A/N:

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters.

I do however own Sage, Luke, the Grinners, and any other character you have never heard of.

Thank you.

PS) Action scenes are hard to write!

The smell was what she hated the most.

It was overpowering, a dank, musty smell that hung over the entire area. It smelled like a mildewy swamp rat. Which made sense, there being rats all over the place, and they were probably mildewed. But the kid seemed to like it, cuz he ran in there several times a month.

The tunnel loomed before her, the sludge at the bottom trickling along at a faster pace today. The odor wafted towards her on a foul, warm gust of air coming from the gaping entrance. Her sensitive nose wrinkled in disgust, and her feet simply would not move forward. She hated, hated the place. But if the kid she was paid two-fifty an hour to watch was in there, she really should go and fetch him.

So, she deliberately picked up one foot, then the other, gritting her teeth as she thought about what she would do to the kid once she got her hands around his miserable neck. What could possibly be so interesting to him that was found in the rotting depths of the sewer pipes was beyond her.

The hairs on her neck stood on end as the shadow of the tunnel passed over her head and she stepped inside. It was cool and dark in here, and she glanced longingly at the warm, bright light outside. Not that she minded the dark. She actually preferred it. But this dark was unnatural, and…dangerous, somehow. She didn't even want to think about what might be slithering around in that sludge.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before calling, "LUKE!!! I swear if you don't come out this instantI won't give you any more graham crackers! Luuuke!!!" Her voice took on a pleading edge that echoed deep into the tunnel and she swallowed, trying to pull herself together. So what a rat had just crawled over her boot? So what there was who-knows-what dripping from the ceiling? So what that the green slime on her right had just moved?

Wait.

Without thinking, she twisted and her right foot shot out and caught whatever it was square on. A huge rodent of some kind squealed and went flying into the sludge river. She stared at the lazy ripples where it had disappeared for about 10 seconds before shuddering violently and turning to continue her search.

Her feet felt heavier now, and she could swear there was something watching her. It was really freaking her out.

"Luke?" she called, more softly now. "Luke please come out. I'll play hide-and-seek some other time, alright? I promise! Just…can we please get out of here?" she waited, goose-bumps rising on her skin, praying that he would show himself. Her neck prickled again, and she whirled around, eyes wide, trying to see whatever it was that was in there. Her breathing quickened: she was really scared now. It was dark and damp and there were little sounds everywhere. The entrance was pretty far away now, just a smallish spot of light, through which she could just see a tree, swaying in the wind.

Something grabbed her arm and she shrieked, ripping her arm from its clutches.

It was Luke. He had a highly amused smirk on his miserable, 11 year old face. After the initial shock of seeing him standing calmly before her, rage boiled up inside her, and she fought the urge to wring his scrawny neck. Instead, she snatched up his collar and shook him violently, lifting off the ground.

"WHAT is your PROBLEM?! I called and called! Why didn't you come out?! You KNOW you're not supposed to come in here! Why do you always disobey?!" she emphasized these words by dropping him roughly to the ground. He just smirked more.

"Why Sage, you weren't…scared…were you?"

"No I wasn't! But if I was you I would be! She turned and shoved him to walk in front of her, towards the exit, as quickly as possible without seeming desperate. The kid only laughed condescendingly.

"You know, for a grown-up, you sure are a big scaredy-cat. It's actually a lot cleaner the further in you go." he taunted.

"Yeah, and a lot darker and smellier and nastier too, huh." She snapped.

"No really!" he insisted, a tone of honesty in his voice. "The smell clears up, and it looks much different, too. Cleaner, with not so many rats, and hardly any guck on the walls. And the nasty water is cleaner, and more…water-like." He chattered, focusing on the word clean.

She stopped listening after a while, and focused on not focusing on the prickles at her neck or the feeling of being followed. She really didn't want to look back, for fear of what she might see, so she kept her eyes trained on the exit, which didn't seem to be getting any closer, no matter how fast she pushed Luke. It was all she could do to keep from picking him up and bolting from the place.

Finally, they broke into the bright sunlight once more, and Sage gulped deep breaths of the…more or less fresher air. She bent over, hands on her knees, and shut her eyes, breathing hard. Luke just stood there, looking at her strangely.

Finally, she had composed herself enough to intimidate him. "Don't you EVER. Go in there again. You hear me?! Ever! You do and I make your life a living hell, Got that?!" she snarled.

Luke bit his lip and nodded silently.

She huffed a sigh, and looked at him for a while. He looked right back, wide-eyed and innocent looking. Ha.

"Okay. Let's go get some chow, Lukie-Palooki." She patted him on the back and gave him a playful shove, still shaken up, but trying to hide it. Her neck prickled once more, and she stole an uneasy glance back to the tunnel. Her heart skipped a beat.

But…no.

No, a shadow hadn't just slipped back into the darkness. Yes, it had just been her paranoid delusion. No, she didn't just see a gleaming eye looking back at her.

She shivered, her heart beating unnaturally fast now, and turned quickly back to Luke, even though she hated showing her back to that tunnel. She concentrated on warmth of the sun on her shoulders, and the cool, fresh breeze that tousled her golden-brown hair. But she only relaxed once they crested a hill, and the tunnel dropped out of sight.

They walked along in silence, neither of them in much of a hurry…anymore.

Finally Luke said, "I can't believe you kicked a poor little rat."

She laughed and smacked him playfully upside the head. He laughed as well, and they continued into Dublith peacefully.

After a meal of cold chicken burgers and some pretty good apples, she and Luke made their way back to his house, where his parents were already waiting.

"Where have you been?!" Luke's father, Mr. Grinner demanded.

"You should have been home when we got here." Mrs. Grinner chided gently.

Luke glanced at Sage uneasily, and she swatted his shoulder reassuringly before stepping forward.

"Luke and I went for a walk, and uh…took a longer route than expected. We decided to pick up dinner while we were out." She explained, smiling sweetly, like a good baby-sitter.

Luke's father glowered down at her, while his mother smiled, saying how nice that was, and they'd see her tomorrow, while pressing the days pay into her palm.

Sage smiled at her, shook Mr. Grinner's hand, ruffled Luke's mop of dark, shaggy hair, and stepped from the bright house into the darkening night.

As she walked away, she heard a deep voice say, "I don't trust her. She's a crook if I ever saw one."

"Just because of her father?" intoned a soft, female voice.

"Tch. It's in their blood to be dishonest!"

"No it's not! I like Sage! She's like my sister!" cried a child's voice. Stacy smiled. Luke was a lot like a pesky little brother, too. He had a good heart though.

"Hush, son. This is none of your concern." Mr. Grinner.

"Yes it is! I'm the one who spends time with her! You don't even know her! If you get rid of her like you said before, I'll hate you forever!" Footsteps running away. A door slamming. I will hate them too, Lukie-Palooki.

"That was nicely handled. What do you have against her?"

"I don't have to have anything against her not to trust her, I mean, she's par…"

Sage didn't hear anymore. She was walking quickly and quietly away, cheeks burning. She wouldn't even be working for them, but they were some of the few people who would hire those who were part chimera. Yeah, yeah, so her father was a leopard-chimera. So what! People around here didn't like chimera's, not after an incident several years ago, when a band of them had snapped and gone on a killing/destroying spree. Much of the city had been damaged, and about 100 people were killed by dogs, crocodiles, lions, sharks, you name it.

It was because of this that people around here tended to take one look at her cat-like eyes and slam the door in her face without a second glance. Her apparel choices didn't really help either. The cropped shirts she wore occasionally (because of the heat, not because she was a ho.) didn't do anything to hide the spattering of leopard spots at the base of he spine. Her nails also grew into claws when she was angry, but since she didn't get really angry very often, so it wasn't much of a problem.

It did make her angry that people judged her based only on her appearance. She wanted to shake them and yell in their faces, "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to judge a book by its cover?! What's wrong with you, are you some kind of wild animal?!"

Ha. The irony.

She turned the last corner on her way home, and swatted aside the thick, hanging cloth that served as her door and trudged inside, nearly tripping over a stray dog in the process.

Sage plopped down on some of the blankets bunched in the corner, and tried to convince the dog to come closer. One more warm body at night would be a blessing. It stared at her warily for a moment before sniffing its way to her outstretched hand. In no time, it was curled in the crook of her legs, its little head resting on her calf. She smiled to herself as she stroked its filthy ears.

Why couldn't people be like that? She wasn't saying they had to just jump right in and welcome her into their homes. She just wished they would sniff around, get a feel for her, and then decide whether or not to turn away.

"It's not that hard, is it, boy?" The dog sighed, and Sage smiled, happy to have some company.

She let her thoughts drift, now that she had come off her rants about haters. She thought about Luke and his comments about her being like a big sister to him. She thought about coming change in seasons, since it was indeed almost September. It wasn't often very hot here in Dublith, which was nice, but the winters were bitterly cold. She had almost died, one year, but a beast of a man had found her curled in a doorway, and after looking at her for a while, had scooped her up and taken her to his home, which doubled as a butcher shop. There, his wife—a very pretty woman, though really quite scary, most of the time—had fixed her right up. She saw them occasionally, and her husband was usually kind enough to give her a bag of the useless scraps of meat he had chopped. They were good people who had helped her regardless of her blood.

She smiled, thinking about them. Her thoughts drifted to this and that, and after a while, she fell asleep.

Sage's days passed easily enough, with no more episodes at the tunnel, and no more overheard conversations about her inevitable craftiness as a chimera. She spent her days with Luke, chasing him down and playing games, spent her nights in her renovated-alleyway-home, (sometimes with the dog), and spent her free time pick-pocketing, fighting the average thugs, and trying to stay out of trouble.

She hardly ever thought about the day in the tunnel, with the thing watching her. Hardly ever, but not never.

When ever she did think about it, her senses immediately pricked, and she felt totally uneasy, jumping at every sound, seeing shapes in every shadow.

Other than that, her life went smoothly. Sure, it was lacking in several areas, such as: the proper food area, the proper shelter area, the social area, and, of course, the love area. The latter two being not so as prominent as the former two, but still, they were lacking.

Sage's mind was on these four categories when she raised her hand and knocked on Luke's door one morning, late in September. She had a thin jacket on her hunched shoulders, trying to block out the biting wind that had risen a few days before. Soon, the door was opened, and Luke stepped aside for her to enter. He had that look on his face that she had come to dread. The 'I'm-restless-so-I'm-gonna-make-your-life-a-living-hell-today-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it' look.

Quickly, she darted inside and shut the door behind her.

"No." she said flatly. Luke looked at her innocently.

"Whatever are you talking about, Sage?" he asked innocently.

"No." she said more firmly. He shook his head sadly,

"I don't know what you mean. I was just looking outside thinking about what a beautiful day it is today—"

"NO."

"—and I thought to myself, 'Wow. Wouldn't it be great to take one of our walks today?' Just look, Sage. Look."

She didn't look.

"It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining—I know you like the sun—and the breeze is crisp and inviting." He finished with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

When had he gotten such an extensive vocabulary? When had he gained use of his eyebrow muscles?

She shook her head adamantly. "I know what you're thinking Luke, and I'm not falling for that again, like last time."

"Please?" he said softly, trying some sort of puppy-dog-look crap on her. She frowned and glared at him until he muttered something and turned away.

Five minutes later, he "accidentally" knocked a glass vase onto the floor, shattering it into 18 pieces. Sage carefully picked them up and put them in a bowl, set it on the table and tried to decide whether or not to grind his face into the broken glass. She decided on gluing them meticulously back together, and setting it where it had been before he pulled his little stunt.

20 minutes after that, he broke 6 of his toy horses, the legs scattered across the entire house. She cuffed him over the ears and booted him to his room, while she located and sorted all the appendages and placed them and their maimed owners in a box for later.

She had just finished this job when she heard the window open, and caught a glimpse of something fluttering away in the wind.

It was an envelope.

Before she could stop him, Luke was running out the door, coat and shoes on, shrieking something about a vital document mother and dad wanted you to have, and urging her to come help him catch it.

Oh, he'd catch it all right.

In a flash, she was down the steps and running after him, still tugging her boots on, and yelling at him to come back this instant you little rat!

She could barely see him through the crowds that had gathered in the streets, but she kept an eye on him, doing her best to navigate through the people and catch up to him.

It wasn't easy, as he was darting through legs and around wagons with such ease, him being so small, and her being…slightly larger. She looked ahead of him to try and see where he was going, and her heart fell.

He was headed to the outskirts of Dublith, to the sewer tunnel. She gritted her teeth and pushed on, desperate to catch him before he made it there. Because if he made it there, then she'd be obligated to follow him inside and there was no telling how deep he would go…

She shoved those thoughts aside, and concentrated on catching up. Yes! She was getting closer! She put on another burst of speed…

And slammed into a wagon. The driver leered down at her where she lay in the dirt, dazed and aching. Several people around her laughed, and some scuffed dirt onto her already shabby clothes. But she didn't care. She scrambled to her feet and looked around wildly for Luke.

He was at the top of the hill that signaled the edge of Dublith. He turned and waved at her to follow him.

She started running, yelling at him in vain. Dang it, dang it, DANG IT! She thought angrily. She didn't want to go back in the pipes. She didn't want to feel that thing watching her. She didn't want to feel the oppressing darkness and smell the rotting slime. She didn't want to be that scared again!

But she had little choice. So she ran on, until the tunnel was looming before her, the same smell, the same sludge, the same creepy factor. From inside, she could hear Luke laughing, calling her to come here, she had to see this. She definitely did not care what it was.

Soon, she found herself inside, chills coursing through her limbs and down her back. She stared straight ahead, peering through the gloom for that blasted boy, putting one foot in front of the other.

Heh heh, it's not so bad…she thought nervously, well aware that it was a lie. After a while, she could barely see her way, turned around to see how far the entrance was, and gasped.

She could barely see it: it was just a tiny pinprick of bright light against a dark background. A sound of fear escaped her gaping mouth, and she turned reluctantly back to the blackness ahead of her.

"LUUUKE!" she screamed, her voice tight with fear. "LUKE please, this isn't--" her voice broke. "Isn't the time or the place!"

Her feet felt rooted to the narrow, gunk-covered walkway. All she wanted was to be outside, in the warm sun, even with the cold wind. Just to be out! The prickly feeling was returning, and she whirled this way and that, finally pressing her back to the wall, trying to see in the shadows. The fear rose in her chest, and she tried desperately to quell it. Finally, she just shut her eyes and screamed through her teeth, trying to vent the terror into the dank air.

In the silence that followed, she heard footsteps from far ahead, and a thin voice called out, "Sage? Sage, it's okay. Just…come on a little further, please? It's a lot better here." His voice sounded so far away. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, looking in the direction the voice had come from.

The dark didn't seem so dark, suddenly. She held a hand in front of her face, able to see the detail of the leather band around her wrist, even. Vaguely, she wondered if it had anything to do with the feline blood in her, that she could now see in the dark. As she turned her hand over, she blinked in surprise. Her "claws" were out, and caught the light faintly. Apparently, fear triggered them as well as anger.

Something else caught her eye. It was a dirty envelope, sealed and a bit crumpled, with a smiley face in one corner. It was the same envelope Luke had tossed into the wind. She snatched it up and stuffed it in her pocket. Evidence.

She shut her eyes once more, took several gulps of the disgusting air, and forced herself to continue. She was loathe go farther, but figured Luke would continue to come here until she saw what he wanted her to see.

It was slow going, because her feet still didn't want to go. Mind over matter, she told herself, holding her now clawed hands defensively before her. Now that she could defend herself, she felt a little better, but still afraid of what she couldn't see. Far ahead, she thought she heard some slight noises, like scuffling sounds.

Then Luke shrieked.

Immediately, she snapped into action, running as fast as she could to the sounds.

"LUKE!" she cried. "I'm coming! It's okay!" She had a feeling she was reassuring herself, more than Luke.

The tunnel turned abruptly to the right, and her boots skidded through the muck as she struggled to make the turn without falling into the sewage. As she ran on, she realized he had been right. The slime thinned out, and the water flowed faster, and there were lights up ahead. She could make out some shapes ahead, and they had Luke. Anger flared inside her, and without hesitation, she threw her weight against one of them.

It was a man, and he yelped in surprise before turning to face her. They hit the ground solidly, and Sage straddled him, going at him with both fists. He didn't seem fazed, and bucked her off easily enough. She skidded on all fours, one boot slipping into the water behind her, then pushed up and swung out a leg.

She would have caught him square in the chest, but someone else caught her leg from behind and swung her away from her target and into the wall. She slid to the ground but immediately struggled to her feet, where she stood in a defensive position, still dazed, and blinking blood from her eyes.

There were three people in front of her: all men, and all slightly feral looking. One of them was short and compactly built, with spiky black hair and a cruel look in his eyes. He had a katana strapped to his waist, but hadn't pulled it out, yet.

The one who had thrown her into the wall was huge, about seven feet tall, and built like an ox. He had choppy, white-blond hair, with deep-set eyes, and no weapon. He didn't really need one.

The last was the one who held Luke. She glared at him and bared her teeth, flexing her hands. He was lanky and bald, with little round glasses and a scar that covered half his head and ran down his face. She locked eyes with Luke, and tried to convey that it would be alright, she'd get him out of there if it was the last thing she did.

"Oh-ho! It looks like she's one of us, Roa!" said the tough-looking man with the katana.

"It would seem that way, Dorchette." The huge guy—Roa—said. Stacy didn't pay any attention to them: she kept her gazed trained on the baldy.

"Let him go." She spat through her teeth. "Or else."

Dorchette sneered. "Or what? You'll scratch us?"

In the blink of an eye, Sage turned on him and lashed out with her clawed hands. He barely reacted in time to save himself from being blinded, pulling out his katana and shielding himself with the flat of the blade.

She locked eyes with him and snarled, "Yeah, Something like that."

He snarled right back and shoved her off of him, now wielding his blade.

"You know, I bet you wouldn't be so tough if we de-clawed you."

Luke whimpered, and Sage ground her teeth together. She had to get Luke out of there. She didn't know who these people were or there intentions, but she wasn't interested in finding out.

"Give me the kid!" she demanded, bristling.

"What's he to you?" Roa asked patronizingly, crossing his tree-trunk arms.

She decided to lie. "He's my brother."

Dorchette barked a laugh. "Nice try, kitty, but you smell completely different from each other."

Sage looked at him sharply. How could he know what she was so easily? How could he tell they weren't related? By her smell? What did that mean?

"Excuse me?" she said quietly, but strongly.

"Um, you smell like a chimera, aaand you," he pointed at Luke, "Smell like a ratty little kid." He grinned, displaying over-developed canines, and pointed his sword at Luke, running it lightly along his nose. The boy began to cry, and Sage couldn't take it anymore.

She went after Dorchette with renewed fury, slashing wildly with her claws and narrowly avoiding his blade. It was not easy: he was very skilled and really fast. But she did manage to get him once or twice.

Then, he swung out his leg for a kick, and she ducked under to dodge, and he was ready. Right as she crouched low, he twisted and swung. She saw it coming, and pushed up, trying to jump over the sword. She avoided what would have been a fatal blow, but he still managed to slice open her calf, even through her heavy-material boot. Pain snaked up her leg, and she couldn't catch her fall, landing heavily on her side instead. Glancing at her leg, she saw that it was already dark with blood, and it hurt terribly.

When she looked up at her opponent, she saw a katana pointed at her face. She ground her teeth together, trying to hide her desperation. There was no opening, no way out. But she had to do something, had to get Luke out of there.

So she shoved herself backwards, away from the sharp object in front of her face, and into The Baldy, she hoped. She hit someone's legs, but she knew right away it was the wrong person, because two large hands gripped her upper arms and hauled her up effortlessly.

Sage looked around, trying to find some way out. Dorchette stood in front of her, bleeding from claw marks on his arm and chest, and from a split-lip. He looked pretty mad.

"And you couldn't have done something like this before she mauled me?!" he snapped.

A rumbling voice behind her said "I don't like to fight other's battles for them."

Before she knew what was happening, a katana hilt smashed into her cheek. She saw red and yellow, and her head spun from the impact. For a minute she couldn't hear anything, but then she realized Roa was talking.

"…say to play nice?"

"Yeah, well dogs and cats don't play nice. Ever."

"I didn't think hitting defenseless women was your style." Roa growled. Dorchette just rolled his eyes. Sage took her chance and used Roa's strong grip to her advantage, bracing her weight against his arms, and shot her right leg out towards the baldy. None of them saw it coming, and therefore, none were prepared.

The Baldy dropped the ground like a rock, unconscious.

"Run!" she shouted. Luke glanced once more at her, apologetically, and he ran.

For an eleven-year-old, he was pretty speedy.

Dorchette cursed and started after him, but Sage managed to trip him. Roa yanked her away from him painfully, but she wasn't done yet. She pulled her shoulder forward and around, so Roa's arm was in front of her face, and then sank her teeth into it, tasting blood. He bellowed in pain, and tried to jerk his arm free, but she held on, blood flowing freely now.

"Dorchette!" he rumbled. "Leave the kid, get back here."

Something collided with her head, and blackness took over.

A/N: If it ever says 'Stacy' instead of 'Sage', i apologize. I changed her name halfway through, and i may have missed some. I'ts the same person. :)