first published anime story ever!!! I hope you like it... and the other chapters soon to come. I'm open to criticisms since this is my first time to write a story.