Bits of ash and gunpowder showered over the crumbling city of Central Ishbal. Two young alchemists were crouched side-by-side behind an old load of crates and boxes.

"So…can you run through that again, Serena?" The tall, blonde alchemist beside the smaller girl shifts around a little. He glares nervously at the blood-tainted mosaic tiles. Millions of Ishbalian and State Military men lie helplessly on the tiles, either dead or seriously wounded.

"It's an easy job, Vincent, relax. We just need to do a run down of Central Ishbal…see if there are any cults left" The girl continued to pick at the remains of Ishbalian words on the crates in front of the two alchemists.

"I don't know Serena…The military is using us again…I don't think we should-"

"Who gives a damn about how they're using us!" She shouted in his face, holding her arms at her side furiously. Her blue eyes burned the cinders that glistened in the boy's green ones.

They both stared quietly for a while. Intense air started to build between them, and sirens soon started to call off.

"I-I'm sorry…Vincent" The girl pulled a strand of hair that slipped away from her securely fastened ponytail.

"It's fine…really…I gotta learn to watch your temper" He stumbled away from her, and slowly laid his head against the wooden wall of a raided home.

Another silence came along, this time, the sirens stopped, and numerous footsteps could be heard from the very streets of abandon Central Ishbal.

"Serena…"

The girl looked up again from her post, and smiled sincerely at her friend.

"Yeah?"

"If anything happens, I want you to call off the mission"

Confused, she moved her foot over to cross her legs.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember…we're a team…If there's no Thunder foot Alchemist…there's no Lightning Bolt Alchemist…and vice versa"

"Oh…" The girl lowered her head then, looking at her arms and legs, covered by her state alchemist uniform. The uniform was still too big for her though…being 10 and all.

The two sit together, and for a while…it didn't feel as awkward as it had felt before. Surprisingly though, the boy's hand found the girl's slowly. And they held it there for a moment…

A long one…

"Wait…" The girl pulled back her hand from his, and listened closely with her left ear.

By this time, it was too late…

Five Ishbalian soldiers broke through the crates that the alchemists hid behind. They ranted in their language, and quickly grabbed hold of the boy.

"Leave him!" The girl kicked one man with a dragon tattoo behind his left ear.

He turned around, and brutally grabbed the girl by her right arm, slamming the back of his dagger against her head.

Bits and pieces of the scene flashed through the girl's eyes as her and the boy were dragged away into the raided building behind them.

*o*

Moaning, the girl awakened with a harsh pain in her neck. She was pinned to the wall, and the Ishbalian soldiers had her partner in their grasps.

"Bring…back our leader!" Their broken English is strange, but easy to understand.

"N-No! I-I can't! I already told you that!" the boy murmured, clutching his chest.

Angry, the Ishbalian soldiers kicked him in the stomach, while he coughed up blood.

"You bastards!" The girl growled, struggling with no success to break the chains.

The leader of the Ishbalian soldiers glared at her with his heavy red sunglasses, and approached her with his cleaver.

"You bring…him back then" He also has broken English…but it's more fluent.

"I-I can't…" she lowered her head in shame.

The leader screamed in his native tongue before taking a long knife from one of the others there. Before anyone can react, the knife was plunged into the girl's left leg, and the leader began to tear her leg to shreds. She screamed in mortal pain as blood struck the walls. The boy yelled for the Leader to stop, but there was no stopping the blood thirsty man as skin, muscle and tendons hit the opposite wall in a bloody mess.

The leader panted as he pulled his knife from the mess that was the girl's leg. Although, considering the state it was in, pulling it out wouldn't be the right word. There was nothing left to pull it out from. All that was there were strings of nerves and broken veins.

The boy, staring in horror suddenly shouted. "YOU MONSTERS! I'LL KILL YOU!" But the other Ishbalian soldiers plunged a knife into his neck. The girl screamed and pleaded with them that she would try to bring their leader back, but they were past bargaining.

She didn't remember much from that point, for the pain of getting her right arm mutilated by angry, desperate men.............

Serena Clowe sat straight up in her bed, panting and sweating. She gasped and huffed, catching the attention of the extremely sensitive Alchemist to her direct left. He sat straight up and looked at her with his harsh amber eyes.

"What's wrong Serena?" He asked.

The girl smiled and shook her head. "Nothing, Ed." The Alchemist looked doubtful, but left it alone. Serena watched as he laid his head back down and supposedly went back to sleep. She frowned.

She looked at her automail arm and leg and sighed. Her partner had died, and her memories were burned into the metal she wore. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist, feeling her nerves react to the tightened metal. She lied back down, trying to forget her nightmare and prevent new ones from happening.

*o*

The sun beat down hard on the desert. Only a lone figure dared to taint the endless gold sand with her figure. She walked on the sand, barely making a sound as the sun beat down on her white jacket. She knelt down into the sand and scraped some the sand away with a white gloved hand. A stone came into view and she pulled a thick notebook out of her pocket. She opened the notebook and began comparing what was written there to what was written on the stone. She smiled to herself and put the book down.

She quickly took a piece of paper from her pocket and a piece of charcoal; putting the paper on the rock, she ran the charcoal over it, copying the symbols. She smirked and removed her white hood. Her long golden hair flowed down in the braid she constantly wore to her waist. Her golden eyes scanned the skies before whistling a high pitched tune. Almost instantly, a falcon-lizard chimera shot from the endless blue and attached itself to her wrist. It chirped and looked at her with its giant ice blue eyes. She stroked it feathery reptilian head and tied a note to its foot. She smiled. "Sebastian, take this to my father," she whispered into the chimera's ear hole, "and don't make any stops along the way. Go straight to him." She flicked her wrist and the chimera took off into the sky, disappearing into the endless sky within seconds.

The girl smiled and returned her white hood to on her head before looking at her left wrist. To a normal person, the wrist and hand appeared swollen, but in truth it wasn't even hers. It belonged to her 'father;' he had given it to her to free her from the slavery she had been created for. She sighed, but that was a story for another day. She smiled and walked onward, carefully placing the rubbing of the marks in the book before returning it to her pocket.

She was certain there were more gems of information to be found here.