Lena stood at the edge of the cafeteria hall watching all the men grumble and argue with one another. It was a mess. Their whole town was a mess. As far as they knew, the military was coming and there wasn't anything but fighting back, that they could do. Lena wasn't amused. She felt her hands ball into fists at her sides as they continued to raise their voices. It wouldn't be their war if they started one. However, they couldn't afford to continue being pillaged by the military. They were already low on food reserves and had been cut off from Central's reinforcements. The Ishvalan uprising camps weren't far from their town and slowly they were encroaching inward toward them. Lena knew that they were now stuck between two hard stones. The Military would wipe them out or the Ishvalan's would destroy them.

"I say we take the Military down!" one man near the front shouted at the town speaker.

"We'll kill them!" another cheered in raising his fist. "They've done the same to us!"

"Will all of you SHUT UP!" Lena snapped from the back of the room finally losing her patience. Several men and women holding small children turned to face her. These people were her home but they were highly ignorant and selfish. She saw the dirt streaks on their faces from the mines. She saw the hunger in the children's' eye as they stopped running around the hall. They needed to be protected but that didn't mean looking for a fight.

"Do you have something to add Lena?" Elder, the old decrepit man, said from the front of the mess hall.

"If you all want a war with the Military then fine! But find someone else to protect you! I don't want another war…I will not defend all of you!" she snapped tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

"You expect US to protect you whenever you want but you forget that there won't be anyone to back US up!" she finished her chest heaving in angrily. A few stray dark locks spilled into her eyes as she swept her arm towards some of the few other alchemists in the room. They nodded in unison with her.

"Fight your own war." Her friend Daunte said hotly. "We don't want one. You can't rely on us to fight for you." He stood on his feet beside Lena. His dark skin was gleaming with sweat from the labor they'd worked in the mines to help get closer to production this afternoon. Lena was covered in coal dust as well.

"You won't protect us?"

"We can't fight on our own…" whispers of the townsfolk began to rise throughout the room. Lena felt a little satisfaction that they were scared but it was short lived. She took a small breath and felt a rupturing pain slither down her side. She fought the urge to double over clutching her side and ground her teeth against each other.

"Are you alright?" he asked concern in his voice. It was about the only thing she could manage to hold her breath long enough to concentrate on something other than the pain.

"Yeah…I need to step out." She whispered before disappearing quickly around the corner.

Lena doubled over taking in deep gulps of breath behind the building hidden by the shadows of the large metal roof. She wrapped an arm around her middle and under her other arm sighing. Sweat was forming on her brow. She felt like she could hurl but that wasn't really an option at the moment. She needed to get it together. She didn't have money for a doctor. She didn't have the time to leave the town to find a good enough one to handle her problem anyway.

"You don't look so hot." A voice said leaning back against the wall. Lena snapped upright her eyes wide. Edward watched as her shoulders tensed dangerously and her hands instantly were at her sides ready for a fight. Reluctantly Daunte came out from behind the boy standing in front of her.

"You helped the Military into the town?" she bit out harshly. He rubbed the back of his neck his chocolate eyes looked down in slight shame.

"I er…listen…Dr. Gren told me how sick you've been lately and that the infection was spreading." Ed watched the color slowly drain from the girl's face.

"I'm fine!" she snapped shaking her head. The pain was evident on her face.

"This guy, from the Military, his name is Edward Elric." He said quietly. "He has an arm like you Lena…he knows some people that can help clean out the tissue around the connection."

"No!" she nearly shouted taking a step back. "I don't have the money for that…I'm fine. There's no reas…"

"The infection can spread to your heart. Or worse, if it kills the tissue around you can't keep that arm. It will be so damaged that auto-mail can never be reattached." Ed spoke clearly now.

"Daunte this is stupid. I can clean it fine. I'm sorry he brought you here but there was no reason." She stood taller.

"Really? Raise your arm above your head." Hesitancy crossed Lena's face. Ed watched her almond shaped honey colored eyes waver. She couldn't do it and he knew it too. Her skin was pale and her hair was as dark as the coal mines she worked in. There was no mistaking the hair. The rumor about her…but they didn't know yet. It wasn't finalized. He sighed and tried to take a step closer. Lena breathed out before raising her arm defiantly over her head. Pain was etched into her face and for the first time Ed saw the glimpse of metal hidden behind her long sleeved tunic like shirt. Between the dark leather gloves she wore and the tunic sleeve there was rusted beaten metal showing at the wrist.

"It's hurting so much you could puke right? I've been there…well not from an infection but from a fight…" Ed reached out a hand.

"Get away from me!" Daunte grabbed Ed's arm pulling him back. Lena's eyes were wider now with fear and anger. That kind of mixture was petrifying.

"She isn't going to go…we need to move on to plan B." he sighed. Ed made a face before nodding to the direction behind Lena.

"Sorry to do this miss." A voice spoke from behind her. Lena moved to make a transmutation with her hands but something large and metal grabbed her from behind. She grunted and tried to kick backwards only for her foot to collide with metal. She squeezed her eyes shut growling under her breath struggling.

"Knock her out before she makes the joint worse!" Daunte said worriedly as Ed stood in front of her.

"Sorry but this is for your own health." Lena's vision went black after a hand reached up hitting her neck.

Edward stood across from Mustang and the boy named Daunte that had come to contact them only weeks prior to the recent event. Mustang looked highly annoyed but Ed knew that deep down it wasn't annoyance but pure concerned worry. He narrowed his eyes glaring at the boy before looking to the left through a window into a hospital like room Pinako had set up for the girl. Daunte was a long way from home and he looked exhausted. Dark circled lined the already dark skin of his eyes. Edward ran a hand through his bangs shoving them back behind his ears sighing.

"So Envy and Lust said she was Mustang's sister?" he clarified again.

"Yes. When they came through the town once…we weren't that old…and it was just after the Military had come through and destroyed more than half the place." Mustang flinched only briefly.

"This was when her arm was lost." He spoke sternly.

"Uhm…well that story is a lot…harder to talk about."

"Explain it then." Mustang ordered crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well it was after some of the war had torn through our region." The boy looked away over the hills flowing away from the house in the distance.

"See, as far as Lena and I both knew we were orphans." He shrugged looking back to the men. "So, when some buildings collapsed while we were out getting some food off people from the explosions and stuff we got trapped. No one noticed we were missing. No one cared. It was just chance that some nice guy found us and took us immediately to the hospital."

Mustang glanced back at the room where Lena laid in bed.

"I wasn't as bad off as she was. She'd laid under a giant slab of concrete on her arm and shoulder. The doctors were trying to save her arm. I just got knocked around and knocked out. So, I mean I was sitting up one night in the hospital when the sirens went off. That meant the Military was raiding the town or at least someone was attacking."

"I tried to get out of bed and go to Lena because I could hear everyone screaming and running out the halls to get patients to safety and lock down. When this Military officer came in I thought he was there to help. It wasn't until after he'd made it to her bed that I saw he was covered in blood." He looked down now his eyes brimming with tears.

"See, he was the one who'd attacked and was killing folks all through town and not just adults but kids too. He was crazy. He stood over Lena's bed laughing. I tried to punch him but he smacked me across the head and knocked me to the floor. He grabbed Lena's arm and twisted it yanking her off the bed and to the floor. She woke up screaming and tried to turn away from him but her arm was so infected and gross that she was in horrible pain. I can still remember how she sobbed. We were just kids…He…"

"He what?" Mustang said firmly.

"I'll never forget it. He put his foot on her chest and held her down and twisted her arm ripping it off." Daunte said in almost a hushed whisper.

Edward and Mustang stood in shocked silence.

"That's why she wouldn't tell anyone about her arm." Ed said taking a deep breath. "And why she wouldn't come to a Military hospital which would have had the resources to heal this infection." The boy nodded.

"I was afraid of what she'd think of me to do this too her but I couldn't let her die!" He said worried glancing up.

"They had to take the metal arm off. It was honestly a piece of shit and the skin was rotting around the connector unit." Ed sighed.

"Well, it was the only thing she could afford. She worked for years to save up the money to get that thing from this botched guy in the south side of town." he shook his head. "She kept saying she wasn't going to be useless."

"Well it was a bad operation. The nerves are pretty much shot. I can't see how she can even feel her fingers." He said pointedly.

"She can't. The guy worked with what was left…he damaged a lot of her shoulder when he ripped it like that."

"Did they really say she was my sister?" he asked nervously.

"Yes. And honestly, she acts enough like you. She stands like you are now half the time." Mustang grunted in response to which Daunte smirked a little.

"She does that a lot too."