Chapter One

In front of a crowed in the Yao clan. I stood just behind the young lord, just out of sight. Silent. As always I was observing my surroundings while protecting the young lord from any threat. My mask was covering my face to hide the fact I was a female, as that would bring shame in my country. The young lord was crowned as emperor in front of my eyes. I could feel the tears of joy slide down my check covered by my mask. I could only see his back but could imagine the joy reflected in his eyes at the news, it made me happy to know his ambition finally came true. Our journey to Amestris was not in vain.

After a speech and the ceremony was over the young lord started to walk away, the left of the stage to a crowed of royal guards by a car to take Ling to his new home in a different part of the country. My heart was racing I could feel it beating in my chest like a drum and feared if someone else could hear it; they would think I was weak, I started to followed him, to be stopped just before the car. My worse fear was happening. My young lord was being taken away from me. I shouted "young lord!" and tried to get past the guards but it was no use; They were taller and stronger than me, probably more experienced with holding people back than I was at forcing past people. The young lord didn't even turn his head (I hoped it was that he couldn't hear me shouting) and the car drove away. Leaving me alone.

Lan fan opened her eyes fast and jolted up. A horrible dream filled her head, why am I thinking of that now? She thought to herself. The room was small and clustered with a variety of weapons, all different sizes and uses with unpainted walls. Her mask hung on a hook by the door and her usual clothes lay on the floor near the old wooden bed. A small picture of her grandfather, Fu, hung on the wall just above it. She whipped the sweat of her forehead with her cold, steal arm sending a small shiver down her spine as the cold meet with her heat. She turned her head to the clock on her wall. 3:05 AM. Lan Fan sighed heavily and swung her legs out of the bed, her feet meeting the cold floor. She was wearing her usual black trousers with a white cotton strip tied around the top as a belt and her chest binding.

She slowly turned the handle of her door and walked into the living-room of a messy small apartment. And wondered towards window. It was still dark, stars glistening and no moon. She headed to the bathroom to start getting ready for the day. She only woke 25 minutes early.

It had been three months since Ling left his former bodyguard and became emperor. Since then she has become a secret hire out assassin. It wasn't an ideal job and often was illegal but what else could she do? No one wanted a female guard as they brought dishonor if anyone knew and were considered weaker than males. This also made her job hard but for last minute resort she was quite good. And since she was six she was thought to be nothing but a ninja, so she wouldn't know what to do as a housewife, running a shop or any other business. But each job paid well so it wasn't all bad.

At 0:42 Lan fan returned home, and placed the money from her last job in a box on the table by the bathroom door and then went into the bathroom to get cleaned up and polish her automail arm. Leaving the mask on the floor in the living-room As she went into the bedroom of her small apartment she saw a rolled up letter on her pillow, tied with a red bow. Her wet bangs dripped on her bed as she bent down and picked it up. Confusion filled her face as no one had ever found her home before. She slowly pulled the ribbon off and unrolled the paper. A small message was inscribed in neat ink:

Meet me at the local square at 4 am tomorrow morning. Look sharp, I'll be waiting

This letter made chills go down her spine. She knew that this must have been a trap and had to think the situation over. 'This is clearly a trap but if I don't go they knew where I live and could attack me when I'm unprepared, or I could go in disguise but they'd know it was me as I'm the only person in the whole of Xing who has automail. However I have no jobs tomorrow so I could make it but would that be the smart thing to do?' She lay down in bed staring at the ceiling. 'What should I do?' Kept running through her head. 'If only I knew who put it there…' and 'what would they even want with me.' Debating what she should do this time seemed harder than the usual. The room's atmosphere seemed to change from warm and comforting to airy, uncomfortable and cold. Her head started to hurt with all the over thinking and after a few hours and then she accidently fell asleep.

In the morning she rolled of the bed, her deep sleep ending with a loud Thump, making a low moan escape her mouth. Slowly she sat up using her flesh hand to move her scruffy hair out of her face, so she could look at the time. Her eyes widened as she saw the time 4:05 am. "Shit!" she muttered under her breath and she ran to the bathroom where she left her clothes. Deciding there and then to make an appearance at the local square.

As she rushed around her apartment looking for a brush and looking for her missing boot she decided to be cautious and grabbed a few flash bombs, a Kuni, the blade that fitted into the elbow of her automail and the spikes she usually had on her knuckles. Tripping while pulling on her missing boot, she fell flat on her face into the floor. "Ughfft!" making her wince with pain. But running late she quickly jumped back up and grabbing an apple while rushing she quickly climbed out the window jumping roof to roof to the local square, to take an above view on her surroundings and find out who summand her. Before making an appearance before them.

LOB note: this is my first fanfiction with chapters I've added to the internet so i know this chapter isn't very good but i promise that it'll get better. And please leave constructive comments and feedback.

KEY:
*** = later one/ time skip
Line breaker (the horizontal line) = change in character POV
" " = a character speaking
' ' = a characters thoughts