"This is outrageous!" A short, blonde teenager yelled into a pay phone.

"Unless you want to come back here and make a full report about the reasons why I shouldn't send you north, you're going to that village." A calmer, deeper voice said on the other end.

The blonde teenager growled into the phone but said, "Fine, we'll go."

"Good. I'll see you again in a few weeks then. Bye." The other end hung up.

The teen put the phone back onto the cradle and groaned. The last place I wanted to go was north…

"Brother?" A suit of armor wearing nothing but an apron ran up to the teen. "Is something the matter?"

"Not really," he sighed, "it's just that, that sadistic Colonel Mustang is wanting us to go north for some reason."

"Did he not explain?"

"Vaguely. It doesn't make any sense though."

"What is it?"

He looked around, though it was the middle of the night, he couldn't be too careful. "Okay, listen up, Al. Apparently, there's a village that lies in the shadow of Mount Briggs and they've had some trouble lately. The Colonel says it could be trouble from Drachma, but he also wants us to see if the village could help us on our own quest."

"Trouble caused by Drachma?" Al tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Why would—"

"Edward!!" A tall, blonde teenage girl came running out of a nearby hotel in a fury. "I can't believe that you left me all alone in that hotel!!"

"Listen, Winry, it was important." Ed laughed nervously, waving his hands in front of his face as if to protect him from some oncoming blow.

"I don't care how 'important' you say it was! I told you not to leave me in there!"

Al put one hand on Winry's shoulder. "Winry, we have some business to get to. The Colonel needs us to go north for a while, so you can go home."

Winry looked between Al and Ed for a long minute before saying, "Well, in the north it's much colder than it is here. I highly doubt you'll be able to get anywhere without my help."

"What?" Ed was even more confused than Al right now. He really didn't want her tagging along for any reason if Drachma was terrorizing a village they were going to.

"While in the north you're going to need some special automail for the cold. If you don't have me come along, then you'll be out of luck." She smirked. "I don't know if they have any mechanics as good as me in the north. Either way, I'm coming along."

"Winry—"

"Too late, I've already decided, I'm coming along!" She turned around and skipped back into the hotel to pack her bags.

Ed sighed, "Great…"

…

The next morning, the trio was on a train for the north. Ed hadn't called Mustang back about the details, he had been ordered to call back when he reached the village. Lucky for them, they had been pretty close to where they had to go, it was only a half-day's journey away by train.

Winry stared out at the developing snow clouds as the train rolled through a forest area. Ed and Al were too busy discussing how many different possibilities there could be for Mustang sending them to the village to notice a thing.

"He did say the trip could help our journey, but I just can't see how." Al said absently.

"I know." Ed stared up at the ceiling with his arms crossed over his chest. "Drachma more than likely wouldn't know anything about the philosopher's stone, and I highly doubt they've even heard of the Homunculi."

"Yeah…"

The two brothers sat quietly in thought for several hours, not noticing the time pass until Winry spoke.

"Hey, where is this village anyway?" She asked suddenly, startling Ed and Al out of their thoughts.

"I'm not sure." Ed sighed. "Mustang said it probably wasn't on any map, but the military uses the village as an outpost for personnel on leave from a base up the mountain."

"Oh." She turned her head again and looked back outside.

The forest was gone, replaced by seemingly empty, snow-covered fields of what would probably be corn or tomatoes if the weather were warm. Instead of vegetables, flowers grew there. Beautiful red poinsettias, and blue flowers Winry had never seen before. Then again, her never being interested in "girly" things before, she was surprised that she was even interested in the flowers at all.

"Hey Ed," Winry faced them again, "I think we're getting close."

"What makes you say that?" Ed asked confusingly, only until now had he noticed the sun hiding behind snow clouds. It was impossible to tell the time of day.

"There are flower fields out here."

"Hmm?" Al looked out of the window with Winry, and was just as astonished by the flowers growing as she was. "Wow. I didn't know flowers could grow in the snow."

"Poinsettias can. Though I thought that was the only one." She smiled a little. "I wanna know what that other flower is. It's blue, I've never seen it before."

"That doesn't mean we're close." Ed said with a groan. He wanted to believe they were close to the village, but couldn't be sure.

"I see the station!" Al said with what would have been a smile if he had a physical body to do so.

Ed did smile for a moment, until Winry pointed out that he should stop being such a pessimist. The train stopped at the station and they got off, walking into a cold, snow-covered town at the foot of Mt. Briggs.

As they were trying to find a hotel, everyone seemed to give them some strange, terrified look. Finally, around sundown, an elderly man stopped them and said,

"Do not stay outside for long. You must be tourists, or I wouldn't have to warn you, but she will not spare you if she sees you."

"Who?" Ed asked, curious as to what the old man was warning them about.

"Come to my hotel, and I will explain everything."

Ed nodded and followed the old man with Al and Winry tagging along nervously. They obviously didn't trust the man nearly as much as Ed did, but if they could find out anything about their seemingly random situation then they would follow Ed.

The trio entered a warm atmosphere full of people singing, laughing, and dancing. No one seemed to worry about whatever it was that the manager of this hotel was trying to warn the Elrics and Winry. At least, not until said man silenced them and stood on a small stage that dancers had been performing on just seconds ago.

He cleared his throat and said, "Peace, my brethren. Welcome our guests, please, and pray they do not fall into misfortune's path during their stay."

The people who had been having a good time just moments before were suddenly serious as they bowed their heads in what seemed to be a prayer. One-by-one, as they lifted their heads, each person turned and said "Hello" but nothing more. Once everyone was through, the man continued:

"I am sure that everyone at least subconsciously added for their safety as we try to stop her reign of terror." He turned to a small altar set on a table at the side of the stage. He clapped his hands together and bowed his head for a moment.

Winry, being closer than Ed and Al, could clearly see the same blue flowers on the altar as those in the field earlier. She could also vaguely see the picture set in between the two vases of flowers. It seemed like a young woman with short light brown hair and deep blue eyes the same shade as the flowers, though she couldn't be sure.

The man faced the crowd once again. "Forgive me for the intrusion, I just wished for our guests to be safe. You may continue." He stepped off the stage and walked down a hallway, leaving his three guests behind.

Once the singing and dancing started up again, a young couple sat down at the table Ed, Al, and Winry were. The girl spoke first. "It's strange to have guests here anymore. Seeing as that's the case, and seeing as you're so young, I can understand why Tavern would want us to pray for your safety during your stay."

"That man's name is…'Tavern'?" Winry inquired confusingly.

"No, it's not." The boy sighed. "Everyone just calls him 'Tavern' because no one knows his name. Until recently, he was a nobody." He ran his hand back through his short black hair. "By the way, you can call me Taro."

The girl smiled. "I'm Lilly."

"Hi, I'm Winry."

Al bowed his head slightly. "I'm Alphonse Elric."

Ed smirked as if he was about to say something incredible. "I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

Lilly bowed her head Ed's direction, her bright red hair falling in front of her face as she did. "It's a pleasure to meet you, State Alchemist. I wish I could say that your presence is comforting, but if certain people knew of your being here then they'd send you out to Melissa herself."

Taro clapped a hand gently, but securely over his girlfriend's mouth. "We cannot talk of that here, Lilly! You know that!"

She hung her head a little and nodded slightly. He released her mouth and turned to the confused trio. "It's a long story, and some people – like Lilly – believe that guests should know about it. It won't help if you even if you know it. If you go out to a certain area of the village during the night, you'll die. It's been happening a lot, as people are getting fed up with it."

"Can you elaborate more?" Al asked, probably the most confused out of the three.

Lilly nodded once. "Yes, I can, but not here. People do not like to hear about it. It's what the dancers would call 'unholy'."

Taro nodded as well. "Yes, it is unholy. Come, I have a room in this hotel that I allow guests to use while here." He stood up and led them all to a small room at the other end of the hall from the direction Tavern had gone.

Once the door was shut and everyone was sitting, Lilly began to explain, "About ten years ago, Tavern's youngest daughter, Melissa was tending to the flowers in the field on the south side of the village. I'm sure you saw them as the train pulled in the station."

Winry and Al nodded, Ed, on the other hand, didn't move. He hadn't seen the flowers because he had been trying to think up explanations for their visit to this isolated village.

"Those were once Melissa's pride and joy. She spent every waking hour in those fields. Even as she grew to be an older teen, she always looked like a kid in a candy store when she was in those fields." Lilly looked at Taro, who had his head hung as he leaned against the wall beside her, asleep. She looked at Ed, and decided to stop rambling about flowers. "The day she turned nineteen, Melissa skipped her own celebration to go tend them. Tavern hadn't liked that one bit, for that was the same night he would be introducing her future husband."

"Future husband?" Winry asked as if she didn't want to believe that arranged marriage still occurred in this day and age.

"Yes. In this village, arranged marriage occurs for the youngest child of every family. As Melissa was the youngest, she was to have an arranged marriage. Tavern had set the announcement and wedding date the same day – her nineteenth birthday." Lilly looked out of the window as snow began to fall past it. "Melissa knew about the marriage, but hated the man – a State Alchemist from the base on Mount Briggs who'd wanted her hand for sometime.

"She skipped out on her wedding and decided to go to her field of flowers. None are sure what really happened between her going to the field and the time we found her blood soaked body lying in her precious blue roses. But the State Alchemist Melissa was going to marry was covered in her blood, so everyone suspected a falling out that had ended with him using alchemy to kill her."

Ed and Al exchanged a look. They'd heard rumors about the same alchemist while in Central doing research to find the philosopher's stone, but had thought nothing of it.

Ed spoke before Lilly could continue. "I've heard rumors around Central Headquarters about this same story. It's said that he claimed she attempted to kill him with some twist of witchcraft and alchemy, but ended up tearing herself apart instead. He said that he tried to save her, but was too late."

She nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what happened. I was but a young child at the time, but I still remember it so clearly. Melissa had been babysitting me while my parents worked for some time, so I followed a group of adults to the fields when neither she nor the alchemist returned. I had been told to stay, but I wanted to see if Melissa was alright." Lilly closed her eyes and turned her head to the ceiling. "I was the last of the group there to see her blood covered corpse pass as they carried her away, and the last to see the hysterical State Alchemist be taken away. God, I still remember the services for Melissa. It was so solemn, so sad to see her like that."

Winry thought for a moment as the silence weighed down on everyone. She tried to let the story sink in and thought of what was said earlier about being "sent out to Melissa". "Earlier, you said that if certain people knew Ed was a State Alchemist, then he'd be 'sent out to Melissa herself'. What did you mean?"

Lilly looked at Winry for a moment before sighing and saying, "Lately, there've been…many deaths. Those in the area of the slain have claimed to see an older version of Melissa wandering around at night. There's always been a bright blue glow matching the color of the roses that she grew. Those who know alchemy in the village called it a 'strange alchemical glow'. They had never seen a dark glow like the one Melissa uses."

"This girl's ghost is killing people with alchemy?" Al asked with a scared voice.

"That's what people say. Though, recently, someone managed to get away from her. They said that she had a baby in her arms and the alchemical glow came from it."

Taro finally lifted up his head and grabbed Lilly's wrist as he stood up. "We should go, before the village is completely covered in black."

She nodded. "Yes." She looked at the three. "If you remind me to, I will explain more in the morning. Please remember, though, do not exit your room until the sun completely covers the village."

"Why?" Ed kicked off his black boots and leaned against a wall.

"Until then, the village is in the time of the 'black dawn'." Taro opened the door and looked back as Lilly walked out. "That's when the most people have been slain by Melissa. Have a good night." He shut the door behind him and followed Lilly out of the hotel.

Ed and Winry exchanged a worried look, but were too tired to consult what they were afraid of to one another. They crawled into the two separate beds and fell asleep immediately. Al, however, stared out of the window all night, hoping to catch a glimpse of Melissa.